There is a hint of condescension toward blacks in two otherwise excellent columns in your 4/15/20 edition. (“Back to Politics as Usual” by Wayne O’Leary and “The Establishment Fights Back Against Bernie Sanders” by Joseph R. Atkins). Wayne decries a “black electorate prone to vote in lockstep for party regulars” and Joseph wonders how black folks could favor a candidate with the very inconsistent record on black issues of Joe Biden.
White folks from middle class to affluent families who are now middle class to affluent adults can comfortably vote their hopes and ideals, very laudable hopes and ideals, which I share — an egalitarian society where collectively produced wealth is shared by the collectivity, not appropriated by the capitalist scumbags who control it. But the reality is, if a right wing Republican reactionary scumbag like Donald wins, they can sigh, go back to their middle class to affluent lives and hope for a better outcome next time. But if Donald wins, black folks get smacked, they get hurt-in their jobs, their wages, their families, their homes, their neighborhoods, the chance they might have to go to college, the cleanliness of their streets and parks (if they have any), the air they breathe, their schools, the amount of times they get locked up and beaten up for bulls**t, the loss of the social safety net entitlements that they sorely need, etc. They can’t afford to lose so they vote for the candidate they think has the best chance of winning. And they don’t need condescension.
ED BELLER, The Bronx, New York City, N.Y.
A piece of research has been presented by “Data For Progress And The Justice Collaborative Institute,” which shows that over 50% of Republican voters are in favor of a bill proposed by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (a member of AOC’s “Squad”) which, if passed, would give every American a monthly “Universal Basic Income” check of $2,000 while the pandemic is ongoing. Then, it would provide every American a monthly “Universal Basic Income” check of $1,000.00 for an additional year.
For over 40 years, I have had to listen to conservatives and Republicans drone on and on about how incompetent and wasteful our federal government’s spending is. I have had to listen to their drivel about how we should never add to the national debt and the federal budget deficit and why we should cut and reduce spending on Social Security to demonstrate that we have “fiscal responsibility” even though it is fully solvent through 2034 and can easily be made more fully solvent for many additional decades.
And now, all of a sudden, they want to ride the big, bad federal government “gravy train.” I thought that you all believed in “limited government?”
So now, after listening to your right-wing, cold-hearted Social Darwinist propoganda for forty years, I find out that you not only are a bunch of HYPOCRITES and POSERS, but that you have turned into “Crazy Socialists” and “Crazy Communists.”
STEWART B. EPSTEIN, Rochester, N.Y.
The COVID-19 pandemic has cast light on three tragic factors and realities of contemporary life that many pundits and corporate talking heads would prefer to be recessed in our darkest shadows. Those three factors include poverty, income inequality and a broken healthcare system that has left thousands dead and millions more at risk.
Prior to our pandemic, poverty was killing 700 Americans daily while 43% of the US population was approaching the poverty level. Coupled with this is a for-profit healthcare system that bankrupted over 625,000 Americans in 2019. The catastrophic surge in both poverty and income inequality and a healthcare system that leaves millions without benefits and at risk is not a cruel random act of nature. No, this choreographed national nightmare is the end and ongoing result of a neo-liberal platform and philosophy that has hollowed out our national government’s ability to safeguard and protect its most vital asset — the people.
For over three decades, millions of middle class and working people have been on the receiving end of Republican privatization zealots who have openly boasted about shrinking the government to the size where it fits comfortably in a bath tub. This while actively endorsing legislation that has with precision created our epic levels of inequality, poverty and healthcare disaster.
COVID-19 has simply removed the smoke screens and illusions that corporate propagandists have constructed to control “the public mind.” We are seeing, witnessing, enduring and suffering the realities of three decades of public policies that have rendered the US population more vulnerable than any developed nation on the planet.
The only way out of global pandemics and future pandemics is a commitment to universal healthcare for humanity and a simultaneously declaration of war against poverty and income inequality. The silver lining apparent and inherent is this — when human beings embrace identifiable goals that benefit the greater good – mountains can be moved.
That is the inherent power of democracy, which, if openly embraced and pursued, would ultimately triumph over both COVID-19 and other pending healthcare catastrophes which will cascade upon us if immediate and decisive action is not taken.
JIM SAWYER, West Edmonds, Wash.
Where is the science behind the statement: “Plant-based diets may work for the wealthy, who can afford nutritional supplements, but poor people depend on meat for key proteins and amino acids.”[“We’re Not Ready for More Pandemics Brewing in Livestock” by Art Cullen 5/15/20 TPP]
I’ve been on a plant-based diet for 26 years and am in excellent health. I’m 65 years old and take no cholesterol or blood pressure medication. I eat beans, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Not expensive at all! I’m not wealthy, and the only supplement I take is vitamin B12. I have lots of energy, and no protein or vitamin deficiency.
Diets high in meat increase risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease— all conditions that can increase your risk of dying from Covid-19.
People may consider going on a plant-based diet for a variety of reasons, including their own health, the environment, the climate crises, animal welfare or concern for the health of people working in factory farms and meat processing plants. Whatever their reasons, they need good information.
There are many excellent resources on line for people interested in a plant-based diet. Try starting with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine website. I would hate for people to think they have to be wealthy or take expensive supplements in order to thrive on a plant-based diet.
Please make your decision based on science (and compassion doesn’t hurt either).
JOLENE SMITH, Oceanside, Calif.
Froma Harrop is certainly correct [5/1/20 TPP] that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has filled in a badly needed COVID-19 leadership void created by the obviously incompetent President Donald Trump.
Keep in mind that Mr. Cuomo remains a slippery politician. While he pontificates most days from the New York State Capitol Building in downtown Albany, he simultaneously has said nothing about the highly obnoxious Dunn Waste Connections construction and demolition and who-knows-what-else dump located directly across the Hudson River in the small city of Rensselaer.
The state government allowed the five-year-old dump to be sited literally right next to a 1,000-student public school campus. The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) allows dump operations to continue despite many permit violations; dump odors often sicken Rensselaer residents, students, and school staff, and nearby residents in the Town of East Greenbush, whose town board unanimously passed a resolution in March calling upon DEC to revoke the dump’s operating permits.
New York residents who pay attention know Gov. Cuomo keeps his state agency commissioners on a short leash and he is a micromanager. Many DEC staff desire to close the dump but dare not say so in public. The New York State Health Department has been of no help to Renseelaer and East Greenbush residents.
Gov. Cuomo gets praise for combatting a worldwide public health emergency, but he refuses to take to take action to end a local one.
TOM ELLIS, Albany, N.Y.
The premature reports of Mark Twain’s demise would have nothing on today’s US Postal Service, which has been counted out since the advent of the Internet, and keeps right on surviving to write additional chapters for itself.
This endurance can be attributed to the untiring efforts of postal employees themselves, fighting off privatization efforts from the outside, and battling over-zealous down-sizing spasms from their own upper management, and these stout federal employees will no question carry the USPS on their backs through the corona viruspandemic and beyond.
But as TPP’s 5/1/20 editorial comprehensively pointed up, the monkey wrench in the Post Office works, proving more caustic than rain, sleet, Internet and plague combined, is the utterly indefensible postal retiree “pre-funding” albatross, imposed in December 2006 by a lame duck GOP Congress on the verge of transforming to majority Democrat, a most unpalatable of poison pills indeed.
To their credit, after a vigilant campaign by postal workers and their representation, the House took a key step to correcting that decade-plus lapse of judgment earlier this year by passing the USPS Fairness Act, which goes far to undo that pre-funding debacle. That bill carried with substantial Republican support, in no small measure a recognition that a trampled-down Postal Service would hurt GOP rural expanses most. This important legislation now sits before the Senate.
Near-term, one unexpected COVID-19 silver lining may help save the postal bacon, as they’re saving massively on fuel costs as gas prices bottomed-out (a compelling reason for the USPS to invest in an electric fleet long term).
But the easiest solution to preserve the Postal Service would be the US Senate signing off on the USPS Fairness Act. It adds nothing to federal deficits, and is clearly a better solution than draconian service cuts on the one hand, or a large taxpayer bailout on the other. And this to right the ship for an American institution proven by crisis to be more than ever essential.
MIKE WETTSTEIN Jr., Appleton, Wis.
You know Donald Trump claims that Democrats want to make it too easy to vote and that a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting. With that being said, I’d like to propose some new voting requirements that Trump and Republicans might want to implement in order to ensure fair and honest elections.
In the future, all voters would be required to:
• Show a red MAGA hat instead of a photo ID.
• Hold a master’s degree from Trump University.
• Watch a Three Stooges marathon with Trump, Jared Kushner and William Barr.
• Spend an evening with Mike and Karen Pence.
• Know all 42 letters of the alphabet.
• Declare bankruptcy at least five times.
• Not accept responsibility for anything.
• Socially distance yourself from reality.
• Identify America’s top stable genius.
• Know the maiden name of your postmaster’s mother.
• Know how to lick a self-adhesive stamp.
• Feel sorry for yourself.
• Love the military but wimp out when it’s your turn to serve.
• Swear allegiance against the Deep State and Fake News.
Hey, it’s a free country. Make up your own mind!
MIKE EKLUND, Mercer, Wis.
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From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2020
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