Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/741579
Electiontimeisalwaysafunseasonfor following the money and the propaganda associated with it. Proposition 56 is a good example. If passed the Proposition would add a $2 tax on a package of cigarettes and an equivalent tax on other tobacco products and electronic cigarettes, which contain nicotine. Notsurprisinglytwocig- arette manufacturers, R. J. Reynolds and Phillip Morris, have contributed $50,000,000 to defeat this mea- sure. Tobacco sales have de- clined in re- cent years, and I am sure they don't want to see even further de- clines, in spite of the fact that tobacco is one of the greatest contributors to health prob- lems in our country. I am not implying that the tobacco companies are against improved public health, but I am sure they are against declin- ing profits at the expense of im- proved public health. After all, Reynolds only had a net income of $1,930,000,000 last quarter. I studied propaganda as an undergraduate, and the color- ful literature the No on Prop 56 people have sent me is a classic case of pure propaganda, exag- geration, misstatement, but not an example of good information. For example, the No on 56 folks would like us to believe that "Prop 56 was written to intentionally undermine Cal- ifornia's education funding guarantee…cheating schools out of $600 million a year." That quote is from Da- vina Keiser, a high school math teacher. She probably has taught her students about imaginary numbers, and now she is trying to teach us about an imaginary $600 million. Prop 56 merely says the taxes collected would not be applied to the state funding formula for schools. Perhaps Davina Keiser teaches conspiracy theory as well as math! Speaking of con- spiracy theories, could it be that her endorsement is a result of a donation to her election cam- paign for the school board in Long Beach…who knows? Among those listed as sup- porting No on Prop 56 is the Hispanic Leadership Fund. Sounds impressive, doesn't it. The Hispanic Leadership Fund is actually a political action committee headquartered in Washington, D.C. According to OpenSecrets.Org and the Cen- ter for Responsive Politics this magnificent sounding orga- nization had only $3,920 on hand as of September 30. Another on the list of sup- porters is The Latino Coali- tion, a "nonprofit" also regis- tered in Washington D.C. The motto for its foundation is "Creating Latino Millionaires through savings." I guess they were convinced enough Lati- nos are smokers that paying less for cigarettes would make more Latino millionaires. Another listed supporter is the California Black Chamber of Commerce. It proclaims, "As part of our ongoing effort to as- sist our members in managing workforce issues, the California Black Chamber of Commerce has conducted numerous work- shops on maintaining a healthy workforce, with a particular em- phasis toward African Ameri- can health care issues." I wonder if they think increasing the price of cigarettes would be detrimen- tal to African American health. Thomas A Schatz, Presi- dent of the prestigious sound- ing Council for Citizens against Government Waste complains about Prop 56. His organization spends over one third of its revenues on fund raising and administration; sounds like he should look closer to home about waste- fulness and efficiency. Does cheaper tobacco make for more efficient government? Another opponent of Prop 56 is Jeffrey I. Barke, M.D. Barke is a concierge doctor, that is a doctor who has a private prac- tice for those who subscribe for his services. He founded a con- cierge operation named Per- sonal Care. He claims "Per- sonal Care's membership is designed for those who want greater control of their health- care and a better sense of se- curity." Why paying more for tobacco would interfere with that is anyone's question. Another person opposing Prop 56 is Dr. Arnold Zeider- man, and OBGYN physician in Jackson; he claims that he would "do everything in my power to stop people from smoking." He further claims that most of the taxes col- lected from Prop 56 would go to "wealthy special interests". I guess he doesn't mind serving the wealthy special interests like R J Reynolds or Phillip Morris. Prop 56 will tax e-cigarettes for the first time, and that has their manufacturers worried. E- cigarettes are essentially unreg- ulated at this time. As a report from the state Board of Equal- ization states: "What is truly shocking about E-cigarettes is the total lack of regulation at the state and federal level. Un- like traditional tobacco ciga- rettes, there are no bans on mar- keting—including advertise- ments and product tie-ins that are clearly and overtly aimed at children. This is particularly in- sidious, considering the emerg- ing body of research demon- strating that these devices are neither safe nor harmless—in fact, E-cigarettes contain dan- gerous chemicals like formalde- hyde, cadmium, and nickel." The public health problems stemming from tobacco use are astronomically expensive and well documented. Stud- ies have shown that increasing the cost of tobacco decreases use and deters young people from getting started. Those studies are not propaganda. I am voting yes on Prop 56. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Proposition 56, following the money is fun Cartoonist's take Horsesmistreatedto manufacture drug Editor: Recently, I received in the mail literature regarding the production of Pfizer Phar- maceuticals' top selling drug called Premarin. Premarin is made from the urine of pregnant mares, which contains the hormone estrogen. This drug is used to control the symptoms of menopause. The information I received came from a horse rescue and rehabilitation fa- cility called Dreamchaser, lo- cated in Arizona. In this literature, I discov- ered the cruel and inhumane methods that are used to pro- duce this drug. These preg- nant mares are forced to live in a tiny stall unable to move, or even lie down for the entire length of their gestation. Col- lection bags are attached to collect the mare's urine and they are given only enough water to sustain life, because less water makes the estrogen in their urine stronger. These horses not only suf- fer from dehydration, but also develop sores and in- fections from these proce- dures. When a mare gives birth, their babies are taken from them and sent to filthy feed lots to put on weight be- fore being crammed in to hot crowded stock trailers with no water and transported to the slaughter house. The mare is then turned out to pasture for breeding. When a mare is no longer able to conceive she is also sent to slaughter. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals has sent to death 900,000 baby foals that were born at these urine farms and profited from the sale of their meat. At the slaughter house these animals are herded in to crowded hold- ing pens awaiting their horri- ble fate, hearing the screams and smelling the blood com- ing from the kill room. Learning this information brought me to tears, and I felt compelled to let other women who take the drug Premarin know the suffering these an- imals endure in order to pro- duce this drug and also let them know that there are other natural, healthier ways of hor- mone therapy that don't re- quire the inhumane treatment of these beautiful creatures. I urge you to contact Dreamchaser Horse Rescue & Rehabilitation in New River, Arizona and learn more about their efforts to rescue these horses and end the suffering, by stopping Pfizer and others like them from continuing to profit from this cruelty. — Patricia Hall, Red Bluff Media sensationalism is undermining the election Editor: According to Gallup, Amer- icans see our biggest problem as overwhelmingly, immigra- tion and its associated issues. These include race relations, terrorism, national security, moral decline and crime. Ironically, despite Trump's resolve to limit immigration and Hillary's resolve to expand it, Hillary's been maintaining a slight lead in the polls. This is no doubt owing to the pub- lic becoming distracted by me- dia's focus on irrelevant events in Trump's personal life, such as his lawful use of tax deduc- tions and jocular remarks he made in a private conversation 10 years ago. For the sake of America, I wish the media would assume the role of a responsible parent instead of that of a child. That is, by limiting its reporting to substantive issues instead of instigating, facilitating and perpetuating sensationalism. — Nathan Esplanade, Rancho Tehama Home ownership is seldom a path to riches Editor: Home ownership is not a sav- ings bank, but, adjusted for infla- tion, a net loss. There are several dozen metro area exceptions, such as San Jose and Boston. Our nation is slowly com- ing through a deep recession that started November 2007 from the mirage that subsi- dized low interest government backed mortgages would lead to wealth. Millions lost their overpriced homes when the bubble collapsed. Home own- ership has hit a 51-year low from a peak of 69% in 2004 to a current 62%. Banks have stopped making shaky loans to those without documented sufficient earn- ings. State and federal gov- ernments have created high cost environmental build- ing regulations. Government high taxes have restricted the growth of companies that cre- ate middle class jobs to allow buying affordable homes. Of- ten it pays to rent instead of to buy. Research going back to 1890 by financier Michael Milken shows that the annual inflation adjusted return on houses was barely zero, and less than zero when factoring in the heavy buy and sell transaction costs. As owners of seven homes since the first tiny 950-square- foot home just out of col- lege, when we had two chil- dren and then two more be- fore moving to a larger 2,750-square-foot home, then to a 3,200-square-foot home on a lake in Rockford, Illi- nois, then a 2,150-square- foot home in Fremont and our 1,250-square-foot Corning re- tirement home near half of our family, and a 2550 sq. ft. home near our Midwest fam- ily. Four of the five homes sold between 1963 to 1994 aver- aged 5 to 15 percent loss below the purchase price, including buying and selling costs, or about $169,000 in losses not counting inflation. At our now age 81, we an- ticipate consolidating to one zero lot line 2,100-square-foot home and expect a sale loss on one of the two homes and a slight inflation adjusted gain on the other. We never bought more home than we could afford, and never with less than 20% down payment and paid off both mortgages with 1994 semi retirement. There is never a possibility of our four children ever consolidating to one part of the US. During my wife's and my technical de- greed careers, we also rented on four occasions and hated it. So in summary, owning homes has high costs of home maintenance and ownership, but great privacy. Renting has lower costs but little privacy. Take your choice. — Joseph Neff, Corning Letters to the editor What is truly shocking about E-cigarettes is the total lack of regulation at the state and federal level. Unlike traditional tobacco cigarettes, there are no bans on marketing— including advertisements and product tie-ins that are clearly and overtly aimed at children. 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 Joe Harrop State and National 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 OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, October 22, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4