Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/557867
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, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS By Jason Stanford DonaldTrumpisaclown, but is he really so out of place in today's Republican Party? We can write Trump off as an unserious candidate ill-suited to the long haul of an ex- tended primary—much less a general election—but when he inevitably packs up his tent, the circus isn't leaving town. If you ignore the celebrity and focus on what the candi- dates are saying, Trump is far from the craziest candidate running for the Republican nomination. Part of Trump's unsuitabil- ity for the polite society of pol- itics is the lack of respect he shows for the players. He belit- tled John McCain's war record and seemed to make sport of Megyn Kelly's menstrual pe- riod. He called Mexican immi- grants rapists and seemingly everyone else morons and los- ers. He's a name caller bucking for the top job in a town where documented liars are called distinguished gentlemen. Trump's just impolitic. Never have so many pearls been clutched for so little cause. What's more alarming is what his competitors for the Republican prize have planned. To a person, Trump's opponents have mastered the high-minded tone and mea- sured cadences that replicate speech by educated grownups. But if you look at the actual words that they say, then you realize we're dealing with a king's ransom of extreme pol- icy positions. Given what Republicans have planned for Day One, the next inaugural committee can probably skimp on the fire- works. Scott Walker wants to bomb Iran and rescind the nu- clear deal, and Jeb Bush prom- ises to immediately "take out" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. How is a sexist joke about lady parts worse than getting us immediately back into wars we've worked so hard to get out of? Trump's boorish comments about women make good copy, and if you want to write him off because of that, go and God bless. But explain to me how that's a bigger deal than Marco Rubio and Walker op- posing rape and incest excep- tions to an abortion ban, Only about 10 percent of the coun- try supports a no-exceptions abortion ban, and this would change long-standing Repub- lican support for those excep- tions, but Rubio and Walker don't seem to have paid any price among Republicans for veering way out to the right on abortion. With one exception, all the Republican presidential can- didates want to cut off fed- eral funding for Planned Par- enthood to provide health care for low-income women. That exception? Donald Trump, who is against tax dollars paying for abortions—which doesn't happen anyway—but isn't necessarily against pay- ing for health care services at Planned Parenthood. "I'm sure they do some things properly and good and that are good for women, and I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also. But we have to take care of women," said Trump. Trump is even getting out- crazied by Dr. Ben Carson, whose charismatic delivery and intelligent mien masks opinions that land five clicks past incendiary, such as when he said Obamacare was "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery," compared marriage equality activists to pedophiles, praised Vladimir Putin for criticizing the United States, and com- pared homosexuality to mur- der. Trump calling immigrants "rapists" is indefensible, but his position on immigra- tion—building a massive bor- der wall with a "big, beautiful door" to let in the immigrants we want—paints his position in cartoonish primary colors. Contrast that with promises to repeal Obama's executive or- der on immigration (Walker and Ted Cruz), militarize the border (Cruz again), take Ar- izona's anti-immigration law nationwide (Carly Fiorina) and create a National ID card for citizens (Rand Paul). Is calling unauthorized im- migrants rapists, while awful and inaccurate, really worse than deporting them by bu- reaucratic fiat while militariz- ing peacetime America to en- force anti-immigrant policies? Trump's rude, but the rest of the field is radical. Trump's celebrity exagger- ates his profile (His hair! His fame! His billions!) and am- plifies his every moronic ut- terance. When he's gone, it'll be tempting to think that the grownups have taken control. If anything, Trump is immod- erate in style but moderate in content—at least compared to the clown car he's running against. JasonStanfordisaregular contributor to the Austin American-Statesman, a Democratic consultant and a Truman National Security Project partner. You can email him at stanford@oppresearch. com and follow him on Twitter @JasStanford. Commentary Trump's a clown, but the GOP's a circus Cartoonist's take It might surprise you to find out that the broadcast, cable (Fox excepted), AP and large city print reporting on news often con- tains biases that render the report- ing into a regurgi- tation of spin from the White House and Democrat partisans. Com- mitted advocates and cheerleaders on the left usu- ally consider such spin to be sim- ply "correct" story lines and em- phasis. "What happens when the news media catch the White House in a demonstrable lie? That depends entirely on whether they like the adminis- tration. If they loathe the admin- istration, it's front-page news. If they like it, they spike the story… That is exactly what the na- tional media have done to an important story about the White House's intimate working re- lationship with MIT professor Jonathan Gruber, who helped craft the Affordable Care Act. "You may remember Gruber from his infamous videotapes, the ones in which he called the American public too stupid to understand the law. He added that their stupidity was help- ful to Obama, Pelosi and Reid in passing the law." (From "Spike It! When the Media Kill a Story for Political Reasons," Professor Charles Lipson, University of Chi- cago, 6/23) As often happens in these in- stances of embarrassing can- dor, the knee-jerk response of the White House is to say any- thing that refutes what the eyes see and the ears hear. In com- mon parlance, that's called "making things up." In Gruber's case—from Emperor Obama, his spokesman, Nancy Pelosi and the usual media lapdogs—we heard: Gruber wasn't employed by the White House and played no important role in drafting the law. Lipson: "They vaguely remem- bered somebody named Gruber or Goober or something but, for- tunately, he played only a mar- ginal role in health care. Thanks for asking. Next question? How do we know about Gruber's role? Not because the White House re- leased any documents, not be- cause the media dug into it, but because the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Utah Re- publican Jason Chaffetz, got MIT to turn over the relevant emails." During the crucial months when the bill was being crafted and passed, Gruber's email com- munication included 20,000 pages of messages back-and-forth between Gruber and the White House. At the time of the initial Gruber videos, Obama's obfus- cations, and media complicity, there was plenty of corroboration from Gruber himself—exposed by conservatives—about meet- ings that included Obama. Obama was intrigued by, and consented to, using misrep- resentations of the taxing as- pects to rig the OMB scoring of the Affordable Care Act as rev- enue neutral, with no new mid- dle-class taxes. Gruber provided a key false narrative, that Obama latched onto, which helped Obamacare pass due to a mas- sive, budgetary lie. Hence, the Wall Street Jour- nal included the Oversight Com- mittee's acquisition of Gruber's emails in a major story. The key points were "that Gruber was deeply involved in crafting the health care law, he worked closely with the White House, and, when he became a political liability, the president and his se- nior aides simply lied about it." From the rest of the Fourth Es- tate? Pretty much crickets—effec- tively, radio silence. A revealing footnote occurred on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," when Mark Halperin, co-man- aging editor of Bloomberg Pol- itics and former top reporter for Time, apologized to his Re- publican sources and admit- ted that the White House and Obama lied. Correction: he said, "I think they were not fully forth- coming." That bit of circumlocu- tion became a source of chuck- ling by the show's Democrat stal- warts, including Howard Dean, who laughed and repeated, "not fully forthcoming, not fully forth- coming…" Apparently, the joke's on us. The news media have been complicit in misinforming Americans about the economic decline and employment dol- drums under Obama. For exam- ple, in a report on the economy, the AP acknowledged sluggish pay, lack of full-time jobs and the reduced portion of Ameri- cans holding, or even looking for, a job. However, "the Associ- ated Press brushed off two cru- cial factors: Mass immigration and Obamacare's grip on em- ployers" (Katie McHughs). The AP used words like "healthy" and the "new normal." As was predicted when it passed, Obamacare imposes enormous costs on employers; first, by mandating health cover- age for employees who work over 30 hours, and second, by apply- ing that mandate to employers with over 100 workers. Those are clear disincentives to hire full- time people. "Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase, says this could account for as much as one-third of the increase in part-time jobs." Obamacare's employer man- date forces at least 3.3 million Americans to work less than 30 hours per week for wages stag- nating thanks to unchecked im- migration. Had the Supreme Court sided against the Obama administration's law in King v. Burwell, these workers would have been allowed to earn more money, and roughly 1.27 million more would have entered the job market. News media outlets, keen to retain political favor, de- vote precious little effort to in- forming people of such incon- venient truths. "But the Asso- ciated Press is here to make soothing noises at readers, and tell them the shrinking new economy is just as good as it was before." Next week: how legal and ille- gal immigration has been hold- ing wages down, and how non native-born workers have fared better than native-born Ameri- cans. 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 Agenda-driven information Scott Walker wants to bomb Iran and rescind the nuclear deal, and Jeb Bush promises to immediately "take out" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. How is a sexist joke about lady parts worse than getting us immediately back into wars we've worked so hard to get out of? Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Anyone know of plans to fix Walnut? The road is horrible and with the new court house that will just bring more traffic and wear and tear. Maxine Grossman: On roadwork being done in connection with the Walmart Supercenter. So sorry, I saw the fire from my house and prayed it wasn't your house. Keep the faith. If we can do anything to help please don't hesitate to ask. Anne Milton Roades: On the loss of a home to fire on Park Avenue in Red Bluff Thursday. Don Polson Obama was intrigued by, and consented to, using (falsities) of the taxing aspects to rig the OMB scoring of the Affordable Care Act as revenue neutral, with no new middle- class taxes. 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 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, August 18, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6