On killing children and teachers

Imagine if somehow Iran, as part of a much larger initiative, had dropped a bomb on Forestview School, killing 175 children and teachers. Would you hate those in charge in Iran and want to “take them out”? Probably. 

Thankfully Iran didn’t do that. But we, the U.S., did it to Iran’s children. We also killed their equivalent of donald trump.  Twice, I hear.

If you understand all that, dig into the history of Iran versus United States and Britain in a broad general way, in the past 47 plus years and you’ll understand why Iranians may say “death to America.”  Think oil; big business. 

But that’s for another letter -- too much for here now.

Is MAGA the Republicans? I think so.  They’ve always been the big spenders, but not on the people: on the business world. War is business!  

The U.S. spends something like 8 times more on military than number two China, and more than the next 20 countries combined – something like that. Yet we would probably lose a war to China. Are we getting our money’s worth on military dollars, or are we being scared to death, then suckered into spending more and more on military? 

Check what former General and President Eisenhower (R) said about it!

MAGA’s Pete Hegseth now is demanding we almost double our military spending, from $900 billion to $1,500 billion in order to feed the Iran war of choice started by trump alone (to distract from Epstein?). 
We’re committing punishable international war crimes almost daily.

Call your congresspeople; it’s the very least you can do as a “red-blooded,” testosterone-filled American. 

One number for all in congress:  202-224-3121. Ask for them by name: Stauber (R), Klobuchar (D), Tina Smith (D).  Put the number in your phone contacts.  We’re gonna need it.
A. Martin
Merrifield, Minnesota

Smilin’ Pete’s silence is deafening

I’m not surprised that we haven’t heard anything from representative Pete Stauber about the wild fires burning in his district. Maybe he, like president Trump, thinks that northern Minnesota is part of Canada or else he just doesn’t care since the areas affected are not rich enough or else he just listens to the national news when they say that the wild fires are in Canada. 

We’ve heard from Senators Smith and Klobachar and Governor Waltz but nothing from Stauber. No surprise there for most of the people who have been affected by them. I hope they rember that when electrons come around.

I’m sure that when October comes he’ll be there pretending that he cares about them and wants them to vote for him.  I’m also sure that if they want money from the federal government to help pay for it he’ll vote no because they were in Canada not northern Minnesota.
Cecilia Hill
Duluth, Minnesota

Salmon mistakes

The article by Charlyn Fargo pertaining to wild vs. farmed salmon (July 16 & 23) contains multiple instances of misinformation. To begin with, all wild salmon available in the U.S. is Pacific Salmon, while, unless you catch it yourself, all Atlantic salmon available is farmed. They are different species (there are five species of Pacific salmon in the northern hemisphere) and not comparable.

So on the assumption that Ms. Fargo was comparing wild to farmed Atlantic salmon, we can say: While wild salmon may consume krill, it’s only part of an omnivorous diet that includes other crustaceans, phytoplankton, insects, fish, whatever. Farmed salmon are fed pellets consisting of oils derived from fish and meal from fish processing by-products (aka guts and heads). The feed may include krill meal or krill oil. Farmed fish are never fed live prey. Nowadays feeds are mainly plant-based: soy, sunflower seeds and wheat (along with whatever chemicals are used in their production). The red color is achieved by adding carotenoids in the form of Astaxanthin, formerly from crustacean shells, but now, I think, mostly synthetic.

There is indeed quite a difference in the nutritional profile of wild and farmed Atlantic salmon, regardless of what the Seafood Nutrition Partnership would have one believe, as shown by  tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-comparison/175168-171998/wt9-wt9  based on USDA data (Don’t tell His Lunacy, we don’t want it to be disappeared).

Also farmed salmon has many times the content of persistent organic pollutants. It has all the unsavory aspects of any intensive agricultural operation, with the added effect of fish escaping into the wild and altering the genetic profile of wild fish. Hardly ever happens with chickens.

Comparison of wild Pacific salmon, sockeye for instance, with farmed Atlantic shows big differences.
It’s especially critical now to cultivate one’s skeptical side.
Kathleen Hills
Duluth, Minnesota