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INTERIOR GUSTY NORTHEAST WINDS through this afternoon, followed by a weak offshore flow tonight. Dry weather is expected to continue with above normal high temperatures and chilly nights during the next 7 days. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 38F with clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. KTVU's Steve Paulson said there is "no rain in sight - ugly dry". Good weather for us roofer types to get some work done finally.
WES SMOOT: There will be a Celebration of Life for Wes Smoot on Saturday, February 1, at 2pm in the the Museum Rose Room of the AV History Museum, 12340 Highway 128, Boonville. (Sheri Hansen)
AVUSD NEWS
Dear Anderson Valley Community,
Happy New Year!! We at Anderson Valley Unified School District hope that the Winter Break was a warm and wonderful time, spent with family and friends. We are returning refreshed and excited about 2025. We can’t wait to see our students!
Please read the information below and do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or ideas.
District Updates
January is School Board Appreciation Month!
We are thankful to our outstanding school board for their consistent dedication to our students, staff, and community. Our December Board meeting was our “organizational meeting,” during which new members may be elected. Our school board remains stable, with the same members as last year. These board members know the history of our district and are committed to maintaining traditions while always improving upon our programs for our students.
Congratulations to Linnea Totten, who was elected President, after Dr. Richard Browning stepped down from the position after many years. Dr. Browning will continue to lend his experience and expertise to the board as a member and we are deeply thankful for his continued leadership. Congratulations, also, to Erika Gatlin, who was elected Clerk! Our next board meeting will be this Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. at AVHS. We would love to see community members there!
Response to Immigration Enforcement Policies
AVUSD values every member of our community and is committed to supporting each person who is a part of our school district. I am again sharing our Board Policy and Administrative Regulations that pertain to immigration enforcement.
In addition to familiarizing yourself with these policies, I encourage students and their families to update their emergency contact information, as needed, throughout the school year to provide an identified trusted adult guardian in case a student’s parent/guardian is detained or otherwise unavailable. Information provided on the emergency card will only be used in response to specific emergency situations and not for any other purpose.
Please encourage children to learn their emergency phone numbers and be aware of the location of important documentation. See the attached Administrative Regulation for additional information and advice.
Aikido Classes through Anderson Valley Adult School!
Aikido is a Martial Art that develops power through relaxation and concentration rather than tension. We are fortunate to have classes available through Anderson Valley Adult School, Monday and Wednesday, 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. High school students may also take these classes for PE credit; see Mr. Howard for information. If you are interested in Aikido Classes through AV Adult School, see the attached flier for more information.
AVES Updates
Winter Camp Was a Hit!
Students enjoyed fun and learning-filled days. Field trips to the Snoopy Ice Rink for ice skating and CV STARR for swimming were highlights. Huge thanks to our awesome staff for bringing fun and learning to our elementary students during the break! Special thanks to Charlotte Triplett for organizing it all!
Adjusted School Schedule
Mr. Ramalia has adjusted the school schedule to maximize student learning. Beginning and end of day times remain the same, with some minor adjustments to recess and lunch times. Mr. Ramalia will be sharing specifics with parents soon.
AV Jr/Sr High Updates
The Portable Buildings are Gone!
Our facilities personnel have been working hard, along with our architect Don Alameida, as well as Cupples Construction crew. The main wing of the high school is ready for students! We are excited to see our students enjoying the new library, Panther Den, and classrooms. We are thankful to everyone who took part in making the move a success and look forward to a ribbon cutting ceremony when our Science buildings are ready as well, sometime in the Spring!
FFA Officers’ Winter Retreat
The FFA chapter officers had a winter retreat to San Francisco during the break, visiting the California Academy of Sciences and Pier 39 for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. They planned future Spring meetings and activities and enjoyed a beautiful day in San Francisco!
It’s Kidding Season!
Congratulations to the FFA program on these cute, furry babies! Stop by to take a peek! Thank you to Mrs. Swehla and Mr. Bautista for your tireless efforts for FFA.
Check Out Our Banners
Mr. Toohey has organized an advertising opportunity to supplement athletics funding, including the cost of officials, tournament fees, team awards, and other sports-related expenses. Community businesses are already involved, through the purchase of banners that will be displayed on the tennis court fences. Businesses may reach out to Mr. Toohey at jttthey@avpantehs.org or can fill out a request though the AV Athletics facebook account.
We love to see parents at our events, supporting their kids. If you would like to be more involved, please contact your school’s principal, Mr. Ramalia at AVES or Mr. McNerney at AV Jr/Sr High, or our district superintendent, Kristin Larson Balliet.
We are deeply grateful for our AVUSD families.
With respect,
Kristin Larson Balliet
Superintendent
Anderson Valley Unified School District
klarson@avpanthers.org
HASTE MAKES BUST
On Thursday, January 2, 2025 at approximately 7:45 p.m., a Ukiah Police Department (UPD) Officer was on routine foot patrol near FoodMaxx on Airport Park Boulevard.
While returning to his patrol vehicle, the officer noticed a lifted Ford pickup with no license plates driving through the parking lot at what appeared to be a hasty rate of speed.
The officer got into his patrol vehicle and saw the Ford pickup park in the Friedman’s (1255 Airport Park Boulevard) parking lot, and a male exit the driver’s side of the vehicle and begin walking away. The officer drove to the parking lot and stopped the male, who immediately began acting suspicious and denied driving the truck.
After the officer requested the male’s identification, the suspect fled on foot southbound towards the Friedman’s lumber yard. The officer initiated a foot pursuit and followed the suspect as he veered across Airport Park Boulevard towards the Les Schwab Tire Center, and then back across the street towards the Ken Fowler Auto Center.
The officer caught up to the suspect, and after a brief struggle, was able to take him into custody. The suspect was identified as Kenneth Douglas, a 41-year-old male that was on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) probation out of Lake County. Douglas’ PRCS probation was for a previous violation of 22210 PC Possession of a dangerous weapon (Felony).
During a search of Douglas’ person incident to arrest, he was found to be in possession of a switchblade knife and methamphetamine. A check of Douglas’ criminal history revealed that he had multiple previous convictions for drug possession and was also a convicted felon. Other UPD officers began a search of Douglas’ pickup and located a loaded .22 caliber handgun on the front seat, a shotgun in the rear of the vehicle, and more methamphetamine in the cab of the truck.
Douglas was arrested and transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked for five drug and firearm-related felony charges and two misdemeanors: failure to appear and a misdemeanor arrest warrant for marijuana transportation.
As always, UPD’s mission is to make Ukiah as safe a place as possible. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cellphone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website: www.ukiahpolice.com.
TWO LONG-TERM MENDOCINO RESIDENTS SEEKING HOUSING
Hi everyone!
My roommate and I just recently received news that the owners of our current home are moving back in, and we need to find a new place by the end of March. We have lived together for 4 years now, and are both quiet, careful, and clean tenants, with references to show this. We have lived in Mendocino for 4 and 6 years, respectively. We both work in farming/gardening and care a lot about this community.
We are looking for a cat-friendly 2 bedroom for $2,200 or less, ideally in the Mendocino-Fort Bragg range but we are open to places a little further than this. We are reliable long-term renters and would love to find a special home that is close to nature.
If you are renting anything or know of anything, please contact us.
Thank you!
Katie Alibrio, Noyo Food Forest Garden Educator, katiealibrio@gmail.com
SPEAKING OF KZYX
by Marco McClean
Burton Segall wrote: “…There are things that can improve the station. ‘Paying the airpeople’ might be one of them, but it would need to be way down on the list, and it might not improve the airtime; indeed, the volunteers come with great knowledge and passion for what they're presenting. Putting a dollar on the air-time might attract people that have different motivation.”
Marco here. Burton, you seem to imply that paying the airpeople would somehow negatively impact the station's quality, by attracting the wrong sort of people. Which, wow. But you're okay with paying the manager $60,000 a year to keep things so KZYX burns though at least three times the money it takes to actually maintain and operate the station. That's how badly it's managed, and how badly KZYX has always been managed. If it weren't for the annual six-figure CPB grant (of tax-derived money, by the way, see below) KZYX would have failed utterly every year of its existence. By your reasoning, the manager would manage better if the board paid /her/ nothing, because she'd be a pure eager volunteer. And you might have something there. That is something to think about.
Yet, because of wealthy donors and government grants, there is plenty of money constantly flushing through KZYX to pay the airpeople at least a monetary token of respect for their work and dedication. The manager, minute-by-minute, chooses not to pay them, while each month of course choosing to cash her own $5,000 paycheck. And for what?
She has a bookkeeper to keep the books. She has an operations manager to manage the operations. She has a program director to direct programs, a business underwriting coordinator to coordinate business underwriting, consultants to consult and an engineer to engineer. None of that comes out of her pocket, but out of of everyone else's. Plus she has an army of cheerleaders like you to lead cheers and, as you put it, to “just say.” What's left for her to manage, that makes her worth everything, when the airpeople, the ones doing the work that brings all that money in for her, are worth nothing to her or to you but a pat on the head? In fact, plenty of radio stations operate just fine without paying managers at all. For example, KNYO's manager fulfills all the responsibilities KZYX' manager is required to, as well as the responsibilities of everyone under her; Bob Young does it all in like a lazy afternoon per month, and he participates in maintenance with the loose pickup crew of people who help out for KNYO because it's worthwhile and so there'll be a station for them to use to do /their/ shows. That's real community radio. The crucial difference between KZYX and KNYO is, KZYX has a high-power license and so can reach many more people to beg for money from them, to keep the great shows on the air, though that's not what the membership money is used for, alas. All the KZYX membership money goes to the personal accounts of the manager and one other person in the management suite, as I wrote earlier.
Burton, you say that being paid is for /commercial/ airpeople, not for public radio, but NPR, KZYX's and MCPB's corporate overlord, pays hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to just Ira Glass, for example, for his hour-per-week show. There are hundreds of NPR airpeople each being paid every year enough to maintain all of KNYO for five or ten years. The average NPR show host is paid a salary of nearly $70,000. The manager/CEO of NPR is paid $600,000, coincidentally the exact fortune KZYX somehow mysteriously pisses away over the same time period, last time I looked. /Noncommercial/ National Public Radio Corp. is a 300-million-dollar-a-year behemoth. Which maybe you didn't know when you said that being paid is not for public radio people.
As for commercial radio, for the almost fifteen years I was at commercial KMFB, it had the same broadcast reach KZYX did and a similar level of infrastructure and expenses, but it operated on close to one-third the budget of KZYX, and got no government radio grants, and had to pay all kinds of fees KZYX is exempt from, in a severely depressed commercial radio market, yet Bob Woelfel, the manager, always paid all the staff and airpeople before he paid himself. That is the main job of the manager of any business, profit or nonprofit, commercial or noncommercial, radio or gas station or high school or thrift store or taco stand or pharmacy or state-sanctioned whorehouse.
Speaking of NPR, here are just a few paragraphs from a 2023 article by Howard Husock, in TheHill.com, addressing people who pooh-pooh the very idea NPR is funded by the government:
NPR may receive little direct federal funding, but a good deal of its budget comprises federal funds that flow to it indirectly by federal law. Here’s how it works: Under the terms of the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act, funds are allocated annually to a non-governmental agency, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, overseen by a board of presidential appointees. That corporation, in turn, can choose to support original programming produced by public television or public radio — but, by law, must direct much of its $445 million funding (scheduled to top $500 million next fiscal year) to local public television and public radio stations across the country, via so-called “community service grants.”
Local stations, if they want to broadcast “All Things Considered,” “Fresh Air” and other programming produced by NPR or competitors such as American Public Radio, must pay for it. Indeed, in its consolidated financial statement for 2021, NPR reported $90 million in revenue from “contracts from customers,” a significant portion of its $279 million and much more than 1 percent. Such revenue was exceeded only by corporate sponsorships, which totaled $121 million. One can think of these funds as federal grants that have been sent from Washington — but returned to it.
What’s more, local stations are actually required by law to do so. The 1967 act specifies that, of funds they received from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, “*23 percent of such amounts shall be available for distribution among the licensees and permittees of public radio stations solely to be used for acquiring or producing programming that is to be distributed nationally and is designed to serve the needs of a national audience.”
In other words, if a local public radio station decided it no longer wanted to carry “Morning Edition,” it would not have the discretion to use some portion of its federal grant to support, for example, local newsgathering.
Marco here. I think that means that 23 percent of the $160,000 KZYX gets from CPB every year must pay for NPR shows by people like Ira Glass, and Bob Seigal, and Terry Gross, Audie Cornish., Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep,. Carl Kasell, Guy Raz, etc., etc. The rest of it I think pays KZYX' office staff. Correct me if I'm wrong about that.
And here's a link to a Wikipedia list of personnel of the NPR organization, that starts with three dozen Corporate Presidents and Vice Presidents and Officers in charge of This and That, each one of them with a support staff. All there to not only be paid handsomely and keep their hair cut and their nails trimmed, but to arrange payment to airpeople for their shows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NPR_personnel
IN TINY NORCAL TOWN, FAMED SF BARTENDER FLIPS DELICIOUS BURGERS
Jumbo's Win Win is a roadside burger stand with Michelin-worthy french fries in Philo, California
by Silas Valentino
After famed mixologist Scott Baird co-created a pair of celebrated San Francisco bars, he relocated with his family for a quieter life on the North Coast. He promised his wife he would not open another time-consuming spot.
That changed when a 120-year-old building in Philo became available. Located near what locals call “the deep end” of Anderson Valley, where Highway 128 meets a redwood curtain before reaching the ocean, the vacant roadside joint in Philo reminded Baird of a particular summertime memory.
Growing up in the East Bay, his grandparents took him camping on the North Coast, and they had a lunchtime tradition when passing through Willits. Near the north of town is a humble hamburger shack called 101 Drive-In with a redwood tree out front. They’d stop every summer for burgers and soft serve ice cream.
“It was the experience of the summer day and the smell of cooking burgers in the air that was really nostalgic,” Baird told SFGATE over the phone. “It’s universally nostalgic.”
After settling in Anderson Valley in 2020 — and since you can’t teach old dogs new tricks — Baird unveiled his latest venture in August, inspired by those summertime meals.
Jumbo’s Win Win is an affordable burger stand designed with the allure of a Route 66 diner. Counter service is complemented by a large patio out back for people to enjoy a stripped-down menu that Baird created with quality top of mind. “It’s cared for — the food is cared for,” he said. “It’s the same food I feed my children. That’s my whole business model.”
The menu is concise and intentionally so: just two types of burgers — traditional and an onion smash — with two other sandwich options: a fried chicken patty and a locally sourced rock cod patty. Many ingredients are local, and Baird sometimes buys or trades for tomatoes with growers in the valley.
The hand-cut Jasper fries (named after his oldest son) require a tedious two-day process to prepare. First, they’re soaked in water overnight and then boiled before gently removed to cool down. Why the careful process? “To keep the perfect, long cuts,” as explained in a social media post. “Once finished you have a perfect golden brown, fissured and crispy exterior with a sumptuous, creamy, mashed potato center. Lovingly copied from 3 Michelin starred chef, @thehestonblumenthalteam [Heston Blumenthal].”
In turn, Jumbo’s Win Win has cemented its presence in Anderson Valley. “It’s a bit hard being their neighbor — I can smell the food from over here,” said Jonathan Garcia from Northwest Tire and Oil, located across Highway 128. “It’s awesome, their food is great, and I like the spicy Jumbo burger.”
The name of the burger stand is now one of the first words that drivers see as they enter Philo. Massive letters spelling “Jumbo” in white are painted on the facade of the single-story building. Jumbo is his youngest son’s nickname, coined by Jasper, and the space embodies a family atmosphere.
Baird had his hand in two prominent cocktail bars in San Francisco — helping to launch 15 Romolo and Trick Dog, two-time winner of the Spirited Award for World’s Best Cocktail Menu — and more recently, the cocktail menu for Starlite at the Beacon Grand hotel.
“I’ve got people drunk for most of my career,” he said. “Now I’m feeding families. When the kids come to the counter for the soft serve, their faces are incredible. They’re jumping.”
Jumbo’s Win Win is an anomaly for the California road trip. It shares a parking lot with Lemons’ Market, and along with the post office, they form the commercial center of a tiny town with fewer residents than a busy night at one of Baird’s world-renowned bars. There’s a certain affection for one another in the rural valley. After all, in 1854, Cornelius Prather opened the first post office and named it “Philo” after his cousin.
The restaurant’s side wall facing the market features caricatures of a hamburger and ice cream cone waving to passersby with cartoonish glee. The artist behind the design is Manny Fabregas, whose signs grace top restaurants and other businesses across San Francisco.
A sign into Philo notes the population is 349 and there are over 20 wineries in town, far outnumbering the places to eat. The addition of a roadside burger shack, open seven days a week, is a boon for locals and everyone else passing through.
“Everybody was hyped about it,” said Felipe Madrigal, working the register at Lemons’ Market. “There are not a lot of places to go for food, and it’s nice not having to go 30 minutes over the hill.”
Baird credits his wife Molley Green for reimagining the 120-year-old space, once a saloon and more recently a Mexican restaurant called Libby’s, to fit snugly and stylishly into the valley. “We wanted to make it look like it had always been there but was well cared for,” Baird said.
Details evoking life in Anderson Valley are found on the tile in the bathroom, where teeny illustrations of chanterelles, redwoods, garden gnomes, a chainsaw and, of course, a hamburger adorn the wall. On a recent weekday afternoon, a mix of day-trippers headed for the coast, and a couple of local vintners filtered in.
The color palette used for the interior reflects the region in autumn; checkered drapes and flooring are the shades of turkey feathers: burgundy with pops of yellow and white. In the corner is a Big Buck Hunter arcade game, free to play. Baird’s teenage daughter Violet has dominated the scoreboard using her middle name, Rye.
Everything on the menu is under $15. In addition to the eight main items, patrons can enjoy sides and desserts, like the soft serve ice cream. The Jasper fries and hand pies are offered until they sell out.
A menu standout is the “Okie onion smash burger” that runs $9 for a single or $13 for two patties. The pleasing mess is loaded with mustard, cheese and sweet onions, whose strings are unleashed after each bite, dangling or wrapping around what remains of the burger. It’s a delicious disaster with a memorable flavor.
Baird said he still has his hand in every part of the restaurant. “Everything,” he deadpanned. “Repairs, prep cooking, dishwashing, waiting — whatever needs to get done.”
Since opening, Baird said Jumbo’s Win Win has had a steady stream of business, and he’s envisioning a special night in the summer where he’ll offer tomahawk prime rib that he’ll grill for each customer.
Jumbo’s Win Win has gotten off to a strong start, and Baird joked that he had to “media train” his 6-year-old son now that the family is public-facing. The kindergartener appears to embrace the notoriety.
“Jumbo said one day, ‘I know it’s our family restaurant’…” Baird said, adding how Jumbo grew quiet for the dramatic effect. ‘But can we put a statue of me out front?’”
(sfgate.com)
ED NOTES
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY is the excellent visual instruction that ought to be required viewing, especially at this time as free enterprise grows ever more exploitive.
Say what you will about Michael Moore, and it's all been said by “the left,” such as it is in this country, the guy can make a movie.
This Moore production is both crucially instructive and entertaining, making the irrefutable case that capitalism, unless it's heavily regulated, is straight-up organized crime, a system of theft with fewer and fewer beneficiaries, its prey the millions of Americans who feed it because they are unrepresented and specifically educated not to question this country's economic arrangements.
I wish ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ was required viewing in the high schools. It's the best crash course a kid could get as to how this country really works, outlining the vast crimes concentrations of wealth have committed against US, among them the one committed right here in Mendocino County where the elite collections of capital known as timber corporations destroyed the Northcoast's timber industry in a mere decade in the interests of short-term profit-taking, throwing thousands of people out of work and doing lasting harm to Northcoast forests as crooks like Harry Merlo looted this area's natural wealth.
To me, though, the most important part of Moore's movie is an old clip of FDR from one of his 1944 fireside chats; there's Roosevelt, who would be dead in a few months, reading out his Second Bill of Rights which, in today's degraded political context, would simply be unthinkable coming from a president, especially the orange hued clown about to move into the White House for another round of chaos.
Here's what Roosevelt said, and see for yourself how far we've slid:
“We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous [sic] men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a Second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race or creed. Among these are: The right to a useful and remunerative job.
“The right to a good education. The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. The right of every family to a decent home. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.”
NAMES ON THE LAND
by Katy Tahja
As a historian researching the history of mineral and hot springs locally I became enthralled and entertained browsing through “Durham’s Place Names of California’s North Coast” covering Del Norte, Humboldt Mendocino, Lake and Trinity counties. With 336 pages, it had 40 geographic place names (think of words like mountain, gulch, island, creek, etc) attached to a persons name (Hull Mountain) or a descriptive term (Grapevine Creek).
What is amazing is that geologist David Durham did 14 volumes like this covering every county in California. Long out-of-print the combined single volume has 1680 pages and costs a bloody fortune from used book sale sites on-line.
Durham tells readers the history of the naming of a location and when the name first appeared on a printed map. Like Grasshopper Flat seven miles northeast of Helena in Trinity County. Fishermen named the area after they found it was a good place to collect bugs for bait when fishing. Eden Valley below Covelo got named in 1854 by its white discoverer who thought it must bear a fanciful resemblance to the biblical Garden of Eden. Lightning Camp, 13 miles northeast of Covelo marks the spot where a lightning bolt killed 400 sheep standing in wet grass.
Ethnic backgrounds abound in names on the land. Irish Beach, Italian Bar, English Ridge, Norse Butte, Swede Canyon, Russian River and China Gate all denote who was there first. Many place names included words that would be considered ethnic slurs in today’s politically correct atmosphere. The word Indian was followed by Bar, Beach, Butte, Creek, Island, Prairie, Ridge, Rock, Spring and Valley. Add the word Teepee, Squaw and Papoose to place names too.
Deer gave names to Buck Ridge, Doe Lake and Fawn Prairie. Fairview in Trinity County no longer has a fair view since it is under the waters of Clair Engle Lake. Hullville in Lake County is under Lake Pillsbury. Irmulco, on the Skunk Train railroad line, was an invented word using the first letters from the four words Irvine Muir Lumber Company.
I wonder who lost their smoking pipe on the banks of a creek five miles south of Leggett and named it Lost Pipe Creek? Who thought up the name Little Penny as a name for the homes of workers at the Redwood Queen Copper Mine eight miles west of Ornbaun Springs? There were place name opposites to be discovered throughout the book: Mad Creek and Happy Camp Canyon, Round Mountain and Flat Glade, Low Gap and High Valley, Sharp Point and Rough Creek. Names I considered funny included Noisy Creek, Pickle Springs, Horse Heaven Meadows, Mouse Pass, Skeleton Creek, Dead Puppy Ridge, Hungry Hollow, and a place called Shenanigan Ridge.
In some manner the word “The” is considered essential to several place names. There were 27 place names where “The Hermitage” is correct but plain old Hermitage is not, or “The Nervous Lake” and not Nervous Lake. A place you might not want to swim in? Leech Lake or Pink Eye Lake. How did the hobos get to Hobo Gulch Camp 10 miles north of Helena in Trinity County? It’s in the middle of no place. So it does not take much to entertain a historian when every term in Durham’s Place Names comes with its own mini history lesson.
MENDOCINO COUNTY WAY BACK WHEN (Ron Parker): Greenwood/Elk
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, January 12, 2025
BRETT ADAME, 33, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-lodging without owner’s consent, paraphernalia.
ROBB ARANIO, 59, Antioch/Ukiah. Felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, bringing controlled substance into jail.
DUSTIN BRUCE, 41, Willits. Controlled substance while armed with loaded firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, felon-addict with firearm, concealed weapon in vehicle with prior, unspecified offense.
ULALI FABER-CASTILLO, 19, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, vandalism.
JUSTIN GARNER, 34, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-loitering, paraphernalia.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ, 18, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. No license, evasion, resisting.
TIMOTHY JUDD, 51, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license for DUI, evasion, resisting.
KEVIN KEMP, 65, Laytonville. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
SCOTT MATHER, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury, damaging communication device.
NATHAN SWITZER, 19, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI with blood-alcohol more than 0.15% suspended license for refusing drunk driving chemical test.
CHRISTINE WHITEHEAD, 33, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
RIDDING THE BODY OF THERAPY TUMORS
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
Therapy, the multi-tentacled beast that spread in locust-like herds across the nation for 50 years ruining lives, splitting families, teaching nonsense and getting paid to do it, appears in remission.
Therapists were the driving wheel behind the satanic children sex abuse hysteria in the 1980s; therapists taught parents of Stranger Danger which, translated, instilled fear and loathing in children being kidnapped off the very streets where they lived. Not.
Therapists were all college graduates holding gaudy master’s degrees in a discipline that ought never have existed.
Therapists said they could determine if a five-year old had been sexually abused by studying the kid’s crayon drawing(s). Therapists posited the novel concept that if a suspected victim did not believe they’d been molested it counted as evidence the victim had been molested.
Therapists said teenage girls who wore baggy clothes did so because they’d been molested, thus ashamed of their bodies, and did not want to be viewed as sexually attractive. Therapists also said teenage girls who wore provocative clothing did so because they’d been molested and wanted to present themselves as sexually attractive.
Sins of the therapists were many and they continued full throttle in the 1990s and beyond, entrusted by courtroom judges to bring clarity and understanding to misbehaving teenage boys and girls. How many a New Age ninny in a granny dress, blasting aromatherapy fumes through her crystal-filled office, was hoping to find evidence her captive delinquent had been molested?
It has always been an inside game, therapy. More recently, the academic ruse has brought society to absurd practices regarding drug addiction. The solution, says the ever-progressive therapist, is to provide drug addicts with free hypodermic syringes to curb the stigma of drug addiction and open them up to a world of therapeutic tools to identify the emotional trigger points now forcing them to inject drugs into their bodies.
Suggesting drug addicts go cold turkey while living in tent cities 100 miles from Nowhere, Wyoming, would be contraindicated, as any therapist would say. Quitting drugs in such a setting could harm an addict’s self-esteem and sense of dignity. Better to ease off heroin as we might with any medicine, in a calm, nurturing environment under the guidance of specially trained therapists in quiet, darkened rooms lit by candles and with lots of pillows.
When the homeless issue came to a head in the 1990s therapists were happy to adjust their failed strategies in ending the problem, though the word “ending” was always uttered with a wink and a smirk.
A small number of guys once panhandled change outside Ukiah grocery stores or positioned themselves at freeway entrances with “Will Work for Food” signs also accompanied, it must be said, with winks and smirks.
But no, said the therapists, social workers and grant writers who sat at big tables in big rooms in nonprofit agencies, busy dreaming up slogans and fancy sounding programs. The first were ‘A Helping Hand, Not a Handout!” posters around town, and before we knew it those few beggars and small-change practitioners were supplanted by hundreds more homeless sorts, eager to get in on the government funded gravy train.
There’s big money in helping homeless people remain homeless while recruiting more homeless people to join them in a great big homeless funding machine.
It is forever thus: government money to bankroll big projects with names that promised, in the vaguest of terms, to bring solutions to the table. The “table” was the same one the therapy mob always sat around, and the “solutions” were lucrative longterm employment for people who were otherwise unemployable.
But now cracks appear in the well-oiled but indefensible scheme of funneling money to any program with a catchy name that purports to combat homelessness.
The spectacular multi-decade failures in giving nonprofit agencies unlimited funding without having to prove, or even attempt to prove, the success of one program vs. another is heading for much deserved termination.
There’s a new sheriff in town. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., may take a long look and a take a quick whiff at the billion upon billions of dollars shoveled at agencies resulting in homeless problems far worse than 30 years ago.
I’m sure some fresh thinking will bring a better way. It seems impossible to find a worse one.
(Tom Hine and his invisible sidekick, TWK, have relocated to North Carolina for an indefinite stay. Cry and wail and pray for their return. It might help.)
49ers ARE OUT, BUT THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF GREAT NFL POSTSEASON STORYLINES
by Ann Killion
For the first time in four years, the 49ers are watching the playoffs from their own man caves. Or yachts. Or Cabo cabañas.
That is, if they choose to view the proceedings at all, which they might not considering the pain and frustration such activity could cause.
The 49ers believed fully and fervently that they would be playing football this January. That postseason football was their birthright. And when it finally started to dawn on them, about seven weeks ago, that it wasn’t likely to happen, they seemed stunned and confused.
But if they have been watching, what could the 49ers learn in the early games of the first weekend?
They could be heartened by the performance of Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud. Stroud, like the 49ers’ Brock Purdy, suffered growing pains in his second full season at quarterback. His regression caused hand-wringing, social media panic, concerns that his rookie year might have been a fluke. Sure, he lost key weapons, like Stefon Diggs, and his offensive line didn’t do a great job, but aren’t good young quarterbacks supposed to rise above all that?
It got so bad that professional hot-air producer Rex Ryan went so far as to say the Los Angeles Chargers had a first-round “bye” by drawing the Texans.
Some bye. The Texans dominated Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers. And Stroud was just fine, completing 22 of 33 passes for 282 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Stroud joined Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez, Russell Wilson and — yes — Purdy as the only quarterbacks to win playoff starts in each of their first two seasons.
The lesson for the 49ers is that young quarterbacks are not on linear paths. They have bumps, regressions, surges, sharp turns. In his first 28 games as a starter, Purdy went from the basement to the penthouse — with a stop on the surgery floor — like he would never stop ascending. But that’s not how it works. The struggles we saw from Purdy this season are normal.
The 49ers also would have seen the last best defensive coordinator they had continue his turn as an excellent NFL head coach. DeMeco Ryans took a team that had won just 11 games total from 2020-22 and, in his first two seasons, has won two division titles and two home playoff games. He is a buoyant, energetic leader — just as he was with the 49ers, and as Robert Saleh (who has interviewed for the 49ers’ defensive coordinator job again) was before him.
Since Ryans left for Houston, the 49ers have missed on two consecutive defensive coordinators. Kyle Shanahan, whose defense needs major tweaking, needs to get it right with his next hire.
And while Shanahan is pondering coaching hires, he might want to dwell a bit on Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh’s path after Saturday’s victory over Pittsburgh. The man spent nine seasons in the NFL as a special teams coach and is now one of the most accomplished coaches in the league. Maybe special teams actually can be the root of good things in the NFL, and not something casually dismissed.
If they tuned in, the 49ers would have seen the team that all but officially crushed their spirits back on Dec. 1 in the snow. Sunday morning, the Buffalo Bills made the AFC’s lopsided weekend complete, becoming the third team to overwhelm an overmatched opponent and advance to the divisional weekend. Even without the added benefit of operating in a snowglobe, quarterback Josh Allen worked his magic against the Broncos.
Do the disappointed 49ers have a rooting interest in these playoffs? I’m guessing that — similar to most of the country not situated in western Missouri or Kansas — they are probably not interested in seeing history made with Kansas City three-peating as Super Bowl champion. A new story line would be nice.
Perhaps the 49ers will join me in rooting for my own Super Bowl dream matchup: the Bills versus the Detroit Lions. Sure, the 49ers lost to both teams this year and probably have bitter feelings. But the matchup would assure that there would be a first-time Super Bowl winner. And that would be more entertaining than watching The Return of Patrick Mahomes, Part III.
Sure, you could root for Texans-Vikings, another combination that would result in a first-time winner. But that’s far more unlikely to take place, given their respective paths, as well as not nearly as entertaining.
The Bills have one of the most watchable quarterbacks in the league — though Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson would like to have a word. Allen himself called Jackson the most dynamic player in the league and next weekend’s divisional matchup will be between this season’s two leading MVP candidates. But the Bills also have that backstory of Super Bowl futility: their early 1990s streak of four straight Super Bowl losses is one the most sustained examples of melding brilliance and failure in sports history.
And no NFL team has a story like Detroit, one of the oldest franchises in the league, but one that has never made it to a Super Bowl (a list that includes the Browns and two expansion teams: the Texans and Jaguars). Under the guidance of their unconventional coach, Dan Campbell, and a California kid from privileged Marin County, quarterback Jared Goff, they’ve taken on the feisty underdog mentality of their city. Sorry Jerry Jones, but Detroit has become America’s Team.
As usual, the NFL postseason is a compelling show. Unless, of course, it’s simply too painful to watch.
PAST LESSONS KEY AS FENTANYL DEATHS DWINDLE
There’s finally some good news in the horror of deaths from fentanyl overdoses in California, which have taken the lives of so many of our friends and family members.
A new analysis by the Center for Disease Control, based on provisional data as of Dec. 1, found overdose deaths for the 12-month period ending in July 2024 dropped 14% from a year earlier. In California, about 59% of overdose deaths are from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid of high potency commonly mixed with other drugs.
California fatalities remained high at 11,145. But this was the first downturn since overdose deaths began rising in 2014.
Why did this happen? An article published across Bay Area News Group properties cited “expanded treatment and intervention efforts, recent crackdowns on the illicit opioid trade and less lethal pills on the street — or simply because the overdose epidemic has passed its inevitable peak.” Also helping is expanded access to naloxone, brand name Narcan, which reverses overdoses.
California’s drop in drug deaths is consistent with the national drop, which is the largest ever recorded, Jacob Sullum told us; he’s a senior editor at Reason magazine and the author of “Beyond Control: Drug Prohibition, Gun Regulation, and the Search for Harm-Reducing Alternatives.” As to a crackdown causing the decline, Sullum pointed to a Dec.11 article of his, “Trump’s Plan To Fight Illegal Drugs With Punitive Tariffs Makes No Sense.” It noted Trump’s first-term tariffs didn’t reduce overdoses, and fentanyl’s low cost and high potency make it “possible to smuggle large numbers of doses in small packages.”
Sullum pointed further to a September analysis by Nabarun Dasgupta and other researchers which found recent border seizures mainly have involved marijuana and meth, not fentanyl. The meth seizures actually led to it being adulterated with fentanyl. The apparent result, according to the study: “Decreasing fentanyl-only overdoses and increasing fentanyl-methamphetamine overdoses.”
Sullum said the main factors in the decline may be from users learning from experience, deaths reducing the vulnerable population, “or changes in the social and economic circumstances that make drug use appealing.”
Unfortunately, drug pandemics commonly lead to draconian policies. The crack cocaine crisis “reached epidemic proportions at the end of the 1980s,” according to study by the General Accounting Office, and caused a sharp rise in gang-shooting deaths and robberies. Yet the pandemic was subsiding in 1994 when voters passed the excessive “three strikes” initiative, Proposition 184.
In response to the fentanyl epidemic voters just passed Proposition 36, increasing penalties for drug crimes and low-level thefts.
Similar to natural epidemics, such as COVID-19 that hit five years ago, drug pandemics rise and fall. Policymaking should account for that, but usually doesn’t, with civil rights taking a hit. Proposition 184 was so draconian it led to a different Proposition 36 in 2012, which reduced some penalties for felonies not serious or violent.
In a few years, the 2024 Proposition 36, which escalates penalties for simple drug possession, likely will face similar pressures for reform.
We know from the past century that drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition, doesn’t work. It only drives people underground, enriches criminal syndicates and makes drugs more dangerous. That remains true today.
(Ukiah Daily Journal Editorial)
L.A. FIRES: 'PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION' WARNED AHEAD OF SANTA ANA WINDS
by Anthony Edwards
Several more days of critical fire weather conditions are forecast across Southern California as moderate to locally strong Santa Ana winds continue.
The next round of Santa Ana wind events will not be as severe or widespread as last week's historic wind event, but in this region gusts of 45 to 70 mph, combined with relative humidity as low as 5% will contribute to “very rapid fire spread potential and extreme fire behavior,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld, in a media briefing Sunday afternoon.
Winds will be strongest in the high elevations of the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains, with gusts up to 70 mph. A high wind watch covers these areas, including Malibu Bowl and Mount Wilson, from 10 p.m. Monday to 2 p.m. Wednesday. Additionally, a wind advisory is in effect until 2 p.m. Wednesday for Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Thousand Oaks, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and other typical Santa Ana wind-prone areas.
Relative humidity will range only from 5% to 20% throughout the period. Critically dry fuels and very dry air, along with the gusty winds, has prompted the weather service to issue a red flag warning for much of the region.
A “particularly dangerous situation” tag was added to portions of the red flag warning from 4 a.m. Tuesday to noon Wednesday — language the weather service reserves only for the most extreme fire risk. The embedded particularly dangerous situation tag covers the western San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Susana Mountains, southern Ventura County Mountains, Ventura Valley, northern San Fernando Valley, western Santa Monica Mountains and the Ventura County coast.
Riverside, Glendale, Irvine, Ontario, Oceanside, Burbank and Thousand Oaks are all included in Monday’s critical fire weather outlook from the Storm Prediction Center, a branch of the weather service that issues fire weather forecasts.
“The most likely area for sustained critical concerns is across western Ventura County and the Santa Ana mountains,” the Storm Prediction Center wrote. “However, occasional strong gusts and low humidity could support near-critical conditions over much of the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges.”
Elevated to critical fire weather will continue Tuesday and Wednesday, with the worst conditions likely Tuesday.
“The very dry vegetation combined with the prolonged extreme fire weather conditions will support very rapid fire spread, extreme fire behavior, and long range spotting of any new or existing fires,” the weather service wrote.
Lighter winds are expected Thursday. A significant increase in relative humidity is likely Friday, putting a temporary end to critical fire weather conditions. Marine layer clouds are possible Saturday at the coasts and in the valleys.
The relief won’t last long. More Santa Ana wind events are possible next week, with no significant rainfall on the horizon.
“This may only be a temporary improvement due to the lack of expected rainfall,” the National Interagency Fire Center wrote.
Here is the weather forecast for the Palisades and Eaton fires this week.
Palisades Fire: A red flag warning for critical fire weather conditions remains in effect for the Palisades Fire region until 6 p.m. Wednesday. The strongest winds are expected late Monday night and Tuesday, with gusts up to 60 mph. Relative humidity is forecast to fall to the 12% to 20% range during the day, and only recover to the 20% to 30% range at night.
Eaton Fire: Altadena is not expected to see strong winds from the upcoming Santa Ana winds, but higher elevations of the Eaton Fire, near Mount Wilson, will continue to experience strong winds through at least Tuesday. “Early Tuesday will most likely see the most critical conditions, with ridgetop gusts up to 60 mph and gusts up to 30 mph mixing to lower elevations,” the U.S. Forest Service predicted.
(SF Chronicle)
WHILE LOS ANGELES BURNS, AI FANS THE FLAMES
Artificial intelligence is a water-guzzling industry hastening future climate crises from California’s own backyard.
by Schuyler Mitchell
As multiple wildfires tore across Los Angeles County this week, leveling thousands of homes and businesses and killing at least 10 people, incoming President Donald Trump seized upon the crisis as an opportunity to point fingers and make false claims.
“Governor Gavin Newscum [sic] refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California,” Trump posted on Truth Social, “including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”
No such water restoration declaration exists, but Governor Newsom’s water management policies have become a flashpoint for conservative ire after news broke Wednesday that the hydrants being used to fight the Pacific Palisades fire had run dry.
In reality, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, firefighters’ need for water at lower elevations had depleted the storage tanks, causing a drop in pressure that prevented water from traveling to hydrants uphill in the Palisades. The immense demand on the hydrants was worsened by the fact that firefighting aircraft were temporarily prevented from performing water drops amid hurricane-force winds. As local news outlet LAist put it, “water supply was too slow, not too low”; the extensive scale of the emergency meant firefighters struggled to refill the tanks quickly, not that the region lacked an overall reserve.
Trump’s latest smear campaign is little more than political football. But the renewed attention on California’s water does highlight ongoing tensions over the conservation and management of this finite resource. As the climate crisis worsens, it’s expected to exacerbate heat waves and droughts, bringing water shortages and increasingly devastating fires like those currently scorching southern California. The situation in Los Angeles is already a catastrophe. Climate change-induced water shortages will make imminent disasters even worse.
In the face of this grim reality, it’s worth revisiting one of the major water-guzzling industries that’s hastening future crises from California’s own backyard: artificial intelligence (AI).
Silicon Valley is the epicenter of the global AI boom, and hundreds of Bay Area tech companies are investing in AI development. Meanwhile, in the southern region of the state, real estate developers are rushing to build new data centers to accommodate expanded cloud computing and AI technologies. The Los Angeles Times reported in September that data center construction in Los Angeles County had reached “extraordinary levels,” increasing more than sevenfold in two years.
This technology’s environmental footprint is tremendous. AI requires massive amounts of electrical power to support its activities and millions of gallons of water to cool its data centers. One study predicts that, within the next five years, AI-driven data centers could produce enough air pollution to surpass the emissions of all cars in California.
Data centers on their own are water-intensive; California is home to at least 239. One study shows that a large data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day, or as much as a town of 50,000 people. In The Dalles, Oregon, a local paper found that a Google data center used over a quarter of the city’s water. Artificial intelligence is even more thirsty: Reporting by The Washington Post found that Meta used 22 million liters of water simply training its open source AI model, and UC Riverside researchers have calculated that, in just two years, global AI use could require four to six times as much water as the entire nation of Denmark.
Many U.S. data centers are based in the western portion of the country, including California, where wind and solar power is more plentiful — and where water is already scarce. In 2022, a researcher at Virginia Tech estimated that about one-fifth of data centers in the U.S. draw water from “moderately to highly stressed watersheds.”
According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, the U.S. government’s leading report on climate change, California is among the top five states suffering economic impacts from climate crisis-induced natural disaster. California already is dealing with the effects of one water-heavy industry; the Central Valley, which feeds the whole country, is one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, and the Central Valley aquifer ranks as one of the most stressed aquifers in the world. ClimateCheck, a website that uses climate models to predict properties’ natural disaster threat levels, says that California ranks number two in the country for drought risk.
In August 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation declared the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, which supplies water to California — including roughly a third of southern California’s urban water supply — as well as six other states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. The Colorado River water allotments have been highly contested for more than a century, but the worsening climate crisis has thrown the fraught agreements into sharp relief. Last year, California, Nevada and Arizona agreed to long-term cuts to their shares of the river’s water supply.
Despite the precarity of the water supply, southern California’s Imperial Valley, which holds the rights to 3.1 million acres of Colorado River water, is actively seeking to recruit data centers to the region.
“Imperial Valley is a relatively untapped opportunity for the data center industry,” states a page on the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation’s website. “With the lowest energy rates in the state, abundant and inexpensive Colorado River water resources, low-cost land, fiber connectivity and low risk for natural disasters, the Imperial Valley is assuredly an ideal location.” A company called CalEthos is currently building a 315 acre data center in the Imperial Valley, which it says will be powered by clean energy and an “efficient” cooling system that will use partially recirculated water. In the bordering state of Arizona, Meta’s Mesa data center also draws from the dwindling Colorado River.
The climate crisis is here, but organizers are not succumbing to nihilism. Across the country, community groups have fought back against big tech companies and their data centers, citing the devastating environmental impacts. And there’s evidence that local pushback can work. In the small towns of Peculiar, Missouri, and Chesterton, Indiana, community campaigns have halted companies’ data center plans.
“The data center industry is in growth mode,” Jon Reigel, who was involved in the Chesterton fight, told The Washington Post in October. “And every place they try to put one, there’s probably going to be resistance. The more places they put them the more resistance will spread.”
(Truthout.org)
LOS ANGELES FIRES RENAMED FOR BIG OIL CORPORATIONS THAT CAUSED THEM!
by Dan Bacher
Oil and gas companies knew as far back as 70 years ago that their product would lead to “catastrophic climate impacts,” including those now that we’re seeing in the devastating LA Fires, according to David Solnit, artist, activist and author.
“But instead of warning us, they spent billions of dollars to mislead the public and block climate action,” said Solnit. “The US Federal Government also knew and for the last 50 years largely sided with big oil. Now, we’re paying the price of extreme weather climate disasters as big oil continues to rake in record profits.”
So Solnit has created a meme of the LA Fires renaming the fires with the names of the big oil companies that helped to create the dramatic climate change that world is seeing now.
As of the morning of Jan. 12, the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades in LA County has burned 23,707 acres and is 11 percent contained. The Kenneth Fire in the West Hills Area of LA and Ventura Counties has burned 1,052 acres and is 100 percent contained. The Hurst Fire in the Sylmar Area of LA County has burned 799 acres and is 89 percent contained. Finally, the Eaton Fire In LA County has burned 14.117 acres and is 27 percent contained, according to CAL FIRE.
Solnit has renamed the Palisades Fire the Exxon Mobil Fire, the Kenneth Fire the Chevron Fire, the Hurst Fire the ConocoPhillips Fire and the Eaton Fire the Shell Fire.
“Most of the climate movement places the primary blame on big oil, but the Federal Government has (with the exception of the Jimmy Carter Administration) pushed for and subsidized fossil fuels for 50 years,” noted Solnit.
To learn more, you can read the book, “They Knew: The US Federal Government's Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis,” by James Speth, former Carter Administration Climate Advisor. He is also the expert witness on government response for Our Children’s Trust, according to Solnit.
You can also go to ExxonKnew.org
NETFLIX SERIES: AMERICAN PRIMEVAL
by Bruce McEwen
I watched a few episodes of this new series which starts out at Fort Bridger and quickly moves to what could only be a reference to the Mountain Meadow Massacre, which meant crossing the Colorado Plateau and dropping down onto the Mojave Desert at the Virgin River, where Brigham Young had his snowbird residence.
Juanita Brooks wrote the Mormon-approved version of this notorious ambush and I am not scholar enough to contradict the author. But I was a kid in the town where they shot the scapegoat off the back of a buckboard wagon and into his coffin. We kids would read his epitaph, “Know the truth and the truth will set you free,” and wink and nod sagely at each other…
But years ago my tribe rented a ranch in Montana from the guy who was doing costumes for the Grizzly Adams TV series, and I became steeped in mountain-man lore, discovering Vardis Fisher’s book Children of God, which was a huge bestseller when it was published back in 1939 (along with The Grapes of Wrath and sold as many copies).
I received an old copy of this book for Christmas last year and from the way this Netflix series looks, I suspect the producers read it, too. But the director Sam Peckinpah’ed the whole show all the way to a hugely exaggerated Hell. I mean, those myth busters showed how a cap-&-ball pistol cannot blow a grown man onto his back and back down the trail. And — Christ on a crutch — the arrows were whizzing around the pious pioneers’ ears like a hornets’ nest — actually, it reminded me of the 106 Recoilless Rifle we were trained on for riot control: a cannon mounted on a little wagon with a motor (called an army mule), which any private can load, yank the lanyard and fire these flachettes — wicked little darts — like grapeshot into a crowd of protesters.
Even though modern manufactured arrows were readily available in fabulous abundance, the industrious Mormons would rather dig their ditches to irrigate their desert or even starve rather than sit around making arrows — a tedious and time-consuming frustration without a lathe. So the plot lost considerable credibility for me with all the ultra violence.
It occurs to me that the producers are trying to show us how we committed crimes with callous and unbridled ambition, leaving a landscape that looked like Gaza, perhaps to either relieve or revive the White Man’s guilt over funding these atrocities (with our tax dollars) all these years later.
“A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES” is a picaresque novel by John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980, eleven years after Toole's death.
The book has gained recognition as an American comic masterpiece, featuring the unforgettable character Ignatius J. Reilly. Ignatius is described as “huge, obese, fractious, fastidious,” and is often compared to literary figures like Gargantua and Don Quixote due to his eccentricity and philosophical musings.
Set in New Orleans, the novel follows Ignatius, a 30-year-old unemployed scholar who lives with his mother. He embarks on a series of misadventures as he navigates a world he finds absurd and frustrating. Ignatius's disdain for modernity and his interactions with a colorful cast of characters highlight themes of alienation, social criticism, and the absurdity of life.
Despite the challenges Toole faced in getting the novel published, it ultimately won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and has sold over two million copies. Its humor, rich character development, and sharp social commentary have made it a beloved classic in American literature, resonating with readers for its unique blend of comedy and critique.
MY FATHER needs a hearing aid but he’s waiting until my mother dies.
— Rita Rudner
LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT
Dangerous Winds Are Forecast as Crews Battle L.A. Wildfires
Childhood Vaccination Rates Were Falling Even Before the Rise of R.F.K. Jr.
Israeli Security Chiefs Join Critical Talks for a Cease-Fire in Gaza
Inside Trump’s Search for a Health Threat to Justify His Immigration Crackdown
Charles Person, Youngest of the Original Freedom Riders, Dies at 82
DOUG HOLLAND:
Re Maureen Callahan: “The first rule of journalism: It’s not about you, the reporter. It’s never supposed to be about you.”
Exactly right! Anyone doing “journalism” on TV, with a camera pointed at them, is not doing journalism. When the camera is pointed at them, it’s show business.
Once or twice a year I accidentally catch a few minutes of TV news, at a friend’s house or in a YouTube clip, and I can feel my already-low IQ leaking out of me.
TRUMP INAUGURATION, AWASH IN CASH, RUNS OUT OF PERKS FOR BIG DONORS
The president-elect has raised more than $170 million for his swearing-in, an inaugural record, as wealthy Americans flock to curry favor with him and some give money even without the prospect of V.I.P. access.
by Theordor Schleifer, Maggie Habereman & Kenneth P. Vogel
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inaugural committee is no longer selling tickets for major donors to attend his swearing-in and accompanying private events in Washington, according to five people briefed on the conversations.
The committee has raised over $170 million, according to the people, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to share internal financial information. The haul is so big that some seven-figure donors have been placed on wait lists or have been told they probably will not receive V.I.P. tickets at all because the events are at capacity.
Mr. Trump often talks privately about who has supported him, and the frenzy to donate to his inauguration — even if it comes without the usual exclusive access — underscores the degree to which deep-pocketed donors and corporations are seeking to curry favor with him. Far more than in early 2017 at the start of his first term, corporate America has largely embraced Mr. Trump during his transition, partly out of a desire to get on his good side.
Prospective donors began to be told early this week that no more seats were available for certain events around Washington, according to the people briefed on the conversations. The personalized donation link that fund-raisers had circulated to their networks of major contributors no longer worked on Tuesday and Wednesday. The packages offered to corporate and individual donors had originally been marketed as available through Friday, but they ended early given the extraordinary demand.
“Space is limited,” read the marketing materials for the donor packages.
Individual donors and others can still attend the swearing-in ceremony by obtaining free tickets made available to the public through members of Congress.
The sums raised by Mr. Trump had already set a record for inaugural fund-raising. Mr. Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee raised $107 million, and the current one is on pace to approach $200 million, according to one person briefed on the fund-raising.
The leftover money is likely to be transferred to a committee for the eventual Trump presidential library. Mr. Trump’s allies have now raised more than $250 million since Election Day for his political projects, including the inaugural committee and some allied outside groups. There are no limits on donations to inaugural committees, though foreign nationals are prohibited from giving. The contributions are eventually disclosed.
On account of the shortage of seating at V.I.P. events, some donors have taken the unusual step of offering donations as high as $1 million without receiving anything in return. Seats at the inaugural address, tickets to the ritzy balls or access to other events are typically a major part of why major donors cut checks. Inaugural events are a key time for the lobbying industry, and they draw donations from corporations and wealthy donors eager to gain influence or make amends with a new administration.
Fund-raisers have not always told prospective donors that they can still give money even though the events are full, and so some last-minute donors have felt shut out of contributing.
“Anyone interested in making a contribution to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee is encouraged to do so,” said Danielle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the committee. “There is an incredible interest and excitement for President Trump’s inauguration and the events surrounding.”
Inauguration events begin on Jan. 17. Those who gave $1 million or raised $2 million were supposed to be entitled to six tickets each for six different events, according to an updated list of benefits, including the swearing-in ceremony and a sought-after “candlelight dinner” on Jan. 19 with Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, that is described as the weekend’s “pinnacle event.”
They also received two tickets to a dinner with Vice President-elect JD Vance and his wife, Usha.
(NY Times)
‘THEIR KIND OF INDOCTRINATION’
by Diane Ravitch
For a range of far-right activists, Trump’s second term will be a chance to discipline public schools—and ultimately defund them.
Donald Trump and his supporters have hardly been shy about his ambitions for education. They can be found laid out concisely in three documents: the Republican Party’s brief platform for his presidential campaign, known as Agenda 47; the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership publication, a sprawling, group-authored right-wing policy plan better known as Project 2025; and the agenda of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a think tank with close ties to Trump’s transition team. The texts differ in length and detail, but they have some common themes. Agenda 47 and Project 2025 propose the same steps for overhauling the education system: abolish the Department of Education, which transmits funds to states for federal programs and defends the civil rights of students; redirect federal funds to the states for subsidizing tuition at any schools that parents choose, including religious ones, demolishing the separation between church and state; and purge regulations that recognize the existence of nonbinary and transgender students.
The vision hardly ends there. Head Start—the federal program that supports low-income preschoolers by funding programs where they learn social and academic skills, eat nutritious meals, and get regular health screening—is located not in the Department of Education but in the Department of Health and Human Services. Project 2025, however, would eradicate it, too, along with the office that supervises it. (“At the very least,” it adds, “the program’s Covid-19 vaccine and mask requirements should be rescinded.”) Trump, for his part, promised during his first term to reduce the threat of school shootings by allowing trained teachers to carry concealed weapons; in the past year he has vowed to restore the right to pray in public schools—indeed to “champion” such prayer as a “fundamental right”—and create “a credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values and support the American Way of Life.” One can only imagine the opprobrium that will be visited upon teachers who are not certified as patriots.
These goals are not all easily achievable. Republicans would need sixty votes in the Senate to abolish the Department of Education; they have fifty-three senators. No Democrat will vote to eliminate the department, and some Republicans might join them. But even if Trump’s administration stops short of fulfilling that ambition, his appointees could inflict serious damage not only on the department but on American education writ large—and empower some of the country’s most passionate right-wing activists in the process.
In Trump’s first term he gave the position of Secretary of Education to the billionaire Betsy DeVos, who had by then spent decades and many millions of dollars advocating for the diversion of public dollars to private schools, especially religious schools. (She continues to finance the campaigns of state legislators who share her enthusiasm for charter schools and vouchers.) Now he has chosen another billionaire for the role, the entrepreneur Linda McMahon, who built her fortune in the wrestling-entertainment industry and served in his first term as administrator of the Small Business Administration until she stepped down in 2019. After Trump lost the 2020 election, McMahon helped found the AFPI, which advocates, among much else, for school choice and patriotic history against the “racially divisive policies and theories” that “are indoctrinating America’s youth with an anti-American ideology.”
(New York Review of Books)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
As we mark the fourth anniversary of January 6, Joe Biden keeps departing and Donald Trump keeps arriving. The soon-to-be former president and the still-future president are like comic-tragic characters in a political zombie film.
Let’s face it: the U.S. presidential transition is a constitutional travesty. The months-long transition is undemocratic, unseemly and quite dangerous.
CHILDREN OF GAZA
Editor:
As a family physician who has worked internationally, including in the West Bank, it is horrific to see how we have forgotten the children of Gaza. The violence perpetuated on hundreds of innocent Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, was a heinous crime.
A crime of another magnitude is the 45,000 Gazans, mostly innocent women and children, killed by the Israeli military in the past 15 months, with weapons largely paid for by American taxpayers.
Daily the civilian population of Gaza is subjected to bombings, lack of food and water, destroyed sanitation and housing and exposure to the elements. Babies are now regularly dying of malnutrition and hypothermia. Children have not been able to attend school for over a year. No kids deserve that.
The innocent children of Gaza need protection, but instead we dehumanize them by ignoring their suffering. If guiltless children cannot be treated with basic respect and dignity, then finding peace will be challenging.
Like in World War II, innocent life has become increasingly dispensable, and it doesn’t bode well for any of us. We must find a way to better protect the children of Gaza and other conflict zones. The future of the world is at stake.
Joseph Eichenseher
Sebastopol
HOW U.S. MEDIA HIDE TRUTHS ABOUT THE GAZA WAR
by Norman Solomon / Media North
A few days before the end of 2024, the independent magazine +972 reported that “Israeli army forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital compound in Beit Lahiya, culminating a nearly week-long siege of the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza.” While fire spread through the hospital, its staff issued a statement saying that “surgical departments, laboratory, maintenance, and emergency units have been completely burned,” and patients were “at risk of dying at any moment.”
The magazine explained that “the assault on medical facilities in Beit Lahiya is the latest escalation in Israel’s brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, which over the last three months forcibly displaced the vast majority of Palestinians living in the area.” The journalism from +972 -- in sharp contrast to the dominant coverage of the Gaza war from U.S. media -- has provided clarity about real-time events, putting them in overall context rather than episodic snippets.
+972 Magazine is the work of Palestinian and Israeli journalists who describe their core values as “a commitment to equity, justice, and freedom of information” -- which necessarily means “accurate and fair journalism that spotlights the people and communities working to oppose occupation and apartheid.” But the operative values of mainstream U.S. news outlets have been very different.
Key aspects of how the U.S. establishment has narrated the “war on terror” for more than two decades were standard in American media and politics from the beginning of the Gaza war in October 2023. For instance:
- Routine discourse avoided voices condemning the U.S. government for its role in the slaughter of civilians.
- The U.S. ally usually eluded accountability for its high-tech atrocities committed from the air.
- Civilian deaths in Gaza were habitually portrayed as unintended.
- Claims that Israel was aiming to minimize civilian casualties were normally taken at face value.
- Media coverage and political rhetoric stayed away from acknowledging that Israel’s actions might fit into such categories as “mass murder” or “terrorism.”
- Overall, news media and U.S. government officials emitted a mindset that Israeli lives really mattered a lot more than Palestinian lives.
The Gaza war has received a vast amount of U.S. media attention, but how much it actually communicated about the human realities was a whole other matter. The belief or unconscious notion that news media were conveying war’s realities ended up obscuring those realities all the more. And journalism’s inherent limitations were compounded by media biases.
During the first five months of the war, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post applied the word “brutal” or its variants far more often to Palestinians (77 percent) than to Israelis (23 percent). The findings, in a study by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), pointed to an imbalance that occurred “even though Israeli violence was responsible for more than 20 times as much loss of life.” News articles and opinion pieces were remarkably in the same groove; “the lopsided rate at which ‘brutal’ was used in op-eds to characterize Palestinians over Israelis was exactly the same as the supposedly straight news stories.”
Despite exceptional coverage at times, what was most profoundly important about war in Gaza -- what it was like to be terrorized, massacred, maimed and traumatized -- remained almost entirely out of view. Gradually, surface accounts reaching the American public came to seem repetitious and normal. As death numbers kept rising and months went by, the Gaza war diminished as a news topic, while most talk shows seldom discussed it.
As with the slaughter via bombardment, the Israeli-U.S. alliance treated the increasing onset of starvation, dehydration, and fatal disease as a public-relations problem. Along the way, official pronouncements -- and the policies they tried to justify -- were deeply anchored in the unspoken premise that some lives really matter and some really don’t.
The propaganda approach was foreshadowed on October 8, 2023, with Israel in shock from the atrocities that Hamas had committed the previous day. “This is Israel’s 9/11,” the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations told reporters in New York, and he repeated: “This is Israel’s 9/11.” Meanwhile, in a PBS News Weekend interview, Israel’s ambassador to the United States declared: “This is, as someone said, our 9/11.”
What was sinister about proclaiming “Israel’s 9/11” was what happened after America’s 9/11. Wearing the cloak of victim, the United States proceeded to use the horrible tragedy that occurred inside its borders as an open-ended reason to kill in the name of retaliation, self-protection, and, of course, the “war on terror.”
As Israel’s war on Gaza persisted, the explanations often echoed the post-9/11 rationales for the “war on terror” from the U.S. government: authorizing future crimes against humanity as necessary in the light of certain prior events. Reverberation was in the air from late 2001, when the Pentagon’s leader Donald Rumsfeld asserted that “responsibility for every single casualty in this war, whether they’re innocent Afghans or innocent Americans, rests at the feet of the al Qaeda and the Taliban.” After five weeks of massacring Palestinian people, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “any civilian loss is a tragedy” -- and quickly added that “the blame should be placed squarely on Hamas.”
The licenses to kill were self-justifying. And they had no expiration date.
This article is adapted from the afterword in the paperback edition of Norman Solomon’s latest book, "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine" (The New Press).
I certainly tend to agree with Marco McClean that KZYX has it all backwards with the heavy salaries for management and no apparent commitment to pay those who create programming. It can’t possibly require all that many people to run the station. In Round Vally we have had a community radio station for going on fourteen years. It takes about two hours a week to run the thing, figure out the underwriting, sort out how to do the next fundraiser, keep up with the requirements for licensing, royalties, utilities, meet with a new person who is interested in hosting a live or uploaded program. Not that big a deal. $18,000 a year. All volunteer. If KZYX was interested in developing some regular current affairs programming with investigative reporting, and then share that with some of the other county community radio stations, that might have some value and require some coordination and management. But the people who do the work to create the programs would need to be paid. It takes time and effort to put together even a ten minute radio spot. Producing a local, county wide news program would be great. We would much rather tune into something like that than the drivel from NPR every day.
“Governor Gavin Newscum [sic] refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California,” Trump posted on Truth Social, “including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”
Ignorance, and stupidity, personified. The idiots should never have been allowed to develop areas that have been fire-prone for a long, long time. The native plants were adapted to that condition. Human monkeys and their scene-destroying housing “developments” are not. Now, the bill has come due. Knowing humans, though, the idiotic species will rebuild and place the blame elsewhere…that is, if it doesn’t go extinct first, the latter a forlorn hope.
Sorry, Harv
“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration.”
THE SOURCES
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office
Jeffrey Mount, Ph.D., senior fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center
Spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition team
Courthouse News Service
Brent Haddad, Ph.D., a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz
California Department of Water Resources
Article written by Peter Gleick, a climate and water scientist, for the nonprofit Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/wildfires-verify/trump-claim-newsom-california-water-restoration-declaration-fact-check/536-2b13aded-fc4c-4dee-abba-fef2571e245e
In case you missed it, the quote in bold is attributed in the article to Trump, not me. I believe NOTHING that the brainless mutant says. My first sentence covers that.
Do you remember in the 2012 presidential campaign when Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid from Nevada said Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney had not paid his taxes for 10 years? A total lie and fabrication, yet it had the desired effect and cast doubt on Romney. Harry Reid said he did not regret his lie. Trump is doing the same thing to throw shade on Newsom for the 2028 presidential election.
Watching the fighting between sides is getting really old, makes me wonder what could we accomplish if the knuckleheads used the same energy to serve the public that they are currently using to serve themselves and their political party.
Agreed. Utter BS from tRump
Last week California was trump proofing the state, this week it’s his fault. Obviously forest Managment up against developments would be helpful, ladder fuel removed and hey maybe a little water for those spot fires.
https://gavinnewsom.com/california-fire-facts/
LIE – These Wildfires are Caused by California’s Mismanagement of Forest Lands
• FACT: The budget for managing the forest (AKA “raking the forest”) is now TEN TIMES larger than it was when the Governor Newsom took office. It was a $200 million annual budget in 2018. The state has now invested $2 billion, in addition to the $200 million annually.
• FACT: California dramatically ramped up state work to increase wildland and forest resilience, as well as adding unprecedented resources to support wildfire response. California officials treated more than 700,000 acres of land for wildfire resilience in 2023, and prescribed fires more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.
LIE – California Ran Out of Water and Reservoirs Are Empty
Facts About Water Availability
• FACT: Water reservoirs in Southern California are at record levels. There is no shortage of water in Southern California.
• FACT: Wildland firefighters don’t use hydrants — they use water tenders. And that is what has been used to ensure continued water access. Three million gallons of water were stored in three large tanks for fire hydrants in the area before the Palisades fire, but the supply was exhausted because of the extraordinary nature of this hurricane-force firestorm.
• FACT: The Governor has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to local fire hydrants and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir. While urban water systems are built for structure fires and fire suppression, not hurricane-force firestorms, it is important to understand what happened so we can be better prepared in the future.
• FACT: There is no water shortage in Southern California right now, despite Trump’s claims that he would open some imaginary spigot.
• Orange County Water District, which supplies groundwater to the north half of the county, has enough supply to carry its 2.5 million customers through the worst of any potential droughts for3 to 5 years.
• The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — which serves 19 million people mostly with imported water — also has an abundance, “with a record 3.8 million acre-feet of water in storage,” (1 million acres of land with water that is 3.8 feet deep) according to Interim General Manager Deven Upadhyay, who issued a statement last week. That’s enough water to supply 40 million people for a year.
• FACT: Reservoirs are full and water is available.
Fact: pacific palisades reservoir empty since may. You mention 3.8 million acre foot stored but only 9 available for palisades. That’s your info.
Which grants were used in LA county forest Managment and where is the map of work completed? Cal trans has a high tech map
For work completed, where is the map for BLM, forest service or national parks? The blow torch fire started in topanga state park, any info on forest Managment from them?
You are claiming a budget of 2 billion, on forest Managment, where was it spent?
https://gavinnewsom.com/california-fire-facts/
I AM WORKING ON GETTING MORE INFO., if/and when, they return my calls.
• FACT: Water reservoirs in Southern California are at record levels. There is no shortage of water in Southern California.
• FACT: Wildland firefighters don’t use hydrants — they use water tenders.
• FACT: Three million gallons of water were stored in three large tanks for fire hydrants in the area before the Palisades fire, but the supply was exhausted because of the extraordinary nature of this hurricane-force firestorm.
• FACT: The Governor has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to local fire hydrants and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir. While urban water systems are built for structure fires and fire suppression, not hurricane-force firestorms, it is important to understand what happened so we can be better prepared in the future.
• RE: 3.8 acre…Interim General Manager Deven Upadhyay issued a statement last week there is enough water to supply 40 million people for a year.
• FACT: Reservoirs are full and water is available.
I don’t see where you couldn’t provide us with the info. you’re asking for.
For now…
California’s new, cutting-edge dashboards map the progress of wildfire resilience work that protects communities | Governor of California
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/10/10/californias-new-cutting-edge-dashboards-map-the-progress-of-wildfire-resilience-work-that-protects-communities/
California Unveils First-of-Their-Kind Dashboards Mapping Out Fire-Prevention Work to Protect Communities
https://resources.ca.gov/Newsroom/Page-Content/News-List/California-Unveils-First-of-Their-Kind-Dashboards-Fire-Prevention-Work
As PG&E Continues Wildfire Risk-Reduction Efforts, New Online Map Lets Customers See Wildfire Prevention Progress in Their Hometowns
https://www.pge.com/en/newsroom/currents/safety/articles-3988-pge-continues-wildfire-risk-reduction-efforts-new-online-map-lets-customers-see-wildfire-prevention-progress-hometowns.html
USDA Forest Service Launches Interactive Map Showcasing Wildfire Reduction Projects | US Forest Service
https://www.fs.usda.gov/news/releases/interactive-map-showcasing-wildfire-reduction-projects
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also created the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission, charged with making recommendations to improve federal policies related to the mitigation, suppression, and management of wildland fires in the United States. In September 2023, the Commission released a comprehensive report outlining 148 recommendations to improve the nation’s relationship with wildfire. Today’s funding advances many of those recommendations.
My comment is on the Trump statement above. That is what he wrote and my response is to what he wrote.
A lot of news reporting has shown individuals, complaining about the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Governor, and almost anyone else they can hold “responsible” for what is a natural occurrence made worse by global warming.
LA County is made up of 88 cities, along with unincorporated areas that the County Board of Supervisors manages. It’s not just the City of Los Angeles. Each one of these municipalities has police and fire departments, Council-people, Mayors, etc. While I understand these people are clearly traumatized by the fires, we need to remember that: 1) this area is a desert environment, only made green by the addition of water from the Owens Valley and the Rio Grande river; and 2) humans are powerless to stop a fire in the face of 100 mph winds. The people of Los Angeles County are incredibly kind and generous. Municipalities work closely in emergencies. Carping and blaming are unhelpful. I wish these people looking for someone to blame would step up and volunteer with one of the organizations that are actually making things better – like World Kitchen. There are many ways to help.
hey bruce, do u remember the quonset huts that we called a high school, in 1963 , when u taught at the
junior high school up th hill? (and where they came from? in san luis obispo
Yes, and my fill-in experience as a junior high teacher cured me forever of wanting to join the profession. That school’s wacky admin thought I was great and wanted me to stay, unaware that I did nothing but entertain the little beasts per the superintendent’s instruction: “I don’t care what you do Anderson; just keep ’em from roaming the halls.” My predecessor, a woman who’d taught for many years, had been driven crazy by the behavior of her sadistic students to the point where one memorable day the poor thing locked herself in the classroom with a fifth of whiskey, much to the delight of the junior fiends trapped with her. When the SLO fire department beat down the door she was dancing semi-nude on her desk. PS I’d played semi-pro baseball with the Santa Maria Indians the previous summer during which I vaguely recall playing against Jim Lonborg at SLO.
Warmest spiritual greetings, Having a simple day here in Washington, D.C. Again, you may stop sending me housing information for Mendocino County. Unless I actually receive 1. respect due from 75 years as a good American citizen, 2. appropriate subsidized housing with the government HUD voucher involved, and 3.being recognized as a spiritually enlightened individual, I am not interested in living in Mendocino County again. On the other hand, feel free to use your connections to hook me up with a housing situation in Washington, D.C. Obviously, it would be intelligent to have a radical organizing base here in the District of Columbia. I am accepting money! Paypal.me/craiglouisstehr I’d like a response some time from postmodern America, assuming that you are not dead.
Craig Louis Stehr
Adams Place Homeless Shelter
2210 Adams Place NE #1
Washington, D.C. 20018
Telephone: (202) 832-8317
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
January 13, 2025 A.D.
Not so fast, Tommy Wayne Kramer. The ‘new sheriff in town’ is not back in the Oval Office, and RFJ Jr. has yet to be confirmed as his health czar. Kennedy was last seen at an anti-vax rally in Ukiah, on his way to cutting off a beached whale’s head on the Mendocino Coast before his return to SoCal.
There has never been a time in human history where, what we call, human exploitation was not an essential part of human survival. Capitalism, or otherwise.
Nope. For eons human cooperation was necessary for survival. Dogs eating dogs began when enterprising thugs set themselves up as royalty, having figured out they could live free by ripping off their fellows.
Exactly, and we see way too much of these same thugs today, here and in too much of the world abroad.
Glynnis Campbell
January 10
CALIFORNIA FIRE FACT CHECK
Having lived in both northern California for the Camp Fire in Paradise and southern California for these L.A. fires, I’d like to clear up a few misconceptions and inaccuracies about my state.
1) Blaming Governor Newsom for anything related to firefighting techniques is ridiculous. Politicians rely on experts to determine how to best fight a fire. The Governor is also not responsible for infrastructure built over the last 100 years.
2) Firefighters are the most qualified when it comes to the use of equipment, when to evacuate, and how best to protect lives and structures. Ordinary citizens’ opinions, especially those from outsiders unfamiliar with the area and the terrain, are not useful.
3) Often outsiders try to blame the fires on Californians having too many trees or not enough water or bad planning or horrible politicians. None of this is true. Changes in weather patterns have made conditions conducive to fire. California has been surprisingly responsive to these dramatic changes, both in planning and recovery.
4) Those who are cheering for the loss of “rich people’s” homes are not only cruel, they’re mistaken. Hollywood is filled with struggling actors, film crew people, and everyday restaurant and retail workers. Pasadena has many elderly residents whose homes were bought decades ago. The foothills are home to ordinary folks in the service industry and family businesses.
5) The myth circulating that the Governor wouldn’t let northern California send water to southern California to help fight the fire is ludicrous. First of all, ill-informed northern Californians are always claiming southern California is stealing their water for their swimming pools. The outside water southern California gets is mostly from Colorado, and we pay for it. Colorado is probably delighted to have the extra revenue. Secondly, L.A. has enough of its own water in reservoirs to fight the fires. In a pinch, the ocean is RIGHT THERE, and water can be scooped and dumped by aircraft. Only in Pacific Palisades, which is a very small neighborhood, did the fire hydrants lose pressure. All other areas had adequate water pressure.
6) The trouble in Paradise was due to a) the high winds, b) the dryness of the brush and trees caused by drought, and c) the lack of roads to evacuate (firefighters had to give priority to getting people out rather than trying to go in to fight the flames). The trouble in L.A. is mostly due to the high winds and dry conditions. There are plenty of evacuation routes, so the relative casualty rate is going to be much lower than Paradise.
7) The stories about California insurance companies eliminating fire coverage just 10 days ago should have us all up in arms. Just like health care, perhaps we’re waking up to the fact that insurance companies are profit-motivated. Their bottom line is to take in as much of your money as possible and pay out as little as they can get away with.
I remember how my little town of Paradise pulled together to help each other out. It’s no different in L.A. People are people. Neighbors help neighbors. In fact, L.A.’s sense of cooperation is even more impressive, considering the diversity of people we have here.
If you’re an outsider, please don’t believe the blame-throwers. There are a lot of inspiring stories happening here of hotels and restaurants offering relief for those left homeless, of people rescuing animals, of international first responders working to save people and homes. Don’t let myths and malcontents divide us!
Thanks for taking the time to put this so thoroughly and well, Steve.