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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, September 27, 2025

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

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Michele Kidd

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Harvey Hyde

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Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Rev. James Snyder

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Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

RICH JOHNSON

WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT 
DAY OF THE WEEK?


FREE THOUGHT AND FREE SPEECH


Last week the 
late-night talk program 
hosted by Jimmy 
Kimmel on ABC was 
suspended pursuant 
to pressure from the 
current Presidential 
administration. The 
owner of the Disney station originally felt 
it advantageous to yield to Presidential 
pressure for reasons connected to other 
pending transactions involving the Federal 
Government and Disney. Americans 
for this one time made it clear that 
this infringement on something very 
valuable could not be tolerated. Huge 
demonstrations confronting Disney 
immediately occurred and the Company 
backed down and as of last night Jimmy 
Kimmel was back on the air visible on my 
television.

I admit that I had never watched 
his show before, but this show was 
different. KimMel’s competitor, Stephen 
Colbert, whose show aired at the same 
time commented that on this night he 
understood that his audience was probably 
limited to his wife and friends. Even 
Colbert was interested in watching Kimmel 
on that night.

 Yes, on this one night, America 
won; but what did we win? Natan Sharansky 
in his The Case for Democracy has written, 
“Even the smallest spark of freedom could 
set an entire world ablaze.” The volatile 
potential of free thought and free speech 
to make the world a better, safer, more 
humane place is indisputable. All right I 
agree; but I am puzzled as to what to think 
about and what to say. 

 As I constantly write; I am in my 
80’s and am limited in many ways but I am 
in little discomfort. Well, that’s wrong I am 
in daily discomfort because I want to and 
need to do more. What more can I think 
about; what more can I say or write about?

 I need to do something more. As 
you have undoubtedly noticed the major 
thing I do is complain. This retirement 
isn’t easy. Perhaps all I want is to be 
entertained and distracted. Maybe the 
threat of entertainment and distraction 
is what caused Americans to rise up and 
demonstrate. The baseball season is coming 
to an end and what will I do when there are 
no Dodger games to watch? Well, there’s 
always Pro Football and College Football 
and numerous other sports to watch, but 
that is not the point. I do not wish to be 
entertained. I wish to matter.

Believe it or not, I want these 
weekly articles of mine to matter. I want to 
reach people and help them to notice how 
they are living and find what they want out 
of life. I wish I was more involved with 
keeping order in my house or cared more 
about the clothes I am wearing or the cost 
of things and potential tax consequences. 
I do worry about Social Security and 
benefits for my son, but really, I want to 
care for more than myself and my wife and 
children. I went to College and Law School 
and practiced law for almost sixty years and 
that kept me pretty busy — busy enough 
in addition to caring for my children that 
I did little else other than keeping up with 
the news, voting, and staying concerned, 
but now I must do more.

Lately, I’ve been asking my wife to 
drive me down to our Sierra Madre Library 
where I can look for books to point me in 
the direction I want to go. I found the 
comments of Natan Sharansky there this 
morning and learned that he is a man about 
my own age who was born in the same 
area of the Ukraine where my father and 
his family lived. I used the net to research 
Sharansky and observed that he looks very 
much like old pictures of my father. His 
life though has been very different from 
mine. For nine years he was a prisoner 
in the Soviet Union, placed in solitary 
confinement and tortured. Through the 
efforts of his family, he obtained release 
and immediately went to Israel.

In later life he became a prominent 
human rights activist significant for his 
resistance to Soviet oppression and his 
efforts to help Soviet Jews relocate to Israel. 
He is the former Minister of Interior of 
Israel and has written at least ten books 
focusing on defending democracy. Yes, but 
I wonder now what he would be doing if 
he were me.

Well, I have to go now. It’s almost time for 
the Dodger game to start.

Well, by the way. It was an incredible 
exciting game. Dodgers won!!

 And in an hour or so I can watch Kimmel 
or Colbert.

 What else could be important?

If I stopped seven people 
on Sierra Madre 
Blvd and asked them 
that question, what 
would I get? Maybe 
seven different answers. If I had to guess 
what my editor, Susan Henderson’s favorite 
day of the week is, she just might 
say Sunday. That’s the day this wonderful 
newspaper is leashed onto the public. 
I hope Ms. Henderson knows she 
performs a miracle every week.

 Who’s to know really what day is the 
most important? Maybe, just maybe if 
we take a look at the history we might 
come to a consensus on the best day of 
the week. Let’s investigate each day of 
the week’s major accomplishments.

 Mondays… are the most popular day 
to call in sick. And coincidentally, the 
sickest Monday of the year is always the 
Monday after the Super Bowl. I can’t 
imagine why. Monday is the only day of 
the 7 days that is also an anagram. Rearrange 
the letters and you get the word 
“dynamo”.

You should also know the Titanic sank 
on a Monday.

 Tuesdays…Looking at Tuesdays the 
D-Day attacks during World War II began 
on a Tuesday. It’s also the day the
highest number of job applications are
submitted. People are less likely to barbecue 
on Tuesday.

Do not know what this means, but Uranus 
was first discovered on a Tuesday
in 1871 (Don’t know the exact time, but
I’m guessing it was discovered at night.)

 Wednesdays, according to a survey, 
bosses are most receptive to requests 
from employees. Want a raise…ask on 
a Wednesday. Wednesday is also the 
daughter’s name on “The Addams Family.” 
Finally, Wednesday is also known 
as “Hump Day”. Snappy designation, 
huh?

 Thursdays have special significance 
in Christianity. “Maundy Thursday” is 
the day “The Last Supper” took place. 
And “Ascencion Thursday” is 40 days 
after Easter when Christ ascended into 
heaven.

Maybe to just be different, Thursdays 
in Australia are, traditionally, the days 
movie premieres are scheduled. Unlike 
Fridays, here in the good ole US of A.

In case you stay up nights wondering, 
wonder no more: Leonardo DaVinci 
was born on Thursday, April 15, 1452 
(I wonder if it was also tax day in Italy?)

 Fridays are so popular as the last day 
of the work week, that we created the 
acronym TGIF. And, for good measure, 
a restaurant by the same name.

I hesitate to make the next sentence as 
there is a slightly rude word. Oh well, 
it involves Australia and, in case you 
didn’t know, my son and daughter are 
each half Australian. Which half, I don’t 
know. Might be the lower half as they 
have no Australian accent. Nevertheless, 
in the U.K. and Australia, Fridays 
are sometimes referred to as “POETS 
Day”. It has nothing to do with poetry. 
POETS, the acronym means “Piss Off 
Early Tomorrow’s Saturday”.

In the maritime world, the unwritten 
rule is never begin a voyage on a Friday.

 Saturday is the most common day for 
sports…duh. Saturday is the official day 
of rest in Israel where most everything 
is closed. If you were raised in Sweden 
you might know Saturday is often the 
only day of the week when young children 
are allowed to eat candy.

You may not know this but the best day 
to hunt vampires is on Saturday as they 
are restricted to their coffins.

 Finally, Sunday, the final day of the 
week. In Poland, Ukraine, Croatia, Bulgaria, 
among others, the word for Sunday 
means “no work”. Many countries 
in Europe and Peru hold national elections 
on Sundays.

In 321 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine 
I decreed Sunday was a day of rest 
for all of us except those engaged in agricultural 
work. Months that begin on a 
Sunday always have a Friday the 13th in 
them. Don’t whistle on a Sunday in Salt 
Lake City. You could be fined $1,000.

I’d like to thank a fellow named Jack De 
Graaf a brilliant writer who compiled 
these wonderful bits of day themed 
trivia. I found it on “thefactsite.com” 
Check it out.

Finally, time for another shameless 
plug. Approximately one month from 
now, on Saturday night, November 1st, 
Nano Café is celebrating my favorite 
day, Halloween (my birthday, with a 
costume party concert at the restaurant, 
featuring my favorite band, JJ Jukebox. 
Costumes are not mandatory, and it will 
be an exciting evening. 6:30 to 10:00 
on Saturday, November 1st. Be sure to 
make reservations early as this event 
sells out typically. We never know what 
magnificent costumes restaurant manager 
Ray, will be wearing, but they are 
always worth seeing. (626) 325-3334. 
Call after 3:00pm Wednesdays through 
Saturday to make reservations.

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at 80 W. Sierra Madre 
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Madre, California, 91024. 
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HOWARD Hays As I See It


“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean 
by that, it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not 
before.” – Rahm Emanuel, 2008



DICK POLMAN

BEAR WITH ME AS I FLASH BACK
ALBEIT BRIEFLY TO 2009

In the “crisis” brought by the murder of Charlie Kirk, the “opportunity” 
was to point fingers – this time, for culpability in an assassination. 
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was right out of the gate with 
“Democrats own this”. Elon Musk posted, “The Left is the party of murder”. Rep. 
Anna Luna (R-FL) accused, “EVERY DAMN ONE OF YOU THAT CALLED US FASCISTS 
DID THIS”.

 

President Trump explained that “We have radical left lunatics out there and we just 
have to beat the hell out of them.” Kari Lake, Trump’s advisor for the US Agency for 
Global Media, blamed the killer’s murderous impulse on his having been sent to “indoctrination 
camps” – i.e., college.

 

A 2024 National Institute for Justice report on “ideologically motivated” attacks had 
been on the Justice Department’s website. It found that since 1990, “far-left extremists” 
had been responsible for 42 such attacks resulting in 78 deaths. For “far-right 
extremists”, it was 227 attacks and 520 deaths. The study noted that far-right violence 
“continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violence extremism” 
in the U.S. 

 

A grad student checked out this study on September 12 and then, the next day, three 
days after Charlie Kirk was killed, found it had been pulled from the government 
website. A poster on X commented, “They’re editing the history books before our 
very eyes.”

 

They also tried using the “crisis” of Kirk’s assassination as an “opportunity” to step 
up attacks on the media, which began even before the inauguration. Last December, 
ABC settled for $16 million for having referred to a “rape” rather than the “sexual assault” 
Trump had been found liable for. In July, it was CBS settling for $16 million for 
editing Kamala Harris’ appearance on 60 Minutes so it would fit into the 60 minutes.

 

CBS shelled out the money so parent company Paramount could complete a merger 
for which they needed approval from Trump’s FCC; an agency no longer serving the 
public, but serving Donald Trump. There was an additional concession: two days 
after Stephen Colbert commented that such a settlement “has a technical name in legal 
circles: It’s a big fat bribe”, he learned his show would end this coming May.

 

ABC was mistaken if it assumed $16 million would suffice as long-term protection 
money. Before anyone knew much of anything about the suspect in the killing of 
Charlie Kirk (other than being 22 years old from a Republican household into guns), 
Jimmy Kimmel remarked that the MAGA crowd was “desperately trying to characterize 
this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing 
everything they can to score political points from it”.

 

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called those remarks “an intentional effort to mislead 
the American people”. On a podcast discussing dealing with Kimmel, he said, “We can 
do this the easy way or the hard way”. Should networks and affiliates not take care of 
Kimmel on their own, “there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

 

Two of the largest owners of ABC affiliates dropped Kimmel from their lineups. One 
of them was in the process of acquiring another large affiliate owner in a $6.2 billion 
deal requiring FCC approval. Disney, ABC’s parent, put Jimmy Kimmel on “indefinite” 
suspension”. Trump then suggested NBC deal likewise with Seth Meyers and 
Jimmy Fallon. 

 

The response was immediate and overwhelming. There were threatened Disney boycotts 
and cancellations of its subscription streaming services. Hundreds of Hollywood 
luminaries sent out letters of support for Kimmel, condemning government 
censorship. And conservatives – from Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) 
to Tucker Carlson – came out to warn against government infringement on Constitutionally 
protected free speech.

 

The White House line during this time was that it was not pressure from the White 
House, but purely a financial decision by the network and affiliates that led to the 
suspension. Then, after hearing Kimmel would be returning, Trump spilled the beans 
on discussions between ABC and the White House, claiming assurances it wouldn’t be 
a suspension, but a cancellation of the show. Trump now warned that with Kimmel’s 
show merely “an arm” of the Democrats, it could be subject to lawsuits as an ongoing 
illegal campaign contribution. Referring to that $16 million settlement from last December, 
Trump posted, “This one sounds a lot more lucrative.”

 

Trump tried using the “crisis” of Charlie Kirk’s murder as an “opportunity” to further 
target the likes of Jimmy Kimmel – along with Colbert, Meyers, Fallon – and those 
reporters who tend to ask questions he’d rather not answer. As an upshot of this effort, 
attention in the news has shifted from Charlie Kirk to Trump’s attacks on our 
First Amendment freedoms – and of Kimmel’s comeback having garnered 6.26 million 
viewers (largest in the show’s 22-year history), with an additional 26 million views 
on media platforms.

 

In his opening monologue, Kimmel suggested that Trump “might have to release the 
Epstein files to distract us from this now.” In other news, Arizona just held a special 
election sending a Democrat to Congress who just might provide the deciding vote 
forcing release of the Epstein files. I wonder if Trump heard that line from Jimmy. 


Ted Kennedy died that summer, an event that triggered a 
tsunami of online hatred. I wrote about the Kennedy fallout, 
lamenting how the internet had afforded idiots the opportunity 
to exhibit their worst selves. But it never occurred 
to me to demand that such people should be hunted down 
and fired from their jobs, or, more broadly, that free speech 
should be less free and that vile opinions should be censored. 
Nor would it have remotely occurred to the Obama administration 
to create and unleash Thought Police.

But today Trump and his minions are goose-stepping all 
over the First Amendment – Jimmy Kimmel was only the latest casualty (thankfully 
just temporarily) – and what amazes me is that anyone with a brain can be 
shocked that this is happening.

Fascists aren’t shy about their intentions. I blame the voters who were too oblivious, 
feckless, or stupid to see what was so blatantly obvious. So here we are, stuck 
with a crew of opportunists who are exploiting Charlie Kirk’s murder to suppress 
speech – in open defiance of our constitutional rights to rudely dissent, or satirize, 
or misspeak in ways that might piss some people off.

I’m old enough to remember when conservative Republicans feared federal government 
overreach. But now we have Trump’s toadies (with predictable Republican 
complicity) flexing unprecedented federal muscle to squeeze cowering corporations. 
Exhibit A is Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, who pressured Disney-
ABC “to take action on Kimmel.” Earlier last week, on a right-wing podcast, Carr 
said, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” – which is like something you’d 
normally hear a crime thug say in a Guy Ritchie movie.

That’s ironic. Six years ago, FCC member Carr wrote on social media: “Should the 
government censor speech it doesn’t like? Of course not.” Three years ago Carr 
wrote: “Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. 
It challenges those in power while using humor to draw more people into the discussion.” 
Two years ago he wrote “censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.” And one 
year ago he said “free speech is the check on government control.”

But now Carr wears the MAGA armband. Now he marches with Trump, who said 
the network news shows criticize him too much and “they’re not allowed to do 
that.”

Actually, according to the First Amendment, they are.

This is straight from the tyranny playbook – as practiced these days in places like 
Russia, Hungary, and Turkey. It doesn’t seem to matter the U.S. Supreme Court, 
in a landmark case 61 years ago, wrote unanimously that, under our Constitution, 
“every citizen may speak his mind…and may not be barred from speaking or publishing 
because those in control of government think that what is said or written is 
unwise, unfair, false, or malicious.”

One shudders to think what today’s MAGA-captive court might say about that 
unanimous ruling – although last year, in a case involving the NRA, it did rule that 
“Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish 
or suppress views that the government disfavors.” So perhaps they’d agree with David 
French, a conservative attorney who has long defended the free speech rights 
of conservative speakers, who wrote: “The Constitution is most vital when times 
are most contentious. The First Amendment exists precisely because the founders 
knew there would be times when free speech would be deeply unpopular. This is 
one of those times.”

Even The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial page writes that MAGA is flexing 
too much muscle. It says that “in a free society,” a comedian’s remarks “shouldn’t 
be cause for the government to push someone off the airwaves.” And it warns: “The 
political cycle of using government to punish opponents is taking the country into 
dark corners that will result in less freedom, and less free speech, for all sides.”

Dare we hope for the tide to turn, for the First Amendment to weather this crisis? 
Only if the sentiment voiced by The Journal is echoed far and wide. Only if fury 
triumphs over ennui.

Historian Peter Englund recently wrote a great book, November 1942, which focused, 
at ground level, on the average people who were caught up in the fascism of 
the 1940s:

“They were part of that great uninterested and unwilling mass – the silent despairing 
majority for which history is a remote and incomprehensible enigma which has 
done, is doing, and will continue to do another of its cruel twists and turns; and 
as if it were a force of nature, it has suddenly burst into everyday life and, whether 
directly or step by step, changed it or destroyed it, in spite of people’s hopes that it 
won’t really be that bad or that it will blow over or that it will mainly afflict others.”

Unless we speak our minds en masse, this metastasizing storm will afflict us all!


Mountain Views News

Mission Statement

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papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
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community of well-
informed citizens. We 
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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