Letters to the editor

Trump’s possession of classified documents

Re “In Trump probe, U.S. seeks to pierce attorney-client privilege” (Feb. 15):

Of course, the Democrats want to get Trump so bad they are willing to by-pass one of our legal system cornerstones, attorney-client privilege. If a client cannot talk to their attorney knowing such information cannot be used against them, the ability of any attorney to properly defend their client would be struck by a terrible, if not a devastating, setback. Their ability to defend their clients would be severely compromised. This is simply absurd. If it was anyone else but Trump, all the legal pundits would be screaming about someone trying to propose such a tactic. The Dems are obviously having issues trying to convict Trump, so they are trying an end run to bypass legal privilege. What other legal tactic will they try to go around next? If you cannot convict him within existing legal guidelines, then just give it up.

— Scott Irwin, Fullerton

Government corruption

Excellent Sunday, Feb. 12, edition on government corruption. Ignorant and apathetic citizens and voters enable government corruption. Failing government public education doesn’t teach children how to read nor how to understand civics, the study of rights and duties of citizenship. The high number of people dependent on government support and welfare will vote for anyone who will continue to subsidize them, and care little about officials’ corruption or accountability as long as they get their taxpayerfunded checks.

— Lynn Wood, Long Beach

Frederick Douglass

Hats off to your editorial on Feb. 14 to honor Frederick Douglass, our inimitable statesman. He was “A Man for All Seasons.” He was honored at home and abroad. A slave without a known birthday, achieved freedom, changed his name, never stopped learning, became an orator, writer, reformer, preacher and abolitionist. He achieved in many other notable pursuits as well. He should be the poster gentleman for all of our youth of today and his picture should be on the murals, posters, pictures, statues and busts upon our streets, parks, and buildings. He truly is our Black gentleman to be admired and emulated.

— Janice L Smalley, Castaic

Housing mandates

The article on Feb. 12 explained that many cities were failing their housing “mandates,” especially for “lowcost” housing. Everyone with half a brain knows that residential property near the coast tends to be more expensive than inland property. Regardless of this, our genius politicians in Sacramento have mandated large amounts of “low-cost housing” in beach cities. For example, the Democrats in Sacramento are mandating that Manhattan Beach, a completely built out city, have over 400 “low-cost” housing units built in the near future. Realtors have told me that the cheapest residential lot in the city is selling for about $1,600,000. I would like Senator Ben Allen and Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, whose Democratic Party is mandating these units, come and tour Manhattan Beach and explain exactly where and how these “low-cost” units are supposed to be built.

— Russ Lesser, Manhattan Beach

Water reduction along the Colorado River

In his article (Feb. 17) Mr. Elias talks about how Newsom is standing up to the six other states involved in the proposed rationing of water. While Newsom points out that the other states are not proposing their “fair share” of this reduction, what he and the government don’t talk about is our misuse of water here by:

A. Not building the reservoirs that voters approved as far back as 2010.

B. Flushing millions of gallons of water out to sea to indirectly feed the delta smelt.

C. Using millions of gallons to help mine battery components for electric vehicles. He is already starving the central valley and forcing many farmers to reduce or eliminate producing the food the entire country needs.

If he would at least ignore the special interest groups and repair dams and build more reservoirs we could capture billions of gallons that are currently going to the ocean.

— Hayden Lening,

Claremont