Letters: Incandescent bulbs

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Thanks to our politicians, especially the Biden administration, choices available to low-income families have just disappeared.

Effective this month, manufacturers can no longer make or sell standard incandescent light bulbs. While it is true new LED-based bulbs will use less electricity, and in a miniscule way help fight “climate change,” they also cost a lot more.

Look at the Home Depot website as an example. You can find a 4-pack of LED-based screw-in bulbs that provides the same light as a traditional 100-watt bulb for $17.48 or $4.37 per bulb. But until the government put its fingers in things, you could buy 100-watt standard bulbs for about $1 apiece.

Now low-income families may have to do with no light if they don’t happen to have the $17 on hand to replace bulbs that burn out. Thanks to all those who voted for Joe Biden and friends.

Mike HellerWalnut Creek

Re: “Military recruiting crisis requires a call to action,” (Page A7, June 23).

More recruits within the U.S. military will benefit U.S. citizens and Ukraine.

As a political affairs intern at the Borgen Project, a national charity that strives to make eradicating global poverty a priority of American foreign policy, I’ve researched the military and global poverty. The United States needs more military recruits for global economic and social triumph.

The current war has exacerbated food shortages and contributed to a significant rise in global inflation. Because of Russia’s involvement in the war, countries are reluctant to invest in Russia’s previously strong wheat and forestry products which will lead to long-term economic damage on both sides. Ukraine’s victory will somewhat minimize these effects and help stabilize the world’s economy. However, they need U.S. troops to emerge victorious.

Ash GuptaHayward

Re: “‘Barbie’ banned in Vietnam because of disputed China map” (Page A2, July 5).

The aforementioned article misleads by characterizing the South China Sea situation as merely an issue of “disputed waters.”

China’s nine-dash line encompasses not only the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands, but also a considerable portion of the waters where other nations have exclusive economic rights under international law. Although many of the region’s countries have controversial claims to parts of the sea, China goes far beyond this. It alone has illegally constructed artificial islands with military bases in disputed waters, and it has also occupied areas such as the Scarborough Shoal, in treacherous defiance of an agreement with the Philippines stipulating that both sides would evacuate. On top of this, an international court officially rejected China’s claims in 2016.

The nine-dash line is thus not an “arcane but sensitive issue for China,” as the article meekly puts it. It is an example of brazen aggression by a gangster state.

Matthew OrtizDanville

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