Erasing history

I may be wrong, but it occurs to me that the push to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion is certain politicians and others trying to erase the part of U.S. history they don’t like, or perhaps just racism disguised as part of MAGA.

One of the things that, in my opinion, makes America great is to embrace our diversity and equality as well as acknowledge our historical mistakes and ugly events in our past. Granted, it usually takes us much too long to acknowledge things like slavery and the Japanese internment, but once we do we don’t turn around and try and erase it from history, at least until now. If we don’t embrace our diversity, equity and inclusion, what are we left with — “The Stepford Wives” or a scenario like “Number 12 looks just like you,” an old episode of “The Twilight Zone”? How does that make us great?

I was at Dodger Stadium Tuesday for Jackie Robinson Day and I’m thinking to myself, I’ll take Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman and crackpots like Louis Pasteur over government conformity and blinders any day.

1984 has already passed. We don’t need to go back.

— Christopher Coon, Arcadia

The Los Angeles Olympics

Re “Santa Monica declines beach volleyball participation”:

Rarely do I read Susan Shelley, but her recent negative hit piece on us hosting the upcoming L.A. Olympic Games caught my eye.

Perhaps Shelley should consult with Paris officials. Just maybe the Los Angeles Games could break even or result in a small surplus. The chances for Shelley to write a positive spin on the L.A. Games ... about as good as beach volleyball taking place in Omaha.

— Bob Ginn, Arcadia

Trump’s incompetence

A very excellent column today (April 11) by Tom Elias, concerning “incompetence across all levels of our government.” I would use a stronger word than “incompetence” that Tom used to describe what Trump and his lackey Republicans are doing. Tom shared some great facts, such as the Republicans in Congress aren’t even taking care of their own rural supporters, by taking away even the measly crumbs they used to receive from Washington to offset their low tax base.

Does the word “dumb” apply here?

Of course it does, but unfortunately Trump is far, far more dangerous than being just merely dumb. I wish that were so. He is actually using all these many dramatic actions and distractions to set the country up for his real and most treasured goal: A massive $5 trillion tax cut for the super-rich. That is his main objective. That is his goal. You and I will suffer greatly.

— William Stremel, South Pasadena

The tariff chart

When Trump introduced his new tariffs, he showed us a chart. The first column lists the tariff rate various countries charge us; the second column lists the new tariff we wiil charge them. I was shocked by the enormity of the first column. So, I researched it. Here is how he apparently calculated the tariff rates set by other countries. Let’s take China as an important but typical example:

Trump’s chart has China charging us a 67% tariff! Now, according to my research, China’s tariffs on U.S. goods range from: agricultural, 10-30%; automotive, 15-30%; and technology, 5-20%. Let’s use a generous point estimate for each range — agricultural, 25%; automotive, 25%; and technology, 15%. These three average around 22%.

But did Trump take the average? No! He added them! Like 25 + 25 + 15 = 65, or about 67. This is a common freshman-level error. So instead of listing 22% as China’s overall tariff rate on U.S. goods, he quotes us 67%!

The error is repeated down the entire first column: Vietnam, 90%; Taiwan 64%, Cambodia 97% — all large exaggerations. What good are these exaggerations? The second column — the reciprocal tariffs we will charge — are nearly all half of the first column. Thus, we will only charge half of what they charge us. Trump’s New Math creates a nice-guy illusion! It also makes our new large tariffs more palatable to dubious, nervous Americans.

The slick salesman Trump is at it again!

— Wes White, Whittier