Has the time come to ask ourselves: “have we allowed the two-party political system, Republicans and Democrats in the United States, to become more important to us, individually, that the welfare of our country as a whole?”
Help from the Republicans
We knew all along that Trump could never be trusted to do what was best for anyone other than himself. His every utterance, from day one when he declared his candidacy, throughout the campaign and his presidency, we have “clucked and tut-tutted” at every painfully obvious small and even some monstrous “corkers” uttered with a straight face as only Trump can do. We could do this because, even though the GOP was in total control of everything, we knew that there were bound to be some Republicans intelligent enough to form a backstop against this con man. We thought we could trust the Republicans to do the right thing.
Obviously, we were wrong.
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>
Third World Customs
In a typical military coup, the first thing the new dictator does is raid the treasury. In our case, it has taken the Republicans almost a year but they have finally started their raid on the U S Treasury. They are doing it in the form of a huge tax cut for the wealthiest among us; and, taking their cue from the Ronald Reagan playbook, are making no provision to pay for this tax cut. They can get away with these shenanigans because they are in complete control of everything, and there does not appear to be enough Republicans who put country ahead of party to stop them.
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>
Taking the knee
Hank Moonjean (As You See It Nov.24,2017) just doesn’t get it. Hank mentions… “The idiots on the pro sports teams who, with no real regard for our history, show their ignorance and disrespect for America.” He is wrong. What the athletes are doing (for which the rest of us should be grateful) is calling attention to a situation that has bedeviled America for far too long with little or no attention, that is: the appalling condition of racial injustice that exists throughout the country. We have ignored it and tolerated, even encouraged, some of its worst examples. But, thanks to one guy named Colin Kaepernick, with a lot more intestinal fortitude than most of us possess, that situation is changing, and the country will be the better for it.
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>
We do not need a vote
The idea of a referendum on the future of modern rail is a terrible idea. In the first place, the Sentinel has published so much misinformation on the subject, it is unlikely the voting public would have any idea or understanding of exactly what that they were voting on. “Rail banking” is a shiny new term being waved around enthusiastically by trail-only advocates because it involves tearing out the tracks. (It is important that we never, ever forget what Los Angeles did in the 1950s when they tore out the streetcar tracks of a superb public rail system which blanketed the metropolitan area and even reached out to the far suburbs. They are now spending millions to try to replace parts of what they had. If they had simply abandoned the tracks and left them in place, they could now reactivate that system without spending a dime!) Trail advocates should also acknowledge that trolley cars are completely compatible with bicycle and pedestrian traffic and coexist on the same right-of-ways all over the world. Now, if the SCCRTC officially adopted trolley cars as the chosen mode of passenger rail, (rejecting, once and for all the notion of a passenger train), then the trail people could proceed with planning, design, and construction without concern for future safety or conflict with the dreaded TRAIN!
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>
Black lives matter
Minority athletes have shown tremendous courage by “taking the knee” at the beginning of sporting events. Right-wing pundits do what they can to denigrate both the knee action, itself, as unpatriotic flag disrespect, etc., and the various other demonstrations that have sprung up as a result of the courageous moves by Colin Kaepernick and others before him, such as Tommy Smith and Juan Carlos. We white folks should be grateful to those NFL players and others who have been joining in, calling attention to the appalling conditions of racial injustice in the United States of America.
Posted to Facebook
Bring on the hordes, I have “announced” the site on facebook, Sosbees from near and far will register by the thousands, we will have the highest concentration of Sosbee ( and affiliated surnames ) on the Internet, it will be awesome, just like facebook, but ALL SOSBEEs!!!!! I posted 3 plus years of dads letters to the editor in the Howard Sosbee’s Posts category, So it only looks like the site has been here since 2014.
Time to restart the antiwar movement.
Every president since Nixon has kept us out of a war with North Korea. Now, the talk of war seems to creep into every political conversation, and that should scare the daylights out of every thinking American. We do not need, and cannot abide, another shooting war! Our military must, absolutely, be held in total and complete readiness, with practice runs to verify its capability, but readiness must never be used as a justification for preemption. Remember how George W Bush responded to the question of why he would invade Iraq? His response: ”Because I can!” That was insanity then and would be insanity now. Trump knows two things: 1, His presidency is on shaky ground, and 2, A president is less likely to be changed (impeached) during wartime. What can be done now to prevent the unthinkable?
Kneeling
Trump and Pence just do not get it. They are completely wrong about kneeling. It is neither disrespectful of the national anthem nor the US flag. It has one and only one purpose, and that is and has always been to call attention of the public to a matter being largely ignored: the widespread institutional oppression by police of black men. It is a tactic that deserves the attention of all right-thinking Americans, but has drawn only scorn from our right-leaning government. There is too darn much of it to ignore, and we owe it to those athletes who have shown the courage to do something that people will notice, even if it draws the obligatory show of righteous indignation from Trump and Pence and other attention-seeking politicians.
Repeal the Second?
Some would say your “Mission Impossible” op-ed of Sunday, October 8, 2017, was “bordering on blasphemy”. There are, indeed, people to whom owning firearms is more important to them, by far, than their religion. Actually, it is their religion. It would not be a surprise if there were people, some in your own personal acquaintance, who would take up arms against their neighbors to protect their arsenals. But when you think about it, no meaningful or effective firearm regulation will ever happen as long as the Second Amendment is in place. It is the single, controlling, roadblock to any action of any kind by elected representatives in the United States Congress or state legislatures; or any effective enforcement of the multitude of gun laws already on the books. We do not know how many murder weapons would be floating around in America if there had never been a Second Amendment, but most likely, the number would be far fewer than the millions now out there.