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ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES continue across the interior through Monday. A larger, cooler system looks possible midweek with potentially light precipitation and gusty winds. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Saturday morning we have yes you guessed it another foggy start with 56F. The patchy fog program will continue thru the weekend.
LOCAL EVENTS (today)
MEDICAL INFO LEAKER ON MOUNTAIN VIEW ROAD
Editor,
About 8 weeks ago there was a call for medical services about 2 miles on Mt. View Rd. This call for services was apparently due to a possible drug overdose. (Being one not to assume, could be any type of negative drug interaction.) A local individual proceeded to call neighbors in vein [sic] attempting to obtain the actual name and address of the call. I had knowledge of the call’s location, yet kept it confidential as it should be. The only reason this individual wanted to know this was so he could due [sic] further harm to the person with the possible overdose and his or her family by repeating this person’s medical information. The local individual is known in the commnity for repeating personal medical information. On Mt. View Rd they are known as “creeps.” On the other hand, we are lucky to have a fire and ambulance department that tries to maintain professionalism and confidentiality.
(Name Withheld, Boonville)
SANTA ROSA SHOOTING SUSPECT CONVICTED IN MENDOCINO ARREST
Nathan Little Bear Hoaglin Jr. was arrested in July after jumping off a bridge in Mendocino, police said. Authorities were looking for him in connection to a February shooting in Santa Rosa
by Colin Atagi
A Clearlake man is expected to be sentenced this month for evading Fort Bragg police in July, opening the doors to court proceedings in his felony case for a Santa Rosa shooting in February.
Nathan Little Bear Hoaglin Jr., 21, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one felony count of fleeing police, according to Mendocino County Superior Court records.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 9 and faces at least 16 months in prison.
On July 5, Fort Bragg police began chasing Hoaglin because they suspected he was driving under the influence of alcohol.
He led officers on a chase, crashed his vehicle and jumped off the Jack Peters Creek Bridge in Mendocino before being arrested, Fort Bragg police reported.
On July 24, the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office filed charges against Hoaglin in connection to the Santa Rosa shooting. Court proceedings have yet to begin.
According to Sonoma County Superior Court records, Hoaglin is charged with attempted murder and assault with a semiautomatic weapon.
Santa Rosa police previously identified Hoaglin as a suspect in a Feb. 18 shooting at a bar in the 500 block of Barham Avenue.
According to an arrest affidavit, Hoaglin is a suspected gang member and the victim was shot for leaving the group. He was treated for a gunshot wound to his shoulder.
Following the shooting, two men fled the bar in a GMC Yukon occupied by two women.
Hoaglin was identified as a suspect about a week later, according to police.
An early investigation used witness statements, surveillance footage and pings from a GPS ankle monitor Hoaglin wore because he was on post release community supervision for another matter.
The GPS monitor showed the defendant heading east through Santa Rosa before it was removed — and later retrieved — on Calistoga Road at Dupont Drive.
The affidavit showed police at one point traced him to Coyote Valley Casino in Redwood Valley. They suspect Hoaglin’s friend worked at the casino and helped him hide at its hotel.
Police confronted him at the casino Feb. 21 and he fled in a GMC Terrain driven by an accomplice.
Fort Bragg police were in the area of Pomo Bluffs Park on July 5 when they approached three people in a vehicle with a suspected drunk driver.
The driver, Hoaglin, drove off and police chased him onto southbound Highway 1.
A 10-minute chase ended near Lansing Street in the town of Mendocino. That’s where Hoaglin crashed into “a stationary traffic device” and an oncoming vehicle, Fort Bragg police said.
The second vehicle had minor damage and its occupant wasn’t injured.
Hoaglin and his passengers had minor injuries from jumping off the bridge and were arrested on Main Street.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
ANNUAL NOME CULT WALK BEGINS THIS WEEKEND
US Forest Service advises caution ahead of ceremonial Nome Cult Walk
The annual Nome Cult Walk from Chico to Round Valley begins this weekend and continues through Sept. 14. Forest Service officials advise motorists along the trail route — M4 Road, County Road 55 and FH7 into Eel River Station and Covelo — to be aware of the event this week and to drive slowly to ensure the safety of pedestrians. Caution signs will be posted at the entrance to the national forest, and the walkers’ support team will also have caution signs on their vehicles.
The planned schedule is:
Sunday, Sept. 8, begin walk toward Orland
Monday, Sept. 9, walk toward Newville Cemetery
Tuesday, Sept. 10, walk to Black Bear Campground
Wednesday, Sept. 11, continue to Log Springs
Thursday, Sept. 12, walk to Wells Cabin
Friday, Sept. 13, walk to Eel River Campground
Saturday, Sept. 14, finish walk to Round Valley Indian
Reservation
Participants in the 100-mile walk commemorate the forced removal of Native Americans in 1863, also called the Konkow Trail of Tears, by retracing their ancestors’ steps as part of an ongoing healing process. Of the 461 Native Americans who were forcibly marched from their homelands, only 277 people completed the journey.
The removal of Indians from Chico to the Nome Cult Reservation in 1863 is one of the many forced relocations following the establishment of reservations in northern California in the 1850s. Several different tribes were moved to the Nome Cult Reservation after it was established in Round Valley in 1856.
Today the commemorative Nome Cult Walk brings together many generations and members of several tribes in the area, including descendants of the Concow Maidu, the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California, Redding Rancheria, Grindstone Nomlaki, the Mechoopda Tribe, Pit River, Wintu, Nisenan and Greenville Maidu.
Can I have a campfire or use a portable stove in a campground?
The fire restrictions currently in effect on Mendocino National Forest prohibit making fires in undeveloped, dispersed camping areas. In the forest’s designated fire safe campgrounds and Wilderness Areas, you can still have a campfire so long as you have a valid California Campfire Permit. You can also use portable stoves and lanterns within the firesafe campgrounds.
Fire restrictions are posted at campgrounds around the forest and at info kiosks. Campfire permits are available through forest visitor offices or obtained online. Always extinguish your campfire by using the drown, stir and feel approach, making sure the fire is completely out and cool to the touch.
HOLA, CHIEF!
Coffee with Chief Michael Rees. Join Us for Coffee and Conversation
The Albion-Little River Fire Protection District invites YOU to sit down with our Fire Chief for a complimentary cup of our Three Ridge Roast coffee and an open conversation.
Whether you have questions or concerns, or just want to chat, this is your opportunity to connect directly with the Chief.
Thursday, September 12 at 10:00AM
Albion-Little River Fire Protection District Station 810 (in Albion Village behind Albion Grocery Store). Come with your questions, comments, or just to say hello! We look forward to seeing you.
ADAM GASKA: I can’t take much credit for IWPC. For better or worse, that distinction goes to Janet Pauli. I can say I have helped improve RVCWD’s financial situation by developing a better relationship with RRFC to procure surplus water and work toward the annexation into flood controls district with the hopes of securing a water contract. RVCWD is in a better position to financially contribute to IWPC’s efforts to continue some level of water diversion because of our improved financial outlook.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MENDOCINO COUNTY
by Katy Tahja
Orr’s Hot Springs (Mendocino County) around 1908. The small building at the top left was the sleeping quarters for the waitresses. To learn more about Orr’s Hot Springs, and other historic springs in the county, join us in Mendocino on Saturday September 21, to listen to a talk on historic springs in Mendocino County by Katy Tahja.
Location: Mendocino Presbyterian Church, 44831 Main Street, Mendocino, Ca
Time: 1pm
$10 at the door.
Beverages and treats will be available.
RVSP to the historical society by September 19 (we just need to have a rough idea how many are coming). To RSVP: comment below, message us, email: info@mendocinocountyhistory.org, phone: (707) 462 - 6969
Katy M. Tahja is a retired librarian and a freelance writer, journalist and author. Married to David Tahja since 1975 her family has five generations on the family ranch in Comptche. A museum docent at Mendocino’s Kelley House Museum, she portrays women in history, including a native storyteller, a lady lighthouse keeper and a madam of a “house of ill repute”. Tahja's previous books include three photo-histories for Arcadia Publishing: Early Mendocino Coast, Humboldt State University and Logging Railroads of Humboldt & Mendocino Counties. She wrote the guidebook for the Skunk Train in Fort Bragg CA titled Rails Across the Noyo, two small books on her Mendocino County hometown Comptche, An Eclectic History of Mendocino County, Orr Hot Springs: A Brief History.
BEST SMALL LIBRARY IN AMERICA
Library Journal recently announced Mendocino County Library’s Round Valley Branch is the winner of its 2024 Best Small Library in America Award. Library Journal is the leading provider of news, reviews and key professional development resources for librarians, library professionals, and staff since 1876. The award is sponsored by Ingram Library Services Ingram Library Services, a division of Ingram Content Group, which connects libraries to millions of titles, innovative systems, expertise, and assistance in developing and maintaining their print collection. This recognition honors the Round Valley library’s exceptional commitment to serving the unique needs of its community as a vital hub for sustainability, resiliency, and inclusivity.
Located in a remote part of northern California, the Round Valley library is a beacon of hope and community strength in an area challenged by isolation, economic hardship, and environmental vulnerability. The town's population, which includes residents of the local Round Valley Indian Tribes reservation, has greatly benefited from the library's efforts to create an inclusive and supportive environment. “We’ve been really working hard to reach as many families as possible in this small community,” says Branch Librarian Josh Bennett. A former educator, he works closely with the local school system, in addition to a host of other day-to-day services. “We are honored that the Mendocino County Library Round Valley Branch has been named Best Small Library. The library in Covelo would not exist without the past and present support of the Round Valley community. Thank you for using the library, thank you for partnering with us, and thank you for holding your meetings and events here.”
The Round Valley library, located in the Library Commons is part of a community center that features a certified commercial kitchen, a redwood-paneled meeting and community room, a café and a radio station. Despite its small size, the library is the anchor of this vibrant space, offering a diverse range of programming for both adults and children, a comprehensive print and digital collection, and extensive outreach efforts. Friends of the Round Valley Public Library, a longstanding local nonprofit that supports the library, is featured prominently in the Library Journal article that announces the award. “The Friends sponsors numerous programs that run independently of the County Library and contribute immensely to the success of the library branch. They are part of this award.” says Bennett. The library's success is driven by its small yet dedicated staff of five employees and a passionate roster of volunteers. Together, they have built strong partnerships with local organizations and tailored services to meet the needs of the community. From literacy programs to cultural events, the library ensures that residents, regardless of their background, have access to the resources they need.
“We’re proud to recognize the exceptional contributions that our nation’s small and rural libraries make to their communities through our annual Best Small Library in America Award,” says LJ Editor-in-Chief Hallie Rich. “Round Valley library demonstrates how creativity, resilience, and a strong community focus can deliver powerful results.” “The Round Valley Branch's responsiveness to its community—its services, outreach, collections, and ongoing celebration of the land and those who live and work there—make it a consummate small library that steps up for people in a big way,” LJ Executive Editor Lisa Peet says. “We understand the role of filling gaps in communities only continues to increase for libraries, especially for our friends at small and rural libraries,” says Carolyn Morris, Vice President of Ingram Library Services. “We are proud to help celebrate Round Valley library as Library Journal’s 2024 Best Small Library in America.”
The Friends of the Round Valley Public Library and Mendocino County Library will host an open house and reception to celebrate the Best Small Library in America award on Saturday, September 14th from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. At the Round Valley Branch Library and Commons Community Room, 23925 Howard St. Covelo, CA 95428.
For more information, please view http://www.mendolibrary.org or contact the Mendocino County Library at 234-2873.
LINDY PETERS: The League of Women Voters is sponsoring a City Council Forum on Thursday evening September 19th from 6-7:30 pm at Town Hall in Fort Bragg. I am really looking forward to learning more about the other Candidates in the race and what they will bring to the table as far as qualifications and experience. This is a pivotal election and your vote will be important no matter who you cast it for.
CALIFORNIA COASTAL CLEANUP DAY is Saturday, September 21, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Glass Beach
Coastal Cleanup Day comprises the largest single effort to remove accumulated debris from California’s beaches and inland shorelines in the past years. The City of Fort Bragg “adopts” Glass Beach annually as our Cleanup Site and we need your support to make this a successful event. The City invites everyone to help protect our coastline by volunteering to cleanup trash at Glass Beach (or any of the other 17 Mendocino County Cleanup Sites).
THE LEGENDARY BOONVILLE BEERFEST '25
Hey, careful man, there’s a beverage (festival being scheduled) here. No official word yet on the theme, and we haven’t 100% confirmed the musical lineup, but it’s probably not going to include the Eagles. For now mark it an 8, err, mark it May 10, 2025. And yea, it’s the day before Mother’s Day, but the cool mom’s out there will understand. We asked ours, they said “book it” and mentioned that a ticket would make a lovely Mother’s Day gift.
We know those first images of pumpkins, especially when the leaves haven’t started to change colors yet, can be a little jarring. And far be it from us to jump the gun on seasonal cheer, especially where pumpkin-flavored-anything is concerned.
Thing is, this year’s Fall Hornin’ is a limited release with limited availability, and we don’t want you to miss out if you don’t want to miss out. Find it near you by clicking that handy dandy little beer finder button below.
ED NOTES
FAIR PLAY FOR JJ. A recent newspaper comment about celebratory Bloomsday irritated heck outta me. I know, I know. In a daily deluge of outrages you're getting in a snit about a book? Yes, because we're talking a great writer and his great book, the misunderstanding of whom and which, and silly woke comments about, are crimes nevertheless.
ESPECIALLY irritating were some lit-crit pieces that chastised Joyce for his alleged ethnic slurs, apparently unaware that Ulysses is fiction and not a joint communiqué of the Committee To Free Mumia. (Speaking of Mumia, if he'd admitted to murdering the young cop and said he was sorry he'd have been out years ago.)
THE PROBLEM Americanos seem to have with the greatest literary masterpiece of them all is that too many of US try to read it too young. Only the most precocious high school student is going to get it on any level, and why high school English teachers assign it so deep in the Age of Memes when attention spans are about a second and a half is probably accounted for by their own love for the book, not out of a concern that 16-year-olds are going to become Joyceans.
THE FIRST TIME I gave it a go I was in my early 20s, and Ulysses had popped up on all the lists of great books we're all supposed to read. Hell, I'd downed The Brothers Karamazov and Madam Bovary confident I'd gotten both of them on at least on a basic level so I figured I could handle this one.
AS A COMPULSIVE personality type it didn’t occur to me to read around in the book, putting in at the passages my watery eyeballs were naturally drawn to. Nope, I tried to plow straight through and quickly retreated to American lit, which I thought I’d fully grasped at one reading until I went back to Moby Dick at age 40 and discovered I’d missed about two-thirds of it.
A FEW YEARS later, and long after I’d read the most perfect short stories ever written — Dubliners, and Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro — I returned to Ulysses, this time opening to random pages to scan them for the funny stuff. And there’s more of that than you’ll find in the Old Testament, let me tell you!
BY NOW, medically staggered but upright and alert, I’ve read Ulysses every which way, and I’m confident I could pass a PhD oral exam on the book, not that I’d want to. I like the book too much. No, check that; I love Ulysses. I’d kill for it, er, in defense of it, I mean. It’s the desert island book, I'd want with me if I were limited to just one.
I'VE ALSO LISTENED to taped versions, which seemed to me way, way too lugubrious, too slow, too uncomprehending because their net effect was a solemnity opposite the author’s obviously joyous intentions.
BUT IF YOU have a hard time with the print version, try a recording. There’s a recording of Joyce's Dubliners that’ll knock you out, guaranteed. And the recording of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man read by Joe Morgan is, in my opinion, a superior experience to reading it; it’s as if Ellison wrote it to be performed, but it’s another truly great book that seems to baffle too many intelligent readers. But please don’t give up on Ulysses. It’s the goods.
MARSHALL NEWMAN
I don't know where Carey Opening is located, but that was the location of this teepee burner. First time I have seen this card.
Ed note: Foot of Greenwood Road?
BILL AND COO, Jeff Goll comments:
AVA, Good issue Friday.
What's your beef with ‘Bill and Coo’? I had the vaguest of memories of seeing that casually, as a child. I took a skimming look at the film (won a Special Academy Award for “patience and persistence”) on YouTube and found it a refreshing, amusing and surreal departure from the insidious dreck that is now on hand. Good puns like when the birds (Bill and Coo were Lovebirds) are at the circus and the sign on the “Big Cats” cage reads: Don't feed yourselves to the animals. And the “bad bird” staying after class at school for believing that the Earth was round and not egg-shaped. The Black Menace, Jimmy the Crow (most famous bird actor, also appearing in: The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life and Son of Dracula) does present racial subtexts from 1948 but does make for a good ‘Godzilla’ (post 1954 viewing) type villian. One of the comments on YouTube said: “This movie should not be seen by adults without the presence of children. ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ is Special Effects Action pornography with a dumb script.” The Einstein quote with the Plato's Cave and pharmaceutical meme is nicely proceeded with Taibbi's piece on the “digital literacy” professor who was lauded for warning the public away from critical thinking and their “addiction to skepticism.”
Jeff Goll
Willits
CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, September 6, 2024
KAYLA BOWMAN, Fort Bragg. Leaving scene of accident with property damage, reckless evasion.
JONA CHAPMAN, Gualala. County parole violation.
GABRIEL CHAON, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
LORENZO CRUZ, Ukiah. Stolen property, controlled substance, paraphernalia, ammo possession by prohibited person.
KYLE HAMMOND, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.
ASHLEY LENHART, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
ORLANDO MUNOZ, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.
SHEILA OWENS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, resisting, probation revocation.
SEAN PAYNE, Willits. DUI.
IRA REYES, Covelo. Parole violation.
JOPH RUSSO, New Port Richey, Florida/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
CHRISTOPHER SKAGGS, Lakeport/Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, marijuana for sale, county parole violation.
KEVIN WORLEY, Ukiah. Concealed dirk-dagger, probation revocation.
THOMAS THORSON, Nice/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, contempt of court, resisting.
SILAS YOUNG, Willits. DUI with blood-alcohol over 0.15%, send offense within ten years with priors.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Social media probably accounts for a lot of the insanity out there. The freaks get to get their freak on with lots of likes, and like abets like. I’m against censorship, but I think filming crimes like the numerous fights and knockouts shown there and just lewdness in general should be removed. I guess removing lewdness requires some kind of morality though, which in our post Christian society is often absent.
CANADA TO DESTROY ALL REMAINING COVID 19 VACCINES!?
Is it EVER a good idea to destroy ALL of ANYTHING? How’d that work out with the bison, for instance?
David Svehla
San Francisco
ACCOMMODATING MY FRIENDS
by John Arteaga
At long last there has come a time when I can accommodate my friends and readers pleas over the years to come up sometime with a positive, hopeful column. I have been on the lookout for stories that lend themselves to joy and hope for the future, but the pickings have been slim, until this last couple of weeks; even though I’ve been happy to give credit where credit is due, the Biden administration has many accomplishments; from dealing with Covid and the brutal effects that that pandemic had on the supply of so many day to day necessities; supply chains stretched to the breaking point, inflation due to the resulting temporary scarcities, unemployment on a massive scale because of the pandemic. We all owe Joe and his allies in Congress a huge debt of gratitude for pushing through these bold investments in keeping businesses afloat through the pandemic with unprecedented cash subsidies. I know of more than one major employer whose significant businesses were saved from ruin by this wise federal commitment to spending trillions of dollars to stave off absolute economic collapse. The evidence is in; it worked! Many other first world democracies look to us with envy! Our inflation, employment and GDP numbers are about the best in the world.
Having said all that, there were many things about the Biden administration that were anathema to me, and I suspect many other peacenik, anti-imperialist, progressive American voters; his wanton destruction of the many billion-dollar Russian/German gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, for which we must credit, however reluctantly, the temperance of Vladimir Putin for not responding in kind by, let’s say, blowing up the Alaskan oil pipeline. Probably similar in value. Of course his greatest crime to almost all of us who bothered to inform themselves about world affairs is the annihilation of the Palestinian people by Israel; something that virtually no one with any knowledge of the situation there supports. Just the other day our government allocated another $20 billion!
For even more munitions and explosives for Israel to ‘finished the job’, the horrific expression used by Israel’s genocide fans here in our politics, by which one can only conclude that they mean a death sentence for every man, woman and child in Gaza. At the same time, they would have us believe that they are really trying hard to get Netanyahu and the genocidal religiously deranged extremists in his murderous governing coalition to agree to a cease-fire and an eventual two state solution. Are you kidding me?! Send more bombs to bounce the rubble of this tiny overpopulated area of land which has already been reduced to little more than that. What is there left to bomb in Gaza other than the desperate refugees huddling in Israeli specified ‘safe spaces’, which of course they then destroy with all their bombs and jets, compliments of their unconditional patron, Uncle Sam. Kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.
Of course with our compliant, complicit press, hardly any of these peccadilloes have really gotten much exposure to the masses of voters. What HAS pretty much doomed the Biden bid for a second term was his pathetic, doddering performance when he went up against the famous Trump firehose of BS and lies, which brought us to this happy situation where the long underestimated vice president, Kamala Harris has hit the ground running!
At last! Something to be excited about politically! If you did not tune in to the Democratic convention, do yourself a favor, look up some of the speeches on your TV; there were some truly wonderful stemwinders by people like Michelle and Barack, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Jamie Raskin, Rafael Warnock, and of course Ms. Harris herself!
I, for one, can’t WAIT to see her debate the clueless 78-year-old comb-over, who knows nothing other than lust, avarice and the rest of the deadly sins we learned about in Sunday school. She is going to eat his lunch! The guy must be quaking in his boots at the thought of facing this confident Asian/black/middle-class career prosecutor woman’s cross-examination at the podium.
It has been an exercise in frustration to watch from the sidelines as is obviously guilty would-be insurrectionist, who we all saw whipping up his deranged cadre into physically attacking our nation’s capital, in order to overthrow the lawful, peaceful, transfer of power here in what we all have been taught to think of as the global center of democracy. How can it be, that four years later we are still dithering about whether he should have any kind of legal consequences?! How can it be that our system of law is so flimsy, subject to the slightest political breeze one way or another, that Trump has been able to evade his obvious guilt in the mayhem that cost the lives of five capital guards (not including those who committed suicide soon after), creating a legal mud bog with hundreds of millions of dollars of his dimwitted donors money, to purchase the slimy lawyer work of distract, attack and delay.
They say that justice delayed is justice denied, and nowhere could this be more true than where we find ourselves today.
The Republicans at this point, having mostly given themselves over to being brown shirts for Trump’s cult of personality, have jiggered up numerous ways of, by hook or by crook, ensuring Republican victory even when they have far fewer voters; massive vote challenges and voter roll purges, not to mention installing mid-level bureaucrats sworn to refusing to certify Democratic victories in naked partisanship that doesn’t even bother to come up with legal justification for their duplicity.
The only way that Kamala and Tim are going to overcome the severely tilted pinball machine is by a massive turnout that brings the house and Senate with it, that we may finally make some progress in this country in terms of small-d democracy. I can’t wait! Go Kamala!
THE N-WORD: STILL TROUBLESOME AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
by Jonah Raskin
The N-word appears sparingly in James, Percival Everett’s 2024 novel that reinvents the escaped slave narrative while it recycles Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a classic set in the antebellum American South where Black men and Black women, both free and enslaved, were lashed with the word “nigger.” Make no mistake about it, the word “nigger” hurt. The words, “darkies” and “Negro,” also show up in a text that aims to cast the enslaved Black man in a heroic light. “Colored” – as in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People— isn’t used in the text. Nor is the phrase “Black folk,” which W. E. B. Bu Bois popularized.
The phrase “the N-word” was popularized in the 1990s as an alternative to the word, “nigger.” The power of the N-word has depended on the identity of the person using it and on the context in which it is used. I remember that in the locker room at Huntington High School in the 1950s, Black athletes called one another “nigger.” None of the white athletes did. We knew it was wrong.
A Black person using the N-word might have had more latitude and legitimacy than a white person using the same word, though to foes of racism, the identity of the speaker didn’t matter nor did the context. For abolitionists, old and new, and in the 1850s as well as the 1960s, the N-word was always unacceptable, and objectionable.
In 2021, a Black man employed at Dunkin Donuts in Tampa, Florida, punched a white customer who had repeatedly used the N-word. The Black employee pled guilty to felony battery and was sentenced to two years of house arrest. A spokesman for the state attorney explained that “the white customer at Dunkin Donuts used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language.” Possibly?
“The N-word is what’s known as “a fighting word”— a word like “kike” or “spic” that can provoke a physical confrontation and lead to violence. In American English, there’s no term more aggressive and more offensive than the term “nigger.” It has come down to us through the ages freighted with the history of slavery and its bloody legacy.
I remember that my friend, Eric Foner said in 1952, when he was 9 and I was 10, “I’ll punch anyone in the mouth who says the word nigger.” Foner was raised in an anti-racist home. Work by the African American artist Charles White hung on the walls.
Diner table conversations explored the civil rights movement, MLK, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks, a major player in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott who observed “The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world.” Like the bus, the N-word provides a key to unlock the prison house of racism that has chained Blacks and straight-jacketed whites.
In James, white men wear blackface, pretend to be Black men and in a traveling minstrel show entertain white audiences. James is recruited by the minstrels; he becomes a black man pretending to be a white man playing a Black man. As Everett shows, chattel slavery spawned absurdities as well as cruelties.
Mark Twain uses the N-word more than 200 times in Huck Finn. That might seem excessive; censorious librarians and some communities have thought so, and have removed Huck Finn from shelves. It’s one of the most frequently censored books in the U.S.
Twain’s 1884 novel has also influenced generations of American writers, perhaps never more so than right now, with the publication of James, an homage to Huck Finn. Hemingway surely exaggerated when he wrote in 1935 that, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” He added, “It’s the best book we’ve had.” Percival probably wouldn’t agree with Hemingway. I don’t agree, either. In the acknowledgements to James, Percival, who is African American, pays his respects to Twain’s “humor and humanity. ” He had both in great abundance and used humor and humanity to skewer and satirize.
Nearly 150 years ago, when Twain used the N-word in Huck Finn he struck a nerve that’s still vibrating.H. L. Mencken didn’t include it in his comprehensive story of the American language, but he did include the phrase “Nigger in a wood pile” which was used by Democrats in the 1850s to belittle Republican Party efforts to abolish slavery.
A cartoon from that era depicts a Black man in a cage made of rails, probably because Lincoln was once a rail splitter. Two white men stand above the incarcerated Black man. One of them says to the other, “You can’t pull the wool over my eyes, for I can see ‘the Nigger’ peeping through the rails.”
Using the word “nigger” 200 times probably didn’t strike Twain as excessive. After all, he grew up as a happy white boy in a time of slavery, when the N-word was nearly as harsh a weapon as the whip, the chain and the rope. A rope left in a tree after a lynching, served as a warning, James observes,, to everyone with a black skin.
The N-word helped enforce the ironclad rules of race, class and caste. In the eyes of prosperous white people, Percival’s main character explains, “a very poor white person” is “something worse” than a Black man. A disgrace to the white race.
Everett moderates his use of the N-word. He also makes James, not Huck, the main character, and he turns Jim into James, an eloquent writer, a deep thinker and an impassioned Black rebel reminiscent of Nat Turner who led an insurrection against slavery in 1832. James calls himself “the angel of death, come to offer sweet justice in the night.” Earlier, he says, “I hated the world that wouldn’t let me apply justice without the certain retaliation of injustice.”
In the course of his adventures on and around the muddy Mississippi, James breaks through what W. E. B. Du Bois called “the color line,” which, he explained, in The Souls of Black Folk was “the problem of the twentieth century…the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.”
At one point, James seems like an ancestor of Emmett Till, the Chicago-born Black teenager who was lynched for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi in 1955. At the age of 13, James explains, he “made the misstep of speaking to a young white woman who said hello.”A slip of the tongue almost makes him a corpse.
Mostly, James knows how to play dumb and how to speak the way a slave is supposed to speak to whites, deferentially. But sometimes he liberates himself from the tyranny of Black dialect and reveals his true colors.
In James, Everett makes space for James to regain the humanity that is sometimes denied him in Twain’s novel, especially when Tom Sawyer is on the scene. Huck Finn glorifies the Mississippi River, unmasks the scoundrels on its shores and honors a friendship that cuts across the color line.
Published after the end of Reconstruction, when Blacks voted and held public office, Huck Finn calls for equality between Blacks and whites, and for an end to the kind of cruel shenanigans that Tom Sawyer plays on Jim. Everett’s story takes place just before the outbreak of the American Civil War and during the war itself, which heightens the tensions of the novel. Twain’s novel takes place in the 1840s.
In James, which is broken into short, compact chapters, with short sentences and very few big words, the reader sees, hears and feels the world through the eyes, ears and skin of a literate, adult Black man who crafts his own story as an escaped enslaved African American.
“I am a man who has a family, who loves a family, who has been torn from his family, a man who can read and write, a man who will not let his story be self-related, but self written,” he asserts. James adds “with my pencil I write myself into being.” He also picks up a gun and uses it to settle scores and liberate the enslaved.
Some of the books that could be featured in a study of American English and that would focus on the N-word include Carl Van Vecthen’s Nigger Heaven (1926), a novel about the Harlem Renaissance. It could also include H. Brown’s Die Nigger Die, published near the height of the Black Power movement. Brown, now known as Jamil Abdullah al–Amin, meant to salvage and reinvent the N-word, He was a “nigger” in much the same way that some feminists were “witches” and “bitches” and that homosexuals and lesbians were “queer.”
Black Panther Party member, Don Cox, titled his autobiography Just Another Nigger. His publisher, Heyday, changed the title to Making Revolution: My Life in the Black Panther Party after Black bookstore owners said that they would not carry or sell the book under its original title.
A linguistic history of the N-word might conclude with President Barack Obama’s remark in a 2015 podcast that slavery “still casts a long shadow” on American life. Obama added “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not.”
Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League, condemned the president’s use of the term. “It ought to be retired from the English language,” he said. “Put it right next to the flag, in a linguistic museum. It belongs with the flag. It belongs with the hood.” I assume he means the white hood worn by members of the KKK.
Harvard Professor, Randall Kennedy, the author of Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (2002), would likely have cheered Obama when he aired his views on the N-word. Like comedian, Lenny Bruce, Professor Kennedy believed tbat the word “nigger” would lose its sting if it was used again and again openly, and thereby detoxified.
Black rappers and hip hop artists brought back the N-word big time, though they sometimes spelled it “Nigga.” One of Tupac Shakur’s best known albums is titled “Strictly 4 My N.I. G. G. A. Z.” The son of Black Panther, Afeni Shakur, Tupac explained that “Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs.” Percival Everett might echo him. So would H. Rap Brown.
(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)
MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio show all night tonight on KNYO!
Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 6pm or so. If you can't make that, it's okay, send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week. I might even check email on a music break and read it tonight anyway.
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am* PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first hour of the show is simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.
Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. Also there you'll find an assortment of cultural-educational amusements to occupy you until showtime, or any time, such as:
"When you go away, apply what you've learned at Arthur Murray. You'll never sit on the sidelines again." https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/dancing_fools
Breakdancing ballet. https://myonebeautifulthing.com/2024/09/05/jinjo-crew/
And I'm smiling my head off at these two. Near peak glee. Especially when they lurch to put their eye on the camera. This is the same Sarah (Smac) McCreanor who did the hydraulic-press smash dance series. https://www.neatorama.com/2024/09/03/Smac-vs-Parrot-Who-Danced-It-Better
Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
HOW CAN THE NFL BE IMPROVED? SEVEN HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS
by Scott Ostler
Here at nitpick central, we embrace the start of a new NFL season, and acknowledge that the Shield has polished its product to a brilliant luster. But we can’t shake the feeling that it’s not perfect. We hereby present a frosty seven-pack of ideas for improving the NFL.
A Quarterback Salary Cap
Let’s try $40 million per year.
If Brock Purdy plays this season like he did last year, the San Francisco 49ers’ roster will be blown away like a dandelion next offseason. Purdy will get a new contract for at least $50 million per year, probably closer to $60 million.
Even if he signs for a cut-rate $50 mil per, the rest of his teammates will average $4.4 million per. It’s not socialism to suggest that one player shouldn’t earn more than 10 times the team average.
Purdy’s pay will be almost one quarter of the team’s payroll of $273 million, the anticipated 2025 cap number. The 49ers will be forced to dump two or three big stars. They will become Brock Purdy and the Pips. That will be the team’s punishment for drafting and developing a fine quarterback.
The quarterback should be the highest-paid player, but please. He already makes most of the endorsement money. Am I right, Patrick Mahomes? And he will ease into a lucrative TV job.
Lose The Chain Gang
We have the technology to calculate the distance from Earth to the sun within a millimeter, yet in the billion-dollar NFL we entrust crucial measurements to three fat guys dressed like they’re taking Alice to a party in Wonderland, schlepping a chain across a field. George Washington’s surveying crew used more sophisticated tools.
With all the laser and GPS technology at our command, it would take some smart person 10 minutes to invent a system similar to the Hawkeye in tennis and soccer.
Besides, “chain gang” is a horrible name. Is this football or “Cool Hand Luke”? The chain gang is a system so crude and barbaric that they’ve phased it out even in Arizona and Alabama. If we must keep the chain gang in football, give the job to actual prisoners, chained together at the ankles.
Beam The Tv-Screen First-Down Stripe Onto The Actual Field
Laser technology, duh. Why should TV watchers see the first-down line, while the folks who pay big money to attend the game can only guess?
We have clearly marked goal lines, why not first-down lines? The players would like it, they’d see on the field the exact line they must cross or defend.
The QB Calls The Play On Second Down
Just to show that we’re not promoting a tech takeover of the NFL, this one goes the other way. The trend has always been for coaches to assume more and more control of the game. If coaches had their way, the QB helmet radio would be on all the time. Deebo’s open deep! Throw it!
We’re suggesting a minor takeback of the coach’s control. The quarterback calls the play on second down, no help from the sidelines. Let’s see how smart these fellows are.
Faster Replay Reviews
One of the great mysteries of sport: If you and your buddies can watch two replays and see beyond a doubt that the receiver’s foot was on the line, why do the replay people take four minutes?
We hate to be cynical, but this is the NFL (Need Further Loot), and we suspect that the league uses that replay time to duck in an extra TV commercial.
And what’s going on at GameDay Central, where super refs monitor the game refs? Put a camera in that bunker and let us see that sausage being made.
Limit a review to one minute. Still can’t tell? The call stands. Some of us have to work tomorrow.
Kids Fly Free
Young fans are priced out of NFL stadiums. Unless both your parents own the team, they can’t afford to take you to a game, junior.
Each team should block out 500 seats, free admission to kids under 15. Teams would not lose money since these kids would eat their weight in barfy ballgame food.
This peanut gallery would be wild and loud, inspiring the often lethargic adult fans.
When did you fall in love with football? For us, it was when we attended live games as a kid. The NFL needs to realize you can’t harvest a crop if you don’t plant the seeds.
Revised Field-Goal Scoring
Field goals kicked when the line of scrimmage is the 35 or longer count four points. Kicks when the scrimmage line is the 20 or shorter count two points.
Encourage risk-taking at both ends.
You’re welcome, NFL. We’ll take our reward in ice-cream bars at the Levi’s Stadium press box.
(SF Chronicle)
WHY I STILL THINK TRUMP WILL WIN
by Ross Douthat
This week my colleague David Brooks and I offered dispatches from two different futures: One in which Kamala Harris edges out Donald Trump for the presidency, and one in which Trump is victorious. I wrote the “How Harris Wins” narrative, exploring a scenario in which the Democratic nominee succeeds in her effort to Marie Kondo-fy progressive politics, tidying things up by reducing the Democratic agenda to just a few popular components, and letting that simplified, joy-sparking platform expose the internal tensions of the Republican Party’s coalition of the discontented.
That’s a vision of what could happen, and I think that Harris has a good chance to win in exactly the way that I describe. But if you forced me to place a bet on what will happen, my current expectations are closer to the scenario offered by my colleague — in which Trump, not Harris, is the next president of the United States.
One might argue that the safest way to bet is simply not to make one. As of this writing Harris leads slightly in one of the popular betting markets, PredictIt, and Trump in another, Polymarket; in other words, for people making real wagers, it’s a tossup. The RealClearPolitics polling average in Pennsylvania, the most likely decisive state, is a tie. The election forecaster Nate Silver’s complex model gives Trump a 60 percent chance of victory — but the forecasting at his former home, FiveThirtyEight, thinks Harris has a 57 percent chance of winning.
All this looks like the very definition of a coin-flip election. So why do I expect the coin to fall Trump’s way? Three reasons, none of them completely rigorous, and all of them shadowed by the fact that I was wrong in 2016 (when I expected Trump to lose) and wrong in 2020 (when I expected Joe Biden to win more easily than he did), so I could simply be overcompensating for underestimating Trump’s chances in the past.
First, I think if Harris were on track to win, she would be leading more decisively at the moment. She has enjoyed an extended period of extraordinarily positive media coverage while the rival ticket flailed around trying to figure out an effective line of attack. She recently had the benefit of her party’s convention, which wrapped up on Aug. 22 and was — in the press, at least — extremely positively received. And yet after those two boosts she still isn’t clearly ahead of Trump in the Electoral College race — which suggests that she probably now has more room to fall than rise.
Not that she will necessarily fall: It may be possible for her to sustain the media halo and the joyfully policy-light style for another two months, and in my essay on her path to victory that’s the future I assumed. But if the current dead heat is her ceiling, at least absent some dramatic change in the race, that’s enough reason for me to regard Trump as a very narrow favorite.
That is, as I understand it, part of why Silver’s projection now gives Trump a meaningful edge. What Silver’s calculations don’t include is an expectation of polling errors like the ones we saw, especially in some state polls, in 2016 and 2020, which led to Trump’s overperforming projections — and my second reason for betting on Trump is that I suspect he’ll slightly overperform again.
Silver explains here why he isn’t forecasting such an error: Because the partisan valence of polling error varies from election to election, because pollsters have had four years to correct the problems that bedeviled them in 2020, and because two Trump elections is way too small a sample to assume that Trump will benefit from any error again.
All fair, but unscientifically I still suspect that pitting Trump’s unique coalition of the disaffected supporters against a Democratic coalition filled with institutionalist liberals who are overeager (especially now that Biden isn’t on the ticket) to tell pollsters how they’re voting creates survey problems that are hard for even the most careful and self-aware pollsters to fully overcome. Add in the murmurs from professionals and tea-leaf reading suggesting that the campaigns themselves don’t fully believe the numbers in the public polls, and I’m inclined to mentally add a point or two to Trump’s total in the averages — which again, would push him toward favorite territory.
Finally, like any analyst, I’m attached to my own theories, and my theory of this election before the great shake-up was that voters were alienated from Biden because he was seen as too liberal and not just because he was too old and that voter nostalgia for the Trump era had strengthened Trump’s position relative to four or eight years ago.
In that environment I was very doubtful that swapping Biden out for Harris, a figure burdened by his unpopular record and her own more liberal profile, would be enough to get the Democrats back to the (extremely narrow) edge they enjoyed in the key Electoral College states in 2020. And I still basically think that it won’t be enough — that notwithstanding Harris’s success in restoring Democratic enthusiasm, and notwithstanding her success so far in floating somewhere above and apart from her progressive record, she’s not a strong enough candidate to overcome the forces that gave Trump a lead in the first place.
So that’s why I’m still inclined to expect a Trump victory — for now, pending further developments or debate stage drama, and with the awareness that this entire era is still designed to make fools of all political prognosticators.
(NY Times)
GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE
by James Kunstler
“The lies then and now are mind boggling. The people who continue to lap up the lies are beyond reach. The poison unleashed into the population will be with us a long time.” — Edward Dowd
How is it that our country turned into some kind of theme park spook ride, a cheesy-looking haunted house of programmed frights, howling holograms, phantoms with their hair on fire, doors slamming open on glimpses of hell, ill-winds and foul odors, climaxing in a tableau vivant of death-in-life neverending?
I’m sure that this will surprise you, but you can choose to be sane. How? You take care of your business conscientiously; you steer in the direction of what is true and away from what is false; you find purpose in your existence by discovering your talents and using them in ways that do not bring harm to other people; you seek the company of kindred spirits. . . love the one you’re with. . . work hard so you can rest easy. . . express your gratitude for being here. That’s a start.
If you prefer being insane, there’s always the current incarnation of the Democratic Party, dedicated to gaslighting the nation into ruin. Of course, at this point — the point of extreme desperation — the Dems are just running interference for the distraught intel-Globalist blob. The blob’s agenda has been thwarted, overwhelmed by runaway debt and drinking too much of its own propaganda Kool-aid. A great deal of that has entailed the commission of crimes, which always implies the possibility of having to pay for them.
Russia is about to roll up on what’s left of Ukraine. Our State Department neocon division thought it was wicked-smart to start a little action there in 2014, to provoke Russia into a ruinous war against NATO (the game: “Let’s You and Him Fight”) in order, theoretically, to wreck Russia and depose Mr. Putin. Didn’t work. Do you know why? I will tell you (it’s really simple): Russia’s leadership is more intelligent than ours, and far less psychopathic. They perceived correctly that we were only wrecking ourselves.
Ten years later, the Ukraine caper draws to a humiliating end for our neocons, and a ruinous end for NATO and the EU. So far this year, it appears that “Joe Biden’s” party has ceased paying attention to Ukraine. The pretty yellow and blue flags have all but disappeared — except in Massachusetts, we noticed, the most highly “educated” and most deeply insane state in the union. I’ll be interested in how Kamala Harris explains our Ukraine war policy in Tuesday’s presidential debate. Defending democracy, I suppose.
The governments of the major EU nations stupidly followed the bidding of America’s psychopathic neocons and now they‘ll have to answer for it as their people awake to the destruction of the EU nations’ economies. Early elections will be called and globalist stooges will be swept away. The turmoil will rhyme with the chaos of 1848, a year of revolution. NATO, finding itself not just purposeless but toxic to Europe’s well-being, must dissolve as members on the periphery withdraw, some seeking to join the BRICs economic bloc. Germany, France, and the UK get sucked helplessly into a new great depression and social turmoil as they contend with many millions of hostile migrants.
Here in America, you can already hear the fake anguished cry of “Russia, Russia, Russia” echoing out of Merrick Garland’s fake Justice Department. We’re to understand that the Russians are coming for our election — more gaslight — when it’s actually the Democratic party, led surreptitiously by its lawfare cadres, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, et al. Their many courtroom pranks have failed against Mr. Trump. Judge Chutkan was bloviating in the DC federal court this week to generate a little heat on MSNBC, but her case has a wooden stake through its heart and Xs where its eyes used to be.
Up in New York, Judge Juan Merchan pretends to wrassle with whether or not to start Civil War Two by remanding Mr. Trump to Rikers Island on September 18 (I doubt that happens). In the event, though, I believe Mr. Trump might simply say, “No thank you,” and go about his business running for president. That would be a counter-prank I’d be eager to see. Who gets in the act then? Federal marshals? The FBI (ha!)? The Supreme Court term begins the first Monday in October. They could have something to say about the steaming pile of horseshit that was Alvin Bragg’s and Mathew Colangelo’s case. (Also, Weissmann’s, Eisen’s, Monaco’s, and McCord’s.)
Gawd knows where things might stand after next Tuesday’s great debate. The rules are pretty stringent. No candidates questioning each other. No audience. No confab with staff during commercial breaks. The mute buttons will be on. Without her “I’m speaking” routine, Ms. Harris has. . . zotz. All Mr. Trump really has to do is be polite for 90-minutes.
More than a few people, meanwhile, are beginning to ask who is running the country, since “Joe Biden” is mostly off-duty, beaching it, not attending cabinet meetings, and probably not being consulted on any number of matters being carried out in his name. Are you comforted to know that the US government is on auto-pilot, a colossal, menacing machine run by ghosts?
IT’S THE TRUMP PARTY VS THE CHENEY PARTY
by Caitlin Johnstone
One of earth’s most evil living beings, Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney, has officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president. His daughter, Liz Cheney, has also endorsed Harris.
“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” said the former vice president in a statement, adding, “As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Cheney was a charter signatory to the notorious neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century, and as vice president played a leading role in the George W Bush administration’s soaring warmongering, militarism and authoritarianism, including most famously the invasion of Iraq. He has the blood of millions of people on his hands, and he should be living out the rest of his miserable life in a cage.
His daughter Liz is an equally bloodthirsty warmonger who has spent her career pushing for mass military slaughter at every opportunity. After the Israeli assault on Gaza began last year she went on CNN to declare that all deaths which occur in the onslaught are “the responsibility of Hamas”, that protests against Israel’s actions are “antisemitic” in nature, and that the US should escalate against Iran and the Houthis because of their oppositional posture toward Israel.
The Cheneys join a growing list of formerly Republican warmongers who are migrating to the Democratic Party in droves to support Harris. Last month hundreds of staffers who served under Republicans George W Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney signed a letter endorsing Harris, saying that “re-electing President Trump would be a disaster for our nation.”
“Abroad, democratic movements will be irreparably jeopardized as Trump and his acolyte JD Vance kowtow to dictators like Vladimir Putin while turning their backs on our allies,” the group writes, adding, “We can’t let that happen.”
It is here worth noting that contrary to the narratives circulated in both mainstream Democrat-aligned media and mainstream Republican-aligned media, Donald Trump actually spent his entire term ramping up aggressions against Russia and helped pave the way to the war in Ukraine. He also promoted many longstanding warmongering agendas against official enemies of the US empire like Iran, Syria, and Venezuela. But even Trump’s insane hawkishness is insufficient for these freaks.
In June of 2022, author Sarah Kendzior made the following predictions on the Gaslit Nation podcast:
“I’m gonna wrap this up with a warning, which is that there is a new plan for our already broken two-party system. The plan is to have two parties. One, a batshit crazy MAGA party led by Trump or DeSantis that will bulldoze your rights. And the second one will be a far-right “respectable” party led by Liz Cheney that will also bulldoze your rights. They will call the Cheney party the Democrats and pretend that a creeping capitulation to a right-wing agenda is some kind of act of healing bipartisanship.” … “When I mentioned this possibility on Twitter, someone wrote to me, ‘Liz Cheney is not becoming a Democrat.’ And I replied, ‘I agree. The Democrats are becoming Cheneys.’”
This is more or less what appears to have been happening, and it actually started several years ago. During the 2016 Trump campaign a bunch of neoconservative warmongers switched from defending George W Bush as a saint and decrying Obama as an Ayatollah lover, and began pivoting to endorse Hillary Clinton instead. After Trump won, this coalition between Democrats and Bush-era neocons grew even stronger with the creation of new Democratic think tank projects led by Iraq-raping neocons like Bill Kristol.
So now we’re seeing two warmongering oligarchic parties shoving the Overton window of acceptable opinion as far in the direction of imperialism, militarism and tyranny as possible under the leadership of some of the very worst people alive. By doing this they ensure that these matters are never on the ballot, and that elections are always about issues the powerful are completely indifferent toward like abortion and trans rights instead.
Progressives who want healthcare and a ceasefire in Gaza are being dismissed and ignored while alliances are being made with the world’s most blood-soaked imperialists. Things have been shoved so far to the right that this election is now a showdown between the Trump Party against the Cheney Party, and no matter who wins, the empire wins.
A lot of fuss will probably be made about election-rigging after the results are announced in November, with the loser declaring that the results are the result of Russian interference or Deep State vote tampering depending on who that loser happens to be. But remember this: the worst election rigging is happening right out in the open, to ensure that oligarchs and empire managers are happy with either outcome.
(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)
Thomas Thorson is bald. The first picture in that string of three is him. He’s been a squatter in his mother’s apartment here at Hotel California since the day we opened, and he got out of jail. He is usually fairly compliant. Strong, healthy, young man who needs a hard-working job. Preferably staying on site and out in the boonies. He is just one I’m monitoring as they move through Coc.
“CANADA TO DESTROY ALL REMAINING COVID 19 VACCINES!?
Is it EVER a good idea to destroy ALL of ANYTHING? How’d that work out with the bison, for instance?”
Maybe the vaccines have reached their expiration date?
As always, context is for kings (or anyone else that needs to make sense of a fragment of a story):
Health Canada has directed provinces to withdraw and destroy remaining supplies of last year’s COVID-19 vaccines while it works to authorize updated shots, which is expected to happen in October, according to Ontario’s health ministry.
“Vaccines will be available once Ontario receives supply from Health Canada following their regulatory authorization of the new, updated vaccine formulation,” read a statement from Ontario spokesperson Hannah Jensen.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/09/06/patrick-lawrence-vote-joy-a-delusion-of-nostalgia/
Aaah, dear Kamala…just another smiling con artist, with blood on her hands. The clock is ticking, fellow Amerikaners. as a sort of a heads I win, tails you lose proposition is presented to us voters by our wealthy rulers; just what we deserve for allowing things to devolve so over the decades.
Yet you stay, which speak volumes.
Can’t afford to leave, which isn’t even one volume. Sometimes it’s better NOT to read something into the words of another.
“Speaks” not “speak.” Hasty typing is a terrible thing.
It’s our country too. Just because most of you are pro-genocide and vote pro-war each and every time … just because you walk around covered in the blood of innocents… I’m the one that’s supposed to uproot and leave?
Nope. Gonna stay right here and keep saying what I’m saying, until the warlords you “elect” throw me in their gulag for wrongthink.