Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/714660
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, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Some things do not seem to change. Politics is one of them. The term "bread and circuses" was coined by the Roman poet Juvenal, who in the year 100 AD said that bread and circuses were the only remaining cares of a Roman populace which had abandoned its historical birthright of political involvement; some would say the same of our own electorate. Thesedays,morethan 1,900 years later, Juvenal may well have been referring to so- cial media, in- stant "news" or the Republican and Democratic National Con- ventions when speaking of cir- cuses. It was diffi- cult to under- stand the country the DNC in Philly was describing after hearing all of the doom and gloom the week earlier at the RNC in Cleveland. While RNC gathering painted a picture of a dysto- pia that needed a superhero emerging from the mists to rescue it, the other conven- tion told us how wonderful things are and how they will get even better. Both gatherings were full of promises, or as Juvenal might say, "bread;" each said they will love us in the morn- ing, so to speak. The Democratic Conven- tion featured fewer of its nominee's relatives and pro- duced many more promi- nent party members than seen at the RNC; it seemed better scripted, and at the end seemed more unified than one would have thought given the "Bernie" fever at the start. The problem of its candi- date's e-mails while Secre- tary of State was carefully avoided. Lots of promises were made; Michelle Obama man- aged not to borrow from the third Mrs. Trump's script; and Bill Clinton oozed charm as he told of his courtship of Hillary Rodham; it almost made us re-like him. "Agent of Change" seemed to be the DNC theme rather than the superhero depicted during the RNC. One of the most interesting things was the inclusion of many of Ber- nie Sanders' proposals into the platform. Platforms, of course, are structures built to display promises, ethe- real or otherwise. Juvenal might have referred to them as "bread." We were promised lots of good things at the DNC if we vote correctly, including the avoidance of an egotisti- cal disaster if the Republican nominee were elected. If we actually want all of the changes and "improve- ments" both parties promised us, or at least propositioned us with, then we will need to ei- ther delete all military spend- ing, or be prepared to face a sharp increase in taxes and the national debt. The elec- torate may figure that out at some point; in the meantime, it will have lots of free enter- tainment, or as Juvenal might have called them, "circuses." Both conventions reminded me of the lyrics from the song, "Promises, Promises;" that song was the theme from "The Apartment," a 1960 movie by Billy Wilder in which a know- it-all schemer lets executives in his company use his apart- ment for trysts, hoping to gain a step up the corporate ladder. Things get out of hand and become very comical. The lyr- ics to the theme song are sung by a spurned lover who real- ized what was really going on: Oh, promises, promises This is where those prom- ises, promises end I don't pretend that what was wrong can be right ••• There has been a lot of dis- cussion lately about going to an all-mail voting system. Shasta County may be one of the trial areas for this pro- posal. The advocates claim such a system would generate a greater voter participation, and they point out that only 42 percent of registered voters managed to vote in the Califor- nia statewide 2014 election. There is some debate about whether or not making it eas- ier to vote will overcome ap- parent voter inertia, a seem- ing refusal to become in- formed, a lack of interest in the issues, or just plain dis- gust about the system. This year we have seen the arousal of many who would like to have changes; some are angry, some seek simple solutions to complex prob- lems such as the mythical state of Jefferson, others just seem overwhelmed. It is not likely that the State of Jef- ferson will emerge from the mist as did the Donald in Cleveland, however. I doubt that voting by mail will make us better citizens. It takes more effort than put- ting a ballot in the mail to be a good citizen. Maybe many of us are entranced with bread and circuses. My son in Pennsylvania points out that we spend too much time on trivial or even non issues and fail to look at the big picture. He refuses to listen to the daily TV news and tries to study the reality of the world and its problems. The daily blast of trivia is distracting to him. He seems to have his feet on the ground, and he understand that we have to be patient with democracy. I find that I can still learn from my children. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop 'Bread and circuses' still applies today Cartoonist's take Donald Trump didn't listen. Last week I said the only thing that could save his campaign was for him to literally shut up for at least a month. My modest pro- posal was for his campaign peo- ple to lock him in a soundproof booth until November 9th. But forget that. I've got a bet- ter idea to put the Trump circus train on the right track. Trump's support in the polls is stuck at about 42 percent. To win, we know he has to get the votes of disaffected Repub- licans, terrified independents and people who don't already believe Obama was born in a grass hut in Kenya. But to get their support by Election Day he has to do two things. He has to stop saying stupid things in public and he has to give a hundred more speeches like the great one he delivered in Detroit on Monday. Unfortunately, there's just one way to prevent Trump from say- ing stupid things and it's proba- bly against federal election laws. His campaign people need to make him wear a shock collar — just like the ones you put on your family dog for those invisible backyard fences. That way, every time Donald strays from the tele- prompter, Paul Manafort can just hit the button and give him a big jolt upside the neck. "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe ...." — ZAAAPPPPP. This week was a total disas- ter, but it began with a really good speech in Detroit. Of course someone else wrote it. Of course Trump read it. But with a few ex- ceptions his conservative eco- nomic ideas sounded like they came from the Wall Street Jour- nal editorial page. Trump said he'd cut income tax rates, increase individual ex- emptions, reduce the number of tax brackets from seven to three and slash the corporate tax rate to 15 percent. He'd also end the death tax and the alternative minimum tax. What Trump said in Detroit — especially the part about how the city has been wrecked by half a century of local Democratic rule and liberal federal social policies — should become his standard stump speech. He could read it almost word for word in city after city. All he'd have to do is change Detroit to Chicago, Toledo, St. Louis, etc. A speech like that is what it takes to win a general election, not another speech calling Hill- ary a liar or charging the Clinton family with pioneering the glo- balization of graft. Trump got great media cover- age for his Detroit speech but it didn't even last a day. On Tuesday every liberal in the media was parsing his com- ments about "Second Amend- ment people" to prove he was en- couraging the assassination of Hillary or joking about it. I'm surprised no one on CNN's panel of liberals went to a black- board and started to diagram Trump's sentences. But the media don't really care what he actually says or meant to say. They'll spin it whichever way they can so that Trump appears to be in favor of killing babies. Trump blew himself up again, thanks to his own stupidity and lack of self-control. Instead of getting a week of praise for a hard-hitting eco- nomic speech, he spent four days watching the print and electronic media gang up on him like he was America's Vladimir Putin. Instead of enjoying Hill- ary Clinton stumbling over an- swers to questions about her emails, or explaining why the Taliban-loving father of the Orlando mass murderer was her biggest supporter, Trump hogged the airtime. He proved my point last week — just shut up, Donald. It's a shame. If any of the other 16 candidates had won the Re- publican primary this election would be over. All Trump and his daily fum- bles are doing now is opening the door wider and wider for the libertarian twins, ex-Repub- lican governors Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. At the end of the day, they may be the only adults in the room. Michael Reagan is the son of 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. Michael Reagan Trump blows himself up again If we actually want all of the changes and "improvements" both parties promised us, or at least propositioned us with, then we will need to either delete all military spending, or be prepared to face a sharp increase in taxes and the national debt. Don't answer out loud if you're reading this at work, but how do you feel about employers using sensor-bearing armbands and other "wearable" tech to monitor employee performance? According to the Washing- ton Post, business is booming for companies that manufac- ture such equipment. Some de- vices are focused mainly on safety and time-saving move- ments; but a growing num- ber of them "spy" on employee actions, with a "guilty un- til proven innocent" mindset where incompetence and lazi- ness are concerned. The pros and cons on the Post website "comments" sec- tion were pretty well bal- anced, with the supporters of wearable tech stressing that there are a lot of employees who simply won't work with- out extra surveillance. True enough. When I was fresh out of college, I worked at a factory. One of my second-shift co-workers had a nightly ritual. He would turn off his machine, saunter over to the water foun- tain, read all the bulletins on the office window, scrutinize his re- flection in the office window for wrinkles and moles and such, en- joy a leisurely bathroom break, check for new bulletins or fa- cial anomalies, get another long drink of water and restart his machine. Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat. I understand that at his fu- neral, his relatives had to open and shut, open and shut the casket. ("Doesn't he still look natural?") Tech supporters say if police officers can wear body cams, stockboys should have no objec- tion to wearing a chip. But not many warehouse workers shout, "I swear I thought the box of fragile wind chimes was pulling a .357 Magnum on me!" Skeptics of the trend point to potential discrimination against minorities, an erosion of privacy and a worsening of friction be- tween management and labor. Corporate executives try to al- lay morale issues with a policy of "Trust but verify." Of course they're attempting to evoke warm memories of Pres. Rea- gan; but Reagan never followed that philosophy up with, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall but quit tearing off so many squares of toilet paper!" Some hourly workers would feel better about the whole thing if top executives were required to wear monitoring devices to prove their productivity —— buying congressmen in bulk, demolish- ing widows' homes with fuel-effi- cient bulldozers, etc. I can just imagine a CEO cat- erwauling, "A three-martini lunch seemed to upset some of the rabble, so I've increased pro- ductivity by adopting a St. Ber- nard with a keg. But I caught that ungrateful mutt chewing on my golden parachute! The sacri- fices I make for this company!" Theoretically, the monitor- ing programs will generate a higher profit margin, making more money available for rank- and-file workers. But wouldn't you know it, the guy in charge of making sure the money trick- les down is on the longest leash of all. ("Anybody seen Charlie? No, wait —— he died two, three years ago, didn't he?"). I hope companies don't think technology is a cure-all. Em- ployees already submit store- bought, drug-free urine sam- ples, so it's only a matter of time before someone starts hack- ing the devices to make perfor- mance look better. ("Have you seen these metrics on Connelly? Should we promote her —— or stock up on kryptonite???") I guess we'll have to see how all this plays out. I'll try to fo- cus on relishing the irony of the whole situation. Compa- nies that manufacture items such as recliners, hammocks, hot tubs and widescreen TVs shouldn't be lecturing anyone about being productive. Danny Tyree welcomes email responses at tyreetyrades@aol. com and visits to his Facebook fan page Tyree's Tyrades. Danny Tyree Column may be monitored for quality assurance By Michael Reagan By Danny Tyree Joe Harrop OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, August 13, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A10