Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/764292
Itwasalittleovertenyears ago that I started writing these weekly commentaries; I took some time this weekend to look at some of the columns from 2007 and 2008. It seems like the world hasn't changed much since then; we still have a caval- cade of true believers, prepos- terous events, misplaced an- ger, and wild speculation even though, by most measures, things are better now than they were then. Who would have thought that the oil and gas industry would be dominating the news today? The President-elect has selected CEO of Exxon Mo- bile to be the next Secretary of State. Exxon, of course is the company which knew about the human impact on our climate thirty years ago and suppressed that information from the pub- lic and its stockholders, funded pseudo-think tanks and "scien- tists for hire" to debunk and no- tion of human caused climate change; it copied the very tactic of the tobacco industry which twisted the facts about the dan- gers of smoking for a long time. Maybe deceit is a major tool in the tool box of diplomacy, and the CEO of Exxon will be well equipped to work with Vladimir Putin who flattered him with the Order of Friendship for his deals in Russia and oil. The two may make a good couple. Then we have absent minded Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas (a gas and oil state) who couldn't remem- ber he wanted to abolish the Department of Energy, now accepting the position of it leader as Secretary of Energy. At least he wasn't nominated for the department of Com- merce which he claimed he also would like to abolish, of the Department of Education which he doesn't believe in. The new leader of the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency comes from Oklahoma, the fracking state that has caused earthquakes. He was the Attor- ney General of that state, and sued the EPA over issues regard- ing regulation of the gas and oil industry. If I were on the panel questioning him, I would ask him "what steps will you take to protect our environment?" The absurdity of all of this is that these things not part of some political satire made up about a dystopian world. Despite potential concerns about the new administration, I think it is too soon to give way to wild conjecture. During the election of 2008 there were pre- dictions of dire doom because John McCain had been defeated by 10 million votes by a black Democrat. It turned out not to be the end of the world or of American democracy. In fact, by most measures we are better off now than in 2008. Rather than gripe and spec- ulate, we need to pay atten- tion. We need to watch and lis- ten. That is what democracy requires of its citizens. Let's make a resolution to do that next year. Let's pay attention to our representatives, use dis- cernment in listening to and reading the news, and stop complaining about government not doing its job. If we do our job it will do theirs. In 2007 I wrote about one of my favorite Christmas memories: When our children were younger, probably around ten to twelve, we created an ad- vent calendar for each of them. In each day on the calendar we placed a little note. The notes would say things like, "Dad will do your chores this day", or "you can pick dinner this day", or "Mom will make your bed today", or "free out of the doghouse". Each of the children could decide when to "cash in" his or her gift, the only restriction being no more than one redemption per day. Next September one of our children had done something that was really not very good; I can't remember what it was, but he was bound for a long period of "groundation". Af- ter we had scolded him and told him the consequences of what he had done, he went upstairs to his room, and we could hear some noises like he was opening and closing the drawers on either his desk or dresser. After a few minutes, he came downstairs and pro- duced the "free out of the dog- house" Advent gift. We looked at each other and then hon- ored his request, even though we were not happy with what he had done. Several years later as I was thinking about this incident, it dawned on me that Christ- mas is not only about love and giving, it is also about an un- deserved gift, freely given to humanity, and it is up to us to accept that gift and live ac- cordingly. That is why we pro- claim joy to the world. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop A time of joy Responseto sounding off item Editor: It appears that Pat Johnston cannot accept the fact that Donald Trump is the Presi- dent Elect of the United States elected by the people. I can imagine her lying on the floor, gnawing on the car- pet, pounding her fists and kicking in a hissy fit because her candidate lost. It also appears that the logi- cal way of the left when things don't go their way is to bully, scream and insult. Pat has in- sulted over half of Tehama County voters by calling them "brain dead" and "morons." Now Trump supporters are not only deplorable but brain dead morons. Thanks Pat. Pat's candidate sure set up a great deal for her friend Putin for a sweet deal on uranium. I wonder how much money found it's way into the Clinton Foundation for that caper. Suck it up cup cake. Let's move on and try to fix this mess that the left has put the country in. Let's fix the $20 trillion debt that the present administration has put us in. Let's close the open borders and bring back jobs for Americans. — Larry Castillo, Red Bluff Adapting to high retiree inflation Editor: As many will note, there was no Social Security infla- tion rate adjustment this year or last. In 2017 the Social Security check minus the Medicare In- surance premium increase re- sults in a slight pension check decrease. Each year, in preparing doc- umentation for the too many pages of tax forms, review the inflation increases. Our Medicare Part D pre- scription insurance cost has increased an average of 9.9 percent yearly since 2006. Auto and home insurance in- creases have averaged 5 per- cent yearly, with no accidents and 12 year average car ages. Food costs since the year 2000 averaged 2.2 percent yearly inflation, but Social Se- curity benefits have only in- creased 2.1 percent yearly. Our Long Term Care insur- ance premium increases 13 percent in 2017. The Medicare Part D prescription insurance doughnut hole now occurs April through December. For those whose age re- quires hiring service workers for home and property care, California has increased the minimum wage from the Fed- eral $7.25 hourly rate to $10 or a 38 percent inflation increase. Airline travel costs to visit our children and grandkids have doubled since 1994. Since reaching age 65 in 2000, our out of pocket health care costs now average one- third of our total pre tax in- come from savings, Social Se- curity, and two small never in- flation adjusted pensions. In summary, since reach- ing age 65, the annual infla- tion rate has averaged 6 per- cent yearly, but the govern- ment says there is no inflation for retirees because they as- sume inflation only applies to non food consumption pur- chases instead of mostly ser- vices, energy, food, and out of pocket health care. There are partial solutions. Record the monthly and yearly costs for utilities, telephone services, food, transportation, and health care. Take every legal tax deduc- tion possible. Ask your tele- phone provider to cut services when there is the annual one- third to three quarters price increase as the previous one year special offer ends. Keep vehicles 15 to 20 years, instead of buying a new car every four to five years. Repair costs are always much less than the loss in value during the first year of new car own- ership. Buy fuel efficient cars instead of gas guzzling SUVs and trucks. Save and invest for retire- ment early in the work career. Avoid smart phones and cable TV. Use the library instead of buying books. Reduce yearly the number of subscriptions to magazines and newspapers. And the list goes on. Since private sector pensions are never inflation adjusted, the challenge is to cut spending yearly to match inflation. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Cartoonist's take Naturally, President Obama called for a review about Russia meddling with the 2016 election. Of course, there's no ev- idence backing Democrats' original claim that the Russian government hacked the U.S. election, so now they've re- duced the charges to meddling, and hope no one, including electoral college voters, notice. Even the pro-Clinton Wash- ington Post admitted that the alleged hackers were "one step removed" from the Rus- sian government. They also ac- knowledged the possibility that Republicans got a pass because maybe their computers had better security. What we do know is that Rus- sians did not force Democrats to write damning emails, nor did they coerce Hillary Clinton to set up a private server nor did they strong-arm hard-working Americans in the Rust Belt to come out in droves for Trump. There is no evidence that the Kremlin rigged voting machines or altered vote counts. However, we do know that an unidentified someone hacked Democrats' emails which gave Americans the rare opportunity to peak behind the blinds to see the ugly things Democrats do when no one is watching. For some strange reason, Re- publicans got a pass. There- fore, the current Democrat freak-out is not about vote rig- ging or fraud, but that Dem- ocrats got to see what it feels like to be a Republican. So, while Democrats con- tinue their tantrums, maybe the Trump administration will investigate the hacking of Georgia Secretary of State's of- fice computers which inciden- tally was not traced to Russia. Apparently, it was an inside- job by the Obama administra- tion's Department of Homeland Security [DHS]. The office which manages Georgia's elections claims it suffered 10 interestingly- timed cyberattacks on its net- work, "traced back to U.S. De- partment of Homeland Secu- rity [DHS] addresses," reports WSB-TV in Georgia. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp told the television station the timing of some of the cyberattacks allegedly by DHS oc- curred when he testified before Congress about his opposition to the Obama administration's plan to classify state-run election sys- tems as "critical infrastructure." Kemp said other attacks coin- cided with big events like Geor- gia's voter registration dead- line, the SEC primary, the gen- eral primary, and the day before and after the presidential elec- tion. Kemp said DHS' story keeps changing, so he sent a letter ask- ing for President-elect Donald Trump's assistance after the re- sponse he received from DHS Sec- retary Jeh Johnson left him with more questions than answers. It's too bad Obama wasn't as interested in hacking as he was turning American values on their head. Maybe he could have prevented the huge breach in 2015 at the U.S. Office of Per- sonnel Management [OPM], which stole just about anything an identity thief would like to know about 21.5 million veter- ans, civilians, federal employ- ees and federal retirees alike. Hackers also stole 5.6 million sets of fingerprints, possibly leaving undercover agents dan- gerously compromised. But, apparently, all that is small potatoes now that Hill- ary lost, so Obama has sud- denly sparked an interest in Russian meddling, asking that an investigation be completed before he leaves office. As if Obama is guiltfree when it comes to meddling. It seems the Senate Permanent Sub- committee on Investigations [PSI] found the Obama admin- istration meddled with Isra- el's elections when it gave tax- payer money to an organization that changed its name after the grant ran out, then used its re- sources to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Per the PSI press release: "The State Department ig- nored warning signs and funded a politically active group in a politically sensitive environment with inadequate safeguards...U.S. taxpayer dol- lars were used to build a politi- cal infrastructure that was de- ployed...against a leader of our closest ally in the Middle East. American resources should be used to help our allies in the region, not undermine them." Maybe it's time to clean our own house first? Actually, vot- ers did. Therefore, propagating the farfetched misnomer that Russia hacked the 2016 presi- dential election to favor Trump, has nothing to do with hacking and everything to do with what happens when Democrats lose an election fair-and-square. Susan Stamper Brown lives in Alaska and writes about culture, politics and current events. Contact her by Facebook or at writestamper@gmail.com. Susan Stamper Brown Russia freak-out is what happens when Democrats lose 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 Susan Stamper Brown Maybe it's time to clean our own house first? Actually, voters did. Therefore, propagating the farfetched misnomer that Russia hacked the 2016 presidential election to favor Trump, has nothing to do with hacking and everything to do with what happens when Democrats lose an election fair-and-square. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, December 17, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B4