Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 7/30/2024

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BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES are expected in the interior through today. Hot, drier weather will return by mid-week and persist through early next week with moderate heat risk for the interior valleys. Coastal areas will remain cool with occasional low clouds and patchy fog. There is a chance of isolated dry thunderstorms this weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A balmy 58F in dense fog this Tuesday morning on the coast. The more foggy - cloudy pattern looks to be with us into the weekend.

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TRAFFIC COLLISION IN NAVARRO; ONE PATIENT AIRLIFTED, SECOND MAY HAVE FLED SCENE

Navarro, Monday, July 29, 2024, 5:13pm

Hwy 128/Wendling St./ In front of Navarro Store

Traffic Collision -Veh upside down, Hanging from a tree, W/Extrication

Navarro IC, At least 1 patient - Air Lifted to SR Memorial, 5:13pm 07/29/24

5:14PM Veh flipped and hit redwood trees
5:15PM Veh upside down and hanging from tree
5:18PM 1039 CF Howard at 1716
5:18PM on CB advs reporting Traffic Collision with extrication.
5:19PM Traffic is able to get around but it is 1125/blocking
5:32PM Req distance how far down the embankment to get 1185 started
5:36PM As reported. One patient. One person may have fled. Off the roadway between two trees. Access off the road. No impact to Hwy.
5:37PM Reach ETA 15 minutes.
5:52PM No road blockage / Patient air lifted
5:57PM 1039 smith auto

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AFTER ACTION NOTES FROM THE GRANGE FIRE

by Mark Scaramella

Calfire Friday night: “The Grange Fire is under full containment and has been concluded. 1 structure destroyed; 5 structures damaged.”

We finally had a chance to discuss last Thursday’s Grange Fire and response with AV Fire Chief Andres Avila. Here are some takeaways from that discussion.

Fire crews counted eight separate ignitions along Highway 128 south of Philo; within hours those fires had merged and became one lengthwise fire on both sides of Highway 128. The Clow home which was the only home destroyed by the Grange fire, was destroyed before responders arrived. A few other homes were damaged, but salvaged having been protected from destruction by fast acting fire crews.

Each ground crew was making minute by minute decisions on where to go and what to do and how to do it to protect an uncountable number of houses that were saved. It was an excellent response overall, especially considering the hot temperatures and dry, windy conditions as grasslands spotted with oak woods burned with moderate rates of spread.

Since the ground crews were prioritizing home protection, they needed a lot of water to cover the properties that were threatened. But it was hard to get enough water that could be hooked up quickly and pumped in volume into tankers for delivery to fire engines. After the Fairgrounds’ available supply ran out, the water haulers switched to Hendy Woods campground which also has a pretty good local system. Other smaller sources were also tapped. The Hendy Woods water soon ran out as well as more engines arrived from neighboring towns and counties to help fight the fire and protect structures. Meanwhile Calfire’s air attack planes and choppers were dropping retardant and water (from their Ukiah base) on the fire lines. By luck a couple of Calfire aircraft which were loaded and in the air on their way to Lake County near the time of the first fire reports were re-routed to Philo to help with the first couple of hours of firefighting.

The water problem, Chief Avila emphasized, is another good reason to get on with the water system project now underway by the Community Services District.

Communications and notifications could have been better. It didn’t help that the internet went down an hour or so after the fires started because lines had been burned along the highway in the area of the burns. Reportedly the County’s Local Office of Emergency Services is reviewing the notification system and evacuation procedures. The Boonville Fairgrounds remains a primary evacuation point. But, since they ran out of water filling up local engines, their ability to house large numbers of people and animals became limited.

Chief Avila said that it’s always a good idea to have a “go bag” and plan possible evacuation routes in advance to give yourself options depending on conditions.

Calfire is still working on the exact cause. Most observers say it was a heedless truck driver towing a boat toward the coast. The driver was identified and questioned in Albion where more sparks had been seen. But the specific spark source could have been a chain, the trailer hitch, or even the propeller on the boat. No arrest has been made so far and the investigation proceeds.

The final acreage came in at about 92 acres on both sides of Highway 128 over several miles south of Philo.

Local law enforcement, including the Highway Patrol, was very helpful in helping people who needed help evacuate and in overall traffic control.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the troops,” said Avila. “They saved a lot of houses. This could have been much worse.”

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CONFUSING FIRE ALERTS

Editor,

Below is the content of an email I sent to Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services, Supervisor Ted Williams and the Mendocino Fire Safe Council

Confusion: Evacuation Orders for Grange Fire-Review from an Affected Homeowner

As one of the affected homes I would like to respond to the notices I received. I live at 10301 Hwy 128, my house was saved by the fire fighters-though I lost most of my outbuildings, 10300 is the home that was destroyed.

Confusion:

It should have been a Zone #. The location description, “Denmark Creek Road”? Denmark Creek is on my property but no one in the area knows the name with the exception of a few old timers. I just found a Denmark Creek Road on a Google map, is it Vista Ranch Road or something else? Possibly when the fire department was required to name all the private lanes? But no one knows what/where it is.

As I evacuated from my house to Anderson Valley Way I was pretty sure I was going the correct direction and correct location, but there was no evacuation point listed.

The number of notices I got, close to 25, slowed down my evacuation - and they provided no further information. I finally started ignoring my phone, maybe if I stopped and clicked on each and every one of the acknowledgements it would have stopped the incoming traffic from your notices that was interfering with my evacuation and locating my family.

When I got to a safer location I tried to look up the evacuation map to see if I was in a safe area. It wouldn’t load. It would not load for anyone around me. Or there was no information with guidance. There were no notices of evacuation zone numbers, I never saw a notice of an evacuation point. After many moves I ended up in Boonville on the street feeling that the fire was far enough away. But that was after several moves of several cars, and a tractor..

In general, the frequent ‘Situational Alerts’ related to fires are not providing sufficient information as to location so that citizens are truly informed.

I think we might all have zone numbers attached to our residences, and the notices should refer to them. We would then know if we are in a Ready, Set or Go Zone. We should know our zones and the zone numbers should show up in the alert or a link that will easily load to a map.

I just tried the “Mendocino County Know Your Zone” link on the county page, after several redirects on my computer, I got the message that there are no zones,

https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/government/executive-office/office-of-emergency-services/know-your-zone

Look at Butte County’s alert system. It has an easy sign-up that links to notifications and the ArcGIS system for zones. It has a good public sign-up campaign.

Community Evacuation Maps | Butte County, CA

I volunteer for the Red Cross, and the ARCGIS linked system Butte and other California counties is using is superior. It provides me with timely and accurate information when I am tracking evacuation areas for just in time disaster response planning.

Thank you for your consideration,

Laura Baynham

Philo

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LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

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DROP THOSE BLACKBERRIES!

A Reader Writes:

We came home and found a woman with about 9 or 10 pounds of blackberries that she had picked from our own property. We have a sign that says “private property.” It is a driveway that goes to our house. At the driveway there are 3 mailboxes. There is no way that she did not know she was on private property. I got out of the car, opened the back of our car to get a plastic bag and told her to drop the berries into the bag. I explained to her that she had to have known she was on private property and that I had been planning to pick them in the morning. She literally took the entire harvest for herself without leaving anything for us. Soooooo, I stood in front of her with the bag open and said “put them all in here”. I was pretty pissed off that she not only was half way down our driveway but that she left nothing for us.she said “it’s ok” I said, no it’s not ok, “put them in the bag.”. So, I split the berries in thirds, among us and our two neighbors who live at the end of the shared easement/driveway. She then said, “it’s ok, you are rich”. I was so steaming mad…..I don’t have to mention what my husband and I have been through, how hard we have worked, what we have lost, what we have done and what we have to continue to sacrifice to have what we have. It’s pretty obvious she knew she was on private property.

1) the sign that says “private property”

2) the 3 mailboxes at the beginning of the driveway

3) the 3 houses at the end of the driveway

4) the cars in the driveway.

She was not just by the road, she was almost half of the way down the driveway. I cannot even indicate how someone can be so ignorant. Also, she took the entire harvest!!! Ugh!!!

Trying not to beat myself up for making her give me the berries but if I would have let her keep them it would have been the same as giving her permission to come back.

I’m surprised she didn’t come pick veggies from our garden. Although my garden is kind of sad…all I have is kale. Lots and lots of kale!

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NOT EVEN MOWING?

Editor,

Mendocino County will not mow or fix potholes.

I got a call from County road crew telling me his crew is in the wind and ill and there’s only him in the office so don’t expect any service soon. Maybe our supervisor Ted Williams can start a gofundme campaign for the Department of Transportation. I will donate a bag of asphalt. Maybe fire districts could subcontract to mow local roadsides. We can’t afford to wait for County to do the work. Time to reconsider incorporating our coastal communities and stop sending our taxes to Ukiah/County.

Skip Taube

Fort Bragg

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SUPERVISOR MULHEREN:

Over the last several months we’ve heard increasing complaints about the Animal Shelter. As we look to make changes in that department your input is incredibly valuable. I understand that there are a variety of schools of thought around all things Animal Services and invite you to keep sharing so as we move forward we can best incorporate the public’s thoughts on improvement. As a reminder Animal Care Services is a County wide function and you can contact your Supervisor with your thoughts. Email the BOS@MendocinoCounty.gov or use the anonymous reporting function at the top of the MendocinoCounty.Gov website.

(I was sent a screenshot by someone saying how dare I let this happen in my district and just a reminder the Second District isn’t everything that has a Ukiah address but more importantly we (the five of us) are all Mendocino County Supervisors and should care about all the issues facing our community regardless of what district it is in)

Attached (from CEO Report):

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HANDYMAN FOR HIRE IN ANDERSON VALLEY

Do you have a project you need help with?

Labor, Carpentry, Painting

Paul Moore in Boonville #505 204 2594

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MENDO SUPES: NO SHAME

Editor,

Each and every Supervisor for the County of Mendocino believes that their decision to rubber stamp the county district attorney’s procedure to improperly remove the Auditor and payroll manager are now strongly advocating a huge pay and pension increase for themselves.

Myself coming from the private sector, if that decision by the County Board had been done in the private sector that action would have resulted in their termination showing their poor decision making in turn resulting in having to spend money in a tight and constricted budget proving a lack of common sense.

As a result that money now and in the future being spent by the County to defend its actions will come out of programs and budgets for projects and programs we the public desperately need.

Shame on the supervisors; they all know better.

Because their actions defy common sense of the law and good governance, we the public will suffer Shame on each and every one of them.

have they NO SHAME?

Dennis Miller

(via internet)

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ADAM GASKA, re: The Great Redwood Trail…

According to a state analysis, entire buildout of the GRT would cost $5 billion dollars in 2020 dollars. The longer it takes to build, the higher the costs go. Most of the touted economic benefits are health benefits, not financial ones. The assumption being is that by building the GRT, people will be more physically active, becoming healthier and that will lead to improved health outcomes saving money on health care costs. Multiply that assumed impact by number of GRT users, and you get the total impact. If the assumptions are wrong, which I think they are, then the benefit is over estimated. If assumed number of users is very high.

I manage a ranch between Redwood Valley and Willits that is adjacent to the GRT. According to the master plan, we will see 500-1000 users a day. 30-60 users an hour during a 16 hour day, one person every minute or two. If that is anywhere near true, that will be a huge impact that will require mitigations and maintenance which will add to the cost.

It’s assumed there will be $102,568,000 in annual recreation/tourism/retail, health, and transportation benefits. Even if this is achieved, it would take almost 50 years to recoup the investment capital not taking into account inflation, interest/opportunity costs, or rising construction costs. This is a large project with a seemingly poor rate of return on investment. I can think of many other areas — existing roads, schools, water/sewer infrastructure, etc. — that I would rather fund with public tax dollars. I would also rather pay less in taxes to better afford basic necessities of living and invest in my family’s future than to fund the GRT.

I see potential benefits to the development of the GRT in some areas. The cities of Ukiah and Willits are spearheading the development in city limits. These areas are easy to access, easier to maintain and still construction has been running over $1 million a mile. I can see a Hopland segment being a boon to the 101 corridor areas and surrounding vineyards/wineries and ranches to bolster the tourism/recreation economy.

I do see the potential for some conflict. The GRT master plan proposes that the agency undertake some of its own economic endeavours to help financially support the agency-campgrounds, bike rentals, etc. — which would directly compete with local entrepreneurs’ efforts as well as possibly incentivizing the agency to use eminent domain in order to expand GRT service and amenities. This is where government agencies become self serving and operate to self perpetuate rather than serve the public.

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READER K.H. disagrees:

The Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Coast Trail are two of America’s most famous walking trails. Imagine arguing against them.

The Great Redwood Trail could be a boon to the entire north coast, but it will take time, stewardship and vision. The best part is not the almighty tourist eco dollar. It isn’t getting people outside, or burning some calories with healthy activity.

The great benefit is over time, it might lead to local residents seeing their environment in a new light and taking pride in their communities. Not only would travelers from around the world feel invested in our region – but locals might finally see this place as a special place worth preserving for their sons and daughters, for the future. Stories of where we come from are crucial to people’s perception of themselves and their belief in who and what they are and can be. If people believe they live in a special place – a lot could grow from that. The Great Redwood Trail could lead to a springboard of new businesses and new opportunities for many people who would otherwise leave the area, as well as being a boon to wineries, farms and recreational areas that already exist.

I don’t know that the landowners currently outraged by the idea of hikers and bikers passing by on a nearby trail have that kind of long term vision. They are busy thinking about meeting payroll tomorrow because running a small business is stressful and it gets more difficult every day. Some of them are more interested in keeping prying eyes away from their property, worried about trespassers and security, and wary of cleaning up messes when the government tax dollars dry up. If it doesn’t benefit them here and now, they see no need for it. I can’t really blame them, either, though I wish their attitude was different.

In America the notion of the good of the commons seems to be an idea that is barely hanging on. Too many people are starting to believe that what is good for them, right now, is what matters.

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ADAM GASKA REPLIES:

They aren’t really comparable. The PCT and Appalachian Trail are long trails that mostly pass through national/state parks and other publicly owned areas. The GRT is a 50-75 foot strip that passes through almost entirely private property. There is camping and such avail for the PCT and AT, while most private landowners that abut the GRT are not keen to allowing camping on their property.

I am not an owner, but I manage a ranch that has a few miles of the GRT running through it. I have spoken to a lot of landowners who will be affected. Most have the concerns you mention. They also don’t want a new impact allowed. They bought property knowing there was a rail line and were fine with that impact and many would like to see rail service return. They are not fine with the impact of the GRT.

There are many opportunities for locals to get out in nature. Adding another option to go walking is not likely to change people’s behavior and suddenly make them more health conscious. The options we already have are not fully utilized.

There are some areas that may benefit and increase winery/vineyard based tourism. One area I can see that helping is Hopland by adding a day loop that connects to Old River Road. People wine tasting aren’t generally looking to hike 20 miles a day for weeks as people do on the PCT.

I see it as a waste of tax payer dollars for something frivolous. Mendocino County has a lot of needs already not being met and here we are looking at spending billions of dollars on a project that will never make enough money to pay for itself. It will either be abandoned or continue to drain our coffers to maintain.

(To Be Continued…)

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CAROLE BRODSKY, HOSPICE OF UKIAH’S NEW DIRECTOR

Most people know Carole Brodsky as a journalist who worked for the Ukiah Daily Journal for over 15 years. Like many who migrated here in the ‘70s, she had a diverse professional background. Brodsky was director of both Plowshares and the American Red Cross and the co-creator and manager of the local favorite sushi spot, It’s Time.

“I stopped counting after I realized I had made over 100,000 sushi rolls,” she laughs.

Brodsky stayed connected to the non-profit world as a reporter and supporter of local agencies. In the ‘80s she took classes with Thelma Boynton and became a Hospice volunteer. Prior to that, she was her dying father’s caregiver.

“Back then, there was no such thing as Hospice,” noted Brodsky. “We did what we could with very scant resources.”

Her mother May became a palliative care client in 2008, and was cared for by Carole, her family and the Hospice of Ukiah team until her death in 2017.

“I could not have cared for my mother and continued to work without the support of Hospice of Ukiah and the Ukiah Senior Center’s Lunch Bunch program,” says Brodsky. She also credits Elizabeth Santos of the Alzheimer’s Association for her training, support “and many hugs,” Brodsky smiles.

In 2022, Brodsky joined the Hospice of Ukiah Board of Directors and was appointed Secretary. In early 2024, executive director Janet Denninger announced her decision to retire in August. The Board worked with Jim Mayfield to craft a succession plan.

“I realized a few months into the process that I might be a good fit for the job. I applied, was interviewed several times and began working in June.”

“We’re happy Carole accepted the position,” says Board President Mark Davis. “Because her mother was a client for many years, she is very familiar with our organization. Carole’s been a valuable member of the board, has great connections to our community and will carry on our Hospice mission.”

The organization was founded 42 years ago by Dr. Robert Werra. It provides palliative care and hospice services to the greater Ukiah area including Potter Valley, Hopland, Redwood Valley and parts of Willits. In 2023, residents of Anderson Valley raised their own funds to form a subsidiary hospice program. The organization is funded almost exclusively by donations, bequests and several local grants from the Community Foundation and the Bradford Family Foundation. The Hospice Thrift and Gift Shop provides significant funding to the organization.

“As a lifelong thrifter, I’m excited to work with our team to help make the Thrift store an even more interesting and fun place to shop. We are very appreciative of all the re-sellable merchandise donated to us by the community.”

One of Brodsky’s goals is to educate the community about palliative care.

“Most families or physicians contact us when their loved one is close to death,” she explains. “Providing end-of-life care was Dr. Werra’s original goal. Then, he expanded our work to include palliative care. Our nurses, CNAs, social workers, respite volunteers and grief counselor provide services to people with chronic illnesses like severe diabetes, kidney failure or dementia. We want the community to know we’re here to help. The only thing we need to enroll someone in our services is an order from their personal physician.”

Brodsky emphasizes that all services are provided free of charge.

“It is hard to express my gratitude as I step onto this path to further the legacy of Dr. Werra, Janet and many others. I can think of no other place that embodies my principles of compassion, integrity and service than Hospice of Ukiah,” she concludes.

For more information phone (707)462-4038.

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CELEBRATION FOR JIM MARTIN

Jim Martin was an icon for consumptive fisheries in California. We lost Jim back in May this year and to honor and celebrate his life I wanted to host a BBQ get together on August 17th 1-4pm at the Pacific Star Winery in Fort Bragg.

If you knew Jim, were friends or just heard about him and his recreational fishing/abalone efforts, come celebrate a great guy and friend.

Please RSVP by email/text to santinober@hotmail.com or 925-356-1834 so I can make sure we have enough food for everyone. Please no outside alcohol/beer on the winery grounds (per their insurance policy).

Feel free to forward this email to others that would be interested in attending.

Thank you,

Tino Bernazzani

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GRASS FED MEAT

Editor,

For us south Mendocino coasties, the best grass feed beef and lamb is obtainable from Richardson Ranch LLC. Very tasty, freezer packed and ready to pick up.

Call 707 785 9176, or 707 292 0822 for the best meat this side of Argentina.

Randy Burke

Gualala

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ED NOTES

ATTN CHEECHAKOS: As a former wilderness ranger, I can tell you it’s embarrassing to get hurt and need help in the silent spaces in the land out back of beyond. If you live out there, you shouldn’t need help out there – you should be the one they call for help instead.

On the other hand, if you’re a cheechako (greenhorn) who got hurt because you did something stupid, it should be embarrassing that you’ve made people who know what they’re doing out there put their lives on the line to save your sorry ass. I hated dealing with the “Oh look see, ain’t nature Grand!” people. They’re hearts are in the right place but they can get everyone into trouble in an instant.

LAKE MENDOCINO’S water belongs almost entirely to downstream Sonoma County because Sonoma County put up most of the money to build the dam, creating the lake back in the middle 1950s. Since the halcyon days of ‘55, inland Mendocino County’s population has grown, and continues to arrive via the 101 corridor even though existing water supplies are tapped out. Old Ag and New Grape Ag wields political influence out of all proportion to its numbers; it also uses water out of all proportion to even a semblance of fair distribution of the resource. Any resolution of the water problem will be impossible without the approval of this small group of water hogs and their rubber stamps dysfunctioning as the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors.

THE CALIFORNIA APPELLATE COURT struck down a typically greedy plan by the Sonoma County Water Agency to increase its annual diversion of water from the Russian River by 26,000 acre-feet to serve up to 150,000 new customers in rapidly growing areas of Sonoma and Marin counties. The plan was challenged by Friends of the Eel River and other environmental, sport fishing and Native American groups because it assumed that the existing diversion of water at Potter Valley from the Eel River to the Russian River, which accounts for most of the Russian River’s summer flows, would continue unchanged despite their severe adverse impact on the Eel River’s imperiled salmon. Several endangered species are among the fish populations that have been harmed by PG&E’s historic diversion of 180,000 annual acre-feet annually from the Eel River to the upper Russian River, an estimated 98% of the Russian River’s summer flow. Before the diversion at Potter Valley in the early 20th century, the upper Russian River went dry as far downstream as Healdsburg.

ONE MORE DOG STORY: An angry voice on my answering machine demanded, “Is this your dog tied up here at the Elementary School? Someone said it looks like him, and it looked like you leaving him tied up there.”

SOMEONE said I look like Gene Hackman one time, too, but I’m not him and he isn’t me. As it happened, Perro, as usual, was seated within an arm’s length of me and my telephone, gazing at me with unqualified devotion. Or out of a desire to kill me and gnaw me down to the last link on my succulent spine.

HE often weirded me out, I can tell you that, especially late at night when I’d look up from my prayers and there he was, staring at me. Sometimes he looked like he was laughing, sometimes he looked like he was about to lunge for my throat. Whatever his demeanor, day or night, I always knew where he was because he was always right there, staring at me, not tied up at the Elementary School or downtown Paris or running in feral packs after Sam Prather's sheep.

I’D assumed dogs took some time off, lapsing off into inattentiveness. Not Perro, and I never knew whether to be flattered or alarmed. The same day I was accused of abandoning Perro at the Elementary School, as I rested on a ridgetop in the hills east of Boonville after a long slog uphill, Perro had suddenly appeared with a baby pig between his teeth, a domestic-looking brown one, alive but silent, seemingly aware that he was either doomed or the 73-pound creature that had grabbed him was just showing off.

I CALLED PERRO to me so I could free the pig and restrain Perro. But Perro, having brandished his prey, insolently dashed off into the woods in his first ever act of deliberate defiance. About five minutes later, he reappeared as if nothing had happened. The pig wasn’t with him, and by that time I was half a mile down the trail, looking over my shoulder as I went, half expecting to see a huge mother pig with Perro between her jaws.

AN ANDERSON VALLEY GUY named “Mike” called to say he was getting on in years and had intended to leave his estate to the Nature Conservancy. But Mike said he’d heard somewhere that “a bunch of crooks” had taken over its leadership. He wanted to know what we knew about it.

NOT MUCH beyond that members of its board of directors had been caught building McMansions on ecologically precious land the Conservancy had supposedly bought to protect it from development, which right there would cause any right minded donor to cease directing cash money anywhere near the plush Arlington offices of the million member acquisition group.

WE’D ALWAYS THOUGHT the Nature Conservancy was the only reality-based environmental group in all of capitalist America. You want to save the environment? Buy it, because that’s the only sure fire means to spare it from the limo brains, and the only strategy the limo heads and every other free enterprise American approves of.

BUT AMERICA, also being the land where millions of delusionals grow up thinking that limo rides, big ugly houses in big ugly neighborhoods of big ugly houses, strategic botox injections, and 2.2 drug dependent children will not only make them happy but constitute the American Way of Life, are we surprised to learn that cash-flush, tax-exempt tree charities like the Nature Conservancy are interchangeable with the killers sitting in the big corporate free enterprise offices, that both share the same private jet values? Anybody who’s surprised that the Nature Conservancy’s leadership spends a lot of tax-exempt money on itself deserves to get ripped off.

A LOT OF THE BIG enviro groups are corrupt. So are a lot of the little ones, as even the most cursory examination of the spending practices of Redwood Summer Justice Project or the Bay Area Committee for Headwaters or Circle of Life or the Trees Foundation, or the Taj Bloody Mateel confirms, and suckers from all over the country send these scam-a-ramas big annual piles of money, unaware they’re really funding about a dozen full-time bunco artists.

BUT THE NATURE CONSERVANCY property at Branscomb, the last time I hiked through, seemed to be in good shape. No LL Bean types were building redwood palaces and all its old redwoods were still vertical.

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RECOMMENDED READING:

The Sea Ranch Reader

Dedicated to the preservation of The Sea Ranch, its principles, its legacy, and its very soul.

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MENDO POETRY EVENTS FOR AUGUST

https://theresawhitehill.com/events

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BILL RAY, COME IN PLEASE

Question about a reference in your newspaper…

I am a genealogist who had family in Willits.

While doing an online search, I found the following reference: The Willits Farewell … Anderson Valley Advertiser (theava.com)

One of the statements read: “Les and Zula Divine, he the war-era Oakland police chief who refused Warren’s decree to arrest all Japanese residents.”

Les and Zula are my grandparents by marriage. I have written biographies of many individuals in their family lines but had never heard this statement.

I am wondering if it is possible to contact the person who is recalling this and other memories, or if there is someone else in the area who might know of Les and Zula.

Any info or suggestions you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Deb McCabe looking4roots51@yahoo.com

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FOG EATER CAFE'S DINE OUT FOR THE LIGHTHOUSE

Join us at Fog Eater Cafe for a dine out event on the evening of Thursday, August 8th from 5pm-8:30pm!

Fog Eater is donating a portion of the proceeds from all dinner sales that evening back to the Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association. You get to enjoy an incredible meal while supporting Mendocino's historic lighthouse.

Fog Eater Cafe is a vegetarian restaurant located in the heart of Mendocino Village, inspired by both the hearty recipes of the deep South and the fresh plant-based cuisine of Northern California. Our produce is all organic, and sourced from within Mendocino or Sonoma counties. Their menu can be entirely vegan with gluten-free options, as well as natural wine, local beer and wine-based cocktails.

Learn more at fogeatercafe.com

What is National Lighthouse Day all about? On August 7th of 1789, the new United States government created "The Lighthouse Act", signed by President George Washington, which established the Lighthouse Service agency to build and maintain lighthouses along the new country's shores. On the same date in 1989, 200 years later, National Lighthouse Day was turned into a national holiday on August 7th, with a proclamation signed by President George H. W. Bush.

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CALLING ALL GRAPPLERS

MCRPD martial arts - registration now open.

Registration is now open for the next session of Martial Arts!

Classes available for ages 5 & UP!

Taekwondo, Jiu Jitsu, Grappling, women's self-defense, and Seibukan Jujutsu!

Check out Mendocoastrec.org for more details and registration.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, July 29, 2024

JOELL BECK, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

STEPHANIE BROWN, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SAVANA CRAMER, Hopland. DUI.

PETE GONZALES, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

FERNANDO MARTINEZ-ORTIZ, Ukiah. DUI.

AARON ORESCO, Ukiah. Domestic battery, false imprisonment, paraphernalia.

NIA SMITH, Mendocino. Retaking land after legal removal, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

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GETTING THERE, CRAIG

Christ Is with Us Amidst the Global Meltdown

Warmest spiritual greetings,

Discovered recently that St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church is located directly behind the Royal Motel here in Ukiah, California. Therefore, I attended the Monday 6 p.m. Mass just now and received Holy Communion. How thoroughly wonderful it is.

Encouraging everyone to put your own practice first, and then, we shall act powerfully together. This is the only realistic response to the engulfing global insanity and chaos.

Craig Louis Stehr

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PACIFIC COAST TRAIL - Far NorCal Trail Angels (Castella/Dunsmuir/Shasta/Etna/Seiad)

Trip report!

Just finished hiking the the Shasta to Etna section (MM 1502 to 1601) from 7/22 to 7/25. I wanted to give an update on conditions in this section, especially because it seems there’s a lot of confusion as to whether it’s still necessary to skip from Shasta to Seiad or Ashland.

I would describe this as maybe the best ~100 miles of hiking in all of NorCal. The trail here follows the crest of ridges almost continuously so you get constant incredible views of Shasta, the Marbles, and the Trinity Alps while the elevation gain is very small. We thought the views and natural beauty were up to the level of the Sierra for parts of it.

Trail conditions: When we were hiking the trail was almost totally empty. We saw less than 10 other PCTers in the whole 100 miles. The campsites in this section can be a little cramped, so it was nice to be able to not worry so much about campsite selection. The trail is in mostly good condition, with a few of the usual blowdowns you’d expect but better than many other sections of NorCal. Most of the seasonal water sources are flowing and we had no large water carries. The burned areas in this section are much and less ashy/blowdowny than previous sections; most trees are still alive. The routing of the trail on the ridges means it stays cool and breezy, and other than some bad heat on the initial climb out of Shasta we felt mostly cool and comfortable even during the intense heat wave days of 7/22-23. The climb out of Shasta, however, is quite exposed and is south facing, so I’d recommend hiking this in the morning or evening.

As for fire conditions, it was somewhat smoky ok 7/23 but the smoke has mostly cleared into blue skies the past couple days. We had no issues with it and still got great views. We also saw no sign of the Shelly fire, the smoke plume appears to have totally vanished and Etna has clear skies. Many thanks to the people at CalFire. Etna is fully open for business and there’s plenty of space to camp in the town park still even with all the firefighters. This is already one of my favorite towns on the PCT!

Hitching notes: I would strongly recommend arranging a ride in advance in this section. We saw very little traffic at Scott Mountain Summit and Carter Meadows Summit and absolutely none at Etna Summit. Specifically for those trying to hitch to Etna from Etna Summit (MM 1601), I would say this is a nigh impossible hitch, there is almost nobody driving this road right now. We tried and failed. There is also no cell service at Etna Summit, so make sure to arrange a ride from 2-3 miles SOBO on the ridge where there is excellent service! Darcy Walker gave us a ride and has been awesome at helping hikers get around in the Scott Valley.

Overall I would say this section is prime hiking right now and absolutely not worth skipping. After all the burned areas and blowdowns of the past couple hundred miles, this felt like dessert! Thanks to all the wonderful trail angels here for making this all possible. You guys are amazing!

— Twins

P.S. A tip — Deadfall Lakes is the best spot ever. Plan a campsite or a siesta there and go swimming. Trust me, it’s worth it.

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m a heterosexual – always have been, always will be in whatever time I have left on this good, green Earth.

I grew up in a bygone era where homosexuality was not acceptable to the masses.

I saw how gay men were totally discriminated against, and it was not pretty.

In my 20’s I happened to meet a few gay couples. They were certainly different, but I found them more sweet than not. Unlike today, they weren’t in your face, nor were they pedophilic. They just wanted to live their own lives in peace.

These kind of gays deserve to be left alone. To lump them all together is not using your head, and in fact intolerant, imo.

What we’ve been seeing the last several years with the screaming flamboyancy and pedophilia, to me is a reaction to sudden freedom.

I don’t like the way they’re doing things now, but I understand why.

God condemned them – but that was in the past, when it was necessary for every able-bodied person to try to procreate. Even male masturbation was a sin – spilling your seed was a waste and bad.

But now it’s different.

We ought to be tolerant. It’s cruel to not be. But I don’t condone men forcing themselves on under-age boys, nor do I condone depraved flaunting of one’s homosexuality.

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ROB ANDERSON:

In 1967 I was living on Frederick Street a few blocks away from where the Dead lived. I used to walk by their place when I went down to the Panhandle to shoot baskets. Once, on the way home, dribbling the ball up Ashbury, they were sitting on the steps. Not sure if I knew who they were at the time, though I was in a smallish crowd who heard them play on the Pan Handle. Jerry Garcia before the beard!

One of them said something like, “Hey, throw it around,” and held out his hands. I quickly passed it to him, and he passed it back. Smiles all around, as I went on my way. That's how the Haight was at the time. A girl actually handed me a flower once on Haight, which I appreciated. She probably thought I needed it, and she would have been right. I was a short-haired, beardless young guy in horn-rimmed glasses who was working as a clerk for a corporation downtown.

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MARE ISLAND & PLUTONIUM

Channing Colette:

Re: Dangling Plutonium

Having grown up in Vallejo and Benicia, knowing some of the rich wartime history of the area, attending events on Mare Island, and then eventually going on spontaneous day and night trips with my friends as teenagers to explore the abandoned warehouses and outbuildings, this article while reminiscent of my younger years, definitely makes me want to do more investigating. Remembering the lot of vibrant warning signs splayed all over the sides of dilapidated buildings and hanging on broken fences didn’t encumber us from our curiosities. We were all over that island from the bridge to the mud flats; finding ways to crawl into spaces we had no idea where it led, touching random objects that appeared to be “just old parts and tools”, finding an enormous steel structure that resembled an oven capable of cooking 10 people at once (in our minds), tip-toeing out onto rusted beams and old cranes 100 ft up at night. Had no qualms about exposure from the mounds of dust being kicked up as we walked into places that hadn’t seen a person in decades. The floor dust was caked on like snow, leaving thick detailed outlines of the soles of our shoes. It was so surreal because everything seemed to be left. Rusty equipment, name tags, tools, parts, cans of various liquids, refrigerators with extremely old contents inside, entire classrooms full of antique desks, and what looked to be documents strewn about with schedules and signatures about equipment maintenance logs. I guess that’s what happens in an industry where governments don’t allocate money to safely eradicate future use of facilities that have tested positive for nuclear radiation in a timely manner. These days, security can go either way. I’ve walked around for a few hours with no security approaching, while other times they pull up within 30 minutes.

I don’t believe our comparatively small bit of exposure would’ve caused significant damage, but reading about the contaminated water being dumped into Carquinez-Strait and the lies higher-ups told their subordinates and trainees, manipulations that more than likely did affect their health later in life, running through the various scenarios that could’ve affected surrounding citizens all of those years and the risks they took. It’d be interesting to see data on the specific job titles, who primarily worked those jobs and for how long, and their medical records or what their current health conditions are in some kind of comparative analysis report. I found a couple of publications and EPA reports with some good data, but they’re quite lengthy, so have to keep reading. I appreciate your interview though, gives me a lot to think about and research. Was there anything they told you that you didn’t publish in this article?

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REYES MORONTA LOSES LIFE IN CAR ACCIDENT

by Sean Keane

Reyes Moronta, a San Francisco Giants relief pitcher for five seasons, passed away after a traffic accident early Sunday night. Reportedly, Moronta was riding an all-terrain vehicle outside his father’s home in the Dominican Republic when the fatal accident occurred. He was 31 years old.

Moronta was a member of the Giants from 2017-21, putting up two extremely strong seasons out of the bullpen in 2018 and 2019, before a torn labrum near the end of 2019 derailed his career. After he missed the 2020 season rehabilitating his shoulder, he suffered an elbow injury after four appearances in 2021, and spent time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Angels for the remainder of his major league career.

Signing with the Giants at age 17, Moronta spent 11 years in the Giants organization. At 18, he was playing for the Dominican Summer League Giants. At age 23, Moronta could throw 100 MPH, and was a California League All-Star for the single-A San Jose Giants. By age 24, he’d made his major league debut.

In his rookie season of 2018, Moronta became one of Bruce Bochy’s favorite weapons out of the pen. He pitched in 69 games (nice), going 5-2 with a 2.49 ERA and striking out 79 in 65 innings. The next season, he only took a small step back, putting up a 2.86 ERA and striking out better than 11 batters per nine innings. But he collapsed on the mound during a relief appearance on August 31 of that year, having torn the labrum in his right shoulder. After that, he threw just four more innings for the Giants in the next two seasons.

Moronta could throw gas, and he had an effective slider, but he certainly didn’t look like a professional athlete. Listed at 5-foot-10, Moronta officially weighed 265 pounds, putting him firmly in the tradition of beloved plus-sized Giants relievers, alongside luminaries like Rod “Shooter” Beck and Pablo Sandoval. With both arms covered in tattoos and a beefy frame, Moronta didn’t resemble your typical lights-out reliever, until batters were shaking their heads walking back to the dugout after a strikeout.

In this video from 2021, Moronta praised Johnny Cueto’s cooking and Brandon Crawford’s hair, called Wandy Peralta a good friend, and talked about how he wished he could be a race car driver, but ominously warned that driving was too dangerous and he didn’t want to “risk my life.”

Moronta’s time in the organization was long, but his time playing for the big league Giants was unfortunately brief. R.I.P. to a very memorable old Giant, gone too soon.

(mccoveychronicles.com)

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JEFF BLANKFORT

Something to think about, if you're allowed to:

One of the most far sighted individuals who ever lived. and who, at least, merits at least a T-shirt with his comment re Jews and Judaism, was the French official, Clermont-Tonnerre, who, in 1789, following the revolution, wrote and spoke the following:

"But, they say to me, the Jews have their own judges and laws. I respond that is your fault and you should not allow it. We must refuse everything to the Jews as a nation and accord everything to Jews as individuals. We must withdraw recognition from their judges; they should only have our judges. We must refuse legal protection to the maintenance of the so-called laws of their Judaic organization; they should not be allowed to form in the state either a political body or an order. They must be citizens individually. But, some will say to me, they do not want to be citizens. Well then! If they do not want to be citizens, they should say so, and then, we should banish them. It is repugnant to have in the state an association of non-citizens, and a nation within the nation. . . . In short, Sirs, the presumed status of every man resident in a country is to be a citizen."

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DEB SILVA on Charles Schulz:

Schulz was a weird guy. You may remember this incident involving him that happened in the mid-90s. Briefly, Schulz's financial advisor, Ron Nelson, had an affair with a female employee at Snoopy headquarters. Nelson told his wife about the affair and asked his wife for a divorce. The wife, Shirley Nelson, went bonkers and arrived at Ron's workplace with a gun and proceeded to shoot him then turned the gun on herself. Ron was critically injured, and Shirley had a worse injury. Neither of them died.

Schulz, who had some strange priorities, took the side of the aggrieved wife, going so far as to eventually post her bail and help out with her attorney fees. Schulz was dead set against affairs of any kind. He fired Ron Nelson and the woman he had the affair with resigned before she was also fired.

I put together a pdf of all the articles that appeared in the Press Democrat about the shooting and its aftermath. Ron Nelson ended up marrying his girlfriend and as far as I know they are still married.

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ACTIVISM, UNCENSORED: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTERS ATTEMPT TO DISRUPT NETANYAHU VISIT

Spit-drenched cops, muchas keffiyahs, Watergate maggots, burned flags, Uncle Sam hanged, and b-words hurled, as Washington's Union Station is claimed for Palestine

by Matt Taibbi and Ford Fischer

One of the first official statements of new sort-of-president Kamala Harris last week was an exercise in triangulation, issued in response to a series of protests in the capital. What might ‘despicable acts’ by what Harris calls ‘unpatriotic protesters’ look like? See above.

As usual, Ford Fischer’s News2Share team does an outstanding job gathering wire-to-wire footage of pro-Palestine protesters descending upon Washington in an effort to disrupt Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s visit. Shooters T.J. Jones and Paul Mulholland also gathered video of the event, which saw the American flag taken down at Union Station (a stone’s throw from the Capitol) and replaced by the Palestine flag. You will see jugs of fake blood poured out, a full-speed police foot chase, cops macing protesters, protesters hawking loogies at cops, maggots released in the Watergate, a ‘Make Israel Palestine Again’ hat, and the always-reassuring sight of American youth doing ceremonial dances while chanting Allahu Akbar!

Even the dialogue is fascinating. White protester to black policeman, while filming: ‘I think you should get a real job, and not be a human shield for white people.’

Policeman, in response: ‘I think you should get a real phone, because your phone is cracked. That’s just my opinion.’

The passion is real. Submitted without commentary.

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US CORPORATIONS PUMP AQUIFERS DRY IN MEXICO - POLICE KILL WATER DEFENDERS

by David Bacon

Farmers are risking their lives to fight back against the US-owned factory farms that are destroying Mexico's water.

Fausto Limon looks at his bean plants, knowing they need more fertilizer, but lacking the money to buy it, in Veracruz, Mexico.

On June 20, more than 200 angry farmers pulled their tractors into the highway outside the Carroll Farms feed plant in the Mexican town of Totalco, Veracruz, blocking traffic. Highway blockades are a traditional form of protest in Mexico. Every year, poor communities mount dozens, seeing them as their only way to get powerful elites to hear their demands.

At first, the Totalco blockade was no different. Farmers yelled at the guards behind the feed plant gates, as they protested extreme water use by Carroll Farms and its contamination of the water table. Then the police arrived in pickup trucks. They began grabbing people they thought were the leaders. One was Don Guadalupe Serrano, an old man who'd led earlier protests going back more than a decade. After he was put in handcuffs and shoved into a police car, farmers surrounded it and rescued him.

"Then four police grabbed me," recalls Renato Romero, a farmer from nearby Ocotepec and a protest leader. "I was rescued too. But then more police arrived and began beating people. We put our bodies in front of their guns and said, 'Shoot us!' And they began shooting."

Two young brothers, Jorge and Alberto Cortina Vázquez, were killed, their bodies found beside their family's tractor used in the demonstration. Each had been shot several times, one of their widows said. Others were wounded by gunfire. The farmers had no weapons. As they fled back into town, the police chased them, Romero says. "They followed people in the streets, and went into homes, shooting. Afterwards you could see the high caliber shells on the floors of the houses. They didn't try to talk. They just wanted to terrorize us."

This bitter confrontation and the death of two campesinos is more than simply a bloody tragedy south of the border. It is one more example of the impact U.S. food corporations have had on local farm communities as they've expanded in Mexico. That process is felt north of the border as well, in the spread of disease, the displacement of local communities and resulting migration, and even in the national politics of both countries.

Granjas Carroll (the name of Carroll Farms in Mexico) is a division of the huge U.S.-based Smithfield Foods meatpacking company. It owns a vast network of industrial pig farms in this one valley on the border of Puebla and Veracruz states. Here, large barns each house hundreds of animals at a time. The urine and feces they produce is concentrated in big open-air oxidation pools or lagoons.

According to a Humane Society International report, pigs produce four times more waste than human beings: "One animal facility with a large population of animals can easily equal a small city in terms of waste production. This is particularly worrisome for certain regions in Mexico like the Perote Valley, which … has a pig population five times greater than that of its human population."

The killings created a political storm in Veracruz. Within a few days, more than 50 organizations throughout Latin America had signed a statement condemning "brutal repression" and demanding to know who was responsible. Despite the police attack, after four days farmers returned and reinstituted their planton, or blockade. The municipal president of Totalco, Delfino Ortega, blocked the road with them.

The state administration of Gov. Cuitláhuac GarcÃa Jiménez then announced that the special police unit that shot the farmers, the Fuerza Civil, would be dissolved. The unit was created in 2014 by the previous governor, Javier Duarte de Ochoa (now in prison for corruption), and had a reputation for kidnappings, extortion and disappearances.

Six days after the killings, Governor GarcÃa announced the company plant in Totalco would be partially closed because of violations of regulations governing water consumption and pollution from the lagoons. The Veracruz State's Attorney Office for Environmental Protection said it would carry out inspections at the 51 Granjas Carroll facilities located in the municipality of Perote, where Totalco is located. The head of the agency, Sergio RodrÃguez Cortés, said that so far nine facilities have been reviewed and various irregularities have been found.

Perote and Totalco are towns in the Libres-Oriental basin, a large enclosed valley surrounded by mountains and volcanos. It's dotted with shallow lakes in former volcanic craters, historically sustained by underground water. In this basin, water runs not to the ocean, but into its interior, and rain that falls here sinks into the aquifer below. There is very little surface water, and the recharge of the aquifer mostly comes from surrounding mountains as it passes underground into the basin. Libres-Oriental is essentially an enormous natural water storage facility.

Farmers say that 20 years ago, the water level was just a meter below the surface in their fields near the lakes, with natural springs throughout the region. Today, the land is dry.

Mexico has enormous and growing water problems. Some 104 basins like Libres-Oriental have a deficit - the amount of water recharging their aquifers is less that the amount being extracted. The University Center for Regional Disaster Prevention (Cupreder) at the Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla charges that in 2016, the aquifer already had a deficit of 0.35 million cubic meters annually. This was the year the Audi auto assembly plant located in the basin started up its assembly lines. By 2023, the aquifer deficit approached 22 million cubic meters.

Cupreder Director Aurelio Fernández Fuentes says Conagua, the National Water Commission that manages Mexico's water and gives permits for its extraction, does not have an aquifer recharge policy. "It only extracts," he said. "There is no transparency in issuing concessions, because there is a shady business that the Fourth Transformation [the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)] has not resolved."

According to José Vicente Nolasco Valencia, another researcher at Cupreder, the alarming growth of the deficit is due to corporate extraction from the industrial park where the Audi and Mercedes-Benz plants are located, Coca-Cola's water bottling facility, the recently built complex of 14 military factories, and Granjas Carroll's pig farms.

Agribusiness operations, which started two decades ago, also contribute. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox began growing broccoli on his large landholdings in the basin after leaving office in 2006, and today factory farms grow and sell berries for the Driscoll's berry conglomerate. They all have Conagua's permits for industrial agriculture.

Granjas Carroll was given five concessions between 2020 and 2024, in addition to its original permits, to pump more water from the aquifer below the Libres-Oriental basin. The company's water consumption doubled in that period. It now has permits to pump 3.8 million cubic meters of water per year. Of that, Granjas Carroll says it uses 3.54 million cubic meters to produce 1.67 million pigs per year on 121 farms, as well as in a processing plant and two feed distribution facilities.

The basin has theoretically been closed to new water extraction for 20 years, because the rate at which water is pumped is greater than the recharge of the aquifer. As a result, throughout that time, small farmers have been denied pumping permits, Romero told me. But under neoliberal changes in water law made since 1982 by the administrations prior to the current government of López Obrador, water use was modified. New permits were made available for industrial users and private water concessions. Granjas Carroll got its permits as an industrial user under this neoliberal system.

"We have been six years with no harvests," Renato Romero charges, "and for three years we haven't even had water for planting. I'm 63, and my land belonged to my mother. I've lived my whole life here. But we have no way to farm anymore." The government action in closing the Totalco plant is meaningless, he says. "This is just where they make food for the pigs. They have others like it, and more than 100 farms where the contamination comes from. No one is closing them. Our fields are dry, while big ranches have green fields of broccoli all year around."

Romero is a member of the Movement in Defense of Water in the Libres-Oriental basin. Farmers in the movement have three demands: They should have access to water, so they can stay on the land; the foreign companies in the Libres-Oriental basin should be forced to leave; and the people responsible for the murders of the two farmers should be held responsible. "Who gave the order?" Romero asks.

(Truthout.org)

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SPARE ME THE OLYMPIC-SIZE HYPOCRISY OVER SICKENING ‘LAST SUPPER’ DRAG SKIT

by Piers Morgan

Somebody caused offense at the Olympics over the weekend.

It was something judged so horribly inappropriate, tasteless and antithetical to the spirit of the Games that the culprit was unceremoniously fired.

The severe punishment was instantly applauded by a horrified world.

“When will these people ever learn?” declared one furious professor from a British university on X. “Why aren’t they being given some kind of training?”

Another outraged commenter ordered the miscreant to “hang your head in shame!”

And there were demands for a public apology for the “disgusting” incident, which was so bad, it was immediately branded “outrageous” by one of their co-workers sitting beside them.

Now, at this point, you might be assuming that I’m talking about whoever decided it was a good idea to desecrate the Last Supper at the opening ceremony with a jaw-droppingly repulsive drag-act mockery of one of the most important and symbolic moments in the life of Jesus Christ.

But no, I wasn’t.

In fact, I’m talking about a Eurosport commentator named Bob Ballard, who, as the gold medal-winning Australian women’s freestyle swimming relay team left the Paris Aquatic center, quipped: “Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like … hanging around, doing their makeup.”

Sacré bleu!

Has there ever been a more disgraceful example of sexism perpetrated by a human being in the history of Planet Earth?

Well, yes, there has.

In fact, at the very same time feminists are frothing from their lipsticked mouths in rage about Ballard’s lame but tame joke, women around the world are drooling in a sexually charged manner on social media about Dutch male swimmer Arno Kamminga’s revealing flesh-colored trunks.

As is true so often these days, rhetorical sexism rules only apply from men to women, not the other way around.

But the far greater hypocrisy to me is why the hapless Ballard, a veteran of 40 years of elite athletic commentary, had to be instantly thrown to the virtue-signaling wolves, yet nobody’s been held accountable for one of the most egregious acts of deliberately offensive taunting that I’ve ever witnessed at an international sporting event.

Honestly, I could barely believe what I was watching as the Last Supper drag parody played out on Friday night.

The Olympics are supposed to be a unifying global event, yet here were the organizers brazenly insulting 2.4 billion Christians in the most flagrant manner imaginable.

I posted a photograph of it on X, with my reaction: “Btw, what the f–k was all this about? A drag queen mockery of the Last Supper at the Olympics? Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision.”

And to give you some idea of the scale of the offense caused, my opinion has so far had 11 million views and been “liked” 163,000 times — by far the biggest response to anything I’ve posted in several years.

The comments were almost universally furious, and I fully understand why.

As I wrote, it’s unthinkable that Olympics chiefs would have allowed other religions like Islam, Judaism or Hinduism to have been so crudely ridiculed in this way.

So why did they allow the world’s biggest faith to be singled out, especially in a country like France, where 50% of the population are Christians?

It was so obviously repellent that not only did Christian leaders express outrage, led by a statement from French Catholic bishops which raged against the “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore,” but leaders of other faiths issued statements of solidarity, including Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning, which attacked the decision to “depict Jesus Christ in an offensive manner, disrespecting his honorable person and the high status of prophecy in a reckless barbaric way that does not respect the feelings of believers in religions and high human morals and values.”

It’s been wrongly reported that Olympics organizers have since “apologized’” for the sickening skit.

They haven’t.

Instead, they just pretended they never meant to upset anyone.

“There was clearly never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” said Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps. “On the contrary, I think we tried to celebrate community, tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we’re of course really sorry.”

What a load of disingenuous bulls–t.

Others have tried to claim it wasn’t a lampoon of the Last Supper at all but in fact inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of Greek Olympian gods at the Feast of Dionysus.

But if that’s the case, then why did Barbara Butch, the self-styled “fat, Jewish, queer lesbian” DJ seen in the middle playing the role of Jesus, post to her Instagram account a now-deleted picture of the scene above Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper and caption it: “Oh Yes! Oh Yes! The New Gay Testament!”?

They knew exactly what they were doing.

Butch says her aim in life is to “unite people” and “share love,” but all she and her fellow mockers achieved is helping to cause huge disunity and anger.

Not that you would realize it if you heard the verdict of America’s first lady Jill Biden — who was in attendance — and said the opening ceremony was “spectacular … every step of the way.”

Really, Dr. Biden?

Why don’t you run that by the congregation of the churches in Washington and Delaware that you and Joe regularly attend as committed Christians?

Trust me, they won’t be using the word “spectacular” about this appalling display of deeply offensive blasphemy.

(New York Post)

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YOU’LL NEVER WORK IN THIS TOWN AGAIN!

by James Kunstler

“The kids are hooked on wokeness now. They’d be better off with cigarettes.” — Ian Miles Cheong on “X”

Did we just witness the suicide of Wokery? I think you saw what’s called, in the argot of progressive thinking, the “queering” of the Olympics. That was some spectacle. First, Death on a Pale Horse came galloping down the Seine River so that no one would miss the point of the symbolism to follow: the beheaded Marie Antoinette portrayed singing in the window of a flaming palais (revolution anyone?). . . . Then, a tableau vivant of DaVinci’s The Last Supper “queered” to-the-max with a tattooed land-whale in the Jesus seat offering a Satan hand-signal among the swaying drag queens, plus one child ostentatiously in the mix (say, whu?). . . followed by a blue Dionysus crooning about nudity (“Nu”) on a giant fruit platter, with his ball-sack clearly on display among the cherries and nectarines. . . . It rained. . .tant pis. . . . The power went out and Paris ceased to be the City of Light. Finis. . . .

Not all of Western Civ was amused by these. . . antics. Many complained that the show portrayed Christianity in a less than favorable light. Ya think? The next day, the Paris-24 organizing committee offered the world an apology of sorts. Spokesperson Anne Descamps explained that the idea was “to celebrate community tolerance.” Or, shall we say, to test it? Apparently, it flunked the test. Director of the extravaganza, Thomas Jolly, said (translation), “Our intention was never to be impertinent.” Of course, he lies, and of course it is the foundational premise of those in the Satanic fold to lie about everything. (Just as America’s Democratic Party lies about everything.) Within hours, sponsors revolted and pulled their support for the games altogether. Lord knows what the BRICs nations make of all this. Probably something like pity.

Two-hundred-thirty years ago in Paris the Jacobin faction behind the Reign of Terror was put out of business, suddenly, all in one night, really, after turning French daily life upside-down and inside-out for one year, to the huge annoyance of the French public. On July 27 (9 Thermidor), 1794, chief Jacobin activist Maximiian Robespierre made a speech before the Convention (national assembly) denouncing those who were denouncing him (theories of conspiracy!), and the audience commenced to pelt him with fruit, vegetables, and opprobrious invective. Cries rang out for his arrest. Before long: pandemonium in the chamber! The Jacobins fled and took refuge in the city hall (Hôtel de Ville), but it was too late. The whole city had turned on them. Robespierre got shot in the jaw, possibly by himself. The Jacobin gang were declared “outlaws.” The following evening, the Jacobin leaders were all executed by guillotine in the Place de la Concorde.

Thus began the Thermidorian Reaction — called that, because the Jacobins had added an extra mid-summer month, Thermidor, to their cuckoo calendar. Now, one might ask, was July 27, 2024, the start of the revolt against progressive Woke-ism? It’s hard to imagine what kind of public spectacle the Left could come up with to beat the Olympic opener. Maybe human sacrifice, say Hillary Clinton eating a parboiled toddler in front of three thousand shrieking cat-ladies at the Democratic National Convention. Has it come to that?

It’s hard to escape the feeling now that our own reign-of-terror, the Woke-Marxist psychopathocracy, has played out its string. A month of garish events and revelations has left the USA a hot mess: the momentous Supreme Court decisions, the debate horror show, the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump and the many loose ends still hanging from it, the (probably) coerced election withdrawal of “Joe Biden” and the shocking discovery (to many) that he’s only partly still there, and the elite selection process that “nominated” Kamala Harris — these strange doings have rocked the American Zeitgeist. The artificially-induced rapture that attended the apotheosis of Veep is sputtering out as the internet explodes with memes putting her clueless vacuity on laughable display.

We’re informed (in great detail here by Naomi Wolf) that the Veep’s handlers haven’t even bothered with the required Federal Election Commission filings to be a candidate (nor has “Joe Biden” submitted his official withdrawal paperwork). So, you can surmise that the whole thing is another Democratic Party prank, leading to more shenanigans as the August 19 Convention cometh.

Do you think the repulsive Olympic opener was unconnected to what has been going on in our country? And do you doubt that the tide is now going out on all that?

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US PRESIDENTIAL RACES HIDE THE CRIMINALITY OF THE US EMPIRE

by Caitlin Johnstone

The thing I hate about western electoral politics in general and US presidential races in particular is that they take the focus off the depravity of the US-centralized empire itself, and run cover for its criminality.

In the coming months you’re going to be hearing a lot of talk about the two leading presidential candidates and how very very different they are from each other, and how one is clearly much much worse than the other. But in reality the very worst things about both of them will not be their differences — the worst things about them will be be the countless ways in which they are both indistinguishably in lockstep with one another. 

Donald Trump is not going to end America’s non-existent “democracy” if elected and rule the United States as an iron-fisted dictator, and he’s certainly not going to be some kind of populist hero who leads a revolution against the Deep State. He will govern as your standard evil Republican president who is evil in all the usual ways US presidents are evil, just like he did during his first term. His administration will continue to fill the world with more war machinery, implement more starvation sanctions, back covert operations, uprisings and proxy conflicts, and work to subjugate the global population to the will of the empire, all while perpetuating the poisoning of the earth via ecocidal capitalism, just as all his predecessors have done.

And the same will be true of whatever moronic fantasies Republicans wind up concocting about Kamala Harris between now and November. She’s not going to institute communism or give everyone welfare, implement Sharia law, weaken Israel, take everyone’s guns, subjugate Americans to the “Woke Agenda” and make everyone declare their pronouns and eat bugs, or any of that fuzzbrained nonsense. She will continue to expand US warmongering and tyranny while making the world a sicker, more violent, and more dangerous place for everyone while funneling the wealth of the people and the planet into the bank accounts of the already obscenely rich. Just as Biden has spent his entire term doing, and just as Trump did before him.

The truth is that while everyone’s going to have their attention locked on the differences between Trump and Harris these next few months, by far the most significant and consequential things about each of these candidates are the ways in which they are similar. The policies and agendas either of them will roll out which will kill the most people, negatively impact the most lives and do the most damage to the ecosystem are the areas in which they are in complete agreement, not those relatively small and relatively inconsequential areas in which they differ. You can learn a lot more about the US and its globe-spanning empire by looking at the similarities between presidential administrations than you can by looking at their differences, because that’s where the overwhelming majority of the abusiveness can be found.

But nobody’s going to be watching any of that normalized criminality while the drama of this fake election plays out. More and more emotional hysteria is going to get invested in the outcome of this fraudulent two-handed sock puppet popularity contest between two loyal empire lackeys who are both sworn to advance the interests of the empire no matter which one wins, and the mundane day-to-day murderousness of the empire will continue to tick on unnoticed in the background.

The other day the US Navy’s highest-ranking officer just casually mentioned that the AUKUS military alliance which is geared toward roping Australia into a future US-driven military confrontation with China will remain in place no matter who wins the presidential election.

“Regardless of who is in our political parties and whatever is happening in that space, it’s allies and partners that are always our priority,” said Admiral Lisa Franchetti in response to the (completely baseless) concern that Trump will withdraw from military alliances and make the US “isolationist” if elected.

How could Franchetti make such a confident assertion if the behavior of the US war machine meaningfully changed from administration to administration? The answer is that she couldn’t, and it doesn’t. The official elected government of the United States may change every few years, but its real government does not.

To be clear, I am not telling you not to vote here. These elections are designed to function as an emotional pacifier for the American people to let them feel like they have some control over their government, so if you feel like you want to vote then vote in whatever way pacifies your emotions. I’ve got nothing invested in convincing you either way.

Whenever I talk about this stuff I get people accusing me of being defeatist and interpreting this message as a position that there’s nothing anyone can do, but that’s not true at all. I’m just saying the fake election ritual you’ve been given by the powerful and told that’s how you solve your problems is not the tool for the job. You’re as likely to solve your problems by voting as you are by wishing or by praying — but that doesn’t mean problems can’t be solved. If you thought you could cure an infection by huffing paint thinner I’d tell you that won’t work either, and tell you to go see a doctor instead.

Just because the only viable candidates in any US presidential race will always be murderous empire lackeys doesn’t mean things are hopeless; that’s just what it looks like when you live in the heart of an empire that’s held together by lies, violence and tyranny, whose behavior has too much riding on it for the powerful to allow it to be left to the will of the electorate. 

Your vote won’t make any difference to the behavior of the empire, but what can make a difference is taking actions every day to help pave the way toward a genuine people’s uprising against the empire later on down the road. You do this by opening people’s eyes to the reality that what they’ve been taught about their government, their nation and their world is a lie, and that the mainstream sources they’ve been trained to look to for information are cleverly disguised imperial propaganda services.

What we can all do as individuals right here and now is begin cultivating a habit of committing small acts of sedition. Making little paper cuts in the flesh of the beast which add up over time. You can’t stop the machine by yourself, but you can sure as hell throw sand in its gears.

Giving a receptive listener some information about what’s going on in the world. Creating dissident media online. Graffiti with a powerful message. Amplifying an inconvenient voice. Sharing a disruptive idea. Supporting an unauthorized cause. Organizing toward forbidden ends. Distributing eye-opening literature. Creating eye-opening literature. Creating eye-opening art. Having authentic conversations about real things with anyone who can hear you.

Every day there’s something you can do. After you start pointing your creativity at cultivating this habit, you’ll surprise yourself with the innovative ideas you come up with. Even a well-placed meme or tweet can open a bunch of eyes to a reality they’d previously been closed to. Remember: they wouldn’t be working so frantically to restrict online speech if it didn’t pose a genuine threat to the empire.

Such regular small acts of sabotage do infinitely more damage to the imperial machine than voting, talking about voting or thinking about voting, which is why voting, talking about voting and thinking about voting is all you’re ever encouraged to do. The more people wake up to the fact that they’re running to nowhere on a hamster wheel built by the powerful for the benefit of the powerful, the more people there will be to step off the wheel and start pushing for real change in real ways that matter — and the more people there will be to help wake up everyone else.

Once enough eyes are open, the people will be able to use the power of their numbers to force real change and shrug off the chains of their abusers like a heavy coat on a warm day. There is nothing that could stop us once enough of us understand what’s happening. That’s why so much effort goes into obfuscating people’s understanding, and keeping everyone endlessly diverted with empty nonsense like presidential elections.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

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