December 18, 2022
Hello, Editors of the NY Times:
I was unable to read the online news article, below, in your e-newspaper that greatly interests me:
"Military Spending Surges, Creating New Boom for Arms Makers"
The New York Times, December 18, 2022
"The combination of the war in Ukraine and concern about longer-term threats from Russia and China are driving a bipartisan push to increase U.S. capacity to produce weapons."
Nonetheless, I wish to comment on it. After the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, Russia's economy collapsed, which destabilized the nation and regions of Eastern Europe. Prior to the demise of the U.S.S.R., the U.S.A. and Russia had a competitive market for arms sales. During the Bill Clinton administration, the U.S. Government took over a large portion of Russia's market share of arms sales. The U.S. economy boomed during this time of peace between the two adversarial former Cold War Superpowers because the U.S. Government made a killing (pun intended) on selling arms to the world during the 1990s.
20 years ago, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and John Forbes Kerry all voted for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, which holds the world's second largest oil reserves next to Saudi Arabia, whose leaders have never been brought to justice for the terrorist attacks on the U.S.A. on September 11th, 2001, which led to the U.S. military conflict in Afghanistan, which ended in the late-Summer of 2021.
Meanwhile, Russia' authoritarian dictator Putin invaded neighboring countries and his invasion of Ukraine earlier this year of 2022. Meanwhile, China's Communist dictator Xi is planning his invasion of Taiwan. To recap, the U.S.A. invaded Iraq with Joe Biden's vote and support, Russia invaded Ukraine, and China is planning to invade Taiwan.
In 2023, the U.S. economy will be entering an economic recession. The U.S. Government cannot go to war against Russia and/or China without the threat of nuclear war, which would be the end of the World as we now know it. Joe Biden, who took in more money from Wall Street and K Street than any other political candidate in U.S. history, is spending more money than any other U.S. President in U.S. history, especially on the military industrial complex, which produced the following headline in the New York Times: "Military Spending Surges, Creating New Boom for Arms Makers".
There is an irony to Joe Biden's Green New Deal platform because the single biggest polluter of greenhouse gases in the world is the U.S. military industrial complex, which produces more global warming pollution than 140 countries combined. The Green New Deal and record military spending are mutually exclusive when it comes to limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
In closing, it is clear that war profits for Wall Street are far more important than saving our world's future from the dangers of climate change for Joe Biden and the rest of the corrupt career politicians in the Swamp.
Jonathan A. Melle
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December 23, 2022
The Federal Reserve keeps raising interest rates over and over again to fight inflation, while U.S. Congress is sending U.S. President Joe Biden a $1.7 trillion spending package with most of the federal dollars printed out of thin air. The military industrial complex is receiving record high federal funding, despite the fact that it is one of the biggest polluters of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Meanwhile, the Democrats who voted for additional U.S. Government war profits for Wall Street are also telling us that they are fighting for the Green New Deal. How any of these contradictory policies make any rational sense is beyond my comprehension. The only way I am able to understand it all is by saying that Up is Down and Down is Up in the Swamp!
Jonathan A. Melle
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December 31, 2022
What a run of U.S. Presidents we have had and still have. Bill Clinton is a twice convicted Felon due to his many years of sexual misconduct, and he has 26 flight logs on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet to pedo-island whereby minor teenage girls as young as 14 years old were sexually abused, exploited and raped by rich and powerful men. George W. Bush was an alcoholic and sinner until he was 40 years old in 1986 and then he was born again and found Jesus in his middle age and old age. Barack Obama admitted to drug use when he was a young man. Donald Trump openly cheated on all three of his wives and said on a hot mic that he likes to grab women by their [meows]. Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden is a recovering crack cocaine addict and alcoholic who domestic abusively spent his fortune on drugs, strippers and sex workers. Hunter Biden allegedly committed financial fraud overseas with adversarial countries, including China, and he allegedly money laundered millions if not over $1 billion, which the Republican U.S. House Members said that they are going to investigate in 2023, which will lead to Joe Biden's impeachment - but not his conviction - and Joe Biden already hired him impeachment lawyers earlier in 2022.
Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden should make all of their family members financially whole again because they are worth many millions of dollars, and it would be the right to do for the country.
Jonathan A. Melle
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News Article:
"Hunter Biden's ex-stripper lover requests to change their child's last name to Biden"
Patrick Hauf, Fox News via Yahoo!, December 30, 2022
The mother of Hunter Biden's 4-year-old daughter requested in court to change the last name of her child so she can "benefit from carrying the Biden family name."
Lunden Roberts, a former exotic dancer, made the request through her lawyer Tuesday in a case where Hunter asked to lower his child support payments. Roberts' lawyer asked the court to dismiss this request due to Hunter's "long, and lengthy, history of attempting to avoid discovery by filing endless and recurrent motions for protective orders." She countered with a request that their daughter, Navy, takes the Biden last name.
"To the extent this [estrangement] is misconduct or neglect, it can be rectified by changing her last name to Biden so that she may undeniably be known to the world as the child of the defendant and member of the prestigious Biden family," her lawyer wrote, according to documents first reported by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and reviewed by the New York Post.
Hunter initially claimed he had no recollection of meeting Roberts, but he was later ordered to pay child support in 2020 after a DNA test proved he is the father of Navy.
Roberts' lawyer argued that the Biden last name would benefit Navy because it is "now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute, and politically powerful." The lawyer also asked for information on the federal tax fraud investigation into Hunter, for which Roberts reportedly testified.
Roberts previously worked at a strip club in Washington, D.C. She claims neither Hunter nor his father, the president, have met the child.
President Biden refused to provide security for Roberts and her daughter after they were threatened by her ex-fiancé, who is an MMA fighter, according to The Daily Mail.
Roberts was on the payroll of Hunter's consulting firm while she was pregnant, according to text messages reviewed by The Post.
caption: Hunter Biden requested to lower his child support to his daughter, Navy
caption: Hunter Biden's ex-stripper lover claims he, nor his father, the president, have met her child
caption: Hunter Biden embraces his wife, Melissa Cohens, as their son Beau plays in the ocean
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January 2, 2023
I read Alan Chartock's column in the Berkshire Edge online newspaper about the two political parties being a fantasy. For the most part, he is right about the ruling elites being in bed with the financial and corporate elites. I would add that some politicians use partisanship to gain power, but they are not really interested in being either a Democrat or a Republican. To illustrate, Peter J. Larkin was a Democrat when he was a Pittsfield (Mass.) State Representative many years ago, but he always did the bidding of GE. One cannot be more Republican than that! To illustrate, Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. was a Democrat when he was a Pittsfield (Mass.) State Senator many years ago, but he was always in bed with Boston's big banks and insurance companies. Even the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) wrote that Nuciforo is a fiscal conservative. In New Hampshire, it is the opposite with politicians running as Republicans because that is where the power is in the Granite State. When John Lynch was Governor of New Hampshire many years ago, he was a Democrat that a lot of Republicans supported because he was a fiscal conservative. The point I am making is that politicians go where the money and power is even if it means running a Democrat in Massachusetts or a Republican in New Hampshire.
I am interested in Erin Leahy at Act on Mass' statewide campaign in Massachusetts to oust all of the corrupt career Democratic Party politicians on Beacon Hill in 2024. One of the things that interests me about it is that I predict that she may see some of the challengers say they are Democrats who support her organization's progressive agenda and push for Sunshine Laws on Beacon Hill, but once they would be in elected office in Boston, they may end up being corrupt career politicians themselves. It never ends when it comes to politics and politicians.
In closing, I jokingly asked my fellow Veterans how you know when a politician is NOT lying? I was going to say when his lips are not moving, but one of the Veterans shouted, when he is dead. We all laughed, but the way things are going lately is not very funny at all.
Jonathan A. Melle
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.... plus all of their offshore accounts, bribes from lobbyists, under the table payola, their political "crime" family members' loot, and so on....
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January 5, 2023
Re: "Rally for Democracy" at Park Square at 12-noon on Saturday, January 7th, 2023.
Speakers include community activist Shirley Edgerton, and State Reps Tricia Farley-Bouvier and John Barrett III, and old is new again State Senator Paul Mark. They will thank the January 6th (2021) Committee for investigating Donald Trump's role in the insurrection on Capitol Hill two weeks prior to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' swearing into the Offices of U.S President and U.S. Vice President.
Will Shirley, Tricia, John and Paul also call for a Congressional Committee to investigate Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, for his allegedly illegal and unethical business and political practices that may have involved and benefited his father?
Will Shirley, Tricia, John and Paul also call for a Congressional Committee to investigate Joe Biden's "fist bump" meeting with Saudi Crown Prince MBS in Riyadh on July 15th, 2022, which contradicted Joe Biden's campaign promises in 2020, along with his Green New Deal "HOT AIR" that has cost tens of thousands of American jobs and led to the current energy crisis?
What about the state's failure in the Holyoke Soldiers Home debacle in 2020 whereby around 80 Veterans died of Covid-19, which cost state taxpayers $56 million in legal settlements? Shouldn't Beacon Hill lawmakers investigate that fiasco, too?
What about Beacon Hill's secretive and corrupt governance that the current Berkshire delegation all voted to uphold by opposing Sunshine Laws reforms? Shouldn't Beacon Hill lawmakers investigate why they support "Cooking the Books" to enrich themselves and their wealthy campaign donors at the public trough, too?
In closing, I believe that the "Rally for Democracy" in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is really about deflecting their own failures of leadership by blaming Donald Trump for everything that is wrong with the government. Look in the proverbial mirror, please, Shirley, Tricia, John & Paul!
Jonathan A. Melle
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January 14, 2023
Hello Amy at Win Without War,
I signed your petition to request that U.S. President Joe Biden please invite as a guest to his 2023 State of the Union Address a political dissident of MbS and Saudi Arabia for their record of Human Rights abuses. After I read your political email, I wish to add that in 2020, then candidate for U.S. President took then sitting U.S. President Donald Trump to the proverbial mat for Trump's close relationship with MbS, favorable treatment of Saudi Arabia, and his support for the oil and gas industry whereby Saudi Arabia has the number one oil and gas reserves in the world. Of course, Iraq has the second largest oil and gas reserves in the world, and two decades ago, then U.S. Senator Joe Biden - along with then U.S. Senator John Forbes Kerry and then U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton - voted for then U.S. President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. Of course, Putin's Russia and Xi's China is met with criticism by U.S. President Joe Biden over Putin's invasion of Ukraine and Xi's threat to invade Taiwan. I know, it is a lot to follow and try to deal with all of Joe Biden's many double standards!
On July 15th, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden went to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and he fist bumped Saudi Crown Prince MbS on a global stage. Several months after Biden met with MbS, the Democratic Party faced the surging Republican Party in the 2022 midterm elections. As the leader of the Democratic Party, U.S. President knew that if he lowered oil and gas prices, then the Democratic Party would not lose as many seats in the November 8th, 2022, midterm elections. He was right, as there are currently 222 Republican Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 213 Democrat Members of the U.S. Congress, and there are 51 Democrats/Independent Members of the U.S. Senate - and Biden's U.S. V.P. Kamala Harris - and 49 Republican Members of the U.S. Senate. In 2023, Joe Biden and the Democrats control the U.S. Senate, and the Democrats have 213 Democrats in the U.S. House. To be clear, Joe Biden's meeting with MbS worked in terms of his political strategy for the Democratic Party.
In 2020, Joe Biden promised the families who lost their loved ones in the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks to hold the Pariah State Saudi Arabia accountable for its violent crimes against the U.S.A. Joe Biden promised to end U.S. reliance on Saudi oil and gas by transforming our energy policies to the Green New Deal. Joe Biden promised to stand up to MbS for his record of Human Rights abuses. But at the same time in 2020, Joe Biden was (always) Wall Street's Golden Boy who received more campaign donations from Wall Street and its K Street corporate lobbyists than any other political candidate in U.S. History.
What is the U.S. Government's number one non-farm export to the world? The answer is Arms Sales. Who makes a killing (pun intended) on Arms Sales and War (whereby many millions of foreign Peoples have been killed by the U.S. Armed Forces since the end of WW2)? The answer is Wall Street. What is the number one cause of greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming? The answer is the military industrial complex. What two countries account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions that is causing global warming? The answer is the two countries with the largest militaries: China and the U.S.A. Once again, who has been in the Swamp for 50 years by being Wall Street's Golden Boy? Once again, the answer is Joe Biden!
Democrats such as Ed "Maryland" Markey (D - HOT AIR) and Elizabeth Warren (D - NOT living in Main Street U.S.A.) fully support Joe Biden and his so-called Green New Deal policies that are directly contradicted by Joe Biden's double life as an agent of Wall Street, Arms Sales and War, the military industrial complex and its greenhouse gas emissions, his political strategy of being in bed with Saudi Crown Prince MbS as his political strategy to help the Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections, and so on. These same Democrats will stop at nothing to criticize Donald Trump for all of the same things that Joe Biden has done in a little less than last 2 years in the White House.
If I have your head spinning in circles, then don't worry because my head is also spinning around and around trying to comprehend the double life of Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, too.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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Jonathan: The fist bump was heard ‘round the world.
President Biden, who had pledged to treat Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman as a pariah because of his horrific human rights record and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has instead sent mixed messages on his policy towards Saudi Arabia. The good news is that, in just a matter of days, he will have the unique chance to send a loud, clear, and unequivocal message to defend human rights — but Biden will only do this if we urge him to.
Every year, the President delivers the State of the Union, and one of the big moments that gets the world’s attention is when the President introduces his special guests. This year, let’s make sure that President Biden shows that he supports those fighting for human rights in Saudi Arabia — and NOT their murderous rulers — by inviting a Saudi human rights defender as his State of the Union guest.
Can you help us send a powerful message to end Saudi impunity by calling for President Biden to invite a Saudi human rights defender to the State of the Union?
ACT NOW
On the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised to “revitalize our national commitment to advancing human rights and democracy around the world.” He also promised to make Saudi Arabia’s de-facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman a “pariah” for murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Unfortunately, as president, his record has been far more ambivalent.
While he scaled back some U.S. support for the Saudi regime’s war in Yemen, he has not ended all support. Despite releasing a government report proving MbS was behind Khashoggi’s horrific murder, the Biden administration has failed to meaningfully hold the Saudi Crown Prince accountable. And of course, as global oil prices soared, the president gave MbS that infamous fist bump while visiting Saudi Arabia, undermining the pledge to hold him accountable.
But it’s not too late for President Biden to change course. After Saudi Arabia ignored U.S. outreach and instead chose to try and drive oil prices even higher last fall, the president declared there would be “consequences.” We know exactly how to turn these words into action.
The Saudi Crown Prince is desperate to hide his record of horrific human rights abuses. Brave activists in Saudi Arabia fighting for basic rights like freedom of speech have been met with torture, jail, and death. Activists like us can help ensure the Crown Prince’s media machine doesn't continue silencing their voices. If President Biden invites a Saudi human rights activist as his State of the Union guest, he’ll help their story capture international media's attention and help spread the truth.
But this will only happen if WE make it happen. Right now, the President’s team is drafting the State of the Union and exploring options for this year’s guests. The window is closing to make sure that a Saudi human rights defender is invited. Let’s seize this moment and demand President Biden finally send a loud, clear message with actions, not just words.
Sign Now: Send a powerful message that an era of Saudi impunity is over by calling on President Biden to invite a Saudi human rights defender to the State of the Union!
Thank you for working for peace,
Amy and the Win Without War team
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January 23, 2023
Hello, Win Without War Team,
I received your political email today about: "A proposed rule would require government contractors to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, and that includes massive greenhouse gas emitters like Raytheon and Boeing. That’s not all: This rule would also force these contractors to have a plan to reduce emissions."
The U.S. Government's number one non-farm export is arms sales. The number one polluter of global warming emissions is the Pentagon. Since WW2, the U.S. Government's military industrial complex has grown larger and larger as the years and decades passed by. The U.S. Armed Forces have killed millions upon millions of foreign Peoples so that Wall Street and the Swamp can profit off of war. The billions upon billions of dollars in U.S. arm sales exports to the world per year has resulted in millions upon millions of deaths and Humanitarian crises around the world so that Wall Street and the Swamp can profit off of war.
Domestically, the state and local governments over-police the low to moderate income citizens, and the U.S.A. has a large per capita rate of incarceration, especially among the marginalized population called the Underclass. Around 50 percent of prisoners arrive there as illiterate because they never had an adequate education. Instead of the government using its limited financial resources to build the U.S.A.'s 50-year and counting higher decimated middle class, the financial, corporate and ruling elites use U.S. tax dollars for "Guns and Butter".
Why do we even have a U.S. Congress anymore? They are really the middlemen and middle-women for Wall Street and K Street. Joe Biden recently signed a federal spending bill that gave the Pentagon a little less than $1 trillion this fiscal year. Yes, it is the same Joe Biden who spews his HOT AIR about the Democrat's Green New Deal. 2 + 2 = 5!
Best regards,
Jonathan A. Melle
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"John Kerry"
Letter to the Editor of The Boston Herald, January 23, 2023
Unbelievable how a person can be so hypocritical and so many people believe in his climate change rhetoric. I’m talking about John Forbes Kerry with his huge yacht that he motors around Nantucket, his private jet that he flies around the world and Biden naming him climate czar. So here’s America spending billions of dollars a year on climate change throughout America and the world but does anyone think or believe China, Russia, India or Africa are going to make any major climate change commitments. If your answer is yes, I got a bridge to sell you.
Tony Meschini, Scituate
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January 29, 2023
Please take a few minutes to read the following email, below, about Joe Biden's new Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients. He played a role in defrauding Medicare and Medicaid recipients for millions of dollars. He has held many executive positions, and he is an administrator more concerned with forcing Americans back into work than following trusted public health guidance.
Joe Biden has been in the Swamp for the past 50 years, which coincides with the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites' systematic decimation of the middle-class in the U.S.A. over the past 50 years. Joe Biden is a corporate Democrat who took in more money from Wall Street and K Street - as well as from China via Hunter Biden - in 2020 than any other politician in U.S. history. Joe Biden's so-called Green New Deal contradicts his a little less than $1 trillion Pentagon budget this fiscal year. The Pentagon is the single largest polluter of greenhouse gases in the world.
Over the first two years of the Joe Biden presidency, the federal government has printed between $7 trillion to as much as $10 trillion out of thin air. In my history classes of old, I remember that Napoleon's downfall was that he ran the printing presses to the point of hyperinflation in France. Joe Biden's excessive big government deficit spending is making Napoleon look like a fiscal conservative. The U.S. national debt is over $31.5 trillion and will continue to increase as the years go by. Many fiscally responsible people fear that their life savings will vanish in their future old age due to the threat of hyperinflation.
Why is the federal government always spending trillions of dollars, but the American people are worse off than ever since Joe Biden's corrupt political career began in the Swamp began 50 years ago? Where does all of the big government's money really go to? Whatever happened to the government investing in the people and the communities and states they live in to build a strong U.S. middle-class? The answer is that Joe Biden and his new Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients happened!
Jonathan A. Melle
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Jonathan,
President Biden has appointed a new Chief of Staff — and honestly, he couldn’t be worse. Establishment Democrats have applauded his work and glorified his results despite his role in corrupt practices for many years.
This is exactly why we’re here — to challenge and change the Democratic Party until it actually responds to the needs of the people, not the wealthy and powerful.
So who exactly is the man that Biden hand-picked to be his Chief of Staff?
While tasked with running the federal government’s COVID program, Jeffrey Zients earned a reputation as an administrator more concerned with forcing Americans back into work than following trusted public health guidance. His qualifications for the job?
He invested in multiple health care companies and held executive roles, which supposedly made him a policy expert who deserved the authority to override medical and health professionals.
And it gets worse.
Zients personally invested in multiple health care companies, including one he founded himself. Several were found to have defrauded Medicare and Medicaid recipients for millions of dollars — some companies were even investigated by the Department of Justice.
This is the man appointed to one of the highest-ranking positions in the White House — seriously? If this is what passes for leadership in the Democratic Party, we have a problem.
It’s past time for the party to be moving forward, not falling back on the same old corrupt patterns that have helped cause so many Americans to lose faith in our political system. That’s why Justice Democrats is here to stay.
It’s our job to keep pushing relentlessly to transform the Democratic Party, and we can’t do it without your help. We’re coming up on our end of month fundraising deadline — can you chip in $3 or any amount today?
In solidarity,
Justice Democrats
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February 4, 2023
Hello, the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle),
Why does your dirty rag of a newspaper still support GE's position on the so-called cleanup of PCBs in Pittsfield down south to Sheffield? What about Connecticut down south to the Long Island Sound? If you care to answer my question, please consider the following points:
* GE has made no financial commitment to the Rest of the River cleanup, which would cost GE somewhere around $1 billion and take around 15 years to complete after its would-be start date in the possible future
* GE is a heavily indebted company that almost went bankrupt during the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009, but old billionaire Warren Buffet saved GE back then
* All of GE's caps have expiration dates and they need to be monitored daily from day one for the spread of GE's industrial chemicals called PCBs
* GE's proposed capped leaky landfill is in a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River that is above the October Mountain aquifer; What could go wrong with that?
* GE no longer employs even one employee in Pittsfield and Berkshire County; GE doesn't give a shit about Pittsfield and the beautiful Berkshires other than its financial liabilities there
* The corrupt EPA has no integrity and has been plagued by scandalous environmental policies for many years; Why would anyone trust the EPA at this point? The EPA is bought and paid for by the corporate polluters and the corrupt career politician sellouts in the U.S. Congress!
* The local residents of Lee and Lenoxdale overwhelmingly oppose the would-be so-called cleanup project, and their property values would plummet
* The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) writes about supporting open government, but the government on all levels operated in total secrecy when they sold the Berkshires out for another round of 30 promised pieces of silver from GE
* Pittsfield has cancer cluster neighborhoods, and Hill 78's leaky landfill abuts Allendale Elementary School, which is unconscionable!
* GE lobbyist Peter Larkin made millions of dollars by selling out Pittsfield over the past many years now, and K Street PAC Man Richie Neal is the ultimate corporate Democrat in the Swamp, which has nothing to do whatsoever with the people he is supposed to be representing in Western Massachusetts!
* Ed "Maryland" Markey, who campaigned in 2020 on the progressive Democrat's Green New Deal lies, as did then presidential candidate Joe Biden - who only a mere two years later publicly fist-bumped MBS on the world stage after taking Donald Trump to the proverbial mat over MBS in 2020 - fully supports GE's so-called cleanup and toxic waste leaky landfill proposal
NOTE: Why is Ed Markey getting a pass on living in an upper-class suburb in Chevy Chase, Maryland instead of living in Massachusetts? Why is Ed Markey getting a pass on being in GE's pocket instead of fighting for his constituents in Lee and Lenoxdale who oppose GE's proposed leaky landfill in Lee? Why is Joe Biden getting a pass on taking it to Donald Trump over MBS and Saudi Arabia during the 2020 presidential campaign and then only two years later looking like a hypocritical bald-faced liar on the matter? What if Ed Markey and Joe Biden were Republicans instead of Democrats? Would Maryland Markey and Joe Biden still get a pass on all of these matters?
The list goes on and on.
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 8, 2023
Joe Biden promised a lot of free stuff for the American People in his second SOTU speech tonight (Tuesday, February 7th, 2023). The problem anyone who is not as wealthy as multimillionaire Joe Biden, said to be a billionaire Nancy Pelosi, and the like, face is that we are all paying at least $100 more per week on the same goods and services than we did only two years ago. But what does a 50 yearslong corrupt career politician such as Joe Biden care? He is 80 years old, and in a decade or so from now, he will be an expensive memory we won't be able to forget about because we will still be paying one way or another for his record setting federal spending spree. Maybe by then we will finally find out where all of the tens of trillions in "Biden Bucks" really went. It is a good 2024 campaign strategy for Joe Biden to promise the American People to be U.S. President Santa Claus versus the Republican candidate Ebenezer Scrooge. But will it work?
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 20, 2023
Re: "Slave Owners" Presidents Day - 2023
Then there is the 16th U.S. President Abe Lincoln, who signed off on the mass executions of many native American Peoples in the Minnesota Territory, who wanted to deport all non-white Peoples from the U.S.A., who is called the U.S. Government's "Constitutional Dictator", and who became a mythological U.S. President who supposedly saved the Union from the Confederacy in the Civil War but then there were decades of segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and so on.
Prior to the rise of Nazi Germany's genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler, the country that Hitler admired the most other than Germany was the U.S.A. because the U.S. Government passed racist immigration laws that discriminated against the Jewish Peoples and the Italian People in 1924, the state governments practiced racist eugenics programs that were a precursor to abortion and so-called family planning programs, the U.S. Armed Forces were segregated by race, and the U.S.A.'s Armed Forces defeated Germany in World War One, the U.S.A. was industrialized and had anti-Semitic business leaders such as Henry Ford laid the foundation of Hitler's vision for Nazi Germany, and the states had segregation and Jim Crow laws that made minorities into second class citizens.
The U.S. Government's finest hour was the defeat of Hitler and systemic racism he stood for in Nazi Germany in World War Two. Harry Truman founded the State of Israel in 1948, and he also desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces after the end of World War Two. But Harry Truman also is the only Head of State/Government in the world to use atomic bombs in war. Since the end of World War Two, the U.S. Armed Forces have killed many millions of innocent foreign Peoples in many acts of military conflict, as the last legally declared War by the U.S. Congress was World War Two. Why?
Since the end of World War Two, the U.S. Government has made War and the export of arms sales it biggest non-farm business to the tune of trillions of dollars. The U.S. Government's number one non-farm export to the world is arms sales. The U.S. Government has been in continuous military conflicts since the end of World War Two. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower warned the world about the dangers of the U.S. military industrial complex. Just like during the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1920s when he could have been stopped, no one has yet to listen to Ike's warnings. As a side note, Adolf Hitler was NEVER a citizen of Germany during his lifetime. How did Hitler become Germany's Chancellor in the first place when he wasn't a citizen of Germany? It boggles my mind!
The elitist and wealthy Democrats in the White House since 12-noon on January 20, 2021, multimillionaire Joe Biden and billionaire John Forbes Kerry, like to spew their HOT AIR about the Green New Deal, but the fact is that the Pentagon is the number one polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Joe Biden took in more money that any other politician in U.S. history from Wall Street and their K Street corporate lobbyists in the Swamp in 2020, and Joe Biden signed a little less than $1 trillion military budget for this federal fiscal year 2023.
The U.S. Government invaded Iraq, which Joe Biden and John Forbes Kerry, along with Hillary Clinton, all voted for in the U.S. Senate a little over 20 years ago. Iraq has the world's second largest oil reserves second only to the number one oil and gas country Saudi Arabia, who Joe Biden visited and fist-bumped MBS on July 15, 2022, which is after then candidate for U.S. President Joe Biden in 2020 blasted then sitting U.S. President Donald Trump for being too close to the Saudis, especially MBS, who Joe Biden said he would stand up to and called Saudi Arabia a "Pariah State".
Last year in 2022, Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine. It is being predicted that China plans to invade Taiwan in 2025, which is two years from now. What is the difference between the U.S. Government invading Iraq for its vast oil reserves, Putin's Russia invading Ukraine for its land, and China planning to invade Taiwan for its riches? The U.S. Government looks like the pot calling the kettles black!
While I honor all 45 U.S. Presidents (Grover Cleveland is counted twice), and while I love our country, I hope that President's Day is not in honor of the U.S. Government from the Slave Owning Founding Father to today's Imperial Presidents who sell arms to the world to make trillions of dollars for Wall Street while millions of innocent Peoples die around the world.
Jonathan A. Melle
Re: "Slave Owners" Presidents Day - 2023
I love our country, but as for the U.S. Government, it has always needed a lot of work and reform. Today is "Slave Owners" Presidents Day, 2023. Most of the Founding Fathers owned Slaves. Hypocritically, they fought British Colonialism in America in the name of Classical Liberalism. How does that even make any sense other than we have been brainwashed to believe that the Slave Owning Founding Fathers were honorable men. They knew full well that owning Slaves was immoral, but they did so because they really wanted the Almighty Dollar for power.
Then there is the 16th U.S. President Abe Lincoln, who signed off on the mass executions of many native American Peoples in the Minnesota Territory, who wanted to deport all non-white Peoples from the U.S.A., who is called the U.S. Government's "Constitutional Dictator", and who became a mythological U.S. President who supposedly saved the Union from the Confederacy in the Civil War but then there were decades of segregation, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and so on.
Prior to the rise of Nazi Germany's genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler, the country that Hitler admired the most other than Germany was the U.S.A. because the U.S. Government passed racist immigration laws that discriminated against the Jewish Peoples and the Italian People in 1924, the state governments practiced racist eugenics programs that were a precursor to abortion and so-called family planning programs, the U.S. Armed Forces were segregated by race, and the U.S.A.'s Armed Forces defeated Germany in World War One, the U.S.A. was industrialized and had anti-Semitic business leaders such as Henry Ford laid the foundation of Hitler's vision for Nazi Germany, and the states had segregation and Jim Crow laws that made minorities into second class citizens.
The U.S. Government's finest hour was the defeat of Hitler and systemic racism he stood for in Nazi Germany in World War Two. Harry Truman founded the State of Israel in 1948, and he also desegregated the U.S. Armed Forces after the end of World War Two. But Harry Truman also is the only Head of State/Government in the world to use atomic bombs in war. Since the end of World War Two, the U.S. Armed Forces have killed many millions of innocent foreign Peoples in many acts of military conflict, as the last legally declared War by the U.S. Congress was World War Two. Why?
Since the end of World War Two, the U.S. Government has made War and the export of arms sales it biggest non-farm business to the tune of trillions of dollars. The U.S. Government's number one non-farm export to the world is arms sales. The U.S. Government has been in continuous military conflicts since the end of World War Two. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower warned the world about the dangers of the U.S. military industrial complex. Just like during the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1920s when he could have been stopped, no one has yet to listen to Ike's warnings. As a side note, Adolf Hitler was NEVER a citizen of Germany during his lifetime. How did Hitler become Germany's Chancellor in the first place when he wasn't a citizen of Germany? It boggles my mind!
The elitist and wealthy Democrats in the White House since 12-noon on January 20, 2021, multimillionaire Joe Biden and billionaire John Forbes Kerry, like to spew their HOT AIR about the Green New Deal, but the fact is that the Pentagon is the number one polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Joe Biden took in more money that any other politician in U.S. history from Wall Street and their K Street corporate lobbyists in the Swamp in 2020, and Joe Biden signed a little less than $1 trillion military budget for this federal fiscal year 2023.
The U.S. Government invaded Iraq, which Joe Biden and John Forbes Kerry, along with Hillary Clinton, all voted for in the U.S. Senate a little over 20 years ago. Iraq has the world's second largest oil reserves second only to the number one oil and gas country Saudi Arabia, who Joe Biden visited and fist-bumped MBS on July 15, 2022, which is after then candidate for U.S. President Joe Biden in 2020 blasted then sitting U.S. President Donald Trump for being too close to the Saudis, especially MBS, who Joe Biden said he would stand up to and called Saudi Arabia a "Pariah State".
Last year in 2022, Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine. It is being predicted that China plans to invade Taiwan in 2025, which is two years from now. What is the difference between the U.S. Government invading Iraq for its vast oil reserves, Putin's Russia invading Ukraine for its land, and China planning to invade Taiwan for its riches? The U.S. Government looks like the pot calling the kettles black!
While I honor all 45 U.S. Presidents (Grover Cleveland is counted twice), and while I love our country, I hope that President's Day is not in honor of the U.S. Government from the Slave Owning Founding Father to today's Imperial Presidents who sell arms to the world to make trillions of dollars for Wall Street while millions of innocent Peoples die around the world.
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 20, 2023
Someone replied to my political email about Prez's Day 2023 by writing:
"Hypocritically, they fought British Colonialism in America in the name of Classical Liberalism. How does that even make any sense other than we have been brainwashed to believe that the Slave Owning Founding Fathers were honorable men. They knew full well that owning Slaves was immoral, but they did so because they really wanted the Almighty Dollar for power."
How insulting! Jon, really....
My reply: Yes, really. It is a fact that most of the Founding Fathers owned Slaves. Some of the Founding Fathers even went to France, which did not have the immoral system of Slavery back then, to ask for money and military aid to fight the British Imperial military in the 13 colonies during the American Revolutionary War. The Founding Fathers blamed the British colonial system for Slavery in America. France and other foreign powers back then believed that the Founding Fathers wanted Classical Liberalism and that they would do away with all of the wrongs of British Colonialism in America, including the system of Slavery. But then, George Washington defeated King George III, and the Founding Fathers had their chance to live up to their lofty words of Classical Liberty and democracy in the new 13 United States of America. Of course, the Founding Fathers betrayed some of their promises, and they went onto be Slave Owning U.S. Presidents. I admire the Founding Fathers on one level, but on another level, they committed our nation's "Original Sin" of Slavery that will forever be a stain on them and our country. The Slave Owning Founding Fathers put their financial and economic interests above their lofty words and promises of Classical Liberty. Moreover, the Founding Fathers - and even today's career politicians in the Swamp - went to Church and worshiped Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but they sinned against God by owning Slaves - just like they are sinning against God by Wall Street always profiting off of the military industrial complex that has killed millions of innocent Peoples around the world since the end of World War Two. Why are we all so brainwashed to believe that the Founding Fathers were honorable men when they lied and betrayed some of what they promised and fought for by most of them owning Slaves? The Founding Fathers were men, NOT God(s)! I am grateful for the Founding Fathers, and I am grateful to live in the U.S.A., but I refuse to be a brainwashed man because I know full well what really happened at the beginning of our country, and that some of it was WRONG!
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 21, 2023
Please write about Pittsfield politics instead of the ongoing war(s) and the threat of China invading Taiwan in 2025. We do NOT know all of the real reasons for Putin's invasion of Ukraine, but we do know that when Joe Biden, John Forbes Kerry and Hillary Clinton voted for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in the U.S. Senate over 20 years ago that Iraq has the world's 2nd largest oil reserves in the world, while Saudi Arabia has the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. War and oil equals trillions of dollars for Wall Street and millions and billions of dollars for the Swamp's powerbrokers, such as said to be billionaire Nancy Pelosi. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the U.S.A. had an almost even market share in arms sales exports to the world. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early-1990s, Russia's economy tanked, and the U.S. Government took over a big chunk of Russia's share of arms sales exports in the 1990s, which led to Wall Street producing record profits back then. After the 1990s, George W. Bush invaded Iraq, which made Wall Street and Big Oil a lot of money in profits back then. Since the end of WW2, the U.S. war machine has killed many millions of innocent Peoples in the name of national security, but we still don't really understand why so many innocent Peoples had to die other than Wall Street and the Swamp profiting off of war after war after war.... The U.S.A. screwed over Russia on many levels over the past a little over 30 years now, and the U.S.A. has warmly befriended many worse dictatorial regimes (*MBS*) and nations (*Saudi Arabia*) during this same time period in the name of the Almighty Dollar, oil and power. The U.S. Government invaded Iraq in 2003 for its vast oil reserves. One year ago, Putin invaded Ukraine and the Biden is making Putin out to be an evil monster, but what about the U.S. invasion of Iraq that Joe Biden himself voted for two decades ago? Putin has been threatening nuclear war and he said that his first target would be London, U.K. I wish that we could write more about Pittsfield politics and less about the threat of WW3 and the end of the world as we know it.
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 22, 2023
Blogger Dan Valenti edited out over 90 percent of my post on Planet Valenti. I hope to ask: What the Hell is the difference between Joe Biden (& John Forbes Kerry & Hillary Clinton) voting 20 years ago in the U.S. Senate for George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq (which has the world's 2nd largest oil reserves second only to MBS' Saudi Arabia) versus Putin's Russian invasion of Ukraine one year ago and Xi's Chinese planned invasion of Taiwan that is predicted to take place in 2025? Is NOT Joe Biden the pot calling the kettles - Putin & Xi - black? The U.S. Government started the military invasions of foreign countries in the 21st Century. What the Hell did the U.S. Government expect would happen after Bush with Biden's full support invaded Iraq for its oil?
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 11, 2023
Hello Blogger Dan Valenti,
The Big Tech industry has recently laid off tens of thousands of employees in the U.S.A., but they are expanding their foreign workforce and business investments overseas. China and other foreign countries are pouring billions of dollars into Big Tech. A big bank in the U.S.A. - Silicon Valley Bank - tied to Big Tech shut down this past week. Many account holders are unable to access their funds. What the Hell did one think would happen with all of these recent financial events?
I disagree with your advice that you posted on the comment section of your blog, Planet Valenti, about holding on to your investments in Wall Street. The same thing that is happening with Big Tech layoffs, big banks tied to Big Tech - SVB - closing their doors, foreign dollars from China and other countries being invested in Big Tech, as well as the news media, and so on, will soon happen to Wall Street. Moreover, Wall Street is not your parent's investment banking and insurance financial system anymore. Rather, Wall Street is all about financial shell games, casino-like speculation, and the like. More and more capital is being put into private equity firms and foreign investment banks than ever before. Critics say that investing one's money in Wall Street is no different than going to a casino and betting a lot of one's money on all of the gambling games whereby the odds are not in your favor.
Nobody's money is in a safe investment anymore. Our economy has become totally financialized. The safe investment returns for middle-class families of the 1980s and 1990s are gone forever. If you, blogger Dan Valenti, have financial advice for a moderate-income Have-Not such as me - Jon Melle - that is safe and will allow me to rationally grow my savings and investments, then please let me know about it. I watch a lot of financial media and have read financial management books over the several decades of my now middle-aged life of almost 48 years, but I am stuck and stumped right now. I really do not know what to do. I don't even know what to tell my family and friends. I believe that there is no way for me to help anyone with their finances (other than winning a large jackpot, which won't happen).
I understand that a lot of Books get Cooked with Creative Accounting anywhere and everywhere. Audits don't help with Cooked Books because the Auditors need clients just like any other business. During the 2008 financial meltdown on Wall Street, the Swamp bailed out Wall Street with trillions of federal dollars, and foreign banks in Europe and Asia with Hundreds of Billions of federal dollars. Over the past 50 years, the average worker in the U.S.A. has received a raise of $5 per week. All of the gains in income in the U.S.A. went to the Financial, Corporate and Ruling Elites. The problem with the $5 per week pay raise over the past 50 years is that there are a lot less workers now than there was 50 years ago. The two groups that grew in the U.S.A. are the aforementioned elites with their gains in income and the underclass with their gains in numbers, which is the opposite of social mobility - the American Dream.
I, like most people out there, am in a no-win situation when it comes to my finances. I am not part of the aforementioned elites. I am just an average U.S. citizen. All someone such as me - Jon Melle - can do is to hope to either cut even or save a few "Biden Bucks". In closing, I am both stuck and stumped!
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 15, 2023
I love how the U.S. Government says we are the leader of a rules-based international coalition that upholds the law. What about the U.S. Government's invasion of Iraq (for its oil reserves)? What about all of the lawless dictator-led countries the U.S. Government has favored, such as Saudi Arabia's MBS (for its oil reserves). What about the fact that U.S.A. is the number two polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world second only to China, which burns a lot of coal. What about the fact that the U.S. Government profits off of arms sales and war(s). What about the many millions of innocent Peoples the U.S. Government has killed in endless military conflicts since the end of WW2. Don't we realize that the rest of the world doesn't listen to the U.S. Government's arguments given the fact that the U.S. Government is part of the problem!? We need to stop all of the hypocrisy, greed, corruption, military conflicts, pollution, and inequity!
Jonathan A. Melle
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March 20, 2023
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I agree with you that Harry Truman dropping two atomic bombs on Japanese cities at the end of WW2 was wrong, especially given today's ongoing threats of nuclear war. Weapons of Mass Destruction could end the world as we know it. There is no other planet that we are able to live on. Earth is it. Putin has been making daily threats of nuclear war since Russia's invasion of Ukraine over one year ago now. Joe Biden is not working on a peace agreement with Russia, but other world leaders are trying to stop WW3, meaning nuclear war, with the hope of a peace agreement.
It is the year 2023, but our world order is stuck in the post-WW2 era, which was the dawn of the nuclear age. It is time to change the structure of global politics from a few Superpowers policing the world to a more democratic and peaceful system. The world superpowers - the U.S.A., China and Russia - have bigger and more powerful militaries now than at any time in history.
I feel like Joe Biden is a step backwards because he and the other 80-year-old federal leaders in the Swamp are stuck in the 1970s and 1980s. The problem with that is that era is no longer reality. I feel like Donald Trump has romanticized authoritarianism and White Nationalism, which is an even bigger step backwards than Biden's corporatism. I hope that neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump will run for U.S. President in 2024. I hope that two new presidential candidates who live in today's real world will run for the top elected position.
Wall Street has made trillions of dollars off of war(s) and arms sales. Wall Street gave Joe Biden the most campaign donations in history. K Street lobbyist firms bragged about their record earnings during Joe Biden's first two years in the White House whereby he printed over $10 trillion out of thin air. Joe Biden recently signed into law one of the biggest Pentagon budgets in U.S. history. The Pentagon is the single biggest polluters of greenhouse gas pollution in the world. The military industrial complex has made and is still making huge profits off of Putin's invasion of Ukraine via arms sales exports.
I don't understand why U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is saying that she won't run for U.S. President in 2024 if Joe Biden runs for reelection. Joe Biden is Wall Street and K Street's GOLDEN Boy. U.S. inflation is causing a lot of pain on Main Street. The world is on the brink of WW3 with Joe Biden acting like Rambo, despite Joe Biden's multiple draft deferments during the Vietnam Conflict.
In closing, my main message is that we are stuck in the past, which is no longer reality. We need new leaders who will lead in the real world.
Jonathan A. Melle
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April 20, 2023
Sarcasm: Joe Biden recently called me for public financial management advice. I told the 46th U.S. President that he should stop printing at least $7 trillion to possibly over $10 trillion out of thin air. He asked me why? I told him that the federal government can only run the printing presses for so long until there is hyperinflation. He said that every other country plays the same financial shell games, and that if he didn't spend over $10 trillion per fiscal year, then it would put our economy and country at a disadvantage. I told him to please stop calling Putin insulting names and threating Xi with WW3, and instead please work with them to financially restructure the Central Banks around the world. He told me that Putin and Xi have teamed up together to bypass his presidential administration, and that the only way for him to counter them is to continue to print trillions of more federal dollars out of thin air to keep their foreign economies in debt. He asked me about the Republicans in the Swamp who want to limit federal spending to counter inflation. I told him that while his opposition are hypocrites on many levels, he should agree to an audit to show where all of his "Biden Buck$" went to. He told me that a would-be audit would show that the Swamp spends trillion of dollars to fund the military industrial complex, endless war(s), arms sales, Wall Street and K Street, and bureaucracy. I told him that the Swamp's spending binge is contributing to the U.S.A. being the second largest polluter of global warming gas emissions second only to China, which burns a lot of coal - the U.S.A.'s burning of coal is 20 percent of our nation's energy supply. He told me that China and the U.S.A. account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's global warming gas emissions. If he didn't spend a little less than $1 trillion per fiscal year on the Pentagon, which is the single largest polluter of global warming gas emissions in the world, then China's huge military would soon become more powerful than our nation's huge military. I told him that we are going around in circles like a dog chasing its own tail. He told me that he is 80 years old and that in about a decade from now, he won't be around to deal with the costly outcomes of his over 50-year political career in the Swamp. I told him that we will be happy about that, but we will still be paying for it. Joe Biden said that he enjoys spending our money so we should just let him continue to spend our country into oblivion. I told him that may not be a winning campaign message. He said that he will still win in 2024 because he will blame Donald Trump for it all. I told him that my dog ate my homework. The 46th U.S. President patted me on the back.
Jonathan A. Melle
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Letter: "We must be willing to call out the biggest polluters"
The Berkshire Eagle, June 22, 2023
To the editor: In a June 15 letter to the editor, members of the Berkshire node of 350 Mass, a grassroots advocacy effort for a healthier climate, made some modest proposals that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby mitigating the effects of climate change. ("Letter: Forest fire air effects remind us of climate change's consequences," Eagle, June 15.)
Some of the suggestions are common sense and cost-effective, such as ways to efficiently heat and cool one’s residence. My family is already implementing these methodologies. But I think there is much more to be done to avoid environmental and, by extension, economic and political chaos.
The writers ignore the single largest polluting entity in the world. Their suggestion to support Massachusetts state legislation (“Make Polluters Pay,” H.872) also fails in this respect, along with the bill’s supporters.
An extensive study issued by the Watson Institute of International & Public Affairs of Brown University titled “Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change and the Costs of War” pins the tail on the donkey: “… the [Department of Defense] is the world’s largest institutional user of petroleum and correspondingly, the single largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world." (The study was issued in 2019, but I don’t think much has changed for the better since then, given all the chicken games in the South China Sea, war in Ukraine, expansion of NATO, etc.)
Following all the war reports, provocations and targeted propaganda it seems that the U.S. war machine is just a dog chasing its own tail: burning more fossil fuel to protect its cheap(er) supply of fuel (and lithium for their storage batteries).
Sure, “make polluters pay” is a catchy phrase. But let’s make all polluters pay, not just the fossil fuel industry but all large-scale consumers of their products.
The environmental movement needs to prioritize the real threats to our planet and unite with those opposed to unipolar militarism.
Meanwhile, everyone should do their part in energy conservation as well as keeping up the pressure on the real environmental culprits.
Frank Tolopko, Otis
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July 30, 2023
GE proposes to put a capped toxic waste dump (aka leaky landfill) full of its industrial chemicals called PCBs inside of a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River that is too close to the aquifer in October Mountain; capped landfills do not last forever, and after the cap becomes ineffective, the PCBs will spread again in the future. Capped landfills need to be monitored from day one.
GE has promised to cleanup miles of the polluted Housatonic River from Pittsfield to Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The cleanup project is estimated to take 15 years to complete once it begins after many years of litigation in the federal court system. The project - not adjusted for inflation - is (lowballed) estimated to cost $576 million; GE already spent over $500 million on its so-called cleanup in Pittsfield. GE has made no financial commitment to fund the lengthy and costly cleanup project. Without a financial commitment, GE's proposals are worth as much as my dog's paw print signature on a contract. GE is a heavily indebted company with a net market capitalization in the billions of dollars. GE is at risk of going bankrupt in the future, especially if a would-be future economic recession hits the company hard.
If there are red flags, GE's aforementioned proposal has lots of them. But none of these facts matter to PAC Man Richie Neal because he only represents K Street corporate lobbyist firms in the Swamp, especially insurance companies. But none of these facts matter to HOT AIR Ed Markey because he really lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Lee, Massachusetts, is another toxic waste dump to these two corrupt career politicians. In 2020, HOT AIR Ed Markey ran on the Green New Deal propaganda (lies). In 2023, HOT AIR Ed Markey, along with PAC Man Richie Neal, are in GE's pocket. If PAC Man Richie Neal and Ed Markey were Republicans in the Swamp, then the news media from Boston to Pittsfield would be writing news stories and editorials about their support for GE's settlement with the corrupt EPA.
This is all a news story that is fit for The Twilight Zone! This is all a prime example of bureaucracy at its worst! Is there anyone out there who will publish my letter? Is there any truth and decency left in this otherwise cruel world?
Jonathan A. Melle
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Letter: "Neal's lack of support for Lee has eroded my support for him"
The Berkshire Eagle, July 29, 2023
To the editor: It is an accepted fact that Rep. Richard Neal was never going to support Lee in our quest against General Electric and a toxic dump in our town.
It is hard to stand up to a company when you have accepted their money and done their bidding for years. He abandoned the Rest of River towns, and he has lost my support and that of hundreds of others by doing so.
No amount of spin can change the facts. Just follow the money.
Nancy Stuart, Lee
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Letter: "A blueprint for the future monetary system"
The Berkshire Eagle, August 11, 2023
To the editor: A fundamental reimagining of the existing financial banking system and global commerce was the centerpiece of the keynote speech by Agustin Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Singapore on Feb. 22.
He envisioned central banks as the guardians of the public trust in money. Therefore, central banks are best positioned to foresee what the future of money should look like and they intend to make a new financial infrastructure the: “unified ledger.”
The simple translation in common parlance is central banks are going “all in” on central bank digital currencies, not to be outperformed by the private sector. While the crypto sphere provides a glimpse into promising technological advances, the BIS has serious concerns about decentralized, unregulated intermediaries taking on a role in the banking sector, as seigniorage is an important source of revenue for the government. However, if the same technological advances could be usurped and controlled by the central bank, this could become a significant first step in Agustin Carstens’s financial utopia.
For years, the BIS has quietly deliberated on how to build a better technological grid of control of all assets, not just monetary. Their goal has been to inventory all finances, commodities, land, timber, houses, etc., on one ledger under their exclusive management and control. On June 20, the BIS published “The Blueprint for the Future Monetary System: Improving the Old, Enabling the New.” This unified ledger system, if implemented, will accomplish their long-awaited goal: complete control of all global resources. This comprehensive blueprint gives new meaning to the World Economic Forum’s mantra: “By 2030; you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.”
One might question the timing and hubris of the guardians of the public trust when G-7 countries are teetering on a global debt crisis, BRICS nations are about to roll out a new currency and the U.S. just had a significant downgrade in their bond market by Fitch Rating Agency.
FedNow, a prerequisite to the rollout of the unified ledger, was quietly unveiled on July 20. However, central banks enjoy immunity protection under Article 14, in case things don’t work out as planned. As central banks tokenize your house and assets for the greater good of humanity, ignorance will be blissful until the consequences rain down hard. History has confirmed freedom and liberty come at a high price.
Lucinda Shmulsky, New Marlborough
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Letter: "A rebuttal to letter-writer's critique of the Bank for International Settlements"
The Berkshire Eagle, August 18, 2023
To the editor: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), established in 1930, is a membership organization comprising 63 central banks (and one privately owned and extremely important bank, the New York Fed).
The BIS operates through committees that recommend uniform compliance and operations procedures. The BIS does not and in fact can not mandate anything. ("Letter: A blueprint for the future monetary system," Eagle, Aug. 11.)
Currently, the BIS seeks to address a glaring operational problem: the lack of globally uniform standards for clearing and settling derivatives trades. The length of time that trades are open, varying from minutes to days, brings an unacceptable level of systemic risk. Should a counterparty fail, the ripple effect through the banking system of open trades would be catastrophic. A unified ledger system addresses these problems. The hope is that a modern digital tracking system can greatly reduce this risk.
The global derivatives market is huge and unregulated. Most derivatives trades are booked at very large “too big to fail” institutions.
Currently, the only U.S. government-mandated requirement is a quarterly report to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
A key global derivatives market is Foreign Exchange, with trading volume averaging $1.2 trillion per day. It is the most active and largest by far.
The overall derivatives market is enormous. The total notional value of derivatives holdings by U.S. banks is about $240 trillion (by contrast, the U.S. GDP is approximately $23 trillion).
Many derivatives, such as interest rate swaps and credit default swaps, trade over the counter, meaning that these trades occur without any central clearing agency or exchange. This resulting lack of transparency greatly adds to systemic risk.
Currently, there is a global sense of urgency, given recent bank failures and the revision downward of not only the credit ratings of several large regional banks but the credit rating of the U.S. Treasury. It is also worth noting that as of July 26 of this year, the largest 25 U.S. banks have lost $970 billion in deposits, the worst drop in more than 35 years.
Consequently, in my opinion, efforts to establish more uniformity in clearing and settlement particularly for unregulated derivatives transactions is important to the preservation of our global banking system.
Edward Moulin, Lenox
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September 9, 2023
Hello blogger Dan Valenti,
I read two news articles today about Berkshire County's economically distressed and very unequal region in Western Massachusetts. A Great Barrington Selectman said "It is the best of times, it is the worst of times" due to the area's million dollar home prices versus the median income of $45,000 per year. The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle)'s editorial wrote that the service industry will suffer job losses now that the Summer 2023 tourism season is coming to an end.
Public administration and public policy is not "rocket science". Voters are supposed to elect good men and good women to public office who will use the government's limited financial resources to invest in people and the communities they live in, pay taxes in, shop in, send their children to public schools in, walk around safe streets in, and so on. In return for the people's hard-earned tax dollars, the politicians are supposed to provide efficient, equitable, effective and accountable leadership in "the halls of power".
Why cannot this be done in government? Over the past 50 years now, the only economic growth has been in the top 1 percent of wealthy households and businesses, and also in our nation's always increasing in large numbers underclass. I believe that the financial, corporate and ruling elites have been deploying "class warfare" against the common people, who are also called the nation's "Have Nots".
Joe Biden has been a career politician in the Swamp for over the past 50 years. Nancy Pelosi recently announced that she will be running for her 20th term in U.S. Congress. The Swamp's number one mission is always to mortgage, remortgage, remortgage....our nation's wealthy economy for Wall Street, while the "rust belt" economy leaves the working class in the ditch. Joe Biden has two homes in Delaware, he lives in The White House, and Nancy Pelosi is quoted as saying, "I am only worth $115 million." The point I am making is that the elites are enriching themselves in big government and Wall Street instead of also investing in people and communities.
I went to the first night of my bowling league in Nashua, New Hampshire this past week. The bowlers said that they heard that home heating oil will be at record high prices this upcoming winter of 2023/2024. Billionaire John Forbes Kerry is our nation's first climate envoy (of HOT AIR), and Joe Biden is selling our nation's excess energy supplies to countries in Asia, especially to India and China, while U.S. households will spend over $130 per week to heat our homes this upcoming winter. That is about $560 per month, which is on top of the overall high inflation for goods and services. The Green New Deal is a false tagline that is really a financial shell game to make big business big money.
Joe Biden took in more money from Wall Street and K Street corporate lobbyist firms in the Swamp than any other politician in U.S. history since 2020. K Street had the nerve to brag about their respective firms' record earnings in the tens of millions of dollars each. The Swamp is sending Ukraine billions of U.S. dollars every month to fight an endless proxy war against Putin's Russian invasion of Ukraine. Wall Street is making a KILLING (pun intended) off of the arms sales exports, which is our nation's number one non-farm export. Joe Biden surpassed Donald Trump in arms sales exports, including to authoritarian regimes around the world.
The Pentagon is the single largest polluter of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the world. Due to national security, there is no way to know how much Global Warming pollution is produced each year by the Department of Defense. The U.S.A. is the number two polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world - China is number one - because of the Military Industrial Complex. Joe Biden has signed a little less than $1 trillion defense budgets. Joe Biden's real record on Climate Change is HOT AIR!
We are being lied to by the elites. The elites are only playing financial shell games with the American People's tax dollars. The elites are all millionaires and billionaires. I believe that the elites mock the common people in big government by telling us to buy expensive electric cars and inequitable lottery tickets. I do not know how to spread my message of good governance through good people in politics who will invest in people and communities. I wish the news media would publish my op-ed. I with that you, Planet Valenti, would publish my op-ed, too.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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December 10, 2023
The U.S. Government invaded Iraq in mid-March, 2003. Iraq hold the world's second largest oil reserves; Saudi Arabia holds the world's largest oil reserves. Russia invaded Ukraine in early-2022. Joe Biden - along with billionaire John Forbes Kerry (who had millions of dollars invested in the oil and gas industry up to early-2021) and Hillary Clinton (who stood by her man, Bill Clinton, who has 26 flight log entries listed on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet) - voted for Bush 2's invasion of Iraq, but Biden sends billions upon billions of dollars to Ukraine because invading a foreign nation is wrong. China is planning to invade Taiwan in the near future, but, once again, Joe Biden voted to invade Iraq so that must mean, once again, that invading a foreign nation is wrong. Joe Biden's administration twice vetoed a U.N ceasefire resolution to stop Israel's invasion of Palestine to fight the terrorist group Hamas, who attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023, while a little less than 20,000 innocent people and Peoples on both sides have been killed in this ongoing Middle East war that could escalate into a regional conflict that could claim millions of innocent lives I do NOT think that Joe Biden will be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! That was a lot to write!
In Pittsfield politics, Tuesday night's upcoming City Council meeting will see a vote to raise the municipal tax rate by a little less than 9 percent to pay the city's bills in fiscal year 2024 which runs from July 1st, 2023 to June 30th, 2024. The a little less than 9 percent municipal tax hike doesn't include the water and sewer rate hikes, which also increased in fiscal year 2024. The city government may spend up to $230 million during this single fiscal year in return for: Level 5 public schools, Pittsfield always annually being listed in the top 10 cities by population in Massachusetts for VIOLENT CRIME, 15 empty storefronts on North Street's sarcastically called "Social Services Alley", the 25-year-old indebted and polluted PEDA debacle, and an overall "SHIT SANDWICH" of diminishing public services that led to a lot of deferred maintenance, such as city roads with a lot of pot holes. Would you pay up to $230 million for Pittsfield politics' failed leadership? If not, then please move out of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to stop being screwed over.
Jonathan A. Melle
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January 26, 2024
Since the end of WW2, the U.S. Military Industrial Complex has made trillions of dollars in profit for Wall Street by:
* Endless WARS whereby many millions of innocent people and Peoples have been killed
* The U.S. Government's #1 non-farm export: Arms Sales
* The U.S.A. was once the #1 polluter of greenhouse gas emissions prior to China taking the #1 status of global warming pollution
* Combined together, China and the U.S.A. - the two largest military industrial complexes in the world - account for a little less than 50 percent of the globe's greenhouse gas emissions
What are my points? The U.S. Government and Wall Street and K Street all profit off of WAR. The U.S. Government sells arms to the world. The U.S. Government is one of the biggest polluters of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
Joe Biden has received more money from Wall Street and K Street corporate lobbyist firms than any other person in U.S. history. Joe Biden is both a militaristic and a corporate U.S. President. The U.S. Government is involved in several big military conflicts. The U.N. is telling Joe Biden to stop. Wall Street is recording record earnings. K Street corporate lobbyist firms are recording record earnings. Joe Biden is not listening to the U.N. Rather, Joe Biden is listening to Wall Street and K Street in 2024. Meanwhile, the U.S. Government is still producing a whole lot of greenhouse gas emissions, along with China. So much for the Green New Deal's HOT AIR!
Jonathan A. Melle
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February 12, 2024
Why was it O.K. for the U.S. Government to invade Iraq in mid-March 2003, but it is not O.K. for the Russian Government to invade Ukraine 2 years ago in 2022?
Why was it O.K. for the U.S. Government to invade Iraq in mid-March 2003, but it is not O.K. for the Chinese Government to invade Taiwan in the future?
Why is the U.S. Government's huge military industrial complex the single biggest polluter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, but it tells the world to adopt the so-called Green New Deal?
Why is the U.S. Government's number 1 non-farm export to the world arms sales?
Why has the U.S. Government's post-WW2 military conflicts around the world killed many millions of innocent people and Peoples?
Why does Wall Street make trillions of dollars in profits off of the Pentagon?
Given all of the questions, is the U.S. Government a democracy or a hypocrisy?
Jon Melle
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March 3, 2024
"The" GE put many of its manufacturing factories in China, while postindustrial Pittsfield (Mass.) is known for the infamous "Ruberto-Rolodex" that rots at the rock bottom of Silver Lake, while Good Old Jimmy is a full-time resident of Florida.
China buys a lot of its energy supply from Putin's Russia. The price of energy in the U.S.A. has increased to very high levels with Joe Biden's so-called "Green New Deal". China is consuming energy at favorable economic rates that fuels China's status as the world's global manufacturing base, while high energy costs in Europe are causing manufacturing firms there to shutter.
On China's threat to invade Taiwan, hypocrite (on many levels) Joe Biden voted for the U.S. Government's invasion of Iraq over 2 decades ago, along with Hillary Clinton and billionaire John Forbes Kerry. Why was it O.K. for the U.S.Government to invade oil rich Iraq, but was not O.K. for Putin's Russia to invade Ukraine, but it is not O.K. for China to threaten to invade Taiwan?
In world history, the U.S.A. was the number one polluter of global warming emissions in the world. In recent history, China is now the number one polluter of greenhouse gas emissions; the U.S.A. is now number two. Combined together, China and the U.S.A. account for a little less than 50 percent of the world's global warming emissions. Both China and the U.S.A. host the world's largest military industrial complexes, which are the single largest emitters of greenhouse gases in human history.
The biggest problem with the elderly Joe Biden is his limited time in office. China and Russia's Presidents will outlast the 81-year-old Joe Biden. They will play the long game versus the U.S. Government. These three powerful countries cannot rationally fight each other directly in a would-be war, but the three nations engage in strategic diplomacy, business interests, and geopolitical conflicts by proxy.
Jon Melle
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