Mendocino County Today: 6/14/2025

Bluff View | Breezy | Theresa Bloyd | DMV Bragg | Local Events | Verbal Assault | Fish Project | Amazon Ukiah? | Josie's Corner | Sediment Reduction | Monday Supper | Albion Headlands | Brinks Robbery | Zacha Serigraph | Woody Watercolor | Westport BBQ | Yesterday's Catch | Weed Rest | Flag/Protest Day | This America | Hardened Criminals | Immigrants Squared | Israel's Back | Golden Globes | Sako Warbucks | Kezar Stadium | Marco Radio | Giants Win | 1950s Niners | Voucher Problem | Undammed Klamath | Targeting L.A. | American Chestnut | Mexican Stuff | On Parade | ICE Fear | Crumb Revolution | Game On | Protest Prep | Lead Stories | Snitch Out | Ever Wondered | Iran Retaliates | In Exile | Israel Nukes | Birthday Boy

---

---

BREEZY northwesterly winds forecast this afternoon, with the strongest winds on coastal headlands and in Lake County. Slightly above normal temperatures with Minor HeatRisk forecast through mid next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 45F under mostly clear skies (some passing high clouds) this Saturday morning on the coast. Our forecast now mentions fog hardly any so we could be in for some sunny skies for a while. "Could be" being the key words of course.

---

THERESA LYNN BLOYD (Hafley) entered into rest on June 11, 2025. Services will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints in Ukiah at noon on Tuesday, June 17th. A celebration of life will be held at the Boonville Fairgrounds Dining Hall at 3 pm. All are welcome to attend one or both gatherings. Graveside services will be for immediate family. Arrangements are being handled by Empire Mortuary Services. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Humane Society for Inland Mendocino County. We look forward to honoring Theresa's life with you.

---

DMV FORT BRAGG

Eleanor Cooney: So, it turns out that yes, the DMV is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but according to a sign on the door, they no longer handle driver's license renewal or replacement. Sometimes these things can be done online, sometimes not. Which means, I suppose, that we will have to drive to Ukiah.

Linda Leitner: Today I called DMV at 800 777-0133. I was given a call back time and a DMV person called me within 10 minutes of that time. I now have an appointment at our Fort Bragg DMV office on a Thursday morning for drivers license renewal. The office is open on Tuesday and Thursday only for scheduled appointments. On Monday and Friday they open a 8:00 and on Wednesday at 9:00. You may also make an appointment at. dmv.ca.gov

Cooney: Ah! The mystery gradually clears up!

---

LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

---

SLOBS, THE NEXT GENERATION

I just want to share something that happened yesterday in Fort Bragg. I was driving south just past the Noyo Bridge when a car with several Caucasian teenage boys pulled up beside and very close to my car. The one in the passenger seat hung most of the top of his body out of the window and proceeded to yell obscene things that he would like to do to various parts of my body at me. Broad daylight, other cars around and completely unprovoked. For those who don’t know me, I am a 71 year old woman and I was wearing a baseball cap, driving glasses and a quilted vest, nothing remotely attractive. They were all laughing loudly and egging him on. I’m sure they were just trying to shock me, and this wasn’t the first time that I have been verbally sexually assaulted, but to have it happen at 3:30 in the afternoon in our little town was upsetting. I am sharing this because the more I thought about it, the more concerned I became that these little shits might think it would be equally funny to hold some young girl down or even rape her. I called the police and opened a file. If you see or hear of anything like this happening in Fort Bragg, please call the police. They would like to talk to these boys. The car was a nondescript darker colored sedan like a Toyota.

— Yarrow Summers

---

---

AMAZON EYES UKIAH FACILITY AS PART OF $4 BILLION RURAL-DELIVERY PUSH

by Jeff Quackenbush

Amazon plans a $4 billion investment in rural delivery by 2026, considering a facility in Mendocino County among efforts to speed last-mile service to small towns.

Amazon is planning to spend $4 billion through the end of 2026 on rural delivery, and one of the sites being considered is in Mendocino County.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant announced April 30 it would triple the number of delivery stations in small towns and cities, to total more than 200. The company opened the first one in 2020 and started ramping up the effort in 2023, claiming 50% faster delivery times to surrounding areas.

“At a time where many logistics providers are backing away from serving rural customers because of cost to serve, we are stepping up our investment to make their lives easier and better,” Udit Madan, senior vice president, Amazon Worldwide Operations.

Amazon opened such a station in Napa Valley in 2021, but backed away from plans for two similar facilities in Sonoma County the following year.

Rumors have been swirling that the Seattle-based retail giant has been considering a 56,280-square-foot warehouse project being pursued in a Ukiah business park. Mendocino County staff are reviewing the building permit application submitted Feb. 9 by Sacramento-based CDP Development Inc. for the 2.3-acre site at 1795 N. State St.

“Nothing submitted to our office indicates the intended tenant,” Julia Krog, director, Mendocino County Planning & Building Services, told the Journal in an email.

The project is in the 42-acre Friends of Liberty Industrial Park development started by Ross Liberty, owner of Factory Pipe, a Ukiah maker of exhaust systems for motorsports vehicles and watercraft. Ross declined to comment on the rumors.

Amazon told the Journal it is “always exploring” options for facilities from small to large across the country.

“Nothing is finalized in Ukiah, and we’ll share more if additional progress is made and we have something confirmed to announced,” the company said in a statement.

Amazon notes that the planned delivery stations tend to employ about 170 people. The new facilities are estimated to create around 100,000 jobs.

The company said delivery stations tend have 100,000 to 200,000 square feet in size, so the North State Street project, if chosen, would be on the smaller side.

The push toward last-mile delivery builds on existing company programs such as delivery service partners, Amazon Flex for on-demand drivers and hub delivery, which is run through existing businesses that already offer delivery to their customers.

(NorthBayBusinessJournal)

A Reader writes: “Heard a rumor that part of the property at Masonite in Ukiah has been sold to Amazon for a distribution center.”

ON LINE COMMENTS re: Ukiah Planning Commission/Annexation report.

[1] Witnessing city staff Craig Schlatter and Jesse Davis sent to the Ukiah Planning Commission annexation meeting as henchmen for Assistant Ukiah City Manager Shannon Riley and City Manager Sage Sangiacomo exposed the deception of this entire process. More importantly it’s evidence of the top down level of corruption existing throughout the City of Ukiah I submit there should be public hearings with sworn testimony, public records disclosure, and full transparency of what has transpired over recent years that put our city in this position. This hearing should be held by a governing body above the city council as they have been complicit in the process approving the fiasco unfolding. Stop wasting resources on useless town hall meetings and open the records.

[2] Ukiah’s attempt to fast-track a major land grab hit a wall Wednesday night as the Planning Commission, overwhelmed by public opposition and unanswered questions, postponed a vote on key components of the city’s annexation plan.

---

VERN PETERMAN: Heading toward the coast on Hwy 128, just past Josie's house, was a place in the road that we came to call 'Josie's Corner". The view from there looked like this:

---

A MAJOR NEW RESTORATION INITIATIVE is launching across Northern California to protect imperiled aquatic species and improve the health of sediment-impaired watersheds historically impacted by cannabis cultivation and rural development.

The project, Sediment Reduction on Cannabis Farms in Priority Northern Watersheds, is funded through the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife’s Cannabis Restoration Grant Program, and was awarded to Cannabis for Conservation (CFC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose programs conserve wildlife and restore habitats in cannabis-impacted landscapes. The project will reduce harmful sediment production and restore degraded watercourses across the Mattole, Eel, Mad, and Trinity River watersheds. These vital river systems are home to some of California’s most threatened and endangered species, including Coho and Chinook Salmon, Northern California steelhead, and newly proposed northwestern pond turtle.

“Contrary to popular belief, sedimentation from rural roads, eroding slopes, and bare unvegetated soils is one of the leading causes of aquatic habitat degradation and water quality in the state,” said Jackee Riccio, Executive Director & Co-Founder of Cannabis for Conservation. “By stabilizing roads, restoring streambanks, and replanting native vegetation, we are helping rivers run cleaner and colder, which is critical for salmonids and amphibians already on the brink.”

The project will improve a minimum of 100 high-priority sediment source sites and restore habitat on at least 40 privately owned properties with current or historical cannabis cultivation. Activities will include:

Upgrading stream crossings (culverts) to allow natural streambed function and species migration;

Bed and bank restoration of fish-bearing streams;

Decommissioning of onstream ponds that impede flow and contribute sediment;

Revegetating disturbed and sloughing soils with locally-sourced native plants

This program reflects a growing movement to align cannabis cultivation, and private rural landowners in general, with ecological stewardship. “Restoration on private lands, including those historically used for cannabis, is one of the most cost-effective and impactful strategies for watershed health,” said Vanessa Salamon, Project Manager for Cannabis for Conservation. “We’re working directly with landowners to turn past impacts into future solutions.”

To learn more about the restoration effort or to get involved,

visit CannabisforConservation.org.

---

On Line Comments

[1] Main Klamath is loaded with sediment. It will take years to flush it out.

I looked at the water post dam removal… it was staggering. I couldn’t believe it.

Massive amounts. Real images of the water were pretty much hidden from the public. Posted photos showed beautiful blue water (er… nope).

Meanwhile —

Tributaries and above the dam are clear, but they will need to carry the spawning fish till the main river clears out in time.

Fish going upstream… well, that’s great, but the real story is how many Salmon come back in 3 years. Folks… you can’t celebrate yet.

And the Klamath is still chocolate brown… and will be for years. This is important because the downstream survival of the smolts is affected by water turbidity and the number of disease organisms in the water.

Turbidity = not good. (Yeah, this is stuff from a basic ‘fisheries’ class.)

Don’t know if I will live long enough to see the Pillsbury dam come out… if you are around… well… don’t be surprised at the damage.

With the Eel River, they can’t hide it.

There will be massive amounts of politico backpedaling.

[2] Ernie Branscomb: At the risk of losing any friends that I might have left, I have to say that Bozo is exactly right on all issues.

I saw the South Fork Eel before the ’55 flood and the ’64 flood. The river is just now starting to scour out. And the eels will be coming back. Most of the damage to the river was the grant funded “clean-up.” There is nothing more harmful than free funding for foolish projects.

I’m not saying that Pillsbury should not be removed. But, it will be devastating in so many ways.

In twenty year the kids will be saying how could they have been so foolish.

---

---

ALBION HEADLANDS FOR SALE

by Mary Benjamin

The Albion Headlands, spanning over 84 acres and located just west of the Albion Bridge, is currently for sale for $6.9 million. The property is listed by Mendo Sotheby’s International Realty. Carol Smith has owned the land for many years, and it has been on the market in the past.

Local communities view the Albion Headlands as a long-time rural treasure that sits alongside the historic wooden Albion River Bridge, which rises above the cove below that serves residents and tourists. The property has never been developed but has been leased for cattle grazing. The land is fenced, and there is no public access.

On Monday, June 9, realtor Justin Nadeau, Mendocino Land Trust Executive Director Conrad Kramer, with direction of Land Protection Emily Griffen, and local advocate Tom Wodetzki held a public information meeting at the Whitesboro Grange.

Sotheby realtor Nadeau had informed the nonprofit Mendocino Land Trust about the plan to sell the property prior to its public listing. The Trust immediately put in a bid for purchase to emphasize to the seller its genuine interest in negotiating a deal.

The Mendocino Land Trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to acquiring and preserving public access lands through the application of conservation and restoration methods. It also provides and maintains a significant number of coastal trails for public access.

The turnout at the meeting filled the main room with approximately 50 people who had come to listen and ask questions about an environmental and cultural treasure. The panel of presenters, through the advocacy of Wodetzki, had agreed to come before the public and address concerns.

The property located on Spring Grove Road is zoned as Remote Residential (RMR-40) and is currently composed of 16 legal parcels, most of which are not buildable. Legal ownership is held by the B&C Smith Family Trust since 1987. The Local Coastal Plan (LCP) lists the property as a protected, “Highly Scenic” area.

Speaking as a panel member, local Albion Headlands advocate Rixanne Wehren gave the history of the property, its parcels, the long cycle of petition and litigation to protect the headlands, and the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors’ decisions regarding changes to the property’s parcels and zoning status.

A twenty-year campaign ensued to protect the area from development and maintain it as open space to benefit residents and visitors. This led to an effort in 2002 to purchase the Headlands with the help of the State Coastal Conservancy and state funds. However, a State Assembly bill authorizing funding for the purchase was vetoed by Governor Deukmejian.

As of 2008, after a County Board of Supervisors ruling to deny parcel adjustment due to environmental concerns, the property has remained as it currently is. Wehren noted, “Albion is the only town along the coast that doesn’t have any public land. That’s why we’re still at it.”

Realtor Justin Nadeau told the audience of his hope that a nonprofit purchase would occur. He said, “When I first met Carol, the owner and seller of the property, and we talked about it, I thought it was a big honor to be a local person to step up and represent this property.”

He continued, “We want local people to have a say in the big decisions that are made on the coast. That doesn’t happen if these kinds of opportunities go to out-of-town consulting firms.”

He said, “Growing up here, I see the Albion Headlands as one of our last great places. It’s spectacular to see it. When I talk about reimagining the future of the Albion Headlands, I’m trying to say let’s look not so much at the past, which is important, but let’s look to the future.”

He commented, “The Smith Family has been trying to sell the property to the state for about 30 years as a public trust. That didn’t happen. Let’s collectively find a way to do this, because if that doesn’t happen, that property will be purchased by a private entity, and they’ll build something out there.”

He said he “was a big fan of Mendocino Land Trust”, and it was an “ally in this process to find a creative solution forward that the seller, Ms. Smith, can see an offer that she can accept.”

He also answered specific questions from the audience about the current zoning, water access, the likelihood of development of the tiny parcels along the cove, and the probability of the seller’s willingness to favor the public’s desires.

Mendocino Land Trust Executive Director Conrad Kramer confirmed the nonprofit’s plan to purchase the property, although the group needs to raise at least $6 million to finance a bid.

Kramer referred to the Land Trust’s initial bid as “a weak offer” but one that gave the nonprofit “some skin in the game.” He also stressed that the nonprofit’s success rested entirely upon the seller’s willingness to give the nonprofit the time it needed to raise the funds.

Kramer said that the group has a long history of successful fundraising, such as a past land purchase of $26 million, and added that the nonprofit “is feeling very motivated about acquiring the Albion Headlands.”

He also answered many questions from the audience to a degree that would not jeopardize any negotiations between the nonprofit and the seller. He confirmed that the property has yet to be assessed and that no assessment has occurred for some time.

Nadeau believes that the seller’s price is not based on a recent assessment but is most likely based on a 2019 attempt to sell the property for $8 million. As a bidder, the Mendocino Land Trust would have the responsibility to finance an assessment. An assessment result either higher or lower than the asking price could potentially affect the Land Trust’s efforts.

Director of Land Protection Emily Griffen has taken on sole management of the bid project and stressed the need for donations to the nonprofit to begin the necessary funding.

She said, “The challenge here for us on a property that is publicly listed is to find a way to engage with the seller, get them interested, get them to want to work with us. But we have constraints because we don’t have the money.”

She explained, “Raising public financing through grants takes a lot of time and has some uncertainties. We don’t know if we will get there.”

She continued, “We are hopeful we can put a stronger offer together that the seller might be interested in. Obviously, the seller would want more certainty and would want it done faster that we’ve been able to do so far.”

Griffen said she was working on as many grant financing angles as she could find and encouraged the public to spread the word. Audience members also offered ideas about opportunities for an information/donation booth at various upcoming events.

Fundraising is critical since a nonprofit cannot use private funds to own the land. It also cannot sweeten a bid by offering a bid higher than the established price. The excess amount is considered to be an illegal financial benefit to the seller. Nadeau pointed to another purchase option. It would be legal for a philanthropist to purchase the property and then gift it to the Land Trust.

Before he closed the meeting, panel moderator Tom Wodetzki polled the audience for interest in scheduling a meeting for updates. The posting of the sale and the Mendocino Land Trust’s quick jump with a bid happened in such a very short period of time that all of the audience questions could not be answered.

A sign-in sheet passed around earlier indicated the audience’s strong interest in new information and updates on the Land Trust’s financing efforts.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

---

MENDOCINO COUNTY HISTORY: JULY 19, 1984 – BRINK'S TRUCK ROBBED NEAR UKIAH

A gun-toting Brink's guard locks the bullet-punctured armored car that was robbed by a brazen and well-organized band of thieves on July 19, 1984, northeast of Ukiah, on Highway 20, about a mile from U.S. Highway 101. The holes in the thick, bullet-resistant windshield came from high velocity rounds fired at point blank range by a man who leaped onto the armored car hood from the bed of a moving pickup. If you remember the daring, daytime robbery that brought national attention to Mendocino County, we”d like to hear from you for a future Reminisce page article with more information from our archives. Please send your recollections of the event or its aftermath (any length, from a paragraph to a couple pages) to: Jody Martinez, Ukiah Daily Journal, 590 S. School St., Ukiah, CA 95482; e-mail [email protected] post a comment below, or post a comment next to this photo on our Facebook page: Facebook.com/The Ukiah Daily Journal.

Jody Martinez, Ukiah Daily Journal

---

From the AVA Archive:

THE BRINKS ROBBERY occurred on Highway 20 just north of Ukiah, and it was the work of neo-nazis led by Robert Mathews, a lapsed Mormon who'd begun his career in rightwing extremism at age 11 when he joined the John Birch Society. (If the Mormons had instead handed the kid the Communist Manifesto, he would have grown up to be, ah, Starhawk?) One of Boonville's resident deputies at the time, Dennis Miller, was backed up in what he thought was a traffic accident on Highway 20, but it was Mathews and ten or so other rightwing commandos who'd stopped a Brinks truck in the middle of the road by pulling a pick-up in front of it, out of which a man with an automatic rifle then leaped onto the hood of the Brinks truck, spraying gunfire at the unreinforced windshield. The two Brinks workers, both young black men, having survived the gunfire uninjured, surrendered the cash amounting to $3.6 million. The money first was driven to Lake Mendocino where it was loaded into another vehicle; the robbers then drove it west to the dependably vacant Armstrong State Park where they spent the night. The money was split among them and, with the exception of uber-fanatic Mathews, the gang went on careless spending sprees that alerted law enforcement that a bunch of guys who had no money suddenly had lots and lots. Mathews himself shot it out with the FBI on Whidby Island, Washington, dying in the burning house he was barricaded in of smoke inhalation and gunshots.

Robert Mathews (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jay_Mathews

How the FBI smashed white supremacist group The Order: https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/17/us/fbi-spying-white-supremacists-declassified

---

---

STEVE DERWINSKI

Former Navarro Postmaster 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…

---

---

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, June 13, 2025

DAVID BURNS, 56, Mendocino. Parole violation.

AUSTIN KAHLE, 24, Piles Grove, New Jersey/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

REMA LINCOLN, 51, Covelo. DUI with blood-alcohol over 0.15%.

SAMUEL LINDQUIST, 24, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOSE LOPEZ-GALVEZ, 28, Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI.

BRETT NORGARD, 35, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

JOHN PALACIOS, 56, Ukiah. Trespassing, disobeying court order, failure to appear.

SHANE PALMER, 40, Potter Valley. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

ERNESTO PETERS-PICKETT, 31, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

JULIAN SALAZAR IV, 50, Ukiah. Controlled substance, suspended license, failure to appear.

CHARLES STASER, 61, Covelo. Probation revocation.

LEONARD WILLIAMS-PETERS, 22, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-solicitation of lewd act.

JEVIN WOLFE, 27, Willits. DUI with blood-alcohol over 0.15% with priors.

---

---

NO KINGS DAY

Editor:

Saturday is Donald Trump’s birthday. In the style of dictators he admires, he is throwing himself a $45 million military parade.

When presidents behave like dictators, when Congress won’t exercise its power, when the courts are ignored, only the people can save democracy. We must demand that the administration stop defying court orders; stop defunding programs that only Congress has legal power over; stop extorting compliance from the press, law firms and universities; stop denying due process and the right of free speech to citizens and noncitizens alike.

A complete inventory of Trump’s violations against democracy and common decency would outnumber the long list of grievances our founders lodged against King George III. If those men hadn’t defied tyranny, we wouldn’t have a democracy to defend. But defend it we must.

We the People are throwing a big party too. At last count, over 1,500 No Kings Day protests have been scheduled nationwide. Saturday is also flag day. Come wave a flag for democracy and a protest sign against tyranny. Santa Rosa’s gathering begins at Farmer’s Lane and Hoen Avenue at 11 a.m.

Julene Bair

Santa Rosa

---

FLAG DAY PROTESTS

This America
We all love is Ours and We
Will always be Hers

— Jim Luther

---

---

IMMIGRANTS ARE DOING WHAT ANYONE WOULD DO FOR THEIR FAMILIES

Editor,

President Donald Trump and his adviser Stephen Miller characterize immigrants as murderers, rapists and thieves. They are correct — about the first immigrants to these shores, who indeed murdered the native residents, raped enslaved women and stole land that had been occupied by others for centuries.

Now descendants of some of these original pillagers have the audacity to terrorize the latest generation of immigrants who, along with prior generations from Europe, have built this country’s infrastructure with their sweat and enriched our culture with their traditions, cuisine, art and music. Not to mention the billions of dollars they contribute to our economy.

To Trump, Miller and the rest who demonize people who risk everything to illegally cross our borders, I would ask: If your tidy neighborhood was plunged into violence, if you could no longer feed your hungry children because of society’s breakdown, and just over the border, Canadians were still living in peace and comfort, what would you do?

I’ll bet we’d find you sneaking over to Canada by any means possible.

Karin Burger

Petaluma

---

JEFF BLANKFORT

Not surprisingly, the DMFI, the Jews who are running the Democrat Party, have been celebrating Israel's war on Iran, as they have been celebrating Israel's genocide of the Palestinians:

Democrat Majority For Israel

Dear Jeffrey,

As you’ve likely seen, Israel has carried out a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure — a decision rooted in self-defense and grounded in the urgent need to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Iran has now launched ballistic missiles and struck cities across Israel.

Let me be clear: Israel has every right to defend itself. A nuclear Iran is an existential threat to Israel, to American interests, and to stability in the region. That’s why I made the following statement on behalf of Democratic Majority for Israel:

“Israel has a right to defend itself. A nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat not only to Israel but to the United States and our allies in the region. Iran’s leaders have made clear they are intent on Israel’s destruction, and recent findings by the UN’s nuclear watchdog confirm it is in violation of its non-proliferation obligations.

Reports indicate Iran was just days away from having a nuclear weapon. Let’s be clear: for the safety and stability of the Middle East — and for the protection of American interests — Iran cannot have nuclear weapons.

We support Israel’s efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program for the security of the region and the free world.

The United States must not abandon Israel. We urge President Trump to give Israel all of the necessary support, resources, and assets to protect its citizens. It is essential that the President and all American government officials send a clear, unambiguous public message that in the event of a counterattack, America has Israel’s back unconditionally.

We pray for the safety and well-being of all those in the region.”

Please help us amplify this message by sharing our statement on Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter), where we’re also highlighting pro-Israel statements from congressional Democrats on social media. Your voice matters right now.

In the coming days, DMFI will host an emergency virtual briefing to discuss the attacks in more detail — what happened, how it unfolded, what it means for Israel and its allies, and what may come next. Stay tuned for more information on how to join us.

In moments like this, clarity and conviction are essential. Thank you for standing with us — and with Israel.

With hope and resolve,

Brian Romick

President & CEO

Democratic Majority for Israel

---

---

PROFITING FROM A WORLD AT WAR

Editor,

Thursday night, Israel bombed Iran, targeting Iran's nuclear development bases and foregoing all negotiations and diplomatic solutions. The price of crude oil spiked. The world's stock markets look shaky. Defense stocks look strong. A world at war may be on the horizon.

What to do now?

How to invest?

As always, look for opportunity. Look for small companies with breakthrough proprietary technologies, especially in the defense sector.

Earlier this year, that meant quantum computing.

Way back in January-February, you may remember that I recommended two young quantum computing stocks.

I recommended D-Wave (QBTS) when it was selling for about $1. Today, it's $15.24. The stock hit a high of $19.76 before backing off on profit taking. I also recommended Regetti (RGTI) when the sock was selling for about $5. Today, it's $11.63. The stock hit a high of $21.42 before backing off on profit taking.

And right now?

Right now, I like Datavault AI Inc. (DVLT). I have a $3 price target. Datavault AI shares closed at $0.8399 on Wednesday. This morning, shares were at $0.7913.

Datavault AI, Inc. engages in AI driven data experiences and valuation and monetization of assets in the web 3.0 environment. Its cloud-based platform provides comprehensive solutions with a collaborative focus in its Acoustic Science and Data Science Divisions.

The Acoustic Science Division features WiSA, ADIO and Sumerian patented technologies and industry-first foundational spatial and multichannel wireless HD sound transmission technologies with IP covering audio timing, synchronization and multi-channel interference cancellation.

The Data Science Division leverages the power of Web 3.0 and high-performance computing to provide solutions for experiential data perception, valuation and secure monetization.

The company was founded on July 23, 2010, and is headquartered in Beaverton, OR.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

---

---

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all night Friday night on KNYO and KAKX!

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 5pm or so. If that's too soon, send it any time after that and I'll read it next Friday.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.

Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. You'll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with until showtime, or any time, such as:

Last week's Tacky Raccoons musical matinee. https://tackyraccoons.com/2025/06/07/saturday-matinee-the-danielle-nicole-band-funky-mojo-daddy-laurie-wright/

"I'll sic my secret police on brown children in the U.S.!" "And I'll kill them overseas!" https://boingboing.net/2025/06/11/tom-the-dancing-bug-billionaire-bromance-comics.html

And Veronica Swift and the Postmodern Jukebox project - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1rb57CEKKA

Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

---

CASEY SCHMITT’S SLAM leads Giants past Dodgers into tie atop NL West

by Susan Slusser

LOS ANGELES — Casey Schmitt isn’t one to hang his head for long, his particularly ill-timed error in Denver one day earlier forgotten Friday as the San Francisco Giants opened a key series at Dodger Stadium.

He atoned, and in majestic fashion, in the fourth inning, walloping a grand slam into the seats then sauntering slowly out of the box, not at all intimidated in the least by the beasts of the NL West. That blast off Yoshinobu Yamamoto helped vault the Giants to a 6-2 win and into a first-place tie with Los Angeles atop the division.

“Hats off to him to turn around the next day and put together a bat like that,” Melvin said of Schmitt’s first career grand slam.

Schmitt’s slow stroll as the ball headed out to left tickled his teammates. “All I heard was the crack of the bat, and I look up and I see Schmitty just kind of pimping it,” catcher Andrew Knizner said. “Subtle. Subtle, but swaggy.”

Willy Adames thwacked the Giants’ first homer, a solo shot in the first — Adames’ third in four games — Los Angeles native Dominic Smith had his second consecutive three-hit game, and Logan Webb worked seven innings and allowed the powerful Dodgers just two hits.

In the eighth, Knizner recorded his first hit with San Francisco, a solo homer to center that bounced beyond the fence and sprang back on the field, causing some initial confusion as he pulled up at third. His teammates waved him in, the umpires conferred and Knizner had his first big-league homer since April 21, 2024. (He has some pop, he hit 10 homers in 70 games with St. Louis in 2023.)

Riding a surprising power surge, San Francisco hit its key number, and more: When scoring four runs or more, the Giants are 29-9.

The wild card Friday was home-plate umpire Adam Beck, whose strike zone was tight and sometimes overly so, complete with some late calls, drawing disgruntled responses from both teams.

Yamamoto, who’s enjoying a terrific season, walked the bases loaded to set the stage for Schmitt’s slam — really set it, because Schmitt felt as if Wilmer Flores was put on intentionally with a 3-1 pitch well out of the zone.

“It felt like they were trying to put Flo on to get to me in that situation, so to be able to come through like that in that situation, that was a big thing for for me,” Schmitt said.

Did he take that personally? “I mean, who wouldn’t?” he said. “I understand it’s the game, but that competitor in me — I really wanted that one bad.”

Schmitt mostly had started against left-handers until taking over third base while Matt Chapman is on the IL. He entered the day hitting .167 against right-handers, and, according to Statcast, he was hitting .091 lifetime on splitters. He smacked a 1-1 splitter from Yamamoto, who’d only allowed two homers on that pitch in his 31 previous big-league starts.

The previous day’s error, not on his mind, Schmitt said. “What happened yesterday, I flushed it,” Schmitt said. “I just wanted to go out and play. I wasn’t coming out here thinking about it.”

Webb walked the first two batters in the second, and, after Max Muncy hit into a force, Andy Pages hit a flyball to right. Will Smith tagged at third and came home as Mike Yastrzemski threw a strike to the plate; he’d have been out except Knizner dropped the ball — after he’d made the tag. “It’s kind of like an NFL catch,” Knizner said. “You’ve got to carry it all the way to the ground. When I hit the ground, the force kind of popped it out.”

The Dodgers didn’t get another man past first against Webb until the seventh, when Teoscar Hernández hit a solo homer to right. That, Webb said, became a talking point with Knizner when Knizner hit his own homer, because Webb teased him about how long it took to get his first hit with San Francisco. “He said because I gave up the homer, he had to get the run back,” Webb said. “We had a little back-and-forth going, but, yeah, I’m super pumped for him. He came in here with so much energy and he’s done a really good job for us, it’s really fun to see it happen that way.”

Webb was making his 17th career appearance against the Dodgers, whose regulars know him well, but he did not follow his usual pattern, throwing the pitch they’ve seen least, his cutter, 30% of the time; typically, he’s used his sinker and changeup more, but he threw the sinker 27% of the time and the changeup only 10%. He also used his four-seamer 10% of the time, when in previous years, it was 5% or below.

“They have some guys with 30, 40 at-bats against him, guys who know him really well, know how they want to attack him, and all of a sudden, you’re seeing two completely different pitches, and the ability to pitch inside more,” Melvin said. “There were different swings from them today, and that’s just how you get better as you go along, you come up with some new wrinkles.”

“If you face teams enough times, you’ve got to switch it up every once in awhile,” Webb said. “I’m trying to find new ways to get very good hitters out.”

Webb had some solid defensive work behind him, including from Yastrzemski, who made a basket catch at the track to retire Freddie Freeman and end the third, and Schmitt, who made a tricky play with his back to the plate on Max Muncy’s pop-up to short left.

Tyler Rogers handled the eighth, going 1-2-3 and needing only seven pitches to do it, and Ryan Walker walked Mookie Betts to open the ninth but got Freeman to fly out, struck out Will Smith and got Hernandez to hit into a force.

Yamamoto lasted only 4⅔ innings and he allowed six hits and a career-high five walks along with five runs, matching his season high. He entered the day with the league’s third-best ERA, 2.20, and second-best batting average against, .186.

Webb spoke the day before about not making too much of the series against the Giants’ historical rival and the reigning World Series champs, even with the Giants charging in just a step behind the Dodgers. After taking the first game, he said, “There’s just something about the Dodgers-Giants. It’s one of the best rivalries in sports, and you could feel that today. The whole crowd, the energy in the dugout, everything was just kind of amplified. … Being able to come in here and do that was great. Great start to the series, we’ve got two more and hopefully we come in tomorrow with that same energy.”

Friday’s matchup was, as Melvin said, a classic, with two All-Star candidates on the mound. Saturday’s presents quite an experience contrast, with Landen Roupp (17 big-league starts) up against three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw (434).

(sfchronicle.com)

---

IN THE 1950s, the San Francisco 49ers transitioned from a solid AAFC team into a competitive NFL franchise. After joining the NFL in 1950 following the merger with the All-America Football Conference, the 49ers gradually improved throughout the decade but never quite reached championship status.

THE EARLY 1950s were defined by the emergence of the famed "Million Dollar Backfield," consisting of quarterback Y.A. Tittle and running backs Joe Perry, Hugh McElhenny, and John Henry Johnson—all future Hall of Famers. This backfield gave the 49ers a potent offense and helped make them one of the most exciting teams in the league.

Despite the star power and offensive prowess, the team struggled to find consistency and was often overshadowed by NFL powerhouses like the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions. The 49ers had winning seasons in the mid-1950s and came close to postseason glory in 1957, when they won the Western Conference tiebreaker against the Lions but lost to them in the playoff rematch after leading 24–7 at halftime.

Coached by Buck Shaw and later Red Strader and Frankie Albert, the 49ers developed a strong fanbase in San Francisco, laying the foundation for future success. While the 1950s didn’t bring a championship, it was a decade that featured iconic players and key moments that helped establish the 49ers as a respected NFL franchise.

---

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The problem with vouchers is simple. The voucher doesn't contain enough money for parents to send their kids to GOOD private schools. There are lots of private schools that are really bad. They are more like christian madrasas than real schools.

---

DRAMATIC KLAMATH DESCENT

Editors,

The first full descent of the undamed Klamath River is about to begin. These young people and Rios to Rivers deserve public attention.

https://www.riostorivers.org/klamath-dam-removal-celebration

---

IF YOU'RE NOT STANDING WITH LA RIGHT NOW, YOU'RE THE PROBLEM

It's obvious why Trump is targeting LA — and that's why it must be protected

by Drew Magary

It’s protest season in America once again, which means that I and my fellow clear-headed but very pissed off Americans will take over the streets of multiple cities across the country to voice our extreme displeasure with Donald Trump. I’m not gonna get into all of Trump’s offenses, because even the internet doesn’t have enough space to accommodate them. So let’s boil it down to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We’re protesting Trump’s Not Terribly Secret Police for all of the evil s—t they’re doing, like this:

The woman in the above video is but one of many innocent people who have either been targeted by ICE, or had their family members targeted by ICE. They’re yoinking people out of car washes, farms, Home Depots and any other place that sets off their Immigrants Just Minding Their Own Business alarm. They’re targeting every nook and cranny of this country they can find, but they’re particularly taken with tormenting Los Angeles, including accosting its elected representation. Angelenos took to the streets in protest, because they were pissed, and they had every right to be. Yet the president of the United States and his Homeland Security secretary-slash-vampire bat Kristi Noem had no issue spreading the contemptuous lie that LA protesters were a bloodthirsty mob, adding a twist by suggesting that they were also somehow acting under the orders of Mexico’s president:

“Claudia Sheinbaum came out and encouraged more protests in LA, and I condemn her for that. She should not be encouraging violent protests that are going on. People are allowed to peacefully protest. But the violence that we’re seeing is not acceptable, and it’s not going to happen in America,” Noem said at a press conference.

Now, there are obvious political reasons why Trump would launch an assault on this part of the country. Los Angeles is reliably Democratic, and virtually all major American cities are as well. And if Trump can’t win over cities like Los Angeles with things like “good policies,” he’s more than happy to send whatever hired goons he can round up to lay waste to them instead. Then he can send Noem back out from her cave and tell the world that, no no no, they were actually “LIBERATING” Los Angeles. He can hop online while sitting on the can at one of his country clubs and thank himself for saving a city he’s clearly delighted to see burn again, as evidenced by this Truth Social post:

“If our troops didn’t go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now, just like so much of their housing burned to the ground. The great people of Los Angeles are very lucky that I made the decision to go in and help!!!”

You and I know that none of that is true. You and I know that LA residents came out to protest the ICE assaults, and that those protests were relatively confined when compared to the breadth of the city as a whole. Los Angeles, as apparently only a privileged few realize, is very big. Big enough, in fact, to accommodate large protests while the majority of its citizens go on about their daily lives.

But since Trump and company decided to brand LA as yet another Big Scary City That God-Fearing White People Should Avoid, he’s demanded that a ragtag assemblage of ICE agents, National Guard, Marines and LAPD’s angriest cops swoop into the city with tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, mass arrests and the occasional assault on a working journalist. You and I are smart enough to understand that this is gaslighting of the most easily identifiable sort — the first, and just about only, play in the MAGA playbook. But what makes the situation in LA so infuriating is that the usual suspects in the Democratic Party (John Fetterman, Chuck Schumer) and the mainstream press (Jake Tapper, the terribly clever editorial board of the Wall Street Journal) have yet again shown themselves to be more than willing to take the bait anyway. More than willing to let Trump not only attack Los Angeles, but to misrepresent it at the same time.

Los Angeles is my favorite American city. I don’t live there. I’m not even from there. But of all of the great cities in this country, Los Angeles is the one I love to visit most. Even when I’m not somewhere cool. Even if I have to take the scenic route to get from LAX to West Hollywood. Even if I have to spend a full week there without somehow managing to see the ocean. Even if I gotta sweat my balls off while working inside a temp office on a studio lot. Even when I’m in Northridge and REALLY sweating my balls off. I’ve seen plenty of LA’s best s—t — the beach, the tacos, the rooftop bars where you feel famous even when you’re a nobody — but I love its less glamorous parts, too.

And I’m just a tourist! There’s so much Los Angeles to experience, and to otherwise dream about. There’s the dream of Brian Wilson’s Los Angeles, all shining surf and perfectly arranged harmonies. And then there’s the lurid side of the city. The city of David Lynch. The city of a new-in-town Axl Rose. A richly evil city, which is its own guilty dream.

That’s my very writerly way of saying that LA teems with all manner of life, almost all of it fascinating. It’s the most American of cities, with its struggling workers, diversity of landscape, kickass sushi and culturally essential migrant population that existed long before you were born (and will be in LA long after).

It’s not a perfect city. It has crime (gasp!), serious housing problems, supernaturally awful traffic and an intense vulnerability to climate change. You know what other towns in America have those issues? All of them. LA, ever the showman, just has it brighter and flashier. No wonder Trump and Noem consider it such a juicy target. They can terrorize the city and then say they brought it on themselves.

I personally have little interest in letting them get away with it. So that’s why, like everyone else, I’ll be out with the No Kings crowds this weekend. I’m not gonna stay home with my thumb up my butt. I’m not gonna let these ghouls condemn me to live the rest of my life in the shadow of their miserable phobias. I’m gonna follow the advice of legendary “Simpsons” writer George Meyer, who did his best work in Los Angeles:

“You have to throw yourself into the mainstream of life. … You have to be immersed in it and of it, as well as observing it.”

The protesters coming out this weekend are throwing themselves into that mainstream. I’ll be one of them. I’m doing it for a lot of reasons, but mostly I’m doing it for LA.

(SFGate.com)

---

HISTORY HAVEN

In a haunting photograph from around 1920, the family of James and Caroline Shelton stands beside a towering dead American chestnut tree in what would become the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They appear small against the skeleton of what was once the most dominant tree in the Eastern U.S. forest. At the time, few realized they were witnessing the twilight of a species that had shaped the ecology, economy, and mythology of Appalachia for generations. The American chestnut wasn’t just a tree—it was a pillar of life, its nuts feeding wildlife and people alike, its lumber strong, rot-resistant, and abundant. The Sheltons' image now captures not only a family memory but a symbol of quiet devastation creeping through the forested heart of America.

The cause of this catastrophe—Cryphonectria parasitica, a foreign fungal blight—was first spotted in 1904 in New York. It traveled swiftly, infiltrating bark through the tiniest wounds, sending out dark cankers and invisible webs of death under the surface. Unlike its Asiatic relatives, which had evolved alongside the fungus, the American chestnut had no defenses. Once infected, the trees became disease vectors themselves, raining down spores on the wind, and infecting entire ridges and valleys. Desperate forestry crews even attempted to cut vast “firebreaks” through chestnut stands in Pennsylvania to stop the blight’s spread—but the fungus ignored their efforts, moving 50 miles a year like an airborne plague. By 1925, most of the range had been infected. Within decades, 4 billion trees were dead or dying.

What makes the loss even more tragic is that the chestnut had already been suffering in silence before the blight arrived. In North Carolina’s Piedmont region, an earlier invasion—an exotic root-rot fungus—had been decimating chestnuts in low-lying, moist areas since the 1820s. The tree that once dominated both ridge and valley was under siege from more than one front. Today, substitute species like oaks and hickories fill the chestnut’s place, but they lack the chestnut’s former grandeur and ecological reach. The American chestnut was more than a tree; it was a cultural and environmental cornerstone. Its extinction was not just botanical—it was deeply human, a slow-motion tragedy that rewrote the very fabric of Appalachian forests and the communities that lived within them.

---

ANTHONY BOURDAIN

"Americans love Mexican food. We consume nachos, tacos, burritos, tortas, enchiladas, tamales and anything resembling Mexican in enormous quantities. We love Mexican beverages, happily knocking back huge amounts of tequila, mezcal, and Mexican beer every year. We love Mexican people—we sure employ a lot of them. Despite our ridiculously hypocritical attitudes towards immigration, we demand that Mexicans cook a large percentage of the food we eat, grow the ingredients we need to make that food, clean our houses, mow our lawns, wash our dishes, and look after our children. As any chef will tell you, our entire service economy—the restaurant business as we know it—in most American cities, would collapse overnight without Mexican workers. Some, of course, like to claim that Mexicans are “stealing American jobs.” But in two decades as a chef and employer, I never had ONE American kid walk in my door and apply for a dishwashing job, a porter’s position—or even a job as a prep cook. Mexicans do much of the work in this country that Americans, probably, simply won’t do.

We love Mexican drugs. Maybe not you personally, but “we”, as a nation, certainly consume titanic amounts of them—and go to extraordinary lengths and expense to acquire them. We love Mexican music, Mexican beaches, Mexican architecture, interior design, Mexican films.

So, why don’t we love Mexico?

We throw up our hands and shrug at what happens and what is happening just across the border. Maybe we are embarrassed. Mexico, after all, has always been there for us, to service our darkest needs and desires. Whether it’s dress up like fools and get passed-out drunk and sunburned on spring break in Cancun, throw pesos at strippers in Tijuana, or get toasted on Mexican drugs, we are seldom on our best behavior in Mexico. They have seen many of us at our worst. They know our darkest desires.

In the service of our appetites, we spend billions and billions of dollars each year on Mexican drugs—while at the same time spending billions and billions more trying to prevent those drugs from reaching us. The effect on our society is everywhere to be seen. Whether it’s kids nodding off and overdosing in small town Vermont, gang violence in L.A., burned out neighborhoods in Detroit—it’s there to see. What we don’t see, however, haven’t really noticed, and don’t seem to much care about, is the 80,000 dead in Mexico, just in the past few years—mostly innocent victims. Eighty thousand families who’ve been touched directly by the so-called “War On Drugs”.

Mexico. Our brother from another mother. A country, with whom, like it or not, we are inexorably, deeply involved, in a close but often uncomfortable embrace. Look at it. It’s beautiful. It has some of the most ravishingly beautiful beaches on earth. Mountains, desert, jungle. Beautiful colonial architecture, a tragic, elegant, violent, ludicrous, heroic, lamentable, heartbreaking history. Mexican wine country rivals Tuscany for gorgeousness. Its archeological sites—the remnants of great empires, unrivaled anywhere. And as much as we think we know and love it, we have barely scratched the surface of what Mexican food really is. It is NOT melted cheese over tortilla chips. It is not simple, or easy. It is not simply “bro food” at halftime. It is in fact, old—older even than the great cuisines of Europe, and often deeply complex, refined, subtle, and sophisticated. A true mole sauce, for instance, can take DAYS to make, a balance of freshly (always fresh) ingredients painstakingly prepared by hand. It could be, should be, one of the most exciting cuisines on the planet, if we paid attention. The old school cooks of Oaxaca make some of the more difficult and nuanced sauces in gastronomy. And some of the new generation—many of whom have trained in the kitchens of America and Europe—have returned home to take Mexican food to new and thrilling heights.

It’s a country I feel particularly attached to and grateful for. In nearly 30 years of cooking professionally, just about every time I walked into a new kitchen, it was a Mexican guy who looked after me, had my back, showed me what was what, and was there—and on the case—when the cooks like me, with backgrounds like mine, ran away to go skiing or surfing or simply flaked. I have been fortunate to track where some of those cooks come from, to go back home with them. To small towns populated mostly by women—where in the evening, families gather at the town’s phone kiosk, waiting for calls from their husbands, sons and brothers who have left to work in our kitchens in the cities of the North. I have been fortunate enough to see where that affinity for cooking comes from, to experience moms and grandmothers preparing many delicious things, with pride and real love, passing that food made by hand from their hands to mine.

In years of making television in Mexico, it’s one of the places we, as a crew, are happiest when the day’s work is over. We’ll gather around a street stall and order soft tacos with fresh, bright, delicious salsas, drink cold Mexican beer, sip smoky mezcals, and listen with moist eyes to sentimental songs from street musicians. We will look around and remark, for the hundredth time, what an extraordinary place this is.

The received wisdom is that Mexico will never change. That is hopelessly corrupt, from top to bottom. That it is useless to resist—to care, to hope for a happier future. But there are heroes out there who refuse to go along. On this episode of “Parts Unknown,” we meet a few of them. People who are standing up against overwhelming odds, demanding accountability, demanding change—at great, even horrifying personal cost."

---

---

FEAR OF ICE RAIDS SPREADS ACROSS CALIFORNIA’S FARMWORKERS

by Maliya Ellis & Julie Johnson

The nation’s most abundant harvest is ripening in California’s Central Valley fields, but the people at the heart of these agricultural communities are living in fear.

Whispers of immigration raids — most unconfirmed — swirled from Colusa to Kern counties this week. Roughly half of all farmworkers laboring in America’s breadbasket are undocumented, putting this region in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s ramped-up deportation campaign.

Callers flooded immigration enforcement help hotlines. Local officials chased reports of people being apprehended from jobsites, businesses and even health clinics. People afraid of deportation stopped showing up for work, church and school.

“People are anxious. People are scared,” said Rosa Lopez, an organizer with the ACLU who helps run the Kern County Rapid Response Network. The network operates an immigrant assistance hotline that has exploded this week, from “a few dozen” calls a week in past months to “hundreds” a day, she said. Some callers are so scared that they won’t leave their house unless they absolutely have to, Lopez said.

Authorities confirmed that federal immigration agents apprehended immigrants in Ventura County on Tuesday. At least 35 people were arrested after officers visited farms and packing facilities in the Oxnard area, according to the Los Angeles Times.

President Donald Trump acknowledged the potential impact of increased raids on America’s farming community in a social media post Thursday. American farmers “have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them,” he said. He added: “We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

Earlier this year, Trump mused about creating a pathway to retain farm labor by deporting undocumented farmworkers but then allowing them to return legally if their employers vouched for them. The White House has not elaborated on how such a plan might work.

Fresno County Supervisor Luis Chavez said ICE had staged enforcement vehicles in the Fresno area but he was told by local law enforcement they hadn’t yet made any arrests. Fear was mounting. He said he’s heard from churches, grocery stores, schools, hardware stores — people are staying home and out of the public.

“It’s like a ghost town out there,” Chavez said.

Rumors of raids swirled up and down the Central Valley from Colusa to Kern counties, although they were either debunked or remained unconfirmed as of Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to specific questions from the Chronicle, but provided a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin: “Secretary (Kristi) Noem’s message to California rioters is simple: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE will continue to enforce the law.”

Hundreds of miles away, Los Angeles continued to roil with demonstrations sparked when federal immigration agents launched a dizzying campaign to apprehend people across the region. The White House confirmed at least 300 people had been taken.

The Central Valley had seemed unusually “quiet,” said State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Bakersfield Democrat. But “I understood very well what was yet to come,” she said. Trump began his second presidency vowing to create the largest deportation program in U.S. history.

And now, as blueberries, peaches and nectarines ripen, farmers wonder if they will have the workforce needed to pick them.

“Without these employees, crops would go unharvested, rural business would suffer, and food prices could rise for families across the country,” Bryan Little, The California Farm Bureau senior director of policy advocacy, said in a statement.

California senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff condemned the agricultural raids in a joint statement issued Wednesday. “Targeting hardworking farm workers and their families who have been doing the backbreaking work in the fields for decades is unjustified and unconscionable,” they said.

Though authorities only confirmed raids in Ventura County, the spectre of more ICE activity rippled far beyond, sending immigrant advocates chasing false leads and agriculture leaders quelling rumors.

United Farm Workers union representatives rush to sites in response to each hotline call, social media post or other tips reporting a potential immigration raid — and the reports have poured in over the last week, said president Teresa Romero. But the UFW has yet to catch ICE officers in the act.

“By the time we get there, they’re gone,” Romero said. “It is just terrorizing the farmworkers.”

Romero said union members had claimed to witness ICE activity in Tulare and Kern counties, but that she had “no idea” where the alleged activity occurred or how many people might have been detained. Local farm bureau leaders for Tulare and Kern said they had not confirmed any ICE activity.

Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen said he spent much of the week calling member farms to verify viral social media posts about ICE raids, but that he couldn’t confirm a single one.

Farms in Fresno haven’t reported no-shows yet, Jacobsen said, but “that could change very quickly” if fears proliferate that federal immigration agents will flood fields, whether those fears are founded or not. He said he is making sure farmers know that they can deny entry to ICE officers without a warrant.

In Ventura County, some farm workers did not show up Wednesday to the Oxnard Plain’s fertile strawberry, lima bean and cilantro fields, said Javier Martinez, an agricultural farm community assistant for the county. Some of Martinez’s relatives stayed home, fearing ICE could be lying in wait, and one ranch only had 5 workers of the usual 30-strong crew, he said.

“It’s very scary,” Martinez said. “There are multiple families that are not gonna go to work for the rest of this week because they are scared of going back to their work and getting raided out of the blue.”

Romero said many farmworkers are too scared to venture out to public parks or to accompany their children to school. But she said they can’t afford to stay home from work for long.

“It is terrifying the farm workers, it is terrifying their children, but they continue to work,” Romero said. “These are people who have to support their families.”

(SF Chronicle)

---

---

GAME ON

by James Kunstler

“Leftism is the tyranny of structurlessness. Lawlessness. The abhorrence of order. That is why Leftist individuals are characterized by emotional dysregulation. . . . " JT Haltigan

If you seek a general theme in this moment’s tempestuous events, try No submission. It’s behind events in the Middle East and in the USA — and across Western Civ ultimately. No submission to what, you ask? To willful evil. Of course, the willfully evil will not see it that way, and great quarrels will arise over who-and-what represents the evil abroad in the world.

Iran advertised countless times its resolve to wipe Israel off the map, in so many words. Israel was not inclined to submit to that outcome and it closely monitored Iran’s practical steps to acquire deliverable nuclear bombs. Israel, in turn, advertised that Iran’s nuclear program would not be allowed to succeed. The world stood by waiting to see who’s advertising jibed with reality.

Now you know. Never Again is not an empty slogan. The Shiite jihad has been put down, and the effort will continue until the answer is beyond dispute, days, maybe a week or more. Iran’s civil leadership was willing to talk, or at least pretend to talk down to the last hour, but the mullahs above them obdurately pushed ahead toward nuclear jihad. Not going happen, Israel assured them. And so, here we are.

The world situation amounts to a set of jihads of different varieties. In our country, the Democratic Party has been waging jihad against order, liberty, truth, and decency. You can tell it’s jihad because it’s irrational, frankly, insane. Americans are asked to submit to propositions that will destroy the country and its traditions, and they have had enough of the hustles aimed at that outcome.

Too many of us do not believe that uncontrolled illegal immigration is okay, that government should replace the family, that all journeys in life can be equally favorable, that men can become women by wishing it, that our history must be erased, that censorship is required to keep the jihad going, and that the punishment against citizens will continue until morale improves.

That is the program of the American left and lately of the Democratic Party it has taken over. They demonstrate it by their deeds. The Party represents a dwindling cohort of the populace, but its forces have already marched through and captured many institutions crucial to our national life. The opposing force, loosely called Populism, will not submit to that program, is now actively putting a stop to as much of it as possible, shaking out those institutions.

The Left and the Democrats have lost a lot of ground in recent months, especially their control on the levers of power. And since power is really all they care about — the power to make everybody else submit — they are growing desperate, seeking to induce as much chaos across the land as they can possibly generate. Hence, the outbreaks of civil disorder in the cities, using illegal immigrants as one set of shock troops and mentally-ill youth as another phalanx.

The object of the chaos is to provoke the Populist opposition to exert its authority to control that chaos, and therefore — in the insane reasoning of the leftists — to prove that authority itself is an intolerable wickedness. This is only possible, of course, in minds that do not comprehend boundaries, differences between right and wrong, up and down, inside and outside, reality and fantasy. That is the mentality that drives itself toward chaos. So, it remains for the Populists to demonstrate that authority is not innately wicked, that it can have a beneficent purpose in the scheme of civilized humanity. Order is not necessarily tyranny.

The other once-great nations of Western Civ — Britain, Germany, France — slump towards collapse, having already submitted to the EU, run by an unelected, dictatorial, bureaucracy, under the occult influence of megalomaniacs such as Bill Gates and the Soros family. The newly-arrived hordes of Islamic immigrants in these countries demand submission of the Europeans, and the Europeans have so far failed to resist. But an inflection point draws near, and the latent ferocity of the indigenous population has yet to express itself. It may be too late to avert some kind of violent civil conflict across the continent. Governments will surely fall. Mighty empires die of old age and are conquered, alas.

Here in the USA, we await the “No Kings” actions planned for hundreds of cities and towns across the land, meticulously organized by a host of NGOs, even funded by grifts run through government itself, such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), gifted with $34-million from California taxpayers. Billionaire Walmart heiress Christy Walton is allegedly behind the NGO that styles itself as “Indivisible,” the principal org promoting Saturday’s “No Kings” actions. You can suppose that the idea is to flood-the-zone with so many demonstrations in so many places that at least some of them will get yeasty with violence — tempting populist authority to assert itself. . . so that the left can call them “fascists.”

That label has probably lost its mojo. The Populist opposition has drawn a line against this shuck-and-jive, just as Israel drew a line against its declared enemy acquiring nuclear weapons. The lines, you see, are clearly drawn. The game is on.

---

PROTESTS COULD BE ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ in L.A., Where Marines Are Guarding Federal Building

The Los Angeles police chief could not put an exact number on how many protesters were expected on Saturday but said at a news conference that his department was “fully prepared.”

by Rick Rojas, Richard Fausser, Chris Hippensteel, Rachel Parsons & Bernard Mokam

With a surge of demonstrations expected on Saturday against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, the authorities in Los Angeles said they were bracing for a turnout that “may be unprecedented” in the city that has been epicenter of days of sustained protests.

In a news conference on Friday, the city’s police chief, Jim McDonnell, said his agency was “fully prepared” and that officers would be focused on balancing a need to “protect public safety while safeguarding every individual’s right to protest peacefully.”

(NY Times)

---

LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

Israel and Iran Defy Calls for De-Escalation With 2nd Day of Attacks

A Miscalculation by Iran Led to Israeli Strikes’ Extensive Toll, Officials Say

How the Israel-Iran Conflict Could Spiral Into More Turmoil

At a Weak Moment, Iran Weighs Difficult Options in Responding to Israel

Iranians Describe Israel’s Attacks in Voice Memos and Calls

Republicans Are Divided Over Iran. Will Trump Pick a Side?

Much of Iran’s Nuclear Program Remains After Israel’s Strikes. At Least for Now.

How L.A. Ignited a New War Over Immigration

---

ICE “MISTAKENLY” ARRESTED a US Marshall in Arizona because he looked the type. We’ve gone from showing probable cause as a basis for arrests to “he fits the general description” (i.e., male and Hispanic), let’s haul him in and sort it out later….

I thought this had to be a parody and looked for transposed letters to indicate that the ICE number would take you to an underground sanctuary network like the Trystero postmarks in Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49: “Report All Obscene Mail to the Postmaster General.” Nope, the federal government really wants you to snitch out the guys who mowed your lawn and washed your car.

— Jeffrey St. Clair

---

---

IRANIAN MISSILES HIT MULTIPLE SITES IN TEL AVIV, INJURING AT LEAST 22

The Iranian strikes came after Israel launched a wave of air attacks on Iran, destroying an aboveground nuclear enrichment plant near Natanz, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said.

Iranian ballistic missiles struck at least seven sites around Tel Aviv on Friday night, injuring at least 22 people, according to Israeli military officials and firefighters. Video from Tel Aviv showed at least one large explosion on the ground from an apparent missile strike and at least one building on fire.

Explosions were also heard over Jerusalem as missiles streaked overhead, part of Iran’s retaliatory campaign after waves of Israeli strikes that devastated Tehran’s military chain of command and hit critical nuclear facilities.

At least 40 people have been wounded in Tel Aviv and the surrounding area, according to a tally from three hospitals. Most patients are moderately injured, but a few are in critical condition.

(NY Times)

---

EXILE is strangely compelling to think about, but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted. And while it is true that literature and history contain heroic, romantic, glorious, even triumphant episodes in an exile’s life, these are no more than efforts meant to overcome the crippling sorrow of estrangement.

– Edward Said, Reflections on Exile

---

HIDDEN HISTORY: HOW ISRAEL ACQUIRED NUKES

by Kit Klarenberg

On June 13th, the Zionist entity carried out a wide-ranging, unprovoked, criminal military strike on Iran, purportedly to dent the Islamic Republic’s quest to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran has consistently repudiated any suggestion it harbours such ambitions. A November 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate concurred, expressing “high confidence that in fall 2003,” the country “halted” any and all research in the field. This assessment remained unchanged for several years subsequently, and was reportedly shared by Mossad.

By contrast, Benjamin Netanyahu has for decades declared almost annually Iran is mere years away from becoming a nuclear power, urging military action as a result. The longtime Israeli leader’s anxieties are sickly ironic, given Tel Aviv’s own nuclear weapons program is the worst kept ‘secret’ in international affairs. Over many years, multiple entity officials and prominent figures have effectively - or even directly - admitted this monstrous capacity. Moreover, Israel is avowedly committed to the ‘Samson Option’.

Under its horrifying auspices, if the entity feels sufficiently threatened, it reserves the right to carry out preemptive nuclear strikes not merely on regional adversaries, but its Western sponsors into the bargain.…

https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/hidden-history-how-israel-acquired

---