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WespenttendaysinPhoe- nix, visiting our daughter and her family, enjoying mild weather, and at- tending some music events. We even experi- enced rain with the accompa- nying electrical displays. While in Phoe- nix I noted sev- eral similarities between me and my first-grade grandson, Elliot. We both have curly hair; we are both blue eyed; we are both color blind; and we are both avid readers. We were also both reading books about Harry. He was reading a Harry Potter book, but I was reading a Harry Bosch detective story. We took our dog Bogie with us to Phoenix; it was his first flight, and he did very well. Ev- eryone loved him, and he at- tracted a smile everywhere we went. He was happy to have two playmates in our two grand- sons who wore him out when they came home from school. He liked playing fetch and keep away with them. On our first Sunday in Phoenix, I went with my son- in-law to a lecture by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. He spoke about the importance of rit- uals if they keep their mean- ing instead of becoming a rote gesture. He also pointed out that a wise person is some- one who learns from everyone else. He said a brave person is someone who can overcome his or her own evil inclina- tions. He talked about forgive- ness and how the act of for- giving can liberate someone. He was a very thought provok- ing man who demonstrated his own wisdom. In our family's neighbor- hood, the tradition is that you sit outside with a table full of treats and hand them out as the trick and treaters come by. Almost all the costumed little ones who came to our table remembered their "pleases and thank yous." One of my grandsons said he liked the treats, but most of all he liked the scary stuff all around the neighborhood On the night of the last game of the World Series we attended a bluegrass concert. I noticed two men in the row in front of us looking at their cell phones during the performance; those phones were allegedly turned off when the show began. One man had a smile, the other did not. At the first intermis- sion, I asked the man with the smile what the score was; at that point it was Cubs by 9 to 2. I smiled as well. I noticed some interest- ing signs while there as well. One tow truck belonged to a company called Paradise Val- ley Ecology Towing; I sup- pose it was a politically cor- rect business, cleaning up the environment after the many automobile accidents we saw there. The horn seems to be a more popular feature in the cars in Phoenix, particularly in parking lots; I think we heard more horns that we saw turn signals. Another sign proclaimed a mortgage company had been voted number one three out of four years in a row. I would want to read the fine print if I was doing business with that company. There were election signs everywhere, almost all for lo- cal and county wide candi- dates. I saw a few yard signs for local candidates as well, and only three yard signs for presidential candidates…for three different candidates. No one wanted to talk about the election, so we made small talk about the desert, the cactus, the weather, the Cubs, and the rain. I noticed I had a missed phone call on my cell phone; since it was a Red Bluff num- ber I called back; the woman on the end of the line apol- ogized and told me there is a new phone scam in which the caller displays a "local" number on your phone so you are sure to answer. She had gotten several calls "re- turned". I am not sure if that scam works; I usually hang up if there is a long pause af- ter I answer or if someone tells me they have an offer I can't pass up. We saw the Midtown Men on Monday night; this group is composed of four original cast members of the Jersey Boys; the show was sold out and the audience was wild with enthusiasm as the group sang songs from the '60s. They were high energy, just like our grandsons. Our grandsons begged us to leave Bogie with them; when that didn't work, they asked their mother for a dog. We did not enter the conver- sation, but I could tell she was thinking "I'm still work- ing on training you and don't have time to train a dog." We boarded the plane on Tuesday morning to fly home from Phoenix; the lady next to me asked if it felt strange flying on election day. I told her we were all up in the air anyway so what difference did it make. She laughed. I hope she is still laughing. Maybe we can all laugh now that the election is over and get down to a normal life. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Getting back to normal life Cartoonist's take Once again, just about every- one has underestimated Donald Trump, including me. Almost no- body believed that he would ac- tually end up becoming our next president. Nearly everyone ex- pected a Clinton victory and many in the media were predict- ing a landslide, equal or greater to the defeat Obama gave to Mc- Cain eight years ago. Whatever you think of Trump, it's hard to deny that he's made a huge accomplish- ment. The liberal media abso- lutely loathed him and loved Clinton. The conservative me- dia hated him almost as much, and the support he received from the Republican party was lukewarm at best. She outspent him by around two-to-one, had the better organization, better ground game, and had decades of experience in of- fice. Yet none of this mattered in the end. As a matter of fact, Trump won states that were considered "safe" for the Dem- ocrats, ones that hadn't flipped Republican in decades. All the old rules about how to obtain victory no longer ap- ply, or at least they didn't this time around. Money didn't mat- ter, playing it safe didn't matter, and the lack of a ground game didn't matter. Trump succeeded in crushing two political dynas- ties: the Bushes and the Clintons. He's also the oldest man to as- sume the presidency. And yet this really isn't some- thing that many people can or should take pride in. This was the dirtiest, ugliest campaign that we have seen in modern memory. I thought the 2012 elec- tion was vicious and yet this sur- passed it in every imaginable way. There was nothing that Hil- ary would not stoop to, no tac- tic too despicable in order to win. Trump was no better, as best demonstrated by holding a press conference with some of Bill Clinton's accusers. Both candi- dates were hated by the majority of Americans but these are the ones that the parties chose and Trump was ultimately victorious. To many Republicans and in- dependents that he succeeded in winning over, he fought while Romney and McCain tried to campaign like gentlemen and got steamrolled. How true this per- ception actually is happens to be a matter for debate, but Trump is seen as a fighter, someone who will go after the Democratic en- emy without mercy or pause. For those of you that hope that now that the election is over, we can get back to normal, you are going to be disappointed. Trump is not even officially President yet and already some law profes- sors and politicians are attempt- ing to come up with grounds to impeach. The traditional 100-day honeymoon that presidents re- ceive upon taking office will be nonexistent this time. That's not including of course the massive demonstrations in the streets protesting the elec- tion. Protests are a kind word for it; some of them more closely resemble riots. Colleges are staging walkouts as a result of it. Statements that he is not our president, that he is illegit- imate, and of course we can't forget the Hitler comparisons. Thanks for California, Hil- ary won the popular vote by a couple hundred thousand, only adding to the rage. If there aren't already, there will be countless conspiracies about how Hilary is the rightful Pres- ident and that Trump only suc- ceeded in winning through voter fraud. Admittedly, that was going to happen regardless of who won on Tuesday. Much of the media is re- sponding in a fashion which I can only call: "Meltdown". I've been reading articles and listen- ing to pundits who are doing lit- tle but screaming their heads off at the unexpected victory. In- deed, Hilary did not even have a concession speech ready, so con- fident was she of becoming the next president. The exact de- tails vary, but much of it comes down to claiming that this is proof that America is an evil, racist, sexist, bigoted nation. Af- ter all, how else could they have rejected the opportunity of the first female president?! Many posts on social media are show- ing a similar sentiment. What many of them abso- lutely refuse to see is that this very attitude played a large role in getting Trump elected. Hilary's "deplorables" comment came back to bite me, along with numerous other verbal at- tacks on people who supported Trump. If I may use a profound understatement, that's not a way to win over people who are on the fence as to whom to support or are even leaning your direction. In fact, it gives those individuals a power- ful motivation to vote against you. The bigotry argument is hard to use considering some who went for Trump voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. In- deed, he won more non-white and millennial voters than Romney and McCain achieved. I'm not a Donald Trump fan. However, except for now being twenty dollars poorer, I'm not terribly upset about it, either. If he does turn out to be presi- dent, the country will survive. We've had lousy presidents in the past and we will in the future. That's not getting into the fact that many in the media scream- ing now made the same kind of dire predictions if Romney or McCain got elected, candidates that were actually fairly moder- ate. I won't go into the specifics here since most have heard them plenty of times. Perhaps our fel- lows in the media should refresh their knowledge of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". However, it's not Trump that people are voting for. They aren't even voting against Hilary, at least not entirely. People are vot- ing against the status quo. Trust in government is nearly zero at this point and at the lowest it's been since records were being kept. A considerable majority be- lieve that the system is rigged, that they are being screwed, that the elites of the country have taken control, and that the fu- ture for their children will be poorer than it has been for them. If they're smart, the two political parties should take note of this. What we're seeing is a popu- list uprising. The public is furious at the Establishment, whom they feel has betrayed them. Trump is hardly the first populist candi- date to run for the highest office in the land, but he is the only one to take over a major party and win a general election at least since Andrew Jackson. Nor is this an exclusively Re- publican phenomenon. Two years ago, Bernie Sanders was a no- body. Few outside his native Ver- mont had heard of the dem- ocratic socialist. He was only meant to be in the race to ap- pear as if Hilary Clinton was be- ing nominated instead of being a coronation. But he gained mo- mentum, gained support, a fol- lowing, and became a genuine threat to Clinton. Ultimately, he did not succeed in getting the nomination, but the fight was much harder than it was sup- posed to be; indeed, the Demo- cratic party had to rig the sys- tem in order to ensure his defeat, something I'm sure delighted his supporters. In fact, Sanders re- ceived about the same percent- age of votes that Trump obtained in the Republican primaries. Improbable as it appears, Trump and Sanders are simi- lar in numerous ways. Both op- posed NAFTA and the Trans-Pa- cific Partnership. Both claimed that the average working man was being screwed over by Wall Street. Both had a group of pas- sionate supporters, and both called for campaign finance re- form. Sanders claimed that im- migration reduced wages. Both used the anger of the American public to aspire to power. Nobody can really feel happy about winning this election, considering how ugly it was. Whoever did end up winning was going to face unprece- dented hostility from the other side. Hilary was proud to call the Republicans her true en- emy, an attitude that would have guaranteed zero cooper- ation from them. Trump will not have a democratic minority willing to cooperate, either, and will have a media chomping at the bit to tear him to shreds. Trevor Bacquet lives in Tehama. Trevor Bacquet My thoughts on the election of Donald Trump to the presidency 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 By Trevor Bacquet Nobody can really feel happy about winning this election, considering how ugly it was. 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 LaMalfa, 507 Cannon House Office 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 Maybe we can all laugh now that the election is over and get down to a normal life. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, November 12, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4