Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/707709
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS I knew it would be a long night when Don- ald Trump launched his acceptance speech with a promise to speak "honestly," telling the crowd, "There there will be no lies. We will honor the American people with the truth, and nothing else." Asif.Whenaconmanoffers to sell you Arizona land with a view of the ocean, it's best to guard your wallet. Trump's inspiration was clearly that canny fearmonger of 1968, Richard Nixon. Trump borrowed heavily from Nixon's "law and order" template — he bellowed, "I am the law and or- der candidate" — but, perhaps more importantly — and oh so predictably — he emulated Nix- on's well-honed gift for shame- less lying. Not that Trump actu- ally needs any help in that de- partment, from anyone. And by the way, it's a bit rich that a guy with a record of mob ties and a looming trial for his fraudulent university has the gall to parade himself as the candidate of law and order. If credibility still means any- thing, if we still have any stan- dards, then his portrait of a dark America begs to be chal- lenged. It's hard to know where to begin. He harangued a lot about "the crime and violence that to- day afflicts our nation," about the "lawlessness that threat- ens their communities." What he didn't say — and this is what the FBI stats say — is that vi- olent crime has steadily fallen over the past 25 years, and that crime today is much lower than it was in '68 when Nixon cam- paigned for law and order. He was particularly incensed that a "border-crosser" had re- cently killed a young woman in Nebraska. He assailed the "nearly 180,000 illegal immi- grants with criminal records (who) are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens." What he didn't say — and this is from a Department of Home- land Security Study — is that you have a far greater chance of being killed in this country by a white citizen. Between 2010 and 2014 a grand total of 121 people released from immigra- tion custody were later charged with murder. That's roughly one-thousandth of a percent of all the undocumented immi- grants in America. Another Trumpian scare: Syrian refugees. In his words, "there's no way to screen these refugees in order to find out who they are or where they came from." Truth is, we've had a vetting system since 1980. Multiple federal intelligence and security agencies vet the refugees, and the process for each one typically takes one to two years. Trump also riled up the crowd with Clinton's supposed legacy of "death, destruction, terrorism, and weakness." In his version of history, Clin- ton is the reason we have ISIS, because "in 2009, pre-Hill- ary, ISIS was not even on the map." The truth is that ISIS was birthed in Iraq in 2006 — three years before Clinton became Secretary of State. It was a byproduct of George W. Bush's disastrous American in- vasion. And even though it's true that ISIS gained steam during the Syrian civil war, Secretary Clinton had pushed at the time — unsuccessfully — for the delivery of arms to rebel forces. During his speech, the lies and cons took a number of forms. Early in the speech he took a stab at substance, promising to "outline reforms" that would bring America "millions of new jobs and tril- lions of new wealth." He said, "these reforms...I will out- line tonight." But somehow he never got around to the out- line. As usual, hewing to the Great Man Theory of His- tory, he simply said, "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it" — just like he vowed to erase crime by dint of his Oval Office presence. Some- one outside his fawning fam- ily cocoon should remind him that there are three branches of government and the separa- tion of powers. Did his speech resonate be- yond his credulous fan base? Can he craft an electoral major- ity with his magical thinking? We'll soon find out. But it ap- pears that he has long prepared to test that proposition. As he boasted nearly 30 years ago in a best-selling book, "I play to people's fantasies.... That's why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to be- lieve that something is the big- gest and the greatest and the most spectacular. I call it truth- ful hyperbole." I call it something else. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman Trump's fact-free marketing of fear Cartoonist's take Continuing from last week, the facts established by the House Select Committee on Benghazi were summarized by Representative Mike Pompeo in an interview with Hugh Hewitt. They weren't mentioned on broadcast or ca- ble shows—the "wolf pack" of Democrats- with-bylines, the mainstream news media. Their adherence to Hillary Clinton's spin and talking points provides "chaff" to obscure the truth. A video conference call that involved Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took place dur- ing the attacks on the Beng- hazi mission and CIA annex; it was documented by interviews with "a good number of peo- ple who were there. There is a memorandum by now-Ambas- sador Mull, who took notes af- ter the meeting. It shows the ten points that were takeaways from the meeting…but we do not have a transcript of that meeting…The meeting ran something between an hour and two hours, and she was there for a good part of it. "There is no evidence that at any time did she do what a leader would do that night, which is say why on Earth are we talking about whether we're in uniform. Why on Earth are we talking about de- ployed forces that the Secre- tary of Defense has already or- dered deployed? Why are we screwing around with these things that don't have any op- portunity to help us rescue my, what would have been her am- bassador? Instead, she partici- pated in meetings that clearly delayed the American re- sponse. "I don't know the answer to [whether Marines could have gotten to Benghazi before Ty Woods and Glenn Dougherty were killed]. I do know this. They didn't try. At no time was there ever a U.S. armed air- craft en route to Benghazi, Libya—at no time—when the final mortars fell. "Hugh, one last fact, these aren't conclusions. We're be- ing accused of being politi- cal. These are just facts. When the final mortars fell, there was not a single wheel turning moving an aircraft with U.S. soldiers toward Libya. Not one when the final mortars fell. There was political spin taking place, but the wheels weren't spinning. "That [Gaddafi-ites rescued our annex people] is true. No help from Washington ever ar- rived. The amazing work of a CIA case officer on the ground in Benghazi calling around, seeking help, figuring this out, solved the problem by reach- ing out to a group that was then known as the Libyan Mil- itary Intelligence. And they showed up with about 50 gun trucks and rescued our person- nel that night. "Hugh, what this shows is that we were in the throes of a close presidential election. And the administration was in a desperate hurry to sweep Libya under the rug. It's why we weren't prepared. They didn't want to send more folks to Benghazi, Libya. The tide of war was receding, according to them. And then that night, again, politics enter. They are literally, Ben Rhodes is talking about politics before we even have our folks out of Benghazi, Libya. "And then of course, they told the story that fit the po- litical narrative of GM being alive and Osama bin Laden be- ing dead, and that radical Is- lamic terrorism had been de- feated. They told that story for weeks publicly, when in fact Secretary Clinton within hours of the attack was telling her daughter that she knew this was a terrorist attack. It was, at every turn, Hugh, it was their political legacy over the folks who were on the ground in Benghazi." Rep. Pompeo then described how the State Dept. and Dem- ocrats on the panel threw up every roadblock possible to slow down what was a fact- finding task, making it "deeply political." Refuting all of the spin from Democrat/media mouthpieces that there was no "stand down order," Pompeo said that the report cites sworn testimony from then-Secretary of De- fense, Leon Panetta, that in less than two hours after his daily White House meeting, by 6-7 p.m. Washington time, "he issued an order to go. He was unequivocal. His testimony, which you'll be able to see, says go. Do what you have to. Go rescue these people. His or- ders are unambiguous." That, readers, is an or- der from the top of the chain of command; only President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could have countermanded that with a stand down order. Consider the glaring hypoc- risy of the strategy of Hillary Clinton, Obama, his adminis- tration and every Democrat on relevant committees. It was, and is, a crass tactic to delay, obfuscate, mislead, "hide the ball," and obstruct the find- ing of facts. Why? Because the plain facts are, as Hewitt re- peated, damning, damning, damning to Hillary as a can- didate. Pompeo: "The storyline here is that there was no effort. No one tried. Had it been your son or daughter, or your hus- band that was there, not just the four who were killed, but there were 30-plus folks there. Had it been one of your fam- ily members there, and you watched the U.S. Government fail to move Heaven and Earth, not to even try to rescue them, I mean, you would find that kind of political expediency unacceptable and morally rep- rehensible." The bottom line is that shameless, partisan tactics kept America from knowing 1) what Ambassador Chris Ste- vens said in emails, 2) what happened prior to Panetta or- dering military help, 3) who countermanded Panetta's or- der, 4) why security was not increased, and 5) why Obama and Hillary issued no visi- ble, documented demand for a rescue. This is new; these are bombshells. Hillary knows; Hillary lied and she continues to lie. I add this to my original June writing: The Republi- can convention inspires me to fully endorse every word that I heard, particularly Donald Trump's acceptance speech. Yes to being "Great again." Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it The plain truth about Benghazi Trump borrowed heavily from Nixon's 'law and order' template — he bellowed, 'I am the law and order candidate' — but, perhaps more importantly — and oh so predictably — he emulated Nixon's well-honed gift for shameless lying. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. They ought to arrest all of them. You can thank them for Nanfito. Edward R. Bealer: On the arrest of a Red Bluff City Councilman in Florida on fraud charges Why can't the fair board think of the kids and their schedules. Unfortunately it's all about money these days. Carol Sharek: On rule that breeding animals must stay at fairgrounds until 10p.m. Sunday Don Polson StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kris- tina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, July 26, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6