Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 6/11/2025

By AVA News Service on June 11, 2025

INTERIOR temperatures forecast to diminish each day through Friday. Coastal stratus coverage becoming less through the week with clear skies possible Friday afternoon. Stronger winds are to be expected through the rest of the week into the weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Yeppers, a foggy 50F once again this Wednesday morning on the coast. According to the NWS we can expect decreasing clouds - fog starting today into the weekend. As always, we'll see.

SISTER JANE KELLY DIES AT AGE 95

by Mike Geniella

Sister Jane Kelly, an iconic Catholic nun who forged the creation of Ukiah’s Plowshares center for the homeless and helped foster expanded social justice ministries in Mendocino County, has died at age 95.

Sister Jane’s passing came Saturday morning at the Alma Via Nursing Home in her native San Francisco. Her death was announced by Sister Joanne O'Shea, a friend of Sister Jane’s since their teenage years growing up in the same neighborhood in the city. Both joined the Presentation Sisters of the Virgin Mary order within a year of each other.

“She was a remarkable individual,” said Sister Joanne who visited her friend two or three times a week while she was under hospice care.

Sister Joanne said, “She accepted what life gave her with love, devotion, and loyalty.”

Sister Jane Kelly returned to the motherhouse of her San Francisco order in 2011 after spending nearly four decades living and working within the parish of St. Mary of the Angels in Ukiah.

She lived her last years quietly, said family and friends.

“When she became bedridden, Sister Jane said she had a new ministry: the ministry of prayer,” recalled longtime Ukiah friend Shannon Phelan. “She prayed for the world’s problems, and everyone she knew by name.”

Phelan and husband George said Sister Jane told them in the last few years that she “just wanted to go home, but her doctor told her that her heart was too strong.”

“And that is Jane in a nutshell. She had an incredibly strong heart,” said Shannon Phelan.

Sister Jane’s last years may have been quiet and reflective, but a quarter of a century ago she found herself in the forefront of a national reckoning for the Catholic Church.

As a result, Sister Jane emerged with a reputation as a rabble-rousing nun after exposing thievery and sexual misconduct within the Diocese of Santa Rosa, landing it on a mushrooming list of troubled dioceses across the nation.

Sister Jane’s actions helped topple Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, a scion of a Southern California family with friends in the highest circles of the Catholic Church hierarchy. Ziemann’s downfall capped a string of disclosures in the 1990s about local priestly sexual misconduct from Santa Rosa to Eureka.

Sister Jane was hailed as a hero in some quarters, but she was largely shunned by male colleagues within the church. “That damn nun from Ukiah,” some were heard to grouse during that era.

“Jane was a fearless woman in a man’s world,” recalled nephew Kip Kelly, a Southern California architect and one of several nephews and nieces “Aunt Jane” kept close to her.

“Aunt Jane taught us to stand up for what is right and never back down, that our life had a purpose and if we were willing to put in the work, nothing could get in our way. In a world where so many opt to fight for themselves, she showed us that contributing to others is what leads to a true sense of fulfillment,” said Kelly.

Sister Jane intuitively knew something was amiss when the late Bishop Patrick Ziemann appointed her spiritual adviser to a young man who seemed ill-prepared to become a priest in short order as instructed by the bishop.

Sister Jane began to question Jorge Hume’s alleged educational background in South America, learning of his growing possession of material goods shortly after his arrival at St. Mary church.

Ukiah police investigated theft suspicions and documented the priest’s skimming church collections. In a decision he came to regret, the late Ukiah Police Chief Fred Keplinger, a member of the parish, agreed to meet privately with the bishop and members of the parish council. Keplinger agreed not to seek criminal prosecution of the priest for theft, after Ziemann vowed to “take care of it.” The bishop swore all to secrecy except Sister Jane, who refused to attend the session because she feared that might happen.

When Sister Jane later learned the bishop was allowing Hume to continue acting as a priest in Napa, she took her concerns to diocesan officials.

What she, nor anyone else knew at the time, was that the bishop had become engaged in a sexual relationship with Hume. Ziemann claimed it was consensual. Hume told police investigators that the bishop demanded sex in return for not being prosecuted criminally.

Although the Archdiocese of San Francisco learned of the tangled affair, church leaders allowed Ziemann to remain as bishop for another year until it was disclosed publicly. Hume later received a $500,000 cash settlement to end civil litigation against the Santa Rosa diocese, and he returned to his native Costa Rica.

Sister Jane’s role in unraveling the tawdry affair, and her follow up in exposing other sexual abusers within church ranks, landed her on the March 3, 2000 cover of the National Catholic Reporter.

Writer Arthur Jones wrote, “Sister Jane Kelly has become by default what the diocese lacked: a repository of trust for many Santa Rosa Catholics. She has paid a high price. The silence and lack of support of some priests she’s known for decades. She broke the code of the clerical club.”

NBC News’ anchor Jon Bonne in 2003 did a segment broadcast nationally about Sister Jane’s efforts.

“Until he resigned, Bishop Patrick Ziemann wielded sweeping powers in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. But the outrage of one elderly nun from Ukiah helped knock him off his feet. For Sister Jane Kelly, exposing the bishop turned out to be the final step in an exasperating battle against the institutional power of the Catholic church,” Bonne reported.

Sister Jane relished a good fight and pressed her challenge to the church hierarchy about sexual and fiscal misconduct. She authored books, including one called, “Taught to Believe the Unbelievable.” It is her story of a crisis of faith, and a reminder that “…the call of one’s own heart and conscience supersedes all externally imposed authority.”

An image forever imprinted in the minds of many Catholics in Ukiah is Sister Jane confronting the late Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco as he entered St. Mary church to convince parishioners that church authorities were managing the abuse and fiscal turmoil.

Sister Jane, a finger waving in Levada’s face, demanded to know why he had not responded to a letter from her outlining other abuse issues she had uncovered about three priests in the diocese. Levada tried to appease her by saying he would “look into it.”

Sister Jane Kelly confronting the late Archbishop William Levada of San Francisco, as he entered St. Mary church to convince parishioners that church authorities were managing the abuse and fiscal turmoil.

Her moment with Archbishop Levada, captured in a front page newspaper photo published the next day, forever cemented Sister Jane’s image as the nun who stood up to the church hierarchy. Levada in 2005 was named head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, making him the highest-ranking American in the Roman Curia.

Today it is Sister Jane’s remarkable community and family accomplishments that are being remembered rather than her national recognition.

After arriving in Ukiah in 1973, Sister Jane organized a parish school of religion and then expanded it to the local Native American community, visited rancherias, and advocated for native children and their families. She served on the board of the non-profit Senior Indian Nutrition Center.

Martin Bradley, a social justice advocate and close friend of Sister Jane, recalled how she was asked in 1977 to serve on the Ukiah Planning Commission.

“Sister Jane made decisions based on the needs of the community, and not on what was the most expedient or with the highest profit return for a land developer,” said Bradley.

Bradley remembered how he and other then young activists asked Sister Jane to help them plan a community dining room.

“Sister Jane gave credibility to an unknown group of young Ukiah newcomers organizing the Plowshares Peace and Justice Center. Her reputation drew support from members of the community that none of us knew,” said Bradley.

Bradley said it was Sister Jane’s “honesty and integrity combined with a keen knack of one-to-one fundraising that allowed Plowshares to open and thrive.”

Sister Jane addresses volunteers, as they prepare to serve the first meal at Plowshares in November 1983.

The Rev. Gary Lombardi, now a retired pastor from St. Vincent’s Church in Petaluma, collaborated with Sister Jane in Ukiah when he was the newly appointed parish priest. (Lombardi was transferred before the local parish scandal emerged, and Sister Jane received national attention.)

“While we worked together at St. Mary’s, I experienced her as a woman of great wisdom, sound spirituality, and a passionate commitment to the social justice teaching of the Catholic Church,” recalled Lombardi.

Lombardi, who is widely known on the North Coast for his work in parishes from Petaluma to Eureka, said he valued Sister Jane’s insight and advice highly.

“She worked very well with me and our parish team in whatever aspect of parish ministry we were working on, with a special focus on involvement in the larger community of Ukiah. Her deep involvement with Plowshares was an example of how her focus on social justice worked itself out.”

Mary Leittem-Thomas, a former pastoral associate at St. Mary during the troubled times, and later principal of St. Mary School, recalled Sister Jane as a “powerful force for good. She loved being Catholic. She wanted to be a controversial yet good voice for change in the Church.”

“Sister Jane worked with Father Gary to start building parish ministries by hosting dinners at the rectory and then putting people to work on committees,” said Leittem-Thomas.

On a personal level, Leittem-Thomas said, “working with Sister Jane has given me a spiritual and professional depth that has helped define my adult life here in Ukiah, in ways for which I am truly grateful.”

Sister Jane remained close to her sister the late Kay Barrow of Cotati and older brother Edward Casey Kelly of San Francisco, and their families.

On a personal level, it was the family ties that mattered most to Sister Jane.

Niece Nancy Hamann of Boston said “Aunt Jane was at all our family holiday gatherings. She had a deep abiding love for family and its history.”

“I was the only girl in my family, and she made the special effort to connect with me, and make sure I felt equal to all the boys!” said Hamann.

Nephew Sam Hamann said, “The bond between Jane and her twin sister, my mom, was something to behold. They were inseparable and lifelong companions.”

Sister Jane dedicated one of her books to sister Kay Barrow and her husband, and nephew Sam and his partner Scott Daigre, whom she believed to be “examples of what it means to be in a loving and committed relationship.”

Sam Hamann said, “Aunt Jane was always supportive and accepting. She made it clear early in my life that she would not only accept me for whatever I ended up being but insisted that I be exactly that, true to myself.”

Nephew Jeff Kelly of San Francisco said his Aunt Jane was driven by a sense of fairness. “She told us the greatest gift was to treat others how we would like to be treated.”

Greg Kelly, another nephew, said he would like people to remember Sister Jane’s daily prayer.

“The Lord is my refuge, the lord is my refuge, peace and justice have met and God has set me free!”

SUPES OVERRULE MENDOCINO HISTORICAL REVIEW BOARD

Editor-

In a 4–1 vote on May 20, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors made a stunning decision: one of the last authentic water towers on Mendocino’s Main Street will come down — despite being protected three times by the very board created to preserve the town’s historic character.

This isn’t just about losing a structure. It’s about whether the Mendocino Historical Review Board (MHRB) — and the community it represents — has any real authority in shaping the future of this iconic village.

A Blow to the Town — and to Public Trust

The MHRB heard this appeal not once, not twice, but three times, and each time, they voted to preserve the water tower. That’s because the tower is not just wood and nails — it’s history. It’s story. It’s a part of the coastal silhouette that defines Mendocino.

And yet, in a move that stunned many residents, the Board of Supervisors reversed all three MHRB denials — voting instead to allow demolition.

So now we must ask: If our local historical board can be so easily ignored, what’s the point of having one at all?

Thin Justifications, Ignored Expertise

During the Board meeting, Supervisor Ted Williams — the lone vote to preserve the tower — raised a number of key concerns. He challenged the credibility of the Engineering report, which had been submitted by the property owner. That report largely relied on visual assessments and offered no structural testing, no core sampling, and no preservation alternatives.

To be fair, the engineer likely delivered exactly the scope of report he was hired to produce — no more, no less. But that doesn’t make it the right report for the task at hand, and the pro-removal side attempted to blur that distinction.

For instance, in an effort to bolster the appellant’s case, Tom Hudson claimed the engineering report was 50 pages long — a direct contradiction of Supervisor Ted Williams’ statement that it was just over two pages. In truth, the substantive analysis amounts to about three pages, with the recommendations limited to just three brief paragraphs. Notably, Hudson identified himself as married to a “real estate person who represents the owner of this property.”

Local voices — including one individual who helped move the water tower decades ago — attest to the structure’s enduring strength. Built from old-growth redwood, it is inherently sturdy and naturally resistant to decay. The truth is, a serious remediation plan has simply never been thoughtfully considered.

As for the idea that the tower’s relocation in the 1970s diminished its historic value? That argument holds no water. Relocating structures has long been a recognized strategy in historic preservation. In San Francisco and across the country, buildings have been moved precisely to protect them.

So why was this beloved structure greenlit for destruction?

Appellant attorney Momsen put it bluntly: Because people liked it too much. That was the central claim of the appellant’s attorney. Too many people appreciated it, as simple as that — and so it had to go.

As part of a generally lackadaisical stance, this is not a serious legal argument. It’s a hollow justification for undermining a deeply held community value.

CEQA Concerns: Has the County Violated State Law?

Supervisor Williams also raised another serious issue — and it’s one that may yet bring consequences: possible CEQA violations.

Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), any structure over 50 years old with potential historical significance is presumed to be a historic resource. This water tower, moved in the early 1970s and even older in origin, clearly qualifies. Yet no Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was prepared, and no meaningful mitigation was proposed.

If a Notice of Determination (NOD) or Notice of Exemption (NOE) was not properly filed, the CEQA statute of limitations is 180 days from project approval. That clock is now ticking.

If neither notice has been filed — or if the filings are flawed — the County may be legally vulnerable. The community still has a chance to act.

Call to Action: Protect What Makes Mendocino Mendocino

Let’s not forget — the Mendocino Coast is the County’s single largest source of revenue. Tourists don’t come here for strip malls or modern development. They come for the timeless charm, the weathered water towers, the character that can’t be fabricated.

The decision to tear down one of our last authentic Main Street towers isn’t just a loss of history — it’s a threat to the identity and economy of the region.

Now is the time to speak up. Let’s preserve the very face of Mendocino, the small-town beauty that has made it a beloved destination for decades. Let’s stand together to defend the historic character that drives tourism, sustains our local businesses, and inspires generations. This is our town. Let’s fight for it.

— Scott Roat, Mendocino Coast Realtor

NOYO CENTER TALKING SCIENCE: DOMOIC ACID TOXICITY IN CALIFORNIA SEA LIONS

Guest Presenter: Dr. Cara

Director of Conservation Medicine

The Marine Mammal Center

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

6:00 PM on Zoom

In 1998, The Marine Mammal Center diagnosed the first case of domoic acid toxicosis in marine mammals. Domoic acid is produced during certain harmful algal bloom events by a type of algae called Pseudo-nitzschia australis. This neurotoxin accumulates in small fish, like sardines and anchovies, which are then eaten by marine mammals like sea lions in large quantities. Join us to learn more about the current situation.

(Dobie Dolphin)

HOSPICE THRIFT STORE MEETING

Help keep the store open. Come to the hospital board meeting on this Thursday at 5 pm in the redwoods room in the patient registration building.say a few words and hopefully we can convince the board that they should assume responsibility for the store, since Adventist no longer wants to. Thanks..

Louise Mariana, [email protected]

ED NOTES

RECOMMENDED READING: “Spy Rock Memories” by Larry Livermore. The Mendocino County literary oeuvre is pretty thin, although there are lots of good writers in our beloved mother county. This book helps make up the deficit, and is the best thing I've read on the general subject of Back To The Land in that fraught decade — 1970-80 — when the city had become so violent that thousands of people fled north where they bought logged over land in remote areas up and down the Northcoast and settled in, radically underestimating what pure hard work it is to carve out a homestead where there's no developed water, let alone a power grid. Livermore was not your generic back-to-the-lander. A gifted writer, he describes in vivid detail his struggles to establish himself in the infamous outlaw stronghold of deep Spy Rock, the wild outback northeast of Laytonville where he established himself on both the land and with his neighbors. While still a newcomer in a place where suspicion came with the primary occupation — marijuana production — Livermore began producing his pioneering zine, The Lookout, which instantly made him persona non grata with both his mountain neighbors — as pot growers they didn't like the attention — and the residents of Laytonville, who didn't like Livermore's descriptions of their town as an unpromising collection of ramshackle buildings strewn haphazardly along 101 with a lot of ramshackle personalities to go with the architecture. Then he became famous, and then he became rich and famous. I knew Livermore was famous when a Boonville kid asked me if I knew Livermore. “Yup, known him for a long time. We're good friends. He writes for my paper when the spirit moves him.” The kid looked at me with renewed respect, but I had to tell him twice before he believed me. By then Livermore had formed or managed a bunch of famous bands, including Green Day, which made him and them gadzillions. His pioneering zine, The Lookout, was nationally distributed. I have to admit that I still haven't heard much of the music apart from an a-rhythmic ditty Livermore gave me many years ago called “Fuck You and Die,” to which, try as I might, I've never quite been able to dance. But apart from his fascinating accounts of establishing his home above the snow line on Spy Rock, including some harrowing trips home by snowshoe, I found Livermore's stories about how his zine grew and the genesis of his life as a music entrepreneur absolutely fascinating. “Spy Rock Memories” will be of great interest to the thousands of people of the Northcoast who've carved out lives for themselves in the vast backcountry of Northern California, and of equivalent interest to the general reader who simply likes good stories well told. (http://larrylivermore.com/?p=2861)

HERE IN DENVER I haven’t yet personally encountered any Political Correctness. But in this neighborhood, diversity we’ve got. Next door is a black man and his Jewish rabbi wife, and they are right across the street from the young gay Mexican fellow. More Spanish than English is spoken on this block. This is what used to be commonly called a “mixed” neighborhood, and that's what it is. If it were transported to Marin County, it would be “diverse” in PC terms but more realistically considered “ghetto.” No one on this very “diverse” street appears to be the slightest bit concerned with the notion of PC. People are too busy living for such nonsense. If memory serves adequately, I seem to recall that PC is something occurring almost exclusively among middle class white people, most of whom have been exposed to one or another post-60's New Age sort of thing, from “experimenting” with marijuana before it became mainstream — espresso and wine are the drugs of choice now — to gurus from India, the likes of Wavy Gravy and more serious dispensers of wisdom like Dr. Wayne Dyer and Byron Katie, seminar hustlers like Werner Erhard, tarot cards and so forth. PC boils down these days to denial of all stereotyping (in theory although reality can sometimes intrude), earnest trash recycling, calling oneself “progressive” while hypnotically voting for mainstream democrats, and cultivation of gay friends (for some reason gay women seem generally a bit safer to have at the suburban dinner party than gay men). And so on. Our Esteemed Editor has joked, off the record, that the ultimate political correctness would be expressed in a transgender cripple as president of the US. Off the record only, since the warm-and-fuzzy PC legions, what the AVA sometimes calls The Nice People, would be horrified at the statement although delighted at such a reality, even though we have now seen that the first non-white president is strictly political business-as-usual or worse. And there is no reason to imagine that a disabled person of indeterminate gender would be any different, since anyone aspiring to the presidency is thoroughly corrupted well before getting near the possibility. National Lampoon did a goof on Joan Baez in the 70s, a sound-alike singing “Pull the triggers, niggers, we're with you all the way, just across the bay… Just because I can't be there, doesn't mean I don't care…” (Google 'Pull the Triggers' to find it on youtube.) This is PC distilled right down to its essence, despite deployment of the hot-button “N” word.

— the late Jeff Costello, 2011

THOUSANDS GATHER IN SF FOR 'EPIC BATTLE' AGAINST ICE AMID CALIF. RAIDS

by Olivia Hebert & Madilynne Medina

In true Bay Area fashion, Monday night’s protest had its own rhythm.

An estimated 9,000 protesters gathered for a rally and march that started at San Francisco’s 24th & Mission BART Plaza around 6 p.m. to protest the recent raids carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement across California. Tracks like YG’s “FDT” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” rang out on Mission Street, along with chants like “Move ICE, get out the way!” echoing through the crowd in a nod to Ludacris. Protesters rolled through on scooters and skates, some draped in keffiyehs, others wearing face masks and clothing scrawled with anti-fascist messages. Many were waving upside down American flags and cardboard posters bearing anti-ICE slogans, lambasting the agency’s actions as unlawful and illegal.

Galvanized by mounting unrest across California and large-scale demonstrations in Los Angeles — where, after three days of protest, President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 700 Marines and over 4,000 National Guard troops, bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s authority — Bay Area residents took to the streets in a show of solidarity, advocating for immigrants of all nationalities, ethnicities and creeds.  “I’m the son of immigrants from Mexico and I’m from LA,” Albert Ponce, a protester and East Bay resident, told SFGATE. “LA is the epicenter right now [in] the struggle against fascism and the state violence. We had to come out and support here and show them that they're not alone.”

The event was organized by several San Francisco advocacy groups, including Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) Bay Area, Mission Action SF and United Educators SF.

Richard Becker, one of the organizers and PSL’s co-founders, told the crowd that the demonstration comes amid an “epic battle” with the Trump administration.

“And by epic battle, I mean a battle that is going to have consequences for many years, for a long time to come,” Baker said. “And you know that the Trump regime has a strategy to wear us down, to shock and awe, coming at us from so many different directions. That’s their idea, that we will give up and go home.“

“The people rising up is the only thing that’s going to stop them now,” he concluded.

As the thousands of marchers braved the June chill, they were being monitored from behind barricades by more than two dozen San Francisco Police Department officers by SFGATE's count. (SFPD declined to answer an SFGATE inquiry as to how many officers were stationed at the protest.) Organizers riding in a pickup truck led the crowd through the streets, shouting directions through megaphones.

“It’s important to speak up for our people, our family,” Christopher Rodriguez, a Bay Area resident, told SFGATE. “ … The people that can’t really speak up. We’re born here so we can do that for them.”

Among the attendees was Supervisor Jackie Fielder, whose district includes the Mission neighborhood where the rally was held. Fielder gave a speech at the BART Plaza before the crowd began its march up Mission Street, calling out local law enforcement for arresting more than 150 protesters Sunday night in downtown San Francisco. Around 400 people took to the streets Sunday, a small group of whom clashed with police.

“Arresting protesters doesn't protect communities. It punishes hope,” Fielder told the crowd on Monday. “That is all we have right now. San Francisco is a sanctuary city, and that has to mean something.”

As a sanctuary city, San Francisco can limit its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement; local police and city agencies are barred from helping ICE carry out arrests or detentions based solely on immigration status. But that hasn’t stopped federal agents from operating within city limits.

In recent weeks, ICE officers have made arrests directly at the San Francisco Immigration Court, detaining immigrants, including children as young as 3 years old, during asylum hearings and routine check-ins.

“We are a sanctuary city. But what does that mean exactly if the president can do whatever he feels like?” Christi Azevedo, a longtime San Francisco resident, told SFGATE during the mobilization on Mission Street.

Protesters also called out San Francisco politicians and urged the city to denounce the ICE raids and mass arrests. Organizers led a chant that called out Mayor Daniel Lurie specifically: “Mayor Lurie, let’s be clear! Immigrants are welcome here!”

In a Monday press conference, Lurie acknowledged the ICE raids and the protests in San Francisco, but said the city “will not tolerate violence and destructive behavior.”

Frank Lara, the executive vice president of the United Educators of San Francisco labor union, told SFGATE that he believes San Francisco leaders need to take the Trump administration’s “threat of rising fascism” seriously.

“If politicians claim that they want peace, then they need to really confront the Trump administration and the federal government,” Lara said. “[They] have to draw a line in saying we cannot witness the separation of families. It’s inhumane.”

Azevedo said she hopes San Francisco leaders and community members will continue to protest the anti-immigrant actions from the Trump administration.

“If anyone was going to take a stand, it's gonna be San Francisco,” she said. “ … I really hope that that's what happens now.”

In a statement to SFGATE, SFPD Strategic Communications Manager Mason Lee said the event was “overwhelmingly peaceful. At the very end of the night, two small groups broke off and committed vandalism and other criminal acts. SFPD developed and coordinated a plan to detain multiple individuals who refused to comply and made arrests, and one situation is currently being resolved.”

Around 8 p.m., after the nearly two-hour march up Mission Street from 24th Street to 16th Street, west to Valencia, and back down to 24th, protesters reconvened at the same 24th & Mission BART station where it all began. Roaring chants and drumbeats echoed still, as neighbors watched from their windows.

Inside a restaurant, workers watched the marchers pass by, pumping their fists in solidarity.

(SFGate.com)

National Guard machine gun nest, on the waterfront during the General Strike, San Francisco, CA, 1934, photo by Ernie Manzo, Jr.

WHY I'M GOING TO A ‘NO KINGS’ RALLY AGAINST TRUMP, AND YOU SHOULD TOO

by Anne Lamott

Usually when people announce, “Here’s the thing,” I want to ask, really? Did God stop by today with cheese danish for the both of you, to tell you what the thing was?

But here’s the thing: We’re going to need you this Saturday.

What is happening in Los Angeles with the National Guard is not simply President Trump’s brainstorm to move past the Musk scandal. It is the next step in his tryouts for autocracy.

On Saturday, Trump celebrates his birthday in Washington with a gigantic military parade, at an estimated cost of $45 million. He is a fun-loving guy. It’s “The Music Man” meets the National Day parade in Pyongyang.

So we need you to consider showing up at one of the “No Kings” protest rallies that are also being held Saturday all across America. I will be attending one, because it’s important and because it will do my hopeless heart good. It could do the same for you — lift you, remind you of who you are. You show up, we give you hope. It’s a great offer: When my grandson was little, and wanted something from me, he would put both hands on his hips, present a trade, glare fiercely, and say, “Deal?” So, deal?

We the people make the best placards — my favorites from the “Hands Off” march were “Honk if you never drunk-texted war plans” and “Now you’ve pissed off the grandmothers.” There will be the old songs of the civil rights movement and the protests that stopped the Vietnam War. It’s friendliness, right action and food trucks. Heaven.

Saturday is one week before the summer solstice, and this is how I am going to celebrate the last week of spring. I don’t approve of summer, all those mosquitoes and crop tops. If I were God, I would have skipped over it. But spring gives us green, growing, new life. Frogs start to sing again in the rains. They’ve been waiting, and all of a sudden they’re saying, I'm here, hydrated, and I'm going to tell you about it. Spring is new voices.

Winter came with MAGA. The next season will be about new leaders and orators who will emerge in this weekend’s rallies. We’ll be the frogs of springing.

People who say something can’t be done should get out of the way of the rest of us who are trying to do it.

I will celebrate the last week of spring with tens of thousands of people at the San Francisco Civic Center. Just ordinary citizens with a moral compass, we won’t have a plan or strategy to save this hurting nation, but we will show up heartsick, angry, peaceful and exuberant, the young and old, babies, the Gens X, Y and Z, people of every ethnicity, spiritual path and none at all. The love we have for this beautiful, beleaguered democratic nation will be our little light to see by, and shine.

Once a small group of people from my church, mostly old, were at a weekend retreat in the redwoods. At the end of an evening, it began to pour buckets of rain. They had to get back to their cabins in the darkness. They were OK until the lights of the retreat house faded; they were in the pitch dark. A narrow, precarious bridge separated them from their cabins, and they were afraid to cross it blind. But the youngest old man had a keychain with a tiny flashlight on it that gave off a thin beam of light, and so, holding on to each other's shoulders and waists, guided by the thin beam of the penlight, they crossed the bridge.

I wish all the people who will meet in my city could cry together for what has been destroyed and besmirched, all the people dying since Musk got USAID dismantled. But we liberals mostly don’t cry: We fret, like little children. At least, I do.

When infants discover those tiny fingers of theirs, they jiggle the fingertips of one hand against the other and look exactly as if they are knitting. This is exactly what we will be doing on Saturday: knitting a peaceful resistance to dictatorship, to the politics of cruelty.

Remember the old bumper sticker that said, “Democracy is a verb”?

One of the old women in the dark downpour at that retreat 40 years ago was Mary Williams. I was still drinking when we first met. She adored me despite my being a walking personality disorder. Her son was in prison, her health precarious, and she was poor, but when she was sad, she always told me, no matter how dark her life, “Annie, I know my change is gonna come.” And it would.

I lived on a tiny houseboat and had almost no money; Mary lived in the projects. She would bring me little baggies full of dimes, sealed with twist ties. I got sober, and then had a baby, without a husband or a steady income. But whenever life felt too hard, I’d see or remember Mary at the altar, sharing her hardships and pain, announcing, “But I know my change is gonna come.” It always did: a second wind, a visit from an old friend.

When my baby was 3, a book of mine took off unexpectedly, and I explained to Mary that we were doing better now. But she still brought me those baggies. She knew I didn’t need the money, but that I needed the dimes.

I am looking at one of those bags on my bookshelf now — I’ve saved it all these years — and man, do I need the dimes more than ever — faith, love, hope; good people. Our change is gonna come, maybe not next Thursday right after lunch, but it will, if we stick together, don’t give up, and keep taking the next right action. Remembering this will be the gift of Saturday’s protest march. So here’s the thing: You who are terrified, sad, exhausted and just plain gobsmacked? Maybe show up on Saturday. Come democracy with us.

(Anne Lamott, an author of fiction and nonfiction, lives in Marin County. Her latest book is “Somehow: Thoughts on Love.” X: @annelamott)

BILLS INTRODUCED IN US HOUSE WILL END OFFSHORE DRILLING PROTECTIONS

by Mary Benjamin

A Federal Congressional bill targeting the reversal of offshore drilling protections, first introduced by U.S. Rep. Higgins (LA) on January 16, 2025, had its first hearing before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on May 20. 2025.

The bill was proposed on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which is interested in opening areas along the California coast to new offshore drilling. The bill includes the U.S. coastline areas and the Gulf of Mexico, which currently have protection from oil drilling under a January 6, 2025, Presidential Memorandum signed by President Joe Biden.

Biden’s protection order included approximately 650 million acres of Outer Continental Shelf lands in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Alaskan planning areas. The memoranda cited environmental and climate concerns. Biden’s authority came from the terms in the Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953.

At the time of Biden’s action, U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman described the memoranda as “Trump-proof.” In previous legal challenges, courts have ruled that a president has no power to reverse a preceding president’s order protecting ocean waters.

On January 20, 2025, after his election in 2024, President Trump revoked the Biden memoranda. Without the legal authority to do so, Congressional representatives in favor of increased offshore drilling put together a bill that would give the President, with the approval of Congress, the authority to reverse protections still in place.

Representative Higgins’ proposed bill, HR 513, the Offshore Land Authorities Act, would nullify all eight of the areas locked from oil and gas leasing programs by both Obama and Biden during their presidencies. The Act would also limit the size of future presidential leasing withdrawals and ensure that each withdrawal lasts no more than 20 years.

Currently, the Mendocino coastline is not a designated marine sanctuary that would protect the ocean waters from being opened to offshore drilling. Investors have had a long-term interest in offshore drilling north of Point Arena. For more than three decades, Northern California citizens’ battles against the federal government’s desire to open leasing permits have held off offshore leasing for gas and oil.

The Act also mandates that geological, economic, and national security assessments occur before the president approves any withdrawal. It requires that withdrawals be submitted to an expedited Congressional review process to ensure that the withdrawal aligns with the new Five-Year Oil and Gas Leasing Programs.

Rep. Higgins spoke on behalf of his bill by stressing that “America must be a global leader in energy production.” He charged Democrats with “trying to align the federal government with groups against gas and oil mining and potential development.”

He claimed that “lockdowns shift energy production to overseas producers, raise energy costs for Americans, and threaten jobs and economic growth domestically.”

He also said that he wanted to codify Trump’s order to open all lands and give Congress more control over the continental shelf.

“The leasing process,” he said, “needs stability.” He referred to the effects of Biden’s actions on the energy industry as a “radical pendulum swing.” He was describing the industry’s belief that uncontrolled and permanent leasing lockdowns make it difficult to develop long-range plans involving the expense of exploration in new areas.

A companion bill, HR 2556 CORE Act, introduced by Rep. Hunt (TX), would direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to conduct resource mapping every five years on the continental shelves to determine better leasing opportunities by including seismic testing in areas as yet unexplored.

Although there has been no announcement of any further subcommittee or full committee hearings, it appears that the Republican controlled Committee of National Resources, chaired by Rep. Westerman (AR), plans to bring the two bills to the House floor. However, the bills may undergo rewrites, and time for public comment must be provided.

Both Committee Chair Westerman and Subcommittee Chair Stauber strongly favored the two bills. Rep. Westerman saw the bills as necessary for “long-term American energy dominance to meet the terms of security.” He also cited “rocketing energy demands.”

Rep. Stauber described the bills as “central not only for our energy security but for our strategic national security.” Referencing a Biden-era presidential lockdown of the copper and nickel Duluth Complex in his home state of Minnesota, he charged that the Biden administration’s energy lockups have “cost Americans thousands of good-paying, often union jobs that are economic drivers in our respective communities.”

Dr. Walter Cruickshank, the Acting Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), testified that his agency’s responsibility is to manage offshore energy and mineral “resources in an economically and environmentally responsible manner” and that “production is a vital component of American security and prosperity.”

BOEM is an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. Cruickshank stated that his job would be to “fulfill Trump’s order on energy production” and, every five years, “evaluate undiscovered gas and oil deposits.” He commented that the main federal government interest in new drilling seemed to be the Gulf of Mexico and northern Alaska.

Doug Helton, formerly the NOAA Regional Operations Supervisor of the Emergency Response Division, testified in opposition to the two bills based on his deep knowledge of the complexity of oil spill cleanup. He said his section deals with approximately 150 oil spills a year.

Helton stressed, “Increasing oil operations increases risks and recent cutbacks limit the ability to respond.” He was particularly critical of the desire to pursue offshore drilling off the northern coast of Alaska. He noted that the rugged north Alaskan landscape makes it difficult to quickly move response resources.

He also cited the lack of shelter for oil spill workers and noted that the National Weather Service no longer provides weather reports for the northern tip of Alaska. He advised that oil spills “tend to cause irreversible harm.”

As an example, he said that the Deep Horizon leak in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a response team of 45,000 people. The end result was that very little oil was ever recovered. Given that Alaska is prone to earthquakes, he said that seismic testing “was risky.”

Others who testified represented the oil industry and stressed the importance of the added jobs that new leases would provide. The witnesses also emphasized the need for stability in the leasing programs so the industry could determine future investments without the concern of unanticipated lockdowns.

Democratic responses at the subcommittee hearing raised concerns about the danger of oil spills, the risks of seismic testing, and the counter that the United States does not have an oil emergency to warrant more oil and gas leases. Rep. Ansari (AZ) noted that oil companies already held about 2,000 unused lease permits.

She also questioned the continued viability of mandated offshore drilling safety checks by NOAA when more than 2,000 employees have recently left the agency due to DOGE cuts.

Another Democrat, Rep. Pallone (NJ), noted how unpopular offshore drilling is, adding that the possibility of seismic testing or production was “extremely alarming to me and my constituents.”

Sub Chairman Stauber responded that the real danger lay in allowing ocean areas to be set aside permanently. However, the chair had earlier noted that fulfilling Trump’s desire for many more new leasing areas was also a critical element in the two bills.

To make a public comment before the June 16, 2025, deadline, go to: savemycoast.org and scroll down to the link to submit your thoughts. By U.S. Mail, address your envelope “Comments for the 11th National OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program to: Ms. Kelly Hammerle, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (VAM-LD), 45600 Woodland Road, Sterling, VA 20166-9126. Check the website for advice on writing effective comments.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, June 10, 2025

SEAN ANDRADE, 40, Livermore/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DANIELLE ARCENEAUX, 28, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

DAVID BURNS, 56, Mendocino. DUI-any drug, addict driving, parole violation.

SAYSOMONE MANYPHONE, 39, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

STEVEN NOVOA, 44, Ukiah. Probation revocation, resisting.

WILLIAM OWENS, 36, Ukiah. Parole violation.

MANUEL RAMIREZ, 33, Redwood Valley. DUI with priors, suspended license for DUI.

THEODORE SCHREINER, 41, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Domestic battery, paraphernalia.

MARK SILVA, 60, Hopland. Controlled substance, disorderly conduct-alcohol, bringing controlled substance into jail.

BRING CRAIG HOME!

Can I Get Some Cooperation to Return to Northern California?

Just sitting here on a public computer at the Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library in Washington, D.C. Spent the earlier part of the day at the William R. Thomas Memorial Anti-Nuclear Vigil across from the White House, in Lafayette Park. Many tourists come by to chat and take photos. As ever, my emphasis is on practicing spiritually together and thus realizing the Oneness, and then civil harmony may be achieved. There isn’t any other “solution”; whether it is the middle east conflicts, global climate destabilization, economic chaos, or the general absurdity of postmodernism, which does not even have a spiritual purpose! How more profoundly stupid can it get, than the current situation in the American experiment with freedom and democracy? I am ready to leave the homeless shelter in Washington, D.C., having no further reason to be there. Got housing? Can I get some cooperation to get the hell out of Chocolate City, and return to northern California? Thank you.

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

THE MOVEMENT AND THE "MADMAN" on KQED, Friday, June 13, 9pm

KQED, in their infinite wisdom (thanks to programmer Meredith Speight), has scheduled a re-broadcast of our film this Friday, June 13, at 9pm. Prime time on Channel 9.

As a bonus they are also re-airing a good companion film, "The Boys Who Said No!," right before at 8pm.

Spread the word!

Consider this a warm-up to the nationwide anti-trump protest marches on Saturday, June 14.

P.S. As most of you know by now, PBS has made our film a free offering now online.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/movement-and-madman

And let's all help our PBS and NPR in this time of crisis:
https://protectmypublicmedia.org

Stephen Talbot, Producer and Director
The Movement and the "Madman"
https://www.movementandthemadman.com

IT'S GETTING LATE

Editor:

The news from Washington gets worse by the day. Our democracy is getting ripped out from under us by Donald Trump and his administration. I worry that it may take years to repair the incredible damage being done.

But will we even be able to recover from the damage Trump is doing to our climate with his allegiance to coal and other fossil fuels? Our ice caps will be gone, forests devastated by droughts and wildfires, animal species lost because habitats have been destroyed. Trump is also dismantling Joe Biden’s legacy of beneficial, critical climate programs.

Climate scientists have been warning us for several years that we are close to a tipping point. Yes, we can rebuild cities destroyed by wildfires or floods. But we can’t bring back the ice caps or rain forests. We can’t bring back extinct species. And we can only grieve for the people throughout the world losing their lives from famines. So as we fight for democracy, we have no choice. We have to fight for the planet as well.

Paula Fogarty

Santa Rosa

GIANTS PULL OFF COMEBACK vs. Rockies, earn sixth straight one-run win streak to six

by Susan Slusser

San Francisco Giants' Willy Adames strikes out against Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Seth Halvorsen in the seventh inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER — With third baseman Matt Chapman potentially out for several weeks or more with a sprained right hand, the San Francisco Giants will need others to pick up the slack.

The ideal person to respond to the challenge would be shortstop Willy Adames, off to a dreadful start to his Giants career after signing a seven-year, $182 million deal with the team. Tuesday, Adames snapped an 0-for-19 streak with a solo homer in the fifth and also drove in San Francisco’s first run with a sacrifice fly. And then the rest of the club went to work with yet another late comeback and another one-run win, 6-5 to extend their winning streak to six.‘

“Without Chappy, basically the biggest piece of the lineup, we have to grind and keep doing our best and obviously try to continue what we’re doing.” Adames said. “We showed up with the right mentality and you know we’re going to have his back, and when he comes back, we’re going to come back. When he comes back, you know it’s going to be over.”

The Giants’ 19 comeback wins inched them up to a half-game behind the division-leading Dodgers. The teams play three games in Los Angeles starting Friday.

Casey Schmitt, who will fill in for Chapman at third, smacked his first homer of the season on the first pitch of the ninth from Colorado closer Zach Agnos. Agnos then walked three — including backup catcher Andrew Knizner, who found out he was playing less than an hour before the game — and Heliot Ramos hit a sacrifice fly. Next came one of the more unexpected RBIs of Wilmer Flores’ productive career, a two-out swinging bunt that brought home Jung Hoo Lee as Flores, a ponderous runner, somehow beat the throw to first after a 49.3 mph tapper (that had a launch angle of minus-72!).

“That was very unusual for me,” Flores said with a grin. “But as soon as I hit it, I gave it all I had. … I’m not very fast but I could smell it with the tying run at third. I had to go all in.”

“I knew he was going to go 200% and I was sad I couldn’t see it,” said Adames, who was on base. “It would have been funny to see him run, but I’ll go and watch the video and give him crap tomorrow.”

Mike Yastrzemski, who had pinch hit in the eighth, drilled the go-ahead single, scoring Adames.

“Obviously, Yaz with a huge hit. … We’re going to need contributions from everybody,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Knizner’s at-bat was huge, drawing a walk after being called upon an hour before the game. A lot of good things happened in that last inning where, earlier in the game, not so much.”

Adames got his first day off on Sunday and he said it did help. “It was good for the body and the mind to relax,” he said. “I love to be out there every day and compete, but BoMel has been telling me, You need to take a day off!’”

With a 3-1 count, facing Carson Palmquist, Adames dialed in a little bit to that clearing-the-mind space and took a timeout “just to breathe,” he said. “It worked.” The next pitch, he hit out of the park.

The Giants have played eight one-run games in a row and their six one-run wins in a row is the longest such stretch in franchise history, eclipsing a five-game streak in June, 1998. The last team to win six one-run games in a row was the 1989 California Angels (July 18-24).

Camilo Doval closed it out for the Giants. After allowing a leadoff single by Orlando Arcia, he got Jordan Beck to hit into a double play, started by Schmitt and concluded with slick work at first by Dominic Smith. Doval walked Sam Hilliard and allowed a bloop single by Hunter Goodman before getting former Giants second baseman Thairo Estrada to pop up to end the game.

Colorado came into the game with the worst record through 65 games in major-league history, tied with the 1932 Red Sox with a 12-53 record. The Rockies got two solo homers and an RBI single off starter Kyle Harrison.

“Three runs after five innings in this ballpark is not the worst thing in the world,” Melvin said.

Harrison, working in Justin Verlander’s rotation spot as Verlander tries making his way back from a pectoral muscle strain, has allowed eight runs over his past two outings and nine innings. He’ll get at least one more start, at Los Angeles on Sunday it appears, with Verlander pointed toward the next homestand.

Spencer Bivens allowed two runs in the eighth after two scoreless innings. Melvin said, “I should had done something else (in Bivens’) last inning, I should have gone somewhere else instead. I pushed him for a third inning.”

Adames’ sacrifice fly in the first came after Lee, back in the leadoff spot, started the game with a triple off lefty Palmquist. Ramos, often the leadoff man this season, moved down to third with the Giants needing some more production in the heart of the order while Chapman, the cleanup hitter, is on the IL.

The Giants were without Patrick Bailey on Tuesday; the Gold Glove catcher was scratched with neck spasms and Knizner started in his place.

(sfchronicle.com)

A NEW TWIST IN THE SAGA OF SAN FRANCISCO'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL MONUMENT

by Amanda Bartlett

Over the past 55 years, San Francisco’s hotly contested Vaillancourt Fountain has been given a laundry list of monikers.

An aerial view of Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco on April 10, 2025. (Anadolu/Anadolu via Getty Images)

When the 710-ton sculpture made its debut in 1971, it had the unofficial title “Québec libre!” — or “Free Quebec” — a reference to the sovereignty movement in the Canadian province from which its creator, Armand Vaillancourt, hailed. Not long after its installation, the Chronicle’s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Allan Temko famously disparaged it as “several tons of almost incredibly ugly, brutal, pretentiously simple-minded and literally insipid concrete blocks.” Decades later, the piece is still a point of controversy. When the city did not include the work of art in renderings of a new $30 million Embarcadero Plaza park last month, the sculptor, now 95, made the six-hour flight to San Francisco, calling for it to be saved as a legion of supporters described it as “a piece of San Francisco’s cultural identity” and “a true icon of civic space.”

Now, city officials are deeming it a public safety hazard.

On Monday morning, a new fence encircled the 40-foot-tall fountain and is slated to remain there indefinitely after the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department reviewed “a series of routine technical reports as part of early planning” for the new park, spokesperson Tamara Aparton told SFGATE. One independent assessment issued by architecture firm Page & Turnbull, “which came in last week, raised immediate concerns,” she said.

Vaillancourt Fountain, created in 1971, is seen with the Ferry Building in the background.

The 122-page report found the sculpture contained lead and asbestos, and parts of it were “cracked, corroded, or missing, including a key support rod in one arm.” That doesn’t include the failing pump, which has left the fountain dry for the past year. Meanwhile, stress cracking in the concrete and other damage to the embedded steel reinforcements would likely prevent the fountain from being able to support itself and resist the force of potential earthquakes, the report found — issues that could be exacerbated by the bay mud foundation lying beneath the sculpture. Aparton previously told SFGATE the cost to maintain the fountain was $100,000 per year, and the system sustained persistent leaks and drainage failures that made upkeep “especially complex and labor-intensive.”

People will still be able to see the fountain — the 42-inch ClearVu fence, an extension of an existing 72-inch barrier behind the public art, was chosen by the parks department because it’s “low-profile” but still “clear for viewing,” Aparton said. But the goal is to prevent visitors from being able to climb on or come in close contact with the landmark while officials assess its long-term future.

People play on padel courts at Park Padel next to the Vaillancourt Fountain with the San Francisco Ferry Building in the background at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco on Feb. 13, 2024.

“The piece was designed to be interactive,” Aparton said. “People were encouraged to walk through it and engage with the sculpture. That’s clearly no longer safe.”

The fountain falls under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Arts Commission as part of the Civic Art Collection, and director of communications Coma Te told SFGATE the commission “supports Rec and Parks’ decision to secure the area as they work to complete planning and design work for the plaza.” Whether the fountain will stay or go is dependent on future public hearings held by the commission, as well as a review by its visual arts committee.

But in spite of growing support — a recent Change.org petition has amassed over 2,600 signatures in favor of preserving the fountain — Aparton said it would be “a very expensive and hazardous endeavor,” one she estimates could cost between $12 million and $17 million.

WOOF WOOF

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Governor Gavin Newsom [yesterday] sued President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth in response to their orders seeking to federalize the California National Guard for 60 days under 10 U.S.C. § 12406. In the early hours of Sunday morning, the U.S. Department of Defense, at the direction of the President, redirected hundreds of National Guard troops from San Diego to Los Angeles, without authorization from the Governor and against the wishes of local law enforcement. In total, the Department intends to deploy 2,000 troops from across the state, an inflammatory escalation unsupported by conditions on the ground. In a lawsuit being filed [yesterday], Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom will ask the court to hold unlawful and set aside the President’s order federalizing the National Guard by way of a rarely used law, arguing that such action exceeds the federal government’s authority under the law and violates the Tenth Amendment.

“President Trump’s order calling federalized National Guard troops into Los Angeles – over the objections of the Governor and local law enforcement – is unnecessary and counterproductive. It’s also deeply unfair to the members of the National Guard who are hard at work every day protecting our state, preparing for and responding to emergencies, and training so that, if called, they can fight our nation’s wars,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the President’s authority under the law – and not one we take lightly. We’re asking a court to put a stop to the unlawful, unprecedented order.”

“Donald Trump is creating fear and terror by failing to adhere to the U.S. Constitution and overstepping his authority. This is a manufactured crisis to allow him to take over a state militia, damaging the very foundation of our republic,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “Every governor, red or blue, should reject this outrageous overreach. This is beyond incompetence — this is him intentionally causing chaos, terrorizing communities, and endangering the principles of our great democracy. It is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism. We will not let this stand.”

On Friday and Saturday, June 6 and 7, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted multiple immigration raids in downtown Los Angeles. These raids were met with multiple protests. Following threats to send in the National Guard from several Trump Administration officials, on the evening of June 7, President Trump issued a formal memorandum entitled “Department of Defense Security for the Protection of Department of Homeland Security Functions,” purporting to authorize the Department of Defense to call up 2,000 California National Guard personnel into federal service for a period of 60 days. In implementing this directive, the Department of Defense circumvented authorization from the Governor and began deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles over the objections of local law enforcement actively on the ground. Notably, by the time the National Guard arrived Sunday morning, the protests had dissipated and streets were quiet, but soon after the National Guard arrived, tensions reignited, leading to the very sort of unrest the National Guard was supposedly sent in to quell. Concerningly, President Trump has already made clear his intention to expand the use of these National Guard troops to conduct interior civil immigration enforcement activities normally conducted by civil immigration law enforcement officers, creating fear and terror in California communities.

President Trump’s unprecedented order attempts to usurp state authority and resources via 10 U.S.C. § 12406, a statute that has been invoked on its own only once before in modern history and for highly unusual circumstances — when President Richard Nixon called upon the National Guard to deliver the mail during the 1970 Postal Service Strike. This is also the first time since 1965 — when President Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators — that a president has activated a state’s National Guard without a request from the state’s governor. Here, Governor Newsom did not request that the state’s National Guard be federalized, as local authorities were managing the situation on the ground, and openly expressed concern that bringing in the National Guard could inflame the situation. After the President plowed ahead with his order, the Governor sent a letter to Secretary Hegseth requesting that the Department of Defense rescind its unlawful deployment of troops in the state and return them to his command.

In a lawsuit…filed [yesterday], Attorney General Bonta and Governor Newsom will ask the court to hold that the President and Department of Defense’s orders federalizing the California National Guard are unlawful, arguing that:

The federalization of the California National Guard deprives California of resources to protect itself and its citizens, and of critical responders in the event of a state emergency.
10 U.S.C. 12406 requires that the Governor consent to federalization of the National Guard, which Governor Newsom was not given the opportunity to do prior to their deployment.
The President’s unlawful order infringes on Governor Newsom’s role as Commander-in-Chief of the California National Guard and violates the state’s sovereign right to control and have available its National Guard in the absence of a lawful invocation of federal power.

1929 - Triangle Pharmacy, located on the corner of Washington and Hoover, Los Angeles. Get weighed, get your fortune, get gum, pick up a newspaper!

ON TRUMP’S DEPLOYMENT OF TROOPS TO CALIFORNIA

by Bernie Sanders

Let’s be clear: Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in California is not about the protests there, ICE, or immigration. It is about using extremely dubious legal authority to expand his never-ending grasp for more power and his effort to move this country toward authoritarianism. This is a president who has usurped the constitutional responsibilities of Congress; threatened to impeach judges who rule against his policies; sued media that criticize him; extorted money from law firms that have represented his opponents; and is withholding funds from universities for teaching courses he doesn’t like.

In our federalist form of government, it is the governor of a state who deploys the National Guard — not the president of the United States. It is absurd and laughable for the Trump administration to argue that they needed to mobilize the National Guard because of a threat from a “foreign invasion” or “rebellion” against the United States. This is just another example of Trump wanting more power for himself and ignoring the law. All Americans – Democrats, Republicans, independents – must stand together against this gross abuse of power.

TO THE TUNE OF AUDREY HEPBURN

Chopped Liver

Fine as your paté

And yet there is no way

To win

We’re after the same

Gourmet cred

On a slice of bread

An underrated spread

Chopped Liver

That’s me.

— Fred Gardner

“FOR NEARLY FOUR YEARS you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.”

— Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1936

LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

Cities Across U.S. Brace for Protests as Marines Prepare to Deploy in L.A.

Texas Governor Will Deploy National Guard to Immigration Protests

Norton, D.C.’s Stalwart in Congress, Clings to Seat Amid Signs of Decline

Southern Baptists Endorse Effort to Overturn Same-Sex Marriage

‘We’re Just Speechless’: Austria Mourns After Deadly School Rampage

K-Pop Fans’ Wait Is Almost Over as BTS Members Leave the Army

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Face it, America has a dark, sick soul, represented by the darkest and sickest soul ever elected President. Does it matter if one resists or protests? Probably not, because the dark soulless sickness is the personality of most of America. Anti-Trump and anti-MAGA's will need to keep their own company. We are outsiders, and while protests and resistance won't do much good, we need to live in a separate society, either formally or informally. We need to accept the permanent division in America and adjust accordingly.

THE ‘MOSTLY PEACEFUL’ REVOLUTION

The Los Angeles riots are reviving the revolting homages to Marx and socialist revolution that helped elect Donald Trump in the first place

by Matt Taibbi

Almost exactly five years ago, on June 6th, 2020, protests erupted in Britain after the killing of George Floyd. Thousands hit the streets in London, Manchester, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, and Bristol, in demonstrations that included toppling statues, blocking the M6 freeway, and in London, hurling flares and rolling bicycles at police. The BBC headline described “largely peaceful” protests.

“Mostly peaceful protest” didn’t enter the cultural lexicon as an iconic media absurdity until months later, when poor CNN reporter Omar Jimenez did a standup in front of a burning building above the immortal chyron, “FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING.” CNN posterized Jimenez twice, as he was also onscreen with Wolf Blitzer when the word “violent” disappeared from a tagline mid-broadcast. Most mainstream observers defended the oxymoronic approach, hailing a September 2020 study that mathematically characterized the mostly-peacefulness of that summer’s protests (93%!) while arguing the public should be focused on greater violence-s of racism, colonialism, police brutality, etc.

The current Los Angeles riots have revived “mostly peaceful” in a big way. American officials and commentators are avoiding the infamous “mostly” construction and returning with “largely peaceful” (New York Times), “overwhelmingly peaceful” (a rebranded “Kamala D. Harris”) or just “peaceful protests” (Cory Booker). Go overseas, though, or down a peg to the don’t-give-a-damn tier of propagandists, and you’ll see “mostly peaceful” back word-for-word.

This episode’s coverage hysterics have somehow already lapped the Summer of Floyd. Once again, the public is being trained in distinctions between illegitimate and legitimate protest, regressive force versus righteous resistance. You can agree with it or not, but anyone who’s been to college knows what this is, and we should stop trying to hide it.…

https://www.racket.news/p/the-mostly-peaceful-revolution

Serra Pelada Gold Mine, Brazil, 1986 (Sebastião Salgado)

GENOCIDE BY STARVATION

by Chris Hedges

This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most. Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air. Dozens are killed and wounded daily from Israeli shells, missiles, drones, bombs and bullets. They lack clean water, medicine and food. They have reached a point of collapse. Sick. Injured. Terrified. Humiliated. Abandoned. Destitute. Starving. Hopeless.

In the last pages of this horror story, Israel is sadistically baiting starving Palestinians with promises of food, luring them to the narrow and congested nine-mile ribbon of land that borders Egypt. Israel and its cynically named Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), allegedly funded by Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the Mossad, is weaponizing starvation. It is enticing Palestinians to southern Gaza the way the Nazis enticed starving Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto to board trains to the death camps. The goal is not to feed the Palestinians. No one seriously argues there is enough food or aid hubs. The goal is to cram Palestinians into heavily guarded compounds and deport them.

What comes next? I long ago stopped trying to predict the future. Fate has a way of surprising us. But there will be a final humanitarian explosion in Gaza’s human slaughterhouse. We see it with the surging crowds of Palestinians fighting to get a food parcel, which has resulted in Israeli and U.S. private contractors shooting dead at least 130 and wounding over seven hundred others in the first eight days of aid distribution. We see it with Benjamin Netanyahu’s arming ISIS-linked gangs in Gaza that loot food supplies. Israel, which has eliminated hundreds of employees with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), doctors, journalists, civil servants and police in targeted assassinations, has orchestrated the implosion of civil society.

I suspect Israel will facilitate a breach in the fence along the Egyptian border. Desperate Palestinians will stampede into the Egyptian Sinai. Maybe it will end some other way. But it will end soon. There is not much more Palestinians can take.

We — full participants in this genocide — will have achieved our demented goal of emptying Gaza and expanding Greater Israel. We will bring down the curtain on the live-streamed genocide. We will have mocked the ubiquitous university programs of Holocaust studies, designed, it turns out, not to equip us to end genocides, but deify Israel as an eternal victim licensed to carry out mass slaughter. The mantra of never again is a joke. The understanding that when we have the capacity to halt genocide and we do not, we are culpable, does not apply to us. Genocide is public policy. Endorsed and sustained by our two ruling parties.

There is nothing left to say. Maybe that is the point. To render us speechless. Who does not feel paralyzed? And maybe, that too, is the point. To paralyze us. Who is not traumatized? And maybe that too was planned. Nothing we do, it seems, can halt the killing. We feel defenseless. We feel helpless. Genocide as spectacle.

I have stopped looking at the images. The rows of little shrouded bodies. The decapitated men and women. Families burned alive in their tents. The children who have lost limbs or are paralyzed. The chalky death masks of those pulled from under the rubble. The wails of grief. The emaciated faces. I can’t.

This genocide will haunt us. It will echo down history with the force of a tsunami. It will divide us forever. There is no going back.

And how will we remember? By not remembering.

Once it is over, all those who supported it, all those who ignored it, all those who did nothing, will rewrite history, including their personal history. It was hard to find anyone who admitted to being a Nazi in post-war Germany, or a member of the Klu Klux Klan once segregation in the southern United States ended. A nation of innocents. Victims even. It will be the same. We like to think we would have saved Anne Frank. The truth is different. The truth is, crippled by fear, nearly all of us will only save ourselves, even at the expense of others. But that is a truth that is hard to face. That is the real lesson of the Holocaust. Better it be erased.

In his book “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” Omar El Akkad writes:

Should a drone vaporize some nameless soul on the other side of the planet, who among us wants to make a fuss? What if it turns out they were a terrorist? What if the default accusation proves true, and we by implication be labeled terrorist sympathizers, ostracized, yelled at? It is generally the case that people are most zealously motivated by the worst plausible thing that could happen to them. For some, the worst plausible thing might be the ending of their bloodline in a missile strike. Their entire lives turned to rubble and all of it preemptively justified in the name of fighting terrorists who are terrorists by default on account of having been killed. For others, the worst plausible thing is being yelled at.

You can see my interview with El Akkad here.

You cannot decimate a people, carry out saturation bombing over 20 months to obliterate their homes, villages and cities, massacre tens of thousands of innocent people, set up a siege to ensure mass starvation, drive them from land where they have lived for centuries and not expect blowback. The genocide will end. The response to the reign of state terror will begin. If you think it won’t you know nothing about human nature or history. The killing of two Israeli diplomats in Washington and the attack against supporters of Israel at a protest in Boulder, Colorado, are only the start.

Chaim Engel, who took part in the uprising at the Nazis’ Sobibor death campin Poland, described how, armed with a knife, he attacked a guard in the camp.

“It’s not a decision,” Engel explained years later. “You just react, instinctively you react to that, and I figured, ‘Let us to do, and go and do it.’ And I went. I went with the man in the office and we killed this German. With every jab, I said, ‘That is for my father, for my mother, for all these people, all the Jews you killed.’”

Does anyone expect Palestinians to act differently? How are they to react when Europe and the United States, who hold themselves up as the vanguards of civilization, backed a genocide that butchered their parents, their children, their communities, occupied their land and blasted their cities and homes into rubble? How can they not hate those who did this to them?

What message has this genocide imparted not only to Palestinians, but to all in the Global South?

It is unequivocal. You do not matter. Humanitarian law does not apply to you. We do not care about your suffering, the murder of your children. You are vermin. You are worthless. You deserve to be killed, starved and dispossessed. You should be erased from the face of the earth.

“To preserve the values of the civilized world, it is necessary to set fire to a library,” El Akkad writes:

To blow up a mosque. To incinerate olive trees. To dress up in the lingerie of women who fled and then take pictures. To level universities. To loot jewelry, art, food. Banks. To arrest children for picking vegetables. To shoot children for throwing stones. To parade the captured in their underwear. To break a man’s teeth and shove a toilet brush in his mouth. To let combat dogs loose on a man with Down syndrome and then leave him to die. Otherwise, the uncivilized world might win.

There are people I have known for years who I will never speak to again. They know what is happening. Who does not know? They will not risk alienating their colleagues, being smeared as an antisemite, jeopardizing their status, being reprimanded or losing their jobs. They do not risk death, the way Palestinians do. They risk tarnishing the pathetic monuments of status and wealth they spent their lives constructing. Idols. They bow down before these idols. They worship these idols. They are enslaved by them.

At the feet of these idols lie tens of thousands of murdered Palestinians.

(Chris Hedges is the former Pulitzer Prize–winning Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times. An Arabic speaker, he spent seven years covering the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, much of that time in Gaza. Author of 14 books, his most recent are The Greatest Evil Is War and A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine.)

1976: Windows On The World Restaurant, World Trade Center, New York (Ezra Stoller)

INCREASE CIVIC SELF-RESPECT & BE HAPPIER

by Ralph Nader

A good way to understand Civic Self-Respect – the title of my timely new book – is to recall a slice of American history from the late nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies. Those were the years when Congress and a Republican President, Richard Nixon, produced many laws strongly opposed by corporate lobbyists that protected the health, safety, and economic well-being of the American people. That was a miraculous time when Big Business lost again and again to the interests of the People. How did this happen?

People with civic self-respect generated a focused and significant RUMBLE felt all the way to Congress and the White House. By my estimate, this civic outpouring was produced by less than one percent of the voters representing a growing majority public opinion and backed by D.C.-based full-time citizen advocates, who knew what they were talking about, and successfully pushed corporate accountability legislation. The mass media had enough civic self-respect to cover this important work.

In 1966 the motor-vehicle and highway safety bills – never given a chance a year earlier – passed almost unanimously and were signed with a flourish by President Lyndon Johnson, advised by his special assistant Joe Califano.

Then in the succeeding eight years, Congress passed the Flammable Fabrics, Gas Pipeline and Product Safety Laws. They broke through industry opposition to enact the fundamental air and water pollution laws, create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Safe Drinking Water and Freedom of Information Acts.

Such was the rumble from the people, as on Earth Day 1970, with millions of Americans turned out to specifically demand passage of life-saving measures amidst choking air pollution and rivers that would catch on fire!

Letters and telephone calls would pour into congressional offices. In one battle to block a Congressional Pay Hike, talk radio generated literally millions of calls to block this greedy amendment. Listener communications to members of Congress were more serious than the short emails of today.

National television shows would feature leading citizen advocates making their case before many millions of viewers. Today the Sunday morning interview shows like NBC’s Meet the Press and Face the Nation rarely feature citizen advocates.

Fast forward to today. Most of the daily talk radio shows have disappeared and the surviving ones are hosted by grossly right-wing ideologues blaring forth, as the late Rush Limbaugh did with his daily soliloquies.

There are no more Phil Donahue-like Shows (10 million viewers) to showcase oncoming major movements of dissent for a more just America. Such shows are needed now more than ever because of the way Trump has soiled the White House.

The nightly TV news hosts interviewed citizen leaders. Not today. Even PBS and NPR hardly open their public airwaves to such doers.

What all this comes down to is that the civic self-respect at the top has diminished greatly allowing commercialism to run rampant. People striving to better their communities and country are virtually shut out from the public airwaves and cable programs and are polluted by often sleazy, deceptive ads taking up more air time than ever.

The major print media is not much better. Groups like Public Citizen, Common Cause, People for the American Way, Center for Auto Safety, and Center for Science in the Public Interest are of little interest to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. All three of these major original print publications once had enough civic self-respect to make Congress pay attention to the reports, testimonies, and lobbying by these and other civic institutions.

Which brings me to my book that argues the critical reservoir of any democracy capable of resisting insatiable corporate power requires civic self-respect. The foundation for this essential element of our democracy starts with “the ordinary” or “regular American.”

Several ordinary people prompted me to write this book – both because of their extraordinary successes. Another motivation was the majority of people who have given up on themselves, thinking they don’t matter or count in the public arenas of decision-making. Some would even refer to themselves as “I’m a Nobody.”

NOBODY IS A NOBODY!

Dropping out of democracy by people whose qualities and numbers can make decided differences in the livelihoods of the many has always sparked my curiosity. Too many people don’t know that it rarely takes more than one percent of the people getting active on behalf of the majority of their fellow Americans to break through. (See, Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State, Nation Books, 2014; and Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think, City Lights Books, 2016).

The decline in the teaching of civics in elementary and high school has also taken a toll on our society. Civic role models are barely mentioned, as the curriculum becomes more commercially computerized and standardized.

I made this book very personal so that readers can identify their own potential for wrapping civic awareness and activity around their daily roles. Thus, the chapter titles – I, the Citizen; I, the Worker; I, the Consumer-Shopper; I, the Taxpayer; I, the Voter; I, the Parent; I, the Veteran; I, the Philanthropist.

It is surprisingly easy to improve how you exercise these roles for yourself when you develop a modest civic framework. For example: you’re a parent. Your offspring will benefit when you join with other parents to reinstate physical education and practical civic education in your school’s curriculum.

You’re a consumer/shopper, you save money and purchase better products by connecting with Consumer Reports and reading their ratings and recommendations or by learning more about nutrition to enhance the health and vigor of your family and close friends.

You’re a voter. How about becoming a more demanding, smart voter – not a voter vulnerable to phony political ads, but a voter who questions a candidate’s record and paymasters, and insists on your lawmakers respecting your sovereign power by appearing personally at town meetings of your creation. As Cicero once said, “Freedom is participation in power.” Freedom is also happiness. It’s also more fun than feeling you don’t matter.

With your moral authority galvanized, you can challenge those having power or celebrity status to show more of their civic self-respect. Professional athletes, entertainers, and their owner corporate executives rake in big money with their gouging ticket prices. Take them on!

Trump is pressing to destroy the work of our former presidents – George W. Bush (his AIDS medicine program abroad); Bill Clinton; Barack Obama (Obamacare); and Joe Biden (his public works and renewable energy outlays). Why aren’t they speaking out forcefully to their legions of supporters and launching more civic organizations to block Tyrant Trump and pushing members of Congress to stop Dangerous Donald?

In short, discouraged people should get a civic life as a promising way for the “Pursuit of Happiness,” in the words of our Founders.

If you would like an autographed copy of “Civic Self-Respect,” visit nader.org.

FROM PAGE 8, The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) 26 Jul 1920

24 Comments

Justine Frederiksen June 11, 2025

D

Reply
- Norm Thurston June 11, 2025
  
  Me too.
  
  Reply
Chuck Dunbar June 11, 2025

SISTER JANE KELLY DIES AT AGE 95

Off to Heaven goes this fine, brave, tough, nun. Some say you get there by faith alone, but in Sister Jane Kelly’s case, while she was truly faithful, confronting and overcoming evil and corruption in her local Catholic church paves the way. Blessings to a hero who served her church and the community well.

Thank you, Mike Geniella, for this fine piece.

Reply
Mazie Malone June 11, 2025

Happy Wednesday, ☀️🌷

Ummmmm what? ……… SAYSOMONE MANYPHONE, 39, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.?

Funny or disturbing, so many questions???
To state the obvious that is not a real name!!!

This person, one of two things going on either they are messing with the police 👮 or they are in a mental crisis🧠, 95% likely option 2!! Whatever the case shouldn’t the person be booked in under their legal name?

I did not see a charge for giving false identification, there is no way that is somebody’s name!

If someone gives false identification and is arrested. Should they not be booked in under their legal name?

Can you imagine the court calling up the defendant say someone many phone and they are not there for addressing their first arrest?

I want to know what name this person gave to police the first time they were arrested ? Also why they were arrested because I for one have never seen such a name in the booking logs, and I have been following them for years.

To answer some of my questions I looked up on Google. Here’s what it told me via AI.

Legal Requirement:
In California, if a person is arrested and booked, the police are obligated to use the individual’s legal name for booking purposes and subsequent record-keeping. This is a basic principle of accountability and ensures accurate records.

Stop and Identify:
While California isn’t a stop and identify state, meaning you’re not always legally required to provide your name to police, it’s still crucial to give your true name when arrested and booked.

False Identity:
Providing a false name to police is illegal and carries consequences, even if the individual is not technically obligated to identify themselves during an initial encounter.

Exceptions:
There may be situations where an officer might use a nickname or other name temporarily during a preliminary interaction, but the official booking process will use the individual’s legal name.

Public vs. Private:
While the legal name is public record once a case is filed, it doesn’t mean that officers can disregard the legal name during the initial stages of booking.

Transparency and Accountability:
Police officers are generally expected to be transparent and accountable, which includes using the correct legal name during interactions, especially during arrests and booking.

mm 💕

Reply
- Eli Maddock June 11, 2025
  
  From MCT 5/28/25
  (Just the first paragraph)
  FORT BRAGG SHOOTER ARRESTED
  
  On Thursday, May 22, 2025 at approximately 10:28 P.M., Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to investigate a report of a shooting in the 17000 block of N. Highway 1 in Fort Bragg. Jeremy Segura, a 23-year-old male from Fort Bragg, reported he believed he was shot by his roommate who he identified as Saysomone Manyphone, 39, of Fort Bragg.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone June 11, 2025
    
    Thanks Eli, …
    That brings more questions … I somehow missed that shooting info..
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
- George Dorner June 11, 2025
  
  The name SAYSOMONE MANYPHONE is obviously Southeast Asian, either Lao or Thai.
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone June 11, 2025
    
    I know that now George thanks
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
- Adam Gaska June 11, 2025
  
  Name looks to be Laotian. Maybe Hmong which was only written in the 1950’s.
  
  He is on Facebook. Looks to be a normal dude with a job and girlfriend.
  
  https://www.facebook.com/saysomone.manyphone.92
  
  Reply
  - Mazie Malone June 11, 2025
    
    Yes Adam I also looked him up after I ran my mouth….I apologized.
    
    looks can be deceiving but I am sure I am not the only one who questioned this name.
    
    mm 💕
    
    Reply
    - Lurker Lou June 13, 2025
      
      You have company. I definitely thought it was fake, especially since I kept reading the first name as Say-someone, not Say-somone. Glad we have been corrected.
      
      Reply
      - Mazie Malone June 13, 2025
        
        Thanks Lurker Lou, enjoy your weekend!! ☀️🌷
        
        mm 💕
        
        Reply
George Hollister June 11, 2025

It seems to me this is the time for someone in elected leadership to step up and say we need an immigration law that protects our boarders and allows for legal immigration that meets America’s needs. I am waiting. The federal government is who controls immigration, and not the states. Congress, and the President are the ones who need to act. Of course this opens the discussion to the inevitable blame game which inherently has been the biggest part of the problem, and why we are where we are. I would think that at some point we would conclude from current events that enough is enough.

Reply
- Harvey Reading June 11, 2025
  
  Immigration is the history of this country. It is a “problem”, turned into an imaginary bogey-man, that is made out to be something it is not, except in the minds of authoritarians, racists, and wannabe dictators.
  
  Reply
  - Lilian June 11, 2025
    
    📢(((((((👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻)))))), Harvey.
    
    It’s broke, let’s fix it.
    
    Reply
- Chuck Dunbar June 11, 2025
  
  Yes, we are paying for decades of neglect by Congress on this major issue, one now so weaponized by Trump that it will be even more difficult for our legislators to fairly and effectively pass new immigration laws. It is a complicated issue in so many ways and deserves many minds working together for the best interests of the country, our own people and also immigrants. “Enough is enough.” That’s for sure.
  
  Reply
  - Lilian June 11, 2025
    
    👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻, Chuck 🏆🥇
    
    🎯 Bullseye!
    
    ⛳ Hole in one
    
    🥅 Goooooooool
    
    🤿 I can see clearly, now
    
    🏳️ 🎂 Peace, and celebration…birth of a NEW nation
    
    Reply
- Kirk Vodopals June 11, 2025
  
  ummm… States rights maybe? Sending in the National Guard and Marines without discussing with the Governor. Government overreach?
  Then you got the Kunstler-type flip-side that all of the “woke” protesters are supported by George Soros and Governor Gavin gave them a green light to wreak havoc.
  Out national shit-show continues
  
  Reply
Mazie Malone June 11, 2025

I am sorry i went a little wacky on the guys very odd seemingly fake name, will be more careful with my inquiry of what the hell is going on here, lol. 🤣

Sorry Sheriff, 🤔💕

If he shot someone why was he released so fast?

Next time I will pause before I speak it’s been a rough week, …

mm 💕

Reply
Frank Hartzell June 11, 2025

Does it seem like the heart of Buster Posey is out on the field again for the Giants to anyone else? Coming from behind has been missing for a while.
I believe SAYSOMONE MANYPHONE is an ethnic name, not necessarily made up. If you do a bit of research, you will find this out. He’s not the only one with the name. The alleged lunacy, though, does perplex me.

Reply
Me June 11, 2025

D

Reply
David Stanford June 11, 2025

Trump Derangement Syndrome at work today in the AVA

Reply
- Harvey Reading June 12, 2025
  
  Love it! Helps MAGAts know their where they stand, with their loser of a chief executive. The born-rich bum woulda died in a New York gutter before the end of the 70s if he hadn’t been born with a silver spoon in his loud mouth!
  
  Reply
Doug Holland June 11, 2025

D.

Reply

Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 6/11/2025

24 Comments

Leave a Reply to Harvey Reading Cancel reply