Mendocino County Today: Thursday 7/18/2024

By AVA News Service on July 18, 2024

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. There is a slight chance for thunderstorms Saturday in Trinity county. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Thursday morning I have an overcast 54F. Our forecast calls for mostly cloudy today then clearing skies into the weekend. As always forecasting the fog remains the biggest local forecasting challenge I face.

BILL KIMBERLIN: It is finally far enough into summer that I can stop at this wonderful organic Brock Farm, which is the first place on the dirt road to my place in Boonville. Fresh corn, early girl tomatoes, peaches and lots more other goodies.

ANOTHER HEAT WAVE ON TAP FOR NORTH BAY

by Madison Smalstig

The second heat wave to hit the North Bay in three weeks will push temperatures into the 90s and possibly 100s and increase chances for fire spread, according to the National Weather Service.

The high-pressure system responsible for last week’s highs near 110 degrees is returning Wednesday, weather service meteorologist Dylan Flynn said. This round of higher temperatures will not be as intense but will increase the heat risk well into next week.

“We are going to be up in the upper 90s,” said Flynn, who works in the weather service’s Monterey office. “And, to be honest, the latest trends and forecasts have been turning warmer and warmer.

“We could flirt with triple digits and places like Santa Rosa,” he added.

Temperatures will peak Friday, with 97 degrees in Santa Rosa and 93 degrees in Napa. Cloverdale, consistently one of the hottest spots in the North Bay, is set for 101 degrees.

The weather service issued a heat advisory for Thursday and Friday for inland portions of the North Bay.

Meteorologists are uncertain with the forecast, however, because models are showing varying possibilities for highs. Some are indicating hotter temperatures.

“We don't quite know exactly what's going to happen at this point,” Flynn said.

Given the current forecast, officials are predicting a widespread moderate heat risk in interior portions of the North Bay with some spots of major risk. Those who are more sensitive to heat could become ill if they aren’t in air conditioning, aren’t drinking enough water or are working outside too long.

The marine layer is expected to hold together through the heat wave this time, allowing for higher humidity and more onshore winds to curb threats of red flag warnings.

On Thursday and Friday nights, offshore winds with gusts up to 30 mph in higher elevations coupled with the higher overnight temperatures and lower humidity ― especially in the Mayacamas Mountains ― could create volatile conditions.

The weather service has not issued a fire weather watch, but it is possible, Flynn said. Concerns over fire spread will dissipate Saturday morning, when the winds are predicted to slow.

Though inland areas will battle another round of hot days, the coast will again remain cooler, with highs from the 50s to upper-60s. On Friday, the high could reach 70 degrees in Bodega Bay.

(The Press Democrat)

VALERIE HANELT, AV Community Services District Board Chair:

The Caltrans project manager contacted me this morning to let me know that, due to the concerns over construction sequencing conflicts with he AVCSD planned Water/Wastewater projects, they have decided to re-schedule the sidewalk/bikelane/repaving project through Boonville until the summer of 2029. They will hold a meeting in Boonville for public input about sidewalk treatments, bike lanes and parking concerns during the summer of 2028.

WILLITS DUI CASE RESETS AFTER MISTRIAL DECLARED

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations last Thursday (July 11) to announce it was hopelessly deadlocked and would not be able to reach unanimous verdicts. After the foreperson was questioned by the trial judge as to whether further deliberations might be fruitful, a mistrial was declared.

Defendant Clayton Joel Sternick, age 44, of Willits remains charged with driving a motor vehicle under the influence of a drug, driving a motor vehicle on a suspended license due to a prior DUI conviction with prior convictions for same, hit-and-run driving, failure to show proof of auto insurance, and driving a motor vehicle with an expired registration.

After last week’s jury was excused, the defendant’s case was reset for trial in front of a new jury to begin August 26, 2024.

LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

AV SPORTS DIRECTOR JOHN TOOHEY:

AV Soccer and Volleyball start August 12

Football starts July 29

OUT OF SYNC

Dear Editor,

Our Tax Dollars At Work…

The reimbursement for an Apple watch in the amount of $872.91 to a staff member in the Executive Office to “sync with my work cell phone, ensuring that I stay updated on important information from CEO Antle and Deputy CEO” is a fine example of our tax dollars at work. A cell phone isn't sufficient anymore to stay up to date? Would this have been reimbursed if Ms. Cubbison was still our independently elected Auditor-Controller? I doubt it.

Also, the County constantly says it is transparent. Is that why this Records Request is “Unpublished” and no one else can see it? These officials couldn't be further from transparent. This is a pattern with records requests I make as well as it taking almost a month for the request to be fulfilled.

I encourage everyone to request records of interest to them from the County and see if they receive them within the 14 day maximum allowed by law, and if the County actually publishes them for the rest of us to see.

Here is the link for Record Requests: https://mendocinocounty.nextrequest.com

Carrie Shattuck

Redwood Valley

Records Request 24329

JOIN THE FUN AND SUPPORT ANDERSON VALLEY FIREFIGHTERS AT ANNUAL BBQ

by Matt LaFever

The Anderson Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association invites the community to a Tri-Tip and chicken BBQ fundraiser on July 28 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Boonville Fairgrounds.

Hosted annually by the Lions Club, the event promises a delightful evening under the redwoods, featuring a mouth-watering tri-tip dinner and home-baked desserts. In addition to the delicious food, attendees can participate in a silent auction offering items such as wine flights, art, jewelry, weavings, and unique local adventures and experiences. This year, DJ Stevie D will provide music for dancing and grooving.

Tickets for the event are priced at $20 for adults and $10 for children under 12. All proceeds from the BBQ will benefit the Anderson Valley Volunteer Fire Department, helping to cover essential costs such as uniforms, vehicle maintenance, fuel, and other operational needs. This year’s fundraiser also aims to support the purchase of a new Zoll Monitor for the department’s ambulance.

In rural Mendocino County, volunteer firefighters play a critical role in providing emergency services to far-flung communities. These volunteers often respond to fires, medical emergencies, and other urgent situations across challenging terrains and vast distances. Their ability to operate effectively hinges on the support they receive from the community.

Events like the annual BBQ are vital for raising the funds necessary to keep the department equipped and ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Community support ensures that volunteer firefighters have the resources they need to maintain their vehicles, update their equipment, and continue their training.

For more information about the event or to learn more about supporting the Anderson Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association, please contact avvffa74@gmail.com or visit avvffa.org.

(mendofever.com)

North Coastal View South of Westport (Jeff Goll)

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 CEOs 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

CALLING ALL CANDIDATES

Candidate nominations are open for school, municipal and special district offices up for election in November.

Registered voters in Mendocino County who are interested in running for any of the available seats must file nomination papers between July 15 and Aug. 9 in order to have their names placed on the Nov. 5 ballot. If nomination papers for an incumbent elective officer are not filed by close of business on Aug. 9, candidates other than the incumbent shall have until Aug. 14 to file for that office.

Candidates for school and special district offices, must obtain and file their nomination papers with the Mendocino County Registrar of Voters Office located at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah, Ca.

More information: https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/government/assessor-county-clerk-recorder-elections/elections/election-candidate-information

JIM SHIELDS:

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.

CLIMATE ACTION COMMUNITY WORKSHOP TO BE HELD VIRTUALLY ON 7/22/24

July 17, 2024; Ukiah, CA.- The City of Ukiah is pleased to announce a new community workshop series to take place this summer to aid the City in its development of a Climate Action Plan (CAP) and enhance community awareness.

The City of Ukiah will be hosting three community workshops this summer designed to provide opportunities for the public to learn more about the City's ongoing efforts to address the climate emergency and make recommendations for future climate action strategies. Whether this means expanding local incentives for electric vehicles, planting more trees for shade, or phasing-out natural gas run appliances, the City wants to hear from residents what they would like to see take place in the future to help reduce the City's carbon footprint. The first Climate Action Community Workshop will take place virtually on Monday, July 22, 2024 at 5:30 pm and will be hosted by the City's Community Development Department.

City of Ukiah Climate Action Plan Virtual Public Workshop Time: July 22, 2024 @ 05:30 PM - 6:30 PM Pacific Standard Time Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86406054658

City of Ukiah residents are encouraged to participate. This first workshop will be informational, with brief opportunities for Q&A. Future workshops (tbd) will be hosted in-person and will provide additional opportunity for discussion.

Please visit the City's website at https://cityofukiah.com/climate-resilience

to learn more about the City's ongoing efforts to address the climate emergency, and follow the City of Ukiah's Facebook page to stay informed of future events and developments: https://www.facebook.com/cityofukiah

For more information, please contact: Blake Adams, Chief Resilience Officer, City of Ukiah at: badams@cityofukiah.com

BOONVILLE OPERA PREMIER

The opera set in Boonville is finally opening next month. Festival link below.

Wes Smoot and Sharon Gowan have been a big help and I hope we've managed to paint a picture that, without being as accurate as a local's view, nonetheless pays homage to your very special little town.

If you or anyone in the community have any interest in attending, please let me know and I will see what I can do about arranging for tickets.

With my thanks and best wishes,

Nathaniel Stookey

P.S. I love your paper!

https://www.westedgeopera.org/festival-bulrusher

FRESH-BAKED PASTRIES, COOKIES, & PEERLESS COFFEE

Celebrating 40 years, Mendocino Cookie Company was founded by Don and Beverlee Younger, who fell in love with Mendocino and started their family business in 1984, initially in an old Shell gas station.

Now located at The Company Store in Fort Bragg, it remains a family affair: Beverlee manages production, daughter Wendy oversees the retail shop, son Mike handles maintenance, and grandson Quinn serves as a barista.

From baking a dozen cookies at a time to now offering ten varieties daily, including favorites like Backpacker and chocolate chip, they also serve scones, muffins, and espresso drinks with flavors sourced from Guittard Chocolate and Peerless Coffee.

Despite rural challenges, they thrive, supporting local nonprofits and expanding to nationwide mail orders, envisioning a legacy of community sweetness.

ANDERSON VALLEY CASUAL GRAD GATHERING

DATE: Saturday 9/14/24

TIME: 11am

LOCATION: Mosswood Cafe, Boonville

COST: $20 per person-cash at the door.

MENU: Breakfast Panini, Pastry, Fruit, Coffee

RSVP: 8/12/24

Please confirm your attendance and the number in your party by sending me a message on FB messenger.

If you don’t make the deadline you can always stop by to say hi we will be in the back. The cafe is open until 3:00pm.

If you have questions please reach out. Panthers Rule

CHUCK ROSS: This picture was taken at Greenwood Creek in about 1925. The man on the far right is my grandfather, John S. Ross Jr. It is the other two I'd like to ID. I've been told they are Bert Moe and Linton Knight but does anyone know which is whom?

NEWS, GROWTH, AND GRATITUDE: CELEBRATING FOUR YEARS OF MENDOFEVER

by Matt LaFever

Four years ago, downtown Covelo witnessed a devastating fire that left several buildings in ruins. The arsonist remains at large, but the news outlet that first brought the story to light, MendoFever, continues to thrive.

My name is Matt LaFever and I am sole operator behind MendoFever. The journey has been transformative both for the outlet and for me. This year, I welcomed my first child into the world, and amidst the joy and challenges of new parenthood, my commitment to delivering news to Mendocino County remains strong.

I started MendoFever in July 2020, spurred by a mix of doubt and determination. The tragic Covelo fire became our first breaking story, and since then, MendoFever has navigated a bustling landscape of crime, cannabis, fires, storms, and moments of grace and community. Mendocino County’s dynamic news environment is more than any single outlet can cover, but we strive to bring you the stories that resonate.

At the heart of local journalism are relationships. I write about the streets I drive, the neighbors I wave to, the place I call home. Driving around Mendocino County, I constantly think about what stories can lead to a better life for my family, my neighbors, and myself.

Whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or are just discovering MendoFever, we thank you for your trust and support. If MendoFever has become a go-to source for local news, consider donating to help us keep this vital service running. Though I strive to make it look easy, it’s not.

You can support MendoFever in several ways:

Thank you, readers, for your support and trust. MendoFever strives to keep the community informed across the vast vistas that make up our home. Here’s to many more years of serving Mendocino County and celebrating life’s milestones together.

Reach out if you know a story that needs to be told.

(mendofever.com)

LARGE, MYSTERIOUS 19TH-CENTURY OBJECT APPEARS ALONG NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COASTLINE

by Ariana Bindman

Maritime archeologists are enthralled.

Maritime archeologists are identifying a mysterious cylindrical object that seems to have recently appeared in Humboldt County’s Lost Coast region as a piece of history likely dating all the way back to the 1800s.

After viewing a photo that circulated on Reddit on July 13, James Delgado, an archeologist and historian who’s studied various shipwrecks over the years, confirmed to SFGate that it’s a scotch boiler used to help power steam schooners — versatile ships that were once ubiquitous along the West Coast in the late 19th century. The ships hauled lumber and produce from Northern California down to San Francisco, and transported passengers long before the invention of sprawling freeways.

“It was in the days before coastal railroads or Highway 1,” Delgado told SFGate over the phone.

From time to time, debris from wrecks along the Humboldt coast will reappear, which isn’t surprising since it was once a bustling corridor, he explained. It’s possible the boiler in the Lost Coast region washed ashore or emerged from the sand, Delgado said, but it’s difficult to tell.

Either way, it offers a thrilling “opportunity to connect with the past,” he said. The late 1800s were a time when mariners traveled throughout Northern California because it was an industrial epicenter lined with dozens of doghole ports.

“They called them doghole ports because they were so small that only a dog could sort of back in and back out,” Delgado explained. Fort Ross and Sea Ranch, for instance, were just some of the many hubs that were once scattered all along Northern California’s rugged coastline.

Though these ports were small, they were economic powerhouses and helped steamships transport lumber anywhere from San Francisco to the distant reaches of Australia and Asia. The vessels, once a common sight in the 1870s, went out of fashion in the early 1900s. Now, their bones are likely strewn throughout California, just waiting to be exhumed by the elements.

“It is fun when something like this appears,” Delgado said, “because it gives a new generation or a new discoverer a chance to learn more.”

(SFgate)

ED NOTES

AN UNDERSTANDABLY APPALLED Facebook friend of mine posted the above, one of many thousands like it wafting every which way down out of cyberspace.. No idea if Linda Peterson is a real person, but prior to the internet people only thought vicious thoughts, or shared them with like minded friends. But now…

A THOUSAND fact checkers would have a hard time sorting out truth from untruth at Tuesday night's iteration of the Trump Cult extravaganza.

HOW MANY TIMES did we hear “Joe Biden's open border”? As if poor old Joe, that international symbol of elder abuse, is aware of any borders beyond his office door, and only dimly aware of that one.

THE BORDER has always been porous. It's 2,000 miles long with vast, wild stretches between San Diego and the Gulf of Mexico that can't be walled off from the displaced desperate trying to find some hope in the rich country that seems increasingly hostile to them. One way or another, they'll get in.

BEFORE WORLD WAR ONE you could pretty much go anywhere in the world with the simplest ID, if that. Until the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the U.S. border was wide open. And still is to those who have the means to simply fly in and stay, and will always be open to anybody desperate to find a way in.

BOONVILLE'S legendary resident lawman, Deputy Squires, used to tell me that petty crooks resident in the Anderson Valley that he steered back to Mexico via the INS “are back in a month, coupla weeks in some cases. I think they just bus 'em down to Fresno and drop 'em off.”

AS THE POET intuited, 'mere anarchy' has overtaken the world, the great beast of the apocalypse is awake and running straight at US, as millions of the frightened turn to Trump to somehow put it all right. But it can't be put right. It's too big, and too fractured. The last time this country was unified was World War Two. From here on it's a violent chaos. Get your survival bag at CostCo while they're still on sale.

THE CONSPIRACY speculations about the assassination attempt on Trump are much more varied than those arising from the Kennedy assassination, which were and are versions of “the government did it,” which is probably true, which is why documents on the Kennedy assassination are still sequestered. (And yet another windy unfulfilled promise by Trump to release the rest of those docs.)

BUT the attempt on Trump ranges from Trump himself staged it to varieties of speculation that “the government did it,” the liberal elements of government, that is.

I THINK it was an accident. That is, I think the Secret Service and all the police agencies saw this dweebish kid wandering the site for a full three hours before Orange Man arrived and simply couldn't believe the kid was a threat to anybody, even when he was up on the roof with the rifle he produced from its ready-to-assemble pieces in his backpack, taken up a prone firing position and had commenced shooting. The government snipers couldn't be sure the little psycho was what he appeared to be, an assassin, until he opened fire.

YOUNG MR. CROOKS will turn out to be the most improbable and the most psychologically impenetrable assassin in the history of assassins. Not even a hint that he was planning something this big.

I FEEL for his parents and his sister. To turn on the news and there's your 20-year-old son and brother dead on a roof because he tried to kill Trump?

CROOKS SENIOR is a gun guy and a registered Libertarian, therefore probably at least a few degrees off. Mom we know nothing about. Sis is your basic blue collar young person, hardworking and pleasant, from all accounts. Crooks Junior is already much more interesting than Oswald.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, July 17, 2024

ANGELICA APARICIO, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

CARLOS CEJA-RODRIGUEZ, Ukiah. Battery.

DORIAN COON, Lakeport/Willits. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, parole violation.

TROY JACK, Ukiah. County parole violation.

LORENZO MARTINEZ, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

CODY MENDEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DANIEL NORTON, Willits. DUI.

JOEL NUNEZ, Stockon/Ukiah. DUI.

BRENDA POINDEXTER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, battery on peace officer, probation revocation.

ADAN RODRIGUEZ, Baldwin Park/Ukiah. Possession of personal ID with intent to defraud, parole violation.

ROBERT SANDERS, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

PATRICK SCHUETZ, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, county parole violation.

LYDELL WILLIAMS, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

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

MITCH CLOGG

It was just fifteen months ago that Ellie, our Friend Jerry and I looked ruefully at my left foot, purplish, grossly swollen, infected in several places and, in short, sick looking. Très très. I'm cavalier about hurts to myself. My blood coagulates readily. Cuts, scratches and punctures heal almost as you watch them. I seldom get sick and never stay that way, and whatever physical complaint I have goes away in the wink of an eye. So I was less concerned about my foot than Ellie and Jerry, but their concern convinced me. You better go to the emergency room, they said. Now.

So I did that, and the Chinese doctor on duty said since I was a veteran, I'd better hightail it to the VA Medical Center in San Francisco. Dr. Liu spoke English with a heavy accent, but his grasp of the language was fine. "This is not an emergent condition," he said. I'd never heard a native English-speaker say "emergent" in an emergency room, much less a Chinese English-speaker. "Your basic problem is poor circulation in your extremities. Your foot is not getting enough oxygenated blood to heal. You better take care of it now. You're in danger of losing that foot." He passed up the various sensing devices on hand to confirm his diagnosis and felt my feet and legs with his fingertips. "Not enough. I can hardly feel a pulse." The man's surety was convincing. I didn't glance around to see his diplomas. I hightailed it to the SFVAMC. This all seems way more like fifteen years ago than fifteen months.

I was no stranger there. In 2005 I came down with a dose of throat cancer. I was not cavalier about that. In the space of that one year, they spotted, diagnosed and cured it. By year's end I was camping on the livingroom floor, too weak to rise and walk around. So I needn't stay confined to my bedroom, I made pallets of cushions and bedclothes at six- or eight-foot intervals and crawled from one to another when I needed to cross the room. I didn't crawl for long.

But now, this. "…danger of losing your foot." Danger of "losing my foot"? Danger of losing my foot?! Do you mean…? Does he mean…? Do they mean…? Yes. They meant amputation, mutilation, having your foot sawed off and thrown out with the rest of the unsavory hospital waste.

The head of vascular surgery at the medical center, one Dr. Warren Gasper also plied the same trade at the University of California at San Francisco. UCSF is one of this country's top teaching and research hospitals, and the San Francisco VA Medic Center is the flagship of America's VA facilities, getting way more money for training and research than any of the other 172 medical centers. The doctors at UCSF and SFVAMC have "dual citizenship." They all teach, learn and heal at both addresses, so we broken-down old vets get the world's best docs, and they get thousands of broken-down old vets to practice on. I've always felt privileged to be at the shining center of such a shining system.

But it was not the arrays of credentials and awards that won my heart. One day, heading for the main entrance of the main building, I passed a man in a wheelchair. He was…um…disreputable. His clothes, his body, his junk-laden wheelchair--everything about the man was grubby--beyond grubby: filthy was more like it. And he stank: shit, piss, food stains--God knows what all. He wore it, heedlessly.

And he was animated. His voice was loud and demanding. I didn't pause to find out what he wanted, just hurried inside lest a battalion of germs should leap the distance from him to me. Inside, I took care of whatever came first on my list and found myself near the entrance again, this time on the inside. Now he was inside, too. In that dim common area, he was the dimmest thing. In a place dedicated to restoring and maintaining health, he was about as healthy as the holding tank of an outhouse. A nurse was shooing him toward the door. "C'mon, George, you can't stay here. You're blocking traffic. You can wait outside all day, but you can't stay here." It was a damp, chilly San Fransisco day, and he grumbled loudly as she shoved his chair toward the main door. She turned away from him and saw me watching. "Poor guy," she said to me. "He doesn't have any place to go. This is the nearest thing to home he has."

I was, in an instant, a dick. I was feeling disgust. That nurse, with matching tags on a long cord around her neck, one marked UCSF and the other SFVAMC, had kindness to spare for Dirty George and made no mention of his lack of personal hygiene or social graces.

The other thing that melted my heart was a sign at the sign-in counter at the Ear, Nose and Throat clinic. It said, "If you have waited 15 minutes or more to be seen, tell someone at the reception desk." "Fat chance," thought I, looking around the big waiting room and glancing at my watch. Well within the 15 minutes, a white coat emerged from a side door and said, "Mr. Clogg." They beat their time allowance every time.

As to the skills and professionalism of the hospital staff, they were on display at all times (except for the couple of occasions when they weren't, and those were doozies). All in all, I have felt myself the recipient of rare good luck. The 18-year-old Mitchell who joined the army had no thought whatsoever of veterans benefits after service. I wanted war. I coveted the Combat Infantry Badge, the rifle or musket on a blue background that says you were in the thick of the fighting and goes over the other medals and ribbons you may have on your chest.

Tales of inferior care from the Veterans Health Administration don't match my experience. I'd be dead. It's the biggest healthcare system in the U.S., and I suspect the American Medical Association wishes it were gone. It is socialized medicine, and it works spectacularly well. It offers a better way than the absurdly priced, absurdly mixed and confused mess we have. (I have a bill from an ambulance company that serves, among others, Stanford University Hospital. They want $3,000 for driving me--once!--from the hospital to the nursing home where I was staying for the duration of treatments. Stanford is the richest of our universities. I dare not guess what the bill for the surgeries I've had would come to.)

I was stoked to hear the VA had procedures for fixing my foot and, while they were about it, my poor circulation from waist down. It was a challenge I never anticipated. Probably genetic, its residence in the plaque that slowly accumulated in and blocked my arteries was unsuspected by me because my forebears died of other causes before bad circulation killed them. (Arterial blockage to the heart kills more people worldwide than any other cause.)

The procedure is called angioplasty. It is preceded by an angiogram, a type of X-ray that confirms the presence of plaque, which is fat and other things. Plaque becomes covered with calcium, which keeps it from washing away in the bloodstream. Now comes the bullshit:

It's a simple procedure, the VA told me. It's practically an out-patient thing. You come in, get the occluded artery bypassed with a bit of vein or artery from somewhere else on your body, and go home, often the same day. Bullshit bullshit bullshit bullshit! Dr. Gasper laid me open from guzzle to zatch, the longest incision I ever saw on man or beast. The gash started above my left ankle, clumb up my whole leg, circling the top of my genitals and started down the right leg. There was a little open space, little prissy lips, where the fasteners didn't quite close the wound, a little split in the seam you could look down into. There was pain.

Angioplasty One developed an infection. Doctors subordinate to Dr. Gasper came round with observers-in-training in the mornings. One doctor in particular, Asian-American, furnished his face with an expression that shouted silently how he trained his expression intently on your medical condition and cared not a fig for you. He was thus one morning when I was out of sorts. He bent over me, pulling off bandages and gauze to expose the raw meat. In that semi-circle above my crotch, where no cut had ever been, much less adhesive tape, where hair had grown for decades without needing caretaking (or sticking to anything)--in that spot he yanked off a bit of adhesive tape, roughly. I said, "Slow down, doctor!" I said it in The Voice; it was not a request. This young vascular-surgeon-to-be stiffened a second, quit moving. Who does this old bastard think he is? All these neophytes standing around heard him! Then he wisely noted that I was keeping still, too, as if ready, and he proceeded. There would be more such inspections before Dr. Gasper, reading the reports, said I should have a second angioplasty to clean things up, stop the infection that had started, etcetera.

The original pitch for angioplasty did not actually promise release from the hospital after a night's "observation." Each "procedure" was followed by days and nights in the damn hospital and a constant vigil for more pain pills. If you start to hurt, you've waited too long. That little hurt just starting will be bigger--count on it--before the pain med kicks in. There are routines to be clocked and adjusted to, pills, needles for this, needles for that; pins, needles, bits of colored stuff like tags and ribbons, inked marks on your skin, bullseyes, letters, numbers, vital signs read and recorded every five minutes. You are connected to an I.V. machine to deliver an antibiotic straight to your veins. Have you had a bowel movement today? No. Have you had a bowel movement today? No. Have you had a bowel movement today? "I haven't had a bowel movement since I came here." Scribble, scribble. Days become weeks. Angioplasty Three recedes behind Angioplasty Four. It must have been during this sequence of angioplasties that I met Rest Pain.

Let's just call it Rest Pain. Those words will get you plenty of hits online and all the longer words and phrases for this experience will be found under those two mild-sounding words.

To be continued

WILLIE BROWN SPEAKS: SAN FRANCISCO'S BLACK IMPERIAL MAYOR TOUTS AUTOCRATIC RULE

by Jonah Raskin

Former San Francisco Mayor, from 1996 to 2004, and the speaker of the California State Assembly from 1980 to 2005, Willie Brown set out his own record at the Mechanics Institute Library and Chess Center on a Saturday afternoon, before a packed audience at the end of July. Founded in 1854, the Mechanics was celebrating its 170 birthday; Born in Texas and a civil rights lawyer who had an affair with Vice President Kamala Harris, Brown was the City's first Black mayor.

At the Mechanics, Brown was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle's long-time design critic and columnist, John King, the author of Portal, San Francisco's Ferry Building, and the Reinvention of American Cities.

King asked easy questions that gave the City's best-known Black politician free reign to talk about his own role in the reinvention of San Francisco, and to extol the virtues of autocratic rule. "Willie helped to lay the physical groundwork for the city today," King said.. "He knew every square block of the city." Brown began by noting that corporate interests wanted to be "treated like shareholders and that's what I did." He clearly liked the taste of power and wanted to hold on to it.

By his own account, he fought tirelessly to upgrade Union Square as a shopping magnet, bring the Warriors to San Francisco, keep the Giants in town with a new ballpark, put real gold on the dome of City Hall, and secure permanent homes for museums like the de Young, and with plenty of parking. "The mayor needs to run the city and be subject to no one," Brown said. He also said that the door to his office was always open and that he was available to talk to citizens for ten minutes. He allowed that under his leadership the city should "not have built just office buildings." These days many of them are unoccupied. Bad planning.

No one in the audience challenged Brown about a word he spoke. One person in the crowd asked him about the race for the White House. "We should focus on the qualifications of Biden's opponent," he said. "If Trump is elected president I'm almost certain I'll be deported." Brown didn't come out for Biden, but he didn't come out against him, either. He was mostly diplomatic, though he insisted that "no politician wants to leave office" and that if had his druthers, he'd still be mayor today. "If I ran against Gavin Newsom, now California’s 40th governor, I would have beat him, but he might be president one day."

GIL SCOTT-HERON (1949-2011)

Gil Scott-Heron was a New York City–based writer, spoken word performer, poet, and musician whose 1970s songs are known for laying the groundwork for rap music. If you have heard the phrase "The revolution will not be televised," you have heard the words of Gil Scott-Heron. While both true and timeless, it's the title of Scott-Heron's poem that depicted the disconnected relationship between television/media representation and demonstrations in the street. He has been called the "godfather of rap," and his music and words have been sampled by rappers like Common and Kendrick Lamar. Even if you haven't heard of him, his work may sound more familiar than you think. One of his most famous pieces is "Whitey on the Moon" where he criticizes America's interest in space taking precedence over the well-being of African American citizens.

FANS OF THE DEAD COME ALIVE IN LAS VEGAS

by Marisa Meltzer

Midway through their residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas during a record-breaking heat wave, Dead & Company played its jam band specials over the Fourth of July weekend for an eclectic crowd. The band’s audience — some die-hard fans, others just curious — came from all over the country (and the world) to pledge their own form of allegiance.

“You see people who are Sphere tourists who just want to get inside and see what it’s all about. They don’t necessarily have experience listening to the Dead’s music,” said Ashley, 35, a D.J. and an event host from Las Vegas. “It’s totally acceptable because Deadheads are the coolest, most down-to-earth crowds.” (Still, like some other fans, she declined to provide her full name.)

Ashley had come to hang out at Shakedown Street — the traveling bazaar where vendors sell rose quartz jewelry, crowns of roses, Grateful Dead-themed tarot decks and a virtual sea of tie-dyed shirts.

One of the vendors was Alex Mazer, a 40-year-old from Taos, N.M., who also goes by Buttercup. His brand, New Springfield Boogie, makes T-shirts, stickers and internet memes that combine counterculture references and “The Simpsons” (one image combined Bertha, the Grateful Dead’s flower crown-wearing skeleton, with Homer Simpson). Alex said that both characters were icons of American culture, “and they work together in a lot of ways.”

He estimated he had already seen 13 Dead & Company shows at the Sphere. “It is an orgy of sensation,” he said.

Shakedown often takes place in parking lots, but the Sphere edition was held in the Tuscany Suites & Casino, where the chimes of slot machines could be heard as the scent of tobacco wafted through the room from the casino.

“It’s different having Shakedown in a casino, but it’s OK. There aren’t all the nitrous dealers and somewhat dangerous people — the tough guys aren’t in here,” said Harry Perry, 74, a musician from Venice Beach, Calif. He follows the band around in his van, where he lives, and claims to have been to almost all of the shows by the Grateful Dead and its many iterations. Mr. Perry was selling T-shirts of himself to afford tickets, which start around $185.

Tom Egan, 54, has been seeing the band since 1990, when he first saw them in Pittsburgh. He brought his 9-year-old son from Orlando, Fla., where they live, to see his first show. Mr. Egan considered it the perfect way to celebrate Independence Day. “It’s about the freedom of the spirit,” he said.

Alexander, 41, a philosophy professor who had come from Vienna to see three shows, said he tried “not to think of it in national or political terms.”

“But by European standards we are very much into the Dead,” he said.

Downstairs from the bazaar, Jessica Rosen, 41, was operating a donation-based Shakedown Shuttle that was taking fans to the concert in a sprinter van. “Save your legs for dancing,” she yelled.

The casinos, Ms. Rosen said, knew of her: “A couple weeks ago, Harrah’s called and said, ‘We have a guy here who doesn’t know who he is or where he’s going, but he needs the shuttle.’”

Some concertgoers, dressed in everything from prairie dresses to cargo shorts, treated the walk to the Sphere as if it were a parade. They made their way to the venue from the Venetian, eager to experience the Sphere’s vibrating seats and see its curved LCD walls depict teddy bears, terrapins, jungles, rainbows and space.

Still others were “looking for a miracle” — that is, a spare ticket.

Nikko Cedrick, who was standing outside the Sphere wearing a silk scarf tied like a kerchief and a muted brown outfit, was holding up a single finger, indicating he needed one ticket. He had turned 18 just five days before, he said, and was celebrating his fifth anniversary of living in Nevada, where he had moved from the Philippines.

“My grandma was a singer and into the Dead,” he said. “A show changed my life. People are the energy and everyone is one.”

But before he could elaborate on that thought, Mr. Cedrick’s hope for a miracle became a reality: Someone handed him a ticket. He ran off into the Sphere without another word.

(NY Times)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Denouncing someone as a conspiracy theorist has been one way the ruling class shuts down those who speak up and speak out against them. In fact, the “fact checkers” are now saying that the ruling class didn’t coin the term to force those with ideas and opinions that run counter to the masters to shut up.

CNN has a solution. And, you guessed it, it’s shorter leashes for the slave class, especially those who don’t particularly want to be slaves in the first place.

“The situation calls for more rigorous regulation of social media, said Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University and the co-director of Cybersecurity for Democracy, but it also offers a lesson for mainstream journalists: Don’t just report what we do know, but also report the outstanding unanswered questions so that the public won’t fill in the gaps with junk information.” – CNN

Just take over the narrative and make sure no one has the ability to question the official narrative and that all slaves are properly programmed to accept one message as the ultimate truth. The slaves are not to ask questions. They are to accept the narrative and obey.

THURSDAY'S LEAD STORIES, NYT

BIDEN HAS COVID

by Emily Goodin

Biden, 81, posts bizarre tweet saying 'I'm sick' just an hour after testing positive for COVID and slowly walking maskless up the small Air Force One steps

President Joe Biden posted a bizarre tweet saying 'I'm sick' shortly after testing positive for COVID, leaving America guessing as to the seriousness of his condition.

Then, three minutes later, he added: 'of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.'

He then asked for money to help 'defeat Trump'.

The confusing posts came as Biden, 81, was forced to cancel a speech in Las Vegas while trying to fight back against widespread calls for him to drop out of the 2024 race due to his age.

He took the COVID test when he started getting a runny nose and coughing.

Later, he gingerly boarded Air Force One, using the shorter of the two sets of stairs, for a flight home to Delaware to begin isolation.

Biden, who was not wearing a mask, gave a thumbs up from his vehicle before boarding, and said: 'I feel good'.

The White House physician said the president was feeling 'general malaise'.

The West Wing added that Biden is vaccinated and boosted, and took a dose of Paxlovid on Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier on Wednesday he had been speaking to supporters at a restaurant in Las Vegas as Democrat calls for him to step down from the 2024 presidential race snowballed.

In an interview this week Biden said he would only drop out if doctors told him to and there was a medical reason that made it necessary.

'If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,' Biden said in an interview with BET news.

The president's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, has said Biden is mentally and physically fit to serve as commander-in-chief.

But many Democrats have questioned Biden's fitness to serve since his debate performance against Donald Trump last month, in which he fumbled for words and at times stared blankly into the camera.

Biden, meanwhile, has repeatedly changed his stance on what it would take for him to step aside.

He told ABC News he would only drop out only if the 'Lord Almighty' told him to. At a press conference in Washington D.C., he said he would stay in the race unless aides came to him with proof that he could never win.

In an interview with BET, Biden said for the first time that he had expected to 'move on' from the presidency and 'pass it on to somebody else' after one term.

But he decided to run again because he believed his 'wisdom' and experience would help heal the country.'

'You may remember, I said I was going to be a transitional candidate, and I thought I would be able to move on from this and pass it on to somebody else,' Biden said.

'But I didn't anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. And quite frankly, I think the only thing age brings is a little bit of wisdom.'

He added that 'there's more to do, and I'm reluctant to walk away from that.'

Janet Murguía, the CEO of Latino civil rights organization UnidosUS, announced Biden's positive test as she confirmed he would not be appearing at a scheduled event in Las Vegas.

She said: 'Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding. Regrettably I was just on the phone with President Biden.

'And he shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon.

'The President has been at many events as we all know and he just tested positive for COVID. So of course we understand that he needs to take the precautions that have been recommended and he did not obviously want to put anybody at risk.'

It is the third time Biden has tested positive for COVID.

The first time was on July 21, 2022, when he had mild symptoms.

He tested positive again nine days later in a 'rebound'.

In a statement White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: 'Earlier today, following his first event in Las Vegas, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19.

'He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms.

'He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.'

She said he would 'continued to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.'

The President’s doctor, in a statement, said Biden had presented with 'upper respiratory symptoms' including a 'runny nose' and 'cough with general malaise'.

The doctor said: 'He felt okay for his first event of the day but, given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus.

'Given this, the President will be self-isolating in accordance with CDC guidance for symptomatic individuals.

'His symptoms remain mild.'

He added that Biden's temperature was normal.

(dailymail.uk)

THE LATEST DEMOCRATIC DUST-UP OVER BIDEN: WHEN TO HOLD THE NOMINATION

by Shira Stein

As concerns over President Joe Biden’s candidacy continue to cause conflict within the Democratic Party, many Democrats are urging the party to abandon its plan to hold a virtual nomination before the Democratic National Convention. It’s not clear whether they’ll prevail.

Ohio initially planned to require candidates to be nominated by their parties by Aug. 7 to appear on the state’s ballot, a requirement that conflicted with the party’s scheduled convention in late August. The Democratic National Committee changed its rules in May to allow for the party to virtually nominate Biden ahead of the convention.

Ohio, however, later passed legislation pushing the deadline to Sept. 1, after Democrats hold their convention in Chicago. That led many Democrats to believe a virtual vote was no longer necessary, but when they were informed the virtual nominating process would proceed in late July, some decided to take action.

The DNC announced Wednesday that it will push back the virtual roll call vote to Aug. 7, but that has not necessarily satisfied those who believe the process should take place in person at the convention.

“When Ohio changed its law, most Democrats assumed that we would not be doing a virtual roll call because there was no longer a reason,” Rep. Jared Huffman of Marin told the Chronicle. “Then the DNC started moving to jam it through this week.”

More than 30 Democratic lawmakers, led by Huffman, began circulating a letter among themselves opposing the planned virtual roll call nomination. The lawmakers differ in their stances regarding Biden’s candidacy, but say there is no need for the process to take place ahead of the convention because of the change in Ohio law. Moving ahead with the earlier timeline, they contend, would stifle legitimate debate over the nomination.

“The effect of this would have been to accelerate the nomination of President Biden by more than a month, and that just struck a lot of people as a power play to squelch debate, to put to rest any consideration of a change at the top of the ticket,” Huffman said.

Biden’s disastrous performance in a June 27 debate against 78-year-old former President Donald Trump kicked off a panic about the 81-year-old president’s fitness for another term, which has only escalated despite Biden’s assurances that he’s up to the job. He has repeatedly insisted he plans to stay in the race, but Democrats are still discussing whether he is the best candidate for their party.

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new AP-NORC poll, undercutting his claim that the average voter still supports his candidacy. More than 20 lawmakers have called for Biden to drop out, including Rep. Adam Schiff, Democrats’ nominee for a California Senate seat, on Wednesday.

“Democrats are completely united in our desire to beat Donald Trump and in believing that this is a must-win election. But we still have lots of opinions on how to get this campaign on a winning track,” Huffman said.

After news of the Huffman-led letter leaked Tuesday, debate over the virtual nominating process trickled into public view.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, the first sitting Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to drop out of the race, said on Wednesday the DNC should nominate its presidential candidate in person at the convention. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also reportedly pushed for the virtual nomination to be delayed.

North Dakota Democratic Party Chair Jamie Selzler said the DNC should not move forward with the virtual nomination process. “As an elected member of the DNC I will not be supporting this, and encourage the Rules Committee to keep the nomination and roll call at the Convention,” she posted to X on Tuesday.

Three former chairs of the DNC, however, urged members of the rules committee to support a virtual nomination vote. Two of them — Donna Brazile and Howard Dean — have publicly defended Biden in recent weeks.

A virtual convention is necessary to ensure Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “appear on the ballot in every state and in the District of Columbia without basis for legal challenge,” Brazile, Dean and Terry McAuliffe said in a letter this week. They expressed concerns that Republicans could challenge or prevent the nominees from appearing on some states’ ballots.

The DNC plans to continue with the virtual nominating process, but will not do so until early August. Several Democrats, including current DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, said that even with the change in Ohio law, they expect Republicans to litigate the issue and need to proceed with nominating Biden before Aug. 7.

Pushing back the virtual nominating process to early August will allow Democrats time to evaluate whether there is a credible legal basis for doing so, Huffman said, or whether it’s “just playing politics to lock in the ticket and render the convention ceremonial.”

(SF Chronicle)

JD VANCE’S ASTONISHING TRANSFORMATION: FROM CALLING TRUMP ‘AMERICA’S HITLER’ TO VICE PRESIDENTIAL PICK

Does Vance’s dramatic reversal mark a significant shift in his political journey, reflecting broader trends within the Republican Party and American politics?

by Jordan Atwood

Ohio Senator JD Vance, now Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential pick for the 2024 election, was once a fervent critic of the former president. Vance’s dramatic reversal marks a significant shift in his political journey, reflecting broader trends within the Republican Party and American politics.

Vance’s public and private denouncements of Trump in 2016 and 2017 were striking. In private messages, he wondered if Trump was “America’s Hitler” and described him as a “moral disaster.” Vance also publicly called Trump a “total fraud” and “reprehensible.”

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” Vance wrote in a message to a friend in 2016. “How’s that for discouraging?”

Vance’s criticism extended to Trump’s policies and character. He referred to Trump as “cultural heroin” and “just another opioid” for Middle America. He told CNN ahead of the 2016 election that he was “definitely not” voting for Trump and even contemplated voting for Hillary Clinton, ultimately deciding to vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin.

“Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us,” Vance tweeted after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape was published in 2016.

Vance’s critical remarks were prominent when he was promoting his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” published in 2016. The book catapulted him to fame as a “Trump whisperer,” capable of explaining Trump’s appeal to the White working class. However, his initial views were far from supportive. In a 2016 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Vance stated, “I’m definitely not gonna vote for Trump because I think that he’s projecting very complex problems onto simple villains.”

Despite his harsh criticisms, Vance’s views began to shift. By 2020, he fully embraced Trump, telling podcaster Megyn Kelly after the election that he had voted for him. A year later, Vance announced his run for Senate in Ohio and actively sought Trump’s endorsement, which he ultimately received.

At the start of his campaign, Vance was forced to apologize after CNN resurfaced old tweets from 2016 and early 2017 where he had sharply criticized Trump. “I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy,” Vance told Fox News in 2021. In a statement to CNN, Vance cited Trump’s “many successes in office” for changing his mind.

“I’m proud to be one of his strongest supporters in the Senate today and I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure President Trump wins in November—the survival of America depends on it,” Vance stated.

Vance’s transformation from a critic to a supporter is notable. His early comments against Trump were scathing. He liked tweets that accused Trump of committing “serial sexual assault,” called him “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs,” and harshly criticized Trump’s response to the deadly 2017 White nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. “There is no moral equivalence between the anti-racist protestors in Charlottesville and the killer (and his ilk),” Vance wrote in a now-deleted tweet.

Vance’s political evolution underscores a broader realignment within the GOP as the party becomes one of working-class White voters. In promoting his book, Vance often said Trump played to or exploited White working-class voters’ fears and prejudices. “I think he’s a total fraud that is exploiting these people,” Vance said during a radio interview in 2016. “I don’t think he actually cares about folks,” he added.

Vance’s changing views were influenced by political calculations and the evolving dynamics within the GOP. The strategic benefits of aligning with Trump became clear, especially as Trump’s influence within the party grew. Vance’s relationship with right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel also played a significant role in his transformation. Thiel’s financial support and endorsement were crucial to Vance’s political career.

Trump’s announcement of Vance as his Vice Presidential pick highlights this dramatic transformation. “After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Vance’s journey from a Trump critic to a staunch supporter reflects the broader trends within the GOP and American politics. His transformation underscores the party’s shift towards unwavering loyalty to Trump and the significant influence of key figures and donors in shaping political careers.

As Vance himself stated, “I’m proud to be one of his strongest supporters in the Senate today and I’m going to do everything in my power to ensure President Trump wins in November—the survival of America depends on it.”

Vance won his Senate race in 2022 by 6 percentage points—less than the 8.1 percentage points Trump won the state by in 2020. His remarkable political evolution continues to be a significant talking point as the 2024 election approaches.

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter & printmaker noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along With George Grosz and Max Beckmann, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit. A Veteran soldier in both World Wars, his military experience inspired him to document these events in his artwork.

RNC DAY 3 LIVESTREAM, 6 PM ET, 5 PM CT: BIDEN EMERGENCY, ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACIES, MORE

by Matt Taibbi

The seemingly unsustainable pace of paradigm-altering breaking news developments continued today, as the future of President Joe Biden is suddenly up in the air after a series of high-profile defections within the Democratic Party. Also, the story of the Trump assassination attempt evolved significantly in the last 24 hours, with new news about an armed confrontation with local police and suspect Thomas Brooks well before the fatal shooting began. Walter Kirn and I will review all this, plus give details on interviews from the convention, including a witness from the Butler rally and wild conspiratorial rumors in Milwaukee.

Click here for YouTube.

A BLIND SPOT AND A LOST TRAIL: HOW THE GUNMAN GOT SO CLOSE TO TRUMP

Even though local police were on the lookout for a suspicious man, critical minutes ticked by, allowing a would-be assassin to slip past, a Times analysis found.

by David Fahrenthold, Glenn Thrush, Campbell Robertson, Adam Goldman & Aric Toler

About an hour before a gunman let loose a volley of bullets that nearly assassinated a former president, the law enforcement contingent in Butler, Pa., was on the verge of a great policing success.

Among the thousands of people streaming in to cheer former President Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally on Saturday, local officers spotted one skinny young man acting oddly and notified other law enforcement. The Secret Service, too, was informed, through radio communication. The suspicious man did not appear to have a weapon.

Remarkably, law enforcement had found the right man — Thomas Matthew Crooks, a would-be assassin, though officers did not know that at the time. Then they lost track of him.

Twenty minutes before violence erupted, a sniper, from a distance, spotted Mr. Crooks again and took his picture.

As time slipped away, at least two local officers were pulled from traffic detail to help search for the man. But the Secret Service, the agency charged with protecting Mr. Trump, did not stop him from taking the stage. Eight minutes after Mr. Trump started to speak, Mr. Crooks fired off bullets that left the Republican presidential nominee bloodied and a rally visitor dead.

The call to let the rally go ahead while law enforcement looked for a potentially dangerous person is one of many Secret Service decisions now being called into question. The agency is also under scrutiny for allowing a building within a rifle’s range to be excluded from its secure perimeter, creating a blind spot close to the former president that the gunman exploited.

“I am appalled to learn that the Secret Service knew about a threat prior to President Trump walking onstage,” Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, posted Wednesday on X, after a private briefing with the Secret Service and the F.B.I.

Multiple investigations into the lapses are underway, including one announced by President Biden Sunday. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas called the shooting, which killed one rally visitor and hospitalized two others, a security failure, though he has said Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle still has his support.

Ms. Cheatle in an interview with ABC News said she takes full responsibility.

Even as investigators continue to examine what happened, it is already clear that there were multiple missed opportunities to stop Mr. Crooks before the situation turned deadly. This account is based on video footage from the rally and statements from numerous federal officials, local law enforcement officers in Butler and members of Congress who were briefed by the F.B.I. and the Secret Service.

On July 8, an advance team walked the site, the Butler Farm Show grounds, to assess a security threat. Agents worked with local law enforcement and explained what the Secret Service would handle and what law enforcement would be expected to do. Crucially, the Secret Service decided that a group of warehouses to the north of the stage would be excluded from the security zone, despite being only about 450 feet from Mr. Trump’s podium. That was within a rifle’s range.

That meant the warehouses were assigned to local law enforcement to secure. The Secret Service and the local police had treated the complex of warehouses just north of the rally site as an observation post. It was considered a place from which to watch Mr. Trump’s crowd — not a place that needed to be watched, itself.

But that created a blind spot, outside the security perimeter but well within rifle range of Mr. Trump. It was exploited by a gunman with no military training and little subtlety, who showed up early and acted oddly enough that police photographed him and distributed his picture, though with no weapon in view.

“I don’t know whose responsibility that building was,” Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said. “But somebody should have been there.”

It was also unclear how long in advance Mr. Crooks had prepared. Mr. Trump announced his rally in Butler on July 3.

But in the aftermath, when the F.B.I. was able to finally access Mr. Crooks’s cellphones and other electronic devices, agents could see that he had searched for images of Mr. Trump as well as President Biden, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and even F.B.I. Director Christopher A. Wray.

Mr. Crooks also typed in “major depressive disorder” and searched for dates and places for appearances for both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump.

One of Mr. Trump’s planned appearances happened to be about 50 miles from Mr. Crooks’s house in Bethel Park, Pa.

On Friday, July 12, the day before the attempted assassination, Mr. Crooks went to a shooting range, according to an investigative summary prepared by the F.B.I. The next morning, he bought a ladder at a Home Depot and then later that day he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition from a gun shop near his home, according to the F.B.I. document and federal law enforcement officials.

In his car, a Hyundai Sonata, Mr. Crooks brought an AR-15 style rifle, bought by his father more than a decade earlier. And he brought two homemade bombs, in which a potentially explosive mixture of fertilizer and fuel was packed inside empty ammunition cans that were roughly the size of a toolbox.

The bombs were fitted with a remote-control receiver — the type typically used to set off fireworks displays remotely — according to another federal government report seen by The Times. The report said the bombs appeared designed to be set off by a remote control. He brought that, too.

Mr. Trump’s rally in Butler was supposed to start at 5 p.m., though Mr. Trump did not go onstage for another hour after that. Video obtained by Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV appears to show that Mr. Crooks was there by at least 5:06 p.m.

The video suggests that Mr. Crooks walked around in front of the warehouse building he would eventually use as a sniper’s perch. He appeared unarmed and unhurried, looking toward the rally site with a hand in his pocket.

The officer took a photo of him and circulated it around officers at the rally. The official said that local officers tried to follow the suspicious man, but lost track.

It was about 20 minutes before the shooting.

At some point, Mr. Crooks climbed onto the roof of a warehouse, building No. 6 of a complex of interconnected corrugated-metal buildings used by an equipment company, AGR International.

The location had obvious advantages to a would-be sniper: a clear, elevated line of sight toward the stage where Mr. Trump would stand. Ms. Cheatle said no officers were stationed on the roof itself because of safety concerns arising from the roof’s slope.

There were conflicting accounts of how Mr. Crooks got up to the roof. A Secret Service spokesman said Wednesday that he had climbed up to the roof on his own, perhaps by using an air-conditioner. Federal investigators believe that he did not use a ladder even though Mr. Crooks had bought one that morning.

At 6:03 p.m. Mr. Trump appeared, waving to the cheering crowd. Six minutes later, with Trump now energetically speaking onstage, witnesses noticed Mr. Crooks crawling into position on the roof. They alerted local officers, who patrolled the area outside the Secret Service’s perimeter.

It was two minutes before the shooting.

Onstage, Mr. Trump continued speaking, seemingly unaware.

But around him, the Secret Service contingent frantically began to respond, shifting its focus from scanning the crowd to scanning the area north of the security perimeter. The sprawling warehouse complex just to the north — the blind spot — was now everyone’s focus.

On a barn directly behind Mr. Trump, a Secret Service counter-sniper team quickly clambered from one side of the peaked roofs to the other. Now, they pointed their rifles at the warehouse about 450 feet to Mr. Trump’s right.

Mr. Crooks was on the warehouse roof, but it is unclear if the Secret Service counter-snipers could see him. A New York Times visual analysis showed that the view for these snipers was likely blocked by the gentle peak of the warehouse’s roof.

Mr. Crooks was still hidden, low-crawling up the other side.

On the ground, officers from the small Butler Township Police Department had been assigned to direct traffic near the warehouse. According to a social media post from Butler Township Commissioner Edward Natali, at least two of the officers left their traffic posts to help look for the suspicious person.

Two officers went to the warehouse, and one officer boosted the other up, so that his head was above the roofline. He and Mr. Crooks saw each other. Mr. Crooks “turned his firearm,” Mr. Natali wrote, but the officer could not fire back: He was holding onto the roof with both hands.

The officer fell backward and was injured, Mr. Natali wrote.

Mr. Crooks reached the peak of the warehouse roof, high enough to see over the top. A witness on the ground yelled: “He’s on the roof! He’s got a gun!”

Then time was up. Mr. Crooks fired his rifle eight times, according to a Times analysis of audio from the scene. His first shot appeared to graze Mr. Trump, bloodying his right ear. Two other rallygoers were injured, and a 50-year-old retired firefighter, Corey Comperatore, was killed.

Afterward, a Secret Service sniper on the south barn killed him with one shot. A local police officer in another part of the area also fired at him, but it was unclear if his bullet struck Mr. Crooks, according to the Butler County district attorney.

When the police reached Mr. Crooks’s body on the roof, he had no identification on him. Officers traced the serial number on his rifle to his father. In his pocket, he carried a remote control to the bombs in his car.

It was not clear if he had tried to use it, or if the bombs were made well enough to explode.

(NY Times)

THE GUNSHOTS RANG OUT. THEN THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES ERUPTED ONLINE.

Claims that President Biden and his allies ordered the attack on Donald J. Trump, or that Mr. Trump staged the attack, started quickly and spread fast across social media.

by Tiffany Hsu, Sheera Frankel & Ken Bensinger

Four minutes after the first report of a shooting at a rally for Donald J. Trump on Saturday, an anonymous account on X posted, “Joe Biden’s antifa shot President Trump.”

Within half an hour, another account on X with links to the QAnon conspiracy theory claimed without proof that the attack against Mr. Trump had most likely been ordered by the Central Intelligence Agency. Shortly after that, the far-right activist Laura Loomer posted on X about some recent remarks that President Biden made about Mr. Trump and then wrote, “They tried to kill Trump.” She did not provide evidence.

An hour later, with official details of the assassination attempt still scant, the narrative that President Biden and his allies had engineered the attack on Mr. Trump was being amplified by Republican lawmakers, Russian sympathizers and even a Brazilian political scion. By the time 24 hours had elapsed, posts about the unverified claim had been viewed and shared millions of times.

The idea that President Biden was behind the shooting of Mr. Trump was perhaps the most dominant conspiracy theory to emerge after the attack in Butler, Pa., on Saturday. The unproven conjecture surfaced almost instantly, hardened into a narrative and then catapulted between platforms large and small, even as information about the incident was limited. It was a striking example of the speed, scale and stickiness of rumors on social media, which often calcify into accepted truth far more efficiently than efforts to debunk or pleas for restraint.

That the subject this time was Mr. Trump, who frequently claims to be victimized by powerful forces while demonizing his enemies, only helped fuel the conspiracy theory. Its acceleration was also enabled by years of distrust stemming from tales of shadowy cabals of elites — which Mr. Trump has called “the deep state” — engaged in nefarious plots.

“The result was a perfect storm of righteous fury, blame-casting and conspiratorialism, at a moment when absolutely everyone was paying attention,” said Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, who studies online ecosystems.

Baseless claims of a left-sanctioned hit job on Mr. Trump were only part of “a massive online spread of false claims” about the shooting, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit research group. References to false assassination narratives amassed more than 100 million views in 24 hours on X alone, the group said on Monday. That far exceeded the 35.1 million views for content related to false flag rumors and other conspiracy theories after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022.

Other unsubstantiated theories about the shooting were fueled in part by left-wing accounts, including that Mr. Trump had deliberately staged the shooting to improve his election chances, slashing his ear with a hidden razor, popping a concealed blood capsule or otherwise fabricating a fake gunshot wound. Fingers were also pointed at other imagined culprits, including the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Jews, trans people and Ukrainians.

But the unverified story line that President Biden and the Democrats were responsible stood out. According to the data firm PeakMetrics, the largest portion of discussion about the shooting on X and Telegram in the first seven hours — about 17 percent — involved expressions of solidarity and prayers for Mr. Trump. The next largest chunk, about 5%, accused Democrats of instigating the violence.

On July 12 and July 13 — the day of the shooting — there were 83,000 mentions on X of the phrase “inside job,” a 3,228 percent increase compared to the 48-hour period immediately prior, according to NewsGuard, which monitors online misinformation.

In a statement, a Biden campaign official said that after “this horrifying attack, anyone — especially elected officials with national platforms — politicizing this tragedy, spreading disinformation, and seeking to further divide Americans isn’t just unacceptable — it’s an abdication of leadership.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Adam Berinsky, a political science professor and misinformation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the rapid spread of conspiracy theories online reflected widespread political division.

“It says a lot about our current political moment that the politicization at the extremes is the natural default,” he said.

The timeline of the conspiracy theory focused on Mr. Biden and the Democrats’ culpability was documented by think tanks, private companies that monitor misinformation and research groups, including Advance Democracy, the Anti-Defamation League, the Atlantic Council and Cyabra.

The first signs of that unproven idea emerged minutes after gunshots sounded at Mr. Trump’s rally on Saturday.

Some of the conservative voices who lodged the accusations against the president and other Democrats have long histories of aggressive rhetoric themselves. Ms. Greene repeatedly called for executing Democrats before she was elected to Congress. Mr. Collins has endorsed violence toward immigrants. Several, including Ms. Greene and Mr. Vance, are scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.

Outside the convention on Monday, Senator Steve Daines, a Republican of Montana, said the speculation online was “not helpful,” adding that “I see no evidence of” Mr. Biden or other Democrats inciting violence.

The conspiracy theories have since continued evolving.

One strain focused on accusations that Mr. Biden’s team had rejected earlier requests to bolster Mr. Trump’s protective detail, which have been denied by a Secret Service spokesman.

Video clips of Candace Owens, a conservative political commentator, declaring that the shooter “was allowed to scale that roof” have also drawn hundreds of thousands of likes on TikTok and Instagram. Similar claims surfaced on the video platform Rumble.

By Monday, some social media accounts were hawking merchandise promoting the conspiracy theories. T-shirts with images of a bloodied Mr. Trump raising his fist, with the words “Not Today Deep State,” were on sale on Truth Social. On TikTok, baseball caps with “STAGED,” using the same image of Mr. Trump, were also on offer for $25.

TRUMP GOT A BLOODIED EAR. US 'POLITICAL VIOLENCE' POSES A FAR BIGGER DANGER TO THE REST OF US

Biden and Trump are two rotten figureheads of a rotting empire. Ignore the tribal rhetoric: neither poses an existential threat. But the system behind them does

by Jonathan Cook

The outpouring of opinions on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump mostly offers little insight or honesty – apart from the all-too-obvious concern that the shooting of the former president is likely to make the United States even more of a tinderbox than it is already.

There’s a reason for this. The responses – whether from Trump supporters or Trump opponents – are all embedded in the same ideology of political tribalism that provoked the gunman. Neither side is capable of self-reflection because the US system is designed to avoid such self-reflection.

Despite what the political class wants you to believe, “political violence” is as American as apple pie. The US global empire was built on political violence, or the threat of it, most especially after the Second World War. Just ask the people of Vietnam, Serbia, Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine and Gaza.

The difference now is that Washington’s imperial grip is all too clearly weakening.

President Joe Biden is not alone in refusing to recognise this fact. He recently told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos: “I’m running the world.”

But US elites are rapidly finding that the world is no longer prepared to submit.

Washington’s international military arm, Nato, is being run into the ground by Russia in a proxy war in Ukraine.

Washington’s key military client state in the oil-rich Middle East, Israel, is being flooded with US weaponry to destroy Gaza. But in the midst of a genocide, Israel is exposing how weak it is. Hamas has not been defeated. In fact, it has been strengthened. And greater cooperation is being encouraged among those opposed to Israel’s regional hegemony.

Current domestic US politics can only be properly understood through the prism of the gradual decline of US influence abroad. The building of alternative international power formations, such as BRICS, is weakening Washington’s military and economic reach.

Adding to its woes, Washington’s ideological hegemony is crumbling too. Transnational capitalism – headquartered in the US – has no answers to the environmental fall-out from the endless resource extraction required to feed the appetite for wasteful, mass consumption it has to cultivate to generate greater profits for a corporate elite.

As the plundering of the planet’s finite resources gets harder, especially as corporations continue to stoke our hunger for material excess, other states are less willing to sit back and let the US take its pound of flesh.

The result is a growing political and economic instability that is hard to miss.

Outrage machine

In the US, there have been two political impulses in response.

The first – illustrated by the Biden camp, backed by most of the US establishment media and three-letter agencies such as the CIA and NSA – is to double down on a failed strategy and continue seeking “global full-spectrum dominance”.

That means raising the stakes by showing uppity rivals, most especially Russia and China, that any defiance will be punished. It means endlessly expanding wars, with the inherent risk of increasing the chances of triggering a nuclear confrontation.

The other, more muddled response is illustrated by the Trump camp. If the US can no longer effectively impose its will abroad, rather than risk repeated humiliation it should withdraw into a more isolationist posture, even while stepping up the imperial rhetoric.

Part of the reason for Trump’s muddled posturing, of course, is down to his narcissistic personality. He bigs himself up, even as he prefers to be master of the small domain he knows best. Caesar Trump has an instinctive aversion to global structures like Nato and the United Nations where he must share the limelight.

And part of the reason is that Trump can’t truly control the domestic terrain either. He depends on deeper power structures – such as the three-letter agencies – that would become pale shadows of themselves were they to agree to shrink US influence on the world stage. They need to push him out of his comfort zone.

The US political system – whether Democrat or Republican – all too obviously has no answers to the deepening crises faced at home or abroad. Which is why the choice for US voters is between Biden and Trump, two rotten figureheads of a rotting imperial system of power.

And because the US system has no solutions, it has to redirect ordinary people’s attention to internal wars. Voters – or those who still trust the system enough to vote – must be persuaded to invest their energies in tribal feuding. The rhetoric of division grows, one in which the other candidate poses an existential threat and has to be stopped at all costs.

The truth is that each candidate – and the camps that stand behind them - is feeding this outrage machine. Biden is responsible for the assassination attempt on Trump, says one camp. Trump is guilty of inflaming the January 6 riots at the Congress, says the other.

At least it would be consistent to conclude either that both are responsible, or that neither is, rather than apply one standard to your tribe’s preferred presidential candidate and a different standard to the opposition tribe’s candidate. That is hypocrisy.

But the most useful conclusion we can draw is to understand that Biden and Trump are symptoms, not causes, of a diseased body politic. Neither Biden nor Trump pose an existential threat by themselves. But a declining US economic power, backed up by the largest military machine the world has ever known, determined to stop its decline at all costs, does pose just such a threat.

Biden and Trump are symbols. One, a lifelong creature of the billionaire donor class, is now deep in the grip of Parkinson’s. The other, a rapacious businessman committed only to his own aggrandisement, can’t distinguish between reality and reality TV.

No one should take seriously the claim that either is capable of running the world.

What they are is symbols – of a US in crisis. Which, given the US addiction to its imperial pretensions, is a crisis for all of humanity. Trump got a bloodied ear. The rest of us have far more at stake.

(jonathancook.substack.com)

20 Comments

Craig Stehr July 18, 2024

Enjoyed watching the Republican National Convention LIVE on CBS, which is taking place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Particularly enjoyed watching vice-presidential candidate JD Vance addressing the conventioneers.

I was born in Cleveland, Ohio due to my father’s insurance career which took the Stehr family back and forth from Wisconsin to Ohio. Eventually we ended up living on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in Mequon, Wisconsin. While attending high school, we were a solid midwestern family. Dad was the insurance director at Schlitz, mom sold real estate, brother Mark and I went to school, and we all attended Catholic mass on Sunday. The parents voted Republican. I wore an “I Like Ike” button which my mother placed on my shirt in the fifth grade at Edgewood Catholic in Madison, WI. Years later, a “Nixon’s the One!” bumper sticker remained permanently on the refrigerator door. Upon graduation from high school, I left the midwest for the sunnier clime of Tucson, Arizona, and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1971.

Immediately upon graduating, two friends and I piled into my VW bus and drove straight through to San Francisco, parking in front of Vesuvio’s bar, and happily walked into the City Lights Bookstore. It was like entering heaven. This led to 53 years of a perfect bohemian existence, featuring everything politically left of center. I represent everything that the mainstream American politicians are against. I am for: 1. Fulfilling the individual spiritual quest, 2. Radical environmentalism, and 3. World Peace.

I advocate the formation of spiritually directed nomadic action groups. I am available. Thanking Penobscot Bay Watch in Maine, and of course The Peace Vigil (which is established since 1982 across the street from the White House in Washington, D.C.) for inviting me to show up and participate. To everybody else: What would you like to do?

Realize that your true nature is bliss and be free. Don’t vote for their fantasies because it only encourages them. And when is Harriet Tubman going to appear on the ten dollar bill, as the Democrats promised (when Kamala Harris grilled Steve Mnuchin on television when he was Secretary of the Treasury for his not having accomplished this). And by the way, the American third parties are simply not electable. Sorry Greens. This isn’t Germany. That leaves eco-anarchism. See you on the front lines. Thanks for listening.

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

Reply
- Chuck Dunbar July 18, 2024
  
  Thanks for this post, Craig, telling us more about your life and how you came to be who you are. I like that line on going into City lights–“It was like entering heaven.” I hope you find a place to be, safe and secure and with a bit of adventure, after you leave your motel.
  
  Reply
- Mike J July 18, 2024
  
  The greatest exhibition of eco-anarchism messaging and action occured on an elementary school playground (Ariel School) in September 1994 at Ruwa, Zimbabwe.
  
  Reply
  - Craig Stehr July 18, 2024
    
    Thank you for the historical reference. I have no idea what you are talking about.
    
    Reply
    - Mike J July 18, 2024
      
      There are frequent newspaper recaps of this famous incident.
      Here’s my summary of it:
      https://www.et-cultures.com/post/documentary-on-the-ariel-school-encounter
      
      Excerpt:
      “Still, the type of encounter the children experienced had features which were so strange or unusual, and which stirred a strong emotional charge, that cause many of us to dismiss and/or avoid this type of report. The beings appear to be the short greys that others worldwide have reported. The 2 to 3 beings that people reported were described as short, wearing a skin-tight one piece black outfit. Their eyes were black, large and almond shaped, the heads large in the cranium and narrow or pointed at the chin. The skin was very whitish.
      
      The unusual feature having the most impact was the prolonged eye contact one of the beings had with a number of the children, and the distinct messaging and feelings that were perceived from that unnerving contact. This occurred at the logs that bordered the playground. Beyond was a wild field and a grove of trees where a landed craft was seen with at least one other being there apparent to most witnesses.
      
      The children describe the messages they perceived during this intense eye-connection with the being as involving scenes of environmental degradation due to human misuse of technology. One girl put it as “we are bringing harm to the world”. Lisil Field, as a young child being interviewed on camera, described all the trees going down and dying animals. The messages seem conveyed via vivid images.
      
      The movements of the being also were a shock. There was graceful gliding in slow motion as well as an unsettling sight of the being disappearing from one location and rapidly appearing elsewhere.”
      
      Reply
      - gary smith July 19, 2024
        
        Well what is the name of the documentary? I read your article and you don’t say, which is a big omission.
        
        Reply
George Hollister July 18, 2024

Willie Brown was in the Assembly from 1981 to 1995. He become SF Mayor in 1996.

Reply
- Norm Thurston July 18, 2024
  
  Willie Brown was elected to the Assembly in 1964. He served as Speaker from 1980 to 1995.
  
  Reply
  - Bob A. July 18, 2024
    
    …and would still be Speaker today were it not for term limits.
    
    Reply
  - George Hollister July 18, 2024
    
    Thank you.
    
    Reply
peter boudoures July 18, 2024

Dropping out because of Covid would bring everything full circle.

Reply
Casey Hartlip July 18, 2024

So typical that Pelosi, Jefferies and Shumer as well as others were fine with Joe making his own call on whether to leave the race. Then comes the polling and the fear of them losing both houses changes their tune. Power hungry scumbags.

Reply
Chuck Dunbar July 18, 2024

ED NOTES

Pretty much the real story–all of it. Our editor tells it like it is…

Reply
Mike J July 18, 2024

Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds have again introduced the UAP Disclosure Act as an amendment to the next NDAA (FY 2025):
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/schumer-rounds-introduce-new-legislation-to-declassify-government-records-related-to-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-and-ufos_modeled-after-jfk-assassination-records-collection-act–as-an-amendment-to-ndaa

The act is likely fueled by testimony given by whistleblowers from participants in waived, unacknowledged special access programs that examine recovered non human technology. The act explicitly references multiple times the alleged recovery of advanced non human technology (crafts) and non human “biologics”.

Reply
- Mike J July 18, 2024
  
  The act is likely fueled by testimony given by whistleblowers from participants in waived, unacknowledged special access programs that examine recovered non human technology. The act explicitly references multiple times the alleged recovery of advanced non human technology (crafts) and non human “biologics”.
  
  The House Intel Cmt leaders, Turner and Hines, were outright hostile and contributed to killing this amendment which easily passed last year in the Senate.
  
  Pro disclosure Republican advocates like Rep. Tim Burchett (on the Oversight Cmt) also played a suppressive role in the House, arguing against creating more government orgs like the Presidential Review Board in favor of a much simpler approach.
  
  Reply
  - Mike J July 18, 2024
    
    To clarify: extensive testimony on this front has been received by staff and some members of the Senate Select Cmt on Intelligence.
    
    Reply
    - Harvey Reading July 19, 2024
      
      Where’s the report on trade talks between the guvamint and ET? Hard to believe anything you post when you produce no evidence…
      
      Reply
Casey Hartlip July 18, 2024

I have to disagree with the Editor about Biden’s handling of the border. Allowing a record 10+ million in three and a half years. Even before he took the oath of office he encouraged people to rush the border. Then his first day in office he enacted numerous executive orders dismantling the policies that were certainly slowing the flow. I believe it’s not racist to want a secure border.

Reply
- Marco McClean July 18, 2024
  
  Every year 50 million foreigners cross /a/ border into the U.S. for one reason or another, but I think you’re only concerned with the part across the south. So, yes, what you’re describing is racism, or ethnism, anyway, since there is one race: the human race. The U.S. is a nation of immigrants and visitors who become naturalized citizens. The economy would grind to a halt without immigration..
  
  This might interest you. It turns out that, contrary to the fantasies of racist yahoos, immigrants are not particularly criminal at all.
  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/18/briefing/the-myth-of-migrant-crime.html
  
  Reply
- Stephen Rosenthal July 18, 2024
  
  “Then his first day in office he enacted numerous executive orders dismantling the policies that were certainly slowing the flow.”
  
  You mean the great Trumpian wall that stopped nobody? Or separating children from their parents and then being unable to reconnect them? Or locking people in cages without due process (which, btw, violates the U.S.Constitution).
  
  You mean those policies?
  
  Reply

Mendocino County Today: Thursday 7/18/2024

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