Mendocino County Today: Friday 6/13/2025

By AVA News Service on June 13, 2025

BREEZY northwesterly winds forecast today and Saturday, with the strongest winds on coastal headlands and in Lake County. Coastal winds likely to clear stratus in the afternoons. Near normal temperatures forecast into the middle of next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Forget what I said about clearing skies & sunny yesterday, do recall what I said about the fog not following the forecast. I'm back to patchy fog with possible clearing but really no idea of how much sun we will see along the shore? A foggy 50F (again) so far this Friday morning on the coast.

UKIAH PLANNING COMMISSION DELAYS VOTE ON CITY’S ANNEXATION PLAN

by Justine Frederiksen

After a four-hour meeting full of discussion and public comments, the Ukiah Planning Commission decided Wednesday to continue a vote on whether or not to recommend four components of the city’s plan to annex a large number of neighboring properties that are currently under Mendocino County jurisdiction.

“My sense is that this whole thing was rushed, and there was a lot of people here with questions: how is this going to affect me, what is this going to do to my property?” said Commissioner Mark Hilliker after numerous residents expressed concerns about the annexation plan. “I think when people come storming in here and they’re unhappy about something, it’s because they don’t have information. The city needs to share and spread the information before they come to us to make a decision. I think that another public meeting, one that isn’t scheduled at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, is the best route to take.”

“This is a big bite to chew, and there’s a lot of questions that the City Council will have to answer about the city’s ability to provide services to all of the annexed areas, and whether the people in the city are going to see additional costs on their bills,” said Commissioner Rick Johnson of the city’s plan to essentially triple in size, explaining that he was not opposed to annexation, but to the amount of parcels that would be annexed. “And I don’t understand what the big driver for this is as well. Why does the city feel that they can do a better job of managing this area than the county can do?”

“That’s not really being contemplated tonight,” said Community Development Director Craig Schlatter, who explained at the beginning of the meeting that the Planning Commission was “not making a decision related to the annexation application itself, that is up to the City Council. What the Planning Commission is being tasked with is deciding on a list of recommendations (related to) land use and zoning.”

“I think it’s critical to note here that all of the actions taken here are to maintain consistency with the Mendocino County zoning regulations, and the (county) land-use regulations,” Planning Manager Jesse Davis said, describing the current actions before the commission as the pre-zoning process, and that the Ukiah Valley Area Plan as a whole would “still be a county plan, so we’re not changing the responsibilities within the area plan. We’re utilizing the land-use designations specific to the UVAP.

“The county has already identified all of the parcels in the UVAP for those land-use designations, but what they have failed to do is re-zone those parcels for consistency with those UVAP designations, (and) the Brush Street Triangle is a good example,” continued Davis. “It has a mixed-use Brush Street Triangle designation as its land-use. However, it still retains an industrial zoning designation, that would be the pre-zoning difference we are facilitating here, ensuring that the Brush Street Triangle parcels will align with the Brush Street plans that the UVAP called for.”

Commissioner Johnson suggested reducing the number of parcels the commission would be recommending for “pre-zoning” and only including “an area that basically would be from Lovers Lane to the Brush Street Triangle, all the way down to perhaps Norgard Lane – basically all the urban areas, (since it) makes sense to have all of the people living in an urban area under the umbrella of the city. That would be a good first step for me.”

Instead of changing the map as part of the resolution, Schlatter suggested that the commissioners approve the four actions detailed by staff, then separately include their comments suggesting changes to the map.

“I look at it as more procedural,” Schlatter said. “What I am proposing is that the opinion (of where the boundaries should be) come in as a separate motion,” (because) what the commission was being asked to approve was only a component of the larger application for annexation, not the annexation itself.

“I think that is stepping on our own feet,” said Hilliker, noting that he did not think that annexation “is a bad idea, but I think it’s rushed.”

Commission Chairman Alex De Grassi said he agreed with Hilliker that recommending the resolution with additional comments would be like “stepping on our own feet, and I would be more in favor of not recommending this, and adding the comment that the commission was not comfortable with the boundaries.”

Adding that he did not feel the commission was ready to draw new boundaries that night, DeGrassi said he favored “that we either not recommend (the pre-zoning) or that we continue this discussion,” describing what was proposed as “a bit rushed for both the public and the commission.”

When city staff pointed out that there is another city workshop regarding annexation scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, and that the Planning Commission had another meeting scheduled the following week, the commission voted to continue the hearing on the annexation components to its June 25 meeting.

“A lot of people here were throwing things out that I hadn’t considered, and don’t feel like I have enough information,” Hilliker said. “I want to know what those folks think, and to have another opportunity for the city to listen again. I think that’s critical.”

(ukiahdj.com)

NEW THRIFT STORE AT FLOODGATE

New thrift store opening soon serving the community of Anderson Valley and Mendo, having a rummage sale every Thursday through Sunday this month. Donations welcome! ’Cheap Weird Stuff’ at Floody’s, 1802 Hwy 128

ELEANOR COONEY ASKS: Anyone know anything about the DMV in Fort Bragg shutting down?

FORT BRAGG TO CONSIDER 83-UNIT HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

Notice Is Hereby Given that the City Council will conduct a public hearing on Coastal Development Permit Amendment (CDP 8-24/A), Design Review Amendment (DR 11-24/A) and Use Permit Amendment (UP 9-24/A), and Sign Permit (SP 20-24) for a proposed 83-unit mixed-use multi-family projected located at 1151 South Main Street at a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, June 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard at Town Hall, at the corner of Main and Laurel Streets (363 North Main Street), Fort Bragg, California. The public hearing will concern the following item:

Coastal Development Permit Amendment, Use Permit and Design Review Amendments to Modify an Approved Mixed-Use Multifamily Project at 1151 S Main Street to Respond to Coastal Commission Staff Requests to: 1) Change 3 units of Multifamily Housing into 2,450 SF of hotel units on the Ground Floor of Building 3; and 2) Add a Signed Public Access Sidewalk through the Parcel.

ADDRESSING MCNAMEE MISINFORMATION RE FORT BRAGG MILLSITE

Editor,

On Thursday Peter McNamee continued his weekly criticisms of the Fort Bragg City Council and Mendocino Railway—often presenting selective information while omitting key facts.

First, he has referenced a past disagreement between the City of West Sacramento and Sierra Northern Railway, one of our affiliated companies. What he failed to mention is that this matter was resolved years ago to the City’s full satisfaction. In fact, just this past Saturday, West Sacramento awarded us its 2025 Civic Leadership Award—a clear testament to our ongoing, constructive relationship with the city.

Second, he has pointed to a similar disagreement between Sierra Northern and the City of Fillmore, again ignoring the fact that the issue was resolved—also to the satisfaction of the City—several years ago.

Third, and now McNamee claims that the City and Mendocino Railway have finalized development plans for the former Georgia-Pacific millsite behind closed doors. This is simply false. As explained by multiple speakers at Monday’s Council meeting, the vote was to establish a PROCESS for collaboration between the City and Mendocino Railway—not to approve any plans. City Manager Isaac Whippy confirmed that this process will include public workshops and regular updates at Council meetings.

McNamee also criticized the inclusion of industrial zoning, claiming it was inappropriate and secretly decided. In fact, light and heavy industry have been part of the City’s long-term vision for the site for years. Draft planning documents from 2017 through 2021 frequently included industrial uses in the southern portion of the millsite as part of a broader strategy to create higher-paying jobs in Fort Bragg. These discussions occurred during publicly noticed meetings. If Mr. McNamee is only now raising concerns, it suggests a lack of engagement or concern about the public process.

His broader opposition to Mendocino Railway also raises questions. While he has not disclosed it publicly, his home is located just above Tunnel #1. In 2022, his wife, Donne Brownsey—then Chair of the California Coastal Commission—filed a lawsuit against Mendocino Railway and started a multi-year campaign that blocked funding to repair the tunnel near their residence. The absence of disclosure regarding this apparent conflict of interest is troubling.

Today, the City, Mendocino Railway, and the Coastal Commission (now under new leadership) are working in good faith to resolve a long-standing legal dispute. Yes, some meetings have been held in closed session—as is standard in legal negotiations. But the aim is resolution, not secrecy.

As City Manager Whippy noted Monday, Fort Bragg has already spent approximately $500,000 in taxpayer funds on this legal fight and continues to spend $40,000 per month. Mendocino Railway is incurring similar costs. This level of spending is unsustainable and detracts from the resources that could be used to improve the community. Thankfully, progress is being made. But while others are working toward a resolution, McNamee continues to escalate the conflict. As a non-resident of Fort Bragg living in a nice house in the country, he may not feel the financial toll—but Fort Bragg’s residents certainly do.

The current court-approved legal stay—which temporarily paused litigation to allow for negotiation—expires at the end of this month. It is the second such stay, and the court may not approve a third. If no agreement is reached, litigation will resume in July, and each party will be required to reengage its legal teams. McNamee appears unconcerned with the legal or financial urgency, or with the fact that the millsite has now sat unused for 23 years.

The redevelopment proposals Mendocino Railway has submitted are designed to meet Fort Bragg’s long-term needs, including housing, employment opportunities, and public open space. Key elements include:

Northern section: More than 50% is expected to remain open space. Based on public feedback, a proposed railroad line has been replaced with a quiet, electric trolley and moved significantly further inland.
Central section: A proposed 60-acre nature preserve, with the potential to daylight historic creeks.
Southern section: The Railway’s illustrative plan largely aligns with the City’s draft zoning concepts and includes substantial open space. Importantly, Mendocino Railway has offered to work with the City to limit rail operations to the trolley and to give the City veto power over any final route—a significant concession.

Despite these efforts, McNamee accuses the City of moving too fast. Yet he appears unaware—or unconcerned—with the court-imposed timeline. Every week of delay costs each party approximately $10,000 in legal fees. While no one expects a final resolution this month, our hope is to achieve one this summer. Given the financial stakes, every week counts.

Recently, McNamee also announced that he intends to challenge sitting Councilmembers in the 2026 election if they do not adopt his position. This follows the 2024 election, during which his organization, the Grass Roots Institute, made last-minute accusations that were later proven false—though not before votes were cast. That level of political gamesmanship is disappointing, especially from an organization claiming to represent the community’s interests.

And now, that same organization has announced it received a $150,000 grant to inform the public about millsite revitalization. We sincerely hope that taxpayer dollars are used to support honest, fact-based public engagement—not a continuation of anti-growth and anti-Councilmember messaging.

Rather than create division, issue threats, and spread misinformation, we urge Mr. McNamee to participate in a good-faith effort to reach a resolution. Fort Bragg deserves better. Our community needs housing, jobs, open space, and long-term economic vitality—not more lawsuits, delays, or political grandstanding. Let’s move forward—together.

A READER WRITES: I wonder if the three board of supervisors who have been serving prior to the last election would be interested in a post on Trump’s cabinet? Seems a perfect fit, no?

VOCAL RECITAL SATURDAY AFTERNOON

A group of local vocalists, many professional as well as renowned in our community, will sing opera arias, duets, spirituals, art songs, and more.? The recital takes place on Saturday, June 14th at 3:00 pm in Preston Hall in Mendocino.

The music is drawn from the 18th to the 20th Centuries. The vocalists are Vincent Russo, Matthew Miksak, Marius Constantin, Matthew Evans, Randy Knutson, Evelyn Harris, Cynthia Frank, James Blanton, and Barbara Barkovich.

The singers will be accompanied by pianists Robin Knutson and Marie-Claire Dizin, as well as guitarist John Redding.

There will be no charge, but attendees are encouraged to make a donation to the Mendocino Food Network, which includes The Fort Bragg Food Bank. We will have a collection jar.

Evelyn Harris, [email protected]

ED NOTES

EVERY DAY we grow a little more urban, a little less distinct as a specific place. Old timers and Not So Old Timers will remember when our postmasters stamped each outgoing envelope with the bold type date, time, and place of dispatch, and you’re getting to be a Valley Old Timer if you remember Melvin ‘Woody’ Wood at the Navarro P.O., Peggy Bates and Berna Walker at the Boonville P.O., Thelma Pinoli and Dot Becker at the Philo Post Office; and I’m probably wrong here but wasn’t the memorable Leo Marcott postmaster at Yorkville?

WOODY WOOD lived at Rancho Navarro. His life revolved around his art which, in my opinion, was of a very high quality but about which he was guarded, as if he wasn’t confident in his ability. I tried to buy a painting from him but he always put me off, a sure sign of a true artist never entirely satisfied with his work. (I’m happy to report I’m the owner of a Saffron Fraser original, and hope to buy another original piece from the talented Philo painter. For a small population of people, there’s a lot of talent in the Anderson Valley.)

DAYLA HEPTING perfectly captured Woody as Navarro postmaster in her paragraph: “Not long after that she [Pat Grim] quit the job, Melvin ‘Woody’ Wood took it. Woody had an entirely different view of it. He laughed a quiet chuckle as he tossed a new book of Postal rules into the trash and went off to have a beer with the boys under the drunk tree, actually drinking alcohol while representing the United States Post Office. Even I could not have done that. It was startling. And in sharp contrast to Pat’s reign.”

PAT GRIM. Never has a person had a more fitting surname. Ms. Grim was once an immediate neighbor of mine on Anderson Valley Way. She regularly popped up to complain about something happening at my place, always a happening address, especially the sound of children playing basketball. Jeez, I used to wonder, what else annoys her? A beautiful sunset? Bird song? Hendy Woods?

I’D SHINE HER ON because I felt sorry for her. “Come in and have a cup of coffee?” Which she’d of course refuse. So I’d say, “Yes, ma’am. I’ll get right on it,” and then ignore her. One day she came over three times to complain about the merry hoopsters, as if they were being noisy at 3am. I remember complaining about her constant complaining to a person who shall remain nameless. “You don’t understand, Bruce, she’s depressed. Guys like you are too dumb to be depressed.”

I WASN’T SURPRISED when I learned that Ms. Grim had done a header off the Golden Gate Bridge. Trite as the advice is, and not that anyone has ever asked, I prescribe vigorous exercise as a sure-fire antidote to suicidal thoughts, or just plain mental funk. Walk until you drop! Hit the weights until your muscles scream. Works for me.

THE SUICIDE OF PAT GRIM

by Dayla Hepting (November 1996)

On August 9, 1994, Patricia Ruth Bernard Grim jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. Doesn’t that bother you? What a strange word that is: bother. But still I can’t think of another word to describe the feeling. It doesn’t annoy me. It doesn’t freak me out. It disturbs me slightly. It kind of comes and goes through the back of my mind on certain days. I gnaw on it. I push it back and forward.

Pat Grim, former Post Mistress of Navarro jumped off the fucking Golden Gate Bridge! How does that happen? I don’t get surprises very often. I can clock people. I’d be dead a long time ago if I couldn’t clock people. But Pat gave me a start. Never saw that part of her, not the will to suicide I mean, her way of acting it out.

The fact that she committed suicide is no surprise. Emerson must have had someone quite like her in mind when he wrote “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Certainly I saw that in Pat. Suicide had crossed my mind as something she might do one day unless it seemed too untidy for her. The thought of her perfect children coming into her perfectly tidy little cabin to find mother’s brains splattered all over the walls for them to clean up, and the stench of rotting meat permeating all the linen… No, Pat would not have made that mess. So in a sense it makes sense.

Jumping off the bridge is quite tidy. No unsightly mess. A lady’s way perhaps. What jarred me about her death was that it was so public, so dramatic. Pat was afraid of making a spectacle of herself. You remember that don’t you? Your mother’s face peering down at you imperiously, “Do you have to make a spectacle of yourself in a public place? Go sit in the car until you can act like a lady!” Pat had a mother like that. She was a mother like that herself. I could see it in every line of her dissatisfied face.

But the fact is she did it. She would not have made the short-list of people I think might jump off the bridge someday if I had been asked to draw up such a list. But she is actually the only one I know personally who took that big jump.

I suppose she wanted some attention. I suppose she imagined stories would be written about her life. How she needed love and never got it. How she wanted to love but didn’t know how. That sort of thing.

She got zip. Quite a few people knew she did it. Some said that this one or that one should write something for the paper. The people who find my writing rather raw did not suggest that I write anything. I suppose they wanted something more tasteful written. Something that put a good face on it. That’s what these people wanted. So I waited. After all, they were her sort of friends. I don’t even know if I liked Pat Grim. I sort of did, but then I didn’t.

But nothing was written.

The thing is, jumping off the Bridge, scary and desperate as it may be, made me like Pat more. She was in a conundrum. She could not escape. She could not keep living her life. She could not change her life. She did what she could. She shattered her body by jumping into the air and landing on the concrete-hard water and put a stop to it.

No matter how you felt about Pat Grim (so aptly named), still you have to give her credit. It takes balls to jump off that bridge.

I am honored to have known a woman with that kind of balls, because no matter how you natter on about suicide being the coward’s way out — it takes some nerve to deliberately drive out on the bridge, stop your car with the yuppies honking, jabbing wildly with their middle fingers like they were Uzis pointed at your head, grinding their newly capped teeth and smashing faces twisted with hate up against the windows of their air-conditioned Lexis bound for Marin.

She must have come on from the San Francisco side. It would have been all wrong going into the City, because you would have to get there one more time, to walk down Grant Street one more time, to sit in a the Cafe Trieste and have one last Cappuccino, one last playing of Figaro on the jukebox before the end. I would think so.

What is in Marin? Nothing. Marin is wall to wall yuppies. Basically a bunch of upscale Walmartians. Pat had to have driven onto the Bridge from San Francisco. Then she pushed through the startled Japanese tourists, dodging a nasty, spandexed, sweat soaked lycra-clad cyclist hoping he doesn’t break the code of their cult of total Zen self involvement and suddenly extend a white stinking arm to snap her away from the edge.

But no one stopped her. Of course not. These people are on schedules. “Is she going to jump? 20 minutes of self improvement time left.” “She just wants a better view,” A tourist from Kansas wanting another perfect Kodak moment. “Aren’t my hamstrings getting enormous?”

And then there she is scrambling, pulling herself up. The process of death is at last purely physical. Getting it done, she is climbing the metal support. It is cold, surprisingly cold to the touch. But then again it makes sense. The Bay will get a grip on her at the bottom, the dead cold Bay down there. She pushes herself hard, away from the bridge to avoid getting mangled on the way down.

What did you think about on the way down Pat? “Hey now, that will show them!” or did you picture when the authorities opened up your door in Lucerne and someone noting how clean it was for a suicide.

Certainly her house was in order. Pat would not have left anything unfinished. Not even a dirty orange juice glass or a jam-smeared plate in her sink. Not even in the dish drain. No, she put everything in its place before she left her cabin that day.

Obviously her life did not flash before her eyes. Her life had been flashing before her eyes for some time. Her life must have played, replayed and played in reverse, at high speed, at low speed, and at dead stop in the middle of every night.

Pat had a big hairy brown German Shepherd. He died of cancer six months before the jump. She did not get a new puppy. She loved having that dog. So that meant she knew. She knew even then that her commitments should abbreviated. Cut short. Not begun anew. Or did she know even before that? Did his death open the door to her death. Because, of course, she could not commit suicide while her dog lived. It would be an unnecessarily hurtful act. Pure selfishness on her part. Because all that dog had was her. He loved her as only dogs can, unmistakably and without qualification. You can beat a dog into the ground, next minute he will lick your hand and say he’s sorry. Beat a horse like that and he’ll never forget, he’ll lay in wait until the day he can get you and he will one day. Beat a cat and that cat will be gone forever. But dogs take it all upon themselves. They think if only they were a better dog then the boss would like them better. Because the boss is perfect and the object of complete devotion. A price is paid for such devotion. You must then live your life for the dog. Taking care of it, loving it because it loves you. And you can’t commit suicide because if you do what will happen to him? Who wants an old ugly German Shepherd that belonged to a dead woman?

Puppies are cute. An old German Shepherd? That’s not cute. Just a burden. Either someone has to take him in, your children, perhaps (but they won’t have the space), or they will have to take him off to the Humane Society where he will be humanely thrown in with Tuesday’s batch of unwanted pets in a sanitized windowless cubicle while the air is sucked humanely and inexpensively from the room. First he will take short panting breaths and wonder when you will come for him because he is scared, then he will take huge tearing breaths of non-air and finally the whole pack of lost and unnecessary dogs will collapse into death, piled at the door where they scrambled to get free. Hopeless of course. There is no exit from this room.

The shelter would have assured the family that every effort would be made to find a home. Every effort. Of course that is true. Every effort is made. But they reminded the family that older dogs are hard to place. “Surely,” The family thinks, “a dog like this, a purebred with papers can find a home?” They would not call to inquire of course, not wanting to know the rest of it.

So Pat must have deferred her death until finally cancer took her dog. What if he had lived longer? Would she have found something, something to live for? Something she had looked for all her life and had almost given up on finding?

Somehow I think not.

I read mysteries, fiction or fact. Currently I look for Rendell/Vine or Joyce Carol Oates writing murder stories as Rosamund Smith. I read true crime. Ann Rule, Jack Olsen or a few others, according to the type of crime. I recently read the story of Sacramento’s Dracula Killer and the story of Jeffrey Dahmer.

I remember reading in one of these books that the key to solving a mystery often lies in the life and character of the victim. So if you read that life like a book you may find the key to the murder.

But what about suicides? You can say and it would be true that murder sometimes just happens to people. They walk into a Jack in the Box at 4 PM exactly at the same moment another disgruntled, disoriented Vietnam vet reaches critical mass in the parking lot. Whammo, you’re gone. By chance. Another (delayed) victim of the war.

But suicide? Does that just happen to people? Are they pre-ordained? Is it a gene as the Chronicle recently postulated? Is it inherited? If someone in the previous generation — your father say, or your mother — did it you are far more likely to do it. Did Pat have suicide in her family? I don’t know. I know little about her past. She was not particularly interested in talking about her history. Not the way some people are, the ones who recite it, rehearse and regurgitate it all. As if it mattered. Those kinds of histories are just fiction. That’s what memory is. A sort of fiction. Not even good fiction in most cases. But Pat wasn’t that kind. She was above it.

The key to her death was in her face. I could see it. It was in her attitude. The way she looked with such displeasure on life. The way she held her body. But then lots of people like that just go on being bitter, being unhappy until they die an unhappy bitter death in a nursing home at 90.

So what made her decide to jump? How was she different?

She had three children. I know that from the invitation to her wake, I mean her “memorial service,” where you sit around and tell warm fuzzy stories instead of the old style wake where you stared in horror at a heavily made up corpse and then worked yourself into a frenzy to hurl yourself at the body crying and shrieking in pain until someone hauled you away to the bathroom to wash your face with wet paper towels. I suppose they had to stop that because of the paper towels. It’s hard to find paper towels nowadays. It wouldn’t be right to just shove someone’s wailing head under the hot air machine. No, her children had a proper modern memorial service. No big hurry either. Six months after her death and in Marin. I did not attend. I did send a note of condolence.

She had an ex-husband I heard her mention once or twice. She was an ex-teacher from Berkeley. When I met her she was running the Navarro Post office. She seemed to be overwhelmed by all that responsibility. She fretted over the Postal system’s endless volumes of rules and regulations. She was trying hopelessly to follow them. To do the job right. I suppose the ever-growing club of mass murderers who were recently terminated from the Post Office had been like that. Trying to do it the Post Office way. The trick is to ignore those Postal Procedure books. Throw them promptly into the trash. Don’t even read one page. If you can’t figure it out call the Postmaster in Philo and ask him. Pat seemed to think of the customers as the enemy. She looked trapped back there in that tiny cell behind the half door.

When I had the same job I couldn’t stand it in there. I got out every chance I had. Pat didn’t come out. A request for stamps was a trauma for her, like you were asking just too much or at the wrong time. Saturdays she worked happily with the top half of the door closed. Once my box was broken so I called through the door, “Pat, my box won’t open. Could you hand me my mail?”

“We can’t do any window service on Saturdays. That’s the rules.”

Finally she was persuaded much against her will to break the rules. She admonished me to make sure I got window business done on the proper day in the future. She would not bend the rules again. I apologized energetically and thanked her profusely.

Not long after that she quit the job. Melvin “Woody” Wood took it. Woody had an entirely different view of it. He laughed a quiet chuckle as he tossed a new book of Postal rules into the trash and went off to have a beer with the boys under the drunk tree, actually drinking alcohol while representing the United States Post Office! Even I could not have done that. It was startling. And in sharp contrast to Pat’s reign.

Suddenly she moved to the top of Clow Ridge Road, one hour up a dirt road. She even moved her mail pick up to Philo. I rarely saw her and when I did I barely recognized her. She got thin. Out of the pudge a whole new face emerged. I learned that despite her rigid conformation to inexplicable Postal edicts she was in fact capable of sudden and radical changes.

A year later our paths crossed again. I was house hunting, a difficult process in Anderson Valley. Bruce Anderson pointed me in her direction. She wanted off the mountain. The commute was too much for her, she said. The road was hell. I wondered how she could live like that. All alone except for her dog in a tiny, perfectly kept cabin. But I suppose she could not live like that. Once again Pat wanted a change. The last year she wanted away from the Post Office rabble. The noise of downtown Boonville. She wanted isolation, peace, quiet and a view from the mountain. She got all that plus mud and wind and downed trees, earth shifting under the only road out, lightning, complete isolation in a poorly insulated cabin in the shade of the redwoods. A price to be paid for everything. She left the mountain, unwilling or unable to pay the price of the view from the top of a coastal mountain just a few short miles from the retching and sucking of the great western sea.

I learned that Pat was a rather whimsical person who really could not settle on what she wanted and ride out the hard parts. She moved to Lucerne. We moved to Clow Mountain. I got a couple of friendly letters.

She left me a great chunk of shiny obsidian. Obsidian from Clear Lake or Konocti mountain. I sat it up on the rail of the deck. Great black glimmering rock. Hardly like a rock at all. It sat there keeping itself clean and in perfect order for several years. Then it disappeared. One day I noticed it was gone. I could not remember when it stopped being there. But it had. That is the way with rocks I’ve found. They come into my life. As if they had meaning. A rock comes to you. You take it home, wash it up, place it on a window sill, or a shelf or in a velvet lined box with other stones, and bones, beads, teeth and cat claws, or you put it on the rail of your deck. These must be transported with all your things from one house to another. They can not be thrown out with the trash. They will disappear one day. They often do. I no longer have a rock from my thirties. Where did they go? I have no idea. Maybe at night they leave quietly through the back door or the window, taking nothing with them. Until they go, however, it is my job to carry them with me. After all, being an Indian and all, each rock, especially obsidian, is supposed to have some special meaning, isn’t it? But what is the meaning?

This is not a proper obituary. I have not listed what clubs she belonged to, where she was born, what college she graduated from, where she worked, who she spawned, who is left crying in the night for her.

Pat Grim jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. And she didn’t get a regular story in the AVA. That ain’t right. So I’m setting things right for her.

So long Pat. Good to know ya!

EMMY LOU PACKARD

Excerpt of the book “From Maidens to Mavericks: Mendocino’s Women” by Molly Dwyer

Emmy Lou Packard’s life brought together two passions: art and a commitment to social activism. Were it not for her devotion to these two enterprises, Mendocino might be very different today − dotted with development instead of the quaint village and beautiful expanse of Mendocino Headlands State Park. Emmy Lou was born in El Centro, California to a father who was an internationally known agronomist. When she was 13, her family spent some time in Mexico while her father worked on a project there. Since Emmy was already interested in art, her mother introduced her to the Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, and his legendary wife, Frida Kahlo.

Emmy eloped in 1934 with an architect, Burton Cairns, a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, from which she matriculated two years later. In 1939 Cairns was killed in an auto accident and she returned to Mexico to work as an assistant to Rivera and Kahlo in their studio. When a mural project brought Rivera to San Francisco in 1940, Emmy accompanied him, assisting in the execution of “Pan American Unity.” She became increasingly well-known for her painting, printmaking, and murals. By 1952, she was producing wood and linoleum prints of local crab fishermen, net menders, artichoke pickers, and other workers. On another trip to Mexico, she studied new developments in mural techniques and returned to do many murals for schools. She invited children to help make their mosaics with assemblages of seashells, pebbles, broken ceramic tiles and other found objects.

Nearly 20 years passed before she married Byron Randall, an expressionist painter and printmaker. In 1960 the couple moved to Mendocino, perhaps because they knew artist Bill Zacha, who had just broken ground on the Mendocino Art Center. He was recruiting artist friends to come to Mendocino. Emmy and Randall purchased property on Main Street across from the Presbyterian Church and built studios and a guesthouse.

Already a neighborhood activist in San Francisco, Emmy got involved in community issues in Mendocino, working against the Vietnam War and for environmental preservation. In 1968, word spread around town that Boise Cascade, which had purchased the headlands, intended to develop it. Emmy organized a “citizens’ campaign” and petition drive to obtain the property and turn it into a state park. The movement was covered in the local press, in the San Francisco Chronicle, and in the Sacramento Bee. The Director of California State Parks, William Penn Mott, had an interest in the proposition, but had no funds to purchase the property from Boise Cascade. He did, however, appoint an official Mendocino Headlands State Park Committee, made up largely of local activists, to continue exploring ways to accomplish their goal.

This is where Emmy Lou’s path crossed that of Mildred Benioff, who became chair of the committee, a woman with impressive political expertise that complemented Emmy’s visionary passion and moved the project forward. Emmy credited the community, but her tireless efforts kept everyone inspired in the face of heavy odds against them. Emmy later wrote: “I saw this marvelous headland and the beach and the quaint little town and I knew it would be ruined sooner or later by commercial development, and I felt it had to be saved.”

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

Hear about Emmy Lou Packard on our Historic District Walking Tour. ‘From Maidens to Mavericks’ is available in our online store. On Tap at the Kelley House: The History of Brewing on the Mendocino Coast is open now until September 29. The Kelley House Museum is open Thursday-Monday, 11am-3pm.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, June 12, 2025

KELLY CLARK, 40, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury, public nuisance.

GERALD COLLINS III, San Jose/Ukiah. Ammo possession by prohibited person.

TESLA HENCZ, 30, Laytonville. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

CELIA KELLY, 73, Ukiah. DUI-any drug.

PATRICK MCCONNON, 41, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, false imprisonment with violence.

DENA MORRIS, 63, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

ROGER PETERS, 42, Covelo. No license, suspended license for DUI, ammo possession by prohibited person, felon-addict with firearm.

SALOMON SCHOFFER, 20, Lakeport/Ukiah. DUI, leaving scene of accident with property damage.

REALIA SPECIALE, 42, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MICHAEL TAYLOR, 69, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, disorderly conduct-alcohol, paraphernalia.

NORMAN WHITE, 44, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

MARY MOORE’S 90TH BIRTHDAY

This is an official invite to my 90th birthday party on July 13th in Sebastopol’s Barlow at noon.

My grandson Eryn made this invite based on the format of the old S.C. Free Press which we put out for ten years back in the 90s. Thank You, Eryn! My phone # and Emily’s, my granddaughter # is at the bottom of the invite. Don’t hesitate to use it to get more info. So many on this list that I don’t see anymore so sure hope you can make it on that Sunday, one day before the actual birth date of July 14, Bastille Day.

Mary Moore

AUTOMATIC WRITING. Please Join with Me. Our Collective Future!

Dropped into the City Tap House on 9th Street NW in Washington, D.C. yesterday afternoon, (preceded by an early exit from the homeless shelter due to the Wednesday deep cleaning). Enjoyed a couple of pints of Wicked Weed’s Pernicious IPA with a shot of Woodford Reserve’s Rye. Wolfed down an order of the salmon tacos. I said to the barmaid that it was like getting a “spiritual massage”. She said: “That’s what we like to hear”. Just getting ready for the upcoming insanity on Saturday with the extreme show of military at the parade here; of course we’ll be completely out of step at the Peace Vigil, which will probably be relocated to Mars for the day. But I don’t care. After all, I am God Realized. Dualistically speaking, the Divine Absolute has to give me whatever I need to do the work. The Goddess goes ahead of me and prepares the way. You are invited to be supportive. I’d like to return to northern California as soon as possible. Hey, it’s time for automatic writing! I am accepting money, housing short or long term, the return of my disappeared SSI monthly disbursement, the EBT food stamps working again, and I need to renew the California driver’s license by September 28th, when I turn 76. Don’t you believe that I have given enough for postmodern America to appreciate me? Automatic writing! Please join with me! Our collective future!

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

BILL KIMBERLIN: This is downtown Sausalito about 1914, I think.

Note that you could arrive here on the ferry boats and then take local electric trains or steam engine trains to go beyond Marin to say, Willits. If you arrived by automobile you would park in my grandfather’s garage which was a three story concrete building that now is part of a tourist hotel and for years was The Village Fair.

RETURNING TO AFRICA

In 1981, when my three young daughters and their mother left Baltimore and relocated to be near her dad in Wakefield, Massachusetts, I headed to Wall Street to work on the commodities trading floors at the NYMEX and COMEX.

Along the way, I caught a break. J. Aaron & Company hired me to trade physical oil for delivery out of oil tankers registered in Liberia. Within a few months, Goldman Sachs acquired J. Aron & Company in a strategic move to extend the firm’s international presence in the commodity and foreign exchange markets. Working for Goldman Sachs suddenly made me much more attractive as a job candidate.

The infamous Marc Rich soon recruited me with a better offer. Marc’s partner, Pincus “Pink” Green was my immediate supervisor. For the next year, I lived and worked in Monrovia, Liberia, although nobody back in the U.S. knew it.

By the end of 1982, I was back in New York. Merrill Lynch hired me for their floor brokers training program at the NYMEX and COMEX. It was another lucky break, because in 1983 Rich and Green were indicted on charges of tax evasion relating to illegal trading with Iran, including deals that were done while the Ayatollahs were holding Americans hostage in Tehran.

At the time, it was the largest tax-fraud case in U.S. history.

The early-1980s were a chaotic and very brutal era for the people of Liberia. Commanding a group of Krahn soldiers, a junior officer named Samuel Doe led a military coup on in April 1980 by attacking the Liberian Executive Mansion and killing President William Tolbert. His forces killed another 26 of Tolbert’s supporters in the fighting. Thirteen members of the Cabinet were publicly executed ten days later.

Shortly after the coup, government ministers were walked publicly around Monrovia in the nude and then summarily executed by a firing squad on the beach. The convicted were denied the right to a lawyer or any appeal.

Hundreds of government workers fled the country, while others were imprisoned. The early days of the regime were marked by mass executions of hundreds of members of Tolbert’s deposed government.

1981 was my year in Liberia: A bloody civil war. Atrocities. Mass murder. Dark tribal politics. Political corruption. And helping Marc Rich and Pinky Green make a ton of money.

This week, 44 years later, I attended a reception for a computer literacy program in West Africa. I met a former senior Liberian senator who had lived in exile during the terrible Sam Doe era. It brought back many memories. Memories of Liberian colleagues who were slaughtered by their own countrymen.

At the reception, I gave some money to support the kids in the computer literacy program. It was a small gift, but it made me feel good.

My gift was inspired by Jelani Osei Nelson, a brilliant, young algorithm developer and computer scientist at UC Berkeley, who, in his spare time, is the creator of AddisCoder, a computer science summer program for Ethiopian high school students in Addis Ababa.

AddisCoder helps identify mathematically gifted young African kids. It is as competitive as any similar program anywhere in the world.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

SMART IN LINE FOR STATE AWARD TO EXTEND SERVICE TO HEALDSBURG

by Anna Armstrong

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is in line to be awarded $81 million from the state to extend its passenger rail service north to Healdsburg, SMART officials announced.

The funding, which would extend SMART rail service from the newly-opened Windsor station to Healdsburg, would also expand the network’s bike and pedestrian path and support a new zero-emission locomotive for the railroad, officials said.

SMART’s recommended award comes from two state grant programs: the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program and the Local Partnership Competitive Program, officials said. The grant also will be matched by $187.7 million in federal, state and local funding SMART previously secured.

“The momentum is real and the SMART Train keeps on chugging north and will soon be serving riders from one end of the North Bay to the other,” said Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire in a statement issued by the rail agency. “This success builds off the state’s prior $40 million investment to connect the Sonoma County Airport with the Town of Windsor.”

The SMART board believes construction work on the newest extension could begin as early as spring 2026 with a targeted completion goal set for the end of 2028.

“Everywhere I go, people say they can’t wait to be able to take the train to Healdsburg for lunch,” SMART board member and Healdsburg Councilmember Ariel Kelley said in a statement.

The California Transportation Commission is scheduled to consider the allocation on June 26 and 27 at meetings in Sacramento, SMART officials said.

The state funding, if approved, will close the gap on SMART’s rail and path extension to Healdsburg, said Eddy Cumins, SMART general manager.

The total project cost for the 9-mile extension is estimated at $268.7 million, he said.

“Northern Sonoma County plays a vital role in the Bay Area’s economy, and extending our rail and pathway network to Healdsburg and the Alexander Valley will strengthen regional connectivity, support tourism, and improve access to jobs, schools, and healthcare,” Cumins said in an email. “SMART’s mission is to connect communities, and we are looking forward to bringing the SMART Train to Healdsburg.”

The announcement comes as SMART celebrates the completion of a $75 million extension to Windsor. The new station began service on May 31.

“It is already performing well, averaging over 330 boardings per day,” a number that staff expects to climb to about 500 boardings daily, Cumins said.

“SMART’s ridership is currently at an all-time high,” he said. “We are on pace to carry over 1.1 million riders this fiscal year, and with the Windsor Station now open, that number will be even higher next year.”

A grand opening event for the Windsor station is planned at 1:45 p.m. Friday. The celebration will include music, food and refreshments. RSVPs are required at sonomamarintrain.org/windsor.

Cumins said more than 1,000 people are expected to attend.

“The SMART team and I are extremely excited for the Windsor grand opening, but we are already looking forward to our next stop, Healdsburg,” Cumins said.

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, which started passenger service in 2017, runs trains 48 miles between Larkspur and Windsor. The agency’s goal is a 70-mile rail route and pedestrian path to Cloverdale.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

GIANTS’ STREAK ENDS at seven as Rockies rally for walk-off 8-7 win

by Susan Slusser

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Hayden Birdsong reacts after giving up a solo home run to Colorado Rockies' Mickey Moniak in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DENVER — The way the San Francisco Giants have perfected the slim margin of victory recently, some extra padding Thursday almost felt decadent. But it didn’t last long before things got tense again.

Then, for the first time in more than a week, it was the Giants bowing out in the ninth rather than their opponent, with standout reliever Randy Rodriguez faltering and Casey Schmitt making a costly error at third on a bouncer that might have started a game-ending double play. Instead, one run scored, the bases remained loaded and, with two outs, Orlando Arcia delivered a walk-off single to left.

With the sudden, late 8-7 loss, the Giants’ seven-game winning streak came to an end, and they also missed the chance to tie the Dodgers atop the NL West going into a three-game series at Los Angeles.

“I was right there and it just hopped up,” Schmitt said of Brenton Doyle’s one-out, bases-loaded bouncer. “It feels bad. It sucks. I was in a good position to turn two right there.”

That wasn’t the only miscue in the field that inning; Heliot Ramos overran Thairo Estrada’s double, which put men at second and third with one out. Estrada, the former Giant, wound up scoring the winning run.

“Two defensive plays affected that inning,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Little things like that that we’ve been pretty good at, especially in these tight games.”

The Giants had been 30-2 when leading after eight innings, and it was just the second time all year Rodriguez had been scored upon. The previous time was April 29. It was the largest lead, five runs, they’ve blown this season.

Usually, it’s the Giants’ pitching, especially the bullpen, that carries them along with decent defense, while the offense is more hit-and-miss. Thursday was upside down, with the Giants scoring seven runs in the first five innings, with almost everyone contributing, especially new first baseman Dominic Smith.

Mike Yastrzemski started a rally in the second against Antonio Senzatela, with a single to open the inning. Smith did the same and with one out, Tyler Fitzgerald chipped in with a sacrifice fly. Catcher Logan Porter, making his first start since being called up the day before, drove in another run with a hit to center. Jung Hoo Lee singled, Willy Adames walked and Ramos singled in two more runs.

In the fourth, with Senzatela still in the game, Wilmer Flores whacked a leadoff double and Yastrzemski walked to bring up Smith, who smoked a 1-1 changeup into the second level of seats above the scoreboard in right, his first homer with the Giants and first in the big leagues since last July 29 while playing for Boston. (He hit eight in 45 games with the Yankees’ Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this year.)

Smith had a three-hit day, but given the outcome, he was kicking himself for striking out against Seth Halvorsen in his final at-bat with two men on in the ninth; Schmitt then hit into a double play to end the inning.

“I’m still upset about my last at-bat,” Smith said. “We had a chance to do a little more damage, but we kind of let them back in there, right there and didn’t put them away.”

Thursday was the Giants’ first loss since Smith joined the team; after the team parted with former first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. and added Smith, Daniel Johnson and catcher Andrew Knizner, they won seven in a row, with Smith playing a solid role offensively and defensively.

“I was definitely happy with the way that they’ve responded,” president of baseball operations Buster Posey said of that weeklong roll before the game. “When you have a group of guys that starts to believe that they’re going to be in every game, it’s a really good place to be.”

Hayden Birdsong started for the Giants and turned in a career-high six innings on 104 pitches. He whirred along without trouble until, with two outs in the fourth, Brenton Doyle reached on an infield single and Mickey Moniak also recorded a hit. Arcia walked, then Ryan Ritter hit a sharp shot toward short and Moniak leaped over it, right in front of Adames, blocking his vision, and the ball skipped past him as both runners scored. Moniak also knocked a solo homer in the sixth.

Colorado scored twice more in the seventh off Sean Hjelle, with Estrada driving in both runs with a double to make that early padding all the more important.

The Rockies, at 13-55, are tied with the 1932 Red Sox for the worst start in baseball history.

(sfchronicle.com)

NO KINGS PROTESTS SET TO DRAW THOUSANDS ACROSS BAY AREA ON TRUMP’S BIRTHDAY

by Molly Burke

Thousands of protesters are expected to gather at No Kings demonstrations Saturday across the Bay Area — and the rest of the United States — to register opposition to President Donald Trump on his birthday.

The demonstrations, which will coincide with Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., follow days of increasingly tense protests in cities across the country over immigration raids and Trump’s deployment of military troops to Los Angeles.

“We just chose the same date (as Trump’s military parade) to show the world a counter image,” Liliana Soroceanu, an organizer with Indivisible SF, said.

Massive crowds are expected to gather in San Francisco, Oakland and across the Bay Area for the demonstrations — possibly causing traffic delays in some areas. Here’s what readers should know about the No Kings protests.

Why are people protesting on Saturday?

“The protest is a manifestation of our displeasure — the American people — with the Trump regime, and Trump specifically,” Soroceanu said.

Indivisible SF and 50501 are working alongside other local activist organizations to organize San Francisco’s No Kings protest.

Organizers called Trump a “would-be king,” and hope to draw a contrast between protesters voicing concerns and the military parade Saturday, which marks the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, as well as Trump’s 79th birthday.

“We’re not gathering to feed his ego,” the event’s website said. “We’re building a movement that leaves him behind.”

Soroceanu said the protest also falls on Flag Day and offers protesters a chance to bring American flags to celebrate the country and the right to protest.

“The flag doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us.,” the event’s website said.

Soroceanu said organizers from various organizations involved in planning San Francisco’s demonstrations have received more than 4,000 RSVPs to the event, which she expects will be bigger than the Hands Off rally in April, which brought thousands to Civic Center Plaza.

Where are Bay Area demonstrations?

Demonstrations are planned in many Bay Area cities, with large gatherings anticipated in Oakland and San Francisco.

Protesters in Oakland will meet at Wilma Chan Park at 12:30 p.m. before marching to Frank Ogawa Plaza.

“The narcissist-in-chief is throwing a ridiculous military parade for himself in DC — everywhere else we rise up to say NO KINGS!!” the No Kings East Bay event website said.

San Francisco protesters will gather around 11:30 a.m. at Mission Dolores Park before marching to Civic Center Plaza, where there will be speakers from community organizations, Soroceanu said.

Soroceanu said protesters in San Francisco can expect a short speech at the park before a truck of organizers will lead chants and play music while leading demonstrators to the plaza for speeches beginning around 1 p.m. Soroceanu said speakers will include Alex U. Inn of The People’s March, Tanisha Humphrey of the ACLU of Northern California, Mauni Jalali and Sanika Mahajan of Mission Action.

Other protesters in San Francisco will gather at Ocean Beach at 10 a.m. to create a “human banner” spelling out “No Kings.”

Dozens of other protests are planned in the East Bay, the South Bay and in Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties, a map on the No Kings website showed.

What roads could be closed?

Soroceanu said organizers will be blocking roads as the march in San Francisco proceeds from Mission Dolores Park to Civic Center Plaza, though only for as long as pedestrians are in the streets, not for the whole length of the event.

Demonstrators are expected to leave the park walking up Dolores Street around noon before turning right to walk up Market Street.

Traffic delays and transit rerouting is likely to happen at roads that cross or run on Dolores and Market Streets.

Protesters will then turn left onto Polk Street before stopping at Civic Center Plaza, where traffic will likely see delays throughout the rally.

What safety measures are in place?

Soroceanu said organizers have gone through safety training in anticipation of the protests, and worked on deescalation tactics, particularly in light of seeing violent encounters between police and protesters in Los Angeles in recent days.

“We have everything in place to avoid any sort of disruptions,” Soroceanu said.

Soroceanu also said organizers received a permit for the protest and march.

San Francisco police said they will be “prepared with staff and resources to help facilitate First Amendment expressions of free speech, while also maintaining peace and safety for residents and visitors and protecting property,” officer Robert Rueca said in a statement.

“The Police Department asks that everyone exercising their First Amendment rights be respectful and mindful of the safety of others,” Rueca said. “Individuals are always free to exercise their First Amendment rights in San Francisco but violence — especially against SFPD officers — will never be tolerated.”

San Francisco firefighters have also been preparing in advance of the large gatherings, including forming task forces to deal with any injuries to demonstrators or public safety workers, Lt. Mariano Elias said.

“SFFD wants to maintain its mission to protect the people and visitors of San Francisco at all times,” Elias said.

Tips for those planning to come

Soroceanu advised protesters planning to come to bring water and sunscreen — in case “we ever see the sun in San Francisco this summer” — and a “good spirit.”

“We want this to be a joyful event for the community to bring us together,” Soroceanu said.

(SFGate.com)

A MAJOR WINE COMPANY IS LEAVING CALIFORNIA

by Esther Mobley

Alcohol distribution does not sound like an exciting topic, but it’s suddenly the hot gossip within California wine circles.

Republic National Distributing Co., the nation’s second-largest alcohol wholesaler, announced last week that it will no longer do business in California after Sept. 2. It’s sent more than 2,500 beverage brands scrambling to find a new distributor in the state.

This reshuffling has generated so much attention largely because it looks like a dire warning for an industry already known to be in peril. If a wholesale behemoth is simply opting out of the largest wine market in the U.S. — if it would rather leave than try to compete — that seems like confirmation that the alcohol industry’s downturn has not reached its bottom.

While the Grand Prairie, Texas-based Republic National has not suggested that politics played a role in the decision, the news also may be resonating so widely in part because of the narrative it presents: A Texas company wants nothing to do with California.

CEO Bob Hendrickson cited “rising operational costs, industry head winds, and supplier changes” as reasons for the move. The latter is what everyone in the wine industry seems to be discussing. Some of Republic National’s most important brands have defected lately to other distributors, especially to the beer-focused Reyes Beverage Group. Since the beginning of the year, the company has lost the right to sell top-selling spirits including Tito’s, High Noon, Cutwater Spirits and Jack Daniel’s, among many others.

The loss of those brands had to be a major financial blow to Republic National. Why they all left, and all at once, is unclear. VinePair’s Dave Infante posited that it was the result of Reyes’ quest to increase its spirits portfolio after a change in California law made it easier for beer wholesalers to sell liquor.

“It left everybody in the lurch,” said John Buehler, owner of Napa Valley’s Buehler Vineyards, where wholesale purchases drive 80% of the business. “It was really such short notice.” Although Republic National continues to sell his wines in a few other states, he’ll need to find a new California distributor.

Many wineries and distilleries will now try to jump onto the lists of the other two big dogs, Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits or Breakthru Beverage Group. The Napa-based importer Wilson Daniels has already announced it’s bringing its book of prestigious wines like Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Piedmont’s Gaja to Breakthru, while Treasury Americas president Ben Dollard said he’s still “evaluating alternative arrangements” for wineries including Beaulieu, Frank Family and Daou. Other producers will look to smaller distributors, like Chambers & Chambers or Skurnik Wines & Spirits, for their California sales.

But in a contracting wine market, there may not be room for everybody on those lifeboats. “It’s going to be a thinning of the herd,” Buehler said. “The ankle biters that were in that portfolio, the little guys — there’s going to be a lot of collateral damage.”

Republic National had only recently increased its presence in the Golden State when it completed the purchase of major California distributor Young’s Market Co. in 2022. The industry analyst Impact Databank estimated the company’s sales that year at $2.8 billion in California alone.

Despite that considerable power, however, Buehler — who had been with Young’s since 1992 and moved to Republic National as a result of that acquisition — said that Republic National consistently “underperformed” for him in terms of sales. He now regrets waiting so long to find a new distributor. “I think I should have seen the writing on the wall. You lose these suppliers, and you’re not attracting any new suppliers,” he said. Still, “I had no idea that they were going to close up shop.”

At least Republic National appears to still be selling his wine ahead of the September shutdown date. “I keep getting purchase orders,” Buehler said, “so I guess it’s business as usual.”

(SF Chronicle)

HOMELAND SECURITY AGENTS ARREST SENATOR ALEX PADILLA

A U.S. senator from California was forced to the floor, handcuffed and removed by federal agents after interrupting a news conference by the homeland security secretary on Thursday in Los Angeles. It was the latest sign of rising political tensions as the authorities across the country geared up for more demonstrations and California and the Trump administration faced off in a hearing in federal court.

Democratic politicians reacted with outrage to the video of the treatment of Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat. But the Trump administration and some Republican leaders blamed Mr. Padilla, saying he had lunged at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ignored officers’ orders to back away. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, suggested that Mr. Padilla should be punished by the Senate.

OAKLAND AND SAN FRANCISCO PROTEST IMMIGRATION RAIDS

photos by David Bacon

OAKLAND, CA - 10JUNE25 - Community and immigrant rights organizations rally in the Lationo Fruitvale district to protest immigration raids and the use of the National Guard in Los Angeles. The demonstration was organized by the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, and Mayor Barbara Lee and Supervisor Nikki Bas spoke.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - 9JUNE25 - Unions and immigrant rights activists protest immigration raids and the arrest in Los Angeles of David Huerta, head of United Service Workers West during a raid. Labor leaders included Olga Miranda, SEIU Local 87, Kieth Brown, Alameda Labor Council and others.…

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2025/06/photos-from-edge-14-oakland-and-san.html

IMMIGRANT WORKERS AND THE RECENT HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION RAIDS

A presentation by David Bacon at the UCLA Latin American Institute, with photographs and transcript.…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FlsyWTBWso

IN DEFENSE OF TERRY MORAN

by Matt Taibbi

ABC anchor Terry Moran was fired Tuesday over a Sunday tweet describing Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller as a “world-class hater”:

Moran, who’s held a series of enviable posts at ABC (chief White House correspondent, host of Nightline, chief foreign correspondent, lead campaign trail reporter) was dismissed by his longtime employers with a curt announcement:

“ABC News stands for objectivity and impartiality in its news coverage and does not condone subjective personal attacks on others. The post does not reflect the views of ABC News and violated our standards − as a result, Terry Moran has been suspended pending further evaluation.”

Moran is now on Substack. Good for him, but his skills fit a major television station and he would probably still be working at one, if the business could make up its mind about how it wants to cover politics (and Trump in particular). Reporters in this era have been asked to abandon objectivity and adhere to it. They’ve been urged to be public figures with heavy social media presences, but also told they’ll be fired if they say what they think. It’s a no-win situation.

The problem goes back nearly a decade and has officially reached the level of absurdity. Corporate media needs to shit or get off the pot:

I’m not going to tell you that I agree with Moran or that I think news programs are helped when top correspondents or anchors label themselves as supporters of a political side. I actually think the opposite (see below). But, three things. First, I don’t think journalists should be fired for expressing their opinions. Second, the specific issue of ABC pretending to stand for objectivity is laughable. Third, the tweeting thing is a pet peeve. On Barack Obama’s campaign plane in 2012 I listened to a cable reporter read out his workload, which included writing up to two print stories a day, doing half a dozen live hits, “vlogging,” and… tweeting.

“Do you get paid for that?” I asked.

“Oh, fuck no,” he laughed. “But, gotta anyway.”

None will admit it, but many news organizations in the late 2000s subtly encouraged their reporters (particularly broadcasters, by the way) to open social media accounts and start blabbing something, anything, to the world. They posted pics of their cats and babies and rooted for sports teams, all to provide free PR for mega-corporations that by then were already starting to lose money because of loss of audience confidence.

For people like me, whose Rolling Stone job was to give subjective takes in print, it wasn’t a problem. For people ostensibly employed in the “objective” side of the news business, it was a serious issue. Not only did bosses who once insisted you keep your private life private now ask the reverse, there was suddenly an uncompensated mandate to write things that (it quickly turned out) might get you fired.

Ask Terry Frei of the Denver Post, axed after musing in what was obviously a joke that “nothing specifically personal, but I am very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning the Indianapolis 500 [Takuma Sato] during Memorial Day weekend.” The paper gave the same type of statement that “the tweet doesn’t represent what we believe nor what we stand for.” Or there was BBC broadcaster Danny Baker after posting a picture of Harry and Meghan’s baby as a chimpanzee, or the long list of media figures (Julia Ioffe, Jemele Hill, Mark Giangreco) for tweeting in private about Donald Trump what nearly all media outlets were saying in coverage.

Moran is being fired by a network that airs The View, one of the most pathological, reflexively Trump-despising programs in all of media, one that’s doubled as a cheery platform for Democratic politicians. Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris have been just a few of the guests, and when ABC asked the View hosts to “tone down” the anti-Trump rhetoric, Whoopi Goldberg and the rest blew off the bosses with a show about how Trump was “blatantly giving the country the middle finger.”

I can’t stand The View, and also think the hosts get themselves into trouble with facts all the time, but the network shouldn’t be telling their on-air people to alter a formula they were clearly encouraged in (and used to score top ratings slots). They especially can’t back down from Whoopi Goldberg and then turn around and fire Terry Moran for the same thing.

As for ABC News, it’s not as flagrantly partisan as MSNBC or even Fox, but the claim that “ABC stands for objectivity” is laughable. It runs all the usual red-meat stuff (Mark Cuban called Trump fascist! John Kelly called Trump a fascist!) but the bigger tell is how often it steers clear of criticism of Democrats. Its stories often read like promotional copy, with coverage of the rollout of the Kamala Harris “opportunity economy“ a classic example. When Joe Biden gave a State of the Union address, you could almost hear Jonathan Karl popping a boner, while Mary Bruce delivered scoops like, “The White House feels that he nailed this.” Forget Twitter: this network that had a lead anchor say on air that “some things are true even if Donald Trump said them” while explaining the difference between Trump and “serious people”:

If news networks want to be taken seriously as places that “stand for objectivity,” it’s the on-air stuff that needs fixing first, not tweets. Again, it’s not about being nice to Trump or avoiding heavy criticism of him. The above Karl episode is a clear example of the self-interested reason news stations should avoid being flippantly partisan: it causes them to make gigantoid mistakes, which in turn causes them to lose audience. They were warned about this.

In September 2016, just before Trump was first elected, New York Times public editor Liz Spayd published “The Truth About False Balance.” The Times was under heavy pressure then to avoid coverage of negative stories about Hillary Clinton, specifically about the Clinton Foundation. Readers argued there was “too much at stake” to “stoke the belief” that anything Clinton did was on par with misdeeds of the Trumpian Gorgon. On Brian Stelter’s Reliable Sources on CNN, the argument was made that in a normal election, one candidate may be an apple and another an orange, but both are at least still fruits. The upcoming election was different, Spayd was told. She disagreed:

“The problem with false balance doctrine is that it masquerades as rational thinking. What the critics really want is for journalists to apply their own moral and ideological judgments to the candidates. Take one example. Suppose journalists deem Clinton’s use of private email servers a minor offense compared with Trump inciting Russia to influence an American election by hacking into computers — remember that? Is the next step for a paternalistic media to barely cover Clinton’s email so that the public isn’t confused about what’s more important? Should her email saga be covered at all? It’s a slippery slope.”

Spayd earned disapproval by suggesting the Gray Lady keep back from loaded verbiage. When it came out that buttons and other political merch was being sold on Amazon reading TRUMP THAT BITCH, the Times ran a pro-Clinton op-ed reading, “The Bitch America Needs.” Spayd agreed with much of the piece, but was “jolted” by the headline, saying what bothered her “was that it seemed to come from the voice of The Times.” Similarly, Spayd thought the Times should at most use the word lie ”rarely,” because “its power in political warfare has so freighted the word that its mere appearance on news pages, however factually accurate, feels partisan.”

A turn came in the spring of 2017, when the Times not only fired Spayd but eliminated the Public Editor position. In an episode that I hope history remembers as a shameful moment in journalism, colleagues almost universally celebrated Spayd’s dismissal, in large part because of her consistent defenses of distance and objectivity as well as a stance about reporters trying to avoid tweeting. “She’s been so bad at her job that the elimination of the role might be seen as an improvement,” hissed Vox.

“Liz Spayd is squandering the most important job in journalism,” snapped Slate, which complained that “her takes on false balance (she’s for it), reporters’ tweets (she’s against them), and the paper’s campaign coverage (not enough false balance) stand out among the howlers.” Many also condemned her final column on June 2 of that year, which came at the peak of Russiagate hysteria, just weeks after Robert Mueller was named to head a Special Counsel investigation that would dominate the paper’s front page for years. Spayd cautioned:

“The Trump administration is drowning in scandal, the country is calcified into two partisan halves. And large newsrooms are faced with a choice: to maintain an independent voice, but one as aggressive and unblinking as the days of Watergate. Or to morph into something more partisan, spraying ammunition at every favorite target and openly delighting in the chaos.”

Years later, editor Dean Baquet was later caught on tape admitting “we built our newsroom to cover one story,” the Mueller story. The paper, Baquet told employees in a staff “town hall,” had suffered when the Mueller report came out and “Our readers who want Donald Trump to go away suddenly thought, ‘Holy shit, Bob Mueller is not going to do it…’” Spayd was right to advise caution about the “drowning in scandal” moment, not that anyone would admit it.

Either be objective or don’t, there are merits to both approaches, but firing someone for saying out loud what your network is implying every day is pathetic.

NEW IMAGE COULD HELP FIND CALIF. BABY ABDUCTED 45 YEARS AGO, OFFICIALS SAY

by Madlynn Medina

Authorities hope a new image could help find a man who was kidnapped by a person posing as a social worker more than four decades ago, when he was just 17 days old.

Kevin Verville Jr., who would now be 45 years old, was abducted on July 1, 1980, in Oceanside, a coastal city located near San Diego. The age-progressed image released by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in a Tuesday news release shows what Verville may look like today.

In the news release, Angeline Hartmann, a spokesperson for the center, said she believes Kevin could still be “out there, alive.”

At the time of the kidnapping, Kevin’s parents, Angelina and Kevin Verville Sr., were living at an off-base, military housing complex in Oceanside when an unknown woman knocked at their door.

The woman, who said her name was “Sheila,” told the couple that she worked for a welfare organization that helped low-income military families. The woman said by enrolling, the family could receive up to $100 in financial aid, the Daily Times-Advocate reported at the time.

The woman told Angelina, who was 23 years old at the time, that she could receive the benefits by coming with her to the social services office, the outlet reported. “Sheila” drove Angelina and baby Kevin under the guise of picking up another person who would be part of the program.

The woman asked Angelina to knock on the door of the person’s house, which was in a remote area near Guajome Lake, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1982. Once Angelina got out of the car, the woman drove away with the baby.

The baby was never found, and the FBI believed the woman kidnapped Kevin to replace a baby who died, the outlet reported. The woman went to at least 20 families before going to the Vervilles’ residence, which led the FBI to believe she “went out of their way for a certain baby,” Norman Zigrossi, then the San Diego FBI bureau chief, told the Times. Investigators believe “Sheila” was looking for a baby under 6 months old and part Filipino, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said.

Because of the numerous witness accounts, investigators were able to put together a sketch of the woman, who was believed to be in her 20s with red or blond frizzy hair, according to the center. The woman had a tattoo of an X in between her fingers and appeared to be pregnant.

No one was named or arrested in connection with the kidnapping, and the case eventually went cold.

Kevin’s parents ended up divorcing several years later, citing their baby’s abduction as one of the main reasons, the North County Times reported in 1983.

Kevin’s sister, Angelica Ramsey, was born after the kidnapping and is now asking investigators for updates on her brother’s case.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said Kevin’s abduction is part of a nationwide trend targeting infants. After analyzing 342 cases from 1964 through January 2025, the data revealed that many of the cases were often women “of childbearing age who appear to be pregnant” and someone who has lost a baby or is not able to have children.

The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading up to Kevin’s whereabouts and the arrest of his abductor. Anyone with information about the kidnapping or the woman is urged to call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or the FBI at 1-800-225-5324.

TRUMP VS. NEWSOM AN UGLY SKIRMISH THAT BENEFITS BOTH POLITICIANS

by Sophia Bollag

On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom called President Donald Trump a “dictator.” On Monday, Trump called for Newsom’s arrest. On Tuesday, Newsom’s office posted a mocking video comparing Trump to one of the most evil Star Wars villains.

After starting the year with remarkable civility working together in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, the president and the governor of the country’s most populous state are now locked in a very public battle that, while acrimonious, offers political opportunities for both men.

After months of increasing tension, Trump started the latest fight on Saturday night when he used protests over his immigration crackdown as justification to send the National Guard into Los Angeles over the governor’s objections.

The escalating civil unrest, spurred by the deployment, has shifted the national conversation from Trump’s foundering budget proposal and provided him an opportunity to rip one of his favorite foils: California. Rob Stutzman, a California-based Republican political consultant who has long been critical of Trump, said he thinks the president deployed the National Guard to distract from the economic fallout from his tariffs and his embarrassing public fight with Elon Musk. He said the move has focused the nation on immigration.

“This is a fight directly instigated by the White House,” Stutzman said. “Trump was desperate.”

After many Democrats had criticized him for being too cozy with MAGA-world, the situation has a potential upside for Newsom, too. The rift with Trump has elevated him into the national spotlight as the Democrat leading the charge against a president reviled by his opponents.

On Tuesday, Newsom gave a livestreamed address in which he accused the president of “indiscriminately targeting hardworking immigrant families” with his immigration raids and of “taking a wrecking ball to our Founding Fathers’ historic project” by deploying the military to respond to protests.

“California may be first — but it clearly won’t end here. Other states are next,” Newsom said. “Democracy is under assault right before our eyes — the moment we’ve feared has arrived.”

In January, after Trump was sworn in, Newsom kept his rhetoric about Trump measured, even as other Democrats excoriated the president as a threat to democracy. In the days after his inauguration, Newsom said Trump was cooperating with fire recovery efforts and praised the president for his work with California during the height of the COVID pandemic.

“We had a partner, not a sparring partner, a working partner, in President Trump during those years,” he told reporters. “I’m firmly focused on building that partnership.”

In need of assistance from the president, Newsom held news conferences amid the rubble in Los Angeles and praised Trump for cooperating with the state to clean up the debris.

But as the year wore on, Newsom became more and more critical. He made some especially fiery remarks in April when he sued over the president’s tariffs.

“Donald Trump is betraying the people of the Central Valley,” Newsom said, standing in front of a warehouse at a Central Valley farm where he announced the lawsuit. “He is betraying the people that supported him.”

Over the weekend, Newsom’s rhetoric against the president escalated further.

“He’s not here for peacemaking. He wants a war. He wants a civil war on the streets,” Newsom told Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson on Monday.

Trump, who has always criticized Newsom and often calls him names, has also escalated his threats against the governor, including calling for him to be arrested.

“He’s doing a bad job,” Trump said of Newsom at the White House on Tuesday.

Trump criticized Newsom for not doing enough to quell the protests, and echoed his past blame of the governor for the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles at the start of the year.

In many ways, the situation is politically advantageous to both men, Stutzman said. The president’s arrest threat, in particular, could help the governor.

“That’s almost like a gift to Newsom,” Stutzman said. “Newsom has no choice but to fully engage it, but at the same time it becomes the opportunity for him to legitimately be elevated within his party as the guy on the front lines fighting Trump.”

The optics of the protests, with images of cars burning and foreign flags flying in the streets, have played to Trump’s advantage so far, said Gabriel Lenz, a political science professor at UC Berkeley. But he noted that if the administration continues to aggressively pursue immigration raids in workplaces and target people without criminal history, that could backfire for Trump. It remains to be seen how the drama in Los Angeles will help or hurt either politician.

“There’s a real opportunity to win that public opinion battle,” he said.

EITHER L.A. IS BEING TARGETED BY PARTISAN DISINFORMATION, OR I AM THE WORLD’S WORST FATHER

by Paul Thornton

Either Los Angeles is the target of a partisan disinformation campaign, or I am the world’s worst father.

Over the past few days in this supposedly war-torn city, I’ve taken my children to Little League baseball games and summer camps. I’ve caught up with a former colleague over morning coffee in Compton and hiked the trails in Griffith Park, overlooking the San Fernando Valley on one side and downtown L.A.’s photogenic skyline on the other.

Taking the Trump administration at its word (hah), this behavior renders me and every other local parent going about normal life with their children reckless, unfit guardians.

If Los Angeles were, as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem describes us, “not a city of immigrants, (but) a city of criminals” — and if this truly was a quasi-war zone meriting the deployment of 4,000 National Guard personnel and even 700 active-duty Marines — what does it say about the parents still leaving their children in the care of teachers or summer camp counselors?

Do the morning commuters still crowding the freeways have a death wish? Are people so attached to their 9-to-5 jobs that they risk driving the killing fields of Los Angeles to spend their final living moments at work?

I remember quite vividly what the freeways were like the last time Marines came to Los Angeles. That was in 1992, when more than 60 people died in truly region-wide unrest after a jury acquitted the city cops who viciously beat Rodney King. My mother, a nurse stuck for days at her hospital in East L.A. amid the violence, marveled at the 15-minute commute afforded by a population scared off the roads.

And, yes, my Little League games at the time were canceled. So was school.

Now?

The Los Angeles Unified School District has said its police will deploy not to protect students from the rioters that Trump and his followers insist run the asylum here, but to keep campuses and graduation attendees safe from the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement raids that initially sparked the protests. Events are being canceled all right — but mostly because immigrant communities fear the brutal ICE dragnet, not because hooligans are at the gates.

Yes, there has been some looting and violence. On Sunday, from the Little League field where my son was playing, we could see thick black smoke rising from the autonomous Waymo vehicles torched by a handful of rioters (I distinguish between peaceful protesters, the overwhelming majority, and rioters). Saturday night, when I visited downtown L.A. to observe the protests after Gov. Gavin Newsom had warned that Trump would be deploying the National Guard over his objections, I saw a few broken windows and freshly applied “F— ICE” graffiti.

Just around the corner in Little Tokyo, however, restaurants were packed, with diners spilling onto the sidewalk seating areas held over from the COVID era. Police clad in riot gear seemed to outnumber protesters.

The Los Angeles of 1992, this certainly wasn’t. Maybe 2010, yes, when the Lakers beat the Celtics in the NBA finals and exuberant fans set fire to a few cars in celebration. The L.A. bus system was a mess that night; I remember because I was stuck at work downtown for hours.

But I eventually got home, and local cops eventually made arrests — no Marines, National Guard or constitutional crisis necessary. More recently, when a bus was set on fire the night the Dodgers won the World Series last October, no mention was made of Joe Biden sending in the federal cavalry.

But Donald Trump is the president now, and a pillar of his administration is terrorizing immigrant communities. He is also capitalizing on years of far-right hysteria over crime and chaos in “Democrat-run” cities like Los Angeles — hysteria that might have roots in a few kernels of truth but typically branches out into wild fantasies.

I saw this frequently during my 14-year stint editing the letters page of the Los Angeles Times. Plenty of local readers expressed deep frustration with the state of affairs in the city — the dangerously craggy sidewalks, the spiraling price of housing, the fires, the intractable homelessness crisis and the sad state of public transportation were among the greatest hits. There are ongoing, contentious, real conversations about the quality of life in Los Angeles, as with any large city.

The truly caustic letters, ones that painted a grim picture of a city I couldn’t recognize, tended to come from far-away readers — people who wrote more assuredly about the terror of life in L.A. than the residents who lived here.

Sound familiar, San Francisco? Chicago? Portland? It’s as if much of this nation, having been spoon-fed wildly simplistic, partisan fantasies about the “trash heap” cities (Trump’s own words) governed by Democrats, is primed for this terrifying moment.

This has set the stage for the most surreal time I’ve experienced in this vast, complex, resilient and almost always peaceful city — where those of us fortunate to be spared ICE-induced terror are living as we were days or months ago, but are suddenly staring down the barrel of military occupation because the president and millions of others who don’t live here believe a lie.

First, they came for Los Angeles. I fear it doesn’t end with us.

(Paul Thornton is the former letters editor of the Los Angeles Times, where he also authored the weekly Opinion newsletter for 10 years.)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

He said he would deport 25 million people. So far he’s done less than 10,000, and most without due process - so those don’t count as “deportation” - they are just a legal headache for future American governments. So in summary this is another Trump administration cluster phck and he is proving that he has no management or leadership skill for the n+1 time where n is a number >> a million.

LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT

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Grieving Relatives of India Air Crash Victims Wait for Bodies to Be Identified

‘I Don’t Know How I Am Alive,’ Air India Crash Survivor Tells Family

Early Humans Settled in Cities. Bedbugs Followed Them

ISRAELI STRIKES TARGET IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Iran said the commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was among top officials killed. Israel says it was a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Surveillance footage shows explosions over Tehran as Israel launched what it described as a “pre-emptive strike” on Iran. (The Associated Press)

Israel carried out a major attack on Iran’s nuclear program on Friday morning, killing top Iranian military officials as well.

The strikes raised fears the long-simmering conflict between the two countries could escalate into a war involving the most powerful militaries in the Middle East. The commander in chief of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Gen. Hossein Salami, was among the dead reported by state media.

(NY Times)

THE NEED for sustained mass action demanding Trump’s removal from power is now of burning historical significance. Dr. Martin Luther King’s phrase “the fierce urgency of now” is being written across the American historical skies right now. Waiting until elections next year or 2028 is surrender to the Trump regime’s plan for the fascist makeover of American society and government. So is “reaching out to the Trump base,” fighting the regime just one or two issues at a time, turning inward to focus on self and family, arguing that we can wait the Trump nightmare out (“this too shall pass”), and ignoring the core fascist – white-supremacist, arch-patriarchal, xenophobic nationalist and dictatorial – nature of the Trump regime by focusing on economic grievances that supposedly unite all of “the 99%” against the billionaire class.

All who hate what Trump and his regime are doing to the country and the world – a majority of US Americans – and can make it out of their homes and jobs this coming Saturday should report to protests with signs, songs, chants, drums, whistles, dances, art, speeches, bullhorns and righteous anger to amplify a beautiful nationwide people’s call for “king” Trump’s removal. My own organization will be protesting in Washington DC itself, with US military veterans in the lead – sign up to join that protest here or to join or form a protest in our own locale here.

— Paul Street

REFRESHER ON THE RULES FOR DISCUSSING ISRAELI WARS

by Caitlin Johnstone

Okay it’s been a few months since the last war Israel started, so now that Iran’s on the chopping block let’s go over the rules once again.

Rule 1: Israel is never the aggressor. If Israel attacks someone it’s either a response to an aggression that happened in the past, or a preemptive attack to thwart an imminent aggression in the future.

Rule 2: History automatically restarts at the date of the last act of aggression against Israel. If someone attacks Israel it was completely unprovoked, because nothing happened before the attack on Israel.

Rule 3: Anything bad that Israel does is justified by Rule 2. This is true even if it does things that would be considered completely unjustifiable if it were done by a nation like Russia or China.

Rule 4: Israel has a right to defend itself, but nobody else does.

Rule 5: Israel never bombs civilians, it bombs Bad Guys. If shocking numbers of civilians die it’s because they were actually Bad Guys, or because Bad Guys killed them, or because a Bad Guy stood too close to them. If none of those reasons apply then it’s for some other mysterious reason we are still waiting for the IDF to investigate.

Rule 6: Criticizing anything Israel does means you hate Jewish people. There is no other possible reason for anyone to oppose acts of mass military slaughter besides a seething, obsessive hatred for a small Abrahamic faith.

Rule 7: Nothing Israel does is ever as bad as the hateful criticisms described in Rule 6. Criticisms of Israel’s actions are always worse than Israel’s actions themselves, because those critics hate Jews and wish to commit another Holocaust. Preventing this must consume 100 percent of our political energy and attention.

Rule 8: Israelis are only ever the victims and never the victimizers. If Israelis kill Iranians, it’s because the Iranians hate Jews. If Iranians kill Israelis, it’s because the Iranians hate Jews. Israel is an innocent little lamb that just wants to mind its own business in peace.

Rule 9: The fact that Israel is literally always in a state of war with its neighbors and with displaced indigenous populations must be interpreted as proof that Rule 8 is true instead of proof that Rule 8 is ridiculous nonsense.

Rule 10: The lives of people in Muslim nations are much, much less important to us than western lives or Israeli lives. Nobody is allowed to think too hard about why this might be.

Rule 11: The media always tell the truth about Israel and its various conflicts. If you doubt this then you are likely in violation of Rule 6.

Rule 12: Unsubstantiated claims which portray Israel’s enemies in a negative light may be reported as factual news stories without any fact checking or qualifications, while extensively evidenced records of Israeli criminality must be reported on with extreme skepticism and doubtful qualifiers like “Iran claims”, “Hezbollah says” or “according to the Hamas-run health ministry”. This is important to do because otherwise you might get accused of being a propagandist.

Rule 13: Israel must continue to exist in its current iteration no matter what it costs or how many people need to die. There is no need to present any logically or morally grounded reasons why this is the case. If you dispute this then you are likely in violation of Rule 6.

Rule 14: The US government has never lied about anything ever, and is always on the right side of every conflict.

Rule 15: Israel is the last bastion of freedom and democracy in the middle east and therefore must be defended, no matter how many journalists it has to assassinate, no matter how many press institutions it needs to shut down, no matter how many protests its supporters need to dismantle, no matter how much free speech it needs to eliminate, no matter how many civil rights its western backers need to erase, and no matter how many elections its lobbyists need to buy.

Indian soldiers on motorbikes in 2024. Ludovic Marin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

24 Comments

David Stanford June 13, 2025

SENATOR ALEX PADILLA

What a stupid assssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reply
- Harvey Reading June 13, 2025
  
  Congress has plenty of stupid asses (from “both” major parties), but not quite on the scale of the asses of the current executive branch; close, but no cigar.
  
  Reply
steve derwinski June 13, 2025

Woody moved north from Santa Barbara. He told me once that his taxes had gone up dramatically so he drained the pool in his back yard and filled it with dirt. But before he did, he threw all of his paintings in the bottom of the pool. Woody and Thornton Casey who lived out on the Nash Ranch would stop by Charlie Bass’s where I was building my boat, have a couple beers and talk about ART. ( Thornton was a watercolorist also)
One day while they were hanging out together I asked them “Why don’t you paint me a picture of my boat ?” The next day Woody showed up wIth an easel and all his watercolor supplies and gifted me with a great picture of my boat–The Red Star–in progress……

Reply
- Chuck Dunbar June 13, 2025
  
  ACTS OF KINDNESS
  
  (I just wrote this small tale, and now posting it, I find Steve’s story above of another act of kindness, makes me smile, this nice coincidence.)
  
  Grim times here, grim times all over the world. Many of us feel anxious, off-kilter, wondering what comes next. It’s time to be kind and friendly toward others, as much as we can, especially in our sweet small towns. A good friend who lives in New Mexico of my told me this story in a recent chat.
  
  She and her husband love peanut butter, and she’d gone to a grocery to stock up. Bought ten jars! She paid by credit card, got home and checked the receipt. They’d charged her for only one jar, not ten. She went back to the store, told them she owed them money. The manager, touched by her honesty, remarked to her, “No one would have known.” She responded, “I would have known.” He accepted the money owed, went down the aisle, came back with a bouquet of flowers for her. They both smiled, thanked each other.
  
  I shared with my friend my Anderson Valley story from years ago. Of the kind, strong young lady, a traveler from Florida, who’d changed the ruined tire of this old guy with a bad back on a dark and rainy evening in the 128 redwoods.
  
  Acts of kindness, some done, some not done or overlooked. As an older guy, sometimes pondering as one does, the worth of my life, I remember some acts of kindness I’ve done with crystal clarity. And, also, the times— due to oversight, failure to act quickly, or simply not caring enough—I’ve not acted kindly, missed a chance to help and be a friend to others. Regrets, also with crystal clarity.
  
  Reply
  - Bruce McEwen June 13, 2025
    
    Bless you Vicar Dunbar, a helpful benediction for those of us struggling with the likely imposition of martial law on the morrow and, as we’ve been assigned to mind the grandkids, we can’t join the march— whether it be in the martial parade or the protesters or the paid agitators—we don’t know what side our grown kids are on but we must stay home and keep the little kids safe in the meantime, back at the ranch, weeding the garden, keeping the games and puzzles going ‘cause the prospect of having soldiers billeted with us may upset some of our comfortable assumptions about whether those dreadful Chris Hedges stories should be taken seriously…. Didn’t the NYT fire the varlet?! Surely that can’t be right—c’mon, vicar!?! It all makes perfect sense to you, I wish it did to me!
    
    Reply
Lazarus June 13, 2025

“Modern Hair Styling”
They missed the “Flat Top with Fenders…”
Too cool for school.
Laz

Reply
- gary smith June 13, 2025
  
  Wow, I thought the same. It has stuck in my mind since I first saw it. Pretty cheesy haircut.
  
  Reply
David Stanford June 13, 2025

“No Kings Day”

Dems where are your plans for the future, how about some policies that would make your ideas stand out, all you have currently is to protest TRUMP, you will never get an A in class if you cannot quit thinking like a D level student.

Reply
- BRICK IN THE WALL June 13, 2025
  
  Well being a dictator is not one of the plan components of any party other than MAGA.
  
  Reply
Jennifer smallwood June 13, 2025

Is the Fort Bragg DMV actually closing or just reducing their hours?

Reply
- Jacob June 13, 2025
  
  They reduced hours to be open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  
  Reply
Norm Thurston June 13, 2025

Editor: Back in my UPS days I would occasionally stop into the post offices in Yorkville, Philo and Comptche, to get information on the location of some of my deliveries. Leo was indeed the Postmaster in Yorkville, and he usually had me laughing the entire time I was there. Mrs. Pinoli in Philo, and Mrs. Hollister in Comptche were both kind and helpful with providing the needed information. I remember all of them fondly.

Reply
Chris Hart June 13, 2025

RE: SMART IN LINE FOR STATE AWARD TO EXTEND SERVICE TO HEALDSBURG
The article explains how SMART is now funded to reach Healdsburg, following recent extensions to Sonoma Airport and the just opened Windsor connection. They have record ridership and are rapidly extending northward. It concludes by saying how they are now focused on a 70-mile track & trail extension to Cloverdale, on the very doorstep of Mendocino County.

With so much progress, what is the response by Mendocino County leadership? Are they engaging with anyone to see if the Northwestern Pacific railroad line can be put back into service? No. Instead, they support plans to bury the Cloverdale to Willits NWP line to make way for a for the Great Redwood Trail.

The sad thing is that they could have both the trail and the railroad line. This is also what is being done on the NWP line in Marin and Sonoma, but as soon as you hit the Mendocino line the plan changes to burying the tracks and to build the trail on top of the tracks.

They have cited old studies as their justification. I feel those studies were a rubber stamp exercise with the desired conclusion known in advance. For example, they did one study to see whether there was any demand for using the Cloverdale – Willits track and they didn’t bother to even speak with the Mendocino Railway that connects to that line in Willits. No there was no need to speak to anyone since they knew the answer they wanted.

They have stated that it is more expensive to build the trail to the side of the track, and showed very high costs within cities. Since that study, however, they have built the trail in Ukiah and Willits next to the track. So some of the most expensive portions of the trail & track approach are already completed. They have also ignored the significant costs savings of building a rural trail with equipment and materials delivered via an adjacent railroad line. Instead they see the track as an obstacle to be buried.

They will explain that they are “railbanking” the tracks, meaning they are preserved for future use. If you were serious about future use, you would not spend $100s of millions to build a trail on top of track that you plan to reuse in the future. No, by railbanking they don’t have to clean up the land and give it back to the people from whom it was taken to build the line.

With so much positive progress by SMART, I continue to be amazed that Mendocino County leadership insists on closing the doors to the possibility of renewing rail service into Mendocino County via the NWP line. The economic and environmental benefits of passenger and freight service to the County would be a long-term benefit to the region, rather than forever burying the idea in exchange for a trail that could simply be built to the side of the railroad line. It is short-sighted shame.

Reply
- Jacob June 13, 2025
  
  Mendocino County leadership? What’s that?
  
  Reply
- Mike Jamieson June 13, 2025
  
  There will be stretches where it may not be possible to place the trail to the side. Like portions of the segment immediately north of Norgard and south of Plant and through Rivino.
  
  Reply
  - Chris Hart June 13, 2025
    
    Understandable, Mike. These are things we have looked at with our own trail building that we do along our tracks. Sometimes it we did it for narrow sections. In other cases there are scenic spots like creeks or groves that would enhance the hiking experience so a diversion was worth it. And while trains like straight and gradual, it often sucks for a hiker. Better trails have curve and flow. And finally – having spent 25 years hiking railroad right of ways – it is usually not desirable to walk where the tracks are located. Why? No shade. When the tracks were built they cleared a 25′ + wide path with minimal brush, trees or overhang. I challenge anyone to backpack the NWP line this summer for a couple days and see how long you stick to walking down the exposed tracks versus off to the side under the trees.
    
    But back to your point, yeah I concede there would need to be some separation at sections, and that will be higher cost.
    
    Reply
  - Adam Gaska June 13, 2025
    
    There is plenty of space to put the trail next to the rail ballast north of Norgard. It has already been planned as part of the City of Ukiah’s Phase 4. It’s gone through CEQA, has funding, construction contract has been awarded. Construction starts any day now.
    
    https://cityofukiah.com/great-redwood-trail-ukiah-phase-4/
    
    Reply
Marshall Newman June 13, 2025

Re: Ed Notes. I remember most of the postmasters listed from my teens and early adulthood. Yeah, I guess I am getting older.

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James Tippett June 13, 2025

In counter-point to (author??)’s “ADDRESSING MCNAMEE MISINFORMATION RE FORT BRAGG MILLSITE”:

My statement to Fort Bragg City Council 6/9/2025

“DISCLAIMER: I’m Jade Tippett, City of Fort Bragg resident, homeowner, taxpayer and voter. I am speaking for myself and not any organization I may be part of or associated with.

“First, and what seems to me to be a fatal error in these documents, the current property owner of the Mill Site is no longer Mendocino Railway. As of December 23, 2022, Mendocino Railway transferred its interest in the Mill Site properties by grant deed to Sierra Northern Railway. I realize it’s all the same “train guys,” but the fact that the City is mis-identifying the property owner throughout these documents raises significant questions about the due diligence being applied.

“Second, related to this and concerning the so described “central park land,” [referred to by (author??) as “A proposed 60-acre nature preserve, with the potential to daylight historic creeks] a delightful elision of what is actually a “brown field,” polluted with carcinogenic dioxins and heavy metals, did the liability for the cleanup of the mill site, which Mendocino Railway agreed to assume under the Eminent Domain settlement in November of 2021 get transferred to Sierra Northern Railway along with the asset value? The train guys lawyer at a prior meeting pegged that liability at $60 million. Now, Department of Toxic Substances Control did add Sierra Northern Railway to the Site Investigation and Remediation Order in December 2024, but that still leaves the question of who will be responsible for turning that toxic brown field into the “central park land” described in this report.

“Finally, on the lawsuit front, while I realize that the July 1 deadline for stays on Sierra Northern v. City of Fort Bragg* and City of Fort Bragg v. Mendocino Railway* looms, the next shoe to drop will be whether the Supreme Court grants the Cert petition in Mendocino Railway v. Ainsworth*. Mendocino Railway’s status as a federally preempted railway hangs in the balance. If SCOTUS accepts the case, the timeline for all these cases is likely to drag out for years, a gift to the train guys. If SCOTUS rejects the case, then the dismissal of Ainsworth stands, and the courts have rejected the federal railway allegation, which would definitely change the planning for having train tracks on the headlands. We won’t likely know the answer to the cert question until mid-August at the earliest.”

I seconded Peter McNamee’s request to delay the approval, knowing that the legal timeline made the approval necessary to seeking an extension on the stays. No motion was made to correct the mis-attribution of property ownership in the documents.

*Documents from both cases, along with documents from DTSC and other agencies may be found at https://savenoyoheadlands.org.

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- Chris Hart June 13, 2025
  
  Jade, I understand that this is complicated and you want more information but those issues will be addressed in the Master Development Agreement that is months away from being done, and done in a public process. We’re not there yet, mostly because the focus is addressing the legal fight between the City, Commission and Railway.
  
  You think dragging out this process is a “gift”. You have a strange way of looking at things. You think we wanted to spend $10k a week in a fight started by the City? You think we want to spend millions on a development project that has since been delayed for 4 years by this fight? You think we wanted to have our tunnel repair funding delayed for 4 years while under siege by opposition from the City and Coastal Commission? If this legal fight is a gift, is it possible that I can return it?
  
  Reply
  - James Tippett June 13, 2025
    
    Chris, Yes, a lot of things could have been done differently, but here we are. The real question, as always, is how do we move forward from here? As I said a few years ago, having to do with the hospital and the Health Care District, trust is built on transparency. Much of the climate of distrust locally, and in the Nation today, can be traced to misrepresentation, obfuscation and attempts narrative control. Not pointing fingers here, but only to observe that if the goal is trust, we are swimming upstream in very turbid waters. As I pointed out at that time, we live on an island. Our survival and prosperity depend on our ability to work together and support each other instead of working to extract maximum value from each other.
    
    Reply
    - Chris Hart June 13, 2025
      
      I agree.
      
      Reply
  - Marco McClean June 13, 2025
    
    Something occurred to me. Have you considered just /stopping/ paying $10,000 a week to the lawyers. That is a direct way out of the expense for you. It’s a lot of money.
    
    Reply
    - Chris Hart June 13, 2025
      
      The problem is that the court dates won’t change. If you don’t renew your discovery and prep for the cases, you won’t be ready for the trial.
      
      Reply

Mendocino County Today: Friday 6/13/2025

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