Rain Begins | Guns & Drugs | Headstone Vanished | Sulphur Tufts | Mural Rebound | Stanford Bound | Public Access | Four Spots | Amanita | Arena Agenda | School Architecture | Some Paper | Yesterday's Catch | Paper Ballots | Barbara Lubin | Pay or Die | Peters Case | James Joyce | Drug Smuggling | Reiner TDS | Doomlings | Foraging | Isn't Me | Lead Stories | Not Banished | LSD Blotter | Funky 12-Step | True Currency | Sunrise | Supernatural Dimension | Trees | Optical Illusion | Crybaby Blues | Got Shakes | Prison Fish | Dylan Thomas | Vietnam 1954 | Winter Light
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A warm 55F in the rain this Tuesday morning on the coast. I collected .22" so far. Rain today then less rain Wed & Thur. Friday is looking really wet currently. Rain is forecast daily into Christmas Day.
LIGHT TO MODERATE and locally heavy rain is forecast to continue through tonight for mostly Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity and northern Mendocino Counties. A break in the rain is forecast on Wednesday, followed another high chance for heavy rain either on Thursday or Friday. Another chance for heavy rain and strong winds will arrive for the latter portion of the weekend. (NWS)
GUNS & DRUGS, BAD ONES
In early December UPD Detectives began an investigation into Armando Garcia-Barrera, 42, of Ukiah after learning that he was involved in narcotics sales and unlawful possession of firearms. Garcia-Barrera was a convicted felon prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition and was also known to have gang ties in Mendocino County.
UPD Detectives developed probable cause and obtained a search warrant for Garcia-Barrera’s residence and vehicles. On 12/12/25 Ukiah Police Department Detectives conducted a traffic stop on Garcia-Barrera’s vehicle and simultaneously served a search warrant on his residence.
During the service of the search warrant UPD Detectives located narcotics and substantial evidence that Garcia-Barrera was involved in narcotics trafficking. Garcia-Barrera was also found in possession of eight firearms, which included three illegal short-barreled AR-15 style assault rifles, two stolen .45 caliber pistols, two un-serialized “ghost gun” style 9mm pistols, and a large caliber hunting rifle.
In addition to the firearms and narcotics found in Garcia-Barrera’s residence, UPD Detectives located hundreds of rounds of ammunition, body armor, gang clothing, and stolen property. Garcia-Barrera was taken into custody and later booked into the Mendocino County Jail for charges of Possession of a Narcotic for the Purpose of Sales, Felon in Possession of a Firearm, Possession of an Assault Rifle, Possession of a Short-Barreled Rifle, (Felon in Possession of Ammunition, Possession of a Firearms Suppressor/Silencer, and Possession of Stolen Property. Garcia-Barrera’s bond was set at $250,000.
The Ukiah Police Department remains committed to keeping the residents of Ukiah safe and riding our community of dangerous drugs and unlawful firearms. For updates about crime in your neighborhood, residents can sign up for telephone, cell phone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle link on our website: www.ukiahpolice.com.
BRITTANEY ALBONICO:
When I come home the first place I visit is the white man cemetary and it gives me peace. I remember going up there with my grandma; she would clean the graves and tell me choose which plot I would like as she’d purchased enough for our family. I recall stories of community members, teachers, bear flaggers. As time has gone by the number of graves has grown exponentially, several fire chiefs, a well loved bull rider and athlete, friends’ parents and grandparents. I have always been a lover of community and the stories of those who have gone before me. I know of some of the most inexplicable acts that have occured in this beautiful place, from the photo of Laura’s baby being shot out of his headstone, to Ms Burke finding her family headstone simply vanished. The kind repair of the head stones most recently damaged is heart warming, inspiring to know that kind people of action exist. A stone that I’ve been visiting my entire life, one that bears my last name, is gone. John Albonico and Anna Bettega, a married couple, were buried next to each other approximately a year apart. Their headstone has vanished. I don’t know who found it appropriate to desecrate this grave; I can’t imagine where this headstone has made its way to. I forgive whomever decided to remove it. People have reasons for their actions and sometimes what seems like a good idea can have a reaching and unintended effect. My grandfather placed that stone to honor and memorialize John and Anna. I’d love to have the stone back. I believe in Round Valley community, in its citizens, in the goodness of its people. I humbly ask, please consider letting me know where the stone is so I can retrieve it. Thank you for reading.
POINT ARENA STANDS TALL AFTER VANDALISM AT POMO MURAL SITE
by Mandela Linder
A month after vandalism defaced a mural honoring Nicole Smith, a murdered Pomo woman whose case remains unsolved, her family says the incident has brought renewed visibility, healing and community support.
The mural, located on Main Street in Point Arena, was still in its early stages when it was vandalized in November. According to the city, the damage included paper signs with written messages and a splash of green paint across the wall, and appeared to be directed at the muralist rather than the subject of the artwork. The vandalism occurred in broad daylight on a Sunday morning, and was removed before work on the mural resumed.
Point Arena City Manager Molly Haviland said that messages in the signs clearly pointed at and named the muralist, Nicole Ponsler, in what appeared to be a misunderstanding about her motives for doing the mural. Haviland said one message included wording that suggested Ponsler, who is white, is doing the mural without regard for Smith’s family, but Haviland said that’s a misunderstanding.
“Nicole Ponsler has been working very closely with Nicole Smith’s family and the tribal community in this mural to assure that it is fully depicting important cultural elements of the tribe and the spirit of Nicole Smith,” Haviland said.
She added that Smith’s family held a blessing ceremony, which took place after the vandalism had been cleaned up, at the mural site, where Ponsler said fifty people were in attendance.
Smith’s sister, Bernadette Smith, who led the blessing ceremony, said that if the vandalism had been aimed at stopping the mural, it had the opposite effect, drawing more attention to both the mural and the broader Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement.
Bernadette said the mural also reflects the life Nicole lived and the legacy she left behind.
Bernadette said her sister Nicole was a preschool teacher at Pinoleville Pomo Nation Headstart, a traditional dancer who participated in ceremonies, a dedicated mother who loved to go all out for her kids’ celebrations and someone who loved to laugh.
“She was just an all-around, happy, beautiful person,” Bernadette said, adding that Nicole’s life’s calling was to be around kids – and that at Nicole’s funeral a group of her preschool students attended to share their memories of her.
In 2017, Nicole Smith was shot and killed in Bernadette’s home in Manchester in the early morning hours. Several family members were present, including five children, one of whom was 15 at the time and was also shot but survived. Bernadette said that the child had lost her own mother, Bernadette and Nicole’s sister Delia, several years prior. Nicole Smith’s young son was also present.
No one has been charged with the crime, although Bernadette said someone was arrested in relation to the crime but was later released. She said after that, the case went cold.
“They’ve switched to different investigators every year, it was a new investigator, and then it went cold,” she said.
(Mendovoice.com)
4-STAR BASKETBALL PLAYER OBENYAH SIGNS WITH STANFORD
With 21 Division I college offers, Ukiah native Elias Obenyah had many options for his college career. After careful consideration, he chose Stanford University to further his educational goals and basketball career.
According to 24/7 Sports and ESPN, Elias Obenyah is ranked as the 134th best player in the nation, the 22nd best combo guard in the country, and the 14th best player in California. He has also earned several accolades, including Prep Hoops No. 1 recruit in Northern California, All-CIF first team juniors in 2025, All-CIF Northern California Selection, CIF NorCal first team in 2025, the 2025 CIF Pursuing Victory with Honor Award, 49ers Cali High Scholar Athlete of the Year 2025 and TCAL Most Valuable Player with Salesian in 2025. Additionally, he was named Team MVP at the Pangos All-American Camp. Obenyah maintains a 4.5 GPA and is dedicated to his studies.
Born and raised in Ukiah, California, Obenyah grew up playing basketball in various community leagues before moving to Salesian. In his acceptance speech, he first thanked God and then acknowledged his parents, Aaron and Christina Obenyah, his host family, Dion and Lisa Otis, for opening their home to him during his high school years, and his family and friends at home who have supported him throughout. He also expressed gratitude to his Salesian, AAU, and league coaches who have mentored and taught him, and to his teammates who have helped shape him into the player he is today.
Salesian Coach Bill Mellis stated that “Elias is an awesome kid. He's very coachable and has an incredible work ethic. I appreciate the example he sets for everyone in the classroom and on the court. He takes both very seriously - I never have to motivate him, and his character and work ethic serve as "North Stars" for our entire school and athletic department. There's been no better example of a "student-athlete" than Elias in my 25+ years at Salesian.”
Stanford Coach Kyle Smith said “Elias is someone who we have had on our radar since we first got to Stanford. Our staff has a strong history of success with recruiting in Northern California, and Elias is one of the top prospects in the 2026 class in the state. Elias is a modern-day playmaker who we can use in multiple positions. He can guard 1-5 if needed, and he is a natural lead guard who can play 1-4 offensively because of his size, toughness and skillset. He is a true six-tool player who can dribble, pass, drive, shoot, defend, and rebound. He plays for one of the top programs in Northern California, under the leadership of Bill Mellis, that has a very distinct style of play that displays grit and tenacity. Elias has worked hard to fulfill a lifelong goal of attending Stanford – he is tough and proven winner, and we are lucky to have him.”
With his senior year ahead, Obenyah looks forward to pursuing Salesian’s dream of winning the state championship. He believes his team is strong and that they are ready to take Salesian to the next level. After graduation, he will transition to Stanford and begin his training.
With Stanford’s educational opportunities and welcoming environment, Obenyah is excited for this next chapter.
(Mary Chadwick)
CLEAR THE PATH TO THE WAVES
by Frank Hartzell
We Urge Removal of the Neighborhood Group’s ‘Stop’ Sign, Restore Pine Beach Access, and Celebrate the Classy but locally friendly New Inn’s Arrival…
FORT BRAGG SEEKS INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS TO SERVE ON VISIT FORT BRAGG ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The City of Fort Bragg is looking for individuals who are interested in, and have experience with, promoting and marketing the Fort Bragg area. The mission of Visit Fort Bragg is to inspire visitors to explore the area through comprehensive and collaborative outreach. This effort aims to increase visitor spending and stimulate the local economy.
The Visit Fort Bragg Advisory Committee will consist of five to seven community members, along with two City Council members. Four committee spots await individuals with passion about putting Fort Bragg on the map, while celebrating our City's unique character.
To submit an application or for more information please contact Adelaide La Torre at [email protected] or (707) 961-2823 x101.
FROM OUTTA THE FOG….
(From the Point Arena City Council Agenda for January 20, 2026… It says 2025, but we doubt it.)
Notice Is Hereby Given that the City of Point Arena is recirculating a Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND), which is being distributed for public review, pursuant to the California Public Resources Code and the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines (CEQA Guidelines).
Notice Is Further Given that the Point Arena City Council will conduct a public hearing at City Hall, 451 School Street, Point Arena, CA, and via Zoom on Tuesday, January 20, 2025, at 6:00 p.m., or as soon thereafter as possible, on the following item:
Case#: CDP 2025-04, UP 2025-1, Variance 2025-01
Owner/Applicant: City of Point Arena, 451 School Street, Point Arena, CA 95468
Agent: City of Point Arena
Request: Coastal Development Permit (CDP 2025-4), Use Permit (UP 2025-1) and Variance (VAR 2025-1) to:
1) Establish a seasonal (May to October) ten-site low-cost campground in the Rockwall meadow consisting of three RV parking spaces, a Campsite Manager’s RV, and seven tent camping spaces. This parcel was formerly utilized as a manufactured home park and is currently utilized for boat storage and event parking.
2) Demolish an existing 550 SF restrooms in the “Rockwall” property and replacement of it with a 528 SF restroom/showers building to serve the campground. The new restroom would be in the same footprint as the existing restroom.
3) Remove various abandoned heavy equipment from the Rockwall property which is located less than 50 feet from Arena Creek.
4) Demolish a 400 SF existing shed in the Arena Cove parking lot and replace with a like for like new 400 SF metal shed; install a commercial ice machine inside the shed; and relocate the boat washing station from the north side to the west side of the shed.
5) Remove the City’s 900 SF community recycling area from the Arena Cove parking lot and reuse this area for boat and fishing equipment storage.
6) Install a temporary storage and construction staging area for the Arena Pier Rehabilitation project. The staging area would be located on the western end of the Pier Parking Lot. This area would be fenced for about 4 months during the pier rehabilitation project in the summer.
7) Install a new signage system for Arena Cove, including interpretive signs, safety signs, and wayfinding signs.
8) Seasonal (summer) installation of short public access pedestrian ramp from edge of arena cove parking lot to the Arena Cove beach.
9) Install safety fencing and habitat protective fencing at Arena Cove Park.
YESTERDAY & TODAY
AIN’T THIS SOME PAPER!
You’ll find thinkers here.
Doers and dreamers too. Here
In the AVA.
— Jim Luther
CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, December 15, 2025
JOSE AYALA-MARTINEZ, 25, Redwood Valley. Suspended license for refusing DUI chem test, probation violation.
MISAEL COLLIYAM, 43, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.
JESUS GONZALES, 50, Ukiah. Parole violation.
VIKTORIA LADD, 36, Clearlake/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
JACKIE LOTT, 35, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.
KELSEY PIERCE, 31, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, vandalism.
HAILEY RILEY, 24, Ukiah. Probation revocation, unspecified offense.
KRISTOFF SUBA, 46, Willits. Domestic violence court order violation.
JONATHON THOMPSON, 31, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.
EDUARDO VICENTE, 33, Laytonville. Failure to appear.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
We need to go back to paper ballots and the days when those ballots—cast in person on election day—were mostly tallied by 9 p.m. and you could trust the result. That's what Wisconsin was like nearly statewide before 2010. Why in he'll did we switch to those machines?
IN LOVING MEMORY OF BARBARA LUBIN: A Legacy That Lives On.
Today, we lost a dear friend, a fierce comrade, and a rare human being. I have known Barbara Lubin for more than forty years, and it is difficult to imagine this world without her steady presence, her moral clarity, and her boundless compassion.
Barbara was a tenacious voice for Palestine — not only in words, but in deeds. She did not traffic in slogans; she built lifelines. In 1988, she founded and led the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), creating a living bridge between people of conscience and Palestinian children under siege. The scope of what she accomplished is too vast to fully capture here: projects, aid, solidarity, and material support that reached those who needed it most, especially children whose lives were shaped — and often saved — by her unwavering commitment.
When I was arrested alongside seven others in the L.A. Eight case, at a time when fear silenced many and solidarity carried real risk, Barbara stood with us from the very beginning. She did so without hesitation, without calculation, and without compromise. She defended us when few dared to do so, not because it was safe, but because it was right. That was Barbara’s way — principled, brave, and profoundly human.
Barbara passed, but she has not left us. She lives on in my heart and mind, and in the hearts and minds of the thousands of people she touched and transformed. Most of all, she lives on in the lives of Palestinian children — children who continue to benefit every day from the work she built, the institutions she nurtured, and the love she poured into Gaza and Palestine as a whole. Her legacy is not static; it is alive, breathing, and still at work in the world.
Barbara showed us what it means to choose humanity over comfort, justice over silence, and love over fear. She taught us that solidarity is not an idea, but a lifelong practice. We are better for having walked this path with her, and poorer for her absence — yet richer beyond measure for what she gave us.
Rest in power, dear Barbara. Your light endures.
— Michel Shehaden
FREE & FAIR?
by James Kunstler
"The prison sentence made Ms. Peters, 70, a martyr for the election-denial movement, and launched a fruitless campaign by Mr. Trump’s followers to win her release from state prison." —The NY Times
“Election denier” is a curious term. It implies that anyone who even questions the validity of an election is not right in the head, maybe even… a heretic, a sociopath, a criminal, an enemy of the people! The New York Times flogs the term incessantly as a sort of talisman, to ward off suspicions (branded as evil) that US elections are anything but free, fair, and upright.
Tina Peters was County Clerk in Mesa County, western Colorado, at the time of the 2020 elections, which Donald Trump won in her county by a 63-percent margin, though “Joe Biden” won the state. In May, 2021, during a so-called “trusted build” update of her county’s Dominion ballot tabulation machine software, Tina Peters sought evidence that the machines were capable of being manipulated by wireless internet. She made copies of the hard drives and published passwords online, exposing proprietary software and sensitive system information. She was indicted in 2022 on 13 counts and convicted in August of 2024 on seven counts.
Judge Matthew Barrett threw the book at her, handing the then-69-year-old grandmother a nine-year stretch in state prison. His spoken remarks at sentencing included: “You are no hero…” “You’re a charlatan who used, and is still using your prior position to peddle snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again…” “You’re as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen…” “Prison is where we send people who are a danger to all of us, whether it be by the pen or the sword or the word of the mouth.”
Rather harsh treatment, wouldn’t you say? A classic case of someone being made an example of, as a caution to others who might dare to question an election. Of course, many of us who stayed up late Nov. 3-4, 2020, saw what looked like considerable shenanigans reported from voting precincts around the country. There were the weird flipperooskies in Michigan and Wisconsin where Mr. Trump was winning by a lot, and then, suddenly, at two o’clock in the morning, “Joe Biden” shot way ahead. The explanation has been that Republicans show up to vote on election day and their votes are counted early while more Democrats voted by mail-in ballots, which are counted later on.
That does not account for the thumping irregularities in the mail-in vote itself, the skeezy ballot-harvesting activities and drop-box stuffing of Democratic Party ward-heelers; the instances, statistically absurd, when all the votes in a late hour were cast only for “Joe Biden” and none for Trump; the $400-million that Mark Zuckerberg gave in grants — through his Center for Technology and Civic Life — to 2,500 election districts, which allowed him to replace local election officials with outside ringers; the monkey-business in Fulton County, GA, where a supposedly “broken toilet” closed down the operation while CCTV cameras recorded suitcases full of ballots hauled out from underneath the tables and duly tabulated during the “shutdown;” the arrival of a truck from Long Island loaded with boxes of ballots at the loading dock of the main Philadelphia precinct center in the wee hours of the morning… and much more. Not to mention whatever the Dominion machines were doing in the background.
What is even the necessity of the Dominion voting machines? All they do is provide superfluous complexity to the process and invite fraud. How did it become outside acceptable discourse to even ask about that? Answer: because the Democratic Party benefits from opportunities for fraud, and many Republicans go along with it because, you know, Trump Trump Trump. In any case, despite all the cries of “baseless claims” and “election denial,” and other patently disingenuous mantras, our elections give off the odor of fraud and the means for cleaning them up are obvious and simple — which I’ll spare you from rehearsing again. What’s more, we are just now learning about the extensive involvement of Venezuela in producing the Dominion machines and using them globally to engineer election outcomes. That might be the main reason our navy is parked off that nation’s coast just now.
For months, Mr. Trump’s Department of Justice attempted to intervene in the Tina Peters case and, at least, get here moved into a safer federal prison. Colorado officials fought all that. So, last week, Mr. Trump issued a pardon for Tina Peters. There is mixed opinion as to whether a president can pardon anyone convicted in a state jurisdiction. Colorado told Mr. Trump that his pardon will not apply — that they will keep Tina Peters in the state slammer. There are additional considerations as to whether anyone in “Joe Biden’s” DOJ might have unduly participated in or influenced the process that led to Tina Peters’ conviction… and, if so, whether that would make a presidential pardon apply.
Now, Mr. Trump says he will release new, additional information that the 2020 election was “rigged.” You might suppose that he is in a position to know. DNI Tulsi Gabbard likewise says she has proof that the Dominion voting machines were tampered with around the nation in 2020. Wouldn’t it be nice if, by Christmas Eve, the president sent a contingent of US marshals to Colorado demanding the release of Tina Peters into federal custody… and arrested any Colorado official, including Governor Jared Polis, who interferes with the process? Wouldn’t you like to see that?
(kunstler.com)
HOW CAN TRUMP SQUARE PARDON WITH BOAT ATTACKS?
Editor:
How can Donald Trump justify killing men in small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific using the excuse, without any proof, that they’re smuggling drugs into the U.S. and then pardon Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted of bringing 400 tons of cocaine into the country?
Annette Flachman
Windsor
JUST WHEN YOU THINK HE CAN'T GO ANY LOWER…..
DOOMLINGS, A Delightful Card Game For The End of the World
Here’s a game to go with the song for Christmas: https://www.doomlings.com
(via Bruce McEwen)
“PEOPLE WERE STANDING up everywhere shouting, "This is me! This is me!" Every time you looked at them they stood up and told you who they were, and the truth of it was that they had no more idea who or what they were than he had. They believed their flashing signs, too. They ought to be standing up and shouting, "This isn't me! This isn't me!" They would if they had any decency. "This isn't me!" Then you might know how to proceed through the flashing bullshit of this world.”
— Philip Roth, ‘American Pastoral’
LEAD STORIES, TUESDAY'S NYT
Sydney Gunmen Were Motivated by ISIS, Australia’s Leader Says
Bondi Suspects Were in Southern Philippines, Where ISIS Is Active
Police Share New Images of Man Sought in Deadly Shooting at Brown
Trump Files $10 Billion Suit Against BBC Over Documentary
Justice Dept. Charges Four in Los Angeles Over Left-Wing Bomb Plot
Born Deaf and Blind, She’s Caught in Trump’s Anti-Diversity Crusade
Nick Reiner’s Struggles With Drugs Left His Parents “Desperate”
Transplant Hospitals Court Patients Overseas Despite Organ Shortage
How the Pandemic Lockdowns Changed a Songbird’s Beak
NO, the demons are not banished; that is a difficult task that still lies ahead. Now that the angel of history has abandoned the Germans, the demons will seek a new victim. And that won’t be difficult. Every man who loses his shadow, every nation that falls into self-righteousness, is their prey…. We should not forget that exactly the same fatal tendency to collectivization is present in the victorious nations as in the Germans, that they can just as suddenly become a victim of the demonic powers.
— Carl Jung, “The Postwar Psychic Problems of the Germans” (1945)
THE FUNKY 12 STEP
Let’s get down to a meeting tonight
Let’s share “Easy does it” and other brilliant insights
And see what steps we can try and make things right
Let's do the Funky 12 step
The one two three four five six seven
Eight nine ten eleven 12 step
Let’s laugh about the ways we try to cope
Let’s pass around that experience strength and hope
And let's make it through one more day without dope
Let’s do the funky 12-step
Let’s get in touch with a friend we might have wronged
Let’s make amends and try to get along
And keep our faith in a higher-power strong
Let's do the funky 12-step
Let’s shed light on places where we hid
Let’s be responsible for actions that we did
And let’s be grateful and straight with the kids
Let’s do the funky 12-step
Yeah, let’s catch a nothing-special meeting tonight
Let’s share “First things first” and other great insights
Let’s hold hands and pray with all our might
And let’s do the funky 12-step
The one two three four five six seven
Eight nine ten eleven 12 step
— Fred Gardner (Spring ‘86)
THE ONLY TRUE currency is that of the spirit.
— Ken Kesey
“ABOUT ONCE OR TWICE every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough—and even miraculous enough if you insist—I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about?
“Depending on my mood, I sometimes but not always refrain from pointing out what a breathtakingly insulting and patronizing question this is. (It is on a par with the equally subtle inquiry: Since you don't believe in our god, what stops you from stealing and lying and raping and killing to your heart's content?) Just as the answer to the latter question is: self-respect and the desire for the respect of others—while in the meantime it is precisely those who think they have divine permission who are truly capable of any atrocity—so the answer to the first question falls into two parts. A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called ‘meaningless’ except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities… but there, there. Enough.”
— Christopher Hitchens, ‘Hitch-22, A Memoir’
TREES
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
— Joyce Kilmer (1913)
A HUMAN BEING is a spatially and temporally limited piece of the whole, what we call the “Universe.” He experiences himself and his feelings as separate from the rest, an optical illusion of his consciousness. The quest for liberation from this bondage is the only object of true religion. Not nurturing the illusion but only overcoming it gives us the attainable measure of inner peace.
— Albert Einstein (1950)
SUITS CRYBABY BLUES
We're sensitive guys
Who play old outdated tunes
Were sensitive guys
And we play old outdated tunes
This record aint gonna sell
And the girls all think were goons
Nobody likes our music
They all want stuff thats loud
Nobody likes our music
They all want stuff thats loud
Don't get along with the folkies
We dont fit in with the disco crowd
I'm sing this verse and then i'm gonna quit the band
I'll sing this verse and then walkin out on this band
Gonna leave my baby mama
And move to some unknown land
— R.Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders (1993)
NOTHING COMING — GOING TO JAIL
by Jimmy Lerner
Seven other inmates, six in orange jumpsuits, belly chains linked to ankle shackles and cuffed hands, are chattering away on the bench, clearly excited to be getting on the prison “train.” Six young white guys, one skinny black teenager in a yellow jumpsuit. With the exception of the black kid, who leans back against the wall, languid and aloof as a cool breeze, they all seem desperately anxious to catch up on old times. Like they’re at some high school reunion from hell or Old Home Week at Convict U., these white boys are all shouting at once.
“What’s up, dawg? Whatchu down for this time?”
“Caught a new case outta Reno, dawg, looking at a fucking nickel. Pure bullshit — know what I’m sayin’?”
“Yeah, dawg, caught a P.V. myself.”
“Parole in Nevada is a trick bag, bro! They violating motherfuckers from the jump, all bogus shit, dawg, y’unnerstan’ what I’m sayin’?”
“It’s scandalous, dawg!”
“It’s outta line!”
“Way outta line!”
“That’s what I’m talking about, y’unnerstan what I’m sayin?”
“This bitch back in Kansas musta dropped a fucking dime on my convict ass — y’unnerstan what I’m sayin?” This reference to the apparent treachery of a woman triggers a fresh outcry from the convict choir on the Group W bench.
“That’s outta line, dawg, falling behind some bitch snitch!”
“That ain’t right, Kansas, know what I’m sayin?”
I’m starting to figure out that all this “know what I’m sayin” stuff is not really a question, or even a rhetorical device — it’s just white noise designed to fill in conversational gaps.
The chorus of convict righteous indignation swells and washes over me as I lean back against the wall, crushed between the black teen and the huge white boy they call Kansas. I’m definitely a stranger in a strange land and they all know it, studiously ignoring me while secretly sizing me up.
With the exception of Kansas, all the white boys look like they emerged from the same sad inbred trailer park community where breakfast is an intravenous injection of methamphetamine followed by a Hostess Twinkle. Five speed-thin, heavily tattooed young guys with a total of maybe 25 teeth among them. Greasy, matted shoulder-length hair (secured by filthy rubber bands) and five identical goatees scraggily aspiring to a bad-ass look. The goatees, in addition to lending a certain satanic aura, serve the aesthetic purpose of concealing the almost total absence of chins.
Kansas is decidedly different. A skinheaded giant with a three-inch blue swastika tattooed on his neck, his massive head and shoulders dwarf everyone else on the bench. His dark brown goatee is razor-trimmed, and there appears to be an actual jawline with teeth and a chin beneath it. Handsome in a bald Arnold Schwarzenegger kind of way.
And undisputedly the leader.
“Dawgs, we got nothin’ comin’ now,” Kansas sums up the collective woe with this observation, which rouses the heretofore stuporous black kid to speech.
“Y’all be tripping, muthafuckin white boys acting like dey going to a punk-ass par-tay! Only party y’all fittin’ to be at, be the par-tay up yo white asses, and all yo friends be comin’, know what I’m sayin? That’s right, all yo frens is comin’!”
And all the white boys lean forward on the bench, chains rattling in outraged solidarity. They shoot Murder One stares at the solitary black face, while glancing at Kansas as if for guidance. Kansas, hey, dawg — you gonna let this punk-ass nigger-dis us, bro?
Kansas unleashes a roar of laughter that’s so violent the swastika on his neck starts to vibrate.
“Fucking T-Bone! Whassup, Bone? I heard they caught your black ass in some crack house. Whatchu down for, Bone?’ For the first time I notice that T-Bone’s yellow jumpsuit is stenciled, front and back, with large black letters: CAPTURED ESCAPEE. This designation, along with the yellow color, is the jailhouse equivalent of a designer label, demanding special status for the wearer.
“Aiiight now, Kansas! What up! I hear you talking shit ’bout catching a pee-vee! Like a parole violation be some kind of muthafuckin cold! You white boys be something else! When Mighty Whitey falls, it’s always behind some bogus bullshit, know what I’m sayin’? Yo, Kansas, this time they’re fittin’ to strain me up and put me in a muthafuckin’ cross behind an ax-cape charge! Shee-it! Cain’t a muthafucka walk up out of a fire conservation camp to get hisself some pussy? There’s no muthafuckin fences, no walls at a fire camp! How the fuck they tryin’ to call that an ax-cape? I call it a muthafuckin’ conspiracy against the black man!”
Kansas just takes in this little speech, leaning forward, looking directly at T-Bone as if he empathizes with every word. I recognized this active listening technique from a corporate seminar last year titled “Enhancing Interpersonal Communication Skill Sets.” They also lectured about how important it is to be able to “pick up minimal environmental cues.” I don’t remember any giant Nazi skinheads in the audience, but I may have been hung over that day.
“Thas’s right. Bone, a straight-up conspiracy! That’s fucking scandalous, bro!’ Kansas’s validation of the Bone’s pain is apparently a signal to the other white boys to start their echoing routine.
“…straight-up conspiracy, dawg, thas’s outta line!”
“Way the fuck outta line!”
“That ain’t right, dawg. The Bone didn’t even climb no fences, no fucking walls — just walked outta the camp. That ain’t no escape!”
“It ain’t right — Bone got nothin’ comin’ now, dawgs.”
“The motherfucker just went out to get some pussy and now he’s all strained up!”
The Bone, delighted by this unexpected flood of sympathy, shakes his bushy head mournfully.
“Well, it ain’t nothin’ nice, know what I’m sayin’?”
All these dawgs seem to know what the Bone is saying, so he now gives a dismissive wave of his hand. “Hey. but it’s all good — it’s all good in the hood, wood!”
At the mention of “wood,” the white boys tense up, swiveling their badass goatees in the direction of Kansas again. Will this wood (short for “peckerwood”?) insult go unpunished?
Kansas, Chairman of the Convict Board, just laughs again.
And all the white boys laugh with him.
(From Lerner’s 2002 book, ‘You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish’)
AT DIEN BIEN PHU
by Chris Mullin
“And this,” our guide said, “is where Colonel Piroth committed suicide.” We were standing by a fenced-off scrap of wasteland on the edge of a busy market. The only evidence that anything of significance happened there is a white cement block carved with an image of two artillery pieces and an almost illegible inscription in Vietnamese. The entrance to Piroth’s bunker, if it still exists, is overgrown and filled with rubble.
Piroth was the deputy commander of French forces at Dien Bien Phu, a one-armed war hero and gunnery expert who had boasted that “no Viet Minh cannon will be able to fire three rounds before being destroyed by my artillery.” In fact the Viet Minh made short work of the French artillery. “I have been dishonored,” Piroth said. Soon afterwards, using his teeth, he pulled the safety pin out of a grenade and blew himself to pieces.
Dien Bien Phu was one of the decisive battles of the post-1945 era. Not since the British were turfed out of Afghanistan in the 19th century had an indigenous army inflicted so resounding a defeat on a colonial power. The battlefield was a remote valley in north-west Vietnam, eleven miles by three, encircled by mountains, the best part of two days’ journey from Hanoi along precipitous roads winding through jagged limestone hills. Today it is a bustling town, but in the 1950s the valley was inhabited mainly by people of the T’ai minority who grew rice and smuggled opium.
The French strategy seems to have been to block the route into neighboring Laos, where an uprising against colonial rule was also underway, and to tempt the Viet Minh into a set-piece battle which the French, with their tanks, artillery and aircraft, were confident of winning. The construction of an airstrip meant they were not dependent on roads and well supplied with heavy weapons. They were taken completely by surprise when, on March 13, 1954, the Viet Minh artillery, much of it recycled US weaponry captured by the Chinese in Korea, opened up on them from the surrounding hills. Before long the airstrip was out of action and the French troops were trapped.
The Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett was with Ho Chi Minh “at his jungle headquarters” when the battle began:
“This is Dien Bien Phu,” said President Ho as he tipped his sun helmet upside down on the bamboo table. “Here are mountains,” and his slim, strong fingers ran around the outer rim of the helmet, “and that’s where we are.” Then his hand plunged down into the bottom of the helmet: “Down there is the valley of Dien Bien Phu — that’s where the French are. The best troops they have in Indo-China. They will never get out.”
Burchett also described the extraordinary logistical feat that enabled the Viet Minh to encircle the valley:
The countryside, so quiet and passive — especially as seen from the air — in daytime, boiled with activity at night. From trucks to oxcarts, bicycles and human backs, every imaginable form of transport hauled supplies through the jungle and up and down the steep mountains… Before dawn and the inevitable reconnaissance planes, shrubs and trees were positioned on those supply lines, to be removed as the convoys started moving again at dusk.
A short walk from the derelict place where Colonel Piroth met his end, across a battered bridge, is the bunker of the French commander, Colonel (later General) Christian Marie Ferdinand de La Croix de Castries, described by the American journalist Stanley Karnow as a “lean aristocrat with a Roman profile whose ancestors had soldiered since the crusades. Irresistible to women and riddled with gambling debts, he had been a champion horseman, dare devil pilot and courageous commando.” The three French artillery bases — Gabrielle, Beatrice and Isabelle — were allegedly named after his mistresses. His heavily sand-bagged bunker is well preserved and can be visited for 60,000 dong (about $3). It is rather better appointed than Colonel Piroth’s.
Close to what is now the town center is a 32-meter hill criss-crossed with trenches and bunkers which the Viet Minh did not succeed in capturing until the final day of the battle, May 7. Towards the end they brought in coal miners from Hong Gai who, unseen by the defenders, dug a long tunnel under the hill and packed it with a thousand pounds of explosives. The crater has been preserved for posterity.
As Vietnam grows in prosperity Dien Bien Phu is an increasingly popular attraction for domestic tourists. There is a large museum, the highlight of which is a huge circular mural, said to have been the work of two hundred artists, depicting every detail of the battle. There are four flights a day from Hanoi and innumerable air-conditioned tour buses winding their way overland.
Up in the hills, the headquarters of the Vietnamese commander, Vo Nguyen Giap, has also been added to the tourist itinerary. It consists of a handful of thatched bamboo huts and a series of rooms dug into the side of a hill, spread out along a forest track. Next to the parking lot a temple has been erected in Giap’s honor. The centerpiece is a large golden bust on an altar piled high with offerings. You wonder what he would have made of it.
The battle at Dien Bien Phu lasted 55 days. On May 8, 1954 the French government announced that France would withdraw from Vietnam. The casualties on both sides were horrendous. About 8,000 Viet Minh were killed and 12,000 wounded. French casualties, many of whom were recruited from their North African colonies, numbered 2,200 dead and 5,600 wounded. Many more died on the long march into captivity.
A great power conference underway at Geneva, having dealt with Korea, was about to turn its attention to Vietnam. Given that the French had announced their intention to withdraw, it ought to have been easily resolved. All that was required was to organize an orderly departure followed by internationally supervised elections.
The Americans, however, were having none of it. Already they were bankrolling much of the cost of the French war and for some time the Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, had been trying to persuade President Eisenhower to use B-29 bombers to help relieve the French. Eisenhower refused, saying he would not contemplate direct intervention without the support of both Congress and America’s allies, notably Britain. Dulles flew to London but for once Eden and Churchill wouldn’t co-operate. According to the French foreign minister, Georges Bidault, Dulles had taken him aside on the eve of the Geneva conference and offered him atom bombs.
The Americans went to Geneva determined to undermine any settlement. Dulles refused even to shake hands with the Chinese prime minister, Zhou Enlai. The Chinese and the Russians were anxious to prevent another war in Asia and leaned heavily on the Vietnamese to make concessions. In the end it was agreed that Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections to be held within two years. The Americans refused to sign. Eisenhower wrote in his memoirs:
“I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indo-Chinese affairs who did not agree that, had elections been held at the time of the fighting, possibly 80% of the population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh.”
He was being disingenuous. There was little or no fighting in the two years following Geneva.
Although they had pledged not to undermine the Geneva Agreement, the Americans immediately set about doing so. In the South they created and armed an artificial regime under a stubborn and ruthless mandarin, Ngo Dinh Diem. The CIA set up the Saigon Military Mission under Colonel Edward Lansdale, a specialist in psychological warfare and dirty tricks. In the North, which was not yet under fully under Viet Minh control, the CIA sent in agents under Major Lucien Conein with instructions to sabotage the transport network. They contaminated the fuel supply for Hanoi’s buses and concealed explosives in the coal supplies destined for the railway. It would be another 17 years before any of this became public with the release of the Pentagon Papers. Rumors were also spread among the superstitious northern Catholics that “the Virgin had gone south” and a massive evacuation was organized.
The elections decreed by the Geneva Agreement never took place. The southern arm of the Viet Minh, who had regrouped to the North following Geneva, grew increasingly impatient and, despite being discouraged by the Hanoi government, who had enough problems of their own, began to infiltrate the South. By 1961 a new war was underway, in which at least a million Vietnamese were destined to die — probably many more — and much of the country reduced to ruins. A war that might have ended at Dien Bien Phu lasted another twenty years.
John Foster Dulles never lived to see the mayhem he caused. He died in 1959. Ho Chi Minh did not live to see his country reunited, dying in 1969. General de Castries lived until 1991. As for Vo Nguyen Giap, the school teacher turned general, he outlived them all, dying in 2013 at the age of 102.
(London Review of Books)
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
MAGAts live in a dream world.
Kunstler writes: “Now, Mr. Trump says he will release new, additional information that the 2020 election was “rigged.” You might suppose that he is in a position to know. DNI Tulsi Gabbard likewise says she has proof that the Dominion voting machines were tampered with around the nation in 2020.”
Will Tulsi introduce Mike Lindell’s missing election fraud proof?
I have about as much faith in U.S government “intelligence” as I do in imaginary “gods”. They’ve peddled too many lies (e.g. “weapons of mass destruction”) over the decades. I have about the same amount of faith in the current prezudint and his gang of appointees.
Yeah, truckloads and truckloads. Just like previous claims with no basis in fact. You cannot teach stupid.
In my mind, Joyce Kilmer just transitioned from being a woman.
About Dien Bien Phu someone wrote “The victors came marching in sandals, the vanquished retreated in tanks.” Maybe Burchett but probably not… John Foster Dulles, “our” Satanic Secretary of State, wanted to drop the A-Bomb on them. Ike nixed it.
Next June Spielberg has us taking a deep dive into High Strangeness beyond a nuts and bolts superficial level….the trailer and movie title released today (“Disclosure Day”):
https://youtu.be/UFe6NRgoXCM?si=pOQUP2OEdZeVb4I2
Follow developments on the UAP front:
https://www.et-cultures.com/post/the-disclosure-diary
Very revealing psychological factors:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-forward/202512/why-is-no-one-talking-about-the-aliens
They don’t talk about them ’cause they aint here, except in the imaginations of wishful thinkers. If I were an interstellar traveler, I would not give this planet and its dumb apes a second glance.
LOVE the art work!