Page 3 - Sanger Herald 2-7-19 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts Measure L never made sense ... it wasn't supposed to ...
By Dick Sheppard
What a terrible tragedy.
My heart bleeds for the
Vang family of Sanger
who lost a husband and
father when officer Phia
Vang, a popular 26-year
veteran of the Fresno Police
Department, was killed by
a wrong way driver, who
based on his driving record and well known problem with drugs probably should not have even been allowed to drive a car.
My most sincere condolences to all the Vang family members and friends for the senseless loss they have experienced.
•••
When I saw the agenda for this evening's
city council meeting and noted that the coun- cil is finally getting around to asking what can be done about correcting problems cre- ated by Measure L, I couldn't help but be
reminded of the Christmas parade in 2010. Measure L had just been approved by misled voters and a chant was heard coming from a black SUV in the parade, "Measure L in 2012, Measure L in 2012!" The chanting was by a council member, his family and friends in the SUV. The next council election was in 2012 and it would be the first time a Sanger mayor was elected by voters. Prior to passage of Measure L, the council selected one of its members to serve as mayor during a council reorganization meeting in December follow- ing each council election.
The chanting council member was the one primarily responsible for pushing through Measure L, an odoriferous process even worse than making sausage that was lambast- ed by a 2012 grand jury report.
The council member did indeed run for mayor in 2012 and he lost by a 2-1 margin.
His colleagues on the council wouldn't select him as mayor before Measure L and neither would the people who got to vote for
mayor after Measure L.
Measure L, which calls for the at-large
election of a two-year mayor with no real power except to preside at meetings, is
a travesty that, in my opinion, was never intended to benefit Sanger voters, only Sanger’s emotionally immature and ego driv- en petty politicians.
Measure L isn't all bad. I like the part where the rest of the council members are elected by voters in districts they represent. That's an upside. However, one district - wherever the mayor resides - will have two representatives and that's a downside, but not the biggest in my opinion. The biggest prob- lem with the measure is the confusion it cre- ated initially - and it's never been completely made clear to Sanger voters - the mayor
doesn't have any more power or authority than any of the other councilmembers. He
or she gets to preside at meetings, represent the city at ceremonial events, sign documents on behalf of the rest of the council and hand out certificates of appreciation. Those are the same "perks" he or she had before Measure L. Except that under Measure L the mayor only has only a two year term and the other coun- cilmembers have four year terms. It doesn't make sense. But, then again, in my opinion, it was never intended to make sense.
Create five council districts and let the council select its own presiding officer.
•••
Comments, complaints and suggestions may be emailed to sangerherald@gmail.com or may be made by calling 875-2511
Dick Sheppard
GUEST national commentary
Trump economy roars ahead in January
In my OPINION
Are we going to be a nation or a ragtag
collection of aimless tribes?
By Rick Manning
Washington D.C. econo-
my watchers were holding
their collective breaths
waiting for the Labor De-
partment’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics to release its
January surveys measuring
individual employment and
business hiring reports and
the results were somewhat predictable.
A huge gain in jobs created in the private sector of 296,000 was reported by BLS,
while the data from the individual household survey was skewed by the partial govern- mentshutdown. HereishowBLSexplainsit: “Both the unemployment rate, at 4.0 percent, andthenumberofunemployedpersons,at 6.5 million, edged up in January. The impact ofthepartialfederalgovernmentshutdown contributed to the uptick in these measures. Among the unemployed, the number who re- ported being on temporary layoff increased by 175,000. This figure includes furloughed federal employees who were classified as unemployed on temporary layoff under the definitions used in the household survey.”
In addition, the Bureau also revises the baselines for the surveys at the start of every year,whichalwaysskewsthehousehold survey in January causing headaches for those trying to compare apples to oranges and derive meaning from the individual job report numbers.
While it may seem like a bit of a cop-out, these two factors make analysis a bit more of a crap shoot than it normally is, however, there is one key factor that can be fairly as- serted.
First, the number of people employed full-time should jump dramatically on a month to month basis in the February report dueintwenty-eightdays. Thisisbecause
all of those furloughed government workers shouldbebackontheirfull-timejobwhen the February survey is taken baking in more than 300,000 job gains into the cake without anything else happening.
The continued private sector job creation expansion flies in the face of expectations of many who expected peak employment tohaveoccurred. Thisisparticularlygood news for workers as competition for labor will continue to increase making the 3.2 per- cent wage gains of the past year look more likeanormthanananomaly. Withinflation only running at 1.9 percent in 2018, the 1.3 percent spread between pay increases and the devaluation of the money is a real pay increase rather than one that is all eaten by the cost of living rising.
Unfortunately, due to the changed method- ologies for determining the overall workforce composition between 2018 and January 2019, it is not yet possible to determine the labor participation rate for the all-important 16-64 year-old age group, which is the driver of the
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"Blessed is he who
expects nothing, for he shall
never be disappointed" is
a widely used idiom which
has been attributed to
numeroussources. That,it
appears to me, must be the
attitude of many American
voters as they watch this
newly elected Congress try to put their stamp onourlives. Sadly,thatattitude,generally, hascatastrophicconsequences. Wewindup with a majority of a legislative body which is composed of 435 diverse human beings who don't have a clue about anything.
If anyone has any doubt about the pre- cipitousleapthattheDemocratpartyis taking to the left, they only have to take a lookatmanyoftheloony“we'lltakealltheir money”crowd now serving in the House of Representatives. Wethoughtthat,perhaps, it would be a good idea to bring to your atten- tion just a few of the things that lie in store if this new Congress has its way.
Democrat Alerxandria Ocasio-Cortez has already recommended that top tier tax brack- etberaisedto70percent. That'salmost double.
The newest Democrat House member from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, not to be out- done,offeredheropinionthat90percent would be a better method of redistribution of the country's wealth.
One-upping everyone, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts recommends an additional tariff of 2 percent (on top of the other taxes) for those who might have any remaining assets.
Nancy Pelosi—the leader of these nut jobs—who once famously suggested that we mow the grass as border protection, will not budge an inch on allowing a barrier be guilt to safeguard the most exposed areas on our Southernborder. Althoughthepeoplewho are intimately charged with protecting the border,ourBorderPatrol,saysit'stheonly thing that will truly work, Nancy refuses to reconsider her “resistance” because of poli- tics. She'sevenwillingtoseegovernment employees without paychecks in her hatred for Donald Trump.
Democrat governors in two of our most populous states, California and New York, have already proposed health care for all— evennon-citizens. Wehavenoideawhere thehellthatmoneywillcomefrom. Actually, wedo. Asalwaysthehard-workingtaxpayer will be expected to reach even further down into their already semi-empty pockets and come up with enough to provide first class care for people who shouldn't even be here.
Obviously that number will steadily increase because it's difficult to imagine any- thing that is more of a magnet to make your wayhere. Keepinmindthatthesearethe same people who advocate for open borders. Noborderwallforthem! Whocaresthat
we already have several thousand people on
Rick Manning
economy. This matters because since a 1997 labor participation high amongst this group of 77.37 percent, participation has dropped precipitously in these prime working ages down to 72.95 percent in December of 2016. In the first two-years of the Trump presi- dency, the labor participation rate for this age group has increased to 73.64 percent as of December.
What does this mean?
At the end of 2016, there were approxi- mately 9 million people aged 16-64 who would have been in the labor force had the partici- pation rate remained the same, but who have simply disappeared from the workforce. When combined with an aging population, thismeantthatfewerandfewerAmericans were working in effect to support a growing population. Theupwardmoveinlaborpartic- ipation in this huge population under Trump means1.4millionofthese16-64year-olds entered the labor force who would not have been there if the participation rate had not grown. This calculation is bolstered by same report data which shows that 16-64-year-olds not in the labor force dropped by 1.1 million people. The bottom line is that Americans are re-entering the labor force reversing a 20-year trendline that was disastrous for the future.
Butitalsoshowsthatthereismuchstillto do, as approximately 7.7 million of the 16-64 group who would have been in the workforce if the participation rate was at 1997 levels are still on the sidelines, showing the room for growth within our own domestic labor force to meet the needs of the on-going job boom.
It is fair to anticipate that a combination of naturally occurring increased wages and the continued growth of career-oriented jobs in areas like the manufacturing sector, which has shown a 454,000 job gain since January 2017, will attract some of those previously sidelinedbackintotheeconomy.
One important side note, it is incredible thatthenumberofmanufacturingjobsinthe United States was the same in January 2009 and January 2018 at 12.56 million, while the rest of the private job numbers increased by just under 14 million over the same period. This decade-long hollowing out of the manu- facturing sector was a deliberate federal gov- ernment policy combining the giant sucking sound of jobs being transferred overseas due to trade deals designed for that very purpose and the Obama administration’s regulatory regime and business taxes designed to make it unprofitable to make it in America.
Now, in Jan. 2019, it’s up to 12.8 million. It is the toxic impacts of these policies which President Trump has successfully attacked, and this is why wages are rising, jobs are plentiful and people have renewed hope that they can achieve the American dream.
Rick Manning is the President of Ameri- cans for Limited Government.
An award winning 2019 member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
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Fred Hall
By Fred Hall
their way here to join millions of their rela- tives who are already here?
I have to confess that I never understood the fanaticism behind the act of aborting children. Truthis,ithasalmosttakenonthe mantle of a religion.
New York politicians actually celebrated making it the law of their state that would allow the killing of a child, even up to the moment of their birth.
There are those in the State of Virginia who believe it should be legitimate even ifthechildwerebornalive. LasttimeI checked, the taking of the life of a living beingwasmurder! Howfarhasoursociety fallen when there is a raucous celebration of legislation which made it a part of that state's constitution?
AlthoughtheSpecialCouncil'soffice, over a two yer period marked by corrup- tionofTheJusticeDepartmentandThe FBI, has been unable to find any underlying crimewhichshouldhavebeenitspreface but wasn't even identified, many Democrats continued the drumbeat for impeachment. Sadly, it seems that we have more than our fair share right here in California with our gaggle of goofies representing us.
I'd look at it differently if everything was inarealmessbutit'snot. Theeconomy
is robust, more people are working, fewer are unemployed, wages are up and we are fightingnonewwars. Americaisstronger than it has been in a long, long time and our Country's respect has grown around the world. WehaveaPresidentwhopromises somethingandhiswordisgood. Showme anotherpoliticianwhodoesthat! Andthey wanttoimpeachhim? Forwhat?
I don't know about you, but there isn't anything on the list which I have presented of their agenda which makes any sense at all. Thepressurefortaxincreasesissimply further expand their much desire outcome of instant socialism and a redistribution of the moneywecurrentlyworksohardfor.
From each, according to his ability, to each accordingtohisneeds. Ifthatsoundsfamil- iar, it should because it is directly from
the work of Karl Marx which seems to be prototypical approach by many of these Democrats.
We have to learn on our own because one can expect nothing from the media.
In many cases, they are some of the great- est promoters of this garbage. The irrational hatred of many who report our “news” has made them incapable of accurately report- ingcurrenteventstruthfully. Acountrywith neither principals nor borders is not a nation but a rag-tag collection of aimless tribes.
But, as always, that's only one man's opin- ion.
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