Letters to the editor Sept. 6

Lowering standards

I found confusing at best the news about the U.S. Army program to coach potential recruits who’ve failed the Army’s physical and academic tests required to begin basic training.

Army Chief General James McConville says the Army will not lower its standards in either portion of the test. But he later concludes “other changes could broaden the course so that those who fail both the physical fitness requirements and the scholastic test might be able to get in. Right now, recruits have to meet standards in one of the two.”

The latter sounds like “lowering standards” to me.

— Lenny Granger, Columbia Falls

Tranel embodies Montana values

If you’re not familiar with Montana Western District congressional candidate Monica Tranel, prepare to be impressed. Each time I see her on the campaign trail I’m struck by her authenticity, integrity, grit and tenacious work ethic.

Raised on a ranch in eastern Montana with nine siblings, Monica learned the lessons of community, fairness, and hard work. She’s applied these values to her life as a world-class rower in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and as an attorney fighting for Montana’s consumers, ranchers and landowners.

Monica embodies Montana’s strong tradition of standing up to corporate power and greed and fighting to keep dark money out of state politics. She’s running a grassroots campaign of small donors and won’t accept corporate PAC donations.

In contrast, 95% of Republican opponent Ryan Zinke’s war chest comes from out-of-state billionaire executives, lobbyists and corporate/special interest PACs. That’s a lot of outside influence looking to buy Montana’s new U.S. House seat.

Tranel supports investing in clean renewable energy, protecting Social Security and health care, improving services for veterans, creating early childhood education programs, keeping our public lands public, and safe and legal abortion access for women. We have a great opportunity to send a woman to Congress who embodies Montana values and will always put people – not party or corporate interests – first.

— Beth Waterbury, St. Ignatius

Bukacek for energy independence

People are misinformed who think wind and solar power will give us “self-reliance” and “frees us from volatile global markets.”

This misinformation in a recent letter to the editor is countered by the documentation Dr. Annie Bukacek has provided us. Wind and solar sources of power are reliant on products made by multinational corporations in other countries, primarily China. When the solar panels, wind turbines/blades and batteries give out, they are dumped in our landfills where they take up space and leak toxic waste into the soil.

In Montana, we are blessed with abundant natural resources. We have everything we need to be energy self-reliant.

Dr. Bukacek as PSC commissioner plans to work with legislators and the governor’s energy council to help develop policy and laws that allow for more efficient use of what we have going for us here in Montana — coal, hydroelectric, natural gas, solar, wind and biomass.

Voting for Dr. Annie Bukacek for Public Service Commissioner is a step in the right direction toward maintaining Montana’s Energy Independence.

— Brenda Hambrick, Lakeside

Political hypocrisy

I am an independent voter. I try to vote for the best person for the job — sometimes Republican, sometimes Democrat. I despise the hypocrisy, often evident from both political parties.

Google Ryan Zinke’s political web page. Find that under “issues” he says: “American hunters and anglers are the backbone of the American model for conservation”… and: “Under his leadership, the Department of the Interior: Expanded hunting and fishing access on millions of acres of public lands and waters.”

Then Google Ryan Zinke’s voter records. (Several sites keep track of those public records.) Look for his vote on Feb 1, 2017, when he last represented Montana in the Congress. On that day, he voted for disapproval of the Stream Protection Rule. Read the bill. It was a vote clearly for the rich interests of the mining companies, leaving our streams the recipients of mine tailings and contaminated runoff.

Now, while researching the above, I find that Zinke’s wife has recently declared her primary residence in California, and it’s not clear when or where in Whitefish Ryan Zinke has lived after 2017.

So Montana fishermen and hunters, perhaps you’ll join my non-partisan vote. I think we should see if Monica Tranel will live up to her campaign promises and her Montana roots. Ryan Zinke clearly does not.

— David Martin, Whitefish

Mar-a-Lago search

In this current system of professed “full disclosure”... regarding the hotly anticipated newsy bits of criminal evidence recently fleeced from Mar-a-Lago...

We are left with the immortal words of Caddyshack’s esteemed Judge Smails: “You’ll get nothing and like it!”

— Gary Vinson, Kalispell

Zinke’s FEAR Act

Recently, Ryan Zinke proudly announced that his first act if sent back to Congress would be to sponsor what he calls the Federal Employees Accountability and Reduction Act, or FEAR Act. This bill would force most career employees out of public service, leaving federal agencies staffed by skeleton crews of unqualified temporary workers.

Between its gratuitously incendiary name and its implementation of Steve Bannon’s sadistic desire to “deconstruct the administrative state,” Zinke’s proposal brings to mind the villains of Star Wars:

General Tagge: “How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?”

Grand Moff Tarkin: “Fear will keep the local systems in line — fear of this battle station.”

Under Zinke’s bill, federal agencies would no longer have the expertise to keep our air and water clean, properly manage public lands, and keep Social Security, Medicare, and veterans’ benefits flowing to people who depend on them. No longer would agency decisions be made by professionals committed to following the law and serving the public interest.

Instead, the critical work of government would be entrusted either to amateurs recruited for ideological reasons by politicians, or to corrupt self-dealers continually going through a revolving door between agencies and the big businesses they are supposed to regulate. That’s the very kind of corruption Zinke himself has been accused of repeatedly.

Monica Tranel has thoughtful plans to address the real problems confronting ordinary Montanans, like inflation, the housing shortage, and limited access to broadband internet. Ryan Zinke has proven he has no real interest in serving Montanans. Instead he only seeks public office to personally belly up again to the trough of taxpayer money, and give free rein to the big oil, gas, and timber companies that have given him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Monica Tranel is the only sane choice.

— Edward Salmon, Columbia Falls