The other Joe’s conflict

Joe Macor, St. Louis County District 3 candidate, would have a conflict of interest if he got elected, because he has an Adult Foster Care place that is mostly funded with federal, state and county taxes.

He would have to vote every year on social services budget to fund programs like his.

Thus, he would be in a position like a fox in a chicken house. How will he be able to represent his constituents with such conflict?

We taxpayers in the Third District have a choice. I recommend Ashley Grimm be elected Nov. 3.

Mike Jaros
Duluth

Pay to play

The following letter was sent to the Duluth News Tribune, which informed me that all political letters will be charged to publish, referring me to the DNT’s owner in Fargo, ND (the DNT is not locally owned). The Fargo owner (Forum) will publish my letter if I pay them $20.75, quite an exorbitant price. How Forum determines what is political and what is not is not clear, not defined at all. Aren’t all opinion letters political to some extent? I am withdrawing my letter to the DNT in response to this outrageous demand. I trust that the Reader will find the letter appropriate to publish:

Responding to my request that he support a bill in the House that would study proposals for reparations for the descendants of African slaves in the U.S., Representative Pete Stauber stated that such reparations would favor one racial group over others. Mr. Stauber clearly fails to recognize the difference between paying one’s debt and doing someone a favor. The unpaid labor of slaves (and the underpaid labor of blacks since 1865) largely created the wealth that Mr. Stauber and I and most of us enjoy today. His refusal to even consider paying our debt is irresponsible.

For a truly responsible representative, one who has spent decades helping others, especially those in need of health care, Quinn Nystrom is a hard-working woman of integrity, compassion, and concern for a healthy constituency, one who rejects corporate PAC money. Vote Quinn Nystrom, responsible, independent, caring and capable.

Warren Howe
Duluth

9/11 conspiracy refuted

In response to James H. Fetzer and his false claims about what caused 9/11 (Letters, Sept. 24):
Long ago scientists agreed that the Tower’s floor-wide fires, DID NOT, cause its steel beams to melt. However 600 degrees Celsius is about 1112 degrees F, which is enough to weaken steel beams to half of their normal strength.

Quotes From JOM (Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society):

“Within three weeks of the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) established a Building Performance Assessment Team, composed mainly of volunteers, to investigate the structural engineering and fire aspects of the collapse. This team completed and issued its report in May 2002. And then Congress directed the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to conduct an in-depth analysis, and thus, on August 21, 2002, NIST initiated its investigation ...

“The perimeter tube design of the WTC was highly redundant and survived the loss of several exterior columns from aircraft impacts, but the ensuing fire led to other steel failures. Many structural engineers believe that the weak points—the limiting factors on design allowable—were the angle clips that held the floor joists between the columns on the perimeter wall and the core structure With a 700 Pa floor design (Pa being a regulatory term) allowable, each floor should have been able to support approximately 1,300 tons beyond its own weight. The total weight of each tower was about 500,000 tons.”

Thus,“the floor joists; on one or two of the most heavily burned floors gave way and the outer box columns began to bow outward, the floors above also fell, Because the floor below (with its 1,300 ton design capacity) could not support the roughly 45,000 tons of the ten floors (or more) above, that came crashing down! This started a domino effect that caused the buildings to collapse within ten seconds, hitting bottom with an estimated speed of 200 km per hour.” Less than gravitational speed.

If anyone wants, go ahead, and check out how steel loses strength when heated on any metallurgical website in America or around the world! They will all contain the same basic information, which has been known for decades before 911 even happened! That means that an evil “cabal” or government entity, would have had to start infiltrating textbooks and scientific journals decades ago to replace any real scientific facts concerning the science behind the fires, with false facts, thus obscuring how heat truly affects the strength of structural steel.

Peter W. Johnson
Superior

Both aren’t the same

It’s not mentioned often enough that the reason Democrats may look so disorganized at times is that they welcome everyone’s ideas, not just those of a boss or leader. Democrats then distill everyone’s ideas into some sort of ‘best for all’ plan.

Democrats are sometimes humorously described as “trying to herd a bunch of cats”. True, but this is what any widely diverse group of humans will look like.

Republicans, on the other hand, have a top-down paternalistic model. They pick a leader, usually a type of fuhrer, then all are expected to fall in line, lockstep with the leader. It bypasses individual thinking and decision making. It’s left up to the leader, sometimes becoming dictatorship. Like lemmings, they sometimes follow a leader ‘into the sea’. Dictatorship can trigger revolution, causing movements such as Black Lives Matter.

Imagine two very different people, each wanting opposite things. Give points to each person. If one gets 100 points of what they want, it may leave the other only 0 points. The total points for the two of them together is 100. Democrats usually try to find a place where maybe the first person’s points are reduced to only 60, but at that position the other’s points may rise to 60. Now the total points for both is 120 instead of only 100. Good leaders in time often find solutions to fine tune things where points for one person may be raised, without reducing points of the others.

A democracy, which is what we try to have, is one of the best models for all humans in total. My third grade teacher, Mrs. Gittens at Calhoun school in Minneapolis, taught “Democracy is rule by the majority, with respect for rights of the minority.” It’s almost consensus, an even better model.

A. Martin
Merrifield

Use prohibition era as lesson on marijuana

The 1920s prohibition era provides us a history lesson that we can easily apply to a modern issue. At the time, many people eschewed the illegality of alcohol sales and still wanted a drink. From this demand was formed the underground market of criminal enterprises and the now-romanticized idea of prohibition-era speakeasies and moonshine running. The plain reality is that because there remained a demand for an illegal product, that market was filled.

The same is true today with marijuana. Folks need to look past the overplayed burnout stereotype and gateway drug mentality and realize that, much like the occasional drink, one can enjoy an occasional edible or puff of marijuana without being a burden on society. But much like alcohol in the 1920s, who sells the marijuana in states where recreational use is still illegal? It’s the underground market of criminal activity.

Lucrative markets will always be filled by someone. The state can either allow taxable businesses to enter and clean up the market above board, or continue providing a revenue stream for gangs and criminals to thrive. I choose the former.

Chad Smith
St. Paul

Mask conspiracy theory

The 9/11 event was designed to extend the reach of the empire while stealing Iraq’s oil and begin to extinguish the liberties of the American people.

The COVID exercise is meant to complete the job.

We watched over the decades, how our government and its agencies and military bullied the countries of the world for fun and profit.

That is why a new report shows that millionaires and billionaires own 79 percent of America’s wealth. That’s not a mistake, it’s how it was planned. The plan is working. Poverty is not the problem, it is the solution.

The United States government, its agencies and military are not owned or commanded by us, the people. The owners and commanders are the millionaires and billionaires with 79 percent of the wealth who are looking to make it 85 and 95 percent.

We watched them take over the world, perhaps not thinking they would some day come for us.
Of course they would do the same thing here. Especially here.

The place where I work, once a vibrant environment, has been destroyed by the COVID mask hoax.
That scenario has been repeated in probably millions of venues around the country and the world.
I guess we could sit by and watch this takeover just as we watched all the others. Or not.

Mike Palecek
Saginaw