Anti-Trump, Mad at Republicans, Pro-Drag Queens

This week’s letters are characteristically political

ANYONE BUT TRUMP

As a Bernie-voting Democratic Socialist, it brings me no pleasure to say that Trump was right. The Durham report lays to rest the idea that Russia’s election meddling resulted in Trump’s 2016 election. Even if Russia did do a few things to influence voters — something the U.S. does all over the world — any reasonable Democratic candidate should have mopped the floor with Trump’s silly hair. But, oh no, it just had to be Hillary Clinton, an odious, corporate, neocon war hawk.

You do have to feel for what Hillary Clinton and the DNC must have been going through the day after Trump won. Ideally, they would have done some serious soul-searching and asked, “How on Earth did we manage to lose to an arrogant, racist, sexist, grotesquely narcissistic, pussy grabbing buffoon?” Alas, such soul-searching was not in their skill set, so they shifted the blame by launching the Russia-Russia-Russia hoax.

Let’s just hope the economy doesn’t totally tank between now and November 2024, because four more years of that clearly diagnosable sociopath would be unbearable.

Robert Bolman

Eugene

 

WHY THE WALKOUT

The real reason for the Republican walkout is not clear. However, it’s quite clear that the walkout is jeopardizing a fleeting opportunity to revitalize Oregon’s coastal and rural economies in districts mostly held by Republicans. Two years ago, Oregon passed landmark legislation (HB 2021) that requires large electric utilities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2040. Historic levels of federal funding (IRA and IIJA) are now available on a competitive basis to provide billions for wind and solar projects.  But only states that have programs in place to administer the funds have a good chance of being selected and bills to do just that are currently stalled in the Senate due to the walkout.

It’s difficult to exaggerate the magnitude of the opportunity that is at risk. Oregon currently imports a substantial amount of fossil-generated electricity from other states. However, abundant solar and wind resources are available in rural and coastal parts of the state to replace that imported energy. Developing solar, offshore and land-based wind resources will provide welcome family-wage jobs in areas where timber and commercial fishing industries have declined. Studies indicate that the amount of renewable energy available is substantially more than the state will need which could make Oregon an exporter of clean energy, further boosting this new industry well into the future. For example, a recent study at Princeton’s Net-Zero America project said “the best wind potential in the country, if not the world, is off the Northern California and Southern Oregon coast”.

Michael Mitton

Portland, Oregon

DRAG QUEEN FACTS

Here are some things a drag queen has never done:

   Shot up an elementary school with an AR-15

   Lynched a Black man

   Overthrown a legitimate foreign government

   Lied us into a war

   Shot up a high school with an AR-15

   Burned down a church with children in it

   Lied their way onto the Supreme Court

   Attempted to overthrow the government

   Caused a Depression

   Shot up a mall with an AR-15

   Shipped American jobs overseas to increase profits

   Pushed crack cocaine on the streets to finance

      right-wing death squads

   Traded American lives for oil

   Shot up a church or synagogue with an AR-15

   Choke a man to death in public

   Blamed a rape victim for the rape

   Dragged a person to death behind a pick-up truck

     If a man who dresses like a woman gets you more upset than the things on that list, then you are the very embodiment of the Picture of Dorian Gray.

Jamie Selko

Eugene