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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, September 20, 2025

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STUART TOLCHIN

RICH JOHNSON

 ...ON CONFLICT

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


WHAT I LIKE ABOUT DONALD TRUMP


(This column was originally published in 2023. I resubmit it as it 
seems timely as we look to move on and, more importantly learn 
from the terrible death of a remarkable young man.)

“I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the 
combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.” Plato

What is the opposite of conflict? Peace? Well, alright, peace is “A” opposite of conflict. 
For pur-poses of this discussion, the opposite of conflict is BOREDOM. 

Sound preposterous? Consider the following: When was the last time you played 
the card game “War” with a six year old? Why do people even play chess? There’s 
no time limit between moves. And why do you prefer to play poker, cribbage, or 
gin rummy with someone capable of whipping you? 

Ever play a video game? Tell me, what happens when you master a level? Do you 
keep replaying that same level over and over again? No. Why not? Because it 
becomes tedious, boring. You ad-vance to the next level because the challenge to 
master is what we all were created to do. Ad-vancing to the next level reintroduces 
conflict into the equation.

Imagine how the quality of your life might dramatically improve if you could shift 
the paradigm and view conflict as challenge. Even conflict that is personally painful 
can be a tool to build character in us. And to also equip us to empathize with 
others who are suffering. 

Learn and grow from conflict. 

Let’s lighten it up a bit. I’m feeling conflicted lol! So, maybe it would be appropriate 
to remind you of a handful of “Murphy’s Laws of Combat.”

If the enemy is in range, so are you.

Try to look unimportant. They may be low on ammo.

Teamwork is essential. It gives them someone else to shoot at.

Never draw fire. It irritates everyone around you.

Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.

Anything you do can get you shot, including doing nothing.

If your attack is going well, you have walked into an ambush.

The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:

 A. When you’re ready for them.

 B. When you’re not ready for them.

Don’t run from conflict. Expect it, embrace conflict. Work through it. After all, it’s 
inevitable and unavoidable. Conflict will make you “strong like bull!” In my case, 
full of…you know.

Did you read the title? Surprising, isn’t it? Yes, there are a couple 
of things I like about Donald Trump. I heartily approve of his 
abstinence from alcohol. Like his predecessor Joseph R. Biden 
(remember him?) President Trump is a teetotaler. Trump has described 
this abstinence as “one of his few good traits.” He has explained 
his refusal to drink as resulting from the alcoholism and 
death of his older brother Fred and admits that he fears being subject 
to alcoholism himself and therefore completely abstains. Additionally, 
as a pre-condition to their marriage, Mr. Trump explained his feelings to 
his future wife, Melania. She agreed and I have read that neither alcohol nor tobacco 
are present in their home.

I think the use of alcohol and tobacco have had negative effects upon that huge per-
centage of Americans who drink alcohol as a part of their regular day. Let’s be honest 
about Mr. Trump. He and Melania may not drink but Mr. Trump has been affiliated 
with Trump Vodka which was discontinued in the United States because of failing 
sales. This tells us all we need to know about Mr. Trump and is indicative of the very 
aspect of Mr. Trump that I describe as “liking.” That trait is his visibility. Mr. Trump 
makes clear what his true values are. He wants to make money and be admired. He 
loves birthday parades and being appreciated by powerful and successful friends.

He does not pretend to care much about the rest of us. Remember on June 26,2021 
when Trump told US General Mark Milley to instruct his troops to “just shoot racism 
pro-testers in the legs” which the general refused to do. That was back in 2021; 
comparing that with the illegal detention Trump has currently ordered we should not 
be surprised. I am losing my point. The point is that nothing Trump does should 
ever be a surprise. Unlike, almost any other public figure, Trump does not hide has 
motivations. He does not hide behind platitudes of patriotism and concern for the 
public welfare.

Remember in 2020, according to a report in the Atlantic Monthly, Trump called fall-
en soldiers “suckers and losers” It sickens me just to think about it; but, remember, 
Trump was willing to be visible about his true feelings which is almost unheard of. 
He tells us he is vindictive and will punish dissenters and those who will not bend 
to his will. He is capable of hypocrisy but does it in such an awkward way that we 
can see right through him. Do you remember when he held the Bible upside down 
pretending that the teachings contained within were guides for his own behavior. A 
better guide was his interest in Gaza which he claims could become a Mediterranean 
pleasure spa once the pesky remaining starving in-habitants of the place were removed 
or eliminated.

Describing Trump is incomplete without describing his current spouse, Melania. The 
most noticeable thing about her is her unwillingness to participate in the activities 
that occupy most first ladies. Recall that she is a fairly successful fashion model who 
willingly became the fourth spouse of a man twenty-five years her senior. The man 
was a known philanderer who obviously had no intention of being a faithful husband. 
She was not an academic Harvard graduate like Hilary Clinton or Michele Obama. 
Yes, she remains a beautiful trophy wife completely unsuited for her present role. Do 
you recall her plagiarizing Michele Obama’s speech on the first day of the Republican 
National Convention? What about her “I really don’t care” sticker she wore as she 
travelled to a detention camp housing migrant children. Melania had some sort of 
explanation, but her statements often lack ve-racity as when she claimed to have college 
degree in design which turned out to be false. She dropped out of the University 
of Ljubljana after a few months.

 In conclusion, I simply say that I do not understand why so much of the electorate 
still favors Trump. At this age, I realize that there is much that I do not know and 
will never understand. The continued acceptance of Donald Trump by so many is I 
believe connected to the visibility that contributes to the belief that there is something 
honest about him with-in his dishonesty. If that makes no sense and is confusing and 
worrisome, that is exactly how I feel about our future today.

I’m doing the best I can. 

DICK POLMAN

CRACKPOT RFK JR. IS A CLEAR 
AND PRESENT DANGER


Years from now, assuming this sick country somehow manages 
to rediscover respect for science and truth, historians 
will marvel that a serial-lying convicted criminal and a serial-
lying bargain basement Kennedy forged a moronic marriage 
that endangered the health and lives of millions.

How tragic it is for America that Robert Kennedy finished 
life on a hotel kitchen floor, but his son wound up imperiling 
lives in a Cabinet post. I won’t bother to count all the 
ways that Trump’s “health” secretary is raping science, laying 
waste to our once-proud public health system and behaving like a crackpot from 
the Middle Ages. Suffice it to say last week, it was all on detestable display in front 
of a Senate committee.

I long ago exhausted my ability to listen at length to MAGA liars, but this particular 
hearing was fascinating – much the way one is compelled to rubber-neck 
on the highway at a multi-car collision. This Senate showdown was inevitable, I 
suppose, because back in January when Kennedy’s name was up for confirmation, 
he assured everyone that he’d “do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult 
or discourages people from taking” vaccines – only to do the opposite in office, 
packing his panels with anti-vax whackos, canceling vaccine development contracts, 
and severely curbing access to the Covid vaccines that have been readied 
for autumn. In many states, new barriers have already been erected.

At yesterday’s hearing, even a few Senate Republicans managed to rouse themselves 
to a state of semi-awareness. The pitiable Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor 
who’d cast the key confirmation vote based on his naive belief Kennedy wouldn’t 
screw with Americans’ access to the demonstrably safe Covid vaccines, actually 
uttered these words out loud: “We’re denying people vaccines!”

To which 
Kennedy lied, 
“You’re wrong!”

How typical. 
Have you ever 
tried to talk 
facts with a medieval 
MAGAt? 
They just double 
down.

The same thing 
happened to 
Senator Maggie 
Hassan when 
she pointed out 
that, thanks to 
the Covid vaccines, 
“there’s 
been much less 
serious disease. People do not have the same level of risk from Covid that they 
used to, because of these vaccines. People who want to exercise their freedom (to 
get vaccines) are being denied that because you are rejecting science.”

Kennedy’s response: “You are making things up to scare people and it’s a lie!”

Worse yet, it’s impossible to talk data with someone wearing a tinfoil hat. Kennedy 
actually declared, in an exchange with Senator Mark Warner, that he didn’t 
know how many Americans had died of Covid during the pandemic (1.2 million, 
a number that’s readily available), and that he didn’t know how many lives the 
Covid vaccine had saved (at least 14 million, according to hundreds of studies).

Warner’s comeback: “You are sitting as secretary of health and human services. 
How can you be that ignorant?”

I guess Trump was wrong during the 2024 presidential campaign, when he decreed 
that his ally Bobby Jr. is “respected by everybody.”

Of course, it should’ve been obvious during the campaign Kennedy was a dangerous 
fanatic – with his serial lies that 5G mobile networks were plotting to ferret 
out America’s anti-vaxxers; that anti-vaxxers were being hunted the way Anne 
Frank was; that Anthony Fauci was a “fascist”; that vaccines cause autism; and 
many more that will not foul this paragraph.

Kennedy reminds me of “Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber,” a Steve Martin 
character on the original Saturday Night Live. After prescribing quack remedies 
to suffering patients, he had a momentary epiphany: “Wait a minute! Perhaps I’ve 
been wrong to follow the medical traditions and superstitions of past centuries! 
Maybe we should test our assumptions analytically, through experimentation and 
the scientific method! Perhaps I can lead us to a new age, an age of rebirth, of 
renaissance! (Long pause.) NAH!”

But seriously, folks. Let’s repurpose Mark Warner’s question: How can the American 
electorate be so ignorant?

A plurality voted for ignorance, so now it’s endemic. The best we can hope for, 
barring some miracle, is that family doctors and pharmacies and blue state governors 
concoct work-arounds so that Americans who want vaccines can exercise 
their freedom to be healthy.

It’s bad enough that Kennedy has disgraced his family’s legacy. How worse it 
would be if he drags the rest of us down with him.

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HOWARD Hays As I See It


“You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken 
really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot” – Charlie 
Kirk, referring to Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee 
(D-TX) and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as “affirmative action picks

Charlie Kirk’s article for 
Breitbart News on “liberal 
bias” in high school 
textbooks landed him a spot on Fox at age 
17.A Tea Party member, fifty years Kirk’s
senior, helped him launch Turning Point
USA and set him up with “Christian right” 
financier Foster Friess.

 

With his own college experience consisting 
of just a single semester, Kirk in 2016 
prepared a “Professor Watchlist” – for 
identification, targeting and harassment 
of those suspected of advancing “leftist 
propaganda in the classroom”. Rape and 
death threats came for those listed, along 
with anti-Semitic attacks.

 

But at the University of Notre Dame, faculty 
members signed an open letter asking 
to be included:

 

“We surmise that the purpose of your list is 
to shame and silence faculty who espouse 
ideas you reject. But your list has had a 
different effect upon us. We are coming 
forward to stand with the professors you 
have called ‘dangerous’, reaffirming our 
values and recommitting ourselves to the 
work of teaching students to think clearly, 
independently and fearlessly.”

 

Major exposure for Charlie Kirk came 
with his podcasts. According to a 2023 
Brookings Institute study, out of 79 political 
podcasters, Kirk came in second 
for “false, misleading and unsubstantiated 
statements”. (Steve Bannon topped the 
list.) 

 

He was briefly banned from Twitter during 
COVID for lying that Hydroxychloroquine 
had proven “100% effective”. Vaccination 
requirements for students were 
“medical apartheid” and calls for social 
distancing in churches a “Democratic plot 
against Christianity”. 

 

Gay marriage was a problem “Because 
they are no longer happy just having marriage. 
Instead, they now want to corrupt 
your children.” As for transgenders, any 
doctor performing gender-affirming care 
should be subject to “Nuremberg-style” 
trials. Kirk described abortion as “worse” 
than the Holocaust. He insisted that a 
pregnant ten-year-old rape victim should 
have no option but carrying to term.

 

Kirk said there’s “no factual data to back 
up global warming”. He supported “creationism”, 
claiming Darwin had already 
been sufficiently debunked.

 

Immigration should simply end: "Those 
are the men that will go into your communities 
and break into your homes and rape 
your women, take your children”. 

 

Charlie Kirk took over Students for Trump 
for the 2020 election, promoting whatever 
conspiracy might overturn President 
Biden’s win. He helped bus in students for 
the January 6 attack on our government. 
For Kirk, President Biden was a “corrupt 
tyrant who should honestly be put in prison 
and/or given the death penalty for his 
crimes against America.” 

 

Regarding Biden’s and Harris’, supporters; 
“The American Democrat Party hates 
this country. They want to see it collapse. 
They love it when America becomes less 
white.” Kirk urged “directly confronting 
the left, and promising to fight their liberal 
ideology with state power, when necessary”. 
(But we dare not even think of Nazi 
analogies.)

 

Charlie Kirk excelled at racist scapegoating 
in exploiting Conservative victimhood. 
If you’re a straight white guy unable 
to get to wherever you felt entit1ed 
to be, it had nothing to do with any personal 
shortcomings – it’s rather because of 
whatever Charlie Kirk said was to blame.

 

According to Kirk, white privilege was 
a “racist lie”. The 1964 Civil Rights Act 
“created a beast, and that beast has now 
turned into an anti-white weapon”. Dr. 
Martin Luther King Jr. was "awful”. After 
being reminded of 4,000 recorded lynchings, 
Kirk still insisted Blacks were better 
off in our country eighty years ago. The 
current reality, according to Kirk, was that 
“Happening all the time in urban America, 
prowling Blacks go around for fun to 
target white people, that’s a fact.” 

 

He also reminded that “Jewish donors 
have been the number one funding mechanism 
of radical open-border, neo-liberal, 
quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions 
. . . it’s not just the colleges. It’s the 
nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, 
it's all of it.” (Nope, still won’t do any Nazi 
analogy.)

 

Commenting last month on Texas’ congressional 
district reapportionment, Kirk 
said, “the great replacement of white people 
is far more sinister than any redistricting 
project.” As for Texas Rep. Jasmine 
Crockett (D), Kirk warned that “What 
she represents is very serious, which is the 
continued attempt to eliminate the white 
population in this country.”

 

Following 67 killed in the mid-air collision 
over the Potomac last January, Charlie 
Kirk commented, "If I see a Black pilot, 
I'm going to be like, 'Boy, I hope he's 
qualified.'"

 

Sports editor Mike Freeman responded 
in USA Today; “One of the more sinister 
things about white supremacy is that it 
constantly tries to snuff out the dreams of 
non-white people. Cast doubt on us. Tell 
us that we're not good enough . . . What's 
important to remember is that people 
like Kirk will always be there. In the 
background. Lying. Or trying to crush 
dreams. When that happens, remember 
that he can't. Remember that the Tuskegee 
Airmen fought far worse racism and 
were still the best pilots in the world.”

 

When speaking of the upcoming Swift 
/ Kelce nuptials, Charlie Kirk advised, 
“Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re 
not in charge.” Taylor Swift will probably 
take that advice about as seriously as most 
Americans will ultimately take whatever 
else Charlie Kirk had to say.


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