The views and opinions expressed in our letters section are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hudson Valley One. You can submit a letter to the editor here.
Look around & you will see a problem
I have been trying to write this letter for some time, trying to find a way to convince folks of the need to come out and support more affordable housing in New Paltz.
In some ways, this should be easy: We are lucky to have a Village administration that supports this idea and is actively working to provide more affordable housing; we have local organizations; and we have a hometown newspaper that publishes articles and letters like this that call attention to the subject.
So, who are the New Paltzers who need affordable housing? More than you might realize: seniors on limited income; graduates here at SUNY who love New Paltz and want to be able to find work, stay on and perhaps raise families here; folks who live here but have, especially during the pandemic, serious financial difficulties. You might not even recognize them when you are walking down the street, but every once in awhile, you might notice someone carrying a bag or suitcase; someone sitting on a railing; someone coming out of a ladies’ or men’s room…. Look around. I am sure you will notice more and more.
Let me share a definition I recently saw online: “Hidden homeless people are those without a place to call home, but who are hidden from official statistics and not receiving support. They can find themselves in precarious situations, including sofa-surfing, sleeping rough, squatting and sleeping on public transport.” I can almost guarantee that none of them expected to wind up in that situation.
And now that it’s winter and freezing cold, being homeless is even more difficult. Can you imagine what it must feel like, knowing that it is going to start to get dark or snow and you have no place to go?
So, what does this have to do with you, and what can you do about it? As a start, look around and notice! Reach out if you are able and get involved – through your place of business, by joining a group that is actively working to make change, by writing letters to the editor of HV1, by supporting measures that will make a difference in the lives of your neighbors and fellow New Paltz residents. I can almost guarantee the person who will benefit the most is you.
Ellen Rocco
New Paltz
Bad habits
I don’t mind if my bad habits kill me as long as they kill me extremely slowly.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Deck the halls with AR-15s
The Christmas images which representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) and representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) tweeted out were not merely insensitive; they were bold political and cultural statements. These two have been delighting in sharing a new kind of Christmas card ritual: arming their family to the teeth for a festive photoshoot in which they’re all holding guns and smiling in front of a Christmas tree. Just imagine if representative Ilhan Omar, who’s a Muslim and Democrat, tweeted out such an image. I can hear the heads exploding from here.
The style of the guns, their size, the number of them and the fact that they were being held by young children displayed a disturbing vision of family and safety. The power of these images lies not just in the guns, but who can wield them with cultural impunity and toward what end.
Rightfully so, Massie and then Boebert were swiftly panned by critics on the left for, among other things, sending out photos of children brandishing guns just days after investigators alleged a teenage school shooter in Oxford, Michigan, in the deadliest US school shooting in years, killed four students and injured more.
One striking feature of Massie’s and Boebert’s Christmas cards is the distinct cultural milieu they reflect; it’s hard to imagine people from other racial, ethnic and political backgrounds pulling off something similar without right-wingers depicting them as monstrous. This new type of Republican-elected official has glorified or applauded Kyle Rittenhouse for literally getting away with murder (he took two human lives while ruining another), and now this picture of a lawmaker’s family posing with military-grade weapons for a so-called Christmas picture. Does this benefit me or impress me? No way. How would this make a child of color feel? Threatened, that’s how. Wow. The GOP has lost their minds.
Their Christ is not the Christ of the Bible. Most of us are easily horrified by this repulsive, not to mention tone-deaf, glorification of guns. Owning a gun might be granted by the Second Amendment, but this is a sick perversion of extreme right-wing lunacy wrapped up with Christmas.
What the hell has happened to simple human decency? The GOP politicians are not politicians anymore; they are disgusting caricatures of everything that is wrong with our country right now. For today’s GOP it’s not about decency, morality or compassion. It’s all about fundraising, and nothing triggers (no pun intended) fundraising for the grifters more than when having a party with the likes of an AR-15.
What’s next for these gun-toting GOP members – sending out Easter cards holding the weapons of war and with the words Happy Easter and a request from the Easter Bunny for ammunition? Because these were the gifts brought to baby Jesus by the three Wise Men. And we all know Jesus preached that we should all be armed and dangerous. It is getting disgusting that members of the GOP do not have the moral guts to have more respect for Christian values.
Is this really the best we can do as a nation? Sick people. And they’re our leaders? Good God, we don’t have a chance. So gross. Insensitive. How did we get so far down this path where the vitriol and toxicity from Donald Trump and his like-minded deplorable hordes has permeated and now bubbles up in the normalcy of daylight with no impunity? When loons do this as members of Congress, you know the country has gone to shit.
Sing-along: So, “Deck the halls with AR-15s t’be jolly (Fa la la la la, la la la la!) / It’s become a very merry white vigilante season to kill, by golly (La la la la, la la la la-a-a – aaaah!)”
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Mohonk Preserve’s Undercliff/Overcliff Carriage Road
Erin Quinn did a great job writing about one of our favorite spots in the Mohonk Preserve. Every time we take friends and family to the carriage road loop, we walk in the footsteps of Daniel Smiley, Jr. and our friend Paul Huth, whose comments and observations added to my enjoyment of this article. We are lucky indeed to be living so close to such splendor.
Larry Feldman
New Paltz
Housing crisis
What would you do if your landlord planned to double or even triple your rent? Or more to the point, what could you do?
Asking for a friend. More specifically, I’m asking the community of Woodstock what can and should be done to prevent people like my friend Lon from being priced out of living in the town he grew up in and moved back to when he finally got a chance to fulfill his dream of having a record shop, at a time when that was exactly what people needed to lift their spirits.
Lon’s roots here run so deep that his father (one of the original founders of the Woodstock School of Art) lived in the same apartment that Lon’s currently being priced out of, 30 years ago! But should that matter when what his landlords are doing is completely legal (and easily justified in their mind, based on the income from their other STR properties)? Or should it make any difference that the previous property-owner made a pledge to keep the space reserved for locals? Yes, I believe it should, and that something has to change if we want to hold onto some semblance of the hip little town we all fell in love with and prevent it from becoming an exclusive playground of the rich.
Are we really going to sit by and watch as someone with such deep ties and positive contributions to our community loses one of the last affordable apartments in Woodstock, and along with it potentially the chance to make a living operating the only vinyl record shop in town? And is anyone seriously arguing that $2,000/month (or more) is a fair price to pay to live in a 400-square-foot studio apartment in Woodstock?
Yes, everyone has a right to make a living, landlords included. But with something as basic as having a roof over your head, there have to be commonsense regulations to prevent the housing crisis from spiraling even further out of control.
Andrew Bromwell
Woodstock
An open letter to the Dutchess County executive
Dear Mr. Molinaro,
I must say that I’m terribly disappointed in your recent pronouncement that the County will not enforce the State mask mandate. It was, in my opinion, an extremely shortsighted and harmful act on your part.
Of course, we all know that the County doesn’t have the resources to fully enforce the mandate. But by announcing publicly that the County will not enforce it, you are preventing businesses from effectively enforcing it. Just this morning, my hairdresser expressed her frustration that she can’t keep herself, her business partners and her customers safe against someone who refuses to mask up (despite the sign on the door) because they interpreted your pronouncement as “Dutchess County residents are exempt from the state mask mandate.” This is just one of many small business owners who need backup from their government in order to keep themselves, their families, their employees and their customers safe.
Many people get away with speeding because there aren’t enough police to enforce the speed limit. Shall we announce that “We will not enforce the speed limit?” Let’s give up on mandating recycling, because we don’t have enough people to go through everyone’s garbage to make sure some people aren’t throwing away things that should be recycled. Let’s not collect taxes, because some people cheat and the IRS can’t audit everyone.
You are setting up the same kind of hostile situation that exists in Washington, where members of one party block any attempt by members of the other party to accomplish anything positive, just because they are of a different party.
While we have disagreed on many issues, I had always thought you were a reasonable and compassionate man. I am rethinking that assessment. Again, I am angry and disappointed.
Pat Lamanna
Hyde Park
The time is now to defeat narrow-minded, mean-spirited holy fanatics
Bible-thumpers are making our society a living hell. Never content with just having strong religious beliefs, these thumpers want to inject their holy directives into all our lives. They are against abortion, but instead of simply not getting one themselves, they want to deny every woman’s right to choose. The same is true about LGBTQ rights. Thumpers are never satisfied establishing guidelines for their own lives.
Despite the fact that a large majority of Americans favor a woman’s right to have an abortion, they are obsessed with criminalizing it. Gay and transgender rights also have strong public support, but that doesn’t matter to the hard-right evangelical minions and their hopelessly corrupted megachurch leaders.
Another gang of biblical extremists have taken over our foreign policy. Old Testament thumpers demand that Israel has a right to steal land in Palestine because God said it belonged to them 2,000 years ago. And the slaughter of Palestinians fits right in. Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza come right from God’s warmongering advice to his chosen people: “Destroy them and all their possessions. Don’t have any pity. Kill their men, women, children and even their babies. Slaughter their cattle, sheep, camels and donkeys (Samuel 15:3).”
Our nation’s founders were already sick to death of religious orthodoxies back when they wrote the Constitution. It was supposed to protect us from zealots bossing everyone around with their interpretation of God’s will. We must organize once again to defeat these narrow-minded, mean-spirited holy fanatics.
Fred Nagel
Rhinebeck
Fact vs. reality
The fact is New York State’s property tax levy growth is capped at two percent for 2022, a cap that our Town has complied with. The reality is that Woodstock’s property tax will increase by 4.78 percent; that is an increase of about $48 for every thousand dollars you are currently paying. The reason for the discrepancy is that there are exclusions to the cap calculation that affect the reality of the actual tax increase.
On another note, can someone please tell me how the Town managed to accrue almost $2 million in its building reserve fund when, except for last year, we taxpayers have been bombarded with property tax increases?
Howard Harris
Woodstock
Grateful for Clara
Saturday, December 25 marks what would have been the 200th birthday of American Red Cross founder Clara Barton. A compassionate and tenacious trailblazer, Clara built an extraordinary legacy of service, innovation and hope.
Here in the Eastern New York Region, our team of dedicated volunteers and staff carry Clara’s vision forward. Currently, we have 12 amazing volunteers deployed during their holiday season to help those impacted by deadly tornadoes. And every day we are out in the community responding to home fires and other disasters – more than 680 in the last year.
Over the last year, we helped nearly 2,800 military families navigate the challenges of deployment and reintegration. We collected more than 106,200 blood and platelet donations, giving the gift of life to those in need. We built safer and more resilient communities by training more than 40,000 people in critical lifesaving skills and installed more than 1,100 free smoke alarms as part of our Home Fire Campaign.
Emergencies don’t stop during a pandemic and neither do we. The need for our services continues to grow. We are grateful to our community who stands besides us to support our lifesaving mission through volunteering and financial support. And of course, we are grateful for Clara for her vision that shines so bright 200 years later.
Visit redcross.org/ENYholiday to see our year in review.
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year.
Kevin Coffey
Regional chief executive officer
American Red Cross Eastern New York Region
New Paltz’s largest sewer grant ever
We’re excited to have just been awarded $918,750 to continue the work we have focused on for the last few years updating New Paltz’s sanitary sewer system. Fixing inflow and infiltration (I&I) is the most effective way to manage and protect our conveyance system and New Paltz’s wastewater treatment plant’s 1.5 million gallon per day permitted capacity.
The Village of New Paltz will use $918,750 in New York State CDBG funding to replace and reline pipes, repair manholes and reconnect laterals. The total project cost is $965,750 and includes $47,000 in local funding from the Village’s sewer fund.
This award of $918,750 will help update sections along four Village streets:
1) Huguenot Street
2) Tricor Avenue
3) Colonial Drive
4) North Chestnut Street
Thank you, governor Kathy Hochul and Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council.
Mayor Tim Rogers
New Paltz
Death
A rabbi who lived into his nineties once related to me that some rabbis had discoursed in the Talmud on whether it was to humans’ benefit that humans had been created; they concluded (not a snap judgment) that humans would have been better off had they not been created. Another discussion had taken place on the meaning of the first part of verse 31, Genesis 1: “And God saw all that He had made and found it very good.” Why a “very good”? Why not simply “good?” the rabbis wondered. Wasn’t “good” sufficient? They puzzled over this for days. The answer they discovered was that “very” qualified the goodness of the creation, because included in its goodness was death. Because of death, Torah pronounced the work of creation not just good, but very good.
We wonder how and why life first came about. Does death’s beginning seem less wondrous?
Laurence Salomon
Tillson
Facing a new COVID surge
Overshadowed by months of Democratic infighting and the searing national debate over January 6, the Biden administration is quietly erasing one of the cruelest legacies of Donald Trump’s presidency. This is a genuine achievement, in both symbolic and practical terms. On Thursday, the administration rejected Georgia’s proposal to impose work requirements and premiums on Medicaid recipients. This was effectively the last nail in the coffin of Trump’s zombie attempt to make Medicaid more cumbersome and bureaucratic, in hopes of knocking as many people off health coverage as possible.
When Biden took office, nearly 20 mostly Republican-controlled states were in the process of crafting work requirements for Medicaid, on which 76 million Americans rely. Now, Medicaid work requirements are all but dead in all those states. That erases a legacy of the Trump administration, which had invited states to submit proposals to impose such requirements. Proposals were eventually approved for 12 states – all with Republican legislatures, governors or both – while a half-dozen others were pending when Trump left office.
In the most visible case, under Arkansas’s 2018 requirements, nearly 17,000 people lost health coverage. That wasn’t necessary because they weren’t working. It was mainly because it was so difficult to satisfy all the reporting requirements – which is a feature, not a bug, of work requirements. By forcing recipients to prove they’re working and navigate a bureaucratic maze to stay in the program, the state gives itself an excuse to kick off those who make a paperwork mistake or miss a reporting deadline.
Biden’s reversal began just after he took office. In February, the administration informed states that it was preparing to withdraw approvals for work requirements granted under Trump. One by one, over the following months, those approvals were either rescinded by the administration, held up by court challenges or delayed by state governments that expected the policy reversal. Georgia was the last state where approval for this policy was still in force, though Republican states may still wage court battles.
Trump’s effort to impose Medicaid work requirements was part of a much larger campaign to undermine and roll back our country’s fitful advance toward universal health care. This constituted an even broader legacy of cruelty and arguably outright betrayal. That’s because Trump campaigned in 2016 as a corrective to Paul Ryan-style Republicans who had treated destroying the social safety net as a quasi-religious calling. Trump then “vowed everybody’s got to be covered,” and insisted no one would die on the street, uninsured. But once in office, Trump embraced GOP anti-safety-net zealotry by going all in on the Republican effort to destroy the Affordable Care Act. Driven by hatred of Barack Obama, he endlessly raged that the ACA was a “disaster.” That culminated in the 2017 repeal attempt, which fortunately failed. Stymied in that effort, which would have taken coverage away from millions on the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, Trump sought to weaken the safety net via other administrative means, such as these Medicaid work requirements.
And so, in erasing those requirements, Biden is also erasing a larger hangover of Trumpian cruelty. This legacy is being erased in another way. Under Biden, the same ACA that Trump tried to destroy is expanding and moving toward realizing its potential. A record number of 13 million people have signed up for 2022 coverage on the exchanges. A key reason for this is that the COVID-19 rescue plan that Biden signed in March expanded the number of people eligible for ACA support and beefed up support for those already eligible. This is a real achievement: It substantially reimagines and expands the ACA amid a pandemic, meaning the ACA is rising to an emergency occasion.
Still, this achievement is at risk. The ACA expansion in the rescue package expires at the end of next year, and while Democrats want to extend it in the Build Back Better bill, a certain West Virginia senator remains opposed. That would be a policy and political disaster for Democrats. If Democrats aren’t able to extend it, millions of people will get notice of huge premium increases right before the midterm election. In short, the pandemic has not dimmed the GOP desire to roll back that ACA expansion and undermine Medicaid, even as we face a new COVID surge. But now, with the Georgia decision, work requirements are effectively dead – as long as a Democrat, like president Joe Biden, remains in the White House.
Meyer Rothberg
Saugerties
Maybe the polls are wrong
Although Meyer Rothberg and his band of thoughtful and informed feedback readers might be impressed with his short list of Biden’s questionable legislative accomplishments, they probably also believe (among other Biden claims) that “Corn Pop was a bad dude,” POTUS Joe has a license to drive an 18-wheeler, was arrested in South Africa for attempting to see Nelson Mandela, graduated at the top of his law school class, the Hunter Biden lap-top story was Russian disinformation, Joe never met any of Hunter’s business associates, that Joe’s frequent references to Kamala Harris as ‘President Harris” are merely slips of the tongue and when Joe says, “I’m telling you the truth, I’m not kidding,” he’s really being honest. However, if the latest polls are to be taken seriously, most of those polled (obviously thoughtless and uninformed people) think Joe is doing a good job…not so much. Which brings me to the subject of this letter: Joe Biden’s likely successor, Kamala Harris. Although V.P. Harris met Joe’s most important requirements for the position (being a black and female) her poll numbers are even lower than Joe’s. With this in view, it seems appropriate to review Kamala’s rise to her lofty position for all those, like Meyer, who think Biden and his V.P. were the best people to lead the country, as well as for the rest of the thoughtless and uniformed feedback readers who may disagree.
Kamala Harris is Vice President and is only a heartbeat, some unfortunate fatal fall caused by the wind or the invocation of the 25th amendment away from becoming POTUS. To acknowledge this, to all who celebrate her achievement, I wrote the following parody song based on the tune “Camelot.” (Imagine, if you will, Mr. Rothberg singing this on a Broadway stage — in the style of the late Richard Burton — to an appreciative audience of “thoughtful and informed” feedback readers.)
(Prologue to be spoken)
It’s true! It’s true! The country’s made it clear
Kamala is our Vice President this year
(Song Kamala)
The pick was made a Tuesday afternoon here
Joe’s VP choice made on a day so hot
And the pick was no surprise…to us here
’twas Kamala
The ballots were all cast in a November
the exit polls all taken on the spot
Joe’s choice was installed the month after December
It’s Kamala
(Chorus)
Kamal! Kamala!
Her parents from Haiti and India did hail
But our Kamala, Kamala
Her…husband’s very pale
The Press will never ask Kamala questions
At least ask questions that are very hard
In short, they’ll simply not
put her on the spot
They’ll make her look…hip and smart…when…she…appears
Our Kam-a-la
(Chorus)
Kamala! Kamala!
her qualifications were in doubt
But for Kamala, Kamala
her race and gender had more clout
It once was thought quite wrong to choose a person
to serve based upon gender or their race
But now there’s simply not
a more congenial spot
for choosing leaders…based on race or gender…to…serve
like Ka-m-a-la
George Civile
Gardiner
The cynical smoke screen of medical cannabis
Lots of action on the local cannabis front, especially with regards to permitting stores and smoking centers. The following might provide some useful background.
The cannabis plant should never have been outlawed, but the new direction authorities have taken with it is another perversion of science, medicine and basic human rights.
Cannabis has been used for medicine since at least 2800 B.C. when it appeared in the pharmacopoeia attributed to Chinese Emperor Shen Nung.
Its efficacy as a medicine was so well established that during the Congressional hearings that led to its suppression, the AMA lobbied on behalf of it as a medicine, but they were overruled.
Like so many government-created public health catastrophes, it was politicized by opportunists, fueled by carefully engineered hysteria and supported by legions of useful idiots who bought the manufactured news accounts uncritically. (See the current Covid crisis.)
The multi-year and overtly racist publicity campaign was the product of a crooked cop (Harry Aslinger), DuPont and media mogul Randolph Hearst. Aslinger and other law enforcement parasites were worried about the loss of jobs with the ending of Prohibition, DuPont wanted to eliminate competition for its factory-made products and Hearst was worried about the impact new hemp processing technology might have on the value of his expensively acquired timber-for-newsprint holdings.
Thus the US and much of the world at large was deprived of an inexpensive, safe and useful medicine proven over thousands of years of use and tens of millions of people were classified by the government as criminals with all the suffering that entails.
So things are much better now, right?
Better than terrible, maybe, but the “new cannabis order” is a new perversion of justice.
First, there’s the scam of smoked cannabis as medicine. There are lots of healthy ways to consume cannabis. Smoking it not one of them. It not only damages the lungs (duh!), but also destroys its most useful medicinal properties.
Genuine Rastafarians, contrary to the comic book portrayal of them, view the recreational smoking of cannabis on par with drinking rum, a practice they don’t endorse and in fact explicitly condemn. Why? Because like drinking rum, it’s not a healthy practice.
If adults want to get ripped, fine, but to portray regular cannabis smoking as a health practice is a cynical, sinister joke.
Second, cannabis consumed by means other than smoking is extremely effective in the treatment of inflammation which is a troublesome component of countless diseases.
William Courtney MD has done extensive study on the raw use of dietary cannabis, a use that is not health injuring, not intoxicating, does not destroy its most helpful chemicals and can be safely consumed in large enough quantities to be useful. You can read about his work at CannabisInternational.org
But you’re not likely to ever benefit from his work.
Why? Even though cannabis is a ridiculously easy plant to grow and many people could be growing it for themselves or others in need, thanks to the magic of government, growing it for your own use without an expensive state-issued license is illegal in most states.
And how do the large government-cartel producers grow their product? Rarely organically, so be prepared to get some Roundup and fungicides along with your leaf and bud.
And what does legal medicinal marijuana cost? It can range from $265 in Michigan to up to $500 in New Jersey per ounce! Another cynical, sinister joke.
Bottom line: The price of legal cannabis is jacked up to the moon, making the juicing of the plant (its most effective use) beyond the reach on anyone not a billionaire, and the public is encouraged to smoke it, the least beneficial method and one that has objectively health damaging consequences. Meanwhile, millions of people who could be spared real agony from inflammation-related medical conditions suffer needlessly.
Why aren’t you hearing these basic facts in the news media? Because well-funded cannabis start ups have lots of money to spend on advertising and PR and “news” outlets don’t want to miss out on the gravy train. Then there are the money-grubbing politicians who are literally salivating over the tax revenues which come from making the plant absurdly expensive through regulation.
Your government and news media in the service of public health.
Ken McCarthy
Tivoli
The Great Basin
Las Vegas is built on a large part of the West with no river that flows to the ocean. Geologically, this is a giant bowl of rocks and sand that over the thousands of years since the last Ice Age receded, left an area that early settlers were able to hand dig a well and enjoy abundant water. The Great Basin. Now even wells dug 1000 feet deep do not find water. All of the residents of Las Vegas and the beautiful suburbs use recycled water. Run a faucet, a shower or flush your toilet and that water heads off to the sewage treatment plant and the water is retrieved and recycled back to the faucets, showers and toilets. Lawns are not permitted for any new housing.
Just on the outskirts of Vegas is Hoover Dam. It is the primary source of electricity for the region. Unfortunately, the reservoir behind the dam is nearly empty. So much water is siphoned off the Colorado River that soon the great Hoover Dam will not be able to turn the turbines that make the Las Vegas region’s electricity.
If we can bring tar sand, thick crude oil from central Canada down to the refineries of Louisiana to become gasoline and heating oil, all being pumped through pipes, and then pump the refined gasoline, heating oil and jet full as far north as New Jersey though more pipes, it seems logical that all the surplus (flood) water that is making life miserable in the lower Mississippi could be pumped through pipes into the Great Basin and into the upper Colorado River. Farms that depend on water being pumped to Central California, and farms along the Colorado, could continue to provide America with abundant crops and the Mississippi could be kept better behaved.
One hundred years ago, smart citizens built the reservoirs and the aqueduct system for New York City. They were planners. Where are those far-sighted men and women today?
Paul Nathe
New Paltz
World Government emerging
The march toward global totalitarianism is becoming more evident in many different ways. The moves toward mandating what may end up being infinite boosters to maintain a vaccine passport to participate in the world economy should give pause to anyone who values freedom. The advancing deployment worldwide, of biologically untested 5G technology and it’s “Internet of Things” matrix, that will be the mother of all surveillance systems monitoring your every move, should have been a wake-up call to all. U.S. legislators approving a massive $768 billion already-inflated defense budget, $62 billion more than what the DOD asked for, during a pandemic that produced serious economic ramifications and needs for average Americans. This defies logic in a free country, but very rational for a developing totalitarian World Government whose police force is the U.S. How much clearer could it be than with the treatment of Julian Assange, who became the political prisoner of an obvious World Government. Assange, not an American citizen or subject to US law, living and working in Iceland, is being charged under the US Espionage Act of 1917, for revealing to major news media, info given to him by whistleblower Chelsea Manning, evidence to war crimes and other crimes of high-ranking people. Julian’s crime was freely sharing important truth to the world and for that he has been slandered, kidnapped and jailed. The initial bogus rape charges were invented and then dropped by Sweden in 2019. England then kidnapped him from the Ecuadorian Embassy, who the latter received a $4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund arranged by Donald Trump one month before Ecuador dropped embassy protections for Assange. So what this means is that no journalist practicing free speech in other countries is safe from the World Government’s tentacles, who will not allow real evidence of their crimes to be revealed. It doesn’t matter if it’s Obama, Trump or Biden, they clearly do the bidding of the World Government that operates in the shadows and has no accountability. Julian, naïve to the extent of World Government, tried to make them accountable but instead faces extradition, trial and prison if he survives the ordeal in what will be an obvious kangaroo court. Critical journalism, already disappearing, will be neutralized producing a “chilling effect,” as what reporter will dare to the tell the whole truth as Julian Assange courageously did.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
Join the family! 
