Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 2/11/2025

Cold & Cloudy | Kurt Smallcomb | Help Yeanette | No Hipcamp | FB March | Legal Rights | UVWA Changes | American Foods | Cannabis Tax | Go Outside | Yorkville Correction | Roland Bragg | Wine Festival | Insurance Bundling | Planning Commission | BHAB Meeting | One Nut | Ed Notes | Navarro Stationery | Yesterday's Catch | Worse | This House | Confidently Wrong | Tom Robbins | Frailty | Ugly Stuff | Pissed Off | Luigi Donations | Whiskey Vision | American Disease | Vietnam Casualties | Tear Yourself | Lead Stories | Tulsi Confirmation | New Frame | Lawfare Warfare | With Palestine | Anti Union | Smaller Government

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COLD WEATHER ADVISORY remains in effect from 2am to 9 am Tuesday. Cool and dry conditions will continue through Tuesday. A storm approaches Wednesday and moves onshore Thursday, bringing gusty south wind and rain. Low elevation snow is possible in Trinity county Thursday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Another clear & cold 33F on the coast this Tuesday morning. We might see a shower late tonight, mostly clear tomorrow then rain Thursday. Showers thru the weekend into Monday. Clear skies later next week, we'll see?

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KURT SMALLCOMB: ‘Generous spirit, infectious laughter, and unwavering love’

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Kurt Oren Smallcomb, a devoted husband, father, son, and friend. Kurt unexpectedly left us on February 4th, 2025 at the age of 62. Kurt touched the lives of everyone he met with his generous spirit, infectious laughter, and unwavering love for his family and friends.

Kurt was born on March 22, 1962, in Beloit, Kansas to Darol and Glenda Smallcomb. The Smallcomb family moved to Santa Rosa, California shortly after Kurt’s birth. Kurt attended Bennett Valley Elementary School and Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa. He developed lifelong friendships while attending Montgomery. Kurt played baseball and had awards named after him to honor his work ethic, hustle, and drive. Kurt was the ultimate teammate and served as a shining example of compassion and kindness, always ready to lend a helping hand to those around him.

Kurt met the love of his life Kristi while they were attending the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Kurt and Kristi were married on May 30th, 1981. As a husband, Kurt prioritized love and support, laying a foundation of strength and joy in his marriage. Together, they created a beautiful family anchored in mutual respect, understanding, and laughter. As a dedicated father, Kurt embraced the joy of guiding his children, Kayle and Kami, in their dreams and aspirations teaching them the values of kindness, resilience, and the importance of following their ambitions.

Kurt was a beloved son, deeply cherished by his parents. Kurt had a special bond with his family, bringing warmth and connection to every gathering. His friendships transcended mere acquaintanceship, those who knew him experienced his love, unwavering loyalty, and zest for life.

Kurt had a love and sincere passion for public service. He was a retired Captain from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office where he served the County for over 30 years. He volunteered with Special Olympics where he helped countless special-needs youth and adults enjoy sports and dances. Kurt volunteered for the City of Ukiah youth sports programs for almost 40 years. He was not only a coach and mentor to the youth of this area, but a friend and surrogate father to many. He was one of the most selfless people to ever walk this Earth and he absolutely loved public service.

Kurt absolutely loved sports. He loved watching, playing, and coaching all sports with the exception of soccer (many of you know why). He instilled his love of sports to his daughter Kayle, son-in-law Quincy Cromer, and granddaughter Kyla. He was extremely proud of and deeply loved coaching and mentoring his granddaughter (and bragging about her accomplishments).

To say Kurt was the best husband, father, grandfather, and friend would be the biggest understatement. Those who were lucky enough to truly know Kurt considered him the best person they had ever met and a hero to many. Kurt is who we should all aspire to be. The world would be a utopian society if we all were more like Kurt Smallcomb.

While his physical presence may be gone, Kurt’s spirit will live on in the hearts of his family and friends. He leaves behind a legacy of love that will continue to inspire those who were fortunate enough to know him.

Kurt will be dearly missed, but never forgotten. His light will continue to shine through the lives of the many he impacted, reminding us all to cherish each moment and love one another fiercely.

Kurt was preceded in death by his beloved father Darol and father-in-law Maynard Thomas. He leaves behind the love of his life, best friend, partner, and heart Kristi, his daughters Kayle and Kami, his son-in-law (son) Quincy Cromer, his absolute pride and joy granddaughter Kyla Cromer, his “surrogate” eldest daughter Megan Turner Brown, his mother Glenda Smallcomb, brother Kevin Smallcomb, sister-in-law Julie Smallcomb, nieces Katie and Kyndle Smallcomb, great niece Klary, brother Greg Smallcomb and his nephews Deron, Nate, and Dylan Smallcomb (and their families). Kurt also leaves behind numerous aunts, cousins, and other “adopted” or “surrogate” family members, too numerous to list.

A funeral service will be held on Saturday, February 15th, 2025 at 2 P.M. at Eversole Mortuary in Ukiah, CA. A celebration of life will be held the same day at 4 P.M. at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center. The family requests that anyone who wishes to honor Kurt in this time of sadness, please volunteer or complete a selfless act of kindness.

(mendofever.com)

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ANDERSON VALLEY HS TEACHER FUNDRAISES FOR STUDENT IN COMA

Hello,

Reaching out to share a fundraising effort to support the family of a student at Anderson Valley High School who has been in a coma for a week. Ali Cook, a teacher at AVHS, started the fundraiser to support the 9th grader's family as doctors try to save her life.

"Anderson Valley 9th grader Yeanette has been in a coma for almost a week due to swelling and bleeding in her brain. She is a sweet, intelligent, beautiful, hilarious young lady and is deeply loved by her friends and family. Doctors are doing everything they can for her. During this crisis her mother and father have been vigilantly by her side at the hospital in San Francisco and have been unable to work. Please consider donating to the family to help with a wide variety of needs including but not limited to: food, utilities, rent, medical expenses, transportation costs, and more. Any amount helps."

You can view the full GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/prayers-and-donations-for-yeanettes-family?cdn-cache=0

Kindly,

Alexandra (Alex) White

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NO ON HIPCAMP ZONING

To: Mendocino County Planning Commission & Board of Supervisors

I am writing again to OPPOSE proposed changes to the Mendocino County General Plan to allow Transient Habitation — Low Intensity Camping in all zones of Mendocino County without even a minor use permit to address the multitude of concerns addressed in over 100 written negative responses to this inane proposal. I oppose this code amendment for all the obvious issues well addressed by others. I am not surprised that the Board of Supervisors completely ignored both the vocal and written input of hundreds of opposed constituents as well as ignoring our own Mendocino County Planning Staff precautions and hurdles to this proposed amendment. The BOS slipped in the back door their “Ratification of a Letter of Support for Senate Bill 620 (McGuire) Low Impact Camping” in a regular meeting back on September 10, 2024. This deceitful move is reminiscent of the CEO and Supervisors speedy 2024 eviction of the Veteran Service Office on Observatory Ave in Ukiah. Regarding this eviction former Supervisor McGourty told me to my face, “It’s a done deal Don but appreciate your comments.” How did that work out Mr. McGourty and Supervisor Haschak?

Here we go again! “Low Impact Camping”? Really?! This “Low Impact Camping” is AIRBNB cubed. My wife and I along with neighbors in November 2019 opposed a use permit (U-2017-0032) for an AIRBNB on a private road through our respective properties. The Planning Commission voted 5-0 to OPPOSE and denied the use permit. I strongly urge the Planning Commission and BOS review our presentation (a 25 page document) containing attachments addressing neighborhood safety, County enforcement and County/community legal liability issues. All of these concerns apply significantly more to what is now euphemistically so-called “Low Impact Camping.”

Why is the County even devoting time and resources to this issue? Was McGuire’s campaign given pledges? Is a cadre of out of work weed entrepreneurs grasping for a low ticket item to keep their gates open and pocket some loose-change for the laundromat? Or, is the County government now a shill for a Silicon Valley venture capital start-up, “HIPCAMP” with a present market cap of over 300 million dollars with investor’s self-stated goal to “monetize open space”? Investors and their declared company focus is to “Scale globally” (at present over 7 million registered HipCampers) and urge “Hosts” to upgrade their properties with “rentable structures,” “A-Frames & Cabins” offered as “add-ons.” HIPCAMP CEO on her way to an IPO states: “We will save the wilderness by disrupting it…” — as obscene as “we had to destroy the village in order to save it.” HIPCAMP’s goal is the commodification of “amazing outdoor, magical experiences.” The poster above the HIPCAMP CEO’s desk is a Walt Whitman line, “Resist Much. Obey Little.” Oh pleeze! Dear Walt turns in his grave as Joni Mitchell’s 1970 lyrics resonate, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot…”

Thank you for your serious consideration to oppose this amendment to protect the “amazing outdoor, magical experiences” of living in Mendocino County — my experience for the past 55 years.

Don Shanley

Philo

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HIP CAMPS

From someone who had such a camp nearby on Cameron Rd in Elk, here are some additional concerns:

• unattended burn piles between guests (I had to call CALFIRE)
• accessing the camps off private driveways
• trespassing on neighbors’ property
• no running water; only water that’s is brought in
• poor sanitation
• visitors ignoring quiet hours
• visitors allowing pets to relieve themselves on the private driveway and not cleaning it up
• camp owners not onsite and cellphone service spotty
• campfires built by naive city visitors
• visitors getting lost and needing help from neighbors

Questions:

• who monitors and enforces these camps?
• what might the impact be on neighbors’ homeowners insurance?

Cindy Johnson

Elk

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FORT BRAGG FAMILIES MARCH TO PROTEST TRUMP DEPORTATION THREATS

by David Bacon

Young people and their families in Fort Bragg CA joined thousands of others who went into the streets this past week, protesting the effort by the Trump administration to terrorize them with the threat of immigration raids and deportations.

Fort Bragg is a former lumber mill town on the California coast a few hours north of San Francisco. When the mill finally closed in 2002, it was long after the time when the lumber industry employed thousands in California forests and mills.

Mexicans began coming to Fort Bragg, many from the Yucatan, to work in the seafood plants in the Noyo River harbor. For a few years, the demand in Japan for sea urchins, or uni, provided lots of work. But the shellfish were rapidly exhausted, and Mexican workers moved into jobs in the tourism industry or picking wine grapes in nearby vinyards, which replaced both the mill and the sea urchins as Fort Bragg's economic lifeline.

Today small Mexican markets and restaurants are part of many town neighborhoods. The community is growing, and students from immigrant families make up a majority in the city's schools. But being part of Fort Bragg has not been easy. The first immigration raid took place in 1988. When Trump threatened new raids and mass deportations, young people knew what he was intending from their own family histories.

It is a testimony to the courage of these young people of Fort Bragg and their families that fear of deportation did not paralyze them, or make them cower behind closed doors in fear. And as they took to the streets, passing cars honked and waved their support of the message carried by the handmade signs and flags.

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2025/02/photos-from-edge-09-fort-bragg-families.html

To see a full selection of photographs, click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/albums/72177720323721022/

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A NUMBER OF MENDOCINO COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS CAN HELP WITH FINDING LEGAL RIGHTS WORKSHOPS AND OTHER RESOURCES. SOME OF THESE INCLUDE:

The Raise & Shine Family Resource and Empowerment Center, based in Ukiah, helps immigrants with paperwork.

Nuestra Allianza de Willits, a social services organization based in Willits, mainly supports immigrant families with COVID-19 testing, food distribution and ESL classes, but also helps those needing support of immigration assistance and referrals.

The Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa holds monthly workshops in Ukiah for immigration resources. The next event is on March 7.

UVA Vecinos En Acción, a Latino outreach organization based in Ukiah, supports Latino communities, whether immigrants or not, find jobs, housing and healthcare resources in the Mendocino County area.

Mendocino College, located in Ukiah, has a “Dream Center” for undocumented people who want to attend college. The Dream Center can assist with paperwork needed to qualify for classes.

California Human Development, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Rosa, can provide immigration resources and assist in completing visa paperwork.

LatCo, a Facebook group partially organized by Loreto Rojas, a professor at Mendocino College and an advocate for the local Latino community, has organized workshops and other resources for Latin Americans who live in the region. The page often posts about immigrant resources and occasionally announces Latin dance events for those who are interested. Rojas also hosts a public affairs show on KZYX, called MendoLatino, which broadcasts every 2nd and 4th Monday and is solely in Spanish.

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UKIAH VALLEY WATER AUTHORITY MOVES TO STANDARDIZED FEES IN MAJOR OVERHAUL

by Monica Huettl

The Ukiah Valley Water Authority (UVWA) Executive Committee tackled big financial changes at its Jan. 30 special meeting, voting to standardize fees across its four member agencies—Redwood Valley, Millview, Willow, and Ukiah. Finance Director Dan Buffalo pushed for uniform rates to streamline billing and boost efficiency. The board also discussed a five-year rate study, major infrastructure funding, and the transition of customers to UVWA’s billing system.

This meeting was focused on financial matters. Dan Buffalo, the City of Ukiah’s Finance Director, spoke about the adoption of standardized fees for the consolidated UVWA, which is comprised of four different water agencies: Redwood Valley, Millview, Willow, and the City of Ukiah, which have had separate fees and cost structures. Willow County Water District manages several other water districts, some of which are not in the UVWA.…

https://mendofever.com/2025/02/11/ukiah-valley-water-authority-moves-to-standardized-fees-in-major-overhaul/

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AMERICAN FOODS

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CALIF. POT INDUSTRY FACES 'EXTINCTION EVENT' FOLLOWING BIG TAX HIKE

A looming tax increase could send more customers back to the illicit market

by Lester Black

California’s legal cannabis industry could be in for a brutal 2025. The state is considering increasing the licensing fees for legal businesses, right as a 25% tax increase looms in July.

The great irony is both cost hikes are in play precisely because the legal market is in such dire financial shape.

The state is legally required to update the cannabis excise tax rate in July of this year to make up for lackluster cannabis tax collections due to lower-than-expected sales. While the new rate hasn’t been determined yet, it’s widely expected to increase from 15% to 19% due to stipulations in state law.

Meanwhile, the state’s Department of Cannabis Control, or DCC, is facing a $23 million budget deficit this year. The looming shortfall has left the agency considering raising licensing fees, a core part of its revenue, thus charging pot companies more to participate in the legal market.

Caren Woodson, the president of the California Cannabis Industry Association, said in an email to SFGate that increasing the costs of running a legal business would be “catastrophic to the industry” and drive customers back into the illicit market, which continues to thrive in California.

“The current model keeps one foot in regulation and one in prohibition, with dollars going in both directions. We must act swiftly to course correct or California’s legal, regulated market will continue to face the risk of an extinction event,” Woodson wrote.

Amy O’Gorman Jenkins, the executive director of the California Cannabis Operators Association, told SFGate in an email that a tax increase in particular poses an “existential threat” to the industry.

“The truth of the matter is that for many operators large and small, increased costs represent a tipping point that could mean closed doors and surrendered licenses,” O’Gorman Jenkins said.

July 1 Tax Increase

The impending cannabis excise tax increase is thanks to a 2022 deal brokered between Democrats in the legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. The agreement dropped a widely loathed cannabis cultivation tax in exchange for guaranteeing that overall tax collections wouldn’t be reduced.

Lawmakers agreed to eliminate that cannabis cultivation tax — which was widely blamed for making legal weed more expensive than illicit cannabis — in exchange for moving the excise tax collections from the wholesale level to the point of sale. That meant taxing the higher retail price instead of the lower wholesale price, which translated to an inherent increase in the tax. Lawmakers expected this increase to offset any revenue lost from removing the cultivation tax.

Then, to make sure the tax was revenue-neutral, lawmakers added a provision that forces the state to increase the current 15% excise tax rate to up to 19% after two years if cannabis tax revenue does not cover what would have been collected through the rescinded cultivation tax. The deal went into effect July 1, 2023, making this coming July 1 the increase deadline.

If legal cannabis sales were thriving and tax collections were flowing into state coffers, the state wouldn’t be forced to increase pot taxes, because the excise tax would be covering the lost revenue from the rescinded cultivation tax. Instead, California’s legal cannabis market has contracted by over 20% in the last two years, and state tax collections have plummeted. Many cannabis businesses can’t even afford to pay the existing taxes, with the state recently estimating that it is owed $1.3 billion in excise taxes and penalties for missed tax payments.

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration is expected to announce the new tax rate later this winter, prior to it going into effect on July 1, but the governor’s latest budget proposal has already baked in a tax increase, according to Seth Kerstein, a senior economist at the California Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“Although we do not yet know for sure what the new tax rate will be, we expect it to be at or near the statutory cap of 19%,” Kerstein said in an email to SFGate.

Some interest groups that depend on cannabis tax revenue for government programs have already called for the tax rate to increase in the hopes that it provides more funds to the state, but the cannabis industry has united around opposing any increase, arguing it will make legal cannabis more expensive and run legal pot companies into the ground. In fact, O’Gorman Jenkins’ industry group was founded this year with that as its top priority. She told SFGate by email that raising the taxes would just further decrease legal sales and create a “vicious cycle” in which the legal market further contracts, and customers go to the illicit market.

Potential Fee Increase

The tax increase is already baked into state law, but the licensing fee hike remains a looming threat — albeit a big one.

The DCC is funded primarily through the fees legal businesses pay to acquire a state license, yet there are not enough businesses entering the legal market to generate the necessary funds to support the department fully. As a result, the agency is looking at a $23 million deficit this year, and considering increasing fees on businesses to make up the gap, according to a DCC presentation given during a December advisory meeting.

DCC spokesperson David Hafner said in an email to SFGate that the agency has not officially proposed increasing the licensing costs. He acknowledged that the department is facing a budget shortfall, and also pointed out that licensing fees have not been increased since the department was formed in 2021.

“The Department is currently projected to be solvent for this fiscal year. However, annual expenditures exceed annual revenue for the Cannabis Control Fund, which is the primary funding source for the Department,” Hafner wrote.

Cannabis businesses already pay fees that are exponentially higher than their counterparts in the alcohol industry. State licensing fees for a beer producer are $2,385, no matter how big the operation, and a winemaker could license a 10-acre vineyard for less than a thousand dollars. Meanwhile, a state license for a 1-acre indoor cannabis farm costs over $85,000.

The DCC has never earned more revenue from fees than it has spent, according to an SFGate analysis of previous budget documents. The agency does have an $82.7 million backstop of cash, although that is down from a high of $169.1 million since the 2021-22 fiscal year. The Legislative Analyst’s Office said last year in a report that “it will be important for the Legislature to closely monitor the Cannabis Control Fund’s revenues and expenditures going forward to ensure it maintains a healthy fund balance.”

The possibility of raising licensing fees has been widely criticized by leaders in the legal industry, who say that any increase in licensing costs will either increase the costs of legal goods or cut out the profit from legal companies, both of which would force more businesses to close.

“We’re facing a stark reality, where businesses are struggling to break even, much less turn a profit,” said Woodson, the president of the California Cannabis Industry Association.

There appears to be at least some interest in the legislature in avoiding both the tax and fee increase. Matt Haney, a Democratic assemblymember from San Francisco, told SFGate in January that any increase in taxes or fees would likely drive businesses owners out of the legal market.

“I definitely understand the regulatory authority needs more resources, but that can’t be at the expense of putting out businesses that are already hanging on by a thread,” Haney said.

(SFGate.com)

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DATES CORRECTION from The Yorkville Community Benefits Association

Regarding: https://theava.com/archives/260706#14

We apologize… we listed the tracking year dates incorrectly on the first email. Our tracking year is November 24, 2024 – October 25, 2026.

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RE-NAMING FORT BRAGG

Edutor,

Maybe those who want to re-name the city of Fort Bragg can follow the example of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth set when he brought back the name Fort Bragg using a different namesake.

"Hegseth says Fort Bragg is coming back, but with a twist…"

https://www.foxnews.com/us/hegseth-says-fort-bragg-coming-back-twist

Scott Ward

Redwood Valley

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PLEASE NOTE FORT BRAGG, CA: In a Pentagon release Monday night, Fort Bragg will now be named after Roland L. Bragg. A Pentagon spokesperson described Bragg as a World War II fighter “who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.” Hegseth signed a memorandum outlining the name change while flying overnight to Stuttgart, Germany.

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AV WHITE WINE HISTORY MONTH

Hans Kobler, founder of Lazy Creek Vineyards, also sourced Riesling grapes from Valley Foothills in the mid 1980s. His son Norman Kobler confirmed his parents never planted Riesling on their own property, but they did produce several Riesling and Late Riesling-style wines, helping further establish Mendocino County as a key region for Riesling production. The historic property is now owned by Twomey Cellars and is one of the most beautiful wine tasting settings in the region.

Norman continues family farming as one of our beloved Vineyard Managers, as well as being the vineyard owner of the small Vonarburg Vineyard which is planted to Riesling and provides grapes to @cobbwines @reevewines @aristawinery.

Taste Riesling at the Riesling Table on February 15th at the International White Wine Festival in Boonville.

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WHITE WINE CELEBRATION at Goldeneye Winery Sunday, February 16

This special tasting showcases the cool-climate character of white wines across the Duckhorn Portfolio. From Anderson Valley’s Alsatian-inspired heritage to selections from Washington State and Edna Valley, each wine tells a story of craftsmanship and place.

Gather in the warmth of our restored farmhouse and covered patio for an afternoon of exceptional wines paired with seasonal bites. Live music sets the tone for a relaxed, welcoming experience, offering a rare chance to enjoy the distinctive beauty of white wines in the heart of Anderson Valley.

Goldeneye Member Preferred Pricing will be visible when confirming the reservation.

Please contact the winery directly for more information about how we’re participating in AVWA White Wine Weekend.

Goldeneye Winery
9200 Highway 128
Philo, CA 95466

Multiple times, starting at 11:00 AM. Reservations are recommended. Limited on-site tickets may be available. Admission: $75/ticket

https://www.exploretock.com/goldeneyewinery/event/525068/white-wine-celebration

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THE EXCITEMENT BUILDS…

Agenda & Staff Reports for the February 20, 2025 Planning Commission Meeting

The Staff Report(s) and Agenda for the February 20, 2025, Planning Commission meeting is now available on the department website at: https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/departments/planning-building-services/boards-and-commissions/public-hearing-bodies/public-hearing-bodies#!

Please contact staff if there are any questions,

Thank you

James Feenan, feenanj@mendocinocounty.gov

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MENDOCINO COUNTY BEHAVIORAL HEALTH ADVISORY BOARD MEETING

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

The Mendocino County Behavioral Health Advisory Board Meeting (BHAB) regular monthly meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 26, 2025, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Behavioral Health Regional Training Center, 8207 East Road, Redwood Valley, CA 95470. This meeting is intended for members of the public who are interested in supporting their local behavioral health services. Community members are encouraged to attend the meeting to ask questions, obtain information, and provide feedback.

BHAB meeting agendas are published at: https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/BHAB

For more information about BHAB meetings, please contact Behavioral Health & Recovery Services Administration at (707) 472-2355 or e-mail: bhboard@mendocinocounty.gov.

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ED NOTES

THE ONE TRUE GREEN, the late Richard Johnson, took his one-man Mendo Green Party with him to his grave on the highest ridge in Redwood Valley from where he presumably hopes to eternally ensure nothing politically hopeful other than Democrats ever happens in Mendocino County.

OTG used to occasionally print what he called ‘The Confluence Directory,’ in which several hundred pseudo-medical quacks advertised their dubious wares, everything from French Roast enemas (“crapachinos”) to “past life readings.” Johnson himself was a dedicated juicer, once being arrested in Ukiah for being drunk in public while riding the bicycle he was forced onto because he'd lost his driver's license for repeat DUIs. The poor guy couldn't even steer his bike straight. Johnson’s Confluence roster was impressively large given that there were, at the time, roughly 300 cranks listed for a Mendo population of only 90,000, albeit a population with a high percentage of pure dingbats for The Confluence crooks to prey on.

I THOUGHT of the old boy as I binge-watched a brilliant NetFlix series based on the true story of a young female hustler who parlayed her own faked cancer into a small fortune hustling “alternative” cancer cures. (The series is called Apple Cider Vinegar).

THE PURE CREDULITY of the ailing millions who detour from modern medicine to death avoidance strategies based on Peruvian medicine man cures and kindred quackery is both startling and sad, sad that so many people who could live on if they chose the modern Western medicine they sneer at instead of the dingbat procedures pedaled by nuts and criminals certain to kill them.

AS A RECENT victim of thyroid cancer, I'm sure I could have found any number of costly “homeopathic” alternatives guaranteed to have finished me off a few months before yesterday's Super Bowl. Instead of dialing up The Confluence Directory, I opted for the seven-hour surgery that cut the main body affliction and its thriving satellites out of my throat, along with my voice, my senses of smell and taste, leaving me depleted but alive with a neat hole in my throat, a surefire conversation starter if only I still had the ability to converse. I've adjusted, and fully expect to enjoy next year's Super Bowl between the Forty Niners and the Eagles.

THE CONFLUENCE QUACKS continue to thrive in Mendocino County. There is certainly one or more in a neighborhood near you, someone calling him or herself something like Apache Astroid at a Center for Integrative Medicine — midwife and midman, herbalist, massage therapist and black belt in Tae Kwan Tumbling. If we don't get your chakras aligned pronto you probably need the sacred Full Moon mystical gathering on the Mendocino Headlands where you can renew and reconnect your credulous self via astro transmission and, if you're lucky, a deep healing sound bath.

WE'VE THOUGHT for years that the entire County history effort should be combined under the auspices of the Held-Poage Library, a private volunteer entity based in Ukiah whose archive already contains much of the true history of the County, including a readily retrievable newspaper trove. For years now, Held-Poage has been the sole reliable repository of County history. H-P is more accessible to more people and its collections are much more comprehensive than the County Museum's because Held-Poage pre-dates the County's effort and benefits from an effective core of volunteers. The County Museum has much more space than Held-Poage, and much of the stuff housed at the County Museum in Willits includes artifacts too large for Held-Poage. These artifacts include a hippie van, a pre-War Willits lunch counter, horse-drawn wagons, Judi Bari's bombed vehicle, and so on. (No mention of the man who blew up Bari's Subaru, of course, but between you, me, and the FBI that managed not to consider him the primo suspect, his name is Mike Sweeney, presently an extraditable resident of New Zealand.) Held-Poage is books, documents, newspapers. But both Held-Poage and the County would profit from a merger. And someone really ought to retrieve and preserve the County's trial histories a'moulderin' in the County Courthouse basement.

OF COURSE COUNTY HISTORY has always been pretty hazy, perhaps because so much of it is so shameful, beginning with the mass murder of Indians and on through a local racism so intense that it wasn't until the early sixties a black person could live safely in Fort Bragg. And not to even mention the thriving Mendo Klan of the 1920s and astonishing unsolved crimes like the 1987 Fort Bragg Fires and the so-called “mystery” of the Judi Bari interlude. Not to worry, though history mavens; I've got the goods in my archives, some of them already stored at UC Davis, some at the County Museum in Willits, some at Held-Poage, but the real hot stuff I'm keeping with special instructions to my heirs and assignees to copy and air drop on the County Courthouse after I'm gone.

REAL GOOD MOVIES you may not have seen include, ‘Mesrine: Killer Instinct,’ the best gangster movie I've ever seen, better than the ‘Godfather’ because it doesn't glorify criminals like the Godfather movies do. Mesrine is apparently based on the adventures of a real guy, a French bank robber (mostly), who pulled off a series of spectacularly unreal crimes, becoming a kind of reverse national hero in France as he went. You think Marlon Brando was menacing in Godfather? Wait until you see the great Gerard Depardieu as a French crime boss. Another grisly but boffo cinematic adventure is a Brit film called ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed,’ a harrowing tale of kidnap with a series of startling interludes, all of it masterfully acted as only the Brits seem capable of doing. Also worth seeing is a grim saga based on the true history of the French Resistance called ‘The Army of Crime.’ You know going in how it's going to come out – too many of the true heroes die, most of the collabos live on, with the entire subject still understandably sensitive in France where, if you didn't know better, you'd think the entire nation rose up to resist the Nazi Occupation while only a small percentage of the population took up arms against it. In fact, most of the population either cooperated or simply hunkered down until the Nazis were defeated. The movie is quite well done but makes for some painful watching.

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FROM EBAY, AN INTERESTING OLD ENVELOPE OF LOCAL INTEREST (via Marshall Newman)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, February 10, 2025

WILLIAM ANDES, 48, Petaluma/Ukiah. DUI.

JUAN CRUZ, 23, Laytonville. Failure to appear.

ROBERT FULLER, 51, Fort Bragg. Grand theft, stolen property.

WILLIAM HARRIS, 45, Branscomb. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear.

FERNANDO HEREDIA-CASTRO, 42, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

ELIJAH JONES, 24, Willits. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

BRADEN LIONETTI, 36, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

ELOY LOPEZ-RUBIO, 51, Ukiah. Controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation, smuggling controlled substance into jail.

CHARLENE MARTINEZ, 43, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia.

MICHAEL MCGEE, 36, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, probation violation.

JOSE RODRIGUEZ, 35, Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia.

PATRICK SCHUETZ, 53, Ukiah. Unlawful camping in public park, county parole violation.

DAMON SHEPHERD, 43, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

WAYNE WALKER JR., 32, Willits. Probation revocation.

JESSE YAHWEH, 44, Willits. DUI.

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POEM by Heine

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TRUMP & AI CONVERGE

Editor:

The rise of artificial intelligence and the election of Donald Trump have an interesting convergence. A friend who works in tech describes the tone of things written by AI programs as “confidently wrong.” That sounds like a good description of the next four years.

Frederick Weisel

Santa Rosa

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TOM ROBBINS, BESTSELLING PNW NOVELIST AND RENEGADE ICON, DIES AT 92

by Mary Ann Gwinn

Tom Robbins, the bestselling novelist whose early books defined the 1960s for a generation and whose publishing career spanned more than 50 years, died Sunday at age 92, according to his wife.

She did not give the cause of his death.

Robbins, who called La Conner in Skagit County his home, was unclassifiable, and he liked it that way. He was a shy, dreamy kid who became a class clown and bad boy, a native Southerner who moved to Seattle from Virginia because “Seattle was the farthest place from Richmond on the map without leaving the country,” he told Rolling Stone in a 1977 interview. In his books he juggled the roles of writer, philosopher, renegade, mystic and comedian. Critical reviews of his books ranged from rapturous to disdainful, but he was a world-class storyteller and he inspired lifelong loyalty among his devoted fans. His motto, he said from time to time, was “joy in spite of everything.”

Robbins was born in Blowing Rock, N.C., a resort town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His grandfathers were both Southern Baptist ministers — one “would literally ride a mule into those hollers, as they called the valleys, and preach to people who were too far removed from civilization to have a church,” he told The Seattle Times in 2014. His mother was a nurse; his father worked as a power company executive, and the family moved a number of times.

“The family in which I was reared was a kind of a Southern Baptist version of The Simpsons,” he told BookPage magazine in 2000, “and I played the part of both Bart and Lisa. Which is to say, I was, on the one hand, a rambunctious little troublemaker, and on the other, a highly sensitive, creative, artistic type.” He fell in love with reading early; by age 5, he was dictating stories to his mother.

Robbins was pulled out of public school on the grounds of “general naughtiness,” according to Rolling Stone, and sent first to a military academy and then to Washington and Lee University, where he was kicked out for throwing biscuits at his fraternity housemother. He migrated to Richmond, Va., where he went to work as a sports writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch, and finished his college degree there. He also married for the first time. Sent to Korea by the Air Force, he worked as a meteorologist and became a lifelong devotee of Asian culture.

In 1962, Robbins was accepted into the University of Washington’s Far East Institute, and within days of arriving in Seattle got a job at The Seattle Times. He left graduate school and evolved into an art critic, and his freewheeling style earned him the label “the Hells Angel of Art Criticism,” in the words of one Seattle Art Museum associate director.

In 1963, he dropped LSD for the first time, an event he says changed his writing and his life. He left The Times (he called it “calling in well” in his memoir) and moved briefly to New York City, then back to Seattle, where he hosted a radio show on KRAB-FM called “Notes from the Underground” and wrote art criticism for several local and national publications.

In 1966, his big break arrived in the person of an editor at the publishing house Doubleday, who contacted him about doing a book of art criticism. Robbins pitched another book — a novel about the kidnapping of the mummified body of Jesus Christ. No, he hadn’t written it yet, but the editor was interested, so he set to work. He moved with a girlfriend to South Bend in Pacific County and began to write “Another Roadside Attraction,” incorporating the kidnapping with the story of two free spirits who operate a combination hot dog stand and roadside zoo in Skagit County. He paid the bills by commuting to Seattle on the weekends to work on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer copy desk, and eating discarded oysters, shrimp and lobster that his waitress girlfriend brought home from the job.

He finished the book in 1970, and moved to La Conner, a place he chose because of its remoteness and its tolerance for artistic types. In 1971, at age 39, he saw the publication of his first novel. Despite praise from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Graham Greene, “Another Roadside Attraction” sold poorly at first. But word of mouth spread throughout the counterculture and it became a phenomenon, as its paperback version, dubbed the “quintessential Sixties novel” by Rolling Stone, was snapped up by young counterculture readers. Robbins said the novel caught on because of its ability to view the psychedelic revolution “from the inside out,” that its structure “radiates in many directions at once,” according to a 1982 interview in the book, “Conversations with Tom Robbins.”

He followed it up with 1976’s “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” the story of Sissy Hankshaw, a bisexual heroine with an adventurer’s heart and outrageously large thumbs, a novel that led Rolling Stone to crown him “the new king of the extended metaphor, dependent clause, outrageous pun, and meteorological personification.” By 1978, his first two novels had sold 2 million copies, and “Cowgirls” was eventually made into a 1993 film by Portland director Gus Van Sant. His next book, 1980’s “Still Life with Woodpecker,” reached No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. He would eventually publish 12 books, including a children’s book (“B is for Beer”) and his bestselling 2014 memoir “Tibetan Peach Pie.”

Success enabled Robbins to add on to his modest La Conner home (now called Villa de Jungle Girl), travel widely and have fun, visiting far-flung places from Namibia to Sumatra. He toured Mexico and Central America with mythologist Joseph Campbell. He had small movie parts in several Alan Rudolph films.

Married several times, and the father of three sons by different marriages, he eventually found love with Alexa d’Avalon, a yoga instructor, psychic and tarot reader whom he met in the late 1980s and married in 1994.

His son Rip Robbins, who is from Delaware, said his relationship with his father began late in his teenage years. When he was 17, his father took him and a friend to a psychedelic party, where movies and music were playing in a “real eye-opening experience,” he said Sunday.

“He would tell me that I was more like a younger brother than a son,” said Rip Robbins, who is now 70. “ … We kind of had a little bit of a different relationship in terms of just getting to know each other as adults.”

Rip Robbins said he credits his father with helping him finish college and introduce him to literature he had never heard of in high school. Having Tom Robbins as a father was “intimidating,” Rip Robbins said, in large part because his father had a voracious appetite for reading.

Tom Robbins turned his house into an art gallery, with a subspecialty in lurid traveling carnival banners featuring freaks, beautiful women and alligators. Carnivals were an obsession from his youth in Blowing Rock when traveling circuses would cycle through and transform the staid town. His study was more subdued, with an old wooden desk and a sofa stacked with inscribed yellow legal pads — Robbins wrote out his books longhand (one draft, he claimed) before turning them over to an assistant.

Though he made occasional public appearances (he was a perennial judge for Skagit County’s White Trash Food Festival), he never lost his shyness; in interviews he was quiet and introspective, and La Conner residents collaborated in helping him maintain his privacy.

Despite his privacy, Robbins was generous with his time when it came to both friends and fans. In a statement on social media, his wife said Robbins received “daily love letters” and he tried to answer every one.

Seattle writer and radio host Katy Sewall said she first met Robbins as an intern at KUOW in 2004 when she was sent to his home to record him while he was being interviewed. The two sat and chatted afterward and discovered they both had a mutual love of old-time radio.

The exact date of this meeting is immortalized on Sewall’s skateboard, which Robbins signed upon her request, the message reading “For Katy, don’t try to stop her.”

Sewall and Robbins continued as pen pals over the decades since. Robbins often included flourishes like “spectacular” stamps or a packet of fairy dust, she said.

In 1997 he won Bumbershoot’s Golden Umbrella Award, which recognizes “one artist from the Northwest whose body of work represents major achievement in his or her discipline.” He was a “member at large” of Seattle 7 Writers, a nonprofit service organization of prominent local authors who got together to support writing and raise money for literary organizations and causes.

Though he was named a lifetime laureate of Seattle’s Rainier Club in 2006, he held fast to his lively, counterclockwise point of view, lobbing eloquent, articulate grenades at targets such as the destructive arc of capitalism and the malign intentions of the American government. He once described his books as “cakes with files baked in them. … I try to create something that’s beautiful to look at and delicious to the taste, and yet in the middle there’s this hard, sharp instrument that you can use to saw through the bars and liberate yourself, should you so desire.”

In a statement on Facebook, his wife Alexa wrote that he died surrounded by family and pets, and that Robbins asked that people remember him by reading his books.

“Tom was the best friend and partner I could have asked for,” she wrote. “We shared 36 beautiful and adventurous years together. If there’s such a thing as a soul mate, he was mine.”

He was still working on writing projects well into his 80s.

And for his legions of fans, Robbins kept the flame of creativity and hope alive. In 2017, he had this exchange with state poet laureate Tod Marshall in City Arts magazine, as the two writers discussed our tumultuous times:

Robbins: “We’ve had dark ages in the past.”

Marshall: “Does it feel like a dark age to you?”

Robbins: “It’s starting to feel that way more and more, but my porchlight is burning night and day.”

Donations in his honor may be made to Hospice of the Northwest, the Museum of Northwest Art, the La Conner Swinomish Library and SPOT Animal Rescue.

(Seattle Times)

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My wife is gone, my girl is gone,

my books are loaned, my clothes

are worn, I gave away a car; and

all that happened years ago.

Mind & matter, love & space

are frail as foam on beer.

— Gary Snyder

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I didn't watch the Super Bowl this year. First time since the last time the 49ers won (1994) I think that I had no interest. I was sick of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Taylor Swift montages every time they get a first down. The Philadelphia Eagles are just an ugly team. Ugly uniforms. Ugly colors. Ugly fans. Ugly stadium. Ugly coach. Don't know why anyone would want to be a fan of that team. Anyway, I digress. I gave up watching Super Bowl halftime shows since the Janet Jackson accidental nipple exposure incident. One thing I have noticed is that out of all the "performers" they could have at a Super Bowl halftime show it seems to me that they always choose black rappers. All these idiots and all their dancers do is stand up there and rattle off inane poetry that none can understand and then gyrate around while thrusting their hips back and forth. It isn't entertainment. It isn't talent. I don't know what the hell it is. I'd take a marching band over this bullshit any day + Sunday.

But hey, what do I know? People like Jelly Roll (a fat 400 pound slob) or Post Malone (a skinny tatted up slob) are now famous. Gone are the days where the pretty people wowed the audience with their looks and talents. Gone are the bands like Def Leppard, Van Halen and Bon Jovi where they actually played their music and sang the lyrics without auto tune. Today popular entertainers are rappers and tatted up white guys who do everything in their power to make themselves look as nightmarish and disgusting as possible. And people like this!

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STAGGERING AMOUNT FANS HAVE RAISED FOR LUIGI MANGIONE

by Emma Richter

Nearly $300,000 has been raised by Luigi Mangione fans who have made it their mission to support the alleged criminal amid his ongoing legal battle.

Mangione, 26, is accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson, 50, on December 4 outside of the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan while the CEO made his way to an investor conference.

He has been fiercely backed by a slew of fans who have praised Mangione for his alleged actions that day, as they support him for fighting back against the US healthcare system.

The December 4 Legal Committee, a 'volunteer-run fund' dedicated solely to raising money for Mangione, have accepted the hefty donations on GiveSendGo, and have done so since December 9.

The group announced on Monday that they 'have established contact' with Mangione's attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo 'and the rest of his legal team, who will be accepting your donations.'

Agnifilo told the organization her client is aware of his fans' support and the more than 10,000 donations.

'Luigi is aware of the fund and very much appreciates the outpouring of support. My client plans on utilizing it to fight all three of the unprecedented cases against him,' she said.

Former Washington D.C. homicide detective and criminal trial attorney Ted Williams told Fox News Digital that raising funds for a murder suspect is 'sick.'

Williams also questioned their 'mental stability,' telling the outlet: 'It’s shocking that anybody would raise money for a person [accused of killing] someone in broad daylight in cold blood. There are so many other causes in this country that a person could raise money for.

'Mangione, by the way, came from a very well-off family…raising money for him is like applauding murder.'

His supporters have sent a range of donations to reach a $500,000 goal, with the lowest at $5 and the highest at $5,000, the page shows.

Mangione's many fans have also left him notes attached to their donations, as one said: 'I don't ever donate to these things, but Luigi did it for us.'

'Innocent until proven guilty. He needs us. We love you Luigi,' another wrote.

In a statement shared with DailyMail.com, Sam Beard, the spokesperson for December 4 (D4) Legal Committee said: 'We're thrilled that Luigi is accepting these funds so that he can mount the strongest defense possible.

'The American private health insurance industry has ruined countless lives by denying people access to basic care and burying families in medical debt. It’s no surprise that Luigi’s alleged actions are understood and supported by tens of millions of hard-working Americans.'

Jamie Peck, another spokesperson with the group, said that the support Mangione has received so far from the D4 Legal Committee is 'only the beginning of a movement.'

'Thousands of donors have left supportive comments for Luigi on the fundraiser. They reveal a critical mass of people who are fed up with trying to survive under a murderous health insurance regime,' Peck said.

'We see support for Luigi as only the beginning of a movement for a humane and rational single-payer system that will provide medical care to all who need it, without caveats, and with no role for those who would enrich themselves through the suffering of others.'

The 'viral fundraiser' is run by a team of 15 volunteers from across the country, and 'is just one example of an outpouring of support and prayers for Luigi, whose alleged actions have spurred a national conversation on the morality and efficacy of the American for-profit health care system,' the statement continued.

Mangione, who is currently pleaded not guilty to the 11 charges in his indictment, including first-degree murder and murder as an act of terrorism.

The Maryland native has also been charged in the Big Apple with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second-degree, four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third-degree, one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth-degree, and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second-degree.

The 26-year-old faces life in prison without parole if convicted of the state charges.

One of his federal charges, murder through use of a firearm, is eligible for the death penalty.

During a brief order on Tuesday, Federal Judge Katherine Parker decided that Avraham Markowitz, an expert in capital cases, will look into Mangione's federal case.

A spokesperson for his attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo told ABC News she is 'pleased' to have Markowitz join the case.

'The Agnifilo Intrater team is pleased to have Avi Moskowitz lend his considerable expertise in death penalty cases to Mr. Mangione's federal case as "learned counsel",' a spokesperson for the firm told the outlet.

'The charges could not be more serious and our client needs every resource at his disposal to fight these unprecedented charges in three jurisdictions.'

Mangione was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after both a worker and elderly person spotted him and called the police.

He was detained on firearm charges and was carrying a 'ghost gun', believed to have been made with a 3D printer, when he was arrested.

The 26-year-old was then extradited to NYC to be arraigned for the murder of Thompson.

Prosecutors have said the two cases - state and federal - will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first. His next appearance in state court is scheduled for February 21.

(DailyMail.uk)

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"Without the lift of whiskey I wonder if I am not less than intelligent in facing my problems. I am fifty. Can I go on writing stories forever? Why not?…I think that I should move to a hotel, but then I think that I cannot leave my family; my eyes flood with tears, and I empty the whiskey bottle. I should take advantage of my maturity and not be dismayed at the loss of my youth."

— The Journals of John Cheever

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THE AMERICAN DISEASE is the assumption that when a man has exploited and used up the possibilities of one place, he has only to move on to another place. This has made us a nation of transients, both physically and morally, and as long as we remain so I think that we will inhabit the earth like a plague, destroying whatever we touch. It seems to me that our people are suffering terribly from a sort of spiritual nomadism, a loss of meaningful contact with the earth and the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, and death. They lack the vital morality and spirituality that can come only from such contact; the sense, for instance, of their dependence on earth, and the sense of external mystery surrounding life on earth, which is its ultimate and most disciplining context.

— Wendell Berry, Some Thoughts on Citizenship and Conscience in Honor of Don Pratt (1968)

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TO THE GOVERNMENT

You just tear yourself
Along the perforation
And see how that feels

— Jim Luther

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LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT

Who Needs Hollywood? Chinese Animated Film Shatters Box Office Records

White House Failed to Comply With Court Order, Judge Rules

Adams May Get His Charges Dropped, but His Re-election Fight Remains

Hamas Postpones Release of More Hostages “Until Further Notice”

Trump Says He May Cut Aid to Jordan and Egypt if They Don’t Take Gazans

Nonstop Quakes Leave a Tourist Island Empty and Its Residents on Edge

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TULSI'S IN

Senators voted on party lines to push forward the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic member of the House, as President Trump’s director of national intelligence, signaling the collapse of Republican resistance to her nomination and placing her on a smooth path to confirmation on Wednesday.

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WARFARE ON LAWFARE

by James Kunstler

“It is axiomatic that those who are beneficiaries of waste, fraud and unnecessary government spending will be the most threatened by the cuts that DOGE is making in these programs. These beneficiaries of waste and fraud are also extremely worried about the reputational, legal and potential criminal risk they will suffer by being exposed by DOGE” — Bill Ackman

I’m so glad that The New York Times explained what Kendrick Lamar was up to in his Superbowl half-time act because all I could make out was a grown man dressed-up like an eight-year-old hollering nursery rhymes in front of a flash-mob. Apparently, KL is engaged in a feud with another rapper named Drake, whom KL styles as a child molester. So, you see, the whole thing was just a bit of wholesome family entertainment. Thank The NY Times, for putting a grad-school spin on it:

Speaking of metanarratives — and apart from the private vendettas on Planet Rap — a nice one is developing at center-stage of US political life: the Party of Chaos using federal judges to oppose the dismantling of their gigantic grift scaffold. In other words, more lawfare to obstruct any earnest effort to effectively reform the management of our country. So, last week, you get Judge Carl J. Nichols in the DC District arguing that the DOGE shutdown of USAID was unauthorized and potentially illegal, lacking congressional approval.

Then, late Friday (when most citizens are checking out of the week’s struggles) Judge Paul Engelmayer out of the Southern District of New York blocked DOGE and other executive branch officials from accessing US Treasury record of expenditures. The injunction, comically, prevents Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant from seeing what his agency doles out money for — that is, from managing anything his department does. The suit that prompted the ruling was brought by nineteen states’ Attorneys General led by NY AG Letitia James. So, you see how this works.

You must also imagine that the White House was prepared for these lawfare shenanigans, though they haven’t shown their hand in response so far. This is a constitutional quarrel, of course, since it concerns who has authority between the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary over agency spending and, in particular, who gets to audit it. The actual objective by the plaintiff in these cases (the Party of Chaos) is simply to delay any corrective action.

The DOJ under Pam Bondi can designate the US Solicitor General to petition the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) for certiorari — to expedite the resolution of this constitutional issue as to whether Mr. Trump, as chief executive, and his bona fide appointees, can carry out executive functions. The arguments against that appear to be weak.

It is the President’s duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed, meaning that the departments under him do their jobs correctly, which would give him inherent authority to audit and restructure agencies like USAID. Both judges Nichols and Engelmayer are arrogating executive and legislative functions on policy-making for themselves, triggering a separation-of-powers dispute that the SCOTUS must adjudicate promptly.

What matters most in these cases is that SCOTUS has an opportunity to put up new guardrails against the hijacking of the federal courts for the purpose of lawfare — that is, for political dirty-fighting under color-of-law. The law is slow-moving, arcane, and incomprehensible to most non-lawyer citizens and that is why the Party of Chaos has misused it so liberally.

In any event, DOGE is moving ahead on many other fronts and the next battleground looks like the US Department of Education, an agency which, since its creation in 1979, has only presided over an epic degeneration in the academic performance of young people. The agency has grown since 1979 to 4,400 employees overseeing a $238-billion budget. Otherwise, what it’s mainly accomplished is to enrich the various teachers’ unions and to raise the cost of college tuitions astronomically while degenerating the purpose and value of higher ed. The fifty states were arguably doing a better job on their own without any DOE on the scene.

Meanwhile, it’s satisfying to see the security clearances revoked from Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Andrew Weissmann, Mark Zaid, and Norm Eisen. The reason: among other crimes, they all dabbled in election interference. And “Joe Biden” lost his, too, on account of being too feeble-minded to be trusted with classified information. Who knows what other legal complications lie in waiting up ahead for that whole gang? Lawfare giveth and lawfare taketh away. Or FAFO.

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TRUMP CLAIMS HE’S ON THE SIDE OF THE WORKING CLASS. REALLY?

by Bernie Sanders

At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, millions of Americans understand that if they are going to make it to the middle class, they need to be in a trade union so they can negotiate for decent wages, benefits and working conditions.

When Trump campaigned for president, he claimed he was on the side of the working class. But that’s not what he’s delivering. Rather than standing up for average Americans, he’s protecting the interests of some of the wealthiest people in the world.

When Donald Trump fires the most pro-union General Counsel in the history of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and illegally removes a member of this independent board, he is not a champion of the working class. He is a champion of unfettered corporate greed and union busters.

As a result of Trump’s unprecedented move, the NLRB no longer has a quorum and has effectively been shut down. What does this mean? It means that it will be far, far harder for workers to exercise their constitutional right to form a union and improve their standard of living. It means that during a union election, corporate bosses can illegally fire workers who vote to join a union. It means that corporate CEOs have free rein to illegally intimidate and coerce pro-union workers without recourse. It means that corporations can aggressively decide not to bargain in good faith with union workers or sign a first contract.

And because the NLRB is now dysfunctional, workers have no recourse.

Trump’s decision has already had disastrous consequences. Last week, workers at a Whole Foods grocery store in Philadelphia voted 130-100 to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union. But Whole Foods, owned by Jeff Bezos, has made it crystal clear that they will ignore this union victory and will not bargain with their union workers in good faith. Without a functioning NLRB, Whole Foods cannot be held accountable for its illegal behavior.

For months, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the two wealthiest men alive, have been working overtime to abolish the NLRB. Why is that? These notorious anti-union billionaires want the absolute power to exploit their workers and violate labor law. The lower the wages they pay, the more money they make. Since Election Day, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have become $184 billion richer and are now worth $669 billion. But, apparently, that’s not enough.

As the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee I will continue working with the trade union movement to oppose Trump’s decision and make it easier for workers to join unions, not harder.

(Bernie Sanders is a US Senator, and the ranking member of the Senate budget committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.)

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