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Investigate all politicians
After considering the amount of dishonesty in government at all levels, the latest one being a D.C. Democrat councilmember, I have a plan.
The 50 governors, except those currently under indictment, will select 1,000 of the 10,000 present FBI special agents and form a task force to investigate every politician in office and every candidate running for office. “Every” meaning city council member up in all states; not just their own. By “investigate” I mean bore into every aspect of the person’s business, political and public life. The results of this vetting would be made public and sent to the 50 governors for action. There, based on a 60% majority a politician would continue in office or be impeached. A candidate would continue on or be prevented from being on the ballot. A case for this prevention could be made for this under the 14th constitutional Amendment.
Just think of the benefits. There would be an increase in public confidence. Honest citizens could run for office without fear of infecting their reputation with political slime and muck.
Actions benefiting all Americans rather than special interest groups would be the norm. More intelligent, educated, honest and experienced candidates would be available. Existing dishonesty would be weeded out and punished. Worth a try or pie in the sky?
Ned Sheats
Mission
Contributions, compensation
November elections are soon approaching, and we should start evaluating our candidates and issues.
In McAllen, Ground Game has prevailed, and a proposed charter amendment will be up for a vote in November to lower campaign contributions to $500, no matter what position a candidate is running for. This amount has been dropped from the previous limit of $10,000 per person for the mayor and $5,000 per person for the City Commission.
In Edinburg, the mayoral candidate is amassing a campaign chest of nearly $182,000, which is in stark contrast to mayor/council actual salary being zero in compensation, according to the City Charter.
To the credit of the city of Edinburg, it has posted its current council’s campaign finance reports on its website and all the reports show amounts equivalent to what some of our residents make yearly for their take-home pay.
So, why is there a discrepancy between the actual compensation earned in an elected position (zero $) versus what is raised in campaign contributions and spent by the candidates to get elected to those positions?
Is there a double standard in how citizens view career versus government or community service? Do campaign contributions and especially those contributions of maximum amounts indirectly or directly skew the outcomes of council decisions on the city’s growth in construction and the development of its roads?
Why are City Council officials who are working full-time jobs in their elected positions not compensated for their knowledge and performance to ensure that there is equality and equity for all city residents in the present and future?
Diane Teter
Edinburg
Gone wrong
I often hear on the news about something “gone wrong,” and it is never any good.
“Breaking news”: Ten people died in a drug deal gone wrong, Wait a minute — when has a drug deal gone right? I have never heard of it on the news. “Breaking news”: A drug deal that has gone right made millions for the traffickers. Now, that is never reported because 90% of crime has gone right, so it is never reported and criminals do not want you to know.
Sometimes I think criminals need a union to keep the crime between themselves more elusive, undetected, never mentioned. We don’t want to hear about a crime gone wrong where innocent people become the victims of a gang war and are caught in an exchange of violence between two gangs. Casualties of war often go unsolved. Why? Because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and thus became casualties of war, case closed. Nothing to see here folks, just go back to shopping as if nothing has happened.
Violence in America is on the increase not annually, not monthly, not daily, but by the hour. And I do not see a decline in the future. People have reached a point where they don’t care because they have no power to control crime. History shows that nations that failed, failed by suicide. They knew the problem but chose to ignore it and within time, it consumed the nation, and the nation failed. All great nations of the past were victims of failing to stop their decline. And that’s suicide.
Rafael Madrigal
Pharr
City manager garners praise
I enjoy life in Brownsville, where up. I wish to comment on very special person. Mrs. Helen Ramirez, our city manager, is making Brownsville one of the best in the RGV.
Somebody might say that McAllen or Edinburg has better city managers, but I enjoy what Mrs. Ramirez is doing for our town.
The games that happened recently went well. They lasted one or two days because of rain but still went well.
Now our zoo wants to expand out of concern for the animals but you have some negative comments that the structure within needs repairs. Fine — it can be fixed and expanded at the same time. Mrs. Ramirez has the positive attitude to move our city forward and make it better. We have our precious zoo, SpaceX, Matamoros that hopefully with the new Mexican Leader will become better and safer to travel, South Padre Island and not to mention that we still have Boca Chica Beach.
Can the McAllen, Edinburg or Mission area top that?
And don’t forget we have the highest population, more than 200,000, and the biggest and best school district, BISD. We have a great superintendent and board members.
Probably some out their will say this guy is wrong in what his writing; can you tell me that a past city manager or somebody like Mrs. Ramirez was doing their job running the city like she has?
Keep up the good work and hopefully in the future some city out there will recognize the job you’re doing for our city and they want you to run their city because it can happen.
Frank Galindo Jr.
Brownsville
Biden’s drug price legacy
President Biden wants to lower drug prices. While that is a laudable goal, we can’t afford to undermine the intellectual property rights that helped produce these innovative drugs in the first place. A recent proposal would do just that, and it’s not limited to drugs.
The proposed policy change would reinterpret a 1980 law that ushered in a new era of American innovation and collaboration between the public and private sector. But if this proposed policy change is finalized, it will cause a wide swathe of our high-tech sector to stall out. And, while in Congress, Biden was a passionate champion of this very law and the critical innovation it spurred.
Most Americans probably hadn’t heard of the Bayh-Dole Act until the White House announced the change. The goal of the popular bipartisan act was to get the public and private sector to work together to further technology first developed on university campuses. The law enabled universities to keep control of their patents and leverage them in license deals with businesses. Universities gained a new revenue stream. The public gained access to new, innovative products — the fruits of taxpayer-sponsored research that otherwise would have never seen the light of day.
Biden was among the 91 of 100 senators to vote yes, and the legislation launched an innovation renaissance. Based on the Bayh-Dole framework, thousands of startups have formed to transform early-stage research into applications that improve health and quality of life.
Yet today, as part of a war on drug pricing, the current Biden administration proposal departs from his previous pro-innovation stance. The law provides for the government to “march in” and seize patent rights on discoveries that once received federal funds, but only in rare circumstances, such as when a company has failed to commercialize a much-needed product altogether.
Now, Biden aims to let federal agencies march in whenever they decide that the price of a medicine is too high. But based on the actual proposal, the new authority would be used on other promising technologies as well — for instance in renewable fuels, EV technologies or any product deemed to be in the public interest.
Companies (and their investors) need reliable patent rights to justify the financial risks of licensing new discoveries. If the government guts Bayh-Dole, companies won’t invest in or license academic research.
And Biden isn’t just going against his previous stance on Bayh-Dole. By endorsing march-in rights as a means of price control, he’s counteracting other ambitions he’s been vocal about: fostering economic growth, competing with China, generating high-skill U.S. jobs, and tackling cancer. All of these goals depend on secure patent rights. The president is right to prioritize affordable health care and to ensure that Americans have access to life-changing drugs. But, there are other ways to accomplish this goal without undercutting the success of Bayh-Dole. The 44-year-old act has made the United States a world leader in the very pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries that we need to solve global health challenges — a model that other countries have tried to replicate.
In short, protecting Bayh-Dole is far more consistent with Biden’s legislative track record and his ambitious goals for the nation — which is why he fought for it all those years ago. Let’s get back on track, Mr. President.
Dana Robert Colarulli
ACG Advocacy LLC
Washington, D.C.
Trump bashed
Donald Trump continues to insist only he can fix inflation, immigration, the economy in general. A closer look seems warranted.
At this point, high prices have as much or more to do with corporate greed and supply and demand as with much of anything else. All things to do with housing are high, from renting to building. Land costs more, taxes and insurance are higher, a shortage of construction workers contributes to fewer new builds throughout the U.S.
Prices at grocery stores, retail stores, even restaurants, are higher because to find and hire competent help means having to pay employees more, maybe not quite a living wage, but more. Now Hiring signs proliferate on every block; some appear even on highway billboards. Obviously, employers don’t want to cut into their profits to improve the life of their employees, so those costs are passed onto the consumer.
Trump seems to have only three policies: Cut taxes for the rich and famous. “Drill, baby, drill!”, promising anything Big Oil may want in exchange for campaign contributions, oblivious that under Biden, the U.S. is producing — and exporting — more oil than ever before, the leader worldwide. Finally, never mind the bipartisan bill to deal with immigration and the border. Trump just wants to deport all “illegals.”
To offset the massive losses to be incurred, Trump’s other goals are bound to spark an expensive trade war with friend and foe alike: He wants a blanket 10% tariff (read, tax) on all imported goods, with 60% to be assessed against China. No country will pay those tariffs, any more than Mexico paid for The Wall. But tariffs on American goods will certainly rise and the American consumer will pay more for food and clothes and everything else that isn’t grown or manufactured in the U.S. Check the labels on practically anything, and ask the grocers where the many fruits, vegetables and even the flowers in their stores come from (especially during the winter). Worst of all, his anti-immigrant policies are sure to cost billions. Imagine the time and the cost to find, round up and prove 11-15 million immigrants illegal. Courts could be tied up for a decade, lawyers getting richer by the day. The very idea is inhumane: Families will be split up and torn apart, as one parent may be ‘legal” or a citizen, and one may not be, likewise the children. Then there will be the cost of building the “detention” camps Trump wants to isolate the “illegals” prior to deportation. Finally comes the cost of deportation itself to — where? The country of origin? But each parent may be from a different country, the kids may be minors and American citizens who might not even speak the language or know much about the “home country.” Meanwhile, this country, already suffering from a hiring shortage (see above), will be deprived of millions of workers, their labor and their taxes. The inflation generated will make the Great Depression look like boom times.
“Everything Trump Touches Dies.” No need to read the book by Rick Wilson (a Republican strategist). The title says it all. Deprive Trump of the chance to decimate the U.S. economy out of ignorance, racism and xenophobia. Vote for the lady!
Vicki L. Bunderson
Brownsville
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