Editor’s note: While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, we are not entitled to our own facts.
There are several ways to verify information you may see on any news or social media. Google-search a quote or meme before sharing it. Cross-check suspect information with -multiple reliable press outlets – and suspect all information. Use www.factcheck.org, www.snopes.com, apnews.com/ap-fact-check, and others.
Here are some inaccuracies in the Letter to the Editor that I found easily.
Trump won the 2024 with 49.8% of the vote; neither a majority nor overwhelming, as he and others so often claim. And Elon Musk was neither elected nor confirmed by Congress, as required; he is not vetted other than Trump’s say-so, and yet he has unfettered access to our country’s most sensitive data and information.
Influence by unelected billionaires in the past cannot be compared with Musk gaining access to all of the country’s secure information, and firing nearly the entire cadre of federal workers, with no oversight possible because his actions are unconstitutional to begin with, and all those with oversight of the agencies were fired the first week in. That is unprecedented except in totalitarian governments with dictators.
What so many people fail to understand is that government accounts – whether city, school, state, or federal – are not one big checkbook. Congress allocates budgets and spending for various agencies and projects, and only Congress can change or cancel them. It is not constitutionally possible to use FEMA aid, for instance, to house veterans, and vice versa.
Weingarten’s salary in 2020 included retirement income to which she was entitled. The AFT is only one teachers’ union; NEA is larger. Numerous factors contribute to low student proficiency, not the least of which is a lost year during COVID-19. I’m quite certain that a union executive’s salary does not have a direct impact.
There is an end in sight with the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia: total defeat of Russia, and return of all sovereign lands to Ukraine. And again, anyone with oversight was fired in Trump’s week 1.
What is happening is not an audit, it is a total coup, a takeover and destruction of departments without any audit or appeal.
Contrary to popular opinion, DEI does not mean selecting inferior candidates of color; it just means considering them, and then hiring the most qualified merit-based candidate. Period. Today, after removing DEI protections, employers can toss applications from candidates whose names sound too ethnic, simply because they now can, again. Employers can again harass employees of color, of a religion other than theirs, females, or those with disabilities (which have no bearing on whether they can do the job).
True, the electorate can vote again in two years, unless Trump fixes that as planned too. He promised that we’ll never need to vote again. In the meantime, how many millions of people in the U.S. and the world will starve to death, die of preventable diseases, die early because their medications are too costly, die in plane and train crashes, lose their health care, lose their Social Security, die in inferior housing or living on the streets, die in another pandemic because health institutions are not allowed to communicate (there are two possible pandemics looming today in the U.S., but no one is allowed to learn anything about them, not even your doctor), lose their life savings to financial fraud now that there are no protections, and the list grows each day.
What we have today is not an energetic, innovative President who is ruffling a few feathers by moving quickly with legal and Constitutional ideas. We have a billionaire who was never approved by Congress (which is required) as head of a department never approved by Congress (also required) single-handedly firing millions of federal employees which is illegal without 30-days notice and specific cause, and he wants to stop federal payments that had been authorized by Congress (and can only be altered by Congress itself). He is using this newfound knowledge to enrich himself.
No one would tolerate this in their business, or in their home. It is a hostile invasion and takeover, with a goal of destroying it all. Congress is the police we need to call to stop this destruction, or we truly won’t have anything to repair two years from now, and there will be no one left to do the work of government.
Today we have a government by kakistocracy: rule by the least qualified individuals (all you have to do is look at who is being appointed to head each department and agency – the very least qualified). And they are intentionally destroying everything. That indeed is the plan. Our forefathers would be horrified to see what is going on today.
And anyone who says it’s okay because “they’re Christians” are wrong on two counts: Our forefathers specifically insisted on separation of church and state because they came from a country where the church is the state (and they were in the persecuted minority); and there is nothing Christian in hatred, vendetta, revenge, destruction, fear-mongering, lies, encouraging criminal activity – not to mention their actual criminal convictions. The Bible teaches us that we will recognize fellow Christians by their fruits.
There will be nothing to save two years from now. The damage to diplomacy and intelligence (both things I know something about) is irreparable. Experienced and -talented government officials and workers may not be around in two weeks, much less two years.
Congress must step in now to stop the unconstitutional and illegal sacking of our Constitutional government. Tell them!
Contacts:
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
(202) 224-3244
U.S. Senator Tina Smith
(202) 224-5641
U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach
(202) 225-2165
U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer
(202) 225-2331
U.S. Capitol Switchboard
(202) 224-3121