Mendocino County Today: Saturday 6/28/2025

Hot & Dry | Thief Photo | Stolen Vehicle | Water-Tower Explanation | Local Events | Haschak Responds | Beer Here | What's Missing | Lions Carnival | Fire Safety | Piano Movers | Truck Sale | Clow/Peterson | Witherell History | PVP History | Arena Hotel | Yesterday's Catch | Shasta Flour | Marco Radio | The Birds | Overnight Success | Cat Eyes | SMART Healdsburg | Giants Win | Niner BBQ | Cannabis Crisis | Strong Women | Free Speech | Chief Complaint | Crows Idea | Grammar Jokes | Best flour | People Ignored | Lead Stories | Supreme Court | Mamdani Wigout | Jihadi Communist | Bite Hand | War Wisdom | Floating Head | Oncoming Storm | Hats Off | Halfway CA

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HOT AND DRY weather will peak this weekend with highs near 100 for the interior. Warm and Sunny weather will even approach the coast by Sunday. There is a chance for scattered thunderstorms over the interior early next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A nice 50F under clear skies this Saturday morning on the coast. Our forecast is for clear skies all weekend but I expect we'll have more of the puffy scattered clouds like yesterday a the fog remains close by. An increase in cloud cover is forecast for next week.

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ANDREA GARCIA [reposted with photograph]

We need some Valley help. Last night at 9:47pm, my husband’s equipment (chainsaws) was stolen right from our unit. This Valley is just too small for this type of stuff. The equipment that was stolen is used to live on and it is heartbreaking and disgusting that this happened. It was stolen from right off my family’s property we live on really makes me feel uneasy. They came from the Ukiah direction and left towards Boonville. It is clear that this individual or maybe those, if any involved, targeted this unit. Please also keep an eye out for 2 small chainsaws and one large being sold. Will get specifics on types. Please reach out to me privately if you have any leads. This doesn’t only affect us, but a long time Small, Local, Family Business.

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SMILE, YOU’RE ON A FLOCK CAMERA

On Thursday, June 26, 2025 at approximately 1053am, Ukiah Police Department Officers were alerted by the FLOCK automated license plate recognition system that a reported stolen vehicle was travelling the streets of Ukiah. UPD Dispatch was able to verify that the Nissan Xterra had been reported stolen to the Santa Rosa Police Department and the vehicle was still at large.

A short time later, Officers located the stolen Nissan in the 500 block of Ford Street in Ukiah. A traffic enforcement stop was conducted on the vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was identified as 36-year-old Ukiah resident, Jessica Bell. Bell was taken into custody by officers without incident and the stolen vehicle investigation was assumed by officers.

Bell was ultimately arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail for Vehicle Theft.

As always, our mission at UPD is to make Ukiah as safe a place as possible. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cell phone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website; www.ukiahpolice.com

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MENDO’S OLD WATER TOWER IS NOT SALVAGEABLE AS IS, WHERE IS

Letter to the Editor,

As one of the owners of the water tower located at 45040 Main Street in Mendocino, I can appreciate the feelings of those who are opposing its removal. My brothers and I, who acquired the property after our parents’ deaths, are as emotionally attached to this water tower as any Mendocino resident. We lived here when the water tower was located behind Mendosa’s Market, and we watched as it was disassembled, moved and rebuilt in its current location by Barry Cusick and Jim Coupe.

Quite honestly, we never dreamed that we would be requesting to remove this water tower. However, shortly after we acquired the property, we became aware of serious safety issues, including substantial decay in the main structural supports. We consulted licensed contractors about possible repairs and were told that the structure was beyond repair due to the extent of deterioration in its main supports. Hoping for another option, we hired a structural engineer to conduct a thorough inspection and make recommendations. His report concluded that the water tower could not be repaired and would need to be completely rebuilt.

Rebuilding the tower would necessitate bringing it up to current building codes, and would likely include a new concrete foundation, changes to the structure of the tower, and changes to the stairway. A project of this magnitude would also trigger ADA compliance, meaning that a lift would need to be added to provide accessibility to the upstairs restaurant. Because a lift cannot be incorporated into the open design of the water tower, we developed and submitted plans for alternate structures that would accommodate a lift. All of our proposals were rejected by the Mendocino Historical Review Board, leaving us with a structure that poses a significant threat to public safety.

Opponents of our attempts to rectify this situation have made accusations that the current condition of the tower is due to neglect by the owners. This is simply untrue. The previous owners made substantial repairs to the tower through the years, including increasing the size of the foundation and replacement and repairs to structural members and metal braces.

The current condition of the tower is not due to neglect, but to the continual exposure to moisture, which eventually causes decay, even in old-growth redwood. Three of the main support members have substantial decay at their bases, just as they did in the 70’s, fifty years after the tower was first built. At that time, it was purchased for $1.00 and relocated to its present location. The main supports were shortened to remove the rotted portions, and it was rebuilt in its current configuration. In this way, the water tower was preserved. Fifty years later, it is time to repeat the process.

We would be thrilled to have the water tower restored, however, as explained above, this cannot be accommodated in its present location. If an individual or group is interested in taking on this project, and willing to reconstruct the tower within Zone A of the Mendocino Historic District, we will have the tower dismantled and the wood delivered to that location. In this way, its legacy will be continued, and it will remain a part of the Mendocino community and viewscape.

Jennifer Raymond

Ferndale

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LOCAL EVENTS (today)

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NO SLEIGHT OF HAND

To the Editor (of Jim Shields’ Mendocino County Observer):

At risk of breaking the Observer’s Rule #1 (“Never get into an argument with people who buy their ink by the barrel.” —Mark Twain), here is a response to Mark Scaramella’s article that was reprinted in your Political Type article of Jun 19. There seems to be some misunderstandings. Referred to as a “budget-balancing shell game,” the author states that the $6 million carryover from this current year will be used to balance the budget, which just happens to be the amount of proposed savings from the strategic hiring freeze.”

The author must have heard some other meeting than the one I was in.

I appreciate Jim’s acknowledgement that the Supervisors would take issue with the comments.

1. There was no amount attached to what the carry forward might be.
2. It was proposed by the Executive Office to use any carry forward money for one time only capital projects such as repairing roofs.
3. The Auditor Controller Treasurer Tax Collector suggested we use any carry forward to cover any gap in the strategic hiring plan’s proposed savings of $6 million which I thought was a reasonable idea. Staff clarified that the carry forward, which is unknown and won’t be realized until the books close, can be used as needed.

I believe that the strategic hiring freeze will be difficult to implement requiring cut backs to services and very tight departmental budgets.

Just to wrap this up, the carry forward will most likely not be anywhere near $6 million and is not being used as some sleight of hand. The Board is going to have to make ongoing hard decisions. If we make these hard budgetary decisions, we will reduce the budget by $6 million. There won’t be a need for the carry forward as back-up and we can use that money for much needed capital projects.

First up is cutting the Supervisors’ own budget. I proposed in April that we cut all out of state travel. Supervisors have spent over 100% over budget this year for travel expenses. Some was expected with two new Supervisors to on board and receive appropriate training. Yet three Supervisors went back to Washington in February and now two Supervisors are wanting to go to Philadelphia in July. If the Board is serious about cutting the budget, the first act is to say no to these requests and start cutting its own budget.

John Haschak, District 3 Supervisor

Willits

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Mark Scaramella replies:

Apart from his obsolete cliché, Haschak undermines his own case by saying: “The Auditor Controller Treasurer Tax Collector suggested we use any carry forward to cover any gap in the strategic hiring plan’s proposed savings of $6 million which I thought was a reasonable idea. Staff clarified that the carry forward, which is unknown and won’t be realized until the books close, can be used as needed.”

Since we agree that the “strategic hiring plan’s proposed savings” is probably not going to be realized, I think it’s fair to say that, although the amounts may not be fully known, the carry forward, whatever it may amount, will have to be used to backfill the vacancy gap to some degree, probably in the millions. That sounds like a shell game to me. Haschak is admitting they probably won’t make their vacancy targets and the carry forward will have to be used.

As I’ve said before, this method of budget balancing (on paper) with an essentially random hiring freeze (no matter what Haschak & Co. call it) is a bad idea. Instead, the Board should be 1. Paying a lot more attention to inceasing revenues, and 2. Looking at previous boards’ expense reduction methods (which included but did not depend entirely on hiring freezes). I applaud Haschak’s attempt to reduce Board expenses. But, 1. those proposals are basically symbolic because they are microscopic in size, and 2. even those minor proposals have not been picked up on by any of his cuts-for-thee-but-not-for-me colleagues.

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MAZIE MALONE

Let’s talk about what’s missing from this conversation on conservatorships:

It’s not just that the process is difficult, it’s that it takes too long, and by the time someone qualifies as “gravely disabled,” the damage is already done. Families beg for help. People cycle through 5150 holds, jails, and shelters. And even when someone is conserved, it doesn’t guarantee stability, safety, or long-term treatment. The reality is, we wait too long to intervene, and too many people fall through the cracks.

Also, the system is confusing on purpose.

People think “grave disability” and 5150 are separate, but they’re actually connected: a person can be placed on a 5150 hold because they meet grave disability criteria. The difference is, for conservatorship, you need a psychiatrist to submit a full petition and go through court.

Here is what is not mentioned,

We now have SB 43, which expands the definition of grave disability to include people who cannot care for their own medical needs due to serious mental illness or addiction, making earlier intervention more possible. And then there’s CARE Court (Prop 1), which, if used properly, could be a way to reach people before they deteriorate to the point of needing full conservatorship.

Instead of relying on a slow, court-heavy conservatorship process, we could use these newer tools to actually support people earlier before they get hurt, before families fall apart, before it’s too late.

The system is capable of doing better. We just have to stop pretending that dragging people through endless red tape is care.

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FIRE SAFETY THIS 4TH OF JULY – FIREWORKS ARE ILLEGAL IN MENDOCINO COUNTY!

The Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services would like to remind Mendocino County residents and visitors that all fireworks are illegal in Mendocino County.

As we approach the 4th of July holiday, please remember that we are now in fire season, and it is dry in all areas of the County. The illegal use of fireworks poses a serious threat to the safety and well-being of everyone in our County.

CAL FIRE and local fire and law enforcement agencies are working together to enforce a zero-tolerance policy regarding the use and sale of illegal fireworks in Mendocino County this year. Please do your part to help protect Mendocino County from another devastating wildfire by celebrating the 4th of July safely and responsibly.

For fireworks enthusiasts, there are safe, organized, professional fireworks displays scheduled in Fort Bragg, Point Arena, and Ukiah this year!

Fort Bragg Independence Day Fireworks:
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2025
Location: Todd Point, Fort Bragg, CA 95437

Point Arena Fireworks Extravaganza:
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2025
Location: Arena Cove, 810 Port Road, Point Arena, CA 95468

Fireworks Extravaganza at Ukiah Speedway:
Date: Saturday, July 5, 2025
Location: Ukiah Speedway, 1055 N. State St., Ukiah, CA 95482

Have a wonderful and safe Fourth of July!

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2009 TOYOTA TACOMA, 4cyl Automatic, 238k miles, Clean Title [MCN listserve]

Looking for a new home for our 2009 Tacoma, 4-cylinder automatic with 238,000 miles and a clean title. It's been a good truck and we're trading up.

Best cash offer will be accepted this weekend.

The Good: Clean title in hand, Registration up to date, Great model with solid gas mileage

All Known Issues (Reflected in lower than Blue Book Value of Vehicle):

Coolant leak? Mechanic looked but could not identify what exactly is happening. Does not think it's head gasket. Truck's not overheating.

Runs a little rough on start. Twice over the past two months it had trouble starting but usually is fine. Not sure why this happened intermittently.

Wants brakes changed soon. I have a new set of pads that come with the truck.

Right front tire speed sensor cable needs replacing. This turns ABS light on. Does not affect driving.

Perfect For: DIY mechanic or someone that knows Toyotas and wants to take the time to putter around with it while they drive it.

Price: $5,500 pretty firm. Cash only. Top is sold separate from the truck for $400. Deal for both.

Feel free to reach out with questions or to set up a time to see it. text: six one zero 202 three two four seven

— Buck Lloyd, <[email protected]>

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NORM CLOW:

My pop, Bub Clow, with his life-long best friend John Peterson, at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, visiting the 1939 World’s Fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition. They drove down the hundred miles from Anderson Valley to take a break from their respective ranching duties. I worked two seasons for John on his apple and sheep ranch during summer break from college. (This is a photo from the Anderson Valley Historical Museum in our hometown.)

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RALPH WITHERELL commenting on Brad Wiley’s recent article about his explorations of Hop Flat near Navarro:

My grandpa Ralph Witherell lived around Navarro and was about the same age as Alvy Price. So they would have known each other. He and my grandma were farmers mainly. This is great for me because we have almost no info about those times. One of my big regrets was not getting to know Bill Witherell better when I was young, I could have learned so much. Thanks again.

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HISTORY OF THE POTTER VALLEY PROJECT

by Janet K.F. Pauli

In 1905 Mr. W.W. Van Arsdale of San Francisco had a plan. The City of Ukiah and surrounding areas needed a reliable source of electrical power. They had been dependent upon a small coal burning plant. Mr. Van Arsdale envisioned an electrical power plant that could be built at the north end of Potter Valley powered by water that would be diverted from the Eel River.  The vision was inspired by his knowledge that the Eel River was an impressive 475 feet higher in elevation than the valley floor in Potter Valley.  A simple exercise in physics, some knowledge of construction and financial backing was all he needed.

Eel River Power and Irrigation Company proceeded to build a small dam on the Eel River called Cape Horn Dam.  Cape Horn Dam, a concrete gravity and earth filled structure, backed up the Eel River to form a small reservoir called Van Arsdale. This reservoir serves as the fore bay for the diversion tunnel. From here an 8′ diameter tunnel, lined with redwood timbers, was dug over a mile long south through the mountain finally opening into the north end of Potter Valley. At the south end of the tunnel water flows through a penstock dropping over 450 vertical feet into the Potter Valley Powerhouse.  As the project continued it required more capital investments and the Eel River Power and Irrigation Company was reorganized as the Snow Mountain Water and Power Company in 1906.

Work was stopped for a period of time after the great quake of 1906 when the crews were needed to help in San Francisco. Finally, April 1, 1908, the project began to produce power.  The first two units in operation were each 2,000 kilovolt-ampere.  In 1910 the power company added a 3,000 kva unit. In 1912 a second penstock was constructed.  In 1917 a final 2,000 kva unit was installed and the total capacity of the powerhouse grew to 9,400 kva (9.4 megawatts).

The Potter Valley Powerhouse was a boon to the Ukiah area with only one small downfall.  The powerhouse only ran at capacity after late fall rains, and during the winter and spring because the Eel River, like most of our north coast rivers, naturally gets drier and drier as the late spring rains end and summer begins. In the summer there was not enough water in the river to run the powerhouse!  Early on, in 1908, a plan was studied to build a reservoir near Gravelly Valley, twelve miles upriver from Van Arsdale, to store winter runoff and release the stored water to produce power in the summer. The first attempt to build the dam was abandoned.  However, Snow Mountain Water and Power Company began the application process for a power permit again in1918.  By 1920 they acquired a Department of Agriculture Power permit to build a dam. Construction of Scott Dam, a cyclopean concrete ogee gravity structure, began right away in 1920.  The Federal Power Commission (precursor to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) which now licenses the Project) granted a 50 year license for the project on April 15, 1922.  Scott Dam was completed, and Lake Pillsbury began to fill, in 1922.  Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury were named after two of the principal investors in the project. In 1930 Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) acquired the Project from Snow Mountain Water and Power and assumed the license.

The watershed above Scott Dam is 349 square miles. Originally the lake’s capacity was 94,863 acre feet.  Today, after sedimentation, the lake capacity was recently (2006) measured by the USGS to be 74,993 acre feet when the lake is full to the top of the spillway gates.  The dam’s spill crest is 1,900 feet elevation. A series of radial and slide gates brings the possible storage height to 1,910 but the California State Division of Dam Safety requires the storage levels to be maintained at very precise levels based on time of year, forecast storms and snow pack.  The spillway capacity of Scott Dam is 66,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). (the spillway capacity at Cape Horn Dam is 109,000 cfs). Lake Pillsbury is a relatively shallow lake with a surface area of about 2,280 acres.  In a wet winter the capacity of the lake can be filled and spilled as many as 8-9 times.

As previously mentioned, the Potter Valley Project (Project) was licensed as a hydroelectric power plant in 1922 by the Federal Power Commission. The original 50 year license expired in 1972. From 1972 until 1982 the Project was operated with a license that was granted annually while discussions regarding the operation were undertaken by PG&E, FERC, Fishery Agencies and stakeholders.  In 1978 a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was issued by FERC.  Several years of discussion ensued until, in 1983, the Project was relicensed for 50 years (from the original expiration date of 1972). The 1983 settlement agreement was signed by PG&E, California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and the counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Sonoma.  Part of the new license was Article 39 which required a 10 year study be undertaken to determine what the new Project flows impact was on salmon and steelhead and to adjust them accordingly.  A Fisheries Review Group (FRG) was formed which consisted of scientists from PG&E, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), CDFG and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). In March of 1998, after ten years of studies the FRG completed their findings, and a report was filed with FERC recommending flow modifications. FERC began their EIS process. Over the next year two other entities, including the Round Valley Indian Tribes (RVIT) and the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA), submitted proposals for minimum flow releases to FERC. FERC held public scoping meetings and many organizations, municipalities, water districts, environmental groups and governmental agencies joined as interveners in the process. A Draft EIS was completed by FERC in February 1999.  After further public meetings, many comments, additional proposed alternatives and new modeling inputs, FERC issued their Final Environmental Impact Statement in May 2000.

The FERC recommendation was based predominately on the FRG proposal prepared by the scientists with the most history and knowledge of salmon and steelhead populations specifically in the section of Main Stem of the Eel River impacted by the Project.  The resulting complex flow regimes were calculated in such a way as to make the Project nearly invisible to the environment by releasing flows below Cape Horn Dam to mimic natural flows as closely as possible.

After a lengthy Section 7 Consultation between NMFS, PG&E and FERC, under the Endangered Species Act, NMFS produced a Biological Opinion and Reasonable and Prudent Alternative (RPA) for the Project flows and submitted it to FERC in November, 2002. The NMFS RPA generated extensive discussion between the agencies and stakeholders that had been involved in the license amendment proceedings since 1983. Ultimately, FERC issued a Final Order Amending the License for the Project January 28, 2004. The Project license expires April 14, 2022.

The Eel River salmonid populations have been impacted by many natural and human caused events over the last 160 years including the 1955 and 1964 floods, commercial fishing, road building, logging, introduction of predatory fish, other natural predators and changing ocean conditions. The environmental impact of the Project has been studied for 38 years. Unfortunately, part of the environmental impact of the Project cannot be mitigated without finding a way to bypass Scott Dam because we know that 8% of the Eel River water shed has been cut off from access for spawning Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. However, the impacts of the Project have been adjusted, using scientific observation and complex modeling, to assure that the flows below the Project are as close to natural as can be attained.

The value of the Project for power production is not insignificant in a world where green, renewable power is valued. Nine megawatts might not seem like much but it is more than enough to power the City of Ukiah! The value of the Project for water supply is nearly immeasurable. The quality of life for over 500,000 people who live in the communities and cities down river from Potter Valley has evolved and improved with the existence of the water from the Project for over 100 years. Agriculture, the life blood of the economy of Mendocino County, thrives with the existence of this water. Recreation at Lake Mendocino, and down the Russian River, is dependent upon the Project. A community has grown near the shores of Lake Pillsbury and the economic value of this community and recreation in Lake County is important to their economy as well. The water from the Project is also released from storage in Lake Mendocino and used to enhance spawning migration flows for endangered salmonids in the Russian River. A riverine ecology, and the economy of Mendocino and Sonoma Counties, has evolved with the existence of the Potter Valley Project diversion for over the past 100 years.

(mendofb.org)

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THE HOTEL, PT. ARENA HOT SPRINGS, CIRCA 1910 (via Marshall Newman)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, June 27, 2025

ILEANA AMRULL, 47, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

VICTORIA BIDDLE, 65, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance with two or more priors, probation revocation.

ROBERTO CARNES, 31, Lincoln (CA)/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

KELLY CLARK, 40, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury, disorderly conduct-alcohol,, paraphernalia, resisting.

DEREK ESTEP, 39, Ukiah. Petty theft, paraphernalia, conspiracy.

DALE KLEINSORGE, 60, Willits. Petty theft with two or more priors, paraphernalia.

ANTHONY LOPES, 55, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

ADAM MANUS, 40, Willits. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance, resisting.

MARK MESA, 65, Fort Bragg. Domestic violence court order violation.

JASON OLSEN, 26, Ukiah. Under influence.

CHRISTOPHER PIKEL, 40, Willits. Vandalism.

PRISCILLA RONCO, 40, Ukiah. Parole violation.

DONALD SHARP, 38, Hopland. Battery with serious injury, county parole violation.

KENDALL TRAVIS, 55, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

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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:

The Wailin’ Jennys - Bold Riley. (via MyOneBeautifulThing) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPhjDIljU8

An editorial template for every time the U.S. goes to war. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/editorial-template-for-every-time-the-united-states-goes-to-war

And the hinge, like ice, is civilization. Everything hinges on it. In the video here you’ll even see a stone hinge. You can use it to rhyme orange. Endless benefits. https://theawesomer.com/the-history-engineering-of-hinges/774599/

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

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SHARON SENIYA:

The girl looking behind her in the center of this photo, taken during the filming of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” is my sister Valerie. She and the other kids are running from a flock of angry crows, to be added later with optical effects. The street the kids are running on is in Bodega, California, but the close-ups were filmed in front of a blue screen at Universal Studios. In one shot, Valerie has a mechanical crow attached to her sweater which she made flap its wings by pressing a button hidden in her clothing. I wasn’t allowed to see the movie when it came out because I was four and it was too scary for me.

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OVERNIGHT SUCCESS

lyrics by Sanger Shafer, sung by George Strait (1989)

If it was in your mind to really cut me down
If it was in your plan to walk me in the ground
You left with him last night, then daylight told the rest
And if you planned on hurtin' me, you're an overnight success

I couldn't blame someone who'd steal your love away
Because I know, what I've lost and all he's gained
Sweetheart, last night I know he got the very best
And if you planned on hurtin' me, you're an overnight success

Can you handle all you've won from breaking my pride?
Will he stay with you and help you, spend all the tears I've cried?
Sweetheart, I love you so and wish you happiness
And if you planned on hurtin' me, you're an overnight success

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SMART EXTENSION TO HEALDSBURG GETS $81M STATE BOOST

by Cameron Macdonald

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit has secured $81 million in state funding for its planned service extension to Healdsburg.

The California Transportation Commission approved funding from two grant programs during meetings in Sacramento on Thursday and Friday. Senate Bill 1, which raised gas taxes to fund transportation infrastructure projects, created both programs.

The commission awarded SMART $62 million from the Solutions for Congested Corridors Program and $25 million from the Local Partnership Program. While $81 million is for the Healdsburg line, the other $6 million is for the purchase of a zero-emission locomotive, said Julia Gonzalez, a SMART spokesperson.

SMART opened its northernmost station in Windsor last month. The agency plans to install 9 miles of track north to Healdsburg and later expand services further north to Cloverdale, which is 17 miles from Healdsburg.

“This $81 million award brings us closer to fulfilling the vision that voters had when they approved the SMART rail and pathway project,” Marin County Supervisor Mary Sackett, vice chair of the SMART board, said Friday.

She added that the extension to Healdsburg will connect people to jobs and support tourism industries. SMART’s goal is to complete the project in 2028.

SMART expects the project to cost about $269 million.

In October, SMART received an $81 million award from the state’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program for the Healdsburg project. The agency said the project funding was also being matched by $188 million in pending federal, state and local funds.

The SMART service extension plan was among seven Solutions for Congested Corridors Program projects, worth a total of $482 million, recommended by the California Transportation Commission staff for approval for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 fiscal years.

Such projects were deemed eligible for program funding because they focus on improving transportation corridors and reducing congestion, said Naveen Habib, associate deputy director of the commission.

Eddy Cumins, the general manager of SMART, told commissioners that the extension to Healdsburg will reduce congestion on Highway 101 and expand access to affordable housing and economic centers. The rail service also plans track upgrades for passenger and freight services, he said.

“SMART ridership is currently at an all-time high and is continuing to increase,” Cumins said. “The new Windsor station is already performing at a high level and I expect similar results from Healdsburg.”

SMART’s average weekday ridership increased from 2,206 riders in 2023 to 2,774 riders last year, according to a staff report.

Cumins said the state’s $81 million award is a “transformational moment” for SMART and the North Bay.

“This funding propels us forward to deliver rail service to Healdsburg in 2028 and continue building the SMART pathway — bringing world-class multimodal options to northern Sonoma County,” he said.

Also during the state commission hearing, much attention centered on a plan for a 6-mile BART service extension from downtown San Jose to Santa Clara. Commissioners approved $75 million in funding for a project that includes improvements at four stations in Silicon Valley.

“Clearly, we can’t solve every problem through transportation, but I think that the staff’s work today will lead us to a good path and reduce the out-of-pocket expenses for the average Californian, and put people to work,” Darnell Grisby, chair of the California Transportation Commission board, said Thursday.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

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GIANTS EKE OUT 3-1 WIN over White Sox behind Roupp, Bailey’s triple

by Shayna Rubin

CHICAGO — Coming off a troubling home sweep at the hands of the middling Miami Marlins, the San Francisco Giants kicked off a three-city road trip with an imperfect, but needed 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.

Without their best pitching or cleanest defense, the Giants once again had to get by on just a handful of hits with runners in scoring position. This time, they managed two against one of the worst pitching staffs in the American League.

“Just have to keep winning ball games,” Landen Roupp said. “We’re right in this thing and definitely good enough to be there at the end of the year, so just have to keep putting together good games and grind out the not so good ones.”

Roupp, Friday’s starter, didn’t have the best bite on his pitches, which resulted in the White Sox hitting him hard from the first inning on.

In that first, Chase Miedroth and Andrew Benintendi smoked back-to-back singles off Roupp’s curveball and Miguel Vargas followed suit. His 103 mph line drive deflected off shortstop Willy Adames’ glove and a misunderstanding about who should be the cutoff led to a run scoring.

“It’s tough to see, probably, the throw coming in — he probably expected it to go to second base — but with the runner coming around third, you have to have your head on a swivel and be ready when the throw comes in to you,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He made some really good plays at the end of the game.”

That run was unearned, and Roupp made sure to keep his slate clean the rest of the way, escaping two bases-loaded jams unscathed while while gutting out 5⅓ innings. A testament, catcher Patrick Bailey said, to Roupp’s particularly sharp competitive edge.

“He might be one of the most competitive guys I’ve met,” Bailey said. “Even when he does well, he’s pissed off about something. It stresses me out. But he wants to be the best and wants to give us a chance to win. He wants to go as long as he can and it’s really impressive and cool to see him do better because of that.”

Roupp gave up back-to-back hits and issued one of two walks to load the bases in the fourth inning, but needed a first-pitch sinker to Michael A. Taylor to get the inning-ending double play. The big pitch came right after a brief, but direct conversation with pitching coach J.P. Martinez on the mound.

“He literally just said, ‘This is your ground-ball guy and go get him,’” Roupp said. “So we were throwing two-seam, first pitch got a double play. So it was perfect.”

Bases loaded again in the fifth — via a hit by pitch, a walk and an Adames mishandled grounder to short — Roupp struck out Kyle Teel swinging at a changeup and got the inning-ending pop out. Two of Roupp’s four strikeouts came via the strike-three changeup.

The Giants squeaked out two hits with runners in scoring position, but the two was all they needed. Bailey came up with the game-winning, two-run triple in the sixth inning. Batting right-handed, he hit a sinker the other way. Right fielder Ryan Noda dove for it as it bounced over him to the fence, scoring Adames and Christian Koss — who singled on a ground ball that bounced off second base.

Wilmer Flores tied the game 1-1 in the third inning, lining a hanging curveball down the third-base line off starter Aaron Civale to score Bailey from second base. Bailey, not the fleetest of foot as a catcher, got plenty of cardio in. His RBI triple is his fourth career triple and second one this year (he tripled against the Cincinnati Reds on April 9).

“Usually takes someone falling over for me to get a triple,” Bailey said. “When he was diving for it I was like, ‘Please don’t catch it, please don’t catch it,’ Then he dove for it and saw it got past him and I was like, ‘Aw, yes.’”

Added Melvin: “When you get a big hit like that it’s huge, especially in a game like that where one at-bat can dictate a game. Earlier in the season we were good in those situations and we haven’t been, to get that one there was the biggest hit of the game.”

(sfchronicle.com)

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NEWSOM JOINS LAST-MINUTE ‘HAIL MARY’ TO AVERT CALIFORNIA CANNABIS INDUSTRY CRISIS

by Lester Black

The California cannabis industry is scrambling to find a way to block a marijuana excise tax rate increase scheduled for next week, and with just days to go, Gov. Gavin Newsom has officially issued his support for suspending the tax hike.

“If the Governor receives a proposal to halt the cannabis excise tax increase, he will sign it. His record speaks for itself — from supporting the legal cannabis industry to taking down illicit operations, he remains committed to further strengthening California’s growing legal cannabis market,” said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a Newsom spokesperson, in an emailed statement shared exclusively with SFGATE.

The governor’s statement puts the burden on state legislators to take action. There appear to be two last-minute options that could avert the tax hike, which is set to go into effect July 1 and spike the rate from 15% to 19%: Lawmakers could rush the passage of a bill sponsored by Assemblymember Matt Haney, which would suspend the tax hike, or they could pass a new companion bill to the original budget that includes a suspension of the tax hike, according to Amy O’Gorman Jenkins, a lobbyist and the executive director of the California Cannabis Operators Association.

The industry had hoped this year’s budget bill would include a suspension of the upcoming tax increase, but the details of this year’s agreement were released Wednesday without including any such provision. O’Gorman Jenkins said there’s still time for the tax hike suspension to be included in a companion budget bill, sometimes referred to as a “budget trailer bill,” that would also need to be passed before July 1, when the state’s new fiscal year begins.

“I don’t know if that’s achievable, but there are certainly some last-minute Hail Mary attempts to make it happen,” O’Gorman Jenkins said. She later added, “We are leaving no stone unturned and in ongoing communications with the Senate.”

The tax hike comes as the legal industry fights to survive, with thousands of legal operators shutting down and retail stores struggling to pay the existing tax rate even before it increases. Meanwhile, illegal cannabis farms and illegal stores are thriving in California, with the state estimating that more than 60% of all sales are still in the illegal market.

Industry advocates, as well as the state’s own budget analysts, say that increasing the tax rate on legal cannabis would shrink the size of the overall legal market, as businesses are likely to try to recoup some of their funds by passing the increased tax burden on to customers. That could send more people to illegal cannabis sources, which do not pay any taxes at all and thus tend to be able to sell products at a lower price.

This year’s tax hike is caused by a law Newsom signed in 2022 that rescinded a controversial cannabis cultivation tax. That law required the state to increase pot taxes if tax collections did not remain constant — in essence, if sales tax revenue on legal goods did not cover the lost revenue from the bygone cultivation tax. With sales plummeting and tax collections shrinking accordingly, the state is now legally required to increase the amount of money it charges on all legal pot purchases in an effort to make up the gap.

Haney’s bill that would block the tax increase has already passed the Assembly unanimously, but it still needs to pass the state Senate and be signed by Newsom before it can become law. Jim Araby, the strategic campaigns director of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, said Haney’s proposed law would take effect as soon as the bill passes because it deals with taxes, meaning it could feasibly be used to stop the tax increase before July 1 if it passes in the next five days.

O’Gorman Jenkins said she doubted whether the bill could pass the required Senate committee votes before the tax increase takes effect Tuesday. Instead, she’s focused on getting the Legislature to pass a new budget trailer bill that includes the suspension.

If either attempt works and stops the tax increase, the industry would likely still be in a tough spot, according to Araby.

“If the Haney bill gets passed and the governor signs it, all it does is slow down the implosion of the industry, but it doesn’t stop it,” Araby said. “We have a lot more things to do.”

(SFGate.com)

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CRUMB CLARIFIES

Editor,

I have read Dan Piependring’s review of Dan Nadel’s biography of me in the April 2025 edition of Harper’s magazine. Just to set the record straight, the “victim” who said, “You don’t cop a feel. You cop a ride,” Was a big strong woman who INVITED me to hop on her back and then danced around humming a tune just to show how easy it was for her. I was thrilled, of course, “pervert” that I am. She worked for the Parks Department in San Francisco and boasted of how part of her job involved carrying 90 pound sacks of manure which she said was no big deal for her! Wow! Oh, I love, big strong ladies.

In case you are unaware of it, there are many such women who actually enjoy being very strong and seem happy to show off their prowess to an appreciative male. Many of these strong women have told me that it was refreshing for them to finally meet a man who was so attracted to them for their powerful physiques, and they would often eagerly volunteer to show what they could do. Of course, I had to no end of ideas and suggestions for them to do!

A lot of men who are sexually attracted to strong women (most, perhaps) desire to be dominated by them. But I am the opposite. I like to sexually dominate them! I love it when they let me “conquer” them, when I know full well that there’s no way that I, a skinny weakling of a male, could overpower them against their will. And yes, many strong women are sexually submissive, and want to be “objectified”and ordered about in sex play. Many times they would say things like “Don’t hold back,” or “Do your worst.” They knew they could stop me if they wanted to.

Just so you know, I never, ever physically “abused” any woman in real life – only in the comics – except for this one time I broke a chair over Kathy Goodell’s back. But she was undaunted while I caused a bloody gash on my own head in the act. She and I had some fierce fights in those days. She was a hot-tempered woman, but also extremely passionate sexually. Aline, too, was very strong and once gave me a black eye for something flippant that I said. I wouldn’t think of hitting her back. In fact, I cried. She was a bit drunk at the time.

Robert Crumb

Suave, France

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AS THE LEFT ERUPTED IN PROTEST, ANSEL ADAMS MOVED RIGHT

by David Bacon

For decades, Ansel Adams ran in circles of left-wing photographers with a radical eye. But come the 1960s, he was denouncing the UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement protests and calling for expulsions.

By the fall of 1964, students from the Berkeley campus of the University of California had succeeded in enraging Republican senator William F. Knowland, darling of the anti-communist "China Lobby." Knowland owned the Oakland Tribune, then a mighty newspaper and right-wing center of California politics, which students had criticized for refusing to hire black people.

Several Berkeley students had gone south during Freedom Summer to register black voters. On their return, they decided to sit in at San Francisco's luxurious Sheraton Palace Hotel and the auto dealers on Cadillac Row, protesting hiring discrimination there as well. Knowland fulminated against them in angry editorials, demanding that the university ban the tables in front of Sproul Hall where students recruited for these sit-ins.

Administrators complied. And when the tables remained, university police arrived in a patrol car, arresting former student Jack Weinberg for sitting at one. They were quickly surrounded by hundreds of chanting, shouting students. The Free Speech Movement was on. Speakers mounted the police cruiser's roof to denounce the university's cowardice.

I climbed up with them and held a microphone to record the many speeches, later broadcast on our local community radio station, KPFA.

Negotiations stalled for weeks until, on December 2, hundreds marched into Sproul Hall. There we sang civil rights songs and articulated our vision of a "free university." And in the dark hours of early morning, the police dragged us out to waiting buses.

I was sixteen. We were told to go limp, so I did. A cop dragged me by the ankles, my head bumping down the hall's marble steps. At each landing, he'd swing me so I'd hit each wall before bouncing down the next flight. With two other minors, I was sent to Oakland's juvenile hall. They gave me a shapeless shift, like a hospital gown, and left me there for three days. The older students had been taken to the county lockup at Santa Rita. I was left on my own, trying hard to hold onto the determination that had brought me there.

I was actually still in high school, taking courses at the university at the same time. The legal cases for all eight hundred arrestees wound on for months and then years. My case eventually reached the US Supreme Court, which handed down a decision called In Re Bacon. Rather than denouncing the university for violating my rights, however, the justices found that as a minor, those rights weren't worth considering. Exams were given while we were in jail. The university wouldn't let me make mine up or take an incomplete, so that was the end of my student days at Berkeley.

So what does all of this have to do with Ansel Adams?…

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2025/06/as-left-erupted-in-protest-ansel-adams.html

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I WORK FOR THIS GUY

(From a complaint filed in March by a North Bergen, New Jersey, lieutenant against the police department’s chief.)

On multiple occasions, the chief has exited the bathroom in his office and exposed himself to others in the room, making inappropriate comments, such as, “Hey look, it’s bigger than you thought, right?” The chief has pulled his pants down and defecated on the floor in front of his entire staff. During a cleanup of his former office, the chief defecated in a trashcan. Only after persistent urging did the chief eventually agree to clean it up days later. He also deliberately damaged officers’ personal property by breaking pens and smearing ink on uniforms, vehicle door handles, and office equipment, leaving officers with ruined clothes and ink-stained faces. He has placed spray paint cans under officers’ vehicles, causing paint explosions when driven over. The chief has gone into rages where he smashes items in the office. These outbursts include ripping the television off the wall and smashing it on the ground, throwing staplers across the room, smashing picture frames on the walls, and breaking glass that scatters across the office. On several occasions, he has thrown eggs. The chief also has a habit of placing hot peppers in officers’ food and heating them in the microwave. The chief also tampered with office coffee by adding prescription medications such as Adderall and Viagra, causing staff to experience the effects without their consent. In one incident, he poisoned a corporal’s fish, causing all of them to die.

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BAR JOKES AND GRAMMAR

by Linda K Sienkiewicz

What’s better than bar jokes for English majors, grammar nerds and writers? When they also serve as mini grammar lessons! These jokes are all over the internet, and unfortunately I couldn’t find the author. But here they are for you, with my lessons.

A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.

A dangling participle is one intended to modify a noun that is not actually present in the text. The second sentence reads as if the evening is enjoying the cocktail and chatting, which makes no sense.

A bar was walked into by the passive voice.

The passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. Good writers avoid using the passive voice, and instead would write A voice walked into the bar. Passive voice is often used by politicians who are loathe to say they made a mistake, and use the passive voice to say, “Mistakes were made.” It leaves us to wonder who made the mistake.

An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.

Silence and deafening are self-contradicting words defined as an oxymoron. This is not necessarily a grammar error, however. Oxymorons can be effective. I rather like the idea of deafening silence. 

Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”

Putting quotations around a word brings attention to it, and not always in a good way. Unnecessary quotes can cause a reader question the validity of the quoted object. Was it really a bar, or was it pretend?

A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.

Can you find the six malapropisms in this sentence? A malaprop is the mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with an amusing effect. In this sentence,
1. “intensive purposes” is mistakenly used for intents and purposes
2. “cheap” clothing used for sheep
3. muttering “epitaphs” instead of epigrams
4. casting dispersions mistakenly used for casting aspersions
5. “magnificent other” instead of significant other
6. “granite” instead of granted.

Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.

A hyperbole is an exaggeration so insanely wild that it can’t be taken seriously.

A question mark walks into a bar? 

Say what?

A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.

A non sequitur is a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement.

Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Get out — we don’t serve your type.”

Papyrus and Comic Sans are type fonts.

A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.

In this case, the two metaphors are not compatible. Compatible metaphors might be “A metaphor walks into a bar, sees the handwriting on the wall and hopes to make a clean slate.” Fo course, the sentence makes no sense, but that’s beside the point.

A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.

A comma splice is when the comma doesn’t connect the two parts of the sentences. Corrected, it would read “A comma walks into a bar, has a drink and then leaves.”

Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.

Do you know what’s wrong with these sentences? Nothing! That’s because intransitive verbs are action verbs that do not need to be followed by a direct object. 

A synonym strolls into a tavern.

A synonym is two words that have nearly the same meaning. I guess because people go on tavern strolls or bar strolls, strolls into a tavern makes them synonyms, but personally I don’t think it’s a great example. Unless I’m missing something.

At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.

Really unimaginative examples of clichés! At least they could have been drinking related, as in drunk as a skunk, three sheets to the wind, and fit to be tied.

A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.

Obviously.

Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.

A chiasmus is a construct in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form, as in falling slowly, softly falling.

A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.

Literally means taken in the strictest sense. If someone literally walked into a bar, they walked into the building(as opposed to using the door to go inside.) Figuratively means with a more imaginative meaning or in a metaphorical sense. Here, the figure didn’t get hammered as in drunk, he was hammered when he hit the wall of the bar.

An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.

An allusion an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly, or an indirect or passing reference. An Achilles heel is a shortcoming or failing. So alcohol is the shortcoming of this allusion.

The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.

A subjunctive verb denotes an action that has not yet occurred

A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned by a man with a glass eye named Ralph.

The modifier is the glass eye, and because it’s misplaced in this sentence, it reads as if the eye is named Ralph. It should read The modifier walks into a bar owned by a one-eyed man named Ralph.

The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense. 

Hopefully this needs no explanation!!

A dyslexic walks into a bra.

(If you’re dyslexic, this may not be funny.)

A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.

I’ll let you look up the definition of a conjugated verb!

An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.

The Oxford (or serial) comma is the final comma in a list of things, and it’s missing in this list! It should read An Oxford comma walks into a bar, where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.

A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.

A simile is comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.

A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.

A gerund is a verb with -ing, an infinitive is a verb with to preceding it.

A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony.

The irony is there’s no hyphen in hyphenated, and there is a hyphen in non-hyphenated!

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The fact of the matter is this--on many BIG issues, the majority of ALL Americans are ignored. Most Americans think the health care system is a mess, and most Americans think the US is too pro-Israel. Yet in Congress, and the White House, things continue along, unchanged. On both these issues, the liberal/progressive/Democrat types are more dissatisfied, but so are many Republican/conservative types.

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LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

With Supreme Court Ruling, Another Check on President Trump’s Power Fades

A Triumphant Supreme Court Term for Trump, Fueled by Emergency Rulings

Immigration Arrests Are Up Sharply in Every State. Here Are the Numbers.

Concerns Grow Over Dire Conditions in Immigrant Detention

Newsom Signs Budget That Includes Health Care Cuts for Undocumented Immigrants

Trump Officials to End Deportation Protections for Haitian Immigrants

After Israeli Attacks, Iran Hunts Enemies From Within

12 Days of Attacks Later, Could Iran Make an Atomic Bomb?

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THE SUPREME COURT on Friday limited the ability of federal judges to temporarily pause President Trump’s executive orders, a major victory for the administration. But the justices made no ruling on the constitutionality of his move to end birthright citizenship, and they stopped his order from taking effect for 30 days.

The 6-to-3 decision, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and split along ideological lines, may dramatically reshape how citizenship is granted in the United States, even temporarily. The ruling means that the practice of giving citizenship automatically to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants and some temporary residents and visitors would end in the 28 states that have not challenged the order.

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A PAUSE TO CHUCKLE AT THE DEMOCRATS’ TORTURED MAMDANI WIGOUT

The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral primary swiftly moved Democrats to Denial, Anger, Bargaining, and Depression, but not Acceptance

by Matt Taibbi

From old friend Philip Bump in the Washington Post:

Cuomo was a better candidate for the middle-ground, don’t-rock-the-boat national play… Democrats in Montana weren’t going to have to worry about potential red-state voters seeing negative Fox News segments about the liberal excesses of Mayor Andrew M. Cuomo. Elect a Muslim immigrant socialist with an unusual name? Fox would have a field day. If younger voters didn’t remember the era when the right accused Obama of all of those things, Democratic Party leaders sure did.

Only in America could a pundit look back on the example of Barack Obama and think, “We’d better not try that immigrant-with-a-funny-name thing again!”

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York’s Democratic mayoral primary is fascinating on many levels, including the one involving consternation he inspires among ostensible supporters of his party. The same people whose epic misreads of Donald Trump twice helped elect him have been taking turns working through Stages of Grief over an intramural challenge. For sheer humor value, worth noting, at least in brief:

The most common theme among the Democratic old guard is that Mamdani is too radical, one whose “esoteric positions“ (as longtime strategist James Carville calls them) will rally voters in other states to oppose Democrats. Take New York Democratic House member Laura Gillen, who wrote Mamdani is “too extreme to lead New York city,” adding: “Mr. Mamdani has called to defund the police.” Freshman Democrat George Latimer told CNN, “It’s going to be tough for front-liners because they’re in districts that have a lot of Republicans in it that would look at a Democrat and want to hear the narrative, ‘Oh, this guy’s radical’.”

Centrist Democratic group Third Way fretted at Mamdani’s “proud affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America,” whose platform, they say, reveals “ideas so extreme… that they sound like they were cooked up in the offices of a Trump-aligned ad maker.” Topping Third Way’s list of concerns is “defund the police.”

I obviously have my own issues with Mamdami, exacerbated by overexposure to the upscale pseudo-intellectual progressive types who most ardently worship him. Still, Democrats decrying him for embracing “defund the police” or state-funded gender-affirmation treatment or “re-examining” ICE or any of a dozen other goofy things should hop in their DeLoreans and fly back in time nine months or so, when they backed a candidate for president who espoused all those things. There’s no need to beat up Kamala Harris anew, as fate has battered her enough already, but it’s comical watching Philip Bump and others wringing their hands about “liberal excesses” when for years they wrapped arms all the way around far nuttier ideas than state-operated grocery stores.

It’s comedy is of the Claude-Rains-Shocked, shocked variety. Through the Trump era national Democrats worked hard to shoot themselves in the face (or balls, in the case of Tim Walz) with “potential red-state voters.” The pattern is consistent. When a wedge issue seizes media attention, Democrats flock to whatever side Trump is not occupying and do the righteous-shriek from scripts prepared by the most glue-addled activists available. “It’s time to abolish ICE” appeared when Trump imposed a “zero-tolerance” border policy in 2018, while “Defund the police” was everywhere after the death of George Floyd in 2020, and so on. Time passes after each case, and the party is slow first to realize, then admit these positions cause political damage — after which it sends spokesgoons on media tours to renounce them. Here’s Biden campaign flack Cedric Richmond repudiating “defund”:

“This dynamic has been a head-scratcher since 2015, when Hillary Clinton responded to a possible cure for Democrats’ moribund youth-support issues in the form of the Bernie Sanders campaign in odd fashion. Instead of doing what centrist politicians have always done and simply ripping off Bernie’s resonant ideas about income inequality and the “rigged” economy, Hillary attacked from the left, with a full-on Kimberle Crenshaw-inspired idpol media blitz. She tweeted charts about how she alone would tackle ‘intersectional challenges’ to help ‘“communities of color,’ while acolytes like Gloria Steinem went on Real Time With Bill Maher to say young women supported only Sanders because ‘that’s where the boys are’.”

After Clinton lost in 2016 she went to India and explained “we don’t do well with married white women,” because they submit to “ongoing pressure to vote the way your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.”

Party figures keep apologizing for this stuff, but others keep doing it, as in Barack Obama’s lecture to “the brothers“ last year or Michelle Obama telling Michigan women to “demand that the men in our lives do better“ at the ballot or Joe Scarborough and Mamdani pal Al Sharpton explaining on MSNBC last Election Night that Trump won because of black misogyny and Hispanic racism.

I bring this up because although Mamdani’s free-ride economics likely will be damaging to the party nationally, especially if they flop, Democrats already screwed themselves a thousandfold harder by spending the Trump years on-boarding the much weirder and more disturbing social mantras of the academic left, which include those constant efforts to “center” race and gender that annoy just about everyone. Often (as in the case of Hillary’s mid-campaign broadsides against Sanders) these decisions have appeared more reactive than strategic, with Democratic pols rushing to embrace notions about everything from trans sports to destigmatizing shoplifting to wearing kente cloth scarves, almost always in the midst of a media mania. This has led the public to associate Democrats with everything from Indigenous Land Acknowlegements to Emotional Support Peacocks to Woke Snow White, and the party certainly suffered (and will continue to suffer) far more from those hegemonic social irritants than Mamdani’s proposals for subsidized eggs or free bus rides.

Commentators who didn’t decry Mamdani’s “extremism” deployed standard party lines of “it’s not happening” or “it’s happening but doesn’t matter.” Karen Tumulty in the Washington Post reminded readers that New York politicians have dubious relevance because historically, “once they got west of the Hudson River, their presidential aspirations turned to dust.” Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen said he loved New York but it’s “a very liberal place” and besides, the primary was really just “an indictment of Cuomo.” Democratic “data expert” Lakshya Jain said she didn’t think Mamdani’s win was “about ideology” but “something that’s new and fresh,” while strategist Tim Lin summed up in part by saying “Mamdani ran a great campaign against a sex offender.”

My favorite reaction came from Carville, who increasingly resembles the love child of Elmer Fudd and Hunter S. Thompson (yes, I’m aware this might be my own future). He cautioned not to overreact as there’s “a lot of baseball left to play.” referencing a sport popular among young voters in the Clinton years. Former Harvard president and Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers seemed to be thinking about dinner when he warned Mamdani’s election might be a victory for the politics of “shellfishness”:

Being serious for a moment, while mainstream Mamdani commentary has so far mostly offered shows of denial and self-delusion, some reality crept through. Look at the “party identification by age in the U.S.’ graph in Bump’s piece, based on voter registration data through June. A full 39% of 30-year-olds are listed as independent/other now, but the number shoots to 44% for 19-year-olds and 49% for age 18 voters. It’s clear that traditional Democratic and Republican bureaucracies are staring at total irrelevance in the very near future. After its flouting by Trump, the old GOP was forced to go through all five stages of the DABDA grief paradigm, but this is new for Democrats. To the youngest voters, the party of Carville and Summers now has the appeal of a Lawrence Welk rerun, and the Trump caucus likely won’t do much better. Will we need two new parties soon?

(racket.news)

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CHAOS CREEPS IN ON LITTLE CAT’S FEET

by James Kunstler

“Great cities fall to the sound of cheering crowds.” Ami Kozak on “X”

The Democratic Party put another bullet in its head this week with the election of the charming, affable jihadi communist Zohran Mamdani. Is “communist” too harsh a label? (He styles himself, softly, a “socialist.”) Yet his campaign platform looks like a template from the venerable Soviet Council of Ministers circa 1957: Free Everything: housing, buses and subways, college, child-care, government food stores. . . with a cherry-on-top of replacing police with social workers in high crime areas — because rapists and car-jackers would quit their rowdy ways if only they could talk about their feelings.

If you believe the news reports emanating from Woke Central, Zohran received major support from the folks who predominate the Upper West Side, where he was raised-up by his Columbia prof Dad and film-maker Mom. That is, voted in by the same high-income demographic that flocks to Zabar’s Deli on Sunday mornings for smoked sturgeon and babka — a curious alliance. I guess this solves the old riddle of why Europe’s Jews walked so placidly into Auschwitz.

“Life imitates art,” old Oscar Wilde liked to say, and with so many self-administered bullets in its head now, the Democratic Party looks more and more like The Walking Dead, a necromantic tribute to its erstwhile mascot, “Joe Biden,” the Phantom of the White House. Fortunately, the Latinx bombshell, AOC, America’s answer to Eva Peron, has stepped up to the leadership role, flanked by the foxy Jasmine Crockett, with their mentor, Bernie Sanders close at hand (on a leash, really) barking validation for the Party’s death trip.

It’s a wonder of our time (and its playful zeitgeist) that New Yorkers might choose a mayor even worse than the brain-dead colossus, Bill de Blasio, but there it is, in plain sight for all to behold. The Big Apple and its various services will now go from their currently merely broke-ass condition, to the complete collapse of infrastructure, transit, housing, revenue, business, and public safety, in other words, to true Third World authenticity! Serious people, who run viable businesses, support families, and pay whopping taxes, are in a panic, all a’chatter about moving elsewhere.

That chatter is not idle, especially among the class that owns major real estate, of which New York City has a frightening and increasingly obsolete inventory — hundreds of office skyscrapers running at fifty percent (or less) occupancy, which cannot cover their mortgages, maintenance, or taxes. What will become of them? I’ll tell you: some will be foreclosed-on, sold for dimes on the dollar (and fail again under new ownership,) and quite few will stand empty waiting for acanthus tree seeds to sprout on their empty windowsills.

Or, they will turn into “squats,” like the towers in the abandoned city center of Johannesburg that I saw visiting there ten years ago. Those giant office buildings were not converted into “residential,” you understand; folks were simply camping-out there, even with the electricity and water turned off. This is exactly what happens when you run the prosperous people, whom you hate, out of town, which is what happened in that sad-sack nation. How many demonstration projects like that are needed to prove that communism with a racist frosting on top is a mug’s game.

Of course, we’re not there yet. Zohran hasn’t been sworn in, though the victory celebration just now looks like it’s fait accompli. You can only imagine the frantic conversation running between the old party poohbahs out in the cold: Chuck Schumer, Hakim, Nadler, Obama, even the loser, Cuomo, plus the non-elected party apparatchiks: Axelrod, Podesta, Carville, Plouffe, Emmanuel. . . . They’re not saying, but I bet many are silently wondering: Is there some way we can just disappear the guy? Make him go away? X him out? Cancel his ass? (Someone, for Godsake, find a couple of girls who will say he groped them in an elevator!)

Or maybe some electoral work-around? Maybe put what remains of the party’s dwindling financial mojo back behind Eric Adams — yes, he’s still Mayor — who supposedly quit the party (after they tried and failed to stuff him in prison) and is running for mayor now as an independent. . . but who will surely welcome whatever support and moolah they can bring to his cause. Adams’s two great virtues as a political figure: he’s not Bill de Blasio and he’s not Zohran Mamdani.

New York might go down the drain anyway. At least for a while. That broken business model for skyscrapers is not going away anytime soon, and neither is the greatly augmented Third World population funneled across the open border into New York City by “Joe Biden’s” shadowy minders. Will New York turn into that fairytale town whose economy subsisted on people simply taking in each other’s laundry?

Well, the city will always have its geographical assets, like, the best goshdarn ocean harbor in the whole east coast. Something will be there. . . some human agglomeration. But what? And over all of that, like the uncanny eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg in Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, looming above the ash-heaps of Queens County on the road to West Egg, lately rises the stern visage of Donald J. Trump, New York real estate mogul superbus, and now President of this sore-beset nation, watching events roll out.

(kunstler.com)

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MENCKEN’S FORGOTTEN WISDOM ON WAR

by James Bovard

As a stampede of weasels seeks to con America into supporting another Mideast war, it is time remember America’s most underrated critic of bellicose folly. H.L. Mencken is famous for his smackdowns of politicians and ridicule of government and of much of American culture. But he also offered sage advice for citizens judging officialdom itching for carnage.

On May 9, 1939, the Baltimore Sun published Mencken’s essay on “The Art of Selling War.” This piece, included in the Second Mencken Chrestomathy published in 1995, deserves a far higher position in the Mencken and in the antiwar pantheon.

In words that are painfully relevant for today’s news, Mencken warned: “The fact that all the polls run heavily against American participation in the threatening European war is not to be taken seriously.” Mencken wrote:

“Wars are not made by common folks, scratching for livings in the heat of the day, they are made by demagogues infesting palaces…. The very unpopularity of war makes people ready to believe, when they suddenly confront it, that it has been thrust upon them… because their own demagogues have been pretending, all the while, to be trying to prevent it.”

Seven years later, the same points were echoed in an interview by Nazi kingpin Hermann Goering, who was on trial for war crimes in 1946 at Nuremberg: “Of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece…. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along.” Goering explained why self-government was a mirage when rulers chose war: “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” Goering committed suicide before he could be triumphally hanged.

In 1939, Mencken explained:

“The main reason why it is easy to sell war to peaceful people is that the demagogues who act as salesmen quickly acquire a monopoly of both public information and public instruction.” Looking at the peril of another World War, Mencken warned: “On the day war is declared, the Espionage Act will come into effect, and all free discussion will cease…. Any argument against the war itself, and any criticism of the persons appointed to carry it on, will become aid and comfort to the enemy.”

Mencken predicted: “A few weeks of [pro-war] razzle-dazzle will suffice to convert most people to the war an to intimidate and silence the stray recalcitrant who holds out.” Thanks to massive pressure to confirm and submit, “The dissenter is not only suspected by all his neighbors; he also begins to suspect himself.”

OK, maybe not dissenters who follow the Libertarian Institute or Counterpunch but most of the rest of them.

Mencken’s perspicacity was shaped by bitter experience during World War One. In 1915, the most popular song in America was “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier.” Two years later, President Woodrow Wilson and his propagandists easily ignited war fever. Mencken chronicled the lies used to justify intervention until his views on the war were silenced. He watched as his fellow German-Americans were vilified and hounded as if they were all seeking to detonate the U.S. Capitol. He watched Wilson endlessly invoke the ideal of liberty as he seized nearly absolute power, including the power to conscript millions of Americans to fight wherever he chose (including Siberia) and to send more than a hundred thousand American troops to their death. Mencken was targeted by the Justice Department for surveillance. His 1917 essay, “Why Free Speech is Impossible During War,” was suppressed.

Mencken helped re-define the war after Armistice Day. In 1920, Mencken ridiculed “the posse of ‘two thousand American Historians’ assembled by Mr. Creel [chief of the U.S. Committee on Public Information] to instruct the plain people in the new theory of American history, whereby the [1776] Revolution was represented as a lamentable row in an otherwise happy family, deliberately instigated by German intrigue.” Hyperbole? No. Robert Goldstein, the producer of the patriotic film “The Spirit of ‘76,” was convicted under the Espionage Act in 1917 for denigrating British soldiers during the Revolution and thereby endangering support for Allies.

On the eve of the 2020 presidential election, Mencken wrote that Americans were tired “of a steady diet of white protestations and black acts; they are weary of hearing highfalutin and meaningless words; they sicken of an idealism that is oblique, confusing, dishonest, and ferocious.” Mencken explained why a typical voter would support Warren Harding: “Tired to death of intellectual charlatanry, he turns despairingly to honest imbecility.”

Maybe some Trump voters last year had the same sense of resignation. But the push for war with Iran is bringing out every charlatan in the land. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman may have offered the most shameless defense for launching a U.S. bombing campaign: “This is not warmongering. This is peace mongering.”

Mencken mostly silenced himself during the Second World War. FBI agents repeatedly investigated him, even interrogating his physician. But, as biographer Fred Hobson noted, Mencken’s “earlier acquaintance with J. Edgar Hoover may have helped forestall any further investigations.” After the war, he bitterly lamented in his dairy: “The course of the United States in World War II was dishonest, dishonorable, and ignominious, and the [Baltimore] Sunpapers, by supporting Roosevelt’s foreign policy, shared in this disgrace.“

Mencken was recently labeled “The Greatest American Critic of the Great War” by the Roads to the Great War website. Mencken wasn’t perfect: he had some boneheaded pro-war utterances, perhaps due to his youthful infatuation with philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. But Mencken offers an antidote to the frenzied laptop bombardiers who increasingly dominate social media and political discourse.

(James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy, The Bush Betrayal, and Terrorism and Tyranny. His latest book is Last Rights: the Death of American Liberty. Bovard is on the USA Today Board of Contributors. He is on Twitter at @jimbovard. His website is at www.jimbovard.com.)

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RAIN YET TO COME

by Aratus

Oxen have always looked up at the sky
and sniffed the air before an oncoming storm,
and ants are quick to transport all the eggs
from their underground nests. Centipedes are seen
to swarm up walls, and forth the worms crawl
to wander about the black earth’s intestines.
And barnyard fowl that are born of the cock
preen themselves well and make low clucking sounds
like the patter of water that drips upon water.
The generations of crows and tribes of jackdaws
have long been a sign of rain from Zeus
when they appear in flocks with hawklike screeching.
And crows will mimic the crystalline splashing
of rain yet to come, or after two deep croaks
will set up a whir with furious wingbeats.
Domestic ducks and roof-nesting jackdaws
head for the eaves and flap their wings,
and the heron’s sharp cry trails off on the waves.
Disregard none of these when on guard against rain.

(From The Sky Is Our Song, The Phenomenon of Aratus, a third century BC poem. Translated from the Greek by Stanley Lombardo.)

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HATS OFF

At Mac Nab's Men's Wear, the ratio of hats to shirts is 4:5. After 4 hats are taken away the new ratio is 3:5. How many shirts are in the store?

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