Breach the dams
In this region, the removal of our four lower Snake River dams seems to be one of our most controversial topics. Certainly, there are pros and cons, and depending on which side you stand there can be bias. Because of the considerable impacts of such decisions, objectivity is critical, yet it can be quite elusive.
Impacts on transportation, hydropower, irrigation and recreational use must be considered. Accordingly, ECONorthwest, an economics firm, was employed to assess the impacts of breaching our four dams. These four variables were considered in their cost-benefit analysis.
This firm’s conclusion was that “the benefits of removal exceed their costs, and thus society would likely be better off without the dams.”
While informative, this cost-benefit analysis certainly lacks from a qualitative perspective. How do you value the negative or positive (emotional) effects on people when forced to relocate or change jobs? How do you value the ceremonial rights of Native Americans who have lived here for thousands of years? What value do you put on species endangered or extinct?
I feel these intangibles, while not easily quantifiable, have intrinsic value and are under-appreciated. Do we not have a responsibility to future generations to leave our ecosystems somewhat functioning? Should other species be allowed to slide into oblivion for our short-term economic gains? Are we really so selfish that we deny science and damn the future?
All dams have a shelf life. These dams have outlived their usefulness. These dams have reached their expiration date.
James Mulcare
Clarkston
Smashing the middle class
Democratic revolutionaries have moved into the suburbs the last few nights and are also going into restaurants to assault people dining in Washington, D.C.
In Democratic-led Minneapolis, there has been $500 million worth of damage to more than 1,500 businesses.
Kenosha, Wis., a city about twice the size of Lewiston-Clarkston, was destroyed in three days of riots, looting and burning buildings. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers had told police to stand down.
After the Republican National Convention, the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., enabled rioters to assault members of Congress as they left the gates of the White House.
Homicides in American cities, run by Democrats, are up 96 percent over this same time last year.
A message from the Democrat National Convention: Police are the enemy of America.
A CNN poll found 26 percent of people of color approved of President Donald Trump in June, but that number jumped to 37 percent in August, suggesting they don’t like the Democratic nihilism happening in their communities.
Voracious Democratic leaders in America have supported and encouraged criminal activity for almost 100 days — so as to ride violence to the presidency. They could have ended the riots quickly, but chose not to.
This revolution was created by academic Democrats and is funded by Democratic billionaires to smash the middle class.
A radical Democrat running for Los Angeles district attorney wants to abolish prisons and called cops barbarians. His aide said, “We must destroy in order to rebuild.”
In other words — death to America.
Jim Emmert
Kamiah
Lost mail
On April 20, I mailed two priority packages at the Asotin Post Office.
That same day my employer mailed all the checks I had written to pay monthly bills at my place of employment, placing the letters in the blue box at the Clarkston Post Office.
As of Sept. 1, none of this mail has ever been found.
Has anyone else in this valley had a similar experience around April 20?
The mail comes from Anatone to Asotin, then to Clarkston and Lewiston to be taken to Spokane for sorting. That’s where the trail stops. Where did all the mail go?
I inquired at the Asotin Post Office. The postmaster there was not helpful. He felt that filing a complaint would just cause trouble, and someone could lose their job.
Trouble? The person responsible for the missing mail should be in big trouble with termination and charges of mail theft filed.
If anyone else is missing mail or received notice of unpaid bills because your mail did not get there around April 20, let’s hear about it. Contact your post office or email me at jeffcarp@tds.net. We will get a list of everyone who has had mail missing and not delivered.
Whoever is responsible for missing mail has committed a federal crime and should be brought to justice.
Both of my packages had tracking numbers, which have fallen off the postal tracking system.
Missing mail is not a joke and any postmaster who has a “don’t-give-a-crap” attitude should be terminated.
Julia Carpenter
Asotin
Council in charge
There have been some people that feel Lewiston City Manager Alan Nygaard is the “boss” and that neither the mayor nor the council have very little, if any control.
Never mind that it’s the mayor and council who approve the appropriations each fiscal year.
Never mind that two councilors sit on the audit committee.
Never mind that an independent accounting firm does an audit annually and, for more than 25 years the audit has been clean with some suggestions to improve the accuracy of the accounting along the way.
And never mind that those who rant the loudest seldom, if ever, show up at the multiple work sessions that the council has for the budget for the next fiscal year, not to mention the three readings of the proposed budget where the public can make comments prior to the council voting. Tabling the vote on the third reading has the potential of not meeting Idaho Code requirements and putting the city in violation of Idaho law. Would we want Nez Perce County complaining to the Idaho attorney general that they had not received the property tax appropriation request for the upcoming fiscal year?
I feel sure this would have at least one commissioner doing the happy dance.
Ged W. Randall
Lewiston
Toughen up, GOP
Local neo-fascists are whining and complaining about the Lewiston Tribune again. They claim the Tribune is liberal. I have to laugh. To buy a liberal newspaper, you would have to drive 308 miles to Seattle or 339 miles to Portland. Those are the closest liberal newspapers.
All of the Tribune’s local commentators are ultra-conservatives with apparently little experience of the world outside Idaho. In contrast, as a service to its readers, the Tribune publishes works by acclaimed national writers and cartoonists.
Why does this service inflame valley conservatives?
The larger question is why are Retrumplicans so intolerant? Progressives have tolerated 12 years of racist and misogynistic insults against former President Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In contrast, Trump’s supplicants went ballistic after less than four years of honest criticism and fact-checking.
Retrumplicans will have to grow a thicker skin because there’s several more years of anti-Trump fact-checking coming. Even if he loses in November, it will take years of critical analysis to undo his lies, deceit and corruption.
Hopefully, the Tribune will continue balancing the local fascist commentary with intelligent national editorials.
Paul Oman
Clarkston
Leave the guns home
First rule for attending a peaceful demonstration: Do not bring a firearm.
However vigilantism and revolution are in the air along with COVID-19, and with vigilantes and revolutionaries bringing firearms is mandatory. If you bring a loaded firearm to a demonstration, I presume you are prepared to use it and, perhaps, disappointed if you don’t get the chance. Consequently, as a demonstrator you have taken your first steps away from a peaceful demonstration toward something else.
Where does that leave a pro-Second Amendment demonstration? If firearms show up at a pro-Second Amendment demonstration, it can no longer be considered peaceful and has become just a demonstration heading toward what? Armed intimidation of others who may not share their views? An intimi-stration? Just spit balling here
What should law enforcement’s response be to pro-Second Amendment demonstrations where the demonstrators are armed? It undoubtedly will vary from event to event. But if law enforcement shows up, they know the demonstrators are armed, and time and events will reveal just how dangerous.
Tymothy Park
Moscow
Voting for Biden
I am a lifelong Republican who campaigned for Richard Nixon (vs. John F. Kennedy) in the sixthth grade. Here, I hope to persuade Republicans and independents to vote for Joe Biden, or write in a candidate for president.
In my opinion, our first objective, for the good of our nation, is to vote President Donald Trump out of office.
Why?
l He has failed to rise above the disruptive rhetoric that brought him into office. His is the politics of complaint and resentment. He sows discord and enmity in the nation.
l His record is one of slandering minority groups when he thinks it will bring political advantage. His attitude toward women is on the record.
l The number of his former business aides that have been indicted, convicted or jailed makes one wonder if he is not one source of their corruption.
l Consider the number of seasoned military aides who have resigned and expressed no confidence in the president’s leadership.
l Old friends of the United States find him impulsive, uniformed and divisive. Trump reserves the most respect for dictators he seems to identify with —Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Recep Tayyip Erodogan and at one time Xi Jinping. Sadly, these men seem to find him easy to manipulate.
lAnd on Trump’s leadership during the COVID-19?
We voters will pass judgment on Nov. 3.
Frederic Banks
Moscow
Hypocrites
It’s absolutely pathetic that NBA players staged a walkout when an African American gentleman was shot by a police officer but they stand tall to support fellow players who have been charged with rape, drug possession, even murder.
That’s hypocrisy at its worst.
Reginald Silas
Palouse
