Mendocino County Today: Monday 7/22/2024

By AVA News Service on July 22, 2024

A WARMING TREND is expected across the interior again starting Monday. Temperatures are expected to peak Tuesday. Gradual cooling is expected later in the week with a return to more seasonal temperatures by Friday. More coastal clearing is expected this afternoon and Tuesday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 52F under mostly clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. With so much fog just offshore what sky cover we get today is up for grabs. Generally expect the same the next few days then clearing later this week? We'll see.

ED NOTES

DOES BIDEN know he has resigned? And thus comes an end to four years of lies from the Democratic cabal that's been running the country for four years, that very big lie being that Biden wasn't as impaired as he obviously was from the beginning of his fake reign. And these people say Trump is a threat to democracy?

TRUMP SAYS Kamala will be easier to beat than Biden would have been. Maybe, but she won't be a pushover so long as she can get her affect in sync with her speech. To me, and millions of others, she comes off as wacky. And four years of the First Gentleman? The horror, the horror!

THE OVERALL PROB for the Democrats, says the sage of Boonville, is that at least half the country sees the Democrats as representing everything that has gone wrong, everything gone crazy, every indefensible thing that the Democrats have defended. Anyway, the only real difference between Democrats and Republicans at this point is that Republicans will make everything worse, faster.

BOTH PARTIES, as we know, are fully committed to the ongoing mass murders in Gaza, and watch Netanyahu get a bipartisan standing O when he visits Congress. Vote for either Jill Stein or Cornel West for president. They're the only decent options to the criminal assault on Gaza, and the ongoing assault on everyday Americans.

ALL MEDIA get this one over and over: “Why is no one in the media reporting that…” Everything is being reported and then some. Who can plausibly complain they're being kept uninformed when, at least in my experience, the real prob is a combination of the complainer not reading well, or reading much at all, or is often unable to distinguish the plausible from the implausible in what little they do read or is spending far too much time sifting obvious nut material and being seduced by a lot of it. Trump really was shot at. The Secret Service screwed up. No conspiracy. The kid acted alone.

IF I GET ONE MORE COMPLAINT about “the corporate media,” I think I'll just flip all the way out. Can we have a little sophistication, please? The corporate media are owned by wealthy individuals or groups of wealthy individuals. Wealthy people or syndicates of wealthy people are pleased with the present social-political arrangements. The owners of the media use their media to promote and defend these social-political interests. Get it? Is this basic, obvious fact of American life so difficult to grasp?

THERE AREN'T MANY MEDIA independent of the personal interests of their ownership, but there are some, and if I can think of one you'll be the first to know. But the corporate papers often employ good reporters. And there are scads of good reporters around who manage to do honest work despite their employers.

IF you don't trust American media other than Amy Goodman and Democracy Now, go to the British media at BBC Television or, say, The Guardian or The Independent on the internet.

MENDO’S “RISK MANAGEMENT DIVISION” is one of your smaller Mendo divisions at six persons. It's part of the County Counsel's office. The risk managers, in theory, evaluate and then reduce county liability. It's not possible to know the functioning of the County Counsel's office or the performance of the Risk Manager without subpoenas because of the county's legal in-breeding. The Risk Managers, in my experience, tend to increase County liability because they don't alert the decision makers to potential risks, not that they don't see them but because they're politically afraid to.

THE RISK MANAGERS have been invisible, natch, during DA Eyster's manufactured vendetta against former County auditor, Chamise Cubbison. A true risk avoider would have advised Eyster that his case against Cubbison was so obviously personal that even if he wins, he loses. And a true risk avoider certainly would have advised the cringing incompetents comprising the Mendo Board of Supervisors to ignore the DA's obvious Cubbison vendetta and not fire her on the basis of a simple accusation, even if the accusation does come from the County's lawless lead law enforcement officer.

UNTIL I remind myself I'm in Mendocino County, I still can't believe the Supervisors fired Cubbison simply because DA Eyster claimed she'd committed a crime, that one of the five wouldn't have had the common sense to say, “Well, hell, don't we have the presumption of innocence in this country, and isn't our population of 90,000 people, including Ms. Cubbison, entitled to due process? Shouldn't we let the process process before we doom this woman?” Didn't happen.

HAD TO LAUGH when the “special prosecutor” said she was worried that this Eyster-inspired farce was going to be expensive? Going to be! It's already eaten up thousands of public dollars our broke-ass county doesn't have, and we haven't even got to the preliminary hearing! But we already have a “special prosecutor,” as if this bogus affair is the equivalent of the Watergate Hearings.

TO ME, this expensive, apparently endless farce, serves perfectly as a sad statement on the quality of persons we elect to the power positions these days at all levels of government. A transparently personal beef like Eyster vs. Cubbison would never have become the complicated farce it has become in the days before America Lost Its Way.

PREDICTION: The lost e-mails, now magically recovered, will reveal that former auditor Weer authorized the Covid-necessary payroll arrangements with Ms. Kennedy prior to Cubbison replacing him assuming, of course, that the crucial e-mails are among those magically retrieved.

JUDGE MOORMAN declared last week she was going to sort it all out this week when it lands in her court. She's smart and principled, but I doubt she'll toss it. But she owes The People one after her capitulation to DA Eyster in the Murray case. If you came in late, the rogue Ukiah cop was obviously guilty of major felonies, including rape, but Eyster busted all the charges down to misdemeanors, and Moorman signed off on it all.

IN THE HILLS ABOVE BOONVILLE…

COUNTY NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

RESPONDING TO CRITICISM over the Board’s plan to give themselves a $15k pay raise over the next few months, First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty told Mendofever.com, “The BOS is committed to fair market wages for all employees, including supervisors. We will be the last group to receive a market rate adjustment in our pay.”

The poor, suffering Supervisors are the last to get a raise! Never mind that they gave their employees a 2% and are about to give themselves a 12% raise. They are not “employees” because they alone decide what they do or do not do and how much “hard work” they do and when, and they are not subject to performance reviews or evaluations (unless you want to call elections every four years, for only the incumbents that choose to re-run, some kind of performance review).

McGourty: “Compensating people fairly for what can be very stressful and difficult work makes sense if you want to continue to have good candidates applying for these positions.”

Only one “good” candidate won election in the last election. The other “good candidates” included the breathtakingly unqualified and inexperienced Trevor Mockel that all five supervisors endorsed. There is nothing “difficult” about what Supervisors do. And the “stress” in taking a teensy bit of criticism about what they do is part of the job which they signed up for and are already well-compensated for.

McGourty: “Our understanding of Mendocino County’s financial position has improved dramatically under Interim Auditor Controller Treasurer Tax Collector Sara Pearce and CEO Darcie Antle. Working closely with our consultants, the County has closed books for 2021-22 and 2022-23. Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports have been produced for both years, with the latest one indicating ‘no significant material findings’.”

Their “understanding has improved”? Not only is that not true, but it’s hardly a reason to give anybody a raise. This is nothing but a self-serving assessment, and “closing the books,” is a routine bookkeeping function which is hardly any kind of accomplishment and which the Supervisors deserve no credit for. In fact, they made it harder and more costly by their ill-considered consolidation of the County’s two main financial offices.

McGourty: “While money is tight, at least we have a balanced budget and a clear understanding of our ending balance. Additionally, all financial information and records are now properly managed in the MUNIS system.”

Self-serving and unsubstantiated. The budget was “balanced” (budgets are required to be balanced by state law) with millions of dollars of one-time funds and the cancellation or delay of necessary capital projects on top of significant layoffs, resignations and position cuts. And financial informatio nis “properly managed”? The state Controller disagrees.

McGourty: “CEO Antle and her financial team also played a significant role in this effort, and the BOS made this a top priority with strong support and dedicated resources.”

If this budget fiasco is what happens when the Board makes it a “top priority,” we’d hate to see what they pushed aside. No “resources” have been added to the tax collector’s office and the “resources” added to the Assessor’s office have not even produced enough potential new revenue to pay for their cost.

McGourty: “It is unfortunate that the State Controller’s Office did not interview any of the Supervisors for their report as we could have easily provided additional useful information.”

What this has to do with their pay raise is known only to Supervisor McGourty. If the “useful information” is so easy to provide, where is it so that the public can evaluate it? In fact, the “useful information” that the Supervisors have provided to justify their pay raise is their own high opinion of themselves.

WHEN DA EYSTER FIRST FILED THE CUBBISON charges we wrote that 1. Despite some naïve early expectations that the case would be resolved fairly quickly, it would drag out for a long time and come to a muddled ending; 2. That all allegations of financial “crimes” in Mendocino County in the last few decades have gone nowhere because Mendo has never kept records that hold up in court; and 3. Even if a Supervisor or two had private misgivings about the obvious lack of due process being granted to Cubbison, saying anything on the record about it would undermine their vindictive “Get Cubbison” program so they could try to blame all their financial screw-ups on Cubbison — as is clear by their transparently bogus responses to the State Controller’s report and, lately, their turning deaf ears to complaints about their own pay raise proposal.

HERE ARE A FEW related predictions based on past Mendo history: 1. Although Judge Moorman is probably the most independent and qualified local judge to hear the Cubbison case (after it slo-mo bounced from Faulder and Shanahan), Moorman’s woofing threats to “hold some other kind of hearing” if the attorneys don’t provide her with proper, complete, or timely paperwork are entirely empty threats and everybody involved knows it. 2. Nothing will result from the State Controller’s report and the State Controller’s “requirement” for a plan to fix various financial glitches will be ignored and the State Controller will not follow-up. 3. The big $800k (!) audit that Senator McGuire (!) has authorized will not result in any substantial changes in Mendo’s financial management. (If Mendo can’t even get basic budget v. actual reports, what makes anyone think they can do anything about the bigger, more fundamental financial problems?) 4. The Supervisors will approve their own pay raise as proposed despite a large segment of their “constituents” being against it because they have demonstrated time and again that they don’t care what their constituents think.

REMEMBER, this Board has not honored a single publicly approved voter measure, not one.) The only time they seemed to have been affected by public pushback was in the relatively minor case of the ill-considered relocation of the Veterans Service Office, and that only after staunchly defending it for two months and then grudgingly reversing themselves, mainly because Mulheren was facing stiff opposition by a veteran who was one of the leaders of the vets group complaining about the move for weeks and weeks on end. The Supervisors have not honored or followed a single Grand Jury report; even in the few cases where they “agreed” with a Grand Jury recommendation they made no effort to implement their “agreement.” No one in the public supported the consolidation of the Auditor and Tax Collector yet was approved 4-1. No one supported their firing of Cubbison without due process or conviction. No one outside the Board chambers has publicly supported the appointment of Darcie Antle as CEO or her subsequent raise. No one in the public supported the continued no-questions asked contract extensions to the Schraeders despite their having produced no meaningful measures of value or effectiveness. We could go on. The fact that a big pay raise was even proposed, knowing that it would be very unpopular, is itself proof that this Board is totally disconnected from and deaf to the people they supposedly represent.

Path Down to Greenwood Beach (Jeff Goll)

MORE COMMENTS ON THE SUPE'S PROPOSED PAY RAISE

Well obviously that would make it more difficult for our Supervisors to afford the latest trend in pool design, gaining popularity in the North Bay. The naturalized “pond” look.

They are called Supervisors because they supervise. Their pay should reflect the celebration the poor feel at being represented by the smartest most capable, and handsome individuals in Mendocino County! How else will the World know our success if our representatives can’t display lavish easy living?

Excellent idea. They should pay the county for their chance to screw things up.

State and Fed lawmakers have created the sneaky way to guarantee pay raises. It’s automatic unless they all vote against getting it. Regardless if they deserve/earn it or NOT. No wonder they don’t believe in term limits.

Their big justification is that they did not completely capsize the county’s economy, only took on a bunch of water. Lol. And now they made it so they have an idea of what the budget should look like? Umm…THAT is your job! That you are already being paid almost $100, 000 a year!! Don’t forget their benefits packages and their paid days off, pensions, etc etc. Their arrogance and self-entitlement in these difficult times is truly astounding…

In the most recent negotiations with County employees, the Board insisted on using 'Total Compensation' to determine how employees lined up with eight similar counties and two cities (Ukiah and Santa Rosa). If we apply the same criteria for the Board of Supervisor salaries and benefits, they are already well above average. The proposed salary increase would push them to be 25% above the market average. Mendocino County Supervisors are well compensated. No salary adjustment is warranted. They should continue to receive the COLAs and nothing more.

There is one group working for Mendocino County that is paid above the market average… You guessed it. The Board of Supervisors. If you use the 'comparators' the county uses to determine market rate, the Supervisors are paid over 20% above market average. This while the average classification is 10-15% below market. Even if you take out the outliers (Sonoma and Sutter counties), the Supervisors are still 8% above market.

Average Supervisor Salary

Mendocino $95,302

El Dorado $82,904

Humboldt $97,023

Lake $63,708

Napa $112,403

Nevada $71,392

Sonoma $172,786

Sutter $34,471

Yolo 92,477

An old piece of wisdom tells us “You get what you pay for.” That doesn’t seem to apply here. In one of her more candid moments, our former CEO Carmel Angelo allegedly described county government as a jobs program.

This county is in financial ruin and yet these five greedy public servants have obviously been talking amongst each other about how they deserve more money. This is truly gross! So many issues facing the county and their focus is on serving themselves and not their constituents. I’m truly disgusted!

Mendocino does not need full time board of supervisors. The amount now being paid to them is ripping off the taxpayers of the county. At what point is the public going to stop politicians from using public office as a source of income?

Go ahead and call me cynical. Everytime I look at one of the several photos of these schmucks I visualize a clown car full of political hacks. Hired guns that’s all.

This band of thieves is beyond worthless. Of course McGourty and do-nothing-Dan are in support of the raise with one foot out the door. What do you bet these bagmen take their cushy retirement packages and ride off to greener, unspoiled pastures with more services and better affordability?  Does McGourty really think it’s so stressful being on the BOS? It’s a part-time gig with no accountability and no real oversight. Whenever I see McGourty schmoozing at Patrona he doesn’t look so stressed to me!

The gall of these supervisors! $95k a year is a substantial amount for a county supervisor in such an impoverished county! They need to voted out as soon as possible and get a group that understands the meaning of “ public service”. The mess that is happening with licensed cannabis growers is an example of the BOS not fulfilling their duties to the people who the swore to serve! I do believe you and I agree on this subject!

These elected officials are elected to serve the people who voted them in, not extort them for their own greed and benefit. By increasing BOS salaries it puts more strain on an already overwhelmed and underrepresented people. Where will this extra money come from? We need to hold these “representatives” accountable. Look at our county roads, homeless problems, drug pandemic, under staffed Sheriff’s Department and let the people decide weather these circus performers deserve a salary increase. Here’s a thought, maybe BOS salaries should be based on-the median income of the district they are supposed to represent so they will have some incentive to perform. Allow the people to vote whether their representatives deserve an increase in salaries. In the private sector salaries are based upon performance not what your neighbors are currently receiving. These county reps are at the helm of a ship steaming head long into the rocks and unwilling or too ignorant to reverse course. What an absolute joke. Recall all 5 of these unproductive unmotivated self serving hacks.

F___ these supervisors and the CEO office. Leaches should be fired for their incompetence.

Supervisors want a raise! Are these people serious?

I guess failure gets rewarded. At least in their eyes.

Where is Bowtie Ted? Normally he comes on this thread to enlighten us. Of course, Photo-Op Mo needs a raise. It cost a lot of money for a cheerleading costume and line dancing isn’t free. McGourty just bought a new house and the extra income is needed to pay for two houses. Which one is your permanent residence, Glenn?

Still love the fact Jim Shields wants former officials to come in, boy ol’ Jim is persistent. I ask again, why would any of these former officials subject themselves to this after watching the treatment of Chamise Cubbison. Here is a fact. You will never get Lloyd Weer to come in. He should start practicing the sentence, “I would like to assert my fifth amendment…” now that Judge Moorman is zeroing in on his role in DA Dave’s takedown of an elected official.

The only fix here is a total recall of the BOS!

Haven’t had a salary adjustment since 2021?!? The Supervisors already make an amount equal to twice — that is Twice –the median income of ordinary citizens in the County.

The County’s finances are in shambles. Folks wonder what exactly the Supervisors are doing to actually earn their (already inflated) salaries.

I disagree with Jim on this. I believe the Supes should unanimously Vote Down this proposed pay raise. Period.

I do agree with Jim Shields, the optics – in this time of county government austerity — is beyond awful. It is a tone-deaf insult to their constituencies.

Vote this abomination down. And down Hard.

Why isn’t the County doing a total compensation study using the eight county comparators they used for the vast majority of county employees? In fact, Supervisor Gjerde was a strong proponent of doing the total compensation study, because of the cost of benefits here. The reason is clear. If you only use three comparators, you increase the impact of the high supervisor salaries in Sonoma and get the answer you want to get. Rig the process and you get whatever result you want. County employees are not fooled by this money grab.

What are they thinking? They don’t think that’s the problem with our county. They are worthless!

Jim Shields:

There’s only a handful of people who post comments on the AVA’s website that I pay any attention to, and Lee Edmonson is one of them. In fact, this is the only website I ever post comments on because — and let’s get real — most people show and reveal their absolute worst selves on social media. But it’s less prevalent here compared to the standard stock-in-trade social media flitting around the Cosmos. Enough grousing.

I agree with Lee. This stinkeroo should be voted down. That was the thrust of my piece. But I doubt that will happen come Tuesday’s meeting unless there is a workable alternative to a straight up-and-down vote. Postponing the pay increase pending the seating of the two new supervisors is the fair and reasonable thing to do for the reasons I discussed in my piece. It also buys time allowing constituents to work on convincing their respective supervisors to do the right thing by shelving the whole salary boost idea.

I could be dead wrong on this one. Maybe by Tuesday, this Board of Supervisors will have seen that bright light shining on that what we call doing the right thing solely because it’s the right thing to do.

PAUL BUNYAN DAYS GRAND MARSHALL

Introducing Gary Richards, 2024 Grand Marshall!

Click the link below to read all about our amazing community member!

https://paulbunyandays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/interview-with-gary-richards.pdf

GARDEN TIME

21 July 2024. Hopland CA. Hot (106°). Dry. Windless.

Here in Hopland today are worlds within worlds. Suspended in the southernmost end of the Ukiah Valley are Len Brutocao's vineyards of drought and heat tolerant grapes, and suspended within that world is another world of wild yellow mustard, honeybees on flowers of cultivated lavender and the tymbals of cicadas in a mad chorus of courtship calls.

The sound of the cicadas splits the dry air from itself.

Alone, I have walked away from the others. For the last few hours, I split the air with my own strange, sad desires, reciting from memory W. S. Merwin's last poems to the noonday stones among the last hop kilns in Mendocino County and the ghosts of goats.

I am reciting from Merwin's last book of poetry, Garden Time, (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), composed during the difficult process of losing his eyesight. When he could no longer see well enough to write, he dictated poems to his wife, Paula. It is a book about aging and the practice of living one's life in the present.

I walk until I can walk no more. I walk until I find myself in what was once a block of old vine zinfandel at the old Milano family winery where I have arrived at horizon’s secret end.

— John Sakowicz

ME & THE YIPS

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Many seasons ago I was dragged into service by a softball team I’d never heard of to play a position I’d never played.

It went poorly. For the second time in my life I was afflicted with a case of the Yips, a malady I’d previously experienced when I was 12.

The Yips are well known in sports, mostly baseball, and have plagued many players, both well known and semi-anonymous, throughout the game’s history. Steve Sax, All-Star second baseman for the Dodgers, once caught a dose of the Yips that lasted weeks.

Steve Blass, a Pirate right-hander who was the star of the 1979 World Series, returned the following year and brought with him a severe case of the Yips; he soon retired.

The Yips are a mental/psychological aberration that strike without warning and produce an inability to perform routine physical tasks, usually throwing. My first experience came at a most unfortunate time in my life, because it was 1960 and I was a ballboy at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland.

There was nothing I wanted to do more than impress my Cleveland Indian heroes with my skills, of which they were probably well aware, thanks to my outstanding career with the Seven Hills (OH) Little League team.

On a warm September night, my first as a ballboy, I spent batting practice in left field picking up grounders and snatching a pop fly or two.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear emerging from the Cleveland dugout and heading for the outfield but centerfielder Jimmy Piersall. Jimmy Piersall was the finest baseball player in history according to calculations I’d made at age 12. But wait—was he trotting toward me?

“Hey kid! Wanna play catch?” he said, jogging by. Me? Play catch with Jimmy Piersall?!? A few seconds later we were loping off, side-by-side, to deep centerfield in wonderful Municipal Stadium in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio.

But we weren’t alone. The Yips came too.

We stood about 75 feet apart and Jimmy tossed a ball that snapped squarely into my glove. I threw it back, but my ever-reliable throwing arm suddenly felt like a flopping foreign appendage. It sailed over his head; he reached up, caught it and threw the ball back.

I bounced my next throw three feet in front of him. My right elbow felt tightly attached to my ribcage with fishing line; I was devastated. Not once did I return a throw accurately; I should have tried kicking the ball to him.

Our session was mercifully brief but later, in the clubhouse, Jimmy Piersall draped his arm across my shoulders and told fellow players the nicest lie anyone has ever said about me: “This kid here has a better arm than half the guys on the team.”

THE YIPS, PART II

So there I was at the softball field behind Juvenile Hall, filling in at shortstop for a team and in a league for which I was not a member. I recall a few teammates.

Dave Nelson, in pinwheel baseball cap, was in left, Dan Hamburg somewhere else in the outfield. Tony-somebody was at third, and over on first stood southpaw J. Holden. I think Tim Husted was catcher, and a guy I didn’t know sat on the bench as Designated Smoker. Play Ball!

My memory is that the Yips didn’t arrive at the park until about the fourth or fifth inning, because if I’d been throwing erratically from the start of the game my teammates would have dragged me behind the dugout and shot me.

Regardless, at some point an opposing hitter slapped a friendly two-hopper to short, I fielded it flawlessly and launched the ball about 10 feet over Holden’s head at first. I knew immediately I had the Yips and could only hope it wasn’t obvious to our opponents. Ha. Everyone at any ballpark can quickly smell the Yips.

So the next 14 hitters, or 40, aimed ground balls to short, and I proceeded to turn those would-be outs into a hundred or so runs for the visitors. Thinking back I don’t know why Holden didn’t use a garbage can lid for a mitt, or why the manager didn’t utilize a defensive alignment with four or five fielders backing up first base.

When Giants catcher Johnnie Rabb came down with the Yips he was nicknamed “Rainbow” for the trajectory of his throws to second. Four time Gold Glove second baseman Chuck Knoblauch got the Yips and couldn’t fling a ball a measly 75 feet to first base. Pitcher Rick Ankiel, in the National League Playoffs, threw five wild pitches in one inning and was soon reborn an outfielder.

I take comfort it those examples, because otherwise I’d be in a mental institution.

FOR RENT IN PHILO

Fenced in 1 bedroom house on landlord property.

Private entrance. 1 bed, 1 bath, large living are and and washer/dryer in room on back porch. No pets (we do not have animal friendly animals) and single or double occupancy only due to water constraints. Located within walking distance to Lemons Market. Availible beginning of September when current Tenant leaves. Some furniture availible for use. $1300/mo rent plus $1300 security deposit. 8320 hwy 128, Philo. 6 month lease minimum.

ON THIS DAY IN MENDOCINO HISTORY…

July 21, 1926 - A summer sale began at the Mendocino Hat Shop. The store advertised in the Mendocino Beacon, offering greatly reduced prices on their current inventory.

Rose Cole opened the Mendocino Hat Shop, which featured straw and trimmed hats for ladies and children, in 1924. This business was located in the eastern part of a now-demolished building on the south side of Main Street. The location was convenient for Rose, since she was also the assistant to Postmaster William Mullen, who operated the Post Office in the west end of the same building.

Rose was made acting postmaster on November 16, 1928, following Mullen’s death, and served until Asa Bishop was appointed to the Mendocino Postmaster position on March 2, 1929. By the time of Asa’s appointment, the Post Office occupied the entire building.

Mendocino Post Office, South Side of Main Street, 1958. The Mendocino Post Office operated out of this building from 1889 to 1958. The Mendocino Hat Shop occupied the left side of this building from 1924 until 1927. (Gift of Carl A. Moore; Lee Burleson Collection)

MEANWHILE, AT THE ROYAL

Warmest spiritual greetings,

Am doing nothing of any great social importance tonight. Just watching the body move around the motel room, and watching the mind's activity. Knowing one's identity to be the Immortal Atman, it is curious to be conscious of the body going wherever it may go, and of the mind thinking the same thoughts over and over again about what to do in the future. There is no answer to this! The solution is to stop identifying with the body and the mind.

Craig Louis Stehr

LIGHTHOUSE LENS TOURS AT POINT CABRILLO

Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4, 2024, 11am - 2pm

$5 for kids, $10 for adults

Climb to the top of Mendocino's historic lighthouse!

Join volunteer docents at Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park in Northern California for the unique opportunity to climb to the top of the lighthouse tower, stand next to the historic 1909 Fresnel Lens, and see the beautiful views of the Mendocino Coastline. These tours happen only a few times a year, and are always a delight!

All the funds raised from these tours go right back into taking care of this park. Thank you!

Tours are first-come, first-serve, no reservations
First tour of the day goes up at 11am, last ticket sold at 2pm
$10 per adult, $5 per child (under 18)
All children must be over 42" tall to climb the stairs
There are no babies or animals allowed on this tour
Tour guests must be able to climb three sets of steep ladders

Don't forget about the half mile walk from the parking lot to the lighthouse! Give yourself plenty of time to arrive before our last tours of the day head up the stairs.

Tours last between 20 - 40 minutes, and are led by the experienced docents of the Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association. For more information, you can call the office at 707-937-6123 or email us at info@pointcabrillo.org.

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse is located between the towns of Fort Bragg and Mendocino on the Northern California Coast, about three hours north of the San Francisco Bay Area.

pointcabrillo.org/events

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, July 21, 2024

JOSE AYALA-MARTINEZ, Redwood Valley. DUI, suspended license for DUI.

JESSE BARRERA-GARCIA, Willits. DUI, child neglect.

ANTHONY BERTOZZI, Redwood Valley. Shoplifting.

FRANCISCO CABANAS-VELA, Lucerne/Ukiah. Domestic abuse, child cruelty-infliction of injury, resisting.

JUAN GARCIA-RAMIREZ, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.

SHANNAH GRIFFITH, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JENNA HATCHER, Ukiah. Controlled substance.

SHARI HIMEL, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, resisting.

JOHN NELSON, Covelo. Probation revocation.

NICHOLAS POLLARD, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

SAMUEL SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation. (Frequent flyer.)

SHAWN SPILLER, Ukiah. Vandalism, probation violation.

HANK WHIPPLE, Covelo. Stolen property.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Just found out my Hunter Biden paintings have dropped in value.

MINNIE STODDARD LILLEY (via Confusion Hill, Piercy, CA):

PROTESTS, CABLE CARS AND BARRY BONDS: WHEN THE OLYMPIC TORCH CAME TO SAN FRANCISCO

The Olympic flame has visited the Bay Area five times, sometimes with dramatic results

by Peter Hartlaub & Maren Krankling

The start of the 2024 Paris Olympics is still a week away, but its first official event — the torch relay — has already begun.

In fact, it’s been underway for a while now. The 88-year-old tradition that facilitates the delivery of the Olympic flame to the host city began its latest run on April 16, when the torch was lit in Olympia, Greece, famed birthplace of the Olympic Games. It entered France on May 8 aboard a grand, 128-year-old French ship, and has been traveling throughout the country and its territories ever since, spreading excitement about the upcoming Paris Olympics by bike, horse and even traditional Tahitian canoe.

San Franciscans are watching from a distance for this one, but the torch has visited the Bay Area on multiple occasions. It has ridden a cable car, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and been carried by Barry Bonds. It has braved pouring rain and corporate sponsorships, and dodged thousands of protesters in San Francisco streets.

What’s the origin story of the traveling torch and why has it spent so much time in San Francisco? Let’s follow the flame through Olympic history …

The Olympic torch relay traces its inspiration to the ancient Greeks. The Greeks participated in torch races to honor their gods and kept “perpetual fires” burning at temples, lit using the sun’s rays and a curved, parabolic mirror. This same process is still used to light the torch at the beginning of each Olympic relay.

A flame that burned throughout the Games during the modern Olympics appeared as early as 1928 in Amsterdam, but the relay was created eight years later by Carl Diem, one of the organizers of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Diem combined the ever-burning flame idea with the concept of the ancient Greek torch races to create a new spectacle — one that would occur before the official start of the Games in Germany that year.

Diem’s relay bringing the torch from Olympia to Berlin highlighted the Games’ ancient roots, but was also a show of power by the Nazi Party as the world crept closer to war.

In the 88 years since, the relay has evolved to serve as a symbol of unity and garner excitement for the Olympics. The modern torch relay still begins in Olympia, where organization is handled by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The theatrics begin there, too, with actresses playing ancient priestesses lighting the first torch of the relay.

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of High Priestess, lights the torch in Olympia, Greece, during a rehearsal ahead of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Milos Bicanski/Getty Images First Greek torchbearer Stefanos Ntouskos receives the flame from Greek actress Mary Mina during the flame lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece. Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

Next, the torch makes its way to Athens, where it — and the course of the relay — are handed off to the host country. From there, the flame embarks on a months-long journey to reach the opening ceremonies, where the final torchbearer lights the Olympic cauldron and the Games officially begin.

Between the IOC handoff and the opening ceremonies, countries have often added their own flair to the torch’s design and journey.

Take the 1948 relay to London, for example. After a 12-year hiatus due to World War II, Olympic organizers kicked off the second-ever relay with a show of peace. The first torchbearer, a Greek soldier, put down his weapons and removed his military uniform before beginning his leg.

The route was also designed to feature multiple border crossings, touching seven European countries, to emphasize collective healing following a long period of war.

Seoul made its mark on the relay before the Summer Games in 1988 by taking the torchbearers on a zigzagging route from east to west through South Korea, a symbol of harmony. Some participants also strayed from the traditional relay uniform, wearing Korean cultural dress.

When the Games were hosted in Atlanta in 1996, riders completed a section of the relay on horseback following the route of the Pony Express.

Over the past 100 years, the torch has traveled by camel (Sydney, 2000) and been carried by skiers (Oslo, 1952) and surfers (Vancouver, 2010). It has been transmitted via satellite (Montreal, 1976) and visited the Great Barrier Reef, with the aid of a diver and a special flare (Sydney, 2000).

When the torch isn’t on display — or is in an environment where an open flame raises safety concerns (think airplanes) — it’s kept in a “security lantern” specially designed for each Games.

And it never travels alone. A backup fire also lit from the original flame mirrors its path (which came in handy more than once when the torch visited San Francisco).

The Torch In San Francisco

There have been 40 Olympic torch relays since 1936, seven of which have ventured into the United States. San Francisco has been a destination for five of them; tied for the most torch visits among U.S. cities with Los Angeles and New York. (The Bay Area was skipped only in 1980, when the Winter Games were held in Lake Placid, N.Y.; and for Athens 2004, when the route was confined to previous Olympic host cities and places with international significance — like New York City, where the United Nations is headquartered.)

The first Olympic torch relay to pass through San Francisco arrived on Feb. 8, 1960, on its way to the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley — and made no earthly sense. It came from Stockton, took a wealthy San Franciscan’s yacht 47 miles to the Ferry Building, then, after short stops in San Francisco and Oakland, cruised back to Stockton. (Why? Apparently organizers wanted a big city involved.) “Devious is the trail of the Olympic flame,” Chronicle sports editor Art Rosenbaum wrote, “which zigged instead of zagging yesterday on its way to Squaw Valley.”

It was a bad day to be a torch in San Francisco. Feb. 8 was one of the rainier days of the season, but a relay team of hearty high school track athletes carried it unextinguished to the City Hall rotunda, where it spent the night before heading out of San Francisco under clearer skies.

The 1960 Olympic torch relay seemed like an afterthought, with small crowds and scant coverage in the Chronicle. (St. Mary’s forward Tom Meschery got more ink winning Northern California college basketball co-player of the week.)

Nearly 25 years later on July 16, 1984, torch mania hit San Francisco, as the flame arrived from Lake Tahoe, before heading to its final destination in Los Angeles. Sharing attention with a Democratic National Convention that was in San Francisco, more than 10,000 citizens chose the torch over Walter Mondale and clogged the Golden Gate Bridge — bringing traffic to a standstill from Mill Valley to Lombard Street.

In many Chronicle photos, the crowds are so large the torch is hard to find. Olympics fans lined the streets up to 10 deep as runners crossed the city to the Financial District, where office workers rained confetti on the relay.

The torch made the Chronicle’s front page, as it would for all its subsequent visits. “The Olympic torch, accompanied by helicopters, fogbanks and a colossal traffic jam, was carried over the Golden Gate Bridge Sunday morning into San Francisco, where it promptly went out,” Steve Rubenstein wrote. (Good thing Olympics officials are always nearby with a “master flame” to get the fire started again.)

The 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta featured a three-month torch odyssey across the U.S.; more than five times as long as the competition itself.

The Olympic torch returned to San Francisco streets lined 10 deep in places on May 3, 1996. It had a sponsor (“the cola in a red can,” Rubenstein wrote), a much longer 70-mile Bay Area journey from Stanford to San Francisco to Marin and Napa counties, and a Justin Herman Plaza fireworks show. (Unlike most Fourth of Julys in the city, the skies stayed clear for the performance.)

Several of the hundreds of torch-bearers walked or ran on the less-than-scenic route up the Peninsula past car lots and Colma cemeteries. The torch runners picked up the pace in San Francisco — allowed to run red lights on sluggish 19th Avenue — and the procession was on time when it arrived at Union Square for a cable car ride to Fisherman’s Wharf.

The torch on Jan. 18, 2002, took its longest journey yet through five Bay Area counties plus Santa Cruz — covering more than 150 miles of its 13,500-mile path from Greece to Salt Lake City for the Winter Games.

“The torch proceeded over Highway 17, got a brief taste of a Bay Area morning traffic jam, got a concert of Japanese taiko drummers and Dixieland jazz in downtown San Jose, crept through the East Bay and paused in front of Oakland City Hall,” the Chronicle’s Rubenstein reported.

This relay was marked for its commercialization. There were logos everywhere for Olympics sponsor Coca-Cola, and thousands of “official flags of the Olympic torch” were handed out to spectators with the stars and stripes on the front and an Audi logo on the back. (“It’s tacky,” one mother with a baby stroller told the Chronicle. “I turned the flag around so it wouldn’t show the car company side.”) The newspaper reported that torch bearers, who could buy their torches for $335 after their short jogs into history, were selling the souvenirs for as much as $4,000 on eBay.

The local relay ended near the Ferry Building, where surprise torch-bearer Barry Bonds lit a cauldron in front of thousands.

The last torch relay to visit the Bay Area was ahead of the Summer Olympics in Beijing and stopped in just one U.S. city — San Francisco — on April 9, 2008, between trips to France and Argentina. Plans were almost completely derailed, as thousands gathered to protest human rights violations in China and Mayor Gavin Newsom radically altered the route.

The torch was lit in McCovey Cove and intended to run up the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building and North Beach. Instead, it embarked on a complicated game of keep-away from both protesters and fans, with the first runner emerging from AT&T Park and ducking into a warehouse on Pier 48 to avoid the crowds. From there the torch essentially teleported across the city. A second torch was lit on Market Street near City Hall — taking a secret route up Van Ness Avenue past car dealerships and chain restaurants.

“If we had started down that (original) route, I guarantee you would have seen helmet-clad officers with batons pushing back protesters,” San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong told the Chronicle.

Protests ranged from thousands of banner-carrying marchers supporting a free Tibet, to lone wolves who seemed to invent plans on the spot. The Mercury News reported one squirt-gun wielding protester near the corner of Greenwich Street and Van Ness Avenue. “China, I don’t think, deserves the Olympics,” he said. “So I was going to shoot out the flames.”

With more protesters waiting by the Golden Gate Bridge, the symbol’s San Francisco journey ended on Doyle Drive, mere feet short of its planned crossing.

The torch’s departure was more like a politician being hustled away by Secret Service than the public celebration that had been planned. A motorcade bearing the torch was “whisked to a parking lot near the international terminal (of San Francisco International Airport) and placed off limits to the half-dozen protesters and a clutch of news crews,” the Chronicle reported. Without ceremony, the torch boarded a flight to Argentina for its next leg of the relay.

The Road To Paris

So far, this year’s torch relay has gone more smoothly than its protest-riddled run did 16 years ago.

In France, the torch has already traveled to the prehistoric Lascaux caves, the D-Day landing beaches of Normandy and various UNESCO sites on its roundabout tour designed to highlight the country’s history and culture on the way to Paris for the opening ceremonies on July 26.

French fencing athlete Paolo Bois-Rolet holds the flame at the International Center for Cave art Lascaux IV in southwestern France. Philippe Lopez/AFP Via Getty Images Two riders on horseback transport the Olympic flame along the historic D-Day Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer in Normandy, France. Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesFrench surfer Vahine Fierro holds the Olympic flame aloft on a boat during the relay’s visit to Teahupo'o in French Polynesia. Jerome Brouillet/AFP Via Getty Images Former boxer Bruno Girard holds the Olympic flame aloft next to an actor on horseback at the Chambord castle in Chambord, central France. Guillaume Souvant/AFP Via Getty Images

That is where the torch’s journey ends. The last torchbearer will ignite the Olympic cauldron at the Jardins du Trocadéro Stadium, just across the river from the Eiffel Tower, and the 2024 Summer Games will officially begin.

PARTY LINERS BLAH-BLAH BIDEN ANNOUNCEMENT

State, North Bay Leaders React To Biden Bowing Out Of 2024 Presidential Race

North Coast U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said in a statement that he wanted to thank Biden “for putting Democrats in a position to reenergize this race and save democracy by winning this election.”

by Edward Booth & Andrew Graham

Following President Joe Biden’s announcement Sunday that he had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, a number of state and North Bay political officials offered their support for the president’s decision and lauded his leadership.

North Coast U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, thanked Biden “for putting Democrats in a position to reenergize this race and save democracy by winning this election.”

Huffman added he was ready to “do everything I possibly can to make Vice President Kamala Harris the next president of the United States.” Biden on Sunday also endorsed Harris as the 2024 Democratic candidate for president.

Biden had been facing mounting pressure from a growing number of Democratic lawmakers who urged him to drop out of the race owing to concerns about the 81-year-old president’s age and fitness.

The questions began to increase in the wake of his poor performance in the June 27 presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee.

Huffman, part of a small group of Democrats who openly voiced their concerns about Biden’s capabilities, issued a statement with three other lawmakers on Friday calling on the president to step down.

Following Sunday’s announcement, Democrats, from the national to the local level, praised Biden’s decision in the hopes of the party potentially having a better chance of defeating Trump in November.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said Biden has selflessly dedicated his life to serving the country, and his ability to effectively govern has been most apparent during his presidential term.

Biden, he added, led the country out of the COVID-19 pandemic, built up the economy, “passed the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in three decades,” made historic investments in transportation and climate resiliency, and more.

“To President Biden: Thank you,” Thompson said. “The American people are better off because of your steadfast and honest leadership, and we owe you a debt of gratitude for your decades of service to our country."

Many California lawmakers had warm praise for the president.

“He will go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents,” wrote Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been a fierce defender of the president.

“Today, President Biden put our country first, as he has done throughout his public service career,” wrote Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.

State Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, issued a statement Sunday also praising Biden’s leadership, saying he’s led the nation with “incredible skill, heart and determination.”

“California is deeply grateful for his tireless dedication to this nation we all love to call home,” he said.

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Creek, said Biden’s decision will “secure his legacy as the most remarkable and consequential four-year presidential term in modern American history.” He went on to praise Biden’s career in government, and said he was looking forward to Biden continuing his agenda during his current presidential term.

“His extraordinary 50-year career in policy leadership has created a record of accomplishments unequaled in modern times,” Garamendi wrote. “President Biden will continue to guide America into a bright, healthy and optimistic future.”

Garamendi, California’s former lieutenant governor, also endorsed Harris for president.

Despite their kind words and praise for Biden’s leadership, some Democrats were probably relieved to see Biden drop out.

Though many praised a man who, in some cases, they’ve known for decades, others seemed to be hoping he would end his six-decade political career now.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, helped subtly apply pressure. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, who’s leading in the race to be a U.S. senator, urged Biden to drop out. Veteran Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, did the same.

California Democrats were quick to rally around Harris, while California Republicans were at the ready to start attacking Harris’ record.

Doris Gentry, a California delegate from Napa for the Republican National Convention, said she wasn’t surprised that Biden stepped down from the race, but she was surprised about his endorsement of Harris.

She said her impression of Harris was that she hadn’t taken charge of her vice presidential responsibilities in a way that had been appealing to either Democrats or Republicans. Gentry added that she expects other Democrats, such as Newsom, may try to step forward as a presidential candidate.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

AT THE 1972 MUNICH OLYMPICS, wrestling fans witnessed an incredible moment that would be remembered for decades.

Wilfred Dietrich, at the age of 38, executed what is often hailed as the greatest throw in wrestling history. Facing off against Chris Taylor, a colossal 444-pound opponent, Dietrich showcased his extraordinary skill and strength in the Greco-Roman wrestling event. This legendary throw not only stunned the audience but also solidified Dietrich's place in wrestling lore. If you wrestled in the '70s, this iconic moment and the poster commemorating it are undoubtedly etched in your memory.

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AMOS SEWELL - VISITING HOURS

Illustration for The Saturday Evening Post cover, April 29, 1961

JOE BIDEN LEAVES THE STAGE

Shakespearean end to distinguished reign.

by Adam Gopnik

The painful but essential self-removal of Joe Biden from the race for President—one that he has run so hard and, in many ways, in so distinguished a manner—holds some of the shape of a Shakespearean tragedy. So obvious is the seeming connection that it was already a pregnant comparison before there was even a likelihood, much less a certainty, that Biden would cede the stage. The Times has been full of talk of “Shakespearean” falls, its pages touched by leavenings of Julius Caesar and mutterings of King Lear. Indeed, a few weeks ago at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the paper’s own Bard-obsessive columnist, Maureen Dowd, asked two eminent Shakespeareans, Stephen Greenblatt and Simon Schama, just whom in the canon Trump and Biden reminded them of. Neither, tellingly, at that moment, had a strong analogue for the President—though, for Trump, Schama chose Dogberry, the clownish sheriff with the incompetent posse, in “Much Ado About Nothing,” albeit a Dogberry with a darker heart.

An analogue that immediately comes to mind for Biden at this dramatic moment in his and the nation’s life is John of Gaunt, in “Richard II,” the deeply patriotic, yet superannuated and out-of-touch grand old man who, on his deathbed, delivers a matchlessly beautiful speech in praise of the England he has known and of the values he fears are passing. “This earth, this realm, this England,” he chants, warning with desperate alarm that his opponents’ “rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last”—meaning, of course, that he thinks it might. Gaunt resonates because of the depth of Biden’s patriotism and the self-evidence, post-debate, of his own superannuation—of the pathos of his devotion to his country and of the increasing impotence of his rhetoric, however deeply felt and however right the warnings that he offered were. Anyone who admires Biden’s accomplishments as President—real, far-reaching, and always well intended even when arguably wrong—had to respond with pain to the past few weeks’ pitiful, and often infuriating, show of bafflement. What is wrong with you? he kept demanding, in effect. I’ve kept my promises. I’ve achieved my ends. I have been a good and honest king! Turn on me and stab me in the back because I lost my way in a duel where one man lied as he breathed—and all anyone talked about was how unsteady was my gait (F.D.R. couldn’t walk at all) and how husky was my voice (Reagan’s was husky, too).

But, of course, it was apparent to all who admired Biden, if not soon enough to the court circle around him, that his fall was irrecoverable. The man we saw in the debate last month on CNN was not simply an aging politician having “a bad night”; Biden was lost and wandering on a heath of his own devising, and the attempts by his supporters and his friends to rally around him recalled not so much a character out of Shakespeare as the medieval epic hero El Cid, who is mounted on his horse in the desperate hope that the memory of his courage might still be enough to frighten the enemy.

So, yes, let us go there: of all the Shakespearean figures whom Biden’s fall recalls, it is Lear. Lear in his sense of self-loss; Lear in his inability to understand, at least at first, the nature of his precipitous descent; and, yes, Lear in the wild rage, as people sometimes forget, that he directs at his circumstances. “Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain / Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters. . . . Then let fall / Your horrible pleasure: here I stand, your slave, / A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.” This was all too evidently Biden’s emotional tone in these past weeks. When he announced to George Stephanopoulos, in an interview meant to recover his position, that he’s “not only campaigning” but “running the world,” the forced grandiosity of the wounded King was all too apparent. (For his daughters, read passim, his one-time supporters, with Nancy Pelosi cast as Goneril, and Barack Obama as an improbable Regan, a double betrayal by those whom he had trusted.)

But the President stands, or sits, in relation to Lear with this significant addendum. Until his decision to stand aside for a new Democratic Party nominee, Biden seemed to be solving an ancient literary question: What would have happened if the King had not given up the throne? And that answer was plain; it would have been even worse than what happened when he did. Lear, let us recall, begins the play by giving up his office in exchange for the gratification of the praise of his children, all of whom ostentatiously flatter him—except for Cordelia, the only one who genuinely loves him, who fears seeming insincere. The loss of office and the betrayal of his daughters leaves him soon alone and friendless, save for his loyal fool, out in a wild storm.

With Biden, though, unlike Lear on the heath, raging in the company of only his fool, we were out there on the heath with him, being rained on and blown about, too. The final chapter of the Biden campaign was not pleasant or pretty, with the rage of the President lacking the dignity of age and the instinctive patriotism of long service that he had shown for so long, replacing it with sheer frustration and echoes of another, forgotten Joe Biden. That was the Biden whom chroniclers had long seen as profoundly ambitious, easily frustrated, and in his way already unduly embittered by the neglect of the élite for whom so much, including political elevation, seemed so much easier. The Biden whom Richard Ben Cramer portrayed in “What It Takes,” a chronicle of the 1988 Presidential race—awkward, amiable, and angry—seemed uncomfortably reanimated. On a daily basis, we were watching a man who might well have mulishly pushed aside the evidence of his cratering support. For weeks, there was the very real chance of civic catastrophe, with the fierce blaze of riot likely to set the whole country on fire.

Today, Biden, just as Lear does at the end, seems to have made his peace with the necessity of accepting the sheer injustice of his condition and his predicament, while seeking comfort in the saner corners of his life. Now, with the knowledge that he has finally made the right call for the general good, we can look back in sympathy with his personal predicament. It is unjust; he did a good job. The injustice extends to the reality that, while Biden is old and frail, his opponent is, and sounds, old and nuts. To reflect on Trump’s speech to the Republican National Convention is to see true madness: a disjointed sequence of grievance, self-reference, and unmoored stream of consciousness, offered in a disturbing flow of disjointed imagery, bleeding ears backing into Hannibal Lecter. The whole sounded less like poor Lear and more like poor Tom, the lunatic on the heath whom the disguised Edgar impersonates. Who gives anything to poor Trump?, the ex-President, said, in effect. Whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, and through ford and whirlipool, o’er bog and quagmire . . . to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five wits! Trump’s a-cold!

Biden, by comparison, deserves to be ennobled, not ejected. But if there is one theme that runs through Shakespeare it is that the search for justice is almost always doomed, and that the best we can hope for is self-insight and compassion. And so, unjust or not, Biden’s act is also essential—the good job he had done was over. He has, unlike Lear, who ends his life in the midst of a civil war, the gratitude of his country, too, or at least that of part of it not already despairing.

The great lesson of “King Lear” is not that it is wise, or unwise, to give up power, but that power is always insufficient balm to the human condition. Shakespeare’s point is that we should seek comfort neither in empty flattery nor in the exercise of office but in the presence of those who genuinely care for us. Biden has all that which, as poor Macbeth, who has none of it, says, “should accompany old age, / As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends.”

Biden has known terrible loss. But he also has the love of his family and the gratitude of so many citizens who thank him not only for his achievements but also for having found wisdom enough at the end.

(The New Yorker)

LEE EDMUNDSON

Dear AVA Compadres,

“Thank You, for the memories.” I feel a zeal and a zing every time I see the Blankfort Ramparts Magazine photo. Such Intense Ferocity! And, yeah, I’m OK with being considered a “middle-of-the-road extremist.” For that is who/what I am. I follow Oscar Wilde’s wisdom, “Everything in moderation… especially Moderation.”

So young and so full of spit and vinegar and self-righteous outrage at the injustice(s) of the Viet Nam War. Now it’s Gaza. And Gaza. And Gaza. The Israeli outrage in Gaza. Fomented with American 500-pound stupid bombs. “The Horror. The Horror.” –Colonel Kurtz, ‘Apocalypse Now’.

Gonna take a pass on going to Chicago next month although, once again, the Democrats are eating their young, just like in 1968. Only worse this time. A single contentious Democratic Party convention in my lifetime is quite enough.

I want President Joe Biden — who pledged in 2020 that he was a “bridge candidate” implying he would serve only a single term if elected – to echo the finest let-out in modern political history: “I do not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”

— Lyndon Johnson, March 1968.

Keep Healthy. Stay Sane. PAX

WHO ON EARTH IS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY?

by Maureen Callahan

What a disgraceful end to a disgraceful presidency.

Rather than exit this presidential race with dignity, rather than show long-suffering Americans the respect we deserve, President Joe Biden hastily declared that he’s out — on social media.

Joe Biden's ghosted us!

LBJ in 1968 this is not. In fact, this withdrawal — in tone, tenor, shame, and bitterness — calls to mind none other than Richard Nixon's resignation.

Biden has humiliated himself, the nation, the Democratic elites, megadonors and liberal-media enablers who spent years covering for him.

And he didn’t even initially endorse his Vice President! Someone had to clean up Aisle 9 on X with a hasty follow-up Kamala endorsement tweet.

“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down,” his letter read. Finally!

Dr. Jill must be under heavy sedation.

Her personal account on X, as of this writing, is still bannered: “Let's finish the job.” She could only bring herself to retweet her husband's letter with no remarks of her own, just a love heart emoji.

Stay classy, Jill and Joe.

So suddenly did this Sunday afternoon announcement land that one wonders if it was released before Biden could change his mind.

Before Hunter could fly back from his Malibu manse. Before Barack Obama would be forced to give the fatal shove.

Announcements of this magnitude are typically presaged with an alert to the media. Early reports are that Biden's top campaign staff didn't know about the letter, with a handful told just one minute before someone pushed “publish.”

It all raises more questions.

Such as: Who wrote it? When was it drafted? Was it his decision alone, or was he coereced?

Why didn't Biden, like LBJ before him, announce his monumental decision to stand down during a primetime televised address from the Oval? Is he that far gone — unable to read prepared marks from a teleprompter?

Who is running this country?

This, truly, is the only question that matters.

Yet in this boilerplate, thoroughly self-aggrandizing letter, in which Biden claims he's pulled an FDR with the American economy and says he's left the nation better than he found it — “America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today” — he says he's going to serve the rest of his term.

Yes, Biden's focus — something he has loose possession of from the hours of 10am to 4pm — is now “on fulfilling my duties as President” until January.

Read this, my friends, in a hoarse Joe Biden whisper: He can't do it.

This man has no business staying in the most consequential job on the planet. He has no business with access to the nuclear codes. He needs to resign immediately, turn the keys over to Kamala, and prep for what should be an in-depth investigation into the cover-up regarding his health and cognitive decline.

Shame on the Obamas, the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, and every lawmaker who knew the truth and kept quiet.

Shame on every journalist who had face time with the President and refused to break the biggest political scandal since Watergate.

And shame on the Democrats if they try to keep Joe in the Oval. He shouldn't be there one more day. Who in the White House press pool will finally confront this corrupt administration?

It won't be the useful idiots in the liberal media such as Van Jones who took to CNN Sunday afternoon to speak of Biden's “honor” in dropping out.

The New York Times op-ed columns, surely in the pipeline for weeks now:

“Biden Made a Courageous Choice.”

“What Joe Biden Just Did is Utterly Extraordinary.”

“The Scale and Scope of Biden's Sacrifice.”

Obama, Biden's own personal Brutus: a “patriot of the highest order.”

This was never about Joe Biden. No one cares if his feelings are hurt. This is about the safety and security of this country, which Biden — in his megalomania and greed — has compromised.

So please: spare us.

At the end of this ignominious letter, Biden condescendingly tells us that “we just have to remember we are the United States of America.”

We know, Joe. We know.

“Remember” is quite the word choice. After all: the only person who needs reminding that, yes, we are America, a democracy that elects our leaders, not shadow governments, is President — for now — Biden.

THE UNSEEN GAZE

In shadows deep where secrets weave,
Where virtue hides and truths deceive,
There lies a scene, a darkened guise,
Where honor falls and conscience dies.

Within the cloistered, hallowed halls,
Where sacred echoes gently call,
A priest, in vestments pure and bright,
Betrays the sacred for the night.

A woman draped in pink and grace,
Her tender touch, a bold embrace,
Upon his lap, the boundaries blur,
While holy symbols faintly stir.

Oh, what a shame, a breach of trust,
A tarnished vow, a broken just,
For eyes unseen and spirits high,
Mark every whispered, hidden sigh.

The sacred space, the solemn vow,
Are trampled here, beneath the brow,
Yet in the stillness, watchful eyes,
Discern the truths that darkness hides.

So heed the gaze of unseen light,
That pierces through the veils of night,
For every act, in dark or day,
Is watched from realms where shadows sway.

— Akombo Marvelous Int'l

IT'S NOT OKAY to be a grown adult in the year 2024 and still believe that Trump is an opponent of the establishment. He spent four years advancing longstanding agendas of the US intelligence cartel, the US military-industrial complex, and the worst war sluts in Washington. The man is pure swamp.

One annoying effect of the assassination attempt has been to cement Trump’s deification in the eyes of his cultists and permanently frame him as an enemy of the deep state, despite his having spent his entire term advancing longstanding CIA/neocon agendas right in front of them. Initiating the pouring of weapons into Ukraine, shredding nuclear treaties and ramping up cold war escalations against Russia, arresting Assange, killing the Iran deal and nearly starting a war there, vetoing attempts to save Yemen from US-backed genocide, openly trying to stage a coup in Venezuela while deliberately starving the people who live there, bombing and sanctioning Syria, escalating against China, supporting all kinds of Israeli murderousness and criminality — these were all longtime goals of the nastiest hawks in Washington and the secretive government agencies in Virginia. But Trump supporters live in some kind of parallel reality where none of that happened and he’s helping Americans take back their country from the deep state.

There do appear to be empire managers who dislike Trump, but only because they view him as a poor steward of the empire for being very unsubtle about the things it does, like saying “we’re taking the oil” in Syria or having social media flame wars with Pyongyang. Really he could not have provided more publicly visible evidence that he’s fully aligned with the network of government agencies and plutocrats known collectively as the deep state over the four years of his presidency, but the power of narrative is so strong that that’s all completely invisible now.

— Caitlin Johnstone

WE VOLUNTEERED AT A GAZA HOSPITAL. WHAT WE SAW WAS UNSPEAKABLE.

American surgeons who witnessed the civilian carnage of the Israel-Hamas war.

by Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa

GAZA — In the United States we would never dream of operating on anyone without consent, let alone a malnourished and barely conscious 9-year-old girl in septic shock. Nevertheless, when we saw Juri, that’s exactly what we did.

We have no idea how Juri ended up in the Gaza European Hospital preoperative area. All we could see was that she had an external fixator — a scaffold of metal pins and rods — on her left leg and necrotic skin on her face and arms from the explosion that tore her little body to shreds. Just touching her blankets elicited shrieks of pain and terror. She was slowly dying, so we decided to take the risk of anesthetizing her without knowing exactly what we would find.

In the operating room, we examined Juri from head to toe. This beautiful, meek little girl was missing two inches of her left femur along with most of the muscle and skin on the back of her thigh. Both of her buttocks were flayed open, cutting so deeply through flesh that the lowest bones in her pelvis were exposed. As we swept our hands through this topography of cruelty, maggots fell in clumps onto the operating room table.

“Jesus Christ,” Feroze muttered as we washed the larvae into a bucket, “she’s just a fucking kid.”

The two of us are humanitarian surgeons. Together, in our combined 57 years of volunteering, we’ve worked on more than 40 surgical missions in developing countries on four continents. We’re used to working in disaster and war zones, of being on intimate terms with death and carnage and despair.

None of that prepared us for what we saw in Gaza this spring.…

politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/19/gaza-hospitals-surgeons-00167697

The team of healthcare workers, including Feroze (left) and Perlmutter (second from left), that volunteered to work with the World Health Organization through the Palestinian American Medical Association. | Courtesy of Feroze Sidhwa

230 CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS: BOYCOTT NETANYAHU SPEECH

The letter represented staffers working across 122 Democratic and Republican offices on Capitol Hill.

by Chris Walker

An anonymous letter supported by 230 staffers in the House of Representatives and the Senate is urging lawmakers to boycott a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address Congress later this month as Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza rages on.

The letter, organized by members of the Congressional Progressive Staff Association and endorsed by staffers representing the offices of 122 Democratic and Republican lawmakers, describes the demand for a boycott of Netanyahu’s speech as an “issue of morality” that transcends politics, and notes that “citizens, students, and lawmakers across the country and the world have spoken out against the actions of Mr. Netanyahu,” including Israeli citizens.

Several staffers (and some lawmakers) plan to skip the speech in protest of Israel’s relentless bombing and starvation campaign in Gaza. In their letter, the staffers urge their bosses to do the same.

“We hope you will join your fellow Members of Congress in protest at his speech or in refusing to attend it,” the staffers wrote.

Netanyahu’s speech is scheduled to happen on July 24. He was initially invited by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who consulted the White House about the invitation.

Some Democratic lawmakers believe the invite was politically motivated, as Republicans began discussing the idea of having Netanyahu speak only after Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York), himself a Jewish lawmaker, criticized the Israeli prime minister in a speech on the Senate floor.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including a large contingent of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, are expected to boycott Netanyahu’s speech. The chair of that caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), told The Associated Press last month that it was a “bad idea” to invite him to speak.

“We should be putting pressure on him” to abide by demands from President Joe Biden “by withholding offensive military assistance,” Jayapal said.

Some progressive senators, including Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) have also announced that they will be skipping the event in protest of Netanyahu’s actions as prime minister since last fall.

Since October 7, Israeli forces have massacred over 39,000 Palestinians in Gaza — including more than 15,000 children, per the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Public health researchers have noted that the true death toll is likely far higher, with some estimating that Israel’s U.S.- backed genocide has killed at least 186,000 Palestinians so far.

(Truthout.org)

RIGHTS GROUP URGES DOJ TO INVESTIGATE NETANYAHU FOR GENOCIDE

The Center for Constitutional Rights called for the probe ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, DC next week.

by Jessica Corbett

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington, D.C. next week, an American legal group on Friday pressured the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into him and other officials for committing or authorizing genocide, war crimes, and torture targeting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since Israel launched its retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israeli forces partly armed by the U.S. government have killed at least 38,848 people and wounded another 89,459 — according to Gaza officials — while destroying civilian infrastructure and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.

“We believe ample credible evidence exists to sufficiently establish that serious crimes falling within U.S. criminal jurisdiction are systematically being perpetrated in Gaza,” says the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) 23-page letter to Hope Olds, who leads the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) of the DOJ’s Criminal Division.

“Given the frequent travel of Israeli officials and citizens to the United States resulting in their presence within U.S. jurisdiction, and recalling that HRSP is part of a coordinated, interagency effort to deny safe haven in the United States to human rights violators,” the letter states, “the Department of Justice must urgently investigate and hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and other serious crimes being committed on a wide-scale basis in the occupied Gaza Strip, including potentially U.S. and U.S.-dual citizens.”

The Israeli prime minister is expected to be in the United States from at least next Monday to Wednesday for a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden — who is currently isolating in his Delaware home due to a Covid-19 infection — and to address a joint session of Congress, despite objections from critics of Israel’s war including some lawmakers.

“Netanyahu has killed more than 14,000 precious Palestinian children with U.S. weapons and support and is starving all of Gaza — and now sycophants in the White House and Congress are rolling out the red carpet for him,” Maria LaHood, CCR’s deputy legal director, said in a statement. “DOJ’s Human Rights and Special Prosecution Section must exercise its mandate to investigate Netanyahu and hold him to account for his heinous crimes, just as it would an international criminal from any other country.”

The group’s letter says that “in light of Netanyahu’s imminent visit, HRSP should prioritize investigating him. There is overwhelming evidence that under Netanyahu, Israeli forces and authorities are committing genocide, war crimes, and torture against Palestinians in Gaza, acts that are proscribed under federal criminal statutes and prosecutable by HRSP.”

“As the most powerful political figure in Israel, Netanyahu also leads the Security Cabinet, as well as the recently dissolved War Cabinet — the two bodies responsible for setting the strategy for and directing the military assault on Gaza since October 7, 2023,” the letter stresses. “He therefore bears criminal responsibility for the serious international crimes committed against the Palestinian population over the past nine months.”

Various developments this week have elevated concerns for the people of Gaza. The World Health Organization said Friday that poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples at six locations in the strip, and Amnesty International on Thursday published interviews with 27 former detainees who described being tortured by Israeli forces.

A Wednesday report from Oxfam detailed what the group called Israel’s “water war crimes” in Gaza. That same day, Israeli lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a resolution opposing “the establishment of a Palestinian state” west of the Jordan River — widely seen as an effort to send a message to Netanyahu ahead of his trip to D.C.

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan is seekingarrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders, and Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice — which on Friday issued a nonbinding advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible.”

So far, legal efforts to hold the Biden administration accountable for enabling Israel’s genocidal violence against Palestinians have been unsuccessful. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit against the president, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher, who represented plaintiffs in the case, said that “this stunning abdication of the court’s role to serve as a check on the executive even in the face of its support for genocide should set off alarm bells for all.”

(CommonDreams.org)

THE WORLD COURT ruled this afternoon that Israel's 57-year military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza has mutated into an illegal act of annexation.

The ruling is earth-shattering for many reasons.

It confirms that Israel meets the legal definition of an apartheid state.

It points to the fact that Israel's creation of hundreds of Jewish-only colonies on Palestinian land is inherently tied to a programme of ethnic cleansing.

It reaffirms the legal reality that Israel has no "right of self-defence" when its annexation is a permanent and overt act of aggression against the Palestinian people.

It strongly suggests that for decades the West has been colluding in Israel's crimes against humanity, just as it is now actively complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza.

It bolsters the case, made by prosecutors at the World Court's sister court, the International Criminal Court, that Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli leadership are war criminals and should be arrested.

And it concludes that the Palestinians are owed massive reparations.

At a bare minimum, western governments must recognise the state of Palestine and impose sanctions on Israel until it withdraws from the occupied territories.

Watch them continue to do the exact opposite.

Watch them pretend that today's ruling never happened.

Watch them continue to make a mockery of international law.

— Jonathan Cook

— Jim Harrison

44 Comments

Falcon July 22, 2024

Flower (yellow)

Bidens ferulifolia

Bidens ferulifolia ‘Peter’s Gold Carpet’ provides a full summer’s worth of golden-hued, honey-scented, star-shaped flowers. Very floriferous with large flowers and a compact habit. Bidens are vigorous, heat and drought tolerant plants, flowering from spring to late fall. Use in baskets, window boxes, or in the landscape. Self-cleaning, no deadheading necessary. Best in sunny locations, but will tolerate some shade.

Reply
Craig Stehr July 22, 2024

Sitting in Ukiah, California’s Royal Motel at 8:18 a.m. watching the body type these words, and watching the mind think about not identifying with the body and the mind. You tell me: What would you do in this world if you knew that you could not fail? I’m available. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Craig Louis Stehr Royal Motel 750 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482 Telephone: (707) 462-7536, Room 206 Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com Today’s date: 22.VII.’24

Reply
Lee Edmundson July 22, 2024

Dear Editor,

Political elections are oft times a matter of holding one’s nose. Lesser of two evils sort of thing, ya know. The duopoly of politics here in the good ole USA gives us a choice between chocolate or vanilla, when what I — perhaps, we — really, really want is strawberry. So be it. so it goes.

For the political neophytes reading this missive, a word from the political wise: a vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Trump; a vote for Cornel West is a vote for Trump; a vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for Trump. Be apprised.

Political reality on the big stage rarely — if ever — allows us ordinary citizens to cast our votes with both head and heart. Just the way the system is. Sorry. Vote with your head, not with your heart, for your heart will be broken every time. Every election cycle in the big league game of presidential politics. Nevertheless, vote. It’s the only (however small) voice that we have.

Stein, West and RFK Jr. collectively — that is Collectively — have never served on so much as a school board, city council, county board of supervisors. Never ever. Your vote for any of them is a vote for Trump who, by the way, has never served in any of those capacities either.

Speaking of county supervisors votes — What a segue, huh? — our county supervisors have the opportunity to vote down — and vote down Hard — their idiotically proposed pay raise (to an amount twice the annual median income of us ordinary folks). And for what? Sterling county governance? Give me, give us all, a break here. By my lights, one receives a pay raise when one earns it. To each and all of them I say, “Go earn it. Show us true leadership skills in governing Mendocino County, and then we’ll discuss it further. Period.

PAX

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- Chuck Dunbar July 22, 2024
  
  Thank you, Lee for all this common sense (which, very often, is true wisdom), both national and local.
  
  Reply
- Norm Thurston July 22, 2024
  
  My thoughts exactly (except that yours are more well-informed, and eloquently stated).
  
  Reply
- peter boudoures July 22, 2024
  
  Rebuild Maui before Ukraine, spend local before overseas, put tariffs on china so our people profit, stop buying oil from Venezuela, make America energy Independant, clean up our cities first. Why put policies in place which only benefit other countries. I understand most AvA readers aren’t running a buisness and raising a family at this current time so ignorance is bliss.
  
  Reply
  - Stephen Rosenthal July 22, 2024
    
    Or build a border wall that
    1) prevents no one from entering the country.
    2) falls down within months of being partially erected.
    3) costs many millions of US taxpayer dollars that Mexico was supposed to pay for.
    
    Reply
    - peter boudoures July 22, 2024
      
      I don’t have a problem with people entering the country legally. Every single boarder town sheriff agrees with me.
      
      Reply
- Bruce Anderson July 22, 2024
  
  Aaargh! How many times over the long years have we heard, “A vote for anybody but us is a vote for disaster,” and please explain, Lee, why millions of us have to “hold our noses” and vote for Republican Lite because the other side is putting up their usual monster? But, hey! seal off your proboscis and vote for genocide in Gaza and go pretending that half the children in Mendocino County (and the rest of the United States) don’t depend on food banks for life, and we can also pretend we have universal health care and on and on while we vote for the people who only yesterday discovered that our president was so impaired he can’t even be trusted to read his resignation speech off a teleprompter.. Put me down for Jill or Cornel. And a plague on both houses!
  
  Reply
  - Stephen Rosenthal July 22, 2024
    
    Can’t disagree with your take on our two party system, but I fail to understand your infatuation with Cornel West, who has
    Been married 5 times.
    Switched party affiliation 3 times in this election cycle.
    As of one year ago owed more than $500,000 in unpaid taxes and child support. Not sure if this has been resolved.
    
    Seems like an indecisive scumbag to me.
    
    Reply
Chuck Dunbar July 22, 2024

A TRUMPIAN PREVIEW

Netanyahu soon to speak before Congress. A shameful sight it will be, brought to us by the MAGA folks. Hard to believe that as the murder continues in Gaza, this man gets invited to America. It’s a small taste of what we can expect if Trump wins, but we can expect also that poor Ukraine will be turned over to the Russians…

Reply
- Bruce Anderson July 22, 2024
  
  Our Congressman will be on his feet with the rest of the Democrats cheering for the butcher of Gaza. A vote for either party at this point is a vote for catastrophe.
  
  Reply
  - Chuck Dunbar July 22, 2024
    
    But wait, Bruce, the two parties are not equivalent on this issue. By no means are all Democrats (as well as their support staff) “cheering” this speech, as in today’s AVA it’s noted that:
    
    “…Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including a large contingent of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, are expected to boycott Netanyahu’s speech. The chair of that caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), told The Associated Press last month that it was a “bad idea” to invite him to speak.
    
    ‘We should be putting pressure on him” to abide by demands from President Joe Biden “by withholding offensive military assistance,’ Jayapal said.
    
    Some progressive senators, including Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) have also announced that they will be skipping the event in protest of Netanyahu’s actions as prime minister since last fall…”
    
    “230 CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS: BOYCOTT NETANYAHU SPEECH” –Chris Walker
    
    Reply
    - Bruce Anderson July 22, 2024
      
      “Our” congressman? I’d guess he’ll be there in full applause mode.
      
      Reply
      - Chuck Dunbar July 22, 2024
        
        That may be, and if so he’s an idiot, but not with “the rest of the Democrats.” Many are opposed to this atrocity, unlike most Republicans who appear to support it, as well as Trump and his gang.
        
        Reply
  - Marshall Newman July 22, 2024
    
    Don’t count on it. Congressional Democrats are a diverse bunch.
    
    Reply
Mazie Malone July 22, 2024

Happy Birthday Bruce Anderson………………….
Hope that you are having a fabulous and wonderful birthday! ……….💕🎂🎈🎉💕

mm 💕

Reply
- Bruce Anderson July 22, 2024
  
  Frankly, Mazie, the “liberals” are making me choke on my birthday cake, but bless you for always passing along good vibes.
  
  Reply
  - BRICK IN THE WALL July 22, 2024
    
    Wow, happy birthday young man…how’s the push-ups going?
    
    Reply
    - Bruce Anderson July 22, 2024
      
      Back up to fifty, and thank you for asking, Brick.
      
      Reply
      - BRICK IN THE WALL July 22, 2024
        
        That’s 51 more than I can do., all the best, and I’m with Marie, let’s start planning the 100th celebration now.
        
        Reply
      - Rick Swanson July 22, 2024
        
        Happy birthday Bruce. Thanks to you I began doing push-ups two years ago. I feel great since I started.
        
        Reply
  - Mazie Malone July 22, 2024
    
    Bruce,
    
    You sir are not allowed to choke or croak!!!….lol….we need you… rationality, free speech and witty humor are hard to come by and if you die there is nothing but horror and lies!!!!……🤣😘😎
    
    Hope it’s not chocolate cake, would be a shame to not enjoy such deliciousness!!…..lol..
    Enjoy and hope you stick around another 20 years….100th Bday celebration would be awesome!
    
    Thank you …maybe should change my name …Good Vibes Malone….hahahaha………😘💕🤣.
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
Stephen Rosenthal July 22, 2024

Leave it to Maureen Dowd to tell it like it is. Unfortunately the only one of her stature to do so. And, even more unfortunate, the only one worth reading.

Reply
Whyte Owen July 22, 2024

Canada goose

Reply
Katherine Houston July 22, 2024

Loved the Zuke Hunter for a million reasons!

Reply
Craig Stehr July 22, 2024

Captain Paul Watson Arrested in Greenland
https://x.com/CaptPaulWatson/status/1815292260885446825

Reply
Falcon July 22, 2024

California has the highest number of Russian Americans in the USA. at 354,766…

The United States has a large Russian population, including Russian Americans, people of Russian ancestry, and Russian speakers:

Russian Americans
In 2011, the Institute of Modern Russia estimated the Russian American population to be 3.13 million. The New York metropolitan area has the largest Russian American population, with Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn being the largest communities. Brighton Beach is nicknamed “Little Odessa” because of its large Russian-speaking population. Other states with large Russian American populations include California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

People of Russian ancestry
As of 2020, almost 1.7 million people in the United States claim Russian ancestry, mostly in the Great Plains. This ancestry is a legacy of two large migratory waves that occurred between 1870 and 1920, when millions of Russians fled their country to escape religious persecution. Eighteen of the top 25 counties for Russian ancestry are in the Dakotas, and a majority of residents in Logan County and McIntosh County, North Dakota claim Russian ancestors.

Russian speakers
As of 2020, the American Community Survey of the U.S. census reported that slightly over 900,000 people in the U.S. age 5 and over spoke Russian at home. The New York metropolitan area has the largest number of Russian speakers, with Brooklyn being home to the largest Russian-speaking community in the country. Other cities with large Russian-speaking populations include Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Detroit.

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Eric Sunswheat July 22, 2024

RE: And it concludes that the Palestinians are owed massive reparations.
At a bare minimum, western governments must recognise the state of Palestine and impose sanctions on Israel until it withdraws from the occupied territories.
Watch them continue to do the exact opposite. (Jonathan Cook)

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Reply
John McKenzie July 22, 2024

I posted this as a eComment to tomorrow’s meeting. I can not attend but wanted my opinion to be on the record. Sign up here to get your position heard.
https://mendocino.granicusideas.com/meetings/489-board-of-supervisors-on-2024-07-23-9-00-am-regular-meeting/agenda_items
Here is my comment:
The whole idea of the “salary survey” is flawed to begin with. It’s comparing apples to oranges. How do you think it would go if I walked into my bosses office and asked for a raise just because my neighbor makes more money than me? I’m fairly certain they would laugh me out of the office. Well, the residents of this county are your boss and that’s what you are asking of us, with a straight face I might add. The sad thing is, you’re not really asking us are you. I spent some time running numbers from Publicpay.ca.gov and what I came up with is very interesting. It turns out the board of supervisors are already overpaid when you compare oranges to oranges. I’m suggesting the pay should be determined by some real world metrics that might include population, county size, total budget, number of employees, total employee wages. The results of this algorithm should be a multiplier that is applied the the average county employee pay. This is just an unfinished thought on my part, but something must be done about elected officials voting on their own pay package, it should not be the case for county executives either. Just to put the supervisors current pay into perspective. The current average total wage reported to publicpay (excluding benefits package) for a Mendocino County Supervisor is $110,381.00. Using population of 89476 put the per capita pay of $1233.64 per 1000. That number doesn’t mean much by itself until compared to the rates of the 58 other California counties. It puts Mendocino at number 14 out of 58, only 13 counties pay their supervisors more per capita. All the surrounding counties pay less, Sonoma county substantially less. Obviously it wouldn’t be very accurate to just use population to determine pay but it’s better than using geographic proximity.

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Jim Shields July 22, 2024

Without getting into background discussions and sources, I can tell you that at tomorrow’s BOS meeting there will be no delays or postponements putting off the salary raises issue until the two new supervisors are seated in January, thus allowing them to at least vote on this bad idea.
This is another example of the county staff tail wagging the BOS dog.
I’ve always said that the motto of those at the helm of county government regarding county residents is, “”After us, you come first.”

Reply
Lazarus July 22, 2024

From Politico…
“Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress but will conduct a separate bilateral meeting with the Israeli prime minister this week at the White House, according to a Harris aide who was granted anonymity to discuss internal plans.”
Have a nice day,
Laz

Reply
John Sakowicz July 22, 2024

Happy 85th Birthday, Buce. Keep on bangin’ on that typewriter loudly. Mendocino County politics sinks deeper, and needs you more, every day.

Reply
Zanzibar to Andalusia July 22, 2024

Copmala won’t send Nethanyahu 2000lb bombs. Just everything else. And she’ll keep on with the Ukraine nonsense. Oh, and she’ll be reluctant to attack Iran.

The Tiny Handed Vulgarian will send the 2000lb bombs to Nethanyahu plus anything else he asks for including sexual gratification. But he’ll probably end the Ukraine nonsense. Oh, and he’ll attack Iran.

Neither will release the Epstein client list.

“Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos”

Reply
MAGA Marmon July 23, 2024

“Kamala Harris is not knowledgeable or strong enough to stand up to potential adversaries, or just as importantly the unelected warmongers — i.e. the Military Industrial Complex which profits from war, and the National Security State which uses these wars as a pretext to further clamp down on our freedom. Like Biden, she will simply be their puppet. We need a Commander-in-Chief strong enough to take charge. Trump will not be anyone’s puppet. That’s why the Deep State will do everything possible to keep him out of the Oval Office.”

Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 @TulsiGabbard

MAGA Marmon

Reply
- Harvey Reading July 23, 2024
  
  Trump is the biggest puppet of them all. He’s just too dumb to recognize it, much like his MAGAt supporters..
  
  Reply
  - Jurgen Stoll July 23, 2024
    
    Hear hear!
    
    Reply
MAGA Marmon July 23, 2024

“Looking forward to welcoming Bibi Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday. During my first term, we had Peace and Stability in the Region, even signing the historic Abraham Accords – And we will have it again. Just as I have said in discussions with President Zelensky and other World Leaders in recent weeks, my PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH Agenda will demonstrate to the World that these horrible, deadly Wars, and violent Conflicts must end. Millions are dying, and Kamala Harris is in no way capable of stopping it.”

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

MAGA Marmon

Reply
- MAGA Marmon July 23, 2024
  
  “At the request of Bibi Netanyahu, we have switched this meeting to Friday, July 26th at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida!”
  
  -Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
  
  MAGA Marmon
  
  Reply
  - Chuck Dunbar July 23, 2024
    
    Great, that is just great. I hope you have the guts to tell him to stop—NOW!– his horrible fucking war against Gaza’s civilians.
    
    Reply
    - Chuck Dunbar July 23, 2024
      
      Why the above? The latest about this atrocity appeared in part in the AVA yesterday. The full piece in Politico is a horror story, focused in part on the children of Gaza, some with head wounds, shot while they played by Israeli snipers:
      
      “WE VOLUNTEERED AT A GAZA HOSPITAL. WHAT WE SAW WAS UNSPEAKABLE—
      American surgeons who witnessed the civilian carnage of the Israel-Hamas war.”
      by Mark Perlmutter and Feroze Sidhwa—trauma surgeons
      
      Read this piece and weep. And then get angrier than before at the US for enabling this terror and destruction.
      
      Reply
MAGA Marmon July 23, 2024

RE: LADIES, PLEASE

I wonder if these are some of the dealers supplying Ukiah’s homeless population with fentanyl-if so they should be charged with murder.

MAGA Marmon

Reply
- MAGA Marmon July 23, 2024
  
  Providing Narcan, needles and pipes is not the answer, go upstream. Where is Pete Hoyle?
  
  MAGA Marmon
  
  Reply
- Harvey Reading July 23, 2024
  
  So, you support genocide but oppose drug dealers. You MAGAts are all mixed up! Inconsistent, too.
  
  Reply

Mendocino County Today: Monday 7/22/2024

44 Comments

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