Don's Tuesday Column

           THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   2/20/2024

            It’s someone’s winter wonderland

For every weather condition, it will be great, good, marginal or really bad for someone. Sitting in our kitchen/dining area in our Bend, Oregon home, looking at the 5 or 6 inches of snow from the last couple of days, it’s a winter wonderland. The sky is clearing; the sun may turn the snow from white to dazzling white.

Hidden are the dead leaves, the mixed brown and green stubble of our lawn, and the odd rocks and other effluvia, leaving a white canvas with some conical or other shaped piles under which plants and pots hide. Our reliable renter will fire up the snow blower and clear our driveway; our street will, unfortunately, not be plowed as there are more deserving stretches of asphalt.

Our various pine and dormant trees display either pillows of snow, or snow-flocked bare branches; without any wind, it’s easy to see where a bird lands or hops as fine mists of snow drift down. Little paw prints outside our sliding glass door show us that someone’s feline is making its rounds.

As I alluded, all is not idyllic. Some groceries are running low; we tell ourselves that maybe the streets will melt tomorrow, or the next day. Most drivers give a good accounting of themselves but it only takes one bonehead looking at their little screen to give the rest a big headache. Just glad we stocked up last week.

The feet of snow added to the ski runs is welcome but, for us, it’s “too much of a good thing.” Safety being paramount, we need good visibility and groomed, predictable runs to reduce the risks to a new knee. Of course, the “powder hounds” with apparent x-ray vision and internal gyroscopes flock to the expected “free refills” on their next run.

Conditions back home in Red Bluff are only a few clicks away; the NOAA/airport stats tell us that about 10 inches of the wet stuff have fallen since our early January departure. Again, too much of a good thing when flood control releases and swollen creeks start giving cause for concern.

In the “shoulda/woulda/coulda” column, you can ask where those water storage facilities are, as literally trillions of gallons of runoff flow to the ocean. A forward-looking modern state—like the one that built the freeways and dams we now enjoy—would have said to the NIMBY and BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody) crowd, “Tough beans, a growing state needs these infrastructure projects—enviro nuts can pound sand.” Instead, the nuts are running the asylum.

While you’re at it, get rid of all of your own petroleum products before lecturing us on being “carbon free.” I have nothing but insults for the fanatics that think we must remove fossil fuels from agriculture, meat production, transportation, and endless products. Go find and live in some carbon-free paradise, and starve and watch the rest of the world not, repeat not, collapse from your imagined global warming/climate apocalypse.

Ideologically-driven local and state fools demanded that our diversion dam be decommissioned; the cost-free water would have easily filled the Sites Reservoir every year. Between that and another proposed dam and forebay in the Sierras, we could have had enough storage for all of SoCal’s residential needs.

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In spite of Tehama and Shasta Counties having a minor “Hatfield and McCoy” relationship, I still consider the Democrat-led recall of Shasta County District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye to warrant some local attention. Long story short, I think he spearheaded an effort to have electronic voting machines (Dominion?) replaced by paper ballots.

If memory serves from last fall, Crye’s efforts prompted—for reasons that escape me—a fanatical effort by Shasta County Dems to kick the guy out of his office, which could have been achieved in the next election, but for some hyper-partisan aversion to paper ballots and devotion to the electronic machines.

While space allows, please note: Sacramento Democrats are so agitated against paper ballots that they passed a law forbidding the practice. Moreover, Democrat-run states are not only obsessed with mail-in voting, but are also adamant in not allowing one change to voting procedures that could eliminate vote fraud.

From January, “DHS warned of integrity of mail-in voting in 2020 election but at the same time censored questions—The federal government was trying to basically spread propaganda that 2020 was ‘safe and secure’ and that there was no issue with the mail-in ballots when they themselves knew that this is a huge vulnerability,” Abe Hamadeh said. (justthenews.com)

“Government Suppressed, Censored Concerns Over Mail-In Voting in 2020: Documents—The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency knew mail-in voting was less secure ahead of the 2020 election but worked to suppress that information” (theepochtimes.com).

In a repeat of what happened after the 2020 election in Georgia, “Local Reporter Describes Election Expert Halderman Breaking into Dominion Voting Machine and Changing Vote Totals During His Georgia Testimony,” (Jim Hoft, thegatewaypundit.com, 1/21)

The “River Park Closure…” article justifies every negative thing I’ve written about the scourge of “homelessness.”