GOP ‘accomplishments’
EDITOR: People argue that the House majority’s investigations of Joe Biden are more wasted energy by a do-nothing GOP. But consider the GOP’s most recent accomplishments: elimination of civil and human rights for women; a costly tax cut for the rich that tacked trillions onto our budget deficit; a useless multibillion dollar border wall that’s already falling down; an impotent response to COVID-19 that cost hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths; and gutting the IRS so wealthy corporations and individuals won’t get audited, putting even more of the tax burden on the middle-class. Honestly, if Republicans want to focus on investigating Biden, please do. America simply can’t afford any more of their “accomplishments.”
LORI BORRILL
Rohnert Park
Above the law
EDITOR: The Press Democrat reported that Wells Fargo Bank was fined $3.7 billion (“Bank paying record $3.7 billion,” Dec. 21). Egregious acts of robbery were committed against a captive audience, Well Fargo’s own customers, and approved by executive elites. CNN reported: “As part of the deal, Wells Fargo admitted that between 2002 and 2016, it falsified bank records, harmed the credit ratings of customers, unlawfully misused their personal information, and wrongfully collected millions of dollars in fees and interest.”
Over 11 years, Wells Fargo executed this criminal policy to rip off unknowing customers. This illegal scheme had one major goal: increase revenues and profits. No senior executive who planned and approved these rip-offs has been charged with a crime.
There has been no strong outcry from the tough-on-crime politicians. The Justice Department did not seek criminal charges for these privileged executives. No jail time, no accountability for their larcenies. They own the two major political parties. If someone robs a bank they are prosecuted and go to jail. These privileged people committed these crimes and hid behind their corporate shields as have other corporate executives who know they are above the law.
RICHARD SAVAGE
Santa Rosa
Political ‘untruths’
EDITOR: It seems that there are new “untruths” coming out of Rep. George Santos’ mouth or resume daily. Some brave Republicans have called for the new congressman to step down or be expelled, their outrage expressed as “unacceptable” or some other “un” at multiple photo ops. For the most part, the majority of Republicans seem to have remained silent.
Aren’t these the same Republican politicians who still do very little or nothing or continue to promote big untruths from the de facto leader of their party, Donald Trump? So why get in an uproar about Santos, when you still have the P.T. Barnum of politics figure-heading this circus?
With the current president in a document pickle, the show will even get better. Enjoy.
DEAN JOHNSON
Petaluma
Fixing infrastructure
EDITOR: As your Jan. 6 editorial said, the Golden Gate Bridge is a critical transportation link, and if damaged by a major earthquake — not if but when — it would upend travel for years with tremendous financial impact on businesses (“Earthquake proof the Golden Gate Bridge before it’s too late”).
The state has to know this, but it has dithered for the past nine years trying to figure out where the money was going to come from to finish the retrofit that has been stalled for lack of funds. Now it has to take the Washington bureaucracy and a pork barrel gift of $400 million in federal tax money to get the state moving.
But wait, California is running a $25 billion deficit. Where is the money to come from to make up the other $400 million-plus for the final repairs? May I suggest diverting some of the estimated $110 billion and counting that will go down the rat hole called the high-speed train to nowhere?
If that were to happen, please also trickle down some of that money to county road repair crews to finish repaving the last two miles of Blank Road that was walked away from two years ago and continues to completely fall apart.
HANK BYORUM
Sebastopol
California in decline
EDITOR: Idiotic laws have made California a magnet for illegal immigrants and a haven for illegal drug pushers. The cops are hamstrung, and the courts are dominated by the far left with its insane idea of what justice should look like.
I moved to California in 1959. I remember banners strung over some streets in San Francisco that read “San Francisco, the City that Knows How.” Decades of far-left ideology have left San Francisco as a city that not only doesn’t know how, but one that discriminates against the nonwealthy. Consider unaffordable housing, rampant homelessness, crushing taxes, out-of-control cost of living, filthy streets and every other societal ill. Although San Francisco is the poster child for these ills, the fact is that they are rampant throughout the state.
Welcoming immigrants is a good thing, but the degree of welcome is directly related to the affluence of the population. People who are struggling to make ends meet aren’t going to be welcoming.
MICHAEL BURWEN
Petaluma
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Source: news.google.com
