Mendocino County Today: Monday 3/3/2025

By AVA News Service on March 3, 2025

LINGERING SHOWERS through this morning, followed by mostly dry weather conditions. Below normal temperatures are expected today through the work week. Another frontal system will bring additional precipitation by mid week. Frost and freezing temperatures are likely Thursday and Friday morning. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A hazy 41F with .07" collected this Monday morning on the coast. Dry skies today then showers Tuesday. I have dueling forecasts after that for the rest of the week ??? The NWS says showers, Steve & the WU say clear, we'll see I suppose? It does look like a bunch more rain next week so far.

ELDERLY MAN WITH DEMENTIA MISSING

Authorities are searching for Daniel Jay Salmond, 72, who was last seen around 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 27 at his home on Middle Ridge Road in Albion.

According to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Salmond, who suffers from worsening dementia, was reported missing after an In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) worker returned on March 1 and found him gone.

Salmond is 6 feet tall, 160 pounds, with gray hair and blue eyes. He was likely wearing a flannel shirt, khaki pants, and brown boots when he disappeared.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 463-4086.

BOONVILLE ANON: A white dodge durango has been speeding through town and its the second time I see them speeding. It is unacceptable and dangerous to be driving this fast especially in our small town. Seems like a young kid.. please parents have a serious talk with your kids about not speeding and ensuring to keep not only themselves but the people around them safe!

NO GRANGE PANCAKE BREAKFAST IN MARCH

Patty Liddy (AV Village): I was informed Sunday morning that there is no pancake breakfast in March. I'm so sorry for any inconvenience.

BERNIE NORVELL from DC: Madeline Cline and I got to spend a couple hours with Robert Marbut discussing homelessness, substance abuse and mental health treatments. Also with us was Brandon Thomas who operates hundreds of successful centers around the country. His facilities exceed a 90% success rate and a very low rate of recidivism.

FRIDAY NIGHT FIRE IN UKIAH DESTROYS SEVERAL APARTMENTS

by Justine Frederiksen

Several apartments were destroyed and nearly 40 people displaced Friday night after a fire broke out in a large housing complex on Lovers Lane, the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority reported.

UVFA Battalion Chief Eric Singleton said that crews were dispatched around 8:30 p.m. Feb. 28 to a report of “multi-family” structure on fire, and that the first firefighters on-scene found two of the three apartment buildings there “heavily involved in flames,” which he described as reaching “20 to 30 feet in the air.”

To knock down those flames as quickly as possible to hopefully keep them from spreading to more residences, Singleton said crews “used our deck gun — the large nozzle on top of the engine” to douse the fire, which was kept from spreading to the third building.

“It was a good stop, crews did an outstanding job keeping the fire from spreading to the third building,” said Singleton, noting that there were at least eight apartments which were either destroyed or heavily damaged.

“We had 37 people displaced that night,” he continued, explaining that the gas main, water main and electricity to the building had to be shut off, as some of the mains were damaged.

“I contacted the Red Cross that night, and it was a big ask, given the amount of people affected, but they had people responding very quickly, and did an outstanding job helping them,” said Singleton.

Another aspect of the fire that was nearly miraculous, Singleton said, was that “we had no fatalities or even injuries (to either people or pets). People lost a lot of stuff, of course, which is heartbreaking, but stuff can be replaced, lives cannot.”

To help make sure the displaced residents had their most important items, particularly medications, Singleton said crews “worked about two hours” after the flames were extinguished to help retrieve necessities.

Singleton credited law enforcement personnel from the Ukiah Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol as all quickly responding to the blaze and “going door-to-door” to not only evacuate the buildings with fire, but the surrounding buildings, as well.

Also responding to the incident were crews from Cal Fire, Hopland Fire, Redwood Valley Fire and Potter Valley fire, and crews from the Willits Fire Department responded to help cover the valley while UVFA crews were busy on the large incident, including off-duty Battalion Chiefs Ryan Nelson and Justin Buckingham.

As to the cause of the fire, Singleton said “it appears to have started on a back patio and crawled up the wall, then into the shared attic space, which is why it was able to spread.” He noted that while the exact cause is still being determined, “it appears accidental, meaning we do not believe there was malicious intent.”

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

8th Graders were honored at the last Junior High basketball games of the season

AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

It’s March! It has been nice to see the sun out over the past few days. We are excited to be getting glimpses of Spring. As a reminder, this week, March 3-7, will be Minimum School Days for the purpose of parent/teacher conferences and PLPs.

I strongly encourage parents to attend this week’s conferences, as research consistently demonstrates the positive impact of family involvement on student achievement. A study from the Harvard Family Research Project found that students whose parents are engaged with the school are 40% more likely to graduate.

To maximize the effectiveness of these meetings, parents should come prepared by reviewing their child’s recent assignments, grades, and test scores. It’s also helpful to write down any specific questions or concerns regarding your child's academic progress, social development, and classroom behavior. We look forward to working together to support your child in achieving academic success and their dreams!

Fire Department / AVUSD Training & Fun!

It was a pleasure to visit the fire department and to be a part of their monthly training. On Tuesday, AVUSD administrators were invited to eat dinner at the fire department and to talk with their volunteer personnel about our comprehensive safety plans. We also learned about their procedures for supporting the schools if there is an emergency. Afterwards, the firefighters and other emergency personnel came to the schools to become more familiar with our facilities. We are thrilled to be working collaboratively with the fire department.

Thank you to Chief Avila, Lt. Angela DeWitt, and their team, as well as Mr. McNerney and Mr. Ramalia, who stayed past 9:00 p.m. to accompany the fire department team on their tour of the school and its facilities.

Additionally, the fire department will be engaging in a spirited game of Donkey Basketball against our FFA team soon (see below). In all my years as an educator, I have never had a fire department so interested in working so closely with school staff. We are so fortunate!

Donkey Basketball - Don't Miss It!!

Donkey Basketball Tickets are on sale now! This promises to be a good time for all!

AV FFA vs the AV Fire Dept! (Benefits AV FFA)

March 11, 2025 at 6:30 pm

Anderson Valley High School Gym

See Ms. Swehla at (707) 895-3496

Adults - $13 or $15 at the gate

Students 7th to 12th grade $10 or $12 at the gate

Children K to 6th grade $7 or $9 at the gate

Pajamas and Pozole at AVES

Wednesday, March 12th at 5:30 p.m. at AVES

Join us for a fun family night of pajamas, pozole, and literacy activities.

See the attached flier!

Summer School Planning Has Begun!

Summer School will be June 23-July 22

8:30-12:30 / ASP 12:30-5:30

Transportation provided (bus leaves for the day at 3:00 p.m.)

• AVES will provide activities including sports, crafts, science, art, and field trips. AVES Summer School flier
• AV Jr High will provide fun learning activities
• Sr High School provide credit recovery opportunities

We Value ALL Our Families: Immigration Support and Updates

Please find links to additional information for families below:

• Mendocino County Office of Education: Immigration Resource Page
• Immigration and California Families: State Immigration Website
• National Immigration Law Center: “Know Your Rights” (English | Spanish | Additional Languages)

If you would like to be more involved at school, 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

[email protected]

CUBBISON VENDETTA

First of all, thanks to Mike Geniella for the research and press coverage of the Chamise Cubbison, Mendocino County Auditor-Controller Court hearings on the criminal charges, and to Judge Ann Moorman for her skillful and thoughtful legal questioning of the County players in those hearings.

After being challenged by Cubbison, for his own spending, as early as September 2021, Mendocino County District Attorney, C. David Eyster, filed a criminal felony charge of misappropriation of public funds against an elected official, Chamise Cubbison on October 13, 2023. She was suspended and removed from office without salary or benefits. The next 17 months were about back and forth recollections, and the right answer just became apparent last week. Fortunately, on February 25, 2025, the correct Court decision was rendered, dismissal of all charges. In my opinion, this issue did not need to take up so much of the court’s time, but Judge Moorman had to deal with a lot of “Willful Ignorance”, or short term memory failure, with County personnel on the witness stand, which prevented an earlier decision.

All parties were represented by attorneys, and therein lays my concern, and hopefully yours. Now, that the hearing process is completed and the defendants were awarded a dismissal, the next likely step will be civil litigation to determine damages to these defendants. By the time the County funds the attorney fees, damages, salaries and benefits, we, the tax payers, are likely going to have to pony-up in excess of $1 million. To me that represents a County misappropriation of public funds subject to conspiracy charges.

Yes, I am upset and feel these County representatives are going to get off scot-free from the crime they committed, if we allow it to happen.

John Moon, Ukiah

CASE DISMISSED; NOW WHAT?

John Sakowicz: The malicious prosecution case against duly elected County Auditor-Treasurer Chamise Cubbison has been dismissed. Now what? Now, every county actor tainted by the Cubbison affair needs to go. District Attorney Dave Eyster needs to be sued by Cubbison, and his conduct should be reported to the California Bar Association. CEO Darcie Antle needs to be immediately fired. Supervisors Maureen Mulheren, Ted Williams and John Haschak need to resign or be recalled.

Daney Dawson: Please, no more lengthy and expensive lawsuits for the county to pay for. Let Eyster and/or others be pressured into leaving without running up hundreds of thousands in attorney costs for the county, or booted out next election.

Jean Arnold: Shame is not a ‘thing’ anymore. I wouldn't bet on his accepting any blame for any of this expensive mess. He had to have been shameless at the time he plotted it (and when he kept trying to pass off his parties as training events); I can't imagine he's changed his persona since.

MORE PONDS?

To the Editor:

I am extremely disappointed having heard the constant rhetoric attempting to explain the cause for the last few years of drought in California. Not once have we investigated the root of the problem. Farmers are fallowing millions of acres, development of waste water use is expanding, communities are conserving everywhere, and we are being forced to over use our groundwater aquifers. We need more surface water storage if we are to meet the unnatural release, and ever increasing use of our stored water supply for fish flows directed to the ocean for unproven and over stated expected results.

Fact is, an increase in surface storage is not being pursued aggressively because of the overwhelming opposition from minority preservation and environmental organizations. Their ability to sue every state and federal agency (us the TAX PAYER) to the detriment of all, using every environmental legal loop hole they can find under the premise that the misused Endangered Species Act supersedes all as the law of the land. There seems to be no balance between man and the environment anymore.

When you look to your rivers during these past few drought years and you see those unnatural and unseasonably high flows during the summer and fall, ask yourself, when all of the creeks are dry, where is the water coming from?? It’s coming from stored water in our reservoirs that were built to hedge off the effects of DROUGHT. This water was stored, and licensed for beneficial uses including agricultural, domestic, and industrial. The fisheries and environmental concerns are entitled to a share of this water, but natural accretion flows that reflect actual season changes only. If ten cubic feet per second (CFS) is the inflow into a storage facility after the last spring rains, then 10 CFS should be the flow release from storage, NOT 200, or 140, or even 40 CFS. It must be 10 CFS to mimic natural conditions!

You want answers to the question of why our lakes are dry? Ask the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) they are a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They have a regional office in Santa Rosa. They have taken control of all water rights in the United States through their development of Biological Opinions (BO). In our area of the Upper Main Stem Eel River and the East Branch Russian River the BO was formalized in 2004. It mandates the flow releases from storage that will continue until the water is gone. Their only concern is fish, period. They are not balancing the beneficial uses or needs as directed by the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The point is, these inequities have been addressed with viable solutions, and corrections, but to date they have been largely ignored by NMFS. I believe their mismanagement of California’s water supply is unacceptable, and those responsible must be held accountable. Our legislators have proven to be less than helpful, every time. I get the impression they have an agenda and it seems to be destroying water storage in this state, not improving it…

Our elected representatives must step up. We all need to say enough is enough. We must protect the people’s share of developed water storage for all people and agricultural uses through a balanced formula that of course includes fisheries and environmental resources.

Steven Elliott

Potter Valley

RANDOM NOTES

STEVE DERWINSKI has produced a unique autobiography, an abbreviated history of his life which, I'm here to testify, fascinated me front to back. I've always been beguiled by the guy, who I first became aware of when he built a beautiful sailboat and parked it in the parking lot of the Boonville Hotel for all to see. Or maybe he built it there in between constructing the Hotel's attractive outbuildings. It was then that I realized Derwinski is one of these rare persons who can do everything, from building houses and boats, to making music in rock and roll bands, to designing and making absolutely original furniture, and even writing haiku strictly within its rigid forms. He made my wife some original curtain rods, which some acquisitive vulture snagged when we moved before we could retrieve them. The man's been around, and you will for a slam dunk fact enjoy ‘Blowin' My Own Horn or 100 things I've done in the last 75 years, a random collection of people, places and events.’ Not sure where this nifty little bio is available, but if you email the author at [email protected] he will likely get you a copy.

ELSEWHERE in today's cyber-paper, there's a brief history of recent events in Ukraine by Ted Dace. I don't pretend to be a scholar of that beset country, but Dace's history, accurate enough so far as it goes, leaves out the information that however contemporary Ukraine was formed, undoubtedly with CIA engineering, and it was certainly helped along by miscellaneous crooks like the Bidens, it's obvious that Ukranians want to be independent of Russia, certainly independent of Putin's Russia. If they didn't, you wouldn't get millions of Ukranians dying and risking their lives to repel the Russian invaders. The Trump Gang, natch, instinctively goes with Putin, placing our fragged country on the same side of the guy who shells apartment buildings.

RE THE CUBBISON FIASCO, Jean Arnold neatly sums up — “Shame is not a ‘thing’ anymore. I wouldn't bet on his [Eyster] accepting any blame for any of this expensive mess. He had to have been shameless at the time he plotted it (and when he kept trying to pass off his parties as training events). I can't imagine he's changed his persona since.”

DEADWIND is an interesting NetFlix series from Finland, mostly interesting to this viewer as a kind of travel guide to a country he knows nothing about. Replete with implausible occurrences and Americanized subtitles that you just know is not something the Finns would say — “Drop his ass” — a female cop character urges her male counterpart, still and all it held my enfeebled attentions.

FOR SIMPLY depressing viewing there's “American Murder; Gabby Petito’ Most of US know the story in broad outline, which is the sad story of an attractive, lively young woman who is psychologically occupied by her boyfriend, a creepy little man-bun character who murders her. As a couple, they struck this ancient mariner as unattractively narcissistic in the ostentatiously “happy” manner of silly, superficial people, all the while little mister man-bun is bullying the girl and beating on her. Why didn't she say something? That's the mystery. She wasn't without a protective family or the resourcefulness to liberate herself from her killler, but…. (Man-Bun's mommy is quoted to the effect, “You haven't heard his side of the story…”

WHEN I WAS A KID — wait, don't run! — my football coach, addressing a bunch of us in random life advice as he was wont to do, and often apropos of nothing previously said, advised, “Boys, women are like buses. There's always another one just around the corner.” This same coach several times wished me, specifically, bad fate. “Anderson, I want to be there when you get yours.” (I'm sure I provoked him.) Looking back, though, “inappropriate” as he could be, coachie's ad hominem cynicism seems more realistic life-prep advice than the love bombing the average kid endures these days.

TRANSITIONS

by Mazie Malone

I have been in a place of change and introspection for the last month and a half after losing people I love — one being my client who suffered from dementia, and the other ending my relationship with my boyfriend. Change is hard but also an opportunity to commit to your own needs, dreams and goals.

I often think about my grandmother Aleta who had a husband and nine children, and I wonder if she lived a happy fulfilled life? Quite possibly she suffered in silence longing to be doing something other than raising children, laundry, cooking and housework. Maybe she was happy and rolled with the punches. I will never know for sure, but do hope that was the case. She only lived to be 62, passing away when I was in high school in the 80s.

One thing I have learned from growing up in my family is you are on your own, no support, nothing, every man for himself. (I had brothers; I was the only girl.) To survive you fight or stay silent and hide. Kind of fascinating that I lived. My oldest brother ran me over with a go-cart; Another threatened to cut off my head with a machete. (He literally had the weapon in his hands.) And the other… Well he wasn't so bad, but did as an adult completely cut me out of his life. I found him last year when I was looking for my estranged older son and found out he lives in Salinas, Califoria. He has written four books. (Anyone can self-publish.) Of course I purchased three of them, just not the one on bitcoin, ha-ha. I was fascinated yet disappointed. One was dark poetry. The other a book of BS about stupid sayings he and his friends made up. Lastly a philosophical work with an aspect of enlightenment and truth telling that was so horrible I was shocked.

Enlightened, my ass. Some people talk game to feed their egos and this was exactly that. He was pretending to be the guru. I reached out to him offered reconnection and he wanted nothing to do with me. Hid not even respond, just blocked me. So much for his profound wisdom, hahaha. He dissed his sis, not the first time, but definitely the last. That was a definitive fuck off. I received the memo loud and clear. So, if you have ever wondered who the hell this girl thinks she is? I have asked myself this same question a thousand times. Well, this is who: the girl who stood up and fought her own family to survive.

What does this have to do with Serious Mental Illness and Homelessness? Quite a lot actually because it is about survival and connection and supporting people's needs to thrive within their afflictions and circumstances — homelessness, mental illness and addiction. However, it is impossible to provide treatment, housing and support if the system fails to recognize it is a community problem, not an individual one. We blame the person, and their character is targeted as the problem. Serious Mental Illness, Addiction and Homelessness are not personal failures; they are circumstantial problems, rooted in poverty and Illness. For one to climb out of that hell they need support, lots of it. One issue that is not addressed through the system that makes it extremely hard for people to connect their needs and services for support is cognitive distortions and executive function issues. This literally means individuals with certain mental/emotional/ neurodivergence problems literally cannot get from point A to point B, rendering directions and instructions useless. They cannot follow through on what would be expected of them. And that means who is going to help them through the mounds of paperwork and appointments and all the little details necessary just to get help? If they are lucky, they have an understanding, helpful family member. If not they are more or less screwed, until the system can recognize this is a real problem that needs addressed, we will continue to allow people to suffer.

Mendo has been my home my entire life. I was planning on moving away until my son got sick in 2020, I just wanted to live in a more moderate climate, I hate the summer heat here. My dreams of living on the beach have taken a backseat to my son’s needs. Although he is an adult, his disability requires my emotional, monetary and physical needs and support and no one pays me for that, it is simply what must be done. What we can hope for in the future is a system that understands cognitive distortions/disabilities as the glue trap preventing forward progress for accessing and adhering to service protocols, where we change those rules to adapt to the needs of the individuals Disabling Condition. Imagine that!

I know I have high expectations, lol. That means I keep going regardless of the roadblocks. But sometimes I need a breather, cause damn, this is hard work.

I survived my home life, I was fortunate, and I know it and I am grateful because of it. I could never imagine having to survive the streets, no home, no safe space, being hungry, being cold and fighting to exist while being viewed as despicable trash who deserves nothing. All people regardless of their discord and afflictions deserve food, housing and treatment. It is a human right, not a punishment for being homeless, addicted or disabled. It is really a shame that we are unable to see that the solutions are actions not words. Our response, our support, our protocols — none of it has anything to do with money. But they like to make you think that it's easier.

GET A DOG, IMPROVE TWO LIVES

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

When people get old they start getting rid of stuff. Thus we have warehouses full of china place settings and volumes of National Geographic (“Every issue from 1953 to October, 2024, free to good home!”) sufficient to last a lifetime and a century or two beyond.

Going hand-in-hand with offloading debris accumulated over the decades is a reluctance to acquire anything. Everyone is afraid of getting a dog.

I know these old people. I am these old people. And everyone, including me, thinks the same about getting a dog at our age. But think it through.

In reality the scale tips in favor of a dog. Even at our age. Consider:

1) A dog won’t wince and turn its head when you’re old, ugly and get undressed in front of it.

2) When you’re tired of eating succotash for the fifth day (or the first day, succotash being succotash) give the leftovers to your dog. Fido will be thrilled, and follow you around until dinner tomorrow hoping for more cold lima beans, canned corn, Miracle Whip, green beans, zucchini and other inedible stuff. Your husband will thank you too.

3) You can’t get a dog because it will disrupt your busy lifestyle? At your age? Oh please.

Put a quick stop to the notion you and the spousal unit want to travel the world: Go to SFO, pick a roundtrip anywhere. Get back home, trembling, and cured of ever wanting to travel again.

4) Your dog will never be embarrassed to be seen with you in public. Unlike your children.

5) A dog on a leash allows people to comment on the terrible cuteness of your blind, flea-ridden, three-legged, mangy mutt. They’ll pet Lucky and say they once had a dog just like it. (“But we had to put him down.”)

6) Too old to walk a dog? Maybe you are, or soon will be. So find a lazy five-year old pooch with no more interest in walking around Ukiah than you. Or pay a kid to walk your dog. Quit whining about money. Sell your timeshare.

7) Least important excuse to not bring a dog home: What if we die? What happens to Li’l Halitosis when we croak?

Well, what happens when you die? Answer that.

Let others will deal with Loogie the Dog. Since all your friends and some of your neighbors know what a peach he is, they’ll be fighting to adopt her.

8) Also: It isn’t just your life that will be improved in ways you can’t predict. Get a dog and improve its life in ways we can easily predict.

A warm house, nice people and occasional walks. A back yard and a great dog next door. Lotsa toys in a big box in the hall. (Have you tried the succotash? Magnifique!) And freed, finally, from the noisy smelly depressing shelter where poor old Taylorswift has been detained since 2023. And yowling cats in nearby cages.

And no more getting your hopes dashed when kids stop at your cell and want to bring you home pleeze pleeze pleeze! but dad says “Nah, let’s get a younger dog, a smaller dog.” The family walks away, breaking your heart.

9) If you won’t get a dog because you haven’t gotten over your last dog, get a dog. Nothing eases the loss of a dog like a new dog.

A puppy is the cure.

Don’t you be the problem.

EYSTER’S IGNOMINIOUS END

DA Dave Eyster’s laudable, near-heroic reign as county DA ended abruptly last week with his reputation in tatters and taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of thousands once lawsuits against the county get totaled.

Our next DA? My bet’s on ABE: Anyone But Eyster. By then Shameful Dave will have retired to Arizona, courtesy of taxpayer-paid pensions.

50 YEARS OF PROMISES

None of us can remember a Presidential campaign that didn’t include guarantees “to end fraud, waste and abuse” in federal spending.

Just as often we heard candidates vow that once taking office “I will end America’s dependence on foreign oil!”

But when a President finally comes along and begins doing both, the left breaks into hives. “B-b-but they’re going to close th-th-the Department of Education! How will the li’l darlins learn what a disgusting, intolerant, racist, hate-filled country they live in?” ANSWER: PTA meetings?

The blob of money-absorbing suet that is the Department of Education doesn’t include one teacher. It doesn’t educate a single student, nor operate a classroom. It’s a bloated barnacle that sucks up funding, first pays its many employees, then sends along (a portion) of the money Congress allocated (with a lot of strings attached) to the 50 states.

Recent student test scores are worst in its history. Guarantee: They’ve not yet hit bottom.

Let’s send the money directly to the states and allow local districts and counties to distribute school funding.

And open the pipelines already.

ANDERSON VALLEY VARIETY SHOW, 2025

The Anderson Valley Grange #669 presents the 32nd annual Variety Show March 14th & 15th, 2025! A community showcase of local singers, dancers, musicians, storytellers, poets, acrobats and family skits! A few LIVE animals too?

There will be locally baked goods for sale in the AV Grange fundraiser snack bar concession and some lucky winner will go home with a stash of cash from the 50/50 CASH raffle!

The AVHS Senior class will have a Mexican food concession in the parking lot before the show so bring some cash and an empty stomach!

Grange doors open both nights at 6:30, event starts at 7pm. Tickets are $15 adults, kids $5 and available soon at Lemons Market in Philo, Boontberry, and Anderson Valley Market in Boonville. A few tickets will be made available at the event door and we also take Venmo! @AVgrange.

Chay Peterson, Philo volunteer

BELATED BOOK REVIEW, WITH CULPA

Mr. Editor,

Sometimes I revisit a previously seen movie or read a previously read book and it doesn't hold up. That me isn't this me. So I just tried to reread George V. Higgins, who I had recently recommended. Awful stuff, my apologies to all.

Especially since Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing has influenced my own so deeply. Elmore says that, "he leaves out the material that people skip over". George V. fills endless paragraphs with minutiae that doesn't drive the story, is tedious and useless unless the reader really must know what color tie the guy was wearing or how ugly some guys talk.

What I love about Leonard's writing is there is no back story. No motive, no why she is the way she is, no waste. Just what is happening right now, free of distractions, pure story.

The Detroit Public Library had a fund-raiser with an expensive banquet followed by Elmore Leonard as the speaker. I wasn't hungry so I just went right to the empty auditorium front row center. Elmore in front of a packed house was very funny. Very dry, very subtle humor. I was laughing out loud. The audience wasn't getting him. After finishing he was surrounded by patrons on stage. I climbed up on stage. He saw me, broke loose from the crowd and walked across the stage to shake hands with me. One of the happiest of my memories.

Michael Nolan
Comptche

ED NOTES

THE GIANTS BASEBALL SEASON is almost upon us. Here’s how to experience the Giants ballpark. First off you never, ever pay for parking anywhere near the place, and you never ever give the phone monopoly even the imaginary satisfaction of calling the ballpark by their name.

What you do is: drive out to the beach and catch the N-Judah for a $2 ride downtown. The N drops you off at Willie Mays right at the ballpark's front door, or you can get off a block earlier at Orlando Cepeda if you're sitting on the left field side of the stadium.

Post-game on the N is sardine time until you get to the Embarcadero stop. You're only in the post-game transit mosh for a few minutes because most of the ballpark people get off to catch eastbound BART. The N will get you back at your car at the beach in 45 minutes, easy.

I either ride my bike to and from or I catch the N. And I always bring my own food. It's a sin to pay $9.50 for garlic fries and pay even more for a rubbery mystery meat hot dog or burger, and I never down so much as a single ten dollar beer because it's wise to have your wits fully about you in any sports mob these days, foreign or domestic.

At the end of the game, rather than doing a slo-mo meat sandwich shuffle all the way out of the park and into the street, you remain seated. First, and assuming the Giants won because Tony Bennett doesn't sing when they lose, you listen to Tony sing about how he left his heart on the cable car, and then you watch the thousands of seagulls circle overhead preparatory to their mass Hitchcockian swoop on the post-game negative food value remnants.

At the appearance of the gulls, you wait another 15 minutes to depart, by which time the place is pretty much empty except for those tweeker-looking guys running up and down the aisles collecting plastic Giants cups. That's when you make your way to the dank of the overflowed urinals from which you can then saunter on out of the park unencumbered by your fellow fans.

I often buy a ticket from a scalper guy on Third Street at the McDonald's parking lot with whom I've established a free enterprise relationship. San Francisco's a small city, so small you see the same people around and often run into people you know. I've known this scalper guy for years now. He'll sell me a ticket for the top of the stadium, my preferred spot, for 15 bucks when they're going for forty. He'd charge you at least fifty, but if you're not put off by appearances, these guys, presumed legal histories aside, are cool. (The Mitt Romney-looking characters are the ones who scare me.) If this particular scalper sold my newspaper when it was still in paper form, we'd have had twice the circulation.

My wife has become a big fan, but she doesn't like to go to the ballpark, especially at night. She watches on TV. Before her allegiance to the Giants, she was Niners only. She said baseball was too slow, too boring, like her husband of fifty years, not that she'd say so. But now, although still preferring football, she knows who's who at a glance, and always groans when certain players come up, which I tell her is very unfair because most of them are a good ballplayers, and a true fan never goes negative on the home team. She says she doesn't like the looks of their stance. My mother used to say she didn't like Nixon “because of his jowls.” But then I used to hyperventilate at the mere mention of Wes Chesbro. Millions of Americans make comparable political decisions based on appearances, which makes the appeal of that porcine voluptuary in the White House even more mystifying.

We were at the ballpark together for one Friday night game, a good one; the Giants won 4-3 in typically dramatic fashion. My wife sat through Tony Bennett leaving his heart in Frisco but she refused to wait for the seagulls, so we shuffled out with the crowd, borne along on a river of beery flesh.

The post-game crowd can get quite wild. It was wild that night, with the wildest-behaving people being young drunk women, one of whom was taking her clothes off at Third and Brannan as her “friends” chanted “Go! Go! Go!” The dudes, dressed like small boys festooned as billboards, were running into each other to get closer to the disrobing girl. The cops are clustered around the park, a fact known to the people predisposed to anarchy who know they're free to do whatever they want in the murk of the side streets.

One night, footing it up Third after a game, I saw a guy jump out of his car with a gun, which he brandished at some adversary visible only to him, but which put me to high-stepping outta there at a speed I didn't know I was capable of. I was surprised that most people just stood there looking for whatever would happen next, like a bullet in the kisser, I guess.

Night time Frisco is dependably surreal, please excuse the cliché, more surreal with the years, what with the size of the average citizen seeming to have tripled with millions more stuffed into creative costume changes. They all come out at night looking for whatever people have always looked for in the dark — sex, trouble and Friday night baseball.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, March 2, 2025

SHANNON ARNOLD, 45, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol failure to appear, probation violation.

CHRISTOPHER BECK, 28, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JAKE BUTLER, 27, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, under influence, escape after arrest, resisting, false ID.

JOSE BUCIO-MAGALLON, 22, Ukiah. Domestic battery, failure to appear, probation revocation.

SERGIO CERVANTES-RODRIGUEZ, 33, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance, paraphernalia, disobeying court order, false ID.

PHILLIP CHAVEZ, 50, Stockton/Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI.

DAVID CROW, 53, Covelo. Vandalism, shooting at inhabited building, grossly negligent firearm discharge, assault weapon, felon-addict with loaded firearm, ammo possession of ammo by prohibited person, armed with firearm in commission of felony.

SADIE GRAVLEE, 26, Elk. Grand theft.

ERIC OWEN, 53, Ukiah. DUI.

CYNTHIA PHILLIBER, , Fort Bragg. Petty theft with priors, probation violation.

HUMBERTO SANCHEZ-MARTINEZ, 29, Ukiah. No license, registration tampering.

SAMUEL SIERRA, 35, Ukiah. 35, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, county parole violation.

SEQUOYAH WRIGHT, 22, San Francisco/Ukiah. DUI.

MAN SWEPT TO DEATH BY WAVES AT NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACH

A high surf advisory warned of deadly waves before the man was swept away.

by Matt LaFever

A man died Sunday after being swept into the Pacific at Gerstle Cove on the Sonoma Coast, a popular spot known for its tide pools and rugged beauty.

According to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, the incident occurred at 10:41 a.m. when a wave struck two men standing on rocks, pulling one of them into the sea. Despite rescue efforts, the man was pronounced dead after being brought back to land. CPR was administered, but he was declared dead at 11:26 a.m.

A helicopter and rescue teams were dispatched to the scene, located within Salt Point State Park. This tragedy comes just days after the National Weather Service issued a High Surf Advisory for the region, warning of dangerous "sneaker waves" and rip currents, with waves reaching up to 20 feet. The advisory remains in effect until 9 p.m. Monday.

The warning also covers other areas along the coast, including Point Reyes and the San Francisco Peninsula, urging people to stay out of the water. On Saturday, a similar incident reportedly occurred in Humboldt County, where a sneaker wave near Humboldt Bay injured a man, though he managed to escape with a head injury.

SFGATE’s requests for further details, including the identities of those involved, have not yet been answered.

(SFGate.com)

ROBIN’S WEEKEND REVIEW

by David Yearsley

Spring threatens to return to Upstate New York. A barrel-chested robin sits in a bare Cornelian cherry dogwood. Mid-morning, he (the bird sports the more vibrant hue of the male of the species) is not in the mood to sing just now, even though the late-February sun is shining and the ice is melting. Strange happenings, the robin must be thinking, as it was sometimes colder and snowier Down South where he had been wintering before the seasonal migration brought him to my backyard.

The bird is thankful that Ithaca is “centrally isolated” according to the canard uttered ironically by self-styled cosmopolitans in this liberal blue bastion in a sea of Republican robin red. For these progressives, “provincial” is a putdown. Not for the Musical Patriot, and not for my mid-morning visitor as he turns his gaze west across the valley to the still-brown woods stretching west out into Trump country.

Home to Cornell University and Ithaca College spread across adjacent hills, the city is rich in human culture, and not just because of the presence of these institutions of “higher learning.” Local music, arts, literature and theatre flourish. Ithaca’s human population of just over 30,000 matches that of Leipzig in the 18th century, when J. S. Bach lived and worked there. Leipzig had no malls and multiplexes, no Home Depot and Lowe’s, not even the internet. Perhaps partly because of all that, the Saxon city has not been surpassed for musical wealth by American cities a hundred times bigger. The notion that cultural richness corresponds directly to population size is a myth.

My feathered guest — actually, I’m the guest and he the host — seems to have arrived too late to take in any of last weekend’s abundant musical fare. If he had been in town, the robin could have flown up to the Cornell campus spread out on bluffs that command a long view of Cayuga Lake stretching out of sight to the north.

In the colonnaded concert hall on Friday evening, pianist Jonathan Biss presented a program of two monumental Schubert sonatas on either side of the young American composer Tyson Gholston Davis’s three-movement … Expansions of Light. A brilliant player and engaging writer, Biss presents an ascetic, yet ardent figure when hunched at the big black box of Nature modified, his wings flapping.

From his perch atop the dome, the robin might have taken the exuberant contrapuntal lines of Davis’s central “Caprice,” especially that heard in Biss’s fleet and flighty right hand, as an evocation of the songs of our bird’s more virtuosic thrush cousins. Dropping round to the eaves so he could eavesdrop more closely, our avian critic, who writes under the nom de plumage of Turdus Migratorius (T.M.), might have shaken his beak at the way Biss covets, even over-curates, Schubert’s charmed melodies, rather than letting them sing as if from Nature that is, ultimately, their source. Such forthright ease would make the turbulent winds and dark portents of these last sonatas of Schubert’s short life all the more buffeting when they rip through. Real gusts have felled a university Gothic spire or two across Cornell’s 150 years, but a songful Schubertian melody rendered freely rather than forced into the big Romantic phrase has far more power to move.

On Saturday night, T.M. could have winged over to Ithaca College to hear the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra in a program entitled “Flight of Fancy.” This was music of the birds, not for them, though T. M. would have found a way to penetrate the stark, 1970s exterior of the music building and into Ford Hall. I’ve been to this place dozens of times and still haven’t figured out its relation to the rest of the structure, never mind the outside world. The excellent ensemble is now under the brilliant baton of the Belgian conductor, Guillaume Pirard, who has been living and working in Ithaca for a couple of years now. He has a centuries-spanning repertoire, but is also an expert in the performance practice of 18th-century music. The concert began with Haydn’s Symphony no. 83, nicknamed La Poule (The Hen), and in it Pirard, in his first year as the group’s director, cleansed the Cayuga strings of the vibrato that in Haydn’s day was a carefully deployed ornament rather than the cloying default setting that it has long since become. Pirard is poised and meticulous on the podium, the occasional sweeping step, the martial closing of the heels, the proud puff of the chest and noble lift of the chin reserved for moments of grandeur and resistance. Crisp gestures demanded and got precision from his players. But his detailed direction also drew wit as well as pathos, not just Sturm, but also Drang from his ensemble. Pirard doesn’t do the Funky Chicken, but the pecking of the first movement’s second theme in the oboe and the clucking of the strings conjured the requisite barnyard image and its rustic-refined humor.

For Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Lark Ascending, composed on either side of the Great War that cost millions of men and tens of thousands of carrier pigeons their lives, the quavering shimmer was back, but in its proper setting and significance on soloist Christina Bouey’s violin. At the piece’s close, the tuneful bird and its song recede into the silence of the concert hall, sonically and spiritually transformed into the English countryside — the haunted and haunting melody emblem of a world gone forever.

After intermission, Solace by Jocelyn Morlock from 2001 fled Olde English fields to take up another mode of elegy — darker, threatened. Now the solo violin surged up from a fatefully suspended backdrop, renouncing nostalgia for mournful dread.

The closer was Cantus Arcticus: Concerto for Birds and Orchestra by Einojuhani Rautavaara, the successor to Jean Sibelius as the leading Finnish composer, and like Sibelius a musician fascinated by living things in their environment. Birdsongs of the bog and of migration were voiced from speakers above the stage; these musicians sometimes sang in canons more beautiful the Bach’s. None of it was natural, nor did it purport to be. Recording technology slowed the shore lark’s song down so that it became a subterranean ghost two octaves lower than its higher self. These soloists were sometimes obedient, dutifully halting their marshy hootings on cue at the conclusion of the first movement. Later they reasserted their superior beauty and aesthetic primacy. Yet only their songs, sometimes in altered form, were present. Do they even exist still or will they for long?

On Sunday afternoon T. M. would have booked a return flight to Cornell to hear Canadian organist Isabelle Demers’s organ concert in Sage Chapel. The doors of the church are often flung open by students short-cutting their way through the building, so the bird would have easily entered, perhaps finding cover in the elaborate forest of branches and leaves painstakingly painted in the vaults of the wooden ceiling. Demers’s program was bookended by two rollicking sets of variations, the first on a 17th-century dance tune set by the Dutch Golden Age organist J. P. Sweelinck but dragged across much more harmonically and technically varied terrain by Demers’s late countrywoman, the composer Rachel Laurin. These were pleasantly bracing adventures that never phased or ruffled the recitalist. Her small frame houses a colossal virtuosa. Among the challenges unmanageable by others came her note-perfect rendition of the harrowing Variations on a Theme of Paganini for pedal solo by the English organist, George Thalben-Ball, whose life spanned most of the 20th century. The theme is taken from Paganini’s wickedly difficulty 24th caprice for solo violin. How to match, or even surpass, the feats demanded by the Italian string superstar of yore? Make these variations for the feet only, except with a few chords at the climax, as if to draw attention to the hand-free wonders that preceded the last-minute deployment of the fingers.

Thalben-Ball attained a stolid portliness during his later decades such that it is hard to imagine him clearing his own work’s continuous obstacles: chords, trills, glissandi, sprints and leaps. So easy appeared even this tour-de-force for Demers that T.M. wouldn’t have been surprise to see her reach into her backpack to drink from her canteen then slice some cheese onto rye crisps, have her snack while carrying on with the pedal heroics, then straightaway scale the concert’s final peak — Laurin’s transcription of Brahms’s Variations on a theme of Handel. This piano showpiece’s twenty-five kaleidoscopic, knuckle-busting demonstrations of diversity of mood and manner, equity between the hands, and ingenuity unlimited, concludes with a rollicking fugue, spurred on that afternoon by Demers jaw-dropping pedaling feet .

Turdus Migratorius is proud of his august name and also knows that fuga means flight in Latin. If he chooses not to take one out of town — a flight, I mean — this weekend, there’s plenty more Ithacan culture to catch.

(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest albums, “In the Cabinet of Wonders” and “Handel’s Organ Banquet” are now available from False Azure Records.)

DITCH PENNIES, NICKELS

Editor:

I’ve said for years we should get rid of the penny, not so much because it costs more to mint than its face value, but because, with inflation, it just isn’t worth anything (“Pondering consequences of ditching penny,” Feb. 23).

The nickel is a money loser, so let’s ditch it, too. Canada’s smallest-value coin is the dime. We could add a 50-cent piece. Yes, it’s been tried and failed. Without pennies and nickels, there would be room in the till for it. The article notes that other countries have more coins than we would with just two or three. So what? Besides, two of Canada’s five coins are the dollar “Loonie” (it has a loon on it) and the $2 “toonie.” Two of the Eurozone’s eight coins are for one and two euros. Still too many different coins.

We could round prices to the nearest 10 cents. And get rid of prices ending in 99 cents. This was started by James Cash Penney (that really was his middle name) to keep employees honest. Payments went by pneumatic tube to a cashier on the mezzanine; if an item was $2.99, and she gave the clerk $3, she would receive a penny in change.

Finally, we’re fast becoming a cashless society, so let’s taper off coin production now.

Barbara Vaughan

Santa Rosa

HEMINGWAY AND THE MAGIC OF THE EAST

"Turks sit in front of the little coffee houses in the narrow blind alley streets at all hours, puffing on their bubble bubble pipes and drinking deusici, the tremendously poisonous, stomach-rotting drink that has a greater kick than absinthe and is so strong that it is never consumed except with an hors d'oeuvre of some sort.

…That drunken laughing is the contrast to the muezzin's beautiful, minor, soaring, swaying call to prayer, and the black, slippery, smelly offal-strewn streets of Constantiniple in the early morning are the reality of the Magic of the East."

— Old Constan' , Ernest Hemingway

This is a rare Hemingway in the east. He has described the East, as it is, pure, colorful, painful and full of pictures. He was beautiful in each of the scene he described of Constantinople or modern Istanbul. And he recognized the east!

Can't help, thinking if he ever came to India will he write another masterpiece?

The Adventurer he was.

Ernest Hemingway and Lincoln Steffens at the 1922 Lausanne Conference, Lausanne, Switzerland.

QUOTES ABOUT READING AND BOOKS

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” —Dr. Seuss
“Reading brings us unknown friends.” — Honoré de Balzac
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island."— Walt Disney
“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”— George Bernard Shaw
“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” — Garrison Keillor
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” — Fran Lebowitz
“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.” — Mary Schmich
“We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind.” — Anna Quindlen
“My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” — Malcolm X
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King
“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” — Jeanette Winterson
“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“A book is a way for your imagination to be wild and free.” — Unknown
“Take a good book to bed with you – books do not snore.” — Thea Dorn
“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.” — Lisa Kleypas
“I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.” — Emma Thompson
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin
"There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away." — Emily Dickinson
“No. I can survive well enough on my own – if given the proper reading material.” — Sarah J. Maas
“When you lose yourself in a book the hours grow wings and fly.”— Chloe Thurlow
“The world belongs to those who read.” — Rick Holland
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” — Diane Duane
“To know a man’s library is, in some measure, to know a man’s mind.”— Geraldine Brooks
“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” — J.K. Rowling

MAN MANAGES 500 PUSH-UPS IN ONE HOUR - HE'S SHOCKED BY WHAT IT DOES TO HIS BODY

by John Ely

Doing 500 push-ups in a single day would be impressive enough.

But one man has shown the dramatic before and after result of completing this fitness feat in just one hour.

In a clip posted to YouTube, musician Jackson Hunter showed how after completing the 500 push-ups the muscles in his arms and chest had swollen to a far bigger size.

Gym fanatics call this a 'pump', and it occurs as a result of increased blood flow to the muscles from repeated strenuous use in a short period.

This makes them noticeably larger and, for some, more aesthetically appealing.

However, this swelling is only temporary and lasts just two to three hours, depending on factors like the intensity of the workout and how hydrated a person is.

While doing 500 push-ups is on the excessive side, experts say the exercise is a great indicator of general health, helping to measure an individual's strength and endurance.

Some studies even suggest that being able to do many push-ups in a row could protect you from heart attacks and strokes.

Experts have previously advised that every person should be able to do a set number of push-ups at any age.

Men in their mid-20s should set a goal of 28 push-ups at one time and women should work toward 20 to 'show a good fitness level'.

By the mid-30s, the number drops by one for women, while men should be able to perform 21 push-ups.

When approaching their mid-40s women should be able to do 14 push-ups, while the count stands at 16 for men.

For 55-year-olds, the count decreases to 10 push-ups for women and 12 for men.

Finally, both 65-year-old men and women should be able to do 10 push-ups at a time.

Experts clarify, however, that while such guides can serve as a general indicator, individual fitness can be influenced by multiple factors and people shouldn't get too caught up on reaching a specific number.

Instead, they said achieving a regular and manageable level of exercise is more important.

Studies also suggest being able to do push-ups, and more of them, slashes your risk of suffering from heart attacks and strokes.

One study found that middle-aged men who could do 40 in one go had a 96 percent reduced risk of suffering a cardiovascular disease event compared to other men who could only manage fewer than 10.

(DailyMail.uk)

HENRY JAMES:

Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had? … I haven’t done so enough before—and now I'm too old; too old at any rate for what I see. … What one loses one loses; make no mistake about that. … Still, we have the illusion of freedom; therefore don't be, like me, without the memory of that illusion. I was either, at the right time, too stupid or too intelligent to have it; I don’t quite know which. Of course at present I'm a case of reaction against the mistake. … Do what you like so long as you don't make my mistake. For it was a mistake. Live!

— Henry James, ‘The Ambassadors’

LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT

Best and Worst Moments From the 2025 Oscars

Rubio Attacks Zelensky, Firmly Defending Trump and Vance

Europe Races to Repair a Split Between the U.S. and Ukraine

With Cease-Fire Shaky, Israel and Hamas Weigh Diplomatic and Military Options

Federal Officials Underplaying Measles Vaccination, Experts Say

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I laughed out loud at the “reporter’s” question (he’s actually nutball MTG’s boyfriend) as to why Zelensky didn’t wear a suit to the Oval Office — because this seemed “disrespectful”.

Are you freaking kidding me? President Musk regularly shows up at Oval Office and cabinet meetings dressed like every incel tech bro loser from Silicon Valley. The White House blob has become a confederacy of dunces and traitors.

HONOR ZELENSKY

In June of 1941, Hitler's Army began a rampage through Ukraine, razing towns, unleashing death squads, and massacring Jews by the hundreds of thousands. In one village, four Jewish brothers enlisted in the military, said goodbye to their parents, and walked off to fight the Nazis.

By the war's end in 1945, only one of the brothers, named Semyon, was still alive. He returned to find that the Nazis had torched his entire village, burning his parents to death. Semyon's family was dead, and his beloved Ukraine was in ruins. The Nazis had murdered between 1.2 and 1.6 million Ukrainian Jews.

Semyon married a fellow Ukrainian Jew who had survived the war by fleeing her city, in which the Nazis had killed 5,000 Jews. Two years later, in that same city, they had a son, Oleksandr, keeping alive the family line that the Nazis had brought a razor's width from extinction. Thirty-one years after that, Oleksandr had his own little boy.

That boy was Volodymyr Zelensky, who grew up to become the President of independent, democratic Ukraine. Today, he leads his outmanned, outgunned, ferociously defiant nation against the onslaught of Russia. As Russia dashes itself against the will of his people, Zelensky, the survivor of survivors, summons the resilience of his ancestors. He does not bend.

— Laura Hillenbrand

SCREENSHOTS FROM THE AI-GENERATED VIDEO OF POSTWAR GAZA THAT DONALD TRUMP POSTED TO HIS SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS ON FEBRUARY 25, 2025

On February 25, 2025, the president of the United States of America posted a video to his socials, an AI-created vision of a postwar Gaza. To enter this Trumpian utopia you first have to pass through a large hole, like the opening of a cave, or the entrance to a mine. On one side of the portal there is war, devastation, mass murder, orphaned children, destroyed homes. On the other, a beachfront resort of palm trees, bread bowls filled with hummus, Vegas-style hotels, and many golden idols of the great man himself. Dollar bills rain down democratically on ragged children and Elon Musk alike. Meanwhile, Donald and Bibi sip cocktails on a couple of sun loungers, in a modified landscape perfectly adapted to their needs and interests. Through it all a single plays:

“Donald’s coming to set you free

Bringing the light for all to see

No more tunnels, no more fear

Trump Gaza is finally here.

Trump Gaza shining bright

Golden future, a brand new light

Feast and dance, the deal is done

Trump Gaza number one.”

It was only thirty-three seconds long, this “satirical” video, but it is one of the most comprehensive depictions of what I want to call the American Imaginary that I have ever seen. Within the American Imaginary, there is and always has been a subcategory of people in this world who are not only born to suffer but are habituated to it. They come from the “shithole countries,” as previously defined by the president, during his first term. This region has historically gone by different names. The “Third World.” “The Global South.” “Arabia.” (And it can be extended. It may soon include all of “Eastern Europe,” as President Zelensky is discovering.) In these places live the “wretched of the earth,” as defined by Frantz Fanon, the Martinican psychiatrist-philosopher who, though he died in 1961, is one of the political thinkers most closely identified with our historical moment.

Fanon diagnosed all of this, long ago. He understood that in the colonial imagination the wretched are a species apart, a special kind of desensitized people who do not mourn their dead as we do, and look upon their own poverty with the relative equanimity of those who can expect nothing better. Collectively, the wretched possess what Fanon called “crushing objecthood.” They are not sacred humans in and of themselves but rather elements of a stage set upon which the drama of Western power is played. We can’t know exactly what prompt the makers of Trump Gaza Number One fed into the machine, but they might have gotten much the same result if they had used Fanon’s analysis of the French attitude to Algeria.

TED DACE:

Clinton's labor secretary Robert Reich says Trump's refusal to continue backing Ukraine against Russia is causing Americans to feel ashamed of our country. This is like saying we should have been ashamed over JFK's agreement to remove nuclear armed missiles from Turkey in 1962 so as to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. Under Bush II and Trump the US destroyed the nuclear arms-control framework that kept us safe during the Cold War. Meanwhile NATO began gobbling up countries to the east of Germany, despite US promises never to do so, and committed to expanding right up to Russia's long border with Ukraine. To up the ante, the Ukraine regime that took power in 2014 following a US-funded coup (to the tune of $5 billion) began shelling the Donbas, which Russia now largely controls, killing thousands of Russian-speaking citizens. These provocative acts predictably triggered a Russian invasion, providing apparent justification for freezing its assets in Western banks ($300 billion), isolating it from international trade and bleeding it dry in a proxy war in which Ukrainian troops, not American, would die. Putin had shown enormous restraint for eight years before finally confronting the West's despicable and cowardly plan. And guess what? The plan failed. Russia proved far more resilient than anticipated. Putin's popularity only increased when he stood up to the Great Bully. Within a year of his military response to NATO's and Kiev's provocations, it was clear that there was no possibility of "winning the war against Russia" AND avoiding WWIII. Yet the West continued backing Zelensky – who's so unpopular that he's banned opposition parties from elections – because the liars have come to believe their own lie, namely that Putin must not be appeased or next thing you know he'll invade Poland. In reality, the root of this war was to finally stop appeasing NATO in its eastward march. In the grip of collective narcissistic pathology, the West is manipulative and entitled and arrogant, unable to empathize or take the other side's point of view. We can't just stop and say, hey wait a minute, we almost blew up the planet because of a few nuclear missiles in Cuba, so maybe he feels threatened by NATO seizure of Ukraine. Instead of admitting our terrible error, we double down on a war whose terminal point is civilization-ending nuclear exchange. As crazy as Trump is, he's taken the first step of breaking the stranglehold of anti-Russian collective insanity over millions of otherwise rational Westerners. What happens when the war is finally resolved and Putin, obviously, makes no attempt to invade NATO countries? Well, the Wicked Witch of the West melts in a puddle of water. We awaken from the spell and rejoice. That's what the military-industrial-intelligence complex, a.k.a. the "deep state," dreads more than anything.

To turn Reich's question on its head, was I ashamed to be an American as I witnessed the diabolical plan against Russia unfold? No. I've never been ashamed to be American and never will be, any more than I'm ashamed to be human despite the fact that we are a fallen race – and, yes, I mean that in the biblical sense – as evidenced by our propensity to self-delusion and committing all sorts of evil against each other and nature. Instead of shame, our awakening should trigger the resolve to overcome ignorance and delusion, the roots of suffering in this world.

ZELENSKY’S HOSTILITY TO PEACE TRIGGERS WHITE HOUSE MELTDOWN

Long rewarded by Washington and NATO for undermining diplomacy with Russia, Zelensky grew confrontational -- and told outright falsehoods -- when Donald Trump and JD Vance told him to make peace.

by Aaron Maté

A contentious White House meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has thrown US-Ukrainian relations into disarray. The meeting resulted in Zelensky’s ejection from the White House, the cancellation of a planned minerals agreement, and, according to one report, a review of continued US military assistance to Ukraine.

For panicked cheerleaders of the proxy war against Russia, the consensus view is that Trump has betrayed a stalwart US ally, sided with an enemy in Moscow, and may have even deliberately triggered the clash to serve his treacherous agenda.

Those who insist that Zelensky was ambushed are overlooking the cordial, lengthy exchange that occurred before the meeting turned testy. In a room full of aides and news cameras, Trump, Vance, and Zelensky held court for more than 40 minutes. It was Zelensky who became confrontational each time the two US leaders spoke favorably about negotiations with Russia.

In his opening remarks, Trump criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for refusing to “speak to Russia whatsoever” and expressed his hope to bring the war “to a close.” Zelensky responded by calling Vladimir Putin a “a killer and terrorist” and vowing that there would be “of course no compromises with the killer about our territories.” In a paranoid threat, he also declared that unless Trump helps him “stop Putin,” then the Russian leader will invade the Baltic states “to bring them back to his empire”, which would draw the US into the war, despite the “big nice ocean” shielding the US from Europe: “Your soldiers will fight.”

Trump did not interrupt or object to these initial, belligerent comments. The closest he came to a direct criticism occurred when a reporter asked about Zelensky’s avowed refusal to compromise. Trump replied that “certainly he’s going to have to make some compromises, but hopefully they won’t be as big as some people think you’re going to have to make.” Trump even promised that “we’re going to be continuing” US military support to Ukraine.

Yet because Trump also stressed that his goal is to end the war through diplomacy, Zelensky grew agitated. The tipping point came when, after 40 minutes, a reporter asked whether Trump has chosen to “align yourself too much with Putin.” Vance responded that, in his view, “the path to peace and the path to prosperity” entails “engaging in diplomacy.” It was here that Zelensky lost his composure and directly challenged Vance: “What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about? What do you mean?”.

This drew a sharp reaction. Vance reminded Zelensky that his military is brutally nabbing Ukrainian men off the street to send them to the front lines, and that the US seeks “the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.” Zelensky then doubled down by challenging Vance to visit Ukraine and reviving his attempted fearmongering. “You have a nice ocean and don’t feel it now,” he said, referring to the Atlantic, “but you will feel it in the future.” That veiled threat angered Trump, who proceeded to call out Zelensky for, among other things, “gambling with the lives of millions of people,” and “with World War III.”

In opting to confront Vance, Zelensky showed that he is so reflexively hostile to the notion of negotiating with Russia that he is willing to berate his chief sponsor, in public no less, for daring to suggest it. And to serve his agenda, Zelensky also showed that he is willing to engage in distortion and even outright falsification.

To make his case that Putin cannot be negotiated with, Zelensky invoked an agreement, brokered by France and Germany, that he signed with Putin in Paris on December 9, 2019. The pact called for a prisoner exchange, which, Zelensky asserted, Putin ignored. “He [Putin] didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn’t do it,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky was not being truthful. He himself attended a December 29, 2019 ceremony welcoming the return of Ukrainian prisoners freed under his agreement with Putin. Then in April 2020, his office hailed the release of a third round of prisoners.

That was not his only false statement. In insisting that Putin can’t be trusted, Zelensky omitted his own record in undermining diplomacy with Moscow.

The December 2019 Paris agreement recommitted Ukraine and Russia to the Minsk peace process, the UN Security Council-endorsed framework for ending the war that broke out in 2014 between the post-coup Ukrainian government and Russian-backed eastern Ukrainian rebels.

After initially taking some positive steps toward implementation, Zelensky ultimately refused to comply, a stance that he previewed in Putin’s company. During a joint news conference in Paris, Zelensky visibly smirked as Putin discussed the importance of following through with Minsk. The following March, Zelensky, under pressure from Ukraine’s ultra-nationalists and US-funded NGOs, abandoned a pledge to hold direct talks with representatives of the breakaway Donbas republics, which would be granted limited autonomy under Minsk.

By that point, the Kremlin had begun raising concerns that Zelensky was not following through. A Kremlin readout of a call between Putin and Zelensky the previous month noted that Putin had “stressed the importance of the full and unconditional fulfillment of all measures and decisions made in Minsk and adopted at the Normandy summits, including the one held in Paris on December 9, 2019… Vladimir Putin directly asked if Kyiv intends to really implement the Minsk agreements.”

Zelensky kept signaling that he had no such intention. In mid-July 2020, Zelensky’s party proposed a measure that would hold local elections throughout Ukraine – yet in a deliberate omission, the plan excluded Donbas, which was supposed to have new elections under Minsk. By that point, Zelensky was openly contemptuous of Donbas residents. “The people of the Donbas have been brainwashed,” Zelensky complained. “They live in the Russian information space… I can’t reach them.”

The entry of the Biden team to the Oval Office in January 2021 encouraged Zelensky’s confrontational path. In February 2021 – one year before Russia invaded – Zelensky shut down three television networks tied to his main political opposition, which advocated better ties with Russia. A Zelensky aide later disclosed that this crackdown was “conceived as a welcome gift to the Biden administration,” which offered its enthusiastic endorsement of Zelensky’s effort to “counter Russia’s malign influence.”

The following month, the Biden administration returned the favor by approving its first military package for Ukraine, valued at $125 million. That encouraged even more bellicosity from Zelensky’s government. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council approved a strategy to recover all of Crimea from Russian control, including by force. Ukrainian military leaders also announced that they were “ready” to retake Donbas by force, with the help of NATO allies.

By this point, Zelensky was openly disdainful of the diplomatic path that he had signed onto in Paris. “I have no intention of talking to terrorists, and it is just impossible for me in my position,” he declared in April 2021. Zelensky also demanded changes to Minsk. “I’m now participating in the process that was designed before my time,” he said. “The Minsk process should be more flexible in this situation. It should serve the purposes of today not of the past.”

Zelensky and his aides maintained this stance in the weeks before Russia’s February 2022 invasion. “The position of Ukraine, which has been expressed many times at different levels, is unchanged,” top Zelensky advisor Andrii Yermak said. “There have not been and will not be any direct negotiations with the separatists.” Added Ukrainian security chief Oleksiy Danilov: “The fulfillment of the Minsk agreement means the country’s destruction.” Perhaps to underscore the point, Zelensky’s government escalated attacks on rebel-controlled areas.

The Russian invasion forced Zelensky to abandon his hostility to negotiations, resulting in the Istanbul talks of March-April 2022. While Zelensky now claims that Russia cannot be negotiated with, his own representatives in Istanbul hold a much different view.

“We managed to find a very real compromise,” Oleksandr Chalyi, a senior member of the Ukrainian negotiating team, recalled in December 2023. “We were very close in the middle of April, in the end of April, to finalize our war with some peaceful settlement.” Putin, he added, “tried to do everything possible to conclude [an] agreement with Ukraine.”

According to former Zelensky advisor Oleksiy Arestovich, who also took part in the talks, “the Istanbul peace initiatives were very good.” While Ukraine “made concessions,” he said, “the amount of their [Russia’s] concessions was greater. This will never happen again.” The Ukraine war, Arestovich concluded, “could have ended with the Istanbul agreements, and several hundreds of thousands of people would still be alive.”

The US and UK sabotaged the Istanbul talks by refusing to provide Ukraine with security guarantees and encouraging Zelensky to keep fighting instead. Zelensky’s decision to obey their dictates helps explain why he is so desperate to obtain a security guarantee from Trump. Having walked away from a peace deal that would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, Zelensky needs a tangible Western security commitment to show for it.

In Zelensky’s defense, he has also faced, from the start of his presidency, the threat of violence from Ukrainian ultra-nationalists staunchly opposed to any peace deal with Russia and allied eastern Ukrainians. And rather than help him overcome this domestic obstacle to peace, Washington has enabled it. As the late scholar Stephen F. Cohen prophetically warned in October 2019, Zelensky would not be able to “go forward with full peace negotiations unless America has his back” against “a quasi-fascist movement” that was literally threatening his life.

For this reason, it was disrespectful of Vance to insist that Zelensky thank the US for its military support, when that assistance has in fact fueled Ukraine’s decimation. Yet Zelensky is also responsible for putting himself in this position. Because he dutifully served the US goal of using Ukraine to bleed Russia, Zelensky was rewarded with political and media adulation, along with tens of billions of dollars in NATO funding.

The unprecedented dispute at the White House shows that Zelensky’s disingenuous hostility to negotiations is no longer welcome in Washington. While this may prove fatal to Zelensky’s political career and US proxy warfare against Russia, it is a tangible step toward ending his country’s destruction.

(aaronmate.net)

INSIDE A UKRAINIAN POW CAMP FOR RUSSIAN TROOPS; WHY THEY SIGNED UP TO FIGHT IN A WAR THEY DON’T SUPPORT

by Caitlin Doombos

Western Ukraine — Thousands of Russian soldiers taken captive by Ukraine are receiving the best medical care and food they ever have in their lives — and none of those interviewed by The Post say they support the war.

The Post last week went inside the largest of Ukraine’s five camps for Russian POWs hundreds of miles from the front lines to speak with prisoners about their treatment at the facility, their views on the bloody conflict and how they ended up fighting in it.

Most of the more than 25 Russian soldiers who spoke to The Post said they only joined the war to provide for their families.

Their time as POWs in Ukraine is in stark contrast to that of the thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of Russia who are regularly beaten to the point of brain damage and broken bones and starved so they appear as gaunt as Holocaust victims upon release — that is, if they aren’t shot first, according to testimonies and photos of survivors.

The ‘lucky’ ones

The Ukrainian camp is calm: No sudden movements, no sadness or happiness, either. While a few of the captured Russian soldiers sat and played chess with one another, no obvious camaraderie was seen between them.

But despite their stoic faces, the prisoners here know they are the “lucky” ones, said Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs spokesman Petro Yatsenko.

For every one Russian troop captured, roughly a thousand more have been killed in the war.

Since the war’s start, Ukrainian soldiers has been killing Russians on a scale of roughly three to one, according to Ukraine. Kyiv is currently taking out about 1,000 Russian fighters each day, Yatsenko said.

The Russian prisoners at the camp know they are not only lucky to have survived the carnage, they also realize the care they are receiving is worlds better than what their Ukrainian counterparts get.

The Russians’ broken bones are examined with state-of-the-art X-ray machines, dental exams and treatments — often the first the Russians have ever had — are performed on them when needed, and new warm clothing, three pairs of shoes and fresh toiletries are doled out upon each Moscow prisoner’s intake.

Dental exams and treatments are performed on them when needed.

Their original clothing is collected and washed and stashed away for their eventual release. That’s the ultimate goal of the entire operation: to return the Russian troops to Moscow in exchange for Ukrainian POWs.

Generally, the longer a prisoner has been in Ukraine’s custody, the fatter they are, too.

Though each Russian POW spoke to The Post of wanting to return home, none said they hoped to return to the fight — and that’s exactly where Russia would send them if they are released before the war ends.

“I was [drafted.] They took us to the assembly point, and from there, we started transporting anyone who could fight,” a prisoner named Anatoly said. “I would not love to kill someone and take their lives. But that was the fate and circumstances.

“I don’t see the point in shedding blood both here and there,” he said. “There are so many ways to solve problems.”

While the Russian soldiers are in the fight because of physical or economic coercion, the Ukrainian fighters see their cause as noble and worth dying for to save their country.

Ukrainian amputees with whom The Post spoke with in Irpin during US special envoy Gen. Keith Kellogg’s visit last week carried this spirit.

Even missing arms and legs, about half of the 20 or so Ukrainian troops with whom The Post and the general spoke indicated they wanted to return to the front lines to continue battling for their country.

Russia also has wounded soldiers fighting in its ranks — but by force. Recently, intelligence videos have been circulating online that show Moscow troops marching forward on crutches as their fellow comrades push them forward at gunpoint.

Forced to fight

None of the Russian POWs interviewed for this story said they support the war.

The prisoners at the facility here said they arrived anywhere from a few days to more than two and a half years ago.

Russia doesn’t seem to want them back, either: The Kremlin will publicly announce that it wants a prisoner exchange, then decline to take the men when Kyiv calls, Yatsenko said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pointed out this situation in his explosive exchange with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the White House on Friday, noting that his country has tried to make prisoner exchange deals with Russia, who has rejected such offers time and again.

It’s another example of how little Moscow cares about humanity — even its own people.

Long before the Russian soldiers were prisoners of war, most were captives of circumstance — having no ability to make money in Russia or even get a driver’s license without joining the military or conscription orders. Others were Russian criminals that Moscow released from prison to fight in the war.

At first, the Russian POWs will say they began their military service to “protect the motherland.” But with the slightest follow-up question — “What does the motherland need protection from?” — that claim falls apart.

“They called us to the military registration and enlistment office. [The official there] offered good money and benefits for the family,” said Denis Makarov, a Russian POW who was being treated by the Ukrainians for a gunshot wound to leg.

“I decided to go for the sake of my family, so that the family had prosperity and my relatives had everything fine and benefits — and I kind of went to defend the homeland.”

The Post asked Makarov, “Defend it from what?”

He replied, “To be honest, I didn’t really think [Russia] was under attack.

“It’s just that I went more because of finances and my two children and a wife in Astrakhan had very little income. There was a catastrophic shortage of money,” Makarov said.

“And that is why we have so many soldiers in Russia. They are like me,” he added.

Most Russian troops who The Post interviewed said they joined the war to provide for their families.

Others, such as Dmitry Nikolaevich, said they took up arms simply because it was better than rotting in Russian prisons — and even at that, they weren’t given a choice. Moscow has forced more than 180,000 of its prisoners to invade Ukraine.

Nikolaevich was born in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, parts of which have been under Russian occupation since Moscow’s initial invasion in 2014. He spent eight years in Russian prisons — his crimes were not clear — before he was forced to fight for his jailers.

“I really want this war to end,” he said.

“We, the people of Donbas, including all the people of Ukraine, raised Ukraine from its knees after the collapse of the Soviet Union. We did it all — the economy was better than that of Russia and better than many countries,” he said.

“Who even came up with [the idea of this war] — European provocations or Russia?”

Caring for the enemy

Ukraine’s dignified care of the Russian POWs is a tough pill to swallow for many of the families of Kyiv’s soldiers held by Russia.

The kin struggle with the idea that Ukrainian tax dollars are being spent on the very people who tried to kill their own sons and daughters, Yatsenko said.

“Every day, our guys and girls are tortured, so it’s very hard to explain to their families. They say that all the [Russian POWs] should be killed immediately,” he said. “But we explain that we need them to provide the next prisoner swaps, so we are keeping them healthy just to preserve their lives for the next trade.

“We need them to take ours back from these very ugly conditions the Russians provide.

“We should treat them well because we are humanistic and we are not like Russians,” he added. “Maybe this war with Russia is because of this difference — Ukrainians are very keen, the Ukrainians have enough food, the Ukrainians like coziness. Most Russians do not have this.

“For us, we give this even to our enemies.“

“We should treat them well because we are humanistic and we are not like Russians,” Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs spokesman, Petro Yatsenko, said.Caitlin Doornbos/NY Post

When prisoner exchanges happen, most of the Ukrainians who come back arrive with health problems ranging from malnutrition to serious injury or amnesia from repeated beatings to the head.

But they at least survived a rising trend of Russians executing Ukrainian surrenderers at point-blank range instead of taking them prisoner in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

The Post reached out to multiple Ukrainian veterans who returned from Russian captivity. While some detailed horrors of their time there, none wanted to speak publicly for fear of Moscow cracking down even harder on the POWs still under their control.

One Ukrainian recently released after spend 33 months in Russian captivity said he had experienced intensified beatings and worsened treatment after returning POWs detailed their torture to the media while he was still in custody.

The idea was to make clear to the Ukrainian captives that their brothers in arms would pay if they spoke out, several said — a concept that apparently worked on some.

“There are some things I don’t talk about publicly: details of the conditions of detention, the regime of detention, stories about the use of physical force, etc.,” he said. “All this can harm those who remain there.”

(NY Post)

"Buckaroo Motel" by Clif Wright took second place in the Route 66 category of the 24th Annual Photo Awards (2025).

27 Comments

steve derwinski March 3, 2025

Aw Bruce–you’re gonna make me blush or maybe give me a big head–but thanks for the kudos
I can’t seem to put a price tag on my last 78 years so if anyone needs a quick read or a cheap thrill
You can e-mail me — stevederwinski@g-mail .com. I’ll send along a copy gratis……..

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Bob Abeles March 3, 2025

Spectacular succulent plant photo. Thank you, Falcon.

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- Falcon March 3, 2025
  
  Thank you, very much, Bob.
  
  You sparked a fire in my soul. Without a kind comment, like yours, I think I must be seeing things.
  
  Reply
Chuck Dunbar March 3, 2025

Thank you, Ms. Mazie, for your words today. You are a strong woman who makes her way in this hard world, caring for others, learning, growing, keeping on. You do your best, good for you.

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- Mazie Malone March 3, 2025
  
  Thank you, Chuck.
  
  mm 💕
  
  Reply
- Bob Abeles March 3, 2025
  
  I’m a big Mazie fan, too. Glad you’re back.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone March 3, 2025
    
    Thank you, Bob!!! 💕
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
Harvey Reading March 3, 2025

MORE PONDS?

It’s a problem caused by over-population of human monkeys, all your whining and bad-mouthing of environmentalists to the contrary notwithstanding. Grow up!

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Julie Beardsley March 3, 2025

The Ukrainian people have been resisting Russia for a very long time. During the 1930’s the Soviet Union caused a famine in the Ukraine that killed millions of people. This famine is known as the Holodomor. From Wikipedia: “While most scholars are in consensus that the main cause of the famine was largely man-made, it remains in dispute whether the Holodomor was intentional and whether it was directed at Ukrainians and whether it constitutes a genocide, the point of contention being the absence of attested documents explicitly ordering the starvation of any area in the Soviet Union. Some historians conclude that the famine was deliberately engineered by Joseph Stalin to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement. Others suggest that the famine was primarily the consequence of rapid Soviet industrialisation and collectivization of agriculture. A middle position is that the initial causes of the famine were an unintentional byproduct of the process of collectivization but once it set in, starvation was selectively weaponized and the famine was “instrumentalized” and amplified against Ukrainians as a means to punish Ukrainians for resisting Soviet policies and to suppress their nationalist sentiments.”

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- Chuck Dunbar March 3, 2025
  
  Thank you, Julie, for this piece of history, the specifics as to Ukraine I didn’t know before. We bluster our way around the world, often oblivious to the history of particular countries, thinking we know what is right for peoples we are ignorant of. Does anyone think Trump or Vance know these facts, and other important ones, about Ukraine and Russia?
  
  Reply
- George Hollister March 3, 2025
  
  There is no question that Stalin killed all the people who embraced owning their own land and making their living from it. The lucky, or smart Ukrainians escaped. Ukrainians hated Stalin so much, they embraced Hitler when he first invades Ukraine. Of course that didn’t last long when they discovered Hitler and Stalin were equally bad. Now it is Putin, a psychopath in his own right, imposing himself on Ukraine, Europe, and the rest of the world. In the end, Ukraine will win, as will Europe and the rest of the world. Russia will only suffer, but they seem to be OK with that.
  
  Reply
  - Harvey Reading March 3, 2025
    
    Then how come a lot of people in Ukraine voted overwhelmingly for the Russian-speaking region they live in to become part of Russia? We’ve got our share of psychopathy here, too, starting with our elected ruler, not to mention Musk and his majesty’s other nutty appointees. The idiot clown, born-rich brat makes Putin appear moderate. It seems you are still living in the days when we were all conditioned to dislike and fear Russia, while our government supported and egged on Western Europe’s march eastward with arms to Russia’s western borders. Hypocrisy runs deep…out of infected minds it does seep.
    
    Reply
    - George Hollister March 3, 2025
      
      Then how come lot of people in Ukraine voted overwhelmingly for the Russian-speaking region they live in to become part of Russia?
      
      That is a good question. Maybe because Putin set it up that way. Also the vote applied to Crimea, and not Ukraine as a whole. A lot of Ukrainians voted doesn’t mean all Ukrainians voted.
      
      Reply
  - Bruce McEwen March 3, 2025
    
    If you’ve seen Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party painting you may know that the stiff fellow in the frock coat and topper who looks so out of place, was Charles Ephrussi, heir to a profound fortune in wheat from Ukraine. He was depicted that way by the artist. A cruel trick on the art historian who tried to join the antisemitisc hoi polloi of contemporary France. You’ll find him mentioned in Remermrance of Things Past, by old what’s his name, the Dryfus Affair, and many other reputable works of the day, a hundred years ago.
    
    The Ephrussi family also had a sumptuous home in Austria which Hitler’s Brown Shirts (an earlier version of our Red Hats) swaggered into and trashed practically in front of the family, terrorizing the children.
    
    So if anyone wanted to destroy the wealthy Jewish family’s source of income it would have been their envious non-Jewish countrymen, more than the revolutionary Russians of that era, who were far less antisemitic than the western world was at that time. (Remember, it was the mid to late 1970s before Jews were permitted on golf courses in the great big beautiful America of those splendid days…ahh,, take us back to the good old days, Mr President!), and the descendants of those Covetous Ukrainians, would have been proud officers of the neo-Nazis in the Azimov Brigage.
    
    Another insightful look at what led to this war is the novel by John Le Carre, Our Game. Le Carre, an ex spy, understood that the only way you can tell the truth in the West is to call it fiction. And if you haven’t read it, George, I think you would like it.
    
    Reply
    - George Hollister March 3, 2025
      
      The Russian revolutionaries only cared about who owned property, and private wealth. There was no protection for landed Jews for them. Landed, and privately wealthy Jews caught it from both Stalin, and Hitler. There was not where to go for them. It was that reality that drove the creation of the Jewish state.
      
      Reply
      - Bruce McEwen March 4, 2025
        
        Appears the hand of the Hebrew God was guiding former President Biden to start these two wars . Mayhap He plans to restore His people to their former homes in Ukraine, Odessa, Vienna, Paris, etc…
        
        Reply
        
        George Hollister March 4, 2025
        
        Any credit bestowed on Biden is misplaced.
        
        Reply
        
        Bruce McEwen March 4, 2025
        
        Blame is what I meant to fix on that foul and false grifter but the readership may be tone deaf when it comes to irony. Incidentally, how did you like Caitlin Johnstone’s piece this morning?
        
        Reply
Harvey Reading March 3, 2025

WHEN I WAS A KID

I have disliked coaches even more than other conservatives since my high-school years. The absolute vulgarity with which they verbally assaulted teenaged players after a lost game was pitiful, and pathetic. And, some of them taught taught history and civics, presenting a horribly skewed, and authoritarian version of this country’s past and its legal system. This country would be a better place if “sports” and P.E. in general were dropped from the curriculum.

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Harvey Reading March 3, 2025

50 YEARS OF PROMISES

If the scheme you propose is adopted, we’ll have an even bigger mess. “Local Control” is a right-wing myth, just another way for the local bosses to suck up even more public funds. People who think trumples is their hero are terribly brainwashed.

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Harvey Reading March 3, 2025

DITCH PENNIES, NICKELS

There are still plenty of businesses where cash transactions are the norm. Don’t mess with with stupidity, like doing away with pennies and other coins, especially as long as unfair sales taxes ( in reality an unfair tax that taxes a higher proportion of income of those earning less) remain in place.

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Harvey Reading March 3, 2025

MAN MANAGES 500 PUSH-UPS IN ONE HOUR – HE’S SHOCKED BY WHAT IT DOES TO HIS BODY

Huh? Looks about the same to me. The two photos have slightly different posed, the one on the right favoring the biceps.

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Harvey Reading March 3, 2025

TED DACE:

Thank you. I get sick of people peddling the “Poor little Ukraine” line…

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Steve Heilig March 3, 2025

MAGA UKRAINE, A ONE-ACT TWO-MAN PLAY
(Historical analogy/translation of the Putinist apologists, c.1940):

“France and Poland and England and all of those nations provoked Hitler into invading them. We can’t help them, it will cost too much, and tho they’ve spent more per capita fighting back than we have, tough luck. Cut a deal, make them all pay us back for what we’ve already sent, and we can trust Adolf not to do any more bad stuff, OK?”

“Exactly. And this will help us make America great again too! Plus the meeting where we bully all those allies into submission will make for some great TV too. We’ll sell lots of ads as well… as soon as we have TV, anyway.”

“Good thinking. You’re hired. Now, get to work cutting everything you can down so we can cut our own tax rates – again. Don’t forget to announce its to chop the deficit and debt, tho! Now, what’s this ‘ ketamine’ stuff anyway? My bone spurs are hurting!”

(General mirth ensues, followed by more wealth for the wealthy, mass suffering, poverty, etc – and still rising debt and deficits).

THE END

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Mazie Malone March 3, 2025

Hiya,

in regards to Mr. Norvell‘s comment on the Brandon Thomas treatment centers that they have a 90% success rate I would like evidence of that. I am sure that 90% they claim are graduates from the program, but that is only the beginning and does not mean success. The problem is that statistics show that half of people with substance use disorder have a mental illness, which is co-occurring conditions. The problem with treatment centers is that most of them do not simultaneously treat both disorders and that is a major difficulty and setback when people have a mental illness. People are known to use substances as self medication for their mental illness, which, as we know will exacerbate the condition. It is hard to obtain dual diagnosis treatment, especially because most of the people here are poor and on Medi-Cal if a person with means needs treatment and agrees to it, they can receive proper dual diagnostic treatment.
Because of that we must have a more cohesive system of response and care.

mm 💕

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peter boudoures March 3, 2025

Ukraines draft practices are sad. End that war.

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Bruce McEwen March 3, 2025

Where’s the tsunami of defiant refutation to the ghastly peopaganda from aaronmate.net?

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Mendocino County Today: Monday 3/3/2025

27 Comments

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