And weep

Cry me a river!

The last two days in the letters section have been filled with Trumpers whining about all the letters written against the current clown show going on in Washington. Hey, most people, myself included, are not against finding and rooting out waste and fraud in the federal government. That’s not the problem. The problem is the people doing it. They obviously are doing the “shoot first, ask questions later” method. An example being they fired people in the Energy Department not realizing these were the people maintaining our nuclear arsenal. Oops! I could go on and on with the DOGE circus not even pretending to do any research before committing ghastly mistakes like this. Also keep in mind, my misguided Trump friends, that you are in the clear minority here. The 2024 presidential election results in California was 9,276,179 for Kamela Harris (59%), to 6,081,697 for Donald Trump (38%).

Read ‘em and weep.

— William Stremel, South Pasadena

Waste, fraud and abuse

While reading the column by John Coupal (“Warriors against waste and fraud,” Feb. 23) I was shaking my head in regard to the California Employment Development and their inexcusable waste in regards to the COVID crisis. I have a mailbox on my house that sends the mail directly into the living room, and I also have a mailbox out on the street. One day there was a check from the EDD addressed to a name I hadn’t seen before. I received a total of four checks over a few days, and I became suspicious. Depending on what day and which mail carrier is working, the mail will either be put in the house mailbox or the street mailbox, and all these checks were in the house mailbox. I assumed that someone figured they could use my address and get the mail out of the street box before I got home from work. Being concerned and nosy I squeezed the envelopes and saw the dollar amount of each check through the window. The total was over $8,000. I went on the EDD website and clicked on their fraud section, but at that time the only fraud one could report was fraud against the employee by the employer. I took the checks and a detailed letter explaining what I thought was going on directly to the local EDD office. There were two employees in the office and I explained the situation to them and handed them the information. They asked if I had gone on the website to report it. I explained that there is no way to report this type of fraud on the EDD website. They asked me again why I was bringing this information to them. I showed them my cover letter and explained it again and was met with the same question of why didn’t I go to their website? I repeated myself for the third time and then they said “What do you want us to do about it?” It was then that I realized they had no interest in actually working, and I also realized the EDD had never even imagined that people would try to steal from them and they had no way to investigate and remedy the possible fraud.

— Gary Gibson, Pasadena

Smell the coffee

Contrary to the astute wisdom of Roger Olsen (Letters, Feb. 26) I would wager that young people are the ones loaded with debt. Aren’t they the folks who are paying down new cars and new homes, raising new families and paying off college loans while working at new jobs with lower levels of pay? Maybe they should be concerned about the hatchet job Musk is doing to their benefits. Republicans have never been shy about collecting government money; they just don’t want to share it with poor people who need it.

Should Roger wake up and smell the coffee, he might discover that government largesse bailed out Musk’s sinking ship early on. As for Roger’s magical skill at identifying Trump critics as older folks sinking in debt, there be enough hot air to float a blimp! A good many folks are wise enough to be alarmed at Trump’s Nazi-like tactics (including the Big Lie), his willingness to trash American norms, his weaponizing of government, and his grab for total power. Our letters will keep coming whether Roger approves or not!

— Dave E. Matson, Pasadena

The new food stamps

It is amazing a SNAP/EBT card can be used to purchase virtually anything. A recent article clearly states that benefits can be used for “any food or food product intended for human consumption” except alcohol, tobacco and hot foods, including those prepared for immediate consumption. So why are fast food establishments allowed to accept EBT, also convenience stores? The Agriculture Department state that restrictions would be difficult to implement, complicated and costly.

No it is not. Eliminate all fast food, and every item sold has its own unique UPC bar code on items sold. Just create a list of all unapproved items via its UPC and restrict those items from being purchased with SNAP funds via a EBT card. Return the SNAP program back to what it was originally intended for.

— Craig Stewart, Pasadena