Mendocino County Today: Friday 1/9/2026

Cold & Clear | Corrugated Roof | Haschak Report | Another Hit | Climate Change | Knifed | Board Assignments | Jimmy Ray Cline | Little Mushrooms | Something New | Look Alikes | Delia Haskett | Yesterday's Catch | Colorful NWP | Drought Free | Dear Travelers | Movies Seen | Two Teams | Capitalism Failed | Get Out | Liberty Status | Admire Greene | Prisoner Mitchum | Imperial Colonialism | Civilization | Dry January | Monster Chase | New Year | Glad Handing | Dietary Guidelines | Ezra Pound | Disappear | Lead Stories | Shameless Operators | Colossus Calendar | Shoot Two | Grand Illusion | Guzzler

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COLDER than average conditions will persist through Friday morning. Otherwise, conditions will generally remain calm while slowly drying and warming into early/mid next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Baby it's a cold 35F outside under clear skies this Friday morning on the coast. Overnight temps will slowly rise a little of the next few days otherwise cool & dry until further notice.

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THE HASCHAK REPORT: Supervisors Must Address State Audit Findings

by Supervisor John Haschak

I announced that I am not running for re-election in 2026 at the last Board of Supervisors meeting in December. I want to thank you all for the many supportive, appreciative comments and best wishes. There are still twelve months left in this term so there’s a lot of work to do.

With the recent heavy rains, there have been downed trees on power lines, dangerous road conditions, power outages, flooding, closed highways and multiple landslides. Please be careful and report potential hazards to PG&E, CalTrans, Mendocino County Dept. of Transportation or Office of Emergency Services. If you have any questions, please contact me.

The State Auditor issued its report with findings and recommendations. There are issues to clean up. One was the consolidation of the Auditor/Controller and Treasurer/Tax Collector positions. We have already repealed that flawed plan. The audit noted issues with contracting procedures, overdue tax lien sales, asset forfeiture monies, and cleaning up voter rolls to list some of the findings and recommendations. The board agreed with these recommendations. Some are policies and procedures that the board must address and others are under the purview of other elected officials. One way or another, the findings must be resolved. There will be a discussion about the audit at the board workshop on Jan. 13-14.

The second in a series of workshops pertaining to the effects of HR 1 and elimination of tax credits for the Affordable Care Act will be held on Jan. 14 in the afternoon. Health care, social services, and public health experts will talk about the impacts of pending federal cuts to safety net programs and the loss of affordable health insurance.

There will be a Talk with the Supervisor on Thursday, Jan. 15, from 10-11 a.m. at Brickhouse Coffee, 3 S. Main St., Willits. You can always contact me at [email protected] or call 707-972-4214.

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TAKES A LAST PUFF…

On Tuesday, January 6, 2026 at approximately 12:45 P.M., the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by a property owner regarding an unknown subject who was currently at a tenant’s residence committing a burglary.

Sheriff’s Deputies working Patrol in Covelo responded to the residence in the 23500 block of Cemetery Lane in Covelo.

Sheriff’s Deputies along with the Round Valley Tribal Police Department arrived at the property. Sheriff’s Deputies obtained further information from the property owner and confirmed no one was supposed to be at the tenant’s residence.

Sheriff’s Deputies approached the residence and located a male subject, later identified as Jordan Michael Lewis a 24-year-old male from Covelo.

Sheriff's Deputies observed Lewis was armed with what appeared to be a rifle. Sheriff’s Deputies made several lawful commands for Lewis to drop the rifle, however he refused. Ultimately, Lewis dropped the rifle claiming it was a BB gun and went back inside the residence against the lawful commands of Sheriff's Deputies at the scene. Lewis ultimately came out of the residence while smoking out of a glass pipe and surrendered to Sheriff’s Deputies. It was suspected Lewis was smoking methamphetamine.

During the investigation, Sheriff’s Deputies obtained evidence that Lewis was burglarizing the residence and had taken possession of a vehicle at the property which contained stolen property. Additionally, the rifle was confirmed to be a BB gun.

Based on the circumstances of this investigation, Lewis was advised and placed under arrest for First Degree Burglary, Vehicle Theft and Resisting, Obstructing or Delaying a Peace Officer. Lewis was also arrested for two misdemeanor, no-cite, arrest warrants issued in Mendocino County.

A search of Lewis’ person, in preparation for incarceration, revealed he was in possession of suspected methamphetamine. Lewis was also charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance.

Lewis was transported and lodged at the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office to be held in lieu of $27,500 bail.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is requested to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086 (option 1).

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MENDO STICKS WITH ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’

MENDOCINO CO., 1/8/26 — After months of debate, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved using the term “climate change” in a county document to take a stance on its environmental perspective during President Donald Trump’s administration.…

https://mendovoice.com/2026/01/mendocino-county-refuses-to-compromise-climate-language-to-appease-trump-administration/

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SO, WHY?

On Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at approximately 9:30 A.M., the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received information regarding an assault involving a knife at a residence on Concow Boulevard in Covelo. Round Valley Tribal Police officers were already on scene and requested Sheriff’s Deputies respond to conduct the investigation.

Upon arrival, Sheriff’s Deputies observed the 52-year-old male victim receiving medical treatment in an ambulance for injuries sustained during the assault. Deputies initiated an investigation and detained Adrian Guyette, 28, of Covelo, who was identified as the suspect involved in the incident.

Based on statements from the victim, witness interviews, examination of the victim’s injuries, and the collection of physical evidence, Deputies established probable cause to arrest Guyette for Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and Battery Causing Serious Bodily Injury.

Guyette was arrested and transported to the Mendocino County Jail, where he is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The victim was transported to a local hospital for further medical treatment.

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MENDO, WHERE MEETINGS ARE OUR MOST IMPORTANT PRODUCT

by Supervisor Maureen Mulheren

At the meeting on Tuesday the Board approved the following roster for Board Assignments. I have attached each Supervisors assignments here along with their contact information. Over the next year I will highlight the committees and Boards that I represent the County on and share the work that we are doing on behalf of our community.

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Supervisor Maureen Mulheren
2nd District Supervisor, [email protected]
Standing Committee
• General Government Committee – Chair
Board & Agency Appointments
• Behavioral Health Advisory Board (BHAB) – Appointee
• Economic Development & Finance Committee (EDFC) – Appointee
• Eel-Russian River Commission – Appointee
• Great Redwood Trail Agency (GRTA) – Appointee
• Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) – Appointee
• Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority (MSWMA) – Appointee
• Russian River Watershed Association – Appointee
Alternate Appointments
• Area Agency on Aging JPA Governing Board
• First 5 Mendocino
• Inland Water and Power Commission (IWPC)
• Mendocino Transit Authority (MTA)
• North Coast Resource Partnership
• North Bay–North Coast Broadband Consortium Oversight Committee
• Remote Area Network (RAN-MCSO)
• Solid Waste Hearing Board
• Ukiah Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency
• Workforce Alliance of the Northbay

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Supervisor John Haschak
3rd District Supervisor, [email protected]
Standing Committee
• General Government Committee – Member
Board & Agency Appointments
• Area Agency on Aging JPA Governing Board – Appointee
• First 5 Mendocino – Appointee
• Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) – Appointee
• Mendocino County Employees’ Retirement Association (MCERA) – Appointee
• Mendocino Transit Authority (MTA) – Appointee
• North Coast Resource Partnership – Appointee
• North Coast Resource Conservation & Development Area Council – Appointee
• Remote Area Network (RAN-MCSO) – Appointee
• Sonoma Clean Power Authority – Appointee
Alternate Appointments
• Eel-Russian River Commission
• Golden State Finance Authority (GSFA)
• Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO)
• National Association of Counties (NACo)
• Policy Council on Children and Youth
• Russian River Watershed Association

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Supervisor Madeline Cline
1st District Supervisor, [email protected]
Board & Agency Appointments
• California State Association of Counties (CSAC) – Appointee
• Golden State Finance Authority (GSFA) – Appointee
• Inland Water and Power Commission (IWPC) – Appointee
• Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) – Appointee
• Mendocino County Resource Advisory Commission (RAC) – Appointee
• National Association of Counties (NACo) – Appointee
• North Coast Resource Partnership – Appointee
• Public Policy Facilitating Committee (PPFC) – Appointee
• Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) – Appointee
• Ukiah Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency – Appointee
• Workforce Alliance of the Northbay – Appointee
Alternate Appointments
• Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA)
• North Coast Resource Conservation & Development Area Council
• Sonoma Clean Power Authority

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Supervisor Ted Williams - Vice-Chair
5th District Supervisor, [email protected]
Board & Agency Appointments
• California State Association of Counties (CSAC) – Appointee
• CASPAR Transfer Station Coordinating Committee – Appointee
• Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA) – Appointee
• Mendocino Fire Safe Council – Appointee
• North Bay–North Coast Broadband Consortium Oversight Committee – Appointee
• Public Health Advisory Board – Appointee
Alternate Appointments
• Mendocino County Resource Advisory Commission (RAC)

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Supervisor Bernie Norvell - Chair
4th District Supervisor, [email protected]
Board & Agency Appointments
• California State Association of Counties (CSAC) – Alternate
• CASPAR Transfer Station Coordinating Committee – Alternate
• Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority (MSWMA) – Appointee
• Policy Council on Children and Youth – Appointee
• Solid Waste Hearing Board – Appointee
Chair Appointments
• North Coast Air Basin Control
• Juvenile Justice Commission
• Domestic Violence Council

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Another Important Mendo Product Is Mendo Blather, aka “Stuff We’ll Never Do,” as demonstrated by the Board’s “2026 Board Priorities”:

(From the January 13 Board Workshop Agenda)

District 1 (Madeline Cline)

• Long term water supply reliability and storage infrastructure
• Improve road maintenance
• Proactive emergency preparedness and response

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District 2 (Maureen Mulheren)

Completing a smooth and transparent annexation and service coordination process

My priority is to continue moving annexation discussions forward in a way that is clear, collaborative, and fiscally responsible. This includes clear data on the tax-sharing and service agreements, improving public understanding of annexation impacts, and ensuring that surrounding communities such as Potter Valley and Redwood Valley are supported as city boundaries and service areas evolve.

• Housing production tied to economic stability

Housing remains a top district priority, with an emphasis on moving approved projects into construction. This includes market-rate housing, affordable and senior housing, tribal housing, and supportive and sober living. Projects such as Bella Vista, Vineyard Crossings, the Pinoleville housing project, the Intertribal Village on Cooper Lane, and the now-completed Ukiah Recovery Center sober living are critical to stabilizing our workforce and community.

• Community wellness and public safety through prevention and care

Community wellness continues to be a district priority, with a focus on behavioral health, substance misuse recovery, homelessness response, and safety. This includes maintaining effective crisis co-response, expanding access to treatment and recovery services, improving trash and encampment cleanup coordination, and reducing recidivism through better behavioral health and reentry support.

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District 3 (John Haschak)

• Economic Development
• Cuts to the Safety Net
• Emergency Preparedness

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District 4 (Bernie Norvell)

• Continued support of public health, developing a structurally sound budget
• Support social services and behavioral health with improving outreach to those suffering from street level homelessness.
• Assessing the barriers between planning & building, and environmental health.
• Creating an easier and less costly path for the public

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District 5 (Ted Williams):

• Roads (requires more money or a different approach)
• Staff time for in-district maintenance/projects
• Fair share of meetings in district (especially the coast) based on population/revenue

(At their last board meeting, Williams said that improving financial reporting should be the board’s top priority.)

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Mark Scaramella notes: None of the Supervisors mentioned collecting the tens of millions of dollars of delinquent taxes as a priority.

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JIMMY RAY CLINE

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Jimmy Ray Cline on December 19, 2025. Jimmy was born in Stockton, California, on February 22, 1943, to Harold Leonard Cline and Opal Irene (Pigg) Cline. He had three younger siblings: Carolyn, Cindy, and David.

Jimmy graduated from Pescadero Union High School in 1960. During his early years, he held various roles in the fire service, fishing, and electronics before being hired as a radio mechanic for United Airlines in San Francisco. While working there, he was introduced to his future wife, Diane Linthicum, and they started dating in 1962. Jimmy joined the United States Air Force, where he continued working in airplane maintenance and electronics. He was stationed at Travis Air Force Base. Eventually, he received an Honorable Discharge in June 1966, after which he returned to United Airlines, where he worked as the Chief Mechanic for several years. He was an active member of the California State Firemen's Association and the Amateur Radio Relay League.

Jimmy and Diane married on September 3, 1966, in Mill Valley, California, and welcomed their only child, Kevin, in December 1969. Jimmy, Diane, and Kevin enjoyed many hiking, camping, fishing, motorcycle riding, and traveling adventures over the years. They bought, renovated, rented, and sold several homes, multiple businesses, and many vehicles while living life to the fullest. They also shared numerous holidays and vacations with family and friends.

From 1985 until his retirement in 2005, Jimmy served as a Stationary Engineer, Chief Engineer, and Plant Operator at Healdsburg General and Marin General Hospitals. During those 20 years, he worked closely with first responders and volunteer community organizations, designing and executing multiple emergency response training scenarios. He was an active volunteer with San Rafael’s Citizens’ Response Team, Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services, and the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team. He participated in groups such as the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Lions and Rotary Clubs, Mendocino County Amateur Radio Communication Services, and the American Legion. He enjoyed spending time with Diane, taking cruises, camping, meeting new people, and attending his family’s school and sports events. He and Diane were dedicated members of the Redwood Valley Community Church. Jimmy was known for always being prepared, carrying “go bags” with emergency supplies and enough pens, flashlights, and notepads for anyone he interacted with. If you needed something for an event, he probably had three to give you with a smile.

Jimmy was a proud father, husband, son, brother, uncle, and friend to many, and he will be deeply missed. He is survived by his wife, Diane Cline, to whom he was married for 59 years; his son, Kevin, and daughter-in-law, Amy; his grandchildren, Michael, Hunter, and Levi; his sisters, Carolyn (John) and Cindy (Dale); and his brother, David (Debra). He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Joan; his nephew, Scott; and his nieces, Susie (Jay), Cathy, Cherie, Cynthia (Tracy), Julie, Rebecca, Leslie, and Stacey.

Please join us on Saturday, January 31, 2026, at 11:00 AM for his Celebration of Life at Redwood Valley Community Church, 951 East School Way, Redwood Valley. A reception at the church will follow. Those wishing to honor Jimmy’s memory are encouraged to donate to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue, the Multiple Sclerosis Society of America, or another community volunteer organization of their choice. Thank you!

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THE BOONVILLE HOTEL:

A Season for Making (and Eating Well)

It’s the quiet time of year, and this winter we’re trying something new.

We’re gathering for small retreats built around what we love most—making things by hand, a little self-care + restoration, and sharing delicious food—in beautiful surroundings and cared for in the simple way we do here.

• An Artisan Leathercraft weekend.
• Japanese Arts & Crafts weekend.
• A weekend of Self-care and Beautiful Food.

We hope you'll join us.

Take a peak at our Instagram page to get updates on seasonal offerings.

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ADD LOOK ALIKES:

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DELIA HASKETT, UKIAH’S ANNIE OAKLEY

edited by Averee McNear

When 14-year-old Delia Haskett pulled her team of four to a halt atop Ridgewood Summit, it was midnight. She’d been climbing out of Ukiah for almost six hours and wouldn’t see Willits for another three. It wasn’t her first time driving a stagecoach. She had sat beside her father asking for the reins, the ribbons, she called them, since “before her feet could touch the floorboards.” It was, however, Delia’s first time driving alone.

Years later, she would admit to being scared at night, especially when she heard voices in the distance and feared the infamous Black Bart had picked up her trail. Delia had talked her father into letting her drive. One of his regulars had taken sick, and she was unarmed and carrying no passengers. She’d stopped to water her team when the horseman came upon her. Much to her surprise and relief, they were singing hymns, on their way home from a church meeting, they explained.

The year was 1876. The first transcontinental railroad had been built, and express trains could make the run from New York to San Francisco in just four days. Direct telegraph links crisscrossed the globe, the latest going from Britain all the way to New Zealand. Alexander Graham Bell had patented the telephone and made his first call. General Custer had fought and lost the disastrous Battle of Little Big Horn, and bananas, imported all the way from Central America, were the newest culinary delight.

Delia probably knew something about the world outside of Ukiah. Her mother taught locals kids their letters for 48 years. Her father ran a stage company and delivered mail for Wells Fargo. He owned a hotel and a blacksmith shop, eventually becoming Ukiah’s marshal.

Delia drove stage for nine years. She was the only woman to ever belong to the Pioneer Stage Drivers of California and even served as its Vice President. She entertained her passengers with song and was rewarded for her efforts in “gold dust from the mines, a cow or sheep, even vegetables and fruits.” Black Bart never robbed her. Though the Englishman held up 28 stages before his capture, he rode as a passenger aboard Delia’s stage. Perhaps she charmed him out of wrongdoing. She was, after all, Ukiah’s Annie Oakley. She sang like a skylark, cracked a bullwhip with the best of them, shot a gun like a marksman, won horse races, and could even rope a steer. She received awards for her trick riding and was crowned a beauty queen.

Delia’s personal life remains buried in obscurity. She never spoke of it when she was interviewed later in life. Census reports suggest she married a man named Rawson and had three children. Rawson seems to have been an Arizona native, a prospector who came to California in 1880. It’s likely Delia met him in Ukiah, but he seems to have ended up in jail in Malibu. News reports pinpoint Delia’s last stage run in 1885, saying she moved to Southern California, probably with Rawson. Her first child, a son, was born in 1880 and burial records indicate the boy’s last name was Phillips. Census records list Delia first as divorced, then widowed. She purchased an orange grove near San Dimas in her later years and even in her 70s was out helping with the trees. It looks like she remarried again in the 1930s.

Delia Haskett Rawson died at the age of 88, another Mendocino pioneer whose story has yet to be fully told.

— Reprint from April 4, 2013, originally written by Molly Dwyer

(Kelley House Museum)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, January 8, 2026

ALISSA BLANTON, 22, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

CODY CALDWELL, 26, Willits. Failure to appear.

KEIYARALYN JOHNSON, 22, Ukiah. Controlled substance, suspended license for DUI, resisting.

KATHERINE LOVOPONCE, 22, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

NOAH LURANHATT, 35, Ukiah. Parole violation.

HEATHER MARSH-HAAS, 35, Ukiah. Parole violation.

AARON MASSEY, 37, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, contempt of court, resisting.

RICHELLE NOTMEYER, 40, Fort Bragg. DUI, probation revocation.

JACOB OFERRALL, 38, Covelo. Elder abuse resulting in great bodily harm or death, assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury with prior.

DARIC PARDO, 39, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, trespassing, Post Release Community Supervision violation, resisting.

ROLANDO RUIZ, 37, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors, paraphernalia.

KEVIN TOBIE, 39, Vallejo/Ukiah. County parole violation.

ANTHONY VIELMETTI, 34, Gresham, Oregon/Ukiah. Controlled substance while armed with loaded firearm.

DANIEL YEOMANS, 56, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, probation revocation.

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CALIFORNIA IS OFFICIALLY FREE OF DROUGHT CONDITIONS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 25 YEARS

by Olivia Hebert

California’s rainy start to 2026 has led to wet conditions pushing the state to break a 25-year record, according to the latest federal and state data.

The U.S. Drought Monitor map released Thursday, based on data valid as of Jan. 6, shows 100% of California classified as free of drought conditions, with no areas listed as abnormally dry or experiencing moderate, severe, extreme or exceptional drought.

The last time the state reached that threshold was about 25 years ago on Dec. 26, 2000, according to meteorologist Dalton Behringer from the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office.

Currently California is the only state in the U.S. without any drought or abnormally dry conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen it where there’s no drought anywhere,” Behringer told SFGATE.

Just three months ago, more than 70% of the state was experiencing some level of drought.

Behringer said the California drought monitor reflects both short- and long-term conditions, and the current status is not the result of a single storm or even a single season.

“It’s just different parts of the state have had more good years than bad years,” he said. In the Bay Area, he said, recent wet years helped erase lingering long-term deficits, while Southern California’s improved conditions came later after receiving more precipitation this year.

There was above-average precipitation across the state in recent months, with California receiving 14.39 inches of precipitation as of Jan. 7, or 155% of the average for that point in the water year, which started on Oct. 1.

The average for the same period is 9.26 inches, based on records dating back to 1981, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

While the early-season rainfall ranks among the wettest starts on record, it remains below the historical maximum of 18.43 inches measured by that date.

Historically, the majority of the state’s annual precipitation falls between November and March. The precipitation recorded so far accounts for about 60% of the rainfall California typically receives over a full water year, which runs through Sept. 30.

For Californians who remember the deep drought years of the 2010s, Behringer noted that the recent data shows how much conditions have changed.

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MOVIES I SAW IN DECEMBER: Anaconda, Fatman, Song Sung Blue

by Justine Frederiksen

My favorite movie I saw in December was also my favorite Christmas present this year, since it gifted me 90-plus minutes of hanging out with three of my favorite people: Jack Black, Paul Rudd, and a beloved family member.

Yes, the first two were technically only present on the movie screen, and yes, my companion and I didn’t have to go to the theater to watch those actors together, but we did need a break from our menfolk.

So I respectfully disagree with a recent column by Mick LaSalle, a film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he couldn’t come up with a reason for anyone to see a movie at just a standard multiplex playing new releases anymore. Because we had two very good reasons to go to the movies that day: First, to escape our spouses and enjoy some belly laughs together, and second, to hear those laughs magnified by all the people around us. That was very cool.

The movies I saw in December were:

1. Anaconda: (12/26/2025, in the theater) Grade: A

This movie was everything I wanted, an impressive feat given how excited I was after first seeing the trailer: Jack Black? Good! Paul Rudd? Good! Goofy reboot of Anaconda? Super good!

And unlike the disappointing sequel to The Accountant that also had me super excited after its trailer (more on The Accountant 2 here), this movie delivered, being both fun and relevant for people my age, with just enough silliness on top to entertain any kids (and grandkids!) we brought along.

2. Fatman: (12/20/2025, Netflix) Grade: B

This movie was a slow burn, one best savored by super fans of Walton Goggins and Mel Gibson who are not expecting typical holiday fare, as this was a most a-typical Christmas movie with a most a-typical Santa.

And while I certainly appreciated every scene with Mr. Goggins, I could have enjoyed much more time with grumpy Gibson driving around in his Ford pick-up with a bottle of milk balancing on the dashboard and plate of cookies next to him on the seat, especially since an older Ford F-150 is just about my favorite vehicle to watch, either on screen or in real life.

3. Song Sung Blue: (12/28/2025, in the theater) Grade: C-

It breaks my heart a little to give this movie a poor grade, because Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson were delightful as low-rent lounge singers who find success as a Neil Diamond tribute band, and I could have happily watched many more scenes of them learning to harmonize, arguing over which song to start their concerts with, and how much time and effort they were going to spend getting his hair just right.

But much like the recent Bruce Springsteen biopic (more on “Deliver me from Nowhere” here), this movie spent way too much time off-stage wallowing in the sad parts of the story instead of giving the audience what it really wants: to sing some fun songs with some fun, good-looking people who also happen to be pretty good singers. And much like Jackman’s Lightning refusing to start concerts with the fan favorite “Sweet Caroline,” it felt like this movie just didn’t want to give the audience what it wanted. Proven by my theater’s response to the credits, which was crickets: How could you possibly have more than two hours of Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson and super-catchy Neil Diamond songs and not have people at least clapping afterward, let alone cheering?

I think most people, including me, would have enjoyed this movie much more if it left out many of the tragic twists and turns of the true story it was based on, letting its perfectly cast stars shine as the charismatic and talented real people they were portraying, while letting audiences seek out the rest of the story on the documentary that served as its source material.

I also wished Jackman had asked James Mangold, who directed him in “Logan,” to take the helm, since Mangold proved twice, first in “Walk the Line” and next in “A Complete Unknown,” that he can make meaningful-yet-enjoyable movies about imperfect musicians that neither skirt nor dwell on the bad bits.

Now, at last, the movies my grandmother saw in December of 1998:

Thursday, Dec. 3: Ate KFC, pot pie. To Show, “Bug’s Life.”

Thursday, Dec. 10: Looked for pants at Penney’s, Gottschalks. Some Vanderbilts and Lees. To show, “Home Fries.” Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson? About “country” folks!

Friday, Dec. 18: Longs, returned video. To show, “Prince of Egypt.” Good.

Saturday, Dec. 19: To show, “Gods and Monsters.” Ian McKellan, wonderful film. Newspapers sold out in many places, found 3 left at Drug Emporium.

Thursday, Dec. 24: Justine here 3:30 p.m. Drove to see lights. To show, “Gods and Monsters.” She had pizza.

Tuesday, Dec. 29: To show after donut/coffee. “Shakespeare in Love.” Great.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

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NFL FOOTBALL: A couple observations on the eve of the playoffs 

1) Over the course of the season, only two defenses managed to hold opponents to less than 300 points: Seattle (292) and Houston (295).

2) The longest win streaks to finish the season in each conference belonged to Houston (9 wins) and Seattle (7 wins).

Seattle currently has the easier path through the playoffs but Houston could surprise.

(Mike Kalantarian)

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CAPITALISM HAS MADE AMERICA UNAFFORDABLE

Editor:

The looting of the empire has always been a pursuit, and once again it is happening. We can ignore it, participate in it or protest and defy it. Our country was only great again from the late 1950s to the late 1980s, thanks to a strong middle class. Our society in that period of time has been called the most prosperous place to live ever. And if you are a property owner, that prosperity may still be alive. The point is Wall Street investment companies have made home ownership unattainable. The other point is capitalism has failed our children. The solutions are obvious and attainable — affordable housing, affordable health care, affordable groceries. Voters are driven by anger and fear. Let’s hope so!

Michael Burroughs

Santa Rosa

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STEVE TALBOT:

I am sickened and horrified by what the trump regime, masked ICE agents, and the disgusting Kristi Noem are doing to Americans and our country. They are murdering innocent people and trying to spread fear and mayhem in our streets. My condolences and respect to the good people of Minnesota and to all those defending law, decency and democracy.

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey told reporters that the DHS statement [the big lie that the ICE agent was acting in self-defense] was “bullsh_t. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.” “To the family, I’m so deeply sorry,” Frey said. “There’s nothing that I can say right now that’s going to make you or your relatives, friends of the victim feel any better.” To ICE and other federal agents deployed in Minnesota, he added: “Get the f_ck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart…and now somebody is dead.”

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FIGHT OR FLIGHT

by Marilyn Davin

A friend nearly fell off her scuffed-up Birkenstocks when I told her I admired Marjorie Taylor Greene. Given the appalled horror of her response, I feared the fatal rupture of our decades-long friendship.

No, I don’t support Greene’s views and beliefs, many rooted in politicized Christianity, American-redneck style. I don’t believe in gun ownership unless it’s a single-shot rifle and you need the meat to feed yourself and your people. I believe that climate change is an existential threat. I am not a racist and believe that all people are the same, regardless of the color of their skin. In fact, I basically oppose everything in Trump’s shifting agenda. I have been a leftist Democrat all my life and have never missed an election.

So, what gives? I admire Greene because she had the courage to change her mind, flipping from hysterical Trump advocate to one of his most impassioned critics. As her fellow Republican representatives sat silently on their hands, hoping that the President’s probing eye wouldn’t alight upon them and nix their chances for re-election, Greene stood up and called their bluff. Had she been a Democrat, her words would have been just more partisan bleating into the wind, perhaps earning her a 15-second soundbite on CNN. She instead looked around at the bottomless pit of basic need suffered by the impoverished people of her northern Georgia congressional district ─ and changed her mind.

We have all experienced some version of this dynamic in our personal lives. My mother was raised in rural Oregon by Norwegian immigrants. She described her father as “to the right of Atila the Hun,” a man so conservative he believed that both human babies and farm animal babies with physical defects should not be saved (“Let the scrubs die out”), and even refused to post newly enacted federal minimum-wage laws (as required by law) in his local business: A Trumper before his time.

After training as a registered nurse during the Second World War, Mom left Oregon to work in the Midwest. Seeing first-hand the wider world around her, she concluded that her parents were full of shit and became a lifelong FDR Democrat, the only one of her five siblings to jump political ship. Like Greene, knowledge and personal experience changed her mind.

But Mom was an anonymous private citizen decades before computers, social media, and all of the rest of it. The relatives and friends inside her orbit were the only ones privy to her world view transformation. Greene, on the other hand, a high-profile and divisive Republican politician, knew very well what she was up against; newly dubbed “Marjorie Traitor Greene” by former idol Trump, she understood that her MAGA defection would set off a tsunami of revenge orchestrated and paid for by our so-called leader of the free world, including the very real threat that Trump would handpick a more compliant Republican to run for her House seat and defeat her in this year’s primaries. In announcing her resignation from Congress, she told the world that she refused to act “like an abused wife” and silently await what was sure to be a painful political fate at the hands of the boss man. She also apologized for her previous MAGA tunnel vision.

Conspiracy theories abound, of course, about hidden agendas that may have motivated Greene’s defection (Does she really just want to be President?). That’s standard fare for our screentime-saturated lives; it’s the world we live in, yet we don’t really know what will happen in the Greene saga. What I do know is that we desperately need more of our elected officials to stand up, however fearfully, to the Bully in Chief. It’s time, and history could well view Greene’s defection as the first major chip in the dam of what’s to come. It’s hard to be first.

I’ve never voted for a Republican and would never vote for Greene. We don’t see the world in the same way. But she nevertheless deserves recognition for her courage in boldly speaking up and stepping away while disillusioned colleagues (many eligible for retirement) silently skulked away and left the fight.

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ON THE LANGUAGE OF GLOBAL POLITICS

by Jonah Raskin

Years ago, when I used the words “colonialism” and “imperialism” in academia in the U.S., I was viewed as a communist. Now, in the wake of the US assault on Venezuela, I see that those two words are back again, along with “gunboat diplomacy” and “the Monroe Doctrine,” also known now as the “Donroe Doctrine.” What goes around comes around. Venezuela’s attorney general called what the U.S. did in his nation “state terrorism.” That’s spot on.

In the New York Times, M. Gessen spoke about American colonialism. In an interview, she said, “We’re seeing colonization of an entire country. That’s beyond spheres of influence.” The New York Times noted that recent remarks by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, were meant to “justify imperialism.” Times’ reporter Chris Cameron wrote that “Mr. Miller’s language echoed a dark history of the United States’ governing weaker, smaller states in Latin America by flexing its military might.”

Was Cameron channeling Howard Zinn? Maybe so!

I was not the only one who was labeled a communist back in the day when I used the words imperialism and colonialism. Most Marxists were also targeted. It’s long past the time to bring back those words. They accurately described US actions around the world one hundred years ago and fifty years ago and they accurately describe what the US is doing today in Venezuela and elsewhere. M. Gessen also said of Trump, “When he compares the television images of the extraction of Maduro with the television coverage of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, it inspires him to do more things like this.”

Sadly so. Imperialism is in the saddle and rides humanity.

In his 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell attacked the left and condemned its use of words like “class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality.” He added, “The whole tendency of modern prose is away from concreteness.”

Orwell was wrong.

We need words like “class,” “progressive,” “reactionary,” and “bourgeoisie,” and words like “equality,” “science,” and “totalitarian,” too.”

Look to Trump, his cronies and the MAGA folks to see what Orwell had in mind when he wrote, “Our civilization is decadent and our language — so the argument runs — must inevitably share in the general collapse.” Trump and cronies have corrupted the English language and become the voices for decadent American imperialism.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of Beat Blues, San Francisco, 1955.)

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DRY JANUARY IS OBSCURING THE REALITY OF HOW AMERICA DRINKS NOW

by Esther Mobley

Dry January is hitting a little differently this year.

A growing number of Americans planned to participate in the month-long abstention — 56% of adults, according to CivicScience, up from 54% last year and 52% the year before. What was not so long ago a fringe movement in the U.K. has evolved to become practically, in some circles, the norm. My own group texts this week have been filled with references to Dry January so casual that the implication seems to be of course everyone is participating. (Some of my friends or family members report they’re sleeping better already; others say they just really want a glass of wine.)

But one person I spoke to this week, who has a very significant financial stake in Dry January, offered a surprising perspective on the annual observance. Tate Huffard, founder of nonalcoholic beer juggernaut Best Day Brewing, said he worries “that there’s Dry January fatigue” — and that the pressure to achieve a perfect 31-day record “risks becoming performative.”

Best Day Brewing, headquartered in Sausalito and produced at breweries in Utah and the Midwest, claims to be the second best-selling nonalcoholic craft beer brand, behind Athletic Brewing Co. Don’t get Huffard wrong: “We love Dry January,” he said. For Best Day’s sales, “it’s the gift that keeps on giving. It’s like the Super Bowl.” Still, he fears that the culture that’s formed around Dry January risks “turning people off” when it devolves into “preachiness.”

About 90% of Best Day’s customers aren’t teetotalers: They drink alcohol as well as nonalcoholic drinks, Huffard said. His goal for the company is not to take market share away from regular beer, but to increase the number of “occasions” when someone might crack open a can, nonalcoholic or not. He believes that many of his customers are still drinking regular IPAs on a Friday night. But they might reach for his nonalcoholic one while watching Monday Night Football — times when they wouldn’t have otherwise chugged a beer.

This speaks to the evolving nature of drinking culture in the Bay Area and in the U.S. generally. Until recently, abstinence has often felt like an all-or-nothing proposition: You’re either sober or you’re a drinker; you drink real beer or something nonalcoholic. Increasingly, that line is blurred. Many of us — maybe most of us — are both drinkers and nondrinkers, depending on the mood, the company, the day of the week, the month.

Those in the alcohol industry (which I know represents a sizable chunk of this newsletter’s audience) may balk at this, hoping instead that the drop in alcohol consumption is a passing fad. But I believe the industry should embrace the notion of the drinker-nondrinker, as Best Day has. In fact, I suspect the label would apply to many members of the industry themselves: I can’t tell you how many California winemakers have told me in the last year that they’ve cut back on drinking.

For alcohol producers, it makes the imperative to offer nonalcoholic options all the more urgent — see Jess Lander’s story about how high-end Napa wineries are going all in on this — but also means that their traditional customer bases aren’t necessarily going anywhere. They still want your booze too.

For the drinker-nondrinker, Dry January might feel like a nice reset or a worthwhile experiment. (Do you feel better when not drinking? In what ways?) But Huffard hopes everyone can liberate themselves from the expectation of perfection. If you cave and have a drink at that friend’s birthday party four days into the month, “you shouldn’t feel like you messed up your whole year,” Huffard said. “You should feel proud you made it four days. That’s great. You should go have a cocktail.”

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THE MONSTROUS TRUTH ABOUT CHEVY CHASE

by Maureen Callahan

After the N-word scandal, drugs and all the other despicable allegations… he's still a remorseless pig

Never has the phrase, 'I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not', been more of a relief.

The legendary comic, now 82, made the dubious decision to sit for this titular documentary now making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Chase, it turns out, is as much of a monster as has always been rumored.

'You're not bright.'

That's how the doc opens: Chase insulting his director, Emmy-winning Marina Zenovich, who dares to ask him why he thinks she'll never be able to understand him.

Later, on camera, he calls her 'you b**ch'.

This doc lands at an interesting time in Hollywood and the culture, both still reeling from the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner by, allegedly, their 32-year-old troubled, drug-addicted son Nick.

If you want a sense of how monsters get made, of the corrosive power of fame, the destruction caused by egos run amok in an industry that creates them, caters to them, then cowers and flees from them — well, look no further.

Chase, in his prime, was a supernova — a comic actor as relevant as Jim Carrey or Ricky Gervais.

He was a founding cast member of Saturday Night Live and invented 'Weekend Update', beginning every fake newscast with, 'I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not'.

After that first year, he left the show to star in movies, churning out hit after hit: Foul Play with Goldie Hawn (who, it's hinted, he dated), Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Three Amigos, and Spies Like Us.

But the roles soon dried up, and the line on Chase was always that his own terrible behavior was the reason.

And what does Chase have to say to this?

'I don't know what to say about the people who don't like me, but f*** 'em,' he says in the doc. 'What can you say about something like that?'

A lot, it turns out.

Zenovich asks Chase about one of his most deplorable alleged bullying incidents: Upon returning to host SNL in 1985, he told Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay male cast member, to 'lick my balls', and pitched a recurring sketch in which Sweeney would play an AIDS patient who the show would put on a scale each week to see how much weight he lost.

Does Chase express remorse? No.

Instead, he explodes in fury and denies it all — despite the very same incident being printed in the compelling 2002 oral history 'Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live', in which Sweeney spoke about the incidents and called Chase a 'monster'.

Chase now spits his response.

'My memory is that he is lying, is my memory,' he says. 'He's not telling the truth. That isn't me. That's not who I am. And if I am that way, my life has changed, because I have to live with that now for the rest of my f***ing life.'

In other words: Poor him.

Chase's wife of 43 years, Jayni, and their three grown daughters participate in the doc, and here is where we see a bit of adjacency with the Reiner tragedy.

All three daughters, along with Jayni, depict a home in which everything revolved around Chase: His career, his alcohol and drug abuse, his severe bouts of depression.

The family moves to Bedford, New York after Chase's career goes south. When he's finally offered a late-night talk show in LA, daughter Cayley — a struggling actress who says she had been 'couch surfing' — talks about getting a call from her mother, who offers her a nice place to live, so long as she lives with her father and keeps an eye on him.

Imagine. This young girl with wealthy parents who clearly could have set her up safely in a mid-priced condo, would only do so contingent on taking care of her wildly unstable, angry and moody father.

That moment says everything.

It perhaps explains how a seemingly 'normal' Hollywood family like the Reiners flew under the radar for so long. How the presence of a Nick Reiner at Conan O'Brien's holiday party would be tolerated.

It explains how Alec Baldwin can be involved in the accidental shooting death of a female crew member on set and complain, as he did just a few weeks ago, that it has 'taken 10 years off my life'.

Or how Chelsea Handler can take the stage at the Critics Choice Awards, as she did on Sunday, and lecture the little people at home about the importance of 'decency' — as she speaks to a room full of celebrities who said nothing about Diddy, and who to this day remain silent.

Chevy Chase would have one more comeback, in 2009 on the hit network sitcom Community — but that, too, ended in a metaphorical fireball, Chase exiting under claims that he had used the 'N-word' on set in front of his black co-star Yvette Nicole Brown.

She has never confirmed it, but Chase, according to Community director Jay Chandrasekhar, knew his career was over one day later, when The Hollywood Reporter broke the story.

Chase, the director says in the doc, came 'storming onto the set, and he goes, 'Who f***ed me over?' … 'My career is ruined! I'm ruined!' Like, it's a full meltdown. 'Fuck all of you.”

The excuse for Chase's bad behavior, he and his defenders say, is that Chase suffered from physically abusive parents, a claim backed up by his brothers.

Chase's mother, they say, would wake a young Chevy up by smacking him in the face.

Chase's half-brother John admits that the home was violent, his father — Chevy's stepfather — having 'a flash anger. He could lash out with a single blow… He did not take to anything that he perceived as insolence. Chevy was insolent.'

That is awful. Truly terrible. But it doesn't give Chase license to be, as Terry Sweeney said, a monster.

The doc ends with Chase, back at SNL for its 50th anniversary celebration last year, expressing hurt and confusion that he was not invited to perform.

Like all narcissists, he doesn't get it. Chase just does not understand that his actions have consequences, that he has been the aggressor, and that apologies are owed not to him but the other way around.

'Somebody's made a bad mistake there,' he says of his exclusion.

The 'bad mistake' is Chase's alone.

Hollywood's aging stars wonder why it's dying. But really, they need look no further: There's no horror movie that could ever compete with the monsters this place creates.

(DailyMail.uk)

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THE NEW YEAR

The New Year comes—fling wide, fling wide the door
Of Opportunity! the spirit free
To scale the utmost heights of hopes to be,
To rest on peaks ne’er reached by man before!
The boundless infinite let us explore,
To search out undiscovered mystery,
Undreamed of in our poor philosophy!
The bounty of the gods upon us pour!
Nay, in the New Year we shall be as gods:
No longer apish puppets or dull clods
Of clay; but poised, empowered to command,
Upon the Etna of New Worlds we’ll stand—
This scant earth-raiment to the winds will cast—
Full richly robed as supermen at last!

— Carrie Williams Clifford (1920)

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RFK JR. IS TELLING AMERICANS HOW TO EAT. IT’S NOT CRAZY ADVICE.

by Emily Oster

On Wednesday the Trump administration came out with new dietary guidelines for the United States. The goal is to give Americans guidance about what makes a healthy diet. As promised, the new guidelines are much shorter than in the past — 10 pages versus 100 or more — and written to be widely accessible. Many people will read these and (possibly) take the advice.

Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration has made many public health changes that have medical experts concerned (just this week: changes to the childhood vaccine schedule). However, the new nutrition advice is — dare I say it? — overall very sensible. It emphasizes fruits and vegetables, prioritizes whole foods and is clear that people’s food choices should depend on individual characteristics like age and activity. This doesn’t, however, mean that everything in here makes sense for everyone.

In brief: Here are the good, the fine and the weird parts of the new nutrition guidelines.

The Good

Emphasis on whole foods: The guidelines advise people to eat “whole foods” or “real food.” This is, broadly, very good. Virtually all nutrition experts agree that eating foods in which the ingredients are limited, recognizable and not highly processed is a good thing. Heavily processed foods can increase caloric consumption and thus contribute to obesity.

Early allergen exposure: The new guidelines continue to emphasize the introduction of allergens — including food containing peanuts, wheat, eggs and shellfish — at around 6 months because of very clear data that it lowers the risk of developing food allergies later. This may seem like a small point, but an estimated 8 percent of children have food allergies, and it’s an easy change parents can make with potentially large effects on public health. This was in the older guidelines, but highlighting it in this much shorter document is worth a lot.

The Totally Fine

Full-fat dairy: The new guidelines push for consuming full-fat dairy. For years, there has been an emphasis on reduced-fat dairy, especially for children, because it has fewer calories and less saturated fat. But in the data, there is no consistent association between reduced-fat dairy and weight, and if anything, full-fat dairy is associated with lower obesity rates. However, if you prefer reduced or nonfat dairy, there isn’t any evidence-based reason not to consume it. All dairy is fine.

The Complex

Protein: Perhaps the biggest change in the new guidelines is in recommended protein intake. The previous recommended dietary allowance for protein was 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. The average American adult weighs about 180 pounds, so this amounts to about 70 grams of protein per day. Most Americans already eat this much protein or a bit more.

The new guidelines suggest 50 to 100 percent more protein, 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram. For someone weighing 180 pounds, this might mean adding the amount of protein that you might find in seven ounces of chicken breast or 10 eggs.

Most people probably won’t get all that much benefit from eating 10 eggs every day (or gulping down protein water or any of the other protein-heavy snacks that have become ubiquitous on grocery shelves). That’s because the benefits of more protein really show up only when combined with resistance training. When you lift weights, you create microscopic tears in your muscles that the body uses protein to repair. But when you consume more protein than you need to rebuild muscle, the excess protein is treated like other calorie sources.

Most Americans do not get very much exercise, and fewer than 25 percent get the recommended resistance training. This means that for most people, if they eat more protein, they will not get stronger or healthier.

Moreover, this advice may be counterproductive. Many Americans will hear this as “add protein” rather than “replace other calories with protein.” This may lead people to simply eat more calorically dense food, like red meat, which most people do not need to do.

No added sugar for kids: Previous guidelines suggested no added sugar in food for children under 2; the new guidelines extend this to age 10. On the one hand, some of our most compelling data on diet suggests that excess sugar in early childhood leads to more health problems, even much later in life. This may be because early sugar exposure can affect children’s long-term taste preferences. American children currently consume a lot of added sugar.

On the other hand, avoiding added sugar until the age of 10 is unrealistic for nearly everyone. The nutrition guidelines — which suggest no cookies or birthday cake until a child is 11 — are likely to scare parents without changing behavior. It’s also not well supported by the science. While there is data that consuming a lot of sugar leads to more metabolic issues later in life, this isn’t compared with no sugar. The healthier children in the studies had some sugar, just not as much. And completely limiting food groups for children can make a forbidden food more appealing.

There is a balance here. Most children in America would benefit from eating less sugar, but that doesn’t mean parents should be afraid of every cookie. Moderation is key.

The Weird

Beef tallow: Why do we keep mentioning this? Who is using this for cooking? Where would I even buy it? Mr. Kennedy seems to love beef tallow as a healthy fat, but it’s also very high in saturated fat, and these guidelines set limits on that.

The upside-down pyramid: I get it as a talking point, but the upside-down pyramid used to illustrate the guidelines isn’t helping anyone, and the blueberries are disturbingly large.

If there is one thing to strongly object to about these guidelines, it’s that they are likely to be hard for many people to follow. Eating more vegetables, lean protein and whole foods is a laudable goal and also difficult to achieve, especially with limited financial resources, limited grocery options and the fact that high-sugar, high-fat foods are addictive and habit forming. These guidelines are a very good start for telling people where to go; now the job should be helping them get there.

(Emily Oster is the founder and chief executive of ParentData and a professor of economics at Brown University.)

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ON-LINE COMMENT

I'll never understand why adult humans are required to eat or drink dairy to be healthy. I understand why we might need protein, even in the form of some meat, but it defies logic that we need cow milk. The obsession with beef and dairy in the nutrition recommendations seem like pandering to special interests. Recommending people use beef tallow over other, probably heart healthier, fats IS crazy.

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EZRA POUND

Ezra Pound committed treason against the United States, and while he was locked inside a mental asylum, the American literary establishment handed him one of its highest honors.

The unspoken message was clear.

You cannot punish a genius for having dangerous opinions.

By the time the Second World War was nearing its end, Europe was already in ruins. Cities lay flattened. Millions were dead. The machinery of fascism had revealed itself not as a theory, but as an industrial system of murder.

And in the middle of all this, Ezra Pound was not silent.

Pound was not a marginal figure shouting into the void. He was one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century. A central architect of modernism. The man who edited and promoted T.S. Eliot. The mentor who shaped a generation of writers. An American by birth, but long self exiled to Europe, convinced that he stood above nations, laws, and ordinary moral constraints.

From Italy, Pound went on state radio and spoke for Mussolini’s regime.

He did not simply criticize American policy. He did not merely argue economics. He praised fascism openly. He celebrated Hitler. He repeated antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish bankers controlling the world. He mocked democracy as weakness. He called Franklin D. Roosevelt a fraud. He described the American army as a criminal enterprise. He dismissed reports of mass killings and denied the reality of the Holocaust even as its evidence piled up.

He made more than one hundred broadcasts.

His voice traveled across enemy airwaves, not as satire, not as art, but as propaganda during wartime. In any legal sense, this was treason. The charge carried a single possible sentence: death.

When American forces finally captured him in 1945, they did not treat him as a misunderstood poet. They treated him as an enemy collaborator. For weeks, Pound was held in a military detention camp near Pisa, confined in a steel cage measuring six feet by six feet. There was no bed. No toilet. No protection from the elements. He slept on concrete under floodlights. Exposure, isolation, and humiliation did the work that bullets had not.

After several weeks, he suffered a psychological collapse.

At that point, the government made a decision that would define his legacy. Rather than proceed with a public treason trial, which would have exposed the full record of his broadcasts and forced a moral reckoning, they declared him mentally unfit to stand trial. The charge was suspended. Not resolved. Not judged. Suspended.

Ezra Pound was transferred to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., a federal psychiatric institution, where he would remain for twelve years.

And then came the moment that stunned even those who defended him.

In 1949, while still confined as a man deemed too unstable to face justice, Ezra Pound was awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the United States. The prize was funded by the Bollingen Foundation and administered by the Library of Congress itself. This was not a fringe gesture. This was institutional recognition.

The judges were not radicals. They were professors, critics, and leading writers. Cultural authorities. People who understood exactly what Pound had done.

When outrage followed, their justification was calm, polished, and devastating.

The art must be separated from the politics.

They claimed they were honoring language, not loyalty. Craft, not character. The poem, not the man. The idea that genius exists in a moral vacuum, answerable to no one.

What they did not honor was accountability.

They did not honor the victims of the ideology he championed.

They did not honor the soldiers who fought the regime he praised.

They did not honor the country he had openly betrayed.

They honored brilliance.

When Pound was finally released in 1958, after twelve years of confinement without trial or verdict, he returned to Italy. Reporters asked him if he regretted anything. If he had been wrong. If he wished to retract his words.

He offered only one sentence.

“All America is an insane asylum.”

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WE DON'T ACTUALLY FEAR DEATH, we fear that no one will notice our absence, that we will disappear without a trace.

— T. S. Eliot

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LEAD STORIES, FRIDAY'S NYT

Federal Agents Shoot 2 During Traffic Stop in Portland, Ore.

Amid Protests, ICE Told Agents to Take ‘Decisive Action’ if Threatened

Highlights From The Times’s Interview With President Trump

Senate Advances Measure to Curb Trump’s Use of Force in Venezuela

Iran Is Cut Off From Internet as Protests Calling for Regime Change Intensify

A Fierce Debate With Polymarket: Did the U.S. ‘Invade’ Venezuela?

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

And, while we're at it, bring back real shame. Political figures and their minions have always been shameless operators. The shift of journalism, to the "feel no shame" for lying column, is even more destructive. Now, when exposed, instead of apologizing for their dishonesty, they offer invigorated attacks, a Cheshire cat grin and nonsensical excuses. It's amazing how many "journalists" are just misunderstood victims of (fill in the blank __)ism.

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FEDERAL IMMIGRATION OFFICERS SHOOT AND WOUND 2 PEOPLE IN PORTLAND, OREGON.

by Claire Rush

Federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, a day after an officer shot and killed a driver in Minnesota, authorities said.

The Department of Homeland Security described the vehicle's passenger as “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who had been involved in a recent shooting in Portland. When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants Thursday afternoon, the driver tried to run them over, the department said in a written statement.

“Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot,” the statement said. “The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.”

There was no immediate independent corroboration of those events or of any gang affiliation of the vehicle's occupants. During prior shootings involving agents involved in President Donald Trump's surge of immigration enforcement in U.S. cities, including Wednesday's shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis, video evidence cast doubt on the administration's initial descriptions of what prompted the shootings.

According to the the Portland Police bureau, officers initially responded to a report of a shooting near a hospital at about 2:18 p.m.

A few minutes later, police received information that a man who had been shot was asking for help in a residential area a couple of miles away. Officers then responded there and found the two people with apparent gunshot wounds. Officers determined they were injured in the shooting with federal agents, police said.

Their conditions were not immediately known. Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney said during a Portland city council meeting that Thursday’s shooting took place in the eastern part of the city and that two Portlanders were wounded.

“As far as we know both of these individuals are still alive and we are hoping for more positive updates throughout the afternoon,” she said.

The shooting escalates tensions in an city that has long had a contentious relationship with President Donald Trump, including Trump's recent, failed effort to deploy National Guard troops in the city.

Portland police secured both the scene of the shooting and the area where the wounded people were found pending investigation.

“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” said Chief Bob Day. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end all operations in Oregon’s largest city until a full investigation is completed.

“We stand united as elected officials in saying that we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,” a joint statement said. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences.”

The city officials said “federal militarization undermines effective, communitybased public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region. We’ll use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”

They urged residents to show up with “calm and purpose during this difficult time.”

“We respond with clarity, unity, and a commitment to justice,” the statement said. “We must stand together to protect Portland.”

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, urged any protesters to remain peaceful.

“Trump wants to generate riots,” he said in a post on the X social media platform. “Don’t take the bait.”

(AP)

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GRAND ILLUSION

We are cursed by what the historian Barbara Tuchman calls the “bellicose frivolity of senile empires.”

by Chris Hedges

“We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

— Stephen Miller to Jake Tapper on CNN, Jan. 5, 2026.

“He who would live must fight. He who does not wish to fight in this world, where permanent struggle is the law of life, has not the right to exist. Such a saying may sound hard; but, after all, that’s how it is.”

— Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf

“The Fascist State expresses the will to exercise power and to command. Here the Roman tradition is embodied in a conception of strength. Imperial power, as understood by the Fascist doctrine, is not only territorial, or military, or commercial; it is also spiritual and ethical… Fascism sees in the imperialistic spirit — i.e., in the tendency of nations to expand — a manifestation of their vitality.”

— Benito Mussolini in The Doctrine of Fascism

All empires, when they are dying, worship the idol of war. War will save the empire. War will resurrect past glory. War will teach an unruly world to obey. But those who bow down before the idol of war, blinded by hypermasculinity and hubris, are unaware that while idols begin by calling for the sacrifice of others, they end by demanding self-sacrifice. Ekpyrosis, the inevitable conflagration that destroys the world according to the ancient Stoics, is part of the cyclical nature of time. There is no escape. Fortuna. There is a time for individual death. There is a time for collective death. In the end, with weary citizens yearning for extinction, empires light their own funeral pyre.

Our high priests of war, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, are no different from the fools and charlatans who snuffed out empires of the past — the haughty leaders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the militarists in imperial Germany and the hapless court of Tsarist Russia in World War I. They were followed by the fascists in Italy under Benito Mussolini, Germany under Adolf Hitler and the military rulers of imperial Japan in World War II.

These political entities committed collective suicide.

They drank the same fatal elixir Miller and those in the Trump White House imbibe. They too tried to use industrial violence to reshape the universe. They too considered themselves to be omnipotent. They too saw themselves in the face of the idol of war. They too demanded to be obeyed and worshiped.

Destruction to them is creation. Dissent is sedition. The world is one-dimensional. The strong versus the weak. Only our nation is great. Other nations, even allies, are dismissed with contempt.

These architects of imperial folly are buffoons and killer clowns. They are ridiculed and hated by those rooted in a reality-based world. They are followed slavishly by the desperate and the disenfranchised. The simplicity of the message is its appeal. A magic incantation will bring back the lost world, the golden age, however mythic. Reality is viewed exclusively through the lens of ultranationalism. The flip side of ultranationalism is racism.

“The nationalist is by definition an ignoramus,” wrote Yugoslav-Serbian novelist Danilo Kiš. “Nationalism is the line of least resistance, the easy way. The nationalist is untroubled, he knows or thinks he knows what his values are, his, that’s to say national, that’s to say the values of the nation he belongs to, ethical and political; he is not interested in others, they are no concern of his, hell — it’s other people (other nations, other tribes). They don’t even need investigating. The nationalist sees other people in his own image — as nationalists.”

These stunted human beings are unable to read others. They threaten. They terrorize. They kill. The art of power politics between nations or individuals is far beyond their tiny imaginations. They lack the intelligence — emotional and intellectual — to cope with the complex, ever-shifting sands of old and new alliances. They cannot see themselves as the world sees them.

Diplomacy is often a dark and deceptive art. It is by its nature manipulative. But it requires an understanding of other cultures and traditions. It requires getting inside the heads of adversaries and allies. For Trump and his minions, this is an impossibility.

Skillful diplomats, such as Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian Empire’s foreign minister who dominated European politics after the defeat of Napoleon, do so by crafting agreements and treaties such as the Concert of Europe and the Congress of Vienna. Metternich, no friend of liberalism, adroitly kept Europe stable until the revolutions of 1848.

I reported on Richard Holbrooke, the assistant secretary of state, as he negotiated an end to the war in Bosnia. He was bombastic and enthralled with his own celebrity. But he played the Balkan warlords off each other in the former Yugoslavia until they acquiesced to stop the fighting — with some help from NATO warplanes that pounded Serb positions on the hills around Sarajevo — and signed the Dayton Peace Accords.

Holbrooke had little regard for the diplomats who diddled in conference halls in Geneva while 100,000 people died or disappeared in Bosnia, an estimated 900,000 became refugees and 1.3 million were internally displaced. He had a loathing for military commanders who refused to take risks. He detested the Croatian, Serbian and Muslim leaders he had to corral into signing the peace accord.

Holbrooke, whose blustering style and volcanic eruptions were legendary, left bruised egos and slighted, embittered colleagues in his wake. But he knew how to cajole and mold his adversaries to his will. He was likened, in a not very flattering comparison, to Jules Cardinal Mazarin, the crafty 17th-century prelate and statesman who solidified France’s supremacy among the European powers. “He flatters, he lies, he humiliates: he is a sort of brutal and schizophrenic Mazarin,” a French diplomat told Le Figaro, of Holbrooke, during the Dayton talks.

True.

But Holbrooke, however mercurial, understood the interplay between force and diplomacy. This understanding is essential. It is why nations have diplomats. It is why great diplomats are as important as great generals.

Gangster states have no need of diplomacy. Trump and Rubio, for this reason, have gutted the State Department, along with other forms of “soft” power that achieve influence without resorting to force, including the U.S. role in the United Nations, the U.S. Agency of International Development, the U.S. Institute for Peace — renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace after most of the board and staff were fired — and Voice of America.

Diplomats in gangster states are reduced to the role of errand boys. Hitler’s Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, whose primary experience in foreign affairs before 1933 was selling fake German champagne in Britain, appointed party hacks from the SA or Brownshirts — the paramilitary wing of the party — to diplomatic posts abroad. Benito Mussolini’s Foreign Minister was his son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano. Mussolini — who believed that “war is to man what maternity is to woman” — later executed Ciano for disloyalty. Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steven Charles Witkoff, is a real estate developer, often accompanied on diplomatic missions by Trump’s feckless son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce quipped that fascism had created a fourth form of government, “onagrocracy,” a government by braying asses, to add to Aristotle’s traditional triumvirate of tyranny, oligarchy and democracy.

Our ruling class, Democrats and Republicans, piece by piece, dismantled democracy. In Germany and Italy, the constitutional state, as well, collapsed long before the arrival of fascism. Trump, who is the symptom, not the disease, inherited the corpse. He is making good use of it.

“I believe that to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent,” Chalmers Johnson wrote two decades ago in his book, “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic.”

He warned:

The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government — a republic — that would prevent this from occurring. But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation is started down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play — isolation, overstretch, the uniting of forces opposed to imperialism, and bankruptcy. Nemesis stalks our life as a free nation.

The American Empire, defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan — as it was at the Bay of Pigs and in Vietnam — learns nothing. It leaps into each new military fiasco as if the previous military fiascos did not happen. It believes it needs no allies. It will rule the world.

If occupying Greenland blows up NATO, so what? If funding and arming Israel to carry out genocide and bombing Iran and Yemen alienates huge swaths of the Global South and enrages the Muslim world, who cares? If invading and kidnapping the president of Venezuela stinks of Yankee imperialism, tough! No one else matters.

Nations that stomp around the globe like King Kong infect themselves with a fatal virus.

Johnson warned that if we continue to cling to our empire, as the Roman Republic did, we will “lose our democracy and grimly await the eventual blowback that imperialism generates.”

Blowback is next and with it the collapse of the crumbling edifice of the American Empire. It is an old story. Although to us, and the cabal of misfits ensconced in our version of Ubu Roi’s court, it will come as a terrible shock.

(chrishedges.substack.com)

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