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Commentary this week addressed topics including misinformation and the challenges of dealing with stray and recovered animals, in addition to Lisa Mitchell-Bennett’s health column, which noted the benefits of community involvement. Letters discussed political parties and candidates, inflation and Mexico’s noncompliance with our countries’ Rio Grande water sharing treaty, among other topics.
As always, we welcome any thoughts you wish to share with our fellow readers, and thank those who have done so.
Greed blamed for inflation
The cause of today’s inflation is corporate greed and record high consumerism.
Before COVID we were heading for deep inflation caused by the Donald Trump tariffs and tax breaks for the rich. Trump got a free pass because COVID hit us just before the inflation took effect. COVID exacerbated inflation. Even though the U.S. dealt with the economic consequences better than any other country, it caused an immediate rise in inflation. All energy prices skyrocketed and all food and consumer goods prices went up immediately and we accepted it because of COVID.
Well, thanks to our modern medicine COVID is no longer a threat and things have gone back to normal health wise-now for a long while. So why are we still plagued by the same COVID-style inflation?
Corporate greed is the answer. Corporations are making record-high profits like never before. Covid showed corporations that consumers will complain about the high prices but continue to consume and spend the same or more than ever. We consumers will pay whatever price the corporations want to charge us. Corporations are there to make as much profit and spend as little as possible making the product. But what if all they have to do is produce the same or less and just raise the price? The consumer will pay whatever the corporations want to charge. We complain, but we are still using and consuming even more of everything than before COVID.
So we blame the government for inflation. The U.S. is a capitalist economy. Producers of consumer goods and services dictate the price. It used to be a supply-and-demand economy. Now it is a supplier-dictated economy. Unless there is a state of natural catastrophe or national defense situation, the U.S. government cannot dictate the prices.
Today the members of the U.S. Congress and Supreme Court are in bed with the major corporations and the rich. Consumer protection regulations have been removed, relaxed, or not enforced at all. Airplanes are falling out of the sky, trains are spilling toxic chemicals into poor neighborhoods along the railroads, bridges are collapsing, cars are recalled because of dangerous or faulty systems, medical drugs are recalled after people die.
All these things did not happen before because consumer protection regulations were taken seriously.
Our economic inflation is not a big mystery. It is produced and fed by us, the American people who want more of everything and we want it now no matter the price. We will complain but do not take the time to become informed. Think!
Arnoldo Gonzalez
Brownsville
Democrats draw attack
Does it look like the leftist, washed-up, Hollywood globalist elites are frenetically trying to finance Obama’s fourth autocratic presidency or what? Talk about someone who refuses to leave the addictive power of a globalist dictatorship presidency! Where’s Robert De Niro’s “He’ll never go away!” when it’s needed?
Is the Democrats’ poor, bungling vessel too frail and clueless to know he’s being used? God have mercy on this cruelty against humanity.
The gagging-censoring media are naively pretending the world’s too dumb to figure it out!
The only people who take offense against you for speaking the truth are those people who are living a lie. Keep speaking the truth.
Imelda Coronado
Mission
Court justice
What is justice? The maintenance and administration on what are just.
The prosecution method in administering this and staying within the law sometimes is questioned for a good reason. If the prosecution manipulates to gain favor for his own personal goal and not so much about true justice, this is a form of injustice.
How often does this happen in our courts? Too often by dishonest prosecutors and to be honest, I never heard of a case where the prosecutor is punished for his abuse of power; prosecutors often get away with it and put innocent people in prison, and those who are caught never get prosecuted for their illegal act on their part. How many stories have we read about innocent people who served decades in prison because a prosecutor withheld information of his innocence? We are not living in a perfect world, and it’s harder when dishonest people make it worse instead of better.
The prosecution must be honest and share information with the defense especially if that information proves the innocence of the defendant. That’s how our justice system is supposed to work; to be fair to everyone and allow the facts to prove innocence or guilt.
Citizens must believe that this system is working in a fair way for everyone and be able to respect this form of justice.
Rafael Madrigal
Pharr
Facility opposed
Late last year you kindly printed our letter to the editor, titled “Expansion draws fire.” We hope the letter expressed our chagrin and dismay at the news that a prison/hospital facility was being built in our neighborhood next to an elementary school and close to homes and several churches. It was our hope that this letter might help defeat the apparent secrecy that surrounded this costly construction event. Instead we were amazed at the absolute silence that followed. No one we contacted seemed to know or care anything about it. After much discussion, we reflected that the “Editor’s note” at the end of our letter had emphatically defused the effort: “The Rio Grande State Center in Harlingen is adding 50 beds to its existing facility on Rangerville Road.” It was either naively or intentionally misleading and incorrectly minimized the event.
The message: Harmlessly adding hospital beds cannot be bad. The facts: $120 million of taxpayer money is being used to create a free-standing, maximum security hospital prison, where prisoners (patients) will be held inside a “15-foot motion-detected anti-climb perimeter fence” next to an elementary school, sites in recent years to some of the most horrendous mass murders by insane criminals in our nations history! Think Uvalde, Columbine, Sandy Hook, et al.
Yet no one cares, apparently. We can’t imagine the parents of Treasure Hills Elementary School children allowing this to happen in their school.
The thought of having done nothing to try to stop this is unacceptable. We have children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren, and if our generation does nothing to counter ignorance, naivety or deliberate deception, it will soon be too late.
Nancy S. and Garner F. Klein
Harlingen
Seek treaty compliance
The Texas congressional delegation has been raising awareness of Mexico’s lack of compliance with the 1944 water treaty for the “Utilization of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande” in the nation’s capital.
Since 1990, Mexico has routinely missed both annual and five-year water delivery deadlines laid out in the treaty. This has been found to be a contributing factor to the acute water shortage Texas is experiencing.
Texas Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller is in current communication with the State Department regarding the water shortage.
It is important to note that the United States continues to adhere to the water treaty.
As state representative for District 37, I strongly support the efforts of the Commissioner Miller, who is focused on ensuring our water supply is sufficient, which will assert our agricultural producing state can continue to provide food for state of Texas and the nation.
State Rep. Janie Lopez
Austin
Democrats and socialists
Maximilien Robespierre: “The secret of freedom lies in educating people whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.” Unfortunately, all of us have been lied to for generations by those who control the flow of information. They say the truth hurts. When we’ve been lied to all our lives, the truth can be brutal, hard to believe and often, even harder to accept.
Many of you who vote for Democrats but don’t believe in communism may not know that 2016 and 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is quoted as having said, “In Vermont, everyone knows I’m a socialist.” It’s no wonder that Sanders and his bride honeymooned in the former Soviet Union. Sanders also visited Cuba and Nicaragua and had high praise for Communist leaders Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega.
During a Jan. 5, 2016, interview with the other 2016 Democrat Party presidential candidate, MSNBC host Chris Matthews asked Hillary Clinton five times to explain the difference between a Democrat and a socialist. Clinton had no response.
Clinton likely had no response because there is little to no difference between a Democrat and a socialist. Among others, synonyms for socialism include liberalism, welfarism and Marxism. And the liberal party is the Democrat Party.
Unfortunately for America’s working class, there are many liberals and free-trade globalists who masquerade as Republicans.
Gen. George S. Patton Jr. was one of America’s greatest battlefield commanders who happened to hate the Russians, Communists and Communism. After Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, Gen. Patton was quoted as having said, “We defeated the wrong enemy.”
Gen. Patton hit the nail on the head when he said, “There are all kind of low-class slime who are trying and will continue to try to wreck this country from the inside. They may not know it but they are actually working for the Russians (and since the 1970s, the Chinese Communist Party). Some of them do know it, though.
It doesn’t matter whether they call themselves socialists, communists or just plain liberals. That’s what they’re doing. There are virtually no differences between socialism, communism, liberalism and the Democratic Party.
Natividad Rodriguez
Harlingen
Make land accessible
It’s summertime and hot! We find ourselves scampering from air-conditioned buildings to our hot cars parked on hot asphalt/cement and back again into air-conditioned buildings. When we can, we park near trees and their shade for some brief respite, but are there many trees to find in our cities?
We read about heat domes and our cities becoming heat islands due to insufficient green spaces along with few public parks with native trees and plants, so it was encouraging to see that Hidalgo County is developing a 5-year update to its Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan.
Hidalgo County commissioners held two focus groups in Edinburg and Mission in mid-June that encouraged feedback and suggestions from county residents. If you did not attend one of these focus groups or did not know of this master plan, you can still comment prior to July 10. See the link here: https://www.hidalgocounty.us/3304/Survey—-Parks-Recreation.
Diane Teter
Edinburg
Republican strategies
Knowing how they feel about guns and taxes, I’m inclined to believe that the MAGA Republican congressmen who prosecuted Hunter Biden for lying on his application to purchase a gun were not too enthusiastic about doing so. You’d think they’d rather give him a pat on the back instead. The charges against him, as Sen. Ted Cruz might say, were “ticky-tacky.”
Donald Trump, of course, would not agree. He’d probably say, “You little vermin, if you give Hunter a pat on the back, I’ll doom you! Hunter’s father denied me my deserved dictatorship, so you go out here and smother him with a vengeance! Gratify me with sweet revenge!”
And the trembling little sycophant soldiers obediently obliged, pretending to be bold and “macho” as they targeted Hunter Biden’s jugular.
Joe Biden, with the help of our cherished democracy, denied Trump a second term. And his supporters are working hard to make sure he does it again come November. And, of course, we have those on the other side wishing to see their poor loser felon wannabe dictator take over the throne. Why? I have no idea.
If Trump fails to win a fair election again, will there be another attack on our Capitol? Will it be bolder, bloodier and more brutal? Will it evolve into a stupid civil war? Good grief!
Roger Stone, a Trump ally and former adviser who was convicted of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the Russian investigation, tells us an attack on our Capitol will not be necessary. “Trump,” he says, “is already prepared to challenge the 2024 election armed with lawyers, judges and technology.”
So, does this mean Trump already knows he’s going to lose — again? And he’s going to challenge the results, again? Hoo-boy!
To those who want to scrap our successful centuries-old democracy for an unknown and possibly piddly autocracy, I say this: “Be careful what you wish for.”
Italo J. Zarate
Brownsville
Don’t leave dogs in cars
As the dog days of summer bring scorching temperatures, animal lovers should remember that hot dogs belong on the grill, not in parked cars.
While never a good idea, leaving your pet alone in a vehicle — even during a quick errand — is especially dangerous this time of year.
A parked car can become an oven under the sun, even in mild temperatures. When it’s a comfortable 70 degrees outside, the inside of a vehicle can climb to almost 90 degrees after only 10 minutes and creep into triple-digit temperatures after half an hour.
Research shows that cracking the windows doesn’t have a significant effect on how quickly the temperature rises.
Unlike humans, dogs cannot sweat and do not regulate temperatures as efficiently as we do, making them extra vulnerable to heat stroke, which can be fatal.
This summer, be a responsible pet owner with your own best friend. And if you see a distressed animal inside a parked car, call your local animal control or law enforcement immediately — you could save a life.
Dr. Robin Ganzert
President and CEO
American Humane
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Trump’s outreach
Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump and his campaign have been throwing fat lures in the water. The media, along with some political pundits who should know better, have taken the bait and gotten reeled in.
Trump’s visit to a Black church, the rally in the Bronx and his other so-called minority outreach stunts aren’t about soliciting support from African Americans or Hispanics or anyone of color.
Trump and his handlers know he can’t hide his history or his life-long hostility to people of color. Trump called for the death penalty for five innocent Black teenagers 25 years ago. He launched a racist birther attack on President Barack Obama. He wanted soldiers to fire on Black Lives Matter protesters. He rallies his hater base using terms like “poisoning the blood,” “live like vermin” and “Soros-backed animal. But a staged church visit and a phony rally in the Bronx, both with mostly White MAGAs attending, suckered the media into calling it all outreach. It was a scam. Trump knows he’s not getting meaningful support from Blacks, Hispanics or any minority voters.
So, what are the fake Trump minority appeals really about? They are a cynical signal to white people — especially the 20% or so of white Republicans and some Independents who don’t like Trump’s alliance with white supremacists and divisive hate groups.
Trump knows that many otherwise rational white voters who held their noses and supported him in the past need a permission lane to find their way to voting for him now. They need something to rationalize supporting a man they know in their hearts is vile and broken.
And Trump knows that a whole lot of people can’t resist taking the bait when he pretends to seek African American and other minority support. He sets up the lie and waits for the media and gullible others to devour it and then help him sell it.
Matt Angle
Founder and director
Lone Star Project
Washington, D.C.
Migration intrusion
President Biden is doing his best to address our country’s immigration issues by allowing U.S. citizens’ spouses who carry no legal status to apply for permanent residency, which puts those spouses on a simple path to attain citizenship status without facing deportation.
But I can already see it now. An unspeakable number of Republicans will be gritting their teeth in anger over that noble idea. They will somehow, someway, get together and take their complaints to the conservative-led Supreme Court where they will likely take issue with Biden’s executive order to help those honest, decent immigrants achieve their status as American citizens for life.
In the end, the Supreme Court (mainly its conservative majority) will deliver its final verdict that Biden was stepping over the line in his duties as president and that only Congress has the power to grant citizenship status of any kind from A to Z.
Seems to me that the Supreme Court’s conservative just
ices have handed Congress the power to exercise its authority on several cases as of late. A divided Congress made up of a narrow GOP House majority and a split Senate, mind you.
While we’re at it, why don’t they just eliminate the office of the presidency and make Congress the “chief executive” of the United States from now on?
Can’t everyone leave well enough alone by letting our future U.S. citizens achieve the American Dream?
Roberto Lopez
McAllen
Big lies
Cherry-picking the truth is another way of lying.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State” (attributed to Joseph Goebbels).
The worst economy the USA has ever suffered was in the 1930s under Herbert Hoover. Income dropped by 42.5%. Bill Clinton gave George W. a booming economy and it was driven into the ditch. Unemployment was 10%. Barack Obama brought the economy back and unemployment dropped to 4.8%.
Enter Donald Trump. Unemployment went to 6.3%. Jobs lost 2.9 million. The trade deficit increased by 40.5%. People without health insurance rose by 3 million. The federal debt went from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.
Joe Biden has added 8.6 million jobs. Unemployment has dropped to 3.6%. More jobs equals more money to spend. More spending means inflation increases. It is called supply and demand. That is the basis of the free enterprise system, which Ms. Hilda Garza DeShazo of the GOP appears to hate.
Her letter (June 21 July 2) forgot to mention that her hero attempted to overthrow the U.S. government. Her Hero did nothing to protect the vice president from being executed on Jan. 6. Her orange hero is a major crook and is being convicted every time he is tried.
Every person who has taken the military oath has sworn to protect the U.S. Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. The GOP, led by Trump, is becoming the domestic enemy.
Hank Shiver
Mission
Editor’s note: We welcome your letters and commentary. Submissions must include the writer’s full name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters of 200 words or fewer will be given preference. Submissions may be edited for length, grammar and clarity. Letters may be mailed to P.O Box 3267, McAllen, Texas 78502-3267, or emailed to [email protected].
