Questioning Sinema
NBC News reporter Frank Thorp asked Sen. Kyrsten Sinema: “What do you say to progressives who are frustrated they don’t know where you are?”
Sinema responds: “I’m in the Senate.” Thorp goes on to say: “There are progressives in the Senate that are also frustrated they don’t know where you are either.” Sinema responds “I’m clearly right in front of the elevator.”
This is good metaphor for Sinema — she may go up, she may go down, or she may just stand in front of the elevator pushing the button, going nowhere in pursuit of the chimera of “bipartisan cooperation.” For cooperation to occur, you have to have a reliable and reasonably honorable partner whom you can trust — that partner does not currently exist within the Republican Party. Whichever way she goes, she will be coy, cute, and non-responsive about it, until she decides to flash her ring and take off — perhaps to raise more money.
And trying all the while, to paraphrase Billy Crystal, to “look marvelous, and that’s all that matters.”
Katharine Donahue
Foothills
Prop. 410 does not do enough
Re: the Oct. 3 article “Star endorsements for city council and propositions.”
I’m not sure how I feel about ballot Proposition 410, which dramatically raises the pay of the mayor and council. On the other hand, I’m sure about how I feel about dishonesty.
Which brings me to your editorial endorsing 410.
You claim the raise will attract the best candidates possible, which is too ridiculous for comment.
You say similar propositions have almost always been rejected, but that this proposition is different. How? In fact, it’s not.
You say the job demands more than 40 hours of work per week. Whoa. That’s the point. There’s no “demand” that they ever show up at their offices. A proposition that is “different” might have required that.
In fact, many have held outside, full-time jobs, sometimes in conflict with their city duties. “Different” might have fixed that.
John Kromko
Downtown
Cyber terrorism
There are two pandemics threatening our nation: COVID and cyber terrorism. We developed vaccines in record time to blunt the disease but have been slow to control the spread of cyber terrorism, which threatens to cripple our infrastructure and disrupt the lives and livelihoods of American citizens.
Our government and private institutions must act now with these major steps:
1. Work with other countries to assemble an international team of experts to identify potential threats around the world and develop ways to counteract them.
2. Elevate cyber crimes to a high level of punishment for even the first offense. Cyber criminals who agree to work with the experts to reveal their tactics can expect a reduced sentence.
3. Mandate appropriate economic penalties for any entity or country that harbors cyber criminals.
4. Develop effective security systems for our government and private entities and provide assistance (funds and training) for their implementation.
Tony Banks
Oro Valley
Good legislation wins elections
Rule 1 in politics is to get elected and re-elected. Politicians can’t accomplish much if they’re not elected to office.
Those purists who insist on all or nothing risk losing all while more pragmatic practitioners insist that sacrificing the good by insisting on the ideal is an erroneous stance.
Putting theory into practical terms, I counsel that the primary Democratic objective is to win more seats in the 2022 elections and to follow up with even more wins in 2024. Democrats have programs and policies that most Americans support. They should enact as many of the most immediately popular as possible so they prevail in 2022.
By winning in 2022, Democrats will have bought more time to fulfill those parts of the Biden agenda they couldn’t get done in the first half of Joe’s first term.
Time is on our side as long as we can hold the majorities in Congress.
That’s simple logic.
Mort Ganeles
Foothills
Vote no on Prop. 410
Yes, to Mayor and Council stated increases in Proposition 410.
No, to the yearly percentage increases based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index. Is this to be based on: unadjusted or seasonally adjusted rates; the average over the previous 12 months; national or local CPI? Who decides which of the CPI data sets are used when calculating “cost of living” salary increases for the Mayor and Council?
A percentage increase based on salaries is not equitable. A flat rate is fairer and more equitable for both. Changing of the City Charter removes the ability of voters to have a say in how much the mayor and council can earn in the future.
Removal of Proposition 410 from the ballot would give the Citizens’ Commission on Public Service and Compensation more time to write a less vague and more comprehensive salary proposal. NO on 410.
Abreeza Zegeer
West side
Modernize immigration laws
Americans are quitting low-paying jobs at a record pace, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. At the same time, conservatives are having a fit about undocumented foreigners clamoring to enter the U.S. to work.
Caregivers, restaurant and hotel workers, bus and truck drivers, to name a few, are all important to the economy, and with Americans unwilling to take these jobs, immigrants are the natural solution.
Congress has spent decades avoiding modernizing immigration laws, but it’s high time to embrace reality and provide a means for our neighbors to fill those desperately needed positions.
Sean Bruner
West side
