Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, January 13, 2024

12

OPINIONOPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, January 13, 2024 

RICH JOHNSON 

NOW THAT’S RICH

STUART TOLCHIN

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

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

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

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


THE BEAR FLAG REPUBLIC OF 
CALIFORNIA AFTER SECESSION


CONGRATS TO MY FEARLESS LEADER

Congratulations to my fearless leader…Susan Henderson. The 
Mountain Views News is the Sierra Madre Business of the Year. Because 
of her and despite me!!

Susan has published the newspaper since 2007. Remember, that was back 
when George Bush was president. Also, the first iPhone came out in 2007. My understanding 
is Steve Jobs assembled a team of marketing and advertising wunderkinds who helped him 
redefine cell phones with an extraordinarily clever name. The Apple Think Tank after 
much deliberation decided to call Steve’s masterpiece the…iPhone 1. Magnificent! 

The first efficient electric car, the Tesla Roadster came out in 2007. J.K. Rowling’s final 
book in the series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was published worldwide. Sold 
12 million copies in 24 hours. 

“The Big Bang Theory” premiered. As did “Keeping Up with the…Kardashians”. Dixie 
Chicks won the 2007 Album of the Year.

Get this…Myspace was 65 times more valuable than Facebook in 2007 (imagine that). 
Founder, Tom Anderson sold MySpace in 2005 and today Tom is worth a cool $60 million 
dollars. Not bad. (I wonder if he qualifies for food stamps?)

What about Facebook? Is it still around? Remember, the company MySpace was 65 times 
more valuable than Facebook in 2007? Well today, Mark Zuckerberg is worth $130 billion 
dollars. Is that more than $60 million?

And of course, 2007 was the year I actually talked someone into publishing what I was 
shoveling…err writing. Susan saw something in me I didn’t see in myself…along with 
thousands of other bewildered folks. I wrote faithfully through most of 2011 until a 
disturbance in the force (maybe the farce) pulled me away from writing. Ten years later, 
Ms. Henderson graciously forgave my absence and welcomed me back into the fold (fold: a 
newspaper term. Ask a paperboy)

I have always endeavored to inspire you, the person who reads my column and risks wasting 
time, effort and vital brain cells. Inspire about what? I have no idea…but thank you.

Probably the most important information I can leave you with are the key truths in 
Murphy’s Laws of Combat. After all, whether it be confronting your parents, spouse, 
children, pets, even passersby, these laws are critical, vital and often necessary. (I passed 
this along to Tony Robbins years ago. And as of May 19, 2023 Tony is worth $600 million 
dollars. You’re welcome Tony.) 

Back to Murphy’s Laws of Combat:

1. If the enemy is in range, then so are you.

2. Try to look unimportant. The enemy may be low on ammo.

3. Teamwork is essential. It gives the enemy someone else to shoot at.

4. Never draw fire. It irritates everyone around you.

5. Never, ever forget your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.

And finally, possibly the most important law of combat: “When you’ve secured the area, 
don’t forget to tell the enemy”.

Again, I compliment an extraordinary lady who complements* my life. I'm not certain I 
complement hers. Hope so! When** I grow up, I want to be just like her.

* Complement is different than compliment...look it up

** Should read, "If I grow up..."!

 That’s right secession - the action of withdrawing 
formally from membership to a body,especially a 
political state. What am I talking about? You can 
probably guess. If Donald Trump is elected President 
in the 2024 election, it is my firm hope that California 
will secede from our union of 50 states and form a new 
Progressive Democratic Republic.

 The reasons for this desire are obvious. To my mind, and to 
many like me, Donald Trump is an embarrassment. He and his MAGA 
adherents represent a disgusting challenge, a negation of our democracy. 
If a majority of Americans choose to elect that individual as President I do 
not want to be a part of the country any longer.

 How do we secede? It takes some organization and some leadership. 
Perhaps it can be done by a simple telegram signed by thousands or 
hundreds of thousands. Maybe what is required is an aggressive attack on 
some facility that flies the Stars and Stripes and the subsequent lowering of 
that flag and the raising of the Bear Flag that represented California as an 
independent nation, an unrecognized breakaway state from Mexico that 
for 25 days is 1846 militarily controlled an area north of San Francisco, in 
and around what is now Sonoma County in California.

 This actual secession is mere mechanics. Perhaps the remaining 
MAGA states would not even want to hold onto California as it would be 
filled with a population completely opposed to the Trumpian principles 
which intended to maintain inequality and arbitrary punishment.

 Of course there is the question of water. Where would California 
get water? Perhaps Washington and Oregon or Patriot Baja California 
would want to join our new nation. Let’s leave those niceties and discuss 
what is really important to me - what will be the regulations and rules 
defining this new nation? 

 I say rules and regulations rather than LAWS as I agree with 
Shakespeare who said that “the first thing to do is kill all the lawyers.” 
This was written in 1591. Of course this line has been interpreted in 
different ways and perhaps Shakespeare meant it simply as a criticism of 
how lawyers maintain the privilege of the wealthy and powerful. For me, 
a practicing lawyer for over fifty years, the quote is significant not only as 
a criticism of lawyers but also a criticism of all laws.

 As to matters of punishment, the system worked surprisingly 
well. Rather than punish culprits, the culprits’ entire lineage or clan paid 
compensation. This made it everyone's responsibility to keep the kindred 
under control.” It is explained that “it is not the guilty who suffer the 
penalty, but rather it is the public that must make amends for the offenses 
of the individuals.

 Does that description describe what should be “civilized 
behavior”? The Jesuit Missionaries were scandalized by the indigenous 
people’s relations between the sexes. It was reported that Indigenous 
American women were considered to have full control over their own 
bodies, and that therefore unmarried women had equal sexual liberty as 
men. Furthermore, married women could divorce at will.

 Shocking don’t you think? No need for Divorce Courts or for 
police. The rejection of arbitrary authority worked hand in hand with 
reasoned debates, rational, empirical, skeptical, empirical conversational 
in tone that was a form of pleasurable conversation in its own right.

 A society that values and enjoys intellectual debate and 
conversation is the kind of society in which I want to live. I would also 
like to see the end of private property and world love to see children raised 
communally. Rather than forced attendance in schools with underpaid, 
overworked teachers, I want to live in a society wherein children are 
almost individually mentored and given the opportunity to take aptitude 
tests which help them to discover their own abilities and interests.

 I am not sure about a lot of things, and there’s a lot more to say;but 
I am sure that I do not want to live in a nation with Donald Trump as 
President. Really, rather than secession, it is my hope that the present day 
United States will not have to face the reality of living with Donald Trump 
as President. Once was bad enough!


Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the County 
of Los Angeles in Court 
Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in Court 
Case No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not be 
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Views News and may 
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printed in this paper do 
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the views and opinions 
of the publisher or staff 
of the Mountain Views 
News. 

Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by Grace 
Lorraine Publications, 
and reserves the right to 
refuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 

Letters to the editor and 
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Mountain Views News

80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327

Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024

Phone: 626-355-2737

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email: 

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A member of the

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Publishers 
Association


MAKING THE BEST OF THE COMMON COLD

TOM PURCELL


I forgot what it was like to experience a good old common cold.

Prior to covid, you see, the cold-getting experience went like this: I’d wake 
with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat and my only thought was to curse 
the gods for visiting a new virus cocktail on me that was going to make 
me cranky for 9 days.

I remember at first denying that a cold virus was feasting on me, then, as 
the hacking got bad, I moved on to the anger stage before finally accepting 
my fate that the miserable common cold is a fact of life.

But post-covid, few people respond to a common cold this way.

No sooner do our sniffles start than we are searching WebMD, calling doctors and telling family 
members we’re certain we are suffering from another covid variant that is sure to do us in.

“Headlines warning of new covid variants; unseasonal surges of flu, RSV and human 
metapneumovirus; and unusual symptoms stemming from viruses that usually cause cold-like 
symptoms, including adenovirus and enterovirus, have made many of us hyper aware of the 
germs that make us sick,” reports NBC News.

Experts tell NBC News that our overreaction to the cold is a bit of overkill — that unless it is an 
unusually strong bug (which means it may be something more serious) or unless you have a weakened immune system, just do what humans with a cold have always 
done: get some over-the-counter drugs and drink plenty of fluids. 

There’s not much else we can do.

Look, back in 2018, Scientific American said scientists were getting close to curing the dreaded cold — two years before covid demonstrated that our scientists aren’t 
much ready for prime time where preventatives for easily spread respiratory viruses are concerned.

According to Scientific American, the search for a cure dates back to the 1950s when scientists discovered that the cause of the sniffles was a group of pathogens known 
as rhinoviruses.

The trouble is, there are 160 different strains of these bugs and, said one immunologist, it’s “incredibly difficult to create a vaccine or drug that will target all of those 
160 [strains].”

Another idea is to crack the code on the structure that each of the 160 strains shares. Researchers at the Imperial College London have been working on that, which 
Scientific American reports would let them design a super vaccine.

But again, these reports date back to 2018 and scientists have still not found a cure for the common cold.

Which is why we might just as well enjoy a cold when it comes.

Being miserably sick, as I was last week, gives us license to shut down our most pressing adult responsibilities and completely let everything go.

A few sips of Irish whiskey in hot tea soothe a raw throat — just as a few more make the presidential election a wee bit less frightening.

Being unable to sleep is not so painful once you latch onto a streaming TV series you can binge watch until you finally nod off.

And when you get back to good health, you will be reminded not to take it for granted.

Hey, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports a lot of us are suffering from various bugs right now.

The least we can do is remember how to make the best of it!


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 prosperous 
community of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard the 
values of the exceptional 
quality of life in our 
community, including 
the magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 

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