Letters for November 21, 2019

Two on the cover

Re “Weapons of mass deception” (Cover story, by Daniel Walters, Nov. 14):

The story by Daniel Walters provided abundant material on reliable sources of information and fact-based news.

However, its jumbled data was presented in such a convoluted mish-mash style that it was hard to follow. Somewhere along the line, from Spokane to Chico, Walter’s piece deserved a serious editor.

Daniel could be encouraged to follow the wisdom of heavyweight boxing champ Joe Louis: “When a man’s got something to say, he don’t need to take all day to say it.”

Charles Geshekter

Chico

Given Trump’s achievements and wins for Americans/others—tax, regulatory, prison, immigration, veterans reform; historical employment and stock market highs; funding for HBCU, technical/vocational studies, opioid crisis; rebuilding our military while decimating ISIS, sanctioning bad players, and ending endless wars; securing U.S. energy independence while lowering CO2 emissions, accelerating Superfund cleanups, and investing more money for water infrastructure (per EPA); leveling the playing field through fair trade agreements; setting historical highs in the Economic Optimism index; and much more—and the media’s 92 percent to 96 percent negative coverage of Trump for the past three years, Daniel Walters’ article lacks credibility when he blatantly ignores the abject bias and propaganda spewed daily by the mainstream media as the main driver of distortion.

If actions speak louder than words, isn’t it time for the mainstream media to give fair coverage to all the good the Trump administration is doing?

John Blenkush

Forest Ranch

‘Crazy antics’

Re “An easy out” (Second & Flume, by Melissa Daugherty,

As a Camp Fire survivor, over the last several months I have heard from others who survived the Camp Fire and relocated to Chico, too, tell me how surprised they were to find such crazy antics being played out toward certain members of the Chico City Council.

For instance, the recall attempts of Karl Ory and Randall Stone from a fringe element of local Trump supporters supposedly unhappy with the results from the last election.

Now I just heard they needed to collect [7,600] signatures for Councilman Ory and another [7,600] signatures for Mayor Stone to be put on a special election ballot in order to be possibly recalled. However, these unhappy individuals weren’t able to collect enough, and with the deadline looming had to admit that very few cared for their political stunt.

As one person told me, “Maybe this is what we can now expect in the era of Trump.”

Jim Henson

Chico

Good news: The phony recall of Councilman Karl Ory and Mayor Randall Stone by a few Trump supporters is over. The people of Chico have spoken, again.

Bob Mulholland

Chico

Syringe program rebuke

Free needles for junkies! How cool is that? Is it as cool as junkies defecating on the creek banks? Sure, it is! And needles are small and cheap, not like porta-potties to contain the human feces of the disenfranchised homeless that have impacted our creeks for so long. Good job, city!

And if you think free needles are a bad idea, try providing any kind of housing for these Lou Reed wannabes. I mean, needles are cheap! Should the city also require a place for these junkies to shoot up? A place where free-needle customers can chase the dragon, away from the prying eyes of children? Probably too expensive!

I should take this opportunity to thank the city for placing the Junkies Come Here sign a block from my home, in a public park, rather than in their, um, more affluent neighborhoods. But I won’t.

Randy Abbott

Chico

Editor’s note: To learn more about the syringe access program, which was approved by the state of California, see Healthlines, page 12.

Lockups and ultimatums

Two solutions to the homeless crisis in Chico and other cities:

1) Short term: Cities should put them all together in a football stadium and lock the doors. Provide food, blankets, johns and drink. They are a danger to others, they drain all the city services—police, fire, etc. They carry diseases, they use illegal drugs, they leave needles around, they leave trash around. They are violent, they are criminals (break into houses, hurt others). They need an ultimatum!

2) Long term: If they want out of the stadium, they have to agree to 21 days at a crisis house for counseling and medication, etc. If they are amenable and complete the 21-day program, then give them the housing. If not, they stay curtailed.

Mary Nordskog

Paradise

Unintended consequences

A recent law passed in California was: High schools will not start class until 8:30 in the morning. Currently, most local schools start at around 8 a.m. with the exception of late-start days. People argue that high school students do not receive the amount of sleep they need. They say that, as a result of having a later start to their school day, students will be more rested. This, however, is false and will create conflicts.

Once the law comes into effect, parents of high school students who need to drop their kids off early will be affected. Late school start times mean later school end times, which will conflict with after-school and extracurricular activities that students participate in. Late high school start may have its benefits, but it has more drawbacks that are not being taken into account and need to be factored in.

Maddie Hoff

Chico

Impeachment impressions

Amazing to watch Republicans distort reason to defend a man known to lie about everything in the face of testimony from people—war heroes, lifelong civil servants, patriots—they’ve canonized in the very recent past. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s characterization of them as “beclowning” themselves is the best summation yet.

But in legal and logic terms, no one has quite captured in English the full extent of Trump’s now-proven crimes—and they are, legally, crimes, no question. You hear terms like “bribery” and “extortion,” but our president’s treatment of the struggling, embattled Ukrainians during their time of extreme need combined the two, and thereby, in Trump’s manner of kicking human venality to the next exponent, compounded each. And he did so not with the wealth of which he so often boasts, but ours—yours and mine.

Whatever the outcome in Sen. Mitch McConnell’s jaundiced Senate, history and our grandchildren will deem that indefensible.

Norman Beecher

Chico

‘Commander-in-Thief’

When promoting his tax cut, Trump strongly touted that it “would not benefit the wealthy.” Neatly tucked away in the final bill is a federal tax break provision intended to draw investment to lower-income areas but that instead has become a conduit for the rich to avoid paying taxes, especially those who are real estate developers. Surprise!

“Opportunity zones” are real estate development areas deemed investment deserts, aka high-risk geographical areas, and a way to transfer capital gains taxation to real estate development. In reality, the tax break is being exploited to juice the profit margins on projects, like the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s investment in Pier Village, which promotes itself as a “jewel on the New Jersey coast”; where one-bedroom apartments fetch $2,765 monthly rents.

Kushner is one of many developers buying into about 9,000 opportunity zones across the country. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has interceded to help his friend Michael Milken, a billionaire junk bond king and felon, who wants to develop an opportunity zone that includes, among other projects, a 700-acre industrial park.

A hidden gift to billionaires courtesy of our Commander-in-Thief. I wonder how long his base will continue to look the other way.

Roger S. Beadle

Chico