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COLD WEATHER ADVISORY remains in effect from 2am to 9am Monday. Cool and dry conditions will continue through Tuesday. A moderate atmospheric river will then build in mid to late week with gusty south wind and rain. Low elevation snow is possible in Trinity county early Thursday morning. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 33F under clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. The rain will tease the coast tomorrow then make an earnest arrival sometime later Wednesday. Scattered off & showers thru the weekend then looking clear later next week.
SURVEYOR SOUGHT
Need a surveyor recommendation. Has anyone dealt with a local surveyor the would recommend? Work is in Comptche.
Katy Tahja, ktahja@mcn.org
AVUSD NEWS
Dear Anderson Valley Community,
Anderson Valley USD supports its students and families! I hope that those of you who watch the Super Bowl are enjoying it, as it is in progress while I write this update. I am a bit under the weather, so I will keep this one short.
District Updates…
Murals at AVES
It was wonderful to see several community members at last week’s mural meeting at AVES. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the surveys. Your input was greatly appreciated. Together, we determined:
- AVES will reinstall a limited number of murals, historical and new. Murals will not stay “forever,” but will be rotated and changed, with the input of staff and students.
- Care will be taken in the future, to ensure weather-resistant materials are used, and that all parties are aware of the amount of time a given mural will remain in place.
- Mr. Ramalia and his team will work together to get this underway and the community should see some student-made artwork soon!
- If you are interested in details about the murals and the surveys, please enjoy this slideshow about the topic.
DLAC Will be February 20, 2025
Please join us at 5:00 at AVES (room 19), for district-wide information about our programs for English learners. We value your thoughts and input. Here is the Agendafor the meeting. We look forward to seeing you there!
We Value ALL Our Families: Immigration Support and Updates
Please find links to additional information for families below:
- NEW from Mendocino County Office of Education: MCOE Immigration Resource Page
- Immigration and California Families: State Immigration Website
- National Immigration Law Center: “Know Your Rights” (English | Spanish | Additional Languages)
To reiterate our commitment, our district has established the following policies and procedures (also included in our attached letter to families). To date, no immigration officers have been on any of our campuses.
- Prohibition of Unauthorized Access by Immigration Enforcement: In alignment with California Senate Bill 48 (SB 48), our district prohibits granting access to school grounds to any immigration enforcement agent without a valid judicial warrant or other legal grounds. This policy ensures that our campuses remain safe spaces for all students
- Protection of Student Records: Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), we are obligated to protect the confidentiality of student education records. We will not release any student information to immigration authorities without prior written consent from the parent or guardian unless presented with a court order or subpoena. CSBA.org
- Limitation on Inquiries Regarding Immigration Status: Our staff will not inquire about a student's or their family's immigration status, nor will we require documentation that may expose such status. This practice aligns with guidance from the California Attorney General's Office, which advises schools to refrain from collecting information related to immigration status to ensure equal access to education. California DOJ
- Response Protocol for Immigration Enforcement Requests: In the event that an immigration enforcement agent requests access to a school site or student information, staff are instructed to refer the agent to the Superintendent's office. The Superintendent, in consultation with legal counsel, will review the request to ensure compliance with all applicable laws before any action is taken. We understand that recent changes in federal immigration enforcement policies may cause concern within our community. Notably, the rescission of the 2021 memorandum on "protected areas" has raised questions about the presence of immigration enforcement in schools. Please rest assured that our district remains steadfast in its dedication to protecting the rights and well-being of all students.
We love to see parents at our events, supporting their kids. If you would like to be more involved, please contact your school’s principal, Mr. Ramalia at AVES or Mr. McNerney at AV Jr/Sr High, or our district superintendent, Kristin Larson Balliet.
We are deeply grateful for our AVUSD families.
With respect,
Kristin Larson Balliet
Superintendent
Anderson Valley Unified School District
BIG BOOK SALE at the Mendocino Community Library on Saturday, February 15th, from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. New and old, fiction and nonfiction, mystery and crime, romances, children's books, puzzles, and collector’s items. Bag of books for $5 after 2:00 pm. Corner of William and Little Lake Streets in Mendocino. Just south of the Art Center. Something for everyone!
Alan Peters, apeters@mcn.org
A MURDER-MYSTERY RESURFACES IN RECENT WINTER STORM
by Mendocino County Museum Staff
Thursday, February 13, join us for our, A-Bit-and-A-Bite, lunch hour program at the Mendocino County Museum. Museum volunteer, Carol Cox, will share the wild story behind a headstone that recently surfaced during a winter storm. This is the second A-Bit-and-A-Bite event and is part of an ongoing series of fun, casual, spotlights on County History. Light snacks are provided, and all are welcome. Sponsored by the Friends of the Mendocino County Museum.
For more information: For more information, please visit www.mendocinocounty.org/museum or call (707) 234-6365.
Jayma Shields Spence Notes:
The mystery headstone washed up on our property during a flooding event in the Laytonville Subdivision where my husband Roland and I live. Debris from upstream clogged a culvert across from our house and water began to rush over the road into our front yard. Thankfully, I happened to be home looking out our front window and saw the water rushing over the road towards our house. I yelled to Roland and he swiftly jumped into action. After a few attempts to unclog the culvert ourselves, he ran to our neighbor’s property, where Dan Vanoven and Ivo Shere happened to be working. Ivo jumped into Albert’s backhoe and cleared the debris with the machine. Tangled up in fencing material/cages were large chunks of wood, debris and a concrete block. The pile was moved to our property. A week or so later, Roland was working to clean up the pile and discovered half of a concrete grave marker. I posted the picture of the grave marker on Facebook.
And Karen Matson was tagged in the post, she is the director of the Mendocino County Museum. She contacted me and asked about the grave marker. Museum volunteer Carol Cox thought it was that of Clarence E. Tracy. I googled his name and found that Zack Anderson of the Anderson Valley Advertiser did an excellent, comprehensive piece on the infamous murder case: https://theava.com/archives/146571
(via Jim Shields)
UPDATE ON POTTER VALLEY PROJECT REMOVAL, NEW WATER-DIVERSION DESIGNS
by Justine Frederiksen
An update on the plans to remove the dams created for the Potter Valley Project and build a new water diversion facility at Cape Horn Dam was presented Thursday during an online meeting hosted by Pacific Gas and Electric Company officials.
Most of the meeting was comprised of a presentation by Tony Gigliotti, the Senior Licensing Project Manager for PG&E, who provided a detailed outline of the long and multi-faceted process involved in the utility’s application to decommission and surrender its hydroelectric plant located in Mendocino County.
“There is one application with two separate processes: 1) Decommissioning of the facility, and 2) Construction of the new diversion facility,” said Gigliotti, stressing multiple times that in order to accommodate the wishes of a third party (called the Eel-Russian Project Authority) to continue water diversions from the Eel River to the Russian River that began more than 100 years ago when the Potter Valley Project was first built, PG&E “found a solution that does not delay the decommissioning process (with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission),” and that is to categorize the plan for a new diversion facility as “non-project use of project lands.”
As for the design of the new diversion facility, David Manning from the Sonoma County Water Agency (the coalition hoping to using the PVP’s water tunnel as part of a new diversion facility includes Sonoma Water, Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission, Humboldt County, Round Valley Indian Tribes, California Trout, Trout Unlimited, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife) showed renderings of both the current Cape Horn Dam, and how the facility could be transformed.
Manning described the facility’s design phase, which he said was funded by a grant from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, as being “60-percent complete.” When asked questions after his presentation, Manning noted that the intent of the facility was “not to impede either recreation or fish passage,” and would not impede lamprey passage, either.
Watch video of Manning describing the design of the new diversion facility here: https://fb.watch/xBegd27GTQ/
When asked if there was a timeline in which the Eel-Russian Project Authority had to prove that it had the funds necessary to complete the project, Manning said “no, ERPA does not have a specific timeline. We are, of course, interested in federal, state and local funding, but there is no specific timeline for the raising of the funds and the construction of the project.”
As for PG&E’s timeline, it is currently collecting comments on its application to FERC to decommission and surrender the PVP until March 3.
“Toward the end of March, we hope to have those (comments) compiled and posted to the website so the public can see all the comments we received,” said Gigliotti, noting that “we will not respond to comments individually, but we will address them as appropriate within the document.”
When asked for more details about the process of removing both dams created for the PVP, Gigliotti said the removal of Scott Dam would be a “three-year process, with the first year involving lowering the reservoir, then installing a large hole, then plugging the hole, then when the reservoir comes back (during a high-flow year) we remove the plug, possibly with explosives, allowing the sediment to be flushed down.”
However, given that a “high-flow year” may not immediately follow the first year of the project, the first two years of the project may not be consecutive years, he said, explaining that “the first year will be preparing the site, then we need a wet, high-flow year to remove the sediment.”
As for Cape Horn Dam, Gigliotti said that dam “is anticipated to be removed at the same time” as Scott Dam. As far as construction of the new diversion facility, Manning said the plan was to build it at the same time that Cape Horn Dam was being removed in order to minimize disruption and intrusion.
With about 10 minutes left in their scheduled 90-minute presentation, PG&E officials opened up a Q&A session that was then extended another 10 minutes as more than 150 people were still signed on at the end of the allotted time.
PG&E officials said that Thursday’s presentation was not recorded, but that the slides shown would be uploaded to the project website for public review “by close of business (Friday).”
That website is https://www.pottervalleysurrenderproceeding.com/
Contact Tony Gigliotti at Tony.Gigliotti@pge.com for questions and to obtain the password for the documents page. Also, Gigliotti said people interested in continuing operating campgrounds or other recreational facilities at the dam sites should contact him directly via email.
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
ED NOTES
OF COURSE I watched the Super Bowl you, you…you… communist! I'm an American! Not much of a game, boring in fact. Philadelphia, home of the world's most obnoxious sports fans, won the game in the first quarter. I enjoyed the jazzy rendition of America the Beautiful by a singer I'd never heard of, not that I'm surprised since the entire culture passed me by years ago. I didn't like the fey version of the National Anthem twirped effeminately out by a man accompanying himself on a piano. Most people, especially sports fans, prefer the Anthem straight. From a real singer. The ads were predictably moronic except the one sponsored by a Christian hotline. This pitch for Jesus was set to an affecting song and made His point without tipping all the way over into the characteristic mawk we usually get from the self-certified advocates for the Prince of Peace and a blank check for the Pentagon. A real dumb and overly long ad for a good cause turned out to be a plug for girl's flag football to become a varsity high school sport. The half-time show, historically, is a semi-nude woman screeching out, "Baby, baby, baby" as she and a chorus of similarly unclad tootsies mime sexual rhythms. This year we got a rapper dude. Of all the great music to come out of host city New Orleans the sinister white boys who run the NFL choose this guy? Who, nonsensical as his alleged songs were, rapper dude's energetic doggerel-istic chant to the massed dancing accompanying him was kinda entertaining. But then so are the anthromorphs walking their raincoat-clad dogs you see around town on rainy days. Given the choice, the dog walkers are much more fun. We only got one shot of Taylor Swift, and only one of the Orange Beast, whose appearance on the jumbo screen was met by a literal roar of approval. (This country is sooooooo doomed.) There were lots of major enemies of the people at the game besides Trump, including Rupert Murdoch and, natch, the evil bastards who own the teams.
MARK SCARAMELLA ADDS: My biggest groaner-moment was when the camera focused on the cadaverous Rubert Murdoch as the announcer said, “He’s the reason we’re all here.”
TOM STIENSTRA'S must read outdoors column in the San Francisco Chronicle has said that “the best drive” is Highway 20 between Willits and Fort Bragg. Hmmm. I suspect there would be a lot of opposition to that statement from people compelled to drive it regularly, but here's Tom's thinking: “The engineer who designed Highway 20 from Willits to Fort Bragg must have had a motorcycle, because this road has perfect curves and banks as you head through redwoods and Douglas fir en route to the coast. Pick an early morning for an open road and take it all in.” Tom said the “most frustrating drive” is on Highway One between Jenner and Point Arena, especially “if you find yourself behind a big RV, you can hit top speeds of 10, 15mph on the curves, for what seems hours.”
EVERY COUPLE OF YEARS the Santa Rosa cops send a female cop or two out to Santa Rosa Avenue where the lady cops stroll up and down looking provocative, trolling for the pathetic characters who try to pick up prostitutes on the street. An undercover giraffe in a mini-skirt and lipstick would arouse most guys, such is male sexuality. But in these undercover Santa Rosa stings as soon as the random mopes, overcome by sudden lust on their way home from wherever, start to hit on the cop ladies they're arrested and cited for what? Arresting a man for soliciting a perceived prostitute is like arresting a dog for chasing a cat. If the Rose City cops really wanted to cut down on public prostitution they'd arrange with the Press Democrat to publish the mopes' names, pictures and home addresses, and put the information right there on the front page.
KAREN RIFKIN, who's written the definitive history of the Palace Hotel, can't find proof that the No Dogs And Indians sign ever existed anywhere on its premises. Maybe it didn't, maybe there was a passing reference to it in something I read and I plucked the ref from deep in the recesses of what's left of my brain. My intentions were and are pure, free of gratuitous malice. While Team AVA buckles down to some serious research, most old timers can confirm that a strict segregation applied everywhere in the Ukiah Valley through the 1940s and early 1950s. There was, for example, a famous episode at the Bluebird Cafe, which in '46 also functioned as the Greyhound Bus station, where a pair of heavily decorated Native American veterans of WWII were denied service. And so on.
SO FAR, we've found this, although no specific stores and restaurants are mentioned, free enterprise Ukiah did not welcome NAs: https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/rth-ca-graton-rancheria-transcript.pdf
Melody Williams: “…But even so, growing up in Ukiah in 1941, she [Ms. Williams’ grandmother] remembers that on the stores and restaurants there, there were signs that said, ‘No dogs. No Indians.’ And so there are a lot of places that they couldn't go at that time…”
SUPER BOWL 59
Yes, the Eagles trounced
the Chiefs
in the Super Bowl
February 9, 2025 in
a game of gladiators
played in New Orleans in
Caesar’s Superdome
while I watched restlessly
on a giant screen TV.
Jalen Hurts
and his teammates
trounced Mahomes and a
hapless array of
Kansas City athletes,
including Travis Kelce
who weren’t very athletic.
After four quarters
the score was
decidedly lopsided and
I felt cheated,
didn’t get to see
Saquon Barkley, my favorite player,
score a TD, or outrun the opposition
on the way to the end zone.
And so I wondered
since sports and
politics often mix
in America
if the game and
the score weren’t
in some perverse way
emblematic of the
state of the nation
itself, in which
one side has been
pummeled by the other
side and will likely go
on being pummeled, though
I hear and see
signs of resistance to the
oligarchs and their minions and
in a fit of nostalgia I lay my head
down on my pillow and dreamed of
Joe Montana and the 49ers of old.
— Jonah Raskin
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, February 9, 2025
JAVIER GARCIA-HERNANDEZ, 25, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.
ANDRES GARCIA-ZUGO, 30, Ukiah. DUI.
KEVIN GUERRERO-SAHAGUN, 32, Ukiah. Stalking and threatening bodily injury.
JOHN MARKS JR., 56, Ukiah. Petty theft with two more priors, conspiracy, offenses while on bail.
DIAMANTE MCCAIN, 29, Willits. Suspended license for DUI, probation violation.
JUSTICE MENEAR, 29, Ukiah. Petty theft, failure to register as sex offender with prior, transient registration, under influence, paraphernalia, disorderly conduct-under influence.
ADRIAN REYNOSO, 18, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury.
DESIREE SHELLHART, 39, Ukiah. Petty theft with two more priors, conspiracy, probation violation.
APOLONIO SOLIS-SALAS, 54, Potter Valley. DUI.
VICTOR TAPIA-ZUNIGA, 42, Boonville. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.
LARRY THOMPSON, 37, Chula Vista/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.
ROY TURNER, 65, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.
JOSE VARGAS-ENRIQUEZ, 44, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance, paraphernalia, evidence concealment, bringing controlled substance into jail.
CHRISTINE WHITEHEAD, 33, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
BILL KIMBERLIN
For once this photo is not from my place in the Berkeley Hills.
This morning I had gone clambering up a steep hillside park ostensibly to help a local nature group clear the land of an invasive non-native plant called Scotch Broom. Well that was my cover story. I have had an invasion of Scotch Broom at my Boonville house and I had heard that they used a device called, "A Weed Wrench" and I wanted one.
I didn't want to abscond with one, I just wanted to try one out and reportedly, they had a truck full of them. They did, and I tried them all out, choosing one called, "The Big Foot Extractigator". The name is a play on "alligator" as it eats weeds.
So I put in my weed pulling time and when I got done I told them I had an appointment with, Eggs Benedict and did they know Eggs? They said they did know him and thanks for my help. Very nice people.
LOUD UGLY MUSIC RUINS STUFF
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
You may think it’s all in your head because you’re getting older. Maybe you think the world really isn’t getting noisier, louder and filled with more distractions. Maybe you think it’s just your imagination.
And maybe it is your imagination. But I know for sure it isn’t my imagination.
Science will someday prove what I already know: loud intrusive music causes brain warts and reductions in IQ levels.
I will then be recognized as a visionary rather than just another silly crank and my remains, stored in a janitor’s closet at Eversole Mortuary, will be borne to a more fitting and noble resting place: the Eversole Mortuary bingo and pinball parlor.
My insights that loud, terrible music causes harm to lab mice and teenagers are earned through years of hard experience. I spent the 1970s in a rock ‘n’ roll coma and look how stupid I got.
Intrusive noise is everywhere and cannot be avoided no matter where we hurry, scurry and duck, no matter our earmuffs, earplugs and cotton balls.
Have you seen one of those new gas station pumps that talks to you while you watch the digital dial whizzing its way through your dollars by the tens, and I don’t mean dimes?
I’ve not yet had the pleasure of cleaning my windshield while an automated voice tells me about a fresh ‘n’ scrubby new additive that cleans my engine while it curbs global warming. I can’t wait. Hopefully these new talking pumps allow our ever-more-diverse citizenry to choose among an array of languages. I’ll pick German just to make sure the experience is as unpleasant as possible.
The metastasizing audio menace creeps on, as it has and will. In the semi-dumpy North Carolina town I’ve been camping out in for three years it’s been decided that pushing volume-enriched music through speakers mounted on street poles is a public service.
Most of what spews out is “classic rock” as if it’s my fault for allowing the Eagles to get popular, with the remainder being hostile rap chants, as if it’s my fault I got old. Whatever. The result? A nice walk ruined, and another reason to sell my hearing aid on eBay.
I don’t know what to think or who to blame. All we can be sure of is that they aren’t finished yet. Ours was the last generation that hadn’t been bombarded since birth with exhausting music, and so we have (dimming) memories of quiet places.
Restaurants, minus the tinkling of silverware and the rattling of ice cubes in cocktail glasses, once were as quiet as banks, which were as quiet as mortuaries, which were as quiet as libraries. Downscale restaurants that permitted teenagers to congregate were a noisy exception because jukeboxes accompanied teens.
But restaurants today have gone from allowing pianists to play Moon River in the lobby to having a flatscreen TV bursting with seasonal sports of interest to no one unless it’s a sports bar, and sports bars don’t have “a” flatscreen TV, they’ve got dozens of them.
I remember when grocery stores began playing Muzak, a synthetic breed of smooth pastel songs played softly and barely noticeable. Now a supermarket is a nonstop collage of in-house advertising specials and demented music recorded with the sole purpose of making you think you better get back to Aisle Seven for a few more Pepsi Colas and PopTarts.
At a local car dealership I visited a few weeks ago the service department was booming with echoing blasts of audio sludge that would have had me throwing wrenches if I’d worked there.
I once checked into a motel and when I got to my room the TV was already on.
SFO has thousands of screens tuned to a soccer game narrated by an excitable fellow no one is listening to. Macy’s department store in Santa Rosa has countless screens featuring scowling models dancing intricate steps to offensive lyrics interspersed with punching bag thumps.
At baseball games decibel levels never dip below 50. Between innings, between at-bats and between pitches we are bludgeoned by horns, shouts, screams and if time permits, the brief mention of a pinch-hitter. If you leave your seat to fetch a drink or a dog or use the bathroom there’s a TV every 15 feet so you don’t miss any advertising you came to the ballpark to avoid.
How about your doctor’s office? Once a hushed sanctuary, medical facilities now play endless reels of infomercials masquerading as medical advice (“10 Tips to a Healthier You!!”). The yammering is a distraction when filling out the questionnaire while trying to fudge on questions about your drug and alcohol consumption.
Yet there’s hope. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Quack Medicine reports a promising new treatment called Ice-Pick-to-Eardrum-Therapy that could yield permanent relief from ambient environmental audio assaults.
Tom Hine is presently in North Carolina where the sounds of silence are mostly missing. TWK is not much more than an inflatable doll and thus untouched by worldly troubles.
FEAR SPREADS
by Jeff Quacenbush, Cheryl Sarfaty & Susan Wood
Immigrant crackdowns raise business concerns for Sonoma, Napa counties and rest of North Bay
Since President Donald Trump’s reelection, concern over mass deportations has risen sharply among immigrants with no legal status — and even for some who do have it.
From landscaping and construction to hotel services and auto repair, immigrants play a critical role in the local economy.
On Feb. 3, that message was amplified during the national “Day Without Immigrants,” a movement that included a protest by several hundred in Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square.
The daylong demonstration was meant to show how important immigrants are to the communities in which they live and work.
That message was loud and clear among North Bay business leaders. They are working to quell fears among their immigrant workers and ensuring all documentation is in order. Some business owners are also waiting for clear guidance from state leaders.
Attorneys are also getting involved.
The phone has been ringing nonstop at K & G Immigration Law in Santa Rosa, founder and partner Liliana Gallelli said.
Since President Donald Trump’s reelection, concern over mass deportations has risen sharply among immigrants with no legal status — and even for some who do have it.
A Solano County inventory manager named Randall, who did not want his last name revealed out of concerns for his safety, contacted Gallelli over his worries any one of his family members could be deported since none has legal status.
“Last week, I woke up thinking of my kids,” the 46-year-old Vallejo man told the Business Journal. He and his wife have three children — ages 9, 19 and 25.
Randall, whose wife works at a restaurant, came to the U.S. from Guatemala in December 2018. His visa has since expired.
“We’re preparing for the worst case scenario,” he said. So much so, that he and his wife don’t ride together, so if one is taken into custody, the other one would be left to take care of the family. He’s most concerned about his son working in construction because he believes he’s an easy target at a site.
“Things have really ramped up,” Gallelli said. “Before, they were targeted operations.”
She listed a few probable criteria that would bring someone to the attention of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
“If you have not lived here for two years, you’re more subject to deportation and if you don’t show up for your (court) hearing,” she said, adding those who commit certain crimes will be targeted. Violent offenders take precedence.
But as raids targeting Latino communities escalate, Gallelli noted sometimes ICE will seek someone out in an arbitrary manner.
A person can simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time, she said, adding: “Some are super unlucky.”
Gallelli said she hasn’t yet heard of a raid in the North Bay.
K & G Immigration Law employs 25 paralegals and four attorneys. The staff is struggling with the increasing demand for their time and expertise, Gallelli admitted.
“It’s hard to keep up,” she said of the inquiries.
”A lot of advocacy groups and lawsuits are going to be fighting this all along the way. Gallelli said. “The sword we have as advocates is mighty.”
Landscapers
Sonoma landscaper Adam Cervantes has worked hard to keep up with the latest news on threats of mass deportations.
“I’m angry and concerned about this,” said Cervantes, who manages 14 workers at Cervantes Landscaping. He declined to address whether all his workers are documented.
No one he knows has been “picked up” yet by ICE officers, but he’s at least aware of step one in the event it happens.
“We have the right to be quiet,” he said.
Still, Cervantes advocates for cooperation in weeding out criminals here illegally.
“I’m really trying to be positive and supportive of these (types of) deportations, but we have so many workers on farms. I just think there’s going to be trouble,” he said.
Auto Repair
Owners of two Marin County automotive repair shops are worried that their customers, who they say are mostly Hispanic, won’t be frequenting their businesses because of fear.
“It's gonna be hard on the economy. It’s gonna impact (us) so much …. Maybe, we are planning to close the f — doors,” said Isidro Vicente. He expressed frustration over the announced policies of stepped-up immigration enforcement when consumers pay the same taxes and fees, regardless of ethnicity or citizenship status.
Vicente has been fixing cars for three decades, the past one as owner of Vicente’s Auto Repair on the vehicle service row off Anderson Drive near the Highway 101 and Interstate 580 interchange in San Rafael. He and an employee are the shop’s only technicians.
At AmayaS’ Auto Repair and Towing, nestled among the dealerships on the other side of the highway interchange, co-owner Juan Carlos Amaya employs 15.
“Our workers are all legalized, so we’re not concerned about that,” Amaya said.
But finding skilled technicians has been a challenge in the past few years, particularly during the height of the pandemic, Vicente and Amaya said. Vicente wonders whether immigration crackdowns will affect the potential job pool.
“I think it’s going to get worse,” Vicente said about hiring prospects.
Hotels
Leaders among the North Bay’s hotel industry say they are seeing varying levels of worry and fear among their immigrant workforce in the face of growing incidents of ICE raids.
“When President Trump was first elected (in 2016), I realized right away how nervous our Hispanic community was,” said Michael Lennon, general manager at the 57-room Calistoga Spa Hot Springs. “With the second election coming through, it's something that we've been talking openly about.”
The California Hotel and Lodging Association recently released an informational document with guidelines for hotel properties in the event of an ICE raid.
“There are certain protocols that ICE agents have to follow, and we expect them to do that,” Lennon said. “There are laws and regulations that everybody has to follow.”
Calistoga Spa Hot Springs has 40 employees; more than half are Hispanic and work mostly in housekeeping and front office roles, Lennon said.
All are encouraged to talk with him about any concerns.
“We know there's a lot of misinformation out there on social media and you don’t want that to cause people to worry or get anxious,” Lennon said. “Our employees have the proper work documentation, and they have all of the authorizations they're supposed to. We’re compliant when it comes to that.”
Lennon said he doesn’t anticipate any ICE raids at the property but “you never know.”
It’s that not knowing for certain that weighs on Joe Bartolomei, vice chairperson of the Sonoma County Hospitality Association and cofounder of the Farmhouse Inn in Forestville.
“I think for us, as hoteliers and business owners, we need to understand what we can and can't do, and then we need to communicate that to our teams,” Bartolomei said. “We have to be as prepared as we can be, and right now, we're not prepared. … We’re still waiting for our governor to come out with best practices.”
Bartolomei said even though Trump had immigration policies in his first term, the effort was milder.
“But now in his second term, I think he has a lot more support (and a) lot more influence,” Bartolomei said. “It feels like these raids are happening very, very quickly, and much more aggressively than we ever saw the first time around. So, I think we're going to see more of it.”
Bartolomei said he hasn’t been advised of any immigrant workers at area hotels not reporting for work — something he would likely hear about through his leadership role at the Sonoma County Hospitality Association.
Erik Burrow, general manager at the DoubleTree by Hilton American Canyon, said there have been no concerns raised by the hotel’s immigrant workforce.
“I walk the halls frequently and I’m always sticking my head in the guestrooms and saying ‘Hi’ to room attendants (and) housekeeping staff,” Burrow said. “No one has brought anything to my attention of any concern.”
Burrow emphasized the importance of staying current with all documentation.
“We consistently monitor our paperwork, we audit ourselves frequently and everything is in order, so we’re not too worried about it,” he said.
In the absence of best practices from the state, the Sonoma County Hospitality Association is proactively moving the conversation forward about how to handle an ICE raid.
The organization, in partnership with the Sonoma County Economic Development Collaborative, will hold an information session in the near future so businesses can be prepared to the best of their ability, Bartolomei said.
The association also distributed to its members the California Hospitality and Lodging Association’s ICE raids guidelines.
“We’re all struggling to find information,” Bartolomei said. “Every industry in this (region) would be adversely affected if raids came to our (businesses).”
(North Bay Business Journal)
WASTING WATER
Editor:
Since it takes only “common sense” to manage the water supply for 39 million people and farms that supply over half the nation’s produce, the president has appointed himself chief water engineer and ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water to help fight wildfires in Southern California.
The facts that the fires are mostly out, that the released water is on the other side of a mountain range and has no way to reach the areas endangered by fire, and that the water in the opened dams was mostly intended for agriculture later in the year are irrelevant details important only to so-called “experts.”
Please don’t think for a minute that wasting billions of gallons of water in California is the work of a narcissistic fool. Rest assured you can count on the president for more such “common sense” governance. And if there’s a water shortage for agriculture this summer, I’m sure the president will explain how DEI is responsible.
Jack Ziegler
Santa Rosa
WESTERN STATES PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES PLANNED DEPARTURE AT END OF 2025
by Dan Bacher
On Feb. 5, the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, announced that President and CEO Catherine Reheis-Boyd will step down from the organization at the end of 2025.
Reheis-Boyd formally notified the organization’s board of directors of her planned departure after 35 years working for the organization that has promoted the oil industry’s agenda in the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
WHY FAITHFULL’S FORGOTTEN FILM HAS A PLACE IN HISTORY
Editor:
I was disappointed in the recent obituary for the pop culture personality Marianne Faithfull (“Pop ingenue who became the epitome of a rock survivor,” Obituaries, February 1) that you did not write more about her brief career in the cinema industry.
While few recall her film works today, The Girl on a Motorcycle, released in the “revolutionary year” 1968 as my old colleague Christopher Hitchens always described it, has an obscure but significant place in artistic and literary history.
The film was based on the novel La Motocyclette, published in French in 1963, by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues.
Mandiargues was the most important prose author included in the second generation of adherents of the Paris Surrealist Group. The novel represented a recognition by the Surrealists of the new sense of eroticism in western culture.
The author’s works were distinguished by a highly charged sexual imagination featuring sadomasochist and related themes. Given that Faithfull was the great-great niece of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, from whose name the term masochism was derived, the coincidence of her participation in the film was notable.
Stephen Schwartz, Emeritus Director, Centre for Islamic Pluralism
San Francisco
WHY NFL’S ‘CHOOSE LOVE’ IS A RADICAL MESSAGE IN AMERICA TODAY
by Ann Killion
The Super Bowl end zones received a lot of attention in recent days.
As our old pal Michael Silver, now with the Athletic, reported last week, the NFL changed its end zone messaging in the Superdome for Sunday’s game, replacing “End Racism” with “Choose Love.”
On the surface, the whole topic seems trite and silly. I mean, did the NFL really think that a performative stenciling program could end racism? And subsequently does it believe that here, in divisive 2025, its task is complete and racism is now over? Mission accomplished?
Did the NFL decision-makers ever see the irony that, in the years since the message was adopted in the wake of the George Floyd murder by the police in 2020, the dominant team in the Super Bowl has its own troubling, overtly racist behavior? The Chiefs’ imaging and fan behavior have been upsetting to Native Americans for decades.
Some have accused the NFL of using its biggest day and largest platform to capitulate to President Donald Trump, who was scheduled to be in the Superdome for at least part of the game Sunday. After all, one of the main thrusts of the first 21 days of his second term has been to purge every program, and the very concept, of diversity, equity and inclusion. “Amplify Racism” seems to be the preferred messaging coming out of the White House.
To the NFL’s credit, it says it won’t back down from its own diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. In his comments at his regular state-of-the-league news conference last week, Commissioner Roger Goodell stood firmly behind the league’s programs that require teams to interview diverse candidates for key positions. In fact, his words were the most full-throated defense of DEI that we’ve heard in recent weeks, a time when most responses have been defined by either cowardice or bullying.
“We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League, and we’re going to continue those efforts because we’ve not only convinced ourselves, I think we’ve proven ourselves that it does make the NFL better,” Goodell said.
“So, we’re not in this because it’s a trend to get in or a trend to get out of it. Our efforts are fundamental in trying to attract the best possible talent into the (league), both on and off the field, as I said previously. And we see that. We see how it’s benefited the National Football League. And so, I think we’ll continue those efforts. I think it’s also clearly a reflection of our fan base and our communities and our players.”
Goodell, in his expansive comments on the topic, said that the NFL’s program is “well within the law,” and is about “opening that funnel and bringing in the best talent into the NFL.” Which is, of course, the aim of all such programs. The goal of inclusion is to give opportunity to those too often shut out of the process, unable to access the “old boy’s” network.
“We think we’re better when we get different perspectives, people with different backgrounds, whether they’re women or men or people of color, we make ourselves stronger and we make ourselves better when we have that,” Goodell said. “It’s something that I think will have tremendous impact on this league for many, many years. We win on the field with the best talent and the best coaching, and I think the same is true off the field.”
Goodell’s speechifying usually puts his audience to sleep. But in this era, his words on diversity are almost revolutionary, especially when you consider the source. That defense of inclusion was coming from the mouthpiece of a league run by some of the wealthiest, most conservative people in the United States, the majority of whom also actively support the current president.
“Choose Love,” the league’s new message, may sound like new-age pablum. Yet at a time when more and more people are choosing hatred and bullying, it’s almost radical in its simplicity
Choose love, instead of persecuting some of the most vulnerable people in our society, transgender youth? Choose love, instead of repeating lies about the threat that transgender athletes — estimated to be fewer than 10 individuals in the vast pool of 510,000 NCAA athletes — are to women’s sports? Choose love instead of making a minuscule minority of people feel unsafe, illegitimate and erased from public life? Choose love instead of threatening violence and retribution?
Choosing love is actually the most difficult option, whether in sports, politics or even religion. Persecuting the vulnerable, victim-blaming, opting for bullying, hatred and divisiveness — those are the easier paths, the low-hanging fruit that can be a direct route to despotic power and control.
Who knew that the NFL could be so radical in its messaging?
(SF Chronicle)
NOT SO GREAT
How long will it take
To finally decide
You’ve made a mistake
You’re on the wrong side
The lies you believed
And the truth you ignored
You’ve been deceived
Corrupting your core
As reality dawns
You finally realize
You’re just a pawn
You’re MAGAtized
Fear and hate
Anger and ire
Aren’t so great
When you’re fired!
— Elvin Woods
MORE BABIES!
Trump and his set act carefree in the face of catastrophe—and they give their supporters permission to do the same.
The week I became a father, two things happened. Fires engulfed the Amazon, and a man who made his living as a columnist for the largest newspaper in the country complained to a university provost that a professor had called him a bedbug on the Internet. This was the world into which I welcomed my first child: a place where people with power behaved like children while the planet burned.
Five and a half years later, our civilizational outlook has not improved. It is not just the fires, floods, zoonotic diseases, and other insignia of ecological emergency. It is also the discomfiting spectacle of a leadership class so extravagantly unfit for the task at hand. Incompetent rulers are nothing new. They are one of human history’s main themes. What feels more specific to our time is the extent to which our leaders have responded to a moment of severe and proliferating crisis by regressing into a childlike state, and encouraging their followers to do the same.
In 1933, the year that Hitler took power in Germany, the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich proposed that fascism begins at home, in the domestic sphere. The first authoritarian state is the family, he argued, ruled by the father. Here children learn the submission to authority—and the identification with it—that makes a good fascist subject. The idea proved influential for later thinkers trying to map the psychology of authoritarianism, and it has an obvious kernel of truth. In our own extremely desublimated era, one doesn’t have to look very far for verification: “It’s like Daddy arrived and he’s taking his belt off,” a ruddy Mel Gibson gushed the other day on Fox News about Trump’s visit to Los Angeles, during which he had scolded Karen Bass, the city’s mayor and a Black woman, at a press conference.
But Trump is poorly cast for the part of patriarch. While he glowers in his official portraits, his political style is more silly than stern. He babbles. He is a creature of impulse and instinct, fickle and dysregulated. His humor is that of the schoolyard; his train of thought is, at minimum, haphazard. If you have ever heard a toddler tell a story, it sounds like Trump: digressive, bizarre, filled with tonal shifts, often hilarious. His inner circle exudes a similarly infantile affect. Elon Musk is nothing if not a smirking preadolescent. J.D. Vance looks uncannily like a baby, which is presumably why he decided to grow a beard, with the result that he now looks like a bearded baby. “Let me say very simply,” he told an audience of antiabortion fanatics in his first speech as vice president: “I want more babies in the United States of America!”
— Ben Tarnoff, NY Review of Books
DEMOCRATS ABANDONED THE WORKING CLASS TO CREATE A ‘GRIEVANCE OLYMPICS’ OBSESSED WITH IDENTITY POLITICS
by Gary L. Francione
I’m done with the Democrats.
I voted for Kamala Harris — but left the party I’d belonged to for decades after witnessing its unhinged reaction to the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, as I explained in these pages last month.
The Democratic position on transgender rights is part of a larger problem: the Democratic embrace of being “woke.”
To be woke means to accept without question the claims of the myriad identity groups that demand special treatment.
The Democrats were once the party of working people and unions. They were committed to bridging the gap between rich and poor. The Dems sought practical solutions. They focused on class. Now they seem to focus on every characteristic except class.
Democrats correctly identified a serious problem in the 1960s that was holding us back from making progress: discrimination.
The Democratic solution was affirmative action, which specified the determination of who was qualified for a position should be made without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. The idea was these characteristics could then be used to distinguish among qualified candidates.
The problem is affirmative action became a clumsy marker for who should be hired rather than a more nuanced examination of applicants’ skills, which can be found in abundance in communities that suffered discrimination.
“We should hire X because X and Y are both well qualified and hiring X, a minority candidate, would increase diversity” became “We should hire X because of her or his race or sex even if Y is better qualified.” Critics of affirmative action said what was really going on was reverse discrimination.
Affirmative action became about group membership; membership in that group, without more, was itself considered a qualification.
Discussions of merit became irrelevant — indeed offensive — because any interpretation of merit that did not favor the member of the identity group could be explained away as itself a manifestation of discrimination. Each group had its own standards that were met largely by group membership and intra-group assessment.
Democrats insisted any further discussion of merit was an attempt by “elites” or “racists” or “sexists” or “colonialists” to reestablish the old order.
And “identity politics” was born.
“Woke” went from being a term people of color used as synonymous with “awake” that advised vigilance about subtle racism to a largely pejorative term used to describe the position of not criticizing, questioning or discussing the claims of any of the many groups that sought top billing in the discrimination pecking order. Those claims had to be accepted by anyone who considered themselves “progressive.”
The Democrats established, in essence, a “Grievance Olympics” where various groups compete to be considered the most victimized.
So when I argue trans ideology is misogynistic because it involves a claim by men to the right to define who is a “woman,” and allowing males into private/intimate spaces increases safety risks for women, I am met with a wall of complaints (and accusations of being “transphobic”) that trans people are subjected to more discrimination and so should be accommodated because women are lesser victims than are trans people.
And any academic who says he or she was never in an appointments meeting when there was a discussion where the primary focus was on diversity alone with no meaningful consideration of merit is not telling the truth.
After 40 years teaching in universities, I can attest to the damage of this.
I believe in affirmative action. I believe using race or sex to deny a qualified candidate of color or woman some benefit is wrong and there’s a role for distinguishing among qualified candidates in light of race or sex, a position the Supreme Court has now rejected at least in the context of using race in college admissions. But I do not think group membership is itself a sufficient qualification in any context.
I think the identity politics the Democrats have promoted is corrosive. So did many people who voted in November.
And the Democrats seem to have forgotten that in a liberal pluralistic society, people are going to say things with which others disagree and, indeed, that offend other people. The “progressive” position often supports restrictions on speech.
Consider the controversy over the required use of “preferred pronouns” in the transgender context. That, in effect, requires that people be compelled to talk about others in ways that reflect beliefs the speaker may not have.
If you express concerns about immigration, about which there are certainly legitimate concerns, it does not matter how thoughtful your position may be. You are dismissed as a “bigot” or “xenophobe.” There can be no questioning of the woke canon.
If you express a concern about how the general obesity of the population is threatening national health and driving up the costs of medical treatment for everyone, we don’t discuss your position. We dismiss you as “fat shaming.”
Trump’s effective campaign ads targeted Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ transgender policies.
And our colleges and universities are being ruined by this thinking. They are becoming “safe spaces” that seek to limit student contact with any ideas with which the students may disagree. Faculty are often advised to issue “trigger warnings” for anything remotely controversial.
Universities and colleges should be places of physical safety for students, but they should also be places where all thoughts are on the table.
It was once a tenet of progressive thinking that the cure for speech you don’t like is more speech. No more.
It would be sheer folly to not acknowledge that the woke paradigm has silenced many in our universities.
Rather than trying to bridge the gulf between rich and poor, the Democrats have become the party of petitioning the local Starbucks to have gender-neutral toilets.
Indeed, working people are abandoning the Democratic Party in droves because the party has abandoned them in favor of those who drive Priuses covered in bumper stickers urging coexistence or support for recycling.
Coexistence and global warming are important issues, but neither is advanced much by bumper stickers. And there are other concerns that affect people’s daily lives — issues of wealth disparity and class — that were once a primary concern of the Democratic Party and are now being largely ignored.
Think about this: West Virginia was one of six states that voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980. Donald Trump got 70% of the Mountain State’s vote in November.
The Democratic Party has abandoned working people, and working people have abandoned it.
(New York Post)
No one will ever know
that we lived,
that we touched the streets with our feet
that we danced joyfully,
No one will ever know
that we gazed at the sea
from the train windows,
that we breathed
the air that settles
on the café chairs,
No one will ever know
that we stood
on the terrace of life
until the others arrived.
– Nino Pedretti, "Nobody Will Know"
LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT
Busy Presidential Day Ends at the Super Bowl
Trump Orders Treasury Secretary to Stop Minting Pennies
36 Hours After Russell Vought Took Over Consumer Bureau, He Shut Its Operations
Vance Says ‘Judges Aren’t Allowed to Control’ Trump’s “Legitimate Power"
Why Federal Courts May Be the Last Bulwark Against Trump
Israeli Troops Withdraw From Key Zone Bisecting Gaza
How GoFundMe Became a $250 Million Lifeline After the L.A. Fires
Can a Golden Retriever Win at Westminster? History Says No
BILL KIMBERLIN
In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlessinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.
- Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
- I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
NOT LIKE US
by Kendrick Lamar
Psst, I see dead people
(Mustard on the beat, ho)
Ayy, Mustard on the beat, ho
Deebo any rap nigga, he a free throw
Man down, call an amberlamps, tell him, "Breathe, bro"
Nail a nigga to the cross, he walk around like Teezo
What's up with these jabroni-ass niggas tryna see Compton?
The industry can hate me, fuck 'em all and they mama
How many opps you really got? I mean, it's too many options
I'm finna pass on this body, I'm John Stockton
Beat your ass and hide the Bible if God watchin'
Sometimes you gotta pop out and show niggas
Certified boogeyman, I'm the one that up the score with 'em
Walk him down, whole time, I know he got some ho in him
Pole on him, extort shit, bully Death Row on him
Say, Drake, I hear you like 'em young
You better not ever go to cell block one
To any bitch that talk to him and they in love
Just make sure you hide your lil' sister from him
They tell me Chubbs the only one that get your hand-me-downs
And Party at the party playin' with his nose now
And Baka got a weird case, why is he around?
Certified Lover Boy? Certified pedophiles
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, Dot, fuck 'em up
Wop, wop, wop, wop, wop, I'ma do my stuff
Why you trollin' like a bitch? Ain't you tired?
Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minor
They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
You think the Bay gon' let you disrespect Pac, nigga?
I think that Oakland show gon' be your last stop, nigga
Did Cole foul, I don't know why you still pretendin'
What is the owl? Bird niggas and bird bitches, go
The audience not dumb
Shape the stories how you want, hey, Drake, they're not slow
Rabbit hole is still deep, I can go further, I promise
Ain't that somethin'? B-Rad stands for bitch and you Malibu most wanted
Ain't no law, boy, you ball boy, fetch Gatorade or somethin'
Since 2009, I had this bitch jumpin'
You niggas'll get a wedgie, be flipped over your boxers
What OVO for? The "Other Vaginal Option"? Pussy
Nigga better straighten they posture, got famous all up in Compton
Might write this for the doctorate, tell the pop star quit hidin'
Fuck a caption, want action, no accident
And I'm hands-on, he fuck around, get polished
Fucked on Wayne girl while he was in jail, that's connivin'
Then get his face tatted like a bitch apologizin'
I'm glad DeRoz' came home, y'all didn't deserve him neither
From Alondra down to Central, nigga better not speak on Serena
And your homeboy need subpoena, that predator move in flocks
That name gotta be registered and placed on neighborhood watch
I lean on you niggas like another line of Wock'
Yeah, it's all eyes on me, and I'ma send it up to Pac, ayy
Put the wrong label on me, I'ma get 'em dropped, ayy
Sweet Chin Music and I won't pass the aux, ayy
How many stocks do I really have in stock? Ayy
One, two, three, four, five, plus five, ayy
Devil is a lie, he a 69 God, ayy
Freaky-ass niggas need to stay they ass inside, ayy
Roll they ass up like a fresh pack of 'za, ayy
City is back up, it's a must, we outside, ayy
They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
They not like us, they not like us, they not like us
Once upon a time, all of us was in chains
Homie still doubled down callin' us some slaves
Atlanta was the Mecca, buildin' railroads and trains
Bear with me for a second, let me put y'all on game
The settlers was usin' townfolk to make 'em richer
Fast-forward, 2024, you got the same agenda
You run to Atlanta when you need a check balance
Let me break it down for you, this the real nigga challenge
You called Future when you didn't see the club (Ayy, what?)
Lil Baby helped you get your lingo up (What?)
21 gave you false street cred
Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head (Ayy, what?)
Quavo said you can be from Northside (What?)
2 Chainz say you good, but he lied
You run to Atlanta when you need a few dollars
No, you not a colleague, you a fuckin' colonizer
The family matter and the truth for the matter
It was God's plan to show y'all the liar
Mm
Mm-mm
He a fan, he a fan, he a fan (Mm)
He a fan, he a fan, he a
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Freaky-ass nigga, he a 69 God
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life
Let me hear you say, "OV-ho" (OV-ho)
Say, "OV-ho" (OV-ho)
Then step this way, step that way
Then step this way, step that way
Are you my friend?
Are we locked in?
Then step this way, step that way
Then step this way, step that way
Happy to report that I went for a brief walk during halftime of the Super Bowl. Sounds like I didn’t miss much.
That was the worst halftime show in history. New Orleans a music rich town and we get Kendrick Lamar from Watts. Who needs to be fired over this decision?
“Cruelty, Ignorance and Shortsightedness”
The whole U.S.A.I.D. slash and burn mess makes me heartsick. Trump and Musk, and their crew of young, stupid souls who follow their lead, are engaged in a heedless, vile endeavor. We are better than this.
Nicolas Kristof, a notably humanitarian journalist, bitterly objects:
“The world’s richest man is boasting about destroying the United States Agency for International Development, which saves the lives of the world’s poorest children, saying he shoved it ‘into the wood chipper.
By my calculations, Elon Musk probably has a net worth greater than that of the poorest billion people on Earth. Just since Donald Trump’s election, Musk’s personal net worth has grown by far more than the entire annual budget of U.S.A.I.D., which in any case accounts for less than 1 percent of the federal budget. It’s callous for gleeful billionaires like Musk and President Trump to cut children off from medicine, but, as President John F. Kennedy pointed out when he proposed the creation of the agency in 1961, it’s also myopic.
Cutting aid, Kennedy noted, ‘would be disastrous and, in the long run, more expensive.’ He added: ‘Our own security would be endangered and our prosperity imperiled.’ Perhaps that’s why Russia has praised Trump’s move.
In contrast with Kennedy, the Trump administration braids together cruelty, ignorance and shortsightedness, and that combination seems particularly evident in its assault on American humanitarian assistance…
I’ve seen genuine improvements in U.S.A.I.D. over the years. Its public-private partnership to tackle lead poisoning, announced last year, was a model of American leadership. And so from my travels, this is what U.S.A.I.D. has come to mean to me:
I’ve seen women and girls with obstetric fistula, a horrific childbirth injury, get a $600 surgery that gives them back their lives — and this is something that U.S.A.I.D. supports.
I’ve seen men humiliated by elephantiasis and grotesquely enlarged scrotums, occasionally requiring a wheelbarrow to support their organs as they walk. And U.S.A.I.D. has fought this disease and made it less common.
I’ve seen children dying of malaria (and I’ve had malaria), and I’ve seen U.S.A.I.D. help achieve major strides against the disease over the last two decades.
I’ve seen southern Africa ravaged by AIDS. And then President George W. Bush’s landmark program against AIDS, called PEPFAR and implemented in part through U.S.A.I.D., transformed the landscape. I saw coffin makers in Lesotho and Malawi grumble that their business was collapsing because far fewer people were dying. PEPFAR has saved 26 million lives so far. (In the coming months, I’ll see if I can calculate how many lives are lost to Trump’s cuts in aid.)
I’ve seen the suffering of communities where people in middle age routinely go blind from trachoma, river blindness or cataracts — and the transformation when U.S.A.I.D. helps prevent such blindness.
Trump scoffed that U.S.A.I.D. was ‘run by radical lunatics.’ Is it radical lunacy to try to save children’s lives? To promote literacy for girls? To fight blindness…?”
“The World’s Richest Men Take On the World’s Poorest Children”
NEW YORK TIMES
Feb. 5, 2025
Clear cut waste is not saving children! This was a way to pay for this progressive movement and DEI.
I’m offended that my tax dollars are being spent on this bullshit. I’am all for helping anyone who has been affected by tragedy. Not for drag shows, Sesame Street, condoms. SAID needed to go, it was basically a front for stealing tax dollars. Something that Libtards are really good at!!
You are ill-fucking informed. Read more deeply in reliable sources and discover a new world, where good people and good programs–not perfect for sure–help those worse-off than us. “A front for stealing tax dollars.” Write something about this in factual terms, if you can unearth them….
Anonymous trolls should not be fed.
Good point. Our self-appointed blind umpire, has finally incensed our mild-mannered retired child welfare advocate to the point of profanity and I expect he’ll soon be a f-bomb throwing radical and take a few more pot shots at these reactionary crackpots. Quite the carny attractions we have under the big top of the mighty AVA, especially out in the virtual midway* where you can win a stuffed animal* for dunking some self-righteous cad in a bucket of swill with three well-aimed pitches!
*peanut gallery, comment page
*enoji
Now that Trump has explicitly said that his obtaining of Gaza will NOT entail allowing two million Gaza residents to return after his Riveria is created, we might have to invent novel curse words to meet the challenges of our time!
Like in the war between Montana and North Dakota, we huddled in our bunkers and waited for the NODAK troops to lob in their grenades; then we rushed out, pulled the pins and threw ‘em back over the state line….
By the he same stratagem, you can take the volatile slur “libtard” and snap a prefix on it and lob it back as “illibtardy” and have that clown hookin’ & fetchin’ like his hair was on fire and his ass was a-catchin’ (thank you, Elvin Bishop) trying to google terms like illiberal and tardy until he descended into such a discombobulated state of frustration he pulls of his mask… and then, as Rabby Burns reminds us, “we could see ourselves as others see us” and in that enlightened golden age Republicans— yes, Virginia, even Trumpian Republicans and Democrats will actually be able to see the opposing view without chortling and sputtering in mockery whether Dem v. Rep or the other way around.
Personally, I won’t hold my breath, as I have emphysema and my breath’s so shallow it wouldn’t be fair to the Universe who, bless Her, is working to evolve the rest of the world into the Humboldt Way.
The Eisenhower/Kennedy era had alot of that ease in “competition” with each other. Right after the war generation. Maybe because ww2 was then a death knell to America first isolationism movements for awhile and added to that Ike beating the Taft faction at the 52 convention.
JFK and Goldwater were friends and planned a 64 campaign where they would hold joint debates across the country.
New report just released, your SAID dept. funded terrorist. So you support funding people whose goal is to kill Americans? How do you people look in the mirror?
Citation, please.
If the benefits of USAID are not apparent to you, it is clear you are blind. Also deaf and – most of all – dumb.
One thing we can agree on, no more pennies! New Zealand has no pennies or nickels. I say cut to the chase and round everything off to the nearest quarter, that should last for awhile.
New York Times Today
Tom Robbins Obituary
Birthright Citizenship: The Chinese Man Who Sued and Won It
DeSantis Feuding With Florida Legislature
UPDATE ON POTTER VALLEY PROJECT REMOVAL, NEW WATER-DIVERSION DESIGNS
California folks continue to destroy their state, to meet the desires of its overflowing population of greedy yuppies and self-entitled ag interests. Who needs salmon and other fisheries, eh???
ED NOTES
They still have the super bowl? I quit watching that crap for good in the early 90s, back when Montana was king and only watched it sporadically after it first started. Guess I’m just an ol’ commie, eh…
Well, apparently my Social Security deposit has been made for this month. Have they deported Musk and Trump yet?
Bruce emailed me to say that “no links” are allowed. Check out online the upcoming Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. No joke, this is gonna be wonderful. ;-))
Was a problem identified re links being posted?
thank you mark. i sure panicked. sending in my dues
Trump gets standing ovation at Super bowl, Taylor gets booed! Are you getting the message yet? Must drive all you AVA supporters running for your stuffed animals to cuddle. Maybe a good head shaving an celibacy is in order. I know after watching Kendrick Lamar, a prostrate exam sounds pretty good!
I’ll be curious to read your opinion about, say, three months from now. If you’re wealthy, you’ll be even happier. If not …
I hope you like this article:
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/02/10/the-government-funded-landlord-trump/
It means H.L. Menckin was right.
Tommorrow there will be a press conference in Congress at noon our time. Reportedly will be a new House Oversight Cmt subcommittee created thats devoted to examining Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.
(I see where links are forbidden now, so no articles to show or x postings.)
They shoulda watched the recent NOVA program on UFOs. Hell, Trump could qualify as a UAP. He’s too damned fat to fly or hover, though.
We could take a page from Allen Ginsberg’s playbook and do a mass OMing to levitate him off the surface of the planet?
(I once saw Ginsberg in SF late one night, drunk with Ferlinghetti and a famous Russian poet. From across the street he OMed at me, lol!)
SUPRA BOWL
Injections
Whitney Houston❣️ – I’m Every Woman
https://youtu.be/H7_sqdkaAfo?feature=shared