Defense spending
Contrary to what columnist Robert Weissman would have us believe (“Bloated Pentagon demands scrutiny,” Sept. 19), the U.S. has been defunding the Department of Defense since the end of World War II. Defense spending as a percentage of GDP has been steadily falling over the last seven decades from a high of approximately 40% of GDP in 1945 to an estimated 3.3% of GDP today.
Nor is it a question of guns vs. butter. The $28 billion in additional defense spending has not prevented President Biden from spending trillions of dollars on student loan forgiveness, enhanced child care credits and Build Back Better, with the promises of even more social welfare spending (free community college, etc.) to come.
None of which addresses the question of how defunding the police morphed into defunding the Department of Defense. Could it be that defunding the police has been recognized as such a patently absurd proposition as to be indefensible?
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New changes
I know that there are far more important issues in the world today than the recent changes to the Journal, but as a loyal subscriber, I’m going out on a limb here to express my feelings.
Losing the TV section really irked me. I can’t afford all the streaming services that carry the programs you’re listing on the “What To watch” page and I get only the minimal channels on cable.
But the cut in the comics section was too much and I am disappointed in the choices you have made. One reason is that it affects my daily routine: pour a cup of coffee, open the newspaper, scan the headlines, turn to the comics for a little humor and then Ask Amy for advice that hopefully I don’t need.
Scott Hollifield’s column on Mondays always brings a laugh with his “Monkey News” or weird stories from the world of science.
But here’s the deal: You used to carry two comics based on Black families: “Curtis” and “JumpStart.” Now there are none; the comics have gone vanilla. Oh sure, there are Black characters in “Luann” and the new (ugg) “Crabgrass,” but neither of these portray Black families as the main characters. I miss them.
Thank goodness “Pearls Before Swine” made the cut.
I won’t be going to your website to view “over 500 comics!” I’ll make do for now as I prepare myself for the next big change.
Disappointing cuts
I have been reading the Journal since I was old enough to read. I understand there are rising costs to operating a newspaper, but the continued paring back of content is disappointing. No Saturday TV insert with trivia, no Sudoku or word challenge. No “Today in History,” and the comics are reduced to one page. If you are trying to get people to cancel their subscriptions, you’re certainly headed in the right direction.
“Today in History” has moved to the features pages. — the editor
Not Biden
President Biden hasn’t repeatedly lied and misled his millions of followers about winning a presidential election.
Biden didn’t inspire right-wing fanatics to attack the nation’s Capitol, injuring dozens of police officers in the process, to try to stop the results of an election from being verified. And Biden didn’t call the violent insurrectionists “very special people.”
Biden didn’t start a trade war that led to American farmers declaring bankruptcy and, in some cases, committing suicide. He didn’t coddle murderous dictators and chose their side over our own security agencies.
Biden wasn’t impeached for trying to extort partisan political assistance from a U.S. ally. He didn’t obstruct justice by ordering his aides to ignore legal subpoenas. He didn’t diminish or embarrass the U.S., repeatedly, on the world stage with boorish behavior.
Biden didn’t downplay a deadly pandemic, thus contributing to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, the majority of whom were his own supporters.
But Biden is old, and he gave struggling college students a break, and gas costs almost $4 a gallon, so obviously, the writer of the Sept. 8 letter “Worst thing ever” is right; he’s the worst thing to ever happen to the nation.
I know that there are far more important issues in the world today than the recent changes to the Journal, but as a loyal subscriber, I’m going out on a limb here to express my feelings.
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