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Mendocino County Today: Friday, Oct. 14, 2022

Fog & Sun | Rain Outlook | Boulder Help | Graduates | Ukiah Wireless | Village Survey | Resilient Lands | AVUSD News | For Sher | Motherbear Jazz | Hazmat Boonville | Red Thing | Yeah Sher | Spice Boys | See NorCal | Halloween Show | Ed Notes | Emergency Nurses | New Specs | Yesterday's Catch | Water Aware | Grape Encroachment | Napa Flameout | People's Park | Fake Webbery | Leaving Florida | Last Day | Jan 6 Report | Poe Couple | Rundown SF | At Ease | Shema Prayer | Blade Runner | War Prayer | First Prez | Ukraine | Fine Comparison | Pipeline Terrorist | Acorns | Depraved Madness | Losing Faith | What Plan | Living/Dying

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DRY AND WARM afternoon conditions are expected through the weekend across interior portions of Northwest California. Meanwhile, periods of low clouds and dense fog will continue to plague coastal areas. (NWS)

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ELIZABETH JENSEN: Anyone got a mini-excavator that they’d like to show off to the community and place 40 boulders along our AV Community Park parking lot? I can only imagine the fun it will be for the kids to watch this project in action. 

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PLEASE JOIN MCOE in congratulating the recent Medical Assistant, Dental Assistant and Phlebotomy graduates from our Institute of Career Education programs! It was joyful to celebrate your achievements together at graduation. Thanks to families and friends that honored the graduates at their ceremony and to our gracious hosts at Mendocino College. https://bit.ly/2022InstituteCareerEducation

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ERNIE PARDINI: I don't know if there are any of you out there who live in Boonville or Philo are looking for a wifi provider, but if you are I would be doing you a misservice if I didn't share with you the name of my provider, Ukiah Wireless. They were recommended to me when I was living in Boonville and I couldn't have been happier. For $55 a month, in over a year my wifi never had even a hiccup. After moving to a place in Philo that no one had any luck getting a signal, The young men at Ukiah wireless went to great lengths to find a way. They even went to one of my neighbors to see if they could bouce a signal off their dish to hit our place. When that was not successful, many would have given up. But the young man at Ukiah Wireless had one more idea. They had a special powerful antenna at a remote location that wasn't in use, but he had to hike in to this spot to retrieve. It now stands proudly in my back yard providing us flawless wifi for the same low cost of $55 a month.

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VILLAGE SURVEY

Hello AV Village Members, Volunteers and beyond,

We would love to hear from you again! Please fill out this Short Survey on participation in Village Activities by Tuesday Oct 18th!

In order to provide services that Village members need or activities that would be enjoyable and help to improve the quality of life for seniors (and our community) in Anderson Valley we'd like to request your response to the following survey. Those who respond (and enter their contact info) will be entered in a raffle for a bottle of Rhoeder sparkling wine.

Survey: gmail.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cea1e601922fa82e47579cc80&id=74efcb581f&e=358077c1c9

Thank you!!

Anica Williams
Anderson Valley Village Coordinator

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AVUSD NEWS

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

I hope you had a great week and your students are enjoying the excitement of Homecoming week at the Junior/Senior High School.

Football/Homecoming: The Football game is tomorrow at the Fair Grounds at 5:00 p.m. We hope you come out and support the team and the King and Queen Festivities. The dance is that evening from 8-11. We could still use some adult chaperones. The Junior High Dance has been postponed to Friday, November 18 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Chaperones are needed!

Elementary Septic and Bond Scope of Work: The staff and students at the elementary site have been troupers working around the temporary fencing for the septic repair. We hope to modify the fence area and minimize the impact on the playground so the kids have more room to run around! The septic system is incredibly expensive to replace (in the area of $1.7 million dollars) due to the extensive school construction requirements. The Board is developing a round one scope of work at both sites, and we hope to get the state to replace some of the funding so we can do additional projects.

Non-Student Day November 1: Please note on your calendar that the day after Halloween, November 1, is a non-student day. Staff will be working on various items including standards based lesson intervention strategies, the curriculum adoptions, and the WASC Accreditation reports.

Independent Study: As we approach the holidays, I want to refresh everyone relating to the holiday break dates. Independent study, ON EITHER SIDE of these breaks will not be honored. Students need to be in school and learning. We love our family time, but our job is to be in school. When kids miss school, even when doing a packet away from school, they don’t keep up. Their achievement, and the achievement of the school as a whole, suffers.

We have also reminded our staff that no leaves will be granted on either side of the break.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY DATES ARE:

  • November Break: November 19-November 27 (return On Monday, November 28)
  • Winter Break: December 17-January 8 (return On Monday, January 9)

Picture Day at Junior Senior High and Elementary Retake Day is October 24

Junior/Senior High pictures are scheduled for October 24.

At the elementary all 5th graders and any students who were absent on picture day in September will have their picture taken. Any students who would like a retake must bring their original portrait packet to the camera and return it to the photographer.

Basketball Meeting and Honor Roll Evening at the High School October 25

  • Basketball Meeting for all Parents/Athletes: October 25 at 5:00 p.m.
  • Honor Roll Ceremony: October 25 at 5:30 p.m.

10TH-12TH GRADERS TURN IN THE SCANDIA PERMISSION SLIPS! THE TRIP IS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21!

Fall Festival at the Health Center: Thursday Oct 20th the Health Center is hosting a Fall Festival. From 3-6pm there will be games, face painting, food and a Flu Vaccine clinic!

Have a wonderful week!

Louise Simson
Superintendent

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SHER FOR UKIAH CITY COUNCIL

Editor,

I’m writing this letter of support for Susan Sher because I believe she is the best candidate for the upcoming election for the City of Ukiah Council. Susan and I both have lived in the Wagonseller neighborhood for over 25 years. We both care deeply about our small community but Susan goes above and beyond caring. She can often be seen out walking in our neighborhood stopping and talking to people and making sure our giving library area is clean and tidy. This was before she made the decision to run for the council.

In the last 2 years I have had the opportunity to join Susan with some neighborhood issues. These included the homeless camping problem on Hamilton Street as well as a pop up illegal business on Joseph Street. A handful of neighbors were joined by the chief of police and we met in Susans’s backyard. Through this meeting both issues were totally resolved. Susan facilitated this meeting with a real knack for the import questions. As well as having the ability to let everyone voice their concerns and ask questions. She was precise and to the point as well as calm and concern. This showed me the real Professional side of Susan.

I truly believe Susan is the person best suited for our City Council. I have no doubt she will be a real asset.

With warm regards,

Porter DuMar Dinehart

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MOTHERBEAR JAZZ

On Thursday, October 20, at 7 pm The Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz Reading Series will feature Albion poet Marilyn Motherbear Scott. The reading will take place at the Arena Market cafe (as well as virtually via Zoom) and will begin with live improv jazz, followed by a featured reading with Marilyn Motherbear Scott, then an open mic with jazz improv, and finally the reading will conclude with more live improv jazz.

Marylyn Motherbear Scott, who writes memoir, poems, poetic narration, and theatre review. A founding member & editor for the online journal Coreopsis, she is published by Cauldron Press; Bantam Press, Skinner Press, Coreopsis, Green Egg, and WMC Anthologies and regularly features in readings around Northern California. 

She is also published in Edward Searl's anthology, Beyond Absence (2006), in Hill/Baker/Starhawk's Circle Round (1998), Annette White Parks' anthology of women writers, Word Weavers, The Dragonslayer's Daughter and a book of poetry, Love's Journey. She is currently focusing on gathering and writing her memoirs, Ohm. Sweet Mystery as well as on a non-fiction book, In Your Own Rite. She began writing reviews for the Brookline Times in the late 50’s. Today, her reviews and other writing can be seen in the local Press.

Motherbear also has a long history of non-violent protest and demonstration for Peace and she was on the creative edge of the Psychedelic Revolution in the early 60’s, the Harvard days of Alpert and Leary, journeyed to the Bay Area in 1967, the Summer of Love, with husband and first two (of six) children. Connecting with the Stanford Writing Group, later known as Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, she taught theatre, creative writing and dance at Peninsula School in Menlo Park. 

She the four youngest of her six kids went on the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in 1986, from California to Washington, DC. During this time, she wrote and produced an original dance/theater piece, seventeen verses of Haiku. Titled Sadako's Dance of the Thousand Crane it was performed in town squares and church basements, at Notre Dame, Kent State; and later, in Europe, Russia, and Czechoslovakia. Her continued activism for peace and the environment brought both her theatrical and poetical presence to rallies, demonstrations and venues along the peace path. More information about Marylyn “Motherbear” Scott, can be found via her website: MagickalCauldorn.org

Third Thursday Poetry & Jazz is supported by The Third Thursday Poetry Group, many anonymous donors, and Poets & Writers, Inc.

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HAZMAT!

I think they will be in Boonville on Saturday, Oct 22 at 9a.m. to 1 p.m., at the fairgrounds parking lot.

— Sue Davies

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LARRY WAGNER AT THE BOTANICAL GARDENS: Another nice walk in the Gardens. Never noticed the red thing on the tree. How many of you know what it is?

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ANOTHER VOTE FOR SHER

Letter of Recommendation for Susan Sher, Ukiah City Council

Editor,

I am voting for Susan Sher to serve as the newest member of the Ukiah City Council in the coming November election.

I feel that if elected Susan will bring invaluable historical perspective to the needs of our city. Susan has been very involved in many local issues, but probably the most important one in these uncertain times we're living in now, Climate Change, Susan has the most experience of the candidates that can be of help to the city in dealing with the Climate Emergency threat. She has served on both County and City climate action committees, and will seek bold new solutions.

Susan believes that these times also call for us to deal with homelessness, fire threats, economic development that keeps the economy local, and many others. To deal constructively with them I feel that we need a dynamic, vigilant and inquisitive City Council. Susan has the energy, skills and experience to bring this new voice to the council.

I feel that Susan will also bring new energy into solving the various issues that Ukiah's many neighborhoods face and will work to ensure residents receive the services that they need. She has been vigorously advocating for her own neighborhood, the Wagenseller Neighborhood, for many years.

Lastly, I'm voting for Susan because she really does believe that it “takes a village” to make the needed changes for the creation of a better Ukiah.

Larry Sheehy

Ukiah

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AV FOOTBALL THEN & NOW by Coach John Toohey

How it started: 

How it’s going 23 homecomings later:

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CRESCENT CITY TO MENDOCINO

The laidback hippie vibes that once defined Northern California in the years before the tech boom are alive and well – you just have to know where to look. Between the Oregon border and charming Mendocino is a rural landscape the size of Maine full of dappled redwood groves, still lagoons and empty, windswept beaches. Here is the place where those old school hippies and homesteaders went “back to the land” and put down roots. The result: a natural refuge lush with those spectacular redwoods and infused with homegrown cannabis culture. It’s an area that often gets lumped in with the Bay Area under the “NorCal” designation but, culturally, it's a world away. From Oregon, Highway 1 crosses in California as Route 101 and meanders through scruffy coastal towns, many of which have transitioned their economies from logging to that still-potent local pot. 

An enormous patchwork of redwood parks and preserves bring visitors from all over the world for plentiful hikes and scenic drives. For a shot of pure redwood awe, visit the primeval forests of Howland Hill Road in Jedediah Smith State Park outside Crescent City, which seems to deliver visitors directly into the Cretaceous. Make sure to meander through Stout Grove, walk the Boy Scout Tree Trail or hike on the new boardwalk to the tremendous Grove of the Titans. These are the behemoth trees you’ve seen in photos and postcards dwarfing visitors. Stop by the new visitor center at Stone Lagoon or the older Yurok Country Visitor Center in Klamath for a deep dive on the region's ecology and history. Both centers are run by the Yurok Tribe, who maintained these redwood stands for millennia. Or take a trip in a traditional canoe and learn why these watercraft have noses, hearts and kidneys, and how the tribe convinced California to remove seven dams on its sacred river, starting this year. The retro redwood experience continues at Confusion Hill and the Trees of Mystery, two height-of-kitsch roadside attractions. You can also choose from one of three different hollowed-out “drive-through” redwood trees in Klamath, Leggett or Myer’s Flat, all of which offer a taste of a bygone era of early tourist traps. Or head back even further in time with a stroll through the fairytale Victorian architecture of Main Street Ferndale or Old Town Eureka. Though the highway occasionally veers inland, the drive south from Oregon is peppered with gorgeous coastal views worth stopping to drink in. Watch the sunset at Sue-Meg State Park in Trinidad or while sifting through the gemlike sand of world-famous Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. Take a side trip down to the remarkable black sand beaches of Shelter Cove and the Lost Coast. Explore Mendocino, set on a peninsula edged by dramatic cliffs, whose earthy-crunchy cafes, wine bars and art galleries makes it both a fun afternoon stop and a weekend destination. Spend a morning wandering the compact downtown, or head straight to the main event: the natural beauty that surrounds the town, from the cliffs of Mendocino Headlands and Russian Gulch State Parks to the blooms and shoots at Mendocino Botanical Garden or the beach at Big River. Somewhere along the way, you’ll notice that the towering sea stacks of Oregon are behind you, replaced by the sandy-surfer beaches that will keep you company the length of the central and southern coast — and setting the stage for the rest of your Californian adventure. 

— Alissa Greenberg (SF Chronicle)

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ED NOTES

HMMM. “From Sonoma County to Marin, Highway 1 resembles something of a quintessential Robert Redford film character: a stoic, formidable presence with an untamed heart.” 

SOME YEARS AGO, a livid resident of Fort Bragg during a tumultuous time in the town's always vivid history, forcefully suggested, “Why don't you stay in Boonville? We have enough problems without you constantly butting in.”

(NORM VROMAN, then DA, advised me, “Bruce, don't go to Fort Bragg without a gun,” a rather startling piece of advice coming from the County's top lawman, but to Norm, guns were an all-purpose problem solver, and in those days the Boonville weekly was indeed unpopular with the more volatile sectors of the Fort Bragg population. I took his advice, and for several months always had a gat in my car until it occurred to me that the odds of me getting plugged in broad daylight were heavily against. We've always sold a lot of papers in Fort Bragg, having become the town's in lieu of media.)

FB has always been my fave place in Mendocino County because it offers more unspoiled seashore beauty than any coastal town from San Diego to Astoria, and it has remained mostly untouched by the worst kinds of development. I tried to persuade my wife to move to Fort Bragg, but she successfully argued it was too far from the Bay Area where the main stem Anderson family makes its headquarters. You dodged a bullet, Fort Bragg, and I probably did, too.

FORT BRAGG'S looming election is confusing, so confusing I'm simply going to list the people I'd vote for if I were a resident: Lindy Peters; Tess Albin-Smith; Scott Taubold; Mary Rose Kazorowski (Mary Rose and I were once co-defendants in a libel suit; her name appears here for nostalgic reasons). Jessica Morsell-Haye — It's a deep fly ball to centerfield! “I got it, Morsell. No, you take it, Haye.” Ms. Morsell-Haye seems like a conscientious person although, he said, suddenly swerving into total irrelevance, the Morsell half of that outfield has annoyed me in the past with his totally unfounded, fact-free opinions on the Bari Bombing scam. Which is no reason to oppose his better half, but I thought I'd throw it out there. I'd love to debate the guy but I'm the last person who seems to care, and Morsell's eternally promised book on the subject is on permanent hold. Onward! 

UKIAH'S A MESS. Incumbent council people do not deserve re-election except for Juan Orozco, a Boonville old boy who's fallen into bad company over the hill. We think Susan Sher and Thao Phi will bring some badly needed clarity to the reeling Mendo county seat, reeling from serial police scandals, reeling from having become an open air drug market cum homeless center, reeling from basic street maintenance, reeling from the absence of not only civic leadership but reeling from an odd obliviousness to the town's deteriorated condition by the present leadership. Susan Sher and Thao Phi for Ukiah City Council.

WILLITS will continue to run serenely along with Larry Stranske and Greta Kanne on the city council, not only because of their many committed years to the Gateway to the Redwoods, but because Willits, contrasted to Ukiah, is a well-run little town except, it seems, for its police department, where a long-time officer was recently fired and a triple-dipping chief, retired out of LA, is assumed to be a large part of the officer retention problem as he was a problem with officer retention in Fort Bragg prior to his over-compensated stay in Willits.

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EMERGENCY NURSES are faced with the unexpected on a daily basis. They operate in a high-stress, fast-paced environment and work hard to ease our pain or discomfort. Their knowledge, dedication and compassion make all the difference when every second counts. Today also happens to be Emergency Nurses Day! Thank you to our emergency nurses for your commitment to caring for our patients through some of their most challenging times. You all are the very best!! Help us say thank you and wish our team a Happy Emergency Nurses Day and Week!

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NEW SPECS

Warmest spiritual greetings, 

Just finished reading the AVA online at the Ukiah Public Library on a public computer. This caps an otherwise simple day, of awaking early at the Building Bridges homeless shelter, and following morning ablutions, bottom lining the trash & recycling chore, which coincided with the staff sweeping and mopping the dorm area. Walked all the way down to the optometrist Dr. Spencer’s office at Ford & S. State Street to check on the eye glasses. Indeed! He had called the shelter two weeks ago to let me know that they had arrived, but I did not get the message; dang shelter phone system. Showing off the new eye glasses, dropped into Black Oak Coffee for a rousing cup of their cold brew. And that’s it for Thursday October 13th, 2022 Anno Domini @ 3:49PM PDT.

Nota Bene: I am identified with that which is prior to consciousness. I am not identified with the body nor the mind. Ahoy Mendocino County Jivan Muktas: Please take note of the fact that Craig Louis Stehr is available for just about anything on the planet earth right now. Contact me at: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com or try the Building Bridges phone system at (707) 234-3270. Share money at: PayPal.me/craiglouisstehr or send me a letter at P.O. Box 938, Redwood Valley, CA 95470 [I check the post office box about once per month] Like blogs? Earth First! icon in Maine Ron Huber made this for me: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com It’s vast…goes way back…check it out. ;-))

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CATCH OF THE DAY, October 13, 2022

Echols, Garibay, Gilchrist, Hoaglen

JOHNATHAN ECHOLS, Sacramento/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JUAN GARIBAY-VAZQUEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

KEITH GILCHRIST, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

YOLANDA HOAGLEN, Covelo. DUI, evasion, conspiracy.

Ickes, Olide, Prairie, Tovar

COLE ICKES, Fort Bragg. Trespassing, tear gas, probation revocation.

MIRANDA OLIDE, Potter Valley. DUI, cruelty to child-injury infliction, child endangerment.

CHRYSTAL PRAIRIE, Santa Rosa/Willits. DUI.

JUAN TOVAR-SEVILLA, Ukiah. Concealed dirk-dagger.

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ISN'T THERE A WATER SHORTAGE?

Editor: 

I am extremely worried about water. And I do everything I can to conserve it. Admittedly, I still have a small green lawn, but in everything else I do — a strict five-minute shower every second or third day, containers in sinks and showers capturing water, less flushing — I am water aware. However, recently I am thinking, why do I bother?

When I look around, particularly southwest Santa Rosa, every empty lot is being razed for development. And they are building large homes, three and four bedrooms, that require a lot of water.

I know housing is needed, but so is our precious natural resource. Lake Sonoma is at 45% capacity. That’s scary, and there is no relief in sight. My husband tells me it takes years for these housing projects to get approval. I’m hoping that the city Planning Commission will start including a clause in any future contract that reads “subject to cancellation pursuant to water levels being sustainable.”

Camille Walsh

Santa Rosa

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A typical hillside lost to the grape empire (near Navarro)

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IT COULD HAPPEN HERE! 

In Los Angeles Magazine, Colman Andrews dives into the “flame out of Napa Wine Country“ due to factors like climate change and the “Hamptomization” of the region. 

lamag.com/longform/paradise-lost-the-flame-out-of-napa-valleys-iconic-wine-country/

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ANOTHER DAY AT PEOPLE’S PARK

by Jonah Raskin

To the eye of a tourist from another city, the plot of land in Berkeley, California that’s known as People’s Park might look like a hurricane hit it. The trunks of huge trees are scattered about. Piles of wood chips litter the property and trash and garbage are nearly everywhere. Those who live here sleep in tents. Some of the campers are defenders of the park.

None of the wanton destruction is the work of nature gone wild. Rather, it is the work of the Regents at the University of California who have their own plans for the historic plot that was listed this year on the National Register of Historic Places. History is taught on campus, but apparently not honored by the Regents.

Of course, the members of the Regents themselves didn’t dirty their own hands and aren’t directly responsible for the trunks of trees on the ground, the wood chips in huge mounds and the trash and garbage. But the Regents gave the green light to the men with chainsaws and heavy machinery who erected a chain link fence around the lot and then created chaos. For the Regents, the worse the better. As an eyesore, the lot persuades some citizens to say forget about the Park. Build, build, build.

Berkeley-ites with a sense of history and with a vision of the future look at the mess and see potential and promise not a disaster. They have skin in the game and have been involved in the fight against the Regents for years and even decades. What they want now and have long wanted is open space in a densely populated neighborhood that is in dire need of a park where citizens can wander freely, sit down and have a picnic, bask in the sun and enjoy a corner of the Great Outdoors in an urban setting.

On a recent Friday, after a long absence, I returned to People’s Park with a friend who is a photographer and who brought cameras with her and took pictures. When I told her that I didn’t believe anything the Regents said and that I thought that the University of California was hypocritical, she said, “But isn’t it an institution of great learning and innovative scholarship with wonderful professors who turn out generation after generation of graduates who contribute to the well-being of society?” I understood her point of view. I had spent much of my life in academia at a branch of the California State University system.

“Cal,” as everyone calls the University of California at Berkeley, does have a record of academic excellence. But it also has blood on its hands, and a long standing refusal to recognize and abide by the wishes of the community. It has also abdicated all responsibility to care for the land, the trees, and the historical legacy of the lot. In 1969, James Rector was shot and killed when then Governor Ronald Reagan dispatched the National Guard to Berkeley to confront the “dirty hippies” who wanted to create a mini-utopia where they could enjoy peace and love, and maybe smoke some dope.

Dirty hippies are still around. So are old activists, plus today’s undergrads. They rallied recently after men with hard hats on their heads erected a chain link fence, cut down beautiful, ancient trees, and made a mess. The hippies, the veterans and the young students—more than a thousand of them—tore down the fence and sabotaged the machinery so more damage could not be inflicted.

Protesters made art and created a wild and wonderful garden in one corner where I saw flowers, including blooming roses and nostrums, as well as fledgling shrubs and trees reaching for the sun. Protesters also wrote slogans and drew graffiti that said things like “People’s Park, 53 Years of Resistance,” “UC Has Blood on their hands,” “Cops Eat Poop” and “Keep Our Park Beautiful and Safe.” There were peace signs and drawings of symbolic human hearts.

When I told Joe Liesner from Food Not Bombs, and a longtime activist, that when I looked at the park I saw gloom and doom, he said, “I’m not gloomy. We’ve held them off, we’ve raised a lot of money and we’re stronger than ever before.” Harvey Smith, a Cal grad, and an expert on the New Deal in Berkeley, described the Regents as a “moral failure” because it has done nothing to address the problem of the homeless in the Park and nothing to end the selling and buying of drugs. Deadly fentenyl is available.

When I told Smith that one website describes People’s Park as “permanently closed,” he shook his head and said, “It doesn’t look permanently closed to me.” Indeed, it didn’t look that way to me. Smith went on, “The university doesn’t need this specific site. It is the least appropriate and the most controversial. There are other more advantageous sites.”

Liesner, who had arrived at the park on bicycle, added “Like Kent State and Jackson State, this place is emblematic of a movement that was truly democratic, and anti-racist and that’s part of the modern ecological movement.” Liesner added that “by cutting down the redwoods in the Fred Cody Memorial Grove, the University had violated the National Historic Preservation Act” and that “our fear is that they could keep on violating it.”

Activists like Smith and Liesner and their friends and comrades are ready to move again at a moment’s notice. Meanwhile, the future of the Park is in the courts. Judges in black robes will likely decide what’s next.

Someone handed me a copy of the October 2022 newsletter “Pepper Spray Times,” edited by “Grace Underpressure” and with contributors with names like “Juan Nathan Undergod” and “Fanny DeFlames” and the slogan on the masthead that reads, “You can kick the ass of the rich. It’s just such a big ass that it takes a long time.” Yes Berkeley is still Bezerkeley and wonderfully so.

One of the gardeners who had just planted a baby persimmon tree, told me “we can cross our fingers and keep on hoping and also get rid of the machines. It’s not a real park with all these tractors and bulldozers here.”

Liesner reminded me of Jill Lepore’s essay about Kent State, Jackson State and People’s Park that asked if the nation had ever really left a “bitterly divided era.” It did not seem so. The nation was still bitterly divided and so was Berkeley, one of the birthplaces of the Sixties.

If my initial impression was one of gloom and doom, it wasn’t my parting impression. I gazed at the flowers in bloom, the graffiti and the slogans and the expressions on the faces of Joe Liesner and Harvey Smith and took my leave with a sense of hope.

Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.

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JEFF BLANKFORT: This article is a little more than a month old but it is important because it deals with the sad state of affairs at a radio station, Berkeley's KPFA, which was a heralded pioneer of alternative radio going back to 1949. When I lived in the Bay Area up to about 20 years ago I was a frequent guest on its airwaves, talking about the Middle East and the Palestinian struggle and from 1993 through 1999, I was deeply involved in protecting the station and the Pacfica Network of which it was an important part, from what was essentially a government takeover from within. For the most part, I ceased to follow events at the station after I moved north and began doing my own program on the local public radio station. Thus, I was unaware that the station's board had hired as KPFA's general manager, a decade, ago, an Uncle Tom, 21st Century style, Quincy McCoy, who back in 2014, when chair of the Oakland Children's Museum, under pressure from the local Jewish Community Relations Council, had canceled an exhibition of art work that had been made by children of Gaza during Israel's bombardment of the strip earlier that year, that had been organized by the Berkeley-based Middle East Children's Alliance. Another venue was found for the exhibition and it was extremely successful but that KPFA would hire such a person I still find incredible but it sadly exposes the weakness of the solidarity movement for Palestine in the Bay Area. At the end of the article you will read the insidious role played by McCoy in failing to defend this KPFA journalist and a Native American who deserved better.

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PUNTA GORDA (POST HURRICANE IAN) UPDATE (via Stephen Dunlap)

An update from my friend Jill in Punta Gorda, Florida. My question was: "Have the land sharks moved in looking for deals? Are you and others thinking of moving away?"

Her response:

Yes, the land sharks are in full swing. I don't know about other people, but Phil and I want to leave. We cannot sell our home until repairs are made. It has to pass inspection. We plan to stay until Spring, then we will try to sell. We don't want to risk another storm like Ian by staying through another hurricane season. We are getting emails from sell-it-yourself real estate companies.

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November 22, 1963: President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie just after their arrival at the airport for the fateful drive through Dallas. (Photo by Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

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THE FINAL JAN. 6 COMMITTEE REPORT THURSDAY

Editor,

Thursday’s live final report to the nation of the Select Congress Committee on January 6 reveal much relevant evidence of former President Donald John Trump’s personal direct influence in the planning and carrying out of the January 6, 2021 mob attack. Beside his speech to thousands of backers from the Ellipse, it showed Trump’s dereliction of duty as he watched the riot take place for hours not lifting a finger to try to stop it.

The parade of Trump’s group of close advisors including Gen. Flynn, Stone, Eastman and numerous others taking the Fifth Amendment before the Committee revealed how the former president tried to convince the public of the Big Lie that, instead of Joe Biden, in fact, he, Donald J. Trump actually won the 2020 national presidential election.

After 246 years, our democracy is in peril. This committee formally issued a subpoena for Trump to appear before the committee. This former president will face a possible formal charge of contempt of Congress if the full House should back up its committee’s subpoena if he refuses to comply.

Frank H. Baumgardner, III (with the aid of Kathleen R. Baumgardner)

Santa Rosa

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EDGAR ALLAN POE, dead at 40, was found on the streets of Baltimore in desperate need of medical attention. His bad habits worsened when his wife, Virginia, died.

Virginia & Edgar Allen Poe

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Post-pandemic San Francisco is a hollowed out version of itself. I do believe SF will bounce back but what that new SF will look and feel like is hard to envision. What makes the situation so disheartening is that our city leaders show no ability to communicate a vision. What we get are whack-a-mole and one-off initiatives that create no sustainable improvement. Until we see sustained improvement people will keep leaving and tourism will continue to flounder. The city has lost most of the qualities that made it attractive and desirable. Aside from the rampant petty crime—and I can remember a time when it was very safe and even property crime was minimal for a dense city—San Francisco is now a sea of boarded up storefronts, great stores, restaurants, and night spots that used to be but are no longer. When you don’t have to live in the city—”work from home”—and there’s nothing attractive about the city lifestyle because everything attractive has closed or left, people with jobs and incomes will leave and nobody will be left but the benefit-dependent and the politicians who dole out the benefits and thereby control the recipients.

* * *

Somewhere in California

* * *

NATE DUFFY:

Impact of Shema — So I was sitting in my car before work thinking of yiddish and Hebrew words that I know because the day before at work we were messing around and calling each other schmendrick and schlimazel and goy and saying shabbat shalom and shomer shabbes and just absolutely cracking up while we work. So then I start thinking what Hebrew I know to share at work today and think of the Shema prayer, that will definitely impress. So I recite “Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Ahad. Hear O Israel, The Lord is our God, The Lord is One.” I recite it a few more times to myself and think about what it means and what impact it has had on the long story of history and the people of the world. So I leave the parking garage to walk to work and realize I have a gift card in my pocket for a ubiquitous coffee shop. So why not I love free coffee. I walk the maze for the line and as I pull my gift card from my pocket, unbeknownst to me my wad of $200 just secured from the ATM plops to the floor. 

I order my coffee and ding the QR code and this perfect slight and tanned man with a sandy blond tuft of curly hair says “Sir, Sir, your money!”

I look up astonished and say “Huh?”

I realize what has happened and say “Um, wait you don’t have to do that.”

He says, “Yes I do or that would follow me.”

I look and he is with his wife and 2 beautiful young children and I realize and at the same time say, “You are a traveler with your blessed family”

“Where are you coming from?”

“We are from Israel.”

“Wow!”

I am astonished at what has happened and my body is overwhelmed with an intense adrenaline rush and sense of well-being.

I say, “Well I just recited the Shema three times in my car and I’m on my way to work.”

He said, “Well then it's from God.”

I said, “Well I’m glad it's not Saturday or my story just flies right out the window.” 

* * *

ON THIS DAY IN 1981, Phillip K Dick writes this letter to the producers of ‘Blade Runner’: 

Phillip K Dick

I happened to see the Channel 7 TV program “Hooray For Hollywood” tonight with the segment on Blade Runner. (Well, to be honest, I didn’t happen to see it; someone tipped me off that Blade Runner was going to be a part of the show, and to be sure to watch.) Jeff, after looking – and especially after listening to Harrison Ford discuss the film – I came to the conclusion that this indeed is not science fiction; it is not fantasy; it is exactly what Harrison said: futurism. The impact of Blade Runner is simply going to be overwhelming, both on the public and on creative people — and, I believe, on science fiction as a field. Since I have been writing and selling science fiction works for thirty years, this is a matter of some importance to me. In all candor I must say that our field has gradually and steadily been deteriorating for the last few years. Nothing that we have done, individually or collectively, matches Blade Runner. This is not escapism; it is super realism, so gritty and detailed and authentic and goddam convincing that, well, after the segment I found my normal present-day “reality” pallid by comparison. What I am saying is that all of you collectively may have created a unique new form of graphic, artistic expression, never before seen. And, I think, Blade Runner is going to revolutionize our conceptions of what science fiction is and, more, can be.

Let me sum it up this way. Science fiction has slowly and ineluctably settled into a monotonous death: it has become inbred, derivative, stale. Suddenly you people have come in, some of the greatest talents currently in existence, and now we have a new life, a new start. As for my own role in the Blade Runner project, I can only say that I did not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine could be escalated into such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and completed by Blade Runner. Thank you…and it is going to be one hell of a commercial success. It will prove invincible.

Cordially,

Philip K. Dick

* * *

WE MAKE OUR ADDRESS to Thy Divine Majesty in this our necessity, that Thou wouldst take the cause into Thine own hand and judge between us and our enemies. 

— British Navy War Prayer before battle

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* * *

UKRAINE, THURSDAY, 13TH OF OCTOBER

A funeral in Bucha came on a day in which the human toll of war again reverberated across Ukraine. Russian missiles continued to strike civilian targets, raising the death count from a four-day barrage to more than three dozen.

Russian missiles continue to pummel Ukraine as the civilian toll rises.

Moving to preserve Russia’s hold over European energy, Putin offers to sell more gas via Turkey.

Russia says it will evacuate residents from Kherson, a move that comes amid Ukrainian gains.

The E.U. plans to launch a mission to train Ukrainian soldiers on European soil.

NATO’s secretary general says the alliance will back Ukraine ‘as long as it takes.’

A strike outside Kyiv adds to concerns over Russia’s use of ‘kamikaze’ drones.

Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure is damaged in Russia’s strikes.

ARMAGEDDON UPDATE: Vladimir Putin has again increased his strategic nuclear bombers at an airbase near the Finnish and Norwegian borders. The move comes amid high tension over whether he plans an atomic attack in Europe and his on-going invasion of Ukraine. He has gradually increased the number of strategic bombers at Olenya air base from none on August 12, to four Tu-160s on August 21, to 11 now. There are seven Tu-160 strategic bombers and four Tu-95 aircraft (marked in yellow) at the facility on the Kola Peninsula. The build-up above at the air base follows international concern over another report two weeks ago, when The Jerusalem Post revealed there was an 'unusual deployment' of seven nuclear bombers at the airbase. The Armageddon planes are usually stationed at Engels Air Base, 450 miles south-east of Moscow. (Daily Mail)

* * *

* * *

PIPELINES V. USA

Intent, motive and means: People serving life sentences in U.S. prisons have been convicted on weaker grounds than the circumstantial evidence against Washington for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines.

by Scott Ritter

…The burden that exists to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt “is fully satisfied and entirely convinced to a moral certainty that the evidence presented proves the guilt of the defendant.” In the matter of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 attacks, this burden has been met when it comes to assigning blame to the United States. Biden all but confessed the crime beforehand, and his secretary of state, Blinken, crowed about the “tremendous opportunity” that was created by the attack. Not only did the U.S. Navy actively rehearse the crime in June 2022, using the same weapon that had been previously discovered next to the pipeline, but employed the very means needed to use this weapon on the day of the attack, at the location of the attack.

The problem is, outside of Russia, no one is charging the United States. Journalists run away from the evidence, citing “uncertainty.” Europe, afraid to wake up to the reality that its most important “ally” has committed an act of war against its critical energy infrastructure, condemning millions of Europeans to suffer the depravations of cold, hunger and unemployment — all the while gouging Europe with profit margins from the sale of LNG that redefine the notion of “windfall” — remains silent.

There is no doubt in any thinking person’s brain as to who is responsible for the attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. The circumstantial case is overwhelming and fully capable of winning a conviction in any U.S. court of law.

But no one will bring the case, at least not at this moment.

Shame on American journalism for ignoring this flagrant attack on Europe.

Shame on Europe for not having the courage to publicly name their attacker.

But most of all, shame on the administration of Joe Biden, who has lowered the U.S. to the same standard of those it hunted down and killed for so many years — a simple international terrorist, and a state sponsor of terrorism.

consortiumnews.com/2022/10/12/scott-ritter-pipelines-v-usa/

* * *

Acorns

* * *

WE'RE BEING DRIVEN TOWARD NUCLEAR WAR on the completely fictional claim that Putin is a Hitler-like megalomaniac who's just invading countries completely unprovoked, solely because he is evil and hates freedom, and won't stop invading and conquering until he's stopped by force.

The news media aren't telling people about the western aggressions which led to this war. They're not telling people the US is keeping this war going with the stated goal of weakening Russia and is rejecting peace talks and refusing to push for peace. All people are being told is that Putin is another Hitler who won't listen to reason and only understands violence. The world's two nuclear superpowers are being pushed closer and closer to direct military confrontation based on a complete fiction which omits mountains of facts.

To participate in this madness is indefensible. It is indefensibly immoral to foist a fictional version of events upon a trusting populace in order to manufacture consent for more and more aggressive acts of brinkmanship with a nuclear superpower. These people are depraved.

— Caitlin Johnstone

* * *

“I just hope that this doesn’t cause Alex Jones to lose faith in our institutions.”

* * *

DOES THE UNITED STATES HAVE A PLAN IN UKRAINE?

American officials keep insisting they won't negotiate with Russia, but now they're also leaking a belief that Ukraine can't win. Is this 4-D chess, or cluelessness? Or is there no plan at all?

by Matt Taibbi

Fifteen years ago, in a July 2007 Democratic primary debate in Charleston, South Carolina, Senator Barack Obama won applause by saying sure, he’d meet with the leaders of countries like Iran, Cuba, and North Korea. “The notion that somehow not talking the country is punishment to them” was ridiculous, he said, adding even JFK and Reagan were willing to talk to the Soviets.

“They understood that we may not trust them, and they may pose an extraordinary danger,” Obama said. “But we have the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.”

Obama’s line won him new admirers and helped dent progressive support for frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The episode is now mostly forgotten, as Talking to Bad People has again been deemed forbidden, even by former liberals, perhaps especially by them, even with the country suddenly at greater risk of nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile crisis. 

These dynamics resurfaced in a confusing way this week. To no one’s surprise the Biden administration continued to say it won’t negotiate with Russia, but it suddenly also began leaking a belief that it doesn’t think fighting will work, either. If both strategies are off the table, what exactly are we doing? 

Biden was also at that 2007 debate. When New Mexico’s Bill Richardson said he favored sending U.N. troops and showing “diplomatic leadership” in Darfur, the future veep could barely contain his disgust.

“I’m so tired of this. I heard the same arguments after I came back from meeting with Milosevic,” Biden seethed. “We can’t act. We can’t send troops there. Where we can, America must. Why Darfur? Because we can.” He added. “Those kids will be dead by the time diplomacy is over.”

Conventional wisdom says Obama picked Biden to “reassure older white voters,” as NPR put it, but Biden also had some swag and physicality, which helped offset the high intellectual dweeb quotient plaguing the party. Obama suffered from it himself, and was smart enough to know it. He later wrote approvingly of Biden’s “lack of a filter,” which came out when Joe barked insults and threat-like exclamations at effete word-choosers like Richardson or John Edwards. It was eccentric, but real, an area where Obama needed help. Biden was the closest thing to Gary Busey Democrats had and like Busey in Point Break, Joe played a great loose-cannon counterweight to the sensitive pretty face in the lead. 

Years later, Biden is a shell of himself, but still a loose cannon. In a confusing series of episodes, Biden and his government seem to be changing their minds almost daily about negotiation. For instance, he raised eyebrows when he theorized about giving Vladimir Putin an “off-ramp.” When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper if he’d consider meeting with Putin, he said, “it would depend.” 

In the same interview, though, as if remembering his sheet of talking points — which at one point fell to the floor, leaving Tapper to lean over and hand them back — Biden fell back to what sounded like a party line. “I have no intention of meeting with him,” he said, before adding the administration bumper sticker, “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.” Then, reverting to his familiar sternum-poking persona, he declared, “I’m not about to, nor is anyone else prepared to negotiate with Russia.”

The United States and Ukraine have effected a strange negotiations switcheroo since war started. In March, it was Volodymyr Zelensky who asked for diplomatic help, commenting, “there will be fighting, but it will only definitively end through diplomacy.” A question was whether or not Zelensky was empowered to negotiate an end to U.S.-imposed sanctions. Ryan Grim of The Interceptwas the only reporter to push this question and did a great job pestering then-spokesperson Jen Psaki, but she non-answered who was empowered to do what, saying only Zelensky is “the leader of Ukraine and so he’s empowered to have a negotiation with Russia.”

Perhaps emboldened by military success Zelensky soon after adopted the U.S.-style no-meeting-without-preconditions stance, saying that he would not engage in negotiations that didn’t begin with Russia withdrawing from all disputed territories. The U.S. in turn settled on the posture that’s been more or less official since, i.e. the American role was to empower Ukraine on the battlefield so that if and when Zelensky was ready to negotiate, he’d be in a stronger position. Moreover, it was not America’s role to “push” Zelensky to negotiate. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby offered a typical response in July, saying Zelensky gets to determine “how victory is decided,” although even he “will tell you that the time is not now for those discussions.”

The U.S. continued to insist negotiations about Ukraine were strictly up to Zelensky, but Kirby did tell CNN’s Tapper in September that the U.S. was trying to pursue “government-to-government dialogue,” on the limited issue of trying to secure the releases of Americans Britany Griner and John Whelan. He said this in the context of decrying blast-from-the-past former Governor Richardson traveling to Moscow, ostensibly to try to negotiate Griner and Whelan’s release. “Our message is, ‘Private citizens should not be in Moscow,’” said Kirby.

If Richardson was pitched as merely annoying, Elon Musk earned super-villain status. New reports claim the would-be owner of Twitter spoke with Putin before writing a mania-inducing “Peace Proposal” tweet on October 3, including provisions like “Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision” and “Crimea formally part of Russia.” Pundits brayed for blood, as a super-majority of blue-checks seemed to believe it was literally illegal for Musk to talk to Putin. 

The Occupy Democrats account, which has been transformed into an entertainingly demented hybrid of Louise Mensch and the Palmer Report, screeched that “right-wing billionaire Elon Musk… spoke directly to Vladimir Putin,” so RT TO DEMAND THAT ELON BE INVESTIGATED! Others wondered if Musk could be prosecuted via the Logan Act, if his federal contracts now posed a national security risk, and if he should be deported from wherever he is to, well, somewhere worse.

OccupyDems

I didn’t pay much attention to any of this, and only looked back after reading a recent Washington Postarticle, “Biden scrambles to avert cracks in pro-Ukraine coalition.” Much like a New York Timesarticle I wrote about last week called “U.S. Believes Ukrainians Were Behind an Assassination in Russia,” the Postpiece is a real head-scratcher, in addition to being more or less unconcealed natsec messaging. 

Like the Times, the Post moved back and forth between reporting information in its own voice and attributing information to anonymous sources. It seemed odd when theynoted “recent events have only added to the sense that the war will be a long slog,” and “all of this adds up to a war that looks increasingly open-ended.” However, much of the rest described White House efforts to keep other nations backing Ukraine, which seemed uncontroversial enough. Then the paper dropped a stunner:

“Privately, U.S. officials say neither Russia nor Ukraine is capable of winning the war outright, but they have ruled out the idea of pushing or even nudging Ukraine to the negotiating table. They say they do not know what the end of the war looks like, or how it might end or when, insisting that is up to Kyiv.”

What??? 

If the White House doesn’t think the war can be won, but also refuses to negotiate itself, or “nudge” others to do it for them, what exactly is its end strategy? Waiting for things to get worse and then reassessing? 

Both Putin and Biden invoked the specter of nuclear exchange lately, each using his own inimically frightening syntax. Putin likes to suggest abject horror via ominous, hint-laden phrases and insisted he’d use “all available means” to “protect Russia” from “nuclear blackmail.” Biden is at his terrifying best when he conveys the sense of riding in a car with no hands on the wheel. He mumbled about America not facing “the prospect of Armageddon” since the Kennedy years, repeated the word later, and each time retreated after to catch-phrases suggesting someone else is making decisions. 

In sum, the White House is renouncing the concept of entering into negotiations itself, but now also denying that it even has agency in the matter, suggesting that it’s powerless to force either Russia or Ukraine to see the futility of combat. “But with Ukraine and Russia both apparently convinced they can and must win, “ the Postwrote, “negotiations seem a long way off.” 

Either the White House is a jumble of contradictory ideas about how to resolve the Ukraine situation, or it’s intentionally confusing the public. If our government is really worried about nuclear war to the point of having the Mummy-in-Chief chant “Armageddon” in public, it’s just not believable that we’re too shy either to start negotiations or to ask Ukraine to try. Something else must be up. 

The Russian side of the war never particularly made sense. American aims are also becoming difficult to grasp. If we don’t think a military solution is feasible, why are we continuing to pump the place full of weapons? Inertia? Because we don’t want to be a bummer? No matter what Ukraine policy you favor, you should want our government to clarify its goals, or at least make sure we have some. This is one situation where no plan would be more frightening than a bad one. 

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12 Comments

  1. George Hollister October 14, 2022

    Matt Taibbi is always worth the long read. I must remind him, Trump would talk to any world leader, more so than any president in recent history. He did not talk about it, he just did it. Well, with the exception of the Iranian mullahs. He even said good things about despicable people, which raised eye brows, and got him into trouble. Surprisingly, to me, Trump was good on foreign policy, and accomplished a lot. He’ll never get credit for.

  2. Chuck Dunbar October 14, 2022

    Your assertions bend reality, George. Two important examples: Trump met several times with Putin, notably bowing and scraping to him, so strangely and markedly that some wondered what Trump was afraid of, what leverage Putin had over him. Nothing productive came from these meetings. Trump’s meetings with North Korea’s Kim were grandiose and got nowhere, zero results. North Korea stayed on-course with its nuclear weapons plans and actions. Trump was way out of his league with these two leaders, and was as always poorly informed about the issues, knew very little of the history of countries he engaged with, and was just practicing his usual hype and egocentric “look at me being great!” act.

    Serious, effective diplomacy is most often seen when experienced, knowledgeable diplomats engage with their peers in ongoing, informed and intelligent discussions. Trump, as we now know from many sources, was unable/unwilling to pay attention to briefings about foreign policy issues prior to meetings with foreign leaders. He was a know-nothing who thought he could just wing it. Trump’s efforts at most foreign policy issues were a joke, destructive to international relationships, or just non-productive. and had the world laughing at the U.S.

    “Trump was good on foreign policy, and accomplished a lot.” Mostly your fantasy, George.

    • George Hollister October 14, 2022

      I would disagree. Trump gave no concessions to Putin, and with all the friendliness, was as hard on him as any president since the Cold War. As far as North Korea goes, same thing. And with all the friendliness to Kim, Trump demonstrated to the world that Kim was not to be taken as seriously as we had been taking him. Of course, no one in foreign policy, with a brain, will say that. Our policy toward Rocket Man is let him fire his unarmed rockets, and let’s all get worked up and pretend he is a threat. Trump did that.

      • Chuck Dunbar October 14, 2022

        History, written by trained, educated historians with more information than we have now, will be the ultimate judge. My best guess is that Trump will be written off as ineffective and not worthy of much note. At least he did not begin any new wars, that is notable for sure. He left Afghanistan in a messy, delayed “resolution,” leaving Biden to take the blame, but many others, not just Trump and Biden, deserve harsh judgment also.

        • Bruce McEwen October 14, 2022

          I hate to agree with George or James, just on principle, but come on, Chuck, what could it hurt if the Donald were to jet over there and sort this mess out before it blows up in our faces? James says Trump is willing. Has even volunteered, and George judges him capable… what’s the worst that could happen? Another four years of buffoonery? Let him have it if he saves the world. Hell, let him have eight more. It’s more than the rest of us will have if this belligerent refusal to talk goes on.

          • Bruce McEwen October 14, 2022

            Col. Gen. Syrskyi will get NATO’s coveted Napoleon Award, but Trump could land the Nobel Peace Prize and sit on that august dais with the likes of H Kissinger, et al. He may even find the honor a more fitting ornament to his trophy wall than being president.

            • Chuck Dunbar October 14, 2022

              I give.

              If Trump agrees to take his expertise and cunning and fine judgment over to Russia to negotiate with Putin a peaceful end to the Ukraine invasion, that’s fine. But, one proviso: Trump has to agree to go away and leave us all alone and not run for president in 2024. Take his Nobel Prize and his trophy wife and go live in peace and quiet forever on…Amen.

              • Bruce McEwen October 14, 2022

                That’s the deal they offered Napoleon, exile in Elba. But look on the bright side, they could flung our white flag envoy’s head back to us on an ICBM, but we ought at least to try. Think of Sidney Carton’s last words on the way to the guillotine and take Cole Porter’s advice to be a clown, it will cheer you immensely, my good man.

      • Harvey Reading October 14, 2022

        If it came to a choice of saving my dog or saving Biden or Trump, or both, I’d pick saving my dog in an instant. Neither of the so-called leaders is worth a dime. The one is a brain-dead, lying, neoliberal fasciocrat. The other a dull-witted, loudmouthed, lying fasciuglican. Both take their marching orders from the wealthy.

  3. Craig Stehr October 14, 2022

    ~Still Here! Right this Moment!! Typing this at 11:43AM PDT @ Ukiah, CA Public Library~
    Good morning postmodern America and worldwide friends,
    Awoke early at the Building Bridges homeless shelter in the Mendocino county seat of Ukiah, California USA. Following morning ablutions, inquired as to where a staff member put my shorts and bright orange shirt after they were of necessity independently laundered last night. Unable to locate them, proceeded to empty all of the baskets inside of the shelter into the container barrels just outside of the entrances, and then, due to insufficient trash & recycling clothes to wear, had to leave the next step of taking the outside containers to the enclosed area to separate the trash from the recycling (includes the redeemable for money bottles and cans), for later. After picking up all of the litter in front of the building which was left last night by the roving bands of loudly cursing, beer chugging, fentanyl smoking, needle freaks, I proceeded to the Ukiah Co-op for a breakfast burrito and a cup of coffee. And then walked to the Ukiah Public Library to read the New York Times. This concludes my report insofar as being here in the Golden Present is concerned. 🆓😃🆒

    I wish all global Jivan Muktas to know that I am identified with that which is prior to consciousness. I am not identified with the body nor the mind; particularly the ego, which is one of the eight aspects of the mind. I am available for just about anything spiritually focused and direct action oriented on the planet earth.

    Chanting Om and non-attached,

    Craig Louis Stehr
    Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
    Telephone Messages c/o Building Bridges: (707) 234-3270
    Share💲Here: PayPal.me/craiglouisstehr
    da blog that Earth First! icon Ron Huber made for me: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com
    Snail Mail (which is checked once monthly): P.O. Box 938, Redwood Valley, CA 95470
    14.X.’22

  4. Jim Armstrong October 14, 2022

    Sorry to say, futile attempts otherwise have led me to; Matt Taibbi , scroll down.

    Who the hell came up with the idea that Donny could have an impact in Ukraine? What a joke.

  5. Nathan Duffy October 14, 2022

    I am happy to find humanity in other people at all and cherish it to no end in this late stage of our decline…

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