Mendocino County Today: Thursday 2/5/2026

Warm | Sunny Day | County Notes | Kit Back | JDSF Contradictions | Huffaker Case | Winter Color | Sako Radio | Music Series | Green Talk | Variety Show | Indian Mission | Yesterday's Catch | Water Plan | QB Autograph | Masked ICE | Beaver Family | Trauma Tracks | Skid Row | Huffman Redrawn | Forever Sweep | Do It | No Regrets | Wally Cox | Something Lasting | Dick Hammer | Bunny Bowl | Indian Hemp | Chicago Eyesore | Ike Aid | Epstein Files | Wallace Stevens | Root Canals | Lead Stories | WP Layoffs | Guthrie Plea | Trump Farce | Robot v Homeless | Dinosauria, We | Scissors and Lemon

---

YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Boonville 79°, Ukiah 73°, Laytonville 72°, Covelo 71°, Yorkville 69°, Fort Bragg 65°, Point Arena 65°

DRY WEATHER continues through Saturday. Unseasonably warm afternoons and chilly mornings are likely Thursday. Rain and high elevation snow likely returns to the area Sunday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): "Weather man out sick today."

---

---

COUNTY NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

DA HAS ‘GREAT CONCERNS’ ABOUT THE RELOCATION OF HIS OFFICES TO ACCOMMODATE THE NEW COURTHOUSE

At the Tuesday, February 3, 2026 Board of Supervisors meeting District Attorney David Eyster warned the Board about looming major problems and costs associated with the pending relocation of the DA’s offices in the months leading up to the Grand Opening of the Superior Court’s majestic new barcode of a courthouse over by the tracks, three long blocks from the DA’s existing offices.

Eyster: “I have great concerns as I stand here today about the costs and efforts with where we are at right now with regard to the District Attorney‘S Office relocation. In regards to the courts moving ahead. I see that there is already disagreements and problems starting to come up with what had been a long-term plan to move from the days of Carmel Angelo to the days of Darcy Antle. I think there needs to be a lot of thought. What I’m hearing is a lot of money is being pushed around, buying lots, building buildings, things of that sort. And I hear that you folks don’t have much money. This is going to be problematic in the short term, but also in the long-term.”

This is the first time we’ve heard mention of a plan to relocate the DA’s offices, apparently begun under former CEO Carmel Angelo, but obviously unresolved. There has been no public discussion of it, and former CEO Carmel Angelo, a personal friend of the DA, never brought it up before the Board. In the past DA Eyster has made it clear that he disagrees with the entire idea of needing a new courthouse, especially considering the negative impact the new courthouse will have on the DA’s offices and related transportation issues if they stay where they are (at no facility cost to the County).

Last we heard Supervisor Mulheren had been meeting unofficially and in secret with unnamed Ukiah officials and realtors about somehow, some way accommodating their majesties and their new giant, ugly barcode of building over by the abandoned tracks, but Mulheren has not made any announcement about what they’re doing or what they plan to do. Now here’s DA Eyster, long on record as opposed to the entire idea of a new courthouse, finally raising legitimate questions in public about what’s happening with the DA’s offices. Given Mulheren’s, the CEO’s and the County’s poor record mishandling the relatively simple Veterans Services Office relocation and the Ukiah annexation fiasco, we’re not surprised that the DA is publicly declaring his “great concern,” albeit late in the day. Obviously, putting the DA’s offices in a facility closer to the new courthouse will cost a lot of money whether it’s via purchase, lease, or new construction. Remember: it cost Mendo $5 million to build the equivalent of a $1 million house for the Crisis Residential Treatment facility for the Schraeders nearby on Orchard Avenue, so it’s highly likely that a facility for the DA’s offices will cost a lot more than it should. And, as the DA noted, “You folks don’t have much money.”

In the end, of course, the Board ignored Eyster’s warning and just went on to the next obfuscation.

---

COUNTY COUNSEL SAYS SUPES DON’T NEED NO STEENKING POLICY ABOUT DA’S BROILER DINNERS

Also on Tuesday, the Board tried to deal with the State Auditor’s recommendation that the Board adopt policies regarding the District Attorney’s asset forfeiture spending. Before the discussion even began, newly hired former County Counsel and now current “interim” County Counsel Kit Elliott passed along as her own DA Eyster’s argument that neither the Board nor the County Auditor had any authority over the DA’s asset forfeiture spending.

Board chair/Supervisor Bernie Norvell immediately saw through that argument saying, “The DA told us the same thing,” adding that he didn’t understand why the issue was on their agenda if the Board had no say in the matter.

As usual, Elliott went in to garbled fillibuster mode. Elliott said the Board could address documentation and “transparency,” but, in direct contradiction to the State Auditor and the State Auditor’s attorneys, had no authority to the tell the DA how to spend asset forfeiture money.

Elliott: “I want to understand better in terms of direction from the state audit is they – again if there’s such a broad discretion on what specific issues do they have. I know they describe them, but I’m not sure – in terms of if you look at the actual documentation or reasons for what they are doing, uh, the DA, the Sheriff, um, that they don’t not meet, uh, the, the, the, the things that they can spend money on.”

Supervisor Ted Williams: “Until we get clarification, are those expenditures paused? Or will business continue as normal?”

Elliott: “I think, again I am hoping – well, just for information, I’m, uh, Ben Rosenfeld? and I have met. I am trying to help in terms of the overall and assistance – in terms of the communication and oversight of the moneys – I do think this is very important. I think it’s very important to the public to understand this and of course I can see that it’s very important to the board to understand what their duties – and not fall down on those duties. So if I see an issue, I will be very willing to make sure that comes back before the board, if I believe you have a decision to be made. I can promise you that I will be trying to oversee this and I do not want fights between the electeds. Um, I do want this board as much as possible to really remain focused on the bigger issue at hand and that is where are the general fund money is coming from, where are they going, what are you doing with this, how are you making sure that we are doing a correct procurement process, contracting process, etc. But this will not be… It’s not off the table. I guess it is been paused in a certain sense. But certainly, the DA will be going forward with their expenses, and again I will be trying to oversee in terms of just documentation, etc.”

When Supervisor John Haschak tried to get a direct answer about the State Auditor’s statement that the money couldn’t be given to religious organizations or private entities like the Broiler restaurant, Elliott ignored the Broiler question and fillibustered on about the fine points of religious activities that may be ok.

Got that, you fools? If you don’t realize that the DA can spend asset forfeiture money according to his own rules, we’ll just keeping heaping legal gibberish on you until you give up.

Accordingly, Elliott wanted to ask the State Auditor to explain their recommdation further, thus avoiding and postponing the issue indefinitely as the DA proceeds as he chooses while the Executive Office will “work with the County Counsel for a response.”

For the record, let’s take one more look at what the State Auditor said:

“We believe that one expenditure we reviewed constituted a gift of public funds. In February 2025, the District Attorney’s Office used $3,600 of asset forfeiture funding to pay for room space and dinner service for an end-of-year staff gathering—which the office described as a continuing legal education and team building business meeting—at a steakhouse. The office paid based on the number of individuals in attendance, and its records indicate, and the District Attorney’s Office acknowledges, that attendees included both its office’s staff and their guests. The District Attorney’s Office shared its perspective with us that including spouses and significant others at this event fosters a more inclusive and positive work environment. It also stated that the CEO preapproved this expenditure, although we saw no independent evidence of that approval. Determinations about whether an entity’s expenditures serve public purposes must be made by a governing legislative body. None of the records we reviewed showed that the State’s Legislature or the county board approved of the expenditure of public funds for the end-of-year gathering. Because of this, we believe that it constitutes a gift of public funds. Such gifts are violations of the California Constitution’s prohibition of gifts of public funds. This use of asset forfeiture funds is another example of why Mendocino must take steps to better control and oversee this funding.”

“Documentation supporting this [Broiler dinner] expenditure does not show why it was a prudent use of public funds to hold an end-of-year gathering and dinner event at a restaurant. We conclude that this was a gift of public funds.”

At no time did anyone ask Auditor-Controller/Treasurer Tax Collector Chamise Cubbison for an opinion.

---

KATHY WYLIE: Thankfully Kit Elliott has come back to Mendocino County as our County Counsel!

---

JACKSON STATE FOREST CONTRADICTIONS

Dear Editor:

Jackson Demonstration State Forest is at a crossroads, and so are we. For years, tribal leaders, local residents, and climate advocates have called for a new direction at JDSF: one centered on restoration, carbon storage, and true tribal cogovernance, not commercial logging on public land.

Cal Fire now has a draft Forest Management Plan that talks about “modernization” and “comanagement,” but the underlying problem hasn’t changed. The Public Resources Code still points Jackson toward “maximum sustained production of highquality forest products,” while trying to juggle recreation, wildlife, water and cultural values.

That legal mandate quietly tilts every plan back toward logging, no matter how many listening sessions are held. And now, as Assemblymember Chris Rogers considers legislation to delete the “mandate to log,” the state is seeking tribal endorsements of this new plan, endorsements that can and will be used to argue that the community supports business as usual.

If we are serious about forest health, climate resilience and justice for Pomo homelands, we have to change the rules, not just the rhetoric. That means no tribal or local endorsement of any plan that keeps commercial logging at its core, and a simple statutory fix that rewrites JDSF’s mission toward restoration, climate and binding tribal decisionmaking power.

I urge readers to do two things: contact Assemblymember Rogers’ office to support a bill removing the logging mandate at JDSF, and publicly stand with Michael Hunter and Tribal members who refuse to endorse any plan that undermines their sovereignty and the sacred lands they protect.

Destiny Laird

Mendocino

---

THE SQUAW ROCK POT BANDITS

by Colin Atagi

Sentencing for a former Rohnert Park police officer, who was convicted by a federal grand jury in July of posing as a government agent to steal cash and cannabis from drivers, is delayed until at least April 15 to give his new attorney time to review the case.

Judge Maxine Chesney granted Joseph Huffaker’s latest reprieve Tuesday, Feb. 3, in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. She issued an order behind the scenes one day before the matter was to be publicly discussed in court.

Sentencing had been pushed back numerous times since November after Huffaker fired his defense attorney in the trial. Huffaker was on tap for sentencing Jan. 21 and Chesney gave him one last chance to find a new attorney on the condition counsel wouldn’t need much time to review the case.

On Monday, he retained Karen Landau of Walnut Creek and she requested sentencing be rescheduled to April. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not argue against the request.

“The parties agree that an extension of time is needed to allow for the effective preparation of defense counsel,” Landau’s submitted request, which was signed off by Chesney, reads in part.

Its terms require Landau to file any motions on or before March 18. Prosecutors will file any opposition by April 1 and all matters will be discussed April 15.

This will likely delay sentencing of Huffaker’s co-defendant, Brendan “Jacy” Tatum. The former Rohnert Park sergeant pleaded guilty in December 2021 and testified against Huffaker in exchange for a light sentence. Tatum had been scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 18 but an updated date was not listed Wednesday.

His potential sentencing is unclear. But in Huffaker’s case, federal prosecutors and his previous attorney, Richard Ceballos, submitted sentencing memorandums last month in case the Jan. 21 sentencing had gone as scheduled.

Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 63 months in prison plus three years of supervised release and $23,000 in restitution. Noting Tatum’s involvement, Ceballos recommended Huffaker be sentenced to 12 months under home confinement with one year of supervised release plus conditions that, among other things, would prevent Huffaker from working in law enforcement or security.

Landau said she would submit a new sentencing recommendation by April 15 and prosecutors are to file a response to whatever she suggests for Huffaker.

The trial grew out of a yearslong scandal involving Rohnert Park’s drug interdiction team, a now-defunct unit disbanded in early 2017 after California legalized recreational cannabis. Prosecutors said Huffaker and Tatum used their training to pull over drivers, pose as agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and seize marijuana and cash that was later sold for profit. Much of the activity occurred along Highway 101 near the Sonoma-Mendocino county line.

Tatum resigned in March 2018 after an internal investigation began. Then-Public Safety Director Brian Masterson abruptly retired soon after. Huffaker was later found to have violated department policy and left the force in 2019 with a $75,000 settlement in exchange for his resignation.

In July, a jury convicted Huffaker after deliberating for 90 minutes.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

---

WINTER COLOR, sweet deals, and a little garden romance. Bring your sweetheart, your best friend, or yourself. Fall in love with something green!

Heath & Heather Sale | Now through Feb 16
. All heaths and heathers are 30% off at the MCBG Nursery. Heathers are glowing in winter color, and heaths are in full bloom. Hardy, colorful, and coastal-loving.

Valentine’s Weekend Sale | Feb 14–16
. With paid admission, enjoy 30% off select items at The Garden Store and Nursery plants. Find the perfect gift, stroll the Gardens, and take a little love home.

---

URBAN FARMERS AND CANNABIS LITIGATORS
 
Join us on KMUD, Thursday, February 5, at 9 am, Pacific Time, with guests Darryl Cotton and Wolf Segal. 

OUR GUESTS
Darryl Cotton and Wolf Segal at 151farmers.org have been urban farmers, cannabis activists and pro se litigants in several high-profile cannabis cases spanning years in both state and federal courts.

OUR SHOW
Since the passage of Prop. 64, there has been quiet but steady takeover of the cannabis industry by "insider" attorneys and lobbyists. They have used their insider status to influence licensing, regulations, and tax collection.  

As a secondary issue, local governments often have a hard time explaining exactly where cannabis tax revenues go. In what is often described as an "all-cash" industry, who follows the money? Who audits?

During the show, we'll discuss the following:

1) Why the California Public Records Act (“CPRA”) requests are essential to determining what might be unlawful or improper activities.

2) The practical and proven methods to uncover CPRA records that will identify where recordkeeping and transparency at the local government level are lacking.

3) The tell-tale signs that you’re dealing with insider lawyers and lobbyists who might be a little too cozy with cannabis regulators and cannabis tax collectors.

4) How to begin researching the activities of your county's agricultural commissioner, treasurer and auditor, and building and planning department, who oversee cannabis cultivation licenses, permit requirements, zoning and location, regulatory compliance and citizen access.

5) The potential remedies for persons suffering damages due to illegal or improper business practices

6) The industry's "best business practices"?

ABOUT KMUD
Our show, "Heroes and Patriots Radio", airs live on KMUD, on the first and fifth Thursdays of every month, at 9 AM, Pacific Time.

We simulcast our programming on two full power FM stations: KMUE 88.1 in Eureka and KLAI 90.3 in Laytonville. It also maintains a translator at 99.5 FM in Shelter Cove, California.

We also stream live from the web at https://kmud.org/

Speak with our guests live and on-the-air at: KMUD Studio (707) 923-3911. Please call in.

We post our shows to our own website and YouTube channels. Shows may be distributed in other media outlets.

Our broadcast area is Humboldt, Trinty, Mendocino and Lake Counties in northern California, which is home to nearly a dozen distinct Native American tribes. These tribes include the Pomo, Karuk, Hupa, Tolowa, Wiyot, and Yurok Tribes.

Wherever you live, KMUD is your community radio station. We are a true community of informed and progressive people. Please join us by becoming a member or underwriter.

— John Sakowicz

---

BOONVILLE MUSIC SERIES FEBRUARY 2026 CONCERT

Music lovers of the Valley!

The Boonville Music Series returns for its Winter 2026 concert! The world has not been the calmest of places in recent times and we feel the need to offer an evening of music that is virtuosic as always, and yet, meditative.

Percussionist extraordinaire Chris Froh is back with the UC Davis Percussion Ensemble to offer:

Marimba Phase by Steve Reich

Apple Blossom by Peter Garland

Timber (parts I-V) by Michael Gordon

…and other selections announced from the floor!

The featured composers are considered American masters of minimalism and ambience, exploring shifting soundscapes of timbre, rhythm, and dynamics. Instruments will focus on wood — think wooden planks, marimbas — plus a few other instruments.

There will be an intermission plus refreshments for sale, hosted by the Anderson Valley Grange. All ticket proceeds support our continued presence in the Anderson Valley Unified School District; Chris and the UC Davis percussionists will have visited with students at the elementary and junior/senior high schools in Boonville leading up to the concert.

Thank you for supporting youth and musical activity in the Valley!

Saturday, February 21
6:30pm
Anderson Valley Grange
on Highway 128
Philo, CA

Doors open at 6pm
Tickets sliding scale ($10-$20)
18 and under free
Families of AVUSD students free

www.glfcam.com

---

---

ANDERSON VALLEY VARIETY SHOW, 2026

Hello folks of Anderson Valley, Mendocino County and beyond!

The 33rd annual Anderson Valley Grange variety show for 2026 is coming together. Showtimes are Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7. Acts are calling, but we are always looking for more. It's two completely different shows over the two nights, close to 40 acts, and there are no tryouts. This is not a judged talent show, it’s a “Variety Show”. Over the years we've seen everything from first time preschoolers looking like ‘Deer in the headlights’ to world class performers. We accept acts from all over the area and everyone is welcome, which has bolstered the event to become a great community gathering, all packed into the Grange enjoying each other's company. We like the local local aspect of real live people sharing all kinds of talent & entertainment.

In the past we've actually turned down a feature article in “California's Odd Events” along with an interview with the New York Times. “Thanks, but no thanks.” Always we look for a variety of acts likened to old-time Vaudeville shows. Skits, stories, music, dance, demonstrations. with an emphasis on “local.” Heck...spinning a pizza box on a finger while rollerskating, chainsaw sculpture, and of course, animal acts!

Over the years we've “outlawed” just a few things such as “no lip syncing”, “No video without live interaction” and just this year “No AI”. We understand that it's all around us and we can't really escape it, but the spirit of the show is ‘real’ people and animals creating their act with no AI assistance. “Hey kids do it yourself, It's way more fun!”

As for the show technicality, there's a rehearsal the weekend before the show where we schedule 20 minutes on stage for each act so you get familiar with the stage and the crew will work with you for sound and lighting cues. If you're open to it, we give unsolicited advice because we want you to be comfortable on stage and give your best performance. So, if you’re hearing the call to perform, contact the show host Captain Rainbow at 707-472-9189 and sign up your act!

---

RON PARKER:

This is the Methodist Indian Mission on the Round Valley Indian Reservation in Covelo, Mendocino County. This building was put up in 1894 as a Government warehouse from which the Indians were issued supplies twice per month. This is the only government building remaining. In 1900 it was made into a church as has been used for this ever since.

---

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, February 4, 2026

JEFFREY JOAQUIN, 31, Covelo. Attempted murder, battery with serious injury, parole violation, resisting.

VIKTORIA LADD, 31, Clearlake/Ukiah. Battery with serious injury, disorderly conduct-alcohol, contempt of court.

MATHEW LEWIS, 42, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ANTHONY LOPES, 55, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOSE LOPEZ-GALVEZ, 49, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SAMANTHA MENDEZ, 27, Ukiah. Domestic battery, resisting.

GILBERTO MIRANDA, 23, Ukiah. Lewd/lascivious acts with child under 14 with force.

MICHAEL SCHERR, 20, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

ARNOLD SISSON, 58, Covelo. Suspended license, failure to appear, probation revocation.

---

TRIBES, FISHERMEN AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS SLAM CALIFORNIA'S BIG AG-BACKED VOLUNTARY WATER AGREEMENTS

by Dan Bacher

As fish populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta continue to crash, a broad coalition of Californians said a resounding “No!” last week to a Newsom administration water plan they said would further exacerbate the ecological decline of the estuary.

On Friday, Tribal members, fishing families, youth, and community allies hosted a rally and public comment opposing the Bay-Delta Plan and proposed Voluntary Water Agreements (VAs) at the California State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento. Participants held colorful signs proclaiming “Save Our Salmon,” “Respect Our Rivers,” “Protect Our Rivers,” “Fish Need Cold Water,” and “55 to 65% Flows = Living Rivers.”

The rally and public comment took place during the final day of State Water Board hearings, marking the last opportunity for public input on a plan that would impact rivers, salmon, Delta fish species and drinking water across the state. It followed two days of powerful comments and panels opposing the plan by Tribes, Bay-Delta residents, environmental groups, and fishermen, according to a statement from Save California Salmon.…

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/3/2367031/-California-Tribes-Fishermen-and-Enviros-Slam-California-s-Big-Ag-Backed-Voluntary-Water-Agreement

---

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I have always been perplexed by the fascination with celebrities exhibited by a large percentage of the population. My father took me to a pro football game when I was about ten years old. After the game, a sizable crowd went onto the field in order to get an autograph from the local team's quarterback. My father asked "Wouldn't you like to go get an autograph?" My response was "Why would I want to do that?"

---

ANONYMOUS LAW ENFORCEMENT

Editor:

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claims ICE agents need to remain anonymous for their safety. Like the president, Noem may have forgotten that our government is “of the people, by the people, for the people.” All the people. Why is it that ICE, a taxpayer-funded entity ostensibly for public safety, is using tactics similar to the Taliban?

Taxpayers fund their $50,000 hiring bonuses and wages, but we can’t know who they are? Are they mercenaries or Jan. 6 rioters? Maybe if they showed their faces and identified themselves, they’d be less inclined to act like a paramilitary force. Our military has the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but ICE has immunity?

ICE in its current form mirrors this administration: forced obedience, little credibility and even less accountability, always the victim, creating a problem then forcing everyone to accept the solution. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights seem to impede their idea of law and order.

Our president once said our military should train in American cities for the enemy within. Is ICE training to help this administration enforce “law and order” during upcoming elections?

D.C. Galloway

Sebastopol

---

BEAVER FAMILY

Old man Beaver (Jacob Beaver, 1844-1925) came from Pennsylvania to Hoopa as a soldier during mid1800s, and ended up marrying a hupa woman (Molly Ashwood, ?-1914) and staying. At one point he owned Redwood Valley/Chezem between Blue Lake and Willow Creek. During that time he had a small store and ran the mail train through there. The family ended up moving to Glendale/Blue Lake area and then back to Hoopa somewhere in the 1920s. Old man Beaver and his wife are buried in Blue Lake. A side note, they had two babies who were buried somewhere on the hill side above the highway by the scale shack. William Beaver, the young man standing in the back, was born at Redwood Creek, 1879. This is just what I remember my family telling me as a child.

---

TRAUMA ON THE TRACKS

A poem, a train, a lunch with Hilton O. and my fortune at a Chinese restaurant

by Jonah Raskin

The 10:55 am train

to nowhere

stopped dead in

Redwood City

and went nowhere.

“Workers on strike,”

a uniformed

conductor

told me.

I didn’t

believe her.

We were in California

not France where

a strike

stranded a train

bound for Toulouse

from Aix where

I had visited

an American friend,

traveling West to stay

with a French couple

and their two sons.

On the Caltrain tracks

a suicide

halted all the trains

North and South Bound.

A rash of suicides

traumatizing

families and friends

a whole community,

and traumatic for

engineers powerless to

stop a train

in time to save

the life of a teenager

traumatized by parents.

Crossing the tracks on

Meadow Drive

reminded my

Palo Alto buddy

of his

family members

who died at Treblinka

some by suicide,

assisted by a friend,

an ultimate act of

rebellion,

that denied the

Nazis the power to

take their lives.

Trauma

rooted in the ground,

spring flowers

blooming

along

railroad tracks

in California.

---

HOWARD STREET, San Francisco, California, Known As Skid Row

---

IN HIS RADICALLY REDRAWN NEW DISTRICT, A MARIN CONGRESSMAN GETS THROWN TO THE WOLVES

by Joe Garofoli

ALTURAS, Modoc County — The Supreme Court has not yet signed off on California’s Proposition 50, which redrew the state’s congressional boundaries in order to boost the number of Democrats in Congress. But Rep. Jared Huffman is not waiting. He’s already started visiting the most remote parts of his radically redrawn district, which is now set to include one of the most conservative corners of the state.

At times, it felt like a scene from a sitcom: A progressive congressman from Marin County trying to woo Trump-loving locals in California’s MAGA-iest corner. A place so right-leaning that the Democratic Party doesn’t even have a local chapter.

It is a district that, until his death last month, has been represented by Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who voted with President Donald Trump 100% of the time in 2025, according to the Center for American Progress. It is home to ranchers and megachurches. And it’s where 62% of voters supported recalling Gavin Newsom in 2021; 72% of the voters in Huffman’s current district opposed it. Now it is being stretched to include Marin County and the rest of Huffman’s far more urban and progressive Bay Area turf.

During a two-day barnstorm of the region that included stops to meet with a local Indivisible chapter, a Native American tribe and at a biofuel mini power plant, Huffman, clad in a fleece U.S. Congress vest, assured Indivisible club members that he understands them.

“Representing rural communities is not new to me, even though you might think of me as maybe a liberal elite from the Bay Area,” Huffman told the group. “It is true that I live in Marin County, but for the past 14 years now, I’ve represented a district that goes all the way up to the Oregon border.”

Huffman spent the tour emphasizing that he’s fished on rivers here for years and that he’s not going to be pushing culture war issues. That may be more of a challenge in the future.

Shasta County, for example, is home to the 11,000-member evangelical Bethel Church that supports anti-LGBTQ policies and has thrown its weight behind local political officeholders, magnifying its conservative influence in the region. Huffman, meanwhile, is co-chair of the Congressional Free Thought Caucus, which advocates for church-state separation and calls out Christian nationalism in government. He describes himself as a humanist who doesn’t believe in God.

He didn’t spend a lot of his trip Trump-bashing but told the Indivisible group that “I am absolutely horrified at the threat to our democracy, to our fundamental values. It only seems to get worse with these scenes from Minnesota that they’re so horrifying to all of us.”

Huffman’s old district was 53% Democratic, 19% Republican, and the no-party-preference voters leaned heavily left. The newly drawn district is 45% Democratic, 28% Republican, and the independents lean right. He will be on the June ballot there for the first time, unless the Supreme Court blocks the map.

I joined Huffman and his wife, Susan, on their second trip to the far northeast corner of California in recent weeks, a 5½-hour drive in their electric Hyundai from their San Rafael home. They were accompanied by a private security guard Huffman hired — something he does for public events in all parts of the state. The Capitol Police investigated 14,938 threats to members of Congress last year, the third straight year threats have increased.

Huffman didn’t encounter any security issues on the trip, but certainly faced some reminders that he wasn’t in Marin anymore.

“I think I now have a more real sense for this place. It’s huge,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to make the mistake of trying to cover it in an electric vehicle.”

Not only were the Huffmans challenged trying to find working charging stations for their electric Hyundai during their travels, but he said he might make the next trip in an all-wheel-drive vehicle after they also got caught in a flash snowstorm that cut visibility to zero.

If he wins reelection in the newly drawn district, Huffman — the top Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources and a defender of the Endangered Species Act going back to his previous job as a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council — would represent a region where ranchers have campaigned for the gray wolf to be removed from the endangered list so they can more freely hunt them before they slaughter more of their cattle. State and federal laws prohibit people from shooting wolves, even when they eat livestock.

“I probably shouldn’t say the W-word,” Bradley Kresge, general manager of the Surprise Valley Electrification Corp., warned Huffman during an informal chat in Alturas about electricity rates in the region and other issues.

Kresge said that when he grew up in the Modoc County town of Adin, “deer were everywhere.” Now, he said, they’ve migrated from forested areas into local neighborhoods.

“You’re turning into Marin County,” Huffman said, seizing on a point of cross-regional connection. “I have deer that I have to shoo out of my yard.”

After a few minutes of talking about wolves and livestock, Huffman said, “Well, I’m gonna have to get a little smarter on this issue.” He has spent time recently with UC Berkeley researchers doing data collection on the wolf packs to learn more about the issue, but he hasn’t visited yet with any ranchers from his new region.

“I need to get out and kick some dirt on some of these ranches,” Huffman conceded. “That, in my experience, goes a long way toward breaking down some of the caricatures and stereotypes and just starting a conversation. I hope some ranchers will talk to me. I know that the politics are tricky here.”

“I appreciate your openness just to sit down and talk,” Kresge said. “You’ll do OK here.”

Huffman received similar reassurances on the trip. Showing up matters. Many locals were excited to see a Democratic congressman in their midst. Or any Democrat.

Indivisible leader Susan Malick told Huffman she appreciated him “traveling a long distance up this way. (People) don’t come here usually, unless you have a real reason to come here.”

Huffman does. He noted the “novelty” in how the people who redrew the state’s political boundaries “decided to connect the Golden Gate Bridge to far northeastern California.” He referenced Proposition 50 again at a meeting with a local Native American tribe, saying, “I know it’s a little strange the way they’ve redrawn the map, but I’m determined to just bring a good attitude and a good, hard work ethic and make it work for everyone.”And he did mention, without prompting, the “W-word.”

“The wolf issue is a little bit new to me, but it’s one I’m looking forward to tackling with common sense, not with just a bunch of political hyperventilation. I think we can coexist with predators and with wildlife, but we need to be smart about it,” Huffman said. “I don’t want to see your ranchers losing a whole bunch of livestock, but it’s worse here than in any other state where wolves have been reintroduced, which I find kind of interesting.”

Later in the day, Huffman told me he is walking a tightrope when it comes to the wolves.

“You’ve got to acknowledge the problem. But I also don’t want to peddle false hope. I mean, honestly, this is where I part ways with my Republican colleagues. They want people to believe that if you just get rid of the endangered species, act and delist the wolf, the whole problem goes away. And it doesn’t. It’s a lot more complicated than that.”

Sarah Merrick, the Indivisible host, and others at the event said they were impressed that Huffman had done some early research into local problems.

“The energy in the room was so positive,” Merrick said. “Everyone has been really depressed with everything that’s been going around, to the point of tears. And it was an uplift that there’s hope for the future. So we’re gonna back this guy for sure. He just is not a sleazy politician. He’s authentic. He’s down to earth and real.”

The day before, Huffman visited with the Pit River Rancheria Tribal Council in the Shasta County town of Burney. Huffman said his current district includes more tribes than any other House district outside of Alaska.

Wolves remained a hot topic.

“I think there’s an opportunity here to restore habitat and connectivity, wildlife crossings, things like that. So I’m very interested in these kind of win-win opportunities to coexist with the wolf, but also manage all of these wildlife values better,” Huffman said.

One tribal leader asked Huffman to describe his “governing philosophy.”

“Look, I’m a progressive Democrat, so you may not agree with me on everything you know, but I think we spend far too much time fighting culture wars and stuff that doesn’t make that much of a difference in people’s lives. I think we have opportunities to bring real solutions to rural communities that we get distracted from when we fight over, you know, who gets to use which restroom,” Huffman said.

Jerrylyn Spencer, a tribe member, said she was impressed by Huffman’s “knowledge of our Indian ways. He strongly agrees with our rights that we should have, and all the benefits that we should have.” And she said she’d likely agree with his opposition to Trump on many fronts.

Yatch Bamford, the Pit River tribal chairman, said Huffman’s progressive politics don’t “scare us away, or shy us away. We realize that we have to work with people from both sides of the aisle, and we look forward to seeing where we could come together on the common ground.”

The problems in this part of the state are too big to hang on party affiliation, several residents said. Michael Conrad, who moved to Modoc County 40 years ago from Saratoga, said there are few top health care professionals nearby. If you need a specialist of any kind, you need to drive at least 90 minutes. Health care is likely to get worse thanks to Trump’s signature HR1 law in the new district. Cuts to federal health care could hurt 82,000 adults who could lose Medi-Cal benefits in LaMalfa’s old district, according to an analysis by the California Budget Center. “There’s no cardiologists, no major surgeons and stuff like that,” Conrad said. “We don’t have that.”

Though the trip was intended to introduce Huffman to his maybe not-so-likeminded prospective constituents, Huffman’s Indivisible audience asked many of the same questions he hears from Marin audiences. They wanted to know what Democrats are doing to curb Trump, whether Democrats will win the House (Huffman believes so) and how to build more housing.

Huffman said he came away from the sojourn realizing that with all of the economic challenges in this part of the state — including in education, health care and forest management — that what his potential new constituents want and need most is “a federal government that’s responsive to them. People really need a relationship with their federal representative more in a place like Modoc than they do in a place like Marin.”

---

‘THE FOREVER SWEEP’: SAN FRANCISCO PREPS FOR HOMELESS MIGRATION BEFORE SUPER BOWL

City officials wouldn’t say whether they are planning widespread sweeps while quietly opening more shelter space in the Mission.

by Max Harrison-Caldwell & David Sjostedt

With Super Bowl 60 just days away, San Francisco is preparing for scores of unhoused people to enter the Mission.

Lydia Bransten, executive director of the nonprofit The Gubbio Project on Julian Street, said the city authorized funding for her organization to provide emergency nighttime shelter between Feb. 2 and Feb. 8.

The Gubbio Project, which usually operates only as a daytime shelter, is offering 80 beds and 14 chairs each night after 5 p.m. It also offers connections to drug treatment as well as homemade fettuccine alfredo and hot apple cider. Bransten said the amount of funding the city will provide has not been finalized.

“This is a step in the right direction,” she said. “We know people get moved during these big events, and the city has never been prepared to triage.”

Though city officials have not announced any special sweep of unhoused people or drug activity from downtown, the additional beds indicate that they anticipate migration. Bransten says it has already begun, with 67 people staying at her nonprofit’s shelter Monday night — about 30% of whom she had never seen before.

“If you walk along Mission Street, there’s a lot of new faces,” Bransten said. “The people who are here now have self-moved.”

When the Bay Area hosted the Super Bowl in 2016, San Francisco tried to tuck its homelessness crisis out of sight. City workers swept unhoused people and drug users away from downtown, inadvertently creating a “tent city(opens in new tab)” on Division Street.

The strategy backfired. Protestors hoisted tents outside the Ferry Building, decrying the city’s crackdown and cursing Mayor Ed Lee. The story gained momentum, even beyond(opens in new tab) the local press, and put the city’s crisis in the national spotlight.

Ten years later, enforcement is more consistent. One police source said there’s no need for a big crackdown because regular sweeps have become the law of the land.

Lukas Illa of the Coalition on Homelessness agreed.

“We’re in the forever sweep,” he said, citing the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2024 Grants Pass decision, which allowed cities to enforce anti-camping laws. “This has allowed every jurisdiction in the country to criminalize people living on the streets.”

Even before Grants Pass, the San Francisco Police Department was arresting people for drug use under Mayor London Breed, who took a tough-on-crime turn as the 2024 election approached. Harm reduction, a philosophy based on treating drug users with compassion, went out of vogue. The city’s approach to drugs and homelessness became more enforcement-oriented before Mayor Daniel Lurie was inaugurated and he is continuing the trend, to the dismay of homeless advocates.

But that doesn’t mean Super Bowl week will be business as usual for the city’s homeless residents. Illa said he’d heard from people who are proactively moving away from downtown, anticipating more enforcement.

“By the city’s own admission through its funding and its choice to open a shelter, there is going to be an increase,” Illa said.

Lurie spokesperson Charles Lutvak countered by saying the mayor’s office has conducted regular outreach work for a year and plans to continue.

“I don’t understand the assumption of a crackdown or sweep,” Lutvak said. He did not explicitly say there will not be a crackdown or sweep.

Jackie Thornhill, a spokesperson for the Department of Emergency Management, echoed the message of continued investment, saying the city’s work to bring people indoors is ongoing and unchanged.

“We are leveraging existing shelter capacity and flexible resources across the system: interfaith winter shelters remain active, and the city works daily to maximize available placements under existing contracts,” Thornhill said in a statement. “The message is simple: Help is available, and today is a good day to come inside.”

The SFPD did not respond to a request for comment.

---

I DON’T KNOW what to tell you.

A statement is easy, and here it is: Be yourself. Try to matter. Be a good friend. Love freely, even if you are likely—almost guaranteed—to be hurt, betrayed.

Do what you were created to do. You’ll know what this is, because it is what you keep creeping up to, peering at, dreaming of. Do it.

If you don’t, you’ll be punching clocks and eating time doing precisely what you shouldn’t, and you’ll become mean and you’ll seek to punish any and all who appear the slightest bit happy, the slightest bit comfortable in their own skin, the slightest bit smart. Cruelty is a drug, as well, and it’s all around us. Don’t imbibe.

Try to matter. Try to care. And never be afraid to admit that you just don’t know, you just don’t fucking know how you’re going to make it. That’s when the help—the human and the divine help—shows up.

—Tennessee Williams/Interview with James Grissom/1982/Photo by Richard Avedon

---

NO, I REGRET NOTHING

No, no regrets
No, I will have no regrets
All the things that went wrong
For at last I have learned to be strong
No, no regrets
No, I will have no regrets
For the grief doesn't last
It is gone, I've forgotten the past

And the memories I had
I no longer desire
Both the good and the bad
I have flung in a fire
And I feel in my heart
That the seed has been sown
It is something quite new
It's like nothing I've known

No, no regrets
No, I will have no regrets
All the things that went wrong
For at last I have learned to be strong
No, no regrets
No, I will have no regrets
For the seed that is new
It's the love
That is growing for you

— lyrics by Michel Vaucaire (1956), memorably sung by the great Edith Piaf

---

“IN ALL THE DARKNESS, through all the lies, all the fears, there can sometimes be one person who understands and loves you. Who knows what a loser you are; how many failures you’ve attended. Who always shows up. For me, it was Wally. Everything else was a fantasy, a drug. Wally was real. Wally was flesh. And there for me.”

—Marlon Brando on Wally Cox/ Interview with James Grissom/1990

---

SOMETHING LASTING LASTS

Elgar’s Enigmas
Nail it down really solid.
Something lasting lasts.

— Jim Luther

---

SAM DARNOLD'S GRANDFATHER, DICK HAMMER, IS THE STUFF OF LA LEGEND

A firefighter, an actor and, yes, the Marlboro Man

by Farley Elliott

Decades before he became Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold’s grandfather, Dick Hammer was pressed into a small, crowded volleyball arena in the middle of Tokyo, sweat rolling down into his numbered jersey. At 34, Hammer shouldn’t even have been there. The LA County kid had spent his entire life living locally, including college at the University of Southern California, and would later serve a job as a firefighter not far from his Long Beach hometown.

Besides, the Olympics are usually a younger person’s game.

But there he was, celebrating alongside his United States teammates, some more than a decade younger, as they toppled the Netherlands in three straight sets. It was a dominating mid-October performance for the American athletes, and just the kind of punctuating win the sport needed. After decades as a niche U.S. attraction, volleyball had grown to international prominence thanks in large part to host country Japan, whose legions of supporters advocated heavily for its Olympic inclusion. The International Olympic Committee ultimately relented, propelling volleyball to the 1964 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo.

That U.S. drubbing of the Netherlands was the first Olympic volleyball match win in world history. And Richard Bernard “Dick” Hammer was there.

Now, more than 60 years later, Hammer’s grandson is the one in the spotlight. Sam Darnold, the Orange County kid who still loves to sneak back to San Clemente in the offseason, is just days away from competing in Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara, having knocked off the San Francisco 49ers to get there. Yet for all the talk of Darnold’s surprise ascension to Super Bowl quarterback after a tumultuous past half-decade, there are some online who just can’t stop snickering at his grandfather’s, ahem, forceful name and legendary Los Angeles exploits.

Did you know that Dick Hammer was first and foremost a basketball player? In 1950, the Long Beach Press-Telegram described the 6-foot-2-inch Hammer as “a demon on rebounds and a long-shot artist.” And that was before he made it to USC. By 1954, Hammer was helping USC to reach the NCAA men’s tournament’s Final Four, a mark the fabled sports school hasn’t repeated since. (Hammer was also said to be a track and field standout at his other alma mater, Fullerton Junior College.)

Years later, Darnold would follow in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather, attending USC as a local boy trying to make the most of his physical talents. But while Darnold jumped from school to the NFL, Hammer went back to the sand in Long Beach. Eventually, he landed a job in the parks department, building playgrounds and helping kids.

Did you know that Dick Hammer was a firefighter? And not just any firefighter. Hammer moved on from parks to, eventually, become the captain of the Universal Studios crew, tasked with ensuring fire safety on the sprawling production campus during its 1970s boomtown era. The tall, square-jawed Hammer was so omnipresent on the backlot that he even found his way in front of the camera.

Did you know that Dick Hammer was an actor? For a time, anyway. In the first half of the inaugural season of NBC’s 1972 show “Emergency!” — which followed the daily exploits of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s nonexistent Station 51 — Hammer appeared as Capt. Dick Hammer. He was playing himself, essentially, just with a little makeup on. Hammer eventually left the production because he felt it interfered with his actual firefighting work.

Throughout the decade, Hammer would go on to make appearances in commercial and print advertisements, too, including an oft-running Aunt Jemima ad. Hammer’s face appeared on billboards along Sunset Boulevard, his wife Betty once told the Los Angeles Daily News.

Did you know that Dick Hammer was the Marlboro Man? Yep. For much of the ’70s, Hammer did indeed play one of the smoking cowboys in a series of television and print campaigns. “The Marlboro cowboys have proven to be the most virile image in the advertising world,” the Los Angeles Times said in a 1975 story on the cigarette company’s clever marketing, citing Hammer by name.

According to family reports, Hammer became uncomfortable with his role in marketing cigarettes toward the end of his life. For a man who had spent so long serving so many, the death toll from lung cancer became too large to ignore.

Hammer died of cancer himself on Oct. 18, 1999, back in Long Beach, 35 years and five days after making world history on a volleyball court in Tokyo. Across his 69 years, Hammer had gone so far and done so much but never left his hometown in the rearview. Sam Darnold, his red-haired grandson, was just 2 years old.

There are no statues of Hammer to be placed in front of arenas, no banners to be hung beneath stadium-sized lights. But there are stories and rumors and giggles at the name, and they resurface every few years — usually when Hammer’s grandson is doing something noteworthy, as he often does. And who knows? If Darnold manages to make enough Santa Clara magic in Super Bowl 60 this weekend, perhaps USC or some other institution will erect a statue in the footballer’s honor.

It seems only right for somebody in that family to get one.

---

---

W.B.YEATS WROTE ABOUT TRYING CANNABIS:

“I took the Indian hemp with certain followers of St. Martin on the ground floor of a house in the Latin Quarter. I had never taken it before, and was instructed by a boisterous young poet, whose English was no better than my French. He gave me a little pellet, if I am not forgetting, an hour before dinner, and another after we had dined together at some restaurant.

I felt suddenly that a cloud I was looking at floated in an immense space, and for an instant my being rushed out, as it seemed, into that space with ecstasy.

I had drunk some cups of coffee and eaten a pellet or two more, I grew very anxious to dance, but did not, as I could not remember any steps.

I opened my eyes and looked at some red ornament on the mantel-piece, and at once the room was full of harmonies of red, but when a blue china figure caught my eye the harmonies became blue upon the instant. I was puzzled, for the reds were all there, nothing had changed, but they were no longer important or harmonious; and why had the blues so unimportant but a moment ago become exciting and delightful? Thereupon it struck me that I was seeing like a painter, and that in the course of the evening everyone there would change through every kind of artistic perception.”

---

FEBRUARY EYESORE

by James Kunstler

Behold: This exercise in ultra-woke-techno-narcissism for the Chicago lake-front is called (variously) Eden Rise or Sky Droplet by Yanko Design. It is supposed to be a “vertical farm skyscraper.” The promotional literature says it all:

“A skyline where fresh lettuce grows a few floors above your head, rainwater is harvested from the clouds, and the architecture itself works quietly to heal long standing urban inequities. This project dares to ask a radical question. What if skyscrapers did not just house people, but fed them?

“At the heart of this proposal lies a deeply human problem. Food deserts. Across Chicago, many low income neighborhoods struggle to access affordable, nutritious food. Grocery stores are scarce, fresh produce is often out of reach, and fast food becomes the default not by choice, but by circumstance. These conditions have fueled health disparities and reinforced socio economic divides for decades. Rather than treating this as a policy issue alone, the project reframes it as an architectural opportunity.”

Note: The proposed site for this prank is the most affluent neighborhood in Chicago. Hardly a food desert. The actual “low income neighborhood(s)” are miles away on city’s south side and west side. Now, imagine the cost of “farming” inside a building, the electricity for grow-lights, for running the water pumps, and probably an army of farmhands to manage all the plants, the hypothetical crops they might produce, and the technology itself. Imagine the complexity of the system and the many failure points entailed. Imagine a water leak on the 63rd floor.

Woke-ultra-hyper-complexity in Action

Consider that this is why farming is best practiced outdoors, on the horizontal plane, on dirt. . . with rain. Consider, too, that Chicago is in the Midwest, surrounded by the world’s best farmland, and how easily food can be transported across the Midwest’s flat terrain, by rail especially, from farm to market.

If you really want to solve the “food desert” problem, try asking why the problem exists. For instance, how does epidemic shoplifting break the business model of a supermarket?

Thanks to John Kane for the nomination!

---

WHEN DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER WAS DOUGLAS MACARTHUR’S AIDE in the 1930s

For seven long years, Ike slaved away as MacArthur's aide. What started out as an effective partnership ended in mutual enmity.

by Carlo D’Este

One of the most enigmatic relationships in modern military history was that of Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur. Their often turbulent association spanned virtually the entire decade of the 1930s, during which time Eisenhower worked almost exclusively for MacArthur in a multifaceted role of secretary, adviser, staff officer and, frequently, whipping boy. Theirs was a relationship that began with great promise and ended in a lifelong enmity between two of the most important figures of World War II.

Douglas MacArthur had risen to the army’s highest and only four-star rank in 1930 after a brilliant career that mirrored the exploits of his famous father, Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur Jr., who had earned the Medal of Honor on Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, in November 1863. Obsessed with emulating his father, MacArthur became first captain of the Corps of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, graduated first in his class, and was recommended for but never awarded the Medal of Honor for his exploits during the Veracruz, Mexico, expedition in April 1914.

MacArthur’s valor under fire in the famed 42nd “Rainbow” Division was legendary and earned him the distinction of being the most decorated American soldier of World War I. As the superintendent of West Point from 1919 to 1922, MacArthur instituted major reforms that finally brought the archaic military academy into the 20th century.

By contrast, Eisenhower graduated from West Point in 1915 with an indifferent academic record and no firm belief that the Army represented a permanent career choice. To his dismay, he spent World War I commanding a tank training center at Camp Colt, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Frustrated by his failure to see combat in France, and convinced his military career might never recover, Eisenhower nevertheless emerged from the war with a glowing reputation as a troop trainer.

He soon came to the attention of Brig. Gen. Fox Conner, perhaps the Army’s most brilliant intellectual, who rejuvenated and further sharpened Eisenhower’s already significant appetite for reading and studying history. Under his intense one-on-one tutelage, Eisenhower’s military education began to take shape in the early 1920s in Panama. In the narrow world of the interwar military, where budgets rather than military necessity ruled supreme, Conner was a steady voice of reason who repeatedly warned Eisenhower of future danger from a resurgent and aggressive Germany.…

https://www.historynet.com/dwight-d-eisenhower-douglas-macarthurs-aide-in-the-1930s/

---

There are, broadly speaking, two different types of people who are calling attention to the Epstein files right now: (A) those who hope the revelations lead to high-level prosecutions and major institutional changes in the US government, and (B) those who know this will never happen but hope the revelations will help radicalize people toward truly revolutionary politics.

Those in category (A) believe the system is broken and needs to be fixed. Those in category (B) understand that the system is working exactly as intended and needs to be destroyed.

Those in category (A) believe there’s a possibility that they’ll see high-level prosecutions and major institutional changes in the US government because they think the abuses associated with Jeffrey Epstein are aberrations which conflict with the values and principles their country stands for. Those in category (B) understand that Epstein and his ilk are the natural products of the abusive capitalist dystopia under which they live, and are in this sense as American as apple pie.

Those in category (A) think the system can save them from future Jeffrey Epsteins. Those in category (B) understand that the system was explicitly designed to give rise to Jeffrey Epsteins.

In category (A) you’ll find mainstream Democrats and Republicans, which include “progressives” and right wing “populists” who don’t view themselves as mainstream. In category (B) you’ll find those with actual revolutionary politics who seek to dismantle capitalism and the US empire.

The more clear it becomes that we are ruled by psychopaths, the more people will hopefully begin to migrate from category (A) to category (B).

— Caitlin Johnstone

---

EVERY MORNING, Wallace Stevens put on a grey suit, picked up his briefcase, and went to an insurance office in Hartford, Connecticut.

At night, he wrote poems that wrestled with reality itself—and asked whether beauty might be enough to save it.

He was one of America’s greatest poets, yet he lived like an accountant. His colleagues had no idea the man approving claims was also writing The Idea of Order at Key West. He didn’t talk about art. He didn’t go to readings. He valued silence, exactness, restraint.

Stevens was a bundle of contradictions.

He believed imagination could redeem the world, yet mistrusted emotion.

He lived a life of strict order, while his poetry shimmered with colour, strangeness, and controlled chaos.

When Harmonium appeared in 1923, it barely sold a few hundred copies. Critics were baffled. Stevens didn’t protest or explain. He kept going—quietly revising lines during lunch breaks, polishing poems between files and figures.

Years later, those same lines would echo through classrooms and anthologies:

“After the final no, there comes a yes.”

In his final year, dying of cancer, he converted to Catholicism. For a man who spent a lifetime circling doubt, perhaps it wasn’t faith in doctrine—but faith in beauty itself.

Wallace Stevens proved that art doesn’t always rise from madness or fame.

Sometimes it grows out of routine, patience, and quiet discipline—from a man writing poems at the edge of his payslip, turning precision into grace.

---

---

LEAD STORIES, THURSDAY'S NYT

Nuclear Arms Control Era Comes to End Amid Global Rush for New Weapons

Prosecutor Fired After Voicing Frustration With Immigration Caseload

Trump Says He Ordered Withdrawal of 700 Immigration Agents From Minneapolis

Doctors’ Group Endorses Restrictions on Gender-Related Surgery for Minors

Savannah Guthrie Addresses Mother’s Abductor: ‘We Are Ready to Talk’

Five Minutes Into 2026 Winter Olympics’ First Event, the Lights Went Out on Curling

---

WASHINGTON POST IMPLODES

Washington Post begins sweeping layoffs as it sharply scales back news coverage

by Mary Cunningham

The Washington Post is laying off a third of its workers across all departments, scaling back foreign news coverage and shutting down some sections of the paper.…

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/washington-post-begins-sweeping-layoffs

(via Craig Stehr)

---

---

WHAT WILL THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE IN THE ‘NEW WORLD ORDER’? (w/John Mearsheimer)

Donald Trump believes that U.S. economic and military might are all he needs to become a benign dictator and achieve unilateral control over America's allies — what will the effects of this policy be?

by Chris Hedges

Karl Marx, in his essay “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” said that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Donald Trump’s actions in the first year of his second term have spelled out to many that tragedies of history are beginning to repeat themselves, this time certainly as farces.

John Mearsheimer, the renowned scholar, author and R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to contextualize what Trump’s political missions mean through the lens of history.

“Things like soft power, things like international institutions, international law, allies, they’re just not important to [Trump],” Mearsheimer says. “[Trump] thinks that U.S. economic might and U.S. military might are all he needs to basically be a benign dictator and act unilaterally and get what he wants around the world.”

With this thinking, there are real threats to the world order, Mearsheimer argues, especially Europe and East Asia. In Europe, Trump’s disregard for international law and alliances, such as NATO, alarms a leadership class that has always relied on American security guarantees. In East Asia, China’s dominance and lack of adherence to the Western imperial status quo may become a flashpoint similar to that in Europe before World War I.

“For the first time in our history, we face a serious problem in East Asia. Imperial Japan was not that big a problem… China is a completely different story. This is a formidable power. Really, we’ve never seen anything like this when you look at the key building blocks of military power, the size of the population, the wealth, the ability to develop sophisticated technologies better than we do.”

Most European leaders, including NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte along with the heads of U.S. universities, media organizations and the top tech executives, make the fatal mistake of attempting to appease Donald Trump. They grovel before him in shameless sycophancy. This sycophancy is on display at every cabinet meeting.

It sees billionaires, such as Bill Gates, praise the president’s “incredible leadership.” It has rendered the other two branches of government impotent. Congress is moribund. The Supreme Court is a rubber stamp for Trump’s imperial delusions. The Republican Party is a Trump cult.

Trump, as we see with his kidnapping of the president of Venezuela, his self-appointment as the imperial viceroy of Gaza, his calls to seize Greenland, Canada along with Mexico, Cuba, possibly Nicaragua, his unleashing of masked goons in the streets of American cities to terrorize the public, is a one-man wrecking crew. He is demolishing what is left of our democratic institutions at home and the liberal international order abroad, one put into place at the end of World War II.

This old international order rested on military alliances such as NATO. It championed a respect for the rule of law and human rights, although the U.S. often ran roughshod over these ideals. It collaborated with, and paid deference to, its allies. It permitted free trade. It saw the sovereignty of other nations as sacrosanct. By the time Trump is done, all this will be gone.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told his audience, which gave him a standing ovation, at Davos.

Trump divides the world into the weak and the strong. He is reticent to use his tactics of threats and intimidation on Russia and China. He expresses open admiration for these two autocracies. He proposes carving up the globe between his fellow autocrats, with Russia dominating its European periphery, China dominating Asia, and the United States controlling the Middle East, North America, including Greenland and Canada, along with Central and South America.

Trump is dynamiting the NATO transatlantic alliance. He ignores and openly violates international humanitarian law, especially in Gaza. He has ceded the innovations to cope with the climate crisis to China, not only by denying the reality of global warming — he calls the climate crisis “a green scam” and “the greatest con job ever perpetrated” — but by actively thwarting the development of alternative energy sources and gutting programs designed to cope with the breakdown of the climate.

Trump’s reliance on an economy based on fossil fuels, like his reliance on U.S. military superiority to exert his will on weaker states, accelerates the decline of the American Empire. It will ultimately make American industries uncompetitive. It will drive countries away from the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, one of the most potent weapons in Trump’s arsenal. It will turn the U.S. into a pariah state. And it will trigger the kind of military adventurism that backfires on all dying empires.

Joining me to discuss the reconfiguration of the global order under Trump is Professor John Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and the author of numerous books, including The Tragedy of Great Power Politics and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.…

https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/what-will-the-future-look-like-in

---

MEDITATIONS ON A DELIVERY ROBOT STEERING TO AVOID A HOMELESS MAN ON THE SIDEWALK

by Caitlin Johnstone

I saw a video of a food delivery robot navigating around the body of a homeless person lying on the sidewalk, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

This video is as close to a self-portrait of western civilization as it gets. This is who we are. This is where we’re at. Might as well have giant letters with a big red arrow saying “YOU ARE HERE” overtop it.

It captures so perfectly the creepy dance between suffering, apathy, frivolity and corporate profiteering that makes our particular dystopia so distinctive, in just a few short seconds of footage. This is the dance that makes the empire go round.

It’s got everything:

– A man splayed out on the concrete because it hurts to be human in this global ghost town, and because he was unsuccessful at becoming a productive gear-turner in the capitalist machine, and because social safety nets have been stripped bare in order to help millionaires become billionaires.

– Automation being used to eliminate workers’ wages for the maximization of corporate profits, when it could be getting used to bring about a permanent end to toil and poverty for the entire human species.

– Technological innovation stagnating at fast food delivery robots and predatory service apps instead of inventions which help save our biosphere, provide for the needful, heal the sick and improve our quality of life, because sending someone a Big Mac in a snackbot through an app will generate profits, while making the world a better place will not.

– The machine calmly navigating around the unfortunate soul on the pavement in the same way all the human pedestrians have been doing all day, because that’s what we all learn to do in a society which casts those who can’t keep up to the side of the road like so much refuse.

This is where we are. This is what we have become.

That robot steering its way around that man on the sidewalk is revealing more truth about the kind of world we are living in than you will ever receive from the corporate news media.

That robot has the real story.

That robot is giving you the real on-the-ground scoop on what’s really going on here.

That robot is a better reporter than Jake Tapper. It certainly has more journalistic integrity.

We’re all following that robot off a cliff, into an abyss of madness and oblivion.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

---

DINOSAURIA, WE

Born like this
Into this
As the chalk faces smile
As Mrs. Death laughs
As the elevators break
As political landscapes dissolve
As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
As the oily fish spit out their oily prey
As the sun is masked

We are
Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings

Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes

Born into this
Walking and living through this
Dying because of this
Muted because of this
Castrated
Debauched
Disinherited

Because of this
Fooled by this
Used by this
Pissed on by this
Made crazy and sick by this
Made violent
Made inhuman
By this

The heart is blackened
The fingers reach for the throat
The gun
The knife
The bomb
The fingers reach toward an unresponsive god

The fingers reach for the bottle
The pill
The powder

We are born into this sorrowful deadliness
We are born into a government 60 years in debt
That soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt
And the banks will burn
Money will be useless
There will be open and unpunished murder in the streets
It will be guns and roving mobs
Land will be useless
Food will become a diminishing return
Nuclear power will be taken over by the many
Explosions will continually shake the earth

Radiated robot men will stalk each other
The rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms
Dante’s Inferno will be made to look like a children’s playground

The sun will not be seen and it will always be night
Trees will die
All vegetation will die
Radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men
The sea will be poisoned
The lakes and rivers will vanish
Rain will be the new gold

The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind

The last few survivors will be overtaken by new and hideous diseases
And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition
The petering out of supplies
The natural effect of general decay

And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard

Born out of that.

The sun still hidden there
Awaiting the next chapter.

— Charles Bukowski (1992)

---