Mendocino County Today: Sunday 8/31/2025

Seasonal Temps | Oceanlight | Harmful Algae | Barbara Noyes | Roadless Rule | Pet Mini | AV Events | Covelo Landmark | Hearing Postponed | Foggy Day | Senior Center | Pennyroyal Season | Mobile Mechanic | Entertainment Zone | Dem Picnic | Drum Circle | Redwood Journal | Yesterday's Catch | Inexcusable Expenditure | Bummed Breakfast | Unscrupulous Lout | Huffman Replies | Skid Row | Unknown Number | Marco Radio | Food Okay? | Quake Puzzle | Pickpocket Fate | Overdue Book | Giants Lose | Apartment Painters | Bumming Man | Nobody Cares | Deep Alone | Failed Work | Ogunquit Cove | Must Resign | Evil Man | Vax Quack | Unemployed Men | College Education | Between 9 & 12 | Central Factor | Elect One | Sad Fall | Lead Stories | Our Fictions | No More | Genocide Pete | Venezuela Lie | Chief Commander

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NEAR SEASONAL average temperatures will continue through the weekend. A warming trend will increase the HeatRisk and fire weather threat as low RH and hot temperatures build across the interior on Monday and then peak on Tuesday. The coast is expected to see night and morning clouds with some afternoon clearing most days. There is a slight chance of thunderstorms on Tuesday in the interior. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 47F under clear skies this Sunday morning on the coast. Well yesterday was about beautiful then a nice breeze came up in the afternoon. I'm going out on a limb & forecasting 2 more days mostly like that. Then the usual patchy fog for the rest of the week.

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ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS WARNS OF HARMFUL ALGAE DETECTED IN LAKE MENDOCINO

by Lin Due & Sarah Stierch

Low concentrations of harmful cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, have been detected in Lake Mendocino near Ukiah, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday.

According to the Army Corps, the current bacteria levels do not pose a significant health risk to people or pets, despite signs dotting the shorelines asking that people and pets stay away from the algae.

The signs warn that harmful algae may be present in the water and that people can swim in the water, but should avoid contact with algae and scum, including on the lake shore.

The Army Corps also asks that pets and other animals should avoid swimming in or drinking the water. Pets also need to stay away from any algae scum on the shore.

The reservoir water should not be used for drinking and no shellfish from the reservoir should be eaten.

The signs also recommend that any fish caught in the lake should have the guts removed and the fillets should be cleaned with bottled or tap water before cooking.

The Army Corps asks that reservoir visitors see a medical doctor if they experience skin irritation, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea after coming into contact with the water. Pets that experience the same symptoms should be taken to a veterinarian.

The announcement comes more than six weeks after the Army Corps said the reservoir was free of cyanobacteria after a visitor’s post on social media said their dog had died due to bacteria intake.

Toxin-producing cyanobacteria is more likely to occur in late summer, said Mike Thomas, North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board regional monitoring coordinator. Visible algae blooms floating above the surface of the water can be caused by rapid population growth of cyanobacteria.

“Testing of the water sample showed a small amount of cyanobacteria, which can produce toxins, but the levels were very low,” the Army Corps said. “We also found a very small amount of one type of toxin, anatoxin, but it was at the lowest level our testing could detect.”

Many factors result in the rapid growth of cyanobacteria, Thomas said, including heat, drought and agricultural runoff.

Cyanobacteria usually manifests in lakes and reservoirs as planktonic algae, which floats to the top of water and can cause the water to turn green, he said.

“In the planktonic bloom, toxins may be diffused in the water column,” Thomas said, so clear water may still contain toxins. Testing is important in lakes and reservoirs as it is often the only way the public can know if toxins are present.

Alerts Also Issued for East Fork of Russian and Navarro Rivers

Cyanobacteria algal mats, or benthic algae, have been found in two Mendocino County rivers popular with recreation, according to the state’s Water Quality Monitoring Council.

Algal mats were discovered on Aug. 20 in the East Fork of the Russian River near Elledge Ranch Road, approximately 1.5 miles east of Lake Mendocino. The river feeds into Lake Mendocino.

An alert was also issued Monday for a part of the Navarro River that runs through Hendy Woods State Park in the unincorporated community of Philo.

How to stay safe and reduce risk of illness while recreating rivers and lakes

If a body of water tests positive for HABs, state agency representatives will place public notices onsite. Check for warning signs and act appropriately based on what the sign advises.

People swimming in rivers or free-flowing creeks should stay away from floating mats of algae. As noted above, algae itself is natural. However, if swimmers notice mats, especially mats that look oily or slick, exercise extra caution. If people see dead fish or animals nearby, steer clear.

In general, a good rule is to rinse off after exiting waterways as soon as possible and try not to swallow any water from the creek or river.

When playing with dogs, specifically throwing balls or objects, keep to the area where water is visibly moving, not in pockets or swimming holes. Bring bottled water and a travel dish and encourage pets to drink on shore, discouraging dogs from drinking from the river.

In lakes and reservoirs, there may be no algae to alert swimmers and pet owners. If the water is warm, assume that cyanobacteria could be present. People and pets should not drink lake water and bring bottled water to enjoy instead.

Dogs could become sickened by licking their fur after swimming in water impacted by algae. Bring a gallon jug of water and after the last swim, empty the jug over dogs from head to tail, then rub them with a towel to clean off lake water. All this should go a long way to preventing heartache if pets –– or people — become ill.

The public can report suspected or confirmed algal blooms and any related human or animal illnesses to the California Water Quality Monitoring Council here.

The council, in partnership with the Army Corps, monitors water conditions daily here, for bodies of water frequently used for recreation or other public uses.

An interactive map of testing results across the state is also available here.

Test results and tips on staying safe when recreating in areas impacted by algal blooms can be found at https://mywaterquality.ca.gov.

(MendocinoVoice)

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BARBARA JEANNE (WILSON) NOYES
May 29, 1929 – August 12, 2025

Barbara passed away peacefully on August 12, 2025, in Chico, CA at the age of 96. She was born to James and Sadie Wilson in Tehama County. Barbara lost both parents at an early age was raised in a loving home by her maternal grandparents in Vina, CA. She couldn’t identify with the label of orphan, because she felt very loved and supported being the youngest in the household. When her grandfather died, she and her grandmother moved to Chico where she graduated from Chico High School in 1947. While working in a shoe repair shop she met Frank Noyes who was attending Chico State. After marrying on September 1, 1947, in Sparks, Nevada they moved to the Berkeley area where Frank studied at the University of California. Their son Frank Douglas was born in 1950, and their daughter Sherry was born in 1951.

Barbara is remembered by everyone as a lively, fun person who gave her all cooking and hosting holiday parties and special events. She was outgoing and it was known she could strike up a conversation with anyone. Her work at Safeway suited her personality and she retired from the job in 1983, making many good friends along the way. She volunteered at the hospital in Ukiah for many years where she enjoyed meeting the public.

Frank worked for the Division of Forestry (Cal Fire) and they spent many happy years in rural Northern California. When they settled in Ukiah in 1971 Frank showed Barbara the house he found with the greatest gardening space. No matter if the house was a little small, he remarked they could remodel it. They worked the garden together, and Barbara harvested, canned, and preserved the fruits and vegetables. She was the person who enjoyed cooking and always creating and sharing new recipes.

Barbara loved music and she and Frank danced every chance they could get during their 70 years of marriage. Even after suffering a stroke in 2019 Barbara remembered the words and could sing along to many verses of old songs and hymns. She lived at the Courtyard of Little Chico Creek for almost six years where she claimed she was very well cared for and that they knew how to cook “real food.”

Barbara is survived by her two children Frank D. Noyes (wife Cheryl) and daughter Sherry Staser (husband Charles); two granddaughters Sara Rexrode and Jessica Albere; and great grandchildren Karlie and Jesse Rexrode.

There were so many beloved dogs and cats over the years, and Barbara raised them all including a litter of twelve St. Bernard puppies. Memorial donations to honor her may be made to the Humane Society for Inland Mendocino Co. 9700 Uva Dr Redwood Valley, CA 95470, (707)485-0123. To view obituary online and leave condolences for the family please go to www.NewtonBracewell.com.

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PROTECT OUR ROADLESS AREAS

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has opened a three-week public comment period on its proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule, a critical conservation policy safeguarding nearly 60 million acres of undeveloped national forest lands across the country and over 4 million acres across California and here on the north coast.

The Redwood Chapter of the Sierra Club (representing Northern California’s forests and communities from the North Bay to the Oregon Border) calls on community members, outdoor enthusiasts, and concerned citizens to submit comments opposing this rollback the deadline on September 19, 2025. The repeal would directly impact treasured wildlands within our region that provide essential habitat, clean water, and recreation opportunities. These include the Snow Mountain, Yolla-Bolly, Yuki, Trinity Alps, Siskiyou and Marble Mountain Wilderness Areas and more across the Six Rivers, Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath National Forests.

Key benefits of the roadless rule to local communities include:

Economic Impact: Roadless areas drive local tourism, fuel businesses like outdoor outfitters, campgrounds, and lodges, and support rural economies.

Environmental Resilience: These intact landscapes help reduce wildfire risk by limiting human-caused ignition sources and preserving ecosystem connectivity.

Community Safety & Character: Clean water, wildlife habitat, and quiet forests are the heart of our forests and quality of life.

In response, Redwood Chapter Conservation Chair Teri Shore released the following statement:

Keeping our forests roadless isn’t just about protecting trees, it’s about protecting our families and communities. Wildfires are four times more likely to start in forest areas with roads than in roadless areas because roads bring more human activity — cars, campfires, power tools, and sparks — that ignite most wildfires. This is a matter of both community safety and conservation. Defending these places from being opened up to road-building, commercial logging, and mining and drilling is essential, and a commitment we must keep to future generations.

https://www.sierraclub.org/redwood

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UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Meet Mini — small name, BIG personality! Mini is an young, energetic, and friendly German Shepherd Dog who’s ready to take on the world—one tail wag at a time! Our playful girl is full of curiosity and charm, and she’s looking for an active home where she can continue to grow and learn. Mini’s still working on basic training and socialization, so she’ll thrive with a patient family willing to give her structure, guidance, and lots of love. Mini enjoys the company of other dogs, but she’ll need to meet any potential canine companions at the shelter, to make sure it’s a good match. With the right support, Mini will blossom into a loyal, loving, and well-mannered best friend. Mini is 1 year old and 48 beautiful pounds.

For information about all of our adoptable dogs and cats and our services, programs, and events, visit: mendoanimalshelter.com

Join us the first Saturday of every month for our Meet The Dogs Adoption Event.

For information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453. Making a difference for homeless pets in Mendocino County, one day at a time!

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AV EVENTS (today & tomorrow)

Anderson Valley Flea Market
Sun 08 / 31 / 2025 at 10:00 AM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville, CA
95415 More Information
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/4856)

Yorkville Ice Cream Social
Mon 09 / 01 / 2025 at 11:00 AM
Where: Yorkville Community Center/Post Office/Fire Station, 25400 Hwy 128,
Yorkville, CA 95494 More Information
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/4847)

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GLENDALE HOMICIDE HEARING POSTPONED WHILE ATTORNEYS SIFT THROUGH EVIDENCE

by Sage Alexander

The preliminary hearing for two suspects involved in the homicide of a Fort Bragg man fatally shot near Blue Lake in July was postponed until October 23. Two Arcata residents are accused of robbing 37-year-old Joshua Lee McCollister, with one suspect accused of fatally shooting him with a pistol.

The continuance was filed Monday, according to court records. In court Thursday, attorneys noted discovery was not complete.

Deputy District Attorney Roger Rees said the office is not ready to proceed, noting there was a batch of reports from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office that was recently received.

Michael Robinson, attorney to Danielle Durand, who is out on bail and pleaded not guilty to robbery charges in July, noted, “We don’t even have an autopsy report.”

The attorneys for the defendants and Rees agreed that 60 days would be preferred as a realistic date for proceeding with the hearing. The co-defendants waived the 60-day time frame for their preliminary hearing, after the judge explained their rights, and the hearing was continued to Oct. 23 at 8:30 a.m.

Deunn Willis, charged with murder and robbery, has been incarcerated since the pair’s arrest on a $750,000 bond. He previously pled not guilty and is represented by Gregory Kreis.

(Eureka Times Standard/Ukiah Daily Journal)

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ADAM GASKA:

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.

They 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 director.

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PENNYROYAL FARM, Boonville

It emerges from crevices along the sidewalks, takes root under the vineyard canopy, and flourishes along pasture fence lines. It’s pennyroyal season on the farm! Take a whiff of our aromatic namesake on your next visit!

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DANIEL GARIBAY

Hi Valley People. I am still offering my mobile mechanic services. From routine maintenance to emergency repairs, I’ve got you covered wherever you are. I am Mazda certified and can work on any brand. Reliable, efficient, and hassle-free. Feel free to call or text my phone number at (707) 391-8899.

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AFTER THE HIGHWAY 101 BYPASS reduced downtown visitors, the Willits City Council is exploring creating an “entertainment zone” to spur the economy — including allowing open container alcohol during events.

— Sara Stierch, Mendocino Voice

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FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT US TRUMP….

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CHICKEN BONES RATTLING IN COFFEE CANS

Full Moon Drum Circle on Sun. Sept. 7 at Pudding Creek Beach at 5 PM

The upcoming Full Moon Drum Circle on Sept 7 will be the last one before summer is officially over later in September. It is likely to be a fine, warm afternoon at the beach. We continue to meet at Pudding Creek Beach in northern Fort Bragg, just east of the trestle. We are starting at 5 PM, which is a tad earlier than usual, but get there whenever it is convenient for you. Proabably we will keep drumming till at least 7PM. We will continue the drum circles in the fall if the weather is agreeable.

As usual, bring percussion items like drums, shakers, washboards, bells, pot and pans, and other things you think would add to a cool sound. A flute and violin could make a fine addition. Bienvenidos. Everyone is Welcome.

We are likely to have a few extra drums. Bring a friend and maybe Bring a chair.

If you have questions, please call or text or email me, Sandy

707 235-9080 or [email protected]

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Saturday, August 30, 2025

IVAN AGUILAR, 20, Ukiah. Assault with firearm, resisting.

CARLOS BANDERAS-CAMPOS, 53, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, burglary, offenses while on bail.

STEVEN BROGAN, 37, Ukiah. DUI.

JESSIE BRUNELL, 33, Willits. DUI.

ROBERT FLEMING, 43, Fort Bragg. Domestic violence court order violation.

STEVEN MALEAR, 37, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, suspended license for DUI.

DAHLIA VALON, 30, San Francisco/Ukiah. Domestic battery.

PHILIBERTO VILLANUEVA, 22, Redwood Valley. DUI.

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AN INEXCUSABLE EXPENDITURE OF SCARCE TAX DOLLARS

Editor:

Governor Gavin Newsom has called a special election for November 4 to ask whether voters want to allow a redistricting plan for California. This is in response to actions taken by the state of Texas, allowing more Republican-leaning areas to possibly increase the Republican seats in the House. This action is purely political and has no benefit for the people of California. In fact, the election is reported to cost in excess of $235 million. This in a state with a budget deficit of between $12 billion and $20 billion. In my opinion, this is wasteful and inexcusable spending of scarce tax dollars better spent for the benefit of residents.

James Taglio

Ukiah

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THE UNSCRUPULOUS LOUT

was once a sterling lad

or so he thought

until he took a plum

from his granny’s quilting tea

and she sent him to cut a willow

switch to teach him how

to mind his scruples; scruples

she said are moral compunctions

you find along any path you take

like the rows of blooms he walked through with his rapier-like willow switch

loping off their heads

in his granny’s garden.

— Bruce McEwen

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HUFFMAN REPLIES TO CRAIG STEHR

Response from Congressman Jared Huffman in regard to my impossible social situation in America.

Dear Craig,

Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts about housing and homelessness. I appreciate hearing from you on this matter.

Affordable housing is becoming increasingly more difficult for individuals and families in California. In 2024, Marin County ranked in the top 3 for counties with the most expensive housing prices in the entire country, and housing prices in all of California’s Second District are above national averages. During my time in Congress, I have worked tirelessly with state and local partners to address our district’s unique housing challenges by increasing access to affordable housing through federal legislation and securing federal funding for housing initiatives.

In 2024, as part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program, I secured $6 million in grant funding for two projects in our district which aim to remove barriers to affordable housing production and lower housing costs. In Arcata, the funding will be used to develop streamlined, ministerial permitting processes that will reduce costs for builders. The City will also develop an ordinance supporting the development of Accessory Dwelling Units and create a marketing campaign to encourage property owners to take advantage of the City’s loan program. In the Bay Area, the funding will be used to begin addressing the chronic housing shortage by building and incentivizing the construction of new homes. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will expand its regionwide technical assistance to remove barriers to site advancements and launch Priority Site Catalyst Projects, which will be targeted investments in housing-supportive infrastructure.

Last Congress, I cosponsored the Housing Crisis Response Act, which sought to facilitate the development of fair and affordable housing, as well as decrease housing costs. Specifically, it would expand rural rental housing, increase accessibility to home loan programs, and develop more sustainable and equitable practices in new housing infrastructure. I was also a cosponsor of the Green New Deal for Public Housing which would modernize public housing through economic opportunities and a focus on climate resilience. While these bills have not yet been reintroduced in the 119th Congress, I look forward to considering legislation that expands access to affordable housing and increases housing stock.

Thank you again for sharing your views on this issue. The people of California’s Second District are the most important voices I listen to while serving in Congress. Please do not hesitate to contact my office if I can be of assistance to you in the future.

Sincerely,

Jared Huffman, Member of Congress

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WHAT LESSONS CAN PARENTS AND TEENS LEARN FROM UNKNOWN NUMBER: THE HIGH SCHOOL CATFISH?

Filmmaker Borgman hopes the film sparks important conversations between parents and kids about technology and trust. “This [case] is a crazy circumstance, but kids are getting terrible text messages every single day, and they’re dealing with cyberbullying every single day. The FBI might not be getting involved, but they’re dealing with it,” she says, noting the maturity and resilience shown by the teens at the center of Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. “Each and every one of them in the film was so mature about it and so willing to help and willing to try to find out what was happening, despite not being believed, despite having fingers pointed at them. So it’s a bigger message, I think, that all these kids wanted to put out there, and hopefully it’s what the documentary does.”

When asked about the film’s call to action, Borgman is clear: “Listen to your kids, understand the threats that are out there, and give them the ability to make good decisions.”

Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is now streaming on Netflix.

ED NOTE: Pretty hard to shock this old dog, but this Netflix doc shivered my ancient timbers. Every parent should see it, while I added it to my long list of reasons why social media, and the internet with it, should be offed.

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MEMO OF THE AIR; Complex and thoughtful kaiju unfairly maligned.

Marco here. Here’s the recording of last night’s (9pm PDT, 2025-08-29) 8-hour-long Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and also, for the first three hours, on 89.3fm KAKX Mendocino, ready for you to re-enjoy in whole or in part: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0659

Coming shows can feature your own story or dream or poem or essay or kvetch or announcement. Just email it to me. Or send me a link to your writing project and I’ll take it from there and read it on the air.

Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you’ll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not-necessarily radio-useful but worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:

Tristan Guillaume Group - Impressions of Rachmaninoff. I don’t often listen to this kind of music all the way through, because I don’t understand complex music enough to hear it as much more than several people who are very good at their instruments noodling at random and they can’t hear each other, or they can and they don’t care. This group is just enough to me like they can and do, and are playing together, to make it sweet, especially past the time where the drummer begins actually touching the drums and not just waving his brushes over them. Though the guitarist’s loose metal string ends, not coiled up or clipped off, keep me on edge thinking about how, moving around with it later to put it away, he’s liable to poke himself or someone else in the eye with one and scratch the cornea or even pierce the eyeball so the fluid dribbles out and it goes flat. /Shudder./ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3qzT1OJCUo

The effect of progressively more powerful firecrackers on an upturned cook pot. Before this, I knew of only three kinds: regular firecrackers like an inch-long pencil, M-80s like the end joint of a man’s thumb, and something called a quarter stick, which I had only heard about. https://www.neatorama.com/2025/08/28/Testing-the-Power-of-Various-Firecrackers-with-a-Cooking-Pot

That cook-pot video reminds me of the true story of the first man-made object fast enough to entirely escape the Earth’s gravity. /Five times escape velocity./ It was the manhole cover atop a tunnel down to an atomic bomb test. https://www.businessinsider.com/fastest-object-robert-brownlee-2016-2

And speaking of manhole covers, in this case to describe the aerodynamic (or not) properties of the iconic Earth Reentry Vehicle, is Professor Hannah Fry. An exercise in self control: attempt to not smile from ear to ear just because she’s talking to you. I bet you can’t do it. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P4Bmh1aa_gM

Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

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CALIFORNIA SCIENTISTS SOLVED A 1954 QUAKE PUZZLE. THE NEXT ‘BIG ONE’

by Jack Lee

Scientists have solved a longtime mystery about the origins of a magnitude 6.5 quake that struck Humboldt County in 1954. The discovery could have implications for earthquake activity across California’s North Coast region now and in the future.

In a recent study, researchers mapped the quake to a surprising spot in the Cascadia subduction zone, which runs from British Columbia to Northern California and has the potential to produce megaquakes of magnitude 9 or greater. The researchers revisited the historical event by collecting eyewitness accounts and reanalyzing 70-year-old seismic data using modern computer programs.

“It really was a detective story,” said lead author Peggy Hellweg, a seismologist who retired from the UC Berkeley Seismology Lab.

Scientists have long thought that the Cascadia subduction zone could produce the next “Big One.” In 1700, a magnitude 9 earthquake produced devastating landslides and destructive tsunami waves over 50 feet high. Based on damage reports, experts estimate that waves up to 16 feet high reached the Japanese coast.

The southern end of the Cascadia subduction zone lies just offshore of Cape Mendocino, where the oceanic Gorda tectonic plate steadily moves eastward and dives beneath the less dense North American plate.

In the new study, the authors conclude that the 1954 quake likely occurred about 7 miles beneath the Fickle Hill area, a few miles east of downtown Arcata (Humboldt County), on an interface of the Cascadia subduction zone. Researchers had never tracked an earthquake occurring in such a location before.

The subduction zone interface is “the peanut butter and jelly between the two pieces of bread that are the North American plate above and the Gorda plate below,” Hellweg explained. “Where they slide next to each other or get stuck, that’s where the big earthquakes happen.”

Experts have generally thought that the Cascadia subduction zone remains “totally locked” between huge earthquakes, said study author Lori Dengler, a professor emeritus of geology at Cal Poly Humboldt.

The new study reveals, for the first time, that this isn’t the case. The interface has the potential for smaller, but still damaging, earthquakes. It’s “absolutely intriguing that we can have a relatively small patch that can slip without triggering something bigger,” Dengler said.

The new report provides fresh insights into one of the most seismically active regions in the contiguous United States. A magnitude 6.4 December 2022 temblor near Ferndale (Humboldt County) caused nearly $100 million in damage, according to Dengler; two people died. A December 2024 earthquake off of Cape Mendocino triggered tsunami warnings along California’s coast.

One reason the area often experiences earthquakes is because just offshore, the North American, Gorda and Pacific tectonic plates all meet at the Mendocino Triple Junction. Quakes can occur on any of the major faults there and within the tectonic plates.

The scientists are applying a similar methodology to other historical quakes, like a 1957 earthquake in Daly City.

“There’s still a lot to be learned from the old earthquakes,” said John Ebel, a professor of geophysics at Boston College and a senior research scientist at the university’s Weston Observatory. The new analysis put the 1954 earthquake “in a light that no one had appreciated before,” said Ebel, who peer-reviewed the manuscript.

Scientists regularly update earthquake hazard maps using new data and techniques, so the new results could potentially influence how experts compute the probabilities of future quakes and their impacts.

“It changes what’s under the hood in our hazard calculation of … the shaking that we can expect,” said Valerie Sahakian, an associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Oregon and a lead investigator with the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center.

Dengler and Hellweg say the new findings don’t change scientists’ expectations that another great earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone will shake the entire region. But they emphasize that experts can’t predict exactly when the “Big One” will strike.

“We’re one day closer today than we were yesterday,” Dengler said.

(SF Chronicle)

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76 YEARS OVERDUE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU RETURN AN S.F. LIBRARY BOOK FROM THE 1940s?

by Peter Hartlaub

David Gallagher was looking through boxes in his elderly neighbor’s San Francisco basement after her death earlier this year, when he spotted a literary treasure: a worn first edition of Edward Weston’s seminal photo book “California and the West.”

But what he saw inside the front cover turned out to be the real news.

“I found it and thought, ‘This is an important book’,” Gallagher said. “Then I saw that it had the public library stamp on it. It had been checked out last in 1949.”

For those of us who grew up paying late fees on borrowed copies of “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing,” a library book 76 years overdue is an anxiety-ridden prospect. Is someone in trouble? Banned from all libraries for life? About to go broke? With 10-cent daily late fees, Gallagher’s discovery would have accumulated $2,774 in fines.

But Dolly Goyal, chief of public services for San Francisco Public Library, said there’s no need to check your bank balance.

“We’re just happy it’s finally home,” said Goyal. “We have a lot of families going through books so quickly, and of course they’re going to forget one or two. We understand.”

The San Francisco Public Library went fine-free in 2019 with minimal fanfare, and most Bay Area libraries have quietly followed suit. The shame of bringing a book back late — even one like the visual travelogue “California and the West,” which last stood on library shelves before Bill Murray, Stevie Wonder and Chuck Schumer were born — is a thing of the past.

(A comforting fact if, like me, you still have an overdue Shel Silverstein book from 1988.)

Gallagher, a photo collector, web developer and mystery-solver who runs the San Francisco history photo site sfmemory.org, said his neighbors had both died in the last few years. One of their daughters welcomed him to rummage through the basement to look for local history treasures. When he found the book, he knew he’d probably never get the full story.

But as Gallagher and I sit inside the San Francisco History Center at the library’s Larkin Street main branch, near the dawn of library card sign-up month, librarian sleuths Goyal and archivist Christina Moretta reveal a remarkable amount of information.

Weston, the first photographer to win a Guggenheim fellowship in 1937, traveled across the country with his then-girlfriend Charis to create the book. Ninety-six California photos are included in “California and the West,” including stunning depictions of Tomales Bay, the town of Albion in Mendocino County, San Francisco’s shipping ports and a close-up of greenery in a Marin County redwood grove.

Moretta discovered the book was checked out of the “Californiana” collection at the old main branch, a building which now houses the Asian Art Museum. Fines would have been 10 cents a day in 1949, she said, and maxed out at $5, equivalent to about $67 in 2025. (“California and the West” retailed for $3.79 in 1940.)

Co-authored by Charis Weston, who wrote essays in the volume and married Weston in 1939, the book continues to be revered. The library currently has one 1978 reprint in circulation. The SFMOMA in 2016 displayed a Weston-inspired photography exhibit by the same name.

“It was a well-loved book,” Moretta said, “even before it was well-loved for 75 years in someone’s home.”

The San Francisco Public Library was a pioneer in fine elimination. City librarian Kevin Starr declared an innovative “book amnesty” in 1974, taking all overdue books, no questions asked, through most of October of that year. He received 20,000 tomes, including many that had been checked out for 30 years or more.

“We don’t care how long the books have been overdue, or even how they got the books,” Starr, who became librarian of the state of California, told the Chronicle in 1974. “We just want to get back as many as possible.”

At the time, it was about money and resources. But Burlingame City Librarian Brad McCulley, whose library system eliminated fines in 2020, said the current movement is about equity and making libraries feel like welcome spaces.

“A lot of people felt shame even talking about their fines,” McCulley said. “They would rack up fines and just not come back to the library because they were ashamed of what they had on their account.”

Fines are usually a very small percentage of a library’s budget. Goyal said late fees amounted to a couple hundred thousand dollars a year in San Francisco before they were dismissed, compared to $199 million appropriated for library services in San Francisco in 2024-2025. McCulley said chasing down fines is inefficient; it makes more economic sense for librarians to focus on other things.

“At the end of the day, we spent more money in staff’s salary than the money we retrieved from books,” he said.

Technology also helps. McCulley talks about automated programs to track lost, destroyed and forgotten books, or remind borrowers to return an overdue book when another patron has put their copy of “The Cartoonists Club” on hold. And lost books aren’t necessarily free of charge.

But even in cases where someone owes $20 for a lost or destroyed volume, McCulley said, “we’ll always work with you.”

When Gallagher contacted me with his find, I had an ulterior motive to learn more: I’ve been holding a copy of Silverstein’s “Lafcadio: The Lion Who Shot Back,” absconded from the Burlingame Public Library when I was a teen in 1988. I worked as a part-time children’s librarian there for two years and failed to bring the volume back when I departed for college.

The stress has built, not waned. I’ve spent almost 40 years waiting for the book police to burst through my door. (Do they have a librarian SWAT team, or more of a solitary John Wick-like figure?)

McCulley laughed, then urged me to find the book and come on in.

“That one might raise an eyebrow,” he said. “(But) we won’t shame you too much about it.”

(SF Chronicle)

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WILLY ADAMES EDGES CLOSER TO 30 HOMERS but Giants’ win streak ends

by Susan Slusser

San Francisco’s home-run streak continued Saturday, but the Giants’ winning streak did not come along for the ride.

Willy Adames’ solo shot in the first made it 13 games in a row with at least one blast and it gave Adames 25 homers — he’s the first Giants player to reach that total before the end of August since Barry Bonds in 2007. That was the only run for San Francisco in an 11-1 loss to Baltimore, and the team’s six-game roll came to an end, the Giants falling back to two games below .500.

The Giants have not had a 30 home-run hitter since 2004, when Bonds hit 45. After hitting 27 in the first five months in 2007, Bonds hit one in September. Brandon Belt hit 29 in 2021, but with a week left in the season, he squared to bunt, was hit by the pitch and missed the rest of the year with a broken thumb.

Since 2019, every other big-league team has had at least one hitter record 30 or more homers, and the Dodgers, Astros and Yankees have each had 11 in that time. Adames did it twice with Milwaukee. He’s hit 10 homers since July 29, so hitting that 30 mark in the final 26 games seems doable.

“A month left, starting tomorrow — I wouldn’t bet against him,” manager Bob Melvin said, adding that next week, “We’re going to Colorado, too.”

Oracle Park is usually cited for the lack of big boppers, and at times, Adames has had the ballpark in the back of his mind since signing a seven-year, $182 million deal with San Francisco last winter. But no longer.

“It’s been more just getting used to it and getting comfortable hitting at this park and not thinking about, ‘Oh, you can’t hit homers here,’ this and that, whatever. It’s just a mindset,” Adames said. “You know, if you come over here thinking that you can’t hit homers or you can’t score a lot of runs, then you’re not going to. I feel like for me, it was just letting that go out of my mind and just being myself out there. Just be yourself, and if it goes out, it goes out, if not, you just hit it hard — I can’t do nothing about it.

“The last three weeks I’ve tried to let that all go out of my mind and just have some fun.”

The Giants’ run of 13 games with homers matches their high over the past 23 years; they also did so from June 25-July 12, 2019. They haven’t homered in 14 consecutive games since 2002.

After racking up a season-high 18 hits and 15 runs the night before, the Giants managed only five hits Saturday. Lefty Trevor Rogers, who’s been one of the few sparks for Baltimore this year, went seven innings, allowed five hits, no walks and struck out five while lowering his ERA to 1.39.

“The second time through the lineup, I feel like he kind of saw that we were on the fastball, and started to mix it up a little bit better,” Adames said. “He’s been one of the nastiest lefties in the league.”

The Giants are 15-24 in games started by opposing left-handers.

The Orioles, losers of eight of their previous nine, got two two-run homers in the third off Carson Seymour; the Giants are down a regular starter after Landen Roupp took a liner off his knee at San Diego on Aug. 20.

It was Seymour’s 11th appearance but his first start in the big leagues after being used in long relief; he started 85 of his 101 minor-league appearances but his last start was June 19 with Triple-A Sacramento. He said he felt fine physically but he was kicking himself for leaving sinkers up to Jeremiah Jackson and Ryan Mountcastle. “I got a little sinker heavy and that was probably in the back of their mind, especially the righties,” Seymour said. “The two guys were probably hunting (sinkers) and I gave them a really good pitch to hit both times.”

Tristan Beck took over after Seymour’s three innings of work and immediately gave up a homer to Samuel Basallo, the catcher’s first as a big-leaguer. Daniel Johnson, the Vallejo native the Giants designated for assignment Aug. 8, followed with a base hit, Jackson Holliday a triple and Gunnar Henderson a sacrifice fly. Baltimore added three in the eighth off Matt Gage.

Christian Koss made his fourth appearance pitching in a blowout and the infielder turned in his fourth scoreless inning of work, needing just nine pitches, most of them in the 47 mph range, to retire the Orioles in order. He also blazed in one pitch at 83.7 mph that narrowly missed being strike three; the crowd thought Koss had Coby Mayo struck out.

“I thought he had the strikeout,” Adames said. “That’s what it looked like from shortstop. You have to give him credit, you have a guy like him that goes out there and is doing it for the team that tells you a lot about the type of player that he is.”

No players or coaches enjoy blowouts, and hitters dislike facing position players for obvious reasons — it can be embarrassing. But it does save arms, and in a bullpen game, especially so. A position player who can throw strikes, and quick ones, is a nice asset.

“You throw it slow enough at a point in the game where the hitters are kind of over it, too,” Koss said when asked the secret to his success. “I know as a hitter myself, facing a position player is never the best thing to do, so I’m just hoping to throwing it slow enough in a rough spot for them.”

Have any of the pitchers given him advice?

“No,” he said, “I think it kind of sucks (for the pitchers), like I’m up there lobbing it in, and I have zero (ERA). So a lot of these guys feel like, maybe that’s something they should add. But I tell them, ‘I’m getting in in a point in the game where hitters are kind of over it, and I’m not really throwing much for them to swing at.’ ”

(sfchronicle.com)

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BURNING MAN FOUNDER TURNS ON FESTIVAL AS HE GIVES WITHERING VERDICT ON WHAT IT HAS BECOME

by Marjorie Hernandez

John Law doesn’t mince words when it comes to his feelings about what Burning Man has become since he co-founded the Black Rock, Nevada, festival over 35 years ago.

‘It’s a giant party for rich white people,’ Law recently told the San Francisco Gate. ‘It’s as clubby in its own way as the Elks or some hunting lodge in Minnesota.’

The popularity of the two-week counterculture event that started with 70 artists in the late 1980s has ballooned into around 70,000 to 80,000 participants every year, leaving some critics to say Burning Man has evolved into a photo-op for celebrities, social media influencers and Silicon Valley elite.

Law, 66, said the tenants of the festival that he started with artist Larry Harvey and others, has moved away from its intent to celebrate counterculture and create amongst other artists without any rules, care for money or inhibitions.

‘As far as the organization goes, it’s about power and control,’ Law told the Daily Mail. ‘When an event like that brings in $60 to $70 million, it’s a big business. It’s become a giant event that attracts rich people to some degree.

‘When we started it, we were all poor artists and a few of us had very little money.’

With more and more participants arriving at the playa every year, Law was tasked to help with growing logistics and deal with law enforcement.

Law, who ran the operations, said he decided to leave the festival in 1996 after some participants were getting injured and crowd control became a problem.

We grew too fast too soon,’ he said. ‘There were a few accidents and people got hurt, which was very sad. That’s when I knew I had to step away.’

In recent years, the counterculture festival has attracted tech bros, millionaires, models and even celebrities like disgraced Bad Boy mogul, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who attended the event multiple times since 2013.

‘It’s evolved in ways that I’m not interested in,’ Law told the Daily Mail. ‘I still have mixed feelings because I celebrate the artists who go to create, and what’s not to like about a huge party?

‘But I haven’t been involved in a very long time because. It’s become a place where you can party with P. Diddy in the desert or with Orlando Bloom. I don’t want any part of that.’

Online critics point to the increasing number of viral footage of Burning Man attendees who post videos of the oftentimes unpredictable weather they have had to endure.

This year’s festival has already been marred by gale-force winds and rain last week, which quickly turned the ground into clay mud that’s nearly impossible to traverse in some pockets of the playa.

Los Angeles-based artist WhIsBe posted a short video on his social media that quickly went viral, which showed the ‘Orgy Dome’ destroyed by 60 to 70 mph winds last week.

The infamous Orgy Dome has been a long fixture at the festival that operates as a sex-positive and air conditioned environment where couples or the curious can participate with consent.

More than 8,000 people have entered the Orgy Dome in recent years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

But last week, the strong winds bent the Orgy Dome’s structure and ripped the tent into shreds. On Wednesday, a sign was posted at the site: ‘Orgy Dome CLOSED for the rest of the burn’.

‘Everyone thinks Burning Man is all fun and games until the Orgy Dome blows down,’ WhIsBe said in his now viral video. ‘I don’t think they consented to that happening.’

WhIsBe, who is known for his contemporary and street art that include his Gummy Bear series, has been attending Burning man for the past 13 years.

The artist said he has seen a shift in the exposure the festival has received over the years.

‘I had an interesting experience a couple days ago where I watched a Burning Man video on the festival Instagram page that was created last year,’ WhIsBe told Daily Mail. ‘It was such a good video that it actually felt invasive to me. It was too detail oriented.

He continued: ‘In the past, they post videos of people partying, which was more generic, but this one had footage in the camps and their daily activities.

‘It made me think about those days when you could be at a nightclub before there were cell phones and social media. Everything was private and you were kind of allowed to misbehave and not have to worry about getting filmed.

‘When I saw that video, it made me feel the complete opposite. And now there are these videos that are coming out now with TikTokers and influencers and they are trying to portray the experience in a way that feels invasive to me.’

Nevertheless, the artist said the camaraderie between the participants, the willingness to share resources and help complete strangers are just some of the reasons why he returns every year.

After the gale-force winds and rain last week, WhIsBe said fellow campers worked to help one another to repair damaged tents and art installations.

Surviving the storms and helping others is ‘part of the journey’ of Burning Man, he said.

But he also warns the festival is ‘not for the faint of heart.’

‘You’re getting people who are coming here with expectations versus curiosity,’ WhIsBe said. ‘What I always tell people who are curious about Burning Man is to go at least once to experience it.

‘I think the social media and the influencers and the content that’s out there does distort people’s intentions on why they should come here. They are trying to replicate an experience rather than creating and exploring their own identity.’

Podcaster Drea Renee said despite this year’s rocky start with unpredictable weather, long-time Burning Man goers like herself plan to return.

I think the crazy wind storms and rain has scared away some people, but there are people who would die for this place and will come no matter what. There could be a tornado coming down, but they will hold on for dear life and wait for it to pass just for the opportunity to f—king dance in the sand.’

Renee, who hosts the podcast Hey Babe, Can We Talk, balked at critics comparing Burning Man to Coachella, a music festival that draws 250,000 participants over two weekends in Indio, California.

‘Coachella is over commercialized and it’s not even close,’ she said. ‘Coachella is a festival, but Burning Man is an experience.’

Law said he credits co-founder Harvey for marketing Burning Man in its early years, which has turned it into a destination for thousands every year.

But he still carries some disdain over Harvey portraying himself as a ‘ringleader’ of the festival’s core ‘10 Principles’, which includes ‘radical inclusion’, ‘gifting’ and ‘decommodification’.

Harvey died in 2018, but the core principals he introduced are still a large part of the two-week festival, which ends Monday.

‘They are so big now that there is that pressure to succeed,’ Law told the Daily Mail. ‘We started with this anarchist spirit and we never wrote down any protocol of what it was supposed to be or what we should do. The point was to not have any rules at all.

‘But when the event got bigger, you have to answer to the police, the government and bureaucracy. It’s now an economic engine and frankly it’s no longer for me. I don’t want to be a cop or an accountant.’

(DailyMail.uk)

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I’M GOING TO START LIVING LIKE A MYSTIC

by Edward Hirsch (2003)

Today I am pulling on a green wool sweater
and walking across the park in a dusky snowfall.

The trees stand like twenty-seven prophets in a field,
each a station in a pilgrimage—silent, pondering.

Blue flakes of light falling across their bodies
are the ciphers of a secret, an occultation.

I will examine their leaves as pages in a text
and consider the bookish pigeons, students of winter.

I will kneel on the track of a vanquished squirrel
and stare into a blank pond for the figure of Sophia.

I shall begin scouring the sky for signs
as if my whole future were constellated upon it.

I will walk home alone with the deep alone,
a disciple of shadows, in praise of the mysteries.

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IX, SABBATHS 2007

by Wendell Berry

I go by a field where once
I cultivated a few poor crops.
It is now covered with young trees,
for the forest that belongs here
has come back and reclaimed its own.
And I think of all the effort
I have wasted and all the time,
and of how much joy I took
in that failed work and how much
it taught me. For in so failing
I learned something of my place,
something of myself, and now
I welcome back the trees.

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KENNEDY MUST RESIGN

by Bernie Sanders

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services, is endangering the health of the American people now and into the future. He must resign.

Mr. Kennedy and the rest of the Trump administration tell us, over and over, that they want to Make America Healthy Again. That’s a great slogan. I agree with it. The problem is that since coming into office President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have done exactly the opposite.

This week, Mr. Kennedy pushed out the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after less than one month on the job because she refused to act as a rubber stamp for his dangerous policies. Four leading officials at C.D.C. resigned the same week. One of those officials said Mr. Kennedy’s team asked him to “change studies that have been settled in the past” apparently to fit Mr. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views. This is not Making America Healthy Again.

Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the country’s largest professional association of pediatricians, representing over 67,000 doctors who treat our children every day, calls immunizations “one of the greatest public health achievements,” which prevents tens of thousands of deaths and millions of cases of disease.

The American Medical Association, the largest professional association of physicians and medical students, representing over 270,000 doctors along with 79 leading medical societies, recently said that vaccines for flu, R.S.V. and Covid-19 are “the best tools to protect the public against these illnesses and their potentially serious complications.”

The World Health Organization, an agency with some of the most prominent medical experts around the globe, recently noted that over the past 50 years, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives and reduced the infant deaths by 40 percent.

Against the overwhelming body of evidence within the medicine and science, what are Secretary Kennedy’s views? He has claimed that autism is caused by vaccines, despite more than a dozen rigorous scientific studies involving hundreds of thousands of children that have found no connection between vaccines and autism.

He has called the Covid-19 vaccines the “deadliest” ever made despite findings cited by the W.H.O. that Covid shots saved over 14 million lives throughout the world in 2021 alone.

He has ridiculously questioned whether the polio vaccine has killed more people than polio itself did even though scientists have found that the vaccine has saved 1.5 million lives and prevented around 20 million people from becoming paralyzed since 1988.

He has absurdly claimed that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective.”

Who supports Secretary Kennedy’s views? Not credible scientists and doctors. One of his leading “experts” that he cites to back up his bogus claims on autism and vaccines had his medical license revoked and his study retracted from the medical journal that published it.

Many of his supporters are from Children’s Health Defense — the anti-vaccine group he founded and profited from — and a small circle of loyalists that have spread misinformation and dangerous conspiracy theories on vaccines for years.

The reality is that Secretary Kennedy has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines. Now, as head of H.H.S., he is using his authority to launch a full-blown war on science, on public health and on truth itself.

What will this mean for the health and well-being of the American people?

Short term, it will be harder for Americans to get lifesaving vaccines. Already, the Trump administration has effectively taken away Covid vaccines from many healthy younger adults and kids, unless they fight their way through our broken health care system. This means more doctor’s visits, more bureaucracy and more people paying higher out-of-pocket costs — if they can manage to get a vaccine at all.

Covid is just the beginning. Mr. Kennedy’s next target may be the childhood immunization schedule, the list of recommended vaccines that children receive to protect them from diseases like measles, chickenpox and polio. The danger here is that diseases that have been virtually wiped out because of safe and effective vaccines will resurface and cause enormous harm.

Two years ago, when I was the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, I held a hearing with the major government officials responsible for protecting us from a new pandemic, including the head of the C.D.C. Without exception, every one of these agency heads said that, while they could not predict the exact date, there will be a future pandemic and we must be much better prepared for it than we are today.

Unfortunately, Secretary Kennedy’s actions are making a worrisome situation even worse by defunding the research that could help us prepare for the next pandemic. This month, he canceled nearly $500 million in research for the kinds of vaccines that helped us stop the Covid pandemic. At the same time, Mr. Kennedy is cutting funding to states to prepare and respond to future outbreaks of infectious diseases. This is unacceptable.

America’s health care system is already dysfunctional and wildly expensive, and yet the Trump administration will be throwing an estimated 15 million people off their health insurance through a cut of over $1 trillion to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. This cut is also expected to result in the closing of or the decline in services at hundreds of nursing homes, hospitals and community health centers. As a result of cuts to the Affordable Care Act, health insurance costs will soar for millions of Americans. That is not Making America Healthy Again.

Secretary Kennedy is putting Americans’ lives in danger, and he must resign. In his place, President Trump must listen to doctors and scientists and nominate a health secretary and a C.D.C. director who will protect the health and well-being of the American people, not carry out dangerous policies based on conspiracy theories.

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VAX QUACK LACKS FACTS

by Maureen Dowd

I almost died of rubella when I was 3.

I was very weak and wouldn’t eat. My mother was frantic. The doctor prescribed mashed lima beans and I pulled through.

I still keep lima beans in the freezer.

It’s infuriating to see Bobby Kennedy Jr. be so benighted about vaccines, risking the health of all Americans. How can the most powerful country on earth sow the seeds to make people sick again with preventable, even once-eliminated diseases?

Between school shooters and R.F.K. Jr., children in America are vulnerable in ways they don’t have to be. Officials are endangering children instead of shielding them.

The boneheaded vaccine debate has inflamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is reeling from mass layoffs and a deadly shooting by an anti-vaxxer at its headquarters.

Kennedy tried to fire the director, Susan Monarez, then called in President Trump to finish her off after she refused to go along with his dictum to back his advisers if they recommended restricting access to proven vaccines. Other officials quit, leaving the health agency in crisis, just as Winter Is Coming.

The administration put out the most restrictive policy yet on the new Covid vaccines, with more constraints likely, given that Kennedy has stacked the C.D.C. advisory committee with vaccine skeptics and outright anti-vaxxers.

When I was growing up, vaccines were the great American success story. It felt momentous when my father picked up my sister and me to go get polio shots.

My father helped guard F.D.R. at baseball games and other events. He saw F.D.R.’s braces, a result of polio, and saw the elaborate lengths the White House went to to camouflage the paralysis in the president’s lower body.

My family was grateful to be in the age of scientific achievement — from vaccine shots to moon shots. My mother would tell us harrowing tales of how her little sister, Mary, died in 1918 from the Spanish flu.

Trump and Kennedy are yanking us back to those dark times.

This month, Kennedy canceled nearly $500 million in grants and contracts for developing mRNA vaccines, the best chance against a future pandemic. That followed the cancellation of a $600 million contract to develop a vaccine for bird flu.

In March, as measles spread in Texas, Kennedy went on Fox News and promoted vitamin A and cod liver oil containing it as “dramatically” effective remedies. Some unvaccinated children took so much vitamin A, they showed signs of liver damage.

In 2019, Kennedy went to Samoa and claimed, falsely, that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had contributed to the deaths of two Samoan infants. That helped spark a measles outbreak that killed 83 there and infected 500 in Tonga.

On Wednesday, Kennedy was acting bizarre, saying he can tell as he walks past children if they are dealing with “mitochondrial challenges” or “inflammation.”

He has no medical degree. Can he mysteriously divine illnesses just by looking?

Our health secretary is a certified quack. But the president, who is letting Kennedy run wild, knows better. Trump got seriously ill from Covid and was saved by the doctors at Walter Reed, who gave him antibody treatments and remdesivir — not the remedy he once suggested people consider: bleach. His greatest triumph — and a stirring example of American scientific chops — was Operation Warp Speed, a push to develop a Covid vaccine in less than a year, saving many lives and springing us from our awful sequestration.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump told top donors that he wished he could brag about Operation Warp Speed. But he can’t offend MAHA (the ironically named Make America Healthy Again movement). He can’t push his greatest accomplishment because of the willful ignorance of some of his supporters.

Why does this notorious germaphobe play lickspittle to debunkers of science?

Disgusted with Monarez’s dismissal and the way Kennedy places ideology over science, four top officials resigned. One of them, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told The Journal and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Kennedy had not even bothered to be briefed by the center’s specialists on Covid and measles.

“Yes, he’s getting information from somewhere,” Daskalakis told Collins, “but that information is not coming from C.D.C. experts who really are the world’s experts in this area.”

Republicans failed miserably in not blocking Kennedy’s nomination. Senator Bill Cassidy, the gastroenterologist who cast the deciding vote on Trump’s snake-oil health secretary, said Wednesday that the chaos at C.D.C. would require oversight by Congress.

To which I reply: Physician, heal thyself. You were too craven to vote against someone you knew would decimate our health system because you wanted to hang onto your seat. You swapped the Hippocratic oath for the Hypocritic oath.

(NY Times)

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THE WHOLE COLLEGE SCENE was soft. They never told you what to expect out there in the real world. They just crammed you with theory and never told you how hard the pavements were. A college education could destroy an individual for life.

— Charles Bukowski

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“EVERY MORNING between 9 and 12 I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just sit for three hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing. If an idea does come between 9 and 12 I am there ready for it.”

— Flannery O’Connor

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

American history books should celebrate our scientific and technological achievements not as one thing we did but as the central factor in the story of America’s success. We really don’t need to know much about the Spanish American war. Every American with a high school education should know how miserable life was before western achievements--mostly in the US--of the last 150 years.

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MITCH CLOGG: Troubles me that Facebook people who know me thought I was being serious when I said, about being a fascist, In The Vernacular Of Mortimer Snerd: “I guess I are one.” Among other things, it has been my objective, on Facebook, to identify myself. I’ve apparently done a shitty job. I was pushing seven when Hitler and Mussolini died. I damn well knew what a fascist was by age seven, even if I didn’t know the word and certainly never expected America would be stupid enough to elect one president.

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“YOU EXPECTED to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”

— Ernest Hemingway, ‘A Moveable Feast’

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LEAD STORIES, SUNDAY'S NYT

In Trump’s Federal Work Force Cuts, Black Women Are Among the Hardest Hit

How Trump Could Overhaul the Fed

Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s Attacks on Science

Xi Uses Summit, Parade and History to Flaunt China’s Global Pull

America Closed Malls, but China Kept Building Them. Now It Has Too Many.

Videos Contradict Israel’s Rationale for Deadly Gaza Hospital Attack

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“LET US SPEAK PLAINLY: everything which keeps us from self-dissolution, every lie which protects us against our unbreathable certitudes is religious. When I grant myself a share in eternity, when I conceive of a permanence which includes me, I trample underfoot the evidence of my friable, worthless being; I lie to the others as to myself. Were I to do otherwise, I should disappear within an hour. We last only as long as our fictions.”

― Emil Cioran, ‘The Temptation to Exist’

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I FOUGHT IN GAZA. I WOULD NOT GO BACK.

by Yotam Vilk

On Oct. 7, 2023, when the scale of Hamas’s massacre in Israel became clear, we went to war. The pain for those of us in the military was unbearable. The feeling that we had failed to protect our loved ones consumed me. Fueled by anger and guilt, we entered combat against a ruthless terror organization that showed with brutal clarity the depths of its cruelty.

I fought in Gaza for a year, first as a tank platoon commander and then as the deputy to my company commander. I led ground maneuvers inside the Gaza Strip, took Hamas strongholds and helped dismantle the group’s tunnels, weapons depots and command posts. Day by day, driven by duty, I confronted the stark reality of war: death and destruction at close range, the weight of irreversible decisions, the constant demand to act with clarity under fire.

As time passed, another harsh truth emerged: Our own state had lost its way. If we went to war on Oct. 7 to save what was dearest to us, it soon became clear to me that we were fighting because our leaders were never planning to stop. It was a war waged by nationalist populists who refused to pay the political price necessary to make the decisions to bring an end to the war, and instead demanded that we, the soldiers, the hostages and the Palestinians, pay it in blood.

Gaza became a lawless zone, with little effective oversight of the military and almost no personal accountability for soldiers. We came to wage a war without a timeline, without attainable goals, without an exit strategy — a status quo that undermines the idea of a modern state.

On Oct. 9, 2024, a group of Israel Defense Force soldiers, including me, issued a public letter declaring that our service had become untenable in light of Israel’s policy in Gaza and mounting evidence that the government was deliberately sabotaging hostage deals. My brigade commander immediately suspended me from my unit, despite the protests of my subordinate soldiers.

Today, as the government calls on tens of thousands of reservists to participate in the cruel re-occupation of Gaza City, I implore my fellow soldiers: Refuse to report. Thousands have already stopped showing up. Some have been sent to prison. Many remain silent. This is the time to speak. It is your duty.

Everyone who cares about Israel’s future must understand that what is at stake is not only lives but also the very idea of Israel itself. If we continue on this path and take permanent control over Gaza, nothing will remain of the fragile vision of a liberal democracy that once defined this state. Under a reckless nationalist-populist government that denies the limits of its own power, Israel has no sustainable future. Everyone who loves Israel, a country that once knew how to survive the impossible, must do all in their power to steer us away from this collision course.

Public refusal of military service is an almost unthinkable act in Israeli society, given the central place of the army in our national identity and how it shapes who we are as individuals. But my belief is basic to any democracy: Military power is an important tool, but a dangerous one. It is meant to serve political goals, not replace them. The moment force becomes an end in itself, it brings only destruction.

The plan to reoccupy Gaza City is not a measured military move but a symptom of an addiction to occupation by a government that knows only how to destroy, not build.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement last week about returning the Israeli team to the negotiating table was part of a familiar pattern. Every time public protest intensifies, he declares progress or a return to talks — only to let the process collapse again. The real question is why Israel ever leaves the table in the first place. Why are we being led instead of leading?

The Israeli government keeps selling the public an empty goal — “total victory” — as if it were strategy rather than marketing. Anyone with open eyes knows it is a lie. Hamas as a governing or military organization has long been defeated; I bet every senior security official knows this. Most Israelis, among them many active-duty soldiers, oppose this reckless course — including the I.D.F. chief of staff, who has openly voiced his opposition to reoccupying Gaza.

It is clear to all that this war will end with a deal. Every delay brings more casualties, more likelihood that hostages will not return alive and further erosion of Israel’s position with mediators and international partners.

Against this populism, against a government without a moral or political mandate to lead Israel, only public protest — especially by military reservists — can help force a change of course. Moments of national crisis have given rise to refusal movements that ultimately helped push societies to confront disastrous policies. They demonstrate that only those willing to pay a personal price to expose the lie can truly fight for the truth. It happened before in Israel, during the 1982 Lebanon war and the 2000-5 second intifada, and in the United States during the Vietnam War. Ministers pay no price. We, the soldiers, and so many others, do pay.

I am a Zionist. Israel has a right to repel its antagonists. I am not a pacifist and do not regret fighting. But precisely for that reason, I now understand this: To be brave today means to stop, to say, “No more.” With over 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead, according to Gazan health authorities, and growing starvation in the territory, with Israeli hostages languishing for nearly two years, this war has crossed every boundary. There is no longer any goal worth achieving by prolonging the war.

Every Zionist who believes in a Jewish and democratic state, every citizen who believes in the values for which we went to fight, must grasp that the responsibility is in our hands. Now is the time to say no to cooperation. No to silent consent. Refusing to serve is not betrayal of the state. It is the only way to save it.

(Mr. Vilk is a reserve captain in the Israel Defense Forces and a member of Soldiers for the Hostages, an organization of I.D.F. veterans who served in Gaza and are refusing to return. He lives in Tel Aviv.)

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THEY’RE LYING ABOUT VENEZUELA WHILE MOVING WAR MACHINERY INTO PLACE

by Caitlin Johnstone

As if we didn’t have enough ugliness in the world right now, Trump has deployed warships near Venezuela’s coast, prompting Caracas to ready drone and naval patrols for conflict.

In an article titled “Inside Trump’s gunboat diplomacy with Venezuela,” Axios’ Marc Caputo writes that “The U.S. has never been closer to armed conflict with Venezuela, with a fully loaded U.S. flotilla sitting off its coast and dictator Nicolás Maduro living under a $50 million bounty.”

“President Trump ordered seven warships carrying 4,500 personnel — including three guided-missile destroyers and at least one attack submarine — to the waters off Venezuela,” Caputo writes. “Officially, they’re there to combat drug trafficking. But Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt leaned into the ambiguity of the mission on Thursday, noting that the U.S. considers Maduro the ‘fugitive head of [a] drug cartel’ and not Venezuela’s legitimate president.”

The US personnel reportedly include some 2,200 Marines.

“This could be Noriega part 2,” an unnamed official in the Trump administration told Axios, saying that “Maduro should be shitting bricks.”

So they’re not even disguising the fact that Trump is at least contemplating some kind of direct military strike on Caracas. Drugs are the official-official reason for the deployment, but the unofficial-official reason that’s being freely leaked to the press is to remove the leader of a sovereign state.

It’s probably worth noting that Trump-aligned pundits like Alex Jones have been busy manufacturing consent for regime change intervention in Venezuela.

“I don’t like any of these wars,” Jones said recently on whatever his show is called now. “But if you look at US doctrine and wars that we fought that were right, it’s in Latin America, this is our sandbox. And Venezuela is a communist dictatorship with the biggest oil reserves per square foot in the world, their people are absolute slaves, and I don’t like regime change, but they’re manipulating our elections, they’re flooding us with Fentanyl, and if there were surgical strikes to take out the communists there would be an uprising and they could have elections, and it would be a good thing.”

Jones could have stopped at “communist” and “oil reserves”. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves of any country on the planet, and is not aligned with the capitalist western empire that is loosely centralized around Washington DC. Any reasons given for US regime change intervention beyond this should be read as excuses.

Whenever the US war machine moves its crosshairs to a different target I always get people telling me “No no Caitlin, THIS time the Evil Bad Guy really DOES need to be regime changed! THIS time our government and media are telling us the TRUTH!”

And it’s always so stupid, because it’s just the same rehashed lies over and over again. The empire takes whatever actions will help it to dominate our planet and its resources to a greater extent than it already does, and then it makes up justifications for those actions.

They’ll say they’re doing it for humanitarian reasons while ignoring the humanitarian abuses of empire-aligned nations. They’ll say they’re doing it to stop drug abuse while ignoring all the evidence regarding the actual causes of drug abuse, even as Maduro sends 15,000 troops to the Colombian border to help fight drug trafficking. They’ll say they’re doing it to stop interference in US affairs while letting US-aligned nations like Israel interfere in US politics at will.

They’re just lying. The US empire lies about all its acts of war. Trump tried to orchestrate a regime change in Venezuela the last time he was in office, and he’s doing it again for the exact same reasons. It’s an oil-rich nation that refuses to bow to the dictates of Washington, and all the worst warmongers in the imperial swamp are eagerly pushing to absorb it into the folds of the empire.

That’s all we are looking at here, and anyone who says otherwise is lying.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

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