News & Articles

Gas too cheap

Gas is too cheap.  When I was a boy in the 1950’s the price of gasoline was (CPI inflation adjusted) about the same as today.  So why is gas too cheap, when the price is about the same?    In the 1950s climate change was not yet a threat to life on Earth.  We had different pollution problems.  Our roads were everywhere littered with trash.  Industrial area rivers and lakes were poisoned with toxic chemicals. We had lung damaging asbestos shedding from deteriorating insulation.  We had brain damaging lead in paint peeling off the woodwork and walls of old homes.  We even had lead in the exhaust fumes of our cars and trucks.   Today our vehicles get double the miles out of a gallon of gas.  That means we should afford to pay twice as much per gallon.  If we weren’t threatened by the escalating costs of increasingly extreme weather events, we might ask:  Why worry about cheap gas?  Isn’t cheap gas a good thing?   No, not a good thing.  Cheap gas encourages us to use more than we should.  We should be reserving our uses of carbon-based fuels and products to where really needed.  Asphalt that renews our roads stays on the ground. Plastics are incredibly useful derivatives of natural gas and petroleum.  If plastic waste issues can be resolved, plastics can be a good use.  On farms, in construction, and in industry powerful internal combustion engines are still needed.  Until our older cars fall apart, we will still need some gas to operate them.  But we don’t need to be building new cars, SUVs or pickups with gas or diesel engines.  We have more efficient electric motors available now.  We don’t need to be doing all of our winter heating with coal, oil, natural gas, or propane.  We have electric heat pumps available now.  We can save our fossil fuels for the very coldest weather. When we have options like these, of putting less heat-trapping/atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide and methane into our air, we should grab these opportunities.   Weather on Earth is like stirring the soup pot.  It distributes the heat.  Like the soup for lunch the rule for Earth is the same.  The soup pot gives off heat, but if there is more heat into the pot than it radiates/gives out, the soup gets warmer.  Earth radiates heat out into space, but if there is more heat in, than heat out, no matter how much the weather stirs the atmosphere, the average temperature keeps rising.  And it will keep rising as long as the heat in (sunlight) is greater than heat out (into space).  The effects are predictable and obvious: more drought, forest fires, rain with flooding, crop damage and personal financial hardship.  The costs are very high.   The answer is for everyone on this planet to do their small part.  To do what we can.  Drive a little less, save money on gas, even if it is too cheap. George Einar Busséy – Town of White River

The former president's speech on Veterans Day    

Today is Veteran's Day, Nov. 11.  A friend of mine was on the D-Day landing at Normandy, June 6, 1944. A few years ago, Mr. trump hugged our flag.  To his believers that seemed to mean something.  I thought it looked like he was humping it.  It doesn't seem any of his believers realize he was mocking and disrespecting our flag.  He's a clown, or buffoon. He has demeaned and ridiculed our soldiers more times than I can remember.  He's called those who served and died for our country losers and suckers.  That would include me and my 3 brothers; one who died in battle, and one who carried a lifetime of PTSD.  And all 4 of us were anti-war people.  What does anyone think trump would die for?  Certainly not our flag.  Maybe money.  He gave a Veteran's Day speech in which he demeaned General Milley and General Mattis!  They both served our country under him. If he would ridicule and minimize Sen. John McCain, who spent years as a Vietnam War prisoner, what would he think of you, or your son or daughter who served?  Any former or current military people who believe in this guy, should really stop and think.

A. Martin – Merrifield, Minnesota

Lousy mail service

The postal service is advertising again about the mail and getting it on time by using them.  But I like many people don't find that true.  I mailed a order for something in the envelope that was provided two months later I got it back marked return to sender unable to deliver moved no forwording address.  I called the company and no they hadn't moved I resent it and had to wait another 6 weeks for  it.  Than last month I sent a bill which took over 3 weeks to arrive and I had to pay a late fee and interest which was over half of the original bill. Now I saw on Good Morning America that come January they are raising the price of stamps by a quarter.  I don't  think that  their  worth a quarter more since the mail service is so lousy now.Some days our buildings out going mail box is full since the carriers don't pick it up and that makes things late too.

Cecilia Hill –  Duluth, Minnesota

Ceasefire now

This is not self-defense.  This is not a rescue of hostages.  This is not a war.  The horror of genocide that Israel is visiting upon Palestine continues with no end in sight.  Over 11,000 Palestinians have been brutally slaughtered in Gaza as of today, Nov. 12, over 4000 of them children.  Attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank are escalating as well. Those attempting to control the narrative in the United States, from craven corrupt politicians of both parties, to bumbling apartheid apologists in the state department, to outright liars in the corporate media, often echo a classic Zionist narrative: any objection to Israeli policy or tactics is “anti-Semitism.”  Those who raise their voices against the bombing of hospitals, schools and fleeing refugees are therefore racists and must be denounced and shunned. This ignorant or calculated twisting of the term attempts to deny the meaning of the term Semitic.  As Christopher Cone of Superior put it: “Media narratives have people all sorts of confused about what anti-Semitic means. Palestinians and Arabs are Semitic peoples. It is literally a synonym for Afro-asiatic people, Semitic does not mean follower of Judaism or speaker of Hebrew.  Considering Jewish people as the only Semitic group is colonial erasure. Anti-Zionism, being against the genocidal, Alt-right state of Israel that is colonizing Palestinians and Arabs, is far from anti-Semitic.”   In fact, the  Zionist project the Europeans (with an eye to ethnically cleansing their Jewish populations by encouraging them to emigrate) and the United States (whose military and political figures have frequently and unironically described Israel as “an unsinkable aircraft carrier” or our own military base) cynically imposed upon the Middle East is deeply anti-Semitic. By supporting and assisting Israel’s monstrous campaign to “defend itself” by eliminating the indigenous people of the land, our government exposes its anti-Semitism, bigotry and absolute moral degeneracy.  Ceasefire, right of return and an end to vicious apartheid practices are the best hope of “security” and peace for Palestine and Israel.  Arabs and Jews are both Semitic peoples.  Imperialism and injustice cannot erase their shared roots, but it is threatening both of their futures.

Dorothy Wolden – Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin