Month: June 2018

Every time a Trump supporter.tries to justify one of Trump’s initiatives, the magic word “mandate” pops up. They rationalize that, since Trump is, in fact, president, his campaign promises automatically become “mandates”. What this argument overlooks is that Trump was not, in fact, elected president. He was “selected” by the electoral college after losing the election by almost three million votes. As for his “mandates”, one should regard what a stump speaker uses to get an audience reaction (such as “lock her up” and “repeal Obama care” and “who’s gonna pay for the wall?”) not in any way as mandated by popular vote. They are what they are: red meat thrown to a hungry audience craving something to cheer about.
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

The administration has no regrets over the 2300 or so children they have forcibly separated from their parents, nor are they in any way interested in reunification. Damn! Can anyone think of a worse way for any government to treat its subjects? A somnolent Congress that should be up in arms is nowhere to be seen. So, who you gonna call? If anyone has standing before the federal court system, there must be a deep pocket somewhere that can finance a legal suit to force the Trump administration to bring all, every single one, of the children to one place where parents can come to pick them up. In the meantime, the least that the Fed must do is prepare a photographic record of every child now held and make those pictures available to the parents. Where a match is spotted, the government should pick up the tab of getting them together and supporting the family until legal status is settled.
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

We can’t say enough about how ill-advised and destructive and just plain wrong the Trump policy of separating children from parents is turning out to be. It is most certainly a problem that should have been anticipated and planned for, but save some of your worst expletives for what’s coming next. We didn’t think anything could be worse than the temporary separation of children and infants from their parents, but now we learn that the Trump administration has no plan or procedure of any kind to reunite these broken families, nor (and this is even more distressing) do they have any inclination to prepare such a plan. Reunification is going to be a massive undertaking, complex in the extreme, chewing up thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars. Trump (and his minions) probably lack the skills to pull it off, so here it is in a nutshell: They will need to get all, every single one, of the children together in one place were the displaced parents can be brought, in person, to identify and retrieve them. Presto! Instant match-ups on the spot. At that point, someone higher up on the humanitarian scale should be allowed to decide what to do with them in a way that keeps them together. They are not animals.

Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

One cannot say enough about how ill-advised and destructive, and just plain wrong, the Trump policy of separating children from parents is turning out to be. It is most certainly a problem that should have been anticipated and planned for, but it was not. But save your best expletives for what’s coming next. We didn’t think anything could be worse than separating children and infants from their parents, but now we learn the Trump administration has no plans or procedure of any kind in place to reunite these families, nor (and this is even more distressing) do they have any inclination to prepare such a plan. Reunification is going to be complex in the extreme, plowing through thousands of man hours and millions of dollars. Trump and his minions may simply not have the organizational or management skills to pull it off. They need to get all, every single one, of the children together in one place where the displaced parents can be brought in person to identify and retrieve them. At that point, someone higher up on the humanitarian scale should be allowed to decide what to do with these poor souls willin a way that keeps them together.
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

Republicans took a look at Donald Trump and did the math. They saw that the number of people at his “rallies” who screamed approval of his bigotry, when combined with the usual number of registered Republicans who can be counted on to vote Republican regardless of who the candidate is, if these two cohorts could be combined, especially in certain electoral districts, it just might be enough to beat Clinton in those districts.So they swallowed their principles (what ever those might be) and fell in line behind a known con man, a grifter, whose unique talent is his ability to give voice to the worst in our human nature. Republicans knew that Trump was mendacious in the extreme, disgustingly vain, of limited intellect and limited patience, among many other things. What they didn’t expect was that Trump would be mentally dense enough not to grasp the effect of his “zero-tolerance” policy on families seeking refuge from inhuman conditions in their home countries. Most Republicans probably did not expect anywhere near the degree of cruel indifference exhibited so far by the White House. But cruel indifference is the only way to label what is going on down at the border.
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

What more proof do we need that Republicans are absolutely and totally incapable of governing, than what they have done (and not done) since they gained complete control of everything? They are good at gerrymandering and voter suppression, but, obviously not interested in anything having to do with regularly governing the greatest nation on earth .
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

Actually, it is a good thing that the SCRTC has handed off to a more appropriate operator for the UP rail line. We are better off with the railroad being run by someone who knows how to run a railroad than with a bunch of bus people, anyway. Now that this major change is underway, perhaps some progress can be made in getting a trolley/ shuttle bus system going.

Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

On the subject of breaking up families seeking asylum at our southern border, Kathleen Parker wrote an excellent commentary for the Sunday Sentinel, the last sentence of which is worthy of repetition: “To the extent that we’re willing to dehumanize them so that we may inflict suffering upon children without the burden of conscience, we have far greater problems than illegal immigration”.

Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

Is there any kind of action the Trump administration can dream up that will cause more heartbreak and misery than what they are doing to the families coming to our borders seeking asylum from murderous conditions in their home countries? If there is anything worse than breaking up a family, what would it be?
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>

After what has been happening to Paul Manafort and some others, one wonders how many of those others might wish they had never heard of Donald Trump.
By the way, is there any particular reason why you give so little coverage to the Trump administration practice of breaking up families that seek political asylum at the border? The subject, so cruel and horrific, deserves front-page treatment every day!
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>