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COOL AND CLEAR conditions will continue today. Winds turning onshore will likely help form a marine layer early Sunday with light drizzle and rain along the North Coast. Clearer conditions will return early next week alongside another risk of interior frost. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cool 40F under clear skies this Saturday morning on the coast. Lovely weather until the holiday, then the chance of rain afterwards appears to be waning, we'll see ?
YESTERDAY, District Attorney David Eyster broke his over-two year long radio/press silence by telling MendoVoice reporter Sydney Fishman (in the story about the DA recusing himself from the LaFever case): “I don’t read a lot of the media … if I had time to read [local news], I wouldn’t have time to read another police report to get my job done, There’s a lot of people that say they are reporters and have falsely reported things on this office … There are people out there that would rather have drama than truth.”
For more than ten years DA Eyster was very communicative with local media. Since first being elected DA back in 2010 he posted dozens of comments on our website, all cordial, many of them useful, if minor, corrections. He gave us at least two feature-lengthy interviews. His last posted comment on our website was in May of 2023. Now he claims that he doesn’t have time to read local news because he has a busy caseload. But he has always had a busy caseload, it only became a time problem when he was criticized in the last couple of years. Of course, he didn’t name the people who “say they are reporters” who “have falsely reported things on this office.” But we all know who he’s referring to and that reporter has a long record of responsible, accurate and truthful reporting. If the tables were turned, we’re pretty sure the DA would want evidence to support such a serious accusation.
Remember, DA Eyster’s media silence began during the period leading up to the no-jail time sentencing of disgraced Ukiah cop Kevin Murray followed by the Cubbison fiasco. Surely, the DA knows that reporting on the DA’s bad decisions and criticism of his role in those cases does not constitute false reporting. False reporting requires knowingly publishing false information with intent to mislead or damage a person, and refusal to correct when something incorrect is pointed out.
Regarding the Cubbison case we also remember what Mr. Eyster said in response to the nascent recall petition a few months ago when he never complained of false reporting.
In his response to the recall petition notice, Eyster said, “A magistrate [Judge Ann Moorman] eventually held that the County’s record-keeping was flawed. After weighing that and hearing testimony from live witnesses, she stopped the proceedings early and long before trial.”
We doubt that the 17 month delay between the time Eyster filed the charge against Cubbison that was tossed out constitutes “stopping the proceedings early.” (We hope that the DA’s description of the 17 months leading up to the Preliminary Hearing when the case was dismissed was “early” is not the norm, and that trials like the one DA was pushing for would not have been even longer.) Obviously, the case against Cubbison was dismissed for several additional reasons, all of which were either known or should have been known to the DA before charges were filed.
Eyster also replied to the recall petition saying that everybody involved, including the DA, just did their job and “the court process was fair, correct and legal.” Omitting that the charge was thoroughly unsubstantiated and there was no credible evidence to support it.
Mr. Eyster has had plenty of opportunity to read the media reports about his conduct in office since May of 2023 without cutting into his prosecutorial duties. Prior to those two high-profile cases Eyster had nothing but praise for the local media with whom he communicated regularly. Although he occasionally provided useful minor technical corrections to some of our posts on one case or another, which we always published, he never expressed any sentiments along the lines of “false” reporting or allegations that any reporters prefer drama to truth or engaged in false reporting implying malice or reckless disregard. It was only after a complaints arose in two recent cases that the DA claims to have stopped reading local media or communicating with it.
Therefore, without evidence we have to apply what has come to be known as “Hitchens’ Razor” to the DA’s “false reporting” accusation: “What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.”
— Mark Scaramella
RAYMOND BRUCE NELSON
1944 - 2025
After a prolonged illness, Raymond "Bruce" Nelson passed away on November 13th, 2025 in McKinleyville, CA, with family by his side. He was able to say goodbye to family and friends before his passing and died on his terms, with courage, dignity and grace.
Bruce was born on November 10, 1944 in Ukiah, CA. He grew up in Potter Valley, CA, where he attended grammar school and high school. Bruce was a three sport star in high school eventually moving onto Humboldt State University where he played freshman football and basketball. He maintained lifelong friendships with those he grew up with. Over the course of his life, Bruce and family would return to Potter Valley Memorial Day Weekend to enjoy the rodeo and reminisce with those very same friends. He was proud to grow up a country boy along the Russian River.
When Bruce was thirteen years old he attended a birthday party in Potter Valley, where he was introduced to a friend's cousin visiting from the MidWest. It was then and there he met Janet Marie Dycus and fell immediately in love. He often stated he knew he had met the girl he was going to marry that day. True to his heart's desire, Bruce and Janet maintained a long distance relationship and ultimately married in January of 1965. At the time of his passing, Bruce and Janet had been married for 60 years and in love for 67.
Soon after marriage a new baby was on the way, whereupon, Bruce applied for, and then was accepted into, the academy of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). In 1966, baby Eric was born just before Bruce and family were sent to Redwood City for his first CHP assignment. The late 60's were turbulent times of civil unrest. Bruce was sent to all the major Bay Area riots and it was at a riot in Berkeley that his cheek was shattered by a brick. The unrest faded away and the early years of his career passed by. Soon, sons Ken and Chris were born and the family of five looked to greener pastures. In 1971, Bruce transferred with his family to Humboldt County. Bruce would spend the bulk of the rest of his career in Humboldt. He found his footing as a leader in his job and his community. He excelled in personal relations and the ability to break down complex dynamic situations into workable solutions. Bruce eventually promoted to Sergeant and took great pride in taking care of "his troops". Bruce retired from the CHP in 1997, after a 31 year career. Bruce's career achievements and indomitable charisma influenced his sons so much that all three became CHP Officers just like their father.
Bruce and Janet bought a retirement property in Willow Creek, CA, near the Trinity River and together they started their next chapter. Bruce planted a vineyard and built a beautiful country home with a wraparound porch. Within a few years they were bottling and selling their wines while also participating in the local Red Bud Theatre group. Bruce also found time to serve on the Willow Creek Community Services District Board for fifteen years. However, his most successful endeavor was to create an amazing property where friends and family could assemble and visit. It was there that thirteen consecutive family reunions were held with as many as four generations of family present at a time. From his porch Bruce would spend his evenings talking with family and emphasizing just how important family and friends were to creating a rich and successful life. Over the years people would come from far and wide to speak with Bruce on his porch while he dispensed sage wisdom and mentored many young people. He relished deep conversations and making meaningful connections. In his final days Bruce reflected on his life and said he wouldn't change a thing, doing it all over again just as he had. He believed not in material wealth or accumulated possessions but rather, in the value of family, living in the present, and enjoying the lasting echo of how he made people feel.
Bruce is preceded in death by his parents, Raymond and Lorna Nelson. He is survived by brothers Scott (Maggie) McKinleyville CA, Mike (Janice) Concord CA, Pete (Chris) Richvale CA, and former sister-in-law Naomi Abbott (Milt) McKinleyville CA. By sons Eric (Donna, Taylor, Carly) Willow Creek CA, Ken (Meredith, Jackson, Joseph) El Dorado Hills CA, and Chris (Christina, Madyson) Arcata CA. As well as many nieces, nephews and close friends.
Bruce has chosen a celebration of life to take place in Potter Valley, CA, on Memorial Day Weekend, 2026. The family would like to thank the staff at Timber Ridge McKinleyville for their tireless assistance and comfort. We would also like to thank the staff of Hospice of Humboldt for their incredible assistance through this difficult time. Please consider a donation in Bruce's honor to Hospice of Humboldt.
LOCAL EVENTS
CASEY BURRIS (Potter Valley):
Just in case some did not know: FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) has two items out there for comment. While both are very important please pay attention to Project No 77-318.
PG&E has filed in October to permanently change the water flows to 5 cfs through the diversion May 15th through September 30th if Scott Dam is not at Spill Condition. Because PGE will not fill up the lake we all know it will never be at Spill Condition. This 5 cfs they want to set would be for every year regardless if the year is a Normal, Dry or Critical year. Normally when they have done this they put an exemption on Potter Valley allowing I think up to 50 cfs because they have a contract with PVID (Potter Valley Irrigation District). By doing this they are violating that contract as they are not including that exemption in this request. Comments on this issue are due to FERC no later than December 1st.
This will not only hurt Potter Valley really bad I would guess Lake Mendo as well. I am sure Sonoma County would cut back the outflow on the lake if only 5 cfs was coming in which in turn would hurt water users south of the lake.
MEMO OF THE WEEK (CYA TIME AT MENDO COLLEGE)
Mendocino College is committed to fostering a safe, respectful, and supportive environment for our students, employees, and the broader community. This commitment guides every action we take as an institution.
On November 20, 2025, Mendocino College was informed that Jason Davis, a faculty member, was taken into custody by the Ukiah Police Department on charges involving unlawful conduct with a minor. Mr. Davis is presumed innocent until proven guilty. While the College cannot discuss personnel matters or share details related to ongoing investigations, we can confirm that Mr. Davis was placed on administrative leave when the initial allegations surfaced. This step was taken in accordance with College policy and reflects our priority to ensure the safety and well-being of our campus community while the College conducts its own internal review.
Mendocino College is fully cooperating with law enforcement as this matter proceeds. Because this is an active legal case, the College will not be providing further comment at this time.
BIG SHAKES AT FORT BRAGG PD: New Chief today?, Grand Jury Response, Transparency Portal
by Frank Hartzell
Three men — two from within the Fort Bragg Police Department and Interim Chief Eric Swift — are vying to become the city’s next chief this week. We expected a decision by Friday but the smoke signals have still not been sent out by Jason, Marcia, Lindy, Tess and Scott. It could be Monday now. All three would be a credit to Fort Bragg, and it’s hard to imagine any of these gentlemen struggling to work together once the decision is made. The two are Capt. Thomas O’Neal and Sgt. Jonathan McLaughlin.…
CITY OF FORT BRAGG EXPANDS CAPACITY FEE DEFERRAL PROGRAM to Support Small Businesses and Revitalize Commercial Areas Citywide
The Fort Bragg City Council has unanimously approved an expansion of the City’s Water and Sewer Capacity Fee Deferral Program, extending it beyond the Central Business District to all commercial zoning districts (CBD, CG, CH, CN).
The program is designed to help small, locally owned businesses overcome one of the biggest early hurdles they face—large, upfront water and sewer capacity fees—by allowing qualified businesses to defer those costs for up to five years, with repayment secured over time instead of all at once.
“This is about betting on our small businesses,” said City Manager Isaac Whippy. “We hear it over and over —folks have a great idea, a great location, and community support, but the upfront utility capacity fees can be the deal breaker. This program is our way of saying, ‘We believe in you, and we’re willing to walk alongside you as you get started or grow.’”
To Learn More or Apply
Small business owners and prospective entrepreneurs interested in the Capacity Fee Deferral Program can:
Visit the City’s Economic Development webpage (or City Hall front counter) for program guidelines and application materials
Contact the Economic Development Department at (707) 961-2823 or email [email protected] for one-on-one guidance
Talk with Planning and Building staff about whether their project, location, and use could be eligible
PALACE HOTEL OWNER PRAISED
by Justine Frederiksen
The newest owner of the most beloved and beleaguered building in downtown Ukiah, the Palace Hotel, was applauded and praised Wednesday after showing the Ukiah City Council his progress cleaning out the battered structure he bought “one year, one month and four days ago.”
“I can hardly believe my eyes,” Council member Mari Rodin told Tom Carter after he showed numerous photos of once-grand rooms now cleared of debris from collapsed flooring and other damage. “Congratulations, and thank you for all of the work you’ve done. I can’t believe it’s real. But when it’s going to be done? I can’t wait anymore!”
Vice-Mayor Susan Sher also complimented Carter, a Lake County resident who worked on the revitalization of Upper Lake’s Tallman Hotel, on the improvements revealed in the before and after photographs he showed the City Council during the board’s Nov. 19 meeting.
“I’m very impressed with what you’ve done, and there’s a little breath of fresh air,” Sher said. “But, there’s such a long way to go, and you’re going to need a ton of money. Who would put $30 to $40 million into that building?”
“It’s not going to be that much, it’s not even going to be close to that much,” said Carter, estimating that it would be more like half that, $19 to $20 million, to revive the long-empty building, which has been shuttered for more than three decades. Without naming anyone, Carter said he had “talked to a lot of investors, architects, engineers, tax people, and three people who want to put a restaurant in there.”
“Even if its $20 million, who is going to invest?” said Sher, repeating Rodin’s request for “some sort of timeline” regarding when Carter thinks the renovation project might be completed.
“I’m trying, and I’ve done more work in one year than has been done in 30 years,” said Carter, explaining that he tried to buy the building “for four years before I actually got it, and that four years made a lot of difference. When I first looked at this building, the bar (downstairs) was in perfect shape, now it’s pretty well half-rotten.
“This is a start, to get this thing out of code enforcement and get that red tag off it,” Carter continued.
“People see the potential, and there is a lot of interest. The good news for me is that on the business side, the money pencils out, but one of my biggest fears is getting into bed with the wrong people.”
As for a timeline, Carter said he was “on track to do this building in two years, if I had all the funding and permits (in place). But those could take me at least a year to get, so maybe four, or five years? I understand the city has been waiting a long time.”
“I wish you well,” Sher said, and Council member Heather Criss encouraged Carter to “not be a stranger,” and give the board more frequent updates.
City Manager Sage Sangiacomo then clarified that “I don’t know if we have a red tag” necessarily on the building, but that city officials were concerned about “the threat to public safety (the building poses), and can you speak to the timeline to being able to clear the health and safety concerns, like stabilization of the building, (because) those are the issues the city needs to see addressed.”
“I think we’re very close to that,” said Carter, and Sangiacomo reiterated that the city’s “primary concern is to clear the health and safety risk that had been previously identified, and I encourage you to continue working with our building department.”
“Thank you for the stabilization work that you’ve already done,” said Mayor Doug Crane, who before Carter’s presentation said: “We look forward to hearing a bit about your fun project, (and) you have to have a somewhat twisted sense of fun.”
During his presentation, Carter showed photos of the Otis Elevator, which he said “two days ago had its 100th birthday. Just for nostalgia, I’d like to get it operating again, but it won’t be the main elevator.”
After taking out tons and tons of debris — “You don’t want to see my Dump bill, it was ridiculous” — Carter said that “the asbestos has all been taken out” and all of the roof patches have “slowed down the (water encroachment) at least 50-percent, if not more. Several areas are staying totally dry now.”
One of the big reasons “why the water started coming in is because somebody sold off all the skylights a while back,” Carter noted, adding that “most of the sprinkler system was taken out and sold off,” as well, but now that he owns it, he hopes to “keep as many of the original elements as I can, (because) I want it to look old. People are going to go there because they want to see a historical hotel.”
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
FORT BRAGG’S NEW DESAL BUOY
by Carole Brodsky
Last week, a group of local and state officials gathered with the public at Fort Bragg’s South Harbor to be introduced to a creative team and a bright yellow object that just might play a long-term role in easing drought conditions on the coast.
Oneka Technologies and the City of Fort Bragg are collaborating on a one-year pilot project - the deployment of a “ResilienSea” desalination buoy. The cabin-sized device utilizes wave technology to desalinate coastal seawater, with all aspects of desalination taking place offshore.
The event was attended by CA District 2 Assemblymember Chris Rogers, CA District 12 Assemblymember Damon Connoly, Mendocino County Supervisors Madeline Cline and Bernie Norvell, and members of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the State Department of Water Resources.
Also on hand were Harbormaster Anna Neumann, Harbor District Vice-Chair Richard Shoemaker, members of the Fort Bragg City Council, and City staff.
John Smith, Director of Public Works for the City of Fort Bragg, noted, “We’re here for water. That’s been a challenge for us for a number of years starting in the ’70s,” he said, acknowledging prior support the Fort Bragg has received from the regulatory agencies in attendance. “2014 was the first wake-up call for us. We pretty much had no water in the river. We added one reservoir, which helped us out quite a bit. 2021 was also a bad year for us. If you lived in town, you knew what the consequences were. We don’t want to do that again, so we’re working on these other projects.”
Sarah McCormick works with the City of Fort Bragg and the Noyo Ocean Collective, and noted that the most recent drought lined up with the region’s first “Big Blue Economy Symposium” in 2022, which was around the time Oneka initially approached the City of Fort Bragg.
“It’s not every community that’s willing to let science drive the decision-making,” McCormick continues. She added that the pilot will include significant data collection and real-time monitoring of the buoy. She gave a shoutout to the Harbormaster, Sheila Siemens of the Noyo Center for Marine Science, and to City Manager Isaac Whippy for his work on the development of a municipal broadband utility. “This project is just one example of how we can invite innovation and new approaches to address some of our most challenging issues around climate resiliency through science and technology.”
The Fort Bragg location was selected for the project because of the pressing need for reliable water sources and the year-round wave activity necessary for Oneka’s system to work. Once deployed, scheduled for around April 2026, the 12-month demonstration project will attempt to prove that the system can help alleviate water security issues in this area and other coastal communities. In addition to the agencies listed above, permitting and studies are being facilitated in coordination with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Land Commission, Army Corps of Engineers, California Coastal Commission, and the US Coast Guard.
Oneka CEO and founder Dragan Tutic was on hand to thank the City, regulators, and other officials for their willingness to help the project move forward. A mechanical engineer by training, Tutic was initially drawn to the electronic vehicle workspace, but found the challenges and opportunities for desalination may provide a greater impact on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and the well-being of communities.
“Our mission is to make the oceans a sustainable and affordable source of drinking water,” he explained. The oceans are so abundant, and they have a lot of energy from waves, so why not tap into it to create water for coastal regions in California? The idea is to provide new sources to diversify and make the City more resilient to water scarcity.”
Unfortunately, Tutic noted, traditional desalination techniques currently in use throughout the world “essentially turn fuel into drinking water, contributing to accelerating climate change.” He explained that about 1% of the world’s water supply currently comes from desalination, but in the next 25 years, that industry will be responsible for a huge portion of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, “potentially even making more emissions than all of the aviation industry.”
He explained how Oneka’s technology differs from traditional desalination processes.
“The good news is that the ocean not only has the seawater that can become fresh for drinking; it also has a lot of energy in the form of waves, so by combining those two elements together, we can turn the seawater into freshwater- essentially turning waves to water for coastal populations. We turn waves into water without any electricity, without any energy cost, and also with a lot of simplicity, meaning a lot of the components normally required in the system are eliminated by directly pumping through reverse osmosis membranes.”
He continued, noting that the buoy will be anchored to the seabed, approximately ½ mile from shore. As the buoy moves via wave action, a taut rope will actuate a pump- similar to the action of a bicycle pump. “This pumps the seawater to reverse osmosis membranes. From there, the fresh water is pumped to the coastline.” During the pilot project, an HDPE pipe will send the treated water to the Wastewater Treatment Plant, noting that, potentially, water from an approved project would be connected to Fort Bragg’s water system.
Other units are currently operational in Chile and Florida. Tutic explained how a rope travels through an arrangement of pulleys that actuate the motion of the unit. “There’s also backup anchors to hold everything in place should something happen to that main line.” As there are no CO2 emissions involved in any aspect of the buoy’s operation, Tutic noted, “the device represents roughly 50 tons of emissions avoidance per year for one unit like this one. Brine is released from the surface right at the unit. It’s diluted really quickly because brine is heavier than the seawater. It is roughly about 5% more saline than the natural ambient seawater. During this project, we will monitor all the brine salinity around the unit and underneath it.” Tutic notes that the intake for the unit is covered by a 60-micron mesh. “It’s a really fine mesh that protects the unit from any incoming debris or anything that would try to come into the system. The size of the mesh will prevent the smallest fish larvae from entering the system,” he continues, emphasizing that this is one of dozens of elements that will be monitored throughout the pilot process.
It has taken approximately ten years and the development of several generations to create what Tutic feels is an appropriate system for scaling in coastal communities. He noted that the company has received a number of accolades. “We’ve gotten quite a lot of recognition from the industry, namely the World Economic Forum. They launched a water competition where we were among the 10 winners. We won the Department of Energy’s Waves to Water prize, where, with 70 other organizations, we were the one that was making the best water quality with the most water and the easiest to deploy. And in 2022, we won the Innovation Award from the Desalination Association.”
In 2022, Oneka was the first company to deliver liters of fresh water from the ocean using wave power. “The unit that you see here is the same unit that was actually installed in Nova Scotia last fall, and it withstood the worst conditions out there, which were an average of 20-foot waves covering it, with extreme waves of 30 feet, so really harsh conditions,” he noted, adding that the unit also survived a 10-year historic storm. “After the testing in Nova Scotia, we brought it here, and we’ll continue testing it on California’s big waves.”
“We’ll be assessing and monitoring all the environmental performance and other aspects of the system. The system is equipped with about 60 sensors monitoring pressures, flows, angles, strength, salinity, intake, outfall- a lot of data- and this helps us assess how it’s performing and will make sure we can do some proper maintenance on the system.”
From there, an onshore demonstration showed how water is sucked into a strainer, then to pre-filters and through the membranes, where fresh and seawater are separated and the brine is released back into the sea - all occurring with just the movement of waves. Tutic expects this unit to produce about 13,000 gallons of fresh water per day.
Based on their experience in the three other locations, Tutic feels the risk of entanglement of marine life in the system is very low, adding that addressing these protections is part of the permitting process. “All the ropes on the system are taut. Then we have chains on the ropes, so first-degree entanglement is physically not that likely.” Monitors, including cameras, will inform staff if any fish or other items, like nets, are to become entangled. “We’ve had systems installed in Florida, Chile, and Nova Scotia for a little over 3-4 years, and we’ve never had any animals entangled in our systems.”
If this project were to go forward beyond the pilot phase, Tutic notes that their research has shown it to be more cost-effective to engineer more of the same-sized systems rather than produce larger units. The devices are built in Canada, which is Oneka’s home base, and Tutic noted that the vast majority of the equipment needed for the systems still fell within the existing trade agreement between the US and Canada, so the cost was minimally affected by tariffs. He also noted the company is working toward compliance with the “Movement Toward Sustainability” goals set forth by the United Nations, which involves the use of clean energy, no use of land mass to create the fresh water, no use of chemicals in the desalination process, and monitoring and protection of marine life.
Tutic holds up a glass of clear water that has been desalinated during his presentation. “It’s about 170 PPM, so it’s really good quality water. We don’t let people drink it, but I can,” he grins, and takes a sip. “It tastes like water,” he smiles.
(advocate-news.com)
MARGERY PFUND LIVING TRUST DONATES $408,000 to Expand Spay and Neuter Services in Mendocino County
Mendocino County Animal Care Services is proud to announce a transformative gift of $408,000 from the Margery Pfund Living Trust, dedicated exclusively to expanding spay and neuter services throughout the county.
This generous donation will significantly increase access to low-cost and no-cost sterilization procedures for pets and community animals, helping reduce shelter intake, prevent unwanted litters, and improve overall animal welfare. The funding will support mobile clinics, veterinary staffing, outreach efforts, and partnerships with local hospitals and rescue organizations.
“We are deeply grateful to the Margery Pfund Living Trust for this extraordinary contribution,” said Amy Campbell, Director of Mendocino County Animal Care Services. “This gift honors Margery Pfund’s legacy of compassion and commitment to animals, and it will have a lasting impact on our community for years to come.”
The donation comes at a critical time, as the county continues to address pet overpopulation and promote responsible pet ownership. With these new resources, Animal Care Services will be able to reach underserved areas, assist more families, and ensure that every animal has a healthier, safer future.
For more information about upcoming spay and neuter services, please call the Animal Care Services clinic line at 707-463-4782.
FROM EBAY, A POSTER OF LOCAL INTEREST (via Marshall Newman)
AV UNITY CLUB HOLIDAY BAZAAR
by Miriam Martinez
The time is near
We bring good cheer
Santa's coming here
Join the Unity Club at the Fairgrounds Apple Hall to celebrate the Holidays and to welcome Santa to our Holiday Bazaar on Saturday December 6th. The Bazaar is open from 10 to 4. Admission is FREE. Santa will be in the building from 11 to 1 for photos with all the girls and boys. Donations of $1 or more are welcome.
You will smell the good food when you enter the Hall. Baked goods, preserves, and candies will be waiting for you at the first booth. The Snack Shack has tamales and pozole for a hearty snack, along with beverages. Support the AV Panther Senior Class while nourishing your body.
The Parent Teacher Alliance will sponsor the Craft Corner adjacent to the Bazaar in the Dining Room. Children can create ornaments and other Holiday crafts for the family.
Grandma's Attic will feature ornaments and decor from bygone days. Useful household items, puzzles, and hand-crafted items will be up for adoption at reasonable prices.
Many fine artists and craft persons have worked for months to create beautiful gifts for your loved ones. The Bazaar is a community event and we are so happy to have our local artisans showcased for everyone to enjoy.
Young or older, everyone loves a good book. My great-grandkids get so excited when I give them a book and we sit down to read it together. The Lending Library has a great selection of previously read books for sale at just $1 for hardbound and 2 for $1 paperbacks. Extended Saturday hours for the Library, in the Home Arts Building, will be from 10 to 4 during the Bazaar.
The Grand Raffle will be of a beautiful evergreen Wreath made by AV High School students of the Agriculture Institute. It will be decorated with money totaling $50. Raffle tickets are $1, or 6 for $5. That's an $85 value for such a small investment. The more tickets you buy, the better your odds of winning.
Local merchants and artists have donated goods and services to our Silent Auction. Stroll around the Auction booth and place a bid on a gift for yourself or a loved one.
Saturday December 6th from 10 to 4 in the Apple Hall: the AV Unity Club's Annual Holiday Bazaar. Santa will be there from 11 to 1. We hope you can be there too.
All proceeds go to Scholarships and Community projects here in Anderson Valley.
MENDOCINO COUNTY WAY BACK WHEN (Ron Parker)
THE ‘BIGGEST OF EVERYTHING’ REPORTS
by Katy Tahja
It was common years ago to report to the local newspaper if you had managed to grow the “biggest” of anything. From historian Nannie Escola’s newspaper clippings, we found attention directed to the “biggest” things around Mendocino.
In November 1878, E.C. Toushes of Navarro brought in three cabbages weighing 22, 25, and 26 ¾ pounds to the newspaper office for inspection. W.H. Kent of Ten Mile River grew a 33-pound cabbage and a six-pound potato. A turnip from WM Heeser’s ranch was 50 inches in circumference and weighed 26 pounds.
Ocean and animal life was reported on too. In February 1882 a “devil fish,” (octopus) was captured off the coast. It possessed tentacles 11 feet six inches long. In July 1882, a leghorn hen laid an egg six and a half inches in circumference and three inches long.
In October 1884, Hillman Perkins of Salmon Creek presented the editor apples weighing 24 and 16 ounces, 13 and a half and 12 3/4 inches around, respectively. W.H. Oppenlander of Comptche reported his tomato crop featured vegetables six inches wide in October 1910.
The Apple Show in Mendocino City in November 1913 featured an eight-pound potato grown at the L.E. White Lumber Company ranch in Greenwood. The largest apple at the show was 18 inches tall and 16 ¼ inches in circumference and won the prize for Mrs. F.F. McKee of Bear Harbor. Corn stalks over 14 feet high were shown by W.H. Oppenlander. A nine-pound pumpkin was displayed by H.C. Steudeman, who was in charge of Mendocino Lumber Company’s ranch on Big River.
Sometimes the number was not weight or circumference, but sheer numbers. In 1893, the Beacon reported 400 cypress trees were to be planted around Mendocino High School’s hall. In 1906, the Beacon reported 20 rows of eucalyptus, and an outside row of cypress were to be planted around Noyo Harbor to break the wind. I wonder if any of these trees are still growing?
In a note from Mrs. Ford’s letter from Mendocino to Bell Vaughn dated November 3, 1941, it addressed the biggest redwood ever cut on Big River. Located at the Little North Fork about one and a half miles up the creek on the south bank, the stump was 21 feet across, and the log cut was 12 feet long and 13 feet six inches wide. It floated to the sawmills.
(kelleyhousemuseum.org)
MENDOCINO NATIVE AT THE HEART OF AN EARLY BIRTHRIGHT CITIZEN COURT CASE
by Averee McNear
Born in 1870 in Mendocino, Look Tin Eli’s influence would travel far beyond the coast.
Built on the south side of Main Street, Mendocino’s Chinatown grew quickly in the mid-1800s with the increase in Chinese immigration to the U.S. In the early 1860s, Look Bing Tai immigrated to the U.S. He married Su Wang, and the couple had four children on the coast, the eldest being Look Tin Eli. Look Bing Tai opened his general store in 1870, where it operated for more than 40 years before a fire destroyed it in 1911.
At nine years old, in 1879, Look Tin Eli was sent to his father’s home in Guangzhou, China for his education, a common practice at the time. At the same time, significant anti-Chinese sentiment spread across the U.S. Federal lawmakers passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from entering the country and banned them from becoming naturalized citizens.
Five years later, in 1884, young Look Tin Eli began the journey back to his family and arrived in San Francisco. He was denied the right to reenter when he could not produce a document proving his prior U.S. residency, a requirement that didn’t exist when he’d left five years earlier. At the time, birth certificates were not regularly issued yet and passports were rare.
He was detained at Angel Island for 21 days. With the help of Chinese groups in San Francisco, the Look family hired attorney Thomas Riordan, who requested a habeas corpus hearing. Riordan argued that Look Tin Eli was indeed a citizen based on the Fourteenth Amendment, which deemed anyone born in the U.S. a citizen.
The prosecution questioned whether Look Tin Eli had rescinded his birthright because he spent so many years abroad, questioning his allegiance to the U.S. Justice Stephen Field did not find any evidence to support this argument and ruled that children born in America were citizens regardless of their ancestry.
Look Tin Eli was able to return to Mendocino. As an adult, he moved to San Francisco where he established the first Chinese-American bank in the city and played an important role in rebuilding San Francisco’s Chinatown after the 1906 earthquake. His court case was later used as precedent for the 1898 United States vs Wong Kim Ark decision, which upheld that anyone born in the U.S. was a citizen.
Averee McNear is the Kelley House Museum curator. To learn more, visit kelleyhousemuseum.org.
(Kelley House Museum)
THE WRECK OF THE FROLIC
The story of the brig Frolic is one of the Mendocino Coast’s most important and enduring tales. On July 25, 1850, the sleek Baltimore clipper, returning from China with a cargo of porcelain, silk, and other goods destined for booming Gold Rush San Francisco, struck a submerged reef just north of today’s Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. The damaged ship settled in a cove at the north end of what is now state park property. The captain and crew abandoned the wreck and made their way south, leaving both the ship and its valuable cargo behind. Native Pomo reached the site soon after, salvaging jars, bottles, and cloth that later made their way into village life throughout the region.
In 1851, Jerome B. Ford traveled north to recover what he hoped would be a fortune in Chinese merchandise. Instead, he discovered the vast redwood forests of the region. Ford brought news of this immense timber resource back to Henry Meiggs, whose company soon established the first Mendocino sawmill on the headlands above Mendocino Bay. When the mill opened in 1853, it became the foundation of the town of Mendocino and helped launch the redwood lumber industry that would shape the coast for decades.
The Frolic remained part of local lore until the mid-twentieth century, when divers rediscovered the wreck site. In the 1980s, archaeologist Dr. Thomas Layton traced fragments of Chinese ceramics found in an inland Pomo village to the ship’s final cargo. His research led to formal archaeological surveys that confirmed the site as one of California’s most significant Gold Rush-era shipwrecks.
In 1994, Mendocino County museums collaborated on a major exhibit, Journey of the Frolic, which brought this remarkable history to the public. A dramatic half-scale replica of the Frolic’s bow, designed by Horace Irwin and built by Sam Waldman and Don and Wilma Tucker with a grant from the California Council for the Humanities, was installed on the Kelley House lawn as the centerpiece of the countywide celebration. At the same time, Len Peterson completed an intricate scale model of the ship for display at the Kelley House Museum. Together, these exhibits helped visitors visualize the vessel that inadvertently set Mendocino’s lumber era in motion.
(Kelley House Museum)
CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, November 21, 2025
SARAH BALLARD, 33, Elk Grove/Ukiah. Controlled substance while armed with loaded firearm, petty theft with two or more priors, paraphernalia, loaded firearm in public, undetectable firearm.
FRANCISCO GONZALEZ, 35, Ukiah. County parole violation.
ROBERTO MATA, 41, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
MICHAEL MCBRIDE, 35, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear, probation revocation.
EUSEBIO ROBLES-JUAREZ, 29, Potter Valley. DUI with blood alcohol over 0.15% with priors.
DYLAN RUMBLE, 26, Willits. Unspecified offense.
DESIREE SHELLHART, 40, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
TRUMP'S NOT LINCOLN
Editor:
November 19 was the 162nd anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” Lincoln’s speech is considered one of the greatest in presidential history. His address paid tribute to the fallen Civil War soldiers and harkened back to the ideals of our founders, calling for a new vision of freedom.
Less than two years later, on March 4, 1865, Lincoln gave his second inaugural address. He ended his address with the following healing words: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Over the course of the past eight years, our current president, has, on numerous occasions, compared himself to Lincoln. I encourage folks to read and reread Lincoln’s words. Absorb them. Then, read one of Donald Trump’s many malice-laden, unhinged speeches. Any comparisons?
Dan Schmitt
Windsor
MITCH CLOGG
Winter is icumen in. I hate it. My bones hate it. I have no fat for insulation. Soon there will be frost on the neighbors’ roofs, on my roof, my mood.
It’s not like looking forward to snowball fights, to sledding and skiing. I’m too old and brittle, and it doesn’t snow here anyway. In “A Moveable Feast,” Ernest Hemingway’s memoir about his early years in Paris, he told how he and his wife went to the Alps in winter to escape the drizzly cold of Paris. They skiied. In a typically boastful way he wrote that they goddamn well climbed the hills herringbone style—no chickenshit chairlifts—which grew and strengthened their leg muscles and headed off broken bones.
We get the drizzly cold, like Paris. We get the rain. We get the rain. We get the rain.
When we don’t get the rain, we get warnings from officials who mind such matters, telling us that Shasta Lake is not full is not full not full. We will all die of fire and thirst, come summer. Crops will wither and forests burn if the winter is not sufficiently wretched. Also, the snow in the mountains, our biggest reservoir, must be deep enough to quench California’s Brobdingnagian summer thirst.
I took a class in aikido. The Grand Conclusion was a visit from an aikido master, who I can’t remember. I don’t know how our pretty instructor spelled her name. Maybe “Janfree.” Whatever—we all trooped down to Big River Beach. Believe it: there were spots of actual snow on the actual beach. I’m not making this up. We shed our aikido robes, kept presentable by underwear, swimsuits, etc., and stepped into the wintery Big River. Oh—and before that we chanted, Om-m-m-m-m or some such. The sound came back off of the facing hillside. I kid you not, the chanting seemed to have a warming effect.
Then into the water. I expected a deadly shock. Didn’t feel it. The thing was to submerge completely, head and all. Did that. The Master very soon said we could come out and dry off. I wanted to say aw-w-w-w because the curiousness of being in such cold water and not freezing put me in a jubilant mood. So there was that.
While snow is a rarity here, it does happen. I have a collection of pictures. When Ellie and I lived in the Village (Mendocino), it snowed one night. I was up early (it melted fast) and traipsed around town snapping pictures, which I still have somewhere. From the high school’s hill, the Village sprawls out below. The snowy roofs and the smoke rising from the chimneys, the empty streets and absence of activity were like scenes from Siberia, grimly gorgeous. Wreaths on front doors had snow on them. Near the Baptist Church, somebody in a car had done wheelies on the snowy street.
Winter starts in a month, officially. As far as I’m concerned, THIS is winter.
I complain. I believe in complaining. It helps. But I have never seen a REAL winter. I have never seen it so when you take a pot of fast-boiling water outside and throw it up in the air, it freezes before it hits the ground. I’ve never seen it that cold. An eskimo band has a phrase, “the ground comes up to meet you.” That refers to urine, freezing before it hits the ground and making a stalagmite.
Once-wife Linda, long dead, and I lived in a more-or-less defunct hamlet in Maryland, 30 miles outside of Baltimore, to the north. We rented a house near a railroad track. There came a winter night forecast to be deadly cold. The landpeople recommended I drain certain outside pipes and somehow insulate others. It went down to sixteen below zero that night, far and away the coldest I ever saw. Across the street was a biggish old house with an old lady and a bunch of cats in it. No electricity, no heat. I guessed that she had a pride of cats under the covers with her. The following morning was bright. Her front porch faced east. I was worried and glanced over there. She sat on her porch, shawl, scarves and cats on her, in the rocking chair, in full morning sunlight. There was giant wolf spider beside her on the side of the chair.
Friends from Duluth visited here recently. Duluth is at the westernmost point of Lake Superior. It is a cold city, colder than Moscow, which is famously frigid in winter; colder than almost anywhere. Lotsa Scandihoovians everywhere. Doug and Helena (he from southern California, she from Texas) have little time for my Mendocino-winter complaints.
I’ve looked on winter as a time of high culture. I don’t go to the Stanislaus River or throw Frisbee on the beach. Music, theater, restaurants, movies and museums beckon in winter. Auditoriums smelling of moist wool. Now I look on it as a time to be got through, not as hardy as I once was, too broke for fancy outings, etc.
And if winter comes…etcetera.
THANK YOU, FOG
Grown used to New York weather,
all too familiar with Smog.
You, Her unsullied Sister,
I’d quite forgotten and what
You bring to British winters:
now native knowledge returns.
Sworn foe to festination,
daunter of drivers and planes,
volants, of course, will curse You,
but how delighted I am
that You’ve been lured to visit
Wiltshire’s witching countryside
for a whole week at Christmas,
that no one can scurry where
my cosmos is contracted
to an ancient manor-house
and four Selves, joined in friendship,
Jimmy, Tania, Sonia, Me.
Outdoors a shapeless silence,
for even those birds whose blood
is brisk enough to bid them
abide here all the year round,
like the merle and the mavis,
as Your cajoling refrain
their jocund interjections,
no cock considers a scream,
vaguely visible, tree-tops
rustle not but stay there, so
efficiently condensing
Your Damp to definite drops.
Indoors specific spaces,
cosy, accomodate to
reminiscence and reading,
crosswords, affinities, fun:
reflected by a sapid
supper and regaled by wine,
we sit in a glad circle,
each unaware of our own
nose but alert to the others,
making the most of it, for
how soon we must re-enter,
when lenient days are done,
the world of work and money
and minding our p’s and q’s.
No summer will ever
dismantle the global gloom
cast by the Daily Papers,
vomiting in slip-shod prose
the facts of filth and violence
that we’re too dumb to prevent:
our earth’s a sorry spot, but
for this special interim,
so restful yet so festive,
Thank You, Thank, Thank You, Fog.
– W.H. Auden (1972-73)
“FOR PEOPLE could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn't escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath. Together with breath it entered human beings, who couldn't defend themselves against it, not if they wanted to live. And scent entered into their very core, went directly to their hearts, and decided for good and all between affection and contempt, disgust and lust, love and hate. He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”
― Patrick Süskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all Friday night on KNYO and KAKX.
Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is six or so. 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:
Duo Baldo. https://myonebeautifulthing.com/2025/11/19/duo-baldo/
Free Bird solo on plastic soprano recorder. https://x.com/i/status/1989891183280062623
And flying a camera drone into a tornado. https://theawesomer.com/flying-a-camera-drone-into-a-tornado/788311/
Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
I LED THREE LIVES: College teacher, Pot Grower and Marijuana Journalist
by Jonah Raskin
Unlike Frederick Engels, I have never owned a factory, but like Engels I have been and still am a Marxist. For decades, I was also a capitalist in the cannabis world and a criminal, too, in the Marxist definition of the word. In Theories of Surplus Value, Engels’ buddy Karl Marx writes that a criminal “breaks up the monotony of bourgeois life” and also a major producer of both use and exchange value in capitalist society. I exchanged weed for a car and a teepee which provided a home for a couple of years.
“A criminal,” Marx explains, “produces crimes, criminal law, the police, criminal justice, penal codes, arts, bell-letters, novels.” As a criminal in the cannabis world in California when I was in my 30s and 40s I wasn’t alone. There were tens if not hundreds of thousands of us in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, cultivating, harvesting, transporting, selling and consuming weed. I left the commercial industry at about the same time that California voters approved Proposition 215 which legalized medical marijuana in the Golden State.
Becoming a marijuana grower and trafficker certainly enlivened my own life, and, while I don’t take sole credit for producing crime, criminal law, cops and penal codes I played a small part in the big picture. Also, as a marijuana journalist and as writer of fiction and nonfiction as well as a creator of a feature film about marijuana I helped to produce the literature and the culture that reflected the industry and its workers.
I had read about capitalism in The Communist Manifesto and elsewhere before I entered the cannabis world but I had no direct experience as a capitalist until I grew and sold weed. From first hand experience, I learned about the rules of supply and demand, the fluctuations of the market, the role of the police in regulating the industry and in helping to set prices. Raids put a dent in the supply and jacked up prices. I also witnessed the vital role that marijuana dollars played in fueling the California economy when it needed fueling. Growers and dealers struck me as modern day pirates.
Ever since the early days of capitalism, crime and criminals helped with the “primitive accumulation of wealth.” Indeed, marijuana farmers and traffickers extended the story of primitive accumulation into the 20th century. Marx explained that “The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signaled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.”
True, capitalism had long existed in California and elsewhere before the cannabis industry came along, but cannabis boosted local economies, especially in Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Lake counties when the lumber and fishing industries failed, men and women were out of work, tax dollars dried up and when commerce in small towns and cities suffered. Marijuana revived towns like Garberville, Willits, Eureka, Arcata, Sebastopol and truck stops in-between. Vineyards, grapes and wine would follow in the wake of weed.
My father was the first commercial marijuana grower I knew. A bootlegger and a rum runner in the 1920s who delivered Prohibition booze to speakeasies, he belonged to the Communist Party in the 1930s and had a long lucrative career as a lawyer on Long Island during the real estate boom of the 1950s. While he called himself a Marxist he was more of an economist determinist. His favorite book was Charles Beard’s An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, which is due for a reevaluation today as the nation celebrates its 250th birthday. The second commercial marijuana grower I knew came from a prosperous Marin County family and ran his operation like a corporation with employees, wages and bonuses and armed guards to protect against thieves. If only hippies had been growing it I would probably not have been interested. My dad was growing marijuana he told me, because his monthly social security check and his savings didn’t cover basic expenses.
I didn’t know about his crop until he was dying of cancer. A month or so before his death, a day before his 67th birthday, he called me to his bedside, told me his secret and made me promise not to share it with my mother or anyone else. When he died before his crop had gone the distance and reached maturity I harvested it, cured it and transported it to an apartment in Santa Rosa in a working class Mexican neighborhood where I was living and writing. Every morning for several months I rolled half a dozen or so joints, smoked them, got stoned and worked on a book with my by-line which was published in 1980 under the title My Search For Traven. I would write other books aided and abetted by marijuana.
The smell of marijuana leaked out of my Santa Rosa apartment, so much so that a neighbor knocked on my door and asked me to sell him weed. That was my first deal. He handed me cash and I forked over a baggie. I transported weed on a flight to New York in a suitcase. In a rented vehicle I drove pounds to Los Angeles where I sold them at $4,000 a pound to my friend Mark Rosenberg who I knew from our days in SDS together and who was then the president of Warner Brothers pictures. Mark gifted ounces as end-of-the-year bonuses to men and women who’d worked on movies he produced such as The Fabulous Baker Boys. I sold the idea of a marijuana movie titled Homegrownwhich was produced in 1996, soon after California approved of medical marijuana. I also wrote articles and stories about weed for High Times magazine under the alias Joe Delicate. High Times also published my book, Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War which was also published in France under the same title. “Everyone in France knows the word marijuana,” my translator told me. Around the world, it’s known as marijuana, though it’s also known as ganja, grass, cannabis, dagga and more.
Yes, I was growing it at the same time I was writing about it, and from 1981 until the end of the decade I was a grower and an instructor in the English Department at Sonoma State University, paid about $6,000 a semester – not enough to live on.
After growing for a couple of years in Sonoma County and after tense helicopter surveillance, I grew in Mendocino east of Willits on a mountain top where 75 or so families also grew marijuana. On Main Street in Willits I saw marijuana dollars change hands as growers bought cars and trucks, groceries and gifts at Christmas for the kids. Hypocrisy ruled. Local business folks took the pot money with both hands and insisted there was no marijuana money in Mendocino. “Go to Oregon if you want that story,” a head of the Willits chamber of commerce told me.
I grew during Reagan’s presidency and during the war on drugs, which was really a war on people, when civil rights were violated, and also when greed often ruled on pot farms. My friend Ray Raphael, a Humboldt County teacher, tells the story of how hippies became capitalists in Cash Crop: An American Dream. Indeed, weed was and still is as American as apple pie and mom; a countercultural sacrament that was embraced by agriculture and became an industry.
Michelle Alexander tells the harrowing story of how weed laws and the enforcement of weed laws led to the persecution of young men of color in her landmark book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. In Northern California white men and women were also arrested and incarcerated. In big cities people of color were the big target of law enforcement as they are also the main targets of ICE today. It ain’t fair and it’s crying shame.
My experiences in the weed world provided me with a real education in economics and politics. I got out of the biz when I was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach American literature in Belgium where I didn’t know a single dealer. When I came home I was hired to teach fulltime and with a pension at Sonoma State University. For a decade I had worried that I’d be arrested and lose my part-time teaching job. Fortunately, I was able to lead three lives as a marijuana grower, a college teacher and as a pot reporter.
After I gave up growing commercially, I continued to grow a modest crop for my own personal use. I even grew it in my backyard at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, but the cold, the fog and the wind didn’t favor marijuana cultivation. I use a salve today that combines THC and CBD and helps with arthritis. I’m happy it’s legal, happy there aren’t the kinds of mass arrests there once were, still distressed that the White House and war drug warriors lied to the American public about the danger of a flower that humans have relied on for their health and for spiritual harmony for thousands of years.
Did Marx and Engels smoke weed? Probably not. But they might have. After all Marx said “Nothing human is alien to me” and weed has rarely been alien to humans, from ancient China and ancient Egypt to Chile and California today.
(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)
ROBERT MITCHUM
On September 1, 1948, Robert Mitchum was arrested in a raid by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives at a small party in the Laurel Canyon home of actress Lila Leeds.
The arrest followed months of surveillance by the Los Angeles Police Department and was later believed to have been a setup designed to generate publicity for the LAPD's anti-drug efforts.
On February 9, 1949 Mitchum pleaded no contest to charges of conspiracy to possess marijuana cigarettes and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and several years' probation.
He was released 10 days early for good behavior, serving a total of 50 days.
Mitchum's conviction was officially overturned by the Los Angeles court in 1951 after evidence of the setup was exposed.
THIS ONE-OF-A-KIND ROADSIDE ATTRACTION In California Is A Must-Visit For Anyone Who Loves The Extraordinary
Ever driven through the giant redwood forests of Northern California and felt like the world was a little…tilted? There’s a spot just off Highway 101 where that feeling isn’t just in your head. It’s a place where gravity seems to play by its own rules, water flows uphill, and you’ll find yourself questioning your own senses at every turn. It’s a classic American roadside attraction, a delightful throwback to a time when the journey was just as important as the destination.
For generations, families have pulled over to experience this bizarre pocket of the world. It’s a perfect pit stop on a long drive, offering a chance to stretch your legs and boggle your mind. Part nature trail, part science-defying funhouse, this place is packed with quirky charm. You can wander through towering trees, marvel at whimsical wood carvings, and even take a ride on a miniature train through the forest. It’s a delightful blend of natural wonder and man-made weirdness that has to be seen to be believed.
This legendary spot is none other than Confusion Hill. Located in Leggett, it’s a must-do for anyone traveling along the Redwood Highway. Whether you’re a skeptic ready to debunk the mystery or just looking for some good old-fashioned fun, this place delivers an experience you won’t soon forget. Get ready to have your perceptions challenged and leave with a smile on your face.
What We Love
The Gravity House
The main event, and for good reason, is the world-famous Gravity House. Step inside this rustic cabin, and you’ll immediately feel off-kilter. Things that should be simple, like standing up straight or walking in a line, suddenly become hilarious challenges. You’ll see balls roll uphill and watch as your friends appear to shrink or grow depending on where they stand in the room.
It’s a fantastic, hands-on experience that messes with your brain in the most entertaining way possible. The tour guides do a great job of demonstrating the bizarre phenomena and explaining the theories behind this “gravitational anomaly.” It’s a blast for all ages and the source of some truly unforgettable photos and memories.
Redwood Shoe House
You can’t miss the giant Redwood Shoe House, a whimsical structure that looks like something straight out of a fairy tale. Carved from a single massive redwood log, it’s a testament to the quirky creativity that defines Confusion Hill. It’s one of those classic photo ops that you just have to take when you’re here.
While you can’t go inside, it’s a perfect example of the fun, imaginative spirit of the place. It sits near the entrance, welcoming you to a world where the ordinary rules don’t apply. Kids especially love it, and it sets the tone for the delightful weirdness you’re about to experience throughout the park.
The Mountain Train Ride
For a different perspective on the beautiful redwood forest, hop aboard the Mountain Train. This charming miniature train takes you on a scenic 30-minute ride up the steep hillside, navigating switchbacks and trestles along the way. It’s a relaxing and enjoyable journey that offers a glimpse into the logging history of the area.
The ride provides a wonderful break from walking and gives you a chance to simply sit back and soak in the majestic scenery. The route is cleverly designed, and the gentle pace is perfect for families with young children or anyone who wants to appreciate the towering trees from a unique vantage point.
Unique Wood Carvings
As you wander the grounds, you’ll be greeted by an incredible collection of chainsaw wood carvings. The most famous of these is the “World’s Largest Free-Standing Redwood Chainsaw Carving,” a massive totem pole that tells the story of the area. But the art doesn’t stop there; you’ll find whimsical creatures, funny characters, and intricate sculptures tucked away all over the property.
These carvings give Confusion Hill its unique personality and charm. They’re a celebration of folk art and the natural beauty of the redwood from which they were carved. Take your time to explore and discover them all—each one has its own story and adds to the magical, slightly strange atmosphere of the park.
The Gift Shop
No classic roadside attraction is complete without a fantastic gift shop, and Confusion Hill’s is one of the best. It’s packed to the rafters with everything you could want to remember your trip by, from t-shirts and quirky souvenirs to beautiful redwood clocks and carvings. It’s the perfect place to find a unique gift or a memento of your gravity-defying adventure.
Beyond the typical tourist fare, you’ll find locally made crafts and a great selection of snacks and drinks for the road ahead. The shop has a cozy, old-timey feel that perfectly matches the rest of the attraction. It’s more than just a store; it’s an extension of the fun and a great way to wrap up your visit.
Atmosphere & Setting
Confusion Hill has a wonderfully nostalgic and rustic vibe. It feels like a genuine piece of Americana, preserved from the golden age of road trips. The whole place is nestled among towering redwood and fir trees, giving it a cool, shaded, and almost magical forest setting. The sound of the miniature train chugging up the hill and the sight of whimsical wood carvings peeking out from behind trees create a playful and relaxed atmosphere.
It’s not a slick, modern theme park; it’s a family-owned attraction with a lot of heart and history. The staff are friendly and clearly love sharing the mysteries of the hill with visitors. The vibe is all about fun, curiosity, and enjoying the simple pleasure of a good old-fashioned roadside wonder. It’s a place to slow down, be a little silly, and make some fun memories.
Value (Is It Worth It?)
Absolutely! Confusion Hill offers fantastic value for a unique experience. The admission prices for the Gravity House and the train ride are very reasonable, especially for families. Unlike massive theme parks where you can spend a fortune, this is an affordable outing that provides a solid hour or two of genuine entertainment. You can explore the grounds and the gift shop for free, so even just stopping to stretch your legs is a treat.
When you consider the uniqueness of the attraction, the beautiful natural setting, and the sheer fun of it all, it’s definitely worth the price of admission. It’s a chance to support a classic, family-run California landmark and create memories that are far more interesting than your average tourist stop. It’s a small price to pay to have your perception of reality turned upside down for a while.
Other Considerations
Parking: There’s a decent-sized, free parking lot right off Highway 101, with space for RVs and trailers, making it an easy stop on a road trip.
Accessibility: The main gift shop and grounds are relatively flat and accessible, but the Gravity House and train ride involve stairs and uneven terrain, which may be challenging for those with mobility issues.
Good for Kids: This place is a dream for kids! The hands-on illusions in the Gravity House and the fun of the train ride are huge hits with younger visitors.
Food & Drink: There’s a snack bar on-site offering basics like ice cream, drinks, and simple eats. It’s perfect for a quick refuel before you get back on the road.
Time Commitment: You can get a great feel for the place in about 1-2 hours, making it the perfect length for a roadside stop without derailing your travel schedule.
So next time you find yourself cruising through the majestic redwoods of Northern California, keep an eye out for the signs pointing to Confusion Hill. It’s more than just a tourist trap; it’s a delightful slice of history, a fun puzzle for your brain, and a perfect example of the quirky, wonderful attractions that make road-tripping in America so special.
Pull over, have a laugh, and let yourself be amazed. It’s a genuinely fun experience that breaks up a long drive and leaves you with a great story to tell. In a world that can sometimes feel a little too serious, a dose of good, clean confusion might be just what you need.
HEARTBREAKING WHALE DEATHS HIGHLIGHT BIG PROBLEM ON WEST COAST
by Sam Hill
On an Oregon beach just north of the city of Yachats, a quiet crowd gathered over several days last weekend as a young humpback whale lay stranded and dying on the sand. People returned to the shoreline again and again, some even wading into the cold surf just to be a little closer — as if standing beside the animal might somehow help. Before long, they began calling him Hope, a small gesture that reflected their wish to see the whale make it back to open water.
A multiagency team of responders from Portland and Seattle arrived on Nov. 16 to evaluate the whale’s condition and plan next steps. They prepared a rope-and-bridle system in hopes of guiding him back toward deeper water during the next high tide. But when the tide finally rolled in, the effort failed — the gear came loose, and the whale remained stranded.
With his strength rapidly fading after days onshore, experts concluded there were no viable options left. Though he was still alive, they determined that euthanasia was the most humane choice, as his chances of survival had become extremely low.
A full report of the whale’s condition hasn’t been released yet, but preliminary necropsy results showed it had become entangled with Dungeness crab fishing gear dating back two seasons, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries.
The whale’s struggle sparked a communitywide conversation, echoed by thousands more watching from afar on social media, and there was a common refrain in the comment sections across platforms: Why didn’t officials do more to save this whale?
People are quick to imagine dramatic rescues — excavators carving channels, helicopters lifting whales back to sea, or teams of boats towing the creatures into deep water — and to voice these ideas on social media. They are rarely aware of the constraints responders face, or the work happening behind the scenes to prevent strandings in the first place.
“In a perfect world, there would be zero whale strandings related to fisheries, but we just aren’t there yet,” Justin Ainsworth, marine resources program manager at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told SFGATE. ”There’s a lot of work being done to mitigate whale entanglements, but it still happens, unfortunately. We’re working to minimize these events while continuing to support commercial fishermen who contribute to rural economies up and down the coast.”
Between 2000 and 2013, about 10 whale entanglements were reported a year on the West Coast, but those numbers climbed over the past decade as more whales migrated to commercial fishing regions in the Pacific.
There were around 50 confirmed entanglements in both 2015 and 2016, 31 in 2017, and 46 more in 2018 — the highest totals since NOAA started tracking these cases back in the early 1980s. According to NOAA, the increase in entanglements isn’t simply a matter of more gear in the water. It reflects a mix of recovering whale numbers, climate-driven shifts that pushed prey closer to shore and variable Dungeness crab seasons. In those high-risk years, warming waters pushed krill and anchovy into shallower waters, and whales followed their prey directly into crabbing territory.
After a bit of a dip, the numbers climbed again last year. In 2024, NOAA confirmed 36 entangled whales in the region. That includes animals found off California, OregoN and Washington, as well as whales discovered in other countries’ waters but still tangled in U.S. West Coast fishing gear. It’s a reminder that even when a single story captures public attention, it’s part of a bigger picture that experts are working to understand and improve.
“That spike around 2015 really pushed Oregon and other states to put more effort into addressing entanglements,” Brittany Harrington, the marine life entanglement project leader at ODFW, told SFGATE. “There’s collaboration between state agencies, commercial fishing fleets and marine mammal experts to reduce risk. We’re moving in the right direction, but it’s a process.”
In California, where the largest concentration of whale entanglements takes place, several measures over the past decade have aimed to reduce risk. Through the state’s Whale Safe Fisheries project, regulations have been added that delay season opening dates, reduce the number of crab pots each fisher is allowed to drop and institute temporary closures depending on whale activity.
Commercial fishers in the state have also been experimenting with ropeless crabbing gear, or pop-up gear, for several years and are eyeing a widespread implementation in 2026. Ropeless crab gear uses lift bags or acoustic release systems instead of fixed vertical lines, reducing the chances of whales getting tangled as they migrate and feed near the coast.
“While the best tool at this point is to keep fishing gear and whales separate through closures, there’s a lot of hope in the fleet for ropeless gear,” said Ryan Bartling, senior environmental scientist supervisor for Whale Safe Fisheries.
Ainsworth said Oregon was moving in that direction as well, looking to increase the resources spent on alternative fishing gear research in 2026.
“It can be tough for an entire industry to make a shift like that, but the industry recognizes that they have to make changes in the future to protect their fishery, protect whales and their livelihood,” Ainsworth said.
Despite advances in mitigation, officials are still learning the complexities of how entanglements occur and what it takes to
“The thing we’re stuck with is … we don’t know how and when they happen,” Bartling said of entanglements. “We can study them all we want, but we never get a firsthand look at what happens.”
Saving a stranded whale is far more complex than it appears. Each event is unique, and efforts are constrained by the whale’s size, health and behavior, along with environmental conditions, available resources and the safety of responders — making dramatic “pull it back to sea” solutions nearly impossible and sometimes harmful.
“Every entanglement, every stranded whale instance — each one is completely different. Not every plan we have is going to work out, but experts try to learn something new each time,” Bartling said. “But at the end of the day, if there are lines in the water and whales around, there will always be the possibility for an entanglement. We just need to learn how to balance protecting them while still supporting our coastal communities.”
“MEN HAVE SACRIFICED and crippled themselves physically and emotionally to feed, house, and protect women and children. None of their pain or achievement is registered in feminist rhetoric, which portrays men as oppressive and callous exploiters.”
― Camille Paglia
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LOOKING FOR KATIE JOHNSON
by Raheem Hosseini
A California woman accused both Epstein and Trump. Did she ever exist?
It was the bombshell that didn’t detonate.
In April 2016, in the final months of an axis-tilting presidential election, a person using the name Katie Johnson filed a $100 million federal lawsuit accusing Trump and Epstein of sexually assaulting her when she was 13.
The allegations outlined in Johnson’s six-page complaint were explicit and echoed charges made for years against Epstein, a connected financier who snared countless girls with false promises, depraved acts and ugly threats. But the allegations against Trump — accusing him of active participation at Epstein’s child rape parties — were new.
According to the lawsuit, Epstein lured Katie Johnson to his New York residence behind promises of a modeling career. Over a four-month period in 1994, she alleged, Epstein and Trump took turns assaulting her in increasingly severe ways.
A week after Katie Johnson filed her lawsuit, the judge dismissed it for failing to cite an actionable civil rights claim — it leveled criminal allegations not covered by the federal civil statute. The dismissal letter bounced back from the address Katie Johnson had given, which Google Maps once showed to be a weathered shack in the desert city of Twentynine Palms, home to the country’s largest U.S. Marine Corps base and little else. The phone number she provided didn’t accept calls.
Text messages went through.
On May 10, 2016, while working at the Sacramento News & Review, I texted the number asking if it belonged to Katie Johnson. A day later, a response came: “Who are you Rahim? Friend or foe! Give me info on u please. Thank u, Katie.”
I responded that I was a reporter attempting to authenticate the information in her lawsuit.
Three days later, I received a phone call from a blocked number. Then a text: “Answer your phone from blocked number it’s me. Thanks, Katie.”
On May 14, 2016, I answered that call. It wasn’t Katie Johnson.
The voice belonged to a man who wouldn’t give his name and claimed to be working with Katie Johnson, but evaded questions about the nature of their relationship or how I could reach her directly. Because Katie Johnson alleged that she had been sexually trafficked by Epstein and sexually abused by both him and Trump, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dealing with another exploiter. The call ended abruptly. I think I hung up on him.
Late one night in October 2016, I answered a phone call from a blocked number. My mother was on her deathbed and I braced myself for news of her passing. Instead, it was a man asking if I was still interested in pursuing Katie Johnson’s story. I hung up. My phone rang. I let it. The man left a jeering voicemail I no longer have.
Katie Johnson filed and withdrew two more lawsuits that year. Days before the November 2016 election, a planned news conference was canceled in Los Angeles, where Katie Johnson was to appear alongside Lisa Bloom, a celebrity attorney who represented other Epstein accusers and also advised Harvey Weinstein.
Outside of a purported video floating around the internet, Katie Johnson has never been seen or heard from.
Those around her claimed she had been scared off.
“The morning of the presser, Katie found out that her phone had been hacked,” Evan L. Goldman, a New Jersey civil litigator who represented Katie Johnson, said via email. “This freaked her out, (she) did not go through with the presser and shortly thereafter instructed me to dismiss the law suit. There have been a few attempts (several years ago) to get her to go to the press, but she wants nothing to do with this any more.”
Goldman said he never actually met or spoke to Katie Johnson. He said he communicated with her through his co-counsels — Thomas F. Meagher, a New Jersey patent lawyer who introduced Goldman to the case, and Bloom, daughter of feminist icon Gloria Allred. Goldman said Meagher and Bloom were the ones to inform him that Katie Johnson wanted to drop the lawsuit in November 2016.
“I did not communicate with her directly,” Goldman said in an email.
Goldman also named a journalist he said had interviewed Katie Johnson in California and found her “credible.”
“To me that was enough for me to be all in on it,” Goldman said.
The journalist hasn’t published anything about Katie Johnson and stopped responding to emails in August. Bloom, who has filed two federal lawsuits in New York against Sean Combs this year, declined to comment through a spokesperson. Meagher said attorney-client privilege precluded him from saying anything, including whether Katie Johnson was a real person. Johnson’s other former attorney, Florida litigator J. Cheney Mason, who represented Casey Anthony, did not respond to messages.
Embarrassment of the richest
To some child safety advocates, speculating about the unknowable can distract from what is known.
More than a dozen women — from pageant contestants to Mar-a-Lago guests to former employees — have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Trump has denied them all.
Separate juries have found Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and defaming her by denying it, awarding Carroll a total of $88.3 million in damages.
Trump’s first choice for attorney general, former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, withdrew over allegations that he sexually exploited a minor. Gaetz was the only member of Congress to vote against an anti-human trafficking bill that Trump signed in his first term.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will be in charge of releasing the Epstein files, was Florida’s chief legal counsel when Epstein received a knocked-down charge of soliciting prostitution, the Palm Beach Post reported.
Trump’s immigration crackdown has redirected federal agents who investigate child sex crimes, the New York Times reported this month. Federal prosecutions for child sex trafficking fell during Trump’s first term, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, including under the laws used to charge Epstein in 2019.
White-collar prosecutions are also at their lowest levels in 40 years.
“Let’s say policing actually worked,” said Kate D’Amo, an expert on sexual labor and exploitation at Reframe Health and Justice. “If at any point anybody on the right actually cared about this, they’d be pissed.”
University of Pennsylvania political science professor Marci A. Hamilton, founder of the Child USA advocacy organization and a national authority on the clergy abuse scandal, said the Epstein saga is prompting people like her to re-explain what cover-ups look like. When Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said last month that he supported the release of “credible information” regarding Epstein, Hamilton said Johnson was invoking the Vatican playbook for shielding pedophile priests.
“That is the buzzword of the bishops. That’s how the bishops were able to cover up as much child sexual abuse as they did,” she said.
Goldman said Meagher brought him the Katie Johnson lawsuit motivated by a desire to keep Trump from being elected president. “But as we know now, he can almost do worse things and this never seems to affect him,” Goldman said.
Epstein expressed a similar sentiment in February 2016. Thomas, the Times reporter, emailed Epstein saying, “The stories you could tell…” about candidate Trump. To which Epstein replied, “Actually I don’t think he/voters would care.”
(SF Chronicle)
THE MONSTERS' BALL
by James Kunstler
“…the Democrat Party is no longer a political party. It is an insurrectionist crime syndicate that will torch the Constitution to stay in power.” —Stephen Miller
The old joke goes: A-list actor is having lunch with studio chief. Studio chief says, Didja hear so-and-so (well-known Hollywood agent) dropped dead this morning. His heart. A-list actor says, Gee, I didn’t know he had one.
Kind of brings to mind the late Veep Dick Cheney, who actually did have a heart, but one so grotesquely diseased that he had his first near-fatal infarction at age thirty-seven, followed by surgeries galore, and finally, at age 71, a heart transplant that, quite remarkably, kept him going another thirteen years — long enough to function behind-the-scenes as a senior Deep State cheerleader and strategist through the Trump years. Daughter Liz Cheney, of course, did the political dirty-work, most notably on Nancy Pelosi’s sketchy J-6 Committee, prior to being voted out of office in the 2022 Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large U.S. House seat with 28.9 percent of the vote to Harriet Hageman’s 66.3 percent.
And so, yesterday, Dick Cheney’s funeral took place at Washington’s National Cathedral, the greatest assemblage of bloodsuckers since the Hammer Film Studio went out of business in 1979. Joe Biden was there, perky as all get-out for somebody with stage-four prostate cancer, shaking hands with Mike Pence, who pulled him over the finish line in 2021. John Brennan, coupster superbus was there. Ditto John Bolton (awaiting trial). Most cheekily of all, Dr. Fauci, the father of Covid-19 and its little helper, the Covid vaxx, was seated next to MSNBC’s loss-leader, Rachel Maddow, who famously declared in 2021, “The virus stops with every vaccinated person!” (Not.)
Also on hand, former president “W,” Mitch McConnell, Al Gore, Nancy P, Adam Schiff, Chief Justice Roberts, Veep-of-all-Veeps, Kamala Harris, and many more. Mysteriously absent: both Clintons and both Obamas — though Bill’s office explained that he had “a scheduling conflict.” Notably uninvited: President Donald Trump and Veep JD Vance, a downright snub, let’s be plain about it. And with it, perhaps a message: Behold the whole gang that has labored tirelessly for a whole decade to run you out of office and stuff you into a prison cell is here to gossip and plot against you some more! Nyah, nyah. . . .”
The contrast was pretty stark: MAGA against everybody else inside the DC Beltway. Mr. Trump was certainly at the funeral as a sort of spectral presence, since you can be sure that the only thing they were chattering about was how they were finally going to get him. . . somehow! (After years of spectacular failure and astonishing reversal-of-fortune.) You might also sense what desperation lurks behind their elitist bravado. Some of these birds are headed into court themselves, perhaps to prison. The prospect must seem acutely unreal to them.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has become the Scarlet Pimpernel of US political history, brave, intrepid, and resourceful, driven by a chivalric hatred of tyranny and injustice while seeming to be a comedian, mocking his persecutors as he escapes one plot after another. Don’t you wish you’d been a fly-on-the-wall at the funeral, and whatever after-party they were all at? The odor of fear must have been eye-watering.
The whole wicked business appears to be lurching toward crisis now as Mr. Trump works implacably to disassemble the treasonous scaffold they operate off of. At midweek, a claque of Democratic Party Senators and Congresspersons, led by former CIA-employee, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, released a social media video appearing to prompt mutiny in America’s armed forces. Their script implied that Mr. Trump was issuing illegal orders, which officers could (and should) refuse to carry out. They offered no examples of such illegal orders.
It’s probably safe to say that they want Americans to think that any order issued by Mr. Trump as Commander-in-chief is ipso facto illegal because. . . because. . . well, because Trump! And it is all of a piece with their former rallying cry “our democracy,” flaunted by the worst gang of ballot fraudsters, free speech squashers, and lawfare lizards ever seen in this land.
Mr. Trump responded a bit intemperately on his Truth Social platform, telling the claque that their seemingly seditious act could be answered with the death penalty. He was in error on that. That is the penalty for treason outright. The law on “seditious conspiracy,” US Code Title 18 § 2384, calls for a fine of not more than $250,000 ((adjusted for inflation under 18 US Code § 3571), and a maximum prison sentence up to twenty years.
Anyway, that stunt was not exactly a win for Party of Chaos, but it does make you wonder what their next move is going to be. A Seven Days in May style military coup, perhaps? More likely this was a lame rearguard action by a party in retreat and disarray. The angels of justice are coming for them and they know it, despite the machinations of their allied judges to gum up every earnest Article II effort attempted since 1/20/25 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Even while the people try to settle into the cradle of Thanksgiving hearth and harvest, the wicked creep around setting their traps.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Apathy is what killed us. FIFY. It's already over, folks. Since the beginning of time, every culture, every tribe, every civilization has had the same two choices every morning upon arising: 1) Defend your way of life, or 2) lose it. I rest my case.
LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT
The A.I. Boom Is Driving the Economy. What Happens if It Falters?
A Key Medicare Expense Is Expected to Climb Nearly 10% in 2026
Eli Lilly Hits $1 Trillion in Value, Buoyed by Demand for Weight Loss Drugs
Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Plans to Resign in January
Supreme Court, for Now, Keeps in Place G.O.P.-Friendly Congressional Map in Texas
Trump Says Violence Against Christians in Nigeria Is ‘Genocide.’ It’s Not So Simple.
Comey Seeks to Dismiss Charges Based on Grand Jury Errors
WHAT IS THE MEANING of life? That was all - a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years, the great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one.
― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
Just before 10 am on the morning of June 11, 1963, over 300 monks and nuns marched down a busy Saigon street. A 73-year-old monk named Thich Quang Duc emerged from a car at a crowded intersection, and sat down in the lotus position on a cushion. Two fellow monks doused him in petrol from a five-gallon can. As the fuel was emptied over his head, Duc chanted, “Nam mo amita Buddha,” — “return to eternal Buddha.”
There was a charged silence; Duc said a final prayer, struck a match, and then dropped it on his robes.…
https://medium.com/@storyshaped/the-suicide-that-changed-american-policy-in-vietnam-148b13527830
HOLIDAY
Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (Hey!)
The shame, the ones who died without a name
Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called "Faith and Misery" (Hey!)
And bleed, the company lost the war today
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line (Hey!)
To find the money's on the other side
Brothers and sisters
Can I get another Amen? (Amen!)
There's a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!)
A gag, a plastic bag on a monument
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
Sieg Heil to the president Gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass
And kill all the fags that don't agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that's meant for me
Just ‘cause, just ‘cause
Because we're outlaws, yeah!
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
This is our lives on holiday
— lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong (2005)
RE: really a war on people, when civil rights were violated.
—-> November 20, 2025
Legal scholars warn that the scale of the data collection—tracking “patterns of life” for millions of ordinary drivers—could violate the Fourth Amendment.
“Large-scale surveillance technology that’s capturing everyone and everywhere at every time” may be unconstitutional, Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at George Washington University, told AP…
Images are run through an algorithm that flags “abnormal” routes, quick turnarounds, or travel linked to border regions. Local officers are then prompted to pull drivers over—without revealing the real reason they were targeted.
Many stops cite minor infractions, such as going a few miles over the speed limit, a window-tint issue, or even a dangling air freshener, according to police reports reviewed by AP. But drivers are then interrogated about their movements and belongings, sometimes for more than an hour, with no idea they were first flagged miles away by a Border Patrol analyst monitoring a screen…
Meanwhile, Operation Stonegarden—a two-decade-old federal grant scheme—now channels hundreds of millions of dollars to local sheriff’s offices to buy license-plate readers and drones, and to fund overtime that effectively deputizes local cops into Border Patrol’s mission.
Under Trump, congressional Republicans increased Stonegarden to $450 million over four fiscal years.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hatches-creepy-new-plot-to-target-suspicious-drivers/
The “Biggest of Everything” story from the Kelley House Museum may have been submitted by Carol D. but AVA regular contributor Katy Tahja wrote the story…
Oops. Sorry, Katy.