Readers Write: Farming, Trump, property taxes, back surgery, climate change

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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The most important article on Sunday was on the back page of the business section: “Tariffs seen as blow to farmers” from CQ-Roll Call. Tariffs in Donald Trump’s first term disrupted our international agricultural trade. Had money from a “slush fund” not been given out as subsidies, there would have been massive farm foreclosures and a huge impact on small-town businesses. This time, the tariffs will be bigger and global, with a far greater impact on agriculture. The article suggests that subsidies will likely not be available due to Republican opposition. Add the effects of mass deportation, climate change and increasing costs of agricultural inputs, it is not hard to see a rural depression with farm foreclosures, bank failures and loss of population and tax base. These folks voted for Trump, who will never again face voters in a presidential election, so he will reward billionaires with tax breaks instead of his rural base of support. If Trump showed sympathy and loyalty to his base, this could be prevented. It will be interesting to see if Tom Emmer and the other Republican U.S. House members put acquiescence to Trump over serving their constituents.

Joel Stegner, Edina

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Farmers tile for the same reason city people tar their roads and put in curbs and gutters — nobody wants excess water on their property, and no one wants to play, travel or work in the mud (”Floods reveal cost of fertile farm fields,” Nov. 24). If you want farmers to quit tiling, rip out your cement and tar and see what it’s like to live on a gravel road like most farmers, and make sure rainwater from your property and sump pump stays and doesn’t run to your neighbors’.

Darcy Kroells, Green Isle, Minn.

Here it is, two weeks after the election, and now Arne Carlson has chosen to submit his assessment of the egotism of Donald Trump, and has mentioned some of the crimes Trump has committed (“The small world of self,” StribVoices, Nov. 24). Thank you very much, Carlson, but you are a couple of months too late. If you wanted to warn people about the dangers of electing a man whom you see as unworthy and unfit for the presidency, why did you wait so long?

Perhaps you didn’t think that he would win. If so, you failed to realize how many poorly informed people live among us. They will soon have carried Trump back into the White House, and we will all suffer the consequences of his re-election as our president and the putative leader of the free world. Good luck to you, Arne, and to all of us. We will need it.

Carol Larsen, Plymouth

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In his historical and thoughtful piece, former Governor Carlson concludes with the question: “Where have our values gone?” The answer is fairly straightforward, and it can be spelled out in a simple math equation: 30,000 well documented lies = X number of extra Republican votes. Lies don’t amount to much, unless they are left to stand, and Republicans were silent or acquiescent to Trump throughout the spread of his nine years of mis- and disinformation. And then there was that “Get out of jail free” card from Republicans when Trump could have been thrown out of office after a second impeachment (following his violent insurrection).

No rocket science here, just the devastation of Republican silence.

Steve Watson, Minneapolis

The Nov. 24 article ”Many homeowners are in for a tax shock” states that taxpayers’ “heartburn” is an effect of the impending property tax increases ranging from 5-17% in the metro area. The fact of the matter is that this year’s heartburn is on top of the years prior: heart attack, stress, double vision, depression, panic attack and overall taxpayer malaise. In typical fashion, our officials are quick to cite the reasons (I call them excuses) for the increases. Never, ever in their excuses have I heard the real reason cited: We’re spending more and more money each year — therefore we’re coming to you for more. So here we all sit with looming 5-17% property tax increases. It’s unsustainable and from an elected pool that’s quick to point the finger at inflation, COVID-19 or whatever excuse is convenient and deflecting.

In my case here in Ramsey County, I’m on the hook for a 5% increase with no additional income to support that. So where does that extra money come from? That’s not a rhetorical question: Ramsey County commissioners: Where is that extra money coming from?

If there has ever been a textbook example of out-of-control spending on the backs of taxpayers, this is it. The halls of government have not only lost their ability to manage our money efficiently and fairly, but they’ve also lost their ability to look you in the eye and tell you with a straight face that they are running lean and mean like the rest of us must.

Hans Molenaar, St. Paul

Thank you for the Nov. 24 article on page D1, “A place for back pain patients deemed risky” by Jeremy Olson. As an orthopedic surgeon, I am always interested to learn new and effective surgeries to help my patients. The “success” of a new procedure is not measured in surgical time or estimated blood loss, as suggested in the article, but there is certainly a role for tracking and monitoring those metrics. A new procedure must be proven to be safe and effective before it should be accepted by others. Safety is measured by the complication rate: death, paralysis, permanent nerve or vascular injury, infection, need for additional or revision surgeries in the future, readmission, etc. Efficacy is shown by carefully performed measurement of the outcomes of the surgery using questionnaires and other patient-reported outcomes measures. For back pain, the surgeon needs to prove the surgery is safe and effective in reducing patients’ pain postoperatively by publishing their results in a peer-reviewed journal, not an open-access journal like Cureus. If the procedure can meet these criteria, and be shown to be safe and effective, then other surgeons may consider adopting it. I did not see this information included in your article. Without this information, rather than a work of investigative journalism, your article is really just an advertisement for Dr. Hamid Abbasi. For good reading, I recommend the book “Surgery, the Ultimate Placebo” by Ian Harris.

Kevin Walker, Minneapolis

The lack of meaningful progress from all the expensive, large gatherings of climate hopefuls might be summed up in that only recently, after some 15 years, they finally agree that there is any link between fossil fuels and global warming (″$300B deal on climate reached,” Nov. 24). But further, world leaders only agreed to transition away from fossil fuels by midcentury, and then only pledged some $300 billion in annual spending by 2035, when $1.3 trillion is what is actually needed per year now. Most leaders won’t live to see that day, but they should still care but realistically don’t.

This can continues to get kicked down this road to nowhere, as many country leaders give lip service but ignore the issue to advance their personal goals of military strength, economic superiority and dominant power. Come 2035 they will gather and set new goals with no intention to fulfill them, and come 2050 — if there is one — their successors will wish they had done more in hindsight to improve a polluted world. We need some genuine effort to advance the reduction/elimination of all forms of pollution, far beyond the obvious too little too late evident here.

Michael Tillemans, Minneapolis