Mendocino County Today: Friday 2/7/2025

Clearing | Frederick Sternkopf | Window Display | Public Expression | Artists Reception | Cannabis Cultivation | Crab Feed | Local Grocers | Mardi Gras | Ed Notes | Sweeney/Zodiac | Fondue Experience | Sam Slick | Yesterday's Catch | Wine & Music | Sohum Skinny | Big Legs | Woodrose Cafe | Ebonic Denny | Colored Bracelets | This Moment | Olive Recovering | Junk Physique | First Employee | Rapture Nonsense | Dylanology | Sans Commas | Trump Fear | Grammar Police | Oil Drilling | Machiavellian Madness | Strikes Back | Strategic Reserve | Lead Stories | Say What | Narrative Shift | A Dream | Trump's Inaugural | Thistle's Repose

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RAINFALL (past 24 hours): Yorkville 1.88" - Boonville 1.33" - Hopland 1.23" - Ukiah 1.15" - Laytonville 1.03" - Covelo 0.96"

ISOLATED snow and rain showers will dissipate through the morning. Much drier and very cold weather will build this weekend into early next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Another 1.35" brings our 6 day storm total to 6.60" & our YTD to a season total average of 36.09". With months still to go in the rainfall season. Did I mention my earlier forecast for a dry winter. Skies will finally clear out today until next Tuesday when MORE rain arrives. A cloudy 43F this Friday morning on the coast.

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FREDERICK EARL STERNKOPF (May 2, 1937-October 20, 2024)

Frederick Earl Sternkopf passed away on October 20, 2024 in Fort Bragg, CA. Born on May 2, 1937 in Lansing, MI, Frederick was the son of Fred and Marie (Schoenfeld) Sternkopf. He is survived by his wife Beverly; children Kristin (Don Palmer) of Mount Vernon, WA and Peter (Teri) of Sherwood, OR; as well as their children, Sarah (Palmer Gannon), and Payden, Nolen, and Ryen Sternkopf. He is preceded in death by his parents and his sister Rosemarie Chlebus.

After growing up in Jackson, MI, Frederick went on to the Michigan State University where he graduated with a degree in business. This led him to work in advertising in San Francisco, CA where he was able to use his artistic abilities. After a few diversions in life, he ended up in Mendocino, CA.

There he immersed himself in his art, sculpture, mobiles, and his weekly cartoon strip Dr. Doo. He volunteered for the Mendocino Music Festival every year. Along the way he met Beverly and they married in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They live quietly in Caspar. Frederick was kind to all and is greatly missed.

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Adieu To Dr. Doo

by Jim Shields

When I learned that Fred Sternkopf, long-time brilliant cartoonist at the Anderson Valley Advertiser and more recently at the Observer, passed away, I felt things will never be the same because Fred was a true one-man institution.

The Shields family sends it condolences to the Sternkopf family on their loss. Fred was a very bright man, entertaining conversationalist, and enormously talented and witty cartoonist. The Arts Council Of Mendocino County described Fred’s artistic style as “Visual: Abstract, Conceptual, Contemporary, Experimental, Expressionistic, Figurative, Icongraphic/Iconoclastic, Illustrative, Minimalism, Political, Pop, Portraiture, Site-Specific, Social Commentary, and Symbolic.”

(The Mendocino County Observer)

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SUPERVISOR HASCHAK’S TERRIBLE DILEMMA

by Mark Scaramella

Item 4c on next Tuesdays Board of Supervisors Agenda: “Discussion and Possible Action Including Direction to Staff Regarding “Rule 18a: Public Expression” of the Rules of Procedure of the Board of Supervisors (Sponsor: Supervisor Haschak).”

Supervisor John Haschak explains the problem:

“The 10-minute rule for a single subject in Public Expression (items not on the Board of Supervisors Agenda) has been in the Rules of Procedure for many years and has been implemented at the discretion of the Chair. The issue includes balancing the reasonable availability of public expression for items not on the agenda with achieving the efficient and effective operation of a public meeting with scheduled business so that taxpayer money is not wasted. When there is unlimited public expression at the beginning of the meeting (which can range from none to multiple hours), lengthy public expression can significantly delay the timing of publicly noticed/agendized items, leading to government inefficiency, e.g., when staff has to wait for their item as opposed to working on other departmental business. However, adherence to the 10-minute rule is problematic in that some items are debatable, and/or not clearly defined as a single topic. Additionally, if public expression has an overall cap in time allowing for up to three minutes each, some people may be unable to speak if they are later in line.”

Such are the pressing challenges of being Board chair when there’s so much public expression to ignore. Should we keep the ten minute rule? Should we let Haschak decide? What about all the important business that must be delayed by having to listen to the public? How will Supervisor Williams know what the public wants? What about the pot brigades (and the anti-pot brigades) who can wear us out with their parades of complainers taking “multiple hours” of the Board’s own valuable blather time? What if some of our friends are cut off when the buzzer sounds? And perhaps the worst: if the public is allowed to go on for very long, it might lead to the dreaded “government inefficiency.”

By the way, in all our years of watching Board meetings we have never seen pubic expression last for “multiple hours.” But apparently Haschak has to throw that in their to make it seem like this is a momentous problem that must be dealt as a priority over other county matters by a lengthy discussion of one teensy, trivial aspect of their “Rules of Procedure.”

Fresh off last month’s highly efficient two-day blatherfest (“workshop”) that cost almost $6,000 for a one-day facilitator and produced zero tangible results, Haschak offers some alternative ways of keeping public expression from getting out of hand, interfering with of the Board’s Herculean efforts to re-make Official Mendo into the well-oiled machine that it is today:

1. Leave the rule as is, allowing the Chair to use discretion in applying the rule when needed, in the interests of efficiency, combined with the Chair gauging the number of people who want to speak on certain topics.
2. Delete 10-minute per subject from the rule, leave the 3 minute per person cap and allow for unlimited overall time for Public Expression.
3. Limit public expression to an overall cap, e.g., 30 minutes. No single topic limit. Individual speakers will be counted and individual time determined by Chair, ranging from 1-3 minutes each, depending on the number of speakers.
4. Spreading out public expression, e.g., 20 minutes at beginning of meeting, 20 minutes before lunch, and any remaining comments after Supervisor reports.
5. For debatable issues, allow 3 speakers pro and 3 speakers con with 2.5 minutes each.
6. Change the time of Public Expression for after all regularly calendared items and prior to adjournment.

There may be other options as well to be discussed during the meeting. It would be helpful for the Board to set a course that respects the availability of public expression and the efficiency of conducting the public’s business at each meeting.

Here’s another option: Move public expression to after adjournment when the Board and staff have left the building. Put a notice up on the projection screen that says: “We value your input. Thank you. We’ll leave the lights on and the camera rolling. Take all the time you like.” The Board need not be on hand to ignore public expression. Talk about efficiency!

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LEW CHICHESTER (Round Valley)

The following is a letter from a Round Valley community member to the Round Valley Municipal Advisory Council (RVAMAC). This letter, a few others from community members, and the issues and concerns expressed were discussed at length in the meeting on February 5, 2025. The RVAMAC forwarded this, and another similar letter, plus one of their own, to just about every regulatory authority with possible jurisdiction.

MAC

Feb 5, 2025

I recently submitted a letter to voice my concern about the lack of knowledge locally about the mechanisms created at the County and State levels that should/could be used to address the many unregulated cultivation sites on private property in Covelo/Round Valley.

It is my view that many of the issues we see here have been caused by the scaling up of cannabis cultivation with the passing of Prop 64. Unfortunately, in our community the use of “the abatement” mechanism I described in that letter has not been wide spread and the local community has become overrun with unregulated cultivation operations. What’s more local people seem to have different interpretations of the regulations—like for example there is a misconception that the rules under Prop 215 or “medical marijuana” still exist and that you are still allowed to cultivate 25 plant gardens without penalty. This is erroneous and Prop 64 eliminated Prop 215 (which was its intention). Furthermore, many local people argue this point but also have expanded their operation to commercial scale, light dep operations, which is not legal without myriad legal items being proven over the course of years. I still do not have my permanent licensing from the state despite being in good standing for nearly 8 years.

The issue I have, as a regulated cultivator, is why do we continually have to prove that we are not impacting the environment though self-reporting and paid agreements with agencies like the Water Board or CDFW, while our neighbors cultivate without agreements and without paying taxes and often are never contacted by the Planning and Building Department or the DCC (Department of Cannabis Control)?

We have heard the Sheriff say at the MAC meeting that the DCC has some oversight on the use of “abatement” or the tactic whereby the agency sends a property owner a letter telling them to remediate the unregulated cultivation on the property immediately either by joining a permitting program or ceasing all cultivation operations and brining the property back to its original state OR face a 10k/day fine and having a lien placed on the property. However, the suggestion is that either the Planning and Building Department or the DCC or both are not following through with this tool in many cases and my question is why?

Why does our community continually have to accept the narrative that the County and the Sheriff don’t have enough resources to address unregulated cultivation, when the CA cannabis industry is worth Billions a year, and local regulated cultivators are being taxed and regulated out of existence, while just a stone’s throw away an unregulated cultivator is allowed to profit, sometimes for years without any issue? Our community deserves answers, and it also has to accept that some of our friends and neighbors are perpetuating this problem by leasing their properties to people to run unregulated cannabis operations. At some point we need to address the reality that unregulated cultivations are bringing too many problems to the community and that the environmental and social justice issues they bring are not acceptable any more.

The community also deserves to understand the regulatory mechanisms that are available and when a citizen reports an unregulated cultivation the regulatory agencies need to react in a reasonable time and use the only mechanism that works, abatement. We have heard too many excuses from our BoS rep and the Sheriff in my opinion. The town needs a reporting mechanism that will get results from Planning and Building and or the DCC.

Proposition 64 was hailed as a way end the “War on Drugs” mentality toward cannabis cultivation and use. In our community, this Proposition has caused significantly more harm to the environment and the community than Proposition 215 did. One reason is the scale of cannabis cultivation has skyrocketed in comparison to the medical days of cultivation, where plant counts were the main regulatory consideration. Now canopy size is the measurement de jour and what I can see is that if a regulated person can cultivate a 10k sf garden and also have 12k sf of “nursery” space (legally) the unregulated operators basically mirror these operations and hope that they will fly under the radar by acting as if they are regulated farms. Since the County and State are not communicating with us in a meaningful way, many people are left believing that any of these cultivations could be “legal.” As a legal operator, this has led to negative feelings toward ALL cultivators (in my opinion).

For the 8 years that I have participated in this regulatory form of cannabis cultivation. I have heard many local people claim to be in the regulated cannabis community as well, but are not actually. Also, over this time, many, many, local cultivators who tried to participate in regulated cannabis, but because the regulations were being invented while people were trying to follow the guidelines, it became clear to many that the plane was being build while it was in the air, which is to say the system was faulty and it has caused unbelievable damage to the people who tried to follow the regulated path. Mainly the loss of livelihood has led to a mass migration and a mass sale of now unusable properties, which has led to a massive devaluation of our local lands and is also ripe for reintroduction of unregulated cannabis.

I would like to see the MAC support educating the community on regulated cannabis and why it’s important. If the community is introduced to farmers who are following the numerous guidelines while also paying taxes and generally being good citizens, this could lead to a more supportive narrative when discussing regulated cannabis operators. Regulated cultivators are expected to reduce their impact on their neighbors, the community and the environment (all good thigs), but are continually told that there is little to be done about an unregulated cultivation that may be just over the fence from them. This type of double standard by the entire regulatory community has destroyed the mom and pop cultivators in this region while simultaneously promoting the growth of the unregulated industry, which is leading to incredible destruction not ever seen in this industry. Some people will try and claim otherwise but since Prop 64 the growth of multi-crop operations (aka Deps) the unregulated canopy in this region has grown by 100’s of times and the environmental issues have become all too common.

I believe the most important issue to tackle is that of the Tribal and heirship lands, which have no known answers for solving the issues we are seeing. The pollution, that is not limited to the cultivation area, has to be addressed by all the Regulatory Agencies involved. The argument that there is some sovereign law that supersedes the general public’s right to exist in a healthy environment free of anti-social behavior such as dumping, trafficking in humans and dangerous drugs, of violence, of dumping animals or impacting the life cycles of wild animals are all issues that bleed over these imaginary lines and harm everyone in the community.

Finally, the public continues to blame “the Cartel,” a euphemism for Latin American people, we are actually being exploited by numerous other undocumented or foreign interlopers, who have both regulated cultivations and businesses as well as covert operations all over this town. We have to be less biased in our assessment of who we accept as unregulated operators in this community and simply draw the line where we need to expect anyone and everyone who operates in cannabis be expected to be following the same rules for operating.

Covelo needs a vital, regulated cannabis industry to help get the economy back on track. Expecting the regulators to do their jobs and support our community is the first step.

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THE PRICE OF LIFE ON THE MENDOCINO COAST (Coast Chatline)

Vanna Freeberg:

Does anyone have any updates on the status of bringing Grocery Outlet to the Coast? I'd like to personally speak to someone that is actually involved in this process.

Personally I've never shopped at a Grocery Outlet, but I have plenty of friends and family that do. I know the consistency of what they sell varies from week to week, but I do know they carry a fairly large selection of Organic options, with prices considerably less than what we are paying on the coast.

What is your favorite location? I'm about ready to bite the bullet and start driving over the hill for groceries.

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Laurie York:

Re: Driving to Ukiah for groceries… When I make a trip to Ukiah, I always factor in the cost of gas, wear & tear on my vehicle, accumulated mileage which affects my insurance rate, oil and air filter changes based on mileage, not to mention my time and energy for that day. I guess if you have a big freezer and buy a lot of frozen food then maybe it’s cost effective, but I prefer fresh organic fruits and vegetables.

Also, I really want to support our locally-owned businesses here on the coast (Harvest, Corners, Down Home, farmer’s markets in the spring/summer/fall, etc.). Harvest has 10% Off Day every second Wed. of the month and offers case discounts. I think Corners has the most consistent high quality organic produce year round and I often see local chefs buying their produce at there.

Bon appetit!

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Ruby Gold:

FYI: Corners also offers a 10% discount on cases of whatever… and a 10 % discount on everything the first Tuesday of the month.

And for those of us who are lucky enough to receive CalFresh, you can double your $ at the Farmers Market - up to $15 every week = $60/month!!

Shop Local - Dream Global

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Libby:

You know what some local people can't afford Harvest or Corners. We must have an alternative to the most expensive Safeway, ours, in the US. People look at the food bank lines!! There lots of the food is stale or after best buy date, but people eat it anyway or go hungry! We so need a low cost grocery in this town, and one store is not going to ruin our quaint city!

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Frank Hartzell

The thing that everybody says about Safeway, most expensive, is completely untrue. Although I see chains as our demise, the location seems right for Grocery Outlet. And it has all the green lights now, so it will be going in. Shop selectively, and use the Food Bank. you can give them money and come out ahead from shopping Grocery Outlet. You will find if you shop selectively that although they have very low prices on many things, they exceed Safeway and Harvest on some others. I did this.

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ED NOTES

WAY BACK we had a letter from a young urban couple who recalled the night they were lost in a late summer fog and, not quite knowing where they were with the night late and impenetrable, put in at the Old Boonville Hotel where, as late as 1974, a couple of old gaffers still lived upstairs among the rooms for rent. “There were big guys butting heads in the bar when we got there,” they wrote, “but the man running the place didn't seem to be bothered by it. He took us on upstairs, and all night we heard thumps and groans and people laughing like maniacs outside our room. We thought we'd be lucky to survive. It was the scariest night we ever spent anywhere.”

OLD TIMERS remember that bar. Its walls were festooned with artifacts and photographs from the Hotel's late 19th and early 20th century heyday. It struck me as a kind of museum, a fascinating little place just to the left of the front door. I can remember the unflappable Eddie Carsey behind the bar. Eddie also then owned the place, and it must have been him who showed the brightlighters up the stairs for what they later assessed as their most harrowing night ever. Head-butting was late night recreation in those days, and sad to say the head-buttin' big guys have passed on, as have the head-buttin' little guys, and fightin' guys generally, as the Anderson Valley of 2025 is mos' def' not the Anderson Valley of 1970.

ASKED by a reporter why white women seemed so attracted to him, 1920s boxing champ Jack Johnson famously replied, “Because we eat live cold eels and we think distant thoughts,” which just may be the wittiest remark ever from an athlete.

SAN FRANCISCO has always had some pretty good street acts and, in the absence of a central casting, a whole bunch of bad ones. Fisherman's Wharf features a concentration of open air entertainers, a few of them licensed, I believe, by the dominant merchant's association. Another concentration of street performers works Market Street, a few the Mission, and on Grant Avenue in Chinatown a few old men eke out livings playing traditional Chinese music on traditional stringed instruments. The licensed acts at Fisherman's Wharf range from blues singers to organists. Their venues are rotated to give them more or less equal exposure to the largest concentrations of tourists. But jammed in among them are all kinds of non-sanctioned acts, all them terrible. But none of the people now playing the streets of San Francisco approach, in pure creativity, the late Grimes Poznikov, Automatic Human Jukebox.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=03Nhm3t2G5w

Grimes was a fixture at Aquatic Park, usually at the cable car turnaround. You'd drop a dollar or two into his designated coin box and Grimes, who could actually play the trumpet, would appear in the window of his refrigerator crate and tootle a tune and, often as not, deliver an always amusing little speech on contemporary affairs. He was eventually busted for selling pot out of his box and he got crazier and crazier, so crazy he drifted off onto the streets unable to get his unique performances together.

The senior street act in the city these days is BushMan, a genial black guy named David Johnson who pops out from behind a handheld screen of leafy branches to startle inattentive passersby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfhZtcwZW4l

There are two BushMen, actually, who spell each other. The original Bush Man said once he pulled in upwards of 60 grand cash money a year with his no overhead act. The Bush Men have been at it since 1980. Presently, there's a mime glut, and there are guys spray painting gaudy abstracts on Fisherman's Wharf who always draw a crowd, plus Three Card Monte men, acrobats, break dancers and, a mile to the south, a street poet who, for a modest donation, will bang out tailor made lines arrayed at an oblique on a tattered page of typing paper. Even if the final product makes no sense the thing looks nice.

Zach Houston, poet, is in business most Saturday mornings at the Ferry Building. I laid a tenner on him once and he dashed one off for me. I know it's for me because it's got my name in it and there's the inaccurate phrase “wise old men” my grizzled presentation seems to have inspired. The poet often sports a top hat and he works on an ancient Underwood typewriter, the total visual so arresting he's got customers lined up. He even has a website: www.zachhouston.com

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SWEENEY AT STANFORD IN THE 60s

Hello AVA,

I read Bruce Anderson’s Michael Sweeney article (“I Bombed Judi Bari” Mike Sweeney as told to Bruce Anderson) with much interest, not realizing it was a parody. But I understand your motivation.

Michael Sweeney’s ties to Venceremos go back to Stanford in 1969. He “took over” the ‘Stanford Chaparral’ in the Fall of 1969, turning the magazine into an “underground press” style tabloid.

He is on a very short list of people that I think must have known “Dick Geikie.” I put that name in quotes because I believe it is a fake name for Richard Gaikowski, who wrote for the SF Good Times as Dick Gaik. There is some overlap between Good Times and the Chaparral, using some of the same photos and cartoonists. Sweeney wrote an article for Good Times.

I also suspect Sweeney was involved in the stealing of professor salaries out of Stanford’s Encina Hall in May 1969, and then turned it into a media prank in October 1969.

As for Zodiac, I have found Zodiac-Mikado items in the Stanford Daily in October 1969 that are either incredible coincidences, or the work of the perpetrator. If so, this individual not only was hanging around Stanford student publications, but worked on the night crew at the printers—placing marks on the print blanket. There are additional marks on an article about the stolen salaries, I believe intentionally placed there, and further tying the theft of the salary to this story.

As for Paul Stine, I think people incorrectly categorize him as “cab driver,” when he should be viewed as PhD candidate, a grad student. My theory of the Zodiac case is that he wanted to befriend grad students to gain access to computer time. Paul Stine also lived 2 doors from the Haight Switchboard, which was working closely with Good Times during the summer and fall of 1969.

Other researchers allege Gaikowski went to the funeral of Paul Stine, but I have not verified this point.

In addition to finding several bylines for Dick Geikie in the Stanford Daily, I have found one in the Stanford Chaparral, but that issue is indeed a fake issue, placed into the Chaparral’s archives, as well as Stanford’s Green Library. The issue could be a “prank” or message document, I conjecture, having to do with the murder of Lynda Kanes in 1971 near Lake Berryessaa.

If my information is confirmed, I can place Sweeney in close contact to a Zodiac suspect and at precisely the time Zodiac starts talking about making bombs, in late October and early November 1969.

Some people who were on the scene in the early 70s told me that Venceremos used the Chaparral office as a base through the summer of 1974.

I would be most interested to hear what you think of all this.

Many regards,

James Bigtwin

New York, New York

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FONDUE TASTING AT GOLDENEYE WINERY

9200 Highway 128

Philo, CA 95466

https://www.exploretock.com/goldeneyewinery/experience/308853/fondue

Embrace the changing seasons with a fondue experience that celebrates the natural bounty of Anderson Valley. Enjoy a flight of estate Pinot Noir, thoughtfully curated to complement our artisanal cheese fondue. Sourced from local, seasonal ingredients, each bite and sip reflects the purity and vibrancy of the land. This is a moment to slow down, savor and connect with the warmth and richness that only this valley can offer.

Admission: $85 per person

For more information: https://www.goldeneyewinery.com/Visit/Tastings

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SAM SLICK’S SALOON

William Wetherby Gibb, born in Calais, Maine circa 1826, came to this coast about 1854. He had been a lumberman in Maine, and in Mendocino he was employed by the California Lumber Manufacturing Company. Gibb may have worked his way up to the lumber company office, for in the 1860s, possibly as late as 1867 or '68, he was sent to Chile "to track down a company employee who had taken some payroll,” according to his granddaughter, Genevieve Wofford.

While in Chile he met Petra Chamarrow at a bullfight in Valparaiso, and he married her. Gibb brought his bride, in her late teens, back to Mendocino and they set up housekeeping in a small house just west of the present Mendocino Hotel where the Garden Room is now. Whether Gibb found no job open to him at the mill, or decided he could make more money as a publican is not known, but he soon remodeled the little house to accommodate a saloon in its front.

During his saloon days, Gibb acquired the sobriquet Sam Slick. Why that is the case, we do not know, but we quote from the West Coast Star of September 26, 1874: "Our neighbor (the West Coast Star office was a couple of doors west of the saloon), S. Slick Esq., who has long been noted for his legal tastes and acquirements is, we understand, to devote himself to the study of marine law. Advice and fees extremely moderate.”

Apparently, he didn’t make a fortune in marine law or booze for, in 1879, Gibb closed the saloon and went to work again as a lumberman on Caspar Creek. Two years later his health failed and he died quite suddenly from an attack of acute gastritis. Gibb's widow Petra was left with five children and she soon married H.S. Van Treat, a woodsman who agreed to take care of the children and her.

In May, 1883 Jacob Hanson announced in the Beacon the reopening of the saloon formerly kept by Sam Slick on Main Street. [Hanson called it the Buffalo Saloon.] In 1905 Petra Van Treat lost the property to foreclosure and, shortly thereafter, J.A. Silvia bought it at a county sheriff’s sale. The property was adjacent to his Central Hotel [later the Mendocino Hotel]. In the years after WWI, the building was operated as an army surplus store.

[In May of 1932, the Beacon reported that Albert Brown had purchased the building next to the Hotel Mendocino from John A. Silvia and had begun tearing the structure down. A month later, the newspaper opined that, “With a little imagination, anyone can visualize a very attractive park space in the cleared Buffalo Saloon property.” Indeed, in the 1950s, it was a little park with horseshoe pits and space to throw balls around. According to Mendocino native Steve Jordan, “There was a fence with an arbor along the sidewalk.”

In the spring of 1967, Lauren Dennen, then-owner of the Mendocino Hotel, announced he was going to develop a Victorian garden, to be called the "Village Square." Dennen reported in the April 21st Beacon that "Plank tables and benches will be arranged in the Village Square for the serving of luncheon and, on mild nights, possibly dinner. The area will be lighted in keeping with the flavor of the planning. Remodeling of the hotel will include a doorway from the kitchen for serving of the up-graded menus directly from the kitchen, as soon as the weather clears.”

Ten years later, after R. O. Peterson had purchased the hotel, the Beacon reported on April 28, 1977 that he had sought permission from the newly created MHRB to enclose the garden area on the southwest side of the Mendocino Hotel. The following year, the Beacon reported that a contractor was making improvements to the Garden Room.]

Excerpted and annotated from “Mendocino’s Hotels & Saloons,” by Dorothy Bear and Beth Stebbins, Mendocino Historical Review, June, 1980.

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, February 6, 2025

JUAN BOTELLO, 32, Sacramento/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JORGE TAFOYA, 41, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

ANTONIO THOMAS, 44, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation violation.

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PABLO ZEE WITH THE SOHUM SKINNY

by Paul Modic

Sorry to hear that you didn't get paid

Maybe you would've if your boss had gotten laid

You got the weed farm blues and heading on home

You can't judge character staring at your phone

Working with weed they all looking for a perk

It's up to you to see your boss is just a jerk

Here's some words from our sponsor:

If you like Humboldt's award-winning spy satellite watching you in your backyard vote for Estelle!

If you like Estelle sending her enforcer John Ford to bulldoze your greenhouse vote four more years!

Keep safe with Estelle, she's always watching and will abate you for thousands of dollars, take your land, and ruin your life if you don't behave.

Estelle, Bass, and Bone, the team that has it under control!

This board of supes has done more to increase government surveillance of our community than any other!

Thank you Estelle!

(Not authorized by Nathan Wise for Supervisor 2024)

And now The Weed Report:

Runtz indoor is going for 27

And the second light deps are:

OG 12, 13

Do si do 14

Apple Gelato 14

Ice Cream cake 18

The full term harvest is coming in, expect prices to plunge in two weeks.

Thank you firefighters

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GARBERVILLE'S CRUCIAL WOODROSE CAFE

This year, the Woodrose Cafe proudly celebrates its 48th anniversary. Since its establishment in 1977, the Woodrose has committed itself to offering locally sourced, sustainably produced organic cuisine. The cafe features a variety of breakfast classics, including Huevos Rancheros and Eggs Woodrose, a unique take on Eggs Benedict that keeps patrons returning for more. The lunch menu includes local grass-fed burgers with potato wedges, a smoked albacore tuna melt, and a housemade yellow curry soup with shiitake mushrooms and seasonal vegetables. The Woodrose is also known for its distinctive dishes such as Rasta Rancheros and Tofu & Veggies, catering to the vegan and vegetarian preferences prevalent in Southern Humboldt’s counterculture. These offerings contributed to the Woodrose earning the title of Best of Humboldt Eats in SoHum in 2016 and a featured spot in Sunset’s Eating Up the West Coast cookbook.

Pam Hansen, founder of the Woodrose Cafe, had a vision to provide back-to-the-land hippies with a place to feel at home and eat quality organic food. This tradition has been upheld for the past nine years by Cynintha Cuevas, a fellow female entrepreneur whose family plays a vital role in the cafe’s operations.

The Woodrose Cafe is renowned for its friendly staff and exceptional service, which form the backbone of the establishment. It is no surprise that customers see the same familiar faces year after year. The ambiance is enhanced by a cheerful atmosphere that complements the dark wood wainscoting and the striking redwood slab counter. Many customers return annually to savor their favorite dishes while traveling along the coast to visit the redwoods, friends, or family. We invite you to visit the Woodrose Cafe and experience for yourself the culinary delights that have garnered acclaim for nearly five decades.

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WE BE BACK

Editor:

While watching the Ten O'clock News with Dennis Richmond and Elaine Corral back in the blurry halcyon days of changing diapers and working the night shift Dennis was doing a brief story on "Ebonics", which I guess was a thing for ten minutes back in the day. After finishing the Ebonics bit he starts the teaser they do so the viewer stays tuned: “Coming up, sports, weather and more… All that, WHEN WE BE BACK,” as deadpan as humanly possible, except instead of looking into the camera he's staring down at his desk shuffling papers and whatnot, no doubt in an extreme effort not to bust out laughing at his own joke. If Elaine had done that she would have been fired posthaste. I still laugh when I think about it.

Thanks Dennis, Godspeed.

Richard Reeves

Oakland

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SHITOLA HITS THE FANOLA

Yo Postmodern America, Are You Still Alive?

Awoke early at the Adam’s Place Homeless Shelter in northeast Washington, D.C. to be informed that we are having a 10a.m. Town Hall Meeting on Friday. Apparently, the shitola has finally hit the fanola. And before the local government, and the fire marshall, and the Metropolitan Police Dept., and the Federal Govt. , particularly the FBI, shuts down the facility, a change is gonna come. Early signs are that only water is allowed in the dorm area, that a full security check is now in place to enter the building, daily colored wrist bracelets will be issued at evening check-in time at 5p.m., and for those not willing to cooperate, they may move outside for the remainder of the Chesapeake Bay area winter. The subject of rampant drug and alcohol abuse will be addressed, as well as violence in general, and mental health issues. I am available for just about anything on planet earth with a radical environmental and peace & justice focus. Contact me at: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

Craig Stehr

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‘I’M GOING TO DIE ON NINTH ST.’ SHOT 7 TIMES, A STORE OWNER MAKES A MIRACULOUS RECOVERY

Martin Olive was on a smoke break outside his business when a man approached him and started firing. He still doesn't know why.

by Ezra Wallach

When Martin Olive saw a random man point a pistol at his face, he thought it was a water gun.

“I thought it was the beginning of a stupid TikTok prank,” the 47-year-old cannabis shop owner told The Standard in an interview Wednesday. “I couldn’t conceive of why anyone would want to shoot me.”

Seconds later, he was on the ground, screaming in pain after being struck by bullets in the cheek, chest, and back, asking, “Why me?” as a coworker called 911 and others ran to his aid.

Since his life was turned upside down during a Jan. 27 smoke break outside his dispensary, the Vapor Room at Ninth and Mission streets, Olive still hasn’t come up with a good answer as to why he was targeted or how he survived.

But many of his friends who spoke to The Standard said that if anyone were to be shot seven times, only to miraculously survive and be cracking jokes about it days later, it would be Olive. Being riddled with bullets may not have even been his closest brush with mortality: He nearly died of a brain aneurysm 12 years ago.

“Martin is a nine-lives kind of guy,” said Ferris Plock, who has known him for more than two decades.

When Tiffany Medrano heard the news, she raced up north from her home in Los Angeles. She’s staying at Olive’s apartment to help him get back on his feet, making sure that his wounds are clean and he’s taking his medication.

“It’s a frickin’ miracle,” Medrano said, noting that the three bullets to Olive’s chest and back could’ve easily hit a vital organ. “I don’t even know if Jack Reacher could’ve [survived] this.”

As for his other injuries: There’s a split ear, nerve damage, a fractured scapula and jaw, and so many stitches in his cheek that the doctors stopped counting. And yet, just nine days after the shooting, Olive’s taking walks around his apartment near Dolores Park.

‘My Soul Was Running Away From My Body’

Olive told The Standard he tried to run after the first bullet struck, even though he is aware that he didn’t actually go anywhere.

“It felt like I got a ball of hot metal shoved into my cheek,” he said. “It just was so hot, and I just wanted to get away from the pain. I think, metaphysically, my soul was running away from my body. I was in another world.”

Surveillance video of the shooting shows the assailant, Cheasarak Chong, 34, pulling up to the curb on a black e-bike, dismounting, and parking. Chong casually walks toward Olive, who is standing on the sidewalk outside the shop, holding his phone and leaning against a bike rack. Chong pulls a gun out of his pants pocket, grips it with both hands, points, and fires multiple rounds. Olive drops his phone, covers his head, and falls to the ground. As Olive lies on his back on the sidewalk, Chong fires at his head. He then walks into the building next to the cannabis shop, where police tracked him to an apartment on the sixth floor. The Standard is choosing not to publish the video of the shooting due to Olive’s ongoing trauma.

Olive said that while on the ground, he stayed as still as possible in an attempt to keep bullets from moving and avoid further injury. While coworkers and passersby tried to stop the bleeding, his arms spasmed on the concrete. He now has nightmares in which his arms spasm in the same way.

When medics arrived, they took off his clothes, which were drenched in blood.

“I kept thinking to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m gonna die on Ninth Street,’ like, holy shit, I’m dying on Ninth Street,” he recalled, adding that there are nicer parts of the city in which to take your last breath.

The gunman walked into the building at 81 Ninth St. after nearly killing Olive on the street. He was later shot dead by police. | Source:Autumn DeGrazia/The Standard

Olive said he’s holding up well in the daytime, when friends are there to keep him company, but at night, he’s much more emotional. Even as the shock of what happened lessens, the trauma remains.

“I cry a lot,” said Olive, adding that he is seeking treatment for PTSD. “I get nightmares. I get flashbacks. The scene sort of expands, with cinema vision around it all.”

‘I’m A Liberal Person’

Olive’s attorney Patrick Goggin said he was told by the San Francisco Police Department that Chong had purchased his cache of weapons legally. The SFPD declined to comment, noting the ongoing investigation.

Hours after shooting Olive, Chong fired at police during a lengthy standoff at his apartment. Officers shot him from a rooftop; he was pronounced dead at the scene.

In his interview with The Standard, Olive expressed frustration at the fact that Chong was able to legally obtain firearms after facing charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing a man. Chong was acquitted in that case in 2018 after a jury found him not guilty of attempted murder and hung on the assault charge. The public defender’s office, which represented him at trial, argued that Chong acted in self-defense.

A man named Tee Chong, who claimed to be his brother, told The Standard via email that Cheasarack had dealt with mental health issues for years. Though they lost contact more than eight years ago, Tee Chong said the family thought he was doing well, and the city “took care of him” after the 2018 trial.

“All he wanted was a better life and to free himself,” Tee Chong wrote. “I’m saddened that SFPD didn’t let us talk him out of it and … get him help.”

The Standard was unable to verify Tee Chong’s relationship to the shooter.

Olive said he believes that Chong was given an ill-advised second chance.

“I’m a liberal person,” Olive said. “I believe in social services. I believe in helping the people that need help. I believe in everyone’s right to live and breathe free, but that includes my right to live and breathe free, and this person clearly tried to stop my right to live and breathe free.”

Before learning that Chong had died, Olive said he was worried that the shooter would be let go by police and that he would have to move out of San Francisco for fear of being targeted again.

“Garnering any sympathy for him [because of his mental health] is very insulting and disrespectful to people that have mental health issues and don’t commit violence,” said Olive, who has suffered from depression.

In the last few years, Olive and his business partner have struggled to keep their shop afloat and pondered whether to take “a pause” and temporarily close. After the shooting, they decided to go through with it. The Vapor Room on Saturday will host a “goodbye” party as it ceases operations at its only location in SoMa.

“I need to regroup,” Olive said. “Our goal is to reopen bigger, better, stronger, and more awesome, with the help of the community.”

Asked whether he buys into the idea that God or some mystical force saved his life, as many of his friends have suggested, Olive said he isn’t buying it.

“I think I’m very lucky within unlucky circumstances,” Olive said. “I’m not a tough guy. I just want to be a squishy, soft dude. … I’m just a guy that was standing there and got shot.”

(sfstandard.com)

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ANCHOR BREWING KEEPS CHANGING. BUT THANKS TO ONE EMPLOYEE, ITS DISTILLERY HAS STAYED TRUE TO ITS ROOTS

by Esther Mobley

While San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing has undergone a series of seismic changes over the last 15 years — multiple acquisitions, worker unionization, a shutdown of the business, a promise to revive it — its distillery counterpart has had one remarkable thread of continuity. Through it all, Bruce Joseph, the first full-time employee of Anchor Distilling at the time of its 1993 founding, remained the master distiller behind beloved spirits like Junipero gin and Old Potrero whiskey, as well as new creations like the Old Potrero Christmas Spirit, distilled from Anchor’s cherished Christmas Ale.

Next week, on his 69th birthday, Joseph will retire. It seems like a fitting occasion to reflect on the legacy of the distillery originally known as Anchor Distilling and known as Hotaling & Co. since 2018. Amid the tumult of Anchor Brewing in recent years, it’s been easy to overlook the distillery’s remarkable achievement — an achievement usually (and properly) credited to longtime owner Fritz Maytag, but enabled behind the scenes by its most stalwart employee.

Joseph was a hobbyist homebrewer in 1980 when he went to work for Anchor Brewing on the bottling line. In his recollection, there were just 12 employees at the brewery, and his promotion to cellar worker came quickly. When Maytag decided to open a distillery in 1993, Joseph was his first hire. It didn’t matter that neither had distilling experience; they would figure it out together.

Anchor Distilling’s original product, Old Potrero whiskey, anticipated the cult of nostalgia that has overtaken American whiskey today. Nowadays, “a lot of craft distillers have to come up with a story about their granddad being a moonshiner,” Joseph said. “We have a history. And it’s true.”

Famously a lover of American history, Maytag had in mind a whiskey that would nod to the colonial era, Joseph said, and visited the Library of Congress to do his research. He determined that America’s first whiskey was likely made from rye, which is what many subsistence farmers in the middle colonies grew.

Whiskey was not especially popular in the early 1990s, and to the extent that there was interest, it was in Scotch, not American whiskey. Rye was considered an obscure subcategory of that already-unpopular niche. “At the time, you could only get three ryes in San Francisco,” Joseph said. “Wild Turkey, Jim Beam, and every bar had a dusty bottle of Old Overholt.”

But he and Maytag were undeterred. Experimenting with different mash bills, they quickly learned that they preferred a 100% rye mash to any other options. “We instantly fell in love with that flavor,” Joseph said.

For the fermentation, they decided to forego a typical distiller’s yeast and instead use Anchor’s ale yeast, which imbued a deep, malty character, Joseph said. Instead of the more typical large column stills, they distilled Old Potrero in a small copper pot still, another throwback.

Like many of Anchor Brewing’s best creations (especially steam beer), Old Potrero was an anachronism, designed to wink at history geeks and destined to confuse mass consumers. “For Fritz, the less popular, the better,” Joseph laughed.

Joseph and Maytag were similarly unafraid of alienating the masses when they created Junipero gin, the follow-up to Old Potrero.

“As a small producer, we felt we should have a big gin,” Joseph said. Just as craft beer dared to amp up the flavor from the bland light-lager archetype, Anchor Distilling’s craft gin would be bold. Joseph bought a mill to grind the juniper berries himself. His most audacious move was in opting to leave the gin unfiltered and therefore a little hazy — something that would almost certainly be a turnoff for consumers accustomed to crystal-clear Bombay Sapphire.

But filtering, Joseph felt, “seemed to diminish the flavor we’d worked so hard to build,” and it got rid of Junipero’s textured mouthfeel. “Fritz just said, ‘well, we’ll have to explain that to people,” Joseph recalled. It turned out to be a big gin indeed, clocking in at 98.6 proof.

For 24 years, Anchor Brewing and Anchor Distilling shared a building on Mariposa Street, an owner and, in many ways, a story — two San Francisco-born efforts to make things the old-fashioned way, impervious to contemporary trends. But when Sapporo bought Anchor Brewing in 2017, the distilling arm didn’t come along with it. Anchor Distilling was released to become its own company and rechristened as Hotaling & Co., inspired by a 19th century San Francisco whiskey warehouse.

With Joseph at the helm, Hotaling & Co. preserved Anchor Distilling’s true spirit. In 2018, when the operation moved out of Mariposa Street and into Pier 50, Joseph brought along that original Anchor pot still — now dwarfed by the much larger Forsyths still left by the pier distillery’s previous tenant, No. 209 Gin. The equipment has come a long way: When Joseph and Maytag were first setting up their distillery, they built their own whiskey coil using copper pipe that they’d bought from “a plumbing place off Bayshore Boulevard,” he said.

Rather than hand the reins to a single successor, Joseph said that Hotaling & Co. will now be led “by committee,” specifically head distiller Kevin Aslan, senior distiller Mike Boo, and distillery and facilities manager Adam Hall. Joseph plans to spend his retirement volunteering for his son’s nonprofit organization and getting involved in politics.

Making spirits, especially whiskey, is a long game, and for now Hotaling & Co. is still selling products made at the Potrero Hill distillery. One of the dearest to Joseph is the Old Potrero Christmas Spirit, distilled from the 2011 edition of Anchor Brewing’s Christmas Ale and aged for 12 years. It smells like a Christmas tree and tastes like a spice-laden fruitcake. With Anchor’s Christmas Ale now on indefinite hiatus — it’s unclear when new owner Hamdi Ulukaya will reopen the brewery — the Christmas Spirit is the closest thing we’ve got.

Leading up to his retirement, “I kept hoping Anchor would reopen and we could buy more beer from them,” said Joseph, who has distilled many different Anchor beers into liquor over the years. But he suggested, possibly joking, that he could always get back into homebrewing. “At this point, I’ve got so many Christmas Ale recipes memorized.”

(SF Chronicle)

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DYLANOLOGY

by Fred Gardner

I recently got an email from a man in Italy named Mauricio Acerbo. At first it puzzled me because my memory is now a colander and I thought I’d once written a review of Bob Dylan’s album “Rough & RowdyWays,” not the piece referred to in the email. Here's our exchange:

Dear Fred, I read your 2021 article on Bob Dylan and Karl Marx in Counterpunch

I'm a communist and at the same time an admirer of Dylan. So I would like to understand better. I have always had the feeling that during the 1960s Dylan went -as happened to so many in recent decades- from an idealistic enthusiasm for the causes championed by communists, to a crisis resulting from a growing awareness of the crimes of Stalinism. I see this shift in Dylan in the 1965 records with electric guitars. It seems to me that Dylan moved from the initial inspiration of personalities like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to a critical vision like that of Allen Ginsberg. Not surprisingly, Ginsberg appreciated the electric turn and the lyrics that were no longer immediately political but much more “beat.” The beat poets -Kerouac and Ginsberg- had been communists but had moved away from Marxism-Leninism by the late 1940s. It seems to me that Dylan contemporarily discovered anti-communist (it would be better to say anti-Stalinist) literature, the Koestler quote in It's alright ma (Darkness at the break of noon) being evidence of this.

[FG: The parents of his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, were CPers, and Suze influenced him for sure. His friend Dave Van Rank was a Trotsky fan, so he would have gotten an exposure to that perspective, too. Koestler's book was a bestseller when we were coming of age. Bob might have heard the phrase and grabbed it without having read the book.]

We could see his changes from 1964 onward in lyrics as a leap beyond an overly zdanovian version dl the role of popular song. but in this in addition to the beat generation he may also have been inspired by the avant-garde tradition of twentieth-century communist artists. i have read that he was fond of Pablo Picasso's painting. It seems to me, however, that — as in Ginsberg's case — distancing oneself from Communism did not mean abandoning progressive positions and even courageous stances. This is evidenced by songs such as “George Jackson”

[FG: Homage to Leadbelly. Probably written in 15 minutes.]

or “Hurricane”

[FG: Great song. You don't have to be a Marxist to denounce police frame-ups.]

or in the 1980s “Unions sundown.”

[FG: Now that's an explicitly political song. And there's another song, maybe on Tempest, where the boss wants to hire "the cheapest labor money can buy." Meaning… Dylan understands capitalism as well as Drs Gramsci and Marcuse ever did.]

In short, as Ginsberg wrote in the liner notes to Desire, Dylan has periodically returned to writing “songs of redemption.” From what you write, however, it seems to me that you intend to argue that our poet has become a religious reactionary.

[FG: Not my point at all. I think he knows where it's at.]

I confess that the records of the Christian religious turn I have never listened to carefully.

[FG: They are some of the most radical politically. “When you gonna wake up?”]

I would like to understand your opinion better. Let me conclude by saying that I am a democratic communist in the Italian tradition of Antonio Gramsci and as Herbert Marcuse wrote I think that a democratic communism other than Stalinist and post-Stalinist communism is possible, which I would more correctly call state socialism with its corollary of Marxist-Leninist ideology.

[FG: Here's a piece about Dylan's politics way back when:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/24/highway-66-revisited/]

From where are you writing? Are you a student? A worker? Have you read Elena Ferrante? If so, what do you think?

[FG: I never met him but I think of Bob Dylan as My Brilliant Friend.]

I'm the national secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party of Italy www.rifondazione.it

I have always been a music lover and for decades a radio host and DJ. In 1980 I founded a communist youth club named in honoring Wood Guthrie. Even though I was a boy in the era of punk and post-punk, I have always cultivated a parallel interest in the music of the 1960s. I always saw for example the Dylan of 1965 as an antelitteram punk. I have always had a particular interest for the history of your workers movement, the Beat Generation, the counterculture and the movement in the US. I lectured for years on Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg, Gar Snyder and ecology, IWW and many other things. Dylan has always been a constant interest for me.

[FG: Was Togliatti a real Stalinist or might he have been an Italian Tito? Here's a song explaining where I'm at.

https://fredgardner.bandcamp.com/track/exit-stage-left

Togliatti is a complex figure. He was actually close to Bucharin but at some point realized that it was not possible to save the party except by conforming to Stalin's directives. It should be kept in mind that he was Gramsci's comrade from his younger years and therefore his political culture was more sophisticated than the crude Stalinist Marxism-Leninism. Togliatti was certainly a Stalinist, in the sense of loyal to Stalin and the USSR, but because of his intelligence and culture he was able to carve out a relatively original role for himself. This is demonstrated by his elaboration with Dimitrov of the Popular Front strategy and then the elaboration of an Italian way to socialism that distanced itself in fact from the USSR model. Lukacs called him "the greatest tactician of the Third International." Certainly for him a break with the country that had first undertaken the transition to socialism was not possible. Back in Italy he elaborated a democratic vision of socialism, rooted in the traditions of our labor movement and the progressive currents of our national history, and it seems to me that in fact in his work he went beyond Tito because he assumed the principle of political pluralism. He is a controversial figure who has always been attacked by the extreme right and liberal anti-communists as well as the extreme left who blamed him for giving up the revolution. Togliatti already in 1943, based on Gramsci's Notebooks, had said that in Italy we should not do as in Russia.

[FG: America was great in many ways for many people in the 20th century. The post office and the public school system, to name two. Bob Dylan’s statement when he accepted the Nobel Prize For Literature is a testament to the education provided at a public high school in a little Minnesota town. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zf04vnVPfM&t=3s]

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YOUR ENEMY IS MY ENEMY

by Marilyn Davin

Growing up during the Great Depression, my parents understood the value of a job on a visceral level. My father, who grew up in Chicago, recalled that the first thing his father and his friends would ask one another, upon meeting, was “Have you found work?” My mother, who grew up on a family farm in rural Oregon, recalled that her mother included “hobos” at their dinner table of eight in exchange for chopping wood when they showed up after jumping from a passing train in search of a meal. My parents told me about this in the same way they told me about other painful lessons from our history: to instill in us kids a sense of gratitude that as a society we’ve come so far from those bad old days when everyone understood that the insatiable need for profit always comes before human need.

Between then and now, relative prosperity brought some measure of security for Americans: Social Security benefits, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and other benefits that shielded ordinary people from unforgiving but inevitable cycles of rampant capitalism. But they don’t replace having an actual job, a job that not so many years ago typically came with pensions, health insurance, and company matches in employee savings plans. What happened?

Back in the go-go ‘80s, companies searched gleefully for ways to enrich the fortunes of their shareholders and, especially, their execs at the top of the heap. Employee pensions stepped up to first place on the chopping block. In 1970 when Baby Boomers were beginning their careers, 52% of them would land in jobs with defined pensions. Today an estimated 10% will. In other words, young people starting out then had basically a 50/50 chance of starting out with a pension; today 90% of young people will not — just one more example of how young Americans are getting screwed. Yea, yea, I know, there’s the much-ballyhooed 401K, über cheap for companies to administer compared with pensions. One company I worked for during this unfortunate transition even came up with a slogan: “Your new company is Me, Inc.!” I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually throw up the first time I heard that pandering, dishonest HR gem, designed to destroy, once and for all, any lingering old-fashioned notion that your company has any responsibility for you. Pair this with dead-end jobs, no housing, and a steady, full-strength social-media drip, is the disenchantment of our young so hard to understand?

This morning’s broadcasters “reported” in doomsday terms that Trump is firing (or demanding resignations from) thousands of career federal employees, by letter, no less. If these unionized civil servants are actually thrown out on the streets without either notice or due process, it will reveal unions to be the paper tigers they’ve become. Powerful unions built this country’s foundation for the large middle class that flourished briefly for just a few decades in the last century, but are today nearly nonexistent outside the public sector.

A few courageous federal supervisors have advised their threatened employees to defy Trump’s termination deadline and keep working, presumably hopeful that the judicial system will save them. We’ll see.

Those supervisors are courageous because Trump’s greatest talent — raining revenge on his enemies — has been right in front of us over the last decade. Just ask those who lost their primaries because of him. They lost their jobs. Those supervisors, almost certain to lose their own jobs by publicly defying Trump, are today’s civil rights heroes. Where are the voices of the representatives and senators we elected to protect us? Their silence is louder than any shout.

I misjudged Trump, saw him as a not-very-bright buffoon destined for a footnote in American history. In retrospect I see now that his cunning was and is breathtaking. First the U.S. Supreme Court. Then the midterms where he torpedoed the reelection campaigns of his perceived enemies. Their crime: insufficient loyalty. This week I watched the confirmation hearings for two of his most controversial cabinet picks. As I watched in disbelief, senator after senator — even those who had initially expressed grave doubts about the grossly unqualified candidates — folded, one by one, before their very real fear of Trump’s certain retribution.

They’re afraid to lose their jobs. If Trump sets his gimlet eye on you, probing your fear, and the worst comes to pass and you lose your job, who will be brave enough to hire you? McCarthyism will look like a walk in the park. And even if you find another job, will you spend the rest of your life nervously looking over your shoulder, fearing Trump’s long reach until the day either you or he dies?

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NEW CALIFORNIA OIL DRILLING PERMITS DROP TO 73, BUT OIL REGULATORS DROP BALL ON BONDING

by Dan Bacher

Approvals for new oil well drilling permits in California dwindled to 73 in 2024 from 2,664 in 2019 when Governor Newsom took office.

However, 2024 ended with oil regulators “dropping the ball” on requiring adequate amounts of bonding to protect taxpayers from plugging and cleanup in a massive oil acquisition deal, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance revealed in a press release Thursday.

Instead, regulators halved the bonding requirement for the California Resources Corp. (CRC) acquisition of Aera Energy to $30 million for one “shared liability” bond instead of considering two bonds totaling a maximum $60 million, via a legal loophole, even though ProPublica reports Aera’s well plugging costs start at $1.1 billion, the groups wrote.

The total number of new and reworked oil drilling permits issued since Jan. 2019 comes to 17,330. …

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/5/2301645/-New-2024-CA-Oil-Drilling-Permits-Drop-to-73-But-Oil-Regulators-Drop-Ball-on-Bonding

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WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME A PRESIDENT PURGED THE BUREAUCRACY

Betsy Cawn Writes:

In 1961 the teacher of our “Social Science” class (senior year of high school) insisted that we must fear the “Red Scare” — and, because of Korea, the “Yellow Peril” — but I was well informed by earlier years of following Edward R. Murrow’s take-down of McCarthy and the agonizing reversal of Hoover’s terrorism. (Challenging the teacher, a post WWII German emigre with a thick Teutonic accent, was rewarded by dismissal to the dean’s office, a blessed relief from having to hear his fear mongering and demands for classroom obiesance.)

The current situation in D.C. and Trump’s bagman take-over of federal agencies and wholesale destruction of our human service programs demands that we act — NOW — to stop this Machiavellian madness.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/06/government-workers-purge-1950s-communism-00202336

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I read with great interest that Trump is considering directing the Treasury Department to buy a boatload of Bitcoin to create some sort of strategic reserve for the country. But why stop there? I urge Trump to consider also having the Treasury stockpile state lottery tickets, Kentucky Derby bets and, while they’re at it, Monopoly money. I might also ask him to consider betting a chunk of Treasury bills on the Eagles to win the Super Bowl, but, on second thought, that would actually be a good investment.

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LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT

After Attack, New Orleans Is Rattled but Ready for the “Biggest Show on Earth”

Trump Administration to Lay Off Nearly All of U.S. Aid Agency’s Staff

Abandoned in the Middle of Clinical Trials, Because of a Trump Order

Judge Delays Program Offering Federal Workers Incentives to Quit

Federal Election Commission Chair Says Trump Has Moved to Fire Her

N.C.A.A., Following Trump’s Order, Excludes Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports

Senate Confirms Russell Vought as Office of Management and Budget Director

C.D.C. Posts, Then Deletes, Data on Bird Flu Spread Between Cats and People

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NEW TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF REACTS TO HIS GAZA RESORT GRAB IDEA

(That didn’t take long.)

(via Steve Heilig)

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AS THE GAZA AGENDA MOVES FORWARD, THE IMPERIAL NARRATIVE SHIFTS WITH IT

by Caitlin Johnstone

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acted shocked and appalled by questions from reporters about Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza on Wednesday, saying it was “evil” to suggest that these poor victims of Israel’s destruction should be allowed to stay somewhere that’s been completely demolished.

“Again, it’s a demolition site right now,” Leavitt said. “It’s not a livable place for any human being. And I think it’s actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.”

Of course the question of whether or not it was evil for the US and Israel to deliberately create those conditions in the first place is never raised by the obedient press gaggle.

It’s been truly remarkable watching the official imperial narrative pivot from (A) claiming it’s outrageous to suggest Israel was waging a genocidal campaign of annihilation on Gaza, to (B) saying obviously everyone in Gaza needs to leave because the entire place has been annihilated and how dare you suggest otherwise. 

This comes as Donald Trump himself proclaims on Truth Social that under his plan the Gaza Strip “would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.” Such a land transfer would require Israel to forcibly seize all of Gaza in order to cede the territory to the US. If Gaza becomes as a US territory it would of course no longer exist as a Palestinian territory, and would have already been purged of all Palestinians.

And it’s just so surreal how the narrative is changing now that the agenda has moved from destroying Gaza to ethnically cleansing it. It’s requiring some real Orwellian doublethink revisionism.…

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/02/07/as-the-gaza-agenda-moves-forward-the-imperial-narrative-shifts-with-it/

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FEEDING TIME AT THE TROUGH

by David Runciman

The speeches American presidents deliver on the day of their inauguration don’t make much of a difference to anything. A handful have given resonant phrases to the language (“The better angels of our nature,” ‘Nothing to fear but fear itself”…) but most are soon folded away and mothballed along with the event as a whole. Like the coronation oaths of medieval kings, these are occasions to pay lip service to the pieties before the serious business of governing begins, at which point the words tend to be forgotten. The only inaugural address with claims to have decisively shaped what followed came in 1841 when William Henry Harrison – “Old Tippecanoe” – was so keen to show he was capable of observing the proprieties that he delivered a two-hour disquisition on constitutional government without a coat or hat in the cold and wet Washington winter. He caught a chill and within a month was dead from what was widely assumed to be pneumonia, though given the state of the White House plumbing at the time it is just as likely to have been typhoid.

While it’s not possible to predict much about a presidential administration from what’s said at the very beginning, these speeches do provide a good lens through which to look back at the preoccupations of the age. Harrison’s speech was mainly concerned with the perils of concentrating power in any one branch of government, particularly the executive. He was at pains to point out that he would not make a despotism of the presidency, something he thought would happen if anyone served more than four years in that office. So he made a public pledge that “under no circumstances will I consent to serve a second term,” a promise he was able in his way to keep.

Most of his immediate successors followed suit as one-term presidents, with only the Civil War leaders Lincoln and Grant – true despots in the eyes of their opponents – securing re-election. In 1893 Grover Cleveland became the only man before Trump to return to the presidency after having been defeated four years earlier (the man who had beaten him was Harrison’s grandson Benjamin, who won the White House despite losing the popular vote). In his second inaugural address, Cleveland made no mention of vindication or of having been robbed last time out. Instead he focused on the evils of creeping paternalism and the growing dependence of Americans on government support. He pledged to restore frugality and efficiency to public administration by stripping out all unwarranted claims on the taxpayer’s dollar.

Cleveland’s successor was William McKinley, the man who appears to have replaced Lincoln as Trump’s favorite predecessor. In his first inaugural address, McKinley talked at length about the need for sound money as well as insisting on the “severest economy” in public expenditure. In his second inaugural four years later he boasted of having achieved both, while also reasserting American power overseas.

Trump’s inaugural speech sounded nothing like either of McKinley’s. It wasn’t merely boastful but staggeringly narcissistic. Unlike Cleveland, he revelled in his return and forced his defeated opponents to sit through a thorough trashing of their record. Unlike Harrison, he brought his audience in from the brutal cold and did it all in the cosy setting of the Capitol Rotunda. Yet despite this, there is something 19th-century about Trump’s politics. He cited McKinley – a “great president” and a “natural businessman” – as someone who had used tariff policy to enrich the nation. He made no mention of the dollar but neither, more surprisingly, did he discuss crypto, despite the fact that the recently launched memecoin $TRUMP looks set to make his family billions. He reminded his audience of the economies about to be unleashed by the Department of Government Efficiency, as its cost-cutter in chief, Elon Musk, looked lovingly on. He talked about changing names on the map. He promised a new era of frontier spirit and international aggrandisement. He sounded like he wished it was 1896 all over again.

(London Review of Books)

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