Wednesday’s Letters to the Editor

The real climate hoax

EDITOR: Looking back, maybe Donald Trump was right in calling global warming a Chinese hoax. But not the hoax he imagined. Maybe the Chinese strategy assumed Trump would respond to climate warnings like a child who must pick up the hot plate you warn him to not touch. So they said, “Sign the Paris Accord, America, and stop burning coal and oil!”

Trump wasn’t falling for that, no sir! He showed them. He doubled down on fossil fuels. He lashed out at windmills. He broke all the rules to keep fossil fuel and fossil friends in power.

Here’s the hoax: The Chinese didn’t tell Trump that while America fossil fueled around, China would be cornering the market on clean affordable energy and smart grids powering comfy homes, efficient factories and zippy electric vehicles.

This hoax almost succeeded. Fortunately for America, Joe Biden won and will double down on competitive clean energy infrastructure supported by cash-back carbon pricing. If he hadn’t, we’d be locked into buying all this cool green stuff from the Chinese.

BRUCE HAGEN

Petaluma

Waters’ incitement

EDITOR: Donald Trump got impeached, and rightfully so, for inviting trouble to Washington that resulted in violence and death. He was impeached for his actions by the Democrats. Rep. Maxine Waters. D-Los Angeles, incited people to confront people at their homes and in restaurants, causing potential physical confrontation, yet not a word by her party.

Waters recently called for more confrontation and demonstration in the streets, which has proven to precipitate violence, if a not-guilty verdict was returned in the Derek Chauvin trial. Again not a word from her party. Not one move or word toward censure or impeachment for advocating actions that have proven to cause violence.

When will the Democrats live by their own words? No one is above the law. Violence is not a political or partisan issue. It is a legal issue, which applies to everyone — even politicians. Are we to believe that nothing will be done to Waters until her words result in a death? Where is Speaker Nancy Pelosi when America needs her leadership?

BOB PROCTOR

Rohnert Park

The general welfare

EDITOR: I’m a little confused by T.K. McDonald’s letter (“Missing Trump,” April 20). McDonald says 9% of the COVID-19 relief bill went to actual containment of the coronavirus. It was my understanding that this bill was to provide financial relief to the millions of people who lost jobs and income due to the virus, not to contain the virus.

He also says only 5% of the infrastructure bill goes to roads and bridges. The rest is “designed to fundamentally change the traditional fabric of our society into something unfathomable.” In fact, the rest goes to delivering clean drinking water, electric grid upgrades and high-speed broadband, retrofit homes and commercial buildings, modernize schools and upgrade veterans hospitals, among many other things designed to assure better, and better paid, employment for many who are under- or unemployed.

How does that change our society into something unfathomable? Isn’t this exactly what our Founding Fathers envisioned? Isn’t this part of promoting the general welfare?

ANNETTE FLACHMAN

Windsor

Water woes

EDITOR: Sometimes I think I live in a lunatic asylum. Sometimes I’m sure. It seems Sonoma County is willing to spend whatever it takes to make us cut down water usage in the coming dry season. Yet when folks were canoeing on Highway 12, I’ll bet not one teaspoon of water was saved. The same holds true for any excess water flowing down our streams each year, and there is always some.

The county also seems bent on increasing marijuana farming to the max, a crop that uses excessive water and has other problems. Does this mean I will have to cut down my showering, vegetable growing and watering of ornamental plants? I will not. I don’t mind not watering the lawn area and not washing my car, but …

There is a book called “The Death of Common Sense.” The title says it all.

AARON ROSEN

Sebastopol

Voter suppression

EDITOR: Why shouldn’t corporations enjoy the same privileges as citizens in supporting causes by denying sponsorship? We, as citizens, can choose to purchase products or watch events based on our beliefs.

Georgia’s new voting rules should be viewed with skepticism. These rules aren’t promoting voting. Absentee ballot registrations should be sent to all voters. Oregon has only mail-in ballots and has a higher turnout than other states.

In this country we should promote voting for all citizens and make voting easier. Voting is a right and a duty.

Questioning officials who tally votes and allowing the legislature to remove them is a questionable practice. Why has the secretary of state been removed as a voting member of the state Election Board in Georgia? Having long lines at the polls can hinder voters. Now it is a risk of a misdemeanor to offer food or water to voters waiting in line. Why would anyone consider that a crime?

Thank you corporations for standing against laws that hinders voting. It is interesting that in Georgia, election officials were urged to falsify the results by someone who lost the election. Having these new laws in that state should set off alarms for all members of a democracy.

MARY WASHBURN

Sonoma

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