-
-
REACH is grateful for support during pandemic
We would like to thank The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina for awarding REACH of Clay County the Emergency and Disaster Response Fund Grant in the amount of $5,000. Due to the closing of our thrift store during the first phase of the COVID pandemic, these funds will be used to supplement revenue for operational costs for our program. We are grateful for their support.
Judith Alvarado, Executive Director
Allow Trump to keep making America great again
I was happy to see many more Trump supporters in this week's newspaper. Thank you Cheryl Harrington for listing some of Trump's greatest accomplishments even though the Clay Progress did its best to hide it. Also a thanks to Costillo Davis who understands and knows where we are heading with a Harris-Biden team from past experience. If Biden is elected it will mean the end of the America you remember. Trump has worked so hard in three and a half years to make America great again despite the hatred and attacks from Democrats and the deep state. He has done more in those three and a half years than any president in history.
As for Biden ask yourself what has he ever done in the past? Did you know in 2009 Biden was worth about $30,000 and in 2019 he was worth millions. Biden was part of the Obama administration that tried to take down America. Obama
went around apologizing to foreign nations for the terrible Americans. We had Benghazi and the four dead Americans. Obama nor Biden sent help. Then the lies that followed. For days they told us it was all because of a video. We had Isis we were seeing pictures of captives being burned alive in cages and others kneeling and having their heads chopped off. Trump got rid of Isis.
We had Hilary Clinton and her 30,000 deleted emails, the phones smashed with a hammer, the crooked Clinton Foundation, the selling of uranium to Russia. As the Russians gradually assumed control of uranium, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation.
The Obama administration de- pleted the military so badly they were having to use salvaged parts. Did Biden object? No he went along with everything. He is a yes man and this time it will be Harris telling him what to do. Trump has revitalized
the military. In the Obama admin- istration we were seeing veterans begging on the streets and having to wait forever to get medical at- tention. Trump values the veterans and is making sure they are taken care of.
One other thing is the scandal regarding Biden's son, Hunter. Biden will not answer questions. However, alleged, computer files revealed emails containing dates and addresses that match up with confirmed records. It seems to me if these were fake the Biden lawyers would be busy, but there is only silence, which says a lot. It is a fact that Hunter Biden took millions from China, the Ukraine and other foreign nations. This has been con- firmed. Now I ask you what did this son have to trade for the millions he received? Nothing but his father's position in the White House. To me this reeks of treason.
Ruth Newsome
Biden will unite, bring us together as Americans
One of the reasons I’m voting for Joe Biden is that he believes that every human being should be treated with respect and dignity and be able to live without fear no matter who they are or who they love.
Biden will nominate and appoint federal officials and judges who represent the diversity of the American people. He will ensure that leaders across the federal agencies are committed to fully enforcing our civil rights laws for all individuals. Biden will also work to strengthen the ability of employees to challenge discriminatory
pay practices and hold employers accountable. He will make it easier for employees to join together in class action lawsuits and increase penalties against companies that discriminate.
And, now that Virginia has become the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, Biden will proudly advocate for Congress to recognize that three fourths of states have ratified the amendment and take action so our Constitution makes clear that any government-related discrimination against women is unconstitutional.
President Trump has fueled bitter divisiveness. I’m ready for a president who will again work to unite the nation like many other presidents both Democrat and Republican have before him. Biden’s plans are for an economy where every person enjoys a fair return for their work and an equal chance to get ahead. By including everyone and having compassion for all people, I believe that Biden will be able to bring us together as Americans.
Your Clay County neighbor, Cindy Nodine
We should be our president’s priority, not himself
In just under two weeks, the 2020 election process will come to a close. It has been an exhausting, immorally expensive and sadly divisive marathon. America and Americans should be able to do better.
As this election approaches the finish, it seems that many have lost sight of the fact that we are all in this together. Across the board, across the aisle, we should be acting together to care for our communities.
Joe Biden is smart enough to know that he is not a one man show. Donald Trump’s use of the presidential office for personal promotion has gravely damaged this country in so many areas: health, environment and education, to name just a few. The idea of the greater good for many has fallen to the temptation of short-sighted profit and protection for a few. We need leaders who care for more than their own bank accounts. We need leaders who don’t believe that paying taxes is for “stupid” people. We need leaders who respect their constituents as human beings.
I trust Biden and Kamala Harris to choose experts in their fields to provide competent and scientific- based guidance for the agencies under their care. Trump’s administration has chosen to protect corporate profits so that corporations can refuse to protect our well being.
It has been distressing to watch protective regulations for us all fall under the vested inter- est of the present appointees. This short-sighted selfish approach comes from the top down. Far too many Americans are suffering with threatened access to health care, polluted water and air, insufficient funding for education, weakened environmental protections, insufficient wages and by being repeatedly told that we should fear our neighbors.
We cannot continue to act as if there is no tomorrow. I am concerned about the future of my grandchildren’s world.
Natalie Moses
Beware, order of party affiliation changes on voting ballots
Perhaps the most important, yet overlooked candidates in elections are judicial candidates. Presently six of the seven N.C. Supreme Court justices are leftist Democrat activists who regularly invalidate legislation passed by our elected representatives that socialist Democrats do not like.
For example, in 2013 the North Carolina legislature passed a voter ID requirement law. It was overturned in the courts as discriminatory against blacks, even though a similar law passed in Georgia resulted in more blacks voting. Polls showed at the time that as much as 84 percent of North Carolina voters wanted voter ID to reduce fraudulent votes.
In 2010, when judges' political affiliation were not put on the bal- lot, I circulated a list of the judges in each contest that was the more conservative candidate to all 100 GOP county chairmen to circulate and publish in local newspapers. Republicans won all state-wide judicial contests except one.
In the 2016 election, all Republican legislative candidates were listed first on the ballot, but not the judges who had no party affiliation listed. Leftist Democrat activists were listed first. Since most voters do not know the judges' background, many assumed the first name listed in the judges contests were also the Republican. The result was, that for the first time in 50 years, leftist Democrats took over the majority of the N.C. Supreme Court.
Since then, they have regularly declared unconstitutional and/or any law that does not serve Democrats' interests. For example: On the 2018 N.C. election ballot, the voters of the state approved overwhelmingly a state Constitutional Amendment requiring photo ID to vote. Democrat Gov. Cooper vetoed the bill, but was overridden with a two-thirds vote of the legislature. Democrats sued and the law was later invalidated by the N.C. Supreme Court Democrats.
Why would anyone not want to reduce voter fraud unless they feel they need fraud to win? In July of 2018, the state legislature passed a law allowing party affiliation to be put on the ballot.
Please carefully check to see the party affiliation of judges because this year’s ballot has mostly had Republicans listed first again, but on races they deemed close, the order is changed, including some Supreme Court candidates. Check with your local party headquarters for their list of candidate endorsements.
James F. Davis
Now that we know Trump a little better, I’m voting for Biden
Four years ago, many Americans, fed up with establishment politics, took a chance on Donald Trump. Based on what he told us, he appeared to be a different kind of republican not only in style but also in substance. His criticism of political correctness, combined with traditionally democratic positions on issues such as infrastructure, the minimum wage and social security and Medicare, naturally appealed to many working people.
Then Trump went to Washington and ceded his entire domestic agenda to the Paul Ryan/Mitch McConnell/Wall Street wing of the party. His only accomplishment in four years is a tax cut primarily benefiting corporations and billionaires.
At a press conference at his Doral, Fla. golf course in July 2016, Trump said he would like to raise the minimum wage “to at least $10” but our minimum-wage workers, many of whom are on the front lines keeping us safe and fed during this pandemic, haven’t gotten a raise yet.
In 2015, Trump told the Daily Signal, “I’m not going to cut social security like every other republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” In his 2021 budget, Trump pro- posed cuts to social security but congress blocked them. So he bypassed congress and issued a payroll tax executive order that effectively defunds social security. If fully implemented, Trump’s executive order would bleed the social security trust fund completely dry in three years.
I could go on — example: for all the talk of American-made products, Trump spent $11 million to outfit federal employees with face masks made in China — but the point has been made.
Joe Biden, in contrast, offers substantial policies to improve the lives of working people. He will invest $2 trillion in infrastructure, the United States auto industry, agriculture and more, creating good-paying jobs throughout the country. A key part of the infra- structure investment in ensuring that every home has access to broadband internet, so rural communities aren’t left behind. Biden will give our frontline workers a raise by ensuring a $15 minimum wage for all employees. He will walk the walk on “Buy American,” with a $400 billion investment in government procurement of products that are made by workers in the United States.
Joe Biden will strengthen social security by asking high-income earners to pay the same taxes on their wages that middle-class and working-class people pay. He will increase benefits for the oldest Americans and for widows and widowers and ensure that everyone who works for 30 years a benefit that is at least 125 percent of the poverty level.
Trump had his chance. A few weeks ago, a letter writer ob- served that with Trump, we know what we’re getting. After four years, we certainly do. That’s why I’m voting for Biden.
Bob Rogers
Climate change, hoax or a frightening reality, why take the risk?
Is climate change real? Will taking action destroy our economy? These and many more are questions that good people pose about climate change. There indeed are answers, firmly based in science and in observation.
It really is true that about 97 percent of climate change experts believe that climate change is real. More than 99 percent of peer reviewed scientific articles over the past several years agree with this. Our temperature has increased by 1.8-2 degrees F and the rate of increase is accelerating. The past five years have been the hottest in recorded history, we are having record breaking melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps, sea level rises are accelerating, we are having a record breaking hurricane season and California has had more than four million acres burn this year-by far the most in recorded history. If see- ing is truly believing, then we should be believing in the seriousness of climate change.
Certainly we have had cyclical changes in our climate for millions of years as evidenced by the Ice Ages. However, this time it is different. Changes in our climate can be due to changes in sun activity, changes in the distance of the earth from the sun and the tilt of the earth’s axis-the Milankovitch cycle — volcanic activity and greenhouse gases. The first three are negligible contributors to our present temperature increases.
As a matter of fact, according to the Milankovitch cycle, which caused the Ice Ages, we should actually be ever so slightly cooling. The only thing that can explain the present rapid warming which is about 10 times faster than any other warming that we have seen in the past, is greenhouse gases — principally carbondioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.
So much for the bad news. The good news is that we have a solution that will actually help our economy. Simply place a progres- sively increasing fee on the burning of fossil fuels to account for their external damage and return all the money to all U.S. citizens as a monthly dividend check. Studies show that it would decrease greenhouse gases by 90 percent by 2050, add millions of new American jobs, grow the economy and put more real spendable income into the average American’s pocket. HR
763, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend bill, would do just that. It is now before Congress. Consider supporting it. It is a win for our economy and a win for the environment.
Vernon Dixon, MD
Candidates flawed, but Trump’s got my vote
It was interesting to see recent ads in this newspaper urging people to "vote blue" to make America honest and decent again. Joe Biden's degree of honesty began to be made known to the public during his run for president in the 1988 election.
He lied about getting a full scholarship to college. He lied about graduating in the top half of his class. He lied about having three degrees. It was also discovered that he received an F on a college paper for plagiarism. Not learning from that F, he went on to plagiarise speeches — most notably one from British politician Neil Kinnock. These discoveries derailed his campaign.
For an example of how honest he is now, he called President Trump the first racist president. President Andrew Jackson sure wasn't a champion of the rights of the Cherokee and didn't pay much attention to the Supreme Court's ruling in Samuel A. Worcester vs. The State Of Georgia. For a really racist president one need look no farther than Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was a white supremacist, told "darky" stories in cabinet meetings and segregated the federal government. Obviously Biden's comments about Trump were aimed at minorities, which would indicate that he must think that most members of minority groups are so ignorant of history that they will believe what he said.
Biden also has a disturbing attitude toward average citizens. While lying about his college accomplishments Biden told a man in the audience that he bet he had a higher IQ. He referred to another man as fat and challenged him to a push-up contest. Biden showed great respect to a woman by calling her "a lying dog-faced pony soldier." The lying part I understand, but I'm not sure what a dog-faced pony soldier is. My guess is that most women would not find being called that a compliment. More recently Biden told a factory worker that he was "full of sh__." Nice way to talk to a voter. Biden manages to convey a condescending attitude toward the average citizen.
So, am I now going to claim that Trump is always truthful? In a word, no. His shortcomings, both real and imagined, have been pointed out by other folks who have written their opinions in these pages. If either of the candidates were trying to sell me
a used car I would be sure to have it carefully checked out by a trusted auto tech.
This leaves us with a choice between two flawed individuals. Under Trump, the economy was going great before the pandemic hit. Considering that, and being pro-lifers and second amendment supporters, the wife and I will be voting for Trump. Some of my liberal friends will be voting for Biden, but they will admit that they don't really like him. I disagree with their politics, but do respect their honesty.
Kent Weaver