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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, May 3, 2025

STUART TOLCHIN

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

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

RICH JOHNSON

A WONDERFUL SUCCESS STORY

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST 
ABOUT THE FUTURE

42 years ago, when I started my business, friendly advisors told me 
there were two major elements of operating a successful business. 
First, innovative effective marketing. And second, good accounting 
and bookkeeping.

I knew I would be better at the first element…building a business because marketing 
required people skills. Operating a business successfully also requires analytic 
skills such as a keen organizational and mathematical mind. Ooh-ooh. So. I 
focused on marketing and started developing my own marketing flyers etc. Got 
quite good at it.

26 years ago, a friend came to me seeking help. His athletic son was hoping to get 
a sports scholarship at a college or university. He showed me hastily assembled 
flyers other families prepared to send out in seeking scholarships for their athletic 
kids. 

I stepped up to the plate. My friend’s son was a solid 2.0 GPA student. For the uninformed 
that is a “C” average. Even with my abilities I wasn’t so sure I could get 
him into a Community College considering his “stats”. But the boy had boyishly 
good looks and was athletic. And there was that solid 2.0 Grade Point Average. 

It worked. Through his parents and my combined efforts, we got him a sports 
scholarship. One or two steps above a community college, but we took it as a win. 
And all is well.

A year or two later another friend’s son was graduating high school and also wanted 
a sports scholarship. I had shown her what I had done for my other friends. 
Mom wanted help. I said, “sure…send me Scott’s photos, grades, other stats and 
I would do what I could. 

Good Lord! When I received the photos, grades, sports stats, I almost couldn’t 
believe it was true. First off, Scott was a certified male adonis. Right off of Mount 
Olympus. Second, if I remember correctly, his grade point average was 4.3 or 
something. Wait a minute…4.0 is straight “A”s. How do you get better than 
straight “A”s?

I checked with Scott’s mom. Was this a mistake? No, she replied, students can take 
honors classes which can bump up a GPA. His competitive sport was gymnastics. 
So, you can guess how much body fat he carried. I probably have more body fat in 
my fingernails than Scott has in his whole body.

I put my heart and soul (along with my limited intelligence) into this project. 
Needless to say, I gave it all and my presentation brochure of my friend’s son was 
as good as it gets. As I recall mom approved of the artwork and soon it was reproduced 
and sent out to all the schools Scott was interested in.

Oh, it gets better. One school in particular contacted Scott. And the college 
screener told Scott, the quality of his presentation materials really stood out and 
they wanted him. Yay!. The good news: Full Scholarship

The bad news: The school was on the other side of the country.

Oh, and Scott would have to commit to working for at least 5 years with the firm 
that was paying for his education.

Scott agreed and to this day is still employed with the same firm. You may have 
heard of it. It’s the United States Navy. The School? The Naval Academy. 

Why am I writing about this? I just heard Scott is being promoted to the rank of 
full Captain in the U.S. Navy. That it is one step below Admiral. I’m crying as I 
write this because I’m so proud of my friend Scott, and totally stoked I could play 
a really miniscule part in his and his family’s adventure.

GOOD GRIEF

This present time 
does not exactly 
seem wonderful. 
To begin with the 
Lakers just lost and 
their season is over. The toilet just 
broke, and my granddaughter has a 
cold preventing my wife and I from 
meeting with my daughter and the 
rest of the family like we do every 
Wednesday night. I just got a call 
from my cousin’s son telling me that 
his brother has just gone into a terminal 
coma and that it’s best not to 
call my cousin who is grieving.

 Enough of this negative stuff about 
the present, it does have some positive 
sides. First, my birthday was 
Saturday, and I have reached an 
age which I thought was unthinkable. 
On the day of my birthday, I 
awakened filled with resolve and announced 
to my wife that I was going 
to walk to our usual Saturday restaurant 
meeting place with my son, 
daughter, and granddaughter. She 
said that walking that far was a ridiculous 
idea, but I insisted and put my 
dog on a leash and started the walk.

 Before I reached my destination my 
wife appeared in the car and asked if 
I was okay and wanted me to get into 
the car along with our dog. It was 
nice knowing that she cared about 
my health I wouldn’t do it, but I did 
worry about the dog and let her take 
him because he seemed to be pretty 
tired. Eventually I reached the restaurant, 
Nano’s, and announced to 
the server that it was my birthday. 

 Soon after going inside the rest of 
the family, including my son’s girlfriend 
who had fallen and injured 
herself a while ago but now seemed 
pretty much healed. It was good to 
see her. Once inside we were seated 
at a long table in a private area, and 
I sat myself at the head of the table 
and faced the rest of my family and 
felt very proud. I take great pride in 
my self-restraint in what I eat preferring 
long-term health over immediate 
satisfaction. I feel I owe that to 
my family and to myself.

 After breakfast I suggested that we 
take two cars and go peacock safari-
ing. (My wife’s made-up word) 
This is an activity created by my 
wife wherein prior to arriving next 
to the Arboretum, everyone picks 
a number guessing how many peacocks 
we will see on the street. We 
all make our guesses and count the 
peacocks we see in trees and roofs 
and just wandering in the middle 
of the street. Sometimes we see 
peahens accompanying their three 
or four little ones. Of course, seeing 
the male peacocks displaying 
their bright blue color and fantastic 
open tails is a treat in itself. The 
peacocks make their unique sounds, 
and my five-year-old granddaughter 
is particularly adept at imitating the 
sounds and carrying on a conversation 
with the fowls.

 Now comes the sad part. My 
granddaughter did not want to go 
peacock safari Ing. Instead, she 
wanted to go to meemaw and grandpa’s 
house. We complied with her 
wishes, and we all went to the house. 
Once there my granddaughter asked 
my wife, “What’s your pin number?” 
It turns out she just wanted to occupy 
herself with the computer and 
the cellphone and to heck with everything 
and everybody else. I had 
the immediate realization that this 
was a picture of the future.

 It is very likely that in the future 
people will just give up trying to 
have conversations and enjoying 
the connections with their family 
and friends. They will stop reading 
books, many have stopped already, 
and instead will choose the immediate 
satisfaction of the computer 
and cell phone games. Readers like 
you who have continued this far are 
disappearing.

 Who needs newspapers anyway? 
they cannot be ever as current as 
what is presented on the phone or 
computer. Who needs other people 
at all when one can ask questions 
and have conversations with AI? I 
have always longed to be a writer but 
how can there be a writer if there are 
no readers? 

 I think life is about connections 
and it is connections with others 
that allows our species to survive. It 
is compassion for others that is a vital 
part of our individual humanity. 
Whatever AI is, it is not human, and 
I cannot grieve for it. I fear what will 
happen to us. Are you still reading 
or have you gone back to your cell 
phone?

Grief is good.

Stuarttolchin@gmail.com 

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HOWARD Hays As I See It


“We cannot allow a handful of communist, radical-left judges to 
obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that 
belong solely to the president of the United States.” – President 
Donald Trump

 

I’ve written about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland dad 
deported to El Salvador through what the Trump administration 
admits was a mistake. The Supreme Court ordered 
the government to “facilitate” his return while the White House claims it’s out 
of their hands.

 

There’s another aspect to the story that hasn’t gotten much attention. According 
to The Atlantic, when officials first became aware of Abrego Garcia’s 
deportation, things actually began to work as they were supposed to. Responding 
to a lawsuit filed by Abrego Garcia’s family, career employees at the 
Departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security realized this had to be 
taken care of and then proceeded to try and get it taken care of.

 

DHS attorneys, aware the deportation violated a court order, worked through 
diplomatic channels to have Abrego Garcia returned – as they’d done in similar 
cases before. But this time, they were stopped - not by any resistance from 
the Salvadoran government, but by the White House.

 

For Trump’s team, there was never intent to rectify a mistake and/or comply 
with an order from our highest court. The whole purpose was to show how 
they could get away with disappearing somebody to a foreign prison without 
any pretense of due process – with nobody, including the courts, able to do 
anything about it.

 

El Salvador’s President Bukele played along during his Oval Office meeting 
with the president, insisting he had no intention of releasing Abrego Garcia 
- so there’d be no point in Trump trying to bring him home, anyway. When 
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) met with Salvadoran Vice President Ulloa 
in El Salvador, however, the message was entirely different. According 
to Sen. Van Hollen, Vice President Ulloa made clear the 
only reason they were holding Abrego Garcia was because the 
U.S. was paying them to do it – and all Trump had to do was ask 
for him back.

 

When Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked about compliance 
with court orders, she ended the discussion with, “President 
Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the 
story.” They’d gotten away with it, and nobody could do anything 
about it.

 

As a warning to anyone who might still regard the Judiciary as a 
“separate but equal” branch of our government, the administration 
is making an example of 65-year-old Circuit Judge Hannah 
Dugan of Wisconsin. The narrative varies depending on the telling, 
but it involves a Mexican national up before Judge Dugan on 
battery charges.

 With a task force of ICE, FBI and DEA waiting outside the 
courtroom for the defendant, Judge Dugan told them they’d need 
a judicial warrant and advised they speak with the chief judge of 
Milwaukee County. She led the defendant through a door into 
a public hallway where members of the task force were hanging 
out. He then got into an elevator with his attorney and one of the 
task force members. The others got into another elevator, which 
stopped at another floor to exit on the other side of the building.

 

The task force members went around the building and arrested 
the defendant. Judge Dugan was then arrested herself and 
charged with two felonies – obstruction and “concealing an individual 
from arrest” – facing six years in prison and a $350,000 
fine.

 

Former judge Andrew Napolitano explained on Newsmax that 
the agents didn’t have an arrest warrant, only an administrative warrant 
“which is basically one ICE agent authorizing another ICE agent to detain 
someone." He said the judge has the authority “to decide how a person leaves 
her courtroom”, but "Because they're on a bit of a jihad against judges, they 
decided to make an example out of this."

 

Authorities would normally go to a judge’s own lawyer, explain that charges 
were about to be filed and arrange for a voluntary surrender. But instead, 
Judge Dugan was arrested on the street, handcuffed and perp-walked in front 
of the cameras.

 

Whether guilty or not, the one person who might’ve already screwed the case 
for the prosecution is FBI Director Kash Patel. He couldn’t help tweeting out 
a pic of Judge Dugan in cuffs and his own opinion that “the Judge’s obstruction 
created increased danger to the public”.

 

In the DOJ’s Justice Manual section on “Concerns of Prejudice”, it bars expressing 
things like “Any opinion as to the defendant’s guilt”, and warns to 
“not voluntarily disclose a photograph of the defendant”. Director Patel deleted 
his tweet soon after its posting – though it might’ve been up long enough 
to have the case thrown out.

 

A successful prosecution of Judge Dugan was not the point, however. The objective 
was to have that picture of her being perp-walked in handcuffs posted 
for all to see – especially by other judges who might be going up against this 
administration.

 

Our Executive Branch now consists of those who place loyalty to Trump over 
our Constitution. The Legislative is content to let Trump rule through Executive 
Order (until the mid-terms, anyway). Now by ignoring court orders 
and threatening those serving in the Judicial Branch, Trump is going for the 
trifecta. 


Mountain Views News

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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