Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 7/16/2024

By AVA News Service on July 16, 2024

QUIET, DRY, and climatologically normal weather is forecast to continue through the work week. Locally gusty south winds develop in NE Trinity this afternoon. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cooler 49F with fog this Tuesday morning on the coast. To break things up the NWS is saying we will be either mostly cloudy, or mostly clear, or a mix of both. AKA patchy fog, ahem...

Coast Guard Heading into Noyo Harbor (Jeff Goll)

TEEN DRIVER SURVIVES, WILLITS MAN KILLED IN SIDESWIPE COLLISION

On Sunday, July 14, 2024, at 11:02 pm, Humboldt Communications Center (CHP Dispatch) received a 9-1-1 call for a two-vehicle crash on Valley Road, east of Davidson Road, east of Willits, CA. California Highway Patrol Officers responded to the scene to investigate the crash. Julian Franks, 30 years old of Willits, CA, was driving his 1985 Toyota pickup eastbound on Valley Road. The Toyota was partially in the westbound lane, and sideswiped a 2022 Honda Accord, driven by a 16-year-old female of Willits. The Toyota overturned and Franks was ejected from his vehicle. CalFire and MedStar Ambulance arrived on scene and pronounced Franks deceased. Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office arrived on scene to assist in the investigation.

The California Highway Patrol Garberville Area’s Laytonville Resident Post is conducting an investigation into the cause of the crash. The California Highway Patrol wants to remind the motoring public to wear your seatbelt. Approximately 60% of fatal crashes involve persons who are unrestrained.

The Mendocino County Veterans Service Office finally back in their cottage on Observatory, only six months after being unceremoniously ousted and only four months after the Supervisors retracted their decision and directed that they be returned to their original building. (Photo by Mazie Malone.)

RACIST VANDALISM ON HIGHWAY 128

by Frank Hartzell

Saoirse Byrne was on her way home to Boonville about 9 p.m. Saturday, when she saw a horrifying message just after entering Mendocino County on Highway 128. The flashing road sign, which usually says “Expect Delays” had been changed to read “[N-word]s arent welcome.”

She pulled her car over and set out to disable the apparently vandalized sign.

“It’s a not-so-veiled threat and not to be taken lightly,” she said. The door to the sign’s control box had been left open. She got out the manual she found inside. But that didn’t help Byrne turn it off because she didn’t have the codes needed.

Two other cars pulled over to help.

“We reset it, and it turned it off momentarily, but then it flashed back on again with the same message.” They tried again. The same horrific message came right back.

So the group of people who had stopped tried to turn the sign which is not on wheels. It is meant to be hard to move for obvious reasons.

“We couldn’t move it completely away. We got it so that it wasn't facing traffic head-on anymore. Then I called 911. I also got in touch with (Anderson Valley) Fire Chief Andres Avila. And he contacted the head of Caltrans,” Byrne said.

Manny Machado, public information officer for Caltrans District 1 (Mendocino/Lake Counties) was sent the photo on Sunday by this reporter. He said it had been turned off and the case was being investigated.

“Caltrans was made aware Saturday night of a message board that was vandalized along Route 128 in Mendocino County near the Sonoma County line. Staff went to the construction site and the message was removed. The message board is operated by a contractor for a culvert project. The incident is under investigation,” Machado said.

A member of the local school board, Byrne has never seen anything like this in her 13 years in the Anderson Valley.

“It does surprise me that somebody would use their creative human monkey brain to do something coming like this from a place of hate. There's so much violence in the world, and those words, the words might not just be words, and so I think it's something that we have to take seriously as a community. We need to figure out; how do we have civil discourse and make sure we are a place where we can all have respect for ourselves and others. This is unacceptable,” Byrne said.

When she tried to change the sign or turn it off, a key code had to be entered. She deduced a key code must have been entered to create the profane message. To Byrne that indicated hackers, or even someone official did this.

“Something needs to be done. It appears to be too easy for this to happen.”

She wishes she had thought to go somewhere and buy a tarp, but the sign is quite a ways down 128 from Boonville, along winding roads. The area includes open land, and vineyards. Another disturbing element is that this same message was once posted outside Southern Towns. During Jim Crow days. Another threatening message from those days that could be seen was, “Don’t let the sun go down on you here. (A different racist epithet for black people.)

According to America's Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) these types of communities are not a thing of the past. An interesting article can be found at the website.

Sundown towns past and present https://www.abhmuseum.org/sundown-towns-the-past-and-present-of-racial-segregation/

Author’s note: I got scooped on this by very sharp newsman Matt LaFever even though I had it last night. The race goes to the swift. But I also asked the wrong person for a comment. Won't do that again. LOL. Saoirse spoke very highly of the AVA and asked me to be sure to send this to you also. I once saw a sundown town sign in the 1970s. Silly me, I thought such things were in the past! The article I referenced is very interesting. For a few hours at least, the Mendocino Coast was a sundown town. How horrible.

LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

THE ANDERSON VALLEY COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT is reorganizing. With the resignation of General Manager Cora Richard in March, combined with the difficulty the District has had in finding a suitable, experienced replacement, the CSD Board has decided to promote Fire Chief Andres Avila to a combination position of Fire Chief and Executive Director, with an accompanying pay raise, and eliminate the position of General Manager. Avila’s new position puts him in charge of the District’s Recreation Department (recently more active with the acquisition of the Community Park and the grant activity associated with the Boonville Skatepark). If the water and sewer district which are currently still in their planning phase, are approved and implemented, Avila would presumably be response for those sections of the District as well. They will also promote Battalion Chief/Training Officer Angela Dewitt to Financial Officer (Dewitt has a background in bookkeeping for a number of local organizations). Further, with the recent resignation of popular District Secretary Patty Liddy, the District has hired Caleigh Bennett as new District Secretary. Chief Avila’s promotion, contract and pay raise is on the District Board’s Wednesday agenda. The Wednesday meeting to consider the formalization of Avila’s contract and associated changes is set for 3pm at the Boonville Firehouse.

IN OTHER CSD NEWS, three at large Board seats/incumbents are up for election in November: Director Francois Christien, Director Steve Snyder (appointed), and Director/Board Chair Valerie Hanelt. All three Board seats are four year terms. We have not heard formal declarations as to whether all three will be running for re-election. We have heard that at least two locals are considering running. The filing deadline is August 9, unless one or more incumbent decides not to run (i.e., doesn’t file by the deadline or declares that they are not running), in which case the deadline is extended by one week.

(Mark Scaramella)

YORKVILLE FIRE SAFE COUNCIL IS FIRST TO COMPLETE MICRO-GRANT PROJECT

In 2022, the Mendocino Fire Safe Council funded our first set of great community-driven wildfire safety projects with our countywide Micro-Grant Program launch.

The Yorkville Fire Safe Council is proud to be the first of eighteen groups to complete their 2024 Micro-Grant project. With this funding from MCFSC and lots of volunteer labor, they successfully cleared over 600 roadside yards (totaling about 1 acre) of flammable materials along Pomo Tierra Road, a major ingress/egress route for residents of that area.

The team pruned trees near the road, cut back upper branches, and masticated or piled the felled trees. Resident volunteers will continue to maintain the remaining stretch of the road to the highway by weed-whacking and clearing accessible trees throughout the year in organized volunteer work parties.

“The extent of the clearing surpassed our expectations,” said one YFSC member. “The use of various machines (rented with Micro-Grant funds) allowed us to clear land that would have been impossible to manage on our own. The safety of this critical section of the main road, which serves homes above and below the tunnel, has been significantly improved in terms of fire danger.”

ED NOTES

THE COMMENTARIAT seems to think that Trump is a shoo-in after surviving the failed assassination attempt, that he'll get a ton of sympathy votes. I think his selection of J.D. Vance as his running mate puts Trump over big time.

I READ VANCE'S book when it came out. J.D.’s one of these guys who grew up with the wolf at the door but drew the wrong conclusions from his experience, by which I mean he basically blames the poor for being poor, and for lacking the bootstrap discipline that vaulted him outta there into the Ivy League and, probably, to the White House to preside over the final shopping sale. It doesn't occur to Vance that a system that encourages, indeed profits from, aberrant behavior might be the root of despairing behavior from people who have nothing to lose. And Vance himself says in his book it took the Marine Corps to rout him from sloth and indiscipline.

UNLIKE his boss, Vance is smart and articulate, which makes him a double menace in the Trumpian context. And he has a wife of East Indian derivation, the whole package making Vance the quality candidate the Democrats have no answer for among their weird collection of uninspiring sociopaths and bubbleheads. If Vance were the Democratic candidate he could probably beat Trump.

KAMALA HARRIS won't be able to debate this guy. Sure, she'll show up, but Vance is way too much for her, leaving Democrats with a ticket of a dead guy and a woman who was over her head even when she was a merciless, illiberal prosecutor back in San Francisco. The Democrats are over. They've been killing themselves for more than 50 years. McGovern was the last truly democratic candidate they've had, and now they're a woke joke as millions of working people go out and vote against themselves for Trump and Vance, the billionaire's dream ticket.

BEFORE CDF'S borate bombers you lived in the hills of Mendocino County at your summer-time peril. Now that there are thousands of people living in the hills, CDF's aerial fire fighting capacity is more crucial than ever to them, the hill muffins.

CDF scared hell outta the muffs years ago when the crucial agency announced that the “air attack” base at the Ukiah airport was closing and moving to Santa Rosa the better to cover a wider area and where they were easier to support and maintain. The big planes with their bombs away loads of chemical fire retardant, the helicopter with its flame dousing water basket, the advance spotter plane that guides the aerial firefighters to the blaze, were ten minutes farther away from the Hopland-Ukiah-Boonville areas, and twenty minutes farther from deep Spy Rock, Covelo, Leggett. It worked out. Despite a lotta scare talk aerial firefighting capacity has never been more effective, more efficient.

SO WHY DON'T the hill muffs tax themselves to create their own fire fighting air force? CDF said that by moving its Ukiah planes and pilots to its base in Santa Rosa it would save a lot of money. Maybe it did, but not before Mendo's neo-hill people furiously deconstructed CDF's rationales, pointing out that CDF wastes a lot of public money on non-essentials. Ho hum. Show me a public agency that doesn't squander a lot of public dough.

THAT HULLABALOO about CDF's move to Santa Rosa was really about the suburban assumptions of the thousands of well-to-do people who have set themselves up deep in the outback. Their most delusional assumption of all is that their remote aeries are entitled to instant, tax-paid fire protection. And paved subdivision roads. And cops five minutes away. And more entertainment options than are available in most of San Francisco, as Mendo Rural became Mendo Suburban.

WHEN it was only a bunch of straggly-haggly hippies living in the hills CDF's policy was Burn, Baby, Burn! Wild fires were good for the land, they said. Good science. Perfectly natural. Hell, the Indians used to do it. Hippie eradication was a wildfire side benefit. But then the hippies started buying fire insurance and their parents were building 12,000 square foot retirement homes next door, and the very idea that CDF's aerial fire attack capacity might not be instantly available caused a major uproar that came and went when there was not discernible fall-off in CDF's ability to respond to wildland fires as they always have, quickly and effectively. But now that insurance companies are cancelling fire policies everywhere on the Northcoast, it is doubly perilous to live where fifty years ago few people dared domicile.

80 YEARS AGO, as recorded by the Mendocino Beacon of January 29, 1923, “High court rules against A. Zmak and his conviction on a charge of selling liquor to minor high school boys is approved. Judge Preston imposed a fine of $500 and 4 months in jail as the sentence.”

THE OLD TRAIN STATION AT DOS RIOS

GIERINGER HONORED

by Fred Gardner

Marijuana was for sale at the California State Fair this year — a historic first that drew camerapersons from Reuters and two other news outlets. On Friday, July 12, Dale Gieringer, the longtime director of California NORML (and trusted source for your correspondent) became “the first-ever customer.”

“I got a refreshing 10mg strawberry/lemonade beverage for a little more than $9, including taxes,” Dale reported. “A good deal when you consider beer was selling for $16 a cup at the fair. I had to consume it in the exhibit's outdoor consumption lounge, which thankfully had shade and misters, since the temperature was 106º. No smoking was allowed there, but on Sunday they are opening a special on-site smoking area under a tent in a field a couple of blocks away.”

The vendor was a reputable company called Embarc.

On Sunday Dale noted that the lounge was “not bad considering it had to be located outside and you can’t carry cannabis inside, where the booths and air conditioning are. Inside you can only buy small CBD slushies, but can’t carry them out into the consumption lounge. Also, the smoking area won’t be open until tomorrow. It’s located a couple blocks away under a tent near an oak grove. Ah, freedom!”

The chap from Reuters took this picture of Dale making the historic purchase.

106º in the consumption lounge says it all. We won on marijuana but lost on global warming.

Cal NORML's indispensable Deputy Director, Ellen Komp, adds this account:

Outside the CBD-only cannabis exhibit hall at the Fair is a “cannabis oasis,” where cannabis flower and products can be purchased, and drinks and edibles can be consumed. At one end of the "oasis" fair-goers can purchase cannabis products from Embarc or, at the other end, from a group of cannabis equity companies from across the state. Customers can then walk down a path to the consumption space and enjoy their purchases with others inside a huge tent. Shade, misters, and fans provide relief from the heat in both spaces, and the exhibit space is air-conditioned.

Attendees can see the names of winning entries in various categories (Sungrown, Indoor, Mixed Light, plus edibles, topicals, pre-rolls, etc.) and use a QR code to pre-order the winners at Embarc. In no place however can customers smell or sample any cannabis before purchasing, unlike the rules for beer and wine at the fair. Indeed, booze can be purchased and consumed all over the Fair with children present, while only those 21 and over can enter the cannabis exhibit space.

Both Embarc and Ramon Garcia of the Equity Trade Network worked with officials from the state Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and the Sacramento Office of Cannabis Management to establish rules for the cannabis sales and consumption, some of which are a bit much: any opened cannabis containers must be put into a sealed child-proof package, and Fair police made it clear they would “make an example” of offenders who consumed outside allowed areas. Attendees were also not permitted to take their CBD slushies purchased inside the exhibit hall outside to the oasis or consumption lounge. The opening of the lounge, which was expected at 11 AM, was delayed until 1 PM while final inspections took place and (reportedly) flame retardant was added to the tent, where (also reportedly) CO2 scrubbers were added to scrub the air from cannabis smells.

The historic weekend drew a large crowd of enthusiasts and curious folks from across California. Many stopped at an information booth that Cal NORML shared throughout the weekend with the nascent California Cannabis Historical Society. [Longtime activist Richard Miller helped person the booth.] We hope to table at the next two weekends at the Fair.

With the exception of Friday, July 19 when the cannabis sales and consumption spaces will be closed (due to Brewfest happening that day), the spaces will be open for the duration of the Fair, which continues through July 28.

COTTAGE FOR RENT, YORKVILLE

Beautiful views, privacy and peace and quiet from this studio cottage in the hills of Yorkville.

New tile floors in the kitchen, hall and bath. Hardwood floors in the great room.

New vanity, mirrored medicine cabinet and toilet in bathroom. New deer fencing to keep dogs in and deer out.

Fruit trees and garden for your veggies.

Washer and dryer.

Off the grid.

$1200 a month.

Available Aug 5th

For more information, email Barbara Lamb at blamb@pacific.net.

ART IN THE GARDENS — 1ST WEEKEND IN AUG

31st Annual Art In The Gardens

A celebration of creative expression and blooms…

On the Mendocino Coast, the first weekend of August means dahlias and the annual summer celebration, Art in the Gardens! The two-day event will take place at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens on Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4 from 11AM to 5PM.

This community event is fun for all ages. There will be live music and more than 50 art vendors on the Event Lawn. More than a dozen local wineries and North Coast Brewing Company will be offering tastings. Art, food, wine, and craft brews will be available for purchase. Musical acts include Dirt Roosters, Mama Grows Funk, West of Nowhere, and Moon Rabbit. There will be special performances by Circus Mecca and the Latino Coalition Youth Folk Dance Group.

The 2024 Featured Artist for Art in the Gardens is Linda Shearin. Linda has been studying and creating art for more than 40 years working with various media from watercolor to acrylic and collage. She is always looking for a different way to paint a subject whether through media, abstraction, collage, or line drawing. The Featured Artwork, "Garden of Joy" by Linda Shearin conveys what it feels like when you are surrounded by all the plants, flowers, animals, insects and even weeds! The artwork will be on dispaly at the Gardens and during Art in the Gardens. For more about Linda Shearin and her work visit prenticefineart.com/collections/linda-shearin.

Advanced tickets are recommended and will allow for speedier entry. Parking is limited so please plan to carpool. Event tickets are available online — Adult tickets are $30, Juniors age 6 to 17 are $10, kids age 5 and under are free. Wine Tasting Tickets may be purchased in advance or at the event for $65 each, they include event admission, unlimited tastings, and a commemorative glass. Members of the Gardens receive $10 off all ticket rates, just one of the many benefits of membership. Proceeds from this delightful event will directly benefit the non-profit botanical garden and its mission to engage and enrich lives by displaying and conserving plants.

Don’t miss this classic summer festival; join us the first weekend of August for a celebration of creative expression at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. Check www.gardenbythesea.org/aig for ticket information and to see the full schedule of Art in the Gardens activities.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, July 15, 2024

GONZALO AGUIRRE, Hopland. DUI.

MANUEL GONZALEZ, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

KEIYARALYNN JOHNSON, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

LAMONT JONES JR. Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, county parole violation.

JENNIFER PIFER, Redwood Valley. Acquisition of access card with intent to sell, obtaining personal ID infor without authorization, stolen property.

JANINE PONCIANO, Redwood Valley. Narcotics for sale, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

BRENDA POINDEXTER, Ukiah. Probation violation.

GAYE ROSSOTTI, Fort Bragg. DUI causing bodily injury.

LEVI SKAGGS, Willits. DUI.

TENSIONS FLARE OVER THE PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO USE PRIVATELY OWNED RUSSIAN RIVER BEACHES

With its “Private Beach” signs, shoreline buoys and security guards, Hacienda Beach on the Russian River has emerged as a hot spot in a simmering conflict over the right of the public to use privately owned beaches

by Mary Callahan

Hundreds of people ― maybe thousands ― float or paddle downriver on hot weekends and summer holidays, rounding a curve toward the bridge and the privately owned beach just beyond.

There are paddleboards, kayaks, canoes and inflatables, as well as clusters of colorful, linked inner tubes that form boisterous floating parties ― all directly on course for a beach that has been long reserved for members of the 85-year-old Hacienda Improvement Association.

Rivergoers formed such a dense fleet over July Fourth that one local likened it to “a blanket of people” on the water. So it’s easy to see how association members might look upstream and perceive the oncoming mass as intruders, even if most simply pass by on their way downstream.

Hacienda homeowners understandably, want to keep the 3-acre, gravel beach to themselves.

But that’s not the law, experts and public officials say.

While the “Private Beach” signs, shoreline buoys and security guards at Hacienda Beach suggest otherwise, long-standing law and court decrees reserve the public’s right to use privately held beaches up to what’s called the “ordinary high water mark.”

And though Hacienda Beach is not the only place where conflicts occur, its size and visibility downriver from popular Steelhead and Mother’s beaches, position it for more frequent clashes between those who decide to pull off the water there and those who don’t want them.

“It’s a problem everywhere,” said David Steindorf, an advocate for public access with American Whitewater, a nonprofit conservation organization. “Anybody with a $20 ‘no trespassing’ sign becomes the law until somebody tells them they can’t.”

State Lands Commission Public Access Brochure

That somebody right now is west Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who said she’s advised the Hacienda homeowners group to revisit its position on public access after meeting with the county counsel’s office and other officials on the subject.

“I let them know,” Hopkins said, “that we had received complaints to our office about people who claim they were chased off the beach and/or not allowed to access the beach due to the buoys.”

“The buoys” are a long string of floating beads or “pearls” deployed along the upstream side of the beach setting off what the association says is a children’s swim area reaching several feet offshore. There’s a sudden drop-off beyond it that could be dangerous, one member said, and it’s hoped that the beads will alert canoeists that young people are in the water just ahead.

But a large attached buoy says, “Hacienda. Private Beach. No Canoes” ― proof, critics say, that the intent is really to keep nonmembers from coming ashore.

Residents swim outside a buoy marked with “Hacienda Private Beach No Canoes” tethering a string of buoys protecting the section of Hacienda beach on the Russian river claimed by local homeowners Friday, July 5, 2024 in Forestville. (Photo by John Burgess/The Press Democrat)

“The bulk of the area is ankle deep,” said Don McEnhill, executive director of the Russian RIverkeeper. “That’s not a swimming area. You’re just trying to break the law and prevent people from landing on the beach.”

Right to access

The right to public access is founded in both federal and state law, which, since California statehood in 1850, grants the state ownership of land underlying navigable waterways, with the mandate to maintain those waterways as “common highways.”

The state Constitution further prohibits any obstruction to the free navigation of such waters.

Though private parties have the right to own land down to the low water mark, there exists a public trust easement between the low and ordinary high water marks that gives the public the right to launch and land watercraft, as well as recreate in other ways.

“The short version,” said Steindorf, the conservationist, “is if you’re below the mean high water mark, anything that’s legal to do you can do below that level,” as long as you can get there without trespassing.

But in the case of Hacienda, the county owns an easement along the route of an old road that now provides a trail from Sunset Avenue near River Road to the beach. A second easement, which long provided access between several homes in the community, has become unusable and overgrown since flooding in 2019 washed out the steps at the bottom.

The easements put additional public demand on Hacienda Beach, despite “no trespassing signs” around the trail that Hopkins said had recently been taken down.

Someone also put bollards in the county road at one point, as well as “no parking” signs―“ one of the ballsier things I’ve ever seen someone do,” she said. They have been removed.

Still, some Hacienda members, many of them second-generation property owners, hold fast to the belief that the public has no right to their beach, beyond the shoreline and the time needed to put a watercraft in the water and take it out.

They pay taxes and insurance fees for the beach and membership fees to use it, and fear exposure to liability if others use it too.

The river, said Pam Rianda, a beach committee member, “is a highway, and it (the beach) is the shoulder, and people have the right to stop there. But they don’t have the right to park there all day.“

You can’t bring your barbecue and your ice chest full of beers and your 12 kids,” said another member, Kathy Yerger.

Vice President Brian Andriola said some members did meet to discuss access a few days ago but said the association had nothing to announce beyond underscoring its commitment to maintain public access to the river.

Andriola, speaking for himself, said he’s interested in ensuring all the facts are fully understood and the association’s position is legally supported, while reducing some of the conflict and “negative hostility” that’s flared up.

But it would be difficult dealing with some of the intoxicated, volatile people who want to come to the beach. Some leave trash. Others start fires.

“We’re trying to wrangle a lot here,” he said.

The issue is a complex one, owing in part to the elusive “ordinary high water mark” that designates how high up on shore a member of the public can go.

Rivers rise and fall. Their banks shift. So it’s considered an “ambulatory” boundary that can only be established segment-by-segment, based on hydrologic history, surveys and legal analysis by the California State Lands Commission, which holds sole jurisdiction and has not set a high water mark for Hacienda.

“(Water) boundary law is complicated and fact-intensive,” as well as site-specific, the commission’s chief of external affairs said in an email.

It’s also rarely established in any formal sense.

Many people use the vegetation line as a stand-in for a legally documented boundary―a practical approach, if imperfect, Steindorf said.

“If you’re on a river and you see an area that’s near the river that’s not vegetated, that’s a pretty safe bet that you’re within the high water mark, because things don’t grow when they get scoured,” he said.

“We generally say,” McEnhill said, “on a low sloping beach that’s less than two to three percent grade, you are almost assured the first 35 feet from the water line is publicly accessible.”

“I’m one of those people who tries to be a good neighbor,” McEnhill said. “If it’s their property, although I have a right to walk over and sit on it, I try to be a reasonable person. I would park myself right on the water line and call it good.”

Obligation to act responsibly

Public access advocates say those who want to enjoy the privilege have an obligation to act responsibly, however, including respecting the homes and properties of residents.

Neighbors of certain publicly owned beaches have long dealt with discarded trash and a range of ugly behaviors that include drunken visitors passing out, vomiting, urinating and defecating on neighborhood streets.

Over Fourth of July, people even cut through fence locks and traipsed through vineyards to get to areas of the upper Russian River, then left an enormous mess when they were done, McEnhill said.

“The reason a lot of people don’t want the public on the beach is those people who just totally disrespect the river, disrespect people’s property rights,” McEnhill said. “I sympathize with why they don’t want the general public on their beaches because, unfortunatel,y a lot of the general public don’t behave well, and that’s not OK.”

The Hacienda Homeowners Improvement Association, created in 1939 to help govern homeowners around the defunct Hacienda Del Rio Golf and Country Club, actually acquired ownership of the beach in 1969 in part to ensure it was protected from such crowds.

Retired San Jose Deputy City Attorney Bill Clark, whose late wife inherited a home there in 1955, said homeowners already had the deeded right to use the beach but were eager to have more control over what had become “a hell hole” used by Hells Angels and other unruly actors.

Clark’s “real concern” now, he said, “is that if we’re not careful, the public can take over the beach.”

He said he’s read all the case law associated with the issue, and he disputed assertions the association is obligated to provide more than very limited access along the shoreline, saying the high water mark is maybe three feet from the water. Any other interpretation is a misunderstanding, he contends.

He said trespassers could be removed, “though we rarely, if ever, have done that.”

The association, he wrote in a letter to The Press Democrat, sent on behalf of several association leaders, “allows the public use of the bank edge for emergencies and recreational river activities of a temporary nature.”

Letter from Hacienda Improvement Association

But several river users say they’ve encountered aggressive pushback when landing on the beach.

“Numerous times, we’ve just been accosted by the security guard, had the sheriff’s office called on us and basically just been intimidated out of the area,” said Guerneville resident Daniel Cicchetto, who often canoes through the area and likes to meet friends at Hacienda Beach, near their home.

John Wang of Santa Rosa similarly described occasions on which “there have been really aggressive security guards that are kind of like club bouncers in their attitude.” He cited an episode when he was floating to Sunset Beach, a county beach just downstream, and pulled over at Hacienda to make sure he hadn’t missed his destination, only to have people yell at him to stay away from the private beach.

Wang said he frequently visits the river and for years has hosted an annual July Fourth float, sometimes for dozens of friends. He said he was gratified when he stopped on the beach a few weeks ago and found the guard far more approachable and respectful than in earlier years.

Rianda said the association has “never violently removed someone from the beach.”

But she agreed there had been tense moments.

Andriola described an incident a year or two ago when someone plowed through the buoy line into the swim area to make a point about public access, which did little besides anger and agitate members.

“There has been a real groundswell of dangerous hostility that has come off the beach that endangers the welfare of everybody involved,” he said.

“It is ironic,” Rianda said, “because property owners think they have all the rights, and the public thinks they have all the rights.”

Recently, however, the association has allowed members of the public to use a small section of beach downriver of a line of cones extending across the beach from the easement trail.

During a recent visit to the beach, several visitors interviewed expressed contentment with the arrangement, including a large family group that was allowed to stay on the wrong side of the boundary “today only,” because those who arrived first already had gotten set up for the day and an infant was asleep before someone informed them of the restrictions.

“At least they took the time to explain,” said another visitor, Joe Simmons, of Santa Rosa.

Others view the proliferation of “no trespassing” signs and buoy lines at beaches along the river, large and small, as a move in the wrong direction and a reason to call out those trying to limit public access.

Even the small beach across the river from Hacianda has a buoy string.

“It’s rampant along the lower Russian River,” said Cichetto, including at beaches of other homeowner groups like Summerhome Park, which he says has its own patrols.

“Ultimately, we need to achieve consistency,” Hopkins said.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

Old West at the Exchange Saloon in Helena, Montana, was never truly ordinary. It was a place where the complexities of frontier life played out daily, where every patron had a story, and where the essence of a rapidly evolving America was distilled into each glass of whiskey served. The Exchange Saloon remains a vivid reminder of the enduring allure and rugged charm of the Old West.

MUST INVESTIGATE

What took place in Butler, PA last Saturday began a long time ago, yet only a milli-second in our nation's history. Our current plethora of assault style weapons has resulted from a complex set of causes too complicated to discuss in less than 200 words. The point is a scant inch or two in a crazied shooter's bullet's pat kept us from witnessing another tragic assassination of a major political leader. The tragedy was three innocent persons were hit, one of whom died; two others gravely injured.

While the Secret Service members on the stage acted bravely, as they always do, the fact is they failed to adequately prepare for this important rally, The lone shooter, alone on a rooftop only about 150 yards from candidate Donald J. Trump, should have been seen, disarmed and arrested by agents who failed to protect the former president.

Usually doesn't the Secret Service station men in key positions, like on rooftops, before significant political events like this one? Whomever it is who failed to do their duties deserves to be found and either disciplined, put on desk duty, or fired. Of course, not for me to say, but an investigation must be done. And soon,

Frank H, Baumgardner, III, Santa Rosa

TRUMP AS CURE-ALL

Editor,

When Joe Biden ran for president in 2020, I understood the implication to be that he would be a one-term officeholder due to his age. I think his wife, First Lady Jill Biden is to blame for his interest in running again. From what I’ve heard, she has been the one promoting the charade that Biden is still on top of his game with a bundle of energy.

Viewers of last month’s televised debate noted otherwise. Although I dislike Biden immensely, for a few fleeting moments, I felt sympathy as he grasped for coherence. It was more than just a “bad night.” I don’t think Biden is up to the immense job of continuing as president for another four years (or even for seven more months).

Donald Trump should be our next president, regardless of whom the Democrats choose to replace Biden on the ticket (if that happens). Trump’s tax cuts are due to expire next year. Contrary to what Biden says, they do not just benefit the wealthy. In a recent interview, Eric Toder, a fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute said, “The Trump cuts on average lowered taxes for most households, including on average those earning less than $75,000.” These tax cuts need to be continued even if slightly modified.

Unlike our other recent presidents, Trump is proactive. He dictates to our foreign adversaries and friends what our policies are and they know he means it. I suspect the war in Ukraine will likely end within a couple of months of his inauguration.

If Trump is reelected, I suspect we won’t have any more energy crises, oil shortages or price increases. The elitist Democratic Party is now the party of Wall Street, some segments of Big Tech, Hollywood and, yes, Marin County.

Henry Burgin

San Rafael

HOW TO FIX SOME OF CALIFORNIA'S RECENT INEXPLICABLE ELECTRICITY FEE CHANGES

How do we lower rates for electric vehicles and heat pumps in a manner that treats all residential customers equally? There's an easy four-step answer.

by Philip Quadrini

The California Public Utilities Commission recently approved a fixed monthly fee of $24.15 that will be added to most electric bills, coupled with a 10% reduction in electric rates. It was enacted out of fear that California’s exorbitantly high electric rates would make customers less likely to purchase an electric vehicle or heat pump. However, the $24.15 fixed monthly fee is a very blunt instrument. In an attempt to fix one problem, it creates another: Lower-income customers who use less electricity will pay more while higher-income high-volume users will pay less.

Fortunately, electric rates can be redesigned to do the opposite while significantly lowering the cost to charge an electric vehicle or power a heat pump — all without the $24.15 fixed monthly fee.

How can I say this?

I designed PG&E’s residential electric rates for a quarter century, from 1994 to 2018, first as a senior rates analyst and later as a regulatory analyst. This included testifying multiple times before the California Public Utilities Commission on electric rate matters concerning the residential and small commercial classes. I designed California’s first electric vehicle rate in 1995 and its first battery storage rate in 2018.

PG&E has about 800,000 small-use residential customers with modest incomes — many are seniors — who mostly live alone in small apartments. Because they are not poor enough to qualify as low-income, their electric bills will jump by 20% to cover the $24.15 fixed monthly fee. Those with the highest incomes and highest electric usage, the 5% of customers who use 3½ times the average, will see their bills drop 7%. In dollar terms, this will be a $16 per month increase for customers who use the least power and a $55 per month decrease for the highest-use and wealthiest customers — without requiring they purchase an electric vehicle or heat pump.

That makes no sense.

Fixing this is actually quite easy. But it requires a basic understanding of how residential rates are designed.

California has a two-tiered residential rate structure that ensures that an individual with a modest income and housing can purchase, at the discounted Tier 1 rate, the minimum amount of gas and electricity necessary to live. These minimum amounts are called “baseline allowances.” State law generally sets them at 50% to 60% of average electric consumption and 60% to 70% of average winter gas consumption. The state has also established climate zones so those living in extreme climates, such as Bakersfield, receive higher baseline allowances than those living in mild climates, such as San Francisco. The Tier 1 (baseline) rate is set 25% below the Tier 2 rate and applies to about 55% of total electric usage within each climate zone. Redesigning these rates to lower most customers’ bills can be done. Here’s how:

Lower the current Tier 1 rate by 10%, the same level under the newly adopted fixed monthly fee.
Increase the percentage of total residential usage eligible for the discounted Tier 1 rate from 55% to 80%. As a result, more than 80% of customers would see most, or all, of their Tier 2 usage converted into Tier 1 usage and charged the lower rate. Their average bills would drop about 11%.
Raise the Tier 2 rate to make up for revenue lost in Steps 1 and 2. Consequently, the 5% of customers who are the highest users would see bill increases ranging from 10% to 35%.
Require that all residential rate schedules be tiered. Currently, two un-tiered electric vehicle rates provide large discounts to high users for their entire usage, not just for charging their electric vehicles. Incentives to charge an electric vehicle at home should be the same for everyone.

This brings us to the original issue. How do we lower rates for electric vehicles and heat pumps in a manner that treats all residential customers equally, without resorting to a $24.15 fixed monthly fee? Again, this is quite easy.

The average electric vehicle uses 300 kWh to travel 1,000 miles per month, or about 250 kWh for a plug-in hybrid and 350 kW for an all-electric vehicle. The solution then is to increase a household’s total baseline allowance by 250 kWh or 350 kW per month for each electric vehicle. This is already done for customers with qualified medical conditions, who typically receive an extra 500 kWh per month in baseline allowances. The same could also be done for customers with heat pumps for space heating and water heating. The result would be that all customers pay the same low rates for their electric vehicles or heat pumps regardless of their income or other usage.

These solutions might sound complicated, but they are not. I would be happy to explain it to the California Public Utilities Commission and the state Legislature if they'll have me.

(Philip Quadrini analyzed, designed and managed energy-efficiency programs as a 25-year PG&E employee before moving on to electric regulation. He lives in Sausalito.)

HOW MUCH WATER SHOULD YOU DRINK?

Your water needs change as you age, and can also depend on your exercise habits and even where you live.

by Melinda Wenner Moyer

How Much Water Does The Average Person Really Need To Drink? And Is There Such A Thing As Too Much?

If you’re not sipping from a 64-ounce Stanley cup all day, are you even alive? Hydration is once again having a moment — TikTok videos with the #watertok hashtag now have over one billion views.

Whether you’re drinking from a trendy tumbler or a plain old glass, there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to how much water you should drink in a day. The closest thing the United States has to a water consumption recommendation comes from the National Academy of Medicine, which, in 2004, reported that healthy men usually stay adequately hydrated when they drink at least three liters (nearly 13 cups) of water per day, and that women are typically hydrated when they drink at least 2.2 liters (just over nine cups) per day, not including the water they consume via food.

But these guidelines should not be taken as gospel, experts said.

“Most people, even if they stay below that recommendation, will be just fine,” said Dr. Siddharth P. Shah, a nephrologist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in hydration and electrolyte balance.

When Should I Drink Water, And How Much?

Water is, of course, crucial for our survival. It helps us eliminate waste, maintain blood pressure, regulate body temperature and more.

Some people need more water than others. People who are especially active — who have physically demanding jobs or who exercise a lot — lose more water through sweat and will need to compensate by drinking additional water, said Dr. George Chiampas, an emergency medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine and the chief medical officer for the U.S. Soccer Federation.

People may also need to drink more if they live in hot climates, have larger bodies or lots of muscle mass, have loose stools, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have had kidney stones or recurrent urinary tract infections, experts said.

Over the course of life, a person’s water needs change, too. Typically, with age, people lose muscle and gain fat, Dr. Shah said. Because fat contains less water than muscle, people generally need to consume less water with age to maintain healthy tissues.

Yet some older adults still do not consume as much water as they need, Dr. Shah said, because the bodies of older people — particularly, research suggests those over the age of 60 — are not as good at detecting thirst. The level of dehydration “that would make you thirsty at the age of 40 might not make you as thirsty at the age of 80,” he explained.

If you do feel thirsty, you’re probably dehydrated and should drink water, said Dr. Alysia Robichau, a family and sports medicine physician at Houston Methodist.

There can be more subtle signs of dehydration, too, such as feeling constantly cold or having dry skin, Dr. Robichau said. People who are acutely or chronically dehydrated may also have headaches or dry eyes, she added.

Because people go without water while they sleep, “most people wake up and they’re already dehydrated,” Dr. Chiampas said. It’s generally a good idea, he said, to start the day with a glass.

It’s perfectly fine to add flavorings to your water or to drink carbonated water, Dr. Robichau said — but she warned that coffee and other caffeinated beverages may not be as hydrating as uncaffeinated drinks. Drinking a caffeinated beverage, especially if you don’t drink them regularly, can reduce the ability of the kidneys to absorb water, leading you to lose additional water through urine. Alcoholic beverages are dehydrating, too.

Keep in mind that you can also get water from food. Some fruits and vegetables, such as watermelon and celery, are mostly water, Dr. Shah said. The National Academy of Medicine estimated that people get, on average, 20 percent of their water through food.

Most people are unlikely to drink too much water, but it is possible, especially among endurance athletes who drink lots of water quickly, Dr. Chiampas said. Doing so can disrupt the body’s balance of sodium and potassium and lead to potentially fatal water intoxication.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises not to drink more than 48 ounces of water per hour. Keep in mind, too, that there is probably no health benefit to guzzling tons of water.

“There are a lot of excessively large water bottles being carried around by people these days,” Dr. Shah said. “But the overwhelming majority of people do not need to drink an excess of water.”

(NY Times)

BIDEN ORDERS SECRET SERVICE TO PROTECT RFK JR. AFTER ATTEMPT ON TRUMP'S LIFE

by Zeke Miller and Colleen Long

President Joe Biden has directed the U.S. Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Homeland Security secretary said Monday.

Kennedy is a longshot to win Electoral College votes, much less the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message. His campaign has been urging the president to provide him with Secret Service protection for months, and has sent multiple requests after various incidents.

In October, a man was arrested after trespassing twice in one day at Kennedy’s Los Angeles home, and a month earlier, an armed man accused of impersonating a federal officer was taken into custody outside a Kennedy campaign event.

Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and his father, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated.

“Thank you, President Biden, for extending me Secret Service protection," Kennedy said in a statement. He also thanked his private security firm, Gavin de Becker & Associates, “for keeping me safe for the past 15 months of my presidential campaign.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Biden had directed the protection for Kennedy “both prior to and after the events of this past weekend."

The Secret Service is legally required to protect major party presidential and vice presidential candidates and their families 120 days out from a general election, but third-party candidates are treated on an as-needed basis. Kennedy, who has paid millions for private security, said the cost limited his ability to campaign.

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in its 2024 budget overview that recent requests for candidate protection were coming in earlier than in the past.

Threats to political candidates are common, but law enforcement officials have said that there has been an uptick in violent rhetoric since the weekend attack at the Trump rally. Mayorkas said both Biden and Trump are “constantly the subject of threats.”

“We are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment,” he said.

Kennedy met with Trump Monday “to discuss national unity,” Kennedy spokesperson Stefanie Spear said. He also hopes to meet with Democratic leaders, she said, adding he is not dropping out of the race.

With a famous name and a loyal base, Kennedy has the potential to do better than any third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot in the 1990s. But he didn't participate in the first presidential debate on June 27. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns, who fear he could be a spoiler, bypassed the nonpartisan debate commission and agreed to a schedule that essentially left out Kennedy.

Kennedy, who last year challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination before launching an independent bid, has argued that his relatively strong showing in a few national polls gives his candidacy heft. Polls during the 2016 presidential campaign regularly put libertarian Gary Johnson’s support in the high single or low double digits, but he ultimately received only about 3% of the vote nationwide.

Trump became the official Republican presidential nominee on Monday after receiving the votes of enough delegates at the Republican National Convention. He was not seriously injured in the shooting over the weekend in Pennsylvania. There is an independent review of the attack.

Mayorkas said Trump's protection has been enhanced based on the “evolving nature of the threats to the former president" and his shift from presumptive nominee to nominee.

(AP)

Joe Bonanno was a controversial character but there is no doubt his story is interesting. Born in 1905 in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, he immigrated to New York City with his family and lived there for about 10 years before he moved back to Italy. He eventually went back to the United States in 1924 but was steeped in Sicilian traditions and was always reluctant to associate with non-Sicilians.

In his 1983 autobiography 'A Man of Honor' he talks about the differences between himself and Charlie 'Lucky' Luciano.

"Luciano was iconoclastic also in that he had no qualms about working with non-Sicilians. He had in his coterie Jews such as Meyer Lansky, Louis Lepke and Bugsy Siegel, and non-Sicilian Italians such as Frank Costello, Vito Genovese and Albert Anastasia. Men of my Tradition were always loath to associate with non-Sicilians.

The reason for this was not bigotry but common sense. They knew that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to pass on a tradition unless one is exposed to it almost from the cradle. A tradition is not something that one learns overnight. It is the work of a lifetime. Even southern Italians, from the Naples region or from Calabria, who otherwise have much in common with Sicilians, cannot fully appreciate the old Tradition of Sicily.

For example, southern Italy has in the past given rise to such groups as the Camorra and the Black Hand. These non-Sicilian groups were orders formed to accommodate the interests of thugs, highwaymen and extortionists. It is a grave mistake to identify these groups as being the same as the "Families" of my Sicilian Tradition. Americans, as well as southern Italians, have often made this mistake. Camorra and the Black Hand never existed in Sicily. They have nothing to do with what Americans refer to as "the Mafia."

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Speaking of Amazon, and Bezos, (who was raised by a Cuban “refugee”, so is probably Catholic or a reasonable facsimile), he is a multi-billionaire who makes his money on the forklift drivers who do the actual work.

There was a tornado around here that wiped out an Amazon warehouse, and a worker talked about it the next day on Facebook. I saved it so that people can know how lousy they are treated.

“I’m on the phone with Amazon ERC and they’re telling me I’ll be marked as a missed shift even though the state police just told me to go home. Then he got the nerve to get smart with me and say if I want the points removed, I need to go back to the site and speak to HR. There is no HR or management office…. It’s buried and the building is surrounded by emergency management and cops. All I know is they better pay me and relocate us to DLI5 or something. The whole weird thing is all week building maintenance and different crews have been in there watching us doing inspections on the equipment and started hiring for the safety committee yesterday…

The “tornado safe” areas aren’t there anymore. My manager said she’s waiting to hear from upper management about if they’re going to transfer us out or terminate us. Nothing is in our employee app and no one has said anything to us from DLI4. My friend works across the street and they told her to come in. She was there then they sent them home stating business will resume tomorrow. They’re currently towing cars from DLI4 to STL4 where my friend works. As of right now I’m still marked as a no show for last night and scheduled for tonight. For a company that has all these policies and high standards for us….they clearly don’t have anything for this.”

TUESDAY'S LEAD STORIES, NYT

YOU’LL SEE HIM IN YOUR NIGHTMARES,

you’ll see him in your dreams

He’ll appear out of nowhere but

he ain’t what he seems

You’ll see him in your head,

on the TV screen

And hey buddy, I’m warning

you to turn it off

He’s a ghost, he’s a god,

he’s a man, he’s a guru

You’re one microscopic cog

in his catastrophic plan

Designed and directed by

his red right hand

— Nick Cave, excerpt from ‘Red Right Hand’

JUDGE DISMISSES TRUMP’S CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE

A judge on Monday dismissed the federal indictment against former president Donald Trump on charges of mishandling classified documents — his second seismic legal victory in less than a month, after a historic Supreme Court decision on immunity.…

washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/07/15/trump-classified-trial-dismisssed-cannon

WHO IS JD VANCE? THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT DONALD TRUMP'S PICK FOR VICE PRESIDENT

Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance is a 39-year-old Republican now in his first term in the Senate

by Julie Carr Smyth

Former President Donald Trump on Monday chose U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio to be his running mate as he looks to return to the White House.

Here are some things to know about Vance, a 39-year-old Republican now in his first term in the Senate:

Vance was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio. He joined the Marines and served in Iraq, and later earned degrees from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He also worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

Vance made a name for himself with his memoir, the 2016 bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy," which was published as Trump was first running for president. The book earned Vance a reputation as someone who could help explain the maverick New York businessman’s appeal in middle America, and especially among the working class, rural white voters who helped Trump win the presidency.

“Hillbilly Elegy” also introduced Vance to the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. loved the book and knew of Vance when he went to launch his political career. The two hit it off and have remained friends.

After Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Vance returned to his native Ohio and set up an anti-opioid charity. He also took to the lecture circuit and was a favored guest at Republican Lincoln Day dinners where his personal story — including the hardship Vance endured because of his mother’s drug addiction — resonated.

Vance's appearances were opportunities to sell his ideas for fixing the country and helped lay the groundwork for entering politics in 2021, when he sought the Senate seat vacated by Republican Rob Portman, who retired.

Trump endorsed Vance. Vance went on to win a crowded Republican primary and the general election.

Vance was a “never Trump” Republican in 2016. He called Trump “dangerous” and “unfit” for office. Vance, whose wife, lawyer Usha Chilukuri Vance, is Indian-American and the mother of their three children, also criticized Trump’s racist rhetoric, saying he could be “America’s Hitler.”

But by the time Vance met Trump in 2021, he had reversed his opinion, citing Trump’s accomplishments as president. Both men downplayed Vance's past scathing criticism.

Once elected, Vance became a fierce Trump ally on Capitol Hill, unceasingly defending Trump’s policies and behavior.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, called Vance a leading voice for the conservative movement, on key issues including a shift away from interventionist foreign policy, free market economics and “American culture writ large.”

Democrats call him an extremist, citing provocative positions Vance has taken but sometimes later amended. Vance signaled support for a national 15-week abortion ban during his Senate run, for instance, then softened that stance once Ohio voters overwhelmingly backed a 2023 abortion rights amendment.

On the 2020 election, he said he wouldn't have certified the results immediately if he had been vice president and that Trump had “a very legitimate grievance.” He has put conditions on honoring the results of the 2024 election that echo Trump's. A litany of government and outside investigations have not found any election fraud that could have swung the outcome of Trump's 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

In the Senate, Vance sometimes embraces bipartisanship. He and Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown co-sponsored a railway safety bill following a fiery train derailment in the Ohio village of East Palestine. He's sponsored legislation extending and increasing funding for Great Lakes restoration, and supported bipartisan legislation boosting workers and families.

People familiar with the vice presidential vetting process said Vance would bring to the GOP ticket debating skills, fundraising prowess and the ability to articulate Trump’s vision.

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA, said Vance compellingly articulates the America First world view and could help Trump in states he closely lost in 2020, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, that share Ohio’s values, demographics and economy.

(AP)

BIG BOY BIDEN IN HIS OWN WORDS

by Jeffrey St. Clair

Biden held his first press conference in a year last Thursday. His staff had promoted the event all week as a “Big Boy” press conference which would demonstrate to NATO leaders and the American public that his inept performance during his debate against Trump two weeks ago that so terrified the Democratic donor class was merely an aberration and that the President still had the mojo to run the Empire.

Things didn’t start off well. In a public event earlier in the afternoon meant to show NATO solidarity (Hungary, excepted) on Ukraine, Biden introduced Zelenskyy as “President Putin,” causing the crowd to gasp. Biden paused, a befuddled look on his face. People in the room shouted: “Zelenskyy.” He finally realized his blunder, walked back to the podium, then said, “President Putin? He’s gonna beat President Putin. President Zelenskyy! I’m so focused on beating Putin, we’ve got to worry about it. Anyway…”

Then the much-heralded early evening press conference was delayed for an hour and a half. When Biden finally strode stiffly to the podium, he immediately began coughing. Though freshly tanned, Biden seemed frail to me, his voice raspy, low and uneven in pitch and tone. He didn’t have moments of aphasia, where he stared with his mouth agape into some foggy middle distance this time. But his answers to some relatively easy questions from a handful of staff-picked reporters were fractured, meandering and often simply trailed off into silence, as if he’d lost his train of thought.

Thus I was a little surprised when that doyenne of liberal pundits Rachel Maddow called Biden’s performance a master class in foreign policy: “President Biden showed a startlingly impressive command of the issues at his press conference. He is not only strong on foreign policy, he is just fundamentally right on foreign policy in the way that he talks about it. It just shows you he is a master of the foreign policy field and has been for decades in his career.”This assessment was soon followed by her MSDNC colleague Lawrence O’Donnell’s assertion that Biden had delivered: The most masterful televised presidential press conference about foreign policy…This is as good as it gets with an American president.” WH deputy press secretary Andrew Bates was even more giddy: “To answer the question on everyone’s minds: No, Joe Biden does not have a doctorate in foreign affairs. He’s just that fucking good.”

After hearing these encomia, I had to check myself. This is Joe Biden they’re talking about, right? The same Joe Biden who voted for the Iraq War, the most disastrous foreign policy debacle in US history? The same Joe Biden who backed the overthrow of Qaddafi, turning Libya into an anarchic war zone dominated by slave trading gangs? The same Joe Biden who provoked and now refuses to seek an end to a bloody, stalemated war in Ukraine? The same Joe Biden who has continued Trump’s Cuban embargo and tariffs on China? The same Biden who has spent the last 3.5 years pandering to the bone-sawing Saudi regime he called a “pariah” state during his 2020 campaign? The same Biden who refused to renegotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran? The same Biden who has armed a genocide in Gaza that may end up claiming over 200,000 Palestinian lives? The same Biden who could barely string together two complete sentences a couple of weeks ago?

An unlikely transformation, IMHO.

So I went to the White House transcript of the press conference to see if I’d somehow misinterpreted the performance of a master statesman, our American Tallyrand.

I warn you, it is not an easy read. In fact, Biden’s answers reminded me of some of Samuel Beckett’s later works exploring the thought patterns of a decaying mind, such as Malone Dies, How It Is and Company. To spare you the trauma and tedium of reading the whole debilitated discourse, I’ve culled some typical passages so you can judge for yourself whether Biden is a modern Metternich or more like Reagan in his dotage, chattering away with Nancy over a TV dinner about how he filmed the liberation of the Nazi death camps at Ohrdruf and Buchenwald…

+++

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president. So, let’s start there. Number one.”

“And the mo- — the Putin piece, I was talking about Putin, and I said, “And now” — at the very end, I said, “Here” — I mean, “Putin.” And I said, “Oh, no. I’m sorry, Zelenskyy.” And then I — I added five other names.”

“Working-class people still have — need help. Corporate greed is still at large. There are — prices — the corporate profits have doubled since the pandemic. They’re coming down.” “Look, folks, this is a — Well, anyway. I —”

“And, by the way, I come from the corporate state of the world. Delaware has more corporations than an- — you know, registered in Delaware than every other state in the — in the nation combined.”

“And, by the way, I know — remember how I got so roundly criticized for being so pro-union — not labor — union — union? “And so, what — what did I do? I was told not to go over to Europe — I mean, to Asia — including Europe, but Asia.

“The first thing about Zelenskyy asking for the ability to strike deep into Russia: We have allowed Zelenskyy to use American weapons in the near-term, in the near-abroad into Russia. Whether or not he has — we should be — he should be attacked — “

“Our military is worki- — I’m following the advice of my commander in chief — my — my — of the — the chief of staff of the military as well as the secretary of Defense and our intelligence people. And we’re making a day-to-day basis on what they should and shouldn’t g- —…”

“And about four weeks later, I got a call — that — that’s not true — probably five months later — from the president Finland, could he come and see me. Becau- — in my office, I had — I invited him to the Oval Office.”

“And you heard — I think you hear- — maybe — I can’t recall if he said it publicly or in our — in a closed meeting, but he wouldn’t mind it being repeated.”

“We’re in a situation where when — and we’ve reestablished direct contact with China after that — remember the “balloon,” quote, unquote, going down and, all of a sudden, the thing came to an end?”

“In the last administration and other administrations, where the access to that market was enticive [sic] enough to get companies to come in because they had access to over a billion people in the mar- — a — a market — not a billion, but a lot of people in the market.”

“In terms of being able to help their economy as well as — as well as help them in — as a consequence that their ability to fight in — in — in Ukraine.”

“We’re going to be in a position where the West is going to become the industrial base for it to be able to buil- — the — the ability to have all the defensive weapons that we need.”

“But what they do have control of is they are very good at controlling and running the — the public outcry that relates to how they use mechanisms to communicate with people.”

“I recommend — I know you know this because you’ve — you’ve written about it — read Putin’s speech after they moved in. What it was all about — in Kyiv — it wasn’t about just — anyway, read what his objective is.”

“We — you know, we just put together with — today, we — we had — we — I brought on — I asked the — our NATO Allies that we bring on the group from the South Pacific: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Australia — I — I already mentioned Australia.”

“The Israeli War Cabinet I’ve been — I’ve been de- — dealing with Israel since Golda Meir. I — some — some of the reporters around here who cover me all the time have heard me say this: The last — first time I met with Golda Meir, I sat ne- — across from her and her desk

“Once we got bin Laden, we should have moved on because it was not in our — no one is ever going to unite it — unite that country. I’ve been over every inch of that — not every inch — of the entirety, from the poppy fields, all the way to the north.”

“But we’re — remember what happened when — when you had the attack on Israel from — with rockets and — and intercom- — and ballistic missiles?”

“It’s time to end this war. It doesn’t mean walk away from going after Sinwar and Hamas.”

“I just have to keep ma- — moving to make sure that we get as much done as we can toward a ceasefire — a ceasefire — and get those — And, by the way, look — look at the numbers in — in Israel. I mean, I — I — my numbers are better in Israel than they are here.”

“I want to finish it — to get that finished. If tomorrow — if — if you — if we had a circumstance wherev- — the — there was a lineup, and I didn’t — hadn’t inherited what I did and we just moved things along — anyway, it’s — it’s going to change.”

“I’m determined on running, but I think it’s important that I reali- — I allay fears by seeing — let them see me out there. Let me see them out — you know, for the longest time it was, you know, “Biden is not prepared to sit with us unscripted. Biden is not prepared to” — you know, anyway.”

“We have headquarters — I forget exactly how many. I don’t want to n- — cite a number and then find out I’m off. But we have scores of headquarters in all — in all the — the — the toss-up states. We’re organized. We’re moving.”

“I’m going to be going down to the Johnson Library on — to — anyway, I’m going to be going around making the case of things that I think we have to finish and how we can’t afford to lose what we’ve done or backslide on civil rights, civil liberties, women’s rights. The — that little button we have: “Control guns, not girls.””

“And, by the way — I’ll end this — well, I — well, I’m going — not going to do that. Haley has — has to come up too.”

” I’ve taken three significant and in- — intense neurological exams by the neurolo- — by our neurosur- — a neurologist. In each case — as recently as February, and they say I’m in good shape. Okay?”

“Although I do have a little problem with my left foot because it’s not as sensitive, because I broke my foot and didn’t wear the boot. But — but I’m — I’m good. “

“The point I’m making is: I think it’s important that I — if — if my — if the neurologist tells me he thinks I need another exam — and, by the way, I’ve — I’ve laid every bit of the record out. I haven’t done — hadn’t hidde- — hadn’t hidden — hidden a thing.”

“I get overwhelming support. Overwhelming support. I won how — I forget how many votes I won in the primary. The overwhelming —”

“And so, tomorrow, if all of a sudden, I show up at a convention and everybody says, “We want somebody else,” that’s the democratic process. It’s not going to happen.”

“In my state of Delaware, which was a very — at least a purp- — it wa- — it was a red state when I started, in terms of where you now talk “red and blue.””

“I — I don’t recall most of the Democratic presidents winning my state when I was a candidate.”

Q. “Sir, respectfully, earlier you misspoke in your opening answer. You referred to Vice President Harris as “Vice President Trump.” Right now, Donald Trump is using that to mock your age and your memory. How do you combat that criticism from tonight?”

THE PRESIDENT: “Listen to him."

(counterpunch.org)

Jimmy Carter and Rosalyn Smith married in Plains, GA (1946)

SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEM

by James Kunstler

“Trump is brushing off assassin’s bullets like dirt off his shoulder, racking up a mile long rap sheet of the fakest & gayest felonies known to man, chased through civil court by crazy-eyed harridans deranged by how horny he makes them. Joe Biden has jello for supper at 4pm.” — Aimee Terese on “X”

Dear Hitler, “Joe Biden” wrote his personal note of condolence Saturday night. So sorry to hear that you were inconvenienced by loud noises in PA, where I grew up in the black church. Chris Wray tells me that fine people may be behind it. Will keep you in the loop. Get well soon!

Here’s some more consolation: The New York Times reports this morning that the FBI is looking into the attempt on Mr. Trump’s life as “possible domestic terrorism.” One must ask: are they trying to shed new light on this event, or just blowing more smoke up America’s ass — because that has been the FBI’s specialty for at least the past eight years. We’ll know if they take the definitive step of labeling the act a “hate crime.”

The weakness of narrative-tweaking is beginning to show. The amazing part is that only the elite thinking class of Americans fell for it, exactly the demographic that hangs on every word in The New York Times. The Deplorables out there in Flyoverland delivering Froot Loops to the Piggly-Wiggly and driving fork-lifts around the Amazon warehouse apparently never bought the narrative bullshit generated by the Media-Blob Industrial Complex. You’d hate to suppose that thinking is overrated. Or is it just a certain kind of thinking?

Try as you might to locate some malign, overweening, scheming cabal behind all the trips laid on our country, the truth is probably much simpler: set out on a journey defined by one lie, and then tell a lie to cover the first lie, and then another, and pretty soon you’re lying all over the place about everything until reality gets obliterated. This is exactly what started in 2016 when Hillary Clinton sought to cover up her email and private server scandal with the Russia collusion hoax.

Have you forgotten how entrenched the FBI, CIA, and other agencies dug themselves in on that? It began as dumb-ass insinuation that Donald Trump was a Russian agent, but the FBI turned itself into fantasy factory when they ran with the story. They manufactured one sub-plot after another, most of it comically absurd, like the entrapment of General Flynn for having a conversation with the Russian ambassador — as if foreign countries send ambassadors here for some other purpose than communicating with our government officials. Tell me, you Harvard grads who devour The New York Times every morning with your turmeric and wheat-grass detox smoothies: should an incoming White House National Security Advisor not speak with envoys from other lands?

So, following the election of 2016, scores of government officials from Barack Obama and Joe Biden on down set out to wreck Mr. Trump’s turn in office, and ran one hoax after another to disable and dislodge him, and each hoax was a battery of lies begetting more lies. The style of thinking behind all that is called unprincipled. Many of these lies entailed crimes, some of them gigantic frauds perpetrated on the citizenry such as the ballot-stuffing operation that jammed “Joe Biden” into office — and which you were not permitted to speak of on penalty of cancellation and prosecution.

By 2020, “Joe Biden” had racked up enough bribes from foreign lands that he was susceptible to blackmail and thus to manipulation. That his mind was failing through his entire term only made that easier. Both “Joe Biden” and the Neocon gang at State and the CIA were implicated in a web of crimes in Ukraine, and war there was one way to cover all of it up, so they made sure that war happened. The lies and hoaxes continued to multiply, accompanied by huge, destructive pranks — the George Floyd riots, the drag queens in the kiddie classrooms, the wide-open border, the FBI-instigated J-6 riot — and the Democratic Party was embroidered in that whole tapestry of degenerate politics along with the Deep State blob.

In short, the Democratic Party appears to be guilty of programmatic treason against the people of the United States. They know that a reckoning awaits if Mr. Trump manages to return to office. They’ve known it for years. But two recent Supreme Court decisions really amped up their fears: 1) Trump v. the United States establishes presidential immunity from prosecution for acts involving his core constitutional duties; and 2) Loper Bright v. Raimondo establishes that the federal bureaucracy can no longer rule over citizens unchecked by the courts. Both of these would make it much easier for a President Trump to disassemble the Deep State. And of course, that may lead to the investigation and prosecution of Deep State personae who abused their positions — possibly even prison. . . a discomfiting prospect.

The Democratic Party’s cover got blown on June 27th when Joe Biden had to go live in a debate and displayed his mental incompetency for all to see. That shock to the system forced a scramble to replace “JB” pretty late in the election cycle, since now just enough voters may be indisposed to re-electing an obvious human wreck. But the switcheroo effort seems to have lost traction. And the party may have muffed its blackmail leverage over “Joe Biden.” After all, his briberies are all well-cataloged by the House Oversight Committee, including the vast bank records of the many shell companies set up to receive the bribe money.

Is it possible, though, that “Joe Biden” holds blackmail material over his party confederates? After all, he’s still president. He has access to things you’d never dream of and, demented as he is, he has plenty of help close at hand from Hunter, Dr. Jill, and the Lawfare posse for sorting it out. He probably knows a thing or two about his old pard Barack Obama, too, that would make some folks uncomfortable. So, looks like “JB” is fixing to hang in there as his party’s nominee, and whoever doesn’t like it can go suck an egg.

After the stunning events of Saturday evening, it also looks like candidate “Joe Biden” would go down in flames against Donald Trump on November 5, stuffed drop-boxes and all. Not a few Democratic Party bigshots have already made noises about leaving the country if that happens, possibly to nations lacking extradition treaties with the USA. Many others must be gobbling Xanax like Tic Tacs now that Donald Trump has survived the ultimate affront to his existence. You know the old nugget of wisdom: if you come at the king, you better not miss. Ooops.

(kunstler.com)

THE GAZA GENOCIDE DEEPENS: The Reckoning Begins for the Perpetrators

by Ralph Nader

In the early weeks of Israel’s massive bombardment and invasion of Gaza, the Israeli military was killing anyone who moved and destroying anything that stood. In response to telephone calls from President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging Netanyahu to minimize civilian casualties reportedly he would respond: Don’t lecture me, look at what you did to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden.

The combined official death toll from these two atomic bombs and the firebombing of Dresden was around 239,000 civilians. After nine months of the Israeli government’s relentless day and night genocide war machine, bristling with the latest U.S. weaponry, Israel has killed far more than that number of Gaza civilians. In a tiny enclave with 2.3 million people (compared to the total population of Japan and Germany in World War II of 152 million), at least 300,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed with more dying every day. Daily annihilations by F-16s, tanks, and arbitrary executions, combined with Israeli bans on food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel have generated starvation, diseases, untreated injuries, homelessness for almost all Gazans. The destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare facilities adds to the military-caused casualty toll.

Forty-five thousand babies have been born into the rubble since October. Infants are plagued by contaminated water, poor nutrition, and a dire shortage of healthcare. Their mothers are starving. What about the plight of a similar number of one- or two-year-olds? What about 50,000 serious diabetics without insulin? An even larger number of cancer patients are denied their medicine and care. Hundreds of healthcare workers were killed with the hungry, exhausted, sick, and injured survivors staggering bravely to those broken down hospitals that haven’t been entirely demolished.

It isn’t as if major global health and food program organizations have not been sounding the alarms of famine, epidemics and military violence under the unfolding eradication of Gaza’s trapped defenseless inhabitants. Organizations such as UNICEF, the Global Food Program, Oxfam, the UN Humanitarian Agency, The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), USAID and Biden’s own Humanitarian adviser, David Satterfield, know the looming numbers that spell omnicide for the families of Gaza.

Back in December, Devi Sridhar, the chair of global health at the University of Edinburgh estimated half a million Gazans will likely die in 2024 if conditions causing tens of thousands of deaths in the last three months of 2023 continue. Conditions have gotten worse as the causes of mortality have grown and intensified week by week.

In an admittedly conservative estimate, three researchers published in the prestigious British medical journal “The Lancet,” that, as of mid-June, “it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”

Why then does the media stick to the official Hamas Health Ministry’s huge undercount now at about 39,000 deaths? First, early on, the Ministry took its figures from names of the deceased provided by hospitals and morgues which are now devastated and inoperative. The Hamas regime doesn’t mind this undercount since it lessens the criticism that it cannot protect its own people and shelter them from what they knew was coming after October 7th from the most racist, genocidal, and expansionist Israeli regime ever.

Netanyahu – who has boasted over the years to his Likud Party, that he has backed and helped fund Hamas due to its opposition to a two-state solution – likes the vast undercount of his mass slaughter.

But there are other reasons for this adoption of the low Hamas figures. For Biden, it keeps down the intensity of domestic protests demanding decisive White House pressure on Netanyahu for a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and an end to the blockade to allow in the thousands of trucks carrying humanitarian aid paid for by the U.S.

Netanyahu’s long-time prohibition of all Israeli and foreign war correspondents from entering Gaza as independent reporters has concealed from the world much of the carnage in these killing fields. Finally, finally, on July 11, 2024, more than 70 media and civil society organizations, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, AP, CNN and the BBC signed an open letter demanding that Israel “give journalists independent access to Gaza.”

Palestinian journalists in Gaza are being hunted down by Netanyahu, who allows the killing scores of reporters and their families. The survivors are bravely trying to report on the devastation for outsiders and social media. Nonetheless, the mainstream press, to do its job, has to have reporters on the ground.

Netanyahu is a master at biding his time and stalling to keep his job. Despised by three out of four Israelis for both his domestic tyrannies and for collapsing his multi-tiered border defense on October 7, he is also under indictment for political corruption by Israeli prosecutors. Israeli street protests are getting larger by the week and the majority of Israelis want new elections now!

The reckoning over what Netanyahu’s savage terror state has done to innocent Palestinians from infants in incubators to the elderly in wheelchairs is coming to Israeli society. As the soldiers return, some will be narrating the horrors they saw and were ordered to produce. Already six reservists have told an Israeli magazine that they were encouraged to shoot and kill any Palestinian they saw on the street or in their homes. There are no operating rules of engagement as required by international law. They gave examples of the target practice, as they told the reporter they would no longer serve in Gaza.

Such soldiers are called “refuseniks,” who became a courageously articulate, if harassed, protest group about twenty years ago. (See Israeli Refuseniks Forsake Army Despite Post-October 7 Nationalist Frenzy, The Intercept January 2, 2024)

As more information flows through the weakening Israeli censorship system, the many Israeli human rights associations will be strengthened (See December 13, 2023, an open letter titled, “Stop the Humanitarian Catastrophe” to President Biden by 16 Israeli human rights groups which appeared in the New York Times). The exaggeration of the Hamas threat to Israel, following a one-time homicide-suicide mission through a mysteriously open border into Israel on October 7, 2023 will become evident. Hamas had a militia of some 20,000 fighters with small arms and dwindling ammunition, hiding in tunnels against a military, nuclear-armed superpower with over 400,000 army soldiers, hundreds of tanks and 1500 F-16 pilots.

Joe Biden has just authorized another arsenal of 500-pound bombs for Netanyahu to use against the remnants of Gazan civilian life. He touts his refusal to send Israel any more 2000-pound bombs capable of destroying entire neighborhoods.

Meanwhile, deep in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies, analysts are creating scenarios of what forthcoming retaliation against our country could look like. With cheap, advanced armed drones increasingly producible by more makers anywhere, these scenarios are not the stuff of science fiction.

By kicking the two-state solution down the road for decades, favoring Israel, with supine Congressional backing, our presidents have assured that our own national security, not to mention our tradition of free speech in the U.S., is increasingly vulnerable.

“Hold Me” Oil on Canvas by Malcolm Liepke

27 Comments

George Hollister July 16, 2024

“It doesn’t occur to Vance that a system that encourages, indeed profits from, aberrant behavior might be the root of despairing behavior from people who have nothing to lose.”

Dearest Editor, this is straight out of JJ Rousseau. Has it occurred to Rousseau’s adherents that aberrant behavior in humans is quite natural, and has always been with us since at least the time when living in a cave was considered a luxury. The irony is all attempts to create this natural world where everyone behaves just makes human behavior much worse. We don’t need to go back any further than the last century to see this. Should we run another mass experiment, and expect a better outcome? Go ahead and try, but keep me out of it.

Reply
- Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
  
  Gee, that Rousseau fella peddles the obvious as though he was the first to think of it. Sort of like the Heritage fascist morons who perceive themselves as geniuses… Guess he’s one of your heroes, eh?
  
  Reply
  - George Hollister July 16, 2024
    
    Harv, you are one of Rousseau’s disciples, whether you know it or not.
    
    Reply
    - Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
      
      George, you live in your own little dream world, of ignorance.
      
      Reply
- The Shadow July 16, 2024
  
  I guess you’re not big on the Age of Enlightenment. You know, when we emerged from the superstition and ignorance of the Middle Ages. It looks like we’re headed back that way.
  
  Reply
  - Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
    
    And replaced them with enlightenment superstition and ignorance, all the while pretending that human nature had changed. Basically, the much over-worshiped enlightenment (l.c. intentional) was a time when some new toys were invented by, and for, the same old bunch of monkeys, some of the new toy inventors became identified as scientists. Those who ran off at the mouth, repeating what was and had been obvious forever, were elevated to “philosopher” status.
    
    And the worn-out old planet just kept on spinning…not a damned god in sight.
    
    Reply
Chuck Dunbar July 16, 2024

ED NOTES

I regret that you are close to the mark here, Bruce. Trump made a wise move in picking his running mate:

“UNLIKE his boss, Vance is smart and articulate, which makes him a double menace in the Trumpian context. And he has a wife of East Indian derivation, the whole package making Vance the quality candidate the Democrats have no answer for among their weird collection of uninspiring sociopaths and bubbleheads. If Vance were the Democratic candidate he could probably beat Trump.”

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- Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
  
  Yeah, a great pick for the trumpians and their MAGAt slaves. The guy is fascist to the core. Ever read his book, Hillbilly Elegy?
  
  Reply
Craig Stehr July 16, 2024

Woke up at four o’clock in the air conditioned motel room in Mendocino County with the insufferable heat wave abating, and enjoyed a bowl of mixed fruit while watching Indian bhajans on YouTube. My callout for spiritually directed nomadic action groups has been well received. Many agree that we must do something as soon as possible. And this was before the shock of the shooting in Pennsylvania, as well as assorted other disturbing news items. We need to be in solidarity and supportive of one another; the radical environmental and peace & justice activists are the intervening variable.
I will be available after July 19th, following the last dental appointment, and I am welcome to be at the motel room until August 5th at 11 a.m. Have thus far received invitations to be active in Maine and of course Washington, D.C. The Dao is working through this body-mind complex. Even though this is difficult, (because the body itself is a reflection of the Dao, or Absolute, or God, or whatever you wish to call the ultimate comprehensive spiritual reality), the way remains to identify with the witness of the mind, and going even deeper, the absence of the “sense of being”, which is nirvikalpa samadhi. This is the philosophical foundation of “spiritually directed nomadic action groups”.
Thank you. 😄
Craig Louis Stehr
Royal Motel
750 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
(707) 462-7536, Room 206
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
16.VII.’24

Reply
- Bruce Anderson July 16, 2024
  
  No offense intended, Craig old boy, but a reader asked me, “Do you think this Craig Stehr guy is a potential assassin? He’s always talking about direct action and so on.” I answered that I thought you were too attached to fleshly indulgences to go lone wolf, but I could be wrong.
  
  Reply
  - Bob A. July 16, 2024
    
    The world is getting weird, but I can’t help but think that we all need to take a deep breath and take stock of the fact that we’re all in this together.
    
    Reply
    - Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
      
      Some are more “all in” than others.
      
      Reply
    - Chuck Dunbar July 16, 2024
      
      The wisest post of the day, Bob.
      
      Reply
  - Craig Stehr July 16, 2024
    
    The truth is that I’m too sociable to be a lone wolf. Maybe a pack wolf. ;-))
    
    Reply
Sarah Kennedy Owen July 16, 2024

it is becoming harder to understand religious or semi-religious rhetoric, Bruce Anderson is right on that. Jesus said to use compassion when judging our cohorts on this planet. In my understanding, the Buddha said the same thing, with the additional advice that using compassion will eventually get you “there”, to nirvana or heaven or enlightenment. I think many practicing religiously expect an experience that is supernatural and complex, but it may just be our ordinary experience, but without the interference of typical human error (irritation, discrimination, envy, selfishness, hatred and other numerous sicknesses that too numerous to explain). Sounds way too simple but is harder than it looks (an understatement).

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- Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
  
  All religion exists solely for the control of others, probably an offshoot of our tribal, warlike nature. There is nothing supernatural about human-created “gods”. They are nothing more than the result of conniving humans who want power over other humans and to justify it as the “word of god”. The universe will be a better place without humans.
  
  Reply
  - Brian Wood July 16, 2024
    
    The universe doesn’t care.
    
    Reply
    - Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
      
      Maybe, Maybe not.
      
      Reply
Steve Heilig July 16, 2024

Donald Trump is: “America’s Hitler,” “a cynical a**hole,” “cultural heroin,” “noxious,” and “reprehensible.”
– J.D. Vance, trying to hold on to his spine (before failing).
(“Cultural heroin” is pretty good, but meth would likely be more accurate)

Reply
- Chuck Dunbar July 16, 2024
  
  J.D. saw the path to fame and glory, sold his soul, and now look where he’s at…
  
  Reply
  - Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
    
    He’s what he always was: a conniving rat. Read his book about his childhood (Hillbilly Elegy) carefully. You’ll find he blames the poor themselves for their problems, just like the other rich conservative morons and their MAGAt servants do. Vance is and always has been just a sneaky, smart, phony, fascio/conservative. I hope the “cleverness” of the fasciuglicans in selecting the sorry ass turns on them and bites them and their brainless mutant candidate, in the butt.
    
    Reply
michael turner July 16, 2024

Maybe I missed it but i am surprised that there has been no public outcry about the awful “improvements” being inflicted on the once sublime Montgomery Woods. Walked down the slope today expecting a cathedral of light and color and instead came upon a gathering of trucks, a tractor, and about fifteen workers. I was told they were building an elevated boardwalk because the valley floods in the winter and people can’t get “access”. (Who goes to Montgomery Woods in the rainy season anyway?) That word “access” always means clumsy bureaucratic meddling, and in this case the wonderful footpath has been effaced by an 8 foot swathe running a straight line along the west valley margin, soon to support an elevated walkway with metal stairs and railings, whose reflected light will no doubt brighten the place up. At present the valley floor is now a construction site, filled with debris, and bags of cement and littered with the remains of secondary plant growth. No more will you be able to walk single file through a mysterious, magical world, wondering what’s around the next bend in the trail. On the other hand, next time I can bring my skateboard!

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Berkeley to Bald Hills July 16, 2024

The choice this November…

Subhuman Zionist #1, the incumbent, represents the Neoliberal faction, also known as the Globalists. The envision a unitary world order with America at the front. They want confrontation – including war – with Russia, and they want to turn the Iranian regime to the West.

Subhuman Zionist #2, the former president, represents the Neoconservative faction. They envision a unitary world order with Israel at the front. Towards that end, they want regime change in Iran.

Subhuman Zionist #3, the son of the assassinated 1968 frontrunner, appears to be there to invalidate good stances on vaccines, the dangers of EMFs, and the history of US political assassinations by towing the Likudnik line 100% – genocide. Of course, there is little chance this candidate gets even one electoral college vote.

So really your choice is between Subhuman Zionist #1 and Subhuman Zionist #2. Both are pro-genocide. One wants war with Russia, the other wants war with Iran – which will lead to war with Russia.

Have a nice day.

Reply
Jim Armstrong July 16, 2024

So how much water should you drink?

I am not buying the account of the “assassination attempt” on Donald Trump.
How will we learn the truth?

Reply
- Harvey Reading July 16, 2024
  
  Ask George.
  
  Reply
- Bruce Anderson July 16, 2024
  
  Keep reading the ava, Jim.
  
  Reply
- peter boudoures July 16, 2024
  
  If you use Celtic salt it hydrates the cell faster so you don’t need as much.
  
  Reply

Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 7/16/2024

27 Comments

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