Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/657283
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 I actually have many takes on "The Donald." I believe he likes this "handle," more than any of the rest of us do. In fact I sometimes think that The Donald probably loves The Donald more than he loves anyone else on Earth. Isupposeselfesteemisa good thing, but somehow it feels to me like a terminal dis- ease with the amount Mr. Trump seems to have. To me, as a former Califor- nia elected offi- cial, The Donald is not the right person to fill the most important job on earth,which is Ameri- ca's next President. In the many presidential de- bates I have already person- ally witnessed, I usually focus on The Donald's expressions as the other candidates speak. Mr. Trump's lips always begin to purse as I he impatiently waits to insult or pull another rug out from yet another one of his opponents. He obviously enjoys doing that. I have also convinced my- self that no individual has ever had as much fun running for President as The Donald. How- ever, I also think the rest of the world must be laughing at America's political process. It has become a lot of fun with him in the race, but it is also very uncivilized. I don't care for that part. Even though we all know Texas Senator Ted Cruz is now desperately trying to re- duce The Donald's popularity, I agree with his statements so far about Donald Trump. So do countless leaders in today's Republican party. The Donald has been a ce- lebrity for years and is even a bigger one now. My take is that he must be having the time of his life. Several of his political decisions have re- ally surprised me, like the one when he took a couple of weeks to finally denounce Ku Klux Grand Wizard David Duke who recently urged ev- eryone to vote for The Donald. I first thought that his con- frontational and caustic style would have made The Donald reject Duke's support easily, but it did not. What he should have said about this "not grand wiz- ard" was what he asked his supporters to do with a re- cent demonstrator during a speechin St. Louis; "Get him out. He's all mouth! Get him out of here!!" And, to an- other Missouri protestor Trump shouted; "Go home to mommy." I know many people will probably disagree with me, but I just can't see The Donald occupying the most powerful seat on earth. I am also surprised that Gov- ernor Chris Christie and brain surgeon Dr. Ben Carson en- dorsed The Donald so quickly after they both dropped out of the presidential race. Since I am very political, my first thought was that their hope might be for a position of some sort in The Donald's new ad- ministration in 2017, should he win. As we get closer to Califor- nia's June primary, we may be down to just The Donald and Hillary. My take is that the first candidate is an ego maniac and the second candidate a profes- sional, manipulating politician. I promise you I will be voting for someone other than those two in California's June pri- mary, as I pray for America. Mytakeonthemovies I have two movie reviews for you this week. Don't waste your money on "The Brothers Grimsby." However, I also saw another film called "10 Cloverfield Lane." It starred John Good- man and the newer star Eliza- beth Mary Winstead. If you can hardly wait for a thrilling mystery, this is the one and will keep you on the edge of your seat. I highly rec- ommend it. 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. Stan Statham My take on the Donald I know many people will probably disagree with me, but I just can't see The Donald occupying the most powerful seat on earth. Cartoonist's take By Susan Stamper Brown Judas sold his soul and be- trayed the King of Kings for thirty pieces of silver. What's your price? I've pondered the same ques- tion about myself lately while watching supposed conserva- tive and spiritual leaders fall like dominoes, exchanging what they once claimed to believe in for heaven only knows what. Did they sell out like Judas, or did they just lose their way? Truth is, without the pres- ence of a working moral com- pass, we humans can justify al- most anything. If that happens, we're pretty much doomed to a life filled with lots of contradic- tions, driven by whichever way pop culture's winds might blow. So many are disappointed with some pretty prominent people who once boldly carried the ban- ner of conservatism, but now make a mockery of it with their support for an authoritarian lib- eral who wouldn't know what conservatism was unless it pre- sented itself in the form of a Vic- toria's Secret model. To a degree, it's a losing bat- tle when you read scriptures like II Timothy 3, describing in the "last days" people will have "a form of godliness" and will be "always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of truth." We live in a day when the main- stream of our populous worship the god of secularism, so in their eyes, there's no such thing as ab- solute truth. Defining "right" and "wrong" is impossible if we claim everything is subjective, based on a continuously moving target. People care little about sub- stance and are too easily per- suaded by whomever sounds most convincing. Politicians take that fact to the bank and use it to garner power and gain votes. And because most people these days have no clue why they be- lieve what they believe (if they believe anything at all), should their beloved leader's compass suddenly turn south, they are likely to follow him like lem- mings off a cliff, defending him all the way down until they hit rock bottom. That's why President Obama got away with saying things proven untrue like: "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you'll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold." That's also why the GOP front- runner gets away with outrageous statements like: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," or "He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." Upon hearing those statements, a flashing red alarm should have sounded in the heads of followers, inspiring them to run the other way. Problem is, though, if we don't know how to identify true north, we'll never know when things go south. An intriguing NASA article, "Mixed Up in Space," describes how humans become confused and disoriented, "where up and down have no meaning" thanks to zero gravity. Former Space Shuttle astronaut Robert Parker said, "One of the questions they asked us during our first flight was, 'Close your eyes...now, how do you determine up?'" Parker said up and down had com- pletely vanished — when his eyes were closed. To remedy this, designers of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle put writing on the walls pointing "up" to help astronauts orient themselves in the right direction — no matter how they felt or what their brains told them. The writing is on the wall, America. So maybe it's time we open our eyes and reorient our- selves to true north. Susan Stamper Brown lives in Alaska and writes about culture, politics and current events. She was selected as one of America's 50 Best Conservative writers for 2015. Contact her by Facebook or at writestamper@gmail.com. Commentary Let's try to get back to true north Another view By John L. Micek So what's the difference be- tween Republicans in the U.S. Senate and my 10-year-old daughter? It was the top members of the GOP-controlled chamber, and not my poised and polite child, who jammed their fin- gers in their ears and bellowed "ALALALALALALALALALA I cannot hear what you are say- ing, Barack Obama," when the Leader of the Free World an- nounced his choice to fill the late Antonin Scalia's Supreme Court seat last week. It started at the top, with Majority Leader Mitch McCon- nell, who remained myopically on message: Obama's nominee, federal appellate Judge Merrick Garland, would not get so much as a hearing. Period. "The next justice could fun- damentally alter the direction of the Supreme Court and have a profound impact on our coun- try," McConnell said, according to The Washington Post, "So of course the American people should have a say in the Court's direction." Never mind the fact that the American people have never had direct say over who gets ap- pointed to the Supreme Court. Justices are appointed, not elected, for the specific purpose of keeping the court above pol- itics. Very adult. And here's Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, whose panel would be responsible for putting Garland through his paces: "Today the President has ex- ercised his constitutional au- thority," Grassley said in a statement posted to his web- site. "A majority of the Senate has decided to fulfill its consti- tutional role of advice and con- sent by withholding support for the nomination during a presi- dential election year, with mil- lions of votes having been cast in highly charged contests." In short, Grassley's advice to the White House was: "See ya Obama, wouldn't want to be ya." Again, very adult. But they were paragons of re- straint compared to Ted Cruz, who decorously pronounced that "Merrick Garland is ex- actly the type of Supreme Court nominee you get when you make deals in Washington, D.C." "A so-called 'moderate' Dem- ocrat nominee is precisely the kind of deal that Donald Trump has told us he would make — someone who would rule along with other liberals on the bench like Justices Ginsburg and Soto- mayor," he concluded. It wasn't "You're ugly and your mother dresses you funny." But it was close. The GOP's histrionics are particularly hilarious given that the Harvard-educated Garland is the kind consensus nomi- nee who ordinarily would sail through the Senate, were it not for the fact that Republicans are in the midst of an election- year hissy fit. As Slate's Dahlia Lithwick observes, Garland is "a care- ful writer, an infrequent dis- senter, a true believer that judges interpret law and don't make it." In any other year, McCon- nell, Grassley, et.al would be turning handsprings over that kind of nominee. Instead they're engaging in the lamest kind of playground contortions to justify their de- cision not to even hold a hear- ing on his nomination. McConnell and other Re- publicans have pointed to the words of Vice President Joe Biden, who, in 1992, as chairman of the Senate Judi- ciary Committee said cham- ber should refuse to fill a high court vacancy in "the full throes of an election year." "Some will criticize such a decision and say that it was nothing more than an attempt to save a seat on the court in hopes that a Democrat will be permitted to fill it, but that would not be our intention," Biden said, according to The New York Times. "It would be our pragmatic conclusion that once the polit- ical season is underway, and it is, action on a Supreme Court nomination must be put off until after the election cam- paign is over," the now-Veep said. But as The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart notes, Biden made his remarks in June of an election year, not February. And they came in the context of a hypothetical resignation, not the death of an actual sitting Justice. But even if we were to fol- low McConnell's logic that American voters should met- aphorically have their say — they already have. Obama was the first presi- dent since 1956 to be elected and re-elected with more than 51 percent of the vote. And at the time of Scal- ia's passing, Obama still had nearly a year left in his term. The next President will not take office until January 2017. Even my 10-year-old can make that distinction. It's amazing — or maybe just the height of cynicism — that Mc- Connell and his Republican colleagues cannot. An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is the Opinion Editor and Political Columnist for PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@pennlive. com. My 10-year-old acts more like an adult than Republicans Stan Statham OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, March 24, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6