THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2016
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
5A
Taking reponsibility
have been teaching my son
the meaning of responsibil-
ity by comparing how boys
may hide from responsibility,
but adults step forward to take
responsibility for their actions.
So, Donald Trump was caught
on audio tape expressing sur-
prise and delight that celeb-
rities could molest women
without consequences.
Days after this story
broke, the first of 12 women
stepped forward to state that
Trump had molested them,
and propositioned some of
them. “Lies! Conspiracy! The
media!” cried boy Trump. So
62 million people voted for a
sexual predator to become our
president?
Were Hillary Clinton’s
emails more egregious? Gen.
Colin Powell also used a pri-
vate server at home for gov-
ernment business when
he was secretary of state.
Where’s the outrage there?
Want change in govern-
ment? Republican speaker
Paul Ryan’s 10-year budget
two years ago proposed cut-
ting social spending $93 bil-
lion per year, but increasing
military spending $44 billion
per year. Our military already
spends more on defense than
the next 25 nations combined.
Sounds like a bloated bureau-
cracy than needs to go on a
diet.
Republicans can’t be
trusted to practice fiscal
responsibility. Bill Clinton
achieved a balanced bud-
get toward the close of his
administration. Barack Obama
turned the economy around
with the help of the Federal
Reserve, but with only inter-
ference from Republicans
in Congress. George Bush,
using faulty CIA intelligence,
wasted $2 trillion and 4,500
American lives on the point-
less Iraq War, which continues
14 years later.
I predict that in two years
you won’t be able to find a
person who admits to vot-
ing for Trump. Trump will be
impeached for mental illness.
And why is Trump so ner-
vous and defensive about vote
recounts?
DAVID FITCH
Astoria
in those states, would Stein
still have filed a petition for a
recount in them all?
America is not politically
innocent. Like a Greek solil-
oquy, we have heard this sort
of thing before — “I did not
have sexual relations, with
that woman, Monica Lew-
inski” and “Saddam Hus-
sein has weapons of mass
destruction.”
Legend has it that a young
George Washington refused
to deny chopping down his
father’s cherry tree. Hil-
lary Clinton, in an infamous
leaked speech, reportedly said
that achieving political vic-
tories requires you to hold a
public, and a separate private,
position on every issue. Some
say that Jill Stein has fulfilled
the first requirement of con-
temporary political office:
lying to the people.
THEODORE THOMAS
Astoria
I
Daily what?
aturday, Nov. 26, Astoria
celebrated the opening of
the holiday season with Santa,
the North Coast Chorale, com-
munity singing and the fes-
tive lighting up of our beauti-
ful downtown. It was magical.
Monday’s Daily Astorian
front page featured a huge
brilliant display of Seaside’s
festivities of the same nature;
not a word about Astoria’s;
not even four days later.
Tuesday, Nov. 29, the com-
munity of Astoria celebrated
Giving Tuesday, with seven
local great local causes, all
nonprofits, garnering a stupen-
dous amount of money, gen-
erously donated by citizens
of this caring, beautiful com-
munity. I was moved to tears
by the level of generosity.
Wednesday, Nov. 30, The
Daily Astorian chose to high-
S
Stand up to bully
e should have declared
ourselves a sanctuary
city (“Astoria will not pursue
sanctuary status,” The Daily
Astorian, Dec. 6). We are a
small town and know that
Trump is a gigantic bully.
I understand how the Asto-
ria City Council could be fear-
ful of the bully’s fist, and the
portion of local voters who
sadly agree with this bully.
But this bully’s ugly prom-
ises have frightened minori-
ties across the nation, and all
I feel the City Council did by
not adopting the language of
a sanctuary city demonstrates
how white we are.
If we really felt the fear
many immigrants are experi-
encing as if it was our own,
we wouldn’t, for a moment,
consider the language of sanc-
tuary city as mere “window
dressing.” It isn’t window
dressing to boldly say no to a
bully. It isn’t window dressing
to express solidarity with the
cities standing up to this bully.
To state that the laws are
already in place preventing
local law enforcement from
acting as federal immigration
officers seems at least a little
cowardly. If we are, by Ore-
gon law, a sanctuary state why
hesitate to declare ourselves a
sanctuary city?
We built the Garden of
Surging waves to honor and
recognize the injustice done to
the Chinese immigrants who
once filled Astoria’s canner-
ies, but is our racial injustice
in the past? It certainly will
not be if we miss any oppor-
tunity demonstrate our firm
commitment to the value, dig-
nity and right of all people
when it matters, and it mat-
ters now.
To prevent another Amer-
ican moral tragedy, like the
internment of Japanese Amer-
icans or the Red Scare, the
first thing we have to defeat
is fear, and that’s not what I
feel the City Council did. I
feel they rationalized instead
of making a strong moral
statement.
M. ALEX “SASHA”
MILLER
Astoria
W
The freedom of expression
was disturbed to learn in Lyra Fon-
taine’s article, “Art is not here to
make friends” (The Daily Astorian, Dec.
5), that a provocative painting by Billy
Lutz in the window of the T. Anjuli
Salon and Gallery prompted a visit
by the police. Any person who reads
Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black’s
views of the First Amendment will rec-
ognize that Billy Lutz’s painting, “Rape
of Mother Earth,” is a form of free
I
light a couple of great char-
itable organizations’ good
works in Seaside; no mention
of Astoria’s. And, on the front
page, a very nice article about
Cannon Beach’s new brewery;
no word of Astoria’s brand-
new such enterprise.
I don’t for a second
begrudge the kudos for our
deserving neighbors; but this
is the Daily what? Do we not
deserve at least a paragraph,
when great things emanate
from Astoria?
ELAINE BAUER
Astoria
Competing views
found the letter by Gwen-
dolyn Endicott, “Sued for
our trees” (The Daily Asto-
rian, Nov. 25), informative
and challenging. As a new-
comer to Oregon, I have been
troubled by the immensity
of the visual impacts of tra-
ditional logging practices in
Oregon and Washington —
at least from the obvious bla-
tancy of the vast clear-cutting
in evidence. Her recommen-
dation is an aggressive politi-
cal approach, in one instance,
to a proposed state logging
management plan. This seems
I
expression covered by that amendment.
In a well-known and often quoted
interview, Justice Black gave voice to
his total and unconditional belief in the
absolute freedom of expression. He
believed that all people should have the
right to say what they please, in any
manner of expression, and be free of
libel laws, obscenity statutes or other
man-made restraints. Therefore, Lutz’s
painting is protected under the First
crucial, to me.
The argument stirs an
appreciation of a number of
sometimes competing forces
that, as opinions driving the
current political mood in the
country, seem difficult to rec-
oncile. Some would view for-
ests as limited and precious
resources worthy of numer-
ous public and environmental
considerations.
Others, no doubt, see a vast
resource that is under-utilized
and damaging to the economic
health of the areas, as well as
the powerful family-centered
and corporate logging tradi-
tions — traditions that are
held as self-justifying of the
expansion of what seem to be
deforestation practices.
Disarming to me is the
resources at issue here are
largely sold off and shipped
out to answer some global
market demands that have lit-
tle to do with the needs of
the states, other than for cash
flow. What seems apparent to
me is that the need for com-
prehensive and courageous
regulation of this industry,
and others, is essential if only
because market forces, be they
couched in terms of recent
history and traditions or the
Amendment, as are the comments of the
detractors who think Lutz’s painting is
“shocking” and “in poor judgment.”
That the police should be involved in
the matter of Lutz’s painting is chilling,
considering the political climate that
is emerging from the election of Don-
ald Trump, a man who thinks the First
Amendment should be revisited.
REX AMOS
Cannon Beach
sanctity of faceless corpora-
tions, will continue to devas-
tate until nary a twig remains
standing.
It’s just who we are and
how we behave, it seems,
without significant restraints,
regardless of what view we
may have of America when it
was “great.”
GREG LAVIN
Astoria
Stein’s recount
lthough there have
been no specific com-
plaints of hacking or elec-
tion fraud in Michigan, Wis-
consin, or Pennsylvania, Jill
Stein, citing concerns for the
integrity of our elections,
filed three recall petitions in
those states at the last possible
moment.
Stein requested, and is
suing to obtain, hand recounts
which will have the likely
effect of delaying the count
past the transpiration of the
Safe Harbor provision’s dead-
line of Dec. 13. The sum of
the electoral votes of those
states are sufficient to change
the outcome of the 2016 pres-
idential election only in favor
A
of Hillary Clinton.
If those states have not cer-
tified a recount vote by the
deadline, their electors are
suspended and their state’s
electoral votes shall be dis-
posed of by a simple major-
ity vote of the U.S. House
of Representatives, who
may ascribe them to any can-
didate including, Hillary or
Donald. If Hillary can obtain
29 “Never Trump” Repub-
lican House votes, depend-
ing on abstentions and Dem-
ocratic support, she could
be determined to be the next
president.
If it was exclusively elec-
tion integrity, then shouldn’t
Stein have filed in states
where there were allegations
of election fraud, or at least in
states that Hillary prevailed in
by comparably small margins,
like Nevada, New Hampshire
or Minnesota? If she did not
because she anticipated that
she could not obtain the con-
tributions to do so, then what
assurances convinced her that
she would get sufficient con-
tributions for the three recount
states?
Ask yourself, honestly: If
Hillary had prevailed in the
election by a similar margin
President-elect Trump is just starting to warm up
By GAIL COLLINS
New York Times News Service
W
hat do you think the
theme for Donald
Trump’s appointments
has been so far? Generals, generals,
generals? Climate change deniers,
climate change
deniers?
Those seem to
be the leading con-
tenders, although
there’s always
the ever-popular
Give Chris Christie a job. While
still cooling his heels as governor
of New Jersey, Christie made his-
tory when a recent Quinnipiac poll
showed him with a 77 percent job
disapproval rating. None of his pre-
decessors had managed such a feat.
We knew he had it in him.
When I want to be cheered up, I
always think about Christie, who’s
currently lobbying for head of the
Republican National Committee.
(Next week, the Surface Transporta-
tion Board.)
On the downside, we had the
heartbreaking saga of Al Gore,
who happily emerged from a meet-
ing with Trump this week, telling
reporters about the “lengthy and
very productive session” he’d had
with the president-elect on climate
change. It was, Gore added hope-
fully, a conversation that was likely
“to be continued.”
Then Trump turned around and
named Scott Pruitt, the attorney
general of Oklahoma, as head of the
Environmental Protection Agency.
From Gore’s perspective, this would
be like the judge in a divorce case
naming the aggrieved husband as
marriage counselor.
Pruitt is best pals with the oil
and gas industry, and he knows the
EPA mainly as an entity to be sued.
Under his watchful eye, his state has
allowed so much natural gas frack-
ing that Oklahoma now has way
more earthquakes than sunrises.
Why do you think Trump went to
so much trouble to set Gore up for
heartbreak? The most likely answer
is that he was only pretending to lis-
ten to what Gore was saying about
climate change, while he waited
for the chance to break in and talk
about how tremendous, enormous,
historic and stupendous his elec-
tion victory was. This seems to hap-
pen a lot.
Also, it’s perfectly possible that
by the time Trump sat down with
Gore, he no longer remembered
who he was appointing to the EPA.
Perhaps he didn’t remember that
Gore cared about the environment.
The key to this man’s success, you
understand, is failure to recall any-
thing that happened before his most
recent meal.
Mesmerizing
The selection of a Trump admin-
istration has been sort of mesmeriz-
ing in its own awful way. Ben Car-
son will be running Housing and
Urban Development — Ben Car-
son, whose associate recently said
he wouldn’t be taking any Cabinet
job because “he’s never run a fed-
eral agency. The last thing he would
want to do was take a position that
could cripple the presidency.”
And our new national secu-
rity adviser is going to be Michael
Flynn, a very creepy retired gen-
eral whose son/former chief of staff
has been promoting stupendously
false stories about Hillary Clinton’s
involvement in a child sex ring at a
pizza restaurant.
Nicknames
Trump says he’s discussed his
talent hunt with President Barack
Obama, who thinks “very highly” of
some of the people on his list. Who
do you think they are? Probably not
the general with the son who tweets
about Democratic child abuse.
Maybe retired Gen. James Mattis,
who Trump wants to make secre-
tary of defense? Mattis is a pretty
popular choice, possibly because his
nickname is “Mad Dog.”
Do you think if Christie had
a nickname, it would help his
chances? What about “Growling
Gerbil”?
And then there’s secretary of
state. Trump seems to be looking at
9 million possibilities. By next week
you may be in the mix. Think about
it. You’re far better qualified than
Rudy “Rabid Rabbit” Giuliani. And
unlike David Petraeus, I’ll bet you
are not currently serving out proba-
tion after pleading guilty to sharing
highly classified government infor-
mation with a lover.
Lately, it appears Trump has
gone back into the field to drag in a
whole new bunch of State Depart-
ment contenders. My favorite is
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Cali-
fornia, a person you have proba-
bly never heard of even though he’s
been in Congress since the 1980s
and is currently head of the pres-
tigious Subcommittee on Europe,
Eurasia and Emerging Threats.
Rohrabacher is also a surfer
and former folk singer who once
claimed global warming might be
connected to “dinosaur flatulence.”
He’s told transition officials that if
he gets the nod, he’ll make the terri-
fying John Bolton his deputy, so the
nation can get a crazy warmonger
plus a guy who knows how to play
old Kingston Trio music.
Also in the running: Rex Til-
lerson, the CEO of ExxonMo-
bil. Unlike Rohrabacher, Tiller-
son seems to believe that humans
have had an impact on the climate;
he just doesn’t care. (“What good
is it to save the planet if humanity
suffers?”)
Another name being bandied
around is Democratic Sen. Joe Man-
chin III of West Virginia, who first
ran for the Senate with a famous ad
in which he shot a hole in federal
environmental legislation.
Do you see a pattern here?
Apparently the next secretary of
state will be somebody who likes
smog. Perhaps this is an opening for
Christie. New Jersey has had a lot
of environmental problems. Maybe
he could invite Trump to a football
game for some bonding. They could
talk foreign affairs, and then pollute
something on the way home.