Mendocino County Today: Saturday 7/12/2025

Hot Interior | Buck Moon | CRU Meeting | Passiflora | Huffaker Guilty | Bear Pie | Medicaid Funding | Local Events | Adventure Writing | Daylily | Marco Radio | Achieve Clarity | Moonrise | Yesterday's Catch | Radio Stars | Rich Richer | Unfolding Tragedy | Giants Win | 57 Chevy | C-Word | Summer Garden | Mamdani Formula | Three Sailors | Huarache Profiling | Summer Hamptons | Epstein Files | Tyrant Epitaph | Lead Stories | Cotton Pickers | Flux Rules | Selected Poems | Private Credit | True Selves | Antisemitism | Despair | Village Death | Wash Day | Well Climb

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YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Ukiah 106°, Laytonville 103°, Covelo 102°, Boonville 101°, Yorkville 99°, Mendocino 64°, Fort Bragg 63°, Point Arena 60°

HIGH PRESSURE has built in bringing hot weather to the interior. This heat is likely to last the weekend into early next week. Smoke and haze remains possible from nearby wildfires. There is a slight chance for isolated dry thunderstorms Sunday afternoon in northern Trinity County. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A foggy 53F this Saturday morning on the coast. We can expect the usual mix of sun & fog until further notice, I do not see anything else right now.

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JUDY VALADAO: July’s “Buck Moon” has already peaked this week, but for a few more days, folks can look up to see the nearly full moon in the sky. July’s full moon, known as Buck Moon, peaked on the evening of Thursday, July 10. However, according to NASA, the moon will remain full for a couple of days and be visible to the naked eye. Early on it had an orange tint to it but in the early morning hours the tint was gone.

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FORT BRAGG CARE RESPONSE UNIT COMMUNITY MEETING

The Fort Bragg Police Department’s Care Response Unit will host a Community Stakeholder Meeting on Monday, July 28, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. at the Fort Bragg Library.

This meeting is an opportunity for residents, partners, and local organizations to hear updates and share feedback on several key initiatives aimed at improving public health and safety:

City of Fort Bragg Fentanyl Task Force – Progress and next steps in addressing the local opioid crisis

Proposition 47 Grant & Mendocino County Expansion – Enhancing services and outreach through expanded funding

Project Right Now – Introduction of a new Substance Use Coordinator at multiple school sites with a focus on early intervention and education related to youth substance and opioid use

Community members are encouraged to attend and participate in an open discussion forum to help shape the future of these programs.

This announcement is issued by Captain Thomas O’Neal. For media inquiries or additional information, please contact him directly at [email protected].

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JURY FINDS EX-ROHNERT PARK COP GUILTY of posing as fed, robbing drivers of cannabis, cash

The swift guilty verdict capped a federal trial exposing years of abuse by members of a Rohnert Park police drug team who posed as federal agents to rob drivers along Highway 101.

by Colin Atagi

A federal jury on Friday convicted ex-Rohnert Park police officer Joseph Huffaker on all six counts for his role in a scheme to steal cannabis and cash from drivers while posing as a federal agent.

The verdict came after about 90 minutes of deliberation, less than three hours after closing arguments wrapped in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where prosecutors accused Huffaker and his former sergeant of impersonating federal agents to conduct illegal roadside stops near the Sonoma-Mendocino county line.

The case marks one of the most serious police corruption scandals to emerge in the North Bay in recent years — a years-long scheme that led to federal lawsuits, internal shakeups and comparisons to organized highway robbery.

During those final arguments, prosecutors pointed to a series of “red flags” they said proved Huffaker participated in roadside thefts that spanned years.

Huffaker’s attorney countered that his client was being used as a “scapegoat,” while his former supervisor — and others in city leadership — were more complicit.

Huffaker faced charges of conspiracy, impersonating a federal officer and obstruction of justice. Judge Maxine Chesney handed the case to a jury of seven men and five women after more than two hours of arguments Friday morning.

He now faces up to 20 years in prison.

Chesney, noting that Huffaker made all court appearances, allowed him to remain out of custody until sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 15.

“The case was well tried on both sides,” Chesney said before adjourning.

Both the prosecution and defense declined to comment to The Press Democrat after the verdict was read.

“No traffic stop should turn into a shakedown,” U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian later said in a statement. ”Misconduct by police officers undermines public safety and jeopardizes public cooperation with law enforcement. Huffaker’s actions threw a shadow of suspicion over multiple law enforcement agencies which, thankfully, were quick to investigate and discover his scheme.

“The jury’s verdict today holds Huffaker accountable and sends a strong message that we will not tolerate misconduct by those who hold the public trust.”

FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani added: “Today’s verdict affirms that no one is above the law. Joseph Huffaker betrayed the sworn oath he took as a police officer.”

The trial stemmed from a yearslong scandal involving Rohnert Park’s drug interdiction team, a now-defunct unit disbanded in early 2017 after California legalized recreational cannabis. Prosecutors said Huffaker and then-Sgt. Brendan “Jacy” Tatum used their training to pull over drivers, pose as agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and seize marijuana and cash — which was later sold for profit.

Tatum, who led the team, pleaded guilty in a separate case in 2021 and testified Tuesday as part of a cooperation agreement with federal investigators. He remains out of custody and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

One key incident, a Dec. 18, 2017, traffic stop, became the foundation of the case. That day, Huffaker and Tatum impersonated agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to pull over a vehicle along Highway 101.

“I was disappointed the prosecutors narrowed down (charges),” said Huedell Freeman, a Mendocino County cannabis grower who settled with Rohnert Park in 2020 over a 2016 stop. “What they did went on for years.”

Freeman joined others in the courtroom Friday as Assistant U.S. Attorneys Benjamin Kleinman and Abraham Fine laid out their case, followed by defense attorney Richard Ceballos.

Referring to the Dec. 18 stop, Kleinman said the officers’ actions — and omissions — pointed to extortion, not legitimate police work. Among the suspicious details:

• They didn’t ask for vehicle registration or insurance.
• They wore no badges.
• They immediately focused on marijuana, without asking for permits or documentation.
• No photographs were taken of the seized evidence.
• Phone records placed them in the area, while their time sheets were blank.
• A police report later combined details from two different incidents.
• Bank records showed a cash deposit around the time the report was written.

That report, Kleinman argued, was crafted in response to a victim complaint and falsely folded in details from the Dec. 18 stop. It even quoted a driver as saying, “I’m glad they showed up. I didn’t think you guys were real cops. I keep hearing about people getting ripped off.”

Kleinman told jurors the quote underscored the deception: “This is truly a false police report,” he said.

Testimony throughout the trial suggested Tatum had orchestrated similar thefts long before 2017. Defense attorney Ceballos leaned on that point, arguing Huffaker was acting under orders — and that Rohnert Park officials ignored warning signs for years.

“I know they’re friends but he’s still his supervisor,” Ceballos said.

He painted Tatum as a liar trying to save himself, describing him as “a pathological liar” who “does not have a single truth-telling bone in his entire body.”

Ceballos compared Tatum’s deal with prosecutors to a mafia boss testifying against an underling — and likened the thefts to Robin Hood stealing from the rich.

That didn’t sit well with Freeman.

“Do I look rich to you?” he said afterward, gesturing to his black collared shirt, gray vest and a cap bearing the image of a fish.

Freeman was one of a handful of drivers who sued the city. In 2020, Rohnert Park paid $1.5 million to settle federal lawsuits filed by eight motorists who said they were robbed during unlawful stops.

Tatum resigned in March 2018, shortly after the city launched an internal investigation. Then-Public Safety Director Brian Masterson abruptly retired. Huffaker was later found to have violated department policy and left the force in 2019 with a $75,000 settlement.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

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RESPONSE TO PETE BOUDOURES from a commenter calling himself “capnroy” who had trouble posting via the comments section:

Mr Boudoures, you are either selectively uninformed about Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), or you are just plain old lying. From a simple Google search:

How much of medicaid will be lost in the future?

Estimates suggest significant future reductions in federal Medicaid spending. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the House-passed budget reconciliation bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), would cut $793 billion in federal Medicaid spending over 10 years, according to KFF. The Center for American Progress estimates the OBBBA would cut $1.02 trillion in federal spending on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits due in part to eliminating at least 10.5 million people from the programs by 2034. This could lead to 10.3 million fewer people being enrolled in Medicaid in 2034, including 1.3 million people with Medicare (dual-eligible individuals), according to the CBO. One analysis suggests this bill and related changes could cause at least 7.8 million more people to be uninsured in 2034.

The proposed cuts include:

Work requirements: Mandating work and reporting requirements for adults eligible through the ACA expansion is estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by $344 billion over 10 years and cause 4.8 million people to become uninsured, notes KFF. The CBO previously estimated that Medicaid work requirements in the Limit, Save, Grow Act would result in 1.5 million adults losing federal funding for their Medicaid coverage.

Reduced funding for the ACA Medicaid expansion: The OBBBA would reduce the enhanced FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentage) for states covering some undocumented immigrants and eliminate a temporary FMAP bonus for new ACA Medicaid expansions, according to KFF. Reducing the FMAP for the ACA Medicaid expansion population to the state-specific FMAP for other Medicaid enrollees could reduce federal outlays by an estimated $860 billion over 10 years and reduce Medicaid enrollment by 5.5 million people, says ACP Journals.

Repealing Biden administration rules: Blocking implementation of rules designed to streamline eligibility and enrollment processes could reduce 10-year federal Medicaid outlays by $164 billion. This could also reduce Medicaid expenditures by $170 billion and lead to a reduction in Medicaid enrollment of 2.3 million people.

These potential cuts are part of a broader effort to reduce federal spending on Medicaid, which accounts for a significant portion of the federal budget. AI responses may include mistakes. Learn more

A further search on Medi-Cal:

Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, is primarily funded by the federal and state governments. The federal government covers a large portion of the costs, typically around 60%, with the remaining funding coming from the state’s general fund and other sources like provider taxes and fees. In the 2024-25 fiscal year, Medi-Cal’s total budget is estimated to be $174.6 billion, with $107.5 billion expected from the federal government.

Why do you think that rural hospitals in mainly red counties are warning that without Medicaid funding a large part of their budget, they are in danger of closing? Are you ready for a trip to Santa Rosa in an emergency situation? I’m not reading a 1000 page bill to satisfy your assertion that it says nothing in it about cutting medicaid, and I doubt you did either.

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LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

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MITCH CLOGG:

I read Jack London and Ernest Hemingway. I went from year-old infant to 7-year-old during WW2. Reading was almost as much fun as being outside. I preferred exotic places--polar places, tropical places, mountains and caves, deserts and jungles, National-Geographic places. Exploration, war, space, sea and air were my chosen locales. I spent long times looking at pictures--postcards, magazines, movies and picture calendars, wondering if I’d ever feel a snowy mountaintop under my boots. I decided that whatever I did to make a living, my mission was to be an adventurer and a writer.

Those decisions inform many of the posts I put on Facebook. I had a bucket list before the phrase was invented. Because my writing and adventuring have not made me much money, and since I made additional childhood resolutions--”Getting rich is too easy, Mitchell. You will not seek wealth. The only way you will get and spend lots of money is if you earn it by writing!”--because of this self-commitment, I’ve seen, heard and felt vastly more than I would have if I’d kept to the straight and narrow path my suburban upbringing suggested.

I hope this helps explain the stories I post here. They’re all true. My sojourn in a nursing home last year sucked, but it qualified as an adventure. My difficulties with throat cancer and occluded arteries are likewise--no fun but damn interesting. There’s not a hell of a lot in medical settings I haven’t seen and been treated by.

In my twenties, knowing I was “different” in some unwelcome way (it was as-yet-unnamed Attention Deficit Disorder), I realized if I was ever to do anything of note, I’d probably have to live a long time. When I was born, life expectancy for American males was 62 years. For someone born in ‘38, that meant I would maybe see the turn of the century--of the Millennium: 1,938 + 62 = 2,000! To add to the calculation was the constant (seemingly constant) increase in life expectancy. If this keeps up, I said, hell, I could live to, say, 130.

By that reasoning, I’m not so scarily old. Forty-some years to go!

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

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight’s (Friday night’s) MOTA show is 5:30 or so. If that’s too soon, send it any time after that and I’ll read it next Friday.

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

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

Mildly lurid cult movie posters. Scroll down and down. https://dangerousminds.net/movies/world-of-cult-movie-posters

Rat girls of England. https://www.vintag.es/2025/07/land-girls-rat-catchers.html

And Carlos Santana’s acid at Woodstock story and video. The world was his oyster. https://laughingsquid.com/santana-on-acid-woodstock/

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

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O RADIANT ATMAN

Warmest spiritual greetings,

Just sitting here in the air conditioned Martin Luther King, Jr. public library in Washington, D.C. reading the global news online and pitying a world lost and thoroughly confused. Frankly, it is not all that big of a deal to achieve clarity, be spiritually centered, and perform external actions successfully. The key is to STOP identifying with the body and the mind. The eternal witness is what is left. Live from the heart center. Perform the spiritual practices of your choice, engage in direct action, and go back to Godhead.

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, July 11, 2025

JASON ARDENYI, 45, Ukiah. Accessory to unspecified misdemeanor.

MIA BRAGA, 21, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

MARIO CARANDIA-ROMERO, 40, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TIMOTHY CHAPMAN, 62, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

TRISTAN HAMMER, 32, Monterey/Ukiah. DUI.

ISRAEL HEREDIA-CASTRO, 24, Garland, Texas/Ukiah. DUI causing bodily injury.

ELOY LOPEZ-RUBIO, 51, Ukiah. Battery with serious bodily injury, disorderly conduct-lodging without owner’s consent, disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, paraphernalia, probation violation.

FRANCISCO MAGANA, 37, Gualala. Domestic battery, child abuse with great bodily injury or death.

NICHOLE MEDOW, 36, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ROBERT MOYER, 59, Willits. Domestic abuse, DUI, suspended license for refusing chemical DUI test, resisting.

LEE RUPERT, 49, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

TREVON SMITH, 29, Ukiah. “Proceedings.” (Felony).

DONALD SPENCER, 53, Ukiah. Probation violation.

SHAWN SPILLER, 37, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

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WHO INFLATION BENEFITS

Editor:

When the government spends more money than its income (from taxes), that creates a deficit. Deficits increase the national debt. The government pays for it by selling bonds or just printing more money. The more there is of anything, the lower its value. More dollars in circulation reduce their value.

That’s why in 1929 an ounce of gold cost $21 and the national debt was $17 billion. Today gold costs $3,300 and the debt is $36 trillion. In California, the average cost of a three-bedroom home was $3,900 in 1929. Today it’s $500,000. The rich invest in stocks, which increase in value more than investments in our homes increase. Inflation helps the wealthy and hurts the working class.

Raising the income tax for the top 10% of the wealthy will not hurt their standard of living. The government can use this money to avoid more deficits and lower the national debt. This would lower inflation without reducing health care, Social Security, etc.

The working-class work in the businesses the wealthy own, and that makes the rich richer.

Leonard Riepenhoff

Santa Rosa

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BIG, BEAUTIFUL DISASTER

To the Editor:

As yet another flood kills scores of Americans and devastates vast swaths of America, let the record reflect that the G.O.P.’s “big, beautiful bill” gutted key federal efforts to address the climate change that is the root cause of such environmental carnage.

My prayers and thoughts are with the dead, their families and the ravaged communities, but I also pray that Americans stop acting like sheep and do more to work with the rest of the world to tackle the climate change that is causing levels of destruction that will only get worse. Failure to do so will make us complicit in this unfolding tragedy.

William August

Cambridge, Massachusetts

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GIANTS-DODGERS MEETS HYPE as Willy Adames, Jung Hoo Lee lead SF’s win

by Shayna Rubin

The sold-out crowd at Oracle Park was abuzz on Friday night. Not just for the relevant-again rivalry, but the implications.

With the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in town riding a six-game losing streak for the first half’s final weekend, the San Francisco Giants have an opportunity to gain ground within the National League West before the All-Star break.

A substantial invasion of Dodgers fans into Oracle Park created competing “Let’s go Dodgers” and “Let’s go Giants” chants that acted as a fitting soundtrack to the heated, wire-to-wire battle. Game 1 ended with the home crowd holding its breath when closer Camilo Doval induced a game-ending double play with the go-ahead run aboard to seal a Giants 8-7 win, ensuring his team wouldn’t blow entirely a six-run lead. The ballpark was still buzzing after the final out and the Giants left the field four games back of first place.

“The energy was at the highest level,” Willy Adames said. “That was the loudest crowd we had all year and it was insane. … I loved it.

“Not going to lie, I feel like we had too many Dodger fans here. Maybe tomorrow we will get more San Francisco fans. The energy was intense and it felt like a playoff game, to be honest.”

Adames fed off that energy, putting together one of his best games at the plate during a particularly productive stretch. It was his opposite-field home run in the second inning that gave the Giants their first lead while simultaneously hinting at a high-scoring evening. A warmer night, the ball was carrying, especially into right-center field. That’s a part of this ballpark that’s eaten up plenty of potential extra-base hits for Adames as he struggled through the season’s first few months.

He went into right-center again for a two-run triple in a five-run fifth inning that saw the Giants bat around. The scoring began with Dom Smith’s opposite-field solo home run and ended with Jung Hoo Lee’s infield RBI single to make it 8-2.

Adames has been rounding into form the last few weeks and is having an impressive July, now batting .361 (13-for-36) with three home runs, three doubles, a triple and 12 RBIs in 10 games this month.

“To be honest, I didn’t think that ball was going to go out today, by the way the ball carried,” Adames said. “I feel like I’ve been getting more comfortable at the park and trusting my ability to hit the other way and let the ball do whatever and not think about the result.

“A few weeks ago I started feeling better at the plate, taking better at-bats and putting myself in hitters counts. I feel like since then I’ve been feeling really good at the plate and executing my plan.”

Shohei Ohtani captured all the attention early, hitting a two-run Splash Hit off Logan Webb’s misplaced cutter in the third inning. The Giants answered by taking advantage of Dodgers starter Dustin May’s poor command in the fourth inning. May threw six consecutive balls to Rafael Devers and Matt Chapman, resulting in two leadoff walks. Lee began his three-hit night with a triple into the right-center gap. Lee nearly scored on Casey Schmitt’s potential sacrifice fly, but a perfect throw from left fielder Michael Conforto got him by a half-second — a call confirmed on review.

“I still think he was safe,” manager Bob Melvin said.

It seemed a comfortable lead for Webb, who rarely gets that kind of run support and had been cruising since Ohtani’s home run. But the Dodgers were smoking Webb’s offerings in the sixth inning. The prolonged fifth inning might’ve contributed to that, Webb said.

“Just a long break in between, it seemed like we got away from the game plan a little bit,” Webb said.

After hitting Mookie Betts with a pitch, Webb surrendered back-to-back doubles to Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez. The latter bounced off Lee’s glove as he slightly overran the ball, though it would have been a difficult play to make. Then Conforto punished a ball into center field for another two-run homer to make it 8-6, and Webb was taken out. The six earned runs were the most he had allowed all year.

The upcoming break meant Melvin could go to Randy Rodriguez for 1⅔ innings. He allowed a run in the seventh inning, the fourth total run he’s allowed in 40 appearances, to make it a one-run game.

Doval came in for the ninth with Ohtani, Betts and Freddie Freeman due up and flirted with trouble. After Ohtani popped out, Betts singled and pinch-runner Esteury Ruiz stole second base, leading to a Freeman walk. Then Smith hit into a game-ending double play, ensuring the Dodgers their first seven-game losing streak since 2017.

“It’s great, these guys are scuffling over there and we have to take advantage,” Webb said. “Glad we were able to come out with a win today.”

(sfchronicle.com)

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SAN FRANCISCO SEAGULL EXHIBITS NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN BEHAVIOR, NEW STUDY SHOWS

by Amanda Bartlett

Scott Shaffer saw the bird for the first time in the spring of 2018, protecting her eggs next to a rock pile on the rugged Farallon Islands about 26 miles west of San Francisco. It was a good sign for the San Jose State University biology professor, who knew that a nest meant she would reliably return to the same spot. That was ideal for his research monitoring the western gull population on the cluster of islets, home to one of the largest breeding colonies of the species in California. But first, he had to catch her.

Shaffer managed to place the gull in a pillowcase before taking her back to the lab, where he affixed a GPS tracker no larger than the size of a matchbox to the base of her tail. He marked a single dot on her forehead using a Sharpie to make her more easily recognizable. Then, he let her go for about a week before finding her again to retrieve the tag and download the valuable data it held on her declining species’ diet, foraging behaviors and habitat use. But when he checked Google Earth to observe her comings and goings, he noticed something strange: She had gone completely off the map.

“I thought, ‘Where the hell did this bird go?’” Shaffer said.

He scrolled and zoomed in, tracing her 80-mile journey that appeared to start at the San Francisco Recology site near Candlestick Point. She went over the Bay Bridge, down Interstate 880 and onto Highway 580 before reaching a composting center in the Central Valley near Modesto. What threw him was her speed, which averaged 60 mph — clearly too fast for her to be flying herself. He soon confirmed she had backup, having hitched a wild ride on an 18-wheel garbage truck and staying overnight before flying back to her colony in the Farallones.

But this was no Pixar movie plot. Shaffer suspected the bird most likely became trapped under the layer of wire mesh lining the top of the truck while foraging for scraps. Yet, even more remarkable was the fact that she repeated the voyage the following day: going to San Francisco Recology to hitchhike down to the same composting facility, this time taking the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge while her mate watched over the nest in her absence.

The findings, published recently in the scientific journal BioOne, mark the first time a western gull has ever been observed embarking on such an adventure. “I have not seen that behavior in any other species that I’ve studied,” Shaffer said.

Gulls on the go

The new discovery is just one piece of the puzzle in the broader research local experts are conducting on western gulls, colloquially known as seagulls, including how they seek out food and when and why they travel. Shaffer has been working with a team of researchers including Megan Cimino, a biological oceanographer and researcher at UC Santa Cruz. Cimino decided the hitchhiking gull was “so unusual” that the bird warranted her own paper but said her behavior is demonstrative of just how flexible western gulls can be as a species. They forage at sea and on land to eat a wide variety of food sources, from fish and krill to garlic fries left behind at Oracle Park and chicken scavenged from Fourth of July barbecues. A separate paper Cimino and Shaffer published in 2022 aimed to determine why the gulls spent some years at sea and some on land, and they’ve tracked as many as 30 individuals per year looking for answers. They found that in the years the gulls spent more time on land, less prey was in the ocean and fewer whales were around.

“You’re probably wondering, ‘What does a whale have to do with any of this?’” Cimino said. “But for birds that aren’t capable of diving, there needs to be prey at the surface of the water. When whales like humpbacks breach and lunge feed, they can help make that food more accessible for them.”

In another study published last year, Cimino and Shaffer found that some western gulls also had a penchant for hitching rides on boats, though only for brief stints while looking for food nearby — they didn’t travel nearly as far as the gull in the garbage truck. The findings raise new questions for the researchers, who are trying to learn more about the relationship between avian species and marine mammals.

“We started to think, if gulls forage in association with whales, and they often get hit by boats, maybe gulls can help us understand if there’s a high probability of ship strikes in a given area,” Cimino said. “They could be a new ecosystem tool to help us understand what’s going on.”

A ‘Big Presence’

Shaffer’s interest in studying western gulls goes back to the 1990s, when he used to work as a zookeeper at SeaWorld while earning his bachelor’s degree at San Diego State University. The species was considered a “constant problem” at the park, he said — the western gulls relentlessly stole food from the guests and the birds he was caring for — but he began to appreciate them for their “big presence” and intelligence.

“They recognize faces,” he said, pausing for a moment. “Well, they recognize my face.”

These days, when Shaffer is leading the seabird monitoring program on the Farallones, he uses a rotation of Halloween masks, ranging from a bold Blue Man Group number to a loud Kiss guise, to hide his features. He also has to wear a new change of clothes every time he goes out to their nests to avoid recognition. Nevertheless, he’s regularly pecked and barfed on, but he doesn’t mind. He just uses it in his research.

“They hit you in the head with their feet,” he said. “They s—t all over you. And usually, my hands get pretty cut up by the end of the season. They’re a challenge compared to other species, and that’s what I like about them. I’m always curious to see what I can learn.”

Similar to coyotes, the birds are native to California and have found a way to adapt to increasing urbanization by finding food there. They also have an uncanny ability to navigate vast distances and return to reliable dining options. One gull Shaffer tracked with his students on Alcatraz would regularly fly to a dumpster behind a deli in the Tenderloin, to the Palace of Fine Arts to bathe and then back to the island.

“Once they find food, they have their hotspots and seem to go back,” he said.

A city-dwelling diet can pose its fair share of risks to gulls, like vehicle collisions, exposure to microplastics or pathogens from bacteria. Though the garbage truck-riding gull’s journey seemed to be an accidental one, it’s still not clear why the bird returned. Cimino and Shaffer believe it could be a sign of more widespread behavior in the species as a response to climate change and limited prey resources in the ocean.

“I would emphasize that this is an unusual occurrence and you never know what animals are going to do,” Cimino said. “But I think it shows why studying gulls is important. They’re birds that are considered to be a nuisance if you’re having a picnic on the beach but can tell us a lot about the health of our environment right offshore from San Francisco.”

(SFGate)

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THE C-WORD

by Fred Gardner

Zohran Mamdani winning the the Democratic Party nomination for mayor of NYC has restored hope to millions of Americans afflicted by Clinical Political Despair. Mamdani, 33, is brave, articulate, and identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He says his goal is to make New York City affordable for working people.

The landlords and financiers sense that he’s sincere, and fear him. Because Mamdani deplores US support for Israeli genocide, the Zionist lobby will spare no expense to stop him from getting elected. They know they need someone other than the former governor Andrew Cuomo (deposed after 13 women #MeTooed him) and the schwartze mayor, Eric Adams (corrupt, pardoned by Trump). They’re praying to Central Casting for a plausible celebrity and have begun holding informal auditions.

After Mamdani won the primary, the President said, “We don’t need a Communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over them very carefully on behalf of the nation.” ICE raids in Astoria must not be impeded.

By calling Mamdani “a Communist,” repeatedly and matter-of-factly, Trump is reducing the stigma attached to the C-word. In the Red-Scare years that followed World War 2, a significant distinction was made between Communists and other left-leaning citizens. Communists were or had been members of the Communist Party – the CP, whose leaders praised Stalin’s Russia and advocated the overthrow of the US government by force and violence. Millions of Americans who steered clear of the CP were in general agreement with the party line on major issues – nuclear disarmament, desegregation, public education and healthcare paid for by taxing the rich, unemployment insurance, public housing and rent control, higher wages and better working conditions in the mines, fields, and factories and a foreign policy that did not take up the White Man’s Burden from England and France. The CPers called the non-party leftists “fellow travelers.” Right-wingers sneeringly called them “comsymps” – a put-down that acknowledges a difference between Communists and supporters of the same causes.

(There have always a been a few lefties who described themselves as “small-c communists.” They dreamt of an egalitarian utopia but had no strategy for creating it.)

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ZOHRAN MAMDANI JOLTED PROGRESSIVES. CAN CALIFORNIA CANDIDATES REPLICATE HIS SUCCESS?

by Yue Stella Yu

For California progressives, Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral bid offers something of a formula to follow.

When the 33-year-old democratic socialist pulled off a historic upset in the primary last month, Golden State progressives rejoiced. Some deemed his victory a sign that they do not need to pivot to the center to resonate with voters as many California leaders have in recent years.

“It gets people to say … ‘Maybe I can actually be myself and do this’,” said Neel Sannappa, chair of the California Democratic Party’s progressive caucus and an organizer with the Working Families Party, which supports universal health care, the Green New Deal and taxing the rich.

Mamdani is young and charismatic. He chatted people up in the streets with an army of volunteers, drew a cult following with young voters and built a solid base among middle- and upper-class progressives. It helped that his main opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was embroiled in sexual harassment allegations.

But Mamdani’s victory may be much harder to replicate in California, where progressives have had some success — like when U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont won California handily in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary — but have struggled to fully break through.

“Do I see a Mamdani-like election somewhere in 2026 here in California? Potentially,” said Michael Trujillo, a Democratic strategist who worked on former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaigns and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“But if that person exists, they haven’t emerged yet.”

Over the years, California progressives have failed to gain more influence within the state Democratic Party. Voters have rejected left-leaning ballot measures and progressive legislation has stalled. Fueled by frustration over crime and homelessness, voters have recalled progressive district attorneys and elected moderate local leaders.

California progressives who spoke to CalMatters primarily faulted their lack of success on the political influence of corporations, arguing that special interests have spent big to elbow out left-wing Democrats. They pointed to Sacramento’s mayoral race last November, where business-backed Democrat Kevin McCarty defeated his left-leaning opponent Flo Cofer after outspending her two-to-one. Nationwide, progressive members of Congress such as Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York lost to well-funded primary opponents.

The sheer vastness of California also makes it hard to mount effective door-knocking campaigns like Mamdani’s.

“There’s no doubt that Zohran is a unicorn,” said Jane Kim, head of the Working Families Party in California. “There are unicorns that break out that are able to fly at an altitude that’s very hard for us to reach.”

But progressive strategists and candidates argue that Mamdani’s victory demonstrates a desire for a departure from the establishment. They argue that there is a path to victory if they present themselves as agents of change and craft relatable messages that resonate with the working class, especially on affordability.

“(Mamdani) made the campaign not about progressive vs. moderate. He made it about change vs. the status quo,” said Saikat Chakrabarti, a progressive seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco next year. He is the former chief of staff to progressive U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“People are sick of the status quo,” he said. “I’m the change candidate.”

Changing The Electorate

The California electorate, though relatively liberal compared to other states, is not as liberal as portrayed nationwide and has shifted rightward in recent years, said Christian Grose, political science professor at the University of Southern California.

Just last year, Californians embraced tougher penalties for petty crimes, elected leaders promising harder crackdown on homelessness and rejected progressive policies aiming to rein in rent increases, end forced prison labor and increase the minimum wage.

“Even the most progressive or socialist Democrats, if they want to win statewide, they have to reach all those coalition groups in the Democratic electorate, some of which are very progressive and some of which are not,” Grose said.

While much of California’s population is renters and aspiring homeowners, its voters are skewed heavily toward older homeowners, who could view things like rent control and social housing as threats to their quality of life, Grose noted. Homeowners account for almost 70% of likely voters, whereas renters account for only 30%, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey.

“One path for progressives to win would actually be to change the electorate, to get more renters to turn out, to get more young people to turn out,” Grose said.

That’s what Mamdani sought to do in New York City, and data suggest he succeeded, beating Cuomo in neighborhoods with more young people, many of whom said they liked his affordability policies. As the city pondered rent increases, Mamdani ran on a platform of freezing rent and creating more affordable housing and won 46% of the vote in renter-heavy neighborhoods, Bloomberg reported.

“Progressives and Democrats and Republicans would all be very foolish not to be courting the youth vote. The problem is that they all do a generally pretty bad job of courting the youth vote,” said Mindy Romero, founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California.

Following the November election, California’s young Democrats expressed frustration that their party isn’t doing enough to resonate with their peers, arguing that candidates should take progressive stances on issues such as the war in Gaza and transgender rights, focus on reaching young people on social media and campuses and simplify their affordability message.

“It can’t be an afterthought,” Romero said.

Anti-Corporate Messaging

Many who spoke to CalMatters hope their firm stance against accepting money from corporate donors will resonate. More than half of California voters ”strongly agree” that special interest money has too much sway in state politics, according to a poll released Thursday by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Though affiliated with the Working Families Party, Randy Villegas, who is challenging GOP U.S. Rep. David Valadao in the swing 22nd Congressional District, hesitates to call himself a progressive. The district is one where only moderate Democrats have managed to come close to victory in the past decade.

Instead, Villegas said his path to victory lies in his “economic populist,” anti-wealthy message that focuses on making life easier for the working class. Villegas has sworn off corporate political action committee money, a gesture of authenticity that Sannappa said corporate-backed Democrats do not share.

“You are not having to curtail what you say because some donor that gave you $2,700 in Beverly Hills thinks this certain way about this certain thing,” he said.

“We cannot claim to champion the working class … if we are receiving money from the same corporate PACs that Republicans are receiving money from,” Villegas said.

But Romero said that messaging mostly works with voters who are already aligned with the candidate.

“Not everybody agrees corporate money is bad. They need to be shown exactly what that means for their pocket book, for their family’s well being, or their family’s safety,” Romero said.

And while Democrats widely use the anti-corporate PAC pledge to signal their willingness to stand up to special interests, that promise still allows them to accept other corporate dollars, such as contributions from executives or trade groups.

When asked whether the party would change its approach to accepting corporate donations or shift to the left to address progressives, California Democratic Party Chairperson Rusty Hicks did not address his party’s plans.

“The California Democratic Party has been and will continue to be home to the diverse voices that best represent the Golden State,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “California Democrats are squarely focused on delivering for all Californians – in the halls of government, in places of work and in every community. That’s what voters are expecting of us. And we aim to deliver.”

Will Trump provide the momentum?

Progressives in California are hoping that President Donald Trump, who has executed much more sweeping immigration and economic policies than in his first term, drives voters toward “bold,” left-wing candidates.

“It becomes this populist opportunity to really frame the economy in a way that works for working people and not for the more moderate problem solvers … that tend to be a lot more pro-business,” said Danielle Cendejas, a progressive consultant in Los Angeles.

But it is not a given that progressives would receive a greater boost than other Democrats, Grose said.

“I think it’s more about someone who can effectively take on Trump,” he said. “The politics is secondary.”

(CalMatters.org)

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‘My son and I were on a fishing trip one year, and we had gone to bed early in order to get an early start the next morning. Some loud and rather crude language woke me and I found my son standing at a window. I went to the window and asked these guys if they would keep it down and watch their language because I had my 11-year-old son with me. They started spouting off, and told me that if I was having trouble sleeping to come on down and they’d put me to sleep. I hollered back that I was on my way. I whipped all three and went back to sleep. They never found out who I was, but I later learned they were Navy officers on leave.’

— Carmen Basilio

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

You might get hauled off by ICE today for having a funny sounding name. Perhaps not. But you may leave your shoes on now while going through airport security. And what if I have a funny sounding name and I like to go barefoot; or worse, what if I like to wear huaraches?

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WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE of the Hamptons, where too much is never enough. America’s wealthiest, unhappiest people congregate here every summer, solely to compete for A-list party invites, the best tables at the most exclusive restaurants, the last $100 pound of fresh lobster, and the chance to splash their vacuous, conspicuous consumption all over social media. The unspoken question: Don’t you wish you were me? As a Hamptons local, trust me: You don’t. No one does. No one sane, anyway.

— Maureen Callahan

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FROM LEFT ACTION:

After years of being obsessed with the Epstein files, and promising to release them and his client list when they took office, Trump officials are suddenly trying to shift the conversation from them as quickly as possible. And they are doing downright weird things, like releasing tapes that are clearly missing sections, and insisting there is no client list (even though they previously said they had it).

Jamie Raskin wants to know what the hell is going on, and so do we.

Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, demanding the release of ALL Epstein documents mentioning Trump, and condemned DOJ’s apparent pattern of hiding information that normally would be made public, in order to keep it from damaging Trump.

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EPITAPH ON A TYRANT

by W.H. Auden (1940)

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

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LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

After Texas Disaster, Trump Shifts His Tone on FEMA

FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show

Around the World, Flash Flood Disasters Are the ‘Hardest Kind to Prevent’

An Army of Searchers Combs the Banks of the Guadalupe for the Missing

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FLUX RULES

by James Kunstler

We’re trapped in a structure. We named the Structure ‘Jeffrey Epstein’.” — Eric Weinstein

No one in America — not even the most deranged, spike-faced, pink-haired transtifas — believes the latest Epstein story as played out by Mr. Trump and AG Bondi in this week’s cabinet parlay: nuthin to see, just a bunch of pointless child porn, fuggeddabowdit. . .

But stay! Much is moving, flowing unseen. The world is yugely in flux, large events in human affairs are in motion, many things are breaking, rotating, dissolving and re-forming, while others wind into giant hairballs. . . so many players acting as though they live in one great hall of mirrors, and treachery abides at every turn. Nobody seems to be actually managing any of it, though there is plenty of pretense, jockeying, staging. The public’s anger and anxiety rise in tandem.

One thing about Epstein is likely certain: it was an intel operation. And one thing is probable: it was a joint operation between the CIA, Israel’s Mossad, and the UK’s MI6. The object: to get as many political poohbahs on-the-hook for disgraceful behavior of the lowest kind and blackmail-able. Under the thumb. Theories and suppositions abound.

If Mr. Trump was in on the Epstein sex shenanigans, as Elon blurted this week, why did the Democratic Party not go after him for it in three election campaigns (and all the many months in between)? Well, not to put too fine a point on it, Elon appears to be losing his shit. His CEO at “X” bailed on him this week. His A-I app, Grok, started spouting Hitler gags, and his empire of world-beating genius is tottering on a broken business model.

You can write all that Elon stuff off as a sideshow for now — wildly grotesque as it may be. But what is actually going on in the three rings of this circus? Flux in the Middle East is one. Whatever else the “Twelve Day War” was about, it’s the end of Israel threatening to bomb Iran’s nuke program out of existence. We’ve done that favor for them, or pretended to, as some are saying, kabukied it out. So, Israel, shut up about that for now . . . is the policy.

One story is that the actual Epstein material, whatever still exists, that is, which might reside in multiple locations, is so destructive to the architecture of global leadership that it must be squelched for the sake of majorly realigning forces, tensions, and polities across the Middle East, namely, the Abraham Accords. Getting all that lined up is more important to Mr. Trump for the moment than defenestrating the various perverts-in-office around Western Civ. It just is. . . so. . . gotta lump it.

Let’s surmise that the president has learned a lot about the intel hall of mirrors over the past decade, but especially lately, in his second term, from DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who has access to every document in the bottomless pit of the intel archives. The President knows he is not exactly in control of his intel “community.” And he aims to do something about it. You could make the case that the so-called “community” is just a giant criminal syndicate engaged in the most nefarious activities ongoing in this world of sin: human trafficking, drugs, money-laundering, weapons, every off-the-book turpitude you could imagine. Nor is John Ratcliffe exactly in control of his own agency, though he can utilize some of its services. . . but more about that later.

Forget about Bondi’s gaffe. She is just following orders, as are Messrs. Patel and Bongino, standing down, good soldiers, and only on the Epstein business. You can’t even rule out the possibility that Jeffrey Epstein is not dead. Was it suicide? Or an escape? Shall we say, a rendition to parts unknown? I would not assert that, just proffer it as a possibility, since the events of that night in the Manhattan federal lockup were so astoundingly sketchy — the sleepy guards, the broken CC cameras, the missing minute in the one camera recording that worked, the suicide-proofed jail cell. . . . But, then, the autopsy reports. . . performed upon. . . whom, exactly. . . ?

There is parallel matter of Ukraine to consider. Mr. Trump is yugely frustrated by his inability to put a quick end to it, to make that golden deal with Russia. The Ukraine War is the globalists desperate final project, its last stand. By saying which, let’s assume that the Globalists are “a thing,” a combo of the UK’s remaining potent assets (MI6 and the City of London financial octopus), the megalomaniacal EU bureaucratic leadership (von der Leyen & Co.), and the WEF-Davos gang. Ukraine was their instrument to break up Russia. The project has failed. Yet the war goes on. Mr. Trump says he was not even informed about Ukraine’s recent long-range drone attack deep into Russia, to take out its strategic bombers. Wasn’t informed? WTF???

Was it because the CIA has gone rogue over in Ukraine? Running the war their way — and not even Mr. Ratcliffe has a handle on all that? Consequently, Mr. Trump is yugely embarrassed in his many skull sessions with Mr. Putin. And thus, Mr. Putin seeks to bring about an end to this enormous pain-in-the-ass situation by simply winning the war. Which he is doing. His terms have been simple, plain, and straightforward from the get-go: a disarmed, neutralized Ukraine that must surrender the Donbas provinces, end-of-story, and don’t even mention Crimea because there’s nuthin to talk about there. And, of course, regime change in Kiev. . . eighty-six on Nazis, thank you.

In the natural course of things, the incompetent drug-addict Zelenskyy should have been overthrown by his own people months ago and it is only the rogue US intel community that continues to prop him up. As political dramaturgy, Mr. Trump must pretend to oppose Russia’s winning of the Ukraine War — we don’t let Russia win wars! — though it is the logical best solution to the problem. So, he is forking over the last $100-million, probably just to pay government salaries, pensions, and social services in Kiev for a month or so. But Russia will win and the UK-EU-WEF will be the big loser, and then Britain, France, and Germany can get on with the job of committing suicide, as they’ve dedicated themselves to do.

Mr. Ratcliffe, meanwhile, earnestly attempts to not become a hostage to the agency he’s supposed to run. So amidst all the other sturm-and-drang of July 2025, he issued that report on former CIA director John Brennan’s 2017 Intel Community Assessment that kicked off RussiaGate. Ratcliffe’s report looked like a predicate for a prosecution. And indeed, Mr. Ratcliffe (an experienced prosecutor himself) issued a criminal referral to the DOJ on the matter. . . and voila. . . we learn next that the FBI has indeed been investigating Brennan and former FBI chief James Comey for months — probably since the very day that Patel and Bongino got their office keys.

Well, about goshdarn time. These two seditious caitiffs will be going to court, looks like. Maybe just for lying to congress, which is easy to prove with video and documents, and doesn’t require the spinning-out of a vast prosecutorial narrative that a hostile DC jury could nitpick. We’re also informed that there are more “targets” in the FBI’s investigation. A lot of things are in motion now. Expect cascades of developments.

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ONE MORE WAFER THIN MINT?

by Matt Taibbi

Back in the “good old days” of subprime mortgage-mania, the business of making loans and securitizing them took on the appearance of the proverbial tail wagging the dog. The participants in the business of making the loans, securitizing them, selling them and managing them could not care less who was actually getting the loan. There seemed to be an endless supply of global capital that “needed” to be put to work in subprime. Wall Street was making billions and the only thing that mattered was creating a loan, no matter how ridiculous, to feed the subprime structured-product market.

We know how all that turned out.

I get the strong feeling this is what has been happening in the Private Market (Private Equity and Private Credit) investment sector.

Let’s focus on Private Credit, a rapidly growing asset class. Private Credit (PC) represents direct lending to private companies, many of whom are owned in PE portfolios from Non-Bank Lenders (NBLs). Many of the same investment management companies who are big players in Private Equity (PE), such as Blackstone, Apollo, Ares and KKR are also NBL managers of PC funds. These managers, as well as many others, have been rapidly raising capital to grow their PC funds as investors such as life insurers, pension funds and foreign sovereign wealth funds clamor to invest heavily. Many of the nation’s large banks have been rapidly increasing their lending to PC funds. Morgan Stanley reported last year that PC had a market size of approximately $1.5 trillion, with the potential to be $2.8 trillion by 2028.

Private credit can very well be a good thing by providing liquidity to underbanked businesses. But with its rapid growth, has PC become just another way to feed Wall Street’s Private Market deal beast and overload the economy with debt?

Bankruptcies by mid-sized private US companies hit their highest level since 2010 last year as high interest rates and costs squeezed profits… and so far 2025 looks poised for another record, according to a report from Marblegate Asset Management and RapidRatings. Expensive debt and higher costs are leaving firms barely able to cover their debt payments and more than a fifth of analyzed companies in 2024 had interest coverage ratios of less than 1, meaning that they’re unable to generate enough earnings to cover interest payments, the firms said in the report. The average interest coverage ratio was 1.26 times last year, as shrinking earnings, more leverage and higher rates have “eroded solvency” for many companies, they said.

The Marblegate report “analyzed more than 1,200 private companies with revenue between $100 million and $750 million, and compared them to about 1,700 publicly traded companies with revenue of $750 million or less in the Russell 3000. The private companies have seen a measure of their income — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — fall 23% since 2019. At larger public corporations, EBITDA rose 16% over the same period.”

The trend does not seem to be our friend here with regard to loading more private companies with more debt. Yet with all the capital pouring into the PC sector, we seem to be doubling down on it. It is important to remember that we are seeing the deterioration noted by Marblegate while the economy is doing reasonably well. What happens in a recession, or worse, what happens if we have a recession combined with inflation — stagflation?

Committed credit lines by the largest U.S. banks to private credit vehicles (PD funds and BDCs) have increased significantly over the past five years (about 145 percent, equivalently to an annualized growth rate of about 19.5 percent), reaching about $95 billion as of 2024-Q4. In 2025 we can see that banks have continued to increase their exposure to PC funds. For example, this past February JP Morgan announced they were increasing their $10 billion commitment to PC to $50 billion.

The Fed’s report went on to say, The bulk of bank loans to NBFIs (non-bank financial institutions) are rated investment grade, exhibit very low delinquency rates and tend to be of shorter maturity than loans to nonfinancial corporations.

Remember how we relied on our great ratings agencies, S&P and Moody’s, for their discernment of subprime securities?

The report continued (emphasis mine): “While immediate risks from private credit vehicles appear limited due to their moderate use of leverage and long-term capital lockups, the lack of transparency and understanding of the interconnectedness between private credit and the rest of the financial system makes it difficult to assess the implications for systemic vulnerabilities.” That last bit doesn’t exactly give a warm and fuzzy feeling. Then there’s JP Morgan struggling mightily to create a secondary trading market for PC loans.

Private credit managers have a message for the JPMorgan Chase traders who have been trying to establish a secondary market for the industry: no thanks.

Bloomberg reported that the PC managers have a strong motivation to say no to JP’s efforts because of “the fear that if JPMorgan, or any of the other banks following in its footsteps, is successful in creating a vibrant trading market for the loans, it could shatter the perception—or mirage, as critics would argue—of price stability that they’ve spent years selling to investors. The value of the loans, the pitch goes, won’t ever get whipsawed around, and dragged down, by the vagaries of the broader markets because they are privately held assets. But if they trade regularly, price levels get marked, day after day, and private credit suddenly doesn’t look all that different than its public market counterparts.”

I guess the “vagaries of the broader markets” include fundamental analyses that show a particular borrower’s or an entire industry’s ability to service their debt is quickly deteriorating? As an investor, that is something they might want to know, right? Is all of this really necessary or is it just another gigantic payday for Wall Street, where if it all blows up and tanks the nation, they just walk away with the billions they already made and move on to the next big thing?

Do we really need “one more wafer-thin mint?”

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“ANTISEMITISM” means criticism of Israel. That’s just what it means now. It used to mean something else, but years of bad faith actors using that word in the most dishonest ways imaginable to defend the most horrific things you’ve ever seen has changed the definition.

It is no longer possible to separate that word from this sustained campaign of mass deception. You can only have governments, institutions and individuals use a word differently for so long with such a high degree of uniformity before the definition changes.

Word definitions change over time depending on how people use them. Nice used to mean stupid. Explode used to mean applaud. The word meat used to refer to any kind of food, not just animal flesh. The meanings changed because enough people started using them to refer to something else, in exactly the same way we’ve seen occur with the word antisemitism.

That’s locked in. It has already happened. Everyone knows that antisemitism refers to criticism of Israel and its actions and antisemite refers to someone who does so. Everyone understands this regardless of whether they support Israel or oppose it. That is the definition now.

If you want a word for someone who thinks Hitler was correct or uses triple brackets and posts big nose memes online, you’re going to have to make up a new word, because antisemite is taken. You can’t even really use “Jew hater” either, because that meaning is being polluted in the exact same way antisemite has been. You have to make up an entirely new word, and use it consistently.

Israel’s spinmeisters will deny this publicly, even though they know it’s true. They’ll say it’s possible to criticize Israel without being an antisemite, but if you ask them to name someone who regularly and forcefully criticizes Israel’s genocidal atrocities in Gaza whom they don’t consider antisemitic, they won’t be able to. Every single person who criticizes Israel with appropriate consistency and force is branded an antisemite (or perhaps “self-hating” if they happen to be Jewish), without a single, solitary exception.

These aren’t my rules, they’re the rules of the Israel apologists. I’m just pointing out the obvious fact that those rules have been set.

— Caitlin Johnstone

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DEATH OF A VILLAGE

by Yigal Bronner

When the settlers moved in on the Palestinian village of al-Mu’arrajat, we all knew what was coming next. It has happened again and again throughout the West Bank. Encroachment, harassment, theft and terror, until the unhidden goal is achieved: cleansing the area of non-Jews. Still, my fellow activists and I could not stop trying. So at 10:30 p.m. on 2 July, some of us drove out of Jerusalem on the twisting road down to the Jordan Valley. Al-Mu’arrajat is named after those curves. Or it was.

In the evening, several dozen settlers from nearby outposts gathered in the village. Some arrived with camping gear, others brought a herd of sheep. Then they broke into the Palestinians’ houses. In one, they took furniture out to the veranda, sat down and made themselves at home. Another group drove a herd of sixty goats and sheep from Ibrahim’s pen and led the animals out of the village, never to be seen again. A third group cut the electricity supply to one of the houses. There were only women and children inside. Terrified that their home might be set on fire, they fled with only the clothes on their backs. The settlers moved in and stole cash and valuables.

The leaders of this well-orchestrated attack – men from surrounding settlements and outposts – were on site, giving orders. But most of the attackers were teenagers, the so-called ‘hill youths’ who spearhead Israel’s growing movement of Jewish supremacy.

We arrived at the village after the herd of sheep was stolen but before the attack on the house with its electricity cut. The police had been called but were nowhere to be seen. I called them at 11:48 p.m. They said that they were on their way. I called again at 12:34, explaining in detail the danger to Palestinian families, to activists (settlers were throwing stones at my colleagues and hitting them with clubs) and to property. ‘What are you waiting for?’ I asked. ‘For some calamity to happen? Why don’t you send a police car? We have called you repeatedly!’ I was rebuked for sounding hysterical and told to wait patiently, as the security forces were on the way. Others had called and received similar answers. The police never showed up.

In Jerusalem, a lawyer representing the village was preparing an urgent request to the Israeli Supreme Court to issue an injunction that would compel the police and army to remove the invading settlers. She was sending us frantic requests for live updates. We were sending frantic responses. The appeal was submitted the next day, but the Supreme Court justice Alex Stein said he found no reason to intervene, since it was assumed that law enforcement would act to protect order. The lawyer appealed but was rejected again. There would be no intervention from the police, the army or the courts, as the settler leaders knew there wouldn’t. They told the Palestinians they had 24 hours to leave, or else.

The residents knew the drill. They have seen it all over the West Bank. In late May, the same thing happened in Maghayer al-Dir: settlers established an outpost in the village, attacked the residents and robbed their houses; there, too, the police, army and courts did not intervene as the settlers issued their ultimatums. Villagers who were too slow in packing their belongings were beaten by the settlers and several were hospitalized with serious injuries. The residents of al-Mu’arrajat – who had friends and family in Maghayer al-Dir – did not wait till morning to pack. Within 24 hours, the settlers’ ultimatum was met. The houses were dismantled, the essentials packed and moved, the school emptied. All 250 residents were gone.

I have come to know some of them well over the past five years. I would speak to Alia whenever I started a night-shift, so she would know whom to call in case of an emergency. Suliman would call me almost every night, when the settlers were banging on his door. They were harassed, encroached on and terrorized; settlers set fire to the village mosque; and yet they kept their dignity. I saw the villages around them fall one by one, and yet they hung on. But now they, too, are scattered, homeless, uprooted.

The settlers, meanwhile, are celebrating yet another victory on social media: the removal of another community of ‘enemies’ or ‘invaders’, as they call the people whose land and homes they have invaded and occupied. The entire area of the Jordan Valley has been Judaized.

When a person dies, there are mourning rituals to help us, and people who can guide us in grieving for those we have lost. But what do you do when an entire village is erased, when a whole way of life is destroyed? Especially when no one around you even seems to notice, let alone care?

Al-Mu’arrajat is no more.

(London Review of Books)

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A SNAIL is at the bottom of a 30 foot well. Every hour the snail is able to climb up 3 feet, then immediately slide back down 2 feet. How many hours does it take for the snail to get out of the well?