OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 23, 2016
Donald, Hillary and the Bernie factor
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Leave them alone,
give them space
Rarely are animal babies
actually abandoned
L
ast week’s sad and irritating news that a newborn bison
calf had to be euthanized in Yellowstone National Park
after well-meaning tourists placed it their vehicle, leading to
it being rejected by its herd, is a good reminder of our own
baby animal issues. Young wildlife — including pups, fawns,
bear cubs and birds — are best left alone.
The most common situa- ing at least 300 feet away.
• Keep pets away. Dogs
tion here involves harbor seal
pups, whose harried moth- may harm the seal, be bit-
ers leave them on beaches ten by it, or pick up mutually
while they go out in the infectious diseases.
• A minimum undisturbed
ocean in search of food. Only
very rarely — when some- observation period of 24 to
thing happens to the mother 48 hours is recommended to
seal while it’s away — is its see whether the pup is being
baby in any danger of actual attended by a female. Signs
abandonment.
of an attendant female would
“The mother is often include sightings of seals in
nearby, watching, but will the water nearby; tracks near
not approach with people the pup; movement of the
around. If the baby seal is pup up or down the beach, or
moved, it has no chance of in and out of the water.
reuniting with its mother,”
• Remind others that seal
Tiffany Boothe of the Seaside pups need to use shoreline
Aquarium advises.
habitat to warm up (do not
Most local people — and pour water on them); and
even most visitors from rest (do not handle, cover or
elsewhere in the Paciic attempt to feed seal pups).
Northwest — know this
Call the Seaside Aquarium
and leave the seals alone. at 503-738-6211 or the
Less well-known are these Oregon Marine Mammal
additional guidelines from Stranding Network Hotline
NOAA Fisheries:
at 866-767-6114 if you are
• If you see a seal on the concerned about a particu-
beach, give it space. Federal lar baby seal or other marine
guidelines recommend stay- mammal.
Congress inally
agrees for the good
N
owadays, it is surpris-
ing to learn Congress
has agreed to anything more
than taking another vacation.
Forthcoming chemical safety
legislation borders on being
an amazing accomplishment.
Federal lawmakers last
week unveiled compromise
laws that “will provide the
industry with greater cer-
tainty while empowering the
Environmental Protection
Agency to obtain more infor-
mation about a chemical
before approving its use. And
because the laws involved
regulate thousands of chem-
icals in products as diverse as
detergents, paint thinners and
permanent-press clothing,
the result also will have a pro-
found effect on Americans’
everyday lives,” according to
The Washington Post.
If it goes through as
expected, the law will be
the biggest gain for chem-
ical safety in four decades.
Companies like the law
because it precludes states
from imposing their own
standards, unless the federal
review process for a chemical
Some will stay home. But
game through November. At
Trump is making a not-so-
the very least, she needs him
subtle pitch to those Demo-
to warn his followers away
crats and independents who
from a Trump temptation.
That, after all, is Trump’s
ASHINGTON — Among gave Sanders his victories
in
the
industrial
Midwest.
path
to victory: Add a few
the abundant ironies of this
The Trump and Sand-
industrial blue states to the
election cycle, there is this: We ers constituencies share
traditional must-win swing
are now in the eighth year of the one stark characteristic:
states — Ohio and Florida,
They
are
both
overwhelm-
most obviously — and pull
most liberal administration since
ingly
white.
In
the
Rust
off an Electoral College win.
Charles
Lyndon Johnson’s.
Belt, the appeal is to mid-
The Clinton count-
Krauthammer
The primary elections reveal a dle- and working-class vot-
er-strategy is based on the
national mood of anxiety, apprehen- ers who have suffered economic and global demographics. Trump’s unfa-
sion and anger, in turn relecting stag- social dislocation. The question is vorable numbers are impressive: 79
whether Trump can win a suficient percent among Hispanics, 73 percent
nation at home and failure abroad.
number of those voters, erstwhile Rea- among nonwhites, 72 percent among
Two-thirds of Americans think the gan Democrats, to lip just a few states young people, 64 percent among
country is on the wrong track. Yet after that, like Michigan and Pennsylvania, women, 57 percent in the general
nearly two terms of Barack Obama’s have gone Democratic for the last six population.
corrosively unsuccessful liberalism — elections.
Which is the more compelling sce-
both parties have decisively moved left.
Which is why Clinton is treat- nario? Right now, Clinton has the dis-
Hillary Clinton cannot put away ing Sanders so (relatively) gently. She tinct advantage. Flipping reliably Dem-
a heretofore marginal,
wants to be rid of him ocratic states, as well as lowering
self-declared socialist.
but cannot alienate his Trump’s high negatives, are both very
Hillary
He has forced her into
constituency — espe- dificult.
leftward genulections
cially after the ruckus
But there’s one wild card: events
Clinton
on everything from
made by his support- — unforeseen, unforeseeable, yet near
trade to national health cannot put ers at the Nevada state inevitable. We are highly unlikely to
care. At the same time,
convention and after go the next six months without a sig-
Bernie Sanders has cre-
his string of recent vic- niicant crisis. In September 2008, the
away a
ated a remarkably resil-
tories in West Virginia, inancial collapse cemented Obama’s
heretofore Indiana and Oregon and victory when he, the novice, reacted far
ient insurgency call-
ing for — after Obama,
virtual draw in Ken- more calmly and steadily than did John
marginal, the
mind you — a political
tucky. She needs him.
McCain, the veteran.
revolution of the left.
Normally,
endorse-
This time around, Trump reacted
self-
The Republicans’
ments don’t matter in to the terror attack in San Bernardino
ideological
about-
declared American politics. But with a nakedly nativist, shamelessly
face is even more pro-
the Sanders constitu- demagogic, yet politically shrewd call
socialist. ency is substantial and for (temporarily, allegedly) banning
nounced. They’ve cho-
sen as their leader a
very loyal. And rather all Muslims from entering the U.S.
nationalist populist who hardly both- angry now as they can see the Clin- Roundly denounced by Democrats
ers to pretend any allegiance to conser- ton machine winning the nomination and leading Republicans alike, Trump
vatism. Indeed, Donald Trump is, like through superdelegates.
watched his poll numbers go through
Sanders, running to the left of Clin-
She needs his blessing and active the roof. Turns out that GOP voters sup-
ton on a host of major issues includ- support in the general election. If not ported the ban, 2 to 1.
ing trade, Wall Street, NATO and carefully cultivated and appeased, say,
A candidate with the tactical acuity
interventionism.
on the party platform and/or vice pres- to successfully deploy such breathtak-
It turns out that the ultimate general idential choice, Sanders could very ing, bigotry-tinged cynicism is not to
election question is not where Cruz or well disappear after the Philadelphia be triled with. Under normal circum-
Rubio or Kasich supporters are going convention and leave her to her own stances, Clinton wins. But if the ire
— almost all seem to be making their devices — which are much lacking, alarm goes off between now and Elec-
tortuous way to Trump — but where do as demonstrated in her recent primary tion Day, all bets are off. Clinton had
Bernie Sanders’ supporters go?
losses.
better be ready. Trump has shown that
Most will, of course, go to Hillary.
She needs to keep his legions in the he will be.
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
Washington Post Writers Group
W
It could be Australia or anywhere
some with dogs or infants
trap, fashioned through tech-
in strollers. Old industrial
nology, is of a different nature.
areas, piers and warehouses
The homogenization of expe-
rience is also an insidious
YDNEY — I boarded a light that have no use in the
invitation to conform.
at Kennedy Airport in New knowledge economy have
been transformed into parks
Experience, like journal-
York. There were HSBC ads in the and lofts for the gentriied.
ism, withers without immer-
jet bridge.
From my Sydney hotel win-
sion in place. At some level,
the truly lived moment
I lew for 24 hours to the bottom dow I gaze at an urban land-
scape
similarly
transformed.
involves the ability to get
of the world. There were HSBC ads
I
watch
joggers
at
water’s
lost
— lost in a conversa-
Roger
in the jet bridge.
edge. They wear the same
tion,
or in the back alleys or
Cohen
I had my obligatory duty-free expe- gear. They use the same
Naples, or in silence, or in
rience in Sydney, which is to say that I devices. They are into well-
the scents and inlections of
was channeled through a duty-free store ness in the same way.
a new city. There is no greater thrill than
rather than opting to enter it, and so was
I lose myself in the silvery play of being lost in this way because self is left
exposed to all the familiar brands I had moonlight on water. Where on earth am behind, a form of liberation.
seen a day earlier under similar duress. I? I have traveled a long way through
Yet a world is taking form that wants
I left a country, the United States, time zones over a vast ocean to ind you never to be lost, never to feel dis-
in the midst of an election campaign. myself in the same place. My Twitter placed, never to be unanchored, never to
I arrived in a country,
feed looks the same. My be unable to photograph yourself, never
Australia, in the midst
Facebook friends have to stand in awe before mystery, never to
America’s not changed. My little exit your safety zone (or only in man-
of an election campaign.
The electoral battle here
with all its little aged fashion), never to leave your life
election universe
pits the conservative
excitements and aggra- behind: a world where you travel for 24
prime minister, Malcolm
vations is still at my in- hours to your point of departure.
is the
Turnbull, from the Lib-
gertips. My bills are
How reassuring! How desperate!
eral party, against Bill
maddeningly accessible.
There may be no choice but to head
world’s
Shorten from the left-of-
Through an immense for the Outback, the vast and empty
election, displacement nothing interior of this continent-sized land
center Labor party. But
the candidate people talk
been left behind. where everyone hugs the coast, or per-
but only has
about is Donald Trump.
Even in another hemi- haps eat Vegemite, apparently a singu-
America’s election is Americans sphere I contemplate my lar experience. I will keep you posted,
the world’s election, but
life from the same angle. dear reader, should I survive either.
only Americans get to
People argue about cli-
At least Australians speak a different
get to
vote in it.
mate change and same- language. A colleague tells me to “sing
vote in it. sex marriage and jobs out” if I need something. A problem
I left an America rag-
ing about refugees and
and immigration, as if is met with the reassuring “She’ll be
immigration and came to ind the Aus- the world is now a place where every- right.” She? Who? I am asked if “there’s
tralian immigration minister, Peter Dut- one discusses the same thing.
anything else I can get you, AT ALL.” I
ton, fuming about “illiterate and innu-
Can it be then that Sydneysiders are eat brekkie. Those joggers, apparently,
merate” refugees intent on taking merely New York’s Westsiders with a are on a footpath, not a sidewalk, and if
“Australian jobs.”
smile and an economy that has not seen I need gas when I head for the Outback
I had a cappuccino before I left. a recession in more than 20 years.
I’ll ind it at the “servo.” Every sentence
There was a cute heart shape traced in
In his great poem The City, C.P. seems to end with a kind of upward-ris-
the foam. Next to the Sydney Opera Cavafy wrote: “As you’ve wasted your ing lilt that turns it into a half-question
House, familiar from photographs, I life here, in this small corner, you’ve to which I have no answer.
had a cappuccino. There was a cute destroyed it everywhere else in the
So I am somewhere else after all.
heart shape traced in the foam.
world.” We never escape our own skins, Surely I am. I wake at night, sleep by
From my window in Brooklyn nor our lives lived to this point, however day, and ind myself altogether lost in
Heights I watch joggers at water’s edge, far we go in search of escape. But today’s translation.
By ROGER COHEN
New York Times News Service
S
takes more than 42 months.
Conidential business infor-
mation will be protected and
risk determinations must be
based on up-to-date science.
The law directs the
Environmental
Protection
Agency to immediately begin
long overdue reviews of at
least 10 common toxin sub-
stances, including asbes-
tos, formaldehyde and lame
retardants. Going forward,
EPA will be able require
companies to provide health
and safety information for
untested chemicals. Currently,
only 200 chemicals have been
subject to EPA-mandated test-
ing, even though more than
8,000 major chemicals are Have an opinion?
id you know a 168-unit apartment complex is being planned
produced in the U.S., accord-
between Miles Crossing and the Lewis and Clark school? If
ing to the EPA.
you have an opinion about this project, please come to the Plan-
This legislation is a wel- ning Commission meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Astoria
come rebuttal of the widely City Hall Council Chambers, 1095 Duane St. If you can’t come,
please write them a letter before the meeting. A project like this
held conservative view that could change the landscape of Miles Crossing forever.
TOM TETLOW
congressional gridlock is
Astoria
desirable. Better chemical
standards will safe lives and Building a wall
alleviate worry. This proac-
hank you for publishing the letter by Virginia Holdener
tive legislation is welcome
(“Singled out,” The Daily Astorian, May6), in which she
and shows what lawmakers expressed her dismay at the ban on our native culture icon
and mascot, the Warrenton Warrior. However, she did not go
can achieve when they do far enough.
The truth is, folks, people of mixed native blood still inhabit
their jobs.
Open forum
D
T
this county. Indeed, Oregon’s irst schoolteacher married a
local American Indian woman, Celiast Smith. She is buried
next to Camp Rilea on what used to be American Indian land.
Moreover, the American Indians of this area were never at
war with white settlers — one of the few areas where peace
reigned. Princess Sharon and her brother still are living in
Astoria, and are direct descendants of Concomly, historic
chief of Astoria and Fort George.
So what is the big deal? Yet you — Uncle Sam — would
continue, in your “state of Oregon” guise, to deny us our cul-
ture even now. Out with the warrior American Indian head, in
with the Viking hat.
That is the real issue here, isn’t it, folks? Clatsop kids can-
not be allowed to revere and respect the iconic American
Indian warrior. Only Nordic images are allowed here. When
Trump is reigning over Clastop land, no doubt he will build a
wall to keep us Native Americans out.
LOIS DU PAYS
Chinook, Washington