Seasonal Temps | Fishing Rescue | Harriet Dahlquist | Sealight | Code Enforcement | Tunnel Bore | Council Projects | Yellow Rose | Senior Center | Boots | Prep Football | Wildcats Lose | Local Events | Rubber Crumbification | Piercy Tree-House | Book Sale | Grange Display | Harvest Time | Brittle Trio | Oak Discovery | Rainwater Harvesting | Yesterday's Catch | Carpool Hours | Cockburn 2005 | Delta Shenanigans | Eucalyptus | Marco Radio | Humble Peasants | Roadless Rule | Artificial Turf | Glorious Incident | Possible Cause | Smoldering Ashes | Sad Moment | Pickett Optimism | Giants Win | Long Way | Giants Optimism | Slouching Towards | Naming Cats | Fritz NYC | Pretend Party | Cradling Wheat | Guns, Stupid | America Gun | Broken People | Progress Corp | Protecting Us? | Safe Walking | About Death | The Struggle | The Crunch | Wrong Boy | Very Loud | Lead Stories | Gaza Protest | Katrina Anniversary | Weird Dream | Toured Ukraine | Lucky Fall
NEAR seasonal average temperatures will continue through the weekend. Increasing heat is expected across the interior early through mid next week. The coast is expected to see night and morning clouds with some afternoon clearing most days. There is a slight chance of thunderstorms Tuesday and Wednesday in the interior. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A clear 49F this Saturday morning on the coast. Another lovely afternoon on the coast yesterday after the fog moved out. The satellite shot shows the fog has moved well back from the shore.
FISHERMEN RESCUED OFF MENDOCINO COAST
The Coast Guard was called twice this week after a starter failed in one boat and another capsized
by Elise Cox
An exceptional morning of albacore fishing turned into a rescue mission Thursday morning when Captain Tim Gillespie, owner of All Aboard Adventures, spotted an overturned boat about 28 miles offshore.
Gillespie was fishing with six others aboard his vessel. The ocean was flat, the sun was shining, and the fishing was good.
Around 10:45 a.m., Gillespie noticed the small craft with two men clinging to the hull. “Man, that boat is awful small… that boat’s upside down,” he recalled saying to the crew. The fishermen quickly pulled in their gear and maneuvered alongside the stranded men.
The 24-foot Marlin had reportedly taken a few waves over the bow and the two crew men couldn’t keep up with bailing, eventually capsizing. Gillespie said he offered to bring the men to shore, but they preferred to wait for the Coast Guard on Gillespie’s boat. About 45 minutes later, a patrol boat arrived and safely transferred the two men back to Noyo Harbor.
“I’ve been doing this for 49 years and this is the first time I ever rescued anybody from sea,” Gillespie said. “You never pass up a boat that’s sunk when people are waving at you.”
U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist Petty Officer Kenneth Wise said the Marlin was still out there and that the coast guard had issued an advisory of a navigation hazard and asked people to steer clear.
Wise also shared information about another vessel that got stranded on Monday afternoon, August 25, just off the coast of the village of Mendocino. A 33-foot commercial fishing boat, the Miss Michelle (CF 7223SG), was reported to have starting issues at 2:47 p.m. Coast Guard personnel stationed at Little River retrieved the vessel and towed it to Noyo Harbor. Wise said the vessel’s three crew members, who had been diving for sea urchins, were not injured. The Coast Guard also reported no pollution concerns.
(mendolocal.news)
HARRIET LYDINA DAHLQUIST
Harriet L. Dahlquist went home to be with the Lord on August 18, 2025 in Fort Bragg, California. Born in December of 1939 in Harbor Beach, Michigan, she was preceded in death by her husband, Herbert L. Dahlquist, her parents Carl and Martha Schulte, her brothers John, James, Carl, LaVern Schulte and her sisters Jean and Louise. She is survived by her sons, Lloyd, John and Scott Davis. She is also survived by her granddaughter Erica Davis, grandsons Joshua and Jacob Davis and great-grandson Carson Ousley.
Harriet was a loving person who did what she could to help others. She loved to cook, bake and play games on her phone and tablet. She was a spiritual leader to many in her Christian church as well as to the people in her apartment complex. She was involved in TOPS as well.
She had owned and managed several businesses as well as being a real estate agent. In her final years, she was an in-home caregiver. Many of her clients were younger than she and she loved helping each and everyone of them.
She was loved by many and will be missed by all.
PLANNING & BUILDING CODE ENFORCEMENT SWEEPING COUNTY
by Jim Shields
The August 27 meeting of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council covered developments with the county-wide Planning and Building Services (PBS) Code Enforcement issue, where an anonymous person has papered P&B with over a hundred separate county-wide complaints alleging that businesses and individuals have allegedly violated building code provisions.
Evidently, PBS Code Enforcement treat individuals and entities who file such complaints to do so “anonymously”, as is the case with those filing complaints regarding the county’s Cannabis Ordinance.
The Council, as well as public commenters, addressed community challenges including financial difficulties, code enforcement issues, concerns about anonymous complaints and the apparent inconsistent application of building codes and related enforcement.
One of the folks affected by these mass building code filings is Meadow Shere, co-owner with husband Paolo of the Long Valley
Meadow discussed her problems with the complex and expensive planning and building process, which has left her in a difficult financial situation. She requested a few months to explore options and work with code enforcement to address violations. She expressed hope for a reassessment of the complaint process, suggesting it may not be functioning as intended, and emphasized the need for a more balanced approach that addresses issues without creating unnecessary problems.
In a letter Meadow sent to Supervisor Haschak, she summed up her position regarding her experience with PBS Code Enforcement:
“I have seen a lot of businesses close down for all kinds of reasons. I really don’t want to be another one. I’m not hurting anyone. My ‘unpermitted buildings’ aren’t hazardous. They’re not going to fall on anyone. It’s just a cover so the hay doesn’t get wet and a little covered storage for the grain. None of the neighbors object-just some anonymous person with nothing better to do than drive around and make problems. Is that the kind of system we want in place?
“I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said before. But now it’s affecting me, so I am feeling it directly.
“If this county can’t see a little more clearly how it’s policies are affecting it’s population, there’s going to be a lot less population to affect. How does this generate more revenue for the county? If I go out of business, there goes my sales tax revenue, that’s a couple less jobs, I can’t support local non profits with donations to their silent auctions, I can’t be a supplier for small livestock producers, and a business that has been in operation for 78 years will be gone.
“I am absolutely not the most savvy business person, but I’ve managed, with help and support from my family, friends and customers and the community as a whole, to keep the doors open for 22 years. I’d hate to have to close because of someone who doesn’t even have the courage to say who they are.
“In a perfect world-I would like the Board of Supervisors to halt the complaint process and its repercussions for a little while and really look at the way it is being used. And while you’re at it-look at the Planning and Building permit process. Why not try to have a process that encourages improvement instead of punishing past behavior-a lot of which was not even a problem when it happened? The process that is in place now makes change so difficult and costly that it absolutely requires applicants to try to get around the system.”
The council also discussed problems associated with anonymous complaints and the need for a more consistent code enforcement policy.
Jim Shields expressed concern about the potential impact on local businesses, particularly a community institution like the Shere’s feed store, during tough economic times, where at least 12 Laytonville area businesses have ceased operations in the past 18 months. Supervisor Haschak confirmed that Code Enforcement received an unusually high number of complaints in July, well over 100 compared to a monthly average in the mid-20s. He agreed with Shields concerns, stating that the County should work towards a reasonable approach to avoid losing more businesses.
Haschak will place the enforcement code issue on the September 9, 2025 agenda, and Shields will prepare a summary report to present to the Board of Supervisors.
Haschak also shared updates on a new Caltrans project similar to their previous Clean California initiative projects. He announced an upcoming workshop on September 10th to discuss Medicaid cuts and their impact on healthcare.
Supervisor Bernie Norvell, who was unable to attend the meeting, submitted a written report providing updates on several ongoing issues and projects. He discussed the grand jury response that is being prepared for the September 9th BOS meeting and mentioned a need to address code enforcement and animal control issues. He also shared information about a non-permitted Hipcamp event that was resolved through code enforcement intervention. He is currently working on developing a simple noise ordinance to address noise complaints in the absence of a county-wide noise ordinance. Sheriff Kendall explained the current challenges in enforcing noise regulations and supported the idea of a noise ordinance with escalating fines. Community
Sheriff Matt Kendall reported on recent fire incidents, including a dangerous blaze near Woodruff Road that was stopped by an unexpected wind shift, likely caused by a vehicle fire on the highway. He discussed the department’s current challenges, including high call volumes in Laytonville and budget constraints, while noting the graduation of two new officers and ongoing jail construction that is meeting its timeline. He also mentioned that the Office of Emergency Services is managing FEMA information through Mendoready.org, which he finds more useful than FEMA’s direct communications. Chairman Jim Shields inquired about recent joint operations between Fish and Wildlife, State Water Boards, and law enforcement regarding marijuana eradication in Mendocino, Humboldt, and Trinity counties, which the Sheriff confirmed was ongoing with significant discoveries of illegal grows and environmental violations.
(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, [email protected], the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org)
FORT BRAGG COUNCIL APPROVES ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT, COASTAL TRAIL, AND WASTEWATER PROJECTS
by Megan Wutzke
The city council on Monday advanced several projects aimed at boosting tourism, public amenities, and infrastructure. Council members approved the creation of a downtown Entertainment District that will allow open containers in certain areas, supported plans to add scenic viewing stations along the Coastal Trail, and awarded a $973,099 contract for a new biosolids storage building at the Wastewater Treatment Facility.
The council has approved a template for managing events in the new downtown Entertainment Zone, where public alcohol consumption is permitted. This template establishes guidelines for event hours, boundaries, container types, security, signage, and collaboration with law enforcement. The changes are to attract more visitors to the downtown area.
The initial zone includes the main area of Fort Bragg’s Central Business District, covering the 300 and 400 blocks of Franklin Street, Laurel Street, Redwood Avenue, and nearby streets from Pine to Oak, including Downtown Plaza. This area hosts major local events like the Magic Market, Blues Festival, First Fridays, Whale Festival, and Paul Bunyan Days. The zone is near several alcohol-serving businesses, such as Tall Guy Brewery and Cucina Verona.
Some members of the public raised concerns about the lack of detail, asking questions about enforcement, public safety, and potential impacts on families. According to City Manager Isaac Whippy, the template would guide event organizers and law enforcement while allowing flexibility for each event. Age verification measures, non-glass containers, signage, and post-event cleanup are included in the template.
The council also discussed plans to add two scenic tower viewers along the Coastal Trail, but raised concerns about the idea. Several members opposed coin-operated binoculars, citing vandalism risks. Councilmember Lindy Peters said he would support the project only if it could be funded entirely by the $35,000 committed by Blue Zones Project. The proposal, now scaled down to two stations, will return for future discussion.
The council approved a contract worth $973,099 with FRC, Inc. to build a new biosolids storage building at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Facility. This 50-by-100-foot wood-frame structure will be placed on an existing sludge drying slab. It will help reduce the handling of dried biosolids by keeping the material covered and dry.
The total project budget is $1,017,421, mostly funded by Wastewater Enterprise Capacity fees, with additional funds from the Wastewater Enterprise Fund. There is a contingency of about $44,000 for permits, inspections, and tribal monitoring during earth-moving activities. The project has a Mitigated Negative Declaration, and construction plans were finished in July 2025. FRC, Inc. submitted the lowest responsive bid out of six bids received.
THE YELLOW ROSE OF BOONVILLE, is the only one for me.
It blossoms in the garden, and never smells off key.
Its loveliness is striking, and it’s such a rarity.
That only passing cameras can confirm identity.
UKIAH SENIOR CENTER ON LIFE SUPPORT
To the Editor:
It was with a heavy heart when we read that the Ukiah Senior Center has had to stop its services on Fridays for Seniors, and now must plead with the community for support.
Let me be abundantly clear. What’s next? No more Mondays? Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday had better look out?
You know the phrase, pay it forward? Well, look forward into your own future. You too, if lucky enough, will become a Senior, if you are not already one.
And a community can be gauged by how it treats its Seniors, its Children and its Pets.
And maybe, just maybe, when your time has come for the need and support of a place like the Senior Center, it may not be open or available to you.
I cannot fathom the shutting down of the Ukiah Senior Center even for a nanosecond. Even the lessening of any services should be upsetting to most.
This would potentially leave thousands of members where? Forced to move out of Ukiah? Possibly becoming homeless? Spending their final days sad, alone and in misery and despair?
This is a quality of life issue, plain and simple.
You see, animals certainly need advocates as they cannot speak. Kids need nurturing, but have their entire lives ahead of them.
Senior Citizens are at somewhat of a disadvantage because of one serious limitation, and that is … how many days are left for them on this planet, and what will be their quality of life during those last years after spending their entire lives making ends meet?
Being a Senior Citizen is the last segue to the finish line. The last chapter of a novel. Would you read a mystery book, and then agree to NOT read the very last chapter? I think not. The end, the closing and final chapter should have a happy ending. At least, one can hope. Why shouldn’t the end of one’s time on this planet be one of care, concern, love, compassion, empathy, and above all,…Hope.
Dignified aging should be made easier, with financial resources made available because, make no mistake,…getting old is hard, and it sucks. Trust me on this.
The word suffering comes to mind, and the Senior Center is just the place to assist in suppressing the amount and degree of suffering, and allows the aging process possibly to be more tolerable.
And, I’d use a phase I am not particularly fond of using, …”it takes a village”. Although to me, my interpretation was that of a community: a collective cooperative of individuals, local agencies, and local government working together, and I have rarely seen this trilogy in Ukiah. It does tend to be every man and woman for themselves. This is unfortunately a common scenario across the United States.
Well, there is a good chance that these same men and women I just mentioned, later in life may be alone, lonely, hungry, in need of help or assistance, and that may not be there if this trend continues. Many of those already there may be reading all of this, nodding their heads in agreement.
I do not have a defeatist attitude regarding this issue, but a very realistic one. If things do not change, and the trend downward continues, how will Ukiah end up?Overtaken with even more elderly homelessness? Seeing seniors dying on the streets due to the lack of concern, care, or funding? Or even worse?
Certainly, it is truly unfortunate that so many entities are all forced to figuratively fight for funding.
But this needs to be approached as a battle, or a war. A war against the suffering of Ukiah’s aging populace. This is a battle worth fighting, as you will eventually be an unwilling soldier in this fight yourselves.
In short, you WILL get old, if you aren’t already. So, if you value “quality of life issues” or supporting all of those individuals that are “elders” that have put their soul, their spirit, their hard work and sweat into Ukiah,…maybe it’s payback time for these same Senior Citizens of Ukiah.
Oh, and don’t count on the government. You probably already know this. It is my belief and it is relatively evident that they cannot even solve their own problems, much less community issues.
Therefore, now is the time to be financially supportive because the Senior Center appears to be on life support. Help breathe life into the Ukiah Senior Center today.
Life and Hope!
Senior Citizen Johnny Keyes
Ukiah
RANCHO COTATE, UKIAH MEET TO KICK OFF PREP FOOTBALL SEASON
by Kienan O’Doherty
The opening slate of the 2025 high school football season is finally here, and with it comes The Press Democrat’s Game of the Week.
The destination Friday night is Rohnert Park, where Rancho Cotate and Ukiah will play in the season opener for the second straight year.
Rancho is ranked sixth in The Press Democrat’s preseason poll of North Bay teams, while Ukiah is No. 10.
Last year, Rancho beat Ukiah 40-22 up in Mendocino County behind two rushing touchdowns apiece from Wyatt Gregori and Giovanni Martinez. Omaurie Phillips-Porter had two receiving touchdowns for Ukiah.
Well, Martinez and Phillips-Porter have both graduated — and while both teams bring back plenty of playmakers, it is a new season, after all.
The Cougars still retain one of the stoutest defenses in the area. Led by three-star Colorado State commit John McClellan and do-it-all defensive back Luke Morie, Rancho has a defense that can be a game wrecker in any situation. The Cougars had 737 total tackles, 28 sacks and five interceptions a year ago.
On offense, Gregori earned the starting nod at quarterback for his senior year after a tough battle in camp. Gregori, who started every game last year, accounted for 12 total scores in 2024.
Gregori has all three of last year’s top targets through the air returning in Morie, Devin Perkins and Liam Griffith. Add in McClellan stepping in on offense at tight end, and the passing attack could improve dramatically from last season.
The Wildcats, on the other hand, bring back one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the area in senior Beau David. Now in his third year as a varsity starter, David threw for 2,251 yards with 27 touchdowns last year.
And with Phillips-Porter down at Cal Poly, Ukiah will look to have wideouts step to replace his 1,380-yard, 19 touchdown production.
Three of those players could be Ryan Todd, Zach Martinez and Dareon Dorsey. All three played more than meaningful minutes at wide receiver last season, combining for over 600 yards receiving. Those numbers could jump with a more focal point in the offense.
Last year also saw the emergence of Chris Thompson, a running back who is now a junior. In 12 games played, he rushed 129 times for 796 yards with four touchdowns.
Both coaches are looking forward to opening night.
“We’re excited to play a game; it’s been a long offseason,” Ukiah head coach Paul Cronin said. “We’ve put a lot of work into it, and it’s always fun under the lights at Rancho … they do a great job with their program, and it’s always great to see sustained success like Rancho has had over the years.”
“I can’t stress enough how much I love coaching against Paul (Cronin), from Newman to Windsor to Ukiah,” Rancho Cotate head coach Gehrig Hotaling said. “It’s honestly my favorite coaching challenge as far as the chess match that’s involved, there’s nothing like it … right now I think our mentality is right where it needs to be.”
Rancho has beaten Ukiah the last 15 times they’ve played, with Ukiah’s last win in the series coming in a 27-21 contest in 2005. Since then, the Cougars’ hot streak has included six shutouts of the Mendocino County team.
Friday night will determine whether Ukiah breaks that streak, but Rancho will look to keep its dominance going.
Both teams are ready to suit up when it matters, which can only mean one thing — football is back.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
GAME OF THE WEEK: RANCHO COTATE BEATS UKIAH 33-26 IN TIGHT CONTEST
It’s Rancho’s 16th straight win over Ukiah dating back to 2006.
by Kienan O'Doherty
It wasn’t pretty, but Rancho Cotate got the job done in its season opener Friday night, beating the visiting Wildcats as high school football returned to the North Bay. It’s Rancho’s 16th straight win over Ukiah dating back to 2006.
How it happened
On a beautiful, clear evening in Rohnert Park, the hosts got out on their front foot early. Liam Griffith opened the scoring on a 38-yard strike from quarterback Wyatt Gregori, who hit the receiver in stride for a quick glimpse at what the Cougars’ passing offense is capable of.
Ukiah’s offense answered quickly, as senior quarterback Beau David found Ryan Todd to tie it up.
After each team scored again, Rancho gambled on fourth down from Ukiah’s 9-yard line. The pass was tipped at the line, and the momentum went right back to the visitors. Luckily for the Cougars, Ukiah was forced into a three and out. All of a sudden, the offenses had cooled while the defenses stepped up.
Rancho got a massive score on a 27-yard scamper from John McClellan (two rushing touchdowns) to break the 13-13 deadlock. But the Wildcats, earning every yard they could get on six-minute-plus drives, tied it right back before Rancho took the lead for good on a 65-yard score by Luke Morie.
Key play
A touchdown run by Rancho’s senior quarterback sealed the deal.
After Ukiah trimmed its deficit to 27-23 with a field goal, Gregori took the first play after the kickoff on a quarterback draw. He broke a couple of tackles and scampered 73 yards to cap Rancho’s scoring. It was his third touchdown of the day, having thrown for two earlier in the game.
Quotable
“A lot of things went right for us in the second half, and it was a battle,” Rancho Cotate head coach Gehrig Hotaling said. “My hat’s off to Ukiah; that’s a good football team. We knew that coming into this, and they battled us to the very end. After halftime, it could have gone either way, but our kids decided that this is 2025’s team and responded.”
Up next
Rancho will head to Redwood next Saturday afternoon, while Ukiah hosts its home opener vs. Carlmont that night.
(The Press Democrat)
LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)
BAINBRIDGE PARK RUBBER-CRUMBIFICATION (Coast Chatline)
“Suzabelle” wrote: “Have you ever played soccer on astroturf? Artificial turf for team sports causes far more injuries than natural grass fields…”
Marco McClean:
No, I haven’t, because I am old. I don’t like astroturf. It’s obviously ridiculous, you’re right. And team sports cause injuries to every part of the body including the brain, as well as steering children since time immemorial in the direction of being competitive macho bullies, which carries over into later life and giant stupid blind-in-front pickup trucks, and motorcycles the size of hippos, whose deliberately explosively loud blasts of exhaust could wake the dead, yet for some reason don’t result in arrest and confiscation. Maybe they talk sports with the cops, who all look like high school football players anymore, except festooned with weapons, perhaps you’ve noticed this too.
I like the recycled rubber surface used for paths and the running track at the high school field where Juanita and I went to see toxic fireworks a few years ago in Sebastopol. Way better than hard dirt or gravel or any kind of paving. It feels good to walk on. And I like the crumbled rubber bed beneath new playground equipment everywhere. It’s an improvement over the old sand or concrete, even though playground equipment design has been insurance-company safe-ified out of all fun. Real grass under a swing, to jump off onto it in higher and higher arcs, is kind of neat. Grass is often chemically treated to keep it just grass and minimize opportunistic other plants and natural bugs. I’ve heard green grass lawns and golf courses and paying fields described as biological deserts. Pick anything in the world and there’s a downside to it. For me, the best parks are left alone to go to hell and grow crazy and wild, where kids we could go out with shovels and picks and scrap wood and dig underground forts to smoke cigarets in and shoot slingshots and beebee guns at each other, but there’s never enough room for that in a city, and junkies would probably take over and live there now.
My funniest memory of thick soft cared-for grass in a park comes from when I was six, out in the triangular park of lovely twisty sycamores between the row of apartments where my mother and I lived and the L.A. River and the freeway just beyond. My dog Pepper had got out of the porch gate and would not come when I called. I ran after her, spotted her, finally caught up, dove at her for the catch, and of course ground my eye, nose and teeth into fresh dog shit. The texture, the taste and the smell of grass and shit, the ocean-roar of cars and trucks on the freeway and the sandy-milk-brown smog of early-1960s L.A.-- it comes back, as Peter Bergman put it, like the hot kiss at the end of a wet fist.
ONE OF CALIFORNIA’S STRANGEST SECRETS IS BACK OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Piercy's roadside World Famous Tree House reopens, with questions about what's next
by Matt LaFever
Winding through California’s redwood curtain, Highway 101 plays like a flicker reel of shadow and light. Ferns flash between red trunks, roadside stands dot the landscape and park entrances break the blur of giants. Just south of the Mendocino-Humboldt county line, in Piercy, along the South Fork of the Eel River, sits one of California’s most enduring roadside attractions: the World Famous Tree House.
Also known as the “Fraternal Monarch,” the 250-foot-tall redwood is said to be 4,000 years old. Three centuries ago, it was burned hollow, and inside its cavernous trunk, 27 feet across, visitors once found a bar and a lunch counter.
Angela Blackwell, who bought the landmark in 1999, reopened it last week after years of pandemic closure. Beneath the giant’s limbs, she told SFGATE, “The tree is so magical.” With the doors open again, visitors can pay a few dollars to step inside the belly of this ancient redwood.
But the future is uncertain. Since her husband’s death, Blackwell has shouldered the upkeep alone, a burden that has grown too heavy. “I feel so reluctant to sell it,” she admitted, acknowledging the years of time and love her family poured into the place. Still, she knows the moment has come to pass it on to its next caretakers.
On Highway 101, the World Famous Tree House appears almost without warning. After miles of shadow and curve, the forest parts to reveal a weathered camper trailer, a building with a faded Coca-Cola sign, and a massive redwood fronted by a hand-carved bear. A sign announcing the landmark reads, “Word Famous Tree House, Believe It or Not!”
From the highway, the tree and shop seem inseparable, a slate-roofed corridor built into the trunk’s far side. There’s a visible door, but tourists never enter that way. The true passage is hidden inside the gift shop, where a doorway cuts straight into the hollow of the redwood.
Step inside and you’re in a warehouse of Americana. Shelves are crowded with kitsch: fluorescent toucans, polished burl wood, ceramic figurines and Highway 101 placards. The air smells of wood and tobacco, lived-in and rustic.
To the right sits the real prize: the passage into the ancient redwood itself, accessible only through the shop. The tree, still alive and growing, pushes up through the floorboards, which have been cut to accommodate its slow expansion. Blackwell told SFGATE the Fraternal Monarch is “still very healthy. And still growing too.” Crossing the threshold into the cavern is disorienting — the charred interior swallows light, a void nearly 27 feet across.
What was once the lunch counter and working bar holds a scatter of artifacts: a cigar store Indian, a painted cattle skull, photographs from the redwood boom and coin-operated amusements that animate lumberjacks at work. A small window cut long ago still peeks out from the tree’s side, a relic of another era of this roadside wonder.
The story of this roadside icon, as told in Diane Hawk’s “Touring the Old Redwood Highway, Mendocino County,” begins in the early 1900s with Mignon “Minnie” Stoddard, who carved out a life in the redwoods with her husband, William G. Lilley, by planting orchards and cutting trails. When the Redwood Highway opened in 1926, it ran straight through their land, and in 1927 the land on which the tree stood became available. In the years that followed, the couple developed cabins and attractions around the massive hollowed redwood and turned the tree into what became known as the World Famous Tree House.
“Every foot of my forest home is dear to me,” Stoddard once said. “The possession of the Fraternal Monarch, largest tree on the Redwood Highway, is more to me than the gold which has been offered for it many times.”
Ripley’s Believe It or Not would later call the Tree House the “tallest one-room house in the world.”
Blackwell and her husband, Bruce, first discovered the landmark decades later while living in Jackson, Mississippi. They often flew into San Francisco and drove north just to marvel at the redwoods. Angela had always dreamed of running a small bookstore, and when Bruce traveled alone in 1999, he asked the owner if he knew of any land with big trees for sale. “Why don’t you buy this?” came the reply.
Bruce immediately called Angela. “Look, I found the perfect store for you — it’s in the tree,” he told her. Angela remembered, “I just jumped on the plane and flew here, and came here, and fell in love.”
The Blackwells then made the Tree House their seasonal home for nearly two decades, living there from May through October. “I usually come Memorial weekend till Labor Day, and if the rain comes a little later, maybe into October,” she explained. Summers were spent running the gift shop, tending the cabins and welcoming streams of visitors into the cavernous redwood.
After Bruce’s death in 2017, Angela kept the tradition alive, though the labor grew heavier. More changes happened: The pandemic shuttered the Tree House for five years, while she relocated to Ashland, Oregon, and focused on becoming a grandmother.
The 2025 reopening marks a bittersweet return. After 26 years of ownership, Blackwell now sees this season as both a revival and a farewell. “I finally come to the realization, come to the decision,” she said of her plan to sell the property.
When she and Bruce bought the Tree House in 1999, they paid “about $400,000 for the land and about over $100,000 for all the inventories.” Beyond the gift shop and the iconic tree, the property includes 11 cabins, 11 acres and a former restaurant. The buildings would need considerable work to be Airbnb-ready, but with its prime location on Highway 101 — and the historic landmark at its center — the roughly $1 million asking price looks modest in a state where the average single-family home already costs over $750,000.
Blackwell has long watched how the roadside stand became a “family tradition,” drawing visitors from across the country to relive childhood memories. She recalled an elderly couple who stopped by one afternoon. The husband told her, “All my life I told my wife about this tree. She said I’m a liar.” Finally, after decades, he was able to bring her to the Fraternal Monarch of his past. “I cleared my name,” he told Blackwell.
After decades of carrying the responsibility, Blackwell said it’s time for someone else to take on the role. Passing the Tree House to a new curator, she admitted, would ease the pressure she’s long felt. “I just feel bad for the people who come afar to look for this tree and see this tree and it’s always closed,” she noted.
Ultimately, “I want to find the right person and carry on,” she concluded.
(SFGate.com)
HUGE BOOK SALE FORT BRAGG LIBRARY
We just finished unpacking what felt like millions of books, Cds and DVDs for our book sale this weekend! If you are already a member of the Friends of the Library you are welcome to come shop between 3-6 today (Friday). For a mere $10.00 you could purchase your very own library membership this afternoon if you don’t have one! Our sale continues all weekend for everyone Saturday and Sunday August 30 and 31 our hours are 10-4 both days!
Thank you for supporting our Friends of the Library Book Sale!
A SUPER FUN WAY to participate in the fair festivities is to help the AV Grange with the annual award winning agriculture display! We’re getting together Monday eve, Sept. 7th, at 4pm to begin the seed gluing process to the colorful display.
Please join us if you can! This year’s fair theme is “Mendocino Coastal Adventures” so we’ve got a great display plan!
WORD OF MOUTH MAGAZINE: September Small Bites ~ It’s time for a brain break!
Harvest time is sense-sational!
I love language. Specifically English, which is believed to have the most words of any spoken language. Sometimes I’ll use a word and then think, “Wait, what exactly does that mean? Am I using that right?”
That happened recently with the word “virtual,” which has a number of definitions, one of which is existing only in the imagination. I was thinking about how digital engagement occurs almost exclusively in our minds, leaving our bodies in a kind of suspended dormancy. After a long stretch on a smartphone or in front of a computer, your head might be full, but the rest of you is starved. Through modern technology a person can visit the top of Everest without raising their heart rate, but while the picture might be high def and the audio crystal clear, it’s still only a synthetic rendering. You would have to raise your heart rate more than a little to smell the icy air, feel the cutting gusts, and hear how voices and other sounds carry (or don’t) in a world of snow.
Harvest is the ideal time to give your overworked brain a break and engage your senses. Make your tastebuds happy with a chili cook-off, a fish taco competition, an ice cream social, or even a 6-course tasting menu paired with locally distilled spirits. Listen to live music by Billboard #1 country duo Love & Theft, or a slew of bands coming together for a weekend jam in the forest. Delight your eyes with an axe throwing competition, an art exhibit with creations inspired by song, or a dance performance high in the redwoods. Or feel the textures of various wools at the annual fiber festival, inhale the fresh sea air during one of the Coastal Clean-Up events, or smell the iron-infused breath emitted by a vintage steam-powered train engine. Don’t let September pass you (and your senses) by — there’s just too much cool stuff happening!
See you out there ~
Torrey & the team at Word of Mouth Magazine
wordofmouthmendo.com
CALIFORNIA OAK DISCOVERY DAY
Do you have an oak that is special to you? Or an oak-inspired artwork that transports you to the woodlands? The UC Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC) will be hosting California Oak Discovery Day on Saturday, Oct. 11, from 10AM. This free, family-friendly event will celebrate the beauty and importance of the oak woodlands that are iconic to Mendocino County. Event organizers are seeking photos, paintings, drawings and sculptures of oaks and oak woodlands, including the animals, plants, and fungi that live in oak woodlands, to be exhibited on the walls and tables during the event.
“Any artwork that captures your relationship with these magnificent trees would be welcomed at Oak Discovery Day,” commented Diana Pepetone, the lead volunteer organizing the event. “Whether you live in the Willits hills or in downtown Ukiah, you’ve probably got an oak that you walk by regularly — maybe now is the time to take its photograph!”
Artwork files can be uploaded online at https://bit.ly/oakart25. The subject must be California oak woodlands, rather than the oaks of other countries or states. At submission, participants are encouraged to share a short narrative describing the oak and why it is important to them. Artwork files will be printed in 8.5X11 or 11x17 format for the event.
2025 will be the inaugural HREC California Oak Discovery Day. The idea for the event was created by the HREC volunteer team The Quercus Collaborative, who are devoted to oak regeneration and education activities. The event will include an oak haiku sit-and-write, guided walks with authors Kate Marianchild (Secrets of the Oak Woodlands) and Robin Lee Carlson (The Cold Canyon Fire Journals), a hands-on oak restoration workgroup, oak woodland bird watching, booths and career talks. Participants are encouraged to bring along a picnic to enjoy in the beautiful woodlands at the site and to finish their day watching the play “And Who Shall Heal the Ground” by Diana Pepetone.
The event is free, but registration is required at https://bit.ly/oakday25. Support for the event and free admission for the community is made possible by The Quercus Symbiosis Foundation.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, August 29, 2025
RICO ACOSTA, 26, Redwood Valley. Domestic abuse.
STEPHAN GRANT, 55, Daley City/Ukiah. Probation revocation.
JOSHUA HESS, 23, Ukiah. Robbery.
NICHOLAS LANZIT, 47, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.
ADRIENNE PARDUE, 45, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
THEODORE SCHREINER, 41, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
MICHAEL STRAND, 43, Stockton/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
EXTENDING CARPOOL HOURS WILL LEAVE LANES EMPTY
Editor:
Before we get too excited about the completion of the carpool lanes through the Marin-Sonoma Narrows, it’s important to pay attention to a change that Caltrans recently made to the hours for the carpool lanes. The evening hours are approximately the same, running from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. However, the big change is in the morning hours, running now from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., where they used to be 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. This change was made because some wizard in the Caltrans District 4 office in Oakland decided carpool lanes should be uniform throughout the Bay Area. Apparently, this person has not driven southbound from Petaluma in the early morning. We have now spent over $700 million so that we can look at empty carpool lanes in the morning.
Joe Gaffney
Rohnert Park
ALEXANDER COCKBURN, 2005
(CounterPunch/Becky Grant)
DELTA TUNNEL UPDATE: ADVOCATES CONFRONT GOVERNOR’S OFFICE OVER PUSH FOR TUNNEL CEQA EXEMPTIONS
by Dan Bacher
Sacramento, CA – The battle to stop the salmon-killing Delta Tunnel has amped up in recent weeks, with Governor Gavin Newsom pushing bills in the Legislature that would fast-track the Delta Tunnel and carve out exemptions from the landmark California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) at the behest of Big Ag oligarchs and Southern California water brokers.
On August 26, dozens of advocates from Tribes, Delta communities, environmental justice groups, fishing groups, and conservation organizations held more than 100 meetings at the State Capitol to “express collective opposition to the Delta Conveyance Project and Water Quality Plan CEQA Exemption trailer bills,” according to a statement from Restore the Delta:
“Participants came from every corner of the state, spanning an age range of over 50 years, united in their call to protect the San Francisco Bay-DeltaEstuary and California rivers. Advocates urged lawmakers to reject attempts to advance the tunnel and excessive water exports and instead support viable, community-based solutions such as local water projects in Southern California.
“Throughout the day, advocates learned that the State Water Contractors are advancing a strategy to secure CEQA exemptions for both the Bay-Delta Plan and the Delta Tunnel, with sunset clauses ending only when the projects are completed to their satisfaction. In effect, this strategy—backed by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Governor’s Office—would isolate Tribes and Delta residents from due process rights guaranteed under current law.”…
MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all night tonight on KNYO and KAKX!
Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight’s (Friday night’s) MOTA show is 5:30 or so. If that’s too soon, send it any time after that and I’ll read it next Friday. That’s fine. There’s no pressure.
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.
Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week’s MOTA show. By Saturday night I’ll put up the recording of tonight’s show. You’ll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with until showtime, or any time, such as:
What the lyrics of AC/DC songs sound like to people who don’t like the band. https://laughingsquid.com/what-acdc-sounds-likes-to-haters/
Railguns: the useless billion-dollar weapon. Though they did all right against the Wraith, once the Daedelus brought them, just in the nick of time, to Atlantis. And they’re pretty good in close space battles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqhXsUwncfE
“I’m shot but I’m still goin’. Tourniquet, tourniquet. Gol-dang, I’m bleedin’ like a son-of-a-bitch. Tourniquet me? Tie that thing on. Go high.” https://bustednuckles.net/hard-core/
Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
ROADLESS RULE RESCISSION POSTED FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
Dear EPIC Community,
Today, the Forest Service has taken the next step in rescinding the Roadless Rule, potentially making 4.4 million acres of old growth forests, rivers, and wildlife in California vulnerable to industrial logging and road development.
We have a three-week comment period to submit letters to the USDA, telling them which issues they should address when developing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this rescission of the rule.
First there was an attempt by members of Congress to sell off public lands. Now, this administration wants to sell out our nation’s public forests by opening remote, protected areas like Bug Creek, Mad River Buttes to logging, roadbuilding and other development. We can’t let that happen.
There isn’t an automated way to direct comments to the Federal Register, so we apologize for the inconvenience.
How to Submit Comments Online:
- Navigate to www.Regulations.gov
- Search for the proposed rule by entering the docket number:**FS-2025-0001
- Click the “Comment” button on the top let corner of the docket page.
- Enter your information.
- Write your comment. You can type your comment directly into the text box provided or upload a file.
How to Submit Comments in the Mail:
- Write your letter or postcard
- Address the letter to:
Director, Ecosystem Management Coordination
201 14th Street SW, Mailstop 1108
Washington, DC 20250-1124
- Stamp it and put in your mail box
Sample comment below:
Secretary Rollins,
I urge you not to rescind the Roadless Rule. The 45 million acres of remote, wild and roadless forests across our country are the few pockets of unbroken forest where nature can flourish undisturbed.
The longer that forests are left alone and the longer that trees are left to grow, the more time a fully-fledged, interconnected forest ecosystem has to develop. The older trees in these forests support endangered wildlife and while filtering and storing clean water that downstream communities depend on.
Habitat connectivity is one of the most important functions of intact, roadless forests, providing migration corridors for species such as elk, deer, fishers, and salmon. Rescinding the Roadless Rule would fragment these landscapes, cutting off wildlife from breeding grounds, food sources, and seasonal ranges, and diminishing the ability of older forests to sustain resilient ecosystems and buffer against climate change.
People rock climb, hike, bike, hunt, fish and ski in these remote places. These forests also provide cultural, recreational, and ceremonial value for communities and Tribes who depend on intact landscapes for traditional practices, gathering, and ceremony.
Rolling back the Roadless Rule will not protect communities from wildfire and may in fact lead to more wildfires. Wildfires are four times as likely to start in areas with roads than in roadless forest tracts and 90 percent of all wildfires nationwide started within half a mile of a road.
We shouldn’t jeopardize the wildlife, habitat connectivity, recreation and clean water that these beloved intact forests provide by opening them to road-building, commercial logging, mining and drilling. Please leave America’s last wild forests alone.
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
S.F. GIANTS’ $45M PLAN TO MODERNIZE COMMUNITY BALL FIELDS STIRS FIGHT
by Tom Li
Steps away from San Francisco’s expansive McLaren Park, a humble-yet-popular playground and athletic complex has become the newest site of a years-old national debate over installing artificial turf.
At Crocker Amazon Playground, gopher holes, standing water and tufts of wildflowers and patchy grass blot the park’s five baseball and softball fields, a situation that gets even worse during the rainy season. Wildlife from McLaren bleeds into the spacious lawns, as locals say they spot coyotes and rare birds on a weekly basis.
For years, San Francisco’s recreational baseball leagues and school teams have had to make do with these less-than-ideal fields — five of the roughly 65 baseball and softball diamonds maintained by the city. Close to 30 organizations and teams use the five fields, making a difficult task of scheduling practices and games.
The shortage of play space led the San Francisco Giants to back a $45 million renovation of the park that would replace the rundown diamonds with one grass baseball field and five new artificial turf fields. The project would also install new lighting to extend play hours, add batting cages and upgrade the battered park buildings and walkways.
Together, the updates would create about 2,000 additional hours of playtime, according to the city’s Recreation and Park Department and the Giants’ Community Fund, which is funding about half of the project budget.
There is a “critical need for more high quality baseball and softball fields in the city,” said Shana Daum, a spokesperson for the Giants, who play on meticulously tended natural grass at Oracle Stadium. “Using state-of-the-art artificial turf gives our kids and families thousands of hours of additional playtime each year.”
But some neighbors and environmentalists have raised concerns over the use of artificial turf in the renovations, saying the material is an avenue for toxic chemicals and microplastics — tiny plastic fragments — to enter parkgoers’ bodies and pollute nearby waterways.
“We count on our cities and our state to look after our health,” said Bob Hall, co-founder of advocacy group Keep Crocker Real, which opposes the proposed artificial turf installation. People “don’t want to have to think about the toxic chemicals that our park might be providing to them.”
Hall and other project opponents presented a variety of other arguments, including that artificial turf is costly to maintain, that proposed fencing closes off community access, and that the renovation’s replacement of grass lawns, removal of nearby trees and installation of stage lighting would threaten the park’s native birds and other wildlife.
So far, the Recreation and Park Department has not budged in its commitment to artificial turf. It plans to host a second public input meeting this fall, before entering the design and approval process next year. The city says construction may begin as early as 2027.
Hall’s community of advocates — an assortment of conservationists, bird-watchers and other neighbors — plans to again express its concerns at the fall meeting, but in the meantime, the group is turning to city commissions to put pressure on the department.
They’ve won over the city’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare, which earlier this month recommended installing natural grass fields at Crocker Amazon and stopping further artificial turf expansion across city parks. The body has no power to stop the project, only providing recommendations in an advisory role.
San Francisco has already installed artificial turf on about a dozen baseball fields across the city, as well as many soccer fields, including those at Crocker Amazon.
Much of the concern over artificial turf comes from the strands of plastic meant to imitate blades of grass, which are produced using PFAS — “forever chemicals” that rarely break down in the environment. PFAS exposure is understood to decrease fertility, increase cancer risk and weaken immune systems. Some research has also found that the rubber crumb often used in artificial turf can release various chemicals, including carcinogens and neurotoxins.
While preliminary studies have linked microplastics exposure to some health risks, researchers have not reached a consensus about the long-term impact of microplastics exposure.
Though they noted that more recent studies have shown that rubber infill is safe, the city plans to install a recyclable mixture of sand and cork for the turf at Crocker Amazon, according to Tamara Denton, a spokesperson for Rec and Park.
Denton added that synthetic turf — which drains quickly and can be played on during and immediately after rain — will eliminate instances when practices or games are canceled because of the weather. The fields at Crocker Amazon were closed for almost half of the spring 2024 season due to poor weather, the department recorded.
Still, preliminary evidence of PFAS and other carcinogenics should be enough to justify avoiding synthetic fields, argued Sophie Constantinou, president of the California Native Plants Society and a member of the city’s Park, Recreation and Open Space Advisory Committee.
“I don’t want to see the next generation of children with cancer in their 20s and their 30s, because that’s what happened to me, and it sucked,” she said, adding that she is a cancer survivor herself. “We don’t know until it’s too late that these things are poisonous.”
Parents haven’t expressed the same concerns, said Katherine Gillespie, president of the San Francisco Little League, which oversees about 1,000 players ages 4 to 16.
“I’ve never had a family come to me when I’ve put them on Kimbell Field, which is a turf field, when I’ve put them on South Sunset, which is an artificial turf field,” Gillespie said. “If anything, the major complaint that I get is you get little grains of infill in your shoes.”
“What people are more grateful for is getting to play after a light rain or for us getting to play games until 8 p.m. so that we can actually offer a robust season,” she added.
Similar battles over artificial turf fields have taken over cities across the Bay Area and the country. Millbrae banned new installations of artificial turf in 2023, becoming one of the first cities in the state to do so. But Santa Clara County in January rejected a proposal to ban new artificial turf fields and phase out existing ones.
Debates over artificial turf began in San Francisco as early as 2008, when health concerns surfaced over a proposal to install it on city playing fields. A proposal to install artificial turf in renovated soccer fields at the Beach Chalet Athletic Fields prompted a legal battle and two dueling 2014 ballot propositions. Voters approved artificial turf, and the renovated complex opened in 2015.
“It’s really not a new debate,” Gillespie said. “I get that people want to be healthy. I think that 20 years ago, this conversation was very, very different, but in this day and age, science has moved lightning-fast, and the materials being used are much more thoughtful.”
The risks at Crocker Amazon, however, remain too high for several project opponents. Hall argued that baseball seasons typically run for only four months out of the year and that new fields would be relatively unused in the off-seasons.
He said he suspects the city already had its mind set on the project before community engagement.
“It’s not saying, ‘No, never do anything that’s going to be development,’” Hall said. “It’s just, ‘Look at all these issues.’”
But Gillespie argued that the project, by providing mixed-use space for a variety of San Franciscans, is “community-driven” to its core.
“I just really hope that we can all kind of come together and see the big picture here,” she said.
(sfchronicle.com)
SMOLDERING ASHES AT NAPA VINEYARD SEEN AS POSSIBLE CAUSE OF PICKETT FIRE
by Anna Bauman
Cal Fire investigators are looking into multiple potential causes for the Pickett Fire, including whether a contractor accidentally disposed of smoldering ashes at a Calistoga vineyard last week.
The ashes are among several possible causes that the agency is probing as part of its investigation into what sparked the Wine Country blaze last week, Shawn Zimmermaker, Cal Fire deputy chief of law enforcement and fire prevention for the Northern Region, told the Chronicle on Thursday.
“The team is looking into that and evaluating it as a potential ignition source, but they are also looking at all the other potential ignition sources,” Zimmermaker said. “We have conducted a number of interviews and we have looked at a variety of different causes. We have not made a final determination yet.”
An independent contractor at Hundred Acre Wines may have unknowingly discarded hot ashes after dousing them with water, thinking they were extinguished, according to another source with knowledge of the matter, who spoke to the Chronicle on condition of anonymity.
The on-the-ground investigation is nearing completion, Zimmermaker said, and could be wrapped up in three to five days.
Among those who have been interviewed by Cal Fire as part of the investigation are a vineyard manager and independent contractor who work for Hundred Acre Wines, according to Sam Singer, a spokesperson for the company.
“They are working cooperatively with the investigation into the Pickett Fire,” Singer told the Chronicle on Thursday.
The theory that rekindled ashes could have caused the Pickett Fire was first reported by NBC Bay Area, which said that the contractor at Hundred Acre Wines apparently pulled the ashes from an oven and “put them on a pile of flammable material.”
Records show that Hundred Acre Wine Group owns a property on the 2300 block of Pickett Road in Calistoga, where Cal Fire reported that the blaze started around 3 p.m. Aug. 21 as temperatures soared.
Jayson Woodbridge, the founder and winemaker of the cult Cabernet brand Hundred Acre, previously told the Chronicle that his wife called him last Thursday afternoon from their Calistoga home, where she could see flames 500 feet away. Woodbridge rushed home and protected his property with hoses all night, he said.
“No damage to the winery, no damage to the house,” he told the Chronicle the next morning. “No idea how the fire started except it was 105 degrees yesterday and blowing about 15 to 20 mph.”
The Pickett Fire had spread to 6,800 acres and was 33% contained as of Thursday evening, according to Cal Fire. Evacuation orders and warnings remained in place for several zones between Calistoga and Aetna Springs.
An overnight marine layer brought “excellent humidity recovery to the fire area,” Cal Fire said in a Thursday morning update, although temperatures rose slightly in the afternoon.
“Large fuels continue to smolder within the fire perimeter as firefighters work to construct direct control lines within steep, rugged terrain,” the agency reported.
No structures had been confirmed damaged or destroyed, as the fire had mostly consumed open land, but initial estimates show a considerable impact on agricultural producers.
Napa County officials said Wednesday that vintners and other growers are reporting at least $65 million in agricultural losses from the Pickett Fire. A survey found that the fire has damaged roughly 1,500 acres, or roughly 3% of the production acreage in Napa Valley, with the majority impacted primarily by smoke.
(SF Chronicle)
PICKETT FIRE MAY HAVE STARTED AT WINERY PREPPING FOR UNPERMITTED EVENT
by St. John Barned-Smith, Jess Lander
The massive Pickett Fire in northern Napa Valley appears to have ignited on a vineyard property that was preparing for a wedding celebration, the Chronicle has learned — even though Napa County famously bars all but a few wineries from holding such events.
The state’s Cal Fire agency is investigating the disposal of smoldering ashes at Hundred Acre Private Road Winery, in Calistoga, as a potential ignition source of the blaze on Aug. 21, which as of Friday had burned 6,800 acres. Two days after the fire broke out, the wedding celebration that was set to take place at the estate carried on after being moved to another winery.
For more than three decades, Napa Valley has banned weddings at wineries, except for a handful of estates that were grandfathered in when the rule passed. Jayson Woodbridge, who founded cult Cabernet producer Hundred Acre and purchased the Calistoga estate from Kelly Fleming last year, has been accused of violating land-use regulations multiple times in the past.
A spokesperson for Woodbridge, Sam Singer, said Friday that the ashes seem to have come from a fire that contractors started in a newly built outdoor fireplace on the Pickett Road property. The workers were “tempering” the fireplace, a controlled heating process used to cure and strengthen the materials that contain the fire.
The contractor removed the ashes after the fire, put them in a bucket, doused them with water and then discarded them, Singer said. He said the construction of the fireplace began in April and was unrelated to the event that had been scheduled for Aug. 23 at the property. Cal Fire has not said where the smoldering ashes it is investigating came from.
The wedding being celebrated was that of Emilyn Smith, who is the daughter of Burges Smith, one of the first employees at Hundred Acre, and her fiancé, Sean O’Donnell.
Singer disputed that anything improper had occurred. He said the event was a “family gathering” and not a wedding, and that the couple legally married six months ago. But the Chronicle reviewed social media posts from the event and found that a close friend of Emilyn Smith had posted photos on Instagram of her being walked down the aisle in a white dress. The friend congratulated the couple for their “beautiful wedding.”
Napa County in 1990 passed the Winery Definition Ordinance, seeking to preserve the area’s agricultural character by limiting wineries to events “directly related to education and development” of wine consumers, such as tastings and gatherings of club members.
“Examples of cultural and social events that are not permitted,” the county later wrote in an explanation of the code, “include weddings, wedding rehearsals, anniversary parties, and similar events where the education and development of consumers is subordinate to non-wine-related content.”
While technically forbidden, unpermitted social events like weddings are frequently held at Napa wineries.
Woodbridge has long clashed with Napa County over its wine regulations. In 2006, the Napa County District Attorney alleged that Woodbridge produced wine without a permit and filed a criminal charge against him. The charges were later dropped.
In 2022, Napa County opened a code violation case against Woodbridge, saying he removed dead trees from his property and planted a small, experimental vineyard in their place without a permit.
In response, Woodbridge sued Napa County, arguing that its environmental regulations increased the fire risk at his vineyard, which had been damaged in the 2020 Glass Fire. Napa County filed a countersuit and a judge ruled against Woodbridge in the first round of the case.
In 2023, Woodbridge filed another lawsuit against Napa County, claiming it violated his constitutional rights by restricting how much well water he could pump into his vineyards. Singer said he did not know the status of that case.
After the fire broke out, the wedding celebration was moved to St. Helena, to the former home of Kelham Vineyards, which closed in 2023 following a family dispute that ended in bankruptcy court.
Owner Hamilton Kelham, who is launching a new wine venture at the property with his mother, confirmed that the wedding of roughly 85 people was moved to his estate with only about one day’s notice. Burges Smith was Kelham’s first boss out of high school, he said.
Photos of the wedding ceremony and reception, including a dinner menu featuring two of Woodbridge’s wine brands, were shared on Instagram by guest Michèle Ouellet Benson. Benson was once the organizer of a GoFundMe for Emilyn Smith, who lost her home in the Glass Fire.
Kelham said he did not charge the family for the wedding and believes he is permitted to host events for family and friends. “If Napa County wants to fine me for it,” he said, “I’d find that to be very foul on their part.”
Members of the Smith family could not immediately be reached for comment Friday evening.
Napa County spokesperson Holly Dawson said officials were focused on supporting Cal Fire and the 2,400 personnel who responded to the fire, which was 41% contained as of Friday after it destroyed at least five structures.
The county has not received any complaints of a wedding occurring at a winery near the fire, Dawson said.
“If evidence of an unpermitted event were confirmed, the County would follow standard procedures through Code Enforcement,” she said. “At this time, however, we will defer any additional action until CAL FIRE’s investigation is complete.”
Napa County’s strict regulation of the wine industry has sparked heated debate in recent years. In March, wineries spoke out about the county’s rules for industry-related winery visits, arguing they are an essential business practice.
Tensions nearly boiled over during the contentious, yearslong battle between Napa County and a small family winery, Hoopes Vineyard, over its right to host tastings.
During that case, which Napa County ultimately won, the government pushed for the removal of Superior Court Judge Cynthia Smith, the mother of Emilyn Smith, arguing she had a conflict of interest: Her husband’s employment and friendship with Woodbridge.
The famous vintner has been one of the county’s most vocal critics. “I’m not afraid to speak up,” Woodbridge told the Chronicle in 2022. “We shouldn’t have to be told by the county what we do with our private land.”
(sfchronicle.com)
FIRE IN WINE COUNTRY
by Esther Mobley
The Pickett Fire is still burning in Napa County, one week after igniting. But the outlook is positive: No structures have been confirmed as damaged or destroyed, and the containment percentage has risen to 33%. As it’s moved through more than 6,800 acres of this rural northeastern corner of the county, the flames have mostly consumed open land.
In fact, the fight against the Pickett Fire can already be considered a remarkable success — and the mood in Napa County reflects that.
“I’m not a firefighter, but I’m feeling good about it,” said Jeff Parady, a seventh-generation Pope Valley landowner and owner of Parady Family Wines. Cal Fire and local firefighters, he added, have “got this handled.”
The optimism is a far cry from the panic that surrounded the Glass Fire, which initially followed a similar path as this one five years ago. “The Glass Fire was scary and apocalyptic,” said Chris Jambois, owner of Black Sears Winery on Howell Mountain, who saw that 2020 fire destroy seven acres of his vines and damage his winery. “This felt like they had it under control.”
It’s no mystery why the firefighting effort has gone more smoothly this time around. When the Glass Fire erupted in late September 2020, there had been hundreds of wildfires throughout the state already in the season — it remains the most destructive wildfire year in California’s modern history — and resources were stretched thin. Wine Country had seen a cluster of wildfires only a month prior, following a siege of dry-lighting strikes.
When the Pickett Fire began last week, by contrast, “there weren’t a lot of areas in California depleting these resources,” said Cal Fire public information officer Caitlin Grace.
The resources applied to this incident on Wednesday alone were tremendous: 2,785 personnel (as opposed to 185 to the Glass Fire), 11 helicopters (zero to the Glass Fire), 251 engines (10 to the Glass Fire), 62 dozers (10 to the Glass Fire) and 35 water tenders (seven to the Glass Fire).
The Glass Fire ultimately burned over 67,000 acres, destroying over 1,500 structures and damaging an additional 282. It wrecked dozens of Napa Valley wineries, including Cain, Newton, Spring Mountain Vineyard, Hourglass and Burgess.
Ferocious winds spread the Glass Fire all across Napa Valley, from east to west, whereas the Pickett Fire has been constrained by less windy, less hot conditions. And the fact that this wildfire has spread through the Glass Fire’s burn scar also helped: There is only a few years’ worth of new vegetative growth.
“It is fundamentally a different kind of fire,” said Joe Nordlinger, CEO of the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation.
A game changer for the Pickett Fire has been the use of nighttime Fire Hawk helicopters, a relatively new technology. They allow crews to continue aerial firefighting throughout the night by dropping water and fire retardant and providing navigation for ground crews.
Another coup: Cal Fire Helitack crews carved out two helipads in some of the remote terrain where the Pickett Fire is burning. This allowed them to drop off hand crews who would have otherwise had to hike up to three miles, shaving hours off of their transportation time.
Finally, Grace said, the community’s extreme preparedness made a big difference. In the Aetna Springs area, where the Pickett Fire was threatening buildings, “those property owners had such good defensible space practices in place,” she said.
She noted that Napa Firewise’s fuel reduction projects had also helped mitigate the damage. One particular project in Dutch Henry Canyon, said Nordlinger, seems to have kept the blaze from creeping into a neighborhood.
The 33% containment figure might not sound like a lot, but “the low containment isn’t necessarily due to a large threat to the public,” Grace cautioned. “It’s more that we’re making absolutely sure that the fire will not cross those containment lines.” The west side of the fire is highly contained, she said, and the focus now is on strengthening the lines in the northeast, which is the steepest section of the fire.
This rugged corner of Napa County is a place where people have gotten used to taking care of themselves. For some vintners, the arrival of so many state resources has been almost jarring — in a good way.
In 2020, groups of residents in Pope Valley and Howell Mountain bulldozed their own containment lines to save homes in their communities. This time, the bulldozers came to them. On Saturday, Parady, who in addition to a winery also owns the auto repair shop Pope Valley Garage, loaded a dozer onto a trailer so that he could carve out a fire break around his home. When he arrived at his property, a Cal Fire crew was already there. They told Parady that six bulldozers were on their way.
Parady figured he’d better get out of their way. “It was like watching a symphony, each of those dozers cutting a line,” he said. “We got spoiled this time.”
Still, no one in these fire-prone districts is getting too comfortable. “We’ve got 90-plus days potentially of fire weather, potentially when there will be some other competing fires,” Nordlinger said. “While there’s a lot that appears to be positive about how this is unfolding, we need people to maintain their vigilance and preparedness.”
What I’m Reading
Speaking of wildfires, a very small one started (and was quickly extinguished) in Lake County last week. Now, authorities have accused a man of allegedly igniting that blaze in a series of mishaps that sounds too salacious to be believed. The charges include kidnapping a woman and her 7-year-old daughter; a bloody carjacking; setting fire to a Mercedes; and elder abuse. Colin Atagi in the Press Democrat has more.
Fox News Media is now also a … wine shop? The company’s new e-commerce platform “will sell American-made wines sourced from independent producers, including military veterans,” reports Andy Meek in Forbes. (A cursory glance at the website, however, reveals plenty of wines made in other countries, as well as wine from Napa Valley’s Raymond Vineyards, owned by the French-born Jean-Charles Boisset.)
A provision in the House’s upcoming appropriations bill would limit regulations of herbicides and pesticides in farming, reports Michelle Williams in Wine Business. She writes that this section of the bill “could be devastating for all specialty crop farmers.”
15 RUNS, ONE SPLASH HIT, SIX STRAIGHT WINS: Giants overwhelm Orioles
by Susan Slusser
All the things the San Francisco Giants avoided for long stretches of the season are starting to show up now as the team has hit its stride. Early scoring, adding on runs, situational hitting all are now in the Giants’ toolkit more regularly.
Friday night at Oracle Park against Baltimore, San Francisco’s offense was relentless. Every member of the lineup had at least one hit and Dominic Smith drove in four, two with a two-out homer in the fourth that plonked straight into McCovey Cove, Smith’s first Splash Hit, in San Francisco’s 15-8 win.
Smith, whose favorite player growing up was Barry Bonds, was delighted to join his hero in the Splash Hit brigade.
“One of the most iconic things in all sports is seeing guys hit balls into that water, into McCovey Cove, and just the list of guys who’ve done it for this franchise, it’s legendary players,” Smith said. “As soon I got the call to put on this uniform, I knew it was something that I wanted to do. … You look around the ballpark and kind of say, ‘Pinch me, I’m dreaming.’ ”
The run total was the Giants’ most this season and most at Oracle Park since scoring 15 against the Phillies on July 10, 2015.
“That was awesome,” starter Robbie Ray said. “If we can keep that going, it’s going to be fun.”
The victory was the Giants’ sixth in a row and it moved them a game shy of .500 at 67-68. They’ve outscored their opponents 47-20 in the stretch and recorded 16 runs in the first three innings of those games, seven of them in the first inning. They’re six games out in the wild-card race.
The Giants’ first four batters reached Friday and all of them scored, two of them on a base hit by Luis Matos, who had four hits, including a solo homer in the fifth. Willy Adames also knocked four hits, drove in one run, scored three runs — one on a savvy sprint home in the seventh after a throw from the outfield got away from catcher Alex Jackson — and he stole a base and did an extraordinary amount of cheerleading, given all the offense. San Francisco finished with a season-high 18 hits, eight of them with men in scoring position.
San Francisco scored in each of the first five innings, and the top four men in the order scored nine runs. The team has hit at least one homer in each of the past 12 games, 24 in all, the team’s longest such streak since a 12-game streak Sept. 5-17, 2021.
“It’s early in the game that we’re doing it now, and that creates a little bit of momentum as the game goes along,” manager Bob Melvin said. “When you’ve scored some runs for a little bit now, it just feels like you have a chance every inning.”
Smith said he’s been trying to find his power stroke, “searching for that swing in general, just driving the ball because I know it’s in there. … But just hats off to my team, they made it super easy. They stayed on base. They kept grinding down the pitching staff, and I’m just seeing all those pitches, seeing all those mistakes. It makes, you know, your ABs a lot easier. So it was just fun watching them all night be the ball club we know we can be.”
The Orioles, losers of eight of the past nine and five in a row, made three errors, two of them on back-to-back plays in the seventh.
Ray’s start was delayed a few moments when trainer Dave Groeschner went to help him deal with some loose skin from an old callus during his warmup pitches. He walked Jackson Holliday to open the game and Ryan Mountcastle sent him in with a two-out double. Mountcastle added another two-out RBI double in the third, and a two-run single in the fifth.
Ray gave up all six Baltimore runs, three of them runners who’d reached via walks. Ray hadn’t allowed more than five runs all year and only had done that once. He did strike out five after a rare no-strikeout game his previous time out, and his velocity was back up after a recent dip. Ray’s 64 walks are the most in the National League.
Carson Seymour will start Saturday’s 4:15 p.m. game against Baltimore.
(sfchronicle.com)
TAKE THE GIANTS SERIOUSLY DOWN THE STRETCH
by Bruce Jenkins
The San Francisco Giants would like you to believe it never happened — and at this rate, maybe it didn’t. That’s how much things changed in a single week.
From the pits-of-the-world doldrums, the Giants took on two National League powerhouses, Milwaukee and Chicago, and won five out of six.
“That club is built to win,” marveled Brewers manager Pat Murphy, “and win big. They’re playing with some freedom. They’re really talented.”
The standings suggest a story that doesn’t end so well, but that’s almost secondary right now. The pressure is off the Giants; they have rediscovered their true identity, and they’re a delight to watch. I can’t believe manager Bob Melvin‘s job was ever on the line — now, or at season’s end — but his players are making that distasteful notion go away.
The Giants’ future is all about veteran contracts, and a striking difference from years past. How many times did the club sign beloved stars to long-term deals, only to feel serious regret as their advancing age became a burden? Here’s why that’s not a problem now:
- Willy Adames is still gaining momentum as one of the game’s legitimate stars. It bears repeating that he hit 13 three-run homers for last year’s Brewers, a stunning single-season feat achieved only by Ken Griffey Jr. For those who have followed his career, it wasn’t the least bit surprising that he homered twice in the opener of the Milwaukee series, then clubbed two more in the series finale with the Cubs.
And here’s the clincher: At 30 (as of this coming Tuesday), Adames might be even more valuable as a relentlessly upbeat presence, as genuine as it gets.
“Willy is a connector, that’s his number one,” former Brewers manager Craig Counsell told reporters. “Number two, he has an infectious personality. Those two points are related. They draw people to him. Players, fans, coaching staffs. There aren’t many players that have that.”
- Matt Chapman, no kid at 32, still looks and plays like one, without question one of the best two-way third basemen in the game. Down the line, Casey Schmitt — a natural third baseman whose prodigious talents are winning him the second-base job — could take over.
- Even with all those accomplishments behind him, including three All-Star selections and home-run seasons of 32, 33 and 38 with the Red Sox, Rafael Devers is just 28 years old. He didn’t exactly win over the fans upon arrival — far too many strikeouts and wasted at-bats — but by the end of his 4-for-4, two-homer game against the Cubs on Wednesday, he looked like himself: one of the most dangerous hitters in either league. Interesting, too, that Mike Yastrzemski went out of his way to praise Devers on the “Foul Territory” show after being traded to Kansas City: “He was the best, man. Awesome teammate, willing to do whatever he had to.”
If Devers seriously enjoys playing first base, where he looks smoother by the day, the Giants might have to make minor league slugging sensation Bryce Eldridge a part-time outfielder or DH whenever he’s called up. In any case, both men have to start if Eldridge is for real.
- If you’ve immersed yourself in deep concern over Jung Hoo Lee‘s patch of mediocrity, you’re wasting your time. Put him in center field as the leadoff hitter for years to come. He won’t let anyone down, and he has a priceless relationship with his teammates, who know a star when they see one.
- The Giants can’t be thrilled with Heliot Ramos‘ outfield defense, but there’s no question he can hit, and he’s only 25. He has reached a level of consistency worth some trade interest from other teams, and perhaps he could bring some pitching in return. But Ramos is an integral part of the team — and Luis Matos might be approaching that stage, as well. An overcrowded outfield is never a bad thing.
As for the pitching, quite often excellent this season, you get the feeling it will remain a strength. There are too many variables at the moment; let’s see how it looks in spring training. On the largest scale, the Giants have character, promise — and an eraser, for unsettling moods.
On Other Fronts
- The Baltimore Orioles are in town, with slumping catcher Adley Rutschman reportedly headed for the trading block this winter. That would be a miraculous acquisition for the Giants, and the O’s have a potential star catcher in the making, Samuel Basallo, but they should find out if the kid can play first base. The switch-hitting Rutschman is elite in all phases of the game and a superior handler of pitchers.
“He failed last year for the first time in his life, and he didn’t know how to handle it, which is understandable,” said a source close to the organization. “But this is a great kid. Cares. Still a little lost at the plate, but he works his butt off, and he’ll find it again.”
- Hot (and now fading) rumor that didn’t make sense: The Giants hire Bruce Bochy to replace Melvin at season’s end. Without dwelling on the obvious — these are two great managers — I don’t think Bochy would be comfortable with Melvin’s fate. It just wouldn’t sit right. Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey most likely feels the same.
- When Posey hit a league-leading .336 for the 2012 Giants, he became the first National League catcher to win a batting title since Oakland-raised Ernie Lombardi in 1942. Will Smith is trying to become the second, and it’s hardly a torrid race. As of Friday, Dodger teammate Freddie Freeman led the league at .302, followed by Trea Turner (.299), Sal Frelick (.298) and Smith (.295). Smith is in danger of falling short of the qualification standard — 502 plate appearances for the season — but manager Dave Roberts says he’ll make sure Smith gets there.
- For those following the Giants-Mets “race” for a wild card, it could get interesting if the Mets’ pitching doesn’t improve. Two gems on the plus side: ex-Giant reliever Tyler Rogers had a 1.88 ERA through 14 appearances, with just one walk, and recent call-up Nolan McLean has been a revelation with three great starts, including eight shutout innings against the Phillies the night before they roughed up the Atlanta staff for 19 runs (and four Kyle Schwarber homers). McLean was a two-way star at Oklahoma State, and there’s a bit of swagger to his demeanor, thus the clubhouse nickname: “Cowboy Ohtani.”
- The Giants’ TV crew was offered access to the “ump cam” — basically how an at-bat looks from behind home plate — for a few recent games, but it was a disaster, confusing the viewers’ context and jostling the image every time the ump made a move. Jeff Kuiper, the Giants’ ace producer in the booth, said the broadcasters were “not really into it, and social media was mostly negative. I was happy to try it, but I don’t see us using it in the future.”
(SF Chronicle)
THE NAMING OF CATS
by T. S. Eliot (1939)
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo, or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey—
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter—
But all of them sensible everyday names,
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum—
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover—
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular name.
THE WAR ON REALITY IS OVER
“…this time the story has escaped the narrative guardrails and some real reckoning looms.” —Jeff Childers
by James Kunstler
Unwittingly, that New York Times headline is a wondrous case of the self-solving mystery. You come here to understand the many social and political mysteries of the day. I will attempt to unravel this hairball.
Most obviously, the suspect, now dead, in Wednesday’s Minneapolis school shooting was not a “her.” He was a him, a 23-year-old male, Robert Westman, who had been pretending to be a female for some years since undergoing puberty, with the encouragement of his parents and the cultural leaders of his city, including Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey, backed by the expressed principles of the national Democratic Party.
The essence of all that was a gigantic game of pretend, a broad and deliberate dissociation from reality for the purpose of maintaining a political racketeering operation, which is what the Democratic Party had become. Pretend that men can become women. Pretend that Covid vaccinations are safe and effective. Pretend that national borders don’t matter. Pretend that crime is not a social problem. Pretend that riots are mostly peaceful. Pretend that our elections are free and fair. Pretend that “Joe Biden” is president. Pretend that Ukraine is fighting for democracy. And so on. All pretend.
Since the Democratic Party has zero useful ideas for improving the lives of this country’s citizens, all it has is pretend theater, which is public performative psychopathology, otherwise known as acting-out. Mass murders of school-children by so-called trans people are the most garish and horrific actings-out, the most offensive to society, a slaughter of innocents. Such an act grabs everybody’s attention. The New York Times pretends that all this is “a mystery” because to tell the truth would inculpate them in the ongoing criminal racketeering operation of their patron, the Democratic Party.
They all know what the truth is in this matter: that Robert Westman became insane, at least in his time of puberty, possibly earlier, and that his parents resorted to persuading their child that he was born in the wrong body — as the trendy theory goes — to remedy his psychological distress. He was thereafter influenced to play-act as a female. Possibly, he was induced to go through some stage of medical “treatment” to supposedly advance his transition to the opposite sex — for instance, a hormone regimen. This has not yet been reported. (Has it even been investigated by police or the news media?)
Of course, “gender-affirming medical care” is a vicious fraud, as is the preposterous idea of “sexual assignment at birth” (as if it is some kind of error-ridden clerical function). Males cannot be changed into females no matter how much their hormones are altered or how much surgery they endure. It is all just costuming and make up, to an extreme degree, to enhance the game of pretend. It is also bound to be nightmarishly disappointing to the person undergoing such malign rigors.
As in the case of psycho-killer Robert Westman, he discovered his tragic mistake in exactly the period of life — emerging into adulthood — when emotions tend to be most labile. If he also happened to be on psychotropic drugs such as SSRIs (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, etc.), known to produce suicidal and homicidal thinking, combined with his emotional instability, there you have an obvious recipe for disaster. None of that is mysterious.
Nor was the record he left behind in his “manifesto” or in the videos and social media postings he put up. Westman evinced stark rage and despair over the poor choice he was induced to make at a time in his life before the judgment region of his brain had fully developed. “I’m tired of being trans,” he wrote. “I wish I had never brainwashed myself.” It was hardly his own fault, though. He was pushed to do it by his own family and strongly supported by the culture that surrounded him in Tim Walz’s “trans refuge state” of Minnesota — the state that also gave us George Floyd, the fake martyr to black victimhood, whose death provoked a years’ long national race-hustle. And, of course, Tim Walz was a recent standard-bearer for the Democratic Party, a signature figure for all their insanity.
Wednesday’s shooting in Minneapolis looks like a hinge event in American politics. We’re done pretending. Trans is done as a political fashion-statement. Doctors will have to give up their pretenses about “gender-affirming care” if they don’t want to be bankrupted by lawsuits or prosecuted for criminal malpractice. Politicians like Walz and Frey will eventually shut-up about trans. But you can sense something else beyond that.
America is done being bullied and guilt-tripped into the matrix of untruth altogether, and the racketeering that thrives in it. And we are going after the racketeers. This week, President Trump suggested a RICO investigation and potential prosecution of George and Alex Soros, for using their vast philanthropic Open Society empire as a colossal money-laundering operation to fund Democratic Party activities, including all their efforts to disorder the legal system, sponsor riots, pay illegal migrants, promote trans activism, rig elections, and underwrite sedition. Without that money-flow — much of it used to winkle taxpayer dollars out of Congress — the party can’t keep paying its Antifa foot-soldiers in the streets, or the lavish salaries of its middle managers in world of corrupt non-profit orgs.
Between that and the coming prosecution of its many stars from the Clintons to Adam Schiff to New York Attorney General Letitia James and many other names you are familiar with, the Democratic Party — and its war against reality — may be truly done.
ALL IT TOOK IN MILWAUKEE
A trigger to squeeze
Transformed rage into carnage.
It's the guns, stupid.
— Jim Luther
AMERICA IS A GUN
by Brian Bilston (2016)
England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is a football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona’s hand.
Germany, a oompah band.
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
What really gets overlooked is some people are simply broken. In previous societies, we banished or killed such broken people, because they are toxic to society. This is not a “fixable” thing. Some people aren’t meant for the living. Our society is way too death-phobic. Life and Death. Those who don’t want to be alive shouldn’t be coerced to live.
Psychiatry is a scam, it’s a pseudoscience.
None of this bullshit is fixable.
We need to get away from the “fix it” model.
WHO’S PROTECTING US? (An on-line pair of inquiries)
(1) I am not medically trained, but I am the widow of a wonderful man who took different anti-epileptic medicines over the years for his partial epilepsy. Several of these made him paranoid. One made him suicidal. When those particular drugs were discontinued, he returned to himself. I keep wondering how long this neurological devastation because of pharmaceuticals will go on. Illegal drugs can also cause paranoia and schizoid breaks. Why is the Left so invested in their gun control narrative that they give only glancing notice to the role of drug-induced mental illness in these mass shootings? Why do many on the Left continue to argue for “housing first” and “harm reduction” when it’s clear that the mentally ill and drug addicted should receive treatment in long-term residential facilities where drugs of all kinds can either be monitored for efficacy or banned. Families and jails are now the caretakers for the severely--sometimes dangerously--mentally ill and/or addicted.
(2) “Advocates” for the mentally ill crippled our institutional solutions for the the problem back in the ‘80s. Now it’s near impossible to get an unstable individual committed because they have to have buy-in. There’s no committing them against their will.
My sister-in-law’s schizophrenic and we were unable to do anything with her until she got into it with the cops. Needless to say, these types of “solutions” can get someone killed. How many seriously mentally ill people, like the Annuciation shooter, are wandering around at this moment simply because they haven’t killed someone yet? What’s it going to take?
Clearly it’s madness that some of the very drugs used to treat depression in this country state on the box a very real possibility of suicidal/homicidal ideation. It’s like treating an alcoholic with Everclear.
The media has its biases and this incident lays some of them bare. We’re not allowed to honestly address gender dysphoria or any other psychosis for fear of upsetting the subject. The Left will push housing (does nothing), and “harm reduction” (polypharmacy). I cringe when I hear the talking heads say the shooters needed medical intervention because that only means on thing: more pills. Like that’s solved anything yet.
And anti-Catholic bigotry is probably the most acceptable bigotry in the country as far as the media’s concerned. They can’t bring themselves to say shooting through a church window during a morning kids’ Mass is anti-Catholic. They wouldn’t say shit with a mouthful, apparently.
Tim Walz was given a chance a few years ago to extend state security to private schools. He did nothing. However, he fretted over the trans community like they were newborns. He was sure to protect them.
But who’s protecting us?
WHAT I TOLD MY SUNDAY SCHOOL STUDENTS ABOUT DEATH
by Anne Lamott
I was a Sunday school teacher for 30-plus years until recently, in a small liberal church in Northern California that rose out of the civil rights movement. I learned early on that when you have a lot of poor kids as students, you get to know tragedy up close — addicted or dead parents, shootings, the injuries and mortification of racism and poverty. So we talked more about tragedy than you might expect.
I never tried to comfort them with nice Christian bumper sayings or platitudes, especially after school shootings like the one at the back-to-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis. “Hey, kids. Yay! God’s got a plan! Phew.” Still, we did believe that death was a pretty major change of address and that God caught the children as they left this life.
But when we read in the Hebrew Bible that weeping may last the night and that joy comes in the morning, I explained that this does not mean literally at dawn, like a new bike from Walmart. We’re talking long dark nights of the soul. And the psalmist didn’t mean joy joy, like Pop Rocks and the Village People. He meant relief and peace, eventually.
There should be one inviolable rule: Children are not shot or starved to death.
Driving to church after the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, I remembered a commentator saying that the measure of a nation is how many small coffins it allows. Of course, this explanation would not be useful to the younger ones in my class, two 9-year-old girls, or even to the teenagers, but it provided me with a hit of self-righteousness: We all know what the problem is. We allow people to own and use military-grade guns.
I always took my kids out to our small and slightly chaotic classroom midway through the adult service. They followed me like ducklings because they had been sprung and there would be snacks.
On that specific Sunday, I thought about going out of order and giving them their snacks first, before our discussion, to let them numb out a little on chips and sugar. There is so much evil and meanness coming from so many directions these days that we shut down and numb out on food, shopping, drinking, striving, whatever. After a few days, we forget to remember.
Instead, I started by asking them how they were doing in the face of the ghastly news out of Uvalde. They were pretty quiet. “OK,” one said. “Fine,” said another.
The rule of life is that the innocent suffer. Horrible people get away with horrible things. I asked them what their classroom teachers had them do the day after the shootings. A teenager mentioned shooter drills — “Run, hide, fight.”
This pierced me. I couldn’t stand seeing how helpless all of them felt. With so little to offer, I told them once again what Mr. Rogers’s mother told him: In the face of tragedy, look toward the helpers. That’s where we see goodness and sacrifice, and these give us hope. Let there be light, and let it begin with me.
I asked them who they thought they could most help, and without missing a beat, they mentioned the dead kids’ families, so my big kids got out the art supplies, and we started making cards with words of love, hope, glue and glitter (big mistake).
I didn’t tell them that good old Texas’ response was to propose teaching little kids how to stanch a classmate’s bleeding. Nor did I mention Fox News.
I mostly listened to them as they worked. I mostly listen to my peers, too, when they express the same helplessness and sense of doom. I remind them of what we can do — sing, sit in silence, light candles, take walks, make art. We register voters, pick up litter, overeat, sigh a lot, carry our pleas to our lawmakers: Please, please stop this. Only you can.
It is rough and harsh out there, and it seems, to my worried and paranoid self, worse by the day. We are a violent species in a currently violent nation. How do we take on these systems and structures of death?
We have to show up. We want to stay isolated from the suffering, but maybe the answer is to draw close — to the crying woman whose husband was deported to Manila, to the person whose son drove off a cliff, to the little ones who are practicing how to stay alive. You can cry with them, get them a glass of water, move their car if it is going to be towed, take a sandwich to the grandma who hasn’t eaten all day.
After one school shooting, my beloved rabbi friend Sydney Mintz told me a story from the Midrash (a collection of stories about what the Hebrew Bible teaches). When Moses smashed the original tablets with the Ten Commandments and stomped off back to Mount Sinai, someone swept up all the shards. They were eventually added to the ark alongside the replacement copy of the commandments.
We drag around our brokenness in the same container as our holiness.
Anger and murder have always been our lot and are going to keep happening. One of Adam and Eve’s sons killed another, and we still see this every day. It’s real, and all you can choose is how you’re going to react. Do you close yourself off, as if that will protect you, or do you try to stay open and get to work in the world?
The parents gathered around me that day to ask how they could talk to their kids about the shooting. Talk about love, I said, and listen. They asked: Was there meaning? No, not yet.
But, I suggested, perhaps it was a good day to make soup. When Syd feels most hopeless, she makes matzo ball soup for the sick and lonely and friends; in my Presbyterian tradition, we tend toward casseroles. These offer consolation to the soul. There are always a lot of people who need them, like me.
Meanwhile, their kids had escaped to the lawn, where they kicked around a mostly inflated soccer ball — some clumsy, some agile, sweaty, focused, radiant.
(Anne Lamott is the author of “Somehow: Thoughts on Love,” “Bird by Bird,” “Some Assembly Required” and other books.)
THERE IS A LONELINESS in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock.
people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love.
people just are not good to each other
one on one.
the rich are not good to the rich
the poor are not good to the poor.
we are afraid.
our educational system tells us
that we can all be
big-ass winners.
it hasn't told us
about the gutters
or the suicides.
or the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone
untouched
unspoken to
watering a plant.
— Charles Bukowski, excerpt from "The Crunch" (1977)
“ON SOME NIGHTS I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.”
— Hunter S. Thompson
LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT
Trump’s Sweeping Tariffs Are Invalidated by Appeals Court
Tracking the Tariffs on Every Country
Trump Takes Aim at South Korean Chipmakers’ China Operations
He Plagiarized and Promoted Falsehoods. The White House Embraces Him.
Judge Blocks Pillar of Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign
How the Trump-Kennedy Alliance Is Pushing the Boundaries of Public Health
Trump Officials Move to Fire Most Voice of America Journalists
Trump Administration Bars Palestinian Officials From U.N. Meeting in New York
OVER 100 SACRAMENTO JEWS PROTEST SENATOR ALEX PADILLA AS PART OF ACTIONS AGAINST GENOCIDE IN GAZA
by Dan Bacher
Sacramento, CA (August 27) — As they chanted and sang, over 100 members of Jewish Voice for Peace Sacramento and their allies staged a dramatic sit-in in the lobby of Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in downtown Sacramento as U.S. Senator Alex Padilla participated as a "featured guest" in Politico’s corporate funded inaugural California policy summit.
They demanded that Senator Padilla and Senator Adam Schiff take "immediate action" to let food and aid into Gaza and stop arming the Israeli military as it wages genocide in Gaza. No arrests were made at the Sacramento protest.
Participants held banners proclaiming "Sac To Padilla - Stop Funding Genocide, "Let Gaza Live," and "Never Again Now." They also wore identical black t-shirts emblazoned with "Jews Say Let Gaza Live" and "Let Gaza Live" on the front and "Stop Arming Israel" on the back.
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/08/29/18879364.php
REFLECTING AND REMEMBERING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF HURRICANE KATRINA
by Faye Wilson Kennedy
Milvirtha Knight Hendricks (February 27, 1920 - July 20, 2009) was an African American woman who, on September 1, 2005, was photographed by Eric Gay of the Associated Press outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, huddled under one of several American flags.
Twenty years ago, I authored an article titled “A Personal Commentary on Hurricane Katrina Aftermath— in September 2005, and co-authored “America’s Shame: Two Years After Hurricane Katrina” with the Sacramento Area Black Caucus (SABC). You can read the original articles at:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Buc-12LEe3AvueUEExCOODnrZjYGZrr6?usp=sharing
LEFTIST VERMONT REP TANYA VYHOVSKY TOURED UKRAINE.
A Ukrainian American DSA politician shares eyewitness thoughts on efforts to build solidarity with the Ukrainian left.
by Ashley Smith
Wednesday night, Russia staged its largest attack on Ukraine since President Donald Trump started the so-called peace process. Moscow launched 598 drones and 31 missiles on targets in Ukraine. Most of them were shot down, but many others still evaded Ukraine’s air defense systems, hitting over 20 locations in the capital, Kyiv, and severely damaging a building next to the European Union mission.
That came on the heels of a Russian missile strike on a U.S.-run factory in the country. Thus, despite the recent two summits that Trump called to reach a peace deal, Russia is in fact escalating its war on Ukraine.
In Alaska, Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has an arrest warrant on his head from the International Criminal Court. In Washington, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy along with several European heads of state. Trump has promised to orchestrate another meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, something that now seems highly unlikely, as Ukraine opposes the imperialist conditions Russia expects from any settlement — annexation of land and a veto for Moscow on any security guarantees against future Russian attacks.
Trump wanted to cut a deal with Putin for the partition of Ukraine. He hoped that would ensure U.S. corporations opportunities to plunder Ukraine’s mineral reserves and profit from the neoliberal reconstruction of the country. Likely above all he wanted a settlement so that he could turn Washington’s attention to its main imperial rival, China.
Trump and Putin planned to bully Zelenskyy into accepting “land swaps,” essentially agreeing to Russia’s illegal conquest of a whole swathe of Ukraine in return for peace. But the Ukrainian President is legally barred by the country’s constitution from surrendering sovereign land.
Moreover, 70 percent of Ukrainians oppose any such land for peace deal. They know such a compromise would likely doom people under occupation to brutal oppression and that Putin will at best pause his war only to start it again to achieve his stated goal of subordinating Ukraine in Russia’s imperialist sphere of influence.
During this charade of a peace process, Putin actually escalated the war with increased missile strikes and drone attacks with the aim of annexing more land. In the midst of Putin’s escalation, Vermont State Senator Tanya Vyhovsky was in Ukraine on a speaking tour to build solidarity with the country’s progressive movement.
Vyhovsky is a Ukrainian American, clinical social worker, and a member of Vermont’s Progressive Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. In this exclusive interview, which has been lightly edited for clarity and concision, she speaks with Truthout about conditions in Ukraine, its progressive forces, and why the U.S. left should rally to support the country’s struggle for self-determination.
Ashley Smith: You were in Ukraine on a speaking tour to build solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s invasion and occupation of the country. What were conditions like?
Tanya Vyhovsky: I met with the broad progressive movement, including unions, political parties, leftist NGOs, and student unions. It was a powerful experience to connect to the people fighting for real leftist social change in Ukraine amid a full-scale invasion.
The war’s impact really depends on where you are in the country. In the capital, Kyiv, I saw many buildings that had been bombed — apartment buildings, factories, and small businesses. These were generally outside of the city center. But it’s not as bad as in other cities. The indirect impact of the war, though, is everywhere.
For example, you can’t visit the parliament, the Rada, because it is protected by razor wire and military patrols in order to keep the government safe and functioning. All the cities’ fountains have been turned off to save money. All the statues are sandbagged and wrapped, and in certain districts, the lower windows are sandbags. So, at first glance, Kyiv may not seem like a war zone, but if you look just beneath the surface, you see the signs of the war.
In Kryvyi Rih, which is closer to the front line, the war is in your face. The Russian forces bombed one of the city’s parks in April. There is a memorial there for the 19 people, including nine children, who were killed when the Russian military targeted the park with cluster munitions. I couldn’t stay in the city’s hotels because they have been bombed by Russia. Schools have been relocated to bomb shelters.
Dnipro was functioning much as usual, except that the windows all have sandbags and there are above-ground bomb shelters on nearly every corner. Three hours after I left the city, they suffered multiple ballistic missile attacks.
In Lviv, it feels for the most part like there isn’t a war. The statues are netted, people casually mention a church statue whose head fell off during a bombing, and there were occasional air raid sirens. But the curfew is very loosely adhered to. When I was there, there hadn’t been a Russian attack in six weeks. But the day after I left, there was a massive missile attack that killed people. So, despite differences, everywhere I felt like I was in a country under siege.
I spoke to many soldiers about what it’s been like for the past nearly four years. People say they’re tired but not broken and that they are not willing to give up. The vast majority of Ukrainians — from citizens to soldiers — oppose Trump’s attempt to cut a deal with Putin for the partition of their country. If that deal were struck, many service members told me there would have been a revolt among the troops.
While I was not able to go to cities on the front, I did speak to a lot of people particularly in Lviv that had been internally displaced from Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Kherson. They’ve had to try and rebuild their lives in Lviv and other cities where they’ve found refuge. They described the horrors of living under constant bombardment, especially for their kids, and felt like they had no choice but to flee.
These internally displaced people have put a strain on housing and the cost of living in the cities where they resettled. But everyone I spoke with said it was the duty of all Ukrainians to ensure that internally displaced people are welcomed, cared for, and protected.
While you were in Ukraine, President Trump held his two summits, first in Alaska and then in Washington. What were the various responses to these summits from Ukrainians?
While I was there, I watched all the coverage of Trump’s summit in Alaska with Putin. Because of my travel dates, I was only able to watch parts of Zelenskyy’s summit in D.C. Frankly, neither I nor any Ukrainian I spoke with think that Putin or Trump are looking for peace. The plan they’re putting forward is unacceptable on its face.
A lot of Ukrainians did not watch the summit and did not expect it to yield any results. Russia is making demands that Ukraine can in no way agree to. It is demanding that Ukraine give up sovereignty and accept occupation. Trump has positioned the U.S. as a middleman but with clear sympathies with Russia. The Ukrainians rightfully demand sovereignty and the return of all their land. So, with such diametrically opposed positions, it’s hard for Ukrainians to take this so-called peace process seriously.
Ukrainians often asked my advice on what Ukraine should do. That’s a question that I have no right to answer. Here in the U.S., I don’t face air raids, fighting on the front, and occupation. Only Ukrainians can decide what to do. But I can say, based on Ukraine’s history and the geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe and globally, that if Ukraine accepts a “deal” that includes occupation and further annexation of land, it will not end this war and lead to lasting peace.
Such a deal will simply pause Russian aggression until Putin has time to regroup and come back for more Ukrainian land. This is, of course, what happened after Russia’s first invasion in 2014. Putin took Crimea and sections of Donbas, bided his time, cut a deal, and then launched the war again in 2022.
Any deal will banish people in annexed areas to brutal Russian oppression. Currently, Ukrainians suffer terrible oppression under occupation. They certainly have not found peace and safety. The stories from Crimea are horrific. I really worry that an occupation will lead to full-scale genocide as it has in Palestine after 75 years of occupation.
Finally, I worry about the implications for democracy and sovereignty if Putin’s aggression is rewarded.
People in the U.S. know little about Ukraine’s progressive forces. What kinds of groups did you meet with? What were their main struggles, and how do they combine those with support for the liberation struggle?
There is a surprisingly vibrant and diverse progressive movement. I met with the federated unions, which are run by the state, as well as with the independent trade unions, which are much more politically active. I talked with members of the student unions (both federated and independent). I visited NGOs that are doing a variety of different work supporting civil society, supporting the armed forces, and supporting veterans.
I also met with a new grassroots political party, as well as with leaders of the feminist movement, young LGBTQ activists, and small groups of volunteers making food and mats for the military. They are all organizing around their issues and demands. They all voiced demands for better working conditions, higher wages, fair taxation, and expanded rights and access to reproductive health care, as well as for a more representative government. These are the same challenges we as working people face in the United States.
But, astonishingly, Ukraine is not as neoliberalized as the U.S.
Ukrainians have universal health care, strong public schools, and affordable if not always free university education. They are actually concerned that the West will condition its support for Ukraine with a pledge to enact a neoliberal reconstruction of the country with the usual requirements of privatization, deregulation, and austerity.
The Ukrainian left was critical of the status quo and critical of the government. But they know that their fight for expanded democratic rights and better social programs, wages and benefits cannot be separated from the struggle to defend the country. In fact, they contend that the more those issues are addressed, the more united the country will be in fighting to preserve its independence.
Recently, Zelensky passed a bill that undermined the independence of the government’s anti-corruption agency. But after popular protest, he reversed course. Various forces you met with played a major role in organizing the protests. What is the significance of these protests?
I met with many of the leaders and participants in these protests. While they are of course thankful that this catastrophic law was halted, they all feel that these anti-corruption agencies need to be strengthened, not just returned to the status quo.
We should recognize that these protests occurred under martial law. They were illegal. But unlike in Russia, where they would have been met with brutal repression, they were allowed to happen, and they scored a victory. That shows the vibrancy of Ukraine’s democratic freedoms even amid this war, something that Russian conquest — as we know from the occupied territories — would eradicate.
People are very critical of Zelensky and his neoliberal policies. But there was also a recognition that the war is a major obstacle to addressing these issues. At this point, they said, there is also no major left party that has representatives in parliament or grassroots power to advance their demands. But people are trying to build such a party to ensure that their country does not become a carbon copy of the United States. They want social and economic justice for all in a free and sovereign Ukraine.
As a Vermont State Senator, you are one of DSA’s prominent elected officials. While the left has uniformly supported Palestine’s struggle for self-determination, it has not extended the same solidarity to Ukraine’s struggle. Why?
I think the answer to this is complicated and the result of a flawed way of approaching the question of Ukraine and its struggle for self-determination. Some on the left believe that anything the United States is involved in must be bad and therefore because the U.S. has supported Ukraine they should oppose such support.
This is a form of American exceptionalism in reverse — the idea that everything the U.S. supports must be reactionary. This leads some on the left to oppose not just the U.S. but also Ukraine’s struggle for self-determination and, in some cases, even to support Russian imperialism. Others simply know little about the history of Ukraine’s resistance, including left-wing resistance to Russian imperialism. So, there is not the same kind of knee-jerk sympathy with Ukraine as there rightly is with Palestine.
There are also those who oppose all funding of any war. They hold the naive belief that if Ukraine just stops fighting it will bring about peace. That’s obviously not the case. If Ukrainians didn’t resist, Russia would simply conquer the country and impose dictatorial colonial rule. The truth is that if Russia stops fighting, there will be peace, but if Ukraine stops, there will be no Ukraine.
Finally, there is a subset of the left that mistakenly thinks that Russia is not an imperialist power but a progressive force standing up to the U.S. In reality, Putin heads a neoliberal, capitalist dictatorship. So, people on the left have various justifications for not supporting Ukraine’s struggle against occupation, genocide, and imperialism, but they are all wrong.
In your meetings with Ukraine’s progressive forces, what message did they want conveyed to the U.S. left? What do they want us to advocate here?
The Ukrainian left wants the U.S. left to know that they exist, that they are strong and united, and that they cannot fight for leftist values and ideals under Russian occupation. They told me so many stories from the long history of Ukraine’s struggle for freedom and justice all the way up to today. They implored me to ask the U.S. leftists to open their minds and hearts to their fight for collective liberation in Ukraine.
We should actually follow the example of the Ukrainian left that just organized a demonstration against Israel’s manufactured famine in Gaza at the memorial of the Holodomor, the famine Stalin imposed on Ukraine. The international left should follow the words of the chant, “from Ukraine to Palestine, occupation is crime.”
Finally, with Trump collaborating with Putin on plans to partition the country so he can turn his attention to Washington’s imperial rivalry with China, what can people here in the U.S. do to materially support Ukraine’s people?
There are many opportunities for people to provide desperately needed material support. They can donate to the Ukraine Solidarity Network’s fund drive to support the Ukrainian Nurses Union, Be Like We Are, to purchase essential life-saving equipment to treat their patients.
But the list is really endless. People can donate to campaigns that make freeze-dried emergency food for soldiers at the front and tarps to protect soldiers. The independent unions need money to rebuild houses and provide more care to wounded veterans. The teachers need help to renovate their bomb shelter schools, and the feminists need funding for comprehensive reproductive rights education.
There really isn’t any part of civil society or the military in Ukraine that would not benefit from material support. But, most importantly of all, all people of conscience must stand with Ukraine and support its struggle for self-determination. Their struggle is our struggle — one for peace, justice, and equality.
(Truthout.org)
Minneapolis
Kunstler takes 965 words to tell us he’s just as nuts as Robert Kennedy.
Jim Luther takes 17 words to tell the truth.
That’s Kennedy, Jr. His father, the real Robert Kennedy, evolved into a compassionate, smart, caring man in his later years. He might have led us to better things had he lived. The son devolved from a smart, caring environmental attorney, into a Trumpian sort, full of stupid, dangerous ideas, with a few decent ones mixed in.
Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine will be available for our next pandemic. With Kennedy in charge and the scientists all but shut out of the CDC it will get interesting. I predict that refrigerated trucks will be in high demand. Of course Fearless Leader and his family will have all the best science based medicines available, like he did when he got COVID last time around. The rest of us not so much.
Fearless Leader? The last “leaders” locked down the country, silenced doctors, hid nursing home deaths, and got rich doing it. And you’re still pretending RFK is the threat? Wake up.
You’re the one that needs to wake up. Do a little research on infectious diseases Boudoures. My mom died in a nursing home outbreak and it wasn’t hidden. Why? Because they allowed people with relatives in and let them touch each other. I should have taken her out of that place but it was rated as one of the best in Nevada County. Nobody got rich during Covid but Kushner’s cronies. You’re an enabler of this POS that’s taking a wrecking ball to our government. Hope you’re proud of your conservative values because this is what it’s brought us. A comment from an opinion piece by Bernie Sanders in the NYT titled “Bernie Sanders: Kennedy must resign”:
Tweeling Holland
10h ago
Europeans are watching with great astonishment the societal self-destruction Americans have chosen. It is, of course, the American voter’s prerogative to hand over the country’s governance to the inhabitants of a medieval insane asylum, but the consequences also affect the rest of the world. Epidemics, unfortunately, are not stopped when science is replaced by magic in a major country. Therefore, I sincerely hope that Senator Sanders will be listened to by some of the authoritative patients who still possess some common sense.”
Jurgen, I don’t need a lecture on infectious disease from someone who ignores facts because they don’t fit their narrative. You didn’t refute anything you just told me to “go research” because you’ve got nothing else.
I brought receipts. You brought condescension. That says everything.
Thank you, from this former epidemiologist. People like Boudoures, parroting nonsense, with likely zero relevant education or experience, are like Monday morning quarterbacks who have never touched a football.
Steve, your degree doesn’t make you immune to being wrong. You didn’t refute a single thing I said you just played the tired “I’m the expert” card like that ends the conversation.
If your argument relies on credentials instead of facts, you’re not defending science you’re defending your ego.
That’s an interesting take Peter, so you would rather put your health in the hands of a pseudo science anti vaxxer and the lying conman that appointed him than real scientists that actually spent the time and effort to study their field in universities? Can you cite me a university that Kennedy studied at and got a degree from in science or medicine? Not trying to condescend here but what makes you believe in these people????
I don’t argue with such folks. They post nonsense and say “prove me wrong” (and say they have “receipts”?). And always say “wake up” while doing so, missing the irony. It’s a waste of time engaging with most of them. But thanks for trying!
Steve, you and Jurgen tag-teamed your opponent with skill and determination but I’m afraid Peter bested you both. BLNT.
Katrina
I went to New Orleans in 2003, for a work related event. Upon landing I became ill…I could barely keep my head up.
For three days, and nights, I was unable to eat, experiencing deep fretful sleep…tossing, and turning all night long.
I sounded the alarm about the Ukiah Senior Center two years ago. I told them the financial situation was unsustainable and they needed to do some serious restructuring or risk closing. The board got offended and fired the new director in part because of the information they gave me.
The need to secure funding sources beyond the thrift store. They need to cut staff and programs to fit what their revenue can support They need to look to other local organizations to see if there are partnerships that would help streamline services such as having a multi-agency food service dirextor.
Love seeing the Thomas Hart Benton pictures.