Letters to the Editor Monday, Feb. 20 – Three, from readers in Schenectady and Scotia

As Christophe stated, Rep. Jordan is among those who have endorsed Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. According to a WP article (2/15) other Congressmen endorsing Trump include:

“Senate (5): Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.), Eric Schmitt (Mo.), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) and J.D. Vance (Ohio)
House (26): Jim Banks (Ind.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Mike Carey (Ohio), Elijah Crane (Ariz.), Charles J. “Chuck” Fleischmann (Tenn.), Russell Fry (S.C.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), Tony Gonzales (Tex.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Harriet M. Hageman (Wyo.), Clay Higgins (La.), Wesley Hunt (Tex.), Ronny Jackson (Tex.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Mary E. Miller (Ill.), Max L. Miller (Ohio), Alex Mooney (W.Va.), Barry Moore (Ala.), Troy E. Nehls (Tex.), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), Dale W. Strong (Ala.), William Timmons (S.C.), Jeff Van Drew (N.J.) and Joe Wilson (S.C.)”

Jacobin: 2/9/223 This for F—JoeBiden:

“The Obama administration in 2014 proposed improving safety regulations for trains carrying petroleum and other hazardous materials. However, after industry pressure, the final measure ended up narrowly focused on the transport of crude oil and exempting trains carrying many other combustible materials, including the chemical involved in this weekend’s disaster.

Then came 2017: after rail industry donors delivered more than $6 million to GOP campaigns, the Trump administration — backed by rail lobbyists and Senate Republicans — rescinded part of that rule aimed at making better braking systems widespread on the nation’s rails.

Specifically, regulators killed provisions requiring rail cars carrying hazardous flammable materials to be equipped with electronic braking systems to stop trains more quickly than conventional air brakes. Norfolk Southern had previously touted the new technology — known as electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes — for its “potential to reduce train stopping distances by as much as 60 percent over conventional air brake systems.”

But the company’s lobby group nonetheless pressed for the rule’s repeal, telling regulators that it would “impose tremendous costs without providing offsetting safety benefits.”

That argument won out with Trump officials — and the Biden administration has not moved to reinstate the brake rule or expand the kinds of trains subjected to tougher safety regulations.

When current transportation safety rules were first created, a federal agency sided with industry lobbyists and limited regulations governing the transport of hazardous compounds.
“Would ECP brakes have reduced the severity of this accident? Yes,” Steven Ditmeyer, a former senior official at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), told the Lever. “The railroads will test new features. But once they are told they have to do it . . . they don’t want to spend the money.”

In short, the problem is money influencing politicians. Lobbyists heavily contribute to some campaigns and some do as industry bids. Individuals in both parties are subject to the influence of industry lobbyists, but it the conservative SCOTUS decision in Citizens United that allows this perversion of democracy to continue.

Biden administration accomplishments:

-Protected marriage equality
In December of 2022, President Biden signed landmark legislation that enshrined marriage equality protections into federal law. The bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act provides security to millions of LGBTQ+ and interracial couples by guaranteeing that the federal government will recognize and protect their marriages.

In signing this historic legislation, President Biden built on his work to advance full equality for LGBTQ+ Americans. In his first two years, President Biden signed executive orders to reverse the discriminatory ban on transgender service members and strengthen LGBTQ+ non-discrimination protections.

-Changing our failed approach to marijuana
President Biden took action to end our failed approach to marijuana by pardoning all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession.

In doing so, President Biden removed a burden to employment, housing, and educational opportunities for thousands of Americans.

The President also initiated a review process into how marijuana is scheduled under federal law and urged governors across the country to follow his lead by pardoning state level convictions of simple marijuana possession.

-Student loan debt relief for working and middle class Americans
President Biden announced a plan to forgive up to $10,000 of debt for individuals making less than $125,000 a year. For Americans in that group who received Pell Grants during college, President Biden’s plan would forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt – providing relief to those who need it most.

As a result of President Biden’s bold action, up to 43 million Americans would benefit from targeted relief. Up to 20 million Americans would have their loans fully canceled.

Under the President’s student loan debt plan, nearly 90% of relief dollars will go to borrowers earning less than $75,000 a year. Through targeted action, President Biden is building on his promise to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out.

The President is also taking action to make the student loan system more manageable for current and future borrowers by cutting monthly payment rates in half for undergraduate loans. Critically, the Biden-Harris administration’s plan will cover unpaid monthly interest, so a borrower’s balance will never grow as long as they make their monthly payments.

President Biden’s actions on student debt will save the average borrower more than $1,000 a year and make sure that working people have a shot at a college degree without the fear of being saddled with insurmountable debt.

-Revitalizing American manufacturing
President Biden is leading America through a manufacturing boom. Since the President took office, the United States has created hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing jobs and companies have announced more than $300 billion in manufacturing investments across the United States.

President Biden signed the landmark CHIPS and Science Act into law to help lower the cost of everyday goods, strengthen American manufacturing and innovation, create good-paying jobs, and bolster our national security.

The CHIPS and Science Act will help us compete with China by bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. The law makes historic investments in manufacturing and research to accelerate the industries of the future and set America up to win the economic competition for the 21st century.

-Signed the Inflation Reduction Act
President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act to bring down costs, reduce the deficit, and take aggressive action on climate – all paid for by making sure the largest corporations and billionaire tax cheats finally pay their fair share in taxes.

This historic legislation lowers health care costs for millions of families and allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time. The Inflation Reduction Act caps seniors’ out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs at $2,000 per year and ensures no senior on Medicare will pay over $35 per month for insulin. Under the law, 13 million Americans, covered under the Affordable Care Act, will see their health insurance premiums reduced by $800.

The Inflation Reduction Act also takes aggressive action to combat the existential crisis of climate change. These historic clean energy investments will help families save hundreds of dollars every year on their energy bills while strengthening our energy security, creating jobs, and getting us closer to meeting our climate goals.

All of this is paid for by establishing a minimum corporate tax to ensure that the wealthiest corporations finally start to pay their fair share, and cracking down on billionaire tax cheats – without increasing audit rates or raising taxes on those making under $400,000 a year by one cent. President Biden promised to make the government work for working families again and that’s exactly what this law does.

-Improved health care for veterans
President Biden has long said that it is our sacred obligation to prepare and equip those we send to war and to take care of them and their families when they come home.

As president, he has worked to ensure we make good on this sacred obligation and has signed multiple bipartisan bills to honor and improve care for veterans.

In his first State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to pass legislation to make sure veterans impacted by toxic exposures and their families get the comprehensive care and benefits they earned and deserve. In August of 2022, President Biden signed the PACT Act – the largest single bill to address our service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins in American history.

-Took historic action to address the gun violence epidemic
President Biden brought together Democrats and Republicans to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, breaking a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence legislation. The legislation took important steps, including requiring people under 21 to undergo enhanced background checks, closing the “boyfriend loophole,” and providing funding to address youth mental health.

President Biden has moved decisively to combat gun violence – issuing dozens of executive orders and signing the most significant gun violence reduction legislation to pass Congress in 30 years.

President Biden has launched a whole-of-government approach to make our communities safer and issued more executive orders to reduce gun violence in his first year than any other President at the same point in their administration. In July of 2022, Steve Dettelbach, President Biden’s nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, became the first Senate-confirmed director of the agency in more than 7 years.

Early on in his administration, President Biden took on the gun lobby to rein in the proliferation of ghost guns. The Biden administration acted to ban the manufacture of ghost gun kits and make it illegal to sell ghost guns without a background check.

-Restored American leadership on the world stage
Under the previous administration, confidence in U.S. leadership around the world plummeted to historic lows. Since taking office, President Biden has worked to revitalize our alliances and restore America’s position of leadership on the global stage.

When Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, President Biden rallied our allies across the globe to ensure Vladimir Putin pays a steep economic price for his unjustified war of aggression.

Thanks to President Biden’s leadership, international confidence in the United States has sharply increased. America is back, and our alliances are stronger than ever.

-Ended America’s longest war
After more than 20 years of conflict spanning three previous administrations, President Biden acted decisively to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. Resolute in his commitment not to send another generation of America’s daughters and sons to fight in Afghanistan, President Biden ended our nation’s longest war.

President Biden promised that we’d continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan without American troops on the ground. In August of 2022, the United States successfully carried out an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was a key architect behind the 9/11 attacks and Osama bin Laden’s successor as head of Al Qaeda.

In acting to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, President Biden ended an era of major military operations to remake other countries and refocused our national security efforts on the threats of today – not the threats of 2001.

-Took action to address gender-based violence
In 1994, then-Senator Biden authored the Violence Against Women Act which provided legal protection against domestic violence and sexual assault for 28 years until it was allowed to expire under the Trump administration.

As President, Joe Biden broke through two years of Republican obstruction and signed legislation in March 2022 to reauthorize and strengthen the Violence Against Women Act.

Thanks to President Biden’s leadership, the Violence Against Women Act is now reauthorized through 2027 and includes new provisions to expand legal services for survivors and support underserved communities.

President Biden also signed historic legislation ending forced arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment, protecting survivors and making it safer to report harassment in the workplace.

-Passed the American Rescue Plan
President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act into law, an unprecedented $1.9 trillion package that helped combat COVID-19 and supercharge a historic economic recovery.

The American Rescue Plan:

Helped get over 500 million shots in arms, distribute millions of therapeutics, and dramatically expand testing capabilities. Over two-thirds of Americans are vaccinated against COVID-19 thanks to the American Rescue Plan.

Delivered needed relief to families by sending over 160 million checks to Americans, expanding food and rental assistance, and providing aid to thousands of small businesses. The expanded Child Tax Credit led to the largest-ever one-year decrease in childhood poverty in American history.

Safely reopened America’s schools and made a historic investment to tackle learning loss and address mental health. Today, over 99% of schools are open for in-person learning. Before the ARP, only 46% of schools were open in-person.

-Historic job growth
Under President Biden, more Americans are working than at any point in history. Twelve million jobs have been created since President Biden took office, making his first two years the two strongest years for job growth on record. At the same time, Americans have applied to start a record breaking 10.5 million small businesses since President Biden took office.

With the help of the American Rescue Plan, America has recovered all of the jobs lost during the pandemic – and added jobs on top of that. President Biden is leading our country’s historic recovery by investing to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down.

-Took action to combat COVID-19
The Biden-Harris administration successfully mobilized the largest free vaccination program in the history of the United States, dramatically increased the national supply of tests, and expedited the development of life-saving COVID-19 treatments.

Before President Biden took office, there was no comprehensive plan to get Americans vaccinated. President Biden got to work immediately on a national effort to get shots in arms. Funding from the American Rescue Plan helped vaccinate over 200 million Americans.

President Biden took action to drastically increase the number of free testing sites around the country and secure millions of rapid, at-home tests. The administration launched COVIDtests.gov so Americans could order tests to be shipped directly to their homes for free.

At the same time, the President expedited the development, manufacturing, and procurement of numerous COVID-19 treatments, including life-saving antiviral pills.

-Rebuilding America’s infrastructure
Thanks to President Biden, we’re done talking about infrastructure week. Now, we’re entering an infrastructure decade.

President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once-in-a-generation, transformational investment that will help create thousands of jobs and set America up to win the 21st century.

The law provides billions in funding to repair bridges and roads, begin replacing every lead pipe in America, upgrade our ports and airports, and expand broadband access to all. It also includes the largest federal investment in public transit ever, the biggest investment in Amtrak since its creation, and funding to create a national network of EV charging stations.

President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will rebuild America’s critical infrastructure and increase our competitiveness for years to come.

-Combating the climate crisis
The Biden-Harris administration is delivering the most aggressive climate and environmental justice agenda in American history. In his first days in office, President Biden rejoined the Paris Climate Accords and committed to cutting U.S. emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2030.

In 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, putting us on track to meet our emissions goals. The historic legislation makes significant investments in clean energy that will create good-paying jobs, lower energy costs for Americans, and advance environmental justice.

Additionally, as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Biden-Harris administration is taking action to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells and making the largest investment in clean energy transmission ever.

The President has also signed executive orders to develop American clean energy, accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, and reduce pollution.

-Expanded health care to millions of Americans
After four years of endless attempts to strip health care from millions of Americans under the previous administration, President Biden took action to lower health care costs and expand access to millions of Americans.

Under President Biden, the uninsured rate has reached a record low and more Americans have health insurance than ever before.

Tax credits in the American Rescue Plan that were extended by the Inflation Reduction Act have made quality coverage more affordable. Americans who receive coverage through the Affordable Care Act are saving an average of $800 a year.

In addition, President Biden took action to end the practice of surprise medical billing. By strengthening consumer protection rules and expanding price transparency, the Biden-Harris administration protected millions of Americans from unexpected health care costs.

-Nominated and confirmed historic judicial nominees
The President delivered on his promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court when he nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. In July of 2022, Justice Jackson became the first Black woman and public defender to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

President Biden is working to shape a federal judicial system that fully represents America’s diversity. Of the President’s judicial appointments, a record percentage have been women and people of color, as well as civil rights lawyers and public defenders.

Gaslighting on immigration problems and solutions is coming from MAGA. How many times must we explain the wall is ineffective, expensive, environmentally destructive, intrudes on property rights, and an affront to our southern neighbors? The wall can be climbed over, cut through, and tunneled under. We need comprehensive immigration reform including more legal points of entry, sti’s, border guards, immigration courts and facilities to house legitimate immigrants.

MAGA would rather stoke the fear, hatred, bigotry and chaos that is their pathway to power. If Americans are falling for this, we will all suffer together. How anyone can support a man like Trump or any MAGA candidate to be president is incomprehensible to me. I’m not gaslighting anyone; that is the speciality, the modus operandi, of the far right, always has been and always will be.

For the first time, I actually think we should consider something MTG has suggested:

Fox News reports: 1/20

“A far-right Republican congresswoman suggested the U.S. go through a “national divorce” on Presidents Day. “We need a national divorce,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted on Monday. The Georgia firebrand’s comments are par for the course for Greene, whose previous statements have landed her in hot water among Democrats and even GOP leadership. Greene has said she regrets her past QAnon content posts, which included content about “lasers or blue beams of light” under the control of a Jewish family leading a left-wing cabal.”

To divide the United States into two sovereign countries, one reflecting the values of blue states and the other the values of red states, would be a long and complex, perhaps impossible, undertaking. However, it may be time to consider it. A caveat to red states; they receive more federal aid than they pay in taxes while the reverse is true for blue states.

Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Since violent civil war is unthinkable with modern weapons the solution might be to create two separate nations rather than remain as one “divided against itself.”

The political atmosphere is too bitter, too rancorous, too polarized. Something has to be done.

Joe, I am fascinated by politics and history and as I have said before, I will NEVER give up the fight to save America from the far right; today’s iteration of the far right happens to be MAGA.

Other iterations have been the America First Movement to keep us out of WWII and appease Hitler, led by the fascist leaning Charles Lindbergh, Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunt, Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, and the Tea Party.

If someone prefers bird watching to civic engagement that is fine with me. Those who engage in political dialogue should keep themselves well informed and be ready to acknowledge mistakes. We should learn and grow from past mistakes, not bury our heads in the sand ostrich-style and pretend they never happened. This applies to individuals and the country.

Joe, it would be far more effective to get at the root causes of America’s fentanyl problem than to attempt supply interruption. If there is a demand there will be a supply. Improve the environment and education in our public schools. By high school age, students should be allowed to concentrate on a marketable skill in business or a trade. Writing, reading, and mathematical skills associated with the career choice would be emphasized. All students should attend a class on government, current events, and the duties of a citizen in a democracy. Courses in literature, history, the arts and sciences should be available to those with an academic orientation or as electives for interested vocational students; they could always change their minds. We need to stop demeaning minorities in our society and learn to respect the needs and humanity of every individual. Everybody deserves adequate shelter, food, clothing and medical care. Optimistic people with a bright future don’t usually become addicts.

I believe we should regulate industry with the public good uppermost in mind. The tobacco industry is regulated and heavily taxed. Higher prices and public information campaigns, making clear the horrible effects of the tobacco habit, have reduced the number of smokers in our society. Alcohol distribution and use is regulated through taxation, licensing and age requirements. Tax loopholes should be closed for all industries and a minimum tax of 15% should be levied on net profits over a designated amount.

Democrats continue to call for effective measures to control immigration and guard our borders. I commented on their approach versus “The Wall” in earlier posts.