Off the Record 8/12/2025

JIM SHIELDS:

It's disappointing but not unexpected but the Supervisors, with the exception of District 3 Supervisor John Haschak, refused to reduce their budget by 6 percent even though they are requiring all other county departments to do so. The BOS budget would only have been reduced by $20,500, which is an insignificant amount. At minimum, the county wastes $20 grand on a daily basis.

Likewise, Haschak proposed that the annual salary of the Board of Supervisors be reduced from $110,715.00 to $103,008. Again, another trifling amount. But again a majority of Supes (Mo Mulheren, Madeline Cline and Bernie Norvell) voted no, while Haschak and Ted Williams voted yes.

Haschak’s argument was given the dire straits of a deficit budget, balanced only by $6 million of one-time funds, coupled with the unknown fiscal effects of a so-called “strategic hiring freeze,” the Supes needed to get onboard and do their part sharing the pain of these tough economic times. But a majority of his colleagues refused to make even a minor sacrifice.

By the way, the CEO’s office estimates that the county is looking at a $16 million structural deficit in next year’s budget.

Go figure.

AS WE PREVIOUSLY NOTED, there was no big report on vacancies and budget status in the July 29 Supervisors agenda packet as promised by Human Resources and the CEO in June. Instead, CEO Darcy Antle mentioned in passing in answer to a casual question from Supervisor Bernie Norvell that there had been no requests to fill vacancies in any general fund departments. That may be because the Department heads of the General Fund departments weren’t aware that they were supposed to ask. Earlier in the meeting, County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder Katrina Bartolomie casually told the Board that she had replaced one appraiser who had quit and one appraiser technician who had left. Bartolomie’s department is one of those General Fund departments. Yet she didn’t bother with the “Strategic Hiring Process” that the CEO and the Board put in place in June. It’s possible that the Assessor’s Office, being a “revenue generator” of sorts, is exempt from the Strategic Hiring Process, but wouldn’t that still be included in the report? With this kind of budget balancing “strategy,” we don’t see how the Board is going to meet their ridiculous $6 million savings target from the Strategic Hiring Process.

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Appropo of nothing in particular and without context, Ms. Bartolomie also told the board that her office had somehow managed to review 4,914 parcels and had come up with a porch, a bunkhouse and some miscellaneus outbuildings that were not on the tax rolls. They also made 242 “discovery requests,” whatever those are (perhaps these are requests of a property owner to provide their own assessment of the “discovered” properties such as that porch), 71 of which were “still outstanding.” Bartolmie added that her office had “anticipated that there would have been more discovery requeats,” but that they had been slowed down because “we had to do extra work to make the system work.”

(Mark Scaramella)

ON-LINE COMMENT re Supervisors’ excessive salaries

Just ‘Measure K’ these knuckleheads – San Bernardino 2020 style.

[Measure K, Board of Supervisors Salary Reduction and Term Limits Charter Amendment (November 2020)]

Capped supervisor compensation at $60,000/year

Limited them to a single 4-year term

Election results

516,184 (YES) – 66.84%

256,098 (NO) – 33.16%

Time for a haircut.

ON A CHILLY JANUARY DAY in 1963, a restless 20-year-old named Janis Joplin left behind the familiar streets of Port Arthur, Texas, with nothing but a hopeful heart and a thumb pointed toward the west. Accompanied by Chet Helms, a scruffy friend who shared her yearning for something beyond the confines of small-town life, Janis set her sights on San Francisco—a city alive with promise, rebellion, and a pulsating beat of creativity. This wasn’t just a move; it was the first step in a journey that would change the face of music forever.

Chet saw in Janis a raw, fierce energy—untamed but magnetic—perfect for a band he knew called Big Brother and the Holding Company. Though Chet would later become a key figure in shaping San Francisco’s counterculture through his legendary “Family Dog” concerts, at that moment, he was simply a believer, walking beside a friend who was destined for greatness. His faith and support became a catalyst, helping Janis break into a scene that was redefining art, freedom, and expression.

That hitchhiked journey west was more than a physical trip; it marked the birth of an icon. Janis’s powerful, soul-stirring voice soon filled venues and captured the hearts of an entire generation hungry for authenticity and emotion. Her music resonated with raw vulnerability and unfiltered passion, making her one of the most unforgettable voices of the era. Nearly sixty years on, Janis Joplin’s story remains a testament to the power of taking a single bold step into the unknown—reminding us all that sometimes, the road less travelled leads not just to new places, but to legend.

MENDOCINO COUNTY DA FACES RECALL EFFORT AFTER 13 YEARS IN POWER

Mendocino County residents launch recall against controversial DA

by Matt LaFever

A grassroots campaign in Mendocino County is mounting a serious challenge to one of the region’s most powerful figures: District Attorney David Eyster. After more than a decade in office — and amid mounting controversies and a surprise term extension — Eyster now faces a formal recall effort led by a coalition of local residents who say it’s time for change.

For 13 years, Eyster has held the top prosecutor seat in Mendocino County, winning three elections unopposed. He was widely expected to seek a fifth term in 2026, but a little-known provision in California’s Assembly Bill 759, passed in 2022, pushed that timeline back. The law moved district attorney and sheriff elections to presidential years to increase voter turnout, effectively extending Eyster’s term to 2028. For critics already uneasy with his record, those extra two years were the final straw.

Supporters say Eyster has made his mark as a tough, engaged prosecutor willing to take on challenging cases. After a mistrial disrupted the prosecution of Devaun Johnson — the man who ignited the devastating Hopkins Fire in 2021 — Eyster personally took over, securing a 15-year prison sentence and $4 million in restitution.

He also led the prosecution of the so-called “Covelo Six,” a brutal case involving the kidnapping, torture, and murder of Covelo residents Kyle McCartney and Traci Bland. The last defendant to be sentenced, Samson Musselini Little Bear Joaquin, admitted to killing both victims with a splitting maul, a kind of fire axe. Joaquin was sentenced to 31 years to life, the maximum allowed.

But while Eyster’s supporters view him as an effective prosecutor, critics point to a series of ethical and legal controversies that have eroded public trust.

One of the most contentious was the launch of his cannabis restitution program, quickly dubbed the “Mendo Shakedown.” The program —legal under state law — allowed defendants to avoid felony charges by paying restitution fees, which sometimes reached over $100,000. Those who paid walked away with misdemeanors. Those who couldn’t faced felony prosecution. The program netted more than $3.7 million for law enforcement agencies and drew harsh criticism from local judges and attorneys.

Public frustration surged again between 2021 and 2022, when three police officers — two in Ukiah and one in Willits — faced serious misconduct allegations. Willits officer Derek Hendry and Ukiah’s Noble Weidlich were fired but never criminally charged. Ukiah officer Kevin Murray, accused of sexual violence by multiple women, received what many called a “sweetheart” deal: two years of probation. Protesters picketed the courthouse with signs reading, “Justice must be served” and “Are you insane? Probation.”

The most recent and polarizing episode involved Eyster’s prosecution of Mendocino County Auditor-Controller Chamise Cubbison, a career civil servant whose fallout with the DA reportedly began after she flagged him for charging steakhouse dinners to county funds. By 2022, Eyster was publicly attacking her in board meetings. In October 2023, he had her arrested on felony charges of misusing $68,000 in COVID payroll funds. She was suspended without pay, forced to sue for her job back, and spent 17 months under legal scrutiny — until a judge dismissed the case, citing no evidence of fraud or concealment.

Even then, the county sought to move her civil case out of Mendocino, alleging local bias. For many, the case reeked of retaliation and abuse of power.

It was this controversy that motivated longtime Ukiah resident Helen Sizemore to take action.

Sizemore is no newcomer to county politics. A resident for over 50 years, she’s worked for Assemblymember Dan Hauser, served as a state Democratic delegate, and currently acts as vice chair of the Inland Democratic Club. Now in her 70s, she’s channeling her grassroots organizing skills into leading the formal campaign to recall Eyster.

Sizemore says the tipping point was Eyster’s targeting of Cubbison. “He decided she needed to go,” Sizemore said, referencing the aftermath of the steakhouse spending dispute. She officially submitted the first round of signatures to launch the recall process.

Sizemore also pointed to the two-year term extension under Assembly Bill 759 as a key motivator. “He will be having too much time left in office,” she said. “If it was just going to be [the] end of 2026, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

Mendocino County Registrar of Voters Katrina Bartolomie confirmed that the campaign has cleared its initial legal hurdles. Her office verified that all signatories were registered county voters and that their signatures matched those on file.

“We did receive the form proof of service, and then we received a copy of the certified mail receipt,” Bartolomie said.

The next step is publishing the notice of intent in a local newspaper. Bartolomoe noted, “We haven’t done a recall election for years.”

If that hurdle is cleared, organizers will have 160 days to gather roughly 8,200 valid signatures. Bartolomie said that if the recall qualifies for the ballot, the county will foot the bill. A standalone special election could cost $250,000, while combining it with the June 2026 primary would result in “a prorated cost of whatever the total election was.”

If voters choose to recall Eyster, the same ballot would include a list of qualified candidates to replace him. “They have to qualify to be district attorney, and there’s a list of qualifications that they have to have,” Bartolomie explained.

Despite Bartolomie’s claim that voters would decide both the recall and the successor on the same ballot, California Elections Code §11382, codified in 2023, explicitly states, “There shall not be an election for a successor in a recall of a local officer.” Instead, the law only specifies that the office “shall be vacant until it is filled according to law.”

Asked what would happen if no one stepped up to run, Bartolomie said she would consult with County Counsel. “This is just the very beginning of it,” she said, adding that it remains unclear whether the Board of Supervisors or the Governor would appoint a replacement.

“Luckily, Mendocino County doesn’t have very many recalls,” she said.

MendoFever reached out to Eyster for comment about the recall effort but did not hear back before publication.

Looking ahead, Sizemore and her small team of determined residents face a steep road — collecting thousands of signatures in a rural county with a scattered population. But she remains resolute. “I’m not intimidated,” she told MendoFever. “I feel good that I can act on my feelings of justice.”

YEAH, I think Eyster should be recalled for misusing the large authority he wields as District Attorney. Always liked the guy myself, especially enjoying his more bombastic episodes. I still laugh when I remember him going off during the marijuana trial of Don Lipmanson when Mrs. Lipmanson asked presiding Judge Gustafason if she could sing her testimony? His Honor, a countercultural sympathizer, said Ok. Eyster erupted. “Sure, why not!. Get out the kazoos. Let’s have a concert!” I knew if I looked over at Mike Geniella, covering the trial for the Press Democrat, neither of us would be able to contain our hilarity. (Mendocino County’s hippies were always as presumptuous as any royal family.)

THE RECALLERS now have 160 days to gather some 8,200 valid signatures, which wouldn’t be easy even if voters were generally aware that the DA had succumbed to the Caesar tendencienies always dormant in his personality to pursue a personal beef. They’ll need a truly committed, informed cadre of signature gatherers to get our rogue DA on the ballot.

USED TO BE that the ruling class, the big money, was hidden away. They went to private schools and married each other right up until 1967 when their daughters started running away with rock bands. Prior, they ripped us off discreetly. They knew that flaunting their privilege was dangerous, especially in an armed, violently turbulent country like ours. To summarize, the old ruling class certainly wouldn’t have thought to invite the media in to watch them marry breast implants.

BEZOS and Trump, to name two of the most prominent current vulgarians, would have been regarded as savages by founding moneybags like Rockefeller and Carnegie, ruthless accumulators themselves but fairly beneficent, leaving great public gifts to the people they’d spent their lives ripping off. The novels of Edith Wharton are pictures of the old rich before, via the miracle of capitalism, magic money billionaires were marrying bimbos in orgiastic media ceremonies.

ONE of the most graceful buildings in Ukiah — no others come to mind — is the old Carnegie Library on South State Street. No longer a library but a living metaphor from a time the rich still felt strong social obligations. The modern titans of free enterprise build something like Mar-a-Lago with gold-plated bathrooms surrounded by armed guards.

CHECK THAT: A pre-War grammar school has been nicely restored as the Ukiah Civic Center purely for the ease and comfort of Ukiah’s metastasizing government. And there’s leafy, graceful Westside Ukiah, and then there’s the rest of town. You can be excused if you wonder what all that government does all day. And shocked that it wants to annex the rest of the Ukiah Valley.

WHAT am I saying here? Not sure, but with all the money in this country, when’s the last time a big fortune erected a building that wasn’t a mammoth eyesore? It matters what things look like. People wouldn’t be going nuts on the scale they do if every town looked like Ferndale.

AS AMERICA UNRAVELS, the nightly news often features spectacular crimes, sure symptoms of terminal social collapse. There are now mass shootings every day somewhere in the land of no gun control and mass mental illness.

LATELY, we’re gotten nightly updates on the murders of four young people in Idaho by a psychopath named Kohberger. There are painful, and painfully exploitative segments of the victim’s parents addressing Kohberger as if a nut like him can be moved by the grief of the people whose lives he’s ruined. But Kohberger is media gold to the ghouls of the David Muir subspecies, and tell me that Muir, in his way, isn’t nearly as psychopathic as Kohberger? How can you fake emotion every day for years and years without being a major psycho yourself?

FRED GARDNER ON DA DAVID EYSTER

Perks routinely devoured by political officeholders, your DA’s $2,500 steakhouse tab is (almost) nothing. Maybe this was a factor when he overreacted to Cubbison questioning his office for that “educational” dinner. Didn’t she know that he was (relatively) a very, very straight arrow? Terence Hallinan, America’s most progressive DA, loved being provided by the ‘49ers with season tickets on the 40-yard line. Nobody ever questioned the propriety of his accepting that gift… When I was paying attention, state legislators used to get all-expenses paid weeks in Hawaii courtesy of the “independent voter project” (a corporate front). Our attorney general Rob Bonta was a grateful beneficiary… Narcs testifying in marijuana cases used to describe the extended training they got on week-long “retreats…” I think the technical term for what happened when Eyster got that pushback from Cubbison is “it blew his mind.”

ALLEN BARR (Covelo Community News & Town Hall)

Our D.A. Dave Eyster is an extraordinary example of someone who keeps our County safe. He has a lot of compassion where that is due and very tough on those he deems beyond reformable.

When I was violently assaulted, went into a four week coma with major ongoing health complications it was his office that took care of my Medical bills as a Victim.

When there was money to be had in the weed business I see nothing wrong in getting money for the county. The Blue line where Policemen are treated special is nothing new anywhere in the Nation or World, it’s unfair but a fact of life. We all treat those we know and like more leniently than those we do not know, It’s how us Humans are.

At least here in Mendocino County they do in fact prosecute small crimes in order to stop criminal behavior from escalating, a far cry from those DAs further South who enable rampant criminal behavior.

MARILYN DAVIN

Mainstream News Directors: I offer a bit of free, undoubtedly unwelcome advice on your current news coverage:

1.) Our uneducated, opportunistic president could care less about antisemitism, or for that matter the welfare of any individual group. More Jews live in New York than in Tel Aviv: Trump only cares about this educated and well-heeled voting block to gain its support, ironically blackmailing universities and colleges as the hammer to cement that support. Critically, as news directors, you have a moral and factual obligation to remind your gullible audiences that “antisemitism” is a misleading cop-out interpretation of demonstrations held here and around the world. Most of those demonstrators wouldn’t recognize the Torah if it hit them over the head. It’s the State of Israel’s genocide in Gaza that’s driving the bus. You are responsible for pointing out this critical factual difference.

2.) I get it: There’s nothing easier to gather or more provocative to present than “justice for the families” as part of your coverage of an increasing number of highly publicized murders. What do you expect a family to say about the brutal murder of a loved one? Shame on you, the only lazier way to “report” a story is the dread “man on the street” interview. Violent crime is a matter for our courts, not some vague, incendiary notion of family “justice” (revenge in a nicer package). If families increase their high-profile posturing in these legal proceedings, apparently with every elected official’s public agreement, we might as well go back to clans killing one another directly for wrongdoing, real or perceived. And what if anything does revenge accomplish? “Closure” is a myth, as anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one knows only too well.

FORT BRAGG POLICE CHIEF NEIL CERVENKA ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

After three years of dedicated service to the City of Fort Bragg, Police Chief Neil Cervenka has announced his retirement, with his final day of service set for September 30, 2025.

Chief Cervenka joined the Fort Bragg Police Department with a vision to modernize the agency, strengthen community trust, and support the professional growth of its officers. In just three years, he successfully led transformative changes that will leave a lasting impact on the department and the community.

Under his leadership, the department:

• Modernized its patrol fleet, gaining national recognition for its vehicles.
• Overhauled policies and procedures and expanded training programs beyond minimum standards.
• Enhanced the working environment by investing in employee wellness, recognition, and leadership development.
• Established a Social Services Unit that addresses homelessness, mental health, and substance use—quickly becoming a model for other agencies.
• Strengthened community engagement and improved the department’s brand and public image.

“From an agency ridiculed to an agency revered—that was all you,” Chief Cervenka told staff in his retirement announcement, crediting the department’s success to the dedication and professionalism of its team. “It’s better to leave while the department is rising—so you all know our success was because of you, not because of the person sitting in the Chief’s chair.”

Chief Cervenka’s 32-year career in uniform includes 25 years in law enforcement and prior service to his country in the United States Air Force. He plans to remain in Fort Bragg with his family following his retirement.

Mayor Jason Godeke also reflected on Cervenka’s retirement:

“Chief Cervenka is an extraordinary public servant. He has contributed to our town in so many ways - through Police Department initiatives, policies, community culture - as well as his own volunteerism out in the community. His efforts to strengthen the department and build trust with residents will have a lasting impact. On behalf of the City Council, I want to thank him for his service and wish him well in his retirement.”

City Manager Isaac Whippy expressed his gratitude for Chief Cervenka’s contributions:

“Chief Cervenka has provided steady leadership during an important period of change for the Fort Bragg Police Department. His focus on modernizing operations, transforming the department’s culture, and supporting staff has positioned the department for continued success. We appreciate his service and the foundation he leaves for the team moving forward.”

The City of Fort Bragg will announce the next steps regarding the Police Chief transition in the coming weeks.

SO, what's next? I'm predicting an American Reichstag. Before Trump's term is up the Magas will manufacture an emergency, or react to a real one, by declaring martial law, announcing that things are too precarious for them to give up power. “America needs a firm hand at the helm during this difficult time. For the good of the nation we'll be staying on.”

TRUMP'S giant son, Barron, although young, will be installed as front man and handed a daily script, a la Biden, unlike Dad who winged it every day for 8 years. Barron seems, so far, to lack the viciousness of other Trump spawn but may grow into it given his pedigree and social circle. Or they, the chief Magas, will find a charismatic, articulate tough guy with a special forces background — they probably already have their eye on likely prospects — and install him. But no way are they, the best friends our oligarchy has ever had, giving up their seats at the power levers.

IT WAS BRAZEN and spectacular, a very big event for Mendocino County when, on a hot July 1984 day a little after noon, six armed robbers held up a Brinks armored truck on Highway 20 just north of Ukiah, getting away with roughly $3.6 million cash, 8-plus mil in today's money.

THE BANDITS were a white supremacist group called “the order,” or “the Silent Brotherhood.” They deployed two pickup trucks to box in the Brink's truck as it slowed on the uphill side of Highway 20 at Redwood Valley as their leader, Robert ‘Bob’ Mathews, lept on the front fender of the truck to penetrate the truck's windshield with three high powered rifle rounds, convincing the two black crewmen to stop the truck and cooperate.

CONNOISSEURS of this event probably have read up on the etiology of the robbery, which I thought I knew until I downed ‘The Order: Inside America's racist underground’ by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt, but this fascinating, and meticulously researched episode in Mendo's often lurid history quickly convinced me I was mostly ignorant.

I WILL spare you a review of the whole story because what intrigued me most was the unique psycho-journey of The Order's leader, Bob Mathews. If there's such a thing as a natural born extremist it was this guy.

AS AN 11-year-old, when his peers were gearing up for Little League and Cub Scouts, Mathews demanded that his mystified parents allow him to attend meetings of the Phoenix chapter of the John Birch Society (! ). The lad was duly ferried to meetings by elderly Bircher crackpots until he began high school. (Mathews' parents would remain bewildered by their wayward son until he died shooting it out with the FBI at age 31.)

AS a high school kid, and by then fanatically opposed to ZOG, the fascist delusion that America is a "Zionist Occupied Government," Mathews was a wholly committed gun guy spending weekends with co-religionists out in the desert drilling for the big push against ZOG. A natural leader, especially among basically crazy people, Mathews was fully committed to overthrowing the government until the government ended him at age 31.

IN THE RUN-UP to their big robbery on Highway 20, the boys spent time in Ukiah, often lounging around on the Courthouse lawn where they amused themselves playing “Name That Creature,” guessing at how many races passersby carried in their genes.

THERE are many nut groups in our seething country, but from what we know about contemporary nutballs in their organized states, the Mathews gang of the early 1980s was ahead of its time in commitment and discipline. ZOG seems to be keeping the lid clamped tight on them. Of course the more active fascists of the Mathews type have to be pleased with the Trump reign, and will provide a lot of the local muscle when the Maga coup jumps off.

AFTER three years of dedicated service to the City of Fort Bragg, Police Chief Neil Cervenka has announced his retirement, with his final day of service set for September 30, 2025.'

WITH THE NOTABLE EXCEPTION OF JOHN NAULTY, FORT BRAGG POLICE CHIEF NEIL CERVENKA succeeded a series of pension padders while the free range deranged roamed downtown and drug dealers sold death without fear of consequence. Building on Naulty’s original idea, Cervanka systematically, humanely, sorted out the "homeless" — this one here, that one there, a bunch back where they came from. Supported by a clear-thinking city council, Cervenka showed it could be done, an encouraging fact wilfully ignored by the City of Ukiah, county headquarters for an array of "helping" agencies who aggressively resist effective strategies for humanely re-taking the town's public areas because, well, they live off human misery.

IN FACT, when the County paid an outside consultant to instruct local authorities on how to diminish the homeless population, the majority of whom, as we know, are drug and alcohol addicted, insane, and criminal, the helping pros, in a panic, convened a mass meeting in the Ukiah City Caverns vowing to resist any and all changes to more of the same. The County will miss Chief Cervenka.

GHISLAINE MAXWELL, and let me be the first in my rural neighborhood to say it isn't very interesting, less interesting to me even than the entire Epstein scandal, as if there's anything surprising about the depravity of rich degenerates. Degenerates of modest means don't have the reach of Epstein, and there are millions of them, as we know. In a porn-basted world it's surprising there aren't more sexual crimes against women. Make pornography seriously illegal and pull the plug on the internet and we'd be back to global normal, which is plenty awful on its own.

ADMIT IT, fellow lib-labs, wasn't there something fishy about Russiagate from the git? Of course the Rooskies preferred Trump over Hillary. Hillary was one more cold warrior — ice cold in her case — hostile to Russia, while Trump was some kind of a super vain clown the crafty Putin could easily have his way with.

WHEN Russiagate unraveled, and continues to unravel, it's one more sad example of mass media corruption. So eager were the big media to promote Hillary over Trump they simply ignored the evidence that Russiagate was front-to-back bullshit. Now the lib perps are reduced to saying, “Well, gosh, the Russians still tried to interfere with our elections.” Of course they did. That's what hostile powers do. You don't think we don't try to bamboozle the Russians, the Chinese?

TRUMP has always been appalling. You wouldn't think there would be such a huge need among the Democrats, rancid in their own right, of course, to make him out worse than he is. Russiagate seemed like piling on in 2016. But here he comes again, even more unfit than in 2016, talking about immigrants eating America's household pets, and he gets re-elected in a landslide! The excessive lying about Trump has probably made him even more vindictive and destructive than he might otherwise be. It's an incentive for him, for sure.

SPEAKING of Russian interference in America's seething mass mind, the Russian's anti-Ukraine propaganda has prompted the more weak-brained lefties, and the dependably gullible Magas, that Ukraine was and is a CIA manufactured entity created for the purpose of menacing Russia. Boiled down, untrue. At the time of Putin's invasion, and now, the vast Ukrainian opinion is of one independent people who prefer to be aligned with Western Europe, not Russian authoritarianism, and thousands of Ukranians have died trying. People don't risk their necks for a fake nation. (And you're telling me that you support a Russia that lobs missiles into civilian apartment buildings night after night?)

BRUCE McEWEN: "Hey, Chief, while you’re on the comment page, do you think it possible that the tedious antisemite Pat Kittle was involved in that zog conspiracy with this Bob Mathews and His Band Of Hooligans?. You always find amazing things in your tireless reading and research, and I have always envied the style and taste you use in laying out the paper—online or otherwise— so it comes off every week as a thematic masterpiece, hang in there, maestro…"

I VAGUELY recall encountering Kittle back in the early 90's. He may have been an Earth First!er, a group partial to wacky-think. But I think he's simply one more dupe of bad ideas. He's in the ZOG ballpark for sure. Why he glommed onto the ava I don't know. Kittle's obviously a charter member of that particular dunce confederacy, but lots of innocent people are getting tagged as anti-Semites these days for simply opposing Israel's ongoing attempt to extinguish Palestinians as a people. Way back, I was invited to speak in Berkeley when, during questions, this guy pops up to say, “Why is that anti-Semite Alexander Cockburn in your paper?” Cockburn, for years, was one of the few big gun intellectuals to regularly roll out to defend the Palestinians, and certainly no anti-Semite.

RE Mathews and The Order fanatics, you might be interested to know they were already planning an attack on Brinks' San Francisco headquarters before they successfully hijacked the Brinks truck north of Ukiah on Highway 20. I guess their thinking was, “Why knock off one truck at a time when we can plunder the entire NorCal headquarters down there in Frisco?”

ON-LINE JOB ADVICE TO THE YOUNG: “I've been working steady for the past 32 years, have never collected unemployment, never been out of work for more than a few weeks, so I feel like I know something about the job market, and I think if a young person just ready to enter the labor force were to ask me for advice, I would say, Don't follow my example. Don't plan on working for a paycheck from now until you retire. Plan on being an entrepreneur. Get your contractor's license, open a muffler shop, open a co-op bakery, start some online enterprise, if that's your thing, just get as far away as you can as fast as you can from the ‘job market’ and the resume game and the promotion game and all of that nonsense. One way or another, you're just going to be exploited, and you'll spend your life working to create wealth for somebody else, not for yourself.”

YOSSARIAN — the very sight of the name made him shudder. There were so many esses in it. It just had to be subversive. It was like the word subversive itself. It was like seditious and insidious too, and like socialist, suspicious, fascist and Communist.

— Joseph Heller, Catch 22

AS A FORMER CONTRIBUTOR to the late, lamented Lies of Our Times (LOOT), not much shocks me about the New York Times anymore. But describing the daily massacres of starving Palestinians at food stations as a “crude form of crowd control” made me gasp in astonishment…

— Jeffrey St Clair

JEFFREY ST. CLAIR (CounterPunch,org): Mark Brauner, an emergency room physician from Eugene, Oregon, who just returned from volunteering in Gaza: “A lot of children have passed the point of no return…The gut lining has started to auto-digest and will no longer [absorb] water or nutrition. Death is imminent for 1000s.”

• Trump is mad because starving families in Gaza haven’t said thank-you for the pittance of food he’s sent to Gaza…

REPORTER: Should Israel be doing more to allow food into Gaza?

TRUMP: Say it, again?

REPORTER: Should Israel be doing more to allow food into Gaza?

TRUMP: What is she saying?

SOMEONE ELSE: Should Israel be doing more to allow food in Gaza?

TRUMP: We gave $60 million two weeks ago and no one even acknowledged it for food. And it’s terrible, you really at least want to have somebody say thank you. We gave $60 million two weeks ago for food for Gaza. And nobody acknowledged it. Nobody talks about it. It makes you feel bad when you do that and you have other countries not giving anything. None of the European countries, by the way, gave…nobody gave but us. And nobody said, Gee, thank you very much. It would be nice to have at least a thank you. And I took a lot of heat. You know, when I do that, a lot of people aren’t happy about that because they say, Well, why are we doing it and nobody else. But I think we had a, uh, humanitarian reason for doing it. What’s going to happen, I don’t know. I can tell you that Hamas, as I said, would happen at the end. You know we’ve gotten back a lot of hostages, a tremendous number of hostages. Most of them. Now we have dead hostages and the mothers want them back.”

Nick Maynard, a surgeon who volunteered at a hospital in southern Gaza, wrote in The Guardian:

“I’ve just finished operating on another severely malnourished young teenager. A seven-month-old baby lies in our pediatric intensive care unit, so tiny and malnourished that I initially mistook her for a newborn. The phrase ‘skin and bones’ doesn’t do justice to the way her body has been ravaged. She is literally wasting away before our eyes and, despite our best efforts, we are powerless to save her.”

THERE IS NO REVENGE OF THE NERDS

“Is no revenge on the nerds, you know what, last year when everything collapsed, all it meant was the nerds lost out once again and the jocks won. Same as always … Some of the quants are smart, but quants come, quants go, they’re just nerds for hire with a different fashion sense. The jocks may not know a stochastic crossover if it bites them on the ass, but they have that drive to thrive, they’re synced into them deep market rhythms, and that’ll always beat out nerditude no matter how smart it gets.”

– Thomas Pynchon, ’Bleeding Edge’

OBVIOUSLY, where art has it over life is in the matter of editing. Life can be seen to suffer from a drastic lack of editing. It stops too quick, or else it goes on too long. Worse, its pacing is erratic. Some chapters are little more than a few sentences in length, while others stretch into volumes. Life, for all its raw talent, has little sense of structure. It creates amazing textures, but it can't be counted on for snappy beginnings or good endings either. Indeed, in many cases no ending is provided at all.

— Larry McMurtry

I WENT TO THE HOSPITAL a few months ago because I thought I broke my arm. First they told me that the x-ray wasn’t covered by my health insurance. Then they told me that even if it was, they didn’t have a radiologist on staff at the time. What kind of raggedy ass health insurance coverage doesn’t cover x-rays? And why doesn’t the hospital have a radiologist on dayshift reading x-rays? I’m not messing with it anymore. I’m not going to the doctor anymore. From now on if I get hurt, I’m going to the vet! Vets are better than doctors on so many levels. First, vets never refer you to another vet. Doctors are specialized. They have a limited scope of expertise. Doctors will say, ‘I do internal medicine,’ or ‘I fix bones,’ or ‘I only work ear-nose and throat.’ Vets don’t give a shit what species you are! Anything that comes in the door, they’ll take it. They don’t care if it’s a pitbull, or a kitten, or a goldfish – lay that shit on the table. I’ll fix it! I don’t care. You got a sick parakeet, I’m ready to go. I do birds. I don’t care. And vets always give you options. Vets say, ‘Look, this surgery is going to be very expensive and it’s very complicated. I’m not sure if it’s going to work. If you want, I could just kill you.’ That’s always on the table. ‘We got a van out back, I’ll put you to sleep and we’ll just truck you off to wherever you want to go. It’ll cost 100 bucks. No grief for the family.We’ll take care of this shit right now.’ I’m not saying vets are the best option. I’m just saying I like knowing the vet option is available.

— Alonzo Bodden

THE FIRST WRITING I ever did was sportswriting for the Daily Tar Heel. I had these tough, old, hard-bitten editors from the Atlanta Constitution giving me what-for. I had a teacher, Skipper Coffin. He’d tell us, ‘When I say, ‘Get the story,’ I mean who, what, where, when, why and how — in that order.’ After the war there were two guys for every journalism job — the one who had it before the war and the one who took it during the war. Then there was me. The third guy.

— Lawrence Ferlinghetti

POLITICS — who collects what tax money and how much in order to benefit whom — is the one subject no politician is allowed to address. That's why we get nothing but junk news while the fact that corporations pay little or no tax on profits is a non-subject, as is the citizen's income tax (large), for which he gets no health service.

— Gore Vidal

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] Cats should remain indoors considering all of the birds and lizards outdoor cats kill. There are many ways to control the scratching that cats will do, so the excuse that cats ruin furniture is null. We use a waste wood product for litter and we strictly limit how much food our cats eat so they are not overweight. We adopted our most recent cats from a cat shelter.

[2] I think America is spelled with a "c", not a "k", but I might be wrong. If I AM wrong I apologize, if I'm right (I'm pretty sure I am), then I'll feel better about inserting myself into this brave discussion for which I'm ill-equipped to participate, as I have a below normal IQ and nothing very admirable in my suitcase of attributes (not an actual suitcase, just using it as a meet the floor. Anyway, again: sorry for my intrusion, please carry on your riveting discussion of AmeriCa's plusses and minuses (I made the C bigger than the other letters to drive home my spelling lecture, I have looked it up several times now and literally everybody spells America the way it is spelled here, that is to say: no "K". Ready for my hilarious parting gift? Here we go: "I am 99% positive that America is spelled with a "C" and not a "K", ok? Ok!" (Wow, that made me laugh so hard I did a spit take and because I am drinking vodka, I made many people here in Washington Square Park angry with me, vodka is clingy and stinky and a guy in AA (alcoholics are anonymous) is now suing me for drenching him with the vodka that blasted out of my mouth, but look: I'm glad Alaska is part of the US, I hope the calm light of day makes you rethink your distaste for that beautiful conundrum (I just looked up conundrum and it doesn't mean what I thought it meant - "land parcel" - so it's a conundrum as to why I thought otherwise! Hahahahahaha, here come more of da vodka! ("Da" is "the")

[3] For over a century baseball was America's pastime. Football overtook baseball in popularity some time in the 1960s but I really didn't notice until I was older and everyone had TV and "the game was on". The game was football, not the baseball I loved crackling from my father's transistor radio. I find basketball more exciting than football myself, but not every kid can dream of being a basketball player. Genetics limit that. I don't know how you convince kids, or their parents, that football causes brain damage. Even Muhammad Ali shaking from Parkinson's disease didn't dissuade boxing fans from enjoying watching men punch each other in the face.

[4] I’m a boomer at 75 yo. I’ve never subscribed to a newspaper. I have not seen an alphabet newscast or local newscast since my 1984 divorce. Clinton was president for months before I even knew what he looked like. Saw a pic of him and pants suit on the front of a mag at the grocery checkout line. I’m a rural dweller that has never voted for a Dem, but found globalists like the Bush family a far cry from conservative. Obama’s eight years brought the country to its knees. I think that the bad wrap the Boomers get certainly does not apply to me and other people I know - hard working, raising families of more hard working people who respect laws, pay bills and stay out of debt.

[5] And for all the people out there who are like, “Oh, my God, I’m so tired of this story”

I can’t even comprehend that complaint. For ten years we heard Russia Russia Russia. Now that it has been exposed as a complete fabrication by politicians, intelligence agencies, and the media, we’re supposed to pretend it never happened?

People are sick and tired of living in a PretendLand and being lectured by liars and airheads. This is a chance to restore a semblance of legitimacy to our American system of governance. This isn’t just a big story, it’s the only story. Short of nuclear war breaking out, there’s nothing more deserving of coverage.

Our leaders have done, and continue to do, things that go against every human system of justice, formal or informal, in all of human history. It is time for it to end.

[6] I don't think much changes as long as central banks like The Fed are allowed to exist. Its monetary policy is at the root of every single problem. Within a couple short years it managed to wipe out the dream of home ownership & financial security for younger generations while facilitating the greatest transfer of wealth in history. Half our nation has lost or is losing all hope of ever getting ahead because of inflation. When people have nothing to lose, they're gonna lose it as the veil is lifted on all these 'conspiracy theories' like RussiaGate that keep coming true. If govt won't do anything, some people will … hence the un-alived healthcare CEO last year, and the recent NYC murders that included a Blackstone exec who was in charge of their core/real estate division.

[7] At this moment I am negotiating a possible asset sale of the small manufacturing company I founded and have been running for over 20 years. Looks like I won't make very much for my trouble. That is because I made a poor decision two decades ago to get into a business of making high quality tangible goods in the US, instead of running some elaborate tech, crypto or medical grift. Or making mid six figures in the government administration space (I haven't made six figures in a quarter century).

Sometimes I am appalled at how younger people seem to be chasing so many scams these days, but maybe, looking at who wins and who loses in modern America, I shouldn't blame them.