Who really needs to do some soul-searching?

Re “Democrats need to do some soul-searching” (June 1):

Columnist Matt Fleming’s recent column takes the Democrats to task for everything under the sun. He identifies a litany of the Democrats’ “problems.” His list includes the choice of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the lack of connection with male voters, gas prices, abortion, unemployment and homelessness.

He even throws in the standard right-wing talking point of “wokeness.” But he loses the intellectual argument when he attacks Joe Biden’s mental fitness for office.

He joins the chorus of others in the mainstream media who attack the former president’s mental acuity while turning a blind eye to President Trump’s daily world salad of insults, non sequiturs and self-aggrandizement. The very day Fleming’s column appeared, the current president shared a post on his Truth Social account claiming Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by clones or robots.

How about we start taking a closer look at the mental acuity of the current occupant of the White House?

— Valerie Burchfield Rhodes, Laguna Niguel

Capital gains and housing

Jon Coupal (June 1) raised the issue that the capital gains tax exclusion on housing hasn’t kept up with inflation, which is hurting housing in California. He makes many valid points, and I can’t refute a single one. However, I believe he’s overlooked one point.

The country is in debt to the tune of $36 trillion and a reduction in any federal tax can directly be added, dollar for dollar, to that debt, and because we have to pay interest on that debt that increases our annual deficit, which then increases the debt, which increases the interest, ad finitum.

— Ron Garber, Duarte

Electric air-taxis

Re “Will 2028 Olympics look like ‘The Jetsons’?” (June 2):

No, but that’s where we’re headed. Those with the money will fly above the fray, the great unwashed will be condemned to Metro’s Russian Roulette Rail, the rest of us will cling to our steering wheels in our combustion-engine vehicles.

We’ll probably end up looking like vestiges of the Cuban revolution from 1959 driving old tanks kept together with baling wire and chewing gum.

— Mary Emily Smiley, Lawndale