John H. Fisher, I see your change is from capitalism to democratic socialism — more commonly known as communism. 

The “underdog vs. underdog” is plain B.S. 

Jamie Ager, who is worth $18 million and 600 acres, is no underdog?

Versus Jennifer Balkcom, underdog, who is a small family farmer with 160 acres?

The American people are a fickle group, especially when it comes to politics. 

For example I am a Vietnam veteran with two tours — one, artillery, the other, engineer; two different commands and, with the help of God, a little luck, and Ranger school training. I brought all my men home alive to a country that hated us. 

Only our parents and family supported us. Even some of them didn’t.

Now all I hear is “thank you for your service.” Those are very hollow words to me (and) said by many who have not even served.

Now you want a change from what?

Biden’s gas prices peaked at $5.00; Trump’s at $4.50.

Biden’s eggs, $6.00, Trump’s at $5.25. 

And the best is yet to come. 

Your other candidate for Senate (Roy Cooper) released 3,500 prisoners. Think about that for a while. 

Henderson County is mostly mountain folks. While I am not one, after five years I am starting to think like one. Good luck with your change.

I was lucky by leaving California five years ago and driving to Flat Rock N.C. It saved my marriage, my life and it saved my soul. 

God bless every single American!

Why would anyone read columnist Ted Rall’s drivel?

I am an avid reader of the Asheville Daily Planet and occasionally read Ted Rall — never Bill Press, too radical. 

Rall’s column in the Sept. 16-29 issue attracted my attention, “Wanted: Assassin. Pay Mediocre.” 

As I waded into this drivel, it became pretty apparent that old Ted was grinding his anti-military axe. 

Since I had spent 35 years defending his right to drivel, I had to read more. He essentially feels like those who serve are ill-paid assassins who couldn’t do anything else. 

He also got his facts wrong when he states,”There is a long-term trend toward lower propensity to serve.” The armed services are currently turning away applicants as they have easily met their goals. 

After Biden’s Afghanistan debacle, enlistments did dip for easily understood reasons. We just needed a different president. 

By the way, Ted, for every “assassin “ in the service, there are three more in support who may never see combat. Know of what you speak. 

I had to delve into Rall’s past to try and understand his vehement dislike for our military. 

Here is a guy who flunked out of engineering at Columbia and years later got a degree in “General Studies.” That’s right up there with “Basket Weaving.” 

Rall was laid off from MSNBC for his despicable Pat Tillman cartoon. Pat had left the NFL and was killed on patrol in Afghanistan. Nobody gets laid off by MSNBC!

 Later that same year, Rall was laid off by The Washington Post for a cartoon depicting disabled children voting for President Bush. 

The Las Angeles Times dropped Rall from the paper for lying about an encounter with police. Rall brags about being a guest and cartoonist on Sputnik, a Russian radio program. What a track record...

Rall states, “Generations of soldiers and sailors have learned that military service is a sucker’s game.” For my family, we represent four generations of career “suckers” in the U.S. Air Force. We proudly served and sacrificed so 2-bit journalists can exercise their First Amendment rights. Stick to drawing cartoons, Ted. We’ll make sure you sleep well tonight. 

The Los Angeles Times dropped Rall from the paper for lying about an encounter with police. 

Rall brags about being a guest and cartoonist on Sputnik, a Russian radio program. What a track record....

Rall states, “Generations of soldiers and sailors have learned that military service is a sucker’s game.” 

For my family, we represent four generations of career “suckers” in the U.S. Air Force. We proudly served and sacrificed so two-bit journalists can exercise their First Amendment rights. 

Stick to drawing cartoons, Ted. We’ll make sure you sleep well tonight.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump emphasized freedom and U.S. sovereignty while dismissing the threat posed by climate change. 

The principle of equal liberty calls on us to maximize our own freedom without interfering with the freedom of others.  Human-induced climate change is causing sea-level rise by warming the oceans and melting land ice.  Consider that millions of Bangladeshis are farming on land that is within a meter of high tide.  Their freedoms should be meaningful as well.

Have we forgotten the horrific flooding in Nepal, where climate change has eroded glaciers and melted mountain permafrost, triggering a catastrophic collapse?  These rapidly melting Himalayan glaciers feed rivers that sustain two billion people, many of whom live in India, Pakistan and China, which are nuclear powers.  

How might President Trump’s view on climate change be different if he was the head of a small island nation, whose survival is threatened by climate change, even though it has contributed very little to global carbon dioxide emissions?  What about the sovereignty of Fiji and the Marshall Islands?

Climate change helps create the very refugees Trump condemned in his U.N. speech. His militarized immigration policies have turned the United States into what investigative journalist and author Christian Parenti calls an “armed lifeboat.”  Instead of cooperating globally or addressing the root causes of climate change, rich countries protect their own resources while shutting out the rest of the world.

Although liberty is a fundamental right, the flip side of every right is a responsibility.  Indian scientist and activist Vandana Shiva points out that the “separation of rights and responsibilities is the beginning of any destructive enterprise.”

America has extraordinary power to shape the world, and the U.S. should embrace that responsibility through climate action.

Terry Hansen 

1601 Gateway Dr.

Grafton, Wisconsin  53024

Media in Trump’s cross-hairs: Time to rally around freedom of speech

When it comes to the media and Donald Trump, we all know what the White House bottom line is: The narcissist-in-chief craves coverage--but only if he can control the narrative. It has nothing to do with national security. It has everything to do with presidential vanity.

His ideal media coverage would be Breitbart, Newsmax, Fox, Lindell TV and Trump TV. But he “allows” other news outlets if they don’t cross his “hoax” rubicon of negative news. It’s his call. Imagine the outrage had Presidents Barack Obama or Joe Biden banned Fox News because they disapproved of “fair and balanced.” right-wing coverage?

For non-MAGA Americans, the recent (temporary) ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House was a constitutional affront that treated the First Amendment and due process like “enemies of the people.” Viewpoint discrimination is abhorrent and un-American. Period.

While alarming, none of this is truly shocking in the Trump era. It was foretold in the 1980s when Trump adopted the alias of “John Barron” to contact New York media about gossip favorable to the man who ran the Trump Organization. That’s how pathologically devious he was--and still is.

Trump remains an ongoing threat to the free press because he resents not being in a compliant media orbit like his peers: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un.

The best way for this free press assault to end, of course, is for Trump to stop being a bombastic, autocratic embarrassment to this country and what it still stands for. Shy of that implausible scenario, it’s up to the collective media itself to further fortify its constitutional concord and push back with the rallying support of all those who still believe in the sacred tenets of democratic free speech.

Joe O’Neill

39 Gray St.

Asheville, NC. 28801

(813)-760-0958