Voting

And here it is, plain and simple, published in the Herald commentary on Friday. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, a Harris voter…. “It is unfair that Americans chose someone like Donald Trump over someone like Kamala.”

It is UNFAIR that Americans CHOSE? Isn’t that the very process, choosing? That is one of the cornerstones of the democracy they claim they are so concerned about?

— Jim Clark, Del Rey Oaks

Election results

Though Hitler is soon back in the White House and already I hear the goose-stepping of his storm-troopers rounding up all the liberals for concentration camps stilll — a la NBC’s charge — I am bemoaning my loss of white male power.

I bemoaned yesterday and even this morning I bemoaned. Wallowing in the penance placed on me by virtue of my inherent racism by birth has always accorded such a sense of holiness and the fact the election results might mitigate the impetus, still — perhaps masochistically — I cling not to guns and Bibles but to that feeling. Oh, that Ms. Harris had won so I could be daily reminded of my original sin.

The fact my generation fought in and/or against the Vietnam War, marched and championed civil rights successfully, this is all for naught as Mr. Kendi taught me and Al Sharpton astutely reminds. Forever bring on the birch branches of self-flagellation.

— Jack Knutson, Monterey

Get up

You talked a bunch of friends into riding bikes because it’s better for the environment. You took them up some steep hills, there was sweating (and some swearing), but the road was just leveling off through a nice neighborhood. Suddenly a bunch of hooligans screech up in an old gas-guzzler, tires spraying gravel, waving beers and yelling that the ride would be a lot more fun (wink wink) if folks piled into their car. You know what they think is fun won’t be good for your friends (or the road, or the neighbors). But those people you thought were friends climb into the car instead of sticking with you! To make matters worse, before they race away the driver swerves and runs you off the road into a ditch: helmet secure but bike twisted, knees skinned.

What now? Yes, you walk your bike back to the garage to straighten the frame and figure out how to get those friends back from whatever trouble they’re in. But it’s OK to sit on the curb for a while, staunch the blood from your knees. Cry a bit. Three deep breaths. Then up you get.

— Helen Shamble, East Garrison

Bad decisions

Like lambs to the slaughter, Californians approved most of the new money measures on the ballot. Locally, Measure A will add to every property owner’s property tax bill to give even more money to the school district that already has two measures on the current tax bills. Statewide, propositions were approved that will add hundreds of millions of dollars in interest costs to the already in deficit state budget. Those costs never are discussed in the misleading ads.

So Californians, thank-you for adding to local property tax bills, which means higher housing costs, and bloating our already overspent state budget with soaring interest costs on those bonds you approved.

Get ready for higher rents and increased state taxes to pay for the wise decisions to give politicians more and more money.

— Demetrius Kastros, Monterey

The real fascists

Many media outlets during the November 2024 election loosely threw around the words “Fascism” and “Nazism.” So, what do they mean? The simplest way to define them is to look at their economics. Both Italian Fascism and German National Socialism had a government-run economy, where the state intertwined capitalism with socialism. For instance, Mussolini declared in 1934, “Three-fourths of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state.” Under the National Socialists, a state-owned holding company, Göring Works (Reichswerke), obtained huge sums of government money in efforts to seize, organize or forcibly merge industries. And when the government owns everything, we enter a twilight zone of fascist-like Marxism.

So, what does Gavin Newsom do to stop fascism? He shovels tons of taxpayers’ money into climate-control companies, along with a proposal to give $750 million to Hollywood film/TV companies. Who are the real fascists in America today?

— Lawrence Samuels, Carmel