COOLER interior temperatures and a deeper marine layer are expected through Friday. Temperatures will generally trend warmer this weekend and into early next week. Further warming is likely late next week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A clear & cool 46F this Independence Day on the coast. As the fog has made a timely departure I'm going with a mostly sunny weekend although a bit breezy today. The fog is always out there waiting to re-load but the skies are looking good right now. AND if this holds we will have clear skies for the fireworks tomorrow night over the harbor ! (WE of course refers to those of you who stay up past 8pm.)
ANDERSON VALLEY FOOD BANK UPDATE
As the year rolls along, we would like to share some changes we are seeing in our efforts to provide supplemental food to local folks in need.
Even with some knowledge of where the funds for our food deliveries originate, we were surprised at how large a portion starts as Federal funds. When the severe cuts to federal aid were proposed we assumed that the state could step up and cover some of the shortfall, as was done during the Covid pandemic. However, the state is having budget problems and is not able to cover the difference. Now that the cuts are in place, the pipeline of food assistance is drying up.
In short, we get two streams of aid: large amounts of produce and shelf-stable foods from USDA and smaller amounts of donations from local stores, farms, dairies and individuals. The first change we saw was the loss of most of our canned and dried staples, nearly all of which is funded by USDA. Our immediate supply partners, Mendocino Food Network, are only receiving a fraction of what had been provided to them previously. Their focus then moved to maintaining the supply of fresh produce and frozen proteins, which have had the steepest inflation rates- see eggs for example.
I cannot tell how appreciative I am of their work, in the most difficult circumstances, to continue to get us the supplies to help feed our 200+ households. We have seen more items with a cost, especially the frozen foods, but nearly all that food is provided to us at no cost. We are a volunteer organization, so have no salaries to pay, but we do have overhead - insurance, rent and the like. The long term picture is not reassuring.
So what is the way forward? After some deliberation the board decided to spend down some of our savings in the purchase of the staples that are no longer available. We don’t have the resources to back-fill the void that the loss of USDA funds created, but in the short term we can help. As we must.
We welcome donations of both food and funds. Our website has a direct link to a donation page hosted by PayPal. We can only accept food drop off on the days we have a food distribution scheduled - normally the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. Please do not leave food at the distribution site any other day. We share the Grange with a host of other worthwhile local groups and need to be considerate of all. If you are able to donate larger amounts of food, as some local farms and ranches do, please use our phone and email contacts to set up a time we can be there to receive them.
Our message to our community is simple - we must step up locally to help the less fortunate in our valley. It will take months, if not years, for the full impact of the brutal cuts in services and food assistance to show. We cannot ‘wait and see’, we must get ahead of the problem and fill the needs of our neighbors facing food insecurity.
Web: https://www.andersonvalleyfoodbank.org/
email: [email protected]
phone: 707-397-0716
CITY OF UKIAH REMOVES PROPOSED ANNEXATION MAP FROM WEBSITE
by Justine Frederiksen
To prove that the city is reconsidering its very controversial annexation proposal, Ukiah City Council member Mari Rodin this week suggested that the map showing the city essentially tripling in size be removed from its website.
“I think just to show the community that we are really seriously looking at a new map, that perhaps we could take the current proposed map off of the (city’s) website?” said Rodin, who serves on the city’s annexation ad-hoc committee with Mayor Doug Crane, and reported that the two council members recently met with the county ad-hoc committee, made up of 1st District Supervisor Madeline Cline and 4th District Supervisor Bernie Norvell.
“I just think we should take (the map down) and say that ‘new boundaries are under consideration,'” she suggested to Ukiah City Manager Sage Sangiacomo during the council’s July 2 meeting, to which Sangiacomo replied: “We’re happy to do that.”
“We, the city people, reiterated (at the ad-hoc meeting) that we are reducing the scope of our initial proposed annexation area, (and that) we want to give more time to engage with community members, and we also discussed the finances, how revenues from sales and property taxes are distributed between city and county entities,” said Rodin of the discussion with Cline and Norvell.
“And we also just touched on, but need to get further into, how we are looking to deliver services to our constituents, which is really, in the end, what this is all about,” said Rodin, noting that city representatives also said they would “soon bring back a new, proposed map.”
The July 2 City Council meeting was the first held after Rodin, Sangiacomo and Crane told the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors at their June 24 meeting that the city was reevaluating its ambitious Ukiah Valley Reorganization plan, which included a proposed map.
“When I saw the map, I was basically horrified,” Crane told the board, describing the proposed annexation map as being based on the consolidation of Ukiah Valley water agencies who then requested to be annexed by the city, “and that map came forward based on the idea of doing that re-organization annexation. In hindsight, that was a big f–k up. Just to put it frankly.”
“Big decisions require input and engagement, and we’re clearly engaged,” Sangiacomo told the board. “And where we are today, is a commitment from the city of Ukiah to engage with the community, engage with stakeholders and engage with the county.”
“Are you suggesting that the city is in a position to withdraw the current plan and come back with a new proposal?” 5th District Supervisor Ted Williams asked Sangiacomo, who responded that the city had not yet submitted a plan, only a pre-application for annexation, and that the City Council had not approved a plan or even a map, describing the unpopular map in the draft proposal as “starting this discussion, in a very awkward way. We all recognize that, (but) sometimes starting these discussions is not easy to do.”
“The problem I have is, people are calling me, irate,” Williams said. “I would have expected the city to pull back and say, ‘We’re not doing that plan. We hear the public, we will do something different.’ If you could make that statement, I think that would de-escalate the situation. Because now, people feel they have no voice. They’re going to city meetings, and they hear a presentation, but they don’t feel that there is an opportunity to be part of the discussion and actually steer it.”
Sangiacomo said that city officials had already announced their intent to “go through a meaningful, collaborative process to collect public input and to work with stakeholders… to define whether or not we even have a proposal to move forward with. At this point, there is not a proposal to withdraw, because we don’t have one yet to submit. But from this point moving forward, the map will change.”
The discussion ended with Williams suggesting that the board’s ad-hoc committee, made up of Norvell and Cline, meet with city representatives and gather more information regarding the annexation proposal and how it will affect the county’s finances, but stressed that he wanted to keep the public updated on the process.
“I’m comfortable saying that the ad-hoc will provide regular updates, and I think even once a month is more than acceptable,” Cline said.
(ukiahdj.com)
FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL ADDRESSES BROADBAND, LAND USE, AND COMMUNITY FUNDING
by Megan Wutzke
During its meeting on June 23, the council took action on several important issues, including broadband service fees, coastal land use changes, planning efforts for the former Georgia-Pacific mill site, community funding allocations, and street repair contracts.
The council held a public hearing to approve fees for broadband services after taking over the Mendocino Community Network (MCN). The existing rates for services like dial-up and DSL will remain unchanged to avoid affecting current customers. New fees apply only to the City’s fiber-optic internet service, which was funded by state grants. These new fees will help cover the costs of operating the broadband service without using money from the General Fund. The City expects to raise about $2.3 million each year to support operations, customer service, and loan payments for the $17.4 million investment in broadband. The City plans to review and adjust rates in the future based on actual costs. The old MCN rates will gradually be phased out. Only the new fiber fees will have a 60-day delay before they start.
The council also held a public hearing to make changes to its Local Coastal Program, which the California Coastal Commission approved. The amendment introduced a new area called Plan Area C to the city’s coastal land use map. It also allowed science centers to be built in public facilities zones with a use permit, defined “science center,” and rezoned three properties. The changes included rezoning the Noyo Center parcel to Public Facilities, the Coastal Trail parcels to Parks and Recreation, and land owned by the Sherwood Valley
Band of Pomo Indians to Medium Density Residential.
The council discussed updates on Phase 2 of the Mill Site Master Development Agreement (MDA) Planning Program and planned a public workshop for June 26 at the Cotton Auditorium, along with a second feedback session scheduled for July.
Phase 2 began on June 9, 2025, when the council decided to work with Mendocino Railway to create a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for land use and infrastructure at the former Georgia-Pacific Mill Site. Public comments were mixed. Many residents expressed concerns about trusting Mendocino Railway, considering the city has been at odds with them for a few years. However, others supported the move towards collaborative planning instead of legal disputes.
City staff are now refining the work plan and preparing for public outreach. The city’s portion of the $60,000 cost is covered by its legal services budget, and a draft MOU is expected to be presented to the council later this summer.
The council committed one-time funding of $58,000 from the projected $350,000 General Fund surplus to support the Fort Bragg Food Bank, which has faced recent federal funding cuts. The Food Bank provides vital services to many low-income residents. However, the Council decided to wait for confirmation on the Senior Center’s funding status before committing any funds to that organization. If approved, staff will prepare budget amendments and accountability measures.
The council has awarded two contracts to Argonaut Constructors, Inc. for important street repairs in Fort Bragg. The first contract, valued at up to $1.97 million, focuses on the 2025 Pavement Preservation Project, which includes slurry sealing, patching, crack sealing, and installing ADA curb ramps on 27 street segments totaling 7.2 miles, as well as rehabilitating the City Hall parking lot.
The second contract, worth up to $350,000, is for the Stop Gap Patch Paving Project, which addresses urgent repairs on six streets. About 46,666 square feet of patching was prioritized for the worst areas, such as South and Cypress Streets, due to budget limitations. Funding for both projects comes from Local Streets and Roads, RMRA, and reserves. Lumos & Associates handled design and construction management for both.
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
SUPERVISOR MAUREEN MULHEREN:
Priscilla the Project Manager reporting for duty on her run. The Courthouse project at Perkins and Clay is bustling, so interesting to see this site transformed. The Pinoleville project (35 units, I think I’ve gotten this wrong in the past so I’ll try to remember next time and an update from the City on the Urban Core Project:
UCRT Construction Update – July 2, 2025
We appreciate your continued patience as we improve Ukiah’s core infrastructure. Here’s what’s happening on the Urban Core Rehabilitation and Transportation Project:
West & East Gobbi
- Paving is complete
- Raised crosswalk near Rail Trail underway (done by July 9)
- Striping for both East & West scheduled for July 21
- Traffic signals will go off flash after striping.
Main Street
- Major reconstruction starts July 9
- Crews will grind out 18” of pavement – this will be noisy and dusty, but worth it!
- Work moves block by block, with one-way traffic and access notifications to residents & businesses
Tentative schedule:
- July 9–15: Gobbi to Perkins (east side)
- July 15–18: Perkins to Norton (east side)
- July 21–23: Norton to Perkins (west side)
- July 23–25: Perkins to Gobbi (west side)
- Paving: July 30–August 12
Perkins Street
- Potholing done
- Storm drain work near Perkins/Orchard begins August 13.
Construction Hours: Monday–Friday, 6 AM–6 PM
No work on July 4th
Note: The new courthouse project is state-managed — the City will share updates as we receive them.
Please drive slowly, follow posted signs, and be kind to our hardworking crews. The end result? Safer streets, new sidewalks, and improved infrastructure for all!.
More info: www.cityofukiah.com/ucrt
Transit info: www.mendocinotransit.org or call 707-462-1422
As a reminder Priscilla is an unpaid inexperienced inspector (she’s just a two year old girl so please look for official sources like the @cityofukiah and Mendocino Superior Court Website.
THERE ARE NO ITEMS on the hard-working, underpaid Supervisors regular agenda for next Tuesday besides four routine discussion items — staff reports, CEO report (there is none), Legislative Platform and Supervisors reports. They do have a closed session labor negotiations item with all the County’s labor unions/bargaining units:
Conference with Labor Negotiator
Agency Negotiators: Darcie Antle and Cherie Johnson;
Employee Organization(s): Service Employees' International Union (SEIU) Local 1021, Mendocino County Deputy Sheriffs' Association (DSA), Mendocino County Law Enforcement Management Association (MCLEMA), Mendocino County Management Association, Mendocino County Association of Confidential Employees (MCACE), Mendocino County Department Head Association, Mendocino County Probation Employees' Association (MCPEA) Teamsters Local 856, Mendocino County Public Authority and SEIU Local 2015 (IHSS-In Home Supportive Services), Mendocino County Public Attorneys’ Association (MCPAA), and Unrepresented.
Given the County’s multi-million dollar budget deficit, this might be the agenda item that will take the most time, but whatever is done will be behind closed doors. (Or it might just be a brief review of what the barganing units are asking for.) We’ve always been amused that Mendo’s highly paid officials who make up the “Mendocino County Department Head Association” are their own barganing unit. Not only is that basically an oxymoron, but the Supervisors have their own salaries tied to the Department head salaries. So they the Supes get a raise whenever they give their top officials a raise. A cozier self-serving arrangement would be hard to imagine. (Mark Scaramella)
Also scheduled for closed session discussion is a lawsuit against the County for their controversial vote to allow the old water tower/staircase in the town of Mendocino to be demolished filed by Mendocino realtor Scott Roat. In addition to the closed session discussion, there’s a consent calendar item for the Board to approve the hiring of SF-based Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedmann & Girard to defend the County against Roat’s lawsuit for $20k.
MENDOCINO GRAND JURY: HEALING THE TOXIC CULTURE IN THE CITY OF WILLITS WORKPLACE
The 2024-25 Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury (Grand Jury) received a complaint detailing multiple irregularities including an intimidating and toxic workplace culture for the employees of the City of Willits. The complaint called into question other specific issues and requested a formal Grand Jury investigation. This report addresses only the workplace environment.
Willits has a long history in the logging and tourist industries. It is the eastern end of the famous Skunk Train line, originally a logging train that carried lumber and mail to and from the coast. The year 2025 marks the 99th year of Frontier Days, celebrating the history of Willits and Mendocino County’s diversity. Community involvement in events is strong in Willits.
As of the 2020 census, the City of Willits has a population of 4,843 and covers 2.8 square miles in Mendocino County. It is governed by a publicly elected City Council comprised of a mayor and four other council members. The City Council Manual of Procedures and Protocols (page 18, Section 15. B & H) reads:
“B. The City Manager and the City Attorney are the only officials directly appointed by the City Council. All department heads (except for the City Attorney) are appointed and supervised by the City Manager.
“H. The City Manager shall receive performance reviews by the Council by April 30th of each year.” See APPENDIX A for the Willits City Council Manual of Procedures and Protocols.
As of fiscal year 2024-25, there are 60 positions in the City of Willits (this includes 16 positions in the Police Department). The City Manager and Assistant City Manager form top management and have five positions reporting to them: one police chief, three directors and one analyst position. The five departments in the City of Willits are Police, Community Development, Finance, Services and Facilities and Human Resources. The investigation and the findings discussed in this report do not concern the Police Department or the Police Chief.
Discussion
In its investigation, the Grand Jury found documented instances of activities contributing to a toxic workplace environment. The Grand Jury interviewed employees working under top management who stated they feared losing their jobs and were often subjected to ridicule, intimidation and angry outbursts by those same top managers. Employees observed human resource practices that violated the current written City of Willits Personnel Policies and Procedures.
Specifically, according to employees interviewed, top management ignored the policy in the City of Willits Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual regarding harassment, discrimination and retaliation. This policy is expressly set forth in Section 2, page 10. That procedure instructs the employee to direct their complaint to the Director of Human Resources, a position that no longer exists because the former City Manager eliminated the position.
According to the provision regarding employee complaints, upon receiving a complaint, the Human Resources Director or designee was to investigate, interview the complainant, the accused and witnesses, review information and “[p]repare a summary report of the determination as to whether the conduct violated this Policy and provide such report to the appointing authority (i.e., City Manager).” This procedure is not followed because there is no Human Resources Director. The policy, as written, also appears to have a built-in conflict as there is no one to whom a report or complaint about the City Manager could be directed.
In addition, the City of Willits Personnel Policy and Procedures Manual includes a policy specifically guarding against workplace bullying. It defines workplace bullying as:
“…conduct with malice that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to the City’s legitimate operational and other interests. Workplace bullying may include repeated infliction of verbal abuse, such as the use of derogatory remarks, insults and epithets, verbal, or physical conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening, intimidating, or humiliating, or the gratuitous sabotage or undermining of a person’s work performance. A single act shall not constitute workplace bullying, unless especially severe and egregious. While discriminatory harassment may involve bullying, bullying is not limited to conduct against another person because of his or her membership in a protected classification.” (Section 2.6, page 17)
Women are a protected class and reported feeling bullied. With workplace bullying, the City recommends employees inform the offender of their conduct because they may not be aware that their conduct is offensive. If the offender continues the offensive conduct, or the complaining employee is not comfortable talking to the person directly, an individual who believes the policy has been violated is instructed to make a report to:
“…their supervisor, theHuman Resources Manager, or any other supervisor, director, or other management in the City.”
2024-25 Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury Page 4
In many instances, top management was often the offender of the policy but there was no one in management to whom a complaint or report could be made. The City of Willits Personnel Policy and Procedures Manual also states:
“The City is committed to preventing discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the workplace. The City has zero tolerance for any conduct that violates this Policy Against Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation. Conduct need not violate either Federal or State law in order to constitute a violation of this Policy. A single act by a City employee may constitute a violation of this Policy and provide sufficient grounds for the City to discipline the City employee.”
Further,
“This policy prohibits harassment of a covered individual because of the individual’s actual or perceived protected classification. Harassment includes, but is not limited to, the following conduct: Derogatory, offensive, or inappropriate speech, such as epithets, slurs or stereotypical comments, or verbal propositions made on the basis of the individual’s protected classification. This includes, but is not limited to, comments, stories, and jokes about appearances, dress, physical features, gender identification, and race.”
The following examples of testimony to the Grand Jury from employees, or language taken from their written or verbal statements about top management, confirm an unprofessional, intimidating, intolerable and, at times, toxic workplace has been allowed to fester within the City of Willits.
Staff do not feel they can bring concerns without fear of retaliation.
- Many staff were looking for new jobs because things were so bad.
- Numerous meetings and conversations included disparaging, negative or unprofessional language when referring to other employees
- One employee was shocked by the rude, hostile and unprofessional behavior.
- It was a normal pattern for top management to belittle, bully and talk badly about anyone they did not like no matter if it was unethical or morally wrong.
- Staff left working for the City of Willits because they were badly treated and forced out.
- People were let go in unfair and unethical ways.
- Top management placed themselves as acting Finance Director and Human Resources Director positions for which employees believed they had no experience or qualifications to do the jobs responsibly.
- Employees expressed a desire to be heard but are afraid of what will happen to them based on how other staff have been threatened and bullied. Employees feel respect and dignity are characteristics lacking in their workplace.
- Complaints made regarding top management fall on deaf ears; the complainant is perceived as the problem.
- Complaints by employees are routinely ignored, dismissed or used against them.
- In a fit of anger, top management swiped files off a desk instead of trying to calm down the situation.
- Complaints are “squashed” instead of heard, investigated and addressed.
- Some employees were criticized for the clothes they wore. One employee was told that top management discussed the type of bra that she wore. That employee was mortified.
- An employee was told by top management to change their personality and “grow a pair.”
- Many employees expressed the view that if top management did not like them, they could end up targeted and out of a job.
- Employees felt it was hell at work, and mental health became more important to them than the job.
- One employee described the last four years as having been the hardest, most stressful, frustrating and challenging times experienced over multiple professions.
- Employees state that the leadership is fear-based. This causes disruptions and frustrations, taking away the ability to perform duties to the fullest.
- Constant belittling and condescending language is taking its toll on staff.
- Some employees personally witnessed derogatory comments about those who oppose top management.
- Qualified and competent employees have chosen to seek other employment.
- Blame is often placed by managers on others to avoid responsibility.
- Employees care about and love working for the City of Willits. They are hurt to see what is happening. There is so much division that has been caused by poor top management style.
- Many employees feel they work in a hostile place.
As referenced earlier, in 2024, the City Manager eliminated the Human Resources Director position and replaced it with a data-gathering Human Resources Analyst position. This action is in direct repudiation of language in the City of Willits Personnel Policy and Procedures Manual authorizing and directing the Human Resources Director to receive and investigate complaints/grievances. 2024-25 Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury Page 6
The lack of confidence in top management has prompted the departure of several high- level, highly skilled employees. In addition, as referenced previously, the City Council solicited written input from employees that verified the findings in this report thus bringing the conditions in the workplace to the direct attention of the City Council.
During the drafting of this report, the former City Manager separated from employment with the City of Willits. Events mentioned in this report occurred before the current interim City Manager was hired.
Conclusion
With information gathered, the Grand Jury determined top management has allowed a toxic and intimidating workplace to develop by failing to follow or enforce written policies and procedures. Employees have no process available to address bullying or harassment by top management because there is no Director of Human Resources and because of the fear of retaliation. The City Council failed to provide effective oversight of top management. Specifically, the City Council has failed to follow express policies and procedures as identified in the Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual regarding oversight: “The City Council shall exercise control over personnel only through the City Manager.”
The City Council also has not conducted the annual performance reviews as required by City Council Manual of Procedures and Protocols which reads, “the City Manager shall receive performance reviews by the Council by April 30 of each year.”
Findings
F1. The Grand Jury found the existence of a toxic and intimidating workplace culture at the City of Willits office (excluding the Police Department). This has prompted highly qualified, dedicated workers to leave City employment.
F2. The Grand Jury found the Willits City Council failed to provide oversight of top management for compliance with personnel policies and procedures.
F3. The Grand Jury found the City of Willits employees do not have an effective avenue for bringing complaints to the attention of top management. This is due to the failure to follow the Willits Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual.
F4. The Grand Jury found the City of Willits presently does not have a Director of Human Resources. Portions of the Willits Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual expressly contemplate such a position as employees are instructed to seek help from the Director of Human Resources.
F5. The Grand Jury found that the Willits City Council had not conducted annual performance reviews of the Willits City Manager by April 30 of each year.
Recommendations
R1. The Grand Jury recommends the Willits City Council direct its City Manager to demonstrate compliance with the existing written Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual for the City of Willits, by July 31, 2025.
R2. The Grand Jury recommends the Willits City Council create a mechanism for compliance and oversight to ensure all personnel policies are being followed, by January 1, 2026.
R3. The Grand Jury recommends the Willits City Council direct the Willits City Manager to restore and fill the position of Human Resources Director by January 1, 2026.
R4. The Grand Jury recommends the Willits City Council conduct annual performance reviews of the Willits City Manager by April 30 of each year.
ms notes: As best we can tell from an initial on-line search, the Willits City Manager was a man named Brian Bender until late March of 2025 when he was “terminated following a closed session” discussion. KZYX reported that the City Council “finalized a separation agreement” with Mr. Bender on May 5, 2025. The current Willits City website does not list a City Manager, but only lists Assistant City Manager as Cathy Moorhead. Previously, in August of 2023, Redheaded Blackbelt reported that the Willits Police Union voted “no confidence” in City Manager Brian Bender. Apparently Mr. Bender was hired in 2021. Rumors beginning being circulated about Bender’s heavy-handed management style soon thereafter. But the culture of intimidation prevented complaints from being made publicly.
LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)
FARM BUREAU CALLS ON UKIAH TO START OVER ON ANNEXATION
To Ukiah Mayor Doug Crane and City of Ukiah Council Members:
There was a public workshop held at 6:00 pm on June 19th, 2025, at the Ukiah Conference Center. It was indicated by Ukiah’s city manager and other staff that the city’s proposed annexation plan was open for discussion, direct input, review, transparency, and revision to reflect input from the citizens of Ukiah and citizens from the proposed annexation area. It was clear that NO ONE in attendance that evening supported the annexation proposal other than city staff.
On June 24, 2025 at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting concerning the tax sharing agreement and annexation, City of Ukiah Mayor Doug Crane, spoke and indicated very clearly that the city had not provided sufficient information, studies or details about the proposed annexation plan, its implications, and impacts to either the citizens of Ukiah, which he represents, or to the individual citizens, business, and agriculture in the proposed annexation area.
We remain strongly opposed to “The Annexation Plan” and strongly encourage the city council to terminate and rescind the current misguided annexation plan by a vote of the city council to start fresh with public input, involvement, and transparency.
Estelle Clifton, President
Mendocino County Farm Bureau
JULY 4 PARADE IN MENDO!
After party lasts till 9! DJ street dance , Masonic Hall tours, Flynn Creek Circus act in Rotary Park + Queer Country album release. Parade is now traced back to 1876 and was always wacky!
VELMA'S FARM STAND AT FILIGREEN FARM
Closed Friday 4th Of July
Open Saturday & Sunday 11-4pm
This week's offerings include: blueberries, peaches (limited!), tomatoes (limited!), eggplant, carrots, sprouting broccoli, lettuce mix, butterhead lettuce, scallions, summer squash, kale, chard, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, fresh garlic, basil, parsley, olive oil, and dried fruit!
Reminder: We are closed this Friday for the holiday. We will resume normal hours on Saturday AND Sunday (11AM - 4PM)! Follow us on Instagram for updates @filigreenfarm or email [email protected] with any questions. All produce is certified biodynamic and organic.
RIDING MUNI
Dear Bruce,
I wanted to take the opportunity to mention what I consider one of the glories of the Mighty AVA — your accounts over the years of riding MUNI through the tortuous social and geographical labyrinth of San Francisco.
While there are certain staples to the genre — e.g., the ex-Marine sizing up whether if necessary he can take that day’s psychotic passenger should he launch an assault on the elderly and disabled seated at the front of the bus; the older, hyper-aggressive Chinese women who body check their fellow passengers with the efficacy of N.F.L. linebackers — it’s the sheer variety and novelty of the characters involved that make these pieces a joy to read.
While I am undoubtedly biased by the 22 years I spent living in San Francisco during which time I rode MUNI on virtually a daily basis, I still maintain that a judiciously edited volume collecting these accounts entitled “Bruce Rides MUNI,” with an introduction by someone who knows you well — the Nephew, perhaps — and published by City Lights, would make a small but significant contribution to the literary life of the City.
Doug Loranger
Walnut Creek
STAGE MAP 1900 MENDOCINO COUNTY (via Ron Parker, Mendocino Way Back When)
CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, July 3, 2025
FABIAN CHAVEZ-ZAMUDIO, 40, Ukiah. DUI.
NICHOLAS COCHRAN, 40, Ukiah. Failure to appear, resisting.
RONALD MAPLE, 61, Covelo. Disobeying court order.
AUGUST MCKEE, 47, Redwood Valley. Toluene or similar, unspecified offense.
ILIJAH NELSON, 38, Ukiah. Concealed dirk-dagger, paraphernalia, parole violation.
SHEILA OWENS, 33, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
PEDRO REYNAGA, 42, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation violation.
MATTHEW RUSSELL, 43, Fort Bragg. Burglary, contempt of court.
RYAN STEARNS, 43, Philo. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, burglary, elder abuse resulting in great bodily harm or death.
TYLER WOOD, 28, Ukiah. Controlled substance, concealed dirk-dagger, failure to appear.
AZAIAH ZACARIAS, 24, Ukiah. County parole violation.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Not sure why people still refer to them as "mainstream"? CNN's viewership is teetering on the edge of oblivion. MSNBC is deplorable. Very few serious reporters are referring to them to illustrate anything resembling reality. Legacy or corporate media seem to be the better choices.
ESTHER MOBLEY: What I'm Reading
Sonoma County winery Jeff Cohn Cellars, a specialist in Zinfandel and Syrah, is permanently closing, reports Tim Fish in Wine Spectator. The owners wanted to retire, and “selling the winery seemed a longshot, considering how many wineries are reportedly for sale in California.”
California’s Michelin stars for the year are in, and this year two new Bay Area restaurants ranked: Sun Moon Studio in Oakland (one star) and Enclos (two stars), the first ever for Sonoma. The Chronicle’s Elena Kadvany has more.
More from Elena: There’s a major saga involving Upstairs, the late-night bar that Andres Giraldo Florez opened inside an apartment above Snail Bar in Oakland. Elena has details on why the city shut down Upstairs after only five days and the challenges that still remain for it, including a “problematic bathtub.”
Napa County is considering extending a program that granted amnesty to wineries that were noncompliant with their permits, allowing them to continue operating as long as they’re working toward becoming compliant, writes Barry Eberling in the Napa Valley Register. The rule does not apply to safety violations; it mostly covers wineries that are hosting more visitors than they’re supposed to.
(SF Chronicle)
GIANTS GET A SPLIT with Diamondbacks behind Robbie Ray’s complete game
by Shayna Rubin
PHOENIX — Andrew Knizner noticed something different about Robbie Ray as he caught his bullpen earlier in the week.
Ray’s pitch shapes were cleaner, making it more efficient to get all four of them to the desired locations. The San Francisco Giants’ backup catcher was impressed then, but marveled when he saw Ray implement those tweaks with ease into his start Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“It was a good job on his part for making that adjustment and taking it right into a game,” Knizner said. “That’s tough to do in Major League Baseball.”
Knizner’s bullpen observations foretold a milestone start for Ray, who plowed through the Diamondbacks’ lineup to throw his second career complete game and make his best case for an All-Star Game nod in the Giants’ 7-2 win to split the series.
Ray needed 102 pitches to get through it, and 24 of them were spent in a taxing ninth inning. He combined his sharper offerings with an aggressive Diamondbacks approach to breeze through a majority of the evening. He needed seven pitches to get through the first inning and nine to get through the second, flashing hints of brilliance to come when he struck out Blaze Alexander swinging at a slider to end it.
No Diamondback reached base until Eugenio Suarez launched the first pitch of the fifth inning, a lazy fastball over the plate, for a home run. Ray then retired the next seven batters.
“From the very beginning I felt I was on the attack,” Ray said. “Getting some early outs, had a really good game plan going in and stuck to it.”
Bob Melvin had a thin bullpen to work with in Thursday’s series finale. Ray ensured his manager would have a stress-free evening.
“Aggressive swings, early count from the other side,” Melvin said. “First pitch sliders, ground balls off of off-speed pitches, it’s a little different before. In years past he had a difficult time throwing nine innings with throwing as many fastballs as he has at the top of the zone. Foul balls and so forth running his pitch count up, but his off speed stuff throwing it in different counts allows him to pitch deeper into games.”
There was no conversation needed, just a head not between manager and starter, to decide whether Ray would go back out for the ninth inning. He had thrown 78 pitches, well shy of his season-high 108 game against Arizona in May. Shortly after giving up a solo home run to Ketel Marte and issuing his first walk of the evening to Geraldo Pedromo, it wasn’t Melvin out to take the ball, but pitching coach J.P. Martinez to the mound with a message.
“He said, ‘Hey you should empty the tank right now,’” Ray said. “That was my cue to say ‘OK, this is everything I got.’”
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. popped out on the first post-visit pitch and Ray struck out Suarez swinging at a fastball to clinch his seventh strikeout and the game.
In a baseball world where protecting pitchers’ arms is paramount, complete games come few and far between. Ray’s only other one came not in his 2021 Cy Young year with Toronto, but with a shutout in May 2017 during his time with the Diamondbacks.
More than a personal milestone, Ray’s complete game put an exclamation point on his All-Star candidacy. The rule that every team sends at least one representative lessens the chance that one team will have two of its starting pitchers selected, but the Giants have a legitimate case to buck that trend.
Logan Webb is a near lock to represent the Giants as the 2.61 ERA-toting ace of one of baseball’s best pitching staffs (with impressive strikeout numbers to boot) and Ray has the credentials to join him. Ray’s 2.68 ERA over 107 1/3 innings is tied with Philadelphia’s Christopher Sanchez for seventh best in the National League and his 117 strikeouts are fifth most behind Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler, Washington’s MacKenzie Gore, Webb and San Diego’s Dylan Cease.
A 9-3 record is perhaps the most telling statistic of Ray’s season. Despite the team’s rough patch of late, he’s been a one of the best starters on a team in contention because of its pitching staff.
“I think both of them are deserving,” Melvin said. “He makes a great case. I would hope that two guys on the same staff would be on the team together, they both deserve it.”
For a third game in a row, the Giants scored early against an opposing starter to give Ray plenty of breathing room.
Heliot Ramos sat out Wednesday’s game trying to get rid of a bad flu, but returned Thursday feeling refreshed and full of big hits. His RBI double in the first kick started a two-run inning and, in the third, he poked an RBI single through an infield playing in to round out another two-run frame.
The same Giants who could barely muster more than three runs through the first five games of this road trip had 12 hits. Mike Yastrzemski and Willy Adames both had three-hit games while Rafael Devers tallied three RBIs, including a two-run single in the seventh inning and a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
(sfchronicle.com)
IN A FIRST, CALIFORNIA MOVES TOWARD PAYING INCARCERATED FIREFIGHTERS MINIMUM WAGE
by Cayla Mihalovich
California sent incarcerated firefighters to battle blazes in Los Angeles this year. It’s moving toward paying them minimum wage for their work in emergencies.
In a historic policy change, California is moving to pay incarcerated firefighters the federal minimum wage during active fires.
The wage increase, funded through the new state budget, follows years of advocacy to improve pay and working conditions for incarcerated labor. That effort took on a new urgency after hundreds of incarcerated firefighters were deployed to battle deadly wildfires that hit Los Angeles in January.
Incarcerated firefighters currently earn between $5.80 and $10.24 per day, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. During active emergencies, Cal Fire compensates them an additional $1 per hour.
That appears to be changing. Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed a new state budget with $10 million to pay incarcerated firefighters $7.25 an hour when they’re on a fire. It will take effect Jan. 1 as long as the Legislature passes a bill that would mandate the policy.
“It’s the right thing to do and it’s long overdue,” said Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat from Culver City who authored the bill that would raise incarcerated firefighter pay. “It feels really beautiful and life changing for folks who have sacrificed to save others during their time being held accountable for whatever harms they may have caused in their past.”
Bryan initially set out to raise wages for incarcerated firefighters to $19 per hour, but settled on the federal minimum wage after budget negotiations. The bill, which received bipartisan support from nearly two dozen lawmakers, was opposed by the California State Sheriffs’ Association over concerns of its potential fiscal impact on counties.
“To have a bipartisan moment where we’re dignifying incarcerated labor with a federal minimum wage – I think that is the best of who we are,” said Bryan. “My colleagues on both sides of the aisle, on this particular effort, are demonstrating what it really means to be Californian.”
Bryan introduced the bill after voters last year rejected a ballot measure that would have ended forced labor in prisons and jails. California’s incarcerated firefighters have long provided critical support to state, local and federal government agencies in responding to various emergencies, including wildfires and floods.
Over 1,800 incarcerated firefighters live year-round in minimum-security conservation camps, also known as “fire camps,” located across 25 counties in California, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Those numbers have dwindled in recent years due to a declining prison population.
The wage increase is an acknowledgment to the people fighting the fires, said Katie Dixon, policy and campaign coordinator for the organization California Coalition for Women Prisoners, which supported Bryan’s bill.
“I feel like this is a statement of value – in saying: we value you, we honor you, we see you,” said Dixon.
Dixon dreamed of becoming a firefighter after spending two years on a hand crew while she was incarcerated. But despite her experience fighting hundreds of fires, she found that the career path was not available to her when she was released from prison in 2012 due to her criminal record.
“It felt like a dream deferred. A dream that’s been cut off due to systemic policies designed to keep people like me — Black people — out of certain professions,” said Dixon. “Deep down inside, I’m supposed to be a battalion chief.”
Both state and federal legislation have been introduced this year to try and shore up the pipeline for incarcerated people to land in firefighting careers once they’ve been released.
U.S. Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Judy Chu, both from California, introduced a bill that would establish national protections for incarcerated firefighters, including a uniform framework to clear their records that would ease the barriers to employment.
“As we are seeing departments contract, as we are seeing that it is harder to recruit and retain firefighters, why would you miss an opportunity like this to connect a pipeline that is trained right into municipalities that need more firefighters?” said Kamlager-Dove. “At the end of the day, it’s jobs and economic stability that help all of us.”
(CalMatters.org)
A TRIP TO ALCATRAZ MADE IT CLEAR WHY TRUMP WANTS A PRISON HERE AGAIN
by Drew Magary
I remember this green, and I hate it. I’m standing in a preserved cell on Alcatraz Island, staring at the green paint lining the cell’s lower walls. I’ve been on this tour twice before, once as a child and once as a new parent. On both visits, I remembered the green paint above all else. Calling it “green,” or even “sickly green,” doesn’t properly convey the hue. On the prison’s audio tour, a former inmate speaks into my ear that “I was a man who was dead inside” when he was on Alcatraz. This is what that green looks like: like spiritual death. You see this color, and you want to escape from it.
That instinct is even more acute on this day. This is my third time visiting Alcatraz as a tourist, but it’s my first time visiting it under the specter of its potential reopening as a detention facility. Perhaps you forgot that Donald Trump, with the explicit blessing of his Federal Bureau of Prisons, would like to make this a reality. The great SDTV inside of Trump’s skull sees visions of a newly reopened Rock, its cells populated with his favorite enemies and a standing $10 million cash prize to any who successfully escape. He sees a ratings winner. So today, I’m looking at these sickly walls and not seeing a grim reminder of this nation’s carceral past but of its potential carceral future.
Perhaps my future, as well. After all, I’m a journalist, and I think Trump sucks mondo ass. That makes me a prime target for the goon squad, so maybe a stint on Alcatraz awaits me. If so, I’d better familiarize myself with my new home and perhaps with its potential escape routes.
The ferry ride out to Alcatraz Island is, as ever, peak San Francisco cold. Even on this sunny June day, it’s cold. Even with bodies packed tight on the deck, it’s cold. If they had REALLY wanted to make Al Capone suffer, they would have just made him ride this ferry 24/7 until his dormant syphilis finally claimed him.
I reach the island, and I’m greeted by the deep red graffiti that Native Americans scrawled on the old prison barracks when they took over the island in 1969 to stage a mass protest of the U.S. government’s Indian Termination Policy. Six years before that occupation, Alcatraz had ceased operations as a detention facility because federal officials realized that keeping it open was an extravagant waste of money, with two senators famously claiming it would cost less to house all of the facility’s inmates at the Waldorf-Astoria. That occupation would last around another two years before the feds ended it by force, but officials in charge of the island preserved remnants of the uprising, even dedicating the island’s New Industries Building as a museum to it. I never paid much attention to that bit of history the last time I visited Alcatraz. The restored “INDIANS WELCOME” message I see upon disembarking compels me to, and I’m glad for it.
More signs of life abound. Along the walk up toward the main prison, nature has reclaimed a good portion of the island. Thick vines, a more welcome shade of green, grow over the outer walls. Chirping seagulls float overhead, waiting for tourists to drop their hot dogs. And just around the bend, I spot an endless flock of Brandt’s cormorants — their elongated necks bent into the shape of a question mark — nesting on the rocks. These birds are far more tolerant of the cold and wind than I am, which makes Alcatraz a rather ideal habitat for them.
I make my way to the cell house and here, too, see examples of life finding a way on this otherwise desolate outpost. Alcatraz began its career as a military outpost during the Gold Rush, only for the U.S. government to convert it into a prison back in the 1930s in response to — stop me if you heard this before — a nationwide panic over crime. Alcatraz wouldn’t be just a prison but THE prison: a maritime hellhole designed explicitly to house, and to torment, the country’s most nefarious criminals, Capone among them. From a PR standpoint, it was a success. The prison became, by far, the most famous prison in America, and the inmates inside of it spent their time on the island miserable beyond comprehension.
Evidence of that misery abounds. I can see it in the green paint. I can hear it in the audio tour. But I also see evidence of life and of survival. I see inmates’ possessions preserved in their cells: tooth powder, dented metal cups, accordions, old baseball mitts and cribbage boards. I see sunlight shining down on the cell block through the filthy skylights above. I walk out to the old rec yard, where prisoners were allowed recess time out in the fresh, if brisk, air as a reward for good behavior. And of course, I see the preserved evidence of the famed 1962 prison escape. I see these things, and I imagine the criminals once marooned here attempting, even in their spiritual death, to give their lives a trace amount of joy. Color. Given the offenses those prisoners committed, it’s easy to say they never deserved any of that joy. But when you stand here, on The Rock, you understand their primal need to do so. You understand that suffering is suffering, no matter who’s on the receiving end of it.
Because, of course, circumstances on Alcatraz were dire. You’ll learn all about that on the audio tour if you come back to visit. More importantly, you’ll SEE it with your own eyes. You’ll glance at the cold iron floor of a solitary confinement unit in the D Block, and you’ll get a better understanding of the cruelties of prison than you ever could from a film or book. You’ll get an intimate understanding that the lives these prisoners cobbled out for themselves existed only in bursts, some not longer than a few minutes a day.
This is when the reminder hits me. I’m standing not just inside our most famous prison but also inside our most famous prison museum. Alcatraz, with all of its history still preserved, serves as a vital educational tool for Americans to learn both how their prisons work and how awful those prisons are. Nine years after it ceased to operate as a detention facility, Alcatraz became part of our national park system. It’s not as picturesque as the Grand Canyon, but it may be no less valuable.
It’s also one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Bay Area, of course. America’s Tower of London. Converting it back into a prison, when we already have so many other abjectly cruel jails up and running nationwide, would not only prove to be an extravagant waste of money but would make all of us stupider in the process. This Alcatraz, as it stands now, is more than just an ideal place to sate your most intensely morbid fascinations. The Alcatraz of today is a monument: one that illuminates this nation’s past in ways that will surprise, educate and even outrage its present citizens. We need this Alcatraz, just as it is. No wonder Donald Trump wants to destroy it.
VULTURES OVER MAMDANI
by Fred Gardner
Former President Bill Clinton's backing of former Governor Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York City did not sway voters in the Democratic Party primary June 24 . They chose Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old Democratic Socialist.
Before Clinton made his useless endorsement, he attended a billion-dollar bash to which the New York Times paid proper attention. Excerpts follow, with comments:
"The Democratic establishment descended on the Hamptons this weekend for something of a political royal wedding that brought together the worlds of big-money politics and Clinton-era insiders. The newlyweds were Alex Soros, the son of George Soros, the Democratic Party’s most generous patron, and Huma Abedin, a political aide who has been described as almost a daughter to Hillary Clinton, the former first lady and secretary of state. Held on Saturday at Mr. Soros’s estate in Water Mill, N.Y., the wedding drew private jets and Clinton aides galore…
"Mr. Soros is one of the donor world’s most intriguing figures. The holder of a doctoral degree in history, he has largely taken over the giving handled for decades by his father, now 94, who has supported liberal causes around the world and become a right-wing boogeyman. The younger Mr. Soros has called himself 'more political' than his father."
- Impossible. Young Alex must mean "less cultured," or "less well-rounded."
"Mr. Soros, 39, has also revealed himself to be comfortable in the spotlight, and has posted vigorously on social media as he has detailed his encounters with Democratic leaders. He is likely to be a major part of the liberal philanthropy scene for decades, and many in progressive circles want to stay close to him."
- An accompanying photo showed Alex Soros beaming as his father shakes hands with a Black man who looks like Oscar Robertson. (Neither the Black man nor the white woman in the photo merited identification.)
As for Huma, the Times reported, "Her last marriage deteriorated in spectacular fashion: Her previous husband, former Representative Anthony Weiner, embroiled himself in multiple sexting scandals before she announced their separation in 2016."
- Huma ditched Weiner that August, after he'd been exposed exposing his "package" online to a 15-old girl. Weiner's exposé may have cost Huma's boss the election. As recalled in The Guardian June 25, "The inquiry became entangled with Clinton’s White House bid because Weiner’s then wife, Huma Abedin, was vice-chair of the Democratic nominee’s presidential campaign. In the course of the investigation into Weiner’s sexting, FBI agents found emails on his personal laptop that led them to reopen an investigation into a private email server used by Clinton." The FBI investigation of Weiner was very big news three days before the 2016 election. (Weiner's online handle, BTW, was "Carlos Danger.") The hook for the Guardian's recent story was Weiner's comeback attempt in NYC. He was running for a seat on the city council in a field of five. He came in fourth.
Although Huma publicized their separation in the summer of 2016, the Weiners didn't get divorced until earlier this year. Somehow, according to Huma, this would spare angst to their son, who is now 13.
The Times supplemented its coverage of the newlyweds with a gushing piece in the "Vows" section by a woman Tammy LaGorce. She wrote,
"Though both lived in Manhattan, their schedules prevented them from meeting in person. By the time they came face to face at the Doha Forum…"
- Davos in the Desert. A conference for ruling-class planners.
"…They had already built a strong connection through late-night calls and texts. When Mr. Soros was in Vienna before a trip to Ukraine, he learned that Ms. Abedin’s father, Dr. Abedin, who died in 1993, had loved Vienna and had given her Sacher-Torte, an Austrian confection, for her 13th birthday. He found one, packed it and brought it to Qatar. By the time they left the forum on Dec. 11, 2023, they had plans to meet for dinner back in Manhattan.
"In a car on the way to the airport, 'we shook on it,' Ms. Abedin said.
"The Friday after, they had dinner at I Sodi in Greenwich Village, a favorite Italian restaurant of both. The next night, they ate at Torrisi, another downtown restaurant. 'And on Sunday night, I cooked,' Mr. Soros said. 'That means I ordered from Nobu…'
"Ms. Abedin joined the Soros family in the Caribbean for New Year’s… In May, they attended the Met Gala together in what tabloids called their 'public debut.' Not long after, Mr. Soros dipped into Camilla Dietz Bergeron, a jewelry store on Madison Avenue, and bought a ring, his selection based on previous jewelry purchases for Ms. Abedin.
"On June 4, 2024, at the home they now share in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, he got down on one knee and presented her with an emerald-cut diamond ring, flanked by a pair of baguettes, tucked inside a takeout container…
"Mr. Soros often reads love poems to Ms. Abedin. A friend gave them a collection of Pablo Neruda’s poetry; he has since become a favorite. 'The book is totally dog-eared now,' Ms. Abedin said. The couple tucked a booklet of Neruda poems into guests’ gift bags.
Getting back to the hard news story by Theodore Schleifer and Jacob Reber, "This weekend, the Hamptons resembled a Clinton-era reunion as guests flooded rehearsal buffets and expensive hotels for catch-up meals and drinks.
"The moneyed scene was especially striking given the Democratic Party’s raging debate over how to improve its historically low standing with voters and win back working-class Americans, with whom it is widely seen as having lost touch.
"As Maseratis, Porsches and other luxury cars glided down the road outside the wedding venue, some curious drivers slowed down before security officers quickly shooed them along.
- That image may be a prophetic metaphor for the renewed interest of "ordinary people" in the Democratic Party (thanks to Mamdani in NYC) and the shooing-them-along that will play out in the months ahead as Team Soros pressures Mamdani to be more Democratic Party than democratic socialist. On July 1 the Times reported that Patrick Gaspard, a past president of Soros's Open Society Foundations (with $5.9 billion to dispense) had "quietly helped guide Mr. Mamdani" during the NYC primary. Gaspard was present when Mamdani and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander agreed to cross-endorse each other, which enabled Mamdani to win.
Thanks to the Times's thorough reportage, we know that “The day before the final debate, Mr. Lander and Mr. Mamdani sat down at Yara, a Lebanese restaurant in Midtown, with campaign aides and Mr. Gaspard. Over plates of fattoush, hummus and eggplant, the two candidates decided they would cross-endorse each other to defeat Mr. Cuomo.”
- Gaspard's handle on X is “Forever @OpenSociety.”
Soros's agents are like vultures cruising over our society, and when they see people desperate enough to move left, politically, they swoop down to offer their help. It happened in California in '96, when Soros-funded operatives usurped the leadership of the medical marijuana movement from the grassroots organizers who had drafted Proposition 215. Just as Mr. Gaspard facilitated Mamdani's win in the NYC primary last month, a macher named Ethan Nadelmann facilitated the passage of Prop 215 (after ousting Dennis Peron from the leadership and rewriting the ballot arguments). It's an ominous analogy, but it’s perfect. I hope I'm wrong.
Part of Soros/Gaspard's appeal to leftists in the Mamdani camp will be their opposition to the genocide in Gaza. The Soros line is: blame Netanyahu, not Zionism.
When the trumpet had sounded and all
was in readiness on the face of the earth,
Jehovah divided his universe:
Anaconda, Ford Motors,
Coca-Cola Inc., And similar entities:
the most succulent of all,
the United Fruit Company, Incorporated
reserved for itself: the heartland
and coast of my country,
the delectable waist of America.
They re-christened their properties:
the Banana Republics…
And all the while, somewhere, in the sugary
hells of our seaports, smothered by gases, and Indian
fellow in the morning:
a body spun off, an anonymous
chattel, some numeral tumbling,
a branch with its death running out of it
in the vast of the carrion,
fruit laden and foul.
TO THE LOST SOULS OF POSTMODERN AMERICA
Warmest spiritual greetings,
I request that the Government of the United States of America assist me in 1.Recovering my Social Security Administration SSI benefits, 2.Recovering the use of my EBT card, which is not working in spite of emails informing me that the current benefits are being received, 3.My disappeared Federal Housing Voucher which apparently timed out, although nobody in social services could precisely explain why.
In addition, I request that postmodern America consider that following 50 years on the front lines of peace & justice and environmental activism, (which includes publications and extensive writing about contemporary social situations, in addition to being gainfully employed and paying my fair share of taxes), the postmodern American "experiment in freedom and democracy" does not socially relate to me, nor does it give me anything at all.
I am presently living in a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C., which I moved into in September 2024, in order to be able to be supportive for the sixteenth time of the William R. Thomas Memorial Anti-Nuclear Vigil in Lafayette Park, located directly across from the White House. I would like to leave the homeless shelter and move on, because I have no further reason to be there.
As of July 3rd, 2025 Anno Domini, I have $1749.84 in my Chase checking account, $91.14 in my wallet, and general health is good at age 75.
Thank you very much,
Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]
"IT'S RAINING, IT'S POURING,
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed and he bumped his head,
And couldn't get up in the morning.
It's sunny, it's shining,
The old man is whining.
When he woke up he dropped his cup,
But all clouds have a silver lining."
— old nursery rhyme
LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT
How Republicans Re-engineered the Tax Code
In Iowa, Trump Begins Task of Selling His Bill to the American Public
Why China Isn’t Lecturing Trump About His Costly Bill
How Will Trump’s Policy Bill Affect Your Wallet?
Trump Claims Sweeping Power to Nullify Laws, Letters on TikTok Ban Show
White House to Start Notifying Countries About Tariffs, Trump Says
Supreme Court Lets Trump Administration Deport 8 Migrants to South Sudan
HOUSE PASSES SWEEPING BILL TO FULFILL PRESIDENT’S DOMESTIC AGENDA
The measure extending tax cuts and slashing the social safety net goes to President Trump for his signature, but the debate over it exposed deep rifts in his party.
by Michael Gold, et al
The House on Thursday narrowly passed a sweeping bill to extend tax cuts and slash social safety net programs, capping Republicans’ chaotic monthslong slog to overcome deep rifts within their party and deliver President Trump’s domestic agenda.
The final vote, 218 to 214, was mostly along party lines and came after Speaker Mike Johnson spent a frenzied day and night toiling to quell resistance in his ranks that threatened until the very end to derail the president’s marquee legislation. With all but two Republicans in favor and Democrats uniformly opposed, the action cleared the bill for Mr. Trump’s signature, meeting the July 4 deadline he had demanded.
After cutting short its scheduled July 4 recess this week to return to Washington and clear their party’s policy bill for enactment, House Republicans have canceled next week’s legislative session and now plan to return on July 14.
A reminder that Elon Musk, the country’s largest known Republican donor last cycle, has strongly suggested that he would form a new political party and also support primary challengers against all Republicans who voted for the bill. He called the legislation and the increase in deficit “insane.”
He has yet to say anything on X about the bill’s passage, and there’s plenty of reason to question if he will follow through. Musk had said that a new party, the America Party, would be formed “the next day” after it passed.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the government to deport eight men who have spent more than a month held under guard on an American military base on Djibouti to South Sudan, granting a request from the Trump administration.
The order allows the government to immediately send the men, who hail from countries around the world, to war-torn South Sudan. Neither the United States nor South Sudan has said what will happen to the men on their arrival.
Democrats took to social media to slam the bill’s passage. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California called it “the ultimate betrayal,” while Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota singled out the state’s G.O.P. representatives and said the United States will “never fully reverse the damage” caused by their votes. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts blamed President Trump and Republicans for selling out working-class people: “This is a gut punch — but we will NOT stop fighting back.”
Outrage over the bill has become a rallying cry for Democrats hoping to win back the House and Senate in next year’s midterm elections. Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey said, “Our nation depends on it.”
They savaged their party’s bill. Then they voted for it.
In the days leading up to House passage of Republicans’ sweeping policy bill carrying President Trump’s agenda, members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus were unsparing in their criticism of the measure.
“That’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s not what we agreed to,” lawmakers in the caucus said in a statement after the Senate passed its version earlier this week with several major changes. “Republicans,” they added, “must do better.”
In the run-up to this bill’s passage, New York Democrats hammered Republicans in the House for supporting the legislation. Gov. Kathy Hochul and others have focused their anger most intensely on those who represent competitive congressional districts. The outcomes of these races next year will likely decide which party has a majority in Congress.
“All seven New York Republicans in Congress voted to rip health care away from 1.5 million New Yorkers and jeopardize SNAP benefits for nearly 3 million more,” Hochul said in a statement. “They had two chances to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for the people they serve. They failed both times, gambling with their constituents’ lives to pay for billionaire tax breaks.”
Representative Chip Roy of Texas, one of the Republican holdouts who ultimately voted in support of the bill, said he originally “didn’t think the bill was good enough” after changes made by the Senate. But President Trump and White House officials helped him get “comfortable with what the administration can do” through executive orders and another reconciliation bill “to ameliorate those areas where it got worse.”
The reconciliation process shields the bill from a Democratic filibuster, allowing Republicans to pass it with a simple majority.
Drug Makers win $5 billion.
The sweeping Republican policy bill that awaits President Trump’s signature on Friday includes a little-noticed victory for the drug industry.
The legislation allows more medications to be exempt from Medicare’s price negotiation program, which was created to lower the government’s drug spending. Now, manufacturers will be able to keep those prices higher.
More than three dozen members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus have signed up to hold “Accountability Summer” events targeting Republican members who voted for the bill. They are planning news conferences outside rural hospitals and nursing homes in Republican districts that will be hit by Medicaid cuts. Members of the caucus held more than 20 town halls in red districts in the months leading up to the vote. Republicans were told to cancel their own town halls amid a backlash from voters.
Many of the Republican holdouts who ultimately supported the bill indicated that their votes were won over with some sort of concession from President Trump, but few details were offered.
Representative Ralph Norman, Republican of South Carolina, who staged an open revolt against the bill but ultimately fell in line with his colleagues to support the legislation, refused to detail what he was offered in return for his support.
“It’ll be sometime next week,” he said about when the public would learn the details of what deals were struck to coax him and others into backing the multitrillion-dollar package.
President Trump will sign his domestic policy bill at 5 p.m. on Friday during a ceremony at the White House, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, just announced. “Today is a victorious day for the American people,” she said.
Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, the chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, said that he and other conservative holdouts were swayed after discussions with the Trump administration about “executive actions” and the way provisions in the bill would be implemented.
“We came to significant agreements with the administration that changed the entire package, both inside and outside the bill, significantly,” Harris said after the final vote. The bill itself could not change in order for final passage to take place on Thursday.
The hope of winning future elections was little solace to some lawmakers. Representative Brittany Pettersen, Democrat of Colorado, was sobbing as she left. “The amount of kids who are going to go without health care and food — people like my mom are going to be left to die because they don’t have access to health care,” she said. “It’s just pretty unfathomable.”
Pettersen’s mother became addicted to heroin and then fentanyl when Pettersen was a child. She overdosed more than 20 times. She recently celebrated seven years in recovery.
Representative Jeff Van Drew, a Republican from New Jersey, previously said he could not support the bill. But he voted in favor of it on Thursday, saying a specific tax concern he had was addressed in the version that passed. He said the tax would have been “disastrous” for New Jersey, adding, “So I worked with the president’s people, I worked with the Senate, and we got that clarified.”
The two Republicans who voted against this bill were representative of the political divide within the party that threatened its passage. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky is a fiscal hawk who strongly opposes measures that would increase the federal deficit and add significantly to the national debt. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania is a moderate from a battleground district that Democrats are eager to flip. He had previously expressed deep reservations about cuts to Medicaid funding.
The House voted 218 to 214 to pass President Trump’s domestic policy bill, enshrining a wide range of his political priorities. The bill now goes to his desk to be signed into law.
Applause and cheers of “U.S.A.!” have erupted on the House floor as Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled down this vote and announced the bill’s passage.
Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, the only Republican to join with Democrats to vote against the procedural measure that brought the bill to the floor, has also voted against the bill. So far, he is the second Republican to break with party leadership. Fitzpatrick is a moderate Republican from a mostly suburban area near Philadelphia. Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, won his district during last year’s presidential election.
I just caught up with Representative Derrick Van Orden, the vulnerable Wisconsin Republican that Democrats are planning to target with ads. I asked him how he planned to defend his vote to constituents who are concerned about losing their health care benefits. “That’s just a lie,” was his response. He said the Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency that estimated that the number of uninsured would increase by more than 11 million people, was wrong. He said he planned to tell constituents to look at their Medicaid and SNAP benefits. “When they don’t decrease, they’ll understand we’re telling the truth.”
Already, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, an anti-deficit Republican who opposed the House’s version of the bill, has broken from his party to vote “no” on the bill. If all members of both parties vote, Republicans can only afford three such defections.
The House has started voting on the Republicans’ domestic policy bill, which would enshrine much of President Trump’s domestic agenda. If it passes, the bill would head to Trump’s desk to become law.
Speaker Mike Johnson got the final word on the House floor after he oversaw a frequently chaotic process that took months to get this bill across the finish line. How the speaker sells the legislation on the floor feels particularly crucial for Republicans given that Democrats have made it clear they will make this legislation the cornerstone of their political attacks over the next year.
He spent time taking advantage of the proximity to Independence Day to reach back to America’s founding and frame the bill as a critical step in the nation’s history.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who hasn’t slept in over 24 hours, is now speaking and thanking colleagues and White House officials and, of course, President Trump. Johnson looks relieved. Johnson’s margins are always too slim; the bill is always wobbling on the brink of death; there is always more trouble looming for the next step of the process; and mini-rebellions are always flaring up. But with Trump acting as the muscle, things have ultimately worked out for him.
Speaker Mike Johnson took to the House floor to close out the debate. In response to the record-breaking speech by Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, Johnson said: “It takes a lot longer to build a lie than to tell the simple truth.”
Democrats chant “Hakeem! Hakeem!” as he finishes his record-breaking speech with the words: “I yield back.” They are surrounding him on the House floor, cheering and lining up for embraces.
He yielded after 8 hours and 45 minutes.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, on Thursday broke the record for longest House floor speech, in an eight hour and 45-minute talkathon opposing Republicans’ signature legislation carrying out President Trump’s domestic agenda.
Beginning his remarks before dawn, Mr. Jeffries said that he was “planning to take my sweet time” with his speech. Shortly before 1:30 p.m., he broke the record set by Representative Kevin McCarthy of California in 2021, when he spoke for more than eight hours to delay a vote on a $2 trillion Democratic bill to strengthen the social safety net and fight climate change.
President Trump landed a major political victory on Thursday as House Republicans passed his sprawling domestic policy bill.
But after spending days cajoling and coaxing lawmakers of his own party to line up behind the legislation, the president faces another test: selling the bill to the American public or risking losing support to a furious Democratic campaign focused on how it helps the wealthy at the expense of working-class people.
(NY Times)
EXPLOSIVE NEW CIA REPORT DETAILS RUSSIAGATE FRAUD
Trump administration investigation affirms earlier reports by Racket and Public about use of "cooked" intelligence to launch the Russiagate frenzy
by Matt Taibbi
Miranda Devine of the New York Post, who broke the fateful story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, has struck again with an exposé on the origins of Russiagate that implicates former intelligence chiefs John Brennan, James Comey, and Jim Clapper in an elaborate fraud. From the story, which is centered on a new CIA report commissioned by John Ratcliffe:
Brennan handpicked the CIA analysts to compile the ICA and involved only the ODNI, CIA, FBI and NSA, excluding 13 of the then-17 intelligence agencies.
He sidelined the National Intelligence Council and forced the inclusion of the discredited Steele dossier despite objections of the authors and senior CIA Russia experts, so as to push a false narrative that Russia secured Trump’s 2016 victory.
“This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding ‘We’re going to screw Trump,’” said Ratcliffe in an exclusive interview. “It was, ‘We’re going to create this and put the imprimatur of an IC assessment in a way that nobody can question it.’”
The CIA report is focused mainly on the publication of the infamous Intelligence Community Assessment of January 6th, 2017, which concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought “to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability” while maintaining a “clear preference for President-elect Trump.” Publication of that Intelligence Assessment, which was ordered by Barack Obama on December 6th, 2016 and included material from the infamous Steele dossier, set in motion a series of events that led to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. It was the trigger for years of Russiagate lunacy that consumed Trump’s first term.
Racket readers may remember reports I co-authored with Michael Shellenberger and Alexandra Gutentag last February, describing how Brennan, Comey, and Clapper “cooked the intelligence” in that 2017 ICA. For instance, the chiefs suppressed junior analysts’ belief that Russia may not have preferred Trump, seeing him as “mercurial,” “unreliable,” and “not steady,” while viewing a possible Clinton presidency as “manageable and reflecting continuity.” The notion that the ICA was manipulated isn’t new, as Aaron Mate at RealClearInvestigations reported the ICA’s preparation “deviated from standard CIA practice,” and similar reports came out via former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, current deputy FBI director Dan Bongino, and others.
However, this new report contains a wealth of new details. It’s not clear what this may or may not mean for any possible future criminal investigation, but Ratcliffe’s CIA investigation fills in a lot of blanks. Some key conclusions:
CIA chief was warned not to include the Steele Dossier
The new CIA report criticizes the intel chiefs for including the Steele Dossier in the report, saying that “ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles” and “undermined the credibility” of his key conclusions. That isn’t just a post-factum conclusion, however. The report reveals:
CIA’s Deputy Director for Analysis (DDA) warned in an email to Brennan on 29 December that including it in any form risked “the credibility of the entire paper.”
Thanks to previous reports (including material from John Brennan’s own book Undaunted), it was already known that Brennan not only overruled NSA chief Mike Rogers but “two senior managers for the CIA mission center for Russia” to reach the much-disputed conclusion that Putin “aspired” to help Donald Trump win the election. The new CIA report’s inclusion of an email from a senior CIA official specifically warning against use of the Steele Dossier is damning.
Regarding the objections of those two “senior managers,” Ratcliffe had more detail:
The two senior leaders of the CIA mission center responsible for Russia argued jointly against including the “aspire” judgment. In an email to Brennan on 30 December, they stated the judgment should be removed because it was both weakly supported and unnecessary, given the strength and logic of the paper’s other findings on intent. They warned that including it would only “open up a line of very politicized inquiry.”
It’s one thing for Ratcliffe to criticize the ICA, but these specific email warnings add significantly to the pile of evidence that the key pillar of Russiagate was manipulated.
NSA considered “alternative” conclusion
Without an Intelligence Assessment saying Russia hoped to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and help Trump, the American public likely wouldn’t have gone through years of Russiagate scandal. The three agencies that put the ICA together — the CIA, FBI, and NSA — all started out with differing views on that key question of whether or not Russia specifically wanted to help Trump. Of the three agencies, the NSA and its chief Mike Rogers were the least enthusiastic about endorsing that conclusion. From the new report:
NSA and a few other participants were not comfortable with ascribing “high confidence” to the “aspired” judgment. They cited the limited source base, lack of corroborating intelligence, and “the possibility for an alternative judgment” as driving their discomfort.
It was bad enough that the NSA would only say publicly it had “moderate” confidence in the ICA. As the Ratcliffe report explains, “moderate confidence generally means that the information is credibly sourced and plausible but not… corroborated sufficiently.” Moderate was “equivalent to no,” as one source told me last year.
That the NSA believed there was room from the available intelligence to come up with an “alternative judgment” undermines the ICA conclusion even more.
Why the FBI endorsed the ICA
According to the report:
FBI leadership made it clear that their participation in the ICA hinged on the Dossier’s inclusion and, over the next few days, repeatedly pushed to weave references to it throughout the main body of the ICA.
This is a significant revelation, because while the NSA expressed only “moderate” confidence in the Intelligence Assessment, the FBI appeared to change its mind.
On October 31, 2016, a week before Obama ordered the ICA written, senior FBI officials told the New York Times in a much-criticized piece called “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia” that “even the hacking into Democratic emails, F.B.I. and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump.” In the first week of December 2016, the FBI and CIA reportedly gave conflicting briefings to Congress on the question. Shortly after, the FBI publicly backed the CIA’s interpretation.
The reason for the FBI’s turnaround has always been a mystery. If the FBI’s participation in the Intelligence Community Assessment was contingent on the CIA publicly backing the Steele Dossier, it might answer that question. The FBI by December 2016 already knew it had an issue with its use of the Steele Dossier to obtain FISA surveillance on Carter Page, and the FBI’s lead Trump-Russia investigator Peter Strzok had privately questioned Steele’s reliability. By inducing the CIA to throw its weight behind the flawed document (one the CIA itself had pooh-poohed as “internet rumor”), the FBI and Comey gained crucial bureaucratic cover.
It was Brennan all along
From the report:
One business day before IC analysts convened for the only coordination session on the ICA, Brennan sent a note to the CIA workforce stating he had met with the DNI and FBI Director and that “there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our recent Presidential election.” While officers involved in drafting the ICA consistently said they did not feel pressured …Brennan’s premature signaling… risked stifling analytic debate.
As has been made clear, there was no “strong consensus” about Russia’s intentions among the three agencies. The NSA was lukewarm at best, the FBI gave public statements contradicting the ICA conclusions, and even within the CIA — even within Brennan’s hand-picked group of CIA analysts — there was serious dissent. Brennan steamrolled that dissent in a number of ways, beginning with this “premature signaling” effort, and moving on to override his own team.
Ratcliffe wrote that “Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,” describing a scene in which he overrode the objections to the Steele Dossier by those two CIA “mission center for Russia” analysts. When confronted, Brennan reportedly said, “My bottom line is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.”
Overall, the report looks very bad for the intelligence chiefs Brennan, Comey, and Clapper, who submitted the flawed ICA to the National Intelligence Council just “hours before it was due to be published,” as Devine wrote. Those same figures then briefed President-Elect Trump about the ICA’s contents, ostensibly to warn him about the possibility of Russian efforts to compromise him. Shortly after, the details of that briefing were leaked to the press. In this manner, the otherwise classified issue of “blackmail” and the pee tape and so on became public, leading to years of the Russiagate circus.
Much like the WMD episode, where it later came out that analysts who worked on a National Intelligence Assessment about Iraq had wildly differing beliefs about whether or not Saddam Hussein was pursuing a weapon of mass destruction, Russiagate and the 2017 ICA now look like an episode that will be infamous because of the way dissenting opinions were suppressed. We’ll have more on what this report means as information comes in.
THE EMPIRE HAS ACCIDENTALLY CAUSED THE REBIRTH OF REAL COUNTERCULTURE IN THE WEST
by Caitlin Johnstone
Everyone’s still talking about Bob Vylan, and rightly so. A crowd full of westerners happily being led through a chant of “Death, death to the IDF” at the 2025 Glastonbury Festival was a historical landmark moment for the 21st century, and the group’s persecution at the hands of western governments is once again highlighting the way our society’s purported values of free thought and free expression go right out the window wherever Israel is concerned.
But one thing that’s not getting enough attention is the fact that many, many other acts also spoke out in support of Palestine at that same festival, and that the crowd was full of attendees waving Palestinian flags. Supporting Palestine and opposing Israel’s genocidal atrocities is just what’s cool now.
This is a massive cultural development, because it means we are seeing the emergence of actual, meaningful rebellion in western counterculture for the first time arguably since the Vietnam War. The artists and their fans aren’t just talking the talk of sticking it to the establishment anymore.
For generations the ruling class has been successfully stomping out all politically relevant counterculture, first in the form of direct frontal assault by official government operations like COINTELPRO, and then by the way all major platforms and studios are owned by plutocrats who benefit from the imperial status quo and refuse to elevate anyone who might pose a threat to it.
There have of course been countless artists in every generation who put on a rebellious face and give the finger to authority, but they’ve never presented any kind of threat to real power. Punk rockers who sing “fuck the man” but never advance any actual tangible causes. Satanic panic bands and shock rock superstars scaring church ladies and stirring culture wars. Bands voicing criticisms of the Iraq invasion but making it about supporting the Democratic Party. Celebrity musicians promoting social justice and equality without ever saying anything that might inconvenience the oligarchs and empire managers who rule our world.
The rich and powerful don’t care if you dye your hair or pierce your nose or kiss a member of the same sex or say Hail Satan. They don’t care if you support one mainstream political faction over the other, or if you yell empty words about anarchy and revolution that aren’t pointed toward any real material goals. They care very much, however, if you are undermining public consent for military and geopolitical agendas they’ve worked very hard to propagandize the public into accepting.
The establishment never dropped the hammer on Marilyn Manson. Lady Gaga never ran into trouble with the state for singing that gay people are Born This Way. Ozzy Osbourne is living in the lap of luxury with an estimated net worth of $220 million. But groups like Kneecap and Bob Vylan are being subjected to police investigations and visa revocations for taking a stand on Palestine.
Which, of course, is only going to make their position more popular among young people with a defiant streak in them.
It’s hard to imagine how western governments could make support for Palestine look more attractive to western youths, really. Here’s this unimaginably horrific mass atrocity that they can all watch unfolding on their phone screens in real time every single day of the year, and they’re being told “You’re not allowed to oppose this. We, the stuffed shirts in Washington and London, command you to obey. If you think unauthorized thoughts and chant unauthorized chants, we are going to get very huffy and upset.”
I mean, can you think of anything more fun?
This is after all the generation who’s been told that they need to accept being poorer and sicker than their parents and grandparents and that they’ll never own a home no matter what they do, knowing full well that the crusty old bastards finger-wagging at them for opposing an active genocide are the same freaks who’ve refused to do anything to steer their planet’s ecosystem away from looming disaster. They have every reason to want to express defiance, and nothing to lose by doing so.
A real, politically meaningful counterculture has been born in the western world, and our rulers are already showing us that they’re afraid of it. This is a fascinating time to be alive.
(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY 2
As a young man I opened my first IRA with Wells. After seeing my first annual statement it became apparent that they were charging a service fee for holding the IRA that exceeded the annual interest they paid. Nice way for wealthy bankers to educate a working stiff about the way the system works.
LITTLE TO CELEBRATE
Editor:
Please forgive me if I can’t get excited about celebrating the Fourth of July this year. My federal government is attacking institutions that I love and respect. Schools, libraries, public health and public lands are being derided and threatened by this administration. It doesn’t seem like freedom when we can’t choose who we love, whether or not we have a baby, what books we can read, how and when we vote, the list goes on. I feel lucky to be in a group that is not being attacked yet, but I know some day I will be on notice, as I am a vocal opponent of this federal administration, or should I say regime.
Beverly West
Santa Rosa
WHAT ARE YOU CELEBRATING?
What is it that makes America great? What is it you celebrate? Is it the daily closing of the stock exchange or the opening bell? Is it the biggest war budget in the world, or the ICE Gestapo kidnapping brown people because their papers might not be in order? Is it the Supreme Court giving the Gestapo permission to send those they take from their families and homes to countries they have no connection to? That’s what the nazis did when they shipped the Romany, the Jews and the commies to Poland. Does the taste of a Big Mac and fries make you proud to be a citizen of the USA? Is it your local police keeping the riffraff out of your sight? Is it the National Football League or the NBA? Is it Ronnie Reagan or Donald Trump? Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama? Is it the public library they closed or the books the Moms for Liberty want to ban in the library that’s still open? Is your America great because your car payments are only $300 a month, and the price of eggs has gone down to $4.50 a dozen? Or is it great because the liquor store and the cannabis store are on the same block, making for easy holiday shopping? Even though your residency is mostly happenstance, why do you celebrate one nation under Moloch and the other gods of war, conceived in white supremacy, without justice or liberty for all? Maybe it’s the amber waves of grain or that ribbon of highway, that endless skyway? Or maybe it’s the fact that the government wants to sell even more public lands to the energy and logging industries because this land was made for them, not you and me? Wave that flag. Jump up and down in your red, white, and blue suede shoes from sea to shining sea. Nat Turner died for our sins, and so did John Brown. In 2025, I wonder if their sacrifice was a waste of their time.
— Ron Jacobs
PIRATE MATH
Looks like 18 to me
It be 20 matey, Arrgh
Your a better sailor than me 18 it is.
https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/republicans-reject-sen-markey-effort-to-protect-rural-hospitals-from-republican-cuts
Adventist Health Ukiah Valley is on the list.
As the world crumbles around us day after day, I truly appreciate that you include art in your daily paper. Thank you!
Second that for sure. And thanks today to Elaine K. for that delicate beauty of a tea rose, and to mk for the fine leaf, never have come across one like that.
I think the Sheriff is right! 18.
Matt Taibbi’s piece in today’s AVA makes my blood boil. Obama, Brennan, Comey and Clapper…..just to scratch the surface should be brought to justice. The shit they pulled is truly despicable, especially with the position of power that they held. What will come of it? Not a god damn thing of course.