Mendocino County Today: Saturday 3/15/2025

By AVA News Service on March 15, 2025

RAINFALL (past 24 hours): Willits 1.32" - Covelo 1.12" - Hopland 0.93" - Ukiah 0.84" - Yorkville 0.76" - Boonville 0.54"

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): The ocean sure is loud today from a mile away. A cloudy 43F with .78" rainfall collected this Saturday morning on the coast. Mostly cloudy today with maybe a shower, showers Sunday & Monday then dry on Tuesday. Not sure about after that just now?

SHOWERS have tapered off a bit this morning but that will change to heavier precip for the northern counties in the CWA. An atmospheric river will then bring an extended duration of strong to damaging southerly winds, mountain snow, and moderate to heavy rainfall with a risk for flooding. (NWS)

RESISTANCE UKIAH meeting weekly on Fridays at 5 pm at the Ukiah Courthouse. (Karen Rifken)

NOTE VENUE CHANGE this Sunday

Due To The Expected Sunday Weather, we are MOVING the Historical Society's Witherell Evaluation Event to the Anderson Valley Senior Center, 14400 Hwy 128, Boonville. Hope to see you there on Sunday March 16, evaluation hours 10a-2p.

FIRE, an on-line comment: Mendocino did a great job last year putting out fires and using prevention programs such as burns, road side clearances and chipping. Also, there were more arson arrests and successful prosecutions in the past few years which I suspect helped enormously. The neighborhood I now live in had at least 2 different people starting fires, and a third years back who was definitely prosecuted. It seems the other 2 may have been taken care of as well. Thank you thank you thank you for ALL of those measures taken, especially the arson investigations.

LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

NEW UKIAH PARK GAINS SUPPORT

by Justine Frederiksen

The city of Ukiah is moving forward with plans for a new park along the Russian River after the proposal was embraced by the Public Spaces Commission this week.

“There is a property at the end of Norgard Lane that the city owns that could be turned into a park,” Community Services Director Neil Davis told the commission at their latest meeting Tuesday evening, describing the parcel as technically outside the city limits currently, but “within an area that the city likely will annex.”

Most of the surrounding property that the city also owns will be used for activities connected to the nearby Waste Water Treatment Facility, Davis continued, “but there is quite a few acres there, about 2.5 of which that could be made into a park, and there is also room along the Russian River to the south for us to put in a trail that would go down to the east side of the river.”

Another possibility that Davis said had not been pointed out in the staff reports prepared for the March 11 meeting was that the trail going south along the river could connect to a larger park at the bottom, “so we could theoretically have a 2.5-acre park (at the top) with a trail connecting it to another 12-acre park (at the other end).”

Also in that general area will be the southernmost part, or Phase 4, of the Great Redwood Trail, and Davis said construction on that is “expected to start pretty soon, weather-dependent,” and its terminus at the end of Plant Road could eventually connect with the potential new trail near the entrance to the WWTF.

“Right now, we have a lot of bird enthusiasts who come through that area to do bird-watching,” said Davis, noting that it has become so popular with local birders that they call it “the Ukiah Wetlands.” He also acknowledged that the “team that manages the WWTF isn’t super crazy about people coming through the area to access (the wetlands), so we realized that there is a gravel road that comes around the side, and we think we can put in a little parking lot that would allow people” better access to the area, and might even expand the hours that they could look for birds.

When asked how residents in the area felt about the plan so far, Davis said that he had “primarily heard positive feedback, but we haven’t done outreach (to the extent) that would allow me to say” definitively whether or not the community is in favor of having a park there.

Also on city-owned property at the end of Norgard Lane, Davis said, is a barn “that could be developed as some sort of a facility that would support park-type activities,” including kayak storage, or as a place for people to practice the dances for Quinceañera celebrations, as “we’ve heard there is a shortage of spaces for people to do that, so there are a lot of things that could be done with that site.”

Heading toward the river from the barn, Davis said there is already a path to the water, and the spots there include a swimming hole, adding that “a lot of us floated down the river from Riverside Park last summer, and it was super pleasant.”

After his presentation, most people addressing the commission either online or in-person said they were enthusiastic about having another park, particularly one with river access, but that they did have concerns about how much parking would be created, and one nearby resident pointed out the current access road was quite narrow, and that having a lot of people visiting the area could create safety issues.

“The road is really narrow, so that is definitely a challenge,” Davis said, adding again that while it is currently a “county-maintained road, the city is hoping to annex that area. And again, this is all first steps, so this is exactly the kind of thing we need to hear about, especially from people who live in the area.”

As far as next steps, Davis said he is currently “preparing a grant application to the California Coastal Conservancy,” and if the city receives those funds they would pay for “someone to solicit community input, then draw up a plan based on that input,” and also help pay for the creation of a plan for refurbishing on the barn, and for initial environmental assessment of the park, such as soil testing.

“And we’ll set up a steering committee to kind of oversee planning of the park,” said Davis, noting that it would be great if two members of the Public Spaces Commission could be on the committee. After his presentation and public comments were received, the commission expressed support for the proposal, and two members of the commission agreed to join the steering committee.

COMMERCIAL BUILDING FOR RENT IN PHILO, CA

The Floodgate Building is for rent

Commercial Kitchen. Right on Highway 128

1600 square feet approx.

Building could be used as a restaurant, home, office, tasting room, gallery, ample parking, etc.

Rent negotiable.

$1800-$2400 per month

Please call (707) 895-3517 if interested or have questions.

Currently in the process of painting the exterior of building.

We will only respond to phone calls.

Thank you.

ED NOTES

THE FOLLOWING appeared in my Facebook feed this morning:

“My name is Galina [Trefil]. For so many years now, I have lived a double life; carried an impossible secret. This is not a joke. This is the cold reality, which has been strictly on a need-to-know basis. Now everyone needs to know. I am the daughter of a serial killer--a serial killer who knew the identities of two other uncaught serial sex killers, Michael Fries and Julia Strnad Houser. Dr. Jon Charles Trefil, my father, has admitted for almost a decade, giving a consistent story, to being a serial killer ON TAPE, graphically. FBPD, the Sheriff's Department, the Mendocino County DA's Office, they are all aware of his confessions. This is the secret that the authorities in Mendocino County are not sharing with the public.”

IF I WERE any more skeptical of Galina's claims I'd be cross-eyed and even more splavined than I am.

SHERIFF KENDALL told us today [Friday] that his department can't confirm any of it, but they're taking it seriously. No DNA hits on the alleged victims, some of the particulars don't add up, etc. I believe Galina's father, Jon Trefil, functioned for years as a therapist working out of Fort Bragg. If he's a serial killer he's probably a retired serial killer at age 86, and as of Saturday morning, he is a patient at Sherwood Oaks. He has been married to Kande Trefil for many years.

Jon Trefil today, daughter Galina in black, Kelli Arnold is the blonde

I met the Trefils' daughter Galina when she was just out of high school. She was a plump, pretty girl dressed all in black, Goth, I believe the style is called, and madly in love, she said, with a young man from Fort Bragg named Aaron Channel, convicted of murder in 2001, whom she later married while he was in prison.

THE MURDER in 2001 involved Channel, August Stuckey, and Tai Abreu, none of the three old enough to legally buy beer when they murdered Donald Perez, 41. Although Perez's murder was a group project it is not known which of the three cut his throat, if that's how he died. His corpse was too deteriorated when it was found to know with any certainty how exactly he died, whether from exposure or a slashed throat.

CHANNEL has been out of prison for some time. He regularly posts accounts of prison life. Abreu, as of early this year, was still confined to High Desert Prison in Susanville. We understand that Stuckey has also been released from prison, where he underwent a sex change, and has returned to live on the Mendocino Coast.

THIS is the first part of a five-part story I wrote on the case:

Two days after the September 11th 2001 that everyone will always remember, a lithe 39-year-old ex-Marine named Donald Perez took $200 out of his savings and headed north for Mendocino County. Perez was on the road in anticipation of another sexual romp with an 18-year-old Fort Bragg man-child named August Stuckey.

By 10am Friday, September 14th, Perez was dead, his slumped remains sagging from an alder in a brushy margin separating the Noyo River from the A&W logging road less than two miles from central Fort Bragg and less than one mile from the Fort Bragg Police Department. What was left of Perez was below the first bridge over the Noyo before the road gradually climbs east into the forested hills separating the Mendocino Coast from Willits and Highway 101 some 30 miles distant.

The dead man was 525 miles from his rented room in Santa Ana, one mile from the Fort Bragg Police Department, and 19 feet from the rutted pavement of the heavily traveled recreation and logging road.

Donald Perez would be pinioned to his last tree between the road and river for more than three weeks, and he might still be there if August Stuckey hadn't talked about it in front of another young Fort Bragg man named Michael Johnson.

It was an implausibly beautiful place to die that perfect early fall morning, at a junction of river and forest on a day made for life, and it was also an implausible place for all that happened there because even in bad weather that section of the road and its old bridge is humming with traffic, much of it on foot or by bicycle with kayakers, a frequent sight on the adjacent Noyo. There's almost always someone around day and night, the area also being a convenient nocturnal party site. It's not a place that rational criminals would choose to do all they did to Donald Perez.

But somehow, in a prolonged series of murderous events mostly occurring on the bridge itself, Perez had been carjacked, robbed, hit over the head with a rock, dragged down off the bridge, forced into the riverside brush, duct-taped to a tree, and probably stabbed in the throat.

And not a soul saw or heard any part of this prolonged death dance.

The pathology report from UC Davis indicates that the “larval infestation” discovered in the area of Perez's throat was most likely attracted to the “purge of fluids” that drain from the nose upon death. But, the report cautions, “Trauma to the neck is not supported. Degree of decomposition in these areas does not confirm the presence of such trauma. Arms overhead and binding of wrists offers the possibility of asphyxiation through respiratory fatigue. Entirely conceivable that the death may not have involved any form of trauma whatsoever but was caused by abandonment. Conclusion, cause of death unknown.”

If Perez had simply been duct-taped to the tree, he was near enough to the road that his grunts and moans would soon have been heard by one of the innumerable persons who pass by at all hours. But, it seems likely, Perez didn't have time to either be discovered alive or suffocate because one of his three abductors likely drove a K-bar knife into his throat soon after he was taped to the tree.

Three young Fort Bragg men, August Stuckey, 18, Aaron Channel, 20, and Tai Abreu, 19, were arrested three weeks later when August Stuckey led police to Perez's remains after telling the police that he, Channel and Abreu caused Perez to be where he was — duct-taped to a river alder and dead.

None of the three alleged murderers had criminal records, none were known to be violent. The one common denominator they did have was their general estrangement from the society they'd inherited. Their school days had been difficult, and they were now adrift as young adults. All three had been bullied and harassed by schoolmates, all three did poorly in formal school settings, but all three tested at the gifted and talented level of natural intelligence. Stuckey had always been a special ed case, Tai Abreu, at the urging of Fort Bragg school officials, had been declared unmanageable by the schools and packed off to a children's institution by age 12, and Aaron Channel had dropped out on his own after bouncing from Fort Bragg's educational banquet to Mendocino's, at one point leaving school as a 16-year-old to make his way to Oklahoma to meet a girl he'd met on-line.

When the three young men were arrested, Stuckey told multiple stories about what had happened. Abreu told two versions of Perez's last hour. Channel said nothing at all. Both Stuckey's and Abreu's stories exempted themselves from the murder part of Perez's abduction and robbery.

Although only one of these improbable thugs cut Perez's throat, it is fair to say that none of the three were overly concerned with their victim's welfare before, during or after his death.

The murder began on August 28th of 2001 when August Stuckey, stranded in Sacramento, e-mailed Perez asking Perez for money to get back to Fort Bragg. Stuckey would later say he'd fled to Sacramento because another uneven young Fort Bragg man named Shane Merritt was threatening to kill him because Merritt believed Stuckey had stolen sound equipment from him.

It seems that Perez wired Stuckey the bus fare back to Fort Bragg because the next day Perez was in Fort Bragg where he and Stuckey spent a presumably priapic three days at the Seabird Motel. A few days before their Seabird interlude, Stuckey and Perez had exchanged steamy e-mails featuring photos of Perez with his penis at present arms. Stuckey e-mailed Perez his phone number and directions to Fort Bragg.

Stuckey would later claim that he and Perez had often met at the College of the Redwoods where Stuckey, a talented artist, drew chaste portraits of Perez for small amounts of money. However, the only renderings of Perez found among Stuckey's belongings were internet photos of Perez in the nude that Perez had taken of himself. Because Perez required directions to Fort Bragg to meet Stuckey means Perez was probably unfamiliar with the Mendocino Coast prior to the fateful August of 2001.

Perez was murdered because he made the fatal mistake of returning to Fort Bragg for what he anticipated as another round of sex with Stuckey, but Stuckey had already decided to rob Perez and then kill him. Abreu and Channel apparently became involved in Stuckey's insane scheme out of a wildly misplaced but affectionate loyalty to Stuckey. Abreu would tell investigators that Channel feared Stuckey would “fuck it up” on his own.

As it turned out, it took all three of them to “fuck it up.”

The three conspirators devised a hazy plan for Stuckey to persuade Perez to drive out the A&W road on the pretext that the A&W road was a shortcut from the coast to inland Willits and Highway 101. Once Perez was three or four miles out in the woods, Channel and Abreu would jump out of the bushes and help Stuckey rob Perez. Perez had told his roommate and his landlady back in Santa Ana that he was headed for Washington State, hence his desire to get back on 101 to proceed north. Always a secretive man, Perez didn't say why he was going to Washington, if indeed he was going there.

Once Perez and Stuckey were out in the woods east of town, the three amigos plotted, Stuckey would feign car sickness to get Perez to stop his truck, but Stuckey and Perez were late arriving, not getting to the A&W road until around 9am. Victim and escort had been expected earlier. Channel and Abreu had tired of waiting and were walking back towards Fort Bragg when Perez and Stuckey drove up.

Perez was dead twenty minutes later.

Abreu now says his modified story about what happened is untrue, but it does tend to corroborate Stuckey's fluid versions of Perez's death. It also buttresses the account of Michael Johnson, the Fort Bragg youth who eventually went to the police to say he'd heard his three friends talking about the murder while the four of them were smoking pot in Johnson's backyard.

Johnson told police that August Stuckey had told Johnson, “We killed a guy,” and that “the guy deserved to die.” Johnson said he asked Aaron Channel why he did it. Channel, Johnson said, replied that he was just helping a friend who was going to do it anyway and would probably mess it up. Johnson recalled that Channel thought murder had occurred “around September 18th.” He said his three friends told him that they poured alcohol on the floor of the truck to make the cops think Perez had gotten drunk and had wandered out in the woods and gotten lost.

Johnson claimed that August Stuckey had asked him about how he might cook up some homemade napalm and go back out to Perez's body to completely destroy it. Johnson told police he remembered Tai Abreu borrowing a shovel from Johnson's house on Livingston Street that Johnson shared with his mother, to “bury something,” speculating that the “something” was cameras stolen from Perez. And, Johnson told the police, when he asked his three pot pals how they knew “the guy” was dead, Channel reportedly said, “He gurgled, that's how we knew he was dead.”

The same day Johnson came to the police with the news that his three friends had murdered someone, Stuckey, before leading police to Perez's corpse, was telling investigators that Channel and Abreu had forced him into a scheme to rob Perez or they'd harm Stuckey's sister. Stuckey said he'd only been involved out of fear for his sister's welfare, and he certainly wasn't down in the bushes when Perez died.

Investigators immediately went to Stuckey's sister, Candace, then a student at Mendocino High School, to see if Candace might confirm the most important element of her brother's story — his involvement.

Candace said she'd “rather be taking her chemistry test,” but, yes, her brother August had told her how a couple of friends of his had taken a man out into the woods, robbed him and cut his throat. Candace tearfully said her brother often lied to her but she was sure he was telling the truth this time. Candace told the police that the two friends of her brother's who had done the killing were Tai Abreu and Aaron Channel. Candace said Abreu and Channel had threatened to rape and kill her if August didn't help them rob Perez. Candace said her brother had been tortured by Channel and Abreu into going along with the scheme.

Both Abreu's and Stuckey's accounts always exempted themselves from responsibility for the murder. They both said they were up on the road when Perez got it in the throat with the K-bar knife. They both admitted that they were part of the plan to rob Perez and that Aaron Channel was the third person involved.

(Tai Abreu, at the age of 37, when he returned to Mendocino County for a resentencing hearing in 2019.)

Abreu would later claim that his confession to detective Kevin Bailey was not only untrue but falsely obtained because his request for an attorney had been ignored. Channel would subsequently admit that he was involved well after Perez was dead, and Stuckey would say he was involved but hadn't used the K-bar military knife he wore on his belt to stab anyone.

In the three weeks that Perez's corpse was wrapped to the tree by the Noyo, nobody saw his remains, nobody smelled his remains, no dog barked at his remains, when all anybody had to do was look off the side of the road and there he was, sagging to earth between the road and the river.

The police, finally directed to what was left of Perez by Stuckey, seemed as surprised at the body's proximity to the busy road as they were at the improbability of the site as a murder scene.

“We responded out the A&W Logging Road approximately one mile where we met deputies and search and rescue personnel. Lt. Miller directed us to a location just west of the first bridge on the logging road. We looked off the road and observed a male adult hanging by his hands, which were tied around a tree.”

Perez's wallet, containing his driver's license, his credit cards, and his ATM card, was found undisturbed in his trousers.

“Considering it happened during daylight hours,” detective Bailey would say, “to say that they were lucky to get away with all that right there is an understatement. Not only is it a pretty popular place — we have County employees who walk that road on a daily basis — for his remains to be maybe 20 feet off the roadway and not be discovered is amazing. There's nothing in the vehicle to indicate that he was killed in the vehicle. If they'd killed him some other place then transported him in the vehicle there would have been some trace evidence in the vehicle. They were very lucky.”

(Note: The day I visited the site, a man walking his dog paused to smoke a cigarette as he stared absently down at the murder tree.)

Although gay groups would immediately demand that the three be charged with a hate crime because Perez was gay, the sexual motive didn't seem to have been a strongly motivating factor; Stuckey was gay and Abreu claimed to be actively bi-sexual. Channel was heterosexual and not known to be intolerant of gays or anybody else. The sexually ecumenical hijackers, it seems, just wanted Perez's property, which consisted of two hundred dollars in cash, a hand held 8 millimeter camera, a 35 millimeter camcorder, camera lenses, four canisters of film, a battery charger for the camcorder, and music cd's including Nirvana and Suicidal Tendencies, all of it buried in Abreu's green duffel bag.

Stuckey's multiple accounts, scattered as they were, confirmed that the police had the three persons responsible for Perez's death. Abreu's and Stuckey's accounts confirmed the information brought to the police by Michael Johnson, a drug buddy of the three young hijackers and an occasional sex partner of Stuckey's. But it was Abreu's confession to detective Kevin Bailey of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department that would send all three to state prison, Abreu for life without the possibility of parole.

A wiry, restless young man who always seems in motion, Abreu sat in the stark interview room of the county jail complex in Ukiah the afternoon of October 9th waiting for detective Bailey. As he waited, the tightly wrapped young man sang fragments of a love song, rhythmically accompanying himself by slapping his hands on the interview desk. Abreu would always insist that he'd been up on the road as lookout man when Stuckey and Channel killed Perez down in the bushes. They did the murder part of the crime, not him.

If Tai Abreu had known he was about to put himself in prison for the rest of his life, if he'd known that the law says he was as guilty as whomever it was stabbed Perez in the throat, if he'd known that detective Bailey was not his friend, not some kind of surrogate daddy, but only a cop doing his job, if only he'd had the lawyer present he'd asked for, Tai might have saved himself. But he was young and dumb, and nobody was on his side, least of all the lawyer he finally got after it was too late.

It took Tai an hour to put himself in prison for the rest of his life.

(August Stuckey’s sketch of himself and his victim with a vague opinion of the AVA’s coverage, sent to the AVA from Stuckey’s prison cell in 2003.)

(The full five part series is at: https://theava.com/archives/tag/abreu)

FRANK HARTZELL:

This info has been posted in over 40 places as of this morning. I think it needs resolution whatever that means. People are freaked out. Sherwood Oaks was put on lockdown over these posts being made. This should have gone through a private detective or journalist first. But it didnt and now we have to resolve it. This is perhaps the most horrible thing I have ever read about Fort Bragg if true, if not true, it’s almost equally horrifying. Bad news all the way but the facts need to be brought forth. Nobody should go and try to see this guy, or go looking for bodies or badgering cops about it There needs to be a lead person investigating it, Matt LaFever maybe or me or somebody local, having seen it both ways so many times . I solved a few of these back in the day. But there was something to solid to start with. There is no evidence so far and this needs follow up. Hence I post it, not because I believe it or don't believe it. Its all over the internet here tonight. If you have info on this please contact me. I have contacted Galina. In looking into it, I have found out some interesting stuff, but nothing to indicate a murder.

TESLA VANDALISM IN EUREKA

by Sage Alexander

The Eureka Police Department received recent reports of vandalism targeting Teslas — including one Cybertruck with a slashed tire that was reported March 8. EPD spokesperson Laura Montagna said in an email the department is investigating the incident.

It’s unclear if it is related, but a video of a person breathing heavily before appearing to slash the tire of a Cybertruck was posted on the Humboldt subreddit, a social media platform, on Sunday.

There are a couple of other reports of vandalism against Teslas in Eureka in recent months, including one of “dirt thrown on his Cybertruck” on Feb. 19 (which was recorded and shared on Facebook).

Protests targeting Elon Musk have swept the nation, including outside of the Humboldt County courthouse in Eureka. There, protestors decried Musk’s role with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has pushed to slash the federal workforce and funding.

A sign calls for the deportation of Elon Musk at a February protest at the courthouse. (Sage Alexander/Times-Standard)

While some have protested by holding signs blasting the richest man in the world at rallies, others have spay-painted individual cars, set fire to vehicles at Tesla dealerships, or lit charging stations afire in various areas across the U.S.

Notes were left in Arcata last month instructing Tesla owners to rid themselves of their vehicles or face vandalism by mid-February, with a group claiming responsibility calling Musk “an overt Nazi with a history of fascist, racist, misogynist and criminal behavior” in a letter sent to the Lost Coast Outpost. But so far, the Arcata Police Department hasn’t received any reports of vandalized Teslas, according to APD Sgt. Heidi Groszmann.

President Donald Trump recently doubled down on his support of the company and Musk on Tuesday when he staged an impromptu Tesla showroom outside the White House and announced he would buy a red Model S as Tesla stocks plummeted, accompanied by the Tesla co-founder. Trump told reporters during the press conference that he would label any violence against Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Rueters, “ongoing and heinous acts of violence against Tesla by radical leftist activists are nothing short of domestic terror.”

Other vandalism against Teslas reported to EPD include a keying of a Cybertruck from September 2024, with a suspect ID’ed and report forwarded to the DA’s office, plus an incident where a Tesla’s tires were slashed on Feb. 2 — though two non-Tesla car tires also were slashed at the same time, according to EPD.

(Eureka Times-Standard via Ukiah Daily Journal)

UKIAH BRANCH LIBRARY EVENTS

Wines & Spines Book Club

Monthly Book Discussions (Offsite, In-Person)

Adults 21 and over are invited to join our monthly book club Wines & Spines. We meet at The Beehive restaurant in downtown Ukiah on the last Thursday evening of each month from 5:30 - 7 p.m. except for March when we will meet on the third Thursday, March 20, 2025.

Studies show reading for pleasure reduces anxiety and increases our capacity for compassion. Join us for the long-awaited return of this popular book club for monthly discussions on thought-provoking books through a social justice lens.

We will read novels and memoirs including Big Swiss by Jen Beagin, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, and Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. A full list is available at the Ukiah Branch Library.

For more information, please email Melissa Carr at carrm@mendocinocounty.gov or call 234-2862 to sign up.

Respect Blooms

Storytelling & Art with Yidan Wang

The Ukiah Branch Library is pleased to partner with long-time educator Yidan Wang for a series of three storytelling and art events focused on the theme of “Respect Blooms, Kindness Flourishes”. These events will take place in the children’s room and will include a storytime hosted by Yidan Wang followed by time to participate in a related craft or art activity.

This event is sponsored by IGDVS, the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library, and Mendocino County Library and is free to the public and open to all ages, though the storytime portion of each event will be geared towards ages two to six.

Event dates are as follows:

Saturday March 22 at 11 a.m.

Saturday April 12 at 11 a.m.

Saturday May 24 at 11 a.m.

For more information, please visit the library website at www.mendolibrary.org or contact the library at 707-463-4490.

Unreal! Looking for the Truth on the Internet

Information Literacy Skills for Teens

How do you tell what’s real and what’s not on the internet? Where do you go for legitimate news and information? Is that salacious gossip you saw legit or just a rumor? Join us on March 29 from 4 to 5 p.m. to make sure you can tell fact from fiction online. We’ll provide snacks and have a conversation about strategies and tactics so you always know what’s up.

This program is made possible through the generous support of the Friends of the Ukiah Valley Library and Mendocino County Library. For more information, please visit www.mendolibrary.org or contact the Ukiah Branch at 707-463-4490.

Getting a Grip:

Tools for Distressing Times

Join us for a new monthly workshop and get a grip on the overwhelm of daily life. Starting on Friday, February 28 and following on the last Fridays of each month from 3 to 4 p.m., local author, licensed therapist, and educator Jo-ann Rosen will share tools for these distressing times.

Jo-ann Rosen is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked for more than 30 years with individuals, families, and groups, and in workplace settings with a special focus on individual, group, and institutional trauma. Jo-ann is a certified teacher of the Community Resiliency Model and guiding teacher of the EMBRACE network. Having received the Lamp of Wisdom and the encouragement to teach the Dharma from her teacher the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh in 2012, she cofounded the international EMBRACE sangha, which employs a neuro-informed approach to Buddhist psychology.

This free event is open to all ages and is sponsored by the Friends of the Ukiah Valley Library and Mendocino County Library. Please contact the Ukiah Branch Library at 707-463-4490 or carrm@mendocinocounty.gov for more information.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, March 14, 2025

STEFFEN CANTUA, 29, Willits. DUI, evasion, resisting.

JOEL COWAN, 36, Willits. Disorderly conduct-peeking into inhabited buildings, concealed dirk-dagger, paraphernalia, county parole violation.

DAVID DUMARS, 75, Fort Bragg. DUI.

WILLIAM GOFORTH, 57, Willits. Under influence, controlled substance, paraphernalia, disorderly conduct-loitering, concealed dirk-dagger.

SHANNON HENSON, 28, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

KAMARA PAGE, 36, Ukiah. Petty theft with priors, conspiracy.

DONALD SHARP, 38, Ukiah. Probation violation.

VICTORIA VASQUEZ, 28, Ukiah. Petty theft with priors, conspiracy, resisting, failure to appear, probation revocation.

MALISSA WARNER, 48, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

BENJAMIN WOOD, 26, Ukiah. DUI.

WASTING PUBLIC FUNDS

Editor:

As a scientist, I am troubled that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to use our funds to have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigate a possible connection between vaccines and autism. This is despite many scientific research projects that have found absolutely no connection. I think that DOGE and Elon Musk should be notified of this waste of our taxpayers’ money. There are so many better uses in the medical arena.

Julian Blair

Santa Rosa

Soggy Jasper Alley, North Beach, S.F. (Steve Heilig)

LATEST STORM IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EXPOSES NEED FOR CLIMATE SUPERFUND BILL

by Dan Bacher

Remember the apocalyptic firestorm in Los Angeles County this January that damaged or destroyed over 7,800 structures in the Palisades Fire and 10,500 structures in the Eaton Fire while claiming the lives of at least 29 Californians?

A storm is currently hitting Southern California, presenting the risk of flooding, debris flows and mudslides. Northern California is also under a winter storm warning this week.

“Some storms over southwest California are strengthening and could become severe through 5 pm today with strong winds, heavy rain, hail, and even a tornado,” the National Weather Service Los Angeles reported on X. “Bottom line, Stay Aware. If the weather looks ominous, or you hear thunder, be safe and Go Indoors.” …

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/13/2309969/-Latest-Storm-in-Southern-California-Exposes-Need-for-Climate-Superfund-Bill

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio show all night Friday night on KNYO and KAKX!

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 6pm or so. And if that's too soon, send it any time after that and I'll read it next Friday.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.

Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of Friday night's show. You'll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with, such as:

“My papa was a trout, no doubt. My mama was a classy bass.” https://myonebeautifulthing.com/2025/03/12/the-beantones/

One tit, two tit, great tit, blue tit. Green finch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6YKU0JVtDs

And a musical survey of curlers. I like it when they saucily flick the resulting side-springs. (via Everlasting Blort) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmX0kMHY2pE

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT FACEBOOK

by Paul Modic

Sometimes I notice some “friends” in the scroll and think, “I hope she doesn't unfriend me in some house-cleaning frenzy.” I just skim over her posts, mostly about her daughter, but I had that roller derby date with her some years ago and still feel something. In a sense I've unfriended everyone now, as I'm trying to kick Facebook, eleven days and counting.

There's very few I would really miss, what's to miss? Most post boring stuff they saw somewhere else and around and around it goes. I have been one of those who keep scrolling, saying just a few more until something is interesting, and on and on. Hardly any of my 121 “friends” post original material, maybe they save the real stuff for their real lives. (Yarrow’s thunderous poetry is an exception, thank you.)

There is this guy about 40 who often rants about his living situation and struggles in life, and like most people his age he's all over the place, saying he's going to do this and that and never doing it, though he did actually go to the eclipse. On election day in 2016 he posted, “Bring on Trump! We've had enough of the status quo!” and then a couple months later he said, “Any blood family member of mine who voted for Trump please unfriend me now.” How can you take someone like that seriously? Yet if I didn't have this little look into his life anymore, reading his honest and open confessions, I might feel like I was missing something. Maybe that's when you know you've been on FB too long, and it's time to get your own life?

Another friend posts about being dumped, her love lost, and I am embarrassed for her but she's not embarrassed, that's just what 30-year-olds do today, right? I asked her why she did that and she said it helps to get feedback from people and certainly she did get a page of consoling comments, though I cringed seeing her dirty panties drying on the social clothesline, as she is one of my few real friends.

I think I get the ones who post multiple photos of themselves: you're a narcissistic twenty-first century woman, with little political awareness, playing the hand that has been dealt you. (Okay, I guess it's as harmless and idiotic as me watching my two hours or so of sports shows each day.)

And then there's the older people who post haggard photos of themselves which invite the inevitable comment “Oh you're so beautiful!” (No, she's not. I might tell her, “Wow, you have really lived!”) I asked one such commenter why she did that and she said it was a nice thing and gave Ms. Haggard a boost that day. Really? It could be the opposite and she resents her friends for thinking she's so pathetic she needs to be lied to. But probably not, people are so deluded and sucked into the Fakebook vortex, it’s no wonder they can't tell the difference between fake news and not.

So if you're tired of my act (flattering myself that anyone notices or cares), I have a fake name so you can report me if you feel like getting rid of me. You can get me kicked off FB in an instant, though it usually takes weeks to voluntarily quit.

(Happy Spring, the party's over for me.)

CAITLIN CLARK

by William J. Hughes

Caitlin Clark. If you don’t know her by now, you’ve been living under a rock. Ladies basketball super-star, college Iowa, and pros Indiana, my grandniece Eleanor an ardent fan. Got her a Caitlin Clark #22 jersey, made her swoon, made me her hero. So, on to a Caitlin Clark autographed basketball for her.

On-line shopping can lead to an order I thought was for just one ball. Turned out it was for three balls. Duh? Blame it on Musk. Anyway, the extra two are now for the girls basketball coach at McClatchy High School here in Sacramento and the same for the young ladies’ basketball coach at Sacramento City Community College. Took one of the basketballs to McClatchy High on Freeport Boulevard, but it was closed for some President’s day I wasn’t aware of. At least I got my first cruise around the WPA, Historic Registered beauty of a school, all a creamy pottery-like adobe, soft. Will look for a tour sometime after I attend a game and introduce myself to the girl’s coach.

I did return. I left the basketball at the front desk with my phone number. The coach called to thank me.

After McClatchy, I went over to Sacramento City College, also on Freeport Boulevard for their young ladies’ basketball coach. No luck, but I got the lay of the comfortable campus with its almost bull-ring style round stadium. Will return for a game and again introduce myself to the coach.

Thursday night, Sacramento City College Panthers — love that name, reminds me of Boonville — vs the Santa Rosa Bearcats. Not my usual sports outing but because of my Caitlin Clark ball, and my brother and myself talking about getting off big time sports with all their attached nonsense, nothing fits the bill right now better than a local young ladies’ basketball game. A compliment, a first for me.

Rainy night, the warm glow of the lights from the gym and it’s almost high school, the well-aged gym is compact, where you as a kid would fit, bouncing balls echoing off the walls, the few spectators on the low bleachers cheering. I’ve missed a bit but between quarters I saw enough to catch the tall, trim head coach. He offers me a look, “Can I help you?” he asks. I present the Caitlin Clark ball, stating so, stating the facts of the over-order. There’s a team. He’s coaching so, “Ok, thanks,” taking the ball. That’s enough. I did my bit. Do good.

I get two quarters of the young ladies evolution from the days of only three dribbles and pass, in a skirt. Young ladies basketball of my youth. Soon the Panthers up 13, then up by 3, pounding and jumping, screaming, Sac City in white, Santa Rosa in blue, the scoreboard blinking the score and the time, right out of the film Hoosiers, watching it all, knowing what it takes to make the “big time.” But all this here is fine, ceiling hung with championship banners, Panthers winning it by enough, always hip hop noise.

Sac City’s roster more is more “‘hood” than Santa Rosa’s “burbs.” I watch the coach high-five his players. I watch him take the ball with him.

Tuesday night at McClatchy High. A playoff game no less. McClatchy Lions vs Gregori High of Modesto. The entrance to the gym is almost Roman/Islam arches, quiet on the walk up, hearing the sound of the bouncing balls on the hardwood floor, again, echoes of all your own hardwood floors; and gyms open up like different worlds from classrooms and hallways, cheerleaders in red and white, dancing squads, high school for sure. The gym is a relic of before fake turf and mammoth halls, here again that Hoosier feel: warm, worn, much more of a crowd, actual bleacher seats up above the action, banners, banners, another blinking artifact scoreboard.

I meet the compact, trim, very fit coach. We shake on the Caitlin Clark basketball, noise, always Hip-hop noise. The refs, fit and official. I used to ref all ages youth basketball, so I’ve done my share of foul calls.

Even in warmups I could see that McClatchy was going to be the boss, but not like this Gregori was defenseless, just offenceless. It’s over soon after it begins, cheerleaders and dancers now the real highlights, 50 to 6 at halftime. That’s more than enough. My baskets runneth over.

KRUPSKAYA

by Fred Gardner

The world is full of
Brilliant assistants
Few of whomever gets their due
Krupskaya tonight I'm thinking of you

He must have been a hard man to live with
Restless, stressed out, never settled down
It must've been hard to forgive
Inessa hanging around

You held the business together at times
When the great man was off, brooding somewhere
At the library writing
philosophy did you despair?

No, you answered the workers who wrote to the paper
When data was needed you knew who knew
You arranged distribution
With comrades who would follow through

And you got the job done - one battle won
Satan took over, things got worse
Today the doctor
Makes five times more than the nurse

And the world is still full of
Brilliant assistants
Few of whomever gets their due
Nadezhda Konstantinova I'm singing for you.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Have you ever noticed that when people talk about “America the Beautiful”, they are always talking about national parks, forests, mountains, and other parts of it that remain unsullied by human hands? They're never talking about cities, suburbs, strip malls, interstate highways, chicken farms, or feed lots.

STEPH CURRY’S JOURNEY TO 4,000 NBA 3-POINTERS IS ONE NOBODY EVER SAW COMING

by Sam Amick

The Sacramento Kings aren’t alone in their Steph Curry misery.

Back in 2009, when the Golden State legend was a sinewy, sharpshooting prospect from Davidson who never could have imagined draining 4,000 3-pointers in his NBA life, the Kings were one of five teams that passed on the babyfaced assassin in the draft before he went No. 7 to the Warriors. The Minnesota Timberwolves, infamously, declined his services twice with the fifth and sixth picks while opting instead for Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn.

When the then-21-year-old came to Sacramento just four days before that year’s draft, having extended his workout schedule so that he could show off for the team that had the No. 4 pick, there was a deeper dynamic at play in this sliding doors moment that would eventually make the miss even worse. The Kings, desperate for a franchise centerpiece who could usher in a new era, were already locked in on Memphis’ Tyreke Evans as the leading prospect. In a twist of cruel irony, Evans’ agent at the time was one of the future architects of the Warriors’ dynasty, Bob Myers.

The Kings had defensive concerns about putting Curry next to the slight-of-frame Kevin Martin in their backcourt and were drawn to the way that the 6-foot-6, 220-pound Evans could get to the rim at will while holding his own on both ends (with the help of his 7-3 wingspan). Curry — who was also behind Rubio and Flynn on the organization’s wish list — was never truly in the running for that spot. And in the eyes of some, his presence that day made it all that much easier for the bigger, stronger Evans to showcase his physical superiority (as he did on this possession) and confirm the Kings’ leanings about the pick.

Fast forward 15 years, eight months and 21 days, and the butterfly effect was still being felt in the Bay Area on Thursday night. Curry reached that once-unthinkable milestone midway through the third quarter against the Kings at Chase Center, getting Trey Lyles to bite on the right-wing pump fake and firing away before DeMar DeRozan could close.

Not long after, as the Warriors pulled away in the 130-104 win and continued their revival tour with newcomer Jimmy Butler in tow, Curry took a breather on the bench and tucked his vintage mouthguard in his tights before waiting for his next shift. And yet again, as has been the case so many times before, the Warriors went home happy — ecstatic, really — that they were on the right side of basketball fortune so many years ago.

Four thoouussssaannnddd 3s?! In NBA play? With everybody targeting their defenses on him?

Yes, as our esteemed Curry chronicler, Marcus Thompson, will tell you, it’s just a round number with no real distinctive meaning. Ever since Curry overtook Ray Allen (2,973) for the all-time lead in 3-pointers back on Dec. 14, 2021, he has been, in essence, setting a new record every night.

The story of the greatest players in NBA history. In 100 riveting profiles, top basketball writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NBA in the process.

At this rate, with 5,000 within reach if he plays at least three more seasons, it’s safe to say that this is one of those records that might never be broken. James Harden, the 35-year-old Clippers star who was taken third by Oklahoma City in that same 2009 draft, is a distant second at 3,127. Curry, who is signed through the 2026-27 campaign, told 95.7 The Game this week that he wants to play beyond his current contract.

The 3s are only part of his incredible body of work, of course, with the four titles, two MVPs, 11 All-Star appearances and the like, and so elite that Shaquille O’Neal recently advocated for his inclusion in the GOAT conversation.

Yet, for the Kings and every other team that will always wonder what might have been with No. 30, the part that can’t be forgotten is nobody — not Curry himself, and certainly not that Warriors front office led by Larry Riley — saw this sort of legacy coming. Myself included.

When I first met Curry on June 20, 2009 — at his humble hotel near Arco Arena one day before the aforementioned Kings workout — he hardly looked like someone who was destined to change the game. Truth be told, with those scrawny arms and the frame that wouldn’t truly fill out until a decade or so later, he didn’t look like he could change a tire.

At the time, I was a Kings beat writer for The Sacramento Bee and had a habit of connecting with draft prospects in advance of their workout as a way to stay ahead of the latest story. As Curry stepped off the hotel shuttle van that day, throwing his bag over his shoulder and heading into the lobby, he was under no obligation to grant an unscheduled interview with a local reporter whom he’d never met. Yet true to his form, that genuine and accessible way that continues to this day, he graciously sat down on a nearby couch to share a few thoughts about how he might fit in with that Kings team.

As first impressions go, my initial reaction was two-fold: a massive thumbs up on his media decorum, and an emphatic question mark as it related to his NBA future. The notion of someone so skinny holding his own in the National Bigboys Association, let alone dominating, was hard to fathom. Curry was a bona fide star at Davidson, to be sure, but the history of the league is littered with mid-major talents who never pan out. Then came the early ankle troubles that cast even more doubt on what he might, or might not, become.

Late last month, I ran into the man whose medical magic played such a monumental part in saving Curry’s career and sparking the Warriors’ incredible run: Dr. Richard Ferkel. After a Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers game in LA on Feb. 25, Ferkel was gifted a 2022 championship ring from Klay Thompson, the fellow Warriors great (now with Dallas) who had his Achilles tendon repaired by Ferkel in November 2020. But before Ferkel worked on Thompson, he performed Curry’s arthroscopic surgery on April 25, 2012, that was as nerve-wracking a moment as the organization has ever had.

When Curry entered the operating room in Van Nuys, Calif., that day, he didn’t know the extent of the damage that had been done. As his longtime agent, Jeff Austin, has shared before, there was a chance that Ferkel would need to perform a far riskier reconstruction of the ankle.

“That (reconstruction procedure) hadn’t really been done by that type of athlete,” Austin said back then.

“He’s incredibly arrogant on the floor and humble off the court,” Steve Kerr said. “I think that’s a really powerful combination.”

So many times, from that draft process to the formative years that followed, Curry’s remarkable career could have gone the other way. Yet now, with the Warriors suddenly looking like title contenders again, he is cemented as an all-time great whose resume is getting more absurd with every passing year.

When Curry was trying to get this latest milestone behind him against the Kings, it became apparent that the natural flow of the Warriors’ offense had been disturbed. The rhythm was off. Actions were forced. Curry, who was 1 of 3 from distance with five points in the first half, didn’t look like himself.

All in all, it was as modest a Curry performance as you’ll find: 11 points (4-of-9 shooting; 2-of-6 from 3), five assists, two rebounds and two turnovers. But that simply didn’t matter.

Steph still did Steph things. The people raved. The Warriors won. And somehow, someway, this Curry saga continues.

“Yeah, I think we all kind of wanted that for him, where we all were just trying (to make it) happen,” said Draymond Green, who has assisted on more of Curry’s 3s than any other teammate (671, with Andre Iguodala a distant second at 175). “But to see him cross that milestone that no one has ever crossed, is very fitting. The way he changed the game, how important he made the 3-point shot to the game of basketball …

“It couldn’t happen to a better person, (someone) who has been a steward of this game, the way he’s carried this franchise on his back, what he’s done for the NBA, the league as a whole. I’m happy to be here to see it be a small part of it, but more importantly, just witness greatness on a nightly basis.”

(TheAthletic.com)

TRUMP’S FRETFUL SHEEP

by David Yearsley

J. S. Bach’s most famous arias, “Schafe könne sicher weiden” (Sheep may safely graze) projects safety for the governed secured by enlightened leadership.

Above a pulsing B-flat drone whose static harmony conveys contented repose, a pair of pastoral recorders, like shepherds’ pipes, waft over the bucolic landscape—artfully managed nature unthreatened by the wild. No armies mass beyond the hills, no terrorists steal across the borders, no chain-sawing wielding maniacs ready to fell forests of bureaucrats.

When, after two bars of instrumental introduction, the drone breaks into a gentle gait it is not done to worry the listener, but to lift the eyes and ears over pleasant fields. In just four graceful measures Bach has painted an expansive, tranquil sonic canvas. Over these Bachian meadows floats the soprano voice of Pales, the Roman deity of shepherds:

Sheep may safely graze,

When watched over by a good shepherd.

Where rulers govern well

Peaceful calm is to be felt

That makes a country happy.

A monarch’s rule is likened to animal husbandry. Manage the floc; be concerned, competent and watchful. Let your charges nibble and wander, but never allow them to roam too far towards unknown perils.

Bach’s musical pursuit of happiness can easily be transposed from its first performance on February 23rd, 1713 in a castle banqueting hall set in the hills of central Germany to the Land of the Free still in the first 100 Days of Trump 2.0. Heard today, the aria’s comforts unsettle by contrast to the menacing unpredictability of the current ruler. Even if the Old Regime was expert in dirty tricks and targeting opponents, the illusion of mostly happy sheep and reasonable shepherds prevailed.

In the more than three centuries since its premiere, the aria has proliferated in myriad arrangements. Here is one of the worst of them.

Given the work’s graceful beauty, it is not surprising that it has long been a favorite at weddings. Having played my own transcription of the aria countless times for nuptials, I am perhaps allowed to guess that its popularity indicates that security and stability, not passion, are the enduring foundation of the institution of marriage, and, by extension, of American democracy. The aria’s praise of male rule remains unheard in these instrumental transcriptions, and wedding pairs remain blissfully ignorant of it.

This Best-of-Bach number comes from the so-called Hunt Cantata (BWV 208), likely composed for the thirty-first birthday of Duke Christian, potentate at the court of Saxe-Weißenfels that neighbored the Duchy of Weimar where Bach then worked. The Duke loved music almost as much as he loved hunting, a pursuit captured by Bach in his musical tribute. At his own wedding the previous year, Duke Christian’s kinsman, the mighty Saxon Elector and Polish King, Frederick the Strong, had had his jewelers—those miracle workers in precious metals and gems, the Dinglinger brothers—fashion a lavish hunting cup that the Elector presented to the Weißenfels couple and which is now to be marveled at in Dresden’s famous museum, the Grünes Gewölbe (named after its vaulted green ceilings). This sumptuous golden goblet with domed cover is crowned by a miniature statue of the goddess of the hunt Diana riding a chestnut stallion, the elaborate creation held up by the antlers of a stag being devoured by a princely dog. Bach’s music was meant to complement this opulence and artifice.

Hunting was not just a topic for artistic representation at the hands of a Dinglinger or a Bach. It was a dangerous pursuit, especially since prevailing attitudes towards gun control and safety were almost as primitive as those held in America today. Musicians too were put in mortal danger. The Weißenfels male alto and prolific writer on music Johann Beer, who was also among the funniest and most prolific of early German novelists, was killed in a hunting accident while out blunderbussing with one of the dukes. His colleague David Heinrich Garthoff, who must have known Bach, came to the court as an oboist (an instrument often deployed for accompanying the hunt) but got his lower lip shot off while bagging birds. This mishap did in his oboe blowing embouchure, but Garthoff was an adaptable musician and went on to become the court organist.

Lucky for us, Christian didn’t hand Bach a firearm and command him into the fields when the composer visited the court for the Duke’s birthday festivities in late February of 1713. Winter, especially during the Little Ace Age, was no time for hunting: better to sing and play about it indoors before a crackling fire.

In the cantata’s first aria—”Jagen ist die Lust der Götter”— obligatory horns resounded in the banqueting hall in recollection of daring escapades gunning down beasts beaten towards the hunting party so that the Duke could dispatch these trophies-to-be at close range. Then the goddess Diana, sung by the famed German soprano Pauline Kellner (likely Anna Magdalena Bach’s teacher) unleashed her own dazzling vocal firepower, shooting off a coloratura melisma on the very first syllable: “Hunting is the passion of the gods,” she sings, following that blast with a line that would make for a MAGA bumper sticker: “Hunting is for heroes.” In spite of the collateral damage suffered by Weißenfels’ musicians while hunting, there was robust support of through the duchy for guns and game.

Another of the characters in this courtly cantata was Pan, the god of shepherds. He’s a lusty rustic type with hands that grope as greedily as those of the current U. S. President. Bach makes his Pan a fun-loving loose cannon of a bass, who goes off half-cocked claiming that he should be the one to rule. Like so many political megalomaniacs, this libertine boasts of outsized erotic powers and assumes that these will serve him well as head-of-state.

In the introduction to Pan’s first aria pair of brash oboes starts bragging even before the voice enters to make the absurdly self-serving claim that “Ein Fürst ist seines Landes Pan” (A Prince is the Pan of his country). The debauched bass sounds off in a lurching gigue that makes clear he’s had too much to drink but is still not too blotto to deliver his message comparing a ruler-less country to a headless body politic:

Just as the body without the soul

Cannot live or control itself,

So a country is a cave of death

When it no longer has a head and prince

And therefore lacks its best part.

Pan holds resolutely to long notes on “live” and “rule” but then tumbles down as he runs out of breath. On entering the mortal cavern with its minor shadows and chromatic crags, the drunk goes dark, only brightening just before the close when he remembers that he is after all “the best part”—the happy head to the nation’s body. It’s a raucous, rambling speech worthy of our own, more mean-spirited and teetotalling Pan as President.

Sumptuous entertainments like this cantata drained the ducal coffers in Weißenfels to such an extent that many of the court’s musicians—including some of Bach’s in-laws—were eventually owed years of unpaid salary.

As a result of its parlous finances, the duchy was eventually dissolved by the royal rulers higher up the food chain in Dresden. Even the wedding gift of the Hunting Cup was repossessed by the givers. The DOGE in the capital city of Dresden had had enough. But the axe of efficiency was never turned on the royals themselves. They continued to spend uninhibitedly on their favorite pastimes: military, music, hunting, and art (from Chines Porcelain to Old Master paintings). A string of mid-century wars with neighboring Prussia sent Saxon power into a steep decline it never pulled out of.

Sheep may be grazing more safely than ever before on America’s Public Lands, but the headless, brainless ruler stumbles ever deeper into the forest of oblivion, blowing his own flute as his goes.

Bach could have brought all this too to vivid musical life. Indeed, he did already way back in 1713.

(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.)

“TAKE THE AVERAGE PERSON walking down the street. One punch in the neck from a fighter will tear his head off. Even things that look simple are tough. Everyone knows a fighter is supposed to keep his hands up. Try it. Don't even throw punches, just walk around with your fists clenched at eye level for three minutes and see how tired your arms get.”

— Angelo Dundee

(It's easy to underestimate how grueling boxing really is until you think about how physically demanding even the simplest actions are. Keeping your hands up for a few minutes might sound easy, but it’ll leave your arms feeling like lead. This is just a small glimpse into the immense physical and mental endurance fighters must have. The next time we watch a fight, we should remember that these athletes are pushing their bodies to limits we can’t even imagine.)

UPON HUNTER S. THOMPSON’S RETURN from Las Vegas, Jim Silberman made a comment about the Fear and Loathing piece that alarmed Hunter. The following is Jim’s comment and an excerpt from Hunter’s letter response.

JS: You know it was absolutely clear to me reading Las Vegas that you were not on drugs.

HST: This is true, but what alarms me is that Vegas was a very conscious attempt to simulate drug freakout—which is always difficult, but in reading it over I still find it depressingly close to the truth I was trying to re-create.

But to hell with all this. What depresses me is your statement that it was “absolutely clear” to you that Raoul Duke & his attorney “were not on drugs.” Because my conception of that piece was to write a thing that would tell what it was like to do a magazine assignment with a head full of weird drugs.

I didn’t really make up anything—but I did, at times, bring situations & feelings I remember from other scenes to the reality at hand. I might even claim, for that matter, that this was done by consciously tripping the fabled LSD Recall and/or Flashback Mechanism.

But this is a difficult subject, & there’s no point in trying to come to grips with it here. What I’m talking about, in essence, is the mechanical Reality of Gonzo Journalism … or Total Subjectivity, as opposed to the bogus demands of Objectivity.

But fuck all that, for now.

All I ask is that you keep your opinions on my drug-diet for that weekend to yourself. As I noted, the nature (& specifics) of the piece has already fooled the editors of Rolling Stone. They’re absolutely convinced, on the basis of what they’ve read, that I spent my expense money on drugs and went out to Las Vegas for a ranking freakout.

Probably we should leave it this way; it makes it all the more astounding, that I could emerge from that heinous experience with a story. So let’s just keep our personal conclusions to ourselves.

Hunter

June 15, 1971

“I WAS BORN AT FIVE in the afternoon when the sun was red on the rooftops of March and snow was melting in the warm mysterious air. Pisces, the 12th, 1922, Lowell, Massachusetts, Jean Louis Kerouac. The soul fell sighing into the fault sour sea of suffering wondering instantly on sight of the grainy makeup of the portals of the world, Why? The Infinite had woven itself a new limited wonderer trapped inside a burden of flesh at the dissolution of which years later in the sweet hour of the death it would re-admit to its imageless ecstasy which is not only eternal like “God” but I am “God” as you are who am me as I am you. The babe is pure but only bearer of mind in a body of dung; chastised, evilized and wrinkled and all done with the already completed journey that began at my pink toe-tips, the other end of “my life” would present “me” with the proper grave to lap the husk in, released, a sweet escapee. Death is Truth. Death is the Golden Age. Life is not worth living. All sentient life is tormented. Each being from bud to god is the Messiah deceived in a limited hassle of body, the intrinsic nature of which is eternal silence and infinite emptiness smilingly flowing to accommodate a mold of condition. The world is ever deceived, unreal and does everything wrong anyway; why ever give it any further consideration? My task is now to undo the world thread by thread till I have accomplished the rope trick of Magadha. Every word, line, concept and chapter of this book is intrinsically the emptiness flowing freely and perfectly from its smile in the womb of timelessness to serve my anxious terrestrial striving to discuss the undiscussable; from inborn ecstasy it manifests according to Ignorance directly thru the lead of my pencil to the better unborn page.”

— Jack Kerouac, The Buddhist Years

LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

Trump Uses Justice Dept. Speech to Air Grievances Against His Enemies

Senate Votes to Avert Government Shutdown

Left for Dead, the Consumer Watchdog Agency Inches Back to Life

Trump Orders Gutting of 7 Agencies, Including Voice of America’s Parent

For Canadians Visiting Myrtle Beach, Trump Policies Make the Vibe Chillier

Arlington Cemetery Website Loses Pages on Black Veterans, Women and Civil War

NOT CONDUCIVE TO THE PUBLIC GOOD

by Rayan Fakhoury

In an interview with CNN in the spring of 2024, during the campus protests against Israel’s apocalyptic assault on the Gaza Strip, Mahmoud Khalil explained his involvement in the student movement at Columbia University:

“As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other; our movement is a movement for social justice and freedom and equality for everyone … We are the lucky ones that made it here to speak for our people who are under oppression in Palestine and across the refugee camps and the Palestinian cities.”

On the night of Saturday, 8 March 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested Khalil at his student apartment in Manhattan. They also threatened to detain his wife, who is eight months pregnant (and a US citizen). Unbeknownst to his wife and his lawyers, he was taken to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, 1300 miles away.

The White House published a statement from President Trump, under the slogan ‘Shalom, Mahmoud’, announcing that ICE had ‘proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student’ and vowing to ‘find, apprehend and deport these terrorist sympathisers from our country – never to return again’.

Khalil, a permanent resident of the US, has not been charged with any crime. Instead, the authorities purported to revoke his green card on the grounds that he ‘led activities aligned to Hamas’ (whatever that might mean), such that his ‘presence or activities in the United States would have serious adverse foreign policy consequences’. In substance, it appears that the Trump administration disagrees with Khalil’s opposition to the Israeli occupation and his participation in the Columbia University Apartheid Divest campaign.

Khalil’s arrest came the same week that Columbia welcomed to its campus the former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, who once boasted ‘I’ve already killed a lot of Arabs in my life, and there is no problem with that,’ and recently joked about using exploding pagers against protesters at Harvard. Less than three months earlier, the Biden administration welcomed the former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant to the White House, despite the outstanding warrant for his arrest issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Khalil’s arrest has provoked a flurry of protest, and his future remains uncertain: his detention and proposed deportation are now being challenged in the courts. Proposals to carry out mass deportations of ‘foreign pro-Hamas students’ have raised eyebrows even among right-wing luminaries such as Ann Coulter, who tweeted: ‘There’s almost no one I don’t want to deport, but, unless they’ve committed a crime, isn’t this a violation of the first amendment?’

It would be a mistake to see the attempt to deport Khalil for his political views in relation to Palestine as an authoritarian aberration on the part of the Trump administration. In reality, it marks the latest episode in a long-running saga of state repression of political speech in support of Palestinian rights on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the UK, the home secretary has the power to revoke a lawful resident’s visa on the grounds that their presence in the UK is ‘not conducive to the public good’, whether or not they have committed any crime. That power has already been exercised in cases involving the expression of political opinions about the situation in Palestine and Israel. Dana Abu Qamar’s visa was revoked in December 2023, at the personal instigation of Robert Jenrick, on the basis of her public statements in the immediate aftermath of the 7 October attacks and subsequent Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip (which killed 15 members of her family). A tribunal later found (in a case in which I was involved) that the decision was an unlawful interference with her right to freedom of expression. More recently, a Turkish academic working at a British university had his visa revoked because police found a ‘Hamas media document’ on his phone. He too is appealing against that decision.

The position in Germany is even starker: Jewish peace activists have been arrested on charges of ‘inciting racial hatred’ for holding placards which say: ‘As a Jew and Israeli, stop the genocide in Gaza’; the Interior Ministry has banned the slogan ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’; and immigration authorities have banned the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis from entering Germany (or even speaking at a public event in Germany via video link) because of his political activity in support of Palestinian rights.

These events reveal the convergence of two phenomena. The first is the ‘Palestine exception’, a label given by constitutional scholars and civil rights groups to the erosion of civil liberties in the particular context of advocacy for Palestinian rights. It is striking that the loudest ostensible proponents of free speech on campus are the proudest cheerleaders for state repression of pro-Palestine activism on those same campuses, but there is no inconsistency if one regards the question of Palestine (and its proponents) as an exceptional category to which the ordinary freedoms do not apply.

The second phenomenon is the use of immigration powers as an instrument of state repression. These powers are often vastly broader in scope than their criminal counterparts, and can generally be exercised by the executive without the mediation of any independent police or prosecuting authorities. They are also by their nature targeted at the margins of society: non-citizens whose legal status is precarious and revocable, without rights of political representation.

The exercise of immigration powers can therefore serve as a form of political theater, an intervention in debates about who belongs to the nation and who does not, as for example in Sajid Javid’s decision to revoke Shamima Begum’s citizenship, or the creation of suspect populations through ‘hostile environment’ policies, resulting in the systematic wrongful detention and deportation of the Windrush scandal.

It is not surprising, then, that the erosion of civil liberties in the UK’s ‘war on terror’ years reached its peak in the indefinite detention without trial of foreign terror suspects. That policy was ultimately held to be unlawful in the 2004 ‘Belmarshcase’ because it was premised on an arbitrary distinction between foreign and British suspects. As Lord Bingham put it:

“the choice of an immigration measure to address a security problem had the inevitable result of failing adequately to address that problem (by allowing non-UK suspected terrorists to leave the country with impunity and leaving British suspected terrorists at large) while imposing the severe penalty of indefinite detention on persons who … may harbor no hostile intentions towards the United Kingdom.”

One hopes that the courts on either side of the Atlantic will be similarly alive to such distinctions today.

But what begins as a state of exception often augurs a new normality. Coercive powers ceded to the state are rarely handed back, and powers exercised against those at the margins of society invariably permeate more widely. Those who shrug at the deportation of supporters of Palestinian self-determination today may wake up to a knock on their own door in the twilight hours of the not too distant future.

(London Review of Books)

ON MY HUSBAND’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL ARREST

by Noor Abdalla

My husband, Mahmoud Khalil, is my rock. He is my home and he is my happy place. I am currently 8 months pregnant, and I could not imagine a better father for my child. We’ve been excitedly preparing to welcome our baby, and now Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all.

I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration.

This last week has been a nightmare: Six days ago, an intense and targeted doxxing campaign against Mahmoud began. Anti-Palestinian organizations were spreading false claims about my husband that were simply not based in reality. They were making threats against Mahmoud and he was so concerned about his safety that he emailed Columbia University on March 7th. In his email, he begged the university for legal support, “I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support and I urge you to intervene,” he said in his email.

Columbia University never responded to that email.

Instead, on March 8th, at around 8:30 pm, as we were returning home from an Iftar dinner, an ICE officer followed us into our building and asked, “Are you Mahmoud Khalil?”

Mahmoud stated, “Yes.”

The officer then proceeded to say, “We are with the police, you have to come with us.”

The officer told Mahmoud to give me the apartment keys and that I could go upstairs. When I refused, afraid to leave my husband, the officer stated, “I will arrest you too.”

The officers later barricaded Mahmoud from me. We were not shown any warrant and the ICE officers hung up the phone on our lawyer. When my husband attempted to give me his phone so I could speak with our lawyer, the officers got increasingly aggressive, despite Mahmoud being fully cooperative.

Everyone who knows Mahmoud knows him to be level-headed even in the most stressful situations. And even in this terrifying situation, he was calm.

Within minutes, they had handcuffed Mahmoud, took him out into the street and forced him into an unmarked car. Watching this play out in front of me was traumatizing: It felt like a scene from a movie I never signed up to watch.

I was born and raised in the Midwest. My parents came here from Syria, carrying their stories of the oppressive regime there that made life unlivable. They believed living in the US would bring a sense of safety and stability. But here I am, 40 years after my parents immigrated here, and just weeks before I’m due to give birth to our first child, and I feel more unsafe and unstable than I have in my entire life.

US immigration ripped my soul from me when they handcuffed my husband and forced him into an unmarked vehicle. Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center.

I demand the US government release him, reinstate his Green Card, and bring him home.

(Noor Abdalla, wife of Mahmoud Khalil, is a dentist living in New York City.)

SPRING'S FRIGHTFUL AWAKENING

by James Kunstler

“The notion that Europe is able to pose a military threat to Russia does not even qualify as trashy propaganda for sub-zero IQs.” — Pepe Escobar

“The left became hideously, ostentatiously, unapologetically corrupt (as ruling parties tend to do). They sold out bigtime and got bigtime rich. You want to know why none of them want to cut waste anymore? because they’re the one’s stealing it.” — El Gato Malo on Substack

In my quiet backwater of the Hudson Valley, an early spring drives all creation violently. The peaceful sleep of winter ends in twitches and spasms. The ground breaks open like one big egg and all living things emerge: green shafts of the crocus, scuttling sowbugs, slithering snakes, sleek garlic shoots, ‘possums in the compost bucket, ticks are back on the cat’s face, the ice in the river cracks in frightening booms, hungry songbirds infest the bare roadside lilacs, tiny voices trill darkly in the woods, a lone early moth in its first rapture of flight meets the pitiless windshield.

You can feel it. The northern hemisphere of this planet shudders, rattles, and rolls into the most tumultuous spring in memory. Everything is in play, turning, turning, while forgotten consequence rises on vengeful wings like an aggrieved god of yore. Nothing will be as it was. A most wicked spell has been broken. What does it feel like to be able to think again?

Messers Trump and Putin sincerely seek to end the age’s stupidest war in Europe’s dumbest country, while the European Union and its outlier Great Britain go ostentatiously more insane every week. They bethink themselves storybook conquerors out of some retrograde history written by gibbering globalists. Macron and Friedrich Merz propose a grand invasion of Russia, as if Napoleon and Hitler had never existed, and they aim to get it done on about three days’ worth of ammunition. You first, Emmanuel, Merz insists. Non, non, pas de tout, Macron demurs with a deep bow.

Keir Starmer, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, and PM of an empire in late-stage sclerosis, does jumping jacks with pom-poms across the channel to cheer on France and Germany in their quixotic quest to conquer of Russia. “Go get’um lads!” he cries. Think of Sir Keir as a Monty Python archbishop as written by George Orwell under the direction of Franz Kafka — there’s what’s left of your jolly old England!

Meanwhile Ursula con der Leyen rehearses her part as the wannabe Joan of Arc in this political psychodrama. Her sweet grandmother’s face will smile placidly as the flames tickle her penitent’s robe. She was born for this. A million deracinated Congolese perform the twerk mazurka around her flaming pyre while the muezzins sing out the call to prayer from every minaret around Brussells. Her Hanoverian ancestors weep for Ursula through the mists of the centuries. Was Satan himself behind the contract she signed with Pfizer for as much as 4.6 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine at a cost of €71-billion? Where did the money come from and where exactly did it go, and what did Ursula finally have to show for it? The European Court of Auditors had a look at this tangled web and blew their lunches all over the rue Alcide De Gasperi in Luxembourg City. Snails, champignon, and shards of puff pastry on the ancient stone steps. A disgrace.

You are not compelled to understand all these occult machinations roiling Europe at the moment, except to see that the continent wants to turn itself into the world’s premiere slaughterhouse once again after a seventy-year hiatus from the exciting frolics of World War Two. Almost everyone who lived through that episode is dead now. The cultural memory has faded. Europe is sick of lollygagging in the café, nibbling effete palmier and tartelette. They apparently want to wade across the chilly Vistula River and race to the east, like berserkers, hacking off Slavic limbs and heads along the way.

No, it is not true that Donald Trump’s ancestors invented the trumpet, but shrill brassy notes resound all over America these days as his enemies ululate and rend their garments. Liz Warren is yelling from streetcorners like her head’s going to blow plumb off her shoulders. Randi Weingarten was keening on MSNBC like an oboe with a broken reed. The entire two month-long spectacle has been a musical extravaganza. The President and his sidekick, Elon, keep coming at the country’s resident blob-of-evil like pit-bulls on a pack of wild hogs. Shreds of bacon have been flying all over the Beltway. I could have told you years ago that the blob was mostly lard and little meat. Now you know. It’s a sight to behold for the ages.

Yet, strange things keep happening day by day. The Democratic Party’s main grifting engine, the USAID, was deconstructed weeks ago, yet we hear that just this week USAID workers were ordered to go back into their offices to shred all their documents. Did they have anything to hide, ya think?

Questions: 1) federal janitors pried the nameplate off the building back in February, and we must suppose that somebody also locked the joint up. 2.) How did these former USAID workers propose to get in the building and do their dirty-work? 3.) Why have we not heard that the FBI or the US Marshal Service was dispatched to prevent such a document shredding party?

I wouldn’t worry too much about those cheeky federal judges around the country declaring and ordering this-and-that on Mr. Trump’s campaign to fire federal workers and close down useless agencies. This is a last-gasp ultimate lawfare operation. Let’s assume that Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, Marc Elias, and associates of theirs are the ringmasters in that circus. They will eventually be indicted for all manner of lawbreaking, possibly up to treason. And the SCOTUS will eventually put a sharp end to the judges’ monkeyshines. Judges do not administer executive action out of the executive branch. And Guess what: lawfare is not law. It’s just dirty-fighting dressed up in abstruse ceremonial language.

THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION WOULD CUT TAXES FOR BILLIONAIRES AND SLASH FUNDING FOR THE WORKING CLASS

by Bernie Sanders

As people all over this country understand, we are a nation that faces enormous crises.

Sadly, the continuing resolution passed Tuesday in the U.S. House, which will come to this body very shortly, not only does nothing to address these crises, but in fact, it makes a bad situation much worse.

Today, at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of this country, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.

And that means that people are worried about how they are going to afford housing. What happens if their landlord raises the rent?

People go to the grocery store and they see the high price of food, and they wonder how they are going to feed their kids.

People are looking at the outrageous cost of child care, but you need child care if you are going to go to work. How can you afford child care?

Our health care system is dysfunctional. People worry about how they can afford health care, if they are lucky enough to find a doctor.

That is the reality of what is going on in our county today: the rich are getting richer, working people are struggling, and 800,000 Americans are sleeping out in the streets.

So given that reality, what does this bill do? The bill written by right-wing extremists in the House of Representatives without any bipartisan discussion at all.

What does this bill do? Well, let me count the ways that it makes their financial struggles of working people even more difficult than they are today. And it does all of that to lay the groundwork for massive tax breaks for Elon Musk and the billionaire class.

For a start, some 22% of seniors in this country are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less. Half of our seniors are trying to survive on $30,000 or less. So what does the Trump/Musk administration do to address the terrible economic pressures on seniors all over America? Well, they have a brilliant idea: they illegally fire thousands of workers at the Social Security Administration, with plans to cut that staff in half.

In America today, 30,000 people die each year waiting to receive their Social Security disability benefits because of a grossly understaffed and under-resourced Social Security Administration.

My office gets calls every day from seniors saying, “I’m having a problem with Social Security. I can’t contact the Social Security people. They’re not getting back to me.” And that is because, today, they are understaffed.

If Musk and Trump get their way and the Social Security Administration’s staff is cut in half, nobody can deny that is a death sentence for many thousands of seniors who desperately need their benefits.

Now, Mr. Musk, who is worth a few hundred billion, may not understand that there are millions of seniors in this country who have nothing in the bank, worrying every day how they are going to heat their homes or buy the food that they need. And if they can’t get the benefits that they need, some of them will, in fact, die.

And let me be clear: When you have Mr. Musk calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” despite the fact that it has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the last 86 years. That ain’t no Ponzi scheme.

When you have the President lying about millions of people who are 150 or 200 years of age receiving Social Security benefits – a total lie – everybody should understand what’s going on. Trump and Musk are laying the groundwork for the dismantling of the most successful federal program in history, a program that keeps over 27 million Americans out of poverty. And, by the way, over 99% of the more than 70 million Social Security checks that go out each month are going to people who earned those benefits.

But this continuing resolution passed in the House is not just a vicious attack on Social Security. It is an attack on the veterans of our nation – the men and women who put their lives on the line defending our country.

While we made some progress under the Biden administration in improving veterans’ health care, the truth is that the VA has remained significantly understaffed. In the fourth quarter of 2024, there were 36,000 vacancies at the VA. We needed 2,400 more doctors, 6,300 more registered nurses, 3,400 more schedulers, 1,800 more social workers, and 1,200 more custodians. So what has the Trump administration and Mr. Musk done to address this very serious workforce shortage?

Their answer is that they are threatening to dismantle the VA by firing 83,000 employees. In other words, you have a shortage today, and their solution to the shortage is to fire 83,000 workers.

Not only does the CR do nothing to stop that, but it cuts more than $20 billion in funding needed to provide care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances next year.

Pathetically, our nation, the richest country on Earth, has the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major nation on the planet, and that is often reflected in the crises facing many public schools today. Throughout America, children are coming into school hungry. Kids are coming into school with serious mental issues. Kids are coming into school from dysfunctional families. And what is the Trump/Musk administration doing about that crisis?

Well, their response was interesting. Just the other day, they fired half of the staff at the Department of Education. That means that it will be far harder to administer the Title I program that helps 26 million low-income kids get the education they need and pays the salaries of some 180,000 public school teachers throughout the country.

So how does a school in a working-class community survive if you don’t get the funds to pay the teachers?

Further, it means that it will be far harder to administer the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that provides vital resources for 7.5 million kids with disabilities. We have made progress in a bipartisan way over the last number of years to say to families: if your kid has a disability, that kid can still go to a public school, and there will be services available for that kid. But when you cut the Department of Education staff here in Washington in half, that is going to be extremely difficult to do.

And it means it will be far harder for some 7 million low-income and working-class students to get the Pell Grants they need to get a higher education.

In fact, just hours after the Department of Education laid off half of its staff, the website for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that working families use to apply for Pell Grants and other financial assistance crashed.

This CR gives the Trump administration the green light to make these horrific cuts to education. And it’s not just education.

We have a major healthcare crisis in America today. Despite spending twice as much per capita on health care as the people of any other major country, 85 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured, over 500,000 of our people go bankrupt because of medically-related debt, over 60,000 people die each year because they can’t afford to get to a doctor on time and our life expectancy is not only lower than almost any other major country, it is a system in which working-class and low-income Americans die 7 years younger than wealthier Americans.

So you’ve got a crisis: People can’t find a doctor. People are going bankrupt because of health care bills. And what does this CR do?

Well, at a time when our primary health care system is completely broken, when we don’t have enough doctors or nurses or mental health counselors, this proposal cuts community health center funding by 3.2%, cuts the National Health Service Corps by over 5% and cuts funding for Teaching Health Centers — a program which helps train doctors in rural and underserved areas — by almost 13%.

In the midst of a horrific primary health care crisis in Vermont and all over rural America, this proposal will make it that much harder for people to get the health care they desperately need.

But it’s not just health care. Everyone in this country from Vermont to Los Angeles understands we have a major housing crisis. And it’s not just all the homelessness we are seeing. Over 20 million of our people spend more than 50% of their limited income on housing.

How in God’s name do you pay for anything else? How do you buy food? How do you take care of health care if you’re spending 50% or more for your housing.

So how does this CR address the housing crisis? It cuts rental assistance for low-income families in America by $700 million, which could lead to more than 32,000 families in our country being evicted from their homes. Well, that is a heck of a solution to the housing crisis.

But it’s not just housing.

I know that the president might disagree – he thinks that climate change is a hoax. But the whole scientific community understands that it is an existential threat. They understand that the last 10 years have been the warmest ever recorded, and extreme weather disturbances and natural disasters have been taking place all over the world – from California to India, across Europe, to North Carolina.

So what does the CR do about the existential threat of climate change?

It does not even specify funding levels within the Environmental Protection Agency. In other words, the administration could simply eliminate funding for climate change and environmental justice and that would be consistent with this CR.

And on top of all this, the administration is already indicating that they will simply ignore the provisions of the spending bill they don’t like.

This week, it was reported that Vice President JD Vance said to the Senate Republican caucus: “I want everyone to vote Yes. The President, under Section II, will ensure allocations from Congress are not spent on things that harm the taxpayer. There’s so much grift in Washington — let’s move this CR, get to reconciliation and for Congress to pass appropriations.”

In other words, what Vance is saying is don’t worry about what’s actually in the bill. If the Trump administration doesn’t like it, they won’t do it.

And let’s be clear: the House CR and the Trump administration are doing everything they can to lay the groundwork for more tax breaks for billionaires paid for by massive cuts to Medicaid, nutrition assistance, housing and education.

So you’re looking at a 1-2 punch: a very bad CR and then a reconciliation bill coming down which will be the final kick in the teeth for the American people.

This legislation that the Republicans are working on, the reconciliation bill, will cut taxes for billionaires and the top 1% by $1.1 trillion over the next decade.

According to a recent study, if all of Trump’s so-called “America First” policies are enacted, the bottom 95% of Americans will see their taxes go up, while the richest 5% in our country will see their taxes go down. Way down.

I should also mention that the reconciliation bill which Republicans are working on right now would also cut Medicaid by $880 billion.

Tax breaks for billionaires. Throwing low-income kids off health care. Decimating nursing homes all over America, because nursing homes receive two-thirds of their funding from Medicaid. Making it harder for community health centers to survive, who provide health care to 32 million Americans because 43% of their revenue comes from Medicaid.

Further, the reconciliation bill proposes to cut $230 billion from nutrition. Today, nearly one out of five children in America rely on federal nutrition programs to keep them from going hungry.

And I find it rather remarkable that the richest person on Earth and his oligarch friends are working night and day to cut programs for the working people of this country and to actually deny food to hungry kids in America.

There is no world, no universe, no religion that would not believe that that is grossly immoral and unacceptable. You don’t give tax breaks to the rich and take food away from hungry children.

The House CR bill that we will be soon voting on here is a piece of legislation I cannot support. Instead, what the Senate must do is pass a 30-day CR so that all members of Congress, not just the House Republican leadership, can come together and produce a good piece of legislation that works for all Americans and not just the few.

We have an opportunity now to serve the American people. We have an opportunity now to write something that reflects what people in the Congress feel, what people in America feel.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I held a telephone town hall in Vermont. We are a small state. We only have about 650,000 people. And yet on that telephone town hall there was some 34,000 people listening in. That is a significant percentage of a small state.

I have been in many parts of the country recently. I have been in Iowa, I’ve been in Wisconsin, I have been in Nebraska, I’ve been in Michigan. And what I can tell you with absolute certainty is, whether people are conservative, whether they’re Republican, whether they’re progressive, whether they’re moderate, Independent, whatever they may be. There are very few people in this country that think we should give tax breaks to the rich and cut back on Medicaid, education and nutritional programs for hungry children.

*untitled*, Barcelona, ca. 1958-1961 (Joan Colom)

22 Comments

Mazie Malone March 15, 2025

Good morning,

The Galena story was going like wildfire across Facebook yesterday. I read her accusations and claims and saw the discrepancies in her story right off the bat I was not going to propagate that nonsense. Her poor father, I am curious to what his awareness is of all this she’s putting him through? Maybe she is pumping up the masses for a new book, crazy publicity stunt?

mm 💕

Reply
- John Sakowicz March 15, 2025
  
  I tend to agree with you, Mazie. What are Galina Trefil’s motives? And do those motives somehow tie into her husband, Aaron Channel? Also, I find it inconceivable that investigators wouldn’t have pursued the DNA leads in this case (seems obvious).
  
  It’s interesting to note, however, that, in fact, Jon Trefil, MD (medical license No. G 23038), was prosecuted by the California Medical Board and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office back in June 1999 (case no. 12-97-72833).
  
  I think Dr. Trefil may have been a psychiatrist, and he may have had some connection with the old Mendocino State Mental Hospital in Talmage.
  
  I am researching whether or not Dr. Trefil had any connection with Jim Jones.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone March 15, 2025
    
    Hi John,
    
    Yes it’s very interesting. I was fascinated that people were enthralled about the claims she made as if they were factual and kept sharing the story. Well, that would be interesting if he was connected to Jim Jones.. Mr. Hartzell said that they had his nursing home on lockdown because of it, good job scare and isolate the old folks, was he gonna murder his fellow residents in his condition, with his walker or bed pan? Lol.,, 🤣. Did they put on lockdown to keep people from coming to pay him a visit, get his autograph? Ask him if his daughter is off her rocker or maybe where all the murder victims are? It’s fascinating for sure. 💕
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
  - Chuck Armstrong March 15, 2025
    
    Dr Trefil worked as a psychiatrist at San Quentin prison in the 70’s. Not sure for how long.
    
    Reply
  - Sue Sponte March 15, 2025
    
    Here’s a link to the Medical Board’s accusation against Dr. Trefil, the substance of which he stipulated to as part of surrendering his license. It invoves a patient he became personally involved with and inappropriately prescribed certain drugs to, aggravating her condition. The Board also indicates he suffered a felony conviction, but I can’t find that as county court records from before 2000 aren’t available online.
    https://www2.mbc.ca.gov/BreezePDL/document.aspx?path=%5cDIDOCS%5c20030225%5cDMRA1%5c&did=A1GZXSBB.DID
    
    Reply
    - Mazie Malone March 15, 2025
      
      Hi Sue,
      I checked out the document you shared interesting does sound like he had a non-professional relationship with this woman who seemed to suffer from multiple personality disorder and alcoholism. They revoked his license based on her claims. I would like to know his statements regarding the accusations against him. They mention a lot in that document about him, not recording the valuable information that was necessary for ongoing treatment. Anyone that has ever worked in a medical capacity understands that if it has not been written down, there is no note there is no observation no plan and never documented then it never happened.
      
      Now we are all hooked I guess, lol, real life, way better than TV… lol….
      
      mm ❤️
      
      Reply
      - John Sakowicz March 15, 2025
        
        Apparently, Dr. Trefil was prescribing Haldol injections for the patient in question, a woman identified in court papers simply as “J.G.”. Injectable Haldol is one bad-assed drug. Among its many uses, Haldol can be used as “chemical restraint” in acute care psychiatry, mainly for violent and self-harming patients (controversial use but very common).
        
        Reply
        
        Mazie Malone March 15, 2025
        
        Yeah they gave that to my son once, not good…
        
        mm 💕
        
        Reply
Chuck Dunbar March 15, 2025

TRUMP AT DOJ— ALL THE WAY UNHINGED

The man rants like a madman. How could the legal staff at DOJ not have walked-out as he raved at them? That they did not is astonishing. Excerpts from Politico’s coverage:

“Trump Calls His Opponents ‘Scum’ And Lawbreakers In Bellicose Speech At Justice Department: For more than an hour, he delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence.”

“President Donald Trump on Friday walked into the Department of Justice and labeled his courtroom opponents ‘scum,’ judges ‘corrupt’ and the prosecutors who investigated him ‘deranged.’ With the DOJ logo directly behind him, Trump called his political opponents lawbreakers and said others should be sent to prison. ‘These are people that are bad people, really bad people,’ the president said in a rambling speech that lasted more than an hour.

While condemning officials who directed the military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and repeating his false claims about the 2020 election being stolen, Trump said: ‘The people who did this to us should go to jail.’ In remarks that were by turns dark, exultant and pugnacious, Trump vowed to remake the Justice Department and retaliate against his enemies, some of whom he called ‘thugs.’

It was, even by Trump’s standards, a stunning show of disregard for decades of tradition observed by his predecessors, who worried about politicizing or appearing to exert too much control over the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency. Trump, instead, called himself the ‘chief law enforcement officer in our country’ and accused the DOJ’s prior leadership of doing ‘everything within their power to prevent’ him from becoming the president.

Trump charged the DOJ with spying on his campaign, raiding his home, persecuting his ‘family, staff and supporters,’ launching ‘one hoax and disinformation campaign after the other’ and breaking the law on a colossal scale,’ making clear the glee he has taken in undermining the department’s typical independence and wielding it to achieve the White House’s objectives.

‘First, we must be honest about the lies and the abuses that have occurred within these walls,’ Trump said. ‘Unfortunately in recent years, a corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up over generations. They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people.’ …”

POLITICO 3/13/25

Reply
Kirk Vodopals March 15, 2025

Looking good Rod. Love the pearls

Reply
Matt Kendall March 15, 2025

Alright Major let me set a couple things straight from your reporting yesterday.

Overtime,
What I said was we are on track with the budgeted overtime in the jail and on patrol. We budgeted 2.3 for patrol and 1.3 for the jail and are tracking to be on budget. We may be a little over in the jail. This is because we were funded the amount we needed last year.

Inmate health is a huge issue in Mendocino County. We have many trips per week to the emergency room for inmates who suffer from a lifetime of addiction and abuse of their bodies. Many of these folks are classified as “2 deputy movement” because of assaultive nature. This causes us to call people in for coverage to meet the mandated staffing levels. This is a constant issue.

Three steps forward and 2 steps back, well that’s because many recruits don’t successfully get through training. We have also had a lot of deputies simply decide to leave the state of California, I just received the resignation of a deputy who is moving to Arizona. I have also released people over discipline and we always have those folks who train here and head to another county for big pay increases.

“it seems like the price of doing business has gone up, but the profit we get from doing business is gone down.” I was referring to county revenue sources also criminal fines which were once handed down upon conviction which are almost non existent compared to many years past.

The massive increase in budget ask this coming year is based on the fact we will need to add employees for the new wing of the jail and the contracts which were implemented for employees.

We are working hard to get the numbers down and find a budget we can live with. It’s not easy when we have big bills and small revenues, but we will get there.

Stay tuned as we work through this and hopefully we can find some kind of industry that would allow our county to thrive again.

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- Mazie Malone March 15, 2025
  
  Yo Kendall, 😂😂💕
  
  Maybe you should have been a fireman put out all these fires…. lol…. 🤣😂💕
  
  🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
  
  Enjoy your weekend!! 🤘
  
  mm 💕
  
  Reply
  - Matt Kendall March 15, 2025
    
    Good point corker, seems like that’s a lot of what we’ve been up to lately!
    
    Reply
    - Mazie Malone March 15, 2025
      
      Sheriff,
      Haha….right…
      Once a corker always a corker….🤣🔥
      With an awesome sense of humor 🤪
      Rest up there will be more fires 💕
      
      mm 💕
      
      Reply
- Jim Shields March 15, 2025
  
  Matt,
  We had a thriving industry in this county for six decades but it was destroyed by incompetent, arrogant, know-it-all elected officials and their staffs who destroyed it, and in the process wrecked the economies of two-thirds of the population that live outside of the Ukiah Valley. Our wrecked local economies are completely ignored by the very people whose primary duty is to solve problems, not create and foster them.
  Good Luck
  Jim
  
  Reply
  - Lazarus March 15, 2025
    
    Plus 1…
    Laz
    
    Reply
  - peter boudoures March 15, 2025
    
    I agree
    
    Reply
  - Matt Kendall March 15, 2025
    
    We talking about the pot industry? Logging? Saw mills? All of which seem to have been regulated out of existence by our friends in Sacramento?
    Try to build something and see where the regs have taken us. I’m fairly certain if someone gets struck by lightning in their pasture while farming, the state will mandate helmets with lightning rods and spend a few million on studies of the effectiveness.
    Seems to be the direction we are headed and eventually going to work wont pencil out for more and more people. Sad times old friend.
    
    Reply
Jurgen Stoll March 15, 2025

From Kunstler’s column today: “Yet, strange things keep happening day by day. The Democratic Party’s main grifting engine, the USAID, was deconstructed weeks ago, yet we hear that just this week USAID workers were ordered to go back into their offices to shred all their documents. Did they have anything to hide, ya think?”

From The Hill: “U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees and outside groups are fighting an order from the agency’s leadership to shred and burn its classified documents as well as personnel records.

An email obtained by The Hill sent by USAID’s acting executive secretary instructs remaining employees at the dismantled agencies to “shred as many documents as possible first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.”

The move alarmed those fighting to restore the agency — who stressed the destruction could run afoul of public records laws and hinder any efforts to rehire employees.

It has also raised questions over whether it will impact the ability of the public to scrutinize the role the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) played at USAID.

In two different suits, an organization representing USAID employees along with one representing contractors asked judges for a restraining order to block the agency from destroying the documents — arguing it could impact ongoing litigation and violate their obligation to retain relevant evidence.

“This directive suggests a rapid destruction of agency records on a large scale that could not plausibly involve a reasoned assessment of the records retention obligations for the relevant documents under the [Federal Records Act] or in relation to this ongoing litigation,” the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) said in its suit.

The Personal Services Contractor Association in its suit said Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys have “not confirmed or denied or explained” the order.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears Trump’s acting USAID secretary, Marco Rubio, ordered the destruction of records. And “Trump’s DOJ” is fighting the USAID employee’s attempt to preserve them.

If that’s the case then KUNSTLER IS A LYING SACK OF SHIT!

Reply
- Bruce McEwen March 15, 2025
  
  You actually read Kunstler—? I dinna think anyone read that shrill old Harpie since James Marmon died (rest his soul).
  
  Reply
  - Jurgen Stoll March 15, 2025
    
    I guess if you’re a propagandist for the fascists you get away with making it sound like the destruction of records is a coverup of Democratic malfeasance instead of destroying evidence for a possible future court action against your “DOGE” team of brilliant 20 year old techno Hitler youths for not following the law. Let’s just keep breaking things and we’ll let “our” judges deal with the consequences. Wonder how many of Kunstler’s subscriptions are paid in rubles?
    
    Reply
    - chuck dunbar March 15, 2025
      
      Thanks, Jurgen, for correcting the record. The right has become ready to lie about any issue that arises. Trump has done great harm to the nation by leading his pack in that respect. It’s an astounding thing.
      
      Reply

Mendocino County Today: Saturday 3/15/2025

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