THE DAILY ASTORIAN FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2016
Voting for Trump
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J
ohnny Depp aside, along
with the many other
voices in the public square
are telling us that we do not
have permission to support
the presidential campaign
of Mr. Donald J. Trump —
who may not be, thankfully,
an approved Republican —
but the essential wonder-
ful truth of American politi-
cal crux remains that “when I
pull the voting booth curtain
closed behind me, I can vote
for whatever and whomever I
wish.”
This is what appears to
be happening in the U.S.
2016 GOP primaries. The
folks who have been able to
successfully pull the pup-
pet strings on voters for
quite some time are aghast.
More accurately, they are left
Àat footed and bewildered.
Defeated?
If you thought that the
direction of public policy
was unalterably set, think
again. “We the people” might
still be the straw that stirs
the drink. Anybody out there
want to say that our drink
isn’t being stirred?
Always pleased with the
“Not Me” people ...
BOB EKSTROM
Scappoose
No Trump
T
he thought of Donald
Trump being the next
president of this country has
me ¿lled with great anxiety
and dread for all of us people
in this country who are not
in his class of the extremely
rich. He is not concerned
with us, only his millionaire
friends.
It appears that he has spent
millions buying off two of
his other opponents this past
couple of weeks. He will be
a great danger to this coun-
try if he is elected and able
to negotiate with tyrants like
Vladimir Putin of Russia,
and turn this country over to
him for the millions that will
all go into Trump’s personal
bank account.
Trump has not really
said anything about improv-
ing the country for the ben-
e¿t of the taxpayers and the
ordinary people. All he is
able to do is bad mouth any-
one who opposes him in any
way. During the last time
he was talking to his sup-
porters, there were opposers
there, and he told people in
the audience to beat the c***
out of them. That is certainly
something for his supporters
to be proud of this candidate.
All in all, this is a candi-
date that this country does
not need.
GERALD D. WINTERS
Warrenton
Let Obama choose
O
pen letter to U.S. Sen.
Mitch McConnell: Are
you kidding me? Your March
16 press release contained
eight references about your
of¿ce generously yielding to
public choice.
That line you’ve been
peddling, “Give the peo-
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
A
t one of the Federal Energy Reg-
ulatory Commission (FERC)
hearings regarding the proposed liq-
uefied natural gas (LNG) plant held
in Warrenton, a local bank manager
posed the question, “If not LNG, then
what?”
One answer could be another acro-
nym, CLT. Cross Laminated Timber,
also called mass timber, is hailed as the
greatest advancement in construction
technology since reinforced concrete.
Touted as “plywood on steroids,” it
is, simply put, 2-foot by 6-foot boards
glued (laminated) together in cross
grained layers to form panels. These
panels are computer design generated
as prefabricated units, similar to con-
crete “tilt-ups,” creating beautiful mid-
ple a voice in the ¿lling of
this vacancy,” rings so tinny
that I have to remind myself
your comments are disingen-
uous, and sadly, you are sac-
ri¿cing the credibility of your
position and your historical
legacy by awkwardly play-
ing at politics. The last time
I checked, the people used
their voice, and they over-
whelmingly re-elected Presi-
dent Obama.
On at least ¿ve occasions,
your media release also
attempted to piggy-back on
the so-called “Biden Rule.”
Well, Senator, your effort to
cleverly apply a title and tra-
dition to a nonexistent rule
back¿red if, in fact, your goal
was to project statesman-
ship. Instead, you displayed
an unsophisticated effort at
political gamesmanship.
If Vice President Biden
can create a “rule” simply
by stating a political posi-
tion from 20 years ago, per-
haps your party and its min-
ions have no basis to further
your judicial efforts in over-
riding the president’s use of
executive orders?
Unfortunately, these anti-
Obama political behaviors,
which you developed in the
¿rst term of his presidency
(reference Time magazine’s
coverage on your Repub-
lican Party off-site meet-
ing in 2009), are the genesis
for Donald Trump’s amaz-
ing success in the primaries.
With that in mind, I wonder
who the likely 44th president
will nominate to the Supreme
Court?
To my knowledge, Sec-
retary Hillary Clinton hasn’t
publicly offered any sug-
gestions, but I’m con¿dent
that her nominee will be less
appealing to you and the
Republican Party than the
Honorable Merrick Garland.
JOY BREWER
Astoria
sized buildings with ¿nished wood
inside and out.
The wood becomes a carbon sink,
and eliminates the use of concrete,
which is estimated to produce 5 percent
of greenhouse gases worldwide. The
process has been long used in Europe,
Australia and Canada, and an example
can be seen in Portland at the Oregon
Zoo Elephant Lands habitat.
Astoria would likely be an ideal loca-
tion for a CLT plant, having a skilled
work force, local timber and shipping
capabilities. A factory to produce CLT
would not come cheap, but it wouldn’t
require pipelines, river activity disrup-
tions, military escorts, or hazardous
cargo.
I believe the great majority of local
The board members under
scrutiny have many decades
of experience and training. I
wonder if you’re aware that
the Arch Cape ¿re station
was designed and built by
the current board, at no addi-
tional cost to the taxpayers?
No small feat, that.
But now, our volunteer
¿re department is required
to pay for this special recall
vote. Why that isn’t paid for
by the petitioners, I don’t
quite understand. The pend-
ing court case could prove
to be an additional expense.
And, yet another certain
expense would be years and
years of trainings for new
board members.
The fact is we’re getting
a new ¿re chief. Nothing’s
going to change that now.
Are we really going to saddle
him with a board of directors
whose voting majority has no
experience, no training and a
large chip on its shoulders?
The words “nose” and “face”
spring to mind, with a mea-
sure of spite thrown in.
Let’s remember what’s at
stake here, folks. These are
our ¿rst responders. And, this
is a matter of public safety.
I suggest that personal
grudges should be aired in the
courtroom. And if the peti-
tioners honestly believe that
residents would welcome a clean indus-
try that would provide good wage jobs
and utilize local resources instead of
extracting them and shipping the raw
materials overseas. Picture a ship leav-
ing Astoria with a school, an apart-
ment building and houses bound for Los
Angeles or China. It would be a healthy
addition to tourism, brew pubs and pot
shops.
This is a rapidly expanding indus-
try, and Astoria would do well to get in
now, in advance of competing interests.
Information is all over the Internet —
just enter “CLT wood” — and the Mass
Timber Conference was held recently in
Portland.
BRUCE JOHNSTON
Gearhart
they can do a better job than
our current board, then they
should have to prove that to
us in a general election.
Please join me in voting
no recall.
VALOREE GIFT
Cannon Beach
Please reconsider
O
pen letter to the Gear-
hart mayor, city coun-
cil, planning commission-
ers and city manager: We
object strongly to the condi-
tional approval of a brew pub
replacing the Gearhart Gro-
cery. What was the Planning
Commission thinking, and
why weren’t the residents of
Gearhart given any advance
knowledge of this proposal?
Gearhart’s
restrictions
to growth have been notori-
ously strong ever since we can
remember. To replace the gro-
cery store with a brew pub is
below the standards of a com-
munity that prides itself on
being a good wholesome fam-
ily place. Within a mile of city
center you have a hotel with
bar and restaurant, an excep-
tional ¿ne dining restaurant,
a good Mexican restaurant on
U.S. Highway 101, a Dairy
Queen, a Chinese restau-
rant and a bowling alley that
serves food and drink.
By placing an establish-
ment that is devoted to drink-
ing in the center of our town,
you are placing our children
and residents at risk for row-
diness, traf¿c, drunken driv-
ing, unpleasant smells and
more.
We strongly urge you
to reconsider your “condi-
tional” approval of this pro-
posal. I thank David Smith,
Terry Graff and Jeremy Davis
for voting against it.
NANCY AND JOHN
HERPERS
Gearhart
On Chicago
A
s I wrote this letter I
was watching the pro-
test at the Trump campaign
— canceled March 11. I lis-
tened closely to the narra-
tives offered across the main-
stream media and the talking
head analysis.
A good portion of the
“blame” is put on Trump.
Some analysts go as far as
comparing Trump’s candi-
dacy to Hitler’s Brownshirts
during the 1930s. Give me a
break, and if you don’t under-
stand this, you are ignorant.
Trump’s chief competi-
tors call for, paraphrasing, all
of us to “remain calm.” More
political correctness.
7A
Trump is not the cause,
he is a symptom. The fault
lies with President Barrack
Hussein Obama. And do you
want to know why? Because
deep in our national psy-
che we are — get ready —
a Christian nation built on
Judeo-Christian values.
Granted, the nation has
fallen from being a Chris-
tian nation to a secular soci-
ety (by the way, how’s that
working out for ya?) but
deep in our psyche, that is to
say our national conscience,
we are tethered to our God-
given, Ten Commandment
fearing, “yes sir, thank you
ma’am” conscience. God —
the god of Abraham, Isaac
and Joseph, that God — is the
source of all goodness. We
are created beings and com-
ing into this world we are, all
of us, lighted by Jesus Christ,
the very source of goodness.
Allah is not God.
Peer pressure is horri-
ble to youth and carries on
through to adulthood, and
in our day and age that peer
pressure is known as political
correctness.
Political correctness —
that’s the (secular) issue.
Political correctness has
hijacked our free speech and
with it, our Judea-Christian
ethics. Homosexuality has
been shoved down our throat
(no pun intended) as was,
for instance, Obamacare. We
don’t bad-mouth police —
we revere them.
Eight years of a presi-
dent who has either no values
or values contrary to what
our nation, at the aggregate,
opposes. And that is what
manifest in Chicago.
Adult peer pressure. Tol-
erance. Political correct-
ness that promotes values
forced on a nation that sim-
ply won’t accept them. Our
president has forced a set of
values that we simply, at the
national level, do not accept,
and that is what has manifest
in Chicago.
The problem is the pres-
idency of Barrack Hus-
sein Obama — Trump is an
afterthought.
GARY MAURO
Warrenton
You don’t have to move to
get that new-home feeling.
Recall a bad idea
I
’m as sorry as the next per-
son that we lost our ¿re
chief. But the truth is that
you don’t lose a job like that
without due process. Besides,
he has a court case pending
against the ¿re department
board.
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