13

OPINIONOPINION

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

Lori A. Harris

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

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

STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

RICH JOHNSON

NOT STARRING IN 2025


ATONEMENT THROUGH RESPECT 

FOR CHILDREN


Not that the list is long, but the content of two previous columns 
was so well received I decided, on occasion, to update 
you, my cherished reader (and dare I say devotee). So I scour 
the world wide web for new revelations and submissions.

Not starring is a topic that amazes and delights many of us 
with trivia on major movie roles originally offered and turned 
down by our favorite actors. Last time I ran the column I led with a not-starring 
episode involving Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson. We all remember Al 
Pacino’s great performance as dastardly, but charming Michael Corleone in 
the film “The Godfather”. Al can thank Jack for stepping aside and opening the 
door to Al’s greater success by turning down the role. Jack said “Italians should 
play Italians and Indians should play Indians.” Speaking of Mr. Pacino, imagine 
how the movie would have turned out if Al accepted the role of Indiana 
Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”?

Director Tim Burton really, really wanted Sammy Davis Jr. to play the lead role 
in “Beetlejuice”. Studio Execs stepped in and said no.

Speaking of Francis Ford Coppola, Marlon Brando was Coppola’s second 
choice for Colonel Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now”. Coppola really wanted Orson 
Welles in the role.

Brad Pitt missed his chance in “The Shawshank Redemption”, Mick Jagger 
would have been perfect in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, John Denver 
in “An Officer and a Gentleman”, Sylvester Stallone in “Star Wars” (Yes, Lucas 
considered Sly for the role of Han Solo. Boy, would I have loved to see that!!)

Think about Will Smith playing “Neo” instead of Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix”? 
Don’t get me wrong, I love Will Smith but…nope! Tom Selleck as Indiana 
Jones (Yeah, I could buy that).

And O. J. Simpson was considered for the lead role in “The Terminator” but 
the producers turned him down, ironically, because he wouldn’t be taken seriously 
as a bad guy.

My secret website providing us with these fascinating celluloid revelations has 
added a new feature: How many roles our favorite actors turned down. Audrey 
Hepburn leads the list rejecting 74 roles. Among them Ms. Hepburn turned 
down the lead role in “The Birds” which went to Tippi Hedren. Audrey was a 
contender for the 1963 film “Cleopatra” which went to Elizabeth Tyaylor. She 
also could have been the wife of “Dr. Zhivago” had she said yes. And director 
William Friedkin wanted Ms. Hepburn for the lead role in ”The Exorcist”. 

In second place? Barbra Streisand coming in at 62 roles. She turned down 
the lead in “Cabaret” which opened the door to Liza Minelli. Ms. Streisand 
could have played the lead in “Evita” had she agreed to which eventually led 
Madonna to an acting credit. The role Barbra wanted to play so badly she offered 
to do it for no pay? The lead in “Sophie’s Choice” which ultimately went 
to Meryl Streep. I suspect she might have had a chance had it been a musical. 
Incredulous to me but Ms. Streisand was seriously considered to play the role 
of Lois Lane in the 1978 blockbuster “Superman”.

Jack Nicholoson walked away from 54 roles, Elizabeth Taylor 49 roles, Gwyneth 
Paltrow 45 roles and so on.

Speaking of spectacular performances, let me give you yet another shameless 
plug for my band’s, JJ Jukebox, upcoming Birthday Concert at Nano Café, Saturday, 
November 1st. It will be a costume optional Halloween party (yes, my 
birthday is Halloween). Reservations can be made by calling (626) 325-3334 
Wednesdays through Saturday’s after 4:00pm. Hope you can make it.

On Wednesday I was informed it was Yom Kippur, the most important 
of the Jewish High Holidays. I am just about completely 
ignorant of the meaning of Yom Kippur other than it is, called “the 
day of atonement”, which may be derived from the concept of one 
which signifies togetherness and harmony. You might ask why I 
don't know much or really anything about Jewish Tradition, and 
I ask the same question? All I know is that on days called Rosh Hashanah and Yom 
Kippur I wasn’t allowed to go to School and on Yom Kippur I was not supposed to eat 
anything. When I went to Elementary School in South Side Chicago, I knew no other 
Jews and being Jewish meant little to me other than I was somehow different than most 
everyone I knew.

I already knew I was different because I was able to read and was afraid to go into the 
sandbox because I might get dirty and that would make my mother mad. I do remember 
my mother or father sending me to something called Hebrew School on one day. It 
was a weird place filled with old smelly men with beards, and I didn't like it. I told my 
mother I didn’t like it, and she said then don’t go; that will save money we don’t have.

 So that’s all I ever learned. Don’t spend money and don’t rip your pants and get good 
grades. The real question is why I didn’t learn what everyone else learned to do: like 
how to fix things and take care of oneself. I guess I didn’t have to because everything 
else was done for me. Let me explain; because I was an early reader and was skipped 
twice in Elementary School. I was younger and smaller than just about everybody. I 
don’t think I had many friends but really didn’t notice, because I was so busy reading 
and playing cards with my grandmother and helping her read English. She also knew 
nothing of Jewish tradition other than it meant we were not Christian. I remember 
once in Chicago going to a Cub Scout meeting but when my family found out that the 
meetings took place in a church I was told not to go; so, like a good boy I didn’t go. 
Really, all I ever wanted was to be a good boy. Look where it led me. 

Enough about my past, I’m sorry if I have bored you so far. Today I have taken the 
trouble to read more about the actual meaning behind Yom Kippur. As I understand it 
now, fasting is intended to allow participants to rise above material concerns and to get 
in touch with their inner “spiritual self”. So, what is an inner spiritual self? As far as I 
can tell the search is through the process of atonement which is to go about recognizing 
wrongs and doing what you can to fix them. All right, the main wrong I recognize 
is the treatment of children. Every young child I see is a phenomenon of energy, joy, 
curiosity, ability and every other wonderful thing one can think of. So, what happens 
to them? Typically, and almost invariably, they grow to be dissatisfied, depressed, often 
hostile and brutal adults lusting for guns and power and privilege and wealth. More 
and more wealth, it’s never enough. 

I hope you understand that I have just viewed the Press Conference of the Vice --President 
explaining that our cities should be used as preparations for war. According to 
him and our President we are already at War with the forces of evil which I think to 
them means the loss of White Christian Male Dominance. These are poisonous beliefs 
that must have been foisted upon adults and taught to children. 

To me, atonement means to recognize this process and try to do something about it. 
Children are expected to conform and be “well-behaved” and to be good boys and 
girls and not to cause problems. My God, think of Jesus. What is needed instead is 
freedom, creativity and love of life and all that is living. The hope of humanity is recognizable 
in the early freedoms in the actions of children. That quality which has not 
been respected and maintained. In exchange, we have this world of ignorant, indifferent, 
impotent, but frequently momentarily comfortable and distracted folk heading for 
extinction. Maybe what I attempting to say seems extreme but please understand that 
I am attempting to atone by noticing what we all should have seen before.

Alas, probably I will go back to watching baseball games. 

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


“No one is above the law” – Attorney General Pam Bondi, on 
indictment of former FBI Director James Comey 

TOM PURCELL

DATA PRIVACY? 

WHAT DATA PRIVACY?

“no evidence of illegal activity” – White House deputy press secretary 
Abigail Jackson, on closing investigation into “border czar” Tom 
Homan’s accepting $50,000 cash in a paper bag 

 

Julian Calderas, who worked with current “border czar” Tom 
Homan under President Obama, had told undercover FBI agents that Homan would 
be open to a bribe for helping secure contracts in a future Trump administration. This 
led to Homan being recorded accepting $50,000 cash in a paper bag at a meet-up in 
Dallas last year.

 

Even if Homan provided nothing in return, it could bring federal conspiracy charges. 
But with Trump back in office, the FBI cancelled further investigation. Deputy press 
secretary Abigail Jackson called it a “blatantly political investigation, which found no 
evidence of illegal activity.” The line was that it was just another effort by the Biden 
Justice Department to “target President Trump’s allies”. A top official who’d accepted 
$50,000 cash in return for future favors? Nothing to see here.

 

This came as President Trump was demanding charges against those for whom there 
was little, if any, evidence of wrongdoing at all: former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. 
Adam Schiff (D-CA) and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump openly 
posted his letter to “Pam” (Attorney General Pam Bondi) on Truth Social, emphasizing, 
“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”, describing the three as “all guilty as hell”.

 

A day earlier, Erik Siebert, US Attorney for Eastern District of Virginia, resigned – 
though Trump claims, “He didn’t quit, I fired him!”. After a five-month investigation 
and testimony from fifteen witnesses, Siebert was unable to find sufficient evidence 
against AG Letitia James to bring the “mortgage fraud” charges Trump insisted she was 
guilty of. Early last year, she’d landed $355 million in fines against Trump (plus $100 
million interest) for civil fraud charges of his own, and had joined 18 other Democratic 
attorneys general in suing the administration over cuts to the Department of Health 
and Human Services.

 

Siebert also found insufficient evidence to charge former FBI Director Comey. Unable 
to go with anything on the Russian election interference investigation, Trump’s lawyers 
decided to make do with a charge of Comey’s lying to Congress. In 2020 Senate testimony, 
he was asked if he’d authorized anybody to leak to the press. He said he stood by 
his testimony from years earlier. That’s it – that’s what they had to go on.

 

To replace Siebert, the Trump team brought in Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer 
(and former Miss Colorado USA finalist) who’d never prosecuted a case. She got a 
grand jury indictment against Comey – leading Trump to post, “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!”. 
Getting a majority of grand jurors to agree there’s a probability of a crime, 
though, is different than convincing 12 jurors to agree beyond a reasonable doubt that 
a crime has in fact been committed.

 

There will probably be a pretrial motion to dismiss on grounds of “vindictive prosecution”. 
Former Watergate lawyer Nick Ackerman explained that in prosecuting Nixon, 
the “biggest problem” was “getting evidence that actually shows criminal intent and 
motive.” But with Trump, he “lays it out on Truth Social. He lays it out in executive 
orders . . . if I ever had this kind of evidence back then, we would have had a field 
day.” Howie Kurtz noted on Fox News, “This is completely orchestrated by President 
Trump . . . In previous administrations, any hint of contact on a criminal case would 
be a scandal on its own”.

 

Comey has the resources to mount a solid defense: “I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial.” 
And he’s well aware “There are costs to standing up to Donald Trump . . . We will not 
live on our knees. And you shouldn’t, either.”

 

The next one on the spot is Kelly Hayes, chief federal prosecutor in Maryland. She’s 
being pressed to bring charges against Sen. Adam Schiff, who led Trump’s first impeachment, 
now also accused of “mortgage fraud”, and Trump’s former national security 
adviser John Bolton, who slammed Trump in a memoir, now accused of unlawful 
possession of classified material.

 

Hayes is aware of what happened to her counterpart in Virginia, Eric Siebert, when 
he refused to bring charges because of lack of sufficient evidence. She’s also aware of 
the risk to her reputation (and law license) should she move ahead with a prosecution, 
anyway. 

 

At the beginning of Trump’s term, there was a massive housecleaning of Justice Department 
personnel who’d been involved with prosecutions of Trump or his allies (think 
January 6 defendants). Now, there’s a similar purge of those unwilling to prosecute his 
enemies. In the case of James Comey, Andrew McCarthy on Fox News explained he 
didn’t think Trump “particularly is that interested in whether Comey ultimately gets 
convicted or not”. Rather, it “smacks of wanting to put Comey through the process, 
which is what lawfare is . . . The penalty is the process . . . I think Trump feels that that’s 
what was done to him.”

 

In posting his response to the indictment, James Comey also had some advice for the 
rest of us: “I’m not afraid. And I hope you’re not, either. I hope instead you are engaged. 
You are paying attention. And you will vote like your beloved country depends 
upon it, which it does.” 


Ring. Ring.

“Hello, this is Tom.”

“We know who you 
are, Tom.”

“Who is this? How’d 
you get my smartphone 
number?”

“Your personal details are everywhere, 
Tom — public records, websites and 
apps you’ve downloaded.”

“I didn’t give you permission!”

“Sure you did, Tom. You shared your 
phone number, address and Social Security 
number every time you opened 
a credit card, made an online purchase 
or filed taxes.”

“This is outrageous.”

“What’s outrageous, Tom, is that your 
Social Security number is used for 
more than 60 Congressionally approved 
purposes — everything from 
passports to Medicare.”

“It is?”

“Absolutely, Tom. Every bank account, 
credit card, tax record, loan, hospital 
visit and insurance claim is tied to that 
number. Data brokers use it to build 
a fat file on you they can sell to marketers, 
insurance companies and even 
thieves.”

“Thieves?”

“Identity theft, Tom. Hackers open 
credit cards, file fake tax returns or 
refinance your house in your name — 
destroying your credit for years. Don’t 
get me started about all the new gadgets 
in your home.”

“What gadgets?”

“Your Ring doorbell shows when 
you’re home or away — a treasure 
trove for burglars who can potentially 
hack Ring’s data.”

“Really?”

“Be wary of Alexa, Tom. For the right 
price, she might tell Domino’s how 
vulnerable you are to meat-lovers pizza 
after 9 p.m.”

“Alexa would never!”

“Never, Tom? There have been multiple 
lawsuits against Amazon alleging 
Alexa privacy violations. Amazon even 
paid $25 million to the FTC for violating 
children’s privacy by storing their 
voice recordings. You have to admit, 
marketers would love to know your in-
home habits and desires.”

“

That’s creepy.”

“Here’s what’s really creepy, Tom. 
Facebook automatically accesses your 
photos, contacts, posts and location 
history unless you deactivate those 
features.”

“Why?”

“One reason is to keep you on its app 
24/7, Tom. You didn’t think it was odd 
to get a friend suggestion from your 
IRS auditor?”

“I thought she liked me.”

“Tom, your phone pings towers, Wi-
Fi and Bluetooth everywhere you go. 
Facebook knows everywhere you’ve 
been.”

“It does?”

“And Google keeps your search history 
forever, Tom, unless you set it to auto-
delete, which few people do.”

“No!”

“I got a kick out of one of your favorite 
search terms, Tom: ‘Madonna, bikini, 
before she turned 50.’”

“Surely, TikTok is safe now?”

“Good one, Tom. Trump’s $14 billion 
deal would spin off TikTok’s U.S. business 
into a new venture with Oracle, 
which stores the data in America and 
submits to audits to block China’s access. 
But TikTok will still mine your 
info to sell you junk — just like Facebook 
and Google.”

“Is anything safe?”

“Not in the digital world, Tom. Hackers 
using AI are cranking out scam 
emails and deepfake phone calls so realistic, 
you’ll swear they’re really from 
your mom. And avatars are so lifelike 
they’re already tricking employees in 
Zoom meetings into wiring millions to 
fraudsters.”

“These technologies are invading my 
privacy!”

“Privacy, Tom? The Constitution 
doesn’t guarantee an explicit right 
to data privacy. Congress is tossing 
around bills, such as the American 
Data Privacy and Protection Act, 
which has stalled. Some states have 
enacted a patchwork of laws. But data 
privacy remains a big challenge in the 
U.S.”

“Look, I’ve had enough of you. Who 
are you?”

“Sorry, Tom. That information is 
private.”


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