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2 Wednesday, July 6, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Robert B. Reich American Voices WelcomeQuilters! Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let- ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: When I was a little girl, every time a plane went over our Southern California home, we all ran out to see it. How could that thing stay up there? To this day, I still get a thrill every time I hear a plane or helicopter go over. I live about five blocks from the airport, at Tamarack Village Apartments. The lawnmow- ers in the park and nearby neighbors are much more annoying than the planes, but I don’t mind because they keep everything looking great. Right now, at 2 p.m. on Friday, July 1, I have not seen or heard a plane since around 1 p.m. when a green helicopter went over. If I lived in Redmond I could hear and watch planes all day and night. I will be 88 on July 7. I hope I will never become so narrow-minded that I cannot enjoy seeing a skydiver coming slowly to earth, or hearing the wonder of that beautiful thing defying gravity. Oops! Gotta go! There’s another one going over. Maggie Bull s s s To the Editor: Re: “The Bunkhouse Chronicle — The big identity party,” The Nugget, June 29, page 20). Amen! Each and every person in the U.S. Congress should read this. Obama too, although he would vehemently deny every truth you just stated. Christine DeForest s s s To the Editor: A nuisance is defined in the Webster’s New World Dictionary as an act, condition, thing or See lEttERS on page 13 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday Friday Saturday Sunday monday Sunny Mostly sunny Chance showers Chance showers Chance showers Mostly sunny 76/45 79/51 63/45 66/41 62/41 70/na The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Publisher - Editor: Kiki Dolson News Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Williver Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Advertising: Karen Kassy Graphic Design: Jess Draper Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Accounting: Erin Bordonaro The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. The tectonic plates of American politics are no longer moving along the old fault lines of “left vs. right” or even Democrat versus Republican. As we’ve seen this bizarre political year, the biggest force welling up is rage against insider elites in both parties and against the American establishment as a whole — including the deni- zens of Wall Street, large cor- porations and the mainstream media. Now, with Bernie Sand- ers essentially out of the race, Donald Trump wants Americans to believe he’s the remaining anti-establishment candidate. It’s smart politics, but it’s a hoax. Trump is even more of an establishment figure than Hillary Clinton — inherit- ing a fortune from his father, spending years bribing politi- cians to subsidize his hotels and casinos, and repeatedly using bankruptcy to shield his money while leaving creditors and workers hold- ing the bag. But Trump is also a bril- liant huckster who knows his mark. “There is one thing that Bernie Sanders and I are in complete accord with and that’s trade,” Trump said last week. “[Sanders] said we’re being ripped off, and I say with being ripped off. I’ve been saying it for years, he’s been saying it for years. I think I am saying it even louder. ... Globalization has made the financial elite who donate to politicians very wealthy. But it has left mil- lions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache.” It’s pure demagoguery. Trade isn’t to blame for the declining wages and job security of most Americans. The real problem has been the unwillingness of the big- gest beneficiaries of trade (and also of job-displacing technologies) to share the gains with the rest of Amer- ica through larger wage sub- sidies, stronger safety nets, better schools and easier access to higher education. Trump’s Republican Party has been the main culprit. Trump has vowed to withdraw from the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership — “another disaster done and pushed by special interests who want to rape our coun- try,” he said recently — which Hillary Clinton praised in 2012 as “set[ting] the gold standard in trade agreements” before later reversing her- self after Sanders came out strongly against it. The central problem with the TPP is it would penalize member nations for raising health, safety, environmen- tal and labor standards. But this aspect of the TPP doesn’t trouble Trump, who calls America “overregulated.” Trump’s faux populism extends to “powerful corpo- rations, media elites and pow- erful dynasties,” who, he said last week in Pennsylvania, again echoing Sanders, have “rigged the system for their benefit [and] will do anything and say anything to keep things exactly as they are.” Unwittingly, the GOP establishment seems intent on proving Trump’s point. Mitt Romney condemns him, conservative media pundit George Will is deserting the Republican Party because of him, big business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufactur- ers blast him. “It’s almost, in some ways, like I’m running against two parties,” Trump crowed recently. He has also said, “The people who rigged the system are supporting Hillary Clinton.” It’s all an act. The real Donald Trump thinks U.S. wages are too high and has fought against the unioniza- tion of his hotel employees. His businesses outsource abroad like mad. Most of the suits, ties and cufflinks he peddles are made in China. His luxury line of furniture comes from Turkey. The crystal for his Trump Home line is produced in Slovenia. And the real Trump is on the side of the super-wealthy. He proposes to cut taxes on the rich from 39.6 percent to 25 percent, and to reduce taxes on all business income to 15 percent. The real Trump isn’t a populist. He’s a pluto- crat. Above all, he’s a con man. And the people being conned are average working Americans who are buying Trump’s ruse of being a man of the people. © 2016 By Robert Reich; Distributed by Tribune Con- tent Agency, LLC Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.