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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, November 1, 2025

RICH JOHNSON

WHAT IS IN A NAME?

MOUNTAIN 
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Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
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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


MAYBE IT'S ALL ABOUT ME BUT THAT IS 
THE BEST ANYONE CAN DO.

 I’ve never tried to hide the day of my birth. When I reveal 
that tidbit of information, many of you will nod your head in 
affirmation. Knowing that I was born on Halloween will make 
many of you (or at least 6 of you) say, “But, of course”.

 My twin sister and I were born on October 31st. Yep…
Halloween! People almost as famous as I am that were born on 
Halloween include, Chaing Kai-Shek, Dale Evans, Dan Rather, 
Michael Landon, John Candy and Jane Pauley. Sadly Walter Matthau, Henry 
Winkler, Charles Atlas and Burt Lancaster missed out by a day or two.

 Speaking of fellow celebrities, I don’t know what it is about my cohorts 
who come up with the strangest names for their children. I avoided that dubious 
trap by naming my son Alex and my daughter Olivia. With their mother’s 
approval, Other famous people’s offspring did not fare as well:

Frank Zappa may have started the trend to go outside traditional names by 
referring to his daughter as “Moon Unit”. And then naming his son “Dweezil”. 
Magician/Comedian Penn Jillette named his daughter “Moxie CrimeFighter 
Jillette”. Michael Jackson’s brother Jermaine named his son “Jermajesty Jackson”. 
Singer John Mellancamp named his offspring “Speck Wildhorse Mellencamp” 
(don’t know if “Speck” is a boy or a girl).

Rapper and entertainer Cardi B named her daughter “Kulture Kiari Cephus 
Almanzar”. Beyonce and Jay-Z named their son “Sir Carter”. And their daughter 
“Blue Ivy Carter”.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian agreed on the name of their daughter, “North 
West”. Their little boy they named “Saint West”. Bob Geldof, Irish rocker/
philanthropist named his daughters “Fifi Trixibelle” and “Pixie”. English actress 
Kate Winslet named her little boy “Bear Blaze Winslet”.

Australian actress Rachel Griffiths named her little boy “Banjo Patrick Taylor”. 
Gwen Stefani named her little girl “Zuma Nesta Rock”. And actress Alicia 
Silverstone calls her little boy “Bear Blu Jarecki”. Speaking of Alicias, Alicia Keys 
named her two children “Egypt Daoud” and “Genesis Ali”. Nicolas Cage named 
his son “Kal-El” Coppola Cage. (Kal-El) is Superman’s Kryptonian name in case 
you were interested. 

I’ll close this scintillating information with the first names of Sylvester Stallone’s 
kids. “Sage”, “Sistine”, “Scarlet”, “Sophia”, “Seargeoh”. FYI, Seargeoh, by the way, 
is a boy.

If you run into any of the following celebrities, greet them with their actual 
first names. If you see Jamie Foxx, say to him “Hi Eric”. Paul McCartney more 
accurately should be referred to as “James” or “Jimmy”. Carmen Electra should 
be greeted as “Tara Patrick”.

If you run into Brad Pitt, greet him as “William” or “Bill”. Of course, you can 
probably guess that Whoopi Goldberg is not her given name. She may be a 
distant relative of mine as her real name is “Caryn Johnson”. 

If you were suspicious of rapper Cardi B’s name not being her given name you 
would be right. Her true name is “Belcallis Almanzar”. And you may find this 
hard to believe but Portia de Rossi was born “Amanda Lee Rogers”.

And finally, Spike Lee’s real first name is “Shelton”. His mom gave him his 
nickname saying he was a “tough baby”.

If the last thing you want to do this Thanksgiving is make Thanksgiving dinner 
at home I can recommend two excellent options. My two favorite restaurants, 
Nano’s (Sierra Madre) and Moffett’s (Arcadia) are offering complete Thanksgiving 
Dinners for pickup.

Nano’s phone number if you are interested is (626) 325-3334. And Moffett’s 
phone number is (626) 447-4670.

In my article last week, I described the No Kings Demonstration in 
Sierra Madre on October 18. Well, a lot has happened to me since 
then. At the demonstration I met a neighbor who drove me up the 
hill back to my house and invited her into my house to admire the 
view from our deck and to chat for a while with my wife, son, and 
I.Well, our conversation has had consequences which may lead to
some significant changes in my life. The jury is still out as to how lasting these changes 
will be; but let me try to explain.

Even before the protest began, I had phoned the editor of this paper asking if it would be 
helpful if I wrote a report about the protest in addition to my weekly article. She simply 
said go ahead and gave me no page limit or further direction. So, I wrote my version 
of a report on the demonstration which was probably more about me than about the 
demonstration. A friend of mine to whom I send my articles replied after his receipt of 
the article by characterizing it as being in my usual “hyper-personal style” but had good 
things to say about it, nevertheless.

I thought about the “hyper-personal” description, and it bothered me a bit. Other 
readers have commented that I always seem to be writing about myself. Frankly, I don’t 
agree or sympathize with the comments. I believe we have all been educated to assume 
that the reportage including the reportage of history comes from an all-knowing 
objective source. Truthfully, up until the recent advent of AI everything that we have 
ever read derived from the perceptions and experiences and influences of affecting an 
actual living subjective human being. Somehow, we never learn that in school, but 
instead when taking a test or writing an essay, we believe it is our job to parrot back 
what we have read as if it was the Gospel truth.

Well, that is not what I try to do in my articles. I only wish to present the truth according 
to Stuart which up until now that personal kind of presentation is the best that anyone 
could ever do. Now perhaps the material received from AI will be something different; 
but AI will still have problems. Although it is hard to think of AI as something other 
than a person it still is at best a gathering of multiple individual non-objective human 
perspectives which is something different from perceiving truth with the Eye of God if 
you know what I mean and I hope you do.

All this talk about perception and objectivity relates to the conversation I had with my 
neighbor concerning my desire to cope with the world rather than being a dissatisfied, 
confused, passive-observer. She encouraged me to join her in volunteering in a 
Community Outreach Effort to monitor ICE in their attempted detentions of Day 
laborers who are being detained for no reason other than the color of their skin or their 
accents. Yes, we have all heard of this going on but, unless you see it, it really is hard to 
believe.

My daughter is an active Immigration Attorney who is working to protect and defend 
and obtain release for people who have been detained. The only advice she gave me was 
to tell people not to run because the attempt to run will hamper their release as they 
will be considered flight risks. Today all I did was shadow my neighbor and meet other 
volunteers. I was very impressed by who they were and what they were doing. Many of 
the volunteers I met were Cal Tech Graduates and Students. Several of the volunteers 
were ex-High-School Student Body Presidents. That tells me something about them. 
I also learned that the volunteers had little time to chat with each other as they all had 
specific monitoring duties to perform.

All the volunteers seemed very dedicated and well- organized but, being me, I asked 
questions anyway. I need to know who I am talking to and where they come from 
and why they do what they do. Perhaps I will be a nuisance to the other volunteers, 
but I hope not. I hope to be more than an observer, to help and learn. This only my 
first day but in my future articles I will do my best to accurately and objectively share 
with you what I see. I hope to gain and share some understanding which will assist in 
maintaining sanity during these unprecedented, at least in my lifetime, crazy times.

AT ALL TIMES REMEMBER GO DODGERS! We all have many priorities.

Mountain Views News 
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HOWARD Hays As I See It

 
“Not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency. It’s an abuse of 
the emergency power, and it’s Congress abdicating their traditional 
role in taxes.” – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

I received much-appreciated 
comment over a 
column that ran a couple 
of weeks ago, which was 
basically a collection of 
online (X, Bluesky) observations from others. 
Chatting with folks at the No Kings 
rally, that was the one they brought up. My 
wife suggested it’s because I had little to do 
with writing it, but whatever – I’ve since 
found a few more of those to share.

 

But first, a topic I don’t think I’ve addressed 
before: restoration of biodiversity, 
along with the fact I think wolves are 
awesome. I was drawn to an article about 
restoring their populations, specifically 
in Colorado, in accordance with a program 
passed by voters there five years ago. 
Their populations had dwindled, but now 
were being restored. Apex predators can 
make a difference in ways not readily apparent. 
In Yellowstone, for instance, studies 
showed how not having as many elk 
around munching on saplings helps young 
forests thrive.

 

But now that program has been halted by 
the federal government. The male gray 
wolves used in the repopulation program 
were coming from British Columbia and, 
according to federal direc-tives, we’re no 
longer supposed to get things from Canada. 
President Trump is mad at them. And 
the U.S. states that have wolves of their 
own don’t want to give them up.

 

What really made Trump mad is that Ontario, 
during the opening games of the 
World Series, ran an ad of Ronald Reagan 
making clear his anti-tariff views (“the way 
to prosperity for all na-tions is rejecting 
protectionist legislation and promoting 
fair and free competi-tion”). When the ad 
broke, before Game One, Trump cut off 
negotiations with Canada. And then when 
it ran again during Game Two, he slapped 
an additional 10% tariff on them.

 

Charlie Sykes pointed out that more than 
anything, Trump’s complaining reminded 
everyone of Reagan’s advocacy of free 
trade. Trump also accused Canada of trying 
to influence a matter cur-rently before 
the Supreme Court. In what Trump described 
as “one of the most important cases 
in the history of our country”, the Court is 
to rule on whether Trump can be allowed 
to usurp Congress’ responsibility for tariffs 
in a “national emergency”. Now Trump 
suggests that Ontar-io’s running an ad, 
reminding people that Reagan was a free-
trader, constitutes a “national emer-gency”.

 

MeidasTouch described the situation as, 
"Trump says he’s increasing tariffs on imports 
of Cana-dian goods by 10% because 
Ontario’s commercial that accurately used 
Ronald Reagan’s words about tariffs made 
him sad." Tax analyst Erica York asked, 
“are hurt feelings also now a national 
emergency?”.

 

Now some of those other online observations 
from last week:

From NYC Mayoral candidate Zohran 
Mamdani – “I know some of you have expressed 
con-cerns about my age. You are 
worried about a 33-year-old becoming 
mayor of New York City. . . That’s why this 
weekend I’ll be making a change. I’m turning 
34.”

 

In response to Trump’s revoking visas 
for citizens of Argentina, South Africa, 
Mexico, Brazil, Germany and Paraguay 
for comments on Charlie Kirk, Jordan 
posts – “Free speech is when you are punished 
for criticizing the president’s favorite 
podcaster.”

 

When that racist, misogynist, Hitler- and 
rape-endorsing group chat among “young” 
Republicans was revealed, Vice President 
Vance dismissed it as, “young boys – they 
tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids 
do.” Cristela Alonzo responded, “So young 
girls are adult enough to carry babies full 
term against their wishes but these people 
in their 30s that spewed racist (crap) are 
kids? This math is wild.”

 

There’s the news item, “EPA canceled 
$20M flood grant for Alaska Native village 
as ‘wasteful DEI spending’; months later, 
floods destroyed homes”. Jack Cocchiarella 
responds, “Cancelling $20 million to 
Alaska while wasting BILLIONS on Israel 
and Argentina. Trump is America last.”

 

Warren Gunnels lists a number of personal 
wealth figures: “Elon Musk Wealth 2012: 
$2 billion / 2025: $486 billion; Larry Ellison 
Wealth 2009: $23 billion / 2025: $370 
billion; Mark Zuckerberg Wealth 2008: 
$1.5 billion / 2025: $245 billion; Jeff Bezos 
Wealth 1998: $1.6 billion / 2025: $233 billion; 
Minimum Wage 2009: $7.25 / 2025: 
$7.25. Obscene”.

 

To President Trump’s statement, “I do not 
think any president has ever ended a war. 
One war. I did eight of them.”, poster Spiro’s 
Ghost responds, “I feel like we are all 
living in a giant mental hospital with him.”

 

Richard Hanania reports, “The Trump 
Administration has frozen or cut $27 billion 
in funding in Democrat districts, 
compared to $739 million in Republican 
districts. These are open abuses of power 
occurring daily that would’ve been unthinkable 
under any other administration.” 
Don Winslow reacts, “How is this not a 
huge news story???!!!”.

 

Returning to the subject from above, according 
to @AntiTrumpCanada, Trump 
“jacks up tariffs the way toddlers throw 
blocks – pure tantrum energy. Every time 
he’s humiliated, the world pays a surcharge 
for his hurt feelings. Canada’s too busy 
acting like a democracy to give a (darn).”



As I write this, Canada’s also busy watching 
the Blue Jays. And I’m hoping wolves up 
in British Columbia might still someday be 
able to enjoy our beautiful Colorado Rockies. 
They’re awe-some. YES on 50.


1 MILLION LIKES by Paul the Cyberian

“This Does Seem Familiar – The AI Bubble”

 There are more than a few topics dominating AI talk this week, but one of 
them is an oldie but not-so-goodie that we really hoped we'd have learned 
something from the last time it happened.

In short, the AI Bubble refers to the current situation where the major players 
in AI (like OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Intel, et al.) 
seem to have formed a circle of shared money, effectively driving up their own 
estimated value. They do this by committing to buy and sell the resources they 
need to each other, along with various profit-sharing agreements.

In almost any other business, this might not cause public alarm. However, 
here, we're dealing with estimated values that total in the hundreds of billions 
of dollars. That figure has been estimated to be as high as $391 billion as of 
late 2025. This growth has been especially profitable for shareholders, with 
at least 20 billionaires connected to AI adding around $450 billion to their 
private fortunes in 2025. There is truly plenty of gold to be had for those on 
the winning side of the deal.

For the general public, the US Taxpayer and Stakeholder who support this 
financial engineering marvel, it might be a while before those fat dividend 
checks are delivered.

Private land deals for existing or planned datacenters come with the added 
cost of increased competition for water resources where these new datacenters 
will be located. It's estimated that a medium-sized datacenter uses up to 5 
million gallons of drinking water for cooling. The resulting strain on the existing 
electrical grid, and the need for expansion, will be passed on to residential 
consumers in the form of higher rates for the same, or less, usage. A mid-
range datacenter needs 33 megawatts of continuous power daily - enough to 
power 19,800 to 26,400 homes for a year.

At this point, we're starting to get a clear picture of the size of the investments, 
and the size of the profits from all of this high-tech activity. Now, back to the 
bubble part.

The part that really hurts is the burst. Millions of homeowners can tell us what 
happened during the 2008 crash and the resulting market correction. It hurt 
bad. Its effects rippled across many economic sectors. 

While the current bubble may be largely contained to the tech sector, the nature 
of AI has already begun to change many areas of our daily lives. The wild 
enthusiasm of the two bubbles appears very similar, and the cause for special 
alarm in this instance is wholly warranted. 

The question that needs to be answered is simple: “Just what are we getting 
for all of this?”


Mountain Views News

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