Letters: Letter highlights Trump supporters’ attitudes; Price on carbon must be implemented

Letter highlights Trump supporters’ attitudes

Everything you need to know about Terry Kordes and his politics is encapsulated in the three words with which Mr. Kordes closed his letter, “Let’s Go Brandon!” As those of us old enough to have children who use the internet know, the phrase is a right-wing substitute for “F--- you, Biden.” Everyone else, I suppose, was left wondering why Mr. Kordes loves Brandon so much.

I’m a big fan of profanity myself, but next time someone tries to tell me Trump supporters aren’t moral cowards, or insists that their views are more than the whining of sore-losing, potty-mouthed children, I will have Mr. Kordes to thank for providing me with such useful counter-evidence.

Price on carbon must be implemented

Pay now or pay more tomorrow.

The climate crisis is here now. The cost of the crisis is increasing every day as more storms, floods, fires, and droughts overwhelm us and make many homeless. The cost of weather extremes to the United States in 2021 was $104.8 billion. The year before, they cost us $104.4 billion. These costs include loss of lives, homes, jobs, and land. Centre County has escaped the most dangerous of these events but everyone’s costs for fuel are going up.

The climate crisis is being caused primarily by the fossil fuels we use to heat our homes and drive our vehicles. We must stop this crisis now. The most effective way to stop this crisis is to stop using fossil fuels.

A price on carbon at its source is the best big solution. It will encourage the fossil fuel industries to seek clean alternative energy sources, create innovations and generate new jobs in the process. The income generated should be sent to households to offset any temporary increases in energy prices. It appears that the forthcoming Congressional Reconciliation Bill will have a price on carbon at its source. Call your senators and your representative in Congress and ask that they support this measure. Read more at www.CitizensClimateLobby.org.

There are currently 27 countries with a carbon price implemented. So, we are not alone. In fact, we are behind.

Proud Biden voter

On Monday’s editorial page there was a splendid column by Charles Dumas, surrounded by yet another brainless cartoon by the reliably artful but brainless Lisa Peters (enough!), and a letter from a Port Matilda reader who reliably parrots the lies and distortions of Trump and his sycophants like Jim Jordan and Tucker Carlson. I’m proud to be one of the 44,055 local Biden voters the letter excoriates. President Biden is far from incompetent; he’s doing exactly what he was elected to do. He was blindsided by the swift and sudden Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, but once his predecessor set the final withdrawal in motion, there was little left to do but get out. The ex-president, meanwhile, was utterly stupid by choice, and as immune to facts and logic as his most ill-educated supporters. He was and remains an incompetent, deranged and cruel man. Trump was brutal to would-be immigrants, and a flood of encouraged refugees has showed up since he left office, but that is being handled with far more grace and charity, which I support. Obviously many Trumpists would have been happy to machine-gun them at the border. There are not millions of “illegal” immigrants. There are a couple of millions of people who have a legal right to apply for refugee status, and Biden’s people are keeping them there while they are processed. Meanwhile as anybody who studies the future of Social Security knows, we need immigrants.