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Richmond council punts censure of mayor
Re: “Council’s attempt to censure mayor fails” (Page B1, Jan. 8).
One of the most disappointing and hurtful things I heard at the Richmond City Council meeting on Tuesday, was learning that four of the City Council members and the mayor himself did not think that Mayor Martinez’s reposting of antisemitic claims about the murder of Jews on Bondi Beach was not severe enough to warrant the City Council taking up the issue immediately.
An in-depth discussion was needed to come up with a respectful and meaningful response that would help to repair the harm that has been done to the Jewish community. The refusal of the majority of the City Council, including the mayor, to do so was a significant failure of leadership. They refused to see how incitement of hatred against Jews leads to violence and the destruction of a pluralistic democracy.
Dorothea Dorenz
Berkeley
ACA prices healthy out of insurance
Re: “ACA smashing success at insuring Americans” (Page A6, Jan. 7).
ACA a “smashing success”? Not in my household. I had insurance until the ACA passed.
I will generalize. I buy groceries, cook actual food, utilize active transportation and have not missed a day of work due to illness in 29 years. My insurance cost used to be determined by my health. Thanks to the ACA, it’s determined by a population that is 40% obese, persistently avoids exercise and consumes unhealthy food. Now I am uninsured.
One outcome of the ACA is more money being spent on more expensive diagnoses and treatments for largely self-inflicted conditions and comorbidities — almost $15,000 per person. No insurance scheme will ever maintain the health of a population that is determined to make itself ill.
How about spending that money subsidizing proper food choices and encouraging people to get out and move? An ounce of prevention used to be worth a pound of cure. Not anymore.
Stacy Spink
Castro Valley
State isn’t ready to ban natural gas
Re: “Trump targets natural gas bans in area” (Page A1, Jan. 7).
The president is trying to overturn natural gas bans for his own personal reasons, and the courts will decide who has the authority. While there may be good economic reasons to choose all-electric options in buildings, I would offer that it is not good public policy — at least at the moment — to ban natural gas.
When one bans natural gas in buildings, the functions (for example, water heating) that would have been done by natural gas must be done with electricity. Until the electric grid becomes closer to carbon-free, using gas instead of electricity in the building just means somewhere else on the grid, there will be fossil fuel burned to make up for that.
What makes it even worse is that unless one buys much more expensive and less robust equipment (for example, a heat-pump water heater), more fossil fuel will be burned by using electric equipment.
Max Sherman
Moraga
Venezuela strike warning signs were there
Re: “Trump says U.S. will ‘run’ Venezuela after swift strike” (Page A1, Jan. 4).
Jan. 6, 2021, Donald Trump sent a mob to the Capitol, where they wreaked havoc. It was the first time in U.S. history that a presidential candidate refused to accept legal defeat and transition power peacefully to his successor. That should have been a warning.
Five years later, in January 2026, Trump ordered the U.S. military to kidnap a foreign head of state without authorization from Congress. While Nicolas Maduro is, without question, deserving of being held accountable for his actions, what Trump did amounts to an unprovoked act of war. Trump and Pete Hegseth’s attacks on Venezuelan boats on the open sea are likely illegal under international law, not to mention the “second strike” on survivors of one of those attacks in September. That was very likely a war crime.
It is no wonder that in December 2025, Trump demanded immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
Darcy Johnson
Brentwood
In Trump era, proactive Congress is necessary
It’s well past time for Congress to stop being reactive to Donald Trump’s agenda and start being proactive.
Trump gives plenty of warnings about what he wants to do (ballrooms, arches, invasions), but no one does anything to stop what they end up pointing out is illegal. By the time they get their act together, he’s already done serious damage, which usually can’t be undone.
If your unleashed dog bites someone, you’ve no one to blame but yourself. Trump should prepare to be blamed in the midterms.
Nancy L. Morris
Walnut Creek
Maduro’s ouster opens door to other bad actors
Re: “Trump says U.S. will ‘run’ Venezuela after swift strike” (Page A1, Jan. 4).
When a powerful leader falls, many conflicting interests vie for his place.
When a corrupt, powerful leader falls, many corrupt (and some legitimate) interests vie for his place.
Nicolas Maduro’s fall will bring them all out of the woodshed, and soon we’ll have to have our boots on the ground, just like Iraq. Maybe worse.
Donald Trump, “You broke it, now you own it.” Since you can never admit to error, best get your lie-manufacturing factory to start working overtime.
Jim Wolpman
Walnut Creek
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