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STRONG AND GUSTY northerlies continues today in coastal areas and over exposed ridges. Robust offshore flow and warming expected tonight and Monday. Offshore flow weakens on Tuesday. Dry weather with above normal interior warmth expected all next week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Clear skies & 45F this Sunday morning on the coast with another windy day forecast. Less windy tomorrow then calm & clear the rest of the week.
SPENCER VICTOR YORK, 5/4/1949 — 12/22/2024
Celebration of an Extraordinary Life
Join us this Sunday, May 4th at 1pm on the Mendocino Headlands above Portuguese Beach for a special remembrance of Spencer Victor York on his birthday.
UKIAH CITY BUDGET: NO POLICE TRANSPARENCY, RENT HIKES, AND MAYOR CONFLICT OF INTEREST
by ‘Ukiah Whistleblower’
Dear Friend of Mendocino County,
I’m reaching out as a concerned Ukiah resident and small business owner to share urgent concerns about the May 7, 2025 City Council agenda.
After reviewing the 377-page agenda packet, I found the following:
- $13.7 million in March disbursements were approved, but not one payment to the police department is itemized or explained. Funds like SLESF, CBTHP, and asset forfeiture are mentioned but show no public expenditures.
- The City appears to be paying two Chiefs of Police at once. There’s been no public explanation or transition timeline.
- An $84,000 invoice to the Inland Water and Power Commission was approved with no description of services or deliverables.
- Mobilehome residents — many elderly or on fixed incomes — will face rent pass-throughs, in-place rent increases, and additional utility fees, all while the City offers no plan for addressing homelessness or housing insecurity.
- Mayor Douglas Crane, a multi-millionaire landlord and construction business owner, voted on housing policy that directly benefits landlords — without recusal.
In response, I filed a California Public Records Act (CPRA) request asking for:
- Itemized police-related disbursements from March 2025.
- A complete fund code/dept code index used in City accounting.
- Details behind the $84K Potter Valley payment.
Also attached is a visual showing the top police call categories in 2024:
“Suspicious Person,” “Trespass,” “Disturbance,” and “Suspicious Circumstances.” This clearly shows UPD is being used primarily as homelessness enforcement, not public safety.
A screenshot from the March 2025 fund report shows over $3.4 million spent from the Police Safety Dispatch Fund, but again — no explanation of what it was spent on.
I believe this story deserves public scrutiny, and I’d be happy to share documentation or sources. If you’re willing to look deeper, I’m confident you’ll find a pattern of governance that benefits property owners and shields law enforcement from accountability — at the direct expense of the public.
This is my first time reaching out to journalists, so I’m not totally sure of the process — but I care deeply about this community and just want to get the truth out. If you know of anyone who might be interested, has resources to suggest, or can point me in the right direction, I’d really appreciate a reply. I’ll respect privacy and discretion every step of the way.
In defense of my community,
An Anonymous Source from Ukiah
JAMES TIPPET:
William Housley, Katlyn Long’s new boyfriend was a Laytonville boy. I remember him on the school bus when I worked for Laytonville Schools and as a friend of my son’s. William had an odd nervous system that was impervious to pain. He later went into the military and served two tours in Afghanistan with one of the elite units, Navy Seals or Special Forces or something, returned home and fell in love with Katlyn.
I ran into his mother, Lauren at a music festival in Laytonville that June. She told me about Katlyn’s death, alleging that Garett Matson had used Katlyn’s cell phone to send William pictures of Katlyn on her death bed the night she died. She also said that she, William and Katlyn’s friends had put up posters in Fort Bragg accusing Garett and demanding an investigation. According to Lauren, the Matson family had closed ranks around Garett, made sure all the posters were torn down and threatened anyone who accused their scion with legal action. Lauren asked me to get William into the festival where he could be with friends. She was concerned that he would take justice into his own hands, given his training and combat experience. When William arrived at the festival, I arranged for a weekend pass for him and saw him later, still subdued with shock and grief.
Lauren died of leukemia years later. William opened a wine bar in Cloverdale in 2023. Garett was wanted for a no bail warrant in 2018. Katlyn’s friends still remember her warmly. Old wound needs closure.
ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE: List of Events
UKIAH SHELTER PETS OF THE WEEK
Bingo is very sweet, but can be shy meeting new people. This handsome guy needs to gain some confidence, and we’re sure he will once he becomes comfortable in his new digs. Bingo really perked up when he met a fellow shelter guest — he was wiggly and showed that he wanted to play. A friendly, social canine friend in his new home could be a wonderful way to help Bingo become more assured. Bingo is a German Shepherd mix, 1 year old and 74 pounds.
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!
JUNE 2025 AT FORT BRAGG LIBRARY
Fratello Marionettes
Who’s pulling the strings? The Fratello Marionettes, well known and beloved in Fort Bragg, return with their special Mother Goose Land show. All ages welcome!
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FREE
Saturday, June 7, 2025, 11 am- 12 pm
Contact: fortbragglibrary@gmail.com
707-964-2020
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Summer Reading Kick-off
Children, Teens and Adults! Sign up for Summer Reading, where you can win prizes for reading. Come on in and get your tracking sheet, keep track of the time you read from June 7th thru Aug 2nd, bring in your tracker and get your prizes!
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FREE
June 7, 2025, All day (10-5)
Contact: fortbragglibrary@gmail.com
707-964-2020
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Creative Writing Workshop
A monthly workshop taught by published authors. Each month will feature a different genre/style/or theme.
Open and free to all adults. Bring your notebooks and pencils.
This month: Short Fiction with Kailyn McCord
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Wednesday, June 11, 2025, 2-3:30 pm
Contact: fortbragglibrary@gmail.com
707-964-2020
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Silly Circus
Kids & families! Join us for some silly fun with Bri Crabtree and her Silly Circus Show. Bri will dazzle you with her fusion of circus, vaudeville, and silliness. We guarantee it!
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Friday, June 20, 2025, 2-3 pm
Contact: fortbragglibrary@gmail.com
707-964-2020
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Afternoon Tea at Westport Hotel Expansion Project Benefit
Join us for tea and tasty treats at Westport Hotel. Proceeds go to the Fort Bragg Library Expansion Project. While you’re there, check out their displays of Sixties Rock & Roll Posters from the estate of Diana Leon, a generous Friends of the Fort Bragg Library benefactor. Reservations are required.
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Saturday, June 21, 2025, 3-5 pm
@ Westport Hotel, 38921 CA-1, Westport, CA
Contact: Friends of the Fort Bragg Library, ffblnews@gmail.com
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Kids Coding
Young tech enthusiasts, ages 8 to 16, will explore the fun and exciting world of coding with Scratch. All materials will be provided, and no experience is necessary, but space is limited, so please sign up in advance.
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FREE event. Saturday, June 28, 2025, 2-3 pm
Contact: fortbragglibrary@gmail.com; 707-964-2020
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Hours of Operation:
T/W/T 10-7
Fri 10-6
Sat 10-5
Sun/Mon closed
Please note: The library is closed on Tuesdays following a Monday holiday.
For your convenience, our book drop is always open when we are closed, and our digital library is available 24/7.
Fort Bragg Library
499 E Laurel St
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
SLOW NEWS DAY IN UKIAH
‘BLINDSIDED’: PRESS DEMOCRAT STAFF STUNNED AS HEDGE FUND TAKES OVER SANTA ROSA NEWSPAPER
by Olivia Hebert
Journalists at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat were preparing for one future — but then were handed another.
On Thursday afternoon, newsroom employees received an email, where they learned that Sonoma Media Investments (SMI), parent company of the Press Democrat and six other North Bay publications, had been sold; not to Hearst, which had been in negotiations to purchase the paper, but to MediaNews Group, a subsidiary of hedge fund Alden Global Capital. (Hearst is SFGate’s parent company).
“We were absolutely taken off guard and blindsided by the news,” said Christopher Chung, Press Democrat visual journalist and president of the newsroom’s union, Pacific Media Workers Guild Local 39521. “We were having our regular prep in preparation for dealing with Hearst as a company and meeting with other bargaining units within Hearst to strategize. That’s how sure we were that this deal was going to happen.”
The email, which was obtained by SFGate, was sent from California Newspapers Partnership HR, confirming the deal was effective immediately.
“This valued acquisition enables our family of news organizations to advance its stewardship in California as the largest provider of news and information across the state,” wrote Sharon Ryan, executive vice president for the partnership, which includes MediaNews and Tribune Publishing.
The message said the company would “seek efficiencies in business operations, distribution and production while striving to support and prioritize the robust, local newsgathering needed to serve the communities that rely on Sonoma Media.”
Founded in 1897 and based in Santa Rosa, the Press Democrat is one of Northern California’s most prominent regional newspapers. In 2018, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the devastating Tubbs Fire, which tore through Sonoma County, destroying entire Santa Rosa neighborhoods and killing 22 to become one of the most destructive wildfires in state history.
MediaNews owns multiple local Bay Area papers, including the Marin Independent Journal, San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times, and Vallejo Times-Herald.
Chung said members of the Press Democrat’s newsroom union were led to believe that a sale to Hearst was in motion — and even voted in early April to waive their successorship clause in the collective bargaining agreement to help facilitate that sale. He said union leaders agreed to the waiver “under threat, bullying and coercion by SMI and SMI owner Darius Anderson that alternative ownership could mean a local person with no experience in media.”
Instead, Chung said SMI stopped communicating altogether after mid-April, despite having confirmed signing a memorandum of understanding.
“We reached out to them and said, ‘What is the timeline for Hearst to take over ownership?’” he recalled. “We were met with complete radio silence.”
SFGate contacted Anderson for a comment, but received no response prior to publication.
The first notice of the Alden acquisition arrived via the Thursday email, some of which landed in employees’ junk folders. “We just got emails … so a lot of us didn’t know if it was serious or if it was true or spam,” Chung said. “It was communicated in the worst possible way.”
The current labor contract remains intact and effective through Aug. 31, 2026, according to the Press Democrat. But the union is bracing for changes, particularly given Alden’s track record of gutting newsrooms. Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, said Alden’s approach is driven by profit.
“Unfortunately, I think the worries are justified,” Edmonds told SFGate. “I think that there are likely to be pretty substantial cuts, and probably quite quickly.” He added: “They’re really in it all within the fund. They’re in it very substantially to make money.”
Chung said the newsroom had made significant sacrifices over the years to support the local ownership model under SMI, including giving up pensions, vacation, and taking pay cuts.
“We believed what they said was their commitment to local community journalism,” he said. “And this is how we have been repaid by Darius Anderson.”
The union says it will continue fighting to protect the integrity of the newsroom and hold management accountable under the new ownership. But the uncertainty is palpable.
“There are a lot of knowns from the history of Alden’s operations that are quite threatening,” Chung said. “We’re bracing ourselves.”
(SFGate.com)
THE MEANING OF TRUMP’S CUTS TO PUBLIC RADIO
by Lauren Schmitt
Today, I received a number of calls and emails from members of the press, concerned community members, and longtime KMUD supporters asking how President Donald Trump’s new executive order—aimed at ending federal funding for NPR and PBS—might impact Redwood Community Radio. In response to those questions and concerns, I’ve written a letter to the editor, which I’d like to share with you here:
At this time, the immediate implications of Thursday’s Executive Order for KMUD remain unclear.
First, the Executive Order explicitly targets National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). KMUD is unaffiliated with either—unlike Cal Poly Humboldt’s KHSU, which is an NPR member station or local PBS affiliate KEET. As a result, KMUD is not directly named or immediately affected by the order.
Second, there are serious legal questions surrounding the President’s authority to issue such an order. Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), stated:
“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority. Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”
She emphasized that Congress explicitly forbade any federal agency or official from controlling CPB or its grantees, citing 47 U.S.C. § 398(c). CPB was created through the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to ensure every American—regardless of geography or income—has access to high-quality, non-commercial public media.
KMUD does receive support through CPB-funded programs, however, no funding changes have yet been enacted as a result of this Executive Order. Still, many see the order as part of a broader campaign to dismantle public media.
In March of this year, I interviewed Janine Jackson of FAIR.org and Counterspin who put it bluntly: “Defunding public media isn’t about saving money—it’s about control. It’s about ensuring media are accountable to powerful interests rather than to the communities they serve.”
She pointed to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint supported by former and current Trump officials, which calls for eliminating federal support for public media altogether. Advocates warn this is not just a budget issue—it’s an attempt to silence independent journalism.
Meanwhile, the House Subcommittee on Delivering Government Transparency and Efficiency (DOGE), chaired by Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, held a hearing in March titled “Anti-American Airwaves,” aimed at stripping NPR and PBS of federal funding.
Ironically, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) had already received bipartisan support and funding approval through 2027—making this move feel abrupt and politically motivated to many in public broadcasting.
Opponents of public media argued that it “crowds out” private media, that it has become “irrelevant” in the age of internet access (a claim that simply doesn’t hold true in rural areas like ours), and pointed to PBS content they deemed inappropriate—specifically, a program featuring drag queens reading to children. But that segment never actually aired on PBS television; it was posted online, on the network’s website.
Then, in April, came the threat of a proposed rescission bill, which could have clawed back CPB funding—even though those funds had already been allocated. A rescission is a rarely used mechanism that allows the president to propose canceling funds previously approved by Congress. However, for the cancellation to take effect, Congress must approve it by a simple majority vote.
While this bill was expected to reach Congress in late April, delays tied to the budget reconciliation process have stalled its progress—further contributing to financial uncertainty for stations like KMUD.
And now, this Executive Order.
In my opinion, this Executive Order was issued precisely because public media continues to enjoy bipartisan support—especially among those who understand the vital role we play in rural communities. As many know, natural disasters do not fall along party lines. They impact everyone, regardless of who they voted for.
Stations like KMUD serve entire communities, and we’ve consistently been on the front lines of communication during wildfires, earthquakes, snowstorms, and the COVID-19 pandemic—providing accurate, timely, and often life-saving information.
Even local officials recognize this. Just the other day, Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall reached out to express his full support for KMUD. He even offered to author a letter on our behalf, acknowledging—as many others do—that KMUD serves everyone, regardless of politics or background.
Donald Trump has issued more Executive Orders than any modern president, according to The New York Times. The order signed on May 1st states that it is: “Ending the taxpayer subsidization of National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).”
Notably, it does not mention CPB’s broader funding to other stations like KMUD. However, it was issued the same week CPB filed a federal lawsuit against Trump to prevent the politically motivated dismissal of board members—another reminder of escalating tensions between the administration and public media. The lawsuit, which centers on CPB’s statutory independence, names both Trump and Russell Vought, a Project 2025 architect. (Link to lawsuit)
Why CPB Funding Matters
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) receives approximately $535 million annually—just 0.0079% of the federal budget. Yet this modest investment delivers enormous value, particularly in rural communities like ours. CPB funding supports emergency alerts and disaster communication, local journalism that reflects the unique needs of our region, training for volunteer broadcasters, and cultural programming that amplifies diverse voices often left out of commercial media. Unlike corporate broadcasters, public media outlets are not driven by advertisers or shareholder interests. Stations like KMUD are fueled by local volunteers, community support, and a commitment to public service—and that’s exactly what’s at risk.
Public Media & Community Media
While public and community radio stations often share similar missions and values, their programming and focus can differ significantly.
Public broadcasting tends to have a broader scope and audience reach. Take KHSU, for example—a station that airs content from around the world, offering critical global perspectives and stories from across the country. These are often voices and issues left out of mainstream commercial media.
Community radio, on the other hand, prioritizes local engagement, empowerment, and directly addressing the specific needs of the communities it serves. When I report the news at 6 p.m., I know exactly who I’m speaking to: you, the listener. We’re not creating content for a national or global market—we’re serving our neighbors in Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties.
This distinction was especially clear following the M6.4 earthquake in Rio Dell. While NBC was focused on capturing headlines, KMUD was focused on delivering life-saving information—the kind our community urgently needed.
Some members of Congress have introduced legislation that would cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, while potentially sparing rural stations. While KMUD has not taken an official stance on this proposal, our sister station KZYX in Mendocino County has spoken out.
Unlike KMUD, KZYX is both a community radio station and a public radio affiliate. In a recent report, News Director Elise Cox explained the financial stakes:
“KZYX’s financial relationship with NPR highlights the complexity of the funding picture. Federal dollars account for only about 1% of NPR’s budget, while member stations like KZYX contribute roughly 30%. This year alone, KZYX paid $71,000 in programming and satellite fees to NPR.”
That means if operational support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) disappears, stations like KZYX could be forced to make significant cuts—including reconsidering their NPR affiliation. As Cox wrote, “everything is on the table” as the station prepares next year’s budget.
When asked whether Republicans might support a carve-out for rural stations while defunding national outlets, Congressman Doug LaMalfa told KZYX that was a possibility. “No one wants to swing an ax and cut everything,” he said.
While KMUD may be safe from immediate funding cuts, other cherished local stations like KEET-TV may not be. KEET provides outstanding programming that keeps our community informed and engaged—from trusted public affairs shows to local news and cultural storytelling. For many rural families, PBS member stations like KEET are essential. They offer free, high-quality educational content that helps children learn to read and thrive.
In response to the recent congressional hearing—and seeing the writing on the wall—I became a member of KEET, choosing to vote with my dollars. Their future shouldn’t be caught in the crossfire of politics.
KMUD & CPB
Redwood Community Radio—KMUD—is a proud recipient of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)’s Community Service Grant (CSG). These grants are awarded to noncommercial public radio and television stations that provide significant public service programming to their communities. CSG funding helps stations expand the quality and scope of their work across news, educational content, public affairs, cultural programming, and more.
To qualify for CPB support, applicant and recipient stations must meet rigorous annual standards related to legal compliance, management practices, staffing levels, financial transparency, and community accountability. KMUD meets these benchmarks by:
- Employing multiple full-time staff
- Hosting open public meetings for community oversight, including via our Board of Directors and Community Advisory Board
- Maintaining open financial records
- Adhering to strict recordkeeping, certification, and audit requirements
It’s worth noting that many community stations do not qualify for CPB funding because the CSG program functions as a matching grant. In order to receive CPB funds, stations must raise approx. $275,000 per year from their communities—through donations, in-kind contributions, and other grants. CPB funding then effectively matches that community support, recognizing and reinforcing stations with proven local impact.
The fact that KMUD is able to raise this level of support from our community—even during times of hardship and economic decline—is a true testament to the indispensable services we provide. We are deeply grateful to our supporters and their continued belief in our mission.
In conclusion, while there is still much uncertainty, especially as legal challenges against the Trump administration unfold in the courts in the coming weeks, one thing remains clear: KMUD will continue to serve our community with integrity, thoughtfulness, and dedication. The support we’ve received—from individual donors and from grant programs like the Ink People’s Humboldt Journalism Project, Press Forward, the Humboldt Area Foundation, and others—has put us in a strong position. But the future of community media depends on all of us.
We must all be vocal in reminding policymakers that independent media is essential—especially in rural areas where mainstream news outlets often fall short. Continued bipartisan support is critical to sustaining the services that community stations like KMUD provide.
I cannot thank our community enough for its unwavering support. Because of it, I will continue to do everything I can to protect our beloved airwaves—your voice in the Redwoods, People Powered Radio: KMUD.
Yours truly,
Lauren Schmitt
PS- If you would like to support Redwood Community Radio, you can do so here: https://kmud.org/donate/
MEMO OF THE AIR: In the penal colony.
"The machine was no longer functioning perfectly; the harrow did not write, it merely stabbed."
Marco here. Here’s the recording of last night’s (9pm PDT, 2025-05-02) 8-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, and after about six hours into this show you can hear Juanita cutely snoring in the background. I missed that. I was away for almost two months this time: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0642
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:
Dog dance. I imagine the girl being in a relationship with an insecure but not unreasonable boy; they had an argument about something silly and, what with one thing and another, he said, more than half joking, "Either me or the dog." She and the dog smiled at each other as she waited a moment for the boy to figure out for himself what a mistake it had been to say that. Oh. (sigh) He went to get some boxes from behind a grocery store for his clothes and record albums and toiletries, the things he’d accumulated in her apartment in their fourteen months together. Young people can put their whole life in one seat of their first car. Think back. Living felt like flying in a dream. https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2017/04/ive-got-faith-canine-freestyle-routine.html
Servicing a pretty lighter. I always like to look at collections of lighters, real watches, reading glasses, musical instruments and microphones; like ice, they are civilization. Also I especially like to watch a woman’s hands make and repair things. It’s fine to. You don’t even have to wait till they look away so you can look there. Look all you like. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mFwYaxuImm8
Juanita made her own wedding ring mostly of gold from my dead grandmother’s teeth that my mother had saved. That’s one personal gold fact. But in the larger world, this new vending machine thing seems like an opportunity for pickpockets and burglars and morticians to monetize and cool the loot. It takes pictures of what you put in it; it should photograph the user too. Victims wouldn’t get their precious whatever back intact, but the criminals could be caught. Also, it gives me the idea for an attachment to the machine, or a standalone machine to accept gold items, that would be a 3D printer to print with that gold. You’d describe what you want to the machine’s A.I., approve the design on its screen or on the screen in your AR glasses-phone, drop in a stolen ring or brooch or cuff-link or ancient Roman coin, and receive a Monopoly token Scottie-dog or a tiny Eiffel tower or a calligraphy pen nib. I still have a green ceramic train engine that came in a box of Tetley tea that would be fun if it were made of stolen gold. It’s nice as it is. Look up Tetley Tea figurines. They were like CrackerJack toy prizes but for grownups and not disappointing. https://www.neatorama.com/2025/04/29/The-ATM-Where-You-Can-Melt-and-Deposit-Gold
Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
TODD WALTON:
Hallelujah! My new CD Hip Salon and the audio book of The Farm at the East Cove Hotel narrated by yours truly have just debuted. The official announcement with many viable links and song descriptions and bubbly good feelings are to be found here: https://underthetablebooks.com/blog/archives/7123
ED NOTES
SAN FRANCISCO is undergoing its annual coyote scare. About a year ago, a woman’s illegally off-leash dogs encountered a coyote near the buffalo pens in Golden Gate Park, and the coyotes ever since have gotten the blame for missing pets. The Grunge People’s pitbulls are the biggest hazard to Frisco park life, including two-footed life, but that’s another story.
IN LIVING COYOTE FACT, the crafty little critters have multiplied in the city; I’ve seen many myself on early morning walks through the very west end of the Presidio. The Presidio coyotes aren’t about to jog up to you for a biscuit, but they don’t take off at the approach of a human either. They fully co-exist.
ONE MORNING a sleek 70 pounder (I estimated) trotted across a street right in front of me, then sat on a dune staring at me staring at him, the second time a coyote stare down has happened to me, the first time being in Boonville when I got into a lengthy stare down with a coyote sitting nonchalantly at the other end of a big drain pipe.
I LOVE the humor in these animals. They will definitely mess with you in that uncanny way of theirs. You hear coyotes night-yowling in Mendocino County more than you see them, and when you do see them in their rural habitat, it’s clear from their scraggy appearances they’re working for a living.
CITY COYOTES are fed by animal lovers, and they are also assumed to help themselves to unattended cats and dogs, although I’d need some proof of that before I’d blame the coyotes for the disappearance of Muffin and FiFi.
STOP ME if you’ve heard this old coyote joke: Conservationists committed to humane management of coyotes got together with sheep ranchers to discuss the problem sheep ranchers had with coyotes preying on sheep. A conservationist asked, “Can’t you catch the coyotes, neuter them and let them go?” A rancher stood up and replied, “Lady, the coyotes are eating the sheep, they ain’t screwin’ them!”
IT WAS MUNI’S 100TH anniversary the morning I set out for the Ho Chi Minh Trail where I was meeting a guy for lunch at the Bodega Bistro, 607 Larkin. (Bo is beef; de is lamb; ga is chicken. Bo de ga. Nothing to do with burritos.) The food is wonderful and wonderfully cheap, but I never could detect anything bistro-like in the place.) Lower Larkin is home to a string of Vietnamese restaurants, hence the reference to Uncle Ho, a reference unlikely to be viewed as friendly by Bay Area Vietnamese, most of whom fought on the other side in the Vietnam war. San Francisco markets itself as cutely diverse, but it’s a city grown so rich that what diversity remains is pretty much confined to a few blocks downtown where there’s enough diversity in the Tenderloin to short out even the purplest multi-culturist, a neighborhood of free range grotesques whose jarring visuals are interwoven with the Asian and Hispanic families who live there. San Francisco’s crime and homeless politics seem simple enough: restrict capitalism’s most deformed victims to these few blocks where they can do whatever they want short of assaulting tourists, the city’s paying customers. If the damned and the doomed stray north of Geary, west of Kearny or east of VanNess, book ‘em Dano, but they can roam south all the way to Candlestick — except on game days. (You won’t see a homeless person even shuffling through Pacific Heights. Ever. And the Park Police pounce immediately if they catch one lingering anywhere in the Presidio. Ditto for all the city’s upscale neighborhoods.) Waiting for my friend to show up at Larkin and Eddy, I watched a half-dozen drug deals, the usual platoon of shambling wrecks talking to themselves as they pushed their worldly goods along in shopping carts, and there were plenty of freshly paroled tough guys, and prostitutes, and botched gender re-assignments, and innumerable drunks. Against this multi-hued canvas of equal parts menace and despair, children ran in and out as if they were playing in a redwood grove while their wholly focused parents labored in the Asian restaurants reclaiming the area. Considering it was 11:30am, the full American monte was on display. No different at 11:30pm, but wear your running shoes and carry a heavy walking stick after nightfall. The Bodega Cafe, San Francisco, Eddy and Larkin, an AVA-recommended place to eat.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Saturday, May 3, 2025
EDUARDO ALVAREZ, 29, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
APOLONIO BARRIGA-IBARRA, 33, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation violation.
MICHELLE BEACH, 52, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
JONATHAN CAMARGO, 37, Ukiah. Petty theft with two or more priors, probation revocation.
JADEN JOHNS, 19, Olympia, Washington/Ukiah. Attempted carjacking, use of weapon during crime.
CHRISTOPHER GARCIA, 44, Ukiah. Loitering, trespassing, parole violation.
SAMUEL SANCHE, 35, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs. (Frequent flyer.)
JEFFREY SHAFFER, 55, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two more priors.
BORBOA SOTO, 26, Hayward/Ukiah. DUI, probation violation.
WAYNE WALKER JR., 32, Willits. Domestic battery, probation revocation.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Deep down in our guts, we know that this way of living isn’t going to end well. Unfortunately, we have all been born into this way of living, it is all we know, we know nothing else. Might explain why everyone is on anti-anxiety meds these days. We are helpless slaves to a system we had no say in creating. We all know it. Sense it. Feel it. We all know there is not a damned thing we can do about it. So we wait for the inevitable.
THE FIRST TIME I paid close attention to Dave Brubeck’s music was in 1964, after a musician friend gave me a copy of vibraphonist Emil Richards’ album, “A New Time Element” on which Richards played well known pop standards to non-standard beats. ‘Georgy Girl’ was set to 5/4 time. ‘Havah Nagilah’ was played in 9/8 time. Etc. One of Richards’ best re-arrangements was his reverse version of Dave Brubeck’s famous “Take Five” — which Richards did in 4/4 time! Amazingly, Richards’ version sounded weird even though it was in standard time. I had worked for weeks to come up with an abbreviated 5/4 version of Take 5 myself and I knew its basic non-standard 5/4 time signature (1-2-3 [jazz waltz], 1-2). So hearing it in 4/4 time was downright fascinating. And even harder to play, although it should have been easier. That was just a small example of how effective Brubeck had been in establishing unusual time signatures in the minds of jazz listeners — and much of the listening public — of the late 50s and early 60s. It was genuinely ground-breaking. I was reminded of this odd memory upon hearing of Dave Brubeck’s death Wednesday at the age of 92. Looking back now on Brubeck’s prodigious output, one is struck by how he — almost single-handedly — was able to popularize tunes with offbeat rhythms and odd time signatures in a music world that had been stuck in 4/4 and 3/4 since before J.S. Bach. Right off, I can recall such fascinating tunes as ‘Blue Rondo A La Turk,’ ‘It’s a Raggy Waltz,’ ‘Three To Get Ready,’ ‘Unsquare Dance,’ etc. Brubeck didn’t overplay either. He didn’t show off, didn’t jive off into rarefied unlistenable musical territory that only other jazz players could understand. Instead he relied on clever tempos, surprising short riffs, cuts, layoffs, and understated harmonies and melodies which appealed to a broader audience, while at the same time demanding that they pay attention to the music via the near-eastern-ish timings that require you to think and listen carefully before just tapping your toe. Another impressive aspect of Brubeck’s compositions and performances was the way he incorporated classical elements. (If you don’t hear a touch of Mozart in ‘Blue Rondo,’ you need to listen more carefully.) In a way he was also out of sync with the times when he assembled one of the first highly popular mixed race jazz groups in the late 50s and early 60s with ultra-cool (when “cool” actually meant cool, calm, collected, confident, easy-if-you-know-what-you’re-doing cool) jazz bassist Eugene Wright — who was more important to establishing the foundations of those off-beat tempos than most listeners realize. There will be plenty of conventional obituaries and remembrances of Dave Brubeck, his life and his impressive jazz legacy. But personally, I’ll always appreciate the way Dave Brubeck demonstrated how rewarding it is to take a serious but unconventional approach to music — and life. (Mark Scaramella, 2013, on the occasion of Brubeck’s death)
JEFF BLANKFORT
In truth, over the years there have been countless survivors of the Nazis, in Israel, who have made public statements comparing the way Israel was treating the Palestinians much as they had been treated by the Nazis, all of which have been censored in the mainstream press of the diaspora which has long been under Zionist control.
MITCH CLOGG
The activists called doing actual stuff--compared to say, marching, holding signs, etc.--and by this I mean blocking roads, padlocking themselves to trees, pouring blood on draft records, occupying politicians’ offices and such, “direct action.” It’s what you do when passive resistance doesn’t work. For example, if seven million people surround the White House and say, in quiet unison, “Get out!,” they might be referring to the excellent recent movie or they might be taking direct action against an out-of-control presidential administration. I would go from California to Pennsylvania Avenue to witness such an event. It might be the most effective option left. The courts, the congress and the executive branches are controlled by the administration’s people. What to do? “Nothing” is not an option. Impeachment and the Constitution’s Article 25, the lawful remedies, are useless when the president and his mob have their hands on all the levers. A complete change of party dominance in both houses of congress might—MIGHT—offer some hope, but it’s not going to happen. Now it’s truly up to “We, the people.” The White House is ours, the Capitol is ours. Maybe it’s time to assert ownership.
SAN FRANCISCO WILDLIFE
by Marshall Newman
San Francisco can be a wild place. While S.F. nightlife is the first thing to come to mind (not that I would know), Mother Nature continues to show her stuff in the City’s very urban environment.
With sizeable chunks of open space – including the Presidio, Golden Gate Park, Lands End, Sutro Forest and Lake Merced – San Francisco’s Richmond and Sunset Districts have an occasionally uneasy relationship with wild creatures. My own experiences include watching a red fox trot calmly along the shore of Lake Merced, staring down a coyote near Taraval Street in the Sunset, having another coyote run past me near Geary Boulevard in the Richmond, observing raccoons emerge from a neighbor’s front bushes, and seeing single hawks in flight or perched, and ducks flying in formation, in nearly every corner of town.
My current, ongoing S.F. wildlife experience features creatures considerably less showy: bumblebees.
It began a few years ago with a shady spot in our Sunset District back yard. It made little sense to plant vegetables there, so I sowed California poppies. Even they grew grudgingly; modest in size and paltry in flowers. The bumblebees did not care. They were frequent visitors during peak bloom from April through June, and occasional visitors to the declining number of flowers thereafter.
It was nice having bumblebees around. They are fascinating to watch; slow flying (mostly), industrious and very selective regarding the poppies they visit. They vary in size, from little ones barely bigger than a honey bee to giants that bend the stem of every poppy they visit. While easily disturbed, they are not aggressive. They also occasionally take breaks in their pollen gathering, resting within a flower for several minutes before resuming activity.
Fast forward two years and one move. The new-to-us house, also in the Sunset District, has a sunnier back yard and botched landscaping. Amid the plantings were lots and LOTS of weeds. Over the winter, I pulled weeds by the dozens and dropped California poppy seeds in the resulting divots.
My hope for a yard totally covered in California poppies proved way off the mark. A patchy poppy patch is the reality. Plus, despite consistently purchasing California poppy seeds, the two-toned coloration and unusual size/configuration of flowers on a few plants suggest some poppy seeds from somewhere other than here.
Patchy though it may be, my poppy field looks fine to the bumblebees. They began showing up – first a couple, then four or five together – in late March. As the number of poppy flowers increased, so have the number of bumblebees. Now, in early May, I often find a dozen or more bumblebees busily gathering pollen when I venture into the yard. A few honey bees and a few other varieties of bees (they look like bees, anyway) also are partaking in the bounty.
I hope the bumblebees stick around throughout the rest of spring and summer. Even if they do not, I take pleasure in knowing my poppy planting has made their pollen gathering easier. Maybe next year I will have that field of California poppies I envisioned when I started pulling weeds and planting seeds. Not that the bumblebees will mind; so long as there are poppies to plunder, they will be happy.
45 YEARS AGO, MT. ST. HELENS’ ERUPTION SOLVED A CALIFORNIA MYSTERY
Local tribes knew Shasta Valley’s geology was ‘different than anywhere else’
by Matt LaFever
For over a century, geologists were baffled by the rolling mounds scattered across Northern California’s Shasta Valley. Travelers along Interstate 5 can glimpse these unusual hills and ridges, often mistaking them for volcanic cones or natural terrain. It wasn’t until the eruption of Mount St. Helens that scientists realized the landscape was carved by the sheer might of what is thought to be one of the largest landslides ever discovered, an ancient collapse so massive it reshaped the region northwest of Mount Shasta.
Shasta Valley, located at the northwest base of Mount Shasta, is home to the towns of Weed, Yreka, Montague and Grenada. The remote area, accessible via Interstate 5, offers a direct route between California and Oregon.
“That debris flow was recognized to be unusual from the very first time any geologist came across … Northern California all the way back to the 1800s,” Dawson told SFGATE. “It’s just an unusual landform.”
For decades, scientists floated theories — maybe the hills were hundreds of tiny volcanic vents — but the rocks scattered across the valley floor didn’t match that hypothesis.
“They started looking at the composition of the rocks, and they go, ‘Well, those are Mount Shasta kind of rocks,’” Dawson said.
In geological terms, these odd mounds are called “hummocks” — irregular, blocky hills formed when a mountain collapses in a massive landslide.
The breakthrough came in 1980 after Mount St. Helens erupted and part of the mountain collapsed, sending a debris avalanche sliding northward.
“The same hummocks and chunks of mountain slid down … and were deposited as a big debris flow,” Dawson explained. “Driving back to Menlo Park after studying the eruption, a geologist looked out over Shasta Valley and realized, ‘That’s what that is.’”
Even with the pieces in place, one big question remains: What caused Mount Shasta’s collapse? Dawson admits, “We don’t know.” He suggests that a combination of heat, glaciers and snow may have weakened the mountain’s structure over time. “Something caused it to give way, probably because of some geothermal thing,” he said.
Another mystery is how the debris traveled more than 30 miles northwest of the mountain. Dawson speculates that snow and ice could have acted as a slick, natural lubricant, helping the debris slide farther. While some scientists have suggested a prehistoric lake could have aided the flow, Dawson is skeptical based on a lack of evidence.
Nevertheless, the scale of the collapse is staggering. “It would be like if you look at Mount Shasta right now and you just took Shastina and slid it out into Shasta Valley,” Dawson said, referring to one of the satellite cones of Mount Shasta. The landslide unleashed an estimated 45 cubic kilometers of debris.
“That’s a big chunk,” he added.
Today, travelers along I-5 still pass by the enduring evidence of a disaster so vast it defies imagination and remains hidden in plain sight. Or as Dawson summed it up: “Terrestrially, it’s one of the bigger landslides that we know of worldwide.”
Long before scientists puzzled over the strange mounds of Shasta Valley, Indigenous peoples like the Wintu and Karuk tribes had their own explanations. Dawson explained, “In their oral histories, they actually note that Shasta Valley topography is different than anywhere else they’ve ever seen.”
In one legend, an aging chief too frail to make the journey to the Pacific Ocean asked his people to build him a mountain tall enough to see the sea. As the chief cried, “I can see it, I can see it!” people dropped their baskets where they stood at the mountain’s base, creating the rolling hills that dot the valley today.
Dawson shared another legend explaining the hummocks that also ties into the creation of Crater Lake. In this Klamath tale, a spirit named Llao lived atop Mount Mazama, before it collapsed into the Crater Lake that we know today. Llao, infatuated with a chief’s daughter, demanded her hand in marriage. The chief rejected him, calling Llao “ugly.” Enraged, Llao unleashed earthquakes and smoke from his mountain.
Desperate, the chief called on Skell, the spirit of the above world who lived on Mount Shasta. The two spirits went to war, hurling rocks at each other across the sky. “Skell was a little better shot,” Dawson said, smashing Llao’s mountain again and again until Mazama collapsed, forming Crater Lake. The defeated Llao’s broken rocks “all landed in Shasta Valley and made all these hummocks,” Dawson explained, laughing at the mythic battle frozen forever in the landscape’s scars.
As travelers cross the Oregon-California border on Interstate 5 and spot the strange rolling hills leading to Mount Shasta, it’s worth remembering that it’s only been 45 years since scientists began to unravel the mystery of Northern California’s iconic hummocks. As Dawson puts it, “There wasn’t a real firm consensus of what all the hummocks actually meant until relatively recently, which is a pretty cool story.”
(SFGate.com)
MATT CHAPMAN’S GRAND SLAM LEADS GIANTS PAST ROCKIES 6-3
by Eric He
Matt Chapman hit a grand slam to help the San Francisco Giants beat the lowly Colorado Rockies 6-3 on Saturday.
Chapman connected against Jake Bird (0-1) with one out in the sixth, capping a five-run inning after the Rockies scored three times in the top of the frame. It was Chapman’s third career grand slam, and the first for the Giants this season.
Colorado dropped to a major league-worst 6-27.
Luis Matos hit a solo homer for San Francisco. Randy Rodríguez got three outs for the win, and Ryan Walker handled the ninth for his sixth save.
The Giants had a 1-0 lead before the Rockies rallied in the sixth. Ryan McMahon chased Jordan Hicks with a tying RBI single. Hunter Goodman singled home Jordan Beck, and Kyle Farmer added a two-out RBI single.
Hicks struck out seven in five-plus innings.
Rockies starter Bradley Blalock gave up three runs in 5 1/3 innings. He was recalled Friday to take the rotation spot of Ryan Feltner, who went on the injured list with back spasms.
Chapman punctuated the Giants’ response after giving up the lead in the top of the sixth. After Jung Hoo Lee got San Francisco within a run with a bases-loaded single, Chapman drove a hanging sinker by Bird 402 feet into the Colorado bullpen.
The Giants scored four or fewer runs in their previous seven games.
RHP Germán Márquez (0-5, 9.82 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for the Rockies opposite RHP Logan Webb (3-2, 2.83 ERA) in the final game of the four-game series.
(AP)
COMMENT OF THE DAY from Norman Finkelstein: “A good political activist — yes, he or she has to be well read. I don’t think there’s any getting around it. You have to have some sense of history. The world isn’t an easy place; it’s not a transparent place. Trying to make sense of the economics is not an easy task. So you have to be well read. But no matter how well read you are, you are never going to be successful in politics unless two things are obtained. Number one, you have to have deep roots in people. You have to be among the people. Politics is about moving people to act. That’s our politics. When you’re in positions of power or you’re at the levers of power — and there are many levers you have that don’t involve people — you have repressive forces, you have economic forces, you have lots of levers. When you are a people’s movement you have one thing. Your only asset is people. And you have to deal with real people. Not the people of your imagination. Not the people you wish people would be. But people as they exist actually out there in the real world. So you have to be among the people. Hear what they’re saying, know what they’re thinking, and then you’ll be able to figure out what is a realistic demand and what is not. Having said that I also think politics is a knack. It’s not something you learn in books and not necessarily something you are going to acquire by being among people. There is something to be said for this completely impalpable thing called good political instincts, good political judgment. I think Gandhi had very good political judgment. He knew the people, which he had to. But he also had good judgment. I think professor Chomsky has very good political judgment.”
STATE WATER BOARD UNDER GAVIN NEWSOM SILENT ON ICE ACCESS TO PUBLIC MEETINGS
by Dan Bacher
If anybody still thinks that California state government under Governor Gavin Newsom is “green,” “progressive,” and the “resistance” to the unjust, racist and environmentally destructive policies and actions of President Donald Trump, they haven’t looked at the actual evidence and data.
We already know that Newsom shares many of the values of the far right, such as kicking off his podcast with the likes of Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage and Steve Bannon. On California water issues he appears to be aligned with Trump in his support of Sites Reservoir, the Delta Tunnel and exporting increased quantities of Delta water to corporate agribusiness.
But now his move to the right appears to be getting even worse. On May 1, Restore the Delta said it has obtained an internal State of California memorandum that outlines alarming guidance for public meetings held by agencies under the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA).
House Republicans Pass Bill to Repeal Endangered Species Listing for Longfin Smelt
House Republicans on Thursday passed a bill, H.J. Res. 78, repealing the Biden Administration’s listing of the longfin smelt as “endangered” under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), along with fellow California Republicans Vince Fong, Tom McClintock, and David Valadao, introduced the Congressional Review Act resolution on March 21.
Congress Members passed the resolution in a 216-195 vote. Three Democrats, including Jim Costa and Adam Gray from California, voted for the resolution while one Republican, Brian K Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voted against it. The measure will now go to the Senate.
The longfin smelt is a cousin of the Delta smelt, a fish that has been villainized by President Trump and MAGA Republicans like LaMalfa as a “worthless fish” in the California Water Wars.
NPR SHOULD BE AXED BECAUSE IT’S ANTI-THOUGHT, NOT ANTI-TRUMP
NPR is a small piece of a vast subsidized groupthink bureaucracy, which needs to be cut
by Matt Taibbi
After reading Madame Bovary in college I bought the unfinished novel Bouvard and Pécuchet, one of the last things Flaubert wrote. It’s a furious satire about two bourgeois clerks with no ideas of their own who come into a fortune, travel the world and live through great events, and ultimately return home having learned nothing, despite seeing everything. In American terms, it’s Dumb and Dumber for pseudo-intellectuals. I was too young to appreciate it (it was an older man’s final middle finger to the world’s unrepentant stupidity) but there was a prize at the end.
The Dictionary of Received Ideas is often tacked to the back of the novel. It’s believed Flaubert meant to publish it either as an appendix, or as a fictional creation of the book’s two idiot-heroes, whose conversations are just exchanges of clichés (“In the long run, solitude is very sad,” or “The beautiful is the beautiful, the sublime the very beautiful”). The “dictionary” is just a monster collection of these empty sayings, sometimes written as instructions on how and what to say in society, as in:
• AMUSING – Must be attached to all remarks: “How amusing!”
• HEAT – Always unbearable.
More often, entries explained what views to hold:
• DISSECTION – An outrage against the majesty of death.
• ICE CREAM - It is dangerous to eat it.
• LEGALITY – Legality is killing us. With it, no proper government is possible.
Flaubert was nearly driven mad by these ear-piercing snippets of conventional wisdom. He said he wrote Bouvard and Pecuchét to “vomit back onto my contemporaries the disgust they inspire in me.” To be trapped in a world of clichés would seem tyrannical enough to that kind of mind, but what if all those dead phrases and canned non-thoughts were mandatory? What if they were factory-produced as part of a state enterprise? What if “received ideas” were dumped on the public with military regularity, and in conjunction with prohibitions against saying anything else?
From a Friday story about National Public Radio in the Washington Post:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday evening seeking to prohibit federal funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The order, which could be subject to legal challenge, called the broadcasters’ news coverage “biased and partisan…”
An NPR spokesperson said early Friday that “NPR’s editorial practices and decision-making are independent and free from outside influence…”
The zany, sociology-prof-on-molly vibe at NPR is no longer the big story in America. Donald Trump’s unprecedented “assault on our most fundamental rights” is. Just ask NPR, which of course is the problem.
Once a great American institution, NPR has become a state-sponsored version of Flaubert’s nightmare. Why it has to go:
The station doubtless thinks it’s engaged in “public service journalism” by cranking out piles of stories with headlines like Trump nominee gives misleading testimony about ties to alleged ‘Nazi sympathizer, Trump cuts demolish agency focused on toxic chemicals and workplace hazards, Asian American voters backed Trump in Nevada. Here’s how they feel about him now, The U.S. set the global order after WWII. Trump has other plans, A legal architect of Guantanamo questions Trump’s El Salvador plan, and on, and on. Its editors either don’t realize they’ve built an abjectly partisan political operation, or, more likely, they’ve been at this so long, they believe ideological uniformity is truth, and by extension, just “the news.”
It would be depressingly easy to create a 2025 edition of the Dictionary of Received Ideas just by tweaking NPR texts:
- JOURNALISM - Advances the conversation. Stands out for its thorough research, diverse sourcing, fairness, and fact-checking. George Clooney says the press has a duty to “always question authority.”
- THIN - It’s back in, but did it ever leave? It’s easier for thin people when it comes to employment and education. With fatphobia, why are so many people comfortable saying the quiet part out loud?
- RACISM - A public health issue. The accumulated stress from institutional racism has documented effects. Mentorship for Black medical students is crucial as they navigate a healthcare system that is not always welcoming. There’s a new computer algorithm that more accurately illustrates Black hair. If we don’t keep talking about it, whiteness becomes the default for everything.
- AWKWARDNESS —Part of our lives whether we like it or not. But what if we put the embarrassment aside and embraced our awkward selves?
If Flaubert had access to NPR’s search tool, he could have a sequel book in six hours. The only challenge would be figuring out how to limit the most important entry:
- TRUMP - Poses a global threat to democracy. Conspiracy theories about Covid fueled his support among Christian nationalists. He’s a convicted felon now, but what comes next? Meet the conservative women who are keeping their votes for Harris a secret. Instead of a final plea for unity, embraced racist jokes about Latinos. Meet former Obama ethics czar Norm Eisen. His assault on the First Amendment is historic…
About that: for every unnerving addition to the censorship toolkit that’s come out of this presidency (like the reported expansion of “anti-BDS” rules), there remain dozens of federally funded entities that exist for one of two reasons: to promote groupthink, or stamp out the absence of it. NPR is at the top of the list. Its problem isn’t that it’s anti-Trump, or that it retains its weird addiction to stories like “Bringing diversity to Maine’s nearly all-white lobster fleet” or “Fat Phobia And Its Racist Past And Present” (though that stuff is nuts), but because it’s the most visible symbol of a thought-suppressing bureaucracy that’s not really compatible with our system of media or government.
The $535 million the Corporation for Public Broadcasting doles out to stations around the country isn’t a lot, in the scheme of overall federal spending. I’d argue the state should feel queasy about spending any amount of the taxpayer’s money on efforts to propagandize against his or her political choices, and that the CPB would properly be shut down overnight if it was as near-exact a mirror of Fox or the RNC press page as NPR is to Democrats.Org. Even if one stipulates it’s too small to need squashing, NPR has come to represent that far larger system of subsidized conformity, infused in everything from Internet search algorithms to AI to academia, whose scale is only beginning to become visible.
Old friend Andrew Lowenthal’s non-profit liber-net recently published a database of 867 awards issued by the U.S. government related to “mis-, dis-, or malinformation,” completing a painstaking effort at mapping the anti-disinformation sector we could only start at Racket years ago. His accomplishment got significant buzz thanks to another old friend, former Washington Examiner writer Gabe Kaminsky, who along with Madeleine Rowley not only wrote up its publication at The Free Press but quoted a State Department official as saying the administration was “just getting started” on a “spree” of program cancelations. A number of high-profile figures from the anti-disinfo world expressed disgust with the project.
As Andrew noted in a follow-up this week, those 800+ grants created a field that really hadn’t existed before 2016. Casual news consumers were told these programs supported apolitical activities like “fact-checking,” or were simple service contracts to do things like give out laptops to the disadvantaged. Even I’d have bought it once, but years spent under the hood of “media literacy,” “cyber hygiene,” and “counter-disinformation” initiatives left no doubt that whatever else these programs are about, their essence is about training populations to recoil from some narratives, while embracing others.
Just to take a few examples: the Department of Justice gave Youngstown State University $449,897 to study “misinformation, extremism, and conspiracism,” via a study that involve scanning social media discussions about topics like QAnon and MAGA. They asked questions like, “To what extent is religious discourse turning militaristic?” and “What is hypermasculinity, and how is it influencing extremist discourse?” Findings were shared with “security-related professionals” so a discussion could begin about finding “possible responses to online radicalization.” Andrew’s list also includes a National Science Foundation grant to the University of Illinois to track the spread of “dubious” Covid-19 misinformation. Racket similarly just received FOIA documents showing DHS officials pondering some of the same issues, as well as broader questions about how to restore faith in institutions.
NPR is the official media arm of these ideas. If you look (as I did this week), you’ll find that any ideological fixation we spent millions promoting through the State Department or Department of Commerce or National Science Foundation is virtually guaranteed to have been the subject of one or more segments on All Things Considered or Fresh Air.
I didn’t know what “hypermasculinity” was before reading the aforementioned Youngstown grant, but NPR sure does. They’ve run essentially the same feature on the topic multiple times, profiling the gay rodeo in Colorado that’s a place to “challenge hyper-masculine expectations,” the gay wrestler who revolutionized lucha libre (which until then was sadly rooted in hyper-masculinity), and the young black photographer who used his camera as a weapon against poverty and pressures of hypermasculinity. They’ve likewise covered “online radicalization” (in a series called “Untangling Disinformation”), extremism (in a “News Literacy” series) and conspiracism (UFOs to RFKs: How conspiracy theories went mainstream).
It’s uncanny. If a federal agency promotes awareness about “health equity,” you’ll be sure to find “health equity” experts quoted by NPR in stories like New Zealand’s Indigenous people are furious over plans to snuff out anti-smoking laws, or WHO renames monkeypox as mpox, citing racist stigma, or Heat makes health inequity worse, hitting people with risks like diabetes harder (because “marginalized communities often have fewer trees”). If there’s a federal grant to battle Covid disinfo, you’ll find NPR denounced the “dubious” messaging in Virus Researchers Cast Doubt On Theory Of Coronavirus Lab Accident, or How Vaccine Skepticism May Affect Efforts To Combat The Coronavirus Pandemic. Once I saw in FOIA documents that the DHS huddled with academics to find solutions to a “crisis of faith in key institutions,” I knew NPR had to have run a piece like ‘A Time To Build’ Author On Restoring Faith In U.S. Institutions. It never fails.
Creepier still is the fact that not much has changed in the attitudes of affluent urbanites since the days of Flaubert. Especially since Trump arrived on the scene, America’s chattering class has begun to speak the language of the skittish 19th century Parisian bourgeoisie. There must be a gene that’s passed down across centuries to allow Flaubert’s observations to fit so perfectly. Examples include “VACCINATED - Frequent only vaccinated persons,” “POLICE - Always in the wrong,” and “COLONIES (our) - Affect a mournful countenance when they are discussed,” but I thought this was the most amazing:
• LIBERTY – O liberty! What crimes are committed in your name! We have all the liberties that are necessary. Liberty does not mean license (phrase for conservatives).
The theme of struggling to find the right “balance” of political or religious or academic freedom against bigotry or extremism or threats to LGBTQ rights was one of NPR’s main themes for years. The station was particularly angry about “liberty” and letting people “make their own decisions” during the pandemic, when it ran story after story with themes like America Relied On ‘Individual Decisions’ To Slow The Virus. It Didn’t Work. Until recently these discussions all tilted in one direction, but “freedom of speech” has recently re-acquired positive connotations. Either way, it’s remarkable how similar French upper-class groupthink was to ours on many fronts.
That NPR is a wasteland of mindless convention and pseudo-intellectual gibberish isn’t a reason to kill it, though. It has to go because it’s already begun to be remade in the image of state media of the more infamous kind, in which the people running it (like CEO Kathleen Maher or COO Ryan Merkley) sound and act more like political officers than journalists. It’s a free country and media outlets can have one point of view, even relentlessly, but those places can’t be publicly-funded. We’re not trying to build a monoculture. Or are we?
SOMEBODY HAS ATTEMPTED to rob the safe in the office of City and County of San Francisco’s Treasurer. This is rushing matters; the impatient scoundrel ought to try his hand at being a Supervisor first. From Supervisor to Thief the transition is natural and easy. The opportunities are many.
— Ambrose Bierce, reporting in SF’s 19th century weekly, “The Newsletter”
IN PROFILE ABOUT JOHN FETTERMAN, NEW YORK TIMES COMBINES NEUROLOGY AND POLITICS
Another coverage innovation!
by Matt Taibbi
The New York Times ran a piece about how Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman could be “backsliding on his recovery from a mental health crisis”:
“The former chief of staff to Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, was so alarmed with his ex-boss’s erratic behavior last year that he wrote a lengthy letter to his doctor… “I’m worried that if John stays on his current trajectory he won’t be with us for much longer,” Adam Jentleson, the former chief of staff, wrote on May 20…
“An avid Fox News watcher, Mr. Fetterman even seriously considered voting to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former weekend host on “Fox & Friends,” according to a former aide. The vote would have signaled a green light to a cabinet appointee who faced accusations of excessive drinking and abusing women…
“It’s not clear to everyone who has worked closely with him that Mr. Fetterman’s political transformation, or his current challenges, is directly related to the mental health crisis… But in his letter, Mr. Jentleson describes unstable behavior he says could be a result of the senator’s failure to follow the medical plan…
Per the Times, when Fetterman “seriously considered” voting for Pete Hegseth, it might have been evidence of brain damage, on par with “dangerous driving habits,” also described at length. Man, political analysis is getting weird in this country…
JACKIE KNEW all about Jack’s sex life in the White House and before. What she did not want was any sort of confrontation with his playmates. The Kennedy’s were an eighteenth-century “amoral” couple, together for convenience. They would have fitted, with ease, into “Les Liasons Dangereuses.” His sexual partners were to her simply anonymous physical therapists. I suspect that’s what they were to him too.
— Gore Vidal, “Coached by Camelot”
LEAD STORIES, SUNDAY'S NYT
Trump Battles Academia, but Especially the Ivy League
The Jewish Student Who Took On Harvard
As Blockade Grinds On, Gazan Children Go Hungry and Patients Die
Houthi Missile Hits Near Tel Aviv Airport
Poised to Expand Gaza Offensive, Israel Calls Up Thousands of Reserve Soldiers
“THE DISMAL FACT is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others — who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something people with courage can do without.
“To do without self-respect, on the other hand, is to be an unwilling audience of one to an interminable documentary that deals with one’s failings, both real and imagined, with fresh footage spliced in for every screening. … To live without self-respect is to lie awake some night, beyond the reach of warm milk, the Phenobarbital, and the sleeping hand on the coverlet, counting up the sins of commissions and omission, the trusts betrayed, the promises subtly broken, the gifts irrevocably wasted through sloth or cowardice, or carelessness. However long we postpone it, we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously uncomfortable bed, the one we make ourselves. Whether or not we sleep in it depends, of course, on whether or not we respect ourselves.
“Character” Joan Didion said, “— the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs.”
— Neville Elder
KEYBOARD ENERGIES
by David Yearsley
Just think of all the nervous energy coursing through all those kiddies lined up for this Sunday afternoon’s piano recital. And then think of all the victims of this ritual that came before and of all those that are yet to take their turn on the bench of doom.
Jolts of adrenaline produce the excess of glucose and increased blood flow that are the stuff of stage fright. Multiply this restive resource by the millions who have sweated, shaken and shone, from the church hall to Carnegie Hall, and those 88 black-and-white keys start looking—and sounding—a lot greener. If these chemicals and currents, these turbines of terror, could be harnessed, the world would now be relaxing into a sustainable future that would make all that Bach, Beethoven and Brahms worth the botching.
Academic conferences share more than a few features with those youthful (and not so youthful) keyboard revues, though presenters and performers don’t generally show their nerves. Yet behind the professional façade, things can fray and even spark, given that some 80% of university professors suffer from imposter syndrome. In the case of musicology meetings coupled with concerts, one rightly expects collegiality, but one also knows that disaster looms and loiters, ready to heckle from the back row of the id or to extend an icy hand and stale croissant at the mid-morning coffee break that comes just after a rocky Q&A session or just before a lengthy and embarrassing PowerPoint kerfuffle.
The Musical Patriot has been trudging up and down the spiral staircase of the Ivory Tower for decades and is by now okay with admitting that he was such a hot mess for the “Keyboard Energies” conference and concerts held at Cornell University this past weekend that if he’d been strapped to a heat exchanger he could have given plenty of kilowattage back to the grid, indeed probably powered the entire weekend.
Though the Musical Patriot’s nervous potential has as yet remained untapped, he was wired into the Friday evening concert entitled “Elemental Energies” during which the Romanesque brick bastion of Barnes Hall was invaded by a flotilla of keyboards. These crafts, both acoustic and electric, were tied to the dock of the stage with cords and cables, and bobbed and buzzed at their loudspeaker anchors.
Friday’s musical program began and ended with Wagner, starting in the watery depths with the epic E-flat evocation of the Rhine River that opens The Ring. The night ended on the mountaintop in the fire that encircles Brünnhilde at the close of the cycle’s second opera, The Valkyrie. Ten Keyboards—one (a mid-19th-century Pleyel piano) contemporaneous with Wagner’s Gods-and-Monsters masterpiece, the others either a century older or a century newer—were deployed by way of downsizing Mad Dick’s orchestra of nearly a hundred. Electricity can mean unemployment for many.
In between these Rhinemaidens and Brünnhilde bookends came, first, a twenty-handed romp through four minutes of the Magic Flute. A lush lament of deathly sweet sonorities then oozed from organ and piano, their plaint haunted by electrical noise. A high-voltage surge from synth pioneer and minimal-modular mystic David Borden’s landmark Continuing Story of Counterpoint was heard on its original instruments, including two Minimoogs that had been touched and tinkered with not only by the composer, but also by Robert Moog himself. Moog got his Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell in 1965 and invented his synthesizers a dozen miles from Barnes Hall.
Next, a set of uncanny epigrams about lightning, land, time and space from Cornell composer Jasmine Morris migrated between workstations. Later, granite sound-slabs were quarried from a Steinway. A rococo chamber organ crowned by a painted wooden cut-out of King David at his harp was pumped and played from the Romanesque apse — or was it a candlelit alcove of the 1750s? A clavichord of the same vintage sighed unamplified before being ventriloquized by its 1970s doppelgänger, a Hohner Clavinet of Stevie Wonder “Superstition” fame. The séance then channeled that vibe into an extended funk fantasy. A Parisian salon of the ancien régime got an electric upgrade across three keyboards (two French, one German). A Fender Rhodes and Viennese fortepiano dueled over a Mozart duet. Both players not only survived, but came out smiling. A Bach sonata was switched on à la Wendy Carlos.
All these relics and replicas, innovations and obsolescence are normally housed—and humidified—at various depots of the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards, the event’s host. The Barnes Hall footlights, bought especially for the show, shone first in aqueous blue, but ended in a fiery red that helped to transform Wagner’s magic-tragic Gods-and-Monsters masterpiece into a post-historical vision of off-world escape: salvage as salvation.
Among the aims of this conclave were investigating, extolling and coaxing into sounding life not just keyboard innovations of the Atomic Age (the aforementioned analog synthesizers, electric pianos and electra-harpsichords) but also bringing these innovations into musical dialogue with their forbears, from the most ancient (the organ) to the oldest stringed keyboard instrument (the clavichord) to the slender fortepianos known to Mozart to the hulking grand pianos that are the battleships of the modern concert stage.
The keyboard arranged more-or-less like that of the Steinway has been the default interface for the fingers (and sometimes the feet) for at least 600 years: twelve keys per octave, with seven on the lower plane and five narrower ones above, was and remains the ubiquitous arrangement. If one were to guide the blind German organist Arnold Schlick, who, in 1511 published the very first book about organ building and playing, to a Moog synthesizer from 1970, he would immediately be able to find his way around the keys, though it would take him more than a little while to make any sense of all the knobs that calibrate a dizzying array of variables—decay, echo, glide, wave forms, among others. Would the infinite possibilities blow his mind or make him ask why a single beautiful sound is not enough for the moderns?
The Saturday of Keyboard Energies arrived, gray and raining. Production from the rural solar “farms” tucked away in the hinterland far from the central campus was down, so the Cornell Baroque Organ did its program of Bach’s music of wind and water fully off-grid: a confrontation with the terrifying, transformative turbulence of the Holy Spirit on that windiest of days, the Pentecost ; the Jordan and the Waters of Babylon ran forever free and pure in the musical imagination and were not the dammed ecological disasters they have been turned into by the insatiable appetites of industrial agriculture and energy consumption; a final frenzied Toccata was ripped through as if by extreme weather. Up in the dungeon-like tower, an Italian piano virtuoso pumped the bellows. No electric lights were turned on to chase away the shadows playing across the music desk. The audience sat in sepulchral contemplation. The concert was not streamed, not recorded, not archived. It blew in and then away like a wind-grieved ghost.
On either side of Saturday’s midday recital, there was fascinating scholarly talk of early electrified music coming through light bulbs; of Tesla’s championing of alternating current sent across New York State from Niagara Falls in the 1890s; of 19th-century organs shipped down the Erie Canal. Energized by Manifold Destiny, the King of Instrument made his way west. Once applied to organs, electricity made the monarch so big that he couldn’t help but topple, and so he did in the Crash of 1929. Half a century later, multi-keyboard maestro Herbie Hancock went digital and won a Grammy.
We also heard of the illusory domestic bliss promised to American women by electric gadgets included the revolutionary Hammond organ as well as another 1930s invention in which the current coursed through the player’s body all the way to the tips of her fingers at touch-sensitive metal keys. Keyboard innovation could literally be hair-raising.
The conference culminated in a concert on Cornell’s Hammond B-3 played by Gary Versace. A professor at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester not so far away from Cornell’s Ithaca campus, Versace is renowned the world over as an unsurpassed master of the instrument. Its inventor, Laurens Hammond, graduated from Cornell with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1913, and the Keyboard Energies hosts therefore laid partial claim to this watershed innovation.
Like their leader, the other two members of Versace’s ad hoc trio had successfully triangulated their way to Ithaca, the centrally isolated midpoint of New York State. Guitarist Nate Radley’s phlegmatic stage persona worked in vivid counterpoint to his fleet virtuosity and wit. A consummate collaborator, Michael Sarin never grabbed for attention, yet his drumming was endlessly attentive—dynamic, incisive, inventive.
Though the members of the trio have worked together in other ensembles and configurations (Snapshots of 2023 from the Radley-Versace duo is a compelling, kaleidoscopic portrait of pair’s musical partnership), the three had never played before as a single unit. Yet Saturday’s synthesis sizzled and smoked. There was an insouciantly upbeat Funny Valetine, a bluesy Big Reach (a Radley original) and a de-arranged, as Versace put it, “Love for Sale.” The Cole Parker classic was stalked by a bespoke countermelody, the tune’s sly emotional charge delivered with furtive hands and feet, while also winking at the commercial impulses that, as outlined earlier in the day by one keyboard scholar, had propelled Hammonds into tens of thousands of churches and homes in America and across the world, including Versace’s own boyhood living room.
Over these two days there were keyboards in quantity and a surplus of keyboardists of quality to operate them. After the plug was pulled on Keyboard Energies late Saturday night, the enervated Musical Patriot realized that he had been shocked into awe not by the electrical marvels but by the sustainable power of the people who had played them.
(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.)
Coyotes in SF
Coyotes are a very smart and adaptive critter. It doesn’t take them long to learn how to live around humans. I have to say the authors estimated weight of a specimen at 70 lbs is off by double. I huge coyote in CA would be 40 lbs.
As for eating pets. I’ve seen numerous trail/game camera footage of coyotes carrying off small dogs and cats. I know of a couple that were traveling in their motorhome in the southwest desert. They let their small cockapoo out to do it’s business and two coyotes came and lured the dog away. They killed the dog. I could only imagine that in an urban environment there would be many tasty options, both wild and domestic.
I have seen exactly what Casey is speaking of while working night shifts in Willits, Round Valley and other rural areas. We often see coyotes and bob cats on the edge of subdivisions dart across the road with something in their mouth. Lighting them up with the cruiser’s spot light often reveals it’s not a jack rabbit however a small dog or a house cat. I lose a few chickens per year to coyotes. Normally I can get a pattern on them and then send them off to their rewards within a few days. Normally it takes at least 3 chickens before I run into them on level ground.
Sadly California Fish and Game Commission is proposing to potentially remove coyotes from the “non-game” list and introduce regulations like bag limits and seasonal restrictions.
This would also cause ranchers and home owners to be forced to seek depredation permits before protecting their livestock and pets.
We are seeing huge problems in counties North of us with wolves and bears. The elderly woman who was killed by the bear in Sierra County followed by the total lack of transparency on the CDFW’s part was an eye opener as well. The biologists refused to work with the Sierra County Sheriff fearing bad press for the bear.
Sheriffs across Northern California are constantly taking calls on bears, lions, coyotes and wolf predation while wardens are completely ham stringed by the biologists. Wardens can no longer issue depredations that’s been given to biologists. From what I can see California DFW is being run by advocates.
I am constantly taking calls regarding homeless trash and camps on the Russian River. DFW won’t touch this because dealing with the homeless isn’t politically correct even though it is the duty of their office to protect the waterways. If there was a farmer or a rancher depositing piles of trash in the river, DFW would take swift action and the working farmer would be nailed to a cross. This is because CDFW policies are now being written by advocates and these policies are being pushed into legislation which vilifies the rancher. I fear this agency will soon become a state funded anti rancher eco terrorism group.
Dear Sheriff Kendall,
I have no doubt of the veracity of your observations, but just want to say that the word “advocacy” applies to almost anything. The California Milk Board advocates for consumers to buy more milk. The Chamber of Commerce advocates for small businesses. And the Anderson Valley Advertiser advocates for community engagement at the most sensitive levels.
What is it that the DFW is advocating for that you want us to understand?
DFW, and the USFWS both advocate for an Environmental ideology that only pays tribute to science if it supports their predetermined thinking. This makes a lot of room for fantasying. People who are connected to the land and subject to DFW and USFWS regulations know exactly what I am talking about. The vast majority who are disconnected from the land believe in the fantasy being presented.
Talk about fantasizing… I would take their science-based word over your nonsense any day.
Advocacy for one sided environmental rules, regulations and policies which leave the farmer and rancher in a position which criminalizes their behaviors. It also leaves people working in these industries n constant concern for their livelihood.
And you are absolutely correct, advocacy can be used in many contexts thank you for pointing that out.
This was extremely evident in Sierra county when the woman was killed by the bear and the state refused to provide the sheriff with the findings including DNA from the victim and the bear. This was apparently due to the concern from bear advocates that there would be bad press for the bear. The truth seemed to be of little to no consequence its more about perception. this caused an extreme amount of frustration for the public and Sheriff Fisher. This is because Sheriff’s answer their phones while Sacramento doesn’t seem to any longer.
I was in a meeting at the Lake County farm bureau Friday with Sheriff Bingham. The ranchers are very frustrated over policies in which their voices aren’t heard.
When a rancher calls a DFW warden over predation of livestock they are forwarded to a biologist and are often told there’s no one available. Then after a few days they may or may not get a return call. Ranchers are opining this refusal to deal with the problem is likely cooked into the stew to give the offending animal a head start.
There has also been a lot of talk amongst the policy makers in Sacramento in which public perceptions are leaned upon to base rulings on feelings instead of facts.
Recently a lake county rancher had their sheep attacked and learned there is a new policy allowing lions to kill livestock while the policy makers have put a strike system in place. This doesn’t match the laws which are on the books and it’s an example of policies over riding laws which is actually not allowed however still occurs.
The rancher was advised to pen the sheep up in the barn and wait it out. The Lion somehow got into the barn and killed several head of Ewes who were bread and would be lambing soon. These are the issues that will cause the common person to become a criminal and it simply isn’t right.
I wind up dealing with a coyote in my chickens about every other year. I have no axe to grind against a coyote trying to make a living like everyone else as long as they aren’t taking livestock. I can tell you once they start the don’t stop and no amount of hazing is going to break that cycle.
No one including myself wants to see us lose our wildlife or the predators who keep the numbers in check. Currently these numbers aren’t in check.
On Line Comment Of The Day
“We are helpless slaves to a system we had no say in creating.”
Untrue. The system is created by the choices we make everyday. What we spend, what we save, where we live, what we do for a living, what we are willing to work for, what we eat, how we indulge, who we socially engage with, etc. The system is us, and the consequences of our collective choices. We are only as helpless as we think we are.
I think about things like this daily… and I think I agree with both the commenter and Gentleman George. But it’s very complicated. Human evolution surely didn’t intend to result in a lifestyle of commuting in vehicles, addiction to consumption, TV, screens and sedentary passing of time. But that’s where most of us have ended up. And the system, particularly the American one, caters to it.
We can steer our own ship in many ways, but many are born into situations and locations that churn out rats in a race. Leaving your tribe and breaking away isn’t for everyone.
Move to Alaska? Convert to Amish? Those are options.
I’m still fascinated at the clash between the new and the old worlds like the colonizers arriving in North America. Thousands of years of evolution on opposite ends of the spectrum ran into each other. So now I chuckle when I hear all the old white dudes talk about liberty and freedom sitting in their house probably built on some Native grave site.
My grandfather started his dairy business in his late forties, bailing out of a “modern” career for the love of waking hours before dawn to milk cows. That thought has always made me smile.
Thank you to George and Kirk, worthy thoughts and here we all are. I often think some of the same thoughts, wondering at the mystery of it all, wondering how I am my friends found ourselves in the midst of such comfort and luxury, while most of mankind and womankind have not been so fortunate. Or am I wrong, and we are the ill-fortuned ones, while folks like Kirk’s grandfather were and are the fortunate ones?
There are many timeless human situations most likely beginning with the evolution of human specialization that resulted in putting ourselves in situations that appear not intended. Many thousands + of advancing innovations coming from individuals, and learned by many had dramatic influences on human culture going back tens of thousands of years. There is too much there for anyone to comprehend. The United States is distinctive because it has a culture built on people arriving here, usually at great risk, to make life better for themselves. That single action of migration to one place by many people who are taking control of their lives has shaped who we are, what we think, what we accomplish, and how we govern ourselves.
Remember Kent State, May 4, 1970.
A dark day for America. Let’s hope we do not see it ever again.
POPE EBENEZAR
Install Trump as our brand new Pope?
A sheer, fantastical whimsy—
The right answer is just plain “Nope.”
Cardinals and Bishops in their Conclave
Recoiled and pled in fervent prayer—
“Not that Scrooge, he won’t behave!”
‘Direct action gets the goods’ – but how can mass direct action happen – and ensure ‘we won’t get fooled again?’
We live in a panopticon. 99% of adults voluntarily walk around with easily hackable microphones and cameras. Every email, every chat is recorded and logged. “Use Signal, it’s secure!” they say. What makes you think it’s secure? “They say so!”
And what if we did manage to surround the frowning fascists and stomp them – the only way to get rid of them according to history? They’ll be replaced with Hakim Jeffries or AOC… Newsom or Pritzker? Sorry, if you’re just going to replace one set of genocidal baby-bombers with another set of genocidal baby-bombers (and if I can’t dance…), I don’t want to be part of your revolution.
“So we wait for the inevitable.”
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Fetterman isn’t mentally ill for considering a vote for Pete Hegseth, whose atrocious existence as a drunk and a rapist overshadows that he’s opposed to an attack on Iran – unlike his recently demoted adversary Mike Waltz. Fetterman is mentally ill because he’s a rabid genocidal Zionist who waves the flag of a foreign country and screams at pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a formerly progressive Democrat who has decidedly shifted right in recent years, delivered a hard-line—and honestly bloodthirsty—stance in opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza during a meeting with pro-Israel group J Street’s president Jeremy Ben-Ami in February.
“Let’s get back to killing…kill them all.” Fetterman said.
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They don’t shoot college students anymore. The disappear them to black sites and deport them.
Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. RIP