This isn’t a reality show

Trump seems to be suffering from the delusion that his reality show “The Apprentice,” where he fired people willy-nilly, was actually reality. The reality is if you fire essential personnel en masse, you’ll very quickly have a dysfunctional organization that is anything but efficient.

I worked at a soon-to-be-bankrupt steel mill in the early ’90s whose reaction to losing money was to lay off or offer early retirements primarily to the workers who knew how to make steel and replace them with MBAs who were supposed to know how to make money—but, as it turned out, couldn’t figure that out either. Rather than saving the company, this process hastened its downfall.

Want to balance the budget and reduce the deficit? Easy. Have the billionaires and major corporations contribute their fair share to revenues.

---

---

Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX paid zero income taxes last year. Jeff Bezos’ Amazon pitched in 6%. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, parent company of Facebook, was dunned for 16%. The wasted revenues are obscene.

Fred Malo, Carbondale

---

---

Putin’s prevaricating puppet

Putin’s orange minion has become a fire hydrant of mis-, dis-, and de-information. We can believe exactly nothing of the official proclamations coming from Washington. Fortunately, NPR and the BBC are reliable sources of fact checked information and corrections to the official US word. They reliably dispense US and the world news. 

We are lucky to have Aspen Public radio faithfully holding forth with their accurate information. It is noticeable that by the time one goes into West Glenwood and farther west that a verified news desert is evident. Don’t be a fool of this administration, seek out the truth. http://www.aspenpublicradio.org lets you stream good fact-checked NPR & BBC info when you are out of KJAX 88.9 broadcast range.

John Hoffmann, Carbondale

Buyers’ remorse on Trump?

Donald Trump promised change. Voters elected him because they wanted change, too. But a month into the new administration, I wonder if voters are having second thoughts.

Did we really vote to allow Elon Musk to feed our federal government into the “wood chipper”? Do we trust the world’s richest man – in an unelected position – to decide which parts of government should be cut? This is an incredibly dangerous arrangement where absolute wealth is being given absolute power. It will corrupt our democracy in fundamental ways.

We voted for reform, but did we ask for this chaotic slashing of the federal workforce? Did we realize it would mean indiscriminate cuts to disease control, consumer protection, veterans’ affairs, even the IRS (costing the government billions in lost revenue, mainly from the wealthiest citizens)? 

When we voted for Trump, did we give him a mandate to turn our system of justice into a spoils system? Are we comfortable with the message that was sent in pardoning the violent Jan. 6 participants? Are we OK with firing independent inspectors general whose job it is to investigate and prevent waste, fraud and abuse (oh the irony)? Do we go along with the Justice Department seeking “retribution” against political enemies and rewarding friends, rather than following the facts and the law?

We knew Trump loved tariffs, but did we vote for a global trade war that will only raise prices? And did we intend for the US to opt out of world trade agreements, and instead to let Trump just do one-on-one deals with other countries to increase his personal power?

Finally, we knew Trump was squirrelly on Russia and Ukraine, but are we surprised now that he’s throwing Ukraine under the bus, threatening NATO, and possibly entering the US into an alliance with Russia against Europe? Are we wondering about the wisdom and the morality of a president who wants to “clear out” 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and send US troops to help develop Gaza into a Club Med?

Americans voted for change, but we didn’t vote for this.

Dave Reed, Carbondale

Boycott big corporations and reclaim community power

Stop, hey, what’s that sound? Are you happy with what’s been going down?

Do you like unelected billionaires spending your money willy-nilly? Investing it in geopolitical conflicts and weird antagonistic image stunts while your eggs and coffee get ever more expensive?

Me neither.

You can do something about it. If you’re interested and able, try to take an evening trip to the Gypsum Costco this week. It’s open until 8:30 p.m. on weeknights. Stock up on bulk supplies, including seeds and soil for your summer garden. Why?

This Friday, Feb. 28, there is an economic boycott protest. It’s meant to start with just a day, where folks abstain from buying gas and shopping from Amazon, Target, Walmart, and other big corporations. Spend Friday night reading or having a family game night, detoxing from screens. Buy anything essential from local businesses. Then, to the degree you’re able, hold that pattern.

Try to break that habit of stress shopping, or at least direct it toward the shops of family and friends.

If you want to do more, look online for regional gatherings, people getting together to sing and make paintings. Things can happen, change can happen, when people sing.

Annalise Grueter, Basalt