Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 4/22/2025

Pleasant Days | Bicycle Accident | Myosotis | Juvenile Nabbed | Roger Schoenahl | MCHCD Meeting | Beautiful Spring | Dump Days | Great Turnout | 85th Anniversary | Questionable Compost | Calypso Orchid | Rhododendron Events | Glenn Mason | Cultural Events | Boonville Protest | Wildflower Show | Las Cafeteras | Plant Sale | Unity Club | Spring Fair | Pinot Volunteers | Easter Rabbit | Yesterday's Catch | Great Atrocity | Lay Judges | Junk Food | Giants Win | 1905 Detroit | Palestine Talk | Trouette Trouble | NIH Funding | Pink Robe | Planet K2-18b | Bat Masterson | America 2025 | Lead Stories | Poorly Paid | Lawlessness Expert | How Many | Brooks Revolt | Dance Music

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COOLER overnight temperatures with pleasant daytime highs will continue for the next few days. Strong northerly winds will ramp up in the afternoons near the coast, starting to weaken by Wednesday. Unsettled weather with a chance of rain is forecast Thursday afternoon through Saturday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 42F under clear skies this Tuesday morning on the coast. Still calling for clear skies today & Wednesday, cloudy Thursday, then maybe some rain Friday? All very exciting, no?

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A SIX YEAR OLD UKIAH BOY was seriously injured in a bicycle incident on Friday, April 18, 2025 when the boy rode into the path of a 2006 Toyota pickup on Chablis Drive at Sauterne Place at about 6:15pm. The boy suffered major injuries and was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center for treatment. Drugs or alcohol were not considered factors in the incident. CHP is investigating. If you have any information about the incident call the CHP/Ukiah at 707 467-4420. (CHP Presser)

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PURSUIT RESULTS IN ARREST OF JUVENILE FORT BRAGG AUTO THEFT SUSPECT

On April 19, 2025 at approximately 9:30 PM, a Fort Bragg police officer was on patrol in the area of Chestnut St and Harrison St when he observed a vehicle fail to stop at a posted stop sign. As the officer turned around to make a traffic enforcement stop, the vehicle accelerated away at a high rate of speed. The officer activated his emergency lights and siren and initiated a vehicle pursuit.

The pursuit was less than a mile, lasted less than a minute, and reached speeds of 70 MPH. The driver collided with a street sign at Chestnut St and S Sanderson Way, but continued on. The driver lost control at the intersection of Sanderson Way and E Oak St while attempting a turn. The vehicle went over the curb and came to rest in the front yard of a residence, but did not contact the structure.

The driver immediately fled on foot from the officer, who initiated a foot pursuit and caught the suspect a short distance away. A few minutes later, Dispatch informed officers the owner of the vehicle had reported it stolen during the pursuit. Further investigation revealed it had been stolen only minutes before the officer initiated the traffic enforcement stop.

The suspect, a juvenile of Fort Bragg, was arrested and booked into Mendocino County Juvenile Hall on the charges of Vehicle Theft; Possession of Stolen Vehicle; Felony Evading; Vandalism over $400; Resisting Arrest; and Hit & Run.

Captain Thomas O’Neal said, “This is another example of proactive police work leading to the discovery of a felony in progress and arrest of a danger to public safety.”

Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to contact Officer Beak of the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707)961-2800 ext 224.

This information is being released by Chief Neil Cervenka All media inquiries should contact him at [email protected].

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BOONVILLE’S ROGER SCHOENAHL FOUND DEAD OF SUICIDE IN UKIAH

On April 14, 2025 at approximately 3:25 A.M., Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to the 800 block of Vichy Springs Road in Ukiah, to conduct a welfare check on a male subject observed tying a rope to the Perkins Street Bridge (Russian River). A passing motorist observed the male subject standing on the bridge and called to report the situation after observing the male tying a rope to the bridge railing.

When Deputies arrived, they located a rope tied to the top railing of the bridge but were unable to locate the male subject or anyone else in the area. During their investigation, Deputies located identifying information belonging to a male subject at the scene. Deputies were unable to locate the subject and completed a missing person report. Deputies and Officers from the Ukiah Police Department searched the area for several hours but were unable to locate the subject or any other evidence related to this investigation.

Later that day at approximately 8:00 A.M., the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office initiated a Search and Rescue operation, which consisted of personnel from the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, Sheriff's Office Deputies, and Search and Rescue personnel from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. At approximately 10:00 A.M., a male subject was found in the Russian River approximately 300 yards downstream (south) of the Perkins Street Bridge. The subject was pronounced deceased at the scene at approximately 10:06 A.M. by Deputy Coroners with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. The deceased subject was the same person from the original scene whose personal identifying information was located near the bridge and which a missing person report was originally taken.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is requested to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086 (option 1). Information can also be provided anonymously by contacting the non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100.

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Update, April 21, 2025:

Investigators identified and notified the legal next-of-kin for the decedent, Roger Zane Schoenahl, a 53-year-old male from Ukiah. An autopsy was performed on Wednesday 4/16/2025, and the Forensic Pathologist determined the cause of death to be hanging and the manner was suicide.

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ROGER SCHOENAHL

by Bruce Anderson

It was about 3:30 the morning of Monday, April 14th when a passing motorist saw a tall figure tying a rope to the railing of the Perkins Street overpass, instantly concluding that it looked like the man was about to hang himself. The man was indeed about to hang himself, and he did, the rope snapping his neck when he hurled himself over the side, his body swept away in the Russian River three hundred yards downstream where it was found the next day.

The last time I saw Roger Schoenahl he was walking south from Boonville, headed for the junction to hitch a ride to Ukiah. I stopped to say hello. “Sorry, Bruce, I'm kinda pissed off at you so I don't want to talk to you.” I was a little offended because I had no idea what I'd done to anger him. He'd walked off fuming.

I'd known Roger, and his brother Freddy, since they were children. A native son of Boonville, Roger was in the last class to graduate from the Little Red School House in a kindergarten class, and the last class of any age to have received instruction in that iconic structure. And Roger, a wild child, was a graduate of Anderson Valley High School which, by that time, offered a continuation class for its more difficult students.

I saved my old clothes and shoes for Roger, who was roughly my dimensions before he moved permanently to Ukiah to become a vivid addition to the town's street population. Roger often stopped by my office to show me his latest poems and paintings. He was a kind of savant with a real ability to capture his life in his art. I liked one of the water colors he gave me so much I slapped it into an old frame and put it up on the office wall. “If you look real carefully at it, Bruce, you can see the faces in the clouds.” It was so well done, so subtle, that if a pro had done it the painting would still have been exceptional. Roger had talent he didn't know he had, sharing his art with people he knew would appreciate it, and I was always flattered that he shared it with me.

“You should take some art classes at the college, Roger.” I don't have time for that, he said, and everything he said was said at top volume and often did not correspond to anything you thought was the conversation. He simply delivered a live stream account of whatever he saw on his crowded mind screen. And he told it straight. When a local told me he thought he'd seen Roger steaming along on his bicycle late at night on the Manchester end of Mountainview Road I confirmed that Roger rode or walked great nocturnal distances late at night, explaining, “I like the peace at night.”

I knew the family back to Roger's grandparents, Archie and Myrtis Schoenahl. The Schoenahls were one of the Anderson Valley's lead, post-War families. Their apple orchards and packing shed had been significant local employers. At harvest time many Valley housewives earned seasonal money working for the Schoenhals. But they got in too deep financially, and by the early eighties they'd lost most of their properties.

Roger and Freddy, in their middle teens, were semi-abandoned in Boonville in a dirt floor Caltrans structure hauled up from the Caltrans yard and plunked down opposite the Boonville Methodist church. The boy's father appeared regularly to drop off food, otherwise they were on their own. But they got by in a community that's very good about taking care of their own.

For several years, knowing he had no money and was way beyond conventional or even unconventional employment, I encouraged him to apply for SSI. “But I'm not nuts, Bruce.” Just go in and apply, Roger. Of course you're not nuts, I said, knowing he'd be approved by simply presenting himself as he was. Finally, he did apply, and one day he mentioned that he had a payee, a name I didn't recognize, and I could only hope his payee was making sure Roger had an income and a place to stay, although Valley people were pretty sure he was homeless in Ukiah where, occasionally, the Ukiah police picked him up as drunk and disorderly and booked him into the County Jail.

I would not have thought Roger was suicidal. Mental health services being what they are in the county, I doubt he was getting any help, which probably isn't fair to the mental health people because Roger was not amenable to sustained assistance. It's a sad day for all of us who knew him.

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ROBERT ANDERSON:

So sad…

It seemed he was arrested for something (again!) and was out on parole before trial. Defacing property? Something heavier than drunk and disorderly. Do you think facing time got him even more down?

Who knows?

I have way too many friends who have killed themselves… I still remember him as a too tall gormless happy kid with a sly smile and so happy to be included like a puppy into any group we had going and talk about fractals on the way to the river or beach in Mendocino. Or just that oppressive summer heat and hang where time moves so slow and you talk about what’s coming to the Ukiah Theater or music and sports. (Rog wasn’t big on sports exactly…) Or anything, with too long walks when the car broke down or there was no car and you thought something might be happening somewhere like the high school or a swimming hole or water source to wade in maybe, so out we went soldiering down the road to Manchester Road or downtown or Hendy Woods or another winding road or just down the road to Eugene Waggoner's place or the Market or any place hoping for shade and glorious air conditioning and looking for a garden hose or spigot because we’d get bone dry and cotton mouthed and once in a while an ice cold soda…

Rog was a good outside poet and artist too. If he had been trained, he could have become a painter too. Obviously, given different circumstances, he probably would have gone to college and caught on at some tech start up as he had a brain for computers and probably some autism, so would have fit in and worked out of a garage for 16 hours a day, living on Red Bull and take out Chinese.

I felt so bad for him to be living in that sty of a house with his psycho brother Freddy, waiting for his father to drop off a box of food, cans of jack mackerel and creamed corn, crackers and miracle whip…

I remember he walked/biked to Fort Bragg to see if he could catch a glimpse of the Japanese girl who was there as a foreign exchange student. He was a huge fan of that all-girl Japanese band, Shonen Knife. I have some video I took of him once, explaining his art work that he kept in a bag amidst the squalor of his bedroom and him talking about Shonen Knife.

Another rural story of a family’s fall, and his generation feeling it worst of all. There is Faulkner in it. Snopes. Sutpens. Sadness down by the river…

And they say with hanging, the person wants someone to find them, to see them, to acknowledge their body and death and suffering. And to cut them down.

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Ukiah Old Folks Home

High noon enjoying joints of indica

And not sharing any of it with dad

I try to get stoned as fast as I can

Because my dad tells me to hurry up.

.

Traveling to Ukiah is the form

Of entertainment which reminds me of

Why I almost never stop to look at

Those stupid things called television sets

.

Dad stops at the library and I

Get out, shut the door, enter the building

And then read a book about redwood trees

For half an hour and then dad returns.

.

Me and dad leave the library and go

To the old folk’s home where dad drops me off

And I am surprised to be awed to such

An extent by the panoramic view.

.

The sight of the hills west of Ukiah

Remains fresh in my mind as I open

The door, walk down the first hall, greet the staff,

Negotiate the corridor, Enter

Another room and say, “Hello Grandpa!”

— Roger Schoenahl

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Two video clips of Roger reading his poems.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ESOD5BUnE0M

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NdTxqye0OLs

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Saffron Fraser, March 2006

I ran in to Roger Schoenahl in Ukiah last week. Roger has been kicked out of his overpriced, no utilities rental trailer in Boonville. He is looking for some affordable housing, probably in Ukiah. It makes me sad that Roger, a third generation Boonvillian and a well-recognized fixture in the Valley, can't find a place in the only place that's been home to him all his life. The Schoenahl family came to Anderson Valley soon after the 1906 Earthquake. Roger says they were the first to plant grapes, but old grampa Archie didn't like the hooch so he tore them out and planted apples. Anyway, was sad to see the apples ripped from the Valley, and now it’s sad to see Roger ripped from the Valley.

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Dave Severn, February 6, 2007

Roger Schoenahl spent seven days in Howard Hospital in Willits to repair a broken hip he sustained while skateboarding in Fort Bragg. Showing off for the girls he admits. He is back in the Valley on crutches looking for a place to stay since he no longer can hike to the Ukiah side camp he has been living in for some months. Other sleeping arrangements have also dissolved, so with the rains coming ole Rog is a might desperate.

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Archie Schoenahl

Funeral services for George ‘Archie’ Schoenahl, 86, were held on Tuesday, November 25, 2003, in Ukiah. Interment was in Evergreen Cemetery, Boonville. Born October 27, 1917, in Philo, Mr. Schoenahl grew up in Yorkville, attended high school in Boonville and, after a childhood spent on his parent’s ranch off Haehl’s Grade, Yorkville, on what is now called Pomo Tierra, lived the rest of his life in Boonville where he owned and operated Anderson Valley’s largest, most successful apple business. The Schoenahl orchards and packing shed thrived up through the 1970s. Mr. Schoenahl’s wife, Myrtis, died six years ago. Mr. Schoenahl is survived by his sons, Larry Wayne Schoenahl and James Schoenahl; by his grandchildren Martin Schoenahl and wife Nanette; Matthew Schoenahl and wife Morgan; Mary Schoenahl; Andrew Schoenahl and wife Amber; Roger Schoenahl and Fred Schoenahl, and three great grandchildren.

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REPORT FROM A SMALL FARM IN BOONVILLE

Dear Friends,

It's a beautiful spring; everything is blooming. The colors of the flowers are stunning : borage, blue; allysum, white; cyanothus, blue; wisteria, purple; red bud, pink/purple; flowering almond, pink; irises, yellow to black; ajuga, purple/blue; lilacs, lavender; ixia, yellow and red; calendula, orange; cactus, red; and starting now, roses, many reds. The scents in the air are divine. But even with all the beauty I find it very hard to come up with pleasant things to write about given the state of the world and especially our government.

Although tides appear to be turning in our favor, the repercussions resulting from the multitude of insane actions of our present regime are starting to be felt. Even on our very minor farm. We have already noticed that here are no more - not any - foreigners visiting the farm. In past years visitors stopped from nearly every country in the world and we would enjoy polyglot conversations with them, our cultural exchanges and social life. It's not that we're so special, but because our location is part of what's considered a prime tourist area with its scenic beauty, world renowned wineries, redwood forest, fabulous coastline, and endless cute (and expensive) places to eat, drink and stay in, that so many foreigners visit. Often they would stop because the word "farm" reminded them of home in countries where family farms are still abundant and loved. Now we've noticed that there are many, more-or-less local folks, from the Bay Area to Sacramento, stopping on their way to an inn on the coast, to camp, or just day tripping. We've even had really local folks from town stop by…very unusual. Our countrymen, the adventurous ones, stop mainly out of curiosity. The word "farm" in this country is unappealing, implying vast flat perfect rows, big machines, inedible crops and sad animals. We spend a lot of time explaining to our local guests what and how we do what we do, and why. The foreign travelers likely grew up with our way of living and were often thrilled to find a place in this country still farming this way.

Our relationships with the world are being severed and it's painful to experience directly as well as to understand it on a political level.

At the beginning of the month, on a beautiful spring day, we drove to Ft. Bragg to march against this regime with 1,000 other people. (Our signs are below.) Being with others who are as angry as we, lifted our spirits and to a degree, our hopes. Our fight has to continue so stay connected, keep resisting, join a group and be loud.

Maybe the pretty pictures will help our moods! Hang in, we will prevail.

Nikki Auschnitt & Steve Krieg

Boonville

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SOUTH COAST DUMP HOURS

Over here in Gualala, the refuse transfer station on Fish Rock Rd. appears to have experienced reduced times of openings to the public down to two days a week. A view of the website states the reduced hours are a result of reduced funding by the federal EPA. I have not seen mention of these service changes in the local paper, The Independent Coast Observer or any other coastal reporting means. Does anyone out there have more of a scoop? Guess as a matter of convenience the Annapolis transfer station in Annapolis, Sonoma County is the closest alternative.

Randy Burke, Gualala

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THIS YEAR’S NOYO HARBOR 2-DAY CHARRETTE took place last week on April 14th and 15th. We had a steady stream of attendees throughout the event and a great turnout for our presentation of ideas. We appreciate your support for this initiative.

Our project website https://noyooceancollective.org/multimodal-circulation-plan/ will continue to be a central place for next steps and project updates.

Best,

Kailey Flynn

Senior Transportation Planner

Green DOT Transportation Solutions

Chico

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COMPOST, AN EXCHANGE (Coast Chatline)

Sakina Bush:

Cold Creek Compost products / weeds

I have used the Cold Creek products (soil and compost) for 12 years both in my small nursery and in my gardens. I have never had any problems with invasive plants and weeds. All the compost is created in very hot commercial composting conditions that kill weed seeds and pathogens. I know Cold Creek to be a conscientious and generous company. I would be curious to hear from other people who have had some relationship with these products.

One possibility is that some of the soil in the yard came into contact with weeds after it was delivered. Another problem I have seen is people leaving a pile of soil sitting on their property for a few months where it comes into contact with whatever is growing around the area that blows onto it. Another problem I have seen is people mixing the new soil they have obtained from other non commercial sources (fill dirt).

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Molly Bee:

I don't mean to badmouth a fine company, but I will give my honest experience. I've used Cold Creek compost six or seven times over the last twelve years (most recently, when they had the free compost day in Fort Bragg and I filled buckets. Every single time, the soil smelled strongly of dog poop and eucalyptus. At first, I thought it was a one-off, or something that got into my luck of the lot, but it turned out to be fairly consistent. On three or four occasions, I found shreds of plastic, and once I even found chopped up fake plastic flowers!

My main concern, however, was the white fungus that proliferated through the hot piles (hot, because it wasn't broken down into soil yet, still mostly wood chips). I once had three cubic yards of it delivered (back when Dirt Cheap was still in the biz), and the giant pile got burning hot, with webs of the white fungus throughout. I used it mixed in with the dirt I had grown in the previous several years (in raised beds) and across the board, all our food plants (brassica, chard, lettuces--very different families) all got white root rot and died back. So strange. Plus the strong dog poop smell never wore off--it smelled like an oily putrid thing.

It took a couple of years for the bark bits and fairly large (like one-inch) wood chips to finally break down. At that point, it was probably very good soil!

Seems like Cold Creek is at the mercy of what consumers decide to throw in their greenwaste bins--piles of redwood duff, eucalyptus, plastic bags filled with dog poop, dead animals (a skunk, maybe? the scent was SO strong), and apparently artificial flowers. The composting period is way too short, and the mixture is far from finished when delivered for use.

So… in theory a great way to recycle yard trimmings and provide a needed product… but not a perfect system and not something I would choose to use again (even free), leastways not with food crops. But as a thin layer of wood-chippy mulch around something already toxic, like a rhododendron shrub--A-OK!

Cheers, Molly

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Calista Chandler:

I'm having some doubts about the Cold Creek growers choice soil I bought from Geo Aggregates this year.

I put 3 yards of it into new raised beds that I built, and I've only planted a few things in it so far but everything is doing poorly except for the peas. Lettuce and cabbage are growing incredibly slowly, weeks have gone by with little noticeable growth.

I've run Rapidtest soil tests on it, and am getting depleted results across-the-board.

Sakina mentioned in her class that soil that sat out under the rain all winter may have had nutrients washed out. Maybe that's what I'm dealing with?

I had considered getting a yard of Cold Creek compost to amend this but now that's not sounding like such a great idea. Does anybody have any recommendations for amending?

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RHODY LOVERS TO MEET IN FORT BRAGG

Noyo Chapter American Rhododendron Society meeting this Wednesday Marc Colombel form the Socity Bretonne du Rhododendron last meeting of the year: Wednesday April 23rd at 6pm First Presbyterian Church of Ft. Bragg 367 S. Sanderson Way

We are honored to welcome Marc Colombel of the Society Bretonne du Rhododendron. Marc is a noted hybridizer having created nearly 1500 crosses. He registered his first hybrid in 1992. He recently created the Polyploid Rhododendron Conservatory in Josselin, France. A knowledgeable and amusing speaker, Marc will be speaking about polyploids and other things rhododendron. We are honored to have him speak to us. Come join us for this fun and informative evening.

Polyploidy is a genetic condition where the plant has more than two complete sets of chromosomes.

And please don't forget the 46th Annual John Druecker Rhododendron Show the first weekend in May.

Bring your trusses to the big tent at MCBG Thursday, May 1st, from 3-7pm or Friday, May 2nd, from 9-Noon.

Judging is Friday afternoon at 3. For more details and the rules, go to our website: rhododendrons-mendocino.org

We will help identify your trusses at intake so don't worry about not remembering (or knowing) the name of your rhodie.

The Show runs Saturday 9-5 and 10-4. Come submit! You just might win. So please start checking out your rhodies to see which ones you want to bring.

We will have some 400 plants for sale.

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AN EVENT FOR SURE, CULTURAL MAYBE

A Series Of Cultural Events This Coming April 26th (Saturday) And April 27th (Sunday).

All are invited to a series of cultural events this coming April 26th (Saturday) and April 27th (Sunday). All events are free and open to the public.

On Saturday, April 26, at 6 a.m. we will meet at the Noyo Headlands by the West Cypress Street parking lot for a sunrise ceremony and wellness walk.

Saturday afternoon, 1 - 2:30 p.m., join us at the Mendocino College Coast Center (1211 Del Mar Drive, in Room 112, for an Indigenous Learning Session. Our community teach-in will be lead by Sherwood Valley Tribal members Misty Cook and Nora Morinda who will share their connection to the Noyo Community.

Then on Sunday, April 27 from noon to 7 p.m. join us for a community gathering at the Noyo Bida Ranch for Indigenous dances, native foods and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Workshops. The Noyo Bida Ranch is at 21801 Highway 1, with an entrance at Airport Road.

These events are sponsored by The Noyo Bida Truth Project, the Potter Valley Tribe, Love Wild Horses, and the Coastal Conservancy among others.

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WENDY READ:

May Day protest in Boonville from noon to 2 (Thursday)

Also, friends along hwy 128 want to post your protest signs afterward, so make extra!

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WILDFLOWER SHOW 2025

by Miriam Martinez

Have you seen those colorful signs around Anderson Valley? Yes, it's time for the A.V. Unity Club's Annual Wildflower Show. From May 3rd to May 4th the doors of June Hall in the Fairgrounds at Boonville will be open from 10 to 4 for visitors to come see the Mendocino County Wildflowers on display. Admission is Free

You can purchase plants, many of which are pollinator, butterfly or hummingbird hosts. Bring a plant in for identification. Talk with the folks with the California Native Plants Society. Learn about ticks and Lyme disease. Kick back and have a cup of tea or a bite to eat. View the highschool students Art Exhibit. Best of all, stroll through the displays of the many families of Wildflowers.

Saturday, we have 2 special events. First, the Community Lending Library will be open extra hours (from 10 to 4) and will be having a book sale. Usually books are $1 each for hardbound and 2 for $1 for paperbacks. Saturday May 3rd you get a full bag of books for only $5. Second, a talk on "Sudden Oak Death" will be presented at 2:00. You don't want to miss either event.

Both days there will be Silent Auctions of select items from local merchants, vintners, and artisans. Make a bid and gift yourself with dinner, wine, a tour, tasting, or a basket of fun around your cabin in the woods.

Proceeds from the Wildflower Show go to scholarships for graduating high school seniors, and other community projects sponsored by the Unity Club. Beautify your home, host pollinators, and contribute to scholarships; you can't do better than that.

Anderson Valley welcomes you to the Fairgrounds in Boonville for the A.V. Unity Club's Annual Wildflower Show May 3rd & 4th from 10 to 4. Admission is Free

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LAS CAFETERAS

At 2:00 pm. on Sunday, May 4, at the Ukiah High School Cafetorium, the UCCA joyfully welcomes Las Cafeteras for the very grand finale of the UCCA 2024-25 season.

Tickets for non-season subscribers are $35 in advance and $40 at the door, if not sold out. Advance tickets are available on the UCCA website and at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and Mazahar in Willits.

As part of our on-going Educational Outreach Program, free tickets are available to youth 17 and under when accompanied by an adult, and to full-time (12 units) college students. Free tickets must be reserved in advanceby calling 707-463-2738 with name, phone number and email address.

As a bonus on May 4, you'll get a sneak preview of the terrific artists in store for you in the next UCCA season, 2025-26!

For more information, please contact the UCCA at 707-463-2738 or email us at [email protected]

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PLANT SALE, BLUE MEADOW FARM

Saturday, May 3, 9-3; Sunday, May 4, 9-12

Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant

Come early for best selection!

Blue Meadow Farm   3301 Holmes Ranch Rd, Philo  (707) 895-2071

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UNITY CLUB NEWS

by Miriam Martinez

Never fear, flower collectors, the Unity Club Meeting isn't until after the Wildflower Show. Our Annual Funny Money Auction will be held on May the 8th at 1:30.

What!? You don't have any Funny Money? Neither do I, but we will have a fists full of Money when we arrive at the meeting.

Remember those sweet gifts you got, that you will never use; and they're too good to give to Paul Bunyan or the Hospice Thrift? Bring them to the Funny Money Auction. If you have plant starts that didn't make it to the Wildflower Show, bring them too. We are going to have a hot time and the bidding will be brutal. All in fun, come to the Unity Club May 8th Funny Money Auction at 1:30 in the Dining Room, Fairgrounds.

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PINOT FAIR FAN VOLUNTEERS WANTED

Hi Fair Fans!

Our fair will be the Pinot Noir Fest beneficiary this year but we need volunteers to help! The fair grounds are desperately in need of funds to address deferred maintenance issues, so this opportunity is a real blessing! (The volunteers will be able to attend the Fest before or after they help)

Here are the available shifts and the online link to sign up as well as a link below!

May 15th Thursday Fairgrounds set up: 2 - 4 volunteers needed Start time will be determined later, but probably around 10am - 1pm. I will update with times as soon as we plan it.

This is to set up the tables and chairs, staging the area for the conference. This is a small affair and significantly scaled back from years prior.

May 17th Saturday 11am - 3pm: 2 volunteers needed for trash management - this does not entail picking up garbage, it is a supervisory position that I need someone responsible for (optimally 2 people relieving each other). We have rented the large trash containers. Someone needs to be posted in front of the containers at all times to make sure the trash is sorted properly and that the recycling is broken down to fit as much in as possible. If you have 2 team members that can switch off, both people will be able to enjoy Pinot Fest, too.

May 17th Saturday - 1pm - 4pm: 4 Volunteers needed for the first 2 hours of this shift to help with maintaining the festival tasks, empty spittoons, fill water pitchers, pass out cookies, take trash bags to the containers. There will also be an hour of clean up (see below). Volunteers are welcome to come early to enjoy the festival, and will have some time during their shift to participate.

May 17th Saturday - 3pm - 5pm: 2 Volunteers needed to clean up, washing spittoons, water carafes, breaking down tables and chairs, putting dirty linens in bags, gathering AVWA signs. Anyone can help with this, teenagers, etc…

If any of you/and friends, are interested in general volunteering and want to attend the Vineyard Seminar, BBQ, or the Grand Tasting, please send them this:

2025 Pinot Fest Sign Up Form Click Here

For a synopsis of the events and times, 2025 AVWA Pinot Fest click here

Thanks and take care,

Donna Pierson-Pugh for The Boonville Fair Boosters

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, April 21, 2025

CRISTIAN ANDRADE-AYALA, 25, Ukiah. DUI with priors, suspended license for DUI, no license.

RODOLFO CEJA, 33, Talmage. Suspended license for DUI.

REGINA DELOSREYES, 50, Santa Rosa. Domestic battery, false ID.

DAWN DURAN, 67, Alameda/Laytonville. DUI.

RICARDO GARCIA-LOPEZ, 33, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

BRYAN GONZALEZ, 21, Reno. Controlled substance, criminal threats, resisting.

LUIS MAGANA-ALVAREZ, 26, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

BRETT NORGARD, 35, Ukiah. Probation revocation, resisting, bringing controlled substance into jail.

JACOB PARMELY, 39, Ukiah. Under influence, parole violation.

JULIO RODRIGUEZ-CHAVARIA, 42, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, county parole violation.

DONALD WILLETT JR., 41, Willits. Controlled substance with two or more priors, probation violation.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, 53, Ukiah. Parole violation.

DUSTIN WOLLEY, 30, Potter Valley. Domestic violence court order violation.

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The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn't interest you.

— Charles Bukowski (Art by R. Crumb)

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THOSE OLD LAY JUDGES

Mostly fair-minded.
Knew the territory too.
And just enough law.

— Jim Luther

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I am from Europe and every time I am in America, the food we eat makes us sick. The food in USA is absolutely junk! You can feel how your body just wants to reject even the so-called "quality" food.

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GIANTS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MILWAUKEE MISSTEP to win opener of homestand

by Shayna Rubin

Willy Adames got to play hero against his former team, though it may have been somewhat anticlimactic.

Down a run in the fifth inning with two aboard, Adames bounced a big grounder to third base with double-play potential.

Instead, the ball’s trip around the horn was slow and popped out of first baseman Rhys Hoskins’ glove, resulting in Tyler Fitzgerald scoring the game-tying run en route to the San Francisco Giants’ 5-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night.

The usual contributors took it from there.

Wilmer Flores delivered the go-ahead home run the next inning, taking reliever Grant Anderson’s first-pitch sinker 399 feet into the left-field seats. Flores, despite uninspiring overall metrics, is making the plays when it counts: he leads the team with seven home runs and is tied for second in the bigs with 24 RBIs. In the seventh inning, Jung Hoo Lee, the Giants’ extra-base machine and offensive engine, hit his second triple of the year to score Mike Yastrzemski with an insurance run.

Fresh off a three-city road trip that took them from East Coast to West without a day off, it was a strong showing against a Milwaukee team playing winning baseball.

Ray, making his fifth start, said he felt more like his 2021 self — when he won the Cy Young award with the Toronto Blue Jays — since he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023. Out of the East Coast’s frigid air but still struggling with his control — he issued three walks — Ray went primarily to his four-seam fastball to navigate five innings. Caleb Durbin made him pay for one fastball up in the zone, hitting it for a two-run home run in the second inning.

Ray has walked 19 in five starts, but feels that his delivery is the best it’s been. Integrating his new changeup to keep hitters off his fastball as the start progressed, he managed to limit the damage through five innings with four strikeouts on 92 pitches.

“Today was probably as close as I felt to ’21 in a while,” Ray said. “I felt really good. I felt like my fastball was really good tonight. That was my main focus coming into this, establishing my fastball. Threw some really good changeups, slider is coming along well. I feel like I’m right there.”

The challenge with having Birdsong in the bullpen is finding spots for the starter-turned-reliever to get into games. With Tyler Rogers and Ryan Walker not available in a close game, Birdsong was the choice to eat most of what remained. The 23-year-old hadn’t pitched since April 15, when he allowed his first runs of the season to the Philadelphia Phillies. Itching to get back on the mound since that outing, Birdsong let loose against the Brewers.

“I wanted Philly again, so I was itching. I was telling (bullpen coach Garvin Alston) I was ready,” Birdsong said. “You got to get over it. You have to get back in there and be ready. I expected it a little quicker, but can’t complain with rest.”

A bullpen role allows Birdsong to pitch free with his two best pitches right now, a four-seam fastball and changeup. With those weapons, he mowed through three shutout innings while walking two, allowing one hit and striking out four. With that, Birdsong has crafted a 1.38 ERA.

“We’re looking for spots like that for him and it worked out really well,” manager Bob Melvin said. “The fact that Robbie came out after five and we had some guys down, he went in there and did his thing. To give us three innings close to 50 pitches after not doing that for a while, made it all the more impressive going out for the third inning and getting through it like that.”

Camilo Doval stretched his scoreless streak to five straight innings in five appearances with a perfect ninth, securing his third save. Now throwing strikes, Doval has bounced back nicely from a rough stretch in which he gave up six runs in three games early this month.

(sfchronicle.com)

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AMID ISRAEL’S RAMPED-UP GENOCIDE OF CIVILIANS IN GAZA, SF JCRC’s Ty Gregory Signals Intention To Work With Trump Administration To Further Target Universities for Free Speech

Video of JCRC/BANJO member Janice Cader Thompson’s response to questions about JCRC Director Ty Gregory cozying up to Trump’s ongoing assault on universities and the First Amendment.

by Eva Chrysanthe

Despite attempts by some members of the SF Bay Area JCRC to challenge a mere lecture on Palestine by UC Berkeley Professor Ussama Makdisi at Sonoma State University, the lecture proceeded as originally planned on April 15.

Amid a broader backdrop of severe attacks on universities for allowing protest of Israel’s genocide, it was the capable stewardship of SSU Professor Stephen Bittner, who organizes the University’s annual Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Series, who saw it through. And, as reported by Tarini Mehta in the Press-Democrat the following day, Makdisi’s presentation, “Atonement at the Expense of Others: Palestinians and the Question of Genocide” won a standing ovation from the attendees.

Many of those who attended had only learned about Bittner’s excellent lecture series because of an earlier Press-Democrat article about criticism of the planned lecture voiced by local JCRC members. (It’s the “Streisand Effect” in action!)

The Press-Democrat article included the detail that the University had received thousands of letters trying to cancel Professor Makdisi’s lecture. (On April 11, I ran a public records act request for the emails, and will report on them when they are received.)…

https://marincountyconfidential.substack.com/p/video-amid-israels-ramped-up-genocide

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TROUETTE IN IDAHO

Six Men Charged After Woman Dragged From Idaho Town Hall

The plainclothes guards were involved in the forcible removal of a woman from a meeting hosted by local Republicans in Coeur d’Alene, prosecutors said.

by Christine Hauser

Six men who prosecutors said took part in forcibly removing a woman from a town-hall meeting hosted by local Republicans in Coeur d’Alene, a small city in northern Idaho, in February are facing charges including battery and false imprisonment.

The Coeur d’Alene Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Monday that four of the men — Paul Trouette, Russell Dunne, Christofer Berg and Jesse Jones — face charges of battery and false imprisonment. Along with Alexander Trouette IV, they were also cited for security agent uniform and agent duty violations.

A sixth man, Michael Keller, has been charged with battery, the statement said.

The charges stem from an altercation on Feb. 22 that began when Teresa Borrenpohl heckled speakers at a meeting with state legislators hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

Organizers said that Ms. Borrenpohl, a former Democratic candidate for state office, refused to follow the rules, but she said everyone should be allowed to speak. Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County told Ms. Borrenpohl to leave, pulled at her arm and threatened to arrest and pepper-spray her, according to footage of the incident.

The sheriff gestured to two men beside him, who then approached Ms. Borrenpohl, pulled her to the floor and dragged her out of the high school auditorium where the meeting was being held.

The men were wearing green tactical pants and black tactical shirts, according to a police report. They were later identified as personnel with Lear Asset Management Inc., a private security firm based in Mendocino, California that is licensed in multiple states.

After the episode, the City of Coeur d’Alene revoked Lear’s business license for violating city ordinances that require security agents to wear clearly marked uniforms.

Paul Trouette, who is the chief executive of Lear, said in an email on Monday that the team was confident in its defense. “We believe these charges are false and should have never been made,” he said.

The other defendants could not be reached on Monday, and it was not immediately clear whether they had lawyers. A police report identified Mr. Berg, Mr. Jones and Paul Trouette as the men who had detained and escorted Ms. Borrenpohl out of the auditorium. Court documents on the case had not been made public on Monday and no further details about the charges were available.

The city attorney’s office referred further inquiries to the Idaho attorney general’s office, which oversees the elected sheriff when he is acting in his official capacity. The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to an email on Monday.

A statement released by Sheriff Norris’s office after the altercation said his office would conduct an investigation. The sheriff’s office did not respond to an email on Monday asking for his response to the charges and whether his office had filed an incident report.

Wendy Olson, a lawyer for Ms. Borrenpohl, said in an email that she filed a notice of tort claim on Monday, which is the first step required under Idaho law before a civil lawsuit can be filed.

“Town halls are intended to foster conversation and discourse across the aisle, which is why I am deeply alarmed that private security dragged me out of the public meeting for simply exercising my fundamental right of free speech,” Ms. Borrenpohl said.

(NY Times)

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LinkedIn: Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl is currently serving as the founding Enrollment Services Center Manager leading a team responsible for the face-to-face, email, and phone service to students for the Admissions, Financial Aid, Registrar, and Student Finance offices. In addition, Borrenpohl serves on the Strategic Enrollment Management Steering Committee, and the chair of the SEM-Recruitment Committee. Borrenpohl is President-Elect of the Idaho AACRAO chapter, IACRAO.

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UNHEALTHY CUTS

To the Editor:

We must be aware of the grave danger posed by the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts to federal research funding and mass dismissal of National Institutes of Health scientists.

These cuts are especially reckless as artificial intelligence is revolutionizing drug discovery — identifying new treatments in months rather than years, designing novel drugs, repurposing old ones and streamlining clinical trials. Slashing N.I.H. funding threatens to stall these lifesaving breakthroughs just as they become possible.

Worse, we are fueling an irreversible scientific brain drain, forcing brilliant researchers to abandon their careers or move abroad, surrendering America’s scientific leadership and competitive edge to nations that are expanding their investment in this critical area.

The economic damage will be severe; every $1 invested in N.I.H. research generates $2.56 in economic activity, according to a recent report by United for Medical Research. Cutting funds means fewer start-ups, higher health care costs and the dismantling of one of our strongest innovation engines.

Scientific infrastructure can be destroyed in weeks, but takes decades to rebuild. Immediate action is needed to restore funding before we lose America’s biomedical scientific brainpower to other countries or other areas. This talent is needed to harness the power and synergy of A.I. and biomedical research to usher in a new golden age of medical advances and economic growth.

Alan Brownstein

Cold Spring, New York

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E.T., PHONE THE WHITE HOUSE

by Casey Dreier

Roughly 120 light-years from Earth sits K2-18b, a planet bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, orbiting a cool dwarf star at just the right Goldilocks-like distance where it’s not too cold and not too hot for liquid water to form. Some scientists suspect the planet’s surface has a warm liquid ocean hundreds of miles deep. And just last week researchers, using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, reported a detection of strong signs of compounds known on Earth to only be produced by living organisms. This claim requires further confirmation before we can know for sure, but it is fair to say that K2-18b is now one of the most promising locales for a second genesis of life. Such are the rewards of peering far and wide into the cosmos.

NASA’s science program is why we know about K2-18b at all, and why we have tools to further search for life there and other destinations in our solar system. But these future projects may never happen. Recent reporting (not yet confirmed) suggests that the Trump administration may slash NASA’s science program by 48 percent for the next budgeted year, a cut of $3.6 billion. NASA’s science program manages a fleet of over 70 active missions stretching from the sun to interstellar space. Roughly 50 more are under intensive development. Despite this scale, the efforts account for about one-third of the agency’s annual budget — and a tiny 0.1 percent of total U.S. expenditures.

If these cuts are enacted, the savings to taxpayers would be negligible, and the impact to science would be calamitous. Dozens upon dozens of productive science spacecrafts would have to be terminated for lack of funds, left to tumble aimlessly in space. Many projects currently under construction would be scrapped midstream, wasting billions already spent. NASA science institutions would be closed. Thousands of bright students across the country would be denied careers in science and engineering absent the fellowships and research funds to support them.

Enacting these cuts would be a mistake — not only for the generational damage it would do to America’s scientific pre-eminence, but also for the symbolic curtailment of our ambitions. Space is among the most potent symbols in human society. It is big, unforgiving, alien and extremely hard to reach. Space agencies like NASA, then, are symbols unto themselves, an expression of a national self-identity projected into the heavens. Shattering NASA’s scientific capability would be an abandonment of our ideals: curiosity in the face of the unknown, relentless optimism and a practical determination to engage with the world as it is, not as we want it to be. Instead of looking up and out, we would become a country looking down and in, the national equivalent of a teenager hunched over an iPhone, oblivious to the world beyond.

There is no private option for space science. The distances are too great, the costs are too high and the instrumentation required too specialized for the endeavor to be served exclusively by free markets. There are no viable business plans for exploring a volcanic moon of Jupiter or ancient lake beds on Mars. Commercial space companies can provide exciting new capabilities at lower costs in certain situations. NASA is experimenting with their use for uncrewed lunar landings, but at the moment these efforts are almost completely funded by NASA. And though very wealthy individuals are willing to spend enormous sums to build rockets or send themselves into space, they haven’t shown interest in paying for the types of missions that would search for extraterrestrial life or pursue other ambitious scientific goals.

In addition to revealing insights about the universe, space science provides a unique opportunity to test our most basic scientific theories in the most extreme environments of the cosmos. It was NASA’s Gravity Probe B that further confirmed key claims of Einstein’s theory of general relativity using experiments only possible in space. Multiple NASA space telescopes, perched in orbits high above the Earth in order to see the light otherwise blocked by our atmosphere, have observed signatures of organic molecules. And NASA’s fleet of planetary spacecraft has cataloged the same geologic features that have shaped Earth throughout the solar system: volcanoes, freshwater lakes and even prospective tectonic plates.

The question of whether there is life beyond Earth is among the most compelling motivations for continued scientific space exploration. Thanks primarily to NASA’s science missions, scientists know where to look, and the number of those possible locations has only increased. Future space telescopes could observe hundreds of relatively close Earth-size exoplanets, like K2-18b, for signatures of life. In our own solar system, the most compelling destinations are the ocean worlds in the outer solar system. Saturn’s moon Enceladus is one. Europa, a moon of Jupiter, another. A new NASA mission launched last year, Europa Clipper, is en route there now and is set to arrive in 2030.

Space science has profound utilitarian benefits as well, particularly if you are concerned about the long-term survival of the human species. There are millions of asteroids that orbit around the sun. They have occasionally collided with Earth during its long history, causing modest to catastrophic levels of destruction. Fortunately, NASA is looking for these hazards. The agency recently proved it could alter an asteroid’s orbit, an important capability should one ever be hurtling our way. This extraordinary effort is also funded by NASA’s science program. Like everything else, it could be kneecapped by the cuts reportedly under consideration.

A recent Pew Research poll found that the NASA programs the public views as the agency’s topic priorities — asteroid monitoring, climate observations and fundamental scientific research — are all funded by NASA’s science efforts. To undermine space science, then, is to flirt with making NASA irrelevant to the taxpayers that enable its existence. This would be a tragic outcome for an organization that is among the most popular federal agencies in the United States.

Curtailing the pursuit of space science is more than a question of budgets. It is a question of what kind of country we are and aspire to be. To retreat from the effort to know the cosmos in which we reside should not be the end of this American story.

(Casey Dreier is the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society and the host of the podcast Planetary Radio: Space Policy Edition.)

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BAT MASTERSON, 1879 & 1911

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AMERICA IN 2025

by James Chandler

(After Shelley’s “England in 1819”)

– in Memoriam Marshall Sahlins

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LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT

Vatican to Hold Pope’s Funeral on Saturday

Markets Slide as Trump Renews Attacks on Fed Chair

Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over Threats to Cut Funding

Trump Calls Concern Over Hegseth’s 2nd Signal Chat Episode ‘Waste of Time’

A Venezuelan Is Missing. The U.S. Deported Him. But to Where?

Supreme Court Story Time: Justices Consider Children’s Books With L.G.B.T.Q. Themes

Oscars OK the Use of A.I., With Caveats

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WHAT IF TRUMP RECEIVED THIS INVITATION FROM HARVARD LAW STUDENTS?

by Ralph Nader

Dear President Trump:

We are Harvard Law students who have read the lengthy and comprehensive list of demands on our Harvard University by your staff. They are assuredly designed to turn this institution of higher education, older than the U.S.A., into a fiefdom under your iron rule. As modest students of medieval history, we see that your demands provide a status for the peasants – the students, the vassals – the faculty, but no one for the role of the Lord of the Manor.

It is obvious that you want to become the Lord Of The Manor. We have a proposal. There is no more exalted status at Harvard than that of the law professors. They are the best and brightest law professors in the land; if you doubt that, just ask them. They are specialists in knowledge of the law. However, they are not specialists in the seriously destabilizing arena of lawlessness.

Quite candidly, we believe and can document that you are the world’s expert on lawlessness – its range, depth, rewards and modes of escape from accountability. For some unfathomable reason, you have been far too modest about your unparalleled knowledge in this fast-expanding area of immune business and political activity. We make this claim after reading your statements – about twenty of them – where you explicitly declare your superior knowledge over all in such subjects as “trade,” “technology,” “drones,” “construction,” “devaluation,” “banks,” – “renewables,” “polls” and even “the power of Facebook.” (See the book, “Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All” by Mark Green and Ralph Nader, 2020).

Missing from your expansive proclamations of expertise is the subject of Lawlessness. Having engaged in over 3000 lawsuits and having been sued under tort law and indicted under criminal law, you have demonstrated an escapist skill that even seasoned attorneys find breathtaking. No sheriff has ever caught you. Only one prosecutor has ever convicted you. E. Jean Carroll won two civil tort cases with damages that are still on appeal.

One of your remarkable tactics is interminable stalling of the legal process. Another is how you can personally and continually attack in public, with tough language, the judges and other judicial personnel with complete impunity. As we know from our studies, such vituperative language in the United Kingdom would have landed you in contempt of court and a jail term.

Now, therefore, here is our proposal to fill the position of Lord Of The Manor, without impinging on your Day Job as president of the United States. With your permission, we will approach our Dean and request that he appoint you as a Visiting Full Professor Of Law Conducting The First And Only Course In Lawlessness – its nature, function and strategies of escape from the long arm of the rule of law. It would be the largest class in Harvard Law School history, overflowing our largest auditorium, Austin Hall.

YOU would provide, effortlessly from your extraordinary memory, empirical information never before revealed and analyzed.

Your self-awareness is exceptional, having said in 2019 – “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as President,” and having openly wished that you could be King. To understand the rule of law better, it is necessary to understand the outlaws. This is especially true for you, Mr. President because you once declared, “I know more about courts than any human being on earth.”

Going deeper, you are eminently qualified to lecture us on regions of lawlessness abroad and how you think one should try to establish peaceful and law-abiding governance. The Middle East comes to mind. By enlisting the law school’s reservoir of scholarship on these conflicts you could establish yourself as a Nobel-Prize worthy implementor of a profound peaceful PRO-SEMITISM between Arab and Jewish Semites. Just envision your going to Norway to receive the coveted Award that your detractors could never believe was remotely possible.

We anticipate your affirmative response and understand fully if a condition of your acceptance is that the course be taught by Zoom from the Oval Office. Should you wish to have your lectures streamed to a wider audience, the Law School has all the requisite facilities.

Just your exalted title “Honorable visiting Professor of Law, Donald J. Trump” along with your presiding over the White House will anoint you as the Lord Of The Manor. You would be addressed by all members of the Harvard University community as “My Liege.”

We look forward to hearing from you.

Very truly yours,

Harvard Law Students

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IN HIGHEST COMEDY, DAVID BROOKS, ARCH-PRIEST OF ‘ELITES,’ CALLS FOR ‘CIVIC UPRISING’

Yuppies of the world, unite!

by Matt Taibbi

New York Times columnist David Brooks, calling for a “mass civic uprising” against Donald Trump:

“We live in a country with catastrophically low levels of institutional trust. University presidents, big law firms, media organizations and corporate executives face a wall of skepticism and cynicism. If they are going to participate in a mass civic uprising against Trump, they have to show the rest of the country that they understand the establishment sins that gave rise to Trump in the first place… [that] this is not just defending the establishment; it’s moving somewhere new.”

You don’t say!

It’s hard to convey the scale of the comedy involved in this article, which received a fair amount of attention. David Brooks in 2000 wrote Bobos in Paradise, a seminal work of aristocratic self-congratulation declaring the epoch of the “Bourgeois Bohemian,” or bobo. “All societies have elites, and our educated elite is a lot more enlightened than some of the other elites,” Brooks quipped. The bobo was a delicious confection in which “You got your countercultural sixties in my high-achieving eighties!” The resulting admixture was part rebel, part establishment pillar whose mere presence would radiate fabulousness. “Wherever we educated elites settle,” Brooks wrote, “we make life more interesting, diverse, and edifying.”

The book was a tribute to the superior looks, taste, and romantic strategies of America’s elites, who’d not only won the Cold War but conquered the problem of power itself, by being so chill and amazing that no one would ever think to resent their authority. They wore jeans and sat on purposefully downscale furniture, being utterly casual, unlike previous ruling classes (in one upper-class suburb, “the restaurant La Fourchette has changed its name to the less pretentious Fourchette 110”).

Don’t be fooled, though: underneath that jeans-and-coffee exterior, the Bobo cultivated what the Greeks called metis, loosely equivalent to savoir faire, a type of extrasensory knowing. “This trait cannot be taught or memorized. It can only be imparted and acquired,” Brooks proclaimed, adding: “People sharing metis do not lecture; they converse… To acquire metis, a person must not only see but see with comprehension. He or she must observe minutely to absorb the practical consequences of things…” The yuppie version of the all-seeing Third Eye was a wonder, departing bobos just once — well, twice — in the small matter of populist voter revolts they failed to detect that were fueled by a mass desire to pitchfork them.

Now that it’s happened for a second time, and as treasured tenets of Bobo life like the New York Times wedding announcement page, white shoe law firms, and the Ivy Leagues are under real assault, elites realize they need help. Throwing a “mass civic uprising” isn’t like a Park Avenue cocktail party. You need lots of guests. Like, millions! So serious is he about the need to get this done that Brooks is doing the work, realizing middle America will need first to be talked out of shooting them into space or burning them in a televised auto-de-fe before they’ll sign up, because as he points out, “this is not just defending the establishment.” It’s also something else! But mostly defending the establishment. But that’s good. Really! I’m pretty sure!

As revolutionary manifestoes go, it’s either the funniest of all time, or the most unintentionally touching. You be the judge:

Brooks published, “What’s Happening Is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal” on Friday, triggering an avalanche of weekend commentary that wanted to be supportive, but couldn’t quite because of the author. Daily Kos joked that you know the moment is dire when “Vanilla David Brooks is calling for an uprising.” Salon proclaimed, “The fascist moment is here: Have mainstream liberals heard the alarm go off?” declaring an “upside-down America” in which “David Brooks calls for revolution while Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom grovel.” Jezebel went with “Centrist ‘NYT’ Columnist Calls for ‘National Uprising,’ Making Gavin Newsom Look Like a Weak Baby,” over a subhead, “Barf Bag: It’s a cold day in hell when David Brooks seems more radical than the governor of California.”

Even the most virulent anti-Trump outlets were cowed by Brooks’s past writing. A thesis of Bobos was the countercultural shell of the new establishment made rebellion unnecessary. The post-sixties corporate culture commoditized everything, making every impulse so fully explorable that it wasn’t necessary to smash things, or even cheat. “Bobos do more than merely moralize what was once subversive. They are meritocrats through and through,” he wrote. “They don’t just enjoy orgasms; they achieve orgasm. Sex in this literature is like college; it’s described as a continual regimen of self-improvement and self-expansion. It’s amazing how many sex workshops, seminars, institutes, and academies there are… Lady Chatterley’s lover becomes Lady Chatterley’s empowerment counselor.”

In the world of Bobos, the aristocrats were “wearing Timberland boots with their suits, a signal that they are still rebelling against the money culture. Their taste in ties and socks will tend toward the ironic; you might see one wearing a tie adorned with the logo of a local sanitation department, a garbage truck driving over a rainbow.” This idea of the appearance of ironic rebellion stifling the real thing was compelling to many (see below) for a long time. It seemed foolproof until the arrival of Trump, whose followers were not mollified by Timberland boots with suits, funny socks, or the political version of a sex seminar. The movement didn’t go away, getting to the White House not once but two times! Brooks, used to sitting inside the establishment and having the ability to ask the maître d’ to remove undesirables, has been reduced to asking for outside help:

So far, each sector Trump has assaulted has responded independently — the law firms seek to protect themselves, the universities, separately, try to do the same. Yes, a group of firms banded together in support of the firm Perkins Coie, but in other cases it’s individual law firms trying to secure their separate peace with Trump. Yes, Harvard eventually drew a line in the sand, but Columbia cut a deal. This is a disastrous strategy that ensures that Trump will trample on one victim after another. He divides and conquers.

Slowly, many of us are realizing that we need to band together. But even these efforts are insular and fragmented. Several members of the Big Ten conference are working on forming an alliance to defend academic freedom. Good. But that would be 18 schools out of roughly 4,000 degree-granting American colleges and universities.

What do you do when you need more than eighteen key people? If you need a crowd? In the piece he notes sadly that the “only real hint” of organized resistance has been “the rallies led by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” but what self-respecting ex-establishment figure has faith in the earnest left? The moment requires people of quality:

It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.

It’s genuinely touching to see Brooks, the AFLAC duck of elitism, a man who wrote an actual book on being a snob, forced to consider the question of raising mass support. Adding to the pathos is the fact that it’s mere months after this same coalition of academics, lawyers, “nonprofits,” and scientists tried and failed at throwing up every legal and illegal obstacle to Trump’s election. In other words, “civic uprising” flopped when the folks in whom Brooks places faith held every lever of authority. Now they’re going to lead a grassroots revolt? The irony in this is breathtaking, but you have to have lived through it to see it.

Kurt Andersen, a writer I grew up adoring, connected immediately with the Bobo book when it came out in 2000. This confused me because I thought his brilliant Spy magazine was a vicious send-up of those very people. Andersen penned a slobberous Times review of Bobos in Paradise in which he recalled toying with Marxism before moving to neoliberalism at Harvard, where sociologist Daniel Bell gave a prescient seminar.

The post-industrial future, he was told, would belong to a “new class” of “symbol manipulators, Brie-eating, wine-sipping lawyers and journalists and creative directors, high-end hard-working quasi bohemians, hedonistic meritocrats, people like us.” In Andersen’s cheery future, the symbol of American power would be more Harvard Square than Hoover Dam:

Indeed, Bell’s vision suggested that Harvard Square was a prototype for the new age — that, soon, simulacra of our smug, twee neighborhood would be concocted all over America, and thus the universal signifiers of upscale would be ochre-walled coffeehouses serving labor-intensive European coffees, Marimekkoesque shops selling haute-design everything, huge bookstores with unimaginably vast magazine racks and old brick warehouses-cum-shopping malls patronized by computer-fluent young adults wearing chinos and bluejeans.

Andersen noted defining changes took place in 1975-1976, when “Jann Wenner moved Rolling Stone from a hippie dump in San Francisco to a fancy building in midtown Manhattan.” Years later, when I went to work in that fancy building, I recalled Andersen’s review, which gave breathless praise to elites who “spend their lives selling yet worry about selling out” and are “affluent yet opposed to materialism.” To Kurt Andersen, to Graydon Carter, to David Brooks even, people like Steve Jobs, my ex-boss Wenner, and Clinton represented aristocratic perfection: the rebel in power.

A quarter of a century later, history not only isn’t over, we have more of it every week than we know what to do with. Harvard Square, that “prototype for the new age,” is a besieged castle, behind which Bobos are experiencing something opposite to paradise. Kurt Andersen, thirty years from being funny, yukked on BlueSky that a “second-wave fascism” to follow the first of Céline and Ezra Pound would come when “Walter Kirn writes another novel.” He’s become what he used to satirize, not realizing it.

As for Brooks, he made news a few years ago by complaining about a $78 bill at the excellent Smoke House Barbecue at Newark Airport, neglecting to mention that 80% of his tab came from the bar. Apparently this is what he meant by making life “interesting, diverse and edifying” everywhere people of his set went. Of course the Brooks post became Internet legend and of course the restaurant responded by offering a “Brooks special,” a “burger, fries and a double shot of whiskey for $17.78.”

Maybe it will be time for a “civic uprising” sometime soon, but advice to future elites: make sure to use some of your metis to remember that there is no such thing as a non-aristocratic aristocrat. When things go bad in the real world, neither boots, socks, nor a ponytail will dull public anger, at all. Pretending to not be an asshole is a surefire route to being taken for one, a tough position to be in when you suddenly need a crowd.

(racket.news)

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