Coastal Driz | Downtown Covelo | More Quakes | Thanksgiving Day | Holiday Bazaar | Electric Turkey | Medicare Changes | Kevin Missing | New Track | Coral Fungus | Boat Parade | Wild Turkeys | Writers’ Workshop | Toad Hall | Power Grid | Yesterday's Catch | Cruelty Squared | Happy Thanksgiving | Martha Hamburg | Dull | No Better | Musical Ear | Cornfed Schneider | Duncan & Brady | Bitcoin Scam | Lead Stories | Small Place | Do Something | Your Absence | Trumpsgiving/Trumpstaking | Over There | Underground Railroad | Turkey Pond
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 50F with fog, (yes fog) this Friday morning on the coast. It looks like a bunch of clouds have joined our otherwise dry forecast into the weekend at least.
COASTAL areas will experience mostly cloudy skies and bouts of drizzle through this morning, primarily for Del Norte and northern Humboldt. Otherwise, dry and seasonably cool weather is forecast for the next 7 days. A highly energetic long period west swell will bring an increased risk for hazardous beach conditions Monday through Tuesday next week. (NWS)
MULTIPLE EARTHQUAKES RATTLE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ON THANKSGIVING
by Jan Carillo
- Nov. 27, 10:20 a.m. Another earthquake hit The Geysers area at 9:11 a.m. on Thursday, measuring preliminarily at magnitude 3.9. This latest quake’s epicenter was even closer to The Geysers, just 0.7 miles away.
- Nov. 27, 8:10 a.m. An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.7 rattled roughly 37 miles north of Santa Rosa in Northern California on Thursday morning at 4:21 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake’s epicenter was located 1.6 miles southeast of The Geysers.
Known for its frequent seismic activity and being the site of the world’s largest developed geothermal field, The Geysers was also hit with a 4.1-magnitude earthquake earlier this week on Monday.
The quake is the latest in a swarm of earthquakes that have hit the Bay Area and Northern California in the month of November. However, experts caution that the uptick in seismic activity doesn’t mean the “big one” is imminent in the region.
(SFGate.com)
JAYMA SHIELDS, The Mendocino Observer:
By now I trust you folks have full bellies and happy hearts. On Thursday we spent the day volunteering at the 101 Grill & BBQ restaurant in Laytonville helping at their community Thanksgiving Dinner. If you were an EBT card holder, your meal was free, otherwise it was $10/plate with proceeds benefiting Pam & Susan’s North Pole Toy Express-our local toy drive.
It was a beautiful day immersing ourselves in community and good cheer. I sure miss Dad on Thanksgiving. If we were successful, we got him to sit down and eat a plate, better if he had a beer or two. And even better yet if we convinced him to either shut the water plant down early or postpone writing his column for the UDJ so he could watch one of our family’s traditional holiday movies - it was either Miracle on 34th Street or Harvey. If my dad allowed himself the dinner, beer(s) and movie, he would fall asleep on our couch for a few hours. That was a successful Thanksgiving for us knowing he got a few hours of down time and a full belly.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Take care.
DEBORAH WHITE:
The First Thanksgiving (in Ukiah)…
When we lived in Mendocino, we cooked on a wood stove. (We were back-to-the-land hippies.) It took a fair amount of vigilance to cook a turkey, fire-wise. As a professor of anatomy, Richard delighted in carving the roast beast, separating the parts with surgical precision. I just watched. Then Richard moved out, and Ollie and I moved to an all-electric house in the metropolis of Ukiah. Thanksgiving came. Sigrid and Mehdi and one-year-old Leila were living in the Mendo house, and they came over. I had stuffed the turkey and put it in to roast. A few hours later, the power went out. The turkey wasn’t done. We ate the side dishes I’d made and eventually went to the Truck Stop. I had a reuben sandwich. When we got home, I cheerfully tossed the turkey into the garbage, relieved that I didn’t have to attempt to carve it.
JADE TIPPETT:
The government gives and the corporations take away. Social Security recipients are getting a 2.8% COLA raise next year. My Medicare Part D is going up by 241% next year. Yep, you read that right, from $20.70 per month to $70.70. As a result, my COLA is a negative $20. ‘Murikka!
This is likely due to the Orange Menace’s tariffs on generic drugs produced in India and other places. My prediction is that the tariffs will come down, or off, sometime in February, resulting in a giant windfall for health insurance investors and the pharmacy middlemen, at the expense of American seniors. Time will tell.
MISSING BLACK DUCK
By the Navarro Store. His name is Kevin. We were out in the yard with our ducks when Kevin just disappeared on Tuesday afternoon. It happened in a matter of 15-20 minutes. We think that someone might have picked him up, he likes to walk towards the end of the driveway, across from the Navarro Post Office boxes.
His bestie David is heartbroken as are we. Please if you have him, please bring him back. He is part of our family
NEW SCHOOL TRACK UNVEILED IN BOONVILLE
by Justine Frederiksen
New sports facilities for students in rural Mendocino County were celebrated at an unveiling ceremony Friday in Anderson Valley.
“It was a great day and a huge amenity has been installed for the community,” said Louise Simson, former superintendent of the Anderson Valley Unified School District, of the $4.7 million project she helped write the initial grant for, noting that current Superintendent Kristin Larson-Balliet “did a beautiful job on the project.”
“Through our partnership with the Anderson Valley Unified School District, this project highlights our commitment to improving quality of life in communities throughout the region,” Caltrans District 1 Director Matthew Brady was quoted as saying in a press release this summer when work on the project began. “This athletic facility provides a convenient home base for Boonville residents and students to recreate and engage in outdoor activities.”
Caltrans described the “Anderson Valley Track to Health and Fitness project” as receiving $2.7 million from “Governor Gavin Newsom’s Clean California initiative, a sweeping $1.2 billion, multiyear clean-up effort led by Caltrans to remove trash, create thousands of jobs, and help communities beautify their public spaces.” Simson noted that the school district did not have to contribute any funds for the project.
“This project represents a significant investment in our school and community, creating a space that promotes health, recreation, and school pride,” Superintendent Larson Balliet was quoted as saying when ground-breaking began. “We are deeply grateful to Caltrans for recognizing the value of accessible outdoor facilities and for helping us bring this long-awaited project to fruition.”
The new facilities will feature “a new grass field that can be used for both soccer and football and an all-weather track accessible to students and the community, providing varied fitness opportunities for Boonville residents,” who currently do not have any “gyms or workout facilities within a 20-mile radius.”
Caltrans describes “the project centerpiece as a state-of-the-art, six-lane running track with a rubberized, artificial surface for track and field athletics and community-wide exercise. The track will be accessible before and after school hours, on weekends and during the summer months, (noting that) these improvements will provide a safe and equitable venue for students from low-income families to participate in sporting events and independent soccer leagues in a clean, welcoming environment designed to help residents achieve their individual wellness and recreation goals.”
With the project now complete, Simson said Friday’s ceremony celebrating the track was attended by “the entire district student body, all 390 kids.”
Caltrans officials noted that “this $4.7 million Clean California project was made possible through Governor Gavin Newsom’s Clean California initiative, a sweeping $1.2 billion, multiyear clean-up effort led by Caltrans to remove trash, create thousands of jobs, and help communities beautify their public spaces, (explaining that) Clean California has funded 319 projects statewide to revitalize and beautify underserved communities. Projects are improving public spaces, tribal lands, parks, neighborhoods, transit centers, walking paths, streets, roadsides, recreation fields, community gathering spots, and places of cultural importance or historical interest in underserved communities.”
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
LIT BOAT PARADE THIS SATURDAY IN FORT BRAGG’S NOYO HARBOR
Don’t forget to come down to the Noyo Center Field Station on Saturday night for the Lit Boat Parade. Great view from the deck, where you can warm up by the cozy fire pit and enjoy s’mores and other goodies. Requested donation $10, kids under 12 free. Hot chocolate, cider, coffee and tea available for purchase. Bring your own mug for $1 off any drink.
Noyo Marine Field Station
32430 N. Harbor Drive
Fort Bragg, CA. 95437
Happy Thanksgiving to the AVA crew. Thanks for all you do.
Dobie Dolphin, Fort Bragg
TALKIN’ TURKEY
edited by Averee McNear
The last native turkey of California (Meleagris californica) foraged here more than 10,000 years ago, and what we know of it comes to us only through the fossil record. It likely disappeared due to climate change. Had you wanted a Thanksgiving turkey more than one hundred years ago, you would have bought one or raised one of your own. The native bird, where it did occur, had been hunted so aggressively that only an estimated 30,000 birds remained in North America. Today, wild turkeys number around seven million and thrive in every state but Alaska.
Mendocino County is naturally suited to the raising of turkeys due to its wooded areas, open grassland, and plentiful food. By the early 1900s, the county was producing and shipping large quantities of domesticated turkeys to urban areas. In November of 1907, eleven tons of locally raised and dressed turkeys from Mendocino and Lake counties were shipped from the Wells Fargo & Co. office in Ukiah to San Francisco for further distribution, and the county’s turkeys were noted for their toothsome qualities. Recommended as a great boon to local ranchers and farmers, who paid nominal sums for its care and keep, the bird was considered highly profitable due to its efficiency as a forager.
On the belief that wild turkeys could thrive within the state again, the Department of Fish and Game began the bird’s reintroduction by releasing 22 birds into the San Bernardino mountains. Initial attempts failed, but through a series of successive releases and careful breeding of hybridized birds in captivity, more than 3,350 birds were released between 1928 and 1951 at 71 different sites within 23 California counties, Mendocino among them, but these releases failed in all but three counties: Sonoma, San Luis Obispo and Santa Clara. These turkeys lacked the necessary skills to survive.
Between 1959 and 1999, thousands of wild turkeys of five different types were trapped, released, and transplanted into Mendocino County, including Merriams, Rio Grande, Eastern, Eastern/Rio Grande hybrid, and the California hybrid. Today, Mendocino County has a well-established turkey population, and the bird is a common sight in many places and is hunted at high levels. Present in California in an area of about 29,000 square miles, turkeys are considered a conservation success story.
Though a beautiful and welcome sight to many, the Great American bird has made itself at home in a variety of urban and suburban locations, causing damage to crops and landscaping. Known to be territorial depending on the season, turkeys generally only approach humans in search of food.
Some people complain they are damaging the state’s natural biodiversity, as they eat reptiles, amphibians, and many kinds of native plants, and that they may out-compete native ground-dwelling birds for resources. They have been accused by some of the spread of diseases, such as Sudden Oak Death, though this has been disputed. One thing that is clear is that turkeys—native or otherwise—require much further study.
(Reprint from November 23, 2016 by Tonia Hurst)
(kelleyhousemuseum.org)
FREE WRITERS’ WORKSHOP AT THE FORT BRAGG LIBRARY
The Writers of the Mendocino Coast present a free Writers’ Workshop at the Fort Bragg Library, at 499 E.Laurel Street in Fort Bragg, on Wednesday, December 10, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the genre of Playwriting.
Dr. Philip Zwerling will lead a workshop that will guide writers, even if they have never written a play before, to “Write a Ten-Minute Play, Win a Contest, and Get it Published.”
Zwerling is a former Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Director of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans and his Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 8 books including one full length play. His scenes for actors appear in 3 books from The Applause Books Acting Series.
Attendees should bring paper, pens, and their imaginations. No previous experience is necessary. This workshop is free and open to all.
More information at https://www.writersmendocino.org/
KATY DOSS:
PG&E makes very generous donations (with OUR money) to the Governors election campaigns. The Governor appoints the members of the PUC. The highly-paid members of the PUC are supposed to be the regulators of PG&E and look out for the public’s interest. Ha Ha Ha!!!! How could this possibly not be corrupted?! How long will people keep taking it? I had a small solar array, a backup generator and a battery storage system from EG4 Electronics installed and it did wonders for my PG&E bill. Dropped to $24.00 per month, which PG&E calls a “connection fee”. At this point, I’m debating whether I need to stay connected to them, since I have my own power generation plant and energy storage. Seems they’re the ones who want to stay connected… to my wallet! PG&E is so yesterday. Why do people in California pay more than any other state except for Hawaii for out dated and unreliable energy?
CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, November 27, 2025
EDWIN GOMEZ, 22, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
CHRISTIAN GUTIERREZ-GARCIA, 32, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
DEREK HADDON, 54, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
VINCENT HYLER, 32, Redwood Valley. DUI.
MALIK PADY, 45, Clearlake/Ukiah. Brandishing, concealed dirk-dagger, resisting.
DAVID SANTIAGO, 45, Clearlake/Ukiah. Brandishing, concealed dirk-dagger, resisting
GARY SHANNON, 32, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, no license.
ANTHONY TOLBERT, 37, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation.
CRUELTY SQUARED
Editor,
I was in the immigration courtroom as an observer on Monday. Due to the overload of cases, the judge was delayed in hearing the afternoon docket. Given that the court is down to nine judges from 26, these delays are now routine.
For the Department of Justice to claim that it is “restoring integrity to our immigration system” by firing qualified and committed judges is ludicrous. In my time as a court observer, I have witnessed how these judges demonstrate integrity, professionalism, and a commitment to follow the rule of law.
Now, the Trump administration is threatening to deport asylum seekers to Honduras while they await their trials. Many of those who could be deported are not even from Honduras.
There is no end to the cruelty.
Alyson Jacks
San Francisco
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
For today, take a good, long break
by Matt Taibbi
In 1988 a vocalist named Bobby McFerrin rose to the top of the charts with a song called “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” He quickly found himself at the center of a political controversy when George H.W. Bush used it as a campaign song, which of course changed utterly the context and meaning of lyrics like The landlord says your rent is late He may have to litigate Don’t worry, be happy. McFerrin protested, which prompted the elder Bush to push back and invite the artist to events — apparently he really dug the song — but the Mike Dukakis-supporting McFerrin held fast.
It didn’t help. McFerrin was roasted as a traitor to his community for selling polyanna optimism, with Chuck D., Flavor Flav, and Public Enemy immortalizing the zeitgeist with the lyric ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ was a number one jam Damn if I say it you can slap me right here! I loved PE, but it was unfair to McFerrin, who went on to have a long and storied career as a composer and arranger but only one pop hit, and thus got piles of abuse spared more commercially successful artists. Nobody ripped Prince for 1999, a song about partying instead of worrying about nuclear war, for instance. Flavor Flav himself ended up hosting a 21st-century version of The Dating Game.
The same story recently played out with Pharrell Williams, the modern “Happy” merchant who made the mistake of saying, “I hate politics” at an entrepreneuship conference. How weird is the world these days? He even got blasted by Forbes. Happy has an even bigger target on its back than it did in 1988, it’s been made almost shameful to admit being so, but we get to shut the door today and indulge. At least, that’s my plan. Food piled high, a few guests, and all three games.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, including the many contributors to this site. I’m thankful for all of you, and hope you all get a needed break from tiring schedules, and go to sleep feeling a little less bogged down. Who could begrudge that?
(racket.news)
"HE IS not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.”
— Samuel Johnson
I HAD A GREAT MANY prejudices that have since dissolved. But what I still hate about the women’s movement is their insistence upon male piety in relation to it. I don’t like bending my knee and saying I’m sorry, mea culpa. I find now that women have achieved some power and recognition they are quite the equal of men in every stupidity and vice and misjudgment that we’ve exercised through history.
They’re narrow-minded, power seeking, incapable of recognizing the joys of a good discussion. The women’s movement is filled with tyrants, just as men’s political movements are equally filled.
What I’ve come to discover are the negative sides, that women are no better than men. I used to think — this is sexism in a way, I’ll grant it — that women were better than men. Now I realize no, they’re not any better.
— Norman Mailer
"HE HAS Van Gogh's ear for music.”
— Billy Wilder
PAUL ‘CORNFED’ SCHNEIDER has spent most of his adult life incarcerated in the California prison system. His crimes include attempted murder, armed robbery, drug smuggling from within prison, and ordering robberies from behind bars. In 1990, he stabbed a defense attorney four times in a Sacramento courtroom. In 2003, he received his third life term for his role in a drug operation and the 1995 murder of a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy. At one point, Schneider and fellow inmate Dale Bretches ran an illegal dog breeding operation, named “Dog O’War,” from inside Pelican Bay State Prison. The two Presa Canario dogs, Bane and Hera, were intended to be guard dogs for drug labs. Corn Feds’ lawyers, Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel, took possession of the dogs and brought them to their San Francisco apartment building. In a bizarre twist, the couple legally adopted the then-38-year-old Schneider as their son. On January 26th, 2001, Diane Whipple, a 33-year-old college lacrosse coach, was attacked by the two Presa Canario dogs in the hallway of her upscale San Francisco apartment building as she returned home with groceries. Knoller was leading the two dogs (each weighing over 100 lbs, more than both women combined) when the attack occurred, dragging her behind them as they mauled Whipple. She sustained 77 bite wounds across her body, except her scalp and the soles of her feet, and died hours later in the hospital from massive blood loss. Schneider’s decision to give interviews to the media after the dog mauling case drew intense scrutiny to him and the Aryan Brotherhood, which reportedly “marked him for assassination” for talking to the press. His subsequent transfer to a federal prison medical facility further fueled suspicions among gang members that he was a federal informant. He was subsequently marked for death by the Aryan Brotherhood.
DUNCAN & BRADY
He’s been on the job too long
Well it’s twinkle twinkle little star
Along came Brady in his ‘lectric car
He’s got a mean look right in his eye
He’s gonna shoot somebody just to see him die
He’s been on the job too long
Well Duncan Duncan was a-tendin’ the bar
Along comes Brady with his shining star
And Brady says Duncan you’re under arrest
Mmhm Duncan shot a hole right through Brady’s chest
He’s been on the job too long
Brady Brady Brady well you you know you done wrong
Just breakin’ in here while the game’s going on
You come a-breakin’ down the windows and knockin’ down the door
And now you’re lyin’ dead on the barroom floor
He’s been on the job too long
Well old king Brady was a big fat man
Doctor reached out grabbed a hold of his hand
He felt for his pulse and shook his head
Said I believe into my soul king Brady’s dead
He’s been on the job too long
High-tailed carriages just standin’ around
To carry king Brady to the buryin’ ground
Them rubber tired buggy them rubber tired hacks
They took him to the graveyard never brung him back
He’s been on the job too long
When the women all heard that king Brady was dead
They went right home and they re-ragged in red
they come a-slippin’ and a-slidin’ and shufflin’ down the street
Them big mother hubbards in their stocking feet
He’s been on the job too long
Well Brady Brady Brady well you you know you done wrong
Just breakin’ in here while the game’s going on
You come a-breakin’ down the windows and knockin’ down the door
And now you’re lying dead on the barroom floor
He’s been on the job too long
He’s been on the job too long
— traditional
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Bitcoin (and crypto) is obviously a scam intended to enrich crooks by making it easier for them to hide their gains, evade taxes, and swindle credulous “investors” (aka speculators) who hold on too long. They also pay grocers to have bitcoin machines in their stores to help the crooks swindle foolish gullible people. Let’s hope it soon reaches its real value, zero.
LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT
For D.C. Shooting Suspect, a Long Path of Conflict From Afghanistan to America
Trump Uses Shooting to Cast Suspicion on Refugees
Recent Afghan Arrivals Fear Their Futures in the U.S. Are Now in Jeopardy
National Guard Soldier Dies After Being Shot in Washington
Death Toll Rises to 128 in Hong Kong High-Rise Fire
WHEN I WAS 19 years old I couldn’t go to college because I came from a poor family.
We had no money, so I went to the library at least. Three days a week I read every possible book. At the age of 27 I have actually completed almost the entire library instead of university. So I got my education in the library and for free. When a person wants something, they will find a way to achieve it.
I would like to remind you one thing: Humans should never forget that we have been assigned only a very small place on earth, that we live surrounded by nature that can easily take back everything that has ever given to man.
It costs absolutely nothing in her way to one day blow us all off the face of the earth or flood the waters of the ocean with her single breath, just to remind man once again that he is not as all-powerful as he still foolishly thinks.
— Ray Bradbury
DON’T LET THE EMPIRE GASLIGHT YOU Into Believing You Are Powerless
by Caitlin Johnstone
Don’t let the empire gaslight you into believing you are powerless and helpless. There are always things you can do to fight the bastards, and there are always things you can do to improve your own life.
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of believing there’s nothing we can do. Nothing we can do to fight the machine because it’s too large and entrenched, and nothing we can do to change our own personal circumstances because the deck is stacked so unfairly against ordinary people.
It’s a strong illusion because at a surface glance it appears to be true. Our political systems are locked down by the rich and powerful to ensure that our votes don’t inconvenience them in any way, and any new political movement which challenges establishment power structures will find itself facing sabotage from the outside and from within. Our voices are kept marginalized and our countrymen have been turned into mindless empire automatons by a lifetime of propaganda indoctrination.
And at first glance we appear to be just as powerless in our personal lives as well. Unless you’re lucky enough to have obtained some capital which you can use to extract labor from the working class or to possess some special aptitude that our system happens to value, you can spend your whole life struggling in poverty. The life of a worker is getting harder and harder, and it’s easy to feel like there’s nothing you can do about your own unhappiness and psychological dysfunction because you’re laboring under a system that’s so abusive and unfair.
So while it is true that there are many doors that are closed to a denizen of our dystopia, that doesn’t mean you are powerless to change things. Believing that you are powerless serves no one but the powerful.
We are never truly powerless because we always have the ability to help foment a revolutionary zeitgeist, and because we always have the ability to heal ourselves. As a collective we have the power to inform and educate the public to help them understand that they’ve been deceived their whole lives about our society, and that a better world is both needed and possible. As individuals we have the ability to do inner work to heal our trauma and liberate ourselves from the delusion of ego, which will have radically transformative effects on our quality of life in a whole host of ways.
There is nothing our rulers can do to take these abilities away from us. We will always have the ability to do something to help awaken the people to the need for revolution, and we will always have the ability to heal our inner wounds. Every single day there are concrete actions we can take toward both of these ends.
It serves nobody but the powerful to believe there’s nothing we can do to change things. Too many socialists are content to just sit around smugly knowing better than everyone else and having all the correct opinions about things while expressing distain for everyone who tries to expand awareness or make the world a better place. Get active in your community. Produce dissident media. Make revolutionary art. Have conversations. Change minds. Open some eyes. Wake people up so that one day there will be enough of us to force real change.
It serves nobody but the powerful to believe you are doomed to a life of misery. Too many socialists are content to blame all their internal dysfunction on the abuses of capitalism and just spend their days masturbating their inner wounds in meetings and online without doing the rigorous inner work necessary to come to inner peace. Get curious about your internal processes. Research the many modalities for inner healing that are available online. Listen to the brilliant minds who’ve been sharing groundbreaking new insights about trauma and inner work lately. Investigate the possibility that spiritual enlightenment is a real phenomenon that is entirely achievable in this life. Take responsibility for your own inner wellbeing, and start doing something about it.
We don’t need to sit around paralyzed by power-serving learned helplessness. We don’t need to sit idly by waiting for some deus ex machina resolution to our plight. We don’t need to resign ourselves to a life of suffering and making the same mistakes over and over again because we’re being whipped about by unconscious forces within us that we’ve never taken the time to investigate.
There is always something we can do. We can never do everything, but we can always do something. There’s no good reason not to do that something we can do, every single day of our lives.
(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)
THIS YEAR, THE BILLIONAIRES GIVE THANKS FOR TRUMP
by Molly Jong-Fast
Donald Trump has never been much for gratitude or giving back. The notion that he owes anybody anything for his success is anathema to his winners-gonna-win Trumpiness.
This philosophy is, of course, the opposite of the myth and meaning of Thanksgiving, a holiday meant to acknowledge the generosity of the Indigenous people who helped keep the colonizers alive. (Maybe, in retrospect, they might think they made the wrong decision.) The holiday has evolved since then, to be mostly about overeating while trying not to let long-simmering family resentments erupt into a messy food fight, but under all of that there is a sense that we need to take a moment to acknowledge what we have, and be reminded to help others less fortunate than ourselves.
Trumpsgiving is not about that. The spirit of this season is always Trumpstaking. For himself, his family and the various oligarchs in his circle, alternately grateful for his patronage and fearful that he might turn on them. In just under a year since Mr. Trump returned to power, this has been the lesson again and again. We’re living in the age of what I call reverse philanthropy:instead of giving, you get (See: his free 747.) And in setting this example, Mr. Trump is making our country’s rich people worse, by emboldening them to embrace his transactional style of governing.
I was thinking about this when I was reading about how, after the death earlier this fall of Agnes Gund, the noted patrician philanthropist whom The Times once called “the last good rich person,” many arts organizations she once supported have become worried that a new generation of equally generous patrons has yet to step up. As Ms. Gund once put it, “it could be because I feel guilty about having so much more than most people. If I can have it, others should be able to enjoy it.” This is noblesse oblige. It’s a dying ethic.
Mr. Trump talks often about how philanthropic he is, but as reporting in The Washington Post and The Times has documented, it appears as if some of those contributions were exaggerated. Remember the Trump Foundation, which, The Times reported, he misused to the tune of $2 million to “promote his presidential bid and pay off business debts,” and even to purchase a portrait of himself?
Instead, he wants you to give to him — or else. This is reverse philanthropy: Instead of the richest helping the neediest, they pay tribute to the greediest. Remember the dozens of people and corporations who gave over a million dollars each to his inauguration? Mr. Trump then went to five crypto firms and eight tech companies, including some that helped fund the inauguration, for help building his ballroom. Which will itself be a place to gather fellow oligarchs and others who seek Mr. Trump’s favor. Think endless lavish fund-raising galas in honor of one recipient who will never truly be satisfied.
Mr. Trump also sets an extremely bad example when it comes to philanthropy more generally, at a time when it’s needed more than ever. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts are under siege, and one-third of American museums report that they have lost government grants or contracts during Mr. Trump’s second term. A recent analysis from SMU DataArts shows that in just one year, individual donations to arts institutions fell more than 30 percent. This could be for a number of reasons — uncertainty around tariffs and the economy’s future, as well as higher interest rates, could be affecting some people’s giving. But there’s also a sense that supporting the arts might be risky, aligning you with people whose values are not MAGA values. Between 2019 and 2024, corporate support for the arts declined by 58 percent, and foundation funding declined by 35 percent.
This selfishness can’t all be blamed on Mr. Trump. Sam Bankman-Fried was supposed to redefine philanthropy with effective altruism, but he used charity as a cover and is now sitting in jail for one of the biggest financial frauds in history. Over the last decade we’ve seen a decline even in the amount wealthy families are giving. Forty-five percent of affluent families’ primary reason for not giving was “to take care of family needs” in 2024; nine years earlier that number was only 27 percent, according to a biennial study by Bank of America and the Indiana University school of philanthropy.
But Mr. Trump sets the tone. His cabinet is very rich, and unlikely to be that concerned, or at least affected, by the true cost of Thanksgiving this year. Perhaps it fits with the broader picture: The rich are the richest they have ever been, and they seem mostly to be focused on … keeping their money.
Forbes rates how philanthropic billionaires are, and Elon Musk scored a 1 out of 5. In 2023, for the third consecutive year, the Musk Foundation gave away a smaller percentage of its assets than was required. Mr. Musk did, however, donate $288 million to Republican candidates and political organizations.
Philanthropy was always, on some level, a way for people with too much to feel better about that fact, or maybe about how they came to have all that loot in the first place. They need to be reminded of that. And of what they should be grateful for: this country, and its hardworking nonbillionaires trying to survive.
Maybe it’s time to bring the guilt — not the gilt — back.
(Molly Jong-Fast is the host of the “Fast Politics” podcast and the author of “How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir.”)
OVER THERE
Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Take it on the run,
On the run, on the run.
Hear them calling, you and me,
Everyone for liberty.
Hurry right away,
No delay, start today.
Make your daddy glad
To have had such a lad.
Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
To be proud her boy’s in line.
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word over there—
That the Yanks (after v. 2: Sammys) are coming,
The Yanks (Sammys) are coming,
The drums rum-tumming
Ev’rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray’r,
Send the word, send the word to beware.
We’ll be over, we’re coming over,
And we won’t come back till it’s over
Over there.
Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Johnnie show the Hun
You’re a son of a gun.
Hoist the flag and let her fly,
Yankee Doodle do or die.
Pack your little kit,
Show your grit, do your bit.
Yankee to the ranks,
From the towns and the tanks.
Make your mother proud of you,
And the old Red, White and blue
— George M. Cohan (1917)
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD’S STEALTH SAILORS
by Eric Foner
Of the innumerable images published in American newspapers in the decades before the Civil War, few were as ubiquitous as those depicting a young Black man traveling on foot through a forest (represented by a single tree), his belongings wrapped in a sack attached to a pole slung over his shoulder. Instantly recognizable as a runaway slave, the image was usually accompanied by text providing a physical description of the fugitive, the offer of a reward for his capture, and a warning that anyone who assisted the runaway — or even refused to take part in his capture — risked serious legal consequences.
Thousands of these notices (including those for women) appeared in print, testimony to American slaves’ intense desire for freedom and their willingness to risk their lives to obtain it. But this familiar depiction, argues the historian Marcus Rediker in his new book, ‘Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea,’ is misleading, encouraging historians to focus on overland flight, ignoring the fact that “a large proportion” of slaves escaped by boat. Moreover, these advertisements imply that most fugitive slaves were acting on their own, whereas many relied on assistance from sympathetic individuals or organizations such as the Vigilance Committees. Springing into existence in the 1830s and 1840s in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and other northern cities, they sought to combat an epidemic of kidnapping of northern free Blacks for sale into slavery and to provide help to fugitives. Taken together, these local networks came to be known as the Underground Railroad.
Ironically, the rapid expansion of cotton production in the lower South beginning in the 1820s not only enriched slave owners, merchants, and bankers, North and South, but also established a web of maritime trading routes that greatly increased fugitives’ opportunities for escape by sea. Hundreds of ships each year carried the South’s “white gold” to the port cities of the Atlantic coast and on to textile factories in New England and Europe. Rediker presents some startling statistics that illustrate the growth of seaborne commerce. By the middle of the nineteenth century nearly 200,000 seamen sailed out of the major ports each year, the largest number to and from New York City, which dominated the cotton trade. Some 20,000 of the sailors were African Americans.
In 1855 American shipyards produced over 2,000 new vessels. That explosion in maritime commerce, a result of slavery’s widening role in the American economy, created more occasions to steal away on ships and rendered obsolete the idea that those who fled the South did so unassisted.
Laws punishing attempted escapes by sea proved difficult to enforce. Captains were supposed to search their ships for runaway slaves, but as the coastal trade expanded this became prohibitively time consuming. The accelerating sectional conflict over the future of slavery, moreover, meant that a growing number of northerners proved willing to abet fugitives. This was especially true of members of the free Black communities that spread after northern states enacted laws for the gradual abolition of slavery. Black men were well positioned to help fugitives hiding on sailing vessels. As sailors, longshoremen, sailmakers, carpenters, and other maritime laborers, Black workers were omnipresent on the docks and aboard ships. Many kept a lookout for fugitives and directed them to people who could help. The presence of Black seamen was especially important for stowaways. Sailors were known to stack the heavy bales of cotton in a way that created spaces where slaves could fit and to provide them with food and water during the voyage.
(New York Review of Books)
Jade Tippett – I also noticed the increase in Medicare Part D coverage ($75), and an increase in the medicare deduction from social security benefits ($17.90 per month). In my case, I switched Part D insurance plans to find one that fit my needs at the best cost. For anyone who is not already aware, http://www.medicare.gov has a great tool for finding the best plan. I upgraded my plan to get coverage for a new medicine (which my previous plan did not cover), and no deductible. I’ll be paying more, but comparatively it was a good deal. Changes must be made by Dec. 7.
Thanks for sharing the beautiful painting of downtown Covelo by Paul Reingold.
Thanks Debra White for sharing your Ukiah Thanksgiving experience. I shared it with “The Kids”.
Bradbury and Beacon!
Same typewriter?
Two Songs–Gratitude
The other day I got into my car, turned the radio on, hearing the first sounds of a song caught in the middle— a wail of pain. While I’m not as sharp on recall as I used to be, I knew that song, one I’ve always loved, just by those few seconds, that cry of loneliness. It was Boz Scaggs’ classic “Loan Me a Dime,” from his 1969 album titled “Boz Scaggs.” I listened as the song played on, Duane Allman playing his heart out in the long solo—a session player back then, soon to become well-known, then a tragic death. This old blues-soul song that always grabs me, makes me grin for the beauty and the sheer power of it. It was a perfect musical match, that one song, Boz and Duane. Both young and just getting started, sad that only one of them would be gifted with a long life and making music for decades.
So Boz Scaggs goes on after more than 50 years. His music has lived right alongside my generation as we’ve lived our lives. This year he released a new album, “Detour.” A simple, elegant album, going back in time to musical standards (one song the exception), Boz crooning and Seth Asarnow on piano. Another nice musical match they are. That one song is another from his 1969 album; one I’ve also loved, a fitting inclusion to this album. “I’ll be Long Gone” is the tale of a man leaving a lover, tired of “the kinda misery I find,” yearning for new life—“I’m gonna get up and make my life shine!”
The new version is notable; I first heard it not long ago on KOZT and was entranced. Subdued, slower, less upbeat than the original—no organ, no sax, no backing singers. It’s a pensive, beautiful rendering by Boz, Asarnow’s piano weaving gracefully around the singing, a bass underneath. So the man’s moving on and that’s for the best. But there’s more here—not only freedom and hope, but loss and melancholy, too. It matters that the song’s older, more than 50 years gone by, and the singer’s older too, knowing life more deeply. I have this album now, listening to this song over and over. It’s a small joy.
Some personal notes: We all know how songs can help us weather life’s changes. It’s a gift of life that certain songs move us, capture us, guide us, enter our hearts. It’s worth saying that the tales of both these songs have, at times, closely fit my life own life. Especially “I’ll Be Long Gone.” Twice, once in my 20’s and once in my early 30’s, I ended two relationships that were clearly not right for me, thinking in my own way that I needed to do so, that my life could be better, maybe “shine” a bit. It’s good to have a song to back you up, help you see the light, know that others have been in the same place.
Memory takes me back to the Boz Scaggs concert I attended in 1970, at age 23. It was in Mission Beach, San Diego, a small place, maybe 150 folks.The band was young, brash, wild, blue jeans and T shirts—played from midnight to 3:3O AM, lots of music from that first album just out and lots more. We all walked out, kind of stunned and amazed, a great concert never forgotten.
Thanks, Boz, for all of it.
RE: some startling statistics that illustrate the growth
—> November 25, 2025
On a farm in Phoenix, one person with an iPad can weed a field of vegetables that once required 20 workers on their hands and knees under a hot sun.
The Duncan Family Farms employee controls the LaserWeeder, an AI-powered machine created by tech start-up Carbon Robotics, that attaches to the back of a tractor…
Technology is fundamentally changing the job description of the American farmer, making certain types of labor obsolete while creating new opportunities… Farm work will evolve from “labor-intensive, backbreaking manual labor,” says Khanna, to “managing a swarm of robots.”…
“We can go out and gather imagery of crop health, then provide maps and custom prescriptions to enable variable-rate applications,” says Wadsworth, who nicknamed his 300-pound drone “the grunt laborer.” Soil analyses once required a team of people to take samples and an off-site lab to send back results days later. A smaller drone used by AirField Ag surveys the land, capturing field data the AI analyzes…
The main benefit, he says, is precision, because drones can fly slowly at an average height of 10 to 12 feet, their rotor blades creating a vortex that pushes the chemicals down into the canopy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/25/farmers-ai-drones-robotics/
Today’s piece of blather from Matt Taibbi mentions that Pharrell Williams recently said “I hate politics,” but fails to mention Williams’s complicity in genocide.
Williams donates his time, money, performance, and passion to the Friends of the IDF – a US-based non-profit front for the terrorist group. In 2018 he helped raise $60million for the genocidal terrorists and gave a passionate speech in their defense. When this resurfaced during the recent Gaza conflict, he doubled-down on his support.
He’s a talented musician, and I’ll still tap my toes to some of his songs, but that doesn’t change that he’s pro-genocide scum. Funny how Taibbi doesn’t mention that.
Oh yeah, Boby McFerrin performed in Israel more than 10 years into the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.