Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson     Red Bluff Daily News 9/03/2024

        Time to get serious, folks

While this writer has been frolicking about the countryside in Idaho and Oregon, it turns out that there has been no pause in the foolishness inflicted on our fair state. More on that below.

It bears repeating that one’s faith in humanity and America gets a boost when staying in parks and campgrounds. The family-centric atmosphere never gets old; munchkins, even micro- and mini-munchkins run, play, bicycle (some on training wheels) and scooter their way around the camp circle with boundless joy and abandon.

Parents can keep an eye on the tykes but it’s not like anything can go wrong in these delightful meccas of, well, freedom from anything threatening. Between a sand volleyball court, a tether ball pole, basketball hoop, and beached boat, it’s an endless parade of playfulness.

Outside of the usual families and friends catching crabs and fishing, some foreign visitors caught our attention. A young couple from Switzerland were on a lengthy trip from South America to Canada and Alaska. It was an engagement celebration for which they shipped their camper van to America; and yes, after many weeks of traveling and camping, they were still engaged to get married.

You see, the cost of shipping their camper was thousands of dollars less than renting one for that length of time. Much of their supplies stayed packed inside, but not their clothes (some rule). We saw the same thing years ago in West Yellowstone.

A Canadian man was on a sabbatical from his health system management job in Montreal, Quebec (pronounced “keh-beck”). By the way, a population map of Canada shows that over three-quarters of its citizens live within a hundred miles or so of the United States’ border; the remaining 8+ million people are spread over the remaining 95 percent of (mostly) wilderness. Question:“Isn’t Canada just an appendage of our nation?”

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Reading about the hundreds of millions of dollars destined for smaller newspapers and outlets, a conundrum posed itself. This normally skeptical (of government subsidies) conservative is disinclined to approve such spending, on the free-market principle that if the market place doesn’t support such news businesses, that’s life.

That’s a sound principle for such quasi-government entities as National Public Radio or PBS on TV; America has no business distributing tax dollars to what amounts to partisan, left-leaning NPR/PBS. If their content fails to attract subscribers, so what. With an abundance of streaming channels, revenues should be earned, not transferred from taxpayers.

However, on reading the details, the lion’s share of the funds come from Google, an entity that has disadvantaged news providers monetarily. Perhaps it can be justified for some of Google’s massive wealth to help struggling newspapers in such locales as Native tribal areas—and certainly, the Red Bluff Daily News, which is well deserving of such monetary help, when the alternative may mean losing this valuable resource.

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We’re looking forward to returning to Red Bluff in October, in time for the Republican election headquarters (in the Ramsey Jewelers location) to be up and running; we hope it will be a glorious, victorious November 5^th. Is it possible for Republican Steve Garvey to prevail over (insert your own insults) Adam Schiff?

Odds and ends: The reported 6.9 percent unemployment rate (Daily News), while certainly excessive, is actually several points higher due to the national trend of not counting those no longer searching for jobs. The “Labor Participation Rate” is still below the pre-COVID level; millions not even looking for work should be counted as unemployed. Biden/Harris-onomics?

“Harris' value around securing the border is on full display in California, where a group of 20 illegal immigrants tried to board a school bus full of young children on Wednesday morning.” (Redstate.com, “Illegal Immigrants Attempt Forcing Their Way Onto School Buses Filled With Children Near San Diego”)

“Over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, exceeding the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois.” (NY Times) Such are the results of one-party rule.

“The California legislature passed a bill banning local governments from adopting voter identification laws for local elections. California does not require identification to vote, but earlier this year, the City of Huntington Beach approved a voter ID requirement for municipal elections starting in 2026. This bill would override Huntington Beach’s policy.” (Thecentersquare.com) Democrats do not want transparent, fraud-free elections.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening to call a special session of the legislature if they don’t pass his proposal to further regulate California’s oil and gas industry—it would lead to higher prices for California drivers. As if the nation’s highest gas prices aren’t enough of a burden on struggling Californians.

At Thefederalist.com, Mark Hemingway points out that “If Donald Trump’s Sex Life Is Fair Game For The Election, So Is Kamala Harris’” (goose/gander, right?). Look it up by title and at donpolson.blogspot.com.