Mendocino County Today: Monday 8/25/2025

Warm Interior | Grange Volunteers | Fiber Cut | Glass Beach | Save Pillsbury | Relaxed Cat | Vet Bills | Private Cove | Dave's Side | Yorkville Social | South Won | Horszowski Trio | Indigenous Art | Yesterday's Catch | Joe & Rye | Pickett Fire | John Gardner | Babbitt | News | Martial-Like | Banana Oil | Get Drunk | Lord Message | Giants Win | Wingbaby | Tsunami Warning | Sixpence Moon | Clinton Duffy | Billy Bob | Shameless Nan | Like Huckabee | No Trespassing | Press Power | Lead Stories | Signing Bonus | Olive Trees | Great Wrong | The Kentuckian | Trumple Deep | The Trial | AI Cartoons | Wyeth Watercolor | Change Sonnet

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YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Covelo 104°, Laytonville 99°, Ukiah 97°, Yorkville 94°, Boonville 92°, Fort Bragg 66°, Point Arena 59°

INTERIOR HIGH TEMPERATURE will continue to run above normal through Tuesday. Monsoonal moisture moving into the area will bring an increase thunderstorm potential across the interior higher terrain in Trinity County and surrounding terrain on Monday and Tuesday, with isolated thunderstorm possible on Wednesday. Gradual cooling temperatures across the interior through the end of the week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): We have a mix of high & low clouds on the coast this Monday morning with a warm 54F. Sunny on Saturday? You do the breath holding please.

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“RAISE THE GRANGE, Lift the Valley,” is an effort to repair the AV Grange! A big “Thank you” to the construction crew and especially the great valley volunteers Laura B, Capt Rainbow, Brett, Scott, Nate, Willy, Greg, & Julie Winchester!

You can also help easily by donating online to help us recover costs via Venmo@AVgrange or our GoFundme: https://gofund.me/702764ef. Checks can be mailed to AVGrange PO Box 363, Philo, Ca

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FURTHER REACH RESTORED!

I am very happy to report that as of about 4:00 p.m. Sunday the Further Reach internet system is fully restored. Reports say the cause of the optical cable cut near Ukiah was vandalism. That cable was the main data connection between Further Reach and the greater internet network. There’s nothing like 24 hours without TV, phone, email, and web to make one appreciate the value of good internet service. The outage was upstream from Further Reach, and not their fault. They have provided exceptionally good and reliable internet service at my Little River place for the past several years. Even during this main data outage, Further Reach provided a minimal connection by alternative routing.

Nick Wilson

Little River Airport Road

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AN ICONIC CALIFORNIA BEACH IS A 'PIT TO HELL'

Tourists dream of gems found at Fort Bragg's Glass Beach. Locals see danger, erosion and broken ankles.

by Matt LaFever

Fort Bragg’s Glass Beach is one of the Mendocino Coast’s most photographed destinations. A quick Google search turns up turquoise Pacific waters, foamy white surf and a dazzling blanket of sea glass shimmering across the shore. Six hours north of San Francisco along the Pacific Coast Highway, the remote stretch still draws crowds. A city study found more than 12,000 visitors funneled through a single entry point in one day.

Visit Fort Bragg, the city’s tourism campaign, calls Glass Beach one of its “main attractions,” promoted as an easy stop along the coastal trail.

But locals paint a different picture. As resident Gabriel Quinn Maroney told the City Council in June, the so-called jewel of Fort Bragg is, in his words, “a pit to hell.”

Maroney, a regular at City Council meetings, reminded the room, “Whenever I talk to tourists, they almost always mention Glass Beach.”

But the view he describes isn’t the tranquil, rainbow-tinted shoreline splashed across Fort Bragg’s tourism posters.

“Whenever I go on the trail … there’s just like this pit to hell to go down there,” Maroney said. “There’s just like an open thing. And I see all these elderly people crawling down. It just looks dangerous.”

Maroney later provided SFGATE with photos of the so-called pit, a steep gully carved into the bluff, plunging 40 feet from the coastal trail to the sand below.

Fort Bragg Fire Department Chief Steve Orsi didn’t sugarcoat the hazard. Asked about the area, he put it plainly: “All it would take is one little slip … and bad things can happen.”

The irony, of course, is that the beauty of Glass Beach owes its sparkle to garbage. Beginning in 1906, Fort Bragg residents treated the coastline as a dump, hurling bottles and household waste over the bluffs. For more than six decades, the practice scarred three stretches of shoreline. The southernmost stretch, Site 1, and its northern neighbor, Site 2, sit within city limits. Site 3, farther north, falls inside MacKerricher State Park.

Site 2 — the stretch that some locals call the “pit to hell” — landed on the City Council’s agenda in January 2017, when members had the opportunity to forever mend the literal tourist trap.

On a phone call with SFGATE, longtime councilmember Lindy Peters recalled how guidance from the California Coastal Commission — concerned about “native plants on that cliff” — blocked the city from boring into the ground or securing cement for a proper staircase. The solution was a set of parallel cables with high steps in between, which Peters compared to Yosemite’s Half Dome.

Peters said the problem was that someone broke their ankle climbing the cables, and it was a liability issue for the city.

After the cable system proved too risky and was damaged in winter storms, Fort Bragg tore it out, and the City Council backed a proposal from a local contractor to build what then-City Manager Linda Ruffing dubbed a “stairway fortress.” She said the design was “made of a material that should really hold up” and predicted it would withstand Pacific weather “forever.” The price tag: between $170,000 and $195,000.

Even after paying a firm to design new stairs, the city scrapped the plan in 2019 without an alternative in mind.

Despite all the risky stunts he sees, Orsi says the coastal bluffs don’t account for nearly as many injuries as you’d expect. When he walks the trail and watches tourists scramble along the cliffs, he often winces. “I see people doing stuff that make me cringe,” he told SFGATE. “You would think we’d be going out there a few times a week, and we really seldomly get called out there.”

Maroney described watching tourists claw their way down what he called the “pit mine.”

He shared a photograph showing two people literally on their hands and knees, scrambling up the gully — proof, he said, of the absurd lengths people will go for sea glass that barely exists anymore. “I don’t really think there’s much, you know, glass left ‘cause people take it even though, you know, you’re not really supposed to take it.”

Watching the frenzy, Maroney couldn’t help but joke about what might come next: Are visitors “going to start spelunking to find the glass?”

Bill Maslach, Sonoma-Mendocino Coast District superintendent for California State Parks, acknowledged the hazards at Glass Beach, calling it “a naturally steep and eroding bluff.” He noted that “while some sections are very steep, there is also an area that follows more natural ramp-like contours and is somewhat more accessible,” pointing to Site 3 inside MacKerricher State Park.

Maslach also admitted the beach’s namesake is fading. “Combined with erosion and years of visitors collecting glass, the amount of sea glass has greatly diminished,” he said.

Maslach said that State Parks has “no approved projects for new infrastructure at this time,” adding that any future proposal would need to be balanced against the “protection of the coastal environment.”

Cristal Muñoz, a representative for Visit Fort Bragg, echoed the safety concerns. “All visitors exploring our beautiful, rugged coastline should use caution. Treat every shoreline with care, respect the environment and wildlife, and make safety your top priority.” She added, “Undeveloped sections of the coast require common sense and good judgment. If a route seems questionable, pick a safer option or choose a more accessible viewpoint nearby.”

Muñoz emphasized that the city isn’t turning a blind eye. “We welcome suggestions and continue working with our partners to encourage responsible access and a safe, enjoyable visit for everyone.”

Six years after voting to abandon the staircase plan, even Peters concedes that the signs and ropes don’t help. “People don’t really pay attention,” he said. “… Just letting them go out there is inviting trouble.” And Peters knows this personally. Guiding friends down to Glass Beach one afternoon, he turned his back on the bluff and, as he put it, “down I went.” He walked after the tumble, but it’s a reminder that even the people who have tried to fix Fort Bragg’s most famous attraction can’t escape the fall.

(sfgate.com)

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WHERE ARE THE PRO-LAKE PROTESTS?

To the Editor:

I find it interesting that Ukiahians are not protesting, for our own lake, and Russian River. Our own agriculture and our own farmland. It is beyond my comprehension that all these years, I see protests for people and causes far far away. But when a local calamity is about to ensue, nothing but crickets in town. The entire ecosystems & economy is based on water, from reservoirs. The seismic studies used to validate removal of Scott dam, by corporate PG&E, where exaggerated. A fish ladder is what is needed. Pools along areas for Salmonoids, can be put in by agencies. And salmon do need saving. But as I write, much larger polution, is coming from Japan, as Carbon 14 & Tritium radioactive waste water, from reactors, are released and will be released, for decades into the ocean. Salmon live their lives, in the ocean. Breeding beds, pools through summer, all exist right now, because water is let flow, and controlled, to keep water flowing, through summer. A River that completely dries up, wether Russian or Eel, cannot bring salmon back, if another drought, happens again. We had a great record rainfall days this year. The first in a long, long, time. Please people, I implore you. Write politicians and save water, for the really tough times, ahead. For fire supression in Mendocino National Forest. Save farms, cattle ranches, vineyards, cannabis farms, pear orchards, new berry farms, and the future of potential food prosperity, grown right here, in our backyard.

There is a way, to do both…but politicians, are not even listening or trying to see alternatives. Which means we lose a lot. And will be asked by them, to pay, a lot, in new taxes, for nothing but dry lakes and dry river beds. Not to mention flood control in winter. Sometimes the heavens open up and pour buckets of water on us. Will places along the river be able to cope? The consequences, have not been really discussed about that part of this dam removal. Thats a lot of water stored, in a safe way.

Save Lake Pillsbury, Lake Mendocino, The Russian River

Catherine Lair

Ukiah

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A CAUSE OF EVER-INCREASING VET BILLS

by Jim Shields

Ever wonder why Vet visits are causing folks to take out a second mortgage to pay for an office visit?

Many people consider their pets family, so when a pet gets sick, they will often will go to great lengths to treat their furry friends, sometimes racking up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.

For 25 years the Shields family has operated a family-funded cat care and rescue organization. At any given time we’ll have somewhere between 30-to-60 felines to care for. We’re constantly trapping and spay-neutering, and treating sick cats. We do as much of the “vet care” as we are qualified to do. But still there times when cats require a veterinary visit, and the costs keep rising.

The cost of vet care has gone up an astounding 60% over the last decade. Here’s a quick summary identifying several factors driving up vet bills.

One of the biggest reasons that costs are rising is the ongoing corporatization of small vet practices,

The vets were saying, “We feel terrible about this, but running a vet practice is expensive. We have exorbitant student loans to pay off. We need to make a living also.’ And their own practices are being bought up by big companies.”

Private equity firms, owned by billionaires and millionaires, are working to buy-up every small business in particular fields and then jack up prices. They’re creating monopolies and manipulating the market for those services. This is happening with laundromats, plumbers, heating/air companies, veterinary clinics, funeral services, ambulance companies, private schools, apartment complexes, nursing homes/elder care, newspapers… This list goes on… They plan to squeeze every penny out of people. They don’t factor the human cost of all this.

The government should use anti-trust laws and rules against price fixing to stop it.

More than half of owners – including those in high earning households – have skipped necessary veterinary care in the previous year or declined recommended treatment at some point in the past, mostly because of the associated costs, a national study has found.

Seven in 10 people who skipped or declined care cited cost as the main reason, saying they couldn’t afford it or didn’t think it worth the expenditure, according to the study conducted by PetSmart Charities and Gallup.

The results were surprisingly similar across all income levels, PetSmart Charities president Aimee Gilbreath said, demonstrating the need for vets to better accommodate their clients’ financial concerns.

“There’s a narrative that says this only affects folks in the bottom part of the income spectrum,” Gilbreath said. “But it’s all across the spectrum. That surprised me – and it worries me. If folks in the top half are struggling to afford primary vet care, who can afford vet care now?”

According to “The State of Pet Care” report, vet care costs in the U.S. have soared more than 60% since 2014, forcing many owners to forgo recommended treatment for their pets, sometimes with life-threatening consequences.

At least 60% of households have a pet, and people love them as family members,” Gilbreath said. “We don’t think they should be a luxury item. They’re good for people’s mental, physical and emotional health, and if it becomes unaffordable that’s a really sad situation.”

The survey of 2,498 U.S adults owning at least one dog or cat, conducted between November 2024 and January 2025, found that 52% of pet owners had skipped or declined care.

Diagnostic procedures (22%), vaccinations (18%) and elective surgeries (16%) were the most commonly declined pet health care services, but 11% said they had turned down recommended medications and 7% said they had refused lifesaving surgeries.

Of those who skipped or declined care, 71% of respondents said cost was the key factor. While that response was highest (80%) among those with a household income of between $36,000 and $60,000, nearly two-thirds (66%) of those earning $90,000 or more said the same.

Quite a story isn’t it? I wonder where and when it’s going to end.

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WHAT’S DAVE’S SIDE OF THE STORY?

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

For a decade or more Dave Eyster had been striding along nicely, doing well, sitting pretty, operating his local Inmate Prison Assembly Line with great efficiency, if not much compassion.

But who wants a compassionate District Attorney anyway?

Enough that he maintains a brisk pace packing local criminals off to lockdown duty, and keeping his office scandal free.

Then, after many years hiking in the general direction of retirement, Dave Eyster stepped in a messy pile of manure of his own making. Yes, he’d dropped a load, then turned back and stepped in it, stepped in it again, then stomped up and down on it and finally laid down and rolled like a dog in his own stinking mess.

Not exactly unprecedented: It happens.

The sense I get around Ukiah, and maybe around the county, is that Dave Eyster stinks and we ought to get rid of him, There’s news of a recall. There’s talk of the county being on the hook for, potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, in legal fees, lawsuit settlements and the like.

What there is not, and never has been, is any sort of explanation from Dave Eyster about this mess he’s made and that has brought him to the point of loathing, disrespect and getting tossed out of office.

But I have always thought Dave, a master at the art of Opening Statements and Closing Arguments, could explain things in public. He could mount the county courthouse steps some sunny morning and offer a succinct, plausible and perhaps even sympathetic explanation for all this.

Suppose he were to draw our collective attention back to the bad old days of marijuana prosecutions in Mendocino County. The rules, regulations, laws and practices were confusing, stupid, punitive and forever changing.

Mendocino County District Attorneys going back to Joe Allen and up through Vivian Rackauckas, Susan Massini, Norm Vroman and Meredith Lintott had grappled with approaches to weed prosecution sanity, and all had failed.

Then came Dave Eyster, and he might remind us while speaking from those courthouse steps, how he had simply wiped the cobwebs and confusion aside, and offered simple solutions to those arrested on a marijuana offense: Face jail time or pay a hefty fine.

What did these defendants all do? Why, they paid fees ranging from big to gigantic. This resulted in many things, all of them good. It reduced the jail population, it reduced the headaches the judges were experiencing, it stuffed many hundreds of thousands of dollars into county coffers, and remind me—what was the downside?

Dave might have said all that, but of course in a more persuasive manner. He might have pointed out that, given the marijuana money he brought into the county coffers, it was petulant to scold him for spending nickels and dimes on annual DA Christmas fiestas at The Broiler.

And la affaire Cubbison, he could add, would not have been possible without the enthusiastic participation of county administrators eager to mesh county offices and consolidate power. Nor should we forget it was the county Board of Supervisors who terminated an elected official (by a vote of 5-0) then ran for cover when the manure hit the fan. They let Eyster take the fall.

Or words similar. Had Dave provided a thoughtful response it might have defused the rising tide of grumbles. It might have lanced the boil before it became a tumor.

Or Dave might have tried for sympathy, positioning himself as the victim of cheap journalistic shots. He could have pointed out that every news story in all the local media came from one disgruntled former DA office employee. Dave might add that the vendetta began even earlier, during the prosecution of a Ukiah police officer accused of crimes, with coverage by the same former journalist.

Yes Dave Eyster could have made strenuous arguments on his own behalf but that would have forced him to look weak, like a criminal defendant seeking a plea bargain while not admitting guilt. That’s just never been Dave Eyster’s style or mindset.

And perhaps ultimately he knows he orchestrated the mess of his own making and rather than blame someone else or try to mitigate his responsibility he’ll stand tall and face the consequences.

For more than a year he’s remained aloof in his corner office, perhaps thinking he’s above criticism and need not stoop to respond.

But silence seems suspicious, and citizens certainly have plenty of reasons for suspicion.

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Mike Geniella

As is often the case these days, Tom Hine gets it wrong.

• I was never an “employee” of the District Attorney’s Office. I worked part-time under contract as a media consultant. I received no county benefits.
• I quit. I called the DA on an incident involving local media, and then submitted a 30-day notice to terminate our contract. It was my choice, and my action. I have not spoken to Eyster since.
• Eyster approved a negotiated plea settlement to drop serious sex charges against a former Ukiah Police Sergeant, and a possession of methamphetamine charge stemming from what Officer Kevin Murphy had kept in his police locker. The DA’s then-chief investigator made the discovery during a search at the Ukiah Police Department. Nevertheless, Eyster, in return for a no contest plea to felony dissuading or intimidating a witness and a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment, allowed Murphy to avoid a prison sentence.
• I never accused anyone of a conspiracy. The DA supported the Murray plea deal that was presented to Judge Ann Moorman by the attorneys involved.
• Hine, in his assessment from afar, overlooks a three-page document entered into the criminal trial of Cubbison. It shows Eyster communicated to retired County Supervisor Glenn McGourty a secret three-step plan to oust the embattled County Auditor and form a new County Department of Finance more favorable to board oversight instead of an elected, independent Auditor. Eyster publicly denounced Cubbison, blocked her interim appointment, and then ordered an internal follow up by his squad of investigators to lukewarm sheriff investigation conclusions into her alleged felony misconduct. It took the DA nearly a year to formally charge Cubbison.

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YORKVILLE COMMUNITY BENEFITS ASSOCIATION:

The Social is just a week away! Can't wait to see you there!

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THE SOUTH HAS RISEN AGAIN

To the Editor:

South Won Civil War: The White House

President Donald J. Trump today signed an executive order declaring that the winner of the War Between the States was the Confederate States of America.

At the signing ceremony Trump observed, “Abraham Lincoln was the original RINO.”

Dan Hibshman

Ukiah

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UKIAH COMMUNITY CONCERT

At 2:00PM on Sunday, September 7 the thrilling Horszowski Trio of Piano, Cello, and Violin is coming from NYC to take the stage at the Mendocino College Center Theatre for the grand opening of UCCA's 78th (!!) season.

Here are the three things you must know about Sunday's concert:

1. It's going to be spectacular for classical and not-so-classical fans alike!

The word on the streets and in the media is that they are “Eloquent and enthralling” (The Boston Globe), and described as “The most compelling American group to come on the scene” (The New Yorker). The Horszowski Trio has quickly become a vital force in the international chamber music world since their formation in 2011.

2. This concert will be the very last opportunity to purchase a season ticket at $120 for four superb performances.

Already a UCCA season subscriber?--Thank you! and be sure to bring your 2025-26 membership card which we mailed out last week.

3. Following the concert, there will be a sumptious reception catered by Ashleigh and Fernando of CULTIVO for our season members to taste savory and sweet delights, and mingle with our musicians. The invitation to join the reception is also extended to our advertisers and to new subscribers who purchase their season membership at the concert.

Tickets for non-season subscribers are $35 in advance and $40 at the door. Advance tickets are available on the UCCA website and at Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah and Mazahar in Willits.

As part of our on-going Educational Outreach Program, we offer free concert tickets to high school students, younger children when accompanied by an adult, and full-time college students enrolled in 12 or more units. Free tickets can be reserved in advance by calling 707-463-2738 with name, phone number and email address.

For more information, please contact the UCCA at 707-463-2738 or email us at [email protected]

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SHERRIE SMITH-FERRI, former director of the Grace Hudson Museum in Ukiah, and MEYA MARRUFO, a regional artist/native traditions expert, are part of a special team at the de Young Museum in San Francisco who are presenting the museum’s transformative look at indigenous art.

Smith-Ferri of Ukiah, a PhD in anthropology and currently tribal historic preservation officer for the Dry Creek Rancheria, guided the Hudson Museum for nearly 20 years. Also on the de Young team of co-curators is Meyo Marrufo, a regional multimedia artist with Robinson Rancheria/Eastern Pomo roots.

The North Coast is honored by the participation of Smith-Ferri and Marrufo in an effort destined to receive national recognition.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, August 24, 2025

DANIEL EAGAN, 46, Oakland/Willits. DUI, suspended license for DUI, resisting.

MICHAEL MANCINA, 20, Rohnert Park/Ukiah. Suspended license for refusing chemical DUI test.

ALEXIS MARTINEZ-PATINO, 25, Ukiah. Domestic battery, unspecified offense.

JOHN PALACIOS, 56, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ROBERT SALES, 42, Willits. DUI, misdemeanor hit&run.

SHAWMN SMITH-HARJO, 31, Hopland. DUI.

KRAIG SWEARINGER, 38, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license for DUI.

JAIME TINAJERO, 46, Ukiah. Battery on peace officer.

RYAN WHITMAN JR., 26, Albion. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, paraphernalia.

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CREWS SEEK TO HOLD LINE AGAINST PICKETT FIRE IN NAPA COUNTY as blaze reaches 6,800 acres

The region’s largest wildfire this year continued to grow in Napa County, but its spread was slower than previous days with similar weather conditions, Cal Fire said.

by Madison Smalstig

Firefighters worked Sunday to defend containment lines around Napa County’s Pickett Fire, which has burned east from the outskirts of Calistoga to threaten settlements tucked near rough, mountainous terrain at the northern end of Pope Valley.

The wildfire — the largest in the region this year — erupted Thursday and had burned at least 6,800 acres in a sparsely populated landscape within the burn scar of the 2020 Glass Fire. As of Sunday afternoon, containment remained at 11% and crews will likely remain assigned to the fire for at least another week, Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Chief Matt Ryan said.

About 2,045 personnel, 140 engines, 34 bulldozers, 20 hand crews, 10 helicopters and 24 water tenders were assigned to the fire, where the focus was on holding and bolstering containment lines from Saturday, Cal Fire LNU spokesperson Jason Clay said Sunday.

Though the fire expanded 1,800 acres Saturday, the growth helped with firefighting, said Cal Fire’s Jeremy Pierce, operations section chief.

On the eastern front, firefighters were using rural routes including Butts Canyon Road to make their stand and protect scattered homes and the communities of Aetna Springs and Pope Valley.

On the western and northwestern flank, around Palisades Canyon, crews were assigned to maintain the lines and put out hot spots. To the east, on the fire’s most active front, firefighters were focused on setting up a line for a 52-acre section of steep country around Duvall Lake, about which half was still open, with flames backing downhill Sunday morning. On the southern front, there was little growth, and crews were snuffing out hot spots.

Amid the coordinated attack, the fire continued to expand Sunday, though its growth was not “significant” and was slower than previous days with similar weather conditions, according to Cal Fire officials.

Two evacuation orders — one on the southwestern foot of the fire, near its origin, and the other at its far northeastern corner east of Aetna Springs Road — were lifted Sunday afternoon, suggesting growing confidence in containment lines and more predictable fire behavior.

“I am not going to say we turned a corner on the fire, but the fact that we had similar conditions to the previous day without that larger acreage growth is a positive,” Cal Fire Capt. Robert Foxworthy said. “That’s absolutely good and a positive step in the right direction.”

South to southwest winds of up to 10 mph, and gusts up to 15 mph, still raised risk of flames funneling into canyons, however, and temperatures remained in the mid-90s. The winds had slightly calmed by early Sunday night, Foxworthy said.

The rugged geography, dry conditions and hot weather, “make sustained efforts crucial for containment,” according to Cal Fire.

“Yesterday, we had a pretty dynamic fire day,” Pierce said Sunday morning. “Today will be our turn day.”

Overnight, crews were looking at a slight rise in humidity, temperatures in the 60s and a pocket of hot dry air at elevations between 1500 to 2000 feet that could increase fire activity, said Cal Fire’s Alexander Giery, a fire behavior analyst.

On Monday, the area will heat to the mid- to upper-80s and the biggest threat will be burning materials that roll down the steep terrain to unburned fuels.

Cal Fire LNU officials hosted a 14-minute online community meeting Sunday night on their Facebook page to provide updates from the agency and the Napa County Sheriff’s Office.

Evacuation orders in place across a swath of the mountains east of Calistoga covered about 150 residents at their peak and now apply to about 50 to 100 residents, Napa Sheriff Oscar Ortiz said during the meeting. An evacuation hub was reopened Sunday at Calistoga Community Center for any evacuees in need, but no one showed up, Ortiz said.

Night fight for Aetna Springs

The Pickett Fire on Saturday saw some of its most explosive growth amid unstable atmospheric conditions, moving mostly toward Aetna Springs Road. Driven by afternoon and evening winds, the flames made a “hard push,” barreling out of the timber, down through the hills and to a flat area where the fire crept into vineyards and grass, Pierce said. There, crews were able to curb the flames and defend control lines.

To safeguard Aetna Springs and Pope Valley, fire crews conducted a controlled burn west of the road, according to a Cal Fire incident update.

Pierce was confident Sunday morning that crews could hold the line and make it “stay right where it is.”

There was one 30-acre spillover on the southwest side of fire. Air and nearby hand crews put out the flames, Pierce said.

Also, an unauthorized drone flying in the area of the fire — an illegal act — caused fire officials to ground air resources for about an hour, Clay said.

“Intrusions like this cause danger to your firefighting aircraft, and also impede our firefighting air efforts,” he said.

Overnight into Sunday, hand crews, bulldozers and five night-flying helicopters — a new addition to Cal Fire’s toolbox — fought moderate fire activity, defending containment lines.

Preventative wildfire measures

Napa County Supervisor Anne Cottrell, who represents the affected area, visited three spots — Calistoga, Summit Lake Road and Aetna Springs — around the fire since it began on Thursday. At each of the locations, she peered at the fire’s footprint and saw the different techniques and tools firefighters use to stop or slow the flames, some of which started long before the fire sparked.

Dozer lines created with the county, Napa Communities Firewise Foundation and Napa Valley Vintners have both served as routes for fire resources and fuel breaks, Cottrell said.

As fire crews fought flames and prepared to face the afternoon winds, downtown Calistoga stores continued to serve customers, Cottrell said.

“Walking up and down Lincoln Avenue … shops had some of their items out on the sidewalk, there were people having lunch at the cafes,” Cottrell said. “That was good to see.”

The Calistoga community pool is also open, though workers were monitoring the air quality to see if it deteriorates to unsafe levels, according to a parks and recreation worker.

Cal Fire is assessing damage caused by the fire and has yet to confirm if any structures have been burned or destroyed.

The fire’s cause remains under investigation.

As of Sunday afternoon, evacuation orders remain in place for zones POP-E001-B, POP-E002-C, NPA-E114, NPA-E115, NPA-E121-B and C, NPA-E122-B, NAP-E107-B and NAP-E108-A.

By 3 p.m., the orders for NPA-E120, located on the western flank near the Pickett Fire’s origin, and POP-E001A, to the far northeastern side, were downgraded to warnings.

Areas still under an evacuation warning are NPA-E107-A, NPA-E121-A, NPA-E122-A, POP-E002-B and ANG-E001.

The Calistoga Community Center, at 1307 Washington St., reopened late Sunday morning as evacuation hub, Napa County said in an alert. It was last opened Thursday afternoon until about 8 p.m. The center offers air conditioning, charging stations and some light refreshments.

The Bay Area Air District extended an air quality advisory due to Picket Fire smoke through Monday for Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties. During this time, smoky, hazy skies can be seen and residents could smell smoke.

Cal Fire was continuing Sunday to operate its incident command center out of the Calistoga Fairgrounds, but is planning to move Monday to the Napa Valley Expo, Cottrell said. The larger space makes it easier for the agency to manage the number of firefighters on the response.

(pressdemocrat.com)

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MY SON JOHN WOULD HAVE BEEN 61 TODAY.

by Fred Gardner

This is a photo of him in 1980, when he was 16. He’d had only a few seizures at the time. I don’t know if he had started on Dilantin –the first of many pharmaceuticals that failed him. Some were effective for months, and hopes would get raised… Intractable epilepsy is a nightmare that gets worse after you wake up. Each seizure creates or expands lesions in the brain. This makes seizures more likely to recur. It took a few years for John’s doctors to conclude that he was among the one-in-four epileptics for whom pharmaceuticals offer no relief.

Although John is the reason I got so interested in the medical potential of marijuana, I never wrote about him when I covered the movement. He wouldn’t have liked it.

I decided to focus on the MMJ story in April, 1996 after getting a call from Dennis Peron, the founder of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club. We’d been good friends since the ‘70s. I’d even written a narcocorrido about his career as a dealer/organizer.

Link: https://fredgardner.bandcamp.com/track/the-ballad-of-dennis-peron

Note that Dennis was running a club, not a dispensary. He knew a tremendous amount about club members’ medical conditions and how they used marijuana to alleviate symptoms, because he listened to their stories and was authentically interested. People could hang out at the club.

Next-generation retailers would call their stores “dispensaries,” and refer to their customers as “patients.”

I thought “dispensary” was a good word for pot stores. Pharmacists dispense drugs at drug stores. At Cannabis dispensaries, budtenders knew which products reportedly helped people with various medical problems.

But I didn’t like it when the dispensary owners (and activists who were their de facto publicity agents) began referring to customers as “patients.” I’m sure that many young men and women, including my son John, would not want to be defined as a “patient.” The right term would have been “medical marijuana user.” Or even better, “Science fiction fan.”

The twisting of words is revealing, and the activists who did PR for the ganjapreneurs thought they were slick. Consider the widely used term “Cannabis patient.” Doctors and nurses treat patients categorized by their ailments. The patient treated for Cancer, or Covid or Obesity is not called a “Cisplatin patient,” “Paxlovid patient” or “Wegovy patient.” The spinmeisters who came up with odd term “Cannabis Patient” obviously didn’t like the sound of “Marijuana user.” The term “Cannabis patient” is meant to inspire sympathy, not to assert a right. It’s whiney and doesn’t compute.

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“NEWS is what a chap who doesn’t care much about anything wants to read.”

― Evelyn Waugh, Scoop

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POETRY IN MOTION

Sitting here at the main public library in Washington, D.C. on a lovely Sunday afternoon, listening to “Mind Relaxing Flute, Tabla & Sitar” on YouTube.

This world is a dream within a dream. A floating world. Poetry in Motion.

The District of Columbia is filled with National Guard sent by Ohio, West Virginia, and Mississippi, in addition to those already here, the FBI (who visited Adam’s Place Homeless Shelter the other evening, checking for weapons outside) and of course the Metropolitan Police, now again under the authority of the district. It’s not martial law, but it does suggest it. As of August 24th, 2025, there have been 914 arrests and 101 illegal guns seized. Indeed, it feels much safer to walk around the district, particularly using public transportation. Less unhinged violent criminals at the bus stops and on the buses, on the Metro rail line, in the public library (particularly the rest rooms), and randomly everywhere else.

I look forward to leaving here, the 16th time being supportive of the Peace Vigil in front of the White House completed. 16 times here since June of 1991, 5 times serving with Catholic Worker, the huge April 16th, 2000 shutdown in protest of World Bank-International Monetary Fund policies, DC Occupy, and on and on and on.

I am looking forward to moving on to the next highest good.

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

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GET DRUNK

by Charles Baudelaire

One should always be drunk. That's all that matters;
that's our one imperative need. So as not to feel Time's
horrible burden one which breaks your shoulders and bows
you down, you must get drunk without cease.

But with what?
With wine, poetry, or virtue
as you choose.
But get drunk.

And if, at some time, on steps of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the bleak solitude of your room,
you are waking and the drunkenness has already abated,
ask the wind, the wave, the stars, the clock,
all that which flees,
all that which groans,
all that which rolls,
all that which sings,
all that which speaks,
ask them, what time it is;
and the wind, the wave, the stars, the birds, and the clock,
they will all reply:

"It is time to get drunk!

So that you may not be the martyred slaves of Time,
get drunk, get drunk,
and never pause for rest!
With wine, poetry, or virtue,
as you choose!"

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GIANTS RALLY TO HAND BREWERS A LOSS ON THE DAY MILWAUKEE CELEBRATES BOB UECKER

by Shayna Rubin

The Milwaukee Brewers are adept at taking and maintaining tight leads, but they couldn’t hold a one-run edge in the ninth against the San Francisco Giants.

That’s because the Giants had a throwback moment, a 4-3 comeback win on Sunday afternoon in the ninth inning that felt reminiscent of their early season wins.

“It feels really reassuring for the team, obviously,” Heliot Ramos said. “We haven’t been playing good baseball and it’s about time something like that happens. I feel like we have been working our asses off, working super hard. It’s about time for us to come out like that.”

San Francisco was down one run and up against flamethrowing closer Trevor Megill, who they’d at least gotten a good look at on Friday. Matt Chapman began the inning by falling 0-2 in the count, but saw four more four-seam fastballs before he was able to drive one into the left-center gap — his first hit since returning Saturday from a hand injury that might’ve hindered his ability to hit high heat before. As afternoon shadows took over the field, Luis Matos stroked a one-out single into left field to put runners on the corners and the Giants were in motion.

With two outs, Jung Hoo Lee drew a walk to load the bases and bring up Ramos for his hero moment. Sitting fastball, which Megill hurls at 100 mph, Ramos spoiled one and took a curveball in the dirt before getting a perfect fastball to single into shallow center field, scoring the tying and winning runs. Ryan Walker‘s save clinched the vintage come-from-behind win — and a road series win against the best team in baseball.

“When I saw Jungy get the walk, it was like it was meant to be,” Ramos said. “I wanted that at-bat. Everybody that was behind him took good at-bats, the way the momentum was going in that inning I just felt I was ready for it.”

Central to the series win was Matos, who has been on a roll since returning to the big league team on Thursday. He’d already given the Giants an early lead with a two-run home run off Chad Patrick in the second inning and is 8-for-15 in four games since he was recalled from Sacramento. He hit two over the fence this series.

“It’s been great,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s getting an opportunity, not getting pinch hit for. He’s playing against lefties, righties. We’ve seen him do this before, and it was time to get him up here and let him do his thing. So far, so good.”

The Giants return home having gone 3-4 on this two-city trip, putting a bow on what was shaping up to be an ugly journey after losing three of four in San Diego. They’ve played in front of mostly sold out ballparks all week — playing winning ballclubs in the heat of a postseason push brings people to the yard — but Sunday’s at American Family Field was different.

This group arrived more than an hour before first pitch to take in a celebration of life for Bob Uecker, Mr. Baseball, the legendary broadcaster and Milwaukee institution so beloved that Uecker-themed merchandise sold for the occasion had become scarce before the final pitch was thrown. Even Giants shortstop Willy Adames, a loved Brewer before he signed with San Francisco in the offseason, wore custom cleats painted with Uecker’s face in his honor.

The Giants gave an emotional crowd that’s become accustomed to winning a bit of unwanted drama in the ninth inning.

Meanwhile, starter Robbie Ray battled. His velocity across the board down a tick for a second straight start, Ray didn’t record a strikeout for the first time since Aug. 14, 2015, against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Milwaukee hit him hard — nine balls at more than 95 mph — and drew four walks. Ray is up to 159⅔ innings this year, the most he’s thrown since tallying 193 1/3 in 2022 — a year before he’d undergo Tommy John surgery. Melvin planned to keep Ray’s outing short once he saw the velocity dip in the first inning, but Ray insisted his body feels fine and pointed to a mechanical issue as the reason for his funk.

“I feel like my delivery was out of whack today,” Ray said. “I’ll have to go back and look at it. I didn’t feel super great about it, felt like my arm was shorter than it normally is so I’ll have to look at that. Was able to grind through five and give us a chance. Physically I feel great, but I think that whatever it was was a mechanical issue where I just felt off.”

Considering the quality of contact and clearly without his best stuff, Ray managed to keep his head above water.

Christian Yelich and Caleb Durbin — who hit his first career homer off Ray April in San Francisco — did most of the damage. Yelich hit a leadoff double and scored in the second inning and knocked in Durbin, who doubled, for the game-tying run in the third.

Durbin smashed a 91mph fastball for a go-ahead home run in the fifth, just before Ray departed having thrown 80 pitches. Joel Peguero pitched 1⅔ scoreless innings before Matt Gage (one-third of an inning) and Jose Butto (one inning) also kept the game within reach.

Walker, who recorded his 11th save, moved back to his old closer role on this day because Randy Rodriguez was unavailable. Rodriguez complained of arm soreness after Friday’s outing in which he allowed a walk-off home run to William Contreras.

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Mark Scaramella Notes: During the Brewers game on Sunday commentator Dave Fleming passed along this classic Bob Uecker anecdote: On one his many appearances on Johnny Carson’s ‘Tonight’ Show, Carson showed Uecker a picture of Uecker at a post-game celebration after a big win when Uecker was playing catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. In the picture a jubilant teammate was shown pouring champagne down Uecker’s cheering throat. Uecker’s comment: “Actually, Johnny, that’s me preparing for the game.”

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I EXPERIENCED A TSUNAMI ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PACIFIC — AT THE SAME TIME

by Joe Mathews

Our 14-and-under youth baseball team from South Pasadena had just taken the lead with a four-run rally in the second inning when my son stepped up to the plate.

Then a siren rang out — and wouldn’t stop.

Our players, our parents, our coach, and I (the team organizer-manager) were unsure what it meant.

We didn’t want to stop playing. We had traveled 6,500 miles from Los Angeles County to Okinawa to play against local teams. The trip was spurred by two of our former players, whose families had moved back to Japan (one to Okinawa) in recent years.

And that day, we were excited to be playing in the town of Kunigami at Kaigin Stadium, spring training home of the Japanese team for which Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani played. It would be our last time ever playing with our Okinawa-based teammate, a pitcher, who was taking the mound later in the game.

But with the siren blaring, the umpire stopped play, stalling our momentum. We escaped the humidity in an air-conditioned clubhouse and were admiring a photo of Ohtani from 2014 spring training when our Japanese-speaking parents gave us the news:

A tsunami warning was issued for Okinawa, triggered by a powerful earthquake off Russia’s east coast.

The tsunami warning system went global after the 2004 tsunami that decimated oceanfront communities across the Indian Ocean. It’s a combination of two networks. One — of global seismic stations, DART (deep ocean) buoys and coastal tidal gauges — detects possible tsunamis. The other is local — a warning network that is supposed to reach coastal communities.

Minutes after the sirens sounded, loudspeakers in the surrounding neighborhood issued a tsunami warning in Japanese. Then the phone of our opponents, from a town called Motobu, started to ring with warnings.

Then my phone went off, too. But the emergency alert on it was not for Kunigami or Okinawa. Santa Barbara County emergency services were advising me to seek higher ground. A couple of minutes later, Los Angeles County sent a similar warning.

If we’d been playing in South Pasadena, we’d be 20 miles inland. But Kaigin Stadium is just 100 yards from the East China Sea.

Out of an abundance of caution, both teams moved from the dugout to the top of the stands.

There, on our phones, we looked out at the placid, azure sea and read that local warnings were being issued all over the Pacific, as far away as Chile. No one — not stadium personnel, not our opponents — seemed to think that a tsunami would reach Kunigami. People in surrounding neighborhoods were staying put. Nonetheless, island authorities, citing guidance from Japan’s prime minister, ordered an evacuation.

We piled into rented minivans and followed the Motobu team bus up a mountain in Kunigami Forest Park, which mixed outdoor nature spaces with indoor exhibits. It started to rain. Seeking shelter and bathrooms, we paid $3 to enter an air-conditioned art-and-play building for toddlers and kindergartners.

I spent the next two hours trying to keep our ballplayers from pelting each other with toys. After 1:30 p.m., the evacuation warning was lifted, and we drove back to the stadium.

But the municipality, citing the tsunami threat, didn’t want us to continue. Our opponents protested politely, pointing out that the evacuation and warning were over, to no avail. The first game was declared a victory, and two scheduled afternoon games were called off.

The earthquake, despite its size, did not produce dangerous tsunamis in Japan or anywhere else. But in the aftermath, the Japanese press questioned why people hadn’t responded to evacuation orders. In an editorial, the Yomiuri Shimbun, a leading newspaper, said that the millions of summertime visitors to Japan had been uncertain about what to do, since warnings were broadcast in Japanese.

We were lucky to have an opposing team and our Japanese-speaking parents to guide us. We were lucky that the tsunami threat wasn’t more serious. We also enjoyed the benefits of good design.

We saw firsthand that the world has a working tsunami system, with global reach and local notice. Warning systems for too many other kinds of emergencies — fires, diseases, wars, terrorist attacks — lack the same reach. Back in January, a firestorm killed 17 people in Altadena (Los Angeles County), which did not receive local warnings until it was too late. If only major fires were considered global events, worthy of universal local warnings.

That said, warnings only work if we follow them. The temptations to ignore warnings are there — part of me preferred to stay and get two more games in that idyllic stadium with our Okinawan player.

But we followed the evacuation orders, and all our players made it home safely. Which means, perhaps someday, that we can all return to Kunigami and finish those games.

(Joe Mathews is founder-publisher of Democracy Local and writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.)

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CLINTON T. DUFFY, SAN QUENTIN REFORMER

by Don Coach DeNevi

When Clinton Truman Duffy became warden in 1940, no one expected San Quentin to change. Because of the public’s revulsion at the prison’s sadism and corruption, San Quentin seemed to need a lion tamer or bomb disposal expert. Instead, it got a meek, mild-mannered little man who wore gold-rimmed glasses and a rosebud in his lapel.

Appointed temporarily for 30 days while the governor searched for a more impressive crusader, the new acting warden turned out to be a piece of the sun, radiating an energy and force unlike anything ever seen in the history of American penology.

During the 11 years that followed, Duffy, growing in an idealism obsessed with exposing rot and corruption, never abandoned his belief that San Quentin could rehabilitate as well as punish.

“Never confuse fairness with softness,” he told his officers, “as we assign men in trades or to school.” He then established broad programs of academic and vocational training.

He was the first warden in the nation to allow convicts to listen to radios in their cells. He organized extensive recreational programs for both athletes and non-athletes, believing strongly that physical fitness led to psychological health and well-being. He inaugurated a prison newspaper to which he contributed a regular column, “Facts Not Rumors,” He established the first chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous and allowed prisoners to pursue handicrafts such as belts and wallets.

He wrote the first “scientific” classification system and advanced changes in parole policies. During World War II, he supervised an unequaled prison contribution to the military efforts. Bands, music, religious clubs and activities, as well as a radio station with inmate DJs and commentators became an integral part of prison life.

As warden, Duffy watched 150 die in the gas chamber, never hesitating to explain his opposition to the death penalty. He maintained that only the poor were executed and that the death sentence did not deter crime.

“We want an eye for an eye and that’s wrong,” he once said. “It is wrong for these people to kill and it’s wrong for the state to kill.” Even after he retired, he continued fighting for the men on death row.

Clinton’s wife, Gladys, was known as “Mother Duffy” to thousands of inmates who had nothing but the highest respect and admiration for her. In her memoirs, Warden’s Wife which was published in 1959, she describes how “the men” got to know her. After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the prisoners nearly panicked in the unexplained blackout that evening. Gladys took the microphone of the “Gray Network,” the San Quentin radio system, and explained that all the lights in the greater Bay Area had been turned off to thwart a possible Japanese aerial attack. The inmates also came to know her through her visits to the movies, unprecedented for a warden’s wife, and to the chapel.

In early January 1952, Duffy turned San Quentin over to his first assistant, Harley Oliver Teets, and became a member of the state’s parole fixing adult authority. As he walked the upper yard for the last time as warden, a rheumy lifer clutched his hand and said, “I speak for my fellow prisoners. God bless you, Mr. Duffy. You’ll never know what you did for us.”

After Gladys’ death in 1969, Clinton Duffy lived another 13 years working tirelessly to improve his staff, the guard line, and the Department of Corrections. He had served more than 32 years.

In 1972, he was honored by President Richard M. Nixon for his public service and humanitarianism. The commendation read in part, “In recognition of exceptional service to others in the finest American tradition.”

Before his death on Oct. 13, 1982, at the age of 84, Duffy had authored four books on prison life and problems. The best known were The San Quentin Story, 88 Men and Two Women, and Sex and Crime.

No one who knew him, worked with him or served a sentence under his watchful eye as warden disputed the unofficial title the media gave him, “Father of Modern Penology.” But he was much more than this. If it’s true that a great man rises out of the need of his time, then Clinton Duffy appeared on the scene when the need to fight corruption and brutality was most pressing. This powerful but kindly man addressed himself only to the deplorable conditions he found at San Quentin, the safety of his staff and the rehabilitation of his prisoners.

This simple three part series hardly honors a warden who should be measured not by his extraordinary accomplishments, but by his vision of the future for the incarcerated. That vision included an unfailing respect for almost all human beings who have in them the capacity to do well, to be good, if only given a chance.

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TO MIDNIGHT NAN AT LEROY’S

by Langston Hughes (1926)

Strut and wiggle,
Shameless gal.
Wouldn't no good fellow
Be your pal.

Hear dat music. . . .
Jungle night.
Hear dat music. . . .
And the moon was white.

Sing your Blues song,
Pretty baby.
You want lovin'
And you don't mean maybe.

Jungle lover. . . .
Night black boy. . . .
Two against the moon
And the moon was joy.

Strut and wiggle,
Shameless Nan.
Wouldn't no good fellow
Be your man.

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SOMEONE LIKE MIKE HUCKABEE is never telling the truth or saying what he really thinks is going on when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians, he’s just making whatever mouth noises he needs to make to help fulfill a Biblical prophecy and secure his eternal reward. Such people have no place in the conversation. They should be completely excluded from the debate, because they are not actually participating in it. They’re just lying and manipulating for reasons that have nothing to do with truth or morality.

— Caitlin Johnstone

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“WHY, once Jakes went out to cover a revolution in one of the Balkan capitals. He overslept in his carriage, woke up at the wrong station, didn’t know any different, got out, went straight to a hotel, and cabled off a thousand-word story about barricades in the streets, flaming churches, machine guns answering the rattle of his typewriter as he wrote.

Well they were pretty surprised at his office, getting a story like that from the wrong country, but they trusted Jakes and splashed it in six national newspapers. That day every special in Europe got orders to rush to the new revolution. Everything seemed quiet enough, but it was as much as their jobs were worth to say so, with Jakes filing a thousand words of blood and thunder a day. So they chimed in too. Government stocks dropped, financial panic, state of emergency declared, army mobilized, famine, mutiny — and in less than a week there was an honest to god revolution under way, just as Jakes had said. There’s the power of the press for you.”

― Evelyn Waugh, Scoop

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LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT

In Washington Crackdown, Making a Federal Case Out of Low-Level Arrests

Democrats Criticize Trump’s Push for National Guard in More Cities

5 Takeaways From Ghislaine Maxwell’s Interview About Jeffrey Epstein

Russia’s Top Diplomat Says There Is No Plan for Putin-Zelensky Meeting

Florida Paints Over Rainbow Memorial for Victims of Pulse Nightclub Shooting

How China Influences Elections in America’s Biggest City

We Are Tech Privacy Reporters. Our Music Habits Got Doxxed

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THE IDF has admitted to uprooting thousands of olive trees in the West Bank on Thursday. The routine destruction of Palestinian olive trees is not the most shocking or evil thing that Israel does to the Palestinians, but it does speak to what its true intentions are in a unique way.

Similar to the way white people killed off all the bison to help eliminate the American Indians, killing olive trees deprives Palestinians of an important means of earning a living, and strikes at an important aspect of Palestinian identity and culture.

Olive trees can live for thousands of years; people with a strong attachment to the land treasure and protect them, while the Israelis who claim to be “indigenous” to the area are destroying them and replacing them with highly flammable foreign plants. You can tell who the actual indigenous population is by watching their behavior.

— Caitlin Johnstone

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WINSTON CHURCHILL during his 1937 testimony supporting Jewish settlements in Palestine:

"I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say, The American Continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here. They had not the right, nor had they the power."

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DONALD TRUMP, MY PARENTS AND THE POTENTIAL LAST ACT

by Tom Englehardt

Sometimes I dream — in the sense of a nightmare — about bringing my parents back to this all too strange world of ours to tell them about… yes, of course, Donald J. Trump. They died long before The Apprentice even made it onto TV early in this century, so — best guess — though they also lived in New York, they undoubtedly had never heard of him.

My mother died in 1977 when Donald Trump was 31 and Jimmy Carter was president; my father in 1983 when Trump was 37 and Ronald Reagan was president. But nothing, not even Richard Nixon, could have prepared them for a Trump presidency, not once but (yes!) twice.

Mind you, my father was a salesman and, in that sense, he might have understood something about Trump, including his ability to sell himself to all too many of the rest of us so damn successfully, again not once but twice — and if he has anything to do with it, maybe (but “probably” not) a third time, too. My parents could never have imagined, however, that the country which, at my mom’s birth, had Theodore Roosevelt as president and, in the years to come, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, among others, would have elected a madly self-referential ex-salesman with six bankrupt businesses in his past to the White House not once, but — yes, again! — twice.

I think my mother, a professional political and theatrical caricaturist, might have grimly laughed and then gone to her easel to turn him into her caricature of the ages. She would undoubtedly have caught his strange essence, as she did that nightmarish Trumpian figure of her moment (though he never had the same power to devastate our world), Senator Joe McCarthy.

And believe it or not, there is indeed some appropriate history here. Great powers — and after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended in 1991, this country seemed to be a great power like no other, possibly ever — do come and go. Indeed, the going can be bizarre and disorienting. But when they come, it often seems as if they might be here forever and a day. And of course, in that now distant moment when the Soviet Union suddenly unraveled and China had not yet risen, the U.S. did appear to be The Great Power (and capitals and italics are indeed appropriate), the only one left on Planet Earth.

At the time, in fact, it felt as if this country might actually prove to be the Ultimate Great Power, the Greatest of All. Who then could have imagined that, not quite a quarter of a century later, the U.S. would, in its own fashion, have gone to the dogs, that it would be ever more — and yes, we do need some new words to describe this increasingly stranger, more disturbing world of ours — tariffyingly alone on an increasingly resentful and hostile planet? And mind you, I’m not just thinking about countries like Brazil, India, and Switzerland that are deeply ticked off by Donald Trump’s soaring tariffs and so much else. Who then could have imagined that we were already heading for the historical edge of what may prove to be the ultimate cliff of history? Who, then, could have imagined that Donald J. Trump — that living, breathing symbol of ultimate decline — would indeed become this country’s president, not once but — yes, again (and again)! — twice?

Honestly, in those nearly 25 years, how did the seemingly greatest power in history become something like an all-too-grim planetary laughing-stock — or do I mean totally frightening-stock?

Of course, in a fashion my parents couldn’t have imagined once upon a time, Donald Trump may be the ultimate… Wait, what word or words am I searching for here? I wonder if it or they even exist. He’s almost too strange for the ordinary language we’re used to, while — though who yet knows? — it’s at least possible to imagine that he might prove to be the personification of the end of history. The last president, so to speak.

After all, though in my parents’ time humanity already had the ability to do this planet in, thanks to the atomic weapons that ended my father’s war, who would have imagined then that we humans had already come up with a second, slow-motion way to do the same thing — I’m thinking, of course, about climate change — while essentially not noticing for decades. Nor could they have imagined that, once the long-term destructiveness of global warming became more apparent, the American people would elect a president dedicated to the very substances, fossil fuels, that are slowly transforming this planet into a giant fire hazard, heat condominium, and flooding nightmare first class.

The Final Act?

I mean, imagine this: even if the atomic weaponry that has spread to nine countries is never used again — and don’t count on that when the Russians and the Americans have only recently implicitly or explicitly threatened to employ just such weaponry, while the last nuclear treaty between those two countries is scheduled to run out in February 2026 (oh, and my country is also planning to invest another $1.7 trillion in “modernizing” its nuclear arsenal in the decades to come) — the burning of fossil fuels, a slow-motion version of atomic warfare, has now become the heart and soul(lessness) of the potential devastation of planet Earth. After all, last November, Americans reelected a man who, in a fashion that could hardly have been blunter, ran his third campaign for president as a “drill, baby, drill” candidate. It was, in fact, his main election slogan. And since retaking the White House, he has indeed backed to the hilt the idea of increasing this country’s production of coal, oil, and natural gas. In fact, he only recently reached a tariff deal with the European Union in which he forced the EU to agree to purchase $250 billion worth of American natural gas and oil annually in the years to come. Who cares that U.S. energy exports to all buyers globally in 2024 added up to (and what a word to use in this context!) only $318 billion?

As John Feffer recently put it all too accurately, “Trump uses tariffs like a bad cook uses salt. It covers up his lack of preparation, the poor quality of his ingredients, the blandness of his imagination. It’s the only spice in his spice rack.” Indeed, that couldn’t be more on target, unless, of course, you start to think of climate destruction as a kind of spice, too.

Worse yet, he has proven all too grimly a man of his word. Under him, for instance, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being turned into an outfit that will essentially protect nothing whatsoever. As David Gelles and Maxine Joselow of the New York Times reported recently, “Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, this week proposed to repeal the landmark scientific finding that enables the federal government to regulate the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. In effect, the EPA will eliminate its own authority to combat climate change.”

The only thing that the Trump administration now has to do is change that outfit’s name to the Environmental Destruction Agency, or EDA, since it’s already doing everything it can to halt wind and solar power projects of any sort in this country. And as Gelles and Joselow also report, it has recently “dismissed hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship analysis of how climate change is affecting the country. In May, Mr. Trump proposed to stop collecting key measurements of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as part of his 2026 budget plan.”

In short, right now the very idea of a “great” power seems to be heading for the dustbin of history, and that Cold-War-ending moment in 1991 appears ever more like a fantasyland of the first order. Yes, much that’s all too familiar is still ongoing on this planet of ours, including endless wars. But what a time to have made Donald J. Trump president of the United States again. Under the circumstances, here’s my new phrase for this global moment of ours: We — and I mean all of us on Earth — are in Trumple deep.

In truth, the very phrase “great power” might as well now be “grape power.” And mind you, given the strange ingenuity of humanity, don’t for a second assume that there isn’t a third way of doing us all in as well, even if we don’t yet know what it is.

Worse yet, don’t for a second imagine that President Trump is alone on planet Earth. Just consider Vladimir Putin, the Russian ruler who decided that the best way to go in 2022 was to invade a neighboring country and simply never stop fighting there. (Yes, I know, I know… NATO did seem to be creeping up on Russia in those years, but still…) And what about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who simply can’t stop slaughtering Gazans and utterly devastating that microscopic 25-mile strip of land — with American weaponry no less — while potentially starving thousands (tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands?) of Gazans to death? (And while you’re at it, don’t forget that war itself is one of humanity’s most effective ways of putting yet more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and heating this planet further!)

Putting a Tariff on Planet Earth?

It’s not exactly a pretty picture, is it? And mind you, I haven’t even mentioned the ongoing disasters in Sudan or Somalia, or so much else on this unsettled and unsettling planet of ours. Nor have I mentioned the one major country that seems to fit none of the above categories, being neither at war, nor in decline, nor headed by some distinctly strange and unnerving version of humanity, and that, of course, is China. There can be no question that it is indeed a significant power and, once upon a time, would undoubtedly have been considered the next great power to loom over Planet Earth.

And give the Chinese some credit. While not acting globally in the usual fully imperial fashion, they have been moving to create ever more green energy — in fact, installing more wind and solar power than the rest of the world combined. And yet, that country is also a carbon disaster, using more coal than almost all the other countries on this planet put together and still planning to install startling numbers of new coal power plants. So, a “great” power? Not exactly, not on this ever-less-than-great planet of ours.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is sending the U.S. down the tubes in double time (and, in the process, potentially taking much of the rest of the world with him). He has, in short, brought us to what might be considered the ultimate cliff of history and is, in essence, putting a potentially devastating tariff on Planet Earth.

Under the circumstances, the question, of course, is: Why can’t we humans seem to learn what truly matters on this increasingly endangered planet of ours?

I sometimes feel like a bewildered child when I think about what we’re now doing to our world — a child with no parents around to explain what’s happening. And 79-year-old Donald Trump catches that mood of mine exactly as, having just turned 81, I watch him visibly begin to move into an altered state of personal decline, while ensuring by his acts (and those of his minders) that this planet continues to head for hell in a handbasket.

In the past I’ve suggested that his middle initial J should be changed to a D for decline. But now that seems almost too mild to me as we face what could — not even a quarter century after the United States appeared to stand alone and all-powerful on this planet of ours — be something like the last act in the drama (the tragedy?) of human history.

And yes, I still do have the urge to call my parents back from the dead, hoping they might be able to explain us humans and our ever-stranger ways to their son. I suspect that, on returning to this eerie world of ours so many decades later, my mother might find it to be the ultimate caricature.

(This piece first appeared on TomDispatch. Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He is a fellow of the Nation Institute and runs TomDispatch.com. His latest book is Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.)

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I’M A POLITICAL CARTOONIST. AI IS MAKING A MOCKERY OF MY PROFESSION

The internet is now crawling with AI-generated political cartoons that mimic the work of my colleagues

by Jack Ohman

As artificial intelligence infiltrates virtually every aspect of modern life, I had assumed, completely incorrectly, that editorial cartooning was probably more or less immune.

Earlier this year, however, I got a rude wake-up call.

Several editorial cartoonists first sent me a set of cartoons by Pedro Molina and Rick McKee that had been run through what I assumed was ChatGPT.

A guy (electronic entity?) working under the name of ToonAmerica had taken the artists’ drawings, converted them through AI and churned out virtually identical versions of their art, put his AI-signature on them and posted them on his Facebook page.

Naturally, I was appalled, not just on the artists’ behalf, but also because AI had made them artistically awkward and stiff, and then, to complete the electronic plagiarism, had the brass to sign them as his own.

A few days later, McKee sent me an AI version of my cartoon of President Donald Trump, dripping in a shower, exposing his bald pate with the words “Constitutional Crisis,” complete with the same font I drew.

For example, there is an AI program that can mimic my work. Type in Jack Ohman, and you get a lot of drawings that aren’t remotely like my art style. They’re better drawn than my work and not cartoons, but it can get you some beautiful AI San Francisco street scenes, cheaply.

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, our professional industry advocacy group (I’ve been president twice), discovered ToonAmerica was redrawing many of our members’ cartoons in AI, right down to the labels and captions, and then posting them on Facebook, attempting make a profit off our work.

I am pretty sure this sort of thing isn’t precisely illegal or in violation of copyright law per se. It’s just theft of intellectual property and completely pathetic.

I’ve noticed in the past few months that a lot of AI cartoons have popped up online in all sorts of venues, even on the sites of major internet personalities and journalists and Substacks.

Now, do those same internet personalities notice that the cartoon art is boring and derivative? Nope.

I spend hours and hours on my work, as do my colleagues. It is a time-consuming, demanding, meticulous profession. My cartoons are not renderable by a machine, as some lazy newspapers are trying to do with reporting.

A few days ago, I was looking at my Bluesky account’s latest list of new followers and saw one who called himself an “AI editorial cartoonist.”

I’m sure he’s a nice guy just trying to get by with all the right intentions, but he’s not an editorial cartoonist. He’s a kid messing around on his phone.

A real editorial cartoonist has to read a lot of stuff they don’t want to read, spot a plausible subject, decide what his or her position is on the subject, get an idea, do a pencil rough, ink it, color it in Photoshop and get it done by 2 p.m.

All AI does is act as a digital mynah bird. It’s like an impressionist calling himself president because he can speak like President Donald Trump.

The question now is: Who’s going to police this AI piracy and how?

In California, Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, introduced AB412, the “AI Copyright Transparency Act,” and it has passed the Assembly and is before the Senate.

“As the AI industry continues to develop and expand, it is critical for content creators to know if and how their work is being used to train advanced models. The AI Copyright Transparency Act increases accountability for AI developers and empowers copyright owners to exercise their rights,” Bauer-Kahan said about her legislation.

This bill has been endorsed by the Screen Actors Guild and SAG-AFTRA, and has been driven more by Hollywood than piteous, hunchbacked editorial cartoonists working with 16th century materials like sable hair and ink. Still, it covers us, too. Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t taken a position on it yet.

Editorial cartoonist and University of Louisville law professor Marc Murphy, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, added the organization’s support for the bill, noting that “our members create original works of art that speak truth to power. With the changing news media landscape, it is more imperative than ever that our members have full control and copyright over their creative work, without worrying that work is being used to train AI.”

Amen.

Geoffrey Hinton, a former Google vice president widely known as the “Godfather of AI,” said earlier this year that there are “risks that come from people misusing AI, and that’s most of the risks and all of the short-term risks. And then there’s risks that come from AI getting super smart and understanding it doesn’t need us.”

Hinton also added that “I often say (there’s a) 10% to 20% chance (for AI) to wipe us out. But that’s just gut, based on the idea that we’re still making them and we’re pretty ingenious. And the hope is that if enough smart people do enough research with enough resources, we’ll figure out a way to build them so they’ll never want to harm us.”

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A SONNET TO CHANGE

by Pauline Clarke

A daffodil emerged, its bloom unfurled,
Its yellow a reflection of the sun,
No matter how its beauty stunned the world,
It seemed that in mere moments it was done,
And all that marked the spot where it had been,
Were spears of leaves that wilted where they grew;
Though daffodils would flourish here again,
No other would be that one born anew.
And so the seasons come and seasons go,
Each heralding its entrance with a flower,
And change is ever constant, quick and slow,
While constancy awaits the altering hour.
The truth of transience has made it plain,
Though nothing changes, nothing stays the same.