12

OPINIONOPINION

 Mountain Views NewsSaturday, December 14, 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

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


LET THEM EAT CAKE

A DAY IN MY LIFE AND SONG TITLE CHANGES

Does that term 
sound familiar? 
I, and probably 
many of you, are 
worried about the 
immediate future 
after the January 
20,2025 inauguration of the new 
president-elect? You should notice 
that I refrain whenever possible to 
mention his name. This refusal is 
typical of someone like me who has 
developed TDS (Trump detachment 
syndrome) a self-protective behavior 
that involves blacking out the news 
and not watching or reading about 
you-know–who. Being a news-
junkie, I tried to satisfy my need for 
information by reading about the 
problems of some of the European 
Countries.

 I learned that France has 
entered a political crisis after the 
French legislative election organized 
by French President Emmanuel 
Macron in June 2024 determined to 
bring about a centrist coalition. This 
did not happen; but instead, there 
has been a collapse of the French 
government without the formation 
of any new coalition. All this French 
turmoil reminded me of another 
period of French History known as 
the “Reign of Terror.”

 I learned a little about this 
period when I took some forgotten 
class in college but today all I 
remember is the guillotine cutting 
off the heads of the feuding French 
leaders. This all happened after 
the French politicians had agreed 
to behead the King and Queen but 
what I recall most is the statement 
attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette 
that I quote above. As the story 
goes, “Let them eat cake” was the 
queen’s response during the French 
Revolution upon being told that her 
starving peasant subjects had no 
bread. The anecdote has been cited 
as an example of Marie-Antoinette’s 
obliviousness to the conditions and 
daily lives of ordinary people.

 That being so out of touch 
with the present reality and the 
coming future eventually cost the 
King and Queen their lives. The 
feuding politicians who voted to 
arrest and kill them were soon sent 
to the guillotine themselves. Could 
such events happen here in twenty-
first century America? I know that 
seems unthinkable, but have you been 
brave enough to listen to the threats 
made by the President-elect and the 
individuals he plans to appoint to his 
cabinet?

 How do we prepare ourselves? 
I thought I might get a glimpse of the 
future by reading about the French 
Revolution and the Reign of Terror 
and its aftermath. It turns out that 
after killing many of the partisan 
leaders, there was in fact a period 
historians call the “Thermidorian 
reaction.” I do not believe this period 
was even mentioned in my history 
class but perhaps I wasn’t listening 
or hadn’t bought the book. After the 
period of political violence at the 
end of the Reign of Terror France 
had become weary of the mounting 
executions and the reaction was to 
abandon radical political change 
in favor of a stable constitutional 
government of a conservative nature.

 Nevertheless, during the 
period of the Thermidorian reaction 
there continued to be great discontent 
among the population. Various 
uprisings occurred and the military 
leader Napoleon Bonaparte rose to 
power and eventually ruled as an 
Autocratic Emperor of the French 
from 1804-1814. Napoleon was a 
uniquely talented autocrat and during 
his rule there was an abolishment 
of many laws and policies such as 
privileges based on birth, and social 
inequality. But despite Napoleon’s 
early successes in restoring order 
to France after he became emperor, 
he attempted to conquer the rest of 
Europe and in 1812 embarked on an 
invasion which was, however, a total 
disaster. Subsequently, his forces 
invaded Belgium which ignited the 
Battle of Waterloo and the final defeat 
of his reign. (Somewhere along the 
line I learned about this although 
it might have been through a song 
recorded by ABBA.)

 Life continued and that is my 
point. If we haven’t paid attention 
before, it is time to pay attention now. 
Today there is some sort of consensus 
that the election was lost by the 
Democrats because people stopped 
paying attention and failed to vote as 
a reaction to a kind of information 
overload. 

 Well, as some complete 
unknown sang when I was young, 
the times they are a Changin, and you 
better get in the front seat and be ready 
to lend a hand; otherwise, you might 
lose your head. You never know what 
comes next, but something always 
does. 

 Anyway, who can afford 
dessert these days? Poor Marie! 

February 9, 1964 was a life changing day for your intrepid columnist. If you 
don’t remember, or weren’t even around, on February 9th something life 
changing happened in my life. 

That evening CBS Television broadcast a live show from a 728-seat capacity 
theater in New York City. CBS had to turn away 49,972 requests for seats for that particular 
broadcast. Maybe it was because it was the night Ed Sullivan introduced America to the 
Beatles. Yours truly and 72,999,999 other viewers were watching. And at 8:12pm the Beatles 
took the stage instantly kidnapping the great majority of America’s youth…including me.

The days following the broadcast are still a blur, but I do remember browbeating my mom 
until she bought me a guitar. And 60 years later, a guitar is still never far from me….even 
in my office. So, music has played a significant part in my life.

Now onto song title changes. In addition to weekly attempts to write humorously, I also 
write songs. Commonplace, in the middle of writing a song you use whatever words and 
syllables match the melody. It’s not unusual the first words sung in the lyrics become the 
song’s title. Not in the case of the Beatle classic “Yesterday”. That song was originally called 
“Scrambled Eggs” because McCartney had the melody before he had the word. He knew it 
wouldn’t be about his breakfast but the syllables worked. Thought sometimes original song 
titles come from the strangest of circumstances.

Take another Beatle classic for example: “With a Little Help From My Friends”. Its 
original title was “Badfinger Boogie”. That title was motivated by a hurt finger John had 
while recording the song. Later the term “Badfinger” became the name for a band who 
were previously known as “The Iveys”. Also, can you guess what famous Beatle song was 
originally titled “17”? I bet if you think about it you would come up with the answer: “I Saw 
Her Standing There”.

Speaking of Paul McCartney, he said there was no such person as “Eleanor Rigby”. Methinks 
Paul had a minor crush on actress Eleanor Bron who appeared in the Beatle movie “Help”. 
In the song there is a reference to “Father McKenzie”. A fictitious name to be sure, but when 
Paul was writing the song he sang “Father McCartney”.

Willie Nelson was a disc jockey and struggling songwriter before he ever strapped on a 
guitar, stood and sang in front of people. One of his original songs he titled “Stupid”. You 
might know it better as a Patsy Cline’s hit “Crazy”. Patsy liked the song, but not the title. So, 
to get Ms. Cline to record it, Willie had to change the song to “Crazy”. Essential the same 
message…just a different word.

Simon and Garfunkel’s classic song “Mrs. Robinson” was changed so it could be used in the 
1968 comedy movie “The Graduate”. The song we know as “Mrs. Robinson” was originally 
“Mrs. Roosevelt”, a song Paul Simon was writing to honor former first lady Eleanor 
Roosevelt.

Early rock and roll classic “At the Hop” by Danny & the Juniors was originally titled “Do 
the Bop”.

Even Christmas carols had some name changes. “Away in a Manger” was originally known 
as “Luther’s Cradle Song”. Perfect except Luther didn’t write it lol.

As the holiday season keeps coming, try to do as much shopping, entertaining and other 
excuses to spend money close to home. Whether it be Sierra Madre, Monrovia, Arcadia, 
Duarte, supporting the small retailers helps keep a community vibrant and alive. Take 
a quick walk through Arnold’s Hardware Store, for example, and odds are you will find 
something you need and never think of while you are out and about. And the perfect 
Christmas hammer for grandma.

One of the benefits of supporting local restaurants is many in our communities do not 
have 24/7 transportation and are forced to walk to retailers. Buy local. Need a quick under 
$20 gift. Go into the new bookstore in Sierra Madre. It’s on the Blvd, south side. Fables 
and Fancies. Consider the need for a quick, inexpensive birthday present and having the 
convenience of a bookstore down the street where you can find gems from $5.00. Of course, 
they also stock those beautiful gift books.

 “Friendships are one of the best measures of your worth.” Chuck Darwin

Enjoy your weekend.

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 
reproduced without the 
express written consent of 
the publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper become 
the property of the Mountain 
Views News and may 
be published in part or 
whole. 

Opinions and views expressed 
by the writers 
printed in this paper do 
not necessarily express 
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 
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

A member of 
the

California Newspaper 
Publishers 
Association


HOWARD Hays As I See It


Mike Wallace: “Why are you doing this? You have enough money.”

Jack Benny: “Yes – But I don’t have it all.”

- bit from “The Jack Benny Program”

 

Big stories: President Biden pardons his son Hunter, the collapse of 
the Assad regime in Syria, murder of a health insurance CEO, and a 
billionaire pays $6.2 million to eat a banana that’d been duct-taped 
to a wall. Guess which one I’m writing about.

 The banana-buyer, Justin Sun, is a 34-year-old Chinese 
cryptocurrency entrepreneur with a net worth of $1.34 billion, currently 
under SEC investigation for securities fraud.

 He’s also become a business partner of Donald Trump. Sun paid $30 million 
for (untradeable) tokens from World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s cryptocurrency 
outfit set up just months before the election, bringing an $18 million payout 
to Trump. With the crypto industry’s successful $180 million investment in getting 
Trump elected, Justin Sun figures he can now in-dulge in that banana.

 Trump is surrounding himself with billionaires. Topping the list is Elon Musk 
– net worth hitting $400 billion. He’s also now America’s biggest political donor – investing 
$274 million this last round. 

 Eleven billionaires are slated for Cabinet and key administration posts. According 
to Axios, Trump’s cabinet hopefuls have a combined worth of $10 billion – compared 
to Biden’s cabinet at $118 million when he took office.

 It’s a relatively small pool of billionaires Trump has to draw from; fewer than 800 in 
the country, or about .0002% of the population. But those 800 hold some 3.8% of the 
nation’s wealth – more than the entire bottom half of the population (2.5%).

 Their actions are geared not towards service to country but rather how to further 
increase that share of wealth. And since they see it as a zero-sum game, the more they 
win means the more everyone else must lose.

 An early sign is this new Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon 
Musk and Vi-vek Ramaswamy (net worth $1.1 billion). The goal, they say, is to cut 
wasteful spending by some $2 trillion (more than the budgets of the Pentagon and 
Departments of Education and Homeland Security – combined).

 The target is “excess regulations”. As noted by Lisa Gilbert, Co-President of Public 
Citizen, “The purpose of government regulations is to protect the American people. 
We all depend on these regulations to protect our air, water, workers, children's safety, 
and so much more. 'Cutting red tape' is shorthand for getting rid of the safeguards 
that protect us”. For Musk and Ramaswamy, those regulations are impediments to 
concentrating yet more of our nation’s wealth into the hands of that top .0002%.

 Another priority is extending the tax cuts from Trump’s first term, due to expire 
next year. 80% of the benefits of these cuts went to the top 1% (according to Forbes, 
those with a minimum net worth of $11 million). The cost to our treasury is $1.9 
trillion over ten years, with an additional $400 billion a year starting in 2027 should 
they be extended. 

 There’s always talk about how to “pay for” all this incurred national debt. Right off 
the bat, it’s cutting Medicaid and SNAP (food stamp) benefits - billionaires starting off 
by hitting those struggling for food and healthcare.

 Social Security and Medicare are on the block, too. There’s a push for privatizing 
Medicare, while Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) calls Social Security a “scam” – that people 
should be able to simply “invest” their money, instead. 

 

These programs are drawing attention not over concerns whether they work, but because 
there’s a lot of money on the table - $1.4 trillion for Social Security, $900 billion 
for Medicare – and the billionaires are determined to get a piece of it. 

 Some 20% of what’s spent on private healthcare goes to “administrative costs”. For 
Medicare, it’s 2%. Under the privatization model, they envision being able to take a 
good chunk of that $900 billion for corporate profit. To make up the difference in 
money needed for actual healthcare, that’s where benefit cuts come in.

 For Social Security, twenty years ago President Bush had his own proposal for 
privatizing Social Security - which died once the details came out. It wasn’t about 
beneficiaries “investing”, but Wall Street siphoning off fees and percentage cuts for 
gambling with our retirements. When the market crashed a few years later, people 
realized what would’ve happened to their retirement had this proposal passed.

 If ever there’s concern over Social Security’s solvency, it’s simply a matter of raising 
the cap on income subject to the Social Security tax ($176K next year). But this would 
mean the billionaires might have to pay what the rest of us do on an additional tiny 
fraction of their income.

 As shown a few weeks ago, Trump and his band of billionaires have more than ample 
resources to determine the outcome of elections – especially now with increasing 
control over the media people rely on for information. And they’re confident members 
of the majority party in Congress are aware of this, too – lest any have thoughts 
about putting the interests of their country over those of Trump.

 

One could ask the billionaires why they’re doing this, pointing out they have unimaginable 
wealth and power already. 

They’d no doubt respond, “Yes – But we don’t have it all”. 


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