MIDLEVEL CLOUDS and moisture will continue to build overnight with light drizzle near the coast Monday morning. Conditions will clear again Tuesday with light rain later in the week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 41F under clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. Yep, our forecast for lovely weather thru the holiday weekend remains in place. Do not forget your weather guy this Christmas.
UKIAH’S LATE SCORE, DISPUTED 2-POINT CONVERSION DOWN VINTAGE IN PLAYOFFS
by Christian Vieyra
The final seconds of Friday night’s semifinal playoff matchup between Ukiah and Vintage in Napa will live in infamy.
The visiting Wildcats upset the Crushers 21-20, scoring the go-ahead points on their final drive with about two minutes left and no timeouts.
The win in the North Coast Section Division 3 semifinal round advances the Wildcats to next week’s title game, but how Friday’s contest at Memorial Stadium ended was hotly debated.
After forcing Vintage to punt nearly from the hosts’ own goal line, fifth-seeded Ukiah got the ball at the top-seeded Crushers’ 40.
Ukiah drove those 40 yards to score on a six-yard pass from quarterback Beau David to Zack Martinez.
Down 20-19, the Wildcats decided to go for two. When they lined up, Vintage called a timeout, and Ukiah head coach Paul Cronin took the opportunity to change the play call.
David stepped back to pass and pumped his arm but seemingly had no one open. Crushers defenders began to swarm him and wrap him up.
As he was going down, he flung the ball to the middle of the end zone, where it bounced off a referee’s chest and into the hands of Wildcats receiver Dareon Dorsey.
“It looked like he was getting sacked and everyone else thought he was getting sacked, too,” Dorsey said of his QB. “Everyone left me open and then I saw the ball go over the line of scrimmage … and I just happened to be in the right spot.”
David said he felt himself being wrapped up by multiple defenders.
“I was going down and at the last second I saw a glimpse of him in my eye,” David said of his receiver. “It was the last effort I had to give the guys the best chance we got.”
Ukiah took the lead with 22.3 seconds remaining. Both sidelines erupted — Ukiah’s in excitement and Vintage’s in disbelief.
“We broke down protection-wise, and (David) flipped it up and if the ref was 5-10 the game is over — but the ref is 6-8, so that kind of benefited us,” Cronin said of the deflected pass. “It was probably the goofiest game I’ve ever coached in my life.”
https://twitter.com/thecvieyra/status/1992102287863669181
Vintage head coach Dylan Leach was ejected from the game for arguing the call.
After the game, Leach said he believed the play should have been called dead because David was “in the grasp” of Vintage defenders.
“He was stopped dead in his tracks; he was going backwards,” Leach said. “What are we supposed to do? If we throw him down, we get a penalty.”
The coach said officials have recently whistled similar plays dead to protect quarterbacks.
“That’s a bush-league call,” Leach said.
After the disputed conversion, the game still wasn’t over. After multiple unsportsmanlike penalties on Vintage, Ukiah easily got a touchback on the ensuing kickoff.
Vintage needed just two plays — passes from quarterback Blake Porter to Ruben Sanchez — to go more than 70 yards and get inside the Ukiah 10.
But the clock ran out as Vintage, with no timeouts, was unable to pull off one more play.
“We got overexcited instead of focusing and got in our prevent defense — and one of the corners locked in on a man and so he ran with his guy and he opened an area on the field,” Cronin said, describing Vintage’s final push.
Vintage outgained Ukiah offensively, finishing with 164 rushing yards. Porter went 11-for-20 through the air for 257 yards. Sanchez had 139 receiving yards to lead the Crushers.
“We knew they had a great passing attack, so we wanted to keep them off the field and wear them down,” Leach said. “It’s making sure we speed up the game by slowing down the game.”
Ukiah finished with 84 rushing yards and David went 12-for-20 with 227 passing yards. Martinez had 181 of those.
“He’s a phenomenal quarterback; he’s the best I’ve ever seen from Ukiah,” Martinez said of his teammate.
“We were able to fight, keep fighting in the game and I think that’s what won us this game,” David said. “You’ve got to have a quick memory; it’s a new week.”
Ukiah will next play El Cerrito in this week’s Division 3 championship game. The third-seeded Gauchos defeated No. 2 Rancho Cotate in Friday’s other semifinal.
(The Press Democrat)
DAVID GURNEY:
The Fort Bragg City Council will be granting themselves a pay raise at tonight's CC meeting at Town Hall. The fun starts at 6:00 PM, and you can watch in disgust, boredom, or resignation, either in person via Zoom. It's Item 8A.
The clickable Zoom link is on the middle of Page 1 of the Agenda: https://cityfortbragg.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1347298&GUID=D535F16C-446D-4478-84EA-01F9F09928D8
CECIL DENNIS DALE SR.
Cecil Dennis Dale Sr. 68, passed away peacefully in Reno, NV on Nov. 4, 2025 with his sons at his bedside.
He was born in Garberville, Ca on Dec. 9, 1956 to Lowery and Nettie Dale and shortly after moved to Laytonville, Ca. Known as Dennis to those who knew and loved him, he graduated from Laytonville High School in 1975 where he was a multiple sport athlete. After graduating high school he married Laura Sullivan in 1976 and moved to Ukiah, Ca. where they raised their two sons Cecil Dale Jr. (born 1981) and Matthew Dale (born 1983). He found work as a millwright and remained in that profession his entire career. He got his start at Delario’s Lumber, then worked at Masonite and finally Louisiana Pacific until the mill shut down operations. He worked at various other mills thereafter until retiring and moving to Reno to be with his brother Leroy Dale and sister Debbie Hurst.
Dennis was a kind and gentle soul always putting others before himself, especially his family. His family was his life. He enjoyed coaching his sons’ Little League teams, attending his sons’ motocross events, and spent most of his free time fishing. As a millwright, he was a capable welder and mechanic and passed those skills down to his kids which they still use to this day.
He is predeceased by his brother Leroy Dale, and sister Deborah Hurst. He is survived by his sons Cecil Dale Jr. and Mathew Dale, his grandchildren Gavin Dale, Gwyneth Dale, and Gage Dale, and his brother Wayne Dale.
Graveside services will take place at Willits Cemetery, 1200 State Highway 20, Willits, Ca on Saturday, Nov. 29 at 11am.
RESIDENTS DEBATE ROLE OF EXCURSION TRAIN IN REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION
Mendo Local, Public Comment Section
Two opinion pieces present contrasting visions of rail in long-range regional planning. Mendocino Railway president Robert Pinoli argues the Skunk Train deserves a place in the Regional Transportation Plan, while Peter McNamee says restoring freight or passenger rail would be prohibitively expensive and functionally ineffective.
(This letter was originally sent to the Mendocino Council of Governments on August 22, 2025. Mendocino Railway President and CEO Robert Pinoli responds in the post below.)
The Place of Mendocino Railway in Regional Transportation Plans
by Peter McNamee
In past transportation plans the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) included the Mendocino Railway (also know as the Skunk Train) as a rail transportation option for commuting and freight hauling within Mendocino County’s transportation planning portfolio. As MCOG prepares to update the County’s transportation plan, it is inappropriate to continue characterizing the Skunk train as a public transportation and/or freight hauling service for the following reasons.
The Skunk Train is not a transportation provider, it is a private out-and-back entertainment excursion train experience for tourists visiting Mendocino County. It is no more a form of transportation than a merry-go-round ride at the county fair or group boats offering a fishing & whale watching experience along the coast.
Unlike legitimate public rail transportation which provide the public with passenger and/or freight transportation between communities and cities, Mendocino Railway’s Skunk Train does neither.
Since the last update to the County transportation plan, Mendocino Railway’s Skunk Train services have been reviewed and assessed both by federal, state, and local agencies as well as by the courts. In each of these reviews and court proceedings, Mendocino Railway has failed to present a compelling case that it provides anything more than an excursion train entertainment experience for its customers.
The California Public Utilities Commission has repeatedly reviewed the Skunk Train’s operations and determined Mendocino Railway is an excursion train:
In 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission’s Assistant General Counsel clarified the Skunk Trains status as a regulated excursion train:
”The status of Mendocino Railway, has previously been determined by the Commission. In 1977, the California Western Railroad (CWRR) - which was the company operating the excursion service commonly known as the ‘Skunk Train’ at the time - applied to the Commission for status to reduce its commuter passenger services. In the course of this proceeding, the Commission determined (in 1998) that CWRR did not constitute a public utility to the extent it provides excursion rail service, which constituted 90% of its overall business.”*
”The Commission is not aware of any changes to the excursion services provided by Mendocino Railway that would cause a change to its 1998 determination”*
Similarly, the Great Redwood Trail Agency petitioned the federal government to formally abandon the Skunk Train connection to the federal interstate rail system because the Skunk Train has not operated as a interstate passenger train or freight service for more than twenty years.
In its petition, the Agency clearly articulated why Mendocino Railway’s Skunk Train does not and can not provide passenger and freight transportation:
”No freight movements have originated on, terminated on, or otherwise traversed the MR Line since MR purchased it out of bankruptcy in 2004, and no shippers that have been served in the past on the MR Line have a current need for rail service.
Moreover, there are no reasonable prospect of future rail service needs along the MR Line. The MR Line has only been operated for intrastate tourist excursion rail service, called the “Skunk Train,” since its acquisition by MR in 2004.
And the MR Line itself is not even fully traversable from beginning to end due to a tunnel collapse. Moreover, the MR Line will require significant rehabilitation to bring it in line with FRA Class I track standards, (rehabilitation cost estimate is $31,598,000 for MR Line).”**
Likewise, the issue of Mendocino Railway’s status as an excursion train rather than a transportation provider has been adjudicated by the courts. In a 2023 ruling in a lawsuit over the inappropriate use of eminent domain authority by Mendocino Railway, Mendocino County Superior Court Justice Nadel, found Mendocino Railway unable to show sufficient evidence it provides freight service or provides meaningful passenger transportation service to meet the requirements of being a transportation public utility with eminent domain authority.
In explaining the decision, the court based its determination upon a series of undisputed relevant facts.***
- Mendocino Railway’s Articles of Incorporation do not reflect the intent to operate as a railroad.
- There was no designation of Mendocino Railway’s status by the (federal) Surface Transportation Board offered byMendocino Railway.
- In 2015, there was a landslide in “Tunnel No.1” preventing the train from running the full length of the line since that date. Notransportationbetween Fort Bragg and Willits has occurred since the tunnel was closed.
- Mendocino Railway conceded that currently its main function is the operation of a popularexcursion trainknow as the Skunk Train for sightseeing purposes on the line through the redwoods.
- The Skunk Train’s operation is limited to traveling from the Willits station west approximately 7.5 miles before turning around and traveling back to Willits. From Ff. Bragg, due to the tunnel collapse, the train can only travel east for 3.5 miles before it turns around and returns to Ft. Bragg.
- The excursion service generates ninety percent of Mendocino Railway’s income. The other ten percent of Mendocino Railway’s income is from leases and easement revenue.
In making its determination that Mendocino Railway is not a public utility, the court cited California Public Utilities Code section 229, which provides that a “railroad” includes every commercial, interurban, and other railway…owned, controlled, operated, or managed for the public use in the transportation of persons or property. The court further noted that Mendocino Railway did not dispute that “transportation” in the public utility context means “the taking up of persons or property at some point and putting them down at another.” The court also noted, round trip excursions do not qualify as “transportation” under Section 211 of the Public Utilities Code. Most importantly, Mendocino Railway conceded that the term “transportation” excludes excursion services for the purposes of being a public utility.****
The court’s ruling in the Mendocino Railway v John Meyer case is important to MCOG in deciding whether to include or exclude the railway in the county transportation plan. Since the law dictates that excursion services are not transportation, inclusion of such excursion services in a transportation plan is inappropriate. The court’s ruling demonstrates clearly, Mendocino Railway does not qualify in any significant way as a transportation service.
The purpose of the County plan is to provide the county’s best assessment of its transportation needs. Federal and State transportation partners use the plan to assist them planning transportation efforts they hope to accomplish within the county.
It is important that the plan reflects true “transportation” needs. Inclusion of efforts or initiatives that are not transportation, undermine the integrity of the plan and hinder Federal and State partners in their deliberations about how to assist county transportation agencies.
Lastly, MCOG should keep in mind that the purpose of the county transportation plan is to assist public agencies setting priorities for the use of public resources to successfully attain transportation outcomes that further the public interest. In setting priorities, planners must consider the economic viability of transportation initiatives incorporated in transportation plans.
A 2023 assessment of the economic market feasibility of rail service in Mendocino County raised serious questions about the financial viability of Mendocino Railway (or any other rail company) to provide rail transportation service in the county. The assessment prepared by Marie Jones Consulting provided significant evidence that the costs of operating city to city rail service in Mendocino County exceed potential revenues. Further, the assessment determined that truck freight services were more cost effective and provided better service than any possible rail freight service could provide between Fort Bragg, Willits and Cloverdale.
The assessment highlighted several realities that make rail economically un-feasible as a transportation option in Mendocino County:
- The estimated capital investment costs of fully restoring the Fort Bragg to Willits rail line are more than $30 million. Additionally, the estimated on-going annual operation costs are approximately $2.5 million. Total annual estimated rail costs would be over $5.7 million per year.
- The estimated capital investment costs of fully restoring the Willits to Cloverdale rail line are more than $56 million. Additionally, the estimated on-going annual operation costs are approximately $5 million. Total annual estimated rail costs would be over $11 million per year.
- The cost of hauling freight by rail is not competitive compared to the cost of hauling by truck. The cost to transport freight by rail (assuming rail service was available) from Coverdale to Willits would be $458 per ton by rail, vs $29 per ton by truck.
The cost to transport freight by rail between Willits and Fort Bragg would be $608 per ton compared to $38 per ton by truck.*
- Similarly, there is no evidence that restoring train service between the cities of Fort Bragg, Willits, and Cloverdale would result in sufficient rail passenger and/or freight hauling revenues to offset the full costs of restoring the lines to service.
- In Mendocino County, trucks and autos are more efficient than rail for transporting people and freight in terms of time as well as cost. For example, the average drive time by auto or truck between Coverdale and Fort Bragg is 1 hour and 50 minutes, compared to an estimated 10 hours by rail. The average drive time from Fort Bragg to Willits is 50 minutes compared to an estimated 6 hours by rail.
- Transportation by auto and truck allows consumers to schedule transportation around their needs and schedule. Rail transportation is scheduled around the needs of the railway to manage its locomotives & rail-cars in order to balance demands from passengers and freight haulers.
- Further, autos and trucks can use alternate routes when roads are closed due to weather or land slides, all rail service is halted when rail tracks are closed due to weather or land slides. Auto and trucks can use roads 24/7 to transport people and freight, trains operate on fixed schedules or when demand is sufficient to justify the costs of a train trip.
- Demand for rail passenger/freight service between cities is entirely theoretical, since neither the Fort Bragg to Willits or the Willits to Cloverdale line are presently in a condition that would allow passenger/freight hauling by rail. Currently, all passenger and freight needs between the communities of Fort Bragg, Willits and Cloverdale are being met by autos and trucks.
In summation, the Mendocino County Regional Transportation Plan and Active Transportation Plan (RTP/ATP) is intended to be a long-range planning document covering a 20-year time span, which includes short and long range transportation projects across all modes of transportation, including motorized, non-motorized, and public transit. It promotes a safe and efficient transportation system, and establishes regional goals that support mobility, economic, and health aims of the region.
As the facts previously cited show, Mendocino County has not had a functioning rail service providing community to community passenger or freight transportation for more than a decade, and no functioning rail connectivity to the interstate system for more than two decades.
Its time to recognize those facts and amend the County’s transportation planning to reflect the realities. Rail passenger and freight transportation is not cost competitive compared to auto and truck transportation. Federal and state goals are not aligned with reestablishing interstate or intrastate rail transportation in Mendocino County. Mendocino Railway, the sole remaining train line operating in the county, functions as an out and back excursion and entertainment train serving the tourist industry. For all these reasons, rail is no longer a viable component of the Mendocino RTP/ATP plan.
Rather, if included in the RTP/ATP, Mendocino Railway’s excursion operations should be deemed part of the multi-modal planning like the Coastal Trail and the Great Redwood Regional Trail, which it most closely resembles.
Sincerely,
Peter McNamee
Fort Bragg
Citations
*Letter to Michael Hart, CEO Sierra Railroad Company, from Jonathan C. Kotzot, Assistant 1 General Counsel, Legal Division, Public Utilities Commission August 12, 2022
**Great Redwood Trail Agency - Adverse Abandonment - Mendocino Railway in Mendocino County, California Surface Transportation Board Docket No. AB-1305 (Sub-No. 1)
***Decision After Trial, April 19, 2023, Mendocino Railway v John Meyer Case # SCUK- 4 CVED-2020-74939
****City of St. Helena v Public Utilities Com (2004) 119 Cal. App. 4th 793,902 (Quoting Golden Date Scenic S.S. Lines, Inc. v Public Utilities Com. (1962) 57 Cal. 2d 373
*****Mendocino railway’s advertises a cost of $33 per ton for hauling freight, but according to the cost assessment prepared by Marie Jones Consulting, that is “a fiction” since the actual amount to recover all capitalize rail costs and operating expenses is $608 per ton.
******The assessment estimated rail transportation times based on national rail industry operational standards assuming the rail lines between Fort Bragg, Willits and Coverdale were renovated to federal and state rail requirement standards.
The Place of Railroads in the Regional Transportation Plan
by Robert Pinoli, President and CEO, Mendocino Railway
Peter McNamee recently submitted a letter to the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) regarding the draft Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). While Mr. McNamee raises concerns about the inclusion of rail, his conclusions overlook key facts, mischaracterize the role of Mendocino Railway, and risk narrowing the county’s transportation vision at a time when flexibility, sustainability, and long-term resilience are more important than ever.
- Mendocino Railway is a federally recognized Class III common carrier.
MCOG’s RTP continues to mischaracterize Mendocino Railway and its operations. Since 2004, Mendocino Railway has operated under Surface Transportation Board (STB) jurisdiction as a legitimate Class III common carrier railroad. A recent STB Declaratory Order reaffirmed this status, underscoring its legal standing and potential to serve public transportation and freight needs—not merely as an “amusement ride,” as Mr. McNamee suggests.
- Rail is among the most environmentally efficient modes of land transport.
Mr. McNamee’s dismissal of rail’s environmental value is at odds with decades of data. Freight rail emits up to 75% less greenhouse gas per ton-mile than trucks. Mr. McNamee’s narrowly focused “point-to-point” fixation is the exact type of thinking that has caused our world’s emission problems.
- Low-emission Mendocino Railway locomotives.
Mr. McNamee wrote regarding Mendocino Railway’s Skunk Train, “The Skunk train relies upon the worst-polluting, most industry-inefficient fossil fueled locomotives in the rail industry.“ Mr. McNamee seems focused on our efforts to preserve historic steam locomotives. Had he researched this topic, he would have learned that we only use historic steam locomotives, however, on approximately 3% of our trips! And while our other locomotives are superior to most other forms of transportation, Mendocino Railway is now upgrading our three primary locomotives to Tier IV – the lowest emission in the nation for fuel-based locomotives! Rather than Mr. McNamee’s naïve characterization, Mendocino Railway is at our industry’s forefront of mixing economic efficiency with environmental sensitivity. - Rail supports economic diversification and rural resilience.
While current ridership and freight volumes may be modest, the infrastructure itself is a long-term asset. Rail corridors can support commerce, tourism, emergency logistics, and future opportunities—especially as fuel prices, climate mandates, and supply chain vulnerabilities evolve. Dismissing rail in a 20-year long-range planning document based on present-day usage ignores its strategic potential and speaks to Mr. McNamee’s agenda-driven shortsightedness
- Environmental concerns are being addressed through modernization.
The Skunk Train’s legacy equipment is being phased out in favor of cleaner, more efficient technology. Moreover, railroads are subject to federal environmental oversight, and Mendocino Railway has initiated remediation and infrastructure upgrades to address any past impacts. These efforts deserve recognition, not blanket condemnation.
- Multimodal planning is not contradictory, it’s essential.
The draft plan’s inclusion of rail does not undermine its broader goals. On the contrary, a resilient transportation network must include multiple modes—especially in a geographically diverse county like Mendocino. Railway, walking, biking, buses, and cars each serve different needs. Mendocino Railway is working to provide transloads facilities that would facilitate the exchange of goods between trucks and trains, achieving the best advantages of each type of transportation. Excluding rail would artificially constrain future options and contradict the plan’s stated commitment to equity, sustainability, and access.
- Road Crossings.
Mr. McNamee complains about railroad crossing delays. Is he concerned that the daily fleet of Amazon delivery trucks will be delayed getting to his house on the coast? He also writes about life threatening delays, but doesn’t substantiate this claim. Our trains do not simultaneously shut down all crossings in town at the same time and we are not aware of any noteworthy delays. - Economic Benefit of the Skunk Train.
Mendocino Railway’s Skunk Train is one of the region’s top economic drivers. While Mr. McNamee may be irritated at being delayed occasionally by one of our trains, please know that on average, that train delaying him is bringing $63,000 in local spending to our community. - Regional Success of Railroads.
It does not require much effort to see the potential benefits of railroads. The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) railroad in neighboring Sonoma offers freight service and passenger service with record ridership. The demand for their service has motivated them to extend to Healdsburg in 2028 and then to Cloverdale, on the doorstep of Mendocino County. While our county has challenges, we hope regional success of railroads show MCOG the potential for rail in Mendocino County.
In closing, I urge MCOG to maintain a balanced, forward-looking approach. Mendocino County deserves a transportation plan that accurately reflects both current realities and future possibilities. MCOG’s Vision states, “Effective regional governance is about helping every community become more prosperous, equitable, and environmentally sustainable.” We believe Mendocino Railway is at the forefront on delivering on your vision. Rail is part of that vision—not as a nostalgic relic, but as a strategic tool for environmental stewardship, economic vitality, and regional connectivity.
(mendolocal.news)
WILLADEAN MAE DE FRANCO (1941-2025)
Born in Pomona Ca to Willard and Leona Galbreath, passed away peacefully with her 4 guys and sister Dawn by her side. She was proceeded in death by her parents and sister Nora Galbreath.
She is survived by her husband of 66 years Kirk De Franco Sr sons Kirk (Patricia) De Franco Jr. Christopher De Franco of Willits and Dana (Chonna) De Franco of Madera Ca. Sisters Eileen Duarte of Santa Barbara Ca, Dawn (Gary) Jeffus of Donnelly ID and brother Scott (Karolyn ) Galbreath of Pomona Ca. 11 Grand children and 13 great grand children.
Deanie, Kirk and the boys moved to Willits in 1979 she worked at the old Brooktrails lodge, Rexall Drugs and the Bank of Willits. She will be remembered for her outgoing personality and infectious laugh. She enjoyed the local Casino, the people that worked there and the people she met.
Per her wishes no services are planned.
WILD HUCKLEBERRY JAM FOR SALE for your pleasure and delight
Happy November Neighbors,
I have a limited supply of Wild Huckleberrys and Jam made from locally foraged berries.
- 8 oz jars - $15 (Case special: 12 jars for the price of 11)
- Frozen wild huckleberries - $16/lb
I can deliver anywhere between Fort Bragg and Little River, and I’m happy to meet in Mendocino (Post Office or elsewhere) for pickup.
Perfect for Thanksgiving cooking, Christmas gifts, holiday baskets, or stocking stuffers.
Reply to reserve your jars or call Joshua at 707-734-3112.
Orders filled in the order received.
UNMASKING THE SUPERVISOR
Editor,
An open letter to Madeline Cline,1st District Supervisor, Mendocino County,
My name is Chris Skyhawk, although I don’t believe we’ve personally met, I am responding to the piece you published in the AVA, November 4, 2025; here: https://theava.com/archives/275673#3 in which you criticized Fifth District Supervisor Ted Williams, for interfering with yours and Fourth District Supervisor Bernie Norvell’s work on building community consensus on the Potter Valley Water Project and you asked for feedback.
So here goes:
I’m no expert on the Potter Valley project, but I am (unfortunately) something of an expert on Ted; I’ve had a front row seat for much of his career, first in the Albion Little River Fire Protection District, where he was Fire Chief, and I was Board President. Then later when we both ran for the 5th District Seat, before my stroke took me out of the November 2018 runoff.
I think it was good political strategy for you to call him out publicly. He is a total high end narcissist, and like all narcissists, they like to operate from the shadows, That you published that piece clearly indicates that you’ve figured out he can’t be trusted. I applaud you for that since the man deploys many masks, which can get confusing. I’ve seen him argue completely different positions on the same issue, each time with magnificent sincerity. He has has no core political principles, and no core ethics, except to further himself. He clearly sees being a Supervisor as just a rung on his personal career political ladder, as evidenced by his ridiculous hubris when he ran for State Assembly, and got smoked.
I’m sure you know his seat is up for re election in 2026, and although I don’t live in the Fifth District anymore, I lived there for 30 years and it maintains a place in my heart, as does the entire County. So we can hope he will be replaced by someone with core principles and ethics, although I’m not hopeful. Most of his supporters/enablers, fall for his masks, and while they are happy to take to the streets on No Kings Day, or pose as Antifa on social media, they usually can’t be bothered to pay attention to governance in distant places like Ukiah, Thus his masks work because they don’t track him over time. But we can remain hopeful that an ethical and competent candidate will arise who can be a good partner for you and your colleagues.
Best wishes to you!
Chris Skyhawk
Fort Bragg
1ST DISTRICT RACE SHAPING UP TO BE A FIGHT
by Robert Schaulis
Outgoing California Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-North Coast) is entering his second week running for the U.S. House of Representatives in the newly realigned California 1st Congressional District. It’s a race that is shaping up to be a contentious one, as both McGuire and his opponent, incumbent Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Chico), have used bellicose language, consistently calling the race a “fight” and a “battle.”
“Together, we’ve been fighting tooth and nail for Northern California …” McGuire said in a news release announcing his campaign. “Now, we’re going to bring that fight to Washington — to bring down costs for working families, protect health care for every American and defend our democracy from Donald Trump. I’m all in for Northern California, every damn day.”
LaMalfa (R-Chico), who has represented the 1st District since 2012, has been in the rare position of leading a safely Republican-majority district in California for more than a decade. He characterized the passage of Proposition 50 as a distortion of the status quo.
“We have a termed-out state legislator who needs a job, who has come over to our First Congressional District,” LaMalfa said in a Facebook video published Nov. 13. “And using his crony buddies back in Washington, D.C. … (He’s) said, ‘Hey, I need a seat.’ So his price was to have those maps drawn for him in order to support the plan, and so now, our district has been distorted into something completely different from what our normal communities of interest would be. … We do have a battle royale on our hands here, but I’m ready to go.”
Proposition 50 rearranged CA-01 such that portions of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County and Mendocino County are now part of the district, while low-population, majority conservative far northern counties like Modoc, Shasta and Siskiyou were redistributed to California’s 2nd Congressional District, represented by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael).
On CNN’s “The Story Is with Elex Michaelson,” McGuire responded to LaMalfa’s remarks.
“Doug LaMalfa, tonight, is clutching his pearls because voters overwhelmingly rejected Donald Trump and Doug LaMalfa’s agenda here in the great state of California,” McGuire said. “And candidly, what did he expect? When you vote to take food off the table of the most vulnerable in this state, when you vote to take health care away from the people that you work for, when you vote to raise health care prices for millions of Americans, when you vote for tariff taxes and make life more expensive for all of us, … the people revolt.”
Over the course of McGuire’s first week as a congressional candidate, the state senator has secured a number of endorsements from politicians and, more recently, labor organizations. The campaign has announced endorsements by SEIU California, the Nor Cal Carpenters Union and the California Conference of Carpenters, the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 183, Operating Engineers Local 3 and the National Union of Healthcare Workers this week.
McGuire’s campaign noted, in a news release issued this Thursday, that the campaign’s announcement video had garnered more than 200,000 views across various digital platforms. The campaign also said that it had raised more than $150,000 in its first day alone, “dwarfing Rep. LaMalfa’s total raise of just $105k in the third quarter of the year.”
Other candidates in Prop. 50-affected races
McGuire and LaMalfa aren’t the only candidates for the newly reorganized CA-01. Labor attorney Kyle Wilson is also mounting a “long-shot” campaign for the congressional seat inspired by the success of Zorhan Mamdani’s run in the New York City mayoral race. Chico educator and nonprofit leader Audrey Denney launched her campaign for the CA-01 in early October prior to the passage of Prop. 50; she has attempted to oust LaMalfa two times in the past.
In other areas of Northern California, Humboldt County Office of Education Deputy Superintendent Colby Smart announced his candidacy for the 2nd Congressional District on Nov. 9. Formerly a lifelong Democrat, Smart is running an independent campaign for the district, currently represented by Huffman.
Smart told the Times-Standard that he was not “running against” Huffman; rather, his campaign was inspired by the passage of Prop. 50, which he opposed, and concerns that partisan political efforts were undermining the basis of representative democracy in the country.
“When maps change, representation should change with them to ensure equal representation,” Smart said in a news release. “No community should ever feel ignored or taken for granted. … I’m running because District 2 deserves representation that puts people before politics. Northern California needs leadership grounded in service, not party lines — leadership that stands up for every voice and works for the common good.”
In a release issued Wednesday, Smart said called on California leaders to explain what would become of Prop. 50 redistricting after a federal court rejected Texas’ gerrymandered Congressional map this week.
“When Prop 50 was promoted, it was described as a necessary response to actions taken in Texas and other states,” Smart said. “The Governor told voters that California needed to act because others were acting unfairly. But now the situation has changed. If the crisis used to justify Prop 50 has evaporated, the people of California deserve to know whether the Governor intends to honor his logic or continue down a path that weakens the voices of millions, especially in rural regions. Governor Newsom reasoned that he couldn’t save democracy with one hand tied behind his back. Now that his hands are untied with the passing of Prop 50, what will he do?
“… I voted no on Prop 50 because it was a cynical attempt to expedite party influence, using fear of the other, as its primary rationale. Californians voted overwhelmingly for Prop 50, and I understand why they did based on the rationale pushed by Governor Newsom, however, the time has come for us to see how principled our representatives truly are.”
U.S. Army vet and health care worker Kevin Eisele has also announced that he is running for the CA-02 seat.
Seeking Local Office
The state senate seat to be vacated by McGuire will be up for reelection next November. One of the early candidates, Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore, has already pulled out of the race after announcing his candidacy in January. Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-San Rafael) and Santa Rosa City Councilmember and former mayor Natalie Rogers have both announced their candidacy; both are running as Democrats. A primary is to be held on June 2, 2026.
Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo announced her candidacy for a second term this month. The former Eureka City Councilmember outlined her priorities for a second term in a recent Times-Standard interview, saying she would be focused on economic development in the region, addressing housing concerns, negotiating challenging circumstances with regard to federal funding and overcoming budgetary issues that the county has had in recent years.
“We are still in tough straits, and we are working hard to provide the services that people expect and demand, and still save money where we can,” she said.
Mary Burke announced her candidacy for Humboldt County’s 5th District seat this spring after Supervisor Steve Madrone decided that he would not run in 2026. Madrone endorsed Burke, saying, “When you put your heart and soul into something for eight years, it’s hard to let it go, and you hope that it will continue to move forward in a positive way for the community, and that’s what Mary Burke represents.”
In Arcata, Dan Shahin announced his candidacy for city council on Sunday.
And Daniel L. Smith announced his intentions to challenge incumbent Renée Contreras-DeLoach for Eureka City Council’s Fifth Ward this week in a Facebook post shared to the Humboldt County Conservatives group.
(Eureka Times Standard/Ukiah Daily Journal)
ED NOTES
RECOMMENDED READING:
Fort Bragg by Sylvia E. Bartley, published by Arcadia as one of its ‘Images of America’ series.
Considering that its recorded history began less than 200 years ago, Fort Bragg has seen an awful lot for a small town, and Ms. Bartley has collected much of it in this interesting little collection, everything from the town’s beginnings as an Army outpost whose mission was to suppress Indians to make the area safe for the first timber mills to the closing of the big mill that was Fort Bragg’s economic engine for most of the town’s existence. There are some fascinating photographs of pivotal events — the big strike of 1946-48, the last work day at the mill on August 8th, 2002, Redwood Summer protests of the cash-out corporate cut that led to the mill’s demise, and some wonderful shots of men in their Civil War uniforms in the 4th of July parade of 1900. One photo propelled me right out of my chair to show it to a couple of office visitors; it’s of a tightrope walker gingerly making his way across Main Street from the old Shafsky Brothers building to the area of the Company Store. Now there’s an act unlikely to be seen again in Mendocino County. The only omission, I’d say, was baseball and maybe boxing. There’s a great shot of a fisherman holding up a 65-pound salmon when big fish were commonplace, but no town team baseball or shots of the smokers that packed ‘em in back in the day. But that’s a tiny caveat put against everything else the author brings us. What’s always striking about photo collections of life in America BF (Before The Fall) is how good people looked in their honest dignity. These days, about half the people you see could be circus clowns, or so debauched old Fort Bragg would have packed them off to the State Hospital at Talmage. These local histories should be mandatory studies in the schools. After all, Fort Bragg is the history of this country contained in one small place.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Cowboys, Loggers, Airports and Airplanes and Other History from Willits by Ron Stamps.
This fascinating monograph describes the founding and functioning of the Willits Airport at its original site just east of where the library complex and County museum now sit. The author rightly marvels at how one of the town’s central institutions, born just before World War Two, can so completely vanish that a mere quarter century later the author, preparing, of all things, a dog park, realized that the people helping him had no idea that they were trying to break through the hardpan of the old runway. Stamps might also have gone on to say that he had to break through the hardpan of Mendocino County’s fleeting historical memory, in this case the memory of a remote little airport at which much of the history of the County occurred in capsule form. The Willits Airport was central to the post-War logging boom, the development of the County as a tourist destination, the creation of the Brooktrails sub-division and present-day airport location, the rise of the brilliant machinist and entrepreneur Bob Harrah, and the focal point of many spectacular events that included plane crashes and, in one of the most spectacular, a physical assault on prominent citizens by another prominent citizen irate that a plane flown by the Harrahs had buzzed his barn, spooking his wife and his livestock. The book should be available for sale at the County Museum where, when Stamps went looking for information on the old Willits Airport none existed; he depended heavily for much information on the archives at the (now defunct) Willits News and the Ukiah Daily Journal, another reminder that what history we have is found mostly in our newspapers. I’m sure this important addition to local history is also available at the Willits Library. Of all the things that go untaught in Mendocino County’s public schools, local history is among the most important, but generations of the young grow up without the slightest idea of what’s gone before. Then and now, we live in a very interesting place, not that you’d know it unless you go looking. Fortunately, Mr. Stamps went looking for all of us.
ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - GENERATION SQUALOR
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
The lingering fragrance (is that patchouli oil?!?) left behind by the ever dwindling number of baby boomers shuffling off the planet brings to mind the lofty goals and miserly achievements of Generation Us.
Oh how we would change the world, heal the planet and bring the Age of Aquarius to the masses hungry for New Age slogans, bumpersticker politics and menus of brown rice and seaweed.
Wasn’t our generation going to end the wars, stop the racism and save Mother Earth? Wasn’t our generation destined to repudiate our parents and grandparents through the mind-expanding powers of marijuana and LSD? Wouldn’t we show the world how to care and share and live peaceful lives of healing and happiness?
Do I have it right so far?
And do I have it right when I suggest we look back at the wreckage brought about by the hippies and the beatniks and rock ‘n’ roll and sex and drugs and tuning in, dropping out and making love not war and try to not laugh? Or cry.
Everything bequeathed us by our parents, by the world and society is worse today. Big cities just a few decades ago were beautiful thriving and safe.
Today you would have to think a long time before failing to name a single city improved over what it had been in 1955. Or 1965. It certainly would not be San Francisco. It couldn’t possibly be New York. It couldn’t even be Ukiah.
Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo and Akron are cities I’m comfortable writing about, and today they are crumbling, hollowed out and dangerous, and have been since the 1970s.
It happened because baby boomers had revolution and other romantic fantasies on their minds. So they held demonstrations where they yelled and rioted, and then went back home to their parents’ house in the suburbs, took off their headbands and Che Guevara t-shirts and settled in to watch themselves on the 5 o”clock news.
Great work, kids. Now the colored folk who live(d) in those 12 square blocks on Cleveland’s east side can spend a few decades rebuilding their neighborhoods and lives.
Armed with ignorance and self-righteous fury, we went back to college and marched and whined, demanding “classrooms without walls” and to be able to give ourselves our own grades and have coed dorms and no more ROTC on campus. Bold, courageous and revolutionary, eh?
Then we all went to Woodstock and next we moved into communes where we planted tofu and organic wheat, got married to redwood trees, had kids who went to Free Schools and then we decided this “back-to-the-land” stuff was strictly for farmers and cut off our hair and took jobs with non-profit organizations that helped Afro Americans rebuild cities we destroyed five years earlier.
Our motives were selfish, stupid and lacking any sort of historical or intellectual foundation other than a few 15-minute lectures on how America and capitalism were responsible for all the misery in the world. Raise your hand if you have questions.
Our generation celebrated the cheap thrills of drugs in exchange for hard-earned wisdom of the ancients, the Bible, the seekers and the scholars.
We hated our parents and everyone else over age 30, but elevated celebrities like Janis and Jimi and Eric Clapton to sainthood. We repudiated the great, striving literature of Faulkner and Chekov for the watery stuff of Ferlinghetti, Stephen King and scores of best-selling mediocrities.
Drugs were our sacraments and our downfall. We adored and advocated drug use with any fashionable buzz, starting with marijuana, then on to hashish, cocaine, opium, speed, Valium, Vicodin, Quaaludes, crack, heroin and fentanyl. We boasted of sampling every drug in existence with the lone exception of tobacco, because cigarettes are bad for your health.
Now we’re all 80 years old unless we’re already dead, yet I’ve never heard anyone from M-m-m-my G-g-generation apologize for the ignoble mess we’ve made of everything we touched and a lot of things we didn’t.
Let me be first. I’m truly sorry I trampled on every garden I ever saw, set fire to admirable traditions and customs that deserve/require protection with a duty to pass those beliefs and honors to the next generation.
I wish I hadn’t sent my daughter to Mariposa School. I’m sorry I didn’t go camping with son Lucas. It was the Golden Age of bad parenting, if that explains.
I also apologize for Disco music, Dan Quayle, Fabian, Screaming Yellow Zonkers, Tiny Tim, head shops, Bernie Sanders, Paul Ehrlich, sandalwood incense, Gonzo Journalism, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Weather Underground, Easy Rider, Pink Floyd.
(Tommy Wayne Kramer is California’s only Board Certified Columnist; Tom Hine, his caretaker and the author of the ever-popular “Assignment: Ukiah” series, is a licensed private investigator.)
THE LEGENDARY BOBBY BEACON, live, from the best bar anywhere, the Beacon Light, Elk, California (2013 interview): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GZsNDzeKsc
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, November 23, 2025
JUAN CARIO, 46, Ukiah. Battery with serious injury, disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.
LAMONT JONES JR., 48, Ukiah. Under influence, probation violation, resisting.
MICHAEL MASON, 38, Ukiah. Loitering, probation revocation, resisting.
MICHAEL MENDEZ, 33, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation, resisting.
KRISTO OUSEY, 41, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.
ELIZABETH REYNOSO, 39, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
CHRISTOPHER SCHNABEL, 40, Willits. Failure to appear.
BRENT WARREN, 44, Willits. Domestic battery, probation revocation.
MICHELLE SHARP:
What to do? I have a neighbor who thought it would be a great idea to get a Belgian Malinois dog. Yes, the high energy work dog that police work with. This dog is always at home & isn’t being trained/worked with. Not good. Anyway, it’s bored & is always barking & howling throughout the day but especially between the hours of 4am -6am. They also have a rooster & it’s howling with rooster when it crows.
I’ve messaged her & went down there to tell her to do something about it. She always apologizes about it but apologies don’t mean s**t when it’s 5am & you’re trying to sleep. There’s been nothing done about it. I’d call the cops but I doubt they’d do anything about it. I’m just not sure what to do. I’m tired of being woken up by this dog & all the blame goes to the crappy owner. The icing on the cake is her sleeping through it. Like wtf?
BAY AREA HOMICIDE SUSPECT APPARENTLY FOUND DEAD IN SANTA ROSA HOME AFTER STANDOFF
by David Hernandez, Laura Waxmann
A man believed to be the suspect in a fatal shooting in Cloverdale was found dead in a Santa Rosa home Sunday after a three-hour SWAT standoff that prompted a shelter-in-place order, officials said.
It was unclear how the suspect, Lawrence Cassidy, died.
Detectives had identified the 56-year-old Cloverdale resident as the suspect in the homicide, which occurred at 4:47 p.m. Saturday on the 300 block of Cloverdale Heights Way.
The victim suffered a gunshot wound and died at the scene despite CPR and other medical efforts, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday. Officials did not release the victim’s name and age.
Statements from witnesses led detectives to identify the suspect as Cassidy, whom the sheriff’s office described as “armed and dangerous” in a statement Saturday night.
On Sunday, the sheriff’s office said Cassidy had taken off in a white Ford sport utility vehicle, which deputies found in Healdsburg. They also learned that Cassidy had been driven from Healdsburg to a home in Santa Rosa, the sheriff’s office said.
A SWAT team, hostage negotiators and a bomb squad descended on the home on Bush Creek Road around 1:30 a.m. During the standoff, Cassidy fired multiple rounds from within the residence, the sheriff’s office said, adding that a round possibly struck an armored rescue vehicle occupied by SWAT personnel. No deputies were injured.
The SWAT team deployed chemical agents to try to get Cassidy to surrender, and negotiators tried to communicate with him over the phone and a loudspeaker, but the suspect did not talk or exit the home, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies eventually used a drone and a bomb-disposal robot equipped with a camera to look in the home. “Based on observations from those devices,” the SWAT team entered and found a man dead inside.
The sheriff’s office did not release further details about the homicide or Cassidy’s apparent death. Investigations into both incidents were ongoing.
(sfchronicle.com)
A SPATE OF NEW STUDIES GIVES THE LOWDOWN ON CALIFORNIA’S SKY-HIGH LIVING COSTS
by Dan Walters
We Californians know, or should know, that while living in this state has many positive aspects, we are paying through the nose for the experience.
A flurry of recent studies drives home how deeply California residents must dig to meet costs of living that are either at or near the highest of any state.
One comes from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the Legislature’s advisor on the state budget, delving into the astronomic costs of buying a home.
The LAO study found “California home prices far exceed the rest of the country.” Mid-tier homes, those roughly in the middle of the price range, are more than twice as expensive as the typical mid-tier home elsewhere in the U.S. Monthly payments for such homes run about $5,500 in California, 74% more than what they were 25 years ago.
The study also found that the annual household income needed to qualify for a mortgage on a mid-tier California home in September was about $221,000 — more than two times the median California household income in 2024, which was $102,000.
For a bottom-tier home, about $136,000 in annual income is needed to qualify for a mortgage — about 33% higher than median household income was in 2024.
The data illustrate why California has the second lowest rate of home ownership in the nation. Just 55.3% of Californians live in homes they or their families own, slightly higher than New York’s ownership rate.
It’s not surprising that hundreds of thousands of California residents, unable to aspire to home ownership, have decamped for more affordable states, such as Texas, where home prices are a fraction of California’s.
Those who do migrate to other states find not only are houses much less expensive but fuel for their cars and utilities to light, heat and cool their homes are markedly less expensive.
The Center for Jobs & the Economy, an offshoot of the California Business Roundtable, continuously monitors energy costs in California and other states. Its latest report says gasoline, averaging $4.64 a gallon in California, is as much as $1.50 a gallon higher than in Texas and other states. California’s electrical power rates are roughly twice as high.
Another take on California living costs comes from the Transparency Foundation, a conservative economic think tank.
It gathered a wide variety of factors and calculated living costs for an upper-middle class California family with a $130,000 annual income. It concluded the family would pay $29,753 more per year than the national average for housing, utilities, health care, taxes and other costs of living.
“This report should be a wake-up call to all Californians, that they are being unfairly punished by the bad policies imposed on them by their politicians — and they are literally paying the price for it,” Dave McCulloch, the foundation’s chairman, said in a statement about the report.
A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California confirms that Californians worry about living costs. Nearly a third of those polled said they, or someone in their household, have reduced food purchases to save money.
The California Farm Bureau revealed this week that a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people next week will cost a California family $72.61, well above the national average of $55.18.
Finally, there’s a new report from WalletHub, a website devoted to personal finance, implying that Californians are taking on more debt to pay their rising bills.
In this year’s third quarter — July through September — the average California household added $880 in new debt, increasing the total owed to $259,773, second only to residents of Hawaii.
All together, Californians’ personal debt increased by $11.8 billion during the quarter. Now it’s nearly $3.2 trillion, just a bit lower than their $3.6 trillion in annual personal income.
A truly staggering number.
(CalMatters.org)
SUNDAY MORNING IN DC
Warmest spiritual greetings,
Sitting here in front of a public computer at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Washington, D.C. There is nothing happening here of any particular political importance in America’s national capital. The government shutdown is now over. That’s the big news.
Tourism is down due to the shut down. The weather is relatively mild, cloudy in the low 60s. D.C. sports teams are playing this weekend. Will shortly leave the library and return to the Catholic Charities homeless shelter for the night. I am awaiting membership cards to arrive in the mail related to health, wealth, and food. Feel free to contact me. On the other hand, if you are drawing a complete blank in regard to postmodern American living as I am at the moment, come on by and pick me up. After all, we could be doing something!
Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]
JACK LONDON TO HIS 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, FEBRUARY 1914:
“All my life has been marked by what, in lack of any other term, I must call ‘disgust.’ When I grow disinterested in anything, I experience a disgust which settles for me that thing forever. I turn the page down there and then. When a colt on the ranch, early in its training, shows that it is a kicker or a bucker or a bolter or a balker, I try patiently and for a long time to remove, by my training, such deleterious traits; and then at the end of a long time if I find that these vicious traits continue, suddenly there comes to me a disgust, and I say Let the colt go. Kill it, sell it, give it away. So far as I am concerned I am finished with the colt. Years ago I warned your mother that if I were denied the opportunity of forming you, sooner or later I would develop a disgust, and that I would turn down the page. If you should be dying, and should ask for me at your bedside, I should surely come; on the other hand, if I were dying, I should not care to have you at my bedside. A ruined colt is a ruined colt, and I do not like ruined colts.”
JACK LONDON’S 13-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, JOAN, WROTE YEARS LATER:
“Even today, rereading his letter of February 24th, 1914, I am appalled by the relentless, calculating cruelty with which he wrote to me, his daughter, just turned thirteen. I rejected his rejection simply because I could not possibly accept it. Little by little, with the initiative on my side for each cautious easing of the tension, but with its immediate acceptance by Daddy, an affectionate correspondence was resumed. And yet, Daddy was different. Except on rare occasions, his old exuberance was gone. Fewer letters were exchanged than before, but they were loving letters, and when we were together, he expressed his love for us and his interest in what interested us in ways I shall never forget.”
(The above comes from a London biography by Earle Labor published by Farrer, Straus and Giroux, and a highly recommended AVA read.)
I WAS 22 WHEN JFK WAS MURDERED, and I will never recover from it… Never.
— Hunter S. Thompson
November, 22, 1963, Woody Creek
I am tired enough to sleep here in this chair, but I have to be in town at 8 when Western Union opens, so what the hell? Besides, I am afraid to sleep for fear of what I might learn when I wake up. There is no human being within 500 miles to whom I can communicate anything, much less the fear and loathing that is on me after today’s murder. God knows I might go mad for lack of talk. I have become like a psychotic Sphinx. I want to kill because I can’t talk.
I suppose you will say the rotten murder has no meaning for a true writer of fiction, and that the “real artist” in the “little magazines” are above such temporal things. I wish I could agree, but in fact I think what happened today is far more meaningful than the “little magazines” for the past 20 years. And the next 20, if we get that far.
We now enter the era of the shitrain, President Johnson and the hardening of the arteries. Neither your children nor mine will ever be able to grasp what Gatsby was after. No more of that. You misunderstand it of course, peeling back the first and most obvious layer. Take your “realism” to the garbage dump. Or the “little magazines.” They are like a man who goes into a phone booth to pull his pod. Nada, nada.
The killing has put me in a state of shock. The rage is trebled. I was not prepared at this time for the death of hope, but here it is. Ignore it at your peril. I have written Semonin, that cheap book-store Marxist, that he had better tell his boys to buy bullets. And forget the dialectic.
This is the end of reason, the dirtiest hour in our time. I mean to come down from the hills and enter the fray. Tomorrow a cabled job request to “The Reporter.” Failing that, the “Observer.” Beyond that, God knows, but it will have to be something. From now until the 1964 elections every man with balls should be on the firing line. The vote will be the most critical in the history of man. No matter what, today is the end of an era. No more fair play.
From now on it is dirty pool and judo in the clinches. The savage nuts have shattered the great myth of American decency. They can count me in. I feel ready for a dirty game.
Fiction is dead. Mailer is an antique curiosity. The stakes are now too high and the time too short. What, O what, does Eudora Welty have to say? Fuck that crowd. The only hope now is to swing hard with the right hand, while hanging on to sanity with the left. Politics will become a cockfight and reason will go by the boards. There will have to be somebody to carry the flag.
My concept of the new novel would have fit this situation, but now I see no hope for getting it done, if indeed, any publishing houses survive the Nazis scramble that is sure to come.
How could we have known, or even guessed? I think we have come to that point. Send word if you still exist.
— HST
COME BACK TO SORRENTO
Look at the sea, how beautiful it is,
it inspires so many emotions,
like you do with the people you look at,
who you make to dream while they are still awake.
Look at this garden
and the scent of these oranges,
such a fine perfume,
it goes straight into your heart,
And you say: "I am leaving, goodbye."
You go away from this heart of mine,
away from this land of love,
And have you the heart not to come back?
But do not leave me,
do not give me this torment.
Come back to Surriento,
make me live!
Look at the sea of Surriento,
what a treasure it is!
Even who has travelled all over the world,
has never seen a sea like this one.
Look at these mermaids
that stare, amazed, at you,
that love you so much.
They would like to kiss you,
And you say: "I am leaving, goodbye."
You go away from my heart,
away from the land of love,
And have you the heart not to come back?
But please do not leave me,
do not give me this torment.
Come back to Surriento,
make me live!
— lyrics by Giambattista De Curtis
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
I have not watched the BBC J6 edited piece; frankly it’s one of the stupidest things I ever heard as the unedited delivery by Trump was pure and deliberate incitement to riot which in that case becomes insurrection…I watched it all Real Time and was shocked that a POTUS - even one as incompetent and low as him - could do that. J6 ALONE was enough to “start” an enduring cavalcade of reactions from Dems - and frankly all Americans: That alone should have landed Trump in jail or at the very least resulted in him being never able to run for any office in the US again. Trump and his sycophantic tribe (Bannon; Kirk; Carlson; Bongino; Kelly - just to name a few) “Started” all of this; any push back or reaction now is, “What did you expect them to do?” I expect them to track his ass down until one day he is in jail…
LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT
U.S. and Ukraine Expected to Press on With Peace Plan Talks
Mamdani and Trump Tamp Down Fears Over National Guard in New York City
Back Home, Voters Stand by Marjorie Taylor Greene After She Stood Up to Trump
Denmark Offers Lessons as Europe Toughens Up on Immigration
U.S. Introduces New Female Crash-Test Dummy Standards
Why That Whitney Houston Drumbeat Is So Addictive, Yet Hard to Match
AOC: “We’ve been hearing from the Trump administration that the economy in general is thriving and he’s been saying that the economy is booming, but it’s only seven tech companies that are booming… So the entire US economy growth can be tracked down to seven companies.”
ALL THIS AMERICANIZING and mechanizing has been for the purpose of overthrowing the past.
And now look at America, tangled in her own barbed wire, and mastered by her own machines.
— D. H. Lawrence
I DISTRUST GREAT MEN. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too, and I always feel a little man’s pleasure when they come a cropper.
— E.M. Forster
"WHAT PASSES FOR IDENTITY in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go some place else to make it. That’s all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts. Those who were making it in England, for example, did not get on the Mayflower. That’s how the country was settled."
— James Baldwin
FROM GAIETY TO GAIETY we progressed, and they next asked if I had ever been inside a shebeen, or illicit drinking den, one of the most depraved spectacles, it seems, that civilization has to offer. As a matter of fact I had not seen one of them, but of course I had heard of them. That is, if they were the same things that we have at home and that we generally read of in the Sunday papers in connexion with marriages into the peerage or other intelligentsia. Anyway, it all sounded most awfully exciting. Here at last might be the adventure I was seeking. It begins unromantically enough. You go down quite an ordinary poor road, wide and well lighted and with a policeman all unsuspicious at the corner. Then you ask in one little shop, the sort of place where they sell firewood and the kind of vegetables that are not particular about their company, and after your cicerone has whispered mysteriously they shake their heads. Apparently their daughter has already married into the intelligentsia or else they have made their fortunes. But they nod and point to another place, the same sort of firewood and Woodbines shop, and with a little shudder in you go, prepared for any devilment. You buy your Woodbines or what not, and talk long and low to the lady in charge. And on her reluctant consent you go up to the door at the back of the shop and knock in a particular way. There is a glimpse of a face at the peep-hole and then the thing swings back, and Life lies before you. At first glance it rather resembles a quite ordinary kitchen with half a dozen quite ordinary but obviously uneasy gentlemen sitting round on hard chairs in dead silence. And then the hidden Iniquity begins to dawn upon you. For a comfortably middle-aged lady is making the round of the circle with a jug and glasses. And as you get your glass the full Sin of the business bursts upon you. A shilling, for that little lot of inferior stout, and then I will swear there was water in mine! In Dublin we may not get into the Sunday papers with the swell divorce cases and the bishops explaining why they do not believe in God, but we can make our few hundred per cent just as well as our luckier sisters in the West End. Round and round in silence goes the lady, and you get something of the impression of a handing round of hymn-books at a deacons’ meeting for a new chapel organ, so eminently decorous is the whole business. Even the family cat cleaning its whiskers before the neatly polished grate seemed to share the general air of unctuous rectitude. Until in the end, as it happened, it was this very beast that unwittingly threw the Apple of Discord bang into the middle of the Mirror of Contentment. For as, its toilet complete, it paced mincingly across the kitchen floor, heavy-footed Hebe engrossed with her sordid shillings, trod upon its indignant tail. And as I jumped up to stroke it, I collided on my mission of mercy with the gentlemanly door-keeper as the same humane thought simultaneously struck him, too. There was a bump, and something fell from his open pocket. With a charming smile of apology he stooped to retrieve his knuckle-duster, an implement doubtless necessary in the profession but, like a dentist’s drill, not lightly to be shown to the laity. I left just after that, and I only trust that with my departure the place grew merrier. For never have I drunk inferior stout in an atmosphere more funereal.
— John Gibbons, 1931; from “Tramping Through Ireland”
LAMENT FOR IGNACIO SÁNCHEZ MEJÍAS
by Federico García Lorca, translated by Sarah Arvio
1
The Goring and the Death
At five in the afternoon
At the stroke of five
The boy brought the white sheet
at five o’clock
A basket of lime all ready
at five o’clock
The rest was death and only death
at five o’clock
Wind carried off the cotton balls
at five o’clock
Rust scattered chrome and glass
at five o’clock
The dove and the leopard fought
at five o’clock
And a thigh with a desolate horn in it
at five o’clock
The bass strings began to thrum
at five o’clock
The bells of arsenic and smoke
at five o’clock
On the corners crowds of silence
at five o’clock
The bull alone with lifted heart
at five o’clock
When the icy sweat began to flow
at five o’clock
when iodine filled the bullring
at five o’clock
and death laid eggs in the wound
at five o’clock
At five o’clock
At the stroke of five
The bed is a coffin on wheels
at five o’clock
Bones and flutes sing in his ear
at five o’clock
The bull roared from his brow
at five o’clock
The room was a death rainbow
at five o’clock
The gangrene began from afar
at five o’clock
Trumpet of a lily in his green groin
at five o’clock
The wounds burned like suns
at five o’clock
and the mob broke the windows
at five o’clock
At five o’clock
Ay what terrible fives
It was five on all the clocks
In the afternoon shadows
2
The Spilled Blood
I don’t want to look
Tell the moon to come
I don’t want to behold
Ignacio’s blood in the ring
I don’t want to look
The moon shines clear
horse of quiet clouds
the gray bullring of dreams
with willows by the gates
I don’t want to look
My memory is burning
Tell the jasmine flowers
so small and so white
I don’t want to look
Cow of the old world
licked its sad tongue
over a snoutful of blood
spilled in the ring
and the bulls of Guisando
half dead and half stone
roared like two centuries
tired of treading the dirt
No
I don't want to look
Ignacio mounts the steps
with his death on his back
He was searching for dawn
but day wasn’t dawning
He searches for his strong face
and gets lost in a dream
He searched for his fine body
and found his spilled blood
Don’t tell me to look
I won’t watch the blood
run slower and slower
the blood that glistens
on the rows and spills
on the leather and corduroy
of the thirsting crowd—
Who shouts at me to look
Don’t tell me to look
His eyes didn’t close
as the horns came near
but the terrible mothers
raised up their heads
And over the herds
the secret voices flew
shouting to the bulls in heaven
herders of pale fog
No prince in Seville
could rival him—
no sword like his sword
no heart so true
Like a river of lions
his prodigious strength
Like a marble torso
his etched poise
A hint of Andalusian Rome
gilded his head
and his laughter was a white nard
of salt and wit
How grand the bullfighter
as he moved in the ring
Such a man of the sierra
How sweet with the wheat
How hard with the spurs
How tender with the dew
How splendid at the fair
How fierce with the last
banderillas of the dusk
But now he sleeps
Now the moss and grass
open the flower of his skull
with their steady fingers
His blood comes singing
over marshlands and fields
slipping on the frozen horns
wavering soulless in the fog
stumbling on a thousand hoofs
like a long dark sad tongue
and pooling and dying
beside the Guadalquivir
river of the stars
O white wall of Spain
O black bull of sorrow
O Ignacio’s hard blood
O nightingale of his veins
No
I don’t want to look
For no cup will hold it
no swallows will sip it
nor can it be cooled
by a shimmering frost
Nor can flood of lilies
or crystal or song
coat it in silver
No
I don’t want to look
3
The Body Lies Here
The stone is a forehead of grieving dreams
with no curling water or icy cypresses
The stone is a shoulder for carrying time
and trees of tears and ribbons and planets
I have seen the gray rain chase the waves
that lift their gentle and riddled arms
so as not to be hunted by the heavy stone
that wastes the body and soaks up no blood
For the stone takes the seeds and the clouds
and the lark-skeletons and shadow-wolves
but it gives no sound no glass and no fire
only the bullrings and some have no walls
Here on the stone lies noble Ignacio
It’s over And what now Look at his body
Death has painted him with pale sulfurs
and cast him the head of a dark minotaur
It’s over Rain leaks in through his mouth
Air in a frenzy flees his sagging chest
and Love—soaked in tears of snow—
warms up with the best of the herds
What did they say Silence and a stench
rest Here is a body that lifts away
in the bright shape once a nightingale
and we watch it fill with infinite holes
Who rumples the shroud He does not speak truth
Here no one sings or cries in a corner
or digs in his spurs or scares the snake
Here all I want is a pair of round eyes
for watching this body that will not rest
Here I want to see the men with hard voices
the men who tame horses and master rivers
the men who rattle their skeletons and sing
with their mouths full of sunshine and flint
Here I want to see them looking at the stone
Looking at this body with its broken reins
I want them to show me the door that leads out
for this captain who is lashed to his death
I want them to teach me to cry like a river
with sweet mist and deep riverbanks
for bearing away his body Let it be lost
and never hear the deep bray of the bulls
Let it be lost on the round bullring of the moon
that poses as a girl and a suffering bull
Let it be lost in the songless night of the fish
and in the white thicket of frozen smoke
Let them not hide his face under handkerchiefs
that teach him to bear the death he holds
Go Ignacio Do not hear the hot roar
Sleep Fly Rest Even the sea dies
4
The Soul Is Gone
The bull doesn’t know you or the fig tree
or the horses or the ants in your house
nor does the little boy or the afternoon
because you have died now forever
The spine of the stone doesn’t know you
nor the black satin in which you lie wasted
Your untold memories don't know you
because you have died now forever
And the autumn will come with seashells
and misty grapes and gathering hills
but no one will want to look in your eyes
because you have died now forever
Because you have died now forever
like all other dead men on this earth
like all the dead men who lie forgotten
in a heap of annihilated dogs
No one knows you But I sing for you
I sing for your chiseled face and your grace
and the great seasoned age of your knowledge
your craving for death the savor of its mouth
and the sadness in your valiant joy
A long time will pass before another
Andalusian is born—if ever he is born—
so lucid and so rich in daring
I sing of his elegance with weeping words
and I remember a sad wind among the olives
“CALIFORNIA’S SKY-HIGH LIVING COSTS by Dan Walters”
California will always be more expensive, but doesn’t need to be unaffordable. Building code reform is needed, and can be done if there was a will to do so by the current political establishment. Energy costs could be easily lowered as well if there was a will to do so by the same establishment. Don’t blame PG&E, their policies and pursestrings are controlled by the same political establishment. Don’t blame oil companies either. They are not required to remain in California where they can not make a profit due to the policies of the same political establishment. It is interesting to me that most Californians complain about high unaffordable costs, but continue to vote the same way. What is there, some sort of mind control?