Letters for May 2, 2019

High dining

Re “The weed issue” (cover story, April 18):

To add to the “weed issue,” research is showing raw marihuana leaves to be a potential superfood. Better than kale (ugh) and not an unpleasant taste. I usually munch a few raw leaves a day from my couple of plants.

Doesn’t get you high if raw.

No ill effects yet, other than turning me green.

Kidding … was green already.

Craig Bergland

Reno

Dictation on dictators

We have had dubious alliances with dictators in every era, for every duration, for every quid pro reason one can find; but the best of all of them is the implicit one we have with a Russian dictator today.

History always comes full circle. Immigration history that pertains to the situation now can be traced to the ’80s under the brilliant policy making of our Republican god Ronald Reagan. Policies with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras left a see-saw era of destabilizing forces. Civil wars in those countries came and went, then came back. In their aftermath dozens of gans armed with U.S. weapons began an occupation. Reagan immigration policies also provided cheap labor for our Fields, so the honest working people of these nations were are here working for us at slave wages in place of their own economy.

It can be said that attempts to encourage stable democratic governments in these nations were misguided, counterproductive and contrary to any common sense ideas regarding peace and economic stability for our nearest neighbors. Let us add Venezuela to the current mix of South American Affairs with cargo planes from Russia and China waiting to offload food and medicine for the citizens who now suffer under the thumb of a dictator. It is now too late for us to intervene as the moment has been lost.

Venezuela was lost when troops (not that we have any at the fresh and ready anyway!) were not dispatched at the time our aid was not allowed in the country. Once the Russians and the Chinese get ensconced and agree on their ideology profit-sharing we will have a communist neighbor with more bargaining power than Reagan ever had with his Star Wars ruse. We cannot stand up to the Russians in Ukraine let alone in our own backyard. Our special relationship with Russia now has the harbingers of a “North/South America takedown.” I cannot paint a more disturbing picture for the national press!

Our history with the Soviet Union could be documented in a very thick book. It would remind us of the Cuban Missile Crisis to understand the nature of Russian occupation in South America. This history book would include the work of the “great communicator” himself and the “fall” of the Soviet Union. The last chapter would document how Soviets used a broken electoral system, social propaganda and an ignorant con artist of a businessman to cement the very best relationship we have ever had with a dictator. Wet cement is one thing, but Congress is currently letting it dry very nicely.

Trade and immigration policy is mute in such circumstances. There are two sides of the same coin, and that coin is a shiny penny polished with a generous amount of debt and financialization mechanisms to replace a real goods and services of household and National value. The ultra-rich may not have a country to spend their money on. They are gated communities will continue to take on the characteristics of Third World Islands run by dictatorial Property association managers, while the Senate Majority Leader continues to operate unimpeded by 1.7 million KY households who ranked 43rd in HH median income.

The attendance at his rallies is more disturbing than the narcissism of the man himself. If there ever was a “canary in a coal mine” regarding the toxic future of our nation, it is the cheers and laughter coming from the poor souls led by an ignorant POTUS. The Safety and Security of the nation is at risk now more than ever while part of some lawyers debate the differences between ethics and evidence of criminality.

The Soviets have infiltrated our nation via the worst of our electoral system, and they have enabled the most destructive aspects of a broken partisan government. They have penetrated our national consciousness (via the arguing party factions) and rendered that consciousness feeble of its values.

Mark R. Ahearn

Carson City