Letters for November 9, 2017

SN&R: ‘No better than NYT and WaPo’

Re “Underreported” by Paul Rosenberg (Feature, November 2):

Why didn’t you name your article “Stories about the Democrats the Main Stream Media Ignored”? It will be interesting to see how you cover Hillary’s involvement [in] the DNC. Also, the Russian nuclear deal and the Clintons. All the money that poured into the Clinton Foundation when Hillary was Secretary of State hoping that when she became president (oops) all the influence that would have. You are no better than the NY Times or the WaPo. Not once in your article on Army spending did you mention all the money Feinstein’s husband made from shady deals with the government. Why don’t you just come out and admit [that] you are no better than the MSM when it comes to reporting the true news. You are just like the other Main Stream Media that only goes after the GOP, and the Dems can do no wrong.

Maurice A. Kaz

Woodland

via sactoletters@newsreview.com

Wikileaks is journalism

“Read this carefully” by Eric Johnson (Editor’s Note, November 2):

Mr. Johnson, you claim that “Russia and Wikileaks conspired …” to promote the story of the DNC’s fraud and lies during the presidential primary. Please provide factual evidence to support your claim. 1. Specifically what “Russia”? The Russian government? The Russians who paid Bill Clinton $500,000 for a speaking engagement while Hillary was Secretary of State? People with accents like Boris and Natasha? 2. What exactly is meant by “conspired?” Did Daniel Ellsberg “conspire” with the Washington Post to expose the government’s lies about the Vietnam War? Did investigative reporters “conspire” with the Chicago Sun-Times to expose the government’s lies and the truth about the raid on and execution of Chicago Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark? Did the U.S. intelligence community “conspire” with the corporate media to promote the story of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction? Wikileaks is a journalism platform. You should wonder why all those emails Wikileaks published weren’t first offered to the likes of the New York Times and the Washington Post. I don’t care if space aliens are the source of documents published by Wikileaks so long as those documents continue to be genuine and reported accurately. But apparently to you, anyone who criticizes or tries to promote the actual content of those documents when it is damaging to the DNC or HRC must be a communist sympathizer—er—a Russian agent.

Jan Bergeron

Sacramento

via sactoletters@newsreview.com

DNC is for Democrats

Re “Read this carefully” by Eric Johnson (Editor’s Note, November 2):

The job of the DNC is to ensure the election of Democrats, from municipality to president of the U.S. We Democrats in California and other places stayed focused on the policies of the two parties. And Mr. Trump’s GOP did the same thing. If propaganda from Russia or U.S. sources can influence our vote, the propagandists are not the problem here.

Hugh Montgomery

Sacramento

via newsreview.com

Federal violence

Re “Food stamp benefits will be slashed in 2018” by Jeff vonKaenel (Greenlight, November 2):

Thanks for the news ;-(. The point of these exercises in poor-bashing is to remind the rest of the population that they had better behave. If they don’t take whatever crappy job is on offer … If they don’t put up with their boss’ bullshit … then they will suffer the indignities of poverty, even homelessness, and now, perhaps starvation. Such population-wide torture is the whip in the hand of the plutocrats.

Mark Dempsey

Orangevale

via newsreview.com

Courts hurt fathers

Re “Parental restraints” by Alistair Bland (News, November 2):

Thank you SN&R and Alastair Bland for your vigilance in reporting issues we face like this that are plaguing our society. I am also a father who was the victim of illegal and fraudulent use of a Domestic Violence Restraining Order. These attorneys who claim that all instances or allegations of domestic violence need to be taken seriously is not something I disagree with. Absolutely we need to protect victims. The issue here in my mind lies with the court’s arbitrary and very liberal use of the temporary DVRO, however they refuse to do anything about the instances of false allegations.

When a false allegation is made often times irreparable damage is done to the person’s life who was falsely accused. The best-case scenario one can hope for is what I was fortunate enough to experience and that’s the DVRO was vacated after months of hearings, fighting for my children, proving my innocence as the burden was on me not the accuser as the law actually requires, and financially destroying me by having to hire legal representation to fight the false allegations.

The issue with DVRO is it’s being used and abused as leverage in cases and not to actually defend/protect people. If it was about protecting people from abuse they would care about the person victimized by the false allegation with the same concern they cared about the victim of domestic violence.

Jeffrey Perry

Rio Linda

via newsreview.com

Unconscious abuser?

Re “Parental restraints” by Alistair Bland (News, November 2):

Abusers can actually not be aware of how abusive their behavior is. I can easily believe he thinks his actions aren’t harmful AND his wife is correct in perceiving threat. The restraining order should allow for this wide definition and broad discretion. I would hope judges provide the accused parent a set of behavioral steps to follow, to demonstrate continued interest in parenting and ability to refrain from engaging the ex-partner. The ability of the accused abuser to follow these steps will be very informative about the whole case.

For the abandonment issue, the alienated parent should be able to check in with courts monthly or so to demonstrate interest in parenting while complying with any orders that prevent contact. Inability to consistently check in is also good feedback.

Donielle Prince

via Facebook

Elaboration

A few weeks back we reported that Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters won a silver medal at the Golden Bean North America coffee competition. We failed to note that two other Sacramento coffee roasters, Temple and Old Soul, also were awarded at the big Portland showdown. Congrats to all!