Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/796887
ShouldAmericakeepCamp David for our Presidents so they can get away, work and play? It has been used for those purposes for al- most eighty years. It actually could be put on the market. As you may have learned President Don- ald Trump prefers his opulent Mar-a-Lago Resort in Florida. He even refers to that prop- erty of his as the Southern White House. He has taken Air Force One down there four times already in his almost two months as President. Such trips must include Air Force One, Marine One, a motorcade and the extensive Secret Ser- vice detail. A Coast Guard pa- trol will always be waiting for him there. Camp David is technically a military base. It is located only 62 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. It is always staffed by members of the US Navy and Marine Corps. That staffing is maintained 24-7. Construction began in 1935. Shortly thereafter, Pres- ident Franklin Delano Roos- evelt converted it to his pres- idential retreat. Camp David got its name shortly thereafter from Mr. Roosevelt's successor, President Dwight David Eisen- hower. The cost for President Trump's traveling to Mar-a- Lago is at $10 million so far. Camp David, though often dormant, costs less at $8 mil- lion for an entire year. When directly asked about using Camp David instead of Mar- a-Lago, President Trump de- scribed it as "very rustic... Camp David's nice, you'd like it. You know how long you'd like it? For about 30 minutes." Apparently, American tax- payers can look forward to even more sarcasm. Camp David is apparently not nice enough for the The Donald. To be fair, history tells us that President Obama did not par- ticularly find it appealing ei- ther and spent most of his weekends at the White House itself. President Carter even thought once about getting rid of it when he was in office. However, in 1978 he was able to achieve the Camp David Ac- cords there when Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egypt's President Anwar Sa- dat had 12 days of secret nego- tiations. President George W. Bush and his wife Laura loved Camp David and spent 12 consecutive Christ- mases there. Then once af- ter George W. hosted British Prime Minister Tony Blair there he jokingly told report- ers that he had learned that both he and Mr. Blair used the same toothpaste, which happened to be Colgate. President Ronald Reagan set the record for visits. He went to Camp David a record 150+ times. Also, since Camp David is constantly protected by our military it doubles as a secure bunker in time of crisis, as it did on 9-11. My take is that the United States should continue to keep and maintain Camp Da- vid. Much significant history has already taken place there and it is obviously quite cost efficient for any future Pres- ident who would care make use of it. Camp David is what I call "turn-key-ready." I cer- tainly would not mind go- ing there myself just to get away and get a well deserved break from the most impossi- ble job of being President. To me personally, even though I have never been invited to Camp David, the place does have political and sentimen- tal value to many citizens of our country. I say let's keep it. Mytakeonthemovies "The Great Wall" is an ac- tion film starring Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal. If I had done some research I would have discovered a su- pernatural menace was inside the film and The Wall. This was not my kind of film. StanStathamserved1976-1994 in the California Assembly and was a television news anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965-1975. He is past president of the California Broadcasters Association and can be reached at StanStatham@ gmail.com. StanStatham My take on Camp David Camp David is apparently not nice enough for the The Donald. To be fair, history tells us that President Obama did not particularly find it appealing either and spent most of his weekends at the White House itself. Cartoonist's take Just because a policy invokes the word "merit" does not make it meritorious. Donald Trump's call Tuesday night for a "merit- based" immigra- tion system is not new; indeed, it is already part of our immigration law. It's been pro- moted for years by some Republicans, Democrats and, most notably, employers in Silicon Valley. It is the type of thinking that seems, on the surface, to make good sense, but is, in fact, a bas- tardization of America's core values. "It's a basic principle that those seeking to enter a coun- try ought to be able to support themselves financially," Trump told Congress. Really? If so we should take a wrecking ball to the Statue of Liberty. Wealth and education are no more a part of compassion- ate immigration policy than, say, religion — although Trump has proved fuzzy on that score as well. His various pronounce- ments about banning Muslims and giving preference to Chris- tian refugees show how twisted he is on all matters relating to immigration. The U.S. already gives prefer- ence to foreigners with college degrees and those planning to invest money in U.S. companies. They are among the pool of ap- plicants, which includes highly skilled workers, seeking so- called H-1B visas. Under current law, 85,000 H-1B visas are available each year, and they go quickly. Tech firms in California have insisted for some time that the number is too low. When executives from Silicon Valley met with Trump in De- cember they complained about the ceiling on H-1B visas, ac- cording to the tech news service Recode. Trump's over-simplified response was said to be, "Let's fix that." Trump has ahistory of re- sponding favorably to those seated in front of him, so it's too bad that none of the unskilled farmhands, kitchen workers and hotel employees on whom the economy depends have been in- vited to the Oval Office. The president's infatua- tion with "merit" appears to be a side-door method of lim- iting family-based immigra- tion, which represents the larg- est category of people entering the country. Roughly 65 percent of legal immigration to the U.S. is based on sponsorship by fam- ily members. Trump maintains that the current system is "straining the very public resources that our poorest citizens rely upon." There is no evidence whatsoever that increasing merit-based im- migration would change that. Yes, a case can be made that the U.S. would benefit from a greater influx of skilled doctors, researchers and technological wizards. For that matter, why wouldn't we want the best su- shi chefs from Japan or the best baseball players from Cuba? But even on that score, Trump conflates skill with wealth. He is fixated on welcoming those who can "support themselves." All foreigners, skilled or un- skilled, rich or poor, should be treated equally. That is the only formula with merit. Peter Funt can be reached at www.CandidCamera.com. He is a writer and speaker. His book, "Cautiously Optimistic," is available at Amazon.com and CandidCamera.com. Peter Funt Little merit in Trump's latest immigration view Another view Gambling is a huge busi- ness. I remember when the only places you could gamble legally were in Nevada. Now gambling is everywhere. This all began when Native Americans won a case be- fore the Supreme Court in 1976 in a dispute over a county tax bill. Once the casinos started being built, the proverbial genie was out of the bottle. State-sponsored lotteries be- came widespread and local gov- ernment soon jumped on the bandwagon approving casinos to generate income and sup- plement tax revenues. When I left Ohio in the late '70s it was a pretty conservative place. But soon Cincinnatians were driv- ing next door to Indiana so they could gamble on "the boat." Dif- ferent laws applied to vessels tied up on the riverbank. Cin- cinnati soon had its own boat, and eventually a full-fledged ca- sino on dry land. The attraction of gam- bling seems to be a univer- sal trait. There are always lots of cars at the casinos in Corn- ing and Redding. But why is it that smoking and gambling go hand-in-hand? I remem- ber ads stating that Win-River was a non-smoking casino. I al- ways hated casinos because cig- arette smoke would permeate the place. It's similar to when smoking was allowed on planes, and everyone smelled like a smoker when they landed. Un- fortunately, when I finally paid Win-River a visit, it was three months after they abandoned their smoke-free policy. Nonetheless, I've occasionally braved the "non-smoking" sec- tions in casinos. I have noticed there appears to be an excess of older folks, many not in the best of health. I've read about retired folks getting into trou- ble by overspending at their fa- vorite casino. My Mom loves to play the slots. She starts at the quarter machines, soon join- ing me at the nickel or penny slots if she doesn't win. My goal is to play as long as I can with- out spending any money. I have friends who play the tables and win or lose hundreds of dollars, but I guess I'm just not much of a gambler. I recently took my Mom to bingo back in Ohio. Every Catholic parish in town seems to have a bingo. It's a big church money-maker and had always been exempt from the old gambling laws. But playing bingo can also be expensive. It costs about $60 to buy a de- cent number of cards and a bingo computer. This machine hums along playing many cards at once and tells you if it bingos. Wild. There were many bewildering winning combi- nations and I was often totally lost. "Four corners, double bingo, big and little diamonds, and crazy L" were just some of the patterns. It can drive the neo- phyte bingo player mad. Just give me the old straight-line and coverall games. Those I can play. But they're not just playing bingo. Volunteers con- stantly roam the hall selling "instants' for five dollars or so. You tear open the ticket to see if you've won. A person can eas- ily spend $100 at bingo if they also buy instants. But most folks usually end up winning something, which at least helps defray the cost. I don't enter many contests or buy lottery tickets. So, there is no chance of seeing a TV crew coming to my door. But I did win a nice shotgun once. My cousin intimidated me into buying a ticket for a VFW raf- fle his Post was having down in Kentucky. They were definitely surprised when the winner was a kid from Cincinnati. Sorry, but gambling isn't for me. It's not that I'm tight, just call me fiscally conservative, and the house always wins. Corky Pickering and his wife relocated from the Bay Area to Cottonwood in 2014. He recently retired from the federal government as an attorney advising law enforcement. He has been a rock and roll bass player and a Marine JAG. He can be reached at thecork6@ gmail.com. Gambling — You can't win if you don't try, but the house still wins ChipThompson, Editor 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: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Stan Statham Peter Funt Wealth and education are no more a part of compassionate immigration policy than, say, religion — although Trump has proved fuzzy on that score as well.His various pronouncements about banning Muslims and giving preference to Christian refugees show how twisted he is on all matters relating to immigration. Corky Pickering The attraction of gambling seems to be a universal trait. There are always lots of cars at the casinos in Corning and Redding. But why is it that smoking and gambling go hand-in-hand? OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, March 9, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4