Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 12/9/2025

Warming Trend | Oyster Log | Dry Spell | Earline Claunch | Case Unravels | Blattner Memorial | Triple Whippy | Unsolved Murder | New Fund | Brewery Jazz | Picking Mushrooms | Yesterday's Catch | Fawn Stalking | Tramp Steamer | Boat Bombing | Nobody Cares | Snow Shoveling | Kent HOF | Greta Mural | Closing Time | Rotten Apple | Mounted Eagle | Sadistocracy | Enemy #1 | Open Letter | Yantian Port | Leftovers | Lead Stories | Delusions | Nativity Update | Mandatory Palestine | Jerusalem

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AREAS OF DENSE FOG and low chances for coastal drizzle for portions of the North Coast through mid week. Generally dry weather and a warming trend are expected to prevail across NW CA this week, with record warmth likely for the interior. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cloudy 50F this Tuesday morning on the coast. Our forecast is calling for sunny today, we'll see. Otherwise more of the same until Sunday when rain chances return, looking wet all next week currently.

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A DEVELOPING PROBLEM? Almost no rain in three weeks

by Greg Porter

Last weekend ended up much cooler than forecast across the board. This year’s tule fog layer is proving to be exceptionally stubborn, even expanding its coverage over the North Bay and East Bay.

The result was a weekend of high temperatures running 10 to 20 degrees below normal. The miserable stretch of cloudy, cool weather goes on for Sacramento and the Central Valley. Over the past two weeks, Sacramento’s average daily high has been 50 degrees, the coldest late-November/early December stretch since 1972.

The fog and cool conditions deserve the spotlight for now, but another storyline is lurking underneath. San Francisco hasn’t had measurable rain since Nov. 20, 18 days ago. That’s notable during California’s “rainy” season, and it’s been easy to miss because November was such a wet month

Perhaps even more notable is that the forecast shows no rain in the foreseeable future. A combination of atmospheric factors, from stratospheric warming to a broad ridge of high pressure, has kept the state high and dry, and will continue to do so this week.

This is the week where the dry streak numbers get interesting. It won’t rain in the Bay Area before, at the earliest, Dec. 15. As Bay Area meteorologist notes, that would bring the streak to 25 consecutive days, which would be the most rainless days beginning in November since 2002. If it goes longer, it becomes the driest November-December stretch in nearly 50 years.

The lack of precipitation is already causing issues for ski resorts in Tahoe, and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

For now, this week’s weather is a rinse-and-repeat version of last week, but a bit warmer. The ridge strengthens, bumping most highs into the 60s, with 70 degree readings in favorable spots by midweek.

The hedge in all of this are the fog and the stratus layer. For the North Bay and East Bay, the day-to-day forecast hinges on whether the clouds clear. If they do, temperatures will warm nicely, close to 70 degrees inland. If they don’t, well, you saw the ceiling this weekend.

And in a world where forecasts keep getting better, tule fog remains a glaring exception. Its behavior is loaded with uncertainty. The only thing that does feel certain: Sacramento and much of the Central Valley stay locked under it this week.

Monday breakdown

San Francisco: The typical morning cloud pattern should greet San Franciscans on Monday. Low clouds on the west side will be the last to clear — but clear they should — leaving a mostly sunny day from Mission Bay to Ocean Beach. Temperatures range from the mid- to upper 50s, with a north-northwest wind at 10 to 20 mph keeping a bit of chill in the air. Some low clouds return overnight, with lows in the mid- to upper 40s.

North Bay: The North Bay remains one of the regions with the highest forecast uncertainty because of tule fog. Clouds will be there to start, but a favorable north wind at 10 to 20 mph should limit their reach. That allows afternoon sunshine along Highway 101 back into Napa, while Vallejo, Benicia and Fairfield won’t be as lucky. Where skies clear, highs reach the low 60s; where they don’t, temperatures stay stuck in the low 50s. Clouds return overnight, with lows in the 40s.

East Bay: The East Bay faces the same uncertainty as the North Bay. Morning clouds should lift first in the Berkeley–Oakland–Hayward corridor, with afternoon temperatures in the low 60s. A north wind again helps the interior escape the tule fog. Mostly sunny skies should develop from Walnut Creek to Livermore, with highs in the upper 50s to low 60s. Skies turn partly cloudy overnight, especially inland, with lows in the 40s.

Pacific Coast: The tule fog has not impacted the Pacific Coast too much recently, and that will continue Monday. Mostly sunny skies will develop, and temperatures will top out in the upper 50s to around 60, with a north wind at 10 to 20 mph. Clouds will return overnight and winds will relax a bit, with lows in the 40s.

Peninsula: The Peninsula should shed any morning cloud cover rather quickly Monday. That leaves most of the day with sunny skies and a somewhat chilly north wind off the bay at 10 to 15 mph. Temperatures will range from around 60 degrees in South San Francisco to the mid-60s in Redwood City. Overnight will be partly cloudy and less windy, with lows in the 40s.

South Bay: Clouds will hover in the South Bay on Monday morning and will be a bit slower to clear compared with other Bay Area regions. But they will eventually clear by the late morning, leaving mostly sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-60s and a light north-northwest wind. Overnight will be party cloudy, with lows in the 40s.

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EARLINE CLAUNCH

Earline Claunch, born on April 8, 1939, in Liberal, Missouri, passed away peacefully on November 29, 2025, in Ukiah, surrounded by her beloved son Jack and daughter Cheryl. A cherished member of her community, Earline dedicated many years of her life as a cook at Ukiah High School before enjoying a well-deserved retirement for the past 20 years.

Earline for her generous spirit. She donated her time at the Elks Lodge and the Ukiah Senior Center, where her warm personality and love for others shined brightly. She was a proud mother to five children, raising them with love and care, and her family was the heart of her life.

Earline had a deep passion for the arts and crafts, winning numerous awards at county fairs, reflecting her creative talents and diligence. She enjoyed playing bingo and traveling the world with her friends, creating memories that she cherished deeply.

Earline's family includes her daughters, Penny and Cheryl, and her sons, Jack Jr. and Larry. She is survived by her sister, Rosalee, and brother, Dennis, who, along with her children, will miss her dearly.

Earline is preceded in death by her husband, Jack, whom she married on December 15, 1957, and by her daughter, Carolyn. She also joins her late sisters, Margaret, Maxine, and Darlene, and her brother, Marshal, in eternal rest.

Her life was filled with love, laughter, and dedication to her family and friends, and she will be remembered fondly by all who were fortunate to know her.

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KIDNAPPING CASE UNRAVELS AS DA FINDS ALLEGED PLOT TO AMBUSH SUSPECTS

One suspect pleads no contest in exchange for probation; one gets one year in jail

by Elise Cox

An alleged kidnapping and sexual battery reported in October in Fort Bragg unraveled into something entirely different when the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office reviewed the case ahead of a preliminary hearing.

Instead of a kidnapping, prosecutors say they uncovered a plot to lure the alleged perpetrators to a location with the intention of assaulting them.

“There were figures with weapons approaching them. They fled the area in fear of their lives,” Assistant District Attorney Eloise Kelsey told the judge at a hearing Monday as she explained why the DA’s office was dismissing kidnapping and battery charges against Jose Francisco Plascencia, 25, and Douglas Kenneth Hance, 45.

Kelsey also dropped a charge of preventing or dissuading a witness by force or threat.

The DA’s account stands in dramatic contrast to a press release issued by the Fort Bragg Police Department on Oct. 21, 2025. According to the release, the kidnapping was reported at 11:04 p.m. Police said two men forced a woman into a white sedan near the 700 block of North Main Street and fled the area.

Officers located the vehicle nine minutes later. Plascencia and Hance were detained and “the victim was rescued and taken to a safe location,” police said. Investigators determined the woman “had been forcibly pulled into the vehicle, threatened at gunpoint, and sexually assaulted,” according to the release.

Both Plascencia and Hance were on probation. Plascencia had been charged with misdemeanor domestic battery on June 28, 2025, and with attempting to purchase a firearm on May 20, 2023, while prohibited from doing so due to a temporary restraining order. Hance had been charged with assaulting a man on Aug. 10, 2024, with a specialized paintball gun used for law enforcement training.

A search warrant executed Oct. 22 at Hance’s residence in the 900 block of John Cimolino Way yielded a large quantity of marijuana, controlled substances, a short-barrel rifle, ammunition, and drug-sales paraphernalia, according to court records. Officers also found a 10-year-old child with access to the drugs and firearms. The child was released to Child Protective Services.

A second search warrant served on a storage unit in the 18000 block of State Route 1 turned up an improvised “zip gun” shotgun, a modified .22-caliber firearm, ammunition and an improvised suppressor.

Plascencia pleaded no contest to possession of a firearm by a felon. Hance pleaded no contest to possessing oxycodone — or counterfeit oxycodone — for sale, possessing a short-barrel shotgun, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

As part of the plea deal, Plascencia will serve one year in state prison. Other charges in the case will be dismissed, though he will also serve time for probation violations in his other cases. Hance agreed to two years of probation, with execution of a five-year sentence suspended, provided he complies with probation terms.

Formal sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 5.

Neither Fort Bragg Police Chief Eric Swift nor Commander Jon McLaughlin were available for comment.

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DAVID GURNEY:

Good Evening Mayor and City Council,

I’m still wondering why the City of Fort Bragg appears to be violating California Government Code 1099, prohibiting one person from holding multiple government offices that have conflicting duties and responsibilities.

You have one person as both the City Manager and the so-called “Acting” Finance Director. These are both full-time jobs, but he’s been both the Finance Director and City Manager for almost two years. Although it might be remarkable that he can do both jobs at once, it also seems like an open door for unethical and/or incompetent conduct, and on the face of it, looks highly improper. Since July, you’ve compounded this corrupt situation with the same person also holding the office the quote “Acting” Community Development Director. All three of these are full-time, six-figure government positions.

My problem is that this not only gives the appearance of impropriety, it is improper since these offices are not only supposed to be collaborative, they also maintain a system of checks and balances upon each other. And not only is this in violation of Government Code, you’ve also overburdened Mr. Whippy with way too much work to do, so there’s no way he can effectively be both a good City Manager, and Finance Director and Community Development Director, all at the same time.

It seems the real problem is that these unfilled government offices are apparently run behind the scenes by private individuals, in the form of former city officials who are now unelected and unappointed, but acting as so-called “private consultants.” I’m not going to mention any names because you probably already know who I’m talking about. (FYI - 'Marie Jones Consulting' and Linda Ruffing @ 'North Coast Community Planning'). These high-dollar consultants, and I’m talking about folks charging $155 dollars per hour, are being paid by you the city, which means by us the taxpayers, to make important planning, fiscal and legal decisions without proper appointment, oversight or transparency. On the ground, this can lead to bad decisions and mistakes like Bainbridge Park and the illegally zoned high-density apartment complex in a place that was zoned highway/commercial, right by the Noyo Bridge.

I think you need to correct this situation so that the people of Fort Bragg can have a legitimate, above-board, honest, effective and good city government. And this means you need either hire a couple of new Department Directors, or you need to pass a resolution stating for the record that you have de-facto closed two city departments, and merged them into the one office of City Manager, and Company.

Thank you. That’s all I got.

David Gurney

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THE UNSOLVED MURDER OF RACHEL SLOAN

Rachel Audrey Sloan, of the Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria, was last seen by family at a family funeral in August 2012. On May 16th, 2013, her body was discovered near US Hwy 101 in Mendocino County, California. She was 23 years old.

In 1998 when Rachel was a small child her mother, Deborah Sloan, was murdered by a family acquaintance and suspected serial killer John Annibel. This would shape her entire life. Rachel was a good student and well liked by her teachers. She had two brothers and always stuck up for her little brother. Rachel played sports and wanted to be an oceanographer when she grew up. When Rachel hit high school she began struggling with mental illness and began self medicating with illegal drugs, especially methamphetamine. By 2012 she had several arrests for drug related charges. Her family struggled getting her help as they were told Rachel had to be a danger to herself or others to be put in a facility. Unfortunately Rachel was murdered before she was able to get the help she deserved.

An unknown woman's body was found on May 16th, 2013 on Rt 162 near US Hwy 101. Her body was badly burned and stuffed into an abandoned refrigerator. Cause of death was determined to be a gunshot to the head. A charm bracelet with WWJD was found with her body. Rachel's body was identified via DNA on September 1st, 2015. Her murder continues to be unsolved and her family continues to fight for justice in her murder.

Please call the Mendocino Sheriff at (707) 234-2100 with any information in young Rachel Audrey Sloan's murder. You may have the piece of information to solve this case.

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ANDERSON VALLEY WINEGROWERS LAUNCH NEW FUND TO SUPPORT LOCAL NONPROFITS

by Sara Stierch

A new giving fund aimed at supporting nonprofits that serve Anderson Valley has launched, the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association announced Monday.

The Anderson Valley Wines Community Action Fund is managed by the Community Foundation of Mendocino County. Funds will be raised through AVWA events — including February’s International White Wine Festival — as well as donations from winegrowers, wineries and the public. Wine lovers, including visitors to the region, are invited to contribute. The association will recommend grants to local nonprofit organizations.

The new fund follows a model used by other wine associations in the region. Napa Valley Vintners, Sonoma County Vintners and the Lake County Winery Association all raise money through events and donations and distribute proceeds to local nonprofits.

The AVWA said it has donated more than $600,000 to Anderson Valley-area nonprofits since its founding more than 40 years ago. Past recipients include the Anderson Valley Health Center, local fire departments, the historical society, a skate park and other community organizations.

The fund launches at a challenging time for the wine industry. According to Silicon Valley Bank’s 2025 State of the U.S. Wine Industry Report, wine sales and demand are down nationwide as alcohol consumption has reached record lows. Younger generations are drinking less, abstaining altogether or choosing alternatives such as ready-to-drink cocktails, seltzers and nonalcoholic beverages.

The bank also cited increased concern about the health impacts of alcohol and continued economic uncertainty and inflation as factors affecting sales.

Courtney DeGraff, executive director of the AVWA, said the association saw an opportunity to expand its mission beyond promoting local wine.

“Today we also have a responsibility to strengthen the communities that make these wine regions possible,” DeGraff said. “Launching this fund allows us to bring charitable giving alongside our marketing and event programs, and to ensure that Anderson Valley’s people and essential services are supported for the long term. That’s why we partnered with the Community Foundation of Mendocino County.”

Donations to the fund can be made at https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=VYPAJBLZTQ8JC.

For more information, contact Lia Holbrook of the Community Foundation of Mendocino County [email protected] or (707) 472-1680 or Courtney DeGraff at [email protected] or (303) 517-0232.

(www.mendovoice.com)

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

If you mistake a death cap for a cocora or a matsi you should not be out picking lol. There’s no outbreak it’s just uneducated pickers. The death cap has always been out there and it’s no more prevalent this year than any other. I’ve been picking for a little over 30 years, the only thing that’s changed is how many people are doing it. Telling people to avoid all mushrooms unless store bought is pure fear mongering. Simple solution is don’t pick unless you know what your doing or are with someone who does.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, December 8, 2025

DAVID BURNS, 57, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance for sale, paraphernalia, parole violation.

JENNIFER DEGROOT, 54, Ukiah. Trespassing.

PETE GONZALES, 23, Fort Bragg. Under influence, brandishing of imitation firearm.

CHRISTOPHER LOPEZ, 36, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

HEATHER MICHAEL, 43, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

ROBERT RODRICK II, 41, Ukiah. Criminal threats, resisting.

PATRICK SCHUETZ, 54, Ukiah. Under influence, county parole violation.

MEGAN SPAIN, 33, Ukiah. Killing, maiming or abusing animals., contempt of court.

LUCERO VAZQUEZ-RODRIGUEZ, 42, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.

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WILDLIFE. So I was enjoying a nice spring day, and decided to go for a run. After 5-6 miles, I'm getting close to my house and slow down for a cool down. As I turn down my road, I hear a noise behind me and see a baby fawn following me. As soon as I stop and turn around, the fawn looks around and starts wobbling away from me. And I mean wobbling, this thing was young enough that it was having trouble walking steady. So I turn back around and start running home again, and the fawn follows, chasing me down the road. I stop, same thing.

Repeat this 3-4 more times before I realized I had taken off my white shirt and tucked it into the back of my shorts when I was running, and the fawn saw the bouncing flash of white and instinctively followed it, but got confused as soon as we would stop and he realized that there were no other deer around.

So I turned around and led him back down the road to where I first saw him. I saw a doe standing back in the trees, so I took my shirt out and shooed the fawn back into the trees.

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MURDER AT SEA

Editor,

I paced the living room until I wore out. Then I went outside and walked up and down the block without a jacket. I came back in and threw my pillows around the place and let out a scream. I felt so helpless.

This all happened after I watched the news and saw the report about yet another apparently illegal boat bombing by our government, ordered by the Trump administration. And this time, according to reports, the planes were ordered to go back and bomb the only two survivors. I consider this to be a war crime of the most depraved order. I also consider it to be just plain murder.

This should be an impeachable offense for President Donald Trump. If we don’t impeach him for this, I don’t think we can call ourselves the greatest country on Earth. We can’t even call ourselves civilized.

Penny Clark

Novato

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IF NOT US, WHO?

Warmest spiritual greetings,

Am sitting here in front of a public computer at the MLK Jr. Library, identifying with the Divine Absolute, which works through the body-mind complex without interference. Am still awaiting membership cards to arrive at the homeless shelter, and the debit replacement card will arrive at the post office box in a couple of days, since I paid $15 to get it delivered by UPS this time. Chase bank said that I would receive consideration for a reversal of the fee, since I've already waited since November 10th for the first debit replacement card, which never arrived. Meanwhile, there has been no word about my complaint for having been improperly denied food stamps in the District of Columbia. I'll just have to consume less sushi for now.

The situation at the homeless shelter continues to be positive for those who made use of their time there, and advanced their circumstances by obtaining health, wealth, and food benefits. For the individuals who did nothing substantive except for staying high on drugs and vodka, winter has arrived, and they are facing a future at risk. It is disturbing to watch. The insanity in regard to racism of various kinds continues, but nobody appears to be phased by any of it anymore. The Special Police monitor the shelter 24/7. Outside last night, three ambulances visited the stoners and alcoholics congregating on the steps of the waste management company on the corner. Overdoses continue steadily here. Nobody cares.

I am ready to leave the homeless shelter and go forth on the planet earth, letting the Dao work through the body-mind complex without interference. I am seeking others who understand what this means. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

Craig Louis Stehr, [email protected]

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BARRY BONDS WILL NEVER MAKE THE HALL OF FAME. Here’s why I’m now OK with that

by Scott Ostler

The baseball gods hath spoken.

Barry Bonds will not be entering the Baseball Hall of Fame. Not now, not ever.

The baseball gods, through their mortal emissaries, essentially told Bonds on Sunday, “Grab some pine, Meat.”

Ironically, the only player elected to the Hall by the 16-member committee, in a vote taken and announced Sunday, was Jeff Kent. His HOF-level glory days were the six seasons he teamed up with Bonds as the 1-2 punch for the San Francisco Giants. Over those six seasons, Kent averaged 29 homers and 115 RBIs per year.

While Kent seems a worthy enshrinee, this is a case of Robin being voted into the superhero Hall of Fame while Batman gets rejected. But there is a certain karmic justice.

It’s all about the steroids, of course — with Bonds, not Batman. Fair or not, Bonds is baseball’s poster guy for cheating through PEDs. Kent headed up a very, very small group of players who spoke out in opposition to steroids during his playing days, and in favor of tough drug testing.

Sunday’s announcement was about more than the eight players being voted upon. It was a big day for baseball and the Hall of Fame. Not a good day, but a big one. Finally put to rest after decades was the endless debate over whether Bonds and some of the other steroid suspects are worthy of our official adulation.

And gone forever is the Hall’s former standing as the ultimate shrine of baseball.

The game’s all-time homer king is out on the street, and so is the all-time strikeout king, Roger Clemens.

Cooperstown is now officially the Hall of Fame Minus (Most of the) Suspected Juicers and Assorted Rascals.

Who is to blame? If you’re keeping score at home, here’s the lineup:

• The players, those who juiced, and those who aided and abetted the juicers by actively and passively opposing testing.
• The people who run Cooperstown. Since the inception of the Hall in 1936, these folks have mandated that voters cast their votes in consideration of a candidate’s “integrity, sportsmanship and character.”

That was always a wink-wink kind of clause. Ty Cobb? Mickey Mantle? But steroids brought that vague clause into the forefront, and it was never clearly defined by the Hall. Voters were forced to either ignore the character clause, or twist it like a pretzel.

• The voters, too many of whom reduced the voting to a popularity contest. In Bonds’ final year of rejection by the writers, 2022, David Ortiz was voted in, despite stats that are vastly inferior to Bonds’. Ortiz’s connection to steroids was not as strong as was Bonds’, but it was there. But Ortiz was friendly and accommodating to media folks, while Bonds was seen as surly.

Based on past voting results, it’s OK to cheat, but within limits. Go figure. I can’t.

Sunday was a sad day for Bonds, no doubt. He seems to have made the most of his retirement. He’s seen about the Bay Area, riding his bike, in splendid health and seemingly good spirits. He is still connected to the Giants, a special advisor to the CEO. He also works with Giants hitters on an informal basis, and it will be interesting to see if his role changes under the new manager.

Bonds will be OK, and for the rest of us, why cry over spilt cream and clear? The steroid guys, like bank robbers, knew the risks. Their PED use, those who actually used, earned them a lot of extra money and fame, and cost many of them their shot at the Hall of Fame.

Bonds earned a staggering seven MVP awards, but four of those were racked up during the time he was associated with BALCO, a time period when he gained considerable muscle mass and blossomed as a superslugger at an improbable age.

As the ’roiders inflated themselves, they deflated baseball. Hall of Fame voting, once home of fiery debates over players’ playing ability, became a game of finger-pointing. If you voted for Bonds or other suspected juicers, you were chastised for glorifying cheaters. If you voted against them, other voters accused you of being a sanctimonious, pearl-clutching member of the moral police, even while they passed judgment on your morality compass.

I’ve been on both sides. I voted for Bonds in 2022, on the basis that it’s impossible to sort out all the cheating, and because fans don’t really care. What I should have done was decline to vote, based on the vague nature of the character clause.

If I voted today, I would not vote for Bonds or other steroid suspects, because I’m sick of the overall erosion of truth in our country, and don’t want to support cheating at even the trivial level of baseball. On my current ballot, waiting to be completed, the apparent ’roid rangers will not be betting the golden X in their box.

Sunday’s vote was the end of an era. No more tears from these eyes over the Hall’s inability to tell baseball’s history because too many great players have been shut out. The Louvre doesn’t tell the history of art, it simply showcases some of the masters.

Also, no crying here for Bonds, Clemens and the other outcasts. Whatever they did, however they did it, they made a lot of money. Let ’em pool their dough and build their own Hall of Fame. Make it super big and grand, kind of a Hall of Fame on steroids.

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CLOSING TIME

Closing time, open all the doors
And let you out into the world
Closing time, turn all of the lights on
Over every boy and every girl

Closing time, one last call for alcohol
So, finish your whiskey or beer
Closing time, you don't have to go home
But you can't stay here

I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home

Closing time, time for you to go out
To the places you will be from
Closing time, this room won't be open
Till your brothers or your sisters come

So, gather up your jackets, move it to the exits
I hope you have found a friend
Closing time, every new beginning
Comes from some other beginning's end, yeah

I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home

Closing time, time for you to go out
To the places you will be from

I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
I know who I want to take me home
Take me home

Closing time, every new beginning
Comes from some other beginning's end

— Dan Wilson (1998)

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SADISTOCRACY

by John Arteaga

As this ongoing dumpster fire administration proceeds to create fresh havoc every day, with actions that violate with impunity, state, national and international laws, it seems like we really need to come up with a new term for this type of government. There are many single word descriptors of national governments; there's gerontocracy, rule by the oldest, autocracy, ruled by a single all-powerful individual, kakistocracy, rule by the least competent and appropriate members of the society, but it seems like we need a new word for rule by the most vengeful, petty and sadistic. Clearly, a propensity for sadism seems to be one of the main organizing principles of the Cheeto-in-chief's US government.

Take Stephen Miller for instance; the hatemonger (the title of a book about him) behind Trump's last presidential term's unbelievably cruel practice of ripping even babies out of the arms of their parents, if they were unlucky enough to be snagged by ICE, then losing track of them. No extreme of heartlessness seems be too much for ‘security advisor’ Miller. Kristi Noem demonstrated her sadist bona fides by shooting her 10 month old puppy "in the face", for not meeting her expectations for becoming a good hunting dog. Then you have the bizarre Kash Patel, who has succeeded in converting the once highly regarded Justice Department, which used to fight crimes of all kinds, whether committed by the high or the low, to protect the American people, into another tool of vengeance for a man who certainly is the most thin-skinned, easily offended and insecure person ever to occupy the nation's highest office.

Of course, in terms of sheer body count no one can hold a candle to Elon Musk and his ‘doge’ crew of cyber nerds who were permitted to simply stop the decades-long USAID program, a lifeline for many millions of starving people all over the world. Many of those unfortunate millions are now expected to die of starvation! Oh, and just for icing on the cake, the sudden cessation of this vital food aid absolutely SCREWS the hundreds of thousands of hard-working farmers who have been growing these high food value crops. They have been left high and dry with no other market for their crops. And I’ll bet you the majority of the damn fools voted for him, if polling about most rural farming areas is accurate. In a shocking display of heartlessness, they also eliminated the so-called Pepfar program which distributed anti-aids drugs all over the world, permitting those who would have died long ago to enjoy productive lives through the use of drugs that they could never afford to buy on the open market. It also enabled pregnant women with AIDS to give birth to their children without passing along their AIDS condition. Talk about cruel and unusual! There has got to be some particularly uncomfortable corner of hell for these people to look forward to when they go to their eternal rewards.

The enormous institution of ICE, a bloated bureaucracy, force-fed taxpayer capital to the point where it is now, considered as a national army, the 12th largest in the world, despite the fact that it has utterly failed in the mission under which it was sold to the taxpayers; to hunt down and deport the worst criminal elements amongst the undocumented population. Instead, under unrelenting pressure from the top, it has been dragooning mostly people who are hard-working contributors to our economy on the most petty and ridiculous charges, such as a decades-old marijuana conviction for which the ‘perpetrator‘ was completely expunged in a state where marijuana is now legal and all charges from the old days have been dismissed for all those formerly convicted. Even completely innocent of all crimes American citizens or green card holders have been horribly abused by this completely out of control agency, which is in the midst of a building boom, constructing detention camps (aka concentration camps) all over the country.

I just read a heartbreaking story about a young woman who came from Peru at the age of nine. Now 43 and the mother of two American daughters, married to an American, she was commandeered off of the flight back from their vacation in Cancún. Housed like an animal in a cage with no privacy for toilet activities, no bed but the concrete floor, and torn from her otherwise perfectly normal American family, or the other lady in that NYT story; a wellness worker who worked both in the US and Canada, crossing the border on an almost daily basis, who was suddenly ripped from her family and society and caged in inhuman conditions over some antique broken tail light type of ‘violation’.

Meanwhile, this guy who shot those two young National Guard people, I guess an Afghan who was part of one of our CIA trained forget-about-the-Geneva-Convention and laws-of war type of killing crew there in Afghanistan, escapes ICE’s attention. As the great Malcolm X once said about the Kennedy assassination, “the chickens come home to roost”. It is not reasonable to expect that we can solicit and finance mass murder all over the rest of the world without some taste of it making its way back here. Indeed, it seems to me that the loss of a couple of jumbo jets a year might be a small token of the death and destruction that our policies routinely exact from the rest of the world.

The horrible toll taken on those millions of people by the Trump/Musk obsession with eliminating everything that may have been supported by their predecessor, Biden, who, despite his many shortcomings, at least kept the pipeline flowing for all the starving millions and AIDS sufferers. In contrast, Trump/Musk has pursued a policy for which the term inhumane seem inadequate; besides the many millions of starving people around the world deprived of lifesaving food aid, there were the many millions of Americans who were suddenly thrown off Snap benefits, causing food insecurity for mostly young kids. Shockingly, when states stepped up to fill the funding gap, Trump and company actually went to court to require them to ‘claw back’ that money and let the people go hungry! Can you imagine some of the richest people on earth going to such trouble to deprive their less fortunate fellow citizens of basic food?! Unbelievable!

On my blog; https://inarationalworld2.blogspot.com/2025/12/sadistocracy.html

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OPEN LETTER TO ZOHRAN MAMDANI-POLITICAL MODERATE

by Ralph Nader & Bruce Fein

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani
24-08 32nd Street
Suite 1002A
Astoria, NY 11102

Dear Mayor-elect Mandani,

It should not come as a surprise to alert citizens that your decisive victory in the Mayoral race has prompted your opponents – the privileged super-rich and their indentured servants in City Hall – to label you as an “extremist,” “radical,” or, in Trump’s view, a “communist.” How ludicrous! Your affordability agenda is hardly immoderate. Many Democratic politicians have taken these positions over time.

Free bus fares exist in some municipalities in the U.S., including Kansas City, Missouri, Tucson, Arizona, and Alexandria, Virginia. Proposing half a dozen city-run grocery stores in New York City’s “food deserts” (meaning a geographic area with limited access to affordable, healthy food options) is hardly radical. You could even have them structure these stores as consumer cooperatives (owned by consumers). Food co-ops have existed in numerous communities in the U.S. for years. Your rent stabilization proposal is not uncommon – many large cities have rent controls to protect powerless tenants from avaricious landlords, especially from today’s very large corporate landlords with their fine-print contract peonage. Also, there are cities in the U.S. offering partially publicly subsidized child care. New Mexico just launched a statewide universal childcare program.

The social democratic countries in Europe and other countries, including Canada, have long had much broader social safety nets that go far beyond what you have proposed.

What the oligarchy and large corporations really do not like about you is that you are projecting a consistent and wide-ranging voice for the people, the workers, the poor, and the powerless in the corridors of political power of City Hall. They have had long-game statism, or a corporate state, at the local, state, and federal levels, with little opposition by the two-party duopoly.

Regarding your self-description as a democratic socialist, that doesn’t pass the laugh test. You are not arguing for nationalization of banks and insurance companies, utilities, not even, to our knowledge have you called for a “public bank,” which has existed so effectively in North Dakota (now a Republican stronghold) founded in 1919.

Indeed, President Donald Trump has become a corporate socialist par excellence. As The New York Times reported on November 25, 2025, (“$10 Billion and Counting: Trump Administration Snaps Up Stakes in Private Firms”) the Trump administration has de facto partly nationalized an array of private companies for ulterior political motives under the contrived banner of national security. The companies include Intel, U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, MP Materials, Vulcan Elements, and MP Materials. This invites bribery by other means, i.e., a Trump donation in exchange for an administration sweetheart investment. The fabled Central Intelligence Agency now features a venture capital firm, In-Q-Tel, ostensibly to fund commercial technologies to fortify the U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Defense. But under Trump, partisan political motives likely will inform the CIA’s investment portfolio.

As for taking a stand on pending legislation ending the unconscionable daily electronic rebate of tens of millions of dollars in stock transaction taxes (a progressive tiny sales tax of one tenth of one percent on stock sales), you have been AWOL despite urgings by your numerous colleagues in the state legislature to sign on to a bill that would end the rebate and specifically allocate the many billions of dollars annually to mass transit, education, health care and environmental protection.

So far, your silence has put you to the RIGHT of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. During his presidential run in 2020, he said: “Harness the power of the financial system to address America’s most pressing challenges. Introduce a tax of 0.1% on all financial transactions to raise revenue needed to address wealth inequality, and support other measures – such as speed limits on trading – to curb predatory behavior and reduce the risk of destabilizing ‘flash crashes’.”

Note, Bloomberg goes beyond a sales tax on STOCK transactions to include all financial transactions (such as bonds and derivatives).

In addition, a New York Times op-ed of April 17, 2000, by Robert E. Rubin – big banker and former Treasury Secretary under Clinton – wrote, urging increasing revenues, “on a highly progressive basis, for example, by increasing corporate taxes, restoring individual rates, repealing pass-through preferences, and imposing a financial transactions tax (our emphasis).”

Some reporters may wish to ask you, “Why, as a democratic socialist, are you to the RIGHT of Bloomberg and Rubin when it comes to tiny sales tax mostly on Wall Street’s high-frequency stock trades?”

As for your plans to expand the housing supply in New York City to make housing more affordable, all kinds of efforts are underway to do this around the country, including in the California high-priced housing market.

Check out the National Cooperative Bank in Washington, D.C., which provides loans to consumer co-op models in the housing, food, and other areas of economic activity. The Bank was established in 1978 with our support, by the Carter Administration, and then spun off by the Reagan regime. It might be useful in funding your housing and grocery store initiatives.

There is one more example in which you are conventional. So far, you are part of the class of public servants, which we have described as “incommunicados” when it comes to working closely with progressive civic leaders and citizen groups. (See The Incommunicados by Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein https://incommunicadoswatch.org/). Put simply, it is too hard for many progressive advocates to get through to you or your top aides. You may wish to assign a staffer as a liaison to these groups whose ideas, experience, and endurance can be of signal assistance to what will probably be a turbulent tenure.

Be guided by the adage that “None Of Us Are As Smart As All Of Us.”

May you succeed and put forces in motion throughout the state and country of a deliberative democracy in successful action with sound civic engagement. The cardinal pillar of a democracy, worthy of the name, is JUSTICE, for without justice there is no freedom and liberty for the people.

We anticipate your considered response.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader
Bruce Fein
P.O. Box 19312
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-387-8030
Email: [email protected]

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WE'RE still eating the leftovers of World War II.

― Vandana Shiva

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LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT

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Trump Says Netflix Takeover of Warner Bros. ‘Could Be a Problem’

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HE had delusions of adequacy.

— Walter Kerr

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MANDATORY PALESTINE

by Anthony Horowitz & Terry Charman

(Sometimes history can be found in obscure places. In this case, it’s in the production notes for the penultimate episode of the brilliant BBC series ‘Foyle’s War.’ Here, the show’s screenwriter and producer Anthony Horowitz and British Historian Terry Charman of the British National War Museum discuss the background for the episode, ‘Trespass,’ (first aired in 2015) that was set in post-WW2 England. — Mark Scaramella)

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Horowitz: This episode was inspired first and foremost by a desire to write about Mandatory Palestine, which is an extremely difficult subject for people to grasp. There have been many attempts to dramatize this in British history. It always somehow stumbled because it is politically – the Balfour Declaration and everything else is quite complicated. I began with two very simple sort of thoughts. The first was July 2, 1946, the King David Hotel explosion in Jerusalem by Israeli Terrorist gangs. Then I came up with the idea of writing about a Jewish terrorist coming to England, which is based on truth. I’m sure you told me at some stage about a young woman, a French Zionist, who planted a bomb in the colonial office. But it didn’t go off. Then that gave me the idea of having a terrorist come across. And then there was the London conference. Tell us about that.

Charman: The London conference was one of the conferences designed to try and solve the Palestine problem. Of course, it’s still with us to this very day. There had been a similar conference just before the Second World War in May of 1939 that the British government had called to try and bring both sides, the Arabs and the Jews, together to sort out a solution. The plans were shelved, obviously with the outbreak of the Second World War. And then after the Second World War, another conference was called by the Labour government to see if any progress could be made on that front.. But of course they were now faced with a world that had seen the holocaust with so relatively few Jews left alive in Europe, those wishing to go now to their homeland, to Palestine.

Horowitz: And ‘Trespass,’ the title of this episode, is not something made up either. That was the word used by the British government to describe the Jews going to Palestine illegally.

Charman: It goes back a very long time. But shall we say in relative recent history to November 1917 when the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, sent his most famous letter, the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild, one of Britain’s leading Jewish citizens, saying that the British government looked on with favor having a Jewish homeland in Palestine. That actually wasn’t looked on in favor by the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, who greatly feared that they would be submerged by large numbers of Jews immigrating there. We’re getting into power politics now and into economic power politics. The region was so vital for Britain at that time with the oil supplies… We were having this balancing act. We also promised Palestine to the Arabs as well.

Horowitz: But contrary to what people sort of think about the British at this stage and Balfour in particular, he was trying to be even-handed. The government was trying to do its best for everyone. Therefore, at the end of the day, failing everybody inevitably.

Charman: Exactly. Nobody was satisfied.

Horowitz: But they weren’t ill intentioned at the start.

Charman: I don’t think so. We had to cope with an Arab revolt in Palestine just before the Second World War that involved a lot of British military presence and a number of casualties. One couldn’t face this again. The Nazis were courting the Arabs and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, one of the Arab leaders, was in Germany for a large part of the war. So there’s that aspect as well. He was seen as a Nazi collaborator.

Horowitz: But in an attempt to try and placate the Arabs, the British government put a limit on the number of Jews, who were permitted every month to enter Palestine. And “trespass“ was an abstract word to describe wealthy industrialists, American and British Jews, largely, who were using their ships and their wealth and their contacts to break that tariff.

Charman: To finance illegal immigration into Palestine, yes.

Horowitz: My plot was about a secret British organization that is blowing up the ships to stop it happening. But that’s not fictitious either is it?

Charman: No, it wasn’t. To try and discourage this illegal immigration into Palestine, there were former members of the British Special Operations Executive, the SOE, that was founded by Churchill to set Europe ablaze as he put it, to organize resistance against the Nazis. But they were recruited by MI-6, the secret intelligent service, not to kill anybody, but to plant explosives and bombs that would send off warning messages that people — “Oh we don’t want to travel on that ship. We might be blown up.”

Horowitz: Since you mentioned the SOE, incidentally, we used an old SOE bomb in the script. I remember you describing to me 10 years ago that it uses an aniseed ball. I always love that about the British. They would have a little seed ball in the bomb and the water dissolves the aniseed and then that makes the spring go and then the bomb goes off.

Charman: Yes. That’s right.

Horowitz: We had a character in this episode, Elizabeth Addis, who’s also a new returning character in all three episodes who now represents SOE interests. She is our SOE Officer and expert on the Middle East.

Charman: She had been out in the Middle East during the war because SOE headquarters during the war were in Cairo.

Horowitz: The attitude in Britain about Jews at this time in 1946 and 1947 — people might be surprised that it wasn’t plain sailing by any means.

Charman: The author/historian Tony Kushner has written the book called “The Persistence Of Prejudice: Antisemitism in Britain.“ At the time, George Orwell, secular saint that he was, and a commentator on the British political and social scene, said that one of the surprising things about the war and the post war period is actually the rise of anti-Semitism in Britain.

Horowitz: There were riots.

Charman: And there were riots, yes.

Horowitz: And “PJ” was written on the walls.

Charman: PJ – Perish Judah, which was a slogan of the pre-war, Sir Oswald Mosley’s British union of fascists.

Horowitz: And a lot of our tension particularly in East London was because that was a port area and that’s where they all came in. That’s where they arrived. So you had mass immigration, the echoes of history once again. Mass immigration, causing local upset and local anger.

Charman: Yes, indeed. So there is strangely enough a revival of fascism almost as soon as the war finished in the late 1940s. And Mosley now ditches a lot of his pre-war policies, but has ideas of a European Union under a fascist umbrella.

Horowitz: Since you mentioned Mosley, that’s what I was going to talk about next. We have a character in this script called Charles Lucas, who is a thinly disguise Mosley. Mosley was interned in the war, wasn’t he? But he had a very bizarre sort of prison life.

Charman: Mosley was interned in May 1940 and he was placed in prison.

Horowitz: But in a house within the prison, isn’t that right? In the grounds of Holloway?

Charman: Yes, and then his wife, Diana Mosley. She was arrested later on the prompting of her own sister. Nancy Mitford. Nancy Mitford, who got on to her friends in the government and said, “You ought to lock up Diana as well.” Mosley was released at the end of November 1943 on the authority of the then Home Secretary Herbert Morrison. This was while Churchill was meeting with Roosevelt and Stalin at Tehran. Churchill says to Morrison by telegram, “You do what you think best.“ And it caused the biggest political rumpus probably of the whole Second World War. There were massive demonstrations , saying to put him back into prison again. The interesting thing, because everybody thought that had the Nazis successfully invaded this country, he would’ve become the Nazi governor, a puppet ruler, a quisling, a third columnist. I can bring a personal touch of this because a long time ago I appeared in the television documentary about Hitler with Sir Oswald Mosley. It was a most extraordinary occasion. It was a Wardour Street studio. He was there because obviously he was one of the few Englishman at the Imperial War Museum then still alive who had actually met Hitler. Of all the historical persons that I’ve met in the 40 years I’ve been at the Imperial War Museum, and before then, he still retained the most charisma and charm. He had everybody in that studio eating out of his hand, the makeup lady, everyone.

Horowitz: He was the Nigel Farage of his time.

Charman: He said to me, “I wouldn’t have taken a post under the Nazis. I encouraged the British union members to fight.” And of course, the first two British servicemen to be killed in the Second World War were both pre-war black shirts, ironically enough.

Horowitz: In a very early episode of Foyle‘s War, ‘The White Feather,’ you may remember Charles Dance. He was an excellent actor based not so much as the Mosley as Ramsey, Captain Ramsey and other figures of the time. When we were constructing this episode, we thought about bringing him back. The actor wasn’t available and for other reasons we couldn’t do it. So we created the Charles Lucas character instead. But Lucas‘s politics are sort of like Mosley’s. Mosley had this idea about a united Europe. He had junked the anti-Semitism largely and moved on to this idea that Europe would be sustained by colonial Africa or something.

Charman: He was in discussions with a pre-war South African defense minister, Pirow, who was quite pally with the Nazis before the war. They came up with this idea. I think the thing about Mosley is what he didn’t realize was that he was, as his son Nicholas Mosley said in a biography of his father, “beyond the pale,” at this stage of British politics, one of the few people ever to be beyond that pale because of his pre-war policies.

Horowitz: The original opening of this episode, which I really wanted to film, I had a Jeep in the desert somewhere near Jerusalem. I don’t know how we were gonna do that in Liverpool, but nonetheless, that was the idea of filming it, in which two British soldiers find themselves surrounded and then are brutally killed. That was in an early script. The very first draft. We couldn’t do it or didn’t do it for lots of reasons. I mention that because that was also a true incident wasn’t it? Two British sergeants were hanged, murdered,

Charman: They were murdered, and their bodies were hung in an olive grove, and they were booby trapped as well.

Horowitz: That had a terrible repercussion because that fed the antisemitism and the anti-Zionism.

Charman: People weren’t anti-Semitic as such, but they were absolutely horrified by this episode. It was something that anybody, the surviving members of that generation, if you mention that they would know exactly what you were talking about. It had a great deal of resonance.

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