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Writer arguments on climate are flawed
In his May 17 Letter to the Editor (“Keep government out of our business,”), Mr. Whipple claimed that “The left’s climate conspiracy of global warming is a sham.” He claimed that the “sham” is about “The power to tell us proletariats what to do.”
Well, comrade, let’s look at your arguments.
“If we reduce CO2, then plants will die….” Really? Sure, plants need CO2 to live, and they also produce O2 (sort of only burial of incompletely decomposed plants, for geological periods of time, adds net oxygen to the atmosphere). CO2 in air is currently about 422 parts per million and rising.
The pre-industrial atmosphere had about 280, and during the last ice age about 180. Did all plants go extinct then? No, they did just fine.
Then, “…why are we not inventing something to remove it [CO2] …” Well, there are many ways to remove excess CO2.
The problem is that other than plants, all take a lot of energy, or money, or both. It’s cheaper to use already cost-effective methods to reduce CO2 production. Earth’s oxygen is declining, because we burn fossil fuels (https://scrippso2.ucsd.edu/). Earth’s CO2 is climbing, because we burn fossil fuels (https://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/).
Please look this stuff up. It’s not that hard.
Kurt Hollocher
Schenectady
The author is a professor in the Geosciences Department at Union College.
Nation was better off under Trump
Listening to the news today, I am surprised by how many allegations about President Donald Trump are being uncovered as totally untrue, really outright lies. Yet so many allegations about Joe Biden and his family are being uncovered as true and so far from lies.
Many in this country dogged Donald Trump for four years of his presidency and yet he was able to accomplish so much. No one can deny that the border was more secure, the American people were more secure, and our nation was so much more secure, not to mention just overall being better off financially.
Now under Biden, we have thousands illegally coming here every day. And daily, we uncover more truths about his family’s corruption, inflation, wages, jobs, etc. Just more bad news on a daily basis.
Maybe Donald Trump is rough around the edges and not as polished as Joe Biden, (50 years in office will polish you up very nicely), but I feel the American people were getting more for their money with Donald Trump.
I just received a phone call from our pharmacy that stated prescription medications for this family are currently unavailable.
Must be President Biden and Pothole Pete have still been working on that supply chain issue. That or China is not ready to send some pharmaceuticals to this country at this stage of the game.
I sincerely hope that the people of this country open their eyes wide before 2024.
I guess there is always hope.
Kathleen Lamphere
Canajoharie
Writer overlooked immigrants’ work
I have never met Geraldine Krawitz, but I can infer some things about her from her May 17 letter (“Immigration failure hurting Americans,”) dripping with falsehoods about immigration.
I suspect that she knows no one who gets their nails done, eats at a restaurant, has observed construction workers, landscapers or those often unseen people in hospitals, offices or other businesses who clean up after the rest of us.
I won’t even ruminate on the obvious impact a lack of fresh fruits or vegetables can have on one’s ability to tell truth from fiction.
I must, however, pity her for her suffering such a diminished life due to undocumented immigrants. Cue tiny violin.
Polly Windels
Ballston Spa
Categories: Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Opinion, Saratoga Springs, Schenectady
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MS lamphere not sure where you’re getting your misinformation from but Trump is being convicted for his crimes at an embarrassing rate and we all know it’s far from over as Biden repairs the damage the ex traitorous president did .
I suggest you try another pharmacy before trying to spread that nonsense I’m very pleased with the fill rate at CVS. HAVE A GREAT DAY but you keep trying with that Trump fantasy.
Christophe, not only is Trump’s criminal behavior an embarrassment, but his foreign policy resulted in a more dangerous world. He emboldened dictators like Putin and Kim Jung Un. Thus, we have Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and continued rocket launchings by N. Korea. The article, “Iran said to be building…” on p. A2 of today’s DG details the potentially catastrophic results of Trump’s attempt at being a “tough guy” in pulling America out of the Iran nuclear deal.
“…what it (the nuclear accord) did…was strictly limit Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 3.67% purity, powerful enough to power civilian power stations, and keep its stockpile to just some 660 pounds…inspectors recently discovered the country has produced uranium particles that were 83.7% pure.”
Ninety per cent purity is needed to produce nuclear weapons.
“As of February, international inspectors estimated Iran’s stockpile was over 10 times what it was under the Obama-era deal, with enough enriched uranium to allow Tehran to make ‘several’ nuclear bombs…”
Kathleen Lamphere the country did “open their eyes” and 81 million voters voted Trump off the island…..And as far as feeling all safe warm and cozy under Trump…you weren’t You just felt that way because you adore Trump and dismiss all his lies to make yourself feel safe ……lookatthe facts…..not what Fox News tells you.Lose your willful ignorance for Trump and set yourself free
The headline in today’s Gazette, “Hochul seeks help…” details our governor’s attempts to expedite the issuance of work permits to asylum seekers. It is no secret that we have a critical shortage of workers, some in critical areas like nursing, farming, and service industries such as restaurants and the cleaning industry.
We are in desperate need of immigration reform. We need the infrastructure necessary to keep criminal elements out and house, educate, and grant citizenship to dreamers and the many worthy people seeking entry to our country for all the right reasons. By becoming Americans, they and our country would enjoy great benefits, one being economic growth. The “wall” is not effective infrastructure but a monument to ignorance and bigotry.
Republicans must stop using this issue and many others such as raising the debt ceiling as partisan bargaining chips. They seem to believe making the Biden administration look bad is more important than doing what would benefit our country and the world.
Let’s see, Ms. Lamphere, I’ll bet you think Barack Obama was born in Kenya, the 2020 election was stolen, Vladimir Putin isn’t actually that bad, but vaccines may be, Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero, but Anthony Fauci is a villain. Am I right?
Wizard, I am sure she believes all that and that the GOP is fighting for her and other everyday Americans in their hardline position that all their demands be met before they agree to raising the debt ceiling. Nothing could be further from the truth. The spending cuts they are calling for would inevitably result in drastic cuts to social programs that benefit her and all of us who comprise “we the people” for whom the Constitution promised promotion of “the general welfare.” Increasing the likelihood of movement toward a GOP one-party autocracy is more important to them than “the general welfare” of “we the people.” This is what the contemptible Sean Hannity had to say about the debt ceiling on his Sirius radio show:
“Now they’re (Biden administration, Democrats) trying to hit the panic button and scare the crap out of the American people.
For Republicans, I would not be scared. I wouldn’t be scared at all. I’d be like, ‘We gave you a debt ceiling increase. If you don’t want it, then you will be the one responsible for the default.’”
He downplays the world wide recession that would follow a default by the United States government on its debt, 25% accumulated during Trump’s four years in office. He ignores the fact that future borrowing would be at far higher interested rates as U.S. bonds would be downgraded, possibly to junk status if the default persists. The debt would rise to truly unmanageable levels with unimaginably devastating consequences.
And he is lying when he states the GOP “gave you a debt ceiling increase.” He isn’t telling the “whole truth.” The strings attached to the approval by the “Freedom Caucus” demands cuts in social spending and retention of Trump’s huge tax cuts for the ultra wealthy.
I’ll never understand why Ms. Lamphere and other MAGA supporters can’t see the truth, that they are their own worse enemy in supporting the radical GOP far right.
Could one of you explain by elucidating your views with evidence and logic, sans emotional outbursts?
“interested rates, should be “interest rates.”
Here’s an interesting fact that demonstrates just how widespread and culturally ingrained Ms. Lamphere’s way of thinking is in the U.S. I wrote the following comment in reaction to an article on Yahoo News about the Montana law declaring there are only two sexes, male and female.
Medical professionals say the laws also ignore that some people are born as intersex — a term that encompasses about 60 conditions in which a person is born with genitalia, reproductive organs, chromosomes and/or hormone levels that don’t fit typical definitions of male or female. What don’t you get?
Some members of the community may find your comment inappropriate. Try Again?
As you can see, my comment was rejected because some people in the community might find it “inappropriate.” I felt compelled to quote the article because virtually all the commenters were conservatives who applauded the new law. And Yahoo News – of all channels – rejected what I consider a tame comment, especially since I quoted the article itself.
I re-wrote my comment, as was my option, to add that, “if science tells us that some people are born who don’t fit neatly into one of two biological categories, why can’t we accept that?” I tried posting the re-written comment, but after 15 minutes, I’m still waiting to see if it is approved.
I have an acquaintance who met his American wife in his home country of Denmark. She returned to the U.S. but he had to remain behind to follow procedure before he could gain entry legally. It took 3 years. To this day he is infuriated by the migrants (or let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and refer to them as “asylum seekers”) who “just walk across the border, surrender to customs agents, get a court date months down the line to plead their case, and settle wherever they can find shelter and work, many never to be seen again.” (In effect, his words.)
But he blames the immigrants, not the system. Many Americans feel that way, including, ironically, the residents of Schenectady, a city built by PIGS (an acronym I use to distinguish the Poles, Italians, Greeks, and Slavs from WASPS). Most of these descendants self-righteously, but erroneously, proclaim that these newcomers should follow the law and get in line, just like their parents and grandparents did.
That assessment is wrong, on two counts. First, assuming today’s migrants didn’t enter surreptitiously, they are following the law. We have always legally welcomed asylum seekers, especially since WW II. In my childhood neighborhood, for instance, which was heavily inhabited by two generations of Italian and Slavic immigrants, hundreds of Hungarian families moved in following the Hungarian revolt in ’56. (We kids used to crash their annual celebration every September.) Second, our forebears sailed into NY Harbor at a time when there was only one federal immigration law on the books – The Chinese Exclusion Act. No laws prevented them from coming here – in fact, the General Electric Company welcomed the cheap source of labor with open arms.
So Gov. Kathy Hochul, herself an Irish Catholic of recent origin, is right when she says New York wants those immigrants. The need for more immigrants is clear, as Anthony Santo points out. I would add that we need immigrants not only to fill the low-paid jobs in health care and agriculture, but we also need their entrepreneurial spirit. They may arrive with only a few bucks in their pockets, like our parents and grandparents did, but you can bet they will create their own economic niches. Just walk into any nail salon. Virtually all of them are owned and operated by Vietnamese.
This just in:
House Ethics Committee has closed its investigation in to Rep. Eric Swallwell and found no wrong-doing.
Sorry MAGA, more losing.
Polly Windels legal immigrants can do this as well and they can actually pay taxes.
Kathleen Lamphere, ignore the far left lefties on here.
Santo if Trump emboldened these dictators then why were there no missiles flown over Japan while Trump was in office or why did Putin wait until Biden was potus to invade Ukraine?