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After Schaaf, Oakland
needs accountability
Bravo to Dan Borenstein’s column on outgoing Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. (“Libby Schaaf’s devastating eight-year fall from grace,” Page A12, Dec. 11)
Schaaf has left Oakland in a huge mess, and I am afraid the incoming mayor has to deal with it.
To date, 112 deaths, with more to come before we ring in the New Year, coupled with homelessness, drugs and a poor educational system. And Schaaf did nothing to speak of.
The city of Oakland should wake up and demand accountability from all elected officials before it’s too late.
Maryann Sheridan
Walnut Creek
Newsom, CPUC should
resign over NEM change
Gavin Newsom must resign. The governor’s appointed commissioners destroyed our rooftop solar industry. On Dec. 15, the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) voted to slash grid payments by 75%.
How did this happen? PG&E paid Gov. Newsom hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds. In return, he let PG&E get away with murder, after the Paradise Fire. Now they’ve burned Californians again. Stifling rooftop solar will allow the criminal company to maintain an energy monopoly.
Gavin Newsom is the worst sort of politician, one who talks up his commitments, while selling out his constituents. In terms of corruption, I can’t imagine much worse than wrecking mom-and-pop businesses that were critical for saving us from apocalypse.
Not only should Gavin Newsom resign but also his cronies in the CPUC. If they had any decency, they would have before this vote.
Alan Marling
Livermore
Newsom must reverse
CPUC solar decision
Webster’s Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” for 2022 is gaslighting. Gaslighting uses psychological manipulation to sow seeds of doubt in targeted individuals or groups. It makes them question their own memory, perception and reality.
PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission are trying to gaslight Californians into believing that rooftop solar owners are not paying their fair share of maintaining the power grid.
Using accounting data provided by think tanks that they bankroll, utilities are sowing seeds of doubt in the public media to eliminate their only competition.
The CPUC voted to cut net energy metering, or NEM, utility payments to homeowners by 75% for their surplus energy. The demand for new solar installations will drop and destroy the California solar power industry.
Call Gov. Newsom and demand he take action to reverse this revised NEM charade, keep rooftop solar growing and save our planet from climate change.
Rene Wise
Fremont
Thiessen pedaling again
in right-wing propaganda
Regarding Marc Thiessen’s op-ed “Where’s the outrage over Hunter Biden’s laptop abomination,” (Page A13, Dec. 11), and Thiessen’s statement that 84% of respondents to a poll consider the media a threat to democracy: Mr. Thiessen, you are the media.
And the reason many people do not trust the media is due to right-wing political hacks like you and many others, such as Fox News, Newsmax, right-wing talk radio, etc. The newspaper article he quotes about the FBI influencing Twitter is The New York Post, a far-right propaganda spewing joke of a newspaper.
I’ve read many op-eds written by Thiessen, and the one thing they all have in common is his disdain for the truth. Hunter Biden’s laptop has not proven anything. And Twitter does not have to release anything they do not want to release: a private company’s First Amendment rights.
Rocky Fort
San Lorenzo
Celebrating Griner
release has risks
Re: “Celebrate deal that brought Griner home” (Page A6, Dec. 15), the writer argues that the trade of American basketball player Brittney Griner for Russian “Merchant of Death” Victor Bout was a deal that should be celebrated.
Getting any American back certainly feels good in the short run. But when any hostile country thinks it can get such a good deal out of the United States, they are encouraged to “arrest” more Brittney Griners.
Daniel Mauthe
Livermore
Source: www.mercurynews.com