Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/768762
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 Youneverheartheterm"blackliar"any- more. I think it died in the 19th century, which is a shame, because it'd be a kick to diss a fabulist by saying, "You are a black liar, sir!" We should revive it, if only to use it on Trump. I'm supposed to be on va- cation, but naturally the black liar has tweeted some- thing new that cries out for a fact-based cor- rective. I'm well aware that truth has be- come a quaint concept cov- eted by only half the elector- ate, but hey, I was trained to refute liars and I won't ever apologize for sustaining a career habit. And this post won't take long, because the wifi at 30,000 feet costs more than a price surge on Uber. As you probably know, Trump is scrambling to shutter the Donald J. Trump Foundation one step ahead of the New York attorney general's probe. He's like a drug dealer who flushes his stash down the toilet when the cops come knock- ing. Part of his strategy, of course, is to float the lie that the foundation was fantastic all along and that nothing it or he did was ever amiss. Which brings us to the tweet he thumbed at 11 p.m. Dec. 26: "The DJT Foundation, unlike most foundations, never paid fees, rent, sala- ries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to wonderful charities!" Here's the thing about Trump: If you want to know when he's lying, don't just watch his lips move. Follow the exclamation marks. All the money went to wonderful charities. I bet he truly believes that alt-re- ality. But in the reality, the Trump Foundation spent $264,631 to renovate a foun- tain outside the windows of his Plaza Hotel. It spent $250,000 to settle lawsuits that ensnared Trump's for- profit companies. It spent $30,000 on Trump por- traits, one of which hangs in Trump sports bar. It spent $25,000 on a political contri- bution — the IRS bars char- ities from making politi- cal contribution. Trump also used foundation money to buy a two-person member- ship to the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art. All those expenditures have raise questions about whether Trump broke laws that prohibit "self-dealing." That's what the New York AG's office is probing, to de- termine whether or to what extent Trump personally benefited from foundation outlays that were legally ear- marked for "wonderful char- ities." Indeed, an AG spokes- woman said on Dec. 27: "The Trump foundation is still under investigation by this office and cannot legally dis- solve until that investigation is complete." And speaking of exclama- tion marks, the black liar had another one that same night: "I gave millions of dollars to DJT Foundation, raised or recieved millions more, all of which is given to charity, and media won't report!" By the way, that's the way he spelled "recieved." Like he said, he loves the poorly educated. More importantly, he said yet again that "all" of the foundation money has gone to charity. And his first dec- laration, that he "gave mil- lions of dollars to DJT Foun- dation," skips the fact that, according to foundation tax records, Trump didn't give the foundation a cent of his own money in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, or 2014. He relied on outside donors, like pro wrestling mogul Linda McMahon. He just hired her to run the Small Business Administration. Anyway, I know it's futile to point this stuff out. But there may come a day when his followers begin to real- ize that he's not bringing back factory jobs, that he's not building a wall, that he and the Republicans are en- dangering their health care and Social Security, that his tweets are stoking inter- national crises. Only then would they begin to question his credibility. Which would be a good thing. Because black lies matter. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman Thelatestlie from Trump's alt-reality Cartoonist's take In 2017, for our Tehama County community, I hope and pray for a bet- ter economy, less crime, less drug abuse and depen- dency, more fam- ily cohesion, con- tinued wise lo- cal leadership and the lightest pos- sible burdens im- posed on that leadership by pol- iticians and regulators from the Emerald City to the south, Sac- ramento. It would be pointless to express such sentiments for our once-Golden State, given that, with the exception of a virtual "rump" contingent of Republican legislators (no disre- spect intended for our fine and valiant Jim Nielsen and James Gallagher), our state govern- ing apparatus has been entirely taken over by leftist, progres- sive Democrats. I can only hope that Gover- nor "Moonbeam" Brown and the radicals in charge are ef- fectively nullified by Don- ald Trump and Republicans in Washington on immigration "sanctuary" (read anti-constitu- tional) policies that get citizens killed, and their fanatical pur- suit of anti-"global warming" measures. Such inconsequential and futile efforts to reduce car- bon emissions in a world of vast natural CO2 sources and unre- strained Chinese coal-fired en- ergy have the singular result and purpose of creating a ham- strung, noncompetitive busi- ness environment. Moving vans to leave Califor- nia still cost three times what those same vans cost to come here from population and busi- ness magnets like Texas. Middle and upper-middle class workers and job creators still flee only to be replaced by impoverished immigrants, legal or not. Cal- ifornia's economy "works" for the rich coastal elites and in- creasingly—witness the removal of restrictions on increased wel- fare payments for popping out more babies—those who rely on the free flow of government "benefit" checks, food stamps, Medicaid and housing subsi- dies. Commanding the nation's at- tention, and the news media's Trump-deranged agenda, is the supposed Russian hacking of the 2016 election; "supposed" because the very term "election hacking" is a prime example of "fake news" that we've been ob- sessively admonished about. While election machines are subject to nefarious manipula- tion in rare instances, no one has even made a credible asser- tion that anyone "hacked" the voting apparatus of any local or state system. Yet, over half (52%) of Dem- ocrats polled believed "Russia tampered with vote tallies to get Trump elected" (Economist/ YouGov). For all the wailing and hysteria from the left and news media (two largely overlapping circles) about how "fake news" swayed voters—by which they mean inaccuracies, as they de- fine them, from Donald Trump and myths spread on Face- book—this most-damnable-lie- possible about the election is accepted as true by many of Clinton's supporters. They have, for the entirety of Barack Obama's term and Hill- ary Clinton's State Dept. record, witnessed fabrications, mis- statements, disingenuousness and bald-faced lies from those two politicians nearly every time their mouths were mov- ing. However, our once-impar- tial (maybe in the 1950s) prac- titioners of "the freedom of the press" ceased closely scrutiniz- ing high-level public servants' statements once Democrats as- sumed the positions. Their side of the voting citizenry remains oblivious to the veracity-de- fying patterns of Obama and Clinton. Iowahawk's David Burge tweeted a synopsis in "Iowa- hawk expertly dismantles me- dia's 'election hacking' B.S." Burge: "It took nationwide hu- miliation at the polls to spur the president to action, but yes- terday, he finally decided it was time to punish Russia for its co- ordinated cyberattacks against the U.S. But in light of Obama's recent wake-up call, it's impor- tant to remember that the Rus- sians had help—from unwit- ting, inept players like John Po- desta." First came a subtle tweet from @NPR: "President Obama orders sanctions against Rus- sian intelligence services of- ficials in response to election hacking." Mr. Burge simply tweeted "@NPR what 'elec- tion hacking' are you referring to?" Someone responded with a slam echoed locally: "pretty sad state of affairs when half of America is siding with the Russians." D.B.: "it's a pretty sad state of affairs when half of America is so…stupid they think Russia 'hacked the elec- tion.'" Iowahawk (D.Burge) wrote this irrefutable chronology in a dozen tweets: "John Podesta, like 100% of everyone who has ever had a email account, re- ceived a password phishing email. He fell for it. According to some accounts, the phish- ing email had Russian finger- prints or characteristics in its metadata. Whatever the case, the password purloin- ers downloaded his emails, which eventually got into the hands of Wikileaks, who made them public. The emails were mildly embarrassing, reveal- ing frequent circle jerking be- tween the DNC and journalists. Mostly embarrassing to media. "At the time of their release (Oct), they were hardly cov- ered by any media and largely dismissed as a big fat noth- ingburger. Not one of the peo- ple whose emails were revealed has ever disputed their authen- ticity or provenance. Fast for- ward to December. The Oc- tober nothingburger has now magically transformed into 'vote hacking' and 'election hacking.' New narrative: trea- sonous Trump operatives con- spired with Putin to hypnoti- cally mesmerize Clinton vot- ers into pulling the wrong lever. This is not Alex Jones or angry conspiracy kook Face- book uncles, it's the NYTs, the WaPo, our beloved State Radio. How effective has this been? If polls are to be believed, 50%+ of Democrats believe the Rus- sians literally modified vote tallies. None of this is a de- fense of Trump or…Putin. It's an indictment of our garbage narrative-driven media. It shouldn't have to take a drunk internet nobody to point any of this out, but hey, here we are." The above is provided for the enjoyment of most, the conster- nation of a few. 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 New Year hope, old fake news But there may come a day when his followers begin to realize that he's not bringing back factory jobs, that he's not building a wall, that he and the Republicans are endangering their health care and Social Security, that his tweets are stoking international crises. Only then would they begin to question his credibility. Don Polson Dick Polman StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415393-0707, fax 415393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510286-8537, 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, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kristina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, January 3, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4