Mendocino County Today: Saturday 10/25/2025

Wet | Irene Ponts | Branscomb Store | Jackpotting ATMs | Storage Rules | Zip Gun | Hospital Modernization | Reading Suggestion | Crab Delay | Local Events | Voting Together | My Comment | Assemblymember Appearance | Butterfly Talk | Building Code | Last Cosmos | Brave Thoughts | Yesterday's Catch | Dawn Revisited | Battenkill River | Marco Radio | Irrational Healthcare | She's Hot | 50 Wrong | Normal Day | Disgusting President | Clueless Audacity | House | Golden Rule | Shipped Overseas | Wood Heat | An Alcoholic | 2-4 Minutes | Desecration | My Compassion | Gerrymandering | Origin Story | Reality v Garbage | Lead Stories | Guillotine Song | Organ Culture | Trump Forever | Angle X

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AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH will bring rain and gusty winds this morning in the north, heaviest and strongest in the north. Showers will become more scattered this afternoon. Sunday additional rain and wind is expected. Drier weather is expected next week with a few light showers possible near the Oregon border. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Light rain & 55F with .35" of rainfall this Saturday morning on the coast. We can expect light rain off & on all weekend then looking dry next week. We have a high surf advisory this weekend, be careful along the shore.

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IRENE PONTS

Irene Ponts, 88, of Fort Bragg, California, passed away peacefully on October 13, 2025. Born November 4, 1936, in Longview, Washington, Irene made her way to the Mendocino Coast in 1958 and never left. Fort Bragg became her lifelong home — the place where she built a life full of craft, care, and quiet capability.

Irene worked for decades at Sew N Sew Fabrics, where her eye for color, texture, and quality shaped the projects of countless local makers. As a fabric buyer and store staple from the 1970s through early 2000s, she had a knack for finding beauty in the smallest details — the perfect shade, the right weave, the just-so trim.

She learned to sew and quilt from her mother, and together they tackled projects most people wouldn’t have dared to try — intricate, challenging patterns that demanded both precision and patience. Her quilts often appeared in local quilt shows, though she never entered them competitively; for Irene, the joy was in the making, not the recognition.

Her creativity spilled into every corner of her life. Quilting, knitting, basket weaving, woodworking, painting garden decorations — she always had a project in motion. When new babies arrived in the extended Ponts family, she was the first to get to work, crafting something perfectly made and lovingly detailed: a soft sweater, a sturdy baby carrier, a quilt that could withstand generations of use. Sometimes, she’d simply step outside, gather pine needles from her yard, and weave a basket — because she could.

Irene and her husband, Joaquin Ponts, shared more than 50 years of marriage filled with camping, hunting, and fishing in the remote beauty of Northern California. Together they made their home on Pearl Drive, where Irene lived for over 60 years — a quiet, steady presence in the neighborhood and in the lives of everyone who loved her.

Irene was, simply, Irene: unique, independent, and steady as bedrock. She never sought attention, but her presence was constant — you always knew she’d be there when you needed her. She was calm, patient, unflappable, especially in caring for her son, Randy, whose needs she met with endless love and devotion. Nothing seemed to rattle her; she just got on with it, with grace and grit in equal measure.

She was kind, talented, loyal, and generous — the sort of person who would do anything for anyone who needed it. And she loved a good laugh, even if the joke was on her. That kind of humility and self-assured humor made her easy to be around and impossible to forget.

She is survived by her brother, nieces, nephews, great-nieces and -nephews, and generations of family who will long treasure both the things she made and the example she set. She was preceded in death by her husband, Joaquin Ponts, and their son, Randy Ponts.

In her quiet way, Irene left behind a world stitched together by her hands and held steady by her example.

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THREE ARRESTED AFTER THEFTS FROM UKIAH BANK

Ukiah police this week announced the arrests of two men and a woman from the Bay Area for allegedly using a device to steal more than $100,000 from a bank late last month.

On Sept. 29, officers responded to a report of a theft at a Savings Bank of Mendocino County branch at 1100 Airport Park Blvd., where a branch manager reported that money had been stolen overnight from two ATMs, according to police.

Investigators determined that two male suspects arrived in a Toyota Prius and allegedly used a generic key to open the exterior panels of the ATMs and install an electronic device inside them, then left the scene before returning to pose as customers, police said.

Security footage showed one suspect in the back of the Prius using a cellphone to remotely activate the ATM to dispense cash. The two suspects remained there to allegedly make hundreds of fraudulent withdrawals, according to police.

Investigators traced the Prius to an address in Daly City, where the registered owner reported that he had rented the vehicle to Julia Rodriguez-Ramos, “who had acted suspiciously and been dishonest about the vehicle’s location prior to returning it,” police said in a news release Wednesday.

Detectives ended up tracking Rodriguez-Ramos to an apartment in San Francisco, where they found her and two men matching the characteristics of the suspects in the bank security footage. They were identified as Barkley Mora-Pacheco, 27, and Edgardo Mendez-Vanegas, 23.

Police said a search revealed numerous pieces of evidence linking the suspects to the crime, and all three provided conflicting accounts of where they were that night.

Rodriguez-Ramos was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a crime, while the two men were arrested on suspicion of grand theft and conspiracy. They were taken back to Mendocino County to be booked into jail, according to police.

Mora-Pacheco and Mendez-Vanegas said they originally were from Venezuela, and Ukiah police said that after coordinating with Daly City police and the FBI, they learned that the method used in the theft, known as “jackpotting,” is commonly associated with South American crime groups. Authorities are investigating whether the suspects are responsible for other thefts.

(Bay City News)

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LAKE MENDOCINO NEW WATER STORAGE RULES CELEBRATED

by Justine Frederiksen

Nearly 10 years after two scientists launched balloons into the clouds over Ukiah in the hopes that their research could one day lead to more water being stored in Lake Mendocino, local officials gathered at Coyote Valley Dam this week to celebrate the successful implementation of that weather-forecasting project into the official manual the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses to determine how much water to release from the reservoir.

“It is definitely time to modernize (water storage operations), and we are leading the way on that right here in Mendocino County,” said Rep Jared Huffman (D — San Rafael) to the crowd gathered near the South Boat Ramp on Wednesday, Oct. 22, to celebrate what the USACE acknowledged was a revising of the “operating rules around flood control schedules for the first time in the dam’s 66-year history, by incorporating the principles of modern-day forecast-informed reservoir operations, or FIRO, to enhance the facility’s dual mission of flood risk management and water supply security.”

“Today represents what real collaboration looks like: Sonoma Water, the USACE, the scientists at Scripps, and local partners, have all come together with one shared goal — to make sure our water system is resilient, reliable and ready for the future,” said Second District Mendocino County Supervisor Maureen Mulheren. “For those of us who live and work in the region, we know that water doesn’t stop at county lines, (but) what happens here in Mendocino County directly impacts communities all the way through Sonoma County and beyond. When we coordinate instead of compete, everyone benefits, from our local farms and fish habitats, to the families who depend on a steady water supply.”

“As we look ahead,” Mulheren continued, “projects like FIRO and on the studies on the Coyote Valley Dam show how science, technology, and teamwork can create a stronger future for our watershed. I want to thank everyone involved for believing in this collaborative approach, which is proof that when we work across jurisdictions and focus on what unites us, we can create solutions that will last for generations.”

“It is not always politically advantageous in Mendocino County to focus on such a critical issue as Lake Mendocino (because) there are some longstanding arguments and politics behind it,” State Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who was orchestrating Wednesday’s event, told Mulheren after she spoke. “And supervisor, you have stepped up every step of the way, and we want to thank you for your leadership.”

The effort to infuse more modern weather forecasting tools into the operations of Lake Mendocino was literally launched just a few miles away in March of 2016, when two student scientists released tracking balloons into the clouds above the Ukiah Municipal Airport.

“Meteorologists, hydrologists and water resource managers are very interested in knowing how much water will be delivered and where it’s going to land,” said Reuben Demirdjian, explaining at the time that he and Zhao Yang, who was studying Hydrometeorology at the University of Arizona, were collecting data as part of a research effort called FIRO, which came largely out of a partnership between the Scripps Research Institute and the Sonoma County Water Agency, which operates the lake with the Corps and Sonoma Water. While the Corps manages the “flood pool,” SCWA manages the “conservation pool,” or water storage, and also maintains minimum in-stream flows in the Russian River below the lake.

“We are focused on hydrometeorology, which combines hydrology, the study of water on the ground, with meteorology, the study of water in the air,” said Jay Jasperse, chief engineer for the SCWA at the time. “If we know where, when, and how much water is coming, we can better manage our water supply.”

“Before this update, we would inevitably be required to release water to give airspace to the dam for the next storm regardless of the upcoming weather,” Nick Malasavage, Operations & Readiness Division chief for the USACE San Francisco District, was quoted as saying in a press release issued by the Corps after Wednesday’s celebration. “FIRO allows us to be informed by the forecast and make better decisions.”

“With this update, operations will be based on the latest science instead of outdated guesswork. FIRO’s approach is leading the industry and will ensure more sustainable water supplies — something that’s more urgent than ever in our changing climate,” Huffman was quoted as saying in the release.

The release also explained that “since the Corps completed construction of Coyote Valley Dam in 1959, the water control manual has been updated just twice in its existence — once in 1986, when the city of Ukiah’s hydroelectric power plant was installed, and in 2011, in order to define minimum flow capacity required to maintain downstream aquatic habitats. But with each of these versions, the flood control schedules remained unchanged until FIRO procedures were evaluated and tested through temporary planned deviations to Lake Mendocino’s Water Control Manual.”

Leading up to the manual change, the release notes that “FIRO was demonstrated successfully at Lake Mendocino during the course of two very different water years — Water Year 2019 was a relatively wet year, while Water Year 2020 was the third driest year over a 127-year record. In both years, FIRO increased water storage and managed flood risks. In Water Year 2020, FIRO enabled a 19 percent increase in water storage, totaling more than 11,000 acre-feet. These findings were shared in a multi-agency viability assessment.”

The release further explained that “Sonoma Water is the local cost-sharing partner for Lake Mendocino and determines the amount of water released from the reservoir when levels are in the water supply pools. The lake depends on annual rainfall as well as diversions from the Potter Valley Project to fill. Lake Mendocino is a key drinking water source for approximately 650,000 people in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Marin counties. Releases from the lake are essential for meeting minimum instream flow requirements in the Russian River and providing critical habitat for threatened Chinook salmon and steelhead trout, (and that) over the past three years, FIRO has saved nearly 30,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mendocino.”

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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SEARCH WARRANT RESULTS IN SEIZURE OF ZIP GUN AND HOME-MADE SUPPRESSOR

On October 23, 2025, officers of the Fort Bragg Police Department partnered with the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force to serve a search warrant on a storage unit in the 18000 block of SR-1. This warrant was the result of an ongoing investigation related to case number FG2500920.

A search of this location resulted in the seizure of an improvised shotgun “Zip Gun”, a modified 22 caliber firearm, ammunition, and an improvised suppressor.

Additional charges of: PC 33600 Possession of a Zip Gun, PC 30305 (A)(1) Prohibited Person in Possession of Ammunition, PC 1203.2 (A) violation of probation, PC 29800 Prohibited Person in Possession of Firearm, PC 33215 (A) Possession of a short-barreled Rifle, and PC 33410 Possession of Suppressor, will be forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.

Please refer to the previous releases dated October 21, 2025, and October 22, 2025, for additional details. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact Sergeant Frank at (707)961-2800 ext. 223 or email [email protected].

This information is being released by Commander Jonathan McLaughlin. For media inquiries, please reach out to him directly at [email protected].

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$50 MILLION HOSPITAL MODERNIZATION DEAL FALLS THROUGH FOR MENDOCINO COAST DISTRICT

Board eyes federal ‘rural transformation’ funds

by Elise Cox

The Mendocino Coast Health Care District Board learned Thursday that a term sheet for $50 million in modernization funding for Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Hospital has been withdrawn by the lender.

Board Chair Paul Garza told the board the lender cited “several opt-out opportunities in the lease agreement with Adventist Health” as the reason for backing out. He said the district still expects to qualify for about $15 million in revenue-bond financing, leaving “roughly a $35 million gap” to be filled from other sources.

Garza noted that Adventist Health (AH) is reluctant to modify these opt-out clauses because such an adjustment would be carried as a long-term debit on its balance sheet, potentially affecting its credit rating. AH is already managing approximately $1.7 billion in existing loans, according to District Administrator Kathy Wylie.

Adventist Health will help the district assemble a team to seek additional funding from federal or state programs, Garza said. He identified the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Agency (RDA) as likely sources.

“This is hardly an ideal situation because of the shutdown of the federal government and the inconsistency of the current administration,” Garza said. “Nonetheless, I hope my fellow board members will agree that while seismic retrofit is our immediate priority, modernization is essential to our hospital’s future success.”

Despite the setback, Garza reported progress on several fronts. Audits for fiscal years 2021 through 2024-25 are nearly complete — a crucial step that will bring the district into compliance with state requirements and allow reimbursement from the California Health Care Access and Information Agency, the grant fund for mandated seismic-retrofit equipment costs.

“It’s very, very good news,” Garza said.

Garza also reported that facility-maintenance estimates were revised downward from about $22 million to approximately $10 million after a continuing review by District Administrator Kathy Wiley, District CFO Wayne Allen, and Adventist Health CFO Richard Ritter. The estimate aligns with earlier expectations of roughly $12 million in maintenance.

Seismic Upgrade Efforts Continue

Donna Huntingdale, president/CEO of Building Rx Construction, reported the draft budget for the state-mandated seismic retrofit projects is currently tracking around $18 million to $19 million.

The board approved an expenditure of $4,000 to update the 2018 geohazards report to meet current code requirements, as mandated by the state. Huntingdale noted that the finalized design bid from the Devenny Group for nonstructural performance work was $561,311, below the maximum value of $571,943 previously approved by the board.

Board Member Jan McGourty said the consultant’s detailed presentation made it difficult for the public to understand how the money would be spent and noted the lack of an executive summary.

“I wouldn’t accept this report if it were up for acceptance without a written narrative or at least an executive summary of its contents,” McGourty said. “I don’t think this request is unrealistic, considering the cost of this contract. Public funds are being used, and the public should be able to understand the work being done.”

Capital and Maintenance Plan Reduced

The board approved a revised Capital Expenditure Plan for calendar years 2025 through 2027, totaling $9,959,528. The revised plan postpones several projects, including the parking lot and a new MRI machine.

CFO Wayne Allen confirmed that the revised expenditure plan aligns with the funds the district is required to deposit into the AH improvement fund, which totals $18,441,000 through December 2027 (adjusted for CPI). Annual facility-maintenance costs were scaled back from roughly $500,000 to about $200,000 per year.

McGourty noted that the requested capital expenditures were $1 million a year over budget. A discussion ensued around deferred maintenance and requirements of licensure.

Federal Rural-Health Funding Potential

The board also received an update on the Rural Health Transformation Program, a federal initiative funded by a $50 billion allocation to be distributed over five years ($10 billion annually).

Approximately half of the total ($25 billion) will be divided equally among states that apply by the Nov. 5 deadline. If all 50 states apply, California would receive about $100 million per year for five years. The remainder will be distributed based on a formula determined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator.

Financial and Administrative Actions

The board approved a proposal to surplus 10 obsolete Hill-Rom hospital beds, valued at $100 each. Five of the beds were approved for donation to Care B&B Inc., a new nonprofit dedicated to bridging the gap between acute medical care and home recovery.

In other financial matters, staff reported September investment income of $93,472. Total cash equivalents for the district are $16.41 million.

The district settled the McDaniel v. Mendocino Coast Health Care District litigation for $100,000. The settlement was fully covered by Beta Insurance, leaving the district responsible only for a $1,000 deductible.

The board is seeking applications to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Director Paul Katzeff in September. Applications are due Nov. 1, 2025, at 5 p.m., and the board will consider an appointment at its Nov. 13 meeting.

(Mendo Local Public Media, P.O. Box 362, Mendocino, CA 95460. All contributions go directly to support newsgathering and reporting.)

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SPOTTED IN UKIAH:

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CALIFORNIA RECREATIONAL DUNGENESS CRAB SEASON DELAYED DUE TO ‘PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD’

by Jack Lee

Another year, another delay in Dungeness crab season.

On Friday, California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials announced a statewide delay to the commercial Dungeness crab season, which is supposed to begin Nov. 15. Officials will reassess in mid-December, to see if it is possible to start the season around the beginning of the new year. The postponement continues a pattern of recent years.

Perhaps more unusually, the recreational crab season is also being delayed.

Officials are prohibiting recreational crabbing in the waters of Northern California, from the Sonoma-Mendocino County line to the Oregon border, until further notice. The delay is “due to a public health hazard,” officials said — namely, unhealthy levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by harmful algal blooms that can build up in marine life. Last year, the recreational season opened on time, despite commercial delays.

In the area between the Sonoma-Mendocino County line and Point Reyes, state health agencies are also advising that people not consume crab guts, to avoid potential domoic acid exposure. At low levels, domoic acid exposure can cause vomiting, diarrhea and dizziness in humans, according to the California Department of Public Health. At high levels, it can cause short-term memory loss, seizures and even death.

The recreational use of crab traps is also temporarily restricted between the Sonoma-Mendocino County line and Lopez Point in Monterey County.

The commercial Dungeness crab season is delayed because of numerous reported entanglements this year, high abundance of humpback whales and presence of leatherback sea turtles. That’s also the reason for the prohibition on recreational crab traps between Monterey County and the Sonoma-Mendocino border.

“CDFW remains steadfast in our commitment to working collaboratively with all sectors to protect (whales) and turtles from entanglements in fishing gear,” said CDFW director Charlton Bonham, in a statement. Delaying the start of commercial Dungeness crab season gives whales and sea turtles time to migrate out of California waters.

Fishermen expressed frustration and understanding. “Another year of a delayed commercial Dungeness crab season is incredibly difficult for our fleet and port communities,” said Lisa Damrosch, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Association, in a statement. “However, given the current risk assessment process, the commercial fleet supported this outcome as the most practical path forward.”

The delay was the “right move,” said Ben Grundy, oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “Entanglements have spiked off California in recent years, so officials are smartly exercising caution.”

(SF Chronicle)

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LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)

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ELISE COX (Mendo Local Media):

I need to call local Republicans and test this hypothesis, but I believe that the reason there was no counter-protest in Fort Bragg is because whatever political team our friends and neighbors identify with, we all believe in our freedom of speech and assembly. And neither Republicans nor anyone else want to provide an excuse for a crack down on the friends and neighbors who feed their pets when they go away for the weekend, who share their produce, and who are there for an emergency ride to the hospital or to help with heavy lifting and so much more. Democrats and Republicans are voting together on maternity care in Sacramento, and we are voting for free speech with our actions in Mendocino County.

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MAZIE MALONE:

Thank you for including my comment on the PIT Count executive summary that Mo posted. I wasn’t surprised, I kind of figured it might stand out.

The numbers and wording in that report matter, but what really matters is understanding what they mean. Too many people just skim and take it all at face value. I’m not trying to be critical, just honest.

The numbers can look fine on paper and still hide what’s really going on. Even the regional totals don’t match the overall count, and some of the timeframes overlap, which makes it hard to tell what actually changed.

I didn’t even point that out before, I just focused on the main things that really matter for housing, treatment, and support.

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ASSEMBLYMEMBER CHRIS ROGERS TOWN HALL IN PINT ARENA

October 28 - 3:30pm until 5pm

City Hall, 451 School Street, Point Arena

(Followed by City Council Regular Session Meeting at 6pm)

Council Chambers, 451 School Street (map)

Zoom: https://zoom.us/s/84888251095

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FORT BRAGG GARDEN CLUB

Join us at the next Fort Bragg Garden Club meeting on Monday, November 10 at 1:00 at the Presbyterian Church of Fort Bragg, 367 South Sanderson Way. Guest speaker Anna Bride of the Mendocino Land Trust will share news of the MLT’s efforts to restore and conserve habitat for the federally endangered Behren’s silverspot butterfly.

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SHERIFF MATT KENDALL:

When I was a younger man swinging a hammer things were fairly simple. The Simpson book looked like a hymnal and the strong ties, straps and anchors made sense. I built a house around 2010 and it was fairly simple. I built a house a few years ago and that book looks like a King James Bible now.

The Uniform Building Code changes are nearly completely driven by people wanting politicians to mandate the uses of their products which puts money in their pockets.

The only easy part of the process for me was dealing with the county and getting my permits approved. Those folks truly helped me navigate some of the new codes and assisted with some questions because I hadn’t been in the game for over a decade. They were also scratching their heads on a couple of the new codes. It took some time but I was really happy to have their assistance.

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JAMES TIPPETT:

People may long for an idealized past where saw logs were infinite and the economy was thriving, but I agree, the resource dried up because it was over exploited. As for the cannabis canard, when the sawmill closed in a small town not mentioned and long gone, the loggers and mill workers turned to the cannabis growers and said, “Show us how! We need to feed our families!” Aggressive enforcement literally took their land and homes out from under small, mindful growers, opening the market to organized crime, cartels and the destruction they brought with them.

The problem is that folks, including electeds, refuse to look at the county and our economy as an integrated system. Folks refuse to step out of their own “camera angle” and look at the big picture from multiple angles and dimensions. Then they come up with their “fix” (which coincidentally is a slang term for a drug dose) to solve what they see as the most important problem, ignoring the collateral changes inflicted on other systems. Until we take a systems approach, we’ll simply be moving problems around, leaving collateral damage in their wake.

What’s needed for people to take a systems approach? The first step is folks need to put their own vested interests, their egos, careers and training aside, and be willing to listen and learn, be willing to step outside their comfort zones. That requires trust, something in short supply and actively being undermined in our current reality.

I’ll leave it at that.

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GEORGE HOLLISTER:

Yes, the Building Department is there to help. The younger folks there are dealing with the same challenges as everyone else when it comes to building a house, and they don’t set the policies. There are ways to make the system simpler, easier, and just as effective. Trying to solve every problem in the world of housing with the use of the building code should not be the mission, but that is what is being done. Recognizing which building problems are public ones, and which ones are problems for the homeowner is important. If the problem results in a fire call that is a public problem. If the problem is an inconvenience to the homeowner, that is a private problem. The unintended consequence of the current system is most building is being done outside the permit process and is being done to address a problem the building code created.

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BILL HARPER:

Blaming Building codes for the cost of housing is ridiculous. My house cost something like 0.4 percent in fees including $3000 to the local school district. Cost of plywood and hangers, wiring plumbing has tripled in the 20 years since. Non code hippie houses have either fallen over, full of mice or have had extensive repairs to keep them. Those lost communities had mills selling lumber for $400 a unit.

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TO HEAR WHAT BRAVE THOUGHTS
Still lurk in an old man's heart
Offer him a drink.

Maybe two.

— Jim Luther

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, October 24, 2025

LELAND BEAN JR., 48, Willits. Under influence, controlled substance, county parole violation.

TINA CORNWALL, 31, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JESUS DIAZ-CARMONA, 22, Covelo. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, county parole violation, resisting.

POLICARPIO GALAVIZ-RODRIGUEZ, 48, Ukiah. Domestic battery with serious injury, sexual battery by restraint, false imprisonment, controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

JOEL GAMA, 47, Calpella. Domestic battery, criminal threats.

CHADLEY GOTTSIMMONS, 41, Redwood Valley. Failure to appear.

JEREMIAH MCOSKER, 47, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation violation.

LARRY MILLER, 53, Eureka/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

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DAWN REVISITED

Imagine you wake up
with a second chance: The blue jay
hawks his pretty wares
and the oak still stands, spreading
glorious shade. If you don't look back,

the future never happens.
How good to rise in sunlight,
in the prodigal smell of biscuits -
eggs and sausage on the grill.
The whole sky is yours

to write on, blown open
to a blank page. Come on,
shake a leg! You'll never know
who's down there, frying those eggs,
if you don't get up and see.

— Rita Dove

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MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio Friday night on KNYO and KAKX, why not.

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight’s (Friday night’s) MOTA show is five or six. If that’s too soon, send it any time after that and I’ll read it next Friday.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.

Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week’s MOTA show. By Saturday night I’ll put up the recording of tonight’s show. You’ll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with until showtime, or any time, such as:

How they pulled it off. https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2025/10/louvre-heist.html

The kind of person who gets special treatment under Donald Trump’s perverted justice system. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_KXoAAByVxE

And I love this. Just a quiet “Ah, yeah” as she drops off, no screaming or yee-hawing, and, in a pleasant indoor-voice, “That was lovely, guys” as she bobbles around in the air down there, dangling by her ankles. That is savoir faire. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u4lki7pDqsw

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

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TRIPPING ON LIGHT BEAMS

Warmest spiritual greetings,

The Moment!

Just received a letter from Medi-Cal saying that they will be sending me my new membership card in the mail (to the Washington, D.C. homeless shelter address). Aside from the fact that Medi-Cal was replaced by Partnership of California, and does not supposedly exist anymore, the good news is that California health benefits pay for dental expenses. I am just tripping on light beams to get this, even though it does not make any sense. By now, I am getting used to American social services being completely irrational, with me receiving unbelievable support. You figure it out. I cannot!

Meanwhile, just left the Yard House in Washington, D.C., having pounded down two German Oktoberfest pub glass servings with a shot of Woodford Reserve, and an order of fish ‘n chips.

I am available. Contact me.

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

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COUNTRY LIVING: THE WOO WOO QUEEN

by Paul Modic

Yes I am friends with the Woo Woo Queen and wonder how someone can live like that, and why? It’s one thing to believe that if you think it it’s true, called “magical thinking,” but it takes a special naivete to tell others your wacky theories on the daily, right? Yet she will tell multiple lies she thinks are true within an hour, perhaps not realizing she’ll be seen as a bit touched?

Most of her woo is about how her body functions, for example she said she drank an herb tea and felt it going right to her sore shoulder, which probably needs surgery that she can’t afford. She also said she took another herb during covid and felt the energy rising from her heart and out through her head, and another time mentioned trying to use comfrey tea to fix her cracked tooth.

(When she said all that I was high and uninhibited and said, “That’s the woo, that’s the woo woo!” To her credit she smiled broadly, so maybe she does have some self-awareness?)

Why would someone want to share this, tell others her odd theories? She also recently said she was an empath, is that trying to impress others with her powerful sensitivity? Is she so myopic and self-absorbed that she doesn’t realize it makes people think less of her, brand her a whacko? No, she probably doesn’t think that.

How did this happen? She professes a belief in God and Heaven and Hell so maybe religion is the root of magical thinking? Safe to say she won’t see or read this because she’s so self-absorbed it wouldn’t occur to her. (She’s the one who inspired my observation: I see reality for what it is, others see it for what they want it to be.)

Once she broke up with a boyfriend and said, “Oh, he still loves me,” and I had to point out that he doesn’t want anything to do with her so how can she say he still loves her? (That was the time she hung around for six months after it was over, hoping he would change, which never works.) Currently she, a liberal hippie chick, is dating a Trumper, which seems strange and stressful for her, but in the immortal words of my old buddy Hugh: “If someone’s getting laid, it’s a good thing.”

(I told a mutual friend about this essay and he said, “Hey, lay off her, she’s hot!”)

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PROP 50 IS WRONG

Editor,

I live in a congressional district that would be drastically redrawn by Proposition 50. Democrats in the state government are usurping some of my rights for their own end.

The reasons given by the proponents boil down to the idea that others are doing this, so we must do it to keep things fair. One group is doing something that is wrong, so we must also.

Proponents also say Prop 50 is temporary, but what is stopping them from doing this in the future?

Prop 50 is partisan gerrymandering. While apparently legal, it is, more importantly, unethical. The governor and a majority of the Legislature have acted unethically in creating this proposition. A yes vote is unethical because it moves this action forward.

Also, look back in history at other actions that took rights away from citizens for the greater good, in the U.S. and other countries. Did those actions turn out well?

You may be as unhappy as I am about what other states are doing. Those actions are just as bad as Prop. 50. California should not follow down that path.

Fighting fire with fire just creates a larger fire. Vote no on Prop. 50.

James Bourey

Chico

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TRUMP’S ‘DISGUSTING’ VIDEO

Editor:

When someone posted to me the disgusting AI reel of Donald Trump as king in the airplane cockpit, I thought, “No, this couldn’t possibly be actually coming from the president of the United States.” I thought even Trump wouldn’t stoop so low as to do something so egregious as that post. And then I opened up the Oct. 20 paper and read the article by Jenny Gross of the New York Times (“Trump posts fake video of self in ‘King Trump’ jet, soiling protesters below”). As a democratic country, we deserve better than this in our president.

Diane Keegan

Santa Rosa

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HEGSETH, TRUMP — NOT THE MILITARY LEADERS WE NEED

Editor,

On Sept. 30, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered addresses to approximately 800 senior U.S. generals and admirals at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. It boggled my mind to hear what I considered an incredible amount of clueless audacity in their seemingly ludicrous speeches. Last week, Hegseth doubled down by ordering every service member to watch or read the printout of his lecture.

Many years ago, I was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. Many consider that rank the Navy’s equivalent to Hegseth’s rank of major in the Army. I always spoke to my superiors with the utmost respect, acknowledging their many years of experience and training. They were honored and respected for their wisdom and courage, not critiqued for their appearance, as Hegseth appeared to do in that speech.

Hegseth and Trump have checkered pasts filled with accusations about questionable behavior. Both should have looked in the mirror before making what I consider to be juvenile bullying tirades. Their rantings seem to be all about aggressiveness and threats. That is not the history of our military posture to the world, which I think former President Theodore Roosevelt encapsulated with his “speak softly and carry a big stick” policy.

But the single most important component of leadership is character. It appears to me that character has been completely ignored by both men. They seem to be unaware of the existence of the concept.

Indeed, the lack of character has been the hallmark of their program so far.

The complete lack of empathy and their adoption of cruelty and intimidation as their day-to-day demeanor makes me despair for the future of this great country.

Joe Walsh

Lagunitas

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GOLDEN RULE, RULES

To the Editor:

I’ve been writing and speaking on ethics for 30 years. I believe that our thinking can change when we learn to respect others as we wish to be respected — the Golden Rule, not easily practiced in today’s cultural and political climate. It takes conscious effort to look and listen with an open mind, and to decide through people’s actions whether they’re locked in black-and-white thinking to the extent that we’re viewed as enemy or friend.

Regardless of opinion or background, most people simply want to be accepted for who they are. And most of us know from experience that there are situations that transcend disagreement. I live in an area vulnerable to floods and fires, and two friends with views that differ greatly from mine once told me that if disaster struck, they would be there — without hesitation. Despite our differences, we’ve built close and lasting friendships.

The challenge we face today is that too many of us use our platforms to spread division instead of unity. It’s hard to ignore a voice amplified daily. We should resist the urge to preach, step back from the outrage and keep our minds open.

Jim Lichtman

Santa Barbara

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m old enough to remember the country club Boomer set in absolute glee when blue collar union jobs were shipped overseas. All the old tropes about those lazy union bums, 13 weeks paid vacation, overpaid to push a mop, etc. Now the children of the country club Boomers have no future and nothing to do. My own profession is on its way out, having been mostly outsourced, and now A-I’d out of existence. I’m just trying to run out the clock. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that my children never set foot in a college. Stacking and selling cordwood is a more noble and useful undertaking.

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RON NEFF:

I am glad to admit that I have all the wood needed to heat our house for 2 winters is already split and stacked. I always have 2 years worth on hand so if I get hurt or worse, my wife has a little extra time to find a new man to keep her warm in the winter. We live in Arkansas so….plenty of trees and not too cold so……we only use 3 or 4 cords per winter. Nice to be able to keep our house as warm as we want it without concern about our electric bill and…..if it gets too hot inside, we open a window and it cools off. We have regular heat as well so our heirs will not have to worry about selling the place after the ground-hogs are bringing us our mail.

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“A MAN WHO DRINKS TOO MUCH on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can’t predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”

— Raymond Chandler

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(via Jeffrey St. Clair)

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WHITE HOUSE LOOTERS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

by Drew Magary

The president’s decision to destroy the White House…

Over 200 years ago, the British burned down the White House. It was during the War of 1812, a conflict that even historians have a difficult time understanding. All you and I need to know is that the War of 1812 was a kind of loose reboot of the Revolutionary War, only this time the British actually tried. In fact, two years into that misnamed war, British forces stormed into Washington, D.C., and proceeded to torch the city. They burned down the Capitol. They burned down the Supreme Court (I approve). They burned down the Treasury building.

And, most famously of all, they burned down the White House.

President James Madison and his family were preparing for a sumptuous dinner at their residence when they were forced to evacuate. After they fled, the British entered the White House and set the joint ablaze. But, just before doing so, they helped themselves to the food, plus a few bits of colonial swag. They weren’t alone in taking advantage of a White House that was open and unguarded. A young man named Paul Jennings, enslaved by Madison’s family at the time, remembered the scene:

“A rabble, taking advantage of the confusion, ran all over the White House, and stole lots of silver and whatever they could lay their hands on.”

As far as the U.S. and Great Britain, their revived war ended in an essential stalemate, with neither side “winning” much of anything. Washington, D.C., remained in American hands, and all of the buildings that the Brits had destroyed were rebuilt, the White House included.

This week, this country’s own president decided to destroy the White House himself.

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump, fresh off an attempt to occupy San Francisco, hates the White House. He likes the power it confers upon him, of course. But the building itself? Not his taste. During his first term in office, Trump privately told his golfing buddies that the place was a dump. He wasn’t necessarily wrong to complain. The rebuilt White House is old, musty, and shockingly cramped. Other presidents hated it too; Harry Truman gutted and rebuilt the entire White House from the inside when he was in office. Every president both resents being confined to the White House and is intent to leave their own mark on it.

Trump’s first term was strictly a period of resentment for his new home. Such was his early distaste for the White House that he spent the bulk of that first term chilling at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, dubbing it the Winter White House. Now that Trump is back in charge, he’s at last decided to leave his own mark on 1600 Pennsylvania, mostly by rebuilding it in Mar-a-Lago’s image.

That’s the entire East Wing of the White House, along with the East Colonnade, now gone. They even razed the Jackie Kennedy garden. Was Trump within his legal rights to perpetrate this act of desecration? Probably not, but honestly … what does it matter? When you elect Trump as president, as Americans have now done twice over, you’re voting FOR desecration. Trump is the rabble, the confusion and the theft all in one neat little package. This wasn’t a secret before he was first elected, nor is it a secret now. Legality no longer applies to him, or to much of anything else, really. The looters are coming from inside the House.

Thus, comfortably ensconced in absolute power, Trump has taken his reelection as license to steal everything he can, including immigrants off the street, hundreds of millions of dollars from his own Justice Department, and even whole American cities (as San Francisco just nearly witnessed). He’s not asking for permission, or for forgiveness. He’s just taking. And he’ll continue taking until someone stops him.

That photo of the ruined East Wing stands as proof of how efforts to stop Trump are going at the moment. He demo’ed the White House in broad daylight and will use that land, and a growing pot of corporate bribes, to erect the saddest goddamn ballroom your worst cousin will ever get married in. There’ll probably be a McDonald’s franchise stationed inside the new addition. And a Taco Bell. Once the reno is over, Trump will then tear down the West Wing, devastating Aaron Sorkin fans the nation over. Then he’ll tear down the main White House and replace it with a Ruth’s Chris. Then he’ll walk over to the Capitol building and personally finish the job that the Jan. 6 rioters started on his behalf. He’ll tear it all down, then he’ll leave office, and then you and I will be stuck with the cleanup job.

So remember that photo of Trump’s first attack on the White House. I’d give you some dramatic spiel about how that house belongs to you and to me, but only Barack Obama thinks that kind of highfalutin oratory still works on people. No, I just want you to remember how UGLY that photo is. The White House that Madison had rebuilt was never a perfect building. But in the ensuing centuries, it did its job as a national landmark. It looked good on money. It added drama to any establishing shot in a spy movie. It served as a proper backdrop for presidents doing important president s—t. It was beautiful, in its own way.

Now it isn’t. Like everything else Trump touches, the White House is no longer recognizable. It’s no longer an icon. It’s no longer a residence where American presidents do great things on behalf of their people. The White House is an ugly place now, just as America itself has become. It’ll only grow uglier.

(SFGate.com)

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GERRYMANDERING

by Aziz Huq

‘I think we’ll get five,’ President Trump said, and five was what he got. At his prompting, the Republican-dominated Texas legislature remapped the districts to be used in next year’s elections to the federal House of Representatives. Their map includes five new seats that are likely to be won by the Republicans, who already hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats. Until this year, the Democrat Al Green’s Ninth Congressional District covered Democrat-leaning south and south-western Houston. Now, it ranges east over Republican-leaning Harris County and Liberty County, with most of the former constituency reallocated to other districts. Green has accused Trump and his allies in Texas of infusing ‘racism into Texas redistricting’ by targeting Black representatives like him and diluting the Black vote. ‘I did not take race into consideration when drawing this map,’ Phil King, the state senator responsible for the redistricting legislation, claimed. ‘I drew it based on what would better perform for Republican candidates.’ His colleague Todd Hunter, who introduced the redistricting bill, agreed. ‘The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance.’…

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n19/aziz-huq/short-cuts

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GERRYMANDERING: THE ORIGIN STORY

by Mark Dimunation

The term for the political tactic of manipulating boundaries of electoral districts for unfair political advantage derives its name from a prominent 19th-century political figure — and from a mythological salamander.

The term, originally written as “Gerry-mander,” first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette — a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Gov. Elbridge Gerry.

Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Democratic-Republican Party, it was Gerry who signed the bill in 1812. As a result, he received the dubious honor of attribution, along with its negative connotations.

Gerry, in fact, found the proposal “highly disagreeable.” He lost the next election, but the redistricting was a success: His party retained control of the legislature.

One of the remapped, contorted districts in the Boston area was said to resemble the shape of a mythological salamander. The newly drawn state senate district in Essex County was lampooned in cartoons as a strange winged dragon, clutching at the region.

The person who coined the term gerrymander never has been identified. The artist who drew the political cartoon, however, was Elkanah Tisdale, a Boston-based artist and engraver who had the skills to cut the blocks for the original cartoon.

Gerry was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a two-term member of the House of Representatives, governor of Massachusetts and U.S. vice president under James Madison. His name, however, was forever negatively linked to this form of political powerbroking by the cartoon shown above, which often appeared with the term gerrymander.

The Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds the original print of the image, and the Geography and Map Division holds Tisdale’s original woodblocks — preserving the origins of a political practice that continues over two centuries later.

(blogs.loc.gov)

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REALITY V. GARBAGE

“The business incentives driving consumer AI development remain fundamentally misaligned with reducing hallucinations.” —The Singularity Hub on “X”

by James Kunstler

Which is to say, there is Reality, and then there is every other cockamamie aggregate of simulation pretending to represent Reality, i.e. garbage. How many millions among us already subscribe to the latter? Apparently, lots, and they are not evenly distributed these days. You surely know where to look for the un-Reality. The party of men can get pregnant, and all the rest. . . .

Enter A-I to make things worse. Probably a lot worse. We have failed to learn the chief lesson of the computer age, which is that the virtual is not an acceptable substitute for the authentic. So, we plunge deeper into realms of the un-real and the inauthentic. This turns into a quest to get something-for-nothing, and the unfortunate result of that old dodge is that you will end up with nothing, and that is exactly why we are at such a hazardous pass in the human project.

I apologize if the above seems too metaphysical. But that’s the scenery en route when a civilization flies up its own wazoo. Novelist Cory Doctorow has nicely labeled this the enshitification of daily life.

First of all, get this: A-I has already quit operating as-advertised. It has lost the “I” part. A-I does its thing by rapidly combing through the Internet to evaluate and seize information that you request. Increasingly, A-I colonizes the Internet with second-hand, third-hand, and so forth A-I-generated information. The more territory A-I seizes on the Web, and the more it trains itself on recursive feedbacks of its own garbage, the more distorted the output gets. As that occurs, A-I becomes increasingly abstracted from Reality, which is exactly what happens when a person goes insane. So, expect an exponential rise in incorrect content that would, in theory, become a pretty serious problem when you ask A-I to run things like systems we depend on, the electric grid, harvesting crops, warfare. . . .

Secondly, as that process runs, and probably before it gets very far, A-I looks like it will wreck the financial system, which, in turn, would crater the economy of everyday life — the ability of people to earn a living, buy stuff, support children, get food, and stay out of the rain. Zillions of dollars are being invested in A-I now and lately it is mainly what drives the capital markets. So far, alas, return on that investment is scant — actually, negative. The situation might never improve, and as the recognition hits, look out below. The only question is whether that happens before the central banks destroy the world’s currencies with money-printing.

One A-I application, robotaxi services such as Waymo, have never turned a profit. Will they ever? Doesn’t look good. Notice, too, that the elimination of cab-drivers means X-number fewer humans making a living to buy stuff (presumably made by other people in other jobs soon to be replaced by robots). Of course, that’s the self-replicating problem with all applied A-I in every field of employment. The more jobs eliminated, the fewer customers for anything. Please don’t tell me that guaranteed basic income fixes that problem.

In desperation — and due to certain weaknesses of human nature — another early attempt to monetize applied A-I turns out to be pornography: create your own personalized sex fantasy to-order. Companies are already producing the first rudimentary A-I sex robots, which, let’s face it, amounts to a masturbation industry. Why bother cultivating a real-live girlfriend when you can fall into the pre-heated silicon embrace of a Jennifer Lawrence simulation that will never talk back or ask for anything? You can easily see how that would result in a whole lot less human reproduction — of which there is already a signal shortage in Western Civ — meaning even fewer people to work at anything or buy anything or do anything, or simply be here in the pageant of Planet Earth.

The A-I pioneers managed to make the situation worse from the get-go. The Open A-I company’s Chat GPT, Google’s Gemini and Bard A-Is, and Facebook’s Meta A-I are all trained-up to be politically Woke-to-the-max, meaning on any given issue in the public arena their output is one patent absurdity or another. Note: last April, conservative activist Robby Starbuck sued Facebook when its chatbot reported out falsely that he had been on-the-scene for the Jan 6, 2021 US Capitol protest (he was in Tennessee that day). Facebook’s parent company, Meta, settled the case with Starbuck in August, 2025, for undisclosed terms and the company apologized publicly.

Two days ago, Mr. Starbuck sued Google for defamation (with malice and negligence) when it’s Bard A-I output alleged that he was a “child rapist,” a “serial sexual abuser,” that he abused and stalked his ex-wife (Starbuck states in his lawsuit that he has no ex-wife). It accused him further of fraud, embezzlement, drug charges, stalking business partners, and being a “shooter” or “person of interest” in a 1991 murder case (Starbuck was two years old at the time), of appearing in Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs (untrue), working as a porn actor, and voicing support for the Ku Klux Klan.

The A-I cited non-existent news articles from outlets such as Newsweek, The New York Post, Rolling Stone, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, and Salon, along with fake URLs and headlines (e.g., “Robby Starbuck Responds to Murder Accusations”). Starbuck demonstrated this in a podcast episode on October 22–23, 2025, where he queried the A-I live.

Google spokesman José Castañeda attributed the issues to its A-I “hallucinating” — which tells you that the recursive feedback of garbage content in A-I is already well-advanced. Prepare for ever more interesting mischief, while you watch your portfolio of index stocks go up in a vapor.

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LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT

An E.P.A. Plan to Kill a Major Climate Rule Is Worrying Business Leaders

Trump Administration Plans Shake-Up at ICE to Speed Deportations

Donald Trump Jr. Is Poised to Profit From Pentagon Drone Proposal

As Vance Takes on a Forceful New Role, His Positions Are Shifting

Bannon Claims ‘There Is a Plan’ for Trump to Run for a Third Term

Immigration Crackdown Spreads Through Chicago, Including Wealthy Neighborhoods

U.S. Says 6 Are Killed in Its Latest Strike on a Boat in the Caribbean

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GUILLOTINE SONG

Pentagon profiteer plutocrats
Genocide gigolos and Raytheon rats
Build robot armies and robot cops
Boil our water for AI slop
Poison our oceans and blacken our skies
Enslave our minds with hatred and lies
Well hey man I know something nicer
Let’s put their melons in the melon slicer

Steal our wages and crush dissent
Buy all the housing and raise the rent
Buy both parties so voting won’t work
Rig that election with a smugly smirk
Then send our children off to war
Cuz they got money but they want more
It needs to stop so here’s the stopper:
Set those melons in the melon chopper

Pedophile parties and private jets
While working people drown in debts
Using the press to manufacture consent
So no one asks where the money went
Pulling the wool up over our eyes
While the ice caps melt and the planet dies
These Palantir princes won’t look so chipper
When their melons meet the melon snipper

Watch those melons go snippety snip
For Iraq and Yemen and the Gaza Strip
For the hungry and homeless and the working poor
Listen to those melons hitting the floor
Watch those melons bounce down the stairs
Getting snip snap snippied in singles and pairs
Luigi was an underachiever
Poke those melons in the melon cleaver

— Caitlin Johnstone (2025)

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KING OF THE NORTH SEA: The Glories of Göteborg Organ Culture

by David Yearsley

The Christianization of Scandinavia took place over a few hundred years and was completed by the early 12th century thanks to Sigurd the Crusader, the Norwegian king who subjugated the intransigent pagans of southern Sweden with cross and broadaxe.

Another useful tool of wonder and pacification was the organ, which eventually came north to promulgate and bolster the new faith. Material testament to the spread of monotheism in Scandinavia can be seen, though no longer heard, in two organ cases, both now in the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm but originally built for churches on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. The more complete of the two comes from the town of Norrlanda and is crowned with crenellated battlements. Contained inside its artfully painted panels are the original mechanics that include the oldest surviving keyboard for the fingers—predating the typewriter by some six hundred years—as well as a row of elegant florets on the floor to be operated by the feet. The Norrlanda organ was not to be played with gauntleted hand or spurred boots but operated unarmed and unarmored. Yet this most advanced technological machine of the pre-industrial world projected a potent Christianized message.

Fly forward—courtesy of EasyJet—to today and the Göteborg International Organ Academy (GIOA) which takes place every year in this harbor city of stately avenues running between Victorian blocks, this ample grid graced by stately parks, intermixed with architecturally bold civic buildings (museums, concert hall, theater, a newer waterfront opera house) and studded with gleaming business and residential towers that stretch towards the sky but have the good sense not to scrape it.

Amongst this varied, yet still happily coherent, urban environment, are many churches—from the baroque to the mid-century modern—and even more organs.

The Swedish State Church was disestablished on January 1, 2000, a forthright recognition that it was time for the Christianity that had reigned for nearly a millennium to cede its dominion and tax dollars to secularism. Two-and-a-half decades on, the Swedes are still a great musical nation: vitally fostered by the church, singing is crucial to the culture. The organ too has retained its role, and no place is prouder then Göteborg of its organ heritage.

The Göteborg Organ Academy was founded in 1994 and the Festival takes place every October, proceeding with vigor, variety and very few pauses. As always, the program’s ten days were packed with morning group lessons for cosmopolitan students from across Europe; concerts in nearby towns; midday recitals on instruments of various vintages and sizes; afternoon seminars that explored the festival theme of “visions” — its open-endedness an invitation to see and hear the past and future in the present; and then recitals late into the night.

Many choirs joined in, in many different ways, as did various ensembles including the magnificent Göteborg Baroque, whose concert toured the Baltic Sea in the war-torn 17th century and into the war-torn 18th. The director, Magnus Kjellson, led his band through this richly reimagined itinerary from a now little-known instrument, the claviorganum: a combination of harpsichord and organ that was not uncommon in the 17th and 18th centuries and has now been recalled into vivid musical action here on the Swedish North Sea coast.

Some places of worship in Göteborg have at least two organs, often of substantial scope. Consecrated in 1890, the “New” Church in the district of Örgryte was built in what was then an empty field on a slope above the city. The suburbs have long since encircled its neo-Gothic walls and tower of redbrick, which now houses two massive organs in two separate balconies: one is a reconstruction of a massive north German instrument from 1699 that once stood in the Cathedral of Lübeck, capital of the Hanseatic League, but was obliterated in World War II; the other at the far end of the church is an almost-as-large English antique of the 19th century rescued from the even more vigorously secularizing United Kingdom.

The North German behemoth was operated by a conclave of international organists on a Friday night concert that proved that the North German Baroque was—and is—as kaleidoscopically colorful as anything digital devices can currently serve up and is easily as persuasive as the weapons wielded by today’s Crusaders of Artificial Intelligence.

The festival’s loudest organ is in the cavernous Vasa Church, a hulking edifice from 1908 whose name conjures thoughts of the extravagant, not to say overweening, Swedish ambition embodied in the ill-fated eponymous warship that sank on its maiden voyage in August of 1628 before it could even get out of Stockholm’s harbor. Both the Vasa Church and its contemporaneous organ glow, but also glower, in their Norse Art Nouveau splendor. The scale and magnificence of the architecture and decoration show no sign of the secularizing revolution that would soon, literally, gather steam. At the time the Vasa Church went up, Christianity was still on the advance and much of the music—not just of a Scandinavian cast, but also English, German, French, and American—heard there in many recitals last week matched the Medieval Monumentalism of its surroundings. Tiny by comparison, the battlements of the Norrlanda organ found their later-Christian counterpart in the twin crosses on the Vasa’s façade. Colossal Romantic works rumbled and echoed, sonically buttressing the neo-Romanesque arches off of which also bounced the occasional spate of more contemporary music. Throughout the festival, but especially in the Vasa Church (which is about a tenth the size of Trump’s Ballroom), it was impossible to fix oneself in time and space. Indeed, the point was not to.

No visible symbols of Christianity were to be seen in the Göteborg Concert Hall from the 1930s, even if sonic ones abounded on its organ— the festival’s largest. Gothic Revivalisms whispered their anachronistic prayers between bouts of contemporary cataclysm. The festival’s last weekend was crowned by a cross-arts extravaganza in that hall that included dance, voice, organ athleticism. Mahlerian world-weariness and Scandic solitude turned their tired faces to the Northern Lights. The bewildered human ballet dancers searched for meaning as the aesthetic and moral compass quivered and spun, illuminated still further at its climax by French virtuoso pyrotechnics. The organ made its case to be at the top of the charts for the End Times.

Adjacent to the Concert Hall is the Art Museum stretching across the top of Göteborg’s biggest public square. In front of the unornamented barrel arches cut into the museum’s flat façade stands a row of naked Classical bronzes on their plinths that look down the main boulevard towards the harbor. If it had been built in fascist Germany or Italy this ensemble would be scary. Actually, it’s pretty scary here too.

In the middle of the piazza stands a fountain with a big bronze statue of Poseidon from 1931. Greened by a lusty patina, the pagan god is naked but for a pointy little sauna hat. He holds a big slick fish that juts out and up from his waistline. This most prominent public art work in Göteborg must count as a harbinger of the Swedish permissiveness, not to say pornography, of the coming secular age.

So nonstop were the musical and musicological doings that one had to go AWOL to discover off-the-organ-piste offerings. An exhibition at the Art Museum lured me in: Apocalypse: From Last Judgement to Climate Threat. The centuries spanned by this engrossing, unnerving show matched the musical times encompassed by the festival. Coincidentally it seemed, organ music ghosted a bleak corner installation through which rode Albrecht Dürer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Vesuvius exploded in the Romantic Imagination and onto painterly canvasses; pre- and post-industrial dystopias foretold present and future catastrophes.

Thoughts of escape were quashed by a Nils Olav Bøe’s large format, staged photograph “From Dusk Till Dawn I” which finds a moldering 1960s-style trailer below a light blue sky with a few wispy clouds. There is no sign of that vehicle that brought it to this nowhere and the camper’s tires are deflated. This is the last stop. A clothesline hung with a few garments extends weakly into the wasteland and gives evidence of human activity. But no one is to be seen.

As I hurried from the museum to the next church on the festival program, I recalled that Nero didn’t fiddle as Rome burned and rebellion brewed outside its walls. No, the emperor played the organ. The music of experiment and progress, renewal and faith, heard across the rest of the festival sounded different after the Apocalypse; as the visionary riches swirled around in sacred space, I tried to convince myself that I better understood the lure of religion and the enduring majesty of the King of Instruments.

(David Yearsley is a long-time contributor to CounterPunch and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. His latest albums, “In the Cabinet of Wonders” and “Handel’s Organ Banquet” are now available from False Azure Records.)

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STEVE BANNON REVEALS PLAN FOR TRUMP TO SUBVERT CONSTITUTION AND REMAIN PRESIDENT BEYOND 2028

by Stephen M. Lepore

Steve Bannon revealed that ‘there’s a plan’ in place to allow Donald Trump to stay in the White House past the next presidential election in 2028.

Trump’s former top advisor has previously teased the idea that the president could evade the 22nd amendment - which limits people from being elected president more than twice.

In an interview with The Economist, Bannon spelled out in plain terms that team Trump has strategized how to keep him in the White House.

‘At the appropriate time we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there’s a plan and President Trump will be the president in ‘28,’ he said.

When questioned about Constitutional law, Bannon reassured the interviewers that there were ways around it.

‘There’s many different alternatives. At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is, but there’s a plan.’

Bannon is certain that the president will win re-election in 2028 no matter who the Democrats run.

‘He’s gonna get a third term. Trump is gonna be president in ‘28, and people just sort of [need to] get accommodated with that,’ Bannon said.

The longtime believer in the president went even further, referring to Trump as ‘a vehicle of divine providence.’

‘He’s not perfect. He’s not churchy, not particularly religious, but he’s an instrument of divine will. And you could tell this by how he’s been able to pull this off. We need him for at least one more term, right? And he’ll get that in ‘28.’

Bannon even said that it will be easier to win in 2028 than it was in 2024 and 2016.

‘We had longer odds in ‘16 and longer odds in ‘24 than we’ve got in ‘28. We have to finish what we started.’

Bannon’s remarks come as The New York Times reported that election integrity officials across the country were alarmed by a call with the Department of Homeland Security last month.

Heather Honey, DHS’ point person on the issue, spoke about the debunked claim that Trump’s 2020 loss was caused by widespread voter fraud.

Further, speaking to conservative activists in March, she seemed to let on that there could be a plan in place to alter the rules going forward.

One suggestion was Trump declaring a national emergency in order to put new rules on election officials at the state and local levels, potentially following an investigation into the 2020 election that could show it was fraudulent.

‘And therefore, we have some additional powers that don’t exist right now and therefore, we can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on,’ she said in March

She did make one cautious note, that the rest of the president’s inner circle might not go for it.

‘I don’t know if that’s really feasible and if the people around the president would let him test that theory.’

Honey added that voting machines have been rigged to favor Democrats and those in cybersecurity who try to dispel misinformation about elections have ‘strayed from their mission.’

Two other Trump loyalists, lawyer Kurt Olsen and activist Marci McCarthy, have also been hired of late at DHS.

Olsen worked with Mike Lindell to promote the notion that the 2020 election was stolen, while McCarthy spread incorrect claims about voting machines in Georgia as chairwoman of the DeKalb County Republican Party.

McCarthy now works at an agency - Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency - that put all of its election experts on leave or reassigned them since Trump took office.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called the report out for alleged hypocrisy when reached by the Daily Mail for comment.

‘During the Biden Administration, liberal mainstream media outlets did not have any issue with CISA performing duties outside of its statutory authority – to include censorship, branding, and electioneering.’

‘Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, CISA has returned to serving as the national coordinator for securing and protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure.’

They added that the Trump administration’s work was in line with one of his early executive orders.

‘CISA is focused squarely on executing its statutory mission: serving as the national coordinator for securing and protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure and is delivering timely, actionable cyber threat intelligence, supporting federal, state, and local partners, and defending against both nation-state and criminal cyber threats.’

Bannon first revealed in March that he was crafting a plan to help Trump stay in the White House until 2032.

Bannon, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign before a brief tenure at the White House as Trump’s strategist, announced in a NewsNation interview in March that he is preparing a legal path for the president to run in 2028.

The former White House strategist also denied reports that he has presidential ambitions after coming in second place behind VP J.D. Vance in a poll last month asking conservatives who the next GOP presidential nominee should be.

‘I’m a firm believer that President Trump will run and win again in 2028, so I’ve already endorsed President Trump,’ Bannon answered when asked if he is going to run.

‘A man like this comes along once every century if we’re a little lucky,’ he continued. ‘We’ve got him now, he’s on fire, and I’m a huge supporter. I wanna see him again in 2028.’

Host Chris Cuomo then pressed Bannon on exactly how he would enable the Republican to run for a third term despite the Constitution outlawing presidents from being sworn in three times.

Not willing to reveal his playbook to the audience just yet, the conservative media executive gave a cryptic answer.

‘We’re working on it,’ he told Cuomo. ‘I think we’ll have a couple of alternatives.’

Then Bannon teased a bit of his strategy.

‘We’ll see what the definition of term limit is,’ he continued.

Cuomo shot back in to clarify that Bannon, who was sent to prison for four months in 2024 after being found in contempt of Congress for not appearing before the January 6 Select Committee, was not planning an insurrection.

Instead, the host explained, Bannon is looking into litigating his way to a third Trump term.

‘You are not suggesting revolution or overthrow or anything that people would condemn?’ Cuomo asked.

Bannon said that was not that plan, adding ‘we’re huge believers in democracy.’

‘But this is many years in the making, so we’ve had greater long shots than Trump 2028,’ the former Trump counselor shared.

‘Got a lot of stuff we’re working on there. We’re not prepared to talk about it publicly, but in a couple of months, I think we will be.’

The 22nd Amendment specifically bans presidents from serving more than two terms.

‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ the Amendment, ratified in 1951 after Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times, states.

Trump has also floated his interest in running for a third term.

‘Am I allowed to run again?’ the president asked House Republicans last month.

One of those GOP members, Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., even introduced legislation in January to amend the 22nd Amendment.

His bill would stipulate that no president could be elected to a third term if they previously served two consecutive stints as president.

Ogles said in a statement after filing the proposal that he believes Trump will need another eight years to carry out his goal of reshaping America after Joe Biden’s presidency.

‘President Trump’s decisive leadership stands in stark contrast to the chaos, suffering, and economic decline Americans have endured over the past four years,’ he wrote.

(DailyMail.uk)

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