Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   (530) 515-2137   Red Bluff Daily News   9/11/2018

Some news items just recycle

It is striking that so much of the news has a repetitive nature, as recycled or even resurrected stories that command at least some of our limited attention span. As yet another hurricane season parades across our screens, with due regard for the actual or potential loss of property and lives, the images that the media obsessively provide us—with exaggerated import due to proximity to the East Coast media home base—will cause this viewer to skip the coverage whenever possible.

We will see and hear the inevitable focus on the federal response with thinly-veiled hopes for the kind of botched job by President Trump that America—or perhaps just the Democrat/media complex—saw in the Katrina response by President Bush. At the time, I saw massive failures by Democrat officials and politicians in New Orleans and Louisiana that got a lot of people killed before they relented and implored the same federal help that they had avoided for political blame-shifting purposes. I promise that if there are no failures by Trump’s agencies or people, the news cycle will quickly move elsewhere.

The National Football League again utterly fails to absorb the message sent loud and clear by most of America, and articulated by President Trump in pithy tweets: When overpaid, narcissistic athletes, who often tolerate thuggish and abusive behavior by some in their midst, abuse the pusillanimous, spineless NFL “leadership” to disrespect our nation’s anthem, flag, military and law enforcement—we “normals” just tune them out and abandon their entire livelihood.

I ceased watching the NFL when end zones became not just turf that earns a score on the board, but a stage seized to parade, strut, dance, gesticulate, and for stunts. I was tired of watching penalties become just another tactic rather than a negative infraction to be avoided. Announcer patter that focused on off-field antics and in-house drama just became tedious, even offensive. College teams and contests reward my time.

One picture and caption summed it up: The scene is a small-town parade; the flags of their state and our nation pass. A couple of boys stand at the curb, one boy’s hand over his heart while the other boy’s hands are both occupied holding his little body up from his wheel chair. The caption: “This little boy is attempting to stand for the national anthem without the use of his legs…If he can stand, so can we.”

A fine and exemplary Supreme Court nominee, Bret Kavanaugh, was given the most disgusting, despicable treatment I have ever witnessed, with the possible exception of the “borking” of nominee Robert Bork by the odious Senator Ted Kennedy, and the racist character assassination inflicted on nominee Clarence Thomas. The assembling, use and parade of hysterical protesters to create a “mob mentality” in the hearing room—aided and abetted by Democrats on the committee and posing such a spectacle that his wife and young daughters felt compelled to leave the room—truly lowered the bar to the bottom for hearings.

Today’s date requires reflection on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by Islamic radicals who used passenger jets full of fuel to destroy the Twin Towers in New York City and part of the Pentagon. The heroic passengers of a fourth jet overcame the terrorists to prevent it destroying its target but died crashing in a Pennsylvania field. A commission investigating the attacks determined that the al Qaeda terrorist group took advantage of weaknesses in America’s anti-terrorism policies, particularly the so-called “wall of separation” built by the Clinton administration that prevented communication between the FBI and CIA.

A terrorist’s laptop came into the possession of the FBI but was kept from the awareness of another agency that could have had a timely analysis, likely preventing some or all of the attacks. Irrational and misplaced political correctness undermined alarms over numerous Muslim, middle-eastern men suspiciously taking flying lessons without an interest in landing procedures—and boarding in large numbers with little luggage. That made America a victim of its own religious aversions. Much has changed for the better over succeeding years and presidents but subsequent domestic and foreign attacks suggest failures, also. As with numerous school shootings, the bad guys usually have been ignored by the law, even when pointed out.

We had the widely covered, and strictly politically motivated, reemergence of Barack Obama for the crass purpose of undermining the current president: directly, by denigrating Trump’s record and achievements and claiming them as his own, and indirectly, by trying to boost the prospects of Congressional Democrats—knowing full well they seek nothing less the impeachment and removal of the Trump presidency.

This now, whether you like and supported Obama or not, places his record and words in the forefront of controversial debates. To wit, Obama’s responsibility for the devastating terrorist attack and deaths of Ambassador Stevens and his staff by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya, after being warned and pleaded with for more protection. Look up “Return of the Hypocrite,” at powerlineblog.com by John Hinderaker. “The king of hypocrisy wasted no time denouncing President Trump [DP: and Trump’s supporters—all 63 million of us] for being divisive and failing to respect the Constitution.”

So, the economy takes off after Trump and Republicans reversed his policies—Obama says credit him for the abundance. Divisive? Obama called opponents of same-sex marriage bigots, the Pro-Life movement a “War on Women,” immigration enforcement advocates racists, and the GOP the “enemy” of Hispanics.

Obama infamously called people suffering economically “bitter clingers” to guns and religion fueled by antipathy to non-whites and immigrants; he trampled on the Constitution to advance his immigration policies and attack his “Tea Party” opponents. He accused opponents of his “Iran deal” of making common cause with the “Death to America” faction of Iran. Thank you, Obama, for boosting Republican motivation.