Tax credits help Hollywood rich

All tax credits, especially film tax credits, are nothing more than tax handouts by government to a few clever and wealthy individuals or groups (“Film tax credit abused, audit finds,” Star-Advertiser, Nov. 23). As such, you do not need any audit to determine whether the film tax credits, or any other tax credits, are abused or not.

The very practice of tax credits, no matter how well they are administered, is abuse of taxpayers’ money.

It is nothing more than taking money from many low-income taxpayers and giving it to a few high-income taxpayers for dubious reasons.

Anyone who doubts this should watch the next Academy Awards ceremony and see for themselves if any of those guys need a handout from Hawaii taxpayers.

No trained free-market economist with any professional integrity could justify such unjust distribution of income.

Hamid Jahanmir

Makiki

Senate should confirm Connors

On Sept. 8, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Clare Connors to the federal bench for the U.S. District Court in Hawaii.

Connors has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Hawaii for seven years and as a lawyer in a fine law firm for more than five years.

The district has one vacancy in four active judgeships, so it lacks 25 percent of the active judicial complement, which complicates the delivery of justice. Connors is a well-qualified, mainstream nominee.

The Senate Judiciary Committee granted her a Jan. 27 hearing, which progressed well, and on April 4 approved her nomination without dissent.

However, she has languished on the Senate floor ever since, mainly due to GOP leaders’ refusal to allow a debate and vote on her confirmation.

Because Connors is an experienced, consensus nominee and the district needs this vacancy filled, it is past time for the Senate to grant her a vote.

Carl Tobias

Law professor, University of Richmond

Richmond, Va.

Trump remains unfit to lead U.S.

Like the scene in the motion picture “The Shining,” when Jack Nicholson, after breaking down the bathroom door with an ax to get to a petrified Shelly Duvall, announces, “Here’s Johnny!”, President-elect Donald Trump has announced, “Here’s Donald!” with his latest proclamations regarding his “rigged elections” accusations.

Upon hearing his victory speech on election night, I and many others began thinking that perhaps he wasn’t as crazy as he had appeared to be when on the campaign trail.

Wrong.

The man won the election, yet is still impugning the integrity of our democratic process, a process all Americans can be proud of — all Americans except him, I suppose.

He did not win the popular vote, which will be substantiated if it must.

Trump is still proving to be an extremely unstable character who appears to be unfit for the presidency.

Jim Howard

Manoa

How will election affect Hawaii?

As we emerge from the shock following the Nov. 8 election, it will be especially important for us to consider how Hawaii could be affected by this change in leadership in Washington, D.C. State and county administrations and legislators, together with our congressional representatives, need to examine what programs are most vulnerable.

How can we preserve Hawaii’s health care system if the new majority in Washington follows through on threats to dismantle Obamacare? How will the possible reduction in federal Department of Education funds affect us? How can we continue to expand the production of clean energy? And how might we benefit from the president-elect’s promise to increase investments into public infrastructure?

Maybe prior to the upcoming legislative session an open conversation can occur in order to identify priority issues.

Also, even in Hawaii we have been facing many of the economic challenges that fueled enormous discontentment among working voters who backed Donald Trump. Many people are forced to hold down two or three jobs in order to pay the rent.

What are we willing to do about it?

Nancy Pisicchio

Kailua-Kona

Paper should oppose pipeline

The New York Times editorial board recently took a stand against the harm done to peaceful protesters at Standing Rock in North Dakota.

The protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline is an under-reported story that needs to be told.

I encourage you to do the same: Take a stand against the pipeline and support the water protectors.

Lorraine Robinson

Kaneohe