Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 12-12-19 E-edition

Thursday, December 12, 2019 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
Serving the Readers of the Reedley Exponent, Dimuba Sentinel and Sanger Herald.
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
Fred Hall — Publisher
In my OPINION Thinnest, most misguided set
of charges for impeachment
December trips to Las Vegas offer a welcome wintertime respite
Rick Curiel — Sanger Editor Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened.”
— Saki (1870-1916)
For all members of the California Democrat Caucus in the House of Representa- tives, this promises to be a memorable Christmas. Your leadership has all but assured their lemming-like member- ship that there will be the thinnest and most misguided set of charges for impeaching an American President in the history of this country. What the hell, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! After all, this is California and your seats are safe because you are insulated against stupid acts—not so much can be said for Democrats in most of the other states.
It appears that Nancy Pelosi may have limited her own tenure as Speaker of the House! With the pressure that has been applied by Oc- asio-Cortez and other “social- ist democrats” Pelosi has as- sumed a lofty position where she is speaker in name only. She never really had control of this Congress with tone and direction being provided by the so-called “squad.” Her young charges, enjoying their first taste of power have re- fused to kowtow to some old relic who wants to tell them what to do.
The call for the impeach- ment of President Donald Trump began within a few short hours of his election in 2016. The press, never- Trumpers and those who comprise the deep state of professional government bu- reaucrats and employees had already made the decision that they would not tolerate this ballot mistake on the part of those who Hillary Clinton, herself, had identified as ‘de- plorables’. After all, what’s to be done when the serfs, the great unwashed, try to rise up against their betters?
I certainly am not an attor- ney, much less a constitution- al scholar but, to this point, no one seems to have identified a high crime or misdemeanor. This goofy gang of commit- tees headed up by guys like Adam Schiff, who hasn’t said anything believable in a long while, seems to be in search of a crime. We don’t believe it should ever work that way. Yet, we’ve had almost four years of committees and special prosecutors search- ing for something that the President might have done that was illegal.
Hating someone and be- ing unhappy with their poli-
cies does
not con-
stitute an
impeach-
able of-
fense.
We’ve
had two
impeach-
ments in
our coun-
try’s history. These people seem to be laying the ground- work for it to become a regu- lar event in an effort to over- throw an election.
The President’s detractors seem more like petulant chil- dren than rational, reason- able adults. What policies are there with which you dis- agree? The economy is the best it has been in decades! There are no new wars and our precious soldiers are be- ing brought home. America is no longer a pushover on the world stage. No grovel- ing and apologizing for every thing that is wrong every- where. America is enjoying far greater respect than any time in recent history.
They say Trump is too plain spoken—like the com- mon man—and isn’t suffi- ciently genteel enough and shows too many rough edg- es. Find a history book, if you can, and I bet I’ll be able to show you stories about some of the greatest men who fought for this great nation and helped build her into a position of strength who would have been brand- ed with the same attributes. We love the fact that he is a nationalist. It’s about time that America and Americans came first.
Frankly, I don’t give a damn about what they think of us, or our President, in France, Germany or Eng- land. In case of an emergen- cy, where do you think those countries and their leaders would turn for help—even with all our crudeness.
The Democrats will file their flimsy articles of im- peachment and they will go nowhere and serve to do nothing excerpt embarrass this country. Remember, oth- er investigations are coming to fruition and will provide some insight into how any- thing this out of control could have happened in this coun- try. Those who perpetrated his hoax should be called to account!
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
I've been with Mid Valley Publishing for nearly eight years. Each December, there is a one week down period where I'm out of the office on vaca- tion. It's a tradition I've done for nearly 25 years: a late fall/ wintertime trip to Las Vegas.
By the time you're reading this, I'll have returned to Cen- tral California, the land of hazy winter air — at least until we received these welcome rain- storms in the past week. But in the meantime, I will have been given the opportunity to clear my lungs (provided I didn't stay too long in any single smoky casino) and also probably clean out my wallet.
There are advantages to visiting Sin City in December compared to a more traditional spring-summer vacation. One, there are no 110-plus degree days to deal with. When you live in the Valley, you're already used to triple digit tempera- tures, so it's no time to go to a vacation destination that's 5 to 10 degrees hotter. Second, there is plenty of college and pro bas- ketball available if you're into betting on those sort of things — as well as football (if you decide to go on the much-bus- ier weekends) and the hottest sports flavor of the past three years, the Las Vegas Golden Knights' professional hockey team.
But the smaller crowds fac- tor is a big attraction for go-
ing in December, as long as it's not Dec. 31. There are far less people in Las Vegas in the wintertime, especially during the week. Sure, there's the Na- tional Finals Rodeo this time of the month along with a steady increase in conventions. But for the most part, December is a good time to walk the Strip, visit the shops or catch a show if that's your preference and not have to elbow your way through large throngs of people.
I usually make two trips a year to Las Vegas, in Decem- ber and the middle of March for the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournaments (commonly called "March Mad- ness."). I'm more in the mood to mingle with larger crowds then, as I catch the spirit of bidding winter a fond farewell.
For me, the December trip means the wrapup to another year off the calendar, and a shot of energy for another year of covering the news scene in Reedley and the Mid Valley Times coverage areas. I'll ad- mit it's been an extremely fast summer and fall, with lots of change and excitement being part of the Times' consolidation of news.
I look forward to the rest of 2019 and all of 2020 in Reedley, Sanger and Dinuba. I'm sure I'll be a little poorer in the pocket- book but richer in relaxation.
•••
While the recent wet weath-
er has been wel-
come to almost
all of us, it also
was good to get
a short spell of
clear weather
for the annual
Reedley Electri-
cal Farm Equip-
ment Parade on Dec. 5. The re- cent rain brought a bit of chill to the event, which had a theme this year of holiday movies, but the weather conditions still were great to watch the array of lights on the various floats.
Three floats stood out, high- lighted by the first place Reed- ley Relay for Life float that was inspired by "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and won the top award of $100. Second place and $75 went to Reedley 4-H ("A Charlie Brown Christmas") while the $50 third place prize went to Darkside Customz ("A Christmas Story"). Congratula- tions to the winners!
•••
If you're into the Christ-
mas spirit with holiday lights and decorations, send in some photos of your house, yard or residence. Send to reedley@ midvalleytimes.com, sanger@ midvalleytimes.com or dinuba@ midvalleytimes.com. If we re- ceive a good array of dazzling holiday lights, we may feature some in a photo spread around Christmas time. Enjoy Decem- ber, and the upcoming Christ- mas vacation break.
Fred Hall
Jon Earnest
Rain or shine, the show must go on
Weather is always a factor when planning an outside event. Here in the Valley, we have the blistering heat of the summer to deal with and the rain and fog during this time of the year. But if there is one thing that can truly put a damper on your festivities, it’s rain.
Such might have been the case this past weekend, as the weather threatened to rain out many Valley parades. Instead, keeping a positive approach and a little good fortune made for quite a great show.
Communities throughout the Valley, including the cities of Di- nuba, Reedley and Sanger each kicked off the holiday season with a community Christmas Parade. Though the city of Reedley was spared from our recent ‘storm system’, the cities of Sanger and Dinuba each dealt with the pos- sibility of weekend rain.
Last year, the city of Dinuba needed to postpone their annual
Christmas parade after a much larger storm system made for very wet conditions. This year, the city of Dinuba allowed for a plan-B. In advertising for the parade, the city gave a second- ary date of Dec. 14 in the event of rain.
The Sanger Chamber of Com- merce had a different approach to their annual Christmas pa- rade. When asked if there was a contingency plan in the event of rain, the chamber’s Karen Pear- son stated, “It’s on, rain or shine. In the 72 years of the parade, we have never cancelled or resched- uled.”
So when the rain came ear- ly Saturday morning, many in both communities prepared one way or the other. Fortunately for Sanger, though the streets were wet, the parade went on as planned, with only a few light drizzles in an otherwise pleasant morning.
In Dinuba, social media was
flooded with questions from the community asking if the pa- rade was still on. This prompted the city to post that the parade was on, rain or shine.
Rick Curiel
And whether it was good for- tune, Mother Nature collaborat- ing with the Christmas spirit or the prayers of the faithful, the light sprinkles ended just min- utes before the start of the Di- nuba Christmas Parade.
As the country song goes, ‘rain is a good thing’. It cleans the air, it replenishes the water table and it cleans the streets for parades to usher in the holiday season.
Having covered one parade and walked another this past weekend, I'm thankful for the rain and the parades. They were - refreshing.