Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/791631
ChipThompson, 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: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS A er watching our Tweeter In Chief these last several days, I have been thinking a lot of that song, "It's All About Me." The President has clearly demonstrated narcissism, a bloated self-esteem, a lack of preparation for his job, an unwillingness to accept the truth, and an ignorance of history. Keywordsfromthatsongin- clude, "It's all about me me me me me; Forget about you you you you you." As Carl Vo- gel wrote, "nar- cissism isn't just a combination of monumen- tal self-esteem and rudeness. As a personal- ity type, it ranges from a tendency to a serious clinical disorder, encompass- ing unexpected, even counter- intuitive behavior. The Greek myth of Narcissus ends with the beautiful young man lost to the world, content to forever gaze at his own reflection in a pool of water. Real-life narcis- sists, however, desperately need other people to validate their own worth. "It's not so much being liked. It's much more im- portant to be admired. Stud- ies have shown narcissists are willing to sacrifice being liked if they think it's necessary to be admired," says Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist at Flor- ida State University in Talla- hassee." Vogel continues: "The beauty of being a narcissist is that even when disaster stares you in the face, you feel neither doubt nor remorse. In a study, researchers asked a pair of par- ticipants to undertake a task that was rigged to fail. Most people tend to protect their partner, sharing either the credit or the blame. 'But the narcissists would say, 'It's to- tally the other person's fault.' They're completely willing to step on someone,' says narcis- sism researcher Keith Camp- bell, associate professor of so- cial psychology at the Univer- sity of Georgia." Vogel has made a good de- scription of our President. Ted Turner could at least make a little fun of himself when he said, "If I only had a little hu- mility, I'd be perfect." I am not sure the Tweeter in Chief is ca- pable of that minor bit of self- deprecation. Ronald Eggio states: "Lead- ers who are too narcissistic are convinced they are right, sen- sitive to criticism, and may ig- nore valid warnings. Because they lack empathy, they are not sensitive to the impact of their behavior on others, and they may act out…. Moreover, lead- ers with too much narcissism begin to believe that they are above the law. The rules that govern others don't apply to them, and they may engage in illegal or unethical behavior — and that is the downfall of many narcissistic leaders." Eggio goes on to say that narcissistic leaders need to be confronted on a regular basis so that they will change their behavior, and then they need to be praised when that change is made. Whether or not the Tweeter In Chief will experience a downfall will depend upon how he handles resistance, how he receives strong sound advice from advisors and staffers will- ing to confront him, and how long the groundswell of pro- tests will last. At some point he may say "I inherited this mess, so it isn't mine to clean up, I quit." Of course, he didn't in- herit the "mess"; he simply ran for election to lead the coun- try, apparently unaware it was more complicated than he had imagined. Hopefully he will begin to listen more often to those who advise him, not just those he agrees with or who owe their positions to his whims. Per- haps he will even sound like he believes it when he speaks about the recent anti-Semitic events if enough advisers em- phasize that it is important to use as much energy doing that as he did when he proclaimed he would make America great again. It must gall The Donald that over 54% of the voters who turned out in November did not vote for him. That is why he inflates the "magnitude of his win" whenever he can. He is denying reality. Our job as the electorate is to remind him of reality by letting him know at every opportunity that he must "wake up, look around" as the song says. We do that by dem- onstrations, by letter writing, by making sure our represen- tatives work to give him real- ity checks, and by getting ready for the 2018 election when we can perhaps restore the bal- ance of power to Congress. There may be hope yet with the Donald; I saw a ray of that hope when in a "they forced me to read this voice" when he made a statement about anti- Semitic events. He got praise for those remarks; next time, if he can say it with feeling, he will receive lots of praise. Recent Republican "town hall meetings" were jammed with people protesting what is happening. One Republican Congressman called this kind of behavior "mobocracy" not democracy. There may be a fine line between mob-like behavior and organized speaking out, and maybe that congressman needs to consider that before he truly faces a mob. In the meantime, all of us must put pressure on the nar- cissist in chief, hoping that he will learn a few lessons and be- come presidential. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Dealing with narcissism Cartoonist's take Howmoneyiscreated Editor: There are a couple things about US money that gener- ate confusion. The first is that money exists not only as cash and coin but also as an elec- tronic record. The second is that there are two ways of money creation and both are not straightforward. Facts: 1. Money can exist that is neither cash nor coin nor re- fers to them. The record, the electronic count, is the money. 2. The Federal Reserve, the cen- tral bank, is a mostly private bank that is the bankers' bank and it holds the several banks' money in "reserve accounts." 3. The Constitution authorizes Congress to "coin money" and "regulate the value thereof." 4. Only the Treasury may print notes and stamp coins, banks may not. 5. The Treasury bor- rows money from anything that can lend and calls its IOU a Treasury. State fiat money is normally created when the Federal Re- serve bank decides to pay back some of the money that govern- ment borrowed. They pay back the money by simply typing an increase into the electronic ac- count they borrowed from. Click, click, click, poof, it's done. Money has been created. Notice that the Fed needs for the gov- ernment to borrow money for the Fed to have a debt to pay off. Not straightforward. Bank records of money wherein the record is the money are equivalent to cash and coin and can be "cashed out," theoretically. As the cash is provided, the electronic count would be decreased. This cre- ated, reserve money, is called "base money." Bank money is created when a loan is made. Do not accept the intermediary theory, the lie about banks lending out their customers' deposits that has taken about a hundred years to be instilled in people's beliefs but is still a lie. The money is created as the Fed does, by the bank simply creating the loan account out of nothing. There is no conveyance of money from somewhere else. The differ- ence is that when the bank loan is paid back, the money disap- pears as paid back. And, banks cannot create "reserves" like the Fed. The count of all this loan money is called "M1." When one apprehends the importance of Abraham Lin- coln using fact #3 above to print Greenbacks, straightforward, to pay for the Civil War instead of borrowing from the banks and paying interest to a few pri- vate individuals who owned the banks, as I, one wishes the im- possible, that they could re in- vestigate his assassination. The president after him, who car- ried Lincoln's policies was as- sassinated. And then things went the banks' way, culminat- ing in the effective institution- alizing of borrowing from the banks via the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. As in Naomi Kleins, "Disas- ter Capitalism" of late, the mon- ied few moved in with their an- swers when there was a panic (bank) and people would listen to anything. Democracy cannot be insti- tutionalized. It must live in the hearts and minds of its citizens. — James Bryant, Red Bluff Corresponding from a reader Editor: Recently, I have been receiv- ing correspondence, via the USPS, from a person that calls himself Jack Martinson who claims to be a Republican and a WWII veteran. He somewhat agrees with what I submit to the letters to the editor yet he is concerned that I don't men- tion President Trump has never served in the armed forces nor risked his life for America as he has. If Mr. Martinson wishes to legitimize himself with a return address or a phone number I will be glad to respond to him. First, let me say this. Thank you to all veterans especially those who served in combat, for they are the real heroes of this country. The WWII vets kept the enemy away from our shores after Pearl Harbor. My personal hero from WWII was my oldest brother, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy in early 1941 before Pearl Harbor and served most of his time in the South Pacific as a radioman aboard a PT Boat. He didn't talk about it much but from what he did say I know he had many close calls. I never mentioned Presi- dent Trump not serving in the armed forces because it's not a requirement and that is a good thing. In my time President Dwight Eisenhower was a good example of a good president that served in the armed forces. In my opinion President Jimmy Carter, who also served in the armed forces, was a disaster. While Trump did not risk his life for his country as Mr. Martinson has, his life is cer- tainly at risk now every day. Obama has so polarized this country and inflamed, embold- ened and legitimized illegal immigrants — to the degree they feel the right to protest against Trump — and the radi- cal left, the Socialists, Commu- nists and any other anti-Amer- ican group that hates Trump. When Obama left office he threw out road blocks to hinder Trump's effort to fix the mess he left. The last gasp of the Obama administration has qui- etly given the National Security Agency wider powers to share intercepted surveillance data with 16 other government intel- ligence agencies. It was this or- der that made the Obama fol- lowers, possibly appointed by Obama, in these 16 other intelli- gence agencies feel safe in leak- ing the intercepted phone con- versations between a then-ci- vilian General Flynn and the Russians. The leaking of this mate- rial is a criminal offense and the guilty can be prosecuted if caught but because of Obama's last action, experts say, it would be virtually impossible to put the finger on the guilty per- son. Obama is still working in the shadows trying to destroy Trump. At a recent Trump Rally in Florida the First Lady opened the rally with the Lord's Prayer, welcome back, Jesus. — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff Feds should guarantee returns for investments Editor: A person who invests the 15.3 percent of the employers and employees Social Security, and Medicare taxes, in a balanced stock and bond index fund, would be a multi millionaire af- ter the 45 typical private sector work career. Since only a small portion of the income from the investment would be used for Social Security, and Medicare after age 65, the investment would continue to grow during the typical additional 20 years of life thereafter. Instead, the investment is used to immediately provide funding for those who retire with minimum Social Security and Medicare tax during their abbreviated work careers, or those who retire early such as government employees. By any measure, Social Security and Medicare is a Ponzi Scheme, in that the 15.3 percent of in- come invested by a majority, is used to pay for immediate ben- efits for others, instead of being saved and invested for retire- ment of the contributor. Stock and Bond index funds are easy to manage, and have averaged 8 percent returns dur- ing the past 60 years. Invest- ment fees are minimal for index funds. No wonder a majority of Americans elected President Trump, since our federal gov- ernment is minimally trusted to manage our lifetime savings. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Joe Harrop StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ SenatorJimNielsen,2634For- est 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.SenatorDianneFeinstein, OnePostSt.,Ste. 2450,SanFran- cisco94104,415393-0707,fax415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, 501 I St., Ste. 7-600, Sacramento 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 District3,DennisGarton,Ext. 3017 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, February 25, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6