LISTENING to a recent KPFA fundraising pitch has convinced me to subscribe. I listen to it a lot down here in Marin and think the good stuff on the station outweighs the crackpots, so cracked one wonders who listens on an otherwise sane radio station. I was thinking about the media I'd really, really miss if it disappeared.
I WOULDN'T MISS television if it was gone today because I don't watch anything on it, only the 49ers. Radio sportscasts are, for me, a superior way to take in a Giants or a Niners game because the play by play people are so much better at it than the tv drones. And I don't need the visuals because the Bay Area sports people are so good at describing what has happened. Like lots of people, I do watch those brilliant streaming series like The Wire, Breaking Bad and Deadwood, which are anyway obtainable through Netflix. I watch those on a tv screen, the only use I have for the thing.
AS AN ASIDE, I came late to The Wire. I watched the very first episode and wasn't grabbed by it. I was also reluctant to watch a drama pegged to black crime, because black people, in real life, are vilified every day as CRIME IN AMERICA, with Mexicans running a strong second these days. It isn't true, and it isn't fair. Now that I'm into The Wire, though, it seems beyond brilliant to me. And honest. And totally fair.
THERE'S NOTHING on the internet which, if it were suddenly gone, would cause me to slap on a mourning armband. Out of necessity anymore I have to do stuff on computers all day, and my eyes feel like they're bleeding. Just the other day, a little kid wandered in to my office and asked me why I was crying! Techno-tears, my dear. These things are like staring into the sun.
I'D MISS the Chronicle, partly because I've read it for 60 years, partly because a few times a week the reporting on the Bay Area is quite good, as is some of the commentary. I could live without The New Yorker and there are no literary mags that I'm aware of that are any good, certainly not at $8-$15 a pop. The New Yorker is consistently about one for four; one in four has something good in it. The old Grand Street was wonderful. The new Grand Street isn't. I've never much read the New York Times for the same reason I don't listen to NPR — they're both at severe odds with the reality I know, and I have no interest in that reality except its destruction. And the smug voices of the NPR announcers make me want to run out and garrotte my congressman.
FOR ALL THE SELF-DESCRIBED writers there are in the SF Bay Area and NorCal, the combined literary output isn't even as interesting as a newspaper — any newspaper. Bay Area journalism (and KPFA) peaked in the late 1960s, and it's rolled steadily downhill since. I picked up the Rolling Stone when Matt Taibbi was in it, but it's of zero interest to a non-rocker like me. (I subscribe to Racket News and I always profit from Glenn Greenwald's commentary.
THE LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS is my must read. I've subscribed to it and the New York Review of Books for many years, but prefer the London Review because it's politically more independent than the New York Review, which I think is way too Democrat-friendly in its coverage of economics and contemporary events, and American political figures. The London Review presents a much more eclectic collection of interesting stuff, much of it with real bite, although LRB's lit-crit is usually much too abstruse for this particular autodidact. For example the piece by O'Hagan called Ghosting Julian Assange would never appear in any American publication at the length the LRB presented it. And ditto for their withering contempt for Kissinger. But in every issue, even in the articles far beyond my intellectual ken, there will be some fascinating piece of information, some riveting vignette, such as this one from the current issue:
“…A PREGNANT WOMAN came to my clinic. She hadn't felt her baby move for a day or so, and wanted me to reassure her by listening for its heartbeat. Normal stethoscopes are no use for listening to the heartbeat of a baby in the womb; the sound is too fast, quiet and high-pitched. Midwives often use an electronic Doppler probe to find the fetal heart, but I used a modified tube called a Pinard stethoscope, like an old-fashioned ear trumpet, wedged between one ear and the swollen contour of the woman's belly. The best place to lay the trumpet end is where you think you've felt the convex curve of the baby's spine. Even with one finger in my other year it took a while to find the heart — an agonizing couple of minutes for the mother. But there it was: a rhapsodic, syncopated interleaving of her heartbeat with her baby's. The fetal heartbeat was distinct, fluttering fast like a bird over the oceanic swell of the mother's pulse, an allegro played over an adagio. I paused for a moment listening to the two rhythms within one, two lives within one body.” (Gavin Francis)
ROB REINER used to call once every six months or so during Bush Time. I’d answer the phone.
“Rob Reiner’s office calling,” a pert but authoritative voice instructs. “Please hold for Mr. Reiner.”
Reiner comes on, “Alex, what are we…”
Me: “Jeffrey.”
Rob: “What?”
Me: “It’s Jeffrey, not Alex.” [Cockburn had stopped answering his calls after he couldn’t squeeze any money for CounterPunch out of him.]
Rob: “Ok, whatever. But what the hell are we going to do about these Bush fuckers, man…?” Then he’d laugh into a hilarious rant of expletives and invective about Cheney and Rumsfeld and Ashcroft, his voice rising in volume like an approaching tsunami. Concluding with, “Got any ideas? Huh? Do ya? Just send them down to me. You’ve got the address, right?” Click.
This ritual went on for eight years. Then, after we started laying into Obama for committing many of the same acts of governmental malfeasance as Bush, he stopped calling. And I never heard from him again.
Reiner was a liberal Democrat to the core. Blinded by party loyalty, he became a hardboiled Russiagater and offered excuses for many inexcusable acts by HRC and Biden.
But he was more passionate than most of the soulless post-Clinton suits who have run the party for the last three decades. Reiner was funny and had a sense of irony about himself, which few self-righteous Hollywood liberals seem to possess. I sensed that he genuinely cared about the poor and the marginalized and knew the system was rotten at its core and needed change, even if the only change he could envision was so incremental it was barely noticeable and easily erased once the Berserkers took power.
— Jeffrey St. Clair
RETIRED MENDO DEPUTY SHERIFF RON PARKER:
When Tim Shea was sheriff I used asset forfeiture money to purchase 5 televisions, 5 TV rolling carts, and 5 VSH players, one for each substation and the main office to play law enforcement legal updates from DOJ and the Alameda DA, who was better than DOJ. I also purchased a FATS machine for $63,000. Fire Arms Training System. It helped indemnify us some as it was a “Shoot Don’t Shoot” program. And it also had a pistol that helped train trigger pull for people who had a hard time or weak hands. I also purchased a couple CPR Annies for CPR Training. I don’t think anyone complained.
KEVIN EVANS FOR SUPERVISOR 2026:
We are off and running. Today Sylvia and I went to the County elections office to pull the signature in lieu papers for the 5th District Supervisor seat. The signature requirement to file the nomination papers is 788. If you live in the Mendocino 5th District and are a registered voter, please consider signing the candidate papers. Please reach out to us through this Facebook or leave a message on the campaign phone number 707-412-8154 if you would like to help with the campaign.
Mark Scaramella notes: Kevin Evans is Chairman of the Gualala Municipal Advisory Committee.
ON-LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK
[1] Why should religious businesses pay no tax?
The Catholic Church is the largest and richest religious institution in the world. With an estimated worth of $2.5 trillion!
The church's wealth comes from its huge network of properties, investments, and businesses spread across the globe. While it is based in Vatican City, the church operates in almost every country in the world. The wealth of the Catholic Church is not just in tithes and donations but also in real estate holdings, investments, and even art collections.
The Catholic Church’s investment arm, known as the Vatican Bank, also manages billions of dollars in assets.
The LDS Church, also known as the Mormon Church, has accumulated a vast fortune, with an estimated wealth of $100 billion in 2025.
These 'Churches', in name only, pay no Federal and State income tax in the US.
Is that fair you reckon? I don't.
[2] Education has two purposes, to mature children’s brains to become members of society, and to socialize them into the culture of their society. A good example is today. The college educated person is having a tough time today with the advent of AI. College grads are having a tough time finding jobs that are high paying.Wages are growing for blue collar jobs as industry is looking to hire more and more. Engineering jobs will increase but be integrated into AI design. So is education helping out? Looking at the idiots on college campuses, I doubt it. My grandson is dumping his non-productive marketing degree in favor of becoming a fire fighter.
IMO, a great move and I will support him.
[3] Some people - men and women - are capable of taking on the institutions. They should go and do so. Meanwhile, someone needs to keep the lights on, the water flowing, the food in the grocery store, the fuel at the gas station. And fix the plumbing, the air conditioning, the cars, and everything else. We are experiencing a shortage of skilled people in the trades and I would much rather see a young man in an apprenticeship or training program for a trade than doing video games or dark social media because he hasn't got anything else to do.
[5] 99% of people aren't going to like what I have to say about this, but it's the truth. When I was a teenager, almost every girl I know was trying to have sex with and date someone older. And if they had money???? Pshh. Forget about it. The 14 year old? Fine if you want but before the new puritan age, we were all having sex at 13 and 14 and 15. I'm not saying it was a great choice but we grew up faster back then. And, that's why I know that maybe not all, but some of these ladies knew exactly what they were doing and they absolutely loved doing it. They shouldn't have been recruited and the adult should still know better but I know too much about how women operate to not make the distinction. (Brandy)
[6] God said he would spare Sodom if ten righteous men could be found. Lot couldn't find them. So He nuked it from space.
[7] Epstein was a pimp and high-priced brothel owner. With a very predictable cast of characters. I am not sure why there has been so much fuss over this. According to the definition of it….he was not a Pedophile. Just in the sex trade, with mainly older teenage girls who appear to have gone along willingly. For any underage girls, where were their parents or Social Services in this scenario?
Now enough about this tawdry set-up, which is old as the hills.
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