Veteran says thanks
My husband, Leo, had a great Veteran’s Day. First he enjoyed the fabulous breakfast at the Hy-Vee on 90th Street and West Center Road.
Then he attended the Veterans Day program at the American Legion Post #1, which he also really enjoyed.
He stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way home and was totally surprised to have a very nice lady thank him for his service and then gave him a large bouquet of flowers. He was wearing his “Korea Veteran” cap, so she knew he was a war veteran.
We want to especially thank her for her kindness and let her know how much the flowers were appreciated by both of us. May God bless all the wonderful people of Omaha who made this Veterans Day so memorable.
Marj Kramer, Omaha
All about power
If there were any doubts regarding the purpose of government in this corrupt age, current developments in Washington should put them to rest.
When the distillation of truth gives way to “control of the narrative”; when facts are negated by their “alternatives”; and when an unending stream of lies becomes the main tributary that spills into what we call the “news,” we can no longer pretend the government is about us.
It’s not of us, nor by us, nor for us.
It is about power. And that’s all it is about.
G.A. Wees, Omaha
Transparency and integrity?
Recently, a story appeared in The World-Herald entitled “Eastman to give away $2,700 from billionaire Tom Steyer.”
A top aide to Steyer’s presidential campaign reportedly offered contributions to Iowa politicians in exchange for endorsing Steyer’s bid.
Eastman expressed concern that this was an example of money corrupting politics, an issue that was a centerpiece to her previous campaign for the 2nd Congressional District seat.
Eastman determined that her campaign had received $2,700 from Steyer in September 2018. So her campaign announced that instead of returning the money to the Steyer campaign and in effect giving her the opportunity to take that money out of politics, she would instead contribute it to the Heartland Workers Center.
That organization represents an important constituent group she needs for her 2020 race for the 2nd District seat.
The lesson here is clear. When given the opportunity to actually set an example of standing by the centerpiece of her campaign or choosing to be the same as all the others and further her own election efforts, she took the latter course.
So much for “transparency and integrity.” That sure didn’t last long.
Klaus P. Lindner, La Vista
Not worth the price
When Donald Trump was elected, I said he would do some good things, and he has. His policies have reduced unemployment. The economy has improved as shown in the stock market. His policy on reducing regulations has worked.
But I’m not sure it was worth the price. The tax cuts did not improve all of the middle and lower class families but definitely improved the wealthiest ones.
It also loaded up the national debt more than Obama did in pulling us out of the Great Recession.
Many businesses used their tax bonus to buy back their own stock, not to invest in growth.
Trump’s decision to leave the Iran nuclear agreement has resulted in Iran increasing its efforts to create a nuclear weapon. His pullout in Syria which left our Kurd allies open to attack from Turkey does not make sense. Trump’s tariff war with China took away one of our biggest markets for soybeans. Then he took taxpayer money to reimburse our farmers.
The Trump/Ukrainian phone call can be interpreted in different ways depending on perspective.
But we have not read the actual transcript because it has been placed in a super secure computer. If Trump’s call was “perfect,” then why doesn’t he release it so that the exact words of that call are revealed?
If he has nothing to hide, then why is he hiding information? It is a constitutional imperative that Congress has oversight on the executive branch. Openness is the only way to the truth.
Wendy Leitch, Omaha
Better solution for trees
I cannot believe that “a directive from Washington” called for cutting about 40 acres of trees “to better delineate the boundaries” of a park built on federally owned land.
It is going to take $1 million to $2 million in our tax dollars. It seems like the people who have encroached are part of the “public” that owns public lands.
At the same time the federal government is calling to take down 40 acres of trees to delineate a boundary on public lands, Conservation International is telling us scientists have recently warned that we have little more than a decade to avert disastrous and irreversible consequences of global warming from climate change.
If carbon dioxide is a big cause of climate change and trees absorb much of the carbon dioxide, does paying taxpayer money to cut down 40 acres of trees make sense?
Shouldn’t we be asking our congressional representatives to put pressure on the issuers of this directive to prevent destruction of all these trees?
We can’t just go out and replace them. It may take 70 to 75 years of growth to produce a mature tree. There must be a better solution.
Rosalee C. Yeaworth, Omaha
From GOP to independent
For a number of years we considered ourselves to be Republicans. As we’ve grown older, we have become much more moderate in our beliefs and now consider ourselves to be conservative on some issues and liberal on others.
We could probably be called independents.
We don’t anticipate a return to the Republican Party as long as long as two outspoken draft dodgers and college dropouts who continue to espouse hatred and a sheer lack of American values serve as the “megaphone” for the Republican Party.
Bob and Mary Lykke, Omaha
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(6) comments
One can only marvel at the twisted dishonesty of Klaus Lindner's letter. Tom Steyer's money was honestly earned, but Eastman nonetheless decided to live by her principles and donate a billionaire's contribution to a legitimate charity, the Heartland Workers Center. Many of those who benefit from the center are not citizens and therefore not voters. Nonetheless Lindner chooses to portray this as somehow self-interested.
Meanwhile he has nothing to say about Don Bacon, who received an unambiguously tainted donation from Giuliani's Ukrainian 'client' (more accurately, co-conspirator), Igor Fruman, currently accused of influence peddling by the US government. Bacon also donated the money to charities operating in his district. The only real difference is that Bacon's accepting Furnas's donation was illegal from the get-go.
Whom do you think you're fooling, Mr. Lindner?
Klaus Lindner's bunkum is in line with his previous conservative stuff. If Kara Eastman had returned the money to Steyer's campaign it would still be in politics. Instead she gave it to an NGO. Oops, those folks vote, so Klaus condemns her action. Apparently only burning the cash would have satisfied our little tinpot Savonarola.
Wees rightly complains that "an unending stream of lies becomes the main tributary that spills into what we call the “news".” But that's easily cured: just stop watching Fox. http://www.inquisitr.com/2105906/fox-news-viewers-least-informed-among-media-consumers-says-new-study-by-former-reagan-adviser/#YHH3Hg1od9wLZ8er.99
Now is the time that the academic institutions interested in truth in journalism should again review media reporting biases statistically and anecdotally. Last weeks current events coverage by news divisions of media and after the event talking head analysis presentations of each news outlet division’s impeachment hearing footage may be looked at, analyzed and summarized with examples of commentary including the side screen graphics content to objectively show the truth about news media sources and biases.
‘Though’, I doubt some like Mr. Linder would catch the audience manipulation and bias perpetrated on public airwaves that any 5th grader can spot between fact presenting news and what Fox ‘News’ and commentary spills as dogma. FOX presents its own brand of a concoction of a promoted opinion KoolAid cocktail (nothing against real KoolAid intended) with a squeeze of news rind on the rim to keep their biased viewers hooked into watching only their brand over more objective sources is toxic to independent thinking brain cells.
It’s a sad commentary that there remains a cadre or devoted FOX and similar kinds of news outlet viewers who prefer to have their opinions served to them as biased commentary and graphics in sync with watching actual history, whether of impeachment hearings or any other news history in real time taking place, so they need not digest witnessed facts as facts for themselves. Otherwise, those watchers might not know what to think if they were not spoon fed Donald’s opinions and biases with their spinach.
Quote: “People don’t want to be informed, they want to feel informed.” Roger Ailes, FOX’s founder. That was and is not the wisdom of someone interested in facts, objective news, or real history.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-and-cnn-covered-trump-impeachment-hearings-differently-2019-11
Tanks for that link, DF.
Originally saw a snippet on MSNBC after fact coverage of the FOX live news coverage captioning presidential quotes during live congressional hearing testimony as compared with other networks. I was flabbergasted at how bad FOX’s blatant bias and gal was to put up Trump’s past tweets and comments impugning witnesses testimony and character as history in the making. Definitely spoon feeding poison in the form of talking points to the choir of devoted Trumpites.
There are more articles out there, but few deal with the actual bias of live coverage news from outlets during the actual hearing testimony. Nothing like free enterprise market advertising “The News As You Want To Believe It’s True” to the fact deniers, non-thinking conspiracy believers and ‘chosen one’ Trump devotees choosing “Really Fake News.”
Oops, not tanks but Thanks, or in some of the tongues I picked up in my travels, Danke, Спасибо, Gracias, and (shukriya)
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