Mendocino County Today: Friday, Jan. 26, 2024

Cloudy | Red Barn | Panther Basketball | AV Grange | Crab Feed | Stormcrow/Raincrow | Acoustic Folk/Pop | Patrice Guarachi | Shattuck Events | Artists Reception | Dem Zoom | Natural Civility | Covered Porch | New Director | Wine Mafia | Seed Swap | Retain Landlines | Chili Cookoff | Ed Notes | 253 View | School Masquerade | Free Food | Dog Cough | Yesterday's Catch | Seed Exchange | Gang Violence | Swift Game | Gaza Protests | Crowdfeeding | Wine Shorts | Mission Bautista | Brockipedia | Last Night | Silver | Dead Crowd | Killing Smith | Miss Me | Lethal Injection | Field Goals | Broken Man | Preposterous Illusions | Avoid Speaking | Assange/Gaza | AI Buddies

A WARM FRONT will continue to bring light to moderate rain through Saturday, with the heaviest rain over Del Norte County. Additional periods of rain will occur tonight and into Saturday. Periods of gusty winds are also likely today and into Saturday. Drier weather with mild temperatures are expected Sunday and Monday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cloudy 52F on the coast this Friday morning. Maybe a shower today, rain tomorrow then dry & really warm Sunday & Monday. More rain & colder temps for later next week.

PANTHER BASKETBALL IN BOONVILLE TONIGHT:

The Anderson Valley Panthers will play Potter Valley at the AV High Gym in Boonville on Friday, January 26, 2024.

JV Boys play at 4pm. Varsity Girls at 5:30pm. Varsity Boys at 7pm. The Panther Cheer Team will perform at half time of the Varsity game. Free admission. “Come out, pack the gym, and support our local student athletes! GO PANTHERS!”

AV GRANGE / VARIETY SHOW

Get ready all you “Grangers”, “Friends of the Grange” and supporters of your “community hall”. It's time to do a little sprucing up of the building before the March Variety Show! A wide range of skills will be needed: electrical, carpentry, plumbing, but also deep cleaning, scrubbing, washing, etc. etc. We are planning a few work days, maybe late January(?) but most likely early February, and when we have a schedule of tasks we'll be contacting folks on our various lists. Feel free to call Bill Meyer 895-2318 or leave a message for him at 621-3822.

Speaking of the Variety Show…(drumroll)…contact Rainbow or Abeja if you want to participate in the show!

— Captain Rainbow

STORMCROW

Re: Stormcrow Latham.

Marco here. Half a dozen people have written me privately to ask if Strormcrow Latham is really dead.

Yes. Someone told me that last week. I didn't know him, but he sounds like an interesting character. If you have a story about him and/or know how he died, please tell me, so I can read it on KNYO and KAKX Friday night.

The only thing on the web I can find about this right now is where Luna posted to Facebook: You Know You're In Albion: 

“So sorry to see notice at the P.O. Re Stormcrow Latham’s death. Condolences to the Latham family. Besides his many other talents, Stormcrow was the go-to guy to rescue your cat from a tree, however high. He retrieved our cat Sueno a few years ago when he was chased up a tree and refused to come down.

Stormcrow had a successful method and was amazing to watch. May his memory be a blessing.”

Now I'm worried because I know someone named Raincrow from way back in the 1980s when he was a boy at the Whale School. I hope they're not the same person.

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org

* * *

ALICE FLORES REPLIES: Raincrow Alive And Well

Not the same. Raincrow is alive and well.

PATRICE GUARACHI

Patrice Guarachi, lovingly known as Patti, peacefully passed away on January 1, 2024, after a 2-1/2 year battle with an insidious disease. While at home in Des Moines, Washington. She was born on January 14, 1952, in San Gabriel, California to William and June Ahrens. Patti was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Wayne Ahrens of Anderson Valley.

Patti is survived by her son, Marcel Guarachi, and her grandchildren, Julian and Kiana Norman-Guarachi, all residing in Fort Bragg, California. She is also survived by her loving, dedicated husband, Parker Jones, of Des Moines, Washington.

Growing up in California, Patti had a deep appreciation for art and creativity. She attended Hillsdale High School in San Mateo and graduated Woodside High School in Woodside, California. Patti continued her education at Cañada College in Redwood City, where she studied painting and design. She further honed her artistic skills at the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg, California.

Patti had a fulfilling career as a Special Education Teacher for Mendocino County Schools. Her dedication to her students and passion for teaching left a lasting impact on the community. Additionally, she pursued her artistic endeavors, becoming a renowned local artist in Mendocino and Fort Bragg, California.

As an artist, Patti drew inspiration from the natural beauty of Northern California. The ocean's splendor and the majestic redwood trees with creatures therein captured her heart. Her artwork reflected her love for vibrant colors and a touch of humor. Patti's talent and creativity shone through her various mediums, including murals, signs, paintings, and more.

Beyond her professional pursuits, Patti cherished her role as a mother and grandmother. She adored spending time with her family, creating lasting memories and sharing her artistic passion with them.

A Celebration of Life will be planned for later this spring to honor Patti's remarkable life and the joy she brought to those around her.

In memory of Patti Guarachi, may her artistic spirit continue to inspire and bring happiness to all who encounter her work.

CONVERGENCE OF ARTISTIC JOURNEYS at The Willits Center for the Arts

The Willits Center for the Arts is set to host a captivating exhibition featuring the autobiographies and artworks of two distinct yet equally compelling artists, Shari Fischer and Natalie Campbell. The opening reception, providing a unique opportunity to meet the artists, will take place on Saturday, February 3rd, between 6 and 9 P.M.

Shari Fischer, MFA, known for her innovative approach to artistic expression, shares her journey of breaking free from the Silicon Valley life mode in her autobiography. Fischer's exploration led her to discover a forgotten set of Prismacolor pencils and black paper in her studio. Randomly selecting 18 colors, she embarked on a creative odyssey, resulting in over 50 mesmerizing color studies. Fischer's love for brushes filled with paint became her preferred tool, allowing her to craft points, lines, shapes, and motions with endless possibilities. Her escape to the woods of Mendocino has inspired landscapes that come to life through water-soluble oils on black primed canvases. The exhibition will showcase Fischer's evolution as an artist and the vivid landscapes that emerge from her engagement with the natural world.

Natalie Campbell, a self-taught artist, presents a heartwarming fusion of her lifelong passion for horses and the western lifestyle in her autobiography. Having discovered art later in life, Campbell's unique perspective breathes life into her subjects on black archival paper using pastel pencils. Her journey into the art world is a testament to the joy of newfound creativity, and her pieces evoke the harmony between her love for horses and her artistic expression.

The opening reception on Saturday, February 3rd, will be a delightful opportunity for art enthusiasts and the local community to engage with Shari Fischer and Natalie Campbell, gaining insights into their artistic processes and inspirations. Attendees can immerse themselves in the diverse worlds these artists have created and appreciate the distinctive techniques that define their work.

Don't miss the chance to witness the convergence of Shari Fischer and Natalie Campbell's artistic journeys at The Willits Center for the Arts. Food and wine will be available. For further information or media inquiries, please contact:

SO YOU'RE 90: What''s Next? New Broom Sweeps Clean...

by Gregory Sims

Charmian, Anderson Valley’s previous senior citizen’s columnist, was given to aphorisms such as “making a clean sweep of things.” I recently came across a more precise version of the phrase: “A New Broom Sweeps Clean.” I doubt we could pull off how I’m going to suggest we apply this phrase. And as well, the effort deserves some thought and compassion. 

To begin, this requires one to look back into previous AVA issues, particularly Mike Geniella’s “Cubbison Fights Back” (Dec. 20th issue). I have a friend (noted in the AVA) still carrying shrapnel and several bullets who while wounded relocating a machine gun and saving the lives of his patrol (Viet Nam) He still can’t make it through a body scan. 

Likewise, Chamise Cubbison may carry being seriously wounded by the current Board of Supervisors well into her future. This is where the compass of compassion is being introduced. It makes no sense to punish ourselves by trashing those (including David Eyster) who set the stage for the unanimous Supervisors’ vote creating a self-other harming climate through defunding/firing our Mendocino County Auditor.

I find as an age 90s survivor, I can’t juice myself up with untoward emotion like I did in days past seeming so long ago. That said, our District Attorney brought charges against Chamise Cubbison, and the entire board of supervisors fired her with no separation allowance for what were to me invalid reasons. I hope we are not quiet spectators (an unhelpful type of participation). Each of us who have become aware of these harmful actions would do well to participate in replacing the entire board who (unanimously) voted to do this. The Supervisors Chamber needs a social “new broom that sweeps clean” these five supervisors and the District Attorney away! Away from further leadership involvement for fomenting this travesty of justice, a clear injustice.

* * *

Now on to more pleasant (caring of a different nature) events. A week from Tuesday, February 6th, at 11:00a.m. at Mosswood Café: The group of four local 90s pre-Centurion activists will decide if we wish to include the younger octogenarians as members.

Much of what I sense we are about is playing with the realities of living and laughing as members of the “declining years.” We can be serious, as above. So it would be good for us to make “joyful noises” from time to time and thank our host(s) for these somewhat (truly) odd years. Finally I need to know if the others (hopefully) will want to endorse the first two paragraphs.

Perhaps more importantly, what underlies what we learn remains an important guide for us. We use the word conditional to describe what we pick up from learning. The unconditional (as the infant’s response to mother’s breast) will be covered over by learning. But the foundation for learning remains. Thus there is a basic, natural civility that seems to have been violated by our leaders and in going before the Board, should I now do so as an “oldster” as some in my family refer to me, I would hope to be helpful in bringing civility back which comes from unconditional caring into meaningful social involvement.

LUCAS NEAR-VERBRUGGHE

The Mendocino Theatre Company is delighted to announce the appointment of Lucas Near-Verbrugghe as the newest member of its esteemed Leadership Team. Lucas will join the existing Artistic Directors, Betty Abramson, Mark Friedrich, and Producing Director, Beth Craven in overseeing the leadership of the 48 year old company. Lucas replaces outgoing Artistic Director, Roxy Seven. The Mendocino Theatre Company is excited to have Lucas' fresh and dynamic artistic perspective, as well as his exceptional background in the performing arts.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:

JEFF GOLL: you're correct about the Mendo wine industry being a Mafia.  Hence, how can Cline lose?  When I went over to Rivino Winery to photograph some nice scenery, right off the Highway, a red pickup was sitting just across the road with someone watching me meander around the outer perimeter of the place taking pics.  Moments later a big, black Suburban with tinted windows rolled up and parked next to the pickup and sat there.  An incongruity of sense of place came over me and I felt unsettled.  I wasn't even on their property and I was under surveillance. Why were they so paranoid?  What threat did they think I posed?  I've felt more comfortable at a police station.  Mafia attitude indeed.  Another "gang" that poses as tough sh!t-over another type of intoxicant.

HANDS OFF OUR LAND LINES

Regarding the possible loss of landlines in Mendocino county:

It's hard to believe that in the 21st century, I'd have to defend the concept of universal access to telephone service. It's hard to believe AT&T would have the nerve to apply to take landlines away from the population here.

Both my parents worked when I was growing up, in Marin county, so I was a latchkey kid. Occasionally, the power would go out, and I'd be alone in the house in the dark, which was memorable all these years later -- but we had a landline and our neighbors were just a few steps away. I could dial "0" and get an operator to call for help if I needed it.

In this county, many people live far apart, on rural roads. They have minimal or, often, no cell service. There's a lot of poverty. Even if a home has cell service, poor families cannot afford multiple cellphones for the various members. Using a cellphone requires that a person (a child, a blind person, a person with Parkinson's) be able to gain access to the phone with a PIN and then dial a number -- even when they've fallen, or are trying to report a break-in, or they need an ambulance. There is no question that people would die without landlines.

People living in rural areas know that they exist at a disadvantage in many ways and have little political power, but we shouldn't be forced to live in conditions from before the turn of the century -- and not this one, but the one before that. Lacking Internet already affects the property values of isolated homes; lacking a landline would tank them.

The quality of every cell call is determined by the phone with the worst cell reception. If one party has one bar or no reception, in effect both do. If I have a friend who's without cell service, I can't talk with that friend. We both become more isolated.

Besides the inability to call for emergency services(!), how would workers hear that they're needed for a different shift? How would a parent find out that their child is ill and needs to be picked up from school early? How would you find out that your prescription is ready or that a lab test indicates you need immediate care? That someone found your lost dog? That your husband has been in a wreck and is in the E.R.?

I'm hearing impaired. I'm also the point person in our household for our medical care and finances, and I cannot hear well enough on our iPhones to do that work -- I've tried. In addition, some businesses' telephone trees don't recognize tones generated by my iPhone. In those instances, I can't input my PIN and I can't get a representative.

An unsung advantage of landlines is that our landline rings in our home, and our answering machine keeps messages, and both of us can see and hear them as messages come in, without having to access a device. Neither of us has access to messages on the other's cellphone when we're apart.

Our landline is the number we've given out for years. If we lose our landline, I'd have to contact all those people and places and businesses and healthcare providers (and I didn't keep a list), to change our primary contact number. Multiple all that by the number of people affected by this proposal.

What a waste of a whole community's time.

Please deny AT&T's application to abandon providing and servicing landlines in Mendocino county.

— Jean [MCN Chatline]

ED NOTES

A READER WRITES: “Your trip to John Pinches’ place on the Eel was very interesting and entertaining; thanks for sharing it with us. There is also a “rock” on Spy Rock Road, just about to the school, that has all kinds of Indian markings on it. When I was working up there some of the locals told me that there had been archeologists come up and study it. They believed that a lot more of the writings on the rock were buried just below the surface. It’s right next to the road, so next time you’re up there ask about it and check it out.” 

A COUPLA locals have given me the old fish eye lately when they’ve spotted me at Faulkner Park with an empty Have-A-Heart trap. No, I wasn’t off-loading cats. Due to an over-population of raccoons and possums here at The Fort, I’ve had to begin my own relocation program. Anything wrong with that? What else can I do? When they’ve become so fat and insolent that they hiss at me in front of my own front door, they gotta go. Of course by that standard I should also re-locate the Board of Supervisors, but I don’t think they’d fit in my trap.

A NOTE from a Santa Rosa reader who remembers when we weren’t rich but did seem a tad more sensible. “When you grew up in Santa Rosa like I did, and remember the place when it was in its 20-35,000 population stage, it’s flat out depressing to venture out to see what it has become. I mean that… depressing. Have you taken a good walk around downtown Santa Rosa in the last year? Up Fourth Street from Sawyer’s to the mall, back down Third Street and north on Mendocino? There’s a few businesses struggling to hang on, homeless people and gen x punk types hanging around the courthouse and sporadic spots along the sidewalks, and a few people actually doing business downtown. 

THE PROMOTIONAL ALLIANCE (aka Visit Mendocino) gets tens of thousands every year to promote tourism. They once proposed a slogan for Mendoland that goes, “Mendocino County! A Different Time, A Different Place.” In other words, as at least one skeptic puts it, “We’re backwards and we’re dumb.” The PA has gotten regular raises via the bed tax, also known as the transient occupancy tax. Sensible people wanted to use the money for economic development or county services affected by tourism such as emergency response. Still do, but it all goes to tourism promotion, and you know what kind of jobs tourism brings.

ADAM SCHIFF, the worst candidate for U.S. Senator imaginable, is of course opposed to a ceasefire in Gaza, but the other day Republican Steve Garvey knocked Schiff clear out of the park for lying about Russian collusion: Garvey: “I believe you were censured for lying.” Schiff: “I was censured for standing up to a corrupt president.” Garvey: “Sir, you lied to 300 million people and you can’t take that back.”

THE AV SENIOR CENTER Crab Feed is sold out, and score another big win for the Senior Center's popular director, Renee Lee.

FACT you probably don't want to know, but Charles Manson and a couple of the girls once lived in a trailer on the beach in Navarro, and many of us remember that before the state took over that area Manson wasn't the only criminal residing in the ragtag camp of residents who enjoyed a free beach front trailer home. Some locals will also remember the sign that greeted customers at the inn and restaurant prior to the squatter takeover — “I don't mind the hippie movement so long as it keeps on moving.”

A RECENT AP story was headlined, “Poll: Some Journalists Bow To Marketplace.” Why I'm shocked! Shocked! I tell you. “The poll of 206 reporters and 81 news executives by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press out of the Columbia Journalism Review…” If anybody reading this believes that most media don't “bow to the marketplace…"

ALL YOU GARDENERS out there, a question: Aren't daffodils awfully early this year? Coupla mine popped up January 3rd.

ST. MARY’S SCHOOL 53RD MARDI GRAS MASQUERADE

Fundraiser to be Held February 24 & 25

St. Mary's School is proud to announce its 53rd annual Mardi Gras celebration, a two-day extravaganza of community spirit and fundraising, set to take place on February 24th and 25th.

The festivities kick off on Saturday, February 24th, with the Mardi Gras Masquerade at Carl Purdy Hall at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah. Tom Allman, retired Mendocino County Sheriff, and Roberta Gonzales, CEO of ROGOPRO and KTVU FOX2 Meteorologist, will be emceeing the evening’s events, which kick off at 5:00 p.m. Guests are invited to revel in an evening filled with fine dining provided by Garbocci Catering, casino-style gaming, a no-host bar and a live performance featuring The Funky Dozen. 

Highlighting the night are exclusive silent and live auctions, showcasing magnificent items and experiences, from luxurious getaways to exquisite wines and artisan crafts. Additionally, the much-anticipated Mardi Gras raffle offers prizes, including a $3,000 travel voucher with $1,000 cash, an Apple iPad Pro, a Blackstone Griddle with Grilling Tools, and a Yeti Cooler. 

The merriment continues Sunday, February 25th, at Carl Purdy Hall with the Family Carnival, promising an afternoon of fun for all ages. Admission is free and open to the public. The carnival will feature a variety of games like an inflatable dart board, soccer target, pitching challenge and more. Alongside the games, attendees can enjoy face painting, a balloon artist, musical performances by St. Mary's students and an assortment of delicious concessions.

Since its inception in 1969, Mardi Gras has been a cornerstone in supporting St. Mary's School, with proceeds fostering campus improvements, providing scholarships and upholding a tradition of academic excellence. This year, the fund-a-need initiative takes on a special significance with the introduction of the Legacy of Learning Fund. The Legacy of Learning Fund is a visionary project. It aims to provide sustainable support, enabling us to continue offering high-quality education and opening doors for talented students facing financial barriers.

We hope you join us at this year's unforgettable events! For more information about Mardi Gras and to purchase tickets, visit stmarysukiah.org/mardigras, or call St. Mary's School at (707) 462-3888.

Join us in making a difference and celebrating our vibrant community at St. Mary's School Mardi Gras Masquerade!

ASK THE VET: RESPIRATORY PANDEMIC IN DOGS?

by Colin Chaves, DVM

Recently the media has given a lot of attention to an infectious cough that is spread among dogs. Here are some of your common questions and answers.

What is an infectious cough in a dog?

An infectious cough is a contagious cough. There is an organism or organisms that can be transmitted from one dog to another, either through the air or direct contact. The organisms get into the respiratory tract and cause coughing. Other symptoms may be noted, such as fever, lethargy and decreased appetite.

What is CIRDC?

CIRDC stands for Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex. It covers a variety of infectious organisms that can cause coughing in dogs. You might have heard of Kennel Cough, which is a subset of CIRDC.

CIRDC is actually a complicated mix of organisms. Commonly known infectious causes of cough in dogs include at least nine viruses, three types of bacteria, one protozoan, three fungal organisms, and five parasites. Dogs with an infectious cough usually have more than one infectious cause.

CIRDC has been around in some form probably as long as dogs have been around.

Why is respiratory illness suddenly in the news so much?

One reason is simply that the media is paying more attention to respiratory infections in dogs.

However, the above item is only part of the story. There is also actually news here.

There are recent, relatively infrequent but significant reports of dogs with respiratory disease that is resistant to standard treatments. Also tests for common respiratory agents are not positive.

We do not have formal surveillance programs to monitor these sorts of things. In an effort to get somewhat of an idea, an area that can be looked at is pet health insurance claims. One major insurance company's data clearly shows an upward trend in claims for “respiratory disease” over the past two years. This is for specific areas. In the US: Colorado, Nevada, Oregon,Virginia and California. In Canada: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and British Columbia. This is one data source only, and detailed information for the world dog population is sparse.

So is there some new type of illness in dogs or not?

We don't actually know. Here are some of the possibilities (see the link at the end of the article for more).

There might be a previously unidentified organism(s). However, just finding a new organism in any sick animal doesn't necessarily mean that is the cause. What if you also find that organism in normal animals as well, as is often the case with new discoveries?

There might be some previously known organism(s) that has changed or mutated.

Maybe dogs are getting vaccinated less, out of owner fears, or less care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe the best kinds of vaccines aren't being used.

An increasing population of dogs might mean more cases of illness, even if the percentage of infected stays the same.

Increasing use of pet health insurance might cause more reporting to providers, as well as willingness to go to the vet for a sick pet.

Multiple items in the above list might be true, and vary from location to location.

What can I do to protect my dog?

Consider avoiding the dog park or other areas with large groups of dogs in a small area.

Make sure you keep your dog as healthy as possible. Offer good quality food, maintain an ideal weight and dental health. Visit your veterinarian at least annually.

If applicable to your dog's lifestyle, consider a Kennel Cough vaccine.

There is a Canine Influenza vaccine which can be hard to find, and should be considered if you live in an area with an outbreak of that specific disease.

If your dog is coughing or otherwise ill, don't panic, but do contact your veterinarian.

Be aware that there are several common causes of coughing in dogs that are not infectious.

I urge caution when using the popular media to get information about something like an epidemic or pandemic. Popular media can often be sensationalist, anecdotal and written by non-scientists. Get your medical information from medical professionals.

In this article I've hit only the highlights in an important but very large topic. I encourage you to periodically check The Worms & Germs Blog, which I've mentioned in a previous article. That, along with your local veterinarian, will be your best resource for keeping up to date.

https://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/

CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, January 25, 2024

KELISHA ALVAREZ, Ukiah. County parole violation.

ANDREW CEDILLO, Ukiah. Stolen property.

JONA CHAPMAN, Gualala. Probation violation.

JONATHAN CISNEROS, Ukiah. Controlled substance for sale, probation revocation.

JESSE CONNOLLY, Redwood Valley. Attempted murder, failure to appear, probation revocation.

REGINA FABER, Ukiah. Child endangerment.

CLAYTON FIGUEROA, Redwood Valley. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

THOMAS GROFF III, Redwood Valley. Domestic battery.

JESSE LOMELL, Ukiah. Trespassing. 

BRENDA POINDEXTER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

VICTORIA VASQUEZ, Ukiah. Controlled substance, failure to appear.

GANG VIOLENCE IN SANTA ROSA SCHOOLS

Editor,

Serious gang violence happened again at Montgomery High. There was a 14-year-old female student, a young lady, who was trapped by other female students in one of the ladies rooms. She was savagely beaten up, kicked in her head when down, struck in the head several times and had her hair pulled out so hard that much hair came out by the roots.

There must be campus resource officers, at leasst one on duty, on all days and hours that the school is in session. Student safety must be a first priority at every school in the district. One parent made an elqquent statement on camera, on Kpix tv.

The principal and superintendent have known of the gang crisis going on since a student died by knife wound last year. TChief John Cregan has spoken to the City Council for the assignment of campus resource officers at schools since the city is ridden with criminal gangs. The time has passed for action to be taken.

Frank H. Baumgardner, III

Santa Rosa

FROM THE PORT OF OAKLAND TO MARIN CIVIC CENTER: Marin County's Jewish and Palestinian Ceasefire Proponents Continue To Show Strength and Solidarity

(And wherein a high school student punctures the sterility of the the Marin Board of Supervisors' chambers with a plaintive: "Hey, can I ask you guys a question? Don't you have any emotions?")

by Eva Chrysanthe (Marin County Confidential)

By the time I arrived at the Port of Oakland on the 100th day of Israel's assault on Gaza, the sun had yet to rise, but there were already over 1,000 (mostly young) protesters marching and repeating anti-war chants in the darkness, quite a few of them having made the trip from Marin County. 

And there, on the wide streets of the Port, surrounded by massive industrial machinery, flickered demonstrations of remarkable tenderness: A father cradling his infant son at the perimeter, a couple holding hands as they marched, a young woman assisting an older man who had stumbled. Palestinian flags fluttered hopefully above us, carried aloft by the youths.

Anyone looking for a coffee truck was out of luck, but in what could be considered a "courtesy wake-up call", there was a mobile drum circle and women with bullhorns leading chants. From the organizers' platform, from which the main chants were being called through loudspeakers, the playwright and activist Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project, began to speak about the parallels between the treatment of Palestinians under occupation and the plight of vulnerable communities here in the Bay Area. Many who had been marching streamed toward the small platform to hear her better, but protest organizers gently reminded the crowd to keep marching, in order to maintain the nascent blockade.

The peaceful, multiracial crowd, organized by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), would eventually grow to 2,500, shutting down unloading operations at the entire port for the day. (AROC's effort had the tacit blessing of the union that unloads the ships, the ILWU, a union which has boycotted plenty of ships over many decades prior.) Around the perimeter of the march, a group of primarily young women, including many Black, Arab and Jewish women, constituted a kind of low-key security system that demonstrated remarkably peaceful but effective tactics. (I watched later as they defused a hostile white interloper who tried to charge his cargo truck past the simple barricade of bicycles; their deft handling of that situation was an act of impressive strategy.)

Even in that early, bleary hour, and in the thin light coming through the rainclouds, it was hard not to be struck by how many women seemed to be prominent in the management of the protest/blockade. Later, local media would try to downplay the accomplishment of the organizers by claiming that the Port of Oakland was closed until Monday, even though operations take place during the weekend. But measuring the calculus of operations between a Saturday and a Monday was missing the point. AROC was demonstrating that it was capable of pulling in over 2,000 protesters on a Saturday, starting at 5:30 a.m.

You could think of it as a kind of test-run just across the bay from where the 1934 San Francisco Waterfront Strike took place. That 1934 strike lasted for 83 days and built one of the strongest, most racially integrated, and most politically radical unions in the country.

* * *

Ten Days Later in Marin…

Ten days later, on January 23, 2024, some of the same youths who had protested at the Port of Oakland showed up again at the Marin Board of Supervisors' meeting to urge the Supervisors to pass a ceasefire resolution. But while the Port of Oakland march had seemed to be primarily young people, the age range of the pro-ceasefire speakers in Marin that Tuesday was more equally distributed.

Among the dozens of pro-ceasefire speakers, the intimacy of the discussion was palpable even via Zoom, and the arguments they made in favor of ceasefire were heartfelt, carefully researched, and made with obvious concern for people on both sides of the conflict. One of the speakers, Chris Jewell, had recently hosted a Palestinian refugee family, and he related the desperate plight of those Palestinians who had not been allowed to escape. David Glick, the grandson of a well-regarded East Coast rabbi, made an impassioned speech to the Supervisors that emphasized Jewish values in calling for a ceasefire.

When attendees could not help but applaud Glick's ardent and compelling speech, they were admonished by the President of the Board of Supervisors that they should merely wave their hands, a mark of appreciation that could not be registered by the public trying to view the meeting on zoom. This is the sort of prohibitive nonsense that prompted a Marin high school student to pierce the false decorum of the genocide-complicit Supervisors with the simple line, "Hey, can I ask you a question? Don't you guys have any emotions?"

It was a fair question. Like Lear's great fool, the student had allowed himself to ask one of the most basic questions about power's absence of humanity. In doing so, he exposed all of us in the room as somehow complicit, bowing to anti-democratic "norms" like the prohibition of mere applause amid yet another in a series of US-funded genocides. Ours was a false decorum which helped the Supervisors cover for extreme violence.

The high school student managed two other things with his comment. He correctly identified the bombing of every single hospital in Gaza by the IDF, and he did something that no one else appeared to have done during that meeting. He successfully threaded his concern for Israel's Palestinian victims, an urgent humanitarian concern which the vast majority of speakers understandably focused on, with an equally important reality which was being largely ignored: Israel's genocidal campaign has already expanded into a larger regional conflict, further involving the US, with the possibility of the return of the draft.

The high school student's comment is probably the only concern that might move the political machine in Marin County. It is true that there is a surfeit of Marin County fortunes tied to the military industrial complex who have no hesitation in an amping up of our “forever wars”. But sadly, it is likely only selfish concerns about security and continued access to national power that could move those with power in Marin County: judging from the polls, Biden will lose in November, and no one in this true-blue county is even talking about a challenger.

* * *

The “Ceasefire Now Marin” Petition Remains a Wholly Grassroots Effort

Most of the youngest ceasefire speakers had organized around the school walkouts, while millennials and older ceasefire proponents (many of whom have been active in other Palestinian civil rights groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and 14 Friends of Palestine), had coalesced around the “Ceasefire Now Marin” petition started in Fairfax. That petition was generated by Joe McGarry, a workingclass dad raised in Marin who has long been active in Fairfax town politics. McGarry's grassroots, unfunded petition now has over 700 vetted signatures, a number that has not been matched by a much better-funded, anti-ceasefire petition organized by Guila Rice, a co-Director of Chabad of Marin. Rice’s essentially pro-war petition has the added benefit of sharing the same anti-ceasefire position of very large and powerful NGO/lobbying groups, including the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In other words, David was edging out Goliath in Marin’s signature gathering effort. This may explain why some of the anti-ceasefire crowd emerged out of their prior retreat, but they still only managed three speakers, one of whom was Guila Rice, who once again did not identify herself as a co-Director of Chabad of Marin, an extension of Chabad Lubavitch in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The pro-ceasefire speakers at the Tuesday meeting stood at approximately 27. (From that number, I have omitted those speakers who merely criticized Israel's abuse of Palestinians but who did not have time in the narrow speaking time to ask for a ceasefire.)

That ratio is more impressive when you consider the personal cost and risk of retaliation to the (many workingclass) pro-ceasefire speakers in Marin. The ceasefire proponents speak in the context of a McCarthy-esque environment where people have lost jobs simply for speaking up on behalf of Palestinian rights, and where not a single supervisor has moved to put even a discussion of any ceasefire resolution on the agenda.

Nor has any Marin County supervisor, to my knowledge, even made a public statement in response to the hundreds of concerns patiently expressed over a period of several months by County residents about the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians by the US-funded State of Israel. According to multiple Marin County residents, the Supervisors are choosing to ignore polite, civil, heartfelt letters sent requesting that a ceasefire resolution be placed on the agenda.

The silence from the Supervisors is matched by the silence from the conflict-of-interest-laden County commissions, working groups, and boards, which are appointed by the Supervisors themselves, and not elected by the populace. The petition for the ceasefire resolution itself, as confirmed by McGarry, had no input or assistance from any County or municipal committee/ board/working group in Marin. It is entirely grassroots.

Notably, not one member of the County's Human Rights Commission (HRC) has spoken on the issue at the Board of Supervisors, nor has any item relating to Israel/Palestine been placed on the HRC agenda. This silence is ongoing despite the large numbers of Marin residents of Israeli and Palestinian descent who have repeatedly brought the matter forward at the BoS, and others who have appealed directly to the HRC.

Further, there appears to have been silence from the Women's Commission, and the Youth Commission, etc., despite the obvious relevance even within the County.

That raises the ongoing question about what the purpose of Marin County's Supervisor-appointed commissions are. Are they designed to function as independent bodies that respond to the concerns of the populace? Or are they instead inherently anti-democratic bodies that function as reinforcement of the Supervisors' own wishes?

Then there is the question of the role of U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, who represents the prime, if crumbling, real estate along California North Coast, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the border of Oregon. Huffman, considered something of a regional "kingmaker", had called for a "ceasefire" that did not in any way resemble what would be necessary to ensure peace. Specifically, Huffman’s ceasefire demanded only the return of Israeli hostages, but made no mention of the Palestinian demand for the return of thousands of imprisoned Palestinians civilians, many of them children, detained for years in brutal Israeli jails where many have been sexually assaulted by Israeli prison guards.

Which is to say, Marin County's U.S. Congressional representative, who has occasionally gone so far as to compare Israel's treatment of Palestinian to apartheid, still toes the line on the actual war crimes committed by Israel over decades.

And as I write this, I still have to reckon with Huffman's immediate pro-Israel statement after the October 7 Hamas attacks, which he has not yet moderated. As Israel's own Channel 13 reported this week, many of the worst atrocities that Israel claimed Hamas had enacted (and which were used to "justify" the genocidal bombing of Palestinians in Gaza), never actually occurred. They were fabrications. This follows earlier reporting from Ha'aretz and other Israeli reporters indicating that the IDF itself was responsible for hundreds of the Israeli fatalities on October 7.

Any fabrications about Hamas atrocities are absurd when you consider the reality that the actual Hamas attack was sufficiently violent that Israel would not have needed to fabricate stories such as beheaded babies, or babies thrown into the oven, or mass rape, et cetera. That is, unless Israel wished to distract from its own criminal negligence that abetted the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

Piece by piece, Israeli reporters themselves are dismantling Israel's own propaganda. But none of the local publications in Marin County, principally the Marin Independent-Journal and the "alt-weekly" Pacific Sun, both of which "reported" the violence of the October 7 Hamas attacks, are making any corrections to their incomplete and in many cases inaccurate reporting.

Then there is the matter of local media simply ignoring the matter of the ceasefire, and editing out much of the criticism of Israel from Marin County residents' letters and opinion pieces, as Maxine Flasher-Dugenez pointed out during her public comment at the January 23 Board meeting.

* * *

Why Does Marin Hold Out?

Across two bridges from Marin County, neighboring cities and one City/County have passed ceasefire resolutions at the behest of residents, marking themselves as not merely compassionate, but aware of some of the most basic rules of war.

Marin County Supervisors' refusal to even place discussion of a ceasefire resolution on the agenda isn't any strategic failure on the part of Joe McGarry. It isn't the fault of Chris or Jane Jewell who have for so long tried to educate their Marin County neighbors about what the Palestinian people are suffering. It isn't the fault of high school students at San Rafael High School, the kids most likely to be drafted when this war expands. It isn't the fault of reporter Peter Byrne, whose article about a North Bay protest was reportedly spiked by the Pacific Sun/North Bay Bohemian.

The lack of an agenda item for even a discussion of the merits of a ceasefire resolution takes place in a particularly extreme bubble, a balloon that is blown to near-bursting by complicit County leaders and their sycophantic commissioners; biased reporters within our local media; and a Democratic Party that would rather lose the 2024 Presidential election (and with it many downstream Dem tickets) than grapple with the need to replace Joe Biden as the Presidential candidate.

Even in true-blue Marin, the ceasefire speakers seem to be warning, Democratic voters are dropping out. And while the Democratic Party might be able to sustain those losses in California, that will be harder to do in Michigan. And the larger regional war and US involvement in it is only now starting. Is anyone listening to the peaceniks?

* * *

Afterword: 

Kids and Media Yesterday, And Today

The day of the Board meeting, I received a response to a request I had made late last year of the County Archives. It was a photograph of Peter Risley from the Tamalpais High School 1965 yearbook. Peter Risley was the son of labor and housing activist Bruce Risley, who nearly managed the Herculean feat of installing cooperatively owned, racially integrated, affordable housing in Marin City in the late 1950s.

Peter Risley, who was raised in Marin City, was set to graduate from Tamalpais High School in good standing, but left before the graduation ceremonies with a Marin Independent-Journal reporter and two other Marin County high school students to travel to various southern states to register Black citizens to vote. In Georgia Peter Risley was beaten; in Mississippi, he was arrested.

I can see today's youth making a similar journey today. What I can't imagine is anyone from either The Pacific Sun or The Marin Independent-Journal making any similar trip to report on it. They're too invested in promoting the County government’s public relations needs.

But to close on a positive note, and perhaps an inspirational one, I urge you to listen to the full recording of your fellow Marinites at Tuesday's board meeting. As you can see, there are still good people in Marin, and they need your voice, too.

ESTHER MOBLEY: What I'm Reading

Here’s what’s come across my desk recently: 

Ryan Klobas, the CEO of the Napa County Farm Bureau, died by apparent suicide earlier this month, reports Kerana Todorov in Wine Business. Klobas was a fervent advocate for Napa Valley’s farmers and active in many local political issues. 

Snail Bar, the popular natural wine bar, was burglarized — then billed for damage by the city of Oakland, writes the Chronicle’s Annie Vainshtein.

More consolidation could be coming in the wine industry, reports Carol Ward in Shanken News Daily. The author interviews several high-powered figures, including Joe Wagner, who explains why smaller wineries may be moved to sell: “I know the banks are getting very skeptical about the smaller people in the wine business.”

After all the turmoil with Silicon Valley Bank last year, it wasn’t clear whether it would publish its annual State of the U.S. Wine Industry Report this year. But it did! The 2024 paper confirms that wine consumption is slowing. Sales of expensive wines, however, are relatively strong.

I am pro-aluminum bottle! The latest California winery to release a wine in this sustainable packaging option is Bogle, under a new brand called Element[AL]. Ronnie Koenig has more in Forbes.

(SF Chronicle)

ON JUNE 24, 1797, the dedication of the new mission, Mission San Juan Bautista, was named for St. John the Baptist. The mission was the fifteenth of the 21 missions built by New Spain. Following its creation in 1797, San Juan's population increased. By 1803, 1,036 Native Americans were living at the mission. Ranching and farming activity had moved apace, with 1,036 cattle, 4,600 sheep, 22 swine, 540 horses, and 8 mules counted that year. Over a hundred and ten years later, a horseless carriage with its occupants is pictured here before the mission.

THE WAR OVER 49ERS QB BROCK PURDY'S WIKIPEDIA PAGE IS REAL, AND UGLY

by Grant Marekjan

No one in the NFL has had their Wikipedia page edited more since Dec. 11, 2022, than 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.

Not Aaron Rodgers. Not Lamar Jackson. Not Patrick Mahomes. Not CJ Stroud.

Not the guy dating Taylor Swift. And not his shirtless brother.

Purdy has almost 1,000 edits since that 2022 date (the day he took over as the 49ers starting quarterback) — a wild amount for any professional athlete (Tom Brady, LeBron James and Shohei Ohtani all have fewer edits than Purdy since then), let alone a mild-mannered quarterback from Iowa State. Lions QB Jared Goff, Purdy’s opponent in Sunday’s NFC championship, has a quarter as many during that period. Purdy’s teammate, Trent Williams, has 772 … in his entire 14-year career.

The flood of updates on Purdy’s page — the vast majority of which have been removed — have led to it being “semi-protected” for virtually the entire year, limiting who exactly can edit the page. (The “semi-protected” status is one step below the status given to a page that belongs to a former U.S. president, for example, and is usually reserved for controversial figures like Jonathan Majors or frequently vandalized pages like “LGBT community.”) In March, for instance, the page got a yearlong semi-protected distinction after a barrage of edits involving “Big Cock Brock” jokes.

So how exactly did the last pick in the 2022 draft — a boring but good quarterback with zero off-the-field issues — become a bona fide magnet for internet trolls?

Well, if you’ve watched ESPN or ventured over to the Artist Formerly Known As Twitter anytime this NFL season you’ll have the answer. And that answer is The Discourse. Former players, coaches and pundits have ping-ponged assessments of Purdy back and forth between a present-day Joe Montana and barely a “game manager” who may not be better than Justin Fields. Grown adult men spend hours on national television scream-talking about how wrong other grown adult men are about Purdy.

And that polarizing discourse has found a second home in the internet’s knowledge repository.

An SFGATE review of all 920 edits since Purdy’s first start uncovered a war over his still very undefined legacy, with a near-constant stream of editors removing edits characterized as “vandalism,” “persistent disruptive editing” and “inaccurate fact meant to troll.”

Very strangely, things like Purdy “becoming just one of five rookie quarterbacks to start in a conference championship game” have been stricken from the record, even though there are dozens of reputable sources for the fact. 

The nickname “Mr. Relevant” — a play on the Mr. Irrelevant nickname attached to the last pick in the draft — has similarly been used to describe Purdy in dozens of headlines from major publications after a season in which he led the NFL in virtually every passing category for most of the season, but has created contention on the backend of Wikipedia.

“Please stop obsessing with this nickname in the intro,” one edit reads.

49ers fans have responded to the editor snark by hammering the page with over-the-top, unsourced additions that read like legitimate edits. “Purdy is widely considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time,” one since-removed change read. His name was changed to “HIM” on multiple occasions, with edit notes like “He is actually him,” and someone even listed one of his nicknames as “Sturdy Purdy,” to the ire of veteran editors.

 “There's a note specifically saying don't change without consensus,” an angry edit note insists.

There are also a curious number of edits back and forth about Purdy’s status as a Christian, which he has spoken about on numerous occasions over the years. That fact is currently not on his page.

And while there are plenty of classic Wiki gags — joke edits over the past year have included things like “Purdy plans on losing to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round of the 2024 NFL Playoffs” or “He recently made Dak Prescott his son” — a vast majority of the nonstatistical changes center around just how effusive the record should be about one of the best storylines in the NFL.

No matter what happens in Sunday’s NFL title game against the Lions in Santa Clara, one thing is for sure: There will absolutely be droves of internet folks flocking to Purdy’s page to try to document it as they see fit.

(SFgate.com)

CHARLES BUKOWSKI 

The Last Night Of The Earth Poems 

Everything You Touch 

Putting on your torn clothes in an old New Orleans rooming house, 

you and your stock boy soul, then rolling your little green wagon past the sales girls who took no notice of you, those girls dreaming of bigger game with tiny rectangular brains. 

Or in Los Angeles, coming in from your shipping clerk job at auto parts warehouse, taking the elevator up to 319 to find your woman sprawled out on the bed, drunk at 6 p.m 

You were never any good at picking them, you always got the leftovers, the crazies, the alkies, the pill-freaks. Maybe that was all you could get and maybe you were all they could out. 

You went to the bars and found more alkies, pill-freaks, crazies. All they had to show you were a pair of well-turned ankles in spike-heeled shoes. You thumped up and down on beds with them as if you had discovered the meaning of existence.

SILVER

Mom and dad went to a show
They dropped me off at Grandpa Joe's
I kicked and screamed, said please don't go

Grandma take me home!
…

Had to eat my dinner there
Mashed potatos and stuff like that
I couldn't chew my meat too good

Grandma take me home!
…

She said, "Why don't you start your crying
Go outside and ride your bike"
That's what I did, I killed my toe

Grandma take me home!
…

After dinner, I had ice cream
I fell asleep and watched TV
I woke up in my mother's arms

Grandma take me home!
…

I wanna be alone!

— Kurt Cobain

JUST IN…Convicted killer, Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, had a gas mask placed over his nose and mouth before a stream of 100 percent nitrogen gas suffocated him, which was left on for 15 minutes to ensure he was dead. Smith was officially pronounced dead at 8:25 local time, following a 22-minute ordeal where he appeared to remain conscious for several minutes. He shook violently and pulled on the restraints on the gurney, continuing to breathe the nitrogen gas heavily until he succumbed. In his final words, delivered through the gas mask on his face, Smith said: 'Tonight Alabama causes humanity to take a step backwards... I'm leaving with love, peace and light.' He was sentenced to death in 1996 for the murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher's wife in 1988. Smith's pastor John Ewell told DailyMail.com before his execution that the killer was 'really struggling' with the reality of his imminent death, and officials said he ate only a small part of his final meal of steak, hashbrowns and eggs.

---

TOM SMITH: SCHEDULED FOR NITROGEN ASPHIXIATION

by Tom Leonard

It is two months since I spoke to Kenneth Smith, the Death Row inmate who is due to be executed in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

He told me then that he was ‘absolutely terrified’ at the prospect. Hardly surprising, you might say, but ‘Kenny’ – as he is known to the staff who have been his jailers for the past 35 years – had a very particular reason to dread his final moments.

In November 2022, after three men had spent 90 minutes trying to kill him with a cocktail of drugs before being forced to give up after failing to raise a vein, one of his would-be executioners attempted to give him solace by reassuring him that lethal injection was a much better way to go than being gassed.

‘He was trying to comfort me and we got into this bizarre conversation,’ Smith, 58, said.

‘He said: “Oh, you know, man, if you got to go, this is the way to go.” Lethal injection, he said, is painless. And he said that gas is suffocation and that nobody knows what is going to happen. I’ve not been able to get that out of my head.’

However, just a week later, the state of Alabama announced that it would seek to kill Smith in this way, setting him on a bleak path to becoming the first person in America to be executed by a new, untested gassing method known as ‘nitrogen hypoxia’.

This involves fitting the victim with a face mask and forcing them to breathe pure nitrogen until they suffocate. The state claims it should take a few seconds for the gas to knock Smith unconscious and between five and 15 minutes to kill him.

But opponents say despatching him in this way is ‘astonishingly reckless’ and the equivalent of ‘human experimentation’ as no one can possibly know whether this process – sometimes used to kill pigs but banned by vets as a method of putting down most animals – is painless.

And some medical experts reckon it could result in a range of catastrophic mishaps, ranging from violent convulsions to survival in a vegetative state.

Kenneth Smith’s lawyers claimed the method would breach the US Constitution’s ban on ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ and launched a last-minute appeal.

But on Wednesday, the US Supreme Court and a lower appeals court both declined to block the execution.

Amid final legal efforts to save him, a 30-hour window in which to execute Smith with nitrogen was due to expire at 6am local time on Friday [noon GMT]. 

Smith is imprisoned in the William C Holman Correctional Facility deep in the thick marsh forests of central Alabama.

The father of four was convicted of the 1988 murder of 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett in the town of Sheffield, Alabama.

He and another man, John Parker, were paid $1,000 each by her husband, Charles Sennett, a local church pastor who was having an affair with another woman, to kill his wife so he could collect the insurance money. Smith admitted he took part in her assault but denied intending to murder her.

Told to make it look like a robbery, the then 22-year-old Smith stole the Sennetts’ video recorder – a crucial error that led to his conviction.

After decades of legal wrangling, Smith – who says he found God during his 33 years on Death Row – was scheduled to be executed on November 17, 2022.

And so it is that he became only the second man alive who could tell you what it was like to be executed. (The other being Alan Miller, a triple murderer who had undergone a very similar experience two months earlier.)

Smith spent much of that horrifying day with his family and friends in Holman’s visitation area as his lawyers went through the process of 11th-hour legal appeals.

He had a last meal – his choice of fried catfish and shrimp – before being visited one last time by a local lay minister who has been his spiritual adviser.

Just before 8pm, prison guards swarmed into Holman’s ‘death cell’ and summarily prepared Smith for execution, although legal discussions were ongoing.

He’d been on the phone to his wife Dee as they waited to hear any updates on legal efforts to delay his death warrant for that day. ‘When they came and told me I needed to give them the phone, that was the difficult part of that night,’ he told me.

The ten-strong squad of guards then put handcuffs and leg irons on him for the short walk to the nearby execution chamber.

Over the next four hours, he would endure what he says was searing physical pain and unbearable mental torture as bungling executioners fumbled hopelessly in their efforts to attach two intravenous lines to his body.

The torture began when Smith was strapped ‘painfully tight’ to a gurney by his arms, legs and feet. There he remained for two hours, immobilised and unaware of the continued legal wrangling behind the scenes.

According to a court filing by his lawyers, Smith ‘started descending into hopelessness and despair’.

At 10pm – 23 minutes before the Supreme Court did indeed finally approve his execution – three unidentified men wearing blue, red and green sets of surgical scrubs, entered the chamber wheeling a medical trolley.

They were the team that would inject him with the cocktail of drugs – midazolam hydrochloride, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride – that would theoretically first sedate him and then stop his heart.

‘Blue Scrubs’, who Smith remembered seeing chain-smoking outside the prison after previous executions, tied a tourniquet around Smith’s upper arm and started sticking a needle into him. When Smith protested that he was painfully stabbing into his muscle, Blue Scrubs told him: ‘No I’m not.’

After that attempt failed, it was the turn of ‘Green Scrubs’ on Smith’s other side. He began slapping the inmate’s right hand to find a vein.

With each jab, the condemned man told his lawyers, he ‘could feel the needle going in and out and moving around under his skin, causing him great pain’.

Unable to find a second usable vein even after examining his feet and scanning his arms with ultraviolet light, the hapless executioners asked the guards to tilt the gurney so Smith’s feet were pointing upwards, leaving him in an inverted crucifix position.

Everyone but his guards exited the chamber, leaving Smith like that for several minutes in a deeply uncomfortable position. He believes the intention was to get blood to run towards his head so he could be injected in the neck.

When the IV team returned, ‘Red Scrubs’ – the leader – was wearing a mask and plastic face shield which Smith’s lawyers believe was to protect him from spraying blood. They unbuttoned the prisoner’s shirt and the man plunged a huge new needle – bigger than any Smith had ever seen – under the inmate’s collarbone.

Red Scrubs was looking to attach a so-called central line (or central venous catheter) which is much longer than a regular intravenous line and goes all the way up to a vein near or inside the heart.

The pain became excruciating and it felt like he was being stabbed with a knife, says Smith. He shouted for them to stop, but a prison official responded by twisting Smith’s head to one side to provide a better entry point for the enormous needle.

‘Kenny, this is for your own good,’ he assured Smith. According to court papers, the inmate ‘forcefully expressed disagreement with that statement but did not resist’.

As his body writhed and shook uncontrollably, his shower shoes came off and fell to the floor.

‘I kept telling them, “Call the f***ing judge. My case number is 2:22-CV-497. Somebody in this f***ing room call the judge or my lawyer”,’ said Smith. But nobody did.

He recalls Red Scrubs repeatedly jabbed him in the chest with the large needle – ten times, he estimates – causing such pain that he could ‘hardly breathe’ and felt he had wet himself. The jabs, he said, ‘felt like an eternity’. He has since compared the experience to being put through a sewing machine.

He told the Mail: ‘By the end of it, I wasn’t thinking about prayer. I wasn’t thinking about God or heaven or none of that.

‘I was thinking, “Please get that out of my chest”.’

But eventually they did stop and again everyone else left except the guards, leaving Smith still strapped to the gurney and ‘terrified’ as to what they would do next. He didn’t know they had run out of time to carry out the death warrant before a midnight deadline.

Now his 90-minute ordeal was over, the IV team’s demeanour completely changed: Green Scrubs offered him some water and, holding his hand, told him he would be praying for him.

Why had he survived, he asked. ‘Legal stuff,’ said Green Scrubs, who then made his extraordinary assurance about the merits of lethal injection over nitrogen.

Smith was so unsteady on his feet he had to be supported back to his cell by a prison guard on either side. They spared him the leg irons but still put him in handcuffs.

He said later that he was left ‘trembling and sweating... shocked, disoriented and experiencing post-traumatic stress’.

The identity and qualifications of the would-be executioners have never been revealed, though senior officials insisted some present had ‘medical’ training. Smith believes the pair in green and blue scrubs were emergency medical technicians – essentially ambulance crew.

He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and his prison psychiatrist said he suffered from insomnia, depression and anxiety.

Smith said that after three decades on Death Row and that first execution ordeal, he felt he had been punished enough.

When we spoke on the first anniversary of his bungled execution, he told me memories of that night have been flooding back. ‘Those guards who carried me around and strapped me down and did nothing to help me when I asked for it, I’ve seen them every single day, Tom,’ he said.

‘I’ve tried to keep it out of my mind for the past year but I’ve been reliving this s**t for the past week. I’ve been sick to my stomach and not eaten,’ he said. ‘And I’ve been struggling with depression and nightmares – I’m in pretty bad shape.’

Given the brutally untested nature of the method of execution planned for Kenneth Smith, yet more horrors might lie ahead for him.

Hanging

Long-drop hanging was the main method of execution in Britain from the 18th century until 1964. Today it is used in Singapore and Japan among other countries, and was deployed in the US states of Delaware and Washington until as recently 2016 and 2018, respectively.

The ‘drop’ is calculated according to the prisoner’s height and weight to determine the length of rope needed to kill them quickly. If the rope is too long, decapitation can occur.

The prisoner is blindfolded, and a trap door is opened, which the prisoner falls through.

Death is often not instantaneous. Slow asphyxiation can occur if the noose is wrongly positioned or the drop is too short.

Lethal injection

Lethal injection is the most widely used method of execution in America today – in use in 27 states – and is also used in China, Taiwan, Guatemala, Nigeria and Vietnam, among others.

The prisoner is injected with a cocktail of drugs including an anaesthetic, a paralytic agent and potassium to stop the heart. The prisoner falls unconscious and stops breathing.

Untrained prison officers often fail to raise a vein, leading to agonising pain when the drugs are injected. When the drugs are administered in the wrong order or quantity, they can also cause cardiac arrest while the prisoner remains conscious – an outcome that has been compared to torture.

Electric chair

The electric chair – known as ‘Old Sparky’ – remains in use in the US states of Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

However, prisoners are offered a choice and most opt for lethal injection, widely deemed less painful. Opponents insist that ‘Old Sparky’ constitutes ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. There have been several instances of it taking multiple attempts for the victim to die, and even of some victims catching fire.

Before electrocution, the prisoner’s head and legs are shaved and a cap containing a saltwater-soaked sponge is placed on the head – all to ensure better conduction of electricity through the body. The prisoner is strapped into the chair and electrodes are attached to the legs.

Various cycles of current are passed through the body, causing immediate unconsciousness and eventual cardiac arrest and organ damage.

Beheading

Saudi Arabia is the only country that performs executions by beheading. Executions are public, and the beheading is performed with a sword. About 150 beheadings take place in the country every year.

The method was used historically in Britain to execute noblemen: the last to die in this way was Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, in 1747.

During the French Revolution, up to 17,000 people were guillotined, and it remained the primary method of execution in France until 1977.

(Daily Mail)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

If everyone is worried about suffering and pain, in this case shortage of chemicals for lethal injection, why not inject fentanyl? Seems to be an abundance of the stuff and I hear it’s very deadly. I’m 50/50 on capital punishment. Like the editor points out it doesn’t seem to be a deterrent to the bad guys. Not to mention keeping them in prison for decades before punishment is carried out seems like a waste of food and beds.

FIELD GOALS are the dumbest element of football. Men who look like they're CPAs wearing the team uniform as a Halloween costume routinely decide games by using a soccer maneuver totally unrelated to anything else in football. You might as well break ties by having the fattest player on each team meet at midfield in a pie-eating contest. 

— Scott Ostler

“OH, SORRY,” gasped Mike, and, reaching out for the mustard, upset the water jug into the open jam-tart. Through the black mist which arose before his eyes as he leaped to his feet and stammered apologies came the dispassionate voice of Master Edward Waller reminding him that mustard was first introduced into Peru by Cortez. His host was all courtesy and consideration. He passed the matter off genially. But life can never be quite the same after you have upset a water jug into an open jam-tart at the table of a comparative stranger. Mike's nerve had gone. He ate on, but he was a broken man. 

— P.G. Wodehouse, 1910; from "Psmith in the City"

“So many preposterous illusions are bred by desire. The homeliest men who couldn’t rationally look at themselves nude in the mirror feel free to comment critically on any woman. A man whose entire body is virtually a stretch mark will proclaim the dislike for stretch marks and a man whose ass wouldn’t fit in a barrel says that big women don’t “turn him on,” all a logical consequence of the desire unconnected to reality that is sold in the culture.”

— Jim Harrison

THAT IS ONE of the many reasons why I avoid speaking as much as possible. For I always say either too much or too little, which is a terrible thing for a man with a passion for truth like mine.

— Samuel Beckett

THE WAR ON JOURNALISM In Belmarsh, The War On Journalism In Gaza

The fight to free Assange is a fight to protect press freedoms around the world, since the US is using the case in an attempt to set a legal precedent for extraditing and imprisoning any journalist or publisher anywhere in the world who shares information with the public that the US doesn’t want shared. 

by Caitlin Johnstone

I haven’t written much about Julian Assange lately because I’ve been so fixated on what’s been happening in Gaza, but we should all be acutely aware that the 20th and 21st of February may be the WikiLeaks founder’s final chance to avoid extradition to the United States to face persecution for the crime of good journalism.

Assange and his legal team will face two High Court judges during the two-day hearing in London, who will then determine whether or not the UK will allow the Australian journalist to be dragged to the US in chains for a crooked show trial and cast into one of the world’s most draconian prison systems for exposing the war crimes of the world’s most powerful government.

Some US lawmakers are attempting to block the extradition from the other end with House Resolution 934, which asserts that “regular journalistic activities are protected under the First Amendment, and that the United States ought to drop all charges against and attempts to extradite Julian Assange.” If charges were dropped it would not only prevent the extradition but allow for Assange to be freed from the Belmarsh maximum security prison, where he has been jailed by the British government since 2019.

The fight to free Assange is a fight to protect press freedoms around the world, since the US is using the case in an attempt to set a legal precedent for extraditing and imprisoning any journalist or publisher anywhere in the world who shares information with the public that the US doesn’t want shared.

And it’s worth mentioning that this fight is not actually separate from the fight against Israel’s efforts to keep journalism out of Gaza by assassinating reporters and blocking the press from entering the enclave. It’s also not separate from humanity’s overall struggle to build a truth-based civilization, nor ultimately from our greater struggle to become a conscious species.

All throughout humanity there are pushes toward truth and seeing and pushes toward secrecy and darkness. In the press we see both: the authentic journalists like Assange who want all that is hidden to be made transparent, and the propagandists of the mainstream media who work to obfuscate and distort the truth. Those who seek the emergence of a harmonious and truth-based society want as much visibility into what’s really happening as possible, while tyrannical power structures like the US empire and Israel are constantly working to dim the lights.

Wherever you see domination and abuse, you see efforts to limit perception and keep human minds from seeing and understanding what’s going on. It’s true of empires, it’s true of governments, it’s true of cult leaders, it’s true of abusive spouses, and it’s true of the unpleasant dynamics within our own psyches that we would rather not look at. The less seeing there is, the more abusiveness is possible; the more seen things become, the closer we get to freedom.

I’m no prophet, but I strongly suspect that our future as a species will be determined by the outcome of this struggle. If the impulse toward truth and seeing wins out, we are probably headed toward a world of health and harmony. If the impulse to keep everything confused and hidden and unconscious wins, we are probably headed for dystopia and extinction.

In any case, all we can do is fight to make things more visible so that health and harmony become possible. Fight to make things conscious within ourselves. Fight to keep journalism legal in the shadow of the empire. Fight to spotlight Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. Fight to make the unseen seen. Fight to bring humanity into the light of consciousness.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

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