Mendocino County Today: Saturday 12/14/2024

TRAFFIC ALERT [6:10 am]: Route 128 is FULLY CLOSED from the Route 1 junction to just west of Navarro (PM 0-12) in Mendocino County due to flooding. There is no expected time of reopening at this time. (Caltrans District 1)

RAINFALL (past 24 hours): Laytonville 3.03" - Yorkville 2.44" - Boonville 2.31" - Hopland 2.29" - Covelo 2.06" - Ukiah 1.90"

FLOOD WATCH remains in effect through this afternoon: A moderate atmospheric river has brought periods of brief heavy rain over the past 24 hours. Rain showers will continue across the area today alongside a risk of flooding. (NWS)

AFTER a second round of enhanced rain crosses the area this morning, rain showers will quickly diminish through the afternoon, giving way to widespread valley fog this evening. A second weaker though still gusty and rainy system will impact the area Sunday into Monday. Calmer and drier conditions will then return through midweek. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A rainy 51F with 1.54" more rainfall today. Our 3 day total is 3.26". More rain today, dry on Sunday, then more rain Monday. A few dry days after that.

STILL MISSING

On December 7, 2024, the Fort Bragg Police Department received a request to be on the lookout for a missing juvenile, Roy Mora, 15, of Fort Bragg, who had not returned after attending the Holiday Parade. On December 8, 2024, the juvenile’s mother contacted the Fort Bragg Police Department to report the juvenile missing when he still had not returned or contacted friends or family. Roy’s mother indicated being gone this long without any contact is completely out of the ordinary and Roy has no history of running away.

Officers immediately requested a location of Roy’s cell phone from the provider. The provider indicated the battery on the phone was dead, but the last location on Sunday, December 8, 2024 at 2:03AM was near the railroad yard. Officers and Skunk Train staff searched the entire railyard, buildings, and trains, but did not locate Roy or the cell phone. A search warrant for all phone data was authored and approved, but the provider indicated it would take three to four days to provide the information. Meanwhile, an active locate signal was placed on the phone in the event the battery is charged. At the time of this release, the battery has not received any charge.

Officers interviewed several of Roy’s friends who were with him on December 7, 2024 and established a timeline of when he was last seen. They also determined likely areas where Roy may have gone. FBPD and State Parks officers searched those areas in and around Fort Bragg.

An Incident Command was established the morning of December 9, 2024 and a mutual aid request was made to Mendocino County OES. A US Coast Guard helicopter stationed in Humboldt Bay responded the afternoon of December 9, 2024 and thoroughly searched the coastline, bluffs, and headland areas inaccessible by foot. FBPD Officers continued to interview dozens of people who know Roy, established electronic links for the public to provide tips and video surveillance. Officers expanded search areas and contacted businesses for surveillance video in an effort to establish a possible path of travel to direct and coordinate search efforts. FBPD Care Response Unit Social Services Liaisons went to Fort Bragg High School where Roy attended and attempted to gather any information. One CRU member was also assigned as a Family Liaison to Roy’s mother.

Originally, there was a rumor in which Roy left in a “tan van”. On December 9, 2024 officers interviewed an eye witness who confirmed Roy never got into any vehicle. Additionally, eye witnesses and video surveillance show Roy on foot and alone after the time he allegedly got into the vehicle.

On December 10, 2024, Mendocino County Search and Rescue searched the entire headlands area on foot and with tracking dogs, but did not locate any sign of Roy. FBPD has reviewed dozens of videos and followed up many leads. Additionally, a thorough search of Roy’s home was conducted to locate any information about where he may have gone.

The cell phone provider indicated FBPD officers would receive the data requested in the search warrant on December 11, 2024, which may provide more leads.

Currently, we have positively identified Roy in one surveillance video walking south on the Noyo Bridge at approximately 8:30 PM on December 7, 2024. Due to the camera angle and it occurring at night, the video would not have captured Roy walking back north at a later time. It is also possible the original location of the cell phone was incorrect, which will be known when the full cell phone data is received.

Chief Neil Cervenka said, “Finding Roy is our top priority. We have dedicated our staff to following up on every lead and pulling every thread. If anyone in the community knows anything personally, please come forward.”

The Fort Bragg Police Department would like to thank Mendocino County OES, Mendocino County Search and Rescue, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, California State Parks, California Fish & Wildlife, the US Coast Guard and all of the people in the community who have assisted in this search.

Roy Mora is biologically a female, but identifies as male. He is described as being 5’6” tall with a thin build. He was last seen wearing a dark blue T-shirt with the Mendocino College logo in white writing, denim jeans, and white shoes. Roy may also be wearing a dark blue sweatshirt and round rim glasses.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact FBPD Dispatch with the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707)964-0200 or email room-299199@room.veoci.com. If you have photo or video surveillance of Roy from the evening of December 7, 2024 or after, you can direct upload at https://fortbraggpd.ca.evidence.com/axon/community-request/public/findroy.

NEW PALACE OWNER BEGINS SHORING UP LANDMARK UKIAH HOTEL

by Mike Geniella

After years of neglect, a construction crew is working to shore up the landmark Palace Hotel beginning in the original portion erected in 1891.

Contractor Tom Carter, the Palace Hotel’s new owner, is collaborating with a team to strengthen the all-brick section at the corner of State and Smith streets. This section suffers the most structural damage.

From left: Contractor Tom Carter, his son Chae Carter, and longtime employee RJ Ross. (Photo by Mike Geniella)

“Our intent is to shore up the most unstable portion of the Palace, and then move throughout the complex so we can get the city-imposed condemnation order lifted and be able show the overall building to potential investors,” said Carter on Friday.

Richard Ruff, head of an established Mendocino County architectural firm, is assisting Carter in developing necessary plans to obtain city permits to stabilize downtown Ukiah’s decaying but best-known landmark.

“This is the beginning of a new chapter in the Palace’s history,” said Ruff on Friday.

Carter’s team includes his son Chae Carter, a licensed contractor, and nephew Mark Zimmerschied who operates Zimmerschied Construction in Lake County. Longtime Carter employee RH Ross is part of the effort.

Tom Carter, 73, acquired a regional reputation as a skilled craftsman for the transformation two decades ago of the historic Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon into a food and music showcase in Upper Lake.

Architect Ruff and he worked on that project together.

“We know each other’s work, and what it takes to get this kind of project off the ground,” said Ruff.

Carter’s work to date is confined to the oldest portion of the Palace, which has suffered the most damage from three decades of neglect, including under the last seven years of ownership of Ukiah motel owner Jitu Ishwar.

Ishwar is part of a group that owns motels in the Ukiah Valley, including the Marriott Fairfield Inn on Airport Boulevard. Ishwar has deep ties to the local business and financial communities, and he once served as president of the Greater Ukiah Chamber of Commerce. When Ishwar was enmeshed in disputes with the city of Ukiah during his Palace ownership, Ishwar was represented by Stephen Johnson of the law firm Mannon, King, Johnson & Wipf.

Ishwar and Johnson two years ago scuttled a deal with new-to-town investor Minal Shankar, who has experience in tax credit financing and project development. Shankar, an investment adviser tagged in 2021 as one of the ten top women in financial lending circles in Canada, felt so strongly about the possibilities for a Palace revival that she had preliminary plans for a Palace revival project developed by Page & Turnbull, California’s premier architectural historic preservation firm.

However, Ishwar decided to reject her offer in favor of a sale to a local investment group led by restauranteur Matt Talbert and representatives of the Guidiville Rancheria. They promised to make him whole for his $1 million investment after he bought the Palace out of court receivership. Ishwar, according to court documents and city representatives, never invested in the work needed to prevent further decay of the Palace under his ownership.

The Talbert-Ishwar deal collapsed earlier this year after state agencies declined to award a $6 million grant the developers sought under the guise of contamination studies in hopes of demolishing the decrepit Palace at taxpayer expense.

Carter had earlier stepped in as a preservation advocate even though city officials and civic leaders were then embracing the demolition of the venerable landmark. After he secured title to the Palace and property in mid-October, Carter declared that the Palace would stand and be rejuvenated under his ownership.

Decades of neglect and punishing winter weather ripped gaps in a severely deteriorated Palace roof, letting storm water gush inside and rot interior walls and collapse old wooden floors and support beams in random areas throughout the Palace. A ground floor section where a lobby bar, fireplace, restaurant, and the legendary Black Bart Room were once located are in the most unstable area. Two floors of the original hotel rooms above are seriously damaged.

Contractor Carter is scrambling to make temporary repairs to the roof to minimize further water damage during typical wet winter months.

The primary focus for Carter, however, is construction of a four-story support tower in the original 1891 portion to stabilize the interior floors and provide support for the exterior brick walls. When crews recently removed mounds of debris and tore out a rotting ground floor, they discovered an underground storage area which included historic relics: an empty bottle of Pennsylvania rye whiskey bottled in San Francisco, an E & J Burke beer bottle, and a dainty teacup.

“The town’s history is everywhere inside the Palace,” said Tom Carter.

Whether the sprawling 60,000 square foot Palace can be rehabilitated into a new boutique hotel and retail complex is still the subject of public debate, but Carter, an acclaimed craftsman, and his supporters believe correcting years of neglect is a crucial step forward.

Carolyn Kiernat, a principal in the Page & Turnbull firm, said, “We are excited to see these steps being taken, and we are thrilled to be talking again about the Palace’s future.”

Kiernat said shoring the Palace’s aging brick walls and closing the building up as wet weather sets is critical.

“It means the building will get through another season and be ready for a full retrofit down the road,” said Kiernat.

Kiernat, whose firm prepared plans for a Palace retrofit two years ago, said she remains convinced the hotel can be rehabilitated and turned into a hotel/retail draw that can anchor Ukiah’s core commercial district.

“We are glad that the building has been passed onto someone who is focused on its future, and its potential,” said Kiernat.

Dennis Crean, who led a group opposing the planned demolition of the Palace by the Guidiville group, said he is encouraged by the work underway to stabilize the Palace, the most significant local landmark that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I was happy to hear that the city’s Building Department is committed to expediting Tom Carter’s application to shore up the Palace. It seems he is ready, willing, and able to stabilize the building and make it safe,” said Crean.

He added, “What a relief that this historic building is finally in the hands of an owner who cares. I know it will not be transformed overnight, but it is great that Mr. Carter is already making progress.

City representatives and Carter are still debating the extent of the permitting process that is needed to do stabilize the entire structure.

Carter maintains that three-quarters of the Palace complex is structurally sound enough for crews to work throughout the complex.

The Palace was constructed in four sections between the 1890s and the 1920s. The overall three-story hotel covers a half block between State and School streets and is attached to a row of retail shops and restaurants fronting Stanley Street on the north side of the current Mendocino County Courthouse.

City officials want in writing from a licensed structural engineer or architect that it is safe for crews to work throughout the building.

Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley said so far Carter has provided a plan to shore up the most damaged portion but not the remainder.

“Remember that it’s been over a year since the building was inspected and declared hazardous by our building official and three fire chiefs,” said Riley.

Riley said because the Palace is attached to additional historic buildings, located in a heavily trafficked area, and has no fire suppression system, “We need someone with expertise (engineer/architect) to confirm that it’s safe to work in the building.”

Carter said he expects to have that documentation within a week.

“We want to get the Palace shored up. Then we can start bringing in potential investors. They are out there, and they are interested,” said Carter.

ALL-LEAGUE VOLLEYBALL TEAMS FROM THE COASTAL MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE LEAGUES, AS VOTED ON BY LEAGUE COACHES.

NCL I

Co-MVPs

Cali Schnabl, Kelseyville
Nyejzniya Krohn, Kelseyville

First team

Camryn Donahoo, Cloverdale
Lamara Hendricks, Fort Bragg
Ronnie Hatcher, Cloverdale
Mia Hoogendoorn, Middletown
Makayla Mace, Middletown
Gemma Hanna, St. Helena

Second team

Olivia Hommer, Kelseyville
Isabella Patti, Kelseyville
Alexis Jimenez, Cloverdale
Charlotte Burchett, Cloverdale
Isabella Barnes, Middletown
Olive Filippini, St. Helena

Honorable mention

Carly Johnson, Middletown
Monica Suhr, St. Helena
Sierra Thompson, Fort Bragg
Kaylah Billig, Clear Lake
Aimee Schaefers, Upper Lake
Brooke Benson, Lower Lake

NCL II

MVP

Vanessa Nunez Rodriguez, Sr., Roseland University Prep

First team

Maria Perez, Jr., Roseland University Prep
Sydney Shayewitz, Sr., Sonoma Academy
Margeaux Davis, Jr., Sonoma Academy
Lauren Cervantez, Sr., Credo
Melina Zamudio, Sr., Credo
Shiloh Moyer, Sr., Willits

Second team

Neenah Malicay, Jr., Roseland University Prep
Arianna Diaz, Fr., Roseland University Prep
Caitlin Koida, Jr., Sonoma Academy
Bailey Anderson, Fr., Sonoma Academy
Lucia Kuhlman, Jr., Credo
Cecily Potter, Jr., Willits

Honorable mention

Ava Whitwright, Jr., Credo
Mia Chavez, Sr., Willits
Kalina Ignatieva, Jr., Technology
Emily Pena, Fr., Calistoga
Luna Rodriguez, Jr., Roseland Collegiate Prep
Valery Castillo, So., Victory Christian Academy

NCL III

Co-MVPs

Kalea Hawkins, Sr., Mendocino
Hattie Piper, Sr., Point Arena

First team

Kai-mi Redhawk, Sr., Round Valley
Carley White, Sr., Grace Christian
Taylor Hockett, Sr., Mendocino
Cate Wilson, Sr., Mendocino
Naomy Carbajal, Sr., Point Arena
Kylie Warring, Jr., Laytonville

Second team

Gianna Bordessa, Jr., Tomales
Aurora Durbin, So., Mendocino
Madison Cruz, Sr., Grace Christian Academy
Caitlyn Kelly, So., Grace Christian Academy
Rosie Aguilar, Sr., Point Arena
Jasmine Rubie, Sr., Laytonville

Honorable mention

Vanessa Sandoval, So., Anderson Valley
Nora Giacomini, Jr., Tomales
Ayla Hinman, Sr., Round Valley
Brigid Henry, Jr., Laytonville
Jayde Swan, Fr., Point Arena
Cassia Dalton, Fr., Potter Valley

STRATEGIC CYBER TRAILS TO NOWHERE

by Mark Scaramella

Jim Shields of the Mendocino Observer wrote on Thursday:

“Got a kick out of the December 17th Board of Supervisors agenda. Under the CEO's Report, is the following caption: ‘In May 2022, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors approved the first five-year strategic plan that will help guide the critical decisions the Board of Supervisors will face over the next five years with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life for County residents. Departmental reporting will align with the strategic plan. Click HERE to download the Strategic Plan.’

“When you click the hyperlink for the strategic plan, there's nothing there. Which has always been my opinion regarding the value of ‘strategic plans’: There's nothing there and never has been.”

Following in the footsteps of this latest County gaff associated with the entirely pointless $130k “strategic plan,” we noticed the agenda item recommending the Board’s proposed response to the Grand Jury’s recommendation that:

“The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors create a committee whose sole mission is to independently and accurately evaluate the status of timely court filings by FCS (Family and Children’s Services). They will report their findings quarterly to the Board of Supervisors. (To be completed by October 2024.)”

Supervisors’ response: “The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not warranted or reasonable. The status of court reports is information that is available through reports generated in the Family and Children’s Services computer systems. This information will be presented to the Board quarterly through the CEO Report, beginning October 2024, without the need for a committee.”

The only possibly relevant item in the October CEO report was in the Social Services section which said: “The department has released a new monthly data dashboard which you will find on the Social Services webpage.”

So we went to the Social Services webpage to look for the “reports generated in the Family and Children’s Services computer systems” where we found, among other irrelevant diagrams:

Whatever one’s opinion of this “report,” may be — we find it a. nearly impossible to find, b. skimpy, c. obtuse and meaningless, and 4. self-serving — it certainly does not amount to anything like the “independent and accurate evaluation of the status of timely court filings by FCS” recommended by the Grand Jury.

Unfortunately, as with Mr. Shields’ observation, this is typical of the Board’s attitude toward even a simple Grand Jury recommendation: A token non-response which doesn’t remotely pass the smell test.

The point of the Grand Jury’s original report was to point out that Family and Children’s Services (FCS) is woefully understaffed and overworked causing, among many other things, late submissions of reports for court consideration. Instead of dealing with the staffing issues, the Board and executive office, like they do with many other “reports,” simply says, ‘Here’s some random numbers, we’re done. Next.’ Nobody bothers to ask what’s being done about the staffing problem or the other items addressed in the Grand Jury report, many of which the County “agreed” with, but nobody checks to see if they’re implemented.

SHOCKING HEADLINE in Friday’s Press Democrat: “Napa’s carbon neutral goal unlikely to be met by 2030, report finds; suggests pushing the target to 2045…” This, or versions of it with even longer timeframes, can be said about all these climate change “goals” declared by the Newsom types who mostly offer nothing but lip service to the issue.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET a Press Democrat page laminated and sent to us by a reader in 1992. Almost the entire page was taken up by a nearly full page “White Flower Days” ad for Macy’s. At the top of the page was a one-inch strip with a short AP story titled: “Disaster Looms, Scientists Warn…” There were two sentences about a global warming report that some scientists had predicted accelerating catastrophes over the next 20 years if present trends continued. The contrast between the tiny article at the top of the otherwise happy talk Macy’s ad was so startling as to be a perfect example of “found art,” which our reader had encountered.

I DON’T KNOW ABOUT Mendoland in general, but I’m not going to get on the “Bernie” train by calling recently elected Fourth District Supervisor Bernie Norvell by his first name. I don’t like calling Supervisor Maureen Mulheren “Mo,” and I’m not going to call incoming Supervisor Madeline Cline “Maddy.” Ditto for “Ted” and “John.” The insincere first-name/nickname familiarity and friendliness implies that negativity and criticism, even when it’s entirely justified, is to be avoided because these are people we know by their first names. We don’t care what they’re called in private by actual personal friends and acquaintances, but as Supervisors it’s last names or full names only. (Scaramella)

STATE PRISON LIKELY IN THE OFFING FOR OREGON FELON ADDITIONALLY CONVICTED IN MENDOCINO COUNTY OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND FAILURE TO REGISTER CRIMES

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury deliberated efficiently and, in short order returned six guilty verdicts Thursday afternoon relating to felonious sexual misconduct against a trial defendant in the Ten Mile Courthouse in Fort Bragg.

Defendant Jeffery Lloyd Hockett, age 63, of Fort Bragg, was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the following felony crimes:

Possession on April 22, 2024 of pornography of children under the age 18 years, with prior felony sex convictions involving children out of Oregon in 1997 and 2006;

Possession on April 22, 2024 of over 600 pornographic images of children under the age of 18 years;

Possession on April 22, 2024 of sadomasochistic pornography of children under the age of 18;

Failure to register as a sex offender between August 1, 2023 and October 31, 2023;

Failure to register as a sex offender between November 1, 2023 and January 31, 2024; and

Failure to register as a sex offender between February 1, 2024 and March 31, 2024.

The jury also found true a sentencing allegation alleging that the defendant has previously suffered a Strike conviction, within the meaning of California’s voter-modified Three Strikes law.

After the jury was excused, the defendant’s case was referred to the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department for a background study and sentencing recommendation.

The defendant was ordered back to court for Judgment and Sentencing on January 13, 2025 at 9 o’clock in the morning in the Ten Mile Courthouse.

Pending January's sentencing hearing, the defendant remains in custody in the Sheriff’s Low Gap jail facility.

The law enforcement agencies that developed the evidence used at trial against the defendant were the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, the Fort Bragg Police Department, the Department of Justice Latent Fingerprints Unit, and the DA’s own Bureau of Investigations.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Eloise Kelsey is the prosecutor handling this case and presented the People’s evidence to the jury.

DDA Kelsey will also be DA Eyster’s representative/prosecutor at the January 13th sentencing hearing.

LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

FRANK HARTZELL’S NEW MENDOCINO COAST NEWS

Should Tess Albin-Smith apologize for attack on fellow council-member Marcia Rafanan?

Skunk Train snarl, Fort Bragg Forever’s frustration play roles in conservative shift…

https://mendocinocoast.news/frankly-speaking-december-11-2024/

ED NOTES

REMEMBER the Kenny Rogers case? He's still in prison for what local lawyers still call “the immaculate conviction” because it contained no evidence of the reasons Rogers was convicted. Zero. None. Nada.

ROGERS was the assistant fire chief in Westport accused of hiring a tough guy to shoot a few bullets into the front door of Westport Water and Fire District Board member Chuck Simon. The door shooting was in alleged retaliation for Simon engineering Rogers’ ouster from the fire/water department.

THE TOUGH GUY who shot up Simon's door, Richard Peacock of Sacramento, worked for Rogers at Rogers' Sacramento auto-detailing yard. Peacock, less than an hour after the shooting, was caught by an alert CHP officer as he fled the Westport shooting when the CHP officer saw Peacock throw a gun out his car window on the Branscomb Road as Peacock headed back to Sacramento.

PEACOCK was subsequently convicted of a third-strike felony for attempted murder, although he clearly wasn't trying to shoot anything but holes in Simon's door. (And he always insisted that somebody else did it.)

SIMON, however, happened to be standing behind the door and sustained a great big scare when he was grazed by the two bullets shot through the door.

ROGERS, as Peacock's sometime employer, was charged with attempted murder for hire, and, at the same time, charged with illegally growing marijuana at his Westport property. The case against Rogers was, to say the least, opaque. He has always denied a murder for hire plot.

PEACOCK, an old school tough guy of the never-snitch school, died in state prison long before he'd served even a few years of his 71-to-life sentence. He refused to talk even though he'd probably walk, or at least have gotten a realistic parole date, if he'd implicated Rogers. He obviously didn't drive from Sacramento to Westport to shoot holes in the front door of a stranger, although it's entirely possible he did it because he felt he owed Rogers for employing him as an ex-con when no one else would.

IN 2007, Fort Bragg Deputy DA Tim Stoen offered Rogers a no-jail plea bargain wherein Rogers would plead to the charge but get three years of felony probation and, uniquely, also agree to a lifetime ban from holding political office. (At the time Simon's door was shot up, Rogers also functioned as the Chair of the Mendocino County Republican Party Central Committee.)

BUT WHEN THE PLEA DEAL was presented to the reliably notional Judge Ron Brown, Brown refused to sign off on the plea deal saying that he thought the charge Rogers was pleading guilty to necessarily involved prison time, so Rogers withdrew his plea and decided, disastrously, to fight. And, with Rogers unable to pay a lawyer, but free on an old $250,000 bond, the non-case languished in legal limbo for a couple of years.

FINALLY, Judge Brown, the slo-mo-est attorney to ever ascend the local bench, agreed to have the County pay J. David Markham of Ukiah and Lakeport, himself later inevitably elevated to the Lake County superior court, to represent Rogers.

MARKHAM filed two new motions: 1. To reduce the main charge from “murder for hire” to “assault for hire” because, Markham reasoned, the DA's evidence said nothing about Rogers wanting to kill anyone, your basic distinction without a difference because it still assumed Rogers had initiated the scheme to shoot Simon's front door.

IF ROGERS or anybody else wanted to kill Simon, they would have shot him, not his door. Markham said he would present an “insufficient evidence” defense to the reduced charges if his motion was granted. And 2. Split the pot charges into a separate case so that they can be defended as a medical marijuana case.

ROGERS lost the case based largely on a “guilt by association” trial. Stoen knew that if he could put the tough-guy/inmate Peacock on the stand and simply show the jury that Rogers was associated with him, no matter what he may or may not testify to, Stoen would likely get the guilty verdict the jury ultimately delivered.

TIM STELLOH, then of the AVA, fills in the blanks of the Kenny Rogers saga: https://theava.com/archives/425

ANDERSON VALLEY BREWING COMPANY

We’ve dropped hints, admired rugs, fixed the cable and made it obvious we’re not golfers. But, having identified a theme that really tied the room together, it’s time to announce “The Big Lebrewski” as the theme for the 2025 edition of the Legendary Boonville Beerfest.

If you’re into bowling, driving around and the occasional acid flashback, you know exactly what we’re talking about and probably already have your costume. And if absolutely none of the above made sense, that’s cool too: just wear a robe, paint your toenails green and get ready to drink delicious beer.

Early Bird tickets are on sale now. Click the link to purchase. As always, all proceeds go to support charities in the valley.

MORE ARCHIVAL PHOTOS OF SEMI-LOCAL INTEREST

The “Red Trail” at Duncan Springs, Hopland. (Marshall Newman)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, December 13, 2024

DAVID DORMAN, 28, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

LINDA ALMOND, 66, Ukiah. Trespassing, shopping cart possession, paraphernalia.

KEVIN LEONARD, 30, Ukiah. DUI.

GERARD PARKER II, 27, Clearlake/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DANNY SPEAR, 31, Fresno/Ukiah. Fugitive from justice, bringing alcohol or drugs into jail.

DIEGO VALLEJO, 21, Ukiah. Domestic battery, controlled substance.

GUSTAVO ZAZUETA, 38, Redwood Valley. Drug Court sanction.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The legitimacy of billionaire fortunes has always rested on the entrepreneurial myth our super rich invoke at every opportunity. Our brilliance, that myth goes, made us our billions. How dare any government make any move to tax away any significant chunk of our “self-made” riches! Never mind that most of the money was made with publicly schooled workers and publicly paid infrastructure.

SPOTTED ON 101 AT SANTA ROSA

A billboard over Hwy 101 north at the border of Santa Rosa and Robert Park has a drivers confused Wednesday, December 12, 2024. (John Burgess / The Press Democrat)

PROZAC PARABLE

by Fred Gardner

My Life of Futility, Chapter 19…

In the early '90s I was writing about the marketing of Prozac for the AVA. My job editing the weekly newspaper at UCSF Medical Center gave me a good vantage point. I subscribed to the Wall St. Journal, whose coverage of the pharmaceutical industry was necessarily revealing. Eli Lilly's blockbuster antidepressant had many dangerous side-effects, the most dramatic of which was “suicidal ideation” –which occasionally led to suicidal actualization. I put a classified ad in the SF Bay Guardian and asked 100 people why they were using Prozac and with what results. I covered a dramatic meeting of the Prozac Survivors Support Group for the AVA and quoted at length people whose loved ones had, very uncharacteristically and bizarrely, become destructive. The meeting was disrupted when a Wenatchee, Washington psychologist –a blatant hustler who urged Prozac on all his patients– led a contingent of them to confront the Survivors' keynote speaker, the knowledgable Dr. Peter Breggin.

The first “Prozac case” to capture national attention came to trial in September, 1994. (Prozac sales increased by 73% that third quarter. A lot was at stake for Eli Lilly.) The case involved Joseph Wesbecker, a Louisville, Kentucky press operator who had taken an AK-47 into Standard Gravure, the printing plant where he’d been employed, and killed eight co-workers and injured a dozen others before committing suicide. Wesbecker had been prescribed Prozac five weeks before, and a coroner’s jury found that it “may have been a contributory factor” in his rampage. Some 24 parties –victims who survived the shooting, relatives of those who died, and members of Wesbecker’s own family– subsequently sued Eli Lilly, charging that the drug company “knew or should have known that Prozac was unsafe for use by the general public for the treatment of depression” and that the company “knew or should have known that users of the drug can experience intense agitation and preoccupation with suicide, and can harm themselves or others.”

Lilly’s PR wizard, Ed West, held a press conference on the eve of the trial which the Associated Press recounted thus: “West and Dr. Frederick Goodwin, who recently stepped down as director of the National Institute of Mental Health, say the anti-Prozac litigation was spawned by the Church of Scientology, which for decades has campaigned against psychiatrists and the drugs they prescribe.

“West said Scientology kicked off its national effort to discredit Prozac at the coroner’s inquest into the deaths of Wesbecker and his victims. The head of a California-based group affiliated with Scientology testified at the inquest.”

(Alex Cockburn, my partner in Prozac research, had extremely useful Scientologist sources – for which the liblabs loudly tsk-tsked him. I showed solidarity by reporting uncritically about the New Alliance Party. But I digress.)

The Wesbecker trial ended in early December ‘94 with the jury voting 9-3 NOT to hold Eli Lilly & Co. in any way responsible the murderous rampage. It emerged at the trial that Wesbecker had been hospitalized for emotional problems on several occasions before he ever took Prozac. Also, that he harbored a fierce resentment towards his employers. Lilly made the most of the verdict PR-wise. “We have proven in a court of law,” stated CEO Randal Tobias, “just as we have to more than 70 scientific and regulatory bodies all over the world, that Prozac is safe and effective.”

But there would be an unusual, unpublicized coda. On April 19, 1995 –the day that the federal building was bombed in Oklahoma City and there was hardly room for other news– the judge who had presided at the Wesbecker trial, John Potter, filed a motion to change his own order from “the dismissal was based solely upon a jury verdict” to “settled.” Potter’s motion, quoted in the AVA, explained his revised decision:

“Much of the evidence in the trial centered around whether Lilly had adequately tested the drug and fairly reported the test results and other information to the FDA which ultimately approved the drug. A significant portion of Lilly’s evidence emphasized that the FDA had approved the drug after reviewing the extensive and complete data supplied by lilly. A major thrust of the plaintiffs counter attack was that the data was not complete. Of particular significance in this regard was evidence designed to prove that Lilly had not accurately reported adverse comments and evaluation upon the drug’s performance made by the BGA (the German counterpart to the FDA).

“At the commencement of the trial and over the plaintiffs’ objection, the Court ruled that evidence of Lilly’s alleged misdeeds with other drugs would not be introduced.

“As the trial progressed, Lilly introduced evidence of its reputation for maintaining a good system for collecting an reporting adverse data on its products.

“Representative testimony put on by Lilly was to the effect that ‘Lilly had the most sensitive and elegant system of collecting adverse events…’ ‘The FDA has repeatedly said… Lilly [has] the best system for collecting and analyzing and reporting adverse events…’

“On several occasions throughout the trial the plaintiffs moved the vcourt to reconsider its prior ruling and admit evidence of Lilly’s conduct in regard to other drugs. As the case progressed and as more self-serving laudatory evidence came in, the Court became more inclined to reconsider whether Lilly had ‘opened the door’ to such evidence.

“On December 1, 1994, the plaintiffs filed [a motion] to introduce evidence that in August, 1982, the House Committee on Government Operations conducted an investigation into the FDA’s and Lilly’s handling of the drug Oraflex. A house report was issued in November 1983, which concluded, among other things, that ‘Lilly did not report serious adverse reactions associated with use of Oraflex prior to the approval of the drug.’ the referenced adverse reactions included over 20 deaths occurring in foreign countries. The report was equally critical of the FDA.

“In addition, the plaintiffs sought to introduce evidence that in June, 1985, Lilly, as a corporation, pled guilty to a criminal indictiment of 25 counts of failing to report adverse reactions to Oraflex to the FDA, and shortly thereafter Dr. Ian Shedden, the head of Lilly’s research, also pled to 15 counts.

“On December 5, 1994, Lilly filed a reply memorandum. These motions were argued in chambers on December 6, 1994, and on December 7, 1994, the Court ruled in the plaintiffs favor. On December 8, 1994, after a day’s delay at the parties’ mutual request and without explanation, the plaintiffs elected not to introduce the evidence they had fought so hard to get admitted, and closed their case.”

Fast Forward 25 Years

Andrew Wolfson of The Louisville-Courier Journal reported Sept. 11, 2019:

“The drugmaker that produces Prozac, the antidepressant that Joseph Wesbecker’s victims blamed for his deadly shooting rampage 30 years ago at Standard Gravure, secretly paid the victims $20 million to help ensure a verdict exonerating the drug company.

“Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly vigorously shielded the payment for more than two decades, defying a Louisville judge who fought to reveal it because he said it swayed the jury's verdict…

“In exchange for the payment, the plaintiffs – eight estates and 11 survivors – agreed to withhold damaging evidence about the arthritis drug Oraflex that Lilly withdrew from the market. Lilly pleaded guilty to 25 criminal misdemeanor counts for failing to report adverse reactions that patients suffered from the drug, and the drug company feared that the Prozac jury would be more inclined to rule against the drugmaker if it learned of it…

“Two of the victims recently told the Courier Journal that the payment totaled $20 million, worth about $41 million in today’s dollars, which the plaintiffs divided among themselves after paying their attorneys. The two victims told the Courier Journal they felt compelled to accept the money because they suffered egregious injuries that kept them from working again and they needed it to survive.

“Lilly used the verdict to tout that Prozac had been proved a safe and effective antidepressant. In 1995, the company reaped a quarter of its $6.5 billion in revenue from Prozac – and faced 160 other suits nationwide over the drug.”

Now, 30 years after Lilly's exoneration by the Wesbecker jury, some 28 million US Americans are on Prozac.

The moral of the story? Muckraking is an exercise in futility.

Only RFK, Jr. can save us now. (Just kidding.)

portrait of Susan Sontag by Annie Leibovitz

“WOMEN have another option. They can aspire to be wise, not merely nice; to be competent, not merely helpful; to be strong, not merely graceful; to be ambitious for themselves, not merely themselves in relation to men and children. They can age themselves naturally and without embarrassment, actively protesting and disobeying the conventions that stem from this society's double standards about aging. Instead of being girls, girls as long as possible, who then age humiliatingly into middle-aged women, they can become women much earlier - and remain active adults, enjoying the long, erotic career of which women are capable, far longer.

Women should allow their faces to show the lives they have lived.

Women should tell the truth.”

Susan Sontag - The Double Standard of Aging (1972)

REFLECTIONS ON PANCHO VILLA & THE FALL OF DICTATORS

by Jonah Raskin

Dictators – whether in Spain, South Africa, Romania or Syria — retain power for decades. They can seem impregnable and invulnerable. But they always fall, and when they do fall the world acts surprised. It ought not to be. The demise of dictators is woven into the fabric of history. In his massive, exhaustive, definitive new biography of Pancho Villa, famed Mexican author, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, calls Porfirio Diaz — who ruled Mexico for 30 years, from 1876 to 1911 — the “nearly eternal dictator.” Bashar al-Assad with his prisons and his police and the backing of Putin also seemed to be a nearly eternal dictator. When his time came, he ran to Russia. Dictators have escape routes.

No one played a more decisive role in the overthrow of Porfirio Diaz than the charismatic, photogenic Villa, the only 20th century revolutionary to be the subject of a Hollywood movie while real bullets were flying, and also the only 20th century revolutionary to invade the United States. Villa had all the qualifications to spearhead the demise of Diaz and end his oppressive regime. An excellent marksman usually armed to the teeth, and a veteran horseman, he was unafraid to take up arms against powerful armies. He made efficient use of railroads, airplanes, modern technology such as telegrams and telegraphs, printed banknotes and used them to purchase everything his armies needed to survive. He knew how to isolate, neutralize and ally – crucial for any guerrilla war.

Villa also manufactured and disseminated fake news, and befriended reporters. John Reed wrote about him in Insurgent Mexico before traveling to Russia and writing about Lenin and the Bolshevik revolution in Ten Days that Shook the World.

Villa was one of those natural born insurgents and instinctive rebels like Che Guevara who are more effective as destroyers of old orders not as builders of a new order; more adept and savvy on the run then lodged in an office and behind a desk. His life as a bandit prepared him to wage guerrilla warfare, confiscate property and weapons, execute disloyal troops and take on the Catholic Church and its conservative priests.

His detachment from ideologies — he was no Marxist or Communist, though he was an anti-imperialist — plus his liberation from established political organizations, except those he created to support his own military campaigns — made him elusive, slippery, furtive and seemingly an eternal outlaw. With no fixed headquarters, but rather a mobile tent and a fast horse to ride into the mountains for safety and to regroup, he evaded capture by American soldiers led by General John J. Pershing and Mexican forces led by his foes. George Patton joined the fray. Whenever Villa seized food, commodities and resources, he shared them with the poor and thereby created a loyal following.

If any single person brought about the fall of the man who toppled Diaz, it was Villa himself. Though he had substantial help from his friend and comrade Emilio Zapata and his troops, Villa overextended himself and lost his devotion to armed struggle. He made his own separate peace with the victorious conservative leaders of the Mexican Revolution, accepted land, a hacienda, money, and immunity from prosecution. You might say he was co-opted.

More or less settled, he was assassinated (in a car in which he was riding), and, while he became a legendary folk hero and the subject of many corridos, he was not formally recognized by the Mexican government for his strategic role in the revolution of 1910-1920 until decades after his murder.

He was too unorthodox and too much of a maverick to be packaged, labeled and sold as an iconic hero until his followers, the Villiasts, were mostly dead and buried. Finally, the Mexican government declared 2023, “the year of Francisco Villa.” Taibo’s biography of Villa was translated into English and published in the US by Seven Stories in 2024. Subtitled “a revolutionary life,” it aims to separate the man from the myth, an impossible task given Villa’s legendary status, the proliferation of tangled stories about him and his own self-generated mythology. In the end, Taibo amplifies the myth and the man and places him in the pantheon of revolutionaries along with Che and Castro.

The many photos of Villa on horseback wearing a sombrero help Taibo mythologize. So do the posters from that era, including one that invites US citizens to cross the border and join Villa and the insurgents. A few apparently did that. While battling American troops led by General Pershing, Villa proposed the idea of digging a trench between Mexico and the U.S. “so wide and deep that no American could ever come to rob Mexican land, gold, or oil.” He was a nationalist, a dreamer and a utopian as well as a brilliant military tactician and strategist. Pancho Villa might inspire foes of dictators and dictatorships around the world today. “!Viva Villa!.”

(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)

FOR PHILIP LEVINE

Philip Levine was a teacher, then a friend. When the American Academy of Poets asked me to recommend a favorite poem for America's Favorite Poem Project, sponsored by the Library of Congress, I submitted “Starlight” by Philip Levine. “Starlight” is a poem about being a father. I love that poem, and I love the poet who wrote it.

I am built for beauty.

I am built

To be a movie star

In the cinematic universe

In which I am featured.

Earth, wind & fire

Are contained in me.

Water flows freely

In me.

Quarks and leptons

Dance.

In the magma chamber

Of my heart

Sapphire crystals sparkle.

I float in the ocean

Of timelessness.

The seeds of stars

And the dust of suns

Sing their songs

In me --

The electromagnetic choir

Of radio, microwave, infrared,

Visible light, UV, X-rays,

And gamma rays

Sings loudly for me.

I sing loudly!

I sing among the asteroids,

The space rocks & dust,

And in the nebula smoke

of outer space.

I sing while floating

In a bath

Of phosphorescence.

I sing ten of the best

Songs

Of all time:

“Double Helix”

“Science & Mathematics”

“Poetry”

“Forgiveness & Mercy”

“Simple Truths”

“Unknowable Things”

“Night Lessons”

“Neruda's Shadow”

“The Immortal Work”

“Sundays with My Children”

– John Sakowicz

THE GRINCH WHO STOLE THE DICTIONARY

by Paul Modic

Sorry to burst your bubble but your mother is not “The best mother in the world,” your kid is not “The best kid in the world,” and your dog is not “The best dog in the world.” Why do people even utter silly things like that, is that the ultimate virtue signaling?) I would be embarrassed to outright lie like that, is this where “fake news” came from?

Also, when people say, “I learned so much from him, her, it,” they never have an answer when I ask, “Could you give me an example of one thing you learned?” They look at me like I just don't get it, that I don't understand that they never learned anything and it's just an expression. (And yes, I'm the guy who, when someone says, “Just one second,” still always thinks, no, it's not just “one second,” just one more lie.)

So how to live in a world of liars?

Ray Oakes, the question man with our local paper “The Independent” (which I started with a group of others in '97) once asked people on the street if they believed in life after death. Five and a half of the six people said yes, so there's no hope, Trump will be president again, and we deserve him.

TRUMP WANTS TO DO WHAT?

Editor:

Did I just see on my TV that Donald Trump wants to end birthright citizenship? What else could possibly, indisputably, give a person that inalienable right if not for the simple fact of having been born here in this country? The inmates will be running the asylum. I thought I was lucky to have come this far — to be 97 years young. I’m beginning to feel sorry to have lived so long.

Pearl Seymore

Sonoma

Joe Frazier after the “Thrilla in Manila” fight with Muhammad Ali:

“We went to Manila as champions, Joe and me, and we came back as old men.” Frazier reflected on the grueling nature of the fight.

“It was like death. Closest thing to dyin’ that I know of.” He described how exhausting and painful the fight was.

“Man, I hit him with punches that’d bring down the walls of a city.” Frazier’s frustration with Ali’s resilience during their brutal bout.

“He’s a great fighter, no doubt. But I ain’t no loser. I gave it all I had.” Acknowledging Ali’s skill but standing by his own greatness.

“I wanted to keep going. I could’ve kept going. I had him.” Frazier believed he could have continued the fight and beaten Ali despite his injuries.

“I didn’t quit. They stopped it. It wasn’t me.” Expressing disappointment that his trainer, Eddie Futch, stopped the fight before the 15th round.

“I proved a point, didn’t I? Ain’t nobody ever gonna forget what I did in there.” Frazier’s pride in his performance, despite the loss.

We don’t play boxing!

WHY THERE’S NO WORSE WAY FOR 49ERS’ SEASON TO GO OFF THE RAILS THAN THIS RAMS LOSS

by Ann Killion

If you asked AI to design the ugliest way the San Francisco 49ers’ season could die, it couldn’t surpass what real life offered up on Thursday night.

A once-formidable offense that could muster just two field goals. A rain-drenched stadium only partially filled with “the faithful.” A star who followed up his recent social media complaints by dropping a potential touchdown.

And a linebacker for the desperate team who refused to go into a do-or-die game. Who told his coach he didn’t want to play, and was sent off the field.

Ugly. Every bit of it.

The 49ers; vanishing playoff chances took what looks like their final fatal blow on Thursday, when a 12-6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams washed away all but the most slender of mathematical hopes. The 49ers are now 6-8, still at the bottom of the NFC West, 2.5 games behind Seattle, two games behind the Rams with three games to play and all possible tiebreakers going against them.

“I’m just trying to comprehend it really,” said Brock Purdy, who helped seal the loss with an interception on the 49ers final possession.

In the aftermath, all of the 49ers seemed to be trying to comprehend reality. They were emotional, vulnerable, simmering with anger and hurt.

They were also trying to wrap their heads around how one of their own, linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, refused to go into the game when his team needed him. Dre Greenlaw had provided an inspirational lift on Thursday, returning from the Achilles tear he suffered in the Super Bowl, meaning Campbell — who was signed in the offseason as a substitute for Greenlaw — was coming off the bench. But, in the third quarter, when Greenlaw started to fatigue and had to come out, Campbell refused to go in.

“He said he didn’t want to play today,” said an angry Kyle Shanahan. “If somebody doesn’t want to play football, that’s pretty simple. We know how we feel about that. I don’t think we need to talk about him anymore.”

But there was plenty of talk about Campbell after the game. Charvarius Ward called Campbell “selfish.” George Kittle called his actions “stupid and very immature.” Campbell has been in the NFL nine seasons.

“If you ask anyone in this building to go in, I would say 100% of everyone would die to get on the field,” Kittle said. “I’m not very happy about it…is that the reason we lost? Absolutely not. But it’s hard to win football games when someone doesn’t want to play football.”

After refusing to enter the game, Campbell left the field and eventually the stadium. And he will likely leave the NFL tomorrow or as soon as the 49ers are allowed to cut him. His career is probably over.

“I’ve never been around anybody that’s ever done that,” Kittle said. “And I hope I’m never around anybody that does that, again.”

The bizarre Campbell situation was one more sign that something was fundamentally flawed with this team, that something has been off all season. The pieces didn’t fit together the way they did last season. The cohesion hasn’t been there.

The 49ers started the season believing they could run it back, get to another Super Bowl, sure they had the talent and the experience and coaching. But they started to stumble early, were decimated by injuries and then shaken by personal tragedies. They could never right themselves.

It was fitting that the season, in effect, disintegrated at the hands of the Rams. They were the first team to truly expose the 49ers’ shortcomings, to rip off the veneer of the Super Bowl favorite and reveal a team that lacked something — the ability to close, an urgency, a freshness. In Week 3, trying to recover from a loss to Minnesota and up 24-14 in the fourth quarter, the 49ers handed the Rams the game and walked off the SoFi field in shock after a 27-24 loss.

Since that September game, the 49ers have lost six more times. They won back-to-back games just once — and only then with a bye week in between the victories. It has been a sputtering, frustrating, disjointed season.

Yet the 49ers managed to convince themselves four days earlier, thanks to their resounding win over the inept Chicago Bears, that they still had a chance. They knew they had to win out, treat every game as a playoff game.

“That was true,” Fred Warner said, his voice shaky. “We did have to win out. We didn’t do enough to win today. I don’t know what it looks like going forward with our playoff hopes, but regardless you have everything to play for every time you go out there. You go to go out there and fight every single time.”

The team will have a “mini” bye — a three-day break before a week of getting ready for their long flight to Miami to play the Dolphins on Dec. 22.

“Mathematically I still believe we have a chance,” Shanahan said. “But we’ll come back and play better football and challenge the character of our team.”

The character of the team will be questioned after this rough season. But the 49ers have plenty of players who are the antithesis of Campbell, not quitters, eager to take the field.

Talanoa Hufanga, who missed 20 of the last 24 games due to injury and is now playing with a cast on his arm, had a few things to say to his teammates after the game. Kittle relayed his comments.

“He said his mindset and attitude will be 100% every single day, every practice, every single rep, and he will fight until the wheels fall off, because he’s been fighting his ass off to get back on the football field,” Kittle said. “He expects everyone to bring the fire and the passion, no matter what the circumstances are.”

Greenlaw also fought to get back on the field and gave it his all, 305 days after rupturing his Achilles, flying around in the first half, before his body rebelled. Though late Thursday he hobbled stiffly down the hallway, he said he’d gladly “play another game tomorrow.”

It appears that the 49ers — for the first time in four years — will be playing out their final games only for pride.

And with hopes of erasing some of the ugliness of this wretched season.

A MASS MOVEMENT CAN BEAT HEALTH CEO GREED

by Bernie Sanders

One common refrain is, “Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All idea is pie in the sky. Of course it would be lovely, but it is pure fantasy,” the idea being that it’s aspirational but structurally unworkable, politically unachievable, and so on. What is your response to criticisms like that?

If it’s bloody pie in the sky, why does it exist fifty miles away from where I live? Now, the Canadian health care system is not perfect, to be sure. But if you end up with a heart transplant at a Toronto hospital, which is high-quality health care, do you know how much you pay when you leave the hospital? Do you know? Zero. Depends if you park your car in the parking lot. They charge you for that. But that’s it. You go to any doctor you want, and you don’t take out your wallet.

Now, if it is so goddamn utopian and pie in the sky, why does it exist in every other bloody country other than the United States? That’s number one. So it ain’t pie in the sky. We are the exception to the rule. Number two: in terms of “It doesn’t work!” Elon Musk just posted something the other day in which he pointed out the administrative costs in the United States health care system compared to other countries. In some cases it’s three times as much. We are wasting hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars.

Go to your local hospital, okay? And your hospital probably doesn’t have enough doctors or nurses. But you know what they got? Go down in the basement to the billing department, and you’ll see dozens and dozens of people on the phone, telling people that they owe $58,000 and they’ve got to pay the bill. That’s what Canada has eliminated. That’s what the UK and other countries have eliminated.

So we’ve got to work on a nonprofit health care system, universal, covering all people, cost effective, and not insurance bureaucrats making decisions but doctors making decisions. It exists all over the world — not a radical idea. There is study after study showing that we are wasting huge amounts of money in bureaucracy, billing, and compensation costs for CEOs rather than providing the health care that we need.

This gets back to what I said a moment ago: You turn on the television, who’s talking about Medicare for All? Me occasionally, a few other people. Yet despite that, you got a lot of support for it. Imagine if you had a political party that said that.”

https://jacobin.com/2024/12/sanders-movement-health-care-mangione?mc_cid=129a0eb0dd&mc_eid=d5a33a615

THIS X-RAY may explain why Luigi Mangione shot Brian Thompson in the back…

(Jeffrey St. Clair)

THE US-BIDEN SPONSORED GENOCIDE BY ISRAEL CONTINUES! WHO WILL STOP IT? BRICS? (THAT'S A BAD JOKE BUT IT'S WHERE THE WORLD SEEMS TO BE AT.)

“The relentless assault on Gaza by Israeli forces has claimed at least 44,758 lives over the past 14 months, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. This devastating figure climbed further on Monday, with 50 fatalities reported within a single day. Israeli airstrikes targeted critical civilian infrastructure, including refugee camps, a flour distribution line, and hospitals, exacerbating the dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.

“Hospitals across Gaza are overwhelmed, struggling to provide care to more than 106,000 injured Palestinians. On Monday, the Indonesian Hospital north of Gaza City was bombed, leaving six patients wounded. The Gaza Ministry of Health has condemned the attack and issued an urgent plea: “We demand international protection for hospitals, patients, and medical staff.” The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed no knowledge of the hospital strike at the time.”

— Jeff Blankfort

LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

Syria Shudders as Bashar al-Assad’s Prison Atrocities Come Into the Light

Antony Blinken Meeting Arab Ministers Amid Uncertainty Over Syria Transition

Russian Military Appears to Be Packing Up Some Equipment in Syria

Trump’s Night-Owl Tendencies Set Stage for After-Hours Diplomacy

In Display of Fealty, Tech Industry Curries Favor With Trump

Cajole, Plead and Flatter: Ukraine Makes Its Case to Donald Trump

The Trump Show Is Returning. Will It Be Triumph, Tragedy or Farce?

A READER WONDERS: Nancy Pelosi fell down a marble staircase in front of everyone and broke her hip. Anyone know why an 84yr old woman would wear 4-inch heels?

“THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, what remains of the vast public spaces are now only the stuff of legends: Robin Hood’s forest, the Great Plains of the Amerindians, the steppes of the nomadic tribes, and so forth… Rousseau said that the first person who wanted a piece of nature as his or her own exclusive possession and transformed it into the transcendent form of private property was the one who invented evil. Good, on the contrary, is what is common.”

– Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Empire

JUSTIN TRUDEAU'S PAINFUL LAST FACEPLANT

Canada's hipster PM is about to talk Canada back into its historical role as the Washington Generals of international relations

by Matt Taibbi

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on progress, the United States, and women:

We were supposed to be on a steady, if difficult, march towards progress. And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its first woman president. Everywhere, women’s rights and women’s progress is [sic] under attack, overtly, and subtly. But I want you to know I am, and always will be, a proud feminist. You will always have an ally in me, and in my government.

This was in seeming response to Donald Trump threatening Canada with blanket 25% tariffs if its $100 million trade deficit doesn’t start shrinking, and going on social media to rip the “Governor of the great state of Canada”:

The troll war between Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump is on. Nearly a millenium ago, in the Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas listed the coming to pass of this event as the sixth proof of God’s existence. We made it, humanity! Congratulations, and getcha popcorn ready. This is going to be hilarious. Unless you’re Trudeau.…

https://www.racket.news/p/justin-trudeaus-painful-last-faceplant

MODIFIED LIMITED HANGOUT

by James Kunstler

“We can fairly mark this down to Biden’s native ineptitude: Any careful review of his career reveals him to be — no apology for my word choice — very stupid.” — Patrick Lawrence

Do you detect the conspicuous lack of conviction in DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on the Jan 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol building, which has been the central device for defeating the populist revolt against the treasonous DC blob? And did you notice that it took him four years to report on the event? Weird, a little bit, ya think?

I’ll tell you why: because when investigators genuinely interested in the truth come on the scene, soon to happen, a very different story will be revealed. The Horowitz report is a last ditch attempt, at the very last moment, to get ahead of that true story — which is that the FBI and its parent, the DOJ, have been lawlessly and in bad faith acting against their oaths to defend constitutional government.

For eight years — including the four when Mr. Trump as president — the FBI and DOJ worked tirelessly to run him out of office and make sure he could never return. The effort was prodigious and, astoundingly, it failed. It was launched initially to conceal the crimes of Bill and Hillary Clinton, especially their moneygrubbing in Russia around the Skolkovo project — Russia’s Silicon Valley — and the Uranium One scandal — which involved the sale of US nuclear assets to Russia’s state-owned Rosatom company. The Clinton’s problems became especially acute in the summer of 2016 when Hillary’s private (outside government) email server came to light with its thousands of potentially incriminating memos. Looked like trouble.

The cure for that was to accuse candidate Trump of conniving with Russia, a sort of political homeopathy. It began as a mere Hillary campaign prank — the Steele Dossier — but CIA Director John Brennan and Barack Obama dumped it in FBI Director James Comey’s lap, and asked him to run with it. Mr. Comey stupidly complied, and before long he marshaled the executive officers of the FBI into the massive hoax that became RussiaGate.

The Mueller Investigation was intended to convert all that into a prosecutable Trump crime while covering up the FBI’s own crimes, but it proved a fiasco when the Mueller report issued in March, 2019, came up empty — to the horror of the Trump-deranged public.

Inspector General Horowitz’s report on these FBI shenanigans came out in December of that year, finding little amiss besides some “errors” in FISA applications and FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s forgery of an email as to whether one Carter Page was ever a CIA asset. The big news media let it all slide. Mr. Trump somehow survived, to the blob’s horror, and prepared to run for re-election.

The 2020 election was a fantastic trip laid on the American public. Covid-19 allowed for drastic changes in voting rules. The Democratic Party managed in plain sight to maneuver the obviously senile Joe Biden to head their ticket, and an array of very conspicuous late-night frauds got him elected. On Jan 6, 2021, Republican legislators were poised to contest the results out of several swing states where the frauds occurred in the requisite Congressional certification ceremony. The law plainly allowed for such challenges. It could not be allowed to happen.

Hence: the operations to interrupt the proceedings. The primary device would be the pipe bombs planted at the nearby DNC and RNC headquarters — terrorists on-the-loose! The backup plan was to turn the large protest group gathered around the Capitol into a mob that would somehow provoke an evacuation of the building. Between the FBI’s assets (“confidential human sources”) planted in the crowd, plus the Capitol police firing rubber bullets and “flash-bangs” into them, and mysterious figures ushering-in protesters through unlocked security doors, the breach of the Capitol was accomplished and the lawmakers fled the building. Nancy Pelosi arranged for the national guard to not be called onto the scene to fortify the understaffed Capitol Police. She was thrilled at how well it worked (captured on film). And the pipe bomb caper was swept under the rug, despite a ton of evidence that indicated the person-of-interest on the scene was a federal contractor, his movements recorded in cell-phone records and closed-circuit cameras.

When the lawmakers returned late that night in a great fugue of histrionic consternation, the majority decided to dispense with those challenges to the vote in swing states. “Joe Biden” became president and the DOJ under new Attorney General Merrick Garland commenced a raft of vicious prosecutions against anyone and everyone present at the Capitol on Jan 6. The next step was to mount a barrage of prosecutions against Mr. Trump himself, guaranteed to prevent him from ever running again, to bankrupt him, and to stuff him into prison for the rest of his natural life.

Amazingly, none of that worked. The cases against Mr. Trump were lame to an extreme, prosecuted by oafs, and adjudicated by bungling judges. Four years of “Joe Biden” pretending to run things came close to wrecking the country, and too many citizens did not fail to notice. His inept stand-in for this year’s election, Kamala Harris, made a fool of herself and her party, and now Mr. Trump is back with a much-enhanced populist opposition to the quivering DC blob.

The crew he has chosen to manage this government are pretty clearly determined to correct what has been happening in it, and the office-holders still lodged in many positions of power — where they have been waging war against the citizens of this country — have nowhere to run and hide now. They know that they are guilty of abusing their power and bringing harm to their fellow Americans. They know that something is coming for them — the dreaded consequences that they worked so diligently to evade.

Notice, you are not hearing any vows of magnanimity from incoming Trump appointees. They are not pretending to forgive and forget. Neither are they crowing about retribution. They are reaching by law for the levers of power. They will discover and disclose the files that the blobists have not already managed to destroy. And where the files are missing, they are going to depose the blobists under oath and get them to say on-the-record what they did, and why, and who ordered them to do it. And you can be sure the blobists will be ratting-out each other to stay out of prison.

This is true even of such seemingly mild fellows as Inspector General Michael Horowitz, in office since 2012 through all this monkey business in his agency, who let his report about the Jan 6 business slide until he could no longer conceal it, and who confabulated it into the modified, limited hang-out that it, dishonorably, is.

GUY’S SITTING at the end of the bar weeping and sobbing. Bartender comes over, says “Hey pal, wha’s the problem? What’s got you so upset?”

The guy cries a little more, says, “Look. I vomited all over my shirt. My wife said if I ever get puke-drunk again she’s gonna move out, take the kids and file for divorce.” Starts crying some more.

“Aww, quit worrying,” the bartender says. “No big deal. All we have to do is stick a ten dollar bill in you shirt pocket, tell the wife some lousy drunk threw up on you at the bar tonight, and then he stuffed ten bucks in your pocket to pay for the dry cleaning.”

Guy says “Right! Exactly!” and he stumbles out of the bar, goes home, comes through the front door and his wife says, “Look at you! This is last straw! How can you —”

The guy interrupts. “Honey, it’s not what you think. I can explain. I was down at the bar tonight and some drunken bum threw up on me. He put ten bucks in my pocket to take care of the laundry bill.”

She reaches in his pocket. “But there are two ten dollar bills in here,” she says.

“Oh, right,” says the guy. “I forgot. He shit in my pants too.”

SORRY, BUT THIS IS THE FUTURE OF FOOD

by Michael Grunwald

“Industrial agriculture” is a phrase used to signify “bad,” evoking toxic chemicals, monoculture crops, confined animals, the death of the small family farm and all kinds of images people don’t like to associate with their food. Factory farms are a constant target of environmentalists, documentarians, animal rights activists, spiritual leaders like Pope Francis and the Indian mystic Sadhguru, and leftist politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders.

Even the manosphere podcaster Joe Rogan has called for banning them, while Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, has blamed industrial agriculture for making us sick and fat. The United Nations has pointed out that it does $3 trillion in damage to the global environment a year.

Agriculture in general does have real environmental downsides. It’s the leading driver of water pollution and shortages, deforestation and biodiversity loss. It generates one-fourth of the greenhouse gases that heat up the planet.

And it’s eating the earth. It has already overrun about two of every five acres of land on the planet, and farmers are on track to clear an additional dozen Californias worth of forest by 2050. That would be a disaster for nature and the climate, because the carbon dioxide released by converting wild landscapes into farms and pastures is already the most damaging source of agricultural emissions, worse than methane from cow burps or nitrous oxide from fertilizer.

But industrial agriculture in particular has one real upside: It produces enormous amounts of food on relatively modest amounts of land. And that will be agriculture’s most vital job in the coming decades. The world will need even more enormous amounts of food by 2050, about 50 percent more calories to adequately feed nearly 10 billion people. The inconvenient truth is that factory farms are the best hope for producing the food we will need without obliterating what’s left of our natural treasures and vaporizing their carbon into the atmosphere.

It’s true that if we ate less meat and grew fewer biofuels, we would reduce agriculture’s hunger for land. But the reality is we show no signs of doing that — meat consumption is only projected to rise in the coming years.

So we’ll have to make more food per acre instead of using more acres to make food. And that’s what industrial agriculture does well. Its fertilizers and irrigation systems turbocharge production. Its pesticides and herbicides kill bugs and weeds that stunt crop growth. Its GPS-enabled tractors help farmers plant high-yield seeds precisely where they want. And its factory farms — which exploit modern advances in genetics, nutrition and veterinary care to cram trillions of calories into billions of animals — manufacture prodigious quantities of relatively cheap commodities.

That, after all, is what factories do.

Ideally, Big Ag could make even more food with even less land while doing less to harm the environment. But these days, the politically correct stance toward Big Ag is not to reform it but to replace it. Environmentalists such as Al Gore and Jane Goodall, foodies like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan and even agribusinesses and food conglomerates like General Mills and Danone talk about supplanting industrial methods with kinder and gentler “regenerative agriculture” that revives the pastoral wisdom of our ancestors. The Biden administration has blasted more than $20 billion into “climate-smart agriculture” focused on regenerative practices. Mr. Kennedy has called for a Trump-led regenerative revolution.

But that’s a formula for agriculture to devour even more of the earth. Old MacDonald-style farms where soil is nurtured with love and animals have names rather than numbers may sound environmentally friendly. But their artisanal grains and grass-fed beef are worse for nature than chemical-drenched corn and feedlot-fattened beef, because they require much more land for each calorie they produce. In 2021, Sri Lanka’s president banned agricultural chemicals in an effort to force its farmers to go organic, vowing to end industrial farming and get in “sync with nature.” Then farm yields crashed, plunging the country into a food crisis, forcing it to import calories it used to grow itself.

Europe and the United States are flirting with back-to-nature agriculture, too, but that would ultimately just outsource more production, pollution and deforestation to the developing world. Big industrial agriculture has plenty of shortcomings, too, but most of them have less to do with “big” or “industrial” than “agriculture,” which has always made a mess.

We tend to think of our transformation of the earth as a modern phenomenon wrought by industrial advances such as private jets and factory farms, but recent scholarship suggests it actually began with the invention of agriculture about 12,000 years ago. Early farmers didn’t need tractors or chemicals to reshape their environment. They subdued nature with fire and the ax, converting wilderness into crops and pastures that supported a much larger population. By the dawn of the fossil-fuel era, they had already cleared a South America worth of wilderness.

Scientists have used ice cores and ancient pollen samples to show that preindustrial farming and the deforestation that made room for it also changed the climate, likely emitting enough carbon to avert another ice age. Indigenous people deforested so much of the Americas to grow crops that when they mostly died out after European contact, forests on their abandoned farmland grew back so quickly and reabsorbed so much carbon that it created measurable global cooling. Their disappearance helped nature reclaim some territory, however briefly.

Agriculture didn’t change much until the 1960s, when the agronomist Norman Borlaug bred a higher-yielding variety of wheat. That was the beginning of the Green Revolution, a new era of disruption that brought farmers chemical pesticides, powerful fertilizers, advanced automation, large-scale irrigation and other innovations that helped triple their crop and livestock yields in half a century.

The Green Revolution made big industrial agriculture possible, and its productivity saved billions of people from malnutrition and starvation. It did create environmental problems — soil erosion, air and water pollution from pesticides and herbicides, mountains of manure leaching off overcrowded feedlots. But even though its soybeans and cattle have often invaded forests and wetlands, its higher yields have spared billions of additional acres of the planet’s ecosystems from destruction, by making more food on existing farmland. The Green Revolution didn’t end deforestation, but few forests would still be standing without it.

The key point, obscured by our cultural nostalgia for the quaint farmsteads of yesteryear, is that old-fashioned agriculture made much more of a mess when it replaced nature than intensive industrial agriculture makes when it replaces old-fashioned agriculture. Every farm, even the scenic ones with red barns and rolling hills that artists paint and writers sentimentalize, is a kind of environmental crime scene, an echo of whatever carbon-rich wilderness it once replaced.

Dirk Rice’s great-great-grandfather was one of the pioneers who converted the Grand Prairie of east-central Illinois from a soggy expanse of marshy grasslands into a breadbasket with their bare hands. Mr. Rice still grows corn and soybeans on 200 acres of the prairie his ancestors wrestled away from Mother Nature, but that ancestral land now makes up just one-tenth of his farm; the only farmers he knows with 200 acres or less work full-time jobs in town. He installs drains with a laser-guided tile plow, works his fields with a 320-horsepower tractor, and grows remarkable amounts of grain.

“Back in my great-great-grandfather’s day, men were men and horsepower was horse power,” Mr. Rice told me. “Got to say, though, we get better yields.”

The story of the Midwestern Corn Belt, and of agriculture throughout the developed world, is a story of steadily increasing efficiency and scale toward mega-yielding megafarms. When I visited his farm a few years ago, Mr. Rice showed me his father’s tricycle-red Farmall 400 tractor, a technological marvel from before the Green Revolution. It was about the size of a Kia Soul. Then he showed me his John Deere combine, which weighed as much as 10 Kia Souls. It looked like a Zamboni on steroids, with a yield monitor on a touch-screen and a grain cart that held more corn than a semi truck.

“My grandfather ruined his shoulder shucking corn,” Mr. Rice said. “This thing picks corn, strips it, sorts it, weighs it and measures the moisture content of its kernels. And this is probably the smallest one John Deere makes.”

That combine helps Mr. Rice harvest 220 bushels of corn per acre, five times the yields his grandfather got. And his operation is typical for the area; I visited a nearby corn grower with an even more advanced 500-horsepower combine who gets 25 percent higher yields. The more grain their farms can grow for the world, the less new farmland will need to be wrestled away from Mother Nature on the other side of the planet.

So we’re going to need to increase yields a lot. And since most of the Green Revolution’s advances have already spread across most of the planet, that will be much harder than it was the first time. Meanwhile, climate change itself threatens to drag down yields as extreme weather intensifies and pests and diseases invade new regions.

Somehow, though, our farms are going to have to become even more productive — especially our industrial animal farms. Just as Willie Sutton robbed banks because that’s where the money was, any strategy to reduce agriculture’s footprint will have to focus on higher-yield meat, because three-fourths of agricultural land is now used to feed livestock.

Steve Gabel knows beef has a bad reputation, which is why an “I [heart] beef” sign greets visitors to his Magnum Feedyard in northeastern Colorado. He also knows factory feedlots where multitudes of confined cattle get stuffed full of grain before getting shipped off to slaughter have an even worse reputation, which is why he wanted to show me real industrial beef production. He drove me to the middle of his outdoor lot, amid a black and brown sea of ear-tagged cattle, and rolled down the windows of his mud-splattered Chevy Silverado.

“You hear that?” asked Mr. Gabel, a gruff prairie lifer with a white goatee, chewing a toothpick and staring me down. I wasn’t going to lie to him.

“Uh, I don’t hear anything,” I said.

“Exactly!” he shot back. “You’re surrounded by 25,000 animals. You think any of them were mistreated today?”

Feedlot cattle generally do get treated better than factory-farmed chickens or pigs in part because they spend most of their lives grazing grass before getting sent to operations like Magnum. But Mr. Gabel’s point was less about animal welfare than about efficiency, his North Star.

Mistreating the “beef animals,” his unemotional term for his factors of production, is inefficient. Stressing them out: also inefficient. Even making them walk through mud or manure to their troughs is inefficient, which is why he was building a multimillion-dollar drainage system to keep his pens dry, and why he had tractors tricked out like snowplows to scrape manure into piles. He sends riders on horseback into every pen every day to make sure every heifer and steer is healthy and comfortable.

“If I don’t create the friendliest possible environment for the animals, they might gain 4.1 pounds a day instead of 4.5. That’s money out of my pocket!” he said. “We maximize our efficiency, so they can maximize their genetic potential.”

Not only is Mr. Gabel’s industrial efficiency better for his bottom line, it’s better for the planet. Cattle are terribly inefficient converters of their feed into our food. They use about 10 times as much land as chicken or pork, and nearly 100 times as much as plant protein. But that makes beef an inviting target for reducing land use and other environmental impacts. And while industrial pork and chicken operations are already so ruthlessly efficient that it may not be biologically possible to get pigs or poultry much fatter much faster, beef still has room for improvement.

In general, beef from cattle that spend their last few months eating grain in feedlots is better for the environment than supposedly green, grass-fed beef from cattle that spend their entire lives in pastures — partly because grass-fed cattle take longer to reach slaughter weight, so they burp more methane and use more water, but mostly because grain-finished cattle use less land per pound of meat. And Mr. Gabel has reduced the amount of feed he needs to grow a pound of beef by a third since 1994, so his cattle use even less land.

Part of his secret is using “Moneyball”-style analytics to optimize protein production. He told me without checking notes that he uses 10.23 gallons of water per head per day, his finishing feed is 72.5 percent corn, and his on-site mill converts kernels into flakes at 208 degrees Fahrenheit, increasing their digestibility to 95 percent.

He seemed to know about every cow on his lot with a case of foot rot or diarrhea. He sounded like the busybody mayor of a town whose residents all had hooves, hides and execution dates at a nearby JBS slaughterhouse.

But even though Magnum is a family business Mr. Gabel runs with his wife and two children, it’s Big Ag, too, growing tenfold in three decades, unlocking efficiencies through economies of scale.

Originally, it held only 3,500 cattle — not enough to justify an on-site mill, costly drainage projects or state-of-the-art manure lagoons that limit its pollution. Now Mr. Gabel has veterinary, nutritional and environmental consultants, a hospital with electronic medical records for every cow that passes through his property, and 10,000 acres of corn and alfalfa fields where he can spread his manure. Today, Magnum is in the top 1 percent of U.S. cattle operations, and that top 1 percent feeds half of U.S. cattle.

“Being big doesn’t make us evil,” Mr. Gabel said. “It makes us efficient.”

Beef’s inherent inefficiency makes it worse for the climate than other foods, but Mr. Gabel’s focus on efficiency makes his high-yield beef better for the climate than other low-yield beef. If we’re going to keep stuffing our faces with skirt steaks and Quarter Pounders, factory farms can help reduce the damage of our diets.

It would be lovely if we could have guilt-free beef, if our diets didn’t do any damage. That’s the fantasy the regenerative movement pushes: By farming in harmony with nature, we can sequester billions of tons of carbon in our soils, transforming agriculture from an environmental problem to a climate solution.

“Carbon farming” is the hottest trend in agriculture, backed by Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Gore, celebrities such as Jason Momoa and Gisele Bündchen, the United Nations and the World Bank, and even agribusinesses like Archer Daniels Midland, Tyson, Bayer and Cargill that want to look green. Farmers who plant cover crops and reduce their tillage are selling credits on the carbon market to companies looking to offset their emissions, while regenerative brands such as TruBeef claim their cattle have no impact on the climate.

But carbon farming has been wildly oversold as a climate solution. Soil carbon is incredibly difficult to measure, monitor and keep underground, and there’s little evidence Mr. Biden’s “climate-smart” efforts to scale up regenerative practices like no-till are actually climate-smart. Storing more carbon in soils turns out to require adding more nitrogen to soils — and adding nitrogen usually warms the climate.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic solution to the problem of agriculture. We need it to make our food, and it can’t do that without using some land and doing some damage. But the world already spends more than $300 billion a year on subsidies, tax breaks and other handouts to farmers, and it could spend that money in climate-friendlier ways.

A coalition of philanthropies — including the Rockefeller Foundation, which financed Mr. Borlaug’s work that set off the Green Revolution — has called for the world to spend $4.3 trillion over the next decade to transition away from industrial agriculture. But what if that kind of money was deployed to help finance a new Green Revolution that was truly green?

Governments could encourage all kinds of land-sparing and emissions-reducing approaches, whether or not they jibe with our cultural stereotypes of wholesome farming. Hundreds of startups are using genetic engineering tools like CRISPR to reprogram crops for higher yields, better resistance to pests, fungi and disease, and higher tolerance of heat, drought and floods.

Terviva, a startup in Alameda, Calif., has commercialized a super-tree called pongamia that produces soybean-like seeds with higher yields on lousy land. Pivot Bio in Berkeley, Calif., developed an alternative fertilizer that uses genetically edited microbes instead of chemicals to feed nitrogen to crops. The Boston-based GreenLight Biosciences harnessed the RNA tech behind the Covid vaccines for a bio-pesticide that constipates crop-killing potato beetles to death without poisoning the soil. And in Brazil, I visited crop-and-cattle ranches that integrated regenerative farming and grazing practices with conventional industrial practices to produce immense yields that have helped spare the Amazon.

The public sector can help accelerate all those innovations, and can help spread the original Green Revolution to countries left behind. But carrots alone won’t relieve the pressure on nature. Denmark recently unveiled sweeping new reforms that include a very big stick: a nationwide tax on agricultural emissions. The revenues will be earmarked to help its already efficient farmers get even more efficient, and eventually restore nearly one-fifth of its farmland to forests and wetlands, which is why it attracted support from Denmark’s agricultural as well as environmental lobbies.

Of course, Denmark already had some of the world’s strictest climate laws, and was decarbonizing the rest of its economy so fast that its farmers were under unusually intense pressure to start doing their part. Most of the world isn’t Denmark. Farmers elsewhere in Europe have blockaded major roads with tractors and piles of manure to bully politicians into reversing green regulations. Mr. Trump has also made it clear that he also intends to roll back Democratic climate policies; it’s much less clear whether he shares Mr. Kennedy’s interest in reducing industrial agriculture’s impacts.

The goal should be to produce more and protect more. Rich countries that already deforested their arable land long ago should help poor countries improve their yields and protect their own forests, but the money should flow only on the condition that the forests are actually protected.

The developed world can also attach strings to its own agricultural subsidies, withholding aid from farmers who mistreat animals and workers, overuse antibiotics or flout environmental regulations. The largest 6 percent of American farms manufacture three-fourths of our food, and factory farms produce almost all our animal protein; it’s unrealistic to expect them to go away, but maybe in exchange for all the money we throw at them, they could do less harm.

What the world really needs is a vibe shift. Most people who don’t farm don’t think much about agriculture, and we’ve fallen into a trap of assuming there’s virtuous agriculture and evil agriculture, just like clean energy and dirty energy. Instead, we should think of all farming as a necessary evil. It makes our food and it makes a mess. We should try to confine it, so that it doesn’t keep overrunning nature.

But there’s no point in demonizing the industrial farmers who make the most food. We should just insist that they make less mess.

(Michael Grunwald is a journalist and the author of the forthcoming book “We Are Eating the Earth.”)

THE BOROWITZ REPORT

On Wednesday the Greek government implored ambassadorial nominee Kimberly Guilfoyle to remain in the United States, asserting, “We can hear you from there.”

Haralambos Dorrinopoulos, the nation’s foreign minister, warned that Guilfoyle’s “high-decibel emissions pose an existential threat to Greece’s most cherished cultural artifacts.”

“If Ms. Guilfoyle is permitted to speak in her favored style, the Parthenon will be reduced to rubble,” he said.

In a gloomy prediction of what would happen if Guilfoyle were stationed in Athens, he added, “The worst is yet to come.”

9 Comments

Kimberlin December 14, 2024

Michael Grunwald is a journalist but he is missing some things…

Cows and other ruminants have digestive systems for breaking down tough plants, so switching to grains like corn, oats, barley, and wheat is not their natural diet. The consequences include severe health issues such as liver abscesses. This is “fixed” with antibiotics. Changing a cows eating pattern suddenly mixed with crowding them in a pen caused more illness than they would ever experience in a pasture, which created the need for antibiotics. A cow living on pasture doesn’t get infected with diseases such as E. Coli, but a cow on a grain diet has high stomach acidity in which E. Coli thrives.

- George Hollister December 14, 2024
  
  Michael Grunwald certainly would have had fans of hunter-gatherers in Egypt 6,000 years ago when grain was first irrigated, and mass produced on an industrial scale.
  
- Paul Modic December 14, 2024
  
  I didn’t read about the cows here because I just got done with The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and he goes over all of that, and much much more, recommended…
  
Mike Jamieson December 14, 2024

The San Francisco Chronicle has investigated the matter of various LLC’s from Utah based folks and a transplanted local buying up alot of home and commercial properties in Point Arena:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/california-forever-mendocino-point-arena-19473376.php

Jeff Hansen is said to be reserved in answering anguished inquiries about the goal behind this.

- Mike Jamieson December 14, 2024
  
  There’s an extensive discussion on the private FB group “Point Arena Update Page”. The poster there posting the SF Chron article shared a measure the city could take to address the now vacant commercial properties:
  http://sftreasurer.org/business/taxes-fees/commercial-vacancy-tax-cvt
  
Harvey Reading December 14, 2024

PROZAC PARABLE

Kaputalism in action…where’s Mangione?

- Marco McClean December 14, 2024
  
  Here ya go. Chuck Mangione – Feels So Good.
  
Harvey Reading December 14, 2024

SORRY, BUT THIS IS THE FUTURE OF FOOD

It’s what happens when the human monkey population far exceeds the carrying capacity of the planet for their kind.

Chuck Wilcher December 14, 2024

“The cure for that was to accuse candidate Trump of conniving with Russia”

I guess Kunstler doesn’t think “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 (Clinton) emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press,” isn’t somehow “conniving.”

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