Cowards and liars
Chauncey De Vega writes in Salon that former President Donald Trump’s followers love him because of his wrongdoing and disregard for law and democracy, not in spite of it.
As he continues to deny all wrongdoing and incites further violence among his followers, the majority of Republicans refuse to believe he has committed any crimes and continue to believe his lies.
Fascism at its core is unrestrained and corrupt power that manifests through violence, destruction, collective mental pathology and greed. Fascism creates a state of malignant normality where right and wrong become inverted, if they even exist, independent of the “Great Leader” and his collective movement’s will and desires.
In that political unreality, good and bad, right and wrong, ethics and morality are a function of ideology and politics. In the “alternate universe” of MAGA, it is impossible to see Trump as a criminal or lawbreaker.
Stuart Stevens, author of “It Was All A Lie: How The Republican Party Became Donald Trump,” says the most distinguishing characteristic of the Republican Party is cowardice. “The party demands dishonesty as a trait of membership.”
Stevens says courage is not standing up to a ridiculous man-child like Trump. It is “acknowledging the lies Republicans are demanding party members accept as truth in support of Trump.”
He says cowardice and lying are contagious, “and to be surrounded by cowards and liars is to be comforted in knowing there are others like you and maybe some even worse.”
Mike Epstein
Clarkston
Getting warmer
Editing introduced an error into this letter. It is reprinted here in its original form.
... Albedo is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation. In simpler terms, it is the proportion the solar radiation that an object reflects which varies from zero (0) to one (1). The albedo of snow is 0.9 (90%), ice is 0.6-0.9 and water is 0.4.
In 2021 Geophysical Research Letters published “Earth’s Albedo 1998-2017 as Measured From Earthshine.” In the conclusion it stated: “We have reported a two-decade long set of the Earth’s nearly globally averaged albedo as derived from earthshine observations. ... These vary significantly on monthly, annual and decadal scales with the net being a gradual decline over the two decades, which accelerated in the most recent years.”
Given that there are a number of wildfires in the forests of Alaska, Canada and Siberia, what will be the effects of the fires on their albedos? A 2008 study titled “Changes in surface albedo after fire in boreal forest ecosystems of interior Alaska assessed using MODIS satellite observations” stated: “During the first year after fire, summer broadband albedo and NIR (Near-infrared) albedo decreased substantially below prefire levels.”
he Environmental Protection Agency said the amount and length of time of snow-covered area between 1972 and 2020 has decreased substantially.
While the greenhouse gases are not increasing substantially, Earth’s surface is getting warmer.
Tom Fellows
Lewiston
Enforce the laws
... Guns do not kill people. Cars do not kill people and knives do not kill people. People kill people, either by intentionally using a weapon to do so or, in the case of cars, it can be intentional or the accident is aided due to other illegal activities, such as driving under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs.
Intentional killers are seeking some kind of fame. ...
They also know that in many jurisdictions, the district attorneys will not prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.
When New York City was tough on crime, crime went down. Now it is not so tough and crime is going up. ...
When district attorneys are not prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law or are prosecuting only the most minor infraction they can pin on the perpetrator, the crime rate is going up significantly.
While many politicians of both parties are hollering about “gun control” and “reform,” don’t be fooled. They want to take away or at least chip away at the Second Amendment. The best reform that can take place is to enforce all the gun laws that are on the books now. ...
Judicial Watch and other similar groups are spending millions of dollars in courts forcing the president and his administration, some states and many counties and cities to enforce the laws — not just for gun control but also voting, borders and other areas where the laws are not being enforced.
That is not right.
Bruce Barnett
Lewiston
