Clarifies points made in previous letter

I just read an excellent example in these letters to the editor of how to mislead. First, the unsupported imputation of motive: Kamela Harris dated Willie Brown for two years. He was then estranged from his wife, and had been for more than ten years. Their relationship was completely open. As Speaker of the State Assembly, Brown appointed her to the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. Now there was a political plum. He then appointed her to the Medical Assistants Commission, another job with long hours and no appreciation. Eight years after they broke up, she won her first elected office. She was an assistant district attorney when she took those appointments, so it seems to me that she was doing Brown a favor more than the other way around.

As attorney general, her office required that she resist prisoner releases because of overcrowding, as the prison system was her client. On the other hand, she helped create a program to reduce recidivism and to help released prisoners return to society.

In terms of prosecuting with a vengeance, she really went after banks that defrauded borrowers, and health care networks that defrauded Medicare.

In Trump’s first two years, seasonally adjusted non-farm employment increased by 5.1 million jobs, according to Forbes Magazine. In his last two years, President Obama saw a 4.7 million job increase. At the end of Obama’s term the line on the graph was rising. It continued to rise at the same rate, about 10%, for the next two years. Whose good policies were responsible?

The U.S. poverty rate dropped consistently every year from 2015 to 2017, according to the Census Bureau. It has continued to decline since. Again, whose policies?

The stock market is at an all-time high, which is great for the 8% of people who own 81% of the stock wealth, or even the next 10% of the people who own 11%, according to Hurst Publications. The rest of us can try to retire on our 14% that we all share.

No one is suggesting that people not be allowed to vote in person. Those at high risk if they contact COVID-19 don’t want to expose themselves to the poll workers and the rest of us waiting in line, so they would like the option to vote by mail. No one has said you can’t vote in person, but lots of places are limiting the ability of folks to vote by mail.

Bill Gillmore

Columbus

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.