Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/695013
Youknowthatnutjobyoualwaysseeonthe street, speed-rapping to himself about God knows what? His verbatim dialogue prob- ably goes something like this: "YouknowtheRepubli- cans — honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone, but you know what, I think I'm going to be forced to. I think I'm go- ing to be forced to. Our lead- ers have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don't talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders, because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter. We have to have our Republicans either stick to- gether or let me just do it by myself. I'll do very well. I'm going to do very well. OK? I'm going to do very well. A lot of people thought I should do that anyway, but I'll just do it nicely by myself ..." So said Donald Trump on the stump Wednesday. What he appeared to be say- ing yesterday — if I am de- coding his incoherence prop- erly; no easy task, because he makes Sarah Palin sound like Cicero — is that he wants con- gressional Republicans to shut up and let him run the whole show. Which is what you'd ex- pect from a tinpot autocrat who has no clue about cam- paign teamwork, or any re- spect for checks, balances, and the separation of powers. Thanks to his recent string of verbal idiocies, he has fallen woefully behind in this race. Hillary Clinton has opened a 12-point lead in one national poll, and an 11-point lead in another. State-level polls show that even red bastions like Utah, Arizona, Kansas, and Georgia are in play. Most Americans dislike Trump by a landslide. In one new national poll, his favor- ability share has sagged to 29 percent. In that poll, he now has a net-negative rating among working-class whites. One big reason for his bur- geoning unpopularity — and this becomes clearer with each passing day — is that he's way over his head. He has no clue how to connect with people beyond his core fan base, and he's too vain or ignorant to take advice. On Tuesday, for instance, a savvy adviser would've told him: "Donald, if you wanna win crucial North Carolina, you're gonna need massive turnout from its soldiers and vets. So trust me, Donald, it's really a terrible idea to rhe- torically attack U.S. service- men and women, to call them thieves, while campaigning just 90 miles from a U.S. mili- tary base." But since no such adviser exists, here's what Trump said that day about our war in Iraq: "Crooked as hell. How about bringing baskets of money — millions and millions of dol- lars — and handing it out? I want to know who were the soldiers that had that job, be- cause I think they're living very well right now, whoever they may be." Trump was actually right, as far as it goes. During the past decade, 115 military per- sonnel have been convicted of skimming money that we ear- marked for the Iraqis. That's 115 people out of the hun- dreds of thousands who served in Iraq, who put their lives on the line. Indeed, the prob- lem with Trump's remark, po- litically speaking, is that it sounded like a broadbrush slandering of our fighting men and women. In military-heavy swing-state North Carolina, no less. And even though Trump wants congressional Republi- cans to "just be quiet," this in- cident in North Carolina has triggered a vocal mini-rebel- lion. At least three GOP sena- tors have already condemned Trump's remarks. A lot of Re- publicans are diving for the bunkers, hoping to survive No- vember, and there's no way Trump can muzzle them all. This isn't 1933 Germany, when you could just burn down the Reichstag. Nope, this is 2016 America, where Lamar Alexander, an exasperated Republican sena- tor, told the press earlier this week that "we do not have a nominee until after the con- vention." And when he was re- minded that Trump was the presumptive nominee, he re- plied, "That's what you say." Whoa. To which I say, "Hello, Cleveland!" DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. DickPolman Worried Trump can beat Hillary? Don't be Cartoonist's take Sometimes pictures can, in- deed, speak volumes; politi- cal cartoons can summarize an issue, at least as the cartoonist sees it. This page, readers may have noticed, of- ten provides im- ages drawn from the perspec- tive of a parti- san liberal. A re- cent one showed apparent leg- islators ducking under desks and running for the aisles yell- ing, "He's got a gun control bill." Message: Fearful, hyster- ical aversion to upsetting the NRA drives legislative oppo- sition to "common sense gun safety" laws. You can read anti-gun drivel in many places, even on the Daily News Opinion page. I saw some political cartoons that provided a balancing real- ity check. 1) An orange-clothed, bloody headless body lies on the desert sand; next to it is a severed head saying, "Yeah… Guns are the Problem." Also by Michael Ramirez, 2) showed the actual source of the vio- lence with an illustrated "as- sault rifle" that has, in place of the bullet-filled magazine, a Koran-like book titled "Radi- cal Islam" 3) A giant, black-clothed fig- ure, with "Radical Islam" writ- ten on his chest, has a smok- ing handgun that shot holes in a green "Orlando" city sign. A puny Obama closely exam- ines the bullet-riddled sign for clues saying, "We're still searching for the motivation." 4) There's a black-hooded ter- rorist with a gun in one hand and a "LAW" book in the other, saying "Let me check the gun laws first." 5) Text next to national lead- ers: "ISIS Attacked France, (French President) Hollande Bombed ISIS"; "ISIS Attacked Russia, Putin Bombed ISIS"; "ISIS Attacked the U.S. Obama Blamed the Guns." 6) Someone re-imagined Paul Revere's ride as he yells, "The Terrorists are coming! Turn in your guns and go to the gun free zone." Pic- tures worth 1,000s of words. A columnist for PJMedia. com summarized it all too well: "Regarding the Orlando shoot- ing, notice how quickly the me- dia pivoted from the culpability of a sexually repressed Muslim Afghan registered Democrat mass murderer to an assault on firearms? Forget Islam and ji- had and the Obama adminis- tration's resolute determina- tion to fundamentally change the nature of the United States by importing as many Muslims from alien, anti-Christian and anti-Western cultures as possi- ble. The real problem, in their view, is gun violence." I saw Obama shamelessly pontificating against guns while standing by the me- morialized victims of the Or- lando gay nightclub, slaugh- tered by an Islamic terrorist (the descriptor "terrorist" is be- ing scrubbed from news re- ports, replaced by the agenda- driven "mass shooter"). Obama has heaped scorn, ridicule and anger at the mere suggestion that "Islamic terrorism" be part of his verbiage on the subject. Such scorn, ridicule and anger has never been displayed when he discusses America's sworn enemies, let alone the Islamic State and Muslim extrem- ist shariah that is preached throughout the Middle East. Its stated goal and desire is con- quest of the West under the black flag of the Islamic State. I left out "Jews" from a sen- tence last week that should have read: "Christians, Jews, homosexuals and insufficiently observant Muslims are bru- tally killed every day with knives, rocks, gasoline, drown- ing, as well as the assisted fall from a high roof." Consider the attacks: Orlando, San Ber- nardino, Boston, Fort Hood; the Chattanooga, Tennessee, military base, Bataclan club in Paris (and the Jewish deli), Bombay; and the London Tube massacre. The commonality? Muslim radicals perpetrated all of them with help from a small but ef- fective network of religious ex- tremists—not by, as Obama would have us believe, "de- ranged individuals warped by the hateful propaganda that they've seen over the Internet." The killers in the Newtown, Conn. school, and the Aurora, Colo. movie theater, kept their plans very secret from family and friends. However, all were careful to plan and carry out their ram- pages in "gun free zones." FBI wiretaps heard a comment from some would-be jihadists, saying it was crucial to tar- get gun-free places—less likely to get shot. Armed, uniformed guards simply become the first, blind-sided targets; terrorists avoid the likelihood of armed citizens. Look up "Why Terror- ists Target Gun-Free Zones," by John Lott; banning permitted gun owners is a suicidal invita- tion to terrorists. Before I forget, in "Border control vs. Gun Control," John Hinderaker quotes Sen. Jeff Sessions (Rep-Ala), who pro- vides statistics to support Mr. Trump's suspension or ban on immigration from Muslim-ma- jority countries: "The number of green cards issued to mi- grants from Muslim-majority countries increased dramat- ically" by nearly 27 percent, to 148,810, from 2013 to 2014. Furthermore, Obama has is- sued an annual average of al- most 140,000 green cards to such migrants, which will total a likely 1.1 million for his term. "A green card entitles recipi- ents to access federal benefits, lifetime residency, work autho- rization, and a direct route to becoming a U.S. citizen." Have you ever voted for such poli- cies? Has Congress? No! The New York Post pub- lished a column by Paul Sperry, "Why the 'lone-wolf' terrorist is a myth." He is the author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washing- ton" and "Muslim Mafia: In- side the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America." His piece makes an irrefutable case, from public and FBI reports, that—in the cases of terrorists Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez (Chatta- nooga, Tenn. military base), Syed Farook (San Bernardino), Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsar- naev (Boston), and Omar Ma- teen (Orlando)—they had both family and fellow mosque-at- tending associates supporting, aware of, and helping their plots. 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 Not gun control, not lone wolves What he appeared to be saying yesterday — if I am decoding his incoherence properly; no easy task, because he makes Sarah Palin sound like Cicero — is that he wants congressional Republicans to shut up and let him run the whole show. Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. Readingthat,Irealizealltheskillsfrom then are being permanently lost. Our children and grandchildren will hardly ever learn how to do any of those things. Linda Hayes: On memories of Honey Lake Valley in the 1930s in Jean Barton's column Great job guys. Thank you for your dedication. Sherry Williams Hale: On a guilty verdict being delivered in the Quentin Bealer trial Don Polson 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 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 Greg Stevens, 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. 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