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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 There's almost something poetic about watching the first presidential debate of 2016 in the city that midwifed American democ- racy. This is a gritty town that takes its politics seri- ously. Punches and counter- punches are expected. In a bar off a narrow street in Center City, in the first days of fall, they're watch- ing the debate the Philly way. Beers in hand. Chicken wings on the table. The TV's up loud. Thankfully, in their first head-to-head match up of the 2016 campaign, the two towering egos on stage at Hofstra University gave them plenty of fodder. Things started genially enough, with Republican Donald Trump even promis- ing to call his Democratic ri- val, Hillary Clinton, by the honorific "Secretary." It didn't last. From free trade and taxes to crime and terrorism, the historic debate between the first woman to win a major party's presidential nomina- tion and the first reality TV star to come within striking distance of the White House quickly careered off the rails. After parrying and cross- talking Trump on NAFTA, which the real estate de- veloper called "the worst trade deal ever signed ev- erywhere," Clinton offered this admonition in the tone a parent reserves for an over- tired child: "Donald, I know you live in your own reality, but that is not the facts," she said. Trump, who closed a month-long double-digit polling gap to within the margin of error on Monday night, pouted and jibed, his doughy visage a symphony of tics and sniffles, as he offered up whopper after whopper. And they were so easily debunked. Yes, Trump enthusiasti- cally backed the removal of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadaffi. Yes, he supported the war in Iraq. Yes, he unashamedly traded on the racist birther lie for more than four years after President Barack Obama produced his long- form birth certificate. And, yes, he was wrong when he tried to tell NBC News anchor Lester Holt that "stop-and-frisk" was not de- clared unconstitutional (it was). Yes he did call climate change a "hoax." So he was booed by the crowd top-heavy with young Democrats. Lustily. Enthusiastically. Repeatedly. The crowd of twentysome- things mostly applauded Clinton, who's struggled with her own transparency issues over her private email server and the accumulated bag- gage of three decades in pub- lic life. Yes, she probably over- played the number of jobs her economic plan would produce. But Clinton scored points with the Philly crowd when she went deep on the the systemic causes of vi- olence, of going past just "stop-and-frisk" and restor- ing law and order, as Trump said he would, without offer- ing much in the way of spe- cifics. Clinton needed the win heading into Monday night's showdown. And she got it. Instead of turning tight- lipped and lawyerly as some thought she might, she laughed her way through much of the commercial-free, 90-minutes' worth of TV. Clinton'sfact-heavy zone defense worked. Trump wasn't able to break through, and was left sput- tering, finally, about Rosie O'Donnell and 400-pound computer hackers. The crowd here erupted at "Trumped-up trickle down." And they erupted again when Clinton invited Trump to "join the debate by saying more crazy things." So what was on the line? Not much — just every- thing. "The future of America, really," Jon Shahar, a Clinton voter said. "This is the most frightening election that's ever happened." To these millennials, fac- ing towering college debt and the mess of a country their elders handed them, the stakes are high. "This is the scariest elec- tion, I've ever seen," Shira Scott, 24, who cast her first ballot in the 2012 election pitting President Barack Obama against Mitt Rom- ney, said. "Both candidates are not ideal. We're picking between who's the worst. It's kind of scary." Lauren Newman, 25, put it this way: "I think a lot of people are struggling with [whom] to vote against. "Trump is a very danger- ous candidate," she contin- ued. "I'm gay. I teach in a charter school. He's only go- ing to make this country more divisive." It was a debate the real Founders, the ones who scrapped and fought with each other, not the sanitized, animatronic Hall of Presi- dents' Founders, would have liked. It's the kind of debate that Philadelphians expected: With punches and counter- punches. And plenty more to come before Nov. 8. An award-winning political journalist, 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. John Micek Millennials say they're picking from the worst Cartoonist's take The Republican Party/Re- publican Women Federated/ Donald Trump headquarters is open inside the historic 710 Main Street, the finely columned building on the northeast cor- ner of Pine and Main Streets. In- side you'll find friendly volun- teers with a range of yard signs, bumper stickers, MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats, buttons and T-shirts, and "Adorable Deplorables" shirts— particularly popular with Re- publican women. Open 10 AM until 6 or so, their schedule has room for motivated additional volunteers to pick shifts. See ya there. In a weekly syndicated col- umn by a writer sharing the first three letters of my last name and my first initial, read- ers are treated to genuine Trump Derangement Syndrome every Tuesday (on Friday, Mr. Minch managed to combine both Trump—as well as Bush— Derangement Syndrome). Such opinion pieces reveal more about the writers than either Trump or Bush. Given that the entirety of the supposedly-straight news re- porting profession is engaged in thinly-veiled water carrying, advocacy and Hillary Clinton propaganda, the opinion pieces are little more than press re- leases from the Democratic Na- tional Committee. Witness the repetitive use of phrases and de- scriptors in print, by news an- chors and panels that—emails by Dems show—are clearly par- tisan, in-kind campaign contri- butions by the media. Here's my take on a couple of items that the Democrat/me- dia complex, and its pack men- tality, obsessed over: The Miss Universe that was criticized by Mr. Trump in the 1990s seemed too convenient by half; in- deed, some reporters went to her country before the debate in a transparent advance move, tipped off by Clinton's people. Protests of unfairness are al- most laughable; a beauty pag- eant winner, who, having won in large part on her physical image and assets, shall we say, is contractually obligated to maintain that image to retain the crown. Pageant winners have of- ten lost their crowns, not just for things they say and do af- terwards, but also for things in their past that come to light. If a winner becomes anorexic or overweight, failing to maintain their image is within the pur- view of the owner(s) of the con- test. An employee, secretary or executive has wider (ahem) lat- itude to put on weight and still perform. It's similar to the well-known pattern in Hollywood whereby a star of either sex (count me out of the transgender non- sense) can diminish their mar- ket value as they age and, shall we say, fill out. In the Trump/ Ms. Machado case, CNN on-air commentators paid similar "fat shaming" attention to her at the time. Is that somehow dif- ferent? It is certainly hypocrit- ical. Then we have the "trumped up" non-issue of a $916 mil- lion loss by Mr. Trump over 20 years ago, that, under perfectly legal, routine and ordinary tax rules, is allowed to be applied— carried over—to cancel out in- come for several years prior to almost 20 years forward. Ev- ery word you just read is irre- futable; income taxes are based on—read slowly—actual taxable income. That's the separate line on the form that is often mark- edly different than "gross" in- come. It is axiomatic that the tax code has been complicated to near-incomprehensibility by the addition of almost 100,000 pages—and more each year— of fine-tuning, special interest pleading, and taxpayer bailout provisions. Among the most sensible measures are those used by Mr. Trump, and, prob- ably, any reader who's ever had any income beyond simple wages and salaries. Have any of you bought or sold or transferred a stock or mutual fund? Surely you've at least glanced at the rele- vant lines after your tax pre- parer finished his work. I have seen numerous years when in- vestment gains were balanced against losses from a previous year. A sizable segment of citi- zens have had self-employment or business activities that re- quired deduction of expenses; gross rents, receipts, sales or fees are always reduced by business costs. The entire economy and, I would say, the monetary needs of our government are the ben- eficiaries of allowing business losses to be applied to income in other years. When a busi- ness can use such legal means to survive economic downturns or even the occasional unfore- seen business failure, it al- lows employees to be retained, accounts payable to be reim- bursed—and, just as impor- tantly, the application of know- how gained through such fail- ure to avoid a repetition. I support such private sec- tor practices which, let's admit, simply allow for eventual busi- ness success and the accom- panying taxes without which governments have nothing to spend. The "newspaper of re- cord," the New York Times, an- nounced with great umbrage (and with illegally obtained tax documents) Trump's nearly $1billion loss. The Time's par- ent corporation used the tax code to show a multi-mil- lion dollar federal tax reim- bursement at the same time it showed over $20 million of profit every year before and af- ter. Yes, the New York Times benefited with millions of dol- lars from taxpayers while it earned tens of millions in in- come. What shameless hypoc- risy. I hope you learned some things here. I urge that you avail yourself of Drudgereport. com every day; it simply ag- gregates reporting from a mul- titude of sources that can put into perspective the spoon-fed, agenda-driven, group-think re- porting you find from the AP, the networks and cable shows. Also spend a few minutes at Powerlineblog.com, Pjmedia. com/Instapundit/ and my blog, DonPolson.blogspot.com. Be- tween now and November, you owe yourself to be informed. The news media are no longer stealthily attempting to defeat Trump and elect Hillary; it's blatant and they're proud of it. 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 My, my, what stories they tell From free trade and taxes to crime and terrorism, the historic debate between the first woman to win a major party's presidential nomination and the first reality TV star to come within striking distance of the White House quickly careered off the rails. 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 For- est 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 Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Fran- cisco 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 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, October 4, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6