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COLD WEATHER ADVISORY Remains In Effect Until 9am This Morning. (NWS)
DRY WEATHER is expected to continue with above normal high temperatures and chilly nights for the next 7 days. Breezy to locally windy northeast winds return for the coastal headland and exposed ridges this weekend. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Baby it's cold outside with a 34F under clear skies. Tomorrow morning will be about the same then overnight lows will get back to about 40F ish later this week. No, there is no rain in sight for the rest of this month currently.
JAMES M. MARMON
July 4, 1954 – January 3, 2025
MISSING FORT BRAGG TEENAGER’S DEATH CONFIRMED
On December 23, 2024 at approximately 08:28 A.M., deputies with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to the area of the 1000 block of S. Main Street in Fort Bragg, CA for a report of found human remains. This area can be further described as the South Jetty of the mouth of the Noyo River, underneath the Noyo River Bridge.
Due to the extremely dangerous surf conditions on the beach, to include 25-foot breaking surf, the Fort Bragg Fire Department was conducting the recovery. The Sheriff's Office requested Fort Bragg Police Department personnel to photograph the decedent and have the remains transported to the U.S. Coast Guard Station on South Harbor Drive in Fort Bragg.
Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the U.S. Coast Guard Station and observed the decedent was unable to be identified due to the condition of the remains. It should be noted, Sheriff's Office personnel were aware of a missing juvenile reported to the Fort Bragg Police Department identified as Naomi L. “Roy” Mora, who matched the decedent's stature, clothing, and jewelry.
Sheriff's Office personnel conducted a coroner's investigation into the remains recovered from the South Jetty of the Noyo River to include efforts to positively identify the decedent. On 12-26-2024, the decedent from this investigation was taken for an autopsy examination and dental records were obtained for the missing person reported to the Fort Bragg Police Department.
On December 31, 2024, a dentist working with the Sonoma County Coroner's Office was able to compare the dental records from the missing person and the decedent from this investigation was positively identified as Mora. Sheriff's Office personnel were able to contact Mora's legal next-of-kin on January 7, 2025 and notify them that the human remains recovered during this investigation were positively identified as Mora.
The official cause and manner of death for this coroner's investigation are still pending the full postmortem examination report and will not be released until the autopsy report is finalized which can take multiple months.
MENDO DEPUTY ARRESTED ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CHARGES
Authorities responded to multiple disturbances linked to the deputy
by Matt LaFever
A Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy was arrested in Ukiah on allegations of domestic violence, authorities confirmed.
Deputy Alexander Thong was taken into custody Sunday evening at about 9:30 p.m. Ukiah police Chief Cedric Crook told SFGate that a neighbor reported a domestic disturbance on the 900 block of North Pine Street. Responding officers “determined there was probable cause to make an arrest,” Crook said.
Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall and Lt. Quincy Cromer confirmed they were aware of Thong’s arrest Sunday evening. Cromer stated Thong posted bail and was released. Though still employed by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Thong was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 2 for undisclosed reasons.
Sheriff Kendall told SFGate that the department offers extensive mental health resources for deputies, including an “employee assistance program, employee wellness program, peer support program. We have a clinical psychologist on staff who all of our people meet with every year. We provide them with everything we possibly can for their health and well being.” However, he said, “that doesn’t mean that everyone takes advantage of it.”
When asked for more information on the circumstances that led to Thong’s arrest, Crook cited California Penal Code 273.5, under which Thong was booked. The charge applies when someone “willfully inflicts corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition on a victim.”
Crook told SFGate his agency had responded to multiple “disturbances” associated with Thong.
Thong was hired in December 2017 according to SFGate ‘s interview with Cromer. He was previously involved in an October 2019 shooting when an intoxicated man pulled a gun on three Mendocino sheriff’s deputies, including Thong. The deputies opened fire, and the suspect survived, later pleading guilty to second-degree attempted murder, according to local media.
(SFGate.com)
REDWOOD VALLEY MAC: Unused sirens, emergency plans, and community concerns take center stage
by Monica Huettl
The RV MAC returned for its January meeting on the 8th, having taken a break in December. The guest speaker was Jeff Adair from the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services. Sheriff Matt Kendall was also there to provide his input on emergency services. Kendall reminded us that it was Elvis Presley’s birthday, but the “fellas at the jail” did not sing Jailhouse Rock.…
KENDRA MCEWEN (Philo)
Hi community! Lee and I are looking for a new rental for our family in AV or the surrounding area. We both work here, grew up here, and have fantastic long term rental history. Our budget is $1500 per month and we need at least two but better yet three or four bedrooms. Please keep an eye out for us and let us know if something comes up! We own a landscaping business and I have managed Airbnb rentals for years so perhaps some kind of worktrade might make our budget workable. (We realize that the going market rate for rentals here has climbed way higher…)
REQUEST FOR CUBBISON CASE EXPENSE INFO
From: Mike Geniella
Date: Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Subject: Cubbison case expenses
To: Sara Pierce pierces@mendocinocounty.gov
Cc: scottc@mendocinocounty.org
Please consider this a formal request under the 2004 California Public Records Act for the following information regarding criminal and civil litigation surrounding suspended county Auditor Chamise Cubbison pending in Mendocino County Superior Court.
1 - All fees/costs from January 2024 to present paid to special prosecutor Traci Carrillo under contract reached with District Attorney David Eyster for the prosecution of Ms. Cubbison and former county Payroll Manager Paula June Kennedy.
2 - All fees/costs paid to date to the San Francisco law firm of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore (Morin I. Jacob), including costs from October 2023 to the present to defend the county of Mendocino and the Board of Supervisors in pending civil litigation filed by Ms. Cubbison.
3 - For defendant Paula June Kennedy, all assigned costs of Public Defender services from October 2023 to present provided by the Mendocino County Public Defender's Office (Mary LeClair and Fred McCurry).
Thank you,
Mike Geniella
Ukiah Daily Journal
Anderson Valley Advertiser
ED NOTES
MIKE GENIELLA'S probably futile request to learn how much DA Eyster's pursuit of Ms. Cubbison has cost us captive taxpayers, consider the timeline and try, just try, to do the legal billing math in your head as everybody involved, except the court reporter, is paid at $400 an hour. And up.
It all started in August of 2021 when Eyster went before the Supervisors to lobby against Ms. Cubbison becoming Auditor, not mentioning of course that she had challenged his expenditure of public funds to the Broiler Steak House for end of the year bacchanals under the guise of “trainings.”
Former Auditor Lloyd Weer never dared challenge the monarchical-tending DA as the DA enjoyed tax-paid jaunts here and there, always written off as the public's business which, maybe, it was now and then.
In October of 2023 Eyster filed criminal charges against Cubbison and her subordinate, Kennedy, for, basically, theft of public money, a charge supported by zero evidence, a fact ordinarily confirmed in preliminary hearings of which there have been none in this case.
The matter of Eyster vs. the two innocent women has limped along for more than 15 months without ever reaching the prelim, as lawyers and judges played tag and Eyster named a stand-in for himself, a SoCo lawyer at $400 an hour. She , natch, needed time, you see, “to get up to speed” on the matter, i.e,, come up with a plausible defense of the guy who hired her, Eyster.
Since the truth of this matter was so much libelous bullshit aimed at Cubbison and Kennedy by Eyster, Eyster's $400-an-hour stand-in must have had lots of catching up to do.
Many, many thousands of dollars have been spent on what is merely a matter of Eyster's pique at having his expense chits challenged by Ms. Cubbison who, in the meantime, a very mean time, was summarily fired from her auditing job by our five ethically-challenged, wholly insensate, supervisors, who sacked Cubbison on the say-so of Eyster! (Only in Mendo)
In January of 2025 this farce of a non-case finally reaches a (scheduled) preliminary hearing, having involved a brace of lawyers and judges at huge public expense. Today, Tuesday the 14th of January is the prelim in Judge Moorman's courtroom. Expect another delay.
IN THE EARLY years of the 20th century, Chinese herb doctors concocted a potion heavy on rattlesnake venom that they claimed cured rheumatism. Enterprising ranchers here in Mendocino County trapped the snakes and shipped them to Frisco where they sold in Chinatown for $5 each. The brewmasters then poured a half gallon of alcohol into a two-gallon jar in which the snake was immersed until he died an unnatural serpent's death, having been basted in booze. A secret ingredient was added to the mix and, after six months' ferment, sold as just the thing for aching bones.
A CASE that still bothers me involved a literal tin foil hat guy named Anthony James Pelfrey. Visibly deranged during court appearances, Pelfrey was sentenced to 13 years in state prison for attempted murder by Judge Ron Brown, living proof that the Bar exam had been dumbed way, way down.
PELFREY, chattering obliviously to imagined presences as he twitched at the defendant's table, Brown nevertheless packed him off to 13 years in the state pen.
THE UNFORTUNATE Pelfrey was fairly well known in Mendocino County. He occasionally appeared in Philo to complain about the strange messages he was picking up from certain KZYX transmissions. Because he couldn't allow himself to make left turns, his travel time from Ukiah to the Anderson Valley was extended as Pelfrey travelled to Philo via Fort Bragg.
AMONG OTHER DELUSIONS Pelfrey thought that Nazis had a remote machine that was making his head bigger. Mostly Pelfrey's torment was confined to his own seething mind, and why Judge Brown didn't commit the bedeviled man to the state hospital amounted to one more instance of the judicial cruelty we often see here in “liberal” Mendocino County.
PELFREY was only 30 when he took total leave of his senses in July of 2007 and attacked two men with a knife, but he was found sane by Judge Brown even though psychiatrists testified that Pelfrey was the most obviously insane person they'd ever seen.
BUT JUDGE BROWN, in the insanity phase of Pelfrey's trials, and with the piety of the true judicial idiot, said words to the effect that much as he felt for Pelfrey the law compelled the judge to torture him further at San Quentin rather than send Pelfrey to a hospital where he belonged.
LOCAL HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS COLLABORATE TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN MEDICAL PROVIDERS
In response to the nationwide doctor shortage that has hit rural communities especially hard, local healthcare organizations in Mendocino County are collaborating to recruit and retain medical providers through an initiative called Incubate. Originally intended to retain family medicine residents (doctors-in-training) in Mendocino County, Incubate recently re-launched with an expanded scope to focus on recruiting and retaining medical providers countywide.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the United States does not have enough doctors to meet current demand, and the country is likely to face a shortage of as many as 86,000 physicians in the next ten years. Access to medical care in rural communities will suffer disproportionately because while 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural communities, only 10% of doctors practice there.
One way to limit the effects of having so few doctors is to bring more medical providers into the healthcare industry. Advanced practice providers such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives, and nurse anesthetists can now be licensed to do some of the work that used to belong to doctors alone. But even with these additional providers, the need for medical care often outstrips the medical community's ability to provide it.
This situation affects everyone-patients and medical personnel alike. People seeking medical care either face long waits or must travel out of the area to get treatment (or both), while medical providers trying to meet an overwhelming demand begin to burnout, especially when they're on the receiving end of patients' frustration over issues out of their control such as scheduling, billing, and insurance coverage.
MCHC Health Centers CEO Rod Grainger noted that while local health centers offer same-day appointments, and hospital emergency rooms are always available in a crisis, it can take a long time to get an appointment for check-ups and other preventive care-the kind of appointments that can keep people out of emergency rooms.
Kelly Saldana Compliance Business Partner
MCHC Health Centers | Risk
1165 South Dora Street | Ukiah, CA 95482
p: 707-468-2205 | f: 866-820-4047
www.mchcinc.org
A READER WRITES: For years when we wanted to remember to take something to our Boonville home we would put it in what we called, "The Boonville Bag", which was a plain white canvas bag. So this Christmas I asked Santa for a bag that actually said, "Boonville" on it. It took a while but it arrived on the porch in Berkeley today.
MENDOCINO COUNTY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH ADVISORY BOARD MEETING - Wednesday, January 22, 2025
The Mendocino County Behavioral Health Advisory Board Meeting (BHAB) regular monthly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 22, 2025, from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Behavioral Health & Recovery Services, Conference Room 1, 1120 South Dora Street, Ukiah, CA 95482. This meeting is intended for members of the public who are interested in supporting their local behavioral health services. Community members are encouraged to attend the meeting to ask questions, obtain information, and provide feedback.
BHAB meeting agendas are published at: https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/BHAB
For more information about BHAB meetings, please contact Behavioral Health & Recovery Services Administration at (707) 472-2355 or e-mail: bhboard@mendocinocounty.gov.
DANCE PARTY WITH FUNKACILLIN at McNab Ridge, Sat. Jan 25
Funkacillin are ready to party! Get your tickets in advance for this night at a new venue that will continue to host many events, the McNab Ridge Winery just south of Ukiah!
This early evening event from 4:30-7:30 features wine & beer, as well as dancing to the funkiest band in Mendocino County! Food will also be available for purchase, so no need to stop elsewhere as this event will immediately follow the "All That Sparkles" sparkling wine & oyster celebration at the Saracina Wine Cave just down the road.
Make a day of it by getting tickets for this as well at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3rd-annual-sparkling-wine-oyster-celebration-tickets-1014856492087?aff=oddtdtcreator
Tickets for McNab Ridge Winery's Dance Party with Funkacillin can be purchased in advance for $20. or for $25. at the door. Visit https://mcnabridge.com/product/funkacillin-afterparty/
We hope to see you at one of the private parties or public shows we have lined up!
JON TYSON
After Sunday's pancake breakfast, I had a chance to update the Anderson Valley Grange's sign …
Burning Down the House is stoked to return to the county for our Feb 1 show! Tickets available now at Anderson Valley Market in Boonville, Lemon's Market in Philo, and Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah (all by cash or check).
LEW CHICHESTER (Covelo)
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 Valley 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.
LET’S LAUGH!
North Coast Comedy returns to the Noyo Theater on Valentine’s Day for date night and laughs! Rumor has it there is daycare available that evening right in Willits. Let’s go!
MENDOCINO THEATRE COMPANY UNVEILS 2025 SEASON
Featuring Timeless Classics and Heartfelt Stories
The Mendocino Theatre Company is excited to announce its 2025 Season, showcasing a remarkable array of performances that include beloved classics, heartfelt narratives, and vibrant musical experiences. The season opens on March 6 2025, at the Helen Schoeni Theatre, located at 45200 Little Lake Street in Mendocino, California.
The season kicks off with Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, directed by Alex Wright in his MTC directing debut. This humorous mad cap romp packs a wallop as audiences delight is seeing the venerable Sherlock and Watson navigate the London mist with thirty some other odd characters played by three very busy actors. With vVideo projection scenery, fast pacing and physical comedy make this one a must see for young and old alike. Baskerville performs March 6 - April 6.
Following Baskerville, audiences will be treated to one of the great American classics, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie directed by John Craven. This uniquely American story has captivated theatergoers for generations and is widely regarded by critics as one of the best plays of the 20th century. Set in St. Louis during the Great Depression, The Glass Menagerie explores themes of memory, family, and the struggle for personal escape. Performances will run from May 1 - June 1
As summer approaches, the Mendocino Theatre Company MTC will join forces with Musical Director, Jenni Windsor of Gloriana Musical Theatre to present Always… Patsy Cline, a mega-hit musical by Ted Swindley. This enchanting production celebrates the life and music of the iconic singer through the true story of her lifelong friendship with Louise Seger, a Texas housewife who first befriended her in her early years. Audiences can look forward to an unforgettable evening filled with Patsy Cline's timeless hits from June 26 - August 10.
Next on the roster is Lonely Planet by Stephen Dietz, a deeply moving play that tells the story of two men who find companionship and love amid challenging times. Director Michael Ducharme makes his MTC directing debut with this poignant exploration of friendship and resilience that will resonate with audiences long after they leave the theatre. Lonely Planet runs from August 28 - September 28. (which there was a little more about the plot of the play, here)
To cap off the year, MTC will present Almost, Maine, a charming and warmly seasonal play by John Cariani and directed by (something like “longtime MTC artist” – not that… something like that maybe?) Ann Woodhead, that weaves together tales of love and relationships in the fictional town of Almost, Maine. With its whimsical and heartfelt vignettes, this production is sure to evoke laughter and nostalgia, running from November 6 - December 14.
“We are thrilled to present such a diverse and engaging lineup for our 2025 Season,” said Betty Abramson and Lucy Near-Verbrugghe, Co-Artistic Directors of Mendocino Theatre Company. “Each of these productions tells a unique story that reflects the human experience, and we can’t wait to share them with our community.”
Season Subscriptions and single tickets for the 2025 are on sale now and can be purchased online at www.mendocinotheatre.org or at the box office. We invite theater lovers and newcomers alike to join us for a season filled with unforgettable performances.
For more information about the Mendocino Theatre Company’s 2025 Season, including detailed show descriptions, ticketing information, and upcoming events, please visit our website at www.mendocinotheatre.org. Plays generally run Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm; Sundays at 2:00pm, except first Sundays and major holidays.
Join us for the 2025 Season and experience the magic of live theater!
CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, January 13, 2025
JOSE AGUILAR-HERNANDEZ, 46, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.
CHRISTIAN BEYER, 43, Petaluma/Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.
FACUNDO DELGADO, 42, Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI, evasion, resisting.
WILLIAM RALEY. 38, Fort Bragg. Possess, explode, ignite or attempt to ignite explosive device with intent to intimidate, terrify, injury or destroy property.
LAROY MADDEN-STEPHENS, 42, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation.
NATHAN SWITZER, 19, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI with blood-alcohol over 0.15%, suspended license for refusing DUI chemical test.
ALEXANDER THONG, 36, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
MATREYUS TISCARENO-MEYER, 19, Fort Bragg. Burglary; loaded firearm in public; contempt of court; defacement, damage or destruction more than $400.
SEQUOYAH WRIGHT, 22, San Francisco/Ukiah. Probation revocation.
HIKING AROUND
by Paul Modic
I was so bored with my usual trek around the park meadows that after ten minutes I headed up the mountain trail just for some different terrain to look at. It took twenty-seven minutes to get the top where there was a view south to the Benbow Inn and golf course, with highway 101 snaking along the river, and Redway and Bear Butte in the opposite direction.
At the picnic table there was a guy looking for his front teeth bridge, which he had put down somewhere a few days before, and I realized I’d talked to him a year before on the trail up, an easy guy to banter with. We reintroduced ourselves and he reminded me he was Joe, the guy who had spent twenty years as a bartender back east before moving out here, buying land and living and growing in the hills for another twenty.
He had children at fifty, rents out his land in the hills, and moved off the mountain to a house outside town where he lives with his latest girlfriend.
“Damn, how do you meet the women?” I said.
“When I was bartending I usually got with all the waitresses,” he said. He wanted to travel but couldn’t because of his dogs and cats.
“Yeah,” I said, “You have no free will, your animals rule your life.”
“Well, they were my kids’ pets and now the kids are grown and gone, so…,” he said.
“Yup, it can be more work to travel,” I said. Of course he had free will, he could figure out a way to travel if he really wanted to, so just cut the BS, okay? (Yeah, I take everything literally.)
Now he’s seems content, hanging out in this small town, and planning for coffee and lunch at the Eel River Cafe after his hike.
I mentioned the country community where he had lived in the hills, how when reading obituaries from that area I’m often impressed with what they had done with their lives.
“I have a neighbor who feels insignificant and inferior when reading those obituaries,” I said, “Once he said ‘I haven’t done anything with my life, nothing.’”
I mentioned one of those deceased luminaries and Joe said, “Oh he was a rapist! He assaulted his trimmers.”
“Oh wow, that’s crazy,” I said. “Just rumors?”
“He also gave his kid LSD when the boy was twelve.”
“And then the kid murdered his half-brother when they were teens, I remember that. I wonder what happened to him?”
“Oh, he’s never getting out. Hey, sorry for taking this to such a dark place.”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter,” I said, thinking I love that stuff, then wondered if the rumors of suicide were related to Joe’s allegations, which he’d delivered as if everyone knew they were true.
He took a call from his daughter, I headed back down the hill, and when I got by the barn, a guy was out front sorting hundreds of peppers from the farm on a huge redwood table. I went over to say hello and we started talking.
He was a right winger from Texas, started talking about the election, which his guy had won, and the political rap got tedious. He was anti-immigrant and I said if we were down there and our family was suffering with nothing, we’d also try to come up here. Yes, he said, but through the proper channels, following the rules, and laws, and I said but after we’d been rejected we’d try again illegally, right? He didn’t respond to that, I asked for a few sample peppers, which he let me pick out, and he wanted to exchange phone numbers, which I declined.
Talking with him for twenty minutes threw me off my walk, just standing around can take it out of me, but I got back on the trail and managed to make my goal of eighty minutes. (The only thing more boring than talking politics with a Trumper is talking it with someone I agree with.)
MAGA THIS, MAGA THAT
Chris Skyhawk: I am acquainted with quite a few MAGA people. This slanderous list does not apply to a single one of them, but what I really, really, really, wish is that Team Blue would stop playing culture wars and feeling superior to their fellow citizens, and look in the mirror. Your party is a totally corrupt, corporate captured entity, and people outside your cult know it.
Robin Sunbeam: I am also acquainted with quite a few MAGA people. I find that they often lack empathy and feel empowered to act above the law. I'll never forget the naturalized citizen wearing the T-shirt saying “I voted for the convicted felon.” I feel like the Democratic Party has also betrayed us, but don't have such blatant disregard for the law. My MAGA friends often have some secret scheme up their sleeve that they are reluctant to disclose.
Nearly every one I know is crazy in one way or another. I just accept my MAGA friends as one kind of crazy, hoping they won't direct their angst at me someday. One decided to direct his bullying at me Christmas Eve. Needless to say, that is one less person to call my friend.
CRAIG REJECTS MENDO
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:
- respect due from 75 years as a good American citizen,
- appropriate subsidized housing with the government HUD voucher involved, and
- 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, craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
PRESIDENT-ELECT PLANS ‘BROWN ZONES’ FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
by Andrew Lutsky
Today the recently re-elected former president announced a new twist on his mass deportation plan: He intends to construct hundreds of immigrant residential centers around the nation he is calling Brown Zones, where undocumented people from all over the country can be safely and securely housed.
“These gorgeous facilities built by the Trump Organization will provide secure and comfortable accommodations for highly skilled, carefully vetted workers with expired green cards or H1-B visas only,” Mr. Trump stated.
The announcement shocked some political observers who are calling it a notable retreat from the former president’s most repeated campaign promise.
Addressing his critics, Mr. Trump stated, “Look, we’d love to deport all of them, but let’s be honest, some do very good work, and it would be a shame to lose them.”
“For example Ignacio, the fellow who does Melania’s waxing, is like Da Vinci. He’s a virtuoso, alright? Turns out he’s an illegal, so he’ll be moving into a Brown Zone just forty miles from Mar-A-Lago in February, and he says he can’t wait. It’s a dorm type situation, like they’re in college, which is what makes it so exciting,” the president-elect noted. …
https://truezonesolution.substack.com/p/president-elect-plans-brown-zones?r=9zkg9
“HOW MUCH of my brain is wilfully my own? How much is not a rubber stamp of what I have read and heard and lived? Sure, I make a sort of synthesis of what I come across, but that is all that differentiates me from another person?”
–Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (1982)
CAVEAT LECTOR
Dear Friends of Caveat Lector,
Happy New Year, and welcome to our Winter 2024 issue. The Empire has struck back, with Darth Vader returning to the White House in a few short days. The crystal ball is cloudy right now, but these could certainly turn into years that, once again, “try men’s souls,” as early American colonial leader Thomas Paine once prophesied.
How lucky, then, are CL readers to have in our possession the latest word fusillades, literary pyrotechnics and inspiring revelations from Caveat Lector’s twenty contributors. Lots of poetry, some fiction and nonfiction, and film. We are going to have to stick together, as the road begins to climb toward the mountain pass, and these offerings will help in the higher altitudes.
Plus— a Big Bonus for those who live in the San Francisco Bay area. Caveat Lector is hosting its second public poetry and prose reading on Saturday, January 25 at 1 pm in San Francisco. We will donate our proceeds to the Los Angeles fire victims via the Wild Fire Relief Fund 2025. So we hope the local CL fans will come and make it a joyous event of creative resolve in troubled times. More details below.
Now, without further ado, and with a rat-a-tat drum roll: here is the Winter 2024 issue.
Our fiction selections take a step back from the quotidian fray to contemplate insightful themes of life and death, including Robert Daseler's delicate ruminations on place and time in “Büdenau in October,” an incident that promotes soul-searching in Michael Gubbins' wry “New Friends in Your Downstream,” and a few flirtations with the end of existence in Caveat Lector editor Ho Lin's ”Death in the Big City.”
In non-fiction, we offer Caveat Lector editor Jonah Raskin’s “Reflections on Greed and the Gutter,” a truth-telling memoir of his personal sojourn trying to find his economic niche in a society ruled by greed. Do you have to sell your soul to secure your place? What if you just sell marijuana instead? Also, CL editor Steven Hill offers a timely and moving meditation over the collapse of democracy to fascism, and its rise back to democracy, in mid 20th-century Germany, within the personal context of his (recently deceased) father’s participation as a young G.I. stationed in occupied Berlin in 1945. See “From My Bedroom Window in Berlin: In Which Direction Does the Arrow of History Point?”
In the poetry section we have an embarrassment of riches with 16 accomplished poets, including a number of returning bards: Donna Pucciani’s iridescent “Melt,” Kelley White’s meditation on marbled antiquity, R.T. Castleberry’s cinematic eye on the prize, plus James Nicola, John Zedolik, , D. G. Zorich, Conrad Gurtatowski, and Dennis Ross. Also we have several new (to CL) poets, including Ralph James Savarese’s elegy to a prematurely deceased friend, Carolyn Adams’s worldly observations, Richard Anthony Furtak’s philosophical reveries, and D. T. Holt and Diane Webster. Two CL editor’s add their iambic spell, with Jonah Raskin’s evocative “Brooklyn in the Rain” and Steven Hill’s jazz-inflected “Liquid Words” and oracular “The Shape of This Place.”
Caveat Lector’s founder, Christopher Bernard presents a special New Year’s treat, a suite of scathingly political satire “cabaret songs” called “Anarchy, LLC,” which Chris has dubbed “a musical for a suicidal civilization.”
We are also honored to publish one of the final poems of the late Marvin R. Hiemstra, who passed away on Thanksgiving. Marvin was one of San Francisco's best-loved poets, whose work will long be remembered for its humor, kind-hearted wit and celebration of joy. Marvin’s post-mortem valediction, “Be Kind to Your Metaphor,” is a fitting tribute to his life.
In film, we are featuring a preview of “Voices of Deoli,” a powerful documentary about a little-known tragedy that occurred in India six decades ago – the internment of Chinese-Indian citizens in India during the China-India conflicts in the early 1960s. This four-minute film features a Q&A with Joy Ma, one of the survivors.
And finally: “Fireworks: Caveat Lector Winter 2025”
A reading of poetry and prose celebrating the latest issue of San Francisco's premier literary webzine, Caveat Lector, by our resident literary rocketeers and psychonauts – Christopher Bernard, Ho Lin, Jonah Raskin and Steven Hill.
Where: Clarion Performing Arts Center, 2 Waverly Place
San Francisco (Chinatown)
When: Saturday, January 25, 2025, at 1:00 pm
Admission: Donation to the Los Angeles fire victims via the Wild Fire Relief Fund 2025 (recommended: $5.00 or more, no one turned away)
So Caveat Lector readers, are you ready? Are you set? GO! into 2025, hopeful and alive, with these literary peregrinations to guide us through a rough patch of ocean ahead. We wish you a pleasant passage during the days and months to come.
Christopher Bernard, Ho Lin, Jonah Raskin and Steven Hill
The Editors
Caveat Lector
SURPLUS SPENDING CASTS A SHADOW OVER NEW STATE BUDGET
A mistaken belief in a $97 billion phantom surplus three years ago complicates today's budget proposal, along with such future unknowns as wildfire costs and possible cuts in federal support.
by Dan Walters
Fashioning a budget for a state as large and diverse as California is a fraught process under the best of circumstances, involving not only strictly financial aspects but demands from countless interest groups and the internal politics of the Capitol.
That said, what happened three years ago, as Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators were finalizing a 2022-23 budget, remains one of the most egregious errors of fiscal judgment in state history, and looms over the budget process today.
As the state was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, it experienced a sharp uptick in revenues, particularly in personal income taxes, thanks largely to massive injections of federal relief funds and a big gain in taxable investment profits among high-income taxpayers.
Newsom and his budget advisers concluded that the much-higher general fund revenues would continue indefinitely — far surpassing the state’s core expenditures. The projection generated a monumental paper surplus Newsom tabbed at $97.5 billion, although the number never appeared in any documents.
“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” Newsom boasted as he unveiled what became a much-revised $308 billion budget, which was $22 billion higher than his original proposal.
It turned out to be a mirage. Revenues never reached the elevated level he had assumed. Last year, buried in the fine print, the 2024-25 budget acknowledged the error and estimated it to be $165.1 billion over four years. Newsom blamed the volatility of California’s tax system for the immense gap between expectations and reality — instead of a miscalculation.
Nevertheless, the damage was done. Much of the phantom surplus had already been baked into the spending side of the budget, leading to massive deficits.
Last year, to cover the yawning gap between income and outgo, Newsom and the Legislature resorted to tapping the state’s emergency reserves, bookkeeping gimmicks, direct loans from special funds, and indirect borrowing from school funds and corporations.
This bit of recent budgetary history is offered because a new state budget cycle began on Friday, when Newsom’s finance director, Joseph Stephenshaw, unveiled an initial $322.3 billion 2025-26 budget proposal, including a $228.9 billion general fund.
Overall, it means that the $165.1 billion error still haunts the budget. Despite Newsom’s claims that the budget would be balanced, revenues still fall short of covering the additional spending that Newsom and legislators adopted three years ago on a mistaken assumption.
The proposed budget projects an increase in revenues from earlier estimates but essentially spends all the extra money. It continues the use of emergency reserves and other tactics that were employed last year.
It also means that despite the seemingly precise numbers of the proposed budget, there are many highly variable factors.
They include how President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican Congress might affect the many billions of dollars that the federal government contributes to education, health care and welfare programs; uncertainty about taxable income from capital gains and, most recently, the effects of the wildfires devastating Southern California communities.
The wildfire impact could be immense, particularly if Trump doesn’t honor outgoing President Joe Biden’s pledge of massive federal aid. Trump issued a fact-free blast faulting Newsom — one of his sharpest critics — for not giving Southern California enough water, but hasn’t said whether he intends to limit federal relief.
Even if Trump is generous with wildfire assistance, local governments will experience declines in property and sales tax revenues and will look to Sacramento for help.
The bottom line is that the January budget may bear only a passing resemblance to the version that must be enacted by June 15, and even less to the budget revisions that will surely follow after June 15.
(CalMatters.org)
FALSELY BLAMING THE LA WILDFIRES On Delta Protection And The Imperiled Smelt Is Distorting The Picture Of Water In California
President-elect Trump is spreading a sham narrative to the country, which is being parroted by allies, about what is happening in the Golden State’s rivers and reservoirs
by Dan Bacher
As apocalyptic scenes emerged from the climate change-induced fires raging across the Pacific Palisades, Pasadena and other neighborhoods in Los Angeles, President Elect Donald Trump blasted California Governor Gavin Newsom on Truth Social for not signing a “water declaration” that would provide more water for Californians.
As he has done many times before, Trump blamed it all on the Delta smelt, though in reality this highly threatened fish has nothing to do with the current LA wildfires — or any other fire catastrophes.
An initial estimate of the cost of the LA fires is between $52 billion and $57 billion, making it the most expensive fire event in history, according to AccuWeather Inc.
Trump claimed Newsom “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, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California.”
The problem is that the “water restoration” declaration cited by Trump does not exist. It is the first complete falsehood in Trump’s statement.
Newsom’s office sent the following statement to ABC10 regarding this.
“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration — that is pure fiction,” the statement stressed. “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”
The second falsehood in Trump’s statement is that the Delta smelt is “an essentially worthless fish.”
The Delta smelt is a key indicator species that demonstrates the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. This two-to-three-inch fish that smells like a cucumber is found only in the Delta.
It was once the most abundant fish in the Delta, but now is functionally extinct in the wild due to massive water exports to agribusiness and other factors, including invasive species, toxics and pollution, over the past several decades.
The third falsehood Trump has been spreading is that water from Northern California hasn’t been allowed to “flow daily into many parts of California,” including Southern California. In fact, major South Coast reservoirs supplied by Delta water are currently anywhere from 77% to 85% of capacity. Pyramid Lake is at 85 percent, Castaic Lake is at 77 percent and Lake Perris is at 81 percent of capacity, according to California Department of Resources data.
The fourth falsehood is Trump’s claim that Newsom is denying Californians water in order to “protect” the smelt. In fact, the state and federal governments under both Republican and Democratic administrations have done a controversial job of “protecting” the fish over the past three decades, despite the smelt’s listing as “endangered” under both the state and federal Endangered Species Acts. Democrat and Republican governors have preferred to ship vast quantities of Delta water to corporate agribusiness and Southern California water agencies.
Most recently, the Department of Water Resources and Bureau of Reclamation actually cancelled fall flow protections for Delta smelt on Oct. 1, 2024, under intense pressure from Delta water exporters.
Current state and federal Endangered Species Act permits require the Department of Water Resources and Reclamation to release a pulse of water through the Delta to the San Francisco Bay in September and October to improve habitat conditions for the listed Delta smelt, according to environmental groups and fishing associations. This fall outflow requirement is only triggered in years when it is wetter than normal and is often referred to as “Fall X2.”
Yet the state and federal agencies suspended the “Fall X2” outflow this time, one of the only actions that could help the few remaining Delta smelt.…
THE COMING FIRES
by David Rovics
Sometime in the 1980’s, as a young college dropout living somewhere in the Boston area, and spending a lot of time hanging around the hub of activity of all sorts that was Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one day I got word that Pete Seeger was going to be speaking at a class. Back then you didn’t need an ID card to enter a building, you could just walk in. Maybe the public were welcome to that class, I don’t remember, but it was just me and a couple dozen students, in any case.
I think Pete might have played a song or two, but all I remember was the story he told. Maybe I remember the story in particular because he cried a bit in the course of telling it.
It was a fictional story, about how some scientist had discovered that by mixing together several commonly-found, easily-available compounds of the sort you might use to clean your bathroom floor, you could create a powerful bomb.
There were efforts to suppress the information but eventually word got out, and humanity braced for impact. In Pete’s tale, what happened next was both sides of the civil war in Peru that was then very violently ongoing used the new bomb recipe, to apocalyptic effect.
The whole country was just destroyed, with a staggering death toll. Watching the millions of refugees streaming out of their ruined land, in Pete’s tale the rest of the world came together and made a plan to prevent this kind of thing from happening anywhere else.
Realizing that if any disgruntled person could so easily just make a bomb that would destroy the neighborhood, the only way forward was radical equality and empathy, with societies focused on taking care of each other, and making sure no one wanted to blow up the neighborhood.
For days now I’ve been glued to the news even more than usual, watching these hurricane-strength winds blow flames all over the Los Angeles area, with thousands of homes destroyed already, and so many people, including friends of mine, waiting to find out what will become of theirs.
As I hear the horror stories from a burning megalopolis, I’m reminded of Pete’s little parable, in so many ways.
Of course, it’s the combination of the parched Earth, steep hillsides, and fast winds, all in an urban setting, that make the LA area so susceptible to fire, along with poor infrastructure and other factors. But most of the fires start out with either some kind of accident, like a cigarette butt, or a chain dragging behind a car, or with arson.
At a juncture like this, especially, every individual has the power to blow up the neighborhood, essentially, either by accident or on purpose, with no particular effort at all.
Not only does everyone have the power to burn down the neighborhood with a cigarette, but every individual’s home or business is completely interdependent on everyone else’s homes and businesses, in terms of how their properties are prepared for fire. It’s no good if just some of the homes in a neighborhood are well-designed for fire. They all need to be, in order for the fire not to have a foothold to spread from.
At times when there isn’t such a crisis going on, I hear frequent news reports about the difficulties they have up and down the west coast trying to retain sufficient numbers of firefighters. The firefighters are chronically underpaid — pay that never nearly keeps up with the ever-worsening housing crisis — and the departments are chronically understaffed, as a general rule.
LA completely embodies the concept of the endless American suburb, where people have historically gone to buy their little patch of paradise, or their big patch of paradise, depending on how wealthy they may be. But now paradise has burned, again. And whether you’re one of the estimated 70,000 people in Los Angeles County living on the streets (some of whom may be staying warm in the winter with propane heaters in their tents), or a movie star in a mansion with a nice, safe, fireplace, we’re all equal under the Santa Anna winds, just as prone to the errant cigarette butt as everyone else, just as strong as the weakest link in the chain.
As terrible as the ongoing burning of LA continues to be, if we don’t radically change course as a society, the future is absolutely guaranteed to be astronomically worse.
If we continue to follow our current path here in the USA, which can mainly be characterized as what they call the “free market,” then after the fires in LA, just like after the fires in Santa Rosa, Paradise, Talent, Phoenix, Detroit (Oregon), and so many other cities and towns, what comes next is fire insurance becomes either far more expensive or unavailable, while the cost of buying or renting continues to increase far beyond most anyone’s earnings do, forcing people to move further and further away from urban centers, into more fire-prone rural areas.
Here in Portland, Oregon, so far away from Los Angeles, we can be sure that the housing crisis will continue to worsen, as we welcome our friends who will be moving here from LA. Anyone from Portland can tell you that that’s going to happen, because most of the people that most of us know around here these days are from southern California. I would also have moved here if I were from southern California, I understand completely, and hasten to add I certainly don’t harbor the least bit of ill will towards people from California, Mexico, China, or anywhere else.
But as soon as someone who does blame people from California or Mexico for the rising cost of housing around here — and someone will — then they will be playing the game of the land-owning banks and hedge funds anyone who rents or bought a house in the past two decades or so is probably deeply beholden to right now.
Yes, what comes next along with the rising cost of housing and more migrants from LA and wherever else will be more of the blame game accelerating. Some will blame the migrants for the rising costs — deport them! Others will blame the racists for attacking the migrants.
No one will blame the corporations doubling and tripling our rents. The algorithms won’t promote that sort of thing, and the FBI doesn’t want to promote it, either, and neither does the corporate media.
That’s what’s coming — more of the same repercussions from the fires, along with more fires. At least, that’s what’s coming if we continue along the route of housing as an investment market for people to do whatever they want with.
It could all be radically different, but then we’d have to first collectively acknowledge that there’s such a thing as society, and that we need to live in a country that makes policies accordingly. And then we’d need to build a social movement powerful enough to force the political class to implement those policies, starting with things like real rent control, and a real plan for adapting to climate change, and to implement the other sorts of policies one can commonly find in so many other, more functional countries where there is a widespread belief in the existence of society.
Where it’s not just talk about everyone having an “equal shot,” as our outgoing president loves to say, but having actual equality — the kind of equality that is not just morally right, but that our future absolutely depends on.
(David Rovics is a frequently-touring singer/songwriter and political pundit based out of Portland, Oregon. His website is davidrovics.com. CounterPunch.org.)
CLIMATE JEEZUS TAKETH AWAY
by James Kunstler
“State Farm, my insurer for decades, canceled my insurance and everyone in our immediate neighborhood just before the fire. State Farm WASN’T there…” — James Woods
“So-called progressives finally achieved what they supposedly warned of but in truth wished for: the eviction of the affluent descendants of colonizers, the incineration of their homes, and the destruction of a city that, more than any other, represents our bloody history of white supremacy and conquest.” — Michael Shellenberger
For those in the USA with an interest in collapsing the USA, the Los Angeles fire is the gift that will keep on giving, and George Soros hardly had to cough up a dime to make it happen. From the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion angle, the fire got‘er done, cleansing nearly the entire PacPal population of snooty, rich, white “allies” of the oppressed and marginalized — who will now have LA to themselves. Chez Whitey is “closed for renovations,” and it might be twenty years before it can re-open, if ever.
Probably never, if the California Coastal Commission has anything to say about it. And why wouldn’t they? They do not generally approve of stuff getting built right up on the beach. They were probably all down on their knees Sunday in the Church of Luxury Belief thanking Climate Jeezus for sweeping Malibu and the hills above it clean.
Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, rent her garments in The New York Times Sunday op-ed page, wailing:
“My anger over what we have done to this fragile, exquisite Earth was muffled by grief until the other evening when I was watching a news program that had a panel of commentators. The subject was Los Angeles on fire, and one person mentioned climate change as a cause. Another commentator smirked and said he didn’t believe it was the cause.
I felt rage surge up past my grief.
My first thought was: “You think you know more than scientists?”
Of course, my first thought reading that was: Who is paying those scientists? The same question you might ask of the scientists at the CDC, NIH, FDA, and NIAID who declared that Covid-19 was definitely not created in a Wuhan lab, and the mRNA vaccines were “safe and effective.” My second thought was: could you possibly find a better example of elite Utopian-Woke performative acting-out? My third thought was: since when are “experts” infallible? My fourth thought was: doesn’t science advance on the basis of continuous argument? My fifth thought was: if Patti Davis is watching the news, she must be in some comfortable and probably luxurious place that did not burn down. So much for my thoughts, entertained without the rending of garments.
More to the point of the fire itself, you must wonder what is happening to those tens of thousands of displaced persons and families right now? How many of them are sleeping out on their smoldering properties, or in their cars, or just shivering on a sidewalk somewhere. It does not seem possible that they all found a place to go, certainly not at their neighbors’ houses, who were all burnt-out, too. . . and there are just so many hotel rooms not occupied by “the undocumented.” Anyway, how many families can stay in hotel rooms that go for $1,000-a-night, and for how many nights? How many of them lost absolutely everything, including the possibility of a future?
Which gets you to the realization that we have barely begun to see the knock-on effects of this catastrophe. Those tens of thousands of the burnt-out will not be reporting to work anytime soon. They will have all they can do to find a roof over their heads while they hassle with FEMA officials, State of California bureaucrats, insurance company claims agents, and other “helpers.” The rebuilding quandaries have already been rehearsed in the news. Even if politicians suspended all the building and zoning codes, and the tax issues, where will so many contractors come from in any reasonable time-frame? And where do you put all that melted plastic goop and toxic ash that remains on-the-ground where peoples’ lives used to be?
If you lost a house valued at $5-million, it will cost you at least $10-million to replace it. Good luck, even if you were a mid-level movie star. Of course, if your insurance got cancelled lately — or you just didn’t have any because it cost too much — then there is zero chance you will get to even fantasize about living in the hills above Malibu ever again. And that job you’re not able to go to right now due to the pressing needs of sheer survival on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs… you might never go to that job again. The business you worked for might not be there anymore, either.
If there was ever a proverbial last-grain-of-sand-in-a-landslide, the Great 2025 Los Angeles Fire must be a sure thing vis-a-vis the US economy, especially the financial side of it. An awful lot of homeowners will not be paying their mortgages on a smoldering empty lot. The banks are not in super-fabulous condition these days. How many loans-gone-bad will it take to wreck already unstable banks? And, by the way, the collateral isn’t even there anymore. The re-po man is out of the picture.
What happens to the insurance companies? And the re-insurance companies who theoretically stand behind the insurers? I’ll tell you what happens: they will be backstopped by the government, which doesn’t have the money to backstop them. . . but will create it out of pixels on screens… which means expect a considerable uptick in inflation (i.e., a downtick in the purchasing power of the dollar), which will be a black eye for the new Trump administration. How does all this thunder through the US economy as a whole?
Nobody really know just yet, but the signs are not reassuring. You can infer countless chains-of-consequence. Friday’s action in the financial markets felt like a tremor of things to come. The Bubble-of All-Bubbles abides… for how long?
MY HUSBAND is fantastic in bed. He stays very still and he doesn’t snore.
— Rita Rudner
LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT
Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case
Special Counsel Report on Hunter Biden Denounces President’s Criticism of Case
Pete Hegseth to Face Democratic Questioning in Confirmation Hearing
Winds Strengthen, Fueling Fears of New L.A. Fires
Dementia Cases in the U.S. Will Surge in the Coming Decades, Researchers Say
You Can Have ‘Sex and the City,’ Just Not on the Front Stoop
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
My prediction for 2025 is that “bulldozer driver” will be the fastest growing occupation. Welding drops to second.
My condolences to the Marmon family. I may not have agreed with James’ politics, but I admired his tenacity.
The same thoughts from me. Kind of shocking to see that memorial notice, takes me aback. I knew James a little from our work at CPS. He and I crossed swords a bunch, both of us stubborn guys who thought we knew better. If he were to come back and leave one last AVA comment, I’d gladly yield to him and say, “Dang, James, you’re right and I’m dead wrong.” At least James got to see Trump elected again–I’m sure that made his heart glad. I hope he had a gentle passing.
I also worked with James at CPS and had a desk right next to him. He sure was fun to work with. Anyone know the date for the memorial? I don’t see it on the flyer.
Hi,
February 15th Redwood Valley Grange 1:00 pm, Potluck style you can call Rebecca
707-295-5369
mm 💕
New York Times Today (and first paragraphs)
Bone Broth
Q: I’ve heard that bone broth has a ton of health benefits. Is there any truth to that?
On TikTok, influencers and medical professionals seem to agree: Bone broth does a body good.
Drinking the golden-brown elixir, they say, can alleviate joint pain, soothe digestive discomforts and smooth skin, among other benefits.
There’s a little science behind these claims, but important caveats, too. Here’s what to know.
What is bone broth?
Bone broth is made by simmering meaty bones for many hours, said Rachael Mamane, the former owner of a small batch stock company called Brooklyn Bouillon and the author of the cookbook “Mastering Stocks and Broths.” Often, cooks use bones from beef, pork or chicken, especially those with joints and with connective tissue still attached…
I Work at the F.T.C. I Know What Is Killing Local Groceries.
Swaths of America have been hollowed out. Some people look at boarded-up shops in small towns and some urban centers and think: They just couldn’t compete. As an antitrust enforcer, I have a different reaction: Maybe we missed something.
For decades, our government stopped big retailers from pressuring suppliers for secret deals that were denied to smaller rivals. This was done under a law called the Robinson-Patman Act. It was, at one point, the most frequently enforced antitrust law at the Federal Trade Commission. But starting in the 1980s, as part of a philosophical shift that embraced the idea that unfettered markets can resolve all ills, officials hit the brakes and eventually stopped enforcing the law altogether…
Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Us or Empower Us?
I took three Waymo rides this month while in San Francisco for an economics conference. The smooth trips made for a haunting vision of the potential future of artificial intelligence. Inside the cabs, there was gentle New Age music and no one in the driver’s seat.
Such could be the future of the economy in general if artificial intelligence substitutes for human labor in more and more occupations. The unemployed masses could come to depend on the charity of billionaires and trillionaires who own the means of intellectual production…
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/opinion/los-angeles-fires-homes.html
This is a good one (first paragraphs) from today’s NYTimes:
Holding On to a Middle-Class Home in a Burning Los Angeles
By Héctor Tobar
Mr. Tobar was born and lives in Los Angeles, and his most recent book is “Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino’.”
Less than a month before fires began to ravage my hometown, State Farm sent me a bill. The oracles of risk foresaw an apocalypse in Los Angeles’s future. So they raised my home insurance premium by nearly 18 percent, even though I haven’t made a single claim in the quarter century I’ve lived in my neighborhood, Mount Washington.
Last Tuesday night, the apocalypse arrived, but not on our doorstep. My son and I stood on our Northeast Los Angeles hillside at dusk, looking west through a bronze-colored haze as flames raced through Pacific Palisades, 17 miles away. After nightfall, we looked to the northeast and saw another fire burning near Pasadena and Altadena, just six miles away…
😢🙏💕
RIP James Marmon and thank you for all your support and encouragement, I was looking forward to meeting you in person! 💕💕
mm 💕
May he have a peaceful transition.
Rest In Peace, James Marmon. He will be missed, and I hope he had the opportunity to experience the election results.
James was an alley against Tom Allman’s Measure B PHF being placed at the old Howard Hospital in Willits.
He realized how inappropriate that location was and on several occasions said so.
My condolences to James’s family and friends.
Rest in Peace, James
Laz
Same. James and I shared a number of positions, at different times. We both worked in county jobs and held elected posts on SEIU, striving to more equalize salaries, and oppose Carmel Angelo’s steel grip. I agree with a number of his political arguments, notably regarding wokeness and equity/equality, and admired his willingness to speak up on this site. You will be missed, James Marmon. Condolences to your family. Rest in peace.
The fire problem in Southern California is on them, and no one else. They have the power to insist on vegetation management, and the money to pay for it. They also have the money to update their water infrastructure. Their problem is not a California problem, or a federal government problem, or an insurance company problem. If they insist otherwise, they should expect more of the same.
The monkeys can move somewhere else. Let nature reclaim itself naturally, without plopping down more human housing for an out-of-control human population. The natural flora evolved in a fire-prone environment and adapted to it. It needs NO human “management”.
What is natural, and what is nature? For the last 10 thousand years, since the end of the age of mega fauna in California, Indians burned that land, likely as often as whenever the landscape had grown to the point of being able to carry a fire. That could be as often as every year. These landscapes adapted to that, and we now we have what we have, a fire dependent landscape created and managed by humans. Those Indians would likely have said that they are a part of Nature, the most important part. What we have now done is walk away from the human role of maintaining these landscapes, and we see the consequences.
A better solution is to prohibit rebuilding and let the monkeys move elsewhere, their costs of relocation and re-settlement reimbursed by a special tax on wealthy Californians. Otherwise we’ll be witnessing yet another out-of-control LA fire in the densely populated SoCal area, as we have been witnessing for decades. Your faith in “prescription” burning and other such human “solutions”, especially in overpopulated areas, far exceeds mine.
Warmest spiritual greetings, In regard to having suitable basic housing in postmodern America, since I was told at Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center that they would give me a tent that I could pitch anywhere, I have the option to make a base camp for myself in the Alex R. Thomas Jr. civic center in Ukiah. Whereas I am a good friend of the Thomas family, particularly Niko and Stevie, obviously Niko would come up from Sebastopol to assist. I would appreciate it if all of the crazies, junkies, and other forms of low life be removed, and the area be disinfected. Let me know when it will be ready. Thank you very much! Craig Louis Stehr Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
Yo craig…… “”I would appreciate it if all of the crazies, junkies, and other forms of low life be removed, and the area be disinfected. Let me know when it will be ready.” ……..kind of a shocking statement from the enlightened one! ….. maybe we need to roll out a red carpet for your return, after all the low life are relocated of course! Take care of yourself.
mm 💕
Just being realistic. I appreciate your general social concerns, but the responsibility for oneself lies with oneself. I am, as you say, “taking care of myself”. And to Mike Jamieson: Jesus, by the way, would agree with me. Why don’t you ask him?
Glad to hear it Craig it is important to take responsibility when and if you can. Unfortunately not everyone is capable of that so count yourself blessed, Jesus is proud! 💕💕💕
mm 💕
As we age, we welcome assistance, and would think it readily available, unfortunately, Agers are not prioritized.
The role of Helper to the Aged is a delicate one often failing in a top/down system.
Craig points out something critically important, and that is RESPECT…meaning placing the Ager at the center of an Ager friendly centered model.
ONE SIZE FITS ALL, the system operating as if it does to make their JOB easier.
Agers are a not a very valuable commodity.
As a person working for and with the older adults/disabled for many moons I do agree with your sentiments except using the term agers, lol. No disrespect to Craig he should have been housed long ago but was not, was it due to age, probably not. Unfortunately as a whole no matter your age/sex/religion/race or any other factor other humans tend to hold those things against you. Especially when you are homeless, mentally ill or addicted, I hope Craig comes back and gets the housing he deserves!
Sincerely,
mm 💕
I agree that not everybody is presently able to take full responsibility, and I do advocate helping others. My ire is with the ne’er do wells, which are a problem, and is not relevant to “loving one another and being in unity”. Tough love needs to be applied there! Thank you for the discussion. ;-))
Craig do you consider me one of the ne’er do wells,? lol 😂 cool if you do. 😉 😎
So what do you think this tough love approach would be, how is it implemented and played out?
You are welcome and thank you always down to discuss stuff!!
mm 💕
Your root Guru (Jesus) had an open table policy, anyone welcome. Sometimes his disciples would react to some of the guests and, standing angry at the door, would be clearly disgusted by some of them.
Hi Mike……
Ahhh yes well a reaction of disgust is one thing from us mortals. To imply that your presence is somehow more significant and deserving of special treatment when you are literally in the same boat as the others is the opposite of enlightenment! And most certainly is not WWJD but definitely WJWND (what Jesus would NOT do!).. .., 😂😂😂 💕
mm 💕
I keep wondering when people are going to stop being Whyte polite about that spray tanned orange fountain of disinformation and call him the lying sack of manure he is. The sane-washing is poisoning reason.
Didn’t know Marmon but read his comments on the AVA, we actually agreed on a lot of issues. May he rest in peace, praying for his family.
Reality check for us all. Even though we disagree, life is precious and we’re all in this together.
To Robin Sunbeam, I guess Joe and Hunter didn’t show blatant disregard for the law? The hypocrisy of the left in unmatched!
To the Editor:
I was sad to hear of the passing of James M. Marmon. Although he was controversial, and his style was a bit brash, Mr. Marmon was a former social worker who was also a whistleblower. He triggered investigations into waste, fraud and mismanagement in county government, particularly as they related to child protective services and foster child programs.
James Marmon was a tireless advocate for children and helping foster youth.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
A deserving legacy, of which he would be proud.
I expected James H. Marmon to outlive me. Now he’s gone I feel lost— I made a point of missing his court hearings after he dissed me as “Little Brucie,” but he and I have had this ongoing duel right here on this page since its inception, and now I know what Grandma meant when she explained the scripture about loving your enemies… “because they define you,” Grandma said, “by showing you what you are not.”
One day a few years ago somebody quite scholarly posted a few paragraphs about the Marmon name, and it was uncannily accurate and, for aught I know, if adequate search were made by someone competent to navigate the AVA archive, it might still be found and reprinted here as a sidebar to other and sundry obituary editorial… it was in the comments section as best I recall.
I was assigned to a funeral firing squad for a biker in Wyoming one bitter winter day and after we fired our 21-gun salute with old Enfield rifles, and the high-school student squeaked out the first notes of taps on her frozen trumpet, the mourners, a biker gang, fired up their Harleys and let ‘em roar for the ascending spirit of the dearly departed and by George I think James H. Marmon would deserve as much!
That’s a sweet post, Bruce. James, I bet, would have liked it, especially the bikers on their Harleys as the “let ’em roar.” And maybe at his memorial the same thing will be heard!
The good number of posts today for James was a nice touch.
A response came in this morning to Peter Boudoures concerns regarding fire management previous to the L.A. fires by Gov. Newsom, and other California Department heads, posted in Comments, yesterday. A response is being prepared.
James
DAYLIGHT DOOM” by MOTO BANDIT on Pandora.
https://pandora.app.link/3qm2T5uAaQb
L.A. Fires, Wildfires, Rural Communities
David Freyberg, PhD, a hydrologist and water resources specialist at Stanford University, told CBS News in an email that while a full Santa Ynez would have had benefits, it’s not clear how much impact it would have had.
“The reservoirs above Pacific Palisades were not designed to support fire-fighting at the scale of [this] fire,” he wrote. “Water supply reservoirs are typically designed to cope with house fires, not wildfires.”
He added that the situation has made it clear that larger-scale solutions are necessary.
“It is clear that communities vulnerable to wildfire are going to need to think carefully, i.e., rethink, about design criteria for these systems,” Freyberg said. “Not just reservoirs, but pipe sizes [and] pressure management.”
What happened to fire hydrants during the fire?
Some fire hydrants in both the Palisades and Eaton fires stopped working within the first 24-hours of the fires breaking out.
“We pushed the system to the extreme,” Janisse Quiñones, DWP’s chief executive and chief engineer, said at a briefing last Wednesday. “Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight which lowered our water pressure.”
Adams notes that most hydrants and water systems are designed for structure fires at individual homes, apartment buildings or commercial buildings, and not large wildfires. “ No one’s engineered for a fire like this,” he says.
Gold says a main hurdle was the high winds in the early days of the fire that grounded aircraft that could have dropped a lot more water.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/la-fires-santa-ynez-reservoir-pacific-palisades-california/
In his letter to DWP, Newsom wrote, “While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors.”
1/11/2025 Evening Fire Report and Fire Maps 101 – The Lookout
https://the-lookout.org/2025/01/11/1-11-2025-evening-fire-report-and-fire-maps-101/