Letters: Never before have I seen the Democrats in this hot a mess

This is how Democrats plan to win?

Never before have I seen the Democrats in this hot a mess.

And what is their master plan for taking back Congress in 2026?

Try to save the careers of hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats hiding out in the partisan Democrat deep-state, and accuse Musk of being an unelected president despite the fact he openly campaigned with Trump and everyone knew what the dynamic duo would do?

Meanwhile, they throw temper tantrums in committees, sue Trump in every liberal court they can find, denounce popular efforts to trim trillions in waste, threaten violence in the streets, conspire against ICE, and write stupid protest songs they can’t sing on-key.

Is this how Democrats plan to win next time? This? What a gift to taxpayers.

Mark D. Overholser, South St. Paul

Elon Musk, Bureaucrat in Chief

Over the past few years, I have written various times on this page questioning actions of Democrats who are beholden to “Progressives,” or the extreme wing of the party. I have generally written from a centrist and critical perspective of “this is why people vote for Donald Trump.” Well, Trump once again occupies the White House, and I feel it is time to shift attention.

Since his inauguration, the Trump administration has done so many profoundly problematic and destructive things that it is difficult to know where to focus. However, I will address one element of his administration: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

DOGE as it is being implemented is based on deceit and questionable legality. The official DOGE website can be found at www.doge.gov. This is a very unusual website for a government agency in that it shares so little information about the agency. Under the “About” tab, the only information provided pertaining to DOGE is Trump’s executive order which created DOGE. It is a very short and generalized document, yet it provides the legal basis and justification for all DOGE actions. It has only one Purpose clause, which reads: “This Executive Order establishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

“The President’s DOGE Agenda” is not defined anywhere in the order. DOGE supersedes the former US Digital Service (renamed by the executive order as the US DOGE Service).

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) was created in 1961 to provide humanitarian assistance around the world, and to promote goodwill towards the US, countering similar aid/development programs by other foreign powers (most notably the USSR). This agency has indisputably saved and/or improved many millions of lives over the years. One can debate the validity and/or efficiency of this agency. However, to gut and functionally eliminate USAID under a program whose legally defined purpose is to modernize technology and software is absurd. I am not a lawyer, but it seems very questionable from a legal perspective. It precludes any sort of public debate (i.e. transparency and accountability). This is just one of many examples of wrecking-ball actions being implemented by DOGE under Elon Musk.

Trump and his supporters have long railed against unelected bureaucrats who they claim have too much power. How ironic, now, that Musk is functionally the Bureaucrat in Chief. He has never run for office of any kind, yet he is arguably the second most powerful man in the United States, given his unchecked political power as the in-fact administrator of DOGE combined with his vast economic and communications clout.

Peter Langworthy, St. Paul

Joe’s reasoning needs a tweak

Joe Soucheray’s article about transgender people participating in women’s sports this past Sunday needs a little tweaking.

It’s true that biological men normally out-compete women. What gives men this advantage is their testosterone. It makes their muscles larger and stronger. However, if a transgender person is taking a testosterone-blocking agent together with a feminizing estrogen, as most of them do, this advantage is lost. According to my reading, (easily found on the internet), testing repeatedly shows that cis-women consistently compete well against trans-women in all feats excepting for hand-grip strength. They can actually jump higher, and have better lung function than trans-women.

Like Joe, I don’t have a dog in this fight, excepting that I wouldn’t mind seeing Minnesota prevail in its resistance to the bullying we are seeing from Washington.

G.J. Mayer, Lino Lakes

Handing the field to Goliath

Ukraine vs Russia is the David and Goliath, good vs evil, story of our time. I am sad, worried and angry that at a time when the United States should be standing with democracy against a cruel dictator we have just taken the stone from David’s sling and handed the field to Goliath. This level of capitulation is right up there with Neville Chamberlain declaring peace in our time after meeting with Adolf Hitler. We all know how that turned out.

Ukraine has put up quite a fight against our mortal enemy, putting Putin the dictator in a weakened state. Why in the world are we abandoning our allies and throwing Putin a lifeline?

Greg Kvaal, Mendota Heights

A puddle of tears?

I’m responding to Wednesday’s New York Times report of federal funding being cut to the CDC, FDA and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Hold it right there, Mister. While all that sounds like a done deal, our Attorney General, Keith Ellison, has co-led a 22-blue-state lawsuit against the federal administration for “unlawfully cutting (NIH) funds that support cutting-edge medical and public health research at universities and research institutions across the country.”

And, Massachusetts District Court Judge Angel Kelley has wagged her finger in Elon Musk’s puffy little face. She is one of Joe Biden’s 2021 picks.  It’s only a temporary reprieve and a further hearing is scheduled for Feb. 21.

Here’s the kicker: The pause is limited to the 22 blue states that enjoined the lawsuit. The red states have been left sitting in a puddle of their own tears.  For those of you who enjoy the schadenfreude

Regina Purins, St. Paul

Oh, that T-Bird

Thank you for the supplement to the 14 Feb.25 Pioneer Press, “A Ford assembly plant story.

My father had been a Ford car owner for most of his life.  In 1955, I was 11 years old, we as a family drove from southern Minnesota to St Paul to take a tour of the Ford plant.

Parked in front of the main office building was a brand new 1955 Ford Thunderbird, black with a red and white interior.  Awesome! I don’t remember much about the tour but I do remember telling my father that someday I would own a Thunderbird like the 1955 model we saw at the plant.

In 1971, I found a 1956 Ford Thunderbird (1955 and 1956 models were almost identical) on a Ford dealership used car lot.  No hesitating, I bought it and made arrangements to drive it home.

I spent many wonderful hours over the years overhauling the 312 CID V8, its transmission and its running gear.  I still have it and marvel at its beauty everyday.

A Ford Thunderbird lover,

Gary Schraml, Lindstrom

Let’s make a deal — for your pennies

There’s been recent discussions about the lowly penny. How now, It costs about three and a half cents to mint one penny.

There seems to be a faulty assumption that once a penny is spent or received as change, the pennies are tossed away in the trash never to be seen again, which is absurd thinking.

The reality is that many pennies are recycled again and again and often for many years. To be used again and again in multiple purchases or to be received as change.

There’s another reality. Pennies do get lost and need replacing. Or they get saved ( hoarded). You’ll hear about some people saving (hoarding) pennies over many decades. Sometimes you read about people out of vengeance or malice choosing to pay off debts off with thousands of pennies. Sometimes you read about people showing up at a bank to convert decades of savings pennies in a wheel barrow. That becomes newsworthy and an attention getter.

I would suggest that every once a while, when the US Treasury needs more pennies, instead of minting more pennies, to instead institute a buying plan to pay the hoarding savers one and a half cents to two cents for each penny they turned into an authorized bank to be converted to cash. The same idea goes with nickels.

I’m sure a plan can be worked out. It has to be a plan with a very defined and closed window of opportunity to work.

There are probably millions, maybe billions of pennies that are now entrapped at homes and businesses across the USA that needs to be released. Hopefully a buy-back program would save some taxpayers money.

Barry Siebert, St Paul