The Independent
November 17, 2016
Opinion
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Readers comment on local men becoming Eagle Scouts:
What people are saying on Facebook
Catherine Hall said: Don’t know these young men but want to commend them for their achievement. Congratulations on a job well done!
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Richelle Hall said: Good write up, I was indeed one of those proud parents to a senior player #53 and his wonderful pink shoes. He played hard all season. It was a blessing to see pictures of him throughout the season, thanks. It was a very enjoyable season.
LETTERS
Readers comment on Editor’s Column - Football team shows size doesn’t matter:
TO THE EDITOR
You’re going to do what with Medicare? Editor, After less than one-week since the election, we are hearing that a top priority of Paul Ryan is the conversion of Medicare from a government run program, with relatively low overhead, to a voucher program run by for-profit insurance companies. For profit means just that: another layer of bureaucracy with monies skimmed off for executives and share holders, and less money directed to those using the system for health care. These private companies cannot further reduce payments to health care providers; ask your family doc how well they are reimbursed for their services today. Many refuse Medicare patients now and I can imagine what is coming. I need a Trump voter to explain how this is going to work for me. I enjoy Medicare, but it does not fully cover the costs of my health care and so I need to purchase supplemental coverage at considerable cost. With that, a broken hip and torn rotator cuff were manageable this past year. I’m not optimistic about the future. Roger Haick Loon Lake
Why ‘Deplorables’ Elected Trump “They still don’t get what the Trump win was all about. All those people protesting and calling their fellow citizens racists, sexists and xenophobes don’t have a clue why Hillary really lost.” “It’s a bit silly to protest nearly 60 million Americans who exercised their constitutional right by voting for a candidate the protesters opposed. The fact is, there are dozens of sound reasons By Tom Purcell why millions voted for Trump.” Tom Purcell “You raise a fair point. It’s very is a nationally difficult for either party to hold the syndicated humor White House for more than two terms. columnist. Send According to, About.com, the last your comments to Democrat candidate to succeed a twoTom at Purcell@ term Democrat president was James caglecartoons.com Buchanan way back in 1857.” “And after eight years of Obama’s policies, no small number of Americans were ready for some serious changes. Nothing motivated me to cast a vote for Trump more than my soaring health-care premiums.” “To be sure, health insurance premiums have shot up again this November because of the massive disruptions brought on by ObamaCare. Millions of Americans are still angry that they could not keep their doctors and that the average family did not save $2,500 a year in premium costs – two whoppers Obama told to win support for his health-care overhaul.” “I’m so happy Chief Justice Roberts did not overturn ObamaCare back in 2012. That kept it in the public square, where we average Joes still had a chance to vote against it. And vote on it we did. With Trump as president and Republicans holding the House and the Senate, ObamaCare will be replaced or massively reformed with a new approach that better addresses the primary challenge with health-care insurance in America: cost!” “Hopefully, ObamaCare will be a lesson learned for politicians of both parties. You need consensus from both parties to reform one-sixth of the U.S. economy. But the Affordable Care Act of 2010 was passed along purely partisan lines.” “You got that right. Not one Republican in the House or Senate voted in favor of it. The polls continuously showed that more than half of Americans felt that ObamaCare was rammed down our throats – the chief reason we voted to remove Democrat control of the House and Senate during Obama’s term and a chief reason Hillary will not be America’s first female president.” “What are some of the reasons Hillary lost?” “Corruption and cronyism really agitated me. Too many smug ‘journalists’ in the big media outlets did everything they could to get Hillary elected as they did everything they could to discredit Trump. One CNN contributor forwarded debate questions to Hillary ahead of the debates. That is dirty pool and it makes me sick.” “To be sure, the double standard and one-sidedness of our big media outlets motivated millions of agitated voters to pull the lever for Trump. Ironically, their efforts to derail him helped to elect him.” “Above all, voting for Trump was the most powerful See PURCELL Page 9
The
independent LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY The Independent welcomes Letters to the Editor with no more than 250 words. The editor reserves the right to reject letters or edit for clarity, brevity, good taste and accuracy or to prevent libel. No poetry, attacks on private individuals or letterwriting campaigns, please. All submissions must include the writer’s name, address and daytime phone number. Thank you letters should relate to a public event, organization or official. Personal thanks to individuals, for help through an illness for example, should be handled as a “Card of Thanks” in the Classifieds or as a display ad. Please limit submission to one letter every two weeks. Mailed or faxed submissions must be signed. All submissions become the property of The Independent.
FROM THE EDITOR
How to deal with a post-election internet
H
ello everyone! I’m sure you, like me, use the internet for a variety of things including Christmas shopping, communicating with people and checking the weather. With the election results a few days ago, I’m sure you’ve no doubt noticed a change in tone and a general animosity between people of differing opinions. It’s reached into sublime territory where people are now arguing when somebody posts an inspirational meme about rabbits. If you’re looking to once again use the internet without immediately becoming frustrated with what everyone is saying and throwing your keyboard out the window, I have some handydandy tips for you.
GET OFF SOCIAL MEDIA
By Brandon Hansen Brandon is the managing editor of the Chewelah Independent and a graduate of Eastern Washington University. If you’d like to send Brandon a Letter to the Editor, shoot him an email at brandon@ chewelah independent.com.
Social media was a bad idea. We shouldn’t have given everybody and their cat the opportunity to spread their inner thoughts to everyone else. The experiment has failed.
It’s like when radio stations do segments where they let listeners call in and say something. You then realize that the average American citizen has the thinking capacity of a grapefruit. Let’s end everything and just go back to conversing around the water cooler.
STOP GOING TO WWW. THISWEBSITE WILLCONFIRMEVERY SINGLEWORLD VIEWYOUHAVE.COM
I’m stupid. I admit this. I don’t know everything about the world or how things go on. Throw a chainsaw in my hand and I’m liable to chop my leg off. Ask me to stock the shelves at Sety’s Ace Hardware and you soon won’t be able to find anything. We don’t know everything so can we please stop acting like it. Your world view is wrong,
plain and simple because you won’t be able to know everything and you won’t be able to cover every subject perfectly. So take a chill pill and listen to what other people in different walks of life have to say. Conversation pro tip: it’s okay to say you don’t know or you hadn’t heard of that news story. If it doesn’t match up with your world view don’t take it like a personal insult, how the heck were you supposed to know?
THERE’S STILL GOOD STUFF ON THE INTERNET
Like photos of puppies and kittens and whatnot.
IF IT MAKES YOU MAD, IT PROBABLY ISN’T TRUE
Or it’s taken out of context. Or it’s reported wrong. Or you’re being lied to. Or somebody is trying to sell you something. Think of memes, Facebook videos and tweets like the traveling salesmen of the internet, don’t trust them. They’re trying to get a rise out of you. Approach stories with skepticism now See EDITOR Page 9
FROM THE LEFT BANK
Election 2016: So that happened...
S
urprised as we all were, we should have seen it a mile away. Indeed, this election was to be a historical one but not for the reasons claimed. All believed at first this could be historic in terms of a first woman (Clinton) or Hispanic (Rubio or Cruz) president. However, this election was going to be historic in a narrower sense, it would be an election that
By Brandon Nobles Brandon is a grad of the University of Washington with a degree in English and Humanities. He is a current online teacher and is also an active member of the 7th District and Stevens County Democratic parties
for some time was not based on culture wars, partisan identity politics—no matter how much each side tried to push it—but rather something much simpler but even more powerful—populism. Populism, America’s grand historic political tradition that rises
when the people find out the system is a carnival game, politicians are sidedealing carnies, and the fix is in. This, and primarily this, is the reason Trump has won and the Democratic Party is currently smoldering and sinking into the bay. This narrative however is not sitting well with the Democratic leadership and most of their pundits. They cannot accept that they themselves are See NOBLES Page 9
Putting Americans Back to Work is Job One
T
he message is clear. President-elect Donald Trump’s “Job One” is to put people back to work. Lack of jobs and employment opportunities exacerbated the plight of American workers since the Great Recession began in 2008. That deepening anxiety is a primary reason for this year’s political upheaval. On Nov. 4, the U.S. Dept. of Labor reported the market continues to show signs of gradual strengthening, but analysts cautioned that the gains exclude some workers, including manufacturing and service workers who have lost jobs because of automation. “We have this pool of long-term unemployed who are really struggling,” said Claire McKenna, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, a labor advocacy group, in a Washington Post story.
By Don C. Brunell Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization, and now lives in Vancouver. He can be contacted at theBrunells@ msn.com.
The cumulative angst was enough to turn the industrial states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio to Republican “red” on Nov. 8. It sank Hillary Clinton. United Auto Workers union leaders detected anger within the rank-and-file in the days before the election. UAW President Dennis Williams told the Wall Street Journal that he estimates a third or more UAW members voted for Trump. Trump made lots of promises including imposing a punitive taxes to prevent companies from moving offshore, renegotiating “unfair” trade agreements, and cutting corporate taxes
to bring manufacturing facilities back home. Under the best circumstances, those promises take time and requires meticulous negotiations to fulfil. However, voters are not in a mood to wait. There is a way to create jobs quickly, increase exports, cut household costs for families and bring in additional revenue for our communities, schools and country, but it will take a change of attitude about carbon-based fuels such as oil and natural gas. Our country is blessed with an abundance of both and we have developed the advanced technology to safely extract and use them. In fact, fracking technology is converting our nation from an energy importer to an exporter. We also have techniques to reduce carbon emissions—the lightning rod of the opposition. Fracking is the process to unlock oil and gas from shale deposits and other tight formations deep underground. See BRUNELL Page 13