Letters to the Editor, May 23
Crisis being ignored
The growing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has received scant attention from the mainstream media because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Socialist policies as espoused by people such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are on full display.
The government of Venezuela collectivized the agricultural industry and food production promptly plummeted. It nationalized the oil industry and oil production plummeted.
Eleven percent of all Venezuelan children 5 and under suffer from malnutrition. Families decide daily which family members will not be allowed to eat that day.
Citizens who are without food and medicine protest daily in the streets and many have been killed and arrested, yet there is no outrage from supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro like Sean Penn and other Hollywood elites because it doesn’t fit their worldview.
Erik Brechnitz, Marco Island
Nonexistent mosquito control
On a recent Sunday at 2 p.m., in broad sun, attempting to fight some weeds, I was attacked by hundreds of mosquitoes.
In the morning, getting out of the house to go to work, it is worse. I have never seen it this bad, even when I first moved to Naples in July 1966. Back then, mosquito control consisted of an old Jeep with a fogger in the back seat, which roamed the streets at dusk.
If there is spraying going on east of County Road 951, there is no evidence of planes, helicopters or spray trucks. There are lots of young folks out here, and pregnant women. Is there no concern for Zika outside the city?
Living in Naples from 1966 to 2009, then in Golden Gate Estates, I attest the mosquito problem is worse today than in rainy season, post-hurricane and power failure periods.
Minutes ago, I got dozens of bites in a few minutes. In contrast, on the same morning at Max Hasse Community Park, there
were only a few mosquitoes. They pretty much disappeared with the increasing morning breeze.
There seem to be no dragonflies, by contrast. We have no standing water on our lot, nor nearby. The canals are low.
Nick Kalvin, Golden Gate Estates
Required reading
Brent Batten’s May 11 column [in the Naples Daily News] should somehow be engraved in the brains of our legislators. It is clear, it is easily understood, it is impartial — and they won’t care because they have good health insurance coverage.
If only there were a way that they had to have the coverage that most Americans have!
Judith Reich, Marco Island
New scam?
There are any number of financial scams based on internet activity, which we all have been exposed to. Here’s one that seems new, albeit to be proven.
You go on one of the many conglomerated travel sites to book a flight, a cruise, a hotel, a combination or other activities. This is frequently based on an ad which you saw somewhere promoting an attractive price.
You do all the requisite administrivia (probably, like me, after several lengthy tries) and arrive at the bottom where you are invited to “book now” or “purchase now.” Press the button and you get a response that suggests due to technical (or even undefined) problems the site is unable to complete your process at this time and you need to try again later. Trying again later seems to result in a higher price.
Since all your information was captured earlier and you would rather not redo it all, you go for the higher price and conclude the tiresome process. Looks and sounds to me like the old “bait and switch.”
Is it deliberate or just another technical glitch? Based on the level of proven chicanery by banks, insurance companies, medical institutions and other formerly reliable service providers, I am cynical enough to think it is deliberate.
Charlie Berry, Naples
Is this the end?
The political cartoon in a Sunday Perspective section showed a road with all of the middle lanes closed, forcing everyone to the left or the right. This was an accurate representation of today’s Washington except for one issue — the deficit.
Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell all like the deficit. George W. Bush thought it was pretty good, Barack Obama absolutely loved it and Donald Trump, in his first 100 days, appears to agree.
How do we know this? Because year in and year out they all regularly act to increase the deficit. Just as they did when approving yet another continuing resolution last week.
Instead of addressing the deficit, they do battle over immigration, North Korea, ISIS, health care, sanctuary cities and so on, ad infinitum. And yet all of those issues combined are not nearly as dangerous as our fatal trip down the fast lanes of the road of debt.
The day that the U.S. dollar becomes a joke is not that far away. The endgame is inevitable but, except for a handful of fiscal conservatives, no one in the “swamp” has the will to move in the right direction. What an ugly way to end 250 years of a great and wonderful republic.
Bob Beckwith, Lely