The first and likely last Trump-Biden debate was a washout, due in part to the opening shot of the moderator, resurrecting the old charge of racist sympathies by the president. Donald Trump denounced racists and racism repeatedly since his first public appearance in his campaign. It’s recorded and easily discovered by any who search. Trump denounced the racists and Nazi sympathizers at Charlottesville but the media continuously repeats only half of his statement where he says “there were many fine people on both sides” but leave off his emphatic denunciation of perpetrators of violence. No matter, as the national media have decided that if they continuously repeat the smear often enough the public will eventually believe it to be true, using the “big lie” to persuade public opinion.
To the subject at hand and in response to “Busting the myth-buster” (Sept. 17), I submit the following: Sorry, you didn’t address the issue of Roosevelt’s racial bias. He treated Black Americans just fine, as long as they kept their place. He did nothing to improve their lot, not even for the White House staff, and permitted legal discrimination to be written into New Deal programs. Truman’s private conversations revealed similar attitudes toward Blacks, and Johnson was even worse. Johnson was coarse in the extreme, a bigot toward Blacks, Jews, and other ethnic groups.
As for the Democrats passing the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, sorry, but a majority of Democrats voted against that legislation. A majority of Republicans voted for them, which is why they passed through Congress. The Democrat “solid-South” remained a bulwark against civil rights and kept Ku Klux Klansman Robert Byrd in the Senate long after that legislation passed. Byrd was a high-ranking member of the KKK until it was unfashionable to be so, and VP Biden, your candidate for president, gave him a glowing eulogy at his funeral.
As for Roosevelt and his New Deal accomplishments: The economy collapsed back into a deep recession on Aug. 27, 1937. Unemployment soared to 13.5 percent (it had been as high as 25 percent in 1932, recovering slowly) and August 1937 had seen the steepest drop in industrial production ever recorded. Jobs disappeared, the stock market lost a third of its value, and unemployment levels returned to the levels of 1931. Federal taxes took an 83 percent bite out of high earners/investors, and New Deal government regulations stifled incentives to invest, making recovery sluggish. Obama saw a similar sluggish recovery after the collapse of 2008. In September of 2012 with no pandemic or economic restrictions, unemployment remained at 7.8 percent. Obama-Biden said this was the new normal. Even with a pandemic and economic restrictions, Trump’s unemployment numbers for September 2020 are 7.9 percent, a tenth of a point’s difference. If the pandemic hadn’t occurred, imagine how much better off we might have been.
Next myth: Mr. Floyd. The autopsy report cited came out before the toxicology report. The toxicology report and additional state/federal analysis indicated Floyd had 11 nanograms of fentanyl in his system: 3 nanograms is normally fatal although a regular user might survive with as much as 9 nanograms. Floyd had 11, and the complete video-record and radio calls show Floyd complaining of respiratory distress (expected with a cocktail of fentanyl and methamphetamine) before being seated in the patrol car, during his time in the car and continuing while being restrained. And, yes, the officers made at least two calls for medical assistance. The upcoming trials should indicate that, and the officers should have more closely monitored Floyd’s condition. That should come out too, although I doubt many on the left will care.
More myths: “It’s proven our terrible wildfire season is a result of climate change.” It’s not. We’ve had extremely hot temperatures before, really hot temperatures. The archives of the San Francisco Chronicle reported temperatures of 130 degrees east of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties in 1859. Actual current temperatures have been 3 to 8 degrees lower than temperatures in the 1910 “Big Burn” and during the 1930s, according to Northern California meteorologist Anthony Watts who submitted his findings to the California Globe.
Foresters have been warning us for decades about the fuel buildup on the West Coast. We have six times the normal ground cover/fuel in the wildlands with homes intruding into the wildland-urban interface. With drought, seasonal wind, and high temperatures, we’re now paying the piper in extreme wildfire. We’ve lost 4 million acres to wildfire, but fire ecologists say we need to burn 20 million acres to balance the system.
Geological records indicate mega-droughts lasting decades in California, and in one case a drought that may have lasted 200 years. We live in a hot Mediterranean climate with bursts of rain, drought, and occasional cold and wet seasons that sometimes massively flood our communities. SLO County experienced extreme drought followed by severe flooding in the 1860s, and we’ve had more recent experiences, like in early January 1973. In a week we received 12 inches of rainfall and on Jan. 18, 1973, we received 3 inches of rain in 45 minutes, flooding most of downtown SLO, the 101 freeway, Madonna Plaza, and Laguna Lake. Sadly, facts matter little to political agendas. Δ
Al Fonzi had a 35-year military career, serving in both the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Respond with a letter to the editor emailed to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in The Awareness Issue.
I do not understand why The New Times continues to provide a platform for Al Fonzi to publish his lies and distortions. For one, Fonzi gleefully points out that a majority of Democrats voted against Civil Rights legislation. Those “Democrats” were “Southern Democrats”, actually Republicans in sheep’s clothing who came to be in the 1850’s, when the Republican party was considered too liberal.
Fonzi’s insistence on holding up George Floyd’s toxology report as eidence that drugs in his system killed him is shamfully misconstrued. Floyd’s official death, no matter what level of drugs in his system, was caused by asphyxiation from pressure to his nect and back. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/george-f…
I agree with Jill and her perplexity about Col. Fonzi’s persistent presence in the R & R section of the New Times. He is a Republican operative and culture warrior, first and foremost – always at the ready with a bogus counter-narrative to fuel white right wing resentment. Are there no bright and intelligent conservatives in all of SLO county that could enlighten us about some actual IDEAS and POLICIES among today’s conservatives?
Since We The People [Voters] get lots of Democrat and Republican rhetoric via the mainstream media and TV ads, why not some Reason from the other ballot qualified political parties? You could invite American Independent, Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom Party leaders to give you readers a different slant on Politics.
The Green and Libertarian candidates, for instance, are on the ballot in all 50 states and D.C.
gail lightfoot
Libertarian Party Country Central Committee Chair
Thanks Al Fonzi for getting the facts in print. I’m tired of the distorted MSM presentations (and missing presentations) aimed at supporting Democrat policies.
By the way, as for the charge that Trump is “racist,” that appears to me one of those whole cloth charges like the claim that he’s supportive of Russia’s Putin. After Hillary approved the sale of 20% of our uranium holdings to the Russians (in concert with which her “charitable foundation” reportedly received a $3.75 million contribution from the buyers), and Obama caving into Putin’s demand that we abandon the East European missile shield, and refusing to sell anti tank weapons to Ukraine as Russian tanks overran Crimea, it’ appears that the prior administration was, in fact, a supplicant to Mr. Putin, while Mr. Trump rallied NATO nations to increase their defensive forces against Russia, sold anti tank weapons to the Ukraine and tried to stop the German/Russian gas pipeline project. These false narratives are difficult for the citizens to perceive when much of what they see on television is generated by misrepresentations.
Much of this political misunderstanding is a consequence of a very biased main stream press, and needs to be called out.
Clovis Dad wants to distract us with “hey, look over there at Obama and Hillary!” I’m not buying his deflecting us to Fox News talking points. Trump’s racism: Attorney Michael Cohen, niece Mary Trump both recall being present to hear Trump’s racist statements. Further, when the falsely accused and long-imprisoned Central Park 4 — young black men — were proven innocent of assaulting a white female jogger, Trump insisted on their guilt anyway. Racism much? Racism a lot when it comes to Trump and his voter-suppressing allies!
Fact checking Fonzi on the Civil Rights legislation supposedly suppressed by Democrats. Here’s the official report from the U.S. Senate office. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/histo…
The final vote was 290 (154 Dems, 136 R’s) – (Nay )- 126 (91 Dems, 35 R’s) in the House of Representatives and 73 (46 Dems, 23 R’s) –27 (21 Dems and 6 R’s )
Dems from the SOUTHERN CONfederate States of AmeriKKKA
NINE OF A TOTAL OF 124 FROM THE SOUTHERN (TRAITOROUS STATES) STATES VOTED FOR THE CRA OF 1964.
9 OF 124??? LOTS OF LIBERALS IN THE SOUTH? lol
” Senate floor for debate.
When the bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, the “Southern Bloc” of 18 southern Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator (John Tower of Texas) led by Richard Russell (D-GA) launched a filibuster to prevent its passage.”
“The economy collapsed back into a deep recession on Aug. 27, 1937. Unemployment soared to 13.5 percent (it had been as high as 25 percent in 1932, recovering slowly) and August 1937 had seen the steepest drop in industrial production ever recorded. “
NO NOT REALLY, FDR JUST HAPPENED TO LISTEN TO THE DEFICIT SCOLDS AND HE CUT SPENDING IN 1937, WE WERE OUT OF THE GOP DEPRESSION UNTIL HE LISTENED TO THE RIGHTIES!!
” In 1936, the government contributed $4.1 billion to consumer purchasing power, versus less than $1 billion in 1937.”
SEE
” Obama saw a similar sluggish recovery after the collapse of 2008. In September of 2012 with no pandemic or economic restrictions, unemployment remained at 7.8 percent. Obama-Biden said this was the new normal.”
BS THEY NEVER SAID THAT! YES THE GOP AND DUBYA’S 8 YEARS OF “JOB CREATOR” POLICIES DUG A DEEP HOLE, ONE THE GOP REFUSED TO HELP US GET OUT OF!
“Even with a pandemic and economic restrictions, Trump’s unemployment numbers for September 2020 are 7.9 percent, a tenth of a point’s difference. If the pandemic hadn’t occurred, imagine how much better off we might have been.”
OR IF HE HAD ACTUALLY TAKEN THE VIRUS SERIOUSLY AND LED??