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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 2018)
2 Wednesday, September 19, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Picking the ‘best’ people By Steve Nugent Guest Columnist 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: On August 22 our little boy fell off the monkey bars at the Village Green and broke his arm. My husband and I want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts to the won- derful people who helped me get my son to the Fire Hall, along with the children that I was babysitting that day. Two precious women and a wonderful gen- tleman jumped up into action to save the day for my son and me. I literally would not have known what to do to help my son and take care of the little boys I was babysitting at the same time. It’s a frightening situation to be in, watch- ing your little boy with his arm broke so badly that it’s crooked. I just hope and pray that those three great Samaritans and the amazing EMTs at the Fire Hall know what a wonderful wonderful thing that they did for me that day and for my son. I could never thank you enough. I don’t know your names and I may never see you again, but I will remember you for- ever. I have gratefully lived here my entire life. So thank you for being the perfect exam- ple of why we all live in and love Sisters and the people in it. God bless you all Brian, Wendy and Sabastian Banks s s s To the Editor: I was alternately agreeing and at odds with The Bunkhouse Chronicles this week. Mr. See LETTERS on page 30 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Sunny 69/39 72/42 72/42 69/40 63/38 62/38 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 in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Patti Jo Beal & Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May 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. A Washington Post/ABC poll taken during the 2016 presidential election showed that the priority for voters was to “cleanup” the corruption in Washington. Many that voted for Trump admitted he was not qualified for the job, but because he assured the voters that he would “pick the very best and brightest” people to advise him and run the agen- cies, they overlooked this. He campaigned to “drain the swamp.” In fact, Trump has selected more inexperienced and corrupt criminals for his cabinet and agencies than any president in recent his- tory. Many of these have been fired or indicted. Many other good people resigned. Twenty people hired by Trump who were later fired or resigned include: Stephen Bannon (White House Senior Advisor), Reince Priebus (White House Chief of Staff), Rex Tillerson (Secretary of State), Gary Cohn (National Economic Council Director), Sebastian Gorka (Counter- Terrorism Advisor), Hope Hicks (Communications Director), Anthony Scar- amucci (Communications Director), Omarosa Man- igault-Newman (Public Liai- son), Rob Porter (Staff Sec- retary), Josh Raffel (Deputy Communications Director), K. T. McFarland (Deputy National Security Advisor), Sean Spicer (Press Secre- tary), Katie Walsh (Deputy Chief of Staff), Dina Powell (Deputy National Sec. Advi- sor for Strategy), Michael Dubke (White House Com- munications Director), Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster (National Security Advisor), David Shulkin (VA Secre- tary), Don McGahn (White House Counsel) and Michael Short (Senior Asstistant Press Secretary). Tom Merino withdrew as pick for Drug Czar when 60 Minutes showed that he authored legislation to pro- tect the drug companies from the opioid crisis. Two congressmen that endorsed Trump early in the campaign, Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter, have both been indicted for federal crimes. Collins by the SEC for insider trading, Hunter for misuse of $250,000 in cam- paign funds for personal use. Several Trump agency picks have been fired or resigned for misuse of funds. Tom Price (Secretary of Heath and Human Ser- vices) took charter flights ($400,000) and military planes ($500,000) at tax- payer expense, took vaca- tions in Europe including Wimbledon, and cruises on the Thames. He used his position to get more than $700,000 from physicians, hospitals and drug companies and bought biomedical stock in a company that would ben- efit from the “Century Cures” bill, a conflict of interest. Scott Pruitt (EPA Admini- trator) spent taxpayer dollars on lavish office décor, sound- proof phone booths, tacti- cal pants, radios, holsters, leased vehicles and person- alized pens costing $1,560. He took first-class flights and had round-the-clock secu- rity costing $3.5 million. He rented an apartment unusu- ally cheaply in D.C. from a fossil-fuel lobbyist. Wilbur Ross (Secretary of Com- merce), who is still employed, paid $120 million settlement for defrauding investors in his private equity fund. The Special Council and Southern District of New York investigations resulted in indictments of five Trump appointees. George Papado- poulos (Trump campaign for- eign policy advisor) is coop- erating for lying to the FBI. Rick Gates (White House aid and campaign assistant) is cooperating because he faces 22 bank and tax fraud charges. Michael Cohen (Trump personal lawyer) has pleaded guilty to eight felony counts including bank fraud and tax fraud and is cooper- ating. Paul Manafort (Trump campaign chairman) has been convicted of eight felony counts including bank fraud and tax fraud. Michael Flynn (National Security Advisor) has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about Russian con- tacts and is cooperating. Trump has set the stan- dard for unethical behavior by making weekly trips to his golf courses, catering to diplomats in his hotels and allowing family to make trips abroad on the taxpayer to fur- ther their businesses. It’s obvious that Trump has added significantly to the swamp. Electing people who are competent, ethical and honest helps to ensure that other key positions in the government get filled with people that are also compe- tent, ethical and honest. The midterm elections are our opportunity to fix this. Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
