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2 Wednesday, January 10, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Editorial… “States’ Rights!” (note exemptions) Attorney General Jeff Sessions is a federal- ist who believes in states’ rights and local con- trol. Except when he doesn’t. Last week, as reported in the New York Times, AG Sessions “rescinded an Obama- era policy that had discouraged federal pros- ecutors from bringing charges of marijuana- related crimes in states that have legalized sales of the drug.” Attorney General Sessions is a proponent of states’ rights and an opponent of federal overreach. Except, apparently, when states take action that he doesn’t like. Sessions has a big problem with marijuana. In his worldview, “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” He certainly has the right to his opinion, though Willie Nelson and millions of others might disagree. His Justice Department should not, however, seek to impede or sub- vert the will of the voters in the states that have approved marijuana use. That is a textbook case of federal overreach. The Attorney General is not on the same page as the President on this issue. President Trump is on the record stating that marijuana policy “should be up to the states, absolutely.” It’s always hard to know how seriously Donald Trump takes his own policy pronouncements, but he’s right. There are many thorny issues associated with legal weed, including compatibility issues in rural/residential areas regarding agricultural production of marijuana. Deschutes County has been wrestling with those issues, and the Sisters City Council is poised this Wednesday to discuss in a workshop its approach to mari- juana production and distribution. And that’s exactly where these decisions should be made — at the state, county and local level. With respect, Attorney General Sessions, the feds need to butt out. Jim Cornelius Editor 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: We are so grateful for the respect, kindness and generosity that the Sisters community has shown for our service men and women who are serving throughout the world. Just yesterday I saw a woman approach a soldier and thank him for his service. As he was buying some tea, I offered to treat him and another customer had already stepped up to purchase him his beverage. As I went to the grocery store, I noticed that he was there buying some lunch. So I offered to buy his lunch and the storekeeper said that someone had already stepped up to buy his lunch. It was so humbling and impressive to see peo- ple stepping up to support and express their gratitude to this young soldier. He must have felt so loved and appreciated. He, along with other local soldiers and American soldiers, has stepped up to serve and protect our nation and other countries. This same love and generosity has been shown to my son-in-law and daughter who are presently deployed to different parts of the world. A local organization called Military Parents has united to support local families who have children or family members who are deployed. They have sent wonderful packages filled with goodies, healthy snacks and heart- warming cards to our son-in-law and daughter and to other deployed soldiers of local fami- lies. These packages are shared with many other deployed soldiers in their platoons. When you touch one soldier’s heart, you can touch many more. All of these soldiers are so grateful for this support and we would like to See LETTERS on page 22 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Chance Snow/Rain Rain 39/32 46/32 Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Partly Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Chance Rain 44/26 48/25 44/28 44/27 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC 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. Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Graphic Design: Jess Draper Advertising: Karen Kassy Accounting: Erin Bordonaro Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen 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. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. 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. Jonah Goldberg There are plenty of shocking bombshells in Michael Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” but is there anything actually new? I haven’t read it yet, but I have been following the crowdsourced effort by other journalists to recount every salacious tidbit. The quotes from staffers and Cabinet secretaries are indeed shock- ing by the standards of your typical ‘inside account’ of an administration’s first year. I don’t recall so many White House luminaries competing to out-insult the commander in chief before. “For [Treasury Secretary] Steve Mnuchin and [then- Chief of Staff] Reince Priebus, he was an ‘idiot,” Wolff writes. “For Gary Cohn, he was ‘dumb as s’t.’ For H.R. McMaster he was a ‘dope.’” Wolff’s sourcing methods leave much to be desired, and it seems likely that some of the quotes and inci- dents were fed to him at best secondhand. Some flatly deny saying what Wolff ascribes to them. Others do not dispute their damning statements. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon doesn’t dispute the myriad statements he made about Trump, his family and — his word — the cam- paign’s “treasonous” meet- ing with a Russian emissary. As for Trump himself, Wolff describes the presi- dent as an easily bored nar- cissist with a hair-trigger attention span and a thin- skinned ego. But this has been reported countless times already. Last month, The New York Times described a president who spends, daily, somewhere between four and eight hours ‘in front of a televi- sion,’ albeit sometimes with it muted. If you’ve watched or read virtually any interview with the president — never mind listened to him at a rally — you’ve observed how the president struggles to com- plete a line of thought with- out being distracted. In short, even discount- ing for hearsay and exag- geration, the Trump in “Fire and Fury” seems utterly plausible save for those who have chosen not to believe their own lying eyes. Trump has benefitted from a tendency among both his biggest fans and his big- gest foes to see more than meets the eye. For the true believers, there must be a method behind the mad- ness. The Trump we see on Twitter and TV conceals a strategic thinker who keeps his enemies off balance by “controlling the narrative” or some such treacle. When Trump says he understands tax policy “bet- ter than anybody. Better than the greatest CPA,” his fans want to believe that’s true, or at least that there’s some truth to it. Likewise all of his other bizarre boasts (“I know more about renew- ables than any human being on Earth”; “Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump”; “Because nobody knows the [immigration] system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it bet- ter than me”). And yet, not once in hun- dreds of speeches and inter- views has the president ever slipped and actually talked expertly for more than a minute on any public policy without the benefit of a tele- prompter. For a president not known to avoid showing off, it’s a remarkable accom- plishment to keep his policy chops so well hidden. Trump’s biggest enemies have something of a mirror- image delusion. In order to justify perpetual “resis- tance,” they must believe that the president has some long-term evil scheme in mind for overthrowing the democratic order. When you want to dedicate your life to opposing some villain, it’s only human to want to believe the villain is worth the effort. The truth may not be as horrifying as Wolff and others describe, nor as ter- rifying as “the resistance” fears. All it takes is a will- ingness to see the obvious: The president is a man out of his depth, propped up by a staff and a party that needs to believe more than what the facts will support. © 2018 Tribune Content 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.
