Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/785043
Howtohaveyoursay:Lettersmustbesignedandprovidethewriter'shomestreetaddress 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: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS TheTrumpTrainisrollingon. It's going so fast and in so many directions at once that its critics can't catch up. All week long President Trump has filled the headlines with news. He'snominatedNeilGor- such — a great judge who un- derstands and reveres what the Constitution says, not what he'd like it to say — to fill Antonin Scal- ia's un-fillable seat on the Su- preme Court. He's seen his major cab- inet picks at State, Treasury, the EPA, HHS, etc., finally get confirmed, despite the whin- ing and foot dragging of Senate Democrats. He's issued executive orders on taxes, regulations and who knows what else. And he's had tough-guy Mi- chael Flynn, his National Se- curity Advisor, sternly warn the Iranians that we're no lon- ger going to stand idly by as they make trouble in the Mid- east and test-rattle their ballis- tic missiles. By the time this column gets into print, we could be invad- ing Yemen. Things are happening fast in Washington — at "Trump Speed," as someone has said. It seems like a month ago that the Trump administra- tion's so-called "Muslim ban" was announced, but it was ac- tually only last week. The president's executive or- der restricted travelers from seven terrorist-breeding coun- tries from coming into the USA for three months, and also sus- pended the refugee program for four months until a better sys- tem of vetting could be devised. The whole thing was a to- tal political and public relations disaster for the president — a textbook example of how not to communicate to the American people. What President Trump should have done was address the country from the Oval Of- fice, fully explain what he was about to sign and then sign it. He should have pointed out that it was temporary, that it was based on national secu- rity and geography, not reli- gion, and that the seven coun- tries listed were the same ones that had been singled out by the Obama administration as terrorism incubators. All the problems and confu- sion and minor tragedies at air- ports for incoming travelers should have been foreseen and should never have occurred. All the liberal howlings that Trump was discriminat- ing against the Muslim religion or that the ban was unconsti- tutional would not have been eliminated, but they would have been blunted. The crowds of knuckleheads who protested at airports still would have shown up with their pre-printed anti-Trump signs, but they would have been much smaller. The whole fiasco showed that Trump and his team are still rookies who have a lot to learn about planning, explaining and spinning their executive edicts and decisions. Trump got a D- for his "Mus- lim ban" announcement. But the media got a solid F for the sloppy, misleading and par- tisan way they covered it. The media didn't put the ex- ecutive order in perspective, didn't explain that it was based on geography and didn't explain that the seven countries on the list came from the Obama ad- ministration. In their fervor to get Trump they didn't bother to point out that President Obama's ad- ministration had slowed down the processing of Iraqi refu- gees coming to the U.S. for six months in 2011 for security rea- sons. The most outrageous thing the media did was to fan the idea that an executive order aimed at regulating the freedom of foreign visitors was unconsti- tutional. It was perfectly consti- tutional. The U.S. Constitution doesn't apply to foreign visitors. The only people who have the constitutional right to come into the U.S. are American citizens. Every country has restrictions for its visitors. For example, you don't have a right to go into Canada if you have a DUI. It's an extreme tough rule, but I don't see the ACLU or Alcohol- ics Anonymous demonstrating against Canada. If anyone was responsible for all the sign-waving protestors who clogged up our airports last weekend, it was the domi- nant liberal media —— which is clearly interested more in bash- ing Trump and getting ratings than the truth. MichaelReaganisthesonof President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). Send comments to Reagan@ caglecartoons.com. Follow @ reaganworld on Twitter. MichaelReagan Derailing the Trump Express Cartoonist's take We inquired as to the source of Vern Raglan's instructions as to when to lower the flag at Main and Pine streets to half- staff. A reader promptly sent me a form in which anyone can be provided such in- struction about such national honors. I think I will fill out the form and send it in. Can't hurt to be so informed. However one might take exception to those designated to be half-staffed. This suggests a little doggerel: "I think that I shall never know a person honored by flags half-mast. It seems an honor too good for any such tribute to last. It may be a thing of the mo- ment to do such a thing, But then consider what em- barrassment it might later bring. If a person is only currently worthy of such an accolade, And then people discover the person so honored had feet of clay? Best to honor one in some other fashion Than to expose him or her to a later bashing. And yet I have no reason to suggest that a man now in pub- lic eyes, Such as D. Trump, be with- held from staff-lowering upon his demise. Much too premature to con- sider this man of abundant pride To judge him because his ini- tial edicts became fractured and fried." Anon. ••• By the way, half-mast is the term used to flying a flag mid- way between the summit and bottom of the flagpole on a ship. According to the U.S. Flag Code, half-staff applies to flags on poles firmly anchored on the ground. And speaking of flags, sources say that the Nebraska state flag flew upside down for 10 days until it was discovered and righted. In California, an upside down Bear flag would have been corrected in min- utes, possibly a result of action by misguided advocates of the state. ••• For your edification, be aware that Volkswagen is now the world's largest automaker,having taken over that spot from Toyota. That is interesting because back in the '40s, their countries were at war with us and they did not, as I recall, prevail in that encounter. In the same current Time is- sue, it was announced that cats will be, for the first time, in- cluded in the prestigious West- minster Dog Show, and be shown alongside dogs in the "meet the breeds portion" of the event, and will also compete in an agility contest. Informed of this breaking news, our Bull- mastiff, All That Jazz, raised his massive head, from slumber, digested the information, and then plopped back down in his dog bed. I asked him to respond but he declined. Pretty Foot and the other feral cats were de- lighted to hear this news. ••• Jean Barton, last Saturday, quoted a lengthy description of my father's first production of the Bull Sale Show at the State Theatre. It was very comprehen- sive and more succinct than any articles I might have written pre- viously. I asked her about the source of the quote and she said it was apparently from father's I say column, and therefore di- rectly from the horse's mouth. ••• Red Bluff's Keith Trujillo has been racking up awards and ac- colades. He is a psychology professor at California State University San Marcos and a 1974 graduate of Red Bluff High. The Daily News reports that he was recently awarded the prestigious Wang Family Excellence Award in the category of social and Behavioral Sciences and Public Service. There was little doubt that Keith would go far in his elected educational field, for he is the son of Velma and the late Phil Trujillo, and my dealings with the smart and civic minded Velma indicated long ago that her progeny had the right stuff. Congratulations all. ••• Here is a riddle that I attrib- uted to Mark Twain: A guy goes to a jail and wants to see a man incarcerated therein. The jailer asks what is the visitor's relationship to the man in jail and the visitor re- plies, "Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." I have heard this in another version whereas a person is look- ing at a photograph, but the jail version complicates the identifi- cation process somewhat. ••• As concussions and mem- ory are in the sports news these days, the words of a professional football player explained why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker: "That's so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my clothes." ••• Having dinner at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay years ago, my son-in-law Justin Dooley, asked rather casually if I was ready to order. I said that I was. He replied, "Then you should close your menu." Wow. I never knew that. Apparently in the posh places the waiters are al- ways at the ready awaiting such a signal from the patrons. To test this advice, I shut my menu, and if by magic, a waiter appeared. I quickly opened my menu to see if he would back off, but he merely asked for my order. He must have known I was from the sticks. ••• The editor of this prestigious paper confessed his love of puns. So, to keep him happy: A group of chess enthusiasts were waiting to check into a ho- tel and were discussing their re- cent tournament victories in the lobby. After an hour the man- ager came out of his office and asked them to leave. "But why," they protested. "Because," he re- plied, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer." ••• A recent article in "The Do- minion Post" reported that Nancy Pelosi has sued Welling- ton Hospital, saying that after her husband had surgery there, he lost all interest in sex. A hospital spokesman re- plied: "Your husband was ad- mitted for cataract surgery. All we did was correct his eye- sight." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@ hotmail.com. I say Pondering the criteria for flag tributes Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. It makes no difference what kind of gun it is. When the police tell you to put it down, you put it down. Period. No questions. Second, I went to Lincoln Street when I was a kid. I thought they turned that school into an office building of some kind. Is this the same Lincoln Street School? Robert Staton: On a lock down at a school due to a man with a BB gun in the area If your child went to that school you would have been glad that they went on lock down. I am. Protect the kids should be the number one thought even if it is "Red Bluff and we have lots of guns." Nancy Green-Godina: On a lock down at a school due to a man with a BB gun in the area Robert Minch The media didn't put the executive order in perspective, didn't explain that it was based on geography and didn't explain that the seven countries on the list came from the Obama administration. 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 Kamala Har- ris, 501 I St., Ste. 7-600, Sacra- mento 95814, 916 448-2787, fax 202 228-3865 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 Michael Reagan Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, February 10, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6