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Trump’s research cuts
will set the U.S. back

Re: “Silicon Valley’s future at stake in Trump attack” (Page A12, May 4).

The National Science Foundation finances much of the scientific research that takes place in the United States, and it is being hit hard with a more than 50% budget cut without an alternative plan. NSF sponsors much of the nation’s most basic research from which many applied scientific discoveries spring. Valuable research programs are being halted as the NSF pulls the plug per federal government instructions.

The damage done by these cuts will be irreversible. The U.S. will take a back seat and let countries like China take the global lead in newer areas like artificial intelligence, chip design and memory storage. China’s investment was close to matching the United States in 2023. With the cost being much less in China, the net impact is much greater.

Our leaders in the House and Senate represent the people and must act and restore most of the cuts.

Subru Bhat
Union City

Judge, sheriff overreach
with court protesters

Re: “12 Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters are arraigned” (Page B3, June 2).

Thanks for the article. Repression is apparently not the sole province of Donald Trump and his administration.

While judges can control behavior in their courts, no judge has the authority or the right to outlaw peaceful expression outside the building. And no sheriff has the authority to declare any peaceful rally or demonstration that isn’t blocking normal passage or commerce to be illegal. This behavior by the sheriff hints at what might happen if Trump abrogates public rights in the Bill of Rights, nationalizes police and tells them to imprison, deport or even disappear anyone whose words he doesn’t like.

I am glad there were no new arrests, but declaring this protest illegal is itself illegal and scandalous.

Marc Sapir
Berkeley

Republicans can’t
break spending habit

It was just a matter of time before the two big egos of Donald Trump and Elon Musk would part company.

Trump gave Musk an Oval Office send-off, praising him for downsizing the federal government. Musk’s original estimate that his Department of Government Efficiency would save taxpayers $2 trillion has morphed into $150 billion by his own estimate. In a CBS interview, Musk was critical of Trump’s “Big Beautiful  Bill,” saying it would add more to the deficit than what was saved by his DOGE spending cuts. If the tax bill that just passed the House and is now being debated in the Senate passes in its current form, it will add $3.8 trillion to the national debt, mostly to cut taxes on billionaires who donated to Trump.

Republicans only become fiscal conservatives when a Democrat is in the White House. When a Republican is president, they spend like drunken sailors.

Arthur Straus
Walnut Creek

Trump hatred is not
good for the country

Re: “Trump has earned animosity aimed at him” (Page A6, May 27).

Well, at least one letter writer finally admits to hating Donald Trump. While most Democrats hate Trump, most won’t admit their animosity. I disliked what Joe Biden did, allowing millions upon millions of immigrants to just walk into our country, the highest rate of inflation in decades, a deadly Afghanistan withdrawal, and the list goes on, but I don’t hate Biden.

In our home, we don’t use the word “hate.” Yes, many Democrats will continue to hate Trump, who has closed the border, is bringing inflation down, and is seeking to end wars and bring manufacturing back to the United States. But it is not a healthy attitude and certainly not good for our country. Disagree vehemently, yes, hate no.

Doug Abbott
Union City

Teamwork inside preps
addicts for the outside

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Our prisons are full of addicts, the majority of whom will be your next-door neighbors soon.

As a community, both inside prison and out, we must advocate for recovery over incarceration. As a member of the Incarcerated Person’s Advisory Council here at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, we work hand in hand with medical staff, correctional staff and the incarcerated population to bring awareness and come up with treatment plans.

We have to help one another in the battle against addiction and overdoses.

John Crosthwaite
Corcoran