Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 12/2/2025

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 44F under clear skies this Tuesday morning on the coast. Our forecast continues with scattered periods of clouds & fog but otherwise dry for the next 10 days. Except maybe a sprinkle Friday night ? We'll see.

HIGH RISK FOR SNEAKER WAVES through this afternoon. King Tides return today and then peak Thursday and Friday. Chances for frost and freezing temperatures increase for areas closer to the coast again tonight. Dry weather expected to prevail for this week, followed by a chance for rain late Friday and over the weekend. (NWS)

CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL BONTA CHALLENGES MENDOCINO RAILWAY’S FEDERAL CARRIER STATUS

Coastal Commission Says STB Failed to Weigh Interstate Commerce Link

by Elise Cox

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a petition asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal ruling affirming Mendocino Railway as a Class III rail carrier under exclusive federal jurisdiction.

Mendocino Railway President Robert Pinoli did not respond to a request for comment.

The petition, filed Nov. 25 on behalf of the California Coastal Commission, seeks review of a Sept. 26 Surface Transportation Board decision confirming the railway’s carrier status and extending to it the protections of federal preemption. Those protections can limit the ability of state and local governments to enforce requirements that conflict with federal rules on rail operations or track construction.

The appeal names the Surface Transportation Board and the United States as respondents. It argues the STB’s ruling was unlawful and should be set aside.

Dispute Centers On Interstate Commerce

At the heart of the Commission’s challenge is whether Mendocino Railway provides transportation “as part of the interstate rail network.” The Commission argues the STB failed to adequately address that question.

The agency contends Mendocino Railway’s operations are confined to Mendocino County and that its only physical connection to the interstate rail system has been inactive for more than 25 years. It agency has previously argued the company has not shown evidence of hauling freight or carrying non-excursion or non-local passengers in the two decades since it acquired the line. Even if some freight movements occurred, the Commission says, they were too minimal to constitute interstate commerce.

Federal Authority vs. State Regulation

Mendocino Railway sought the STB’s declaratory ruling in July, saying it needed confirmation of its status due to “recent legal challenges by local municipalities and state agencies” that it said threatened its financial stability.

The STB sided with the railway, ruling that Mendocino Railway became a rail carrier with a common-carrier obligation when it purchased the assets of the California Western Railroad in 2004. The Board rejected the Commission’s argument that a failure to provide freight service could negate the company’s carrier status.

“A rail carrier does not lose its status as a common carrier by not providing freight rail service,” the STB wrote, adding that the obligation cannot be terminated without formal abandonment or discontinuance authorization from the Board. The agency also noted that once an entity becomes a rail carrier, its status is not affected by periods of inactivity.

The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, a national trade group, supported the STB’s decision, arguing that a ruling against Mendocino Railway could have sweeping implications for small railroads nationwide.

The state’s petition was filed by Deputy Attorney General Patrick Tuck, under the supervision of Bonta, Senior Assistant Attorney General Daniel A. Olivas and Supervising Deputy Attorney General David G. Alderson. The filing met the 60-day deadline to challenge the Sept. 26 decision.

(mendolocal.news)

BARRY SEMEGRAN

Barry Joel Semegran, 78, of Gualala, CA, died on November 12, 2025.

He was born in Manhattan, New York in 1947 to Barnet and Esther Semegran, and was a curious child as well as a bit of a rascal.

He attended UC Santa Barbara and received a BA in Philosophy. He later went to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia to attend a PhD program in Philosophy.

Barry was a driven, productive, loyal, and honest man who loved to laugh and enjoyed life to the fullest, and a supportive husband and partner to his wife Jody. They had a beekeeping business together in Georgia but eventually moved to the Gualala area.

He was an exceptional woodworker and a wood artist in Gualala for over 30 years, well known for creating custom cabinets and furniture in the area. His artistic wood creations were displayed and sold at the Dolphin Gallery in Gualala and at the Coast Highway Art Collective in Point Arena. He was also on the board of Gualala Arts and helped construct the Center’s new building.

Barry was preceded in death by his parents, Barnet and Esther Semegran, and his brothers, Michael Semegran and Stephen Semegran. He is survived by his wife Jody Semegran.

DAVID GURNEY:

Editor,
Although this might sound like a joke, I swear the following is 100% real.
"You really can't make this stuff up."
— DG

Outdoor Ping-Pong Tables at Bainbridge Park?

At yesterday's meeting of Fort Bragg’s Community Development Committee, a proposal for adding permanent ping pong tables to Bainbridge Park was discussed. The meeting was conducted by the City’s Mayor and Vice Mayor. The “Acting” Community Development Director was not present. Two ping pong advocates from the public also provided comments.

Two varieties of tables were discussed: a stainless-steel version, or a massive solid concrete slab. Both have permanent metal nets, thereby eliminating a feature of the game called the “net ball.” The permanent metal nets will, however, prevent homeless visitors from using the tables as sleeping platforms. It was not determined if the proposal will be enacted. The mayor suggested a pop-up event this summer with folding tables to see how popular the ping pong idea will actually be.

Apparently, no one has notified the City that ping pong has traditionally been an indoor game. The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) requires that all competitive and professional matches take place indoors, to "ensure a controlled environment free from external factors like wind, sun, and temperature changes."

Also discussed at length was the planting of nine (9) new exotic tree varieties in strategic locations throughout the downtown district. The Mayor stated he is excited about his creation of a new "Excel data collecting file."

“One of the things I'm really keen to do is start collecting some data. I’ve started an Excel file with fields of data such as: where did the tree come from, and other data fields, like, the name, the Latin name, what kind of container did you get, was it a one gallon, a five gallon, or fifteen gallon, when was it planted, where was it planted, starting with the street. And like, do we start to notice -they do way worse as we come closer to Main Street, and do they do better as we start to move away, you know, is there a real implication?"

Frequent Fort Bragg meeting attendee, public commenter, and sometimes legal consultant Jacob Patterson stressed that all tree varieties are welcome in Fort Bragg, except the Monterey Cypress.

"Monterey Cypress trees, and I know not everyone has internalized the General Plan as much as I have, we actually have policies against that particular tree. I'm sure if Marie Jones had been here at this meeting, she would have pointed this out to you. There's very specific language. We encourage all trees, and the retention of them, except the Monterey Cypress."

A half dozen huge Monterey Cypress trees were removed from Bainbridge Park seven years ago by then City Manager Linda Ruffing (using prison labor from Parlin Forks Conservation Camp) for allegedly "providing shade for the homeless."

Just to confirm: https://media.avcaptureall.cloud/meeting/33aecc88-fbe5-44d3-858c-051473f0b699

KEN SHOCKEY II

Kenneth "Ken" James Shockey II died peacefully on Wednesday, November 19, while in transit back to California after being critically injured in an expedition vehicle accident in Morocco. True to form, he passed from this life in a private jet at the end of his last great adventure, alongside his wife of 56 years. As a master story-teller, it's a shame that Ken didn't live to tell his final tale himself and add even more colorful commentary.

Ken was born in Hayes Valley San Francisco, the first child of Roberta ‘Bobby’ Everal Shockey and Kenneth James Shockey, who lived in Hayes Valley at the time of his birth.

At the age of four Ken's life was almost cut short when he contracted polio, spending several months at San Francisco General Hospital convalescing. As memorialized by Herb Caen in the San Francisco Chronicle, "little Kenny" spent his fifth birthday blowing out the birthday candles on his cake while surrounded by doctors and nurses.

Miraculously, the polio did not spread to his lungs, and thus spared his life. While the disease did have a lasting effect on his left arm and shoulder muscles, it was a condition that never stopped Ken from doing anything and everything he wanted to do in life.

Seeking a fresh start, the family moved to a wooden cottage in Stinson Beach, with Ken's father commuting to San Francisco to his job as an illustrator and designer and his mother involving herself in running a successful catering business and causes including the California Wildflower Show.

Ken's love of adventure and surrounding himself with interesting and eccentric people began in Stinson. He spent days exploring the vast open spaces around Mount Tamalpais, riding his bike to nearby Bolinas, interacting with the many characters in that close-knit community — including Janis Joplin, who he once met at a weekend house party — and most important, pursuing his love of surfing. After graduating from Tam High in 1964, Ken worked at the Stinson Beach Market, saving his money for a trip to Europe, during which he purchased a Ducati 250 motorcycle.

Back in Stinson, in 1969 he set off in a newly acquired VW bus on the cross-country trip that would forever alter the course of his life. At the end of his journey in May he made the acquaintance of Mary Elizabeth “Maybeth” Mosher in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ten days after their meeting Ken proposed to Maybeth at Charlie’s Kitchen, calling from a pay phone in his crowded bar to notify his parents, and three weeks later they were married at St. Patrick’s Church in Roxbury.

From that day forward, Ken and Maybeth were an inseparable duo, bonded by their shared sense of adventure and curiosity. For the next decade they traveled extensively in Europe and North Africa in a trusty VW bus, finding ever more creative ways to make money and keep traveling. Among the most creative was a scheme to drive the duty-free-vodka-laden van from Spain to India, a journey that reached an early if celebratory end in Ankara, Turkey.

Eventually returning to Ken's native northern California, the couple leveraged their keen eye for beads and jewelry — and expert negotiating skills to finance their extended adventures.

Ken and Maybeth started a new chapter in 1978 with the purchase of an undeveloped plot of land on the Mendocino County coast, five miles north of the town of Gualala, just above Anchor Bay. It was here that Ken found his lifelong calling in construction, having previously apprenticed with builders in Marin County, and began working with Jay Baker. His first significant project was designing and building the family home at the top of Fish Rock Road.

Here he and Maybeth raised their two children and founded a thriving construction and contracting business, building many custom homes in their own neighborhood and locations up and down the coast.

Along with these physical structures, Ken also built lifelong friendships and deep community ties, forged over countless hours hanging out in the Sundstrom mall, dinners and parties at home, and intensely fought games of dominoes and "extreme" croquet in their backyard.

In retirement Ken enjoyed exploring the world further, spending time on the coast of South Africa, overlooking the famous "super tubes" of Endless Summer fame — the Pacific coast of Nicaragua overlooking the famous Panga Drops break, and most recently on the remote east coast of Baja California. In each of these communities Ken built or improved the homes in which he stayed, and formed deep and lasting bonds with neighbors, often forged over his signature drink of rum and Coke (preferably Coke Zero and Trader Joe's "Rum of the Gods.")

Ken was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Peter Everal Shockey. He is survived by Maybeth, his wife of 56 years, his daughter Skye Elizabeth Shockey of Niceville, Florida, his son Kenneth James Shockey III of San Francisco, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Ken's physical presence will be missed by everyone. His family and friends are grateful for the joy and love he brought into their lives.

He will live on forever in their hearts and in everything he touched, from the houses he built, to the whimsical painted sand dollars he began creating in early 2025.

The family plans to hold a celebration of Ken's life in early 2026. In lieu of flowers the family encourages friends to make a gift in his memory to a cause that they think would be meaningful to Ken, or even better, spend time volunteering to make their local communities more beautiful and joyful as he did throughout his life.

LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

‘SOLIDARITY CRAWL’ PLANNED BY ACTIVIST GROUP IN FORT BRAGG SPARKS DEBATE

by Devon Dean

Stickers reading “We Stand With Immigrant Families” and “Immigrants Are Welcome Here” will be displayed by businesses supporting immigrants families ahead of Indivisible Mendocino Coast’s "Solidarity Crawls” on Dec. 6 and 20, 2025. (Indivisible Mendocino Coast via Bay City News)

As the busiest shopping season of the year kicks off, controversy is swirling around two planned days of action by Indivisible Mendocino Coast, a grassroots pro-democracy group. The so-called “Solidarity Crawls” are scheduled for Dec. 6 and 20 to encourage people to shop at locally owned businesses, specifically those displaying a message of support for immigrants.

In a letter sent Nov. 18, the Indivisible team asked business owners to put a sticker in their windows that says, “We Stand With Immigrant Families.” The request also asks businesses to designate a private space where law enforcement will not be allowed access without a warrant.

“When others are being attacked, the simple act of bystanders saying, ‘I don’t like this; it should stop,’ makes all the difference,” said Christie Olson Day, speaking for Indivisible Mendocino Coast. “That’s what this project encourages. The city government has issued resolutions in support of immigrants, though it has not declared Fort Bragg a sanctuary city. More voices of support only strengthen both the message and the community’s resolve.”

While many Fort Bragg businesses are taking part, at least one longtime resident is expressing concern that the signage and messaging may do more harm than good.

“The reason why I got involved is that I was approached by several business people who were nervous about this letter and were afraid to get involved themselves,” said entrepreneur and longtime Fort Bragg resident Marc Tager. “Fort Bragg is a tiny town. Our local business district needs all the help from everyone. They don’t need to be singled out for not complying to someone’s rules, but that’s basically what this does.”

The Bookstore in Fort Bragg has operated independently in downtown Fort Bragg for over 40 years. According to Indivisible Mendocino Coast, the store will participate in the planned “Solidarity Crawls.” (Sarah Stierch via Bay City News)

Tager said now is the time to support all locally owned businesses, whether they have the sticker up or not. “We need our local dollars to stay here and support everybody — not just people who think like us,” he said. “It’s still America, and I believe we can have differences of opinion.”

Olson Day disagrees with the idea that the effort is divisive. “Support for immigration is at a record high,” she said, citing recent Gallup polling showing 79 percent of Americans view immigration as good for the country and 78 percent support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. “There’s also growing concern about protecting due process rights. You might not know it from online discourse, but these are not divisive issues in real life.”

She emphasized that participation is optional. “There’s no pressure,” she said. “We have no way of knowing if a business chooses not to participate unless they make that public.”

Tager said Indivisible Mendocino Coast’s heart is in the right place but believes they should just encourage people to shop local without any signage needed because of the already existing support for immigrants in Fort Bragg. “I think these folks are great people and Indivisible [Mendocino Coast] is a great organization,” he said. “But this isn’t the right move.”

(Mendocino Voice)

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE DECEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER

We had a brilliant time last year!

https://mailchi.mp/3dc5ba14f402/anderson-valley-village-newsletter-august-5857443?e=358077c1c9

NEW MULTI-PART PODCAST: THE FIGHT TO PRESERVE THE REDWOODS AND THE BOMB ATTACK ON ACTIVIST JUDI BARI.

Season Two of iHeartPodcasts’ “Rip Current”

On May 24th, 1990, a pipe bomb detonated in a car driven by Judi Bari, nearly killing her. She was a radical environmentalist leading the effort to stop the timber industry’s clear cutting of redwoods in northern California. Season Two of iHeart Media’s “Rip Current” podcast explores California’s Timber Wars of the 1980s and 90s when Earth First! sought to end the overcutting in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. It also looks at the context in which the crime took place, one of environmental destruction, social change, and the balance between environmental protection and the needs of workers in the timber industry.

Starting in 1985 with the junk-bond financed acquisition of Pacific Lumber Company by Texas financier Charles Hurwitz, large timber corporations changed their harvesting tactics, dramatically increasing the rate of cutting and endangering the largest swaths of redwood forest still in private hands. Seeing what appeared to be an irreversible environmental disaster, Earth First! Initiated a campaign of direct action against the logging companies. Among the most effective and polarizing figures in this effort was Judi Bari, a smart, charismatic woman who brought new ideas to organizing the opposition.

Rip Current host Toby Ball explores the bombing of the car that Judi Bari was driving in Oakland on May 24, 1990. Bari’s injuries were grievous and affected her until her death from cancer in 1997. The bombing came as Bari, Cherney and Earth First! activists were planning a months-long environmental campaign dubbed “Redwood Summer.” Bari and Cherney were initially charged with carrying the bomb materials. Cherney and Bari’s estate would later win a $4.4 million civil judgement against the FBI and the Oakland and San Francisco for rights violations following the bombing.

The bomber has not been identified. “Rip Current” looks at the investigation, largely undertaken by documentary filmmakers because law enforcement did not seriously pursue the investigation after Bari and Cherney were cleared.

Judi Bari’s story still resonates today and shows what happens when people are willing to risk all in order to stop environmental destruction.

In telling this story, the season will explore:

Earth First!’s campaign against the increased cutting of redwoods.
The opposition to Earth First! from timber corporations and timber workers
The changing character of California’s Mendocino and Humboldt counties
The lack of investigation after Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were determined to be innocent.
The strange cast of characters who were implicated at one time or another, including an ex-husband, a gun-toting socialist, an anti-abortion zealot, and the FBI.
The debate that still rages between Bari’s supporters and the journalists covering the story.
Judi Bari’s legacy in Mendocino and Humboldt counties and in the environmentalist world.

https://www.ripcurrentpod.com/all-episodes

Farewell to Thanksgiving weekend 2025 (KB)

THAT TIME OF YEAR IN MENDO…

For gray-hairs out there … remember when movies were a destination? When the answer to your weekend’s plans were, “I’m going to the movies”? The week’s reward was sitting in the dark with friends, a sour patch kid prickling your tongue, and a completely different reality playing out dramatically (or comically) on a huge illuminated screen you could practically step into. It was expansive. It was escapist. It was fun.

Times are different now, and movies are now in our homes and even in our pockets. Theaters are closing at an alarming rate, including The Clover Theater in Cloverdale. I heard the news with a pang — I’d loved having a movie theater on the doorstep of our county. But then I had to ask myself how long it had been since I’d slapped my money down and bought a ticket. It’d been a while.

For folks who enjoy gift giving this time of year, cost-consciousness is top of mind, and understandably so. But also consider that where you spend those dollars shapes where you live. Do you like that snazzy boutique in Mendocino, that beloved used book store in Willits, that sprawling antique shop packed with treasures in Hopland? Holiday shopping at your favorite local businesses will ensure that they are here next year. It will preserve the character and vibrancy of the place you call home.

If a local enterprise matters to you — be it a restaurant, movie theater, or shop (or even a magazine) — now is a good time to show your support. There’s a lot to love here in Mendocino County, and it’s up to us to take care of it.

See you out there ~

Torrey & the team at Word of Mouth-Mendocino Magazine

www.wordofmouthmendo.com

FOSSE DANCE SHOW

Shows will be held at Cotton Auditorium in Fort Bragg:

Saturday December 13th: Doors open at 5:30pm, Show starts at 6pm
Sunday December 14th: Doors open at 1:30pm, Show starts at 2pm

Grab your presale tickets online (tylerfosse.com) for our First Annual Winter Solstice Fosse Dance Show: Unity! Coming up in less than 2 weeks.

Tickets will also be available at the door (cash, check, or venmo only). This is a family-friendly, winter outing not to miss!

MAC NAB'S MEN'S WEAR (OPEN)
111 N. State St.
Ukiah, California 95482

REVAMPED CALIFORNIA COAST HOTEL

by Gregory Thomas

A new boutique hotel on California’s Mendocino Coast offers travelers at least two qualities they’d be hard pressed to find at another stay: pickleball courts and a private pathway to a secluded beach.

Mendocino Cove Resort, located on the seaside of Highway 1 south of Fort Bragg, opened to bookings this month. It inhabits the site of an old coastal inn and features a mix of modest guest rooms and higher-end suites with ocean views — 50 total.

Central to the allure of the place is quiet access to Pine Beach, a scenic crescent of sand tucked among the rugged bluffs just a short walk down a wooded pathway.

“Though Mendocino is known for the beach and ocean, there are very few beach hotels that have access to a beach or the ocean,” said Chris Hougie, co-owner of Mendocino Cove with Teresa Raffo. “In two minutes, you’re in a really beautiful, secluded cove.”

This month’s opening caps something of a pandemic project for Hougie and Raffo, who brought upscale glamping to the region with their Mendocino Grove business in 2016. The pair purchased the 11-acre cove property, which formerly kept a decrepit motor lodge, in the fall of 2020 and spent years refreshing every aspect of it.

They installed landscaped gardens and outdoor gathering areas, eight pickleball courts, bocce and badminton, a sauna and hot tub, restaurant and lounge, and modern rooms and suites with amenities like propane fireplaces and marble countertops.

“It’s a breath of fresh air in the Mendocino pool of hotels and hospitality properties,” Raffo said.

Pickleball is front-and-center on the business’s website and is the perfect communal activity, Raffo said. Theirs are some of the only pickleball courts in the region and Raffo and Hougie opted to make them available to day-users as well as overnight guests — a decision meant to help foster a friendly atmosphere among visitors and locals and support a continuous flow of ready competitors.

Raffo and Hougie are certain the activity will be a major draw.

“People will drive hours for pickleball courts they can play on all day without being disturbed,” Raffo said.

When asked whether guests will hear the signature plink-plinking of pickleball, Raffo said, “You can’t hear pickleball from any of the rooms.”

The grand opening is slated for spring 2026 but many of the hotel’s rooms are available to book as of late November. The average per night cost of most rooms is $360.

(SF Chronicle)

DR. HOMER WOLFE

by Carol Dominy

Dr. Homer H. Wolfe was born on January 10, 1884, in Lathrop, California, the youngest of five children of a Brethren minister. He studied at Cooper Medical College and received his M.D. in 1909. Early in his career he worked briefly at San Francisco City Hospital before spending a season in Alaska as a physician for a large fish-canning company. After returning to San Francisco, he accepted a position on the Mendocino Coast as resident physician for the Albion Lumber Company in 1910 and operated the Albion Hospital for the next 17 years (with a 20-month interruption during his World War I service).

Dr. Homer Wolfe, center, wife, Edith, right, and an unidentified friend, posing on a large redwood tree, March 1925. (Gift of Denise Stenberg)

Wolfe’s dedication to public service extended far beyond the local community. Although he briefly enlisted in the U.S. military in 1898 and was likely discharged because he was underage, his formal military career began during World War I, when he joined the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps. He trained at Camp Crane in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and earned the rank of captain. While stationed there, he met nurse Edith S. Deibert of Egypt, Pennsylvania, who was serving on the staff of the Allentown Hospital. They were married on June 8, 1918, in Allentown. Following the war, the couple returned to Albion, where Dr. Wolfe resumed his duties at the hospital.

In late 1927, Dr. Wolfe moved his practice to Fort Bragg, joining the staff of the Redwood Coast Hospital, and he and Edith purchased a home in the city. He became a respected member of the hospital staff and a central figure in the region’s medical care, later seeing patients from an office within his home. During World War II, he again served his country, this time as a physician for the Draft Board in Fort Bragg.

Throughout his life, Dr. Wolfe was active in numerous community and professional organizations. He belonged to the American Legion’s Sequoia Post No. 96, the Fort Bragg Masonic Lodge, the Royal Arch Masons, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Lions Club, and the Mendocino-Lake Counties Medical Association. His long medical career, first in Albion and later in Fort Bragg, made him one of the Mendocino Coast’s most trusted and enduring physicians. He died at his home in Fort Bragg on March 3, 1949, following a brief illness, and was entombed at the Chapel of the Chimes in Santa Rosa.

Edith Deibert Wolfe built a life of service alongside her husband. A trained nurse, she supported his medical career from their early days in wartime Pennsylvania through many decades on the Mendocino Coast. After settling in Fort Bragg, she became an active participant in civic and fraternal organizations, including the Presbyterian Church, the Order of the Eastern Star, the Amaranth Lodge, and the American Legion Auxiliary. Widowed in 1949, Edith remained in Fort Bragg for the rest of her life. She died on October 4, 1984, at the age of 93, leaving a legacy of compassion, leadership, and community involvement that complemented her husband’s long record of public service.

(www.kelleyhousemuseum.org)

ELK STORE, 1970s

CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, December 1, 2025

PETE CASTRO, 64, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, trespassing, resisting.

JUBAL CHILSON, 48, Willits. Suspended license for DUI, failure to appear.

ALLYSSA CONWELL, 27, Vacaville/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ROLAND ESKIND JR., 55, Ukiah. Parole violation, resisting.

ALLYSSA HANN, 27, Vacaville/Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance, suspended license, failure to appear, resisting.

ROBIN KENDRICK, 19, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

BEN RAY, 45, Klamath/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

GERALD SIMPSON, 55, Willits. Controlled substance, loitering, parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

SCAPEGOATING LATINOS

To the Editor,

There is a rising anti-Latino sentiment in the country, much of it stoked by our own government’s rhetoric and policies. To counter the growing hostility, we must confront the false narratives that are feeding it.

Many do not realize that the overwhelming majority of Latinos in the United States were born here and therefore are U.S. citizens. Far from being a burden, the Latino community is an economic powerhouse, contributing more than $4 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product each year.

Latinos make up the second-largest voting bloc in the country and are gaining influence in shaping local and national elections. Additionally, Latinos are overrepresented in the work force, driving the American economy and providing the essential products and services that keep our nation running.

Being Latino in the U.S. should not be treated as a crime. More than that, American society must recognize and value Latinos as an essential part of the nation’s prosperity and future. Dispelling false narratives about Latinos is not just about fairness; it’s about fully understanding what it means to be a citizen of this country.

Vincent Guilamo-Ramos

Washington DC

EXPLORING MT. DIABLO FOR ROCKHOUNDS

by Katy Tahja

(Please understand the following information was gleaned by a rockhound, not a geologist, I’m trying to condense millions of years of geology into a few paragraphs.)

“Where were we when we saw seashell fossils in the stone building blocks of a museum?,” my husband asked. In our rockhounding family this could have been just about anyplace in the western USA but we further thought we remembered it was on top of Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County.

While you could conceivably make this a one day drive from Mendocino County and battle traffic instead consider spending a night near there so you can drive up, down, enjoying its unique geology and looking at rocks.

First stop should be at the Summit Museum to take advantage of the Mt. Diablo Interpretative Association’s excellent displays and materials. From here on a clear day you can see Mt. Lassen 160 miles ton the north and Sentinel Dome in Yosemite to the south. Surrounding you is a 20,000 acre state park and 90,000 acres of protected lands in preserves, open spaces and parks.

At 3,849 feet this is a relatively young mountain made of very old rocks. It’s complex geology that can be divided into three groups. First comes the Mt. Diablo Ophiolite plate tectonic form providing a major part of the material for metamorphic rock. Not to dive too deep into technical jargon eons ago continental plates and oceanic plates collided in a subduction zone. In the Jurassic-Cretaceous era the old ocean crust started laying down materials to mask this mountain 265 million years ago (myo).Driving around visitors can find pillow basalts and diabase formed in dikes between the pillow basalts. Serpentinite, the California State Rock, is exposed on the mountain where there is noticeable change in vegetation patterns due to high magnesium.

The second group of rocks were formed during the Mesozoic era with geologic plate subduction that mixed a wide variety of rock materials.

This formation reflected 140 million years of uninterrupted east dipping subduction. Chert, graywacke, sand stone and shale were scraped off the subjecting plates, mixed together, and began forming new rocks. Franciscan complex rock is dark red and resistant to erosion and forms geologic features on the mountain and is 108 to 90 myo.

The third group of rocks were the Great Valley(Jurassic & Cretaceous) and Younger Sedimentary (Cenozoic). There were thick sedimentary layers laid down under water turning into sandstone and shale. During this time span in the Eocene era (35 to 55 myo) coal beds and glass sands were deposited in what is now Black Diamond Mines Regional Park on the north side of the mountain. Turritella fossils of marine snails, and caves, and open tunnels are accessible from a park road.

In the Miocene era (24 to 5 myo) subduction ended and faults began rearranging rock strata. Today you find steeply tilted formerly horizontal layers of rock forming Fossil Ridge. Building materials quarried here for the Summit Museum show clam and oyster shells on the exterior walls. Shell Ridge Open Space in Walnut Creek, just down from the mountain, have well exposed fossil marine shell beds.

It wasn’t until the Pliocene era (5 myo to present day) that Mt. Diablo grew to a geographic feature. The 4 myo tuff beds widespread around the mountain was laid on a relatively flat landscape, then steeply folded by earth forces into Mt. Diablo. There is no evidence the mountain area was above sea level in the Eocene era, but now the mountain keeps rising 2 millimeters a year. And something to look forward to? The US Geologic Survey in September 1999 projected a 4% probability of a 6.7 or larger earthquake on the earthquake fault under the mountain.

Important rocks and minerals mined around the mountain? Mercury, diabase, graywacke, white sands, blue schists, travertine and copper are found.

From 1863 forward mercury, also called quicksilver, was mined on the northeast flank of the mountain. Demand for mercury expanded during WWII and mining continued until 1958 and $1,500,000 worth was extracted. Diabase was mined to be used for crushed rock and rip-rap. Starting in 1860 40,000 pounds of copper was collected. White sands were used in glass making from 1920-1949. Coal was mined for industrial centers in the San Francisco Bay Area with 4,000,000 tons valued at up to $20,000,000.

So all you rockhounds out there, and anyone just interested in one big mountain with a lot to see, go check out Mt. Diablo — it’s worth the drive.

DAVE DAROLD: My personal best from about 32 years ago. Just shy of 10 inches

15 NEW CALIFORNIA LAWS

by Sophia Bollag

California lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom approved more than 900 new laws this year, including measures aimed at countering the influence of President Donald Trump, lowering drug costs and requiring landlords to maintain refrigerators and stoves in apartments.

Here’s a rundown of 15 new state laws that California residents, businesses and visitors will need to follow starting next year.

Reducing Drug Costs

Senate Bill 40 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, will require large health insurers regulated by the state to cap insulin copays to $35 for a 30-day supply starting Jan. 1. The same requirement will kick in for individual and small group health plans in 2027.

The new price caps will take effect at the same time Gov. Gavin Newsom has said California-branded insulin will be available in pharmacies. CalRx-branded insulin will have a list price of $55 for five insulin pens, significantly less than the $89 to $300 cost range for similar products currently on the market. That effort is part of Newsom’s signature CalRx program, which works with pharmaceutical companies to develop low-cost drugs no longer protected by patents in an effort to drive down prices.

The CalRx insulin product is interchangeable with Lantus, a commonly used brand-name insulin. It is a long-acting insulin analog.

An estimated 3.5 million adults in California have diabetes, or about 10.6% percent of the adult population, according to the American Diabetes Association, and rely on insulin to live. But prices for the medicine have skyrocketed in recent years, forcing some patients to ration doses and risk their lives.

Another bill taking effect Jan. 1 — SB41, also by Wiener — seeks to lower drug costs more broadly by imposing new regulations on pharmaceutical middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers. That bill will prohibit pharmacy benefit managers from steering patients to specific pharmacies and limit their ability to profit from drug sales.

Police and ICE Mask Ban

Local and federal officers will be prohibited from wearing masks to conceal their identities under SB627, also by Wiener.

The measure will apply to both local police and federal agents, but is targeted at Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have in many cases worn masks when carrying out aggressive raids as part of Trump’s mass deportation effort.

The bill is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, but is being challenged in court. The Trump administration filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles in November, arguing the law infringes on the federal government’s power. The lawsuit could delay or ultimately prevent the policy from taking effect, depending on how judges rule in the case.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, has said the agency, which oversees CBP and ICE, will not comply with the law.

All law enforcement officers working in California, including federal agents, will also be required to display identification with their name or badge number under SB805 by Sen. Sasha Pérez, D-Alhambra. That law includes exceptions for undercover work and protective gear. Part of that law, including a provision to limit when bounty hunters can help with immigration enforcement, has already taken effect.

Banning Cat Declawing

Cat owners will be prohibited from having their cats declawed starting Jan. 1 under Assembly Bill 867 by Assembly Member Alex Lee, D-San Jose. The practice, once commonplace but now widely considered inhumane, involves removing a cat’s toe bones to prevent them from scratching.

“After years of pushing to make this a reality, I’m proud to see California create a more compassionate society for our feline friends,” Lee wrote in a statement after Newsom signed the bill.

Stoves and Refrigerators In Apartments

Landlords will be required to provide working stoves and refrigerators in apartments starting Jan. 1 under AB628 by Assembly Member Tina McKinnor, D-Hawthorne.

The bill will have a particularly big effect in Los Angeles, where it’s common for landlords to require that tenants bring their own refrigerators.

More Time To File Sexual Assault Lawsuits

Adult survivors of sexual assault that their employer or another entity tried to cover up will have an extended period of time to seek damages in court under AB250 by Assembly Member Cecilia Aguilar-Curry, D-Winters. The law temporarily waives the statute of limitations for sexual assault lawsuits by adult survivors alleging a coverup. From Jan. 1, 2026 through Dec. 31, 2027, survivors alleging crimes that meet that criteria will be able to file lawsuits over their claims regardless of how long ago they occurred.

Notably, AB250’s deadline extension only applies to lawsuits against private individuals and businesses, not public entities like school districts. A similar law from 2019, which temporarily waived the statute of limitations for child sexual assault cases during a three-year window, caused a flood of litigation against government entities like schools and counties that have threatened to bankrupt some.

Gender-Neutral Bathrooms In Schools

Starting July 1, 2026, all California public schools must have at least one gender-neutral restroom under SB760 by former state Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton.

Lawmakers passed SB760 in 2023, but its delayed implementation date comes as Trump has issued multiple executive orders seeking to restrict or ban trans people from various spaces and professions. Those include an executive order seeking to ban transgender children from participating in girls school sports. The Department of Education announced soon after that it would investigate California and other states that allow athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity.

In response, California lawmakers have sought to increase protections for trangender people, including by affirming state laws that allow transgender children to participate on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity and passing new laws. Those include AB82 by Assembly Member Chris Ward, D-San Diego, which seeks to keep transgender health care records confidential.

Restrictions on AI Chatbots For Minors

SB243 by Sen. Steve Padilla, D-Chula Vista, will require that AI companies include disclaimers that chatbots are not real when the companies know that they are being used by children. It also requires companies to have a protocol for preventing chatbots from encouraging users to hurt or kill themselves.

Some parents and groups praised Newsom for signing the bill, saying it will provide important protections. But others criticized the measure after tech companies successfully lobbied to weaken the bill significantly, including by eliminating requirements for chatbots to undergo independent audits to ensure their safety for children.

The new law is one of several AI regulations Newsom signed this year, even as he vetoed others opposed by the tech industry that he said went too far in regulating the technology.

The new laws include the following measures, which take effect Jan. 1:

AB621 by Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, cracks down on artificially generated pornography

SB524 by Sen. Jesse Arreguin, D-Berkeley, requires police to disclose when they use AI to write reports

AB489 by Assembly Member Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, bans AI chatbots from representing themselves as doctors, nurses or other licensed professionals

SB53 by Wiener, requires risk mitigation for large AI companies

Newsom also vetoed some AI bills that were opposed by the industry, including a bill that would have prohibited companies from letting children use chatbots that promote sex or violence and another that would have banned employers from letting AI decide when to fire people.

But even though Democratic state leaders like Newsom and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul have expressed support for the technology and reticence to regulate it heavily, some key figures in the industry have continued to lobby the Trump administration and federal lawmakers to preempt state regulation entirely.

Congress has failed for years to pass significant regulation of AI, and some federal Republican lawmakers, working with Trump, have tried to block states from policing the technology. Efforts to do so through the federal budget process failed earlier this year when a bipartisan group of state leaders vigorously complained that such a move would prevent them from regulating even the most harmful uses of AI.

Since then, efforts to add a state preemption into Congress’ latest defense spending bill prompted condemnation from a bipartisan group of attorneys general from California and other states.

Trump has also been considering signing a preemption via executive order, which would almost certainly be challenged in court.

“Trump is not our king and he cannot simply wave a pen to unilaterally invalidate state law,” Padilla wrote in a statement criticizing a draft of the executive order.

Updated Plastic Bag Ban

Starting next year, California grocery stores will be barred from providing customers with plastic shopping bags — for real this time.

California lawmakers first tried to ban plastic shopping bags in 2014. But that plastic bag ban contained a loophole allowing grocery stores to provide thicker plastic bags that could be reused. The effect of the law was that it actually increased plastic bag waste because grocery stores simply converted to thicker bags and few people actually reused them.

The new law, Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s SB1053, which Newsom signed in 2024, will outlaw those thicker bags, too, starting Jan. 1. Instead, grocery stores will only be able to provide recycled paper bags to customers who do not bring their own. The ban does not apply to plastic produce bags or other plastic bags used in stores to prevent contamination.

(SF Chronicle)

THE POWER IMBALANCE AT THE ROOT OF THE H-2A FARMWORKER VISA PROGRAM

by Li Lovett

ACoM recently reported on an immigration raid in Santa Maria, California, involving a U.S. citizen believed to be at the center of a visa fraud ring. The scam involved the illegal sale of H-2A visas, which are given to foreign agricultural workers allowing them to work in the US for a limited period. The Trump Administration has recently imposed changes to the H-2A program, effectively lowering wages and further dis-empowering farmworkers, whether H-2A visa holders or undocumented laborers. David Bacon is a photojournalist who has spent decades covering labor and farmworker rights. He says the imbalance in power between growers and farmworkers is a feature, not a bug of the H-2A system. He spoke with ACoM's Li Lovett.…

https://americancommunitymedia.org/immigration/the-power-imbalance-at-the-root-of-the-h-2a-visa-program/

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

There are lots of American kids hungry and/or starving at home because we have a huge mental illness problem in US. We excuse garbage parents on the left because we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings and on the right we apparently don’t even want to acknowledge it exists. I have worked in food shelters. You will meet hungry people. Some are freeloaders. Some are elderly. Some are down on their luck. They are all sorts of people. There are programs that feed the hungry besides the government. So the real argument is not whether we have a moral obligation to address food shortages. We do, period. The real argument is whether government resources are being utilized appropriately to help solve problems. VERY debatable. Having said that, once we DOGE through the US AID and foreign welfare we can look more carefully at SNAP. Priorities matter.

JULIE BEARDSLEY

Not sure I like this renaming term myself. My contributions were made for over 50 years on every salary I received. May not have been the work I wanted to be doing at the time BUT I always had a job.

The Social Security check is now (or soon will be) referred to as a "Federal Benefit Payment?" I'll be part of the one percent to forward this. I am forwarding it because it touches a nerve in me, and I hope it will in you. Please keep passing it on until everyone in our country has read it.

The government is now referring to our Social Security checks as a "Federal Benefit Payment." This isn't a benefit. It is our money paid out of our earned income! Not only did we all contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It totaled 15% of our income before taxes.

If you averaged $30K per year over your working life, that's close to $180,000 invested in Social Security.

If you calculate the future value of your monthly investment in social security ($375/month, including both you and your employers contributions) at a meager 1% interest rate compounded monthly, after 40 years of working you'd have more than $1.3+ million dollars saved!

This is your personal investment. Upon retirement, if you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $39,318 per year, or $3,277 per month.

That's almost three times more than today's average Social Security benefit of $1,230 per month, according to the Social Security Administration. (Google it – it’s a fact).

And your retirement fund would last more than 33 years (until you're 98 if you retire at age 65)! I can only imagine how much better most average-income people could live in retirement if our government had just invested our money in low-risk interest-earning accounts.

Instead, the folks in Washington pulled off a bigger "Ponzi scheme" than Bernie Madoff ever did. They took our money and used it elsewhere. They forgot (oh yes, they knew) that it was OUR money they were taking. They didn't have a referendum to ask us if we wanted to lend the money to them. And they didn't pay interest on the debt they assumed. And recently they've told us that the money won't support us for very much longer.

But is it our fault they misused our investments? And now, to add insult to injury, they're calling it a "benefit", as if we never worked to earn every penny of it.

Just because they borrowed the money doesn't mean that our investments were a charity!

Let's take a stand. We have earned our right to Social Security and Medicare. Demand that our legislators bring some sense into our government.

Find a way to keep Social Security and Medicare going for the sake of that 92% of our population who need it.

Then call it what it is: Our Earned Retirement Income.

99% of people won't Cut and Paste this to their timelines. Will you?

Please, for the sake of our country, Copy & Paste. It's important.

AMERICANS NEED A RAISE

by Jeffrey Sommers

Workers are stuck in a low wage, high cost, rut. We’ve been here before. During the Great Depression labor frequently was paid too little. Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded by establishing a wage floor in 1938 by passing the minimum wage. Since being introduced it was then raised 22 times up to 2009, on average roughly every 3 years. To punctuate this point, let’s list those years when it was increased to keep up with labor productivity and household costs for American workers: 1939, 1945, 1950, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1967, 1968,1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2008, 2009.

And then history stopped. Since 2009 the minimum wage has been locked down. That’s 16 years, soon to be 17. Just how low is today’s minimum wage? Adjusting for inflation, today’s minimum wage is slightly lower than it was in 1945. That’s right. Our minimum wage today is lower than it was 80 years back! Moreover, our labor productivity is over 3 times greater today than in 1945. And 50 years ago in 1975, inflation adjusted, the US minimum wage as $13.09. Meanwhile, today it sits at a paltry $7.25 and has lost a full third of its inflation-adjusted value since being raised to that level 16 years back.

Regardless of numbers, some still defend America’s current abandoning of minimum wage increases. Arguments generally take these 7 forms:

1) “Nearly everyone earns more than the minimum wage anyway, why raise it?” When the minimum wage “rung” sits so low, it works to keep wages (“rungs” on the bottom half of the ladder) down. Increasing minimum wages pushes wages up through the wage ladder as many expect to earn more than the minimum wage. In short, it increases the “expected minimum” several rungs up the wage ladder.

2) “If you raise minimum wages too much, the wage ladder will be too high to get on.” To mix metaphors, there is a Goldilocks temperature that needs to be just right for maximum benefit to labor and the economy. But presently, as seen from history, the “porridge” (wage) is ice cold. We are from the wage being too “hot” and by historical comparisons with past minimum wage levels, we see it needs to be significantly increased to get the temperature “just right.”

3) “The minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage.” People are entitled to their opinion, but on the score of facts, the minimum wages’ creator, FDR, was emphatic it was to be a living wage. FDR declared, “By living wages, I mean more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of a decent living.” And further, “It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”

4) A variation of #3 is, “minimum wage jobs were meant for teenagers.” In fact, they are not. Several categories of workers are exempt from minimum wages, among them, often teens working summers in tourism, etc. In the past we had a baby boom, this indeed created many “boomers” that quickly cycled through low-paid jobs flipping burgers, etc., as teens. That demographic boom ended long ago. Just as factory jobs before 1930’s unionization were “low-skilled and badly paid,” so-called “low-skilled” service jobs should provide a living wage now. Moreover, standing over a hot grill splashing scalding grease for several hours is anything but easy or pleasant regardless.

5) “Let the market sort it out.” Markets confer many benefits, but they are not magic cures. In the 19th century we let markets sort wages. This led to ruinous cycles of economic booms and busts. For more than a century, the Federal Reserve has increased or decreased interest rates in response to economies getting too hot or cool. The downside is, the economy is never allowed expansions long enough to drive wages up to levels matching increases in productivity, thus the need for minimum wage increases to do the job.

6) “Big Macs will double in price.” Labor comprises less than 20% of fast-food business costs. Thus, modest wage increases won’t deliver significant price spikes.

7) “Minimum wage increases lead to technology replacing jobs.” True, but also good. Modest cost pressures are good when the “temperature is just right.” They lead business to improve organization and/or technology that raises productivity and lowers costs. Productivity increases make us more prosperous. They reduce sloth in enterprises while increasing output. But here’s the catch: to make this work we need minimum wage increases and regulation on number of hours worked so that the wealthy don’t hoard all the productivity gains for themselves, such as they mostly have done the past half century.

America needs a raise. An inflation adjusted minimum wage slightly below 1945 levels is a disgrace. A minimum wage that is less than half its inflation-adjusted 1968 level is scandalous. Stuck since 2009 and having lost a third of its value, the minimum wage is bad for American workers and productivity. With Congressional mid-term elections less than a year out, the Democrats should run on affordability issues. There’s no better place to start that with the long past due need to dramatically raise our minimum wage.

(This column first ran in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Jeffrey Sommers is Professor of Political Economy & Public Policy in the Department of African &African Diaspora Studies and a Senior Fellow, Institute of World Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His book on the Baltics (with Charles Woolfson), is The Contradictions of Austerity: The Socio-economic Costs of the Neoliberal Baltic Model.)

SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE

To the Editor:

I could not help but feel great sadness and anger over the death of a young female National Guard member in Washington.

The Guard should have never been deployed there — an action that caused unrest and stress to the residents. It had little to do with safety in D.C., but was part of President Trump’s autocratic actions to intimidate and harass blue areas.

These rash, unjustified political actions have real consequences, as reflected in the tragic death of a young woman in the prime of her life.

Richard Goetz

Mission Viejo

"HE HAS all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”

— Winston Churchill

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

To the Editor:

When there is a mass shooting, it’s only one bad person with a gun, so no action is deemed necessary. But when one migrant acts in a criminal and reprehensible manner, suddenly action must be taken against all immigrants that fit a certain profile.

There is something wrong with this picture.

Dorothy Presser

Lynnfield, Massachusetts

*Glorious Devon* (1951) by Gyrth Russell

AFTER THE DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING COMES THE BIG LIE

by Dave Zirin

Over the holiday weekend in Washington, DC, two members of the West Virginian National Guard, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, were shot a short metro ride from my house. Beckstrom died from her injuries and as of this writing Wolfe remains in critical condition. The news quickly spread that the shooter was a CIA-trained Afghan man named Rahmanullah Lakanwa, who seems to have been psychologically ravaged by his experience in a death squad underwritten with our tax dollars. The moment his national identity hit social media the Trump regime did what it loves most: collectively punish brown immigrants. There would be no national assessment of imperial blowback—just Stephen Miller and his White House mob turning up the xenophobic racism to 11.

In the shooting’s aftermath, there have been many Big Lies circulated, but I think we must begin with the person whose hands are most stained with Beckstrom and Wolfe’s blood: West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey.

Morrisey, the governor of one of the poorest states in the country and who has spent much of his time attacking “the woke mind virus,” is pushing the following line across the media: “When the evildoers step up, we have to make sure that we do everything in our power to push back against them. We have to stand strong for basic principles like protecting our nation’s capitol, for eliminating violence for reducing crime. These should not be controversial topics.”

Not controversial? Leave aside that “evildoers” in his mind does not include the CIA agents training and arming torture-squads amid a 20-year war whose purpose seems ever more incomprehensible. Leave that aside because we must take on “the Big Lie” being spewed across the political spectrum: that the National Guard has been protecting the people of Washington, DC. The idea that the Guard morphed into trained neighborhood crime-stoppers once West Virginians got off the bus at the DC Armory is a lie. Even the idea that reducing crime was a goal of this authoritarian occupation is a lie, and we cannot let these lies take hold.

First—and we cannot say this loudly enough—there was no violent crime crisis in DC. In fact, crime was at a 30-year low. (Note that this link goes to Trump’s Justice Department’s webpage.) This was step one in Trump fulfilling a promise to the MAGA base: During the campaign, he vowed repeatedly to occupy blue cities militarily and uproot “the enemy within.” Forget the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement. This was about taking advantage of stateless Washington, DC and normalizing the use of the military against US citizens—as Trump said in his instantly infamous emergency meeting of US generals. His endgame, again openly expressed, is to occupy our cities just in time for the 2026 midterms.

We shouldn’t forget that the Reichstag fire moment used as an excuse to essentially dissolve DC’s home rule was when adolescent children beat up a DOGE employee nicknamed Big Balls. This threatened the wounded masculinity of an entire administration: a Black-run city had taken its big balls.

So the Trump team invented a nonexistent crime crisis just in time for autumn. This was not a coincidence. Crime drops in DC every fall, because school is back in session. DC has cut youth summer jobs programs, and the structure of the school day causes a dip in street crimes. It doesn’t take a Phd in criminology to see this pattern.

Then there is the Morrisey Big Lie that they were “protecting the capital.” The National Guard has been picking up trash, mulching, and basically doing all the jobs that teenagers could have been doing over the summer if there were robustly funded summer-job opportunities. And it would be cheaper to hire kids than launch an unprecedented military occupation. The Guard also heard, very politely from countless DC folks and at great cost to their morale (including the morale of Beckstrom), that it would be so nice if they would just leave and stop brandishing heavy artillery at crime-infested areas like the Washington Monument.

The National Guard protected nothing. All it has done is wreck the local economy and provided a tableau of what fascism would look like across the country. For months, residents have been warning that such a shooting was inevitable. Occupation breeds violence, and guns beget more guns. The Trump administration mocked these pleas. Now Beckstrom is dead because Governor Morrisey wanted to impress the great leader by being first in line to violate legal norms. She is dead because the Trump regime wanted to occupy “Democratic” cities. She is dead because Morrisey sent 300 National Guards people to DC as a sop to Trump’s effort to stage an authoritarian costume ball.

The military occupation has only ushered in more violence. Three other people were killed in DC this week. Say their names: Kevin Booker, Demetrius Alston, and David Warren Childs. Police shot Booker and Childs. Alston died in Metro PD custody. There have been vigils for all three. They are being mourned in part, as the organization Harriet’s Wildest Dreams put it, because, “Since the occupation there has been an exponential uptick of terror on our communities, neighbors snatched, residents dragged through court and most recently heightened violent encounters with law enforcement… Local police continue to coordinate with federal law enforcement for the sole purpose of enacting terror and compliance, but we will not comply. We will fight back.”

One last comment from Morrisey needs to be vetted. After first speaking about the need to not politicize the shootings, he said, “We are not going to let the same kind of ideology that drove the defund the police movement—we're not going to let that happen with respect to the Guardsmen.”

The point of defunding the police and defunding ICE was that untrained people with military-grade weaponry does not make communities safer and that they actually represent a threat to peace. Beckstrom and Wolfe should have been home with their families for the holidays. That goes for Booker, Alston, and Childs as well. To ensure public safety, the National Guard occupying DC should be sent home. CIA black ops—and the presidents who funded them—should be scrutinized for training killers. And this regime—offering only nihilism, collective punishment, and extrajudicial murder—should be tried in a criminal court. But that’s not all we need to see. Offering a different vision of public safety is a matter of life and death—and a federal occupation of our cities must have no role in this vision.

AMERICA'S LUNATIC WEEKEND

Lies, accusations and counter-accusations, and rising temperatures at home and abroad. When does the good part begin?

by Matt Taibbi

“President Donald Trump on Saturday said that commercial airlines should consider Venezuelan airspace closed, increasing pressure on the country’s leadership after weeks of escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas and the growing threat of a U.S. attack against the country.

“Though Trump does not have the legal authority to close the airspace over another country, such a move is sometimes a first step ahead of airstrikes…”

If the phrase “does not have the legal authority” jumps out, it’s because you heard it elsewhere in the last 24 hours. It’s everywhere. News agencies increasingly repeat whole phrases used by would-be competitors, exaggerating the propagandistic vibe of the news space. BBC: “The U.S. does not have the authority to close another country’s airspace.” PBS: “Trump declared Venezuela’s airspace to be considered closed despite not having the legal authority to do so.” UPI: “Trump… does not have the legal authority to close Venezuelan airspace.” Newsweek nearly repeated the BBC construction word-for-word. Bloomberg joined the party, too.

It’s not right, at least not exactly right. Administration sources say their recent designation of the Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization puts Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan government in the crosshairs of the post-9/11 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF). It’s why Defense (excuse me, War) Secretary Pete Hegseth said the designation opened up a “bunch of new options.” The Miami Herald seems to be alone among major papers in pointing out that the AUMF is “inapplicable.” If what Trump is doing isn’t legal, that has implications for two decades of previous operations.

Every president since 9/11 repeatedly invoked the AUMF to justify bombing campaigns, NSA surveillance, acts of “anticipatory self-defense,” and a long list of other dubious policies. The law gives the president the power to conduct operations against any “nations, organizations, or persons” that he or she “determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.” One would think that excludes actors not involved with the planning of 9/11, but the U.S. has conducted military operations in nearly two dozen countries based on this law, sometimes secretly, and including against groups that didn’t even exist on 9/11. This is why Kelly stammered when asked by Kristin Welker on Meet The Press if the drug boat operations were illegal.

At minimum, reporters concerned with giving the whole picture of the Venezuela no-fly action should mention that decades of military gambits have been similarly self-sanctioned, and I say that as someone who always opposed “regime change” wars of the type unfolding in Venezuela. If you didn’t offer a “no legal authority” caveat before moves into Syria or Lybia or Yemen or Niger, why are you doing it now?

The news cycle is turning over so rapidly that it already feels a lifetime ago that a CIA-trained Afghani named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who entered the country via the “Operation Allies Welcome” post-withdrawal program, reportedly drove across the country and shot two National Guard officers in the capital, killing 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom. “National Guard Member Dies After Shooting” was the BBC’s headline.

Because this news came in the immediate wake of the “Don’t Give Up The Ship” ploy, it transformed into a pointing-Spiderman Internet blame game. Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said Lakanwal was “unvetted” by the Biden administration, while “former military and intelligence officers” told NBC he would have undergone “extensive vetting” before being welcomed into the CIA’s arms abroad. (Both the Biden and Trump administrations played roles in the process that led to Lakanwal being granted asylum earlier this year.) The NBC feature was one of several that described Lakanwal as being from a “CIA-backed unit whose veterans have struggled in the U.S.,” as if this were Deer Hunter or Coming Home.

The shooting prompted a slew of heartfelt defenses of “partner forces” who “fought the Taliban,” with Democrats like Chris Van Hollen declaring that “in this case, there’s no evidence that there’s something that escaped the vetting.” (Except the shot Guardsmen?) The AP and PBS News meanwhile told a happier story:

“One of the Afghans who made it to the U.S. was Mohammad Saboor, a father of seven children, worked as an electrician and A/C technician with international and U.S. forces for 17 years. He resettled earlier this year in California and… looked forward to sending his kids to school and giving back to the country that took his family in. ‘I believe that now we can live in a 100% peaceful environment,’ Saboor said.”

In this way “Evacuated Afghanis Peacefully Raising Large Families” somehow became an element of the Washington, D.C. shooting coverage. These stories in turn prompted rejoinders pointing to a fatal May incident involving 36-year-old Jamal Wali, who screamed “I should have served with fucking Taliban!” and “I died when I was serving with you liars!” and ‘Why are you trying to kill me?” before shooting three policemen in Fairfax, Virginia:

None of these tales is entirely representative, but neither is choosing one or the other, which is how most outlets handled it. No editorialists meanwhile wondered if starting faraway wars of choice that never end and lead to an obligation to evacuate and resettle legions of CIA-trained assassins is a good idea generally. Trump, who complained that “if they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” might want to take this into consideration before he moves into Venezuela, a decision that sounds imminent. “The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,” he said, in a quote that would have dominated the news in any other era.

While CIA-trained fighters earned a passionate but mixed smattering of reviews, National Guard troops — who aren’t responsible for Trump’s controversial decisions to deploy their units to cities like Washington, D.C. — became fodder for the blame game. They were somehow compared to the Gestapo on MSNOW and CNN over the holiday.

These troops are squeezed between the sides, sent on controversial deployments by their commander, but also denounced as Brownshirts and threatened with future prosecution on cable TV by people like Jen Psaki and former Judge Advocate General Glenn Kirschner, who warned that “just following orders” didn’t work out so well in Nuremberg.

The DC shooting was followed by a classic Trump-era “bombshell” report in the Washington Post, “Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all.” According to “two people with direct knowledge of the operation,” a boat bombing operation from September 2nd took place under a “spoken directive” from Hegseth. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of the Post sources said. The central issue in this story is the notion that a second shot was fired at the boat to finish off two survivors. The Post bent its copy to a pretzel to tie the anonymously-sourced “Kill them all” quote to the second missile launch:

“The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack… ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.”

The obvious PR response would be to question any story built on “two people familiar with the matter” saying the Special Operations commander only fired the second shot to comply with a “spoken directive” that another anonymous source attributed to Hegseth. Or, the White House could have pointed out that the media outlets that went bananas over this news were the same ones who just moments before were warning troops that “just following orders” is not a defense. Instead of taking either path, Hegseth tweeted:

“As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes’.”

The legal authority the Trump administration relied upon to conduct these operations was already a microscopic fig leaf, but Hegseth flicked even that off, essentially saying, “Hell yes, we were trying to kill them!” Answers like this add to the general unease around Trump, who seems to think removing the mask of executive power is a clarifying virtue, like switching out the mealy-mouthed “Defense” for a “War” Department. It’s the difference between a country that brazenly flouts domestic and international law, and one that wraps its lawbreaking in two-faced, sanctimonious bureaucratese. Do we have to pick one?

Twelve years ago we had reports that the U.S. killed 76 children and 29 adults across eight years of failed efforts to drone one suspected terrorist, Ayman Zawahiri, and killed about 1,000 more bystanders while targeting 40 others. I covered that story, but few others did, while outlets like the New York Times and Newsweek ran fawning portraits of Barack Obama’s “Terror Tuesdays” drone-targeting ritual, through headlines like “How Obama Learned to Kill.” The “Kill List” was not portrayed as crime, but as a “responsibility,” as then-counterterrorism adviser John Brennan put it. To hear Brennan acolytes now mourning drone victims is bizarre, though it doesn’t change the legal picture for Trump. It sure as hell makes the reporting complicated, though.

Our government moved into an extralegal zone over twenty years ago, over-endowing the executive with war and surveillance powers. Congress has since repeatedly resisted calls to reassert its Constitutional oversight role, seemingly in fear that the public might too often veto military operations. Donald Trump just wants to ignore the law and launch wars of questionable necessity just like every other president. A competing group of lawbreakers wants to stop him. Could that argument be anything but farce?

(racket.news)

AH, GOOD OLD WAR PROPAGANDA

by Caitlin Johnstone

Just as the news breaks that Trump has issued Maduro an ultimatum to leave Venezuela immediately if he wants to escape with his life, the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has published an amazingly brazen war propaganda piece titled “How Venezuelan Gangs and African Jihadists Are Flooding Europe With Cocaine.”

“Venezuela has become a major launchpad for huge volumes of cocaine shipped to West Africa, where jihadists are helping traffic it to Europe in record quantities,” the article begins, going out of its way to note that “the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro — who it asserts is heavily involved in drug smuggling — has brought global attention to the country’s role in the drug trade.”

The propaganda piece is plainly aimed at Europeans as well as Americans, emphasizing Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s quip last month that the Europeans “should be thanking us” for blowing up alleged drug boats coming from Venezuela because he says some of those drugs are winding up in Europe.

It’s got everything. Whipping up international support for a regime change war. Fearmongering about “jihadists”. The evil, scary dictator. The whole war propaganda sales package.

The mass media do this every time the US empire gets war-horny. And the Murdoch press are always the most egregious offenders.

Reminds me of an old tweet by a man named Malcolm Price:

“I remember in the run-up to the Iraq War a friend I had known all my life suddenly said to me, ‘We must do something about this monster in Iraq.’ I said, ‘When did you first think that?’ He answered honestly, ‘A month ago’.”

Price’s friend had been swept up in the imperial war propaganda campaign that had recently begun, just like countless millions of others. Month after month after month western consciousness was hammered with false narratives about weapons of mass destruction, forced associations of Saddam Hussein with 9/11, and stories about how much better things will be for the people of Iraq once that evil tyrant is gone.

Normally it never would have occurred to the average westerner that a country on the other side of the planet should be invaded and its leader replaced with a puppet regime. That’s not the sort of thing that would have organically entered someone’s mind. It needed to be placed there.

So it was.

The most common misconception about the free press of the western world is that it exists. All the west’s most influential and far-reaching news media publications are here not to report factual stories about current events, but to manufacture consent for the pre-existing agendas of the US-centralized western empire.

They report many true things, to be sure, and if you acquire some media literacy you can actually learn how to glean a lot of useful information from the imperial press without losing your mind to the spin machine. But reporting true things is not their purpose. Their purpose is to manipulate public psychology at mass scale for the benefit of the empire they serve.

This doesn’t happen through some kind of centralized Ministry of Truth where sinister social engineers secretly conspire to deceive people. It happens because all mainstream press institutions are controlled either by plutocrats or by western governments in the form of state broadcasters like the BBC, both of which have a vested interest in maintaining the imperial status quo. They control who the executives and lead editors of these outlets are, and those leaders shape the hiring and editing processes of the publication or broadcaster. Reporters come to understand that there are certain lines they need to color within if they want to get articles published and continue advancing their careers, so they either learn to toe the imperial line or they disappear from the mass media industry.

If people had a clear understanding of everything that’s really going on in our world, they would tear the empire apart brick by brick. If they could truly see how much evil is being done in their name and really wrap their minds around it, and if they could understand how much wealth the plutocrats are getting out of the imperial status quo compared to how little they themselves benefit from it, there would be immediate revolution. So the oligarchs and empire managers shore up narrative control in the form of media ownership, think tanks, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, imperial information ops like Wikipedia, and now increasingly through billionaire-owned AI chatbots to ensure that this never happens.

The entire empire is built on a foundation of lies. The whole power structure is held together by nonstop manipulation of the way westerners think, speak, act, shop, work, and vote. If truth ever finds a way to get a word in edgewise, the entire thing would collapse.

We know this is true because the oligarchs and empire managers pour so much wealth and energy into manipulating our minds. They’re not doing this for fun, they’re doing it because they need to. If they didn’t need to, it wouldn’t be happening.

So what they are doing is intensely creepy and destructive, but it’s also empowering, because it shows us right where their weak spot is. They’re pouring all this energy into controlling the dominant narrative because that’s the weakest point in the armor of the imperial machine.

What we need, then, is a grassroots effort to help truth get a word in. Help people understand that they’ve been propagandized and deceived about the world by western media and by their power-serving education systems every day of their lives, because propaganda only works if you don’t know it’s happening to you. Sow distrust in the imperial media and institutions. Open people’s eyes to the fact that they’re being lied to, and help them learn to see the truth. Anywhere the empire is sowing lies and distortions — whether that’s in Venezuela or Gaza or somewhere else — use that opportunity to help more people unplug their minds from the propaganda matrix.

A better world is possible. The first step in moving toward it is snapping people out of the propaganda-induced coma which dupes them into settling for this dystopian nightmare instead.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

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DON’T EAT THERE

[Waitress:] Are you having breakfast for lunch?
[Howard:] I'm having breakfast and he's lunched. I'll tell you what, what can you give me immediately? If not sooner, nothing hot, nothing . . . So that by the time he's finished eating those hot cakes and those dead things that I won't finish myself
[Waitress:] Bacon and eggs? Are you, are you gonna have breakfast?
[Dick:] No no no no no
[Howard:] No no
[Dick:] No no no no no
[Howard:] He'll never go for that
[Dick:] No no no, a roll and some orange juice
[?:] . . . Jimmy Graham
[Waitress:] Orange juice and . . . uh . . . a roll, uh-huh?
[Aynsley:] One stale roll
[Dick:] Yeah
[FZ:] Bread and water
[Aynsley:] One stale roll
[Dick:] Bread and water
[Waitress:] Thank you
[Howard:] Frank, you really missed it at the club last night. You should have seen what went on, man, if you would have had your tape recorder there, you would have been rolling on the ground, holding your sides. It was the greatest. Everybody was out of it, drinking wine, cheap wine. And then there was this group, this nice tight little group that was playin' and they did about two numbers, and he said: "Okay, uh, any of you guys wanna come up here?" And of course Old Stewed Simmons was the first one to check out the cat's guitar, and so he immediately procceeded to play lead. This chick came out of the audience, man, a la Janis Joplin in a gold lame, only she was rancid, and she came out there and tried to sing blues changes like Buddy Miles or something, but it just didn't work 'cause she was singing, "Get yourself together . . . You are where it's at . . . ," she did it for like . . . forty minutes, man, it was wonderful . . .

— Frank Zappa (1992)

*Model in Backlight* (1908) by Pierre Bonnard

“WE ARE FAMILIAR with people who seek out solitude: penitents, failures, saints, or prophets. They retreat to deserts, preferably, where they live on locusts and honey. Others, however, live in caves or cells on remote islands; some-more spectacularly-squat in cages mounted high atop poles swaying in the breeze. They do this to be nearer God. Their solitude is a self-mortification by which they do penance. They act in the belief that they are living a life pleasing to God. Or they wait months, years, for their solitude to be broken by some divine message that they hope then speedily to broadcast among mankind. Grenouille's case was nothing of the sort. There was not the least notion of God in his head. He was not doing penance or waiting for some supernatural inspiration. He had withdrawn solely for his own pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in his own existence and found it splendid. He lay in his stony crypt like his own corpse, hardly breathing, his heart hardly beating-and yet lived as intensively and dissolutely as ever a rake lived in the wide world outside.”

― Patrick Suskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

THE POWWOW AT THE END OF THE WORLD

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after an Indian woman puts her shoulder to the Grand Coulee Dam
and topples it. I am told by many of you that I must forgive
and so I shall after the floodwaters burst each successive dam
downriver from the Grand Coulee. I am told by many of you
that I must forgive and so I shall after the floodwaters find
their way to the mouth of the Columbia River as it enters the Pacific
and causes all of it to rise. I am told by many of you that I must forgive
and so I shall after the first drop of floodwater is swallowed by that salmon
waiting in the Pacific. I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after that salmon swims upstream, through the mouth of the Columbia
and then past the flooded cities, broken dams and abandoned reactors
of Hanford. I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after that salmon swims through the mouth of the Spokane River
as it meets the Columbia, then upstream, until it arrives
in the shallows of a secret bay on the reservation where I wait alone.
I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall after
that salmon leaps into the night air above the water, throws
a lightning bolt at the brush near my feet, and starts the fire
which will lead all of the lost Indians home. I am told
by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall
after we Indians have gathered around the fire with that salmon
who has three stories it must tell before sunrise: one story will teach us
how to pray; another story will make us laugh for hours;
the third story will give us reason to dance. I am told by many
of you that I must forgive and so I shall when I am dancing
with my tribe during the powwow at the end of the world.

— Sherman Alexie (1996)

*Bathers at Swanage* (1920s) by Eustace Pain Elliott Nash

7 Comments

George Hollister December 2, 2025

I have tried playing pingpong outside. There is no such thing as no wind. The added dynamic dimension to how fast one is required to react was beyond me. Good luck on that. An outdoor pingpong table, accompanied with a bench on each side, makes a good place for a picnic.

- Marshall Newman December 2, 2025
  
  I enjoyed outdoor ping pong in AV as a kid. Wind rarely was a factor, and almost never in terms of the pleasure of playing.
  
  - Chuck Dunbar December 2, 2025
    
    In Kansas when I was a boy, we had a ping pong table in the basement–helped us get through the winter months of snow and inside living.
    
  - George Hollister December 2, 2025
    
    I played pingpong in my freshman and sophomore years. It’s a good stress outlet, and addicting. The rules at the time required an offensive game which meant speed. Later I put a sunporch on my house and had a pingpong table there with plenty of needed room to back off the table. I noticed that in just a few short years I had slowed down. It took a little while to get back into form.
    
    There were other pingpong addicts in Comptche that would come to play. One time a truck driver from Fort Bragg that had spent some time in prison and played pingpong there was getting a load of logs but suddenly changed course when he heard I had a pingpong table. Forget the load of logs, let’s play pingpong. There was no use in trying to talk him out of it, so we played. That driver is long dead, and I don’t know if the truck owner, Bud Turney, ever knew his loaded truck was parked in front of my house while his driver was inside playing pingpong. Another local pingpong addict who also had a case-a-day of Old Milwaukee habit would show up any evening to play pingpong until midnight, maybe 2:00 AM. While leaving he would eventually get his cold truck started after numerous attempts punctuate with back fires that lighted up under his hood. No one in the neighborhood complained. I assume he too is long dead, and likely learned pingpong in prison as well. Now I am married, and Cindy uses the table for sewing. No more pingpong, and smoke filled room with cigarette butts and empty beer cans.
    
    - Chuck Dunbar December 2, 2025
      
      Great ping pong stories, George, and interesting about the prison connection. And yet, in the end, sewing wins out. It’s the way of the world, I think….
      
Paul Modic December 2, 2025

I played ping pong outside last week at our community park and had a good rally…
Maybe the table will get more action when the pickleball courts get finished…
Wind just makes it more fun…

Lew Chichester December 2, 2025

Thanks for the photo of MacNab’s Mens Wear in Ukiah, a brief reminder of a past which is still with me. I’ve been in and out of Ukiah since before 1966, and remember what a pair of Levis jeans cost then. About $7, which for me was barely affordable, not to mention the “Warranted to be a Pendleton” wool shirt which was way too expensive to buy new. I got my Pendletons at the Goodwill, but the Levis had to be purchased new because there were never any in the used clothes stores. A few months ago, back in Ukiah again, I went to MacNab’s to check on the inventory and the old guys who work there. Wonderful store, it seems like the inventory is exactly the same as sixty years ago. The best hats, still with the Pendletons on the shelves (but they don’t seem to be quite as good as I remember) and Levis 501 with the button fly. I bought the Levis, they cost in MacNab’s a bit over $60, and can be found cheaper of course in any number of online/big box outfits. But the hand written paper receipt is priceless, that a store like this even exists anymore is priceless, and by the way, a $7 purchase in 1966 should inflation calculator out to be $70 now. So if you have to go to Ukiah, blow off the big box stores down by Walmart and at least walk around in MacNab’s time machine. On State Street, across from the courthouse.

7 Comments

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