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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, February 22, 2025

RICH JOHNSON 

MAKE ANY GOOD MISTAKES LATELY?

MOUNTAIN 
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PASADENA CITY 
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STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


A MODEST SUGGESTION

 Okay, the joys of Valentine’s Day are behind us. We have scant holidays 
the rest of the year to help keep love alive. I know what you’re thinking. 
What about Mother’s Day? 

 I’m talking about holidays with a romantic opportunity. Now, don’t get 
me wrong. Tuesday could be a romantic holiday if you bring flowers 
home. Just no “official” romantic holidays. 

 In particular we need to go beyond our natural neanderthal tendencies 
and create special days. A very important element is not to make mistakes going 
forward. Particularly when it involves a loved one. 

 So, try hard to avoid mistakes. Listing several examples of major mistakes 
might keep you aware of sidestepping faux paus. Take notes.

 A woman in England played the lottery every week. Wouldn’t you know it, she 
eventually picked the correct numbers that would have won her $210 million dollars. 
Every week, she wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper, taped it to the fridge and 
turned the actual ticket over to her husband for “safe keeping”. “Hubbie” accidentally 
threw out the winning ticket. Don’t know what the “Justifiable homicide” laws are in 
England. I’m sure the judge would have been lenient.

 The 1958 Ford Edsel. (nothing more need be said)

 In 1999, NASA lost a $150 million dollar satellite. You see, when Lockheed 
designed and built the satellite, they used the English system of measuring. Apparently, 
NASA forgot to tell Lockheed they used the metric system. The use of the two systems 
prevented the satellite’s navigation coordinates from being adequately transferred from 
Lockheed to NASA and 26 years later, NASA still can’t find their satellite. All I can say 
is “Warning, Will Robinson!”

 Jumping into 2000, AOL purchased Time Warner for $182 billion dollars. Nine 
years later AOL sold Time Warner for $36 billion dollars. Math was never my strong 
suit, but that doesn’t sound like a good investment strategy. All I can say to AOL founder 
Steve Case is… ”You’ve got mail!” (I’m sure tons from investors)

 Pfizer, the maker of drugs was working on a new blood pressure medication 
in the late 1980’s for the treatment of angina. Clinical trials in the early 1990’s showed 
the drug, called Sildenafil, was a failure as it didn’t lower blood pressure. Oh, one other 
thing. Volunteers reported it did have a side effect. And today, 30 years later we call it 
Viagra.

 Possibly the greatest math mistake ever made was when Christopher Columbus, 
sailing the ocean blue, believed he was only 3,000 miles away from Japan. Not only 
was he off on the distance, but there was also this major land mass in between his ship 
and Japan. We call it America. He made several trips back and forth and even served 
as the governor of the Caribbean. To his dying day Columbus thought he had reached 
Asia.

 Did you know George Crum invented the potato chip? George was a New York 
chef working in a hotel restaurant. Well, a customer in the restaurant kept sending back 
his order of fries because they weren’t crispy or salty enough. So, Chef Crum was going 
to show this obnoxious customer. He sliced the potato paper thin, covered the slices in 
salt and fried the slices to a crispy. The customer loved them, ordered more and in 1853 
the potato chip came into being.

 Finally, I believe I have discovered a distant relative. An Elizabethan aristocrat, 
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. A member of the Elizabethan Court, “Ed” when 
coming before the Queen made a deep bow to show his respect and obeisance to Queen 
Elizabeth I. In the middle of the deep bow, the Earl exploded a huge fart.

Well, my distant relative “Ed” was so ashamed and embarrassed he left the country 
for seven years. When he finally returned and sheepishly entered the court, the Virgin 
Queen’s first words to him were: “My Lord, I had forgot the fart!”

So, I officially end on a high note…unlike the 17th Earl of Oxford.

 Eight years and one month ago my wife and I were in 
Washinton D.C. participating in the Women’s March the 
day after the then newly elected President’s first inauguration. 
I remember being inspired by the huge march. Yes, 
American voters had made a mistake, but the activism 
displayed at the march showed me that Americans were 
not passively sitting by, and I was certain that the Country 
would survive no matter what policies were enacted in that first term.

 America did survive and in 2020 a Democratic President was elected, 
and I was quite content. Yes, I did have Covid and surgeries and at 77, I did 
stop practicing Law and now had to deal with the new burdens of retirement. 
My bookshelves are filled with books that display underlining and notes in the 
margin, but I cannot remember ever actually reading the books. 

 Neither my wife or son or daughter will agree to be a passenger while 
I am driving. These days my wife agrees to drive me to my weekly golf games 
or to Kaiser or out to lunch but I need to politely ask, and I feel uncomfortably 
dependent upon her. I want to independently do something and be a part of 
a solution to the problems of today and the foreseeable future. 

 Enough of these pretty common descriptions of the internal life of 
an aged retiree. You and I and everyone else know that our time on Earth is 
limited. We differ in our guesses as to what happens to our beings, our souls 
or consciousness after death; but I really don’t wonder much about that. I 
have always felt secure in the belief that after I am gone the strong American 
Nation will remain and will properly watch over my loved ones and everyone 
else. Today, I am not so sure. 

 Newscasts have explained that our President has fallen under the spell 
of Elon Musk and Vladamir Putin. At the Presidential inauguration behind 
the President there appeared to be several of the wealthiest men in the world. 
To me it is clear that these men are interested only in money and influence 
and continuing to accumulate more money and power. Recent firings have 
demonstrated that there is no concern about the Nation’s health and safety 
and the maintenance of important post WWII alliances. In fact, newscasts 
have tremulously explained that it seems as if the United States has changed 
sides. We are not with the Allies as we threaten to leave NATO and align ourselves 
with Putin’s Russia and to terminate our mutual trade agreements with 
Canada and Mexico.

 What can you and I, as individuals do to cause America to alter its 
course? Recently I pulled a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s book David and Goliath 
off my bookshelf. It was well underlined, but I remembered little about 
it. I glanced at the book and found heavily underlined the statement that a 
person's greatest strength is often his greatest weakness. My suggestion now 
is that all Americans must unite and hit our rulers, elected and non-elected, 
right where they are most vulnerable. Their ability to continue accumulating 
making money is what they care about.

 To affect a change, I suggest that all Americans stop consuming. Stop 
buying things. Stop eating at restaurants and when possible, stop driving. 
Ride bicycles if you must go somewhere. I even suggest that we stop watching 
television and when possible, stop using our smart phones. We can listen to 
news and music on the radio—remember radio? Sure, the economy will be 
affected but so will the pocketbooks of the rich and powerful. I predict that if 
such a plan would be followed in a short time political policies would change 
and the agencies that have protected us in the past will once again be present. 
Another thing I like about this idea is that it allows all of us to feel that we are 
doing our best to be a part of the solution. 

 One last thing. as many of you may know, and some may not, there 
has been a call for a nationwide economic blackout on FEBRUARY 28th, 
that applies to all discretionary spending, including spending money on fast 
food or gas. The goal is to get Americans to flex their considerable economic 
muscle in opposition to the divisive and destructive policies of the current 
administration. I like the idea because I never go anywhere or buy anything 
anyway. It’s worth a try I think and of course will require some organization 
but at least we would be doing something. We would all be sacrificing for our 
eventual mutual benefit. Remember what Edmund Burke said, "You Can Do 
Everything By Doing Nothing"! BUY NOTHING ON FEBRUARY 28TH 


HOWARD Hays As I See It


“Who the hell voted for . . . ‘Big Balls’?” 

– former Bill Clinton advisor Paul Begala on 

The name wasn’t on the ballot. But by a 1.5% edge we elected a 
president who’s given “Big Balls” and his teammates more power 
than would be held, under our Constitution, by someone who’d 
won in a landslide.

 

“Big Balls” is Michael Coristine, a 19-year-old college dropout who’d been fired 
from an internship for leaking secrets to a competitor. His name appeared in 
U.S. law enforcement investigations into computer hacking. With Elon Musk’s 
DOGE, this guy is now “Senior Advisor” at both the State Department, with access 
to records on diplomatic agents worldwide, and DHS - border security, counterterrorism, 
FEMA, etc. At USAID and GSA, he’s pushed replacing employees 
with chatbots. 

 

Another is 25-year-old programmer Marko Elez, who’s posted support for a “eugenic 
immigration policy” and to “normalize Indian hate”. Now at our Treasury 
Department, he has read-write access to systems controlling payments to contractors, 
Social Security and Medicare recipients as well as taxpayers – including 
account information for direct deposit of refunds. As for those racist posts, Elez 
quit once they came out – but was soon rehired by Musk, who called for the firing 
of the Wall Street Journal reporter who’d cited them. 

 

Gavin Kliger, also 25, spent a few years as a software engineer and is now “Special 
Advisor to the Director” at the Office of Personnel Management. He’s also spread 
white nationalist posts, shared those of accused rapist and trafficker Andrew Tate 
and offered his own take on COVID-19 restrictions: “It was never about public 
health. It was about power.” He’s now on his way to dig into our personal tax 
records at the IRS.

 

These winners and maybe a hundred others are now working to gut our government 
- looking to axe maybe 10% of our 3 million federal workers, a third of them 
military veterans. As for whatever customary vetting and security clearances, 
those have been waived through President Trump.

 

The firings are spread across more than fourteen agencies. For those not receiving 
the form letter, they’ve been described as an employee with years of service being 
called in front of some Gen Z techie and given fifteen minutes to justify their position. 

 

At the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, there were layoffs of those responsible for building and safeguarding our nuclear weapons stockpile. 
A day later, DOGE had second thoughts – but since those fired had their email accounts closed, the techies didn’t know how to ask them back. Some of those who’d 
devoted their expertise to their country had second thoughts, too – with families to support, they might prefer an employer that had its act together. Daryl Kimball of the 
Arms Control Association, says,” The DOGE people are coming in with absolutely no knowledge of what these departments are responsible for.”

 

Weeks after the deaths of 67 in that Delta crash over Reagan Airport, with six fatal air crashes so far under Trump, after years of warnings of an “overtaxed and understaffed 
air traffic control system”, the DOGE boys are firing “several hundred” FAA employees – including those involved in “radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance”. 
Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) calls this “stupid beyond belief”. 

 

As for the price of eggs, the H5N1 bird flu has spread to livestock – and to people who’ve been in contact with them. Kids have been hospitalized and hundreds infected 
from a measles outbreak in Texas. There’s tuberculosis spreading in Kansas. DOGE is cutting 5,000 positions across health agencies – CDC, NIH, FDA – along with animal 
research labs at the Department of Agriculture and Strategic Preparedness and Response at HHS. 

 

Cost-cutting has been cited – but with federal civilian workers comprising 4% of our total budget, cutting 10% of that amount wouldn’t make a dent. We’ve been told it’s 
to root out “waste, fraud and abuse” – but whatever examples they’ve come up with - $100 million in condoms for Hamas, 150-year-olds receiving Social Security checks 
- have been laughingly debunked.

 

One of the first acts of the administration was to fire seventeen inspectors general – those with actual backgrounds and training in rooting out that waste, fraud and abuse. 
HHS personnel tasked with protecting seniors from getting price-gouged on their prescriptions were targets, as was the Special Counsel office charged with protecting 
whistleblowers and investigating their complaints.

 

Anyone promoting informed decision-making had to go, from researchers at the Department of Education establishing metrics on what works in the classroom and what 
doesn’t, to those at the CDC researching best responses to the outbreak of a new pandemic. And for those at the CDC, don’t even think of comparing notes with colleagues 
at the World Health Organization – those ties were cut by Executive Order on day one.

 

Now there’s another “whoops!” from DOGE: We’re told that those axed from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, specifically those involved in combatting the 
H5N1 bird flu, had been fired “accidentally” – so never mind, just come back. 

 

We don’t know how many will. A bigger concern is those who, after getting that advanced degree with the intent of pursuing a career in public service, might now be 
having second thoughts of their own. They might foresee being eventually called into an office and handed a pink slip from “Big Balls” - after having to explain why they 
shouldn’t be replaced by a chatbot. 


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