Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, January 4, 2020

11

OPINION: 

Mountain View News Saturday, January 4, 2020 


SUSAN HENDERSON

Editor/Publisher

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

CONTRIBUTORS

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Dr. Tina Paul

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

IT’S 2020…..NOW WHAT 
ARE WE GOING TO DO?


This year represents an editorial milestone for me, for if I 
make it to Volume 14 No. 52, I will surpass the number of 
years my good friend Jan Reed published a weekly paper in 
Sierra Madre. Although Jan is no longer with us, before she 
left, she encouraged me to reach for that milestone and more. 
I appreciated her encouragement then, and it really keeps me 
going now!

It is a real pleasure publishing the Mountain Views News 
but it becomes increasingly more difficult because of the 
toxic political environment that appears to be hell bent on 
destroying our country. It is downright depressing for 
me, because as an adult, an American citizen, as a mother, 
grandmother and great grandmother, there has never been a 
time that I felt that our Democracy was about to implode and 
the future of America as we have known it will no longer exist. For those of you who 
don’t know, I have lived through the challenges of the 50s, turmoil and war of the 60s 
and societal changes of the 70s. What makes the current climate so debilitating is that 
this destruction isn’t because of our differences, or a lack of a moral conscious or greed 
or hatred, it is because of our inaction and failure to accept that in November 2016, we 
made a huge mistake. Our democracy is disintegrating before our very eyes because it 
has become easier for us to allow labels to divide us rather than to stand up and admit that 
this Presidency is a social experiment gone terribly wrong. Too many (50% of us) will 
not accept responsibility for what we have allowed to happen and attempt to rectify the 
situation. We would do better to look through Alice in Wonderland’s looking glass for a 
solution rather than clinging to our excuses.

I looked at an article that I wrote last year this time and nothing has changed, it has only 
gotten worse. (http://mtnviewsnews.com/v13/htm/n01/p13.htm). By the way, drop the 
labels, I’m not speaking as a Democrat or Republican, I am speaking as an American that 
used to be proud regardless who was in the Oval office.

In the last 12 months we have also learned that Donald J. Trump has absolutely no regard 
for the rule of law nor for the governing document that has kept this country together for so 
many years, The Constitution. He has crowned himself King and systematically stripped 
the 3 branches of government from their mandated responsibilities.

He worries about what people say, his legacy above everything else. He claims credit for 
things that are the residual effects from previous administrations and He lies all the time! 
As of December 10, 2019, in 1,055 days, has made 15,413 false or misleading claims. 
(Source: The Fact Checkers Database https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/
trump-claims-database/). The frequency of his lying has increased unbelievably over the 
last few months. In fact, the Huffington Post said, “President Donald Trump continues to 
tell lies at a breathless pace.” They went on to point out that, “That’s an average of 14.6 
lies for each of his 1,055 days in office. Trump made 1,999 false claims in 2017 and 5,689 
in 2018 — a total of 7,688, the newspaper [Washington Post] reported. He’s ramped up 
the untruths in 2019, however, hitting 7,725 falsehoods with three weeks still to go in the 
year”. 

Just think, we impeached Bill Clinton for telling ONE LIE regarding his personal behavior. 
Actually, Trump makes Clinton’s and Nixon’s behavior seem sophomoric. 

What people don’t seem to realize is that Donald J. Trump, unlike any other President 
that was impeached or threatened with impeachment, broke his oath of office involving 
indiscretions involving FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS meddling in our affairs.

Seriously, did anyone vote for a President that has as his primary confidants every despotic 
leader in the world, especially Vladimir Putin? As an American, do you really want foreign 
governments interfering with our elections, usurping the power of your vote?

So we begin 2020 with a serious cloud over our heads. Fear of war or attack from either 
North Korea or Iran, and even more disturbing, fear that the other people elected to office, 
who made a promise to God and ALL Americans, will not fulfill their responsibility to 
the Constitution and the Nation and allow this man to continue on his path of destruction 
by failing to remove him from office. Impeachment is the only recourse we have and 
removing Trump from office is the only way to set our country back on track.

To use a phrase used during his campaign, “What do they have to loose?” In this instance, 
the question becomes, “What Do WE Have To Loose?” The Answer: EVERYTHING! 
Donald J. Trump has to go. For good. No re-election. Gone from elected office forever. 
And hopefully if that were to happen, Mike Pence would learn a lesson or two and 
the Political Parties would provide us with candidates who have the dignity, integrity, 
moral turpitude, humanity and commitment to the citizens of the United States and the 
Constitution so we can make an unadulterated informed decision. 

 Happy New Year! I hope.


Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
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Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

STUART TOLCHIN

MODERN PROBLEMS

PORTRAIT OF NARCISSIT

MICHAEL REAGAN


WORKERS RESIST CALIFORNIA'S 
NEWEST BAD LAW

Have you spent any time at all in the recently passed year 
trying to speak to anyone face to face? It’s generally so 
annoying. First, you have to actually look at one another 
and pretend you’re listening. That’s the first problem; 
while you’re looking at them and they’re looking at you; 
well, you know you’re making judgments about them and 
they’re making judgments about you. “Why does she not 
get her teeth fixed?” “Is that a toupee he’s wearing?” Can’t 
she do something about those wrinkles”?

Or the thoughts in your head. How much longer will this 
go on? I’ve got things to do. I could keep listening while I look at my credit 
card report but will it look like I’m not listening. Oh, what is she talking 
about anyway?

 Of course, the worst thing on which we all agree 
is that when you’re talking to other people they expect you to not look at 
your own personal cell phone. What business is it of theirs? Sometimes, I 
just hope the phone will chirp and I can pretend I’m upset that I didn’t put in 
on mute and actually stop looking at the other person and just hunt around 
in my pockets and be distracted and then once I get to the phone looking at 
who’s calling and then simply not take the call as a way of showing the other 
person how important our present conversation is even though I forgot what 
the conversation was about.

 Oh, I forgot the really worst thing about face to face 
conversation. While the other the person is talking I have to not talk. Even 
though I know what the whole paragraph is going to be about after I hear 
the first two words of a sentence are out of someone’s mouth I have to wait 
around until the other person at least takes a breath and then try and sneak in 
my own points which cannot be silenced. Yes, I admit, sometimes I break in 
and interrupt. It’s just that I just can’t wait for the other person to come up for 
air and I just break in and share the really important thing I’m thinking, Then 
I’m afraid as I say it I have to concerned about the other person’s reaction 
which is happening right in front of me. That reaction is often irritation and 
the person resents being interrupted; or they give me that “I’ve heard that one 
before look.” Or rarely, this other person might actually listen to the point 
I was making and disagree which could lead to an argument which would 
make the conversation I really didn’t want to have in the first place go on and 
on.

 All this is an introduction to why I LOVE writing 
these weekly articles. I can make any point I want and develop my thoughts 
or reread what I have typed and rework it into something precious. Well 
actually I don’t do that very much because generally, at first I don’t like what 
I have written. All right, what’s it to you? Sure, I could take more time but 
you probably won’t even take time to time to read it much less think about it. 
You don’t even know who I am and you probably don’t even exist. 

 Well, as you can tell I often have problems with 
people, even imaginary ones. Recently, I had a cell phone conversation with a 
former in-law. As far as two person conversations go it was pretty interesting 
and I told the guy I would send him one of my articles to clarify something. 
He actually said, “Please don’t send me any of your articles”. I don’t remember 
what else he said, I guess I stopped listening; but more, importantly I got the 
clear impression that he had better things to do with his life than read my 
articles Well, I never heard such a thing and never want to hear it again. I 
was shocked! There should be laws restricting what people can say in the 
presence or telephone presence of another. Now I can’t forget what he said 
or delete it, I have learned my lesson. I will write my articles and allow them 
to be read only by imaginary people. If anyone actually reads the article I 
will have forgotten what I wrote about and will be immune to any criticism 
because I’ll be in the process of writing another article and may be able to use 
the information constructively. Other people can be so helpful, especially 
when they are not annoyingly in your face. 

 Actually, I used to love talking to other people. 
What happened? Modern life, modern complexities, old age, and modern 
technology that lets us avoid so much that is potentially disagreeable until we 
notice that there is no one left to talk to but ourselves. 

Oh, I almost forgot—HAPPY NEW YEAR---but don’t make such a big deal 
about it!

I’d like to see everyone have a happy and prosperous New Year.

But I’m afraid a lot of freelancers and independent contractors in California 
are going to have it tough in 2020.

Thanks to Democrat lawmakers in Sacramento, in fact, hundreds of 
thousands of part-time Uber drivers and freelance writers like me 
could lose their jobs or face drastic cuts in their incomes.

The culprit is Assembly Bill 5, the “progressive” new state law that 
rewrites the rules for part-time “gig” workers and forces companies to reclassify their independent 
contractors and turn them into full-time employees.

As of Jan. 2, Uber and Lyft drivers, independent truckers, freelance writers, photographers, artists 
and musicians and the companies who hire their services have to abide by AB 5.

The law, which was originally concocted to destroy the business models of Uber and Lyft and 
has exemptions for 50 professions, is a cynical and transparent gift to unions from the same 
Democrats who have been wrecking my one-party state for decades.

AB 5’s proud mother, leftwing Democrat Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego, 
claims it’s intended to protect part-timers and freelancers from being “exploited” by their evil, 
greedy employers.

Her law is supposed to provide independent contractors with the same benefits and workplace 
protections that full-time employees get and – most important to the Democrats – therefore 
make it possible for them to unionize.

Given its leftist genes, it’s not surprising that when AB 5 was signed into law last September 
unions, progressives and the Uber-hating liberal media were equally thrilled.

The liberal web site Vox, calling AB 5’s passage “a historic moment” for U.S. labor, ran the headline 
“Gig workers’ win in California is a victory for workers everywhere.”

Ironically, however, Vox itself has become a victim of AB 5.

The law’s many arbitrary and inflexible rules about who can work for whom and for how often 
include restricting freelance contractors at places like Vox from writing more than 35 columns 
or submissions per year.

Until the other day, Vox’s parent company, Vox Media, had about 200 part-time freelancers 
from California under contract to write for its sports blogging network, SB Nation.

The media company could have reclassified the California freelancers as full-time employees to 
comply with AB 5, as it’s in favor of forcing other companies to do.

Instead, the hypocrites running Vox Media reportedly decided to replace 200 freelancers with 
just 20 new part-time and full-time staffers.

Meanwhile, AB 5’s completely arbitrary number of 35 contributions per year, per “independent 
contractor” affects me, too.

I’m still figuring out how to legally comply with law, but I can assure that I’m not planning to 
move out of the state.

The good news in this latest act of liberal political lunacy is that the legal experts say there will 
be years of court battles over the enforcement of AB5, which has been accused, correctly, of being 
“irrational, vague and incoherent,” not to mention unconstitutional.

The resistance has already begun.

The California Trucking Association has filed a lawsuit seeking an exemption for its 70,000 
independent truckers.

Earlier this week Uber and Postmates, the courier services provider, asked a federal court to 
block the law.

And California’s freelance photographers and writers are also seeking a restraining order, arguing 
that AB 5’s rules will destroy their livelihoods.

I wish all the lawyers well in their fight against AB 5, but in the long run, it’s probably going take 
a U.S. Supreme Court decision to undo all its predictably bad and unintended consequences.

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