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.
Support for Winston Farms
I am writing this as a full-time Saugerties Town resident and taxpayer to voice my full and unwavering support for John Mullen, Randy Richers, Anthony Montano and their long-term investment into our community at “Winston Farms,” a/k/a Saugerties Farms, LLC. These three men have put food on the table, roofs over the heads and clothes on the backs of literally hundreds of families in our community for years by providing good-paying jobs and steady work. The allegations by some small fringe groups that these pillars of the community would do anything detrimental simply go to show their ignorance and lack of knowledge about these three men.
It’s rare that three individuals reach this level of success and are willing to invest so much back into their own community. Men like this are hard to find anymore, true visionaries; we must rally around them, encourage them and support them.
Brandon Schiller
Saugerties
Biden delivers
In just one year, President Biden has made record progress for families and the economy: getting the pandemic under control and Americans back to work, boosting domestic manufacturing, investing in supply chains to lower everyday costs and passing the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Law, which invests in good-paying jobs today and America’s economy tomorrow.
In contrast, Mitch McConnell is Groucho in the Marx Brothers’ movie Horse Feathers: “I’m against it! Whatever it is, I’m against it.” He sings and struts on the stage. But Mitch is not clowning around. He is dead serious that the GOP stands for nothing – not freedom for all citizens to participate in fair elections, not growing the economy, not good-paying jobs, not reduced prescription costs, not expanded Medicare services, not saving Americans from the ravages of a warming planet and certainly not paying his fair share of taxes as a multi-millionaire.
Biden delivers. McConnell is full of horse feathers.
Lyn DelliQuadri
Kingston
Intolerance
About eight years ago, the Ethics Board in place at that time found that councilman Bill McKenna violated the ethics law by attempting to influence the Planning Board. A few years ago, in response to an ethics complaint made against him regarding his action pertaining to a Commission for Civic Design resolution, the current Ethics Board in a letter wrote, “In our most recent annual report to the Town Board (including the Town supervisor), we underscored that while the Town supervisor may refer matters to the building inspector, code enforcement officer, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and Commission for Civic Design, he should steer clear of activities that could be reasonably perceived as seeking to direct, override or influence the decision[s] of any of these individuals or entities.”
Yet at a recent Planning Board meeting regarding the case of the “scar” in the Scenic Overlay, the chair, Peter Cross, stated, “This is straight from the supervisor; [he] does not authorize the Tree Committee to go on this property period,” even though the Planning Board on previous occasions called upon the Tree Committee for their opinions. Wouldn’t that order influence the decisionmaking of the Planning Board?
Howard Harris
Woodstock
More alike than different
It’s somewhat ironic that Kyrsten Sinema’s book is entitled Unite and Conquer.
Sparrow
Phoenicia
Value of a life
In these days of the controversy about abortion on demand, the two pages of Respect Life signatures in the paper recently are impressive. It’s a topic I’ve thought about for many years. I’m puzzled by the apparent attitude of the woman: There’s one life involved – mine. With all the in-utero technology available, if it was all gathered in one place, I suspect life can be documented day by day from conception to the delivery of a full-term baby. It seems to me something else is going on. People are making judgments about the value of a life. The people with the power, the woman (with the help of her doctor) have decreed her life has more value than the baby’s. How did that come about?
I’ve been a “people-watcher” since I was young. After being a stay-at-home mom, I was “out in the world” with a wide variety of experiences, and like many people since the pandemic, at home with a lot of time and incentive to put the pieces together.
My Mom was a teacher. Nine months of salary in a 12-month world necessitated her working in the summer. She chose the university’s young child daycare center. They used the latest thinking: “Never tell a child no. It will damage his id” (whatever that is). If “Little Johnny” was hitting “Little Mary,” you did not tell him to stop; you took an easel and brushes over and said, “Wouldn’t you like to paint?” My aunt’s neighbor tied the floor lamp to the window latch to keep “Little Mary” from knocking it over. Under no circumstance should you tell her “no.”
Looking forward to marriage, my husband and I took the “Marriage and the Family” course, gave the desired answers on the tests and threw the books in the garbage. Not in our home. We would continue the old values. We believed the “new thinking” would not bode well for the future, and it hasn’t.
Little Mary grows up and enters the workforce; thus the “Me Too” movement. “Too” means “also” – at least one other person. That was soon replaced – for both men and women – with the “It’s all about me” movement, and thus “There’s one person involved in an abortion: me.” With technology, the woman may have to admit she judges her life more valuable than the baby’s. What next?
This way of thinking about the value of life escalates over the next 30 years. Time flies by, the powerful “valued” adults (woman and her doctor) have become older, no longer powerful. The infant had potential, the woman (and the doctor) have contributed what they can contribute; it’s time to realize their fate is in the hands of the new, young, powerful people to determine what will happen to them.
We are at a critical point. Our choices now may determine not only our country’s future, but our own individual fate.
Martha Pearson
Kingston
Living with nature
I read this unpleasant statement recently: We are powerless against nature and time.
How about the power coming from living with nature instead of against it?
Peter Koch
Woodstock
Woodstock residents don’t want 5G
I am writing in response to Nadia Steinzor’s letter (1/5/22) in which she suggests it was corrupt for residents of Woodstock to fund a telecom lawyer to stop the rollout of 5G before the Town agreed to hire him. I disagree. In most cases it doesn’t matter where funding comes from, so long as it is used to carry out the will of the people and improve their general welfare. Corruption is the result of lack of transparency and when a founder pushes through an agenda that goes against the wellbeing of the population for his/her personal gain.
Would Nadia want to live in an environment in which the birds and insects had vanished, the people were sick, disabled, sterile and dying, the vegetation withering? This becomes a real possibility should 5G be rolled out unrestricted.
I believe the majority of the residents of Woodstock do not want 5G pervading our town, as evidenced by the 500 signatures collected in a petition and by views expressed by the public at the many Town Board meetings that took place prior to the Town’s decision to hire Andrew Campanelli. In early May, the Town Board received an application from the telecom industry to make our cell tower 5G capable. The clock was ticking. Residents decided the best strategy was to hire an expert telecom lawyer and schedule a meeting in late June between Mr. Campanelli, the Town Board and members of the public, in which Mr. Campanelli could present legal arguments that could stop the 5G application.
The result was the cell tower upgrade was successfully defeated. The successful stopping of 5G was not, however, the result of funding of Mr. Campanelli alone. Rather, it resulted from the combined efforts of countless dedicated individuals through e-mails, letters, phone calls and packed attendance at government meetings.
Had Woodstock residents not hired Andrew Campanelli, it is unlikely the potential 5G threat could have been stopped in time. The Town eventually agreed to hire him to revise the zoning laws relating to restricting 5G, but only after his legal expertise was clearly demonstrated at the June Town Board meeting, and after residents had offered to cover most of the cost. Had the Town Board not hired Mr. Campanelli as a result of actions taken by Woodstock residents, it is likely we would be left with seriously inadequate zoning laws, unable to restrict 5G in a court of law.
Anna Young
Woodstock
Rules made to be broken or to be followed?
“Village Code Article III: Snow and Ice Removal prohibits the parking or standing of vehicles on Village streets and parking lots from the time the accumulation of snow reaches a level of at least two inches until the street or parking lot has been fully plowed by the Department of Public Works. The ordinance also requires that residents and businesses clear their sidewalks of snow and ice to a minimum width of 30 inches within 24 hours after cessation of every fall of snow.”
To answer the above question, look at the Village streets after the recent snowfall, which was well over two inches. I know since I shoveled my walkway, waiting for my husband to start the snowblower which is now a “must” piece of equipment for heavy snow.
1. The snowplow came down our street (Millrock Road) to clear the roadway.
2. That dumped heavy, dense snow onto our sidewalks.
3. Clearing the sidewalks means blowing the snow back onto the road or onto our bushes.
What about all the cars parked on the street and not moved until days later? You might say “The roadway was cleared.” Problems with that approach:
1. Snow that owners removed from their cars was now on the road. As temperatures dropped, that snow is now ice.
2. Large mounds of snow unable to be removed because of these parked cars are piled alongside the curbs, causing students, restaurant-goers, restaurant workers, visitors who park on our street to park into the street.
3. The result: The roadway is now two to four feet narrower, making it difficult for a regular truck, a FedEx truck, a UPS truck, a fire engine, a schoolbus et cetera to pass.
4. Two vehicles passing side-by-side is a thing of the past. If an emergency vehicle needs access, what if?
Today, days after the snow, our dedicated Public Works workers came down our street with a heavy-duty dump truck and snowplow to remove the snow/ice piled along the roadway. We are grateful to whoever engineered this feat. But really, why aren’t cars towed away (at the owners’ expense) if they are parked illegally, so the streets can be cleared? Why are the rules there for all to see (if they pay attention to the Village signs or webpages), only to be broken by those who seem to care less?
Businesses, homeowners who rent out rooms, apartments et cetera should be mandated to provide parking spaces for their tenants. Is that required? If it is, why is it not enforced for the towing? Why endanger the safety of those of us who want access to our Village streets?
Maybe COVID has taken its toll on our residents, highway crews, Village Board members et cetera. So, I should be kinder. But this Village parking situation has been going on for some years as cars and trucks get bigger, and we continue to allow the rules to be broken.
Helise Winters
New Paltz
299 credit union
The New Paltz Planning Board recently gave approval to bulldoze a diner for another banking entity, another credit union on Route 299.
We already have seven banks, and Highland has banks. Why waste this prime location? If you are truly “planning” our land use, why approve businesses we do not need and will have a negative impact on our current businesses?
Similar to the decision to allow development on North Putt for an unneeded Mavis and a burger fast-food and retail operation, the Planning Board’s decisions do not truly reflect the feelings and needs of the community.
In this day and age, why is it so difficult to survey resident’s views, online, to ascertain support for proposed projects?
Additionally, a relatively large and busy North Putt retail center has the added serious issue of potentially impacting response times of all of our emergency responders located on that road!
What’s next from the Planning Board? Another pizza or Mexican restaurant in the abandoned Wells Fargo?
I am thankful to the people who contribute their time to our community on the Planning Board, as well as our elected officials; but come on, stop approving unneeded development for its own sake without thought of the impacts on our lives!
A credit union?
Ron Stonitsch
New Paltz
Trump-hater
In his recent letter, “Chill” Neil Jarmel informed readers of his desire to learn to “sit back and observe” and not “react to everything” because he needs to get “better at this.” (By “this” I think Neil meant expressing left-wing “Trump derangement syndrome”-inspired propaganda.) Neil then informed Feedback readers that he is going to work hard “on this one,” even though it is the most difficult thing to do or “not do.” However, in view of Neil’s “The Lyin’ King,” Mr. Jarmel’s self-improvement attempt was short-lived and ineffective regarding his expressed “to do or not do” list. Welcome back, “Normal Neil!” (Normal Neil is a lot more fun than chillin’ Neil.)
Since Neil’s anti-Trump diatribes are predictable and must certainly be time-consuming to write, the following is a song I penned for Neil based upon the classic “I’m a Girl-Watcher,” titled “I’m a Trump-Hater.” The reason for the “penning” is to save Neil all the time and effort he expends in writing his “I hate Trump” propaganda pieces. I suggest that every time the “chilled” Neil feels the urge to write another rant, rather than do so, he simply sends this parody to the Feedback editor. Feedback readers will get the message loud and clear and Neil will have time to write some “POTUS Joe’s doing a great job” letters. (You’re welcome, Neil.)
(Chorus)
I’m a Trump-hater, I’m a Trump-hater
Spouting my hate view, just for you
I’m a Trump-hater, a real Trump-hater
Just listen now
Trump’s a lyin’ king; he lies about everything
Hating him feels really swell
Whenever I get the urge and sense a hatred surge
I do that thing I do so well
(Chorus)
I’m a Trump-hater, I’m a Trump-hater
Spouting hate for you; yes, it’s true
I’m a Trump-hater, a real Trump-hater
Just hear me now
If the truth I’m forced to tell, I think Trump belongs in Hell
I just can’t say it any stronger
The funny thing you know, my hate just seems to grow
Even though Trump’s gone a year or longer
(Chorus)
I’m a Trump-hater, such a Trump-hater
Spouting hate for you, yes, it’s true
I’m a Trump-hater, a real Trump-hater
Here comes more now
Because I am not shy, I’ll talk about Trump’s “Big Lie”
And how he planned the “Insurrection”
I hope that this will show something you need to know
We all must stop Trump’s “resurrection”
(Chorus)
‘Cos I’m a Trump-hater, a big Trump-hater
I’m here for you, yes, it’s true
I’m a Trump-hater, a big Trump-hater
I’m singing more
A final thing to see, to save our democracy:
We have to have a brand-new country
I think you’ll all agree, to do this properly
Everyone must learn to think like me
(Final Chorus: to be repeated and repeated often)
We need Trump-haters, real big Trump-haters
Oh, hear my cry, I’ve told you why
Dear Feedback readers, become Trump-haters
Please heed my plea!
George Civile
Gardiner
Stage-managed dissent
In a recent letter, Paul Nathe raises an interesting point that too few people give any thought to. To quote him: “I, for one, think climate change is a distraction.”
There used to be a vibrant, well-organized and energetic environmental movement in this country. Today, it has all collapsed to a single issue: “climate change.”
Instead of targeting specific polluters and the specific toxins they put in our environment – something that’s well within our power if we work at it – the well-paid and generously subsidized climate-change professionals advise people to wail about impending “extinction” and lay down in the streets as a protest against changes in the weather.
People who are concerned about climate changes should make the acquaintance of a discipline called paleoclimatology. If they do, they will quickly learn that, well within recorded human history, the planet has been much warmer than it is now, and fluctuations in climate occur all the time and have done so long before industrialization.
Industrialization does cause very real health problems – degraded air quality, diminished water safety, proliferation of toxins – but focus on these issues has dimmed considerably as climate hysteria has grown. There’s no accident in that.
Have you ever wondered where all the money comes from to promote climate-change hysteria – and all the other hysterias afoot today? It’s part of well-designed trend to collapse real issues into caricatures to make protest easier to “manage.”
Instead of organizing around specific, well-defined issues related to the environment, people are being trained to think that climate change is the only thing that matters.
Instead of exposing the fundamental illegitimacy of government having any right at all to regulate the cannabis plant, people are sent on bended knee to beg for monopoly-like rights to sell products made from it to the public at 100 times the cost they could grow it themselves on their own farms or in their gardens and windowboxes.
Instead of rejecting an absolutely corrupt political culture that produces unacceptable candidates, people emotionally take one side or another when offered the choice between garbage and trash (Clinton and Trump in 2016 or Biden and Trump in 2000).
Instead of acknowledging that our system is such that some individuals – of all races and sexual orientation – face real problems and need our help, certain groups are elevated as if their problems alone are worthy of societal recognition and support.
Instead of protesting a corrupt and incompetent medical system (37th in the world and declining every year while twice as expensive as Switzerland’s), the focus is on COVID, a respiratory syndrome that negatively affects only those already in poor health, or who have the misfortune to live in one of the countries, like the US, where early treatment has been ignored and even actively restricted.
The process is called “dumbing-down” and it’s working like a charm.
Ken McCarthy
Tivoli
Hard cell for Gardinerites
A 110-to-130-foot cell tower is being proposed for an outlandish Gardiner location: the Highway Department on South Mountain Road. This is located in a residential area of the Town. Over 75 residents turned out at the final Zoom Planning Board hearing to protest this ten-story structure that would be seen from iconic and protected farm views along Bruynswick Road (a Class 1 scenic road) and from the Minnewaska Park Preserve’s Millbrook ridge, as well as multiple nearby homesites. The hearing was unanimously kept open until February because of local concerns.
Is Gardiner so concerned about tower revenue that they would compromise their real pot of gold: the Shawangunk Ridge?
There are multiple issues not dealt with from environmental noise pollution with the requisite air conditioners and generators; will this tower solve the few dead spots in Town (rumor has it that it will not); a reliable fall zone if the tower flops in the wind or from ice storms; was the balloon test reliable since it was not the requisite eight hours and Wireless Edge said it was too dangerous for their guys to go on the cliffs for photos! All they had to do was walk on the Minnewaska Ridge Trail; and the list goes on.
The Town wants the tower on a municipal site so they can share revenue. This tower is not being constructed by a carrier like AT&T, but by a site developer. The bottom line is money for both. But is it significant and worth degrading the lives of a neighborhood and endangering the health of our beloved Highway Department workers? In this fight we cannot mention radiation or health since it will not hold up in court!
This application for an inappropriate location for a tower is a spoiler from Minnewaska above, the Kiernan Farm, Bruynswick Winery and Whitecliff Vineyard to the east, and to various homeowners in all directions, as well as all the visitors who come to the Shawangunks for recreation and natural beauty. It is an intruder in our midst!
Wireless Edge has already been defeated at two previous municipal locations (2009 at the Transfer Station and a few years later at the Town Hall since they were considering locating it on a wetland and near a jump zone for skydivers). Let’s hope this will be their third strike and they will be out. Surely with advanced technology there are many alternatives to an occasional dead zone. We want good wireless service, but not at the expense of our community and landscape.
Our website, cellno.org, can inform you more about this.
Annie O’Neill
Gardiner
Reflecting on recruitment in Great Resignation
We’ve all heard about the Great Resignation, or the Big Quit, as it’s also called. For local employers, these staff shortages or shifts can be challenging, but, rather than focus on the strains, I’d urge us all, in my role as an HR professional, to look at the opportunities.
The organization I work for, Family Services, Inc., is not immune to the recruitment and retention barriers that many companies are experiencing. In fact, the communities around us in Dutchess, Orange and Ulster Counties have expressed the need for more mental health support in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – and we are responding. Beginning in early 2022, our organization is lengthening its behavioral health center hours and increasing the number of social work staff by nearly 50 percent. How are we doing it in a time like this? By focusing on client outcomes and, just as importantly, employee experiences.
To any organization ramping up, or filling vacant spots, here’s what we’ve learned. Reexamine salaries and benchmarks to ensure you are being competitive. Put progressive benefits in place; our compassionate leave program, something we started more than a decade ago, which allows employees to donate unused time off to their colleagues in need, has become especially relevant recently. Welcome unique contributions when it comes to culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, languages spoken, color, religion, sexual orientation and beliefs. Speak openly about your values and mission; they matter more now than ever before. Ask lots of questions and really listen to employee feedback. The answers you need may very well be right in front of you, and sometimes the best recruitment is to “re-recruit” the valuable team members you have in place.
Christopher R. Pels
Poughkeepsie
Who is watching the taxpayer’s watchdog?
According to our County comptroller – supposedly the taxpayer’s watchdog – the County’s and State’s windfall in sales tax collections, you must realize that rampant inflation in cost of sanitation supplies, masks, household paper products, necessities, home repair materials and home paid for out of pockets of taxpayers, who unlike most public sector employees and elected officials experienced a real decline in their incomes. Capitalizing on the pandemic to build your personal political capital to justify a raise to elected officials whose rich tax-free public benefits don’t show up in their salary line. I expect a little more from a comptroller. Ulster homeowners are losing and falling behind in upkeep of their life savings (homes) while taxpayer-financed land auctions grab their homes without paying them fair value (allowed currently in New York). Denying women and minorities the right to vote used to be allowed too, and selling them at a profit or dealing them at less than fair value to connected cronies.
Bill Berardi
Kingston
Medicare direct programming
As some of you may know, “Medicare Direct Contracting” aims to privatize all Medicare. It contracts with “Direct Contracting Entities” (DCEs): for-profit enterprises.
What I didn’t know until recently is that there are five of them in New York State. One of them, Clover Health, promises your doctor to boost their income and share Clover’s profits with them, giving them an incentive to not order procedures for their patients, thus padding Clover’s profits in which these doctors can share. And once your doctor agrees to the DCE’s terms and limitations, you are bound by them, unless you can find another practice.
As with all DCEs, profits are the name of Clover’s game, and game is how they make their money – first by “gaming” the medical codes to their advantage. They have a proprietary AI program, which comes up with precisely the right codes that will get the most money from the government, wasting billions. And then, like all DCEs, Clover continues to increase profits by cutting corners on your healthcare.
So, the government loses and your readers lose. Who wins? Wall Street – big time. DCEs have become the hottest investment opportunity out there, so that big-money interests – hedge funds et cetera – are falling over themselves in a modern-day “gold rush” to get in on it. CMS has had to pause applications, there have been so many of them.
And these organizations have managing boards composed of as few as 25 percent medical providers – which can mean that what happens to you is determined not by a doctor, but a hedge fund.
I urge each reader to call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the office of their congressional representative; tell them your name and address and ask them please to sign on to Representative Jayapal’s letter demanding that Medicare Direct Contracting be stopped. Tell them why.
Paul R. Cooper
Kingston
Upgrade Glasco Turnpike
I am writing in response to the article Locals driving too fast, page 12, 1.26.22. I was one of the property-owners who discussed the traffic situation on Glasco Turnpike. Also discussed, but not mentioned in the article, was the antiquated state of the infrastructure on the Turnpike.
Not only is there regular car travel, but also semis, county and village dump trucks and various service trucks – all traveling speeds of 40 miles per hour and above. People who bike and walk must share the road with these vehicles. Along portions of the road are old steel railings without any walkways or safe shoulders. These railings should be removed and replaced with a combination railing or wall with a walkway of some sort. These railings have been placed where there is a culvert or a slope, so the pedestrian cannot go on the other side of these barriers to safety because they will either fall into water or end up at the bottom of a ravine.
The elected officials understand the importance of promoting a walkable community. They also understand that Woodstock is a tourist attraction where plenty of short-terms rentals abound. These leaders know it is important to keep Woodstock residents and its visitors safe for all. That is why the state, the county and the local officials need to upgrade Glasco Turnpike now, as to avert any premature death or horrible accident waiting to happen.
Lorraine Felber
Woodstock
Home invasion
Suppose a woman comes to my door and when I open it, she knocks me down. A long time ago, I swore to defend my country from enemies, foreign and domestic, but this time I climb back up to standing behind my walker and tell her to get out of my house. Instead, she ransacks the place and finds my secret stash of fifty bucks, flips me the bird and leaves. No sense calling the cops, they have been told to stand down, and besides, I live in a Sanctuary Town.
Two days later she comes back, walks in as I am not allowed to lock my doors or windows. She is very angry that I didn’t have time to replace the cash. She breaks my 53-year-old wedding picture and walks out.
My home is America and now anyone is free to walk in, steal and break my things, but as I live in the most wonderful, generous country in the world, the people who don’t have a home here are free to take my stuff, a lot of which I have sweat equity in obtaining.
I go to my Town Board meeting and I am told that my white privilege is over, and to be fair, the 95% of the world’s population not living in my beloved country are entitled to take my stuff so they have equity, too.
How did we get such strange-thinking people running our government? And when a mob of unarmed men and women stormed our Capitol, how come the DC cops and the FBI, just blocks away, did not come help those Capitol police, (who are armed)? I think Mrs. Pelosi told them to stay out of it!
Why? I think she wasn’t going to waste a crisis! Very cunning politician.
Paul Nathe
New Paltz
I wear the syndrome proudly
Yeah, cough, “Make America Great Again,” cough, by normalizing the behavior of those who support Trumpism. Can we survive as a democracy with a nation dumbing down? “The stupid is everywhere…”
Well, Trump maybe is the best at something — he did expose the ignorance in our country. The best grifter of chumps and the “easy to dupe” crowd who are also his useful idiots.
Some of the letter writers here say, [paraphrasing] “I’ve got TDS or some such nonsense, and it is way past time for me with my continued anti-Trump rants to hang it up — enough already!”
Move On? This creep Trump tried to install himself as dictator. I’ll “move on” when he’s in jail, exiled or when by natural causes a cool breeze orchestrates a daisy dance over his grave.
Neil Jarmel
West Hurley
Not again!
The sight of armored tanks rolling across Europe is enough to make one ill. Whatever happened to the Peace Movement?
Mel Sadownick
West Hurley
Forensic science truth
Regarding the letter in the 1/26/2022 HV1 issue “More internet myths,” it’s disrespectful author, Lanny Steitz, is the one who needs some educating. First of all, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) charged with investigating the collapse of the three World Trade Center buildings (#1, #2, #7), abandoned the pancake theory early on that Steitz mistakenly asserts caused the collapse
(see #28 paragraph 4 at https://www.nist.gov/world-trade-center-investigation/study-faqs/wtc-towers-investigation).
Furthermore, had there been a pancake collapse, there would have been piles of concrete floors atop each other at the base of the buildings. There were no piles of concrete floors. As a matter of fact, all that was left from a 110-story building was only enough steel to fit in the lobby of that building as 90% of the steel disappeared also.
I know that because I have close-up photos of the demolished WTC buildings taken by my best friend who was a first responder on the scene when it happened. The rare collection of photos was given to me when he passed away from lung problems from breathing the toxic dust at ground zero. There were no piles of concrete floors in those photos. The building’s half-a-million tons of concrete curiously turned into talcum-sized powder and formed pyroclastic clouds. Lower Manhattan was covered with inches inches of concrete dust that floated in the air all the way to New Jersey. Steitz obviously is lacking the knowledge that only two things in the world cause pyroclastic clouds seen around ground zero, and that is volcanoes and controlled demolition. Pancake collapses do not cause pyroclastic clouds because there is not enough energy in a gravitational collapse to “dustify” the concrete floors, so instead you would end up with piles of broken concrete floors on the ground. What does have the energy to create enormous amount of dust is the use of powerful explosives in a controlled demolition setting. In the first few minutes of this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HbD_Q6kmh8) it can be seen the building was not engulfed in flames but was putting out black smoke indicating the fire was oxygen starved and smoldering. Then, suddenly, the top floors of the building instantly turn into dust and the whole building collapses in 12 seconds. That just isn’t how high-rise steel framed buildings on fire react.
Steitz’s jet fuel and metal theory about knocking off the fireproofing doesn’t hold up as 47-story Building #7 was not hit by any planes and it collapsed in seven seconds leaving a pile of steel and no broken concrete floors either.
As far as the molten steel Steitz doesn’t think is real, NYC Firefighters testimonies told of the molten steel they saw “flowing like lava” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG_ePshHA8o).
For accurate information on 911 visit: https://www.lawyerscommitteefor9-11inquiry.org/
or https://www0.ae911truth.org/ (3,000 architects & Engineers).
No “dumbass conspiracy theorists” here Mr. Steitz, only thousands of experienced professionals, using forensic science to explain what really happened on 911.
Steve Romine
Woodstock
The distortion king
In the first paragraph of Neil’s letter of 1-19-22, I thought his OSS psychological profile was describing Biden. Even though Neil was referring to a singular “big lie,” we have already seen countless lies from Biden no matter what questions on any issues he’s weakly tried to answer.
Coup (coup d’e état) is defined as the sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group. Although the January 6 mob demonstration turned riot was a small group of less than 1,000 people, the definition goes on to say that the chief prerequisite of a coup involves control of part or all of the armed forces, the police and other military elements. Obviously, none of these prerequisites were part of this aimless out-of-control mob and its actions on January 6; otherwise, this “coup” would have successfully taken control of our government.
Neil misuses and abuses another term created by his party’s constituents for shock and awe political purposes….. “the insurrection.” It’s true that the mob’s behavior of January 6 loosely meets some people’s stretched definition of “insurrection,” but successful insurrection is associated with a successful takeover of a government by “the insurrectionists” who use severe violence, injury, destruction and death to accomplish their goals. By no means was January 6 a sincere effort to permanently take over our government using such demonic measures. Most of the “folks” to whom Neil refers would hardly describe the “coup” or “insurrection” of January 6 as the “death of our democracy.” It’s funny how Neil fails to describe the actions of the unruly mobs of the summer/fall of 2020 and their far more dangerous violence, looting, arson, death and destruction, including government buildings, as also being that of “insurrectionists” or “domestic terrorists.” A real example of a coup or insurrection would be if Russia was to successfully invade and take over the Ukraine government.
Neil’s attack of Fox News is quite laughable. If his condemnation of Fox was based upon any evidence and facts, Fox would be at the bottom of all news outlet ratings. However, to quite the contrary, all Fox shows consistently mop up the ratings’ floors with CNN, MSNBC, etc. Jesse Watters new primetime show, Jesse Watters Primetime, cleaned the clock of MSNBC’s severely biased Joy Reid in the ratings on his very first show! So, where does fake news consistently reside? Not on Fox News because, if so, they would be at the bottom of the ratings barrel, instead of CNN, MSNBC, et al.
Finally, who can pass up Neil’s comment of “Trump is the worst thing other than war, that has ever happened to our country.” I think blacks and Hispanics, among others, would strongly disagree with that, considering Trump’s pre-pandemic record economic achievements for all Americans of all colors……as well as record stock market figures, record low unemployment for minorities, record business growth, record GDP growth exceeding 3% when Obama said that would be an impossible feat, etc. and say nothing of Trump’s preserving our country’s national security with effective border control against unvetted illegals, deadly fentanyl drugs, felons, traffickers and people on terrorist watch lists. This mountain of successes is so high that Biden can’t even see the top of it, let alone his being able to have the will, experience and intestinal fortitude to begin to try and ascend such a mountain of REAL successes. Biden recently claimed to have achieved record economic growth, in his first year, that hasn’t been seen since the Reagan era. However, look at Biden’s starting point….rock bottom, from an economy gravely shut down and stifled by the pandemic. There’s no way to go but up. What President could not have accomplished such “growth?” Trump had his record economic numbers, not from rock bottom, but from a decent economy handed to him by Obama.
It’s a shame how Neil has allowed his blind venomous hatred of Trump to rob him of his innate ability to view things rationally and neutrally. Such blindness and hatred is what got Biden elected. Now, we’re all paying the dreadful price.
John N Butz
Modena