Sunny | First Wildflower | FB Protest | Rose Foster | Whipple Away | Firearm Incident | Abandoned Properties | Local Events | Juvenile Infractions | Senior Night | Drum Circle | Unity Club | Adder's Tongue | Garden Club | Yesterday's Catch | Winter Prep | Valentine Dinner | Political Escalation | Obscene Ballroom | Boomer's Bar | Knocked Up | Redding Protest | Marco Radio | Regulations Rally | Grapes | Miracle Breakfast | Enough Respect | Not Fired | Dems Soured | That's Weiss | Ramos Arrest | Kelly Release | So-Called Peace | News Choice | Professional Geek | Lead Stories | Sisyphus Happy | Tough Guys | Confirmed Suicide | Different Hat | Benito Bluffer | Hemingway Donation | Existential Threat | Pure Buncombe | Early Bathtub
CLEARER and more dry conditions will continue across the area this weekend with some particularly cold mornings with lows near freezing and freezing. Conditions will slightly warm and moisten next week with increasing chances of wetting rain by mid next week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A brisk 39F under clear skies this Saturday morning on the coast. Sunny today, cloudy tomorrow & so on a couple days then some rain Wednesday morning they say. We'll see. A bit of weather in the forecast but nothing big yet.
SATURDAY FORT BRAGG PROTEST OF TRUMP ET AL.
Come Protest Peacefully
Saturday, January 24th, 11-12 noon
Main Street, sidewalk in front of Guest House Museum, 343 N. Main St., Fort Bragg, CA
Bring non-perishable food donations for the FB Food Bank; we’ll deliver.
This is a peaceful protest. We're gathering to say NO to the recent killing of Renee Good by ICE,, erosion of civil rights and human rights and the loss of critical government functions, NO to unconstitutional deportations, NO to the destruction of social security, NO to authoritarianism, and YES! to democracy & rule of law.
Please stay on the sidewalk and avoid blocking entrances, exits, or traffic. Bring a sign, a friend, and your enthusiasm! And when you can, spend a little money at our local downtown businesses.
We will keep up this joyful resistance until the rule of law is restored and the assault on the US Constitution ends. Our home-made signs are stellar - bring ’em on - they are a hallmark of our protest.
ROSE LEWIS FOSTER
Born in Three Rivers, Texas to Denver and Thelma Teague. She was the third of 11 children. A depression baby she rode on the back of a model T to California picking cotton and fruit to help feed the family.
Rose met her first husband R. E. Hap Lewis at church in Yuba City and married three short weeks later on June 29, 1947. They were married 29 years until Haps untimely death in 1976.
Later she met and married her second husband Gene Foster and spent 31 years gold dredging on the Trinity River, floating on Lake Mendocino in their houseboat, and selling RVs at their property at the Forks.
Rose was the first Shaklee dealer in Northern California. She built a thriving business and enlisted many distributors throughout the country.
Rose became a member of Soroptimist International in 1966 and remained a member for 60 years until her death.
Rose’s book Vitamins & Herbs Almanac was published by BiWorld Publishers in 1975.
Everyone who met Rose call her a Firecracker and heard one of her many sermons about God.
Rose is survived by her daughter Susan Lewis Thornhill, son Rick Lewis (Donna), stepdaughter Gail Groverman (Steve), 6 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren and 5 great great grandchildren.
She was a 5th generation matriarch and will be remembered with love.
A Celebration of Rose’s Life will be held on Saturday, February 7, 2026 at 11am at New Life Church 750 Yosemite Drive in Ukiah.
WHIPPLE'LL BE AWAY FOR AWHILE
On Sunday, January 18, 2026, a burglary was reported in the 77000 block of Logan Lane in Covelo to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Communications Center. Deputies with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office responded to the location and conducted an investigation. During the investigation a suspect in the burglary was identified as Kory Ryan Whipple, a 21-year-old male from Covelo. The investigation was ultimately turned over to Detectives with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Investigations Bureau.
Whipple, who had six outstanding Felony warrants for his arrest, was also being investigated by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force at the time. Based on the above, an operation was planned with the assistance of multiple law enforcement entities in an effort to recover the stolen property and to safely take Whipple into custody for his outstanding warrants.
On Wednesday, January 21, 2026, a multi-jurisdictional operation was conducted involving the Mendocino-Lake County Regional S.W.A.T. Team, U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, personnel with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, Detectives with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Investigations Bureau, and Deputies with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. During the operation, a high-risk search warrant was served at a residence in the 300 block of Biggar Lane in Covelo. During the service of the search warrant, Whipple was located on the property and ultimately taken into custody without incident. As a result of the search warrant service, a large amount of stolen property was recovered.
Whipple was placed under arrest and booked into the Mendocino County Jail for his six outstanding felony arrest warrants and is being held on a no-bail status. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office would like to thank the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, Lake County Sheriff's Office and the citizens of Mendocino County for their support and assistance in this investigation.
This investigation is ongoing and anyone with information regarding this case is requested to call the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086 (option 1), or the Sheriff's Office non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100.
SOME KINDA INCIDENT AT WHALE GULCH
A 74-year-old Whitethorn man was arrested Thursday, January 22, following a law enforcement investigation into a reported firearm-related incident near the Whale Gulch School in the far northwestern corner of Mendocino County, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
Whale Gulch is located in a remote stretch of coastal Mendocino County that is not directly accessible from the rest of the county. To reach the area, Mendocino County sheriff’s deputies must travel north into Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction before looping back south along the coast. Because of the distance and response time involved, Humboldt County deputies are often asked to assist with incidents in the area.
Initial scanner traffic Thursday indicated a possible robbery in progress at the school, referenced as a violation of Penal Code section 211. Subsequent radio traffic clarified that the situation involved a man reportedly brandishing a firearm at another individual who was inside a vehicle near the school.
MCSO Captain Quincy Cromer said Roderick Brown, a 74-year-old man from Whitethorn, was arrested and booked during the investigation.
According to Cromer, Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies investigated the incident with assistance from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. During the course of the investigation, deputies served both a search warrant and a gun violence restraining order.
Brown was arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats, in violation of Penal Code section 422, and brandishing a firearm, in violation of Penal Code section 417, Cromer said.
Deputies located and seized ammunition during the investigation but did not locate any firearms, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
No injuries were reported in connection with the incident.
(Redheaded Blackbelt/Kymkemp.com)
LEW CHICHESTER (Covelo):
A perspective from the north county, another element to the uncollected property tax situation: with the collapse of the cannabis green rush I see a lot of essentially abandoned properties. Nobody living there, trash, broken down cars, the plastic falling down on hoop houses. For example, one property that I know about has numerous established code violations, and yet the county has no mechanism or ordinance in place to force compliance, levy any fine, compel a sale, and so consequently the property just sits there, abandoned, no tax collected, becoming a magnet for more trash, broken down cars, squatters, on and on. This situation needs to get fixed, and the responsibility is spread between the tax collector, the code enforcement section of building and planning, county counsel and the supervisors. Many cities have in place methods to force a scofflaw landlord to either repair or lose the property. Why not Mendocino? Our part of the County is slowly turning into a trash pile and nothing is being done by local government to address the situation, collect the property tax or force a sale to a responsible new owner.
LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)
MENDOCINO COUNTY COURTS TO PROCESS MINOR JUVENILE OFFENSES
by Sydney Fishman
Starting next month, juveniles in Mendocino County who receive an infraction like a speeding ticket will have their case handled in court rather than by the county’s Probation Department.
People under the age of 18 accused of infractions such as speeding, possessing an open container of alcohol in public, or causing a noise disturbance like a party that disrupts neighbors will have their case reviewed in Mendocino County Superior Court starting Feb. 1.
Infraction cases were previously managed by the county probation department’s juvenile division, which evaluates cases and recommends steps the minor can take to have the infraction dismissed.
At a Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting last week, Chief Probation Officer Izen Locatelli told the board that the decision was due in part to Assembly Bill 2746, a state law that was passed in 2022, with parts of the law going into effect in 2027.
AB 2746 repeals a requirement that the Department of Motor Vehicles suspends a driver’s license when a person fails to appear in court or in front of “a person authorized to receive a deposit of bail” like a probation officer.
“AB 2746 again takes my ability away from holding youth accountable,” Locatelli told the supervisors. “If you no-showed to your hearing, I can’t do anything about it or this law. We used to suspend your driver’s license, now I can’t do anything. So I’m going to push this back onto our courts and our courts have agreed to take this.”
Locatelli said in an interview that he decided to remove juvenile infraction cases from the probation department’s authority primarily due to several changes brought by Assembly Bill 2746. He said that with the implementation of the bill, juvenile probation would face an increased workload and more pressure to decide whether a case should go through the court system, which he said could also affect the department’s neutrality in handling juvenile infractions.
Locatelli said that if the department continued handling those cases without the ability to suspend a driver’s license when a juvenile failed to appear in court, he would likely have to request more misdemeanor filings for minors.
“The way I interpret that, is the only way you can hold them accountable is filing a ‘failure to appear’ and requesting a misdemeanor now,” he added. “That results in me filing a petition to be reviewed by the district attorney, and then that could lead to a juvenile being put in juvenile hall. I don’t want to put kids in juvenile hall by my choice over what started as an infraction.”
For infractions, probation departments typically handle these cases informally. Generally, a minor would be required to complete community service, attend educational or counseling programs, or do traffic school. If the minor completed the program, the infraction would be dismissed and would not appear on their permanent record.
Courts can still require juveniles to complete educational or counseling programs, perform community service, or demonstrate other behavioral improvements to have an infraction dismissed. However, Locatelli said it may be a more stressful experience for minors to go through the court system rather than the juvenile probation department.
“It is easier to deal with a probation officer than the court, but this is what we are going to do,” Locatelli said at the Board of Supervisors meeting last week. “This is an efficiency savings for my department.”
He added that Mendocino County is one of the last regions in the state to start handling juvenile infraction cases in its courts.
A press release sent this week by Mendocino County Superior Court says, “The court will use its discretion to make orders that help juveniles make different choices about law violations in the future.”
Under this new change, when a juvenile receives an infraction, the court will send a notice to schedule a hearing with Presiding Juvenile Judge Carly Dolan. These hearings are mandatory and confidential. A parent or legal guardian must attend with the minor, and participants can join remotely on Zoom if needed.
“The goal of the juvenile infraction program is to raise the juvenile’s awareness and accountability for their conduct, ultimately making them better drivers and citizens,” the court’s press release states.
Locatelli at last week’s meeting warned the board that the change could lead to some confusion for juveniles who receive infractions, so he will be talking to local law enforcement to ensure that minors know what they need to do.
“The court isn’t the greatest historically of spelling out what it is that needs to happen,” Locatelli said. “The patrol officers need to know when they are giving the citation to the youth so that they show up in court.”
(Bay City News)
ANDERSON VALLEY ATHLETICS: SENIOR NIGHT at home January 27
Come cheer on our athletes and help us honor our amazing seniors. Your support means everything!
- JV Girls vs Willits 3:30 pm
- JV Boys vs Mendo 5:00 pm
- VAR Girls vs Mendo 6:30 pm
- VAR Boys vs Mendo 8:00 pm
CIRCLE UP!
Drum Circle At Caspar Beach on Sat., Jan. 31 at 3:30
The next Full Moon Drum Circle at the beach will be on Saturday, January 31.
It is happening at 3:30 PM and we will have a fire and continue until about 5:30. Fires on the beach are allowed at at Caspar Beach.
Bring drums, shakers, tambourines, pots and pans, flutes, bells, and/or washboards.
Everyone Is Welcome. Bienvenidos. Free.
Rain will cancel.
Bring a friend and maybe bring a chair and bring a jacket.
We will have extra drums.
For more information and directions, call, text, or send an email to [email protected] or 707/235-9080
UNITY CLUB NEWS
by Miriam Martinez
Cold nights warmed by fog followed by Spring like days; you got to love False Spring. We have our guest Pot Luck coming up on February 5th. That's right, Guests are welcome. Please Note: We meet at 12:30. Bring either a salad or a dessert to share. It would be nice to note allergens like wheat, eggs, nuts, etc. on your dish's label. I'm making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that are gluten free and without dairy.
Our program will be presented by Val Hanelt and Sash Williams, directors of the AVCSD. We'll be getting updates on Boonville's infrastructure projects and on Caltrans Grants. Our hostess crew will be Terry Sites, Margaret Pickens, Vicky Center and Beverly Dutra. Usually the hostesses will provide a main dish as well as beverages like tea and coffee. If you have dietary restrictions and want to make sure you can eat lunch, feel free to make a main dish instead of a salad.
Heads Up:. Our annual Dues are due. It's still $30 and you can bring your dues to the guest potluck. If you can't make the potluck, mail them to:. Jean Condon Treasurer, P.O. Box 466, Philo, CA 95466-0466.
Our annual Wildflower Show is scheduled for April 25-26 in June Hall, Fairgrounds. We will open at 10 and close at 4 both days. Start thinking about how you would like to help this year. I'm not leaving the country this year, so I can help too.
I started reading for fun after I graduated from College. I'm a bit behind y'all on reading Ann Cleve's. I started the Shetland series and would like to continue, at less than $20 a book. Do you have any Ann Cleve's I could read, please?
Our Lending Library has 3 Ann Cleeves from a different series which I shall devour, while seeking the books I desire. You too can fill your desires on any Tuesday from 1 to 4, or on Saturdays when the Fairgrounds are not rented out, from 12:30 to 2:30.
February 5th at 12:30 is our Guest Potluck. The directors of the AVCSD will be there. Bring a salad or dessert and $30 for Dues. I'll be there with those cookies.
FORT BRAGG GARDEN CLUB MEETING
Join us at the next Fort Bragg Garden Club meeting, Monday, February 9 at 1:00, for a hands-on Seed Cleaning Workshop led by club member Jo Mills. Local seeds harvested last fall, and all the tools needed to clean and package them, will be provided. You will be taking home fresh local seeds. If you would rather just observe the cleaning process, you can help with labeling and filling seed packages. You can bring your own seeds, too. Bring your gloves and prepare to get dusty!
All are welcome to join us at the Presbyterian Church of Fort Bragg, 367 South Sanderson Way.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, January 23, 2026
TIFFANY BAIRRINE-HART, 31, Ukiah. Controlled substance.
JAMES DODD JR., 32, Willits. Vandalism, county parole violation, probation revocation, resisting.
BRIAN DUNAKIN, 37, Redwood Valley. Oral copulation-victim under 10 years of age, lewd-lascivious acts upon a child under 14, controlled substance.
SHAUNA FICKLE, 44, Westport. Controlled substance, contempt of court, resisting.
SKYLER HOLDEN, 34, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance.
ROSA RODRIGUEZ, 39, Rio Dell/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
ADRIAN SALAS, 30, Whittier/Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, stolen property, grand theft.
KINGDAVID SHORT, 22, Ukiah. Vandalism.
BRANDON ADAMS: Why do people rush the grocery stores when we’re getting a winter storm that will last no longer than three days? You do not need 8 gallons of milk and 17 loaves of bread. Most of that is going to go bad before you can eat it with your fat stupid ass. I really wanted a grilled fucking cheese sandwich tonight. You all are a bunch of ass hats.
DOUBLING DOWN COULD LEAD TO BIGGER, MORE DANGEROUS PROTESTS
Editor:
What is happening in Minnesota and elsewhere with ICE feels like a runaway train heading toward disaster. It is clear from polls that a significant portion of the populace disagrees with how the administration is going about finding undocumented immigrants and removing them from the country. A lot of people didn’t agree with that project in the first place, and now even some of those who agreed are bothered by the brutal tactics being used.
For this administration to address protests of those tactics by doubling down on its show of force and threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and bring in the military is dangerous. This is what radicalizes people. Some people will move from “I need my voice heard” to “this government just ignores our voices and wants to silence us — now I want to hurt them and show them I am not powerless.”
You have seen that happen in so many countries where government tries to squash the loyal opposition and the opposition then goes underground and retaliates with violence. We don’t need or want that here. Keep free speech, a free press and the right to assemble openly, and do not allow anyone to take away the right to vote.
Michael Krikorian
Windsor
TRUMP’S BALLROOM WILL BE A MONUMENT TO GREED AND EXCESS
Editor:
No president should be allowed to make sweeping changes to the White House or its grounds. This building is a national monument, not personal property, and the president is a trustee. Paving over the Rose Garden was bad enough, but destruction of the East Wing is an outrage. The planned $400 million ballroom is an obscenity considering how many Americans are struggling just to put food on the table. Such a monument to greed and excess is un-American.
Paul Schumacher
Santa Rosa
KNOCKED UP
by Paul Modic
When I got to the park stage early on a foggy fall morning, I climbed up the steps, whooped a celebratory hippie howl and noticed a car had pulled up on the nearby road. I headed toward the woods then recognized a familiar human form coming toward me, Jenny. She joined me walking through the woods and within a few minutes we mentioned that we each had major news. We walked along talking about other things and when she referred to her news again I asked what it was but she said it was highly confidential and didn’t want it repeated. (It was that small-town thing, or me in particular, as I tend to repeat everything I hear and often write it up and post it.)
“All you have to say is don’t repeat it and I won’t,” I said.
“I’m knocked up,” she said. She’s been with her latest lover about six weeks and insists that the connection is stronger than with any man before.
“You know, you tell me that about every guy you sleep with,” I said. She objected but I didn’t back down.
“I’ve vowed to never take the abortion pill again,” she said. “The last time was so painful.” She insisted she has a lot of support.
“Does your guy have anything, any money?” I asked.
“Well, he works on a weed farm and has a deal coming up which is guaranteed.” Saying anything having to do with the weed biz is guaranteed seemed delusional but I kept quiet.
“Well, every mother I’ve ever talked to about her kid says it was worth it even if the father was a deadbeat loser. They all say the kid is the most important thing in their life and they don’t regret it.”
“Really? That’s very interesting…”
“Actually I do remember one woman saying she might not if she could go back…”
Then she said a couple of things which seemed shocking, that she was already worried about her body image, preserving her girlish figure and putting on weight. She also said that it was healthier to have a baby at her age, early forties, than in the early twenties. (When I disagreed she vehemently defended her opinion.)
We stood in a grove of trees saying our goodbyes, my car was in the nearby parking lot, hers was all the way back across the park and I started to walk away.
“Wait! What was your secret?” she said. My news seemed pretty insignificant next to her life-changing story.
“It’s about sleep,” I said. “I realized I was a sugar freak and as soon as I stopped eating it all day I slept better. But it’s only been three days so I don’t want to talk or write about it until a week or so has gone by.” I keep trying all these hacks for better sleep and they don’t work, like the deep breathing or the warm showers.
A few days later I was walking in the park through the meadow and wondering if I should tell her how it might be, some things she probably doesn’t want to hear: “You’re going to have to quit smoking weed and drinking. You’ll have to eat a lot and not worry about your thin body disappearing as you’ll be eating for two. Also you shouldn’t depend on your boyfriend, maybe it will be fine but you don’t know how things will go in the future.”
I thought about it and realized that she probably shouldn’t have a baby right now with such a new boyfriend but these things happen. It’s a biological imperative, she wouldn’t like hearing anything negative, so I’ll just offer advice or feedback if she wants any and she’ll find out as she goes along. (The next day I sent her the name of my therapist in case she needed to talk to a professional, she declined and asked if she could refer a friend.)
Maybe this will be good for her, as she has anger and other emotional issues and is a control freak with nothing to control. Maybe this will help her finally grow up, but first it’s going to change her life completely and it’s going to get way worse, ie up all night with the newborn, and she’ll be even more stressed out than she already is.
Jenny came by a few days later and said she’s going to have to move out of her little cabin and into a bigger house with her boyfriend, who seems willing to share the rent. She doesn’t want to live out in the hills with him when the baby comes, she wants to be around people who will help her take care of the baby.
Well, you’ll have to pay them I said but she insisted people will just want to help her out. Next time I see her I might ask, “So when in the last five years, or ever, have you taken care of anyone’s baby or small child for no pay? Or even with pay? Why do you expect others to take care of your baby?” (But I didn’t say anything, she’ll find out and maybe I’m wrong.)
I talked to her a couple days ago, a couple months after she told me the news, and asked if it’s still a big secret. “Oh, I’m pretty much telling everyone now,” she said. “I’m excited to meet my daughter in July!”
MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all Friday night on KNYO and KAKX.
Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is six or eight. If that's too soon, send it any time after that and I'll read it next Friday.
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to approximately 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first three hours of the show, meaning till midnight, are simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.
Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. You'll find plenty of other educational amusements there to educate and amuse yourself with until showtime, or any time, such as:
The development of Paris. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFhKB5zHWFg
What Martin Luther King actually thought about car commercials. https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2018/02/what-martin-luther-king-actually.html
And "You let one ant stand up to us, and they all might stand up!" (via Miss Cellania) https://www.boredpanda.com/disney-deleted-thread-backlash/
Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
CLEAN WATER ADVOCATES, FISHERMEN HOST RALLY/TRAININGS TO OPPOSE CA’S VOLUNTARY WATER AGREEMENTS
by Dan Bacher.
The nonprofit Save California Salmon (SCS) organization is inviting community members, Tribal citizens, youth, fishermen, businesses, clean water advocates and families to participate in a rally opposing the Bay-Delta water quality regulations being replaced by Voluntary Water Agreements (VAs), ahead of the California State Water Resources Control Board hearings taking place January 28-30.…
A MIRACLE FOR BREAKFAST
At six o'clock we were waiting for coffee,
waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb
that was going to be served from a certain balcony
—like kings of old, or like a miracle.
It was still dark. One foot of the sun
steadied itself on a long ripple in the river.
The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river.
It was so cold we hoped that the coffee
would be very hot, seeing that the sun
was not going to warm us; and that the crumb
would be a loaf each, buttered, by a miracle.
At seven a man stepped out on the balcony.
He stood for a minute alone on the balcony
looking over our heads toward the river.
A servant handed him the makings of a miracle,
consisting of one lone cup of coffee
and one roll, which he proceeded to crumb,
his head, so to speak, in the clouds—along with the sun.
Was the man crazy? What under the sun
was he trying to do, up there on his balcony!
Each man received one rather hard crumb,
which some flicked scornfully into the river,
and, in a cup, one drop of the coffee.
Some of us stood around, waiting for the miracle.
I can tell what I saw next; it was not a miracle.
A beautiful villa stood in the sun
and from its doors came the smell of hot coffee.
In front, a baroque white plaster balcony
added by birds, who nest along the river,
—I saw it with one eye close to the crumb—
and galleries and marble chambers. My crumb
my mansion, made for me by a miracle,
through ages, by insects, birds, and the river
working the stone. Every day, in the sun,
at breakfast time I sit on my balcony
with my feet up, and drink gallons of coffee.
We licked up the crumb and swallowed the coffee.
A window across the river caught the sun
as if the miracle were working, on the wrong balcony.
— Elizabeth Bishop (1936)
MELISSA FOUNTAIN: I recall, in the '70's… I was one of the few "white" (I suppose) employees. Most were black (and I say that because I was born in the '50's and that is not an insult)… so anyway they told me what they were going to do (not show-up at work) on January 15 and why. I was not sure what to do because I appreciated MLK Jr. but I would not risk my job over it and they were quite adamant. I went to work that day, they did not and that day is still remembered… I could not afford to be fired but I am glad that he will be remembered without too much hoop-la. They were not fired but none of them were hired when a new supervisor was needed.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
My first political activism was canvassing for McGovern. I started to sour on the Democrats with the Patriot Act and Iraq. I cried the night Obama won, but none of the change he promised and I'd hoped for actually happened. Then I watched the DNC kneecap Sanders twice.
Then they gleefully shut the country down and took ownership of covid as an election issue: Trump's killing Americans, but we will save you. That was it. I'm so done. I've never felt so intellectually and emotionally healthy as I do, no longer identifying with a group of self-serving politicians while looking down on those with differing views. I also learned my only loyalty ever again will be to the truth.
BARI WEISS SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS
The damning lore of the person ruining CBS News
by Drew Magary
You may have seen reports from late last year about CBS News abruptly spiking a deeply reported “60 Minutes” segment about the Donald Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to a Salvadoran prison. You might have heard that the segment got pulled because it lacked “additional reporting,” despite it being screened multiple times by management. And within those reports, you may have seen the name “Bari Weiss” on a handful of occasions and then asked yourself, “Hey man, who is this person, and why do I keep seeing her name all over stories like this one?”
I cherish your ignorance of this woman, and it pains me to disabuse you of it. It really, truly does. I hate that you have to know who Bari Weiss is, because your life will be immediately worse for it. Alas, given that Trump’s administration is sending out masked officers to openly terrorize Americans for no good reason at all, and given that no major media outlet has stepped up to forcefully identify and denounce all of this Nazi s—t, I have no choice but to enlighten you with regard to Weiss, who has become a key cog in the Republican disinformation machine. Yes, it’s time to play a little game of Know Your Enemy.
Who is Bari Weiss?
Weiss first made a name for herself as a student at Columbia (what’s with it always being Columbia, man?), where she waged a campaign against a group of Muslim professors she deemed to be antisemitic. Weiss, herself Jewish, accused these professors of stifling pro-Israel voices in class. Her accusations have been repeatedly, and credibly, refuted by people who were her fellow students at the time. But Weiss clearly saw a future in petty grievances and quickly built a career after Columbia in nursing those grievances.
Go on.
After college, Weiss eventually got a byline in the Opinion section of the New York Times, where she proved about as skilled with a pen as Adolf Hitler was with a paintbrush. For an example, here’s “We’re All Fascists Now,” which needed to be corrected by the Times after publication because Weiss had cited a fake Twitter account in an attempt to prove her point(?) that liberal campus protesters are just as fascist as the actual fascists they claim to abhor.
The Lewis & Clark Law School students whom Weiss cites at the beginning of her piece loudly decried a guest speaker who’d been invited by the Federalist Society to speak to them. The Federalist Society, if you do not know, mounted a half-century effort to transform this nation’s judicial system into a rubber stamp for all extreme right-wing causes. Its effort was a success, culminating in a present-day Supreme Court that has gutted voting rights nationwide, ended protections for abortion access, and granted Trump nearly unlimited power to behave however he pleases, no matter how abhorrently he chooses to do so (and does he ever put that power to the stress test). In other words, it’s a group of fascist pigs. Spit on a member of this society if you ever meet one.
Is Bari Weiss a fascist?
That wasn’t a germane question as of just a few years ago, when Weiss was just a lousy op-ed columnist who existed mostly to crank out torpid rage-bait for the left-wing internet to dunk on. But Weiss’ writing at the Times proved so widely reviled, especially by liberals, that she got crowned a “provocateur” by the likes of Vanity Fair and, naturally, Bill Maher. (Bill Maher loves assholes, because he is one.) And while the Times shipped Weiss to Australia when her presence here in the U.S. became unbearable both for readers and probably anyone who had to work with her, her flimsy renegade rep persisted. So whether Weiss is herself a fascist is less important than the fact that she now exists as a perfect enabler for fascists.
What makes her perfect for the job?
Every profile of Weiss goes out of its way to note that Weiss doesn’t “fit” with the right-wing profile. She’s a Jewish woman who identifies as bisexual. Republicans HATE bisexual Jewish women, so if this lady is casting her lot with them (while insisting she’s independent, as all right-wing free thinkers must claim), she must know something about the American right that the wokes don’t! This woman uses her non-hetero, non-Christian identity essentially as a permission slip to be an apologist for fascist scum, and it’s earned her a hefty profit.
Where?
Good question. After quitting the Times via a publicly posted and badly written resignation letter, Weiss booted up her own Substack, which quickly earned her six figures a year thanks to a loyal audience of fake intellectuals and MAGA chodes. From there, Weiss founded a new university in Austin, Texas, that would be non-woke, welcoming all of those naughty fascists that the liberals at Lewis & Clark were too mean to hear out. The school, as you might have guessed, has been a disaster.
At the same time, Weiss also graduated from her Substack to begin an entirely new media company, also non-woke, titled the Free Press. That company offered extremists a platform for such takes as “Actually, Starving Kids in Gaza Were Already Sick, You Jew Haters.” So repulsive was the Free Press’ output that Skydance President David Ellison — son of deranged right-wing billionaire Larry Ellison — was smitten with it. Last year, he bought Weiss’ company for $150 million and then named Weiss herself editor-in-chief of CBS News when Skydance bought CBS/Paramount shortly thereafter. Weiss brought Free Press lieutenant Sascha Seinfeld, daughter of Jerry, along with her in the transition. The Seinfelds are awful people.
So, to sum up the story to this point: A middling writer whom no one likes, and who has never fronted a quality product, displayed enough open contempt for polite society that an aspiring Roger Ailes decided to put her in charge of one of the biggest news entities in the country. David Ellison wants CBS News to be Fox News, so he hired the most eager lickspittle he could find. That’s Bari Weiss.
How’s her CBS tenure gone so far?
Horribly. Now we’re getting to the stuff you’ve probably read about. Weiss personally spiked that initial “60 Minutes” report because, the “additional reporting” she wanted in the original piece was comment (a rebuttal, really) from the Trump administration, which that administration repeatedly refused to provide despite CBS’ initial outreach. The report finally aired recently with a handful of extra details on the prisoners’ criminal records, numbers provided by — QUELLE SURPRISE — Trump’s people.
Then she potentially spiked another damning report on Trump, probably hoping to swap it out with a story like “Did ‘Stranger Things’ Err by Going Too Woke?” — though this latest censorship saga is still playing out. THEN she openly complained about no one within CBS News having her back, according to yet another Times report. Fancy that: A group of seasoned journalists hates taking orders from a mousy Trump stooge. That report included this delightful paragraph, featuring remarks in the Free Press from Weiss’ wife, Nellie Bowles:
“ ‘My lovely wife asked some 60 Minutes producers to report out a story a little more, literally Hey guys make a couple more phone calls and then we’ll run the piece in a week or two,’ Ms. Bowles wrote. ‘No! the media collectively shrieked. We shan’t!’ (CBS News declined to make Ms. Weiss available for an interview. Referring to Ms. Bowles’s column, Ms. Weiss said in a statement that The Free Press was ‘completely editorially independent,’ and added, ‘Also: My wife is the funniest writer in America.’).”
BOY, 5, FILMED BEING SNATCHED OFF MINNESOTA STREET BY ICE IS NOW A THOUSAND MILES FROM HOME…
Family denies JD Vance's claim that father abandoned him
by Will Porter
A five-year-old Minnesota boy controversially detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the arrest of his father has been transported to a detention facility in Texas, officials say.
Liam Ramos was seen in images that circulated social media this week wearing a bunny-shaped beanie with tears streaming down his face while being held by his backpack, as ICE agents descended on his home.
The arrest drew renewed scrutiny to President Trump's immigration crackdown in Minnesota just weeks after the fatal shooting of anti-ICE protester Renee Nicole Good.
As the images of Ramos being arrested went viral, Vice President JD Vance alleged that officers had no choice but to detain the youngster because his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, 'abandoned' his son and attempted to flee.
In a post to X, ICE said agents 'kept the child safe in the bitter cold', and alleged that they made multiple attempts to get Ramos's family inside to take custody of him, but 'they refused.'
But a lawyer for the family, Marc Prokosch, has denied that Arias tried to flee the scene.
Prokosch told a press conference on Thursday that Ramos and his father entered the US from Ecuador in December 2024 and had a pending asylum case, adding that his family had no deportation order or criminal record.
Following the arrest, federal officials said Arias insisted on keeping his son with him and confirmed that they were taken to an immigration processing center in Dilley, Texas - over 1,300 miles from their home in Minnesota.
The Dilley facility is designed to house migrant families together, but has been plagued by allegations of prolonged stays in grim conditions, including a lack of access to water, according to CNN.
The attorney for the family insists that they followed established protocol to pursue a legal asylum claim, including presenting themselves to authorities at the border and showing up for all court hearings.
'This family was not eluding ICE in any way,' Prokosch said. 'They were following all the established protocols.'
The Daily Mail has contacted ICE for comment on its plans for Ramos and his father, and whether they will be deported or transferred back to Minnesota.
The incident has sharply divided opinions over how the arrest unfolded, with Republicans offering a different version of events to Minnesota officials.
According to the Columbia Heights Public School District, where Ramos was a student, the arrest of Ramos came as he was arriving home from pre-school.
As they detained his father - allegedly after he tried to flee - an ICE agent walked with the young boy to his door and asked to see if anyone else from his family was home.
Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights Public Schools superintendent, disputed the version of events put forward by ICE over what happened next - claiming that someone from Ramos's home asked to take the young boy inside, but was refused.
Although ICE alleged that they detained the boy because nobody would take custody of him, school board member Mary Granlund told a press conference that she was on the scene during the arrest, and told officers she could take him.
According to Granlund, the ICE officers did not allow her to take custody of the child, and chose to detain him instead.
Stenvik grew emotional at the press conference as she questioned: 'Why detain a five-year-old? You can't tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.'
In a speech Thursday in Minnesota, Vice President JD Vance said ICE agents had 'no choice' but to detain Ramos because his 'father ran.'
'What are they supposed to do?' he said of ICE agents on the scene. 'Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?'
Vance disputed Prokosch's depiction of Arias as a legal asylum seeker, instead portraying him as an 'illegal alien' who deserved to be arrested even with his young son by his side.
'If the argument is that you can't arrest people who have violated laws because they have children… that doesn't make any sense,' he said.
US Border Patrol senior official Gregory Bovino added that immigration operations in Minnesota were 'targeted' only at 'individuals who pose a serious threat to this community.'
Officials have not elaborated on the threat they believe Arias posed to the community, and his attorney says he had no criminal record.
The Ecuadorian government told CBS News that its consulate in Minneapolis has contacted ICE over Ramos's arrest, and said it is 'monitoring the situation of the child in order to safeguard their safety and well-being.'
JUDGE ORDERS RELEASE OF WILLIAM KELLY IN MN ANTI-ICE CHURCH PROTEST CASE
A federal magistrate judge has ordered the release of William Kelly, the third person arrested in connection with Sunday’s anti-ICE church protest in Minnesota. Prosecutors tried to label him a “domestic terrorist,” but the judge said there was no basis for pretrial detention and denied the government’s request to keep him held. This follows earlier rulings allowing the release of Nekima Levy-Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen under conditions as well.
THEY CALL IT PEACE
by Selma Dabbagh
Since Trump declared “peace” on his terms, the besieging, bombing and killing of the young population of Gaza has continued. On January 16, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that the Israeli army had violated the ceasefire for a 97th consecutive day:
Two Palestinians were killed and five others injured over the past 24 hours, with additional victims believed to be trapped under rubble or lying in streets inaccessible to rescue teams.
At least 451 have been killed since the October 10 ceasefire and 1251 injured. The total death toll stands at 71,441, with 171,329 wounded. On January 19 several more people were reportedly injured across Gaza by Israeli drone attacks. Eight children have died of hypothermia since the beginning of winter. Earlier this month Unicef announced that more than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire – “roughly one girl or boy killed every day.”
According to satellite analysis by Unosat more than 80% of structures in Gaza have been damaged by the Israeli military offensive. Stormy weather and heavy rainfall led to at least four Palestinians, including a child, being killed when damaged buildings collapsed in Gaza City.
Trump has heralded the start of the second phase of his plan, even though the first phase was never implemented and the situation on the ground could not be worse. Ali Shaath and the other Palestinians on the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza are technocrats with no authority in the Board of Peace structure and no credibility or legitimacy among the Palestinian population. Haaretz reports that they have also been refused entry into Gaza. Everyone involved – Tony Blair joins Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and others on the Gaza Executive Board – is complicit in the further undercutting of what remains of the rules-based international order.
A recent documentary, UNRWA: 75 years of a Provisional Mandate, reveals the sustained efforts of Israeli campaigners to dismantle the agency that provides health, education, relief and medical supplies to 110,000 Palestinian refugees in Jerusalem alone. The most recent UNRWA report failed for the first time to mention the root cause of the “refugee problem” that the agency seeks to alleviate – namely, the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel – but it did praise the unswerving dedication and abilities of the UNRWA staff.
On January 12, the governorate of occupied Jerusalem announced that it had received official notices from the Israeli Electric Corporation and the Gihon Company indicating their intention to cut off electricity and water to UNRWA buildings within 15 days. On January 20, declared a “historic day” by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli national security minister, bulldozers moved in to destroy UNRWA headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. Aryeh King, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, vowed to “kick out, kill and destroy all of UNRWA’s people, god willing.” An Israeli flag now flies over the agency’s premises.
The Geneva Conventions forbid the “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.” Satellite imagesshow that Israel has moved some of the blocks demarcating the Yellow Line, expanding their area of military control. In addition to the blocks that were moved, BBC Verify has mapped the location of 205 other markers, the majority of which were placed “significantly deeper” inside Gaza than the line marked on official maps. Last month, the Israeli chief of staff, General Eyal Zamir, described the Yellow Line as a “new border.” Between the ceasefire and January 12, Israel demolished more than 2500 buildings in occupied Gaza, according to the New York Times, on both sides of the Yellow Line.
In the south, Rafah is being razed. Israel has announced plans for a “green zone” there. As Raja Shehadeh documented in Occupier’s Law: Israel and the West Bank (1985), “green zones” are frequently used by the Israeli government as a first stage of land appropriation, partly because they sound so innocuous. My friend Atef Alshaer’s family are still in tents in central Gaza, desperate to return home to Rafah.
At Trump’s launch of the Board of Peace in Davos, Ali Shaath said that the Rafah border crossing will reopen next week. According to Israeli officials, however, the question will be discussed in a cabinet meeting on Sunday. The international press is still denied access. The French writer Jean-Pierre Filiu and BBCcorrespondent Fergal Keane are among the very few journalists to have entered Gaza since October 2023. Thirty-seven NGOs were proscribed by Israel at the end of last year and have been denied entry since then.
The destruction of Palestinian lives is now a base line in a holding pattern. The ferocious white heat of the past two years of unrelenting attacks has receded from view, but the genocide continues. There is far less coverage on social media, where my accounts are instead filled with requests for aid: “Please I need your help, don’t leave me alone,” reads one. “Since October we have received nothing, no support, no likes, no funding and no aid is getting through.” Tens of thousands of lives hang on trending patterns and the small print of crowdfunding platforms that are increasingly blocking the transfer of funds to Palestinian territories.
The ceasefire was preceded by an intensive ground invasion of northern Gaza by Israeli forces. K., who had managed to stay on in the north for two years, was forced to leave Gaza City. She was looking after the children of several family members who had been killed. They relocated to Deir al Balah in the south, the densely overcrowded area that Israel was referring to designate as a “humanitarian zone.” K. returned to Gaza City on November 26 and went back to work with one of the NGOs that has since been proscribed:
Yes, we are in a ceasefire, but there is still bombardment, and this truce can be violated at any moment with impunity.
As I head to work, I walk for about 15 - 20 minutes. On my way, I see children early in the morning collecting papers and plastic bags from the streets to help their families light fires. Some wear shoes, and others have no shoes in this cold. Some are dressed in heavy clothing, while others wear light summer clothes – and on their faces you can see how cold they feel.
I kept walking, and what stopped me was a small tent nearby. There were three children –about ten, four and two years old. The two little ones were calling their older brother “Dad,” saying: “Dad, when will you come back to the tent?”
1977 HIGH TIMES INTERVIEW:
"I’ve always considered myself basically an anarchist, at least in the abstract, but every once in awhile you have to come out of the closet and deal with reality. I am interested in politics, but not as ideology, simply as an art of self-defense—that’s what I learned in Chicago. I realized that you couldn’t afford to turn your back on the bastards because that’s what they would do—run amok and beat the shit out of you—and they had the power to do it. When I feel it’s necessary to get back into politics, I’ll do it, either writing about it or participating in it. But as long as it’s not necessary, there are a lot of better ways to spend your time. Buy an opium den in Singapore, or a brothel somewhere in Maine: become a hired killer in Rhodesia or some kind of human Judas Goat in the Golden Triangle. Yeah, a soldier of fortune, a professional geek who’ll do anything for money."
— Hunter S. Thompson
LEAD STORIES, SATURDAY'S NYT
U.S. Winter Storm Starts Spreading East
Videos Showing Aggressive ICE Tactics in Minnesota Fuel a Backlash
Pepper-Sprayed While Pinned Down: A Searing Scene Provokes Outrage
ICE Agent Charged With Misdemeanor Following Scuffle With an Activist
F.B.I. Agent Who Tried to Investigate ICE Officer in Shooting Resigns
Despite Trump’s Words, China and Russia Are Not Threatening Greenland
What Europe Learned From the Greenland Crisis
How a Year of Trump Changed Britain
ALBERT CAMUS, The Myth Of Sisyphus: "I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
ONE DOES NOT NEED TO KNOW a language to know the meaning when a man scowls and shouts and shakes his fist. I will smile and wonder to myself if these brave men who wish me ill in so loud a voice would like to come up in the ring with me and call me names. I will wonder if perhaps six or even twelve of them at once would like to come into the ring with me and call me bad names.
— Luis Angel Firpo
HUNTER S. THOMPSON’S DEATH CONFIRMED AS SUICIDE, COLORADO INVESTIGATORS SAY
by Katie Langford
Colorado Bureau of Investigation officials on Friday confirmed the 2005 death of renowned author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson was a result of suicide, almost six months after the state started reviewing the case by request of the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office.
State investigators started reviewing the case after Thompson’s widow, Anita Thompson, reached out to Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione with concerns about her late husband’s death at their home, Owl Farm, in Woody Creek on Feb. 20, 2005.
“While we have always believed the original investigation was conducted properly, we recognized the importance of an independent review for the Thompson family,” Buglione said in a statement. “CBI’s conclusions reaffirm the original findings and, we hope, provide reassurance and clarity.”
Hunter S. Thompson was 67 years old when he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home near Aspen. Family members said he had dealt with suicidal ideation and had instructed them on what to do with his body.
CBI’s case review included looking at original the investigation records from Pitkin County and autopsy report from forensic pathologist Dr. Dean Havlik; interviewing Anita Thompson, Hunter S. Thompson’s son Juan Thompson and former daughter-in-law Jennifer Thompson; along with original lead investigators Ron Ryan, county coroner Steven Ayers and former sheriff Joe DiSalvo.
State officials also re-examined the scene of his death, which was necessary because “most original physical evidence and photographs had been disposed of by the PCSO in accordance with non-criminal case retention schedules,” the CBI said Friday.
Investigators also did a trajectory analysis and scene reconstruction, which was consistent with all previous reports.
“The CBI’s review did not uncover any new physical evidence, facts, or circumstances to support a conclusion different from the 2005 investigation,” agency officials said.
Colorado officials also did not find any inconsistent information between the follow-up interviews and scene examination and original investigation.
“Original crime scene photographs, recovered by Anita Thompson, were reviewed and corroborated that Thompson’s body was aligned with the bullet trajectory, supporting the finding that the body was not moved or ‘staged’ after death,” CBI officials said.
“All speculative theories could not be substantiated,” state officials noted later.
Hunter S. Thompson was best known for developing gonzo journalism, an often-hyperbolic style of writing in which the author includes themselves as a main figure in the story.
He worked as a national affairs correspondent for Rolling Stone and penned the semi-autobiographical novel “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” which was developed into a 1998 film starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
But Hunter S. Thompson went on to experience “physical and mental decline” and also idolized author Ernest Hemingway, who died by suicide, CBI officials said.
In a New York Times story published Sunday, family members said he showed signs that he planned to take his own life, like watching his favorite movie with his grandson and giving away gifts before his death.
Anita Thompson thanked CBI officials for their work in a statement released by the agency.
“This allows all of us who loved Hunter to move forward with a clean conscience,” she said.
MUSSOLINI, EUROPE’S PRIZE BLUFFER
Note: Dispatch from the 1923 Conference of Lausanne, an international conference updating treaties in the wake of the rise of Turkey, notably attended by Benito Mussolini of Italy. The Gabriele D’Annunzio cited was an Italian nationalist of an older breed. His opposition to Mussolini would come to nothing.
Mussolini is the biggest bluff in Europe. If Mussolini would have me taken out and shot tomorrow morning I would still regard him as a bluff. The shooting would be a bluff. Get hold a good photo of Signor Mussolini sometime and study it. You still see the weakness in his mouth which forces him to scowl the famous Mussolini scowl that is imitated by every 19-year-old Fascisto in Italy. Study his past record. Study the coalition that Fascismo is between capital and labor and consider the history of past coalitions. Study his genius for clothing small ideas in big words. Study his propensity for dueling. Really brave men do not have to fight duels, and many cowards duel constantly to make themselves believe they are brave. And then look at his black shirt and white spats. There is something wrong, even histrionically, with a man who wears white spats with a black shirt.
There is not space here to go into the question of Mussolini as a bluff or as a great and lasting force. Mussolini may last fifteen years or he may be overthrown next spring by Gabriele D’Annunzio, who hates him. But let me give two true pictures of Mussolini at Lausanne.
The Fascist dictator had announced he would receive the press. Everybody came. We all crowded into the room. Mussolini sat at his desk reading a book. His face was contorted into the famous frown. He was registering Dictator. Being an ex-newspaperman himself he knew how many readers would be reached by the accounts the men in the room would write of the interview he was about to give. And he remained absorbed in his book. Mentally he was already reading the lines of the two thousand papers served by the two hundred correspondents. “As we entered the room the Black Shirt Dictator did not look up from the book he was reading, so intense was his concentration, etc.”
I tiptoed over behind him to see what the book was he was reading with such avid interest. It was a French-English dictionary–held upside down.
The other picture of Mussolini as Dictator was on the same day when a group of Italian women living in Lausanne came to the suite of rooms at the Beau Rivage Hotel to present him with a bouquet of roses. There were six women of the peasant class, wives of workmen living in Lausanne, and they stood outside the door waiting to do honor to Italy’s new national hero who was their hero. Mussolini came out of the door in his frock coat, his gray trousers and his white spats. One of the women stepped forward and commenced her speech. Mussolini scowled at her, sneered, let his big-whited African eyes roll over the other five women and went back into the room. The unattractive peasant women in their Sunday clothes were left holding their roses. Mussolini had registered Dictator.
Half an hour later he met Clare Sheridan, who has smiled her way into many interviews, and had time for half an hour’s talk with her.
Of course the newspaper correspondents of Napoleon’s time may have seen the same things in Napoleon, and the men who worked on the Giornale d’Italia in Caesar’s day may have found the same discrepancies in Julius, but after an intimate study of the subject there seems to be a good deal more of Bottomley, an enormous, warlike, duel-fighting, successful Italian Horatio Bottomley, in Mussolini than there does of Napoleon.
It isn’t really Bottomley though. Bottomley was a great fool. Mussolini isn’t a fool and he is a great organizer. But it is a very dangerous thing to organize the patriotism of a nation if you are not sincere, especially when you work its patriotism to such a pitch that it offers to loan money to the government without interest. Once the Latin has sunk his money in a business he wants results and he is going to show Signor Mussolini that it is much easier to be the opposition to a government than to run the government yourself.
A new opposition will rise, it is forming already, and it will be led by that bold, bald-headed, perhaps a little insane but thoroughly sincere, divinely brave swashbuckler, Gabriele D’Annunzio.
— Ernest Hemingway, ‘The Toronto Daily Star,’ January 27, 1923
DAYS BEFORE HIS SUICIDE, HEMINGWAY’S HOPEFUL NOTE TO SISTER IMMACULATA
In 1961, the author inscribed a book for the sister, a nurse who cared for him at the Mayo Clinic. Her copy of “The Old Man and the Sea” is being donated to the Nobel Museum.
by John Rosengren
Ernest Hemingway, delusional, paranoid, depressed and suicidal, was treated in 1961 at the Mayo Clinic where he was cared for by a team of Catholic nurses led by Sister Immaculata.
The particulars of their relationship are lost to history, but their connection was close enough to prompt Hemingway, already a literary titan, to give the sister a copy of his acclaimed novella “The Old Man and the Sea,” with a personal, optimistic inscription dated June 16, 1961.
“To Sister Immaculata: this book, hoping to write another one as good for her when my writing luck is running well again. and it will.”
Of course, it didn’t. Sixteen days later, on July 2, 1961, Hemingway shot himself at his home in Idaho.
For more than 60 years, the Sisters of Saint Francis of Rochester in Minnesota have shepherded the book, which contains what are thought to be among the last words Hemingway wrote. Now they are donating it to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, which uses items to animate “the work and the ideas of more than 900 creative minds” of past Nobel Prize recipients, like Hemingway.
The book, which is being turned over Friday in a ceremony in Sweden, is the first Hemingway artifact in the museum.
“This object is a wonderful addition to our collection because it is so dense with stories,” said Ulf Larsson, senior curator at the museum. “If you want to talk about Hemingway’s life and his struggle and his fate, this is the perfect object for it. We will put it on display as soon as possible.”
Leaders of the religious order said that it was time that a larger audience could get to appreciate the book. “It seemed a shame that it’s sitting locked up in a vault at the motherhouse where nobody was ever going to see it,” said Sister Marisa McDonald, OFM, part of the Franciscan order’s leadership council that made the decision.
Though he has only seen photographs of the book and its inscription, Larsson of the museum said he does not doubt the handwriting is authentic. The signature and punctuation tics are consistent with letters Hemingway wrote at the time. Larsson also notes that, since the book is a donation with no money involved, there seems to be no motive for forgery.
Hemingway had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 and the citation noted his “powerful and pioneering mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’”
But by 1960 he was struggling. He had been working on his Paris memoir — which would be published posthumously as “A Moveable Feast” — but was frustrated by his inability to write well. He entered a psychiatric unit in Saint Marys Hospital, affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, in November and stayed almost to the end of January 1961. He received electroshock therapy and returned to the facility in April 1961 for additional care.
The hospital had been established in 1889 by Mother Alfred Moes, founder of the Rochester Franciscans. It was run by the Franciscan sisters and staffed by their nurses, while the Mayo family — and later staff — physicians provided medical care. The Franciscans turned over administrative authority of the hospital to the Mayo Clinic in 1986 but remain involved in the oversight of Saint Marys through two seats on the Mayo Clinic Values Council.
Sister Immaculata, a trained psychiatric nurse, had helped start the Mayo Clinic’s psychiatric unit and later became a chaplain. She died in 1992.
Sisters who knew her describe her as kind, caring and compassionate, traits Hemingway no doubt observed firsthand. “The fact she went from nursing to chaplaincy says something about her character — her caring, her tenderness and her compassion,” said Sister Tierney Trueman, congregational minister of the Rochester Franciscans.
Sister Immaculata, who was born Helen Hayes, was 37 when she encountered the famous author. By then he had developed a reputation as a braggart and bully, but she seemed to bring out his gentler side, at least in the inscription.
“I think it was very kind and thoughtful of him to say something positive to a person who had cared for him,” said Sandra Spanier, an English professor at Penn State University and editor of the Hemingway Letters Project. “He obviously had a personal connection with her and was fond of her and cared enough about her to write something very personal. It gives insight into the warmth of his character, which isn’t always what he’s known for.”
For years, the book with Hemingway’s inscription had been on the shelves of the library of Saint Marys Hospital, where any one of the 100 or so Franciscan sisters who lived there could check it out.
But it appears to have been largely forgotten until five years ago when one of the sisters mentioned it to Curtis DeBerg, a retired business professor who has written a book about Hemingway and was doing research at the Mayo Clinic.
DeBerg wrote “Traveling the World With Hemingway,” which chronicles the peripatetic author’s sojourns through Europe, Africa, the United States and the Caribbean. He is working on another book about Hemingway, “Wrestling With Demons,” as well as a screenplay.
DeBerg said he found the words in the inscription haunting.
“Was he kidding himself, thinking he was going to be able to write again after all those electroshock treatments?” DeBerg said. “Or is he thinking in the back of his mind, ‘I’ll never write another book like this.’?”
DeBerg wonders whether the sunniness of the note was also designed to convince Mayo doctors he was ready for release. Dr. Howard Rome, Mayo’s chief of psychiatry, discharged Hemingway on June 26, 1961, six days before Hemingway shot himself, concluding that his patient “had recovered sufficiently from his depression.”
This past September, after DeBerg toured the Nobel Prize Museum and learned it had no Hemingway artifacts, he suggested the Franciscans donate the book. The order’s leadership council agreed to do so and turned it over to DeBerg in November at their motherhouse in Rochester, Minn.
At the ceremony in Sweden on Friday, DeBerg discussed the inscription’s significance, and a professional actor, Isa Aouifia, read from “The Old Man and the Sea.”
Larsson, of the museum, said the inscription in the book “captures Hemingway at the end of his life — still hopeful, still writing, still reaching for one more story. It is an intimate piece of literary history, made even more meaningful by the compassion shown by the Franciscan Sisters.”
A NEGLECTED ANNIVERSARY
by H.L. Mencken (1917)
On December 20 there flitted past us, absolutely without public notice, one of the most important profane anniversaries in American history, to wit, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the introduction of the bathtub into These States. Not a plumber fired a salute or hung out a flag. Not a governor proclaimed a day of prayer. Not a newspaper called attention to the day.
True enough, it was not entirely forgotten. Eight or nine months ago one of the younger surgeons connected with the Public Health Service in Washington happened upon the facts while looking into the early history of public hygiene, and at his suggestion a committee was formed to celebrate the anniversary with a banquet. But before the plan was perfected Washington went dry, and so the banquet had to be abandoned. As it was, the day passed wholly unmarked, even in the capital of the nation.
Bathtubs are so common today that it is almost impossible to imagine a world without them. They are familiar to nearly everyone in all incorporated towns; in most of the large cities it is unlawful to build a dwelling house without putting them in; even on the farm they have begun to come into use. And yet the first American bathtub was installed and dedicated so recently as December 20, 1842, and, for all I know to the contrary, it may still be in existence and in use.
Curiously enough, the scene of its setting up was Cincinnati, then a squalid frontier town, and even today surely no leader in culture. But Cincinnati, in those days as in these, contained many enterprising merchants, and one of them was a man named Adam Thompson, a dealer in cotton and grain. Thompson shipped his grain by steamboat down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, and from there sent it to England in sailing vessels. This trade frequently took him to England, and in that country, during the '30s, he acquired the habit of bathing.
The bathtub was then still a novelty in England. It had been introduced in 1828 by Lord John Russell and its use was yet confined to a small class of enthusiasts. Moreover, the English bathtub, then as now, was a puny and inconvenient contrivance -- little more, in fact, than a glorified dishpan -- and filling and emptying it required the attendance of a servant. Taking a bath, indeed, was a rather heavy ceremony, and Lord John in 1835 was said to be the only man in England who had yet come to doing it every day.
Thompson, who was of inventive fancy -- he later devised the machine that is still used for bagging hams and bacon -- conceived the notion that the English bathtub would be much improved if it were made large enough to admit the whole body of an adult man, and if its supply of water, instead of being hauled to the scene by a maid, were admitted by pipes from a central reservoir and run off by the same means. Accordingly, early in 1842 he set about building the first modern bathroom in his Cincinnati home -- a large house with Doric pillars, standing near what is now the corner of Monastery and Orleans streets.
There was then, of course, no city water supply, at least in that part of the city, but Thompson had a large well in his garden, and he installed a pump to lift its water to the house. This pump, which was operated by six Negroes, much like an old-time fire engine, was connected by a pipe with a cypress tank in the garret of the house, and here the water was stored until needed. From the tank two other pipes ran to the bathroom. One, carrying cold water, was a direct line. The other, designed to provide warm water, ran down the great chimney of the kitchen, and was coiled inside it like a giant spring.
The tub itself was of new design, and became the grandfather of all the bathtubs of today. Thompson had it made by James Cullness, the leading Cincinnati cabinetmaker of those days, and its material was Nicaragua mahogany. It was nearly seven feet long and fully four feet wide. To make it water-tight, the interior was lined with sheet lead, carefully soldered at the joints. The whole contraption weighed about 1,750 pounds, and the floor of the room in which it was placed had to be reinforced to support it. The exterior was elaborately polished.
In this luxurious tub Thompson took two baths on December 20, 1842 -- a cold one at 8 a.m. and a warm one some time during the afternoon. The warm water, heated by the kitchen fire, reached a temperature of 105 degrees. On Christmas day, having a party of gentlemen to dinner, he exhibited the new marvel to them and gave an exhibition of its use, and four of them, including a French visitor, Col. Duchanel, risked plunges into it. The next day all Cincinnati -- then a town of about 100,000 people -- had heard of it, and the local newspapers described it at length and opened their columns to violent discussions of it.
The thing, in fact, became a public matter, and before long there was bitter and double-headed opposition to the new invention, which had been promptly imitated by several other wealthy Cincinnatians. On the one hand it was denounced as an epicurean and obnoxious toy from England, designed to corrupt the democratic simplicity of the Republic, and on the other hand it was attacked by the medical faculty as dangerous to health and a certain inviter of "phthisic, rheumatic fevers, inflammation of the lungs and the whole category of zymotic diseases." (I quote from the Western Medical Repository of April 23, 1843.)
The noise of the controversy soon reached other cities, and in more than one place medical opposition reached such strength that it was reflected in legislation. Late in 1843, for example, the Philadelphia Common Council considered an ordinance prohibiting bathing between November 1 and March 15, and it failed of passage by but two votes. During the same year the legislature of Virginia laid a tax of $30 a year on all bathtubs that might be set up, and in Hartford, Providence, Charleston and Wilmington (Del.) special and very heavy water rates were levied upon those who had them. Boston, very early in 1845, made bathing unlawful except upon medical advice, but the ordinance was never enforced and in 1862 it was repealed.
This legislation, I suspect, had some class feeling in it, for the Thompson bathtub was plainly too expensive to be owned by any save the wealthy; indeed, the common price for installing one in New York in 1845 was $500. Thus the low caste politicians of the time made capital by fulminating against it, and there is even some suspicion of political bias in many of the early medical denunciations. But the invention of the common pine bathtub, lined with zinc, in 1847, cut off this line of attack, and thereafter the bathtub made steady progress.
The zinc tub was devised by John F. Simpson, a Brooklyn plumber, and his efforts to protect it by a patent occupied the courts until 1855. But the decisions were steadily against him, and after 1848 all the plumbers of New York were equipped for putting in bathtubs. According to a writer in the Christian Register for in July 17, 1857, the first one in New York was opened for traffic on September 12, 1847, and by the beginning of 1850 there were already nearly 1,000 in use in the big town.
After this medical opposition began to collapse, and among other eminent physicians Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes declared for the bathtub, and vigorously opposed the lingering movement against it in Boston. The American Medical Association held its annual meeting in Boston in 1849, and a poll of the members in attendance showed that nearly 55 per cent of them now regarded bathing as harmless, and that more than 20 per cent advocated it as beneficial. At its meeting in 1850 a resolution was formally passed giving the imprimatur of the faculty to the bathtub. The homeopaths followed with a like resolution in 1853.
But it was the example of President Millard Fillmore that, even more than the grudging medical approval, gave the bathtub recognition and respectability in the United States. While he was still Vice-President, in March, 1850, he visited Cincinnati on a stumping tour, and inspected the original Thompson tub. Thompson himself was now dead, but his bathroom was preserved by the gentlemen who had bought his house from the estate. Fillmore was entertained in this house and, according to Chamberlain, his biographer, took a bath in the tub. Experiencing no ill effects, he became an ardent advocate of the new invention, and on succeeding to the Presidency at Taylor's death, July 9, 1850, he instructed his secretary of war, Gen. Charles M. Conrad, to invite tenders for the construction of a bathtub in the White House.
This action, for a moment, revived the old controversy, and its opponents made much of the fact that there was no bathtub at Mount Vernon, or at Monticello, and that all the Presidents and other magnificoes of the past had got along without any such monarchical luxuries. The elder Bennett, in the New York Herald, charged that Fillmore really aspired to buy and install in the White House a porphyry and alabaster bath that had been used by Louis Philippe at Versailles. But Conrad, disregarding all this clamor, duly called for bids, and the contract was presently awarded to Harper & Gillespie, a firm of Philadelphia engineers, who proposed to furnish a tub of thin cast iron, capable of floating the largest man.
This was installed early in 1851, and remained in service in the White House until the first Cleveland administration, when the present enameled tub was substituted. The example of the President soon broke down all that remained of the old opposition, and by 1860, according to the newspaper advertisements of the time, every hotel in New York had a bathtub, and some had two and even three. In 1862 bathing was introduced into the Army by Gen. McClellan, and in 1870 the first prison bathtub was set up at Moyamensing Prison, in Philadelphia.
So much for the history of the bathtub in America. One is astonished, on looking into it, to find that so little of it has been recorded. The literature, in fact, is almost nil. But perhaps this brief sketch will encourage other inquirers and so lay the foundation for an adequate celebration of the centennial in 1942.
(Two years later…)
On Dec. 28, 1917, I printed in the New York Evening Mail, a paper now extinct, an article purporting to give the history of the bathtub. This article, I may say at once, was a tissue of absurdities, all of them deliberte and most of them obvious.
This article, as I say, was planned as a piece of spoofing to relieve the strain of war days, and I confess that I regarded it, when it came out, with considerable satisfaction. It was reprinted by various great organs of the enlightenment, and after a while the usual letters began to reach me from readers. Then, suddenly, my satisfaction turned to consternation. For these readers, it appeared, all took my idle jocosities with complete seriousness. Some of them, of antiquarian tastes, asked for further light on this or that phase of the subject. Others actually offered me corroboration!
But the worst was to come. Pretty soon I began to encounter my preposterous "facts" in the writings of other men. They began to be used by chiropractors and other such quacks as evidence of the stupidity of medical men. They began to be cited by medical men as proof of the progress of public hygiene. They got into learned journals. They were alluded to on the floor of congress. They crossed the ocean, and were discussed solemnly in England and on the continent. Finally, I began to find them in standard works of reference. Today, I believe, they are accepted as gospel everywhere on earth. To question them becomes as hazardous as to question the Norman invasion…
I recite this history, not because it is singular, but because it is typical. It is out of just such frauds, I believe, that most of the so-called knowledge of humanity flows. What begins as a guess -- or, perhaps, not infrequently, as a downright and deliberate lie -- ends as a fact and is embalmed in the history books. One recalls the gaudy days of 1914-1918. How much that was then devoured by the newspaper readers of the world was actually true? Probably not 1 per cent. Ever since the war ended learned and laborious men have been at work examining and exposing its fictions. But every one of these fictions retains full faith and credit today. To question even the most palpably absurd of them, in most parts of the United States, is to invite denunciation as a bolshevik…
The moral, if any, I leave to psycho-pathologists, if competent ones can be found. All I care to do today is to reiterate, in the most solemn and awful terms, that my history of the bathtub, printed on Dec. 28, 1917, was pure buncombe. If there were any facts in it they got there accidentally and against my design. But today the tale is in the encyclopedias. History, said a great American soothsayer, is bunk.
It’s fitting that the AVA bookends H.L. Mencken’s 1917 essay “A Neglected Anniversary” and its coda with an existential threat and purported photographic evidence.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella begs us to stop calling AI generated nonsense “slop”, and instead to embrace it with these stirring words, “We need to get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication and develop a new equilibrium in terms of our ‘theory of the mind’ that accounts for humans being equipped with these new cognitive amplifier tools as we relate to each other.”
H.L. Mencken clearly demonstrates the peril inherent in believing nonsense without evidence. AI slop elevates the threat by constructing evidence from nothing more than a prompt, acting as the cognitive amplifier that Nadella feverishly envisions.
Is that a tub from before the Bronze Age collapse, or is it an AI hallucination?
The threat, in this year of our misery 2026, is truly existential.
As far as I am concerned, AI is just the newest way of conditioning folks to do as their masters direct them to do. And “social” media be damned.
What strange, soul-shaking times we are in. Thank you, Bob.
I use Google searches a lot. Their AI is the first to come up. It is a good place to start a search, like Wikipedia, only worse.
Feels like Mendocino County should give the area of Whale Gulch, Bear Harbor, Whitethorn to Humboldt County. If you have to go out of Mendocino County to get to it, seems like a lot of $$ to police it. If we have to depend on Humboldt County Sheriff for help, just cut it loose.
Bari Weiss – why I now boycott “60 Minutes” and the “CBS Evening News.” News should be reported without fear or favor.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
“I also learned my only loyalty ever again will be to the truth.”
If everyone I know doesn’t say that, they at least believe that about themselves.
a nice reward for “contact” info for susan frances carr,, aka susie racecar.
we were fellow artists in the 1980s.. maybe spy rock road..
541 315 3048
Is Kory Whipple related to the Whipple girl accused of murdering another teenage girl? Whatever happened with that prosecution?