Eggleston is no scientist
Dr. Richard Eggleston states that his board certification in two areas of medicine is testimony to his ability to understand science. His recent commentaries indicate otherwise.
This letter is not directed to Eggleston, for he appears to be incorrigible, but rather to others to ameliorate and understand the sources of his misconceptions.
When pseudoscientists do their thing, they cherry-pick data to prove that their hypothesis is true. They might even suggest that hydroxychloroquine prevents COVID-19. Watch for these folks in Eggleston’s commentaries.
When scientists do their thing, they try to prove that their hypothesis is false and if, after many attempts, fail to do so, conclude that it might be correct. This way, science screams wrong and whispers right.
For example, during the past century no scientist has tried to prove Einstein’s theory of general relativity is true, but rather that it is false and so far have failed to do so.
Scientists succeed by publishing information that is correct. And if they publish something that is incorrect, it is fixed by other scientists focused on their own success. This is why science-based knowledge is continually getting better; the system is self-correcting.
The astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson said: “Science is right whether you believe it or not.” Science, not pseudoscience, is right.
When Eggleston wrote his last letter to the editor on Feb. 28, he said, “Follow the true science and verify the scientists.”
Perhaps he was referring to pseudoscience and pseudoscientists.
Tom Urquhart
Clarkston
As bad as it gets
I experience fear and loathing each time the Idaho Legislature is in session, waiting to see how they will give themselves power over us, needlessly spend taxpayer dollars, make it harder to put citizen concerns on the ballot, permanently remove marijuana as an effective and necessary medical treatment and torture wildlife.
I thought it couldn’t get any worse than enshrining hunting and trapping in the state constitution, but Jeff Siddoway’s bill is about as bad as I’ve ever seen.
Not only does the proposed legislation allow endless and open-ended killing of wolves to get the number down to 500, it would allow the use of every devious, cowardly and cruel method of killing at man’s disposal. And there are many.
If classified as predators, wolves could be killed year-round with no limit. In addition to being trapped, snared and shot most of the year as they are now, they could be shot from airplanes and helicopters, and chased with snowmobiles and off-road vehicles.
This is not management. This is not science. It is the 1930s all over again.
This is bloodlust, irrational fear and hatred. It would cause total chaos and disruption to any pack stability wolves have managed to establish in the midst of constant human manipulation and harassment that has occurred since the endangered status was lifted.
It makes no sense. It is despicable.
Susan Westervelt
Deary
Dams are not the problem
... Dam removal advocates blindly seek and say dam removal is the reason for lack of fish when it is an opinion only. ...
There will never be a return of fish in abundance from the Pacific Ocean to the rivers until we figure out how to stop the taking of millions of tons of fish by foreign fishing factories off Pacific coastal waters — along with thousands of Oregon sea lions, seals in Puget Sound and other predators that did not exist in the 1950s and 1960s when there still was no abundance of fish in the Snake River system.
Add to that the warming of the waters of the Clearwater behind Dworshak Dam and the waters behind Hells Canyon dams on the upper Snake River. Do you expect dam removal is going to bring back fish?
If you are not going to figure out a way to prevent over-fishing off the Pacific Coast, you are going to have to figure out how to develop more hatcheries to send enough fish to the ocean in hopes they might return in better numbers. ...
Congressman Mike Simpson’s idea for spending billions in return for dam removal is nothing but a political pie in the sky scheme to attract attention and has no basis for any guarantee of increasing fish numbers. ...
If you believe fish will ever return in large numbers like the 1800s, I feel sorry for you as it is never going to happen, dams or no dams. ...
Marvin Entel
Clarkston
Bankrupting America
In the 1960s, Columbia University leftist professors Richard Cloward and his wife Frances Piven wrote an article about collapsing capitalism and the U.S. economy. That plan was called the Cloward-Piven strategy.
Their article was titled, “Mobilizing the Poor, How it Could Be Done.” After publication, liberal activists wanted to put it into effect.
Now, 60 years later with voter fraud, Democrats are going to execute and implement that strategy to destroy the American economic system by “overloading the government bureaucracy with impossible demands and bring on economic collapse.”
President Joe Biden just announced a $1.9 trillion plan to “stimulate the economy” by giving $1,400 to “most Americans.”
However, if you take the population of the U.S., subtract children and multiply by $1,400, you get less than a $400 billion cost.
So where is the extra $1.5 trillion going?
Well, it will be a Democratic slush fund. Maybe, it’s plane loads of money to Iran. Maybe it’s money to pay people to vote for Democrats?
The real goal for that money, and much more to come, will be to collapse (finally) capitalism and bankrupt America.
Biden has further plans to help collapse capitalism and democracy: Allowing 11 million immigrants into the country, sending jobs to China, $10 a gallon gasoline and government-run health care.
All these lefty-spending goals will help to bankrupt America and spend us into a depression like the 1930s.
Jim Emmert
Kamiah
Paying the costs
I read Bob Hassoldt’s excellent commentary on wind power (“The color of this green technology is blood red”) and its effects on bats and how important bats are to all of us on Feb. 28. And it got me thinking that people will do anything to produce and use electricity, no matter what the cost.
For generations, coal miners and their families were exposed to black lung and other respiratory diseases because coal was essential to produce electricity and heat our homes.
Later, whole mountain tops were removed as this was deemed cheaper and less hazardous for the miners.
Hydropower is clean, carbon-free and really cheap, but the cost is extermination of salmon, steelhead and many other less notable species. Dworshak Dam wiped out the steelhead run up on the North Fork and that is why we built a hatchery to mitigate the effects. But the run was exterminated.
Nuclear power was billed as a modern miracle with endless, almost-free amounts of electricity and carbon-free but the costs were never fully examined or calculated. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima and Hanford are a legacy of nuclear power.
Also we have all been signed up to care and safely store nuclear waste for the next several thousand years. Do we really believe that we humans are up to that task?
The same could be said for the costs associated with oil and natural gas. Ditto for solar power.
Proponents of every form of energy always minimize their costs and maximize their benefits. The bottom line, however, is that regardless of the costs to society and our environment, people will do anything to produce and expand the use of electrical power and that isn’t changing.
Brian Hensley
Lewiston
Trump cult marches on
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is simply a gathering of the cult of former President Donald Trump to worship their beloved deity. This dishonest, immoral, selfish man actually allowed them to wheel out a golden statue of himself for all his worshipers to adore. The statue is the perfect symbol of his boundless narcissism and lust for power.
Some of his followers and enablers realize how horrible he is, but support him for the purpose of gaining money, power and influence. However, the majority of the cult members are uneducated, gullible white people desperately trying to hang on to the privilege they feel slipping away.
During the 2016 campaign Trump declared: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
What he did at the end of his time in the White House was far worse than shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. He saw a November defeat coming so he sowed skepticism in the integrity of the vote, claiming the only way he could lose was by fraud. When he did lose, he set the wheels in motion for the attack on our Capitol on Jan. 6.
As the insurrection occurred, he happily watched it play out on TV, doing nothing to stop it.
He was correct. He did not lose their votes.
The cult marches on.
Never forget: One out of three Trump supporters is as stupid as the other two.
Chris Dahmen
Pullman
It’s fish or dams
Numerous letters, opinions and articles have recently appeared in the Lewiston Tribune concerning Rep. Mike Simpson’s plan for saving salmon and steelhead and breaching the four lower Snake River dams.
Many have strong opinions on saving the fish or saving the dams, but most in our region feel the issue does not affect them.
We are all affected and must pay attention to what will become a fast moving discussion.
If the current management of the Columbia/Snake River system continues, we will lose the fish.
Scientists from Idaho, the tribes and throughout the Northwest agree that returns of our Idaho spring chinook are at or below the tipping point to extinction. Other runs such as our Clearwater River steelhead are also in danger.
There are many reasons for the decline. Ocean conditions, which we cannot control in the short run, predators, fishing, a warming river water and habitat loss are all factors.
The one factor upon which the scientists agree is that breaching the lower Snake River dams is most likely to save our fish.
Whether you are an ardent supporter of the dams or would simply like to keep the status quo, the result is the same.
If we keep the dams, we will lose the salmon.
Keith E. Carlson
Lewiston
Poor in spirit?
While dam removal to benefit anadromous fish, especially salmon, will play out on economic and biological grounds, our souls and our future are ultimately involved. ...
Our predecessors coexisted with salmon for somewhere around 10,000 years, while it took about 60 years for us to bring them to the brink of collapse.
Now we have 68 fisheries scientists explaining smolt survival must increase or salmon will continue to decline. ...
When the Elwa dams were breached, along with the dam on the White Salmon, these fish began to rapidly fill in the rivers above the dam sites. ...
The Klamath River dam removal involves many of the same issues that circumscribe those on the Snake. ...
All these fish experience the same oceanic oscillations that the Snake River salmon do. ...
Remember the huge runs of salmon into places such as the Middle Fork of the Salmon and the Selway in days gone by. There is lots of evidence that these fish are key players in the ecology of the rivers they occupy. ...
Global warming will not help these fish, especially those that contend with slack waters.
Aldo Leopold wrote, “Are we too poor in purse or spirit to apply some of it to keep the land pleasant to see, and good to live in?”
If we don’t try to benefit these fish with dam removal, it will verify we were too poor in purse and spirit, and our future and our souls will be forever impoverished for it.
Jim Peek
Moscow
Taking away the vote
Immediately after the 2020 election, Republicans started saying, “We have to make it harder for people to vote.”
They have already been working toward that goal. Republicans have been gerrymandering districts and closing down polling places in poor neighborhoods for years. They know if they close polling places in poor neighborhoods, people won’t be able to vote because they won’t have transportation to the polls. That is exactly what they want — to take away poor people’s right to vote.
Republicans have introduced bills in state legislatures across this country trying to make it more difficult for all people to vote (Democrats, independents, browns and Blacks, Asians and Native Americans). They don’t want anyone to vote except white Republicans.
They don’t even have a platform of ideas they plan to implement if they win an election. Just think about it. The only substantial bill Republicans passed when they had the power was the tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent. How did that help anyone else? Those wealthy people pocketed the money and laughed all the way to the bank.
All Republicans really care about is having the power.
Republicans want the power so they can change our democratic form of government into a dictatorship with them in power.
In the past five years, they have presented no platforms to make American’s lives better. “We the people” are inconsequential to them. There is no jobs plan, no better education plan and no infrastructure plan.
Nothing. Zero. Zilch.
Joan Vanhorn
Lewiston
Nothing to fear
In previous weeks in the Outdoor section, nearly a half- page of misinformation played on the emotions of the public and led one to believe trappers are truly evil humans. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
They care deeply about the careful management of all Idaho’s wildlife. In my opinion, the group publishing this idea also would have you believe you can pet a wolf on the way to Grandma’s house.
Trappers are required to complete an extensive course on humane and responsible ways to manage an introduced species that is itself an indiscriminate killer of Idaho’s other precious wildlife. Most hunters will never encounter one.
This is why trapping is the most efficient way of management.
Trapping is no easy endeavor. Wolves are highly intelligent. Therefore, responsible trappers do not set gear where people would typically recreate — as these are also poor areas to locate wolves.
Footholds are the same as those used to capture and study the animals, no harm inflicted. On the “one 10th of 1 percent” chance of actually encountering one while walking Lassie through the brush, one could easily release the said trap by stepping on the side mechanisms.
Snaring seasons are scheduled around times when all but the most dedicated outdoor enthusiasts are out of the woods.
Be a responsible pet owner. Don’t let your dog run off. And above all, don’t let misinformation have you living in fear of the humble Idaho trapper.
Brian Blue
Lewiston
Poor vaccine rollout
Gov. Brad Little and his staff had a year to prepare for the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine to the people of Idaho. This turned out to be a complete failure on their part.
KLEW showed people walking in the first day to receive their injection. This is while the much touted online registration system for Idaho is telling us, “There are no available clinics in your area,” after all of our information is filled in.
It appears we still have privileged people in the valley who can get access to medical care that non-connected people don’t have. If you tried to call the phone numbers published, only one, CHAS, answered our call. Of course, they were all booked up and said to keep calling back for an appointment.
The Lewiston Tribune did not print any instructions on what to do before the injection date to assist people in the valley on how to sign up.
I sent an email to KLEW asking how people got the vaccine when the rest of us could not even get access to sign up.
Idaho Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen is now adding new requirements after the start of the injections, deciding to allow only people who live and work in Idaho can get the vaccine due to the limited supply for Idaho.
So who caused that?
This is after Tri-State Memorial Hospital opened the vaccine for anyone in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley area. All of this shows poor planning in Idaho.
Joseph Krempasky
Lewiston
