Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 2-7-19 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, February 7, 2019 Editorial & Opinions
Serving “The World’s Fruit Basket” since 1891
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
Jon Earnest — Editor / Sports Juanita Adame — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“It takes hundreds of nuts to hold a car together, but it takes only one of them to scatter it all over the highway.”
Evan Esar (1899-1995) “Esar’s Comic Dictionary”
Right here in River City, “we have a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Un- doubtedly the words sound familiar because one has to have heard them at some point in their life. The quote is excerpted from a Win- ston Churchill speech in 1939 after he was questioned about the possibility of the old So- viet Union entering World War II. Our riddle is much more benign, since it involves a paint- ing that several local residents feel is missing from the Reedley Post Office.
Royal Valley building demolition is just part of downtown’s revitalization
Fred Hall
We would greatly appreciate anyone who knows if there were, at one time, more than one painting or who has any pertinent in- formation which would aid in solving this question.
•••
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be dis-
appointed” is a widely-used idiom which has been attributed to numerous sources. 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 on our lives. Sadly, that attitude generally has catastrophic consequences. We wind up with a majority of a legislative body comprised of 435 diverse human beings who don’t have a clue about anything.
If anyone has any doubt about the precipitous leap that the Democratic party is taking to the left, they only have to take a look at many of the loony “we’ll take all their money” crowd now serving in the House of Representatives. We thought that, perhaps, it would be a good idea to bring to your attention just a few of the things that lie in store if this new Congress has its way.
Democrat Alerxandria Ocasio-Cortez has already recommend- ed that top tier tax bracket be raised to 70 percent. That’s almost double the present rate.
The newest Democrat House member from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar — not to be outdone — offered her opinion that 90 percent would be a better method of redistribution of the country’s wealth.
One-upping everyone, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts rec- ommends 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 Southern border. Although the people who are intimately charged with protecting the border, our Border Pa- trol, says it’s the only thing that will truly work, Nancy refuses to reconsider her “resistance” because of politics. She’s even willing to see government employees without paychecks in her hatred for Donald Trump.
Democrat governors in two of our most populous states, Cali- fornia and New York, have already proposed health care for all — even non-citizens. We have no idea where the hell that money will come from. Actually, we do. As always, the hard-working taxpayer 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 anything that is more of a magnet to make your way here.
I have to confess that I never understood the fanaticism behind the act of aborting children. Truth is, it has almost taken on the 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. How far has our society fallen when there is a raucous celebration of legislation which made it a part of that state’s constitution?
Although the Special Council’s office — during a two-year period marked by corruption of the Justice Department and the FBI —has been unable to find any underlying crime which should have been its preface 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 in a real mess, but it’s not. The economy is robust, more people are working, fewer are unemployed, wages are up and we are fighting no new wars. America is stronger than it has been in a long, long time and our country’s respect has grown around the world. We have a president who promises something and his word is good. Show me another politician who does that! And they want to impeach him? For what?
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. The pressure for tax increases is simply to further expand their much-desired outcome of instant socialism and a redistribu- tion of the money we currently work so hard for.
From each, according to his ability, to each according to their need. If that sounds familiar, 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 greatest promoters of this garbage.
For what seems like the longest time, plans have been made, dis- cussed, adjusted and again organized in regards to “what to do” with the old Royal Valley packing shed build- ing behind City Hall and the Reedley Police Department.
Last week, the community was blessed with the happy sight of exca- vation crews starting to knock down the north walls of the old building. This followed the lengthy and ardu- ous task of making sure that asbes- tos would properly be removed and disposed.
Depending on the weather — and you have to love all the recent rain — the process of completely knock- ing down the structure is three to five weeks. At that time, all the rubble will be taken away and the next task is to smooth out and prepare a good portion of the site for parking. Both police department and city vehicles will use the parking, which will fea- ture covered areas with solar panels. It’s a growing trend in the city – with-
in the past year or two, covered park- ing with solar panels has been placed at Reedley College and at the Reedley Mennonite Brethren Church.
For awhile, it appeared that the old Royal Valley site would be the home of a new and larger Reedley Public Library. But the Friends of Reedley Library received an oppor- tunity to purchase land south of the new Kings Canyon Unified School District headquarters, a move the organization considerable money in having to pay for asbestos removal.
Now, the wheels finally are in motion for development of a new downtown municipal core. It’s hoped that by early next decade, City Hall and the police department will be flanked to the west by the open park- ing, KCUSD headquarters and a new Reedley library.
With the future expansion plans at Reedley College (including a per- forming arts center) as well as resi- dential development, the city has set its sights on a period of aggressive-
but-deliberate and controlled growth.
•••
A salute to
Reedley High
School’s Academic
Decathlon team,
which collected 15
medals at Fresno
County competi- Jon Earnest tion on Feb. 2 in
Fresno. Eight of those medals were won by senior Emily Booth, including four gold medals. She’s racked up an impressive 13 medals in the last two years.
Congratulations, Emily and her
fellow Pirates!
•••
Pick up the Feb. 14 issue of The Exponent to read capsules and brief biographies on this year’s Greater Reedley Chamber of Commerce award winners. The list is on Page A1 if you want to find out who’s being honored at the Saturday, Feb. 23, an- nual gala dinner at Reedley College.
Our investigation, to this point, indicates
there was only one oil-on-canvas painted by a Lithuanian immi- grant named Bris Deutsch. Commission was by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) specifically for the Reedley Post Office. WPA was a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s program for recovery during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The painting was probably done in the late 30s, and portrays grape pickers dur- ing a Central Valley harvest.
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Ocasio-Cortez: a force to be reckoned with
By Mark Hendrickson
Guest columnist
Whatever else you may think of her, first-time Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is a great American success story. Hers is a clas- sic “triumph of the under- dog” tale. Nobody expected her to upset 10-term in- cumbent Congressman and Chair of the House Demo- cratic caucus, Joe Crowley, in last June’s Democratic primary in her New York City congressional district, but she did. Using her apart- ment as her campaign head- quarters and going door to door in her district, AOC proved once again that a motivated, hard-working American can succeed against long odds.
Ocasio-Cortez is clever and shrewd in some ways, embarrassingly clueless in others. On the positive side, she is media-savvy and shows astute political instincts. On the negative side, to put it mildly, her understanding of American government is deficient (she didn’t even know what the three branches of gov- ernment are), her grasp of economic and history is minimal (she espouses the ideology of socialism de- spite its inherent flaws e.g., no economic calculation or coordination is possible without private property, market-based prices, and a profit-and-loss calculus), and she seems oblivious to elementary arithmetic, as evidenced by her propos- als for Uncle Sam to spend tens of trillions of dollars more than exist in spend- able form.
Conservatives seem to
think AOC will self-destruct by repeatedly showing her economic obtuseness, but they are wrong. They are underestimating her ability to exploit media and her po- litical acumen. Last summer after her primary victory, AOC was a guest on “The View.” Channeling King David’s son Absalom — the prototype for using flattery and charm to further one’s political ambitions — she ef- fusively hugged each of the five hostesses, gushing and giving them her best “Oh, I’m so privileged to meet you” greeting.
In her interview on “60 Minutes,” she alternately voiced clever, quotable sound bites at the expense of Republicans and respond- ed to questions about her apparent factual inaccura- cies by playing the role of a disarmingly innocent po- litical neophyte who admit- tedly hadn’t mastered all the details, but whose heart is in the right place.
On Twitter, she drops the innocent act and reveals herself to be a rough-and- tumble street fighter. Ex- amples: She rallied to the support of fellow freshman congresswoman Rashida Tlaib after Tlaib public- ly referred to President Trump as a “motherf*****,” tweeting, “I got your back.” She also isn’t bashful about disrespecting non-Republi- cans. Advised by one-time Democratic vice presiden- tial nominee Joseph Lieber- man to take a more moder- ate approach, she causti- cally tweeted, “New party, who dis?”
Like it or not, AOC, by virtue of her two-million-
Other Opinions
plus Twitter followers and as the fresh new face along- side Bernie Sanders at the forefront of America’s dem- ocratic socialist movement, has established herself as a force to be reckoned with on the national stage. Her fund-raising clout is bound to be considerable. This will enable her to chart an inde- pendent course, much to the frustration of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Expect AOC to drag Demo- crats even further to the left whether they really want to go that way or not.
Politically, her propos- als—no matter how over- the-top, ridiculous, or unvi- able — will actually enhance rather than hurt her popu- larity. As the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mis- es wrote nearly six decades ago, it no longer matters, politically, “whether a mea- sure is fit to produce the ends aimed at. What alone counts for [the politician] is whether the majority of vot- ers favor or reject it.” Sadly, wisdom and knowledge are not nearly as important in democratic politics as im- passioned promises for a Santa Claus government to give voters free goods. Voters believe in the Santa Claus fantasy, and AOC is playing Santa to the hilt, promising free health care, free college, etc.
Another factor enhanc- ing AOC’s popularity is her public stance that she would rather lose her seat in Con- gress than compromise her principles. In this day and age when few politicians are known for sticking to
their principles, AOC stands out from the crowd.
She may know precious little about sound econom- ics, but she has a keen nose for power. That is why she advocates the abolition of the Electoral College — be- cause it is an obstacle to the mighty (and mighty dan- gerous) power of unbridled majoritarianism which our wise founders rightly un- derstood to be one of the greatest threats to rights and liberty.
The important question going forward will not be the mind of AOC, but what kind of heart she has. Like most prominent leaders of socialist movements, she has a knack for taking care of Number One. I am refer- ring to her reported unwill- ingness to divide the wealth equally when her own fi- nancial interest is involved. A larger concern is her re- fusal, so far, to condemn the murderous regime (murder by bullets and starvation) of Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolas Maduro. This raises the question of whether her support for socialism is that of a naive enthusiast or a convicted fanatic. Let’s hope that her mind isn’t so blinded by the imagined glory of her “grand plan” for a more hu- mane world that she lacks the compassion to disavow socialist policies when they hurt the very people whom they were supposed to help.
Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and fellow for economic and social policy with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City (Pa.) College.
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