VERY HOT and dry weather will continue in the interior for the remainder of the week. Coastal areas will remain cool with occasional fog and low clouds through the weekend. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): The stratus quo continues with 55F this Humpday morning on the coast. The fog is large & in charge, not sure how much if any sun we will see today? Our forecast calls for clearing later this week. We'll see.
BOONVILLE FAIR MANAGER JIM BROWN:
Come Celebrate "100 YEARS of the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show"
Entries are open.
If you're still old school paper entry those are due August 12th - If you need entry forms Call the Office we can help you out.
Online Entries Close Midnight August 30th
All Livestock entries Close September 2nd
Please check the exhibitor guide book for exact dates.
WILLITS FRONTIER DAYS 2024: ‘COWBOYS & CADILLACS’
by Terry Sites
Willits celebrated its 98th Frontier Days June 28- July 6. Home of the longest running continuous rodeo in California beginning in 1927. They may have a bone to pick with Salinas whose rodeo began in 1911, but maybe that rodeo has not been continuous…
With so much ranching history, Willits is proud of its western heritage. Each year many events are scheduled in addition to the rodeo including: a Beef BBQ, Cowboy Breakfast, Country Music Rodeola, Junior Rodeo, Horseshoe Contest, Tractor Pull, Sweetheart Contest, Street Dance, Carnival, Bulls and Broncos show, and an hour-long parade.
Organizers Heather Mia, Katie Cooley and Maddie Owen have full plates “riding herd” on such a wide range of happenings over a nine-day period.
The Parade alone is a major logistical assignment as (according to the Mendocino Voice) it includes horses, dancers, floats, balloons, gunfighters, bands, tractors, fire departments, Willits 2024 Sweetheart Elena Arkellian, Willits 2023 Sweetheart Hazel Cook and the Laytonville Sweetheart Emmi Bertolucci, a Grand Marshall, a Heritage Award winner, the Willits police department, the Nuestra Allianza de Willits dancers, emergency personnel, Willits Horsemen’s Association and some antique logging equipment in a red, white and blue extravaganza all rolling down Main Street (old Highway 101). The parade is enjoyed by 1000 or more onlookers each year despite the heat.
Early risers on Saturday the 6th were eating their “Cowboy Breakfasts” at 7 AM so that they could get to the Junior Rodeo at 8 AM. If they were having trouble waking up, the Rodeo provided a very loud musical wake-up including, “Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On” by Jerry Lee Lewis, “Good Golly Miss Molly” by Little Richard, and “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Pint-sized cowboys and cowgirls were rarin’ to go in events that included pulling ribbons off goats’ tails and riding sheep — “Mutton Busting.”
The names of contestants were interestingly androgynous. Can you tell which of these are boys and which are girls?- Piper, Monroe, Avery, Payton, Taylor and Brodie. Those of us from the Kathy, Susan, Linda, Bob, Bill and Jim generation notice the change. An interesting side note is how often the contestants’ hats flew off as they galloped onto the field to compete. Chinstraps must be considered uncool. Another note is just how beautiful the horses looked as they turned to gallop back with their manes and tails streaming. A horse running full speed is a truly thing of beauty forever.
As the Junior Rodeo continued the heat began to rise and it became clear who the veteran rodeo attenders were. As the grandstand had no shade, those in the know brought along their own shade pop-ups, which they huddled under to beat the heat. The rest of us sought out trees on the outskirts of the rodeo ground. This did not provide good sight lines but the potential for turning into a lobster was decreased.
The carnival in the background looked pretty modest compared to some other local fairs like the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Fair Show. Spread out over so many days, Frontier Days never reaches the fever pitch of a county fair.
Nevertheless, the town of Willits offers pleasures worthy of exploration beyond Frontier Days itself.
A one-of-a-kind bar called Shanachie Pub at 50 South Main is tucked away down an intriguing walkway that makes it a bit hard to find.
Inside there is nothing ordinary about the place laid out in a sort of three rooms across way, it is easy to carve out a spot for a conversation and the locals are friendly and inclusive. A guy with a beer who sat with us told something of his life and times. As the seventh child of seven children, his mother was 25 years old when she gave birth to him. It is hard to imagine that much responsibility in the hands of such a young woman.
Rural life is or at least was very different than the way most of us live now. The Brickhouse coffee bar built in an old bank building complete with vault is a good pit stop with strong coffee and good pastries.
Readers should check out the Book Juggler for uncommon used books, CD, DVDs etc. Mazahar Clothing for women is full of exotic looking items that will let you fulfill your wildest bohemian fantasy.
Willits Center for the Arts is a gallery that mounts shows regularly and offers art classes to youth.
This is only a sampling of the kind of thing you can find just wandering close to Main Street. Undoubtedly there are other treasures and unique experiences waiting in this lively and creative small town.
Willits’ old-fashioned archway sign that spans the main drag proudly proclaims, “Gateway to the Redwoods.”
Definitely worth a visit, and not just for Frontier Days.
AUTHORITIES ID WOMAN FOUND DEAD NEAR FORT BRAGG USING DNA FROM FAMILY
The Fort Bragg woman was reported missing April 14 and was found April 26.
by Madison Smalstig
Authorities used a DNA comparison test to identify a Fort Bragg woman whose body was found late April off the Mendocino County coast.
Angela Geovanna Carrillo-Palomar, 29, was found dead south of Fort Bragg on April 26, about two weeks after she was reported missing to the Fort Bragg Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said in a Tuesday news release.
Multiple agencies coordinated to get her body out of the Pacific Ocean and transport her to Noyo Harbor on a rescue boat. She did not have a wallet or identifying marks.
She was identified July 3, after the Department of Justice DNA Lab in Richmondconfirmed an ID match to a family member.
Carrillo-Palomar’s autopsy was conducted May 1. During the investigation, officials gathered a DNA sample and saw she shared physical characteristics with the woman reported missing. Sheriff’s Office personnel requested DNA samples from the family of the missing woman and sent both articles to the lab to compare.
Fort Bragg police are still investigating Carrillo-Palomar’s disappearance, and the coroner is still investigating her death.
The Sheriff’s Office is encouraging anyone with information related to the coroner's investigation to call the dispatch center at 707-463-4086 or the non-emergency tip line, which is anonymous, at 707-234-2100.
The Fort Bragg police are asking anyone with details related to the missing person investigation call its dispatch center at 707-964-0200.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
ADAM GASKA:
Re: Who Benefits? Water from the PVP has benefitted Lake Mendocino, helping guarantee that it fills but the biggest beneficiaries have been those with appropriative rights to pump water from the Russian River in summer which includes Healdsburg and Cloverdale. The state has granted water rights based on the Eel supplying the Russian with water in the summer. Without the PVP, there will be curtailments of appropriative rights more often. Those without access to stored water via a contract through Flood Control or Sonoma Water will be left high and dry. Those with contracts will pay more to cover the cost of new infrastructure.
Sonoma Water is limited how much water they run down Dry Creek as it over scours the river. So it’s not a limit of storage capacity but of delivery capacity. in regards to Lake Sonoma.
Everyone is going to be paying and those details will be worked out. Paying for infrastructure, operations/maintenance to pump water in the winter, increase storage capacity, to hold that water, etc. Potter Valley especially is very vulnerable as it has very little in the way of delivery infrastructure and zero storage capacity. They are looking at needing hundreds of millions in infrastructure improvements just to secure basic human health and safety needs.
FROM MONDAY’S PD STORY about the environmental pollution at the grossly overlarge “Vintage Wine Estates” in Hopland.
“When Vintage Wine Estates bought the property about four miles east of Highway 101, then-president Pat Roney said he planned to crush 400,000 cases of wine at the facility in the coming year. Roney also told The Press Democrat that having a bulk processing facility in Mendocino County was advantageous because “there are no use permits required, so we can continue expanding to unlimited production up there.”
Mark Scaramella notes: Besides the odd phrasing about crushing 400,000 cases of wine, imagine what Pat Roney might have said if he was a pot grower.
SUPERVISOR MAUREEN MULHEREN (facebook): I have several Board and Commision seats open including the Measure B Oversight Board and the Civil Service Commission. Please let me know if you are interested and I’ll send more info. I also post the LAFCo opening last night.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
When will the BOS agendize funding and implementing the action plan laid out by the state? Almost every single bullet point requires the County to provide dollars to accomplish and most importantly maintain the new procedures and hiring/retention recommendations. How will this mesh with the new Tax Sharing Agreement everyone agrees will cost the County $3+mil per year, or the decades old practice of prioritizing public safety functions over just about everything else in the budget? Is this just another study that exposes facts that the BOS will ignore? Will they even respond to or acknowledge the report in a meaningful way? How will they centralize the new Tax Sharing Agreement requirements into Munis to comply with the recommendations, so that Ted can save face so they don’t add a FOURTH “off the books” excel spreadsheet to implement it? Ted? Hello Ted?
IT WAS DOWNRIGHT HILARIOUS, the way Supervisors Williams and Haschak squirmed in their responses to KZYX’s Sara Reith’s questions Tuesday morning about the recent state Controller’s report critical of the Board’s and the CEO’s leading role in screwing up the County’s finances. Instead of accepting any responsibility at all, they both blamed it on other stuff — poor staffing, the unworkable computer system, previous boards, uncooperative staff or “elected officials.” It would be so simple to for them admit the obvious, that looking back they screwed up by consolidating the financial offices prematurely without even a plan, or firing their Auditor, or giving their CEO another raise in the face of the Controller’s report. But no, they just can’t accept responsibility. They continue to pretend they’re just well-meaning bystanders, soberly deliberating arcane policy theories, hapless victims of things outside their control, earnestly hoping for things to get better despite their obvious failure to act on their desires — and giving us a preview of what their response to the State Controller might look like — if there ever is a response. Even if there is a response (which we doubt), it will not appear for at least six months, after two of them are gone and their replacements will be able to claim anew that the problems were before their time. (Mark Scaramella)
ED NOTES, RANDOM TYPE
PROJECT 2025, the fascist wish list promulgated by the Heritage Foundation, is scaring heck outta the libs. Trump has disavowed it, although it probably resonates with him. But from what I can gather Project 2025 has been rescued from obscurity and assigned to Trump by Marc Elias, the same Democrat dirty trickster who circulated the phony Steele Dossier falsely tagging Trump with Russia collusion.
THE MINA FIRE has been contained at 50 acres, partially extinguished by a team from the Anderson Valley Fire Department. Mention of Mina, north and a little east of Covelo reminds me of the late Vivian Weatherhead of Airport Estates, Boonville. Vivian grew up in Mina in the 1920s when enough people lived in the area to warrant a post office. The last time I drove the Mina Road from Covelo to Alderpoint, a ramble recommended for its pure, lonely beauty and because the curious traveler can pause where Mendo, Humboldt and Trinity counties meet and look west to see the Pacific, Mina consisted of a battered wood sign declaring it once existed. Mrs. Weatherhead went on from this remotest of remote hamlets to UC Berkeley and became a high school math teacher.
THE MINA FIRE was corralled by an All-Mendo fire-fighting team, and one HumCo outfit that also included: Redwood Coast Fire Department, Brooktrails Township Fire Department, Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department, Laytonville Volunteer Fire Department, Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, Little Lake-Willits Fire Department, Hopland Volunteer Fire Department, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Mendocino National Forest, California National Guard (CNG), California Conservation Corps (CCC) and Briceland Volunteer Fire Department.
CALFIRE, 7/9/24 7:21 p.m. — The Mina Fire is 53 acres in size and is 35 percent contained. Expected full containment is unknown at this time as crews from throughout Mendocino County continue to work the fire. Evacuation warnings remain in place.
BACK when words had meaning nobody wrote “far left.” There were several varieties of communists (at war with each other), socialists (hostile to capitalism but aimed at taming it), liberals (reconciled to capitalism but wanting to soften it), conservatives (greedy, hidebound but more or less committed to democratic principles), and fascists (cruel, mean bastards desiring to kill everyone unlike themselves.)
SO WHEN I READ that France’s left-wing coalition had vowed to bring in a 90 percent tax rate on the rich following their surprise election victory on Sunday, I rejoiced and recalled that America was as prosperous for most of its citizens as it will ever be in 1955 when our rich were taxed at 90 percent.
LIBERALS, including the savvy ones who read the AVA every morning, are still describing January 6th as an “insurrection.” Jan 6 was a riot, the diff being that an insurrection is a planned, armed assault with a specific intent to hold the objective. Jan 6 was a bunch of white camo buddies, whipped into a frenzy by the Orange Monster, breaking into Congress with no plan other than milling around and breaking stuff. In retaliation, the Democrats, who of course hauled ass that day rather than stay and fight, have since meted out disproportionately harsh federal prison sentences to those camo buds they've been able to identify.
WOULD the camo buddies have lynched Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi if they'd caught them? Doubt they'd have had the stones to take it that far, but the event certainly torqued the political tensions upward and, as things fall all the way apart in November, Jan 6 will be viewed as the day the irreconcilable differences between the Magas and US became obvious.
SUNDAY'S CHRON ran a NorCal campground guide which, natch, included Hendy Woods: “We could wax endlessly about Hendy Woods prime location in Anderson Valley where vineyards line the highway, tasting rooms are casual, and the sweet town of Boonville and rugged Mendocino Coast are just down the road…”
“SWEET TOWN OF BOONVILLE”? We've been called a lot of things, but never “sweet,” a designation that would have provoked violence in the Boonville of yesteryear.
DUE TO THE HEAT - DISCO RANCH [BOONVILLE] HAPPY HOUR HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Happy Hour at Disco Ranch Cancelled
Was: Thursday, July 11th, 4pm to 5:30pm
At: 14025 Hwy 128 Boonville.
Cancelled - postponed until cooler weather!
TROLL BRANDON CHECKS IN:
Hope you’re all doing well.
Can you believe I found this in my barn when I was straightening up.
Remember The Realist and Paul Krasner? It looks like not much changes 50 years in the same old news.
We’re doing good. The blackberries are getting ripe, the first apples are falling off the trees and all is good. In our reality.
How are you?
Best wishes from Troll and Joelle
Lake County
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE has extended the Excessive Heat Warning that began 11 AM Tuesday, July 2nd through 9 PM Friday, July 12, 2024.
On July 1, 2024, Public Health issued an Excessive Heat Advisory to the Ukiah and Redwood Valley areas, where high temperatures are forecast to exceed 110 degrees with limited overnight relief with lows near 70. The rest of the county will also endure severe heat conditions, especially inland areas away from the coast.
This Advisory is being extended with the National Weather Service Warning through 9 PM Friday, July 12, 2024, and is being expanded to include the Round Valley, Sanel Valley and Long Valley regions. While overnight temperatures are expected to be cooler than last week, daytime temperatures in Hopland, Ukiah, Redwood Valley, Laytonville, and Covelo are not forecasted to drop below 100°F until Sunday, July 15, 2024.
The long-term effects of prolonged exposure to high daytime temperatures can increase the risk of heat exhaustion, dehydration and other heat related illnesses. Please be especially mindful of those who have limited mobility or are susceptible to the heat, including children and older adults. It is suggested that individuals attempt to reduce exertion, stay in a cool place when possible and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.
Mendocino County Public Health is coordinating with the City of Ukiah, the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services, and the Mendocino County Department of Social Services to monitor the evolution of this Excessive Heat Event and open Cooling Centers as needed.
Mendocino County is not currently under a Red Flag Watch, nor scheduled for a PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff event.
Public Health will continue to monitor the situation and give updates as needed. For additional preparedness tips and tricks for any emergency, including heat, visit https://mendoready.org/
BLUE MEADOW FARM IS OPEN!
Walla Walla Onions, First Tomatoes, Sweet Peppers, Padrons, Eggplant, Zucchini & Patty Pan Squash, Basil, Salad Greens, Basil Plants, Benary's Giant Plants, Uwe's Olive Oil
Open Tuesday - Sunday* 10 AM - 7 PM, Closed Monday
* Last week temperatures ranged from 106 to 112 degrees in the afternoons. We close in extreme heat!
Blue Meadow Farm 3301 Holmes Ranch Rd, Philo (707) 895-2071
THE 2023-2024 MENDOCINO COUNTY CIVIL GRAND JURY Consolidated Reports, printed, are now available at all County libraries, and on the grand jury website at:
https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/government/grand-jury
Prior to publication, each grand jury report is reviewed and approved by the full panel of seated jurors and is reviewed by the Mendocino County Counsel and the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court. You may access the full Consolidated Report on the website. Please inform your readers that this new report has been published on the grand jury website and advise them of the website address as well as availability for review at county library branches. It is a misdemeanor for individual jurors to discuss grand jury reports or the process through which a particular report was developed and published. Please address any inquiries to the grand jury foreperson, who serves as the jury’s sole spokesperson. Carole Hester, Foreperson, Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury 2023-2024. (707) 463-4320
JOHN SAKOWICZ: Link to KMUD radio interview with Mark Scaramella: youtube.com/watch?v=IpZ-BUjZtPc
CALTRANS RELEASES DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT FOR ALBION RIVER BRIDGE PROJECT
Caltrans is proud to announce the much-anticipated release of the draft environmental document for the Albion River Bridge Project, marking a major milestone in our infrastructure development efforts to improve roadway safety and efficiency on State Route 1 along the Mendocino Coast.
The Albion River Bridge, built in 1944 during World War II, is a wood truss bridge that does not meet current structural design standards, lacks safe access for bicyclists and pedestrians, and is functionally obsolete. To address these concerns, Caltrans has introduced several bridge alternatives that meet modern seismic safety standards, provide safe and reliable access for all users, and minimize ongoing maintenance costs.
Focused on meeting the Mendocino Coast’s long-term transportation needs, Caltrans is pleased to share the Albion River Bridge Project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) and Draft Section 4(f) Evaluation that identifies the project’s potential impacts and potential avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures.
“Our top priority is safety and this project will ensure that we provide a safe and reliable bridge across the Albion River for all travelers,” said Caltrans District 1 Director Matt Brady. “The bridge serves as a critical transportation infrastructure for the North Coast, connecting over 3,000 motorists to jobs, public services, and access to local tourism destinations.”
The document is available for review at albionriverbridgeproject.com and at the Caltrans District 1 Office at 1656 Union Street in Eureka on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as at the Mendocino Community Library at 10591 William Street in Mendocino and at the Fort Bragg Branch of the Mendocino County Library at 499 East Laurel Street in Fort Bragg. Comments on this document are being accepted by mail or email until September 9, 2024.
The public is invited to attend a Public Meeting for this project on Tuesday, August 13 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Whitesboro Grange, located at 32510 Navarro Ridge Road in Albion. Staff will give a presentation and answer questions related to the project. Comments can also be submitted to albionbridge@dot.ca.gov.
After the public circulation period, all comments will be considered, and Caltrans will select a preferred alternative.
ANNEMARIE WEIBEL:
Here is what the Albion Bridge Stewards have posted:
savehighway1.org/2024/07/09/albion-river-bridge-public-meeting-august-13
COVELO MAN TO BE SENTENCED FOR FATALLY SHOOTING HIS CHILD’S MOTHER
Johnathan Draughan pleaded guilty last month to fatally shooting Brandy Kay Mathieson. She was killed weeks after filing for a restraining order against him.
by Colin Atagi
A Covelo man will be sentenced this month for fatally shooting the 35-year-old mother of his child while she was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher March 20.
Johnathan Draughan, 43, pleaded guilty June 21 to killing Brandy Kay Mathieson at her Covelo home, according to Mendocino County Superior Court records.
He was convicted of one count of second-degree murder and will be sentenced July 19 by Mendocino County Judge Patrick Pekin.
Draughan’s attorney with the Mendocino County Public Defender’s Office could not be immediately reached for comment.
According to court records, Mathieson filed for a domestic violence restraining order against Draughan on Jan. 30 in Mendocino County Superior Court.
The filing references years of abuse, and court records show Draughan was arrested in November on suspicion of using tear gas on Mathieson. That case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, records show.
In the Jan. 30 application, Mathieson wrote Draughan threatened Jan. 25 to attack her and their son with a hatchet and hammer if they left him, according to the filing.
He slammed a phone in her face, pressed the hatchet against her neck and egged Mathieson to dial 911, saying he wouldn’t leave a mark and she’d be the one arrested.
“He would not let me past him but was finally able to get out with my son and keys,” Mathieson wrote in the filing. “He began slashing my tires to prevent us from leaving. I still got in the car with my son and locked us in.
The court issued a five-year protection order about a month later but Draughan had not been served as of Feb. 28.
The March shooting happened in front of the 2-year-old at Mathieson’s Covelo home in the 25600 block of Mendocino Pass Road, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported in March.
Mathieson called dispatchers about 5:30 a.m. March 20 and reported Draughan was armed with a shotgun and had assaulted her at the home.
The dispatcher heard multiple gunshots and Mathieson stopped talking, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Draughan picked up the phone and told the dispatcher he shot Mathieson and would wait for authorities.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived and Mathieson was pronounced dead at the scene.
They recovered a shotgun at the home and took the child to an area hospital for an evaluation. His current status wasn’t available.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
ANON FACEBOOK POST
My family has just moved to the area and we are artists. We just finished this piece at Taqueria La Gloria in Fort Bragg. They are an amazing restaurant that also supports local artists. I am wondering if anyone knows who to reach out to see if we can get a write up in the paper or social media sites. I am not familiar with all of the media outlets so any information is appreciated.
Ed Note: Taqueria La Gloria is at the corner of Chestnut and Main Streets in Fort Bragg. 707-813-4480.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, July 9, 2024
ANAND BABU, Watsonville/Ukiah. Burglary, vehicle tampering, acquisition of access card with intent to sell, offenses while on bail.
CASANDRA GUERRA, Ukiah. Grand theft-bicyles, conspiracy, failure to appear.
AUSTIN KISTLER, Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia.
JEREMY LOPRESTI, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
MONIQUE ROBINSON, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.
PETER ROSE JR., Point Arena. Burglary.
KHAYYAM SHAH, Little River. DUI.
ANGEL STANEK, Willits. Controlled substance, false ID, probation revocation.
SHAWN WALLENTINE, June Lake/Ukiah. DUI.
DANIEL WEIPPERT, Anderson/Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to register.
THE GOLDEN STATE: NEAR CONSTANT FLUX
by Jonah Raskin
Photographer Jeanne comes from the Skagit Valley in the State of Washington, her husband Ken, a retired teacher, from Levittown on Long Island. Ronald was born in the Philippines, Michele in Haiti, Sue in Florida, Lluis in Spain, and Nico, a pastry chef, in France. They all live in San Francisco and they all have ties to the places where they originated. They’re here for work, schooling, to find freedom to do as they please, and freedom from fetters that bound them and also to start their lives anew.
That’s the big thing about not only San Francisco, but also about California. They’re both places to be reborn, even if it’s only on a small space on a sidewalk or in a county jail. Woody Guthrie advised Americans on the road to turn back from California and return to where they came from —if they didn’t have money. Very few listened to him; the ads which promised jobs were more seductive and compelling than Guthrie’s singing.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, millionaires departed from SF and aimed for posh places like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, while the working poor fled to Vallejo in Solano County where rents are more affordable than in SF, though relocating will mean longer commute times and spending more money for gas.
The Golden State is a place of near-constant flux with a revolving door that goes around and around, travelers arriving and departing non-stop.
The world has pounced on California ever since the Gold Rush of the 1850s when the City by the Bay became one of the most cosmopolitan in the world. Irish Poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde, was right when he said in the early 1880s, “It is an odd thing, but everyone who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco.” He spoke for himself and for many others. Wilde stayed at SF’s Palace Hotel, the biggest in California, and also spent time consuming vast quantities of alcohol at the Bohemian Club. “I never saw so many well-dressed, well-fed, business-looking Bohemians in my life,” he said.
The gold miners, who heard Wilde perform Shakespeare, arrived from China, Chile, Canada and wherever men dream of riches and the things that riches bring. “It’s money I want or rather the things money will buy; and I could never possibly have too much,” the socialist best -selling author Jack London said in the late 1890s. He added, "If cash comes with fame, come fame, if cash comes without fame, come cash." For good measure, he added that he was “in pursuit of dollars, dollars, dollars." London missed out on the California Gold Rush but he was in time for the Gold Rush in the Yukon. Only he didn’t strike it rich. By his own account he accumulated $4.50 worth of gold, but he gathered treasures for stories.
Whether they’re born in the Golden State, like London, or born elsewhere, like his parents and friends, such as George Sterling, who came from New York, they’re in search of the California Dream which is said to be the American Dream writ large. A place of the imagination that’s so big you can have boundless freedom or at least the illusion of it, which might be the same thing only from the opposite end of a telescope.
George Sterling committed suicide in 1926. London contemplated suicide. Today, the majority of violent deaths in California are by suicide. The Golden State has always had a dark side; the California dream can turn into the California nightmare, though the nightmare doesn't stop people from flocking to the Golden State and dreaming about making lots of money and all the things that money can buy, including fame, Hollywood stardom, a political career and a winery.
“California dreamin’” isn’t just a pop song by the Mamas & the Papa. It’s a way of life, an exercise to pass the time of day and a kind of requirement for citizenship in the state. “I dream of California, therefore I am,” Descartes might have said. “Call me California,” Herman Melville’s lonely sailor Ishmael would murmur. John Steinbeck, the author of The Grapes of Wrath, would proclaim, “I am California.” though that would not have helped him with the New York literati who looked down on California books and authors.
The Golden State is all things to all people: children held in cages at the border; men and women who come with oil money, dirty money, so-called easy money, and with no money at all, their last pesos lining the pockets of a coyote who smuggled them across the border to the State of Texas, which doesn’t seem to want them.
Sooner or later, Oscar Wilde might say, were he alive today, “every Mexican who disappears, shows up in California.” Except those Mexican who die in a hail of bullets in their own country or working in a factory on the border. Also, many Mexicans who burn out chasing the American Dream, return to Jalisco, Michoacán, and Mexico City, where people attend mass, pray for forgiveness, and where others commit evil deeds, spread peccadillos, and worship the dollar.
In constant flux, California is a global magnet where Indians were slaughtered, and wide-open spaces cleared for Europeans and their descendants, and for Asians, and Africans. When Native Americans disappeared from the landscape they mostly didn’t show up in San Francisco, though the city has a substantial number of urban Indians who belong to over 100 federally-recognized tribes. Do Indians Dream the American Dream and the California Dream? Probably not. That would be like African -Americans dreaming they were whites, Jews wishing they were fascists, and Muslims begging to be reincarnated as Hindus. Possible, but not likely.
THE DICTATORIAL TRUMP COURT HAS PUT OUR DEMOCRACY’S RULE OF LAW ON QUICKSAND
by Ralph Nader
The six “corporate state” U.S. Supreme Court Justices, occupying unaccountable lifetime unelected positions, handed over dictatorial power for presidents and corporations that disassembled our Founders’ Constitution and the centerpiece of the American Revolution. In one week!
Led by the notorious Trump v. United States case these interwoven and dictatorial commands will live in infamy unless reversed or over-ridden by a constitutional amendment.
The paramount goal of our Revolution, starting with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, was to end King George III’s iron rule over the American colonies and vaccinate the country against another “King George.”
Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion in Trump v. United States (a 6 to 3 decision) undid the American Revolution. He decreed that presidents are absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for their core official acts (including starting wars of aggression or defying scores of Congressional subpoenas), “presumptively immune” for all other acts to be defeated by an infinitely opaque legal standard of “we’ll know it when we see it.”
Roberts refrained from providing a single hypothetical to illustrate his categories, except all exchanges with and orders to the Justice Department are immune, for instance, bribing the Attorney General to indict a political opponent on trumped up charges. Sonia Sotomayor’s powerful dissent stepped into the breach.
She asserted without dispute from Roberts that the majority had invented a “law-free zone” entrusting the president with a “loaded weapon” for future occupants of the White House to brandish. Specifically, “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune, immune, immune.” She added that never in U.S. history have presidents had more confidence that they would be immune from prosecution for crimes of any sort.
“Moving forward, all former presidents will be cloaked in such immunity,” she wrote. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide by will not provide a backstop.”
In short, Roberts and his clique of five other authoritarians have re-installed the doctrine of “The King Can Do No Wrong,” that was total anathema to our founders and framers of our constitution.
Constitutional law specialist, Bruce Fein, declared that Roberts’ decision itself was unconstitutional, citing provisions in the Constitution including Article 2, section 3 the “Take care” clause that the laws be faithfully executed.” In a long incisive op-ed in the New York Times, on July 2, 2024, leading constitutional law scholar Harvard Professor Lawrence Tribe called the ruling “outrageous.”
If asked, millions of Americans might be responding to my alarm with the words “Relax Ralph, it’s obvious that presidents have always been ‘above the law’ and that they do whatever they want and get away with it.” A few might even cite the brazen declaration in July 2019 by then-President Donald Trump: “Then I have Article II, where I have the right to do anything I want as president.” He did just that and is now a very successful fugitive from justice in twin federal criminal cases and a state criminal case – all following indictments – which have faltered due to a legal system built for delay after delay for rich defendants paying rich attorneys.
Trump while president even got away with defying over 125 congressional subpoenas including one by the Jan 6th House Select Committee. His colossal record of immunity is sui generis. His special assistant Peter Navarro defied one congressional subpoena and is serving several months in prison.
People, you are correct that the presidency has been practicing daily lawlessness against our Constitution, federal statutes, and international treaties the U.S. signed and often initiated, turning the White House into an ongoing crime scene – whether Democratic or Republican incumbents. (See, President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged criminal misconduct by Conor Shaw, citizensforethics.org).
So, what’s the big deal? The highest court in the land has hijacked our constitution and noble ideals and entrenched presidential immunities beyond the power of Congress to change. That’s the big deal. Trump, who chose three of the sitting Supreme Court Justices, is delighting in disbelief over his good fortune.
The cunning, devious Supreme Court majority kept delaying its decision to preclude any Trump trial before the November 2024 presidential election. Last year, the Court turned down a petition by Special Counsel Jack Smith for an expedited decision by leapfrogging the court of appeals since all the lower courts had decided no immunity with no conflicting precedents. Then on February 28, 2024, the Supreme Court decided to take the Trump appeal, after the Court of Appeals weighed in, and waited until the last day of this session, July 1, 2024, to issue its opinion. It then remanded the case to the federal district court to divine like Joseph interpreting Pharoah’s dreams, whether the government could defeat Trump’s presumptively immune actions to void President Joe Biden’s election. If Trump loses, another round of immediate appeals will follow while trial proceedings are frozen until the Supreme Court makes a final decision a year or so down the road. Get the strategy?
By contrast, prior Supreme Courts decided the constitutional issues of Bush v. Gore in 48 hours, the Nixon Tapes case in two weeks and the Pentagon Papers case in four days. The Court knows how to gallop instead of walk if it wants to.
Additional wreckage by the Court in its last week before a long summer vacation included:
- The six justices fortified a previous decision dramatically narrowing federal bribery laws by further restricting the crime to exclude a request for a legislator to do something and then belatedly giving him/her money or property after the request is honored. The court labelled the latter a “gratuity” and okay!!
- The Court overturned the Chevron doctrine where the courts could defer to the expertise of federal regulatory agencies like the EPA and the FDA. The six justices said that the courts can take charge and decide these cases because the agencies were acting on Congress’s vague legislative authority. The courts don’t have anywhere near the budgets, staff and expertise necessary to interpret hyper-technical regulatory statutes. What the Supreme Court has done is to provide an open invitation for corporate lawyers to so delay agency actions as to diminish them with settlements that are little more than exhortations.
- The six Justices prohibited the SEC’s administrative law judges from fining a defendant after due process in a statutory fraud case giving the latter a right to a jury trial if the SEC charges are analogous to common law fraud. This gives hordes of corporate lawyers the leverage to coerce sweetheart settlements with the SEC or have it overwhelmed with expensive, budget-draining trials.
- Adding to their previous years of straitjacketing of the EPA’s life-preserving missions, the six Justices gutted the Clean Air Act’s “Good Neighbor Provision” such as actions prohibiting states from allowing pollution to stream into sister states.
The losers here are all the people who want clean air, water and soil, who want corrupt politicians and corporate crooks held accountable, and who, most definitely, do not want a president to be a King above the law, brandishing immense powers of illegal violence abroad and at home, secrecy, and destruction of the people’s right to freedom, justice, health, safety and economic well-being. Ordered by lifetime justices who have no robes.
Don’t you think impeachment and a constitutional amendment should be on the table?
I DROVE A CYBERTRUCK AROUND SF BECAUSE I AM A SMART, COOL ALPHA MALE
by Drew Magary
I got to drive a Tesla Cybertruck for a day this spring. You jealous? You should be, because Elon Musk’s Boy Scout project is the kind of virile, powerful spacetruck that should be owned and driven only by our largest, wealthiest, whitest men. The kind of men who use speakerphone on airplanes. The kind of men who talk big about colonizing Mars as if it’s a realistic scenario. The kind of men who are training artificial intelligence to not only take your job but also steal your wife. Real can-do American men.
I am one such man. That’s why SFGate asked me, someone who knows precious little about how cars actually work, to test-drive a Cybertruck. I fit the customer profile for one to a T. I am tall. I am white. I am loud. I don’t really have many friends where I live. Most important, I desperately want people to think I’m cool. You can see my thirst from the f—king moon, so why not drive an equally conspicuous truck?
So I opened up a Turo account (Turo is like Airbnb but for cars) and found a brand spanking new Cybertruck to rent for $500 a day, or roughly $850 once all taxes and fees had been included. While I was standing next to my rental Cybertruck, a woman on the street — a self-proclaimed medium named Free — walked up and started touching the car like it was a pregnant woman’s belly. Free cried out, “Goddamn! This s—t seems like plastic!” Whether the spirits told her this was unclear, but she was deeply unimpressed.
That’s because the exterior of the Cybertruck is ugly. You might have deduced this merely from looking at pictures of Elon’s beloved car online, but I assure you that seeing the truck in person won’t change your mind. This car is all hard angles and even harder steel, with exterior panels that are often off in alignment. It’s a loud car, which is by design. Anyone who buys a Cybertruck, or any journalist who rents one as a stunt, is doing so for the attention. That included the gentleman who rented it to me, who once worked for Tesla and was surprised (and seemingly displeased) that the people taking his car out for a joyride worked for the press. He suspected we were going to say mean s—t about Elon, and he was right. Elon Musk is a penis.
But I do commend Musk for at least trying to make a car that stands out on the road when both safety regulations and manufacturing efficiency have conspired to make so many new cars look exactly the same. The Cybertruck doesn’t look like anything else out there, which is why your average new-money bro wants to plunk down $60,000 (at the minimum) for one. They’re paying to be noticed, and they don’t care what flavor of attention they might receive.
I got attention. So much attention — and in a wide variety of flavors! Children stopped and pointed. Strangers gave me the finger. Tourists at the Dana Bower Rest Area just across the Golden Gate Bridge swarmed the truck and asked to take pictures with it. Another motorist pulled up alongside me and said, “I just had to stop to laugh at you.” This car is a celebrity, which makes you a celebrity merely by driving it. That’s for better and for worse, with little in between the two poles.
The car also emitted a lot of weird noises: alarms going off for reasons I couldn’t discern.
As for the interior, the Cybertruck is as barren as most other Tesla interiors. I got a big-ass touchscreen, a fighter pilot steering wheel and little more. Tactile pleasures were nonexistent. No buttons. No switches. I felt like I was driving around in an unfurnished apartment. But the truck did have a pleasing strip of white leather trim bordering the interior, which gave me the impression that somewhere, deep inside Tesla headquarters, a person with legitimately good taste fought a battle and actually won it. Also, the gas and brake pedals had a brilliant chrome finish to them, and the seats were both roomy and comfortable, which is a big deal for large men such as myself. This was a far more attractive ride on the inside than out, which was good because I was afraid that the driver’s seat would be covered in iron spikes. It was not. It was a normal seat, and I felt at home sitting in it.
Then I turned the truck on and was instantly escorted back to Elon’s technocarnival of suck.
Almost every control on the Cybertruck is virtual, doors included. To unlock the truck, you have to either tap your key card (like the one you’d get for a hotel room) on a sensor next to the door or use the Tesla app. You can also use that app to control the height of the truck, but you cannot make the truck hop, which I found disappointing. Five bucks to the first dude who installs custom hydraulics on this bad boy.
Actually, you can use your phone to control a lot of things inside the Cybertruck, which is an obvious conflict of interest if you happen to be busy driving it. Your phone can operate the tailgate, along with the tonneau cover, a retractable roof that looks like a baggage claim conveyor belt and shields the flatbed from inclement weather. Making the tonneau go back and forth is super fun, unless you’re standing in the flatbed and accidentally push the button that closes it (guilty). The flatbed, while I was not hastily evacuating it, was perfectly spacious, should you require it for doing actual pickup stuff (you won’t).
The catch is that the tonneau, when down, fully blocks the rearview mirror. I had to consult a rearview camera display that shows up on the touchscreen to see behind me. This is not intuitive.
Then again, little about the Cybertruck’s controls is intuitive. There is no physical gearshift. Instead, you swipe up or down on the touchscreen to shift into drive or reverse. There are no stalks protruding from the steering column to control the wipers or turn signals. Instead, you push a button to signal (this is standard in other Tesla models but took me some getting used to), and you consult the touchscreen to activate the wipers — or “wiper,” I should say, given that the windshield is cleared by one giant wiper instead of two normal ones. Once I turned the giant wiper sword on, I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. Desperate for an answer, I had to pull over to the side of the road and ask the car’s voice control to stop it. The truck’s autopilot controls were disabled, likely because Tesla is having a few issues with that particular feature (people die while using it).
I also couldn’t figure out how to turn the car off. Turns out it does this of its own accord. You know how Apple will occasionally confuse the world by doing away with standard features like a headphone jack? OK, well imagine a car built entirely out of that kind of gimmick. You get a big truck, a big screen and not much else. Any problem you have with the truck’s controls is strictly because you’re a n00b. Only our shrewdest, most waterlogged minds can master such a visionary piece of machinery. As for that screen, it’s an 18.5-inch monitor, with a matching 9-inch monitor in the back for passengers. A small game controller is tucked inside the console, but I didn’t learn how to use it. This is because I was busy learning how to do a bunch of other, more important s—t with the touchscreen first. Touchscreens are now standard in all new cars, and many of them are needlessly wonky, to the point of being hazardous. The Cybertruck is no different. It took me a solid 45 minutes to figure out how to turn on the air-conditioned seats. Once I did, though, I got a satisfyingly cool breeze right up my asscrack. The air conditioning in this car does not f—k around. Again, I find this important.
Also, you honk the horn by pushing it upward, which is stupid. But at least Elon didn’t attempt to reinvent the car horn sound by swapping in a Grimes sample for it. My expectations of this car going in were low, and it amazingly surpassed, like, four of them. Not bad!
Then I had to drive the stupid thing. Given how clumsy the Cybertruck looks on the outside, you’d figure that task would be a real bitch. This also proves to be untrue. It didn’t drive big. It handled like a standard car, if not better than most. The pickup when I hit the gas was, as promised, thrilling. While the accelerator was a bit overly sensitive, I was still able to maneuver the car with relative ease, through busy downtown traffic, across the Golden Gate Bridge and even inside a parking garage. I usually can’t navigate any parking garage in California without having a nervous breakdown, so imagine my surprise when the Cybertruck made that experience painless rather than even more harrowing.
Charging the car, however, is another matter. Due to its massive curb weight (3.5 tons), refilling the Cybertruck’s battery took forever. When I had to charge an Audi e-tron a couple of years ago, the battery was back to 80% full in the time it took me to go to the bathroom and come back. A mere 10 minutes. With the Cybertruck, I could have taken a dozen pisses and still been waiting.
Oh, and the gas pedal might stick and get you killed. You might have heard about that little design flaw as well, although I had no such issues on my test drive. Again, this is because I am a very smart, important and cool person. The Cybertruck works only for alphas, and that’s me all over. Once any alpha learns this car, they’ll feel at home within it. If you are not an alpha and the truck doesn’t sit well with your snowflakey constitution … well, best of luck getting around Tesla’s no-resale policy. Perhaps you could rent it out on Turo to make back your down payment. Either way, you are not ready for the spotlight.
I had my fair share of “oh God, everyone is looking at me” moments with the Cybertruck. I was able to parallel park it quite easily, but I had to do it near a crowded intersection. When I blocked traffic to weasel my way into a spot along the street, every horn behind me immediately piped up in anger. Because who feels bad about being an asshole to a white guy in a Cybertruck? No one. Perhaps you’ll have a smooth ride in yours, but the road rage you’ll inspire in your fellow motorists will be swift and merciless. I drove by the Palace of Fine Arts multiple times for the sake of our photo team. By sheer coincidence, the landmark was being used right then for a film shoot. They halted that shoot after they saw me pass by over and over, because whoever was in charge of security thought I was a paparazzo stalking the set. I think I would’ve chosen a more discreet ride had that been the case. Regardless, driving a Cybertruck means accepting that people will assume things about you, most of them unkind. But again, discretion isn’t this car’s job. This is a loud and lonely car for loud and lonely people. And while I enjoyed driving my Cybertruck, I hope I’m never loud and lonely enough to want to buy one.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2
How bad can things be? It was announced yesterday that the head basketball coach at our State University signed a 5 year, $50 million contract. And a town just south of here, population about 25,000, listed salaries of their employees; 155 of them are paid over $100,000 per year. So make sure you get that quarterly income tax payment in, and your property taxes are up to date suckers, local and state government have a payroll to make. Don’t like it? Move? If you want to make bank, get a government job.Of course you have to know somebody to get one.
THE CAT HAS SPOKEN
Dear Editor,
I'd like to introduce you to ‘Rosie,’ my seven-year-old cat. My daughter-in-law and wife rescued her from the Rohnert Park Animal Shelter about five years ago. She's very smart. Walking behind this computer ten minutes ago she said, “Vote Biden/Harris. He's healthy!”
Biden's MD says he's healthy. “No evidence of Parkinson's Disease.”
Frank H. Baumgardner, III
Santa Rosa
“WE'RE TOLD that the threat of Trump is so great and the stakes are so high that even bringing up these absolutely legitimate concerns about the president's ability to do the most vigorous job in the world for the next four years is enabling fascism.”
— Jon Stewart
THE MEDIA CONSPIRACY OF COLLUSION OVER BIDEN’S HEALTH IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE
by Piers Morgan
“Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe,” wrote my favorite English poet, Lord Byron, “Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast; Is that portentous phrase, ‘I told you so’.”
Or, to put those words in modern-day American vernacular: Nobody likes a smart-ass Monday morning quarterback.
But sometimes, the words “I told you so” need to be said to expose those who saw all the same horrid, hideous signs of woe — and failed to speak up.
The US mainstream media are currently gorging on President Biden’s cognitive decline like ravenous hyenas on the freshly slain carcass of a decrepit old buffalo.
In fact, since his train-wreck debate debacle, the nation’s predominantly liberal-skewed, Democrat-defending journalists have competed with each other as to who can sound the most faux shocked, horrified, appalled, and furrowed-brow-uncomprehending about the physical and mental state of their president.
To which I say, REALLY?
The Obama/Biden arm-grab wasn’t just a senior moment — it was the moment everyone realized the president’s not fit for office.
THAT Biden was a surprise to you?
You all had NO idea the president of the United States is an incoherent, bumbling virtual zombie who shuffles at a snail’s pace and can barely remember what day it is?
With all due respect to my esteemed media colleagues, I call bulls–t.
They’ve all known the truth about Biden’s fast-deteriorating physical condition and clear early dementia for several years, because he’s been literally showing them the evidence on an almost daily basis.
When he’s not been face-planting on stage, tripping on the steps of Air Force One, or falling off his bike, he’s been forgetting names, talking incomprehensible gibberish, spewing blatant, easily provable falsehoods, and unleashing an endless cataract of verbal gaffes, some trivial like repeatedly calling his vice president “President Harris,” others way more serious and potentially dangerous like vowing a US military response if China invades Taiwan.
And unlike those who chose to look the other way or deny what they saw and heard, I have documented them in my weekly New York Post columns.
For example, in March 2022, after Biden made a series of crazy statements surrounding Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that had to be instantly and disingenuously walked back by frantic White House aides — including one in which he said Russian President Vladimir Putin mustn’t be allowed to remain in power, which his people comically insisted didn’t mean he thought Putin shouldn’t stay in power, or regime change in Russia — I wrote: “Joe Biden is showing increasingly worrying signs of age-related cognitive decline. That’s a big problem for America, and the world, at such a critical time. As is the pathetic way that Democrats and much of the mainstream media keep trying to excuse his dreadful gaffes and talk up his supposedly commanding leadership. They’re so desperate to portray him as the calm, smart, wise, fact-driven antidote to his predecessor Donald Trump that they can’t see the shambolic train wreck right in front of their eyes. Or they see it but choose to ignore it.”
‘Joe Biden is showing increasingly worrying signs of age-related cognitive decline.’
Piers Morgan, March 2022
See, I told you so.
And that was over two years ago.
Things have gotten increasingly worse since then.
In July 2022, while speaking about the Supreme Court’s historic overturning of Roe v. Wade, Biden read out a prompt line from staffers: “End of quote, repeat the line.”
As I wrote then: “It may be time to invoke the 25th Amendment on ailing, failing Biden if he deteriorates further.”
‘It may be time to invoke the 25th Amendment on ailing, failing Biden if he deteriorates further.’
Piers Morgan, July 2022
He even started forgetting people had died.
In September 2022, he asked during another speech, “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie?” as he searched the room for Jackie Walorski, an Indiana congresswoman who had been killed in a car accident the month before, and about whom he had issued a heartfelt statement of condolence to her family, saying how shocked and saddened that he was by her death.
In June 2023, two months after he announced he was running again for president, he ended a speech about gun control with the words: “God save the Queen, man.” But Queen Elizabeth II had passed nine months earlier, and he’d attended her funeral.
I wrote then: “President Biden is showing more and more signs of deteriorating cognitive and physical decline that isn’t just to do with his age. I know 90-year-olds who are twice as lucid and mobile as he is. No, the cold, hard, brutal reality is that Biden’s losing it, and he’s losing it while also trying to be president of the United States and de facto leader of the free world — one of the most relentlessly difficult, energy-sapping, and pressurized jobs imaginable.”
‘Biden is showing more and more signs of deteriorating cognitive and physical decline that isn’t just to do with his age. I know 90-year-olds who are twice as lucid and mobile as he is.’
Piers Morgan, June 2023
That was a year ago, yet still most of the media pretended Joe Biden was still in full charge of his faculties. Nothing to see here, move along, focus on criminal Trump!
In September 2023, after a barrage of more cringe-worthy incidents and mishaps — including his claim to have been at Ground Zero the day after 9/11, when he didn’t go there until nine days after — I wrote: “This guy is still running the world’s No.1 superpower when he looks barely fit, either physically or cognitively, to run a bath. I honestly look at Biden now and genuinely wonder if he knows what day it is, let alone what he’s supposed to be doing. The sad, unnerving reality is that every time President Biden appears in public now, everyone — including his own White House staff — holds their breath to see what verbal mistake he’ll make, what vital US policy he might suddenly and dangerously rewrite, what indecipherable word salad he’ll spew, or just whether he can manage to stay on his own two feet.”
‘This guy is still running the world’s No.1 superpower when he looks barely fit, either physically or cognitively, to run a bath.’
Piers Morgan, September 2023
That was 10 months ago!
Since then, he’s persisted in saying his war hero son Beau died serving his country in Iraq when, as everyone knows, he died from brain cancer in the US — and he preposterously claimed his uncle was shot down and possibly eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea when there is no evidence for either claim.
But to be fair to Biden, it’s hard to know if he was lying or genuinely delusional.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaking with President Joe Biden on White House balcony during an Independence Day celebration, July 4, 2024.
In December 2023, he responded to a reporter shouting, “Mr. President, why are you losing to Trump in the polls?” by saying: “You’re reading the wrong polls!”
One second later, there was a loud bang as a random vehicle smashed accidentally into his presidential motorcade.
I wrote: “Biden’s presidency has become a slow-moving car crash. What’s inexplicable is why the Democrats seem so hell-bent on standing by a leader who’s become not just a national but a global joke.”
‘What’s inexplicable is why the Democrats seem so hell-bent on standing by a leader who’s become not just a national but a global joke.’
Piers Morgan, December 2023
That was six months ago.
In January 2024, after he embarrassingly struggled to say “America,” blathering, “Don’t mess with uhhiminauhwemerica,” I wrote: “Ultimately, and most damningly, all roads lead back to his advanced age and apparent senility. When you can’t even pronounce the name of the country you’re supposed to be leading, it’s time to go.”
And last month, when Barack Obama had to lead him by the hand off a stage at a fundraiser in LA, I wrote: “The Obama/Biden arm-grab wasn’t just a senior moment, it was the moment everyone realized the president’s not fit for office. This is a once-very eloquent, fast-talking, firebrand senator who can now barely speak without talking gibberish, nor walk quicker than a snail on [sedatives], and who keeps falling over or forgetting what he’s supposed to be doing or saying.”
Then came the debate, and all the supine, fawning journalists — who’d bent over so far backwards to stop the American people from knowing the truth about their president that I’m only surprised they didn’t all suffer broken vertebrae — suddenly found their eyes, ears and voices.
President Biden appearing to freeze up on stage at a fundraiser event, with President Obama gently guiding him away from the spotlight
So yes, I told you so.
As did others.
For years.
And for telling the truth, we were branded liars, and scaremongers, and partisan pro-Republican hacks trying to distract from the real story — Trump.
Now those who screamed loudest about Biden being fit and well for office are the same ones screaming the loudest about why he must quit the 2024 race because he’s unwell and unfit for office.
This is not because they give a damn about his health or want to finally be honest about it with the American people, but because they’ve belatedly realized that he can’t beat Donald Trump.
It’s been a repulsive conspiracy of collusion, and to borrow the words of Lord Byron, their crocodile tears are “horrid and hideous.”
Popcorn has long been associated with the movies, or in recent years, the microwave, but although many of us may have wondered why popcorn pops, few of us have asked where popcorn actually came from.
The Indigenous people of the Americas first domesticated the strain of corn which produces popcorn thousands of years ago.
Europeans learned about popcorn from Natives. When Cortes invaded Mexico, and when Columbus arrived in the West Indies, each saw natives eating popcorn, as well as using it in necklaces and headdresses.
In fact, popcorn artifacts dating back to 6,700 years ago were discovered in Peru. So the next time you grab a handful of your favorite snack, remember it’s not just Orville Redenbacher you should be thanking about.
PLATFORM WORKERS: THE NEW FACE OF SOLIDARITY
by David Bacon, The Stansbury Forum, June 2, 2024
https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2024/06/platform-workers-new-face-of-solidarity.html
Introduction
On May 21 I went to the State Supreme Court Building in San Francisco at 350 McAllister. I went to witness oral argument in the case brought against Proposition 22, the state referendum that overturned Assembly Bill 5 in the 2020 election. Uber and Lyft and other platform/gig companies financed the referendum with $200 million in their effort to undermine the excellent provisions of AB 5 authored by then Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego. AB 5 codified into law a previous Supreme Court case called Dynamex that established a very simple and solid three part test that determines who is an employee and who is a contractor. AB 5 if implemented and enforced would have made Uber and Lyff and other platform employers treat their workers as employees with the right to be protected by labor standards and the right to organize under the National Labor Relations Act.…
WEDNESDAY'S LEAD STORIES FROM THE NYT
- Top Democrats, Swallowing Fears About Biden’s Candidacy, Remain Behind Him
- A Late Play by the Biden Campaign: Running Out the Clock
- How Mar-a-Lago Became the Center of Gravity for the Hard Right
- At Least 25 Reported Killed in Israeli Airstrike at School Turned Shelter in Gaza
- ‘Rust’ Jury Chosen After Questions About Guns, Movies and Alec Baldwin
- Metal Thieves Are Stripping America’s Cities
TRUE GAZA DEATH TOLL AT 186,000 OR MORE
Researchers Estimate True Gaza Death Toll at 186,000 or More The official death toll is currently just over 38,000, but it is impossible for officials to do a full accounting.
by BynnSharon Zhang
Public health experts have estimated that the true death toll in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza could be five times higher than the official toll reported by Palestinian officials — a chilling figure that they say is, in fact, a conservative estimate based on historical death tolls in times of conflict.
In a letter published on Friday in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, the researchers said that the current death toll in Gaza could be 186,000 or more. This amounts to roughly 8 percent of Gaza’s population before October.
The experts calculated the figure based on widely-cited UN research determining that, in recent decades, conflicts often see a ratio of between 3 and 15 times the number of “direct deaths,” or deaths caused by direct violence, and indirect deaths, or deaths caused by related factors; in the case of Israel’s genocide, these factors include Israel’s targeted destruction of health, food and sanitation infrastructure and its near-total blockade on humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza,” the researchers said.
At the lower range of the estimates of indirect deaths, the death toll could be 114,000 Palestinians; at the upper range, Israel’s assault may have killed 570,000 Palestinians so far. The researchers note that the assault will continue to kill Palestinians long after it’s officially supposedly over, due to factors like communicable and non-communicable diseases.
The letter notes that the official death toll they cite is also likely an underestimation, due to the immense difficulty of counting deaths and the thousands of people who are trapped under the rubble and presumed dead. The researchers also note Israel’s responsibility to comply with international law and “take effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts.”
Such a large estimate of the death toll is plausible considering that the death toll has been increasing at a steady rate over the past nine months even as factors like Israel’s famine and disease campaign have intensified; figures like the number of Palestinians trapped under the rubble have remained stagnantfor months, even as Israel has bombarded more and more buildings each day.
Chillingly, the world may never know the full toll of Israel’s genocide — even direct deaths are essentially impossible to fully account for due to the fact that Israel’s violence and destruction is so widespread.
At the same time, Israel is continuing to escalate its ethnic cleansing and extermination campaign in Gaza, with no signs of stopping. Palestinians have reported that Sunday night was one of the worst nights in the last nine months so far, with heavy bombardments in the last 24 hours killing at least40 people and injuring 75 more, after Israeli forces killed 54 people in the previous 24 hours, with dozens missing. Israeli forces have once again stepped up their bombardment of Gaza City and northern Gaza, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to evacuate last week with nowhere left to go.
(Truthout.org)
IDF GAVE ORDERS TO KILL FELLOW IDF SOLDIERS on October 7, Israeli Outlet Reports; Soldiers were told to stop vehicles potentially carrying Israeli soldiers or civilians at all costs.
by Sharon Zhang
Israeli officials instructed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers to target fellow soldiers and potentially civilians in the chaos of the October 7, 2023 attack that Israeli officials have used as a springboard for their genocide in Gaza, a prominent Israeli outlet has reported.
According to Haaretz, IDF officials gave the order to execute the “Hannibal Directive” in at least three places on October 7, as soldiers were told to stop vehicles driven by Palestinian forces that were holding Israelis from reentering Gaza at all costs.
The orders were given by senior IDF officials, as soon as just an hour after Palestinian forces first fired their rockets at Israeli targets. The Hannibal orders potentially caused Israeli forces to contribute to the Israeli death toll on October 7, and, at the very least, put the Israeli hostages — who have been used as endless justification for Israel’s genocide in Gaza — in danger from IDF fire.
There has already been one widely circulated report that Israeli forces killed at least 14 Israeli civilians on October 7 — killing 13 of them by firing from a tank at a house civilians were being held in, and killing one woman via a helicopter while she was being abducted.
Other sources have long reported that the IDF used the Hannibal procedure on October 7, potentially killing Israeli civilians. However, the news is significant coming from Haaretz — Israel’s paper of record, which typically has a Zionist lean even though it is sometimes characterized as a left-leaning outlet.
Sources told Haaretz that IDF soldiers and officials knew that the Palestinian vehicles fleeing to Gaza were carrying Israeli civilians or soldiers and were ordered to be attacked anyway.
“Everyone knew by then that such vehicles could be carrying kidnapped civilians or soldiers,” one source familiar with the attack told the outlet. “There was no case in which a vehicle carrying kidnapped people was knowingly attacked, but you couldn’t really know if there were any such people in a vehicle. I can’t say there was a clear instruction, but everyone knew what it meant to not let any vehicles return to Gaza.”
The source said that the order was given to “turn the area around the border fence into a killing zone” to essentially close off one of the border crossings into Gaza.
The orders were given as the IDF frantically crafted a response to the Hamas-led attack, despite having had warning of the attack for over a year ahead of time. “There was crazy hysteria, with decisions made without any verified information,” a military official told Haaretz.
An overall sense of chaos and indiscriminate killing seems to have dominated the IDF’s response to October 7 and its subsequent genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
A +972 Magazine and Local Call report published Monday, citing six IDF sources, found that Israeli soldiers in Gaza have been told to shoot “without restrictions,” and are allowed to target any civilian, adult or child, even if just to “blow off steam or relieve the dullness of their daily routine.”
“They report it as ‘normal fire,’ which is a codename for ‘I’m bored, so I shoot’,” one soldier deployed in northern Gaza told +972 and Local Call.
At one point in December, one soldier testified, a battalion all opened fire at the same time, creating lights and colors “like fireworks” in order to celebrate Hanukkah.
Sources testified that the lack of strict rules regarding their weapons has led to a large number of friendly fire killings within the IDF since October.
They also testified that, despite international laws requiring militaries to do everything possible to distinguish between civilians and combatants, Israeli forces are essentially told to assume every boy or man between 16 and 50 is a legitimate target.
“If we see someone in a window looking at us, he is a suspect. You shoot. The [army’s] perception is that any contact [with the population] endangers the forces, and a situation must be created in which it is forbidden to approach [the soldiers] under any circumstances. [The Palestinians] learned that when we enter, they run away.”
(Truthout.org)
SCOTUS IS MEANT TO BE A COURT, NOT OUR SUPREME RULER
by Jim Hightower
What is a SCOTUS? Sounds like a prehistoric critter scuttling along some seabed. But, no, it is the acronym for our Supreme Court of the United States.
SCOTUS is meant to be the impartial arbiter of legal disputes over what our laws mean. Yet, who are these arbiters, how are they elected, why don’t we even know their names, and if they go rogue, imposing their personal autocratic beliefs on our nation’s democratic ideals, what then?
Well, structurally, SCOTUS is undemocratic, a relic of monarchial rule. Unlike the 535 members of the legislative branch, who are elected from diverse districts across America, there are only nine supremes, and none of the current bunch have ever faced the people, even in an election for dogcatcher. They are hand-picked by political and moneyed elites, and most blatantly lie to win approval for their lifetime appointments. Once enthroned, they have *no accountability *to us commoners, who are expected to blindly obey their edicts.
Today, out of 330 million Americans, six right-wing SCOTUS members have seized control of the court, and our government. They claim supremacy over the People, the President, and the Congress — arbitrarily dictating what is “legal” for elected officials and the public to do. Indeed, they are now making up laws on abortion, presidential power, voting rights, environmental protection, and much more to suit their personal political and religious biases. Moreover, they operate behind closed doors, with no disclosure of their conflicts of interest.
This is Jim Hightower saying. Call this what it is: A right-wing extremist power grab. And it is fast supplanting our people’s historic democratic progress with a kleptocracy of autocratic, plutocratic, theocratic rule. The only remedy is a head-on people’s rebellion to democratize this totally unAmerican court.
Forget the election, the right thing for President Biden’s closest inner circle to do is to tell him he needs to resign from the Presidency, immediately. Taking away the keys is what all caring, and responsible family members do when an elder gets to a point where they should not be driving. The elder won’t do it on their own. Kamala Harris would then become President, and a new Vice President would be appointed.
Better just to euthanize him, and his brainless mutant opponent. The country might have a chance of survival with both of the egotistical morons gone.
You all out there in the great outback are not subtle at all. Hope all is well with you, Harvey.
Subtlety is for sissies. All is what it is for me here in one of the more backward states in this increasingly backward country.
“Don’t you think impeachment and a constitutional amendment should be on the table?”
Yes, to the first. No to the second. As screwed up as this country is, an amendment would take forever to be ratified, like the Equal Rights Amendment… A NEW constitution, one that makes sense and requires a simple majority for adoption and for amendments would be the best solution, but another minority rule setup like the piece of crap we have now would be a worthless effort.
“Jon Stewart”
Is he still around? Too bad.
I looked at a couple of old ranches around Mina in the early ’70’s.
I think the local folks pronounced with a long i: as in mine or myna.
Fire reports seem to lean toward a long e: Meana.
A consensus here?
I’d like to say it MY-nuh. Minot is not said mee-NOH but rather MY-not. I have always liked finding out about things like that, the way the U.S. turns things; for example the Plains city Pierre is said PEER. Montpelier started out like mom-puhl-YEHr but became a lovely drawl-barked mount-PEE-lee-er. But Mount Ranier is said ruh-NEER, neither RAY-nee-er nor ruh-NYEHr. And then the wonderful native place names that stuck, that are spelled relatively phonetically, like Pascamodawadaquoddy, or Niagara, Sasquatch, Miami, Ohai, and so on, even Tuolumne, with its silent N. Wichita. Washita.
So when Fort Bragg is changed to Lindy Petersville or The Palms (say the L or not, either way is fine) there’ll be no problem with pronunciation. You won’t have tourists asking, “Where in, uh, for-BRAZH can a man get his ashes hauled, discreetly?”
IN OTHER NEWS: back pain, not up to 11, quite, but an exhausting 9 and sometimes 10. Horizontal is bad enough, but sitting up in a chair is not an option, and then there’s getting into the chair in the first place, much less getting off of it. And I can write something like this but I can’t do any of the prep for my radio show, so I won’t be able to do that this week. Dang. This happened three or four years ago. It ain’t the end of the world, but ow.
Just sitting here on public computer #5 at the Ukiah library, reading the numbing news items and commentary on the AVA online. Postmodernism is dead! This is confirmed by the last two issues of the New York Times. How about the article reporting crowds rushing the aid convoys in Gaza to get the cigarettes, which are selling for around $25 apiece? Or the news item about the professor “Teaching Taylor Swift at Harvard” in the current issue of Vanity Fair? And then there was my early morning comment here about the Siva Ice Lingam melting down to the nub at the Shri Amarnath Ji pilgrimage site in the Kashmir Himalayas, which again set off more dire warnings about global climate destabilization in the Indian press. [My comment here was removed] Heck, I’d go over to the Ukiah Brewing Company for a beer, but I can’t get served there any more without a debate, because I’ve been rational and acting normal. Big props to Aaron at The Forest Club who continues to give good customer service at the most unpretentious place in Ukiah. What’s that joke about only your bartender really understands you? ;-))