We’ve been warned. The choice is ours to make.
Spring Lake, N.J.: In a few short days, the presidential election will determine not only the course of America for the next four years, but possibly the existence of democracy as we know it.
If you were considering having an important medical procedure performed for yourself or a loved one by a specific doctor, and in checking around, many expert doctors who worked closely with that doctor strongly warned you that they were dangerous and could result in irreparable harm, would you use them? Likely not. Using this analogy, you may want to consider why so many respected elected and appointed officials and generals who worked closely with Donald Trump have warned of the dangers if he is elected. The list is extensive and includes Mike Pence, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, John Bolton, Jeff Flake, Fred Upton from Michigan, Gen. Jim Mattis, Gen. Mark Milley, Lt. Gen. H.R McMaster and most recently, Gen. John Kelly, who worked closely with the former president as his chief of staff.
In view of these warnings, before voting, please ask yourself if this many respected doctors warned you or your family about being treated by a specific physician, would you still use them? Likely not.
If Kamala Harris is elected and does not fulfill her campaign promises, you will have an opportunity to vote for someone else in four years. Should Trump be elected, and as so many respected Republicans and generals who served with him have warned, you may not get that chance ever again. Do you really want to take that gamble? Donald Holford
In the muck
Astoria: Regarding Trump, spewing vitriol is not a platform to stand on. It is a form of quicksand that takes down everything in its path! Karen N. Pearlman
Picked a loser
Richmond Hill: Democrats have themselves to blame when they lose this election. President Biden should have bowed out much earlier and let the party have a legitimate competition for the nomination, up to and including the convention. Instead, they nominate a candidate who never received a single primary vote and disenfranchised the millions who voted for Biden. They handed it to her posthaste and came up with the worst possible nominee. She is a complete disaster, and every time she speaks only confirms that. And that silly smile and annoying laugh! Can you picture her addressing heads of state at the United Nations and breaking out with that cackling? What an embarrassment that would be for our country. There are many, many more Democrats who are certainly more qualified, capable and intelligent than her. This is from a Democrat registered since 1964! Joseph Napoleone
Back to the fold
Westtown, N.Y.: Having canceled my subscription to the cowardly Washington Post, I decided to come home to my hometown paper and just subscribed, after too long an absence, to the Daily News. James Penha
Dictatorial deeds
Flushing: To Voicer Joyce Miller: You proudly say that people (Democrats) using the name Hitler should not be president of the United States. Am I to assume you believe it’s OK for a former president and current candidate to invoke the name of Hitler, to claim Hitler did some good things, to utter the words, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had”? And it doesn’t give you pause that Trump referred to veterans killed in combat as “suckers” and “losers” and asked, “What was in it for them”? The list goes on. The evidence is clear: Trump is a fascist wannabe and his supporters are complicit! Paul Gross
American monsters
Manhattan: I am baffled that Trump is referred to as Hitler when our country has its own nasty, racist, murderous history on this soil against her American Descendants of Slavery citizens for centuries. Even when calling out hatred, we are a country with amnesia. Trump’s behavior and his supporters are the same as those Americans who protested, beat and murdered Americans who fought for equality and justice for all Americans. There is no need to compare Trump to Hitler, many would argue that our country’s history is just as bad as Hitler was at one time. America did inspire the Nazis, after all. Heyward Johnson
Foreign failures
Beechhurst: Voicer Michael Barnhart tries mightily to blot out the fact that Team Biden’s for-all-the-world-to-see weakness was a green light to Mad Vlad. And many have forgotten about Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s biting reply to their offer to whisk him out of Dodge: “I need ammunition, not a ride!” Moreover, there’s a direct line between the Obama-Biden failure to enforce that chemical weapons red line in Syria, which prompted Putin’s annexation of Crimea, and Team Biden’s twirling of thumbs that enticed Russia’s dictator to reach for the whole enchilada. Lastly, Barnhart closes his eyes to the Biden administration’s asinine reversal of Trump’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran, which bankrolled that rogue regime’s unleashing of its terrorist proxies against Israel. Instead, he throws a cheap shot at Trump for nixing Obama’s overrated Iran nuclear deal — clearly, a misguided attempt at blame-shifting. James Hyland
The best teams wins
Carmel, N.Y.: The Yankees might have the star power with Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto, but the old Brooklyn Bums are the better team. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman took over after Shohei Ohtani went down with his shoulder injury. Fielding was exceptional, pitching and coaching superb. The boys in pinstripes probably have the best pitcher on the planet with Garrett Cole, but the Dodgers prevailed because of their three starters and a bullpen. Hats off to the team from L.A. As we used to say outside of Ebbets Field, “they done good” and deserve to be called world champs. Eric Gross
Banned behavior
Brooklyn: We try to teach children growing up to be good sports. The behavior of those two so-called Yankees fans (“Betts gets robbed! Yankee fans forcefully remove baseball from L.A. outfielder’s glove,” Oct. 31) totally goes against that teaching. How special was that ball or that glove? For two grown men to wrestle over not only a ball but to try to grab the glove of a player really shows poor taste. Now, because of their act of poor sportsmanship, they miss out on being there. An expensive lesson for two Yankees fans, but one that we all should remember and learn from. Sharon Cesario
Human cruelty
Bronx: A very sad story in your Oct. 28 edition (“Those ‘animals’ are ‘not people’ “) tells how a young man ran afoul of a Queens woman who considered the public parking space in front of her home hers. She called her boyfriend, who arrived with several teenaged confederates. They beat the young man mercilessly, pursued him when he managed to crawl away and continued the beating. They then took him to a church parking lot where the woman thought there were no surveillance cameras and shot him to death. His long-grieving older brother (this happened several years ago) said that the murderers were not people but animals. But animals that kill other animals never kill cruelly, viciously, sadistically or for trivial reasons, soullessly enjoying the suffering of their prey. People do that. Animals kill to survive. Ed Beller
Misguided guards
Manhattan: Re “City jails security chief gets boot; union prez calls him ‘incompetent’ ” (Oct. 30): Pardon my impertinence, but what is the news, and why has it taken so long? I could run the jails — if many female officers, the majority Black, were found to have gang affiliations, maybe the city would overlook my ancient criminal conviction for a youthful indiscretion from the 1980s. The present mess is precisely why I chose not to use the B.A. degree I got from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1984. What I found, much like a colleague who went on to law school, was an inordinate preoccupation with salaries, perks and overall compensation packages. The commissioner at the time, Jacqueline McMickens, defended and continued the unlawful and illegal practice of selling cigarettes to adolescents and juveniles. When was the last time someone got fired from the Department of Correction for actually doing their job — treating inmates humanely and not as sport? Aydin Torun
