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OPINIONOPINION

 Mountain Views NewsSaturday, December 21, 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


SOCIAL INSECURITY CAN WAIT TIL 
NEXT YEAR

TINKLE BELLS

I have a confession to make: My favorite Christmas song is not a Christmas 
hymn. Don’t get me wrong, the Christmas hymns are all beautiful. 

But, if the truth be told, my favorite Christmas song is American in origin. 
The Xmas classic was written by two Jewish guys from the east coast. 
Don’t be so shocked and surprised. After all, Christmas is about another 
Jewish guy. Anyway, where was I?

These two Jewish songwriters, Jay Livingston and Ray Evans also wrote TV theme music. 
Most notably the theme music to “Bonanza” and “Mr. Ed” (Remember, a horse is a horse 
of course of course?). Talk about bona fides. They also wrote my favorite redundant song 
“Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) made famous by Doris Day’s performance 
in the Hitchcock Thriller (and ironically the title of my future biography) “The Man Who 
Knew Too Much”.

Yes, my favorite yuletide hit was written the year of my birth, 1951. It actually started out 
titled “Tinkle Bells” until co-writer Jay Livingston’s wife reminded him what the word 
“tinkle” usually refers to. So, the title was hastily renamed “Silver Bells”.

I find wonderfully amazing the worldwide attention paid to Christmas. Christians make 
up roughly only about one-third of the world’s population. About 2.4 billion. 64% of 
Americans identify as Christians yet 91% of Americans celebrate Christmas. And why 
not? Tis the season of family, exchanging gifts and putting up decorations. Worldwide 160 
of the 195 countries officially celebrate Christmas.

Continuing my confessions, this may sound existential, but yes, I truly believe Jesus is who 
He says He is. I think his true nature shines through in the joy we share celebrating His 
birth every year. Here is a wonderful description of Jesus written in 1926:

One Solitary Life

“He was born in an obscure village. The child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another 
obscure village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. He never wrote 
a book. He never held an office. He never went to college. He never visited a big city. He 
never traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did 
none of the things usually associated with greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned 
over to his enemies. And went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross 
between two thieves. While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only 
property he had on earth. When he was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave. Through 
the pity of a friend.

Nineteen centuries have come and gone. And today Jesus is the central figure of the human 
race. And the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that have ever marched. All the 
navies that have ever sailed. All the parliaments that have ever sat. All the kings that ever 
reigned put together have not affected the life of mankind on earth as powerfully as that 
one solitary life.”

This Christmas Eve, when you are tucked under your covers, nice and toasty warm, staring 
at the ceiling, as you start to nod off wish Jesus a Happy Birthday. Consider asking Him if 
He is real, that He reveal Himself to you in a meaningful way.

If Jesus is really who He says He is, it is up to Him to make Himself known to you.

And by the way, from yours truly, my three kids and my two cats Gizmo and Mabel…
Merry Christmas!

With absolutely no intent I have become a member of a 
Social Class which is com-pletely at the mercy of continuing 
governmental programs. I do no work and have 
no in-come other than Social Security and sharing in my 
wife’s pension. I do pay taxes on the So-cial Security I 
receive which seems unfair to me; but I do pay the taxes. 
Although I feel ca-pable of working productively, these feeling change when 
I attempt to get up off the couch or out of bed. 

Every morning, I manage to eventually get up, walk the dog, make coffee, 
wait until 7:00 and pick up the newspaper and on Thursday early mornings I 
sometimes manage to move the trash barrels from the garage to the curb so 
that they can be picked up and emp-tied later in the morning but often my 
wife beats me to it. My wife does all the cooking and cleaning and just about 
everything else while in nice weather I sit outside on our deck and look at the 
mountains and the graceful birds floating across the canyon. Sometimes I pay 
close attention to the tiny green hummingbirds which seem so busy as they 
hover around the bird feeder. Okay that’s about all I do. Oh. I almost forgot; 
on Wednesday mornings I play 9 holes of golf and on Wednesday nights and 
early Thursday morning I do my best to write my 700-word article for this 
very paper.

That about it, that’s all I do other than being driven by wife on Sunday mornings 
and Wednesday evenings to share a meal with my son, daughter, and 
granddaughter. Every couple of weeks I go to the nearby Kaiser –Permanente 
facility and pick up medications. My life is quite pleasant. Down the hill 
and turn right to the golf course, turn left to Kaiser, go across the street to the 
restaurants.

 What is my particular class of persons? Well, to my 5-year-old granddaughter 
I was always old. I am over 80 but it's not my fault. It just happened. Much 
like my few contem-porary living male friends I have a younger, more efficient, 
more competent wife who finds herself in a position she also never 
intended. She does not complain as much as she could but we both wish 
things were different. 

Well, things aren’t different. As my friend Henry says things are what they are. 
(What is, "It is what it is?”) Advances in science and medicine have increased 
the average lifespan by decades. Social Security benefits were intended to 
assist older people in their few re-maining years after retirement. Well now 
these later post-retirement years often last for decades and one wonders how 
Social Security can manage to keep up the payments. The new incoming 
President appears extremely interested in cost-cutting. Still there is time for 
old folks and everyone else to learn to appreciate themselves and find security 
in appreciat-ing what life has already given to them and that cannot be taken 
away. 

Thank you to my wife for her love and care. Thanks to my friends and family 
for what you have given me. Thanks to Susan the editor for inviting me to 
write in this paper and thanks to you readers for sticking with me. Thank you 
to America for the good place you have been so far and let’ s all hope that what 
has been good remains that way or even gets better. Let’s all have a great long 
Holiday and be like the old Brooklyn Dodger fans who said “Wait till next 
year” before we start worrying again. There will be plenty of time for that if 
you know what I mean.

HOWARD Hays As I See It


“The press doesn't stop publishing, by the way, in a fascist escalation; 
it simply watches what it says. That too can be an incremental 
process, and the pace at which the free press polices itself 
depends on how journalists are targeted.” – Naomi Wolf

My Dad was in the toy business when us baby boomers were 
little kids. Every year he’d meet with those who’d created companies 
like Kenner, Fisher-Price, Hasbro and Mattel. 

But later he shifted from toys to commercial real estate. He 
said those who’d created the companies were by then mostly 
gone; replaced by young MBAs who knew everything about 
the mechanics of corporate operations - but had no particular interest in toys.

The Washington Post brings to mind Woodward and Bernstein, Watergate and 
the Pentagon Papers. Current owner Jeff Bezos is runner-up to Elon Musk in 
net worth after dominating world retail, but never seemed to have any particular 
interest in journalism.

Bezos overruled his editorial board by nixing their already-prepared endorsement 
of Kamala Harris. In the following days, the Post lost a quarter-million 
subscribers. He explained his decision as somehow related to a general public 
distrust of journalism. But many point to Bezos’ hopes of benefiting from regulatory 
relief for his primary business under Donald Trump – along with NASA 
contracts for his Blue Origin space transport company.

Bezos made a $1 million contribution to Trump’s inauguration, with a meeting 
planned for Mar-A-Lago. Former WaPo Publisher Katharine Grahame observed, 
“News is what someone wants suppressed. Everything else is advertising.” The 
Inauguration will be streamed live on Amazon Prime Video.

Patrick Soon-Shiong is known as the richest man in Los Angeles (net worth $6.2 
billion). He’s had careers as surgeon, microbiologist, bioengineer and biotech 
entrepreneur. But before his purchase of the Los Angeles Times in 2018, no apparent 
particular interest in journalism.

Like Bezos at the Post, Soon-Shiong blocked the Times’ planned endorsement 
of Kamala Harris - with editorial board members resigning in protest. “I am 
resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent”, 
said editorials editor Mariel Garza. “In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t 
just indifference, it is complicity.”

Two thousand subscriptions were cancelled. Soon-Shiong later fired the rest of 
the editorial board and announced plans for an AI-powered “bias meter” – followed 
by more staff resignations and cancelled subscriptions.

Soon-Shiong killed an editorial which argued that with Trump’s cabinet picks, 
it’s especially important the Senate takes its role seriously. It wouldn’t be allowed 
unless it ran with an opposing view (the Senate shouldn’t take its role seriously?). 
Eventually, it was replaced by a piece about the good things Trump could potentially 
do for education.

Still pending is the $10 billion lawsuit Trump filed against CBS over Kamala 
Harris’ interview on “60 Minutes” last October. Trump accused the network 
of “malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, 
deceive, and mislead the public" by editing the piece to fit into the 60 minutes.

There’s an $8 billion deal in the works to merge CBS parent Paramount Global 
with Skydance Media, which will need approval from the incoming FCC Chairman. 
For Paramount Global to get what it wants from the FCC, Trump will get 
what he wants from CBS. 

ABC’s $15 million settlement to resolve Trump’s defamation suit against the network 
came as a surprise. Settlements are usually reached just before trial; rarely 
before any evidence has been presented – and with Trump’s deposition scheduled 
for the following week.

The case seemed a slam-dunk for the network. Trump sued because ABC’s 
George Stephanopolous said on air he’d been found “liable for rape”, when in fact 
it was “liable for sexual assault”. But the original judge in the case, Lewis Kaplan, 
had told Trump in 2023 the victim was indeed “raped”, “as many people commonly 
understand the word”. The “reckless disregard for the truth” and “actual 
malice” needed to show defamation would be tough to establish, anyway.

But ABC’s corporate ownership (Disney) figured the $15 million payout would 
be preferable to finding themselves on Trump’s “enemies list”. Those making 
these decisions at that level have no particular interest in journalism.

Rolling Stone quotes an ABC reporter, “It is frightening. My fear is this sets a 
tone for the next four years and that the tone is: Do not upset the president . . .”

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance reacted, "I'm old enough to remember . 
. . cases where newspapers vigorously defended themselves against defamation 
cases instead of folding before the defendant was even deposed." From human 
rights lawyer Qasim Rashid, "This is the cowardice of legacy media out to make 
profit, rather than uphold principle.” Added election lawyer Marc Elias, “Another 
legacy news outlet chooses obedience.” And from reporter Oliver Willis, 
"This is actually how democracy dies."

Now Trump is suing the Des Moines Register – for having published pre-election 
polling results for Iowa that didn’t match the eventual outcome.

While ringing the opening bell at the NYSE earlier this month, Trump announced, 
“The media’s tamed down a little bit. They’re liking us much better now, 
I think. If they don’t, we’ll have to just take them on again, and we don’t want to 
do that.” He’s confident that moving forward, the media “watches what it says”.


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