US independence events fittingly cancelled by extreme weather

Last year, facing one of the coldest inauguration days in US history, Donald Trump was forced indoors, delivering a chilling blow to a man obsessed with crowd sizes. This year; in another extreme weather event completely unrelated to the fossil-fuel driven global warming “hoax”, a blistering heatwave has caused chaos and last-minute changes, which will again deprive the vainest president in US history of his desperate need for a decent crowd (“America’s 250th anniversary celebration upended”, July 5). With a “super El Nino” officially declared, which experts say “could supercharge extreme weather events and push temperatures to record highs”, will our local Trump-lite global warming deniers stay on message and risk the same humiliation and irrelevance, or finally accept that burying your head in the sand just ensures you won’t see what’s coming for you? In a world full of doom and gloom, thankfully Mother Nature can still provide schadenfreude amusement and reaffirm to the world’s most powerful man that inane ideology and wilful ignorance can never triumph over the immutable laws of physics and observable reality. Chris Roylance, Paddington (Qld)

President Trump has been justly criticised for treating the United States’ 250th anniversary national celebrations as MAGA propaganda events. The cancellation of Saturday’s Independence Day parade in Washington because of extreme heat is poetic justice: a climate change-denying president thwarted by the very phenomenon he has spent years dismissing as a hoax. Salvatore Sorbello, Campsie

Gilded cage

Your editorial offers best wishes to the United States on the 250th anniversary of its independence (“A US Independence Day shrouded in vainglory”, July 4). I’d prefer to offer my condolences to the millions of Americans who have been duped by the most fraudulent huckster of all time. While President Trump promised to usher in a “new golden age” and boasts his success, he failed spectacularly to submit a product disclosure statement setting out the risks and benefits. Anyone who believes that he took the role of president for the purpose of making America great again for the ordinary person is living in a fantasy land. If there is one thing Trump has been consummately artful in, it has been the exploitation of the office of president for unheard-of financial gain while grossly misleading those who he promised to help. Once again, just like in the gilded age of the 1870s to 1890s (“Spit and no polish: The Gilded Age of Trump”, July 4), the United States is living through a time rife with political corruption, shady business deals, wasteful excess and massive inequality. This is a time when only the president and the rich are benefiting. Mary Carde, Parrearra (Qld)

Trump’s “gilded age” can also be understood by looking at imperial Rome. Emperor Trump uses fear as a weapon, provides bread and circuses in the form of a cage-fight night and is happy to promote war to remove the focus from problems at home. Like many emperors before him, notoriety will be the value that accompanies his reign and place in history. Rod Leonarder, Roseville

He doesn’t have a heart of gold, he’s not as good as gold and thinks all that glitters is gold. If he was worth his weight in gold he’d be even richer. Trump doesn’t realise that silence is golden, or that he is chasing fool’s gold. Lyn Savage, Coogee

Familiar origins

Semi-quincentennial congratulations to our cousins across the water, bearing in mind that if not for the United States of America, our Australian nation would simply not exist. The formation of the USA in 1776 eliminated Britain’s convict transportation to America, requiring England to establish the penal colony of NSW in 1788. On this 250th anniversary of the union, we may echo the words from its well-loved anthem: “Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n rescued land, praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation”. David d’Lima, Sturt (SA)

There may be many Brits who are thinking that a celebration of 250 years of British independence from America on July 4 could be the reason to have a jolly good party. No silly baseball caps, just straw boaters and scarves, plus a few well-groomed horses. Ellie Hallett, Toowoomba (Qld)

Ugly side of power

Nick Bryant’s disturbing opinion of the Disunited States is not what we want to hear, but we need to hear it (“Polarisation: it’s the American way”, July 4). It is unlikely to improve while Donald Trump remains in the White House. The historical racial divide in the land of the some more free than others is the continuing problem. As always, power is the motivator. Greed is rewarded or punished depending on who wields the power. Bryant is right – under Trump’s self-rewarding grab for wealth, the country is still at war with itself and the world. We can only watch from afar as the power struggles continue. Disunity is death, the world order is in flux, it’s time for unity and clarity at home. Honesty and inclusiveness is a good way to start, greed and power plays not so much. Geoff Nilon, Mascot

The US is a thrawn nation – contrary, conflicted, continually trying on new clothes. Given some of the setbacks it has experienced (some self-inflicted), it is astonishing what it has built in 250 years. It isn’t going to tear itself apart; it’s too tough-minded for that. Lately, we are having to readjust to the idea that it is no one’s friend. But even at its most isolationist, its mere presence shapes how other nations think. What life would have been without it is virtually unimaginable. Margaret Johnston, Paddington

Nick Bryant’s overview of US history as one of polarisation and struggle with the problem of race and slavery misses a crucial point – the dispossession and genocide of the indigenous population. They were continually betrayed with broken treaties, pushed to the most marginal lands and massacred when they resisted. This is the American “original sin”, so often unacknowledged, barely visible, written out of its history. The victims are still struggling to have their voices heard and their rights recognised. No history of America that overlooks this violence can be complete. Neil Ormerod, Kingsgrove

Gambling ads must go

I take exception to the government proposal to limit gambling ads to three per hour before 8pm, then open slather thereafter (“Labor laws to let streamers run unlimited gambling ads”, July 4). This is based on the assumption that young viewers are in bed before 8.30pm. How ridiculous, particularly when so much sport is on TV after 8pm. One only has to see the crowd shots to see how many children and teenagers are there. They are fully exposed to non-stop gambling ads, which glamorise risky behaviour and can influence young minds. Gambling ads must not be shown before or during any sports broadcast, no matter how loud the howls from the sports bodies, gambling companies and media owners. The risks are just too high. Geoff Lindsay, Thurgoona

We have now learned that the draft gambling advertising reform legislation contains a magic new ingredient: carve-outs. This innocuous little word concatenation refers to allowing virtually unlimited gambling advertising on streaming services. Think half-time, quarter-time and other stoppage time breaks being jam-packed with gambling ads. We need a substitute term for “carve-outs”. I propose “craven capitulations”. Alan Phillips, Mosman

Chris Minns is not a Labor premier. He is a friend of Clubs NSW (“Grassroots Labor revolt forces Minns into tougher response to pokies epidemic”, July 5). After three terms of Coalition government in NSW, the best he could manage was minority government because he announced he would not implement the cashless gaming that the Coalition had legislated. That resulted in a large number of Labor voters like myself voting Liberal. Now we see there is still decency among Labor members as he is forced to act against his friends. Bring it on, and by the way, please replace your party leader while you are at it. Michael McMullan, Avoca Beach

Solid future

Millie Muroi’s recent home purchase will be completely safe (“Looks like I bought at the peak of the housing market, but that’s OK”, July 4). The 17.5 per cent cash rate during Paul Keating’s era as PM in 1990 reminds us that current interest rates are not high. When the temporary budget shock wears off, investors forced into buying new properties will increase the price of the existing property next door. The tax-free status of the family home will ensure that it remains a much more attractive investment than productive assets like shares and businesses, particularly now that the CGT increases have made those alternatives even less attractive. Millie may eventually discover that she was very lucky to buy ahead of the budget. William Lloyd, Denistone

Bank interested

Reading Shane Wright’s story on interest rate headaches for the young (“Super-sized mortgages giving Australians a massive interest rate headache”, July 2) took me back to a time long ago when my future wife and I went to the bank to apply for a home loan. We were overjoyed when they approved a loan up to 80 per cent of the purchase price. The first 60 per cent was at the concessional rate of 13 per cent with the remainder at 19 per cent. They would take into account only my wage for calculation, not my wife-to-be’s. Despite this, we had to sign a document stating we would not have any children for five years. We duly waited five years until we started a family. You didn’t muck around with the banks in those days. Ian Butler, Brighton le Sands

Low-quality high-rise

It is alarming that some of Sydney’s incongruously awful high-rise apartments may be a direct result of corrupt dealings between politicians and property developers (“Lighting the fuse”, July 4). Sydneysiders are constantly shamed for any timid suggestion they might like a say in the evolution of their communities. Your correspondent Gina Hay makes an excellent point about densification (Letters, July 4). Why is there not more “gentle density” like dual occupancies, duplexes, small apartment blocks and townhouses? Liveable cities require governments to engage in thoughtful urban planning that balances the needs of residents with developer profits. Otherwise, we are sentenced to dense rows of ugly high-rise, often unsupported by infrastructure or community sentiment. Alison Stewart, Riverview

Trains of thought

I welcome the NSW government’s decision to build the new Tangara trains in the Hunter Valley, and I hope this will include a program to train a steady stream of apprentices who can graduate into the wider economy (“Minns backs Hunter with $12b to replace ageing Tangara fleet”, July 4). The government must, however, ensure that the program does not become an excuse for union feather-bedding of the kind that has played out so disgracefully in Victoria in recent years. The government must spell out precisely how it is going to stop this happening, and the unions must be told that if they hold the community to ransom on this project, our future trains will come from Spain and Korea. Nicholas Reid, Hughes (ACT)

NDIS cuts take heavy toll

Three years ago, my 19-year-old daughter was in crisis. Nina has severe intellectual disability and autism and cannot speak. As a single mother working full-time, I could no longer safely provide the 24-hour care she needed. When Nina moved into supported accommodation, our lives changed. She became happier, safer and more settled, and her medication was reduced. She was no longer simply being looked after; she was living. This support also allowed me to continue my work as a breast cancer researcher, a pathologist and a university teacher. I am now able to just be Nina’s loving mother rather than an exhausted carer in crisis. To my dismay, I just have been informed that Nina’s NDIS funding has been cut by $70,000. This is not removing frivolous excess, it is cutting the support that allows a young woman with profound disability to leave the house, exercise and participate in life (“NDIS might have paid $100 for my disabled sister’s mat. We paid $5”, June 26). Disabled people’s needs do not disappear if disability support is removed. Instead, crises escalate, families burn out and hospitals and crisis accommodation carry the load. Taking essential support from people like Nina is not responsible reform; it is a false economy with a devastating human cost. The government must reconsider its cuts to the NDIS. Prof Sandra O’Toole, president, Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia

Fatty and Skinny

Over a 33-year career with Qantas, I must have had hundreds of Singapore layovers, every one of them including a pilgrimage to Fatty’s Restaurant (“Legendary restaurant Qantas pilots flocked to closes after 100 years”, July 2). Eating outdoors on plastic chairs at laminex tables in 35-degree heat wasn’t exactly fine dining, but that was not why we went. Nor, surprisingly, was it just the legendary spring rolls, the sinus busting “nuclear” chicken or the sensational black pepper prawns. No, we went for the camaraderie. We went to see if anyone could extract so much as a grin from the notoriously stone-faced owner, Skinny (I succeeded on three occasions — a statistic I’m absurdly proud of). Most importantly, however, we went to show our continued gratitude for the family’s generosity and kindness to our long-retired colleagues who’d been imprisoned at Changi during World War II. That debt was repaid the best way we knew how. We turned up, shared a meal, downed a few Tsingtaos and made Fatty’s a tradition. Col Burns, Lugarno

Thanks, Socceroozzzzz

Hard luck, Socceroos. You played well and made us proud. You have also solved a sleep dilemma for me. I will now be able to catch some shut-eye in the early hours of the morning, instead of staying up late to watch you play. Stephen Driscoll, Castle Hill

A big shout-out to Socceroo Lucas Herrington who, as an 18-year-old, had the courage to step up and take the fourth penalty. At that moment, he knew he carried the hopes of the entire nation and the pressure on his young shoulders must have been colossal. Even though he missed, we applaud him and look forward to seeing great things from him in the future. Vincent Wong, Killara

• To submit a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, email letters@smh.com.au. Click here for tips on how to submit letters.
• The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform. Sign up here.