Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 4/16/2025

Easter Tableau | Mostly Cloudy | Rubber Ducks | Beth's Porch | Book Donations | Illegal Grows | Property Taxes | Broken County | Dam Plea | 80s Party | Habit Burger | Parker Honored | Boontling Classic | PV Rodeo | Education Department | Greenwood Hotel | Yesterday's Catch | Love California | Accepting Housing | Cork Fatigue | Murder Suicide | Giant Nude | Tree Hugger | Giants Lose | Do Worry | Wyatt Earp | Losing Completely | Draft Card | School Finance | Camp Salvador | More Adventurous | Homegrowns Next | James Naismith | Home Birth | Safe Men | Art Talk | Syphilis | Alien Sex | Action Packed | Lead Stories | Israel Shame | Gaza Genocide | Rock-a-Bye Bibi

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A WEAK WEATHER SYSTEM will bring near normal temperatures, coastal clouds and a slight chance for afternoon mountain thunderstorms. Clearing skies and slightly warmer temperatures are expected Thursday and Friday. Continued seasonal temperatures and dry weather are expected into next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A foggy & cloudy 48F this Wednesday morning on the coast. Cloudy again tomorrow then clearing into the weekend. No really.

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MAZIE MALONE: I was walking my dog at Riverside Park this morning, and I came across some strategically placed rubber ducks! Haha! A person who wanted to share some Spring/Easter cheer? A fun sight to see. And tomorrow when I walk my dog, we will see if the ducks are still there! Happy Easter.

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BETH’S PORCH

by Rod Balson

I sit and watch the world go by from Beth’s front porch. I see the horses grazing in the fields of green and feel the warmth of the sun as it peeks from behind the clouds. The cries of the crows in the distance are interrupted by the harsh guttural sound of someone starting their lawnmower. It seems to blend in with the sound of spring. The grass is so green this time of year — quite a contrast from the summer months.

From my vista the daffodils dance in the breeze, keeping time with the wind. The air smells so fresh and clean, intertwined with the fragrance of newly budding fauna. As I look to the east, the hills are sparsely speckled with oak trees. To the south and west the redwoods and firs grow from the ridgetops to the valley floor.

I hear the honking of geese, but I don’t see them. Then all of a sudden there they were, coming from the south in a perfect V-formation. The crows must also hear them as they themselves are growing louder and more excited. I haven’t seen this many geese around here since the mid-70s. There must be 600 or 700 birds. Then came another flock with double the number of birds, flying much lower. The geese continued to fly over for at least a half an hour. As I scanned the skies, I thought of the beauty of this day. Spring is here and it’s a sensual delight.

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KELLEY HOUSE MUSEUM:

Our annual Book Sale fundraiser for the museum will be held on Sunday, May 25th. Do you have non-fiction books to donate to a good cause?

Kelley House Docent and Book Sale curator Katy Tahja will be accepting book donations at the Kelley House Museum Saturday April 19th from 11am to 3 pm.

If folks have history, art, nature, travel, cooking, or gardening books they’d like to donate for our Book Sale, please bring them by Saturday. No Fiction please.

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LEW CHICHESTER (Covelo):

Interesting additional information regarding Measure AJ Reconciliation. I didn’t really follow this tax measure over the last few years, but in our local, Round Valley Municipal Advisory Council meetings of the last few months a related topic has consistently been discussed. The local, legal, permitted cannabis growers are being taxed to oblivion and right down the street will be unpermitted, untaxed grows with apparently no code enforcement. A few of us locals had a meeting with county planning and building, code enforcement, third district supervisor John Haschak and Sheriff Matt Kendall, attempting to gain some understanding as to the county’s position on the various code violations which typically accompany the unpermitted grows around here. The story seems to be that the county has no inclination to go after the scofflaws with their abandoned grow sites, crappy fences, broken down vehicles, and household garbage scattered about but still want to collect the taxes on the growers trying to do the legal thing. It is just too much trouble, abatement is a hassle, county counsel doesn’t support the concept, and so consequently nothing happens to support the taxpaying growers in competition with the growers who pay no taxes and trash the place at the same time.

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CHRIS SKYHAWK: I am thrilled that my letter is stirring the pot, Mostly I will stand on the content of the original letter, while questioning my line of attack, and its ethics are fair game, one thing John Redding said in 2022 before being easily electorally dismissed was “this is a broken county” and clearly he was right and little has changed in 4 years, I don’t believe its an impossible task to fix it, someone with a good conscience, work ethic and a moral compass, can be well paid for the effort of repairing our county government, and I think replacing Ted is doable and crucial. PS. I hope potential candidates ask for the Major’s input on their campaign points.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA FARMERS URGE TRUMP TO PREVENT PG&E'S DAM REMOVAL

'Communities will be ruined should it go away'

By Matt LaFever

Four Northern California farm bureaus are making a plea to the Donald Trump administration, urging it to halt PG&E’s plan to dismantle a key piece of water infrastructure. The counties say they need time to craft a strategy to protect public health, the local economy and their communities.

In a joint letter dated April 4, the presidents of the Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin county farm bureaus urged Trump and relevant members of his Cabinet to intervene in PG&E’s plans to remove Scott Dam. As nonprofit, nongovernmental advocacy groups representing local agriculture, they argue the removal “threatens the region’s water accessibility, economic stability, and disaster preparedness.”

Scott Dam anchors the Potter Valley Project, a century-old system that reshaped Northern California’s water map. Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission’s comprehensive history of the project explains the infrastructure was designed to move water from the Eel River to the Russian River using a milelong tunnel through a mountain near Potter Valley. Before the system’s construction, the Russian River regularly dried up in summer, leaving farms parched and towns scrambling for water. Cape Horn Dam and Van Arsdale Reservoir were built first to capture high winter flows, but they couldn’t carry the load. Scott Dam followed in 1922, forming Lake Pillsbury and creating a year-round reservoir that fueled agricultural growth across Mendocino and Sonoma counties and parts of Marin.

Now, PG&E wants out. The utility has told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission it will not renew the project’s license, citing mounting financial losses, seismic concerns and aging infrastructure, as SFGATE has previously reported. FERC, the federal agency responsible for licensing and decommissioning hydroelectric facilities, has given PG&E until July 29, 2025, to submit its final surrender and decommissioning plan. Once the plan is filed, the agency will decide whether to approve it and under what terms.

In their letter, the farm bureaus warned that such a decision could move fast and bring irreversible consequences. “If FERC accepts the decommissioning plan by PG&E, there will be devastating impacts to infrastructures, economies, and public safety in Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin Counties,” they wrote.

PG&E backs a new diversion system called the New Eel-Russian Facility, which would replace the Potter Valley Project. Unlike the current setup, it would divert Eel River water to the Russian River only during high flows. The seasonal design would reduce diversions to Russian River water and protect fish migration on the Eel.

Environmentalists and Eel River advocates say it’s time to rip out the century-old Potter Valley Project and let the Eel River run wild again. For decades, dams like Scott and Cape Horn have choked the river, blocking salmon from ideal spawning grounds and turning cold mountain water into warm, fish-killing reservoirs, they argue. With PG&E walking away, they see a once-in-a-generation shot to revive one of California’s last great wild rivers.

Yet for residents and farmers, the looming loss of reliable summer water has sparked alarm. Without Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury to store water year-round, the region would be left at the mercy of rainfall. “Summertime access to water, which is eminent today, will not be an option,” the farm bureaus warned.

The groups are not just asking for a delay — they want a federal takeover of the water infrastructure. Specifically, they are calling on the Bureau of Reclamation to manage the project. “We urge the Bureau of Reclamation to assume ownership and responsibility for the PVP. … This is the best path forward to ensure continued water delivery to over 600,000 people in our region,” the letter says.

They also request federal support to raise Coyote Valley Dam, which holds back Lake Mendocino, which they say “is a crucial mitigation effort” to prevent the worst-case scenario. Built in 1958 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Coyote Valley Dam was originally designed for future expansion, but that second phase never came. Just last week, key stakeholders signed a $500,000 feasibility study to be conducted over the next three years, aiming to evaluate the potential for raising the dam and expanding water storage to help offset the loss of Scott Dam.

SFGATE reached out to each of the four farm bureau presidents to ask whether the Trump administration’s current stance or policies made it the right target for this appeal.

Only one responded. Pat Burns, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, said, “Based on President Trump’s fervent statements regarding the importance of water storage and its effective uses, especially in California, his administration seems appropriately suited to address this critical issue.”

To conclude their letter to the Trump administration, the farm bureaus wrote, “We request an urgent meeting with representatives from your agencies to discuss federal intervention options. Additionally, we are prepared to provide further documentation detailing the economic and environmental consequences of this decommissioning.”

With PG&E set to submit its final decommissioning plan by July, the four counties say the federal government must step in before it’s too late. “Communities were built based on this water supply, and communities will be ruined should it go away,” they wrote.

(sfgate.com)

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HABIT BURGER JOINT PERMIT GOES BEFORE UKIAH CITY STAFF

A requested permit to operate a Habit Burger & Grill at the empty former Denny’s location in Ukiah will be considered by city of Ukiah staff Tuesday.

According to the staff report prepared for the April 15 meeting of the Zoning Administrator, a role fulfilled by Community Development Director Craig Schlatter, last month “UK 105 Investments, LLC, formally applied to renovate and reuse the existing commercial structure at 105 Pomeroy Street,” which has been empty since the previous tenant closed in 2023.

Staff explain that the “applicant proposes to renovate and reuse the existing 3,100-square-foot structure within its current footprint for continued restaurant use as a ‘Habit Burger & Grill’, integrating a drive-through component as allowed under Ukiah City Code. A Minor Site Development Permit is required to facilitate façade updates, expand landscaping, and reconfigure parking and site circulation.”

The project was considered by the Design Review Board last month, and during the meeting a project representative addressed requests for outdoor seating at the site by explaining that “as operators, we typically enjoy and would like to have outdoor seating, but in certain circumstances, and this being one of them, where there is a lot of transient population” it is not preferred, he said, explaining that “we’ve had a lot of people trying to break into the building (and) had to build a fence to keep people from parking trailers there.”

In addition, the representative noted that the amount of people who “hide under the (nearby Highway 101 overpass) leads to difficulties with our insurance company, when they see that, and especially with all of the fires that have been happening, our insurance company has actually been sending out inspectors, and if they see any homeless encamping around the property, they immediately send us a notice.”

“So what you’re saying is that the outdoor seating encourages the homeless?” one of the DRB members asked, to which the project representative said “yes, especially in the evenings when we’re not there. So then we have to increase our service requests to the (Ukiah Police Department), and they’re strained enough trying to deal with actual crimes.”

When asked if they could perhaps try a “partially enclosed” area, the project representative said “we would have to really do a good job, because (people) have even climbed onto the roof… so it would have to almost be entirely enclosed,” noting that then becomes an attraction for people to climb into and stay.

The DRB recommended the project, which will be considered by the Zoning Administrator on Tuesday, April 15, at a hearing scheduled for 11 a.m. in Conference Room 3 of the Civic Center located at 33 Seminary Avenue.

To participate virtually, go to the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86824769549

Or to view the meeting (without participating), go to: http://www.cityofukiah.com/meetings/

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MENDOCINO COUNTY SOCIAL SERVICES DIRECTOR DEDE PARKER HONORED WITH SHINE A LIGHT FELLOWSHIP AWARD

Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer Darcie Antle is pleased to announce that Director of Social Services DeDe Parker has been awarded the Shine a Light Fellowship Award for her exceptional leadership, mentorship, and lasting impact in the field of human services.

A Ukiah native, Ms. Parker returned to Mendocino County after a distinguished career in Las Vegas, where she helped launch the innovative Law Enforcement Intervention for Mental Health and Addiction (LIMA) program and played a key role in supporting and shaping the nonprofit Shine a Light. As one of the organization’s earliest mentors, she provided steady guidance, challenged staff to think bigger, and helped align the organization’s mission with meaningful action.

“DeDe’s commitment to people and her ability to lead with both heart and vision have made her an invaluable asset to our community,” said CEO Darcie Antle. “This award is a testament to her influence, not only in Mendocino County but across the human services field.”

Shine a Light credits Ms. Parker’s mentorship and belief in their mission as a foundational force in their success. Her collaborative approach and passion for accountability and equity continue to inspire those around her.

Mendocino County is proud to celebrate Director Parker’s achievements and is grateful for her continued service to the community.

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THE 40th ANNUAL BOONTLING CLASSIC 5K FOOTRACE IS LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY!

Come join us for a great day of racing with your community on Sunday, May 4th, 2025 at 10:00 AM at the Anderson Valley Elementary School in Boonville. All ages are welcome and encouraged to participate!

Like last year, ribbons will be given to the top three finishers in each of the ten age divisions, as well as plaques for the top man/woman/non-binary finishers.

We will have paletas from Corazón Purépecha in Ukiah as well as a post-race drawing with awesome prizes generously donated by local Anderson Valley businesses!!! All proceeds will go to the Anderson Valley Food Bank in Boonville, CA.

We are also offering awesome, locally printed-shirts. Attached below is the design for this year’s t-shirt!

You can sign-up ahead of time at this link: https://runsignup.com/Race/CA/Boonville/BoontlingClassic

OR register the morning of the race, starting at 8:30 a.m.

We hope to see you all for an awesome day of running in scenic Anderson Valley!

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HOW FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY IMPACTS RURAL MENDOCINO COUNTY

by Michelle Hutchins

In recent weeks, national headlines have revived an old debate with new urgency: Should the U.S. Department of Education be dismantled? The Trump administration says yes. On May 20, a formal proposal was introduced to shut down the department entirely, essentially returning all educational authority to the states.

At first glance, it might sound like a harmless, even logical idea. After all, California already sets its own standards, tests, and curriculum frameworks. So why not let each state run its own schools?

But here’s the problem: this line of thinking is based on the dangerous myth that federal education doesn’t really matter. As someone who serves on the Mendocino County Board of Education and works closely with rural school districts every day, I can tell you plainly that it absolutely does.

A Lifeline For Rural Schools

Federal education funding is a cornerstone of many school district budgets, particularly in rural counties like ours. Last year alone, California received approximately $8 billion in federal education aid. That’s about 6% of the state’s total K–12 budget, but for smaller districts with limited tax bases, that slice can make up a much larger percentage of their funding.

Programs like Title I support schools serving low-income communities. IDEA ensures special education services for students with disabilities. Funding for migrant education, English learners, school nutrition, and even after-school programs all flow through the U.S. Department of Education. If that department disappears, so too does the infrastructure for distributing and overseeing those critical dollars.

In fact, recent actions by the federal government already demonstrate the risks of abrupt policy changes. Linda McMahon, the new head of the Department of Education, recently informed state education leaders that the window to obligate remaining federal COVID relief funds has officially closed, without warning or flexibility. Billions of unspent dollars (funds many districts had planned to use for long-term recovery efforts) may now be inaccessible. For rural areas like Mendocino, this loss is not theoretical; it could mean fewer staff, canceled programs, or delayed upgrades. Once again, the consequences of federal decisions land hardest in communities with the least buffer.

Here in Mendocino County, where many students face barriers to access and opportunity, federal programs are not extras—they are lifelines.

Mendocino County schools such as Manchester Elementary School could be adversely impacted by losing federal funds. Manchester Elementary, shown here on Friday, April 7, 2023, is the sole public elementary school in the rural coastal town of Manchester, Calif. (Sarah Stierch via Bay City News)

‘We Cannot Politicize Equity’

During a recent virtual event hosted by the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), former U.S. Secretary of Education John King, who served under President Obama, spoke about the risks of politicizing public education. He warned that dismantling the Department of Education would harm the very students public schools are supposed to uplift: low-income students, English learners, rural youth, and students with disabilities. These populations have historically been underserved by state and local systems alone, which is precisely why federal oversight was introduced in the first place. “Education,” King emphasized, “is not a partisan issue. It’s a civil rights issue.”

And he’s right. Without federal guardrails, we risk returning to a fragmented system where a student’s ZIP code determines his or her entire future.

Consequences for Mendocino County Students

For Mendocino County families, educators, and school leaders, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Many of our districts depend on federal grants for everything from reading intervention and special education aides to school psychologists and student nutrition. The idea that local control can fully replace these systems is unrealistic and possibly dangerous.

And while it’s true that any actual closure of the Department would require Congressional approval, the proposal itself signals a troubling direction. It distracts from real conversations we need to be having about post-pandemic recovery, teacher shortages, and equity for rural education.

Standing Up For Our Schools

Now is the time for communities like ours to pay attention. We can’t afford to sit out these policy debates, assuming they’ll only affect big cities or distant states. What happens in Washington, D.C. very much impacts what happens in Willits, Covelo, and Laytonville.

If we want thriving schools and fair opportunities for all students, regardless of where they live or what they look like, we must protect the systems that support them. And, that includes the U.S. Department of Education. Because federal education isn’t a luxury. For Mendocino County, it’s a necessity.

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FROM E-BAY, A PHOTOGRAPH OF SEMI-LOCAL INTEREST: Greenwood Hotel in Elk, circa 1905. (via Marshall Newman)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, April 15, 2025

GUILLERMO CARRILLO, 63, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

KAYDEN COSTA, 19, Willits. Ammo possession by prohibited person, probation violation.

SARA GODFREY, 38, Leggett. Domestic battery.

JAMES HARNETT, 64, Ukiah. Controlled substance.

ANDIVERE HILL (150 lbs), 33, American Canyon/Ukiah. Reckless possession of explosive device on public street, controlled substance while armed, possession of explosive materials, felon-addict with firearm, unspecified offense.

ANDIZERE HILL (140 lbs), 33, American Canyon/Ukiah. Reckless possession of explosive device on public street, controlled substance while armed, possession of explosive materials, felon-addict with firearm, unspecified offense.

BRIAN KANE, 59, Point Arena. DUI, concealed loaded firearm in vehicle.

AARON KING, 61, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation.

JORGE MARTINEZ, 29, Ukiah. County parole violation.

MONICA MCDONALD, 57, Ukiah. Robbery.

BRANDON STONE, 45, Ukiah. Controlled substance, parole violation.

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UKIAH BECKONS

Seeking Sane America

Spent yesterday early afternoon at the Washington, D.C. Peace Vigil across the street from the White House. Some dude with a sound system continuously plays the Village People’s YMCA to criticize the Prez who played it at rallies believing that it propped Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk) who campaigned for him, unaware that it had become a gay anthem. And then the sound system dude follows it up with “Happy Birthday”, but do not know why. This is adding to an already fairly insane spectacle, and there is discussion about ending the peace vigil because there is nobody across the street who is “reachable” anyway. How long will it be justifiable to keep a vigil going for a big white building? So, I dropped by the Capitol Brewing Company for two pints, before returning to the homeless shelter, to again listen to this crazy ranting from a variety of irrational individuals. And then, ate the free chicken alfredo and went to sleep. Awoke early, shaved and showered, and got the hell out of there. Not identified with the body nor the mind. Immortal Self I am! I am accepting housing in postmodern America, and ready to return to California. So give me something.

Craig Louis Stehr (Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com)

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BILL KIMBERLIN

I got tired of opening wine bottles with that primitive cork screw mechanism, so I bought an electric wine opener and it worked so well I abandoned all cork screws.

Since this led to some good natured criticism from some friends, I doubled down with the addition of an electric pepper grinder from Porsche. You can select the fineness of your pepper grind. But the part I like best is when you push the top to activate it a light shines down on your baked potato or whatever you are seasoning.

As my brother once said, “We should all welcome formidable household allies.”

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AUTOPSY POINTS TO MURDER-SUICIDE IN CLOVERDALE DEATHS, POLICE SAY

The Cloverdale police identified the bodies officers found Saturday night at a home near Riesling Street and Syrah Court.

by Madison Smalstig

Autopsy results released this week support what Cloverdale police say appears to be a murder-suicide involving a man and woman found dead Saturday night inside a home on the city’s south side. The investigation remains ongoing.

Neighbors of Parker Briggs, 32, and Jessica Sandoval, 35, contacted police after not seeing the couple for several days. Office conducted a welfare check at their home near Riesling Street and Syrah Court and found both dead inside.

Sandoval was discovered in bed with at least one gunshot wound. Briggs was also found dead. Investigators determined he shot Sandoval and then died by suicide. Police believe the shooting likely occurred late on April 8 or early April 9.

The two had recently ended their seven-year relationship and were in the process of separating. Sandoval had been preparing to move back to San Diego, where some of her family lives, Sgt. John Camara said.

There were no previous reports of domestic violence between the two, police said. A handgun was found near the bodies, according to Camara.

Detectives are still working to determine a motive and are awaiting the final autopsy report.

Cloverdale police ask anyone with information related to the case call the department at 707-894-2150 or email Detective Katie Vanoni at kvanoni@ci.cloverdale.ca.us.

This is Sonoma County’s fourth homicide case of 2025, and the second suspected murder-suicide. The other three homicides occurred in Santa Rosa.

On Jan. 8, Santa Rosa police officers conducting a welfare check found the bodies of two parents and their two adult children at a home on Monarch Court, a senior subdivision. Investigators said the evidence, including the location of a gun, suggests the father carried out the murder-suicide. Family struggles, including financial stress, may have been a factor, police said.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

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IN DEFENSE OF S.F.’S GIANT NAKED WOMAN SCULPTURE

by Emily Hoeven

I have a confession to make: I love the giant nude woman who just moved in next to San Francisco’s Ferry Building.

That’s not a sentence I’d ever planned on writing. But I feel like it’s my civic duty to defend the sculpture that was installed last week at Embarcadero Plaza.

Though some are certainly celebrating the 45-foot-tall silhouette of a woman who stands, eyes closed and palms outstretched, on the plaza facing up Market Street, the sculpture has also brought out some of San Francisco’s worst tendencies and illuminated the impossibility of pleasing this all-too-often petulant city.

As the New York Post gleefully noted, the sculpture has “sparked backlash, internet memes and questions about the city’s priorities.”

I noticed the same thing when I posted photos on X last week of crews finishing up the sculpture’s installation. Vitriolic comments quickly began overwhelming my notifications.

“This is dumb. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t look nice and what a giant naked woman is supposed to represent about SF is not very clear to me,” one user wrote, a comment that generated 848 likes. “Looks disgusting,” read another comment that got more than 1,300 likes. Another commenter added, “Its location and modernism feels disrespectful to San Francisco.” One user asked: “Are these the same people putting the crappy art on the great highway?”

In a scathing op-ed, Sarah Hotchkiss, a senior associate editor at KQED, argued that the sculpture had “no relationship to its new urban surroundings” and made her “embarrassed for the city of San Francisco.”

Perhaps naively, I thought San Franciscans would embrace the artwork, which was formally unveiled last Thursday at a lively public party. The work is titled “R-EVOLUTION” and was made by the Petaluma-based artist Marco Cochrane. Composed of thousands of pounds of steel rods and tubing covered by a deceptively delicate mesh form, the sculpture is translucent, and for an hour each day, 16 motors in her chest activate to simulate almost disconcertingly realistic breathing. At night, she is radiated from within by lights of different colors — when I passed by on Saturday, she was deep purple and dark blue.

Plans to bring her to San Francisco have been in the works for nearly a year, and since her original proposed placement at Union Square was derailed by fragile tiling, the entrance to the city seemed like an ideal location.

Sure, it’s a little kitschy that the sculpture was first displayed at Burning Man in 2015, but so what? This is an art-loving, offbeat city. The sculpture’s installation was completely privately funded, a San Francisco Recreation and Park Department spokesperson confirmed to me, and she isn’t a permanent addition — she’s only slated to stay at Embarcadero Plaza for six months with a potential six-month extension. And she’ll generate much-needed buzz and tourism in the city’s hollowed-out downtown.

But I should have realized — following the defacement of a public mural and waves of graffiti near the new Sunset Dunes park along the former Great Highway — that San Franciscans can be astonishingly hostile when public spaces are activated in ways they personally oppose.

This outpouring of rage is not only completely disproportionate to the situation, but also reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what the sculpture is meant to accomplish.

There’s no inherent reason why every piece of public art — particularly a temporary one — needs to represent something about San Francisco in order to be displayed in San Francisco. Art can certainly be enhanced by its explicit connection to or relationship with its surroundings, but it’s also meant to be enjoyed in and of itself. Part of the value of public artwork is that it exists at all. It injects beauty and unexpectedness into everyday life and is accessible to everyone.

But if an explicit connection to San Francisco were indeed a prerequisite, “R-EVOLUTION” has one. The sculpture was built on Treasure Island and was previously displayed there. Another Cochrane sculpture of a nude woman, “Truth is Beauty,” stands near the San Leandro BART station.

The artworks are part of a three-part series called the Bliss Project that Cochrane created after the abduction and rape of his childhood best friend. He’s said that his goal is to portray women feeling safe and empowered and “catalyze social change by challenging bystanders to see past the sexual charge surrounding the female body.”

Based on the responses to my X post, that’s a challenge that many viewers are failing. Yes, the sculpture depicts a nude female body and, yes, her proportions are model-esque (the sculpture was based on real-life model Deja Solis). But the artwork is not sexualized, and viewing it as eye candy for the male gaze is reductive.

The sculpture’s main ethos is serenity. She’s standing in the “mountain pose” yoga position, eyes closed, feet firmly rooted, palms open, breath moving through her body. It seems like she’s gathering her strength before confronting the world head-on.

She is, in a word, unbothered.

And this puts the histrionics of her critics in even starker perspective. As they decry the fact that she’s blocking views of the Ferry Building or ruining the character of downtown or elevating pornographic imagery, she’s simply standing there peacefully — even as crowds of onlookers jostle at her feet, taking pictures and marveling at the feat of engineering that put her together.

“What are you getting all worked up about?” she seems to be asking. “This, too, shall pass.”

(SF Chronicle)

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JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL

On a long drive, had to pull over to stretch and get out of awful traffic for a minute. Unbeknownst to me… but OF COURSE… ended up pulling into a parking lot that had this most amazing oak relative!! Got me some good tree hugging in (yes, i am indeed a proud tree hugger.) And just feeling so very, very grateful for all the magic still in my life and in the world despite all the challenges and heartbreak. Trees are my soul mates too.

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HARPER AND REALMUTO HOMER to help lead the Phillies to a 6-4 win over the Giants

by Kevin Cooney

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto homered and Bryson Stott and Max Kepler added two hits apiece as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4 Tuesday night.

Realmuto had two hits and two RBIs to snap out of a funk in which his batting average dipped to .222. Alec Bohm added a key RBI single in the sixth that scored the go-ahead run to help Philadelphia rally.

Orion Kerkering (2-1) earned the victory in relief of starter Jesus Luzardo, who worked 5 1/3 innings and allowed five hits and three runs while striking out four. Matt Strahm earned his first save of the season.

Jung Hoo Lee and Matt Chapman each had two hits for the Giants, who are 3-2 midway through a 10-game trip. Justin Verlander (0-1) took the loss, working 5 2/3 innings and allowing eight hits and four earned runs. Casey Schmitt added a two-run single for the Giants.

Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Realmuto's hit to shallow left got caught up in swirling wind and Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos couldn't make the catch, allowing Kyle Schwarber to score the tying run. Two hitters later, Bohm hit a first pitch fastball into left center to score Nick Castellanos and knocking Verlander out of the game after 104 pitches.

Harper added insurance in the seventh with a wind-aided two-run homer.

(sfgate.com)

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I am nearing the end of my term on earth. Missing the next Masters or World Series means nothing as I have seen and enjoyed most of them. I do worry about the kids and young adults in the family and among acquaintances and would gladly exchange my life to save theirs. I would wish for them to have the enjoyments of life that I was fortunate to have, along with the bad times inherent to life that make one stronger.

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WYATT Berry Stapp Earp, born on March 19, 1848, in Monmouth, Illinois, is one of the most legendary figures in the history of the American West. Earp’s life was shaped by the tumultuous environment of the frontier, where lawlessness and violence often reigned. Known for his work as a lawman, Earp’s career spanned several western towns, including Dodge City, Deadwood, and most famously, Tombstone, Arizona. He became renowned for his ability to maintain order in some of the most chaotic regions of the country during the late 19th century.

The event that immortalized Earp in history was the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881. This brief but intense shootout, which took place in Tombstone, saw Earp and his brothers, along with their friend Doc Holliday, confront the Clanton-McLaury gang. The gunfight, which resulted in the deaths of three outlaws, became one of the most well-known events of the Old West and forever cemented Earp’s reputation as a man willing to stand up to lawlessness. While the gunfight itself was brief, it has been the subject of countless retellings and adaptations, contributing to the myth of Earp as the quintessential frontier lawman.

Later in life, Earp moved away from his lawman career and focused on business ventures, including real estate, mining, and even becoming a saloon owner. His later years were far quieter than his earlier ones, though his fame never diminished. Earp passed away on January 13, 1929, in Los Angeles at the age of 80. Despite his death, his legacy as one of the American West’s most famous figures continues to influence modern depictions of frontier justice, and his life remains a key part of the mythology surrounding the Wild West.

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“IN A NATION run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can get our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely.”

— Hunter S Thompson

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LEADBELLY’s WW2 draft card. (Fred Gardner)

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AFTER 54 YEARS, DISPARITIES IN SCHOOL FUNDING REMAIN

What the state Supreme Court declared to be constitutionally unacceptable in 1971 still exists in 2025.

by Dan Walters

In 1971 California’s Supreme Court issued one of its most important and far-reaching decisions, declaring that the state’s system of financing public schools — primarily via locally levied property taxes — was unconstitutionally unfair.

It ruled that because there were huge disparities in the amount of taxable property per-student, there were also “substantial disparities in expenditures per pupil among school districts,” which “perpetuate substantial disparities in the quality and extent of availability of educational opportunities. For this reason the school financing system before the court fails to provide equality of treatment to all the pupils in the state.”

The decision ignited decades of political debate, particularly in the Legislature, over “equalization” — bringing per pupil spending into rough equity. Four years after that decision, Republican legislators even held up passage of the state budget, demanding more school money for their suburban districts, which relied on taxing houses, to offset the greater ability of urban schools to raise money because they could tax commercial and industrial property.

The equalization conflict has been punctuated by two landmark ballot measures. In 1978, Proposition 13, which sharply limited property taxes, had the indirect effect of shifting the basic financing of schools to the state. Proposition 98, enacted a decade later, aimed at guaranteeing schools a permanent share, roughly 40%, of the state’s general fund revenues.

Another milestone occurred in 2013, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown persuaded the Legislature to enact the Local Control Funding Formula, which reinterpreted equalization to give schools with large numbers of poor and English-learner students additional funds to close what was called the “achievement gap.“

A new wrinkle in the perpetual equalization debate popped up this year. Senate Bill 743, carried by state Sen. Dave Cortese, a San Jose Democrat, is aimed at offsetting the ability of school districts in high-wealth communities to generate so much property tax money that they qualify for only token amounts of state aid.

These 139 “basic aid districts“ can raise large amounts of property taxes because the Legislature decided, after the passage of Proposition 13, to freeze existing shares of each county’s property tax pool.

Cortese deems that an “antiquated 1978 funding formula that has created winners and losers in the public education system for the last 45 years” and says his measure is “about equalization and reversing the consequences of past mistakes.”

His bill would create a state education endowment fund that would provide extra money to nonbasic aid districts. It cleared the Senate Education Committee last week.

While Cortese’s measure could narrow remaining gaps in per-pupil spending, there still would be wide disparities simply because property taxes remain a major factor in school financing, despite the overall limits imposed by Proposition 13. And communities vary widely in their taxable property values.

In other words, what the state Supreme Court declared to be constitutionally unacceptable in 1971 still exists in 2025.

Complete equalization would probably require eliminating property tax allocations to schools, substituting 100% financing from the state budget, or, as the court hinted, the state levying property taxes for schools and then allocating those proceeds equally.

Either would be a major political undertaking, because changes in school finance inevitably create winners and losers. Meanwhile equalizing per-pupil financing has undergone revision because the needs of students vary so widely.

Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula is one expression of that revision, declaring that some kids need more educational attention than others if the achievement gap is to be closed, and that means more financial support as well.

However, over the past 12 years, Brown’s step away from strict equalization has not, at least so far, appreciably narrowed the stubborn gap.

(CalMatters.org)

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ED OBERWEISER (Fort Bragg)

This is not a prison. This is a concentration camp and the government is paying El Salvador’s President millions of dollars to run it and house deportees from the US who have been afforded no due process in their journey there. The administration and Congress are gleeful and boastful about their power to circumvent all processes of American and international law to send prisoners there and lose them. The Lower Courts and the legal establishment are tentative and afraid to challenge this, and the Supreme Court makes only tentative, performative and ineffectual gestures to absolve themselves of responsibility without doing anything effective to arrest the Executive’s crimes against the Constitution.

Today, the President of the US urged El Salvador to build more concentration camps, and clearly stated his intentions - to send United States citizens there.

There is no loyalty to the Constitution left. The oaths to the Constitution they all swore have as much worth as goat dung in their mouths. The Bill of Rights has been shredded, and we are not on a slippery slope - we are arriving at its base.

We have become Nazi Germany in 1933, and half of the United States voting public is cheering our arrival.

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“I HAVE SEEN FIRST-HAND that things can turn on a dime. Tremendously awful, evil things happen to nice people all the time. I have seen people, again and again, relentlessly grinding under the wheel of poverty or oppression. At the same time, I see random acts of kindness and pride in the most outrageous and most unexpected circumstances. I am grateful. I understand that I am very privileged to see what I am seeing, even when it hurts.

“I think that people, particularly Americans, need to be more inspired to travel and be adventurous with the things they eat. And if they are curious about the world and willing to walk in somebody else’s shoes—that is surely a good thing.”

— Anthony Bourdain

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DR. JAMES NAISMITH: THE VISIONARY BEHIND BASKETBALL

In the annals of sports history, few figures have left as lasting a legacy as Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. Born on November 6, 1861, in Almonte, Ontario, Canada, Naismith’s groundbreaking idea was born out of necessity. Today, it thrives as one of the most popular and influential sports worldwide.

The Birth of Basketball

The story begins in 1891 at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Tasked with creating a new indoor activity to keep students active during the cold New England winters, Naismith developed a game that would challenge both the body and the mind. He hung two peach baskets at opposite ends of a gym, outlined 13 simple rules, and gave his students a soccer ball.

On December 21, 1891, the first game of basketball was played. Nine players on each side worked to toss the ball into the opposing team’s basket. The game was simple but engaging, requiring skill, teamwork, and strategy. Within weeks, it became a favorite among Naismith’s students, and word of the new game quickly spread.

A Personal Glimpse: Naismith and His Wife

As basketball grew in popularity, Naismith continued to nurture his invention. By 1928, the sport was well on its way to becoming a global phenomenon, with teams, leagues, and fans embracing it across North America and beyond.

It was during this time that a historic photograph was taken, showing Naismith and his wife practicing basketball. The image captures Naismith, then in his late 60s, still actively engaged with the game he created. His wife’s participation reflects the personal connection they both had to the sport—a reminder that basketball was not just a professional achievement for Naismith but also a shared joy in his family life.

Basketball’s Global Journey

Naismith’s game, originally devised for a school gymnasium, has since evolved into a sport that transcends borders, cultures, and generations. From youth leagues to professional teams and international competitions, basketball is now played by millions. It has even become a fixture of the Olympic Games, first introduced in 1936—an achievement Naismith lived to witness.

Though the game has undergone changes—three-point lines, shot clocks, and advanced play strategies—the essence of basketball remains true to Naismith’s vision. His original emphasis on teamwork, fair play, and physical fitness continues to define the sport today.

A Lasting Legacy

Dr. James Naismith’s influence extends far beyond the basketball court. As a teacher and physical educator, he believed in the transformative power of sports to promote teamwork, discipline, and personal growth. His invention has not only created countless opportunities for athletes but also fostered community and camaraderie among players and fans alike.

The historic image of Naismith and his wife practicing basketball stands as a symbol of the sport’s humble beginnings and the man whose creativity sparked it all. Today, basketball serves as a testament to the power of innovation and the enduring impact of one person’s vision.

Whether played on a driveway hoop, in a school gym, or in a packed arena, basketball continues to connect people worldwide. Dr. James Naismith’s invention is more than just a game—it’s a celebration of human ingenuity, teamwork, and the joy of sport. Over a century later, his peach basket dream is a slam dunk for generations to come.

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RAPE, an on-line comment:

Almost every woman I know has been sexually assaulted multiple times, starting from childhood.

Rape crisis non-profits are not a problem.

If men are serious about protecting women, teach your sons to be good people. Stop dehumanizing women and affirming idiotic power dynamics within your households. Instead, teach your sons to be empathetic, accountable, and capable of problem-solving with respect for women. Understand that the class system and capitalism is why you are suffering, stressed, and overworked, not women being able to leave the home.

Across the board, where are the ‘real’ men? The protectors, leaders, and teachers of the next generation? The men who help their families feel safe and regulated—not men who want a live-in maid and want to go back to a time where women couldn’t have bank accounts (1970) or take out a business loan without a male co-signer (1988) and think those were the good ol’ days. No subjugating others doesn’t make you powerful but leading people to abundance and well-being does. That is how you gain loyalty and respect.

The fathers who lift up their wives and children, helping them become their best selves. Who can provide wisdom and direction. Maybe you didn’t have this in your development, but you can become this for your families and communities. We aren’t asking you to give up your strength and masculinity but to use it well.

To the men who do show up and create that safe, relaxed energy. We see you and are thankful for your leadership. My god, the way it feels to go to a wise man for perspective without worrying about your safety or their intentions. Safe men are absolute gold.

And we wouldn’t need these crisis centers if there were more of you.

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SYPHILIS

Syphilis is another thing. Boxers, bullfighters and soldiers contract syphilis for the same reasons that make them choose those professions. In boxing most sudden reversals of form, the majority of cases of what is called punch drunkenness, of ‘walking on the heels,’ are products of syphilis. You cannot name the individuals in a book because it is libelous, but any one in the profession will tell you of a dozen recent cases. There are always recent cases. Syphilis was the disease of the crusaders in the middle ages. It was supposed to be brought to Europe by them, and it is a disease of all people who lead lives in which a disregard of consequences dominates. It is an industrial accident, to be expected by all those who lead irregular sexual lives and from their habits of mind would rather take chances than use prophylactics, and it is a to-be-expected end, or rather phase, of the life of all fornicators who continue their careers far enough. A few years ago I had the opportunity of observing the rakes’ progress of some citizens who, in college, were great moral influences, but after coming out into the world discovered the joys of immorality, which, as believers in Yale in China, they had never indulged in as young men, and, delivering themselves to these joys, seemed to believe that they had discovered, if not indeed invented, sexual intercourse. They believed this was this great new thing that they had just discovered and were most joyously promiscuous until their first experience with disease which they then believed they too had discovered and invented. Surely one could never have known of this dreadful thing, nor could have experienced it or it would not have been allowed to exist and they become again, for a time, preachers and practicers of the greatest purity of life or, at least, limited their activities to a narrower social circle. There has been much change in fashion in morals and many who were formerly destined for teachers in fashionable Sunday-school classes are now our most prominent rounders. Like the bullfighters who are ruined by their first goring they have really no vocation as rounders, but it is a trial to watch or to hear them during their discovery of what Guy de Maupassant classed among the diseases of adolescence, and of what, incidentally, to justify his right so to speak, he died of. They say, ‘He jests at scars who never felt a wound.’ But he jests very well at scars who is covered with them, or at least men once did, although now our jesters will be most humorous about anything which happens to any one else, and the moment they are touched by anything themselves cry out, ‘But you don’t understand. This is really serious!’ and become great moralists or abandon the whole thing through something as banal as suicide. Probably venereal diseases must exist as bulls must have horns in order to keep all things in their proper relation, or the numbers of Casanovas and of matadors would be so great there would be practically no one else. But I would give much to have it eliminated in Spain, because of what it can do to a great matador. Though even if we did without it in Spain it could be acquired in other places or men would go upon a crusade and bring it back from somewhere.

— Ernest Hemingway, ‘Death in the Afternoon’

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MIKE JAMIESON: PLEASE ELUCIDATE:

‘I was abducted - and impregnated - by aliens; here’s the physical “proof”.’

by Rob Waugh

Maria Cuccia woke with a leaping heart.

It was 3 a.m., the family home in eastern Long Island was peaceful, her husband slept soundly beside her and their three young daughters were tucked in around the house.

Her eyes were suddenly drawn to a white light that seemed to radiate from the bedroom ceiling. The 31-year-old piano teacher felt herself being drawn toward it.

What she claims happened next would change her life forever and bring her face to face with the boy she believes is her lost son, Elijah - a half human, half alien child.

Today, Cuccia, now 64, lives in Florida. She is one of many Americans who claim to have been abducted from Earth by alien beings.

Estimates of affected humans vary from several thousand to 3.7 million, according to one controversial study dismissed as false by some psychologists.

Her experience in 1992 was particularly vivid, Cuccia told the Daily Mail.

As she gazed at the white light flooding her room that night, she claims her body became paralyzed. Then, she said, something surreal happened: She felt energy surge through her body, ‘like electricity,’ and claims she was lifted into the sky.

The next thing she says she remembers is standing on ‘some kind of spaceship… aircraft… something.’

Cuccia says she was surrounded by tall beings in robes, with a glowing light emanating from their heads - she can’t remember what their faces looked like.

‘All I know is they instructed me to look at a large glass window, at what appeared to be like a spaceship. And I looked out the window and I saw what appeared to be a group of many, many children,’ she told the Daily Mail.

She says that the beings then ‘brought forth’ a young boy, about eight years old, and that she found herself unable to look away from him.

He began to wave at her and their eyes ‘locked.’

She says she asked the beings: ‘Is this my son?’ And claims they replied, ‘This is your son, and we call him Elijah.’

Cuccia claims they told her to look up the meaning of the name when she returned home, and that for now her visit to them was over.

She told her husband that ‘something had happened’ to her in the night. Understandably, he dismissed it as a dream or nightmare.

Yet, she believed it was all far too real to be a dream.

She had never experienced anything like it. And how could she explain that young boy who so clearly recognized her, and she him?

When she looked up the name Elijah, she found it means ‘the Lord is our Savior.’

That close encounter with her ‘hybrid’ son spoke to a deep loss that Cuccia had experienced some years before her abduction.

After the birth of her first daughter, she’d become pregnant again. During one of her appointments for an ultrasound scan, she was told she was going to have a healthy boy.

But a day or two later, she was in excruciating pain and bleeding, and her husband had to call an ambulance. Cuccia had a miscarriage.

Some days later, her doctor called to tell her that she had ‘passed a fetal sac, but there was no fetus inside.’ They were worried the fetus was still in her body, Cuccia told the Daily Mail, although that proved not to be the case.

Now, Cuccia believes the fetus was ‘taken’ from her body by the alien beings, and that this happens to other women around the world.

She claimed that she later had a feeling something ‘was inside [her] that did not belong.’

After the miscarriage and feelings of housing something foreign, Cuccia began receiving what she described as ‘messages’ - she claims she would wake in the middle of the night, hearing voices that inspired her to create music.

Cuccia says she was spiritually curious before her abduction and had tried hypnosis therapy to reclaim past lives. She has wondered if those practices ‘opened up a channel’ related to what she claims happened to her.

In the years since that supposed encounter, Cuccia has spoken to many others who also claim to be abductees and contactees.

Many of them believe that aliens are secretly reaching out to the human race for various reasons, some think it’s to warn us of impending dangers while others, more sinisterly, think it could be to experiment on us.

Some experts suggest that the claims of alien interventions are simply related to phenomena such as sleep paralysis. Others suggest they are manufactured within affected people as coping mechanisms for trauma, including experiencing a miscarriage.

Nothing will persuade Cuccia that these explanations apply to her.

Her recent move to Florida during the pandemic - which coincided with her mother’s death - felt like a ‘turning point’, she said.

She had spent much of her life working with her now ex-husband and traveling the world for business. Now, she has the time at last to turn her incredible experiences into a book.

‘I brought a big plastic container filled with journals and things from my past… and came out here to reflect during [lockdown], and I started writing a book,’ she said.

For Cuccia, it will be a chance to share a story many may scoff at, but one that, after more than 30 years, remains very real to her.

Reports of encounters with aliens - some ecstatic, some disturbing – began to proliferate with the dawn of the space age, although similar stories from previous centuries, involving demons or mystical beings, are long established in human history.

One of the most highly publicized cases – no doubt because of its salacious nature - involved Brazilian farmer, Antonio Villas Boas, who claimed he had sex with an alien in October 1957.

Boas’ report stated that he was ‘hauled aboard’ a star-like UFO that landed in front of him, before being experimented on and covered in a mysterious gel.

Nigel Watson, who has researched and investigated historical and contemporary reports of UFO sightings, is author of The UFO Files. He told the Daily Mail, ‘This was first case of sexual contact in our “flying saucer” era.

‘Boas claimed he was dragged inside a flying saucer and forced to have sexual intercourse with a beautiful alien woman.

‘When he left, she pointed at her stomach, at him and then at the sky, implying she would have his child somewhere in outer space.’

Though, Watson said it’s important to remember that people have been telling stories about sexual encounters with supernatural beings throughout history.

‘I suspect many are fantasies that the abductees actually believe,’ he said. ‘Such fantasies or stories make [them] feel like special people who are selected to breed a new race of hybrid beings.’

‘Other abductees might use these fantasy experiences as a way of unconsciously disguising and coping with real miscarriages, abortion or rape.’

The controversial 1991 study into alien abductions was conducted by artist Budd Hopkins, associate professor of history at Temple University David Jacobs, and professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University Ron Westrum.

The team surveyed nearly 6,000 adults, asking them how often they experienced five specific scenarios (see box below).

They concluded that many of the participants who claimed to have been abducted reported similar scenarios.

‘They wake up immobilized in a room surrounded by alien creatures (‘small, gray-skinned, hairless figures’ with large eyes) and balls of light,’ the study reported.

‘They [claim they] are levitated to a metallic spacecraft, where they are stripped and subjected to medical examinations (aliens take an unusual interest in the genitals of abductees) that sometimes leave scars. Afterward, they are unable to account for their lost time.’

(DailyMail.uk)

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LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

‘Nothing Has Been Done’: Judge Rebukes U.S. Effort to Return Wrongly Deported Man

Grassley Draws Jeers From Constituents at Raucous Town Hall

2 Protesters at Marjorie Taylor Greene Town Hall Are Subdued With Stun Guns

Trump Threatens Harvard’s Tax Status, Escalating Billion-Dollar Pressure Campaign

Biden Says Trump Is ‘Breaking Things,’ Including the Safety Net

As Fentanyl Deaths Slow, Meth Comes for Maine

The ‘Great Moose Migration’ Livestream Captivates Sweden

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ISRAEL IS ABOUT TO EMPTY GAZA

The Israeli government, backed by the Trump administration, is laying the groundwork for the full expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, a move that has the potential to ignite a regional conflagration.

by Chris Hedges

Israel is poised to carry out the largest campaign of ethnic cleansing since the end of World War II. Since March 2, it has blocked all food and humanitarian aid into Gaza and cut off electricity, so that the last water desalination plant no longer functions. The Israeli military has seized half of the territory — Gaza is 25 miles long and four to five miles wide — and placed two-thirds of Gaza under displacement orders, rendered “no-go zones,” including the border town of Rafah, which is encircled by Israeli troops.

On Friday Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that Israel will “intensify” the war against Hamas and use “all military and civilian pressure, including evacuation of the Gaza population south and implementing United States President [Donald] Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents.”

Since Israel’s unilateral ending of the ceasefire on March 18 — which was never honored by Israel — Israel has been carrying out relentless bombing and shelling against civilians, killing over 1,400 Palestinians and wounding over 3,600, according to the Palestinian health ministry. An average of one hundred children are being killed daily according to the United Nations. Israel is, at the same time, inciting tensions with Egypt to lay what I suspect will be the groundwork for a mass expulsion of Palestinians into the Egyptian Sinai.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, echoing Katz, said Israel would not lift the total blockade until Hamas was “defeated” and the remaining 59 Israeli hostages were released.

“Not even a grain of wheat will enter Gaza,” he vowed.

But no one in Israel or Gaza expects Hamas, which has weathered the decimation of Gaza and sustained mass slaughter, to surrender or disappear.

The question no longer is will the Palestinians be deported from Gaza but when they will be pushed out and where they will go. The Israeli leadership is apparently torn between driving Palestinians over the border into Egypt or shipping them to countries in Africa. The U.S. and Israel have contacted three East African governments — Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland — to discuss the resettlement of ethnically cleansed Palestinians.

The consequences of wholesale ethnic cleansing will be catastrophic, jeopardizing the stability of the Arab regimes allied with Washington and setting off firestorms of protests within Arab countries. It will likely mean the severing of diplomatic relations between Israel and its neighbors Jordan and Egypt, already close to the breaking point, and push the region closer to war.

Diplomatic relations have fallen to their lowest point since the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1979. The Israeli embassies in Cairo and Amman are largely empty with Israeli staff withdrawn over security concerns following the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel by Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions. Egypt has refused to accept the credentials of Uri Rothman, who was appointed to be the Israeli ambassador last September. Egypt did not name a new ambassador to Israel when former ambassador, Khaled Azmi, was recalled last year.

Israeli officials are accusing Egypt of violating the Camp David accords by increasing its military presence and building new military installations in the Northern Sinai, charges Egypt says are fabricated. The peace treaty’s annex permits additional Egyptian military hardware in the Sinai.

Former Israeli chief of the general staff, Herzi Halevi, warned of what he calls Egypt’s “security threat.” Katz said that Israel would not allow Egypt to “violate the peace treaty” between the two countries signed in 1979.

Egyptian officials note that it is Israel that has violated the treaty by occupying the Philadelphi Corridor, also known as the Salahuddin Axis, which runs along the nine mile border between Gaza and Egypt and is supposed to be demilitarized.

“Every Israeli action along Gaza’s border with Egypt constitutes hostile behavior against Egypt’s national security,” Egyptian General Mohammed Rashad, a former military intelligence chief, told the Arabic language newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Egypt cannot sit idly by in the face of such threats and must prepare for all possible scenarios.”

Israeli officials are openly calling for the “voluntary transfer” of Palestinians to Egypt. Knesset member, Avigdor Lieberman, stated that “displacing most Palestinians from Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai is a practical and effective solution.” He contrasted the high population density — Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on the planet — with the vast “untapped lands” in the Egyptian Northern Sinai and noted that Palestinians share a common culture and language with Egypt, making any deportation “natural.” He also criticized Egypt because it allegedly “benefits economically from the current political situation,” as a mediator between Israel and Hamas and “reaps profits from smuggling operations through the tunnels and the Rafah crossing.”

The Israeli think tank Misgav Institute for National Security, staffed by former Israeli military and security officials, published a paper on Oct. 17, 2023, calling on the government to take advantage of the “unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the entire Gaza Strip,” and resettle Palestinians in Cairo with the assistance of the Egyptian government. A leaked document from the Israeli Intelligence Ministry proposed resettling Palestinians from Gaza to the Northern Sinai and constructing barriers and buffer zones to prevent their return.

Any expulsion would likely happen swiftly with Israeli forces, which are already mercilessly herding Palestinians into containment areas in Gaza, carrying out a sustained bombing campaign against the trapped Palestinians while creating porous evacuation portals along the border with Egypt. It would entail a potentially lethal standoff with the Egyptian military, instantly throwing the Egyptian regime of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who has described any ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in Gaza as a “red line,” into crisis. It would be a short step from there to a regional conflict.

Israel has seized territory in Syria and southern Lebanon, part of its vision of “Greater Israel,” which includes occupying land in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It covets the maritime gas fields off Gaza’s coast and has floated plans for a new canal to bypass the Suez Canal, to connect Israel’s bankrupt Eilat Port on the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. These projects require emptying Gaza of Palestinians and populating it with Jewish colonists.

The anger on the Arab street — an anger I witnessed over the past few months during visits to Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Qatar — will explode in a justifiable fury if mass deportation takes place. These regimes, simply to hold on to power, will be forced to act. Terrorist attacks, whether by organized groups or lone wolves, will proliferate against Israeli and western targets, especially the United States.

The genocide is a recruitment dream for Islamic militants. Washington and Israel must, on some level, understand the cost of this savagery. But it appears as though they accept it, foolishly trying to obliterate those they have cast out of the community of nations, those they refer to as “human animals.”

What do Israel and Washington believe will happen when the Palestinians are expelled from a land they have lived in for centuries? How do they think a people who are desperate, deprived of hope, dignity and a way to make a living, who are being butchered by one of the most technologically advanced armies on the planet, will respond? Do they think creating a Danteesque hell for the Palestinians will blunt terrorism, curb suicide attacks and foster peace? Can they not grasp the rage rippling through the Middle East and how it will implant a hatred towards us that will endure for decades?

The genocide in Gaza is the greatest crime of this century. It will come back to haunt Israel. It will come back to haunt us. It will usher to our doorsteps the evil we have perpetrated on the Palestinians.

You reap what you sow. We have sown a minefield of hatred and violence.

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