Mendocino County Today: Monday 7/21/2025

By AVA News Service on July 21, 2025

SLIGHT CHANCE for rain today with cooler interior temperatures. Thunderstorms are possible in the interior, especially later in the week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 53F under a mix of cloud covers this Monday morning on the coast. A passing system offers some high clouds while the fog has been broken up some, so in the early morning darkness it's hard to know exactly the full story? Our forecast for this week has a lot of drizzle & chances of light rain at minimum.

6am UPDATE: foggy for sure, not sure above the fog?

LOCAL GARDENER LEADS FORT BRAGG MOVEMENT AGAINST ARTIFICIAL TURF ON FIELD FOR KIDS.

by Frank Hartzell

A century from now if anybody is left to watch Fort Bragg City Council meetings, those who do might say, who was Christopher Cisper and did he know he was ahead of his time?

And why did nobody listen when people talked about the incredibly important subject of those deathly plastics everybody used unthinkingly back in the 21st century?

Fort Bragg neighborhood farmers Chris and Jacquelyn Cisper, who run the Toad and Frog Farmstand and are involved in educating new farmers, have energized a movement in Fort Bragg, objecting to the use of artificial materials in artificial grass being put down for a new soccer field at Bainbridge Park. They want your ideas and suggestions on Saturday. They invite anyone interested to stop by and talk on Saturday at the farm stand location.

Cisper had 130 signatures by the Sunday before Monday’s Fort Bragg City Council meeting, when he stopped gathering them to do research and preparation on the topic.

A series of speakers at Monday Night’s Fort Bragg City Council meeting accused the city of pushing artificial turf over natural grass at the youth soccer fields at Bainbridge Park.

“I’ve lived here 30 years, and I know most of you. I’m here to alarm you, wake you up,” Cisper said.…

https://mendocinocoast.news/local-gardener-leads-fort-bragg-movement-against-artificial-turf-on-field-for-kids-effort-continues-after-fact-correction-apology-stop-by-and-chat-with-them-on-saturday/

REDWOOD VALLEY COULD SECURE DROUGHT PROTECTION UNDER NEW WATER PLAN

by Matt LaFever

Two Mendocino County water agencies are moving forward with a plan to give Redwood Valley better access to drought supplies, according to a press release from the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control & Water Conservation Improvement District (RRFC).

The district announced it is proposing to annex the entire Redwood Valley County Water District (RVCWD) service area into its boundary. This would not dissolve RVCWD or change its governance, as the local board would continue managing operations.

Under the proposal, RVCWD could purchase and use RRFC water — sourced from the Russian River and Lake Mendocino — throughout its service area. That would put Redwood Valley in line with other water retailers, such as Millview, Willow, Hopland, Calpella, Rogina Mutual, and River Estates Mutual, which already hold contracts with RRFC, according to the press release.

Redwood Valley wasn’t fully included in the RRFC boundary when it was formed, the release explained, because the community believed it wouldn’t need stored Lake Mendocino water. Over time, that changed. RRFC has sold surplus water to RVCWD for decades, but those sales stopped during the severe 2021–22 drought, leaving local farms without deliveries and municipal customers on tight restrictions.

Annexation is a “crucial step” for long-term water security, RRFC stated, adding that it would safeguard health and safety supplies during emergencies and provide more stability for agriculture in the greater Ukiah Valley.

The public comment period on the proposed Negative Declaration runs from June 29 to July 29, 2025. The RRFC Board will review an update August 4 and is expected to consider final approval at its September 8 meeting, according to the release.

(mendofever.com)

SUPERVISOR MAUREEN MULHEREN:

Yesterday in Hopland, Supervisor Norvell and I got to be part of something really special. We celebrated four families coming home. This project has been nearly a decade in the making. So many housing partners stayed committed through every challenge to make it happen. Now, four formerly homeless families from the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians have a safe place to call home. Grateful to witness this powerful homecoming and the hope it brings, thank you Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority for another beautiful project in our community.

STIGMA

by Mazie Malone

I have wanted to write about this for some time, knowing the ruffled feathers will be highly agitated at my audacity to share the truth. So here is my unapologetic stance on the narrative of “STIGMA.” I’ve said (and I still do, with good reason) that I do not vibe with that word. It gives a false perception of what it is.

“Stigma” is borrowed from the Latin stigmata, originating from the Greek word stizein, meaning to tattoo. In early English, it literally referred to a scar burned into the skin from a hot iron a mark of disgrace used to punish, brand, or label a person as unworthy.

Today, the word survives, but only conceptually. In its modern use, it’s a social construct we use to lock in the idea that addiction, mental illness, and homelessness are the result of personal failures. We no longer (physically) brand people, but we most definitely burn it into public perception. The system reinforces the shame and blame, all while pretending to fight it. It’s a conditioned belief, a buzzword for funding and pretentious action. Fighting something that is a thought, idea, or assumption is pointless. You cannot change the mind of the masses by telling them you’re dueling with their perceptions especially when the fact remains that the system does not combat the narrative, it feeds it.

An existing problem always has a solution, but the approach has to address the core issue creating the malfunction. In the case of addiction, homelessness, and mental illness, using this word is not a tool for education or awareness, it is a harmful deflection of responsibility by the system. It reinforces bias and belief patterns as individuals are cast aside. It perpetuates the idea that the system is doing all it can, while the people suffering are left to blame.

The solution is not to fight people’s beliefs, it is to provide what is necessary to become an integrated, functioning person to the best of one’s ability. Using the crutch of shame and blame only serves to keep things as they are, never accomplishing the task of intervention or assistance, never lifting someone out of their circumstances. It proves the issue is not stigmatization, but the system’s inability to act in accordance with basic survival needs and to follow through.

Individuals have an incredibly difficult time accessing what services there are, while trying to survive the streets.

Let’s dive into the ways stigma is created and used against homeless, mentally ill, and addicted people, showing that accountability is redirected and blurred.

Accessing federal funds to combat a perceived threat that is unseen and only exists in the thoughts and opinions of others is ridiculous. If the money was actually used to alleviate barriers and increase accessibility, we’d be getting somewhere.

The first point of bias is against mothers trying to access services, help, and assistance in a crisis for their loved ones who are disregarded and treated like the problem. Pushed aside, as we plead for intervention that never arrives. Leaving families in crisis without assistance or support.

My pet peeve: the narrative from law enforcement that they are not mental health workers that no matter what they witness, it’s “just drugs.” Therefore, you’re a bad criminal and condemned to county jail until you magically become a functioning, responsible adult.

Access to services is limited in countless ways. “Not enough of anything.” Why?

And for people who experience psychosis or delusions whether from mental illness, drugs, or a combination of both the impairments themselves become barriers to help.

When the system says, “We offered services, they refused,” that’s not an honest reflection of what occurred. That statement blames the homeless person and removes accountability from the system. Again: what was offered and how?

Meanwhile, the system creates community programs that are only utilized by the service entities, keeping out families and the community at large. For reference on that: the continued cries for help via particular business owners with no assessment, intervention or follow through.

And when the only organization that helps families denies you access and never gives voice to these matters?

As long as we go on pretending that the problem is stigma instead of the actual need for food, housing, support, treatment, and medication, nothing will resolve. These needs are all intertwined, with varying degrees of urgency.

Programs like Assisted Outpatient Treatment are incredibly difficult to access. The criteria are extremely rigid, especially for those experiencing psychosis due to their illness.

Blaming. On so many levels, the blame is the way in which we hide our own shame for having to witness such conditions, ones we don’t fully understand. We’re uncomfortable. And honestly? We’re scared. Because the truth is: homelessness, addiction, and mental illness can affect any one of us. And for some, it already does.

Just yesterday, I was reminded how deep this distorted perception runs. Someone I once knew took a jab at me. She thought I wouldn’t catch it, but I did. She showed her hand.

I suppose when you’ve built a career that’s meant to avail these conditions and nothing changes bitterness seeps out.

She proved my point: That what we’re fighting for is often false. Created by a system built on avoidance, wrapped in the illusion of care.

ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - NICKELS ARE THE NEW PENNIES

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

It was inevitable the day would come I’d be sprinkling handfuls of nickels onto my driveway, yet it’s a melancholy task all the same.

How long before a frosting-like layer of dimes will be spread atop the coating of nickels already covering the buried pennies? Not long enough.

And if I hadn’t started the whole mad business of tossing unwanted pennies (aren’t all pennies unwanted?) on my driveway back around the year 2000 I wouldn’t be in the fix I am today. And my driveway would not be covered in coins.

I’ll take whatever blame you think fitting, but cast the first penny only after you’ve looked, not in the mirror, but at Washington D.C. Think politicians. Think inflation. I’m but a pawn, yet I am the one to suffer.

And to think it all began as an understandable, even reasonable alternative to the ubiquitous water cooler jugs full of saved pennies too heavy to lift, too numerous to count, too worthless to keep, impossible to spend. Hoarding them is a proven failure. So what shall we do with pennies??

That was the question that went unanswered by my son back when he was 10-ish and we walked across the parking lot to our car. I’d spent the usual amount of money on groceries, got the usual amount of change, and was walking along plucking pennies from among the nickels, quarters and dimes in my palm.

The pennies fell to the pavement while I explained to Lucas the stark reality of the worthlessness of the one cent piece. If you collect a hundred coins and put them in a change jar, you will eventually have 25 pennies in your now empty change jar. Because you can’t spend pennies, I explained.

Nothing costs a penny and a pocketful of them is just dead weight. The console of your car, when filled with pennies, only camouflages the nickels and quarters that are spendable. Lucas was quiet, but plainly dissatisfied with my longterm financial planning strategy.

Motoring home the solution came to me, and the practice of tossing pennies onto my driveway was launched. Every time I made a purchase I carefully segregated newly acquired pennies from the more valuable shiny silver coins. Arriving home I broadcast my worthless pennies in and around the chipped brick and sand driveway, bordered as it is by a pair of red brick tire paths.

My coin garden is a tidy 25 feet long and about five feet wide. A quarter century later it remains an ongoing hobby tempered by the reluctant addition of nickels, starting last week.

In 20 years of patient sowing I have achieved a thick garden of copper, despite the best efforts of those who scoop thick piles of pennies and pour them into bags and walk away. A minor tragedy, but still the pennies accumulate.

Four days ago I was prowling around a supermarket when confronted with a sign saying “Fresh Corn! 89 cents each!” Then I knew today’s nickel is as useless as the penny back when Bill Clinton was president.

Questions: What will you buy with a dime by 2030? A quarter in 2040? The folly of someday broadcasting dollar bills into the wind, hoping they fall and stick to my driveway is already troubling me.

The heat is on

If you think it’s OK to leave your dog in the car for just a few minutes while you hurry into Safeway to cool off in front of an open door in the ice cream aisle, try this fun little experiment.

First, pick out a scorching hot Ukiah afternoon. Next park at Safeway and roll the windows to the top. Sit quietly (or not) and wait until you start to sweat.

When your armpits are soaked and the perspiration is rolling down your forehead, turn and look in the backseat where your dog will be lying dead.

This is because dogs have small lungs, are unable to perspire and therefore cannot cool off except by panting. Panting is an inefficient cooling process and that’s Ta Dah! why your dog died so quickly.

The same is true of babies and small kids: they are unable to sweat effectively and thus will expire before you can pick out a gallon of ice cream.

Also: No dogs allowed to roast and fry in the beds of pickup trucks.

You will not be told again, except maybe by the police officer arriving on the scene to arrest your for cruelty to animals.

Only haul your dog(s) around in chauffeured limousines with advanced air conditioning features like Tom Hine does. If you have an imaginary pal like TWK, no sweat. Let him walk.

RIP: ROSIE GROVER

40-years ago early this morning Ukiah High School student Rosie Grover sadly left this earth in a senseless and brutal murder in a creekbed in South Ukiah.

On July 20th, 1985…

Rosie arrived back home in Ukiah from visiting relatives out of town. Her bus arrived in the early morning hours at the Greyhound Bus station in the Yokayo Shopping Center (now, Mendocino County Social Services building).

No one was at the Greyhound Bus station to safely pick Rosie up and take her home.

And when her mother didn't answer her phone, Rosie started walking home. Rosie lived south of the Ukiah Airport, so she had quite a walk ahead of her. She got as far as the House of Garner (now, Mountain Mike's Pizza) when she picked up the receiver of the pay phone in a phone booth located outside, next to the restaurant's entrance. She asked the operator for the police because she was scared that someone was following and harassing her.

The telephone operator put her through to the Ukiah CHP office. The Ukiah CHP refused to give Rosie a needed ride home for her safety because at that time, it was against CHP policy.

Nor was any law enforcement dispatched to her desperate situation to look for the person following, harassing and scaring her on South State Street.

After the Ukiah CHP refused to help, Ukiah Police Chief Fred Keplinger said in a public statement to the Ukiah Daily Journal a few days later, that the UPD would have absolutely given Rosie a safe ride home, but that his department never received Rosie's call from dispatch.

Rosie was found dead after daylight that same morning after her killer (Richard Dean Clark) reported finding a body in the creek.

If only the CHP had given Rosie a ride home or law enforcement been dispatched to her location outside the House of Garner, Rosie would still be alive and with us today.

— Feeling sad in Ukiah

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, July 20, 2025

WARREN BECK II, 39, Ukiah. Burglary. (Frequent flyer.)

ESQUIN DELGADILLO-ORTEGA, 32. Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

WESLEY DICKSON, 42, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-loitering, trespassing, stolen property, conspiracy, resisting.

TANYA FISK, 53, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Petty theft.

FERNANDO HEREDIA-CASTRO, 42, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors.

DUSTIN HIPES, 46, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

CARLOS MAGANA-MACEDO, 34, Clearlake/Ukiah. Petty theft, conspiracy.

VIOLET MCALISTER, 63, Ukiah. Tear gas.

VERONICA MORALES-IBARRA, 40, Covelo. DUI.

DENA MORRIS, 63, Ukiah. Drinking in public, parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

NICHOLAS POLLARD, 43, Fort Bragg. Under influence, controlled substance for sale, probation revocation.

JASON PRATT, 43, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-loitering, trespassing, stolen property, conspiracy, resisting.

NICOLE SANDERSON, 30, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ASHER SILVA, 34, Redwood Valley. Domestic battery, child endangerment.

DIEGO VALENCIA, 21, Ukiah. More than an ounce of pot, giving pot to minor, probation revocation.

RAVEN WILLIAMS, 27, Chico/Ukiah. Throwing substances at vehicle.

A TAX ON YOU AND ME

Editor:

Who’s kidding who? Tariffs are not a tax on China, the European Union, Canada or Mexico. They are a tax on you and me. If you buy something or parts of something that is made in tariff-targeted countries, the tariff (tax) is paid by the importer. That tariff (tax) is passed on as higher prices. The tariff (tax) money goes directly into the U.S. treasury. Maybe this is a way to get back some of the money given away in the Big Beautiful Bill.

Bill Bolster

Santa Rosa

JEFF BLANKFORT

AOC rationalizes vote against cutting $500 million US miitary aid to Israel. Because it was for defensive weaponry, she says. Pretty pathetic response. Yeah, she's pretty. And also pathetic and not "the best we got" by any stretch.

AOC IS A GENOCIDAL CON ARTIST

by Caitlin Johnstone

The Democratic Party’s Instagram-friendly progressive darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has voted with the overwhelming majority of House representatives against withholding $500 million in missile funding for Israel, despite previously saying that Israel is committing “a genocide of Palestinians” in Gaza with US support.

The only lawmakers voting to withhold the military aid were Democrats Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee and Al Green, and Republicans Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Coming under fire from the left for the glaring contradiction of providing military assistance to a state that is perpetrating an active genocide, AOC issued a statement claiming her vote was about protecting civilians.

The statement reads as follows…

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/07/20/aoc-is-a-genocidal-con-artist/

CHINATOWN'S LIVING ROOM

text & photos by David Bacon

Without doubt, Portsmouth Square is the best-used public space in San Francisco, affectionately called "Chinatown's Living Room." Soon it's getting a facelift. The city took bids, is choosing projects, and begins renovation in the fall.

Maybe the benches are old, and could use more paint, even cushions for the bony elders who sit on them or the exhausted workers who lie on them.

The swings and playground could use an uplift too, for the kids. A new shelter might give people somewhere better to shelter out of the rain. …

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2025/07/photos-from-edge-15-chinatowns-living.html

TRIBAL LEADERS, ENVIROS URGE LEGISLATURE TO REJECT BILLS FAST-TRACKING DELTA TUNNEL PROJECT

by Dan Bacher

On an unusually mild summer day, Tribal leaders and environmental justice advocates met with legislators at the State Capitol on July 16 for the 2025 Day of Action for Water Justice.

They urged the legislators to reject Governor Newsom’s proposed trailer bills that they say would fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) and bypass critical environmental protections at a time when the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in unprecedented ecological crisis — and a number of fish species are on the edge of extinction.

“The day-long event started with meetings between Tribal members, environmental advocates and legislators to urge support for “equitable, science-based water solutions” that protect the Bay-Delta and to reject the financially reckless Delta Conveyance Project that threatens ecosystems, Tribal sovereignty, and public health,” according to a statement from Restore the Delta. …

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/17/2333773/-Tribal-Leaders-Enviros-Urge-Legislature-to-Reject-Bills-Fast-Tracking-Delta-Conveyance-Project

ON JULY 19, 1869, naturalist John Muir began chronicling his transformative journey through the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. His writings, later compiled into the 1911 book My First Summer in the Sierra, offer an eloquent account of his three-and-a-half-month exploration of the Yosemite region. Muir’s journal, filled with vivid descriptions of the landscape, plants, animals, and his personal reflections, captures his deep connection to nature. In the entry for July 19, Muir describes the awe-inspiring beauty of the Sierra dawn: the sky changing from soft purple to bright yellow, the sunlight illuminating the peaks, and the forest coming to life. His poetic words convey a profound appreciation for the natural world that would define his legacy.

Muir's journey into the heart of California's wilderness was not just a physical expedition, but a deeply spiritual one that marked the beginning of his lifelong mission to preserve America's natural landscapes. Born in Scotland in 1838, Muir immigrated with his family to Wisconsin as a child. After an industrial accident in 1867 nearly cost him his sight, he left behind his career as an inventor to fully embrace a life as a naturalist. Muir’s passion for the outdoors led him to travel extensively across the United States, particularly in the Sierra Nevada, where he became an outspoken advocate for the preservation of Yosemite and other national parks. His writings, including My First Summer in the Sierra, introduced readers to the beauty and wonder of America's wilderness and laid the groundwork for the national parks movement.

In addition to his profound contributions to natural history, John Muir's work had lasting impacts on the conservation movement in America. His advocacy, along with his partnership with President Theodore Roosevelt, led to the establishment of Yosemite National Park in 1890. Muir’s efforts helped to shape the idea of national parks as protected areas, ensuring that the natural landscapes he so loved would remain untouched for future generations. Today, Muir is remembered as the "Father of the National Parks," and his writings continue to inspire those who seek to understand and appreciate the wonders of the natural world.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

"Where Grammarly says, 'Stay on-brand with consistent communication,' Orwell warns that 'the great enemy of clear language is insincerity.'" I detest Grammarly. Every time I see something from that company, I see its shortcomings in areas utterly basic. Take that very quote. What on Earth is the point in the hyphen between the preposition and its object? Sorry: what on-Earth is the point in the hyphen between-the-preposition-and-its-object? It doesn't even fit the stress, one of the basics of hyphenation. We stay on BRAND: we don't stay ON-brand. Grammarly's supposedly WORTHwhile recommendations are not worth WHILE. Most of Gmail's suggestions are wrong, too, at least in my case. It fails to grasp, for instance, the difference in meaning between the subjunctive and the indicative, as in "It's important that these pills BE taken daily" and "It's important that these pills ARE taken daily". Microsoft has fallen into the same trap. Its modern, "A.I." suggestions in Word are worse than those made by the Word grammar-checker thirty years ago. Here's a recent medical-journal article. First sentence: "COVID-19 has unleashed a tsunami of research that has been further energized by the persistent and debilitating aftermath of Long COVID." Do tsunamis usually wear leashes? Let's get out our dictionaries. Let's think. Then let's write.

WOE CANADA: GIANTS’ ROBBIE RAY STRUGGLES AS BLUE JAYS COMPLETE 3-GAME SWEEP

by Shayna Rubin

The San Francisco Giants had an All-Star on the mound pitching at his old stomping grounds, a minor lineup shakeup that had Jung Hoo Lee batting leadoff and were in good spirits Sunday morning despite a disappointing start after the All-Star break.

The second half isn’t a good time to point out silver linings for a struggling team in contention, but the Giants at least put up a fight as they lost 8-6 to Toronto, a team creating separation atop the American League East. Afterward, the Giants headed for Atlanta having lost a season-high five straight dating to the final two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers before the break.

“It sucks. I thought we played well every game, too,” Giants third baseman Matt Chapman said. “They got the big hit when they needed it or closed out an inning and got out of it, whatever it was. They were all tight games, except the first one maybe, but we were in every game and they found a way to win them. They finished the first half super hot and they came out of the gates hot again.”

Chapman, who played two years in Toronto before coming to San Francisco, is still trying to find his timing at the plate while dealing with swelling and bruising from his sprained hand, an injury that sidelined him for 23 games from June 10 to July 4. He went the other way off starter Jose Berrios for his first home run since his return on July 5. Driving the ball felt good, Chapman said, but he’s still uncomfortable at the plate since he rushed back to play before the All-Star break.

“Not great. Getting the timing back still,” Chapman said. “I knew when I came back my hand wasn’t going to be perfect so I’m trying to figure it out, but it’s obviously good enough to play. It’s one of those things that when you tear something this time during the season when you come back it’s probably not going to feel good until the offseason.”

Chapman’s two-run home run in the sixth inning cut into a five-run deficit and brought to life a frustrated Giants dugout. And his teammates kept it going, fueled by frustration. With Dom Smith on second after having doubled, Giants pitcher Justin Verlander — observing from the railing — was ejected by home plate umpire Chad Whitson for arguing balls and strikes during Brett Wisely’s at-bat.

“He can see. And sometimes from our vantage point, in and out is tough to see, we were definitely upset with the zone. But then you can get confirmation on it a little bit later,” manager Bob Melvin said. “JV is very into the game when he’s pitching and when he’s not. Players appreciate that.”

After two questionable strike calls on the outer half of the plate, Wisely hit a letter-high curveball for an RBI single. Andrew Knizner then walked and Lee’s RBI single to score Wisely made it a one-run game, but — upon review — it was determined that Lee went off the bag at second trying to advance to second after the throw to third was cut off and fired to second.

“We finally swung the bats a lot better and came back to give ourselves a chance at the end,” Melvin said. “But gave up too many runs in the middle. I don’t think there’s any silver linings in this one, got swept in the series to start the second half. Not what we’re looking for.”

Those middle runs were the result of an off afternoon from Robbie Ray, who got a warm welcome from Toronto fans who saw him win a Cy Young Award in 2021. Saturday, he connected with a Blue Jays fan who runs a social media account dedicated to the skin-tight pants Ray wears when he pitches and before Sunday’s start got cheers from fans watching him throw in the bullpen.

Ray was familiar with the Blue Jays, but Rogers Centre was uncomfortable to him. He started only eight games at the ballpark before the pandemic sent the Blue Jays to Buffalo, N.Y., and Florida during Ray’s time there. To his surprise, he found the mound to be too steep for his liking. That, paired with delivery inconsistencies, led to a downtick in his fastball velocity and set the tone for one of Ray’s worst outings in a year with very few of them.

“My delivery was just a little off, I was talking to (pitching coach) JP (Martinez) a little bit,” Ray said. “The mound is different, its steep, it’s been a while since I pitched here. Felt like I was just a tick off. Maybe similar to some of the starts earlier in the year where it was inconsistent and I had a little bit of that stuff going on. Arm, body, everything feels great, it’s just a tad off.”

Ray pitched similarly to how he did early in the year, when his delivery wasn’t consistent. He allowed a season-high five runs — the first time he has given up more than three earned runs since an April 16 start against the Philadelphia Phillies. He also walked five batters and struck out three.

The Giants’ defense didn’t help Ray’s cause. With the score 1-1 in the third, left fielder Heliot Ramos misplayed Bo Bichette’s line drive — running in while the ball sailed over his head — leading to two runs. Things got out of hand in the fifth when Spencer Bivens replaced Ray, who had allowed a leadoff homer and a one-out double. That runner scored on a single and Addison Barger, on a heater this series, hit a two-run homer to make it 7-2. The Giants tried, but the deficit was too large to overcome.

“It’s tough to come out like this and get swept in the first series,” Ray said. “But it’s over now and we’ve got to move on.”

THE LUIS LEON ABDUCTION

An 82 year old man was taken by ICE at a green card replacement appointment. His family was never informed where he was or how to get ahold of him until he was in a foreign hospital… despite the fact that he was a permanent legal resident of the US.

Luis Leon came to the US 38 years ago.

He had been tortured in his native Chile by the administration of the dictator Augusto Pinochet. The US gave him political asylum and he came legally to the United States in 1987.

Luis built a life here in the US. He worked at a leather manufacturing plant, raised four kids, and eventually retired.

He’s well-loved in his neighborhood in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He likes to garden and fish and do small repairs for the neighbors.

In June he lost his wallet, which had his green card in it.

No problem. Luis and his wife made an appointment to get it replaced.

But when they arrived for the appointment, Luis was handcuffed and taken away, and his wife was held for ten hours until her granddaughter showed up to get her.

His family couldn’t find him for a full month. The immigration detention tracker never showed him as in ICE custody. Immigration officials had no answers they were willing to give, despite multiple calls. The family called local prisons and hospitals and even morgues but couldn’t find anyone who knew where Luis was.

A relative in Chile called the family yesterday to let them know that 82-year-old Luis was now in a hospital in Guatemala… apparently deported to this country by the US government, though ICE still won’t even confirm that Luis showed up for his green card replacement appointment, let alone that they had him in custody and deported him.

Now that the family has found Luis, ICE says they are “investigating” what happened.

Sometimes when I share these stories, people push back and say something like, “If he was here for all these years, why didn’t he become a citizen.” It’s a really weird and ignorant question for a variety of reasons, but more importantly it’s off topic to this post. So before we change subjects to why someone might not get their US citizenship, let me pose a few counter questions: Do you think legal permanent resident of the US should be taken into custody at what should be a normal administrative appointment? Do you think people should be held with no access to lawyers or family? Should permanent legal residents be deported to a country other than their home country and put in a hospital without ever informing family or legal representation? Because that’s what we’re talking about.

Meanwhile, we have no idea if ICE deported a legal, permanent resident of the United States on purpose or somehow “by accident.”

Certainly since ICE’s tripled quota for arrests they’ve had a lot more “mistakes.” And I’m not just talking about the more famous moments, like “administrative errors” that involve illegally deporting someone to El Salvador.

We also have things like:

A US marshal being mistakenly detained by ICE.
ICE apologized for detaining US citizens because it caught them… speaking Spanish.
ICE claims assaults against agents had increased between 500-700% but then released statistics that showed — despite the huge increase in ICE arresting people — ICE’s own self-reported stats of assaults barely increased at all. Probably because they’ve been arresting people on bogus assault claims and then never charged any of them because it was just an excuse to put bystanders in handcuffs.
ICE accidentally sent a 15 year old to the Everglades Concentration Camp because they didn’t verify his age or identity.

Meanwhile, Luis — a permanent resident of the US who came here legally, had legal status and doesn’t have so much as a parking ticket — has been taken from his family, kept from legal counsel, deported to a country he has never been from, and put in the hospital.

Why?

Because he lost his wallet.

(thesestories.substack.com)

BEHIND THE MASKS: WHO ARE THE PEOPLE ROUNDING UP IMMIGRANTS IN CALIFORNIA?

by Michael Lozano

They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm.

The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is a new fact of life in Southern California this summer as the Trump administration carries out the president’s promised deportations.

Many residents may assume these masked agents are officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But that’s not always the case.

Many of them belong to the Border Patrol, the agency that traditionally has policed the nation’s border with Mexico. But the Trump administration sent officers from other agencies to Los Angeles, too, including the FBI and special tactical teams from the Department of Homeland Security not widely seen until now.

Democrats in California’s Legislature have proposed measures to unmask the federal agents.

Senate Bill 627, the “No Secret Police Act,” seeks to prohibit all local, state and federal officers from using masks with some exceptions. SB 805, the “No Vigilantes Act,” would require that officers clearly display their name or badge number. It’s disputed whether the state can regulate federal officers and law enforcement agencies are lobbying against the proposals.

Federal regulations state that ICE and Border Patrol agents should identify themselves when arresting someone “as soon as it is practical and safe to do so.”

And the public is allowed to ask federal agents to identify themselves.

But David Levine, a professor at UC Law San Francisco said, “they can ask but it doesn’t mean they’ll get the information.”

The number of sweeps and detentions appeared to slow this week after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, finding that agents stopped people based on someone’s race, language, accent, presence at a specific location or job. For ensuing stops, agents must have “reasonable suspicion” that doesn’t consider those factors “alone or in combination,” according to the judge’s order.

While ICE is a different agency than Border Patrol, both are part of the Department of Homeland Security and carry out immigration enforcement.

The difference may not always matter much, but misidentifying an agency can confuse the public, as it did with the sighting of federal agents outside Dodger Stadium in June. The agents reportedly had no visible names or badges and attempted to enter the stadium’s parking lots. The Dodgers put out a statement that “ICE agents” had been denied entry to the stadium. ICE denied it was ever there; the Department of Homeland Security then clarified that it had been Customs and Border Protection agents at the venue.

Images on social media show a constellation of federal agencies supporting immigration sweeps in Southern California. Here’s how you can identify them.

Border Patrol agents often wear green uniforms and “Border Patrol” and “U.S. Customs and Border Protection” might be labeled on their badge, vest, shoulder, back, bucket hat or cap, and usually in yellow text over blue.

Their marked vehicles tend to be white with a green slash, reading “Border Patrol” on the side.

Some might confuse Border Patrol with Customs and Border Protection officers. Those officials wear blue and usually stay stationed at ports of entry.

You may be wondering why Border Patrol agents are conducting immigration operations deep into Los Angeles neighborhoods, rather than staying closer to the border.

Border Patrol agents can search vehicles without a warrant throughout much of the country. They’re allowed to operate 100 miles from any edge of the country and coastline, reaching roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population, according to a CalMatters investigation and documentary produced in partnership with Evident and Bellingcat.

Since its creation by Congress in 1924, the Border Patrol’s role has been to prevent unauthorized entry into the United States. The agency polices trade, narcotics, contraband and combats human trafficking.

The agency has a SWAT-like unit known as BORTAC, or Border Patrol Tactical Unit, which has also been documented in immigrant hubs such as MacArthur Park, Los Angeles’ Toy District, and Bell. Border Patrol sources describe the unit’s use for “high-risk” purposes.

In fatigues, the unit wears a “BORTAC” patch on the left shoulder with, at times, black undershirts.

Customs and Border Protection also deployed its tactical Special Response Team in Los Angeles’ North Hills late June, executing a federal search warrant at a “human smuggling hub” tied to national security threats, arresting two, according to the agency.

ICE in police vests

ICE agents might wear an “ICE” patch on the front or back of their vest, usually in black-and-white, though they also can carry a badge of the same design in gold. The ICE emblem features the U.S. Department of Homeland Security eagle seal.

ICE agents might display “police” on their uniform. The ACLU wants ICE to stop using the word “police” on uniforms, contending the agency is impersonating local law enforcement officers

After 9/11, the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement within it shortly thereafter. ICE is tasked with enforcing trade and immigration laws, including within the interior of the country.

The Cato Institute found that ICE booked over 200,000 people into detention between October 1 and June 14. More than 93% of book-ins had no violent conviction and 65% had no criminal conviction whatsoever.

ICE itself has a few enforcement divisions. That’s why some ICE uniforms might read ERO—part of their “Enforcement and Removal Operations” team—or HSI for “Homeland Security Investigations.”

In 2024, ICE launched a rebrand and created the investigations unit to develop cases, and improve public outreach, including with local law enforcement, an HSI official told ABC News.

According to its website, HSI combats a broad array of transnational-related crime, ranging from narcotics smuggling to cybercrime, and from human trafficking to intellectual property theft.

ERO meanwhile manages all aspects of the typical immigration enforcement process: identifying, arresting, GPS monitoring, and deporting unauthorized immigrants. Their site description also says they seek to deport priority undocumented immigrants after they are released from U.S. jails and prisons. They can also assist multi-agency task forces in arresting unauthorized immigrants without any other criminal history who are “deemed a threat to public safety.”

ICE also deployed its Special Response Team (SRT), decked in military wear and weaponry, in San Diego late May. It sent a dozen or more of those officers to the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet near southeast Los Angeles in June, detaining two people for deportation.

Agents from those teams will often feature their logo on the shoulder and will be seen in heavy military-like uniforms. The teams are meant to engage “high risk” situations, according to ICE.

Rare National Guard deployment

National Guard troops had been most visible outside a federal building during protests in downtown Los Angeles, but have also accompanied a few immigration enforcement operations. In mid-June, National Guard soldiers accompanied federal agents raiding marijuana farms around Thermal, a desert town near Coachella, where about 70 undocumented immigrants were arrested, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

On July 7, about 90 California National Guard soldiers swept through the Los Angeles immigrant hub of MacArthur Park, a defense official said, to protect immigration agents from potentially hostile crowds, according to the Associated Press. They also were on site in Carpinteria last week.

The National Guard troops in L.A. wear Army uniforms. Soldiers in the state units have patches on their left shoulder that show a raven, a sunburst, or a sunburst on top a diamond, each in black and green color schemes. Troops will also have a full color U.S. flag on the right shoulder. The patch under that, if any, can vary and may be based on a soldier’s past deployments.

Part of the U.S. military, the National Guard is able to serve both domestically and globally for state and federal duties, assisting with natural disasters, border security, civil unrest, overseas combat, counter-drug efforts and more. Soldiers largely stay in their home state and can be called on by the state governor or president.

Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed President Trump’s decision to send the troops to Los Angeles, and the assignment marked the first time that a president has deployed the National Guard over the objections of a governor since the Civil Rights era.

More federal law enforcement officers

In January, a Homeland Security memo called for Justice Department agents to carry out immigration enforcement, according to ABC News. Deputized bureaus include the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons receiving the “same authority already granted to the FBI.”

Officers’ affiliations can be seen on their vests, jackets, or at times, their shoulder patches.

Agents wearing FBI fatigues were most visible in the worksite sweep at Ambiance Apparel in LA’s Fashion District, arguably the first major operation of the current wave of raids.

On June 10, FBI Los Angeles’ X account touted its collaboration with an ICE operation in Ventura County. They have also participated in other immigration raids across the country.

A spokesperson with the Justice Department declined to comment on how it deployed agents from various agencies. In early June, the FBI told KTLA that it is participating in immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and nationwide “as directed by the Attorney General,” supporting with SWAT, intelligence and more.

The ATF was also seen at the Ambiance Apparel raid. The DEA was there, too, and has since collaborated with ICE in the region.

On X, U.S. Marshals touted themselves as “on the front lines of immigration enforcement” in Los Angeles while showing officers interviewing a man on a bike. Marshals were also on site at a Ventura County marijuana farm raid where more than 200 people were arrested.

Can California unmask federal agents?

The use of masked agents without clearly identifying uniforms has confused the public, including local police receiving reports of kidnappings.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned in March that reports of ICE impersonations were growing. Alleged federal agent impersonations have occurred in Huntington Park, Wisconsin, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

“We don’t even know who these people are. It’s so dangerous, it’s so horrific, and it’s time to put standards in place,” said Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who is backing two proposals that would compel law enforcement officers to go without masks and display identification.

The Trump administration maintains that the masks are necessary to protect officers’ identities as they carry out investigations.

“So, I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” said acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in a press conference early June.

And some law enforcement experts say the federal government has that authority.

“Certain legislators are giving a false sense of hope that California can legislate laws to control the practices of federal agents,” said Ed Obayashi, a longtime sheriff’s deputy in California and policy adviser to the Modoc County Sheriff’s Office.

“They cannot do that—bottom line. Plain and simple. Federal law is supreme.”

Acknowledging potential legal disputes, Wiener said he’s willing to test the “time-sensitive” bills in the courts.

“Federal employees can’t just come in and ignore all California laws,” he said. “There are laws that they have to follow.”

(CalMatters.org)

Jean-Michel Basquiat acknowledged Picasso as one of his most important influences. He recalled Guernica (1937), which was on display at MoMA in New York until 1981, as having been his favourite artwork as a child. By 1985, he had a small Picasso oil painting in his own collection.

Perhaps the first bona fide artist-celebrity of the modern era — charismatic, regal and frequently photographed — Picasso was a model in his stardom as well as in his prodigious artistic output.

‘Since I was 17, I thought I might be a star,’ Basquiat once said. ‘I’d think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix… I had a romantic feeling of how people had become famous.’ His works often memorialised these Black heroes, including boxers, baseball players, and musicians. He blurred their identities with his own.

TAIBBI AND KIRN

Walter Kirn: And here’s one of the things that always bothered me about NPR. It seemed like, frankly, an extension of the NGOs. You’d listen to the shows and they get… It’s supposedly non-commercial, right? Then you’d get to the list of sponsors, and at first it would be, “Brought to you by the Ford Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust and the MacArthur Foundation.” They’d vary their voices in this laundry list. But then it got to actually sort of include, “And Facebook.” I’m not saying this is literally that, but it would start to get a little bit more product specific, “Bringing connection to everyday Americans and…” Da da da and da da da. And I went like, wow, this actually makes a show on TV like Naked and Afraid seem like a thing of the people. These are the richest foundations based on the most giant fortunes in history, run by boards composed of the most high-echelon characters in American society. This thing is out of control elitism.

Whereas I always thought public… See, I’m like a child of the Woody Guthrie style of public, like this land is your land. I always thought it meant sort of down closer to the peeps, and you’re talking about people who are on the board of Harvard, on the board of major corporations representing giant, multi-generational flows of capital down from Henry Ford and whoever else, and the Carnegie’s. Like, I don’t think you’re any more out with the rural folk than Jeff Bezos at his wedding in Venice.

Matt Taibbi: No, of course not. And the station essentially became a platform for broadcasting the weirdest, niche academic trends. There’s a drinking game you can play with NPR. You can turn it on, and the first time somebody mentions race or gender, drink. You’ll be drunk in like 38 minutes or less.

Walter Kirn: I used to listen to stories and it would be like a news digest.

Matt Taibbi: Oh, God.

Walter Kirn: And it would be this story about race, and then it would be this other story that you thought was about climate, but turned out to be about race, and then you’d hear the next story, it would be about sports, but it turned out to be about race. And it was listening to some nut in a bar for whom everything comes down to the communists or weather manipulations.

Matt Taibbi: Exactly. Or the ditto heads, frankly, of the nineties and… Right?

Walter Kirn: Yeah, exactly. And ultimately I went, the thing I don’t like about this, besides the fact that it gets really boring, is that it’s a form of madness. It’s like mania. Have you ever had a friend who just, everything in their life goes back to some particular breakup that they had, their marriage or something? And that’s what NPR was like. You’re just waiting to find out how this story about insect life in the Amazon is really about gender.

Matt Taibbi: So that’s really… We did a segment on this once before, I think, when Uri’s first thing came out, but we decided to put together kind of a greatest hits of that in memoriam for NPR, which is… It may continue, but we’ll see. So here’s the classic example, Walter, fat phobia and racist past and present. So it turns out that fat phobia and thinness is a product of the slave trade.

LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT

Trump Administration and Harvard Face Crucial Court Test

A Push for More Organ Transplants Is Putting Donors at Risk

Israeli Troops Kill Dozens Seeking Food Near Border, Gazan Officials Say

Japan’s Long-Dominant Party Suffers Election Defeat as Voters Swing Right

This K-Pop Band Is Making Waves With Sign Language

THE DEADLY VIOLENCE NEAR GAZA AID SITES

At least 32 people were reported killed on Saturday, and more than 60 a day later, adding to the mounting death toll of Gazans who have lost their lives trying to get food.

by Aaron Boxerman, Ephrat Livni & Rawan Sheikh Ahmad

Palestinians trying to secure food were shot and killed in the Gaza Strip in two separate episodes over the weekend when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds.

On Saturday, the soldiers shot Palestinians near a food distribution site in Rafah, in southern Gaza. A day later, they fired at crowds who had gathered near a border crossing used by aid trucks to enter the enclave.

Palestinian health officials said that more than 60 people were killed in the episode on Sunday. On Saturday, near an aid distribution site run by American contractors and backed by Israel and the United States, at least 32 people were killed, according to local health officials.

The violence added to the mounting death toll for hungry Palestinians killed while seeking food since late May, when Israel lifted a blockade, in place for roughly 80 days, on humanitarian assistance entering Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an group backed by Israel, began operations delivering aid to Gaza in May. Since then, thousands of desperate Palestinians have come to its four aid sites early each morning hoping to obtain food. About 700 people have been killed while trying to get aid from those sites, according to data provided last week by the United Nations. Eyewitnesses and Gaza health officials have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of shooting into crowds.

The shooting on Sunday took place near a border crossing, not outside one of the aid group’s new sites, but both episodes highlighted the extreme danger Gazans are facing as Israel tries to replace the system for distributing food in the war-torn enclave.

(NY Times)

*Road to the River, Mt. Carmel, Utah* (1940) by Maynard Dixon

GAZA ISN’T STARVING, IT IS BEING STARVED

by Caitlin Johnstone

Malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza are beginning to climb, with the health ministry reporting 18 in a single 24-hour period. Doctors report that people are “collapsing” in the street, and Gaza journalist Nahed Hajjaj is warning the world not to be surprised if the remaining reporters in the enclave are soon silenced by starvation.

Unless something drastically changes, things can be expected to get much worse very rapidly.

Meanwhile Israeli forces are setting new records with their massacres of starving civilians seeking aid, with 85 killed in a single day on Sunday.

If this isn’t evil, then nothing is evil. If Israel isn’t evil, then nothing is.

So what’s the plan here? Do we just sit and watch Israel starve Gaza to death with the support of our own governments?

And then what? We just go along with our lives, knowing that that happened? That this is what we are as a society? That our civilization is comfortable allowing something like that to happen? And that our rulers could do the same thing to another inconvenient population at any time?

We’re just meant to be cool with that? And go on living like it’s normal?

I’m genuinely curious. How exactly is everyone planning to go about living their lives after that point? How does that work, exactly?

I’m asking because I don’t know. I mean, I know what my own government and its allies should do, but I don’t know what we as ordinary members of the public are supposed to do.

You’ll see western pundits and politicians asking “How do we get a ceasefire in Gaza?” or “How do we end hunger in Gaza?” as though it’s some kind of ineffable mystery, which is kind of like a man strangling a child to death while saying “The child is being strangled, but HOW do we stop the child strangulation from occurring?”

It’s not some mystery how to get a ceasefire in Gaza; the empire is the fire. It simply needs to cease firing. Israel’s holocaust in Gaza is made possible only by the support of its western backers, primarily the United States. Numerous Israeli military insiders have acknowledged that none of this would be possible without US support. If the United States and its western allies ceased backing Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, a ceasefire would have to occur.

Likewise, it is not a mystery how to get food into Gaza. You just drive the food on in and give it to people. They’ve got roads and gates right there. The only reason people in Gaza are starving is because western governments (including my own Australia) conspired to pretend to believe that UNRWA is a terrorist organization to justify cutting off critical aid, while doing nothing to pressure Israel into allowing aid to flow freely.

And now Israel and the US empire are monopolizing the delivery of “aid” through the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose facilities now see civilians massacred every day for the crime of attempting to obtain food.

The organizations, funding and delivery systems to feed Gaza are all 100 percent fully available (at no cost to Israel, by the way). They’re just not being allowed to provide aid because the goal is to remove all Palestinians from Gaza via death or displacement. The people of Gaza are starving because the west is helping Israel starve Gaza. It really is that simple.

This isn’t some kind of unfortunate famine caused by a drought or natural disaster. It is a deliberately manufactured starvation campaign, implemented with genocidal intent.

To paraphrase Utah Phillips, Gaza isn’t starving, it is being starved. And the people who are starving it have names and addresses.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

PITT-STOP SYMPHONY (HZ FI)

by David Yearsley

Pain is gain, all the way up towards 20,000 RPM, music to the ears, the urgent advice of audiologist be damned. Even in the marginally quieter age of hybrid Formula 1 cars that dawned against carbon-soaked skies a decade ago and has internal-combustion noise aesthetes lamenting the decrescendo, the sleek racing machines can put out 140 dB trackside. That’s louder than a jumbo jet taking off.

Nostalgists for the shock-and-awe virtuosity of V12s, V10s, V8s curate medleys of motor masterworks, symphonic in scope and epic drive: there’s the tuning of the start; the sforzando of the first straight-away; soaring melodies punctuated by the staccato downshifts; the invertible counterpoint of jockeying for position, of one car passing the other then being overtaken again; the coloratura of cornering tires; the hairpin dynamics of hairpin turns; the high C cadenzas of brakes giving way to a surging accelerando; a fiery crash that resounds like the artillery blasts of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture; the final crescendo to the checkered flag and the cymbal-clash coda along pit row.

The descriptive language of F1 afficionados shares its refinements with that of the Carnegie Hall concertgoer. The motor works enumerated could well be confused with references to musical works, and in effect do, if you think of both Bach and BMW as sound art—BWV 232a (the early section of the B-Minor Mass) finding its counterpart in BMW M 12/13 turbo (a 1960s masterpiece from those famed Bavarian composers of engines).

YouTube is mouse music when compared to the real thing, but the platform spurs the imagination to hear the Red Bull race car’s roar at Monaco. But follow me anyway into a digital Temple of Audio Automative Art and listen to a survey of the cataclysmic F1 canon conducted by the motorhead maestro known as Gearbox Grid: “The Honda RA109 V8 screams with a distinctive shrill wail, its high-pitched whine cutting through the circuit noise to become one of the most memorable sounds of the early 2010s.” Grid waves his baton and conjures performances that are “haunting” and “iconic.” The best “create a unique ear-piercing soundtrack.”

This Grand Prix Professor’s use of the term soundtrack raises a fundamental question about the latest cinematic car-racing blockbuster—F1: the Movie. If motors make music, why hire a traditional film music composer—whether an old-school notes-on-paper mechanic or high-tech wizard up in his studio booth at the top of the grandstand—to roll out a traditional movie score? The engine of the APXGP (the fictional team featured in the film) is the real star of the movie for many who will see and hear it. (We won’t succumb to the Siren Song of all those versimilitudinarians who observe that “the APXGP car sounds like a Ferrari engine, even though it’s supposed to be a Mercedes engine, as given by the obvious Mercedes logo on the car.”) This movie motor star speaks and sings and shouts with as much nuance and more vitality than does its driver, Brad Pitt as the comeback renegade Sonny Hayes. Are the myriad emotional tonalities of this motor——from piston pathos to turbocharged elation—enough to let you know how to feel strapped into your multiplex seat as you watch Sonny bully his way through the Grand Prix pack, ride the highs and slam into the lows? Can’t this master of expressivity fully capture the macho melancholy, the sexual surge, the nihilistic pursuit of fast pleasure, the force Fate at full tilt? The answer is painfully, ear-splittingly obvious: No.

From start to finish, F1 confirms that Hollywood is and will remain addicted to the magic of musical sound, synthesized or real. (The distinction between the authentic and the artificial is all but vanished, but I cling vainly to it like a spent tire losing its grip on wet tarmac).

One top Hollywood composer with a tremendous track-record at high speeds is Hans Zimmer. He has worked with cool cars before, having chased the Batmobile through the night in Batman Begins back in 2005. Zimmer’s relentless musical drive train and cyclic harmonies move efficiently, unerringly around blind corners and then accelerate into arcing horn lines whose heroic contours connect the low-slung F1 chariot with those horsedrawn forbears piloted by Egyptian pharaohs or Roman emperors or stagecoach drivers. In 2013 Zimmer scored a Formula 1 movie, Ron Howard’s Rush, set not in the present, as is F1, but back in the swinging 1970s. That soundtrack throbs and throttles, portends, aches, and even brightly chimes along with the vintage Carusos of the Grand Prix Circuit.

No engine is invented anew. It must be at least partly built from elements already manufactured, tried, tested, and refined. Zimmer draws abundantly on his well-stocked inventory of musical effects. But echoes from previous Zimmer scores can risk eliciting associations that confuse, even befuddle. The British actor, Tobias Menzies, appears in F1 as a conniving racing team board member. Menzies also played a regally cool Prince Philip in several seasons of The Crown for which Zimmer supplied the title music. That miniature British coronation anthem was constructed of an arpeggio revolving ceaselessly as if trapped in tradition. From this figure emerged an inchoate melody that surged and faltered as if both facing and fleeing its Monarchic Destiny. When Menzies appears on screen in F1 within earshot of some of these same Zimmer-wielded sonic tools and techniques, one is struck by the possibility that the Windsors have given up the thoroughbreds of Royal Ascot for the screaming four-wheeled fire-breathing beasts of Abu Dhabi in the Grand Prix season—and also therefore movie—finale. A Zimmer-scored film can easily stray into a house of musical mirrors full of unintended cross-picture associations, bizarre regressions, and déja-vus-all-over-again.

F1 used to stand also for Function 1 on slow-poke computer keyboards of yesteryear: top key, upper left called for “Help.” For F1, Zimmer was certainly not afraid to press F1—figuratively, maybe even literally: the pianissimo intimation of action thwacks into terrifying motion; the pulse of an idea, like a chamois obsessively polishing the front wing of an F1 car, that sound then speeding into the suggestion of a melody; cellos yearn; a portentous collage of minor sonorities offers a prelude to the battle—on the race track or (as in Zimmer’s soundtrack Gladiator) the sands of the Coliseum—then bursts into fury, spurred on by martial percussion. In F1 these many musical revolutions per minute duet with the motors, like operatic tenors accompanied by a pit orchestra. Many high-performance Hollywood machines have coasted into the winner’s circle of box office lucre when Zimmer is a member of the crew.

When, in F1, the wounded warrior must be nursed back to health, these miniature musical cycles suggest the IV drip or the furtive signs of life from an EKG, but once the hero is behind the wheel again, Zimmer’s (auto)motives gather irresistible momentum and speed Sonny towards either victory or death or both. Pitt’s longest, most vulnerable speech, uttered on a hotel balcony high above the Las Vegas Strip, describes his search to relive those moments while racing in which he transcends Grand Prix mayhem into a high-speed stillness during which he sees everything all at once and clearly, anticipating all that his competitors will do as the apocalyptic roar around him recedes into silence.

This would be the world championship moment for the chorus of engines to be allowed to sing a cappella and then gradually diminuendo into nothing, emancipating machine and then man from musical score. But even down this otherworldly homestretch, the trusty components taken from Zimmer’s garage band wall and fitted onto the racing machine. Precisely when the hero should be racing, musically unencumbered, towards apotheosis, the turbocharged soundtrack runs right over us. At the crux, when it’s time for filmmaking team to win an unlikely victory, they lose their aesthetic nerve and spin out.

Rather than let allegory float free and lift off into myth and memory, the F1 keeps us on the ground and on the course (even if the car isn’t always), pedal to the metal, rubber on the road, Zimmer waving his wrench as the machine wails by.

THE POLITICAL LEGACY OF JERRY GARCIA

by Jim Newton

Jerry Garcia, the iconic frontman for the Grateful Dead, remains, nearly 30 years after his death, a revered figure, singular in his approach to life and art.

A multimillionaire by the time of his death, Mr. Garcia never lost his fundamental understanding of himself as a musician, which makes him among the most relatable, if misunderstood, figures of modern times. Much of the pull he continues to exert on the culture lies in the fact that his music and his life were an exploration of what it means to be free.

He was not political, per se. Though he came of age as the American counterculture bloomed — and though he and the Dead stood at the center of many of that period’s most memorable occasions — he did his best to shun politics as such. He disdained candidates, avoided campaigns.

“We would all like to live an uncluttered life,” Mr. Garcia said in 1967, “a simple life, a good life, and think about moving the whole human race ahead a step.”

Mr. Garcia lived among artists and built up a community around him that was, psychologically and in some ways practically, impervious to government power. The Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco offered one early experiment in community organization; Dead shows in later years stood as a kind of traveling bubble of freewheeling creativity, dynamic hubs of music and art, blissfully insulated from the outside world. It was, to Mr. Garcia, a ride on the rails — a little dangerous but happily in motion and in contact with others.

“There’s a lot of us,” Mr. Garcia said, “moviemakers, musicians, painters, craftsmen of every sort, people doing all kinds of things. That’s what we do. That’s the way we live our lives.”

He admired those who also lived beyond the government’s authority — the Black Panthers and the Hells Angels, to name two groups — though Mr. Garcia did not so much confront the government as simply refuse to accept its authority over him.

The government’s power, he insisted, was “illusory,” a myth that took real form only because people accepted it. “The government,” Mr. Garcia said, “is not in a position of power in this country.”

And yet the Dead were, Zelig-like, at the edges of the nation’s politics for decades. In 1966, they played the Acid Tests in one California as Ronald Reagan rose to power in another. They performed at the takeover of Columbia by student activists in 1968 and at Woodstock in 1969. They performed outside the San Quentin prison in California and on behalf of the Black Panthers. The Dead raised bail money for those arrested during the People’s Park uprising and, years later, for AIDS patients and rainforest protection.

But Mr. Garcia himself and the music he wrote aimed for something beyond politics, something deeper. Music was, he liked to say, his yoga, an egoless place of adventure, an open place to improvise and draw energy from the audience. It was as real as it was vivid.

The government, by contrast, was an abstraction, a collection of assertions of presumptions that fell apart under close inspection. Did the government control his music? Of course not. His community? Nope. His personal choices? Not really.

In that, Mr. Garcia was a participant in a tradition that is both noble and ragtag, alongside Whitman and Thoreau, van Gogh and William Burroughs — artists who rejected social norms and conventional authority in order to practice their work and explore the range and meaning of freedom. Bohemians.

Mr. Garcia’s determination to live as a bohemian was not always honored by the government. He was arrested on drug-related charges (in New Orleans, New Jersey and San Francisco) but when it came to what mattered to him — music, community, creativity — the government didn’t hold much sway at all.

“What do they actually do that affects a person’s life?” he asked. “Not much.”

In contrast to the abstraction of government power, there was the tangible evidence of communities at work — in communes, collectives and self-contained organizations. Mr. Garcia and his bandmates spent a formative period in the Haight in the period leading up to the Summer of Love in 1967.

The Diggers, a radical collective that rejected even the use of money, organized free events and hosted a free store in the Haight, where residents could deposit food and clothing and other supplies, and where others in need could take what they needed. The “hip economy” worked. Musicians and artists brought in income, which they spent in stores (and on drugs); tourists helped support shopkeepers, concert venues and restaurants; the Diggers demanded donations and doled them out; free clinics responded to health needs.

It was not a perfect system, and as the scene grew larger and young people flocked to it, the neighborhood was unable to accommodate the influx. But it was, at least for a while, a self-contained, self-regulating community, largely beyond the reach of state and federal authorities, what Mr. Garcia called “the government.”

Even as Mr. Garcia rejected conventional government, so, too, did he abjure the most radical responses of his day. Those years in the Haight and across the bay in Berkeley, Calif., saw the flourishing of many radical cliques, especially as the war in Vietnam radicalized the Students for a Democratic Society, spinning off Weatherman and others. Some activists turned to violence.

Not Mr. Garcia. If the radical seeks to change the world, the bohemian demands to live apart from it. Mr. Garcia chose the latter.

Deadheads know what that meant. A Dead show was a place removed, a stand-alone testament to freedom. As an artist, Mr. Garcia was sublime, transformative, kinetically connected to his audience in a way that no other performer can really compare to.

Mr. Garcia’s approach to politics had its limits — and has them still. It didn’t prevent him from facing drug charges; it didn’t insulate the Dead from the local police and the Drug Enforcement Administration when it used Dead shows in the 1990s to make easy arrests of LSD dealers.

For those many people struggling today to find a place between active resistance and doleful compliance, Mr. Garcia’s life suggests an alternative: of exercising freedom rather than waiting on the government to grant it or being afraid of the government taking it away. Mr. Garcia’s legacy is more than his music, but also in his example to live freely, even as our time tests it.

THE AMERICAN WAY

by Gregory Corso (1970)

I am a great American
I am almost nationalistic about it!
I love America like a madness!
But I am afraid to return to America
I’m even afraid to go into the American Express—

They are frankensteining Christ in America
in their Sunday campaigns
They are putting the fear of Christ in America
under their tents in their Sunday campaigns
They are driving old ladies mad with Christ in America
They are televising the gift of healing and the fear of hell
in America under their tents in their Sunday
campaigns
They are leaving their tents and are bringing their Christ
to the stadiums of America in their Sunday
campaigns
They are asking for a full house an all get out
for their Christ in the stadiums of America
They are getting them in their Sunday and Saturday
campaigns
They are asking them to come forward and fall on their
knees
because they are all guilty and they are coming
forward
in guilt and are falling on their knees weeping their
guilt
begging to be saved O Lord O Lord in their Monday
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
and Sunday campaigns

It is a time in which no man is extremely wondrous
It is a time in which rock stupidity
outsteps the 5th Column as the sole enemy in America
It is a time in which ignorance is a good Ameri-cun
ignorance is excused only where it is so
it is not so in America
Man is not guilty Christ is not to be feared
I am telling you the American Way is a hideous monster
eating Christ making Him into Oreos and Dr. Pepper
the sacrament of its foul mouth
I am telling you the devil is impersonating Christ in America
America’s educators & preachers are the mental-dictators
of false intelligence they will not allow America
to be smart
they will only allow death to make America smart
Educators & communicators are the lackeys of the
American Way
They enslave the minds of the young
and the young are willing slaves (but not for long)
because who is to doubt the American Way
is not the way?
The duty of these educators is no different
than the duty of a factory foreman
Replica production make all the young think alike
dress alike believe alike do alike
Togetherness this is the American Way
The few great educators in America are weak & helpless
They abide and so uphold the American Way
Wars have seen such men they who despised things about
them
but did nothing and they are the most dangerous
Dangerous because their intelligence is not denied
and so give faith to the young
who rightfully believe in their intelligence
Smoke this cigarette doctors smoke this cigarette
and doctors know

Educators know but they dare not speak their know
The victory that is man is made sad in this fix
Youth can only know the victory of being born
all else is stemmed until death be the final victory
and a merciful one at that
If America falls it will be the blame of its educators
preachers communicators alike
America today is America’s greatest threat
We are old when we are young
America is always new the world is always new
The meaning of the world is birth not death
Growth gone in the wrong direction
The true direction grows ever young
In this direction what grows grows old
A strange mistake a strange and sad mistake
for it has grown into an old thing
while all else around it is new
Rockets will not make it any younger—
And what made America decide to grow?
I do not know I can only hold it to the strangeness in man
And America has grown into the American Way—
To be young is to be ever purposeful limitless
To grow is to know limit purposelessness
Each age is a new age
How outrageous it is that something old and sad
from the pre-age incorporates each new age—
Do I say the Declaration of Independence is old?
Yes I say what was good for 1789, is not good for 1960
It was right and new to say all men were created equal
because it was a light then
But today it is tragic to say it
today it should be fact—
Man has been on earth a long time
One would think with his mania for growth
he would, by now, have outgrown such things as
constitutions manifestos codes commandments
that he could well live in the world without them
and know instinctively how to live and be
—for what is being but the facility to love?
Was not that the true goal of growth, love?
Was not that Christ?
But man is strange and grows where he will
and chalks it all up to Fate whatever be—
America rings with such strangeness
It has grown into something strange and
the American is good example of this mad growth
The boy man big baby meat
as though the womb were turned backwards
giving birth to an old man
The victory that is man does not allow man
to top off his empirical achievement with death
The Aztecs did it by yanking out young hearts
at the height of their power
The Americans are doing it by feeding their young to the
Way
For it was not the Spaniard who killed the Aztec
but the Aztec who killed the Aztec
Rome is proof Greece is proof all history is proof
Victory does not allow degeneracy
It will not be the Communists will kill America
no but America itself—
The American Way that sad mad process
is not run by any one man or organization
It is a monster born of itself existing of its self
The men who are employed by this monster
are employed unknowingly
They reside in the higher echelons of intelligence
They are the educators the psychiatrists the ministers
the writers the politicians the communicators
the rich the entertainment world
And some follow and sing the Way because they sincerely
believe it to be good
And some believe it holy and become minutemen in it
Some are in it simply to be in
And most are in it for gold
They do not see the Way as monster
They see it as the “Good Life”
What is the Way?
The Way was born out of the American Dream
a nightmare—
The state of Americans today compared to the Americans
of the 18th century proves the nightmare—
Not Franklin not Jefferson who speaks for America today
but strange red-necked men of industry
and the goofs of show business
Bizarre! Frightening! The Mickey Mouse sits on the throne
and Hollywood has a vast supply—
Could grammar school youth seriously look upon
a picture of George Washington and “Herman Borst”
the famous night club comedian together at Valley
Forge?
Old old and decadent gone the dignity
the American sun seems headed for the grave
O that youth might raise it anew!
The future depends solely on the young
The future is the property of the young
What the young know the future will know
What they are and do the future will be and do
What has been done must not be done again
Will the American Way allow this?
No.
I see in every American Express
and in every army center in Europe
I see the same face the same sound of voice
the same clothes the same walk
I see mothers & fathers
no difference among them
Replicas
They not only speak and walk and think alike
they have the same face!
What did this monstrous thing?
What regiments a people so?
How strange is nature’s play on America
Surely were Lincoln alive today
he could never be voted President not with his
looks—
Indeed Americans are babies all in the embrace
of Mama Way
Did not Ike, when he visited the American Embassy in
Paris a year ago, say to the staff—“Everything is fine,
just drink Coca Cola, and everything will be all right.”
This is true, and is on record
Did not American advertising call for TOGETHERNESS?
not orgiasticly like today’s call
nor as means to stem violence
This is true, and is on record.
Are not the army centers in Europe ghettos?
They are, and O how sad how lost!
The PX newsstands are filled with comic books
The army movies are always Doris Day
What makes a people huddle so?
Why can’t they be universal?
Who has smalled them so?
This is serious! I do not mock or hate this
I can only sense some mad vast conspiracy!
Helplessness is all it is!
They are caught caught in the Way—
And those who seek to get out of the Way
can not
The Beats are good example of this
They forsake the Way’s habits
and acquire for themselves their own habits
And they become as distinct and regimented and lost
as the main flow
because the Way has many outlets
like a snake of many tentacles—
There is no getting out of the Way
The only way out is the death of the Way
And what will kill the Way but a new consciousness
Something great and new and wonderful must happen
to free man from this beast
It is a beast we can not see or even understand
For it be the condition of our minds
God how close to science fiction it all seems!
As if some power from another planet
incorporated itself in the minds of us all
It could well be!
For as I live I swear America does not seem like America
to me

Americans are a great people
I ask for some great and wondrous event
that will free them from the Way
and make them a glorious purposeful people once
again
I do not know if that event is due deserved
or even possible
I can only hold that man is the victory of life
And I hold firm to American man

I see standing on the skin of the Way
America to be as proud and victorious as St.
Michael on the neck of the fallen Lucifer—

21 Comments

John McKenzie July 21, 2025

Ten years to build one four plex. At that accelerated pace, we should have the housing problem fixed in no time at all.
Wow, It’s been a longtime since I’ve seen a Mickeys cap.
I’m gonna go with “don’t chicken out”

Reply
Bob Abeles July 21, 2025

“Don’t chicken out.”

Reply
Harvey Reading July 21, 2025

AOC IS A GENOCIDAL CON ARTIST
by Caitlin Johnstone

The democraps are worthless, gutless scumballs.

Reply
Harvey Reading July 21, 2025

TRIBAL LEADERS, ENVIROS URGE LEGISLATURE TO REJECT BILLS FAST-TRACKING DELTA TUNNEL PROJECT

Anyone with half a brain and a sense of reality would reject it. It only adds to and worsens the water problems faced by the state. Get your damned human population down to carrying capacity of its habitat and quit destroying natural systems…like you’ve been doing for generations. Enough!!!

Reply
Norm Thurston July 21, 2025

To add a little balance to the discussion about AOC: She supported the transfer of defensive (self-protection) weapons to Israel. She also introduced an amendment to the bill that would stop the transfer of the same type of weapons that were previously used on Palestinians.

Reply
- Harvey Reading July 21, 2025
  
  Doesn’t a “defensive” weapon become “offensive” depending where you aim (or point) it? By the way, did her amendment survive the approval process? Like it or not, we are supporting genocide by Israelis against Palestinians, no matter how one frames the details when describing (or attempting to deny) the atrocity. We are providing armament left and right to them, just like we always do. And, if a person raises a voice against it, they are immediately branded “antisemitic”.
  
  Reply
  - Norm Thurston July 21, 2025
    
    Some weapons are more effective for defensive applications, some for offensive applications. I don’t think it can automatically be assumed that every weapon can effectively be used interchangeably. Do you think AOC tried to do a bait-and-switch by sending offensive weapons while telling the public they were defensive weapons? That’s some serious cynicism. I know a lot of people are upset about what is happening in Gaza, and rightfully so. But making AOC the lightning rod for their discontent seams more like a red herring than a legitimate way to effect change. You sure you’re not being played?
    
    Reply
    - Bruce McEwen July 21, 2025
      
      You would know, Norm. A M-61 Vulcan cannon is defensive if it’s mounted on a ship to intercept incoming missiles but if it’s the M-61A2 and mounted in the nose of an F/A Hornet, then it’s an offensive weapon. If I’m not mistaken. But you used to serve as crewman on one of these ferocious batteries and can better explain the difference… Harvey has a .22 for home defense, so he doesn’t strike me as an expert. And what does Caitlin expect us to do as individuals? She calls out AOC (bravest of all the cowardly lions in congress), but Caitlin herself is too cautious to name the Wizard of Oz she claims is the puppet master controlling both parties and the MSM. Who is the enemy, Caitlin, and how should we fight him? Martyr ourselves one at a time by some act of protest, hoping others will join in? Ha! They won’t. And why? We are all guilty of genocide from Columbus onward and the Australians have exterminated their aborigines the same as the Europeans have done on this continent. You want a two-state solution in Palestine? Absurd. Just as absurd as proposing a two-state solution with Native Americans. Let’s ask Caitlin how she’d like a two-state solution to the Aboriginal question in her country, eh?
      
      Reply
      - Norm Thurston July 21, 2025
        
        Yes, Bruce, I served with an MOS of 16R, Vulcan Crewman (ground based). The Vulcan is a 6-barrel Gatling style artillery gun which fires 20mm high-explosive projectiles at the rate of 3000 rounds per minute for ground-based units, and 6000 for airborne mounted units. It should be noted that it is not a continuous rate of fire, but is done in bursts of up 100 rounds each. The Vulcan is a defensive weapon in situations where there are incoming enemy aircraft. I don’t think it would be suitable for incoming missiles, as the Vulcan does not have a guidance system or heat-seeking capabilities: just the skills of the gunman in the turret. But I must confess that I did not serve in one of Vulcan crews in my Battery, but I did use a Remington on a daily basis..
        
        Reply
      - Harvey Reading July 21, 2025
        
        Nothing illegal for citizens to possess, but mostly in the .30 caliber range for the rifles. My draft number wasn’t drawn, and, by that time the first (and maybe only such drawing then–I forget) drawing passed me by, I wanted nothing to do with the military, in service to politicians, who happily endanger its members with their lie-based wars, including instances of genocidal activity, though on a somewhat smaller scale than that of the Zionist savages.
        
        Reply
Mazie Malone July 21, 2025

Happy Monday AVA’ers

Hard to believe that Rosie’s murder was 40 years ago, I grew up in that neighborhood. The creek ran behind our house. My family was also very good friends with her family.. She was murdered on my birthday when I turned 16 it was frightening. She was a very sweet person, her family is on Oregon now.

mm💕

Reply
Bruce McEwen July 21, 2025

Ahoy Stephen Dunlap: I hear your foghorn up here in the East Bay. And thanks for the satellite photo a few days ago showing that dark bank of fog in the offing. I learned a new word following the tall ship races out of Aberdeen harbor: haar, a persistent fog.

Reply
Rick Swanson July 21, 2025

If anybody wants to know all the details of the Russia Hoax listen to the first hour of the Glenn Beck radio show today. He has a great synopsis of the whole affair. The WSJ didn’t even print the story and in the NYT it was on page 15. I wonder why? It is the biggest scandal in US history.

Reply
- Chuck Dunbar July 21, 2025
  
  In the face of what we’re seeing today in real time, day after day– the steady destruction of norms and law and decency and people’s rights and the safety net–your assertion as to the “biggest scandal in US history,” is pretty far off base.
  
  Reply
  - Chuck Dunbar July 21, 2025
    
    Even if every bit of this “scandal” is found to be fact–and that is a far-stretch–the “victim,” DT, never the less won the election. Helped a good deal, as others have noted, by James Comey. It’s old news and probably another lame “conspiracy”–among all the others in our internet world of disputed “facts” and “reality.”
    
    Reply
    - Rick Swanson July 21, 2025
      
      Not going to argue with you Chuck. People can listen to the episode and make their own minds up
      
      Reply
      - Chuck Dunbar July 21, 2025
        
        Jeff Beck is hardly a reliable source of information, he’s a right-wing shill. People need reliable information from a source that is credible and trustworthy so they can “make their own minds up.” Beck ain’t it.
        
        Reply
        
        Rick Swanson July 21, 2025
        
        I agree Jeff Beck is not a reliable source of information. But he is a hell of a guitar player:)
        
        Reply
        
        Chuck Dunbar July 21, 2025
        
        Good one–old man brain at work here–Glenn Beck was the real guy–heard he plays the oboe, as well as his other gig…
        
        Reply
Chuck Dunbar July 21, 2025

Thanks for your piece on stigma today, Mazie. It’s well done. The point about services offered, but not accepted is a critical one. It’s a longer, more complex task almost always, for many reasons. In CPS, even with parents in court-ordered services who’d had their kids detained for safety, we had to keep trying with many parents over months to get them fully engaged, get clean and sober, become safe caregivers, so the court could release their kids back to them.

I love your message of reducing system barriers—a really big deal for folks who are struggling. Part of trying again and again with folks is gaining trust slowly, building on that, creating some hope, one step at a time. The Boston program for health care for the homeless, in place for decades, uses ongoing outreach to street folks as a base for their help, out on the streets talking with folks over and over, making slow but sure progress in many cases.

Reply
- Mazie Malone July 21, 2025
  
  Thank you Chuck,
  
  It’s been weighing me down for a long time, there are many more points of bias and discrimination I could have included but chose to not go on & on about it. The barriers are many, building communication & trust is essential.
  
  mm 💕
  
  Reply

Mendocino County Today: Monday 7/21/2025

21 Comments

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