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We are in much better hands now — got it?

This is written in response to Jeri Cardin’s diatribe in the Daily Inter Lake on Feb. 18 (“Trump is an out-of-control egomaniac — got it?”).

I really feel bad that this person has to put up with “The Donald” for the next seven years; but we made it through eight years with Obama and his crew in the White House — so suck it up.

President Trump has added more jobs, more factory start-ups, higher wages, huge bonuses and lower taxes in one year than Obama did in eight years. If you really want to have a test to see what government is all about — let’s go for it. I wonder if Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Charles Rangel, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings and John Lewis, just to name a few, are the real reasons we have trouble getting anything meaningful accomplished. What are these bleeding heart liberals going to do for a living? When you are scraping the bottom of the barrel, one isn’t much worse than the next. But I think Maxine Waters may get the blue ribbon in this group. Her rant about how she would like to “take Trump out” is a perfect example of her big mouth. She wasn’t talking about taking him out to lunch or taking him to a movie! She was talking about killing our president. Federal marshals should throw her in prison.

The big military parade Trump proposed is to let the rest of the world know we have a leader back in the White House, not some apologetic limp-wristed wimp at the helm.

Then Cardin whined that “Obama handed Trump a very good job market.” Really? There were no jobs because you had apresident that never had a job in his whole life and did not know how to create one. It is hard for me to believe anyone who actually voted for someone that failed so miserably would actually admit it.

I guess the fact that Hillary has been found to be an even bigger liar, and a more crooked person than anyone had thought, is rather disheartening to Ms. Cardin also because I am sure she voted for her.

You should not bring up “adding to the debt” when you talk about President Trump. Your hero added $10 trillion to the debt and has nothing to show for it. Try explaining $150 billion cash to Iran, 20 percent of our uranium to Russia, and releasing ?ve of the most viscious murderers on the planet to get one deserter back who should have been shot the minute he got here. Obama is NOT the guy I want negotiating for me.

Try jerking your head out of the sand, so you can see the real picture and admit we are in much better hands. —Jerry Oftedahl, Kalispell

Zinke isn’t protecting U.S. land heritage

I almost choked on my morning coffee when I read in Mr. Miele’s March 18 column that Interior Secretary Zinke is “reinventing the Interior Department so it serves the American people rather than special interests.” The American people spoke clearly when they made their preferences known to Secretary Zinke: 99.2 percent of the 2.8 million public comments submitted told him to leave America’s national monuments alone. Zinke listened to the 1 percent that included the uranium company that asked him to shrink Bears Ears. That doesn’t sound to me like an Interior Department serving the American people.

After Trump and Zinke orchestrated the largest-ever reduction of public lands protection in American history, the secretary brazenly stated that: “There’s not one square inch of land that’s removed from federal protection.” National monuments enjoy a specific form of federal protection from development. By erasing more than 2 million acres from national monument protection, if they succeed in court, land that was protected from coal and uranium mining will be open to new mining claims. That sounds like a serious loss of protection to me.

The designation of protected areas is an expression of humility and a gesture of respect for the diversity, beauty and wildness of the whole community of life. Poet Mary Oliver wrote: “I walk through the world to love it.” Zinke and Trump walk through the world to commodify it. —Bob Muth, Kalispell

Republicans are a danger to all

We read recently about Republican cuts in haz-mat services and the perils such acts pose to everyone who lives in Montana.

The Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf, killing a dozen and spewing oil for months. Experts determined necessary changes to hopefully avoid another such catastrophe. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement estimates it would cost the average major oil company $18 million per year to implement. The average major oil company earns $75 million per day, in record profits. Republicans removed the regulations.

Forty-two people died when an oil train crashed near Montreal. Experts determined necessary changes to hopefully avoid another such catastrophe. This paper discussed the folly of the Republicans removing the new regulations in an editorial. Republicans removed them nevertheless.

Mr. Pruitt, the EPA head, has been obliterating clean air and water regulations at a frightening pace leading our nation back to the onset of the industrial age where pollution was rampant and killed tens of thousands annually. What air do Republicans breathe? What bodies of water do they live near? How can anyone put money they don’t need and the interest of corporate profits ahead of the air they breathe and the water they drink or reside near?

Ryan Zinke, the local wonderboy, according to this paper, attempts to open all coastal regions to oil exploration, then exempts Florida due to the very real possibility that a rig would appear in front of Trump’s primary residence. Ninety percent of public land is already open to drilling. Republicans shrink protected lands, and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A local resident posed the question: what have Republicans ever done for us, the 99 percent? Someone responded with ancient history. I am anxiously awaiting justification for the aforementioned, and a current, relevant answer to the local resident’s question.

Guess I’d better hold my breath. —Rachel Rubin, Kalispell

Do something to fight climate change ...

You don’t want your grandchildren to sit on your lap someday and ask you: “what did you do about climate change, Grandpa?”

Truly it’s hard to weigh which is a more serious issue to face us — climate change or nuclear exchange. It’s a conservation issue; climate refugee exacerbation; it’s a local tourist economy issue; it’s a health issue as tropical mosquitoes and temperate climate ticks carrying disease spread northward. It’s a pro-life issue. It’s a property value issue. It’s a national security issue.

If you want the facts go to none other than NASA and NOAA. Look at the run of all the warmest years ever recorded since the end of the 1990s. I don’t believe a single year during that span fails to make it into the top 18 or 20 hottest years ever recorded (data from weather stations around the globe are used — we all believe in thermometers). I ask you to join me by looking up Flathead Valley Citizens Climate Lobby, like the page, message the page. Let’s connect there. —Matthew Lamberts, Bigfork