Letters to the Editor

Reply to Mr. Pfender

Editor, the Journal,

Dear Mr. Pfender - Shortly after taking office, I invited the new chair of the nonpartisan Mason County Voter Research Project to meet with the elections team and discuss how to collaborate efforts. The Voter Research Project was created with the intent to help auditors keep voter rolls current and correct. The local group in Mason County has a list of potential voter anomalies from the 2022 election that they plan to investigate through canvassing. The elections team will then work through the next level of investigation of any anomalies “confirmed” by the Voter Research Project and take action if and as appropriate. Overall timing will largely depend on the pace of canvassing. If you would like to be a part of the canvassing effort or know anyone who would be, please let me know and I will put you in touch with the Voter Research Project.

In the meantime, the elections team continues to routinely investigate voter registration issues provided by the Secretary of State from the Electronic Registration Information Center system and other sources such as obituaries. I have also been looking into potential voter registration issues identified through “doorbelling” and “get out the vote” efforts leading up to the 2022 primary and general election. I want to assure you that your elections team is dedicated to keeping voter rolls current and correct within the restraints of the law and are very passionate about ensuring that all legal voters have the opportunity to vote and that their votes are correctly processed and counted.

Feel free to stop by my office or the Elections Vote Center. We welcome any opportunity to share the good work in progress with the people we serve. More to come.

Steve Duenkel, Mason County auditor

After the campaign

Editor, the Journal,

Now that Mr. Steve Duenkel is our elections auditor, I’m curious how much voter anomaly he uncovered in the election he won? How many dead people voted; how many voted twice; how many ballots were forged or illegally “muled” in?

Considering his campaign promised to address these serious issues, the voters of Mason County are entitled to an honest and transparent report on the extent of the problem he was elected to fix. I suspect that report will deny the claims of the election deniers that Mr. Duenkel appealed to.

Craig Anderson, Shelton

Decision on schools

Editor, the Journal,

I have been a strong supporter of our public schools as a parent, PTSO officer, tutor, community volunteer and voter in the Shelton School District. However, that support has waned over the past few years as our state and district have moved away from the fundamentals of educating our children in core subjects. I can no longer accept the status quo of the educational bureaucracy as a community member, taxpayer and voter.

District student proficiency has declined since 2017 or before, while spending per student has risen 20% in the past three years. If public education was not a government monopoly, customers would be fleeing. And that is exactly what has happened with the Shelton School District the past few years as enrollment has dropped, even while the school-age population in the county has increased. Parents have made their vote by removing their children for either home or private schooling in the county; the numbers primarily limited by the financial burden of paying for their child’s education twice, through tuition and taxes.

Many will put these issues on the state; however, the district has created its own problems affecting student learning and costs. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the district did not follow protocols used by other local districts and therefore lost valued staff. This negatively impacted students, staff, taxpayers and the community. This is an example of what many see in our district, that of putting the educational bureaucracy ahead of students and parents. We need a district that puts students and families first, whether the state does or not.

When voting, consider whether your vote will encourage the status quo or encourage some needed change at the district. This voter can no longer support our government school system without significant changes.

Robert Gay Rogers, Shelton

It’s a theory

Editor, the Journal,

Some papers back, mister Anvik stated that climate change is a theory. He is absolutely correct, climate change is a theory.

A proper science-based theory as opposed to a opinion-based theory is developed over time and is based on observation, data collection, statistical evaluation and mathematics. Once enough information is gathered, science can begin to understand and even predict results. This is true of all established theories.

References: (1, 2 and 3 ) History.com-climate change:

(1) People have been studying the climate since the early 1800s (1820s Joseph Fourier, 1850s Eunice Foot, 1860s John Tyndall, 1890s Svante Arrhenius) and by the early 1900s the greenhouse gases were identified and their functions pretty well understood.

The greenhouse gases, primarily water vapor, carbon dioxide and methane, in that order, regulate the temperature of Earth. Generally speaking, they do this by absorbing some heat radiating from Earth and re-radiating the heat back to Earth. They are like a blanket covering Earth, keeping us warm. Water vapor is a variable feed-back system, either positive or negative based on temperature. Carbon dioxide and methane are the steady workhorses of the climate condition.

(2) In the early 1900s, calculations by Guy Stewart Callendar indicated rising temperatures in the areas where heavy players were involved in the Industrial Revolution. Industrial Revolution is defined as the discovery of fossil fuel as a source of stored energy.

(3) Though largely ignored, the idea did generate an interest in the possibility and serious methods were developed to measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. One such method based in Hawaii generated the Keeling Curve, which, from around 1958, has showed the steady rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide absorbs heat (energy), the more CO2 in the air the more absorbed heat and the earth must find a way to deal with this excess heat. If it can’t the excess CO2 can remain in the atmosphere for a very long time absorbing even more heat.

The Stefan-Boltzman law states that a body must emit as much energy as it absorbs in order to maintain a constant temperature. If it is not able for some reason to sustain this balance then it either cools or heats until a new balance is achieved.

The human body is a good example of this law. We take in energy through our food and our skin radiates infrared radiation (heat). If the human body for some reason is not capable of maintaining a narrow temperature range (95/100) degrees, the body will feel stress.

Scott Peterson, Shelton

Fiscal surrender

Editor, the Journal,

I’ve suspended my contributions to the Shelton-Mason County Journal’s Letters to the Editor for the last month in an attempt to put a positive (and rational) spin on the federal government’s recent economic policies.

I’ve surrendered. There’s nothing positive in this fiscal crisis.

Several quotes from various news publications:

President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats who control the Senate said they won’t allow Republicans to pressure them to cut federal programs ... recent attempt to raise the debt ceiling do not include spending cuts . . . Wall Street Journal.

Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen states that the United States needs to increase the federal debt limit by $31.4 trillion or the United States is in default — the proposal of prioritizing some payments has no prescience . . . Wall Street Journal, Jan 21-22

I’d been reading President Biden’s statements that the explosion of government spending (Build Back Better, CHIPS, etc.) is already paid for — if so, why the sudden fiscal crisis? 

Related to this issue, The Seattle Times opinion editorial headlines “Washington scores in federal omnibus spending bill” which continues, “Washington’s congressional delegation made sure that important projects around the Puget Sound will receive a federal financial boost, to the tune of $44 million. Seattle Times, Page A14, Jan. 4.

And here I thought earmarks were eliminated from the federal budget process as a result of the Alaskan bridge to nowhere — within recent memory.

I doubt I’m the only Washington citizen to think our elected politicians are putting lipstick on a pig?

In my extensive reading of history, I’ve concluded that most civilizations rot from the inside; and as Ernest Hemingway remarked about bankruptcy, “It happens gradually, gradually, and then suddenly.”

James Poirson, Shelton

Save a senior

Editor, the Journal,

Give me more money. Why is this the slogan for Democratics’ policy, never cost analysis and efficiency?

On the Pioneer School District’s recent request for additional funds. In other words, support our death and taxes request on the senior citizens. Why do we senior citizens put up with this strong-arm stealing of our only means of support? These out-of-control liberal raiding policies are destroying our senior citizens. These liberals would rather sell their own daughters to get money for their own pet projects. Case in point is again the recent request from the Pioneer District for citizens to again vote for a levy request. They say it is a replacement levy. Well, it is a levy that should have never happened in the first place. What they don’t tell you, which is really lying to you, is that a few years ago the courts told the state of Washington that the state had to fund all the basic education costs in all the school districts in Washington. That means no more local school districts need to request local money to run their schools. But low and behold, the Pioneer District wants more money. Never enough. It is really a double tax on us for school costs. Look on your tax statement. Two items for school taxes. We now have to pay not only the taxes to the state of Washington but also to the local school district. This is outrageous and is criminal theft from our seniors. These seniors can’t keep up with these increases and double taxes because they are not working anymore. They have already spent 50 years paying taxes to support everything. And now these heartless liberals want to put them in bankruptcy. I know some of these extra programs are good for the kids, but here is a simple solution for the liberals: no forced levy, just request donations from all the people, who have the money, to send in checks to cover these projects. Quit forcing senior citizens to fund your projects. Do not vote for a double taxation school levy. Send in a check if you can. Save a senior.

Jerald L Sparks, Shelton

Democrats are bad

Last Sunday was the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Fortunately for America’s babies, Roe was overturned; unfortunately for Washington babies, Gov. Jay Inslee goes beyond Roe. Democrats want unlimited abortions. Here are the issues:

Democrats claim to be for science. Science says an unborn can live outside mom’s body after about six months in the womb. Doesn’t matter; Democrats will kill the baby. Democrats don’t really believe in the sanctity of science; it’s all a scam to get political control.

Democrats say women own their bodies. To those who think this, check the number of drafted men who died on battlefields in all our wars. In war, men don’t own their own bodies; they are drafted and then either go to war or go to prison. Even today, the draft law specifies men, not women. All 18-year-old males, but no females, must register for the draft. Anyone for a gender change?

Democrats claim they’re more humane. They show compassion for mistreated animals, abused children, beaten wives and murderers, but no compassion for unborn babies. To Democrats, compassion is merely a political word to be used in campaign speeches.

Inslee believes he’s humane by saving murderers, yet he kills babies. In Idaho, killing unborn babies is against the law, but executing the killer of four college students will get the death penalty. Murdering the innocent versus executing the guilty; can any Democrat see the difference? Idaho is truly more humane than Washington.

Democrat compassion is a fraud. This month 210 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against requiring medical treatment be given to a baby born in spite of an abortion attempt. A woman undergoes an abortion but the baby still lives. A few months later it’s born. Rep. Derek Kilmer and 209 other Democrats symbolically leave the baby on the table struggling for breath. Two adult women, abortion survivors, said their mother’s doctor left these newborns with no treatment; fortunately a compassionate nurse gave the infants the breath of life. A baby survives an abortion; then must survive Democrat attempts to kill it by refusing treatment. Derek Kilmer and his Democratic friends made their courageous stand to allow abortion survivors to die on the birthing table. Democrats, is this your definition of compassion? If so, you need a new dictionary. Democrats have no standards but they do have double-talk and are two-faced.

Two years after the election, Roderic Whittaker still criticizes people who voted for Trump but ignores Biden’s incompetence; 250,000 illegal immigrants in a month; an unknown number of got-aways including MS-13 and cartel gang members, fentanyl smugglers and sex-trafficked young people. Does Whittaker only hate Trump or can he see Joe Biden’s dishonesty?

Ardean Anvik, Shelton