Letters to the Editor

by Jim Buckley

(The following is just a trickle of some of the many comments, observations, claims, and suggestions received by Santa Barbara Current. To enhance your reading enjoyment, please follow the Comment thread that appears immediately after each column.)

Not Over Yet

Re: Jim Buckley’s most recent Purely Political column, I am curious of how you define “redress of Congress” on January 6th. I know you are careful with your words. I am a mongrel myself, but I am trying to maintain a bit of “blood purity” on this issue. You note how none of Trump’s election fraud claims held up in court; does that mean that Biden won the election? I am so confused. Clarity on election outcomes seems important to me for maintaining a Democracy. Nixon and Gore both chose Democracy and clarity and the interests of the American people over their own interests in winning, I found this noble when both had a stronger case than Trump for claiming the Presidency. I enjoyed your article and it certainly ain’t over ‘til it’s over.

Jay Sullivan

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: “Redress,” according to Webster’s New World Dictionary means “to set right; rectify or remedy,” often by making compensation for (wrongs, injuries, abuses, evils, etc.). President Trump did everything he legally could to try and rectify or remedy what he believed was a fraudulent vote count in several states but failed. It’s not so much that his claims didn’t hold up in court, but that he simply ran out of time to put together valid accusations, plus he did not have the required “proof” in hand. Biden is and has been president so, yes, Biden did “win” the election. There is nothing “noble” about him claiming that victory, however. It was an abomination in so many ways, a plethora of which we’ve outlined here often. The fake “Russia Collusion” charges initiated by the Hillary campaign and perpetuated by the entire government and press establishment, the 51 lying “intelligence officials,” the collaboration between the Democrat Party, Social Media magnates and their minions, the Department of Justice, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and others, yada, yada, yada. Even the charge that Trump “lost support” among his voters is a fallacy. He received nearly 12 million more votes in 2020 (74,223,000) than he received in 2016 (62,980,000) but couldn’t overcome the last-minute machinations of Democrat Party operatives, particularly in the “battleground” states. Which is why I will continue to claim that the election was stolen “legally.” The Democrats simply outsmarted and overwhelmed Republicans in their massive pre-election ballot harvesting campaign, conjured up as a necessary Covid-era contingency – J.B.)

A Mostly Peaceful Protest

Insurrection is a "violent overthrow of a government or authority." The 
incitement of such an action could be considered a crime but Trump did the exact opposite. "Peacefully" was his suggested protest. A protest is not an insurrection; the only person killed was a veteran woman shot buy a policeman. Hardly a revolutionary attempt.

Fred Sidon

Santa Barbara

What About the Hanging Chads?

What do you think about the [2000 Bush v. Gore] controversy surrounding the "chads"?

Do you think Al Gore was also cheated out of the presidency and would you so gallantly support him?

I doubt it.

He at least had the good of the democracy to not challenge. I think Trump is a sore loser and I guess that makes you one too.

There is no more free press. You all just spin it based on your beliefs. Very sad.

Karen Hickman

Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: You’ll remember too that there was no official agreement as to who would be declared president until the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in to stop the count, wherein George W. Bush “won” by virtue of his lead in the Florida vote count. The Gore campaign did everything it could to overturn that election but ultimately failed. Al Gore didn’t do the “noble” thing; he just did what President Trump also did, allowed that he had lost in court and conceded, but he and platoons of talking heads and political commentators continued to insist that he’d won the election. – J.B.)

Trump Has My Vote

I will also vote for Trump again despite the charges. But we should recognize that the obstruction charge in the documents case is very strong and will probably result in conviction absent jury nullification. Correspondent Robert Seltzer is wrong. Trump is not a fascist. He is an egomaniac who served America well by channeling his egomania onto our national interest. 
You have started another terrific publication, and I am pleased to be a paying subscriber.

We have differences; you think Putin is ready to take the Baltic States while I think he is effectively defanged after his disappointment in Ukraine. With luck, we will never know for sure who was right. Our second difference is your optimism versus my realism. Sorry, but it is all over and we have lost. The Left is in total control and Obama's goal of fundamentally transforming America into a European style welfare state is advancing dramatically under Biden and will probably be completed within a decade. Perhaps by President Newsom. Ugh!

Larry Lambert

Carpinteria

(Editor’s note: I fear you may be correct but pray you are wrong. – J.B.)

No to SBCC ‘s Dumbed Down Strategic Plan

Celeste Barber is correct. There is only one mission for our community colleges, and that is to offer each student the educational programs that will develop the learning skills and general knowledge (a product of several thousand years of human experience) that will enable them to succeed in their own personal ways in our society. The financial problems, as well as the organizational chaos, of SBCC are the result of the failure of the governance of faculty and administration to focus on this mission. 

I must add, as a retired professor of finance and economics: if you offer your clients products or services which you enjoy providing rather than what they desire, they will cease to be your clients.

And they have.

W Naylor

Santa Barbara