Security services exaggerate Russia threat

Regarding “The Russia Question: What’s the Best Way to Respond to Election Interference?” (July 30): Apparently only the media and neo-Cold Warriors seem to worry about “interference” or subscribe to Russia-baiting. Two of the most recent national opinion polls (Harvard-Harris Bloomberg) show that most of those polled are far more concerned about other issues. Nonetheless, cable news networks continue to hammer away with anti-Russia hysteria, outFoxing Fox News. The print media slavishly follow suit.

Dan Kovalik, the local lawyer who wrote “The Plot to Scapegoat Russia,” is right about the dangers of conflict fostered by the New McCarthyism and its distraction from the real needs and concerns of people. Instead of addressing their undemocratic sabotage of the Bernie Sanders campaign or repairing their failure to address the urgent needs of people, Democratic Party elites rant against imaginary threats to an electoral system actually driven by big money and skewed toward incumbents. Their “defense” of democracy is sorely misplaced.

One can only marvel at the gullibility (or is it willful manipulation?) of the folks at the Alliance for Securing Democracy who, while offering the thinnest of evidence for their fears, align with the same security services that warned us of nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction.” These same security services today beat the drums of exaggerated threats that they have for generations.

Like most of my fellow citizens, I looked under my bed this morning and found no Russians. GREG GODELS North Point Breeze

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The recent attention given Pittsburgh’s leading role in new transportation technologies, such as driverless cars, got me to thinking about old modes of transportation. As a newly minted resident of the ’Burgh, I wonder why we don’t have a thriving, publicly subsidized commuter ferry service.

We have the water (three rivers and miles of shoreline), the need (no comprehensive train or subway system, unlike most major post-industrial cities, and a traffic problem that will only get worse), and the civic pride and tenacity to get it done. In May, New York City inaugurated a comprehensive ferry service from the farthest reaches of Queens to Brooklyn and Manhattan. It includes super-fast boats with free Wi-Fi, charging stations, food concessions, beer and wine. The fare is the same as that for a bus or subway ride, which, in New York, is $2.75. Ridership has greatly surpassed the most optimistic expectations, and many commuters’ trip times have been greatly reduced.

Imagine regular stops serving Downtown, the Strip District, Lawrenceville, the North Side and the South Side flats? If the Big Apple can do it, why not Steel City? M. JAY KARDON

Lawrenceville into the Cultural District around 1:30 p.m. to park, I was unable to get to the garage because of wooden barricades blocking the side streets leading to Penn Avenue. I assumed the wooden horses were set up for Open Streets Pittsburgh, which ended at 1 p.m. Couldn’t the barricades have been quickly pushed aside after the event to allow persons attending cultural events to drive though Downtown as planned?

On Marathon Sunday, even though the cultural event I attended had been pushed back to a 3 p.m. start, the streets of Downtown Pittsburgh were barricaded at 2:30 p.m. and there was not one runner on the roads! A traffic nightmare ensued.

C’mon Pittsburgh! We can do better. GINNY NORKUS Shadyside

I was particularly honored to be invited to participate in this past week’s Mission of Mercy Pittsburgh (Free) Dental Care Event by Daniel Pituch, chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery of UPMC Mercy and UPMC Shadyside (“Dental Clinic Gives Hundreds Reason to Smile,” July 29).

As a provider, I was fortunate to observe and appreciate the high quality of care delivered by volunteer dental practitioners in various specialties. Vital volunteers aided the doctors in assisting and allowing smooth patient flow to delivery care units.

The massive undertaking of delivering the extraordinary quality and expensive dental/ surgical/diagnostic equipment to the Duquesne University A.J. Palumbo Center is to be credited to outstanding and giving individuals, including but not limited to Dr. Pituch, Dr. Richard Celko and Karen Scuilli, R.N.

I know that I was motivated to contribute without many breaks for many hours by the other giving practitioners. The hours went by quickly.

The patients were very appreciative of receiving needed care, to the point where it is possible that I received more hugs and thanks at this event than in my 38 years of private practice. ALEXANDER D. SAX,

D.M.D. Squirrel Hill