To the Editor:
I beg to differ with Mac Olsen on several of the opinions he expressed in his commentary “Trump’s inauguration will be best birthday present ever” in Dec. 14, 2016 edition of Smoky River Express.
First, Donald Trump is not a conservative, he is a carpet bagger. As far as his policies go he is all over the map and frequently nowhere as well. He says whatever the crowd wants to hear and only now his real opinions are coming out.
When one crowd began to chant, “Lock her up” at a post-election rally he told the crowd to forget about it. He said that worked before the election but not now…
Well, he and Bill and Hillary are old friends. He even asked Bill if he should run for president. Bill encouraged him to. Personally, I think that Bill Clinton is still sleeping with one eye open, if he has even dared to go home.
Trump called on the deep and turbulent river of anger that runs through the hearts of disenfranchised people, and reached out to every faint hope that honest people had. At one point he promised to bring back coal. That was why the people in coal country voted for him.
His cabinet is studded with characters like Betsy DeVos, a billionaire who is ‘fundamentally opposed to public education’. She is his new pick for that department. For that alone he deserves to be impeached.
He fueled the flames of intolerance to the point that there was one guess that over one million hate crimes have been committed since he was elected.
He fueled the flames of intolerance to the point that there was one guess that over one million hate crimes have been committed since he was elected.
The Alternative Right is even claiming if they removed all the ‘off colours’ from America the ones that were left would be willing to help each other.
Oh my God!
They were claiming that countries like Sweden had better social programs because they were all white. This is a dangerous train of thought.
As for the idea that climate change is a lefty plot, I have wondered for some time why it is that Conservatives deny its very existence and ‘Lefties’ all agree it’s coming and it’s all our fault. No one is willing to cross an ideological line on that one.
Personally, being either a tired Conservative or a nervous Liberal, I believe that it’s coming, but it is not necessarily humanities’ fault. The Earth has been subject to freezing and thawing cycles since the dawn of time. The last glacial maximum was some 27,000 years ago. At that point sea level was a good 240 feet or more lower. Vast stretches of land existed and have since been flooded. Where the Bering Strait is today there was once a huge tract of land called Beringia. It was apparently several times the size of Alaska. The sea level is still rising and may rise well over 100 feet more. They expect the North American glaciers to be gone by the end of the century. That ball is in our court. What will happen to the great northern river system then?
Should we go green even if it won’t stop climate change? I think so. Fossil fuels aren’t going to last forever. Wind, solar, alternative fuels and geothermal now rather than later, will make the transition a lot less painful.
And, while the pollution here would seem insignificant, there are far too many places in the world where that is not so. Flint and Mexico City are just two.
By all means drive the gas guzzler. When I had a truck that is what I had. Personal safety in our winters is a genuine concern.
The carbon tax is what I call a circular tax. We will be watching our money circle the drain as the compounded effects of taxes on taxes bleeds us.
Premier Rachel Notley suggested we walk or take a bus. Well, if she puts on her hiking boots and walks 20 miles to town with someone, then helps them carry their groceries back home at this time of year, I will take her more seriously. She even called people who were resisting the carbon tax xenophobic. Somebody get the woman a dictionary.
The pot stuff was a side bar in the American election as well. Several states have legalized pot for medical and/or recreational use. They are even starting a huge grow op out by the Edmonton Airport. It’s coming.
I think people should grow their own because it will keep big business out of it. Medical use may not be covered by insurance. In some states that is $400 a month coming out of people’s pockets.
As I said I do not use it, but the thought of anything setting me back $400 a month…
I periodically buy ‘those’ magazines. You know, the ones that have all those pictures of funny looking plants in them just to see what is happening. A person can grow their own for a year with that monthly fee some people are paying. The positive benefits for treatment of a wide range of illnesses are such that we in Canada are allowed to use it with a prescription.
Marijuana is safer than a lot of the drugs Big Pharma is pushing. Fentanyl comes to mind. If you were going to overdose on pot alone it would take real dedication.
There is even one called Carfentanyl which is supposed to be 100 times stronger than Fentanyl. Why are the drug companies making these poisons? Oh, never mind, I know.
If the government really wants to do something substantive about the cost of drugs they could start out by taking Big Pharma to court for manufacturing these deadly little gems and for hiking the cost of epipens to $500.
We also have to be very careful with what we call Conservatism. The Alternative Right is primarily the spawn of the Internet but it is quite happily making its home in the White House wearing the face of Steve Bannon [Breitbart], a Trump advisor. This is not Conservatism, it is fascism, a rabid race to the end times that usually ends in millions of deaths. There is no such thing as peaceful extremism.
The kind of Conservatism John Diefenbaker practiced would be not a bad choice. It was with his help that Tommy Douglas brought in Medicare. I remember a speech he gave at the Leadership convention where Joe Clark was elected. He said. “The spirit of liberty is the one that is not too sure that it’s right.”
Eva Sartorius,
High Prairie