An alternative
Since the Trump administration seems unconcerned with national boundaries, I think this might be a good time to consider Minnesota becoming Canada’s 11th province. The State of Hockey joins the land of hockey. Similar accents and climate. I have long felt an affinity for our northern cousins.
Most of the oil and gas from Alberta transverses Minnesota by pipeline. If the U.S. objects we could just cut off the crude. Or maybe just cut it off, then demand secession (See, I am learning.).
Canada is a better values fit for Minnesota anyway. They welcome immigrants. They don’t seem interested in persecuting trans people. Heck, they even have universal health.
Maybe we could be “Minnetoba.”
John Vaughn, Stillwater
After paying in all these years, yes, we are entitled
Rather than saying “Social Security” some government and quasi-government individuals tend refer to “entitlement programs” in an effort to obfuscate or misdirect public attention from precisely what it is, and what they are planning to change, gut, or otherwise eviscerate.
But it needs to be rigidly understood, that indeed, those of us who have spent a lifetime of employment, paying through direct and employer contributions, roughly 15% of our income, into a trust fund, are truly entitled to these Social Security benefits.
It is not a Ponzi scheme. In fact, according to internet research, there is clever little “sleight of hand” by our government, since 1983, that allows the Treasury to “borrow” from the Social Security trust fund. So far $1.7 trillion dollars has been “borrowed” and replaced with, what I assume, is a substantial stack of IOUs.
You know in days of old when a profligate king found he had over-borrowed, it was far easier for him to get rid of the creditor than to satisfy his debt. Just so, I suspect today that this so-called cost cutting is an attempt to somehow avoid honoring those IOUs. Social Security is an ENTITLEMENT. Don’t mess with it.
Bob Emery, Mendota Heights
Stand up for rule of law
Before 2010, when Cititzens United struck down caps on “independent” campaign contributions, I knew how to teach campaign finance to high school students. There were limits on campaign contributions. Those limits meant candidates built broad coalitions to get elected. Those limits protected against corruption. I retired in 2012.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) went after the Department of Education the first week in March. While not a surprise, this assault goes beyond schemes to use tax dollars for private and religious education. Funding for the Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences comes from Congress. The House of Representatives has constitutional authority for appropriations. Not an unelected billionaire.
The second week in March, DOGE targeted Social Security. Field offices, the workforce, and telephone services that 40% of elderly beneficiaries rely on came under attack. When Elon Musk failed to show up to testify, at a Ways and Means committee hearing, Connecticut Rep. John Larson was enraged. His righteous anger was for all Americans. For constituents who expect elected officials to do the work of the people, to honor the Constitution, and to abide by the rule of law. Stunned committee members sat silent as Larson lambasted the effort to gut Social Security as a precursor to privatization. Social Security is an entitlement duly authorized by the legislative branch. It is not the province of a predatory, unelected billionaire to put an end to an Act of Congress.
On March 16th, President Trump defied a court order to recall two planes bound for Venezuela with migrants being deported illegally. Joyce Vance wrote for The Contrarian, “We are inevitably headed to a confrontation between a president who has rejected the rule of law and a judge sworn to enforce it. We are in an exceedingly dangerous moment for democracy.”
My concern for public education and Social Security pales next to my concern for the rule of law. We must stand up to treasonous overreach and disregard for the rule of law.
Nance Purcell, Stillwater. The writer is a retired civics teacher.
Lessor of three evils
Ukraine should cut their losses and make a deal now. They have courageously fought against a more powerful nation, but they will not win a much-prolonged conflict. NATO is not willing to put troops on the ground, and NATO cannot fund an ongoing war indefinitely. The U.S. provides most of the NATO support, and Trump has promised to prevent forever wars. Without US support, Russia would eventually take all of Ukraine.
Russia had previously taken Crimea and Georgia without much resistance from the West. It is unrealistic for Ukraine to take those areas back, and Russia now occupies land between these two areas. Ukraine will probably need to cede those areas to save the rest of their country by making a deal. Accepting the minerals deal with the U.S. would provide some security for Ukraine due to the joint venture.
It is difficult to cede anything to Russia, but without profound military action by NATO, Ukraine is left with few options. Continuing the war will cost more lives and put Ukraine in an even worse bargaining position.
So, America has three options: fund an ongoing war indefinitely, put U.S. troops on the ground to push Russia back to original borders, or broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine to end the war now. The deal is the lesser of three evils.
Dennis A. Helander, White Bear Lake
Appeasement
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Those are the famous words of George Santayana, a renowned Spanish philosopher. After the spectacle that we witnessed in the Oval Office last week between President Trump and President Zelensky those words take on a greater importance than ever.
It appears obvious that President Trump and most of the Republican Party either can’t remember or maybe never took the time to study history. When Hitler and the Nazis began to swallow up Europe the response from Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, was one of appeasement. The Munich Agreement of 1938, signed by Chamberlain, gave Germany permission to take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in an attempt to appease Hitler. Today President Trump’s appeasement plan gives Russia permission to take Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk and other Ukrainian provinces in an attempt to appease Putin. Chamberlain’s appeasement led to WW II. Let’s hope Trump’s appeasement doesn’t lead to WW III.
Dennis Fendt, Oakdale
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