11

OPINIONOPINION

Mountain Views-News SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 2025

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

 

LITTLE KNOWN (BUT IMPORTANT) LAWS

STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON


JUST LOOK AROUND

California, for better or worse, is known for being a bit wacky particularly 
when it comes to weird laws. Some of these laws are close 
to home. I believe it to be in the public’s best interests to cover a few 
of the important unknown laws both here and around the state. At 
last count, I counted 395,608 regulations and restrictions in California 
(Do your own count and get back to me). As a citizen of this State, you should acquaint 
yourself with all of them. Ignorance is no defense.

For example, real close to the world headquarters of our own Mountain Views News, 
if you drive through or live in Arcadia, California, you should know peacocks have the 
right of way on streets and driveways morning, noon or night. 

If you bicycle down to Baldwin Park, you are strictly forbidden to ride your bike in 
any swimming pool once you get to Baldwin Park. In Glendale you are not permitted 
to jump in or out of a moving vehicle. Apart from the fact it is illegal, it’s really 
dumb. If you are behind the wheel driving in Glendale, know it’s not legal to drive in 
reverse. And in Los Angeles, it is illegal to wash a neighbor’s car if they don’t give you 
permission. Speaking of driving, it is illegal to put anything other than your cars into 
a garage. The same holds true in San Francisco if the garage is part of a apartment or 
hotel complex.

If someone tells you to “go fly a kite” know the law, particularly if you live in Walnut. 
Flying a kite higher than 10 feet off the ground is strictly prohibited.

Have any pets? Remind them it is strictly forbidden for animals to publicly mate near 
schools, churches or bars. Bars? I have to think walking into four legged critters mating 
behind a bar may sober up a few of the regular bar patrons.

For you shepherds in Los Angeles, be aware you are limited to a max of 2,000 sheep if 
you want to drive them down Hollywood Boulevard. No exceptions. While we’re talking 
about 4-legged critters if you find yourself in Fresno, disturbing lizards is strictly 
prohibited in Fresno’s City Parks. And while you are visiting Fresno parks don’t forget 
it’s illegal to injure, or even disturb…rocks.

Crying in Los Angeles Courts is banned if you are on the witness stand. In San Francisco, 
if you have been classified as “ugly” you aren’t allowed to walk on any street. Not 
sure whether crawling, running, hopping, skipping and jumping is permitted. If this 
happens to you, let me know.

In Blythe California you are permitted to wear cowboy boots if you show that you own 
at least two cows. No cows? No cowboy boots pardner!

Visiting the idyllic town of Carmel? Picturesque, lovely, upscale! Have a great time. 
One thing: If you go out in public wearing pants and a jacket that don’t match you are 
a scofflaw…. breaking the law. You could do hard time.

Chico, California is known for several “creative” laws. Here are a few of the more egregious 
violations of public decency. As long as you obtain a permit you are permitted to 
throw hay in a cesspool. But if you have a herd of cattle, you can’t drive them down any 
street in Chico. And get this…kids are not permitted to play on the sidewalk.

And for the icing on the cake in Chico? You will be fined $500 (no exceptions) if you 
detonate a nuclear device within Chico city limits. 

Statewide, if you leave your outdoor Christmas lights up past February 2nd, you may 
be fined $250.00. If you are in Berkeley, California and your canary is lost, it is illegal to 
whistle for your lost canary before 7:00am.

In closing, I’ve checked, and it is not illegal for my band JJ Jukebox to perform in Sierra 
Madre City limits. Our full rock and roll band is performing July 19 at Nano Café. 
Come for a wonderful dinner, full bar and maybe even some dancing to rock and roll 
hits by the Doobie Brothers, Eagles, Beatles, Neil Diamond, Steppenwolf, Queen and 
other rockin’ groups from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s! 6:30 to 9:30pm.

Nano Café is located at 322 W. Sierra Madre Blvd in Sierra Madre. Parties of 6 or more 
call (626) 325-3334 afternoons Tuesday through Saturday to make reservations.

 It was so hot today that my golfing partner asked me 
to meet him extra early so that we could beat the heat. As 
I drove to the course before 8 am it was already hot, and I 
felt a kinship with the older people I saw already walking 
their dogs. As we played rather than complaining my mind 
jumped back 53 years to a time when I was the director of 
Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance. I had this grandiose 
idea of merging several independent legal aid programs that existed in the rural 
towns in the Central Valley into a large effective program. 

Pursuing this idea, I was driving north on Route 99 to meet with a representative 
of the Nixon Administration in Sacramento. I was driving with one of 
my staff members, a young non-Attorney, a Hispanic young man from Boyle 
Heights who I believe might have been volunteering with the program to build 
his resume to obtain acceptance in college. Look, it was a long time ago and 
I have forgotten a lot, but what I do remember is driving in my non-airconditioned 
car and complaining about the heat. As I continued to complain the 
young man said, “Just look around!" I stopped complaining for a moment and 
did look around. What I saw was many Hispanic people, both men and women, 
bent over in the blistering heat picking cotton.

That shut me up for a while, but it was still hot, and I never forgot that lesson. 
It is so easy to forget, not even notice, the privileged life “we” lead. Who is 
this “we” I am talking to -those of you I imagine that take the time to read my 
weekly articles. I believe many of us our College Graduates, many with advanced 
degrees, who followed an almost pre-ordained path to go to college and 
get a degree which later led to a position in the work force. The positions we 
attained resulted in financial security, allowed many of us to purchase homes, 
and develop families, and all in all feel pretty satisfied with life. Until now!

.

Coming home from the golf course, a recollection of the 1973 film Soylent 
Greem which came out at about the same time I was driving up Route 99. 
Perhaps you remember the film which starred Charlton Heston and Edward G. 
Robinson. Soylent Green is terrifyingly relevant today. It is set in the year 2022 
imagining a future world in which pollution and overpopulation have caused 
severe shortages in food, housing, and other resources. This prediction seems 
frighteningly accurate. Within the film there is the story of a large corporation 
which provides Soylent-Green, an artificial nourishment whose actual ingredients 
are not known by the public. The food is advertised as a “high-energy 
concentrate”. Perhaps you remember that Heston is a detective who overcomes 
the lies and obfuscations and learns a horrible truth that “Soylent Green is 
PEOPLE! OK, THINK ABOUT THAT FOR AWHILE!

Look around and wonder what are possible future solutions to the world’s problems? 
Tomorrow I’m meeting with a friend who gave me a book The Dawn of 
Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow, which I just started re-
reading. In the first sentence on the first page, I came across the Greek word” 
Kairos" meaning the “right or critical moment”. Google explains that “Kairos” 
describes a specific opportune moment or the right time for action. 

Just look around. This might be that time, and a great portion of the public is 
ready to take action. On Saturday it was reported that five million people were 
in the streets protesting the actions of the Trump administration which appear 
to bring about disaster. The time is right, the energy is there, the only question 
is “What are we to do?” Must we wait for a leader or simply take action on our 
own. Perhaps we should take Bob Dylan’s advice and realize that the “Answer 
is Blowin in the Wind’ Gee, I hope so, let us connect with others, act and consider 
collectively and individually, and I optimistically believe we will find the 
right path. It’s probably there in front of us. We must just keep our eyes open 
and not be blinded by our own complaints. Just keep looking around and who 
knows what lessons you will learn? 

Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the County 
of Los Angeles in Court 
Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
City of Monrovia in Court 
Case No. GS006989 and 
is published every Saturday 
at 80 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., No. 327, Sierra 
Madre, California, 91024. 
All contents are copyrighted 
and may not be 
reproduced without the 
express written consent of 
the publisher. All rights 
reserved. All submissions 
to this newspaper become 
the property of the Mountain 
Views News and may 
be published in part or 
whole. 

Opinions and views expressed 
by the writers 
printed in this paper do 
not necessarily express 
the views and opinions 
of the publisher or staff 
of the Mountain Views 
News. 

Mountain Views News is 
wholly owned by Grace 
Lorraine Publications, 
and reserves the right to 
refuse publication of advertisements 
and other 
materials submitted for 
publication. 

Letters to the editor and 
correspondence should 
be sent to: 

Mountain Views News

80 W. Sierra Madre Bl. 
#327

Sierra Madre, Ca. 
91024

Phone: 626-355-2737

Fax: 626-609-3285

email: 

mtnviewsnews@aol.com

A member of 
the

California 
Newspaper 
Publishers 
Association

GEE. WHO COULD 
EVER HAVE SEEN THIS 
COMING?

Every once in a while, way back when I was in high 
school, two meatheads would agree to fight when classes 
let out.

They were brainless lummoxes, the kind who liked to 
snap kids’ jockstraps in the gym locker room, and sometimes, 
when they had a beef with each other, they’d head to a patch of grass 
just beyond school property and go wild. One guy would pull the other guy’s 
windbreaker over his head, the guy blinded by his windbreaker would kick the 
oth-er guy’s shin, the two of them would crash to the grass as they aimed for 
each others’ balls, and we onlookers would laugh with delight at their expense, 
not knowing whom to root for because both were idiots.

I’ve unearthed that blessedly buried memory while watching Musk and 
Trump do their worst to humiliate themselves and this once-great nation. I 
see no need to recap their play-by-play. And who are we supposed to root for, 
anyway? This is like Hitler versus Stalin in 1941, mass murderer versus mass 
murderer. This is like Iran versus Iraq, trench war versus chemical war, during 
the 1980s. This is like the courtroom clown show in 2016 when Johnny Depp 
sued ex-wife Amber Heard and Amber sued Johnny back.

Look, we all knew there would be room in the Oval Office (or, as Trump says, 
“the oval desk”) for only one raging narcissist. We all knew this liaison would 
have less ballast than Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. But, speaking for myself, 
I didn’t think it would crash and burn over the Big Beautiful Bill just because 
the detestable duo apparently disagreed on how many people should lose their 
health care and how many poor kids should go hungry.

On the one hand, I’m on Team Trump because his flunkies want to deport 
Musk. On the other hand, I’m on Team Musk because he’s calling for Trump’s 
impeachment and sug-gesting (without evidence) that Trump is one of Jeffrey 
Epstein’s sex pervs. So tough to choose – while guzzling popcorn! Perhaps the 
simplest solution is for Linda McMahon to put these two malignant degenerates 
in a wrestling ring and stream it live until someone cries uncle.

I have no idea how this Musk-Trump mudfest will play out politically or financially, 
nor does anyone else. I suppose it’s sufficient in the short run for us 
to just laugh at the spec-tacle of rich pricks behaving badly (we love shows 
like Succession, Sirens, White Lotus, and Your Friends and Neighbors), and to 
keep tabs on all the clowns who’ve already weighed in. (Font of depravity Alex 
Jones is fighting with the Trump flunky known as Cat-turd! But Kanye West – 
Kanye West of all people! – is urging Musk and Trump to cool it.)

Personally, whenever Musk or Trump ups the ante with another brainless remark, 
I’m reminded of lyrics from jazz pianist Mose Allison:

“Y’know if silence was golden

You couldn’t raise a dime

Because your mind is on vacation and your mouth is

Working overtime.”

But here is what bothers me most: Last week was the 81st anniversary of the 
death of 4,427 Allied soldiers, who gave their lives during the first-wave assault 
on fascism. Did they die for what we have now – a fascist circus infested 
with felons, drunks, druggies, dopes, and all manner of incompetent lickspittles? 
This is supposed to be a serious country. A serious country needs to be 
governed seriously.

Instead what we’re seeing now is the most vivid evidence yet that MAGA is 
nothing more than a toxic stew of unbridled ego, tawdry self-interest, and serial 
trolling. Did our boys storm the beaches…for this cesspool?

The peak travel season is here, but our friends abroad have gotten the message. 
A new report projects travel to America will be 22 percent lower than last year 
– an economic loss of $12 billion.

It’s no mystery why. Shakespeare got it right in “The Tempest” when a character 
said, “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

HOWARD Hays As I See It

DICK POLMAN


“It was basically a $50 
million version of when a 
5-year-old shows you every 
car in his Hot Wheels 
collection” – Jimmy Kimmel 
on President Trump’s 
military parade

 

Talking with an organizer at last Saturday’s 
“No Kings” rally in Kersting Court, we figured 
there must be 500 there that turned 
out (along with Congresswoman Judy Chu) 
– but probably more. Five million turned 
out at 2,000 rallies across the country, while 
President Trump’s parade drew far less than 
the 200,000 expected. According to Trump 
biographer Michael Wolff, the president 
later “reamed out” Defense Secretary Pete 
Hegseth, because the smiling and waving 
soldiers didn’t appear “menacing” enough.

 

The “TACO” signs were there at the rallies, 
too - for “Trump Always Chickens Out”. 
That acronym originated with Wall Street, 
as Trump chickened out on threats to impose 
tariffs on our trading partners. The 
S&P 500 has mostly recovered from its 20% 
drop following his “Liberation Day” tariff 
announcement, now showing only a 1% 
loss in value in the five months since the in-
auguration – compared to its 8% gain in the 
five months prior under President Biden.

 

Trump was committed to going after those 
millions of migrants “invading” our country, 
with no exceptions. Then, according 
to commentator Charlie Sykes (in a piece 
titled “The Mother of All TACOS”), “After 
making mass deportation and ICE raids on 
workplaces a centerpiece of his presidency, 
Donald J. Trump chickened out. . . It was a 
flip-flop so gobsmacking that it left some of 
his closest aides stunned.”

 

Trump posted, “Our farmers . . . have very 
good workers . . . worked for them for 20 
years. They’re not citizens, but they’ve 
turned out to be great.” Not just those on 
farms and in meatpacking plants, but workers 
in “leisure too, and hotels” and restaurants. 
He attempted to rationalize this 
chickening out on his no exceptions policy 
by warning that if these workers were gone, 
their jobs would be filled instead by the 
“criminals” let in under Biden.

 

Advisor Stephen Miller and DHS Secretary 
Kristi Noem didn’t agree. So, despite pressure 
from lobbyists and Agriculture Secretary 
Brooke Rollins, Trump chickened out 
again and within days was back to the no-
exceptions policy on immigrant round-ups. 
Governor Newsom concluded, “Looks like 
Stephen Miller is the boss after all”.

 

At the G7 summit up in Alberta, Canada, 
the story wasn’t the president chickening 
out on commitments but rather an apparent 
cluelessness. Early on, he posed with British 
PM Kier Starmer having just signed a trade 
agreement and then spoke about “our trade 
agreement with the EU”. Commenters wondered 
whether Trump was aware of Brexit 
having occurred five years earlier.

 

Standing with Canadian PM Mark Carney, 
Trump blamed Carney’s predecessor Justin 
Trudeau for having kicked Russia out of the 
then-G8, when in fact that happened over 
a year before Tru-deau took office. Trump 
suggested that this somehow led to Putin’s 
invading Ukraine; explain-ing that Putin 
felt so insulted by the group’s rejection that 
now he only “speaks to me; he won’t speak 
to anybody else”.

 

What the president didn’t seem to realize 
was that he wasn’t speaking to a MAGA 
crowd but with world leaders who are serious 
people. It’s when he launched into 
his spiel - “murderers, killers, people from 
gangs, people from jails . . . All Democrat-
run cities. And they think they are going 
to use them to vote . . .” - that PM Carney 
stepped in to save Trump from further em-
barrassment - “If you don’t mind, I’m going 
to exercise my role, if you will . . .” – and put 
an end to the Q & A with the press.

 

Trump left the conference early, presumably 
to address the new war breaking out 
in the Middle East. Israel attacked Iran, 
Iran retaliated – and now President Trump 
demanded “unconditional surrender” because 
“I’ve had it. I give up”. He claimed 
to have vetoed Israeli PM Netanyahu’s plan 
to assassinate Iranian leader Khamenei – a 
claim Netanyahu’s spokesman called “fake”. 
He suggested, “we go blow up all the, you 
know, all the nuclear stuff that’s all over the 
place there”. When asked about Director of 
National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard having 
testified that Iran wasn’t building nuclear 
weapons, Trump responded, “I don’t care 
what she (his Director of National Intelligence) 
said”.

 

The president suggested that Israel attacked 
because Iran hadn’t made a deal with Donald 
Trump. Without having made any 
commitments on our involvement, he was 
already posting warnings that “Everyone 
should immediately evacuate Tehran” and 
claimed that “We now have complete and 
total control of the skies over Iran.” (“We”?!) 
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) ob-serves, “foreign 
policy by tweet is insane”. 

 

For its part, Iran responded to Trump, “Iran 
does NOT negotiate under duress, shall 
NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly 
NOT with a has-been warmonger 
clinging to relevance.” Our president complains, 
“I do a lot, and never get credit for 
anything”.

 

Although the word is that Trump left the 
G7 early to attend to this war, I think it was 
for a different reason: He left right before 
two other world leaders, President Zelensky 
of Ukraine and President Sheinbaum of 
Mexico, were due to arrive. I’m sure they 
both had things to say to President Trump, 
in the presence of other leaders - but Trump 
chickened out. That’s “TACO”. 


Mountain Views News

Mission Statement

The traditions of 
community news-
papers and the 
concerns of our readers 
are this newspaper’s 
top priorities. We 
support a prosperous 
community of well-
informed citizens. We 
hold in high regard the 
values of the exceptional 
quality of life in our 
community, including 
the magnificence of 
our natural resources. 
Integrity will be our guide. 

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