Mendocino County Today: Friday, Feb. 18, 2022

Mostly Sunny | 13 New Cases | Another Death | Two Goats | Hummer Nests | Albion Mill | South Ukiah | Affordable Housing | Palace Lobby | Public Hearings | Boyle's Camp | Closed Reviews | Postmistress Oralee | Ed Notes | Casio Combo | Bonnie & Clyde | Broiler Steakhouse | LR Wharf | Smoking Locomotive | Rustic Bridge | Separate Tracks | Public Utility | Winter Snow | Homeless Trash | Shipwreck | Mo Report | FagTown | Patriots Report | Yesterday's Catch | Hitcher Killer | Teacher Protests | Covid Tests | Bolinas Housing | Video Magazine | Ezoooom | Tasty | Amish Corn | Home Loans | NATO Ukraine | Headbangers | Billionaires | Roadhouse | Media Faceplant | Nightmare | Not Welcome | Dance

CLOUDS THIS MORNING will give way to mostly sunny skies with another warm afternoon inland. Saturday will be warm and sunny once again across the interior, while marine layer clouds will keep coastal areas cool. Brisk winds and cooler weather will commence Sunday and continue into next week, with some showers possible Monday night or Tuesday. (NWS)

13 NEW COVID CASES and another death reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

MENDO COVID DEATH #120

A Mendocino County resident recently passed away with COVID-19. Our thoughts are with their family and friends. 

Death #120: 61 year-old man from the North County area; unvaccinated with comorbidities. 

Public Health asks all Mendocino County residents to consider the best ways to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19. When in doubt, consult with and follow all CDC and CDPH guidance. Vaccination, masking, and social distancing remain the best tools for combating COVID-19. 

Fully vaccinated people should strongly consider getting a COVID-19 booster to improve immunity. Boosters are available for everyone age 12 and older. If you have questions about boosters or vaccines in general, speak with your doctor, or call Public Health at 707-472-2759. To find the nearest vaccine clinic in your area, please visit the Public Health website at: www.mendocinocounty.org/covidvaccine 

TWO ONE-YEAR OLD MALE GOATS are in need of re-homing asap due to mountain lion predation in their neighborhood. 

The goat pictured is 50% Boer & 50% La Mancha, The other is 100% Boer. Neither are wethered. Can go together or separately. Located near Navarro. If you can help, please call or text Bob: 510-691-4560

HUMMINGBIRD ALERT!

Heads Up From Sonoma Wildlife

The Living with Wildlife Hotline 415-456-7283 has been flooded with calls about “abandoned” hummingbird nests this week!

People say, “I have been watching the nest for three days and I am sure the mother hummingbird has not visited the nest!” and “What can we do?” Don't panic, those baby hummingbirds are most likely not orphaned, but their presence DOES mean that it is no longer safe to trim or prune trees, shrubs and bushes. 

Ronnie James <ronnie@mcn.org>

MINDY MAE to SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS:

Can we talk about cleaning up the south side of Ukiah? There is trash everywhere from all the pickups heading to the dump with their belongings poorly secured, State St. is still terrifying to walk or bike (esp. with children in tow), and there is no park/playground on this side of town. I don’t know how much of this is in your scope, but as someone who resides here, I sure wish the south side would get some love once in awhile.

ELI MADDOCK:

Vacation Rentals

The BOS need to get going on housing asap.

There should be no reason to adopt a similar policy here in mendo. Or even put air bnb permits on hold.

Meanwhile letting folks build and/or convert their spaces into affordable long term rentals. The no-growth attitude is becoming tiresome. The county needs to catch up with Fort Bragg and Ukiah and clear the way for building additional housing.

Zoning laws from a land before time need to be updated.

I don’t want to be a slum-lord but I don’t want friends and family to be pushed out by ever increasing rent - if you can even find a place!

Maybe more affordable housing during a time of economic downturn would ease the inability to fill the vacancies in the job market? It would be nice to keep our teachers in the area

MIKE GENIELLA: The way we were in Mendocino County.

Mendocino County Historical Society

C. 1933 - The Palace Hotel (Ukiah) Lobby. Notice the baskets on the mantel and the painting above the fireplace. This watercolor of redwoods was painted by famous artist Lorenzo Palmer Latimer and was commissioned in 1929 to hang in this spot as part a “grand” remodel. The lobby was enlarged, the staircase you see to the left was erected and its columns and beams were stenciled to match the style of the new lighting which had Spanish influences. You can still see some of this style interior through the window on State Street.

UPCOMING FORT BRAGG Public Hearings 

The following public hearing notices for the City of Fort Bragg were published today, February 17, 2022:

• 02-28-2022 Vacate Grocery Outlet Permits
• 02-28-2022 Cannabis Dispensary Moratorium Extension
• 03-01-2022 CDBG Design Phase Hearing

To view all upcoming public hearing notices, visit our Public Hearing Notices page: city.fortbragg.com/government/public-hearing-notices/-fsiteid-1#!/

NO SOONER did the Supervisors decided to make Assistant CEO Darcie Antle Interim CEO for a year and keep with a mostly “CEO Model” because, they said, it’s so much work to deal with department heads, we see that next week’s limited Supervisors Agenda for Feb 24-25, 2022 features closed session reviews of most of those very Department heads: 

Closed Session

Feb. 24

Any public reports of action taken in the closed session will be made in accordance with Government Code sections 54957.1. 

3a) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - General Services Agency Director

3b) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Social Services Director

3c) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Agricultural Commissioner 3d) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Transportation Director

3e) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Cultural Services Agency Director

Feb. 25

3a) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Public Health Director

3b) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Director

3c) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Cannabis Program Director 3d) Pursuant to Government Code Section 54957- Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Public Health Officer

Nothing else is on next week’s agenda so far.

(Mark Scaramella)

BLACK POSTMISTRESS LOST HER JOB IN 1983 BECAUSE OF AGE, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

by Susan Minichiello

When Oralee Anderson-Francois was appointed postmistress in 1979 of a tiny post office in Villa Grande, near Monte Rio along the Russian River, it was a career dream come true. Until it wasn’t.

The Santa Rosa mother supported her foster, adopted and biological children and moved into a house after her appointment. But in 1983 the family’s stability came to a halt when Anderson-Francois was fired after postal officials accused her of falsifying records and misappropriating funds.

“It’s the end of a dream. From day one it was my dream to be a postmistress,” she told The Press Democrat a year later.

The firing turned into a three and a half year battle between the Post Office and Anderson-Francois, who went by Anderson at the time. In 1984 an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission examiner concluded that Anderson-Francois was fired because of race and age discrimination, but the Post Office initially refused to hire her back.

Amid pay loss she was unable to make mortgage payments and nearly lost her home. The Anderson Home Fund was established at Community Baptist Church, where she worshiped in Santa Rosa.

“The Post Office has mishandled this case and virtually destroyed her life,” David Johnson, a representative for the NAACP, said in 1986.

The 1984 EEOC examiner said Anderson-Francois was in an “atmosphere of almost total racial isolation” and postal service officials who reviewed her records “were insensitive to her Black perspective on the world.”

The commission’s ruling in her favor “was based on comparison of her case with that of another postal employee — a white man — who committed similar infractions but received only a letter of warning,” according to a 1986 Press Democrat report.

In the summer of 1986 the EEOC ordered the Post Office to rehire Anderson-Francois. In response, the postal service assigned her to a clerk position. NAACP members and other supporters of Anderson-Francois protested her demotion outside the tiny Villa Grande Post Office.

By the fall, she was rehired as postmistress, this time in Yorkville, a small community northwest of Cloverdale. She received retroactive pay and benefits from her termination date, and she ended up having a 30-year postal service career.

“My reception at the (Yorkville) Post Office was beautiful. Everyone came up and said congratulations and talked about changes in the system because of my case,” she told the PD in September 1986. “I feel pretty good about going back to being postmaster. That’s what I wanted.”

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

ED NOTES

IF THERE'S room in hell for naked pandering, Assemblyman Jim Wood has earned his. Wood announced AB 2176, expanding the timeframe for Native American families to register the birth of a child. The bill is expanding the timeframe for registration from 10 days to 21 days, honoring and accommodating the period of sacred ceremonial blessing and naming of the newborn.” Wood went on to say, “The many Tribes and Rancherias contribute so much to the culture of our state, and I have learned a great deal about their traditions and benefitted [sic] from their wise council over the years, so this change in law this is a way to respect such an important event in their lives.”

LAURA COOSKEY COMMENTS: “Are the new rules only for Native Americans, or for everyone? What about Hippies? We need the five-year window for ‘registering’.”

HOTEL GROZNY, the just opened Ukiah Holiday Inn Express, my emphasis, sits unvisited and forlorn, stranded at the south end of Ukiah's Big Box Boulevard. What's an express hotel, one where you sleep faster? I, and maybe you, wonder at the thinking, both by the Holiday corp and Ukiah, the latter not exactly being synonymous with planning and building imagination, but what's the point of a four-floor hotel with not even a coffee counter? Here's my idea to put some life in that already derelict structure.

CONVERT the top floor to a bar and restaurant, a lunch spot during the day, a nightclub as the late afternoon sun fades against CostCo, maybe John McCowen at the piano bar tinkling the ivories for his interpretation of Lady of Spain in recognition of the bi-ethnic make-up of his town, as the whole west side of town sings out, ”See you tonight at the Groz!”

“GOOD to see you again, Mr. Anderson. Right this way to your table by the window, the one south-facing to spare you the commercial jumble to the north. Ms. Mulheren will take your drink order.”

ODD, kinda place, the Groz, stuck out there in commercial nowhere, the only restaurant an Applebee’s a half-mile away if you don't count the Schat’s at Friedman's, down the street from Walmart.

SPEAKING OF WALMART, they've discontinued their tropical fish. Went in there the other day hoping to pick up some those cheapo gold jobs but nada, not a living thing for sale in the whole place, except for some bedraggled plants in the so-called garden shop. I was suddenly nostalgic for that wonderful little pet shop on deep South State almost next door to the essential Sunny's Donuts where a knowledgeable, welcoming lady presided over the hamsters, kittens, and 20-cent goldfish. Commercially, this country has gone steadily backwards! Backwards, I tell you! WalMart wiped out all the little guy businesses in Ukiah leaving us without so much as a fighting fish for sale in the entire county. I'm surprised PetCo hasn't set up shop down there by the Groz and the former Emerald Sun, architecturally the only attractive commercial structure in town.

BONNIE & CLYDE

If you haven't seen Bonnie & Clyde in the theater, now is your chance!

Bonnie & Clyde @ Coast Cinemas on March 2 at 7pm

Tickets at the door, on Eventive, or at the Coast Cinemas' website or app.

A HEARTY STEAK DINNER at a fantastic steakhouse is a great way to treat yourself when you don’t feel like cooking. Lucky for us, there are SO many great places to enjoy a steak in Northern California! However, there’s one spot, in particular, that stands out for the simple fact that it’s been around for generations. Boasting legendary steaks in a delightfully unpretentious setting, your meal at the Broiler Steak House will surely be one to remember.

THE SKUNK TRAIN BLOWS SMOKE

The following is a reply I made to the California Air Resources Board concerning our local tourist train. (Bruce Broderick)

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for submitting your smoking vehicle complaint. In order for Diesel Complaints to process this complaint in a timely manner. Please respond and submit the following information below:

1. What are the days and times this locomotive is operating?

The train operates most every day. On some days it passes through residential areas eight times a day at 9:00am, 10:00am, 11:30am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm, 3:00pm, 4:00pm and 5:00pm. Most days it travels its residential route at 11:30 am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm and 3:00pm.

2. What is the name and address of the company who owns and operates this locomotive?

The owner of this train is Mendocino Railway located at 100 west Laurel St, Fort Bragg, CA. 95437

3. Was the locomotive smoking near a residential, school or child care facility.

The locomotive regularly emits excessive exhaust gasses throughout the town of Fort Bragg. This includes the downtown area, residences as close as 20” to the train, the Fort Bragg Middle School and several dozen more residences along the Pudding Creek watershed.

4. Is this location a residential or commercial area?

The location is a combination of commercial and residential. Mostly residential. The link is of an exhaust fire in the locomotive that was extinguished on July 23, 2021. It is doubtful that the engine had any exhaust repairs after the fire.

5. Submit all photos or videos of the smoking locomotive.

Attached are pertinent images that show the diesel exhaust emanating from the locomotive and back onto the passengers in the open car directly behind it. In the images, the locomotive is traveling through an area that has many residences along the tracks. As a local resident fairly close to the tracks I can watch the soot accumulate on our house.

Thank you,

Bruce Broderick <bb@beingwater.com>

MERGING TRACKS ON THE MILLSITE

Editor,

Last week Fort Bragg city councilmembers Albin-Smith and Peters asked Mendocino Railway to “get on board” with local permitting. This is a surprising request given that Mendocino Railway has been doing exactly that since 2019, following its purchase of the northern portion of the millsite, until the city abandoned its development process in January 2021 and told us to create our own plan.

We did as requested, meeting with the city ten times in 2021 while also focusing — with city approval — on acquiring millsite south. In May, after we told the city we had reached a deal with GP, the city suddenly and without explanation ceased all communications with us and, apparently, tried to take our deal with GP for itself, forcing us to file our eminent domain action to ensure we simply had a seat at the table. But GP’s discussion with the city went nowhere, and GP contacted us in October to tell us that their discussions with the city had ended and asking how we could close our original deal. As settling the eminent domain action was easier than closing the deal via a purchase and sale agreement, that is what we did.

Unbeknownst to us, the city — which for some reason ignored our eminent domain action — in October filed a lawsuit challenging our public utility status. And the city then in November, after learning we had closed our original deal with GP, sought out of pure spite to block a $21 million loan we seek to improve our railroad with more ties, to improve bridge safety, and to reopen Tunnel #1 (improvements the council bizarrely claims to still support today despite its efforts to prevent us from making them). Councilmembers have also made knowingly false claims about us in meetings and in the press that have caused enormous harm not just to our company but also to the many local residents and businesses who depend on us, at least in part, for their livelihoods.

The council — without reason — questions whether we will abide by local development regulations and CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). This is despite our consistent statements over many years that we always do our best to follow all applicable laws and will continue to do so. We submitted our proposed plan for the 77-acre millsite north for city approval within three months of purchasing that property. We agreed that the housing, hotel, commercial, and light industrial elements the city wanted built were all subject to local regulation. And we also set aside 40% of the property as open space and parks, not to mention the extensive setbacks from the Coastal Trail. The city knows we are in our third year working with the Department of Toxic Substance Control on environmental remediation of the property, despite not having caused any of the contamination ourselves. We planned to work just as closely with the city and environmental regulators as to millsite south.

Anyone who has walked the city’s beautiful Coastal Trail can see the unique opportunity presented by the millsite. Ideally, we should work together with the city on a plan that builds upon our community’s strong working-town history, our hospitality and tourism industry, and our potential to attract high-paying technology, green energy, healthcare, and blue economy jobs. And though the millsite is a brownfield that needs redevelopment, we can’t lose sight of the fact that it borders an amazing environmental gem that needs protection. Nor can we lose sight of the need to retain Fort Bragg’s identity and authenticity.

We need to work together with local agencies to achieve these goals, to develop a vision that everyone can support. But the city has refused to speak with us, preferring to hold closed-door meetings while making knowingly false claims about us in public. We thus welcome councilmembers Albin-Smith’s and Peters’ interest in moving forward in a more productive manner and will gladly meet with them if they are willing.

Rail switches merge parallel train tracks into one, serving as a good metaphor for our relationship with the city. Currently, we seem to be heading in a similar direction but on separate tracks. But we share the common goal of ensuring that millsite development provides the maximum opportunities and benefits for our community so I’m hopeful we can find a switch that will bring us onto the same track.

I look forward to a time when the rest of the council joins councilmembers Albin-Smith and Peters in seeking to work towards a more promising future together.

Chris Hart, Mendocino Railway

FICTION: the Skunk Train does not constitute a public utility, so their use of this law is fraudulent.

Fact: This assertion is patently false. The city has filed a lawsuit seeking to change Mendocino Railway’s status as a public utility but even the city admits in its complaint that Mendocino Railway is currently a public utility with all the rights thereof (including the right of eminent domain). So to claim that Mendocino Railways is not a public utility is actually a patently false (and fraudulent) statement. Mendocino Railway is one of the oldest public utilities in the State of California and a long-recognized federal railroad. 

— Mike Hart

JEFF BURROUGHS: Remember back in the day when we had winter rains and winter snow in AV? Here is what it looked like about 47 years ago on Ornbaun Road.

PAUL STOVER: A favorite memory of mine is, 50 years ago, many of us high schoolers jumping in miscellaneous cars, leaving the high school and heading up Peachland road to Octopus hill / Tarwater hill to play in the snow. I can feel the cold on my face and the joy and excitement in all the kids that day. I also remember on another occasion, kids driving from the high school up the Ukiah road and filling there pickup beds with snow, bringing the snow back and having snow ball fights in the school parking lot. I’ll never forget the time when one of the students threw a snow ball at our principal Mel Baker. There was only about five feet between them when this student threw hard and hit Mr. Baker directly and squarely in the ear. To our proud Principle's credit, Mel courageously proclaimed that he was okay and that everything was all right while he was “ digging” the snow out of his ear canal with his little finger… I remember in 1973/74 during our Christmas break it rained for 3 weeks straight, continuously non stop. Those were the “good ol days”, back then, when it REALLY USED TO RAIN.

A READER COMMENTS: Thanks Jeff for posting this beautiful photo with “ The Mountain “ in the background and bringing back so many wonderful memories. 

BRUSH STREET CLEANUP - Officials Pick Up Trash In Ukiah - UPD Chief Assists Supervisor Mulheren

by Justine Frederiksen

Maureen Mulheren knew all the bags of trash she wanted to pick up in Ukiah last Saturday wouldn’t fit in her pickup, so she asked a friend with a trailer to help her out.

“Thanks so much for doing this, it would have taken me forever in my truck,” said Mulheren as she loaded up one of the last large garbage bags full of trash onto the trailer owned by Ukiah Police Chief Noble Waidelich, who agreed to spend one of his weekend mornings helping clean up the area along Brush Street near the large Daniel Steel building where many people leave trash.

“Hopefully my guys will see me out here and be inspired to help,” said Waidelich, explaining that he bought the large trailer to help his mom haul stuff back and forth from her ranch along Highway 20. After the trailer was full, he towed it to the Ukiah Transfer Station to unload.

Mulheren, a former Ukiah City Councilmember who now sits on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors as the 2nd District representative, said there are two main reasons why trash tends to accumulate in that particular spot: One is the nearby homeless encampments, and the other is that people drop off their household trash there.

“It’s an attractive nuisance,” said Mulheren. “People see one person doing it, so they do it, too.”

Waidlelich said it also doesn’t help that the area is right on the border of the Ukiah city limits, so it often gets overlooked by street crews working for both the city and Mendocino County.

Mulheren said she knows the spot could quickly get overtaken by trash again, so she hopes to “keep an eye out and stay on top of it going forward.”

Mulheren has also launched the Ukiah Homeless Trash Program, which provides orange bags for unsheltered residents to fill with trash, then leave in designated areas for her and others to pick up. She said the program was approved last year by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors as a pilot program, but its rollout was stymied.

“It was very hard, due to Covid and staffing issues, for the service providers to participate, so I’ve been volunteering my time,” Mulheren said. “I decided to launch the pilot myself this year with the hope of building the data to get the budget for a staff person, or to maybe bring the program to the Mendocino County Solid Waste Management Authority board.”

When asked why this issue was so important to her, Mulheren said, “I think it provides some dignity to the folks who are living in the camps if they can safely remove their trash.

It also reduces the public health impact of living amongst trash, and reduces the blight that the community sees.

“It also humanizes the conversation,” Mulheren continued.

“If you don’t have a house, you don’t have trash service, so what happens to it? This is a small solution to the much more complicated problem of homelessness.”

Mulheren said those involved in the program know the designated pick-up locations, but she did not want to publicize them for fear they would become sites for people to dump their household waste.

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

SUPERVISOR MULHEREN:

I had my Mendocino County Water Agency Interview with GEI the consultants that were hired to work out a plan for the water agency. I think collaboration and being able to leverage the State and County dollars should be a focus. We need to look at consolidation, water storage and efficient uses of our water rights. There will be more about this so please make sure you follow my Facebook page for updates. 

I attended the virtual County of Mendocino Cannabis Program Update. I heard many times how it was the best meeting we’ve had yet. Kristen our Cannabis Program Director was able to address some of the frequently asked questions that have come up. I highly recommend you use Canna Notes on the Mendocino County webpage to sign up as well to learn more about what is coming up next. Here is the link to sign up: mendocinocounty.org/community/enotification

We had what will be our last Monthly Parks Ad Hoc Committee Meeting. The presentation will come to the Board sometime in March. Spoiler alert we don’t have enough money. So the Board will have to talk about prioritization and how important our parks are to our community. I’ll post more info about the agenda item when it gets closer. 

I am the alternate on the Ukiah Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency. This week I didn’t have any conflicting meetings so I went to listen in. They chose West Yost to do the Administrative Services. I work with them on the Russian River Watershed Association I think they will do a good job for the agency. Larry Walker and Associates received feedback from the Board on the First Annual Report Implementation of the Groundwater Sustainability Plan. I’ll share more information as reports become available. These are good first steps in gathering data on water availability. 

On Friday morning I attended the Leadership Mendocino meeting. I graduated last year and really love this program. It’s always interesting to talk about this job a year in to it. I certainly see things differently from the inside now that I’m a Supe. Increased transparency and collaboration remain top goals. The Board is trying to do new things and I love any opportunity to talk to people about getting out of our comfort zones. Their debate topic for their meeting was the Great Redwood Trail. That’s one project that before I was on the City Council I didn’t really understand the need or how it would work in Ukiah. Now that it is a piece of a much bigger picture its a great opportunity to create something that’s going to work for our unique community. 

I had lunch with Senator McGuire. We talked about his new role in the Senate, how my first year was going and of course the importance of collaboration with the State and Counties. No one understands this more than McGuire. He’s really worked his way up through the ranks. The North Coast is lucky to have him. 

On Saturday morning I was able to clean up with Noble Wadelich our Ukiah Chief of Police and Joe Dishman. We tackled a large mound of trash on Brush Street. It was a combination of trash from homeless folks and people dumping off trash. I have a photo on my Facebook but it turned out to be 2,880 lbs of trash. I was so grateful that Chief Wadelich brought his personal pick up and dump trailer to help haul it off. I am going by on a more regular basis to make sure that it stays free of trash. 

CHUCK DUNBAR: Here’s a report from these “patriots” (on their website) regarding their recent protest at Dr. Coren’s house:

Mendocino Patriots
Restoring Liberty in Mendocino County, California
February 14, 2022

Report of the rally at Coren’s house

About 25 of us went to Coren’s house yesterday. We got there at 2:00, and left at 4:00. We peacefully stood on the curb across from his house. We were approached by 4 of his neighbors, expressing their concern about our actions. Both parties were cordial. We discussed it with them at the time, but wanted to address their concerns publicly to clarify why we are going to Coren’s house.

Dr. Coren works remotely, and is hit and miss at his office. There’s no way of knowing if he will be there or not.

All public meetings are closed to the public, despite citizens repeatedly asking the Board of Supervisors to open the meetings.

3-A. We chose a weekend because everyone attending works. Therefore, we have to do it on a weekend, or in the evening after work hours.

3-B. We have to live with his mandates/orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If he doesn’t like being bothered, he needs to rescind his orders….. and he’ll not hear from us again.

We do rallies at the courthouse every Friday, and have been for the last 6 months. We haven’t seen any change. They seem to go unnoticed by our officials.

We have asked Dr. Coren to have public form of open dialog that is not administrated by the county…. As many peoples’ questions and comments seem to get lost or not make it through. A forum that the people he serves can ask him questions and he can answer them with facts and studies, even providing links for further research. He has declined to answer our request.

Back to our time at his house, Things were pretty quite for awhile, as we stood there talking with each other. Many cars driving by waved at us, and one person gave us the bird. After awhile, one of his other neighbors got back to their house. They were really not happy with us for protesting in a residential neighborhood. Realizing they didn’t know who their neighbor was, we explained that the PHO lives there, and he’s the one making the orders for our county. It didn’t seem to matter to them, and they insisted that we were on their property. After yelling at us, blaring their music, and driving their vehicle to the edge of their property, almost running us over, they ended up calling the police. A sheriff came out, and he talked with the couple a few minutes. He then came over to us, and explained that he’d been called because there was a dispute on who’s property we were standing on. We were not asked to move. The response time of the sheriffs department was impressively quick. The responding officer was respectful to both parties, and did his job well. The rest of our time there was quiet. In closing, we’d like to address two news articles.

Mendofever had Mendocino Patriots praising Dr. Coren for his “ trust , courage, and respect’’. They have since self corrected at the bottom of the page. We said no such thing😂.

2-A. The Ukiah Daily Journal reported Carmel Angelo saying “ Dr. Coren is a big believer in everyone’s right to their own belief and protest and did not request a response” —- (Referring to notifying the local law enforcement) Dr. Coren could not request a response from law enforcement because we were not breaking any laws.

2-B. How is it possible for Coren to “ he plans to spend the afternoon as he normally would on a Sunday afternoon, which is at home,” according to Carmel Angelo when according to Anne Molgaard, the new director of public health that was appointed last week says “ actually, Dr. Coren has been spending his Sunday afternoons working in the office with me”.

We just wanted to point out inconsistencies in their own story.

This county needs to stop the lies! They are not harmless lies. These lies are hurting people and ruining their lives. Mendocino county needs to quit pushing the narrative and stop the madness.

To once again clarify, There’s an open invitation to the P.H.O. or the B.O.S. to have an open dialogue and give the people of this county factual information and studies that justify their actions. We want to see the truth!

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 17, 2022

RANDALL ADDISON, Willits. DUI.

PRISCILLA AGUILAR, Ukiah. Arson, arson/burning in during state of emergency.

BRIAN ANDERSON, Ukiah. County parole violation.

RICHARD ASHLINE, Ukiah. Parole violation.

AARON BOWEN, Cotati/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CAMERON BRACKETT, Potter Valley. Disobeying court order, suspended license, probation revocation.

ELIZABETH DOCKINS, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

BRIDGETTE FRANK, Covelo. Second degree robbery.

GEORGE MALAMPHY, San Francisco/Piercy. DUI-drugs with prior, controlled substance, paraphernalia, concentrated cannabis.

ALEX MORA-WHITEHURST, Willits. Failure to appear.

MICHAEL PARKER, Ukiah. Controlled substance tear gas, county parole violation.

YVETTE ROCKEY, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

HARLAN WILLIAMS, Assault with firearm, carjacking, county parole violation.

DOCUMENTARY SERIES ‘HUNTED’ set to explore Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders

by Matt Pera

An upcoming documentary series is set to explore a decades-old investigation into the notorious Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders.

The murders spanned from 1972 to 1979, when the nude bodies of seven girls and young women were found buried or dumped on the outskirts of Santa Rosa.

The series, “Hunted,” will be an eight-part production, according to director Grace Kahng, an investigative journalist who has worked for ABC, CBS and NBC news stations. Kahng is the force behind another upcoming true crime documentary series, “The Stanford Murders,” which examines three deaths in 1973 on the campus of Stanford University.

“Hunted” is produced by Santoki Productions, which Kahng founded in 2003, and Dick Wolf, who created the “Law & Order” TV franchise. A release date for the series has not been set.

The documentary team has been exploring a link between the Hitchhiker Murders and a man who was recently identified by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office as a suspect in a murder that took place some two decades after the killings of the 1970s.

Could a break in a 25-year-old murder case help ID the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker killer?

Michelle Marie Veal's body was found on the side of a road south of Rohnert Park in 1996. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office announced on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, that it had identified a suspect in the 25-year-old murder case. 

DNA testing links suspect to 1996 Sonoma County murder case 

Unsolved, but not forgotten: Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders The Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday announced the break in its investigation into the murder of Michelle Marie Veal, whose body was found nude on the side of a road near Rohnert Park in the summer of 1996.

DNA found on Veal’s body was tested recently using relatively new technology and a laboratory determined that it matched the DNA of Jack Alexander Bokin of San Francisco, the Sheriff’s Office said in its announcement.

Bokin, who died in a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation medical facility in December, had a long history of violent sexual assaults and had been sentenced in 2000 to 231 years in prison for a case that involved kidnapping, rape and attempted murder in San Francisco.

The Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that investigators are looking into whether Bokin can be linked to the Santa Rosa killings.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I just got my Slo-Joe covid tests in the mail. Requested by my wife. Quality tested from the “ZHEJIANG ORIENT GENE BIOTECH CO.”. Right on the box it also says. “This product has not been FDA approved. but is authorized under an Emergency Use Authorization.” They were “free” of course. Joe probably paid the CCP 100 bucks for the box. I’m gonna stick one of these swabs up into my brain right now.

BOLINAS RESIDENTS STRUGGLE AS RENTALS AND SECOND HOMES INCREASE

Some Bolinas residents live luxuriously in large homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Others reside in unconventional dwellings, such as a sauna without a bathroom, a caravan parked in a yard or a yurt with the toilet and shower located nearby on the property.

Bolinas locals say getting creative is the only way many of them can afford to stay in their West Marin coastal community. Half of the town’s housing stock now serves as short-term rentals or second homes for out-of-towners, Evan Wilhelm, managing director of the Bolinas Community Land Trust, said. …

pacificsun.com/bolinas-residents-struggle/

EUREKA PRODUCTIONS LATEST ON-LINE VIDEO MAGAZINE TRAILER

HARRY WILLIAMSON: Electro-yuppies are going to save the planet — just passed by a Tesla with plate reading EZOOOOM.

REMEMBER THE TASTE?

Marco here. Yes. 1962. Blueberries used to come frozen in sugar in small rectangular cans with waxed cardboard sides and a metal top and bottom. My grandmother would ask me if I wanted some blueberries. Well, of course. She'd take one of these things out of the freezer, pull the top off with pliers and splorp it onto a plate, and I'd inhale the whole thing.

A kind of ice-cream that came in a little waxed toilet paper tube with a stick and a plastic washer inside. It was called a pushup. I got one at some kind of special party day in the schoolyard in first grade — orange sherbet mixed with vanilla ice cream. My mother explained that it was a trick they played to get your money: it was very expensive by weight that way. Look: she got a huge carton of it from the grocery store for only a little more than a single one of those pushups. That's still my favorite ice-cream, and it's always the cheapest kind.

The screen door at the back of the kitchen, that led to a covered airway between my grandparents' house and the guest house where my mother and I lived. The screen was dark gray metal. It smelled odd, so I put my tongue on it. They told me not to do that, because a fly might have stood there, they said, but I did it again and again when no-one was around because the taste was so weird. Metal, road dust, electricity, something... it might have been a lead coating.

White sugar sandwich on white bread, sometimes with butter, sometimes dry. Donuts always remind me of that, because that's what donuts are, but donuts aren't crunchy. The crunch was part of the taste.

Candy corn at Halloween. I always thought of them as wax teeth, not corn, because they're made of candle wax and they look like teeth. They're horrible; why do they even exist? In second grade there was a bowl of them on a table next to the classroom door. I didn't know what they were, but put /one/ only partly into my mouth, and instantly I had to run down the hallway to the bathroom to throw up in the trash can. I made it, too, not like the time I was getting sick with something when I was five and at a spoiled tomato in the salad; I only made it /halfway/ down the hall in my grandmothers house and threw up in the heater register in the floor. Spoiled tomato.

Pepperoni. When my grandfather was slicing the pepperoni in the restaurant, he'd say, “You want some pepperoni?” Well, of course. “C'mere and put your hands out.” I'd hold my hands out in a bowl shape, and he'd dump like half a pound of pepperoni nickels on, so I could wander around playing with them and eating them for the next half an hour. Also pepperoni pizza. There was always old crunchy pizza left over, lying around. Old tough perfect pepperoni pizza.

The taste of orange juice when you have some after you've just brushed your teeth with toothpaste. Awful, but intriguing.

Now you tell some.

Marco McClean

HOMEBUYERS IN U.S. LOSE HOPE AS COSTLIER LOANS SAP AFFORDABILITY

“Housing affordability is set to get crushed,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, who expects 30-year rates to climb above 4% this year. “Many potential first-time homebuyers will get locked out of homeownership, at least until house prices come back to earth or mortgage rates turn back down,” he said. And rental firms scooping up houses by the thousands will keep buying because they're not dependent on mortgages.

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-15/homebuyers-in-u-s-lose-hope-as-costlier-loans-sap-affordability

ON LINE QUOTES ABOUT UKRAINE

“NATO was conceived, from the outset, as a means of Anglo-American control over Europe and more precisely for keeping Germany “down”, and Russia “out” (in that old axiom of western strategists). Lord Hastings (Lionel Ismay), NATO's first Secretary General, famously said that NATO was created to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”.

…This mindset lingers on, but the formula has acquired today a greater import, and a new twist: To keep Germany “down and price uncompetitive” versus U.S. goods; to keep Russia “out” from being Europe's source of cheap energy; and to keep China “fenced out” from EU-U.S. trade. The aim is to contain Europe firmly within America's narrowly defined economic orbit and compelled to forgo the benefits of Chinese and Russian technology, finance and trade — thus helping towards achieving the aim of barricading China within its borders.” - Alistair Crooke

“Maybe I am wrong — tragically wrong — but I cannot dismiss the suspicion that we are witnessing an elaborate charade, grossly magnified by prominent elements of the American media, to serve a domestic political end. Facing rising inflation, the ravages of Omicron, blame (for the most part unfair) for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, plus the failure to get the full support of his own party for the Build Back Better legislation, the Biden administration is staggering under sagging approval ratings just as it gears up for this year's congressional elections. Since clear “victories” on the domestic woes seem increasingly unlikely, why not fabricate one by posing as if he prevented the invasion of Ukraine by “standing up to Vladimir Putin”?

…Actually, it seems most likely that President Putin's goals are what he says they are — and as he has been saying since his speech in Munich in 2007. To simplify and paraphrase, I would sum them up as: “Treat us with at least a modicum of respect. We do not threaten you or your allies, why do you refuse us the security you insist for yourself?” - Jack Matlock, last US ambassador to the USSR.

 “The fascist right is alive and kicking in Ukraine today. Ranging from militant nationalists to white-power-loving neo-Nazis, extremists have a significant presence. They wield a disturbing amount of political and cultural influence and, in particular, have infiltrated the military and security forces. Their breed of historical revisionism and present-day belligerence is well-connected internationally and extremely media savvy. …When the Azov Battalion, a powerful and well-known neo-Nazi militia, organized what seems to have been a media spectacle under the pretext of training civilians in basic military skills, many Western media made useful idiots for Neo-Nazism of themselves. Some showed footage from the training that clearly displays an instructor's arm patch with the “Wolfsangel” symbol, a Germanic rune used by the Nazi SS and adopted as well by Azov. Yet the Western media offered zero comment on that really stunning and offensive image.

THE GROWING WEALTH OF BILLIONAIRES

by Senator Bernie Sanders

Here is the simple truth. We are living through the most difficult period in our lifetimes. If you are feeling anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, confused, angry — you’re not alone. Millions of others feel exactly the same way.

This pandemic has had a devastating impact upon our country. Over 900,000 people have died from COVID, and tens of millions have been made ill. Many thousands of workers have lost their lives simply because they went about doing their jobs, while millions of other workers have chosen to find new employment paths. The education of young people, from child care to graduate school, has been severely disrupted. Elderly people have become increasingly isolated, fearful of catching the virus from grandchildren, friends or family. Mental illness is on the rise, as is drug addiction, alcoholism and domestic violence.

These are very difficult times.

But what I want to say this afternoon is that while working families are struggling these are not difficult times for everybody.

In fact, I want to start off with some really, really good news – if you are a billionaire or the CEO of a large corporation. For those people, not only is the news really good, but it has never been better.

Today, corporate profits are at an all-time high and CEOs have seen huge increases in their compensation packages. A few examples: At a time when gas prices are higher than they have been in 7 years, guess what? Shock of all shocks, oil company profits are now higher than they have been in over 7 years. In fact, in the last quarter, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell and BP made nearly $25 billion in profits in one quarter. But that’s not all.

If you’re worried about rising food prices, you should know that Kroger, one of the largest grocery store chains in America, made a record-breaking profit of some $4 billion in 2021, while its stock price jumped 36% in the past year, its CEO got a 296% pay raise over the past decade and they can afford to spend $1.5 billion on stock buybacks and dividends to enrich their wealthy shareholders.

And Kroger is not alone. Company after company in the food industry are also making huge profits.

The good news for the 1% is not just that corporate profits have never been better. It’s that CEO compensation has never been higher. There was a time way back in the 1950s when CEOs only made 20 times more than the average worker. Well, the good news is those days are gone forever. As I’m sure my CEO friends know, if you are the head of a major corporation today you’re making 350 times what the average worker makes.

And, by the way, at a time when we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, the really good news is that the CEOs of the top 8 pharmaceutical companies made over $350 million in compensation in 2020. That’s eight people – $350 million.

And here’s some really, really good news for the billionaire class. Today, you own more income and wealth percentage wise than at any time in American history. Congratulations. As a result of a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the top one percent over the past 50 years, the top one percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 92%. And listen to this. The two wealthiest people in America now own more wealth than the bottom 42%.

In terms of income, since the Wall Street crash of 2008, the top 1% has earned 45% of all new income created in our country. Let me repeat. The top 1% has earned 45% of all new income created in this country since 2008.

Every day Members of the Senate come to the floor to give congratulatory remarks to the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, 4-H clubs, sports teams and other organizations and individuals who have achieved remarkable success.

Maybe the time is approaching when we should offer a unanimous resolution congratulating the billionaire class for their enormous success in moving this country into the oligarchic form of society for which they have long desired.

And, by the way, here’s another area of congratulations to the billionaire class. When we speak about oligarchy we should all understand that never before in American history have so few owned so much. This issue, of the incredible concentration of ownership in our country is almost never talked about in Congress or in the corporate media.

Today, in America, just three Wall Street firms – BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street – manage over $21 trillion in assets. What does that mean?

Well, for starters it means that the amount of money these three firms control is more than the GDP of the United States and more than five times the GDP of Germany.

These three firms—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street—are major shareholders in more than 96 percent of S&P 500 companies. In other words, they have significant influence over many hundreds of companies that employ millions of American workers.

After the Wall Street crash of 2008 there was a lot of discussion about the wealth and power of the major banks and that they were too big to fail.

Well, these three firms are the largest shareholders of some of the biggest banks in America – JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citibank.

Let’s talk about transportation. They are among the top owners of all four major airlines.

And what about healthcare? Together, they own an average of 20 percent of the major drug companies.

They are also owning many hundreds of nursing homes, hospitals and emergency rooms.

In terms of housing, a handful of Wall Street firms are the major owners of rental housing in America.

And if you haven’t heard much about this you should know that a small number of Wall Street firms control half of the newspapers in America.

And listen to this, which really says it all. During this terrible pandemic, when thousands of essential workers died, gave up their lives doing their jobs, 745 billionaires in America became more than $2 trillion richer. This is the clearest example possible of the corporate greed that we are experiencing. Desperate workers are forced to go to work in unhealthy and unsafe environments, and thousands of them die because they had to go to their jobs in order to feed their families.

And when we talk about oligarchy, it is not just that the very rich are getting much richer. It is that tens of millions of working-class people, in the wealthiest country on earth, are suffering under incredible economic hardship, desperately trying to survive.

Today, nearly 40 million Americans live in poverty and tonight, almost 600,000 people will be sleeping out on the streets or in homeless shelters.

In America today, the average worker is making $42 a week less than he or she made 49 years ago. Just think about that for a moment. Think about the huge explosion of productivity and technology in America that has taken place in this country. And yet, real weekly wages in America are less today than they were in 1973.

About half of the country lives paycheck to paycheck as tens of millions of our people are an accident, a divorce, a sickness or a layoff away from economic devastation. In America today, we remain the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all. The result: We have a system in which over 80 million people are uninsured or under-insured and tens of thousands die because they can’t afford to get to a doctor on time.

While many public schools throughout the country lack the resources to adequately educate our young people, we are the most heavily incarcerated nation on earth.

Meanwhile, 45 million Americans who did go to college are drowning in $1.8 trillion in student debt.

After decades of policies that have encouraged and subsidized unbridled corporate greed, we now have an economy that is fundamentally broken and grotesquely unfair.

And here is something quite incredible that tells you all you need to know about the results of unfettered capitalism. All of us want to live long, happy, and productive lives but in America today the very rich live on average 15 years longer than the poorest Americans.

In other words, the issue of unfettered capitalism is not just an academic debate, poverty, economic distress and despair are life-threatening issues for millions of working people in the country.

While the rich get richer they live longer lives. While poor and working families struggle economically and often lack adequate health care, their life expectancy is declining for the first time in modern American history.

Taken together, the American Dream of upward mobility is in peril. In fact, if we don’t turn things around, our younger generation will, for the first time in living memory, have a lower standard of living than their parents. This is absolutely unacceptable.

As all of these major crises are taking place, I am growing increasingly concerned about the lack of urgency in the Senate.

Yes, we should be very proud that last year we passed the enormously successful American Rescue Plan and the bi-partisan infrastructure bill.

But the reality is very little has been achieved in the past several months and the American people know that. And they are becoming demoralized.

In my view, now is the time for a major course correction. Now is the time for the Senate to put legislation on the floor that addresses the needs of working families. Now is the time to rally the American people behind an agenda that works for all Americans, not just the 1%.

Are you ready for a radical idea? Let’s vote. Let’s have every Republican and Democrat take a position on some of the most important issues facing the working families of this country.

Let’s vote on whether, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, the wealthiest people in our society should start paying their fair share of taxes so that we can improve life for the average American.

Let’s vote on legislation that is supported by the overwhelming majority of the American people.

When 83% of the American people support empowering the federal government to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry to lower prescription drug prices, it’s time for the Senate to vote.

When 84% of the American people support expanding Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing care, it’s time for the Senate to vote.

When 76% of the American people support expanding home health care services for seniors and people with disabilities and increasing support for low-wage home health care workers, it’s time to vote.

When 73% of the American people support guaranteeing paid family and medical leave to workers, it’s time for the Senate to vote.

When 59% of Americans support increased funding for child care and universal pre-K, it’s time to vote.

When 64% of the American people support creating good-paying American jobs by making massive investments in clean energy and preparing for extreme weather events, it’s time for the Senate to vote.

How are we going to pay for these popular initiatives and not increase the deficit? The answer is not complicated.

71% of the American people support raising income taxes on the top 2 percent while 65 percent of our people want to increase taxes on large corporations.

ANOTHER ALL-TIME MEDIA FACEPLANT

by Matt Taibbi

After the Biden administration and the press wrongly predicted a Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 16th, they kept compounding the error in spectacular fashion

If cluelessness can be art, American journalists unveiled their Sistine Chapel this week, in a remarkable collection of misreports and hack stenography surrounding a predicted invasion of Ukraine.

The mess began last Friday, February 11th, when National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan gave an address warning American citizens to evacuate Ukraine. “If a Russian attack on Ukraine proceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality,” he said. “I will not comment on the details of our intelligence information,” he added, before doing just that: “I do want to be clear: It could begin during the Olympics,” i.e. before the Beijing games end on February 20th.

Around the time of Sullivan’s comments, American reporters began telling audiences a curiously detailed story about upcoming Russian invasion plans. PBS NewsHour’s Nick Schifrin cited “three Western and defense sources” in saying Vladimir Putin had already made up his mind to invade. He then cited six sources — “US and Western officials” — who told him the U.S. expected an invasion of Ukraine the following week. These voices left little to the imagination, saying the invasion would be a “horrific, bloody campaign,” with two days of aerial bombardment, followed by electronic warfare and possible regime change.

That afternoon of the 11th, Politico cited “a person familiar” (not even “a person familiar with the matter,” just “a person familiar”) in reporting that Joe Biden held an hourlong call with Western leaders pegging February 16th as a possible invasion date:

NatSec Daily was told by a person familiar that President JOE BIDEN told Western leaders about the Feb. 16 date on an hourlong call today.

Russia will start a physical assault on Ukraine as soon as Feb. 16, multiple U.S. officials confirmed to POLITICO,and Washington communicated to allies that it could be preceded by a barrage of missile strikes and cyberattacks. One person said the leaders’ call indicated that cyberattacks are “imminent” and another said the intelligence is “specific and alarming.”

This produced the following header: “Putin Could Attack Ukraine on Feb. 16.”

“Could” headlines are always interesting. Last year’s inspired effort from the Washington Post, “Contacting aliens could end all life on earth. Let’s stop trying,” showed the difference between the full-pucker paranoia of pandemic America and the goofy optimism of the Close Encounters days. Technically anything “could” happen, so these stories aren’t wrong. The issue is what message they send. In this case, the two obvious PR imperatives were 1) Putin is a menace, and 2) we’re still one step ahead of him.

It does seem Biden held a call with world leaders, as the same story about a detailed invasion prediction began appearing all over. Der Spiegel on February 11th wrote about info the U.S. had given European diplomats and military officials. “Routes for the Russian invasion were specifically described, as well as individual Russian units and what tasks they were to take on,” the Germans reported, adding, “February 16th was given as the possible date for the start of the invasion.”

The Daily Mail took things further. Their story, which referenced how “the plans were passed on to Biden's government and discussed in a series of secret briefings with NATO allies” — apparently they weren’t that secret! — turned into another memorable headline that seemed to imply there was something about invading on a Wednesday (as opposed to a Tuesday, Saturday, etc.) that was important to Putin: 

It should be clear to any reporter that a national security source who whispers not only the alleged date of a coming invasion, but the number of days of aerial bombardment and the war’s expected level of horror and bloodiness, is either yanking your chain with a fairy tale, or using you, or both. Reporters on this beat nonetheless repeated this tale over and over, as if it were patriotic duty.

When one of Zelensky’s aides, Mykhailo Podoliak, was forced to make the should-have-been-unnecessary statement that Zelensky through his Facebook post was in fact taking a colossal dump on Western politicians and their media servants, journos huddled, kill-circle style, and came up with a new wrong story to explain his behavior. It was now claimed Zelensky had “walked back” his February 14th words.

“IMPORTANT UPDATE from @JoshNBCNews: Walkback from Kyiv,” tweeted NBC’s Tom Winter. Newsweek deadpanned, “Ukraine’s Zelensky Says Russian Attack is February 16, Adviser Backtracks.” Other outlets, like Forbes magazine, rushed up headlines saying things like, “Ukraine’s President Predicts Russia Will Attack This Week As Tensions Mount—But Aides Say He Was Joking.”

New York magazine wrote a piece called, “Ukrainian Leader Makes Confusing Joke About Russian Invasion” that’s almost breathtaking in its obliviousness. It began by offering a note of forgiveness to Zelensky for his poorly executed joke:

In a relatable moment for anyone who has struggled with tone, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, a former professional comedian, had to clarify that he was kidding when he claimed a Russian invasion was coming on February 16.

New York missed that Zelensky “had to clarify” that he was kidding only because he had severely underestimated the shocking levels of vainglorious stupidity and humorlessness among American politicians, reporters, and investors (who sent stock markets tumbling in the belief an invasion had been confirmed by Zelensky). New York did concede that after much study of Zelensky’s post, they were able to detect that “his joking remarks seemed to be making light of all the doomsaying.” Then, they concluded with a passage that almost defies description:

U.S. officials have identified Wednesday the 16th as a possible day Putin could strike, making Zelensky’s faux warning about that date even less clear.

Maybe he should stick to the classics, like “Take Crimea, please.”

Translation: despite the entire point of Zelensky’s broadside being his intense frustration with America’s February 16th invasion prediction, New York seemed to believe he’d accidentally picked the same date that “U.S. officials have identified” as “a possible day Putin could strike.” Didn’t he know how hard that would make it for people to see the joke?

The last line, about how Zelensky should stick to classics like “Take Crimea, please,” reads like Neera Tanden doing Noël Coward, which is to say it’s as close to the mathematical absolute of unfunny as you’ll see in print.

Meanwhile, instead of just writing that “Ukrainian President Zelensky Didn’t Say There Would be War on February 16th,” Vox did an explainer on “Why Ukrainian President Zelensky said on February 16 there would be war.” This piece included such revelations as, “Zelensky, a former comedian, was likely being sarcastic.”

Zelensky’s comments weren’t mysterious, and there had been no “backtrack” or “walk back.” Virtually alone among the major reporters, ABC’s Terry Moran got it right:

Terry Moran 🇺🇸 

@TerryMoran

Stop misreporting what Zelensky said.

He did not say a Russian invasion was coming on February 16.

He said media reports claim the 16th is the date.

So Zelensky, who is skeptical of US claims, told his people: Take that date back.

It will be our Day of National Solidarity. 

Even the more subtle responses to Zelensky were moronic. The New York Times ran with “Ukraine’s President Tries to Avert Panic as Pressure Mounts,” suggesting Zelensky’s skeptical take on the invasion prediction was the ill-considered but logical act of a man without options. “Supporters say he has little choice but to project calm whatever the circumstances, lest Ukrainians make runs on banks or grocery stores,” the paper wrote, downshifting into a typical Times-ian profile:

Mr. Zelensky’s optimism, while clearly intended to head off panic, has deeper roots.

Even as a teenager, growing up in a Russian-speaking Jewish family in an industrial city in central Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky took part in stand-up comedy competitions. He eventually founded his own studio, Kvartal 95, whose shows and movies became hits throughout the former Soviet Union…

If Zelensky had been trying to project “optimism,” and not openly expressing rage and impatience toward his would-be American partners, this schlock analysis might have made sense. But the Ukrainian was furious over the Americans’ moronic bull-in-a-china shop tactics, particularly the transparent February 16th prediction gambit that would inspire God knows what reaction from the Russians, and was essentially just middle-fingering all of us. In classic Times fashion, they decided this bluntest of insults was really a complex psychoanalytic mystery requiring a hunt for clues in Zelensky’s childhood.

Recapping: the U.S. made sure every blue check on earth heard about a “top secret” briefing last week, during which Western leaders were supposedly told of a mother lode of intel about a coming Russian invasion obtained by the Pentagon and the CIA. Not asking why, if the U.S knew the invasion date, they would want to broadcast it to the world, reporters all over repeated this anonymously sourced shaggy dog story without a grain of skepticism.

Not only is this the kind of self-serving tale intelligence sources love — “We have our fingers everywhere, nothing gets by us, we are wonderful at our jobs” — but such a specific prediction is effective at amping up panic levels. Zelensky himself said “panic is the best friend of the enemies of Ukraine” in his February 12th remarks. His statements were so unmistakable in their caustic tone toward the West, they were picked up by Pravdaand other Russian outlets, setting the whole episode up as a diplomatic win for Russia.

It would be nice if even one mainstream reporter pushed back on the prediction story. It had been a breath of fresh air when NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe pushed back on American claims that ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi blew himself and his wife and kids up, as opposed to the United States being responsible for those casualties. Rascoe asked Jen Psaki:

Jen, will there be any, like, evidence or, like, release to support the idea — I mean, I know the U.S. has put out its statement that, you know, they detonated the bomb themselves. But will the U.S. provide any evidence? Because there may be people that are skeptical…

Psaki, sounding as outraged on the nation’s behalf as Otter was in his famed speech before Dean Wormer (RIP Ivan Reitman, by the way), immediately accused Rascoe of taking the word of ISIS over the United States of America. “Skeptical of the U.S. military’s assessment?” she snapped. “That they are not providing accurate information, and ISIS is providing accurate information?” To which Rascoe replied, “I mean, the U.S. has not always been straightforward about what happens with civilians.”

That’s exactly how unsourced official claims should be treated. From Bountygate to the existence of torture programs to WMDs and a thousand other things, officials routinely feed the press unverifiable stories for all sorts of reasons, almost always without press resistance. In this case, the notion that the United States had “exceptionally detailed” insight into an invasion they somehow already knew would be a “horrific, bloody campaign” went into print with zero consideration of a possible ulterior motive — like amping up fear levels to pressure fence-sitting European allies into a sterner Ukraine stance, for instance.

When the day passed without any of the outlets involved admitting that the February 16th prediction turned out to be a bogus provocation, it finished off an entire news cycle done in slapstick. The fact that Moscow did the obvious and announced withdrawals of forces from Crimea on the supposed date of the invasion — an utterly predictable move that’s probably still getting drunken laughs in the Kremlin — only added to the picture of incompetence. Three Stooges fans are familiar with episodes where no one knew how to end the story, so writers just had the Stooges start a pie fight before fading to black. This “invasion day that wasn’t,” ending abruptly after a blizzard of excuses and non-corrections, is about to become the news version of one of those pie fights.

Putin may very well still invade Ukraine, and it could still turn out to be a “horrible, bloody campaign.” This episode still exposed most American outlets as having forgotten even how to pretend to cover foreign news independently. Report after report reads like official press releases, to degrees not seen since the Iraq days. CNN even sank so low as to do a story about how slightly higher temperatures might be delaying an otherwise accurate invasion prediction, quoting a Rand analyst, Mark Milley, and Biden, who said of Putin: “He’s going to have to wait a little bit until the ground’s frozen.” Blaming the weather! If this weren’t such a serious business, it would be funny. Is it possible to misread things any worse?

BACK TO THE VOLL!

Everything Changes.

Warmest spiritual greetings, I wish my associations to know that the property title holder in Redwood Valley, CA (who is presently on a beach in Belize) contacted me this morning to say that I am NOT welcome at my former residence, that all of the rooms are full, and he apologizes for the confusion. Therefore, a friend of mine is picking me up and taking me to the Voll Motel located in Ukiah, CA on State Street, where I will use the last of my money to be indoors.

If you wish to keep me going insofar as my commitment to peace & justice and radical environmental activism, I ask you to put some money in my Pay Pal account as soon as possible.

Continuing to identify with that which is prior to consciousness, chanting Hare Krishna at the moment, and still trying to figure out just what the hell is the matter with postmodern civilization,

Craig Louis Stehr

Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

PayPal.me/craiglouisstehr