Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/712002
Forget the idea of a Republican intervention. Nothing GOP bigwigs or people like Rudy Giuliani can say to Donald Trump now will get his head straight and get him back on track. Forcandidate Trump,it ought to be pretty clear by now that there is no track, no train, no schedule and no fi- nal destination. His track goes wherever his wandering mind and run- away ego take him at any given instant, whether he's speaking to 3,000 people or tweeting from his bedroom. The only human interven- tion that can save his cam- paign at this point — and spare America four years of Hillary Clinton — is for the people who love Trump to lock him into a soundproof booth until November 9th. Unfortunately, that's not going to literally happen. But figuratively, it should. Trump doesn't need in- tervention. He just needs to learn when — and how — to shut up. He has to stop saying dumb or outrageous things that get him the daily me- dia attention he clearly needs and craves. Someone has to explain to him and his current and for- mer campaign managers that by being on Page 1 every day he makes sure that Hillary Clinton will never be there. All the conservatives on talk radio and the cable channels bitch and moan that the mainstream media don't cover lying Hillary's many scandals. It's true she is getting the usual free pass the liberal media give to Democrats ev- ery four years. But Trump and his fumbling campaign only make it easier for the media to ignore her by feeding them a daily menu of fresh gaffes and mistakes. So shut up, Donald. For at least a month. Be boring. Quit winging it. Put America to sleep, like Hillary. Read policy speeches from a teleprompter. Talk about the issues that matter — the shortage of jobs, the no- growth economy, the $19 tril- lion budget. Attack Hillary for her un- trustworthiness and her ties to the D.C. establishment. But let her and her lies get some space on the front page. You won't lose your core fan base. And if you stop pouring kerosene on your own fire every six hours, maybe someone at CBS will get bored and complain that Hillary hasn't had a press conference since last year. Who knows. Maybe the New York Times will assign some of its inves- tigative reporters to look as closely at the books of the Clin- ton Foundation as they did at Mitt Romney's tax returns. Maybe the Washington Post will check out those ru- mors about our embassy in Libya being involved with sending arms to the Syrian rebels (aka, ISIS) when Hill- ary was running the State Department. The way he's been acting lately, Trump is making it impossible for millions of Re- publican and independent voters who hate Hillary to vote for him. He should have sympa- thized with the Kahns, not picked a fight with them. Now he should announce he's going to apologize to them — and use the free TV time he'd get to also slam Hillary for cynically exploit- ing the Kahns and their pain. We know we can't trust Hill- ary Clinton. She's a proven liar. But it seems that every other day Trump or his for- mer campaign manager help make Hillary's point that we can't trust Trump with the nuclear codes. And therein lies the voter's dilemma for this presidential election. 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 Shut up for a month, Donald Cartoonist's take In a recent letter to the edi- tor from S. Russell, the writer took me to task for my com- ments about a Daily News arti- cle regarding a Rancho Tehama woman being convicted of ani- mal cruelty. I evi- dently did not re- act properly — in the writer's opin- ion — to the horrific story. When I wrote, "Nothing to see here folks, let's move along" I meant to depict a po- lice officer instructing a group of gawkers to move away from a murder scene. A true animal lover cannot tolerate animal cruelty and can just barely read a detailed account of it. When we are watching TV, and a story of animal abuse comes up, we turn off the sound as we do when we see evidence of a child locked in a car in 100 degree weather. You may take this as a "head in the sand" approach, but we have seen evidence of so much abuse over the years, animals and children, that we try to avoid even the thought of it. And, by the way, regarding do- nations to and adoptions of animals, we prefer to remain anonymous. In her letter, Sharon men- tioned her stepfather Herb Flournoy, our long time em- ployee at our old meat plant and his penchant for bring- ing home stray dogs found on his travels as one of our cat- tle buyers. As a sidebar to the subject of animals, Herb would occasionally be asked to help out if we were short- handed on the kill floor. If there were sheep or hogs gath- ered in a small pen upstairs in the plant it might be Herb's job to catch the animals by a hind leg with a chain shackle, attach it to a loud moving ap- paratus that would then pro- pel the animal, alive, upside down, to a rail where it would be stuck in the throat with a knife and bled out, the an- imals being very alive and frightened at the time. The screams of the hogs could of- ten be heard throughout the plant. This was the way it was done in old days before my fa- ther died and I took over run- ning the plant. Soon thereaf- ter, I put a stop to the barbaric practice and the butchers were instructed to use a stunning device that rendered the ani- mals unconscious before being shackled and hoisted on high. I had the right idea about animals then and still have it to this day. Now, let's move on. ••• Speaking of statements re- sulting in demands for clarifi- cation or apology, I had writ- ten about a young man who was beginning to exhibit mod- est signs of male pattern bald- ness. This was an unfortunate observation on my part. He responded via e mail and in- quired, "Didn't your mother teach you that if you can't say anything nice about some- one…?" The answer is yes, of course she did, but I find that my columns will be as boring as others if I don't occasion- ally stew up an observation of- ten best left unsaid. In any case, I regret my observation, young man, and the only sol- ace I can give is that you are obviously higher up the evolu- tionary chain than the major- ity of your hairy associates. ••• Columnist Reverend Jim Wilson was invited to testify on the impact of abortion be- fore the California Commis- sion of the Status of Women in 2011. He testified that "I have never met a post-abor- tion woman who was not torn apart inside over what she had done or permitted to be done." OK Reverend, but have you ever met children born and then neglected by parents, or children born with defor- mities? And have you looked at the population of the world lately? Is it a concern that we may someday be competitive for every square foot of avail- able land or is it likely that population will be kept under control by pestilence and war? ••• From the "you can't make this stuff up" department. Speaking to a television in- terviewer in London, theo- retical physicist, cosmologist and author Stephen Hawking called Donald Trump "a dem- agogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denom- inator," a statement that many Trump supporters believed was intentionally designed to confuse them. Moments after Hawking made the remark, Google re- ported a sharp increase in searches for the terms "dem- agogue," "denominator," and "Stephen Hawking." Trump's campaign man- ager, Corey Lewandowski, re- plied, "For a so-called genius, this was an epic fail. If Profes- sor Hawking wants to do some damage, maybe he should try talking in English next time." Later in the day, Hawking attempted to clarify his re- mark about the presumptive Republican Presidential nomi- nee, telling a reporter, "Trump bad man. Real bad man." In my book, that is talking English, and then some. ••• Daily News front page: "Vina monastery holds bless- ing of the grapes." This "1,400-year-old tradition" was held at the Abbey New Clair- vaux last Saturday I wish the brothers would have notified me of this rit- ual. We have a small prune or- chard nearby which does not have a very good "set" this year. If they would have con- sidered setting up shop at our place we could have dispensed with the Gregorian Chant, readings from the Bible and so forth and just got down to the sprinkling of holy water. Then they could have split. Every little thing helps when faced with a small crop. ••• Jacob, age 92, and Rebecca, age 89, were living in Miami and excited about their deci- sion to get married. They went for a stroll to discuss the wed- ding, and on the way they passed a drugstore, Jacob sug- gests they go in. Jacob: "Are you the owner?" Pharmacist: "Yes." "We're about to get married. Do you sell heart medication?" "Of course, we do." "Medicine for rheumatism?" "Definitely." "How about suppositories?" "You bet." "What about vitamins, sleeping pills and everything for heartburn and indiges- tion?" "We sure do." "You sell wheelchairs and walkers and canes?" "Sure." "Well, we'd like to use this store as our bridal registry." 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 Reaction to animal cruelty story misunderstood Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. That'sscary.Iwishwehadabetter mosquito abatement program, or maybe spend more time educating the public on the dangers of stagnant water, and how to kill mosquito larvae. Jamie Peterson: On West Nile Virus being found in two Tehama County sentinel chickens We are home safe. The fire was right across Baker from Foley Road. A little too close for us. Thank you for your thoughts. Kate O'Sullivan Myers: On a fire that burned 76 acres Wednesday northwest of Red Bluff 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. 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 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, Kristina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials For candidate Trump, it ought to be pretty clear by now that there is no track, no train, no schedule and no final destination. His track goes wherever his wandering mind and runaway ego take him at any given instant, whether he's speaking to 3,000 people or tweeting from his bedroom. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, August 5, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4