Mendocino County Today: Monday 4/14/2025

Warm Day | Pink Moon | No Consequences | Black Oak | Millsite Contamination | Noyo Plan | Replace Ted | KPFN Anniversary | Ed Notes | Redwood Sorrel | Lost Saloons | Victim Identified | Generation Selfie | Yesterday's Catch | Sacramento Protest | For Seekers | Giants Win | Mister Cool | Prepared Citizens | Keep On | Truck-Stop Gospel | Morning Coffee | Praying | Tallulah Bankhead | Lead Stories | Democratic Socialism | Authoritarian Checklist | Fundamentally Corrupt | Drinking Game | Locus Dei | When Old | Doing Things

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WARM and calm weather will continue today with Monday likely the warmest day of the week. A gradual cooling trended is expected Tuesday through Thursday. There is a slight chance for thunderstorms over the interior mountains Tuesday and Wednesday mainly in the afternoons. Thursday breezy north winds are expected. A rebound in the temperatures expected for Friday and Saturday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 41F under clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. We might see some patchy fog at times but clear skies & warm temps will rules the forecast until further notice.

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JUDY VALADAO

The 2025 Pink Moon was Saturday night at 8:22 p.m. It appeared more orange to me than pink.

April’s full Pink Moon, the first of the official spring season, is used to determine the date of Easter. It is also a "micromoon" according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

Many stargazers know what a supermoon is. A micromoon, as you may or may not have guessed, is the exact opposite of a supermoon. April’s full moon will occur just before reaching apogee, the point when the moon is farthest from Earth, on April 13 at 6:49 p.m.

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THANK YOU, MS. CUBBISON

To the Editor:

Let’s all applaud the courage of Ms. Cubbison to stand up for the public against a corrupt District Attorney, David Eyster.

We are paying Mr. Eyster $217,380/year plus benefits. In return, he just charged us $3,600 to pay for a staff banquet in violation of County policy. How many other banquets did he use our money to pay for? Taxpayers demand that the General Fund be personally reimbursed by Eyster for all the banquets he took our money to pay for.

His failed attempt to silence an innocent whistle blower may ultimately cost the County in the range of 2 million dollars!

From corruption, we move to incompetence. We are paying County Counsel $200,000/year plus benefits. If the general public were asked, “Do you think it’s OK to fire an elected official without Due Process?” the vast majority would say “probably not, it doesn’t seem right.” Probably all Legal Aides would say “no.” Unfortunately for us, our incompetent County Counsel said no problem.

The lack of judgment by the previous Board of Supervisors (BOS) to believe this nonsense is shocking and is what will cost us maybe $2,000,000! Finally, we have allegations of perjury on the witness stand by the CEO and others.

To date, there have been no consequences for anyone. (It’s not our money, it’s the taxpayers.) If this BOS does not stand up to prosecute perjury, fire incompetence and refund the General Fund, the only ones left to face consequences will be the supervisors who created this financial disaster.

Stay tuned to how the BOS assigns consequences.

Dennis Slota

Ukiah

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MILL SITE PROJECT GETS GRANT SUPPORT

by Mary Benjamin

Save the Noyo Headlands, a local organization under the umbrella of the nonprofit Grass Roots Institute, recently received a grant from the CA Department of Toxic Substances Control to update the public about residual contamination in the pond section of the mill site. The ideal outcome of the project would provide all coastal residents with the opportunity to be caretakers of the coast bioregion.

The purpose of Project-HERE is to provide the public with all the information about the condition of the mill site, whose central section, referred to on site maps as Operable Unit E (OU-E), remains inaccessible for public use. Members of the Headlands group believe that the public cannot make informed decisions about mill site development without a clear understanding of possible environmental dangers still unresolved.

Save the Noyo Headlands has retained Farallon Consulting, LLC as its source of scientific expertise. As a technical consultant, the group hired Steffany Aguilar, a Professional Geologist (PG) with nine years of experience who can review all the previous soil testing results. Aguilar will also determine what soil areas need retesting for greater clarity about the level of contamination still present on the site.

According to Save the Headlands members Jade Tippet and Leslie Kashiwada, over the next 18 months the project’s group will conduct a public survey to establish the level of public knowledge about the conditions at the mill site, conduct outreach to other community groups, collect samplings of likely contamination, and invite the public to engage in these activities.

Aguilar will access the old data and analyze her own collected data, which will then be presented in a series of public forums to explain what has been done and what still needs to be done. The project’s grant does not involve any other organization, business, or government agency. It is an independent, nonpolitical action intended for the public good.

The project’s group members are all coastal residents “concerned about the lack of progress of sustainable cleanup,” particularly the resulting restrictions due to contamination. The aim of the group is “to ensure a safe, productive and inclusive future for this vital community asset.”

Leslie Kashiwada noted that the group is not interested in promoting views about the wisdom of Mendocino Railway’s and the City of Fort Bragg’s current legal stay, current efforts to pursue agreements out of court, or the development plans recently presented. She said, “Actually, the members of our group have a wide range of viewpoints about the lawsuit, how the mill site should be used, or who should be responsible for the environmental damage.”

The group is committed to promoting a “positive view of the future for the Headlands” and will not engage in finger-pointing. Their end goal is to draw the public’s attention to specific actions: “mitigation of contamination; restoration of estuaries; daylighting creeks; ensuring environmentally sound housing; and, maintaining a wildlife corridor.”

Jade Tippet said, “No one can move forward until the cleanup is complete.” Tippet noted that the two town halls focused on development ideas to the public first is “putting the cart before the horse.”

Kashiwada, who earned her degrees in ocean science at Scripps University, explained the importance of hiring an outside expert. “The data results need the expertise of a professional geologist who can explain to the public what those numbers mean.” As an example, Kashiwada noted that there are specified levels of acceptable cleanup of land for human use.

She said, “The cleanup level for land that people just walk by is far lower that the level required for cleanup of land for housing or recreational use. You have to think about whether the ground is safe enough for children to play soccer or a family to plant a garden.”

Tippet pointed out that if nothing was done and the land lay unused, “It would take hundreds of years for the land to restore itself. What can be mitigated? What can be restored?”

Kashiwada noted she has heard a lot of talk about having a soccer field out on the site but points out that people are throwing out ideas without knowing about safety. “Mendocino Railway,” she said, “has talked about a need to create a moisture barrier in the contaminated soil areas. What needs consideration is a vapor barrier as these chemicals degrade over time.”

She added, “You have to take into consideration the pond’s winter overflow. How far out in the ocean will we find contaminated particles? How long did it take before those particles sank to the ocean floor?”

Tippet added, “For testing, you have to think about the seasons of the year and how each season relates to what is happening with the contamination.” He believes that the 18-month span of the project is enough time to address this. They also hope to pull in high school science students who are capable of adhering to the strict protocols of sample collection.

Kashiwada said that they still have much to do, such as pulling in local community groups who can supply venues for public forums and making sure that Aguilar has access to all contamination reports presented over the years. Kashiwada and Tippet have already have supplied Aguilar with maps of the mill site and have escorted Aguilar on a tour of the site as well.

Kashiwada said that Aguilar “is already reading over years of documentation on the actions already taken or not taken beginning with the Georgia Pacific era. Tippet recalled, “During Georgia Pacific’s last year or so, they were putting anything they could into those burners, which by morning, would leave a coating of dark ash over the town.”

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REPLACEMENT TIME

Editor:

With the upcoming election in 2026, it is certainly time for the 5th District to consider just how voters should replace Ted Williams, and just who his replacement will be. The truth is his eight years have been marked by abject failure in our County. When he and I were both running for the seat in 2018, when my stroke took me out of the running before our November run off, Ted was selling himself, as the young, can-do outsider who was going to get our County working again. By any metric he has failed his constituents.

Perhaps the clearest example is the recent dismissal, by Judge Ann Moorman, of the farcical case against Chamise Cubbison, County auditor and tax collector. The case was a clearly vindictive prosecution by DA David Eyster. But the way Williams and our BOS threw Chamise under the bus is truly shameful. On just the DA’s say so, they removed an elected official from her office. (Shades of Elon Musk?) Thus throwing the county’s financial affairs into chaos, and exposing the County to a potentially expensive wrongful termination lawsuit. To anyone who is paying attention those offices should never have been combined. But Ted ignored that advice too and forced Chamise into an impossible position. I still maintain contacts in the SEIU, since they endorsed me in 2018, and morale of county employees is at an historic low.

On other fronts, can anyone identify even one move that has been made to establish affordable housing for working people, or even one initiative for decent wages? Admittedly I may have missed some, but it seems pretty quiet out there. We remain a wine and tourist dependent Economy. Who can raise a family on those wages?

Again, I’m not aware of a single effort by Williams in this area. in fact when we are both running in 2018, the County stood to benefit from the legalization of marijuana. We were loaded with legacy growers, who had generations of farming knowledge and were looking forward to no longer having to hide. They were looking forward to full economic participation in County affairs. I remember at a candidate cannabis forum Ted said he would get the County permitting application down to 1 page and a $25 fee. This was a chance for some real living wage jobs. It was an exciting time! I still maintain some of my contacts in that community, and not a single one feels like Ted did anything for them. In fact most of them have quit trying, have moved on, or even sold their land.

In considering his replacement I would recommend someone who is not interested in career moves outside our County. It should be someone who is interested in maintaining their roots in our community. I know some Coatlib Dems have been whispering in Ted’s ear about Sacramento. Maybe even the governorship, Even I found that hard to believe until his ill-fated Assembly run. Clearly he sees his current position as a rung on his career ladder.

An opposing candidate must have laser sharp focus to keep the campaign on County affairs. When John Redding ran against Ted in 2022, he ran as a Republican. With the fear of Trump at such a peak fervor, Ted easily kept the focus on national issues that a BOS would never have been involved with. John was unable to keep the focus on relevant county issues.

So Ted’s opponent needs to stay on point, and expose his actual record. and you will also face this bizarre scenario: Williams recruits minions. He finds anti-social losers who have some kind of weird hero worship of him. These losers have some veneer of credibility. But they are truly sucking up to their “hero.” I saw it when Ted and I were aligned with our roles in the Albion Little River Fire District, and when we each ran in 2018, and when John Redding challenged him in 2022. The man (Ted) is amoral and so creepy at his core. It’s quite pathetic and surreal. But he deploys these minions to write LTE’s and comment in online discussion groups that are created and (ahem) ”moderated” by his allies. But I’m warning you this IS a thing you will face. But again I believe if you maintain laser sharp focus on the man’s many failings, he can be defeated. So for the good of your District and the County, please get busy.

It will be difficult. He is surrounded by a remarkable cadre of enablers and apologists who fall for his charm, But I believe it can, and must, be done, for the health of our community,

Thank you,

Chris Skyhawk

Fort Bragg

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ED NOTES

COULD MENDOCINO COUNTY be fracked? And if it were fracked, what the frack would it be fracked for? Because great swathes of the County are owned by either the Mendocino Redwood Company or the government, these two entities would own the rights to most of whatever’s down there. And what is down there?

WAY BACK there were some smallish copper mines, one of them lying in the canyon between the Feliz Creek headwaters and Yorkville’s Y Ranch. But that was surface mining. In Covelo there was some rock (jade?) and coal mining done by Italian nationals before World War Two, hence Indians named Gino and Carlo. We know that there are hot water springs here and there which, I suppose, might be tapped for energy as they are at the Geysers in Lake County. But Mendo’s hot water springs seem awfully small compared to the whole area of them in Lake County. And we know there are oil deposits in the Pacific vastness off Point Arena and Elk. But that stretch of ocean is forever protected, not that anybody or anything is safe from the marauder in the White House.

I RECALL ASKING former 5th District Supervisor Norman de Vall about what might lure large-scale extractive interests to Mendocino County. “The most interesting map I ever saw in the Planning Department,” de Vall said, “was of the County showing hot water springs. The Anderson Valley is ringed with warm water sources. Add to that the Manchester Anticline just to the west and that the largest limestone deposit (limestone = cement) in California is on the Greenwood-Philo Ridge Road and you have the next economic era. I have no doubt that we’re on top of lucrative natural gas fields and hydro-petroleum.

“A FEW YEARS AGO, I met up with some petro geologists chipping away at the cliff edge in Point Arena Cove who showed me what they were looking for — oil. During WWII Atlantic-Richfield drilled for oil at Point Arena and developed a producing well. But history has it that it was so laden with sulfur that it wasn’t put into production. I’ve also heard that oil deposits have been found leeching into Wages and San Juan Creeks. We would do well to pass an anti-fracking initiative in the County.”

A READER WRITES: “You know what a ‘road hog’ is? Well, we people, pretty much all of us, are environment and resource hogs. Even when we try to be good, there are so many of us that we have and are draining the water resources dry. The once huge salmonid resource struggles to survive at all due to our taking so much of the water necessary to power the streams and rivers. When you fly the county it is amazing to see all the ponds and trapped water that is unavailable to the fish and other species. What should have happened was that the state and the county should have stepped in much earlier to stop over drafting of the water resources. But fish and bears don’t vote, and politicians need popularity (and money). We humans have done a piss-poor job of managing things and greed wins again. I’ll see your outrage and raise you!”

LITERARY NOTE from R.W. Johnson: “Hemingway’s famous terseness, his determination to get the maximum impact from the minimum number of words, and when the journalists who heard him demanded a six-word story competition, Hemingway won it easily with, ‘For Sale. Baby shoes. Never worn’.”

THE VERY DEFINITION of mentally ill is that crazy people don’t know they’re nuts. Aaron Bassler would not have volunteered for help. In fact, he hadn’t reported in a timely manner when the federal courts ordered him into therapy prior to his Mendo rampage back in late 2012. Local cops knew Bassler was dangerously out of control but whenever he was arrested for something, Ten Mile Court predictably sentenced him to, basically, nothing, and off Bassler went, back into the hills, a mountain man, isolated and crazier by the day.

BUT IN JAIL, Bassler was a model inmate, indicating that his murderous rampage that August of 2012 may have been fueled more by methamphetamine than mental illness. Or mental illness exacerbated into violence by methamphetamine. Lots of otherwise sane people do crazy stuff under the influence. But incarcerated, and caught up on their sleep, eating regular meals, they’re fine. The state hospital system dismantled by Reagan in the late 1960s, used to incarcerate and re-tool the disturbed psyche, and if it couldn’t be re-tooled the crazy person stayed permanently in the bin where he was at least safe and could not harm others.

USED TO BE, the 5150’s went straight into the state hospital system; they weren’t invited to report to the bin because they didn’t know that it would be in their best interests to voluntarily present themselves for the straitjacket, or its therapeutic equivalent. But those of us who enjoy a more or less plausible mental health functioning, also used to understand that it amounted to cruel and unusual indifference to allow the insane to wander around unsupervised, untreated, a clear and present danger to themselves and everyone else.

BUT THE SYSTEM of systematic help for the mentally ill was dismantled in California and most of the rest of the country 50 years ago, hence the Basslers of Mendocino County, of whom there are a dozen or so wandering the County at the present time, a fact you can confirm with the people who deal with them — law enforcement and the court system. They’re in and out of the County Jail all the time, these ticking timebombs, and there’s nothing that can be done with them.

NO ONE WANTS to simply say, “In the present political context there is nothing we can do to get the Aaron Basslers the help a rational society would help them get.” Instead, we have these endless conversations about what to do with them without addressing the underlying problem — the absence of the mandatory, unilateral incarceration, in a hospital setting, of the seriously mentally ill.

THE SUPE’s Laura’s Law discussion back in 2012 contained some startling revelations, including Supervisor Hamburg’s statement that there is no record that anyone at the County ever received the warning letters that James Bassler, the father of dual murderer Aaron Bassler, says he sent prior to his son’s murders of Matt Coleman and Jere Melo.

JAMES BASSLER also says he told “Fish and Game” about his suspicions that his son may have been involved in the killing of Matt Coleman, which occurred almost a month before Aaron Bassler shot and killed Melo, but there is no record with Fish and Game of that letter.

DA DAVID EYSTER appeared before the Supervisors during the Laura’s Law discussion to say he had concluded his investigation of the Bassler shooting and that Bassler was not a candidate for Laura’s Law because he didn’t meet the criteria. Nothing in the jail, medical or court records support the idea that Bassler qualified, Eyster said. When arrested prior to committing the two murders, Bassler had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol or both. When in jail he was given no meds and was a model of compliance. Bassler did not appear to be clinically insane even after the shootings of Coleman and Melo. He knew enough not to shoot the homeless guys he encountered, and he knew enough to elude an intense manhunt for 35 and a half days.

AFTER ALL THE PUBLIC hubbub about how implementation by Mendo of Laura’s Law might have prevented the murders of Melo and Coleman, and the intense full court press networking by Sonja Nesch and others, only about 15 people bothered to show for the showdown meeting with the Supervisors. In the end, the Board basically directed staff to keep doing what they are doing. The Powerpoint presentation is still somewhere on the County’s website under “items of interest” along with other documents, including a couple from Disability Rights California and another advocacy group that are opposed to Laura’s Law.

BEST BOOZE EVER to come outta Mendo was the work of Hubert Germain-Robin, creator of Mendocino County’s finest hooch, Germain-Robin brandy, which was gifted to me by Hube himself.

SO ANXIOUS was he at the time to get the news out of his marvelous concoction he’d sent lowly me a sample bottle, which I promptly taste-tested with the late David Colfax, the liveliest drinking companion I’ve ever had. We pronounced it “the best,” and I announced the news of our findings to the waiting world in the very next issue of the mighty AVA.

IT was the mid-1980s when Hube was just starting out in Ukiah. I was not exaggerating when I said it was the best hooch ever to make its way down my indiscriminate gullet. Hube, a genuine Frenchman from the fatherland of brandy, Cognac, France, was so pleased with my review that for a few succeeding Christmases he sent me free bottles, which then retailed for upwards of $40 per, and way outta my price range. Now? $80? $150?

GERMAIN-ROBIN soon caught on and, sob, the Boonville newspaper no longer got a Christmas gift bottle. The booze world had rushed in and the high-end mags and large-circulation newspapers were now touting the stuff, and presidents were serving it at state dinners.

OL’ HUBE sold his still to whatever conglomerate owns it now, but last I heard he still lives in Redwood Valley, venturing out only as a consultant, and good on him for all the success he has had. Not many people can say they started something as excellent as Hube’s brandy, brewed in his little copper still in the west hills above a dying town in Mendocino County.

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AT THE CEMETERY OF LOST SALOONS

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

News that Dick’s Bar in the very quaint Village of Mendocino has closed down surprised me only because I had assumed it had disappeared a decade or more ago, transformed into an art gallery, a real estate office or a vape shop.

Everywhere, bars are nearly extinct. The Forest Club is the last true bar still standing in Ukiah. Fort Bragg has a pair of gems in the Golden West and, almost next door, the Welcome Inn. Visit while you can.

In a blink of an eye (translation: 40 years) Ukiah has lost some of what helped make Ukiah Ukiah: The Water Trough, Happiness Is Club, Drifter’s Club, Peacock Lounge, a pair at the Palace Hotel, Bob’s Bar, the Samoa Club and too many more.

(If Applebee’s closed tomorrow it wouldn’t leave a vacancy.)

I went to Dick’s Bar a few times but usually found myself among those thrilled to experience a “real dive bar,” followed by photos of themselves and another Harvey Wallbanger.

My favorite bar was in the Dante Hotel in Cloverdale. I was a hippie in the 1970s and I did occasional afternoons, and far more evenings at the Dante following ballgames in the local fastpitch softball league. It was a comfy place that fit me like an old pair of Frye boots.

The two-story hotel, drab and unpainted in the decades I knew her, sat in the southeast corner of the city. It had a wooden porch.

Here’s something I wrote recently (translation: a dozen years ago) about the Dante. I never published it, but it’s either now or another dozen years.

THE DANTE HOTEL is run by longtime proprietor Tosca, shaped like a beer keg, heart of pure pasta, shrewd as a pawnbroker. A kitchen adjoined the bar back then, and a plate of spaghetti cost about the same as a bottle of beer. The stained ceiling is T&G (ask your boyfriend) with a floor of oriented strand board (ask a construction guy).

The joint looks both homey and sad from the string of Christmas lights over the bar. In a side room there’s a cigarette machine alongside a pinball machine and a broken jukebox. The cigs range from Camel Filters to Pall Mall, and Salems for women and sissies.

Geri is your host, and a pleasant lass she is. She says the last time someone pulled a pack of smokes out of the machine was a couple years ago and they were stale. BYOC.

The beer rotation leans heavily toward the Bud, the Coors and the Miller, with some craft brews and imports for you Salem smokers. Pool table is a busy one. Plenty of free parking.

I dislike the term “dive bar” and the Dante isn’t one anyway. It’s an old local joint with genuine local customers. Talk around the bar involves the A’s, Giants, the merits of a ‘64 Chevy with a 409. Guys debating the cars have owned ‘em all and raced them to Boonville and back. You can ask One-Eye Ralph (it’s his name, that’s why) for details.

A Ukiah pal, Pat Walsh, said last time he was at the Dante the TV screen was rolling, like black-and-white TV screens always seem to be, showing a Gilligan’s Island re-run.

Men’s room door (only one I sampled; gender confusion is not common at the Dante) is held open with a loop of clothesline. The box that dispenses liquid soap doesn’t. Relax: a sliver of white soap rests on the edge of the sink.

There is a faucet on the right for cold water and a faucet on the left for display purposes only. Bathroom features also include a draining sink, a mirror. Having never visited the ladies’ room I’m unable to comment on its amenities. I doubt there’s a bidet.

And then I stopped at the Dante a few weeks back (translation: two summers ago) and it was closed, locked, shut down for good. Health Code Violations someone said. And I said Well of Course. But it won’t be a real estate shop unless they bulldoze it to dust, which has probably already happened.

As Mr. Dylan sang 60-plus years ago:

He was only a hobo

But one more is gone

Leavin’ nobody

To carry it on

And those bars aren’t just drinking facilities, but community gathering spots where they play Liar’s Dice at the bar, argue over the ballgame on TV, half-listen to Wanda Jackson on the jukebox and get home in time for dinner.

Always A Thrill

Imagine my delight to learn so many of Ukiah’s most credulous and gullible had gathered ‘round the courthouse to hug each other and tremble in fear of Donald the Monster. ”Hands Off!” they shrieked.

I learned long ago that lefties love to see themselves as romantic rebels forever in danger from the forces of repression. Their faux hysteria and rampant paranoia in confronting imaginary enemies makes grand theater.

But remember: of the two catastrophic events in the past 40 years, leftists have predicted 378 of them.

(Tom Hine writes these columns but the glory and the paychecks go to his imaginary friend. TWK points out that before crowbars were invented crows mostly just drank at home.)

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WOMAN, 20, FOUND AMONG AT LEAST 11 VICTIMS OF CALIFORNIA SERIAL KILLER DUO

by Katie Dowd

For the second time this year, a victim of California serial killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng has been identified. Now, at long last, Brenda Sue O’Connor is headed home to be buried among family.

Lake and Ng are two of the most infamous serial killers of the 20th century. Lake was born in San Francisco in 1945 and attended Balboa High, enlisting in the Marines after graduation and deploying several times to Vietnam. He was eventually given a medical discharge after being diagnosed with a personality disorder. Lake became obsessed with nuclear holocaust and survivalism, eventually moving to a cabin in Wilseyville, an unincorporated area in Calaveras County about 70 miles northeast of Stockton.

In the early 1980s, Lake met Ng, who was born in Hong Kong. Ng came to the Bay Area on a student visa to attend Notre Dame de Namur University, where he was an academic failure. After failing out of school, Ng faked an ID in order to enlist in the Marines. In 1980, he was busted for allegedly stealing weapons from a military base, and he went on the run. Lake and Ng shared a propensity for violence and a tie to the military, becoming an unlikely duo in crime.

In April 1985, Lake’s Wilseyville neighbors Lonnie Wayne Bond, 27, his girlfriend Brenda Sue O’Connor, 20, and their 1-year-old son Lonnie Bond Jr. went missing, along with friend Robin Scott Stapley, 26. Bond and Stapley’s bodies were discovered in sleeping bags buried off a mountain road near Wilseyville several months later, but baby Lonnie and O’Connor remained missing.

In June 1985, while Lake waited in the car, Ng shoplifted from a hardware store in South San Francisco. Although Ng was able to escape, police caught up with Lake and discovered a gun in the car — which was registered to a missing person. While in custody, Lake swallowed a cyanide pill he kept hidden on his person and died. A search of his belongings uncovered video tapes the pair had taken while torturing some of their victims; O’Connor was on the tapes.

Ng was found about a month later in Canada after attempting to steal at a department store. He was eventually found guilty of 11 confirmed murders, although it’s believed the pair may have killed over a dozen more. A mass grave was discovered on the Wilseyville property, but because of the state of the remains, law enforcement couldn’t be sure how many victims were left there.

The loss of O’Connor and her baby was devastating for her family members in Michigan. With no grave to visit, O’Connor’s sister Debra created a granite marker to place her parents’ backyard in Coldwater.

“I made that about the third year after it happened because I got tired of not having a grave,” she told a local newspaper in 1994. A tattoo of the makeshift headstone graced her body, too, “so when I die, they can be buried with me,” she said.

In 2021, the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office announced it was taking a fresh look at the Wilseyville case with the benefit of modern forensics. In late January, they revealed that remains found in the mass grave were matched to Reginald “Reggie” Frisby, a previously unknown victim of the pair. Investigators also reexamined remains that had been long kept in a crypt in San Andreas but were known to be linked to Lake-Ng. With the help of private labs and genealogists, investigators from the cold case task force recently confirmed the remains belonged to O’Connor.

This week, the sheriff’s office announced the remains are on their way to O’Connor’s family, calling it a “heartbreaking yet necessary reunion.”

“This case underscores the power of modern forensic science in bringing families the closure they deserve, even after decades of uncertainty,” the department said in a statement.

In 1994, O’Connor’s sister remarked she would rather see Ng “rot in prison for the rest of his life” than receive the death penalty. She will likely get her wish. The death penalty has been suspended in California, and Ng, now 64, is incarcerated at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

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Lake and Ng in the Anderson Valley

A RECENT DOCUMENTARY whose first episode was called “The Bone Yard” (the first part of a three part series called ‘Manifesto of a Serial Killer’) about former Anderson Valley residents, Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, got off to an encouraging start — Lake’s suicide via a cyanide capsule while in police custody when he apparently realized his sordid rampage of murder and kidnap had ended with his arrest. Ng, Lake’s partner, has been in custody for years since, another person who should have been either offed or packed off to a permanent prison years ago but for a turgid legal system that tacitly permits endless appeals, taking whole years between decisions.

LAKE AND NG, plus Lake’s then-wife, Caralyn ‘Cricket’ Balazs, made their happy home in Philo in the early 1980s. I won’t identify the two addresses to spare the present owners the onus of association with mass murder, but old timers know them well. My memory of the two psychos was seeing Lake and Ng trucking along 128 in full camo, and Lake’s ad in the AVA looking for people to play war games with. At the time, he also functioned as an Anderson Valley volunteer firefighter and the organization’s recording secretary. “Yeah, yeah, Bruce, he was a nut, but he had beautiful handwriting,” was one post-mass murder local assessment of Lake.

I MAY HAVE HELPED get Lake’s wife fired from her job as a teacher’s aide at AV Junior High when my daughter alerted me that a woman who worked at the school named “Cricket” had asked several of my daughter’s classmates to pose for Cricket’s “photographer” husband in a hot tub at the couple’s home. Nope, not having it, and Cricket was fired. And life went on in a community then way too tolerant of aberrant behavior, a key tenet of the Do Your Own Thing-ism prevalent at the time.

IN LIGHT of her husband’s subsequent rampages, I’ve always thought Cricket knew a lot more than she ever copped to. (So did some cops, according to the documentary.) Last heard from, she had a new man and was living in Covelo, but that was years ago, and I only knew about it because the new man called to ask me not to mention his wife’s new life, as if a person intimately associated with horrific events can simply turn life’s corner for rainbows and unicorns, but as many dubious characters before and after her have discovered, Cricket may have fully adopted Mendo’s convenient amnesia that declares you are whatever you say you are, and history starts all over again every day.

LAKE AND NG apparently hadn’t begun their kidnap and murder campaign when they lived in Anderson Valley, but they had come spectacularly to the attention of federal authorities for somehow stealing a cache of weapons from a Marine Corps armory in Hawaii, and double somehow managed to get them all the way to Philo where, one memorable day, a big black helicopter landed on Highway 128 near Lemons Market, disgorging a black-clad swat unit who soon had an address on Ray’s Road surrounded. Lake and Ng were arrested, the weapons recovered and, for their third arrest somehow, were soon released from custody. The Valley’s resident deputy, Keith Squires, said after the event that if Lake and Ng had shot it out with the feds “they had so much gear they could have held out for a long time.”

A COUPLE of years later, when the remains of all, or most of their victims were discovered in Calaveras County near the Boonville-size hamlet of Wilseyville, the authorities spent a fruitless week searching for possible remains on the grounds of the killers’ former Philo address.

WHAT doesn’t seem to be known is that Lake, prior to moving over the hill to the Anderson Valley, had been ordered off Greenfield Ranch, a hippie-heavy collective north of Ukiah, where he had rented a tractor and was building a bunker of the type he later constructed in Wilseyville. He was even too creepy for Greenfield’s socially elastic counter-culturalists.

AMONG Lake’s depraved papers — he fancied himself something of a philosopher, having been inspired by the novel “The Collector” by British author John Fowles, also about an imagined kidnap of a sex slave — were repeat mentions of a local high school girl who worked at Jack’s Valley Store. That kid probably dodged a literal bullet.

THE WORLD CLASS PSYCHOS of yesteryear could afford the rents of Mendocino County up through the 1970s, but they’ve since been priced outtahere.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, April 13, 2025

BRYAN ARELLANO, 31, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

CARMEN ARENS, 40, Ukiah. Under influence, resisting.

CHADLEY GOTTSIMMONS, 41, Redwood Valley. Paraphernalia, failure to appear.

ADAM HARTMAN, 48, Leggett. Controlled substance.

AARON KING, 61, Ukiah. Attempted robbery.

ELLE MARTEENY, 46, Ukiah. Under influence.

FRANCISCO NAVARRO-SANDOVAL, 35, Ukiah. Elder abuse, brandishing, failure to appear.

ANTHONY NEVAREZ, 41, Redwood Valley. Domestic battery, false imprisonment.

STEVEN RICH SR., 37, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation,

BOBBY ROSTON, 40, Ukiah. Parole violation.

RIORDAN WILHELMI, 41, Mendocino. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

DANIEL YEOMANS, 54, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation, resisting.

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FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE RALLIES AT CAPITOL IN SUPPORT OF MAKE POLLUTERS PAY SUPERFUND BILL

by Dan Bacher

Over 100 high school students and their allies rallied at the State Capitol in Sacramento on April 11 to demand that their legislators vote for the Make Polluters Pay Superfund Bill.

Fridays for Future Sacramento and an array of local climate and environmental justice groups held a march and rally in support of the Make Polluters Pay Superfund Bill (SB 684 & AB 1243) on Friday, April 11.

This bill would make the biggest fossil fuel polluters pay their fair share for the climate destruction they’ve caused - rather than leaving taxpayers to cover the cost.

The protest began with a gathering at Crocker Park. The participants, mainly from Sacramento Area high schools, marched to the State Capitol where they held a short rally.…

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/04/13/18875418.php

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(Steve Derwinski)

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JUNG HOO LEE HOMERS TWICE off Carlos Rodón, Giants rally from 3-run deficit to beat Yankees 5-4

by Larry Fleisher

NEW YORK (AP) — Jung Hoo Lee homered in consecutive at-bats off Carlos Rodón for his first career multi-homer game, and the San Francisco Giants rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the New York Yankees 5-4 Sunday.

San Francisco has won nine of 12 games and took a regular-season series in the Bronx for the first time.

New York has lost five of seven games and three of its last four series. Yankees starters have a 5.40 ERA, tied with Baltimore for highest in the major leagues.

Rodón (1-3) allowed four runs and three hits in 5 2/3 innings. He has allowed five runs in his last three starts after issuing walks and his 36 homers allowed since the start of 2024 are tied with Toronto’s Jose Berríos for the most in the majors.

Lee got San Francisco’s first hit in the fourth inning by homering into the right-center field seats off Rodón’s slider. He put the Giants ahead 4-3 in the sixth, driving a hanging curveball for his third homer of the series. Rookie Christian Koss reached on an infield single for his first major league hit and Willy Adames walks.

Paul Goldschmidt hit an RBI single off Logan Webb (2-0) in the first before getting robbed of a hit by right fielder Luis Matos’ leaping catch at the wall in the third. JC Escarra added an RBI double, and Ben Rice hit a run-scoring single in the second off Webb.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. homered off sidearmer Tyler Rogers in the eighth, ending an 0-for-24 slide. Ryan Walker got a called third strike on Aaron Judge to finish his fourth save.

Webb allowed three runs and five hits in five innings.

The Giants added a run in the seventh when Casey Schmitt scored on an error by Goldschmidt, who misplayed Koss' grounder.

After the deal, the Yankees played Alicia Keys' “Empire State of Mind.” They are no longer using “New York, New York” after home defeats this year.

(sfgate.com)

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YOU MAY BE COOL, but you’ll never be double king salmon leather jacket captains hat Ford Customline cigarette cool. (May Robbins)

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AMERICANS ARE PREPARING FOR WHEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE

Once thought of as a fringe mind-set, the prepared citizen movement is gaining traction in a world shaped by war, the pandemic and extreme weather.

by Thomas Gibbons-Neff

Ten men, some wearing camouflage, others in vests loaded with ammunition for their AR-15 rifles, gathered under the morning shade of oak trees in Central Florida last month. They were there to learn marksmanship tactics common among Special Operation forces and elite law enforcement units.

Their instructor, Christopher Eric Roscher, an Air Force veteran, introduced himself and then led the group in prayer.

“Lord, you would use them as assets, to be protectors in this world, in a world that’s full of evil,” he prayed.

The men gathered around him were not soldiers, police officers or right-wing militia members. They were mostly civilians, including two pilots, a nurse and a construction company executive. The class’s title — Full Contender Minuteman — even referred to the civilians turned soldiers of the American Revolution.

In a world shaped by war, a pandemic and extreme weather, more Americans are getting ready for crisis — whether it’s to fight a tyrannical government, repel an invading army or respond to a natural disaster.

They are known as prepared or professional citizens, part of a growing number of gun owners who are adapting their mind-set to uncertain and polarized times. And rather than being part of more fringe “prepper” culture, they are growing more mainstream, catered to by companies ready to offer them the tools and training to be ready.

The traditional aspects of gun ownership — such as simple target shooting — are increasingly being shelved in favor of topics like radio and medical training, night-vision shooting, drone reconnaissance, homesteading and military tactics.

“We are looking at a growing number of companies who are broadening the appeal and normalizing self preparedness and the tools needed to enable it,” said Kareem Shaya, the co-founder of Open Source Defense, a startup working to normalize gun culture in the United States and invest in new companies in the civilian defense industry. “Five or 10 years ago, we couldn’t have done what we’re doing because there just weren’t enough startups in the space. We’re seeing it accelerate in real time.”

Prepared citizenry and the more familiar practice of “prepping” share some characteristics, though preppers are more focused on getting ready for long-term self-sufficiency — keeping chickens, growing a vegetable garden and storing supplies in bulk. Prepared citizens want to be ready for sudden calamity.

The concept emerged for Mr. Roscher, 35, as he watched Russia invade Ukraine in 2022. Ukrainian civilians were flooding the streets with little ability to defend themselves.

“It really hit home for me,” he said.

Mr. Roscher began teaching firearms classes after leaving active duty in the Air Force and started his own training company, Barrel & Hatchet Trade Group, with his business partner Tyler Burke in 2020. Barrel & Hatchet also has a YouTube channel, an Instagram account, a podcast and a gear store.

Their programming is a mix of firearms reviews, training tips and lists, and lessons in being mentally prepared for a disaster. In the past year or so, Mr. Roscher’s turn toward Christianity and prayer has also attracted a receptive audience and clientele.

Mr. Roscher recently produced a video he called “Things We Need to Remember, for the Dark Chapter Coming,” which highlighted his belief that some societal flashpoint is near, whether it be from attacks led by drug cartels, possible terrorist sleeper cells spread across the United States or an economic downturn.

His monologue, which also detailed a vivid dream of a nuclear blast, sounded almost like a sermon.

Mr. Roscher, like other veterans or former law enforcement officers in the prepared citizen community, said he started teaching to pass on his knowledge to regular people.

His work is not limited to in-person training and even draws from global conflicts. A video on his channel exploring drone combat in Ukraine and how the technology can be used for civilians in the United States was shared on an Appalachia-based Telegram messaging channel for prepared citizens in early March, sparking interest among those in the chat.

“I gotta find a group to train with,” one message in the group read, lamenting that their choices for training cadres were limited to local militias or other right-wing fringe groups.

“Try Barrel and Hatchet if you’re in Florida,” another message said. “They’re trying to recruit.”

Josh Eppert, 40, was one of those recruits. During the pandemic, he found a group of people he liked shooting with and received much-needed instruction from Mr. Roscher and his team.

The vice president of a construction company based in Tampa, Fla., Mr. Eppert represents the quintessential prepared citizen.

“If I’m gonna own this stuff, then I want to become proficient with it — not that there’s any illusions of becoming Rambo or anything like that. It’s just I enjoy the challenge,” Mr. Eppert said.

Wearing camouflage, a chest rig loaded with AR-15 magazines and black-and-white Adidas sneakers (he forgot his boots at home), Mr. Eppert spent the minuteman class shooting from barricades, practicing pistol draws and learning a new way to store ammunition on his belt.

The drills were framed around how students might need to act “on the worst day of your life,” Mr. Roscher said, so target shooting often took place after 25-yard sprints.

Mr. Eppert’s AR-15 rifle had a close range sight, a flashlight and a sound suppressor, or silencer. Some students had infrared lasers on their rifles for night-vision shoots, a class Mr. Roscher also teaches.

And though Mr. Eppert has a less gloomy outlook on the future than his instructor, he stressed the need for self-reliance, especially with the enduring threat of deadly hurricanes across the state.

“Am I putting a bunker in my backyard?” he asked, jokingly. “I don’t have plans for any of that, but I think it’s important just to be smart and be able to take care of things.”

On the other side of the tactical training spectrum from Mr. Roscher’s Barrel & Hatchet is Ben Spangler, a former Army officer who has run an Instagram account called @tacticalforge since 2023. His short videos explaining military infantry tactics like patrolling and setting up ambushes and observation posts get hundreds of thousands of views and are widely shared in the prepared citizen world.

He also has an Etsy page where he sells training kits with maps, protractors to plot navigation points, compasses and field guides. Old military instruction manuals, once a forgotten staple of Army Navy surplus stores, have had a resurgence among the prepared citizen crowd.

“They’re usually quieter, because they’re usually more of an observer, or they’re asking questions,” Mr. Spangler said of his customers. “They’ll go on hikes, they maybe go to the range a few times, or they’ve got a core group of people that like doing that stuff. But it’s not a militia in any sense of the word, but usually those folks, when they don’t have that military background, they’re just looking for information.”

For decades, fear has been a significant driver of gun sales, but what separates the prepared citizen from an average gun owner is community. Whether it’s Barrel & Hatchet training classes or groups in North Carolina or Colorado that spend days in the woods, hiking and preparing defensive positions to train for notional invasions or societal collapse, prepared citizens like to collaborate and find strength in numbers.

Thirty-five miles southeast of the minuteman course, Danielle L. Campbell, 43, picked up a pistol at the Orlando Gun Club and fired into a paper target a few yards away. Protect Peace, the community-focused group that she helped found in 2023, would not define themselves as prepared citizens in the same way as Mr. Roscher’s cohort, but they share much of the same DNA.

“I started training after my assistant was killed by a stray bullet,” Ms. Campbell said, sitting in a lounge chair at the shooting club. “Before that, I always had guns, but I never trained, I never took it seriously.” Her colleague was killed during a robbery in 2017, and she started firearms training soon afterward.

Protect Peace serves as a community outreach group for dozens of gun owners in Central and Southern Florida, where instead of preparing for a chaotic future, they are helping local communities affected by gun violence.

Ms. Campbell’s group helps provide medical trauma training; distributes naloxone, an overdose reversal drug, in impoverished neighborhoods; and hosts community shooting events attended by dozens of gun owners. She is also working to get members of the group amateur radio licenses so they can communicate in an emergency.

“Part of the reason why we do it is to really form a community,” she said. “We had a public defender, a police officer, state troopers, all kinds of people. It was just so welcoming and inviting. I think that’s where this whole concept was born.”

(NY Times)

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TRUCK STOP GOSPEL

by Parker Milsap

18 wheels and 18 miles to Tucumcari
Just me and Billy Graham and the Bibles that I carry
Me I'm not just any other Dick or Harry
I got a big cross painted on the side of my rig
To remind the devil that he ain't so big and scary

Crucifix hanging from my rear view mirror
Crown of thorns helps me see things clearer
When I'm lost the hands they help me steer her
When I hit that rumble strip
It reminds me that the Gospel ship
Is getting nearer

Well I'm Paul the Apostle
Preaching truck stop Gospel
I'm not angry, no
I'm not hostile
Just want you to love my Jesus
Going to make you a true believer
Just want to modify your behavior
I just want you to love my Savior

Fifteen thousand Bibles on my tires
Holy water radiator this truck ain't for hire
Going to drive it 'til I join The Angel Choir
Tell anybody who will listen
That I've been saved
I'm a god fearing Christian
On fire

Parking lot lady
Wants me to let her climb in
Says 'Is my kind of truck
The kind she could have a good time in?'
She jumped up, but before she could even chime in
I was speaking in The Holy Spirit
I cast that demon out
I could hear it dying

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PRAYING

by Mary Oliver

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

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TALLULAH BANKHEAD, on being told there was no toilet paper available: “Well, do you have two fives for a ten?”

Bankhead was known for her husky voice, outrageous personality, and devastating wit. Originating some of 20th century theater’s preeminent roles in comedy and melodrama, she gained acclaim as an actress on both sides of the Atlantic. Bankhead became an icon of the tempestuous, flamboyant actress, and her unique voice and mannerisms are often subject to imitation and parody.

During her eight years on the London stage, Bankhead earned a reputation for making the most out of inferior material. For example, in her autobiography, Bankhead described the opening night of a play called “Conchita”: “In the second act I came on carrying a monkey. On opening night, the monkey went berserk; (he) snatched my black wig from my head, leaped from my arms and scampered down to the footlights. There he paused, peered out at the audience, then waved my wig over his head. The audience had been giggling at the absurd plot even before this simian had at me. Now it became hysterical.”

What did Tallulah do in this crisis?

“I turned a cartwheel! The audience roared. After the monkey business I was afraid they might boo me. Instead I received an ovation.”

In 1944, Alfred Hitchcock cast her as cynical journalist Constance Porter in her most successful film, both critically and commercially, “Lifeboat.” Bankhead famously did not wear underwear during production, which became apparent when she climbed up or down the ladder leading to the water tank. A widely repeated anecdote has it that Hitchcock, when pressed to do something about this, mused that he was unsure whether it was a matter for the wardrobe department, makeup, or hairdressing.

Her superbly multifaceted performance was acknowledged as her best on film and won her the New York Film Critics Circle award. A beaming Bankhead accepted her New York trophy and exclaimed, “Dahlings, I was wonderful!” (Wikipedia)

Happy Birthday, Tallulah Bankhead!

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LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT

China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies

Trump to Meet President of El Salvador, Where Deportees Face Prison

Suspect Charged in Arson at Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion

Mark Zuckerberg, Serial Witness, Will Take the Hot Seat Again

The “Panic Industry” Boom

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Democratic socialism. Where capital serves people, not the other way around.

If you’re a senator working in two different states, you’d probably need a residence in each. Bernie does and neither are mansions.

If you then wrote a best-selling book - something people actually were excited about and chose to buy - and used the earnings to buy a whopping $500,000 family lake house, I’d hardly see it as all that outrageous.

Instead, I’d say democratic socialism probably isn’t as scary as the bad-faith attacks make it out to be.

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BURN IT ALL DOWN

Globalization, once hailed as a panacea, has proven to be fundamentally corrupt and needs to be blown to kingdom come

by Matt Taibbi

From NPR this morning:

“But, by the end of the day, Trump apparently had reached his threshold of market pain. He reversed course, ditching some of the tariffs, because, he said, people ‘were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.’

“The market rallied Wednesday, but with Trump increasing tariffs to 145% on China, by Thursday, the Dow was down again. And, remember, China has leverage, too, because it buys a lot of U.S. government debt, and they seem to have every intention of using it.”

Translation: a serial trade and human rights violator that with the help of decades of corrupt politicians from both parties polluted, price-dumped, and stole its way to a generation of American jobs and revenue, now owns so much of our debt that we must put up with its shit indefinitely. That’s the point of view of our own federal news agency. We have officially cucked ourselves past the point of no return.

Trump or no Trump, the international trade system needs to be blown to hell:

I’ve covered the free trade revolution from different angles for thirty years. I saw a preview of America’s future when the former Soviet countryside, once filled with busy (if inefficient and polluting) factories and farms, became a wasteland of stilled industry, with masses of extraneous ex-workers suddenly wandering cities with nothing to do. Crime and prostitution became growth industries, and political figures like the late General Alexander Lebed made populist runs at power by arguing Russia’s new inability to support itself — I remember a presser where the imposing ex-boxer held up a fist and croaked about the absurdity of Russia importing butter — was an urgent national security issue.

Even Russians soured on globalization faster than American voters, who bought sales pitches first from Republicans, then Democrats about free trade deals bringing better standards of living in the long run. As for lost manufacturing jobs, they were told not to worry: anyone “legitimately displaced“ by new policies would be eligible for retraining.

It seemed obvious that NAFTA, the WTO, and the extension of cushy trade arrangements with China and other unfree labor zones were a gigantic end-run around American labor, safety, and environmental laws. It was an asset-stripping scheme, designed to help CEOs boost their share prices by cutting costs of American parts, labor, and regulatory compliance from their bottom lines. There seemed nothing complicated about this, except the marketing challenge. How could corporate management convince Americans, who fought for so long to scrape their way into the middle class, that it was in their interest to compete against countries that didn’t have to follow any of the same rules we did?

The New York Times early on argued the benefits would come in the form of lower prices. In 1984, when the national trade deficit nearly doubled from $69.4 billion to $123.3 billion, the paper said the effect was “good and bad“ because “cheap foreign goods help keep inflation down,” by “giving consumers low-priced alternatives but also by encouraging American businesses to operate more efficiently.”

One or the other version of this argument would continue to be floated to American voters for decades, despite year-after-year monster increases in America’s trade imbalance, not just with China but with most of the world.

We were continually told a new service-sector paradise would replace the anachronism of manufacturing. “What’s happening in manufacturing had its counterpart 50 years ago in agriculture,” Michael L. Wachter, a UPenn economist, told the New York Times. ”These deindustrialization guys must have had counterparts saying that the American economy is dying because there are not enough people on farms.”

Something big was coming to replace those old factories, and we were told over and about the benefits of access to the “biggest market in the world.” True, previous efforts to gain access to China had ended in tears, but this time it was different, because as the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour put it in 1994, “after decades of denial and deprivation, the Chinese have money and are ready to shop.”

It never happened. China never opened its markets, and the trade imbalance kept ballooning, alongside persistent complaints about violative practices that reminded me of Wall Street fraud cases I covered. Whether after rulings by the Department of Commerce or the DOJ or the WTO, China would admit to currency manipulation or “relabelling” or some other offense, promise to stop, and just keep going. The fact that they were there to buy whenever the U.S. issued debt was clearly a huge factor in us always turning a blind eye.

In the early 2000s, we began to be sold on the idea that globalization was really working, it was just hard for ordinary Americans to see because they were so wrapped up in bitterness and nostalgia. Papers like the New York Times gave top billing to boosters like David Brooks and Thomas Friedman to castigate the lost-in-the-past crowd and extol the exciting new world of borderless innovation.

I don’t remember anyone on the American left complaining about me savaging these ludicrous Milo Minderbinder-esque celebrations of Friedman about the benefits of globalization. He was jubilant about the future, saying very soon no one would have a choice but to get rich under globalization (what he called the “golden straitjacket“), a system under which maybe not everyone had a job, but everyone would have a share. His seminal work The World is Flat, a whole book based on the wrong premise that a flat world is more interconnected than a round one, argued incessantly that exporting factories to China would magically benefit the very places that lost them:

If General Motors builds a factory offshore in Shanghai, it also ends up creating jobs in America by exporting a lot of goods and services to its own factory in China and benefiting from lower parts costs in China for its factories in America…

In one of the few metaphors he didn’t mangle (because he didn’t invent it), Friedman argued that globalization would work out because a “rising tide lifts all boats.” Then the 2008 crash hit, and globalization-euphoria went out of style. Friedman gave up talking about boats.

Trump’s tariffs returned him to the subject, but with a different take. Friedman this month explained that yes, free trade hasn’t been great for the U.S., but so long as we can accept being taken advantage of a little, it’s all good:

“The world has been the way the world has been these past 80 years because America was… a superpower ready to let other countries take some advantage of it in trade, because previous presidents understood that if the world grew steadily richer and more peaceful, and if the United States just continued to get the same slice of global G.D.P. — about 25 percent — it would still prosper handsomely because the total pie would grow steadily. Which is exactly what happened.”

A few days later, he decided he wasn’t against tariffs on China. We absolutely should do them, he said, just not alone:

“That is why President Trump’s strategy is so foolish. Instead of putting tariffs on the whole world, we should be looking to line up all our industrial allies in a united front to say to China: You cannot make everything for everyone.”

This is similar to what Bernie Sanders, a longtime proponent of stiff tariffs on China, is now saying. Tariffs, say Bernie, should be used “selectively,” and not in a way that makes people think, “Oh, God, look at what the United States is doing.” Now it’s, “We are all human beings,” and “We don’t have to hate China” and we have to figure things out “globally.” It’s either fear of actually upsetting China, or of seeming in agreement with Trump, neither of which is a legitimate policy concern. If you’re in favor of tariffs when you know you don’t have the votes but against them once they’re actually in effect, you’re just a politician with no balls.

Are we supposed to go on like this forever, or do something? Even the biggest bank-sucking spokestools in media recognize the situation is untenable, but cling to the idea that something could be done gradually or “incrementally,” as Joe Kernan tried to frame it in an interview with Peter Navarro on CNBC’s Whore Box the other day.

Everyone who follows this site knows I’ve always had an uncomfortable relationship with the Trump phenomenon. At the best of times, I find him puzzling and maybe dangerous, even when he’s being funny or taking aim at deserving targets.

Now he’s president and people seem reflexively to want more criticism of him, but on this issue, what choice is there? The global economy created by both parties from the eighties onward was not only designed to be a giant predatory clusterfuck, but nearly impossible to unwind. Forget “incrementally,” it’s got to be exploded. Would more of the same and a slow death be better?

(racket.news)

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Diana Compton: These people pulled a Sopranos style bust-out for years. But they say a creditor who holds an extremely large debt is actually vulnerable to the debtor. Trump knows a lot about negotiating and restructuring debt. The MSM doesn’t have a clue - there is probably no one better to steer us through this storm. Fingers crossed anyway.

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I GO ON. The clouds have disappeared, the sun is still beyond the rim. Under a wine-dark sky I walk through light reflected and re-reflected from the walls and floor of the canyon, a radiant golden light that glows on rock and stream, sand and leaf in varied hues of amber, honey, whiskey – the light that never was is here, now, in the storm-sculptured gorge of the Escalante.

That crystal water flows toward me in shimmering S-curves, looping quietly over shining pebbles, buff-colored stone and the long sleek bars and reefs of rich red sand, in which glitter grains of mica and pyrite – fools’ gold. The canyon twists and turns, serpentine as its stream, and with each turn comes a dramatic and novel view of tapestried walls five hundred – a thousand? – feet high, of silvery driftwood wedged between boulders of mysterious and inviting subcanyons to the side, within which I can see living stands of grass, cane, salt cedar, and sometimes the delicious magical green of a young cottonwood with its ten thousand exquisite leaves vibrating like spangles in the vivid air. The only sound is the whisper of the running water, the touch of my bare feet on the sand, and once or twice, out of the stillness, the clear song of a canyon wren.

Is this at last the locus Dei? There are enough cathedrals and temples and altars here for a Hindu pantheon of divinities. Each time I look up one of the secretive little side canyons I half expect to see not only the cottonwood tree rising over its tiny spring – the leafy god, the desert’s liquid eye – but also a rainbow-colored corona of blazing light, pure spirit, pure being, pure disembodied intelligence, about to speak my name.

If a man’s imagination were not so weak, so easily tired, if his capacity for wonder not so limited, he would abandon forever such fantasies of the supernal. He would learn to perceive in water, leaves and silence more than sufficient of the absolute and marvelous, more than enough to console him for the loss of the ancient dreams.

— Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire (1968)

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WHEN YOU ARE OLD

by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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