Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Between Storms | Mendocino | 101 Spinouts | Snocat Rescue | Network Disruption | Divers Wanted | School Issues | Cloud | Shelter Volunteers | Chair Man | LWV Meeting | Mendo Women | Ed Notes | Bernice Bing | Fort Braggs | Petroglyph Rock | Brewery Music | Smissen Art | Champion Fraud | Piano Concert | License Deadline | Yesterday's Catch | Porridge Bird | Boonville Moon | Billboard Idiocy | Hotsy Totsy | Positively Johnny | Borrachos | I'm Stupid | The Problem | Fresno Unhoused | Car Wash | Two-Trip Loser | Ash Wednesday | Lora Nichols | Old House | Busting Cupid | Myth Making | Sands Entrance | Ukraine | Bikers | Nuremberg Film | Behatted

UNSEASONABLY COLD weather conditions will continue today, but rain and snow showers will diminish across much of the area. An atmospheric river storm will bring heavy rain, rising snow levels and strong winds on Thursday. The heaviest rain is forecast to occur Thursday night and early Friday morning. Rain intensity and amounts will fall off through the day on Friday. Additional light rain is forecast to occur over the weekend, followed by another period of heavier rain and gusty winds early next week. (NWS)

YORKVILLE'S PRECIPITATION TOTAL (since October 1, 2022) surpassed 50 inches last night.

YESTERDAY Kym Kemp reported: Highway 101 Closed Due to Snow North of Laytonville

TODAY Caltrans says: 1-way controlled traffic from 4.3 mi north of Laytonville to 3.5 mi south of Leggett (Mendocino Co) - due to spinouts

SNOCAT RESCUE

[Tuesday] The Sheriff's Office with the assistance of Mendocino County Search & Rescue and Mendocino County Information Services are currently in the Spy Rock Road area (Laytonville) performing a rescue of the Sheriff's Office Snocat which sustained a broken wheel on a front track during yesterday's rescue missions. Personnel are near Spy Rock Road and Iron Peak Road where heavy snow, ice and white-out conditions exist. Here are images of how unsafe the travel conditions are in this specific area of Mendocino County.

CYBER-VANDALS HIT COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION

The Mendocino County Office of Education (MCOE) recently experienced a network disruption that is limiting access to certain portions of our network. We have notified law enforcement, Mendocino County local education agencies, and employees. We immediately formed a task force composed of cybersecurity specialists from our agency and the private and public sectors. We are working around the clock with this task force to determine the scope of the incident and securely restore our network. Since our investigation is in its early stages, we are unable to provide specific information at this time. However, if our investigation determines either employee or student data is affected, we will notify individuals as quickly as possible.

“Our Information Technology staff continue to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to addressing abnormal network activity,” Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools Nicole Glentzer commented. “Our team is using the best tools available to monitor the situation 24/7 and triage support, prioritizing our districts, schools, students, and employees.”

Mendocino County Office of Education is not the only education institution to experience an attack in recent history. The education sector has been a primary target of cybercriminals for years, and these attacks are increasing across the country.

Superintendent Glentzer notes, “This is an ongoing investigation so we cannot offer any additional information at this time. We will continue to seek solutions and inform the Mendocino County education community directly when we have public information to share.”

PARENT/GUARDIAN TASK FORCE, March 7, 2023

Sign in Sheet

Some folks didn't sign in.  Thank you for coming!

Welcome and introductions.

Parameters reviewed about not discussing incidents or specific kids,  but rather ideas.

Parents expressed hope that some staff members would participate.

Student group opportunity to be formed and announced beginning on March 8 at the Junior/Senior High School. Meetings at lunch to generate student initiatives.  Students can also join parent/guardian meetings.

Discussion notes in three sub groups.

Bullying

Concerns:

• Sexual harassment (joking manner)--Do students know what is inappropriate or not and it goes too far.
• Kids are not kind/they are mean/telling students to kill themselves, swastika on a student, use of the “n” word
• LGBT comments from students and staff and remarks and comments and jokes.
• Drawing on other peoples’ items. Lack of respect for others' property and boundaries.
• Societal issues impacting all providing a root cause for the misbehavior.
• Social media influence
• Lack of respect for the adults/staff/ and each other.
• Lack of respect for parents/guardians
• Anti Snitching culture
• Labels/Cliques non inclusive culture 
• Question:  What is school’s role?  (Progressive discipline policy explained)

Ideas:  

• Student resource officer/community resource officer (authoritative presence shaping behavior)
• Parent volunteers (?) coming into the school to support positive behavior
• The culture of the schools as a whole.  Behaviors have to be taught explicitly between the PBIS norms to teach values and behavior that kids are missing post-pandemic.
• Social emotional education/learning/ Second Step at AVES and PBIS at both AVES/AVJR/SRHigh
• Community involvement-worth with the community for volunteer opportunities to create a caring of the whole.
• Involve the parents and have them insist on a solution with their student.
• Shift culture of snitching to acceptance
• More groups coming in to teach students about specific issues (ex. GSA/pronouns, inappropriateness of using the “n” word etc)
• Build family community feeling with morning meetings and create a community where kids care about one another.
• Santa Rosa school violence could happen anywhere.  We need to stop it before it escalates.

Drugs

Concerns:

• Pot smell at sporting events on students
• Snitching–kids don’t talk because they don’t want to get someone in trouble
• Changes to CA law–potentially next year unable to suspend for pot
• Kids of drugs discussed–prevalence is Cannabis, Marijuaa  Vapes, alcohol, and Fentanyl
• Driving (Drinking in the influence)
• Deputies can’t interview minors without legal respresentation
• Drugs filling a void–they do them to feel better or not feel
• Families who believe different things about drugs/don’t take it seriously
• Parent resources needed (Parents don’t want to deal with the conflict)
• Big Brothers/Big Sisters Structure
• The community Response to Meth( (worked)
• Mark Fierro Sessions–Vape Education every student received three sessions

Ideas:

• Zero Tolerance otherwise Slippery Slope
• Legal verified the school cannot search all backpages–suggestion from ELAC
• Parent role in responding to drugs main industry here (wine is an industry, but kids can’t drink at school, so what is the shift?)
• Sheriff’s cannot talk to students w/o lawyer
• Parent involvement–takes a village (Buddy parents/parents supporting parents)
• Clinic behavioral health, social worker, mandated counseling not as effective
• Student Voice needed Parent Support
• Family Resource Center was granted  was funded to generate community responsibility
• School and Family Partnership
• Take issues seriously 

Food:

• Not  great except Posole
• Warmed food versus cooked food
• Not many options
• All food made at High School
• Ag Program–Fine line between farming and learning about ag (ie. kids aren’t farm workers, but need to learn content in a farm to table program)

Ideas:  

• More Posole or more food like Posole cooked in that genre
• More fresh items
• Remodel elementary school kitchen with a stove (estimate is $250K)
• Food services classes–credentialed teacher required
• Harness School Gardens to bring farm to table
• Use community connections and partnerships to make those connections happen
• Bring parents/guardians into the A program growing food alongside students if possible to increase parent presence on campus (pending work schedules)

Thank you to the parents/guardians/community members for their time.  Join us for the next meeting April 4 at 5:00 p.m.

— Louise Simson, Superintendent, Anderson Valley Unified School District

MENDO/UKIAH ANIMAL SHELTER: Love dogs and cats??? Our monthly volunteer orientation is happening this Saturday, March 11 at 9 AM, at the Ukiah Shelter. We need volunteers to walk dogs and pet cats. Orientation takes about an hour. If you're interested in dog walking, wear close-toed shoes, as we will hold a dog walking demo after the orientation.

CONNIE SPINARDI: Does anyone know this man?

According to our animal camera, he borrowed our chair and we wanted to talk to him about it but we don’t know who he is. Our property is off Nash Mill Road. 

Thanks for your help.

ZA ZA ZOOM!

League of Women Voters March meeting

The League of Women Voters of Mendocino County will hold its March meeting on Tuesday, the 21st, at 6pm. The meeting will be held via Zoom. The program offers an advance look at an important new resource coming soon to Mendocino County. Brandy Maxwell, Recruitment & Training Coordinator for Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), will explain CASA's soon to be launched "24/7Help" website and app. The website and associated apps will list all resources for youth and adults in Mendocino and Lake Counties. Apps will be available for Android and Apple. In addition to use by individuals, service providers will be able to give clients resources immediately through phone or email.

To register for the Zoom meeting, go the League's website: my.lwv.org/california/mendocino-county. Look under the Calendar tab. For more information, call 707-937-4952.

Pat Dunbar, Publicity, pdunbar@mcn.org 

QUICK QUIZ: Which One Doesn’t Belong?

♬
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

ED NOTES

CURIOUS about how the hardy residents of Mendocino County's deep outback are doing in this unprecedented snow, I called former Supervisor, Johnny Pinches who, at age 71, is still running cattle above the Eel River on Island Mountain. “I take a couple of pills every day, and I'm kinda weak in the legs, but I'm feeling good,” Pinches reported.

THE PINCHES RANCH is so deep in the northeast corner of Mendo that Pinches can walk into Trinity County. In an only-in-Mendo recent gerrymander, Pinches and his handful of neighbors, none of them closer to each other than a couple of miles, now vote in the 4th District dominated by Fort Bragg, although Pinches and his family go back four generations on Iron Mountain and he served two terms as Supervisor of the 3rd District, a vast region he knows in his bones.

“I'VE GOT two and a half feet of snow in my front yard, but my cattle are doing fine down by the river, below the snow line, and my wife's 200 sheep are waiting out the snow in the barn,” Pinches said. “Ranchers up in the high country used to take their cattle down below, but ranchers got spoiled in all the dry weather we've had and… Ranching is not easy and you're always at the mercy of the weather.”

PINCHES, a reliable historian of the Mendocino high country, remembers hearing the horror stories of the winter of 1889-90 when it didn't snow until Christmas eve, and when it did snow it snowed and snowed. “That spring, there were so many dead sheep and cattle that ranchers just walked away from their property and went to the city to look for work.”

SNOWED in, Pinches said he was reading about the disastrous flood year of 1964 on the Eel. “Farther north was hit hard when the snow became warm rain that happened to coincide with high tides, and the Eel river backed up. The dike at Fortuna broke and flooded Fortuna, and a lot of little towns washed away. There were still a lot of saw mills in '64 so log decks washed away and hit bridges on the Eel like torpedoes. ‘The Queen of Bridges’ between Fortuna and Ferndale was the only one that didn't wash away. A dairy cow at Ferndale beached at Crescent City four days later, hungry but otherwise healthy! They knew where she came from by the tag in her ear.”

I AGREED with the retired supervisor that the cow story would make a terrific animated film, as the consensus king of Iron Mountain concedes. “You gotta be prepared in the ranching business because if you aren't, everything goes to hell. I complain a lot but I really don't have much to complain about. We're in pretty good shape up here.”

WE MUTUALLY LAMENTED the current political state of the County, as Pinches, incredulous, asks, “A $350 million budget? Where's that kinda money going? When I was first on the board the budget was $98 million with a $5 million general fund deficit, but we got out of it! They don't have budget issues, they have a spending problem. How can those people can call themselves leaders?....”

I ALSO checked in with Pinches' distant neighbor and fellow cattle rancher, Chris Brennan, aka ‘Dead Dog Brennan,’ federal trapper now retired. I rarely get to talk with a local who seems to have more enemies than me, so chatting with Dead Dog is rather like two exiled lepers counting coup. And like Pinches, DD has great stories.  

“THIS IS THE worst snow in the 43 years I've been here,” Brennan states flatly. “I can get to three places where I have cows with hay stored there, but one bunch I can't reach. They have hay but I don't know how they're doing in all this — ten foot drifts? I'm used to snow but this is something else. Hell, it's snowing right now [11am Tuesday]. I'm in the Blue Rock Creek region — 2600 feet — and north of Pinches. I'm a prepper so I have everything I need for the next 50 years. But there are people up here left over from the marijuana boom who don't plan ahead. I doubt they're doing too well.”

WATER FOR BOONVILLE. In 1974, representatives of the State Water Resources Board came to town to hear what Valley people thought about its plan for a multi-purpose dam on Anderson Creek above South Boonville in the area of the Johnson Ranch. The dam, the state promised, would provide “a dependable water source, wildlife enhancement, flood control, and recreation.” Think of it! Water skiing in Boonville!

LOCAL opinion ranged from some enthusiasm from property owners whose holdings would, they assumed, increase in value from a big lake in their neighborhood to a much larger opposition who feared the end of Boonville as a small, peaceful hamlet undisturbed by jet skis and drunks hurtling around a lake in their speed boats. Moreover, opponents said, flooding is not a problem anywhere in the Anderson Valley where everyone is already on water wells, and wildlife enhancement was too vague of an alleged benefit for a project the size of what the state proposed. And with a lake would come development, which many people moved here to avoid. And that was the end of that, although a prominent local ranching family — the Bradfords — regularly renew a lake permit they apparently envision for the area opposite the CalFire station south of Boonville.

FAST FORWARD TO 2023 where we find a pair of smart, determined Valley women — Val Hanelt and Kathleen McKenna — who have put in hundreds of hours of research and arranged grant funding in the hopes that Boonville will adopt a central sewage and water system under the auspices of the Anderson Valley Community Services District.

MUCH of central Boonville, especially the Haehl Street neighborhood, presently consists of small, modest homes, each of which has its own well and septic system, meaning, in many cases, that the water they flush is also the water they drink.

EDITOR WEASEL-WUSS'S opinion is, wait for it… “If my friends and neighbors, even my many enemies, vote for the dual projects, I will also sign up, although I have abundant clean water from probably the most productive well in the Anderson Valley, and boast an industrial-scale septic system installed by the infallible Luccheti of Hopland. As the aged owner of a dying, antiquated business who lives mostly on the dual social security benefits grudgingly dispensed to him and his wife by the oligarchs, to pay a water bill of $80-$90 a month would be, on my part, an act of pure charity, what with the county steadily raising my property taxes every year in return for invisible services, and all the other accrued fees and mystery impounds that seem to grow larger in direct proportion to my increasing years just as I weaken and the wolves circle.”

THE LATE BERNICE BING, still remembered in the Anderson Valley where she lived for many years, is belatedly getting her due for her brilliant art.

Bernice Bing’s Overlooked Contributions To Abstract Expressionism: artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-overlooked-abstract-expressionist-bernice-bing-searched-identity-painting

NEVER!

Fort Bragg Name Change Scheduled...

Friends,

…not our Fort Bragg but Fort Bragg, North Carolina now has a fixed date for its name change. After two years of Congressional action, Department of Defense study, local residents' discussions and hundreds of new name suggestions it will become Fort Liberty in June 2, 2023 with a ceremony and celebration.

See: wral.com/fort-bragg-to-officially-change-name-to-fort-liberty-celebration-planned-for-june/20734923/

Note one quote in the article: “Fort Bragg is named for Gen. Braxton Bragg, who served in the Confederate Army and owned a plantation where people were enslaved.” That’s our Braxton Bragg too. Keep in mind that Bragg was a slave owner when our Fort Bragg was named for him in 1857 and he had been a Confederate General when our town was incorporated with his name in 1889.

In just 3 months we will be the only Fort Bragg in the nation. But... for how much longer?

ED NOTE: Forever, Phil. Reconcile yourself, dude. No history re-writes for Mendo.

SPY ROCK ‘BABY ROCK’

To the Editor,

Thanks for the ‘Ancient Totoms’ article. Very informative, lots of history. 

I am enclosing a photo I took many years ago of a petroglyph rock on Spy Rock Road. It is located about four miles up Spy Rock and about four feet from the road. Local natives have held ceremonies at this location over the years.

Bob Wilkinson

Willits

* * *

A POMO RITUAL which may have included movement through rock involved the ethnographically-documented petroglyph boulders known as “baby rocks.” The spirits of future children dwelled in these rocks, and were born to parents who followed the proper ritual.

‘The Supernatural Frontier in Pomo Cosmology’: parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23014

JEFF MOSS, Live at the AV Brewery this Friday, March 10, 4:30-6:30pm

EDUARDO SMISSEN POSTHUMOUS EXHIBIT IN ELK

The Artists' Collective In Elk will present Eduardo Smissen's Unfinished, a posthumous exhibit of the works of Eduardo Smissen, for the month of March, 2023.

Eduardo Lorenzo Mario Smissen (1944 - 2015), was born in East Los Angeles, California. The artist's Cuban father migrated to the U.S. in the 1930's. His mother was born and grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of Mexican-born parents.

An only child, Smissen was often left alone while his parents worked. He spent a great deal of his youth sitting under tables drawing pictures, a source of comfort and security. The more he drew, the better he got, and first his family, then his peers and eventually his art teachers began to encourage his talent.

In 1964 Smissen found himself in France. While in Europe, he studied art at The Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and The Acadamie des Beaux Arts in Brussels. He returned to his family in the U.S. in 1966. He also studied at the Art Center School in Los Angeles.

Smissen has lived and worked throughout California, the Northwest and Europe - he lived on the Costa Brava of Spain for five years - and returned to Northern California in 1985.

Eduardo lived in Elk, on the Mendocino County Coast with his wife and two children until he died in February 2015.

His work has been exhibited on the Mendocino coast, as well as in the Bay Area, Washington, Germany, Spain, and Japan.

The Artists Collective, 6031 South Highway 1, is between the post office and Queenie’s in Elk. 707/877-1128, The collective is open daily from 10am to 5pm. More info: artists-collective.net

ANOTHER MENDO MASTER CRIMINAL NAILED

Defendant Megan Marie Champion, age 38, of Mendocino County, was convicted by plea Friday morning of Preparing False Evidence, a felony violation of Penal Code section 134.

It is a felony in the State of California to prepare any false or ante-dated book, paper, record, instrument in writing, or other matter or thing, with intent to produce it, or allow it to be produced for any fraudulent or deceitful purpose, as genuine or true, upon any trial, proceeding, or inquiry that is authorized by law. 

As background, defendant Champion was on misdemeanor probation for a marijuana case and, having violated her probation, was ordered to perform a significant number of community service hours. She procrastinated starting those hours, offering up various excuses when asked, and, as might be expected, supposedly fell behind in working the required hours before the completion deadline.

When the Court made inquiry as to the exact number of hours defendant Champion had worked to date and asked for a written summary, the defendant, through her attorney, subsequently submitted a summary of the dates, locations, hours, and work performed. This summary was signed by a Humboldt County livestock business owner.

When reviewed by the DA’s investigators, it was determined that the summary was fraudulent, in that defendant Champion showed long hours she had purportedly worked in California when rodeo competition records showed she was instead out-of-state competing in barrel-racing competitions. 

When the livestock business owner was interviewed by investigators, he admitted the summary was prepared by the defendant, she told him not to worry about the accuracy of the summary as accuracy was not important, and to please just sign the summary so she could move on with her life.  

The law enforcement agency that investigated this case and gathered the evidence to support Friday’s conviction was the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigations.

The prosecutor handling the case is District Attorney David Eyster.

DA Eyster commented that cases such as this – submitting false documents and evidence in judicial proceedings – are shockingly on the rise locally and constitute a nefarious attack on the truth-seeking function of the local judicial system. 

In just the last 12 months alone, six defendants have been charged in Mendocino County Superior Court with Penal Code section 134 violations. 

When uncovered, the DA promised, those found responsible for attempting to use fraudulent documents in court proceedings – no matter whether those proceedings are civil or criminal – will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

(DA Presser)

DEADLINE FOR LOCAL equity applicants to be considered for provisional license 

Local equity applicants have until March 31, 2023 to submit a license application to be considered for a provisional license per Business and Professions Code 26050.2 (a) (3) (D). 

Here is a checklist to assist you with submitting a provisional license application: 

Review current regulations for application requirements 

Gather and submit all requirements in accordance with California Code of Regulations section 15002 and 15011 

Follow the online instructions for how to apply 

Reach out to local jurisdiction for your local authorization  

Provide CEQA documentation showing proof your environmental review is underway 

For cultivation licenses, provide a final streambed alteration agreement or documentation from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that meets the requirements of section 15001.1(c)(2) of DCC’s regulations 

Make sure you are not requesting a license that exceeds one acre of outdoor cultivation, 22,000 square feet of mixed-light or indoor cultivation, or licenses on contiguous premises that exceed these size limitations 

If paying your application fee by cash, make an appointment to pay before the March 31, 2023 deadline by emailing payments@cannabis.ca.gov   

If you are a local equity business and have already submitted an application for a provisional license, be sure to check the application portal and your email inbox to ensure all application requirements have been completed. 

To learn more about local equity applicant qualifications, please send an email to equity@cannabis.ca.gov or visit our website at https://cannabis.ca.gov/resources/equity/.

(CALCANNABIS)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, March 7, 2023

BRIAN ANDERSON, Ukiah. Battery, petty theft.

SKYLER HENDERSON, Willits. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

ANGELA LEBERT, Willits. Domestic battery.

AMBER NELSON, Lucerne/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

BINGE WIDENING

I see that there is concern that Caltrans wants to widen the wrong roads and bridges. Why stop at just widening them? Many people are of the opinion that it's not just how wide it is; how thick and rich it is matter too. Meat, cake batter, 78-rpm records, bridges, layers of paint on windowsills, pottery salad bowls, lipstick, lounge chairs, wristwatches, rockets, blankets, typefaces, laws, everything. Just start a society-wide frenzy of widening and thickening everything until a consensus develops about what's /most desirable/ to widen and thicken, and funnel all available efforts and money there. Standing around bitching and accomplishing nothing with a bunch of other people doing the same blows chunks. Instead, dedicate to a true mission in the real world and begin.

Speaking of which, I got another call from the /dogs-love-cheese/-commercial-voice man about donating to the American Police Association to support police against all the troubles they have. The gentleman woke me up with the phone again. I found out last time that if you ask for details about their organization they connect you to a nasty smoking-wrecked-scratchy-voice woman who is no more forthcoming with information but snaps viciously at you and hangs up, so I merely informed the fellow again that this is the, I dunno, /fortieth/ time I've demanded that he never call me again, and he chuckled avuncularly, "Have a great day now. [click]"

He might be a crippled old officer making himself useful to scammers. But the quality and cadence of his voice and delivery haven't changed in thirty years, so I'm starting to think it's an A.I. system modeled on the original real person. Next time it calls I hope I have the presence of mind to ask, "Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?"

Okay, I just asked that question of ChatGPT, and it answered:

”As an AI language model, I do not have access to external information unless it is provided to me. However, based on the phrase "Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?", it is likely that this is a nonsensical or whimsical statement that does not have a literal answer. It may be a playful or surreal element in a story, intended to spark the reader's imagination or add a sense of mystery or absurdity.”

In the old days, "Calculate pi to the Nth digit," could drive Rejak from the Enterprise computer and back into the Prefect where he could be beamed out into space on wide dispersal, and, “Everything I tell you is a lie. I'm telling you a lie,” could disable Norman and cause smoke to come out of his ears. I don't think that sort of technique has the power it used to have, but nothing else works, so why not try?

Marco McClean

BILLBOARD IDIOCY

Editor,

The billboard in Berkeley that recently stated:

“IT DOES NOT TAKE A LAW DEGREE TO KNOW THAT ANTI-ZIONISM IS ANTI-SEMITISM. -JEWBELONG.org.”

Which I found to be an odd statement being that the leading pro-Israel Zionist Scholar in the West by the name of Bernard Lewis has clearly stated as much that criticism of the State of Israel IS NOT ANTI-SEMITISM and to conflate it as such is anti-intellectual and serves no purpose. I am paraphrasing of course. Now that was in a book of his from 20 or more years ago so these rightwing politics shift of course and clearly a ‘purpose’ for ridiculous statements has been found.

As has been reported, some monkey wrenchers changed the first billboard to read

“IT DOES NOT TAKE A LAW DEGREE TO KNOW

JEWS4PALESTINE. ”

The new billboard just went up 30 minutes ago stating,

“WE’RE JUST 78 YEARS SINCE THE GAS CHAMBERS. SO NO, A BILLBOARD CALLING OUT JEW HATE IS NOT AN OVERREACTION. JEWBELONG.org”

I literally put my hand on my face. Who do they let write this stuff???

The Jews, who by my witness possess some of the sharpest minds, wits and intellects that history has produced clearly have some dullards in their mix.

I find it fascinating that in 2023 late capitalist left coast we find this rigorous ‘debate’ being had on a Billboard. Absolutely fascinating!!! I just genuinely wish the right wingers chose some more intelligent things to say.

Nate Collins, Berkeley

PS. RE; Arabs, Bedouins, Nomads…. Once I saw the term “NOMAD” I saw just another of the million striking parallels between Arabs and Jews or Muslims and Jews. They are nearly an identical people in so many regards right down to reading the Jewish Talmud and the Sunnah of the Prophet which have many identical concepts and teachings that are peppered throughout both traditions. The parallels and similarities are fascinating and striking when you dig a little. Calling Mohammed a Jewish Prophet who was rejected by the Jews and proceeded to make a mass amount of non-jews follow a very Jewish like tradition is not a stretch of the imagination.

MIKE GENIELLA: Gotta love the ‘Hotsy Totsy’ name. When I was growing up in the Sacramento Valley, Finocchio’s was only whispered about as an example of the ‘sinful’ things that could be found in the City.

Paula Samonte:  I was a cocktail waitress who sang at the original Hotsy Totsy Club on Jackson St. in 1960. I would have an espresso at Enrico’s when the crowd went upstairs for the show at Finocchio’s. Many good memories of those days.

"OF ALL THE VERSIONS of my recorded songs, the Johnny Rivers one was my favorite. It was obvious that we were from the same side of town, had been read the same citations, came from the same musical family and were cut from the same cloth. When I listened to Johnny’s version of “Positively 4th Street,” I liked his version better than mine. I listened to it over and over again. Most of the cover versions of my songs seemed to take them out into left field somewhere, but Rivers’s version had the mandate down — the attitude and melodic sense to complete and surpass even the feeling that I had put into it. It shouldn’t have surprised me, though. He had done the same thing with “Maybellene” and “Memphis,” two Chuck Berry songs. When I heard Johnny sing my song, it was obvious that life had the same external grip on him as it did on me." 

— Bob Dylan, ‘The Chronicles’

---

HERE'S TO YOU, JOHNNY

Live Free

Positively 4th Street 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGAWwK9unlQ

(via Craig Stehr)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m stupid. And I know it.

Knowing that I’m stupid and ignorant I know that I have to delve into things, read-up on things, educate myself before I make a determination or form an opinion.

I feel uncomfortable assimilating someone’s opinion as my own. It feels lazy and fraudulent.

I know we stupid people are nurtured and inculcated that way: presented the work and research of others and told this is the consensus. And we believe it.

How many times in polite company do you hear, “wasn’t it Voltaire who said…”

I don’t know! I wasn’t there

But that’s what THEY told US

ACROSS THE TRACKS

by David Bacon

FRESNO, CALIFORNIA—In the most productive agricultural area in the world, poverty is endemic. Crisscrossed by irrigation canals and railroad tracks, Fresno is the working-class capital and largest city of California’s San Joaquin Valley, a city where people speak Spanish as readily as English.

Here, the polarization of rich and poor is a constant theme in the city’s history and in its present. The banks and growers of the valley built ornate office buildings and movie palaces when the downtown was their showplace. Now, as developers have abandoned Fresno for the suburbs, the theater entrances and building doorways have become sleeping spaces and refuges from the rain for those with no fixed home…

thenation.com/article/society/across-the-tracks/

SLICE OF THE CITY

(Write where you are)

by Stella Maris

It’s early on Sunday morning at the Brushless Car Wash and I’m surprised at how many people are already here sitting in those horrible plastic chairs all facing the same way (backs to the sun). I’m next in line in the three lanes and tell the guy I want the carpets washed. For once I don’t have a book to read or paper to scribble on and that’s OK; I planned it that way. 

I face west looking across South Van Ness – there is The Mission Hotel, another fleabag place and I shudder thinking about who lives there. I am moved by how much courage and patience medics, EMTs, and doctors have to help people like The Mission Hotel inhabitants. That place is only one of the many SRO hotels in the city, a circle of hell Dante never wrote about. 

No book or paper for me. I just want to let the ol’ mind wander and listen to what it says. It’s sunny, but the cold wind off the ocean hasn’t lessened. I turn my chair for a while, opposite from everyone else, and face the rising sun.

This is a scientific inquiry. I’ve lived away from the city long enough to find all of my surroundings here fascinating, looking at what I’m familiar with from another stance. Observing the workers at this place – they’re like a swarm of busy bees, hovering, moving, back and forth. They’re all Latino and all non-smiling, except one woman who not only smiles, but sings as she polishes. The workers all looked pissed. I wonder what they’re thinking. Are they all thinking I’m too good for this job? I’m glad I’ve got this job even though it’s not much. Are they thinking of going to their next job? – (a lot of these people routinely work two jobs).

I note the people sitting around me and try to match them with the cars that are brought around to claim. A few times I call it right, the Benz or the Beamer – I match those to their owners. Mostly I’m wrong and I’m glad. It just goes to show ya. A lot of weird-looking people are out early this Sunday and I guess maybe I’m one of them. There’s a young couple with a new baby girl; the mom and dad look hardly out of their teens. They are immaculately dressed, freshly showered, and I guess their car is getting a bath too. I think maybe they’re going to Mass or to some party.

I listen to someone sitting behind me, a 20-something woman with the requisite maroon swathe in her cute brunette bob. I listen as she calls a friend – their entire conversation is mundane. Yeah, so ya know, so yesterday I like really like had to deal with the laundry, ya know. I just got this thing, ya know, to, you know, deal with it, finally. And I mean, like, I really did it, the laundry. Like I musta washed seven loads and now like I gotta fold it.  Did I do that? Did I talk to my friends like that when I was her age? I examine my past and judge accordingly. No, I never called my friends and discussed my laundry. This lengthy conversation (the subject of laundry may have depths to which we are not attuned after all) nearly rendered me comatose, but it was so fascinatingly boring I made every effort to stay conscious hoping for some lightening strike of insight. I deduced the tentative laundress worked for some property management company. I imagined she lives in a semi-bohemian flat on Valencia, drinks martinis (mojitos are so not happening) and effects this urban hippie stance.

Things liven up across the street at The Mission Hotel. When I first arrived there was a clot of people standing around the entrance smoking in front of the big no smoking inside the building sign. And quite a group they are: there’s a tall guy who looks and behaves like Tiny Tim of TV tiptoe-through-the-tulips fame; he’s the cheeriest of the lot. They all talk, smoke, and sip coffee from paper cups. Each seems a stereotype: beefy black guy with beefy prison-made biceps, sickly looking skinny guy (just out of rehab?) old hooker-looking lady trying to be one of the boys.

Back to matching cars with people and trying not to erupt at the cell phone miscreants surrounding me. Yelling comes from across the street – another show begins. A tall black guy a few buildings away is shouting and two black women in front of the hotel are shouting back. The more vocal of the two is really berating this guy, he’s yelling and I can’t make out what they’re saying, but they’re all really hot. It’s somewhat operatic – the big guy backs off down the street, pushed off stage by the chorus of the two women, the short one is the most vocal, and her sidekick chimes in echoing the litany. The short one moves forward (evidently this guy isn’t retreating fast enough) and launches toward him as he retreats walking backwards. She amps up and I can hear her: “I’m gonna whup yo’ ass!” she screams over and over; I finally stop counting. Sidekick backs her up and the two of them succeed in thinning out the smokers and those remaining are now quiet as an audience should be. After the guy clears off, the two women argue with each other. I’d love to know what that was all about – drug deal? Some kind of con? Some scheme gone wrong?

Show over, the smokers go back inside. The near-combatants move off. It’s calm for a moment. Then emerges a young, clean-cut hippie-looking guy, maybe he works at the nearby Whole Foods. He’s pushing his good-looking bike carefully, mounts it and moves off. He’s got knapsacks and backpacks all over himself and the bike – probably all his worldly goods, everything too precious to leave behind in his room. He’s somewhat startling because he appears to live at the hotel and he looks, well, how shall I say it, somewhat normal, although what passes for normal around here is open to conjecture. 

The streets here are filthy, filthy and dangerous. Ubiquitous pigeons circle, honing in on food scraps. The Mission is one of the roughest parts of the city. The cops say that (one block away) 16^th and Mission has the highest rate of drug dealing in the city. Given the character of the Tenderloin (night of the living dead people) and Hunters Point, I doubt that. I guess this statement is based on the number of arrests made in the area. That could not truly accurately account for drug dealing activity, as more arrests made might mean a higher concentration of cops with more info. I think drug dealing is higher in HP but not thwarted because cops don’t venture there much, it’s a war zone.

My attention is back at the car wash. I see that not only the workers are sullen; most of the customers are too. I see a lot of them have dogs with them, those squish-em dogs, furry rats, purse dogs – they have many names. Even the dogs look sad. I search the faces of the customers. No one looks remotely happy. Is it the city that makes them this way? I wonder what they are thinking about.

A woman on nearby chair excitedly leans towards another woman who’s reading from a Kindle. She starts a conversation inquiring about her Kindle version, the pros and cons, etc. and I unabashedly eavesdrop. I’m enjoying their exchange and how this shoots my position on strangers who don’t talk.

Another prejudice is shot down when a woman approaches a woman sitting on a double bench and asks if she can have a seat. A young Chinese guy comes up and politely asks me if he can use the empty chair near me. He moved it a bit away so as to make a cell phone call. I wanted to stand up and cheer. A couple of other people did that too, but mostly I’m sitting in a sea of maniacs, the lunatic asylum where everyone mutters to himself and no one listens. 

New activity at the hotel. An older man drives up in some big American car, a Buick maybe. He’s nicely dressed in slacks, sport coat, tie. A new cast of characters rush over to the trunk that he has popped open, the inmates of the hotel quickly descend upon the trunk. He greets them all heartily – good morning – and they respond. He must be a do-gooder from some church group. The trunk is emptied and everyone disappears inside with what look like boxes of food and bakery goods.

A lull in the traffic, after all it is early Sunday. Families walk by, all dressed up. One little girl about six is having a tough time walking in high heels. Why, oh why do these people dress their daughters like midget women? It’s so awful, I think, it’s some cultural hang-up; the girls are like dolls, miniature prom queens. Why hurry life? It goes by fast enough.

At last my car is ready and it’s so clean I almost can’t find it in the holding area. It seems the people with the most expensive cars give the least tips or none at all. (I’ve been watching that too). I give the guy a dollar and realize later other guys worked on it as well, but all the tips go into a pot and are equally divided. They’re probably making minimum wage.

I drive home to where it is clean, to where most of us are not maimed or blind and those of us who are are making progress dealing with it. No visible scars, no open sores, no inane babbling, our minds are in easy reach and frequently make sense and we don’t call anyone to say we folded laundry.

In another year I might go back to the carwash and see what’s playing. I’ll remember to bring my baseball hat – too many pigeons around here.

ASH WEDNESDAY

by Eric S. McMahon (2003)

I’d been to Mexico eight, maybe nine times, not counting border towns; spots like Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Zihuatenejo, Oaxaca, and Cancun. I had seen the sprawling Federal District, Ciudad de Mexico, itself, only once, for about three hours. Yucatan-bound, facing a long layover, we’d hired a cab (charged $1.85 or so), requesting a rolling tour of the capital.

We’d glimpsed memorials to martyrs and revolutionaries, the opulence of the Zona Rosa, the squalor of the slums, elegant architecture and landscaping at Chapultepec Park, devastation from the most recent ferremoto. Reboarded Mexicana, escaped.

Now, however, I was assigned to spend four days there, attending an international trade conference, right after NAFTA had gotten ratified. New York-born, I’d lived and worked in a town of eight million. Forced often to visit L.A., whose environs counted at least as many. Taken two Tokyo trips, the metro area of which easily housed twice that.

A colleague told me right before departure, though, that Mexico City’s population currently stood at 24 million. Was he certain? Those were some serious numbers. The place had gotten so out of control, my co-worker reported, basureros (garbage dealers) offered “good” trash from better neighborhoods to unfortunates in the truly sorry sectors.

“Blade Runner flashbacks,” he recalled. _

“In what way?”

“A really frightening vision of the future. When are you going? Not on Tuesday, I hope?”

“Why?”

“That’s Mardi Gras, man.”

“They have a carnival there, like New Orleans?”

“Sure, except with automatic weapons, high-test cactus juice, and heavy body-counts.”

“I’m flying the day after.”

“Ash Wednesday?”

“I guess.” Wasn’t raised Catholic.

“You should be okay. Don’t wear anything flashy — not that you’re the Rolex/pinky-ring type. Don’t take any leisurely evening strolls. And of course...act natural.”

“Real fan of the city, aren’t you?”

“It’s unique. There is a lot to see — got to make it to the Archaeology Museum, for instance. I’m not saying this to put the people down. Big welcome, without fail. But consider what happens in the labs when they force too many animals into a cage.”

Thus encouraged, I flew south. Remarkably, I arrived nearly on schedule, and my luggage had accompanied me.

I stepped out of the partially-cooled terminal, inhaling what passed for air in Mexico City, a humid concoction comprising sulfurous fumes and noxious, nitrogen-rich particulate compounds, constantly replenished by black bursts belching from vehicles that still burned leaded gas,

I chose a cab based on its more professionally-executed logo.

In childlike Spanish, I gave the driver our destination. As far as I could understand, he proposed we take a faster side route, rather than the congested highway. Waving agreement, I said he was the pro (or he had goat-legs, who knew? A particularly grisly crucified-Jesus icon was lashed to his rear-view mirror.

He asked if I’d come for pleasure. Stifling a chuckle, I replied, no, strictly business. Nodding approval, he declared that Americans traveling to Mexico was always good, whatever the reason; the two countries ought to act as partners, not squabble like big and little brothers.

I attempted to express the notion that los Estados Unidos should respect Mexico more while exploiting it less. He shrugged, indicating either my brutal butchery of his language, or unwillingness to endorse some left-wing gringo’s political agenda.

Within minutes, at twilight, we had entered a beaten-down, failed industrial area, blown-out suspension offering no protection from ditches and massive potholes. Wondered how autos could endure days, much less years, of such torture.

My chofer was used to it, weaving down narrow alleys, past barely-surviving businesses, which specialized in mofles and tubos and obscure vulcanizing processes.

Suddenly, we were paralyzed, caught in the midst of an anarchic celebration. All around the taxi appeared costumed revelers — brujas, cadavers, hechiceros, esqueletos, jorobados, espectros, soldatos con piel de plata, aranas, sirenas, lagartos, lobos, arlequinos, y murcielagos — swarming and dancing, Surrounded by masked characters, immobilized by the ecstatic throng.

Only the smallest children were undisguised, and they peered through the cab windows. It had grown misty, and their faces — swam, yet I was the captive fish in this aquarium.

Coyotes and conquistadors launched black-powder missiles, charges powerful enough to thud within your chest. The situation _ looked like it could easily go anywhere. My driver seemed neither fearful nor festive. He exhibited nothing but ennui. 

I asked if the partying extended throughout the city, or solely this barrio. What I took him to respond was that, “Where you go, it will follow you.” Like all fine rites and rituals.

He leaned hard on his horn, starting a slalom through raucous celebrants. Finally, we got onto an unobstructed street, mirth and menace behind us. My mind struggled to process what had just been presented. Meanwhile, sulfur and water conspired, firing up an acid burn among the bronchioles.

Interesting location, so far, I mused, reminding myself that two dozen million called it home.

SOMETIMES on the way back from the movies, she would drive by their old house. They had sold it to an unmemorable young couple, and now, driving past it slowly, eyeing it like a pervert, she began to want it back. It was a good house. They didn’t deserve it, that couple: look how ignorant they were—pulling out all those forsythia bushes as if they were weeds.

Or maybe they were weeds. She never knew anymore what was good life and what was bad, what was desirable matter and what was antimatter, what was the thing itself and what was the death of the thing: one mimicked the other, and she resented the work of having to distinguish.

Which, again, was the false spirea and which was the true?

The house was hers. If it hadn’t been for that damn banana bread, it still would be hers.

— Lorrie Moore

THE MACHINE OF MYTH-MAKING rolls on, seemingly under its own impetus, grinding out stories about how the Revolution was made. The nearest parallel is the spreading of the tales told by the supposed apostles about Jesus. It is sickening to have to record that I am the focus of many of them. I find the process sickening. But every time I protest, I am assured that the masses yearn to believe that at the top of the state is someone larger than life, a semi-divine figure. Each legend, they tell me, has been calculated to be worth an extra ration of bread a week or the like.

How can this be? Why should ordinary people want to be told that I have thick, red, curly hair, when everyone who comes within half a mile is dazzled by the shine on my bald head? Why should they need to be assured that every morning I am at my office by 8, some say 7:30, when it is notorious among the thousands who work in and around the Kremlin that I get up at 10 and reach my desk by 11? Would it not be better to tell them the truth, that afterward I work until 4, have dinner exactly at 5, then Cabinet meetings until midnight. Sometimes work at home, perhaps until 5 or 6 in the morning. I would prefer to drive in a car without a bodyguard—I’d walk everywhere alone, given the opportunity.

But the same people who insist on bulletproof glass, armed protectors, fast driving through crowds, are the same ones who insist that we must pretend not to be doing exactly that. Instead it is whispered that I frequently “mingle unrecognized among the people” like a prince from the Arabian Nights. Celebration of my fiftieth birthday, two days ago, staged by the Moscow Committee of the Party, gave me the opportunity to put a little dent in the cult of personality. I conspicuously absented myself from the eulogies, on the grounds of: “If you can’t beat them, at least don’t join them.” Then I appeared for a moment only when the massage of the ego, the sound of vanity, was over. Without seeming too ungrateful, I said as flatly as I could: “I must thank you for two things. For today’s greetings. Even more, for excusing me from listening to today’s greetings.”

You cannot win. Now they will go around saying “What modesty!” and “How self-critical!” They do not seem to understand that any true Bolshevik finds it physically revolting to hear any person endlessly licked and groomed as a super-being, even more so if it is himself. After all the eulogies on the tombs which cover the reputations of the great leaders of the past—Alexander, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, Caesar, Napoleon, Cromwell, Garibaldi or whoever— might flesh out a skeleton of truth. I was not there to test them against the standards of such heroic Socialist rebels as Herzen, Bakunin, Chernyshevsky, Marx, Engels. But I do know who I am, what I am. I do not seek adulation for doing what has to be done.

— Lenin, as channeled by Alan Brien

UKRAINE, TUESDAY, 7TH MARCH

Ukraine has demanded the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate grisly footage circulating on social media allegedly showing Russian forces killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war with a series of blasts from assault weapons.

The amateur video apparently depicts a detained soldier standing in a shallow trench, wearing camouflage, and smoking a cigarette. The man said “Slava Ukraini!” — or Glory to Ukraine — before multiple shots are heard.

The victim slumps to the ground as rounds from automatic weapons repeatedly hit his body. A voice in Russian is heard saying, “Die bi*ch”.

“Horrific video of an unarmed Ukrainian POW executed by Russian forces merely for saying ‘Glory to Ukraine’. Another [piece of] proof this war is genocidal,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on social media on Monday.

Kuleba said it was “imperative” that Prosecutor Karim Khan “launches an immediate ICC investigation into this heinous war crime”.

“Perpetrators must face justice,” he added.

Separately, the foreign ministry said in a tweet: “Killing prisoners of war is a war crime. Those responsible for such crimes will face punishment.”

Authenticity, date or location of the video, which is of poor quality, could not immediately be verified. Russia’s defence ministry did not comment.

The “Glory to Ukraine” phrase and the response “Heroyam Slava”, or “Glory to the Heroes”, has been a hallmark of post-Soviet Ukraine.

But it has taken on special significance as a common greeting in public life since the start of the Russian invasion a year ago. It has also served to rally international support for Ukraine.

Ukraine said it had identified the soldier. “According to preliminary data, the deceased is a serviceman of the 30th separate mechanised brigade — Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura,” the military said on Telegram on Tuesday.

The soldier had been missing since February 3 amid fighting near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, it said.

Kyiv said the soldier’s remains were located in territory currently controlled by Russian forces. “The final confirmation of his identity can be established after the body is returned,” the military said.

#GloryToUkraine Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the video showed Russian occupiers “brutally killing a warrior”.

He added in his evening address on Monday: “I want us all in unity to respond to his words, ‘Glory to the hero. Glory to the heroes. Glory to Ukraine.’ And we will find the murderers. Ukraine will not forget the feat of each and everyone whose lives gave freedom to Ukraine forever.”

Within hours of the video’s emergence, #GloryToUkraine became one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter.

Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said on Telegram that Ukraine’s security service registered the shooting as a criminal case under its criminal code that covers violations of war laws and customs.

“Even the war has its own laws,” he said, adding prosecutors from his office would lead the case. “There are rules of international law systematically ignored by the Russian criminal regime. But sooner or later, there will be punishment.”

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said the man was a Ukrainian prisoner of war and the killing was part of a “deliberate policy of terror” by Russia.

Ukrainian and Western authorities say there is evidence of thousands of war crimes committed in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. Russia has repeatedly denied its forces have committed atrocities or attacked civilians.

Evidence of Ukrainian forces committing war crimes during the conflict, including executing surrendering soldiers, has also surfaced.

(Al Jazeera)

NUREMBERG STRIKES BACK

by Sadakat Kadri

The Kremlin is urging Russian cinemagoers to remember 1945. A state-funded romantic thriller, depicting love, skullduggery and justice at the world’s first war crimes trial, recently opened nationwide. Nuremberg, written and directed by Nikolai Lebedev, promises to counter ‘the falsification of history’, according to the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who thinks parallels with the present are obvious. ‘In a number of European countries, primarily Ukraine and the Baltic states, they are not only justifying the Nazis and their henchmen,’ he says. ‘They are reviving the ideology and practices of the Third Reich.’

Timely or otherwise, the film’s late. When it was proposed in late 2018 by the then minister of culture, Vladimir Medinsky, he was hoping for a premiere on 9 May 2020 (the pandemic put paid to that schedule). To have the movie opening on the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender would, Medinsky thought, help rectify another injustice. ‘In many films, in many works, the Americans write about Nuremberg as their great victory,’ he told Vladimir Putin. ‘The role of the Soviet Union is practically reduced to nothing.’

Medinsky’s fondness for patriotic cinema has never inspired a blockbuster, and a rom-com set during the construction of Crimea’s Kerch Bridge was flopping even as he was pitching his Nuremberg idea to Putin. His grievance had some substance, nonetheless. The first trial at Nuremberg is frequently misportrayed in the West as a straightforward vindication of liberalism and the rule of law.

In fact, the push for prosecuting Nazi leaders came from the Kremlin. Churchill argued consistently for summary executions, and the US position didn’t much differ until early 1945. Only Stalin, with his fondness for show trials, always thought a judicial spectacle essential. ‘There must be no executions without trial,’ he insisted in October 1944. ‘Otherwise the world would say we were afraid to try them.’

The legacy of Nuremberg isn’t defined by that detail, but a reluctance to address the implications is currently skewing perspectives on all sides. When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, senior Duma legislators began to talk of ‘Nuremberg 2.0’ (a term previously associated with anti-vaxxers and QAnon activists), as if nods to 1945 could legitimize the resort to force. Ukrainian and Western campaigners contemplate charges of aggression and war crimes against Russian figures from Putin downwards, as though the collaborative compromises that made Nuremberg possible were irrelevant. An innovative tribunal to judge vanquished enemies, structured and disfigured by realpolitik, is being held up as a model of neutrality and due process.

Even if it’s hard to imagine an international court with the credibility to transcend those divisions, the absence of legal consensus doesn’t amount to moral equivalence. In most countries, the messy mysteries of history remain debatable, while arrogant and hypocritical forms of nationalism constantly threaten to distort outlooks on the past. In Russia, however, citizens have since 2014 faced imprisonment for denying ‘facts established by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg’.

The law, enacted two weeks after the seizure of Crimea, has been enforced against some real Nazi sympathizers in Russia, but its most recent target was an anti-corruption activist, Ruslan Akhmetshin. He’s now serving two and a half years in a penal colony because, on social media ten months before his arrest, he’d condemned Stalin for invading Poland alongside Hitler in September 1939. Their alliance was too sensitive to be acknowledged by Allied judges in 1945 – and now Russians, three-quarters of a century later, are legally obliged to pretend it didn’t happen.

Most notices of Lebedev’s movie so far have been negative. Fontanka observed that the lead Soviet prosecutor of 1945, who had a strong Ukrainian accent in real life, has been made to speak impeccable Russian ‘because of the current political situation’. Two reviewers have observed, deadpan, that Nazis at Nuremberg tried to justify their war of conquest by calling it a ‘pre-emptive strike’. Another drew attention to a scene in which a bereaved German says her son died ‘defending his homeland’ at Stalingrad. ‘Homeland? In a foreign country?’ she’s asked incredulously. Overt opposition to the war on Ukraine is risky, but parallels with the past are there, if critics choose to notice.