Letters

It never ceases to amaze me how Trump supporters can use up so much column space in this paper without bringing up one substantive policy idea.

In his recent letter, Steve Vella mocked President Joe Biden for signing so many executive orders during his first week in office [“Blazing Biden,” Letters, February 4]. In an attempt to channel “Blazing Saddles,” Mr. Vella has the president signing an executive order to implement the Green New Deal. “Gentlemen,” the president says, “we gotta save our phony baloney jobs.”

The fact of the matter is that not one of the executive orders signed by President Biden has anything to do with the Green New Deal. But he did sign an order to open a three-month enrollment period to allow more Americans to sign up for health care during the pandemic. Another order requires every executive agency appointee to sign an “ethics pledge,” which includes bans on gifts from lobbyists and “golden parachute” payments.

Biden also directed agencies to use the Defense Production Act to compel companies to manufacture supplies needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. And still another order reverses the Trump decision to remove the United States from the Paris climate Accord. Bulletin to Mr. Vella and other science deniers: Climate change is real. It is not a liberal fantasy. It is a fact measurable and observable by science. And if the United States does not take the lead in reversing its course, we will soon be on a nonstop ride to climate disaster.

In the same issue, reader John Porta attacks a letter writer who thinks Newsmax should be removed from Optimum’s basic cable package [“Cancel Culture,” Letters, February 4]. That writer simply does not want to be forced to pay for a network that spreads lies. Likening the woman’s position to the Spanish Inquisition (no hyberbole there!), Mr. Porta claims, without evidence, that she would probably want Fox News and Tucker Carlson removed also. Liberals, Mr. Porta claims, have no use for history and facts.

But I would argue that we liberals want to remove Newsmax precisely because we value history and facts. Until it was threatened with libel suits by some voting machine manufacturers, Newsmax spread the lie that these manufacturers cheated Donald Trump out of the election. This resulted in their executives getting death threats and in Trump supporting terrorists storming the Capitol.

I, for one, agree that we should not be forced to pay for these lies.

As for Fox News, while I abhor the hatred spewed by Carlson, Sean Hannity and others, the network does employ some first-rate journalists who frequently debunk many of the falsehoods disseminated during the evening “entertainment” portion of the day. Let Fox be.

John Neely

Westhampton Beach