Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023

Chilly | Rainfall Week | Jason Gillenwater | Purple Sky | AG Response | Star Cap | Sandbar Article | Jones Jewelry | Adventist/BS | Christmas Dinner | Ed Notes | Midnight Creeper | Effective Management | Niner Xmas | Shields Commentary | New Years | Name Changers | Fort Ord | Organizational Meeting | Floodgate Owners | Winter Memories | Yesterday's Catch | Destructive Socialism | Eldercycle | Public Mick | Sex Scandal | Suicide Doors | Methy Assumption | Yule Axes | Bloody Gender | Marco Radio | Edward Gorey | Hoopa Land | Sewing | Orange Tarbaby | 368 Texts | Snap Mobs | Local News | No Respect | Fun Champion | From Ipanema | More Lawfare | Death Toll | UN Resolution | Singing Midget | Sinatra Interview | Orchestral Tryst

DRY, COLD AIR will continue across Northern California today and tomorrow. A series of waves will bring periods of light rain for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. More active and unsettled weather is expected mid next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cool 42F under clear skies this Saturday morning on the coast. A generally lovely weekend & Christmas is forecast although with a slight chance of a shower increasing into the holiday. On & off rains next week with a couple heavier rain days forecast but like many times before the forecast changes daily.

RAINFALL MAP FOR THE PAST 7 DAYS: wettest was the Santa Barbara/Ventura county line with over 15 inches (click to enlarge).

THURSDAY’S SUICIDAL MURDER SUSPECT/HIGHWAY 101 DRIVER IDENTIFIED

On Thursday, December 21, 2023 at approximately 1:41 PM personnel from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office responded to a reported critical incident on Highway 101 at Perkins Street in Ukiah, California.

Upon arrival Sheriff's Office personnel learned officers from the Ukiah Police Department and California Highway Patrol had conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle which was connected to a person wanted for homicide.

During the traffic stop, the driver of the vehicle exited and died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound which was witnessed by officers.

The Mendocino County Officer-Involved Fatal Protocol was initiated due to the attempted apprehension of the driver, the reason for the traffic stop. The California Highway Patrol assumed lead investigative responsibility as outlined by the protocol and the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office assumed coroner's responsibilities related to the critical incident.

The Sheriff's Office Coroner's Unit has identified the driver as Jason Elliot Gillenwater, a 46-year-old male from Pacifica. Gillenwater's identity was not available for public release until the afternoon of December 22, 2023 due to pending next of kin notification.

* * *

THE SUSPECT in Thursday's double stabbing in Pacifica, which was described as an incident of domestic violence and in which one male victim died, was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Ukiah.

Very few details were available Thursday after the initial report of police activity and a suspect at large, following the stabbings of two victims, one male and one female, at a home on Naomi Avenue in the Vallemar neighborhood of Pacifica. The female victim was hospitalized with stab wounds, and the male victim, who still had not been publicly identified, died at the scene.

As KTVU now reports, the suspect, 46-year-old Jason Gillenwater, was a firefighter paramedic for the Colma Fire Suppression District, and police had been called to the same home on Naomi Avenue in Pacifica on Wednesday because Gillenwater had violated a restraining order against him.

Gillenwater had been suspended from his job following an arrest last week, according to ABC 7's reporting, stemming from a domestic abuse incident at the same Naomi Avenue home, involving his ex — whom neighbors identified to KTVU as a woman named Nina.

Gillenwater was released on bail, however in addition to a restraining order there was reportedly a “gun violence emergency protective order” against him, allowing authorities to seize any guns or ammunition in his possession, per ABC 7.

Following the double stabbing Thursday, police and/or witnesses reportedly saw Gillenwater dressed in camouflage and covered in blood leaving the scene on foot. Gillenwater then allegedly drove to Oakland, and north in a gray Ford F150 to Ukiah. He allegedly stopped in Colusa County and purchased a gun — which he should not have been allowed to purchase, given the protective order and the APB out for his arrest at the time.

Gillenwater then used the weapon to take his own life during a traffic stop by Ukiah police and CHP officers in Ukiah, as KTVU reports. He reportedly died in the Ford F150.

Two children who were reportedly home in the Naomi Avenue house when the stabbings occurred have been taken away by victim services in San Mateo County. There has been no report on the female victim's condition, though KTVU says she is "still in the hospital receiving treatment for her injuries."

Pacifica Police Chief Maria Sarasua issued a statement, saying, "We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and keeping the family members and Pacifica community close in our hearts as they cope with this profound loss. I am grateful to the San Mateo County allied agencies, San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, and the California Highway Patrol for their assistance during this investigation."

(SFIST.com)

SORRY, MIKE

From: AGPressOffice <agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov>

Date: Fri, Dec 22, 2023 at 12:25 PM

Subject: Re: Mendocino County District Attorney

Hi Mike (Geniella),

The California Department of Justice takes community concerns -- and every case we undertake -- very seriously, and makes decisions based on the evidence and the law. With regard to the recusal motion you've asked about, that case remains active and ongoing. As stated in our filing, under California Penal Code section 1424, recusal of a district attorney may only be granted where a conflict of interest exists such as would render it unlikely that the defendant would receive a fair trial. The legal standard is discussed in detail in our brief, starting on page 4. The next hearing in this case regarding the recusal motion is now set for January 12, 2023. We are aware of the additional allegations you referenced, and beyond that we are unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, potential or ongoing investigations or actions.

Also flagging that you can call our press office with inquiries at 916-210-6000.

Best,

Press Office, California Attorney General

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE NAVARRO RIVER SANDBAR?

Thanks to the LIstserve, where I have been discussing this issue for more than 10 years. And to Nick Wilson who worked VERY hard to help me on this, plus doing his usual work of monitoring the river and weather and everything else!

mendovoice.com/2023/12/manual-breach-of-navarro-river-sandbar-raises-issues-bigger-than-traffic/

Frank Hartzell

ATTENTION LAST MINUTE SHOPPERS: A. D. has lots of interesting stuff in his area of the caboose

THANK YOU FOR TRUSTING US (!!!)

Blue Shield and AH - Email to Community Partners

I am pleased to let you know that Adventist Health and Blue Shield have reached a new agreement that provides Blue Shield plan members with continued in-network access to hospital-based services at Adventist Health facilities, effective retroactively December 1, 2023.

This agreement allows us to continue our long-standing working relationship with Blue Shield. The new contract includes all 18 Adventist hospitals across California, including our hospitals in Mendocino, Lake, Butte, and Tehama counties.

We want to express our gratitude for the trust you and your team have placed in us as your healthcare provider. It is a trust that we work tirelessly to earn every day. We remain dedicated to serving our patients and building a healthy and stronger community together.

If you have any further questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team. We are here for you and will do everything we can to ensure continued access to quality healthcare remains close to home.

Sincerely,

Judy Leach

Adventist Hospital Administrator

Ukiah

ED NOTES

CHLOE GUAZZONI, of the Anderson Valley Health Center, laying it on super-thick: “Anderson Valley’s aging adults are unique and their care should also be unique. We are looking at how we can provide supportive services for aging in place, spaces for community groups and palliative and end-of-life care.” (Come on over, Chloe, Mendocino County's beloved weekly is produced by two geriatrics who mos def are definitely aging, if not aged, in place. A weekly neck rub would be most welcome.)

AT THE MENTION of geriatrics, here's a tiresome tale for you. I was walking to my compost pile in a geriatric fog trying to remember where I was headed on Tuesday noon when suddenly I felt like someone had slugged me in the jaw. "Wot the heck?" I quickly realized it was a toothache, onset of. I couldn't remember my last one hitting so suddenly and with such force. I try not to be the kind of wheeze who, you say hello to, and you get a complete medical history, but some of what follows may be of use to my fellow geriatrics.

FIRST STEP, pain meds, as I chastised myself for growing weak and needy in my dotage. My colleague, The Major, offered Numbzits and Tylenol. “I said meds, Major, not palliatives. Hard drugs, comprende?” He replied that he “wasn't a criminal and had no intention of becoming one at an advanced age.”

FIRST GUY I called for serious drugs, said, “Well, I've got Oxies, Percocet, Zoloft…” He's probably under police surveillance but I'd buy from Trump to stop this throbber. I scored three Oxies to see me through until my Thursday afternoon appointment with one of America's great dentists, Dr. Sapna Chandra of Fairfax, located in the same ancient building on the same floor as the legendary Dr. Fong, dentist to three generations of my family. Dr. Chandra is an entirely worthy successor to the fabled Dr. Fong.

DR. CHANDRA is much in demand, but if she can fit you in, you won't be disappointed. She didn't put it this harshly but what had happened to me was extreme tooth rot where root canal had aged out. I thought root canal was permanent, but as the great wheel of existence spins ever faster, permanence in anything seems to have been flung clean off.

DR. CHANDRA electronically transmitted a prescription for antibiotics, which I filled at the battered, failing CVS store in the Red Hill Shopping Center, at whose doors sat an obese woman with a child of 5 or 6. Her sign said “I'm a single mother and have no money for a Christmas present for my daughter.” This low energy mendicant's begging bowl was stuffed with fives, tens, even twenties. I looked furtively around before contributing only a pair of ones.

CVS has been in the Marin news lately as it’s beset by bands of feral junior high boys on motorized bicycles who, working in packs of ten to a dozen, ride boldly through the doors of the place, zooming up and down the aisles for quick grabs of whatever, preferences being chips, soft drinks and candy, then out into the vast anonymity of the parking lot. 

THE STORE has perpetual ads in its windows for help. The shelves are about a third bare because CVS can't find workers to re-stock them. Combine low wages for this kind of work and rents in Marin — and everywhere else in the Bay Area — and labor is priced out or living ten to a room over in the Canal neighborhood.

I STOOD in a line of about a dozen people, hoping the feral marauders would attack to relieve the monotony, but the only excitement came when, twice, well turned out women of 50 or so, barged straight up to the windows. I squeaked out a weak, “Hey, we're in line here,” but Marin being one of the great Karen centers of America, the entitled pair didn't even look around. And the Asian women at the window waited on them, probably being accustomed to the Karen-heavy county and its famously entitled citizens, rightly concluding that ignoring the women wasn't worth the fight.

I HAVEN'T gotten a prescription for anything in years, and was surprised when Dr. Chandra said the process was electronic these days probably, I assumed, because the old paper scrips were regularly forged and otherwise abused by the drug community.

DR. CHANDRA sent me on to Dr. Dallas Hickle of San Rafael and Novato to get the two bad teeth extracted, and I'm here to tell you that if you want a zippo-bang tooth extraction, this man gets it done fast and with no pain I could feel. (Older old timers might remember the infamous Painless Parker of Market Street, SF, who was an early advocate of laughing gas while he, a big, strong guy, jerked the troublesome fang out of one's mouth, only occasionally the wrong tooth, but enough of them to make Painless Parker something of an urban myth.)

TEETH OUT by 10am, bleeding stopped by four, zero pain. Antibiotics commenced, Oxies stored for the next person who might need them on a hurry-up basis. 

POTTER VALLEY CREEPER

A Reader Writes: Anyone know this guy? He’s been creeping around my house late at night.

ADAM GASKA: RE:PAINFUL WATCHING

It was painful. I am glad I was at home working, doing something productive as I listened to the 5 on the dais very actively being unproductive. I had to mute them to finish watching later as I hit my quota of worthless.

Thinking about it, I realized the issue is the BOS doesn’t know how to effectively manage. They should be more hands on, setting goals for the departments then be evaluating the department head based on the achievement of those goals. They should be doing quarterly check-ins to have a conversation about progress, ask if the department has all the resources they need to achieve said goals, see if they have some extra bandwidth. This is employee performance evaluation 101. At the end of the year, there is an evaluation of the department head. They get graded on performance where they get an attaboy or a corrective action plan, new goals are set with input from the department head themself allowing some goals to come from the BOS and some come from the head so they feel like they have some buy in. If the department head gets an attaboy, maybe they get a bonus. If they get a needs improvement, they get supported to do better through training. That would require the BOS knowing what the departments do, have a basic idea of the resources needed to carry the workload, and have an idea of what are reasonable expectations of staff.

This should be an ongoing process. This shouldn’t be a haphazard process where the BOS just throws things on a departments plate on a whim then throws them in the garbage at the end of the year. This will require working with multiple department heads when there is overlap between departments on different functions and services of the county. The process as it is now looks to be lacking structure which it is the responsibility of the board to give it structure through policies, procedures and leadership.

* * *

I have been paying attention for quite awhile. I watch/listen to all the meetings, mostly on Youtube, while I am working when I can and watch the remainder in the evening after my kids have gone to bed. I have a full time job that I have to work at to keep a roof over my family’s heads and food on the table and don’t have the luxury of sitting in chambers for the entirety of meetings. When I feel passionate enough about an item, I will go in person to watch and comment. I sat through most of the meeting when they were looking at cutting a lot of boards and committees to save money, including the MAC’s, to defend the MAC’s of which I serve on the Redwood Valley MAC.

I do have a lot of experience with organizational structures having started and running my own business, managing employees and serving on the board of the Co Op for 11 years.

The County and BOS needs to focus on and get a better handle of its core business which is providing services. Just like a business, they need to make sure they are sending out invoices and following up on accounts receivable, which in the County’s case is properly assessing and collecting property taxes, in order to have the funding to provide services. If and when they are doing a good job at that, then they can move onto bigger and better things. Right now, they are looking at all the places they want to go while their ship is sinking.

MAKING SENSE OF JUSTICE

by Jim Shields

Hello Everybody,

Christmas is nearly here and the New Year is just around the corner. I'm shame-faced as I just haven't had the time to get shopping done, send out cards, etc. So I'm going to be busting it today and tomorrow to get all those things done.

Anyway, lots of good stuff in this week's edition of the Mendocino Observer.

Nifty little front-page story on this year's North Pole Toy Express. My late wife Susan and I founded NPTE many years ago, and every year it seems to be a bigger success. All the credit goes to Susan for NPTE being the well organized, ongoing success it is. Since Susan's passing, our daughter Jayma has carried on the operations of the NPTE with the same skills and can-do know-how as her mother. It's in good hands. And thank you to everybody on this subscription list who supports and helps out with NPTE, we really appreciate it.

Most of the political reporting this week deals with the ever-expanding mess that is the Cubbison Affair. So be sure and read all-pro-all-the-time Mike Geniella's reports updating the status of the Cubbison cases. My column includes a few comments on the Cubbison contretemps, as well as a bit of advice for Cubbisson's lawyers. I've always believed that it is better to give than receive — especially advice. BTW, I didn't say that, Samuel Clemons did. Alright, Mark Twain said it too.

As always, don't miss the Divine Ms G's Farmers' Market Report on the front page, and check out the latest from Bruce Anderson on page two. As I've said a time or two before, no matter what the format or platform is, Anderson is this country's best writer, PERIOD.

Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas and the Most Prosperous of New Year's To You and Yours. From Me and Mine,

Jim Shields, Editor

Mendocino Observer, Laytonille

* * *

The oft-delayed kick-off to the Mendocino County version of its Trial of the Century is back in a holding pattern once again.

Suspended Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison’s conjoined criminal arraignment/DA recusal/civil proceedings have been postponed to sometime in January of the New Year. 

According to Mike Geniella’s latest cogent report, “Cubbison attorney Chris Andrian said a remote conference would be held today (Wednesday) to reschedule proceedings for some time in January. Andrian was scheduled to press his argument at 1:30 p.m. today to have District Attorney David Eyster recused from the case but that hearing will now be held in January, said the Santa Rosa attorney. Cubbison this week suffered a serious foot injury, and was unable to make a scheduled hearing Wednesday, according to Andrian. ‘It’s the last thing she needs at this point, but it has happened, and she is receiving medical care.’”

As I’ve said before, the impetus for this sordid affair culminated in 2021 when a petty bureaucratic squabble instigated by DA David Eyster over his office’s travel reimbursements being (correctly) rejected by then Acting Auditor-Controller Cubbison because he refused to follow county reimbursement guidelines. It should be noted that Eyster, in the run-up to the Cubbison imbroglio, tangled with preceding Auditors, namely Meredith Ford and Lloyd Weer, over his refusal to comply with established reimbursement policies and asset forfeiture claims. 

I’m still waiting for somebody to explain why we are on the hook for this outside, pricey San Francisco law firm’s representation and advice when we have a taxpayer-funded County Counsel’s Office entrenched with nine lawyers. I told the Supes their outside counsel cited an outdated provision, Government Code Sec. 27120, in justifying the Board suspending Cubbison from office on Oct. 17: “Whenever an action based upon official misconduct is commenced against the county treasurer, the board of supervisors may suspend him from office until the suit is determined. The board may appoint some person to fill the vacancy, who shall qualify and give such bond as the board determines.”

GC Sec. 27120 is an antiquated, obscure provision that appears to have been inadvertently carried forward when the State Legislature in 1943, acting upon a 1942 statewide initiative, “modernized” and updated the 1879 California Constitution. The State Legislature’s modernization sessions resulted in “An act to establish a Government Code, thereby consolidating and revising the law relating to the organization, operation, and maintenance of a system of State and local government, and repealing acts and parts of acts specified herein.” That old provision, Sec. 27120, reflected back on a county government structure and organization that no longer existed in 1943. Likewise, it designates only the county treasurer position as being subject to suspension. I believe everyone is in agreement that Cubbison’s alleged wrongful acts were committed in her role as “acting auditor.”

As I first advised almost two months ago, Cubbison’s lawyers in their filings should be arguing the primacy of a then-new Government Code created in 1943, and one of its provisions, Section 1770, addresses 16 different ways in which an elected office becomes legally vacant, but I’ll only discuss the relevant event pertaining to the Cubbison affair : 

“Division 4. Public Officers And Employees [1000 – 3599]; (Division 4 enacted by Stats. 1943, Ch. 134.)l Gov. Code Section 1770. An office becomes vacant on the happening of any of the following events before the expiration of the term:

“(h) His or her conviction of a felony or of any offense involving a violation of his or her official duties. An officer shall be deemed to have been convicted under this subdivision when trial court judgment is entered. For purposes of this subdivision, ‘trial court judgment’ means a judgment by the trial court either sentencing the officer or otherwise upholding and implementing the plea, verdict, or finding.”

So that’s how the removal process is supposed to work in criminal justice matters.

With the exception of the antiquated GC Sec. 27120, referencing just the Treasurer position, there is no other provision addressing the authority of a Board of Supervisors to suspend any other type of elected official pending their adjudicated conviction.

It’s more than obvious that the clear intent of the state legislature back in 1943 when it enacted Section 1770, was to prevent the very kind of rash rush to premature judgment that occurred 80 years later in Mendocino County when five supervisors peremptorily unseated a duly elected official who has yet to be even arraigned in court, let alone “convicted of a felony or of any offense involving a violation of his or her official duties.” The whole idea was to leave the accused elected official in office pending final determination in the court proceeding. It’s called due process.

I’m stating the obvious but local elected officials are neither judge nor jury. 

Government Code Section 1770 basically calls for a procedural timeout once an elected official is charged with wrongdoing, and no action is taken by other elected officials, in this case the BOS, until final judgment is rendered by the court.

This is an example of where a law, Government Code Section 1770, says what it means, and means what it says.

Government Code Section 1770 is not some unfathomable law surreptitiously enacted by the state Legislature. It directly resulted from a statewide initiative approved by the voters to overhaul and modernize California’s 1879 Constitution, and in the process created the state’s first comprehensive statute(s) defining, structuring, organizing and establishing the powers and jurisdictions of both state and local governments. It was truly a big deal.

Turning our attention now to a somewhat smaller deal, details are unknown surrounding the scope and depth of the research conducted by the County’s outside, San Francisco-based law firm (Liebert Cassidy Whitmore), that resulted in an opinion based solely on an obscure Government Code section that on its face is not applicable to the case at-hand. As pointed out by many of us, including Cubbison’s attorney, the outside law firm’s recommended Government Code section relied upon by the BOS, is fatally flawed because it refers to the County Treasurer position when, according to DA Eyster, the alleged wrongdoing occurred in Cubbison’s role and authority as County Auditor. So, that fact means the Supervisors October 17 action suspending Cubbison is null and void because it was and is by definition unlawful. Which in turn means Cubbison’s official status defaults to the guidelines set out in the only Government Code provision left standing, Section 1770, that says she remains on-the-job pending court proceedings that will determine her fate.

I think that makes sense to most of us, don’t you?

So why doesn’t it make sense to the powers that be in the county seat?

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org)

CHANGE OUR NAME FORT BRAGG Invites the public to a Teach-in on Wednesday, January 3, at 7:30 p.m. at the Fort Bragg Library Community Room, 499 E Laurel St, Fort Bragg.

A local grass roots non-profit, Change Our Name Fort Bragg is dedicated to an educational process that leads to changing the name of Fort Bragg so that it no longer honors a military Fort that dispossessed Indigenous people or Braxton Bragg, a Confederate General. who waged war against our country.

Envisioned as a program to educate attendees about the issues involved in the name change and to hear neighbors’ ideas, the teach-in will last about one hour and will feature two speakers and a question and answer/discussion period.

Speakers will be:

Grace Maria Eberhardt, a PhD student in history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she researches twentieth-century histories of biology, eugenics, race, and ethnicity in the U.S. Grace led the movement to change the name of the Slater Museum of Natural History at the University of Puget Sound, her alma Mater, which was named after a professor who taught eugenics post-WWII.

Buffey Wright Bourassa facilitates communication to cultivate and enhance relationships, with expertise in Tribal engagement consultation, capacity development, strategic implementation, and collaboration. She is a member of the Sherwood Valley Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians and has ancestral connections to the Little River Pomo, Wiyot, and Pinoleville Pomo. Currently, she holds the position of Tribal Secretary on the Sherwood Valley Tribal Council and is an engaged member of the Willits Rotary Club.

Discussing a controversial topic requires civility and respect for the opinions of others. This program is neither sponsored by nor affiliated with the Mendocino County Library/Museum.

This program is free and open to all.

For further information: changeournamefortbragg@gmail.com

NOTICE OF ANNUAL ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING

Notice is hereby given that the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will meet in the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Chambers, located at 501 Low Gap Road, Room 1070, Ukiah, California, on Tuesday January 9, 2024, at 9:00 a.m., or as soon thereafter as possible, for an annual organizational meeting and for the purpose of conducting general business.

Virtual Attendance: Meetings are live streamed and available for viewing on the Mendocino County YouTube page, at https://www.youtube.com/MendocinoCountyVideo or by toll-free, telephonic live stream at 888-544-8306. 

Mendocino County provides for digital attendance through Zoom. Zoom webinar information will be provided on the published agenda for the meeting. Remote Zoom participation for members of the public is provided for convenience only. In the event that the Zoom connection malfunctions for any reason, the Board reserves the right to conduct the meeting without remote access. Therefore, the only ways to guarantee that your participation or comments are received and considered by Board are to attend the meeting in person or submit your comment in writing in advance of the meeting.

Comment may be made in any of the following ways: in person, via written comment to bos@mendocinocounty.gov, via our online eComment platform at https://mendocino.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx, via voicemail messaging by calling 707-234-6333, or by telephone/zoom via Telecomment.

For details and a complete list of the latest available options by which to engage with agenda items, please visit: 

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/board-of-supervisors/public-engagement

(County Presser)

THE FLOODGATE, RUSS EMAL WRITES: 

After talking to Butch about this picture he tells me this was taken just before the final signing of the paperwork. Butch worked the store with Margarette for about a month. He was being trained! All during the month she all but backed out of the deal. 

Margarette told Butch she had been there 26 years. It would be very hard to leave. Butch said that all he could think was …how crazy that she had been at the Gate for 26 years. 

That took place, Butch tells me, about 40 years ago.

MITCH CLOGG: Winter starts this evening at 7:27 PM west-coast time. I like to know exactly. I sort of like the start of winter because it goes away in just three months, and I really do not like the season. What’s to like about cold and dark? I’m thin-skinned about cold; always wanted to try living in the tropics or semitropics but never did. Baltimore, San Francisco, Mendocino—I’ve never strayed far from this general latitude.

I have to think about the millions of people in trouble, under attack or oppressive government, having to run for their lives or sit and suffer. I remember a picture of family sitting in the rain, just sitting there. There were striking pictures of Balkan refugees, a man pushing an old woman in a wheelbarrow across a mountain pass in the cold. Too much of this stuff.

There are, of course, startling things people do in China—whole ice cities and the like. There are places you can go to take your ease in an igloo, a frozen hotel, an ice cave. I learned how to build a quick shelter in the snow. Don’t forget the groove in the floor to let urine flow out. You make a shelf to sleep on, and you calmly wait out the blizzard. I used to ski, downhill and cross-country. I broke my anterior cruciate ligament while skiing. I saw stars and planets from the pain like a person in a comic book. The ACL is inside my knee and holds the tibia to the femur, thighbone to shinbone. It works fine now, but the knee in general needs a million-mile tuneup. It’s been banged around heavily.

It was two days after Christmas. I was out at Jay’s with wife Linda and brand-new first child, Mitch III, only weeks old. Hirsch was there and others. Jay made a holiday punch from Scandinavia called gluck (“glook”). Heated spiced wine. It tasted like gluck to me, so I didn’t drink it after the first swallow, thus remaining cold sober.

At the usual way-late hour we were dressing up to leave. It was icy-icy cold. Hirsch had come alone on a Vespa. He hadn’t dressed warmly enough. He asked if I would drive the Vespa and sort-of break the wind, while he sat behind. Sure. I had warm clothes.

From Jay’s into town, you started on a steep, winding road, up the hill through the woods. The Vespa was slow with both of us aboard. I cannot remember what happened next because the initial point of contact between us and the drunken station wagon, already out of control because the kid lost it in a tight curve, was right between my eyes. It hit Hirsch’s thigh and mashed it flat. As well as my forehead, it flattened my left leg. Everything squashed, no bones broken. People with hard bumps to the head often can’t remember moments before. The memories are gone, unrecoverably gone.

Stunned but still gripping the handlebars of the pretzeled Vespa, I was knocked about ninety feet straight down the road and under the car Linda and Mitch3 were riding in, so when she jumped out, she couldn’t immediately find me. She later said she considered maybe angels had just spirited me away. (It was Christmas season.) Then the driver backed the car a couple feet and there I was, lying still, both eye sockets filling with blood from the cut between them. She thought I was dead, but apparently some sign of consciousness showed otherwise, and they tore off in the car to wake Jay’s father, a pediatrician.

While they were gone, I got up and mentally inventoried my bones. I’d got out of the army the year before. I was a paratrooper, and they did so much physical training I was thickly muscled, and that kept me from being hurt worse or killed. From a couple of very hard parachute landings, I was in the habit of doing that, checking my bones. 

But I was dizzy and about to faint, so I took a few steps off the dry road and lay down on the snow. Despite my warm clothes, I got cold. When Jay got there with his father, he lay down close beside me to keep me warm. I was talking, babbling. He later said he could follow the drift of what I was saying because the two of us were so close, even the disconnected things I said made sense to him. Jay and Sally died in an airline crash in India.

I woke finally, three days later, in the hospital, my mother-in-law, whom I detested, was sitting next to me. December 27, 1960, the accident. December 30 I woke from it. They’d sewn up my head, but there was nothing they could do about my mashed left side or my intact-but-mashed knee. In those days, I hardly ever got a bruise. Hit me with baseball bat, no bruise. But now I was deep purple—thigh and calf. My genitals were purple. I would discover that bruises like that go away much slower than broken bones heal.

I remember the scream of the ambulance siren in the silent empty streets of north Baltimore at moments of semi-consciousness. Medics later told me they go especially fast with head injuries.

Hirsch got a lot of money for his crushed leg. He deserved it. He lost three inches of that leg and was forever in traction. He was an athlete and loved sports, but not no more. He’s had a lift in his shoe so he stands and walks straight. I got some decent pay for a forty-percent disability of my left knee and leg.

Mitch3 died in 2007 when a man pulled his pickup into an oncoming, fast-moving line of traffic. Mitch was going to work on his motorcycle, leading the line of traffic. He did his best to avoid the truck but couldn't, no time. By then, he and I were closest friends. Eleanor too--trusted and loved Mitch more than anybody. His mourners were many and inconsolable. He was a wonderful man, skilled, smart, fun, humble and universally loved. He was a dedicated, first-rate sailor, often among winning crews (who were often rich and obnoxious, but they had great boats). We spread his ashes from a sailboat deck offshore of San Diego. Ashes look ugly and unimportant as they sink in seawater.

Whew! Long story about a thing that happened in an instant. I always think of it at the start of winter.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, December 22, 2023

DAVID BROWN, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

TATIANA FRANCO-CORTEZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

ERIN JENNISON, Willits. Probation revocation.

JASON JOHNSON, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

JONATHAN ORTIZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

TRAVIS ROLLER, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

TY SIMPSON, Potter Valley. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

RUSTI VASSAR, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

MISHA ZAIED, Willits. DUI.

DON’T REWARD COUCH POTATOES

Dear Editor,

America's destructive socialism. How the useless create uselessness. Uselessness does not always look homeless. Sometimes it wears a suit and a bow tie. Think politicians and bureaucrats. A good way to destroy free enterprise and personal motivation is to have programs that reward uselessness and tax usefulness. It's called Social services. Or just socialism. The system also weakens family bonds and allows people to become more dependent on government programs.

These programs depend on ever-growing tax assessments and the ability to inflate the currency. Under this system more people will need help just to pay taxes. Higher taxes will then be needed to fund the growing taxation machine and the layoffs from the deaths of overtaxed businesses. Can you imagine getting a loan to pay taxes?

It is actually happening now. The only way to stimulate the economy is to lower taxes. All taxes: property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, just to name a few.

Let's explore some ways to save money. Anyone making more than $200,000 per year on the taxation system should be subject to a 50% cut. Let them try to find a job that pays $100,000 in private business. Remember even after they retire they still collect 80% of their bloated salary. Government today is way too inflated especially at the top end. These people have no real skills unless you call pickpocketing a skill. When someone runs for office and they promise to take a 50% pay cut, that is the person you want to elect. Not Coast-Lib. Not inland-Lib. Not Lib. No matter how excited, humble, excited, or honored, they are couch potatoes and their real goal is to transfer your money into their account. This letter does not even touch on the subject of corruption which is a huge problem at all levels of government.

Tom Madden

Comptche

CARTOONIST DAN O’NEILL:

Mickey Mouse, Long a Symbol in Copyright Wars, to Enter Public Domain: ‘It’s Finally Happening’

Mickey Mouse will enter the public domain on Jan. 1, marking a milestone in the copyright wars for those fighting to ease restrictions on vintage IP.

...the website running my comics is called The First of the Month...ran this one three days before the first impeachment... ..the other two are the last Odd Bodkins strips..1970...the Chronicle didn't know it...but I split the strip into thirds..the bottom third was Bobby London doing his Dirty Duck strip...last weeks of Odd Bodkins..loaded with illegal characters...the last line..Come and get it, Mouse!

variety.com/2023/tv/news/mickey-mouse-public-domain-disney-copyright-lawsuits-1235844322/

FRED GARDNER NOTES: 

The days are getting longer!

Happy solstice to you and yours. 

I was reminded by the attached item… Alex Cockburn used to say he wasn’t too worried about the politicians obsessed with the sex lives of Clinton et al because it was only a matter of time before they were caught doing the nasty themselves...

Florida Sex Scandal Shakes Moms for Liberty, as Group’s Influence Wanes

The conservative group led the charge on the Covid-era education battles. But scandals and losses are threatening its power.

nytimes.com/2023/12/16/us/politics/moms-for-liberty-sex-scandal.html

BILL KIMBERLIN: 

This purports to be the Bonnie & Clyde death car, and I think it is the actual car. So called, "Suicide doors" front and back add a little extra meaning to it.

TWEEKERS

Editor,

I'm writing as the recently selected Corresponding Secretary for the Society of Language (SOL), a watchdog group that monitors communications in local media, community signage, and administrative and popular discourse.

In the 11/15/23 AVA, at the top of the front page, the reader is teased to TWEEKER TAKEOVER on page 4, a piece with the same head by Paul Modic. SOL objects to the cartoonishly tweaked spelling of TWEEKER. The editor is perhaps trying out a new spelling of Tweaker in an attempt to demonstrate how hip and cool and drippy the AVA is, a prominent influencer in creating neologisms or spell-it-as-it-sounds innovations, like "u no," current among 12 year-olds and other digital savants. Or perhaps the editor doesn't understand why tweakers--amphetamine users/addicts--are so named.

Amphetamine enthusiasts are known as tweakers because that is what the drug encourages and thus what they often do. Tweak, dictionaries generally agree, has a couple of meanings, both germane. The most common is to make SMALL ADJUSTMENTS in, or to, the controls. The second definition, deriving from the movements of pinch, pull, or twist, are gathered in TWITCH.

Allow me to offer an old personal example: As a 20 year old editor of a college feature magazine, about to put it to bed, exhausted and sniveling about the few remaining tasks to get it done, a mother of three felt merciful and offered me a mothers'-little-helper, in this case a Dexamyl Spanshell. As I sat down to work, a smooth energy bringing my concentration to an intense focus, I began my first task, writing a caption for a single, mundane photograph. Twenty hours later, after a half-million tweaks in a 30 word sentence, mainly proper nouns, I was finally satisfied with my effort, though the only real difference from my first attempt was switching the order of two names. Years later I watched a speed freak friend count, one by one, his considerable collection of bolts, then a tote full of screws. My labor on that photo caption flashed in my memory, especially the strength and confidence feeding my desire to get it right, endlessly tweaking the components, and around Hour18 physically beginning to twitch.

Without going into my theories of desire, obsession, and addiction, suffice it to say that in our current American culture any drug that makes you feel powerful and focused will find more than a few devotees. Alas, as amphetamine usage increases over time and the real world retreats, you often end up like the man I met on the beach the other day, a wet cigarette cupped reverently in his hands, who replied when I asked him how he was doing, "I got this constant chatter all the time in my head, my brain I guess, and I've found walking on the beach is the only way I can handle it."

But aside from my efforts on behalf of SOL, let me point out that the home invasion Mr. Modic unfortunately experienced presents no evidence that it was meth addicts, or "homeless tweekers (sic)" as Modic characterizes them early on. Nothing in the writings left behind, no meth paraphernalia, nada. The liquor bottle suggests alcohol aficionados. The writing, like "My house not yours," indicates a rage born of envy and frustration. Modic, in fact, actually seems more inclined toward mental illness as a motive, and it is certainly present among homeless folks. I'm not defending meth users, just pointing out they may be innocent in this situation, which makes the assumption of guilt dangerously simplistic. Our culture is being overwhelmed by misinformation, outright lies, sloppy language, and a sort of deliberate ignorance that leads to some strangely warped beliefs. In a world where everyone is urged to pursue and embrace their dreams, let's not forget that dreams die hard, and it becomes ever more difficult to withstand the damage.

Jim Dodge, Corresponding Secretary,

Society of Language

Manila (Humboldt County)

JOHN REDDING:

Before I gave blood the other day, I was given a questionnaire to complete. Standard stuff. But one of the questions asked me to indicate the gender assigned to me at birth. In that instant I began to wonder if it was wise of me to support a health care related organization that thinks gender is not biologically based. Are there other deficiencies in their thinking and behaving? 

I am going to ponder what to do next.

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio show is on all night Friday night!

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 6 or 7pm. If you can't make that, send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7 KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first hour of the show is simulcast on KAKX 89.3 Mendocino and KAKX.org

Furthermore, you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. Also there you'll find educational items to improve and prolong your life, such as:

"Your tree. A symbol of joy, or a blazing death torch?" Or, for Hunter S. Thompson, both. https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/burning_christmas_trees

Phoebe Waller-Bridge reads a tale of avian misery. (via NagOnTheLake) https://vimeo.com/196277011

And how they fool ya. The sound is not great, and the humor a hair too math-smart for my tiny brain, but it might be right up your alley. (via b3ta) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOCsdhzo6Jg

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, www.MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

10,000 ACRES OF CALIFORNIA LAND BOUGHT BY HOOPA VALLEY TRIBE

by Andrew Chamings

A Native American tribe has regained a wide swath of rolling forests and rushing streams in Northern California in a landmark $14.1 million deal.

The 10,395-acre Pine Creek Tract in Humboldt County has been acquired by the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the tribe announced Wednesday. The land, around 20 miles northeast of Eureka, borders the western boundary of the tribe's reservation, and was sold by Australian forest management company New Forests. Alongside other tribes in the region, the Hoopa Valley Tribe say they plan to remove river dams on the Klamath River, restore historic salmon runs and repopulate the meadows and forests with elk.

“Today is a day of intense celebration for our Tribe,” tribe chairman Joe Davis said in a statement. “As a tribal nation that has long led the way in self-governance and self-determination, the Hoopa Valley Tribe worked hard to secure this once-in-a-generation opportunity to reclaim a meaningful portion of our ancestral lands." The tribe says the forests also provide gathering sites for food and basketry materials.

Unlike most Native American tribes, the Hupa people were not entirely forced off their land in the 19th century. A 1864 treaty recognized 141-square miles of land in Humboldt County as theirs. The return of the ancestral land at Hupa Mountain this week brings the tribe’s landholding to over 102,000 acres.

“There is still a lot of work to do — but we continue to make progress in getting back to where we need to be. There is hope in what we celebrate today,” Davis added. “Managing the land is an integral part of our identity and culture."

The purchase came from both private funds and public grants, and was organized by the tribe and the nonprofit Conservation Fund, after the Australian landowners put the plot up for sale in 2022, the tribe said. The California State Coastal Conservancy also provided financial support. 

“The Tribe’s reclamation of the Hupa Mountain [property] is a major step toward restoring balance in the region and the state will continue to support efforts like this in the spirit of truth and healing,” Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said in a statement. 

(SF Chronicle)

COLORADO RULING MAKES TRUMP A FRONTRUNNER

After January 6th, Donald Trump deservedly lost a ton of political capital. Opponents just gave it all back

by Matt Taibbi

Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 in part because the public hated his opponents more than him. Under the pall of the Russia probe he fell in polls for years. Then the probe fell apart, and Trump rose again. Heading into the week of the 2020 election, Trump’s approval rating was near his personal all-time high, approaching 45%. 

But the frenetic months-long period that followed, between Election Night and the disaster of January 6th, dropped him down to 33%. The wounds were self-inflicted. Even faithful supporters abandoned Trump, saying he sounded delusional, like a parody of his hyperbolic campaign persona — “like the act broke,” is how one congressional Republican put it to me. From the bizarre “most important speech I’ve ever made” address of December 2nd, 2020, in which Trump obsessed over his case like a late-state Lenny Bruce (repeatedly pointing at a chart showing an early-morning surge in votes) to the infamous “tremendous number of dead people that voted” call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, to the exchange that gave Mike Pence his short-lived campaign slogan, “You’re too honest,” Trump looked like a man who’d not only lost an election, but his mind. It seemed inconceivable he’d ever be a viable politician again. 

Now, after the Colorado Supreme Court jolted the country with a 4-3 decision effectively removing him from the state’s presidential ballot, Donald Trump has — improbably, shockingly — regained nearly all the political capital he lost in January 2021. It’s the most amazing comeback story since the Buffalo Bills won the Frank Reich game, and I’m not talking about Trump. The rally-cappers here are Biden Democrats, who’ve come from laps behind to overtake Trump in the race to find the illiberal bottom of American politics. This would be amazing to watch, if not for the fact that in this particular contest, the audience loses no matter who wins the game.

Poll-wise Trump really is above where he was in November, 2020, at 46% and trending upward. More importantly he’s back in the luxurious position in which he’s so often found himself throughout most of the last seven years, sitting back and waiting for opponents in the political establishment to pee up their legs. The Colorado move was so brazen that even Jonathan Chait, as faithful a devotee to goofball anti-Trump schemes as we’ve had in media, author of the infamous PRUMP TUTIN New York cover story suggesting Trump turned Russian agent in 1987, said the disqualification effort went “too far.”

The New York Times published a poll showing Trump’s 50-point lead over Republican rivals widening, and that narrow 46-44 edge over Joe Biden holding. This is a sign, the paper said, that “the array of charges against Mr. Trump so far do not appear to be helping Mr. Biden politically,” and “reservations about Mr. Biden are undercutting concerns about Mr. Trump’s criminality.” Outlets like NBC and The Daily Beast are running pieces full of quotes from named and unnamed sources in the Biden camp, as well as from Trump’s ostensible Republican rivals, about what a gigantic fuckup the disqualification bid has been. John Morgan, a “key fundraiser” for Biden, told Reuters “Trump is celebrating,” and forecasted a “fundraising bonanza.” David Axelrod tweeted the decision will serve as “battery packs” for Trump in the GOP primary. “It’s a huge advantage,” a “source close to Nikki Haley” told the Beast. 

That’s how badly has the Colorado move played: Trump is being portrayed as a winner in media outlets that still think the Steele dossier is real. The news moreover plays to Trump’s strengths on the stump. Not so great when losing, he’s a world-class gloater. “We talk about democracy,” he quipped this week, “but the whole world is watching the persecution of a political opponent. That’s kicking [Biden’s] ass.”

The Colorado ruling returns us to the pattern that’s held during most every period apart from J6 in the last seven years, in which Trump’s political career has served as an uncanny barometer of public attitudes toward the Beltway establishment. When they go up, he goes down, but when they go down — hoo, boy. 

We’ve seen this before. Go back to January 17th, 2019, when Buzzfeed published, “President Trump Directed His Attorney To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project.” The report not only claimed Trump planned a trip to Russia in early 2016 to “personally meet Vladimir Putin” and jump-start a Trump Tower project, but that he “instructed [Cohen] to lie” to Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the plan. 

Cable hosts went nuts. Ali Velshi, offering “more on this bombshell story,” showed a screenshot of colleague Chris Hayes tweeting, “Nixon was literally impeached for this.” Don Lemon, looking like a man who just hit a season-saving NFL parlay, opened a discussion with a toss to Ryan Lizza, who preached: suborning perjury was “article one of the Nixon impeachment.” Fox and Friends didn’t cover the Buzzfeed report the next morning, a crime for which the Washington Post had a story up by 1:18 p.m: “BuzzFeed’s Trump-Cohen bombshell dominated the morning news shows — except on ‘Fox & Friends.’”* The Democratic caucus spent the afternoon buzzing about impeachment plans, with California’s Ted Lieu being first to mention “high crimes.”

Then, as the sun set, bad news hit: Robert Mueller, who never said anything about anything, took the rare step of blowing up the Buzzfeed story, saying the report was “not accurate.” Poor Erin Burnett at CNN, who’d scored a coup by booking Nixon lawyer John Dean to huddle over impeachment possibilities, was forced to announce the record-scratch just after a Sex and the City promo. Give her credit for looking right into the camera, but the awkward factor was nuclear.

January 2019 otherwise represented a real low moment in the Trump presidency. Roger Stone was subject to the proverbial “early morning FBI raid,” and Trump’s decision to end a shutdown by abandoning funding for the wall led to Ann Coulter saying he displaced George H.W. Bush as “the biggest wimp to ever serve as President of the United States.” For the first time since Charlottesville, his approval rating dropped below 40%. He was saved, then as now, by overreaching opponents. Mueller’s much-anticipated report came in without new indictments, the sainted Mueller disintegrated on live TV, a Justice Department IG report exploded the Steele Dossier, and suddenly the Russia investigation that had hung like anvils on Trump’s presidency for years became helium. Trump’s approval rating began a climb back upward.

Nonetheless, three years ago, Trump seemed to throw his career away by appearing to act out every #Resistance prediction about his authoritarian unwillingness to leave office. One thing could wipe out that impression, and we’re there: an open argument from opponents that saving democracy from Trump requires canceling it. No matter how many lawyers the party drags out to explain the reasoning behind this, it will look like an effort by Democrats trapped in a poll chasm to avoid the risk of a contested election. Even The Guardian, which published the single most craven fake news story of the Trump period — the never-retracted assertion that Paul Manafort snuck into the Ecuadorian embassy to hold “secret talks” with Julian Assange — is saying Trump needs to be “beaten politically.”

A pair of stories about to come out in Racket, about a little-known episode involving a group called the Transition Integrity Project, suggests some Democrats may have tricked themselves into abandonment of “norms” out of conviction that cutting corners is the only way to stop Trump. The problem with that is that while presidential politics in America has always been dirty, openly dirty doesn’t sell, at least not yet. Maybe the groups behind these state suits think that with a properly pruned ballot, they won’t need to sell it. Let’s hope that’s not the case. For or against Trump, everyone should want his fate decided by vote.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The anger of the majority of our country is about to hit the street. Nice guys like myself eventually snap and then become blind with rage taking no prisoners and numb to any consequences at that moment. The usually good natured American public will finally snap and formerly decent men will form mobs that will dwarf the mentally ill mobs we have been suffering for many years. I’m grateful that I’m old and cannot act out my rage. I can only watch and pray for our country.

HOPE

THE REBIRTH OF LOCAL JOURNALISM

Many of this country’s biggest problems are devilishly hard to solve. The decline of local news may be different.

That decline is certainly a problem. Hundreds of newspapers have closed in recent years, leaving many communities without any source of local news. Academic research has found that voter turnout tends to fall, and corruption and political polarization tend to rise, when people have no way to follow local events.

But replacing yesterday’s newspapers with 21st century digital news publications may be more feasible than it once seemed. That’s the argument that Steven Waldman — a longtime journalist who now runs Rebuild Local News, an advocacy group — made in a recent essay in The Atlantic. “Unlike other seemingly intractable problems, the demise of local news wouldn’t cost very much money to reverse,” Waldman wrote.…

nytimes.com/2023/12/22/briefing/local-journalism.html

AN EVENING WITH (GASP!) HUNTER THOMPSON

by Sam Allis (Time Magazine, 1990)

(Boston correspondent Sam Allis went to Colorado last week to interview Hunter S. Thompson, the inventor of gonzo journalism, author (Hell's Angels, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and defiant eccentric, at his home in Woody Creek. This is what happened.)

I gave up on the interview and started worrying about my life when Hunter Thompson squirted two cans of firestarter on the Christmas tree was going to burn it in his living room fireplace, a few feet away from an unopened wooden crate of 9 mm bullets. That the tree was far too large to fit into the fireplace mattered not a whit to Hunter who was sporting a dimestore wig at the time and resembled Tony Perkins in 'Psycho.' Minutes earlier he had smashed a Polaroid camera on the floor.

Hunter had decided to videotape the Christmas tree burning, and we later heard on the replay the terrified voices of Deborah Fuller, his longtime secretary-babysitter and me off-camera pleading with him, "No, Hunter, no! Please, Hunter, don't do it!" The original manuscript of Hell's Angels was on the table and there were the bullets. Nothing doing. Thompson was a man possessed by now, full of the Chivas Regal he had been slurping straight from the bottle and the gin he had been mixing with pink lemonade for hours.

But the whole evening had been like this. It began in late daylight, when Hunter shot his beloved tracer pistol into the air and then started training it at passing cars. One tracer hit a tree and boomeranged back at us. Everyone thought that was really neat.

Then Hunter played his tape of a jack rabbit screaming. I didn't know rabbits even made noise. Hunters apparently use tapes like this to attract coyotes. I thought at first I was listening to a baby crying. Then I realized it was not human.

Then we shot Hunters Olympic quality pellet pistol at exploding targets he had mounted over his fireplace. This event was also taped.

Then we watched a tape of a pro football game and then another of the famous 1971 Ali-Frazier fight. Thompson drank Chivas from the bottle and noshed on desserts he had taken from a fancy restaurant.

Then the fight tape ended and Hunter decided he didn't want to do the interview with me. He decided he didn't like question and answer format. Deborah reminded him that he had agreed to do it. I reminded him that we had talked on the phone about it. He threw some things on the floor.

Then Hunter decided to try a few questions. But he needed a wig to do the interview, and he couldn't find one. "Where is my fucking wig?!" Deborah scurried off and found one. Then we sat down to talk. I began with a soft pitch on the 60s stuff he has written a lot about in his columns. He responded with questions on his views about suicide raised by his lecture audiences.

Then Deborah came in to tell Hunter she was going to bed and Hunter panicked. Hunter, it became clear, is petrified of being left alone, particularly with Time magazine and a tape recorder. Hunter Thompson is a scared little puppy beneath the alcohol, tobacco and firearms. He bawled Deborah out for not briefing him adequately on the interview and said that Sam Allis was not to blame for this. He said this was not the desired effect. That's when he smashed the Polaroid on the floor and decided to burn the Christmas tree.

When Hunter tossed a lit match at the Christmas tree it exploded into flames. He took a few pulls on the fire extinguisher and then joined us outside. The view from the porch through the window resembled something out of Watts in 1965. The chimney was on fire. His five peacocks whose roost was separated from the living room by an pane of glass, were not happy. Nor was Hunter who yelled at me, "Get back in there, fool!" He had given me an iron prodder with which I was to keep pushing the tree into the fireplace. "I'm not going back in there," I yelled back.

The whole room was full of smoke and flames kicked up onto the mantle and on toward the ceiling. Thompson dashed back in and did battle with the tree. Framed against the fire — is wig askew, his lower lip drooping, his eyes glazed — this 50-year-old man-child was in his element. Meanwhile, a tape of his favorite group, the Cowboy Junkies, played renditions of Sleepwalk by Santo and Johnny and then Blue Moon.

The video of all this is quite simply astonishing. I begged him for a copy but Hunter only giggled. He knew it could be used in a mental competency hearing. He was so pleased with it when we watched it later in the kitchen that he brought out an earlier video he had made that involves him and an inflated lifelike woman doll in a whirlpool bath. It was about then that Hunter called himself "the Champion of Fun." Deborah was so struck with that that she immediately wrote it down.

It was now almost 3am. Hunter was calm, his mania temporarily exhausted. He smiled as he walked me to my car and said, "I guess we will never see each other again."

WHATEVER IT TAKES WON’T BE ENOUGH

by James Kunstler

“Like many people, I assumed every impeachment, every indictment, every criminal count would be the end of him.” — Robert B. Reich, celebrated Trump hunter, career summation.

And just like that — snap ! — the news about the Colorado Supreme Court’s droll action against candidate DJ Trump vanished from the front page (or top screens) of The New York Times. Do you know why? I’ll tell you: Because the political Left has finally managed to embarrass itself with a “lawfare” gambit so nakedly fatuous that it exposes the faction’s drive to destroy the election process, and with it our country.

This is what you get from a regime that faked its way to power and now must strain to cover up its long train of crimes, abuses, and effronteries to common sense, while running out of tricks to keep fooling even its own deranged followers. Somehow, the act of kicking a leading candidate off the ballot has finally registered as inconsistent with “defending our democracy.”

Of course, the reckless abuse of law — “lawfare” — proceeds from the Left’s disrespect for boundaries and limits, which is exactly what law in principle concerns itself with. And from there it’s a quick leap into totalizing bad faith, the operating system for government under an imposter president, “Joe Biden.” Suddenly, mere days before Christmas, when the people want to be preoccupied with things other than politics, events merge explosively to shape the fate of the nation.

In a sane world, the US Supreme Court would not just summarily strike down the Colorado ruling, but would issue a career-ending rebuke to the brain-damaged state justices who managed to not learn a basic principle of due process: innocent until proven guilty — that to brand someone a criminal, there must be a record of indictment and conviction for a particular crime, and that, in the case of Mr. Trump, a politically-motived fairy tale about an “insurrection” doesn’t cut it.

Also, in a sane world interested in truth and justice, the Republican-majority Congress would have months ago convened new hearings about the Jan 6/21 Capitol riot to undo the manifold perfidious frauds instigated by the previous Democrat-majority committee under Chairman Bennie Thompson. By now, testimony should have been compelled from Nancy Pelosi, the then Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, and former Defense Secretary Chris Miller about Ms. Pelosi’s refusal to call in national guard troops to reinforce security around the building, and to answer for the odd behavior of the Capitol Police, such as opening doors for the mob and then serving as ushers to show off the place. It seems obvious that many elected Republicans also have an interest in supporting the Jan 6/21 “insurrection” fairy tale. Do you still wonder why the evil entity infesting Washington is called “the blob”?

The Substack blogger who styles himself as El Gato Malo offers the alluring theory that a SCOTUS ruling on whether the 14th Amendment clauses that were applied to the presidency in the Colorado case, could enable Special Counsel Jack Smith to slip-in a superseding indictment (replacing the original indictment) in his DC Jan 6 case against Mr. Trump with new insurrection / rebellion charges, thus setting-up a fortified argument for states to chuck Mr. Trump off any ballot. More “lawfare,” you see. Whatever it takes. . .!

More curiously even, we learn today, that an amicus brief has been filed in the SCOTUS by former Attorney General Ed Meese (under Ronald Reagan), and two constitutional law professors, Steven Calabresi and Gary S. Lawson, challenging the legality altogether of Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel for prosecuting Mr. Trump. The amicus is filed in the matter of Jack Smith’s certiorari petition to the court to schedule Mr. Trump’s DC trial the same day as the Super Tuesday primary —against the defendant’s objections. The amicus presents compelling arguments that Attorney General Merrick Garland acted illegally in appointing Mr. Smith, and if SCOTUS chucks him out of the special counsel job, the whole mendaciously constructed scaffold of the Jan 6 prosecution goes out the window, along with the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

Those of you with a deep interest in blob lawfare treachery may also be interested in the courtroom win, this week, by Brandon Straka, who launched the 2018 “Walk Away” movement to persuade gays to leave the Democratic Party. He was present on the US Capitol grounds the day of the Jan 6/21 riot, and was later sued by eight “black and brown” Capitol Police officers, with the help of a Soros-funded nonprofit law firm, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Straka was accused of causing the officers’ injuries (pepper spray and “exhaustion”) and of conspiring to deprive them of their civil rights (under the KKK Act of 1871). It came out in the course of testimony that seven of the officers were on the other side of the enormous Capitol building from Mr. Straka’s position the entire time alleged, and that one of the officers was not even present at the Capitol or even in the District of Columbia at the time. Such are the sordid dreams of lawfare warriors and their useful idiots. . . .

Next up, as we turn the corner into a fateful 2024 — and lately eclipsed by all these lawfare election interference shenanigans — will be the perhaps even more consequential hearings on the Biden family’s extensive international bribery operations, which may shed some light on how come we suffer a president and a party bent on destroying our country.

(kunstler.com)

TODAY'S CYNICAL, TOOTHLESS UN RESOLUTION

The United Nations Security Council on Friday approved an irresolute, toadying resolution that calls for humanitarian pauses between Israel and Hamas, increased aid to Gaza and the creation of conditions that will allow for a sustainable end to fighting, ending days of closed-door negotiations, all of which depend on Israeli permission.

The resolution calls for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access.”

The United States and Russia abstained from the vote, deciding against using their vetoes as permanent members of the body that would have shot down the toothless resolution as the disgusting assaults on the entire Gazan population. Twenty thousand Palestinians, not counting those who remain buried in rubble, as thousands now face starvation. Today's phony 'resolution" was crafted to avoid a veto by the Biden Administration.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield praised the resolution but abstained from voting in favor of it after the text failed to include a condemnation of Hamas.

“We would love to see condemnation of Hamas,” a senior US diplomat told CNN. “We don’t understand why the council can’t just explain exactly how we got to where we are. But at the end of the day, that’s what diplomacy is all about.”

Throughout what the diplomat called “marathon negotiations,” the US was eager to not vote against the resolution after suffering global blowback for vetoing the last Security Council resolution that called for an immediate ceasefire.

Instead, in Friday’s resolution the language called for “urgent steps” to lay the groundwork “for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

“At the end of the day, creating conditions for sustainable cessation of hostilities is something that everybody’s looking to do,” the diplomat said. “And I think the big dispute over the last few weeks has really been: ‘Is the time right, right now, for a cessation of hostilities? Or do the conditions need to be right?’ We were comfortable with this idea of the conditions needing to be right for that.”

Sources had previously told CNN that a major sticking point over the draft was a call for the UN to “establish a monitoring mechanism in the Gaza Strip with the necessary personnel and equipment, under the authority of the United Nations Secretary-General.”

SINATRA

Frank Sinatra's self-inflicted tough-guy-party-animal-Rat-Packer image was not only childish and tiresome, it belied the fact that he was well-read, thoughtful, and a committed free thinker. In this 1963 interview with Playboy magazine, Sinatra speaks frankly (sorry) about the hypocrisy and dangers of "the witch doctor in the middle"--his term for organized religion.

Playboy: All right, let's start with the most basic question there is: Are you a religious man? Do you believe in God?

Sinatra: Well, that'll do for openers. I think I can sum up my religious feelings in a couple of paragraphs. First: I believe in you and me. I'm like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that I have a respect for life — in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God. But I don't believe in a personal God to whom I look for comfort or for a natural on the next roll of the dice. I'm not unmindful of man's seeming need for faith; I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniel's. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle. The witch doctor tries to convince us that we have to ask God for help, to spell out to him what we need, even to bribe him with prayer or cash on the line. Well, I believe that God knows what each of us wants and needs. It's not necessary for us to make it to church on Sunday to reach Him. You can find Him anyplace. And if that sounds heretical, my source is pretty good: Matthew, Five to Seven, The Sermon on the Mount.

Playboy: You haven't found any answers for yourself in organized religion?

Sinatra: There are things about organized religion which I resent. Christ is revered as the Prince of Peace, but more blood has been shed in His name than any other figure in history. You show me one step forward in the name of religion and I'll show you a hundred retrogressions. Remember, they were men of God who destroyed the educational treasures at Alexandria, who perpetrated the Inquisition in Spain, who burned the witches at Salem. Over 25,000 organized religions flourish on this planet, but the followers of each think all the others are miserably misguided and probably evil as well. In India they worship white cows, monkeys and a dip in the Ganges. The Moslems accept slavery and prepare for Allah, who promises wine and revirginated women. And witch doctors aren't just in Africa. If you look in the L.A. papers of a Sunday morning, you'll see the local variety advertising their wares like suits with two pairs of pants.

Playboy: Hasn't religious faith just as often served as a civilizing influence?

Sinatra: Remember that leering, cursing lynch mob in Little Rock reviling a meek, innocent little 12-year-old Negro girl as she tried to enroll in public school? Weren't they — or most of them — devout churchgoers? I detest the two-faced who pretend liberality but are practiced bigots in their own mean little spheres. I didn't tell my daughter whom to marry, but I'd have broken her back if she had had big eyes for a bigot. As I see it, man is a product of his conditioning, and the social forces which mold his morality and conduct — including racial prejudice — are influenced more by material things like food and economic necessities than by the fear and awe and bigotry generated by the high priests of commercialized superstition. Now don't get me wrong. I'm for decency — period. I'm for anything and everything that bodes love and consideration for my fellow man. But when lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday — cash me out.

Playboy: But aren't such spiritual hypocrites in a minority? Aren't most Americans fairly consistent in their conduct within the precepts of religious doctrine?

Sinatra: I've got no quarrel with men of decency at any level. But I can't believe that decency stems only from religion. And I can't help wondering how many public figures make avowals of religious faith to maintain an aura of respectability. Our civilization, such as it is, was shaped by religion, and the men who aspire to public office anyplace in the free world must make obeisance to God or risk immediate opprobrium. Our press accurately reflects the religious nature of our society, but you'll notice that it also carries the articles and advertisements of astrology and hokey Elmer Gantry revivalists. We in America pride ourselves on freedom of the press, but every day I see, and so do you, this kind of dishonesty and distortion not only in this area but in reporting — about guys like me, for instance, which is of minor importance except to me; but also in reporting world news. How can a free people make decisions without facts? If the press reports world news as they report about me, we're in trouble.

Playboy: Are you saying that…

Sinatra: No, wait, let me finish. Have you thought of the chance I'm taking by speaking out this way? Can you imagine the deluge of crank letters, curses, threats and obscenities I'll receive after these remarks gain general circulation? Worse, the boycott of my records, my films, maybe a picket line at my opening at the Sands. Why? Because I've dared to say that love and decency are not necessarily concomitants of religious fervor.

Playboy: If you think you're stepping over the line, offending your public or perhaps risking economic suicide, shall we cut this off now, erase the tape and start over along more antiseptic lines?

Sinatra: No, let's let it run. I've thought this way for years, ached to say these things. Whom have I harmed by what I've said? What moral defection have I suggested? No, I don't want to chicken out now. Come on, pal, the clock's running.