Mendocino County Today: Sunday 4/20/2025

By AVA News Service on April 20, 2025

INTERIOR HIGH TEMPERATURES are forecast to remain slightly above average through Tuesday of next week. Overnight minimum temperatures will remain chilly in some of the colder valleys, especially in Trinity County. Strong northerly winds over the coastal waters will keep coastal areas much cooler and occasionally windy through next week Tuesday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Yep another 48F in the fog this Sunday morning on the coast. Our forecast is calling for clearing later today then clear skies thru Wednesday before clouds return later next week. Right. The rain forecast for Friday seems to be falling apart right now, I'll keep an eye on it of course.

BOB DOMINY’S GREAT PHOTOS FROM THE SATURDAY PROTEST:

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2RGgZLKuGg83ZR

Thanks to everyone who turned out for the No Kings rally in Fort Bragg today!

(Photographer: Robert Dominy)

JOHN HEWITT

Hands off protest today in Fort Bragg. Big crowd. I painted it from across the street. When I finished I held it up and got a standing ovation! (well they were already standing lol) several offers to buy it. I gave it to one of them if they would give money to the event organizers. She will give $300 to them. Of course I forgot to bring cards to give to the hoards who asked who I was. Oh well. Had a great time and lots of interest in purchasing. Send to McCallum House restaurant, Sportsman’s Gallery, Glassfire Gallery. Perfecting my Nova Scotia painting set up.

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE: List of Events

MIKE GENIELLA: RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY—

The attacks came swiftly after I posted a response to people hailing the Trump administration’s promised intervention in the long and contentious debate over the fate of future Eel River-Russian River diversions. The latest plan calls for removing upstream dams, draining Lake Pillsbury, an iconic recreation area, and restoring upstream salmon fisheries after a century of being cut off behind dams. Downstream agricultural industries and domestic urban users support continuing Eel River diversions into the Russian River at Potter Valley. Water flows downstream to Lake Mendocino, a man-made reservoir erected in the 1950s for flood control and water supply. Mendocino County decided not to be the local partner with the Army Corps of Engineers, letting the Sonoma County Water Agency step in and secure 89 percent of the water stored behind Coyote Dam for a paltry $5 million. Arguments about who has what have been going on ever since. The latest plan, supported by local Democratic lawmakers, environmentalists, some tribes, and a group of veterans of decades of debate, is loudly opposed by farming (read largely the region’s wine industry) interests, domestic users in small towns from Ukiah to Marin County. In the Trump era, the opposition is hoping so-called support for the nation’s farmers, who twice now have overwhelmingly voted for him, will swamp remaining support for tearing down Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury, and restricting Eel River diversions into the Russian River to wintertime only. My skeptical comments were immediately greeted with snarky putdowns and sharp swings at “liberal lunacy” and Democratic politics. So it goes.. A growing number of people, including myself, are willing to speak up and not be shouted down by followers of the MAGA movement, and the zealots leading them.

THE SUPERVISORS’ LATEST BETRAYAL: THE CLINE CONTORTION

by Mark Scaramella

When the Board discussed the marijuana tax revenue distribution process at their meeting in Willits on April 8th, there was some half-hearted interest in finally, nine years after the fact, allocating those revenues as the voters called for when they overwhelmingly approved Measure AJ, the advisory measure that accompanied Measure AI, the County’s marijuana tax ordinance. We discussed this major betrayal of what the voters wanted at some length last week. (Convenient Amnesia)

Measure AJ called for more than half of the marijuana tax revenues — now well over $24 million over the nine years since voters approved the tax — to go to “funding enforcement of marijuana regulations, enhanced mental health services, repair of county roads, and increased fire and emergency medical services.”

None of the revenues have been allocated to any of those things, of course.

In December of 2020, at the suggestion of then-Supervisor Dan Gjerde, the Board decided to simply assume that since the pot tax revenues went into the General Fund and some of that was spent on those things, sort of, that that amounted to compliance with the Measure. Never mind that nobody but them interpreted the Measure in that highly self-serving way.

Nevertheless, on April 8 the Board asked staff to come back at the next meeting with a proposal that would at least attempt to properly allocate future revenues in accordance with the measure, but ignoring the fact that they hadn’t complied with it for nine years and the revenues are now way down, like the County’s entire legalized marijuana industry.

At the end of that April 8 discussion, newly seated First District Supervisor Madeline Cline proved that she’s already fully absorbed the Board’s “us-first” mentality by suggesting that the list of services that the voters approved was a list of priorities, and that the revenue should go to the bottomless pit of “enforcement of marijuana regulations” first, and the other things only if there’s any left over after the failed pot program gobbles it all up.

None of Cline’s dim colleagues disagreed with the Cline Contortion, coming some four years after the Gjerde Dodge. So that’s what staff jumped on.

In this week’s budget presentation under the heading “Measure AI Apportionments,” we find: “At the April 8th Board Meeting, staff was directed to prioritize funding Cannabis Department (MCD) with Cannabis Tax Revenues first, then other service categories. (Measure AJ (2016) advised that the majority of revenues generated from the Cannabis business tax be utilized for the following services: Cannabis Regulation Enforcement, Roads repair, Mental Health Services, and Fire and Medical Emergency Services.”

(Notice again that the staff’s recitation of the Measure AJ allocations excludes the words “enhanced” and “increased” which are specifically in the text of Measure AJ.)

The staff presentation continues: “Based on current FY 25-26 budget: $1 million is budgeted for Cannabis Tax Revenue and the Mendocino Cannabis Department is currently budgeted at $991,582. [!] This means that for FY25-26 only Cannabis Regulation Enforcement will be covered by Cannabis Tax revenues, according to current projections.”

In other words: Nothing for “enhanced mental health, roads repair or increased emergency services.”

Since the Cline’s Contortion was tacitly accepted by her colleagues and has now found its way into the “budget presentation,” we expect that the Board will gleefully jump on it next Tuesday since it requires no work on their part and the County gets to keep all the money for themselves and their failed pot program.

Supervisor Bernie Norvell said during the April 8 discussion: “If we ever go back to the public to ask for taxes, we have to show that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.”

Yet he went along with showing the exact opposite of that.

Will Norvell go along with the Cline Contortion on Tuesday and continue to deprive the other voter approved services?

JEFF BURROUGHS

Our California fisheries management is a joke. They do this every year and wonder why the salmon they plant in the river don’t make it back as adults. They drop the little hatchery salmon in the river when the striped bass are moved up in the river spawning! Why they don’t plant them in the river before, or after the stripers are in the river is beyond understanding. Where is the common sense?

This is the house located about 4 miles east of Boonville, on Highway 128. It was built in the late 1800’s by Mr. Thomas Edward “Ed” Singley. Ed was pretty much a self made man. He hauled tan bark in his youth, saved his money, bought property and raised sheep for wool. At the turn of the century wool clothing was in high demand and when America joined WWI in 1918 the demand for wool uniforms sent the price of wool through the roof. The house in the photo was his home which was part of his ranch that contained a couple of thousand acres. Ed’s nickname, “Fly” came about when drinking his coffee one morning a huge horse fly flew into mouth just as he took a swallow of his coffee. He coughed and gagged and made such a fuss over it that everyone who saw it, from that day forward, called him “Fly”. It’s in the Boontling dictionary.

I wrote a story for the AVA some years ago about Ed Singley that goes into great detail the story of his life in Anderson Valley. If I find a copy of it I will share it with the group.

After Ed Singley passed away the house was occupied for many years by the Palmer Family. I think the Palmers sold the house and most of the property in the 1990’s. Who owns it now ?

CELEBRATE 10 YEARS WITH LATINO COALITION

Join us as we celebrate 10 years of the Latino Coalition of the Mendocino Coast. On First Friday, May 2, stop by the Backyard Commons at the Larry Spring Museum, 225 East Redwood from 5 - 7 pm. DJ KB will spin the tunes, Ballet Folklorico dancers will perform, LatCo scholarship winners will be celebrated, food for sale will be provided from the Asamblea Apostolica in Cleone, and there will be a crafts table for the kids. A raffle and a pop-up boutique will feature choice items, and tablers from Latino Outdoors, West business training, Know Your Rights, the Blue Zones and Project H.E.R.E. will be eager to share information in both English and Spanish.

LatCo’s mission is to empower our community through education, social justice, and cultural appreciation. All are welcome to help us celebrate our first decade of service.

CIRCLE UP, MOON BLOOMS (only $22)

New Moon in Bharani Moon Circle & Sound Bath

The Shala Mendocino

Friday, April 25th | 6:00pm

with Justine Lemos, PhD

Join us for a deeply potent evening of rest, renewal, and resurrection as we gather under the New Moon in Bharani Nakshatra—the lunar star of transformation, birth, and fierce feminine power.

This moon calls us to:

Release inherited patterns

Plant seeds of radical embodiment

Rebirth ourselves from within

We’ll circle in sacred space, drop into stillness, and attune to the vibrations of the cosmos through a restorative sound bath to recalibrate body, mind, and spirit. Crystal bowls, mantra, and intuitive healing frequencies will bathe you in the lunar nectar of renewal.

What to Bring:

Journal + pen

Mug for tea

Yoga mat + blanket

An object for the altar if you feel called

Your whole, sacred self

$22 suggested | RSVP in advance to save your spot: https://app.arketa.co/theshala/checkout/LNtVZsr5tcBha8srGEGj

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Looking to adopt an energetic, playful, toy-loving dog? Look no further, because Joe is the one for you! This adult male has lots of spirit, and he’s always up for a game of fetch or a walk in the park. Joe is a smart cookie who already knows sit and shake, and would love to learn more. We think this good looking guy will be a loyal companion—by your side and all systems go for action! If you’re ready to welcome a fun-loving pup into your home, please come and meet Joe today! Joe is a year old and 53 pounds. He’s neutered and ready to skip out the shelter door with you ASAP!

To learn more about Joe and all of our canine and feline guests, plus the occasional goat, sheep, or tortoise, and for information about our services, programs, and events, visit: mendoanimalshelter.com. Join us the first Saturday of every month for our Meet The Dogs Adoption Event at the shelter. For information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

Making a difference for homeless pets in Mendocino County, one day at a time!

A MENDO LAWYER and his wife were stopped in Oregon by the Oregon State Patrol (OSP) a few years ago while the Mendo attorney and his wife were on their way to visit relatives. The lawyer and his wife were driving north and the OSP officer was driving south, the first circumstance of the stop. The OSP officer noticed that the lawyer was travelling about 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. The OSP officer quickly turned around, crossed the median strip separating the north and south bound lanes, and soon overtook the north bound Mendo couple, who’d seen the officer do his fast u-turn in their rear vision mirrors. When the OSP officer pulled up the couple had already pulled over and exited their car. The officer immediately asked, “Who was driving?” The lawyer realized that the officer was off to a disadvantageous start. “I don’t have to answer that question,” the lawyer said. “Didn’t you see who was driving?” The officer wasn’t amused. “I just need to know who was driving,” he said, irritated. “Who was driving?” The lawyer answered, “I don’t care to assist you in your investigation. I’m not required to answer.” The officer grew more annoyed. “I guess I’ll have to hold you here while I perform a drug search with a drug dog.” “On what grounds?,” asked the attorney. “What’s the probable cause?” By this time the officer may have suspected he’d pulled over a law school graduate. “I don’t need probable cause to do a drug search in this state,” the officer replied, having noted that the attorney’s vehicle had California plates. “Then you’re doing it without my permission,” replied the attorney, pulling out his notepad. The officer seemed to know by then that he didn’t have an ID on the driver, and couldn’t swear under penalty of perjury (as required by the ticket form, as the attorney knew) that the person he wanted to give a ticket to was the person he’d seen speeding because he hadn’t seen who was behind the wheel “OK,” said the officer, “you’re free to go.” The attorney, realizing he’d won too easily, grabbed his wife by the arm and said, “Let’s go for a walk, hon.” The pair headed out into the woods beside the road. “Where are you going?,” asked the officer. “We’re going for a little walk,” replied the attorney. “If we get in the car you’ll have presumptive knowledge of who was driving and you could give one of us a ticket.” “Very cute,” replied the officer. “Maybe I will call for the drug dog,” he said. “Tell you what,” said the attorney, “if I show you a detective trick that you could use to determine who was driving, will you promise to let us go?” The officer thought for a moment, realizing he didn’t have a legal stop without an ID, no matter how frustrated he was. “Ok,” said the officer, “you’ve got a deal.” The attorney walked to his car and pointed out that the seat was as far forward as it could go and that his wife was significantly shorter than he was. “Obviously, my wife was driving,” said the attorney, “the seat’s pulled all the way up.” The officer was graceful in defeat. “You’re right, that is a good trick,” he said, and Lawyer Man and Mrs. Lawyer Man were free to go. (Mark Scaramella)

THIS COASTAL CALIFORNIA INN MIGHT JUST CHANGE YOUR LIFE

At Mendocino’s Stanford Inn, expect a spiritual epiphany before your vegan lunch

by Matt LaFever

Tucked into the misty bluffs of California’s Mendocino Coast, the Stanford Inn isn’t just a vegan resort, it’s a full-sensory experience. Guests arrive for the ocean views, the forest air, the food they don’t expect to love, and leave changed. Some even have visions. Others rediscover sleep. Over the past 45 years, Jeff and Joan Stanford have transformed a run-down lodge into one of the country’s only 100% vegan eco-resorts: part wellness retreat, part culinary destination, part spiritual reset. It’s a place where meat eaters feast on coconut rice, travelers spend thousands on a plant-based getaway and something in the air or ozone makes people feel different.

Before the Stanford Inn became the serene, plant-based retreat it is today, the Stanfords were clawing their way out of what Jeff described to SFGATE as “an abusive, miserable mess” tied to a family business in Carmel. The collapse of that chapter left them unmoored, but also open to something radically new. In 1978, friends who had just purchased the Benbow Inn invited them to visit the North Coast and consider planting roots. “We had about $22,000 to our name,” Jeff said, explaining it mostly came from wedding gifts and uncashed savings bonds. With that modest sum, they began traveling the coast in search of a place to start over.

Guided by a spiritual practice of divination using the Book of Changes, or I Ching, Jeff began to visualize the kind of place they were meant to find. “I don’t draw,” he said, “But I described the image to Joan.” When they pulled into a coastal property, Jeff felt a jolt of recognition. “Joan, that’s it,” he recalled saying. But the inn, then called Big River Lodge, seemed far too large and expensive. They drove away, unsure how the pieces would ever come together.

Days later, Joan learned she was pregnant. “Everything is going to work out,” Jeff remembered telling her. Two weeks later, it did. The same property was listed in the paper and soon after it was theirs.

The Stanfords moved into one of the inn’s units and lived there for eight years. “We had a one-bedroom, one living room and a closet kind of kitchen,” Jeff said. Eventually, he expanded it by taking over the neighboring unit. It was humble and tight, but enough to build a foundation. “It was kind of that we were led here,” Jeff said.

Set on 10 lush acres, the Stanford Inn is a world unto itself, dense with beauty, buildings and things to discover. The heart of the property is the main lodge, where natural light floods through wide windows and cozy seating invites guests to linger. The lodge opens into the inn’s Ravens Restaurant, serving 100% vegan breakfast, lunch and dinner. Downstairs, the apothecary is a cozy, cluttered space overflowing with herbs and tinctures, more Diagon Alley than sleek spa.

Just next door is the Big River Building, the original structure Jeff and Joan bought in 1980, wrapped in rustic wood shingles and thick ivy. Across the way sits the Forest Building, another bank of guest rooms, both looking out on the inn’s organic gardens. A short walk away, guests can swim in the saltwater pool beside banana trees in the warm, humid greenhouse solarium. Nearby are greenhouses for herbs and vegetables used in the kitchen, a massage studio and two tiny homes where staff live.

Wander farther and you pass apple orchards, a pond, and a seed vault curated by a Mendocino County green thumb. Rescue animals — donkeys, llamas and horses — graze in a pasture near a quiet barn where Jeff and Joan now live, a far cry from their early days residing in one of the inn’s modest units. At the far northwest edge of the grounds lies the estuary of Big River, just before it spills into the Pacific. There, guests find Catch-a-Canoe, the inn’s boathouse, where they can paddle out in a kayak or outrigger canoe, surrounded by redwoods and silence.

Jeff has seen a lot of faces over his four decades running the Stanford Inn, but one thread has remained constant: People don’t just come here for a vacation, they come here and something shifts. “They’d tell us something happened to them here,” Jeff said. “They’d say, ‘God, we had an epiphany,’ and then they’d give us gifts just because we happened to own the land where that experience happened.”

Some of the stories guests have shared verge on the mystical, experiencing moments of wonder and awe while spending time at the inn. Jeff recalled one couple where the man said their “room got really bright and warm. He was in bed and realized he couldn’t move, but he didn’t care, he was so comfortable, it didn’t bother him.” His partner’s version was even more vivid. “She said she was staring at the ceiling, and it just … opened up. There were people in robes looking down at her. One of them reached toward her, and she reached up. Just as they were about to touch, it ended.”

The energy vortex along the coast even befuddles the innkeepers.

“There’s something special about the property here,” Jeff said. “The energy. I don’t know, maybe it’s the ozone, or the coast, but people always tell us they sleep better here than anywhere else.”

Jeff and Joan’s journey to veganism began in the 1980s and the philosophy is practiced at the inn. Sid Garza-Hillman, the Stanford Inn’s wellness director since 2006, leads classes on nutrition and healthy living. “Ninety-five percent of our guests are not vegan or vegetarian,” Garza-Hillman told SFGATE by phone. Nevertheless, Garza-Hillman said, “They love the food.”

To meet the expectations of visiting meat eaters, “We make our portion sizes quite significant,” Garza-Hillman explained. “A lot of people think, ‘Oh, I’m going to a vegan restaurant, I won’t get enough food to eat.’” Ironically, he added, “We get nailed by vegans who will say, too much food, and we’re like, ‘You’re not our demographic.’”

Breakfasts at the Ravens Restaurant come stacked with cashew hollandaise, polenta slicked in vegan cream sauce and crepes packed with seasoned tofu. Lunch is equally loaded; there are burritos, grilled mushroom sandwiches and enough flavor to quiet a meat-lover’s skepticism. Dinner pulls out the stops with hemp-ricotta ravioli, red curry over coconut rice and smoky kalua pork-inspired mushrooms with pineapple. It’s comfort food, just without the animal products. No one leaves hungry.

Despite the postcard-perfect town of Mendocino just minutes away, Garza-Hillman said that many guests “don’t leave the property” during their stay. Instead, they wander the gardens, visit the animals, paddle out on Big River or sip wine on the deck. “They disconnect from the world.”

At up to $2,610 a head, the Stanford Inn’s four-day vegan retreats prove that plant-based living sells, especially when wrapped in redwoods, ocean views and cashew cream sauce. Guests get cooking classes, nutrition seminars, daily vegan feasts, a bike rental and a pile of wellness books. Marketed to both die-hard vegans and the simply curious, the retreats turn tofu into a luxury experience (and a seriously lucrative one).

While the Stanford Inn may be a vegan resort, a spiritual retreat and an eco-haven, at its heart, it’s a place where meaningful connections are made. As Jeff put it, the right people come — and when they do, “they become very important parts of our lives,” just as the inn becomes a part of “our guests’ lives.”

(SFGate.com)

A Pair Of Canada Geese In Comptche, 4/19/25 (George Hollister)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Saturday, April 19, 2025

SIDNEY FOLEY, 35, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation.

JACK GOUBER, 57, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

ROSENDO HERNANDEZ-VALDOVINOS, 44, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Short barreled rifle, felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person.

EVANGELINE MARTINEZ, 36, Laytonville. Domestic abuse.

CHERYL MATTSON, 52, Willits. Failure to appear, unspecified offense.

CODY MENDEZ, 21, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, disorderly conduct-alcohol, evidence tampering, probation revocation.

KODY TOLLOW, 23, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

NEIL WALDRON, 56, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, disobeying court order.

FAITH/Easter 2025

At 72, it’s not such a long way off anymore.

In these last few years, there were a lot

of things going on: prostate cancer scares,

and three hours of cardiac ablation surgery

during which time when my heart stopped

for ninety seconds and I had to be paddled.

Healed now, I look at myself in the mirror

and looking back at me I see someone

with no time for the usual narcissism --

no nonsense. I have purged myself of myself

…as Matisyahu

might have said, I’m a “king without a crown”.

This Easter, I make a simple offering: My faith.

My faith!

As green and new as my garden’s baby lettuce!

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

*Church and Abandoned Automobile, Tiburon, California*, 1957 (Ansel Adams)

THE ETYMOLOGY OF 420

by Fred Gardner

Your correspondent got invited to an “Eve-of-420” bash on April 19, 2016, at a club in San Rafael started by the Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead. At the bar I got into a conversation with a handsome middle-aged man who mentioned that he wasn’t into edibles. I asked if he’d had a bad experience with a brownie when he was young and he said yes.

“I’m a Waldo,” he added, introducing himself as Larry. “The Waldos are real. We’ve decided to tell our story — how we started using ‘420’ as code for smoking marijuana.” Tell me more, said I.

Although the five friends all remained cannabis aficionados, they had kept their distance from the burgeoning industry — until recently.

In the fall of 1971 Larry Schwartz, Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, and Mark Gravich, marijuana smoking students at San Rafael High School, had a designated meeting place: a wall near the statue of Louis Pasteur in front of the Science Department. As teenage boys are wont to do, the five friends shared a certain comic sensibility. They were all big fans of Johnny Carson (the Stephen Colbert of his day). Their usual meeting time was twenty minutes after four, and that became their secret word for getting together and getting high. “Like we might say ‘Four twenty at three thirty today,” Larry explained.

Other students dubbed them the Waldos in reference to their hang-out of choice.

The first of many exploits through which the friends bonded was a search for a small patch of marijuana plants near the Point Reyes lighthouse. They had been given a map with the location of the patch. Asked who gave it to them, Larry consulted Jeffrey Noel about how much the Waldos were now planning to reveal. “We’re not holding back anything,” said Noel. We went outside where it was quieter.

As Noel tells it, “The term we used was originally ‘420 Louie.’ It was our code term for ‘this is when we’re gonna meet at the statue.’ The synonym so we could communicate without saying ‘Let’s go get high together.’

“I had to be somewhat secretive because my father was a state narcotics agent for 32 years. I couldn’t be as open as the others in verbally expressing myself. This was back in the days of landlines and everyone listening to one another. ‘Four twenty’ was our way to get under the radar.

The friends would jive amicably with students passing by — the jocks, the academics, the stoners, the hot-rod aficionados — and they would go off and smoke joints together. Steve Capper was a senior and had a big 1966 four-door Chevy sedan. The others were juniors and sophomores. Noel says, “We would sit on the wall and make comments as everyone went by. We were self-deprecating as well as comical. We had a wry but vibrant humor that we thrived on. We still do. That was part of getting high, too —verbal play and banter. We all loved comedy. We all loved travel and seeing new places and exploration — all of that kept re-enforcing itself.”

Larry Schwartz credits the school administration with maximizing the Waldos’ 420 time: “The teachers thought they came up with this brilliant thing called ‘modular scheduling.’ It gave us big breaks in time between classes. We would have 30 minutes to drive around smoking joints.”

After high school the five Waldos stayed in touch with one another. They and their families socialize to this day. All still live in Marin except Noel, who moved to Calistoga and worked for a company that made candles (and for 11 years grew cannabis behind trellised grapevines). He now lives in Santa Rosa.

Steve Capper runs a successful lending company in San Francisco. Dave Reddix works with him and is an independent filmmaker. Mark Gravich is a professional photographer specializing in real estate (pictures for listings and sales). Larry Schwartz is a project manager for a company in San Rafael, married for 23 years, two kids in college. “We’ve all done all right,” he observes.

I asked if the Waldos had heard the urban legend that 420 was police code for a pot bust in Connecticut. Noel said, “Yes, but not in Connecticut.” I also laid out my own private theory: some stoned hipster, probably in the 1950s, thought the hands of a clock at 4:20 looked like a face smoking a joint.

Noel said, “We’ve heard all the theories of how 420 started — which is part of the reason we’ve decided to explain how it really happened. Another was the number of compounds in the cannabis plant.”

Some of the first 420 get-togethers involved driving to Pt. Reyes in search of the pot patch. According to Steve Caper, “My friend Bill McNulty (and his brother Pat McNulty) had a brother in law named Gary Newman, who was in the U.S. Coast Guard and stationed at the Pt.Reyes Peninsula. They would go out to visit with him often. Gary planted his plants in the spring while an Active, and then got out of the active military and went into the Coast Guard Reserve. During his time in the Reserve he took a job as a ranch hand just a mile or so down the road from the lighthouse. By fall when the crop was ready to harvest, he became fearful that he would be busted and decided not to harvest. One day when Bill and Patrick were up there visiting with him, Gary drew the map of the growing location and personally handed it over to them with a permission for them, and anybody they truly trusted, to harvest. Bill McNulty brought the map to the Waldos — trusted friends — and 420 was born.”

Was the map like the one in Treasure Island with “X marks the spot?” According to Noel, “There was a power box marked, a generator, a rock, and the patch was supposed to be behind the box where the generator was. We still have a copy of it. We recently interviewed Gary and got that information. It took years to find him. Steven hired a PI who searched records and came up with his location. (Newman is down on his luck in the South Bay.)

“So we all would meet at the Louis Pasteur statue at 4:20 and jump in Steven’s Chevy Impala and go out to Point Reyes. Of course on the drive we would smoke and get high, which really wrecked our ability to find the patch. We would walk around the fields — acres and acres of cow pastures and woods — and eventually we’d give up. We did this I don’t know how many times.” Clapper thinks there were five or six search attempts over the course of a month.

The Waldos were not desperately in need. “It was the early ‘70s and Marin County was rife with avenues to access,” notes Noel. “And Marin was rich, so it drew people who had it and wanted to gain the best profits. I had come from San Francisco. Marin seemed kind of soft at first, not the same diversity, but then I made good friends. My older brother and his friends were going to the Fillmore, the Avalon Ballroom, Winterland — all those places. We knew people who were bringing it into the country, driving to Mexico, going to Hawaii. Guys in the military bringing it in from Southeast Asia.

“My dad was in the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in San Francisco. He had a different car every few months. One time he came home —I was shooting hoops in our driveway with two of my friends and he said, ‘Hey guys, come over here and look at this.’ He threw open the trunk and he threw an aluminum-foil-rapped kilo brick to one of my friends — 2.2 pounds of pot. He showed a Thompson submachine gun to another guy. Me, I’m looking in the trunk and there’s all sorts of other confiscated drugs. Back in the day agents used to bring that stuff home. It was awesome. A block of hash as big as my head… I must admit I was a bit of a thief.”

Noel’s father died a few years ago. His disapproval of his children’s marijuana use had been tempered, Noel recalls, by a document published by the state of California in the mid-1970s. “It was heavy on the technical side but it demystified the bullshit put out by the federal government.” His father gave it to him to read, saying, ‘I’m not going to stop you from doing this, but I want you to be aware of the facts.’ And that’s when we kind of met at a common point.”

As I was interviewing the Waldos, Big Mike Barnes, who operates the 420 Limo service, took some photos and joined the conversation. He explained how he used to chauffeur Elvy Musikka, a glaucoma patient who had won the right to receive cannabis from the federal government, grown at the University of Mississippi under contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This was all news to the Waldos, who had for all these years kept their distance from the movement that has now become an industry (except as footsoldiers, i.e., users). The Waldos are bemused by their status as icons and justly proud of their unique accomplishment: adding a word/number/symbol to the international vocabulary. What a legacy!

“It’s not something we tried to do,” says Noel. “We were just a bunch of goofs It’s mind-boggling that something this personal — what we thought was code used by a tight group of people — just expanded and expanded. Friends outside our inner circle picked up on ‘420’ and started using it. We have a letter from a friend who went to Israel in 1972. He wrote, ‘Oh, wow, having a wonderful time. There are some hot chicks here at the kibbutz but no 420.” One of our friends in ‘74 went into the military and was stationed in Germany. He wrote us ‘No green 420 here, it’s all Lebanese kief.’ Dave Reddix’s brother was good friends with Grateful Dead. He used the terminology and it spread through them. There were a number of circuitous connections.”

The Walldos

Back in ‘71 they tell
Five friends at San Rafael
High School were into weed
and comedy in word and deed
They’d meet at 20 after four
by the bust of Louis Pasteur
to shuck and jive by yonder wall
and so the Waldos they got called

If there was no Standard Oil
there would still be plenty
But if there were no Waldos
There’d be no 420

Steven Larry David Mark
and Jeff whose dad was a Frisco narc
heard about this patch of pot
They had a map, X marked the spot
So off they’d drive to Point Reyes
In woods and pastures there to graze
Never was the treasure found
The pleasure they dug was foolin’ around

If there was no Standard Oil…

Jocks picked up on the Waldos code
and the college-bound made it a la mode
Three little digits, two little words
Flyin’ through San Rafael like birds
Through the hot rod boys’ garage
Through the Grateful entourage
and down the highway, out on tour
a long way from Louis Pasteur

If there was no Standard Oil…

And now it’s everywhere you go
Provo Oslo Tokyo
420 means let’s smoke
Prohibition is the butt of a joke
that everyone is in on now
Johnny Carson would be proud
Of the Waldos’ comedy:
Liberation numerology

If there was no Standard Oil…

‘Waldos Deniers’ want debate
They say the lads got there too late
Back in the 60s, so they claim
420 was pot’s other name
But when you ask ‘em to document
These memories do they relent?
No, they come on more aloof:
“How square of you to demand proof.”

If there were no Standard Oil
There would still be plenty
But if there were no Waldos
There’d be no 420!

GIANTS BEAT ANGELS 3-2 as Landen Roupp earns win despite two Trout HRs

by Susan Slusser

Angels shortstop Zach Neto waits for the ball as the Giants’ Matt Chapman steals second base Saturday at Angel Stadium.
(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)

ANAHEIM — Curveball after curveball followed by more curveballs. There wasn’t much doubt about what Landen Roupp was throwing most of the night, and only Mike Trout could do much with it or with the young San Francisco Giants right-hander in general.

Roupp turned in an outing much like the one staff ace Logan Webb did a night before, striking out Angels in bunches, notching a career-high nine. But Roupp also got a little support to make that flurry of curves stand up for a win. Matt Chapman blistered his fourth homer of the season, a two-run shot that gave San Francisco the lead before Roupp even took the mound, and Willy Adames did some nice opposite-field hitting to drive in another run in the third, as the Giants beat Trout 3-2.

Trout, having pounded a pair of solo homers for the entirety of the Angels’ scoring, almost tied it up in the ninth with a deep drive to left off closer Ryan Walker that Heliot Ramos chased down at the wall. Then, with a runner at first, Chapman turned a blunder on a potential game-ending double-play ball into a sensational play, slipping before Logan O’Hoppe’s grounder got to him, fielding it and throwing it from his knees for the second out.

“Nobody makes that play,” manager Bob Melvin said afterwards.

“I got set up a little bit late because I was trying to fix this divot that was out there by third base,” Chapman said. “Walker came set super fast, so I was backpedaling, and I got set really fast. I honestly didn’t think he was going to at a 3-0 pitch, then he swung at it, and it was hit right at me, that kind of causes a little panic. I tried to really quickly get the ball, stumbled and continued to stumble… Luckily, I was able to save it, but it could have been ugly.”

Chapman was OK after slipping except for re-opening a nickle-sized wound on the heel of his left palm which he’d gotten diving for a ball a few weeks earlier. It's something to keep an eye on because it has at times given him trouble when swinging the bat.

Roupp’s curveball was breaking nearly 5 feet vertically and 2 feet horizontally and he threw it 43 times in his 96-pitch outing — almost sparingly compared to his 56 times out of 101 pitches in his previous start. And for all the focus on that startling curve, it was his sinker that Roupp was happiest with Saturday, calling it the best its been all year. When he can locate it glove side, Roupp said, “That’s when I’m the pitcher I know I can be.”

Trout v. Roupp was the main card of the night, though. Roupp had never faced the Angels before, and struck out Trout in the first on, yes, a curveball. Trout’s next at-bat, he was ready for the curve and hammered it out to left at 115.4 mph, his hardest-hit ball since 2021 per Statcast. It was just the third time in Roupp’s four starts that he’d allowed a hit on his curveball; entering the game, opponents were batting .115 on the pitch.

Roupp merrily retired the next eight hitters before Trout stepped up with two outs in the sixth and clocked a changeup out to left this time for his eighth homer of the season.

“It was fun,” Roupp said of his battles with the three-time MVP. “I wish I could have gotten him all three times, but that’s the way it goes and I’ll learn from it. … That’s a guy I want to get out the most.”

The rest of the Angels managed two hits and a walk in Roupp’s career-high seven innings. “I didn’t even know how many strikeouts I had,” he said. “I was trying to go as long as I could.”

In 22 innings of work this season, Roupp has 29 strikeouts and has walked eight.

The Giants weren’t exactly clogging the bases, but the top of the order did just enough. Angels starter Kyle Hendricks walked Adames in the first with two outs — Adames got some breaks on some close pitches, the kind of thing that can help a player in a funk get going — before Chapman went deep to left to put the Giants up early.

In the third, leadoff man Mike Yastrzemski hustled his way to a double with one out and Adames went the other way with a first-pitch sinker, sending Yastrzemski home with what turned out to be the deciding run.

The Giants would be delighted to see Adames — their major offseason addition to the lineup — to crank up the pace offensively. He’s batting .190, but there are more pressing issues further down the order. LaMonte Wade Jr. went 0-for-3 with a walk and is batting .091. Patrick Bailey went 0-for-3 and is hitting .161. Both are likely to get Sunday off.

(sfchronicle.com)

PROJECT 2025 IN ACTION

Editor:

Let’s be clear-eyed what this DOGE attack on “waste, fraud, and abuse” is: a diversionary smoke screen to obscure the much larger purpose called for in Project 2025.

If actually improving government efficiency were the goal, all the nonpartisan, professional inspectors general would not have been fired. Nor would whole departments and agencies be eliminated and top-level experts fired. Elon Musk’s infamous chainsaw-to-government celebration said it all.

Project 2025’s ultimate goal, very clearly stated, is to remake America into a new “conservative state” — headed by an authoritarian executive with near-total control. Because they see government itself as “liberal-Democrat-woke,” it must be completely dismantled and reconstructed following the Russian and Hungarian models. Other “liberal” institutions destined for remakes are the media, universities, arts and culture and “the welfare industry,” including Social Security and Medicare.

All of us who’ve enjoyed America as it has been should not delude ourselves about what’s really happening. And, how much worse it’s likely to become.

Rick Childs

Mendocino

COURT BLOCKS DELTA TUNNEL DRILLING ONCE AGAIN

by Dan Bacher

In the latest legal battle in the fight to stop the Delta Tunnel, a Sacramento judge has rejected another attempt by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to lift an injunction that blocks DWR from conducting geotechnical investigations that DWR claims are essential to planning for the proposed Delta Conveyance Project (DCP).

“The court issued the injunction in June 2024 based on DWR’s admission that it had not complied with the 2009 Delta Reform Act as required by law,” according to a press statement from Restore the Delta. “DWR later sought an order modifying the injunction to allow it to proceed with a smaller subset of the planned geotechnical work. The court denied that request in 2024.”

“DWR appealed, and that appeal is pending. DWR also attempted to demonstrate Delta Reform Act compliance by certifying a portion of the geotechnical work in a submission to the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC). That effort resulted in an opinion from the DSC to the effect that proceeding with the proposed work would not violate the Delta Reform Act,” the group stated.…

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/11/2315922/-Court-Refuses-to-Lift-Injunction-on-Geotechnical-Investigations-Regarding-Delta-Tunnel

MEMO OF THE AIR: “Oh, real mature, Donnie!”

Marco here. Here’s the recording of last night’s (2025-04-18) 7.5-hour-long Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and also, for the first three hours, on KAKX Mendocino, ready for you to re-enjoy in whole or in part: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0640

Coming shows can feature your own story or dream or poem or essay or kvetch or announcement. Just email it to me. Or send me a link to your writing project and I’ll take it from there and read it on the air.

Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you’ll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not-necessarily radio-useful but worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:

Jacob Collier, crowd musician. The Wild Mountain Thyme video! My head hurts from crying so hard at this. The good kind of crying: wow and ow at the same time. https://myonebeautifulthing.com/2025/04/15/jacob-collier/

Traditional Ukrainian egg decorations. With video. https://kottke.org/25/04/the-traditional-designs-of-ukrainian-egg-decorating

A mathematical paean to A4 paper and dismissal of all others. Though, to be fair, an 11 by 17 folds in half to make two perfect 8-1/2 by 11s. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KW_bvB33kBc

A sexy ad for a special appliance for women warfigher jet pilots to tactical-warfightingly pee into when on long missions burning a hogshead of jet fuel per minute in an airplane that costs a hundred million dollars, that has to land sometime, where it can be taken out by a fifty-dollar toy drone with a grenade in it. A man could always just pee into a Snapple bottle and then later childishly put it back on the shelf, so this equifies the profession somewhat. Further, it wouldn’t be too hard nor much more expensive to add pleasure functions to the pee thing. It can already suck; it could vibrate; it could send out undulating tentacles and crawl around; it could growl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3uUwznkww

And lovingly restoring a 1958 Grundig Party-Boy, said to be the most beautiful radio ever made. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Radios lately are indistinguishable from a jet pilot pee thing, see above, and cars all look like robot tennis shoes. (15 min.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ZGmjkaebw

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

‘SHAME!’ Protesters Nationwide Rally Again to Condemn Trump Policies.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied at hundreds of events on Saturday to speak out against the president’s handling of immigration, civil liberties, job cuts and many other issues.

by Jesus Jimenez & Minho Kim

Thousands of protesters across the country once again took to the streets on Saturday to rally against President Trump and his policies, a sign of sustained resistance to his leadership just two weeks after cities and towns nationwide saw mass demonstrations.

The turnouts in some places like Washington and Chicago appeared to be smaller than the protests on April 5. Several thousands marched in the nation’s capital on Saturday, compared with tens of thousands earlier this month. Still, more than 700 events were planned from Jacksonville, Fla., to Los Angeles for Saturday, according to one of the organizers, the group 50501, and in New York, marchers in Midtown Manhattan filled 15 blocks on Madison Avenue.

The participants raged against the president, who they say is trampling on civil liberties and the rule of law, and overreaching in immigration, federal job cuts, the economy and other areas.

“Trump must go now!” “Trump must go now!” “Show me what democracy looks like!” “This is what democracy looks like!” “I’ve been concerned for, obviously, for a while, but it’s mostly like the executive overreach. Like we’re supposed to have three equal branches of government, and to have the executive branch become so strong and threaten, with Musk’s money, threatening elections in another state because it’s the opposite party. I mean, it’s just unbelievable.” “No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here! No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” “Show me what democracy looks like!” “This is what democracy looks like!” “Show me what democracy looks like!” “This is what democracy looks like!” “The people have all the power.”

In front of the White House, protesters repeatedly shouted a single word.

“Shame!”

Thousands more marched from the Washington Monument. Many demonstrators berated the administration for not bringing Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who the courts have said was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, back to the United States. Waving upside-down American flags, they marched along the eight-lane Constitution Avenue, chanting “Bring Kilmar home.” Trump officials have maintained that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.

Julia Fine, a Maryland resident who was holding a sign at the protest by the White House that read “free Garcia,” said the prison in El Salvador where Mr. Abrego Garcia is being held reminded her of “concentration camps.”

“That’s where we’re headed with this,” she said.

Concerns over the government’s handling of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case echoed at demonstrations from New York City to Cincinnati to Chicago.

At the protest in Manhattan, hundreds of signs flew in the air, including one that read: “Due Process.”

“It’s an injustice,” said Barry Knittle, 64, a manager at an engineering firm who lives in Mt. Kisco, N.Y. “And I fear it’s just the beginning.”

The crowd chanted, “The people united will never be defeated.” Packed double-decker tour buses passing by honked their horns in support, drawing big cheers.

Although many of the events on Saturday were traditional protests, many also were intended to unite local communities through activities such as food drives. Mass protests during President Trump’s first term, like the Women’s March in 2017, often focused on a single topic, but demonstrators on Saturday expressed concern on a wide range of issues: federal job cuts, their 401(k)s, veterans’ rights, Social Security, the war in Ukraine, transgender and gay rights, and misinformation autism and vaccines.

“Everything here is a big issue,” said Fio Holloman, 22, who attended a rally in Chicago’s Daley Plaza.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in Fort Worth, at one point shutting down traffic for at least four blocks. Jeannie Walker, 54, couldn’t land on just one issue when asked what brought her to Saturday’s protest.

“All of it,” she said.

Aaron Burk, who attended the Washington rally and whose girlfriend took a federal buyout from the Department of Energy, said he was worried that the administration would not stop at deporting undocumented immigrants without due process and would imprison and deport U.S. citizens.

“Where does it stop?” he said. Mr. Burk added that his daughter is transgender and that he was most concerned about the dehumanization of minorities.

Hundreds took to the streets in Jacksonville, Fla., to protest a number of causes, including the president’s attacks on the L.B.G.T.Q. community and the government’s desire to alter the Endangered Species Act.

“We are losing our country,” said one demonstrator, Sara Harvey, 65. In the last few months, she said she had protested the federal job cuts led by Elon Musk and joined the nationwide protests on April 5.

“I’m worried for my grandchildren,” she said. “I do it for them.”In Cincinnati, thousands of people marched peacefully through downtown. Aftab Pureval, the mayor, led the crowd in a chant of “vote them out” and denounced the Trump administration for cutting federal workers, imposing tariffs and mismanaging the economy, saying that everything that working families need will become more expensive.

For some who attended, like Andrea Mallory, 35, a social worker, the event was akin to a group therapy session.

“This is good for us emotionally,” she said.

A celebration in Concord, Mass., to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution, was not part of the organized network of protests, but some people took the occasion to draw parallels between then and now.

Conan Walter, 65, stood on the Old North Bridge holding a large poster scrawled with the words “Stop fascism now.”

“This celebration is about us getting out from under the King of England’s authoritarian rule,” Mr. Walter said. “That rule is trying to make a comeback today, and it’s important that people step up against that and meet the challenge.”

Still, not everyone in Concord was there to protest on Saturday. Deborah Bucknam, 78, an avid Trump supporter and lawyer from Northern Vermont, said she felt shut out of the political conversation on Saturday morning. Ms. Bucknam came to Concord to honor American history, and she said political differences shouldn’t overshadow the milestone.

But she acknowledged that demonstrators were allowed to voice their dissent.

“Protests are part of the American experience,” she said. “We have a right to protest, but everyone has a right to protest.”

(NY Times)

CAN STEVE KERR BE THE SPARK THAT LIGHTS AN ANTI-TRUMP FIRE IN THE SPORTS WORLD?

by Dave Zirin

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had finally seen enough. After his team’s play-in game against the Memphis Grizzlies, he arrived at the post-game press conference wearing a Harvard basketball T-shirt. Kerr made the wardrobe change as a prelude to speaking about the Trump administration’s threat to put a university that predates the American Revolution by almost 150 years into government receivership if it wants billions in federal funds. Unlike Columbia, some of the most prestigious law firms in the country, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and numerous more august institutions, Harvard — after several concessions — decided to refuse to kiss Trump’s mafia pinky ring. Before taking questions about Steph Curry’s thumb and the benching of Jonathan Kuminga, Kerr said, ”I believe in academic freedom. I think it’s crucial for all of our institutions to be able to handle their own business the way they want to — and they should not be shaken down, told what to teach, what to say by our government. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, but it’s kind of par for the course right now. Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”

Kerr has a history of opposing right-wing autocracy. He made himself heard during the first Trump administration when he joined fellow coach and mentor Gregg Popovich in speaking out against a president that he saw early on as a threat to both democracy and decency. Yet with Coach Pop recovering from a stroke (he’s on the mend!), Kerr had been quiet during this second, far more vicious and openly fascistic Trump administration. He hadn’t said much of anything, joining almost the entirety of his league. Players, who were so outspoken during Trump I, have thus far chosen silence.

In talking with players, I’ve identified three reasons why they aren’t publicly criticizing Trump. The first is physical safety, both for themselves and their families. No pro athletes are as exposed as NBA and WNBA basketball players. No player wants to be on the lookout for a smuggled-in weapon if fans storm the court. The second reason is that players, unlike in 2020, do not think that the league institutionally will have their backs. NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the franchise owners — once seen as more progressive than their NFL counterparts — are now either compliant or complicit with the oligarchal aims of this administration. If a player speaks out without organizational support, they fear, as one retired player said to me, of “getting Kapped,” slang for getting shot and also of course a reference to Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback exiled from his job for his opposition to racist police violence. The third reason is feeling queasy at the thought of risking generational wealth. Compared to 2020, let alone 2016, salaries have exploded. Today a mid nine-figure contract merits barely a yawn for a mid-level star. This is a result of inflated televised-rights packages for streaming services and the addiction economy of gambling apps. There is more money than ever and that means more risk. Why fight for player-power to have more influence in the league’s direction if you can afford to be part of a group that can buy a team? Unheard of in previous generations, it’s now a goal for several top-end players.

It is in the face of this that Kerr rediscovered his voice. Kerr, of course, has a different background than your typical NBA coach. His father, Dr. Malcolm Kerr, was president of American University in Beirut. Dr. Kerr believed that education, understanding, and challenging Western racism could help bring justice and peace to the region. This made him a threat, and he was killed by two assassins. The group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. If he wasn’t killed, Dr. Kerr would be widely known today as an influential Middle Eastern studies scholar whose work earned praise from a generation of academics, including from Edward Said, who essentially founded Palestinian Studies in the United States. In addition, the Middle East Studies Association, an academic organization of over 2,700 academics, names its annual award for the best dissertation after Dr. Malcolm Kerr. This same Middle East Studies Association has condemned the Israeli genocide in Gaza in “the strongest possible terms.”

This is Steve Kerr’s stock: standing up to racism at home and abroad and standing up to “bullies,” aka right-wing autocrats. Now the question, especially as we enter the playoff season in the NBA, is whether some players or coaches may pick up Kerr’s torch and have something to say. This is a league whose popularity was built — and continues to be built — largely by Black players, players who, in the past, have spoken out on issues of racism. In 2020, they even went on strike after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Given Trump’s endorsement of police violence, the attacks on Black employees in the federal government, the erasing of Black history in schools, the stated intention by Trump’s bottom-feeding parasites like Chris Rufo to overturn the 1964 Civil Rights Act, there is no shortage of stands for players to take. Whether it happens is an open question, but it always starts with one person. Courage may be contagious, but there needs to be a patient zero. Last time, it was Coach Pop. Now it’s Coach Kerr. Throughout these playoffs, we will see whether his words mark the start of a political contagion or if he’ll be quarantined by a skittish sports media.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Somebody once described life as that little flurry of activity between the 2 great eternities. Works for me. The thought of eternal life as opposed to oblivion frankly terrifies me, but all that really happens is somebody else gets my hospital bed.

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THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE GOVERNMENT’S ANTI-MISINFORMATION EXPLOSION

The Free Press finds that the Biden administration awarded more than 600 grants

by Greg Collard

You likely already know from reading Racket that the Biden administration was very active in targeting misinformation and disinformation, even as it engaged in those practices.

Racket’s Twitter Files and other reporting have extensively documented many of the anti-disinformation and misinformation programs and organizations that the federal government supported, like the Election Integrity Project, Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI League), and the Center on Narrative, Disinformation and Strategic Influence at Arizona State.

But the number of grants? We didn’t know that. Now we do.

The Free Press reports that since 2017, the federal government has awarded about 800 grants to counter mis/disinformation — and the Biden administration is responsible for more than 600 of them. The 800 grants amount to more than $1.4 billion.

The findings by reporters Gabe Kaminsky and Madeleine Rowley are based on a new database of anti-mis/disinformation programs. The database was created by the free speech advocacy group liber-net.

“A large number of these projects cynically employed the ‘misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation’ framework to counter their political adversaries, with U.S. government funding making it possible,” liber-net’s director, Andrew Lowenthal, told the Free Press.

President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that accused the Biden administration of violating free speech rights “under the guise” of combatting misinformation, disinformation and malinformation.

But Kaminsky and Rowley found that several of the programs were continuing under the Trump administration — at least until they started asking about the grants, as Kaminsky explains to Racket.

We reached out to agencies to understand if these programs would continue under President Trump. What we found was a groundswell of federal officials taking the information and letting us know that they were either terminating the programs, investigating them, or adjusting internal policies as to how they characterize some of these programs to ensure alignment with the President’s executive order on “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship” that he signed on his first day in office. Some agencies, however, didn’t respond, or, in the case of the National Science Foundation, declined to comment.

In one example the Free Press cites, NIH director Jay Bhattacharya sent an email marked “URGENT” to employees to investigate grants and contracts related to “fighting misinformation or disinformation.”

The Free Press found several dozen grants that have since been canceled, such as $683,000 awarded to UC-Irvine in December. The money would have gone toward studying the influence of social media and “misinformation on vaccine acceptance among black and Latinx individuals.” The study would have done that by enrolling 500 people who follow vaccine-hesitant influencers on X.

Although most mis/disinformation grants occurred under Biden, they started with some regularity during the first Trump administration. Here’s a graphic from liber-net that shows how the number of grants ballooned from Trump to Biden:

The organizations that receive grants typically dole out portions of the money to other organizations. Kaminsky explains how they work:

Gabe Kaminsky: Like many federal programs, there are often subgrantees or subcontractors. So, while Maddie Rowley and I found that the Biden administration had awarded north of 600 grants and contracts to outside organizations, that number only accounts for primary awards. Take the $2 million that the Department of State awarded in 2023 to the Vermont-based NGO World Learning to, in its telling, “support the Armenian media sector’s overall resilience to disinformation.” For that program, which ended in February 2025, World Learning dished out a sub-award of $275,219, or 13% of the primary award, to the Poynter Institute.

And for Poynter, that’s nothing new. For example, I reported last year that Poynter had received a sub-award from the State Department’s since-shuttered Global Engagement Center—which Republicans accused of censoring conservatives in the United States. Poynter received the GEC funding via the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, a London-based entity.

Greg Collard: Although most grants were during the Biden administration, they were also awarded during the first Trump administration. Was there a difference in the types of grants that were awarded?

GK: Post-2017 is really when these programs were kicked into gear, speeding up dramatically under Biden. The same grantees and contractors that ended up receiving large amounts in funding under Biden often had initially received some during the first Trump administration. As to why that was is I think a mix of Republicans being in the dark as to the programs, and—as was evident broadly across the first Trump administration—there being agencies that sort of operated how they desired irrespective of Trump’s stated policies. Trump did not know how Washington worked.

However, I would say that the descriptions of programs on federal documents under Biden was a notable difference—as some appeared to more specifically align with the ideological priorities of the Democrats: using terms like “racial equity,” “Latinx,” or other left-leaning terminology championed by the Biden administration. Under Trump 1.0, in other words, the anti-misinformation circus quietly gained a foothold in the U.S. by advertising itself in broad strokes that, in theory, many might agree with: countering extremism or online harassment, for example.

But in practice, the programs were far more complicated and often partisan.

Active Grants

Although many anti mis/disinformation programs have been shut down, many remain active — including the largest grant: a $979 million award to military contractor Peraton, courtesy of the Department of Defense. Peraton landed the grant in 2021 to help the U.S. Central Command “counter misinformation,” liber-net’s Lowenthal writes in a Substack post about the database.

That grant alone easily makes the Defense Department the largest funder of mis-disinformation grants from 2016 to 2024. USAID was the second-largest funder at $149 million.

Smaller grants also remain active. One the Free Press cites is $6.8 million in multiple grants to the University of Washington for literary resources that help “rural communities and black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities” identify misinformation. The grant description says misinformation is a “growing threat to American democracy,” and that “Solutions must not only provide the public with skills for determining the truthfulness of claims, but must also provide resources for addressing the social and emotional impacts of misinformation.”

WHAT I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE EGG INDUSTRY HORRIFIED ME

by Sy Mongomery

Every spring, I’d eagerly await my special package — a box that arrived peeping. Inside were just-hatched chicks, still egg-shaped and covered in down.

I would raise the chicks in my home office. During our first month together, there was always a chick or two in my sweater, on my shoulder or perching atop my head. They considered me their mother.

Later, when they moved outside to a coop, they ranged freely over the eight acres my husband and I own in rural New Hampshire. Whenever they caught sight of me, they would greet me as if I were a member of the Beatles, racing toward me with wings outstretched. When they began to lay eggs, I was elated. I had gotten the hens to keep me company, but nothing tastes better than an egg from a free-range chicken you know personally. I’ve been a vegetarian since 1980, so I felt great about accepting this gift from my sweet little flock, which I called the Ladies.

I had no idea that while the Ladies enjoyed shelter and sunshine, fresh bugs and freedom, their newborn brothers faced a gruesome fate shared by 6.5 billion male chicks around the world each year. These male birds can’t lay eggs but also aren’t raised for meat. Because they come from egg-laying breeds, they don’t grow big or fast enough to be used for food. So they are ground up alive or gassed to death.

The practice is especially egregious because unlike many baby mammals and songbirds, which are born blind, naked and helpless, newborn chicks are capable little creatures. Within hours of hatching, they are standing, running and successfully finding food. When they are thrown into the grinder or gasser at 1-day old, these male chicks are alert and aware.

Unwittingly, I was complicit in this monstrosity.

The good news is that a new technology can help end it. Called in ovo sexing, it determines the sex of the chick embryo long before it hatches, allowing the producers to get rid of the male eggs and hatch only the females. Eggs from in ovo sexed hens have been available in some European countries since 2018 and now make up about 20 percent of Europe’s market, driven in large part by bans on chick culling in several countries, including Germany and France. Come summer, the first such eggs are due to become available in U.S. supermarkets.

It’s a breakthrough that could be one of the greatest gains in animal welfare of the century. But we consumers have to make it happen.

There are different ways to do in ovo sexing. Some machines can determine the sex of the chicken embryos by analyzing a small sample of the contents of the egg, rather like prenatal embryo testing for humans. Others use wavelengths of light to penetrate the egg and reveal colors that correlate with sex. The investment in this technology isn’t cheap, but it’s partly offset by savings: It eliminates the cost (estimated at $500 million) of incubating eggs that will never turn into laying hens for the market and of killing and disposing of slain chicks.

Some hatcheries may be put off by the initial cost of installing the new technology. Consumers would have to pay perhaps one to three pennies extra per egg. (But that’s nothing compared with recent increases in egg prices).

At least three U.S. companies — Kipster, NestFresh and Happy Egg — are working to offer supermarket eggs that make use of the technology. NestFresh, which specializes in humanely free-range and pasture-raised hens, appears to be the farthest along, with plans to offer the eggs in stores this summer under a Humanely Hatched label.

More companies could follow — but only under public pressure.

Consumer demand for more humane treatment of farm animals has already propelled important changes in the food industry, from cage-free eggs in supermarkets to plant-based burgers in restaurants. That’s why organizations like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals are urging consumers who buy eggs to purchase them from companies that use in ovo testing. Or you can write the company producing the egg brand you usually buy, urging it to adopt the new technology. Visit your local grocery store; tell the manager you want to spare male chicks from culling — and that you will back your conviction with your dollars. If you raise chickens at home, call the hatchery where you get your chicks to voice your preference.

Scientists are now documenting what backyard chicken enthusiasts already knew: Far from being mean, dirty and stupid, chickens are affectionate, clean and smart. They can recognize individuals by their faces, both avian and human. They can alert flock mates to the presence of food and danger — specifying in their call whether a treat is particularly delicious and whether the predator is coming by land or air. A recent study found that roosters may be able to pass the mirror test, which many psychologists consider a sign of self-awareness.

Chickens also have distinct personalities. Some are remarkably courageous, like my neighbor’s rooster, who chased a fox from his flock into the woods. Others are clever and affectionate, like a rooster who learned to use the doorknob to let himself into the house — where he would often bring his favorite person gifts, like bits of plumbing he’d found in the garage.

High supermarket prices have consumers hyperfocused on the cost of eggs. But as adorable spring chicks remind us, chickens are not just food. We need to consider the real cost of eggs not just to our wallets but also to the lives of these thinking, feeling creatures.

(Ms. Montgomery is the author of “What the Chicken Knows” and other books on animals.)

WIND WORK

by David Yearsley

If the organ is the King of Instruments, its monarchy is built on deception. The largest, most technologically complicated, most tonally diverse, and most visually stunning of musical objects, the organ was often held to be an earthly symbol of perfection. It stands motionless in its balcony and from its glittering array of pipes produces awe-inspiring music without the slightest intimation of effort as seen and heard from below.

But behind the gleaming façade, relentless work is required if music is to be made. Without breath the King cannot speak, not to mention sing. In the European millennium before the advent of electricity, the seemingly effortless majesty of the organ’s voice relied on real work by real people. From the seemingly luxurious position of industrial modernity, few have bothered to consider those who labored behind the scenes.

We should thank the late Walter Salmen, the assiduous and imaginative social historian of music, for dedicating one of his last books to the subject: Calcanten und Orgelzieherinnen: Geschichte eines “niederen” Dienstes (Organ pumpers [both men and women]: History of a lowly service). He was one of the first to look out for those who raised the wind by pulling ropes, pushing bars, or treading beams that lifted the bellows, sometimes, but not always, aided by the mechanical advantage provided by pulleys. These people were paid next to nothing during their lives and were duly forgotten by history. Constructed from dozens of telling examples extracted from archives and from musicological studies often only tangentially related to the organ, this slender book makes us reconsider the terms and conditions of labor on which the instrument’s sonic identity was founded.

These workers were the lowliest figures in any musical establishment in town, court or church. They often worked in dark, vermin-infested chambers, bitterly cold in winter and brutally hot in summer. Surviving payrolls show just how little money they made: usually a small fraction of the organist’s salary, often less than a tenth. Organ pumpers—called “blowers” in British English (even though they didn’t do any blowing themselves)—had little chance of improving their social standing or that of their families. Although some were, or became, instrument makers, they were, for the most part, stuck in a dead-end job, essential but replaceable.

The continuous of hours of tuning and voicing the pipes necessary when organs were being installed or renovated required vast amounts of pumping during long hours each day and extending across weeks. Accurately calibrating the pitch demanded a wind supply as reliably steady as possible.

According to surviving accounts, J. S. Bach tested the lungs of a new organ by first pulling out all the stops and playing massive chords on the manuals and pedal. The organist’s feet operated the largest pipes that sucked huge quantities of wind. Whenever Bach attempted this trademark stunt, someone had to be working hard behind the scenes.

Given the expense of hiring a pumper, pre-industrial organists practiced at home on stringed keyboard instruments— harpsichords, clavichords, and by the 19th-century pianos—kitted out with pedalboards. Even for the organist, hearing the instrument come to life under his fingers and feet was a rare privilege. Before organ wind systems were electrified, the Kings of Instruments remained silent for far longer stretches, resounding only during religious services, concerts, job trials, or special demonstrations for visiting colleagues, patrons and princes.

The unseen and poorly remunerated work that made these events possible was often part-time employment for gravediggers, sextons, and bellringers. Organ pumpers were typically gathered from society’s margins: drunks, cripples, homeless, the aged, the infirm—and women. Women have long been, and often still are, the most invisible of laborers, even when fulfilling myriad tasks in plain sight in the home. It is therefore hardly surprising to discover that the female labor pool was crucial for organ pumping. Otherwise forbidden to take part in the divine service, women were frequently allowed to tread or pull the bellows, unseen and therefore unoffending. When those male pumpers with permanent, life-long positions died, their widows were typically pressed into the same poorly paid service to support themselves even unto their own deaths. The downtrodden did the treading.

In the Fall of 1831 in Walenstadt, encircled by the sublime Swiss scenery of mountain and lake, Felix Mendelssohn treated himself to what he called, in a letter home to Berlin, as “a private three-hour organ session.” The famed musical tourist described how the bellows had been operated by “an old, lame man; otherwise, not a single person was in the church.” Even if do the wind work, few music lovers would turn down the chance to eavesdrop on one of the greatest musical geniuses. Still, three hours is a very long time for a disabled senior citizen to do a job that can be quite taxing even for the fit. When I played on that same Swiss organ a few years ago, I simply flipped a switch and had at it.

Mendelssohn’s Walenstadt vignette teaches us anew that, uniquely among musical instruments, the organ could not be played alone. Someone else had to be at work.

Though not needing massive training, raising the bellows did require some skill. Archives record many complaints of incompetent or, in the case of schoolboys forced into service, rowdy bellows pumpers, who, through their missteps or mischief, blasted big holes in the music or even damaged the bellows themselves.

An avid organ tourist, Mendelssohn’s recounted to his diary a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral in London in September of 1837. At the end of the Sunday service he sat down on the bench and launched into Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A Minor (BWV 543). In anticipation of this performance, all the important musicians of London had joined the huge congregation to hear the German virtuoso dazzle, especially with his feet.

Unaware that it was a huge European musical celebrity who was draining the wind from the bellows past the usual midday quitting time, the on-the-clock pumper left his post. As the wind gauge fell, the church’s aghast organist, Henry Smart, who was standing beside Mendelssohn, pulled frantically on the notification bell signaling the pumper to get busy again. Just as Mendelssohn came to the fugue’s daunting final pedal solo, the wind gave out. Smart dashed after the errant pumper, but out of sympathy for the poor man, Mendelssohn refused to play on. As he left the cathedral, Mendelssohn watched a furious mob of congregants shouting “Shame! Shame!” at the pumper for his dereliction of duty, committed within a few bars of the end of one of Bach’s thrilling fugue. The person on whose labor Mendelssohn’s performance relied had been the only one who could not enjoy the music directly. Shut off in his chamber, only able to hear muted strains of Bach over the respiration of the bellows and the clacking of the organ’s action, the pumper simply believed that he had fulfilled the terms of his employment and worked long enough on that day of rest.

In the decades after this dramatic unveiling of hidden organ labor in the world’s most populous city, various technological development tried to replace the human pumper. Motors powered by water or petroleum were tried but did not take hold. It was only across the first third of the 20th century that pumping was electrified, eventually reaching rural churches.

Salmen’s purview doesn’t extend across the Atlantic but if it had, he would have found nostalgic accounts of youthful organ pumping by various captains of American industry, as well as a Secretary of the Treasury (George Courtelyou), and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court—Edward Douglass White, likely a Klan member who hailed from Louisiana and who, as an associate, had signed on to the majority opining in Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896. The history of enslaved organ pumpers has yet to be written.

Recent decades have witnessed (as in, actually seen) a return to human organ pumping. This movement (literally) seeks to replace the iron lung of the electric blower by returning to more flexible, feeling, if also fallible, people-powered winding. It is no longer a rare occurrence for pumpers working at antique or antique-inspired instruments to be acknowledged by audiences. At the dedicatory recital in Rochester, New York, a copy of a European organ from 1776, the two bellows operators, both students at the Eastman School of Music, were called to the gallery rail after the music had concluded to take their bows. They were not paid for their services.

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

PAUL HARVEY’S LETTER TO HIS GRANDCHILDREN *

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I’d like better.

I’d really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches.. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it’s all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he’s scared, I hope you let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you’ll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don’t ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won’t be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy / girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don’t care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don’t like it… And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he/she is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor’s window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you — tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it’s the only way to appreciate life.

* clarification from snopes.com…

The essay reproduced above has circulated on the Internet for several years prefaced with a statement indicating it is "from Paul Harvey," an attribution which is somewhat ambiguous — does it mean that the late radio commentator wrote the essay, or that he popularized it? It's unclear which concept the original e-mailer was trying to communicate, so we'll answer both questions in preference to guessing what was in that person's mind.

Paul Harvey didn't write this essay. The true author of the piece is Lee Pitts, and the nostalgic composition was published (under the title "These Things I Wish") in his 1995 book People Who Live at the End of Dirt Roads and appeared in the 2000 Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul collection.

However, Paul Harvey used material written by Lee Pitts in his daily news and commentary radio segments from time to time, and he did read this particular essay (crediting Pitts, of course) during his 6 September 1997 broadcast. The popularization of "These Things I Wish" by Paul Harvey led to its publication as an illustrated book of its own in 2006:

When Paul Harvey read Lee Pitts's essay "These Things I Wish" on his nationally syndicated radio show, Paul Harvey News and Comment, listeners everywhere loved it, and it's become a classic that's been passed from parent to child, from friend to friend. Here, for the first time, Pitts's moving text is presented opposite beautiful illustrations in a book that is the perfect gift for parents and children of all ages.

PATRICK TAMAO AND HIS WIFE MARITZ

by Fred Gardner

Been reading bout Patrick Tamao
a 31-year-old French priest
Why'd he decide to be crucified?
For world peace (for one day at least)

Some said he wanted publicity
And rigged up his wood cross with mirrors and tricks
But reporters from papers that covered the caper
Denied it had been crucifixed

His hands were bound arms akimbo
His eyes rolled upward unto the sky
Like a kid who had bothered a tyrant father
He didn't cry or even ask why

Cripples threw away their crutches
Amid early rumors of miracles to be
The lame would be running the dumb would be humming
The blind would see him on TV

But then after twenty-two hours
In agony Patrick Tamao did weep
I've almost endured the pain of our Lord
but Mon Dieu my left foot is asleep

And there it all might have ended
just one more miracle not meant to be
But his wife without kvetching, got up started stretching
And told the reporters now boys watch me

Oui, Maritz climbed up and did it
While scientists watched from their secular ground
For fifty two hours displaying her powers
And then she ever so lightly touched down

The media seeking her secret
Were told by this woman of wisdom and tact
"Pat taught me how to hang tough it's Tamao-
ism... It's his act."

But it was too late for concealing
What millions of fellas have long tried to hide
Girls can be stronger do anything longer
Even be crucified

Well call it crucifact or fiction
I put down the Chronicle with one thing to say:
Don't put off on Madame Tamao the goddamn
Things you oughta finish yourself today

23 Comments

Mazie Malone April 20, 2025

Happy Easter, 🐣🌷🌿

Awwww James Marmon was worried about his nephew Jack Gouber, had seen nothing of him for sometime wanted to know that he was ok. Now we know but Marmon is not here. 😢🙏💕

Another victim of homelessness, addiction & Serious Mental Illness.

For families there is a great sense of relief when a loved one is arrested, because they are now in a safe controlled environment.

mm 💕

Reply
- Call It As I See It April 20, 2025
  
  I know Jack Jr very well. I didn’t know Marmon was inquiring about Jr, I have seen Jack regularly here in Ukiah. I would have let him know Jr is alive but not okay. I know the Gouber/Splitoef family very well. I played softball with all of them for years. Jr was a heck of an athlete. The family tried everything to help Jr but he allowed his mental illness to dictate his life. Jr was functional when he took his medicine, could hold a job and a an apartment and seemed happy. Unfortunately the medication made Jr gain weight and this crushed him. He would stop taking his medication and life would unravel turning to self medication and homelessness, then being arrested. Jack Sr and brother, Adam reached out many times to help him but Jr’s violence caused them to leave him on his own. Jr’s story is very sad but jail in his case has become his only option.
  
  I have seen and spoke to Jr a couple of times in the last few months, he is not okay. I’m sorry Marmon left us not knowing. But maybe he left us with the hope Jr was okay.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone April 20, 2025
    
    CSI, … lol…..🤣💕
    
    Thank you, appreciate you sharing & seeing you have kindness, sometimes hard to tell, haha.. !!
    
    I bet I know you, lol same age range!!! lol..🤣
    
    Also should add that when I saw you commented I was dreading reading your response. I was pleasantly surprised! 🤘
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
- Lazarus April 20, 2025
  
  Decades ago, I knew his Grandfather, Eddie, and his father, Jack. Eddie tended bar at the old John’s Place in Willits. Jack worked at Remco, I think. Jack played softball when it was a big deal around Willits. I also knew his aunt Beverly. I liked her. They called the kid Jackie.
  All were good people.
  Ask around,
  Laz
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone April 20, 2025
    
    Thanks Laz, 💕💕💕
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
Harvey Reading April 20, 2025

JEFF BURROUGHS

I suggest the writer, along with the one from a couple of days ago, contact fishery managers at the Department of Fish and Wildlife. For me, what was written in the AVA today is pure gas-bagging.

Reply
Koepf April 20, 2025

Right here in river city, on this holy day of Easter, let us find forgiveness for the vitriolic words and pictures posted by Mike Geniella against his fellow countrymen. In his heart, Mike’ s a righteous, religious man, a credit to his church, a fine writer who perceives his crusade is just. Bless Mike for all of this, but let us not forget Luke 23:34, “for they know not what they do.”

Reply
- George Hollister April 20, 2025
  
  Fundamental to forgiveness is the recognition that we are all human and capable of doing the same harm we accuse others of doing. Our motivations are the same, our tendencies are the same, and we all largely live our lives based on faith.
  
  Reply
  - Koepf April 20, 2025
    
    You’re forgiven. George.
    
    Reply
  - gary smith April 21, 2025
    
    That is total bullshit. There are saints who go through an entire life without harming others and sociopaths who live to harm others. I think you are trying to convince yourself that you are no less evil than any other Joe Blow.
    
    Reply
    - Bruce McEwen April 21, 2025
      
      Gary, that’s the whole point of Christianity: we are all sick puppies—even the saints and martyrs—but if we believe in Him, it’s all good, so go on out and get ya some, cash in on the golden age, the sacrament absolves the conscience and with Ambient and a Sleep Number Bed you can sleep with a pristine conscience.
      
      And thanks for helping me return fire on these snipers taking potshots at us … w/out you and Vicar Dunbar we’d be pinned down and picked off piecemeal!
      
      Reply
- Bruce McEwen April 20, 2025
  
  The pictures of adults throwing apoplectic fits made me think of that scene in Pynchon’s novel Mason & Dixon at the George Pub where the blokes are denouncing the “theft” of the 11 days when we switched from the Julian to the Georgian calendar. Hilarious! Beautiful occasion for mirth for those of us pagans who still connect eternal life with fertility symbols like eggs and rabbits, rather than the prevailing imaginary narrative so popular with all the little church mice.
  
  Reply
Harvey Reading April 20, 2025

THIS COASTAL CALIFORNIA INN MIGHT JUST CHANGE YOUR LIFE

So nice to know how the wealthy amuse themselves.

Reply
Paul Modic April 20, 2025

My helper Jenny was late then cancelled but I had already channeled her goddess energy into the project, so her work was done even before she did anything. The day before, after she had agreed to come help me collate all forty-three issues of my ‘90’s zine, I’d taken all the Gulch Mulch folders out of a filing cabinet and laid them out on the table. (When I was prepping them for Jenny’s arrival I realized after a couple hour’s work that it was something only I could do, sorting through the masters and lack thereof.)
I didn’t mind that she didn’t come, as a woman like that who everyone wants a piece of, including her twin two-year-olds, is in demand and in this case she was exhausted. Really, this is the kind of woman that when you meet her you think she’s changed your life or soon will, two other people told me that they had that reaction and probably me also.
Oh, maybe she’s not that special and I just don’t get out much, but wow, her energy is like I described coming into the first open mic in January: gliding into the venue in an aura of effervescent laughter and conversation. (And that hair! Would she be pissed off if I said I just wanted to run my hands through it?)
I was actually relieved when she didn’t make it and I got back to normal, turned on the sauna and went off to the park, and thought about names for the gallery and what to put on the biz card. (Eel Paradise Gallery? Galeria El Paraiso?)
Today I go up to the print shop to photocopy the stragglers and get my publication ready, my largest home-made book project yet: ten copies of a hundred pages…

Reply
David Stanford April 20, 2025

BOB DOMINY’S GREAT PHOTOS FROM THE SATURDAY PROTEST:

You may not like Mr. Trump but you have to admit the what DOGE has uncovered is pretty remarkable the amount of waste we have in the Government and what they are spending my tax dollars on being exposed nice to see!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply
- Call It As I See It April 20, 2025
  
  100% agreed. No matter your political position this is criminal.
  
  Reply
  - Bruce McEwen April 20, 2025
    
    100% greed.
    
    “The Department of Government Efficiency’s website quietly removed nearly one billion dollars in what it claims to have “saved” through canceled contracts, grants or leases this past week”
    
    The Independent
    
    “No matter your political position this is criminal.”
    
    Good point, Umpire Cassi!
    
    Reply
- Harvey Reading April 20, 2025
  
  I would like to see an honest, factual report on what good DOGE has really done. I fail to put much reliance on what nooze reports, or politicians, state about what has been “accomplished”.
  
  Reply
  - Chuck Dunbar April 20, 2025
    
    Me too, Harvey, I believe nothing that comes out of Trump’s admin–all they do is lie, bluster and evade. The manner they’ve done their work in does not bode well for any intelligent, considered focus on fixing actual corruption and waste. Lots of bravado and fuss in this very short time of action– who in their right mind believes multiple and serious mistakes are not being made?
    
    Reply
- BRICK IN THE WALL April 20, 2025
  
  Well they got most of my 401 k…”Buddy, can you (and your ilk) spare a dime?”
  
  Reply
  - Bruce McEwen April 20, 2025
    
    Soon, my bird of augury predicts, the Monopoly game called America will be o’er, with all the obvious winners gloating smugly. Then it will be time to fold up the board and put all the pieces back in the closet, and all those billions will be meaningless as we return to life the way it has been for eons …until some new game comes along, huh.
    
    Reply
    - BRICK IN THE WALL April 20, 2025
      
      “Annie get your gun”
      
      Reply
    - Chuck Dunbar April 20, 2025
      
      NOT TO WORRY
      
      Sagacious Bird of Augury
      Whispers wisely in his ear—
      “No worries, kind sir,
      Nothing really to fear.”
      
      “This turmoil will abate,
      The winners all to shout
      The bereft losers left to pout—
      Life will proceed, not to doubt.”
      
      Reply

Mendocino County Today: Sunday 4/20/2025

23 Comments

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