Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 25, 2016

B3 
Mountain Views News Saturday, June 25, 2016 OPINION B3 
Mountain Views News Saturday, June 25, 2016 OPINION 
Mountain 
Views 
News 
PUBLISHER/ EDITOR 
Susan Henderson 
CITY EDITOR 
Dean Lee 
EAST VALLEY EDITOR 
Joan Schmidt 
BUSINESS EDITOR 
LaQuetta Shamblee 
PRODUCTION 
Richard Garcia 
SALES 
Patricia Colonello 
626-355-2737 
626-818-2698 
WEBMASTER 
John Aveny 
CONTRIBUTORS 
Chris Leclerc 
Bob Eklund 
Howard HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Dr. Tina Paul 
Rich Johnson 
Merri Jill Finstrom 
Lori KoopRev. James SnyderTina Paul 
Mary CarneyKatie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanGreg WelbornRenee Quenell 
Ben Show 
Sean KaydenMarc Garlett 
Pat Birdsall (retired) 
Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated asa newspaper of GeneralCirculation for the Coun-
ty of Los Angeles in CourtCase number GS004724: 
for the City of SierraMadre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in CourtCase No. GS006989 and 
is published every Satur-
day at 80 W. Sierra MadreBlvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copy-
righted and may not bereproduced without the 
express written consent ofthe publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper becomethe property of the Moun-
tain Views News and maybe published in part or 
whole. 
Opinions and viewsexpressed by the writersprinted in this paper donot necessarily expressthe views and opinionsof the publisher or staffof the Mountain Views 
News. 
Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by GraceLorraine Publications, 
Inc. and reserves the rightto refuse publication ofadvertisements and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 
Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 
Mountain Views News 
80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327 
Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024 
Phone: 626-355-2737 
Fax: 626-609-3285 
email: 
mtnviewsnews@aol.com 
Mountain Views News 
Mission Statement 
The traditions of 
community news-
papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperouscommunity of well-
informed citizens. 
We hold in highregard the values 
of the exceptionalquality of life in our 
community, includingthe magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our 
guide. 
DICK Polman 


IS BREXIT A HARBINGER OF TRUMPISM? 

With apologies to 
the climactic song 
in ”Les Miserables,” 
here are the 
self-destructive 
Brits who voted 
yesterday to exit 
the European 
Union. Cue the 
music! 

Do you hear the people singSinging the song of angry menWe will crash the British poundAgainst the dollar and the yen,
When the pounding in our brainsEchoes the poison in our gutsThat is when the world will know 
That we’re going nuts. 

That’s what happens when voters 
surrender to their basest instincts. One 
”Brexit” voter, identified only as Adam, 
told the BBC, ”I’m shocked and worried. I 
voted Leave but...I never thought it would 
actually happen.” A like-minded voter 
said on TV, ”This morning I woke up and 
the reality did actually hit me, if I had the 
opportunity to vote again, it would be to 
stay.” 

Too late, fools! You voted for xenophobic 
nationalism, to wall off your country 
from the rest of the EU and spark massive 
turmoil in the global markets. You’ve 
lit the flame of recession at home and 
abroad, you voted to imperil the ties that 
bind Europe’s anti-terrorism intelligence 
agencies and triggered a crisis that will 
likely destabilize the EU and embolden 
Vladimir Putin. 

Americans should pay close attention 
to what is transpiring - and unraveling - 
in Britain right now. It’s a warning shot 
across our bow, a harbinger of what could 
happen here if we surrender to our basest 
instincts and elect Donald Trump. 

The voters of what’s called ”Little 
England” - a rough parallel to what we 
call ”middle America” - hoisted a middle 
finger to immigration and globalization. 
Dire warnings about the consequences 
of exiting the EU failed to penetrate the 
intellect because these people were bent 
on voting with their gut. 

Swayed by the xenophobic demagoguery 
of Mini Me Trump agitators like former 
London mayor Boris Johnson and 
Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, 
they convinced themselves that they were 
”Making Britain Great Again.” We’ll 
see how that goes when international 

financial institutions start pulling out of 
London. 

Farage and his ”Leave” campaign 
caught fire with his repeated claim that 
immigration has made traditional Britain 
”unrecognizable,” and that open borders 
with the EU have turned the ”white 
working class” into ”an underclass.” (Who 
does that sound like?) 

He also sold the voters snake oil, promising 
that if Britain left the EU, it would free up 
lots of extra money for the national health 
program -in American dollars, roughly 
$500 million a week. But when asked 
on TV whether he can guarantee that 
promise, Farage admitted, ”No I can’t...It 
was one of the mistakes I think the Leave 
campaign made.” 

Yep, that pledge was just pap for the saps, 
and they bought it. 

Into the aftermath of the ”Brexit” 
walks Trump, seeking to take political 
advantage. (Two weeks ago he had no 
idea what Brexit was - ”Huh?” he asked as 
he struggled to talk about it) In Scotland 
Friday morning, after praising the 
greatness of his golf course, right down to 
the plumbing, Trump said of the Brits: 

”They have declared their independence 
from the European Union and have voted 
to reassert control over their own politics, 
borders and economy. Come November, 
the American people will have the 
chance to re-declare their independence. 
Americans will have a chance to vote for 
trade, immigration and foreign policies 
that put our citizens first. They will have 
the chance to reject today’s rule by the 
global elite, and to embrace real change 
that delivers a government of, by and for 
the people. I hope America is watching, 
it will soon be time to believe in America 
again.” 

There it was, his autumn campaign pitch. 
To follow our misguided British cousins 
into the abyss, all we need do is to stay 
home on election day, to cede the future 
to the forces of Trumpism. 

At the end of ”Les Miserables,” the people 
sang ”There is a life about to start when 
tomorrow comes.” It’s coming soon. How 
do we want to live it? 
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. 

WILL Durst -Raging Moderate 


A BIT OF COMMON SENSE ON GUNS 

If the goal is to cause 

both sides of the 

political spectrum 

to quiver, twitch 

and shake like a 

raccoon clinging 

to the outside of a 
cement mixer speeding through a 
railroad yard, just casually throw 
out the term, "gun control," and 
step back. The left considers all guns 
the reprehensible tool of warriors, 
criminals and primitives, while 
in most of red state America, the 
definition of gun control is using two 
hands and hitting the target. 

Then some addled-brained, flippounit 
actually uses those techniques 
to take out a bunch of innocent 
people, and the blowback starts with 
a debate about how big our guns 
should be, further restrictions on 
who can purchase them and whether 
we need to know the identity and 
shoe size of the purchasers. 

Yes, we do. For crum's sakes, you need 
to present identification to apply for 
a card to take a book out of a library. 
Admittedly, in the right hands, a 
book can be more dangerous than a 
gun, but they hardly ever put holes in 
people's bodies that the blood leaksout of way too quick. 

With increasing frequency, these 
body counts shoot north into double 
digits, which triggers a discussion 
of banning these high-powered, 
personal weapons of destruction. 
For a minute. Then the Republicans 
kowtow to the perverted wishes of 
their cruel masters, the NRA, which 
thinks the best way to avoid school 
shootings is to ban schools. 

This same NRA commanded their 
lapdogs to prevent research into 
gun-related deaths. That's right,
Republicans have refused to allow 
the funding of government-related, 
gun-death research. Which is a 

shame, since America has a surplus 
of raw data. You could say we are 
dead solid center of the gun-related 
death universe. It's like talking 
about sandwiches in Philadelphia 
but prohibiting any mention of the 
cheesesteak. As Holland is to tulips, 
the U.S. is to gun deaths. 

In the wake of these horrific tragedies, 
conservatives then predictably go 
straight to the handbook of NRA 
generated talking points to say the 
same things over and over. "Our 
thoughts and prayers are with the 
victims and their families." "None 
of this would have happened if the 
gay Hispanic dancers were armed." 
"Assault weapons can be used as 
legitimate hunting rifles." 

Really? That's your argument? 
Because, okay, it makes a sort of 
sense. You can also use a chainsaw to 
cut butter, thought it might get a little 
messy around muffin time. Come to 
think of it, a hand grenade will signal 
the end of recess. Doorbells can be 
rung with 12-pound sledgehammers. 
Once. 

They're called "assault weapons" for a 
reason. They're not "tucking kiddies 
into bed" rifles. They're for assaults. 
Yes, the Second Amendment 
guarantees a well-regulated militia 
the right to bear arms, but at the time 
our Founding Fathers were talking 
about citizen-soldiers wielding 
one-shot muskets, not terroristwannabees 
brandishing HK MG4s 
capable of shooting 800 .45 caliber 
bullets in under a minute with a 
range of a half a mile. 

Hunting weapons? Seriously? What 
are you hunting? Tanks? A herd 
of triceratops? Can you imagine 
someone putting a full clip into a 
deer at 30 yards? You'd end up with 
venison jerky. In noun and verb 
forms. Jerky being the operative 
word here. 

Will Durst is an 
award-winning,
nationallyacclaimed 
columnist,
comedian and 
former Pizza 
Hut assistant 
manager.
Tuesday at the 
San Francisco 
Marsh, go to 
willdurst.com. 

LEFT TURN/ RIGHT TURN 
CONGRESS FAILED ON GUNS 

JOHN L. Micek 

TWICE IN ONE WEEK 


It’s not often 
that you see 
Congresscompletelyabdicate its 
responsibility 
to govern 
twice in one 
week. 

But, as has 

so often been 

remarked this 

year, we’re 
living in unusual times. 

Given the opportunity to recover 
its colossal gun control fumble, the 
Republican-led U.S. Senate bobbled the 
ball yet again on Thursday with a vote on a 
compromise ”no fly/no buy” bill sponsored 
by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). 

Yes, 52 senators managed to vote in favor 
of Collins’ proposal, which was enough 
to allow further consideration of the 
proposal. But the bill, which would ban 
people on terrorism watch lists from 
buying guns, ended up eight critical votes 
shy of the 60-vote threshold needed for 
passage. And if you don’t think the bar 
was set purposefully high - you’re fooling 
yourself. 

”It’s extremely frustrating there was an 
opportunity to get things accomplished 
here,” U.S Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), one of 
the few sane GOP voices on gun control 
said this week. 

Frustrating is one word for it. Another 
one that rushes to mind is ”ridiculous.” 
And while we’re at it, ”incompetent” also 
works. 

That the Senate has been unable to get 
its act together to pass a bill that keeps 
suspected terrorists from buying guns 
even as it provides due process for people 
that end up government watch lists, is one 
of the great head-scratchers of our time. 

That it happened in the wake of a dramatic 
occupation of the U.S. House floor by 
Democrats, led by U.S. Rep. John Lewis 
of Georgia, a civil rights icon, aimed at 
forcing votes on gun-control, makes it all 
the more frustrating. 

And, yes, the murderous loon who mowed 
down 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in 
Orlando would not have been stopped by 
such a terror-ban. He was investigated 
and the FBI passed on him. 

But the next terrorism-inspired madman 
(or woman) who might decide to follow 
his lead could well be stopped with such 
a ban. 

That’s not hard to decipher. The Orlando 
shooter, you’ll recall, legally purchased 
the semi-automatic rifle he used in his 
deadly spree. 

It’s also already well-documented that 
ISIS has told its homegrown followers to 
take advantage of our porous gun laws to 
assemble their own, personal arsenals. 

And when even the NRA thinks that (with 
proper due-process protections) that it’s a 
good idea, that’s saying something. 

Because they hate everything. 

”My starting point is two, simple ideas: If 
a person is so dangerous that we will not 
allow them to board a plane ... they should 
not be able to walk into a gun store and 
buy a firearm,” Toomey said. 

Toomey knows first-hand how tough it 
is to get a gun-control bill through the 
Senate. 

In 2013, in response to the Sandy Hook 
shootings, he joined with Sen. Joe 
Manchin, D-W.Va., Toomey to offer 
an ultimately unsuccessful mandatory 
background check bill. 

During the Senate’s gun-control votes this 
week, Manchin tried, and failed, to offer a 
similar measure. 

Toomey, himself, took a run at a middle-
ground bill that imposed a ”no fly/no 
buy” ban, but also provided for an annual 
review of government watch lists. It failed 
to garner any support and wasn’t among 
the four proposals the Senate rejected last 
week. 

Toomey’s currently locked in the 
political fight of his life with Democrat 
Katie McGinty, a former senior aide to 
Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Tom 
Wolf. His is one of five seats Democrats 
need to flip to retake the Senate in the fall. 

She and her surrogates, including former 
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, hammered 
Toomey for playing politics. But as a 
candidate, McGinty has it easy. She has 
no responsibility to govern. That makes 
posturing easy. But it also accomplishes 
nothing. 

Toomey, meanwhile, wants to work to 
improve the Collins bill. Whether that’s 
enough to actually flip the Republican no 
votes on Collins’ bill is unclear. 

”There are a lot of Republicans who 
believe we need to address this gap in our 
security,” Toomey said. 

But as the past couple of weeks have 
demonstrated, it’s a long walk from belief 
to putting those beliefs into action. That 
requires something even tougher to find 
than 60 votes. 

It requires backbone. 

An award-winning political journalist, Micek 
is the Opinion Editor and Political Columnist 
for PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, 
Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @
ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@ 
pennlive.com. 

MAKING SENSE by Michael Reagan 


HILLARY’S EXPENSIVE JACKET 

Hillary Clinton may have been better off wearing the 
Emperor’s New Clothes during her victory speech after 
the New York primary, rather than what she chose to wear 
and her aides managed to overlook. 

Clinton, who has decried income ”inequality” throughout 
the nation during her campaign, stood before the 
assembled ---- and carefully screened ---- crowd wearing 
a $12,495 Giorgio Armani jacket. 


What she paid for the coat ---- assuming it wasn’t a party favor from her 
Goldman Sachs speech ---- is just a bit less than the amount the average first 
time home buyer is required to post as a down payment for his dream home, 
or as The Washington Free Beacon calculates, ”roughly 40 percent of what the 
average American worker makes in a year.” 

She’s fortunate the price tag wasn’t dangling from her outfit like that of 
Minnie Pearl. 

This is beyond tone deaf. It’s a combination of obliviousness and hypocrisy 
on a truly Clintonian scale. 

If Hillary was sashaying down the runway at a Paris fashion show, there might 
be a justification for wearing a jacket that cost 12K, assuming she gave it back 
after the show. But to own this One Percent Wear is something else entirely. 

During her speech Hillary proclaimed, ”In this campaign, we are setting bold 
progressive goals backed up by real plans that will improve lives, creating 
more good jobs that provide dignity and pride in a middle class life, raising 
wages and reducing inequality, making sure all our kids get a good education.” 

How does one talk of ”inequality” and then wear an outfit where a single 
piece of the ensemble costs the equivalent of 833 hours of labor ---- about five 
months ---- at her new $15/hour minimum wage? 

Maybe one of those ”good jobs that provide dignity” is cleaning her coat with 
tweezers, Q----tips and the tears of virgins. 

No one expects Hillary to campaign in Walmart overalls, although it might 
provide an arresting visual, but is it too much to ask this tribune of the people 
to save her Armani for Wall Street speeches and Davos dinners? 

She can probably find something flattering and just her size at Ann Taylor, 
and with the money left over she can splurge and take the entire campaign 
staff to lunch at her nearest Chipotle. 

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the 
author of ”The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press).. Follow @reaganworld on 
Twitter. 


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