Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 7/17/2024

By AVA News Service on July 17, 2024

Cumulonimbus Cloud Inland from Willits (Jeff Goll)

QUIET, DRY, and climatologically normal weather is forecast to continue through the work week. Interior temperatures creep back up into the triple digits this weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A much warmer 56F this Wednesday morning on the coast. More patchy fog today then the NWS says some clearing starting tomorrow. Looking at the local satellite the fog does seem to be breaking up some. We'll see.

POINT ARENA MURDER VICTIM IDENTIFIED

As a part of this continuing investigation, the homicide victim from this case was identified as Kevin Taeuffer, a 54-year-old male from Annapolis. Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Detectives made contact with the victim's legal next of kin who was notified of Taeuffer's death. An autopsy for Taeuffer has been scheduled for Wednesday 7-17-2024, but the official cause and manner of death will not be released until the autopsy and toxicology reports are available.

This case is actively being investigated and anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Detectives by calling 707-463-4086. Information can also be provided anonymously by calling the non-emergency tip line at 707-234-2100.

[Previously]

On 07-11-2024 at approximately 8:06 PM, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Communications Center received a 911 call from 47-year-old Pan Jasper Brady of Point Arena, reporting that he had just shot a person. Brady reported that he had been in an argument with the victim, a 54-year-old male, and Brady retrieved a handgun and shot the victim. Brady secured the firearm while awaiting the arrival of responding law enforcement personnel.

Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Deputies and California State Parks Peace Officers responded. Due to safety concerns related to the nature of the call, medical personnel staged in the area awaiting law enforcement. Upon the arrival of law enforcement personnel, the victim was found to have succumbed from injuries that included at least one gunshot wound. Brady was detained by deputies and Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Detectives responded to take over the investigation. Brady was ultimately arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on a charge of homicide, and an additional charge for using a firearm during the commission of a homicide. Brady is being held in custody in lieu of $1,000,000 bail.

McGOURTY MUST RESIGN

Dear Mendocino County Executive Officer, County Counsel, and Board of Supervisors

I am writing to express my concern and call for the immediate resignation of District 1 Supervisor Glenn McGourty after recent revelations about his residency status, legal and ethical violations having significant implications for his role as District 1 Supervisor. Information reveals that he has not maintained residency within the district, thereby violating this fundamental requirement, a fact he has not disclosed and/or resigned from the board. This breach of residency law undermines the integrity of your office and erodes public trust in our local government.

Supervisor McGourty has his legal primary residence in either Ukiah or Fort Bragg. He cannot reside in both at the same time as his primary residency. If his primary residence is Fort Bragg, he is no longer a resident of the First Supervisor District and has forfeited being a Supervisor. If his primary residence is Ukiah, then what about him getting a loan and misrepresenting to the lender that his primary residence will be in Fort Bragg within 60 days? He must resign immediately, and the County must terminate his salary and benefits, require pay back any salary and benefits for time served in office when he legally not allowed to serve and receive those benefits.

Due to this conflict of interest, and to protect taxpayers' interests, I request County Counsel to examine all Board items from May 14, 2024, forward, where voting by the Board of Supervisors on any agenda item by Glenn McGourty, such as the Tax Sharing Agreement with the incorporated cities or Mendocino Coast Hospital District Board appointment are in question due to his conflict of interest.

Facts and evidence are available through websites and public documents which I have obtained, preserved, and referenced in the document.

On April 22, 2024, Glenn and Jan McGourty made a contingent offer to purchase a house in Fort Bragg.
On May 14, 2024, Glenn and Jan McGourty sign a deed of trust purchasing a home in Fort Bragg.
The deed of trust includes an occupancy requirement within 60 days to be his as primary residence.
Mendocino County recorder Document number 2024-04143 page 7 of 17, clause 6 Occupancy, states the "Borrower must occupy, establish, and use the Property as Borrower's principal residence within 60 days after the execution of this security instrument…"
Jan McGourty then registered to vote in Fort Bragg shortly after the recording of this document on May 18, 2024.
Therefore Mr. McGourty legally contracted to have his principal place of residence in Fort Bragg as of July 15, 2024.
Having place of residence outside of your supervisorial district is an automatic forfeiture of office.
If Mr. McGourty intends to have his place of residence at his property located in Ukiah, District 1, then he has misrepresented material facts to the lender to obtain the loan.
Penal Code 532f states a person commits mortgage fraud if the person:

(1) Deliberately makes any misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission during the mortgage lending process with the intention that it be relied on by a mortgage lender, borrower, or any other party to the mortgage lending process.

(2) Deliberately uses or facilitates the use of any misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission, knowing the same to contain a misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission, during the mortgage lending process with the intention that it be relied on by a mortgage lender, borrower, or any other party to the mortgage lending process.

On May 21, 2024, at the County Board of Supervisors meeting, Glenn McGourty recused himself for item 3e Special Appointments. His wife, Jan McGourty, was appointed to Mendocino Coast Hospital District (MCHD). This appointment requires her to be a registered voter in Fort Bragg. Discussion included a potential future bond measure for seismic upgrade and urgency to appoint her to avoid going to election for the position and to add a 5th voting board member to hospital board.
On May 23, 2024, MCHD agenda to appoint Jan McGourty to the Board. See public comment in board video regarding Brown Act violation and insider appointment.
On June 4, 2024, Jan McGourty was sworn in as board member to MCHD board. A question to please review is if being a registered voter for less than 30 days before being sworn in to the district board is this legally allowable?
On June 5, 2024, the Board of Supervisors approved a Tax Sharing Agreement between the County of Mendocino, the City of Fort Bragg, the City of Point Arena, the City of Ukiah, and the City of Willits. This agreement will benefit city residents by providing County tax revenue to the cities. This item was approved by vote 4/1. It calls into question if McGourty should have recused himself from the vote knowing he would be a resident of Fort Bragg and benefit through his city residency and what was his undue influence over the Board decision on this matter by not recusing himself?
On July 9, 2024, the Board of Supervisors item 4d included a discussion to bring back hospital-based BID (HBID) proposal to a future board meeting. If the HBID is passed by the Board of Supervisors in the future it will benefit hospitals as they will be able to add the charge to their bills to pass on to Medi-Cal and Medi-Care billings. This funding will be used for local hospitals such as the Mendocino Coast Hospital District where Jan McGourty is a Board member. This decision has unknown consequences to the taxpayers not only as individuals but also as State and Federal taxpayers. Glenn McGourty did not recuse himself from this item, did not disclose potential conflict of interest, and voted to move this item forward to an agenda for a proposal in September or October 2024.

These actions demonstrate a disregard for the laws and regulations that you are sworn to uphold. These actions undermine public trust, and it is essential for our elected officials to uphold the highest standards of integrity, accountability, and transparency.

As a concerned citizen and member of this community, it is in the best interest of our constituents that Supervisor McGourty step down immediately!

Sincerely,

Concerned citizen of Mendocino County

CC:

County of Mendocino Executive Officer. County Counsel

Board of Supervisors

County Registrar of Voters

Secretary of State, Fair Political Practices Commission

MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: Attached to the “concerned citizen’s” letter are several pages of relevant links, legal citations from government code with footnotes and court case summaries, a copy of the “grant deed” and “deed of trust” (for McGourty’s loan application) for the purchase of the house in Fort Bragg. There is some interesting speculation going around about who this “concerned citizen” might be. Some people think it’s coming from a County employee or county contract employee. Whoever it is, they’re paying close attention to Board activities, McGourty’s real estate transactions, have pretty good on-line researching skills, and probably have a personal beef with McGourty or his family related to either the writer’s job or organization. We are surprised that the County Counsel’s office has not weighed in on this complaint since it involves the Supervisor’s votes on recent issues that have arisen and McGourty’s position on those votes. (McGourty, however, was not a swing vote in the examples cited, so recusal wouldn’t have made much difference.) A couple of years ago when we submitted a conflict of interest complaint about McGourty’s conflicted wine industry situation (he owns a vineyard that benefits from Russian River water while serving as a Supervisor and on local boards that affect Russian River water allocations), County Counsel Christian Curtis opined in reply that our complaint was not specific enough and the complaint would have to cite specific decisions McGourty was making. But at least he replied.

We have live music at the AV Brewing outdoor area with Margo and Friends this Friday, 5:30-7:30pm. Amanda Sheffer Fairall with Fairall's Farms will be serving in the beer garden from around 1pm to 6pm.

IN-HOME WORKERS GET A RAISE

In a press release Tuesday, representatives of the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) providers of SEIU Local 2015 reported that the union “ratified a new three-year contract with the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors.”

The release describes the contract as benefiting “nearly 2,000 IHSS workers who provide essential in-home care to older adults and people with disabilities across Mendocino County.”

Specifically, it described the contract as:

Increasing the IHSS provider wage supplement by $1.81, bringing wages to $18.81 by October 2024 and creating a path to $20.31 by January 2027.
Including an investment of $30,000 for training and PPE.
Strengthening safeguards to ensure non-discrimination in the workplace.
Addressing the caregiver shortage by making changes to the provider registry, ensuring recipients in remote parts of the County receive the care they need.

“We fought a good fight, stood up for what we needed as essential workers, and did not back down,” Mendocino County IHSS provider Priscilla Tarver is quoted as saying in the release. “The contract is a step in the right direction and includes new investments in caregiver training that we really need.”

The release also notes that the late “Beverly Galten, who was an IHSS provider for over 17 years,” was part of the “dedicated bargaining team of home care workers (prior to her death just) a few weeks before the ratification of the agreement, and her memory continues to inspire providers in Mendocino County.”

The release also notes that “the last contract in 2019 could not have been accomplished without (Galten, who,) at 81 years old, was still actively participating in bargaining, canvassing, and traveling to meet providers like herself.”

“(Beverly) was hardworking, friendly, and determined to get better wages for all providers in Mendocino,” Mendocino IHSS provider and bargaining team member Consuelo Rocha is quoted as saying. “She would be so happy to see our efforts pay off after going over a year and a half without a contract. Beverly never gave up, and she would want every care worker to use their voice in fighting for better wages.”

According to the release, “across the country roughly 10,000 people turn 65 every day. As this number of older adults and people with disabilities who require in-home care continues to grow in California, these higher standards will help counties continue to attract more care providers to this workforce (and retain them).”

LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

MICHAEL TURNER:

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 Tuesday expecting a cathedral of light and color and instead came upon a gathering of trucks, a tractor, and about 15 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!

OVERDOSE TRENDS IN FORT BRAGG

City Of Fort Bragg Police Department

Fort Bragg Police Department has been following overdose trends for the last two years for the purpose of developing a strategy to combat fatal and non-fatal overdoes in the City of Fort Bragg. We have applied and been granted access to ODMAP (Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program). ODMAP is able to provide real time updates for overdoses within the U.S. We are able to obtain their data and cross reference it to our calls for service. The data entered into the database reflects EMS calls for service. Often there is a suspected drug listed, however they are not able to confirm the drug until proper testing is concluded.

For transparency, we will be providing monthly statistics of overdoses within the City of Fort Bragg and quarterly comparisons

2023 Quarter 1: 2 overdoes, unknown drug.

2024 Quarter 1: 5 overdoes, 2 unknown, 1 Alcohol, 1 Methamphetamine, 1 Fentanyl

2023 Quarter 2: 6 overdoes, 5 unknown, 1 Cocaine

2024 Quarter 2: 4 overdoes, 2 unknown, 1 Alcohol, 1 Fentanyl

If you know someone who is struggling with substance use disorder (SUD), please refer them to Project Right Now for assistance in navigating substance use treatment or if you are a family member of someone with SUD, there is support for you too. 707-962-7061

(Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka)

ED NOTES

DEEPENDERS say they haven't heard gopher bombs lately. These unregulated explosives used to be used in local vineyards to exterminate the relentless little pests.

THE GOPHER BOMBS are called Rodex 4000. They're an unregulated, unlicensed mixture of propane and oxygen pumped into the ground from nearby tanks of propane and oxygen via a wand-like applicator. Once the propane and oxygen are tucked beneath the topsoil, the guy with the wand presses a button on the wand, thus igniting a subterranean spark which explodes the propane and oxygen mix. The guy with the magic wand pulls the tanks of oxygen and propane about three feet behind him as he moves through the grapevines, blowing up the persistent tenants and their underground homes. Anybody can buy these things; nobody regulates them. And it would seem to be only a matter of time before a moon-suited applicator becomes Anderson Valley's first manned space vehicle.

WHO ARE the rightwing talk jocks these days now that Limbaugh and Savage are gone? Only heard Limbaugh a couple of times and Savage once, and have ever since been unable to understand what attracts even the dumb white guys to either one of them. Limbaugh wasn't funny on his own terms, and Savage, a short fat guy who talked like he was ten feet tall, was your basic puff ball.

THE CHRON once ran a mostly laudatory piece on Savage as if he and his opinions were in any way credible, complete with a sidebar of Savage's typically witless remarks. “I live in a place in Northern California, Marin County, that's filled with phony liberals… They're just filled with themselves. They call themselves environmentalists, and then they run their wood stoves and pollute the air.” A dozen or so similarly imbecilic remarks, every one of demonstrably false, were highlighted by the Chron as if the piece was celebrating someone like Oscar Wilde and not a calculated commercial audio fraud as obvious as Savage. The one remark of Mr. Tough Talk's that did make me laugh was his statement that he couldn't tell the Chron or any other media where he lived in Marin because of “death threats.”

LESS DEFENSIBLE than Savage was his hypocritical boss, Jack Swanson, identified by the Chronicle as “operations director at KSFO” and “a self-described ACLU liberal who nonetheless created KSFO's all-conservative ‘Hot Talk’ format.” Swanson said Savage, whose real name was Michael Weiner, “is a phenomenal talent.”

THE ONLY listenable SF talk show used to be the one hosted by Michael Krazny at KQED Radio. His replacements are unlistenable. Krazny was hyper-informed, always polite to the chronophagic callers before he moved on to the next caller, his guests were the kind of people from whom one could actually learn things, and nobody yelled, although the discussion was often heated. Krazny was the only crossover talk show guy around in that all kinds of people listened to him. Unfortunately, the talk shows offered by Pacifica stations and the piously lock-step fake public radio stations we suffer on the Northcoast seldom do open lines talk, partly because their dominant figures tend to be non-verbal and partly because they have even less respect for their listeners than the audio bully boys like Limbaugh and Savage.

THERE ARE LOTS of radlibs around who could do commercial talk radio and do it well, and there are lots who could host lively call-in shows on what passes for public radio north of the Golden Gate Bridge if they could get past the fearful little censors at KMUD, KZYX and the truly pathetic public radio station in Sonoma County, whatever it's called. But…

UKIAH CRITICS of this fine publication were overheard recently denouncing the editor as a “drunk and a low-life.” Since none of my immediate family members were visiting Ukiah that day, I can't for the life of me believe that random citizens would say such a thing. Haven't had a drink in years, and who among us is so bold as to call another citizen a low-life given the personal behavior of recent presidents and innumerable elected office holders, formerly regarded as pillars of the community and even the nation?

NEXT DOOR TO A DOPE HOUSE

WITHOUT mentioning either the name of the vic or the town where the following crank-driven home invasion occurred, the following is an eyewitness report: “I could see out perfectly, while they had no idea I was watching them; They were wearing clothes as if from a warmer climate like the folks wear in Philo, Boonville or Ukiah, and looked nothing like the composites the children later described —tropical rayon short sleeve shirt, bamboo print with buttons, shorts, wife beater body shirts, and black Ben Davises. I saw the first two invader rats plain as day in my driveway as they adjusted themselves from what looked like a long car ride. They walked like Sumo wrestlers down to the house they were looking for. I remember getting the feeling that wherever they entered, they weren't going to knock first! Sure 'nuf; and a whole bunch of little kids live in that place! I had just seen most of the children leave the house on their way to the store, so I had no idea there were little girls still at home asleep in their pajamas. It was an unusually quiet morning, and very cold. The driver went in to the house too, after parking, and also sticking out like a sore thumb dressed in a wife beater shirt, black Ben Davis pants and stocking cap; Warm weather clothes; not what Coast folks wear even on a warm morning. Two wore stocking caps while the third made no effort to hide what he looked like. One of the little girl's said she could only identify them by their butt cracks as they tossed the place, which she could see from beneath the duct tape they wrapped around her eyes. (At least she's trying to have a sense of humor about it, even though her little eyebrows took awhile to grow back.) She said one guy kissed her on the head and said, Tell your daddy, your uncles are looking for him.” She said to me afterwards, “I don't have any uncles.” She's eight years old. It took the cops one hour and 45 minutes to arrive. One day soon after the invasion, I stopped for gas at an inland service station and saw their car parked behind the closed garage door of one of the bays. I called the Ukiah investigator and he told me the local sheriff would arrive with composites for me to look at, but I never received a call. I had a talk with the Dad about his crank habit, and told him to either get off it or move, because the creeps could have walked into my house by mistake that morning, even though my house doesn't look like a crank house. He went on to tell me that they were only after money, and that his girls weren't hurt. I responded with, “Then I know you gotta be on crack if your one major concern remains the money you SAY they took. instead of the welfare of your young daughters and the trauma you've caused them by your nasty habit! Why do you owe those gangsters money, anyway? Those were crank dealing thugs the driver let out in my driveway!” I told him that's what I told the investigator in Ukiah, and that I wish he'd either get over his drug days or move. because he “can't hide behind his child daughters now that he's soooo busted.”

A DUAL CRISIS RESPONSE

Editor,

Have you ever witnessed a person experiencing intense agony due to Mental Illness? Excruciatingly wailing and screaming while shoving their fingers so far up their nose to hopefully end the pain! Well, I have, and it is hard to witness, especially difficult because literally what can you do, what would you do? In this instance a street person I have never seen before was experiencing some very audible and dramatic psychosis. The truth is unless you are the one providing treatment (which is very hard to obtain) it does not matter the reason for such torment. There are many contributing factors to such a state of being, what is significant is in the way in which we respond, how we help and what we do to alleviate the persons condition.

Luckily, I know that to get this person help, I had to call UPD and request Dual Crisis Response. Which of course I did. I suppose I was not surprised when dispatch asked me if I was a Mental Health Worker but was a bit irritated with that question but realized they are unaccustomed to regular folks calling to aid street people.

Specifically, since I know almost every call for Dual Crisis Response is internal, not us regular citizens or family members calling for help, it is mostly interagency requests, and many are check-ins. I was definitely interested in how this would actually play out, what the response would be. So you bet your ass I was going to watch and wait. I did wait for about 15 minutes until the Crisis Worker pulled up in his County issued vehicle and I thought, Ok is he going to wait in the car till the UPD officer arrives or gets out? He got out. I thought, Ok hmmm. So I stopped him, we chatted I asked where UPD officer was. He said it was just him and if necessary, he would call them for assistance. Hmmm. Ok really. The whole big ta-doo for implementing this program was dual response to ensure safety of Mental Health Workers and keep police from responding alone and trying to determine if a person needs support or intervention.

The problem with this singular response is that it is completely the opposite of the entire reasoning for a combined action through Behavioral Health and Law Enforcement.

I do understand that in some instances a well-known person would not require both agencies to respond. However this individual was an unknown street person; there was no way to determine how he would react to being approached.

Luckily all went well, and the Crisis worker engaged with him well, even got him to smile as he stood a few feet away conversing with him about his condition and circumstances.

During the convo I witnessed almost a complete 180 in his behavior, maybe about a 120, really. The difference was very noteworthy because he was much calmer, not yelling at the voices anymore. He had something to focus on rather than his pain and suffering.

A man unknown to the crisis worker who was homeless, hungry, in great distress, then presents as almost normal. I suppose that is because that is the part of the brain that responds by rote and learned behavior, so it tricks us into believing all is alright, when it is not. So we respond without necessary intervention.

He was in agony and it’s a good thing police did not arrive because he stated to the Crisis worker that he was afraid of cops. It would definitely be a better practice to have Dual Crisis Response be an officer in street clothes instead of uniformed. However for whatever reason that was not initiated as part of the protocol when they decided to operate a Dual Crisis Response program.

Unfortunately, the man was not taken to the Emergency Room for some intervention and evaluation and a possible 5150 (gravely ill or danger to self or others). As the Behavioral Health Specialist told me, there was not much he could do; the man was unwilling and not considered a danger or gravely disabled.

Huh? Trying to bore a hole into your brain with your finger seems quite a desperate attempt to a gravely demise. Being an educated witness in these matters and my concerns tossed aside just as this person's dignity and well-being were of no matter, I am once again disgusted by the powers that be.

The crisis worker stated very concisely that if the man was taken into the ER he had no control of next steps or the necessary action plan after the person would be released!

So, what in the actual hell is going on here? You do not get to decide to do nothing because you have no control of the outcome. But you actually have control of the intervention and next step! Absolutely ridiculous statement and decision-making abilities that affect all of us!

I was very happy to have a great conversation with the Crisis worker. However it just hammers home the fact that what we are currently doing, or more appropriately not doing is dangerous! What the crisis worker was able to do was purchase the man some food, which is great; he was hungry, probably starving.

But what we really need to happen is to intercede accordingly on someone's behalf when they are out of their mind, The mind does not get well without intervention, and it causes more brain damage and mental deterioration the longer a person remains in that state. Why are we so ignorant to act appropriately?

Families and individuals have to rely on this ineffective system that acts as if all the pieces are working nicely together and creating safety and intercedence. It is not, not here in our little neck of the woods where things are not as they seem.

My greatest wish in this life is to invoke a sense of unity and responsibility in addressing these issues. I am not going anywhere, and I will not give up, ever! I often feel my head being pounded against the brick wall is reason to fold. It is painful, but more excruciating is the loss and negligence we experience. Shifting and juggling services and programs and outcomes is a deflective practice and keeps us from implementing any meaningful assistance. We then end up with these interactions that provide nothing to alleviate what we face.

Mazie Malone

Ukiah

DYING FOR DIVERSION

by Terry Sites

A case can be made for dropping out of your life every once in a while just to see what you can see. It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do. The point is to get away and do things differently. Ideally, an absence from your “real life” for at least a few days is desirable. Some people go on a cruise or fly to Europe to “re”-create themselves. It is possible to reset yourself with a modest investment of time and money.

Depending on what you are intensely interested in, you can pick can an activity or a destination that suits.

For example I recently signed up for a three-day workshop at the Pacific Textile Center in Fort Bragg. The subject was “Natural Dye” (no pun intended for you older readers) and we learned how to dye fibers with a variety of natural materials. We are surrounded by clothing and fabric items every day that someone(s) had to consciously color but we seldom give this much thought.

Most of us are very attached to our beautiful colored fabrics and fibers. Certainly the world would not be as rich and interesting if everything was uniformly white or even brown or beige. Once you start thinking about how things get from being neutral to being colorful a different awareness opens up.

Starting with water, coloring agents, and heat you can transform pale and neutral fibers. It is a bit addictive as transforming does bring with it a power surge. Going back in time, before synthetic dyes existed, all fabric was transformed into colors using natural materials. In this workshop we used - indigo (leaf), lichen (moss), eucalyptus (leaf), madder (root), cochineal (insect) and other natural materials.

All the materials required special handling using methods that have been developed over time by people focusing their energy on getting optimal results through trial and error.

Before we knew it we were transported to a time and place where stirring a pot and waiting patiently for time to pass was the way to color fabric. Today coloring takes place in a big factory where few ever witness the process and even fewer actually know the steps it takes to make color bloom. I think we all felt empowered by our experience. We were the ones who decided how long to keep the fabric or fiber in the pot — longer makes the color darker and shorter makes the fiber lighter.

There is a larger principal involved in jumping into something like this that is entirely new and unknown. It seems to effectively shake up the pathways in the brain and refresh the mental process. It makes you feel the way you felt when you were younger and experiencing things for the first time. It is a bright and tingling sensation, quite pleasurable.

This same sensation sometimes comes from looking more and more deeply into a subject which is sometimes called “drilling down.” The idea is that if you are drilling a well and you only dig a shallow hole you probably won’t hit water but if you “drill down” the further you go the more likely you are to be successful. When approaching something that is entirely new there are lots of associations you make as you explore the topic that makes up your experience. Everyday life generally fails to provide these opportunities.

Another aspect of jumping in especially when working with an experienced worker or teacher is that the benefit of their years of “drilling down” become immediately available to you. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel and can progress much more quickly than someone who does. There is a positive synergy that stirs things up and creates unexpected outcomes.

My three days in Fort Bragg away from the cats to feed and the husband to nag really “picked me up.” I attended the workshop each day learning about how to dye but also learning about the lives of my fellow workshoppers. One woman who actually hitchhiked to Alaska also had her house in the Santa Inez Mountains burn to the ground.

One woman had been to Borneo where she climbed into a cave inhabited by spiders as big as your hand and glowing wall snakes. You can’t make this stuff up. The teacher, Vicki Fraser, took us to her studio in the town of Mendocino where we saw her masterpiece: the epic 5 x 15-foot “California Rug” for which she had spun the yarn, dyed the fiber, and entirely hand-knotted over a period of ten years (1997-2007)!

Staying in Noyo Harbor I got to eat my favorite seafood: the lobster and crab bisque at Princess Seafood. Later while staying at the Anchor Lodge the foghorn lulled me to sleep. Breakfast at Laurel’s Diner downtown near the Skunk depot was delicious and to celebrate I ate a piece of fluffy lemon meringue pie for dessert (yes, dessert at breakfast, because life is short and I do love it so). All this added zest to an already super-fun mini-break.

Ultimately I had helicoptered out of my life for three days and I think I’m better for having done it.

WOLF CREEK

by Rod Balson

Memories of Wolf Creek are etched in my mind forever. I will never forget my first trip. We drove north from Boonville through the giant redwoods. The bright day almost turned to night as the sun’s rays filtered to the ground below. Through miles of twisting road we drove. As quickly as we entered the giant trees, we left them behind.

The journey was just getting started. Northward we traveled through small towns that looked as if they came out of a New England travel guide. Then the road turned east, away from the coastline. The road snaked inland.

In the distance a sign shown through the foggy opening — it read “Usal Crossing.” Here the pavement turned to gravel, sharp as glass. The road was narrow and steep. You could hear the gravel cutting into the tires as we spun recklessly up the mountain grade. The road runs straight down the outermost ridge, like the spine on a great dinosaur. The vast Pacific ocean, blue green in color, was almost always in sight.

After driving for almost two grueling hours. We came to a big fluorescent orange gate. The lock was tarnished green and as big as a man’s hand. As we descended down the steep narrow road the canyon walls grew closer together. The wind swept up the narrow valley. The salt air enticed our senses. As we converged on the valley floor the fir trees were replaced by alders standing as straight and white as a picket fence.

All of a sudden the ocean came to view. It wasn't the same color as down the coast, but a deep blue like cheap turquoise. The beach was steep and from end to end only 50 yards wide. The cliffs on both sides looked like black bricks stacked one on the other. They jutted toward the sky at a perfect 90 degree angle. Everything about Wolf Creek is extreme. The sand was the size of pea gravel and black as coal. This place really excited my senses. From the rustling of the alders’ leaves to the crashing of the waves. This place made you feel alive.

Wolf Creek was once a logging town. There were thousands of people there and in the outlying area. Today all that's left are the old foundations of the town's richer people, the one's who could afford concrete. It's very strange to think how it was back then. I've been lucky enough to talk to a few old timers. They lived there when they were children. There once was a great wooden pier protruding from the center of the narrow beach. It was used to load large sailing vessels with giant redwood logs. The logs were then shipped to other locations for milling.

I feel very lucky to have known this place. There is a serene power to it, as if something greater than man is watching over this majestic stretch of coastline. This presence is not felt by me alone. Whoever enters this place will leave a changed person. I haven't been to Wolf Creek in years, but hopefully this will be the year of my return.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, July 16, 2024

KELLY AITKEN, Willits. Domestic violence restraining order violation, suspended license for reckless driving, failure to appear.

WILLIAM AADLAND-BREEN, Willits. Suspended license, failure to appear, probation revocation.

CHLOE CARLSEN, Clearlake/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance.

BHAKTI DILLENBECK, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

MARVIN GIBSON, Willits. Probation revocation.

THOMAS HANOVER, Ukiah. Controlled substance, ammo possession by prohibited person.

VIKTORIA LADD, Clearlake/Ukiah. Under influence, county parole violation.

ANTONIO MCKINISTER-VARELA, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

ALVINO MIRANDA, Fort Bragg. Battery on emergency personnel engaged in duties.

MIGUEL QUINTERO, Potter Valley. Domestic battery.

ADAM VASQUEZ, Hopland. Concentrated cannabis, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

KEITH WAMBACK, Point Arena. Domestic abuse.

CRAIG STEHR

Good morning everyone,

Brahma Muhurta 4 a.m. July 16th Ukiah, CA USA

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

‘THE MOVEMENT AND THE MADMAN’

The Movement and the “Madman” at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, July 29

In the midst of all that's going on in the world -- will the madness never cease? -- I've been asked to screen my film ‘The Movement and the Madman’ and talk about it at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Monday, July 29, at 5:30pm.

https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2024-07-29/president-nixon-film-screening-movement-and-madman

The event is timed to Nixon's resignation 50 years ago in 1974 under imminent threat of impeachment.

It will be a look back at Nixon's Vietnam war, the antiwar movement, the power of protest, and the dangers of a president defying the constitution.

For those of you who missed my film on PBS American Experience, or would like to see it again, and talk about it, I hope to see you there!

Onward,

Steve Talbot, PBS

San Francisco

TIME TO GO, JOE

Editor,

The Democrats need to replace Biden as nominee.

The dithering, wait-and-see, ducking of responsibility of the Democratic leadership in calling for President Joe Biden to pass the torch seems premised on the faulty hope that he might string together enough strong public appearances to right his campaign. We’ve already seen and heard the highlight reel of his “sharp as a tack” moments, and they’re already baked into the evaluation that his “good days and his bad days” condition is not what the job demands.

Further, the proffered excuses for his performance in last month’s debate only hurt his case. Some have said he was still wiped out from travel that wrapped up a week before the debate. If that’s true, then he is too old for this job. If the common cold lays you that low, your constitution is too weakened to be president.

No spry appearances now can change the perception that the low points render Biden unfit for another four years. The party leadership needs to see that writing on the wall and respond immediately. Failure to call for Biden’s withdrawal for the sake of party decorum will yield another four years of Donald Trump — a fate to be avoided at all costs.

Stewart Johnson

San Anselmo

ISRAEL'S ETHNIC CLEANSING

Editor:

On July 4, The Press Democrat announced in a headline that Israel is engaged in the “Largest land grab in decades by settlers amid the war in Gaza."

Israel, in what is clearly a disproportionate response to Hamas’ inhumane attack, has killed in Gaza over 38,000 civilians, including 15,000 children. Famine now exists throughout Gaza. Disease abounds. Many remain buried under the rubble. So naturally there should be a focus on finding a way to end the war, which is reason enough to justify a permanent cease-fire.

But with full attention focused on Gaza, the spotlight is taken off Israel’s unrelenting quest to steal West Bank Palestinian lands by turning them into Jewish settlements. The Biden administration should label such conduct illegal. Many in the International community already do.

The settlers throw people out of their homes, and they have the Israeli army backing them. The misery the settlers cause to Palestinians by stealing their lands is immeasurable. The U.S. should demand an end to all new settlements on the West Bank and impose economic sanctions on Israel if it continues this practice. No U.S. taxpayer should subsidize the theft of another’s land.

Steven M. Delue

Petaluma

A horse-drawn cart passing through a section cut out of the base of a giant sequoia tree, California, 1879.

A PG&E BILLING MISTAKE NEARLY PUSHES S.F. RETIREE BACK TO IOWA

by Emily Hoeven

For the past 30 years, Patricia didn’t pay much attention to her PG&E bills.

A 73-year-old retired school psychologist who asked me not to use her last name to protect her privacy, Patricia is living on Social Security and a pension, so she didn’t have much financial wiggle room. But she was careful to conserve energy and limit her expenses. When a PG&E bill arrived, she typically just gave it a cursory glance before paying.

She’ll never make that mistake again.

Earlier this year, Patricia checked her bank statements and saw that she hadn’t received a power bill since August 2023, the same month utility workers came to her Cow Hollow apartment building in San Francisco to replace the meters.

Her power was working just fine. Why wasn’t she being charged?

She could have stayed quiet so as not to alert PG&E to the missing bills, but Patricia wanted to do the right thing. So, in April, she notified customer service representatives that she wasn’t being charged.

In early June, Patricia finally received a bill. And when she did, her mouth fell open.

It was for $347.08.

The last bill she’d gotten back in August had been $11.02.

Patricia was gobsmacked. How could she possibly have racked up that much in charges? She lived alone and used as little as possible between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. when rates were highest.

She didn’t know how she would pay the bill.

“This is a stressful situation to put a retiree through,” she emailed me.

Then, as Patricia attempted to figure out the charges, she was hit with an updated bill for $402.10 — the accumulated costs of the past eight months, plus another $55.02 for the current month.

“Payment Reminder — Your Account is Past Due,” read the bright-red text under the new sum.

To afford the bill, Patricia told me, she would have to go into her savings — potentially putting her in a precarious financial situation.

Gas and groceries were already far more expensive than they used to be — “Safeway: it’s insane! I never get out of there for less than $150,” she told me. If her rent and utilities went up much more, she’d be likely forced to return to her home state of Iowa.

How did she go from owing $11 to more than $400?

On June 7, I reached out to PG&E to find out.

Three days later, the utility — no doubt prompted by my query — mailed Patricia a packet of bills from the past eight months breaking down her electricity usage and charges.

The packet, which I reviewed with Patricia, contained more than 10 double-sided pages and was incredibly confusing to parse.

A PG&E spokesperson walked me through what happened:

Apparently, there had been a problem with Patricia’s new meter “not communicating with the billing system,” which had resulted in her not receiving a bill from September 2023 to May 2024.

According to the spokesperson, Patricia racked up $948.13 in charges in that period, plus her current usage. That amount was reduced to $854.57 after the application of the California Climate Credit, a twice-annual rebate that provides each resident with a share of benefits from the state’s greenhouse gas reduction program.

However, under California Public Utilities Commission regulations, a utility experiencing billing problems can only charge a customer for the last three months of charges. That knocked Patricia’s bill down to $347.08, and charges for the current month brought it to $402.10.

Only $27.88 of that, however, was due to PG&E itself.

The rest was due to CleanPowerSF, a program operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

CleanPowerSF is part of California’s “community choice aggregation” system, which allows local governments and other entities operating within the service area of investor-owned utilities such as PG&E to buy and develop their own energy.

That energy is then delivered to customers via the existing infrastructure of the private utility, which also continues to handle billing, meters and maintenance.

Although Patricia didn’t initially realize it, she was a CleanPowerSF customer — under state law, residents are automatically enrolled unless they choose to opt-out.

When I spoke over email with Nancy Hayden Crowley, press secretary for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, she told me CleanPowerSF actually provided 11 months of energy to Patricia for which it wasn’t paid — but it didn’t have any insight into Patricia’s meter and lacked the ability to bill Patricia separately from PG&E.

CleanPowerSF isn’t subject to the state rules requiring it to waive all but the last three months of delayed charges. But, Hayden Crowley told me, CleanPowerSF would forgive those charges anyway, leaving Patricia with an $83.72 balance.

“We take these PG&E billing issues seriously and recognize it is a headache for our customers when PG&E does not get it right,” Hayden Crowley said, adding that CleanPowerSF is working with the utility to improve communication about billing issues. (PG&E said more than 99% of bills are sent on time.)

When I spoke with Patricia last week, she was relieved that the whole saga was finally coming to an end. But she was infuriated by the bigger issues the episode had raised.

“The middle class are getting hit with everything,” she told me, and would “slowly be booted out” of California.

It’s still unclear why exactly Patricia’s unpaid bill was so high, but rate increases likely had a lot to do with it. In January, PG&E’s rates skyrocketed by 20%. And this month, CleanPowerSF’s rates rose by an average of 8.5%.

Furthermore, the California Public Utilities Commission recently approved a flawed plan to allow private utilities to charge a fixed monthly fee of as much as $24.15 in exchange for lowering electricity rates. The new billing scheme, which is slated to go into effect in early 2026 for PG&E customers, will result in higher bills for many low-energy users like Patricia.

“I’m going to be picking up what the Tesla people aren’t paying,” Patricia said.

This experience has caused her to “wake up” and subject each one of her PG&E bills to scrutiny.

Patricia’s billing fiasco may have had a relatively happy ending, but she’s under no illusion about the long-term challenges.

PG&E and other utilities have acknowledged that rates will keep going up for the next few years. Yet the state has no real plan to rein in those costs.

Each day it goes without one, it is pushing residents like Patricia closer and closer to the brink.

(SF Chronicle)

CALIFORNIA NEEDS A MILLION EV CHARGING STATIONS — BUT THAT’S ‘UNLIKELY’ AND ‘UNREALISTIC’

by Alejandro Lazo

California will have to build public charging stations at an unprecedented — and some experts say unrealistic — pace to meet the needs of the 7 million electric cars expected on its roads in less than seven years.

The sheer scale of the buildout has alarmed many experts and lawmakers, who fear that the state won’t be prepared as Californians purchase more electric cars.

A million public chargers are needed in California by the end of 2030, according to the state’s projections — almost 10 times more than the number available to drivers in December. To meet that target, 129,000 new stations — more than seven times the current pace — must be built every year for the next seven years. Then the pace would have to accelerate again to reach a target of 2.1 million chargers in 2035.

A robust network of public chargers — akin to the state’s more than 8,000 gas stations — is essential to ensure that drivers will have the confidence to purchase electric vehicles over the next several years.

“It is very unlikely that we will hit our goals, and to be completely frank, the EV goals are a noble aspiration, but unrealistic,” said Stanford professor Bruce Cain, who co-authored a policy briefing detailing California’s electric vehicle charging problems. “This is a wakeup call that we address potential institutional and policy obstacles more seriously before we commit blindly.”

Under California’s landmark electric car mandate, a pillar of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate change agenda, 68% of all new 2030 model cars sold in the state must be zero emissions, increasing to 100% for 2035, when 15 million electric cars are expected in California.

“We’re going to look really silly if we are telling people that they can only buy electric vehicles, and we don’t have the charging infrastructure to support that,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat from Encino who introduced a package of unsuccessful bills last year aimed at expanding access to car chargers.

“We are way behind where we need to be,” Gabriel told CalMatters.

Big obstacles stand in the way of amping up the pace of new charging stations in public places. California will need billions of dollars in state, federal and private investments, streamlined city and county permitting processes, major power grid upgrades and accelerated efforts by utilities to connect chargers to the grid.

State officials also are tasked with ensuring that charging stations are available statewide, in rural and less-affluent areas where private companies are reluctant to invest, and that they are reliable and functioning whenever drivers pull up.

In Pacific Gas & Electric’s vast service area, home to 40% of all Californians, electric car purchases are moving twice as fast as the buildout of charging stations, said Lydia Krefta, the utility’s director of clean energy transportation. Californians now own more than 1.5 million battery-powered cars.

Patty Monahan, who’s on the Energy Commission, the state agency responsible for funding and guiding the ramp-up, told CalMatters that she is confident that California can build the chargers its residents need in time.

The agency’s estimate of the current chargers is likely an undercount, she said. In addition, fast-charging stations could play a bigger role than initially projected, meaning hundreds of thousands of fewer chargers might be needed. Also, as the ranges and charging speeds on cars improve, there may be less demand for public chargers.

“California has a history of defying the odds,” Monahan said. “We have a history of advancing clean cars, clean energy, writ-large. We have naysayers left and right saying you can’t do it, and then we do it.”

Barriers To Private Investments: An Uncertain Market

On a September day last year, Monahan spoke behind a podium in the parking lot of a Bay Area grocery store. A row of newly constructed car chargers rose behind her.

“Let’s celebrate for a moment,” she said.

California had met its goal of 10,000 fast electric chargers statewide — two years ahead of a target set in 2018.

Fast chargers like the new ones at the grocery store are increasingly seen as critical to meeting the needs of drivers. They can power a car to 80% in 20 minutes to an hour, while the typical charger in use today, a slower Level 2, takes from four to 10 hours.

But installing and operating fast chargers is an expensive business — one that doesn’t easily turn a profit.

Nationwide each fast charger can cost up to $117,000, according to a 2023 study. And in California, it could be even more — between $122,000 and $440,000 each, according to a separate study, although the Energy Commission said the range was $110,000 to $125,000 for one of its programs.

Most of America’s publicly traded charger companies have been forced to seek more financing, lay off workers and slow their network build outs, analysts said. EVgo, for instance, has seen its share price crater, as has ChargePoint, which specializes in selling the slower, Level 2 hardware.

California stands apart from other states — it has by far the most chargers and electric car sales, and more incentives and policies encouraging them.

Tesla, America’s top-selling electric car manufacturer, dominates fast-charging in both California and the U.S. — but the company didn’t get into the business to sell charges to drivers; it got into the charger business to sell its electric cars. Initially Tesla Superchargers were exclusive to its drivers, but starting this year other EV drivers can use them after Tesla provided ports to Ford and other automakers.

Tesla’s manufacturing prowess, supply chain dominance and decade-plus of experience with fast chargers have given it an edge over competitors — a coterie of unprofitable, publicly traded startups, as well as private companies that often benefit from public subsidies, according to analysts.

“All the automakers joined forces with their biggest competitor,” said Loren McDonald, chief executive of the consulting firm EVAdoption. “If that doesn’t tell you how bad fast-charging networks and infrastructure were, I don’t know what else does.”

Now Tesla is showing uncertainty about the future of its charging business amid slumping car sales, and eliminated nearly its entire 500-member Supercharger team in April. Then chief executive Elon Musk said in May that he would spend $500 million to expand the network and hired back some fired workers.

In California, Electrify America, a privately held company, was created by Volkswagen as a settlement for cheating on emissions tests for its gas-powered cars. The company is spending $800 million on California chargers, building a robust network of 260 stations, with more than half in low-income communities, including the state’s worst charging desert, Imperial County.

The problem is Electrify America was ranked dead last in a consumer survey last year, and its chargers have been plagued by reliability problems and customer complaints. The California Air Resources Board in January directed Electrify America to “strive to achieve charger reliability consistent with the state of the industry.” A company spokesperson said the dissatisfaction showed “an industry in its growth trajectory.” There are signs of improvement, based on consumer data from the first three months of this year.

Startups continue to jump into the charging business, with the number of companies offering fast chargers growing from 14 in 2020 to 41 in 2024, EVAdoption said. Seven carmakers formed a $1 billion venture to build a 30,000-charger network in North America. And gas stations such as Circle K are offering more charging because electric car customers spend more time shopping while waiting for their rides to juice up.

But the realization that charging is a costly business has set in on Wall Street, and that doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon. “Can public EV fast-charging stations be profitable in the United States?” the consultancy McKinsey & Company asked.

“The fervor, the excitement from the investor base, has definitely dwindled quite a bit, given the prospects that EV adoption in the U.S. is going to be slower, revenue growth is really slower, the path to profitability is going to be slower, and they might need more capital than everyone originally expected,” said Christopher Dendrinos, a financial analyst who covers electric car charging companies for the investment bank RBC Capital Markets.

The stakes are high for California when it comes to encouraging investments in expensive fast chargers: If 63,000 additional ones were built, California might need 402,000 fewer slower Level 2 chargers in 2030, according to an alternative forecast by the Energy Commission.

Billions Of Public Dollars: Will It Be Enough?

Nationwide $53 billion to $127 billion in private investments and public funding is needed by 2030 to build chargers for about 33 million electric cars, according to a federal estimate. Of that, about half would be for public chargers.

Congress and the Biden administration have set aside $5 billion for a national network of fast chargers. So far only 33 in eight locations have been built, but more than 14,000 others are in the works, according to the Federal Highway Administration. California’s share of the federal money totals $384 million; about 500 fast chargers will be built with an initial $40.5 million, said Energy Commission spokesperson Lindsay Buckley.

In addition, the state has spent $584 million to build more than 33,000 electric car chargers through its Clean Transportation Program, funded by fees drivers pay when they register cars. The Legislature extended that program for an additional decade last year.

Newsom has committed to spending $1 billion through 2028 on chargers with his “California Climate Commitment,” Buckley said. But this year Newsom and the Legislature trimmed $167 million from the charger budget as the state faces a record deficit. A lobbyist for the Electric Vehicle Charging Association said “the state pullback sends a very challenging message” to the industry.

California’s commitment to charger funding is “solid,” despite the cuts, Buckley said. They have not yet estimated the total investment needed in California to meet the targets.

But Ted Lamm, a UC Berkeley Law researcher who studies electric car infrastructure, said the magnitude of building what California needs in coming years likely dwarfs the public funding available.

State and federal programs will “only fund a fraction,” and the state needs to spend that money on lower-income communities, he said.

Another possible funding source is California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which is expected to be revised in November. The program requires carbon-intensive fuel companies to pay for cleaner-burning transportation. Utilities get credits and use that money to pay for chargers, rebates to car buyers and grid improvements, said Laura Renger, executive director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition, which represents utilities.

“I think with that, we would have enough money,” Renger said. She said the program’s overhaul could help utilities invest “billions” in chargers and other electric car programs over the next two decades.

Backlogged Local Permits & Grid Delays

One of the biggest barriers to more chargers isn’t money. It’s that cities and counties are slow to approve plans for the vast number of stations needed.

State officials only have so much political power to compel local jurisdictions to do what they want — a reality made abundantly clear by the housing crisis, for instance. California relies on grants and persuasion to accomplish its goals, and the slow buildout of chargers shows how those strategies can fall short, said Stanford’s Cain.

“The locals cannot be compelled by regulatory agencies to make land and resources available for what the state wants to achieve,” Cain said.

The same obstacles have marked the state’s broader effort to electrify California and switch to clean energy. Local opposition and environmental reviews sometimes hold up large solar projects and transmission projects for years.

California has created a “culture of regulation that emphasizes the need to be extra careful and extra perfect, but this takes an incredible amount of time,” Steve Bohlen, senior director of government affairs at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said last month at the inaugural hearing of the state Assembly’s Select Committee on Permitting Reform.

“We’re moving into a period of rapid change, and so perfect can’t be the enemy of the good.”

Chargers aren’t as complicated as large-scale solar or offshore wind projects. But most chargers installed in public spaces do need a land-use or encroachment permit, among other approvals. California has passed laws requiring local jurisdictions to streamline permits for chargers. What’s more, the Governor’s Office of Business Development now grades cities and counties using a scorecard and maintains a map displaying who has, or hasn’t, made life easier for car charger builders. But these strategies only go so far.

“It doesn’t matter how many requirements you put on (local governments),” Lamm said. “If they just don’t have the time in the day to do it … it’s going to sit in the backlog, because that’s how it works.”

The delays have consequences. Getting a station permitted in California, on average, takes 26% longer than the national average, Electrify America reported. Designing and constructing a station in California can cost on average 37% more than in other states because of delays in permitting and grid connections. A utility on average takes 17 weeks after work is completed to connect chargers to the grid, Electric America said.

Powering large charging projects often requires grid upgrades, which can take a year or more for approval, said Chanel Parson, a director at Southern California Edison. Supply chain issues also make getting the right equipment a challenge.

Edison, which has a 10-year plan to meet expected demand, has asked the utilities commission for approval to upgrade the grid where it anticipates high charging demand.

“Every EV charging infrastructure project is a major construction project,” Parson said. “There are a number of variables that influence how long it takes to complete the project.”

Impatient With Broken Chargers, Bad Service

Inspired to help the nation reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, Zach Schiff-Abrams of Los Angeles bought a Genesis GV60. As a renter, he has relied on public charging, primarily using Electrify America stations — and that’s been his biggest problem about owning an electric car.

Charging speeds have been inconsistent, he said, with half-hour sessions providing only a 15 to 30% charge, and he often encounters broken chargers.

“I believe in electrical, so I’m really actually trying to be a responsible consumer,” Schiff-Abrams said. “I want to report them when they’re down, but the customer service is horrible.”

For years, the reliability of charging networks has been a well-documented problem. Only 73% of fast chargers in the San Francisco Bay Area were functional in a 2022 study. The growth of the EV market has put increasing strain on public charging stations, a consumer survey found.

In January, the California Air Resources Board approved a final $200 million spending plan for Electrify America — but not before board chair Liane Randolph scolded its CEO.

Randolph — arguably one of America’s top climate regulators — told CEO Robert Barrosa about an exchange she had with his company’s customer service line after finding a broken charger at a station along Interstate-5.

“It didn’t work,” Randolph said during the board meeting. “Called the customer service line, waited like 10-ish minutes. …(The charger) was showing operable on the app and the guy goes, ‘oh, my data is showing me that it has not had a successful charge in three days.’”

“These issues are not easy,” Barrosa responded. “Our head is not in the sand,” he told board members earlier. “We are listening to customers.”

But Randolph, addressing journalists at a conference in Philadelphia, pushed back against the idea that because the transition to electric vehicles is happening gradually that it’s a failure. Many people will rely on charging at home or work, and batteries are becoming more efficient.

“The infrastructure is continuing to be rolled out at a rapid pace,” Randolph said. “It doesn’t all have to be perfect instantly. It’s a process. And it’s a process that’s continuing to move.”

(CalMatters)

CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS FIND AN ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCE FOR BASHING SAN FRANCISCO AT THE RNC

by Joe Garofoli

Leave it to a guy living in the rancid squalor of Pacific Heights’ Billionaire’s Row to complain to the Republican National Convention that San Francisco has become “a cesspool.”

“In my hometown of San Francisco, Democrat rule has turned the streets of our beautiful city into a cesspool of crime, homeless encampments and open drug use,” David Sacks, the wealthy venture capitalist and former PayPal workmate of billionaire Elon Musk, said Monday during his seven-minute speech.

His home is currently worth about $39 million, according to Zillow. The South African native was proud enough of his adopted city to host a fundraiser for Donald Trump at his home in June that raised an estimated $12 million for the presumptive Republican nominee. Attendees, including vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, paid between $50,000 to $500,000 to bask in Trump’s glow in the cesspool-free part of San Francisco.

Sacks’ diss was nothing new, even if the audience was. Along with much of conservative media, Sacks has been carping on San Francisco’s real problems of homelessness, crime and drug abuse for years through his vast social media feed and “All-In,” the technology podcast he co-hosts with wealthy investor Chamath Palihapitiya.

Other rich tech guys are joining them in slamming San Francisco and backing Trump, including Musk, who plans to pitch in $45 million a month to a pro-Trump super PAC. Other donors include cryptocurrency execs Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twins best known outside the tech world for suing Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly ripping off their idea for a social network.

Musk has had enough of San Francisco, too. Only instead of spewing idle chat to a roomful of Republican delegates, he’s actually leaving town. Or so he said Tuesday on X, the social media platform he owns.

“Have had enough of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” Musk wrote. He said he’s moving X to Austin.

Despite Sacks’ pointed barbs, his speech was tepidly received inside the arena Monday. That’s not surprising. Unlike most of the evening’s other speakers, Sacks is neither a regular on Fox News or other conservative media, nor is he an elected official.

And much of his speech was about an issue that doesn’t typically resonate well to convention audiences: foreign policy. Sacks said President Joe Biden “provoked — yes, provoked — the Russians to invade Ukraine with talk of NATO expansion. Afterward, he rejected every opportunity for peace in Ukraine, including a deal to end the war just two months after it broke out.”

His comments show how far the party has come from the days when Ronald Reagan demanded that Soviet Russia “tear down that (Berlin) wall.” Instead, it now echoes the position of Vance, another former San Francisco tech investor turned politician. Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Vance said, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine, one way or another.”

While some Republican convention delegates might not know Sacks, many agreed with his point: San Francisco isn’t what it used to be. And nobody here wants to hear stats that contradict that narrative, like how crime reports are down 32% since last year or how drug overdose deaths are at their lowest point in two years. (Homelessness is still on the rise.)

“I won't even go up to San Francisco because of the heightened level of danger,” Paul Ramirez, a Republican delegate who lives in Los Angeles, said Tuesday. As a gay Latino, he said “San Francisco was one of our favorite areas. But it's dangerous and the gay community in Los Angeles and across the state is waking up to that.”

Michelle Gorham, an alternate delegate from Dixon, agreed with Sacks, too.

“Anyone who is a local to the Bay Area has seen San Francisco deteriorate dramatically, and especially in the last five years,” she said.

California Republican Party Chair Jessica Millan Patterson said, “I don't disagree with the words that he said.”

“We've definitely seen the decline of a very beautiful American city,” she said Tuesday. “Whether it's the crime, whether it be the homeless crisis, these are all issues that are facing a once very beautiful city.”

Oddly enough, the one person to come to San Francisco’s defense Tuesday — sort of — was a Trump.

Eric Trump, the former president’s son, who is involved in the construction and development arm of the Trump family business, told the California delegation Tuesday that “I love your state” and noted that the family owns two commercial buildings in downtown San Francisco. He praised California for being an economic powerhouse, the world’s fifth largest economy. “It’s really incredible,” Trump said. “You guys have an amazing state. But your politicians have run it into the ground.”

He’d love to live in California, Trump said, “if it wasn’t for the taxes.”

(SF Chronicle)

IN 1953, STUDEBAKER introduced the American car with a European look, marking the company's first year with the 'foreign look.'

The Champion had a 6-cylinder engine, while the Commander offered a V-8, but both models shared the same distinctive Studebaker design.

THE TRUMP SHOOTER AND THE GROWING NIHILISM OF YOUNG MEN

by Michelle Goldberg

Since the vile, civically calamitous attempted assassination of Donald Trump, some of the ex-president’s allies have rushed to blame those who tried to warn of the danger he poses to democracy. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, wrote on social media. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” Empowered by the righteous fury of victimhood, Trump’s movement wants to cast discussion of his autocratic record and vengeful threats as incitement, smothering the debate at the heart of the 2024 election in a cloying fug of sanctimony.

It would be easy to expound on Republican hypocrisy and list all the many, many times Trump has encouraged violence against his opponents. But in this case, the mainstream debate about polarizing political rhetoric isn’t just suffused with bad faith. It also seems to be irrelevant, because the more we learn about the shooter, the less it makes sense to analyze his actions in conventional ideological terms. Though details remain sparse, this appears to be a story less about fanatical partisanship than about the crisis of lonely and disconnected young men being radicalized into pure nihilism.

In the immediate wake of the attack — which killed rally-goer Corey Comperatore as he shielded his family — many understandably assumed that the perpetrator was a leftist like the man who shot Representative Steve Scalise and several others in 2017. But what we’ve learned since then, while not enough to draw firm conclusions, complicates the picture.

The would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, is something of a cipher, leaving little trail online. When he was 17, he made a $15 donation to the Progressive Turnout Project, which as Ryan Grim reports, is “one of those spammy PACs that carpet bombs your inbox, delivering emails with splashy colors and wild fonts and using every trick in the book to convince people to give small amounts of money.” But when he was 18, Crooks registered as a Republican, and according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, his classmates remember him as right-leaning. “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” a student in his American history class told The Inquirer.

The reporting that has emerged so far describes him as an outcast, not an activist. A classmate told CBS News that he was bullied relentlessly. Another told The Wall Street Journal, “People would say he was the student who would shoot up high school.” He appears to have had a passion for gun culture; he reportedly wore camouflage or hunting gear to school and wanted to join the rifle team, though he was rejected as a bad shot. He joined a local gun club, and when he was killed on Saturday, he was wearing a T-shirt for Demolition Ranch, a gun-nut YouTube channel.

Some who study terrorism and violent extremism find the shooter’s history of humiliation and obsession with firearms familiar. “We are starting to see some of the key markers we see in individuals that have committed acts of targeted violence,” said Elizabeth Neumann, who served as assistant secretary for counterterrorism and threat prevention in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. In such people, ideology can be secondary to the desire to wreak havoc and win notoriety.

Last year, Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote a report called “The Third Generation of Online Extremism,” describing how online radicalization has changed over time. At first, he wrote, the internet simply allowed movements that existed in the real world to broadcast their propaganda and communicate covertly. Then came the advent of social media in the mid-2000s. “In this new online environment, radicalizing extremists would congregate in so-called echo chambers — closed spaces where alternative viewpoints are not dismissed with erudite arguments but with a simple click of an ‘unfriend’ or ‘unfollow’ button,” Ware wrote.

What distinguishes the third generation of online radicalism, which Ware dates from the late 2010s, is its surreal, grab-bag character. For those radicalized online in recent years, Ware wrote, “Not only are organizations less important; ideologies are less important.” Many extremist chat rooms, he wrote, “now trade in a fatalistic ‘doomerism’ which encourages greater violence by normalizing, and even celebrating, suicidal ideation and glorifying forum members, for example, ‘going ER’ — an incel term denoting ending one’s own life in an act of suicidal mass murder.” In this new era, Ware wrote, we might be seeing a narrowing of “the distance between a ‘terrorist’ and more conventional, and nonideological, American mass or school shooters.”

The rise of post-ideological terror is clearly a political issue, stemming from social isolation, hopelessness and anomie among young men, coupled with the easy availability of guns. But it’s an issue that our politics is proving wholly unable to reckon with. In her new book “Black Pill,” the journalist Elle Reeve described the miserable men who congregate in the darkest corners of the internet, talking themselves and one another into apocalyptic action. “You can’t go on like this forever,” she wrote. “It hurts too much. You need some relief from the unrelenting doom. You start to imagine what comes after this system fails. That’s the world you need to prepare for, not this one. If the present reality is corrupt and dying, then you are no longer bound by its moral and ethical restraints.” Another way to put this comes from one of the Batman movies: Some men just want to watch the world burn.

We don’t yet know if Crooks was one of these men. But so far, the absence of a clear rationale for his hideous and history-making act has been uncanny, and Ware’s framework offers a way to understand this disturbing lacuna. There’s certainly no indication, as of this writing, that Crooks’s motives can be slotted into our partisan battles. It’s a truism, by now, that widespread American entropy and despair led to Trump’s rise. Those same forces may have incubated the failed man who tried to make him a martyr.

(NY Times)

LIVE BY THE SWORD

by Lisa Savage

I'm not going to share all the blathering by genocide supporters saying "political violence has no place in 'Murica." This country was literally built on political violence, and our collective fealty to weapons drives the death toll around the globe.

Our most theatrical president showed his instincts for playing to the audience even amid an active shooter attack, bleeding copiously but raising a defiant fist before being whisked away. Unless he knew in advance that someone was going to aim at his head but only graze his ear, I must grudgingly admit he came across as courageous in the moment. More than one commentator has observed that his victory in November is now almost certain. Also that the DNC might as well keep geriatric genocide Joe as their candidate because nobody will be able to beat Trump now anyway.

I was of course interested in who the shooter was. Turns out he was a textbook U.S. mass shooter: A young white male with a combat-style gun purchased by a parent, and explosives in his car. Described by classmates as a right wing loner, he chose to wear a Mt. Rushmore with flag t-shirt on high school picture day.

Why did he, a registered Republican, decide to shoot up a Trump rally? We'll probably never know. The Secret Service snipers shot him dead on the roof he was shooting from.

It's already ironic that the party and president most likely to cheer for political violence and act to make sure that everyone, including teenagers, is armed to the teeth were targeted by a mass shooter.

But the "live by the sword, die by the sword" irony deepens.

The other fatality was Corey Comperatore who attended Trump's rally with his family. Internet sleuths found his social media profile chock full of incitements to and glorifications of violence. A sampling:

Comperatore died before he could experience the effects of nuclear bombing himself, but I'm pretty sure he would not have "gotten over it."

Our corporate overlords would prefer that we have a civil war rather than the revolution we need. Early reports that the shooter was Antifa just made most of us suspect the CIA. Now that we find out the shooter was one of the GOP's own, the event is less useful in that regard. But a lie travels around the world several times before the truth can even get its shoes on, as the saying goes.

With the Democratic convention coming up in Chicago amid an ongoing genocide they're supporting, this summer already had strong 1968 vibes. Will violence break out as Chicago police bash demonstrators against Genocide Joe's continued "leadership"? Almost certainly. Will the unpopular war on Gaza figure prominently in the election? It already has as Trump used "Palestinian" as an insult hurled at Biden during their first "debate". Those who want to find favor with the donors scurry around to appear more Zionist than Netanyahu, and even Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein condemned Hamas.

1968 was a year of riots, police violence, war on Vietnam, and assassinations. RFK's fatal shooting is getting a lot of attention right now as his Zionist son begs for Secret Service protection, but you know who else was assassinated in or around 1968? A whole bunch of revolutionaries, many of them Black: Fred Hampton, MLK Jr., Mark Clark, Bobby Hutton, and Malcolm X to name a few. By 1985 police bombed a home and let fire destroy a neighborhood in West Philadelphia in order to kill 6 Black activists with the MOVE organization, and 5 of their children.

We in the U.S. have lived by the sword for 500 years, slaughtering the indigenous people and then enslaving millions to steal their labor. That we will die by the sword is almost certain. Silence will not protect us.

What to do? Join us to confront General Dynamics at their shipyard in Bath, Maine on Saturday July 27. Tell them to stop arming genocide by building ships that enforce the blockade of Gaza and menace Yemen. Wherever you find yourself this summer, share the news that Israel tortures people to death and has killed tens of thousands of children supported by your tax dollars. Media hyperfocus on violence against one rich white guy is a distraction from what really ails us.

BILLIONAIRES RALLY TO ENDORSE TRUMP AFTER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

by Jake Johnson

Several prominent billionaires — including the richest man on Earth — took to social media over the weekend to endorse presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump shortly after a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate the former president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

One of the billionaires was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who took to the social media platform that he owns to declare, “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.” The endorsement came days after reports that Musk donated to a pro-Trump super PAC and just ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

An analyst with the Atlantic Council told The Washington Post that Musk’s endorsement of Trump garnered “the most engagement of any post on X related to the attempted assassination.”

Musk also suggested that the Secret Service’s failure to detect and stop the gunman before he opened fire may have been “deliberate” — a post that was viewed 87 million times.

Hours after Musk’s endorsement post went live, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman announced his decision to formally back Trump’s bid for a second term in the White House, four years after the former president attempted to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and sparked a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Ackman, who has historically supported Democrats, wrote in a lengthy X post that he had privately decided to endorse Trump “some time ago” and suggested he would offer a more thorough explanation of his decision in the near future.

“I just haven’t had the time nor felt the urgency to write the post as we are still a few months from the election,” Ackman wrote on Saturday, hours after a gunman later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire with an AR-style rifle, hitting Trump’s right ear and killing one rally attendee.

Another billionaire, venture capitalist David Sacks, reiterated his support for Trump over the weekend after formally endorsing the former president last month and hosting a $300,000-per-person fundraiser for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Sacks, who declared following the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection that Trump had “disqualified himself from being a candidate at the national level again,” called the former president a “hero” on Sunday and gushed that he has “risked everything for this country.”

The trio joins at least a dozen other billionaires backing Trump, who postures as a populist ally of the working class while supporting policies that overwhelmingly benefit the ultra-rich.

Billionaires got $1 trillion richer during Trump’s first term and have seen their wealth soar by $2.2 trillion since the passage of the Trump-GOP tax cuts in 2017.

Between December 2017 and September 2023, according to a recent analysis by the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness, Musk saw his net worth rise from $20.4 billion to nearly $270 billion — a 1,222.8% increase.

THE SURRENDER

In the wake of a fatal shooting and attempted assassination of Donald Trump, a series of reversals may mark the beginning of a new political era.

by Matt Taibbi

The decision was announced at a White House briefing Monday morning. “In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr.,” was the quote from Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas.

It’s difficult to read the line “in light of this weekend’s events” and not see an admission on the part of the White House that Secret Service protection was previously being denied to Kennedy, Jr. for political reasons, or out of spite, if those are even two different things in this era. Whatever the original prerogative was for pushing the envelope with that denial, it seems to have been removed by series of paradigm-shattering news events, leading to a flurry of real and symbolic surrenders.

MSNBC likewise made an extraordinary decision Sunday night to pull Morning Joe, with CNN saying the network wanted to “to avoid a scenario in which one of the show’s stable of two dozen-plus guests might make an inappropriate comment on live television.” As with the Secret Service decision, MSNBC was making a major admission, essentially telling audiences its lead morning news show is either not really a news show, or that its format only holds up under something less than maximum scrutiny. I can’t recall a similar act of self-sabotage in media.

Meanwhile, in a move that went mostly unnoticed, Meta announced Friday that it was lifting restrictions on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, with CNN citing company sources saying this was done “to ensure that Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, would have equal standing with Democrat President Joe Biden.” The next day, after the attempt on Trump’s life that left firefighter Corey Comperatore dead, Axios ran a story about Democratic reaction. Burying the lede, they quoted a “senior House Democrat” at the bottom, saying, “We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency.”

There’s a longer story to be written about the sudden collapse of many of the core premises of the last eight years of American politics, in particular the notion that Trump is such a unique “existential” threat that the system would not bear treating him like any other politician. In conjunction with Trump’s documents case collapsing and a list of other retreats on the lawfare/prosecution front, we appear headed for a new world, though what that will look like remains very unclear. The two obvious options are retreat from the “at all costs” mindset and a double-down, the double-down being the pattern in the Trump era. Who knows yet, but it’s remarkable to watch.

(racket.news)

At the turn of the 19th century and into the 20th, a group of artists set themselves apart from the American Impressionists and academics. The most extensively trained member of this group was Robert Henri. Henri and a number of other artists comprised the first generation of what came to be known as the Ashcan School. A second generation consisted of Henri's New York students, of whom George Bellows was the most devoted. Bellows would became well known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City.

When I was a boy I not only loved playing sports, but I enjoyed its history as well, including reading old newspaper clippings, listening to stories, viewing old images, even looking at paintings. The painting that most caught my interest was Bellows' famous painting of Luis Firpo knocking Jack Dempsey out of the ring during a boxing match at NYC's Polo Grounds on September 14, 1923. Dempsey went on to win the match knocking Firpo to the canvas a total of nine times in less than two rounds.

The painting is in NYC's Whitney Museum.

LEAD STORIES IN WEDNESDAY'S NYT

In Milwaukee, a G.O.P. Transformation From Dysfunctional to Unified

Latino Republicans and Independents Back Trump’s Deportation Plan, to a Point

Biden Finally Got Border Numbers Down. Will He See the Political Benefits?

Branded a Felon, Menendez Sees His Political Future Fast Evaporating

Crisis Hotline Has Answered 10 Million Calls, Texts and Chats

IF PEOPLE PRAISING YOU knew the half of it, they’d think twice.

— Peter Schjeldhl

A CANCER ON THE WEST BANK

by Ellen Cantarow

In 1979, I made the first of what would turn out to be decades of periodic visits to Israel and the West Bank. I traveled there for the New York alternative publication The Village Voice to investigate Israel’s growing settler movement, Gush Emunim (or the Bloc of the Faithful). The English-language Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, then reported that settlers from Kiryat Arba, a Jewish West Bank outpost, had murdered two Palestinian teenagers from the village of Halhoul. There, in one of the earliest West Bank settlements established by Gush Emunim, a distant cousin of my husband had two acquaintances. Under cover of being a Jew in search of enlightenment, I spent several days and nights with them.

Gush Emunim: The Origin of the Settlement Movement

Zvi and Hannah Eidels, my hosts, lived in a four-room apartment in the settlement, which jutted out of an otherwise lovely Mediterranean landscape dotted with stone terraces, olive trees, fruit groves, and grape vines. Kiryat Arba flanked the Palestinian city of Hebron and was an eight-minute car drive from Halhoul on which I wrote a separate article about the murder of those two teens.

My initial evening with the Eidels happened to be on the holy day of shabat.

The rush to finish cooking ended just before sundown and 32-year-old Hannah, very pregnant with her sixth child, turned to me. “Do you light?” she asked. For a moment I thought she was asking how I coped with power failures in the American economic twilight. She took me to the 10-by-12-foot living room. Just above a photograph of the spiritual father of Gush Emunim, Rabbi Avraham Kook, a bearded man with a fur-trimmed hat and heavy-lidded eyes, stood a row of candles on a tiny shelf. I suddenly recalled Friday evenings in my grandmother’s apartment in Philadelphia and was unnerved to find myself, an assimilated Jew — an atheist, no less — standing in Kiryat Arba, once again brushing up against Orthodoxy. I nonetheless took the matchbox, lit the candles, and stood there quietly for what I hoped was a decent interval.

Later, Hannah filled me in on her theory of Jewish superiority: all of creation, she assured me, is suspended in a great chain of being. On the bottom: inanimate non-living things. A link farther up: animate vegetation. Then, non-human animal life. Next, animate non-Jews. On the top, of course, were the Jews. “This may shock you,” she said, “but I don’t really believe in democracy. We believe,” she faltered for a moment, glancing at Zvi who was sitting quietly beside us cracking sunflower seeds and spitting the husks expertly onto a plate, “in theocracy. Right, Zvi?” “Not exactly,” said Zvi. “Not a theocracy. The government of God.”

Gush Emunim was both religious and militant. In a curious blend of ultra-Orthodoxy and historically secular Zionism, “the Faithful” claimed as their own some of the territories conquered in the Six-Day War, the 1967 conflict Israel fought against a coalition of Arab states, during which it took the West Bank, which its leaders called “Judea and Samaria.”

“Here began our first place,” one movement leader told me, “in Schechem [Nablus], where Jacob bought a plot of land. Here is the true world of Judaism.”

“Some people think the goal of Zionism was peace,” another Gush activist explained. “That is ridiculous. The goal of Zionism is to construct a people on its land.” But, he continued, “there were moral problems. There were Arabs living here. By what right did we throw them out? And we did throw them out… All the stuff about socialism, about national redemption, may be true, but that’s only one part. The fact is, we returned here because the Eternal gave us the land. It’s ridiculous, stupid, simplistic, but that’s what it is. All the rest is superficial. We came back here because we belong.”

And so began the settler movement, which, to this day, has never ended or stopped taking land from the Palestinians.

The Alon Plan

Even before that Jewish supremacist incursion, Yigal Alon, Yitzhak Rabin’s deputy prime minister, drafted a plan calling for settlements that would extend Israel’s political boundaries to the Jordan River. Such new Jewish settlements would ring Palestinian villages and towns and separate them from one another. In 1979, when I interviewed the mayor of Halhoul, where those two teens had been murdered, he took me to a hilltop, pointed to Kiryat Arba, and said all too prophetically: “The settlements are a cancer in our midst. A cancer can kill one man. But this cancer can kill a whole people.”

Following the Six-Day War, leaders of the Faithful supplied the shock troops for those growing settlements. It was common wisdom then that the situation “on the ground” was changing from month to month in favor of the Israelis. When I first started reporting there, a trip between East Jerusalem and Ramallah took about 20 minutes. However, once settler-only highways had been built and checkpoints put in place for Palestinians, the trip became at least twice as long. Initially, just soldiers posted on the roads, such checkpoints would later be industrialized with footpaths, tunnels, and turnstiles that looked like the ones in the subway system of New York where I later lived. Palestinians were then often forced to wait, sometimes for hours, before being allowed — or not — to proceed to their destinations.

The Israel-U.S. Peace Process

In 1993, a “peace process” was launched in — yes, you could hardly get farther away — Oslo, Norway. It “changed the modalities of the occupation,” as Noam Chomsky put it, “but not the basic concept… [H]istorian Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote that ‘the Oslo agreements were founded on a neo-colonialist basis, on a life of dependence of one on the other forever.’” The U.S.-Israeli proposals at Camp David in 2000 only strengthened that colonialist urge. Palestinians were to be confined to 200 scattered areas. President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ehud Barak proposed the consolidation of the Palestinian population into three cantons under Israeli control, separated from one another and from East Jerusalem.

From then on, Israel only continued its relentless occupation of Palestinian land. In 2002, it started erecting an enormous barrier wall along the Green Line and parts of the West Bank. At its most dramatic, that wall is a series of 25-foot-high concrete slabs punctuated by militarized watch towers, supplemented by electronically monitored electrified fences stretching over vast distances.

After 1979, every time I traveled to the West Bank I saw new Jewish settlements in formation, with their characteristic red-tiled roofs and white walls. Meanwhile, the Israelis restricted Palestinians from building new homes or even additions to current ones. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, that prohibitive situation has resulted in an uglified city center with ever taller buildings. Today, in photos of Ramallah’s contemporary downtown I can’t even recognize the place I last visited in 2009.

Violence

From the very start, Jewish violence has accompanied the proliferation of settlements. In 1979, settlers and soldiers were already terrorizing residents of the Palestinian village of Halhoul and committing violence elsewhere. “A rash of civilian acts of vandalism occurred last spring,” I wrote that year. “Settlers… uprooted several acres of grapevines belonging to farmers from Hebron… Kiryat Arba residents also broke into several Arab houses in Hebron and wrecked them.” A four-year-old boy slipped out of his house during one of the curfews (levied by the Israelis on Halhoul, but not, of course, on Kiryat Arba). That child was then stoned by Israeli soldiers. Five months later, I reported speaking with his mother. She “thrust the child toward me and pointed at a scar that still showed on his forehead. ‘What can we do?’ she implored me. ‘We have no weapons. We are helpless. We can’t defend ourselves.’”

In 1994, an American extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, murdered 29 Palestinian worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and wounded another 125 of them. He was a supporter of the extremist Kach (Thus) movement founded by American rabbi Meir Kahane. In 1988, that movement and a split-off from it called Kahane Chai (Long Live Kahane) were declared to be “terrorist” in character by the Israeli government. It mattered little, however, since terrorism against Palestinians continued to flourish.

Too Little, Too Late

Forty-five years after my first report on the settlements, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote that a farmer in his seventies living in the West Bank village of Qusra, Abdel-Majeed Hassan, had shown him “the blackened ground where his car had been set on fire, the latest of four cars belonging to his family that he said [Israeli] settlers had destroyed.” Six residents of Qusra had been killed in such attacks, Kristof reported, between October 2023 and late June 2024. Israel’s government responded to the October 7th Hamas assault in Gaza by endorsing “more checkpoints, more raids, more Israeli settlements.” Almost duplicating the agonized statement of that Palestinian interviewee of mine in 1979, another Palestinian, an American engineer who had returned to the West Bank, told Kristof, “I’m an American citizen, but if they attack me here, what can I do? They can break my gate; they can kill me.”

His article was entitled “We Are Coming to Horrible Days.” Coming? The horror began over half a century ago. Had the New York Times run similar articles, starting in the late 1970s; had successive American governments not turned a blind eye to what was happening; had Washington not continued funding Israel’s crimes with some $3 billion a year in aid, that country’s land thefts and other crimes on the West Bank could never have continued. In 1979, Israel was already confiscating water from Halhoul and other Palestinian villages, while in the ensuing years you could see swimming pools and lush lawns in the Jewish settlements there, even as Palestinian villages and towns were left to collect rainwater in barrels on housetops.

Twenty-three years after I made my first trip, the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem reported that, in “the first decade following the occupation, the left-leaning ‘Alignment’ governments followed the Alon Plan.” It advocated settling areas “perceived as having security importance” and sparse in Palestinian populations. Later, governments under the far more conservative Likud Party began establishing settlements across the West Bank, not just based on security considerations but ideological ones.

Jewish Supremacy

A word about the attitudes of Israeli Jews. In 1982, I interviewed a group of Israeli teenagers, one of whom, the daughter of Israeli leftist acquaintances of mine, told me that each new generation in her country was more right-wing than that of its parents. On one of several trips to Hebron in those years, I read this graffiti on a wall: “Arabs To Gas Chambers.”

It certainly caught the mood of both that moment and those that followed to this day. For decades, in fact, the cry “Death to Arabs!” could be heard at some Israeli demonstrations. By the time Israel began its genocidal campaign in Gaza in 2023, you could watch videos of Israeli soldiers dancing and chanting “Death to Amalek! (The name Amalek refers to ancient biblical enemies of the Jews.)

Kristof writes that “Israel’s ‘state-backed settler violence,’ as Amnesty International describes it, is enforced by American weapons provided to Israel. When armed settlers terrorize Palestinians and force them off their land — as has happened to 18 communities since October [2023] — they sometimes carry American M16 rifles. Sometimes they are escorted by Israeli troops…The United States is already in the thick of the West Bank conflict… Many settlers have American accents and draw financial support from donors in the United States.”

But keep in mind that this is nothing new. Baruch Goldstein, that infamous mass murderer of 1994, was an American and it was very clear even then that American Jews were among the most rabid of the settlers.

In 2021, fulfilling the prophecy of the very first Israeli settler I ever visited, Zvi Eidels, the Israeli regime established what the human rights organization B’tselem called “a recognition of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”

It feels bitter indeed to me to be able to say, “I told you so.” My accounts were largely ignored in those decades when I periodically reported from the West Bank. After all, I wrote for The Village Voice and other non-mainstream publications. The New York Times was largely silent on the subject then and Kristof’s recent telling observations sadly come decades too late. Even as I was finishing this article, Israeli forces were bombing densely populated neighborhoods in the Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps in the northern West Bank. (The Nur Shams brigade, which was an Israeli target, is an armed resistance group affiliated, according to Mondoweiss, with the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.)

Raja Shehadeh, one of Palestine’s greatest writers, recently let me know that even he – whom Israeli forces once recognized as an illustrious person and allowed to travel in relative freedom — fears venturing outside since the settlers are “all over” the West Bank. In a recent Guardian article he wrote: “I spent the last 50 years of my life getting used to the loss of the Palestine of my parents; and… I might spend the remaining years of my life trying to get used to the loss of Palestine in its entirety.”

I’ve known Shehadeh since 1982 and never in all those years had I seen him despair. It’s unbelievably depressing to find him writing this now. All I could write back was: “I’m afraid you may be right.” Sometimes evil does triumph. Israel has now become a largely fascist country with a deeply fascist government and it has been transformed into that, at least in significant part, because my country has profusely underwritten the most malignant developments there, which are still ongoing.

Just as I was finishing this article, in fact, the Associated Press reported that “Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades.” That land grab, its account added, “reflects the settler community’s strong influence in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most religious and nationalist in the country’s history.” Thus have the prophecies of the religious-nationalist Gush Emunim been fulfilled.

[Author’s Note: I am forever indebted to Noam Chomsky, with whom I first became friends in 1964, and whose 1974 book, ‘Peace in the Middle East?,’ taught me about the realities of Israel’s subjugation of the Palestinians. For my first trip, he provided me with the name of a person of great influence, the incomparable Dr. Israel Shahak, as well as of other holocaust survivors opposing Israel’s occupation. Noam Chomsky launched me on the long trajectory of my writing about Palestine from 1979 to this very moment. He is now 95 years old and in Brazil with his wife Valeria, recovering from a stroke. May he be blessed through the ages.]

(This piece first appeared on TomDispatch. Ellen Cantarow, a Boston-based journalist, first wrote from Israel and the West Bank in 1979. Her work has been published in Le Monde diplomatique, the Village Voice, Grand Street, Tom Dispatch and Mother Jones, among other publications, and was anthologized by the South End Press. More recently, her writing has appeared at CounterPunch, ZNet, and Alternet. CounterPunch.org)

17 Comments

Craig Stehr July 17, 2024

~The Sound of No Hands Clapping~
It is a cool quarter past five in the morning in Ukiah, California. The heat wave has subsided, and everybody can breathe again. Have been taking a bagful of pulmonary related products to function normally, which has been successful. And then the two cold sores appeared on the lower right lip, which has been an indicator since grade school that major change is about to happen. Am remaining calm after reading the latest news online. I’ll be voting eco-anarchist again in the upcoming elections. Have received two invitations from the eastern seaboard to continue being active on planet earth, one from Penobscot Bay Watch in Maine, and of course The Peace Vigil located directly across the street from the White House, which I’ve participated in 15 times since June of 1991. There are no specifics in regard to food, shelter, and clothing. However, I bought some clothes and new shoes and sandals recently on sale. Will most likely continue eating well in the American experiment in freedom and democracy. Have given up on housing, generally speaking, and will have to win LOTTO apparently to ensure long term living indoors. Whatever, it’s summer and the livin’ is easy.

Meanwhile, reality is that the Dao or Divine Absolute or God or whatever you wish to call the comprehensive spiritual reality is working through this body-mind complex. The jnana yoga teaching is: “Not the body not the mind Immortal Self I am”. Practically speaking, this is being a witness of the thoughts. And deeper, the absence of identifying with being at all, which is the fourth dimension or nirvikalpa samadhi. Anyway, this is something which we may all chew on.

The last dental appointment is Friday morning in Sonoma County, to receive the crown replacement following the root canal, all of which Partnership of California has paid for. This began the last week of February! It is true that Medicare and related insurance plans will cover the cost of necessary health care, but one must be prepared to wait, and wait, and wait. After over two years bull dogging it at the Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center, I have given up on getting subsidized housing. Wasn’t chosen by landlords, mostly because they did not want to be bothered with the paperwork to get the federal $2,000, and then the federal voucher timed out anyway. Was offered a free tent by social services two days before my housing navigator’s indigenous tribe’s social service Northern Circle graciously interviewed me at her request, and got me into a motel from June 7th to August 5th. Now that’s cutting it close! Big props to the native American community for providing critical social services in this crazy postmodern situation in bankrupt Mendocino County.

As always, in the midst of this insane political season (with the planet earth’s rotational behavior now slowed down due to the melting of the ice and other global warming factors), my continuing advocation is for the formation of spiritually directed nomadic action groups. Does anybody want to do anything? Keep in mind that I’ve got three thousand dollars, two pieces of luggage, and God is on our side. 😁

Craig Louis Stehr
Royal Motel
750 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
(707) 462-7536, Room 206
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
17.VII.’24

Reply
Marshall Newman July 17, 2024

The 1879 Sequoia photograph is the Wawona Tree in Yosemite National Park and was actually shot in the 1880s (the hole wasn’t cut until 1881). The tree fell, due to the weight of snow in its crown, in February, 1969.

Reply
Harvey Reading July 17, 2024

The old Studebaker looks to me more like something from a science fiction movie than it does European. They always struck me as strange looking when, as a kid in the 50s and 60s I’d see them periodically. Never had any desire to own one, though, and never rode in one. My father, born in 1904, had many tales from his childhood and adulthood about a variety of car brands, Studebakers among them.

Reply
- Chuck Dunbar July 17, 2024
  
  First car I ever drove, a practice session as a teenager with my dad in Kansas, was one of those classic Studebaker “rocket ship” models, with a stick shift. Studebaker was bold in its designs for sure, out of the ordinary.
  
  Reply
  - Craig Stehr July 17, 2024
    
    During high school in Milwaukee, I was the galleryman at Brooks Stevens’s auto museum in the summer. He was the industrial designer who made a fortune before marrying one of the Uihlein sisters who owned Schlitz, and later he designed cars for Studebaker. One day at the auto museum, as a joke, his son Dave had the mechanics put a corvette engine in a classic Mercedes-Benz SSK, which he then gunned around the artificial lake at the museum, producing much laughter. Some of Dave’s friends wanted one, so Brooks had a couple of them manufactured. The creation caught on, and became the Excalibur Car Company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Stevens
    
    Reply
Eric Sunswheat July 17, 2024

RE: Therefore Mr. McGourty legally contracted to have his principal place of residence in Fort Bragg as of July 15, 2024. Having place of residence outside of your supervisorial district is an automatic forfeiture of office.

—> Supervisor McGourty is a resident in the district he represents. A private contract obligation mortgage does not change this. Civil process by the lender may be slow walked so the cure is no harm except procedural costs.
A charging agency filing might not be pursued by the District Attorney. There is not a public official violation requiring automatic forfeiture of office, in this regard currently. Consult an attorney.

Reply
Stephen Rosenthal July 17, 2024

Ed Notes: “THE ONLY listenable SF talk show used to be the one hosted by Michael Krazny at KQED Radio.”

Gotta disagree with you, Bruce. Until he began to mail it in very late in his career, Ralph Barbieri was must-listen radio. Yeah it was sports talk, but he didn’t limit himself to sports. He often delved into politics and social issues. When he was interviewing someone he had personal or professional issues with, it was electrifying. I miss the guy.

Reply
Kirk Vodopals July 17, 2024

Mr. Crooks may have been a nihilistic loner, but a society that allows a 20-yr old kid to walk around in public with a fully loaded firearm in plain sight is a bigger problem in my eyes.

Reply
Jim Shields July 17, 2024

Very interesting and timely CalMatters report today that amplifies my series on the broken system of mental health and homelessness in California. BTW, thank you to everybody who has commented and others who have shared narratives about their personal or professional experiences regarding these issues, and my practical suggestions to begin solving these problems. Of course, most folks familiar with the failed system here in Mendocino County know that one of the major failures is that private sector and so-called public-private sector providers of mental health and homeless services are not held accountable by local government officials through such mechanisms as performance audits and related performance provisions and standards in the myriads of provider contracts handed out over the last two decades.
Anyway, here’s a summary of the CalMatters report:

CA Cities and Counties Ignoring Mandate To Monitor Homeless Shelters
In 2021, responding to reports that the state’s homeless shelters were dirty and dangerous, the state Legislature crafted a plan: It would require local governments to inspect their shelters after complaints and file annual reports on shelter conditions.
Three years on, California’s cities and counties have basically ignored the mandate.
Just 5 of California’s 58 counties — Lake, Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange and Yuba — had filed shelter reports as of this spring. Only 4 of the state’s 478 cities filed reports: Fairfield, Petaluma, Santa Rosa and Woodland.
The reporting comes at a crucial moment for shelters in California. Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cities more power to ban sleeping outside. Homeless Californians face a crucial decision: Try to get into a shelter, or risk going to jail.
That means authorities could funnel more and more people into a shelter system that’s growing quickly, even as experts stress that other options — such as direct rent subsidies or housing with on-site services — are often more effective at combating the root issue.
California has spent at least $1.5 billion on shelters and related solutions since 2018, legislative reports show, on top of millions invested by cities, counties and the federal government.
The facilities are designed to be a temporary stop on the road to regaining housing but increasingly function as a bridge to nowhere.
The state added new emergency shelter beds at five times the rate of permanent housing with supportive services from 2018 to 2023, gaining 27,544 shelter beds, federal data shows.
Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, a La Palma Democrat who authored the law: “It is shocking, number one, that there is so little reporting, considering that is part of the legislation. We are asking for the basics here.”

I don’t think many people here in Mendocino County are shocked by any of this. We’ve been observing it first-hand for too long.
And the beat goes on.

Reply
- Mazie Malone July 17, 2024
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  In regard to the ban on sleeping outside……people sleep outside of our shelter and across the street from it all the time, since that ruling a few weeks ago I have not seen any arrests for camping out on the streets. Maybe they all have moved beyond the city limits?
  
  Dropping the ball on purpose? Or default because no one really gives a shit?
  
  Unbelievable the lack of oversight and accountability.
  
  mm 💕
  
  Reply
Zanzibar to Andalusia July 17, 2024

Lisa Savage leaves out quoting Corey Comperatore and instead gives us a quote from a response to him: “Comperatore died before he could experience the effects of nuclear bombing himself, but I’m pretty sure he would not have ‘gotten over it.'”

Why did someone say something that callous to a firefighter who went to church every sunday and died protecting his family? It’s because Comperatore, in response to a rare pro-Palestinian post by Piers Morgan decrying the devastation in Gaza, he posted “They’ll get over it. The Japanese did.”

I guess Mr., Comperatore’s family will just have to get over it then.

Meanwhile… the rabbit holes keep opening up and going deeper. Let’s ask some basic questions.

Q: Was this a “deep state” (in the sense meant by the person who coined the term, Professor Peter Dale Scott) hit?
A: Nope. The deep state triangulates. The patsy doesn’t fire the kill shot. (In this case, the patsy was thrown out of the gun club for being a bad shot.)

Q: Was there only one shooter?
A: Nope. Multiple witnesses reported shots coming from the water tower. When the people in the stands get hit, the crowd turns to look at the water tower, not the roof were the patsy was.

Q: Did team Trump stage this?
A: I don’t know. I do see something yellow in his hand as he reaches for his ear, and there’s no blood on his hand when he brings it down. A well-known coward, he rises to his feet, fist pumps, and shouts “fight!” Anyone who understands the size of bullet involved would find it hard to believe that it caused as little damage as it did.

Q: Qui bono?
A: Trump.

But not Trump alone. The Mighty Wurlitzer (look it up) kicked into gear immediately after the debate. each and every commentator goosestepping in line with their judgement on Biden, letting Trump’s liefest go unrebutted.

The “choice” in November boils down to war with Russia (Biden), or war with Iran leading to war with Russia (Trump). The deep state has made their choice.

Reply
jetfuel July 17, 2024

TIME FOR CEO ANTLE TO RESIGN OR BE FIRED

This is an open letter to the Board of Supervisors, the CEO, Darcie Antle and the public:

I call upon the BOS to demand Ms. Antle step down from her position as CEO.

Ms. Antle was hired as CEO for her alleged financial experience. The current State audit is an indictment of gross County mis-management. I have personally heard from multiple Board members that she is not responding to their requests for information, or keeping the BOS informed of her decisions. The many poor decisions her office is making are costing the County millions of dollars in litigation, wasted man-hours un-doing bad decisions, uncollected taxes, and inefficient unresponsive public services. The Veteran’s Office fiasco; the allegations against the elected Auditor; the on-going inability of the Cannabis Department to function as it was intended; the combining Public Health and Behavioral Health with no independent study to determine whether it was a good idea; and most troubling, there has been NO response to the very serious findings of the Grand Jury report about the under-staffing and too large case-loads at Family and Children’s Services and Adult Protective Services. Her office has taken over running almost all the County departments, including Human Resources, which seems like an obvious conflict of interest. Department heads are hired because they are subject matter experts, but the Deputy CEO’s now running almost all County departments lack this expertise. The County complains that they can’t hire department heads. Duh – no one wants to take a job that they could be marched out of at a moment’s notice and jeopardize their future careers. Our track record on how we treat our employees is horrible.

Ms. Antle has shown she is not up to the task of Chief Executive Officer and I call upon the BOS to remove her as CEO.

Respectfully,

Julie Beardsley

Former Mendocino County Senior Public Health Analyst

Past President of SEIU 1021

Concerned citizen

Reply
MAGA Marmon July 17, 2024

Grand Jury finds issues with homeless housing and programs in Lake County

‘Xamatin Haven in Lakeport, operated by Redwood Community Services, provides 35 guests shelter, meals and support in finding more permanent housing. It operates under contract with Lake County Behavioral Health which authorizes $2.2 million in HUD funds and $200,000 in Lake County funds for a 3-year contract. Hope Center, another nonprofit in Clearlake, provides housing and support services for 20 Lake County residents experiencing homelessness. CalWORKS helps eligible families with $5 million in annual cash payments for housing, food and utilities, while CalFRESH helps low-income families with food purchasing. Lake Family Resource Center uses their $4.5 million annual budget to provide housing support for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and/or stalking. They offer transitional housing in their 17-bed facility and market rental housing support for up to a year. The Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians described a plan to develop low-income housing on 63 acres near the Twin Pines Casino. The plan proposes some 45 homes, 5 cabins and a 21-space RV park. A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) for Lake County will provide data to policymakers to understand and address the complexities of homelessness and develop effective solutions.”

https://www.record-bee.com/2024/07/17/grand-jury-finds-issues-with-homeless-housing-and-programs-in-lake-county/?utm_content=fb-recordbee&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0h-oHZypXnwHUKZCpLF69PTUopupotb-klogB0US5y6vIEcJ-EgygOcQo_aem_tqvOGiUSlGotrw7e5UdwZw

See Report here:

https://www.lakecountyca.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/614

MAGA Marmon

Reply
- MAGA Marmon July 17, 2024
  
  RE: REDWOOD COMMUNITY SERVICS’ XAMATIN HAVEN.
  
  ‘The Lakeport facility is not ideal for the restorative and recovery services they provide
  because of the location away from city center, and it is still configured as a correctional facility, from which it was adapted. Staff are trained to handle mental health disorders and substance abuse problems.’
  
  PAGE 23
  
  https://www.lakecountyca.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/614
  
  MAGA Marmon
  
  Reply
Jim Armstrong July 17, 2024

Studebaker and Packard joined together at the end of their lives as the big three killed them.
They both made better cars in almost all respects than did their killers..

Reply
- David Severn July 17, 2024
  
  My 49 Ford flat head v8 could tear up 55 Chevys at the official drag strips but it was the Studebakers that kicked my ass.
  
  Reply
  - Craig Stehr July 18, 2024
    
    Studebaker National Museum
    https://www.studebakermuseum.org/
    
    Reply

Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 7/17/2024

17 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply