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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, May 24, 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

MEMORIAL DAY 2025

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


THE TRYLIGHT ZONE

 I have been stuck in the house with pneumonia for a week 
and going kind of crazy listening to the news. This morning, 
I checked my e-mails and read that it was possible 
to have actual conversations with AI on the cell phone. 
After watching the PBS News at 8AM I realized that 
I had little understanding of why conservatives thought 
that the deficit was such a bad thing. I attempted to follow 
instructions and succeeded in having a very informative 
conversation with a non-human who went by the name of CLAUDE.

Claude explained a whole lot to me which depressed me as I now feared 
that the future and perhaps the present is already devoid of the need for human 
contact or conversation. I thought about this for a while and decided 
that I needed to write an article called VALUES. I realized that Claude 
doesn’t CARE but, right or wrong I do. He, or more properly “it” has no 
hopes or dreams or loves or worries or envy or malice or even wants or 
needs. I realized that these inner experiences, emotions let’s call them, are 
what gives life meaning independent of rationality.

Humans are not rational creatures involved only in finding consistencies 
and proofs. A little after noon, feeling a kind of need to protect my humanity 
and independence I announced to my wife that notwithstanding 
her displeasure I was going to drive myself to Carl’s Junior and obtain a 
promised a free hamburger to be provided with the cost of a large drink 
the day after a Dodger game in which the opponent had been struck out 
seven times or more. I drove straight to Carl’s Junior and spoke into the 
microphone and demanded a free hamburger. The answering voice said no 
free hamburgers were given out and I became incensed. I threatened to call 
Carl himself. 

I began to drive away from the fast-food place and noticed that the price of 
a combo hamburger was about 9 dollars. I drove back in and purchased a 
burger and brought it home and ate it and it was delicious. I told my wife 
the story as she disapprovingly watched me eat the burger and she told me 
that I had gotten the whole thing wrong. We looked up the entitlement to 
free burgers and the free burgers were a promotion by Jack in the Box and 
not Carl’s Junior. I immediately found the phone number to the Carl's 
Junior and apologized to the man I antagonized. He couldn't have cared 
less and was not at all interested in talking to me. (Who can blame him?)

At dinner time I announced to my wife that I was well enough to meet with 
my son, daughter, and granddaughter as we customarily did every Wednesday. 
We did meet and I got into a hassle with my daughter over her advice 
to her daughter to not get impatient with other kids for not being able to 
keep up with her. It was more important that she develop social skills. 
Remember my granddaughter is five going on six and is very bright. I 
informed my daughter that by the time I was seven I was double promoted 
twice and always tried to do my best even going so far as to argue with the 
teachers. 

My daughter said she well-knew my lack of social skills and my wife and 
she nodded at one another. Maybe that’s why I attempt to communicate 
with others like you through these articles. Thanks for reading and know 
that we do not need Claude or AI to approve of our actions. I am an emotional 
often irrational human being who in my 80’s still enjoys my life. I can 
only hope the same for my granddaughter.

We can make use of AI when we feel like it but as to the most important 
questions our very humanity exists completely independent of the need for 
only rational answers. Too bad, CLAUDE, I know you don’t or can’t even 
care! That’s why you are artificial, and we are something else that is, irrationality 
and all, worth saving. No matter our present confusion I believe the 
light of humanity will not be easily extinguished.

So, this is Memorial Day 
Weekend. Let me start with 
a little trivia regarding this 
very “sacred” holiday.

Where is the official birthplace 
of Memorial Day? 
Waterloo, New York

What is the other name for Memorial Day? 
Decoration Day Why was May 30 originally 
designated as Memorial Day? Because flowers 
would be in bloom across the country.

 Memorial Day was established to honor fallen 
soldiers of which war? The Civil War. (First 
observed in 1868) Interesting side note: South 
Carolina actually celebrates a second “Memorial 
Day” every May 10th to remember the fallen 
Confederate Army soldiers.

 Yikes! Did you know in 2000, Congress passed 
a law requiring Americans to pause on Memorial 
Day to honor fallen servicemen and service 
women? What time of day is the remembrance 
supposed to be remembered? 3:00 PM

 Which U.S. President Officially declared Memorial 
Day a National Holiday? Richard Nixon 
Speaking of presidents, George W. Bush was 
the last president who served any time in the 
military. His father, George H. W. Bush was the 
last president to have served in combat.

 Presidents that attained the highest rank of 
General of the Armies included George Washington, 
Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower. 
One president obtaining his highest 
rank as Private was James Buchanan. He was 
the only enlisted man to become president.

A little more trivia regarding presidents. Grover 
Cleveland was drafted into military service 
but actually paid someone else $150 to take his 
place (it was legal back then under the Conscription 
Act of 1836)

The army wins in having 16 of their veterans 
elected as presidents , State Militia’s generated 
ten presidents out of their ranks. John Kennedy 
and George H. W. Bush came out of the Navy. 
And finally, the National Guard played host to 
Harry S. Truman and George W. Bush.

Speaking of Harry Truman, his middle name 
is “S”. That’s it! Truman’s parents couldn’t decide 
whether to honor his dad’s dad (Anderson 
Shippe), or his mother’s dad (Solomon Young). 
So, since there was a “S” on each parent’s side, 
his middle name became simply “S”. For extra 
credit Harry (not Harold) is Harry Truman’s 
first name. We are not going to waste letters in 
this boy’s name.

Military service proved detrimental to the following 
seekers of the White House. Presidential 
seeker John Kerry and John McCain’s military 
experience were successfully weaponized 
against them. On the other side of the fence, 
five deferments each during the Vietnam War 
were weaponized unsuccessfully against both 
Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s aspirations for 
a stay at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW (White 
House address for my close friends).

My column wouldn’t be “Rich” if I didn’t include 
some totally useless information. Some 
may think I either subbed out the column to 
some quasi ignorant third party, or took a speed 
AI course on a Commodore 64 computer. No, 
it’s just me. Let’s see:

Starting Memorial Day and ending Labor Day, 
7 billion hot dogs will be eaten. That’s 818 per 
second. In fact, July 4th, keep an eye on Memorial 
Day. Independence Day narrowly beats 
Memorial Day for backyard barbecuing and 
drinking brews. Here are the national averages 
on what will be barbecued on Memorial Day:

Burgers (85%), Steaks (80%), Hot Dogs (79%), 
Chicken (73%), Peanut Butter Sandwiches (my 
house).

If you want to truly celebrate Memorial Day 
by displaying the old Stars and Stripes, fly the 
flag at half-staff until 12:00noon and then raise 
to its full height. I have referred in passing to 
Winston Churchill’s 1947 speech to the U.K. 
House of Commons. This is the actual quote to 
which he does not take credit for creating. The 
Prime Minister said:

“Many forms of Government have been tried, 
and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No 
one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-
wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is 
the worst form of Government except all those 
other forms that have been tried from time to 
time; but there is the broad feeling in our country 
that the people should rule, continuously 
rule, and that public opinion, expressed by all 
constitutional means, should shape, guide, and 
control the actions of Ministers who are their 
servants and not their masters.”

In truth, it was originally written by a Canadian 
educator named Guy Henson in May 1946 
in a scintillating report entitled: “A Report 
on Provincial Support of Adult Education in 
Nova Scotia”. And Mr. Henson didn’t even take 
credit saying it was anonymous.

I would love to take credit for originally saying 
the phrase. My sole complication in taking 
credit is I was born in 1951 Which (though my 
math has always been bad) 5-6 years after it 
was first quoted. Darn!

I think we can all agree we have the worst 
form of government except for all the others.

And like most in group sports, one team pairs 
off against another. One team wins and one 
team loses. And the losing team’s assignment 
is keep the mother ship floating while they 
regroup and assess how to beat the winning 
team the next time they meet on the field of 
battle.

If we got rid of one side’s team how long would 
it be before a group of our own teammates 
split off for one reason or another from us and 
suddenly we are faced with yet another adversary. 
So, as bad/good our system is, let’s keep 
it. Tweak it if you will, but let’s keep it.

In closing, I would like to tender a name for 
President of the United States in 2028. My 
candidate will finally be old enough to run. 
Of course, my candidate is my favorite “son”…
Henderson! What say you?

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HOWARD Hays As I See It


"It looks like Saddam and Liberace's decorators got together and said, ‘let's make a flying brothel that will appeal to Donald Trump.’" – Steve 
Wilson on the Boeing 747-8 gifted from Qatar

“a creative disposal strategy” – Dubai-based aviation consultant Linus Bauer on Qatar’s unloading the plane on Donald Trump

Following President Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East, the White House bragged of some $2 trillion in investments secured. Fox’s 
Jesse Watters called Trump’s performance a “masterclass”. Among the deals touted were an $8.5 billion investment from Qatar in a Texas 
energy company, $200 billion in Amazon cloud computing from Abu Dhabi and $600 billion from Saudi Arabia for an airport project.

But as the Washington Post later reported, these deals and others had already been made months, if not years, before – under President Joe Biden. The 
administration also bragged about billions in military purchases by Qatar – also either announced under Biden or which had “been in the works for years”, 
according to a congressional aide quoted by the Post.

A White House spokesperson referred to some of these as “reaffirmed investments”. Others were described as “aspirational”. And then there were doubts 
whether Saudi Arabia could come up with even half the cash needed to fund what they’d been talking about, anyway.

But the trip wasn’t about the president making deals for our country; it was an opportunity for those who accompanied him – dozens of CEOs and top 
execs from Nvidia, Amazon, Cisco, Qualcomm, Open AI, Palantir, etc. – to make deals for their companies. Nvidia, for instance, struck deals with the UAE 
and Saudi Arabia for semiconductor chips The Guardian describes as “the most advanced in the world for the creation of artificial intelligence products”.

Under President Biden, such deals were restricted in the interest of national security – fearing these technologies would somehow make their way from the 
Gulf states to China. But national security isn’t a concern of President Trump’s and, apparently, neither are issues like the war in Gaza and Iran’s influence 
in the region – not on this trip, anyway.

What was important was rewarding his billionaire donors with the opportunity to make billions more on the president’s first overseas trip of his second 
term. Also tagging along, of course, was Elon Musk – so he could ink more deals for his Starlink satellite communication system.

At a crypto convention in Dubai the week before the trip, it was announced the UAE was putting $2 billion into Trump crypto through the Trump family’s 
World Liberty Financial – with Eric Trump on stage for the announcement. That same day, the Trump administration lifted restrictions allowing the UAE 
to buy those semiconductor chips from Nvidia. (Now what was that Hunter Biden thing all about again?)

Tied into the trip was news of that $400 million Boeing 747-8 for President Trump from Qatar. Since such a “gift” without Congressional approval would 
violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, it was later clarified that the plane would be going to the Defense Department, and then to the Trump 
Presidential Library once Trump left office (with assurance he wouldn’t then be using it personally – like yeah, right).

It was seen as a successor to the aging Air Force One. Trump had ordered replacements for that plane back in 2018, but they probably won’t be ready 
until nearly the end of this second term – if then. With the special requirements for a president’s Air Force One (most passenger jets don’t need protection 
against electromagnetic waves from a nuclear blast), even this new one from Qatar would have to be retrofitted in a process taking years and an extra 
billion-or-so dollars.

With all this still to be resolved, it appears Trump went ahead anyway - the plane was delivered and parked at the San Antonio airport. It was presented 
as a generous out-of-the-blue offer from Qatar, but now we know Trump had been shopping around for one since deciding he just couldn’t wait for those 
already-ordered replacements to be ready.

There’s another aspect to the deal reported by Forbes that puts it in a whole 
different light: Qatar has been trying to unload this plane for years. It’d 
been on the market since 2020 – with no takers. They did manage to unload 
one like it on President Erdogan of Turkey back in 2018, but at a then-cost 
of $23,000 an hour to fly, one wonders if the Turkish president afterwards 
had any second thoughts. 

And that per-hour flight cost doesn’t include the millions of dollars in ongoing 
storage and maintenance. Even without the required retrofitting, 
the plane Trump is saddling us with is due in a couple years for its 12-year 
maintenance – itself taking months and costing millions, while it’s becoming 
harder to find mechanics to work on them. Billionaire oil sheiks nowadays 
are going for more efficient, versatile two-engine planes (think Boeing 
787 or Airbus A350) – not those four-engine outmoded guzzlers with the 
extra-large runways they require.

Qatar has managed to rid themselves of an obsolete, unwanted, money-pit 
liability – improbably finding someone thinking they’re getting a deal in being 
able to take it off their hands (“Only a FOOL would not accept this gift 
on behalf of our Country”). In this exercise of a “creative disposal strategy” 
between Qatar and Donald Trump, there is indeed a party giving us a “masterclass”. 
And it’s not our president. 


Mountain Views News

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