Impeachment process: Letters to the editor, Nov. 17, 2019

Put record straight on impeachment

Regarding misinformed Mr. Nidever (Oct. 25), Nancy Pelosi savvy? Yes, our country’s first female Speaker of House is indeed savvy. The majority of House of Representatives favored inquiry. Also, Pelosi read detailed notes from Trump’s phone conversation along with his admission, along with the whistleblower coming forward. (Note: whistleblower has been attacked unscrupulously — went into hiding.)

Regarding (Sen. Dianne) Feinstein and colleagues questioning the nomination of Cavanaugh — yes, standard procedure (for decades). Especially when a respected individual comes forward with accusations, as was the case with Cavanaugh.

A full FBI inquiry into Cavanaugh’s life was thwarted by Republicans and Cavanaugh himself (and Trump?). The Republicans railroaded him into Supreme Court position. The whole life of a nominee to the highest court in our land is fully investigated (for decades). That’s how we roll.

This inquiry is not political. That’s standard Republican rhetoric regarding any question of Trump.

Lord help us!

Observing the impeachment process

Thoughts on the impeachment investigation:

▪ Thank goodness for Ambassador Marie Yavanovich. Her bravery paved the way for others to ignore White House supoenas and testify.

▪ Thank goodness for the 2018 midterm elections. If Democrats had not regained control of the House, the most likely outcome of the 2020 elections would be another four years of Trump. Now there's a solid chance that won't happen.

▪ And finally, why is Attorney General Barr so quiet lately? Is it because he recognizes that Democrats are proceeding properly with the impeachment investigation, or because he fears they will discover his own Ukraine involvement?

Shooting: Officer did what he had to

It’s sad that people judge others when they don’t know what the whole story is. I’ve seen the shooting of the 16 year old on the TV news. I see it from two different angles than Mr. Warszawski does, and what I’m seeing are two officers trying to take this young boy into custody on a homicide investigation. When the officer starts to put the handcuffs on the boy, he takes off ... no shots fired.

The next scene is the boy running towards a security camera in a “fenced- in” area with one officer directly behind him (but still at the fence line) and the other officer behind the fence and to the right of the running boy. This second officer sees the boy reaching to his left waist. From that angle, the officer cannot see what that hand is reaching for. Does this second officer wait to see what it is — is it a gun? Would that time frame be long enough for the boy to get a shot off at one of the officers if it was a gun? You can’t take that chance. The officer did what he had to do.

Valley farmers and their water use

This is a response to Larry Smith’s letter (Oct. 27) asking if the Central Valley will turn into a desert. He’s incorrect on a number of points.

The land in the Central Valley is among the most fertile in the world, so it doesn’t make sense not to use it to grow crops. The water delivered from the dams had a surcharge so the money to pay them off came from the farmers. Since they did so within what they could get for their crops, it cannot be claimed that the federal taxpayer subsidized them, unlike many things we are doing now, like solar and wind power.

The excessive pumping of ground water is because the farmers can’t use the reservoir water they would prefer to use. It’s expensive to pump from the ground. This is because of foolish state policies that don’t manage surface water wisely. A number of problems have resulted from this, including reduced volume in the aquifer, which has resulted in sinking ground and, in turn, greatly reduced flow rate in the Friant Kern Canal.

There are other problems caused, but I’m at the word limit.

This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Impeachment process: Letters to the editor, Nov. 17, 2019."