Sea Pines not ‘outdated’ – it’s ‘updated’ | Letters

Since it was said in your Sea Pines article last week that “the failure to fund projects is making Sea Pines an outdated place to live,” I wonder if the speaker and I live in the same Sea Pines. In the last few years, Sea Pines is the proud recipient of a new Harbour Town Clubhouse, a new Beach Club, a new Harbour Town dock, and a new building at the Plantation Club golf area. These are buildings that no other plantation on the island can boast. “Outdated”? No, “updated.”

Trump totally open on judges

I was disappointed that you channeled fake news from The Associated Press about President Donald Trump’s “transformation of the courts barreling onward.”

The opinion piece was mistakenly placed in the news section and missed the key facts about Trump’s judicial appointments. Contrary to the liberal activists prominently quoted in the article, our president is not “hijacking” the judiciary or “packing the appeals courts with very conservative judges.”

Our president is simply fulfilling his campaign promise to appoint judges who interpret, rather than make, the law. Trump’s stated position on judges was the primary reason I voted for him — and I wasn’t the only one. In fact, Trump named candidates for judicial positions before the election and carried through on his promises afterward — how radical is that?

The liberals are fearful because they are well aware that their unconstitutional and radical agenda will never be passed into law by elected officials, as required by the Constitution. Rather, they need liberal activists such as Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor to impose their toxic ideology on the country.

No wonder Hillary Clinton never disclosed who she would nominate to the judiciary. In fact, Clinton declined to state that she would renominate Merrick Garland (Obama’s cynical and ill-fated nominee — who was “moderate” in name only). As that other fake news purveyor, The Washington Post, likes to say, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Our president was totally transparent on judges. What’s the problem with the liberals?

Trump policies killing future generations

A recent letter writer supports President Donald Trump because he has seven grandchildren. I do not think Trump’s policies are good for this fellow’s grandchildren.

Start with climate. Trump denies climate change. I hope Trump is right and the scientific consensus is wrong. Otherwise, his grandchildren will be living in a very inhospitable world.

Let’s move to economics. Trump cut taxes and increased government spending. The federal deficit has gone up 68% since President Barack Obama left office ($585 billion in 2016 to $985 billion in 2019). Next year, the deficit is projected at $1 trillion. The current generation is not going to pay this bill. Perhaps his grandchildren will.

How about Trump’s trade war? Is this good for his grandchildren? I think not. The United States would have been better off ratifying Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership. This was a more effective, multinational strategy to confront Chinese trade practices than Trump’s unilateral tariffs.

The Trump presidency is all about buy now and pay later. This philosophy will prove very costly to future generations.

Joe Cunningham blows his chance

U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham recently spoke on Hilton Head Island and was impressive. However, when he tried to explain his impeachment vote in an op-ed in your newspaper, he fell far short of his stated goal of doing what is best for the Lowcountry (and I would add the country at-large).

In defense of his vote, he claims that “the facts are clear” supporting the two articles of impeachment. However, the facts are anything but clear. The hearings in the House produced no evidence supporting either of the two impeachment grounds. Moreover, neither of the two articles cite any crimes, nor do they come anywhere near meeting the standard of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

In short, there is simply no basis for the most serious undertaking of impeaching a president. I was disappointed on Congressman Cunningham’s vote. This was the most consequential vote he has been called upon to make and, to put it mildly, he blew it.

There will be another vote in November, and I believe the voters of the First District of South Carolina will vote “no” to his re-election bid.

This entire impeachment episode reminds me of the expression so familiar to playground basketball junkies: “No harm, no foul.”

Fact-check Trump claims

A frequent letter writer likes to publish fake news comparing President Barack Obama to President Donald Trump. He is usually corrected by other writers, and today it is my turn to offer corrections.

The writer said “during the Obama administration, GDP growth did not exceed 3% in any quarter.” Fact: Between 2009 and 2017, quarterly GDP growth exceeded 3% eight times, including five quarters that exceeded 4%. Since Trump, the US GDP, quarterly, has never exceeded 3.5%. Trump boasted he would exceed 5% (it never happened), yet the Obama administration did it once. This year, GDP has averaged about 2.3% over three quarters so far, which is a declining trend.

In reality, Trump inherited the extension of a significant recovery that Obama began. Prior to Obama taking office after the 2008 election, Republicans started the “Great Recession” partially due to lax banking regulations that they pursued. The Obama administration passed the Dodd-Frank bipartisan banking regulations to prevent repeated recessions of that kind, yet most of those regulations have been removed by Republicans.

The writer’s second assertion was that Obama bailed out both GM and Chrysler during the recession, and that is true. It is also true that those bailouts were paid back 100%. By comparison, Trump has bailed out farmers who have been hurt by his failed tariffs to the tune of $28 billion and counting. And, by the way, that bailout will not be paid back.

Column was malarkey

I realize that your shrinking newspaper is down to a handful of journalists and that you have to resort to picking up writings from other sources to fill your pages. But couldn’t you do so without following the trend of the fake-news papers by blasting us readers with bias and scorn?

A perfect example is the column (on the Opinion page) in the Dec. 21-22 issue written by Ann McFeatters of the Chicago Tribune News Service. Her column does have a promising beginning in the headline: “How Trump really could make America great again.”

But about halfway through it, the column turns very nasty toward our president. He is called immoral, a trash-talker and worse. Ann even picked up the false comment that Trump plucks children from their parents and puts them in cages.

One might as well subscribe to The New York Times or The Washington Post or The Los Angeles Times instead of our skimpy little publication. You bigoted people don’t take into account that our opinions are contrary from what you’re forcing on us. Some 63 million Americans elected Donald Trump. And we’ll be damned if we are about to switch allegiance to him because of the published malarkey of a few hundred biased and misplaced writers. Your paper should be ashamed to be included in the worst of America – pathetic journalism.

Too many are above the law

U.S. Rep. Joe Cunningham said, “We are a nation of laws, and no single person is above the law in America.” Oh, really? Are illegal immigrants above the law? The Democrats seem to think so. How about Hillary Clinton? She lied multiple times to the FBI and yet faced no charges. There are too many others who are “above the law.”

This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 8:30 AM with the headline "Sea Pines not ‘outdated’ – it’s ‘updated’ | Letters."