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STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 40F under clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. Our next rain is coming sooner then thought, looks like about noon tomorrow just for a quick shot then gone by Wednesday later. A mix of clouds this week then another shot of rain this weekend.
DRY CONDITIONS will continue across the area today. A frontal boundary will bring gusty to strong south winds late tonight through Tuesday afternoon. Light to locally moderate showers on Tuesday through Tuesday night, with lingering showers through Wednesday afternoon. Rain chances returns Friday and through the weekend as another frontal system approaches from the west. (NWS)
WILLITS RESIDENT BUFFEY WRIGHT BOURASSA ENTERS RACE FOR DISTRICT 3 SUPERVISOR
by Sydney Fishman
Buffey Wright Bourassa, a Willits resident and member of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, is planning to run for the District 3 seat on the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors.
District 3 covers the region including Covelo, Laytonville, and Willits. The current District 3 Supervisor, John Haschak, will not be seeking re-election.
Bourassa is not the only candidate in the race. Willits residents Eric Hart and Clay Romero have also announced a bid for the seat.
Bourassa, born in Ukiah and raised both in the city and on the Pinoleville Pomo Nation reservation, said she has a deep love for the 3rd District and enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren, taking them hiking and camping in the area.
She currently lives in the Willits area on the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians reservation, located on Sherwood Hill Drive. Bourassa is also a descendant of the Pinoleville Pomo Nation.
The interview with Bourassa, conducted on Thursday, was on her birthday.
“I was born and raised in Ukiah, on January 22,” Bourassa stated. “I grew up on the Pinoleville Reservation and in town. My mom’s non-Native, my dad’s Native. I grew up very diverse.”
Bourassa has a long history of supporting local initiatives in Mendocino County and working to help the community. To Bourassa, there’s no shortage of work to be done in the region. Since June 2023, Bourassa has been the restorative justice program manager at the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, where her role is a mixture of counseling, social work, and community engagement.
“This work has shaped how I lead: with fairness, structure, and a commitment to solutions that actually work,” Bourassa shared in a recent Facebook post. “Restorative justice is about repairing harm, strengthening families, and preventing future victimization.”
A few other topics Bourassa is most passionate about include substance abuse and addiction, environmental issues, and tribal representation.
Bourassa also said that she is in addiction recovery herself and is well-versed on the programs available for people struggling with substance abuse. Before her current job, she spent many years at the county’s public health department, where much of her work involved traveling across the county and helping spread the word about substance abuse and prevention.
“I traveled around the county going to schools and talking to kids and providing education and preventative events,” Bourassa added. “I was actually on the Safe RX Opioid Coalition. I would set up tables and started running that program and contracting with nonprofits and a couple of tribes to provide prevention education.”
Bourassa has a large family with members living in different locations throughout the county and is excited about economic development and increasing job opportunities for young people. This desire was largely fueled by seeing her own family struggle with finding well-paying jobs.
“How do we have jobs for our young people that are going to be sustainable for them to be able to stay here? I have three kids that are leaving this county to go and work in different areas so that they can pay rent just to be here,” she explained. “We need electricians, plumbers, construction, because all those folks are aging out. And what do tech and AI jobs look like here?”
Near the end of the interview, Bourassa spoke about what she likes to do in Willits in her free time. She said that while she loves all of the local businesses, there are a few spots that she finds herself frequenting the most.
“Willits is a beautiful area. I’ll come to town a lot and we walk, go to Brickhouse Coffee or JD Redhouse, or get my nails done at First Nails,” Bourassa said.
Although Bourassa is running for the District 3 supervisor seat, she said real change comes from local community members, not just politicians. She is excited to continue engaging with the community.
“Change has to come from the community. That’s how we make things different,” she said.
The election that could decide the District 3 supervisor seat will be held on June 2, during California’s statewide primary. If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, the two top candidates would advance to the general election in November.
AN ENVELOPE LEFT BEHIND AND A SMALL TOWN MOMENT OF GRACE
‘Today you get to feel special.’
by Elise Cox
On a weekday morning in Laytonville, Lindsay Hansen was doing what she usually does: dropping her kids off at school and running a quick errand before heading to her job at the local high school, where she teaches culinary arts.
As she parked outside Geiger’s Long Valley Market, she noticed an envelope face down in a planter box beside her car.
It had writing all over it.
“I thought, ‘That seems a little sketchy,’” Hansen said later. She left the envelope alone and went inside to shop, ignoring the small tug of curiosity. When she came out, the envelope was still there.
She read the message: “Do not throw away. Read the front.”
Hansen flipped the envelope over. There were notes all over the front of it.
“It’s okay to do something special for yourself,” it said. “Get something that will make you happy. Today you get to feel special. Smile at a stranger.”
There was also a request to post on the Laytonville-Branscomb community Facebook page, so the author would know where the envelope had been found.
Inside was another small note — Good vibes — and a $20 bill.
For Ms. Hansen, a lifelong Laytonville resident and a mother of four, the moment landed with unexpected force. “You hear about things like this happening to other people,” she said. “I never imagined I’d be the one.”
She drove to the high school and showed the envelope to the staff in the front office. Word spread quickly. People smiled.
“It just made my day,” Hansen said. “It felt really good to see kindness in the world.”
Later, at home, she shared the story with her husband and children. The note had suggested doing something nice for herself, and she thought about what that might mean. Ice cream came to mind — not just any ice cream, but a trip with all four kids to Nat’s Retro Wagon, a food truck near Albert’s gift shop that serves scoops of Cowlicks ice cream alongside hot dogs and sandwiches. It’s the kind of small treat she usually talks herself out of: too busy, too much of an indulgence, another time.
But this time, she thought, maybe yes.
Hansen posted about the envelope on Facebook, as instructed. The response was immediate and warm. At least one more envelope had been found, by someone not even on social media.
Hansen said she doesn’t post often, and watching the comments roll in — messages of surprise, gratitude, and joy — felt a little surreal amid so much heaviness in the national news.
But maybe acts of kindness like this will catch on. And maybe more of us will start leaving envelopes for each other, tucked into planters or other unobtrusive places, containing messages of encouragement and care.
(Mendolocal.news)
WHAT THE HIPPIES GOT RIGHT
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
When I arrived in Ukiah I was a braindead airhead deadhead with little ambition and, thanks to hourly intakes of marijuana fumes, an IQ dropping faster than my ability to fill out paperwork to get food stamps. Or even read the paperwork.
A hippie in other words, I was. From that vantage point I was able to study the breed close up and for extended periods of time. Looking back it was thankless work except for myriad opportunities to mingle with marijuana-addled hippie chicks and then smoke more marijuana together and monitor each other’s IQ levels, then try to talk but not in complete sentences. Or did I already say that?
And yet I survived. What I learned from years of close observation was mostly appalling. Any hippie you (I) met had exactly the same opinions and outlook as every other hippie. We all hated Nixon, loved Tim Leary, and thought we could get “back to the land” by growing goats. We built, at least when we weren’t smoking marijuana, flimsy shacks (aka Class K Housing) without heat, plumbing, foundations or blueprints.
Or power tools, building permits or waterproof roofs.
All hippies dressed the same: torn-up worn-out jeans decades before “distressed” fashions gained traction. Dudes wore tie-dyed shirts, and their ol’ ladies wore garments that made them look like they’d just fallen from a fourth floor window through an awning. No hippie shaved an armpit and every hippie thought Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan were Messiahs.
I could go on and on. We all read Mother Earth News, One Hundred Years of Solitude and books by Carlos Castaneda. We listened to Crosby, Stills & Nash and avoided McDonald’s, Burger King and Captain Crunch.
Speaking of avoiding Big Macs, Hostess Twinkies, etc., let us pause in our hippie-bashing and concede one huge thing the hippies got right. Even addled hippies like me consumed far better food than when we were growing up. And I’m not sure how we did it.
I’m also not sure how or why American society opted for chemically adulterated, factory processed food instead of what humans had been eating the previous several hundred centuries. When did our parents decide that Kool-Aid was an acceptable beverage for children and started dosing us with it at age three?
And how did Wonder Bread earn the honor of being called “bread”?
Strange to get sent off to school following a hearty breakfast of Lucky Charms or Cocoa Puffs. But we did.
Among the glories of growing up in the Midwest were summers of nonstop corn on the cob. Fresh, hot, buttery, salted and perfect, corn was God’s gift to the Aztecs, who passed it down to us (a much better inheritance than virgins sacrificed atop pyramids).
But now look at corn. Instead of on the cob, today we find corn in our oils and as a substitute for sugar. Corn became gasoline. Salt became the enemy of anyone with any sense. Sugar made kids hyper. Meat was murder.
We sprayed cheese out nozzles from metal cans.
How did it all happen? My mom had canned tomatoes and peaches in glass jars and put them on basement shelves to be brought out in winter. A blink of an eye and suddenly peaches came in metal cans, colored a shocking bright yellow, and soaked in ultra-sweet liquid.
At the same time, clothes made of cotton and linen were replaced by polyester and rayon. Handsome wool suits were sent to Goodwill so dad could be outfitted in a powder blue “leisure suit” complete with a white belt. And then he walked around in public!
That was the point when the hippies looked around and finally said ENOUGH! Next they donned prim, ugly, brown paisley granny dresses and started baking whole wheat bread. The revolution had begun.
Today we go to the Ukiah Co-Op (well, not us, just you) to marvel at shelves loaded with grains, granola and quinoa in place of Frosted Flakes and Captain Crunch. Browse the joint for an hour and you’ll find nary a tub of margarine or a quart of Coca Cola.
Hippies, guilty as they are for their numerous crimes against civilized society (NO to fossil fuels! NO to cell phone towers! NO to Trump the King or Hitler!! NO to farmed salmon! YES to drugs! NO to female shaved armpits! NO to capitalism!) at least had the vision and courage to say NO! to TV dinners and Ban Lon shirts.
We salute them. We are all better off for their struggles.
THIS WEEK AT ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE
AV Village Chair Yoga
Tue 01 / 27 / 2026 at 11:15 AM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5114)
Senior Center Lunch
Tue 01 / 27 / 2026 at 12:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5146)
Moving to the Groove
Tue 01 / 27 / 2026 at 1:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville (https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5073)
AV Library Open:
Tue 01 / 27 / 2026 at 1:00 PM
Where: Mendocino County Fairgrounds, 14400 Highway 128, Boonville
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5125)
Senior Center Bus Available for Ukiah Appts.
Wed 01 / 28 / 2026 at 9:30 AM
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5153)
Matter of Balance Exercises
Thu 01 / 29 / 2026 at 11:30 AM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5102)
Senior Center Lunch
Thu 01 / 29 / 2026 at 12:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5151)
AV Library Open
Sat 01 / 31 / 2026 at 12:30 PM
Where: Mendocino County Fairgrounds, 14400 Highway 128, Boonville
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5133)
Anderson Valley Senior Center's Crab Feed
Sat 01 / 31 / 2026 at 5:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville
(https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/5142)
LOCAL EVENTS (this weekend)
AV WINE PIONEERS
A Community Program on Anderson Valley’s Wine Heritage
(Hosted with AV Land Trust)
Featuring Allan Green, Editor of Pioneers of Anderson Valley Wine. Allan will discuss the development of the book, the early wine pioneers of Anderson Valley, and the historical significance of this region’s viticultural heritage.
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Anderson Valley Historical Museum, 12340 Highway 128, Boonville
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, January 25
SHERONE BARBER, 56, Ukiah. Ammo possession by prohibited person, probation revocation.
ISABELLA CANADY, 23, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.
JOSEPH ELLIOTT, 25, Phoenix/Ukiah. DUI.
GRACIELA FUENTES, 49, Ukiah. Harboring wanted felon, child endangerment.
PABLO FUENTES-CARDENAS, 18, Ukiah. Lewd/lascivious upon child under 14, sodomy-victim under 10 years old.
NOE GARCIA JR., 35, Ukiah. Controlled substance, disorderly conduct-intoxication by drugs&alcohol, resisting.
GEORGE GINOCHIO, 65, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
JENNYFER HALLMARK-DUMAN, 37, Ukiah. Embezzlement.
NATALIE HAYDEN, 20, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
AARON MASSEY, 37, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, contempt of court.
MICHAEL MATTHIAS, 21, Redwood Valley. DUI.
JOSE NUNEZ-LUNA, 27, Ukiah. More than an ounce of pot, no license, obstruction of driver’s view.
AUGUST SCHINDEL, 47, Willits. Misdemeanor hit&run.
JAMIE SIGMAN, 38, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, probation violation.
JAVIER SOLORIO-TORRES, 42, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Use of artificial light while hunting.
TALON TREPPA, 20, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.
MEMO OF THE AIR: Hinged.
Marco here. Here's the recording of Friday night's (9pm PST, 2026-01-23) eight-hour-long Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on KNYO.org, on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and also, for the first three hours, on 89.3fm KAKX Mendocino, ready for you to re-enjoy in whole or in part. Having made a mistake the night before and lost a dozen links to material I had tagged to bring, exactly six hours into this show I began to read instead one long story about the end of everything, The Metric, by David Moles, from The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories (Book 6).
https://memo-of-the-air.s3.amazonaws.com/KNYO_0680_MOTA_2026-01-23.mp3
Coming shows can feature your own story or dream or poem or essay or kvetch or announcement. Just email it to me. Or send me a link to your writing project and I'll take it from there and read it on the air. That's what I'm here for.
Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not-necessarily radio-useful but worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:
Horns, reeds and voice. You know who could sound like this when she was fifteen years old? Midnight, in a band called Surrender, at the old Mendocino Community School in the early 1980s. There were a lot of amazing kids there who went on to do great things. Rain Equine could also sing like this. https://theawesomer.com/brass-against-the-great-gig-in-the-sky/794286
The Torment of Saint Anthony, by twelve-year-old Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. With explanatory video. https://www.openculture.com/2026/01/discover-michelangelos-first-painting.html
A pirate queen. "She runs the confederation like a CEO with cannons. Nothing moves without her signature, injured pirates get health care, brave ones get bonuses, and the accounting is impeccable." https://theawesomer.com/the-queen-of-the-most-powerful-pirate-fleet/794388
And a most realistic miniature fire. https://mudwerks.tumblr.com/post/805664742259687424/youve-never-seen-anything-like-this-the-most
Marco McClean, [email protected], https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
TIMELY FLICK
In WAG THE DOG (1997), the President has been credibly accused of pedophilia. He is way behind in the polls. His ads are lame, his opponent's are good (in one we hear Maurice Chevalier singing ‘Zank heaven for leetle girls…’) With the election two weeks away, Robert DeNiro, the world's greatest fixer/publicist, is hired. He realizes it would take the outbreak of war to divert voters' attention from the sex stuff.
CUT to the mansion of Dustin Hoffman, an egotistical Hollywood producer, as DeNiro engages him to make the video and audio that will convince US voters that Albanian terrorists represent an existential threat and that the President has mobilized the military to respond.
The illusory war is projected successfully.
When Dustin Hoffman insists on claiming producer credit, a nod from the President's fixer gets him offed.
Fascism wasn't so imminent in 1997, but what really dates ‘Wag the Dog’ is the total absence of social media.
— Fred Gardner
ICEY ROAD AHEAD
Try to remember
We can still tell right from wrong
Before it’s too late
— Jim Luther
MICHAEL PARENTI, MARXIST POLITICAL SCIENTIST AND AUTHOR, DIES AGED 92
Michael Parenti, the American Marxist political scientist, author, and lecturer, has died at the age of 92. Parenti was widely known for his sharp critiques of imperialism, capitalism, and corporate power, and for his insistence that politics be examined through the lens of class interests and material conditions.
Over several decades, he wrote influential books such as Democracy for the Few, Inventing Reality,and Blackshirts and Reds, combining academic research with a polemical style aimed at reaching audiences beyond the university. His work challenged dominant narratives on U.S. foreign policy, the role of the media, and the nature of liberal democracy.
A gifted speaker, Parenti was also admired for his ability to make complex political and historical arguments accessible without diluting their substance. While his uncompromising positions often placed him at odds with mainstream academia and media, he remained a consistent and independent voice on the left, refusing to soften his analysis for acceptance or career advancement.
(idcommunism.com)
NO HEALTHY PERSON Wants To Rule The World Or Become A Billionaire
by Caitlin Johnstone
No mentally healthy person wants to rule the world.
Nobody with a functioning conscience and a working empathy center in their brain is interested in becoming a billionaire.
We are ruled by the most dysfunctional members of our species. The most wounded, neurotic and sociopathic among us. The least wise, caring and insightful.
What drives a person to claw their way to the top of a wildly sick society and become a lord of the dystopia?
What compels someone to amass obscene amounts of wealth in a world where so many have far too little?
What causes someone to ascend to political leadership of a power structure that’s built for the purpose of robbing and oppressing the most underprivileged populations on earth?
Nothing wholesome, to be sure. That impulse is never coming from anywhere good.
The worst among us are striving to prevail in this dystopia by riding the tides of its ugliest inclinations, while the best among us are striving to dismantle the dystopia and replace it with something kind and equitable. This causes the worst of us to be elevated to the top and the best of us to be smacked down to the bottom.
Under our current system the easiest way to set yourself on a trajectory from millionaire to billionaire to trillionaire is to exploit workers, crush your competition, plunder the available resources of the global south, externalize the costs of industry onto society and the ecosystem, bribe the government to advance your corporate interests via lobbying and campaign donations, contract with the most murderous military and intelligence agencies in the world, and psychologically manipulate the public into consuming products and services they don’t need.
Who is going to be most successful in this endeavor? The very worst people alive. People whose hearts and minds are so stunted and dysfunctional that they see other human beings as tools for their own personal enrichment, to be used up and discarded like juice boxes or condoms.
These are the people who are touching the most lives on this planet. These are the people whose decisions affect the most of us.
Michael Parenti has passed away after a luminous life advancing powerful ideas and insights about the abusive dynamics of human civilization and how best to address them. He did not die a wealthy man. The mainstream papers did not report on his departure from our world. Only a relatively small percentage of the population is aware he ever lived.
But everyone knows who Elon Musk is. Everyone knows who Jeff Bezos is. Who Bill Gates is.
The best of us live and die in relative obscurity, generally being subjected to scorn and derision from the ruling establishment the entire time. The worst of us become plutocratic demigods.
It’s an uphill battle. You spend your life swimming against the current of dystopia, and you are not handsomely rewarded for your efforts. You’ll get deplatformed, censored and smeared. You might even get shot by government agents for standing up for the disempowered. And you’ll definitely never be a billionaire.
But it’s absolutely worth it, and you should do it. Fighting for truth and justice in a civilization made of injustice and deceit is the only way to live. It’s the only way to feel satisfied with your efforts during this life. The only way to be sure that when you are on your deathbed you can look back and know you spent your time here in a right and admirable way.
It costs a lot to fight for a healthy world. But it costs a lot more not to.
(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)
KYM KEMP on the Pretti Killing in Minneapolis:
I appreciate that some of you are trying to grapple with this in good faith, and I agree on one core point: the presence of a firearm, even legally carried, can escalate a situation.
But it’s also important not to rewrite what actually happened.
Based on the videos I’ve seen, Mr. Pretti’s firearm was concealed and not visible as he approached. What is visible is him filming with a phone, stepping closer after an agent shoved civilians, and attempting to place himself between an agent and others who had just been pushed. Probably attempting to use his body to protect them from pepper spray. At that point, he is pepper-sprayed in the face. Only after he is sprayed, grabbed by multiple agents, and forced to his knees does an agent remove a gun from near his hip.
By the time shots were fired, the weapon (let me remind you again he was legally carrying it and to the best of my understanding of repeated watches had not attempted to touch it) had already been removed. Mr. Pretti was on his knees, restrained by multiple agents, when at least 10 shots were fired in roughly five seconds, including shots after he had collapsed and was motionless.
So yes, carrying a gun into a volatile situation is risky. That’s true. But the public explanation that this began because an agent was confronted by an armed man does not line up with what is visible on video. Please pay attention to how things escalated. And note the shots were fired at Pretti while he was on his knees and his gun had been removed.
At no point does Mr. Pretti do anything that might be construed as deserving of a death sentence. Yet he got one.
Why the heck are you allowing the 7 powerful federal agents armed with multiple weapons with law enforcement training who should be trained in de-escalation techniques and in restraint dealing with one single man to be exonerated of any responsibility?
You act like Pretti had all the responsibility in this situation. He didn’t. There are 7 other men who bear responsibility and at least one but I think two chose to engage in a state execution of a dissident.
A serious investigation should determine whether force was used appropriately. If it is done honestly, I find it hard to believe those federal officers won’t be convicted of some version of murder.
And reasonable people should be concerned that executing people who are not perfectly obeying officers in tense rapidly moving situations is becoming something the state is comfortable with and…apparently so are you.
JADE TIPPETT:
Having witnessed two clear and unequivocal street executions of American citizens by ICE in Minneapolis, I am reminded of a conversation about the Israeli Defense Forces training, likely following a police killing in the London Tube. The IDF trains "shoot them into the ground". The IDF's intent is not only to neutralize the threat, but to send a message that anything that even looks like a threat will be dealt lethal savagery with total impunity. The question arises whether these 45 day wonders ICE has fielded in Minneapolis and other places are being trained by ex-IDF or using IDF training methods and standards. Clearly, these are not the standards that, through many court cases, have begun to be applied to domestic LEOs in the U.S..
RYAN BURNS (Lost Coast Outpost, Eureka):
The ICE killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti aren’t even the worst part, to my mind. It’s the administration’s immediate defense of those killings — framing the victims of state-sponsored homicide as domestic terrorists, not only before all the evidence is in but in naked contradiction to what we all see in witness videos — THAT, to me, is the tell (one of many, really) revealing this administration’s full authoritarian nature. This is a strongman regime, one willing to divide, lie, disenfranchise, persecute and even kill to consolidate power. Strongman regimes don’t concede power in free and fair elections. I realize that posting such opinions to a mostly sympathetic audience on social media doesn’t amount to much in the way of meaningful resistance. But I’m deeply worried about the future of this country, and I’m convinced that resistance is absolutely necessary.
EVEN JARED HUFFMAN'S CAT CONCERNED:
Just finished briefing with Gov. Tim Walz and AG Keith Ellison. America is in a dark, unthinkable place right now. A terrible line has been crossed. We must have the courage and moral clarity to stand with Minnesota against the thuggery, criminality, gaslighting and unjustifiable killings (aka, murders) by ICE. Shame on anyone who rationalizes or defends this. It is time to unite, fight peacefully, and defeat this brutality. I will be redoubling my work with colleagues in Congress to do that - with our platforms, our votes, and every legal tool available, and I'll see many of you at the peaceful protests that we must expand and amplify in the days ahead. Please speak up and stand up in any way you can. Keith Ellison just told us winning this election must be the highest priority for everyone, and I couldn't agree more. Together, we are stronger than the thugs and fascists who are doing these terrible things in the name of our country.
WHAT IF THEY START SHOOTING BACK?
by Paul Modic
I’ve never seen a snuff film before yesterday (refuse to even watch replays of bad football injuries), never watched the George Floyd murder video and if you did you’re one sick fuck. However, I’ve been watching a lot of news recently, even looking for and perversely being entertained by Trump’s latest outrage (“outrage porn”?), having gone from checking the news once a week (for better sleep) to multiple times a day now as more people get murdered by ICE. That lead me to watching the murder of the nurse in Minnesota yesterday, on a video a Minneapolis gender studies professor I know posted, and I wish I hadn’t because whenever I woke up last night I heard those shots again and tried to put them out of my head, struggling unsuccessfully to get back to sleep. I was shaken by the mob of ICE beating him up then shooting him as he lay on the ground, like what is the point of that?
(Within an hour I was back out in the beautiful park, the sun had broken through the morning mist and with a big satisfied smile I felt good again, wondering why I had been going out into “my own private paradise” so early in the cold foggy mornings when it clears up so nice and sunny by ten?)
I was wondering when is enough for Trump supporters when ICE is breaking into houses with no judicial warrants, dragging citizens out onto the street and killing innocent people? Is this what they voted for? What would they say if I asked them? That Biden killed people too, that killing people is one of the main jobs that presidents do?
Okay, I’d ask: who did Biden kill?
Would they say that Trump has actually saved thousands of immigrants’ lives by stopping illegal immigration? Let’s add them up:
Every day at the Darien Gap in Panama hundreds of people started the perilous and muddy trek through the mountainous jungle and some died along the way, let’s say two a day from each group on the two week hike, that’s about conservatively about 700 desperate people dead over the year. Then there are the migrants who fell off that big train or were murdered by cartels and thieves on the overland highways through Mexico, that’s probably another one or two a day, call it a thousand over the year.
How many were victimized and died in those horrid encampments along the border, another 500 a year murdered? And what about those who made it across and got lost in the desert, had to be at least one or two a day, right? Add it up and there’s thousands of lives saved by Trumps strict and brutal policies while Biden’s mess at the border indirectly killed thousands, then subtract the number who would have died too young by staying home. (Next the Trumpers would probably double-down and also say look at all the confused trans kids that Biden and his policies “sexually mutilated,” a discussion for another day perhaps.)
So the guy Saturday goes to the demo with his phone and gun, really? Yes he was within his rights, he can legally carry his gun but did he think ICE plays by the rules and follows the law? No, they’re murderous thugs like Trump, lawless beasts who shoot first and fight it out in the court for months later, in fact they probably would say it was preemptive self-defense: they probably know they’re monsters and that gun could be pointed at them tomorrow.
What’s the paranoid conspiracy “plan?” Kill enough innocent people, make people so angry that a hotheaded martyr(s) will start returning fire? Then send in the military to multiple cities, even defy the supine Supreme Court, just in time to disrupt the elections? (Fill in the blanks anyway you want but they have a plan.)
So that’s it, no more snuff videos for me, I want to sleep, dammit, how did it help anything or anyone to see that? Okay, it motivated me to write this, that’s something but not much, I’m turning off the news, if I can.
NEW MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING EXPOSES A COLD TRUTH: I'VE SPOTTED AT LEAST THREE MAJOR MISCALCULATIONS
by Mark Halperin
In the seventeen days since Renee Good was shot dead in Minneapolis, something familiar and dispiriting has settled over the city and, by extension, the country.
Not clarity. Not calm. Not even grief with dignity. Instead, the steady accretion of rage, accusation, counter-accusation, and the hardening of narratives that operate independently of facts on the ground.
Now another American citizen has been killed by gunfire from another federal agent in the same city, and the pattern is now poised to repeat itself with the wearying precision of a metronome.
If past is prologue, what follows will not be a sober reckoning with what actually happened, who made which decisions, and where accountability should fall. It will be a loud online competition in which context matters more than evidence, allegiance more than truth, and speed more than accuracy.
We have already seen the opening moves. Right after this new shooting Democrats renewed their calls for ICE to leave Minneapolis altogether, arguing that the federal presence itself is the accelerant.
And almost instantly, the White House responded in the unmistakable voice of combat rather than conciliation, with Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller posting on X: 'A would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement and the official Democrat account sides with the terrorists.'
There it is, laid bare. Two Americas staring at the same events and seeing entirely different movies yet again.
Red America remains appalled that state and local officials would openly oppose immigration enforcement and demand that federal agents leave their jurisdiction, as if the rule of law were optional or contingent.
Blue America sees Donald Trump's agents as reckless interlopers, wreaking havoc in a city already raw from loss and fear. Each side believes the other is not merely wrong but dangerous.
The images from this weekend did nothing to lower the temperature. Mass protests. Tear gas drifting through streets already etched into the national memory. Dueling social media posts from officials who seem to understand the performative power of outrage better than the responsibilities of office.
And hovering over it all, the wrenching and still-murky dispute over how and why a five-year-old boy ended up in federal custody and transported to Texas. Minneapolis is on a knife's edge, white-hot with tension even as the actual temperatures sank below zero.
What is striking, though, is that even some Minnesota Republicans are now saying, quietly but firmly, that the chaos has to end. They may support Trump. They may agree with his broader immigration goals. But they also know that his actions lit a fuse that only he has the authority to snuff it out.
Vice President JD Vance came through the state on Thursday and struck a notably conciliatory tone, as if auditioning for a different chapter in the story. But it was a blip.
The broader soundtrack remains one of anger. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have all kept up the rhetoric, each speaking to their own audiences, each reinforcing the sense that backing down would be a form of surrender.
A defiant Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Fox News early Saturday afternoon. President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social.
'Where are the local police?' he asked. 'The Mayor and Governor are inciting insurrection,' he wrote, in part.
It's vintage Trump, no retreat. But from a political standpoint, it increasingly appears that Trump made three miscalculations.
First, he underestimated how fiercely Minnesotans would oppose not just specific tactics but the basic mission as they understand it, especially when carried out in their neighborhoods by heavily armed federal agents.
Second, he failed to anticipate how the conduct of ICE and other federal officials would translate into television images that galvanize opposition far more effectively than any white paper or policy brief ever could.
And third, he misjudged how difficult it would be for Team Trump to frame this operation as a natural extension of what they describe as historic success in shutting down the border, once the liberal media and Democrats seized upper hand on the narrative and shaped it day by day, sometimes accurately, sometimes in ways that feel skewed beyond recognition to his supporters.
Donald Trump is not known for backing down. Escalation is always on the table. He could federalize the National Guard. He could invoke the Insurrection Act and bring active-duty military into the streets.
Brute force might impose a brittle version of order, but it would almost certainly inflame local resentment and deepen the sense of occupation. The other option -withdrawal of ICE - would be read by his base as capitulation and by his critics as proof that pressure works.
Given the poll numbers and Trump's own instincts, it is hard to imagine what he might do next. But the ball is most assuredly in his court.
And so Minneapolis waits. The rest of the country watches. Another life has been lost, and the machinery of polarization grinds on, efficient and merciless.
One can almost hear American voices of reason asking, softly but insistently, whether this is really the best we can do. Whether the country that once prized restraint and moral seriousness has any of either left to deploy.
The answer, for now, remains as cold and unsettled as a tense Midwestern night in January.
(DailyMail.uk)
ALEX JEFFREY PRETTI KNEW HE WANTED TO HELP OTHERS
Shot and killed by immigration agents on a Minneapolis street, he wanted to be a ‘force of good in the world.’
by Corina Knoll, Julie Bosman & Maia Coleman
The man fatally shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis was Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, officials said.
Mr. Pretti, who was 37, was a registered nurse who worked in the intensive-care unit at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Minneapolis, according to interviews and public records, and lived in an apartment in Minneapolis a short drive away from where he was killed.
He had a firearms permit, required by state law in Minnesota to carry a handgun, officials said.
Colleagues and acquaintances of Mr. Pretti were stunned by his death, recalling a friendly neighbor and hardworking professional who was devoted to his patients.
Dr. Dimitri Drekonja said that the two had worked together for years. Mr. Pretti was capable, competent and friendly, he said, the kind of person who cared deeply about his work and his patients.
“He was a really great colleague and a really great friend,” he said. “The default look on his face was a smile.”
The two chatted regularly about mountain biking, one of Mr. Pretti’s passions.
Family members of Mr. Pretti declined to comment on Saturday. Michael Pretti, Mr. Pretti’s father, told The Associated Press that he had warned his son to be careful in Minneapolis.
“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”
Mr. Pretti received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 2011, a spokeswoman said. He graduated from a high school in Green Bay, Wis., in 2006, and was listed on the honor roll in a local newspaper. His parents now live in Colorado, and his former spouse lives in California.
A next-door neighbor, Jeanne Wiener, said she believed Mr. Pretti lived alone with his dog, but saw him walking frequently, and would speak with him several times a week.
Standing in her home, Ms. Wiener said she was shocked to hear of his death.
“We talk over the fence all the time,” she said. “He’s the sweetest, kindest, most unoffensive, most nonviolent person you’d ever want to meet.”
Ruth Anway, who worked with Mr. Pretti, described him as a passionate colleague and kindhearted friend with a sharp sense of humor.
Ms. Anway, a nurse, said she first met Mr. Pretti around 2014 when he was a research assistant at the hospital. She said she had encouraged him to pursue nursing.
“He really thrived in that environment,” she said in a phone interview on Saturday. “He wanted to be helpful, to help humanity and have a career that was a force of good in the world.”
In his free time, she said, Mr. Pretti loved to bike the trails around Minneapolis, and spent time with his dog, Joule.
Ms. Anway said Mr. Pretti followed the news closely and cared deeply about social justice and fighting for fairness.
“I’m not surprised he was out there protesting and observing,” she said.
Aasma Shaukat, a physician at the V.A. who worked with Mr. Pretti, said she had hired him to his first job in the research department at the hospital.
Mr. Pretti, then fresh from college and in his early 20s, had come to her with no medical training, but a deep drive, she said.
“He was your typical struggling young person with a lot of ambition, but no direction yet,” she said. “But he knew he wanted to help people in some way or another.”
Mr. Pretti spent the next few years working for Dr. Shaukat, assisting on medical studies and enrolling patients — while delivering pizzas at night to make ends meet.
The last time they spoke, Mr. Pretti had been working extra shifts as a nurse, saving up to buy a home and a new car.
“He was happy, and I was happy for him because his life was just starting,” she said. “This feels so senseless and just so wrong.”
(NY Times)
WHAT HAPPENED TO ALEX PRETTI'S KEY WITNESS?
Woman in pink jacket tells her story after recording deadly Border Patrol shooting in Minneapolis
by Nic Whie
The woman who filmed the clearest footage of a protester being shot dead by immigration agents has filed a harrowing account of what she saw.
Intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, was shot up to 10 times on Saturday as he lay on the ground while Customs and Border Protection agents tried to detain him.
Video showed him filming agents with his phone as they arrested a female protester, before he was suddenly tackled to the ground about 9am, and one agent started shooting.
Close-up high-definition footage uploaded by a woman just a few feet away provided damning evidence of the questionable nature of the shooting.
She became known as 'pink coat lady' after her bright outfit that was visible from across the street in other videos of the shooting.
Other protesters became concerned about her, as a key witness, and some witnesses said she was briefly detained by federal agents for questioning.
The woman wrote a sworn affidavit detailing what she saw as evidence in an ongoing lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Trump Administration.
Her name was redacted, but she identified herself as a children's entertainer specializing in face painting from the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis.
She explained that she heard whistles outside her home as she got ready from work about 8.50am on Saturday, indicating Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were nearby.
'I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors,' she wrote.
The woman wrote that she saw Pretti with his phone in his hand filming ICE agents when one of the agents pushed another protester to the ground.
'Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over,' she wrote.
'The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him.'
She wrote that Pretti tried to help the woman up but 'the ICE agents just kept spraying' so much that she could feel the pepper spray in her own eyes.
That's when it all went badly wrong.
'The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them - he wasn't even turned toward them,' she wrote.
'It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground.
'Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times.
'I don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him.'
The woman insisted the DHS account of what supposedly happened - that Pretti threatened agents with a gun - was completely wrong.
'The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground,' she wrote.
The woman wrote that she went into hiding because she was afraid she would be arrested for filming the shooting.
'I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me,' she wrote.
'I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened.
'I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building.
'I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state.'
The woman's footage showed Pretti be pepper-sprayed and forced to his knees.
Multiple DHS agents are seen surrounding him, struggling to restrain his arms and legs as he is pushed face-down onto the pavement.
As four agents remain engaged in the struggle, one officer, wearing a gray jacket and a pink rimmed baseball cap, appears to reach into the back waistband of Pretti's pants and pull out a handgun.
The officer then moves away from the group, holding the weapon.
Suddenly, another agent draws his firearm and fires directly into Pretti's back, who then collapses onto the street.
Agents are then seen backing away into the road as additional shots ring out.
In total, roughly 10 shots appear to be fired, even as Pretti lies motionless.
Federal officials have not explained why lethal force was used after Pretti appeared restrained and disarmed.
Questions surrounding the shooting have been further sharpened by an affidavit from a 29-year-old physician whose apartment overlooks the scene and who rushed outside after hearing gunfire.
In legal filings, the doctor said agents initially prevented him from reaching Pretti, despite his repeated pleas to help.
'At first, the ICE agents wouldn't let me through,' the doctor wrote. 'They repeatedly asked me for my physician's license, which I obviously didn't have.'
The doctor said none of the agents near Pretti appeared to be performing CPR or checking for a pulse.
'I could tell that the victim was in critical condition,' he wrote. 'I insisted that the agents let me assess him. Normally, I would not have been so persistent, but as a physician, I felt a professional and moral obligation to help this man, especially since none of the agents were helping him.'
Eventually, the doctor said, one agent agreed, but only after patting him down 'to make sure I didn't have a weapon'.
When he reached Pretti, the doctor said he was confused by what he saw.
'As I approached, I saw that the victim was lying on his side and was surrounded by several ICE agents,' he wrote. 'I was confused as to why the victim was on his side, because that is not standard practice when a victim has been shot.
'Checking for a pulse and administering CPR is standard practice,' he added. 'Instead of doing either of those things, the ICE agents appeared to be counting his bullet wounds.'
Pretti was shot just over a mile from where Renee Good, 37, was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on January 7 - a case that had already sparked weeks of protests in Minneapolis.
After Saturday's shooting, hundreds of protesters flooded the frigid streets, clashing with federal officers who deployed batons and flash bangs.
Governor Tim Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard, sending troops to the shooting site and to a nearby federal building where protests have occurred daily.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said information about what led up to the shooting was limited.
In other bystander videos Pretti can be seen holding a cellphone but not visibly armed.
Pretti's family has fiercely disputed the federal account, calling it 'sickening lies' and insisting the video shows their son holding a phone, not a gun, as he tried to protect a woman who had been shoved by agents.
'The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting.
'Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs,' his family said in a statement.
'He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.
'Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.'
Pretti was hailed as a good and caring man by his grieving family.
Their statement said: 'Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital.
'Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact.
'I do not throw around the hero term lightly. However his last thought and act was to protect a woman.'
Pretti was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed getting into adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog who also recently died.
He had also participated in protests following the January 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs officer.
'He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,' said Michael Pretti, Alex's father.
'He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.'
Candles were lit and flowers placed while others stood in silence paying their respects at a vigil on Saturday evening.
As night fell, hundreds of people gathered somberly and quietly by the growing memorial at the shooting scene.
Caleb Spike came from a nearby suburb to show his support and his frustration. 'It feels like every day something crazier happens,' he said. 'What´s happening in our community is wrong, it´s sickening, it´s disgusting.'
A nearby doughnut shop and clothing store stayed open to offer a place for people to warm up, as well as water, coffee and snacks.
(DailyMail.uk)
“THE GREATEST HAPPINESS of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”
― Victor Hugo
LEAD STORIES, MONDAY'S NYT
How the Trump Administration Rushed to Judgment in Minneapolis Shooting
Timeline: A Moment-by-Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti
Storm Dumps a Foot of Snow in at Least 17 U.S. States
Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’
High January Is the New Dry January
“ALL I WANTED TO DO was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country.”
— Jack Kerouac
SALT SKY
The bright night sky,
Doorway to everything—
In all that black
All those stars:
Salt.
Pinpricks.
White fireworks.
Perlite.
We look up
Pulled into the immensity,
Lifted into the limitless—
As if it were a hole
We are falling into,
Up instead of down.
We stand on the earth,
Breathe in the night.
It is all too big.
We go back inside.
— Alberto Rios (2026)
Keith Ellison just told us winning this election must be the highest priority for everyone, and I couldn’t agree more. Together, we are stronger than the thugs and fascists who are doing these terrible things in the name of our country.
The effen dems better come up with something better than a worthless POS for a change if they want my vote back. They have run little more than spineless wonders since ’72.
Some view voting as an idealistic act. They vote for the candidate who best represents their views, without regard to that person’s chance of actually winning the race (e.g. Ralph Nader in 2000). Others view voting as a more practical matter, and vote for the best candidate who actually has a good chance of winning. I urge all voters to use the latter approach in upcoming elections. Often, the best candidate is the lessor of 2 evils.
We’ve been doing that for decades. It’s no more than a way of ensuring our continuing decline.
Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan are Messiahs, along with Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Leonard Cohen and a few others…
For sure, for sure, Chuck. When I hear Dylan on the radio these days, I turn the volume way up and bask in his genius–and our good fortune in having him beside us all these years.
Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.
Anne Frank 1943
Thank you, Mike. Anne Frank’s words are a perfect fit for what is occurring at the hands of federal ICE agents. It’s shocking and troubling. All Americans, no matter what party or persuasion or beliefs, should be very worried. I hope that our local enforcement leaders will speak-up–The district attorney, the sheriff, the police chiefs in our three larger towns. You are the experts in this area, you have our trust and respect. Let us know this troubles you, that it is not right. This is not the humane, lawful law enforcement that we have here in Mendocino County. May ICE never come to our County. May the cruel and harmful, even deadly, ICE practices that we see in some of our cities–Minneapolis in the forefront, and with thousands of regular citizens standing-up and speaking-out–be denounced and ended.
I called my imaginary agent in LA to pitch the idea of a Wag the Dog remake in the Age of AI. She scoffed and said, “Paramount had the same idea five years ago. It’s what’s happening. You’re in it as an extra.’ I asked if extras got paid. Thought I heard her laugh as she hung up.
Waging war against law enforcement has always been a loser. A person could even get killed in the process. If as much energy that is being put against ICE was instead put into reforming our immigration laws we would see a change. Instead of having special interests like California Farm Bureau lobbying for immigration reform, and the AFLCIO arguing against it, there would be people in the streets demanding a change. Passionate support for illegal immigration is also a political loser, regardless of who is benefiting. Ask Biden’s people about that.