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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, September 28, 2024

RICH JOHNSON 

NOW THAT’S RICH

STUART TOLCHIN

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Michele Kidd

Stuart Tolchin 

Harvey Hyde

Audrey Swanson

Meghan Malooley

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Dinah Chong Watkins

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

REALLY USELESS 
TRIVIA

In my less than illustrious career dispensing information, I have amassed 
quite a library of trivia, mostly useless. In a typical election cycle useless 
trivia can be effectively used to help make us forget (momentarily) the 
mind numbing political banter we are incessantly exposed to. 

Can we lighten the load of the upcoming election? Should we? I’m 
certainly willing to give it a shot. (Since I have no reputation to ruin.)

In all of my research on the body politic, the most profound suggestions I’ve discovered:

1. Politicians should NOT be given the keys to the city. Instead, we should simply 
change the locks.

2. Politicians who win public office should be forced to wear uniforms like NASCAR 
drivers, so we can identify their corporate sponsors.

Visitors from other countries have made the following observation on the American 
culture and commented: “It’s not unusual for a red blooded American to volunteer to cross 
the ocean to fight for democracy, but not cross the street to vote.”

Let’s proceed with useless trivia shall we?

What are the names of Cinderella’s stepsisters? Anastasia and Drizella

What is the biggest selling music single of all time? Candle in the Wind

Who has won more tennis grand slam titles: Venus or Serena William? Serena

Not counting me, what is the loudest animal on Earth? The Sperm Whale

In the state of Georgia, what’s illegal to eat what with a fork? Fried chicken

What is a single strand of spaghetti called? Spaghetto

In public places in the state of Florida, what’s illegal to do when wearing a swimsuit? Sing

What comes down but never goes up? Rain (silly)

How many legs does a lobster have? 10

How many slices of pizza does America eat per second? 350-400 pieces

How many bathrooms are there in the White House? 35

What animal breathes through its butt? Turtle

What president gave only two speeches during his presidency? Thomas Jefferson (Yay!)

What name do we know Stefani Germanotta by? Lady Gaga

What did engineer James Wright accidentally invent during World War II? Silly Putty

How old was Queen Elizabeth II when she was crowned Queen of England? 27

And finally, who are Psalm, Saint, and Chicago? Kim Kardashian’s children

Since we don’t know whether we are going forward or backward let’s end with a couple of 
palindromes. (Palindrome: a word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as 
forward.)

English: “ Rise to vote, sir.”

How about a palindrome in Italian:

“I topi non avevano nipoti”. (Translation: The mice have no grandchildren)

Now, a palindrome in Spanish:

“Alli trota la tortilla”. (Translation: There jogs the tortilla)

Finally, a palindrome in French:

“Eh, ca va, la vache”. (Translation: And how is the cow)

Where else can you get this stuff? 

Have a great week.


PUT THE LIGHTS ON


THANKS

I want to thank you for reading this far. Recently, my 
sister asked me if I would bother reading my articles if I 
had not written them. It is a good question and like most 
things I don’t have an answer, only questions. It is true 
that my articles always seem to focus on my thoughts, 
but it is always my hope that these thoughts will connect 
somehow to the thoughts of my potential readers. In fact, recently, a neighbor 
who I had not seen for years, mentioned that as she noticed the jacaranda 
turning purple, she remembered my description of first driving up the hill 
to Sierra Madre and seeing the beautiful purple splendor. I do remember my 
initial reaction which I described in my article about ten years ago, I wrote “I 
thought I would never be unhappy again.”

 Of course, I was wrong—but not completely. That feeling remains and 
I really love the fact that I was able to share that feeling in my writing. At last, 
I am reaching the intended point of this article. The doctor I saw on Tuesday 
assured me that I was really doing pretty well, and we made an appointment 
to return for tests in about six months. Hooray, so what do I want to do now? 

 A couple of mornings ago I saw Ayana Elizabeth Johnson being 
interviewed on the Christiane Amanpour program and yesterday I saw her 
again on the PBS news hour. These are the only two programs that my wife 
and I regularly watch together, and I told my wife that I felt like a message was 
being personally communicated to me. Of course, my wife told me that I had 
enough books that I don’t read already, and that rather than wasting money 
and buying another book that I won’t read, why not find out if the book was 
available at a nearby library. 

 No libraries had the book, but I felt I needed it and prevailed upon my 
wife to drive me to Vroman’s Bookstore which did have it. (Yes, my age has 
made my continuing to drive ill-advised) Now, I have the book right in front 
of me. The book is WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? Visions of Climate futures. 

What intrigued me was her presentation of a three-part climate action in a 
Venn diagram. The three categories are 1) What brings you joy? 2)What are 
you good at? 3)What needs doing? Where the three areas coincide is called 
Your Climate Action.

This Venn diagram speaks directly to me. Now that we can assume that I will 
be around for a while what do I want to do with that that time? Other than 
concerns for my family and doing the thing what I worry about most is the 
climate crisis. I do not just want to be an observer watching the world destroy 
itself. I do not just want to hope that everything will be all right. I want to 
be in action, and to be involved with other people. Let’s start with the second 
category What are you good at? Not very much I'm afraid; but I love writing, 
and I know it brings me great joy when my writing connects to other people. 
Combining these two realizations with the third category of 

What Work needs Doing? it is clear that I am ready, more than ready, to do 
something and included in this something is reading the whole What If We 
Get It Right Book? and helping to form a Writers and Readers Book Group to 
discuss the book.

I spoke to Susan Henderson, the editor of this newspaper, and she suggested I 
draft a book review to get an idea if there is any interest in forming an action 
group. Okay, anyway, I am on my way. Certainly, this article, of course, is 
mainly about me but there is the possibility that other people will become 
involved and form a community. 

We will see. Let’s hope so. The author Ayana Elizabeth Jackson says we have 
to do more than hope so that is what I think I am doing. Are you still reading 
and are you with me? 

Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll let you know how things are going. 

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HOWARD Hays As I See It

"The people who 
cast the votes 
decide nothing; the 
people who count 
the votes decide 
every-thing" - 
Joseph Stalin

 In his column 
last week, Dick 
Polman castigated 
our electoral 
college system 
as an example of the concessions 
made by our Founders to appease 
slaveholder states - concessions that 
later be-came problematic. (For 
another example, see: “Second 
Amendment”.)

 As of this writing, Kamala 
Harris holds a 5% lead over Donald 
Trump, with momentum grow-ing. 
According to NBC, her 16% rise in 
favorability since July is the biggest of 
any politician since George W. Bush’s 
bump after 9/11.

 In the meantime, Trump seems 
intent on losing support: surreal 
ramblings, obsessions with Taylor 
Swift and Oprah Winfrey, lack of 
coherent messaging and unforced 
errors alienating constituen-cies 
simply because he can’t help himself.

 Courting farmers in Pennsylvania, 
he said John Deere would be slapped 
with 200% tariffs should they open 
manufacturing in Mexico. Just 
what those farmers wanted to hear - 
Trump promising to triple the price 
of their favorite tractors. 

 At an antisemitism event in 
Washington and the Israeli American 
Conference he complained Jewish 
voters haven’t treated him “properly”. 
He warned that Jews would have 
only themselves to blame for the 
destruction of Israel resulting from 
a Harris victory because of their 
“voting for the enemy”. 

 As for women, he assured they’d 
be so “happy” under a Trump 
administration they’d “no longer be 
thinking about abortion”. (What a 
relief for the ladies!)

 Trump also blew off those who 
simply want their government to 
function - insisting Congress shut 
it down unless a funding resolution 
included the voter suppression rider 
he demanded. Sen-ate Minority 
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 
called this “beyond stupid”.

With no hope of swaying a majority 
of voters on factors like leadership, 
competence and vision for the future, 
the Trump campaign’s focus is on 
swing states - not necessarily voters, 
but rather who counts the votes and 
how they’re counted.

 In Georgia (where Trump still 
faces eight criminal counts related 
to election fraud) he’s hoping for a 
better outcome by having his own 
MAGA majority on the Election 
Board write the rules. Trump called 
them “pit bulls” who’d help ensure 
“victory” - unconcerned that their 
job is to ensure a fair election, not a 
particular outcome.

 New rules require hand counts by 
precinct verifying number of votes 
and establish procedures for county-
level “inquiries” prior to certification. 
(We’re dealing with 2,400 precincts 
and 159 coun-ties in Georgia.) The 
Board’s chairman himself says these 
moves are illegal and are now being 
challenged - as it’s the Legislature, not 
the Election Board, that’s supposed to 
make the rules.

 The lone Democrat on the Board, 
Sara Tindall Ghazal, says these 
changes come “with no notice, no 
training.” She adds, “We’re so far off 
the deep end of sanity here.” 

 Another new vote-counting rule 
is in the swing state of Arizona - 
requiring a hand count of all ballots 
dropped off on Election Day before 
they can be tabulated. (It’s estimated 
there’ll be up to 730,000 in Maricopa 
County alone.) The Secretary of 
State’s office points out this will be 
done by poll workers who’ve “already 
completed a 12-15 hour shift”. If 
nothing else, it’s guar-anteed to bring 
indefinite delays in reporting results.

 Republicans in Mississippi are 
challenging laws allowing mail-in 
ballots to be counted arriving up to 
five days after Election Day, as long 
as they’re postmarked Election Day 
or before. Mississip-pi is reliably red, 
but litigation could affect 17 other 
states and D.C. having similar rules. 
In Pennsylvania, it’s barring voters 
once the ballot’s been mailed from 
fixing mistakes to make sure it’ll be 
counted. And forget to date the 
outer envelope? Too bad, tossed out – 
regardless of whether it gets there by 
Election Day.

 Whether these and countless other 
recent changes will withstand court 
challenges, actually be implemented 
and/or actually work is an open 
question. Swing state officials 
from Arizona, Penn-sylvania and 
Wisconsin have already said they’re 
prepared to take to court local 
officials who refuse to certify results. 
But that’s not the point.

 Over the years, especially the 
past several months, Trump and his 
team have demonstrated a mas-tery 
in using endless court challenges 
along with questioning of established 
processes and proce-dures as a means 
of avoiding consequences. In this 
case, he’s desperate and determined 
to use the same tactic hoping to 
ultimately avoid the consequence of 
a decisive majority of votes going to 
Kamala Harris.

As former Trump White House 
communications director Alyssa 
Farah Griffin explained on CNN, 
Trump “wants to preemptively 
cast doubt on the results in case he 
loses. . . He’s incapable of losing and 
accepting that he lost”. 

 Those with disdain for our 
democracy and who’d replace our 
Constitution with Project 2025 have 
as much right as the rest of us to cast 
their votes. But they shouldn’t have 
anything to do with counting them.


AS HURRICANE HELENE STRIKES, 
TRUMP’S MINIONS AT PROJECT 
2025 HAVE PLANS FOR DISASTER 

DICK POLMAN


Even before Hurricane 
Helene struck the Florida 
coast with Category 
4 winds, the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (better 
known as NOAA) and its 
subsidiaries – the National 
Weather Service and the 
National Hurricane Center – were already 
busy saving lives.

 Local emergency officials, echoing 
NOAA’s dire forecasts, spurred mass 
evacuations on the Gulf Coast and warned 
of 20-foot storm surges that may not be 
“survivable.” The sudden strengthening 
of this hurricane, fed by Gulf waters made 
warmer by climate change, triggered, 
in NOAA’s words, “catastrophic, life-
threatening inland flooding” that will 
likely extend all the way to the western 
mountains of North Carolina.

 The federal agency says it’s just doing 
its job: “Climate, weather, and water 
affect all life on our ocean planet. NOAA’s 
mission is to understand and predict our 
changing environment, from the deep sea 
to outer space, and to manage and conserve 
America’s coastal and marine resources.”

 Bravo to NOAA and all the other 
government weather organizations for 
all that they do… but wait! Way down on 
page 664 of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 
– the fascist blueprint he falsely says he 
knows nothing about – we find this pithy 
paragraph:

 “The National Oceanographic and 
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 
should be dismantled and many of its 
functions eliminated, sent to other 
agencies, privatized, or placed under the 
control of states and territories.” Because 
NOAA is “one of the main drivers of the 
climate change alarm industry and, as 
such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.”

 My message to the undecided voters: You 
say you don’t know enough about Kamala 
Harris, but if you open your eyes and ears, 
you’ll realize you know more than enough 
about what Trump and his minions would 
do if restored to power. And with climate 
change wreaking increasing havoc with 
our weather, do you think it’s a bright idea 
to dismantle our national early-warning 
system?

 My message to Floridians, in particular: 
Year after year, you’re experiencing 
the most dire consequences of climate 
change, and the worst is yet to come. The 
presidential election is a little over a month 
away. You’d be well advised to revisit 
your fealty to the MAGA movement and 
recognize how insanely stupid it would be 
to vote against your first priority, which is 
saving your own asses.

 Indeed, just this week, the Miami Herald 
editorial page is speaking the truth about 
the reason Floridians should “staunchly 
oppose Project 2025:”

 “In Florida, we live and die – sometimes 
literally – by what the National Hurricane 
Center and National Weather Service, 
which are parts of NOAA, tell us. For six 
whole months every year, from June to the 
end of November, we’re in the hurricane 
season… We cling to the utterances of the 
weather pros during these times of high 
stress, as we huddle in our homes or debate 
whether to flee an on-coming storm. We 
want – no, we need – forecasts that are free 
of hype, a profit motive and the taint of 
politics.”

 Helene was rapidly supercharged by 
record-warm water. Climatologists say 
that the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico is 
exceptionally warm for this time of year 
– thanks to climate change, which comes 
to us courtesy of fossil fuel pollution. And 
by the way, Trump’s Project 2025 has a few 
things to say about climate change:

 “The Biden Administration’s climate 
fanaticism will need a whole-of-
government unwinding…the perceived 
threat of climate change (is) a favored tool 
that the Left uses to scare the American 
public…Climate-change research should 
be disbanded.”

 A new national poll says that, of all 
Americans who’ve heard of Project 2025, 
only four percent view it favorably. The big 
question is whether its stench will prove 
sufficiently malodorous to tilt this election 
toward sanity and spare us a Category 4 
regime.


Mountain Views News

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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com