Give visitors option of short-term rentals

Under the proposed rules for vacation rentals, would former President Barack Obama be able to rent the Kailua Beach home?

Not every visitor to Hawaii wants to stay in a hotel. Families or friends may want a large home to relax and not be stuck in traffic. Surfers may rent a home in Haleiwa during certain times of the year. Waikiki is not necessarily the destination for all visitors.

For others on a budget, hotels may not be economically feasible.

Is a beach house an affordable rental? Will rental of a bedroom help a couple or family looking for an affordable rental?

Tourism is our largest industry and we should provide accommodations for different demands. To restrict options will only damage Hawaii’s image as the Aloha State.

Permits should be issued to all those who apply, subject to revocation if neighbors or public safety are jeopardized by these permits.

Loke Leong

Kalihi

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Complete Streets are dangerous ones

The property-tax-funded Complete Streets program being shoved down taxpayers’ throats is resulting in the massive loss of street parking and the loss of income for those businesses along the King Street bike lanes.

The compressed, fast-moving traffic also creates an incredibly dangerous situation that could lead to deadly accidents involving our fragile senior citizens.

This is a very small island, and our main mode of transportation now and for the future will be our automobile. Is anybody at the City Council listening?

Bob Vieira

Pauoa Valley

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Trump, Congress part of D.C. swamp

If I recall, one of President Donald Trump’s campaign mottos was,“Drain the swamp.”

Well, it’s sad to say that the swamp includes Congress as well as the Trump team itself. Every day we find out that someone within our government has either had some issues with sexual harassment or some form of collusion with foreign officials.

Trump continues to undo the prior president’s work, as he has just done with the Iran nuclear deal. Trump isn’t making America great again. He continues to weaken the support of our allies and the world order. He has managed to fire some of the best civil service workers who have kept this country safe.

We now have unqualified people running government agencies they know nothing about, which opens the door to more confusion and mistrust within our own government.

Once the Robert Mueller investigation is completed, the world and all Trump followers will find out that our president has colluded with the Russians and obstructed justice in trying to suppress the important investigation.

William Pirtle

Waipahu

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Korea peace efforts initiated by China

The incredible reversal of foreign policy by North Korea’s god, Kim Jong Un, was not a miracle but a calculated strategy initiated by the brilliant Chinese dictator Xi Jinping to keep President Donald Trump in power beyond 2020. This would be a win-win situation for China and North Korea.

But Trump remaining in power would be a lose-lose situation for us and the U.S., making us the laughingstock of the world and a source of constant anxiety as to what this least qualified and most powerful individual in the world might do next.

Abolghassem Abraham Sadegh

Hilo

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Liberal countries happier than U.S.

The 2018 World Happiness Report is an annual comprehensive study that is 172 pages long. As usual, the U.S. is way down the list.

One cannot help but notice that the happiest countries are those that are much more liberal in their governments than the U.S. Even tiny Israel is happier, and look at their neighborhood. (Of course, we send them billions and they have universal health care, while we do not).

So where in the world do we see the conservative nirvana that somehow seems to exist in the minds of Fox News fans? All of the happiest countries have universal health care, do not spend trillions on war, do not have bases all over the world, and have affordable higher education. Americans, unfortunately, are mired in debt, constant war, depression, poor health and opioid addiction. None of these can be corrected with a quick fix.

There will never be a Happy America until we decide to make taking care of each other a true national priority and stop feeding the war machine. Notice how peace is breaking out on the Korean Peninsula when countries ignore American “leadership.”

Jim Quimby

Kamehameha Heights

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Trump represents the views of many

Please stop apologizing to other countries on my behalf (“Trump doesn’t speak for most Americans,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, May 11).

President Donald Trump certainly represents me and more than half of this country. And proudly so.

He may be rude, but being rude is not illegal. The people you should be apologizing to are the majority of this country on behalf of the Obama administration and the Clinton cartel for so thoroughly corrupting our once-proud law enforcement agencies.

Armando Mejia Takara

Ewa Beach

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Kanye West’s slavery comments untrue

When looked at from a high enough vantage point, what Kanye West said about slavery being a choice does ring true (“Kanye West calls slavery a ‘choice’ on TMZ,” Star-Advertiser, Top News, May 1).

For instance, I have a mental disability. When I dropped the mental shackles that made me believe I could do nothing about that, and began doing something about that, things got better.

But nobody ever threatened to kill me because I chose to believe that while I may be different, I am a human being with rights. To say that slavery was a matter of choice, when restricted to the black experience, is sadly insensitive, and on every level that counts, untrue.

Robert Makinodan

Nuuanu