Home Opinion Letters to the editor

Letters to the editor

Trump-free page

What a pleasure to pick up the letter section of the Northeast Times, week of March 3, and not see all the Trump lies from Trump and some readers that have no basis in fact. Nice to not see the Trump name at all. Great.

Vincent Mosiniak

Torresdale

Thank you, Mr. Trump

Anytime Joe Biden wants, he can thank Donald Trump for Operation Warp Speed. If it wasn’t for that program, the vaccine would be a figment of our imagination for many years. Biden is acting like he really had something to with the creation of the vaccine when it was sitting on his desk when he took office. He would earn more respect if he would give credit where it was due.

Richard Donofry

East Torresdale

Reasons to oppose Biden

Why did 76 million people not vote for President Biden?

Maybe they knew that when President Biden spoke during his inauguration speech, they knew he would say that he would be the president for the people who voted for him, but also for the people who did not vote for him. Then President Biden’s first 47 executive orders were for the people who voted for him and not one for the people who didn’t vote for him.

Maybe they knew that the Biden administration would urge officials to use the word “noncitizen” instead of “alien,” and “illegal alien” will become “undocumented noncitizen.”

Maybe they knew that the laws of this country were made for the many, and now the laws and executive orders are made for the few.

Maybe they knew that the gas prices would go up 40 cents (oops, make that 50 cents, 10 cents more than last week) since the executive order was signed by President Biden to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Maybe they knew that President Biden would forgo putting “America First.”

Maybe they knew that Biden’s ambitious goals for curbing carbon emissions would cost every American citizen $1,500 every year in added expenses.

Maybe they knew the Europeans wanted to hear that America now pats you on the back and doesn’t criticize or demand anything.

Maybe it was that President Trump didn’t start any wars and brought about Middle East peace agreements.

Maybe they knew that the people who do the right thing are going to get ignored while the people who don’t want to do the right thing get everything.

Maybe they knew that the word to get something was not please, but “I’m offended!”

Maybe …

Joe Nadolski

Academy Gardens

Where is the vaccine?

We are daily told we remain in a COVID crisis. Two masks should now be worn as new strains keep emerging. We are kept in a fever of fear.

But where are the vaccine locations in NE Philadelphia? I don’t mean CVS or Rite Aid, where you can never book an appointment.

Why doesn’t every NE hospital have a stockpile of vaccine?

NE Philly has a third of the city’s population. If COVID is serious, we need a plan to vaccinate in health centers, empty schools or libraries. We should be vaccinating 7 days a week. Why doesn’t every hospital have a stockpile of vaccine?

Under Gov. Wolf, we are near the bottom of the 50 states in getting people vaccinated. Does the city have a managing director overseeing the city response? Is his name Jimmy Hoffa?

Now Gov. Wolf has hijacked all the doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, just for the schools — no, not for only teachers, bus the districts’ employees. A 30-year-old clerk over grandma? Disgraceful.

Mr. Wolf wants a 50 percent increase in the state income tax, and wait until you see the city property tax reassessments in a year or two. Empty your wallet — for this mess?

Mayor Kenney is understandably very busy, banning Rizzo, Kate Smith and Columbus. But someone must be held accountable.

I ask my fellow voters — remember this on election day. Why would you round up the usual suspects and re-elect them, and then expect anything to change?

Richard Iaconelli

Rhawnhurst

Three Blind Mice: Jimbo, Dumbo and Bobo

It’s confirmed. Wilson Goode was a better mayor than Jimbo, hands down; it’s not even close, though we have ongoing costs for “Move” and “Osage Avenue.”

Dumbo reduces criminal charges, eliminates bail, overturns prior convictions and lets them out of jail to do it all over again!

Bobo is still new to the job, an affirmative action appointment who doesn’t know she doesn’t know.

Jimbo is going to bankrupt the city and probably increase the “soda tax” to make up the debt. He did a great job during the rioting, looting and burning with virtually no arrests other than the police officers. It’s been said Jimbo was at the scene offering to help people carrying heavy televisions or suggesting carts — they hold more.

Who shops in Center City with boarded-up windows? Why would anyone go into Center City? Why, or rather, how can businesses survive? Simply put, they can’t. Good job, Jimbo. You wanted control of the schools, got it, and now don’t know what to do. Our children are not receiving a good education. Their achievement scores in English, math and science may be the lowest in the country; another good job, Jimbo. Now you want to run for Senate. Go for it — you can’t miss, Jimbo. The problem is you never had a job in business or industry and you don’t know that you don’t know.

I am no longer a city resident. I always loved the city and I didn’t think anyone could single-handedly destroy it. My neighborhood has changed dramatically, specialty shops gone, that is, bakeries, pubs, restaurants, dress shops, confectioners, butcher shops, plus the Pathmark and Holiday markets and the bank branch at Rising Sun that was there for 70 years — closed.

Crime is up sky high; shootings are now common versus uncommon, and people are fearful of going out. I understand that you want to do the same thing to our state, Jimbo. People are not that stupid. You shame our Irish race and all I can say is, “Pog Mo Thoin.”

Formerly from Burholme,

Michael Hartey

Upper Moreland

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

A bar with no clock? In the wake of a power outage at Rhawn Street and Dungan Road, this barfly noticed that the Red Rooster’s St. Patrick’s Day countdown clock was flashing all zeros. Blink. Blink. This year, should we even bother to reset it?

E.T. Friel

Fox Chase

Thank you, McMenamin Family ShopRite

A special shout out to the McMenamins, Sean and Bria, the owners of the ShopRite at Morrell Plaza. They took it upon themselves to hire a nurse and get the vaccine and started vaccinations in early February for their senior customers. My husband and I were two of the lucky ones. I called on a Wednesday for an appointment. ShopRite called the next day, and we received our shots the day after that. We received our second shot last Friday, March 5. Thank you again to the McMenamins.

Peggy Sainte Marie

Torresdale

Wolf decision repugnant

The Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association renews its call for the Wolf administration and the new COVID-19 Vaccine Joint Task Force to prioritize vaccinating corrections officers in state prisons over smokers.

It’s one thing to follow CDC guidelines regarding smokers, but that doesn’t prevent the administration from making the vaccination of its own corrections officers a higher priority. Our state prison system continues to be overwhelmed by COVID, but for some reason the Wolf administration has decided to ignore its own corrections officers, who are risking their lives every day in some of the worst conditions of this pandemic. Recently, over 800 inmates and officers tested positive at SCI-Forest.

Our members are overworked, exhausted and are working massive amounts of overtime due to COVID-19 illnesses within their ranks. The mental anguish of passing the virus to their loved ones also takes a tremendous toll. That’s why the decision by the administration to put smokers ahead of corrections officers is repugnant. It’s our hope the task force will right this wrong and take care of the people working in some of the worst pandemic conditions in this commonwealth.

John Eckenrode, President

PSCOA

Invest in clean energy

I, along with many Philadelphians, struggle to imagine what life will be like after this pandemic.

Our nation is at a turning point, coronavirus deaths continue to rise and millions are unemployed, with communities of color bearing the brunt of these crises. While the debate about how to recover and repair our coronavirus-battered economy heats up, we have a chance to rebuild a better America by prioritizing and investing in American clean energy to create more jobs and reduce pollution.

One solution to create jobs and invest in a clean future is for Pennsylvania to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program that would auction off CO2 allowances to power plants. This initiative would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in proceeds that will be put into funding the creation of clean energy jobs, supporting workers in their transition into clean energy jobs, and provide technology to low-income communities to reduce energy costs.

In order to rebuild better, we have to rebuild clean. Pennsylvanians should support RGGI by posting a public comment on the EQB website and by contacting their lawmakers to voice their support.

Vanessa Nelson

North Philadelphia

No election fraud

Mr. Ulus’ recent letter on the “phony” election contends that we doubting Thomases find it hard to understand Trump’s claim of massive, widespread election fraud. That is correct. We believe that if you’re going to claim fraud, at least offer some proof.

Simply repeating the same thing for 4 months doesn’t make it real. And in all this time, no one has shown any.

Just recently, even Lou Dobbs asked, “What’s taking so long?”

Your next point was that this “evidence” in the form of affidavits was presented under oath.

Having Rudy Giuliani wave affidavits around is not the same as being sworn under oath in front of a judge.

In the 3 cases that went to court in Pennsylvania, I would like to see if any witness took the stand and testified to election fraud.

If you have that information, please share. All three cases in our state were dismissed, even when the judge was a Trump appointee.

Here’s some food for thought. If there was so much fraud in Pennsylvania, how is it there was no “Blue Wave?”

The Republicans not only maintained a comfortable margin in both the House and the Senate, but picked up the state auditor general post as well as the state treasurer position. By anybody’s account, that’s called a win.

How can there be widespread fraud when you win?

You attempted to make a second point that with these new machines, there could be suspicion of fraud when servers can be compromised.

You do realize that these servers are not hooked up to the internet, right? So how could it be compromised? No one has found any glitches or malfunctions in tabulating the votes. And the audits comparing the tabulated votes with the voter book have been accurate.

I listened to Al Schmidt, the Republican city commissioner, go on at length as to the precautions taken at these elections.

Isn’t it odd that with all of these allegations spouted by politicians, we haven’t seen or heard any complaints from Republican poll watchers. Let’s face it. They’re in the room. Yet in 67 counties in Pennsylvania, with multiple polling places in each (Phila. had 770 polling places), we haven’t seen or heard any credible complaints among the thousands of poll watchers.

And by the way, with all the cameras in the room, you could live stream the entire process.

Just because President Trump cites a rigged election, why are they just dismissing it as “crazy, delusional, nonsense.”

This is coming from a man who lost the Iowa caucus in 2016 and claimed it was rigged. When he didn’t win the Wisconsin primary, it, too, was rigged.

When the TV show The Apprentice didn’t win an Emmy for three years, he claimed the system was rigged.

When a judge shut down Trump University, you guessed it, that, too, was rigged. Notice a pattern?

Whenever he doesn’t win, the system must be rigged.

Claiming, in your soup analogy, if there is even one bit of fraud, then the whole thing is tainted. That’s just poor logic.

Simply remove the illegal vote, which they did. It seems some guy filled out his dead mother’s mail-in form to vote for Trump.

During any election, there can be dubious votes, which each state has laws on how to handle them. Whether to accept or reject.

Nobody advocates throwing out the whole election.

Bottom line, no widespread fraud as shown by the following: All states certified their votes on Dec. 14; and not one state petitioned Congress to decertify its electors. Not one.

Your final point that Trump is a patriot trying to preserve the integrity of the election is ridiculous.

You no doubt have seen what transpired in our Capitol.

I’ll leave you with this tweet from Lindsey Graham dated May 3, 2016: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.”

Dennis McCarthy

Fox Chase

Exit mobile version