Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 12/18/2024

Partly Sunny | Holiday Decor | Roy Search | Tess Apologizes | Good News | Dog Attack | Mustang Omauri | AV Holidays | Pruning Team | Volunteer EMTs | Auto Services | Naturalist Class | Lila & Norb | Paint Party | Ed Notes | Ukiah Gateway | Chicago Papers | Voll Motel | Dog Biscuits | Yesterday's Catch | Social Security | Remain Crazy | Renaming Kelseyville | Embarcadero Freeway | CEO Season | Pop's Story | Hammett Night | Worker Resistance | Marilyn Jogging | Men Assassinated | Young Bagpiper | Plastic Surgery | Shot Dead | Richard Cory | Young Artist | Lead Stories | Drone Net-Gun | Boy Moon | Oncoming Trumpism | A Dream | Authoritarianism Rising | Route 66 | Network TV | Everything Said

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STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): No rainfall to report today but I do have 42F under high clouds this Wednesday morning on the coast. Dry skies until Friday night then rain for the weekend & most of next week. Ho ho ho.

LIGHT RAIN today in Del Norte and portions of Humboldt and eastern Trinity counties will end by the afternoon leaving dry conditions for Northwest California through Thursday. There will be a slight chance of rain on Friday in Del Norte and Humboldt counties, but otherwise the next round of stormy conditions and widespread rain will mostly hold off until Friday night or Saturday. (NWS)

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FORT BRAGG POLICE INTENSIFY SEARCH FOR MISSING TEEN LAST SEEN ON NOYO BRIDGE

by Ashley Harting

The City of Fort Bragg Police Department (FBPD) gave an update on the teen who went missing on Dec. 7, 2024, after attending the town's Holiday Parade.

FBPD said that 15-year-old Roy Mora was last seen on a surveillance camera walking south on the Noyo Bridge at approximately 8:30 p.m. Mora was reported missing by a parent on Dec. 8, according to police.

Police said that data from Mora's cellphone was actively communicating with cell phone towers between 2:00 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. on Dec. 7. The phone's location was determined to be behind the Fire Station on Main Street, near the entrance to the Central Coastal Trail, according to the FBPD.

"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," said FBPD.

The police department stated that they have searched areas provided by psychics who believed they knew where Roy was. Investigators are also re-interviewing possible witnesses as potential leads develop. FBPD stated that they have also spoken with MTA bus drivers and reviewed surveillance video from the MTA busses. However, they said that Roy was not seen in any of the videos.

Police have extended the search for the teen boy as far as both New York and Idaho, where they said that former acquaintances of Roy reside.

Valuable leads were discovered after issuing warrants for Roy's social media accounts according to police, however, these leads have not yet led to the discovery of Roy's 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," said the FBPD.

FBPD said that they are currently waiting to receive surveillance footage from Roy's last known locations, which were retrieved while deciphering his cell phone data.

"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," said the FBPD.

Police stated that they have already used helicopters to search the coastline, bluffs, and headland areas inaccessible by foot, but still the search continues.

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

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked 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 directly upload it at fortbraggpd.ca.evidence.com//public/findroy.

All previous updates on the investigation surrounding this incident can be found on FBPD's Facebook page.

(krcrtv.com)

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ALBIN-SMITH APOLOGIZES

…Albin-Smith took the microphone. “When you make a mistake, and I made a really big one, you have to own up to it,” she began, reading from a sheet of paper. “…I do want to apologize for comments I made about your qualifications for vice mayor,” she said, turning to Rafanan, who listened stoically. “I did not intend to hurt you or offend you or your supporters or the public…. I was expressing my concerns over her comparatively limited experience when compared to Lindy Peters… And that’s the mistake I made, a big mistake. I deeply regret making comments that undermined Marcia’s character. I do understand that I offended her and her supporters. I want to say that I’m actually quite proud of Marcia being the first woman in nearly two decades to sit as mayor or vice mayor, and it is exciting that she is now the first female of color in that role as well…. I apologize for sharing my poorly worded concerns, publicly disparaging Marcia’s qualifications for the job…. I value and respect Marcia, and I’ve enjoyed working with her on the council. I promise to be more mindful of what I say in the future, and I will support you 100 percent in your position as vice mayor…” At that point, Albin-Smith put down the paper and said, “We have to get past this somehow, and I don’t know if you can ever forgive me.”…

https://mendovoice.com/2024/12/at-special-meeting-fort-bragg-city-councilmember-tess-albin-smith-apologizes/

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GOOD NEWS: SUPERVISORS WRAP UP YEAR WITHOUT DOING ADDITIONAL HARM OR MAKING ANY MORE BAD DECISIONS

by Mark Scaramella

Nothing but routine business and pointless bureaucratic navel-gazing at the Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. Supervisor Dan Gjerde had resigned last month and wasn’t even there to get his whereases. Most decisions were conveniently put off to next year when two new Supervisors will be seated. Supervisor Glenn McGourty rambled on at painful length about various ways to give Board members some admin support, but at the end couldn't even bring himself to recommend that they start by moving the Clerk of the Board back to the control of the Supervisors.

After basking in the glow of some vapid whereases, McGourty, reading from several pages of prepared notes, went on for over 40 minute (!) with a self-congratulatory summary of himself and his one mundane term on the board, carefully omitting his conflict of interest and his role in several embarrassing fiascoes he initiated or contributed to. (We don’t need to list them, do we?) We got a kick out of McGourty’s cold-blooded dismissal of his predecessors when he claimed that, “Other boards have not been as functional as this one.”

McGourty injected some unintentional humor into the day’s holiday festivities when he said he supported the Board’s moribund “budget ad hoc committee” because it is “nimble.”

A few cannabis permittees complained that the Supervisors are still imposing unfairly burdensome rules and taxes. After telling the growers and dispensers that the program is running a little smoother than it has in the past (now that the number of permit applications has fallen to a trickle), the Supervisors, as usual, ignored them.

The laughs kept on coming (although perhaps only to yours truly) when, toward the end of the meeting, CEO Darcy Antle robotically deadpanned her way through her boilerplate CEO report noting several times along the way that she was “very excited” or “really excited.”

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TEEN'S MAULING BY ‘BETWEEN 4 AND 7 DOGS’ DEPICTS SEVERE PROBLEM IN RURAL CALIF.

by Matt LaFever

Mendocino County’s Bear Pen Road is a place where only locals go. Branching off Highway 101 just south of the Mendocino/Humboldt County line, it winds through hills and forests, with only a few isolated outposts along its path. Last month, a teenage girl was mauled by a pack of dogs in this desolate area. She had no obvious ties to the region and was initially identified as a Jane Doe at the hospital, where she was taken in serious but stable condition with large sections of tissue torn from her body. The girl’s injuries were so extensive that one official told SFGATE, “This is way above and beyond any dog attack I’ve personally ever seen.”

When authorities reached the girl’s father, David Watson, they learned the dog attack was only the most recent incident in a tumultuous six months for his 15-year-old daughter, whom SFGATE is not naming to protect her privacy because she is a minor. The story of how a child with no money, phone or vehicle ended up in this remote wilderness, surrounded by dogs so aggressive that they could have killed her, lays bare some of the North Coast’s ugliest struggles.

A Difficult Case

Watson first spoke with SFGATE by phone on Nov. 29 after stepping out of his daughter’s hospital room. It had been nearly a month since a pack of dogs had mauled his daughter. As she heals, both physically and emotionally, the stories she shares with her father continue to evolve. “Even the story that I knew just a couple of days ago is a bit different than what I know now,” Watson said.

To understand how the girl ended up in the wilderness of Mendocino County, her father points to the months before the attack. By April 2024, she had run away from the Sonoma County home she shared with her father around 20 times, by Watson’s estimation. Sonoma County’s Family, Youth and Children Division had labeled her a “chronic runaway,” he said. She had previously been placed in the Valley of the Moon Children’s Center in Santa Rosa, but that month, the agency instead placed her in a group home in San Diego, nearly 600 miles away from her Sonoma County home, with the hope being that the distance from familiarity would keep her there.

The plan failed. At the group home, she befriended another chronic runaway whose boyfriend had a car. On Sept. 28, 2024, the two teens left the facility with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Watson said their flight triggered a missing person case with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office. SFGate reached out to request more information about the case but was told by Kimberly King, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, that “since this case is related to a juvenile we cannot provide any information.”

Ted Appel, a spokesperson for Sonoma County, told SFGate that the county could not confirm whether an individual or family was working with family services, nor could it share any specifics about a particular case, citing state law.

SFGate called Watson again earlier this month to ask for more context about his daughter’s frequent flights from home.

“I raised her as a single dad for 15 years,” Watson said, admitting to the challenges of single parenting. He acknowledged that at least one of her placements at Valley of the Moon came after she reported abuse by him, but he adamantly denied physically abusing her. He sometimes took a “tough-love approach,” he said, but he insisted she “never saw or experienced any” physical abuse, citing his own upbringing and how he’d “had my teeth knocked down my throat.” He said he did sometimes distract himself from the stress in ways that made him less connected to his daughter.

“It was easier to focus on video games sometimes,” he said.

Acknowledging potential criticism, Watson stood firm: “People can try to spin it, but at the end of the day, I did my best.”

Over a month after she left the San Diego home, authorities would find the missing teen brutalized by dogs and struggling to breathe in remote Mendocino County.

‘I Was Being Eaten’

On the morning of Nov. 6, Watson’s daughter was deep in Mendocino County’s wilderness. According to her father, she said she and her companions arrived on Bear Pen Road on Oct. 2, following a four-day journey north from San Diego. Their exact route remains unclear, but Watson believes they stopped in Ukiah and Fort Bragg along the way.

On Bear Pen Road, they encountered a woman who had previously hosted the runaway friend and agreed to do so again, Watson says he was told. Early on Nov. 6, the woman warned Watson’s daughter that police would be in the area. To avoid being discovered as a runaway, she was advised to hide, so she retreated to a small shed on the property.

What happened next was the stuff of nightmares. The girl was confronted by a dog, a white pit bull that seemed intent on attacking her. “She said that a white pit bull came in very aggressively, got in her face and started, like, sniffing her face,” Watson said. “And she got really scared. So she covered her face with her hands.”

The attack escalated. The white dog grabbed her hoodie and dragged her out of the shed. Other dogs joined in. “Between four and seven dogs” descended on her, Watson said, quoting his daughter’s upsetting retelling: “But I couldn’t tell because I was being eaten.” When first responders first found her, police radio traffic indicated she was barely breathing and required a medevac for emergency medical treatment.

The extent of her injuries is chilling. “Her right arm was nearly eaten off. They had to take muscle from her back to rebuild the arm, as the entire tricep was destroyed,” Watson explained. She is also likely to lose her fingertips due to the severity of the wounds.

Mendocino County sheriff’s Capt. Quincy Cromer detailed the investigation into the attack in an interview with SFGate. Animal Care Services personnel called dispatch at 11:45 a.m. on Nov. 6 to report the ongoing dog attack. Given the remote location, the nearest Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies were 70 miles away, delaying their response. Other law enforcement agencies, including California Highway Patrol, arrived first and helped get the girl to emergency medical care.

First responders initially had no way to identify the victim, treating it as a “Jane Doe” case, Cromer said. Investigators later crossreferenced the girl with active missing juvenile cases, eventually confirming her identity.

Five days later, after her condition stabilized, detectives were able to interview her in her hospital room at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. In their discussion with her, Cromer said, investigators finally began to understand how a 15-year-old fell victim to a violent pack of dogs in remote Mendocino County.

‘Extreme Violence’

Mendocino County’s Animal Care Services is actively working to locate the dogs responsible for the attack, but their efforts have yielded little success, said Amy Campbell, a representative for the agency.

Campbell confirmed that the dogs were known to the agency; Animal Care Services had received a complaint on Oct. 30 about a large number of dogs on the property where the attack occurred. The complaint focused on the dogs’ living conditions rather than any aggressive behavior, Campbell said. Animal control officers responded to the property the next day but were unable to speak with anyone there.

After the teen was attacked, Animal Care Services personnel “returned to the property where the attack occurred and impounded a total of 12 dogs that were living in deplorable conditions, none of which were believed to be involved in the attack,” Campbell said.

Cromer, the sheriff’s captain, said it’s possible criminal charges could result for the owners of the property, but he emphasized that such charges would only arise if there was evidence the dogs acted under human command. Right now, “we have no evidence” of that, he said.

Instead, he said, it’s more likely this would be a case of animal cruelty charges.

“The condition of the animals that were encountered has led to investigative efforts regarding cruelty potentially perpetrated against the animals,” Cromer said, adding, “The majority of dogs are not born mean and angry and aggressive, but they can turn into that.”

Still, he acknowledged, “This is way above and beyond any dog attack I’ve personally ever seen.” He said the dogs seemed to display “extreme violence.”

A California Healthline analysis of statewide dog bite statistics revealed that serious dog bite injuries are more common in rural areas. Modoc, Inyo, Lake and Siskiyou counties top the list. With rural residents owning more dogs than urban dwellers, attacks like the one on Watson’s daughter feel like an unsettlingly likely worst-case scenario.

Cromer also addressed the persistent issue of feral dogs in Mendocino County. “We get calls on them regularly,” Cromer said, noting that many residents acquire dogs for security purposes but fail to control them when they turn wild.

As for the Watsons, David continues to visit his daughter in the hospital, where the painful reality of her injuries is impossible to ignore. “It didn’t look like my child. To have to see her like that, it was just absolutely heartbreaking.”

Despite her agony, Watson is awed by his daughter. “My daughter is tremendously strong,” he said. “We’re strong f—king people, man. She’s probably stronger than me.” Each small step forward in her recovery brings a glimmer of hope.

“The last couple of days, she’s been getting up out of that bed,” Watson shared. He also sent SFGATE an image of a colorful painting she had made at the hospital — another sign of her slow but sure recovery.

The emotional scars will likely last much longer, for both daughter and father. “I’ve been in some wild places, man,” Watson said. “But even in those places, I’ve never seen a wild pack of dogs running around that could potentially eat another human being.”

(SFGate)

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UKIAH HIGH’S OMAURI PHILLIPS-PORTER COMMITS TO DIVISION ONE CAL POLY MUSTANGS

Ukiah High School senior football standout Omauri Phillips-Porter has officially signed his commitment to play for the Division One Cal Poly Mustangs. Omauri accepted the offer from Cal Poly Head Coach Paul Wulff and Director of Athletics Don Oberhelman, marking an incredible milestone in his athletic journey.

Omauri was joined at the signing ceremony by his father, Charles Porter, as well as Ukiah High School Athletic Director Cameron Johnson, Principal Dr. Analese Alvarez, and Ukiah Unified School District Superintendent Deb Kubin. Family, friends, football teammates, and supporters from the Wildcat community were also in attendance to celebrate this proud moment.

“It’s a great day to be a Wildcat,” said Cameron Johnson, Ukiah High’s Athletic Director. “Omauri has worked incredibly hard on and off the field, and we are so excited to see him take this next step in his athletic and academic career.”

Omauri has been a key player for the Wildcats, earning accolades for his talent, dedication, and leadership. His commitment to Cal Poly represents not just a personal achievement but also the continued success of Ukiah High School’s athletic program.

The Wildcats and the Ukiah community celebrate Omauri’s accomplishment and look forward to cheering him on as he dons the green and gold of the Mustangs.

For photos and video of the signing ceremony, visit www.uusd.net.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR IN ANDERSON VALLEY

by Terry Sites

Anderson Valley is hotbed of holiday goings on through the New Year. The Boonville Hotel hosted their annual fundraising Tree Lighting for the AV Food bank on Dec. 5th. As always the Hotel glows with light that flatters faces both young and old. The décor is beyond tasteful. (Thank you Johnny Schmitt and crew.) The food while served in small portions is always exquisitely delicious. The Real Sarah’s were scheduled to make things merry and bright. A great way to kick off the parties and events to come.

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Saturday Dec. 7th the AV Unity Club filled the Fairgrounds’ Apple Hall with their Holiday Bazaar. Plenty of vendors were on hand with everything from birdhouses, to wreaths, artisan jewelry and vintage antiques. The food bar featured delicious tamales and atole (a sweet and creamy corn drink) also posole, a hominy rich Mexican soup topped by shredded cabbage, salsa and cheese; all authentic. In a nod to years past traditional egg salad sandwiches were also on offer. Santa Claus, in the person of Ray Langevin, came to town and souvenir photos were available. Kids and grown-ups had fun posing with Santa. The event was admirably organized by the women of the Unity Club with special appreciation going to Alice Bonner who invested hours keeping the overview and moving everything along.

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After the excitement of the Bazaar it just seemed a shame to simply go home. A drive past the High School revealed an overflowing parking lot as it was the final night of this year’s Redwood Classic Basketball Tournament.

Entering the gym was a sensory overload with the crazy loud buzzer counting down the minutes, the basketball slapping the floorboards while sneakers squeaked and squealed as players ran then stopped short to take a shot, reverse direction or pass the ball to a teammate. In between loud music favored by teens blasted away keeping energy high.

The final game of the tournament matched two accomplished teams, Priory from Portola Valley and Stuart Hall from San Francisco. The teams were pretty much neck and neck in the first half. Stuart Hall, who was not favored to win, actually forced Priory to fall behind slightly for the first time in the series. In the end Priory prevailed with a relentless full court press and super accurate shooters. It was a fast moving and fun game to watch. Hats off to Boonville coach Luis Espinosa and his team who also made a very respectable showing. Also to athletic Director John Toohey and his ever-ready energizer bunny mom Palma Toohey who get the award for endurance above and beyond. Hosting this four-day 32-game marathon is indeed a feat.

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Sunday the 8th the AV Grange fired up it’s engines to present a monster Community Holiday dinner. The Grange and volunteers provided the meat and potatoes, while the community brought side dishes and desserts in wild abundance. Grangers kept everything in order holding back some dishes for later presentation so that those at the end of the line would also have many tasty dishes to choose from. All the tables in the Grange Hall were filled to overflowing with happy eaters. Towards the end of the night a brigade of (probably sugar-charged) kids commandeered the stage turning some stage prop gift boxes into drums for our listening enjoyment. If someone could bottle that energy what a fortune they could make.

Thank you to the Grange for bringing us all together and reminding us what a truly unusual place we live in. People talk a lot about community but we actually live in one that is living and breathing in that old-timey way. Lucky us.

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The Apple Hall was once again the scene of merriment and acknowledgement of community contributions on Saturday Dec. 14th. The Firefighters and Ambulance crew along with the CSD board (and families) got together for their annual dinner and awards. See the upcoming item by Mark Scaramella describing the highlights. Terry Rhoades and crew catered with the usual satisfying outcome and these people know their food.

More excitement to come in the days ahead. Stay tuned for further reports. Until then, enjoy every minute of what Andy Williams used to call “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.”

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MR. BAUTISTA is teaching a Viticulture class at AVHS. Today was the first practice of the Grape Vine Pruning team. It has been many many years since AVHS has had a vine pruning team. The team worked with Norman Kobler, an alumni of the AVHS Ag Dept and a past vine pruning team member. The team is learning how to prune quickly and correctly.

The team will be traveling to a number of CDEs (Career Development Events) to compete in vine pruning after winter break.

The continued support of the community is making this team happen.

Thank you to Norman working with the team.

Thank you to Atlas Vineyard Management for donating $2000 in support of the team's travel expenses.

Thank you to the Anderson Valley Lions Club for donating $500 to help buy the equipment the team needs.

Our FFA members are so excited!

(Beth Swehla)

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GIDEON BURDICK (Local emergency responder):

Our local ambulance is staffed 24/7 by volunteer EMT's. If you've been pondering how to get involved and don't want to mess with the whole “it's hot” side of fire/rescue, this is the first step towards joining our department!

You can contact Theresa Gowan: 707.467.1048 or tgowan@mendocino.edu at the college

OR!…

Imma throw Clay under the bus. Clay runs our EMS program here in Anderson Valley; call the fire house and ask for him if you have specific questions about volunteering locally. 707-895-2020.

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MENDOCINO CALIFORNIA NATURALIST CLASS OPEN!

Explore Mendocino Ecology with UC California Naturalists

Are you looking to learn about the wonders of our local ecology? The University of California’s California Naturalist class is open for registration once again in Mendocino, at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC).

The California Naturalist Program seeks to foster a committed corps of volunteer naturalists and community scientists trained and ready to take an active role in natural resource conservation, education and restoration. The course introduces participants to the wonders of local ecology, engages them in the stewardship of California’s natural communities, and introduces cultural connections with the landscape. Classes combine a science curriculum with guest lecturers, field trips and project-based learning to immerse participants in the natural world of inland Mendocino County.

“We’re excited to be able to offer this class to the community again,” said Hannah Bird, community educator at HREC. “The class is for all who find themselves drawn to the colors of fall, flowing creeks in the winter and the vibrancy of spring wildflowers, you don’t have to be an expert, just to enjoy nature. Instructor Dr. Jennifer Riddell brings such genuine joy and knowledge to the class, coupled with field classes and guest speakers on subjects from geology to bird language and Traditional Ecological Knowledge.”

The class runs from February 8 to April 19, with 6 Saturday classes and field trips to the beautiful oak woodlands and rangelands of the 5,358 acre site at HREC.

In an effort to build an inclusive community of participants, the California Naturalist Program at HREC offers equity pricing. Registration is $490 per person (including certification, instruction, some materials and facility costs). For those unable to pay this amount due to low income or extenuating circumstances, an income guide and sliding scale of payment is available to adjust course cost. Minimum payment is $320. A limited number of need-based scholarships are also available to help support registrants. “Generous donors to the Hopland Scholars Fund have enabled us to create a pricing structure that meets our own costs and the needs of our community,” said Bird.

This class will fill quickly so interested members of the community are encouraged to register early to avoid disappointment. Class size is limited to 25 participants.

Further information and registration can be found at https://bit.ly/CalNat2025

For more information, email hbird@ucanr.edu or call Bird at (707) 744-1424, ext. 1642.

Hannah Bird, Community Educator

Living and working on traditional Shókowa land.

Hopland Research & Extension Center

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STEPHEN DUNLAP (Dunlap Roofing)

The (roofing) crew found this under an old roof today. Does anyone know her and possible year?

Moments later Dunlap added: Ok, here's the info - Lila & Norb are two different people who ran in 1998 & lost their races. They ran against Gjerde, White and Bennedetti who all won. 1998 City Council election. They fired City Attorney, Planning Director and City Manager in like two meetings. All over the Blue Roof motel. [Affinito’s North Cliff Motel]. They were going to tear it down they thought, but were all totally wrong. Motel is still there and it cost us $7 million.

MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: Not exactly. The anti-Affinito city council reform slate (Dan Gjerde, Michelle White and Vince Bennedetti) won election handily because they were opposed to Affinito’s illegal motel for a number of legitimate reasons, such as the lack of sufficient water for the oversized motel and it being one story too tall, illegally blocking the ocean view from the city and in direct violation of the city’s planning regs and the Coastal Act. (Affinito misrepresented the baseline for the height measurement in his planning documents so that the extra floor measurement was off by one floor.) I don’t think anyone actually proposed tearing it down, although there were statements made about closing down the upper floor or maybe even removing it, but nobody proposed such things in any council meetings. I have no idea where Mr. Dunlap got his $7 million number. Affinito sued the Coastal Commission and the city, Affinito being a very wealthy man who could drag the case out indefinitely if necessary for denying his permit after the permit misrepresentations were discovered. The city had a good case. But Judge Conrad Cox ruled that since the motel was already there, there wasn’t any case, denying the other legitimate arguments the city made. Cox was right about it already being there, but wrong about not requiring mitigations and penalties from Affinito. Most of the court costs were covered by the state/Coastal Commission. I don’t think the City of Fort Bragg was out anywhere near $7 million. The suit was initiated by Affinito, not the City.

Here’s Roanne Withers report on Cox’s ruling at the time: https://theava.com/archives/135426

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ED NOTES

THAT TERRIBLE SCENE on the bluffs at Mendocino village late in November 2008 remains as a doubly terrible reminder that the ocean's edge is a very dangerous place. This particular tragedy was partially captured on video by horrified onlookers, whose film subsequently appeared on television news and the internet.

MAURIZIO BIASINI, 54, an Italian national in the US as a visiting scholar at UC Riverside where he taught physics, had climbed down the bluff at the ocean end of Main Street to get a closer look at a rock formation that had caught his interest when, his horrified wife and twin 18-year-old sons looking on, Biasini was swept out to sea by a sneaker wave, shouting for help as he was borne ever farther out into the ocean, but visible for long minutes before he disappeared.

BIASINI'S distraught sons, not understanding that the Coast Guard is the only agency in the area equipped to carry out a rescue involving an ocean rescue, and that it takes about a half hour for their emergency helicopter to appear offshore, the frantic boys, screaming for someone to do something, anything, with their father already invisible after being last seen some 50 yards offshore, began grappling with the police dangerously close to the edge of the same precipice that had claimed their father.

ONE of the boys was violently fighting the police who were simultaneously trying to comfort and restrain him, but sweet reason was no match for the pure hysteria inspired in the Biasini family by the awful sight of their patriarch's final frantic waves far offshore.

THE BOY was eventually tazed into submission which, by the time the taser was deployed, Mendocino's Search and Rescue people, all volunteers, were doing their best to calm the Biasinis. Everything possible that could have been done was done.

HAVING SEEN the film, I'd say the taze was justified on the kid. Both the Biasini boys were large and fit, and both boys, out of their minds with grief, were violently out of control. One brother, however, had become less combative by the time his brother, who showed no signs of reconciling himself ever, was electronically subdued. If he hadn't been tazed, the three or four people trying to calm him on the very edge of the bluff might have tumbled over the side into a rough sea and the tragedy multiplied.

A CALLER TOLD ME that on that same day she'd warned a family whose children were gamboling in the surf off the Haul Road in Fort Bragg that the kids shouldn't be anywhere near the surf given the ocean's unpredictable ferocity. She was denounced by the parents as a killjoy and told to mind her own business.

THE REMAINS of Maurizio Biasini were found by a hiker on the beach at Jughandle State Park, about six miles north of the Mendocino Headlands where Biasini was washed out to sea on November 29th, the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. He was found on Christmas day. Biasini was visible for some hundred yards until he disappeared forever. His twin sons, 18, were so distraught at what they perceived as the tardy response of rescue teams, had to be subdued by Sheriff’s deputies who feared that the boys, and the police attempting to calm them at the edge of the bluffs, might also fall into the sea.

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MARK TAYLOR (Fort Bragg)

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.

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ODE TO MY LITTLE DOG PEARL

I buy fifteen pounds
And what do I get?
A lot of dog biscuits and deeper in debt.
St. Peter don’t you call me
‘Cause I can’t go,
I owe my soul 
To the dogfood store.

— Jim Luther

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, December 17, 2024

STEVEN CLAUS, 50, Fort Bragg. DUI with prior in last ten years.

WALKER FERREIRA, 28, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, false imprisonment, criminal threats.

JESUS GONZALES, 49, Ukiah. Parole violation.

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HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY

Editor:

It’s time to get real about Social Security, say the billionaires making plans for us. I began to contribute to Social Security when I started working summers at age 14. My contributions joined others’ contributions to become funds drawn on by the federal government to pay federal bills.

In retirement, like many others, I use my Social Security to pay for housing, food and other essentials. Unlike most in the future, I also have a pension. The same people wanting to cut Social Security have worked hard to deny people the right to organize in unions and the right to benefits like pensions.

Cutting Social Security will reduce this source of funds used by the federal government and greatly add to public costs for people who will be reliant on the public to survive. The system may need modifications, but it most certainly does not need to be changed in a way that reduces its current effectiveness for millions of people.

Betty Pagett

Petaluma

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AS LONG AS AMERICA remains crazy we will remain safe. After that I cannot say.

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CALIFORNIA TOWN SPLIT OVER EXPUNGING A NOTORIOUS KILLER OF NATIVES FROM ITS NAME

by Connor Letourneau

Kelseyville, Lake County — Clayton Duncan, an elder from the Robinson Rancheria Band of Eastern Pomo Indians, clenched his fists as he stood over a plaque commemorating a “battle” known as Bloody Island.

“One big f—ing lie,” he said of that description of Bloody Island, which was actually the 1850 massacre of between 200 and 400 Pomo people — almost all women, children and elderly — on the north end of Clear Lake. “I’m sick and tired of the lies.”

Duncan, 74, is the great-grandson of Lucy Moore, one of the handful of survivors from the Bloody Island Massacre. For more than two decades, Duncan has taken it upon himself to make Kelseyville — an agricultural town of roughly 3,800 about 120 miles north of San Francisco — confront its dark history.

Kelseyville’s namesake, Andrew Kelsey, was one of California’s most infamous white settlers — a man who reportedly starved, raped, trafficked and bayoneted Pomos over a two-year period. After fed-up Natives murdered Kelsey and his business partner, Charles Stone, in 1849, Kelsey’s brothers orchestrated a barrage of retaliatory attacks — including the Bloody Island Massacre — that resulted in the killing of over 1,000 Indigenous people.

Eighteen years ago, Duncan received death threats when he convinced Kelseyville High School to change its mascot from Indians to Knights. Now, after George Floyd’s 2020 murder forced communities throughout the country to rethink symbols with grim back stories, Duncan and a local activist group must endure a new wave of scrutiny for bringing Kelseyville to the verge of shedding its 142-year-old name.

If a government panel outside Washington, D.C., accepts the Lake County Board of Supervisors’ recent recommendation, Kelseyville will become Konocti, a Pomo word meaning “Mountain Woman” that celebrates both the nearby volcano and the area’s 14,000 years of Indigenous history. Only then, tribal leaders argue, can they finally heal from the intergenerational trauma Kelsey and other white settlers inflicted upon their people.

“There are people within the same households who disagree on this issue vehemently,” said Rob Brown, a former five-term Lake County supervisor whose district included Kelseyville, where he owns a bail bonds business. “It has been incredibly divisive, to the point where you wonder how productive all this really is.”

At a Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting in July, one tribal member went so far as to compare being Native American in Kelseyville to being Jewish in a town called Hitlerville. But when presented last month with a non-binding, countywide ballot measure about the proposed name change, more than 70% of voters said they would prefer to stick with Kelseyville.

Five weeks after votes were cast, orange signs throughout Kelseyville still pleaded for passersby to “SAVE THE NAME.” Never mind that, as an unincorporated community, Kelseyville’s name-change decision was always going to be determined by a little-known federal body under the Secretary of the Interior called the Board of Geographic Names.

“Regardless of what happens, there’s going to be people getting mad,” said Duncan’s nephew, Eddie Crandell, who was one of the three Lake County supervisors to vote in favor of recommending the name change. “People feel tied to the name, and they feel tied to what they believe in.”

Though almost all Kelseyville residents acknowledge that Kelsey was a cruel person undeserving of a town bearing his surname, many are quick to point out that the bucolic community four miles south of California’s largest freshwater lake has built a reputation all its own.

Signs on Main Street welcome visitors to a “friendly country town.” On Friday nights this past fall, locals packed the Kelseyville High bleachers to cheer their league-champion football team. More than 10,000 people flood the quaint downtown each September for a nationally renowned Pear Festival.

Many of the concerns residents voice about name-change-related inconveniences and costs — new street signs, new addresses, perhaps even new driver’s licenses — feel minor compared to the loss of nostalgia. To many of Kelseyville’s longtime residents, their hometown’s name has become essential to their identities.

Changing Kelseyville’s name “is not about healing or forgiveness,” Rachel White — committee chair of an anti-name-change group called “Save Kelseyville” — said at the July Supervisors meeting. “It is the sanctimonious act of forcefully removing the name of our home, hurting us to palliate the hurt of another.”

At that same meeting, Helen Finch — president of the Kelseyville Business Association — stepped to the rostrum immediately after a tribal leader described the pain he feels driving past the site of the Bloody Island Massacre each day.

Much of the intergenerational trauma “challenging our Indigenous people is driven by their choice to keep the past alive,” Finch said. “In too many cases, (they) teach their children that they are the victims of those around them when, in fact, it was evolution at work, moving white men forward then, as it continues to be now.”

Finch later took to Facebook to clarify her comments and apologize, but the damage had been done. Lake County’s small Native American population viewed the controversial sound bite — from a community leader, no less — as evidence of what it considers Kelseyville’s underlying current of racism.

Atop the Pioneer Plaza shopping center on Main Street, a faded mural depicts a whitewashed version of town history: Native Americans cordially greeting white settlers. Near a bridge spanning another Andrew Kelsey namesake, Kelsey Creek, sits a stone monument honoring Lake County’s “FIRST ADOBE HOME” where Kelsey and Stone are interred.

Though the plaque recognizes that the men built the home “by forced Indian labor” and were eventually killed by Natives, it fails to provide important context.

For example: Kelsey’s brothers, Ben and Sam, avenged those executions by assembling a crew of armed vigilantes and U.S. soldiers who decimated tribes in four Northern California counties during a five-month rampage. Historians believe this onslaught of violence played a critical role in local tribes losing an estimated 99% of their land and well over 90% of their population.

The marshy area where the Bloody Island Massacre occurred is now a mishmash of trees and grass. Wearing a gray T-shirt last week proclaiming “IT IS ALL INDIAN LAND,” Duncan grimaced at the inaccurate plaque overlooking where his great-grandmother hid underwater as a 6-year-old and breathed through a tule reed.

While many of the Pomo men were away hunting, the attackers stormed a ceremonial gathering place on a mile-long island called Bo-No-Po-Ti. By the time Moore finally pulled herself out of the water several hours later, she saw the bloody corpses of friends, relatives and other tribe members.

Though she died at age 110 when he was only a toddler, Duncan grew up hearing her story from his mother. After attending high school in East Oakland and finding work as a carpenter, Duncan moved back to Lake County at age 26 to help build a new Pomo reservation in Nice, just a 20-minute drive around the lake from Kelseyville.

While reading a detailed account of Andrew Kelsey’s depraved treatment of local tribes, he learned that Kelsey would threaten to beat Pomo parents if they didn’t let him rape their young daughters two or three times a week.

“That’s what got me,” Duncan said. “I swore to myself that I was going to go after this guy. I didn’t care if he was dead or not. I was going to go after his name.”

In addition to getting Kelseyville High to abandon its Indian mascot, Duncan has spoken out against the town name on his weekly local radio show, led thousands of people through an annual forgiveness ceremony on the massacre’s anniversary, talked state officials into correcting the description on one of the two Bloody Island plaques from “battle” to “massacre,” and spurred others to take action.

Just as Floyd’s killing in police custody was beginning to amplify conversations about systematic injustice, Duncan helped retired dietician Lorna Sides and retired educator Dallas Cook organize a loose affiliation of locals into a pro-name-change group called Citizens For Healing (C4H). In October 2023, after receiving approval from all seven Pomo tribes, the group filed a formal petition with the Board of Geographic Names to have Kelseyville’s name changed to Konocti.

The proposal sparked outrage from longtime residents, many of whom took issue with C4H’s process.

“On top of not engaging enough with the public before they submitted their petition,” Brown said, “they only offered one alternative name — a decision that really should be made by a larger cross-section of people.”

Sides sees things differently. “Not everything is a matter of majority rules,” she said. “There’s the rights of the minority. And when the majority steps on the rights of the minority, then the Constitution is there to protect them.”

The big question now is whether the notoriously opaque Board of Geographic Names will agree enough to undo nearly 1½ centuries worth of tumult. Though BGN has offered no official timeline on a decision, spokesperson Gina Anderson wrote in an email that it could deliver a ruling in as soon as a few months.

On a recent Tuesday, Duncan showed visitors the patch of grass where his ancestors who died in the Bloody Island Massacre were cremated. In 1956, the Army Corps of Engineers leveled the area, digging up dirt to help build a nearby highway.

After stopping to see if anyone had finally destroyed that inaccurate plaque surrounded by flowers, coins and other small offerings, Duncan climbed behind the wheel of his navy blue Nissan Rogue. As he made his way along the lake that was long the center of the Pomos’ daily lives, he smiled as he reflected on a question: How do you feel when people argue that you have no right to change the name of their hometown?

“So ironic,” he said. “This is our land. And if the pioneers hadn’t killed almost all our people, we’d be the majority today.”

(SF Chronicle)

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EMBARCADERO FREEWAY, SAN FRANCISCO (1959)

In 1959, the Embarcadero Freeway was a new and controversial addition to San Francisco's waterfront. Built as part of the city's push toward modern highway infrastructure, the elevated double-deck freeway stretched along the waterfront, cutting off views of the bay. While intended to improve traffic flow and connect the Bay Bridge to the northern parts of the city, many residents criticized its impact on the city’s aesthetic appeal. Cars and trucks moved steadily along the concrete structure, offering drivers elevated views of the waterfront and Ferry Building. Beneath the freeway, the Embarcadero remained a working port, with dockworkers, warehouses, and shipping activity filling the scene. The freeway would later be removed following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but in 1959, it stood as a symbol of the city’s embrace of modern infrastructure, even at the cost of its iconic waterfront views.

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BRUCE MCEWEN

Perfect gift for CEO season…?

Guns & Ammo Holiday Deals, Sportsman's Warehouse

https://www.sportsmans.com/christmas-guns-sale/c/cat141057

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BOOKS, PART TWO

by Paul Modic

My “Books” story the AVA published two years ago still blows my mind, to recap: I'm writing a story telling about what books mean to me, how my father influenced me by giving us books for Christmas, how we had tried to save all of his but ended up taking them to the dump twenty years later. The story would have ended at the dump except I saved one random book and found out a week or so later it contained a story my father had written about the origins of golf. Wow.

Wow, again. I'll have to add this one to my life's list of “amazing coincidences,” number eight, though all the others happened at least forty years ago. (When I write about my “amazing coincidences” I often put them in quotes, admitting that they aren't really all that amazing.)

If I hadn't saved that particular book from the dump my life wouldn't have been any different, though I never would have known there was a book with Pop's story in it. But now that I know, and have it in my possession, and have read the story, what will happen next?

His story is about imagining the beginning of golf when a peasant in the fifteenth century finds a reason to hit a rock with a stick, launch it over a wall, and thus golf is born. It's cleverly written and makes me interested in reading the other stories he got published by nationally circulating magazines back in the fifties and sixties.

As a college teacher, writing was part of the job, from these kinds of articles to graduate and doctoral theses. My mother also wrote hundreds of columns for a black newspaper back in Indiana as well as many more for “Senior Scene” in Tacoma. None of us were that ambitious or produced genius work, although maybe my father harbored more dreams, having written an unpublished novel?

When he died twenty-four years ago on May 9th, the same date I just discovered his story in the book, one of my sisters made a compendium of his stories including the unfinished novel, and gave a copy to each of the siblings, and it is to my shame or sloth or self-centeredness that I have yet to open it up and start reading.

This parent-child relationship was fraught with erratic interchanges, disappointment, and discord. Yet when older I enjoyed getting his weekly Sunday afternoon phone calls and the yearly visits, at which there were sometimes huge fights. (You know how when you go home and become a child again?)

Yes there are regrets, we put my father through hell being rebellious youth, caught up in the times of Vietnam protest, the advent of the hippies, and all the rest.

The worst might have been when we were hitchhiking around the country and he dropped us off on the interstate, my sister and me separately, to hitchhike into the unknown. Can you imagine how he must have felt turning around and driving back home forty-six miles after leaving his teenage kids by the side of the highway at night with the traffic whooshing by? (I guess we got our revenge for his rages and the dysfunctional family?)

I'm sorry but that just seems cruel, well, we didn't think of that: adventure and Southern Humboldt was waiting for us.

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BILL KIMBERLIN

It was one of those nights. I could almost hear Dashiel Hammett emerging from the fog.

“The night-fog, thin, clammy, and penetrant, blurred the street"

Had a fun dinner and lecture at Sociale on Sacramento in Presideo Heights where I lived for a few years.

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A WORKING-CLASS HISTORY OF FIGHTING DEPORTATIONS

by David Bacon

The history of working-class organizing in the United States is full of examples of immigrant resistance to mass deportation, sweeps, and other tactics. Time and again, immigrant worker activity has changed the course of society. It has produced unions of workers ranging from copper miners to janitors. It turned the politics of Los Angeles head. And it is this tradition of worker resistance that is the real target of immigration enforcement waves, both current and threatened by the incoming administration. …

https://jacobin.com/2024/12/deportations-unions-immigrants-organizing-trump

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-working-class-history-of-fighting.html

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MARILYN MONROE JOGGING in Los Angeles (1951)

In 1951, Marilyn Monroe was captured jogging through Los Angeles, embodying the casual yet glamorous spirit of the city. With her radiant smile and carefree demeanor, she exemplified the laid-back lifestyle that LA had come to represent. Andre de Dienes' photograph revealed a rare, candid side of Monroe, away from the cameras and flashing lights of Hollywood. The scene reflected a moment of simplicity, where even one of the most famous women in the world could be seen enjoying the everyday pleasures of Los Angeles life.

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I SEE MEN assassinated around me every day. I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead; men without eyes, men without voices; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideas.

— Charles Bukowski

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A YOUNG BAGPIPER was asked by a funeral director to play at a grave-side service for an old lawyer. The funeral was at a cemetery way out in the country. This lawyer would be the first to be laid to rest there. Not being familiar with the area, the bagpiper was late, so late the backhoe crew was already eating lunch. The hearse was nowhere in sight. The bagpiper apologized to the workers for being late and stepped to the side of the open grave where he could see the closed lid of the coffin. He assured the workers he would not hold them up for long, but he'd been hired to play and he was going to play. The workers gathered around, still eating their lunches. The bagpiper played his heart out. The workers began to weep as soulful versions of “My Home” and “The Lord Is My Shepherd” and “Flowers of the Forest” were squeezed from the ancient instrument. The bagpiper closed with a moving rendition of “Amazing Grace” and solemnly walked off to his car. As he was opening the door and taking off his coat, he overheard one of the workers say to another, “I've never seen anything like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.”

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THE PERCENTAGE YOU'RE PAYING is too high priced
While you're living beyond all your means
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car
From the profit he's made on your dreams
But today you just read that the man was shot dead
By a gun that didn't make any noise
But it wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest
Was the low spark of high-heeled boys

— Jim Capaldi, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (1971)

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RICHARD CORY

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

— Edwin Arlington Robinson

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LOU REED:

“About Kerouac: How could a guy that was so good-looking and romantic and writing that myth for generations end up a fat, dumb asshole—if you don't mind my being crude—sitting in front of television in a T-shirt drinking beer with his mother? What happened to make him change?”

Burroughs: “He didn't change that much, Lou. He was always like that. First there was a young guy sitting in front of television in a T-shirt drinking beer with his mother, then there was an older, fatter person sitting in front of television in a T-shirt drinking beer with his mother.”

Reed: “Well, Mr. Burroughs, let me ask you this. Did Kerouac get a lot of his books published because he slept with his publisher? I mean, is there a lot of that in the literary world? Sleeping with editors and publishers in order to get published?”

Burroughs: “Not really as much as in painting. No, thank God, it is not very often that a writer will have to actually make it with his publisher in order to get published, but there are a lot of cases of a young artist who will have to sleep with an older woman gallery owner or something to get their first show, or get a grant. I can definitely assure you that I have never had sex with any of my publishers. Thank God, it has not been necessary.”

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LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

People Are Putting Beef on Their Faces. What Could Go Wrong?

The Economy Is Finally Stable. Is That About to Change?

‘No Place to Hide’: Trapped on the Border, Immigrants Fear Deportation

Mangione Faces First-Degree Murder Charge That Brands Him a Terrorist

Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Drones. No reason at all to shoot one down. There are many ways to bring down drones and you can be sure the DOD is familiar with and experimented with them. My favorite is the drone to drone net-gun which brings the enemy drone down in one piece. The feds could solve this problem as soon as it started. My guess is most of these "sightings" are the result of overactive imaginations, regular aircraft, stupid news people, and mass psychosis.

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NEED FOR ANTICIPATORY STRATEGIES FOR ONCOMING TRUMPISM

by Ralph Nader

Now is the time to prepare anticipatory strategies against what the vengeful, avaricious, lawless Trump and his Trumpsters have boasted out loud about daily. Don’t wait until Trump’s inauguration. A short list of suggestions follows:

The civil servants and their unions better organize a personal presentation to their new bosses, most of whom are ignorant about the agencies they head other than to want to dismantle or enfeeble them. Be proactive or you will be always playing defense.

Daring peaceful resisters in marches and rallies, beware of infiltrating provocateurs promoting violence. If you’re engaging in non-violent, civil disobedience, beware that Trump can’t wait to call you “terrorists” and use unbridled police power for arrests and prosecutions demanding long sentences.

Trump and the Trumpsters, with his militias in waiting, as on the border, will contrive a phony threat from what they will label domestic “terrorists” to pulverize or intimidate their opponents. Trump thrived on the MAGA extremists and will give them “red meat,” if only to keep them occupied and loyal. They will demand action based on Trump’s wild campaign rhetoric.

Being a convicted criminal himself, Trump will take federal cops off the corporate crime beat, reduce taxes on the wealthy and giant companies, ignore climate violence, add more bloat to the wasteful military budget, and increase pandemic threats with fake dismissals of looming perils. Don’t count on the business guys. They don’t like daily chaos, disruption and uncertainty that goes with Trump’s insatiable daily ego that must be fed constantly, but most CEOs won’t criticize Trump.

Trump fears the Israeli lobby and their genocidal leader Netanyahu. His first term proved that in spades. Now he’ll back whatever Netanyahu, the Israeli war criminal, does. Annexing the West Bank, demanding more billions from American taxpayers to continue the bombing, killing and pillaging in the Middle East region is just the tip of the iceberg.

Lastly, Trump will drive a level of White House dictatorial lawlessness never before seen. His rhetoric and record strengthen this prediction. Remember his July 2019 declaration “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as President.” He acted on that all the time. (See prior columns at nader.org and also read “Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All” by Mark Green and Ralph Nader).

The anticipatory strategies here must be diverse, covering all three branches of government, and vectored toward the GOP. The citizen groups may have to work weekends, alongside the labor unions hated by Trump.

Trumpy Dumpty is thin on the facts, policies and programs, but he is as cunning as a hungry shark in detecting weakness in his opponents, especially the Democratic Party.

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AUTHORITARIANISM ON THE RISE

by Aryeh Neier

Since about the beginning of the present century, authoritarianism has been on the rise the world over. In China, Xi Jinping has positioned himself as the country’s ruler for life, ending what had been a halting, fitful movement toward the rule of law; in Russia, Vladimir Putin has consolidated absolute power and tried to destroy or control an independent Ukraine that had been developing democratically; in India, Narendra Modi has had wide latitude to enact his Hindu nationalist agenda; and a host of autocratic rulers have come to power, some by more or less democratic means.

The triumph of Trump and Trumpism in the United States will do much more than add this country to the authoritarian roster. It will also add legitimacy to the rule of autocrats such as Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Kais Saied in Tunisia, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Egypt, Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, the Shinawatras in Thailand, Paul Kagame in Rwanda, Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia, and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, as well as to the path that Prabowo Subianto will likely follow in the world's third-largest democracy, Indonesia.

After all, if the leader of the word's preeminent democracy openly adores autocrats — from Orbán, Putin, and Xi to Kim Jong-un — and threatens political opponents with prosecution and imprisonment, who is to object to Ergan sentencing the philanthropist Ostan Kavala to life in prison without parole for his charitable support for minority rights and for peaceful protests? Why raise a fuss over the sudden death in prison of Putin's political nemesis, 47-year-old Alexei Navalny, without an independent autopsy to ascertain the cause?

Unfortunately, other prominent Western democracies currently lack the leadership necessary to counter the rise of authoritarianism. Angela Merkel was able to exercise salutary global influence during her tenure as Germany's chancellor, but no European leader has filled her shoes since she stepped down three years ago. Nor is there a leader who is up to the task in the United Nations or any other intergovernmental body, such as the European Union.

As is now widely recognized, some members of Trump's administration — especially former military men — managed to restrain him during his first term. He has made it clear that he will not tolerate such limits again. It is not only democracy in the United States that will be under severe threat in the next Trump era, however, but the future of democratic governance around the world.

(New York Review of Books)

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A FOUL SAGA IN THE HISTORY OF NETWORK TV: HARLOTS HIGH & LOW

by Alexander Cockburn

When I was a lad of 14, at school in Scotland, a news mogul tycoon called Roy Thompson used five simple words to describe the higher purpose of commercial television. 1955 was the year the BBC lost its monopoly on TV provision in Britain. The government handed out licenses to new broadcasting companies which, unlike the BBC, could run ads. This privilege was, Thompson publicly rejoiced, “a license to print money.”

That’s the bottom line. Any time you see a TV proprietor or executive talking bravely about freedom of expression, and the public’s right to know, just remember the essential freedom the man has in mind is exactly what Thompson was happily hailing: the freedom to coin money. When, some time in the 1960s, the late Frank Stanton, overseeing news operations at CBS, asked his boss William Paley, the network’s founder, for more time for newscasts, Paley shook his head. “The minute’s just too valuable,” he told Stanton, meaning he wasn’t prepared to surrender one more second of commercials in the prime time slot.

Let us now move to a fateful moment in 1997.

Already by that year top executives at the major TV networks were gazing aghast at the trend lines. Inexorably, it seemed, they were pointing down. The networks were losing audience share, as people surfed to new choices on the remote. As with newspapers and magazines such reliable sources of revenue as auto commercials and detergent ads were suddenly looking frail as companies like GM and Procter & Gamble (America’s two biggest advertisers) began to plan shifts of their advertising outlays to new-media channels. Consumers were starting to have increasing recourse to the internet to figure out which car to buy, and where to buy it. Shadows were looming over network revenues, maybe darker even than on that fearful night, January 2, 1971, when the Congressional ban on advertising tobacco on radio and tv came into effect.

And then… a miracle! A very American kind of miracle to be sure, being the sort of miracle achieved by the usual megatonnage of campaign contributions from the drug industry dropped into the pockets of the relevant FDA overseers in Congress in Clinton’s slush-sodden second term, plus direct lobbying of the FDA by media companies such as Time-Warner. The miracle went by the name of DTC: Direct to the Consumer Advertising.

Broadcast advertising of prescription drugs in the US had actually been legal for years, but in 1997 the FDA “clarified” the rules about alerting consumers to any risks in a number of deft ways that suddenly made the game a whole lot easier for the drug companies. Thirty-five years after Congress moved to curb pharmaceutical company advertising of amphetamines, antidepressants and barbiturates, the floodgates were opened once again. Through them poured the drug companies and their advertising dollars.

Soon primetime tv viewers were listening to the drug peddlers telling them to make haste to their doctors to request prescriptions for medical conditions from depression to high blood pressure, to diabetes by way of allergic reactions supposedly requiring Claritin. This prescription antihistamine was the subject of the first huge prescription ad campaign after the FDA opened the door in 1997. Its sales promptly shot up from $1.4 billion in that year to $2.6 billion in 2000.

At the end of each ad, risk advisories to the consumer would come in the form of an 800 number or the familiar cautions gabbled out at a speed probably intelligible only to ultra-sensitive equipment at the National Security Agency.

Back at the start of the 1990s the drug companies were spending $55 million on DTC ads. By 2003 the outlay had soared to $3 billion, and by 2005 to $7.5 billion. DTC sales-pitching of prescription drugs has been a huge boon to the networks, whose revenues from this source have surged since 1997. 2005 saw NBC, ABC and CBS pull in $1.4 billion in prescription drug advertising, with CBS leading the pack with its $$592,694 million, well ahead of ABC’s $411,949 and NBC’s $405,633.

For the drug lords in the big pharmaceutical companies — America’s most profitable industry — the FDA’s 1997 decision has indeed been a license to print money — bales of it. There are plenty of credible surveys establishing that as much as a third of consumers see an ad for some prescription drug on tv and then go off and talk to their doctor about it. Half of the people asking for the drug they’ve seen advertised end up getting a prescription for it. One Kaiser study cited by the Lehrer News Hour disclosed the gloomy news that almost half these drug ad-watchers believe what they’re being told unquestioningly.

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“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

— André Gide