Letters for September 13, 2018

Comply already

Re “Muddy waters” (Newslines, by Howard Hardee, Sept. 6):

Muddy waters is what first alerted me to a mining operation upstream that, when everything was adjudicated, ended with Butte County spending well over $300,000. Now that Mineral Resources LLC is in the sights of not the district attorney(?) but the state Department of Water Resources and state Department of Fish and Wildlife, one possible outcome is the LLC choosing to cut its losses and run. Remember, limited liability corporation is just that.

As county citizens we need to be aware of three things: What permit are they operating under? What is the reclamation plan? Does the county have enough of a bond, posted by Mineral Resources LLC, to undertake that reclamation plan without costing taxpayers to fix the site?

Anyone who drives by this site has to wonder how they are still in operation. The time involved with Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s process shows its penchant for giving law breakers more than enough time to come into compliance. This case started five years ago and it has been 1 1/2 years since the company failed to comply with a clean-up and abatement order deadline of Jan. 1, 2017. I’d bet the profits never stopped rolling in.

Rich Meyers

Oroville

Commentary comments

Re: “Trump’s America: tacky, tasteless and tawdry” (Guest comment, by Jaime O’Neill, Sept. 6):

Jaime O’Neill links poor taste to fascism, and bashes Trump’s sleaziness.

Poor taste and Trump’s sleaziness are the least of the United States’ problems. The U.S. has a huge debt that O’Neill’s generation is leaving to future generations. Some $6 trillion of that debt is the result of military action taken since 9/11 and supported by Democrats. This military action has made the U.S. less safe and the world more unstable.

As Bashar al-Assad moves to retake the last U.S.-backed rebel territory in Syria, Trump has now reversed his wanting U.S. troops to leave Syria. Gen. Jim Mattis says the U.S. will stay indefinitely in Syria.

There has been a “soft coup.” The generals, the foreign policy establishment, intelligence and military industrial complex rule in Washington.

George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump campaigned on less military intervention and no regime change. They all caved to the “deep state” forces that see military action as necessary to further the national interest.

This is important. It is taking the revenue needed for solving very real domestic problems.

Trump is sleazy, and Bill Clinton was a sexual predator, but U.S. militarism and climate change are killing the future.

Lucy Cooke

Butte Valley

I wanted to comment about Jaime O’Neill’s commentary about Trump inviting draft-dodger Ted Nugent to the White House. Trump is a draft-dodger who found a pseudo kindred spirit in Ted Nugent. Years ago, in an interview before he became a right-wing clown, Nugent bragged about defecating and urinating in his jeans for about 30 days prior to reporting for his induction physical. His actions worked. Personnel at the induction center believed he was mentally imbalanced. Poor Ted! His father wasn’t rich enough to pay a physician to fabricate X-rays depicting a bone spur.

Roy Crabtree

Chico

Don’t blame enviros

Re “Environmentalism run amok” (Guest comment, by Bill Smith, Aug. 16):

Bill Smith’s accusation that environmentalists are at fault for all the wildfires is ludicrous, especially coming from a U.S. Forest Service silviculturist who obviously knows nothing about his own agency’s [fire suppression] history.

USFS was established in 1905 and shortly thereafter established its total fire suppression policy, which later included the opposition to light burning by ranchers, farmers and timbermen. The agency attacked fire with a vengeance and with the Weeks Act of 1911 set up the framework of total fire suppression with other federal, state and private forest associations and landowners.

Smokey the Bear was the agency’s fire suppression message, along with the policy of extinguishing the fire by 10 a.m. the next day. So for decades the USFS created the enormous build-up of fuels by intensely suppressing the natural process of fuel reduction by fire!

The USFS, not the environmentalists, created this enormous fuel build-up through improper forest management with its unscientific policies. Environmentalists want resilient forests and even silviculturists know old-growth forests are the most resilient—living through hundreds of years of fires.

Dave Garcia

Oroville

Speak of the devil

It hasn’t taken long for another example of environmental groups thumbing their noses at our current smoke-induced health crisis to surface. It was on Aug. 16, 2018, that I penned a CN&R guest comment detailing the litigation of U.S. Forest Service fuel reduction projects by environmental groups, which stalls or stops these projects, contributing to the fuel overload in the woods.

These fuels are stored carbon that are converted to carbon dioxide by wildfire, contributing to global warming.

On Aug. 27, in front page news, Paul Rogers of the Bay Area News Group reported that Gov. Jerry Brown is proposing changes to the State Forest Practice Act, which oversees fuel removal on state and private ground. Brown’s changes would make it easier to remove fuel from the woods, which would make it easier “to thin more forests across the state.”

Of course, Brown’s proposal is being opposed “by more than a dozen environmental groups,” including the usual suspects: the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Coast Action Group, and others. Please don’t support these environmental groups and maybe we can start reducing the global warming effects from wildfires.

Bill Smith

Chico

Humane responses

Re “Déjà vu” (Second & Flume, by Melissa Daugherty, Aug. 30):

I agree with everything you wrote. I was homeless myself for just over two years, though I was homeless in Southern California, specifically San Diego County. I rotated among several cities depending on the weather.

Most of the police officers ignored the homeless unless they were causing a problem such as forceful begging, refusing to leave when asked to leave or going to the bathroom in sight of the public.

Solving the “problem” of homelessness will involve many things, some beyond the reach of Chico. But a big first step for those who are not homeless is for them to remember that the majority of the homeless are not homeless by choice and try to be invisible. A small percentage of “the homeless” cause the majority of the problems.

A day center is a good idea, as is a place to store things as well as take a shower and wash clothes. If people don’t want the City Plaza taken over by the homeless, give them somewhere more advantageous for them to be.

In closing, there has always been homelessness and will probably always be homelessness; society needs to decide if it will continue to ignore the problem or deal with it in a humane manner.

George Williams

Chico

It takes a village

I support a tiny house project for Chico homeless people, along the lines that have proven successful in Oregon. Tiny houses can be part of a mosaic of approaches to problems that will increase if ignored. As a city we can tap into volunteerism and existing skills to move in a positive direction.

Dolores Mitchell

Chico

A culture and society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members. Few are more vulnerable than the homeless. Helping someone climb out of the abyss of homelessness requires more than compassion. It requires help and resources from society, but most of all it requires getting people into housing.

Tiny houses have proven to be one of the best solutions. They’ve been built in towns and cities across the United States with excellent results. Wiser minds than mine have proven that having people in housing reduces the overall cost to taxpayers with improved health (so less emergency services) and by providing the stability that may allow someone to get and hold a job.

The current proposal for Simplicity Village would be of tremendous benefit to Chico, both to the homeless and to the residents. If Chico City Council will declare a shelter crisis, these mini-communities could be built before winter arrives. Would you want to be living on the street in winter? This is a chance to show that we’re a society that values human life.

Ask the council to implement the Simplicity Village proposal.

Christy Marx

Paradise

On congressional voting

The Democratic Party is broken. The Republican Party is more broken. And so Congress is broken, too.

Are you an independent? Are you an independent-minded Republican? Or an independent-minded Democrat? At Independent Like the North State, liberals think we’re conservative and conservatives think we’re liberal. We must be doing something right.

We put country over party. We’re betting you do, too.

We need to restore morality to our government. Congress and the White House have forgotten their integrity of a generation ago. They’ve lost sight of moral, compassionate, cooperative leadership.

Republicans of good conscience have been left out in the cold in today’s extreme political climate. What’s a moderate Republican to do?

We’re glad you asked.

Independent Like the North State members voted overwhelmingly to endorse Audrey Denney for Congress in the North State. “Your political party shouldn’t matter so much. Vote for the person,” Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, said. We agree. Vote for the person. That person is Audrey Denney.

Audrey Denney will protect our American freedoms and bring a dose of old-fashioned North State common sense to Washington, D.C. Vote Audrey Denney for Congress.

Chris Verrill

Redding

Audrey Denney? Why should I vote for Audrey Denney? She’s a Democrat and it’s obvious that Democrat and Republican politicians are the same. Just look at their party platforms for God’s sake. We’re in this mess because of Congress. Unless I heard wrong, committee heads (the real Congress people in power) are chosen by a Good Ole’ Boys Club. Yep. It’s who you know. Our vote really means nothing.

Chris Durniak

Chico

On Trump and LaMalfa

As I write this on the eve of 9/11, it’s day 600 of the Trump administration, with its related 30-something indictments, guilty pleas, plea deals, jail sentences, guilty verdicts, another upcoming trial, and perhaps more.

Meanwhile, Trump (I call him Igor) is busy tweeting about books and op-eds, attacking authors and journalists, while a hurricane is three days away from hitting the East Coast of America. These are states that voted for Igor. I certainly hope he’s that focused (ha ha) about the disaster that’s about to hit. Or maybe, when it’s over, he’ll go down there and toss some rolls of paper towels and say what a great job he’s doing.

Our Republican House of Representatives, which includes our current guy, uh, what’s his name, has the authority to begin helping those who will soon be in need. Oh, a year after Puerto Rico was hit much of its infrastructure is still in need of repair, including basic electricity. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birth—OK, I know they’re sorta brown-skinned, but as of 2010, the Veterans Administration listed 116,029 Puerto Rican vets. More than 1,225 have died while serving. Step up, congressman.

Ed Pitman

Chico

Call for enlightenment

As usual, I’m confused. For most of my life I’ve watched the national news, followed the critical issues Congress is faced with and strives to solve, and listened to our presidents explain things in a logical manner.

But somewhere along the line I’ve totally missed the disaster facing us by not overturning Roe v. Wade. As this issue appears so important that it pales all other issues, I’m asking those of you who find this to be the sole driving issue of the 22nd century to please enlighten me as to how overturning Roe will: promote world peace, curtail global warming, solve our opioid addiction problem, restore our crumbling infrastructure, eliminate pollution, activate a workable immigration system, reduce gun violence, create jobs thus eliminating homelessness, and provide health care and education for all.

I know there must be a valid and logical answer that has escaped me, so please, those of you who stand on the street corners with your signs and ignore our Constitutional commitment for separation of church and state, help me out here so I, too, can understand the world crisis facing us if this is not carried out.

W. Dean Carrier

Paradise

Free of Fox

I made it! A week without Fox News. It wasn’t Neil Cavuto or Shepard Smith or Chris Wallace I missed. They have gone over to the dark side putting truth before opinion.

No, I missed Fox and Friends, where truth is juggled like water balloons. And Tucker Carlson, who stares blankly, mouth drooped, as his guests use three-syllable words. I miss his excitement as he waits for that one understandable word, when he can leap upon his guests and maul them in his mouth, a hungry hyena destroying his guest.

And the ever-present blondes. How I miss them! And Watters’ World, watching the host smirk as he interviews scantily-clad and intellectually-challenged youngsters, salivating on realizing his IQ is higher than theirs.

No, I spent a week forcing myself to watch MSNBC, where attorneys tease out the repercussions of legal actions. I even watched Jake Tapper and Fareed Zakaria. And I read newspapers! It was torture! The week is over! My penance complete! I return to the comfort and safety of Fox News.

Lynn H. Elliott

Chico

White House horror

In the 1979 horror movie When a Stranger Calls, teenage babysitter Jill Johnson receives several spine-chilling calls from an off-kilter male voice asking if she had “checked the children lately?” After calling the police to report the nefarious stalker, Jill learns the calls are emanating from the house she’s in.

We have a real horror show currently running in the White House, folks. Like the stalker in the movie, according to a New York Times op-ed dated Sept. 5, an alleged “senior White House official” called the Times to report that a group of officials in the White House are working to thwart Trump’s dangerous inclinations, rash tendencies, repetitive rants, and decision-making abilities detrimental to the health of our Republic.

The caller says that Trump is “half-baked, ill-informed” and “reckless.”

Trump recently ordered James Mattis to have Bashar al-Assad assassinated, for one example. Even “Mad Dog” Mattis refused the order. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence both deny being the “deep-throated” caller to the Times; perhaps they’ll carry comrade Trump away in a straight jacket similar to the crazy caller in the 1979 movie?

Ray Estes

Redding

Renaming a fire

Re “World on fire” (Cover story, by Alastair Bland, Aug. 23):

Delta Fire renamed LaMalfa #2 Fire.

George (Beau) Grosscup III

Chico

Speaking of wildfires

Re “Carr Fire lessons” (Letters, buy Peter Stiglich, Sept. 6):

KRCR Channel 7 had 24-hour-a-day coverage of the Carr Fire, including numerous interviews with Cal Fire and the National Park Service information officers and fire line personnel.

KCVU Channel 20 broadcast the Cal Fire 7 a.m. morning briefings, where a complete briefing for the firefighters was presented. These briefings are generally closed to the public. All the information you needed was presented.

The Shasta County Sheriff’s Office constantly updated evacuation and re-entry information, all shown on local TV stations.

When people are evacuated, their link to local TV is usually severed. Evacuation centers usually present as much information as they can. Wildland and interface fires are dynamic. The Carr Fire was extremely dynamic. Information is usually after the fact.

Dave Sinclear

Orland

Correction

Last week’s cover story (see “Ambush on Mangrove,” by Ken Smith) incorrectly reported that the garage where Kenneth Ray Davis worked was attached to the Hotel Oaks, then located on Second Street. Based on further research, we’ve learned that the Oaks Garage, located elsewhere on Second Street, was unaffiliated with the hotel. The story has been corrected online. —ed.