Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 12/17/2024

By AVA News Service on December 17, 2024

MOSTLY DRY conditions are expected today except for some early morning showers in Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties. Another chance for light rain is expected on Wednesday followed by warm temperatures on Thursday. A more active pattern with stronger frontal systems is probable through the weekend and likely next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): The waves crashing loudly along the shore made it hard to read my rain gauge today, but there was .30", bringing the recent 6 day run total to 5.10". 45F under high clouds this Tuesday morning on the coast. Our next shot of rain is Friday night. Christmas week is looking very wet. Lovely...

MISSING FORT BRAGG JUVENILE UPDATE

On December 8, 2024 Roy Mora, 15 of Fort Bragg was reported missing by a parent. He was last seen on a surveillance camera walking south on the Noyo Bridge at approximately 8:30 PM on December 7, 2024. Cell phone data shows his phone was actively communicating with cell phone towers between 2:00 AM and 2:30 AM. The phone’s location was determined to be behind the Fire Station on Main Street, near the entrance to the Central Coastal Trail.

The Fort Bragg Police Department has been following leads, authoring search warrants, conducting searches of areas, requesting and reviewing dozens of surveillance videos, and going through dozens of tips. No information is being dismissed. FBPD has searched areas provided by psychics who believed they knew where Roy was. Investigators are also re-interviewing possible witnesses as potential leads develop.

FBPD has also spoken with MTA bus drivers and reviewed surveillance video from the MTA busses. However, Roy was not scene in any of the videos.

The investigation into Roy's disappearance has extended to both New York and Idaho, where former acquaintances of Roy reside. Search warrants were executed on all known social media accounts associated with Roy, resulting in valuable leads; however, these have not yet revealed his current location. Further inquiries revealed that Roy had shared account passwords with friends, which complicated the investigation. After Roy's disappearance, these accounts remained active, but it was determined that it was Roy's friends who were logging in, rather than Roy himself. This new information has influenced the course of the investigation.

CalOES Search & Rescue FALCON is a group of law enforcement officers specially trained in deciphering cell phone data. They analyzed all of the information obtained through the search warrant. While they were able to provide more precise geolocations of where the cell phone last was, they did not uncover any information not already known to FBPD investigators. They precise locations they determined had already been searched by officers, volunteers, tracking dog teams and a USCG helicopter.

FBPD is currently waiting for requested surveillance video from locations near where the cell phone last reported its location. We are also working with agencies in other counties where it was determined Roy had friends he was still in contact with in an attempt to identify those friends to interview them. At this point, none of the leads or searches have provided investigators with information as to Roy’s whereabouts.

The Fort Bragg Police Department would like to thank CalOES SAR FALCON, 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 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.

This information is being released by Chief Neil Cervenka. For media inquiries, please reach out to him directly at ncervenka@fortbragg.com.

JEN LEWIS (Fort Bragg):

Hi neighbors!! Had a weird experience the other night, and wanted to post it in here to keep folks aware.

I was walking home on Saturday night around 10:30 and got the feeling that a car was following me. I turned around in an alley to get away from it and saw the car head down that same alley a second later, and then when he couldn’t find me there, he circled around to find me on another street and rolled down his window.

He called out his window and asked me if I wanted a ride and when I refused and told him to move along, he still hung around until I yelled I AM NOT GETTING INTO YOUR CAR, and then he drove away, and I made it home safe after that.

I didn’t feel like he was going to jump out and grab me or anything like that, just got the vibe that he was a creep hoping I was drunk.

I’ve lived in Fort Bragg for almost a decade and walked at night a bunch, and I’ve never had an experience like that before.

It was just a basic grey car and a dude in his 40s or 50s, I wouldn’t be able to recognize him if I saw him again because it was dark.

MENDOCINO CO. REENTRY PROGRAM HOSTS OPEN HOUSE WEDNESDAY

GEO Reentry Services and the Mendocino County Probation Department will host an open house on Wednesday, Dec. 18 from noon to 2 p.m. Local officials, Probation and center staff, community partners, current program participants and program alumni will be on hand. Guests can learn about the reentry programs being offered and tour the facility.

579 Low Gap Road, Ukiah

If you have any questions about the open house or the DRC, please contact Program Manager Jennifer Cook at 707-397-9800.

LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

A READER ASKS if Mendo County is balancing its budget by replacing older, experienced workers with younger, less experienced, cheaper ones? It’s very likely to be a contributing factor in the County’s recently “discovered” $10-$12 million “surplus”/carryover from last fiscal year (ending June 30, 2024). Supervisor Haschak has bragged lately that the early retirement incentive program he suggested has had a few takers and generated some savings but that’s certainly not going to generate millions of dollars in savings. Since salaries make up about 80% of the County’s expenses, a surplus of upwards of $12 million, if it’s verified, is most likely from salary savings which could stem from resignations, terminations, a hiring freeze, lower cost replacements, higher vacancy rates, etc., and leads to reduced office efficiency and output, larger caseloads and workloads, delays, mistakes, etc. We have not heard any public comments on the subject of the surplus, the vacancies or trading older employees with younger ones from any of the County’s labor unions. Also, the $12 million presumed surplus was in the General Fund. So, there could be even more staffing reductions and lower cost replacements in the much bigger non-General Fund departments — mainly social services — as well. If any former, retired, or replaced employees — or their friends or relatives — have anything to offer on this subject, we’d certainly be glad to have it, on or off the record.

(Mark Scaramella)

LOOKING FOR LONG TERM LEASE

Hello!

I’m a responsible, employed, and fully solvent 64 year old woman - fit and active - looking for a long-term rental for myself and my 13 year old dog. I work in Fort Bragg. Will consider anything as far south as Albion. Unconventional situations considered. We are quiet, respectful, neat, and clean.

My dog gets along with people, dogs, and deer. Not so much cats. Can move in January.

Please call or text Jane at (907) 720-9394. Thank you!

Jane Baldwin janeruns@hotmail.com

VOLUNTEERS SOUGHT FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM BY THE CITY OF FORT BRAGG

The City of Fort Bragg is seeking volunteers for its Emergency Management Program. Help develop and maintain plans, research best practices, and organize community meetings—all remotely!Ideal for those passionate about disaster preparedness and community service. Volunteers will assist the City’s Emergency Manager, but won’t have decision-making authority.

Send your letter of interest today!

City of Fort Bragg Seeks Volunteers for Emergency Management Program

The City of Fort Bragg is now accepting letters of interest for Emergency Management Program-Volunteers (EMP-V’s). EMP-V’s will play a vital role in assisting the City’s Emergency Manager to develop and maintain the community’s Emergency Management Program.

Volunteers will collaborate with the City's Emergency Manager in tasks such as reviewing emergency documents and plans, researching best practices for emergency management policies and procedures, and organizing and documenting stakeholder meetings with diverse community groups. EMP-V’s will primarily work remotely, utilizing personal computers and internet resources to carry out their duties. This volunteer opportunity is ideal for individuals passionate about disaster preparedness and community service. EMP-V’s report directly to the City’s Emergency Manager and are not responsible for decision-making authority. a Specialized Training Institute (CSTI) training sessions hosted by the City as well as access to CSTI courses within the region.

Ability to assist the City in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during real and simulated emergencies. Hours working in an EOC can be combined with CSTI courses to obtain an Emergency Management certification through the

State of California.

The ability to influence and enhance the Emergency Preparedness of the community you live in.

EMP-V’s must meet the following minimum requirements: -Must be at least 18 years of age.

Agree to volunteer a minimum of 6.0 hours a month with at least 2.0 hours for in-person meetings. -Must submit to and pass a local background check including fingerprinting.
Must reside within ten miles of the Fort Bragg Police Department.
Must have home internet access and a personal computer.

Interested parties should submit a letter of interest to Captain Thomas O’Neal at toneal@fortbragg.com. EMP-V’s will be selected by the City’s Emergency Manager and their Department Director. Letters of interest should include at a minimum:

Contact Information:

a. Name

b. Address

c. Phone Number d. Email

Emergency management experience or knowledge

Previous experience related to reviewing program information or program analysis

Essay Question: In 300 words or less, identify an effective emergency management program currently in use in another jurisdiction that you would like to see adopted locally. The program should be able to be reasonably implemented locally within six months. Your response should include a link or direct reference to the program.

Letters of interest are requested no later than January 10th, 2025.

MARK RAPELLE:

We own property in Manchester, in the Irish Beach Development. We vacation in Mendocino for months at a time, multiple times each year. I have checked with the admins of this group. They agreed that is enough for me to post in this group.

I’m trying to determine what LOCALS think of the actions of the Irish Beach Improvement CLUB! Not an HOA (Home Owners Association).

They are officially registered as a not for profit Mutual Benefit Corporation (self serving club).

Public records request have uncovered the fact that they have not gotten any permits for the past 50 years. For any of their Beach Road Development projects. They have built retaining walls multiple times that continue to fail. They do this in the wetlands along Irish Gulch. The Gulch overflows and washes out the retaining walls and road — at Irish Beach, California.

The lack of permits are documented in reports available on the Mendocino County public portal.

They have also built fencing, a gate and installed a solar system to power the gate. They have installed signage, saying IBIC members only. All this stops public access to the Ocean. The development plans approved for the Irish Beach Development required pubic access to the Ocean.

This has came to the attention of California Coastal Commission north enforcement office. They are slowly moving forward with enforcement.

What are my fellow Locals thinking of the private club continuing to do this?

Anyone concerned about the damage to the environment?
Simply disappointed it is happening?
Believe that they should be allowed to continue doing this type of work, without permits. That requires Coastal Development Permits?
This bothers you enough to follow up with the enforcement officer at:

Joshua.Levine@coastal.ca.gov

Looking forward to your feedback.

Please leave a comment!!

Thank you for reading this long post.

HELP THE ELDERHOME MOVE INTO 2025

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Our Elder Home mission is to address the critical lack of affordable, in-town housing for seniors, with a focus on those who must leave their current homes and want to stay in Anderson Valley.

Our wonderful community continues to sustain our project and mission through donations and volunteer support. We are most grateful.

Our fundraising goal last year was to cover the cost of providing each of our rental units with a new, state of the art heating/cooling system. With your generous support, we met that goal! Our most sincere thanks to everyone who contributed. An energy-efficient electric “split unit” has been installed in the Cottage, the House now has a heat-pump system that provides heating and air conditioning, and work is on-going to finish upgrading at the Duplex.

Our 2024-25 fundraising goal:

We have two important projects for the coming year. First, as we continue implementing our objective of making the Elder Home as senior-friendly as possible, we want to upgrade the access to the House. This includes installing a more secure concrete path to replace the gravel path that leads from the highway to the porch and from there to the driveway. We also need to upgrade and resurface the driveway and parking area to eliminate possible trip-and-fall sites.

Second, we need to complete the painting project that was begun this year. Because it has been well over 15 years since the House and Duplex were painted, and because of the buildings' age, when we assessed the situation with our local painter (we hire locally whenever possible) it became clear that intensive preparation work was needed to remove decades of buckled and blistered paint layers and to replace rotting siding and trim. We hope this year's donations will cover the work needed to finish the on-going painting job and to do the concrete work. This will allow us to put more money toward our building fund.

Property upgrades:

In addition to the new heating/cooling systems, at the House we replaced the front porch and added railing and upgraded the back porch with new roofing. We also finished installing the landscaping and drip irrigation in the front yard, using low maintenance, drought tolerant plants. Many thanks to Pam Callaghan for the design, plant choices, and help with installation.

Fundraisers in 2024:

We had great fun as well as financial success at our three fundraising events this year. In April we again provided the volunteer “staff” at the AV Brewing Beer Fest's back gate. A big thank you to the 18 loyal volunteers who helped us out. Thanks, too, to AV Brewing for donating its Beer Fest profits to local non-profits, and also for their donation to the wine/beer booth we hosted at the Olde Time 4th of July event. This was our second year helping out at that venue, and we hope to continue, though it would be good if next year the temperature stayed under 100 degrees.

And, for the 13th year our wine and conversation niche at the Apple Fair offered generously-donated fine Valley vintages as well as a comfortable community gathering place.

AV Hospice volunteers were also present to introduce folks to their new service. Together, these events brought us $9,300 closer to building the next cottage. We would love to hear from anyone who would like to help us organize on-going or new events. If interested, please contact us and let's brainstorm.

A new Elder Home Board member:

Susan Bridge-Mount joined the board this year. She has lived in Anderson Valley for the past 40 years. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and is also a member of the Hospice of Ukiah Board of Directors and the social worker for the program in Anderson Valley. A long-time supporter of the Elder Home, she feels that joining its board is in line with her professional interests of working with seniors and helping them to navigate the health care systems. Susan also enjoys working in her garden and designing and sewing wearable art and jewelry.

A new tenant in the Elder Home Cottage:

We happily welcomed a new Cottage tenant in April 2024.

AVEH's positive financial picture:

With strong community support we continue to reduce our mortgage and increase the building fund. Since last December, we've received contributions of $24,100 toward that fund. This generosity, combined with the net income from our rentals has increased the building fund to $191,400.

Moving into the future:

The Elder Home recently had a preliminary meeting with the county's Planning and Building Department, and we are starting the process to submit our plans for developing additional one-bedroom cottages. When these plans have been finalized, we will be announcing a Capital Campaign for this long-anticipated project.

As we move forward, we'd like to gather information to share with Building and Planning. If you have input about the Valley's senior housing needs in the next two to three years, please share it with us at info@avelderhome.com You can also request a Statement of Interest Form if you might like to become a future tenant.

The AV Elder Home has been the beneficiary of amazing community generosity, and we hope you will contribute this year. If you would like your gift to be in memory of or in honor of someone, please note that along with your check or your online payment at www.avelderhome.net.

We wish everyone a safe and healthy 2025 and offer our heartfelt gratitude for your support,

The AV Elder Home Board

PO Box 455, Boonville, CA 95415

Email: info@avelderhome.com

Website: www.avelderhome.net

PS. Interested in joining our Board of Directors? AVEH is in its strongest financial position ever, and we have ambitious plans for the future. We'd love to hear from community members who believe in our mission and might like to join our hands-on, all-volunteer board. For more information, email info@avelderhome.com.

THE TRUCKER HAT THAT SPARKED A FIGHT FOR LAKE PILLSBURY

by Monica Huettl

Last month, the Mendocino County Inland Power and Water Commission held a Town Hall meeting in Potter Valley to engage and inform residents about water storage solutions in light of the impending loss of Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury. Much of the meeting was technical talk by water engineers. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Potter Valley resident Hannah Foster stood up and voiced her frustration about the loss of Lake Pillsbury, a beloved local recreation spot. “Hi everyone, I don’t have a question. I have Save Lake Pillsbury hats for sale. Love you, Potter Valley, f—k you, PG&E!”

For Foster, whose family has lived in Potter Valley for 6 generations, the loss of Lake Pillsbury is personal. Foster’s grandfather worked for the US Forest Service at Lake Pillsbury, and her family has vacationed there for generations. The lake is a resource for firefighters. Her extended family lives in Upper Lake, Covelo, and Potter Valley. She has spent most of every summer at Lake Pillsbury. “I don’t know any other home,” said Foster.…

https://mendofever.com/2024/12/17/the-trucker-hat-that-sparked-a-fight-for-lake-pillsbury/

MYSTERY BUYER WHO IS GRADUALLY SNAPPING UP AN ENTIRE CALIFORNIA TOWN IS SPOOKING WORKING CLASS LOCALS

by James Cirrone

One man has been buying up real estate in a small California town at a dizzying pace and as residents begin to catch on, they're unsure of his intentions.

Point Arena is tiny coastal city in Mendocino County with a population of just 451 people. The quaint colorful buildings that house shops and apartments overlook a beautiful cove. (Ed note: Not exactly, the cove to the west of the town center.)

While the town is no doubt picturesque, with tourists often visiting the lighthouse at the edge of the ocean, it simply doesn't have enough economic activity to keep itself afloat, according to a recent report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“A city like Point Arena needs economic development,” City Manager Peggy Ducey told the outlet.

But based on its emptying business district — which reportedly used to be a flurry of activity with a general store and a marijuana dispensary — that doesn't appear to be happening.

Amber's Diner, a burger joint, and Center Street Market, a deli popular with kids, were businesses on the main thoroughfare that have both closed within the last year.

So when Jeff Hansen arrived from Utah in 2014 and bought the struggling [Ed note: “Struggling isn’t the word we’d use; more like drug hovel] Seashell Inn on Main Street and turned it into the Wildflower Motel, it bought him a lot of initial goodwill with residents.

Feelings about Hansen have since soured as his alleged tactics as a landlord and businessman are laid bare and as the sheer number of properties he owns or is connected to grows.

The main LLC associated with Hansen's properties, 610 Properties, only owns three addresses in Point Arena, but that's hardly the end of it.

According to the Chronicle, two other companies with Hansen listed as a manager own a multifamily residential building, a former Druids Hall, the former general store and a single-family home.

Yet another company that is managed by him, Toussaint Properties LLC, owns the motel and a restaurant.

Hansen's daughter is listed as the owner of the former dispensary and the building that was once home to the short-lived diner has become the headquarters of H&C Partners, another LLC connected to Hansen.

According to public records, Hansen has been able to gain ownership, control or affiliation with about 20 properties in Point Arena in the just the ten years he's been living there.

That gives him more influence on the direction the town takes than anyone except the government, a land trust and a local timber company, The Chronicle reported.

And not all residents are happy about that, given that many of them have to deal with him as their landlord.

One woman, who The Chronicle only identified as Olivia [Ed note: former city councilwoman Olivia Ford], said Hansen cut down a plum tree in her rental home's yard after three years of carefully pruning it.

Jeff Hansen has become one of the most prolific real estate investors in Point Arena

This alleged incident happened in 2020, the same year Hansen reopened the revamped Wildflower Motel to great acclaim.

Olivia claimed he never gave her any notice, so she said she decided to confront him about it at his motel.

He allegedly didn't take her objections well, kicking her off the property and later jacking up her rent 10 percent, the maximum amount allowed under California law.

When he tried to raise her rent by another 10 percent in 2021, when COVID-19 was still raging, Olivia and her partner refused to sign the agreement.

Olivia took Hansen to court and won, with her lawyer arguing the rental increases lacked just cause.

Her neighbors in the building, many of them working-class Mexican families who didn't speak English, weren't so lucky. Most of them were reportedly forced out as Hansen insisted he needed to urgently renovate the property.

While all this was playing out, Olivia had won a seat on the Point Arena City Council but had to relinquish it in September 2021 when she moved just outside of city limits.

Hansen, meanwhile, gained his own seat on the city council in December 2022 via an appointment.

Again, initially, most people weren't wary of this at the time because he generally had a good reputation as the owner of the motel.

But when it became clear that he had a massive local real estate portfolio he could now directly affect as an owner and a government official, some residents have shown their discontent.

“I have concerns about appointing Jeff because he owns half the town and it feels like a huge conflict of interest to me,” local resident and landscaper Lani Bouwer said during public comment portion of Hansen's confirmation hearing.

Mayor Barbara Burkey assured residents at the time that Hansen would recuse himself from any votes or decisions that had to do with his properties.

But since he is connected to over a dozen Point Arena pieces of real estate through a complicated web of LLCs, some fear that there isn't yet full transparency with what Hansen owns.

When asked about his plans for the city by residents during his confirmation, he said: 'I don’t know if I have a vision.'

He also insisted that he's trying 'to be a good neighbor' through his property acquisitions but he didn't respond by publication time.

DailyMail.com approached Hansen for comment on his various relationships in town and whether or not he's thought about what Point Arena should look like in the future.

A more public example of Hansen's style of management was thrust into the spotlight in February 2024, when Michael Schnekenburger slammed Hansen on Facebook for allegedly forcing Amber's Diner to close down.

Schnekenburger, a chef at the restaurant, had Hansen as both a landlord and a business partner. This apparently didn't last too long.

“We closed because of Jeff. Dictating hours, Forcing certain conditions on us, bad decisions, and business practices. That was the entire reason,” he wrote in his Facebook post.

DailyMail.com asked Hansen about his falling out with Schnekenburger but he didn't respond by publication time.

Ducey, Point Arena's city manager, told The Chronicle that she's aware Hansen is a “controversial figure.”

“But his purchasing of properties, there’s nothing the city can do about that. I’ve had some very frank conversations with Jeff, and we’re gonna continue to have those - but I cannot infringe on his legal rights,” Ducey said.

Hansen retained his city council seat in this November's election while running unopposed. He earned 58 votes, which was about half of what his two fellow council members got.

(DailyMail.uk)

ED NOTES

A READER WRITES: “Have you noticed folks like this in Fort Bragg? In fact they're everywhere! Take a close look around Willits — mostly cro-magnon, right?” Enclosed was a letter from Gail Stumpf of Fort Bragg printed in the October, 2008 edition of National Geographic. Ms. Stumpf writes: “The artists did a fine job of fleshing out a Neanderthal female and showing us what she possibly looked like. My problem was that she looked just like one of us. In my small hometown in northern California, I have seen females of northern European, Iberian, and Native American ancestry who look remarkably like her, including the receding chin, heavy build, and heavy browridges. One can find humans with heavy browridges, sloping foreheads, receding chins, and short, squat, barrel-chested, heavy-boned builds in almost every population one cares to examine. I know there are differences among the skeletal remains of Neanderthals and many modern humans, but I wonder just how significant those differences really are.”

A READER sends along this warning from Thomas Jefferson: ”If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.” Which is exactly what has happened, I'd say.

IN OTHER ANIMAL NOTES, I saw the darndest sight in Frisco the other afternoon. I was walking on 6th Avenue near Irving when, from about a half-block away, I saw a woman and her leashed little dog emerge from an apartment. The woman was of middling years and nicely dressed. She stood with her leashed pet on the sidewalk, then held an egg up to the sky. “Hmmm,” I thought. “Doesn't look like a nut. Wonder what she's doing with the egg.” As I drew closer the woman placed the egg at the foot of a typically struggling urban tree and two crows flew down and began pecking the egg. “Excuse me, ma'am,” I said. “I've never seen that before.” The woman looked at me for a few seconds to make sure I wasn't a nut. “Oh, they're kinda my pets. I've known them for years.”

FROM THE MENDOCINO BEACON of November 4, 1883: “Black Bart, the gentlemanly, respectable, patriotic, courteous, charitable, merciful, considerate, pious highwayman, after a successful career of six years during which he has committed 23 stage robberies in Northern California with impunity, has at last been bagged by the police, stimulated by the offer of rewards aggregating $18,400. Capt. Harry Morse is one lucky man who will receive the principal part of the money and glory. His history of the tracking and capture of the wily rascal is equal to anything in Pinkerton's book. The unsuspecting manner in which Bart ran his neck into the noose which Morse held for him evidenced anything but shrewdness on his part. His last dodge is to gain immunity by confession. We shall have no doubt of a pamphlet edition of his exploits, which will be a textbook in the hands of boys ambitious of a similar career.”

BLACK BART held up a number of stage coaches on the Willits Grade and between Cloverdale and Ukiah. There were persistent rumors at the time – c. 1880 – that the highwayman was a Ukiah school teacher posing as the better known Bart.

WHAT HAPPENED TO RODNEY COLE AT COAST HOSPITAL

by Bruce Anderson (Feb. 2009)

One night, Rodney Cole, age 71, was going about his custodial duties at Coast Hospital, Fort Bragg, when he felt someone watching him. He looked around and saw his idle workmate, a young man of 18.

“I asked him what he was doing,” Rodney recalls. “He says to me, ‘I’m making sure you're working, and you better learn to hurry up. If you don't work faster you're not going to make it here.’ He's giving me orders like I was the boy and he was the man.”

Rodney Cole has been employed all his long life, but like millions of American seniors Rodney's retirement income is not enough to pay all his bills. He doesn't complain about having to work. “I like to work,” he says, and laughs that people often say to him, “You look great. You can't be that old.”

A retired electrical contractor, Rodney, who bears a faint resemblance to Charlie Chaplin and sees the humor in situations that might infuriate most of us, says he had “no problem” with janitorial work and enjoys the irony of his work history. “I wired three hospitals in Los Angeles. And I've been on both sides of the fence. I've been an employer and an employee. I know what it's like at both ends.”

Rodney and his wife have been managing trailer parks to make ends meet since his retirement. They came to Fort Bragg from Clearlake. When Rodney heard about possible work for seniors at Coast Hospital, he hustled down to apply and, after what he says were several weeks of rigmarole, he was hired as a probationary night shift custodian by Joan Dias of Housekeeping. “Call me if you have any problems,” she said, “and she gave me her card with her home phone number on it.”

The employee roster identified him as Raymond not Rodney, a mistake Rodney chuckles at, adding, “I always try to laugh, lighten things up with laughter. Everything was fine while I was working with that first lady; she was smart, cordial, helpful. But then they changed her hours and they put me with this kid. He was rude to me right off the bat, like he was my supervisor, but he wasn't my supervisor and even supervisors, the good ones anyway, aren't rude.”

Rodney says he kept his mouth shut “but it kept getting worse. I was always on time, did everything I was asked to do. I don't work real fast but I work steady. I get everything done. But this kid was on me all the time.”

One shift the kid jumped on the old man with both feet. Rodney had been on the job a month and a half, three paychecks at about $14 an hour. “I even had my badge with my picture and my right name on it.”

Rodney remembers the 18-year-old demanding, “Where you been? Did you put the blue sheets on?” I told him, I sure tried, but they're too short. You're telling me to do something that won't work.”

That exchange occurred in front of several persons, including the kid's father. The kid tried to throw his weight around but got it thrown right back in his face.

Back in the custodian's office, the kid got in Rodney's face.

“Don't you ever belittle me in front of people like that ever again. I gave you a direct order to do something and you failed to do it. When I tell you to do something you better do it. I'm your teacher.”

Rodney told the boy, “You're not my teacher and your attitude is wrong. Back off. You've crossed the line. I've done everything I've been shown to do, and I'm not going to be treated this way.”

The embattled custodian remembered that the boss, Joan Dias, had invited him to call if “he had a problem.”

Rodney had a problem. He called Joan Dias.

“She was not happy to hear from me. She told me I had to get along. I agreed, but I told her I'm not working with him. I'll work with anybody else.”

Rodney worked the next day, a Monday, without incident. A passing nurse joked, “Hey, Rod. I see you got rid of your baby-sitter!”

Joan Dias called Rod at home and told him to come in the next day, a Tuesday, for “a meeting.” Rod was not scheduled to work that day. He was on his own time.

Dias told him to sit down, “looked at me with this stone face,” handed Rod his check and said, “You're not working out. That's it.”

He remembered another senior's warning. “They used me when they were short, let me go when a younger person came along.”

Rodney went up the Hospital's chain of command as per the employee manual.

“I was told to put it in writing and I'll get back to you. That was it.”

Ditto for his union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 588, 940 Hopper Avenue, Santa Rosa.

Although Rodney was a probationary employee who could be fired without explanation, and he wouldn't be represented by his union until he was full-time or three months into the job, the union immediately took a one hundred dollar initiation fee while explaining, “Your dues are based on your hourly rate of pay; at this time they are $45 per month…”

“ I contacted the union,” Rodney says. “They advised me to make a report in as much detail as possible that I can remember. I made a copy and I sent it to Scott Kidd, the Hospital's chief personnel officer. I called Scott the first part of last week. I left word on his voice mail to call me back on what he had decided.”

The union sent back a barely legible, small print copy explaining why Rodney wouldn't be represented by them. He never heard from Kidd.

A friend told him he needed a lawyer.

“I can't afford a lawyer,” he says.

Coast Hospital is still billing him $138.96 for the pre-employment physical exam they required him to take.

ED NOTE: Anybody out there know what happened to Rodney? After I wrote this story I never heard from him again.

Carine's Fish Grotto. Great meals at this place over the years. Their Crab and shrimp Louie's were better than anything in San Francisco.

HOW I MET THE MAN, THE MYSTERY: DR. GEORGE ROSS

by Cat Spydell & Clarice Ross

I met my friend Clarice when we both attended California State University, Long Beach, in the early 90s. I was working on my Master’s in English Literature with Creative Writing Emphasis, and we were both connected to an erudite group called the Thursday Poets, a group of poets who met first to read poetry to one another on Thursday nights, and to later adjourn to a local bar called The Reno Room for more dastardly fun, where we hobnobbed with our professors who were at the time “Bukowski-adjacent.” Heady times, for sure.

By the time I was writing my poetry thesis, my then-husband Mike and I got an opportunity to move to a hippie shack in the redwoods in Comptche to turn it into a retirement home for his mom and step-dad, who owned it. We had no running water there, no electricity, no phone, and only an outhouse far down the hill that we had to politely share with the numerous shivery daddy longlegs arachnids that occupied it. We had a few friends who braved the 500 plus mile trip from LA, and Clarice, with two fellow poets from our tribe, was one of them. We all enjoyed our time visiting in the woods, a favorite pastime being to climb up on the roof of the cabin and stargaze, and the rite of passage staying at that house was to use the outdoor cold water can shower on the front porch. Those were freer times, for sure. Ah, youth!

Soon after that visit, Clarice moved to Paris, and after that, I birthed our son Kodiak in a different cabin in Comptche. Life changed and social media didn’t exist yet. Clarice and I lost touch. I eventually moved back to the LA area to raise my two kids, and Clarice, unbeknownst to me, returned from Europe to work at our alma mater, CSULB. We were living near one another, but never knew it.

Fast forward and in the mid-20-teens, Clarice and I discovered each other on Facebook through friends we had known in our college years. We reconnected, but even though we were close in proximity, never saw one another in person. I moved back to Mendocino County in 2019 and it was then that Clarice drove up from LA to visit me at my off-grid place in Philo that we call Dragonwood.

During her visit, Clarice and I became closer friends. We enjoyed our time together sightseeing, having lovely meals out, and sitting on the front porch in the evenings chatting and having deep discussions as we attempted to unravel some of the mysteries of life together.

Clarice and I talk every day online and have become one another’s “ride or die” type of friends — I stay with her when I visit the LA area, she visits here in Philo during the summers as a seasonal resident of sorts. We have met many places in between, from San Luis Obispo, Taft, Bakersfield, and Long Beach. One bonus of becoming so close with Clarice was becoming friendly with her parents. They are a lovely couple and have welcomed me into their home on more than one occasion. So when Clarice mentioned that her dad George was selling his business, Clarice and I decided to write an article about him. While both Clarice and I are writers, this is the first time we have collaborated on a project. We did it because we both think George is one interesting man. So that’s the back history about Clarice and I, and here’s the article we wrote together:

The Man, The Mystery: Dr. George Ross

by Cat Spydell & Clarice Ross

In January last year, you would have found him at the ski resort in Mammoth Mountain, hitting the slopes in a blizzard. This year, he is currently visiting Hawaii to scuba dive. Next summer, the Galapagos Islands.

Is this mystery man some James Bond type traveler of the world, hitting the slopes and sea and visiting remote islands in his quest to find a personal nirvana? No, he is, in fact, Dr. George G. Ross, a veterinarian from Taft, California, and he is celebrating his 88th birthday today.

He is a true California native, born in Salinas, while he grew up on the Central Coast in Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo, graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in animal husbandry, followed by Washington State University Veterinary School. He also has a Master’s degree in Nutrition. His love of animals led him to a profession of caring for them, and he has been influential in the community of Taft for his precise and thoughtful ways of helping residents’ pets in Kern County.

He married his wife, Joetta ‘Joey’ Ross in 1968. Between them they have five children, ten grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. They also have many nearby relatives and friends, and they live a full and busy life.

George and Joey live in Taft, where for the past 57 years George has owned and run the animal clinic, Taft Veterinary Hospital. George is well-known in Taft, and when he’s not busy at the office, he can be found not only on the slopes or in the sea, but also hiking or riding his bike, bird watching, visiting the Carrizo Plains, or just enjoying the little things in life. He has served as an active member of the Kern County Search and Rescue for over fifty years. Many years ago, he donated a 3D printer to the WSU Veterinary School, and they made some innovations in veterinary medicine due to his donation, and the subsequent research it made possible.

George has made a big decision recently, to sell his Taft Veterinary Hospital practice. And while he has been discussing it for a while, 2025 may be the year it becomes a reality.

Taft is a small town located in the southwest tip of the San Joaquin Valley. Nestled in the hills, it is the high desert, yet only 30 minutes away from Bakersfield. Many people still make the trip from Bakersfield to Taft to get appointments with Dr. Ross, the beloved small-town veterinarian. Taft is a two-hour drive away from Los Angeles or San Luis Obispo. While a single drive to Mammoth Mountain is possible, the Rosses generally stay a night in Bishop before climbing the mountain to their favorite Mammoth ski resort in the morning.

George’s lifestyle is definitely enviable. He enjoys a busy practice throughout the week, and his weekends are spent in various locales throughout the state, the country, and the world. George designed and built his own veterinary hospital in about 1980, after visiting a great number of friends’ vet hospitals across the state. It is thoughtfully well-designed for the comfort of the clients, and the pets. There are a lot of advantages to owning an entire veterinary hospital as a business, as opposed to working for a corporation as an employee.

George never seemed to see a reason to retire earlier. Being in extremely good health and sound mind, George just kept working while many of his friends around him did retire; although he is also the kind of person who has friends of all ages, which may be one of his secrets to remaining spry. George has used his lifelong love of nutrition to develop a healthy diet, as well as following a regimen of supplements, to stay so healthy.

So here’s to George, a very interesting man!

Authors’ Note: If you are interested in owning your own business as a veterinarian, or know someone who is interested, this opportunity may be the right fit for you. As George approaches his nineties, he is very proud of his legacy in the town of Taft, and his practice. He is simply looking for someone to carry on and, very likely, grow the already-bustling business, being run on IDEXX’s Cornerstone. There is a large amount of equipment in the hospital, so it would be easy in that sense to be up and running from day one. Contact the Taft Veterinary Hospital for more details!

I. D. E. S. DRILL TEAM, 1925 - 1933

Photograph of the Portuguese men's organization known as I. D. E. S. (Irmandade di Espirito Santo, Brotherhood of the Holy Ghost). In 1910 the membership roster noted there were 73 members. This organization had its own marching band and drill team, as shown in the photo.

They are standing on Main Street in Mendocino in front of Dr. Carl Vincent Whited's bungalow-style home, which houses Prentice Gallery today. Dr. Whited’s dental office is the building with the flat roof to the right (today’s Mendocino Chocolate Company). In 1924, these two buildings were constructed on the site of the old Alhambra Hotel by Dr. Whited’s father, Charles Whited, a builder and architect from Willits.

The long two-story building on the far right was built in the 1870s as a saloon. In 1912, William Heisel opened his shoe store in this building, which was then taken over at his death in 1913 by his brother, Joseph Heisel. The building was demolished in 1941 by owner Don Fenn. Homer and Lillian Drinkwater purchased this property in 1947 and hired Henry Canclini to build a grocery store that they ran until the early 1970s. Flow Restaurant now occupies the second floor of the Homer’s Market building.

(California Through Native Eyes by William J. Bauer. A compelling look at the state’s past told through the lens of its Indigenous peoples. A perfect gift for anyone interested in learning more about the profound impact of Native peoples on California’s identity, California Through Native Eyes provides a deeper understanding of the state’s landscape, people and traditions. $30. www.kelleyhousemuseum.org)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, December 16, 2024

DONALD BARSELL, 66, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

ERIC MCNEELAN, 55, Clearlake/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

CODY MENDEZ, 21, Ukiah. Under influence, probation revocation.

PETER SAARI, 61, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation.

PATRICK SCHUETZE, 53, Ukiah. Trespassing, disorderly conduct-lodging without owner’s consent, county parole violation.

SYDNEY SHACKMAN, 57. Ukiah. Petty theft, disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

EARL VOGT III, 43, Lucerne/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

REQUIEM

by Cristina Bauss

It came as no surprise to learn this week that The Independent, the scrappy little Garberville newspaper for which I was a staff writer for seven years, would cease publication. The news broke my heart but seemed inevitable; despite the Kirby family’s valiant efforts, the Indie will now join the ranks of more than 2,000 American newspapers that have folded in the last 20 years.

In the last few years I’ve given much thought to what’s important to me in a local paper. Robust local news coverage, not only of the if-it-bleeds-it-leads variety, but also monthly school-board and other governance meetings, features about local nonprofits, and interviews with local newsmakers. Dedicated business, sports, and arts & culture pages. Political coverage that includes not only the Board of Supervisors, but also in-depth analysis of goings-on in Sacramento—what’s being voted on, how it impacts Californians as a whole, and how it impacts people on the North Coast specifically. Investigative journalism, which seems, more and more, like a relic of the past.

No badly edited AP stories. No nationally syndicated columnists. No cartoons, unless they’re by local satirists. (Sue me.) No weekly weather report. They’re dated filler that readers will have seen elsewhere before they pick up a local paper.

Of course, I’m dating myself. I’m a creature of the twentieth century, and as such I still firmly believe in the importance of the local press to an informed electorate and functioning society. But this fantasy of a local newsscape doesn’t account for the financial realities of the newspaper business in a country where 70% of all advertising dollars are spent online. And it certainly doesn’t account for what happens in a rural community grappling with the loss of a once-booming black-market economy. What it does do is render me pensive about the future of communities where there’s no collective memory because there’s no one to record day-to-day events, no one to analyze them, no one to say “This matters.”

Since writing my last news story more than a decade ago, I’ve watched with increased horror as our country has become as deeply tribalized and polarized as it’s been in my lifetime. It’s profoundly ironic that we live in an age where more information is easily available than ever before, but in general our views of the world haven’t become more expansive. If anything, we’ve retreated into ever more specialized groupings and belief systems—groupings and belief systems greatly abetted by algorithms that give us more and more of what we “like” and “love” and quickly send us down narrower and narrower paths of the mind. For many people, what they consider community doesn’t comprise their neighbors. It comprises the online world, where lines are drawn in the ether as firmly and resolutely as they’re drawn on the battlefield.

To be clear: I don’t object to the wealth of news available in our time. I object to the paucity of local news, and the present-day tendency to separate ourselves into increasingly specialized “communities” that are nothing more than echo chambers. For people for whom community does comprise their neighbors—real, live human beings with whom they interact on a day-to-day basis—how do they function as such with little record of their past and scant knowledge of their present? We still have newspapers in Eureka and Arcata. But what happens to Southern Humboldt, and other places like it across the U.S.?

I have no answers to my own questions. I love my multiple newspaper, magazine, and Substack subscriptions, but feel woefully under-informed about many aspects of the place I’ve called home for more than ten years. This is no fault of our northern Humboldt newspapers and their stellar reporters; it’s simply that there aren’t enough of them—as, I’m certain, the advertising base doesn’t exist to support them. And if their lives are anything like mine was from 2004 to 2010, they always have the next story on their minds, all their vacations are working vacations, and there’s no such thing as standing in line at the grocery store without an interrogation from a well-meaning reader with little sense of others’ privacy or personal lives.

I stopped writing for the Indie during a very tumultuous time in my life. Having been a teenage mother, I returned to college—first CR, then HSU—and earned my B.A. in Geography at 46. I’ve now worked for the state since 2017. I have a good salary, an excellent retirement plan, a Roth IRA, and a college-savings plan for my granddaughter. I can afford vacations and am paying off my student loans. After living hand-to-mouth into my late 40s, working a wide variety of jobs from food service to radio to pencil pusher, it’s a relief to know that I won’t be destitute in old age.

And yet, I sometimes miss the writing and deadlines. I miss being a creative force, even in the nonfiction sense. I miss being part of a small community where my work was not only valued, it was valuable.

Correction: It is valuable. It’s part of the vital records of Southern Humboldt, more than 700 feature pieces usually written in the dead of night after everyone else had gone to bed. When I’m gone, if anyone outside my family or circle of friends cares to remember or mourn me it won’t be for being a cog in the machine. It’ll be for being a reporter. It’ll be for contributing to a community’s collective memory of a moment in time, a moment that will endure in the record and not only in the fading recollections of the aged. It’ll be because a small-town newspaper and everyone involved with it said, “This matters.”

ONE TREE IS THOUGHT TO BE MORE DANGEROUS IN CALIFORNIA STORMS. IS IT REALLY TRUE?

by Demian Bulwa & Claire Hao

As Tim Brown drove his pickup truck out of a Petaluma parking lot on Saturday amid intense rains and gusty winds, he noticed a giant eucalyptus tree starting to rock on its base. He accelerated hard. The tree fell with a boom, its upper branches striking the Ford.

Brown’s windshield was busted and his tailgate sheared off. But he was alive.

Popular lore holds that eucalyptus trees, which are not native to California, are especially prone to toppling. But experts say that many types of trees — not just eucalyptus — are vulnerable in wet and windy conditions, especially when the trees are stressed.

Taller trees with denser crowns tend to be more prone to collapse, said UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Joe McBride, who has specialized in urban forestry for more than 40 years. In urban areas, trees that have been planted without enough space to grow a root system, such as at the edge of a street, also fall more easily, McBride said.

Daily 311 Reports On Fallen Trees In San Francisco In November And December 2024

Some 311 reports may be for the same fallen tree

In the Bay Area, the trees that most commonly fall are oaks, eucalyptus, cypress and Monterey pines, said consulting arborist Kevin Hostert. That matches information from the Western Tree Failure Database, which collects data from professional tree managers largely from the Bay Area, said principal investigator Larry Costello.

Coast live oaks and Monterey pines are prone to fungal infection and root rot, and certain types of eucalyptus trees have “pretty shallow” roots, Hostert said. But Hostert and Costello emphasized that these species are not necessarily more dangerous — instead, more of them may fall simply because they are relatively common.

Eucalyptus trees are highly visible: They are commonly planted along major thoroughfares with power lines because they grow quickly, have relatively straight trunks and require “very low maintenance,” according to Scott Wheeler of Urban Arborist.

“There’s no real one species we can look at and say, ‘This is the problem child and the reason for all these issues.’ It’s happening to all different species of trees,” Wheeler said.

Some trees like sycamores, though, tend to collapse less often, Costello said. Redwoods, which often grow in a grove where they can interlace their roots and protect each other, also fall less, Wheeler said, but some — especially those that stand alone — can fall in storms.

Palm trees — more common in hurricane-prone Florida than the Bay Area — are “almost indestructible,” but that’s because they’re technically not true trees but in the same family as grass, Wheeler said. Unlike true trees, which have rings of wood, palm trees are “essentially a giant bundle of vascular fibrous tissue,” Wheeler said, making them more flexible and less likely to snap.

How To Spot Tree Hazards

There are warning signs that a tree may be prone to collapse: if it has shifted and there are cracks around the root base, or if it is now leaning, Wheeler said. Another sign is if there is a mound of soil where there wasn’t one before; that may be roots becoming unstable and tipping, McBride said.

Trees that have recently experienced change are also vulnerable, such as those on the edge of a new clear-cut or those next to recent construction, Hostert said. Costello and his team have a photographic guide to help homeowners recognize tree hazards.

Trees hate sudden change, Wheeler said. Years of drought can kill tree roots, reducing their frictional ties to the soil and impeding the general health of trees, McBride said. Drought followed by a barrage of storms that oversaturates the soil, with strong winds from directions the trees haven’t adapted to, are “a recipe for disaster,” Wheeler said.

“If you think of storms like wolf packs, they go for the sick, weak and wounded. It’s like culling the herd,” Wheeler said.

As weather whiplash becomes more common with climate change, Wheeler worries that the widespread treefalls could become “the new normal,” even for trees that have survived for over a century.

(SF Chronicle)

Ed note: I only ate there a couple of times because of this guy. Lots of people thought he was funny. Maybe, but if you were there to eat, he was an endurance.

CALIFORNIA KING TIDES FLOOD SMALL TOWN RESTAURANT, WHICH STILL OPENS ANYWAY

by Matt LaFever

When Avishai Leibson opened his falafel restaurant in the Humboldt County village of King Salmon six months ago, he didn’t quite understand why people kept asking, “Why the f—k would you go there?” Then the floods came.

King Salmon is a unique fishing community lined with canals on Humboldt Bay. This past weekend, a surge of seawater propelled by a powerful storm system, southerly winds and a king tide pushed into Leibson’s seaside falafel hut, bringing nearly a foot of water into the restaurant. In a video posted on Instagram, Leibson jokingly captured the grind of his day-to-day when a friend kayaked to the front door and asked, “You guys open today?” Leibson’s response? “Yeah, we’ll open around noon. You know, just another day at Falafelove.”

Leibson, 38, came to Humboldt County during the Green Rush in 2012 as a cannabis trimmer and never left. But as a single dad, he needed a stable income, and if there was anything he knew how to make, it was a good falafel.

“It’s probably the only thing I’m good at,” Leibson said. With his restaurant open only four days a week — Thursday through Sunday — he needs to make every opening day work. If he’s lucky, he said, “I’ll make $300 in a day. So I have to be open.”

So, a couple hours after the floodwaters receded on Saturday, Leibson was back at work, serving falafel to hungry customers.

Despite the risk of flooding, Leibson has adapted to his environment. “Everything in my restaurant is lifted,” he said. “All my refrigerators. Everything, like my stove.” The extra height makes kitchen prep uncomfortable, Leibson explained, having to “chop on the chopping block” that is about 6 inches taller than standard counters.

National Weather Service meteorologist Tyler Jewel told SFGate that King Salmon is barely above the highest astronomical tide level for the region, which is around 8.8 feet as measured near the Coast Guard station on the opposite side of Humboldt Bay from King Salmon.

“Areas that are just a little bit over that tend to be the most impacted by king tides,” Jewel said. “When we get a king tide nearing that 8.8 feet and then we’ve got some sort of extra water on top of that, such as a storm surge or southerly winds, those areas at around 9 feet of elevation will get inundated.”

Jewel explained that Saturday’s flooding was caused by a reported max tide height of just over 9 feet, recorded around 11 a.m. “That was when that restaurant flooded,” he said.

“Even though the highest astronomical tide we usually expect is around 8.8 feet. You need more than that — something like a southerly push — to really start affecting areas like King Salmon,” Jewel explained.

Despite his restaurant’s flood, Leibson remains positive. “What are you going to do, you know?” Leibson said. “We bend, we don’t break. When life gives you lemons, preserve them. That’s what I do.” Through it all, Leibson’s dedication to his craft and community resilience shines through, making his restaurant not just a place to get a meal but a symbol of survival in the face of adversity. As Leibson summed it up: “It’ll dry out, and business will keep going.”

(SFGate)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSS MACDONALD

Born Kenneth Millar, 1915, Los Gatos. He began his career in the pulps writing as Millar, but as his wife, Margaret Millar, became popular, he began writing as John Ross MacDonald. When John D. MacDonald became popular, he made the ultimate change to Ross MacDonald. A writer's writer, his books are literary private eye novels. He was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1974. For those of us in Ann Arbor, we can claim him as a Michigan alum, and one of his early novels, The Dark Tunnel, was set on the Michigan campus.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Years ago I drove from a little Delta town to Sacramento on weekends. It’s amazing to see the planes line up out over the Sierra Mountains all the way to Sacramento airport at night. I’m guessing they turn their lights on early to find the way to Sacramento.

AFTER MWD VOTE, DELTA COUNTIES COALITION VOWS TO CONTINUE ITS FIGHT AGAINST THE DELTA TUNNEL

by Dan Bacher

On Dec. 10, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Board approved $141.6 million in additional funding for the Delta Conveyance Project, despite opposition by a broad coalition of California Tribes, fishing groups, conservation organizations, environmental justice organizations, family farmers, Southern California ratepayers and elected officials. …

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/13/2291761/-After-MWD-vote-Delta-Counties-Coalition-vows-to-continue-its-fight-against-the-Delta-Tunnel

BILL KIMBERLIN

This is the Stone Age Institute in Bloomington, Indiana. Instead of having the busts of the great men of history, we display the most important skull finds of our ancient ancestors. Tomorrow I am going to San Francisco to a Institute dinner where a lecture will be given by the two lead paleoanthropologists discussing their latest work/findings.

I am expecting that the talk will cover the core drilling that took place in late 2014 at selected locations across Olduvai Gorge, resulting in cores that reached a depth of 245 meters (over 800 feet). These cores more than double the previously known stratigraphic history for the gorge deposits, and provide an invaluable record of climate and environment from recent times back to 2.4 million years ago.

ATTN POSTMODERN CONTACTS

Comfortable on a guest computer at the MLK public library in Washington, D.C. at the moment. Non-attached. Nothing planned. No yesterday, no tomorrow, no today. Am accepting all spiritually based direct action offers. Will consider. Talk to me. You need this!

Craig Louis Stehr, craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

KENNEDY’S WAR ON CORN SYRUP BRINGS A HEALTH CRUSADE TO TRUMP COUNTRY

When Donald J. Trump said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could “go wild” on health, he might not have expected his pick for health secretary doing battle against the president-elect’s own voters.

by Jonathan Weisman

The Archer Daniels Midland wet mill on the outskirts of Decatur, Ill., rises like an industrial behemoth from the frozen, harvested cornfields of Central Illinois. Steam billowed in the 20-degree cold last week, as workers turned raw corn into sweet, ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup. Three miles away, a Primient mill, which sprawls across 400 acres divided by North 22nd Street, was doing the same.

To Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, this bedraggled city — set deep in Trump country — is the belly of the agribusiness beast, churning out products that he says poison America, rendering its children obese and its citizens chronically ill.

To the workers here, those mills — the largest in the world — are their livelihoods.

“It’d have a huge impact,” a 37-year-old electrician who would identify himself by only his first name, Tyler, said of Mr. Kennedy’s declaration of war on corn syrup and corn oil. He was grabbing lunch at Debbie’s Diner in the shadow of the mills. “That shuts down Central Illinois, if A.D.M. shuts down.”

Mr. Trump’s alliance with Mr. Kennedy during the presidential campaign was the ultimate marriage of convenience, uniting a right-wing populist presidential candidate with a scion of the nation’s most famous Democratic family, whose appeal to would-be Trump voters rested mainly with his conspiracy theories on Covid-19 and vaccines. Mr. Kennedy said at the time that Mr. Trump had promised him control of the nation’s public health agencies.

Mr. Kennedy’s other track record — on environmental protection and an abiding hatred of America’s unhealthy diet — may have been less of a draw to the fast-food-loving, regulation-hating Mr. Trump, but the former and future president said he would keep Mr. Kennedy’s environmentalism in check while letting him “go wild” on health.

Then Mr. Trump nominated him to head the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services, which has partial purview over America’s diet through a powerful subsidiary, the Food and Drug Administration, and enormous influence on health through its control of Medicare and Medicaid.

Now a brewing battle over corn syrup and vegetable oils is raising the prospect of a fight between Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Trump’s own voters in farm country.

“I may have to spend a lot of time educating him about agriculture,” Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, the largest corn-growing state, just ahead of Illinois, said of Mr. Kennedy last month. “I’m willing to do that.”

Mr. Kennedy’s critique is broad and deep. Generous federal crop subsidies of soy, corn and wheat artificially lower their costs, making byproducts like corn syrup cheaper for manufacturers who put it into everything from soft drinks to hot dogs to heavily processed bread. Crop engineering has made American grains more resilient to drought and pests but rendered them “nutrient barren,” he says, and farming practices have loaded grains with pesticides.

High-fructose corn syrup “is just a formula for making you obese and diabetic,” he has said in promotional videos, often pinning blame for the state of American grain production on Democrats and promising to “immediately” take processed foods out of the school lunch program and ban food stamps from being used to buy processed foods and sweet drinks.

In fact, his most vocal allies on the issue come from the left. Michael R. Bloomberg, the former independent mayor of New York and Democratic donor, waged his own unsuccessful war on corn-syrup-laden soft drinks. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the Senate’s most left-wing member who leads the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, pressed the leaders of the F.D.A. at a hearing to label sugary processed food and drink as unhealthy and to restrict advertising of such products.

“For decades, Congress and the F.D.A. have allowed large corporations to make huge profits by enticing children and adults to consume ultra-processed food and beverages loaded up with sugar, salt and saturated fat,” he said, sounding very much like Mr. Kennedy. “None of this is happening by accident.”

But corn country is Trump country, and any concern about Mr. Kennedy is muted. Decatur’s mills operate around the clock and employ around 4,400 workers and contractors, but their economic power is much broader than that. At harvest season, farmers ship their corn from all over the Midwest, on trucks, rail cars and barges, lining up for miles. Electricians, pipe fitters and truck drivers service the mills year round.

The Biden administration’s economic support for the region may be obvious all over Central Illinois, from the spinning wind turbines underwritten by generous renewable energy tax credits to the Rivian auto plant in Normal, Ill., churning out electric pickup trucks and vans whose high price tags are offset by consumer tax breaks.

But Decatur’s Macon County gave Mr. Trump 59 percent of its votes in a state where 55 percent sided with Vice President Kamala Harris. Neighboring DeWitt County gave Mr. Trump 71 percent.

If anything, the economic concerns are being voiced mainly by the few Democrats in office in the area. Representative Nikki Budzinski, a Democrat whose district includes downtown Decatur and the A.D.M. wet mill, allowed that the interests of farmers and workers needed to be balanced with health concerns. But with Mr. Trump threatening tariffs on U.S. corn markets like China and Mexico, she worried that retaliatory tariffs by trading partners will do serious harm to the mills that are the “economic engine” of the region. An attack on corn syrup would only worsen a bad situation.

Mr. Kennedy “is going to go through the advice and consent process,” she said. “I would hope that the Senate will take that seriously.”

Rodney M. Weinzierl, the executive director of the Illinois Corn Growers Association in nearby Bloomington, Ill., said corn farmers were actually in a buoyant mood, more optimistic that the Trump administration will soften regulations on pesticides, herbicides and endangered species protection than concerned about Mr. Kennedy.

That doesn’t mean Mr. Weinzierl isn’t worried. Fights over high-fructose corn syrup have come and gone since the 1980s as agriculture lobbyists have fought bureaucrats in the F.D.A. and Agriculture Department. But no one has experienced doing battle with a cabinet secretary, let alone one with Mr. Kennedy’s zeal.

“We don’t know what it’s like to have a secretary that’s trying to drive the debate,” he said in a conference room nicknamed the corn crib. “Anything that causes uncertainty, you start paying more attention to it.”

An all-purpose refrain in the Midwest to parry critics of corn syrup is “sugar is sugar,” a dismissal of those like Mr. Kennedy who think sweeteners extracted from sugar cane would be healthier than sweeteners refined from corn. But there is an “America First” element to it: Much of America’s cane sugar is imported, from countries like Brazil, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, while American corn is a major export crop.

And the corn economy is in a precarious state. Corn harvests are setting records, but demand is not keeping up, especially as Brazilian farmers increase their competitiveness. That has sent corn prices plunging. Farmers are working harder, reaping more and earning less.

High-fructose corn syrup might absorb only about 4 percent of the nation’s corn crop, but any decline in demand — or even a threat of decline — when yields rise each year will depress prices further, hollow out rural America and force the consolidation of farms into ever bigger behemoths, Mr. Weinzierl said.

“A little change in supply or demand has a larger impact than you think it would,” he cautioned. “Abrupt change is a huge issue in the rural economy. We need demand.”

Voters in the farm belt continue to show a deep trust in Mr. Trump, regardless of the impact of his actual policies. At Debbie’s Diner in Decatur, a dozen workers expressed opinions ranging from full-throated support for Mr. Kennedy’s campaign to “make America healthy again” to confidence that the incoming president would protect them from any adverse impacts. Few were particularly worried about their jobs in the short run.

The mills, after all, don’t just make corn syrup. They turn corn into cornstarch, ethanol and livestock feed as well.

“It’d be impacted,” said one mill worker who refused to be named, “but they produce so many other products.”

“Elon will figure it out,” his friend said, referring to Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump adviser.

That faith could insulate Mr. Trump from any potential blowback and help Mr. Kennedy carry out his designs, if he can survive his confirmation process. Earlier this year, a detailed study of the impacts of Mr. Trump’s tariffs during his first term found that the levies had failed to increase the number of jobs in the affected industries, as promised.

But people living in areas most affected by the tariffs — particularly the Midwest and around the Great Lakes — still became more likely to vote for Mr. Trump and less likely to identify as Democrats.

Americans, the study found, are drawn to action, regardless of consequence.

Buying a refrigerator at the Crowley-Milner department store in Detroit, Michigan, 1941. Priced at $127.75 during that time.

KETANJI BROWN JACKSON GOES BROADWAY

Why choose tragic love, when self-aggrandizement is still an option? The Supreme Court Justice acts out the answer in a cheery agitprop romp

by Matt Taibbi

From NPR today:

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made her Broadway debut this weekend. She also made history as the first member of the nation’s highest court to grace its storied stage, according to the production that invited her.

Jackson appeared in a one-night-only walk-on role on Saturday night in the Tony-nominated romantic comedy musical “& Juliet,” a modern take on Shakespeare's tragedy that imagines what would have happened if the female protagonist survived and took control of her own life.

If you’ve been on social media today, you’ve probably seen the clip: Justice Brown Jackson in the clip looks like she’s just having fun. Who can hate that? If I reached the high court I’d ask to play drums for Weird Al. I certainly can’t hate a gay Romeo and Juliet (it’s Broadway!) or even a trans one. As Kurt Vonnegut once said about critics, it’d be like putting on a suit of armor to attack a hot fudge sundae. Why bother?

But the clip didn’t tell us much about the context of Brown Jackson’s lines, so I looked it up. OH MY GOD. If Pol Pot spoofed Jesus Christ Superstar it wouldn’t reach this universe of unintentional comedy. ‘& Juliet’ is the ultimate in woke art: a campy satire where the cast spends spends two and a half hours leaping in costumed joy while they retroactively cancel that infamous heteronormative icon, William Shakespeare.

Future audiences will either cherish this musical or be baffled by it, maybe both, but Brown Jackson just did humanity a great service by giving it a chance at immortality. I know there are more serious matters in the world today (including rumors of a loose nuke under my house), and I get the original release was two years ago, but ‘& Juliet’ is too funny…

https://www.racket.news/p/ketanji-brown-jackson-goes-broadway

SANTA, PLEASE BRING ME A WAR FOR CHRISTMAS

by James Kunstler

“Understand this deeply—you nearly lost your country and your freedom to a deranged, totalitarian-leaning enemy of our nation's soul and destiny. Take this personally.” — Mel K

So, you expected “Joe Biden” to serve up a neat little Christmas-time World War Three, lobbing ATACMS into Russia and all, but instead, surprise surprise, you got The War of the Worlds: mysterious drones hovering on-high over the endless muffler shops, manicure parlors, mafia palazzos, and mosques of New Jersey. But there seems to be more to this than, say, the stunt that Orson Welles pulled in 1938, scaring a few rubes over the radio. This ain’t no foolin’ around.

It’s been going on for weeks. And not just in New Jersey. But around New York City, up the Hudson River Valley above Stewart Airport, over in Massachusetts, down in Pennsylvania, and out in Ohio in the vicinity of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton Ohio. Howls of “WTF” echo all over the cable news channels. The US government — that is, the twilighting “Joe Biden” admin — plays dumb.

Alejandro Mayorkas, our unimpeachably frank Homeland Security chief told ABC-News on Sunday “that there’s no question that drones are being sighted.” I’m sure that told you a lot. He went on to explain that the FAA changed its rules last year allowing drones to fly at night. Are we to suppose that avid US drone-owners waited until the very last month of this year to start flying their pet aircraft after dark? Pentagon spox John Kirby, added helpfully at a news conference that federal investigators had been “unable to corroborate reports of any unauthorized drones above New Jersey.” (Translation: DARPA and other Pentagon ops are too busy figuring out new ways to surveil and kill you to bother with these drone swarms.)

Theories abound and multiply. One is that these are US Govt drones seeking signals of radioactivity emanating from a nuclear bomb supposedly purloined out of Ukraine’s old Soviet arsenal — and possibly stashed in a shipping container or some-such other hidey-hole along our east coast. It’s a good story. It’s rumored that some-60 Uke nukes from that era have gone missing in the decades since. Of course, the theoretical owner of such a device would have to be pretty dumb to not stash his nuke in a lead-shielded casket to prevent detection. In the meantime, what else can be said or done? Standing by on that mushroom cloud. . . .

Blogger / Author and former White House stenographer (2002 – 2018) Mike McCormick had a neat theory: that shipping interests were testing drone deliveries of imported goods from offshore in an attempt to work-around the longshoreman’s union contract negotiations currently underway. The union has been fighting against automation that would eliminate the good-paying jobs of 85,000 dock-workers. Any takers on that one?

Of course, it’s difficult to swallow the govt’s statements that, basically, they dunno nuffins ‘bout no drones. There are enough of them flying over enough varied terrain that surely the USAF could find a way to shoot one down over a cow pasture in, say, Orange County, New York. I’m frankly a little surprised that some enterprising civilian marksman hasn’t popped off a few 7mm Remington mag loads into the hovering lights. At least they haven’t said it’s Santa Claus testing a new high-tech delivery system that would put his old-timey sleigh-and-reindeer out of business.

The theory I lean toward is the notion that “Joe Biden” (meaning the DC blob) is desperately seeking some way to obstruct or fend-off the January 20th inauguration of Mr. Trump. Because, well, to put it bluntly, a whole lot of blobistas are worried about going to jail when the likes of Kash Patel, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi-G, and Pam Bondi get their mitts on the levers of power and start opening up the files. They’ve got thirty-five days to… to do something! (Somebody, please do something!)

There was a lot of chatter all year long about a coming space alien emergency. I know, sounds preposterous, and even more so when you consider that the military arm of the blob would be so dumb as to try to pass off drones as alien spacecrafts — like something out of a 1950s horror movie when the “special effects” had to be done with puppets and balsa-wood models flying on wires. Maybe it’s actually come to that in this super dumbed-down age. (Are you aware that the main diminishing return of our magical computer tech is that it’s made our society an order-of-magnitude dumber across the board? Well, it has.)

The situation remains fluid, with ongoing investigations and public discourse about the implications and origins of these drone activities. The FBI is on-the-case (so never fear!) along with Mr. Mayorkas and his outfit, and maybe even the US military. Chill. They got this — as Hollywood loves to say. Go shopping. Have a goshdarn eggnog. Shut up.

LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT

Zakir Hussain, Tabla Virtuoso Who Fused Musical Traditions, Dies at 73

German Government Collapses at a Perilous Time for Europe

Bomb Kills General Who Led Russia’s Nuclear Defense Force

Judge Denies Trump’s Bid to Throw Out Conviction Over Immunity Ruling

What We Know About the Madison School Shooting

SPECIES DISGUST

Editor,

I feel we've been circling the drain for months and now are being rinsed down the plughole. Hello, darkness, my old friend. I'm nauseous and have difficulty breathing. If I looked in the mirror — which I do often these days, purely as a function of disbelief, because I feel I no longer exist — I fancy I would see Ford Madox Ford, a soup-strainer mustache and the appearance of a boiled egg in his mouth, but actually only a gasp because “mustard gassed voiceless some seven miles behind the lines at Nancy or Belleau Wood.” As the poet said. Preserve my words, preserve my words. The wantonness and wickedness of it. I'm sorry for the rest of the world for having something as rancid and pampered and apparently resistless as America in it. Who ever thought male suffrage was a good idea? Come on in, the water's boiling in this reddened and ever redder and reddening state. Not much meat on these snow crab legs, but you'll enjoy the crack of your tax cut. Or is it the vertebra of the last surviving trade unionist? It says in our new constitution we're allowed to hunt and fish. Well, halle-fucking-lujah. And $2 a gallon gas a birthright in perpetuity. If only it were some small and out of the way place. Make Armorica Great Again. Make Armorica Great Again. Make Armorica Great Again. But no, this is that shining city, and that last best hope. Gone, all gone. Stick a fork in it. There is only money, barefaced lies, and evil intentions. The playground inversion of everything. You're the fascist, you're the racist, you're the one threatening me with violence. It's no consolation, but this country will not know what hit it, and first the low-information electors with their red caps for brains. No overstatement is possible. I feel species disgust. Of course, impetuous. Of course, poet and fine frenzy and all that. Of course, nonsense and hysteria. Oligarchopolis, here we come. Yes, we only live in it. It's yours, and don't I know it. How can one not see through something so threadbare, so self-serving, so randomly and contemptuously thrown out by the self-adoring crooner. The oligarchs enter the ark two by two, as once the animals. The T because he faces both ways on every issue. Heads I win, tails you lose. Words without consequences. But they'll do for a brand. Mine on my forehead, please.

Michael Hofmann

Vancouver, Washington

THE NEW JERSEY DRONE FLAP: WHY NONE OF THE EXPLANATIONS ARE ACCEPTABLE

by Kathleen Wallace

The military expenditures for the US every year come in at around $820 billion, not counting the VA and retirees. I won’t lie and say I truly understand that number or can grasp all of the outlying entities that also have their own budgets. The true number of dollars being used to augment the military industrial complex health is beyond what I can fathom. At some point, the numbers become ludicrous, like counting grains of sand. The one thing you can take away from this is that we obviously aren’t getting our money’s worth. Of course, that’s because the “we” I’m speaking of, the US citizens, aren’t the ones this money is being used to protect or advance.

I’m going to bring up one of the weirder news stories currently making the rounds, that of the New Jersey drone sightings. And really not just New Jersey, but evidently other regions as well. They seem to have extended to Staten Island and are even being reported in various sites worldwide. It is difficult to know if there is truly an uptick in sightings such as this elsewhere, or if the knowledge of the New Jersey sightings is making people look up from their phones long enough to see objects that were there prior. We are now in the part of the news cycle on this story where, barring an enormous escalation that is undeniable, it will be difficult to parse out the true phenomenon.

But in case you haven’t been keeping up, since mid November, there have been multiple sightings of what are being called drones in the New Jersey area. Every night like clockwork, the lights show up, oddly described in ways that just don’t quite make sense. Almost like the uncanny valley effect–the drones exhibit lights that seem to be like known objects in the air (helicopters and airplanes) but are not quite right—just a bit off. Some individuals have used the apps that show current flight-paths and have been able to see that objects in front of them aren’t showing as normal registered air traffic (which can be seen on these apps, they are actually pretty amazing to be able to see flight paths in real time). So, what we have is a mystery in the setting of ample ability to fake video. All of this is paired with very reputable and numerous observers seeing things often described as car sized flying objects. Definitely larger than the traditional drone. Some indication has even been put out there that the objects are not showing the expected “heat signature” one would expect from any moving device and a feature that one would be able to use to track these items. Bizarre is putting it mildly.

Mayors and lower-level law enforcement seem to be slightly enraged because if this is an explainable event by some in our government, they are certainly being left out of the loop. To have throngs of constituents asking for answers and to be able to give none– well that would certainly make mayors and law enforcement feel idiotic and toothless. It is clear that lower-level officials do not know what is going on as evidenced by the frustration being exhibited by these individuals in multiple press conferences.

The information from the executive branch hasn’t been forthcoming with much in the way of answers either, except to indicate in a lot of cases, these are misidentified planes (which once again, flies in the face of those using flight path apps during witnessing these things and noting their absence on said apps).

Even if 75% of the sightings are now something prosaic, the sheer number of witnesses and the very inexplicable nature of the sightings does not lead one to believe this is some sort of mass hysteria. That is gas-lighting of the worst order, to tell someone that they aren’t seeing what they are truly seeing. I know I reference gas-lighting often, but I do think the term describes so much of the disinformation coming our way from every angle in our current space. I just don’t have a better way to describe it.

Which brings me full circle to that military expenditure. We are left with a few options: One being that this is a foreign actor flexing and seemingly we are not able to do anything about it. This seems quite odd in light of the drama from the Chinese balloons we have seen in years past. We certainly have a shoot first and ask questions later type of government in most arenas. We are to believe they are showing patience due to being in heavily populated areas? The government I’ve seen wouldn’t care a bit. They would be shooting these down immediately. Didn’t some school aviation group balloon get shot down during that last flap? We are to believe hundreds of these things are free to float about New Jersey at will? So these options seem very unlikely. Also, with those kinds of dollars being spent in the military, we don’t have some earmarked to protect citizens from weird objects invading their airspace? That makes absolutely no sense.

So, we consider …. this is what I would consider to be the most likely……it’s our own government. But to what end? Why on earth if it is testing new equipment would it be done in such a populated area? And why is there such a stunning variety of objects being seen? I know direct witness testimony can be wonky, but the sheer volume of individuals seeing these things makes it pretty clear that there is some variety in the nature of these objects.

Some have posited that there is some kind of full-scale search mission going on that the nature of such can’t be released due to mass panic potential. Well….maybe, but again, why just at night–is this to avoid clear viewing of these objects? They do have lights which have been reported by officials as simply “going dark” when observation becomes too intense. Again,this is another possibility that is unsatisfying rationally. If it is our own government– this is what they do with all that cash? Terrorize citizens already terrorized by being citizens of New Jersey? Sorry, that wasn’t fair. I’ve never even been there—parts of it actually look lovely. If you don’t mind freaky drone swarms every night.

One other option… Yeah, you see where I’m going. Something we can’t explain or fight against because it’s not “us.” This one is a little harder to accept. I would love for the universe to be larger and more exciting than our day to day, but if so… .truly what the hell? Is non-human intelligence just as dumb as we are? Drones that look like our drones, but off just a bit? Swarms that seem to be giving a message, but not a clear one? If these are the “aliens” I will be very depressed because this is some shady and unclear messaging for sure. It would be like that kid who liked you in first period and showed it by pulling your hair or blurting out a couple words and running off. It doesn’t seem to be elevated behavior.

I love to hike around the odder regions of Reddit. Yes, I enjoy reading some of the areas that deal with unexplained phenomena. I will admit it. I think the most wonderful thing I’ve ever read was in one of these back alleys of Reddit in regard to the drones. Some guy in Jersey said that he had one of these things directly above him, close enough to shoot down. He didn’t go that path, but did want to register his disgust with their behavior—whatever is causing it. He had just finished dinner and was taking out the garbage, so he was able to reach into the garbage sack and pull out a corn cob, which he proceeded to throw at the drone. He missed and chucked a second one in its direction. Many responded in the post, questioning if this is an alien intelligence, would this be considered our first act of aggression? Are we at war now because of the corn cob assault? I think this would make sense for our species to go out this way. Monkeys throwing corncobs.

But I’ll back away from the Ft. Sumter type implications of the corn cob assault.

There is one more possibility that extends back to the government angle…. Could this be one faction showing what they can do against the more mainstream regions of government? Again, pretty wild brainstorming with no satisfying solution. This theory feels too Q-Anon adjacent.

One must also take into the context of this that a very similar drone situation was occurring in 2019 and early 2020 in Colorado. This was in the news; I remember hearing about it, but something happened in spring of 2020 with so much noise that it drowned out these drones. Yeah, Covid kind of stole the drones’ thunder and that story just faded. But it’s important to realize that this seems to have happened before, not to this extent or in such populated areas, but still… it happened.

So, for the tidy price of $820 billion, we can have our skies inundated with mysterious weirdo drones and we have representatives of our government shrugging. What a wonderful return on investment we get for our tax dollars. No answers, at least not for us. I know a lot of people said, “this is the bad timeline” in response to Trump winning and all of the other mayhem in the world, but maybe we are just in the “weird timeline.” So of course, we need to go pro. I for one, will welcome the alien overlords and I vow in this public manner to throw no corncobs.

(Kathleen Wallace writes out of the US Midwest. Her writing is collected on her Substack page. (CounterPunch.org.))

NIRVANA

by Charles Bukowski

Not much chance,
Completely cut loose from purpose,
He was a young man riding a bus
Through North Carolina on the way to somewhere,
And it began to snow,
And the bus stopped at a little cafe in the hills,
And the passengers entered.

He sat at the counter with the others,
He ordered, and the food arrived.
The meal was particularly good,
And the coffee.
The waitress was unlike the women he had known.
She was unaffected; there was a natural humor which came from her.
The fry cook said crazy things, the dishwasher in the back
Laughed, a good, clean, pleasant laugh.

The young man watched the snow through the windows.
He wanted to stay in that cafe forever.
The curious feeling swam through him
That everything was beautiful there, that it would always stay beautiful there.

Then the bus driver told the passengers that it was time to board.
The young man thought, "I'll just sit here, I'll just stay here."
But then he rose and followed the others into the bus.
He found his seat and looked at the cafe through the bus window.

Then the bus moved off, down a curve, downward, out of the hills.
The young man looked straight forward.
He heard the other passengers speaking of other things,
Or they were reading or attempting to sleep.
They had not noticed the magic.

The young man put his head to one side, closed his eyes, pretended to sleep.
There was nothing else to do—just to listen to the sound of the engine,
The sound of the tires in the snow.

Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo on the set of "Une femme est une femme", 1961. (photo by Raymond Cauchetier)

45 Comments

Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024

The long December 14th update at the National UFO Reporting Center, at https://nuforc.org , examines in detail features of this ongoing drone mystery. The last causative option mentioned by Kathleen Wallace in her piece reposted in today’s MCT, is actually a viable option!

The incursions over sensitive military sites of many nations might be a clue to answering “why”.

Reply
- McEwen Bruce December 17, 2024
  
  Jeez… of all the theories about the drones why does no one mention of the most obvious? I mean the US has pushed past several ‘bright red lines’ set by Putin, and our military bases near populated centers being an nuclear enemy’s most likely targets for a first strike, preemptive, that is, why of course the drones are some kind of Iron Dome-type missile defense system hoping to defend against a Russian or Chinese attack. Add to this Trump’s comment that he was going to set up an Iron Dome, and the puzzle starts to come together. Remember Caitlin Johnstone’s comment on how the Democrats often set up something then the Republicans get in office and kick it through? Well the military has wanted something like this since Reagan’s day when the project was referred to as ‘Star Wars’ . Now of course we have a Space Force that has been working on the project in recent years. And it is essential for them so they can get on with testing a real honest to god thermal/nuclear war. So this project will be the work of both parties and each can blame the other for it the same way the gov has set up so many awful bipartisan disasters, resulting in the mess we’re stuck with today. To forestall public panic none of this can be mentioned so you get all these vapid guesses from stonewalling gov.officials snx spokesmen.
  
  Reply
  - Bob Abeles December 17, 2024
    
    It’s hard to tell what’s going on when the entire info-sphere is flooded with conjecture posing as fact. My very own home made conjecture is that this particular story has managed to make the jump from viral in social media to viral in the real world. Every man boy on social media now thinks flying a drone in or near restricted airspace is a great way to “stir things up”, and a few idiots among them who happen to own a drone just go ahead and do it. Sightings get reported, the on-line “explanations” get more and more interesting, more idiots decide they will pitch in, and the cycle goes from stir to spin.
    
    Reply
    - McEwen Bruce December 17, 2024
      
      I suppose you’re right. Our kindly and obliging military would never swat down a civilian gadfly buzzing around their top-secret bases and dispatch a squad of Homeland Security agents to the owner’s door for an interrogation, would they? No-no, I was totally overreacting, seditiously inciting undue alarm.Sorry. Now, if I may be excused, I’ll get up off my knees and go wash the dishes.
      
      Reply
      - Bob Abeles December 17, 2024
        
        Not agreeing or disagreeing with you or any of the other posters out there. My conjecture is as beautiful and deserving of attention as anyone else’s. Maybe that could be a constitutional amendment?
        
        What attracts me to this story is this new phenomenon: Seeing the virtual world interact with the real and observing the consequences. It’s full of the unexpected surprises which keeps things, well, interesting. In some sick way, a part of me is enjoying watching the traffic on the intertubes on its way from mass delusion to mass hysteria.
        
        Reply
        
        Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
        
        Hysteria and misidentifications are absolutely part of this in fact. I mean, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan misidentified the collection of stars we call the Orion constellation. Alot of people also are seeing and noticing conventional traffic around airports and seeing planes with bright landing lights, which may seem like hovering motherships when the plane is heading TOWARDS, head on, to an observer.
        
        When people start looking up out of curiosity after normally rarely doing so, they will be prone to misidentifying. 90% of cases going to the National Reporting Center are misidentifications.
        
        Reply
        
        McEwen Bruce December 17, 2024
        
        Aye, Bob, and I hope to see you at the IMAX on 4th St in SF on Christmas Day for the premier of the new Dylan docudrama staring that fellow who played Prince Hal in The King, Timothy Calumet …?
        
        Reply
  - Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
    
    There are spheres and large triangles and rectangular craft in the mix. The number of states is growing.
    The December 7th reporting from several airlines of a reddish sphere spiraling back and forth from high altitude to off the ocean off the Oregon coast is one incident among others that provides a suggestive context for the very advanced drone activity. The audio from pilots is surprising.
    The different observed features listed at https://nuforc.org seem to point to a lot of anomalous factors. The 13 craft tagging along with the coast guard off the Jersey coast or the 50 craft observed coming in from the ocean suggest an origin point in or on the sea.
    Interestingly, not only Mayors and former Governors are reporting drones hovering above their homes (notably including Chris Christie), so are FBI agents assigned to investigate.
    So many high strangeness elements exist, including interference with electronics in cars, that fashioning a hypothesis can lead to going in interesting directions.
    Yours is an interesting hypothesis. Actually hadn’t seen it yet, till now.
    Some remote viewers (a likely still classified tool used by the IC) are weighing in. If their discernings are accurate (they didn’t know the assigned viewing target, just numbers), then this is an emerging/messaging operation by “non human intelligences”
    
    Reply
    - Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
      
      Given the number, nature, and functioning capacities of these drones, there’s no way it’s Russia. The Chinese, otoh, aren’t as financially strapped as Russia, and has made advances in drone tech, and owns a lot of land in America, including farm land. They would be a more likely suspect than Russia….despite the logical tie in to our escalating move recently (approving long range middle strikes).
      
      Reply
    - McEwen Bruce December 17, 2024
      
      Well now, Mike, you and Bob are my good friends but I remain impudently obtuse, I guess, in refusing to accept either yours or his —both very compelling arguments — contradicting my conspiracy theory.
      
      Reply
      - Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
        
        I’m not going to come to any firm conclusion on this. Without a ton more documented and confirmed facts to look at. A sage named Tilopa a thousand years ago offered a concise list of advice. One item was “don’t imagine” (presumably beyond creative or artistic efforts).
        
        Probably the leading hypothesis adopted on social media is somewhat similar to yours: there’s drones trying to sniff out a loose nuke warhead that’s been smuggled in.
        
        Reply
        
        Brian Wood December 17, 2024
        
        The drone phenomena are very likely caused by suggestion. People are looking up at the night sky that don’t normally do so because of the reports. They see things they don’t understand because it’s hard to tell what you’re seeing in a dark sky. Hard to gauge position, size, speed. It’s very likely common aircraft doing common things. This phenomena caused by suggestion is related to what’s known as public hysteria. Look up “Mass panic cases” in Wikipedia for examples. Another recent likely mass hysteria incident is the so called Havana Syndrome. The news media and social media play a large part in promulgating these.
        
        On the other hand… it could be aliens!
        
        Reply
        
        Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
        
        Your point is also what I expressed to Bob. What you say is a definite part of all this.
        
        Any ET part in this? At the very least they’re watching and learning!
        
        The Havana Syndrome is backed up by much evidence and documentation, which 60 minutes demonstrated.
        
        Reply
        
        McEwen Bruce December 17, 2024
        
        If it is aliens, they’re as indifferent to the bombing and starving of women and children as the Judaism/Christian God, and perhaps what’s worse than even that heinous old disciplinarian is that they provide a diverting spectrum of speculation for those of us who can’t get a decent night’s rest from the nightmare in Gaza our taxes are funding…
        
        Reply
        
        Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
        
        In studying thousands of close encounters of the third kind interactions, it seems apparent they don’t interfere generally due to not wanting to erode our creative agency in growing and developing. As one alien allegedly told an ER doctor from the southwest once: “we don’t intervene despite what some of your world leaders do”. (Source: case presented by Dr. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke, professor emeritus from Montana State U.)
        
        The thinking is they are progressively sensitizing us to their generally covert presence, since we are moving further out in space. And will someday be active in a milieu spanning at least a portion of this galaxy. Also, since the various types present here have creative projects that rely on the rich biological resources here, they have for a good 80 years been messaging their concerns with our actions badly impacting environmental conditions and bio diversity. Also, they have expressed concerns about nukes and our overly aggressive ways.
        
        The increased signs of their presence is now likely related to these concerns as our conditions and ways now are more acutely on a degrading path.
        
        McEwen Bruce December 17, 2024
        
        Why, then, in god’s name, do not these all-seeing, all-knowing, all powerful and, by your lights, Omni compassionate, blokes — I say, why in the fook dinna any o’em put they fooking foot doon and call a stop to all this abominable cruelty in the name of profit?
        
        You seem to have a hugely intimate reading of their nature and means, you write scholarly pieces about it that only stubborn and obstinate minds can readily dismiss or defy, and yet it all boils down to the ancient theological imperative: if so-&-so has all these godly powers and still sits idly by in the face of heinous atrocities, then who needs the silly ass? Have Him clear the fook out! Go away, you uselessly numb entity, be gone! The same for your ETs (And, please, take the 49ers with you)!
        
        Brian Wood December 17, 2024
        
        …The Havana Syndrome is backed up by much evidence and documentation, which 60 minutes demonstrated.
        
        Not their finest hour of investigative journalism, in my opinion.
        
        Reply
        
        Harvey Reading December 17, 2024
        
        What would ET learn from morons who are lucky if their rocket payload lands on the moon without falling apart? My opinion is the whole thing is BS, a test to see just how gullible we really are.
        
        Reply
        
        Betsy Cawn December 17, 2024
        
        https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?t=7845
        
        Tilopa’s Song of Mahamudra to Naropa.
        
        Reply
        
        Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
        
        Love the teachings of Mahamudra and the related Dzogchen teachings. Here’s that Tilopa list I mentioned:
        “Don’t recall.
        Don’t imagine.
        Don’t think.
        Don’t examine.
        Don’t control.
        Rest.
        
        This advice consists of only six words in Tibetan. The above translation was developed to capture its brevity and directness. Some years ago, I also developed the translation shown below, which some people prefer:
        
        Let go of what has passed.
        Let go of what may come.
        Let go of what is happening now.
        Don’t try to figure anything out.
        Don’t try to make anything happen.
        Relax, right now, and rest.”
        Source:
        https://unfetteredmind.org/tilopas-advice/
        
        Reply
Marshall Newman December 17, 2024

Regarding helping the Monarch butterfly, make sure to plant only California native varieties of milkweed.

Reply
- Kathy Janes December 17, 2024
  
  Can you suggest a source for seeds?
  
  Reply
  - Marshall Newman December 17, 2024
    
    The native milkweed varieties for California are narrow-leaf milkweed (Asclepias Fascicularis) and showy milkweed (Asclepias Speciosa). San Diego Seed Company has both.
    
    Reply
    - Marshall Newman December 17, 2024
      
      Please note this information is from the internet – I am no expert.
      
      Reply
George Hollister December 17, 2024

Every community should have the benefit of an Irish Beach Improvement CLUB. Mark Rappelle should become a member. Get involved, donate, provide positive input, meet and work the neighbors.

Reply
- Jacob December 17, 2024
  
  Not if they are blocking public access and disturbing wetlands…
  
  Reply
  - CrazyKat December 17, 2024
    
    Exactly. We just had a little issue in Albion due to the campground manager imposing a “day use fee” to access the public beach and river. Mr. Levine from the CA Coastal Commission was very effective in clearing up that problem.
    
    Reply
Chuck Dunbar December 17, 2024

“NIRVANA”

Bukoski’s thoughts are usually on the grim, dark side of life, but this is actually a sweet poem, a moment of bliss. No drugs, alcohol, misbegotten sex or other misery. Thanks for this exception to his rule.

Reply
- Betsy Cawn December 17, 2024
  
  Bukowski is comforting to me, up or down or sideways — human and arguing for our souls with every word.
  
  Reply
Amen December 17, 2024

Rodney/Work

36% of the citizens in the United States of America are working in the Gig economy.

Thought…

What if the Worker were to ask for pay BEFORE doing the work.

Reply
- Marco McClean December 17, 2024
  
  Hmm, yeah, and what if the airpeople at KZYX were to expect to be paid at the same hourly rate as the manager? Pull the slider btween them until the rates match up. After all, their work brings in all the membership money she pays herself with. How about one-half minimum wage for the airtime of their shows and an hour of prep. It wouldn’t be much, but it would be better than zero, which is what they’ve been getting, total, all put together, for 35 years, while over the same time the succession of parasite manager/CEO hood ornaments cynically sucked $2,000,000 in 2024 value out of the place for themselves without even a please or a thank you. They just expected it.
  
  Reply
  - Amen December 17, 2024
    
    Dude,
    
    Imagine…HAVING TO pay upwards of $100.00 to learn CPR, and First Aid — yeah, let’s save lives, not.
    
    Reply
    - Marco McClean December 17, 2024
      
      Dude, wash your hands with soap, heat a ten-inch stainless steel pan on medium, or on boil if electric, till you wave the back of your fingers a half-inch above it and just know not to touch it. One-quarter-inch of butter and a little olive oil. Whittle about 1/4 red onion into strips into it. Cut a crushed handful of fresh spinach in strips, add them, then dice two cloves of garlic in. Break three or four room-temperature eggs in, shake in dill, cayenne pepper, seasoning salt (MSG), add five or eight sliced pickled jalopeno peppers and a tablespoon of chopped black olives, stir/mix all together with a fork with a few quick swipes. Turn it over by flipping or use a metal spatula to turn it over. A layer of pre-grated Colby/jack cheese from the fridge. Shut off the burner. Cover the pan with a lid that fits, to melt the cheese. Slice up half a perfect avocado (put the other half in a small plastic tub, leaving the pit in it). Remove the pan lid, spread the avocado around, fold the whole thing once into a football/half-moon shape, tilt it over onto a plate, squiggle ketchup or Valentina sauce on top and serve it with a fork standing up in it like a flag. It takes seven to ten minutes, total. Everything that you touched is already put away and the pan and the spatula are soaking in the sink to brush/rinse later, when it comes clean without having to scrub.
      
      If you have mushrooms, though, cut them thick and dry and put them in the pan first until they smell toasty, then proceed. If you have broccoli, cut it up and microwave it in a bowl with a splash of water while the pan’s heating up, so it’s soft, so you can put it in with the spinach, see above. Unless you like crunchy broccoli. I do.
      
      Reply
Mark Taylor December 17, 2024

Growing up in the Chicago area, we had four newspapers, two in the morning, two in the afternoon. The Tribune, which leaned Republican and preached fiscal responsibility, was the most respected of the four and had a national reputation. They also owned the American, which was much more aimed at the masses and their prurient tabloid interests, with more hardcore conservative editorial outlook.

The Sun Times, the only one of the four that came in a true tabloid format, was more staunchly Democratic Party and was aimed, both in editorials and human interest, at working folks. They owned the Daily News, another afternoon paper that was filled with exciting news of the sensational nature. All four had separate cartoon and sport sections, which made youthful reading a real pleasure. Colored funnies on Sunday, too!

My Dad worked nights for the Sun Times and would bring home all four newspapers, hot off the presses. It became a habit early for all us kids to pore over those papers, the sections we explored expanding as we grew older and events became more volatile as the Viet Nam war and civil rights protests progressed. We were staunch Democrats in my family, even the moreso since our Dad worked for the Sun Times, and were firmly opposed to just about anything the Tribune stood for.

But we read them all anyway. The politicians in our state (aside from Mayor Richard J Daley, who was pretty gruff and direct, sometimes) weren’t bomb throwers or name callers, and neither were the papers. They all had firmly held views, certainly, but they generally made reasoned arguments, even if the Tribune/American were “misguided”. You could read the opposing editorials, getting angry, sure, but without your head exploding. On top of it all, my Dad would bring home all the behind the scenes newsroom gossip, dirt and backstories. For me, it was the golden age of journalism.

Now here I am in Fort Bragg. The Advocate News is pretty worthless, the Ukiah Daily Journal and the PD corporate shills, the SF Chronicle too expensive and spare, and the internet untrustworthy and sharply divided. Luckily, there’s still the AVA, not without its own bias, but with a pretty good mix of views, local news, history, and wonderfully sharp humored editorial insights. I wish you still hard a hard copy version.

I’m looking back through the kindly gauze of history, I know, and I’m sure it wasn’t as rosy as I remember. Still, I miss the variety I had back in my youth, the news stands and circulation trucks, the paper boys, the distinctive smell of ink, and the snap and crackle of the paper every time one turned a page. It’s just not the same, scrolling and clicking my way through the news and views of the world now. I miss the packaging, I guess, it just made things more palatable.

Reply
- McEwen Bruce December 17, 2024
  
  Never been to Chicago but I could find Mike Royko most anywhere he was so widely syndicated and justly so. I delighted in his columns and like Rafferty from our own Odd Bodkins, Mr. Royko was a familiar barroom fixture. Here’s to Mike. And here’s to Col. Hackworth, another great syndicated columnists whose last column called the Commandant of the Marine Corps a chickenshit for not giving the marines who shipped over for another tour of deployment in Iraq the stripe he’d promised each of ‘em… Hackworth’s sudden death notice came in place of his next column…
  
  Reply
  - Mark Taylor December 17, 2024
    
    I’ll meetcha at Billy Goat’s. Slats Grobnik’ll be there.
    
    Reply
  - Paul Modic December 18, 2024
    
    Bruce used to run Royko’s columns in the old AVA,
    then Royko bashed Cockburn once,
    and Mike was outtahere…
    (that’s almost a haiku, gives me an idea, only haiku comments for a day, ha?)
    
    Reply
- Chuck Dunbar December 17, 2024
  
  Thanks for this fine post, Mark. Takes one back to news times that do seem rosier than the present, for sure. I like how you phrased it: “I miss the packaging, I guess, it just made things more palatable.”
  
  Reply
Harvey Reading December 17, 2024

“A city like Point Arena needs economic development,” City Manager Peggy Ducey told the outlet.

From the bible of the robber barons. Development should be a capital crime.

Reply
Jeff Fox December 17, 2024

I ate at Sam Wo many times, loved the place! Sometimes I would make the drive all the way down from Ukiah just to eat there. A giant bowl of delicious pork noodles for something like 60 cents! I found Edsel to be quite entertaining. To this day when I serve Asian food to company I still mimic his accented “chopstick or fork?” declaration whenever he sat non-Chinese people at a table. People that had never been to the restaurant often didn’t know how to take him. I met locals there that frequented the restaurant for the sheer entertainment of watching the newcomers’ reactions to him. If you were the type that water rolls of your back like a duck you had fun with it. Those serious types with no sense of humor didn’t fare well.

Reply
Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024

Breaking:
The ranking member of the House Intel Cmt came out of the SCIF and briefed the press afterwords on what members were basically told in general. Journalist Matt Laslo posted:
“These sightings in New Jersey, Connecticut — anywhere they’re being sighted — are federal government operations…” HPSCI Ranking Member Jim Himes says after SCIF briefing.

The remote viewers I mentioned earlier had said that was the case re the drones. Of course, what the RVers also said beyond that was neither confirmed or dismissed. The Remote Viewing tasked by a group from Albuquerque had discerned that the drones were operated by a special operations military force to monitor the activity of alien craft, mainly of the spherical type.

Reply
- Mike Jamieson December 17, 2024
  
  LOL….Matt Laslo is correcting himself….Himes did NOT say that.
  
  Reply
Amen December 17, 2024

Carine’s Fish Grotto

First time I ate at Carine’s, Mama Carine snapped at me., and I snapped back. From that moment on, she fed me, FREE. Course, I was to chicken to take take advantage of her generous offer, but liking each other was just as good.

rip, Mama

Reply
- gary smith December 18, 2024
  
  A friend of mine once met Mama Carine in Safeway with a cartload of marked down ground beef. The food really wasn’t that good there, just huge portions and jolly service. In the 70s and 80s the fishermen from out of town would eat there a lot but not at all since then.
  
  Reply
- Norm Thurston December 18, 2024
  
  When you walked through the door, you became a member of their family. Fond memories.
  
  Reply

Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 12/17/2024

45 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply