Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, April 29, 2017

B3

OPINION 

 Mountain Views News Saturday, April 29, 2017 


RICK JENSEN

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Mountain Views

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Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
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Dean Lee 

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Keely Toten

FLYING THE UNFRIENDLY SKIES

The airline industry is so competitive that upon learning United 
Airlines dragged a paying passenger off a flight so their employees 
could enjoy a free ride, Delta played hide-and-seek with the body of a 
man on the way to his own funeral.

 We live in an era of air travel where paying customers are regarded as 
some sort of annoyance worthy of abuse rather than, well, customers 
worthy of some minimally healthy appreciation.

 It matters little to some airport security that children are 
watching while they drag a passenger from his seat, bloody him up 
and then stand by while he re-enters the plane, staggering from one end to the other, obviously 
in shock, muttering that he has to go home. 

 Another video shows him clinging to a doorway in the plane, pleading with security and 
police, “Just kill me.”

 The video shows the police simply watching him. I hope I’m not giving the police too much 
credit in presuming they were waiting for him to calm down, which is much better than hog-
tying him to a gurney, taping his mouth shut and wheeling him off.

 Better, but not much.

 Who knew that United has a “fine print” policy in which they reserve the right to have 
airport security violently drag you off their planes to make room for employees flying to work 
in another city? 

 If you’re ever asked, “Would you be willing to take $400 in air travel and a hotel so one of 
our four employees can get to Louisville?” say, “Yes, please,” unless you’re willing to take a 
beating.

 Which brings up another fact about United’s poor business model of bouncing paying 
customers around in favor of employees needing a lift.

 The man they dragged across the seats and floor is reportedly a doctor who said he could 
not stay in Chicago overnight because he had appointments with patients the next day.

 This sounds like a reasonable justification to go back to the computer and have it select 
another random seat for ejection.

 But, no, they chose the much more expensive option.

 It may cost United a couple thousand dollars to book employee flights on another airline. 
Instead, they chose option number two - pay out at least a couple million in a civil suit they 
are sure to lose.

 If the doctor’s lawyer can get a jury trial, United and O’Hare might be buying him a multi-
million dollar private jet and pilot.

 And Delta? 

 31 year-old Bryant Lee Raburn, who died from leukemia, was supposed to be flown to 
Nashville from Raleigh for his funeral.

 Instead, Delta escorted the body on the scenic route to Utah. And dropped him there.

 WRAL TV reports: 

 “Bryant was rerouted to Salt Lake City in a cargo hold, and we didn’t know how to get him 
to Nashville,” said David Rhodes, Bryant’s stepfather.” 

 “According to Rhodes, hours spent on the phone with Delta got him nowhere. ‘I was 
stonewalled everywhere I called,’ he said.”

 “Finally, Rhodes traveled to the Nashville airport himself to work with operating managers 
to find a new flight that would get his stepson’s body to Tennessee in time for the funeral.”

 In August, 2014, 22 travelers from Delaware flew from Philadelphia to New York on their 
way to Dublin. What they didn’t know was that the ticketing agent in Philly booked them on 
a ghost ship to Dublin.

 The flight didn’t exist.

 So there they were, stranded in New York.

 Fourteen of them grew weary of Delta’s failure to get them on a flight to Dublin and took 
cabs and limos back to Delaware. The remaining eight fought for over five hours with agents 
and a Delta VP to get flights on other airlines.

 Here’s what we’ve learned from these airlines: 

 United’s slogan: “Fly United. We dare you. Punk.’” 

 Delta’s slogan: “Delta gets you there. We’ll decide where “there” is. You got a problem wit 
dat?”

——-

© Copyright 2017 Rick Jensen, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Rick Jensen is Delaware’s award-winning conservative talk show host on WDEL, streaming 
live on WDEL.com from 1pm — 4pm EST. Contact Rick at rick@wdel.com, or follow him on 
Twitter @Jensen1150WDEL.

Dear Editor:

 RE: RENT CONTROL IN SIERRA MADRE

The Sierra Madre City Council will be discussing rent control sometime in June or 
July. If you have issues regarding your increased rent or worried about the future 
be sure and contact the city council thru email at the city’s web site or go to the 
council meetings and speak out there.The rent prices in California are out of control 
and just keep rising.Reasons being shortage of housing, job growth and inflation 
but the main reason is simple greed. If the owner can get more then why not.The 
apartment or house next door is getting more for rent so why not me. And up the 
rent goes higher and higher with no end in sight.Pasadena rents are at a all time 
high and some rents are increasing by as much as 47%.Some cities in California 
have some version of rent control and more must be done. Let it happen here also 
in Sierra Madre particularly for those on fixed or low incomes. The alternatives are 
homelessness or having to move away from families and friends. Please speak out 
about this important issue before your rent goes up again, much higher then you can 
possibly afford! -JB, Sierra Madre


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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

MAKING SENSE by 

MICHAEL REAGAN


DICK POLMAN


TRUMP’S BROKEN PROMISE 
COULD BREAK ANOTHER 
PROMISE

Smoke has been billowing skyward from the Trumpster fire 
for nearly 100 days - I know, it feels more like 100 weeks - and 
his refusal to release his tax returns is only stoking the flames.

 Basically, his broken campaign promise to release his tax returns (a promise he had 
voiced repeatedly) is now imperiling his grandiose campaign promise to overhaul a 
tax system that he supposedly understands “better than anyone who has ever run for 
president.” He promised to roll out a tax reform plan by February, but two months 
later, his incompetent motley crew has rolled out nothing.

 That’s because they’re not in sync with Capitol Hill because politicians - including 
a sizeable contingent of Republicans - are wary of passing anything that might wind 
up enriching Trump. They don’t know what would enrich Trump because they’re 
in the dark, just as we are, about Trump’s finances. And they’re in the dark because 
Trump refuses to come clean on his tax returns the way every non-authoritarian 
president has done since 1976.

 More than a dozen Hill Republicans - which is a lot in this era of hyperpartisanship 
- are calling for Trump to release his tax returns, and even Trump loyalist Joe Walsh, 
an ex-House member and polarizing rabble-rouser, surfaced on MSNBC with a plea 
for Trump transparency: “I do think this issue will come back and bite him on the 
butt.”

 It already is. Trump’s fantasy of doing a bipartisan tax reform deal is likely dead 
unless he releases his returns. Democrats say they won’t cooperate unless or until 
they have solid assurances that the reform provisions won’t put money in Trump’s 
pocket. And three Republicans in the conservative House Freedom Caucus have 
signed onto a Democratic bill that would compel Trump to release his returns.

 New presidents are usually at their peak of political influence during their first 
100 days. Trump hits the 100-day mark at the end of this month, and he will have 
accomplished nothing (except to tweet and run his mouth). The travel ban is tied 
up in court. The overhaul of Obamacare crashed and burned. He needed to kill the 
Obamacare taxes before tackling broader tax reform. Now he says he might try to 
re-target Obamacare before moving on to tax reform - but that was just something 
he said last week, and, as we know by now, his word means nothing.

 Trump on ABC News in 2011: “I’m gonna do my tax returns when Obama does 
his birth certificate ... I’d love to give my tax returns. I may tie my tax returns into 
Obama’s birth certificate.” (One week later, Obama released his birth certificate. In 
response, Trump said he’d fulfill his promise and release his returns “at the appropriate 
time.”)

 Trump on Irish TV in 2014: “If I decide to run for office, I’ll produce my tax 
returns, absolutely, and I would love to do that.”

 Trump on a radio show in 2015: “I would release tax returns ... The answer is, I 
would do it ... I would certainly show tax returns if necessary ... I do pay tax, but I’m 
very proud of what I’ve done. I have no objection to showing any tax return.”

 Trump on NBC News in January 2016, signaling imminent release: “We’re working 
on that now. I have big returns, as you know, and I have everything all approved and 
very beautiful and we’ll be working that over in the next period of time, absolutely.”

 Trump on NBC in February 2016: I’ll release my tax returns “probably over the 
next few months.”

 The good news is that far fewer people are buying his snake oil. According to 
the latest Gallup poll, 45 percent of Americans see Trump as a guy who honors his 
promises. Granted, 45 percent sounds high, given his long trail of broken dreams, 
but that share has dropped 17 points since February. I doubt that this exchange, from 
Monday’s White House press briefing, will reverse the downward trend:

 Reporter: “Is it time to just say once and for all that the president is never going to 
release his tax returns?”

 Sean Spicer: “We’ll have to get back to you on that.”

 Does the Trump regime really believe it can overhaul the tax system, with 
bipartisan support, by stonewalling a broken promise and further destroying 
the poseur’s credibility? Even his Treasury secretary has told the Financial Times 
newspaper that Trump’s dream of a summer signing ceremony is “not realistic at this 
point.”

 Or, to paraphrase Trump: Nobody knew that governing could be so complicated.

——-

 Dick Polman is the national political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia 
(newsworks.org/polman) and a “Writer in Residence” at the University of Pennsylvania. 
Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.

ADVICE FOR 

PRESIDENT TRUMP

Dear Mr. President.

 I have some more friendly but important advice for you.

 It’s not about your itchy twitter finger or your golf game.

 I’ll take the great Ernie Els’ word for it that you don’t need any golf tips from me.

 After Els played a round with you at Trump National Golf Club in Florida earlier 
this year, he said you were “a proper golfer” who “swings the golf club properly and hits 
iron shots properly.”

 My advice is purely political and it’s based on several decades of watching and 
working with my father.

 If you want to achieve two of the most important goals of your new administration 
-- genuine healthcare reform and real tax reform -- you’ve got to understand and 
appreciate what my father knew instinctively:

 In presidential politics, perception is more important than reality.

 I saw my father put that simple truth into practice back during an international crisis 
in 1985.

 He and Nancy were planning to leave the White House in June to spend a few days 
at Rancho del Cielo, his ranch near Santa Barbara.

 But on June 14 a group of Lebanese terrorists with guns and grenades hijacked a 
TWA flight from Athens to Rome and forced it to land in Beirut.

While the world watched the news reports, the plane flew around the Middle East for 
three days.

 The terrorists beat passengers and threatened to kill them unless the Israeli 
government released about 700 Shiite prisoners.

 The hostages were released over the next two weeks, but an American, Navy diver 
Robert Stethem, was shot in the head and his body was dumped on the runway.

 My father could have flown out to California as he planned. His ranch was the 
Western White House and it had the same set up as his office in Washington.

 The reality was that he could go there, monitor the TWA hijacking situation and 
also relax by cutting brush or riding his horse.

 But the perception to the world would have been that he had gone on vacation while 
an American plane was being hijacked and dozens of innocent people were at risk.

 He decided it’d be better for him politically to stay in the White House and monitor 
the situation from there. He understood reality vs. perception.

 Mr. President, I offer this advice because of two things your administration has 
done wrong recently – not making the White House visitor logs available to the media 
and not showing the public your income tax returns.

 The reality is that the law backs you up on both cases, but the perception is you are 
hiding something.

 What’s worse, you are allowing the news media to keep pushing that perception out 
to the public.

 The liberal media are going to be against everything you do from now until the end 
of your second term, but you don’t have to write their articles for them.

 If you keep allowing bad publicity on the issues of the White House logs and your 
tax returns to get in the way of your agenda, you’re going to be hard-pressed to get tax 
reform or anything else you want through Congress.

 If I were your chief of staff, I’d have told you it was horrible politics to shut off the 
White House logs to the public. If you must do it, do it later -- after you’ve passed 
health care reform or tax reform.

 The reality is, you won’t get your tax policy through until people stop perceiving you 
are hiding something in your taxes. The only way that’ll happen is if you release them 
ASAP.

 It’s not about the law, Mr. President. It’s not about reality. It’s all about perception. 
And that’s something you can learn from my father – and from me.

——-

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the 
author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is the founder of the 
email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his 
websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@
caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. 

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