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Simitian should run
for governor next
It is my opinion that our county Supervisor Joe Simitian should enter the race and become our next California governor.
He is and will always be the politician for the people. He proved that when he was state Senator and also as our county supervisor. We Italian-American survivors thank him for helping us get an apology on behalf of our state of California for the horrible mistreatment of 600,000 Italian immigrants here in the United States during World War II. He did a great job and we will always be indebted to him for helping us in our “Fight to Right a Wrong.”
Joe Simitian for governor.
Chet Campanella
San Jose
NIH pick dismissive
of COVID protocols
Re: “Trump selects Stanford’s Bhattacharya to lead NIH” (Page A1, Nov. 28).
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Donald Trump’s choice to lead the NIH, has said business and school closings, masks, social distancing and lockdowns were the wrong approach to dealing with the COVID pandemic. I was working as a nurse in an ICU and I couldn’t agree less.
These measures helped ebb the flow of sick patients needing to be hospitalized which gave us a chance to save lives with finite staff and resources when the hospital was swamped. This didn’t happen in Italy and Spain when they were two of the first countries to get hit with the pandemic and people were literally dying on the sidewalks because there was no space in the overwhelmed hospitals. The pandemic engulfed the whole population all at once in India and there were not even enough oxygen cylinders in the hospitals to save lives.
And he’s going to run the NIH?
Guy Vigier
San Jose
Extreme partisanship
coming to Washington
A most admirable quality of our federal government has always been its nonpartisanship. Yes, there are often party-based appointments, but usually with confidence in the individual’s ability to do the job.
The military promotes based on merit. The Cabinet secretaries are appointed based on knowledge and experience. Prosecutions by the Justice Department are based on evidence, with verdicts the work of juries of peers.
In the past, federal appointments would be denied to those with criminal records. In the upcoming administration, the president will be a convicted felon. The ambassador to France will be a fraudster pardoned by No. 45, soon to be No. 47. The nomination to head the military has multiple accusations of abuse of women. The presumptive attorney general has already fallen, due to allegations of sex with minors.
Nonpartisan? Only if we have changed the definition to Trump-acolyte. So sad.
Lorraine D’Ambruoso
San Jose
Biden owes nation
apology over pardon
Re: “Biden pardons his son despite earlier pledges that he wouldn’t” (Page A2, Dec. 2).
It’s interesting how the media sanitizes its reporting of Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter, saying Biden was “reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.”
A more accurate description of present circumstances would be that Biden broke his promise or lied or misled the American people. Biden defends his actions saying, “I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.” Perhaps Americans do understand this, but shouldn’t they at least have been offered a mea culpa and an apology first?
Kathryn Tomaino
Los Altos
UN official took brave
stand on Gaza war
Re: “U.S. is out of step with world on war” and “Moral implications dire for the war in Gaza” (Page A6, Nov. 26).
Two recent letter writers described the war in Gaza as genocide. I side with Alice Wairimu Nderitu, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.
Ms. Nderitu has held firmly to her view that Israel’s war with Hamas isn’t genocide. As a result of her stand, she will soon be unemployed. Her stand is correct, and I consider her actions a profile in courage. It takes courage not to follow the herd off the cliff.
Those who insist events in Gaza amount to genocide do a disservice to the Palestinian cause and undermine efforts at restoring peace in the region.
David Reynolds
Scotts Valley
Loyalty boards a bad
omen for government
President-elect Donald Trump has directed that loyalty review boards assess the loyalty (to him) of certain high ranking U.S. military officers. This will result in the removal of the best-qualified command personnel.
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Note: both Hitler and Stalin purged their militaries before and during World War II.
At the same time, Trump has plans to replace qualified federal civil servants, including in procurement functions, with political appointees loyal to him.
Qualifications and experience will be supplanted by loyalty tests and willingness to procure products and services based on political connection, not quality. Our national defense will be directed by political hacks, and our troops will have inferior materials to use.
Our only hope is that there will be enough Republican senators and representatives who will not bend a knee to Trump but will demand that Trump politics be overturned and our national defense be made paramount.
John Cormode
Mountain View
