Letters to the Editor for Nov. 8, 2018

Burst pipe makes reader question fire sprinklers

After having a burst pipe during a freeze while out of town on vacation, I will never again leave my home overnight in freezing weather without turning off the water supply. For all these new homes in Camas and soon possibly Washougal required to have fire sprinkler systems, they won’t be able to turn off the water supply when leaving in freezing weather without disabling the sprinkler. But, if they leave the water on, there’s even more pipes to be concerned about freezing and bursting while away. I guess they’ll need to make sure that the heat is turned way up when away from home to keep pipes from freezing and hope that the electricity does not go out — that never happens during winter storms, right? Personally, I think people should have the freedom to make their own choice as to whether or not installing fire sprinklers makes sense in their own private homes.

Frank Sevier, Camas

Column showed ‘rabid Trump derangement syndrome’

Tom Hastings’ column on “Trump’s Kristallnacht” (published on the Opinion page of the Nov. 1, 2018 Post-Record) was a display of “rabid Trump derangement syndrome.” His repugnant comparison of President Trump to Hitler and the Nazis clearly shows the desperation of the political left. They cannot present rational arguments against the accomplishments of the Trump administration nor can they offer any reasonable solutions to our national issues, so they resort to ridiculous personal attacks. Mr. Hastings’ hatred of President Trump drips from every word he wrote.

The mainstream media lean left. They routinely twist and misrepresent President Trump’s words and actions into something that barely resembles what President Trump actually says or does. Truth is not the companion of the media these days.

Trump speaks plainly and means what he says. He is not a politically correct smooth talker. He tweets. He keeps his head down against all the slings and arrows of the left, and just keeps working to accomplish the things that he promised to do during his campaign. The American people find this refreshing. We like that he is keeping his promises.

Lefties like Mr. Hastings continue to portray President Trump as a horrible person not deserving of our respect. That argument is overshadowed by the visible results of President Trump’s successful policies; a roaring economy, tax cuts, higher wages, low unemployment, strengthening of our borders and our military, worldwide respect of our country and much more. Very little of this is acknowledged by the media or the left.

Attacks like the one attempted by Mr. Hastings only makes the supporters of President Trump more determined to fight with him for a greater America.

Diane Child, Camas

Voting does matter

Believers of the false left-right paradigm political theory should check themselves this election as they always tend to not vote. Yes, voting for the Republican or Democratic candidates will do nothing to hinder the massive and grotesque size of our government. I hope readers of The Post-Record lament this very real problem as I do, but the Democrats are stooping to the lowest of low with their false narratives and politics of divide and hate.

Recently I visited the campaign office of Carolyn Long on Mill Plain. As I expected, the people I talked to confirmed what I already observed in campaign ads (television and radio here and in California where I conduct business) and letters I read in the opinion page of The Post-Record — like the latest letter to the editor published on Oct. 25, and the many that were published prior. The sad reasoning goes like this: My opponent supports Trump policies; Trump is a racist; therefore, vote for me, the Democrat. As a disclaimer, I neither read nor heard a campaign ad that said, “Trump was racist.” I’m inserting this premise here because the political discourse from left politicians, voters and the tactics employed by the Democratic Party to propagate their messaging for this election is relentlessly hateful, divisive and Donald Trump is used nauseatingly as a rallying point. And violence is a by-product: check California Congresswoman Maxine Waters call for violence at a rally this year. Inspiring right? So inspiring that a Democrat supporter attacked Republican Sen. Rand Paul at his home and broke his ribs in 2017. Where does this violence and hate come from?

Let’s take a look at the top of the Democratic Party for answers. It is well documented that former President Obama had a relationship with radical ’60s criminal-terrorist Bill Ayers, who bombed government buildings. Or maybe we can cite the book, “Rules for Radicals,” written by radical Saul Alinsky. This book, which is dedicated to Lucifer, is the Bible of the left.

The politically left have used tactics and fake movements — if they were not fake, they were eventually co-opted by the left — that amazed me in their magnitude and ability to distract from real issues and control political discourse. With much help from CNNs of this world, we have witnessed the following: Me Too Movement — men vs. women; Black Lives Matter — black vs. white; Occupy Wall Street — rich vs. poor; Antifa — pretend “anti-fascists” vs. “fascist” Donald Trump and his “racist” supporters; illegal immigrants vs. all who prefer legal immigrants; gay vs. straight, and transgendered people vs. all who prefer a men label and a women label on bathrooms. Now, let’s toss in the ferocious smear campaign on Judge Kavanaugh, and the violent paid operatives at the Trump rallies — see Project Veritas — in 2016, and now “the caravan,” which I predict will offer emotionally charged photo opportunities: the messaging we’ll see 24-7 on CNN will look like this: big evil Trump won’t let the mommies with babies into our country.

The left have introduced us to the term “politically correct.” Here is the latest example of that: In just the last week or so Megyn Kelly gets fired from NBC for saying the word “blackface.” An Oregonian editorial writer gets ostracized for having an opinion: Said writer writes a positive review of the conservative group Patriot Prayer and their leader, Camas High graduate Joey Gibson. One just cannot stray an iota from the 3-by-5 card of acceptable political discourse. Sad.

Why the hate, divide, lies and violence? Why are people getting publically shamed, losing jobs and going to jail? Why has the left made politics very personal? As I have written before, the left have no ideas, and if they do have ideas, they think those ideas aren’t good enough to win elections. Then we get lies: At Carolyn Long’s campaign office, I viewed a beautifully printed piece of scare tactic (geared toward the elderly, no doubt) about Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler wanting to end Social Security. Really? Every politician knows that even mentioning Social Security is political suicide.

With this said, one should first question the integrity, viability and sustainability of the party behind this manufactured political reality. Then one should realize that the Democratic Party has nothing to offer in the way of solutions to the many real issues and problems we have. After that I think one should ponder this question: Do I want anyone from the Democratic Party in places of power — local, state or federal? At minimum, I hope your initial conclusion as is mine will be this: voting does matter.

“Freedom” Frank Alonso, Camas

EDITOR’S NOTE: According to Politifact, a nonpartisan, Pulitzer prize-winning organization that checks the truthfulness behind political claims, President Trump’s claim that California Congresswoman Maxine Waters was “inciting violence” is questionable. Here is what the Congresswoman said in her speech regarding the federal government’s policy of separating children from their asylum-seeking parents at the southern U.S. border: “Mr. President, we are not afraid of you … so let’s stay the course. Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

Federal prosecutors said politics did not play into the reasoning behind Rene Boucher’s assault on Sen. Rand Paul in November 2017. Instead, prosecutors argued that Boucher, who had lived next to Paul for 17 years, had “had enough” after he saw Paul stacking brush near his property line — a source of contention between the neighbors for many years.

Regarding Alinsky’s book, “Rules for Radicals,” Snopes, another nonpartisan fact-checking organization, has deemed an allegation made by presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson “mostly false.” Snopes explained: “Alinsky wrote an epigraph describing the rebellious angel Lucifer as ‘the first radical known to man’ in his book, ‘Rules for Radicals,'” but said Carson’s statement that Alinsky “acknowledged Lucifer on the dedication page of the book” was false.

Journalists do not consider information from Project Veritas to be unbiased. The “project,” which secretly records academics, politicians and social service organization workers, was founded by conservative activist James Edward O’Keefe III, and has been widely criticized for selectively editing and manipulating video and audio to create fake recordings. Snopes and Politifact said they were unable to fully assess the truthfulness of Project Veritas videos purporting to show violent operatives “planted” at Trump’s 2016 rallies.