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Posts published in “Essays”

The AVA Recommends

President — Bernie Sanders. Hillary is simply unthinkable and twice as dangerous as Trump. US Senator — Kamala Harris. Very smart, good on the issues, one of those rare Democrats of the elected type who…

The Fisher Octopus

The Fisher family's roughly $10 billion in assets are spread across an opaque web of globe-spanning investments. One of their main money vehicles is Sansome Partners, the San Francisco- and Seattle-based investment firm that owns…

The Poor Hippy Myth

The Mendocino County Grand Jury has published its findings on District Attorney David Eyster’s innovative Marijuana Restitution Program, called 11470.2, and in doing so this august body has perpetuated the myth of the Poor Hippy.…

After Measure U

When I entered this world the Macdonald family had already been engaged in the dual activities of cattle ranching and sheep herding for decades. On the Great Plains, at the turn of the 19th Century…

Trump’s Rasputin

Not even a demented Hollywood casting director high on meth could have dreamed up a lowlife creep beast from 20,000 fathoms like Roy Cohn who was Donald Trump’s long time Rasputin. Trump was a mere…

Born To Be Blue

The notion of the zeitgeist has fallen into disrepute as too metaphysical, too German. No longer does the spirit of the time manifest itself in art and culture; instead, things trend, manipulated in shape and…

Lower Away

I hope you’re enjoying these horse latitudes of the political year, when the seas suddenly turn glassy and the Berning sun begins to roast all the diverse and inclusive hands on Hillary’s deck, who wait…

Asymmetrical Evangelicals

I heard an interview with Republican Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz not long ago in which he proclaimed — and this is a direct quote — that the problem with the US Supreme Court…

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