Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 2/18/2026

Short Break | Thomas Williams | Fatal Crash | Distant Horizon | DNA Match | Homemade Tamales | Catfish Cox | Artist Reception | Alfred Weger | Jesse Headlands | Bridge Builders | Yesterday's Catch | Found Guilty | Tipping Issue | Ignoring Science | Skiers Missing | Nothing Leftovers | Beatniks | Interview | Never Horse | Rogers Commission | Jesse Jackson | Got Famous | Toxic Rush | Effed Up | Helped Jesse | Lead Stories | Restore Britain | Bird Woman | Countering Trump | The Corner

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SNOW, SMALL HAIL AND RAIN SHOWERS continue across the area into early Wednesday. A short break in the weather is expected Wednesday as the showers become more scattered. Rain and low elevation snow are expected to return Wednesday evening and continue through Thursday morning. Another break in the precip is expected Thursday afternoon through Friday before another strong storm system moves in for the weekend bringing rain, snow, and strong wind. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A briskly 37F (well below the forecast temp) with a hail shower just now & .33" of new rainfall this Wednesday morning on the coast. HUGE rain on Sunday then scattered showers since then, an odd system so far ? For right now I will forecast for more of the same erratic rain activity & cold temps especially overnights. The 10 day indicates this will last well into next week.

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THOMAS WILLIAMS

Grandpa Thomas

It is with deep sadness that we announce the peaceful passing of our beloved grandfather, Thomas Williams, on February 15, 2026. He departed this life surrounded by love and family. He was proceeded in death by parents William Mitchell Williams, Mary Santos Aldama Williams, and daughter Natalie Williams.

He is survived by his loving children: Tony Smith, Claudine Williams, Ken Williams, Huddy Williams, Janice Elliot, Ted Elliot, and Brian Williams, along with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will forever carry his legacy in their hearts.

Thomas proudly served his country during the Korean War — a chapter of his life that reflected his strength and courage. He was known for his generosity and his commitment to caring for his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. His love was constant and unconditional, and his presence brought comfort and security to those around him.

He found joy in life’s simple pleasures. He loved Miller’s doughnuts, playing bingo, trying his luck with a little gambling, working on word finds, and spending hours around the table playing cards and dominoes. Whether laughing during a card game or simply enjoying time with family, he created memories that will live on in all of us.

All who knew and loved him are welcome to attend his viewing at Eversole Mortuary on Thursday, February 19th, from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

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FATAL CRASH ON STATE ROUTE 1 NORTH OF ANCHOR BAY, MENDOCINO COUNTY

A tragic vehicle collision resulted in a fatality today on State Route 1, located between Anchor Bay and Gualala in Mendocino County.

The incident occurred on Feb. 16th around 12:56 p.m. when a tan Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck veered off the road and collided with trees on the western side of the highway. The California Highway Patrol reported that the vehicle’s top was significantly crushed, and it came to rest approximately five feet down from the roadway.

Emergency services were promptly dispatched following a 911 alert from an iPhone crash detection feature, which indicated that someone was trapped inside the vehicle. Upon arrival, first responders found a woman trapped inside the pickup truck. Despite their efforts, she succumbed to her injuries at the scene. The identity of the deceased has not been released pending notification of next of kin.

The roadway was momentarily blocked as crews from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and other emergency services worked to extricate the trapped individual and clear the scene. The truck reportedly crashed into trees on the right lane heading towards Gualala.

The cause of the fatal crash remains under investigation by the authorities, who are seeking any witnesses to the incident. Those with information are encouraged to contact local law enforcement to assist in the ongoing investigation.

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GOOD POLICE WORK BY UKIAH PD

On September 1st of 2025 the Ukiah Police Department’s Investigative Unit began an investigation into a sexual assault after a female reported that she had been lured into the vehicle of a male posing as an Uber driver. The 34-year-old female victim, a resident of Ukiah, was walking home after swimming at the Russian River when a vehicle pulled up next to her and offered her a ride. The female believed that the vehicle was an Uber that had been ordered for her by her husband, who had left the river earlier and already returned home. Once inside the vehicle, the male driver identified himself as “Bruce,” and claimed to be an Uber driver.

The male began driving in the direction of the female’s home, but she noticed that they had driven past her street. The female asked him to turn around, but the driver ignored her and drove to the Riverside Park at the east end of Gobbi Street. Once at the park the male began sexually assaulting the female, ripping her dress, and placing his mouth and hands on her breasts. The female victim yelled at the male to stop but he continued to forcefully attempt sexual contact with the victim. The female was eventually able to free herself and get out of the vehicle. The female ran home where she reported what had happened to her husband and contacted law enforcement.

The female was transported by ambulance to the Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Emergency Room where she was treated for minor injuries and underwent a sexual assault forensic examination.

The female was not familiar with the suspect, who had only identified himself as “Bruce,” and was described as a white male adult with red hair and a ginger beard. UPD Detectives looked for security video or any witnesses that might have information that would assist with the investigation but were not able to develop any further investigative leads.

In late January the results of the sexual forensic exam of the victim were returned from the California Department of Justice, and the report contained a DNA match from a swab taken from the female’s body. The DNA was linked to a Bruce Edwards of Willits, who was confirmed to be a white male adult with red hair and a ginger beard.

UPD Detectives launched an investigation into Edwards, and obtained a search warrant for his residence, his vehicle, his electronic devices, and a comparison DNA sample. On February 11th UPD Detectives located and detained Edwards in Ukiah. During a search of Edwards’ cell phone pursuant to the warrant, detectives located numerous videos that appeared to be secret recordings of an unclothed young female. Edwards admitted to secretly video recording the minor for his own sexual gratification, who was the daughter of his adult roommate. Edwards also provided information on the sexual assault from Riverside Park, and was placed under arrest for sexual assault, sexual battery by force, sexual penetration with a foreign object, and unauthorized recording for sexual gratification.

The Ukiah Police Department remains committed to keeping the residents of Ukiah safe and preventing violent crime in our community. The Ukiah Police Department would like to thank the California Department of Justice and the staff members of the Adventist Health Ukiah Emergency Room for their assistance with this investigation. For updates about crime in your neighborhood, residents can sign up for telephone, cell phone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle link on our website: www.ukiahpolice.com.

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TAMALES!

Hello my wife will be selling home made tamales on Sunday, February 22, let me know if some body wants to make an order: 707/272-6072.

• Green chicken
• Red pork
• Chili poblano with cheese

$35 per dozen or $20 for half dozen

I will deliver in Mendocino and Fort Bragg

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“CATFISH” DEFENDANT NETTED AGAIN … AND NOW HEADING OUT OF TOWN.

The “catfish” -– the former lead nurse at Mendocino County’s Low Gap jail facility who was placed on supervised probation by the Mendocino County Superior Court in April 2025 for eight sex-related felonies, two assault weapon felonies, and one misdemeanor -- is now officially heading off to state prison.

With eight witnesses subpoenaed by the prosecution waiting in the wings to testify at a probation violation hearing scheduled for last Friday morning, defendant Blake Dylan Bradley Cox, age 29, generally of Ukiah, instead threw in the towel and admitted violating the terms of his probation six different ways.

The defendant admitted having an undeclared Apple iPhone (that the Ukiah Police Department found hidden in the air filter in the engine compartment of one of the defendant’s vehicles); being in possession of an electronic device with Internet accessibility; refusing to provide law enforcement his undeclared phone’s passcode as required by prior court order; calling and attempting to have an out-of-state relative delete digital evidence stored in the cloud; committing a theft of tools from his employer; and unlawfully possessing a fraudulent U.S. Army identification card.

It was stipulated by the parties and agreed by the court that defendant Cox will be sentenced to 72 months in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation when he returns to court for formal sentencing on March 26th at 9 o’clock in the morning in Department A of the Ukiah courthouse.

The law enforcement agency that pulled the laboring oar in investigating the defendant’s ongoing flaunting of laws, probation rules, and stolen valor was the Ukiah Police Department.

District Attorney David Eyster continued as the prosecutor handling the probation violation charges against defendant Cox.

For more information on what is "catfishing" and how to avoid it, helpful information and tips can be found at < https://www.esafety.gov.au/young-people/catfishing >.

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MIKE GENIELLA: Mendocino County DA David Eyster continues to limit public response to his social media posts despite court opinions to the contrary, including the U.S. Supreme Court two years ago. Why?

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CASING THE JOINT

This March, something curious is happening in the front windows of the Corner Gallery…

A brand-new feast of wildly imaginative assemblage art is arriving in Ukiah as artists Spencer Brewer and Esther Siegel present “Casing the Joint,” a never-before-seen collection of original works created by local participants from their popular Harmony Gaits Outta the Box Assemblage Camps.

Each piece in the show began the same way — with a pile of mysterious, unrelated objects.

Inside Brewer and Siegel’s enormous barn studio at Harmony Gaits, shelves are stacked to the rafters with an astonishing collection of odds and ends gathered over decades: fragments of grand pianos, antique hardware, doll parts, clockworks, wire, jewelry, ephemera, and countless curious treasures whose original purpose has long been forgotten. Camp participants are invited to dig in and let their imagination run free — assembling these relics into something entirely new.

The results? Unexpected. Emotional. Whimsical. Provocative. And often jaw-dropping.

“This has been an amazing, eye-opening, empowering experience,” shared one recent camper. “It’s enabled me to truly think outta the box while creating my piece.”

Another participant said, “I love the potential of art being made out of just about anything!”

Even those who don’t consider themselves artists have found themselves surprised. “I didn’t think art was accessible to me,” admitted a first-time camper. “But this is really accessible — and fun. I didn’t realize how time would just disappear while I was creating.”

The First Friday Opening Reception for ‘Casing the Joint’ takes place March 6th from 5–8pm at the Corner Gallery, located at 201 South State Street in Ukiah. Throughout the month, visitors can view this eclectic showcase of inventive works — each by a different local artist discovering what’s possible when creativity meets curiosity.

Come see what can happen when forgotten objects are given a second life… and imagination takes over.

harmonygaits.com

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ALFRED WEGER - REDWOOD TREE STUMP

In front of the stump of the tree used to build the Redwood Tree Service Station. (via Ron Parker)

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JACKSON’S NON-VISIT TO MENDO

Skyhawk:

Does anyone else remember when Jesse Jackson spoke at the Mendocino Headlands (1988? It think)? It’s sad that he didn’t win the nom. But he sure made a statement!

1988 Campaign: He ran a much stronger, more organized campaign, winning 11 contests (including primaries and caucuses) and over 1,000 delegates before losing the nomination to Michael Dukakis.

Impact: His campaigns registered millions of new voters, pushed the Democratic Party to the left, and paved the way for future minority candidates, including Barack Obama.

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David Jones:

He didn’t speak. I waited with a number of people but it turned out he was unable to make it because of other commitments. At least that’s what I remember.

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Anon:

No Jesse Jackson did not make it. I was on the plane with him from LA and we could not land in Little River, not sure if it was weather or b/c runway was not adequate. All this was organized by Rachel Binah - our local “stop offshore oil drilling” champion and democratic party leader, along with Linda Freedman who worked with State Parks to secure security and the site. Maxine Waters was also on the plane and ready to speak to our local community.

Jackson was a tireless fighter, and may his legacy live on to inspire others.

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ED NOTE:

Odd that so many locals are claiming they heard Jesse Jackson speak on the Mendo Headlands, circa '84 (?). I was there in the crowd of about a thousand people waiting and waiting for the oracle to appear. It occurred to me that we were like some kind of liberal cargo cult, gazes massed upward at an impenetrable fog bank, the unyielding skies preventing Jackson from landing. Myself, I have always believed he never was Mendo-bound, finding the crowds much larger and far more lucrative in the Bay Area. I remember Richard Johnson, aka The One True Green, posted at the north end of the Headlands where the crowd had to pass. OTG was passing out his occasional newspaper, four pages of thunderously obvious opinion as he suggested donations "to keep up this important work." A few years later he was arrested for drunk-riding his bicycle, and then he was gone, one more comic figure lost to Mendocino County's ongoing comedy special.

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JEFFREY ST. CLAIR:

Jesse's two runs, 84/88, were the last Democratic presidential campaigns I had any interest in joining. Those campaign, which, among other things, warned about the coming neoliberal takeover of the Democratic Party, spawned dozens of great activists, including my late buddy Kevin Alexander Gray. The Democratic Party, in league with the Israel lobby, deployed every trick in the book, and some found only the apocrypha, not only to destroy his campaign, but to try to destroy Jesse both as a force in the Party and personally. Yet, even with the entire party apparatus working viciously against him, Jesse still crushed Biden, Al Gore and Dick Gephardt. That spirit would only resurface again in 2016 with Bernie's campaign, but Jesse had built a multi-racial/ethnic campaign aimed at poor and working class people that Bernie, for whatever reason, couldn't replicate, but the Democrats' strategy for rigging the primaries and personal demonization remained much the same.

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BRIDGE BUILDING NAVARRO RIVER BRIDGE

At Navarro by the Sea (via Ron Parker)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, February 17, 2026

SHAWNA COCHRAN, 42, Ukiah. DUI.

ANGEL CORIA-PENA, 23, Yuba City/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DANIELA FAVILA, 35, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, destroying or concealing evidence, resisting.

MANUEL GONZALEZ JR., 27, Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

FERNANDO GONZALEZ-PEREZ, 48, Ukiah. DUI, no license.

JESSE HUGHES, 42, San Francisco/Ukiah. Petty theft.

SARA JUDICE, 39, Ukiah. DUI-any drug.

NOAH LURANHATT, 35, Ukiah. Parole violation, resisting.

PENNY MCAFEE, 54. Middletown/Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

BYRON PETERS, 47, Covelo. DUI with priors, suspended license for DUI, evasion, resisting.

TIFFFANY REDWOOD, 38, Billings, Montana/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

DONALD RETTIG, 62, Ukiah. Controlled substance with two or more priors.

ROSA RODRIGUEZ, 39, Rio Dell/Ukiah. Trespassing.

MICHAEL TWILLEY, 47, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia.

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SARA GEER’S MURDERER FOUND GUILTY

Nearly 44 years after 13-year-old Sarah Geer was brutally raped and strangled to death in a Cloverdale alley, the girl’s murderer has been found guilty.

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TIPPING

Editor:

Asking customers to tip more isn’t the only response to rising costs. Many businesses raise prices and move to a transparent, tip-free model that directly covers wages. That alternative — central to why many customers were uncomfortable — wasn’t meaningfully explored.

The speculative math in the article also muddied the issue. A 20% increase on an $8 pastry brings it to $9.60. That’s straightforward. Framing it as something more dramatic distracts from a clear discussion about pricing versus tipping.

I was also struck by the lack of labor advocates, worker-rights voices or wage experts. If a story centers on compensation, tipping culture and “living wages,” those perspectives provide essential context beyond one business or one viral post.

When coverage leans primarily toward owners, it feels incomplete. The intensity of the response suggests growing discomfort with how much responsibility for wages has shifted onto customers. Exploring that tension more directly would strengthen future reporting.

Andrew Leonard

Santa Rosa

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CLIMATE SCIENCE DENIAL

Editor:

How is it that the most powerful country in the world, with the best science and technology — where countries throughout the world send their best and brightest to be educated at great universities — has denied science. With its caveman mentality, the current administration has erased scientific findings that climate change endangers human health and the environment, ending the federal government’s authority to control the pollution that is dangerously heating our beloved planet.

While more than 190 countries, originally led by the U.S., are dedicated to the Paris climate accord, we sit on the sidelines ignoring six decades of scientific research. Until we learn the lessons of science, we will suffer the consequences of a country in decline. World history teaches us to follow science to prevent a long-term path to death and destruction.

Don Raimondi

Santa Rosa

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NINE SKIERS MISSING AFTER LARGE AVALANCHE NEAR TRUCKEE

Teams respond to Castle Peak area near Boreal ski resort

by Ethan Baron

Nine skiers were still missing Tuesday night after an avalanche earlier that day in the Sierra Nevada near Truckee, officials said.

The Sierra Avalanche Center received a report around 11:30 a.m. that a large avalanche had buried seven to 10 people, and that three others were trying to rescue them.

The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office initially said 16 skiers, including four guides, were involved in the incident, but the total was later revised to 15. Six of the skiers survived and were rescued Tuesday night.

“Due to extreme weather conditions, it took several hours for rescue personnel to safely reach the skiers and transport them to safety, where they were medically evaluated by Truckee Fire,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Two of the six skiers were taken to an area hospital for treatment.

Nearly four dozen rescuers were responding to the incident, the sheriff’s office said. They included teams from both Boreal Mountain California ski resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center.

The group had been staying at the Frog Lake Huts, a backcountry lodge run by the Truckee Donner Land Trust, said Steve Reynaud, an avalanche forecaster with the Sierra Avalanche Center. The skiers had arrived Sunday and were to check out Tuesday, Reynaud said. The land trust notes on its website that usual routes to and from the lodge have “some degree of avalanche hazard.”

Reynaud said it appeared the skiers had been headed toward the Castle Peak trailhead near Boreal ski area, next to I-80 — a 3.5-mile route the land trust says passes through “numerous avalanche hazards.”

“An avalanche burying seven to 10 people would be a very large avalanche, or a group being in a bad location, or potentially both,” Reynaud said.

In a statement, Blackbird Mountain Guides confirmed the skiers were its clients and guides.

“The group was in the process of returning to the trailhead at the conclusion of a three-day trip when the incident occurred,” the company said.

Backcountry skiing typically requires specialized equipment including removable “skins” affixed to ski bottoms that facilitate ascending, and bindings that allow the boot heel to lift up for climbing, and lock down for descending.

Reynaud said the group likely wore location beacons and carried snow probes and shovels in case of avalanche. But, he said, “As soon as you have more than one person or multiple people buried it becomes a much more difficult rescue.”

If a buried person isn’t dug out within 10 or 15 minutes, “survival drops off pretty quickly,” Reynaud said.

The remoteness of the avalanche site combined with severe weather and highway closures hampered the rescue response, Reynaud said.

“There’s not an easy way for search and rescue or outside help to get there,” Reynaud said. “Even getting rescue personnel to the location to start with has been a major challenge. With the weather right now, conditions are not just dangerous, but hard to get around in the backcountry with all this new snow and wind.”

The weather also made a helicopter rescue impossible, he added.

The Sierra Avalanche Center had issued an avalanche warning for the central Sierra Nevada — including the Castle Peak area — at 5 a.m. Tuesday, running until 5 a.m. Wednesday. The center rated avalanche risk in the region “high,” the second-most-dangerous level below extreme.

It was not immediately clear what the land trust’s policy is for guests at the huts who are scheduled to check out when avalanche risk is high. The land trust could not immediately be reached.

In early January, an avalanche in the Castle Peak area buried and killed a snowmobiler.

The avalanche Tuesday came amid a blizzard that closed I-80 in both directions through the Sierra.

Boreal ski resort — with a base elevation of 7,201 feet and a summit at 7,701 feet — reported Tuesday morning that 2 1/2 feet of snow had fallen over the previous 24 hours. The resort shut down its lifts Tuesday, citing “heavy snowfall and deteriorating conditions.”

The avalanche center gives a “high” rating when its technicians determine conditions are “very dangerous.” At such times, the center advises that travel in terrain susceptible to avalanches is “not recommended.”

The center’s “high” rating applied to all elevations in avalanche terrain, with large to very large slides caused by slabs of snow “very likely,” no matter the direction a slope faced.

“Avalanches could be triggered from very low on the slope in some areas,” the center reported. “Avalanches from above could travel down through treed terrain, often thought of as ‘safe’ during storms.”

Avalanche experts warn that anyone skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing or hiking in areas of avalanche risk should wear the beacons that broadcast a signal so companions and rescuers can try to locate them under snow in event of a slide, and carry snow-probe poles and shovels to pinpoint and dig out victims.

In February 2025, backcountry skier Frederic Dross was killed in an avalanche south of Lake Tahoe. Just over a year earlier, Kenneth Kidd, a 66-year-old resident of Point Reyes and the Truckee area, died after an avalanche hit in an expert skiing and snowboarding area at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort.

(pressdemocrat.com)

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BEATNIKS

by Hunter S. Thompson

"What ever happened to the Beat Generation? The question wouldn't mean much in Detroit or Salt Lake City, perhaps, but here it brings back a lot of memories. As recently as 1960, San Francisco was the capital of the Beat Generation, and the corner of Grant and Columbus in the section known as North Beach was the crossroads of the "beat" world.

It was a good time to be in San Francisco. Anybody with half a talent could wander around North Beach and pass himself off as a "comer" in the new era. I know, because I was doing it, and so was a fellow we'll have to call Willard, the hulking, bearded son of a New Jersey minister. It was a time for breaking loose from the old codes, for digging new sounds and new ideas, and for doing everything possible to unnerve the Establishment.

Since then, things have died down. The "beatnik" is no longer a social lion in San Francisco, but a social leper; as a matter of fact, it looked for a while as if they had all left. But the city was recently startled by a "rent strike" in North Beach and as it turned out, lo and behold, the strikers were "beatniks." The local papers, which once played Beat Generation stories as if the foundations of The System were crumbling before their very eyes, seized on the rent strike with strange affection-- like a man encountering an old friend who owes him money, but whom he is glad to see anyway.

The rent strike lasted only about two days, but it got people talking again about the Beat Generation and its sudden demise from the American scene -- or at least from the San Francisco scene, because it is still very extant in New York. But in New York it goes by a different name, and all the humor has gone out of it.

One of the most surprising things about the rent strike was the fact that so few people in San Francisco had any idea what the Beat Generation was. An interviewer from a radio station went into the streets seeking controversy on "the return of the beatniks," but drew a blank. People remembered the term, and not much more.

But the Beat Generation was very real in its day, and it has a definite place in our history. There is a mountain of material explaining the sociological aspects of the thing, but most of it is dated and irrelevant. What remains are the people who were involved; most of them are still around, looking back with humor and affection on the uproar they caused, and drifting by a variety of routes toward debt, parenthood, and middle age.

My involvement was tangential at best. But Willard was in there at the axis of things, and in retrospect he stands out as one of the great "beatniks" of his time. Certainly San Francisco has good cause to remember him; his one and only encounter with the forces of law and order provided one of the wildest Beat Generation stories of the era.

Before San Francisco he had been in Germany, teaching English and cultivating an oriental-type beard. On his way out to the coast he stopped in New York and picked up a mistress with a new Ford. It was de rigueur, in those days, to avoid marriage at all costs. He came to me through the recommendation of a friend then working in Europe for a British newspaper. "Willard is a great man," said the letter. "He is an artist and a man of taste."

As it turned out, he also was a prodigious drinker in the tradition of Brendan Behan, who was said to have had "a thirst so great it would throw a shadow." I was making my own beer at the time and Willard put a great strain on the aging process; I had to lock the stuff up to keep him from getting at it before the appointed moment. Sadly enough, my beer and Willard's impact on San Francisco were firmly linked. The story is a classic, and if you travel in the right circles out here you will still hear it told, although not always accurately. The truth, however, goes like this:

Willard arrived shortly before I packed up and left for the East; we had a convivial few weeks, and, as a parting gesture, I left him a five-gallon jug of beer that I did not feel qualified to transport across the nation. It still had a week or so to go in the jug, then another few weeks of aging in quart bottles, after which it would have had a flavor to rival the nectar of the gods. Willard's only task was to bottle it and leave it alone until it was ready to drink.

Unfortunately, his thirst threw a heavy shadow on the schedule. He was living on a hill overlooking the southern section of the city, and among his neighbors were several others of the breed, mad drinkers and men of strange arts. Shortly after my departure he entertained one of these gentlemen, who, like my man Willard, was long on art and energy, but very short of funds.

The question of drink arose, as it will in the world of art, but the presence of poverty cast a bleak light on the scene. There was, however, this five-gallon jug of raw, unaged home brew in the kitchen. Of course, it was a crude drink and might produce beastly and undesired effects, but. . .well. . .

The rest is history. After drinking half the jug, the two artists laid hands on several gallons of blue paint and proceeded to refinish the front of the house Willard was living in. The landlord, who lived across the street, witnessed this horror and called the police. They arrived to find the front of the house looking like a Jackson Pollack canvas, and the sidewalk rapidly disappearing under a layer of sensual crimson. At this point, something of an argument ensued, but Willard is 6 feet 4, and 230 pounds, and he prevailed. For a while.

Some moments later the police came back with reinforcements, but by this time Willard and his helper had drunk off the rest of the jug and were eager for any kind of action, be it painting or friendly violence. The intrusion of the police had caused several mottos to be painted on the front of the house, and they were not without antisocial connotations. The landlord was weeping and gnashing his teeth, loud music emanated from the ulterior of the desecrated house, and the atmosphere in general was one of hypertension.

The scene that followed can only be likened to the rounding up of wild beasts escaped from a zoo. Willard says he attempted to flee, but floundered on a picket fence, which collapsed with his weight and that of a pursuing officer. His friend climbed to a roof and rained curses and shingles on the unfriendly world below. But the police worked methodically, and by the time the sun set over the Pacific the two artists were sealed in jail.

At this point the gentlemen of the press showed up for the usual photos. They tried to coax Willard up to the front of his cell to pose, but the other artist had undertaken to tip the toilet bowl out of the floor and smash it into small pieces. For the next hour, the press was held at bay with chunks of porcelain, hurled by the two men in the cell. "We used up the toilet," Willard recalls, "then we got the sink. I don't remember much of it, but I can't understand why the cops didn't shoot us. We were out of our heads."

The papers had a field day with the case. Nearly all the photos of the "animal men" were taken with what is known among press photographers as "the Frankenstein flash." This technique produces somewhat the same impression of the subject as a flashlight held under his chin, but instead of a flashlight, the photographer simply holds his flash unit low, so that sinister shadows appear on the face of a subject, and a huge shadow looms on the wall behind him. It is a technique that could make Casper Milquetoast look like the Phantom of the Opera, but the effect, with Willard, was nothing short of devastating; he looked like King Kong.

Despite all the violence, the story has a happy ending. Willard and his friends were sentenced to six months in jail, but were quickly released for good behavior, and neither lost any time in fleeing to New York. Willard now lives in Brooklyn, where he moves from one apartment to another as walls fill up with paintings. His artistic method is to affix tin cans to a wall with tenpenny nails, then cover the wall with lumpy plaster and paint. Some say he has a great talent, but so far he goes unrecognized -- except by the long-suffering San Francisco police, who were called upon to judge what was perhaps his most majestic effort.

Willard was as hard to define then as he is now; probably it is most accurate to say he had artistic inclinations and a superabundance of excess energy. At one point in his life he got the message that others of his type were gathering in San Francisco, and he came all the way from Germany to join the party.

Since then, things have never been the same. Life is more peaceful in San Francisco, but infinitely duller. That was pretty obvious when the rent strike cropped up; for a day or so it looked like the action was back in town, but it was no dice. One of the "strikers," an unemployed cartoonist with a wife and a child and a rundown apartment for which he refuses to pay rent, summed up the situation. His landlady had declined to make repairs on the apartment, and instead got an eviction order. In the old days, the fellow would have stayed in the place and gotten tough. But the cartoonist is taking the path of least resistance. "It takes a long time to get people evicted," he says with a shrug, "and we're thinking of splitting to New York on a freight train anyway."

That's the way it is these days in the erstwhile capital of the Beat Generation. The action has gone East, and the only people who really seem to mourn it are the reporters, who never lacked a good story, and a small handful of those who lived with it and had a few good laughs for a while. If Willard returned to San Francisco today, he probably would have to settle for a job as a house painter.

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A HORSE NAMED NEVER

At the stables, each stall was labeled with a name.

Biscuit stood aloof—I faced always, invariably, his clockwork tail.

Crab knew the salt lick too well.

Trapezoid mastered stillness: a midnight mare, she was sternest and tallest, her chest stretched against the edges of her stall.

I was not afraid of Never, the chestnut gelding, so rode his iron haunches as far as Panther Gap.

Never and I lived in Virginia then.

We could neither flee nor be kept.

Seldom did I reach the little mountain without him, the easy crests making valleys of indifferent grasses.

What was that low sound I heard, alone with Never?

A lone horse, a lodestar, a habit of fear.

We think of a horse less as the history of one man and his sorrows than as the history of a whole evil time.

I fed him odd lettuce, abundant bitterness.

Who wore the bit and harness, who was the ready steed.

Or: I think there be six Nevers in the field.

He took the carrot, words by my own reckoning, an account of creeks and oyster catchers.

I named my account "Notes on the State of Virginia."

It was bred for show and not to race.

Never, I cried, Never.

Were I more horse than rider, I would better understand the beast I am.

Our hoof-house rested at the foot of the mountain, on which rested another house more brazen than statuary.

Let it be known: I first mistook gelding for gilding.

I am the fool that has faith in Never.

Somewhere, a gold door burdened with apology refuses all mint from the yard.

— Jennifer Chang (2015)

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THE SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER DISASTER on January 28, 1986

Less than a week later, on February 3, President Reagan ordered a special investigation of the accident. Headed by former secretary of state William Rogers, the Rogers Commission included Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, Chuck Yeager, Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman, and other experts in aeronautics, aviation, and disaster analysis. Their final report would be a stinging rebuke of NASA and would lead to a two-and-a-half-year suspension of the shuttle program.

Dick Covey (astronaut who, as capsule communicator, or capcom, for Challenger, was the sole voice of communication to the crew from Mission Control): People said, "Well, the external tank obviously exploded," because that was what made the big fireball. But what caused it, nobody had a clue. It was days if not a week before any of us could say, "All right, now I'm starting to understand what went wrong."

John Tribe (chief engineer for Boeing/Rockwell Launch Support Services): I was working for North American Aviation at the time of the Apollo 1 fire [in 1967, which killed three astronauts]. We built the Apollo capsule. I was on station that night, and the last test we performed before the fire was Gus Grissom and me working through a static fire simulation. The comm system was bad, and we took a ten-minute break to try to clear it up. It was during that ten-minute hold that the fire broke out. There are a lot of differences and a lot of years between these two disasters, but some of the drivers are the same. The Apollo fire was driven by trying to go too fast. The hardware and the procedures weren't ready. And of course, Challenger was also pushing too hard to meet schedule pressure: launch fever. In our business, it's when you don't do things in a carefully conducted manner that you start to get into trouble.

Donald Kutyna (Air Force general and Rogers Commission member): Bill Rogers was the smartest guy in Washington on how to handle politicians. His main function was to keep the damn politicians—all of whom wanted to get their names in the paper by doing something about the Challenger accident—at bay.

Randy Kehrli (staff counsel for the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, also called the Rogers Commission): The first thing Rogers said to everybody was "This isn't going to be another Warren Commission. We want to find the answer, the true answer, and we need to do it the right way." We were extremely sensitive to the fact that we would be accused of whitewashing, trying to get NASA off the hook. And we were sensitive to the charge that there was pressure by the White House—we investigated the possibility of White House pressure as a possible cause. I think that was the genius of Rogers and the people who came up with the commission members. There was a wide variety. It wasn't all military. It wasn't all NASA. This was a very hardworking commission. Rogers was there every day. Sally Ride was there every day. Neil Armstrong was there every day. You have to remember at the time how the nation felt about it. How could NASA let us down? They're heroes! They went to the moon! How could these seven people be dead? It was bringing America to its knees. And so for six months we worked seven days a week, twelve hours a day.

Chuck Yeager (Air Force general and test pilot): Finally they were getting some military Air Force guys on it. I was surprised to be included. I had to think about whether or not to participate. I knew that NASA was screwing up.

Alton Keel (engineer; executive director of the Rogers Commission): It took almost every waking moment. I took off only half a day in the entire six months. At first, the commission was serving as oversight of NASA investigating itself. The first hearing was a closed-door hearing, just commission members and the witnesses, who were from NASA and Morton Thiokol [the contractor that had built the solid rocket boosters]. The intent of the meeting was for NASA to tell us typically what happens during launch—not specifically this launch but generally how it was supposed to go. Finally, Allan McDonald from Morton Thiokol, who was project manager for the solid rocket motor, said, "Mr. Chairman, may I say something?" He was quivering in his chair. Rogers said, "Of course." McDonald said, "We recommended not to launch." And then you could have heard a pin drop in the room. Everybody went quiet. Then everything started to unfold from that point.

Kutyna: On STS-51C, which flew a year before, it was 53 degrees [at launch, then the coldest temperature recorded during a shuttle launch] and they completely burned through the first O-ring and charred the second one. One day [early in the investigation] Sally Ride and I were walking together. She was on my right side and was looking straight ahead. She opened up her notebook and with her left hand, still looking straight ahead, gave me a piece of paper. Didn't say a single word. I look at the piece of paper. It's a NASA document. It's got two columns on it. The first column is temperature, the second column is resiliency of O-rings as a function of temperature. It shows that they get stiff when it gets cold. Sally and I were really good buddies. She figured she could trust me to give me that piece of paper and not implicate her or the people at NASA who gave it to her, because they could all get fired.

Kehrli: The engineers from Morton Thiokol had raised holy hell the night before the launch. And they were right. This concern about the joint sealing was not new. They had been working this problem for years, and they hadn't fixed it yet. Engineers were saying, "You can't fly in these conditions." But then NASA kept waiving the launch constraint from flight to flight. It's like Richard Feynman said, "That's like playing Russian roulette. Sooner or later it was going to get you." And that's exactly what happened.

Kutyna: I wondered how I could introduce this information Sally had given me. So I had Feynman at my house for dinner. I have a 1973 Opel GT, a really cute car. We went out to the garage, and I'm bragging about the car, but he could care less about cars. I had taken the carburetor out. And Feynman said, "What's this?" And I said, "Oh, just a carburetor. I'm cleaning it." Then I said, "Professor, these carburetors have O-rings in them. And when it gets cold, they leak. Do you suppose that has anything to do with our situation?" He did not say a word. We finished the night, and the next Tuesday, at the first public meeting, is when he did his O-ring demonstration.

We were sitting in three rows, and there was a section of the shuttle joint, about an inch across, that showed the tang and clevis [the two parts of the joint meant to be sealed by the O-ring]. We passed this section around from person to person. It hit our row and I gave it to Feynman, expecting him to pass it on. But he put it down. He pulled out pliers and a screwdriver and pulled out the section of O-ring from this joint. He put a C-clamp on it and put it in his glass of ice water. So now I know what he's going to do. It sat there for a while, and now the discussion had moved on from technical stuff into financial things. I saw Feynman's arm going out to press the button on his microphone. I grabbed his arm and said, "Not now." Pretty soon his arm started going out again, and I said, "Not now!" We got to a point where it was starting to get technical again, and I said, "Now." He pushed the button and started the demonstration. He took the C-clamp off and showed the thing does not bounce back when it's cold. And he said the now-famous words, "I believe that has some significance for our problem." That night it was all over television and the next morning in the Washington Post and New York Times. The experiment was fantastic—the American public had short attention spans and they didn't understand technology, but they could understand a simple thing like rubber getting hard.

I never talked with Sally about it later. We both knew what had happened and why it had happened, but we never discussed it. I kept it a secret that she had given me that piece of paper until she died [in 2012].

Keel: We recorded every single document that came in and out, every phone call, every piece of correspondence. No matter how obscure or how fanciful the charge, we investigated it. We got people saying aliens did it—we had an investigator go out and talk to that person. We wanted the report to be a narrative and not just technical information—to tell a story, to have an effect. The only person who hung around while it was being edited who didn't have to be there was Neil [Armstrong]. He would have a nip of single-malt scotch and regale us with stories about landing on the moon with Buzz Aldrin, looking for a place to land while the fuel was running out. If you ask me in hindsight would I do anything differently—at the risk of seeming immodest, the commission got it right.

Kehrli: I do not think it was a cold, intentional calculation on NASA's part. I think it was a flaw in the decision-making structure of NASA. I think there were some incorrect judgments, but they were judgments. It might have been negligence. It probably was negligence. But in terms of criminal, cold, calculated intent, I don't think there was any of that.

Covey: It was disappointing, angering almost, to find out that discussions had been held relative to [the known issue of joint failure in solid rocket boosters]. Why wasn't that a bigger issue? How did we get to the point of accepting that indicator of a system not working the way it was designed? Why had we been willing to accept that?

Dan Rather (CBS Evening News anchor): The media were enthralled with the space program, including this reporter. We didn't ask enough questions. When it became clear that the morning was going to be cold, an alert and deep-digging media would have figured out that it's more dangerous. That should have been a bigger caution flag. Frankly, in the end I don't think it would have made a difference. The decision-makers at NASA were hell-bent to launch that morning. NASA's argument was that when you go to frontiers that are so dangerous, nobody should be surprised when disasters happen and we just need to accept that as inevitable. I questioned that at the time, and as the years have gone by I still question it.

Pat Smith (brother of Challenger crew member Michael Smith): What really bothered me is that they knew there was a chance it was going to happen. That is awful. That is unbelievable. When those people knew they were putting those seven people on that space shuttle with a chance of them dying, I have a real problem with that. I have a problem with anybody who plays with other people's lives.

Keel: Part of the mistake we made and that NASA made was starting to think of the shuttle as a cargo plane while it was really still an experimental program. The probability of failure was 1 percent. If you applied that to commercial flight, that's thousands of crashes a day. We began to think of it as too routine.

Yeager: NASA wanted the publicity for the launch. The launch had been scrapped several days in a row and the media was leaving. So they ordered the launch. They got their publicity, all right.

Tribe: I haven't forgiven the guys that overrode the O-ring decision.

(popularmechanics.com)

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“OF COURSE I don’t like to read all this bullshit because it brings the heat down on us, but since we got famous we’ve had more rich fags and sex-hungry women come looking for us than we ever had before. Hell, these days we have more action than we can handle."

— Hunter Thompson, quoting a Hells Angel

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IAN THOMAS MALONE:

Today marks five years since the bowels of hell gaped wide in anticipation of a favorite son's return.

Rush Limbaugh was a truly toxic human being. He made a fortune poisoning the American people, teaching his aggrieved, braindead following that the reason they were sick, poor, and uneducated was not the fault of the politicians who plundered the American Dream to give the ruling class another thirty pieces of silver, but the immigrant who came here in search of a better life.

Rush turned grievance into a lucrative industry. For decades, the Republican Party has styled itself as followers of Ronald Reagan, the original television star with empty economic promises.

The dominant conservative ideology to sprout from the 80s wasn't 'Reaganomics,' but Limbaugh's school of perpetual grievance. Limbaugh ensured that his listeners could never revolt against the bourgeoisie, when their attention was fixed on women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community.

And you know what? It made him a lot of money. If dumpster diving to the well of human depravity was an Olympic sport, Rush would have all the gold medals.

But instead, he got lung cancer and died.

Our country is worse off because Rush Limbaugh once walked amongst us.

And now, he is dead. Still dead, after five years, which is frankly kind of impressive.

One of these days, you'd have to think that JD Vance or Matt Gaetz will dig him up, put some jumper cables onto his decaying corpse, and see if he's still got 3 more hours for the morning commute.

What did Rush leave behind? What principles did he have? It's not small government, that thing Republicans pretended to care about for years before the Fanta Fuhrer threw out their playbook.

Rush, like dead podcasters who came after him (and also died), offered nothing that improve the lives of his audience. He coddled them like toddlers, spoon-feeding participation trophies in their bottles full of curdled milk and Fireball whiskey.

He is dead, and nobody cares. He left behind nothing besides a pile of money and the stink of his memory.

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The function of the legislature is to represent us. They are a mirror of the population of the country. So logically, if they are effed up, it means the people are. The people of the USA are a majority that do not know anything about or understand what being an American is all about. THAT is the main problem.

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LEAD STORIES, WEDNESDAY'S NYT

Republicans, Braced for Losses, Push More Voting Restrictions in Congress

U.S. Kills 11 in Boat Strikes in Pacific and Caribbean

Democrats and White House Trade Offers but Deal to Reopen D.H.S. Remains Elusive

Democrats Plan to Counter Trump’s Speech to Congress With Rally

Colbert Says CBS Pulled Senate Candidate Interview

Nine Skiers Still Missing After Lake Tahoe Avalanche

Why an A.I. Video of Tom Cruise Battling Brad Pitt Spooked Hollywood

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MAGA: THE BRITISH EDITION

Rupert Lowe: Today I am launching Restore Britain as a national political party

https://youtu.be/5ZTH6j_lK_o?si=lqpdCND3AJtMWJRD

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COUNTERING BULLY, TYRANT TRUMP’S INTIMIDATING EXPLETIVES: IT COULD WORK

by Ralph Nader

The most remarkable realization about Donald J. Trump’s rise to becoming America’s elected dictator is that it all came out of his MOUTH. Understanding that politics has become a performative exercise, Trump discovered that he could win the battle of words without having a record of achievement or any trusted experience in the business, government, or civic arena.

His lies sugarcoated his failed businesses. He wildly exaggerated his wealth (asserting that the Trump brand was worth $11 billion). He tried to explain away his numerous corporate bankruptcies as a business strategy, and blamed everyone for his commercial collapses – the banks, the workers, the students (Trump University, anyone?) – the government. This failed gambling casino czar never admitted he was ever wrong, ever sorry, and boasted he knew more than anyone because he was “right about everything.”

His MOUTH went into high gear during his introductory presidential debates with sixteen Republican challengers during the 2016 GOP primaries. In retrospect, it is astonishing to see how, using his snarling mouth, he wrested control from those on the stage from the outset, targeting immigrants as invaders, criminals, rapists, and destroyers of America. Without rebuttals, he would repeat over and over again his sweeping bigotry.

Then Trump would move on to repeat how foreign countries have taken advantage of the U.S. in trade, ignoring our Empire’s bleeding poorer nations, brain-draining their skilled people, and allowing giant U.S. corporations to export millions of jobs to take advantage of serf labor and corruptible dictatorial regimes. He ignored the way the U.S. facilitated corporate-driven trade deals pulled down worker and environmental protections in the U.S. and devastated American workers and communities.

No matter, the MOUTH opened wider, slandering specific people, including selected politicians, judges, authors, reporters/editors, professors, and anyone who dared criticize his daily fabrications.

The MOUTH got major coverage in the mainstream media, including publishing his CAPITAL LETTERS OF CONDEMNATION, and because his targets were not given the right of reply, many people were inclined to believe him. This accelerated and entrenched his violent politics of intimidation. Again and again, he had the media field to himself, which deterred many of his critics from giving him a taste of his own medicine.

Trump – by far the most impeachable of presidents and the least negatively branded by his opponents – must wonder about his luck. Consider, he is a convicted felon, a chronic liar, a serial law violator, a repeated sexual abuser of women, a crooked extortionist, a hugely corrupt user of the White House to enrich the Trumpsters, a shatterer of the social safety net for tens of millions of Americans, a slasher of safeguards and scientific research against catastrophic climate violence and pandemics leaving America rapidly defenseless, and a crazed suppressor of solar energy and wind power while boosting the omnicidal oil, gas, and coal industries. Moreover, he pathologically breaks his promises and pledges, presiding over record waste, shutdowns, and censorship, ushering in the DARK AGES for America.

His dictatorial rule – “Nothing can stop me”– dishonors the American Revolution and violates the Constitution’s defenses against one-man rule. He epitomizes “big government” against the people, suppressing free speech, piling up huge deficits, advocating mass arbitrary arrests, and shutting down the enforcement of laws to protect the health, safety, and economic well-being of Americans, endangering them in both red and blue states.

A deficit-funded tax cutter for the already under-taxed rich, the powerful, and big corporations, he illegally takes tax revenue from necessities of the people and loads deficits on the backs of the next generation while starving the IRS budget and undermining the collection of taxes due. He spends or refuses to spend at his whim, flouting the exclusive appropriations authority of Congress. He is “a fascist to his core,” said his former chief of staff, retired general John Kelly, and a full-blown RACIST in what he says, does, and portends.

It should be easy to label Trump “America’s Number One Outlaw,” given all these dangerous, deranged delusions. He is openly and visibly wrecking and weakening our country rapidly with his entrenched dictatorship and his masked stormtroopers who are on the rampage in large U.S. cities.

He has hollowed out the federal government’s critical civil service except for the omnivorous military-industrial complex with its bloated budget that is devouring our best life-saving programs abroad and at home, and fueling his Empire’s illegal military raids abroad.

Now he is starting to plan the subversion of our elections come November with fake ads and the attempted seizure of voter rolls and people’s personal identification data. Conducting elections is reserved exclusively to the states under our Constitution. Trump’s present obsession is rigging the midterm elections through selective voter suppression, especially as his poll numbers drop.

So, what can be done about Trump’s hyper-active MOUTH and his assault on our democracy? Fact-checking, as was done by a leading fact-checker for The Washington Post, Glenn Kessler. He now concedes that fact-checking did not deter Trump. In Trump’s first term, Kessler documented more than 30,000 false or misleading claims. He gave up this reporting last year and left the Post, concluding that Trump’s fabrications over reality— lies about serious matters such as claiming the unemployment rate was 42 percent when it was 4.9 percent, or asserting that there was widespread voter fraud in 2020— were not slowing down the FAKER IN CHIEF and his ditto-head network. However, setting the record straight has its own value in reasserting a truthful society.

There is another part of the MOUTH – the tsunami of invectives hurled at named public figures and his private victims. He calls prosecutors and judges “deranged” and “traitors.” Other opponents are described as “lunatics,” “communists,” “crooked,” “crazy,” “lying,” “corrupt,” “murderers,” and “low IQ.” The latter is mainly reserved for African Americans. Lately, he has gone berserk, instantly libeling the two innocent American citizens shot and killed in Minneapolis by ICE as “domestic terrorists.”

Then there are his disparaging nicknames of critics, which are too numerous to mention. Trump’s bullying expletives are relayed by the mainstream media to the broad public, which helped make Trump the Supreme Foul-Mouth Soliloquist. For years, to their detriment, the Democrats and other critics did not respond in kind and with frequency, with the truth on their side.

They could have defined him with memorable depictions such as Tyrant Trump, Dictator Donald, Crooked Donald, Deranged Donald, Lying Donald, Crazy Donald, Dangerous Donald, Corrupt Donald, Lunatic Donald, Cruel Trump, and Terrorist Trump. These on-point adjectives would have unsettled the thin-skinned Prevaricator-In-Chief, making him rethink what his daily false salvos are provoking in return. No more free rides would sober up his MOUTH. Hearing his own unsettling, repeated false salvos may make Trump decide to stop the daily froth from his MOUTH.

So many of Trump’s epithets fit him perfectly. So, throwing them back on him repeatedly rings the truth bell. It so happens that bullies, including Trump, stop their smears when they realize what they have provoked in return. Attending a Washington Nationals baseball game in his first term, the crowd started chanting “Lock Him Up,” a phrase he goaded his base to use for months against his political opponents. Trump and his followers lost their enthusiasm for this chant when he started getting a taste of his own medicine from anti-Trump crowds.

Since Minneapolis, some Democrats in Congress are describing Trump as “deranged,” and after the animal caricature of the Obamas, more Democrats are ending a much-delayed labeling of Trump as a many-sided RACIST. Because the Democrats have had a low expectation level for Trump and hitherto have satisfied themselves with derision, he has gotten away with the lies about his alleged successful economic policies, with enough voters – seeing no strong responders – to have him squeak through the 2024 election.

The one word Trump cannot stand to hear is a power neither he nor his toady six Injustices on the Supreme Court can control – IMPEACHMENT. We’re starting to hear it more these days from the Democrats, despite the political foolish leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, who are willing to remain silent on this one last resort against monarchy put exclusively in the hands of Congress by our far-seeing Founders. A majority of voters now appreciate the insights of our Founders. With Trump, IT IS ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE, MUCH WORSE. In the coming weeks, the polls should show over 60 percent of Americans want Trump Impeached.

Leave it to Trump to dictate ever more crazed, distracting actions to save himself.

As with the GOP revolt in 1974 against Nixon for transgressions far, far less than Trump’s daily crimes and constitutional usurpation, so too today’s Congressional GOP may well move to protect their own sinking fortunes this November by unloading the baggage of the Trump Dump.

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