Thursday’s Letters to the Editor

Trump’s anarchists

EDITOR: Well, the Capitol Police had to defend members of Congress against the Trump anarchists as they stormed the building, causing a lockdown and a call for assistance. Their dear leader spent an hour working them into a frenzy about the “stolen election.”

I do object, however, to being called a stupid liberal because I don’t support this little man who obviously has lost touch with reality. His obsession with the number of votes in Georgia in comparison to the number of deaths in this country from the pandemic is appalling. Oh, I forgot his statement, “It is what it is.” Being resurrected from this third world atmosphere can’t come soon enough.

Joe Biden has his work cut out for him, and we need to support this incoming administration as though our lives depend on it, to repair the damage done in the past four years.

ROSE K. NOWAK

Petaluma

Four years of insanity

EDITOR: Albert Einstein supposedly said that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” By that standard, the current occupant of the White House is certifiable. I’ve thought that from the beginning, but his unceasing baseless insistence and repeated futile attempts to prove that he didn’t lose to Joe Biden have made it undeniably clear that I was right.

His hourlong phone conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reveals him at his most pathetic. The whining, sulking, begging and characteristically bullying tones that pervade the call are embarrassing and shameful coming from the U.S. president. But after four years of his sham leadership, that’s nothing new.

He should never have become president, and except for that utterly unjustifiable vestigial organ of our government, the Electoral College, would not have. Hillary Clinton defeated him soundly in the popular vote and rightfully should have assumed the office. That she was cheated of it produced the disastrously bungled administration we’re still enduring.

One simple question to underscore my points: How differently would she have handled the COVID pandemic, and how many Americans would still be alive as a result? I rest my case.

JIM LOBDELL

Santa Rosa

Vaccinate seniors

EDITOR: High-risk seniors fill intensive care unit beds and die at much higher rates than any other group. They should be the first priority, after hospital workers, for the COVID-19 vaccine in California. Our governor is yielding to the political power of the unions and putting millions of younger workers ahead of seniors. Vaccinating retail workers and grocery clerks is a nice gesture, but the greatest danger is the dozens of shoppers who crowd near us every time we shop. Please help us by contacting Dr. Sundari Mase, Sonoma County’s public health officer, and help save the lives of hundreds of California seniors this year.

ALYN MAY

Windsor

Time for a new path

EDITOR: I’ve lived through the administrations of 14 presidents and grew up in a house where children were expected to read the newspaper and keep quiet at dinner unless they could respond reasonably intelligently to a question or ask an intelligent one. We were taught that it wasn’t only our duty but our privilege to be informed about what was happening in our country, because that information was kept secret in other countries.

I listened to the complete tape of Donald Trump’s baldfaced attempt to subvert an election that has been subject to more scrutiny than any other in our history. Many things have changed since I went to law school, but I think I would have noticed if the definition of attempted interference with an election had been substantially altered.

Trump couldn’t proceed so boldly if the Republican Party (to which I once belonged) hadn’t sold its collective soul to those whom I remember leaving the Democratic Party when Lyndon Johnson got the Civil Rights Act passed. That’s when I changed parties. Every election since then has convinced me that was the right decision.

I hope that I live long enough to see our country on another path — but I’m 85, so changes will have to begin soon.

PATRICIA F. CLOTHIER

Santa Rosa

Relatively clean fuel

EDITOR: Brian Barnacle’s deceptive Close to Home column did a disservice to those of us who live in fire-prone areas subject to preemptive power shutdowns (“Banning natural gas pays climate dividends,” Dec. 27). My own low power usage doesn’t justify a solar installation, much less battery backup. A small generator allows us to cook food and heat our house with natural gas during a shutdown.

Barnacle claims that natural gas causes indoor pollution but doesn’t explain how. Burning methane produces carbon dioxide and water, neither of which is toxic. I can’t remember the last time I read about an accidental death by suffocation due to natural gas.

Leakage of unburned methane, a greenhouse gas, at fracking sites does contribute to climate change. It should be regulated at a national level by the Environmental Protection Agency.

While I strongly support measures to control climate change and environmental protection in general, I don’t want to live in a total electric home until we have a reliable power grid. In the meantime, natural gas is a relatively clean fossil fuel.

DAVE STEIN

Santa Rosa

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.