Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/548715
Ifyouarelikemostcitizens,whenyouthink of voting you probably think in terms of mostly Democrats and Republicans. Howev- er, there has for some years been a growing number of registered voters who don't affili- ate with either one of the two major parties. Thelargestpoliticalparty in the United States is now no party at all. 45% now identify themselves as independent. 27% say they are Democrats and only 20% say they are Re- publicans. As an example, in the last 10 years in the swing state of Florida, independents have grown by 1,000,000 people, Democrats by 300,000 and Republicans by only 200,000. In last year's California election only 17% of citizens who could actually vote did so. It was the lowest voter turnout in our state's history. I think that is shameful. Our Secretary of State Alex Padilla is now sponsoring AB-1461, the new Motor Voter Act. If it becomes law it would automatically register eligible people when they obtain or renew their driver's license. One would think the "I don't care attitude" that so many voters feel would bring us an increasing number of independent candidates, since I believe the more indepen- dent candidates know that people are getting more dis- gusted with our process. I am thinking about the kind of significant candidate Ross Pe- rot was in 1992. Maybe that's because the tactics of the two big politi- cal parties feel like more of a sophomoric food fight now. At the moment our two major political parties don't seem to be interested in compromise or even finding middle ground solutions of any kind. Voters have developed a re- ally bad habit too. There are two "hard core" groups of vot- ers that simply vote for one party and one party only. I think Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is more inde- pendent, but too liberal. He leans hard to the left. I think Donald Trump is too far to the hard right. They could be considered opposites. I wish our repre- sentatives would be some- where in the middle of the po- litical spectrum. I have be- lieved for a long time that is where the solutions to most challenges could be found. I have a recently deceased brother by the name of Jim who did not even vote for the last three decades of his life, yet he had countless opinions on every issue. When he was alive we often argued because he thought his vote did not count and he also told me that every politician was at least a crook. I strongly disagreed with him and pointed out that his opinion should not count because he chose not to par- ticipate in our democracy by casting his vote. Please tell me if you agree that people who do not par- ticipate by voting should stop their complaining. I believe they have basi- cally given up their right to be criticizing our political pro- cess when they don't even vote themselves. I reply to all email. Please give me your thoughts. Mytakeonthemovies This week's movie review: I watched a raunchy com- edy titled "Trainwreck," star- ring actor and director Judd Apatow and co-star Amy Schumer. I think this film will cause you to re-evaluate any intimate relationship you are in. At first I thought this film had no redeeming value, but I stayed to see the whole thing for this column. The film turned out to ave more com- edy than raunchiness. Still, I don't want to recommend "Trainwreck." It is best de- scribed as sophomoric. This film does not get my vote. StanStathamserved1976-1994 in the California Assembly and was a television news anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965-1975. He is past president of the California Broadcasters Association and can be reached at StanStatham@ gmail.com. Mytake Onvotingand the election cycle One would think the "I don't care attitude" that so many voters feel would bring us an increasing number of independent candidates, since I believe the more independent candidates know that people are getting more disgusted with our process. A slough of eyesores in Red Bluff Editor: While enjoying a great lunch with family members and friends I got to hear some com- ments about the view. The view being tall burnt trees, lots of low green brush, a dry river bed. It's been sev- eral years since the fire. Sev- eral years since we had water in this area. Seems like an easy solution to this is to cut up the trees, give the firewood to seniors in the area. Put the gates down on the di- version dam, get some water back in this channel. Let's make Red Bluff a really beautiful place to live. — Sam Collins, Red Bluff Recourse for barking dogs issue Editor: This is in response to the barking dog issues. There is something you can do without the assistance of law enforcement. First you have to write a no- tice to the person or persons di- rectly responsible for the prob- lem. In this case the dog own- ers. This notice is to let them know of the problem and if it isn't taken care of within a day or so you'll file a tort claim. You should make a recording of the barking dog or dogs for proof of your complaint. A tort law is in the Code of Civil Procedure. It is a nuisance law which includes, but not lim- ited to, noise, smell, obstruc- tion of view; anything which is injurious to health, including, but not limited to, the illegal sale of controlled substances, or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of your property, so as to interfere with the com- fortable enjoyment of life and your property, or unlawfully ob- structs the free passage or use, in customary manner, of any navigable lake, or river, bay, stream, canal, or basin, or any public park, square, street, or highway, is a nuisance. This nuisance, tort, law was enacted in 1872. You can take your complaint to small claims court and get a judgement against the wrong- doer, then if the problem con- tinues call law enforcement. Most of the time the wrongdoer will take care of the problem af- ter they receive your complaint knowing they could be fined or have their dogs taken away. — Kathy Nelson, Red Bluff On immigrants, VA and politicians Editor: I don't oppose immigrants coming to America. The prob- lem is the uncontrolled number and cultures coming. From 1924 to 1964 there was no immigration. Then in 1965 Senator Edward Kennedy changed all that. We're asked to take down our religious symbols that have been here since America was founded to please these rad- icals. Letting them put their symbols up isn't always enough. That really makes me sick that our leaders allow this. In air- ports, on civic buildings, etc. What the hell is wrong with our leaders? I think they even talk about changing photos on our cur- rency. They come here and ex- pect us to change and cater to their beliefs. As it stands, I be- lieve we have far too many here now, legal and not. The measles epidemic in San Diego recently could have come from illegals who were not health checked but we will never know will we? Very pos- sible. I do think seasonal immi- grants should be allowed be- cause we need them. There's work for them our people won't do. It helps two-fold, gives them money to send home and helps our farmers. A few years ago fruit was rotting in fields, don't know what that was about. Our administration, state, lo- cal and federal are always two steps behind and do a poor job fixing anything. They pass ri- diculous laws, don't enforce them, make new laws, sooner or later, still nothing works as usual. If Obama brings troops home, where are the jobs when we're flooded with people who shouldn't be here. Our citizens still hire them because costs are too high to employ our own cit- izens. Our VA system is horrible, I even notice for my family doc- tor appointments take forever to schedule. My husband needs a $185 foot brace and appar- ently that has been denied. His old one is five years old. Then on the other hand, fraud in the billions in Medicare. Still nothing gets fixed. We've paid into the system all our lives but they take from us to give to people who don't belong here and can't support them- selves. Donald Trump's comment on McCain wasn't appropriate but I never thought McCain was worth a zip. Talk, talk, we need to do this and that, same old story we hear from Congress about everything. So McCain's a hero, but he's a lousy senator. I still like Trump, but anyone will be better than a liberal. No brains, big ideas, no money, tax, spend, tax and spend. Every city run by liberals is bankrupt and lately I've heard several talk show hosts make fun of liberal California. And racism is alive and well thanks to the king of transpar- ency and his sidekicks, all Afri- can Americans. While all this mess was going on, Obama took the other side or said nothing. No one is held accountable or fired. Things may be a-changing. We can only hope. Can't wait for the debate. — Bernice Cressy, Cottonwood Your opinions Cartoonist's take CAPTION So, did a recent "Wired" mag- azine article bring your compla- cency about automotive safety and privacy to a screeching halt? "Wired" assigned two security experts to attempt hacking into the "brain" of a Jeep Cherokee. Working from home, they were able to control the stereo, air con- ditioner, transmission and brakes of the vehicle, while the driver struggled to remain in charge. The hackers didn't even bring out the big guns, like remotely causing the license plate to morph into a Confederate flag, inflicting male pattern baldness on the fuzzy dice or directing Siri to ask, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Make Johnny quit looking at me!" Some vehicles are safer than others; but given all of today's navigation systems, smartphone- syncing setups and other elec- tronic doodads, the problem goes far beyond Jeep. The opportunities for eaves- dropping and mayhem by car thieves, pranksters, paranoid bosses, spy agencies and terror- ists are mind-boggling. It's an Or- wellian nightmare. (Especially if someone writes malicious code to run down people who are always saying "Orwellian nightmare.") It gets scarier. With self-driv- ing cars on the horizon, you might just soil the "rich Corin- thian leather." My own rattletrap pick-up truck is vulnerable enough, but at least it could only be repro- grammed via smoke signals or Morse Code. And the manual windows are still just bison hides scraped really thin. We are ill-prepared for a world in which "dealer prep" includes administering last rites, in which "your mileage may vary" is re- placed by "Your ritual behead- ings may vary," in which "under factory invoice" is replaced by "under a parking lot somewhere in Jersey." Henry Ford allegedly said that consumers could have any color of car they wanted, as long as it was black. Now the philosophy is, "You can have any personality of car you want, as long as you rooted for the title character in Stephen King's 'Christine.'" I worry about the cardiac health of all the valet parkers who will be able to drive your ve- hicle like maniacs without even getting off their lazy duffs. On a positive note, the next "Fast & Furious" movie can be filmed with more crashes, on a shoestring budget, unless those spoiled stars kick out a window and escape. Of course I'm not so sure de- liberate tampering would be any worse than the aggravation we have to put up with from au- tomotive sensors, which must be made of reconstituted, ex- tra-fragile Magic 8-Balls. Admit it: you get tired of (presumably) false warnings from your ash- tray, such as "Attention! You have just struck a unicorn while driv- ing 350 mph at a depth of 20,000 leagues." What exactly is the automotive industry doing about the threat? Mostly saying things like, "Um, here are about 10 years' worth of coffee and doughnuts in the Cus- tomer Comfort Area. Enjoy, while I run a few numbers past my lawyer...er, manager." What can the poor consumer do, besides scour the used-car lots for low-tech vehicles? ("We won't steer you wrong — and nei- ther will your girlfriend's crazy ex!") At least wear a parachute in case someone activates those ejector seats. You know, the ones that have been standard-issue in all American-made vehicles since 1965, but the automakers have been too wimpy to tell anybody about them and rile up the Ian Fleming estate. Oops. Now they'll have to kill me. Can I at least get a horse- drawn hearse? Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol. com and visits to his Facebook fan page Tyree's Tyrades. Danny Tyree Has your car been cyber-attacked yet? GregStevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD 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. 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