Letters for November 17, 2016

Who’s to blame?

Re “Go higher” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Editor’s Note, November 10):

How did Donald Trump, who promoted violence at his rallies and whose offensive and hateful rhetoric offended and divided many, defeat Hillary Clinton? The fact that many voters did not trust Clinton and FBI Director James Comey’s decision to make two announcements related to her email server in the last couple of weeks of the election cost her heavily. Of course, there were a host of other reasons why her potential supporters dwindled. One of these was her decision to call Trump supporters “deplorable.” The anti-police rhetoric heard across the country during Black Lives Matter protests did not help. What needs to happen now is for Obama, Clinton, Sanders, entertainers and athletes to call for calm. I ask Trump, Pence and Ryan to call on those that are expressing hateful rhetoric to cease. Leaders from both sides need to be sincere in their efforts.

Jose Gonzalez

Roseville

Cheers, USA

Re “Go higher” by Rachel Leibrock (SN&R Editor’s Note, November 10):

Congrats, America! Fast-forward using Trump’s platform and have a drink! I’ll pour you a mix of Kool-Aid with the sludge-filled water, thanks to the Trump-dismantled Clean Water Act, and hand it over the wall to you. Surely, the Russian vodka will make it taste better as you patriotically grope your underpaid female coworkers who have no maternity leave, and watch on TV the coverage of police killing more unarmed black citizens and hate groups burning and bombing mosques, churches and temples.

The good news is that your kids will live with you forever, since Trump dismantled the Department of Education and college is unattainable due to your rough finances. But you can vote again. Oh wait, his party may have added more poll taxes (Voter ID laws) to ensure you’re a citizen and your ID fell out of your pocket when you were waving goodbye to your son as he is drafted into a war you didn’t want after Trump nuked someone. Cheers!

Steph Baker

Sacramento

Schadenfreude

Re “Felonious bunk” by Scott Thomas Anderson (SN&R News, November 10):

The lesson here, children, is that, while funny, Three Stooges slapstick is nonetheless violence, by definition. It is also a cruel, schadenfreude kind of twisted jolly. Some find actual tear-inducing hilarity in a good, classic Stooges formal dinner pie fight, myself included. But it takes a special kind of stooge to defend physical violence, funny as it could have been, against a public official.

One suspects that the man you call “Pie Guy” has a plethora of reasons for his plight and actions. I imagine that they run the usual diagnosis route, perhaps having to do with his military service. That he is where he is, as he is, is a disgrace. Not his disgrace, ours.

Mark Williams

Elk Grove