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DRIER AND WARMER weather today, before a cool-down on Wednesday. A series of large swell will bring dangerous breaking waves along the west and northwest facing beaches this week, as well as sneaker waves risk. Confidences remain high for a moderate Atmospheric River (AR) impacting Northern California Friday into the weekend, bringing periods of heavy rainfall, high-elevation heavy snow, and strong south winds. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Clear skies & 46F this Tuesday morning on the coast. Sunny today, partly cloudy tomorrow then a bit cloudier on Thursday. Our Friday rain arrival has been pushed back to later in the day then lasting more into Sunday currently. Obviously still developing this forecast.
DOUG JOHNSON (Philo Potter):
If you would like to make a donation and cannot come to Pepperwood Pottery in person, simply mail a check or money order directly and payable to: Terese Brendlen P.O. Box 13, Boonville, CA 95415. And thank you in advance for your consideration.
CELEBRATING 70 YEARS OF SERVICE
by Terry Sites
Almost 300 Anderson Valley residents gathered at the invitation of the Anderson Valley Fire Department and Ambulance to celebrate their 70 years of official service on Sunday. A look around the crowd revealed the usual hard-working community members who, through their own service, deeply appreciate the service of others.
The large smiling group enjoyed each other’s company, happy to applaud the firefighters and the first responders for their decades of selfless service.
The first beer was free with a handsome souvenir glass given to all attendees. For a $25 donation a good looking hat was for sale.
The weather could not have been better, one of those beautiful Indian summer days that feel like paradise.
The Brewery provided the perfect place to hold the event. Music was provided by Sarah Larkin and friends. A wonderful BBQ with ribs, chicken and hot dogs, coleslaw and beans was was served. The new Reach helicopter landed on the disk golf course and the kids wanted to know all about it and asked many questions. The medics and crew enjoyed answering their questions.
When people arrived they were given two tickets, one for beer and one for food, plus a blue wrist band and sourvenir glass. The table outside was covered with photos of past groups of valley fire volunteers and of accidents attended by the Valley’s volunteer first responders. At the end of the display was a big rubber boot for donations.
Everyone had fun catching up on local events and chatting with their neighbors. The helicopter created quite the dust storm when it took off. Lots of excitement. And a good time was had by all.
Anderson Valley Fire Department: 70 Years Of Service
This is the “Legacy of Commitment” speech delivered by Anderson Valley `Fire Chief Andres Avila at the 70th Anniversary party of the Anderson Valley Fire Department and Ambulance Service held on October 18th, 2025 at the Anderson Valley Brewery in Boonville. Andres emphasizes that he intentionally has not named any individuals as it is the group effort — what they can do together really matters.
”Our Unique Story:
70 Years Ago, the Anderson Valley Ambulance Service and Fire department started with the humble beginnings. Not a corporation, but as a commitment to the people of this valley. In 1955 it was simply about neighbors protecting neighbors and logging outfits protecting their own!
The Journey: We have grown alongside the Valley. We have transitioned from rudimentary equipment to the modern apparatus we rely on today.
Our constant challenge: is keeping a volunteer force highly trained and equipped while serving a large, rural, and often rugged area with increasing call volume.
Success Achieved: Nonetheless, we have successfully answered the call for seven decades, proving the heart of this department and the deep commitment to this community.
About our souvenir Beer Glass Logo:
On the Anderson Valley Fire Department Badge:
The shape of a shield represents responsibility for the Protection of our community.
The gold fringe signifies “Honorable Enrichment.”
The blue represents the EMS and ambulance portion of our department.
The red is the FIRE portion of our department.
The Florian Cross - represents courage, sacrifice and the protection firefighters provide. Our established date of 1955 is referenced along with our three primary services: FIRE, EMS, and RESCUE.
And, our historical logo was kept at the center of our patch to honor our history and the community it represents.
Our Recent Milestones- Examples of some recent accomplishments are:
Wildfire Resilience: Overcame adverse and challenging fire seasons such as the 2008 lightning series.
Training Excellence: Highlighting the dedication of our members who commit hundreds of hours to maintain EMT certifications, rescue skills, and structural firefighting proficiency.
Maintaining Services during the pandemic
Battled Many Structure Fires: including the large Mannix Building Fire of 1997 and the Lodge Fire Complex of 2019.
Built New Infrastructure: over many decades, we have completed new ambulance quarters at the Health Center and several fire stations located up and down the valley.
Ambulance and Fire Department Merger: July 2017 we successfully combined the two agencies into one cohesive department.
- Our People are the Heart of the Department!
Volunteers (Past & Present): The true engine of AVFD has always been the volunteer commitment. They have spent the countless late nights, they have missed dinners, went to work fatigued from a night with little to no sleep, they have battled the heat, cold and the rain, and face many difficult situations.
Any first responder can tell you “Serving those you know can be emotionally difficult!”
First responders carry may difficult memories but continue to serve others!
Volunteer Ambulance Shifts: Ambulance EMTs regularly cover 12-hour shifts, unpaid!
- Thanks to Our Community Partners
The Anderson Valley Community: I Express profound gratitude. We continually receive letters and comments reflecting your appreciation for our crews!
Mutual Aid Partners: Thank the neighboring fire departments, REACH and CALFIRE (Boonville Station) that stand with AVFD during large incidents. We are stronger together.
Families & Local Businesses: Thank the employers and families who allow volunteers to drop everything and leave work/home when the tones drop.
AV Volunteer Firefighters Association - bring us dinners, provide gear and general support! And parties like this one today!
AVFD Values
Our Mission Statement: The Anderson Valley Fire Department is a longstanding local community organization committed to preserving life and property by delivering proficient fire suppression, rescue, prevention and emergency medical services. Together, driven by duty and passion, we commit our skills, knowledge and time to serve our residents and visitors during their time of need.
(Nine) Core Commitments: Teamwork, Safety, Respect, Stability, Dedication, Outreach, Adaptability, Support and….. Stewardship: “Continue providing emergency services with the pride and professionalism of those who came before us and those who will follow”
Many retirees are in the crowd today who contributed to this core commitment
Those at the helm today hold this responsibility!
And we expect that that those who come after us to carry torch will also understand this honor for the next 70 years!
Enjoy your time today! Tell stories, enjoy the good company, and the music! But mostly, be proud of the excellent fire department that we have serving this valley.
(additional photos courtesy KB)
JUVENILES, GUNS & BOOZE: Disaster averted.
On Thursday, October 16, 2025 at approximately 10:41pm, the Ukiah Police Department received a call for service from a male victim who resided in an apartment complex located in the 700 block of South Dora Street. The victim reported that he overheard two juveniles in a verbal argument outside of the apartment complex near South Dora Street. The victim attempted to interject himself and de-escalate the argument between a juvenile male and juvenile female. The male juvenile reportedly produced a pistol from his waist band area, chambered a round and pointed the firearm at the victim. The male and female then fled the scene southbound on South Dora Street on foot.
The juvenile male suspect was described as an Hispanic male and last seen wearing a white colored hooded sweatshirt. The firearm was described as being possibly black with a silver barrel.
UPD officers arrived on scene and began checking the area. One officer began checking the area of Yokayo Elementary School and located both the male and female attempting to hide on the north side of the school. The officer observed that the male juvenile was now wearing a black t-shirt but also observed a white hooded sweatshirt on the ground nearby. The officer was able to detain both juveniles without incident.
The male juvenile was positively identified and found to be on Mendocino County Juvenile Probation. The female juvenile was also identified and found to be on Mendocino County Juvenile Probation. The female juvenile was also found to have a felony arrest warrant for vehicle theft out of Mendocino County.
UPD Officers conducted a search of the area where the male juvenile was hiding. Officers located a handgun a few feet away from where the juvenile was hiding, over a fence and inside a Ukiah resident’s backyard. UPD Officers recovered the firearm and found it to be loaded with a round in the chamber. The firearm itself was an unregistered and un-serialized firearm, commonly referred to as a “Ghost gun.” Officers also located alcohol in the area, presumably discarded by the juveniles.
As the male juvenile was being escorted to a UPD patrol vehicle, he broke free from the officer’s grasp and began to flee. After a short foot pursuit, officers were able to apprehend the juvenile.
Both juveniles were eventually transported to the Mendocino County Juvenile Hall where they were booked and lodged on charges of Brandishing, Unregistered firearm, loaded firearm in public, minor with firearm, concealing evidence, public intoxication, outstanding warrant, juvenile probation violation and resisting.
NO KINGS DRAWS BIG CROWD IN BOONVILLE
MARY GIBBS DELANEY
In Remembrance of Mary Gibbs Delaney, October 14, 1947 to October 7, 2025
Mary was born in Palo Alto, CA to her parents Owen S. Gibbs and Frances J. Gibbs.
She grew up in Ladera, CA, a community in the hills near Palo Alto and graduated from Woodside High School in Woodside, CA. She went to Pitzer College in Claremont, CA and earned a bachelors degree. Mary went back to college in the extension program in Ukiah through Sacramento State University. She graduated in 1987, earning a MSW degree and LCSW license. She opened a private practice in Willits and Ukiah.
Mary was always an avid outdoors woman who lived in Colorado in the early ‘70s and joined an Outward Bound Master Class in outdoor eduction with teens. She later moved to Vermont living the bohemian lifestyle in the 70s with her partner, Jerry Traum. They moved to California in their VW bus and lived in Willits where their son, Michael Traum, was born.
Mary stayed in Willits when she and Jerry amicably split-up. Jerry was very active in Mike’s life. He later provided a home and four year sailing adventure to see the world.
Mary's father believed in the Co-op movement. He was one of the founders of the Palo Alto Co-op and started the Co-op insurance agency which he ran during Mary's youth. The Red Circle Truck Store was a food distribution co-op in Covelo in the late 70s. They needed an office manager so it was an easy step for Mary to help and fill the job in the early ’80s.
Mary and Seth Delaney met at the Red Circle Truck Store, but it was a decade before they were married in 1988 and lived in Ukiah. They parted ways in the late ‘90s, she moved once again to Willits, continued her practice and retired on May 15, 2024.
Mary was instrumental in forming the WWW, the Wild Willits Women, a backpacking group, in 1988. “Being out in the mountains, in nature, along mountain streams, amidst wildflowers, under the stars, swimming in snow melt lakes, hanging over edges of mountain tops, these were Mary's sweet spots, her places of sacred worship,” a quote from another long-time friend and founding member.
Mary had other passions. For decades he was a tenor in Emandal Chorale, sometimes being one of two tenors carrying the tune. She was part of the Mendocino Collage Masterworks Coral which performed with an orchestra and she sang, with great joy, in the Mendocino Music Festival performances. Her last chorus was with Comerada in Willits before she moved to Holy Spirit Care Home in Ukiah in September, 2024.
Mary explored many other groups. The Women’s Support Group stuck with her and three others, for 27 years.
Mary passed on to another adventure, comfortably and peacefully at Holy Spirit Care Home in Ukiah soon after a long-time friend sat with her.
“She passed in the early morning hours at the very peak of the Supermoon in her birth month. Good timing, Mary,” Wrote another dear friend.
Mary was the mother of Michael Traum (deceased) and Allan Katz, Dallas Texas.
She is survived by her brothers James Gibbs, Evanston, IL and David Gibbs, Cedar Park, TX, her sister Carol Tenter, Bolinas, CA, her son Allan Katz, Dallas, TX, Jerry Traum of Red Bluff, CA, the father of their deceased son, Michael Traum, and former husband, Seth Delaney, CalVet Home, Yountville, CA, as well as her dear friends and former clients.
At this time there are no memorials planned.
LOCAL EVENTS (this week)
REPORT FROM A SMALL FARM IN BOONVILLE
There are a number of ways in which we sell what we harvest and produce. One of them has been a boon to us as small farmers.
The Mendo/Lake Food Hub is a Mendocino based organization with which we began participating nearly two years ago. It is partially funded by CDFA (CA Dept of Food and Agriculture), with Federal and local non-profit money in the mix. The idea for its creation was to help small farms reach with their fresh harvests people in localized areas. Our Hub covers the vast rural area of both Mendocino and Lake counties. Last year it was delivering to individuals in the counties living up endless dirt roads. Now there are specific pick up and delivery points. Cutbacks by the federal government may have been the impetus for this change.
On Sunday night we, the farmers, have to list our sales items…their names, price per pound or bunch, amounts, a descriptor if needed/wanted, and a picture on the website for sale. On Monday the site goes live and alerts everyone in both counties interested in shopping to what's available for the next two days. Shopping ends on Tuesday night and on Wednesday early morning we receive an email invoice telling us what we need to deliver to our local drop spot (3 miles away in our case).
The vegetables and fruits in the picture above are some of what we've delivered to our Hub drop point over this year. They in turn deliver to schools, food banks and individuals. The coordination and work involved is enormous but so are the benefits. Most of the land in the two counties is mountainous and heavily wooded and most of the flat farmland in both counties is taken up by vineyards, considered a more viable business. (No longer necessarily true). Farming is a secondary (or tertiary) land use and not honored in any major way.
But, REMEMBER, anything one ingests is a drug, so it pays to eat well. (Thank you for your attention to this matter (;>))
The Hub provides access to the good foods in our counties and a living for the farmers who provide it.
We hope you all enjoyed your rallies as much as we. Keep resisting and have a happy fall.
PS: From ‘JAMES,’ by Percival Everett, 2024, a riff on Huck Finn from Jim's perspective…
“That seems right awful.”
”I s'pose it do. But dey was stealin' from dem folks. Tellin' lies lak dey was. He weren't neber no pirate.”
”Yes, but them people liked it, Jim. Did you see their faces? They had to know them was lies, but they wanted to believe. What do you make of that?”
”Folks be funny lak dat. Dey takes the lies dey want and throws away the truths dat scares 'em.”
— Nikki Auschnitt & Steve Krieg, Petit Teton Farm, Boonville
MARGARET PICKENS LINE DANCE TROOP
Recital at the meeting of the AV Village on Sunday, October 19 at the Senior Center.
(Terry Sites)
CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, October 20, 2025
MARISSA AYALA-ZEPEDA, 20, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
DEREK BARKLEY, 35, Willits. Domestic battery, domestic violence court order violation.
JOSE CABRERA-INFANTE, 42, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
NAYELLI JACOBO-SIERRAS, 23, Willits. Domestic battery.
JESSICA MAXFIELD, 33, Willits. Paraphernalia, false personation of another.
VICTORIA PARKS, 36, Willits. Vandalism.
DAMON SHORT, 47, Fortuna/Ukiah. Stolen property, controlled substance, resisting.
SOHUM WOMAN HAS CANCER AND NEEDS HELP
Many SoHum locals will remember Iva Coffelt from her years bartending at the Branding Iron or waiting tables at The Waterwheel. She was always quick with a wicked laugh. Now, Iva is facing a tough fight with cancer, and her daughter, Brandi Church*, is trying to raise money so she help be by her side.
Brandi shared that her mom has been undergoing chemotherapy and, while she’s strong, the treatments have been really hard. Iva now needs full-time care, and Brandi wants to be there for her, but she can’t afford to step away from work without help. Brandi wrote on her GoFundMe page.
We’ve kept this journey private until now, but the time has come to ask for help. Iva has been undergoing chemotherapy…She needs full-time care and I need to be by her side.
If you’ve ever been served a drink or a meal by Iva, you probably remember her warmth and humor and how hard she was willing to work. She gave laughter as easily as she gave service. Now, Brandi hopes the community that her mom grew up in can rally around Iva.
Anyone who’d like to help can contribute through the GoFundMe or donate directly:
CashApp: $BrandiChurch707
PayPal: @brandichurch13
Even if you can’t give, sharing the link would help.
*Please note that Brandi Church is the niece of the publisher of Redheaded Blackbelt.
(RedheadedBlackbelt/KymKemp.com)
NO ON CLIPPIES (HIPPIES WITH CLIPBOARDS)
Editor,
At the Nostalgia Days event in Novato earlier this month, I was approached six separate times by people collecting signatures for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit sales-tax initiative that is expected to be on the ballot in 2026. Each of them told me the petition was simply to “keep the SMART train running.” I think the truth is more nuanced: It is about extending a sales tax that funds a significant portion of SMART’s operating budget.
By using the citizen-initiative process and paying signature gatherers to qualify it for the ballot, state election rules state it can go before voters needing no more than a simple majority for approval. If SMART itself placed the measure on the ballot, it would require a two-thirds approval.
Based on what I saw, these signature gatherers weren’t local volunteers passionate about the issue; they appeared to be paid professionals. According to a report on KPBS, “In California, always a hotbed for voter initiatives, sponsors are paying up to $5.50 per signature.” That’s a lot of money. I think it explains why I was asked six times for mine at one local event.
We need to go back to the days when voters volunteered their time, set up card tables at the farmers market and engaged their neighbors in genuine conversations about local issues. When democracy starts looking more like a business transaction, it’s worth asking who really benefits.
Mary Stompe
Novato
SALMON REACH HEADWATERS FOR FIRST TIME IN A CENTURY AFTER CALIFORNIA DAM REMOVAL
by Kurtis Alexander
Salmon on the Klamath River have crossed a major threshold a year after four dams were removed along the California-Oregon border, with the fish reaching the river’s headwaters for the first time in more than a century.
Oregon wildlife officials said Friday that multiple salmon were observed in Upper Klamath Lake, as well as its major tributaries, which confirms the 300-mile migration of salmon from the Pacific Ocean in Northern California to their historical spawning grounds in southern Oregon.
The fish had been kept from going upriver by the now-demolished dams since the early 1900s. Concerns had persisted that two existing dams farther upstream would continue to hamper fish passage. However, at least a portion of this year’s fall run of chinook salmon is now known to have made it past these obstacles.
“It’s a true blessing,” said William Ray, Jr., chair of the Klamath Tribes, which detected salmon along their tribal lands on the lower Williamson River near the Oregon community of Chiloquin in the upper Klamath Basin earlier this month. “We haven’t had (salmon) here since 1909. It’s a time for us to heal and reflect on our families and leaders who fought so hard to get them here.”
The $500 million dam-removal project on the Klamath River, considered the largest in U.S. history, was done with the goal of restoring the vast Klamath watershed to its natural splendor. The return of salmon was the benchmark for success.
A handful of tribes in the region, all of which see salmon as sacred, led the decades-long push for the dam deconstruction. The owner of the hydroelectric facilities, Portland-based PacifiCorp, agreed to remove the dams because they were outdated and costing more to maintain than they were worth. The states of California and Oregon helped underwrite the effort.
The dams, and the reservoirs they impounded — three in California and one in Oregon — did not provide water supplies nor flood control. They did provide boating and other recreational activities.
Within weeks of completion of the dam removal last fall, chinook salmon were observed migrating through the footprints of the former hydroelectric facilities. Because of the turbid waters temporarily caused by the demolition and years of declining salmon numbers, it was unclear how much success the fish would have moving upriver.
Only last month was a salmon observed getting past the still-existing Keno Dam in Oregon, where questions had remained about whether fish could climb an old fish ladder there. On Oct. 6, another salmon was detected scaling the fish ladder at Link River Dam, the last of the river’s remaining dams.
In the following days, salmon were confirmed pushing across the nearly 30-mile-long Upper Klamath Lake to such tributaries as the Williamson and Sprague rivers.
“What we’re seeing now is incredibly encouraging and the result of strong collaboration among state and federal agencies, tribes and conservation partners who have all been working towards this moment for an incredibly long time,” said Mark Hereford, fisheries reintroduction project leader for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, in a statement.
The salmon population in the Klamath Basin is estimated to be less than a tenth of what it was historically. The hope is that this new access to ancestral waters will boost reproduction and ultimately fish numbers.
Efforts to restore the watershed saw a setback recently, with the Mid Klamath Watershed Council announcing that seven federal grants worth $2.1 million had been terminated by the Interior Department. Some of the money would have gone toward monitoring salmon and improving fish habitat in the basin.
(SF Chronicle)
MAYOR IS ON TRACK
Editor,
Many San Francisco residents believe that crime and homelessness are getting better in the city.
How do I know? I was called to jury duty this month and listened for two days as 18 potential jurors (representing a wide cross-section of the city) were asked what they thought of crime and homelessness in San Francisco.
To a person, they stated that things were getting better; some commented that they were much better. Mayor Daniel Lurie has done an amazing job in a short time.
National guard troops are not needed, nor are they welcome.
Jenna Olsen
San Francisco
I SURVIVED SAN FRANCISCO'S DRUG HELL BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH. The City's 'Zombie Apocalypse' Is Coming Sooner Than You Think
by James Reinl
A recovering drug addict who plummeted from middle-class father to homeless junkie on San Francisco's streets has joined the debate over whether Donald Trump should send in the National Guard.
Tom Wolf, a 55-year-old registered Democrat and anti-drug advocate, waded into the firestorm involving tech titans Elon Musk and Marc Benioff over the city's collapse under the weight of drugs, crime and homelessness.
Against the backdrop of Trump deploying troops to other liberal-run cities - including Washington, DC, Chicago and Portland - Salesforce CEO Benioff had initially said he would welcome federal forces to help San Francisco police restore order.
He later walked back the comment after receiving fierce backlash.
Musk, who has long railed against what he calls San Francisco's 'zombie apocalypse,' went further. He urged the deployment of the National Guard, saying the city had become unlivable and had driven his company X out of its headquarters.
Now Wolf, the West Coast director for the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, has broken his silence. He offered the Daily Mail his nuanced but explosive take.
While he opposes Trump sending troops, warning it would cause chaos in a city already on edge, Wolf said Benioff 'isn't completely wrong' about the scale of the public safety crisis.
'We have a massive drug crisis in the city, even more so than a homeless crisis,' Wolf told the Daily Mail.
'And nobody seems to want to be honest and admit that, but that's the real problem here.'
Wolf said the true drivers of San Francisco's collapse are open-air drug markets and an organized, cartel-backed network of dealers who operate with near impunity.
At any given time, about 1,000 dealers are working the city's streets - many cycling in from Oakland in shifts, he said.
The result is a city where the drug economy runs 24/7 and law enforcement can't keep up.
According to city data, San Francisco recorded 806 fatal overdoses last year - a record high.
Officials estimate around 8,300 people are homeless, though not all are addicted to drugs.
Instead of deploying the National Guard, Wolf wants to expand federal law enforcement programs like Operation Overdrive, a 2023 initiative that allows US agencies to help local police dismantle drug networks.
He wants the program tripled or quadrupled in scope - adding more DEA agents, FBI support and even Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) involvement for undocumented dealers.
'If San Francisco wants to keep Trump and the National Guard out of the city, they need to do whatever they can to work with the feds,' Wolf told the Daily Mail.
'Even if it's behind the scenes.'
He argued that only a coordinated crackdown - not symbolic gestures - will stop the flow of narcotics and restore safety.
Still, critics of tougher policing say more arrests won't fix the underlying addiction crisis, claiming it will only drive the problem further underground.
President Trump in an interview on Sunday underscored his plan to send federal troops to San Francisco.
'We’re going to go to San Francisco — the difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco,' Trump told Fox News.
'San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world. And then 15 years ago it went wrong, it went woke,” he said. He added that, “We’re going to make it great.'
San Francisco's Mayor Daniel Lurie has publicly rejected the idea of deploying federal troops, saying that the city is beating crime and on track for a 70-year low in homicides.
Legal experts note that federal troops can't deploy to California without Governor Gavin Newsom's approval - unless Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, an extraordinary step last used during nationwide unrest in 2020.
Wolf, who is seven years sober after surviving addiction and homelessness, saved his harshest criticism for San Francisco's courts.
He claimed that police repeatedly arrest the same dealers, only to see them released by what he called 'activist judges' under mental health diversion programs meant for addicts, not organized traffickers.
'They've all been arrested multiple times,' Wolf claimed.
'I knew dealers on the street that were carrying seven felony convictions and were still on the street selling drugs.'
One of those judges, he said, is former public defender and city supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, who now sits on the bench.
Sandoval, who did not answer the Daily Mail's request for comment, has also faced criticism from District Attorney Brooke Jenkins for lenient rulings.
Wolf said it has created a revolving door of arrests and releases that have 'brought the city to its knees.'
Wolf's story mirrors the devastation he now fights to stop.
Before he became an addict, Wolf was a middle-class man with a city job. In 2015, he had foot surgery and was prescribed oxycodone.
Within months, Wolf was addicted to the medication and was taking 560 milligrams a day, eventually switching to heroin and fentanyl when he couldn't afford pills.
His wife kicked him out and filed a restraining order to keep him away from their children.
Wolf was homeless for six months in the Tenderloin neighborhood, was arrested six times, and finally sobered up after three months in jail, choosing treatment over another stint behind bars.
Now, he is back with his family and works as a national recovery advocate.
'I went from having a decent job to being a homeless drug addict on the street, not being able to see my wife and kids for a couple of years,' he told the Daily Mail.
'My life is good now. Being clean and sober - that's the key.'
Wolf calls Mayor Lurie 'the best mayor we've had in a couple of decades,' but said the problem lies with state laws, appointed judges and out-of-touch legislators.
He warns that progressive policies on crime and homelessness have gone too far.
'What the progressives are doing around crime and homelessness is insane, and it has to stop,' he told the Daily Mail.
Still, Wolf's message is clear: If San Francisco doesn't reclaim control, Trump will - on his terms.
'We have compassion, but it only works if we have accountability too,' he said.
For a man who has lived on both sides of San Francisco's crisis, it is a warning worth heeding.
Whether through stricter enforcement or expanded treatment, Wolf says something needs to change. And few dispute the stakes.
For now, San Francisco remains a testing ground for how America confronts addiction - and whether compassion and control can finally coexist.
(DailyMail.com)
A reader writes: People would probably find this interesting.
LONG-TERM CALIF. STUDY FINDS SURPRISING LINK BETWEEN BIRDS AND FIRES
by Anna FitzGerald Guth
Across several national parks in the Sierra Nevada, researchers found that the populations of some bird species grew rapidly after fires and remained higher even decades later.
Scientists already knew that some bird species could thrive in burn scars, dubbing them “post-fire specialists.” But a new study, published Oct. 9 in the journal Fire Ecology, provided a rare look at the longer-term impacts of fires on a group of common bird species.
The researchers only investigated low- to moderate-intensity burns, such as those associated with prescribed fire. Previous research suggests high-intensity megafires, fueled by climate change and fire suppression, can threaten birds.
“It was really exciting to us to see how rapid and how enduring the response of birds was to these fires in these national parks,” Chris Ray, a research ecologist for the Petaluma-based nonprofit, the Institute for Bird Populations, and the study’s lead author, told SFGATE. “For 41 of the 42 species we looked at, population density actually increased a bit after low to moderate severity fires.”…
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/what-happens-birds-california-fire-21104875.php
TODAY’S GOP NEEDS A NEW PACHYDERM
Editor,
The Republican Party may want to trade in the elephant mascot it has used for so many years. In my opinion, whoever said an elephant never forgets certainly wasn’t thinking about the modern GOP.
Not long ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham promised he’d never support filling a Supreme Court seat during a president’s final year — “use my words against me,” he challenged. Four years later, those words vanished when “politics” apparently required him to help confirm President Donald Trump’s nomination right before the 2020 election.
From my perspective, the party that calls itself fiscally conservative has overseen some of the nation’s largest debt increases. Congressional Budget Office data show deficits ballooned under both parties, but especially under recent Republican administrations. Yet, it appears to me that many party officials seem to make sure that the blame always falls elsewhere.
Some representatives of the “law and order” party that once condemned the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 now appear to excuse or glorify its participants. Many in the party that once championed moral integrity now seemingly look away from its leader’s felony convictions and appear to praise strongmen abroad.
Even election integrity looks to be situational in the Republican Party: Gerrymandering is seemingly OK when it helps the GOP, but not when it doesn’t.
I think leaders in the Republican Party are being hypocritical. For a movement that so often appears to wallow in contradiction, perhaps a hippopotamus mascot would be a more fitting pachyderm.
I believe America needs a conservative movement that remembers its roots: fiscal responsibility, moral consistency and respect for democracy. The GOP once stood for those things. It still could — if it chooses to remember.
Joe Meylan,
San Rafael
“HE SMILED UNDERSTANDINGLY-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you that it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –
We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –
Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –
We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
— Emily Dickinson (c.1863)
“THE CAMERA EYE (38) sealed signed and delivered all over Tours you can smell lindens in bloom it’s hot my uniform sticks the OD chafes me under the chin only four days ago AWOL crawling under the freight cars at the station of St. Pierre-des-Corps waiting in the buvette for the MP on guard to look away from the door so’s I could slink out with a cigarette (and my heart) in my mouth then in a tiny box of a hotel room changing the date on that old movement order but today my discharge sealed signed and delivered sends off sparks in my pocket like a romancandle I walk past the headquarters of the SOS Hay sojer your tunic’s unbuttoned (f—k you buddy) and down the lindenshaded street to the bathhouse that has a court with flowers in the middle of it the hot water gushes green out of brass swanheads into the whitemetal tub I strip myself naked soap myself all over with the sour pink soap slide into the warm deepgreen tub through the white curtain in the window a finger of afternoon sunlight lengthens on the ceiling towel’s dry and warm smells of steam in the suitcase I’ve got a suit of civvies I borrowed from a fellow I know the buck private in the rear rank of Uncle Sam’s Medical Corps (serial number . . . never could remember the number anyway I dropped it in the Loire) goes down the drain with a gurgle and hiss and having amply tipped and gotten the eye from the fat woman who swept up the towels I step out into the lindensmell of a July afternoon and stroll up to the café where at the little tables outside only officers may set their whipcord behinds and order a drink of cognac unservable to those in uniform while waiting for the train to Paris and sit down firmly in long pants in the iron chair an anonymous civilian”
― John Dos Passos, 1919
LADY OF SPAIN
Lady of Spain, I adore you
Right from the night I first saw you
My heart has been yearning for you
What else could any heart do?
Lady of Spain, I'm appealing
Why should my lips be concealing
All that my eyes are revealing?
Lady of Spain, I love you
Night in Madrid, blue and tender
Spanish moon makes silver splendor
Music throbbing, plaintive sobbing notes of a guitar
While ardent caballeros serenade:
Lady of Spain, I adore you
Right from the night I first saw you
My heart has been yearning for you
What else could any heart do?
Lady of Spain, I'm appealing
Why should my lips be concealing
All that my eyes are revealing?
Lady of Spain, I love you
— lyrics by Erell Reaves (1931)
POLITICAL BULLYING, INTIMIDATION AND INTERNET ANONYMITY INTENSIFY
by Ralph Nader
Professor Emeritus Roddey Reid could have retired from the University of California San Diego to a life of deserved leisure. Instead, he has just published a Handbook on Political Intimidation/Bullying, which is increasingly dominating government, business, and civil society.
A guest this week on my radio show and podcast, Professor Reid, was followed by Professor of Law Robert Fellmeth from the University of San Diego a leading critic of unbridled anonymous speech fostered by Silicon Valley companies to boost profits.
Reid argues, Newt Gingrich launched this political onslaught in 1994 when he took over the GOP, led the Republicans to victory and became House Speaker. “To be clear,” Reid continues, “political intimidation and public bullying are forms of psychological and physical political violence…meant to injure, humiliate, isolate, coerce, and even destroy opponents and entire communities.” These interviews should spark a civic rebellion.
The political intimidation operates in both open sight – from the belligerent bully-in-chief Trump, and in the shadows with serious anonymous threats to members of Congress, judges, and their families. Combined, this viciousness has meant the difference in razor-thin votes in Congress. For example, the violent-talking, unfit Secretary of Defense being confirmed by the Senate. Other Trump nominees, who are also staggeringly inexperienced, totally obeisant to Trump’s wrecking of America in daily violation of the Constitution and federal laws, have also squeaked through Senate confirmation votes.
Reid is systemic and illustrative in his fast-paced book titled “Confronting Political Intimidation and Bullying” – privately published to make it very up to date through August 2025. In his last chapter, he conveys thirteen strategies for citizens to use locally in response.
Cumulatively, this mass “call-out” could descend upon Congress and state legislatures for a more systemic regulatory agenda.
Such legislative activity in Sacramento, California is already taking place to deal with the central delivery mode of such bullying—ANONYMITY— according to Professor Fellmeth. A long-time advocate of curbing the dangers of Internet anonymity, including to children. Fellmeth urges a decisive ban on most anonymous assaults, leaving open some exceptions for whistle-blowers and others with a need to protect their privacy and self-defense. To accomplish this selectivity has to involve regulation of the Silicon Valley profiteers and electric child molesters, led by the duplicitous Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of META. His major declared mission is to drive people from reality and live their lives in his virtual reality. A quick safeguard is to require anonymous speech to be pursued by law enforcement when it embodies physical threats and deliberate psychological torture. Naming and prosecuting the perpetrator will serve as deterrent to other potential anonymous predators.
Moreover, Fellmeth, who has written several articles on AI’s rapidly intensifying damage to youngsters, wants a regulation mandating identifying AI creations as such to forewarn the public. (See Professor Fellmeth’s article: AI is already harming our children. Are California lawmakers going to do something?January 30, 2025).
Bullies, starting with super-bully Trump, need to “get some of their own medicine.” That means those attacked with nicknames need to counter with nicknames, rebutting phony allegations and revealing the brutal impacts of their bullying on innocent people and families in both Red and Blue States by the vicious and cruel Trumpsters. Otherwise, the “Big Lies” without rebuttals become soliloquies, and therefore believable to millions of people and influence millions of susceptible voters. (See our prescient and useable book Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All.)
Political bullies focus on the weak, vulnerable and powerless. You don’t see Trump going after and cutting programs servicing big-time corporate welfare kings through subsidies, handouts, giveaways and bailouts in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
His latest vindictive cuts – some boomeranging against his own desired policies – were outlined in a recent Washington Postfeature by lead reporter, Hannah Natanson. His latest “firings” —suspended by a federal district judge in California – targeted services for students with disabilities, inspectors who check the defects of federal housing and employees who help regulate hazardous waste and pollution, according to the Post. Frothing at the mouth, Trump called those fired “people that the Democrats want,” as if conservative Trump voters and their families want to breath and otherwise be exposed to dangerous pollutants. The same flailing dismissals will strike what the Post described “as vulnerable Americans – school children, low-income families, homeless people and senior citizens.” Trump is steered by the seriously hateful Russell Vought, the White House Budget chief and preparer of the Heritage Foundation’s notorious Project 2025 blueprint for Trump’s fascist dictatorship. It doesn’t matter that these and previous firings, without cause, are illegal in numerous ways. After all, didn’t Trump tell you in July 2019 that “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as President”?
Here is an illustration of the institutionally insane wielding of the axe by indiscriminate haters that is hurting Trump voters and families alongside their Democratic counterparts. Trump and Vought want to layoff “workers with top secret clearance responsible for monitoring and protecting the United States from biological, chemical and nuclear threats.” Earlier Trump/Vought drastically cut federal health scientists, safety regulators and critical benefit dispensers in the tens of thousands.
Another instance of mindlessly cutting federal support for slammed hard-pressed community colleges, the recipient of lavish praise by Trump over the years for their job training curricula.
He is betraying Trump voters, with regular treachery! It is time for the people to say, “Donald Trump, you are fired.”
FEMA WORKERS IMPROPERLY COLLECTED DATA ABOUT POLITICS OF DISASTER VICTIMS
by Matt Taibbi
Last November 8th, on the Saturday after Election Day, one of the more bizarre post-scripts to Donald Trump’s re-election emerged in the form of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) decision to sideline one official accused of telling FEMA workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” while canvassing for victims of Hurricane Milton in Florida. The Daily Wire spoke to multiple FEMA officials who produced screenshots of entries like “Trump sign, no contact per leadership”:
The most painful confirmation, however, came from then-FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who testified after the election that the episode was an “isolated incident,” as well as “unacceptable” and “heartbreaking,” suggesting the problem was limited to one eventually-terminated Disaster Survivor Assistance crew leader named Marnei Washington, adding: “I do not believe that this employee’s actions are indicative of any widespread cultural problems at FEMA.”
Washington didn’t take the CYA maneuver lying down. She made a series of aggressive media appearances, saying repeatedly “my orders come from my superior” from above when instructing subordinates to avoid homes that made some FEMA workers “uncomfortable” by featuring Trump paraphernalia:
“The Democrats generally maintained that decisions to skip over houses featuring Trump signs or signs about guns were legit and safety-based. Republicans blasted FEMA workers for comparing Trump voters to “vicious dogs” and suggested instructions like “Per leadership no stop Trump flag,” and “Trump sign, no contact per leadership” were indicative of a wider problem.”
A year later, the Privacy Office of the Department of Homeland Security is releasing a review of that episode, the broader issue of using disaster relief work to collect political intelligence on voters, and the potentially withholding of benefits from some with the wrong beliefs.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new administration found more than just one “isolated incident,” describing violations of the Privacy Act of 1974, which with a few exceptions bars collection of information about First Amendment-protected speech, like political signage. Most tellingly, though, DHS investigators found — in a near-exact parallel to trends in pro-censorship programs — that a lot of the political controversy surrounding FEMA aid grew out of the vague way in which the agency’s Disaster Survivor Assistance Field Operations Guide was written. The Field Operations Guide instructed FEMA workers to “Remove yourself from the situation if you feel threatened” when dealing with “hostile” individuals, the only problem being, as the new report notes: “The Disaster Survivor Assistance Field Operations Guide does not define the term “hostile.’”
“The way the guide was written, FEMA employees had leeway to skip outreach to a house if its signs made them feel uncomfortable,” one Washington-based First Amendment lawyer put it last week.
“So it’s basically the same concept of a harm or distress standard we’re seeing in Europe with speech issues, where the emotional response of the observer is what matters legally, as opposed to a concrete rule.”
The DHS report doesn’t describe a huge number of instances, but does list examples of FEMA workers from various relief efforts taking down political information well before the incident that actually made the news. FEMA’s actions were “not limited to the Hurricane Milton disaster relief efforts in 2024,” and in fact, “FEMA impermissibly collected prohibited information at least dating back to the Hurricane Ida disaster in September 2021.”
Some examples cited: October, 2021: “Homeowner had sign stated, “this is Trump country.” September, 2021: “A lot of political flags, posters, etc. ‘Fuck Joe Biden,’ ‘MAGA 2024,’ ‘Joe Biden Sucks’ ‘Trump 2024.’ We do not recommend anyone visiting this location.”
November 2024: “There was a political flyer so I didn’t leave a FEMA brochure.” Neither Criswell nor Washington responded to requests for comment.
The DHS report lists several recommendations for changing procedures to make both political information-gathering and subjective aid delivery harder, but the problem the report identifies suggests a broader, hairier problem. Federal aid workers empowered to withhold relief based on what they consider “hostile” signage in either direction creates an opening for a federalized version of the old “walking-around-money” operation pioneered by ward-heelers in city elections, in which petty cash made it into the hands of one party’s potential voters. The number of incidents in the new DHS report don’t come close to suggesting an election-altering phenomenon (the most controversial instances came last year, but still totaled under 100 episodes), but as one official who worked on the report noted, the phenomenon still “really escalated in the last administration.”
The DC-based lawyer said the mere fact that FEMA aid can be politicized should worry members of both parties enough to do something about it.
“People hate the government enough as it is. If it’s known that disaster relief can be politicized and nobody fixes the problem, imagine how mad people will be one or two cycles from now.”
SLOUCHING TOWARDS PEACE
by James Kunstler
“Zelensky has been given a Russian ultimatum via Trump. Accept Russia terms or face total destruction.” —SiriusReport on “X”
Well, “No Kings” came and went. Inflatable animal costumes did a brisk business for one week. The old Boomers got a social space to act out their nostalgic re-visit to the Age of Aquarius. They resisted. . . something. (Mainly authority of any kind, a retarded adolescent fantasy.) And now it’s back to Rachel Maddow for further instructions. The Republic slogs on, albeit with a shut-down government.
Did you forget about Ukraine? Yes, a war is still going on there and it’s a weeping lesion on Western Civ, possibly leading to fatal sepsis. US neocons set the stage in 2014 with the Maidan color revolution as a wedge to wreck and then loot Russia. Then, for eight years, Ukraine harassed the Donbas with US-supplied missiles and artillery. Russia had enough of that in 2022 and ventured in to stop it. For “Joe Biden,” the war was a nice smokescreen to cover his long-running grift operations in Ukraine. The Euro club stupidly came along for the ride.
It was all a tragic and feckless waste. Mr. Trump wants to stop it, but Western Civ as a whole is in such a state of florid strategic disorder that he’s had to pretend the US supports Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky could not possibly carry on this mischief without US weapons and loads of US taxpayer cash. Still, the Russians advance implacably on-the-ground. They are going to “win” this war eventually — meaning, the US and Europe will lose — and everybody knows it.
It would be nice if France, Germany, and the UK were still stable, thriving, rational nations, but they are not. They have entered an arc of collapse, largely due to their own stupendously bad choices, and their leadership is insane. Macron, Merz, Starmer. . . these are the Three Stooges of our time, and Europe’s collapse has degenerated to morbid, masochistic slapstick as their factories shutter and the Jihadis go about raping their wives and daughters. Do you think that’s not happening?
Mr. Trump surely realizes he has to cut the US loose from this evil clown-show. That they are our NATO allies complicates things, yet, really, the Euro gang is impotent and NATO has become an irrelevant anachronism. They have no effective military mojo. Their economies are imploding. They have surrendered their culture to a savage cult. Their populations are demoralized, emasculated, in thrall to the menopausal viragos in their councils and ministries. They know full-well that Ukraine lies in Russia’s sphere-of-influence — a centuries-long reality — and that it is none of their business. Yet, Macron, Merz, and Starmer keep pushing the fantasy that Russia seeks to invade them, and so they must strike at Russia before that happens . . . all pure delusion.
You can suppose that Mr. Putin wants a negotiated peace rather than continuing the long grind on-the-ground, with all its casualties and expenditures. Such a negotiated peace really amounts to the US ceasing to support Zelensky’s war effort. Of course, such is the insanity of US political life, that many in our government pretend that we have a stake in Ukraine, and must retain some control of it.
Mr. Trump must know this is insane and is against the interests of the USA. He knows that Ukraine is historically in Russia’s sphere of influence — as Venezuela is in ours — and that the best outcome of this mess would be for Ukraine to return to its prior status as a harmless frontier between Russia and western Europe — as it had been since 1945 — looking to its humble business of growing wheat for export. We do not need Ukraine to be anybody’s problem, despite the insane yearnings of the neocons, the weapons manufacturers, and the reckless globalists of the EU, to make it everyone’s problem.
Hence, Mr. Trump’s dilemma: how to dissociate from this losing proposition and come out looking like a winner, saving Europe from becoming a smoldering ashtray, stanching the flow of US taxpayers’ money and US-made weapons into this black hole, and forging friendly relations with a Russia that is decades beyond being our ideological enemy? America and Russia’s interests are geopolitically aligned, though no one in the arena is willing to admit it. Russia has much more to worry about with China right at Siberia’s doorstep than with the USA, just as the USA has much more to worry about with China as it weaponizes A-I, moves into outer space, and casts a covetous eye on the resources of the USA, Australia, Africa, and its next-door-neighbor, Russia.
These are the matters that Presidents Trump and Putin must be touching on in those long, two-and-a-half-hour phone confabs they hold. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump must put on a vaudeville show for his US adversaries about maybe giving tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. . . no, maybe not doing that. . . and the rest of the song and dance to make it appear that we are kinda-sorta still on Ukraine’s side when the truth is we are not so much at all.
And so, the two presidents head for Budapest where — if the intel spooks of Euroland don’t try to bump them off there — they might come to the necessary agreement that the war will end because the US no longer supports it, not even the pretense of supporting it. President Viktor Orban of Hungary, who Mr. Trump respects, will be on hand for moral support. Expect some tough-talking mummery from DJT, just to throw the MSNBC lunatics off-balance. Rogue idiots such as Senators Blumenthal and Schiff will fume that “Trump lost Ukraine,” but the 50-plus percent of Americans who are not-insane will understand what actually happened.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Re-electing men like Schiff and Blumenthal is proof that half of US may be crazy; or if not crazy, then delusional, brainwashed, very dumb, and/or easily manipulated - and that is very scary. The next step is to ask why? Is it just a combination of political parties and the perversity of human nature, and if so how does this reflect on mankind’s achievements during the last, say, 250 years?
SHELLEY KRAMER:
I well remember it was the early '80s when 'feelings' first became a weapon.
Disrespect my feelings once, it's on you. Disrespect my feelings twice it's on me for not telling you the first time.
It took off and spread and one of the first tabu things to go were off-colored jokes and then any jokes at all.
It morphed into suppression of male voices and the expansion of female dominance because “feelings”. As a female I was left with telling jokes to guys and now I rarely do that because the reactions vary widely depending on the guy’s age.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2
Violence is treated with absolute abhorrence and condemnation, and the use of violence brings all of the opposing resources at their disposal to bear. And yet, for the community of men, it is the threat of violence that is the most important deterrent to bad behavior. The potential threat of violence is what is most effective as a deterrent for antisocial or criminal behaviors getting established in the community. Feminization removes this deterrent from the reach of men, thus placing them at an even greater disadvantage when it comes to the active management of society, or of organizations. And it can be argued that the removal of this threat does not improve society at all, rather it leaves society vulnerable, and it places actual violence, the willingness to use violence, in the hands of the criminals and antisocial types.
US POLITICS IS JUST NONSTOP FAKE REVOLUTIONS NOW
by Caitlin Johnstone
It’s so silly how American politics is just nonstop fake revolutions now.
Millions flooded the US streets for the “No Kings” protests over the weekend to oppose a monarchy which does not exist without making a single tangible demand. Power was not challenged in any meaningful way. The status quo wasn’t disrupted in the slightest. People held up some signs saying the president is orange and that if Kamala were president they would be at brunch, and then went home.
The whole thing was just one big pep rally for the Democratic Party, designed to accomplish nothing beyond getting American liberals excited about the prospect of someday voting for Gavin Newsom. A bunch of boomers showed up to dance around and hold signs and feel as though they are fighting the power in their feely bits, while drumming up support for the same status quo which gave rise to Trump in the first place.
You see the same fake revolutionary astroturf zeitgeist on the Republican side. American rightists are constantly pretending they’re fighting some kind of populist rebellion against an oppressive establishment even while their party controls every branch of the US government. They act like Trump is ending the wars and fighting the Deep State even as he stomps out free speech on behalf of Israel, rolls out a Palantir surveillance system, pours weapons into facilitating Israel’s genocidal atrocities, bombs Iran and Yemen, ramps up for war with Venezuela, and perpetuates the horrific proxy war in Ukraine.
It’s two plutocrat-owned warmongering imperialist parties whipping their respective bases into the mass delusion that they are participating in a heroic act of revolutionary defiance by voting Democrat or Republican. They get everyone fighting a fake revolution so that nobody thinks about fighting a real one.
It didn’t used to be this way, for the record. The US has been a murderous and tyrannical oligarchic bloodbath for its entire existence as a nation, but up until fairly recently its politics looked more or less like the politics of other western nations. Politicians had campaigns where they’d try to argue that they have the best policies, there’d be an election, and then they’d spend their time in office philandering and pretending to make themselves useful. There wasn’t this constant LARPing about how voting for one of the two mainstream parties is participating some kind of a courageous insurgency against monarchy or communism or the Deep State or whatever.
That’s changing because public discontent with the status quo is soaring to all-time highs as Americans get poorer and everything gets shittier. The establishment order is no longer accepted and people are starting to push for real change, so their outrage needs to be harnessed and corralled into politically safe directions.
Donald Trump’s entire political career has been all about this. He introduced a new WWE-style kayfabe theatrics into American politics where both Democrats and Republicans feel as though they are fighting the power in a very important and relevant way — Republicans because they believe Trump is a populist rebel and Democrats because they believe Trump is an unprecedented threat to freedom and democracy. Really his whole thing is about protecting the status quo of the US empire, but both mainstream factions are duped into seeing the exact opposite.
Now you’ve got the two main strands of American political thought falling all over themselves to be the first in line to support the establishment, all while being told that they are fighting the power. They remain mollified because they think they are doing something, and the powerful get to keep everything they’ve stolen.
It’s truly a brilliant scam. Evil, destructive and tyrannical, to be sure, but you’ve got to admire the skill with which this psyop has been pulled off.
(caitlinjohnst.one)
“THE RICH WERE GETTING RICHER, the poor were getting poorer, small farmers were being squeezed out, workingmen were working twelve hours a day for a bare living; profits were for the rich, the law was for the rich, the cops were for the rich.”
― John Dos Passos, 1919
LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT
Appeals Court Lifts Block on Trump’s Oregon Troop Deployment
Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders
White House Works to Preserve Gaza Deal Amid Concerns About Netanyahu
Air Traffic Controllers Could Soon Be Getting No Pay
All but 2 Universities Decline a Trump Offer of Preferential Funding
Part of White House Is Reduced to Rubble. Trump’s Ballroom Will Rise in Its Place
Peanut Allergies Have Plummeted in Children, Study Shows
George F. Smoot, Who Showed How the Cosmos Began, Is Dead at 80
“THE LONELIEST MOMENT in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
NO MORE KINGS
by Bernie Sanders
Thank you, Washington. What a great turnout.
Thank you, Indivisible, for your fantastic organizing.
Thank you to the millions of Americans, from our smallest towns to our largest cities, in every state in our country, who are gathering today at thousands of rallies.
Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, called these rallies “hate America“ events. Boy. Does he have that wrong. Millions of Americans are coming out today not because they “hate America.” We’re here because we love America.
We’re here because we’re going to do everything we can to honor the sacrifices of millions of men and women who, over the last 250 years, fought and sometimes died to defend our democracy and our freedoms.
In 1776, with extraordinary courage, the founders of our country announced to the world that they would no longer be ruled by the king of England, who had absolute power over their lives. They demanded freedom. And to bring that about they fought a bloody war against the British Empire and the most powerful military in the world. Tens of thousands of Americans died in that 8-year war – but our forefathers fought on and they won.
And in 1789, after winning that war, they did something extraordinary. They established the first democratic form of government in modern history. They said loudly and boldly to the entire world: No more kings.
In America, We the People will rule.
And today, in the year 2025, in this dangerous moment in American history, our message is exactly the same. No, President Trump, we don’t want you or any other king to rule us. Thank you very much, but we will maintain our democratic form of society. We will not move toward authoritarianism. In America, We the People will rule.
When he was sworn in as the nation’s first president, George Washington called this attempt at self-government an “experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
My fellow Americans: In an unprecedented way, that experiment is now in danger.
It is in danger when we have a president who wants more and more power in his own hands – and in the hands of his fellow Oligarchs.
It is in danger when we have a president who claims that peaceful protest in Portland, OR or Chicago, IL is an “insurrection” and calls in the U.S. military. And then threatens to arrest the mayors and governors who resist him.
It is in danger when we have masked agents working for ICE breaking down doors, throwing people into vans without due process and taking them to God knows where.
It is in danger when we have a president who sues and intimidates the media, who wants no criticism of himself or his policies and who undermines the First Amendment of our Constitution – the very foundation of our democracy.
Our country is in danger when we have a president who threatens to arrest or imprison political opponents who stand against him – including the Attorney General of New York State, a sitting US Senator and the Governor of California.
It is in danger when we have a president who undermines freedom of thought and dissent at our colleges and universities, and who attacks law firms that oppose him in court.
It is in danger when we have a president who threatens to impeach judges who rule against him.
It is in danger when we have a president who ignores Congress, refuses to spend money that Congress appropriates and takes away money from states that voted against him.
It is in danger when we have a president who demands that states redraw congressional maps to ensure that his chosen candidates win future elections.
It is in danger when we have a President who illegally fires tens of thousands of federal employees right here in Washington, DC and throughout our country, and rips up union contracts that workers have fought for and won.
It is in danger when we have a President who grossly violates the Constitution by accepting gifts from foreign leaders – including a $400 million plane from the royal family of Qatar – and then allows that family to build an air force facility in Idaho.
But let us be clear: This moment is not just about one man’s greed, one man’s corruption or one man’s contempt for our Constitution. This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on earth who, in their insatiable greed, have hijacked our economy and our political system in order to enrich themselves at the expense of working families throughout the country.
Yes. I’m talking about Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and the other multi-billionaires who were sitting right behind Donald Trump when he was inaugurated – the very same billionaires who funded his campaign, who have bestowed gifts upon him and who have seen huge increases in their wealth and power since Trump took office.
Yes, I am talking about the insanity of one person, Mr. Musk, now owning more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households.
I’m talking about the incredible injustice of the top 1% in America now owning more wealth than the bottom 93%.
I’m talking about the richest people in America becoming much, much richer, while 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, struggling every day to pay their rent and mortgages, pay for childcare and education, pay for their health care and prescription drugs, afford decent quality food for their kids and put aside a few bucks for their retirements.
I am talking about our nation, the richest country in the history of the world, having the highest rate of childhood and senior poverty of almost any major country on earth.
I am talking about our great nation having 85 million Americans uninsured or underinsured and 800,000 people who are homeless – including people a few blocks from here – while Mr. Musk is on his way to becoming a trillionaire.
I am talking about the incredible danger of the richest people in this country pouring many hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence and robotics which, in the next decade, will decimate tens of millions of jobs for the American working class.
I am talking about a billionaire class who believe they have the divine right to rule, and who not only want massive tax breaks for themselves, but who reject any form of accountability or checks on their power.
My fellow Americans: We rejected the divine right of kings in the 1700’s. We will not accept the divine right of oligarchs today.
And now let’s take a look at where we are today on the 18th day of a government shutdown, which is depriving millions of federal employees of the paychecks they desperately need and deserve.
Let me cut to the chase and tell you exactly what this shutdown is all about. As a result of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which made massive cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, 15 million low-income and working-class Americans are going to lose the health care they desperately need.
My friends, studies suggest that when you throw those 15 million people of the health care they presently have, 50,000 of them will die unnecessarily every single year. 50,000 Americans will die unnecessarily.
But that’s not all. As a result of that same terrible piece of legislation, over 20 million Americans are going to see, on average, a doubling of their health insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act.
In my state of Vermont, just the other day, people received notices from insurance companies that their health care premiums, in some cases, would triple, or even quadruple. Got that? And that is going on all over the country. At a time when we are already paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for health care, millions of Americans are going to see a doubling or tripling of their health care premiums.
And why? Why is that happening? Why are the Republicans making a broken health care system, a dysfunctional health care system, even worse? Why are they bringing our health care system to the verge of collapse? And we all know the answer. It was to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ellison and the rest of the 1%.
One trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the ACA. A trillion dollars in tax breaks for the 1%.
That, my friends, is what this shutdown is about.
And let me be very clear: No. I will not vote for a budget that throws 15 million Americans off their health care and causes 50,000 unnecessary deaths per year.
No. I will not vote for a budget that doubles premiums for 20 million Americans and forces Americans to pay 40 or 50% of their limited incomes on health care.
No. I will not vote for a budget that forces nursing homes, rural hospitals and community health centers to lay off staff and close their doors throughout this country – all to give huge tax breaks to people who don’t need them.
Today, I say to my Republican colleagues: Come back from your monthlong vacation, start negotiating and do not allow the American health care system to be destroyed. End this shutdown.
My fellow Americans: We are the greatest country in the history of the world. And when we stand together and don’t let demagogues to divide us up, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish.
Yes, we can create a vibrant democracy by ending Citizens United and not allowing billionaires to buy elections.
Yes, we can join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a human right.
Yes, we can take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and no longer pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
Yes, we can build millions of units of low-income and affordable housing and allow our younger generation to enjoy the American Dream with a home of their own.
Yes, we can make public colleges and universities tuition-free and have the best childcare and public school system in the entire world.
Yes, we can expand Social Security so that every senior in this country can retire with dignity.
Yes, we can raise the minimum wage to a living wage and guarantee every worker the right to join a union.
Yes, we can lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and create millions of good-paying jobs as we save the planet.
Yes, we can guarantee that every woman in this country has the right to control her own body.
Yes, we can have a foreign policy that guarantees that never again will American taxpayer dollars be used to starve children in Gaza or any place else.
And now, let me raise the question that I’ve been asked over and over again: Bernie, great ideas, but how are you going to pay for them?
Great question. Thanks for asking.
At a time when the wealthiest people in America have never ever had it so good, at a time when billionaires are paying an effective tax rate lower than a truck driver or nurse, yes, the top 1% and large profitable corporations will pay their fair share in taxes.
My fellow Americans: The Establishment, including the corporate media and many of my colleagues in Congress, want you to believe that you are powerless. They want you to believe that you cannot change the status quo. But that’s a lie.
Throughout the history of our country, when Americans have stood up and fought for justice, they have prevailed.
When the Founders stood up to King George, they were told it was impossible. But they won.
When abolitionists fought to end slavery, they were told it was impossible. But they won.
When workers organized to form unions and stood up to their bosses, they were told it was impossible. But they won.
When women demanded the right to vote, they were told it was impossible. But they won.
When Black Americans fought to end segregation, they were told it was impossible. But they won.
When the LGBT community stood up for their rights, they were told it was impossible. But they won.
They did it then. We can and will do it now.
How do I know we will succeed? Take a look at this huge crowd right here in Washington, DC, our nation’s capital.
But it’s not just here. As I understand it, today, October 18, 2025, there are more people out on the streets in more communities all over across our country than we have ever seen in American history.
But let’s be clear: This is not the end. This is just the beginning.
Together, when we stand united, we will create the kind of nation that you and I know we can become. A nation devoted to freedom, justice and democracy.
Thank you all very much.
Prepared remarks at No More Kings Rally in Washington.
Thank you for sharing the artwork of Maynard Dixon!
NO KINGS
Great, great speech by Bernie Sanders, the finest truth-teller in our government. Blunt, fierce, hopeful. The kind of words we need to hear and heed, then take action. Fine ending to MCT, thanks AVA folks.
Hats off to the AVVFD members past and present and all their supporters celebrating 70 years of public service.
Another FEMA article, giving another take, from North Carolina, still not seeing promised aid…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2025/10/21/north-carolina-helene-fema-payments/
Does the Zombie Apocalypse city still have the app that tells you where all the human feces spots are?
No Kings? Sounds reasonable. But how about No Egotistical Greedy Assholes? Then we do away with most of the worst of them including Schiff, Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, along with all the MAGA morons .
It’s insane to me how Marjorie Taylor Greene is the voice of reason. Who’d a thunk it?
Yes to all your post, Kirk, especially the last sentence–MTG has stretched and grown and now utters some words of wisdom. Surreal, but good for her.
The work of northern European astronomers engaged in a long study of photographic plates in Palomar’s survey of the sky in the 1950s PRIOR to the launch of Sputnik in 1957 has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by serious journals:
https://www.su.se/english/news/unexpected-patterns-in-historical-astronomical-observations-1.855042
Observed Portland Insurrection: Two naked bicyclists and a guy dressed up as a chicken watching warily an ice agent slumbering under a tree in a downtown park.