Mendocino County Today: Monday 7/14/2025

Hot Interior | Johnson Case | Wort Flower | Toxic Fill | Music Festival | Development Meeting | Dayflower | Climate Assessment | Mosswood Market | Jim Eddie | Elk BBQ | Blackberry Festival | Yesterday's Catch | Pure Luxury | Knee-Jerk Politics | Vulture Capitalism | Alligator Farm | Wildfires Burning | County Line | Department Q | Act Normal | As Usual | Couple Addicts | Red Wheelbarrow | Drilling Permits | Giants Lose | Hilarious | Feud Revealed | Move Along | Tucker Speech | Pounding Rain | Boxing Team | Stayin' Alive | Next Question | Flood Zone | Lead Stories | Drink Up | Power Mind-Games | Try Anything | Summer Lovin' | Jonestown Survivors | Apples & Oranges

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VERY HOT conditions continue across the interior today. Some relief to the heat arrives mid to late week, but conditions remain warm. Isolated dry lightning is possible for the northern Trinity mountains this afternoon and evening. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Our weather is like a box of chocolates, you just never know what we're gonna get. After a lovely sunny day yesterday we are forecast for another lovely sunny day today yet the fog lingers just near the shore, hence, who knows? A clear (at my house 1 mile east of the shore) 49F this Monday morning on the coast. More off & on fog continues thru the week.

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KELLI JOHNSON DROPS HER LAWSUIT

by Mark Scaramella

Remember that big splash that Ms. Kelli Johnson made when she appeared at a Board of Supervisors meeting on the Coast back in September of 2023 to complain about mistreatment after a Coast deputy arrested her for disorderly conduct-alcohol, and then transported her to jail?

https://theava.com/archives/228379

Clutching figurative pearls, and addressing the dependably credulous supervisors, Ms Johnson told a harrowing tale of sadistic mistreatment, first by deputies, then recreationally pummeled again and her privates exposed at the County Jail, all of this imposed on her for no reason when she was arrested as she was innocently taking some ocean air on the Mendocino Headlands.

The Blue Meanie brigades instantly mobilized to denounce law enforcement. “My gawd, girl. You’re lucky you weren’t killed!” And variations thereof.

Ms. Johnson, an environmental attorney who works in Sacramento but who was visiting her parents on the Coast at the time of her arrest, waved photos of her bruises and woofed at the Supervisors that she’d be filing suit against Mendocino County and the Sheriff’s department.

Sheriff Kendall calmly responded to Ms. Johnson’s fervid allegations that there was much more to the story, and that the interested public should not assume that the imaginative Sacramento attorney was telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Sheriff explained that there were audio and video recordings of Ms. Johnson’s encounter with deputies and jailers, both from a civilian witness as well as from the patrol cars and jail cameras, which he said he’d be happy to share with the public when the time came.

However, since the incident we’ve learned that Ms. Johnson has appeared at several local law enforcement get-togethers where she was bonhomie itself, including one jovial Halloween event where Ms. Johnson arrived at a law enforcement outdoor meeting in a happy costume, not mentioning her allegedly perilous encounters with Mendo’s forces of law and order with whom she exchanged cordial banter.

For months, Ms. Johnson’s original hyperbolic complaint was the only public version of events.

In January of this year a young female lawyer friend of Ms. Johnson filed suit against the County in a rambling narrative complaint saying that the arresting deputies were rude to her when she was arrested for being drunk in public. But in her complaint Ms. Johnson admitted that some time after her original encounter with the cops she was “no longer intoxicated” in her opinion. During the drive to Ukiah she claimed to have been denied a pee break and a drink of water, had her privates accidentally exposed, and her toe got caught on her shackles causing pain. This and other alleged mistreatment caused Ms. Johnson to have a panic attack which she says she’s prone to.

In her formal legal comlaint Ms. Johnson even added “trespass to chattel” to her list of complaints based on the deputy having (allegedly) broken the glass (i.e., “chattel”) she was drinking from during the arrest.

The Sheriff’s office denied Johnson’s claim of mistreatment and said they had audio and video from a passerby, the patrol car dashcam, and jail surveillance video that would show that the problem was Ms. Johnson, not the Deputies or Corrections officers.

In her lawsuit Ms. Johnson admitted that the deputies were first called on the morning of September 5, 2023 when two Deputies responded to a call from her parents who were renting a house on Little Lake Road in Mendocino. Ms. Johnson’s mother had called 911 because Ms. Johnson was having “a panic attack” and refusing to leave when her mother ordered Ms. Johnson out of the house. Ms. Johnson said she could not leave because she could not drive because she “had been drinking and smoking marijuana that she had legally purchased at the dispensary in town, and that there were no Lyfts or Ubers available,” adding that she “had nowhere else to go and needed to take a nap so that she could safely drive to Napa for a date that evening on her way to Sacramento.” Deputies did not arrest Ms. Johnson at that time.

Later that day, however, Ms. Johnson “was showering and was interrupted by her parents who informed her that the landlord of the Little Lake Road property had insisted that Plaintiff leave. [Ms. Johnson’s] mother threatened to call the police again, causing [Ms. Johnson’s] to have another panic attack. Plaintiff’s mother told her to get out of the house because Sheriff Deputies were on the way. Plaintiff grabbed a glass of water and walked out of the house.” where she was subsequently arrested on the Mendocino headlands for being a major pain in the butt, aka “disorderly conduct-alcohol.”

Making matters worse, according to her lawsuit, Ms. Johnson insulted the responding deputy, saying “that his mustache was hideous and that she didn’t understand how he could look at himself in the mirror every morning and not shave it. Plaintiff offered to give [the deputy] time to go and shave his mustache off.” Ms. Johnson also demanded that “the hot officer” arrest her, not the arresting deputy with whom she was “uncomfortable.” When Ms. Johnson arrived at the jail and was told she should keep quiet, she responded to the Corrections officer, “Actually, I get to say whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want, and there is nothing you can do about it bitch.” (That’s a quote from her own lawsuit.)

Since January last the dubious case slogged its way through the local legal system. During the discovery process the County provided the audio and video recordings to Ms. Johnson’s friend/attorney. Soon after that Ms. Johnson’s attorney started to make settlement offers with successively lower amounts. The County and the Sheriff refused to pay anything, but agreed that if Ms. Johnson would drop the suit the County’s wouldn’t charge her for wasting everybody’s time. (By “everybody” we include several deputies, several corrections officers, the supervisors, miscellaneous county staffers, her parents, her attorney, the public and us.)

Finally, after seeing the videos and listening to the audio recordings last week, Ms. Johnson’s attorney advised the County that Ms. Johnson was dropping the lawsuit with that “no invoice” proviso.

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BURIED TOXICS AT BAINBRIDGE PARK?

Editor,

City Council rushes to bury toxic ground-fill at children’s park.

Fort Bragg’s city council was caught trying to dump tons of rubber crumb into a construction project advertised as “enhancement.” Residents Jacquelyn and Christopher Cisper caught wind of it July 3rd. Jacquelyn had been walking with her four year old when she noticed a black suspicious looking substance leaking from a small hole in one of the many blank brown bags that had been sitting on the back of a large pickup trailer in front of the park for over a week. Alarmed the couple began investigating. When questioned officials and Mayor Godeke claimed that the project had been in planning 20 years then backpedaled to several years. Told they had an EIR report, Mr. Cisper asked to see it. After waiting two days the project manager Chantel O’Neil said that they weren’t required to make one for the proposed two soccer fields, located in a small park in the center of town across from the library. The couple then requested the construction stop till further discussions with the town could be held.

The couple was told to look at the plan online that had been discussed in meetings for years. When investigating further they could only find one vote tally taken for the soccer field. It has 32 votes out of 32 in the negative. 32 people in 2017 voting against a soccer park. The type of soccer park is not mentioned the committee leaders are not listed.

When they asked, the couple was told they could only make comment at this morning Monday’s (July 14) meeting in the public’s three minute comment section.

They began working to gain signatures to ask for a real public meeting. Mr. Cisper stated he did not see how this 32 votes could represent a population of nearly 7,000 especially a vote that was taken in 2017.

The funding for the project only became available in 2023. The money became available through bond measure Proposition 68. A measure proposed to serve underserved communities by creating healthy infrastructure projects that specifically would protect the water and environment.

Infill or crumble rubber is a toxic substance that leaches into the water and has been linked to kidney cancer and breathing difficulties and is very soon within a matter of days to be dumped onto the ground for the two adjacent soccer fields.

Time is running out to stop this. Please show up Monday, July 14th at 6:00 pm sharp to make a public comment.

Christopher Cisper

Fort Bragg

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CITY COUNCIL MEETING ABOUT 83-UNIT MULTIFAMILY DEVELOPMENT, retail space, and 4 hotel units in Fort Bragg

Dear community,

This Monday July 14 at 6pm you have a chance to still have input about an 83-unit multifamily development, a retail space, and 4 hotel units planned for 1151 S. Main Street in Fort Bragg. The meeting will take place at Town Hall located at 363 N. Main Street and can also be accessed via Video Conference. The item # is 7B. People can also submit written comments until 2pm on Monday to [email protected] and they will still be posted before the meeting. Write in subject line: Public comment 7-14-25 CC meeting, item # 7B, 1151 S. Main Street. This meeting is being presented in a hybrid format, both in person at Town Hall and via Zoom. Click the link to join the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83469244993 or Telephone Dial: 1 669 444 9171 US (*6 mute/unmute, *9 raise hand) Webinar ID: 834 6924 4993 To speak during public comment portions of the agenda via zoom, please join the meeting and use the raise hand feature when the Mayor or Acting Mayor calls for public comment on the item you wish to address.

To speak during public comment portions of the agenda via zoom, join the meeting and use the raise hand feature when the Chair or Acting Chair calls for public comment on the item you wish to address. Link to agenda: https://www.city.fortbragg.com/government/city-council/agendas-minutes

What the City Council members intend to do: Receive a Report, Hold a Public Hearing, and Consider Adopting a Resolution Recommending that the City Council Approve Coastal Development Permit Amendment (8-24/A), Use Permit Amendment (UP 9-24/A), Design Review Amendment (DR 11-24/A), for an 83-Unit Multifamily Project with 1,000 SF of Retail Space and 2,450 SF of Visitor Serving Accommodations at 1151 South Main Street (APN 018-440-58) This project as it currently stands is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per Section 15332 - Class 32 Infill Development Projects and 15195 Infill Housing Development

This development is proposed for the now empty field (former farm) located between the Emerald Dolphin Inn & Mini Golf, and the Fort Bragg Outlet on the west side of Main Street (State Route 1) and south of Noyo Bridge and the Harbor RV Park. The property owner, Akashdeep Grewal, Kosh Petroleum Inc., is also the owner of the Emerald Dolphin Inn & Mini Golf. The development of 7 buildings in addition to the 83-Unit Multifamily Project would include a retail space and 4 hotel units on 2.7 acres. There would be studios, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom units. This "inclusionary program" partially offsets the cost of providing affordable units (a few units would be low income) by offering a developer one or more incentives such as a tax abatements, parking reductions, or the right to build at higher densities (the density bonus was previously approved without consistently notifying landowners who live within 300 ft. and residents who live within 100 ft. of the project). The building height increased from 28 ft. to either 32 ft. with flat roofs, or 38ft with gabled roofs (3 stories)!This would be precedent setting! Next we might have 3 story buildings on the former GP Mill site, the former Hare Creek mall site, etc. The applicant at first was happy just with 56 units, but what we have now is a total of 88 units. Parking is planned for 108 automobiles, but additional parking is needed.

According to the City this development is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per Section 15332 - Class 32 Infill Development Projects and 15195 Infill Housing Development. The Class 32 Exemption, exempts infill development within urbanized areas if it meets certain criteria. The class consists of environmentally benign infill projects that are consistent with the General Plan and Zoning requirements. This class is not intended for projects that would result in any significant traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality impacts, or are not consistent with the General Plan and Zoning requirements. Many believe that this development is not a benign infill project and especially traffic & noise issues have not been properly addressed and should be addressed through a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND), or an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Even with the 16 "whereas" clauses, general findings, density bonus incentives, 48 special conditions, and 9 standard conditions these issues can not be minimized so that the effects are less than significant and no mitigations are necessary to reduce the impact to a lesser level.

As much as people are in favor of more housing for locals many people, especially neighbors, are opposed to this project and have been voicing their opinion during 3 City Council, and 4 Planning Commission meetings. The City Council in 2019 made it a goal to build 200 more housing units by 2026. Neighbors believing that this project is not "environmentally benign" have appealed the project to the Coastal Commission and hired an attorney, but the developer chose instead to make a few minor changes and bring it back to the Planning Commission.

Many believe that this project should not be exempt from CEQA, that this development is also incompatible with the Coastal Act, as well as inconsistent with the local coastal plan, and the general plan. The cumulative effect of problems with no traffic study, loss of ocean view, location being at the gateway to Fort Bragg, loss of recreational opportunities in the Coastal Zone (it prevents maximum access), and possibly a lack of water to serve the people who would reside there is causing many to question this project at this site (apparently three new water reservoirs are being built to help the City although environmental and logistical challenges remain). No water study has been done, no geotechnical study either. Apparently a wetland study exists, but the public has not seen it yet. Many issues like access for school busses, MTA, and emergency vehicles driving on two dead end roads, or details about the playground have not been worked out. There will not be enough parking. No parking is designated for hotel guests. Many question how mixing a multifamily project with visitor serving accommodations would work. Why are there no requirements to have area lighting be downcast lighting? Owners only agrees to a oneyear rental agreement. What happens afterwards? Will these places turn into condos? A Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) was required for this site for an Auto Zone project. A traffic analysis, a visual analysis and many more studies were required at that time. Story poles indicated the height and mass of the building. Why not now?

Traffic issues have always been hard to solve for that site. That is why a traffic study is a must! A traffic study also needs to look at the future needs. Often in the past studies were done in this vicinity when schools were not in session, and not during holidays, and therefore gave a false impression. Caltrans is still trying to accomplish the ADA program which would narrow the available street space from Highway 20 to Pudding Creek Bridge. The Hare Creek Bridge is narrow, is in bad shape, did not get a seismic retrofit, and is not on Caltrans' to do list. Caltrans now allows cars who turn from N. Harbor Drive onto Main Street to turn left onto Noyo Bridge further causing traffic problems. As soon as the Grocery Outlet will be built, or even while under construction there will be much more traffic in that general area. With additional building and increased traffic there is also a decrease in air quality as well as noise pollution. The City has a map that shows the Sensitive Noise Receptors. It lists the college and the Mobile Home Park, but not the Pollywog Playschool at the corner of Del Mar Drive and Ocean View Drive licensed for 45 children. They play outside in their big yard as much as they can.

The Planning Commission voted 4 to 1 to recommend this development to the City Council. If the City Council approves it, then there is a chance to appeal the decision again to the Coastal Commission.

Sorry for late information.

(Annemarie Weibel)

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NEW COASTAL CLIMATE CHANGE DATA AVAILABLE

On Thursday, July 17th between 3 pm and 5 pm the Mendocino Vision Wkg will host a zoom session (access info below) offering the public the opportunity to make comments & question state and local officials responsible for planning, permitting and managing coastal zone areas.

After a long anticipated wait, new information is available about the impacts of climate change on coastal cities and on Mendocino county’s beaches, bluffs and harbors.

The City of Fort Bragg recently released a draft sea level and climate change impact assessment by Environmental Science Associates of the Noyo Harbor. The assessment details threats to people, marine ecosystems and property in the Noyo Harbor resulting from sea level rise and climate driven flooding. The report also shows sea levels rising over the next century and that flood disasters will become increasing more severe.

Additionally, the County of Mendocino recently launched a major assessment of sea level and climate change impact on the county’s coastal areas by issuing a memorandum summarizing existing conditions and threats to people, property and public infrastructure.

The following local agencies/organizations have agreed to make presentations regarding their coastal zone activities:

• Melissa Kramer, California Coastal Commission, North Coast Region, will make a presentation regarding “Categorical Exemption Orders.” The City of Fort Bragg is exploring this option in order to exempt Mendocino Railway from Coastal Development Permit requirements.
• Sara McCormick, City of Fort Bragg, will make a presentation regarding the new draft Noyo Harbor Sea Level Rise assessment by Environmental Science Associates (ESA).
• Julia Krog, County of Mendocino, will provide an update of its new sea level rise assessment as well as studies regarding transportation, water, biological and archeological concerns in coastal areas, which are part of its efforts to overhaul the County Local Coastal Program for land use planning, permitting and management.
• Project HERE will update the public on its efforts to assess contamination on the Fort Bragg mill site and a new survey of public awareness regarding headlands contamination.

After the presentations have been made the zoom participants will be given the opportunity to raise questions and comment on coastal planning, permitting and coastal land use management issues.

Everyone is invited to participate in the zoom session so please feel free to share this email with anyone you think would be interested in participating.

For more information about the zoom or about the activities of the Mendocino Vision Workgroup contact:

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BILL KIMBERLIN:

This is Mosswood Cafe in downtown Boonville. Stop by for any kind of Coffee drinks or home made pastries. Customers are almost in tears if their special empanadas stop flowing from the kitchen. Mosswood hours are from about dawn to 3pm, every day. Did you hear me? I said, everyday.

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JIM EDDIE

Jim Eddie was a fine man. I had the privilege of getting to know Jim when Terese and I first arrived in Mendocino County 40 years. He was then a County Supervisor, who had bucked the local establishment with his ardent support of the county’s agricultural base. Jim’s no vote on the then controversial Vintners Village proposed by the Parducci wine interests earned him the enmity of the Ukiah Valley establishment. Jim stayed the course because that was the kind of political figure he was: speak your truth, listen to others, and then vote your conscience. It didn’t take long for Jim Eddie, and his beloved late wife, Judy, to become our friends. We enjoyed their company immensely and learned to respect their deeply rooted family convictions. Jim was a magnificent storyteller and a strong supporter of efforts to preserve local history, notably the Mendocino County Museum in Willits. Jim helped me understand my own family’s 19th-century connections to Potter Valley. My great-grandmother, Sophia Knox Burns, is buried at the historic cemetery in Potter. When I stop in occasionally to pay my respects, I always pause at Judy Eddie’s grave and remember our ties. I mourn the Eddie family and community’s loss, but Jim Eddie will be long remembered. He was a good and decent man.

— Mike Geniella

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ELK FIRE DEPARTMENT BBQ COMING SOON!

The Elk Volunteer Fire Department invites you to its 19th Annual Summer BBQ on Saturday, July 26, from noon to 4:00 p.m. at the Greenwood Community Center on Highway 1 in downtown Elk. Come out and help them celebrate 69 years of service to the community. Enjoy grilled tri-tip, chicken and polenta & mushroom ragu entrees plus salad, baked beans, garlic bread, cake and coffee, all for $30 for adults and $15 for kids 7-12 (6 and under are free). Soft drinks, beer, wine, gin & tonics and Elk’s famous margaritas will be available. There will be live music by Bryn and Blue Souls, a special performance by Mendo Taiko, a raffle, a silent auction, and EVFD hats, t-shirts & sweatshirts for sale. Kids can enjoy a portable pond and a bounce house. Raffle tickets are available at the Matson Mercantile, the Elk Garage, and at the BBQ for $2 each or 6 for $10. No need to be present to win.

Come out and support our local firefighters. The annual BBQ is their only fundraiser, with proceeds used to maintain the department’s facilities, vehicles, equipment; provide ongoing training; and update the firefighters’ protective gear. Through mutual aid, the emergency they respond to next may be yours!

Kindly leave the dogs at home.

For more information, visit: https://www.elkweb.org/fire-department-summer-bbq-2025/

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August 16 and 17, 2025 mark the 42nd Round Valley Blackberry Festival. Our Master of Ceremonies Mickey will kick things off at 10am on both days. The festival runs through 6 pm on Saturday and 5 pm on Sunday with over 30 artisan vendors offering their crafts and food, Mendocino wine tasting and live music both days. Children’s activities promise fun for the entire family.

Come join the community for this family event and enjoy an art show in the Round Valley Library Commons adjacent to the festival grounds and a car and motorcycle show on Sunday.

Visit our website and join us on Facebook

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, July 13, 2025

JOHN BEAULIEU, 36, San Francisco/Ukiah. DUI.

JOHN BOSTICK, 33, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

MARTIN BRIGGS, 54, Willits. Arson.

JAMES COSTELLO, 60, Yuba City/Fort Bragg. DUI.

MATTHEW FAUST, 50, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

SHELLY GIBSON, 53, Ukiah. Domestic violence court order violation.

JUSTIN LEE, 38, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation violation.

MICHAEL MARTIN, 56, Ukiah. Parole violation, unspecified offense.

JOSE MEDINA-BELTRAN, 50. Philo. DUI.

CHRISTOPHER POLK, 20, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

ALEXI RANGEL, 27, Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI.

SOCIMO ROJAS, 53, Ukiah. DUI, failure to appear.

CAMILLE TEEL-COSTELLO, 57, Yuba City/Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CODY WHITE, 20, Ukiah. DUI.

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TOO BIG TO PARK

(Fred Gardner)

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MORE MONEY, LESS HOUSING

Editor,

A state audit found that California invested a staggering $24 billion over the past five fiscal years to address homelessness. According to reports, in the 2021-22 fiscal year, when the homeless population was estimated to be 172,000, California spent $7.2 billion, which equated to nearly $42,000 per homeless individual.

With this kind of spending — you could house these homeless people in a typical apartment in Marin (which costs about $3,000 per month) and still have money left over for utilities. Yet, despite that money, the state still seems unable to house the unhoused.

This is why I have grave doubts about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to remove the ability of people to use the California Environmental Quality Act to stop new developments. I think it is a trickle-down approach to solving the housing crisis. It’s pretty clear to me that the state Legislature is caving in to a whole host of real estate interests. I suspect that won’t do much more than make developers rich and saddle small communities with further infrastructure burdens.

It appears to me that most small towns can’t even afford to fix potholes — while being saddled with massive public-employee pension debts. It just makes me question the wisdom of such a poorly conceived reflexive knee-jerk solution to a real problem. It’s time to just say no.

Guy Palmer

Mill Valley

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VULTURES’ FEAST

Editor,

Why is it new owners of mobile home parks feel they need to be made whole, and get a fabulous return on their investment, on the backs, and pocketbooks, of senior citizens, many of whom are on limited incomes and have resided in these parks for decades.

The owners come up with tales of woe, and how they need a healthy return on their investments, and because of regulations and laws, they are unable to capitalize and reap bountiful (immediate) returns.

Their only course of action is to attempt to double and triple rents, which are supposed to be protected by local rent-control laws. And if they don’t get what they want this way, they threaten to close the park. Is this “vulture capitalism”?

Not all real estate investments are winning enterprises. Usually, during the negotiation process, deferred maintenance and other projected costs are taken into account. One usually doesn’t overpay for such an investment. And if they do, one certainly can’t expect to recoup any initial miscalculation within the first couple of years of ownership.

And thank God, regulations and laws are in place to prevent such an obscene course of action. Otherwise, this form of elder abuse would run rampant.

Kevin Bashel

Santa Rosa

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A PICNIC at Los Angeles’ California Alligator Farm, where patrons were allowed to mingle freely among trained alligators from 1907 to 1953. (Los Angeles Public Library)

Ed note: Attention Bob Abeles. Is someone trying to fool us again?

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TWO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES BURN 16,000 ACRES WITH LITTLE CONTAINMENT

by Katie Dowd

Two large wildfires in Northern California, one near Shasta Lake, continue to burn amid extremely hot weather, sending smoke throughout the state. The Green Fire and the Orleans Complex Fire have burned a combined 15,800 acres as of Sunday morning.

The larger of the two is the Green Fire, which was started by a lightning strike on the night of July 1 and has burned nearly 10,000 acres. The fire is burning largely on the west side of Lake Shasta and has closed parts of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, including Potem Falls Trail and the Madrone and Chirpchatter campgrounds. Two “super scooper” aircraft are collecting water at the lake, and fire officials are asking boaters to be aware, as the aircraft need a mile of open water to conduct operations.

It was over 100 degrees and breezy on Saturday, forest service officials said in a Sunday morning update. The southern part of the fire has reached the Pit River, while the eastern edge crossed Flat Creek. There are some evacuation orders in effect, but the blaze is burning primarily in wildlands. The fire is 5% contained.

About three hours to the northwest, the Butler and Red fires have been combined into the Orleans Complex Fire. The main blaze started about 10 miles east of the town of Orleans on the evening of July 3; its cause is currently unknown. It’s burned nearly 6,000 acres in Del Norte and Siskiyou counties and is 0% contained. Evacuation orders are in effect, and Salmon River Road remains closed.

Temperatures are expected to remain in the 100s at both fire sites in the early part of the week.

“Persistently high temperatures will keep fuels dry and increase potential fire danger,” Six Rivers National Forest officials said. “Individuals seeking relief from the heat by recreating in streams or rivers or in the forest need to be mindful of their vehicles’ condition or where they park. Roadside sparks or dried vegetation against the heated undercarriage of a vehicle could quickly result in a wildfire.”

Air quality has taken a hit across the northern part of the state due to wildfire smoke. Outside of the immediate fire zones, areas east of Sacramento are currently seeing the worst air quality. You can check the EPA’s AirNow map for the latest measurements.

The Bay Area Air District extended an air quality advisory for the region through Monday. Parts of the North Bay and East Bay, as well as higher elevation areas, are likely to be most impacted.

“Smoky, hazy skies may be visible, the smell of smoke is possible and air quality may become unhealthy at times on Sunday and Monday,” the air district said.

Sensitive groups should limit outdoor exposure, close windows and use recirculated air in their vehicles.

(SFGate.com)

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DEPARTMENT Q: NOIR THRILLER FROM NETFLIX

by Jonah Raskin

I’ve never watched a noir thriller on Netflix that hasn’t disappointed me in some way or another. Netflix mass produces noir thrillers, and crime dramas like Vera with Brenda Blethyn the way Warner Brothers once mass produced rom-coms. Was I never disappointed? Well, hardly ever, though some shows are more disappointing than others. Sooner or later the plot doesn’t hold up and the characters become increasingly and unintentionally unbelievable. There are exceptions to the rules. Babylon Berlin captured the decadence of the German capital and the rise of fascism, and La Reine del Sur tracked the international drug trade.

I have mixed feelings about the quirky Department Q, another crime drama and the latest but not the greatest from Netflix, created by Scott Frank, famous for the Queen’s Gambit, and with help from his co-creator, Chandni Lakhani, who made her mark with Black Mirror, billed as a reworking of Rod Sterling’s The Twilight Zone.

Lakhani was born in the USA; her parents are from Gujarat in India. Her background probably makes her able to appreciate the clash and the interactions between different cultures which play significant roles in Department Q. A Syrian refugee who was a cop in his own country brings his wisdom to bear on crimes in his adopted land.

Call Department Q Late Capitalist Noir. It belongs to a world in which dispicable men wearing suits and ties are in the saddle, international law is fucked and corporations shit on nearly everyone. The new Netflix series, which first aired on May 29, 2025, stars English actor Matthew Goode as Scottish detective Carl Morck who starts off as an asshole and becomes warmer and fuzzier as the show goes. And more competent, too, in part because his therapist helps him resolve his issues. He also assembles a great team. Morck, the fuck-up becomes a top cop.

Department Q is based on the fiction of Jussi Adler-Olsen, the Danish-born contemporary author of a series of crime novels which are set in the country he knows best: Denmark. Netflix shifted the locale to Scotland and chose an English actor to play a Scottish detective? A Moscow-born actor named Alexej Manvelov plays the part of the former Syrian cop who does crackerjack police work in Scotland.

What’s up with those shifts in ethnicity and countries? Does Netflix not recognize national borders and do all actors these days belong to a global cast of thousands that spans the whole planet. Probably.

Perhaps the worst mistake that the creators of Department Q made, in my opinion, was to move the setting of the drama from Denmark, Prince Hamlet’s homeland, to Scotland, where a general named Macbeth murders a king and assumes the throne. Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, might be one of the first noir dramas, with Hamlet himself as the detective trying to solve the mystery of his father’s death, with Ophelia as the femme fatale and Polonius as the evil majesty.

Not only do the creators Of Department Q move the crimes from one nation to another, but they also proceed to embody very little of the culture and the customs of Scotland in the nine-part series. True, there are Scottish landscapes and seascapes; sprinkled throughout the dialogue there are nifty Scottish words and expressions—pampot (meaning idiot) and godhaven (meaning God save). True, too, some scenes are set in recognizable Edinburgh locations.

But for the most part the outdoor scenes in Department Q could take place almost anywhere near or around Iceland, Greenland or Denmark and anywhere it’s wet and cold. The indoor scenes could take place anywhere there are dark basements: Copenhagen, London, New York or Moscow. Perhaps the creators were aiming for a kind of universality. If so they’re sacrificed the local and indigeneity.

In case you haven’t noticed or need reminding, noir novels, films and cop dramas derive much of their punch and their charm from the places where the crimes and the punishments occur. Moscow for Dostovesky’s Crime and Punishment, San Francisco for Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, LA for Chandler’s The Big Sleep, and Harlem for Chester Himes’s Real Cool Killers, All Shot up and other detective works that feature the African American sleuths, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson.

Department Q is complicated, perhaps too complicated for its own good and perhaps the most complicated noir thriller I’ve ever watched. It’s so complicated in fact that Netflix offers a site called Tudum that offers a long and lengthy explanation of the crimes that detective Morck investigates and that lead him on a twisted journey to a pathological mother/son team who kidnap and hold against her will, Merritt Lingard, a lawyer they mistakenly believe is guilty of the murder of another family member.

The mother and the son watch Merritt in captivity. They torture her for four years in a 1984-style hyperbaric chamber which delivers oxygen two to three times higher than normal air pressure and causes ear and sinus pain, middle ear injuries, including tympanic membrane rupture and impaired vision.

The narrative features two brothers, Harry and Lyle, also an investigative journalist named Sam Haig, various members of the upper echelons of the Scottish judicial system, an assortment of thugs, plus Morck’s superiors and the devoted members of the team he assembles who ferret out evil, punish the wicked and reward the innocent. The characters are mostly either all good or all bad.

Few murders on big and little screen are as graphic and brutal as the murders depicted in Department Q. You might not want to watch the scenes in which the evil brother goes berserk and kills for the pleasure of killing. There’s no sex per se, though there’s some nudity. The melodrama ends happily with Morck and his quirky buddies at the start of yet another elusive cold case.

Department Q is bingeable and could provide a real diversion from bombings in Gaza, Yemen, Iran and elsewhere. I was compelled to watch until the bloody end. The acting by Matthew Goode, Shirley Henderson and Alexej Manvelov is superb. The refugee from Syria steals the show and becomes the hero of the drama.

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AS USUAL

Warmest spiritual greetings,

Just sitting here at the Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library in Washington, D.C., having spent the morning at the Peace Vigil chattin’ it up with long time bottom liner Philipos Melaku Bello. As usual, the White House across the street is empty because the president is in Florida playing golf. The usual protesters from around the world are in D.C., in front of the iron security gates with appropriate messages. It is a warm sunny Sunday in America’s national capital. All things change~All things remain the same. ☯️

I am available to leave the homeless shelter now and go forth to associate with the most incredible doing the most amazing. Contact me. Time’s a wastin’. I’m ready. Meanwhile, hold fast to the constant, and you are a Daoist Immortal. Simple as that.

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

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THE RED WHEELBARROW

by William Carlos Williams (1923)

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

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GROUPS CONDEMN KERN COUNTY’S FAST TRACKING OF NEW OIL AND GAS DRILLING PERMITS

by Dan Bacher

In a setback for climate justice advocates, the Kern County Board of Supervisors on June 26 voted to approve changes to a controversial zoning ordinance that fast-tracks the approval process for tens of thousands of new oil and gas drilling permit applications throughout the county.

The decision took place at a time when the oil and gas industry is spending record amounts of money to halt efforts to hold big oil companies accountable for the catastrophic impacts that fossil fuel extraction has had on the environment and human health in California and around the world.…

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/12/2333057/-Groups-Condemn-Kern-County-s-Fast-Tracking-of-New-Oil-Gas-Drilling-Permit-Applications

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GIANTS’ LATE-GAME DRAMA TURNS TO STINGING DEFEAT AS DODGERS WIN IN 11 INNINGS

by Shayna Rubin

The final game before the All-Star break came down to a bit of hard luck in extra innings.

Off the bat, it appeared Rafael Devers‘ 106 mph line drive to dead center would send the Oracle Park crowd into extra-inning, walk-off euphoria. This San Francisco Giants team has a knack for home cooking, after all, and Luis Matos‘ pinch-hit, two-run home run tied the game in the bottom of the ninth to set things up for an inspired afternoon.

But the fans rising to their feet when Devers connected were quickly silenced when Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder James Outman tracked the ball down and made a running catch.

Conversely, considering its 70 mph exit velocity, few could have expected Freddie Freeman’s bloop single to fall perfectly between three Giants defenders the next inning to put the Dodgers back in front to stay. That prompted two even more statistically unlikely RBIs — Teoscar Hernandez beating a ground ball to first and Andy Pages’ bloop to right — in the 11th. Those three runs handed the Giants a 5-2, extra-inning loss to the Dodgers on Sunday afternoon.

“Baseball can be a cruel game,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s just the way it is sometimes. Unfortunately it didn’t work in our favor.”

A series loss in extras to their rival was a bitter end to what has otherwise been a promising first half for a Giants team that came into the season with little expectation to contend.

As the Giants packed their bags and prepared to go their separate ways for the mid-season breather — many will take a brief vacation while Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and Randy Rodriguez head to Atlanta for All-Star festivities — optimism is still brewing about what this team could do in the second half. They’re 52-45, a half-game out of the wild card and six games back of the Dodgers in the NL West.

“We’d like to have a few more wins, but we put ourselves in a position to have a good second half and get to the postseason,” Melvin said. ”That’s what you started out the season trying to be in position to after the first half.”

Added Ray: “I think we’re in a really good spot. Going into the second half, I like where we’re at. This game was tough but we’re playing really good baseball and we’re looking forward to getting to the second half.”

Ray will go to Atlanta for his second career All-Star selection, but opted out of pitching Tuesday in order to start Sunday’s game, essential as it was to squeeze any competitive advantage against the Dodgers possible.

“Things are more important than the All-Star Game, being recognized and having that recognition and making the team is great and I’m super grateful for that,” Ray said. “But ultimately we’re trying to win a World Series here and when they asked me to pitch in this game, it made the most sense.”

Ray delivered the kind of outing that got him an All-Star berth. He fanned six over six innings, but his biggest mistake was a 3-2 slider over the plate to eight-hitter Miguel Rojas, who hit it for a solo home run to left. He didn’t allow a base runner until the fourth inning, which spiraled into ugliness against L.A.’s top-of-the-order gauntlet when Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts drew back-to-back walks and Freeman hit an RBI double to right to give them a 2-0 lead.

If the Giants have anything to worry about in the second half, it’s the offense’s ineffectiveness against starting pitching. Sunday’s effort against Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was no exception.

A month ago at Dodger Stadium, Casey Schmitt‘s grand slam helped the Giants slay Yamamoto. Sunday at Oracle Park, Yamamoto came equipped with a much better splitter to exact revenge. With lots of help from that pitch, Yamamoto sliced through the lineup through seven scoreless innings.

“It was a really good splitter, he was getting fastball strikes at the bottom of the zone and throwing a splitter off that and getting calls down there,” Melvin said. “It’s tough. Made it doubly tough that there were balls in the bottom of the zone we had to deal with and good command of the split.”

In an all-around low-offense game, the Giants had all of three hits off the Dodgers All-Star. All from the bottom of the order: Patrick Bailey‘s single down the third base line in the third, a one-out soft single by Schmitt and Jung Hoo Lee‘s 76 mph hit to right that he stretched into a double. The Giants whiffed six times at Yamamoto’s splitter and struck out seven times total, while walking twice.

Late-game heroics against shakier bullpens have helped get the Giants to this point — and nearly got them a win on Sunday — but that can only get them so far.

“We’re going to be better offensively, I believe that,” Melvin said. “We have some guys that are coming around a little bit and guys that will come around a little bit more and guys in the lineup that will do more damage. I do think our offense will be better in the second half. Trying to handle the fastball more, at times, but I think we have a really good group and have a chance.”

Briefly: The Giants had been debating whether Webb, who started Friday’s game, would pitch in the All-Star Game. Ultimately it was decided he would; Webb will get an inning early in Tuesday, he said.

(SF Chronicle)

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TRUMP, MUSK FEUD REVEALED

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

ELON MUSK: Alright it’s been great Bro, but I gotta get rollin’ or the board will either fire me or make me put out a station wagon for 2026.

DONALD TRUMP: I gotta thank you again for all the volunteer DOGE help, but I definitely understand you have to get back to work, punch that time card, make some money. Gonna miss ya, dammit!

EM: Oh right. For sure. I had fun and we did good work carving up the bureaucracy, but I need to get back; Tesla stock is sinking like the Titanic.

DJT: Don’t know how you’ll fix it. Problem is your customers aren’t in my demographic zone even through they love your cars. Or at least used to.

EM: Maybe I should sell Tesla to Yugo Inc., (chuckles)

DJT: Seriously, what we gotta do is put some space between you with your businesses, and me dragging it down. Gotta make people realize we’re separate beasts. You don’t do nothin’ for me, I don’t do nothin’ for you.

EM: We could stage a phony public feud.

DJT: Like we can’t stand each other. Big fight.

EM: …ya know? I mean, just the ticket, right? We hate each other, we have a big brawl out on the lawn in the Rose Garden. Grass stains on our trousers, later at the press conference you have a bandaid on your other ear, the one the guy didn’t shoot off in Pennsylvania.

DJT: Simple. Easy. Script will write itself. Dumbass reporters at the Times and CNN will eat it up like free lunch at a PBS fundraiser. We can make up any stupid tune about a feud and they’ll sing the song for us.

EM: Couldn’t be easier, and we don’t have to do a thing. I’ll tell MSNBC you have an IQ lower than Biden’s dead dog, and that Melania gets her wardrobe from the Walmart sales rack.

DJT: Oh yeah!? Well I’ll tell the press your oldest kid never got out of sixth grade. What’s his name, Xylophone? Oxymoron? Anyway I’ll say he’s so ugly Bruce Springsteen must be his father.

EM: Ha! Perfect! George Will will get three columns out of it, and a week later it’ll be on the cover of People Magazine! Wokies will be lined up around the block at Tesla dealerships from Vermont to ‘Frisco. Maybe I’ll send a free green one to Bernie and another one with a hammer and sickle painted on the hood to that OCD dimwit from Brooklyn.

DJT: (Bent over in laughter) Oh this is just too good. I better find a way to fatten up on Tesla stock without some federal oversight committee catching on. You know, the lousy “emoluments” crap.

SIX WEEKS LATER

(IN OVAL OFFICE)

EM: Hey bro! Best quarterly earnings ever! I’m thinking of introducing a Tesla station wagon in 2026, plus a combination Edsel/Pontiac Aztec beauty. They’ll buy anything that rolls off the assembly line with a “T” on the hood these days. Our big fight is pure gold, solid platinum.

TWO WEEKS LATER

(IN OVAL OFFICE)

DJT: They should charge you admission to come into the White House you rich son-of-a-gun! You better be donating money by the rail car or I’ll dump the entire Department of Justice all over you! (Both laugh heartily)

EM: Too late! I bought the DOJ yesterday and had it shipped to Canada. (Both laugh)

DJT: This is great, most fun I’ve had since getting the call from Hillary in 2016. Anyway, here’s what I thought of: You announce you’re gonna start a brand new political party. Like “the United Party” or whatever, to undermine me in the midterm elections. Then I’ll announce I’m gonna have you arrested.

(Both laugh til they cry.)

EM: Best ever!

DJT: I’m telling ya, you can’t make this stuff up!

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MAGA STAR QUESTIONS MAGA

Tucker Carlson took to the stage at TPUSA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa to call out the Trump administration for grandstanding rather than affecting change.

Carlson, 56, made the comments Friday, accusing conservatives of failing to deliver on campaign promises or tackling America’s biggest problems.

The former Fox host’s fervent speech received surprising praise from progressives who flooded the video with positive comments.

Carlson honed in on Trump’s posturing in the Middle East, as cities like New York and LA have been hung out to dry - all while the US becomes unaffordable for normal families.

‘I don’t know, it kind feels like you’re feeding me appetizers,’ an emotional Carlson had told audience members. ’At some point, I want to look around and see a better country. I want to see a country I recognize.’

The rest of the speech involved angst he claimed conservatives have created, at the expense of everyday citizens. It also honed in on the party’s recent revolt against identity politics - one Carlson framed as meaningless but also meant to distract.

He also told audience members that Jeffrey Epstein was likely working for Israeli intelligence, earning cheers in the process.

‘Wait why do I agree with like 6 things he said?’ one person wrote.

‘Serious heat right there,’ a fan wrote on Instagram.

‘Completely agree,’ another user wrote, as many others expressed surprise at agreeing with Carlson.

One person even suggested that the pundit was sounding more like he was hitting the campaign trail for a White House run.

‘Is Tucker sounding like a presidential candidate?’ asked the Instagram user.

His rant argued that ‘If you deny people what they actually want long enough, and instead substitute things that you claim they should want,’ the administration should see scrutiny.

‘Like, bombing Iran; you know, I’m not for Iran,’ Carlson said.

‘Or you spend all day telling me that it’s so important that boys not play on girls soccer teams, or whatever - I agree.

‘I hate the trans stuff passionately,’ Carlson admitted. ‘I think you should keep the boys off girls’ soccer teams.’

He then proclaimed: ’I [just] don’t want to see people sleeping on the sidewalk. I don’t want to see people ODing on drugs.’

‘I want to know where those drugs are coming from. Why can’t you stop it?’

‘You’ve got the US military. Don’t you have Seal Team Six? What are they doing today?

‘Why are my cities disgusting?’ Carlson flat-out asked. It smells like weed and halal food.

‘And you’re lecturing me about how it’s a great moral victory that I kicked the boys off the girls’ soccer team? Good. I’m so glad. But let’s do the real stuff like making New York livable. And creating an economy where my kids can have kids.’

He then brought up the focal point of a brewing civil war between conservatives - the so-called ‘Epstein Files’, which Trump repeatedly promised to release in full during his campaign.

Last Monday, the Justice Department released findings stating that Epstein never even kept a ‘client list’ and confirmed that he killed himself in jail.

The announcement earned harsh criticism from leading MAGA figures including Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Laura Loomer as being not only a coverup, but a clear backtrack.

‘The real question was not, was Jeffrey Epstein a weirdo?’ Carlson told onlookers of the disgraced financier who used to pal around with Trump in the 80s and 90s.

‘The real question was, ‘Why was he doing this, on whose behalf, and where was the money coming from?’

‘I think the real answer is Jeffrey Epstein was working on behalf of intel services, probably not American,’ Carlson claimed. ’That foreign government is Israel.’

Earlier in the day, it was revealed that FBI boss Kash Patel, his deputy Dan Bongino, and Attorney General Pam Bondi were duking it out behind the scenes, over the administration’s handling of the release of the files.

The first two have reportedly demanded Bondi’s resignation, after she maintained the Epstein case was closed.

Bondi’s widely panned claim was ‘too much’ for Carlson, he told the conference.

‘Criticizing the behavior of a government agency doesn’t make you a hater. It makes you a free person; it makes you a citizen.

‘You’re allowed to do that because you’re not a slave.’

‘You are trying to make me shut up because I am a ‘bigot,’ like the liberals did seven months ago and that is why we voted them out,’ Carlson continued. ‘I’m not putting up with it. I voted against it and I will not tolerate it.’

In the end, Carlson expressed frustration over ‘normal people watching a certain class of people getting away with everything.’

‘Every single time,’ he said.

(DailyMail.uk)

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HEAVY RAIN POUNDS CENTRAL TEXAS, FORCING A HALT TO SEARCH EFFORTS

A slow-moving storm set off flood warnings in several regions of the Hill Country, including Kerr County, the area hit hardest by the July 4 floods.

by Soumya Karlamangla, McKenna Oxenden and Nazaneen Ghaffar.

Pounding rain and strong winds battered Central Texas on Sunday morning, prompting some rescuers to halt search operations for victims of the deadly floods that roared through the region just over a week ago.

Several places along the Guadalupe River, including Kerr County, the area hit hardest by the devastating floods of July 4, were under flash flood warnings on Sunday as a slow-moving storm system brought heavy precipitation.

The National Weather Service reported early Sunday that the heaviest rain was in northern Llano and Burnet Counties. By midmorning, it had shifted to Kerr County, which is under a flood warning until Monday morning. Though potentially dangerous, the rainfall on Sunday was not expected to be as extreme as it was on July 4, forecasters said.

In Kerrville, the seat of Kerr County and the epicenter of the July 4 floods, search crews and volunteers have been combing the Guadalupe River corridor looking for the roughly 170 people who are still missing from the July 4 floods. City officials told them to stop work and evacuate on Sunday while a flash flood warning was in effect.

Communities and residents across Central Texas are still reeling from the catastrophic floods, which killed at least 129 people in the state. Though hopes of finding those who are still missing have diminished, state and local officials have said search work would continue until every person is found.

Cars driving along Sidney Baker Street in Kerrville Sunday morning sprayed large streams of water as the rain came down in sheets. Officials shut down access to some downtown streets as water began to pool. State troopers asked people along the Guadalupe River to move to higher ground.

Kerrville officials announced that Highway 39, the main road through town, was closed to everyone except local residents and emergency workers. Just outside the city, drivers blinded by heavy rain were forced to exit the freeway at a rest stop and wait for the storm to pass. There, they listened to the booms of thunder and the din of pelting rain on their windshields.

Elsewhere in Kerr County, a flood warning was in effect for the Guadalupe River in Hunt, around 12 miles upstream from Kerrville, through Monday morning. While the river was not expected to reach catastrophic levels, forecasters urged the public to avoid driving on flooded roads and bridges.

Some flooding was reported in the northern parts of the Hill Country, Orlando Bermudez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office for Austin and San Antonio, said early Sunday.

The Weather Prediction Center said there was a “moderate” risk for flash flooding across the region through early Monday morning, with the most rainfall expected in the corridor between the Hill Country and the Dallas metro area to the north.

The rain this week is expected to be less intense than last week, but forecasters warned that because the ground was already saturated, the area was highly vulnerable.

Near Llano, Texas, about 75 miles northwest of Austin, the Llano River was at a moderate level of flooding on Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service. The river had risen to nearly 16 feet from about three feet, and forecasters warned that it could exceed 18 feet later in the day. A flood warning was in effect for the river through Tuesday afternoon.

The Lampasas River was also at a moderate flooding level near Kempner, about 70 miles north of Austin. It had risen to more than 31 feet on Sunday from less than two feet. A flood warning was posted for the river through late Monday morning. The National Weather Service said major flooding could be expected on Sunday, though the river was expected to fall below flood levels later in the evening.

James Cheshire, the owner of an R.V. park off Sulphur Creek in the city of Lampasas, said it had been raining steadily there since 1 a.m.

“It has not let up at all,” he said in the late morning. “It’s still pouring rain right now.”

Sulphur Creek, which flows into the Lampasas River, had flooded up to the road in some parts of the city, Mr. Cheshire said.

He said his R.V. park is on high enough ground that he was not yet worried about having to evacuate, and that he had opened the park for people at greater risk to take refuge. His church did not hold a service Sunday morning, he added, and had opened its doors to evacuees instead.

Stephanie McGehee, a Lampasas County resident, said she was used to the Mesquite Creek flooding behind her house three or four times a year. But she said the July 4 disaster had changed the way she thinks about floods.

“It is just awful how quick those floods came up,” she said. “It wasn’t something we ever thought about happening in such a catastrophic way.”

The renewed risk of flooding on Sunday was being driven by a weather system high in the atmosphere that has stalled between two high-pressure systems. It has remained parked over Texas, providing ideal conditions for thunderstorms to develop repeatedly. Another weak system in the area is adding to the instability and fueling the continued storm activity, especially on Sunday afternoon.

Forecasters expected the storm system to stretch from the southwest to the northeast through the day, increasing the likelihood of additional rounds of thunderstorms. And the flooding risk was expected to linger.

“The rain is going to continue Sunday night into Monday,” Mr. Bermudez said. “Then the chances for rain start to decrease Monday into Tuesday, with a dry forecast midweek to late week.”

(NY Times)

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STAYIN’ ALIVE

by Maurice Ernest Gibb, Robin Hugh Gibb, Barry Alan Gibb (1977)

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk
The music loud and the women warm
I've been kicked around since I was born

And now it's all right. It's OK
And you may look the other way
But we can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin'
And everybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive
Oh, when you walk

Well, now, I get low and I get high
And if I can't get either, I really try
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes
I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose

You know it's all right. It's OK
I'll live to see another day
But we can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin'
And everybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive
(Hey, yeah)

Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a woman's man: no time to talk
The music loud and the women warm
I've been kicked around since I was born

And now it's all right. It's OK
And you may look the other way
But we can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Feel the city breakin'
And everybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive
(Hey, yeah)

Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah
Life goin' nowhere. Somebody help me, yeah
I'm stayin' alive

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

For decades, the lots at the end of my parents’ neighborhood sat empty and unsold, because just beyond them is a slow-moving but wide river that swells and overflows during big rainstorms. But people eventually bought those lots, and built large homes on them. Now that there is a “100 year flood” every few years, those homes have flooded, again and again. I’ve never understood the communities on the banks of the Mississippi River that rebuild after storms wipe them out, over and over and over.

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LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT

Biden Says He Made the Clemency Decisions That Were Recorded With Autopen

Public Broadcasters Brace for Vote on Sharp Funding Cut

Trump’s Willingness to Arm Ukraine Puts Him Closer to Biden Approach

Noem Defends FEMA Response to Texas Floods

Children Among at Least 10 Killed in Israeli Strike in Central Gaza, Officials Say

UnitedHealth’s Campaign to Quiet Critics

Jannik Sinner Beats Carlos Alcaraz to Win First Wimbledon Title

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WHY WE END UP, WHICHEVER PARTY, WITH THE SAME CORRUPT POLICIES AND WARS

by Jonathan Cook

In political debates between left and right, what gets lost is this obvious point:

The powerful maintain their power through an insistence that change is dangerous. They want power structures unchanged because they developed those structures precisely to keep themselves rich and powerful. This is the starting point of rightwing ideologies.

Those without power can only help the weak and marginalised, end wars and genocide, stop the ecological destruction of the planet by changing these power structures. This is the starting point of leftwing ideologies.

There is a further point. By definition, the right has the power and money to bankroll parties, media, think-tanks that claim to be on the left but are actually there to prop up existing power structures that benefit the right. Over many decades the right has developed an unparalleled expertise in the dark arts of worming its ideas into our heads, manipulating us into believing black is white, up is down.

Even if it wished to, the left lacks any equivalent power.

If the world looks confusing to you, it is probably because you are falling for these kind of "political" deceptions. You are voting for fake leftwing parties, watching fake leftwing TV news and reading fake leftwing papers quoting fake experts.

We keep ending up with the same corrupt parties, the same dishonest policies, the same wars of empire because we cannot see past the right’s mind-games.

(jonathancook.substack.com)

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SUMMER LOVIN’ WITH THE BACHS

by David Yearsley

Summer is the time of family reunions. The big Bach family and had big family reunions, full of fun and music. So reported Johan Sebastian Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nickolaus Forkel, writing a half century after his subject’s death, but drawing extensively on information gained from the Great Man’s two eldest sons, both of whom had participated in such gatherings and had heard tell of those of yore.

According to Forkel, the music making at these events began with the singing of religious chorales, but these pieties quickly made way for improvised revels that involved “lewd songs” worked into a free-wheeling, even formless format known as the Quodlibet. These were stylistic mash-ups full of parody and self-parody; double, even triple, entrendres; sarcasm aplenty and solecisms galore; foolish fake fugues and pompous, ponderous declamations; poetical nonsense, non sequiturs and narrative non-starters. A single, now-incomplete manuscript, the Quodlibet, (BWV 524) is the only surviving historical residue of these escapades.

There seems to be much in this bawdy business about reproduction—buns and Bachs soon to be in the oven, if that is what is being intimated by obscure puns and running gags seeming to turn on Back (as in bake) and the similar sounding family name. The humor boasts of, even enacts, the Bachs’ prolific musicianship and their robust reproductivity, if this mocked-up mockery of piece is taken seriously as a social document, one committed to paper by J.S. Bach acting as stenographer of his clan’s hijinks or maybe offering his own notated tribute to the joyful practice.

This kind of madcap smut was apparently widely popular, and not just with the Bachs. One musical moralist published a treatise in 1706, probably just around the time that the Bach Quodlibet was hatched and patched together. The writer, Martin Fuhrmann, fulminated against the genre, disparaging “it is a musical-beggar’s coat of all sorts of humorous and even quite irksome tunes, scotched together, regardless of whether they belong together or not. These kinds of songs hardly deserve to appear alongside the other honest vocal genres and insinuate themselves into the proceedings in fool’s get-up.”

Fuhrmann’s screed concludes with “a heartfelt plea to the consciences of Christian composers never again to compose a scandalous quodlibet … Instead of counting such quodlibets filled with loathsome dirty jokes among his musical effects, he will, to the honor of music too noble and too sacred to be wantonly prostituted and profaned, immediately offer them instead to the Persian god whose altar is in our kitchens. [i.e., pitch all quodlibets into the oven].”

The Bach Quodlibet escaped the flames, though maybe someone in the family ripped off the title-page in order to hide, at least partially, the it’s scurrilous identity. The title that the piece is known by is only a guess.

Though we can thank Forkel for not heeding contemporary attacks on quodlibets and suppressing his account of the family’s tomfoolery, it does seem that the biographer was eager to establish the Bachs’ piety through chorale-singing before allowing us a glimpse of their frolics.

Yet Lutheran repeatedly confounds anachronistic notions separating the sacred and the secular. Trained in polyphonic singing at the same Latin School in the town of Eisenach where Johann Sebastian Bach would later study during his early boyhood, Martin Luther was also attuned to the colorful folk music of his time and place. He wrote hymns and sang them with his fine tenor voice but must have participated in, or at least heard, quodlibets too. He certainly would have been no enemy of this sort of thing, as his famously scatological humor, aired in polemics and personal communications, makes abundantly, brazenly clear.

Music for Luther—and Bach—did not suppress sensuality but embraced it. In the early years of the Reformation, Luther levelled an assault on celibacy for the clergy, quipping that Catholics “could have just as easily banned shitting.” He married the former nun Katharina von Bora, in his redoubt in the Augustinian Monastery in Wittenberg in June of 1525, the city in which eight years before he had nailed his 95 Theses to the door University Church. The union produced children. The age difference the couple was fifteen years, about that between Bach and his second wife, Anna Magdalena Wilcke. The Luthers’ 500th wedding anniversary would have been marked last month.

Luther’s humor often indulged in scatological. In his Table Talk, a collection of utterances made at dinner with friends and family, he remarked to his wife shortly before his death that, “I’m like a ripe stool and the world’s like a gigantic anus, and we’re about to let go of each other.” Shitting and laughing—and singing—were vital pleasures. On other occasion around his table, Luther said that “It is pleasing to the dear God whenever thou rejoicest or laughest from the bottom of thy heart.”

There is much laughter in Bach’s music, both profane and sacred. On the last page of Forkel’s biography Bach is praised as the greatest musical wit of his age. In contrast to the quodlibets referred to earlier in the book, Forkel is positing a sublime humor, clever and considered, light but also profound in its erudition and technique.

But is the security wall between earthly dirt and sacred purity as high and sturdy as many Bach scholars and devotees have long liked to think? Or is this supposed barrier permeable or maybe nothing more than a mirage?

Listen to the rollicking unison motto, the peels of trumpeting of glee, the chortles of the timpani in the sinfonia to his early Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde Jubilieret. This is just one Bach’s paean to the uplift and downdraft of humor: the deep laughter rolling down from the skies and meeting the kindred jubilation rising from below like two ecstatic weather systems.

The human chorus follows the instrumental introduction, joining in the celebration with jubilant laughter even as the music careens towards death:

Heaven laughs! Earth exults

and all she bears in her lap;

the Creator lives! The Highest triumphs

and is freed from the death’s bonds of death.

He who has selected the grave for rest,

the Holy One, cannot be corrupted.

This confrontation of joy with mortality might also seem to make for a kind of a Quodlibet, a collision of irreconcilables. Yet the earthy balm of laughter and sensual love is no less real, pleasurable and necessary even for its transitoriness. In that laughter at being digested and evacuated by the earth resounds an irrepressible lust for life.

(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest albums, “In the Cabinet of Wonders” and “Handel’s Organ Banquet” are now available from False Azure Records.)

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JONESTOWN MASS DEATH SURVIVORS WHO DIDN’T ‘DRINK THE KOOL-AID’ WEIGH IN ON THE SITE BECOMING A TOURIST ATTRACTION

by Michael Kaplan

Jonestown is seared into the American psyche as one the darkest tragedies of the modern era, where 918 people “drank the Kool Aid” and ended their lives under the command of cult leader Jim Jones.

Located in the remote Guyanese jungle, the site where the army first discovered the mass of dead bodies of People’s Temple members in 1978 is now opening as a somewhat morbid tourist attraction. It is designed to pay somber tribute in the manner of Auschwitz and the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

The curious can pay $750 to visit the clearing where Jones’ religious cult, mostly US citizens who had traveled with him to Guyana, unraveled in the most gruesome way imaginable.

And there were survivors — although the overall story of Jones’ followers poisoning themselves with cyanide-laced fruit punch (it was actually an off-brand version of Kool-Aid called Flavor-Aid) is notorious, lesser known are how around 80 of Jones’ acolytes survived.

Some did it by getting lucky and being out of town when the poisonous drinks were served, including Jones’ son Stephan Gandhi Jones, who was at a basketball tournament.

Others slipped out unseen, running into the jungle or hiding in the camp’s cupboards.

About 18 of Jones’ followers took Congressman Leo Ryan – who’s visit to the camp sparked the mass suicide – up on his offer to leave the religious enclave with him.

Jordan Vilchez, now 67, who joined the People’s Church at 12 and remained there until the end, was fortunate enough to be in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, when the mass suicides went down.

“I created a job for myself, talking about Jonestown to the Guyanese community. That task was acceptable to the leadership, and it allowed me to not spend so much time in Jonestown,” she told The Post.

Hearing over a CB radio the Jonestown suicides were happening, she was horrified but not entirely surprised.

“There had been discussions about a mass suicide,” said Vilchez, who lost two sisters and two nephews to the forced killings.

“In some circles, there were practice drills. There was talk of ‘Revolutionary Suicide’. There was a running narrative of us being persecuted.

“Unbeknownst to us, the world was closing in on Jim. Because of his pathological narcissism, he was not going to go down alone. People were stuck and emotionally drained – I got caught up in it and was not going to escape. Over the years, we got more hooked in. We were told that America would become a police state and our safety was in being part of this group.”

Artist Jordan Vilchez heard over a CB radio that the suicides were about to go down. She and the people around her did not honor the command of Jim Jones.

Cyanide is the deadly drug that did in Jim Jones’ loyal followers. Jones himself died from a shot to the head.

Vilchez is against the new tours to the site – where little remains, apart from a commemorative stone and the entrance archway.

”It seems silly. It’s something that people will make money from. It seems like an abuse.”

The Guyanese tourism company behind the trips, Wanderlust Adventures GY, defend their position.

“We want to present things in a way that is responsible and educational,” Roselyn Sewcharran, founder of the company, told The Post.

During the overnight trip to Jonestown “we talk about the social and political issues, the dangers of following with blind faith and the lessons learned from the Jonestown tragedy.”

The People’s Temple was founded by Jim Jones, a Communist sympathizer, in Indianapolis, in 1955. He put on fake healings to generate income and promoted the idea that all races and ethnicities would be welcome.

In 1961, with the cold war top of mind for most American, Jones claimed to have a vision that Indianapolis would be decimated by nuclear attack. The People’s Temple relocated to California, with its main headquarters in San Francisco.

Jones began proclaiming, “I am come as God Socialist [sic].”

Once in the heavily hippie-fied Frisco, Jones began dabbling in illicit drugs and his sense of paranoia is said to have ratcheted up.

Jones, who had a particularly magnetic personality, put up a convincing argument for belonging and in 1974, the People’s Temple rented more than 3,800 acres in Guyana, a tropical country which borders Venezuela.

Jones promised to create a “socialist paradise,” and reminded followers how he’d read that in the event of a nuclear war, South America was the safest place to be.

He sent a cadre of followers to set things up, while he led the church in San Francisco.

Things went fairly smoothly at first. “It was great,” said Bogue, who moved to Guyana in 1976 at the age of 15 with his family. “I’d work eight hours a day, helping to build cottages and overseeing my own crew in the plant nursery. Then I’d go in the jungle and play before having a nice meal.”

Rusty truck parts are among the the few remnants of Jonestown at the tourist site.

Mike Touchette, another Jonestown survivor, agrees. “We built a community out of nothing in four years,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.”

However, in 1977 an article filled with accusations appeared in New West magazine –including that a member’s teenage daughter was beaten so badly “her butt looked like hamburger,” driving Jones to flee to Guyana.

Within a year, things on the commune got harder, and weirder.

Survivors say there was a feeling of victimhood, perpetrated by Jones. His rambling meetings went on for hours, workdays seemed endless and it became all about ideology rather than Utopia. “It steadily got worse … Ninety-five percent of the people had no idea what was going on. It was like being stuck on an island,” Bogue said.

However, some did escape and word got back to California, prompting that state’s congressman Leo Ryan and a group of journalists to arrive in November 1978, intending to investigate complaints from escapees.

Bogue’s father was already hatching an escape plan, but when Ryan offered an opportunity to leave with him, the family said they’d join.

“It was a very high-risk opportunity,” Bogue, now 63, said about his family proceeding with Ryan and others to a landing strip where a plane waited to fly them out. “But maybe it was the best opportunity.”

When the group assembled at an airstrip to leave, cult members, including one named Larry Layton, opened fire on them. Ryan was shot dead as were three journalists and a temple member hoping to escape. Layton was later extradited, found guilty of wounding two people and served 18 years in a California prison.

Bogue, then 17, was inside the plane when its tires were shot out. He got up from his seat just as one member was shot in the head. Bogue took a bullet to the leg. When the shooting seemed to have abated, he and his sister ran off into the bordering jungle.

Back at camp, knowing he’d be implicated in the death of a US senator, Jones gave the command to his faithful that it was time for Revolutionary Suicide. Syringes of cyanide were squirted into juice and sandwiches and consumed by the congregation – the children first. Jones shot himself in the head.

Despite his injury, Bogue survived in the jungle for three days.

”I was saved by maggots. They ate the gangrene. And then, during the third morning, I became delirious. I lost all sense of direction. But I was with my sister and three others from [another] family.”

They were found and he was reunited with his father. They made their way back to the US shortly after. Nearly 47 years later Bogue works as an auto mechanic and serves as vice mayor of Dixon, CA.

“I think it’s great to turn it into a tourist attraction and a memorial,” he said, “I’ve already been back there three times and the jungle is starting to reclaim the area. I would love to be a consultant on something like that.”

(New York Post)

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APPLES & ORANGES

AND REGARDING SATURDAY's snail-down-the-well problem, Gary Smith correctly answered: "28 hours. Once the snail reaches the height of 27 feet he will reach the top at the end of the next hour and not slide back down again."