Letters to the editor of the Pahrump Valley Times

Is Sanders as Democratic candidate a good idea?

Vermont’s Senator Sanders would be a disaster as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in 2020, which would only assure a second term for deranged Donald Trump against all odds.

We cannot afford to roll the dice in November. The political stakes are far too high for that this year.

Are we American adults actually supposed to buy into Bernie’s B.S. that he has supposedly turned over a new leaf and is now a so-called “democratic socialist”, whatever that’s supposed to mean? The fact that revolutionary Marxist socialist Eugene Debs is Bernie Sanders’ professed personal hero says otherwise, folks.

First and foremost, Sanders is now and always has been a Marxist socialist. There is no question about it. Why do you think that foolish, far-left communist caricature publicly calls for revolution constantly? Bernie is no Michael Harrington, that’s for sure. Sanders is a Marxist socialist of the old school, Soviet Stalinist variety.

If Sanders is really a “democratic socialist” as he falsely claims, then why is there so much publicly available videotaped documentation of pro-Soviet Senator Sanders proudly and passionately praising anti-American, totalitarian communist dictatorships? Would you care to answer that simple unavoidable question, Bernie Bros? (No, I didn’t think so.)

As the vast majority of Americans over the age of 40 are already well aware, the political label “democratic socialism” is basically nonsensical and is every bit the contradiction in terms that the oxymoronic phrases “military intelligence”, “business ethics” or “Stalinist variety” are. Socialism is NOT democratic! Get a clue, Bernie crew.

Socialism is now and has always been fundamentally anti-democratic. Read Karl Marx sometime, if you don’t believe me. Bernie Sanders obviously has read and worshipped Karl Marx extensively, which explains Sanders’ personal political history.

Jake Pickering

Free speech is a freedom we need to preserve

CJ Stevens, fact checker - “One potential obstacle for U.S. drillers is a bottleneck of pipeline capacity to ship oil from the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico to ports and refineries. “They are growing the production but they can’t get it out of the area fast enough because of pipeline constraints,” said Jim Rittersbusch, a consultant to oil traders. CBS News states: U.S. is on track to become the largest oil producer of the world.” Published July 13, 2018 / 4:10 p.m. / CBS/AP

“Indeed, U.S. drillers have continued to smash production records in 2018, including hitting 11 million barrels a day in output in July. That’s about double what the U.S. produced per day just eight years ago.” By The Daily Caller News Foundation

Published September 12, 2018 at 8:47 a.m.

I would like to challenge the aforementioned writer who idealizes himself as a self-proclaimed “Fact Checker.” ! Please find above what I “fact checked” about a part of your letter found in the PVT dated Feb. 14, 2020! Both of these actual articles were written in 2018. That’s two years AFTER President Trump took office. Now we are the “largest” producer of oil! Without this small win for whoever is president, we could not be where we are in the world.

Interesting to note, I am an Independent who votes for those candidates and measures showing promise for all versus party gender. CJ loves his party and that I commend. I find his writings thought provoking and enlightening until he name calls and spews some visceral venom like “Trumpers” and “Faux news”. Have not really found name calling to be useful but, each to his own. I believe in the American way, and Dr. King’s “I had a dream”, and President Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country”, and even the current MAGA type. I just firmly believe in giving due to those who have earned it.

For all of the readers of this paper, please allow the CJ’s of the world to speak, as this is a value we should hold so dear - free speech! It may seem these prognosticators of the put-down offend some, but my country allows this. Issues abound when the people he lays waste to begin to rise up. But when they also place their personal venom on individuals? Well….stop this dividing - all of you!

The real work for Nevadans is most important to those of us who work and live here, in Pahrump. A citizenry divided carries deep into the roots of this small town - like area. We have needs far greater than division. Introductions of the US vs. THEM mentality stops thought and the choosing of sides becomes numbing. Think before your eyes become red and bulging with hate. I hope that the cooling down part of your persona starts before the other guy’s nose begins.

Mike Hyde

Does Democratic Party support abortion rights?

During the week leading up to the Nevada caucuses, all the Democratic candidates for president indicated they support abortion. Pete Buttigieg said “anyone who does not believe in abortion rights should not be members of the Democratic party.”

Joe Biden and all the other Democratic presidential candidates want to take guns away. In 2017, the last year figures are available for deaths by abortions and firearms in the U.S., 862,320 abortions were performed and 39,773 people died by firearms.

Abortionists justify murder by abortion by saying a fetus is not a living human based on whether there is a heartbeat and/or number of weeks old the fetus is. A fetus is alive until an abortionist kills it.

In reality, a soul (person) is created at the time sperm and ovum combine to make a human. A fetus is absolutely as much a living human being as everyone reading this editorial. It is murder to abort a human life. I encourage anyone who believes in life and is currently a Democrat to leave the party of murders. No matter the reason for unwanted pregnancy, there is someone who will love, nurture and support all babies allowed to be born. Thank you.

Jean William Frenette

Would democratic socialism work in our country?

WOW! What a huge error in information and thus spreading more fake news. Dano Savino stated that our deficit is $22 trillion!!! In fact, it is just over ONE trillion dollars. Our deficit is the amount of money the government is spending over and above the budgeted amount. That’s why it’s called a “budget deficit.” I’m not saying the fact that it’s over $1 trillion dollars is OK, but am clarifying that it’s NOT $22 trillion.

During Trump’s campaign for president he promised he would eliminate the deficit in eight years but, in fact, it is now almost 70% higher since he became president. Trump inherited a deficit of $585 billion and Obama inherited a deficit of $1.4 trillion from Bush. As you can see it was down to $585 by the time Obama left – significantly lower than what he inherited. But Trump’s has risen from $585 to over $1 trillion. Clearly, Trump is increasing the deficit, where Obama lowered it. Trump’s tax cut for the rich was one of the things he’s done to increase the deficit. Corporations are now contributing much less in taxes than they did before the Trump’s tax cut.

So many people are complaining about how little big corporations are paying in taxes. But, note that since Trump’s tax cut Apple’s tax bill dropped from $6.2 billion to $4.1 billion, a 34% decrease of $2.1 billion and a tax cut rate from 24% to 14% and Intel’s tax bill dropped from $4 billion to $1.8 billion, a decrease of 55% and a tax cut rate from 28% to 10%. Don’t forget that it was the Republican Congress that passed this stupid and unnecessary bill.

As for the “socialists” running for office, the total is zero. Dano is confusing socialism with democratic socialism. Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. They believe in capitalism. But they also believe that the rich should not get rich or richer off the backs of others. They believe that the rich should pay higher taxes to fund programs that benefit the vast majority, to build a more equal society where classes are not so extreme and income differences are kept within very modest bounds. Democratic socialists condemn socialism. Norway is a perfect example of democratic socialism.

Other countries that have democratic socialist policies are Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. Norway is actually more wealthy than the U.S., with a GDP of over $70,000 per person (U.S. = $63,000), consistently ranked as one of the happiest countries, life expectancy of 81.7 years (79 in U.S.), infant mortality rate of two per 1,000 live births (U.S. is almost six), a murder rate of 0.51 per 100,000 (U.S. is 10 times that). These countries have all succeeded and improved their countries via democratic socialism. Sounds good to me.

CJ Stevens

Reader disappointed by unmerited praise of president

In reference to your front page article on Wednesday, Feb. 26 about the Nye County Commission’s resolution praising President Trump and his “tax cut”, among other things.

I should like to point out some facts about the Republican “tax cut.” If I may cite an article in Wikipedia titled “Economic Policy of Donald Trump.” This is a large article, covering many topics but well indexed, referenced, and supported by the Tax Policy Center. I would like to draw your attention to section 6.3, lines 14, 15 under “distribution of benefits and costs.”

In that section it states that the top 1% of U.S. taxpayers will receive 25% of the benefits in 2025 and 83% of the benefits in 2027. Also that the top 5% of taxpayers will receive 99% of the benefits by 2027! How many of us are in the top 5% of the taxpayer in Nye County? (I doubt I am in the top 50% of taxpayers.) May I suggest that the top 5% should be praising this “tax cut,” not the large majority of residents in Nye County who will receive no benefit.

You may have noticed I emphasized “tax cut.” I do that because this tax cut is in the nature of a loan. All it does is increase the federal deficit, which is now around a trillion dollars a year. I hesitate to say that the federal deficit will have to be repaid, like a loan, since it has increased continually from the last time the federal books were balanced, I believe in President Clinton’s time. However there must be costs in servicing this colossal deficit.

We also have a president who is a chronic stater of terminological inexactitudes, and then had his attorney pay his “lady friends”, possibly with campaign contributions.

In foreign policy, he has withdrawn us from the Paris climate accords, has insured that Iran will enrich uranium and produce nuclear weapons, and given a lot of publicity to an odious dictator in North Korea who is certainly not going to give up his nuclear weapons. Nothing creditable here.

So, I am disappointed that three of my county commissioners seem to be unable to see or recognize facts about our current president, and instead put out something praising him!

George Tucker

Some real statistics on COVID 19 or Coronavirus

Most of us are inundated with politicians and newscasters reporting the effects and dangers of the coronavirus. We have seen many countries taking precautions to prevent it from landing on their shores, but trying to keep panic to a minimum. Why are such massive efforts underway to protect people worldwide? News reports have cited many more deaths globally from the flu than from the new coronavirus, as though that should somehow make us calmer. Yes, the actual number of deaths so far are less than the flu. But to get a real idea of why this new virus is so terrifying you have to look at real numbers. According to CNBC the CDC has an estimated death rate from the flu for 2019-2020 season of 0.095%, round that up and you have 0.1% the number most often reported. According to the last actual numbers reported for 2017-2018 by the CDC, the death rate number is .002% so the death rate is much lower from the actual numbers recorded in 2017 than the estimated deaths this year. The estimated death rate for the coronavirus in China as of 2/20/20 is 3.8%. That 3.8% is nearly 2,000 times higher than the actual death rate of the flu recorded in 2017-2018! Source for 3.8% mortality rate (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/#who-report-02-20)

Let that sink in; 3.8% of infected people die. Making a comparison between coronavirus and the flu shows it is an astounding disease that is nearly 2,000 times more deadly than the flu! No wonder the world is reacting to it as they are. It is highly contagious and has the potential to kill many, many people. Globally, the CDC estimates that 291,000 to 646,000 people die each year from the flu. If the 3.8% death rate holds for coronavirus and we use 2,000 times more deadly than the flu numbers, then perhaps as many as 582 million people to 1.29 billion could die. That number of deaths would overwhelm all systems. It is always possible that the death rate may recede with the addition of milder cases to the statistics and new treatments, but there will be an initial wave of deaths because we have no antibodies to this new virus. It is also likely that the cases will recede with warmer weather. Many people think that the hype is overdone, but I think we should be considering the statistics the Chinese are releasing. They are telling us we are in trouble. We need to pay attention. Just this morning, Italy informed the world that it had closed all schools, including universities for at least two weeks: how would we here in Nevada deal with closures like that? The implications are enormous.

So we are staying home and not traveling or congregating. When it hits Las Vegas or any other entertainment or convention center where people from around the world visit, then it may bloom into a pandemic very quickly. So far we have been lucky, but we need to be prepared.

Lawrence E. Mayfield