Mendocino County Today: Monday, Jan. 8, 2024

LIGHT RAINFALL will continue through today. A period of more active weather will begin late tonight as one of two impactful weather systems arrive through Wednesday. A brief dry period is possible late this week, then a more powerful system possibly moves onshore early next weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 42F with high clouds this Monday morning on the coast. Showers return later today & into tomorrow morning. Off & on showers all week then maybe a big one later in the week, we'll see?

THE BODY found in boulders at the surf line near Westport has been confirmed to be the remains of Rebecca Jones, who was reported missing two days ago.

BODY FOUND ON NORTH MENDOCINO COAST MAY BE THAT OF MISSING CAMPER

Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office says hazardous surf has prevented rescue crews from recovering remains found stuck in rocks on the shore. The missing woman’s phone and other personal articles were found with clothing nearby.

by Mary Callahan

Search and rescue crews have located human remains stuck in the rocks off the northern Mendocino Coast not far from clothing matching that of a Santa Cruz woman who disappeared while camping nearby Friday.

A cellphone and other personal items belonging to 48-year-old Rebecca Jones were with the clothes when search crews found the remains Saturday, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Capt. Greg Van Patten said Sunday.

But hazardous surf and the position of a heavy boulder trapping the body in the water prevented crews from recovering the body for a positive identification both Saturday and Sunday, Van Patten said.

They were able to secure the remains with a rope so they can be removed when the waves subside, he said.

“The body is unidentified at this time, but speculation is that the body is that of Jones,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.

Jones was camping with a friend near Hardy Creek, between Westport and Rockport, when she walked away from their campsite around 11:30 a.m. Friday and failed to return, authorities said.

The distance from the campsite to the beach was about 200 yards, though it was not clear how far away the remains were found Saturday.

Authorities said Jones had an insulin pump for treatment of diabetes but apparently had no water or food with her.

(pressdemocrat.com)

UKIAH HOSPICE HELP NEEDED

To the Editor:

Hospice of Ukiah is seeking an experienced Social Worker. This is an ideal job for a retired or semi retired person with Social Work background. It’s part time and low pay, but the rewards are the satisfaction of working with an amazing Team, meeting and helping Hospice clients with so many needs, setting your own schedule.

Earn your wings and join Hospice of Ukiah in its mission of support and compassion.

Janet M. Denninger, Executive Director

Hospice of Ukiah

HospiceOfUkiah.com

UKIAH MEALS ON (DELAYED) WHEELS

To the Editor:

I started getting Meals on Wheels in 1987. The food is substantial and the MOW volunteers are incredible. But this Christmas all MOW participants had to wait four days for the Christmas meal. Some participants are isolated and have only the MOW volunteers at Christmas. I trust in 2024 that the Christmas meal be delivered on the designated day, not four days later.

Patricia Owen

Ukiah

YEAR END CRIME STATS

Editor,

At the end of each year, I work with my Undersheriff looking over statistics and adjusting our responses to various crime trends. We often look over directions we have gone to ensure the needs are still being met and to determine whether we can place more effort in some areas which are problematic while trying to stay ahead of problems to come. I am happy to say Mendocino County is well below the national average on many of our crimes and as a county we have been trending in a good direction.

While we continue working on these issues I am hopeful we continue to see a decrease in crime. I will list our statistics at the bottom of this article. I would like to also encourage everyone to look over the citizen connect portal through our website.

Our Dispatch Center received 82,905 calls in 2022 and in 2023, we received 67,077. Not all calls to our dispatch generate investigations. Many are medical calls, vehicle accidents and information regarding events occurring in our communities.

Our calls for service which generated investigations remained within a percentage point of 2022, however have declined by almost 10 % in the past 4 years. Please understand although our calls for service have decreased calls per deputy has increased as is the case with many agencies suffering staffing shortages.

Our homicides are down from 2020 however up from 2022. In 2022 we experienced only 3 homicides while in 2023 we had 6. We have developed suspects and made arrests in nearly all homicide cases this year. We have one outstanding homicide suspect and one case which we have yet to develop a suspect in. Domestic Violence cases rose slightly during 2020 however have declined since that time.

Robbery has also been on the decline since 2020 however we saw a slight increase over the past year. Burglary has also declined over the past few years. Assault with Deadly Weapons and crimes against persons are always a top priority and we have seen these numbers fluctuating slightly over the past few years however remaining fairly static from year to year.

Thefts and general larceny crimes remain high and there is a disturbing trend of people and businesses not reporting these crimes. Thefts of mail, packages and thefts from retail shops has continued to rise across the state and I am hopeful we can get these crimes under control.

Recently one of our off duty personnel had to intervene during an organized retail theft committed by several people at once in our county. This activity is occurring much too frequently.

We have seen a decrease in Coroner’s investigations over the past four years. In 2023 We had 370 coroner’s investigations of which 206 were natural causes. 89 accidental deaths which include vehicles accident, fire, airplane crash and overdose. Out of the 89 accidental deaths, 49 were drug overdose or death due to a medical condition which was caused by drug abuse. Narcotics are still responsible for over 50% of our accidental deaths.

We had 22 coroner’s referrals which are deaths that are often natural however are mandated to be investigated under the government code. These deaths include however are not limited to investigations when a person hasn’t been seen by a physician within 21 days, or died of a communicable disease. We have several cases which are pending classification which will be completed within the next couple of months following pathology results. We also had 25 suicides which is an extremely high number of deaths for our county.

Mental Health Cases in which a person was taken into custody under 5150 WIC remain much lower than years past. This is mainly due to the partnership we have formed with the Mendocino County Behavioral Health Department. We began the dual response unit in 2021 and have continued working with highly trained behavioral health specialists. Our numbers dramatically decreased following the implementation of this team and although we were up slightly from last year we are still down over 50% from 2020. I am hopeful we will see these numbers continue to decrease.

Arsons continue to be a huge concern for Mendocino County. We have seen a significant reduction in arsons over the past several years. We have also solved several arsons which were prosecuted by our District Attorney’s Office, I believe this has helped us reduce these numbers.

We are still seeing a significant number of missing persons in Mendocino County. Much of this is due to the availability of outdoor activities such as hiking, hunting and fishing which Mendocino County was always a little famous for. Our search and rescue team has completed many searches and continues to be a great asset for our communities. They were recently honored with the donations of safety jackets from the Rotary Clubs in Mendocino County. The volunteers have given us countless hours and truly serve their communities.

In the Mendocino County Jail we received 4105 bookings and released 4171 subjects in 2023. Our staffing continues to increase, and we are working with many partners to serve the needs of those incarcerated in our facility while keeping our communities safe. Our Corrections Staff has worked tirelessly and continues to serve us well.

Our inmate services staff has continued to serve our inmate population and our communities by providing opportunities through accountability. We were able to fill the restorative justice coordinator position by hiring Buffey Bourassa who has been a key addition to our team. As we continue into 2024 I remain hopeful we will reduce crime and work together with our communities to make Mendocino County a safe and welcoming place.

Sheriff Matt Kendall

Ukiah

AV GRANGE HAPPENINGS

by Captain Rainbow

It's a new year and the light is coming a bit earlier and staying a bit longer, and the AV Grange is planning for a new year.

Our ever popular monthly AV Grange Pancake Breakfast comes the 2nd Sunday of every month. This month it's Sunday January 14th, 8:30-11:00. You can count on our crack crew to whip up delicious pancakes from our secret Grange recipe, gluten free if you ask. Bacon, eggs, orange juice, coffee and tea along with an array of toppings round out our offerings. Almost always there is tasteful,(pun intended), live music provided by the beloved Los Panquelleros who play for pancakes. The well experienced crew could use an occasional break every once in a while so anyone who would like to volunteer and get a free pancake breakfast should call Bill or Gail Meyer at 895-2318.

The 31st "annual" AV Grange Variety Show is back to it's traditional date of the beginning of March. This year it's Friday March 8 and Saturday March 9. Put it on your calendars NOW because we want you to think up, create, practice, polish and be prepared for the tech rehearsals the weekend before the show.

If you don't know about the Vshow you've either just moved here or live under a rock. Ask somebody who's been, they'll fill you in. Big fun and a time for all the Valley to come together and enjoy each others real, live company. There are no tryouts, everyone's a winner in this deal. We especially like skits, acts of skill or craft, and of course the animal acts! Call Captain Rainbow at 472-9189 or 895-3807 with your act, even if it's just an idea perhaps we can help you get it onstage. Operators are standing by.

ED NOTES

ENJOYED a visit to Covelo a couple of weeks ago, making the trek via Laytonville over the old Dos Rios Road. For my mortgage, the area northeast of Willits is the most beautiful in the County, much of it still wild, people included, and all of it rugged featuring the most vigorous runs of the Eel through mountainous terrain, deep gorges, and snow at the higher elevations until May.

IF I'D HAD the imagination and a little cash back in 1970 I’d have settled somewhere in the hills above Covelo rather than where I did, not that there’s a thing wrong with Anderson Valley that Pierce’s Disease or a family of Glassy Wing Sharpshooters couldn't remedy.

IT'S UNWISE to regret, they say, because once one gets started regretting one can soon find oneself sitting alone at a cleared table with a .38 in one’s mouth, trying to decide to pull the trigger or look for a career officeholder to off as a final community service.

NOT BEING much of a one for looking back for fear of what I might see, I set forth for Covelo about 11am on a clear winter day and was soon gazing at the splendid vistas east of Laytonville, a homestead here and there in the distance. “Whoever those intrepid hill people are, they’ve got the right idea,” I thought. “Who needs pavement and crowds? More frantic and hectic by the day. Provocations raining down. Idiot entertainments. Days without the sight of an honest public face or an intelligent word. Get as far away as possible. Re-supply by airdrop.”

WHAT A HISTORY this area has with perhaps the most murders per square mile than any place in the United States save the Civil War. The crimes committed against the native people as their land was stolen then defiled by a lawless mob of criminals, recreational killers, and misfits whose descendants still claim they found an empty land when they arrived.

A LATE LUNCH by the side of the road near the high school consisted of the missus's specialty meatballs while I pretended not to see a couple of meatballs seeming to eyeball me with ill intent. My gat was tucked under my driver's seat where I always keep it when I venture into the Mendo outback, long ago having convinced myself I wasn't paranoid because I could refer psychiatrists to a file folder of confirmations. Maybe I should change my uniform. Blend in more. “Are you....?” Well, it depends, I say warily, never knowing for sure whether I’ll have to flee or fight.

THE DAY passed uneventfully. I thought about driving on up and over the Mendocino Pass to Willows, but instead drove north up the Mina Road, looking for the old ranch that had its family history posted on a tree near its gate. That was before L-P slaughtered the place back when the company's rapacious boss, Harry Merlo, had famously declared, “I want it all, and I want it all now,” or words to that ill intent. (Vivian Weatherhead, a retired math teacher, had retired to Boonville; she was born and raised in Mina, now abandoned, but at one time a functioning little community complete with its own post office. The county's vastness is replete with vanished settlements. Right here in the Anderson Valley there's Peachland and Hop Flat to name two.)

I WENT as far north as the three county convergence — Humboldt, Mendo and Trinity — and from where, on a clear day I once was able to see a fog bank over the Pacific. I've always wished a person more knowledgeable than me would offer tours of the eastern areas of the county, and urge every permanent resident to spend a couple of days exploring it. You really aren't fully Mendo-ized until you've been from Gualala to Covelo and all points in between.

SO YOU’RE 90; WHAT'S NEXT?

by Gregory Sims

By this time in January, New Year's trivia lie among the aftermath of our forgotten (until 2025) celebrations. I did little to commemorate the passing of 2023 except to grab my shorty trumpet at midnight; stand in the doorway of my modest studio and play Auld Lang Syne loudly into the quiet darkness and into the caring nature of presence which is a path I wish to share now.

As has been said by others the anguish and difficulties of the times need not carry us away from the marvels of life and the living thereof. But questions can easily arise. I have a large family and things don't always run smoothly. At my age the question of driving, or living so family can readily visit and a plethora of other distractions play with my bodymind.

The role of conflict in our lives often seems to obscure “the caring nature of presence.” It is the same for the individuals committed to prayer and meditation. Maintaining a pure state of openness, or for the religious, communion with the Devine rarely happens. Thus we are left with a world full conflict and killing and a troubled path to caring presence.

Some time ago, beyond my memory, I thought of an individual during wartime who was shot and fell to the ground perhaps fatally wounded, lying on a sidewalk seeing a dandelion that had sprung through the broken sidewalk. And the person (soldier) smiled and felt communion with the life of the dandelion in his passing.

So you ask “must we wait till desperate times bring us to oblivion to find the caring within presence?” Not so, but maybe for some. For others who seek to find some kind of path into presence which includes the sustaining nourishment of evident caring. Carl Jung tells us not to try to be perfect “but by all means try to be complete.” When asked what he meant he went on to say, “I must leave something to your own mental efforts” (1935 Analytical Psychology p.110).

So when I meet this week with three other 90-year olds, I'll ask them what being complete means. For now I'll leave with a very short version of a path upon which I'm trodding. Thoreau had this to say: “But how to come out of this condition and actually migrate further?” All that he could think of was to practice some new austerity, to let his mind descend into his body and redeem it, and treat himself with ever increasing respect (last paragraph of ‘Higher Laws in Walden,’ 1854)

Thoreau doesn't say to what the “it” refers, which leaves me to suggest it is to redeem body and mind as “bodymind.” So from time to time when there are no other pressing issues (such as the gathering of the 90s gang this week) I'll come back to forging our path (or paths) to caring and leave you to ponder not the repetition of a sound but the beating of our hearts as a pulse echo.

AN OLD-TIMER’S GUIDE TO SSI

by Paul Modic

You are eligible to receive Supplemental Security Income, SSI payments (about $914 a month), if you are blind or disabled or over sixty-five, and have $2000 or less in the bank. (In this essay I’m focusing on those over sixty-five.) You can own your home and that will not be counted as an asset, no matter the value. You can own one car, of any value, and that is also not counted against you.

You don’t have to be blind or disabled, only sixty-five, and not eligible for Social Security (SSA) because you didn’t pay enough into the system while working, or you never worked. (If you’re already getting roughly less than $1000 from SSA you can apply for SSI also to increase your income. For example, if you’re only getting $400 from SSA you would probably get approximately $500 more from SSI.)

I’m surprised that so many people around here don’t know these basic facts about the government assistance for which they are eligible. (Even a long-time social worker I talked to yesterday didn’t know you only had to be sixty-five to get on SSI.)

Late last year I heard of a friend of a friend who’s a broke senior of seventy-seven who applied for SSA, found that he wasn’t eligible, no one at Social Security told him about the SSI option, and he had never heard of it. He’s stranded on his mountain waiting for his car to be repaired and he sold another vehicle recently to generate funds to live on for awhile. Now he has the number and is going to call and apply. (Success story: a month later he’s applied, was approved, and is getting paid.)

To apply for SSI you call 866.828.1991 in Eureka or the national number 800.772.1213, and expect to wait on the line, sometimes up to an hour, to talk to a representative. When you call they will start your application right then or you can make a phone appointment for later, or an appointment to come to the local Social Security office, or just drop into one of the local offices to start your application. (Eureka: 3144 Broadway, 95501/ Ukiah: 521 S Orchard Ave, 95482.) You can also start your application online at ssa.com but the phone call is better I was told by someone working in the system.

Be prepared to give them access to your bank account, they may go back as far as six years of your bank statements to see if you are eligible, then once you get on SSI they may check your account at any time to make sure you don’t have more than $2000 in your account. (They’re pretty intrusive during the application process but once you’re on they usually leave you alone.)

Sometimes you’re approved within twenty minutes if your situation is very clear, and your bank account checks out. If you have had more money and now it’s gone you may be asked to produce receipts for what you spent it on. (If you’re actively spending down the amount in your bank account to be eligible, which they actually recommend, it could be helpful to keep your receipts.)

When you’re spending down your bank account, if you buy things of value, like an expensive painting, that counts against you and you might not be quickly approved. If you buy, for example, a washing machine, car, refrigerator, or pay for repairs on any of those appliances or on your car or home, that spending won’t count against you in your application.

You’re allowed to own only one piece of property to qualify for SSI. If you have two and sell one below market value or sign it over to a friend or family member then you have to wait two years to be eligible. (If you sell a second piece of land at market value then you will have too much money to qualify, until you spend it down.)

You can’t have rental income or any stocks and bonds, you have to be really poor. If you’re living in a family or friend’s house rent-free that is counted as an asset. For example, if the value of the total house rental is estimated to be $1000, then approximately a third, $300, may be subtracted from your monthly payment.

(Once you’re on, you’re on for the rest of your life, so congratulations in advance! However they are very suspicious about fraud so they may make it harder for you if you seem evasive or, like in a recent case I heard about, don’t want to give them full access to your bank account, which is a red flag for them.)

You can receive Social Security (SSA), the system you paid into while working, while vacationing or living outside the country, but with Supplemental Security Income (SSI) you can only be out of the country for a month, then back for at least a month, before leaving again.

I encourage anyone eligible to apply for SSI, or if you know of any family or friends who are struggling, convince them to apply and help them navigate the process. I’m inclined to think that there’s a lot of old hippies living out in the hills around here who have lost their livelihoods and never paid much, or anything, into Social Security. That’s why we have SSI, to help those near the bottom economic rung of society from falling through the cracks and becoming destitute and/or homeless.

If you are under sixty-five and trying to get on SSI by being physically or mentally disabled and unable to work, you might be eligible but it will be harder and take longer to get approved, factoring in health records and examinations by doctors and psychiatrists. (I’m focusing here on what I consider the slam-dunk cases, the sixty-five or over demographic, but am also thinking a legally blind person of any age can probably qualify pretty easily.)

There should be more outreach into the community to find those eligible and encourage and help them sign up. Maybe a grant-writer could get funds for the salary of a local SSI outreach worker, to find and help these who need help, and might not even be aware they are eligible for SSI.

If a hundred people were helped to apply for and receive SSI in the following year, about two a week, not only would they be personally helped but that could create a cash infusion of over a million dollars a year into our struggling local economy, for the next decade or so.

There are more details, rules, etc, but this is a start.

Any questions? Call Social Security at 800.772.1213 for all the answers.

* * *

Update: Recently I called up the Social Security help-line to ask some questions for this guy I know, “Jackie Daniels,” who’s between stable housing and wasn’t sure what to say his residence was. I found the representative very informed, knew all the rules, and was helpful answering all my questions.

Here is, paraphrased, what he said:

If your living situation is unstable and you’re staying in something like a shed in your friend’s backyard, or couch-surfing rent-free, then give Social Security the physical address of the location, and get a letter from the property owner saying you are living there.

If it’s just temporary, or you don’t know the physical address, or the owner doesn’t want to give you a letter, or you don’t want to ask him, then you are officially homeless, and you don’t have to produce the info about the address where you’re staying.

Tell Social Security which one of these apply to you while on your phone application call. (According to their website you don’t need a residence or address to get SSI, they say they will find you to pay you.)

This just in: Jackie Daniels got paid!

Rainbow, Reynolds Hwy, Willits (Jeff Goll)

WHAT TO DO ABOUT TRAPPED DEER, INSIDE & ORCHARD (A chat line exchange)

I am getting desperate. The deer trapped on my property for two weeks have already destroyed 12 small olive trees and many fruit trees.

Do you have a hunting dog that takes commands? Examples I can think of are an Australian shepherd, blood hound, border collie, or greyhound, but there are many others that are natural predators. I expect any of the dogs that participated in the sheep herding trials in Boonville could do this. There are good trails through the bushes for you to use. I am installing a video camera on my gate so we can see if they run out. There might be up to four deer.

* * *

If you wish to have olive and fruit trees you need to protect them with fencing and/or netting. We live in an area we share with wildlife. Even if you were able to accomplish hunting down these beautiful neighbors and harming them, they would soon be replaced by other deer.

Domesticated dogs are not predators. Please protect your trees which you care about instead of endangering and harming wildlife which you appear not to care for. This is their land we have invaded and we must learn to share.

"Fruit growers with young trees should protect them from deer damage before early fall with tree wraps. Tree guards easily wrap around tree barks, protecting not just the trunk of trees but also what's about to grow. As trees grow, orchard managers may consider installing deer fence around the entire orchard.”

I wish both you and the deer the best.

* * *

I don't feel so charitable toward someone who's talking about using bloodhounds to disperse trapped deer. Bloodhounds and several others you mention will kill the deer. Do you really want that?

Some advice: Kiss off your fruit trees and do a better job of protecting them when you plant new ones. Leave the deer alone, unless you want blood on your hands. You're the invader, not the deer. If and when they leave, put up a taller, deer proof fence and do not use razor wire or barbed wire. Or, you could move back to the city, where you can live as if people are in control of the environment.

* * *

Bloodhounds don’t kill deer. They are small dogs that don’t kill much of anything. They track. That's it. Have you ever seen a bloodhound? Even the biggest dog can't take down a deer. Nor even a wolf. A wolfpack, maybe!

* * *

The best way to remove them in my view wouLd be with a chaser dog like a jack russell terrier. And a herder dog. People can do the herding too. Deer have become a nuisance species for sure. The herd should be thinned. Thank goodness for mountain lions, the only natural predator on deer, who are vectors of numerous diseases now and whose population has exploded off the charts.

* * *

Apparently there are some bloodhounds that could in theory kill a deer, so I was wrong about that. I have worked with the ones used by trackers and these never would and most you see are too small but they do go up to 120 lbs. I have still never seen a dog take down a deer and am amazed it can happen. My German Shepherds would chase them away but if the deer made a stand just come back. And yes, deer have become a nuisance species, the same with rats and other species like racoons that followed humans here. Bears, although native, have also increased in numbers and it seems most species no longer fear humans that used to. Bobcats used to almost NEVER be seen and now everybody in the country sees them and one faced me down once over cihckens. The attitude we cant bother the animals or that we are invading their turf is often wrong. No subdivisions or even rural housing has been built in this area for decades. Animals are changing their habitats. Man has made a mess of all the forests and we have given the upper hand to the fearless and the aggressive. Ravens kill off the shorebirds and have mutliplied exponentially. Sea lions also. Humans have to manage the mess they have made but its never easy

* * *

So, the truth leaks out. Some people don't like deer and thinks they should be "thinned," a nice word that means attacked, bloodied and killed. Sorry, I disagree. That's called being a bully, a low form of sub-humanity indeed. They were here first and we should do everything possible to respect that, accommodate them and live with them.

* * *

The original post refers to two different things. Predator dogs are hunt and kill--very illegal in California. Herding dogs like Border Collies most likely will not work for wild deer as deer do not respond like sheep. If you are able to expel the deer, unless your area fence is at least 6 - 8 feet high, the deer will simply jump back in if they can see or smell your trees. You might want to just adequately fence the trees you are trying to protect. Netting is a death trap for all birds, hawks and owls (who keep your rodent population under control).

* * *

Thank you for educating me about the difference between predator and herding dogs used in this community. I grew up in rural Alabama where hunters used bloodhounds to track an animal, but not to hurt it. A dog whose predatory instincts tempt it to hunt and kill can be trained not to kill. Now I see why my original post triggered such a mixed response.

* * *

When deer get into our acre of a yard, which happens every year for one reason or another, my husband and I turn into sheep dogs ourselves. We open two gates at one end of the yard and then clanging pot lids or clapping or holding out long sticks with flags at the ends and calling to them, we head out in opposite directions, rustling them out of the bushes towards the open gates. If they somehow get around behind us we start over again. One or two rounds usually does it. Gotta have the open gateways though or they hurl themselves against the fencing creating more problems. I’ve done it myself a couple of times by opening more gateways. But it’s good to have two people. And the ability to run.

* * *

Reading between the lines, I’m guessing some deer got into a fenced area but now can’t get out, a common scenario.

You might consider removing more fencing to give the deer more exit opportunities (while hoping that more don’t get in!), and then aggressively refencing to prevent future incursions.

(And yes, while protecting individual trees, as others have noted.)

* * *

Two females got into the fenced area and cannot get out now. They will want to breed soon, so helping them out now with a safe method such as a boom box seems to be a kind and effective solution. They have only been here for about a week after someone accidentally smashed my gate. Someone suggested that I contact Fish and Wildlife and I will do that, too. I care passionately about wildlife and will seek help from experts if need be.

To be clear, I had never imagined harming the deer and was hoping for a trained dog who would obey voice commands and herd them out. However, I am setting this idea aside until I hear from Fish and Wildlife.

No deer have gotten inside my fence for about five years and I check the fence lines regularly.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, January 7, 2024

PATRICK BAUER, Ukiah. Fighting in public.

FRANK BYGEE, Ukiah. Resisting.

KRISTIN GONZALES, Covelo. Hit&Run with property damage.

ALMA HERNANDEZ, Monte Vista, Colorado/Ukiah. Burglary, probation revocation.

JACOBY JOHNSON, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

BRYAN KANN, Fort Bragg. Under influence, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

JAKE LEWIS-KOOY, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

CHERRI ROBERTS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-drugs&alcohol, county parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

CASSANDRA WESTCOTT, Willits. False report of emergency/crime, disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

VANESSA WILKINS, Eureka. Under influence, metal knuckles.

“ONE GROWS SO TIRED, in American public life of the certitudes and platitudes, the megaphone mouths and stadium praise, influencers and effluencers and the whole tsunami of slop that comes pouring into our lives like toxic sludge.”

— Christian Wiman

A CHRISTMAS I’VE ALREADY FORGOTTEN

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Well that was a Christmas not to remember.

First there weren’t any presents under the tree that I didn’t put up in the living room, and I remembered to not decorate it without any ornaments.

On top of that, I was in lousy company: alone with me.

NOTE: This column will be a great big long list of things that were not very Christmas-like in 2023 and if you’d rather read the classifieds, now’s a good time to make your move.

I was in North Carolina for the holidays and Christmas 2023 was about as festive and filled with holiday spirit as National Artichoke Day. The AM radio was cooperating by declining to play holiday music, no doubt because advertisers reap greater financial rewards from Classic Rock! than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, even on December 25. I understand.

No I don’t.

Took a morning walk. High point of the day, that. Or maybe not. I was already rather pleased with myself for not putting up a tree, and in making no effort to string lights around the outside windows and porch.

The result: I won’t have to spend a January day dismantling a dead tree or standing on a ladder to take down the exterior lights. Those dreary chores would have probably fallen on today, when I’ll already be trying to write a column, sufficiently depressing all by itself.

Instead I took an early morning walk, and got to see my second favorite canine in the world, a hangdog old golden lab. She plodded across the neighbor’s yard, tail swinging low and slow with an Aww Shucks saunter and her squinty eyed old dogface that looks so southern and friendly that if she ever barked it would come out a long lazy drawl, ending in “Why, bless y’all’s pea-pickin’ heart!”

She was glad to see me. She always is.

Her name is Ginger, not that it matters to you, but when she dies I’ll slip this newspaper clipping under the front door of her family home to remind them of the dog they’d always ignored. Then they’ll be sorry.

I scratched behind her ears and grumbled affectionate stuff at her. I gave her too many treats and promised I’d see her again tomorrow. I’m counting those treats as gifts so I can pretend I maintained at least one cherished holiday tradition, even if it didn’t include wife and kids.

They are also having Christmas, but this year we are in three different states and four different counties, 3000 miles away and three hours later.

This is what happens when we get older and the holidays drag by, almost unnoticed, because they aren’t so important. If feeding biscuits to a stranger’s dog on Christmas morning is the high point of your day, let’s all hope you’ve got a whiz-bang New Year’s Eve planned. I did not. Surprised?

Bleak, blighted holiday seasons eventually lead to living alone in a crummy motel with a black-and-white TV, your bicycle parked inside, surrounded by neighbors who do drugs.

To make things joyful and bright you’ll prop an upside-down broom in the corner and pretend it’s a Christmas tree. Nobody visits and nobody even knows you’re there, or that your “tree” has neither ornaments nor gifts under it.

Is it a happy ending or a sad one? You’ll find out some day.

* * *

First sign of decay…

Been here in Los Carolinas off and on and back and forth a few times, and finally spotted a tiny bit of graffiti in my Tarheel State home town.

In back of a neighborhood dry cleaning shop is a bluish-gray metal door. Someone has scrawled “LUV” and other indecipherable hieroglyphics that may mean something to someone.

What’s intriguing is that all graffiti all over the world is done in that familiar, angular, edgy, blocky style that is probably known as “Gangsta Bold” among typesetters and monks composing Illuminated manuscripts.

You see it in Ukiah and in New York and Seattle. I’ve seen it, sadly, in Italy, France, Spain and Germany. It does nothing to enhance culture no matter where it appears.

A wide-awake community addresses graffiti when it first sprouts its ugly blossoms, and keeps it from metastasizing and overwhelming its host. Ukiah would have done well to squelch tagging years ago when confined to the fringes of certain kinds (ahem) of neighborhoods.

Now the stuff is everywhere: Todd Grove Park, downtown School Street, random buildings and signs. Not too late, but the city ought to get on it.

* * *

What is a “Tarheel” anyway?

(It has taken Tom Hine many years to realize just how bleak and soul-crushing is the task of removing the holiday paraphernalia. TWK agrees: all that work, and when done you’re right back to zero.)

MARIN COUNTY CONFIDENTIAL

“Aren't You A Little Short For A Stormtrooper?”

UC Berkeley's Vice Chancellor Mogulof Mans The Velvet Rope At Presumed ‘D-Day’ For People's Park

What Does It Mean When You Have To Call Up 1,400 Police to Suppress Fewer Than 50 Rag-Tag Protesters at People's Park?

And What Were The Restrictions on Reporters?

by Eva Chrysanthe

It was nearly one a.m. when a young Asian-American woman approached me at the police blockade on Channing Street in Berkeley, a block away from People's Park. As many as 1,400 police officers had been summoned by the University of California to quash any resistance, peaceful or otherwise, during what the University hoped would be the "final" closing of the park. Even adjacent streets not immediately bordering the park (such as Channing) had been blockaded by CHP officers in riot gear.

"Would you go with me to ask the officers for their badge numbers?" the young woman asked me in a quiet voice. At this particular blockade, a young man had been detained after asking to cross. He had said he lived there, and just as suddenly it seemed he was handcuffed by police and placed on the curb about 25 meters ahead of us.

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I agreed to accompany her, and we walked toward the officers. By temperament and style, she did not seem to be connected to the detainee. What had brought her out on this cold night? Was she a law student? Several of the arresting officers provided her their information, but other officers refused to comply, and this non-compliance was smilingly permitted by their supervising officer.

Then, behind me, an argument about access to the restricted area ensued between a male reporter and a CHP officer, and subsequently between the same reporter and a Berkeley police officer. When the BPD officer said that press could get access on Bowditch, I followed over to Bowditch with the other reporters.

And there in the darkened street, surrounded by the din of the bulldozers and the trucks still delivering barriers, stood a man much-hated by the activist class in Berkeley: Dan Mogulof, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Executive Communications for UC Berkeley. Mogulof the Mighty! Destroyer of Parks!

Meet Dan Mogulof

Mogulof, for all his fearsomeness and high status within the University system, looks a bit like Larry David, but he was dressed like any number of New York asset managers on a winter weekend in Setauket: a slim jacket, an expensive scarf curled inside his collar, and khakis. He carried with him a slight air of authority that belied his true power on the scene: That night, reporters could only gain access if Mogulof, the ultimate arbiter of the evening's velvet rope, decided to let you in.

One of the TV news reporters had a back-and-forth with Mogulof about access and First Amendment rights. Then Mogulof looked at me, and said, "And you are...?" I told him my name, identified a prominent New York publication which had previously published my work, and then, somewhat tremulously, pointed out that no one should be restricted from the site. Mogulof looked at me archly and asked "Okay, but are you here as a journalist?" I sighed and told him I was here as a reporter. And thus, at the wave of Mogulof's hand, the metal gate was lifted and parted by a police officer dressed like a storm trooper and armed to the teeth (how much was that costing us?) and we were let through — but only because Mogulof personally approved.

That was the enforcement en scène: arbitrary, and in violation of basic civil rights not only for reporters, but for any member of the public. Still, if you restrict something, and then you allow it, you might think that reporters would be satisfied. But one of the reporters with the TV news crew had been in a particularly aggravated state over the lack of access and, as we were escorted into the blockaded area, he engaged in a back-and-forth with Mogulof, challenging him on the legality of the restrictions. I was grateful that the reporter was pushing back, not just because pushing back against overarching authority is the right (if difficult) thing to do, but because Mogulof's explanation was worth getting on camera.

The Gates Are Opened, Kind Of:

As the gates were parted, Mogulof made clear to the officers that no one was to enter without permission from him or a member of his staff, whom he did not name. (One CHP officer in riot gear appeared to salute – I couldn't tell if that was compulsory given the chain of command implied by the "emergency order" or if it was offered in jest.)

As he escorted us, Mogulof explained that: "So there's still a number of people in the park, I'm just going to ask you guys to stay on the corner for right now. Uh, right up here, you'll be able see into the park, nothing's really started yet. There have been a few arrests, I don't know how many people have been given a dispersal order.”

The aggravated reporter then asked: "Can you explain to me what kind of permit you were given to close this down?"

Mogulof responded: "We don't need a permit. We own the land."

Reporter: "This is public property."

Mogulof: "No, it's University property."

Reporter: "The sidewalk?"

Mogulof: "Oh, it's with the City. We, yeah, we took a permit from the City."

Some of the reporter's subsequent question was lost in the audio recording, but it questioned the specifics of the permit.

Mogulof's answer is fortunately preserved on the recording; he replied: "Under California law, this is a crime scene, there's police activity here, and we have the ability to hold people back."

Reporter: "Not for lawful assembly."

Mogulof: "Uh, no. Actually, when it's a first amendment issue, that's overridden... when there's a police operation, when there's a crime scene–"

Reporter: "Only when there's (inaudible) involved." (I believe the word he used is construction, but that part is too muffled to be certain.)

Mogulof didn't respond to that comment directly. Instead, he said: "So, I'm going to ask you to stay on the (inaudible), you do what you want, I'm not going to force you, I'm not going to run you down and tackle you, but you know what the law is, and obviously we have (inaudible) so it's up to you how you want to deal with it."

(It went over my head at the time, but I would generally not have envisioned a Vice Chancellor at the University of California suggesting even the possibility that he might tackle anyone.)

Reporter (sharply): "I have attorneys who know all about this."

Mogulof: "You know what? You want to start out the evening with an attitude?"

You want to start out the evening with an attitude? It was as if Mogulof had embarked on a particularly ill-matched dinner date.

Reporter: "No, I'm just telling you–"

Mogulof: "All right, but you're wrong about the law, and, it's up to you."

With this comment, Mogulof reminded the reporter that it was Mogulof, and not the reporter, who had the power here. Could the reporter have been disinvited at that point? As Mogulof had made clear, no one came through the barrier without the permission of himself or a member of his staff.

The Park:

At that point Mogulof had escorted us to the intersection of Haste and Bowditch, at the Northeast corner of historic People's Park. Berkeley has never suffered from too much streetlight, but tonight, the park was blindingly bright, courtesy of multiple floodlights, and it continued to fill with police in riot gear. A female reporter asked him what was going on at the scene, and Mogulof mentioned that there were propane tanks that they were worried about.

Mention by Mogulof of propane tank concerns at 1:22 a.m. is noteworthy. I later learned from one of the activists that, at approximately 12:02 a.m., University of California riot police had started chainsawing their way through the wall of the People's Park kitchen, despite having been informed that there was a propane tank on that side. For all that, they did not manage to gain access to the kitchen until 12:46 a.m., despite having attempted to chainsaw through the kitchen's roof. As one of the activists sighed, "These are the most incompetent police ever."

Mogulof instructed us that "this area right here" would be the spot where we should remain. He insisted that we could "see pretty much everything" from this narrow corner. This didn't quite make sense, since the area of the park extends a full block to Dwight, and approximately 2/3 of a block to Telegraph Avenue.

It was disorienting. I wanted to confirm the number of police within the park, but because of the police line, it turned out to be tricky if not impossible to move throughout the park without risking arrest.

The Activists:

At the moment we arrived, Andrea Prichett of Berkeley Copwatch, long active in the fight for People's Park, used a loudspeaker to alert the crowd to the presence of Dan Mogulof:

"Is that Dan Mogulof? Wow! We got a real UC administrator! Dan Mogulof! We must really rate. Dan's pretty famous."

The protesters, dispersed throughout the park, some of whom were about to be arrested simply for standing in the park, reacted gleefully, and you heard a chorus of voices rising:

"Dan Mogulof!"

"Hey, Danny Boy! Why don't you come over here?"

"Fuck you, Dan! You're kicking us out of our park!"

In reference to UC the Berkeley Chancellor, one of the protesters asked, "Where's Carol Christ?"

And, in a nod to Mogulof's prior service in the IDF, a protester yelled: "Tell us how the Israeli Defense Force was for you!"

Protesters

There was limited press on hand, and to my knowledge, the TV news crew I had walked in with was the only TV news crew there, prompting a taunt to Mogulof (who had already retreated) from a younger female protester: "I don't see any cameras here! You're here without cameras? What the hell, Dan? That's amazing."

I was still getting my bearings amid the bright lights and the overwhelming presence of police when I saw Russell Bates, a Vietnam veteran and longtime Berkeley Copwatch member who has also long been active at Peoples' Park. He had just seen Dan Mogulof and was uncharacteristically angry. I have only known Bates from City Council meetings, where I always found him to be genial. "I hate that Dan Mogulof," Bates told me bitterly, "for many reasons." Days later, I tried to ask Bates about Mogulof, and was told he was still too upset to talk about it.

For the people who had long provided assistance to the unhoused population that relied on the park for shelter and community, it had been a slow and anxiety-inducing burn. To go to People's Park at any time was to realize how much labor volunteers put into the site, whether it was Food Not Bombs providing 5 meals a week every week for the last 34 years, or Lisa Teague camping in the park to monitor safety, or original 1969 People's Park founder Mike Delacour still fighting for the park in the last year of his life. (One young person from Marin had been volunteering at People's Park for several years, and was generous in sharing with me the timeline they had recorded.)

The closure of the park that had been threatened for approximately 50 years was finally happening, despite an existing lawsuit not having been decided by California's State Supreme Court, and the fact that the developer for the housing the University planned had long ago backed out. This situation actually mirrors the original founding of the park, wherein the area was shut down but never developed, prompting Mike Delacour to propose a concert venue in 1969.

The University's haste to evict on Wednesday night even before the court case had been decided seemed questionably legal to many, but if you can summon 1,400 police officers to your cause, legality may simply be an afterthought.

The Wrecking Crew:

Even though the kitchen had been breached sometime before I arrived, the police and contractors took an enormous time to demolish it, and the din of chainsaws, trucks, bulldozers, and sledgehammers was disorienting.

I probably should have been more impressed by the risk implied by the assault on the people in the kitchen, but in the chaos of multiple riot-geared law enforcement agencies encircling the area (Alameda County Sheriff, University of California Police, Berkeley Police Department, and CHP, not to mention Apex security staff) I was distracted by the contractors with chainsaws who were climbing the perfectly healthy shade trees that lined the park along Bowditch. Three protesters remained in the treehouse nestled into the tallest remaining tree, a mighty conifer that stood on the grassy eastern edge of the park. Apparently, the first thing the police had done was to remove the ladder from the treehouse, trapping the protesters in the tree. That conifer was circled, ominously, by University of California Police in riot gear.

I fell into conversation with a street medic, a tall young Asian American man, and it struck me, while watching the police with him, how many younger Asian Americans and Latinos had been involved in supporting Peoples' Park, while many of the police officers were older Asian Americans and Latinos, themselves – a mirror of the generational split in political directions amongst Jewish Americans with regard to Israel/Palestine. It was hard not to recall two young men from what were then considered "ethnic" families – Mario Savio and Jack Weinberg – who had started Berkeley's Free Speech Movement in 1964, both of whom had been involved with Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

I bring this up because there is no People's Park without the Free Speech Movement. And it almost seems there would have been no Free Speech Movement without CORE. In Berkeley, Savio constantly invoked the lessons he learned from Black civil rights activists and organizers in the American South, it was a kind of North Star for him. This solidarity is mirrored in the solidarity shown at People’s Park between “elite” Cal students who volunteer at the park, and its unhoused residents.

That exceptional solidarity may explain why the FBI cracked down on Savio so ruthlessly, and, as many People’s Park activists believe, why the University cracked down so hard on them.

Meet Jonah Gottlieb

And then suddenly there was a commotion behind the line of police officers. I crouched down to peer between the sea of officers' legs, behind which a young person appeared to have been pushed to the ground and handcuffed. It was Jonah Gottlieb, an organizer with the student section of the Democratic Socialists of America. This would happen three more times to young activists in the two hours I was inside the park, and each time they dragged the young person across the street into a kind of alley behind a driveway on Haste Street. It was dark behind there, and when we tried to follow in order to get badge numbers and monitor the safety of the arrestees, the police threatened us to "move back!", wielding their sticks. This wasn't so different from what I had already witnessed outside the park on Channing.

I later learned that several of "the kids" had been held in a kind of nouveau paddy wagon, a mobile jail that looks a bit like an armoured truck, with very small cells. Many were later processed not in Berkeley, but in Oakland, ostensibly to make it harder for them to make it back home.

I had limited knowledge of Gottlieb, but he did not strike me as the kind of person you arrest unless you wanted to risk creating the next Jack Weinberg. So perhaps we can thank Vice Chancellor Mogulof for that. The world could use more "next Jack Weinbergs".

Getting Out:

I admit I felt sick watching the trees come down, and nervous from watching the protesters in the treehouse, who seemed all too blasé about the threat the riot police posed. On the ground, the riot police were pushing us south toward Telegraph. It was 2:58 a.m. I asked permission to leave the area (I did not want to be treated as Gottlieb or the other arrestees had been), and walked through the small throng of protesters at the blocked entrance to the park.

Outside the blockade, I had encountered a patrician-looking baby boomer couple walking the streets. They appeared stunned by the blockades and the police presence. By their caution around the police, I wondered if they had once been involved in the original People's Park protests that rocked Berkeley in 1969. The woman turned to me and said with regard to the shipping containers that the University planned to install as a barricade around the park, in an echo of the US wall at the Southern border to Mexico, "Can't they be welded open? So the homeless people they kicked out of the park could at least have temporary shelter in the shipping containers?"

Her comment intrigued me. The University had timed this during winter break, when most students were still off-campus. But the students were coming back, and then what? While UC Berkeley is not the hotbed of radicalism that it was once known for, the tide appears to be shifting back, and the current assault on Gaza is moving more students to the left. When I suggested to one Marin County youth that the Peoples' Park issue might distract from Gaza ceasefire activism, he gave me a confident answer: "No, they're going to reinforce one another." It was the kind of confidence Savio and Weinberg had displayed in 1964.

I made it home in the dark by 4 a.m. and took a hot shower. In the chaos created by the riot police, I didn't even realize how cold I had been all night. When I finally crawled into my warm bed with a cup of tea, I thought about the people who had been displaced from the park. Many of them were older than me, and had debilitating injuries. Where would they go?

Follow-Up:

As dawn broke on Thursday morning, the University started stacking the shipping containers to form the barrier around People's Park. And as I write this, on Sunday afternoon, the streets surrounding the park remain blockaded, and residents are required to provide identification papers to return to their homes. ("Morning in America", indeed.) Police engaged in multiple incidents of violence in the days afterward, and lawsuits are anticipated.

Word on the street is that the CHP contract ended today, and so the remaining police forces will be Berkeley Police Department and University of California Police Department. It is not hard to imagine what could go wrong in a scenario where an understaffed Berkeley Police Department is required to patrol an area made unbelievably more combustible by the mismanagement of the University of California.

As for the University's role in violations of First Amendment rights, I spent several hours talking to activists since Thursday morning, and have more interviews lined up. I was surprised that the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit that I felt should have had a presence at People's Park on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, responded to my request for an interview, which is being scheduled for this week. More on that in a follow-up.

The origins of People's Park are not well understood. I hope to relate part of that history in the coming weeks, weaving in the experiences of current People's Park activists who have generously shared their perspectives with me. In the meantime, I recommend Seth Goldberg's stunning history of Berkeley in the 1960s, Subersives: The FBI's War On Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise To Power, which includes a 40-page chapter on People's Park.

As for the 1,400 cops required to clear out a ragtag group of less than 50 protesters from People's Park? What better vindication of the fierceness and integrity of the protesters could any activist possibly desire? It wasn't what the activists wanted, that would take longer. They were ready.

49ERS FALL TO RAMS 21-20 as multiple starters ride pine before the playoffs

by Eric Branch

None of the San Francisco 49ers’ NFL-high nine Pro Bowl players were injured Sunday.

And, by the way, they lost a game.

In a contest neither playoff-bound team was fully committed to winning, the 49ers fell to the Rams 21-20 in the regular-season finale at Levi’s Stadium despite a strong performance by backup quarterback Sam Darnold.

Darnold made his first start in 364 days, and he completed 16 of 26 passes for 189 yards with a touchdown pass and a scoring run. He also lost a game-sealing fumble that was recovered at the 49ers’ 43-yard line with 25 seconds left.

The 49ers would have preferred a win. But head coach Kyle Shanahan was certainly pleased that they accomplished their primary goal: survive (mostly uninjured) and rest.

The 49ers (12-5) had already secured the NFC’s No. 1 seed and a first-round postseason bye, and rested many regular players on Sunday. Shanahan sat quarterback Brock Purdy as well as four injured starters who were inactive. Tight end George Kittle (back spasms) and linebacker Dre Greenlaw (Achilles tendinitis) were ruled out shortly before kickoff with previously unreported injuries. All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams played just one series, and a group of frontliners that included All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner and their top wide receivers, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel, exited before halftime.

The stay-intact approach was largely successful. Defensive end Clelin Ferrell (knee), who was ruled out in the first quarter, was the 49ers’ lone player who left due to an injury.

The Rams’ playoff seeding wasn’t set, but if anything they appeared even less interested in winning: They sat quarterback Matthew Stafford, running back Kyren Williams, wide receiver Cooper Kupp, defensive tackle Aaron Donald and linebacker Ernest Jones.

They did play wide receiver Puka Nacua, but only because they wanted their Pro Bowl rookie to achieve some historic milestones. Nacua was pulled early in the third quarter after a six-yard catch allowed him to establish NFL rookie records for receptions (105) and yards (1,486) in a season. With the Rams trailing 20-7, head coach Sean McVay wrapped Nacua in a celebratory embrace when he came to the sideline.

The 49ers built an initial 13-point cushion partly due to Darnold’s torrid opening. The six-year veteran completed his first six passes and began his first start since Jan. 8, 2023, when he was with the Panthers, by directing two touchdown drives.

The 49ers’ first two possessions included 28 plays, 150 yards and were capped by 1-yard scoring runs by running back Elijah Mitchell and Darnold, respectively. Darnold completed 7 of 9 passes for 73 yards on the drives.

Darnold’s performance offered evidence he could keep the 49ers afloat in the event of an injury to Purdy in the playoffs. However, the performance of rookie kicker Jake Moody became an elevated cause for concern entering the win-or-go-home portion of the schedule.

Moody entered the game having made 21 of 24 attempts, including all 15 from inside 40 yards. But he missed a 38-yard attempt in the second quarter that grazed the top of the right upright, and later pushed a 33-yard extra-point attempt wide right, his first miss on a PAT after connecting on his first 60 extra points this season.

Trailing 20-13, the Rams took the lead on a 12-yard touchdown run by quarterback Carson Wentz that was followed by Wentz’s two-point conversion pass to wideout Tutu Atwell with 5:02 left.

The 10-7 Rams will visit the Lions (12-5) in the wild-card round. The 49ers will host a divisional-round game against the NFC’s lowest remaining seed on Jan. 20 or 21.

PEOPLE’S PARK BLOODY THURSDAY: 50 YEARS LATER

The protest to keep a community-built park turned ugly — and the governor called in the National Guard

by Bill Van Niekerken

It’s been 50 years since a conflict over People’s Park in Berkeley ended in dozens of injuries and the death of one man.

Bloody Thursday and the aftermath was front-page news, and The Chronicle had several reporters and photographers covering the conflict, all but guaranteeing we had photos in our archive that had never been published. A search through our negatives and printed photos confirmed it: dozens of photos of the street battle between protesters and police, as well as the presence of National Guard on the streets of Berkeley.

A standoff was brewing May 1, 1969, when Don Wegars reported on a 250-by-450-foot chunk of empty land that Berkeley residents had turned into a park. UC Berkeley owned the land and previously intended to build student housing there, but then ran out of money. The space was deserted, but the school wanted to turn it into a recreational field.

“It was just dust and cars until the people moved in,” Stewart Alpert told The Chronicle. “But the people built this park, and I would imagine a lot of them would rather lie down in front of the bulldozers than give it up.”

At dawn May 15, police and sheriff’s deputies moved into the park, arrested three people and sealed off the perimeter.

That, however, was far from the end of it. At noon about 2,000 people gathered at the Sproul Hall steps for a rally. After several speakers, student President-elect Dan Siegel shouted, “Let’s go down and take over the park.”

A large crowd streamed off campus. As the protesters neared the park, they were stopped by police. Protesters opened up a fire hydrant and began throwing rocks. Police responded with tear gas, scattering the crowd temporarily — but the fighting continued.

“For five hours, the Telegraph Avenue area was a battleground, choked with tear gas and reverberating with shotgun blasts,” The Chronicle reported in the May 16, 1969, paper.

More than 100 people, including police officers, were injured, and 25-year-old James Rector was wounded after being hit in the face and neck by police’s shotgun pellets — he died days later. Another man would be blinded.

“The issue of the park is obviously a phony issue once again,” Gov. Ronald Reagan told reporters on his way to a fundraising dinner that evening. “It was seized upon as an excuse to riot.” The next day, Reagan sent 2,000 National Guard troops to Berkeley. Armed with bayonets at the end of their rifles, they patrolled the streets.

On May 20, demonstrators decided to challenge Reagan’s proclamation banning public assemblies by having a rally at the Campanile. But “the static peaceful vigil soon became restless and fluid,” The Chronicle reported, and the crowd decided to march through campus.

Things came to a head when a National Guard helicopter, on orders from Alameda County Sheriff Frank Madigan, dropped tear gas onto protesters and student bystanders alike on the UC Berkeley campus.

The wind drove the stinging powdery vapor hundreds of yards away, where it blanketed homes and university classrooms, and seeped into a nearby hospital.

By the next Sunday, there was an uneasy truce. Students and faculty voted overwhelmingly to preserve the park and tear down the fence. While it would take years, ultimately People’s Park stayed — and has continued to be a site of protests for decades.

(SF Chronicle)

DONALD TRUMP, AMERICA'S COMIC

As lawsuits, indictments, and ballot challenges mount, a defiant Donald Trump tells America: he'll be here all week

by Matt Taibbi

SIOUX CENTER, IA — You know Donald Trump is feeling good when he moves into Triumph the Insult Comic President mode, early in a speech. In Iowa Friday, ten days before Americans officially start voting for the man, Trump was a violin short of Henny Youngman. He had everything working.

On Nikki Haley: “Birdbrain… Does not have what it takes... She’s a globalist. She loves the globe.” He contorted his mouth to an O for “globe,” pronouncing it like Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

On the former GOP House Speaker: “Remember Paul Ryan, wheelchair-off-a-cliff?” Trump asked. “Remember this guy?” He mentioned Ryan joining the board of Fox, quipping, “No wonder Fox has changed.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, for a while the latest in the ignominious Jeb-Kasich-Rubio line of not-Trump Republicans falsely hyped as contenders by wishcasting pundits, is no longer a serious poll threat, having been displaced by Haley in recent weeks. Trump crawled up his pipe anyway (the langorous, Wrestlmania-style gloat over an opponent’s demise has been a stump feature since Trump’s first speeches).

“I got him elected,” Trump grinned. “He went up like a rocket ship as soon as I pressed that little button.” He pantomimed pressing a Tweet button. “Now it’s Truth. Truth is the best, right? But is everybody on Truth? I hope Truth is the one. That’s the one. But at that time there was no Truth… I tweeted a little statement and he went up like a rocket ship… He was dead. He was going to leave the race to winning the race just with one little press of a button. It’s an amazing thing, isn’t it?”

Holding to tradition Trump kept calling him “DeSanctis,” explaining academically that this was the proper abbreviated form of the full name “Governor Ron DeSanctimonious.” How insistent is he? When a fan tried to yell out, “Ron De-Snooze-fest!” Trump cut him off.

“It’s Ron DeSanctimonious, actually,” he deadpanned.

For déjà vu enthusiasts, we’re reliving a key mathematical constant of the Trump experience, the last-minute flurry of articles about how somebody in the GOP slate really has a shot to knock him off this time. Not that it couldn’t happen, but these articles tend to written in the tone of children’s letters to Santa, and some of the crazier themes (“Marcomentum” is an all-time favorite) are classics of bad-analysis genre. Mother Jones just went with “Haley Surges” (she’s within 13 points in New Hampshire, or 4 according to some!). Newsweek said Haley is “Hot on Trump’s Heels,” while the New York Times asked, “Could Nikki Haley Actually Do it?” Possible, I guess. But more likely not really.

Trump in Sioux Center went over a lot of material I’d seen before, though I hadn’t caught the “Crooked Joe searching for the exit” impersonation live. It’s another stump staple that’s been evolving for at least the last half-year and, look, it’s funny. It just is. In part this is because Biden is funny, a physical comedy wonder, unfortunately just not on purpose. It started with this last June 1st.

Trump was told at his own speech that Biden fell in Colorado Springs. “At the Air Force Academy?” Trump asked. “Not inspiring.” When an attendee yelled that Biden fell because of “gusty winds” — a seeming reference to White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre saying it was “pretty windy outside” after Biden’s infamous Air Force One tumble — Trump deadpanned again. “Yeah. The winds.” Before long Trump tried out what’s become his “The guy can’t find the stairs!” routine. In September, for instance: “If I walk left, there’s a stair. If I walk right there’s a stair. And this guy gets up… ‘Uh, where am I?” He turned and walked toward the rear wall, pausing in front of it, holding in place to show just his back to the audience. Trump doesn’t do voices, but this imitation of a confused Biden is Caroline’s-ready. He turned around again and said, “Where the hell am I?”

The Sioux Center version: “I mean, these stages have a lot of stairs on ‘em. Some of ‘em have four or five stairs, and he did. He had so many stairs he couldn’t find it.”

The run time for the Sioux Center address ended up clocking in at one hour, forty-eight minutes, an eternity for a stump speech. Even Trump’s phalanx of expressionless, muscled-up secret service protectors loosened their ties and/or broke into sweats, feeling the strain. There were four or five false endings, and when Trump plowed ahead after each, with reporters shifting in seats and clearly anxious to escape, the length started to become funny in itself. “It’s a little hot! This room wasn’t designed exactly for this,” Trump quipped 80 minutes in, charactertistically blaming the room for the tension. “It’s like 200 degrees in this damn— I’m trying to be cool.”

“You are cool!” a fan shouted out.

Eyerolls on the press riser. Trump slowly reached for a handkerchief, a nod maybe to Cleavon Little’s “Excuse me while I whip this out” routine. “I’m just going to do this a little bit,” he said, dabbing his face.

As time wore on he took on a strong late-stage Lenny Bruce vibe (the only thing missing were fistfuls of papes from this court cases) but worked in homages to Richard Pryor’s stuttering Chinese waiter bit (“He’s a threat to d-d-democracy,” he said, aping an actual stutterer in Biden), Milton Berle, Dangerfield… In a few places he even drifted tonewise toward Louis C.K.’s “abortion is exactly like taking a shit” routine, before pulling back. As is nearly always the case, Trump peppered the Poconos delivery with observations that blow your mind when you pause to consider it’s the former President of the United States saying these things. “The army tank is a beauty. They want to be environmentally friendly as we go in and blast the crap out of some nation,” he said, in another standard. “We’re going to go in, we’re going to be environmentally friendly as we blast that our way through their front lines, but we’re doing it in an environmentally friendly manner. How crazy are we?”

Listening to this stuff is like watching a Pope throw open the Vatican door with his balls hanging out. The brain screams to laugh at the situation, but everyone pretends it’s not funny. In a related note Trump went after the “fake news media” five or six times. “Is there anybody in this room that’s not going to vote for Trump?” he asked at one point, before quickly interjecting: “Don’t raise your hand. It could be dangerous. They’re going to say, ‘He incited an insurrection!’” Pointing at us now: “These stupid bastards! ‘He incited an insurrection!’” The hall again filled with laughs, like the set of a Don Rickles roast.

This isn’t Hitler, unless we’re takling about the Mel Brooks version. Anyone who argues none of this is funny is lying. If you want to say Trump is funny and a buregeoning fascist threat to democracy, that’s an argument that can be had, maybe. But I don’t think that holds up either, considering the context.

It’s too bad we’ll be in civil war and stabbing each other for shelter before it’s appreciated, but Trump’s story is the great comedy of our time.

In the fifteen years before the oft-mocked real estate magnate ran for president, the U.S. introduced torture, kidnapping, warrantless arrest (back for the first time since 1861), drone assassination, Minority Report-style predictive policing, preemptive war, mass surveillance, and a long, long list of other lunacies into our culture. These weren’t small changes, but sweeping rewrites of Schoolhouse Rock promises, things that as a citizen made you want to puke from shame.

Trump was just getting started on the campaign trail when headlines like “‘Sodomized’ Gitmo Detainee Recovering After Surgery. Prison: No Comment” hit the news, letting us know at least one terror suspect needed a special pillow for court after years of “rectal feeding.” A little-noticed detail from the email scandal of Hillary “Love Trumps Hate” Clinton involved correspondence showing Trump’s general election opponent objected to just 1 of 294 extralegal drone strikes (causing 2,192 deaths) approved during her tenure as Secretary of State.

America’s leaders had been peeing on every Amendment in the Bill of Rights for over a decade, even going back in time to disavow pre-American traditions like habeas corpus and grand jury secrecy. Just as the population was beginning to figure out how low we’d sunk, we were told the true outrage against “norms” came when the DNC’s own preferred candidate, Trump, got elected in the loudest record-scratch in history.

It was absurd. Trump was a small-timer compared to his opponents. Through 2015 he was famous in a media circles mainly as the kind of person the educated set liked to make fun of, a “short-fingered vulgarian” who liked gold leaf, fake tits, and online steaks. If Barack Obama was the avatar of upper class probity, a lean multiracial scholar fawned over by the Nobel Committee, Trump was the opposite, an artery-clogged casino boss with bankruptcies and a comb-over. His sales ideas were very hit and miss, but unfortunately for politicians, running for president was the biggest of his hits.

Trump’s merchant scent followed a clear whiff of opportunity emanating from the corrupt campaign process. He charged into the race with the assurance of a man rushing up the decks of the Queen Mary, clutching antibiotics to sell to aristocrats with the clap. His freestyle stump schtick about everything from exercise (“I promise I will never be in a bicycle race”) to NATO (“Obsolete. Big statement to make when you don’t know that much about it, but I learn quickly”) to Heidi Klum’s face (“No longer a 10”) provided such a violent contrast with the usual false dignity of establishment candidates that he was able, as I wrote eight years ago, to march right through the front door to the presidency.

Trump opponents helped him every step of the way. They were dumb enough to pay fortunes to re-broadcast his most outrageous comments (Hillary devoted 90% of her attack ads on Trump’s personality) thinking they’d hurt him with the same job-starved audiences who made his TV show about firing people “the cultural phenomenon of the television season,” as future CNN chief Jeff Zucker put it. How many people do you think watched the Clinton attack ad featuring Trump saying, “The boob job was terrible, it looked like two light posts coming out of the body,” and snickered against their will? Voters liked Trump because of the impolitic things he said, not in spite of them. His campaign slogan might as well have been, “A schmuck, but at least I admit it,” something lost on Democratic opponents who ran attack ads on the manufacture of Trump merch in China when the Clintons’ own embrace of NAFTA was the death knell for American domestic manufacturing.

The race was a referendum on which type of norms-ignorning liar Americans disliked more, and considering the unanimity of media on this question, Trump’s win was a massive repudiation of institutional America.

A legend had to be created. In order to avoid the shame of admitting that the mighty American system had been felled by an ad-libbing Diceman act with a Twitter account, Trump had to be transformed in media reports into more than just a barnstorming braggart with tortoise hide. He had to represent a grand, operatic evil to whom a loss could be pitched as somehow not the crushing embarrassment it was. The incredible propaganda line settled on was that Trump, maybe the most famously indiscreet celebrity America ever saw, had for decades been a Soviet sleeper agent, plotting to undermine the “rules-based international order” with vise-lipped co-conspirator Vladimir Putin.

The charges elevated Trump. Instead of being just a crass businessman whose grip on the lowest common denominator vaulted him to power, he became The Accused, a martyr whose grossout comedy act would now never run out of material, so long as opponents kept pumping out false or exaggerated charges. He could fill every speech with Jimmy Vulmer-style Have you seen this? Have you heard this? riffs about, for instance, Hillary Clinton’s charges that Tulsi Gabbard and Jill Stein were Russian assets. “I don’t know [Stein], and I don’t know Tulsi,” Trump quipped, in Las Vegas in early 2020. “The only thing I know is they’re not agents. These people are crazy!”

The hammering of Trump as a supervillain and “existential” threat, as opposed to just a colorful-if-ordinary politician with exploitable flaws (even Iowa State Senator Jeff Taylor, in introducing Trump in Sioux Center, noted “Donald Trump is a flawed human being) were for years a clear net plus for him, politically. Then the Capitol riots came, and it looked like Trump finally vindicated press paranoia.

But the State of Colorado before this past Christmas saved him again, by unveiling a plan to prevent Trump from canceling elections by… canceling elections. Once again, Democrats turned the race into a referendum on their behavior, not his, and gifted him the mother of all stump routines. Have you heard about this Colorado thing? Did you hear about this?

Conventional wisdom says Trump will clean up in Iowa because of “massive payouts” he’s directed toward the state, in the form of agricultural subsidies. Trump himself seems to think this, bringing up ethanol seemingly every five minutes. “I always say, how the hell do I lose Iowa? I got the farmers of this country $28 billion,” he cracked, imploring the crowd to remember, “I was for all your things. I was for your ethanol.” Ron DeSanctimonious, Trump said, will take your ethanol, despite his recent conversion on the issue. So will Nikki Haley, recently praised for adopting a “biofuels vision.”

In the bone-chilling line of Trump supporters waiting to get in to the event, at best a few people shrugged when asked about Trump’s tariffs (which Joe Biden is “moving toward keeping,” Axios just reported). Issue politics always seem at least a little secondary at Trump events, compared to nihilistic anger and the emotional payoff of horrifying the right people with a Trump victory. A typical comment might come from someone not even mentioning Trump per se, but some other issue.

“What California does gets pushed on the Midwest and we’re like, no, we don’t want your crap,” says Rachel Vande Stouwe, 42, covered from head to toe in winter gear, only pupils showing. “And us as pig farmers are like, no, that’s not happening.”

Vandestowe was referring to Proposition 12, a rule proposed by the State of California dictating imports of pork, eggs, and veal must meet certain “housing requirements.” As Humane Society president Kitty Block said last year, “We won’t stop fighting until the pork industry ends its cruel, reckless practice of confining mother pigs in cages so small they can’t even turn around.”

“Obviously these guys are city people,” says Vande Stouwe. “They don’t know that a sow is going to lay on our piglets and kill them. That’s why we have them in farrowing crates.” For what it’s worth, there is allegedly an exception for nursing sows, but one can imagine how the idea of Californian exercise requirements for pigs and chickens goes over in a line of shivering Iowans.

“The eggs t-taste the same,” says one woman in line, shaking her head.

“They like their lean bacon, I suppose,” quipped Dan Wielenga, in line next to Vande Stouwe. Dan says he became a Trump supporter when the economy in the area improved after the 2016 election. “We were able to breathe instead of working almost paycheck to paycheck sometimes.”

A conversation about why that might be got bogged down, so I asked about Maine and Colorado. “It’s a joke,” he said. “I don’t believe for a minute that he’ll be kicked off of ballot. It's unconstitutional down to its core.”

A young woman named Kayla Oldenkamp wondered at the politics of the move.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” she said. “I think [Democrats] have their base and it’s so crazy and loud that they think that they’re going to keep winning people over that way, and it’s just not working… They know it’s stupid.”

Others in line were just furious, referencing not just decisions involving Trump but the Secret Service issue with Robert F. Kennedy, the trouble Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips have had getting on ballots in certain primaries, and other issues.

“If they can choose who can be on the ballot, who can’t,” one woman said, “what’s the point of us voting?”

“There’s no point,” a man named David chimed in. “Might as well take that right away as well.”

I’ve attended probably thirty Trump speeches across various stages of the last nine years of his political career, seeing him on the rise here in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2015-2016, in full gloat later in Indiana after finishing off Zodiac Ted Cruz, in freefall after Access Hollywood, in crisis as he faced rumors of a 25th amendment challenge and then impeachment, triumphant again after Russiagate collapsed, and now again in his “indicted more than Al Capone” phase. He can be more or less angry or incoherent, he’ll say more or fewer things an Ivy League graduate would find objectionable, misogynistic, or obscene, but the constant from the start has been Trump’s dedication to not giving a fuck — there’s no other way to put it in English — and institutional America’s equally hard-headed determination to reward him by overreacting.

It’s the eternal seesaw of American politics. For every naughty thing Trump does, media colleagues bail him out with multiple absurd exaggerations he gets to ride back up the polls. Trump’s political career looked over three years ago this week, plunging to a 34% approval rating after the Capitol Riots while Joe Biden entered office above 50%. Now, after ten million criminal indictments, some clearly politicized, as well as innumerable civil actions including a Ku Klux Klan Act suit and, most recently, challenges to his ballot status in Colorado and Maine, the two men pollwise are reprising Trading Places. This would have seemed impossible even a year ago. Now he’s the clear frontrunner if the next election is decided by votes instead of courts, of course a big if.

Trump and his opponents probably share responsibility for turning American politics into a joke, but only one of the two parties is trying to tell us it’s not funny. And “that’s not funny” is a losing political slogan.

(racket.news)

Frank Sinatra on the set of 'Marriage on the Rocks', Hollywood, 1965. (Christopher Willoughby)

18 Comments

peter boudoures January 8, 2024

Ed notes
“You really aren’t fully Mendo-ized until you’ve been from Gualala to Covelo and all points in between.”
Sure is some beautiful country worth exploring. I fully enjoy trekking and biking around this region. Biked and then hiked to the top of snow mountain a few days before Christmas via M10. What a view.

- George Hollister January 8, 2024
  
  True. However choosing Covelo as a place to live, as the esteemed editor possibly wishes would have been interesting. The current history is an echo of past history. In Boonville one could drive by The Lodge, no big deal. In Covelo it would be like living in The Lodge. Being careful of what one says becomes a matter of survival. That is hard to imagine Bruce doing.
  
  - peter boudoures January 8, 2024
    
    In the book ‘the river stops here’ many locals were relieved that the govt would be buying up their parcels in order to build the dos rios dam. Too much work and isolation was taking a toll on most. When the money is flowing it’s easy to live out there but when it dries up it is not.
    
    - George Hollister January 8, 2024
      
      Has the black market make it easy to live there?
      
      - Lazarus January 8, 2024
        
        Aside from the generational valley landowners, many believe it should have become a lake…
        Laz
        
        
        Matt Kendall January 8, 2024
        
        I often think of the “what ifs” regarding that “dam up the Eel” endeavor. Then I wonder if life would have been the same without growing up there. Round valley was completely everything I could have asked for in my youth.
        Covelo was complete and total magic during the 1970s and 80s. Selfish to say but I’m glad it didn’t happen. I am certain there are some regrets however, they certainly aren’t mine.
        
        
        George Hollister January 9, 2024
        
        This was before Environmentalists from cities shut down the National Forest, and the mills closed. The consequences are out of sight, and out of mind, at best, to most.
        
        
        Bruce Anderson January 9, 2024
        
        I daresay, George, if Americans were polled they would want to keep the National Forest as a National Forest, rather than as a tree farm for private pirates like Harry Merlo et al.
        
        
        Marmon January 9, 2024
        
        Instead, we let the f**ker burn, brilliant.
        
        Marmon
        
        George Hollister January 9, 2024
        
        True. What is it, 95%, or 98% of Americans are disconnected from the land? And those disconnected voters decide how to manage the land based on what other disconnected people tell them. And the burned up National Forest is something they never see, or really care about. But that is OK, because the modern religion is Environmentalism, where the faith states that modern man is not a part of nature, and the forest is “saved” by removing modern human enterprise.
        
        Matt Kendall January 9, 2024
        
        Absolutely correct on that. Honest Work made that place incredible and eventually the work has to come back.
        I remain hopeful for some industry in the horizon.
        
        
        Eli Maddock January 9, 2024
        
        So what went wrong in Canada last summer? Fire everywhere all over. Honest question as I have no idea how they “manage” the forest. I do know that logging is still an industry there…
        
        
        George Hollister January 9, 2024
        
        Management means the forest is taken care of for the purpose, economic or otherwise, it is intended for. Walking away from the forest isn’t management, and usually leads to an undesirable condition. Beginning about 10,000 years ago humans became the keystone species in the Americas, and their enterprise deliberately, or inadvertently created most of the landscapes we see today. Whether we like it or not, we are it.
        
        Eli Maddock January 9, 2024
        
        Still, I would like to understand better how we the stewards can improve our management to prevent massive wildfires. Most of witch, lately, are human caused.
        I do my best with what I have on my small scale… but again, what went wrong in Canada? How do we improve through industry to prevent this massive disaster?
Chuck Dunbar January 8, 2024

AN OLD-TIMER’S GUIDE TO SSI

Excellent piece by Paul Modic on this important part of our safety net. Good explanation of who it covers and how to apply, etc. , with lots of practical info. A worthy job, Paul

- Eric Sunswheat January 9, 2024
  
  There is a loophole, when one does not qualify for normal 40 quarters eligibility for Social Security and Original MediCare at normal retirement age 65, if a person works for a company of at least 25 employees, that has been in existence for at least six months providing comparable health insurance, the deadline to apply is extended.
  By continuing to work later in life with above defined comparable health coverage, an employee must sign up for free Original MediCare Part A at 65, or after when first eligible by age 70, with the 40 work quarter year’s eligibility requirement.
  Work credits for eligibility Social Security must be 40 quarter years by age 70, but then continuing to work after age 70 may adjust the 35 years baseline for calculating monthly benefits for the years ahead.
  Social Security Administration, MediCare, and or MediCaid (MediCal) guidelines and criteria, may change each year.
  
George Hollister January 9, 2024

Excellent piece by Matt Taibbi on Donald Trump. I highly recommend reading it.

Donald Cruser January 10, 2024

It was over twenty years ago that I tool a plane ride over the
upper Noyo River. The entire watershed had been “moon-scaped”. Georgia-Pacific had made the decision to “cut-an-run”. I took a friend up there a couple of years later and when he waded into the river the silt was so deep he got bogged down in it and I had to find a long limb to help pull him out. This guy is 6′ 5″ tall and at that time was 240 lbs of muscle. He played basketball all 4 years of college. When the fish eggs get smothered in silt for 3 years the salmon are gone. I quit fishing the river in the hope a few would survive.
It didn’t have to be done this way. The forest can be selectively logged in a way that maintains a thriving forest that is thinned, allowing for the remaining trees to grow faster. More higher quality timber can be produced through selective logging in an ongoing manner than by clear cutting every 40 years, and the forest and rivers stay healthy. GP wanted the big bucks now and then they moved the mill to Mexico and abandoned the town and workers of Fort Bragg. Of course, the California Department of Forestry signed off on all of those Timber Harvest Plans. It is an old story in the USA. The pride of our country back in the 50’s was that we had the largest middle class of any country in the world. Since our manufacturing jobs have been moved off shore we now have an economy with one of the smallest middle classes among industrialized nations. For the details on how Reagon did it read a book entitled “America, What Went Wrong”.

Mendocino County Today: Monday, Jan. 8, 2024

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