Category: Economics / Economy / Income / Financial

Letters to the Editor: A little bit of socialism isn’t so bad

Letters to the Editor: A little bit of socialism isn’t so bad

Accusations about socialism off the mark

In response to recent letters deeply concerned about the election of socialists: I don’t like excessive government ownership of the means of production or of businesses either. Though President Trump doesn’t seem to mind direct government stakes in publicly traded corporations, that seems a bit too socialist for me.

But as for other issues typically supported by American socialists: How much do you really want to oppose higher taxation of the very rich in order to redistribute wealth more appropriately? How much can we object to raising a federal minimum wage level that hasn’t changed since 2009 while the cost of living has increased far beyond it? How much can we oppose the freedom to unionize so that workers have a greater chance against large corporate employers?

People toss around the word “socialism” as if it were like anthrax. I think of it, though, as being more like salt. Though countries like Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea fell into it so heavily that it became worse than unpalatable, that’s not a reason to treat socialism as if it were categorically poisonous. You can kill a recipe with too much salt, but do you really want to do without it?

John Groff

Allentown

Don’t pay legislators who don’t pass budget

Thank goodness the state budget has been passed. The four-month delay caused chaos for many school systems, counties and nonprofits in the commonwealth. Loans had to be taken, layoffs were required and uncertainty created stress on many. This mess was caused because our elected officials didn’t do their No. 1 job, pass a budget by June 30.

That date used to be important. Now it’s treated as just a guideline. Our legislators are some of the highest paid in the country, but they don’t deserve their salary if they fail this basic responsibility. I believe that the next politician to run on the motto “No budget, no pay” would win in a landslide.  As I stand on the street corner during the 2026 primary season, my sign will read just that:  No budget, no pay!

Joan Howe

Bethlehem Township

 

Trump should have reported Epstein’s crimes

In Pennsylvania any teacher, social worker, church member, medical employee, law enforcement officer — anyone who has any contact with young people — has to register with the state. This involves fingerprinting, several hours of training, and a background investigation. Once you jump through these hoops and pass the tests, you are then a “mandated reporter.” This means that, if you suspect that a child has been abused, trafficked or neglected in any way, you are required by the Child Protective Services Law to report the situation. Not to your principal, not to the director of your social agency or hospital network, not to the head of your church or organization. You are given a phone number to call at the Department of Human Services. Failure to report abuse immediately at this number will result in your being charged with a misdemeanor or, in some cases, a felony.

That the president of the United States, even though perhaps he did not approve of Jeffrey Epstein’s behavior, did not report to anyone what Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were up to is unconscionable and amoral. He didn’t get charged. He got elected to the highest office in the country. What’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong with this country?

JoAnn Klucsarits

Walnutport

 

Will everyone really be able to use White House?

Since the White House is the people’s house and it was said after construction it’s going to be magnificent and everyone is going to use it: Can I have my next birthday party there?

Beth Laury

Allentown

Trump is wrong about food prices

How can our president say food prices are way down? Did he ever buy food in a grocery store for his family? Who is telling him all these lies? I’d like to have him come here and check out food prices in our grocery stores.

I don’t think it will change his mind. But one can hope for a miracle.

Ron Snyder

North Whitehall Township

The Morning Call publishes letters from readers online and in print several times a week. Submit a letter to the editor at letters@mcall.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication.

11/21 Is A Newsy Day In Peace & Justice History

November 21, 1945
200,000 members of the United Auto Workers went on strike against General Motors, the first major strike following World War II. The UAW’s demand for a 30% wage increase was based on the increase in the cost of living during the war (28% according to the Department of Labor), the wartime freeze on wages, and the cut in the average workweek with the disappearance of overtime pay in manufacturing.

But the UAW also considered profits and prices a subject for negotiation, a position rejected by GM. The union did not merely say that labor was entitled to enough wages to live on. It also said that labor was entitled to share in the wealth produced by industry. “… Unless we get a more realistic distribution of America’s wealth, we won’t get enough to keep this machine going.”–Walter Reuther, UAW President
More about the strike 
November 21, 1973
President Richard Nixon’s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the subpoenaed White House tape recordings of Watergate conversations made by President Richard Nixon in the days after the Watergate break-in.The erasure was blamed on an accident by Nixon’s private secretary, Rose Mary Woods, but scientific analysis determined the erasures to be deliberate. White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig later attributed the gap to “sinister forces.”

Rose Mary Woods, demonstrating how she might have created the Watergate tape gap
More about Rose Mary Woods 
November 21, 1974
Both Houses of Congress voted to override President Gerald Ford’s veto of updates to the Freedom of Information Act. Originally passed in 1966, it required federal agencies to release information upon request to citizens and journalists.The amendments put an end to governmental resistance to compliance, including excessive fees, bureaucratic delays, and the need to sometimes resort to expensive litigation to force the government to share copies of documents.
Ford advisors Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Dick Cheney, and government lawyer Antonin Scalia advised him to veto it.

Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, President Gerald Ford, and Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Cheney April 28, 1975
What was the dispute?  (Verified the story is there.)
November 21, 1975
The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, led by Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho), issued a report charging U.S. government officials were behind assassination plots against two foreign leaders – Fidel Castro (Cuba) and Patrice Lumumba (Congo), and were heavily involved in at least three other plots: Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic), Ngo Dinh Diem (Vietnam), Rene Schneider (Chile).

Senator Frank Church, left, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, displays a poison dart gun as co-chairman Senator John Tower (R-TX) watches.
The committee, a precursor to the Senate Intelligence Committee, was established to look into misuse of and abuse by intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA and FBI, some of which had been revealed by the Watergate investigations.
  
Fidel Castro / Patrice Lumumba / Rafael Trujillo / Ngo Dinh Diem / Rene Schneider
Read more  
November 21, 1981
More than 350,000 demonstrated in Amsterdam against U.S. nuclear-armed cruise missiles on European soil.
November 21, 1985
A full-scale summit conference, the first of five between the President Ronald Reagan of the U.S. and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union concluded. There was optimism over beginning a more productive and cooperative relationship between the two countries, each of which had thousands of nuclear warheads targeted at the other.The U.S. had proposed building a space-based anti-ballistic missile system, commonly known as “Star Wars,” which the Soviets had strongly opposed as an escalation of the nuclear arms race.In an unofficial meeting the previous evening, President Reagan had noted that he and Gorbachev were meeting for the first time at this level and had little practice. Nevertheless, having read the history of previous summit meetings, he had concluded that those earlier leaders had not accomplished very much. Therefore, he suggested that he and Gorbachev say, “To hell with the past, we’ll do it our way and get something done.” Gorbachev concurred.

Reagan and Gorbachev at their first summit
November 21, 1986
National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary, Fawn Hall, began shredding documents that would have exposed their participation in a range of illegal activities regarding the sale of arms to Iran in an attempt to free hostages, and the diversion of the proceeds to an insurgent Nicaraguan group known as the contras.

Fawn Hall

Oliver North
More on Fawn Hall 
November 21, 1995
China officially charged well-known human rights activist and political dissident Wei Jingsheng with trying to “overthrow the government.” Wei had not been seen for a year and a half after disappearing into police custody after meeting with a U.S. assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs.“If the people allow the power holders, in the peoples’ name, to violate and ignore the rights of some of the people then, at the same time, they are giving the power holders the power to violate the rights of all the people.”
“ Most people wait until others are standing to make their move, very few are willing to stand up first or to stand alone. That’s why my friends call me a fool! But I don’t have any regrets.” – Wei Jingsheng

Wei Jingsheng
He had been imprisoned previously for his involvement with the Democracy Wall movement, including years in solitary confinement. He had also spoken out on behalf of the Tibetans.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november21

Let’s talk about Trump’s affordability pitch falling flatter than job growth….

Epstein Email Hints Trump Was FBI Informant

Schumer ‘Stepping Down’ Rumors Intensify

Right-Wing’s Riley Gaines Grift Exposed

Riley Gaines turned a 5th place tie, not even in the top ranking, into a political money making bigot gig.  She has made hundreds of thousands of dollars pushing people to hate trans athletes using misinformation and lies.  She is a favorite of republicans to have testify in front of legislatures to help them justify making trans kids lives miserable.  Wonder who is funding her?  Religious bigots like billionaire Betsy DeVos.  The DeVos made their money on pyramid schemes and selling Amway. All in the name of their god they lie, make things up, and misinform the public about trans people.   I don’t understand the hate and bile they have for non-straight non-cis people.  Makes their god look ugly.  Hugs

 

POTUS’s Place In History

A Statement from Ty Jones Cox at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:

Taking Away Food Assistance Puts the Trump Administration on the Wrong Side of History

If you care about federal food assistance, it’s been a head-spinning couple of months.

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans enacted the largest cuts in history in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and canceled the long-standing annual Department of Agriculture survey that would document the cuts’ harms. But when the government shutdown began, they started expressing concern about risks to SNAP and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

It “helps no one” to cut SNAP benefits, said House Budget Committee Republicans. No one should “allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry,” the White House Press Secretary opined — that is “so cruel.”

But as Maya Angelou said: when people show you who they are, believe them the first time.

And sure enough, as the shutdown went on, it became clear that President Trump was not concerned about the millions of people across the U.S. who need SNAP to help cover their grocery bills. They were just pawns in his political battle.

The Trump Administration became so determined to deny people their SNAP benefits that it fought all the way to the Supreme Court, even though the funds were available and it had the legal authority to use them.The Trump Administration became so determined to deny people their SNAP benefits that it fought all the way to the Supreme Court, even though the funds were available and it had the legal authority to use them.

The government has now reopened, and these nutrition programs are thankfully funded until the fall of 2026. The Administration hasn’t let up, though. Agriculture Secretary Rollins — after saying the government would be “failing” people if it didn’t provide SNAP benefits — has resumed her attacks on the program, falsely labeling it “corrupt” and ridden with “fraud.” In reality, SNAP has one of the most rigorous eligibility determination systems of any federal benefit program and SNAP participants must verify their eligibility regularly to stay connected to the program.

There’s a silver lining here: the public is more aware than ever of the value of programs like SNAP. There was a huge outcry and concern over the Trump Administration’s attempts to unlawfully and unnecessarily withhold SNAP benefits. The public won’t soon forget that SNAP benefits were suspended, and they won’t like seeing more people lose their benefits permanently as the food assistance cuts in the Republican megabill get implemented.

There is a long, proud tradition of bipartisan support for food assistance programs in the United States, grounded in a shared belief that no one should go hungry in a country with as many resources as ours. People from coast to coast and everywhere in between still deeply believe that cutting food assistance puts the Trump Administration and congressional Republicans at odds with broadly shared American values and on the wrong side of history.

Let’s talk about Trump, another budget reconciliation, and healthcare….

TRUMP’S LOSING IT

Two clips about horrific ICE actions from The Majority Report

You MUST Know This About Filming ICE

Trump’s Ice Terror Campaign Invades Charlotte