Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, August 8, 2020

12

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, August 8, 2020 

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

CONTRIBUTORS

Stuart Tolchin 

Audrey Swanson

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

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


MAYBE THIS WILL HELP

STUART TOLCHIN

 What I am attempting to do today is to share 
some of my own experiences in the hope that this 
will lead to pleasant reader experiences of humor, 
insight or inspiration. I have been counselled by 
wise friends and told that such writing, excluding 
negativity, is what is needed today. I hope these 
examples from my own experience communicate 
something to you. The rest is up to you; so let’s 
begin.

 My mother always suggested that when one was 
feeling blue that it would be a good idea to put on 
tight shoes because it would feel so good when you 
take them off. So if the shoe doesn’t fit don’t wear it. 
The next thing I suggest is to listen to “The First Time I ever Saw Your Face” sung 
by Roberta Flack. I’m listening to it right now as I construct this piece. I heard 
it in my head just as my son’s face appeared as he was being born. It had been 
a very hard and long labor and I still remember his mother being told to “push 
push” while I wiped the sweat off her forehead and pushed against her back. My 
ex-wife says I broke my wrist, I don’t remember that, but I remember seeing my 
son’s crown emerge upside down and backwards ; but eventually seeing his face 
for the first time and crying then and crying now forty eight years later. 

 Time to dry the tears, at least mine, and move to the category described 
by Roberta’s singing “The First Time”; those remembered first times that are 
forever inspirational. Some years ago my wife Irene and I were driving in Utah 
and looking for Bryce Canyon National Park. Eventually we found it, and what 
can I tell you, it was so beautiful, so absolutely beautiful that I cried for the first 
time in years. If you have not been there by all means go and see it for the first 
time perhaps again and again just like the first time. I still have a shirt with a 
color picture of Bryce Canyon on it that my infant granddaughter likes to pull 
on when I carry her.

 Next category; Infants, especially infant granddaughters. If you don’t 
have one I strongly recommend that you get one. There is almost nothing 
comparable to the bliss of lying next to the incomparable peaceful beauty of a 
sleeping infant. Yesterday, just to get out of the house I called my daughter and 
told her I would be passing by her house and asked if it would be possible to 
bring the baby to the front porch just so I could see her. I drove to her house and 
parked in front and my daughter brought the baby out. Justice, that’s her name, 
as she saw me and she started to quiver, kicked her legs, laughed, and clapped 
and waved- expressing and creating joy for the both of us.

 I have already used almost all of my allotted words; but I want to share 
one more experience with you. If possible follow a profession where you can 
be of service to people and make a difference in their lives. I was an attorney 
appointed to work on the release of a man who had been in prison for twenty 
five years. After much searching I found a psychiatrist and a gang expert to 
work on the case, both of whom recommended his release. There were many 
complications but after the hearing his wife and I walked across the street to the 
Cathedral and stood at the monument to the Virgin of Guadalupe. She prayed 
and I hoped and later when the decision came releasing him I was as exhilarated 
as the freed man and his wife. 

 Well that’s it. My part is over. Sorry it wasn’t funnier. 


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WHAT’S TO DEBATE ABOUT NEEDING 
MORE DEBATES?

PETER FUNT


In a presidential campaign that has twisted at every turn, 
it’s no surprise that the latest issue up for debate concerns 
debates.

Surprisingly, the Trump campaign now favors more debates, 
while some liberal pundits are suggesting that there should 
be fewer – maybe none. Seems clear to me: In a pandemic-
torn campaign, voters will benefit from as many presidential 
face-offs as possible.

Writing to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Trump 
lawyer Rudy Giuliani argued that a fourth debate should be added to the current 
schedule of three, with the first moved up before early voting gets underway.

Giuliani noted that by the time of the first debate on Sept. 29, “as many as eight 
million Americans in 24 states will have already started voting.” Even more ballots 
will have been cast by the second and third debates, Oct. 15 and 22.

The CPD said it would not move the planned debates earlier. However, the group 
indicated that if both Trump and Biden want a fourth debate it would consider 
the request.

Both campaigns should act immediately to arrange a fourth event, in the interest 
of filling the gaps in this most unusual presidential campaign. Both candidates 
have been off the trail, with rallies and virtually all public appearances canceled. 
Democrats announced that Biden will not be going to the convention in Milwaukee 
to accept his nomination, opting to speak by video connection. Republicans 
will hold a modified convention in Charlotte but Trump, too, will appear 
via video.

At this point, nationally televised debates are all that remains of a conventional 
campaign.

“For a nation already deprived of a traditional campaign schedule because of the 
COVID-19 global pandemic,” Giuliani wrote, “it makes no sense to also deprive 
so many Americans of the opportunity to see and hear the two competing visions 
for our country’s future before millions of votes have been cast.”

Meanwhile, a mystifying op-ed by columnist Elizabeth Drew in The New York 
Times declared: “Let’s Scrap the Presidential Debates.” What a strange suggestion 
in an election year that has already been forced to scrap just about everything else.

The chorus of liberal pundits urging Biden to skip the debates entirely is alarming. 
Joe Lockhart, Bill Clinton’s former press secretary, advises Biden: “Whatever 
you do, don’t debate Trump.” According to Lockhart’s analysis for CNN, “It’s a 
fool’s errand to enter the ring with someone who can’t follow the rules or the 
truth.”

If Lockhart believes Biden can’t think fast enough to counter Trump’s lies, he’s 
wrong. Moreover, if the former vice president can’t handle a ruthless debate opponent 
then he probably can’t handle the presidency.

It wasn’t long ago that some of us believed Trump might duck the debates altogether, 
with so much of his disastrous past year ripe for interrogation. But as polls 
show him trailing Biden (the Real Clear Politics average gives Biden a 7 point 
lead), Trump’s strategy is shifting.

Four presidential debates of two and a half hours each is probably all that can be 
squeezed in. Perhaps one could be devoted to domestic issues and one to foreign 
affairs. To further probe the differences between the two campaigns, a second 
debate for the vice presidential candidates should be added to the one planned 
for Oct. 7.

Before selecting Joe Biden as their nominee, Democrats had 12 official debates. 
The events were strained at times because there were so many candidates – but 
not because debating itself wasn’t vitally important. Now, with Election Day drawing 
near, why should voters have to settle for misleading campaign ads, brief news 
clips and Twitter bombs to make their decision?

The CPD has opened the door for a fourth presidential debate – and presumably 
a second vice presidential debate – if requested by both campaigns. Trump and 
Biden should act quickly to make it happen.

In Pew research following the 2016 election, 63 percent of voters said the presidential 
debates were “very” or “somewhat” helpful in deciding which candidate 
to vote for. Certainly in the pandemic election of 2020 voters deserve all the help 
they can get.

Peter Funt is a writer and speaker. His book, “Cautiously Optimistic,” is available 
at Amazon.com and CandidCamera.com. 

POWERFUL ORGANIZATION 
LEARNS LITTLE 
PEOPLE CAN FIGHT 
BACK

MICHAEL SHANNON


From day one the Trump HR operation has been the Chernobyl 
of Human Resources. Instead of hiring some of the 
63 million people who voted for Trump, the administration 
made a point of hiring people for whom the Trump administration 
was a bit beneath their dignity.

At least a few of the appointee failures could have been solved 
by having all new hires attend an orientation that consisted 
solely of watching a 2016 Trump campaign rally in full. That 
would have been the first exposure to the issues that won the election for Trump for 
many and would have served to put them on notice regarding the administration’s 
priorities.

Now, as Trump’s first term draws to a close, the administration is finally taking steps 
to punish wayward appointees. Although in typically Trump fashion, it isn’t a systematic 
effort. Instead, Trump became aware of the betrayal when a group of little 
people decided they weren’t going to lie down and take it.

The story begins in Tennessee. The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally-chartered 
corporation created by FDR during the depths of the Great Depression. The 
TVA’s goal was to control flooding by harnessing the rivers for hydroelectric power 
and then generate economic development.

Like most government behemoths, TVA long-ago lost sight of its mission as a U.S. 
entity supposed to help U.S. citizens. The new CEO, Jeff Lyash, evidently decided 
he was tired of creating jobs in Tennessee and wanted to start growing careers in 
Thiruvananthapuram.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press found Lyash intended to import tech workers 
from India, using the H1-B visa program, to replace 200 US citizens already doing 
the job.

This is callous, corporate arrogance at its most corrupt. An organization created by 
Congress to aid Americans has no more business importing foreign serfs to replace 
citizens than the USPS has hiring drug mules to deliver the mail.

The H1-B visa scam is a popular in corporate suites because this government-sponsored 
wage-reduction program that’s an ideal solution for tech executives who don’t 
like to travel.

Instead of shipping jobs overseas, cynical U.S. corporations violate U.S. law to bring 
the workers here.

Problem solved. The boss doesn’t have to worry about drinking the water and the 
U.S. wage scale is now identical to that of Bombay. The part of the law that says visas 
are only to be used for jobs the company can’t fill domestically is winked at by everyone, 
except the 200 Americans doing the work previously at TSA who get fired.

Most of the time companies force citizens to train the foreigners who have come 
to take their job, which is like ISIS making captives sharpen swords. The company 
keeps the terminated employees quiet by forcing them to sign non-disclosure agreements 
if they want to receive severance.

The employees at TVA decided to fight back. They met with the president and after 
the meeting Trump finally laid down the law firing two members of the board, “So, 
let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board. If you betray American 
workers, then you will hear two simple words: You’re fired. If the TVA does 
not move swiftly to reverse their decision to rehire their workers, then more board 
members will be removed.”

TVA’s response indicates Trump must keep firing. Lyash has no intention of changing 
his policy. In his breathtakingly arrogant and duplicitous response to the president 
he let fly with a burst of HR jargon, “We have a rigorous decision-making 
process that includes dialogue with the impacted union and an appeals process that 
is still underway. No potentially impacted employee from TVA will be let go until 
that entire process is complete.”

If Lyash intends to obey the president there is no need for an “appeals process” 
because he would simply stop giving U.S. jobs to foreigners and rehire the citizens. 
What’s more, the “appeals process” is simply a method of delaying until after the 
election when Lyash hopes Trump will be gone and he can tell the citizens who 
stood up to him not to let the door hit them in the behind.

This is the bureaucrat swamp mindset that Trump has faced since he took office. It’s 
an indictment of his lack of seriousness that he didn’t drop and continue dropping 
the hammer on these popinjay potentates from the day he took the oath of office.

Lyash personifies the ‘I’m all right Jack’ mentality of our corporate titans. When he 
took over as president of Ontario Power Generation, he booted some Canadians out 
of a job, so why should he care if U.S. little people get fired?

Trump should make him care. That’s why Trump was elected. It shouldn’t have taken 
Trump four years to take action.

–

Michael Shannon is a commentator and public relations consultant, and is the author 
of “A Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times.” He can 
be reached at mandate.mmpr@gmail.com


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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