Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/699198
How many more Istanbuls and Orlandos and Brussels do we need before we wake up and smell the gunpowder? ISIS started World War III years ago, but apparently no one in the Obama administration noticed. We're in a bloody war with radical Islamic terrorism, but we're not fighting in it. No one else in the West is, either. TheUnitedNations,NATO, the Germans, the Israelis — they can't do anything about ISIS and won't. America must now do what it should have done years ago — take the lead and destroy ISIS. The world can no longer afford to wait for us to get off our butt. No other country has the re- sources to take the fight to ISIS' backyard — and front yard. No other country except us can provide the international leadership that's needed to unite the Muslim countries of the Middle East in an all-out war against ISIS. We know where ISIS lives. They aren't a bunch of fight- ers living in tents and wan- dering around in the desert in Japanese pickup trucks. They've built a religious state in Iraq and Syria, a ca- liphate, that has assets that can be bombed, attacked and captured. They have headquarters, buildings, mosques, military equipment, training camps, trucks, communications gear. They hold territory and oil fields. We don't need any more Obama administration pin pricks. We need to show we are really pissed at ISIS — post-Pearl Harbor pissed. We need an all out, orga- nized attack by land and air that leaves no doubt about our intention to obliterate ISIS and all of its supporters, which includes men, women and children if they don't get out of the way. The United States can't do it all — and shouldn't. But only we can assemble a coali- tion of Muslim countries in the area who can smash ISIS and destroy their ability to incite, organize and provide logistical support to terror- ists around the world. It's long overdue. It's too late for the Obama administration. It's been a to- tal failure. It's dithered over how to hurt ISIS and dodged its responsibility to lead the fight. President Hillary Clinton offers no hope. Her misguided Mid-East policies are partly responsible for creating the problem in the first place. Plus, she's more likely to blame the next inevitable ter- rorist attack in the USA on insufficient gun control, not insufficient ISIS control. The way I see it, our only hope is President Donald Trump. It's a horrible thought. He's an arrogant ass. He has a million negatives. But he's the only candidate who has the potential to do the right thing and declare an all- out war on ISIS — and win it. The Number One priority for me at this point in this election is who's going to stop ISIS. It's not about jobs, the econ- omy, immigration or abortion. It's about American lives and how to save them from being taken by terrorists. And the only way you save them is by taking the fight to where ISIS lives. MichaelReaganisthesonof President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. MichaelReagan Job number one for America is destroying ISIS Cartoonist's take Garrison Keillor (born Gary Edward Keillor) has been doing his Prairie Home Companion ra- dio show for 42 years but is retir- ing in July. His sto- ries of the myth- ical Lake Woe- begone have captivated mil- lions of listeners over the years, and many find him one of the most creative and imagina- tive writers of our generation. Recently he did a piece in which he took apart the odious Donald Trump. I have copies if you are interested. One quote: "He (Trump) is not what any- body…left, right or center…looks for in a President." And, "He is the first punk candidate to get this close to the White House." Here are a couple of Keillor's original pronouncements: "Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose." "Life is short enough without wasting big swatches of it on self- pity and despair, and that is why I skipped my 30s and tacked that decade onto my 60s when I had a better handle on things. It was like daylight saving time except in decades." ••• Perhaps my paean to the late Congressman Clair Engle sug- gested he was a saint among pol- iticians. However, James Bryant sent me a lengthy attachment purporting that Engle's machi- nations regarding what James deems "the Trinity River give- away" were less than honorable. He added "I think it was Trinity Lake that had been named Engle Lake but was changed because the people up there hated Engle." I will read through his attach- ment and report my findings, but I agree with the adage that you can't please all of the people all of the time. ••• I wrote recently about my penchant for goats, this being prompted by a New Yorker ar- ticle by Thomas Thwaites titled "Goat Man: How I took a holi- day from being human." He saw three problems to solve in order to become more goat-like. The first was the goat mind. To understand it, he began spending time at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats. From a goat behavior specialist he leaned that Goats are relaxed and resilient creatures. He was advised to re- late to his surroundings in a goat like way. For example, when look- ing at a chair, don't automati- cally see it as a place for sitting. Next, he examined the goat body and tried to move like a goat. But without the goat's strong front legs and flexible muscular- ity, a person undertaking goat like movements, such as gallop- ing or leaping to the ground head first, would be badly hurt. The fi- nal problem was food. Goats eat grass which humans cannot di- gest. He discovered that the goat has four compartments in its stomach, and that the largest, the rumen, contained bacteria that turns grass into a fermented and digestible stew. We could con- clude, as did other writers such as Tolstoy and Joyce. The for- mer teaches us to "be good like the animals," and the latter to "be alive." But the greatest bene- fit from being animal-like in our behavior is that one can "escape his own egotistical anxiety…an idea which implies that to be hu- man is to worry." Hence forth, I shall personally attempt to worry less and observe the way and the manner of the taciturn goat. I shall deflect accusations of be- ing one of the "elite," and instead be considered just one of the baa- baas of the earth. ••• I was out in front of our office a 760 Main Street when a crazy woman approached and directed a tirade toward me about Hillary Clinton, lesbians in the White House, Sodom and Gomorrah and so on. I interrupted and asked if she would prefer Trump in the White House. She replied, "Yes I would because he tells the truth." How could anyone still be- lieve in Trump? Well, like I said, she was crazy. ••• A recent obituary in the DN indicated that the deceased was one of 15 children. This is a mighty number. However, deaths of white people outnumbered births for the very first time in US history, the Census Bureau re- vealed Thursday. The census pre- dicts that significant drops in birth rates vs. death rates will be regular by 2025. This is en- couraging for the planet Earth. On the other hand, the opera- tive word here is "white," soon to be in the minority, at least in the U.S. Will that affect white folks' way of life? We may know the an- swer when English is taught as a second language in our schools. ••• "Letters from The Earth" was written by Mark Twain, nee Sam- uel Clemens, and is a collection of short stories written shortly before his death in 1910. The col- lection was so controversial that it was withheld from publication by his daughter for 52 years after his death. The cover blurb reads, "Twain sentimentalists will gasp, Bible-belters will turn purple, austere stylistic purists will raise eyebrows…but dyed-in-the- wool Twain enthusiasts will grab hun- grily for what amounts to a new volume by the 'Lincoln of our lit- erature.'" Remembered mostly as the author of such classics as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huck- leberry Finn," Twain published a staggering number of other novels, short stories and essays. Much of what he wrote should give successive generations rea- son to accept his wisdom. ••• Do you still smash your milk cartons so they will not take up so much room in your garbage bag? I tossed mine in recently without compacting it first. I now feel un-American and an en- emy of Greenpeace. Why is that? What's the harm in being a non- conformist? It seems to have worked to my advantage in the past. Remember the altered ad- age: To err is human…to non- conform is divine. ••• A tour bus driver was tapped on the shoulder by a little old lady who offered him some pea- nuts. He takes them and thanks her. However, she does this sev- eral times and he accepts and eats them, but then finally asks, "You must like peanuts." She re- plies, "No, but we like the choc- olate around them." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@ hotmail.com. I say On the impending retirement of Garrison Keillor We don't need any more Obama administration pin pricks. We need to show we are really pissed at ISIS — post-Pearl Harbor pissed. We need an all out, organized attack by land and air that leaves no doubt about our intention to obliterate ISIS and all of its supporters, which includes men, women and children if they don't get out of the way. 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. Box 220, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Robert Minch Donald Trump likes to brag he's not a politician. And he's not; he's a hustler, a scam artist, a grifter, a mod- ern day P.T. Bar- num who deserves congratulations for running the ul- timate con on the American people. He's a carnie with a glob of inedible cotton candy on his head. Financial reports filed with the Federal Election Commission re- veal someone focused on the best interests of Trump Inc. rather than the country. To him, we are the designated losers in this year's rigged edition of "Presidential Ap- prentice." In 2000 Trump told Fortune Magazine, "It's very pos- sible I could be the first presiden- tial candidate to run and make money off of it." And that's obvi- ously the goal. He's got four and a half months to make as much money as possible and is full speed ahead pursuing his wind- fall like a kid on Halloween a half hour before curfew. For the New York businessman, it is now, has been and always shall be, all about the Benjamins. His wife and kids are on the pay- roll. So is an ex- wife and a couple of contestants from "The Appren- tice." And probably John Miller, the name he used when masquer- ading as his own publicist. Almost a fifth of the money he spent in the month of May went to his companies, subsidiaries and properties. He billed his cam- paign over $400,000 for an event at the Florida resort, Mar-A-Lago, where Trump lives. He undoubt- edly did that thing hospitals do by charging a hundred bucks for each ply of toilet paper. Trump branded toilet paper of course. Got to get me some of that. Another half million went to Trump Tower, the other place he lives. He's charging himself to sleep in his own bed. Wonder if Melania charges as well. Trump even paid himself $3,000. Which works out to $750 a week. An at- tempt to find out how the other 99 percent lives? Not likely. All that talk about self-fund- ing was just more snake oil sold to us rubes. Another bogus plea from the Nigerian Prince of pol- itics. He didn't give money to his campaign, he lent it $37 million and expects to be paid back by the Republican National Com- mittee. The man is the Florence of malfeasance. He loans money to the Trump Campaign which spends money on his properties, then solic- its contributions from wealthy donors to pay himself back the money he loaned his campaign to buy stuff from himself. This has to be straight out of a course at Trump University. Will Durst is an award- winning, nationally acclaimed columnist and comedian. Go to willdurst.com for info about his new one-man show "BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG," and the documentary "3 Still Standing." WILL DURST Donald Trump, the Nigerian prince of politics Will Durst By Michael Reagan OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, July 1, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4