Posted on 06/08/2017 4:31:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the now-controversial chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is a bit different from what Washington expects in its politicians.
He grew up in the agricultural cornucopia of the Central Valley of California -- fruits, vegetables, beef, dairy products and fibers -- the concrete expression of a myriad of hard-working ethnic groups. Their diverse ancestors fled poverty and occasional horrors in Armenia, Basque Country, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, the Punjab, Southeast Asia and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.
Central to this mix of immigrants, farmers and ranchers is a valley culture of pragmatism, bluntness and tenacity.
Of all these groups, none are more unabashedly patriotic and outspoken than Portuguese immigrant dairy farmers, most from the islands of the Azores.
I live in rural Fresno County at the juncture of three congressional districts. All three are currently represented by Portuguese-Americans from farming families and from both parties: Nunes (22nd District); my own representative, David Valadao (Republican, 21st District); and Rep. Jim Costa (Democrat, 16th District). All three keep getting re-elected for their accessibility, informality and commitment to the traditional values of their districts.
Nunes became a controversial public figure nationally when he revealed that the surveillance of foreign governments by American intelligence agencies may have resulted in the inappropriate monitoring of members of the Trump transition team -- and perhaps some private citizens, too -- and the unmasking of their identities.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
That Nunes is considered “controversial,” while hyperpartisan Schiff is not, just underscores how crazy our political system/media is right now. Nunes had the nerve to call out the Democrats for possible illegalities, so he’s “controversial”…
The Azores Portuguese settled in many small cities in the San Francisco Bay Area. There ancestors were fishermen and farmers. They were wonderful people. I can remember playing ball well into the evening and in the houses that fronted the playground the old “Ports” sat on their porches, smoking pipes, rocking back and forth (and as we kids imagined) told stories of the ‘old days’. They were the Nunes, the Texeira, the Mendonca, the Vega. Now their kids are scattered to the four winds, and their old Sears Roebuck homes have been leveled to make way for condos. Sic transit Gloria mundi.
Nunes is slowly being vindicated though, and Schiff has been back tracking furiously.
For instance Schiff is now back to saying that Comey ‘over-stepped’ in his role as FBI director.
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