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Putin setting an example to dictators and wannabes
Russia’s President (Vladimir) Putin is the poster boy for dictators and wannabe dictators who have always proven their disregard for human life.
His dangerous, irrational actions are cause for a worldwide response and action to his threat of using nuclear weaponry if mankind is to survive!
We just can’t let it go unanswered.
HERB STARK
Mooresville
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P.S. — During these hectic times, let’s take a time out and say a heavenly Happy Birthday (on April 1) to a certified Golden Age star, Jane Powell, who passed on Sept. 16, 2021 at age 92.
She is best remembered for her brilliant performances in “7 Brides For 7 Brothers,†“Royal Wedding,†“Small Town Girl†and “Two Weeks With Love,†among many other delightful musicals.
Happy Birthday to the unforgettable Jane Powell!
Biden administration urged to act swiftly against Putin
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letter to the editor was sent to the Daily Planet following Ukraninian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to the U.S. Congress on March 16:
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Proactive, informed leaders do not observe – we call for action, without hesitation.
On Dec. 8, I called for the Biden administration to act swiftly through diplomatic, economic and military levers of our national power.
Today. as President Zelenskyy outlined the fact that the Ukraine war is the most significant security crisis since World War II, there are reactive leaders that are finally starting to stand with Ukraine.
My service along the Russian border affords me the experience and know-how to protect our national interest without committing our national treasures.
The Biden administration has been far too slow in the implementation of sanctions, and the completeness of all sanctions necessary.
We must end any delay in providing Ukraine the lethal aid necessary to protect their sovereignty. Europe now faces a refugee crisis, and we must assist now with humanitarian support.
Americans must say “yes†to bolstering our energy dominance in oil and natural gas.
Dominance means we must accept pipelines as the safest means to transport energy and we must protect our energy supply from cyber-attacks.
Using our energy dominance is one of the strongest actions we can take to help our allies fight back and end (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s ability to use energy to fund his war.
I was born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains. I am also a combat military veteran and the only candidate who has trained Ukrainian soldiers to defend themselves in this war.
My family and the people of Western North Carolina find it heart-breaking to watch the video showing the bombing of maternity wards, the killing of innocent civilians, and Putin’s war crimes.
Make no mistake, Putin is a war criminal and a thug.
Recently my family and I met and prayed with our local Ukraine community. We found initiatives to offer humanitarian support available and encourage others to contact their local communities.
We stand with Ukraine.
ROD HONEYCUTT
Asheville
Honeycutt, a Republican, is running for the North Carolina Congress in District 11.
‘Snowflake’ Biden takes U.S. to brink of nuclear war; time to learn yoga
You were 100 percent correct last night about Ukraine.
Listening to the rhetoric from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, it looks like we aren’t but about two moves away from nuclear war.
A commentator said this morning that this is more dangerous than the Cuban missile crisis.
So this president (Joe Biden) has taken us back to 1962. I doubt he is of the caliber of a President (John F.) Kennedy, or a Ronald Reagan, or a Donald Trump.
He certainly is no (Dwight D.) Eisenhower, (Harry S.) Truman, or (Franklin D.) Roosevelt.
This snowflake has taken me back to my youth. I was 11 years old in 1962, and the jingle that keeps running around in my head this morning is “Duck and Cover.†(“‘Duck and cover’ is a method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion,†according to Wikipedia.)
I have started planning for the future. I’m learning yoga, so I will be able to take my 70-year-old body, place my head firmly between my legs and kiss my a-- goodbye.
One thing he hasn’t brought back from my youth though is cheap gas.
In a democracy, you get what you vote for.
I am not enjoying the “deja vu†with my grandchildren. Thanks, I didn’t like his (Trump’s) tweets.
ROGER BUCKNER
Asheville
Ted Rall column termed proof Russia is in the right
The syndicated newspaper column headlined “How we got here: A brief history of Ukraine conflict,†by syndicated columnist Ted Rall, which appeared in the March 16-29 edition of the Asheville Daily Planet, provides proof that when it comes to the Ukraine war, Russia is in the right and Ukraine and the global community of allies are in the wrong.
Russia is the good guy and Ulkraine and its global allies are the bad guys and heavies!
Elon Musk has publicly challenged Putin to a “street fight and brawl!â€
Who does Musk think he is — Rocky Balboa versus the Russian heavyweight Ivan Drago in (the film) “Rocky IV?â€
Or maybe Musk has been binge-listening to Mick Jagger’s (and the Rolling Stones’ hit song) “Street Fighting Man.â€
The way I heard it, Musk’s only street fightin’ expereince was b---h-slapping Kim Kardashion! (You go, boy!)
Musk reminds me of Justin Beiber, who challenged Tom Cruise to a “street fight†a couple years ago.
I believe I am drifting away from the point of this letter, which is that the syndicated newspaper editorial (column), “How we got here: A brief history of Ukraine conflict†proves Russia has every right to invade and attack and destroy Ukraine to keep Ukraine from joining NATO and placing missiles in Ukraine and being an armed and NATO-supported enemy on Russia’s doorsteps!!!
RICHARD D. POPE
Hendersonville
Tucker Carlson labeled a traitor for praise of Putin
“It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States…â€
— Russia’s Department of Information snd Telecommunications Support
(March 3, 2022)
The unending pathetic parallels between the elderly, anti-American Fox “News†viewing audience and the brainwashed Russian viewers of Kremlin-controlled state media are too obvious to ignore, unless you’re unfortunate enough to be a racist right-wing Republican fool who is both deeply delusional and wrong.
First of all, pro-Putin fascist Fox “News†and Soviet-style Russian state media are both almost entirely targeted towards the 85-to-Dead demographic.
In other words, their nonstop lies, extremist political propaganda and psychological warfare are intended for great-grandmas and great-grandpas who may not necessarily be in touch with the present zeitgeist to begin with, which, frankly, is just a nice way of saying Alzheimer’s Disease.
Now, if you happen to be 85 or older, congratulations!
You’ve made it this far, which is an accomplishment in itself.
Please don’t be personally offended by the obvious truth or by the fact that I mentioned it. (Far-right faked outrage is so unbecoming.)
Some racist, old, brainwashed Russia-loving granny can do her best impression of Dana Carvey’s Church Lady in a letter of response to this esteemed publication if she wishes, but who cares?
Conservative politicians and their far-right fascist Brownshirt brethren (who are now fully in control of the Republican Party after Putin puppet-for-life Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the GOP in 2016) need to shut up for once about how much they love Vladimir Putin, if they know what’s good for them!
Names are being taken, the never-ending video evidence of Trumptarded treason is being archived, and anti-American a---s will most definitely be kicked come election time.
Who told you traitors to take Russia’s side against the United States of America in the first place?
Oh yeah, that’s right, it was Trump.
JAKE PICKERING
Arcata, Calif.
Reader criticizes ‘Voter Alert’ ad; rips Cawthorn
I am struck by the cleverly racist full-page “Voter Alert†ad, paid for by Chris Peterson — an ad that places Debra Campbell, the black Asheville city manager, between pictures of Esther Manheimer and Brownie Newman.
The text tells us after 30 years of Democratic leadership “and now...Debra Campbell [followed by] #4. Defunding Police.†As if all black city managers are in support of “defunding police.†This is an unsubstantiated political ad. No quotes offered.
The March 2-15, 2022, front page reminds us of the splendid, inconsequential legislation offered by U.S. Rep. Cawthorn:
a bill [that] “would send troops to secure U.S. border, if troops [are] sent to the Ukraine border."
Rather than focus on the Southern U.S. border, I would suggest Rep. Cawthorn spend more time looking at health care reform — on things that matter most to senior citizens, or to those who haven’t already been bankrupted by our health care system.
He should introduce legislation to lower Medicare eligibility to (age) 60; cover dental, vision and hearing; empower Medicare to negotiate drug prices; and capping out-of-pocket costs for insurance.
ROGER TURNER
Asheville
Right-wing billionaire oligarchs pose a threat
I beleve that Jane Mayer, author of the book “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,†is light-years ahead of the national Democrats when it comes to her thinking and insights.
She has exposed many of those who are behind a lot of the growth of anti-government hyper-individualism and hyper-libertarianism ideology since 1980.
She points out that there is a group of radical right-wing billionaire oligarchs who, behind the scenes, have funded much of the national conservative news media, conservative talk-shows, conservative think-tanks and policy institutes (which far outnumber the liberal/progressive ones), and the growing number of extremely conservative Republican members of Congress who serve as their lackeys and stooges.
These oligarchs want to abolish all federal government social programs, especially Social Security, which is the one that they hate the most, NOT because they care about our huge national debt and being fiscally responsible, but because they want the federal income tax and all corporation taxation to be abolished, thus selfishly enriching themselves even more by paying no taxes at all.
These billionaire oligarchs are grooming, playing, conning, scamming and manipulating 330 million Americans, whose interests they do not represent.
STEWART B. EPSTEIN
Rochester, N.Y.
‘I was educated in an unconstitutional era’
Today, Feb. 14, five young people came to my door.
“Mr. H.K., have you got time to answer a few questions for my friends and I?†came the request from the lone young white girl.
“Mr. H.K., we observed you early this morning don the Confederate soldier’s uniform while standing on the overpass of I-240, brandishing the Confederate flag.
“How can a black man do such a thing, especially during Black History Month, and of all things ... here in the South?
“And are you a veteran?â€
I answered that it is ironic that my ancestors served in the integrated armed services under the banner of the Southern Cross, and the U.S. Colored troops under the segregated Stars and Stripes, which would not integrate until President Harry Truman in 1948 signed Executive Order 9981.
When I was approximately 12 years old, I was caddying for one of my favorite Southern white men, the Hon. Mason Rankin, who was the owner of Rankin Oil, which is now Zebulen Oil Company.
I asked him why black kids were still going to schools when the Supreme Court ruling in 1954 (the year I first entered the first grade) — Brown vs. the School Board of Topeka — overturned the Plessey vs. Ferguson ruling.
The new decision stated that racial segregation violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The ruling made it unconstitutional to separate students of different races in public schools. I was educated in an unconstitutional era.
And this is how he answered my question... “Son, I had an associate from Kansas, — and I asked him basically the same question, and he replied:
“‘Mason, the white men in the North do not give a hoot about how you treat your n.......s. They have not forgotten that it was they who stood with you Rebels during the Civil War, and were just as responsible as every Southern white man for the loss of Northern lives. Keeping them separated from you makes it a weaker South.’
“He (Rankin) went on to say, ‘You keep your good manners, hard work ethic, respectful nature, and remember that somebody is always watching you. And to hell with Jim Crowe, you will be successful.’"
Not long afterwards, the Hon. Ellis Cannady would take me into his company, M.B.Haynes Electric Corp., where I would be the first black man to work for the company. They sent me to Asheville-Buncombe Technical Institute to study the theory of electricity, and later to Durham Technical Institute to study electronics. And then I went into the United States Army Strategic Microwave School in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, later becoming an instructor of basic and advanced electronics in the school brigade.
I credit Mr. Cannady for saving my life and that of so many soldiers — red, yellow, brown, black, white and foreign nationals — who came through and passed my class, and never had to fire a shot or be shot at because their jobs were in the (U.S. Army) Signal Corps. I would later serve on the Army Race Relations Council of Fort Monmouth.
Under the same federal flag with orders from (then-President Abraham) Lincoln to take the theater of war to the front door of defenseless old men, women and children, (Union Gen. William Tecumseh) Sherman would tell his men there would never be an accounting for what they would do.
They raped, murderered, burned homes and lands, killed farm animals and plundered — all the while brandishing the Stars and Stripes.
And when the war was over, 12 more years of hell would follow. Establishment of the Federal School and so called Freedmen’s Bureau, with Northern school teachers poisoning the minds of our Southern children against their families — and blacks against whites ... almost totally pushing the loving relations and relationships between the black and white man aside.
And now, as the evil attacks on our (Southern heritage) war memorials escalate, I shall leave you with the address by President William Howard Taft to the United Daughters of the Confederacy at the dedication of the Confederate soldiers cenotaph at Arlington National Cemetery:
“Ladies of the United Daughters of the Confederacy... I beg to welcome you to Washington. You have captured this city beautiful and made it more lovely by your presence.
“As its temporary head, I give you the freedom of the city, and recognize that in what you you have done you have founded a shrine and an altar here which will be visited in the future by many a faithful pilgrim.
“If the occasion which brings you here were the mourning of the bier of a lost cause, I know that the nice sense of propriety of a fine old social school would have prevented you from inviting me as the president of the United States to be present.
“You are not here to mourn or support a cause... You are here to celebrate, and justly to celebrate the heroism, the courage, and the sacrifice to the uttermost of your fathers and your brothers and your mothers and your sisters and all of your kin in a cause which they believed in their hearts to be right and for which they were willing to lay down their lives.
“That cause ceased to be, except in history, now more than half a century ago. It was one which could elicit from half a nation and a brave and war like race a four years struggle in which lives, property, and everything save honor were willingly parted with for its sake.
“So great was the genius for military leadership of many of your generals, so adaptable was the individual of your race to effective warlike training, so full of patriotic sacrifice were your people that now, when the bitterness of the struggle on our part of the North has passed away, we are able to share with you of the South your just pride in your men and women who carried on the unexampled contest to an exhaustion that few countries ever suffered.
“The calm observer and historian, whatever his origin, may now rejoice in his heart that the Lord ordained it as it is. But no son of the South and no son of the North with any spark of pride race can fail to rejoice in that common heritage of courage and glorious sacrifice that we have in the story of the Civil War, and in both sides in the Civil War. God bless you!â€
Your brother,
H.K. EDGERTON
Chairman of the Board of Advisors Emeritus of the Southern Legal Resource Center
Member, Save Southern Heritage
Honorary Life Member, Texas and Kentucky Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans
Honorary Life Member, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia Orders of the Confederate Rose
President, Southern Heritage 411
Asheville
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