This is Viewpoints for Thursday, March 2, 2017

Poor grammar

A recent “Athlete of the Week” report on a local TV channel interviewed the student’s coach. His lack of grammar was appalling for one who is supposed to be a college graduate, a teacher and potentially a role model for high school students.

A couple of points

Michael Ryan’s letter “Fee is a tax” is impractical and thus unreal and idealistic. The owners of vacant lots should pay the Solid Waste fee because on a frequent basis their landscaping folks will have to act so that the lot doesn’t turn into a jungle with lots of litter. Evasion of fees is freeloading and not fair to those who actually pay the fees.

Sloan Oliver in his column “Its all of our problem” about local forums is too naive and idealistic. His attempts at psychoanalysis of a few troubled local lads who have run astray and gotten into trouble is not realistic. Parents are the major influence in their children’s lives and the county schools systems often fail because of inadequate funding, drugs, and a lack of parental involvement in their schooling.

Keep your day job

After watching his tearful but unconvincing performance denouncing President Trump’s travel ban, I have some advice for Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Shumer: Don’t give up your day job, Chuckie, to go into acting. You’re not very good at it.

Open arms

After reading the article about immigrants being fearful of Trump policies on the front page of The Telegraph, it angers me a bit. They should be worried. I don’t mind immigrants coming to our great country. What I do mind is the fact they do it illegally and think they can get away with it. Do they pay taxes like the rest of us? I am sure many of them are hard workers and that’s more than I can say for many of our citizens who want to live off the government and collect food stamps and all the other free handouts. All they have to do is become a legal citizen and they will be welcomed with open arms.

Stop the petty bickering

Our President seems to believe in the old saying “If you repeat something long enough, whether it is true or not, it becomes true.” Too bad. I don’t know whose crystal ball he is looking in but with an approval rate of only 38 percent, things aren’t as positive as he seems to portray them to be.

On Jan. 23, the new president told congressional leaders that between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused him to lose the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Trump won the election with a convincing victory in the Electoral College, even as Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes.

I expect that his statement was made without any supporting evidence. I surely hope that there are enough level headed people in Washington D.C., whatever their political persuasion, to keep America free and strong by abiding by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, working together and doing the job they were elected to do.

Do what is good for a free America and stop all the petty bickering between parties.

Wonder of wonders

Having just turned 82, I certainly am able to claim senior citizen status. Over those years, I have acquired a keen interest in politics and public affairs. I have witnessed quite a number of elections. In each race, there was a winner and a loser. Never in my experience have the losers chosen to express their disappointment in such a violent and destructive manner.

Donald Trump made quite a few promises as to what he would do if elected. Apparently the American people liked what they heard, and he was elected. Now, wonder of wonders, he is actually beginning to do some of the things he promised. Does that make him a fascist? As Charlie Brown would say, “Good grief”

We all know who won

In response to the sore winners who demand that the rest of us “get over it” because Trump won the election — just watch a few days worth of YouTube videos showing some awfully angry folks saying some pretty unprintable things after the past couple elections.

So, he won, thank Putin. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows he won. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knows he won. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe knows he won. Even the dead know he won, because he just won’t shut up about it, even in front of the wall of CIA fallen officers. Seems like nearly every day he collars an audience into a room decorated by Midas so he can refresh our memories of the most beautiful incredible victory ever in the history of all victories. I wish he wouldn’t take the show on the road, though, because that cost us over $10 million dollars last month and I’d rather he didn’t use our income tax money to finance his next bankruptcy.

When he preaches the message “the press is an enemy of the people,” he poisons our Constitution. World leaders know first-hand the oppressive ideology behind these kind of attacks. And that toxic message quickly filtered down to his ground troops. a few days ago, Energy Transfer Partners’ combat-ready forces shot and beat journalists for trying to photograph DAPL construction on federal land in North Dakota. Trump had as much as $300 million invested in ETP’s two parent companies. Now? Who knows?

Collective outrage

It seems a number of Republican governors want to change Medicaid, which provides insurance to 70 million low income Americans, to a program designed by each state within a set financial limit. This sounds a lot like a death panel situation in the making to me so I’m hoping to be joined in collective outrage when this comes to pass.

CBS Morning News

I honestly tried to enjoy the CBS Morning News on Wednesday morning after President Trump’s speech on Tuesday night. Wasn’t doing too bad until they put that idiot, Sen. Chuck Schumer on and that was it. In the words of that famous American, Popeye the Sailor Man, “I had all I could stands and I can’t stands no more.”

This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, March 2, 2017."