Letters to the Editor | Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018 | The Modesto Bee

60 percent is a great turnout!

According to the Stanislaus County Registrar’s latest update, 147,866 out of 247,833 eligible voters, 60 percent voted this past November. The increased voter participation should make our residents and elected officials proud.

Sixty percent: We haven’t had that high a turnout in any midterm election since the new millennium began. I have been working with Mi Familia Vota, a national civic engagement organization, for four years making this an especially hopeful moment for me. Now more than ever we are going to see some great changes in the Central Valley because more and more people are participating in the election process. This includes those who can vote and those who can inspire voters.

The election results show us that our community is taking action to define who we want to be and how we want to be represented. I am looking forward to the changes our community is bringing forth.

Denham is good cabinet material

I appreciate the opportunity to post a special thanks to Congressman Jeff Denham. Concerning his efforts on veterans issues and the water issues: Well done. With such an outstanding record, it is hopeful President Donald Trump will appoint him to a post in his cabinet.

Our values not so unusual after all

Josh Harder’s victory means Jeff Denham will soon be “former” Rep. Denham. With Harder’s win, farmer Jeff’s followers will have the opportunity to learn more about the dreaded “San Francisco and Bay Area Values” that were fearfully cited throughout Denham’s campaign.

As someone who was born in Fresno, lived in San Francisco while going to school, and lived in the Bay Area for over 30 years before returning to the Valley, I have always been puzzled when someone expressed worry or disdain for the Bay Area’s values.

The election results indicate businessman Denham’s supporters will discover that values such as protecting the environment, affordable health insurance covering pre-existing conditions, programs to reduce gun violence, ensure reproductive rights for women, acceptance of all people regardless of color or sexual orientation or country of origin; support for civil rights and civil liberties, support for public education, and good and fair wages for workers are pretty good values after all.

With Harder and his fellow Democrats in control of the House, we hope to see the restoration of the checks and balances created by the Founders, a system that helps keep America great.

Let the master teach her acolytes

Oh, dear heavens, people never seem to learn! Hire a garbage collector to perform brain surgery and you can guess what the outcome would be. We can see that happening right now. As to the House Majority Leader, for heaven’s sake keep a person who actually knows what the job entails, how it is done and how it works. Let the novices observe, learn and understand the job before taking the scalpel in hand.

Show ’em you’re smart in a red hat

On Nov. 17, an elephant in an editorial cartoon by David Horsey asked a young woman, “You’re a smart, college-educated, suburban woman, tell me how to win the voters back!”

The inference was “college” means they are smart. Wrong.

The so-called “smart” woman then tells the elephant to lose the Trump shirt and hat for starters. Wrong again!

I call upon all Trump supporters (the real smart people) to wear your Trump shirts and hats, but watch out for those “educated” people; they’re violent and ignorant.

I’m no better off; how about you?

The stock market is not the economy. We are the economy.

After President Bill Clinton, with help from conservatives in both parties, allowed Glass-Steagall (the USA Banking Act of 1933) to sunset, “unregulated” bankers were unleashed on the American people. It took only about a decade for the economy to collapse.

Since passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, conservatives have been quietly dismantling its protections. Get ready. Collapse is coming again to a house near you.

The deregulation the Trump administration thrust upon us should, according to them, have markets soaring. But as Friday, all the market gains for 2018 have been lost. Trust me; you don’t want to look at your 401(k).

Even with the tax cuts, I’m not doing any better financially. I am working just as hard as ever, but not getting any further ahead.

Most Americans are like me – a capitalist-socialist. Loving our socialist programs – the military, schools, roads, police and fire departments, Social Security, Medicare – yet wanting the opportunity to make our own way. Forget deregulating business. Help us. We drive this economy. Congressional Democrats, are you listening?

Huh? Ecologist makes no sense

In an article by Jim Carlton in the Wall Street Journal (“Trump administration seeks authority for more logging to fight fire danger,” Nov. 21), a research ecologist, Chad Hanson, from the John Muir Project of Bear City, is quoted as saying forest “thinning actually increases the wild fire risk by taking out stands of trees that can serve as a buffer to high winds.”

Basic physics tells you that heat, and with it flames, rise; in “high winds” this would tend to ignite taller fuel, which, if additional taller fuel were in proximity, would have the fire progress in the direction of the wind-driven fuel. Having fought two wildfires in my youth, I can attest to this fact.

Hanson’s inane statement exemplifies the false and disingenuous information fed to the public by many environmental groups in order to advance their agenda. What their agenda is is not clear, but it certainly has nothing to do with environmental preservation.

Trump and truth, a real disconnect

As of Nov. 2, Donald Trump has made about 7,700 public presidential comments and 6,420 are partially to totally false. Trump and truth start with the same first 3 letters but go in opposite directions soon after. In the word “truth,” the th doubles down at the end. For Trump, the mp must stand for “Makes it Up.”

Two examples: 1) During the Camp Fire crisis, while people were dying, Trump impulsively blamed Californians for the disaster and threatened to withhold funding. Should Trump be trusted with the nuclear football? 2) During a recent climate-change interview, Trump said, “I mean you have scientists on both sides of it.” Wrong! 97 percent of climate scientists agree that human caused global warming is a serious threat to life on Earth.

Trump rejects climate science and has taken steps that will increase the severity and frequency of wildfires, floods, drought and heat-related diseases. Trump has actively promoted racism, violence and division, attempted to abuse his executive power, surrounded himself with crooks and is the king of hypocrisy and bullying. Trump does not have a conscience. The President purports to be a role model. Imagine what will happen if all Americans start behaving like Trump.