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August 27. 2015 12:01AM Letters to the Editor, Aug. 27 Thanks for giving Aug. 15th was a day of giving and receiving at Blue Heron Park in Phoenix, with great musical entertainment from live local bands and beautiful weather under sunny skies. A heartfelt thanks to Kendra Smith, area resident, for once again sponsoring the annual Veggie Jam event held at the park. Citizens and P.Annie's Secret Garden members participated, bringing hundreds of pounds of fresh organic fruits and vegetables that they have grown this summer. They shared the bounty with anyone who attended the event and over 500 pounds of produce was later brought to the 1st Phoenix Community Center for The Pantry as well as the Teresa McCormick Assistance Center for distribution to area folks who will benefit from eating this healthy, tasty food. If you would like to learn more about P.Annie's, visit www.panniessecretgarden.org. Sandy Wine Phoenix The Trump phenomenon Primary season is underway and Republicans wasted no time in setting the tone: Ted Cruz called President Obama a leading state sponsor of terrorism and Mike Huckabee said he would march the Israelis to the door of the oven. Incredibly, their frontrunner almost makes those guys sound sane. Among Republicans, crazy is the new normal. The Trump phenomenon is no surprise. When Obama beat them in 2008, Republicans decided to broaden their appeal by becoming a haven for the lunatic fringe. The GOP soon degenerated into an angry mob that couldn’t even work with each other, much less Democrats. Too dysfunctional to govern, they were reduced to calling Obama stupid names (as above) and being against whatever he was for — including diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. They even sent a traitorous letter to Iran, joining radical hard-liners there in opposing a deal before one had been reached. Trump is the frontrunner because his oafish behavior best reflects the direction taken by the GOP since we elected Obama. He’d be doing Republicans a favor they don’t deserve if he were to start a third party and take all the other whackos with him. Michael Steely Medford It's your money Whether you know it or not, you are funding the expansion of fracking, oil and gas pipeline projects and domestic fuel for export. Government research, paid for with your taxes, developed fracking. Your taxes pay the salaries of officials appointed from the industry to protect the environment but who rubber-stamp nearly every project, no matter how ill-conceived or destructive. Private land is taken for pennies on the dollar and public land given away free to industry. When government writes off industry taxes, you take up the slack. The industry externalizes pollution costs by letting your taxes pay for clean up. Every year, $5.2 billion goes to U.S. tax subsidies for oil and gas instead of to schools, medical care or creating access to clean energy. This is subsidy economics, which is the opposite of a free market. Industry write-offs, embedded in the tax code, are a permanent drag on the economy. Any local gain in jobs or revenue falls short of the overall cost of the giveaways, actually destroying jobs and undermining prosperity. Call Governor Brown, your state legislators, Senators Wyden and Merkley to stop the LNG project in Southern Oregon. It's your money. Vicki Simpson Ashland http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20150827/OPINION/150829683 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->