Mountain View News Saturday, February 21, 2026 
B4B4 OPINIONOPINION Mountain View News Saturday, February 21, 2026 
B4B4 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 HydeAudrey SwansonMeghan MalooleyMary Lou CaldwellKevin McGuire 
Chris Leclerc 
Dinah Chong WatkinsHoward HaysPaul CarpenterKim Clymer-KelleyChristopher NyergesPeter Dills 
Rich Johnson 
Rev. James SnyderKatie HopkinsDeanne Davis 
Despina ArouzmanJeff Brown 
Marc Garlett 
Keely TotenDan Golden 
Rebecca WrightHail Hamilton 
Joan Schmidt 
LaQuetta Shamblee 

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STUART TOLCHIN PUT THE LIGHTS ON 
I WANT TO BE PART OF A MOVEMENT 
WITHOUT MOVING VERY MUCH 

You may have heard the witticism the now 65 years of age is 
like the old fifty and 75 is like the old 65 but 90 is still 80. I heard 
the joke somewhere, but like many other things, I can’t remember 
when or where, but I do remember why! Being 80 is tough. I do mybest. I walk around my hilly canyon circle twice a day, I play golf a 
couple of times a week, at least when it’s not raining like it is now. I 

even take one strength class once a week and of course I write this one article for the 
paper once a week. You can’t say I’m not trying, but trying or not, I need to and want 
to do more. Of course, there are problems.

 First, my wife won’t allow me to drive anymore; sadly, I agree with her. To be honest, 
I want to be a part of something, but I don’t seem to be able to find a way. I have 
tried volunteering at the Arboretum, but it just didn’t work out. I tried joining a 
softball game composed of many older folks. Unfortunately, I could not hit the ball 
and if I did hit the ball I knew I would be unable to run to first base. I participated 
in a one-hour meeting at the new bookstore in town and signing up for the meeting 
gave me an assignment to read two long books which I managed to do. The book to 
be discussed next month is entitled MY ONE YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION 
authored by Ottessa Moshfegh (quite a name). The book is fictional about the desire 
of a twenty five-year old woman to withdraw for a year and get some time to t relax. 
I can’t say I enjoyed the book very much which had many contemporary references 
I didn’t care to understand and it was too much trouble to look up. I guess I didn’t 
care enough. 

But I did absorb one idea from the book. My days now involve me watching the 
repetitive news which is all Trump and Epstein and secret sexual innuendo involving 
prominent people. Is the whole world being run by billionaires competing to just 
earn more billions with no overall concern for the overall welfare of the population 
or the planet itself? Each day it seems clearer that the rest of the human population 
is at war with the super-wealthy and generally don’t even recognize what is going on. 
In a way, like the fictional girl in the book, I would like to be able to withdraw and 
hibernate for a while and then check back in. Perhaps after the midterm elections 
this year there might be some positive change. I hope so. 

But what about now? What can you and I and anyone else who recognizes what is 
going on right now? While the billionaires play their games, climate change threatens 
the whole planet. The air we all breathe is polluted; the water is unsafe. Perhaps RFKJr. is correct in warning about the consequences of fluoridation, but beyond that he 
seems out of his mind. Perhaps that is an inevitable consequence of snorting cocaine 
off of toilet seats. Did you read about that? It is one more bit of information contrary 
to any attempt at the maintenance of sanity combined with his recommendations for 
the discontinuation of measles vaccine. 

Okay, now I have defined our ongoing war with billionaires. How can we fight them 
without doing much that is beyond our capabilities? Last night I had an idea of how 
to hurt them if I could be a part of a whole movement. It is necessary to hit them 
where it hurts—right in their pocketbooks. In other articles I have suggested boycotts, 
strikes, and work stoppages but doubt if that would be enough. 

I have an idea. What if everyone else and I stopped watching television? I remember 
a time before my family had television. What did we do? We played cards together 
and always ate dinner together. My sister played with paper dolls, and I collected 
baseball cars and read the encyclopedia. It was not a bad time even when the weather 
in Chicago made leaving the house not much fun. 

Okay, I will start now and not watch television all day and see if anything changes. 
I wonder how I will know if a movement is starting as my phone also should be 
avoided. Maybe things will just feel different? Time will tell. 

HOWARD Hays As I See It 

“When it gets to Election Day, we’ve been proactive to make sure we have 
the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country.” – 

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, on the goals of the SAVE Act and her department 
leading to the midterms 

Secretary Noem regards “right leaders” as those putting fealty to Donald 
Trump over service to our country. To ensure they’re elected, it’s not just having the “right 
people voting”, but limiting votes that might not go the “right” way. Republicans’ Safeguard 
American Voter Eligibility Act is intended to do just that. Our Constitution grants 
states authority over the “manner” in which elections are held, but the Trump administration 
is determined to do what it can to effect outcomes, anyway. Already passed by the 
House, the SAVE Act is now in the Senate. 

The stated purpose is to prevent non-citizen voting. But that’s not a problem. As of 
last August, of suspect votes sent through federal verification, 0.04% came back as “noncitizen” 
(0.53% were “deceased”). Utah conducted its own review last year. After nine 
months checking 2 million voter registrations, they found one confirmed non-citizen registration 
and no non-citizen votes. Louisiana found 79 possible non-citizen votes over the 
past 40 years – out of 74 million votes cast. 

The Act requires specified documents proving citizenship for registering or re-registering 
to vote. Of accepted docs, 10% of Americans don’t have ready access to a birth certificate 
and half don’t have a valid passport. For those who’d changed their name through marriage 
(69 million Americans) or other reason, they’d need a marriage certificate or whatever 
to confirm that change. Drivers’ licenses and Real ID could establish identity, but 
not citizenship. The Brennan Center estimates 21 million Americans lack required docs. 

There was a test run of similar requirements in Kansas. Before, the state showed 0.002% 
of registered voters as non-citizens. After these proof-of-citizenship requirements were 
enacted, 31,000 eligible citizens – 12% of all applicants – were rejected. This SAVE Act 
would prevent large numbers of eligible citizens from voting, with negligible if any impact 
on non-citizens. 

No more mail or online registrations; docs would have to be presented in person. There’d 
be criminal penalties for anyone, whether a DMV clerk or field volunteer, who didn’t fully 
comply with the law – no matter if they were registering an eligible citizen. Private parties 
could bring suit, too – all intended to scare off those wanting to register new voters. An 
approved photo ID would be required to vote, and a copy of that ID required to be sent 
with any mail-in ballot or request for one. Blacks, Hispanics, low income, disabled and 
younger voters are all disproportionately less likely to have that ID. 

These changes would have to be made by states immediately, with purges of voter rolls 
conducted every 30 days, with no support or additional funding provided. Voter rolls 
would be turned over to the federal government. Depending on the state, this could 
include name, age, address, phone, email and party affiliation – a centralized database 
maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. 

This Act might help close the gap in anticipated MAGA losses come November – but theyknow it’s not enough. There was that red state gerrymandering push, though with blue 
state countermeasures it turned out a wash. So now they’re laying the groundwork to 
question and ultimately reject upcoming results. 

Fulton County, Georgia, is suing the Trump administration over its raid on their election 
offices last month – seizing ballots and other records from the 2020 election. A warrant 
was issued based on probable cause, but with no evidence of what that probable cause was. 
The statute of limitations has expired for whatever might have happened in 2020, and 
three audits under Georgia’s Republican leadership confirmed that nothing did. But come 
November, Trump will use the raid itself as reason to question results that don’t go his way. 

RICH JOHNSON 
THE NAME GAME 

How did you get your name? I’m betting your parents had 
something to do with it. You probably were named after 
someone. Me? I was named after my father and my Uncle. Both 
named Richard. My name, in the original German means “brave 
ruler”. A medieval diminutive of “Richard” is “Dick”. Enuff said 
about that. 

Pine cones were originally called pine apples. And the fruit we know as Mr. 
Pineapple got its name because it looked like a pine cone. Go figure.
If you think the Canary Islands were named after birds, your thinking is off. 
The name is “Islas Canaria” from the Latin “Canariae Insulae” which means 
in English, “Islands of the Dogs”. Dogs were considered sacred animals to the 
island’s original inhabitants. 

(Take notes) The Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada by a Greek immigrant. 
It was inspired by Chinese cuisine and featured a South American ingredient on 
an Italian dish. The South American ingredient? (See pine cones above).
No, Australian airline Qantas is not named after a fuzzy little creature unless you 
think an acronym is a little beast. Qantas comes from “Queensland and Northern 
Territory Aerial Services”. Speaking of Australia, the native Aboriginal musical 
instrument was called a digeridoo. The word “didgeridoo” is considered to be a 
onomatopoetic word. Huh? An onomatopoetic word is a word that when spoken 
sounds like its name. Think of oink, meow, chirp, beep, simmer or hiccup. You get 
the idea? By the way, the aboriginal people call the digeridoo a yidaki.
“Nachos” were called “nachos” because the inventor’s name was Ignacio “Nacho” 
Anaya. 

Enough of this frivolity. Let’s look at how some rock bands stumbled onto their 
names. “ABBA is a palindromic acronym from the initials of the bands first 
names: Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid. If they went boy-girl, boy-girl we 
would have called them BABA. 

AC/DC was named after the founder’s sister’s sewing machine symbol.
How did the group “Blondie” get their name. Look at a picture of Debbie Harry 
and get back to me. 

The “Doors” swiped their name from Aldous Huxley’s book “The Doors of 
Perception”. (At least that’s my perception). 

“Fleetwood Mac” I dunno. Ask founding members Mick Fleetwood and John 
McVie how they came up with their name lol. 

Lady Gaga got her name from an autocorrect phone text error. Describing on 
a text Lady Ga Ga’s musical style as close to the Queen song “Radio Ga Ga”, the 
phone auto corrected “Radio Ga Ga” to say “Lady Go Ga”. The rest is history or 
maybe “herstory”. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd is named after a gym teacher, Leonard Skinner, notorious for 
strictly enforcing the school’s policy against boys having long hair. 

Now my four favorite bands. First, the original names for the Moody Blues were 
“El Riot & the Rebels”. Then the “Krew Kats”. Then the “M&B Five” named after 
a British brewery Mitchells & Butlers Brewery. Finally they settled on the MoodyBlues and again, the rest was history. 

The combining of Stephen, Neil, Richie, Dewey and Bruce all coincidentally 
coming together in the mid 1960s turned into the “Buffalo Springfield.” A clever 
and classy name taken from a brand of steamroller made coincidentally by the 
Buffalo-Springfield Roller Company. 

My second favorite band was originally known as “Johnny and the Moondogs”. 
Later John, Paul and George replaced the name “Johnny and the Moondogs”. 
They picked the name “Beatles” intentionally misspelling beetles as “Beatles” as a 
play on words meaning beat as in “keeping a beat”. Get it? The Beatles also paid 
homage to Buddy Holly and his “Cricketts”. They were discovered at the famous 
Cavern Club. 

Now, possibly the greatest of all rock and roll bands is a group known 
internationally, or at least in Sierra Madre as JJ Jukebox. We play regularly at the 
equally famous Nano Café in Sierra Madre. We play songs our audience wants to 
hear including “Born to Be Wild”, “Sweet Caroline”, “Day Tripper” and songs byCreedence Clearwater, the Doobie Brothers, Beatles, Santana, Neil Diamond and 
now the Moody Blues. 

We are playing next on Saturday night, March 28th at Nanos in Sierra Madre. 
Come for dinner, drinks and dancing. Call the restaurant after 5:00 Wednesday 
through Saturday to make reservations. (626) 325-3334. 


Mountain Views News 

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Trump has long complained of a “Russia hoax” from the 2016 election – while the Mueller 
investigation found Russia had indeed interfered in that election “in sweeping and 
systematic fashion”, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort shared confidential polling 
with a Russian spy and, before taking office, his national security advisor Michael Flynnn 
had conversations with the Russian ambassador (not a crime) and lied about it to the FBI 
(absolutely a crime). 

Now, Trump himself is raising alarms over foreign interference in our elections. Not 
the one in 2016 (with reams of evidence of it), but in 2020 (where there isn’t) – which he 
blames for his loss to Joe Biden. He’s resurrecting charges of Venezuelan involvement and 
how votes were somehow switched through Dominion voting machines – this comingjust three years after Fox News paid an $800 million settlement to Dominion for spreadingsimilar charges. It’s laying the groundwork for rejecting whatever outcome of this comingNovember’s midterms. 

Historian Robert Kagan told CNN, “I am worried . . . about whether we will even have 
free and fair elections in 2026, let alone in 2028. I think Trump has a plan to disrupt those 
elections, and I don't think he's willing to allow Democrats to take control of one or both 
houses as could happen in a free election.” 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said, “We need to pass legislation to stop billionaires from 
buying our elections, not legislation making it harder for people to vote.” And not limiting 
those votes to only the “right people”. 

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