November 27 – December 3, 2024
Bratton… days of the week… Greensite… out this week… Steinbruner… Chloramine in water, Midtown crisis, and passenger rail comments due soon…. Hayes… People for Fire… Patton… Caitlin Johnstone’s Discouraged Comments… Matlock… …dominance & inevitability…ethics pledges…locked & loaded……Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover… Webmistress serves you… MTV Nostalgia Quotes on… “Thanksgiving”
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Dateline: November 27, 2024
GIVING THANKS! Once again, we are at Thanksgiving, which these days is followed by Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday. amd Giving Tuesday. What will be the next one, Woeful Wednesday? And whatever happened to Sunday? Do let us know if you have any ideas.
THE LAST NIGHT AT TREMORE BEACH. Netflix series. (7.0 IMDB). 
An extra dramatic and moody plus scary drama about a composer/ pianist. It centers on his composing plus memories of his deceased wife. It’s all in Ireland at a beach house/cabin. It deals with fate, his predictions coming true. You’ll be mesmerized, don’t miss it.
BLITZ. Apple movie. (6.4 IMDB). 
This is much more of a saga of a young half black boy and what he has to deal with after he and his mom are separated. Apple pushes the Blitzkrieg attack on London by Hitler at the start of World War II. The prejudice, bigotry, and inhumanity are much more the main thrusts of the plot.
EMILIA PEREZ. Netflix movie. (7.3 IMDB). An amazing mix of musical and drama like I’ve never seen before. Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez take leads in this Mexico City mystery that flips between sex changes and family values. We’ll see more of this film around Oscar time as Netflix continues to sell it. DO not miss it.
LA MAISON. Apple series. 
(6.0IMDB). All about two of the top French fashion houses and their internal and external pressures to be number one in the world of fashion. It’s foolish, pointless, not funny, nor meaningful…do not watch, no matter what or who says so.
THE SECRET OF THE RIVER. Netflix series. (8.2 IMDB). Frida Cruz and Mario Guzman are two Oaxaca born boys who accidentally watch the accidental death by drowning of a neighbor. As they become older they grow closer and try to determine whether or not they are gay. 20 years later they reunite and deal with the ongoing issues. Definitely worth watching.
MARTHA. Netflix movie (7.2 IMDB). This is an amazing, even shocking. interestingly created documentary centering on the world’s most successful businesswoman Martha Stewart. Marrying into wealth, she parlayed her love and her acumen into becoming one of the most influential world citizens. Open, honest, even charming, she made one or two stock investment mistakes. Her failure, plus prison time, involves Justin Bieber and it’s hard to believe, but you will when you watch this portrait. Inspirational.
BILLIONAIRE ISLAND. Netflix series. (6.3 IMDB). We learn from this drama that Norway is the world’s salmon producer. Because of this there’s a ruthless woman rival who works very hard and only partially honestly to take the Salmon farm and business from her. It also tells us the difference between farmed and wild salmon. There’s lots of rich people living their lives with golf and generally focusing on making more money. Interesting but not compelling.
NOBODY WANTS THIS. Netflix series (8.1 IMDB). Adding a so called “romantic comedy” is rare for BrattonOnline but this one has a 8.1 IMDB AND THAT’S RARE. It stars Kristin Bell as the shiksa (now 44 years old) and Adam Brody as the Rabbi. It’s all in L.A. and it’s fast paced and focuses on the relationship between LA Angelenos and the large and influential Jewish population. Plus the gay population gets their share of the comedy in their 25 minute programs.
Just a reminder…
SLOW HORSES. Apple series. (8.2 IMDB) There’s been five seasons or series of Slow Horses so far and the reviews are stupendously great and RARE. Slow Horses is British slang for “slough house”. And Slough House is where the wild, clever talking M15 British agents who have made professional mistakes hang out between cases. Gary Oldman is the lead and he’s a perfect fit as are Kristin Scott Thomas and Jonathan Price. Set aside some down time and watch this one. It’s been nominated for 9 Emmy awards.
CIVIL WAR. Max movie (7.1 IMDB) Has some fine scenes, but falls apart en toto. Kirsten Dunst, Jessie Plemons and Wagner Moura lead the cast. It really is about a new civil war right here in the USA. Reporters, photographers and politicians all race around headed to Washington D.C. to talk to and change how the president is thinking. Texas and California withdraw from the union and more hell breaks out. Watch it only if this seems and looks like a nightmare to you.
THE DELIVERANCE. Netflix movie. (5.1 IMDB) 
Glenn Close leads the first part of this haunted house re-hash and she does a fine job. Then all the other characters turn it into the old Hollywood scary movie vehicle and take the thrills and fun out of it. As apparently required nowadays the racial issues are thrown in to give us some thoughtful stuff to focus on. Avoid this one.
THE PERFECT COUPLE. Netflix series. (6.6 IMDB) It takes place on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. Nicole Kidman, Live Schreiber and Dakota Fanning are the lead stars. A big and important wedding is about to happen and there’s a murder of all things. So the movie is all focused on whodunit! Suspicious darts are thrown and there really isn’t much of a surprise left to care about. It’s about a blah movie and you’ve seen it many, many times before.
BREATHLESS. Net series. (6.3 IMDB) This Spanish production centers and details the business side of running a hospital. It deals with, and carefully exploits the union angles of labor managing, it revolves around the constant conflict between medicine and money. There doesn’t seem to be much difference between Mexican and United States in hospital operations
KAOS. Netflix series. (7.5 IMDB). 
Even after viewing this one I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a comedy or a semi serious religious Greek drama. Jeff Goldblum and David Thewlis play their darndest at being Zeus and Hades stomping around Olympus trying to influence any survivors who’ll listen to them. Read a good book instead.
SLOW HORSES. Apple series. (8.2 IMDB) There’s been five seasons or series of Slow Horses so far and I never watched any of them. Slow Horses is British slang for “slough house”. And Slough House is where the wild, clever talking M15 British agents who have made professional mistakes hang out between cases. Gary Oldman is the lead and he’s a perfect fit as are Kristin Scott Thomas and Jonathan Price. Set aside some down time and watch this one. It’s been nominated for 9 Emmy awards.
MONSIEUR SPADE. Netflix series. (6.9 IMDB) Clive Owen is either paying off a bet or simply forgot how to act…he plays at being the Dashiell Hammett character Sam Spade in this political drama set in France in 1963. He lives in the south of France and is supposed to be 60. A priest, an investigator, a mess of a cast all looking for a young girl named Teresa, don’t even think about this one!
HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA. HBO series (6.8 IMDB) Kevin Costner (who must have had some lifting of face) not only directed this saga but is one of many featured costars along with Sienna Miller, and Luke Wilson. There is a murder in Montana during our civil war and the movie features a large focus on “Native Americans” being careful to respect them as important humans in a rare drama.
Gillian will be back next week!
| Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association http://darksky.org Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild. |
CHLORAMINE BY-PRODUCT STUDY…WILL PUREWATER SOQUEL PROJECT INJECT IT IN THE GROUNDWATER?
Many thanks to reader Judi who sent information about newly-discovered potential health risk associated with chloramine disinfection in drinking water.
Newly identified chemical in drinking water is likely in many homes and could be toxic, study finds.
I could not help but wonder if Soquel Creek Water District’s “PureWater” Soquel Project injected treated sewage water will be injecting chloramine into the groundwater, affecting the drinking water supply of the MidCounty area?
The Regional Water Quality Control Board looked the other way last December and approved the two permits for the District to inject 1.67 Million gallons/day of this treated sewage water that will include 33mg/L chloride. The original permit application had stated the injected waters would have 3.1 mg/L per day, but staff “caught” the discrepancy, along with another one regarding nitrate levels.
The Board’s staff acknowledged that injecting this treated sewage water into the groundwater will degrade the high-quality clean water that exists, but that it was within the limits of 10% of the assimilative capacity of the aquifer, and was allowable under new State recycled water regulations.
What remains to be seen is the cumulative impacts of injecting this stuff into the drinking water supply, and what will the increased chloride (a number monitored by the MidCounty Groundwater Agency to track the amount of saltwater intrusion happening) do to the geochemistry of the area’s water? Similar projects in Orange County experience increased arsenic in water as a result.
Here is what the Regional Water Board staff dealt out in meaningless information to the Board last December, accepting all evaluations and analysis supplied by Soquel Creek Water District’s paid consultants:
“Changes Related to Chloride Concentration
The title 22 engineering report and antidegradation reports inadvertently reported the chloride concentration of the reverse osmosis (RO) permeate prior to product water post-treatment, which add chemicals to the water that include chloride. The anticipated chloride concentration after product water post-treatment should be 33.0 mg/L, not the 3.1 and 10.1 mg/L described in the antidegradation and title 22 engineering reports, respectively. A technical memorandum describing the anticipated chloride concentration in the product water is included in Attachment 2.Although the new chloride concentration is higher than previously reported, it is still lower than the ambient concentration of 46.0 mg/L in the target injection aquifer, Purisima Unit A. Because the product water will have a lower concentration than ambient groundwater, the project is still expected to improve water quality with respect to chloride, and assimilative capacity will be gained not consumed, as was the case at the previously reported lower concentration. As such, staff has not made any changes made to the findings in the proposed permit. An errata to the title 22 engineering report has been approved by the Division of Drinking Water, and a revised antidegradation report was submitted to the Central Coast Water Board reflecting the change in chloride concentration.”
The question now to ask is will the chloride be in the form of chloramine?
The District has divulged that it would use chloramine injection in the treated sewage effluent supplying the Project treatment plant in Live Oak as it travels under pressure in large pipes from the Santa Cruz City Wastewater Treatment plant. I worry about the potential leaks in this large pipe now attached to both sides of the Laurel Street bridge, crossing the San Lorenzo River.
This photo shows the District’s contractors installing bird netting over the large pipes attached to the Laurel Street bridge. The pipes will carry pressurized chloramine-laden secondary treated sewage flowing to the Live Oak treatment facility, and on the other side, the pressurized contaminant concentrate flowing back from the Live Oak treatment facility to get dumped along with the City’s wastewater into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Both will likely have high levels of chloramine, which is toxic to all aquatic life and, unlike regular chlorine, does not dissipate in water or in air.
Write the Central Coast Regional Water Board staff Harvey Packard <harvey.packard@waterboards.ca.gov> and ask.
You could also try asking the Soquel Creek Water District Associate Manager who handles “all things PureWater Soquel”, Cameron Kostigen-Mumper [LinkedIn].
Here is the RFP for bulk chemical delivery contracts to the PureWater Soquel Project
CITY OF SANTA CRUZ PROPOSES BUSINESS REDEVELOPMENT ZONES FOR FEES
Last week, I happened to see a small group gathered in the Branciforte Library Community meeting room at closing time. What caught my attention through the window was the slide projected for the group, showing a colored map of the local corridor, and then a table showing how much proposed commercial and residential fees would be. The library was closing, and I was told it was a “private meeting”, so I did not enter the in-progress presentation.
Since then, my curiosity compelled some research, where I learned that the plans I saw projected are likely part of the City of Santa Cruz Economic Development Plan for Midtown.
This led to some interesting information on the website of developer WorkBench, whose principal, Tim Gordin, sits on the County Planning Commission at the appointment of Supervisor Manu Koenig, who happens to be a licensed real estate broker. The “Midtown Plaza” that Workbench is planning is quite a divergence from the character of the area.
Here is a bit more: 6-story apartment proposal in Midtown Santa Cruz prompts Sept. 16 meeting – Santa Cruz Local
Hopefully, I will have more about the Midtown Economic Development Plan next week when City staff Katie Ferraro returns from the holiday break. My late friend Ed Silviera would always loudly protest the use of “Midtown” as the City’s way of eliminating the cultural and historic names of the area…once known as Villa de Branciforte and Seabright.
VIRTUAL PUBLIC MEETING FOR 232 RIVER STREET SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT
While searching the Santa Cruz City Planning Dept. website, I found the information below about a new large project that would demolish existing homes in the area near the San Lorenzo River, and where the historic-looking Santa Cruz Down Works building is located.
Here is what the project looks like: 232 River Street
Virtual Community Meeting (PL): 232 River Street, Project Number: CP24-0131
Meeting Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2024 at 6:00 p.m.
- Date: 12/03/2024 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
- Location: Zoom Meeting
- Introduction: You are invited to attend the virtual Public Community Meeting, to be held on Tuesday, December 3 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, for the project application related to 232 River St, Project Number: CP24-0131.
Join the Virtual Public Community Meeting for 232 River Street on December 3, 2024 at 6:00 PM.
You are invited to attend a Public Community Meeting, to be held on Tuesday, December 3, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, for the project application related to 232 River Street, Project Number: CP24-0131.
Community members can click the link below to join the community meeting:
- When: December 3, 2024 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
- Topic: Virtual Community Meeting for Project 232 River Street, Project Number: CP24-0131
- Webinar Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88687259149 (Updated: 11/14/2024 5:45 PM)
- Webinar ID: 886 8725 9149
- Call: +1 669 444 9171 US
ABOUT THE PROJECT:
- Project Size: Significant Development Project
- City of Santa Cruz Project Number: CP24-0131 (Preapplication)
- Address: 232 River Street
- APN: 008-311-30
FORCING 24 FAMILIES TO MOVE
Show up on December 5 at the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) meeting at 9am in Scotts Valley City Council Chambers to advocate a compassionate solution to forcing 24 families and elderly mobile home residents be allowed to stay in their homes along the rail corridor between 38th and 41st Avenue.
Here is why:
Last January, the RTC sent notice to residents in the Castle Estates and Blue and Gold Star Mobile Home Parks notifying them that their homes are encroaching into the railroad right-of-way and must be moved by June, 2025. The residents own their homes but not the land on which they sit. Both Parks were originally built in the 1960’s, with full approvals of the County and City of Capitola. At that time, multiple freight trains were running daily to serve Davenport Cement Plant and lumber industries.
So why do the people have to move their homes now, and who would pay for doing so?
According to RTC staff, the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line purchase in 2012 was completed without a thorough right-of-way survey. The RTC did not have or did not spend the money to do this critical work until about three years ago and determined there were many encroachments along the 32-mile rail corridor between Watsonville and Davenport. The rail line was purchased primarily for potential passenger rail service, but later, in 2013,, Congressman Sam Farr encouraged the RTC to squeeze in the Monterery Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail on the corridor, too. The RTC adopted that Master Plan on November 7, 2013. MBSST Network Master Plan FEIR [pdf]
That is the problem. The rail line right of way widths are inconsistent, and in many places it is too narrow to accommodate both rail and trail. This dilemma is propelling the RTC to add new staff to deal with easements and acquisitions in an effort to make it all fit.
But what will happen in the case of the mobile home residents along the tracks between 38th and 41st Avenue, many who have lived with a train running in their backyard, now being told to relocate their homes by six months from now? The RTC hired a consultant, HMH Group, to evaluate alternatives. That report was presented to the County Mobile and Manufactured Homes Commission in April, but has yet to go to the official Commission. RTC staff has stated that doing so would be redundant.
The HMH Alternative Analysis merely provides estimates for the cost of moving the encroaching mobile home units, some by inches, others by feet. There is no alternative analysis of simply moving the trail, Costs per unit range from hundreds to tens-of-thousands of dollars and do not include the costs of the affected families living elsewhere during the relocation work..
Take a look at the Report and put yourself in the shoes of these folks:
Mobile Home Encroachment Removal Options [pdf]
Regardless of the distance the unit must be moved (if that is possible) it means the residents and their pets must move out for an extended period of time while all infrastructure is torn out and replaced. Many of the units are old, and may not withstand the move without being damaged. Moving the units further into the Park’s thoroughfares could require a variance from Central Fire District.
Understandably, the residents, some who are elderly and have lived in the Park for decades, are extremely worried. The RTC has not corresponded with the residents since serving notice last January.
The two landowners, Millenium Housing (Castle Estates) and a private individual owner (Blue and Gold Star) are ultimately the parties responsible for working with the RTC to address the problem. While Millenium Housing has been actively corresponding with the RTC, the other Park owner has taken a hands-off approach.
The RTC’s Open House last week to gather input on the Zero Emissions Passenger Rail Transportation project did in fact present the alternative to move the trail to either Brommer Street or Nova Avenue (likely making Nova a one-way street). This would allow the possibility of the two mobile home park owners to either lease the land under the encroaching units for 99 years, or purchase the land outright. Alternatively, the encroaching units could be replaced over time as they are sold.
Doing so would allow the multiple families to stay in their homes until there is again a train running on the tracks. The last freight train ran in 2017. The RTC estimates that construction on the passenger rail project could begin in 2032.
What do you think? Please send your thoughts to the RTC and show up on December 5 at 9am in Scotts Valley City Council Chambers to support the many families who are afraid they will become homeless. Agendas – SCCRTC
PUBLIC COMMENT DUE DECEMBER 6 FOR PASSENGER RAIL ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW IN SANTA CRUZ
Santa Cruz ZEPRT Online Meeting
RAIL AND TRAIL MAP SEGMENTS MADE UNDERSTANDABLE
Do you find all the talk of “Segments” of rail trail projects confusing? Join the crowd. For that reason, I was very grateful to my friend, Al, for sending a recent explanation posted by Santa Cruz Local.
LIVE OAK LIBRARY ANNEX FINALLY GOT SOME BOOKS
Last Saturday, the Live Oak Library Annex had a grand opening ceremony. Library Director Mr. Christopher Platt opened the festivity with an announcement that “the books arrived at 7am this morning.” Indeed, the empty shelves were populated with books for all ages. He rightly called it a Community Center. County District Supervisor Manu Koenig also spoke, and declared this to be a perfect use of Measure S library funds.
Protesters were there, too, reminding the officials and public that the County Civil Grand Jury investigation determined it was not a proper use of Measure S library revenues. A few members of the public and library staff privately told us they agreed. The 2021-2022 Grand Jury Report recommended that the County and Joint Library Authority review the decision to use Millions of Measure S library funds to build the Community Center, consider returning the money and restore trust of the voters. to the voters.
Neither he County nor the Joint Library Authority agreed to that, dismissing the significance of the Grand Jury investigation and findings that the Live Oak Library Annex is NOT a library.
Board of Supervisors’ response to 2021-2022 Grand Jury Report
Library JPA response to Grand Jury Report
A few days following the Grand Opening ceremony, I visited the Annex to see if the books were still there. They were, however, I could not check out a “Lucky Day” novel that caught my interest because the self-checkout equipment was not operational. The receptionist at the Swim Center desk (there is NO staff at the Annex) also tried the equipment but without success.
While I could have walked away with many free copies of valuable books, I did not. Instead, I returned the volume for display on the shelves…and accepted the situation as my “Not-so-Lucky Day” at the Live Oak Annex.
Library Director Mr. Christopher Platt did not acknowledge protest behind him.
The only way to check out a book is this self-checkout station that does not work.
The “Lucky Day” books are those that are in high-demand with long wait lists, available for three weeks without renewal (if you are able to check them out!).
The shelves were magically filled with books at 7am on the day of the opening ceremony of the Live Oak Library Annex.
CORRECTION TO PREVIOUS POST RE: CITY OF SANTA CRUZ WORK AT LOCH LOMOND
Many thanks to reader Doug who advised me that the City of Santa Cruz Water Dept. has not increased the level of the Newell Creek Dam that creates Loch Lomond Reservoir, but rather did other capital improvements to allow better use of the water stored by replacing the inlets and outlets for water supply.
My apologies. I regularly attend the City Water Commission meetings and enjoy learning about the many good projects the City is doing to improve the ability to collect rainwater when it is abundant, and to treat it and inject it as potable water into the aquifer for storage (Aquifer Storage & Recovery or ASR).
The City’s good work at Loch Lomond Reservoir is described here…quite an amazing feat of engineering and construction in the interest of providing a reliable source of potable water for customers:
[construction of the Newell Creek dam inlet outlet replacement project]
These forward-thinking projects will make a regional water sharing management scheme possible, and not contaminate the groundwater with chemicals, hormones, nitrate and chloride that Soquel Creek Water District’s “PureWater” Soquel Project will inflict despite energy-intensive treatment processing.
WRITE ONE LETTER. MAKE ONE CALL. ATTEND A PUBLIC MEETING AND SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS.
MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK BY JUST DOING SOMETHING.
Cheers!
Becky
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Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes. She ran again in 2020 on a slightly bigger shoestring and got 1/3 of the votes.
Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com |
People for Fire
Nature around the Monterey Bay has been adjusting to changing wildfire regimes; we should expect that to continue, but how that happens is up to us in many different ways. Very recently, we are putting purposeful, good fire back onto the land. This may help restore the land while protecting human infrastructure from catastrophic damage, but there are too few projects to learn from…we must learn more!
Burning History
The Monterey Bay area has been getting hotter and drier for 20,000 years, which coincides with the era of fire-lighting humans. Laguna de las Trancas is an ancient pond that lies on a geological fault on the North Coast. Ancient ponds record the history of their place in strata. Scientists have taken sediment cores from that pond and recorded layers of pollen and volcanic ash, going back through time as the deeper sediment is older. Volcanic ash has properties that allow us to know from which volcano it originates and scientists have used various methods to chart the age of ancient volcanic eruptions. So, volcanic ash serves as milestones marking known years in the sediment’s past. This is how we know that this region changed to a much more fire-prone landscape around 12,000 years ago, consequent with the widespread archeological evidence of humans. Before that, the dominant forest trees were firs; after that, fire-adapted redwoods came to dominate. More recently, for the past 1200 years, fire scars on ancient redwoods illustrate a 4-6 year burn return interval. Indigenous people likely managed the fires sweeping frequently through redwood forests, but their fire tending of this landscape tragically ended during the genocidal colonist period. Purposeful fire has been almost entirely absent on most of this landscape for 230 years. In its place, long-interval catastrophic wildfires have caused all sorts of mayhem and loss of life.
Indigenous Pyro Management
Oral history, written accounts at the time of colonist contact, pollen records in ponds, burn scars on ancient trees, and vegetation patterns on this landscape are things that can teach us bits about thousands of years of intentional use of fire by humans. One early written account from early Old-World colonist explorers notes that many of the meadows around Monterey Bay were burned black. We know now that without burning and/or grazing all of this region’s prairies change quickly into forests, so fire must have been maintaining meadows for a very long time, in the absence of grazing and tree-pulling by the Pleistocene megafauna. The blackened meadows hampered the progress of invading Old-World explorers because they had trouble feeding their horses, which they relied on for transport. In this case, we might contemplate the use prairie fire as self-defense, but we also know that indigenous peoples used fire to cultivate native plants that served as medicine, salad greens, grain, basket materials and much more.
Good Fire Emerging Now
California’s governor has set a goal of using prescribed fire on a half million acres a year. It has been 1/10th of that for too long but indigenous folks probably burned more like 3 million acres (or more) a year previously.
Most people do not see the natural landscape as their pharmacy, grocery store, or fibershed, but many people look to the hills and know the danger of wildfire. Purposeful, good fire is starting to address this last concern and one day will help people reunite with the land in those other ways.
I was recently fortunate to interact with the Central Coast Prescribed Burn Association as they purposefully burned big patches of brush on Santa Cruz County’s North Coast. After much planning and preparation, forty volunteers gathered one Saturday to light big patches of hillside on fire. The goal was to restore coastal prairie and to train more wildland fire lighters in order to expand our region’s capacity to reintroduce fire on the landscape. These volunteer groups are growing around the world, including here in California. We have learned that their work is essential for everyone’s safety, and for the stewardship of the land, which provides us so much: water, timber, livestock, recreation, clean air, food, health, and solace.
Value-Added Fire
As we realize the importance of good fire in natural lands, entrepreneurs are envisioning profit. People are cashing in on the wildfire crisis by managing wildland fuels to power electrical generators. Some are seeing a potential to power electrical land stewardship equipment with generators fired by the fuel that equipment is removing. Others are already hauling wildland fuels to generation facilities supplying regions in Northern California with power. New technology allows burning wildland fuels to create charcoal, which is added to agricultural areas improving water holding capacity and maybe even soil fertility. That carbon is captured to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The machines are called ‘carbonators’ and they use thousands of gallons of water a day to keep them cool, which is the trick to making charcoal.
There was a lull for a bit, fand now there’s a rejuvenation of wood fired heaters for rural homes. The new woodstoves are engineered to be very efficient with very low air particulate output. Greenhouse gas (carbon) output is from recently grown wood rather than ancient fossil fuels.
The Future?
I envision a time when robots harvest biomass for fuel, farming every square inch of Planet Earth for energy. Imagine micro technology…ant-sized robots that prune plants in cultivated landscapes and natural areas, hauling bits of biomass back to larger robots which haul it to biomass energy production facilities…one big conveyor belt of fuel stolen from natural food webs. I do not like that future, but it seems inevitable in our ‘civilized’ world. How far off is that future? Without another way of managing wildfire, the day of that scenario is coming closer, quickly. The alternative is for more people to be involved with community groups managing purposeful, good fire across large areas, like the Monterey Bay region.
Your Role
Each of us has a role in helping Good Fire gain traction. Start with getting an air filter for your house: you need one anyway for wildfire smoke. Air pollution is a great concern, even with purposeful fires. The recent burning exercise I was a part of was delayed a week because of air quality concerns, and that week delay caused a bunch of issues with people’s schedules, wasted catering food, etc. If we can all be better prepared for smoke, it will be easier to get Good Fire on the ground. If you are able, help to figure out a way to get air filters to folks who can’t afford them!
We can’t expand Good Fire unless everyone feels safe in their homes. So, helping people get safe in their homes is an important thing. And, even when those homes are well secured against wildfire, people still need to be talked to, shown Good Fire, and helped to shed their fears. We can try to experience purposeful fire and see how well it is managed and then tell those stories to more people: there is a lot of fear about even professionally managed, purposeful fire.
The last thing I think more people might do: volunteer to help! The Prescribed Burn Associations could use more volunteers. Learning to manage purposeful fire is hard work and many people are needed.
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Grey Hayes is a fervent speaker for all things wild, and his occupations have included land stewardship with UC Natural Reserves, large-scale monitoring and strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy, professional education with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and teaching undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz. Visit his website at: www.greyhayes.net
Email Grey at coastalprairie@aol.com |
Sunday, November 24, 2024
#329 / Caitlin Johnstone’s Discouraged Comments
Observer Media, based in New York, identifies Caitlin Johnstone as “a reader-supported independent journalist from Melbourne, Australia.” Johnstone publishes a Substack newsletter (“Caitlin’s Newsletter”) in which she regularly attacks the United States Government for all of its many failings, and for all of its affirmatively bad acts. On September 6, 2024, Johnstone titled her commentary as follows: “Revolution Is Now.”
Sometimes, Johnstone identifies the United States Government as “The Empire.” I may be engaging in a bit of oversimplification here, because “The Empire” named by Johnstone is probably more than just the United States government. However, our government is certainly right at the center of “The Empire,” in Johnstone’s analysis – and that is not a good thing!
An example of how Johnstone employs the term can be seen from the following excerpt from Johnstone’s September 6th edition:
People are always asking me what we can do to fight the tyranny and depravity of the empire and create a healthy world.
“But what can we do?” they ask. “You always talk about the problems, but we need solutions! How do we solve the problems you keep pointing to?”
It’s especially common during US election season, because I tend to spend a lot of time pointing to the fraudulent nature of western electoral politics and saying Americans will never be able to vote their way out of their problems.
Which is of course fair. If I’m saying “Not that way, it’s a dead end,” it’s only fair that I should be asked which way actually leads to the exit.
Trouble is I talk about solutions all the time here, and I’m always practicing what I preach and leading by example; some people just can’t seem to hear what I’m saying. It goes in one ear and out the other, because I don’t have any solutions that are as easy and immediate as “Cast your vote for Donald Trump, he’ll fight the Deep State” or “Cast your vote for Kamala Harris, she’ll stop fascism.”
The truth of the matter is that in the here and now there are no easy and immediate solutions to the problems we face in our world. The system is far too deeply entrenched, and people are far too deeply indoctrinated with propaganda to be persuaded to fight against it right now (emphasis added).
Not having a specific and positive program to recommend, Johnstone suggests that those concerned should be trying to spread discontent and dissatisfaction as the next best thing:
An effective solution that we can all begin applying in the here and now is working to foment a revolutionary zeitgeist by spreading awareness of the depravity and deceit of the empire. The primary obstacle to real change is the fact that far too many people are far too brainwashed by propaganda to rise up against our rulers, so our first task is to begin working to wake people up out of that propaganda-induced coma so they can see how desperately real change is needed … We cultivate a habit of small acts of sedition, trying to do something every day to de-normalize the abuses of the empire in the eyes of the public. Our historically unprecedented ability to share ideas and information around the world in real time makes circulating unauthorized materials much easier than it used to be, and much more democratic. This is something we can all dedicate ourselves to.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think this is the right approach. The approach Johnstone is recommending is similar, I think, to what “Adbusters” is recommending, cultivating widespread anger and outrage, with the idea that this can, and will, precipitate the kind of positive revolutionary changes we truly do need.
I, personally, think that we need to tell ourselves the absolute opposite of what Johnstone is saying. Instead of telling ourselves how powerless we are to make the changes we need to make – and truly “revolutionary” changes are definitely called for – it’s my suggestion that we take seriously the idea that our system of “self-government” will, in fact, allow us to govern ourselves. But let’s be candid. As we look around, we can’t really say, in fact, that we are directly engaged, most of us, in the governing process.
We are spectators and critics, and we don’t like what’s happening. If that’s where we leave it, then we have no one to blame but ourselves. Let’s take Patti Smith seriously when she says, in her wonderful song, “People Have The Power.”
We have the power, but we are not using it as we could, and “spreading awareness of the depravity and deceit of the empire” is not a way to motivate the kind of unified (revolutionary) actions that can change the world. Rather, it’s a way to convince ourselves that we aren’t, and can’t be, in charge, which leads to the opposite of the kind of empowerment we need to mobilize.
It’s a Sunday today, so let me quote Jesus: “whoever loses their life will find it.” We, in the end, are in charge of “The Empire.” But to exercise the power to which we have access, those who choose to undertake a “revolution” will need to “lose” our present lives, and to decide that the purpose of our lives is something else, entirely, from what we are doing today.
Don’t we have positive ideas about how our world should be constructed – how things could be made better? I think we do, and we need to get to work on that. It’s a whole new and different life we need, and while criticism can motivate, what we really need to do is not to criticize what exists, but to create what needs to be.
And don’t tell me that we can’t do that.
We can.
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Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net
Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com |
A LEOPARD MANDATE, TRANSITIONING, NO GUARDRAILS, HIDING SLAVERY
“I never thought leopards would eat MY face!” complains the voter who helped elect the leader of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party. This Twitter meme will simply be schadenfreude for the next four years for those who voted against Donald Trump’s third run at the presidency, enjoying every look of disbelief as the leopard takes a bite – you did this to yourself, America! Two bar patrons enjoying a beer are discussing politics when one says to the other, “Okay, you voted for Trump…convince me I’m wrong about my worst fears.” The MAGA-hatted companion replies, “Are you kidding?! I hope you’re right!!” Yeah, we’ll see about that when the leopards are loosed.
Trump and his MAGAts are crowing that the election victory is a mandate for his policies, but as it now stands, neither he nor Harris won even 50% of the popular vote; and while Trump narrowly won the popular vote contest, he had -2% winning margins in the key Blue Wall states…his victory being decided by a handful of people in a handful of states. Yet his reactionary followers still want him to blow up the government and impose the Project 2025 objectives on the whole country, while his other supporters outside the MAGA pale simply want lower prices and a secure border. If he is smart, Trump will be satisfied with inheriting the best economy in the world and a border that is reasonably secure, freeing him up to gloat on his victory and go play golf. He is not smart; he will be only be more resolute in his wish to impose tariffs, deport people, and exact revenge on his “enemies within” as he hacks away and runs roughshod over our civil liberties. As he moves quickly to appoint a regime of loyalty in his cabinet selections, which will allow him to operate autocratically, disillusioned supporters will find that expressing their displeasure only unlocks the leopard cage. Matt Kerbel writes on Wolves and Sheep on Substack, that Trump’s “driving rationale was dominance and inevitability” during his campaign, and that will permeate his second term. “Claiming a non-existent mandate for unpopular policies that harm his voters stands to weaken him politically, and can be used by the opposition to undermine the perception that he is strong. Trump’s MAGA base will never abandon him, and he owns the Republican party regardless of how much damage he does. They will always prop him up. But the way the rest of the country reacts to Trump will matter. We cannot end Trump’s presidency. But we can reduce Trump’s ability to use his presidency to end the republic,” Matt concludes.
Trump continues to flout ethics laws and norms ahead of his inauguration date, by accepting donations to fund the transition and refusing to sign ethics pledges or deliver an ethics plan mandated by the Presidential Transitions Act. The transition team also has not signed an agreement with the FBI allowing the agency to do background checks on Trump’s nominees. Deadlines were missed in September and October to sign memorandums of understanding with the Biden White House to facilitate the outgoing administration’s collaboration with Trump’s transition team, despite promises from Trump team leaders to do so. A New York Times story reports that the transition team has privately created an ethics code and conflict-of-interest guidance for transition staff, but those documents do not include the legal requirement of a statement regarding how Trump will handle conflicts of interest as an officeholder. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Biden’s staff saying, “This failure undercuts the fundamental purpose of presidential transition laws. In effect, president-elect Trump is undermining his administration’s ability to manage urgent national security threats, health and safety threats, and serious conflicts of interest starting on day one of his presidency.”
In the past, even in Trump’s 2016 transition, incoming administrations have signed an agreement to receive financial assistance from the General Services Administration which monitors the transition process. Acceptance of the funds, signing the agreement requires the teams to abide by conditions that would limit individual donations to $5000 and mandate transparency about donors. One concern with nondisclosure, is that of foreign influence, there being no restrictions on international donations to transition teams. Public policy Professor Heath Brown of John Jay College, and a presidential transition expert told the The Times, “When money isn’t disclosed, it’s not clear how much is donated, who is donating, and what they are getting in return for their donation. It’s an area where the vast majority of Americans would agree that they want to know who is paying that bill.”
The Trump transition team is conducting its own, private background checks with the excuse that the FBI is too slow and could disrupt Trump’s desire to get to work quickly. CNN has been told that Trump has privately questioned whether background checks are even necessary. Trump’s noncompliance with background checks, transparency rules, and ethics are simply groundwork for a corrupt administration worse than his first term, when he used his position to enrich himself and grant favors to his wealthy cronies. By not signing the transition agreement, Trump doesn’t have to work within the confines of the fundraising limits or disclose what interest groups are funding his transition to the Oval Office…the door is wide open. And we, the taxpayers, will pay for any favors that Trump bestows upon his generous benefactors.
The president-elect has made known his belief that at times laws can be ignored, even those in the US Constitution. And this dictum has now tainted the beliefs of his inner circle of aides, advisors, and the MAGA base. ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reported that one Trump adviser told him, “If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary. That is all. The president gets to decide his Cabinet. No one else.” Here’s what The Appointments Clause in Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the US Constitution says: “…and [the President] shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law.” Not clear enough? The Senate advises and consents, not the MAGA mob! But can it hold up after a Trump takeover?
Following the defeat of the British, several attempts were made to arrive at a cohesive document to unite the new society to defeat the struggle for sectional supremacy. Benjamin Franklin’s 1775 draft presented to the Continental Congress to form a national government was ignored, as were attempts by several others. Three distinct societies had developed in the colonies, each one largely determined by the role of slavery in the labor force. Pennsylvania’s John Dickinson headed a committee that arrived at a plan in 1776 which was revised for seventeen months, becoming weaker with each revision before being presented in its final form in 1777. Because it was drafted during war, it had much to do with a mutual defense mechanism, but Southern states were put off because it made no distinction between slaves and white men in the apportionment of taxation. Slaves were property, not people, and Dickinson’s lack of awareness was offensive!
The inside cover blurb of Lawrence Goldstone’s 2005 book, ‘Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits and the Struggle for the Constitution,’ reads, “On September 17, 1787, at the State House in Philadelphia, thirty-nine men from twelve states [Rhode Island refused to send delegates] signed America’s Constitution after months of often bitter debate. They created a magnificent, enduring document, even though most of the delegates were driven more by pragmatic, regional interests than by idealistic vision. Many were meeting for the first time, others after years of contention, and the inevitable clash of personalities would be as intense as the advocacy of ideas or ideals.” Over the next several months, that number of thirty-nine men would increase or decrease with the comings and goings of individuals, to a total of fifty-five participants debating the merits of their own wishes to rescue the states from the totally inadequate Articles of Confederation.
The text continues: “No issue was of greater concern to the delegates than that of slavery: it resounded through debates on the definition of treason, the disposition of the rich lands west of the Alleghenies, the admission of new states, representation and taxation, the need for a national consensus, and the very makeup of the legislative and executive branches of the new government. Goldstone provocatively makes clear, ‘to a significant and disquieting degree, America’s most sacred document was molded and shaped by the most notorious institution of slavery.'” Goldstone’s book chronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of the crucial compromises made by men both driven and repelled by slavery, and the needs of the slave economy. State House debates, backroom conferences in taverns and inns lasted until the wee hours, with the philosophical contributions of James Madison waning, gradually being usurped by South Carolinian John Rutledge, a lawyer and plantation owner. Madison was particularly perturbed at Maryland’s Luther Martin, a successful attorney and an antifederalist, who was seen by many as a drunken buffoon, especially after holding the floor with a two-day speech…though being praised by many, as well. Later in his career, Martin was retained by a Quaker in a land dispute, being asked “not to drink a drop” during the trial. The trial became stressful and Martin was afraid he would lose the case by remaining sober, so during a lunch break he purchased a bottle of brandy and a loaf of bread, pouring the brandy over the loaf as he ate it with a knife and fork. Promise kept! He then proceeded to win the case having fortified himself sufficiently.
After the participants had finally agreed on the final document and returned to their various regions, the next task was to convince their state governments to accept to the results of their work, convincing which included wining and dining, cajoling, arm-twisting, and even lying to get a consensus on an instrument which specified that growers’ importation of slaves would end in twenty years…we know how that turned out! Years later, Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “Slavery was hid away in the Constitution, just as an afflicted man hides away a wen or cancer, which he does not dare cut out at once, lest he bleed to death.” Goldstone ends his volume in a chapter entitled ‘Supreme Law of the Land,’ in which he writes, “But, in the central role it played, the weight of evidence leads inescapably to the conclusion that the Constitution was drafted by highly pragmatic men who were pursuing limited and self interested goals. Philosophical concerns seemed to play only a minor role in the proceedings, and only then with but a few of the participants. Nonetheless, for all that, precisely because the delegates in Philadelphia were pragmatic, and were there to represent specific, parochial interests, they were able to draft a document that was workable, adaptable, and able to survive challenges that could never have been imagined in 1787. It is distinctly possible that had idealism dominated in Philadelphia, American democracy would have failed.”
Now, after standing fast, close to 240 years, we have a buffoon and his army who want to take an axe to the hard-won document, to make small changes like enshrining the right of billionaires and corporations to bribe judges and politicians, or insert the doctrine of corporate personhood, or simply throw the whole thing out and start over. At this point, 19 Republican-controlled states have signed on to a call for a convention under Article V, heavily funded by rightwing billionaires. In fact, we might consider that the Constitution is being rewritten already…consider the decisions of the six judges on the Supreme Court when they turned a law-breaking president into a king, ended rights of women to make decisions about their own bodies, gutted the power of federal agencies to protect consumers and the environment, and legalized bribery of politicians as long as the bribes are paid AFTER a vote…simply a ‘tip’ of appreciation, you see? The encore has in its sights gay marriage, contraception, pornography and banned books, union rights and religion in schools. The American public be damned in their overwhelming desire to see gun control, an end to gerrymandering, higher wages, money out of politics, climate action, fair taxation with enforcement for the morbidly rich and corporations, and SCOTUS term limits…and on and on.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes on her Lucid blog on Substack, “Before Bill Barr became Donald Trump’s third attorney general, he circulated a memo that was more or less an audition tape for the job he ultimately got. In it, Barr argued in favor of what had previously been a fringe theory of a powerful ‘unitary executive,’ – a president able to consolidate power at the expense of the other two branches as a very powerful leader…even Bill Barr would have never dreamed of arguing the president could use SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival and walk away with no consequences…now, the Supreme Court says it’s so.” Ruth calls Trump’s naming of Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget as context for the turn to the monarchical, away from the democratic, since Vought was the godfather of Project 2025 which will restructure our institutions. Though Trump claimed no knowledge of P2025 during his campaign, it is clear that was a lie, since he spoke at a Heritage Foundation conference in April 2022, where he told the audience that the groundwork was being laid with detailed plans for exactly what the movement would do.
Ben-Ghiat continues, “Project 2025 is a wrap. It’s locked and loaded, and ready to go. If you believe it’s about to disappear or that Trump won’t use any of it, I have some swampland in Florida for you.” She says that as recently as August, Trump had “blessed” the project and that it was ready to put into action, because British journalists secretly recorded him making such claims. “Now it’s clear that all of the horribles are on the table, everything from the end of the Department of Education to the discontinuation of the weather warnings NOAA provides,” she declares. As Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation said in July, ‘We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.’ The leopards are hungry and ready to perform their facials. The guardrails are down. We can only wait and see, as we put our efforts behind the Planning for a Better Day Party…
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Dale Matlock, a Santa Cruz County resident since 1968, is the former owner of The Print Gallery, a screenprinting establishment. He is an adherent of The George Vermosky school of journalism, and a follower of too many news shows, newspapers, and political publications, and a some-time resident of Moloka’i, Hawaii, U.S.A., serving on the Board of Directors of Kepuhi Beach Resort. Email: cornerspot14@yahoo.com. |
EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. View classic inner-view ideas and thoughts with Subconscious Comics a few flips down.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s “Deep Cover” down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog.
Thanksgiving
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
~Oprah Winfrey
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.”
~Henry David Thoreau
“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”
~Erma Bombeck
“Even though we’re a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”
~Richard Roeper
“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.”
~Irv Kupcinet
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The first 12 minutes of MTV, back on Aug 1, 1981. |
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November 20 – 26, 2024
Bratton… Webmistress says take a breath… Greensite… on 831 Almar St…. Steinbruner… about the non-library, water, water, and passenger rail?… Hayes… Power and Pitfalls of Experiential Learning … Patton… OMG. Really?… Matlock… Cheerios…friendship obligation…none of (y)our business… Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover… Webmistress serves you… Princess Bride behind the scenes Quotes on… “Take a Break”
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Dateline: November 20, 2024
JUMPING IN TO SAY… Webmistress here, just reminding everyone that it’s ok to take a break when it feels like whole world is going crazy. Stop and breathe. Go for a walk if you can! I have started doing this every morning, which is an entirely new way of life for me! I had no idea we had so many dogs in our neighborhood… One foot in front of the other, life goes on.
EMILIA PEREZ. Netflix movie. (7.3 IMDB). An amazing mix of musical and drama like I’ve never seen before. Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez take leads in this Mexico City mystery that flips between sex changes and family values. We’ll see more of this film around Oscar time as Netflix continues to sell it. DO not miss it.
LA MAISON. Apple series. (6.0IMDB). All about two of the top French fashion houses and their internal and external pressures to be number one in the world of fashion. It’s foolish, pointless, not funny, nor meaningful…do not watch, no matter what or who says so.
THE SECRET OF THE RIVER. Netflix series. (8.2 IMDB). Frida Cruz and Mario Guzman are two Oaxaca born boys who accidentally watch the accidental death by drowning of a neighbor. As they become older they grow closer and try to determine whether or not they are gay. 20 years later they reunite and deal with the ongoing issues. Definitely worth watching.
MARTHA. Netflix movie (7.2 IMDB). This is an amazing, even shocking. interestingly created documentary centering on the world’s most successful businesswoman Martha Stewart. Marrying into wealth, she parlayed her love and her acumen into becoming one of the most influential world citizens. Open, honest, even charming, she made one or two stock investment mistakes. Her failure, plus prison time, involves Justin Bieber and it’s hard to believe, but you will when you watch this portrait. Inspirational.
BILLIONAIRE ISLAND. Netflix series. (6.3 IMDB). We learn from this drama that Norway is the world’s salmon producer. Because of this there’s a ruthless woman rival who works very hard and only partially honestly to take the Salmon farm and business from her. It also tells us the difference between farmed and wild salmon. There’s lots of rich people living their lives with golf and generally focusing on making more money. Interesting but not compelling.
NOBODY WANTS THIS. Netflix series (8.1 IMDB). Adding a so called “romantic comedy” is rare for BrattonOnline but this one has a 8.1 IMDB AND THAT’S RARE. It stars Kristin Bell as the shiksa (now 44 years old) and Adam Brody as the Rabbi. It’s all in L.A. and it’s fast paced and focuses on the relationship between LA Angelenos and the large and influential Jewish population. Plus the gay population gets their share of the comedy in their 25 minute programs.
Just a reminder…
SLOW HORSES. Apple series. (8.2 IMDB) There’s been five seasons or series of Slow Horses so far and the reviews are stupendously great and RARE. Slow Horses is British slang for “slough house”. And Slough House is where the wild, clever talking M15 British agents who have made professional mistakes hang out between cases. Gary Oldman is the lead and he’s a perfect fit as are Kristin Scott Thomas and Jonathan Price. Set aside some down time and watch this one. It’s been nominated for 9 Emmy awards.
CIVIL WAR. Max movie (7.1 IMDB) Has some fine scenes, but falls apart en toto. Kirsten Dunst, Jessie Plemons and Wagner Moura lead the cast. It really is about a new civil war right here in the USA. Reporters, photographers and politicians all race around headed to Washington D.C. to talk to and change how the president is thinking. Texas and California withdraw from the union and more hell breaks out. Watch it only if this seems and looks like a nightmare to you.
THE DELIVERANCE. Netflix movie. (5.1 IMDB) Glenn Close leads the first part of this haunted house re-hash and she does a fine job. Then all the other characters turn it into the old Hollywood scary movie vehicle and take the thrills and fun out of it. As apparently required nowadays the racial issues are thrown in to give us some thoughtful stuff to focus on. Avoid this one.
THE PERFECT COUPLE. Netflix series. (6.6 IMDB) It takes place on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. Nicole Kidman, Live Schreiber and Dakota Fanning are the lead stars. A big and important wedding is about to happen and there’s a murder of all things. So the movie is all focused on whodunit! Suspicious darts are thrown and there really isn’t much of a surprise left to care about. It’s about a blah movie and you’ve seen it many, many times before.
BREATHLESS. Net series. (6.3 IMDB) This Spanish production centers and details the business side of running a hospital. It deals with, and carefully exploits the union angles of labor managing, it revolves around the constant conflict between medicine and money. There doesn’t seem to be much difference between Mexican and United States in hospital operations
KAOS. Netflix series. (7.5 IMDB). Even after viewing this one I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a comedy or a semi serious religious Greek drama. Jeff Goldblum and David Thewlis play their darndest at being Zeus and Hades stomping around Olympus trying to influence any survivors who’ll listen to them. Read a good book instead.
SLOW HORSES. Apple series. (8.2 IMDB) There’s been five seasons or series of Slow Horses so far and I never watched any of them. Slow Horses is British slang for “slough house”. And Slough House is where the wild, clever talking M15 British agents who have made professional mistakes hang out between cases. Gary Oldman is the lead and he’s a perfect fit as are Kristin Scott Thomas and Jonathan Price. Set aside some down time and watch this one. It’s been nominated for 9 Emmy awards.
MONSIEUR SPADE. Netflix series. (6.9 IMDB) Clive Owen is either paying off a bet or simply forgot how to act…he plays at being the Dashiell Hammett character Sam Spade in this political drama set in France in 1963. He lives in the south of France and is supposed to be 60. A priest, an investigator, a mess of a cast all looking for a young girl named Teresa, don’t even think about this one!
HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA. HBO series (6.8 IMDB) Kevin Costner (who must have had some lifting of face) not only directed this saga but is one of many featured costars along with Sienna Miller, and Luke Wilson. There is a murder in Montana during our civil war and the movie features a large focus on “Native Americans” being careful to respect them as important humans in a rare drama.
THE WATCHERS. Max movie.(5.7 IMDB) An incredibly puzzling movie set in Ireland with Dakota Fanning delivering a parrot to a more than unbelievable and invisible bunch of humans hiding out in an impossible part of a forest. Full of legends, myths, and puzzles, it’s worth your time.
AMERICAN MURDER: Laci Peterson. Netflix series. (7.0 IMDB) It’s a documentary about a murder that happened in 2002. Laci Peterson was murdered and her husband Scott was convicted, and more than 20 years later he and his family are still working to disprove his involvement. It takes place in Berkeley and Modesto and gives us some concept of how big a role the media plays. There’s more documentaries being produced on the Peterson case and we are advised to wait for a better version.
November 18, 2024
Burying the Heart of Santa Cruz
The pace of new high-rise projects in the city of Santa Cruz accelerates to a point where it is hard to keep track. My photo captures the massive equipment being used to move fill into the space between the outside levee and the Riverfront building under construction on Front Street. I recall the Planning Commission meetings when this project was touted and approved. The newly filled space will serve as a splendid linear public park we were told. Time will tell. Concepts and reality may or may not align.
Perhaps you have attended one of the recent zoom meetings offered by the city for the pre-planning stage of new high-rise projects. These are done in conjunction with Workbench, which appears to be developer du jour. I recently attended the zoom for 831 Almar St. I had to leave early so could not stay to ask a question or comment, but I did listen to the recording made available on the Planning Department project website. The zoom meeting was well-run by the city planner who recorded public comments and gave plenty of time for those members of the public out of the sixty-eight in attendance who chose to speak or write questions. Councilmember Renee Golder, whose district includes the project, submitted important questions of concern regarding the loss of industrial land and tailoring the housing for UCSC students.
The project architect, Mark Primack gave an overview on why this site, zoned for industrial, is perfect for a six-story mixed-use housing project. According to Primack, “zoning is always behind the times.” He omitted to mention that the return on investment for housing outstrips any other land use. The far west side includes some of the last remaining industrial zoned land in the city. There was a time when it was deemed critical to preserve industrial lands for major worksites; to avoid developing a city with all housing and little else.
In 2008, the live/work project on Delaware, on industrial land west of Swift St. was approved by council. This was a zoning compromise. A few years later, the developer came back to council and begged to be let off the hook for the “work” part of the project. He got his way. More recently, that land has been approved for UCSC student and staff housing on a 5-2 council vote. So much for preserving scarce industrial lands. For 831 Almar, zoned industrial, Workbench tried to make ceramics, breweries and chocolate factories that sell cakes pass as industrial enterprises.
There was a time when developers had to give lip service to supplying housing for essential workers to gain council approval for their projects. Never mind that such housing turned out to be mostly occupied by students, the illusion was necessary. No longer. The Food Bin is presented as future student housing, the Delaware project is approved for 600 students and now 831 Almar with a projected occupancy of 400 to 600 students markets itself as providing students flexibility in housing. With an expanding UCSC, developers can assure investors of top tier returns.
To promote this project, there’s some fiddling with the facts. According to architect Primack, “the city has an ongoing battle with the university for them to provide half the housing that students need on campus. That’s the limit that the city set.” Wait on, the city has set no such limit! The city, and particularly the community, would very much like UCSC to provide housing for most of its students on campus, not just fifty percent. That would sure lower rents in the city!
With respect to off-campus housing, the 2008 Comprehensive Settlement Agreement states that,” UCSC agrees not to construct high-density off-campus housing in the city unless consistent with city zoning.”
So that is what Primack meant by “zoning is always behind the times.” With developers eager to construct student housing once the land is re-zoned, we can forget about workforce housing. No wonder the city council avoided answering the Grand Jury when it required a response to whether inclusionary housing was occupied by residents and local workers as mandated by city code. It all makes sense in a sick sort of way.
| Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association http://darksky.org Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild. |
THIS IS NOT A LIBRARY AND SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BUILT WITH MEASURE S LIBRARY BOND MONEY
The Live Oak “Library” Annex is having a grand opening this Saturday, 11am-1pm. Maybe a guest will bring a book or two to donate to the site because the shelves are all empty.
Please join the protest at 11am to let the elected officials know that it was wrong to use Measure S money to build this Live Oak Library Annex that has NO books and NO librarian but instead relies on Parks Dept. staff at the Simpkins Swim Center desk to answer questions.
The 2021-2022 Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury investigated the County’s use of Measure S special tax money that was supposed to be restricted to use for improving libraries:
How a Community Center Became a “Library”, The Transformational Power of Measure S Funds
“The Grand Jury has concluded that the Annex is an expansion of the Live Oak
Community Center and not an expansion of the Live Oak Branch Library. Following the
State’s elimination of redevelopment agencies, County Parks was left without a ready
source of capital funds needed to complete the vision of the Community Center.
Measure S filled the void. The Grand Jury recommends that the County Board of
Supervisors reassess its decision to use Measure S funds to improve the Live Oak
Community Center and restore the voters’ trust.”
The required responses by the Board of Supervisors were dismissive and totally inadequate. The Board disagreed that Measure S monies were restricted to use for libraries and should not have been used to expand the Community Center, stating that the Live Oak Library needed space for programs and did not have it, so the Annex fills that need.
The Board disagreed that having the Annex would adversely affect the Library System’s Operating Budget. We now know that was a lie because all but one branch, the Downtown Branch, is closed on Sundays because there is not enough money to staff another library, such as the Live Oak Branch, on Sundays for four hours of patron use.
The Board simply rejected the single good recommendation the Grand Jury made, stating it was “not appropriate.”
Recommendation:
“The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors should
reassess its decision to use Measure S funds to improve the Live Oak
Community Center and either reimburse the Library Facilities Financing
Authority or commit additional funds to establish the Annex as a library
resource consistent with other SCPL branches.”
The Live Oak Annex is not staffed. The folks who are stationed at the Swim Center desk adjacent are expected to make themselves available for any questions that arise, and are responsible for any problems that occur.
Please join us in reminding the elected officials that what they did still stinks and that they need to regain our trust. Maybe the one who is responsible for this egregious travesty, former First District County Supervisor John Leopold, will dare to show his face.
SOQUEL CREEK WATER DISTRICT BOARD IS INSULTED BY QUESTIONING
On November 19, the Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors waved through on their Consent Agenda Item 4.6, approving a two-year contract with the Eurofins and MBAS Labs to conduct sampling and analysis of the finished Project water that will be injected into the groundswater. I timely requested the Board pull this item from their Consent Agenda for better public discussion and staff response to 13 questions I submitted. The Board refused to pull the item, and Board President Bruce Jaffe scolded me harshly for personally insulting him by asking questions. Director Tom LaHue chimed in that it is obvious that I just don’t understand the Project. Director Carla Christensen simply told me not to worry because the lab would be able to do work that the District employees cannot. Directors Rachel Lather and Jennifer Balboni sat smirking.
Such arrogance has consumed the District’s attitude in general.
No staff offered to meet with me to answer my questions that included how the public would be able to see the data generated by Eurofins and MBAS, and concerns that there is no mention in the contract to include sampling and reporting of biological contaminants responsible for fouling the reverse osmosis membranes, thereby rendering them less effective at removing contaminants while also increasing energy demand to operate the system. [Reverse osmosis membrane biofouling: causes, consequences and countermeasures]
That worries me, and should worry the District Board but they didn’t seem to care. They approved this contract as a consent agenda item while dismissively rejecting all public questioning, deeming it an “insult”.
SOQUEL CREEK WATER DISTRICT HISTORY OF NO CONSIDERATION OF REALITY
Last month, the Soquel Creek Water District Board held a lively discussion about how to make their ugly PureWater Soquel Project more attractive, feeling “out-done” by the whale motif on the new Chantlcleer Pedestrian Overcrossing adjacent.
Supposedly, an ad hoc committee will bring recommendations to the Board sometime soon, so I thought I would help them by providing a compendium of documents showing that the District failed all along to recognize the Chanticleer Overcrossing impacts on the ugly PureWater Soquel sewage water treatment facility. I submitted the correspondence in a timely fashion, so that it would be included in the November 19, 2024 Board Correspondence packet.
The Board said nothing, NOTHING AT ALL, about the documents. I guess they had other things on their minds, such as whether to increase rates January 1, 2025 by 12%.
They did that. Even though the rate increases are to pay for a service the ratepayers are NOT receiving…basin sustainability and the PureWater Soquel Project. That is the basis for the legal challenge in Case 24CV00566.
Of interest was the fact that District Finance Director Leslie Strohm announced that “the District has not posted a net gain in position in four years, and have not increase unrestricted revenue (cash). In effect, we are below where we need to be in reserves.”
The District is in financial trouble, but continues to hire consultant after consultant…and the Pure”Water Soquel Project operational costs, initially thought to be $2.5 million/ year, are now forecast at $6.2 Million annually.
Wow.
NO NEW PROJECTS … REDUCING THE COST OF NEW WATER SERVICE IN SOQUEL CREEK WATER DISTRICT
On November 19, the Board of Soquel Creek Water District decided that since there are no capital improvement projects on the drawing board, once PureWater Soquel Project treated sewage water injection comes online, they must re-evaluate the cost for new water service hookups for ADU’s.. Effective January 1, 2025, the cost for a new construction service line will cost about half of what the District has charged in the past. Except for 4″ service lines…those will increase 9%. Hmmmmmm…
Ms. Leslie Strohm, Director of District Finance, could not explain why the new 4″ connections would have a 9% increase when all other connections will decrease. When questioned, she said “I will have to talk with our consultant about that.” Isn’t it amazing that the Director of Finance, who is receiving a $1,000/month bonus until PureWater Soquel Project comes online, is clueless about a financial issue she presented to the Board?
Unfortunately, her slide presentation was not provided to the public in advance of the November 19 meeting, and at the time of this writing, still has not been posted to the website.. [Agenda – 11/19/2024]
I asked how the District will allay the upset of ADU applicants who paid $22,000 for a new hookup, but would have paid about $11,000 under the new adjustment had they waited? Staff said they have been letting applicants know about possible water capacity fee changes since June. That added six month to peoples’ projects…if they felt it worth the wait.
WATER STORAGE, NOT DRINKING TREATED SEWAGE WATER
A reader kindly sent me the link below to news that the State is investing heavily in raising the levels of dams in California, including San Luis Reservoir. The reader implored that this is a superior idea and opposes Soquel Creek Water District forcing customers to drink treated sewage water from the PureWater Soquel Project. I could not agree more.
Deal reached to expand massive reservoir near Bay Area to increase water supplies
The City of Santa Cruz has also increased the height of the Newell Creek Dam to allow for more storage at Loch Lomond Reservoir. That is good news. However, the City is still looking to PureWater Soquel, possibly doubling the treatment capacity, in order to meet the City’s anticipated future supply needs in a prolonged drought. That would be in addition to the City injecting potable water into the aquifer, and pumping it back out in the summer. That is known as aquifer storage and recovery (ASR).
The City is, in my observation, looking at ways to make use of water when it is plentiful, and to avoid the need to rely on Soquel Creek Water District. The famed Water Optimization Analysis Report, outlining how the City’s ASR and PureWater Soquel Project would work in tandem has not yet been completed. Earlier models the Montgomery & Associates consultants did showed that if the two projects occurred at the same time, water would spew out of the ground surface. Heidi Luckenbach, Director of City Water, reminded the Soquel Creek Water District Board about that when she spoke to them on October 15.
Montgomery & Associates consultant is also doing the Water Optimization Analysis. The date for completion of that report keeps getting pushed out.
What also is not being done is a follow up Airborne ElectroMagnetic (AEM) resistivity study by helicopter that would give a clear indication of where the saltwater/freshwater interface is in the areas of PureWater Soquel injection wells and the MidCounty Basin in general. That was done in 2017 to provide a snapshot of the situation. However, no current information exists, other than the monitoring wells showing groundwater levels increasing or stabilized.
I have asked the MidCounty Groundwater Agency (MGA)as well as Soquel Creek Water District to fund a new AEM study before the PureWater Soquel Project comes online to verify the conditions the Project is supposedly correcting. While a few on the Board of the MGA nodded in agreement, no action was taken. The Soquel Creek Water District Board scoffed, with President Bruce Jaffe attempting to take District credit for the 2017 study. He was set straight by new General Manager Melanie Mow-Schumacher. Good luck getting the District to do anything that could possibly show there is not a saltwater interface problem to the extent that they have screamed and used to justify their expensive Project that has thrown the District into deep debt.
The State did an AEM helicopter survey a couple of years ago, but chose to only make two very broad passes over the area that could have provided a comparison with the 2017 flight results, and chose to fly inland over areas that the initial study supposedly could not include due to flight over residential areas.
I have asked the MidCounty Groundwater Agency Board many times to have another AEM flight over the same areas as they paid to have done in 2017. How else can they determine if the PureWater Soquel Project, the capstone of their Groundwater Sustainabilty Plan, is working or not? How will Soquel Creek Water District otherwise know if the Project is actually supporting groundwater sustainability, for which they have already approved action as a basis for increasing their customer rates last February?
The Project start-up has been pushed back to March, 2025.
WILL THERE EVER BE PASSENGER RAIL HERE?
There have be a couple of recent gatherings to discuss passenger rail plans in Santa Cruz County and Monterey County, but both make me think it will not happen in my life time. The RTC held a presentation at the Mello Center in Watsonville. I was glad there was an initial presentation. That dissolved into an open house format where no one could hear questions of others or the answers provided. People were supposed to festoon the maps with sticky notes and colored dots, thereby allowing the RTC to check off the box that there was “robust community involvement’. Sigh. What I found interesting is that the passenger rail is not being planned to continue beyond Santa Cruz, failing to link Davenport and the San Vicente Redwood area or Cotoni-Coast National Monument.
When I asked staff about that, they suggested I write it on a Comment Card.
The second passenger rail public event was across the Pajaro River to learn more about the Pajaro Rail Station, presented by TAMC, the Monterey County equivalent to the Santa Cruz County RTC. This was a noisy open house format that was well-attended.
The large maps of the Salinas Road area at Railroad Avenue in Pajaro is the focal point to build a new passenger rail station that would allow CalTrain and Amtrak passenger rail service with links to the Bay Area and beyond. i learned that TAMC is embarking on an environmental study of the potential train station area, and that Union Pacific Railroad has alot to say with how this all gets done. They do not want a passenger rail loading platform on a curved track, ostensibly for visibility of other on-coming train operators. How long would that straight section of track need to be? Who knows, said the staff, but TAMC is planning for 800′.
Construction could begin in 2029…with more studies to yet be done. Sigh. I asked why links to Santa Cruz rail lines could not be suited to buses with rail conversion ability? Staff said the State won’t fund something like that. I got discouraged by learning that the State and Fed. government will not subsidize passenger rail operation and maintenance. Why is it different than bus systems, which do seem to get grants for operations and capital improvement?
Weigh in with your comments and ideas before December 6.
WHAT WILL MOBILE HOME RESIDENTS DO?
Please listen in this Friday at 2pm to “Community Matters” online radio to hear Ms. Roxanne Stanley talk about what is happening along the RTC-owned Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line in the areas where mobile home parks have been deemed to be encroaching. Roxanne is working to organize her neighbors in an effort to reason with the RTC, who has put all residents there on notice that encroaching units will be moved on or by June, 2025. The second hour will be an interview with Mr. Tony Crane, to do a election follow up on Monica Martinez in the Fifth District Supervisor race, and a review of the local media’s affect on the election. Listen in from your computer or smart device.and join the conversation.
WRITE ONE LETTER. MAKE ONE CALL. SEND IN COMMENT ON A LOCAL PROJECT.
MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK BY JUST DOING SOMETHING.
Cheers!
Becky
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Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes. She ran again in 2020 on a slightly bigger shoestring and got 1/3 of the votes.
Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com |
Power and Pitfalls of Experiential Learning
Most people I know rejoice when they hear about students engaged with experiential learning, but what does that term mean and how far should it go? Ronald Reagan was largely responsible for making it less affordable to attend colleges and universities, and when he did many cynics muttered about industry and their political party lackies wanting cheaper, more subservient labor. This purposeful dumbing down of our society is having grave consequences, and not just in one spot on the political spectrum. Backlash is occurring, but not the kind of backlash you might hope for: increasingly close relationships between industry and university systems. Industry hungers for skilled workers. And so, we are witnessing the rise of the trade school. Well-run trade schools could nurture collaboration, fostering Democracy, but this runs counter to oligarchical aspersions of the 1%. How will we solve this tension?
California’s Public Institutions of Higher Learning
What is the difference between the 4 different public institutions of higher learning in California: the 116 “community colleges,” 3 “polytechnic state universities,” 20 other “state universities“, and 10 “UC’s?” Community colleges are sorting machines to bridge the ‘better’ students into higher division courses at the other institutions. Around 20% of lower division students in California’s universities drop out; to keep the machine running, there must be replacements in line –community colleges produce those replacements. The “mission of the California Community Colleges is to advance California’s economic growth and global competitiveness through education, training, and services that contribute to continuous work force improvement.” In other words, community colleges are the first step for students entering trade school in California’s higher education system. As such, community colleges are primarily designed to feed students into the polytechnic universities, the purest type of university trade school. The term ‘polytechnic’ refers to vocational training, aka “trade school.” For administrative efficiency as well as similarity of mission, California’s 3 polytechnic universities are administered by the California State University (CSU) system. The other 20 CSU’s are a bit more abashedly also trade schools. The UC’s are clearly distinct from trade schools by their promotion of teaching theory and nurturing critical thinking, conducting research that advances theories, not current practice – they eschew applied research.
The Danger of Trade Schools in California
Trade schools are often proud of experiential learning, a key component of skills-based training. Industry saves money if the State spends the money building skills in the soon-to-be workforce. The current overrated excitement about training grade school students in STEM is a symptom of this thinking. Skills based training, including STEM training, is a big problem when things change as rapidly as they are changing. Most skills we teach to make widgets today are not the skills that will be needed a short period of time. Despite this, trade school curricula leave little room for elective courses. By their sophomore year, students must define their major, and to succeed at that declared major a student has no room in their schedule to explore other subjects. On top of this, trade schools are teaching a narrow set of ‘soft skills,’ related to obedience to process: students who can navigate the bureaucracy are the ones that succeed. The result of this system is an emerging workforce trained narrowly in already irrelevant job skills excepting the skill to navigate protocol.
Faltering Trade Schools
Years ago, California’s trade schools hired professors with experience in private industry. After Reagan gutted public higher education funding, competition increased between colleges and universities for other revenue sources from skyrocketing student fees, public:private partnerships (industry funding), and alumni donations. This competition led trade schools to attempt to become more like UCs: “top-tier” universities. And so, trade schools turned changed the old model of hiring professors experienced in “real world” industries to hiring the same types of professors UC would hire. Lucky for them, there is a glut of academically aspiring PhDs. Trade school administrators increasingly apply the screws to faculty, who are caught in demoralizing stress. Professors at trade schools must teach as many tuition-paying students as possible: low faculty:student ratios are more profitable. To be successful these faculty must help with fundraising, meeting with industry officials to keep up reputations of building a skilled workforce. On top of those obligations, trade school faculty play the game of courting ‘top tier’ status for their university by somehow, miraculously wedging in time for publication-quality research.
Long-Lasting, Relevant Workforce Skill: Collaboration
Instead of, or at least in addition to, training trade school students on ‘how good are you at navigating protocol,’ trade schools might also focus on collaborative skills. What if experiential learning at trade schools focused on student engagement to solve real-world problems, interacting with real world stakeholders? In this case, faculty and students would interact with the stakeholders involved in any given issue…perhaps industry representatives, regulators, policymakers, financiers, interested citizens, labor leaders, etc. Students would be reviewed by their ability to critically evaluate situations and for the feasibility of their creative solutions. Faculty would be reviewed by the quality of their student mentorship on collaboration skills. Collaborative skill training would focus on power analysis, defining success, facilitating dialogues for mutual understanding, identifying gaps in knowledge, and identifying solutions of greatest benefit.
Contextual Shift
Training a future workforce skilled in collaboration would increase productivity while creating a more peaceful citizenry, but would also likely threaten wealth inequality…and so is a major threat to industry leaders. If those entering the industrial workforce understood the regulatory context of their work, they might favor solutions that meet regulatory expectations, rather than attempting to challenge or circumvent the rules. On the other hand, if those entering regulatory workforce understood industrial context of their work, they might be less likely to apply rules inappropriately in favor or in contravention of industry. In either case, accusations of a ‘dark state’ would evaporate and the people’s will for regulations would likely be more fully realized. Core to collaboration training is the idea that we can achieve more through collaboration than trade-offs faced with compromise. Those in power like the frame where the only pathway to solution is compromise because they think they always win as much as could be won. That mistaken assumption is evident in the politics of the USA.
DEI is the Answer
Even trade schools are teaching Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which holds great promise as a back door to training in collaboration. The skills I outlined above are inherent to implementing a more DEI-oriented society. The question is…will DEI suffuse everything at trade schools (and beyond), or will it be siloed as yet another idea in the world of ideas? In some places, we are seeing an attack on DEI training…after reading this essay, I hope you can think more critically about why that might be.
I also hope you will consider the implications of higher education tilting towards trade schools, away from the humanities, history, critical thinking, and theory.
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Grey Hayes is a fervent speaker for all things wild, and his occupations have included land stewardship with UC Natural Reserves, large-scale monitoring and strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy, professional education with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and teaching undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz. Visit his website at: www.greyhayes.net
Email Grey at coastalprairie@aol.com |
Robert Reich is pictured above, but I’m betting that you didn’t need me to tell you that. I think it’s fair to say that Reich is one of our better known “public intellectuals.” Most of the people I hang out with, anyway, would immediately recognize Reich if they saw him on the street. Click this link if you would like to learn more about Reich. That link will also furnish you with a picture of a much younger Robert Reich.
My blog posting today comes as a reaction to one of Reich’s own blog postings, as published on Substack. Reich’s posting on November 14, 2024, had this title: “Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Health Secretary. OMG. Really?”
Reich doesn’t have much good to say about other recent nominations, either:
Friends,
Trump is giving his middle finger to America.
Nominating the alleged sexual trafficker Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General, Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense, and bizarro Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence are acts of nihilistic disruption.
Now, nominating conspiracist and fabulist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the nation’s leading health job — overseeing the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institutes of Health, among other sensitive positions — is an act of utter hubris.
At a time when the truth is a precious common good, and the public’s health is already precarious, RFK Junior has made a name for himself spreading dangerous health lies…. I knew Robert F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy Junior is no Robert F. Kennedy. If not for his lustrous name, RFK Junior would be just another crackpot in the ever-growing pool of bottom-feeding fringe characters encircling Trump like ravenous slugs.
In my immediate reaction to the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency, I said that “we are now likely going to be presented with an incredible opportunity to renew the vigor and effectiveness of democratic self-government in the United States.” This rather optimistic statement was based on my prediction that Trump, as president, would do things that would, ultimately, discredit him, and discredit his Administration, and would thus let concerned citizens make some very much-needed changes to our federal government.
So far, these early nominations (aptly characterized by Reich) provide some evidence that I may have been correct in my prediction. We may well find ourselves, sooner rather than later, with an opportunity to make real, substantive changes.
But to take advantage of the opportunities that will come, however and whenever they do, we will need to be actively engaged, ourselves.
“Self-government” does require that we be engaged, ourselves.
Let’s not forget that. Let’s not drop the ball!
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Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net
Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com |
JOKING DOGES, ADJOURNING POWER GRAB, RESIGNATION, A CIRCUS
Comedian Wanda Sykes said on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week that though she “got her hopes up,” about a potential Kamala Harris win, she wasn’t surprised that Trump won. “I mean it’s so many reasons why you can say it happened. But, I think, you know, a lot of us aren’t, like, totally shocked, because sometimes America is just gonna America.” Not comfortable with the outcome, she asserted, “I’m a Black woman and a lesbian…how do you think I’m doin’? It’s like ‘Okay,’ you get your hopes up, you think you’ll move forward.” She pinned the blame for Trump’s victory with, “I blame those damn Cheerio commercials, showing all those interracial couples. You scared the [crap] outta white people. What are y’all doin’? Just sell the damn cereal…why you gotta be bringing us into this?”
HuffPost reports that eight years after a win in 2016, a defeat in 2020, The Don is now the next president-elect of the country, regaining “the seat of immense power with fresh grievances, threats of being a dictator on ‘day one’ and calling for retribution against his ‘enemies within.'” Don’t look for any respect for the rule of law…only the rule of one, “the greatest challenge to our democratic experiment since the Civil War.” HP says, “This is not a drill…now is not the time to cower or capitulate,” pledging to cover actions of the Trump administration “with the same rigor and honesty that we always have.” JoJo from Jerz posted on X: “How sad it must be believing that doctors, scientists, scholars, historians, economists and journalists are all lying to you, but a criminal conman, business cheat, reality TV game show host with a lifelong history of blatant, unapologetic, nonstop lying, is telling you the truth.”
In just the couple of weeks since the election, Trump’s old buddy Vlad Putin, is messing with his orange head. It took Putin two days to congratulate him, during a news conference, on his election success, which surely raised the former president’s uncertainty about the ‘friendship’ with his favorite strongman. Trump then claimed there had been a phone conversation with Putin, during which he warned the Russian leader not to escalate the war on the Ukrainians. Then came a poke in the eye from the Kremlin, denying that there was a phone call, which allows Putin to go ahead with plans to use North Korean troops to retake some occupied Russian territory, and move back into Donbas province. Will Trump learn a lesson about the limits of a misconstrued personal relationship as he is forced to consider our national interests early on? Naaahhh! Russia’s chief of intelligence, Nikolai Patrushev, made a comment in the Moscow newspaper, Kommersant, “The election campaign is over. To achieve success in the election Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.” Obligations to certain forces? This psychological punch is telling Mr. Trump that Russians now deserve payback for contributing to his election victory with their phony videos against Harris, and phoning in bomb scares to polling stations! Some are speculating that this is a blackmail threat by communicating that they have compromising information pointing to Trump or his staffers about colluding in these Russian ‘contributions.’
Throughout the campaign Trump made his wishes known that he wants a realignment with Putin, but Patrushev’s response simply reveals that Russia’s main goal is to sow chaos, breed mistrust, and weaken the bonds of democracy in the West, no matter who is president of the USA. Trump’s MAGAts are willing to go along with their leader for better relations with Russia as they seek to weaken China’s influence in the world. We can only speculate how Trump will proceed, whether he will change, or whether he even has the capability to change his standpoint as it becomes more apparent that Putin wants us to fail. Trump has a history of keeping private his conversations with Putin, the Washington Post finding at least sixteen private conversations…that we know about…during Trump’s first three years in office. A 2018 closed-door meeting in Helsinki is still a mystery, with Trump confiscating notes from his interpreter, ordering him to not disclose any details of the conversation. It’s notable that he told reporters ahead of the 2019 G20 summit in Osaka, Japan that his meetings with Putin were “none of your business.” The ambiguousness is alive and well today!
Trump, being true to form, continues to poke fun at his lackeys. Elon Musk was a victim last week when Trump accused him of hanging around Mar-a-Lago for too long. “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him…until I don’t like him,” he mocked his billionaire buddy, addressing Republican lawmakers on the Hill at their first meeting following his election victory. Musk has accompanied Trump on the golf course, in the dining room, and sharing conversations with world leaders whom Trump has called. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell sees Trump’s comments about Musk before the assembled audience as an assertion of his dominance in front of a group that has to laugh along with him. O’Donnell says, “Everyone laughed. They laughed that uncomfortable laugh. But they laugh when Donald Trump makes a joke about someone on his team, a joke that everyone knows is true, a joke that paints that person as pathetic, as Donald Trump’s personal sense of superiority demands that he do.” O’Donnell believes that the new agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is a joke as well, a humiliating demotion, with co-leader Musk being responsible in a “fake job that holds little more power than that of a K Street lobbyist.” As an added insult, he was given a working partner in Vivek Ramaswamy…not even a billionaire! Lawrence pointed out that Trump’s other cabinet appointments have been for standing federal departments…DOGE is not. Tech journalist, Kara Swisher, predicts the relationship between the two egotistical, narcissistic and indomitable entities is destined to fail. Donald owes Elon, but if he garners too much attention…poof! It’s all over a la Steve Bannon. Swisher notes that “Trump goes through people like tissues, essentially…they’re going to clash at some point.”
The provocative Cabinet picks Trump has made are stirring up outrage and shock in DC, even among the GOP, triggering a melt-down just as the president-elect intends. Most outrageous has been naming Matt Gaetz as his attorney general. Tulsi Gabbard will be director of national intelligence if confirmed, and Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth is headed for the defense secretary position. Those three individuals pose questions about The Don’s motivations and the direction of his second term, not least because of their professional, ethical or experiential qualities, or lack of them, reports CNN. Their commonality is an unfailing loyalty to Trump, all avid proponents of the stunt politics he spearheaded on social media; and if his “retribution” is to be carried out they will obey his orders. Trump rocked the boat further with his naming of Robert F Kennedy, Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services, who it seems will be given free rein to carry out whatever he wants, should he pass muster with the Senate…unless…
Trump has no intention of seeking Senate permission! Fearing that even a GOP-controlled Senate might be hesitant to confirm his choices, it’s speculated that he will adjourn both houses of Congress under the never-used Article II, section 3 of the Constitution, enabling him to recess-appoint his Cabinet nominees. Can you say, ‘Power Grab?’ This move allow him to impose on the government, everyone he wants, no matter how corrupt, extreme, inexperienced or controversial they might be. If Trump attempts this, and can get away with it, he will effectively remove the Senate’s confirmation powers forever, a norm-shattering disruption of politics, governance, and presidential power. With certainty, a high-stakes face-off followed by litigation would erupt, with no guarantee about the result. Conservative legal activist, Ed Whelan, hopes the rumor to take this path is wrong, being appalled at the idea. “It’s a fundamental general feature of our system of separated powers that the president shall submit his nominations for major offices to the Senate for approval. That feature plays a vital role in helping to ensure that the president makes quality picks,” he says. Whelan points out that it would take cooperation of Speaker Johnson and the House majority, being far from clear whether Republicans in either chamber have the spine to stand up to this unprecedented wrecking ball.
Black sheep, blackballed, ex-Vice President Pence jumped into the conversation, albeit uninvited, to plead with Republicans to reject RFK Jr. as our next Health & Human Services secretary. As odacationnews says, “before you go wondering if Pence has suddenly found something resembling a moral compass, his reasoning is entirely predictable: Kennedy is pro-choice. Pence is most certainly not. RFK Jr.’s certifiably nutty views on vaccines and other conspiratorial musings aren’t the problem, mind you. It’s Kennedy’s unforgivable opinion that a woman should have the right to make important medical decisions for herself. Noted, Mike. Don’t you have somewhere irrelevant to be?”
The Meidas Touch Network on You Tube has a presentation by Francis M. Maxwell, sharing videos of global impressions of Trump’s election, many of which have invoked fear and laughter around the world. The Scottish First Minister was ridiculed by a parliament member addressing his colleagues, for “offering his congratulations on behalf of the Scottish government to convicted felon Donald Trump…words fail me.” On Tik Tok, both the Finnish and Norwegian female parliament members proclaimed “our American sisters are not alone.” Referencing the Musk super pac’s $200M fund for Trump’s election, Australia has introduced a new bill that will ban billionaire Elon Musk and others from buying elections in that nation to insure that what happened in the US does not happen in their country. French President Macron called the Trump election “a moment of acceleration,” as he sees the possible trade war between China and the US as a time for adjustment of power, both economically and commercially, within the European community. He asked, “Do we want to read history as written by others, or do we want to write our own history? Now is the time to defend national and European interests.”
California Attorney General, Rob Bonta, said his organization “will be there” if Trump attacks the rights of the state’s citizens, and will insure that California will remain “a steadfast beacon of hope and progress.” This tack is being taken up by attorneys general across the country to legally defend against Trump administration excesses. In Trump’s first term, states brought on a wave of lawsuits to block moves like his travel ban, and family separations, as we even now face threats of mass deportations and rolling back of environmental regulations. Democratic governors see the trifecta of the White House and Congress, and a more conservative judiciary shrinking the number of venues for advancing Democrat’s policies at the federal level. The actions of governors and state AGs can make a difference not only in their own states, but across the nation. Preparations for several months entailed monitoring comments from Trump and his colleagues, studying Project 2025, and scrutinizing the conservative Heritage Foundation’s framework for Trump II. Preparations include prewriting briefs needing only slight editing in preparation for filing as needed. Bonta says, “What we learned from the first Trump administration is that he can’t help but break the law. It’s part of his brand. It’s part of what he does.” Trump’s first go-around brought in a world of heightened AG activism, resulting in current legal officers “much more proactive in getting ready for challenges that don’t even exist.” As the Turkish proverb tells us: “When a clown moves into the palace, he does not become king. The palace becomes a circus.”
The New York Times reports that Special Counsel Jack Smith is said to be assessing how to wind down his two federal criminal investigations and prosecutions of Donald Trump, with plans to beat the president-elect’s threat to fire him “within two seconds” of taking office by resigning first. With the Justice Department’s long-standing policy of not prosecuting a sitting president, Smith has notified prosecutors and FBI agents on his team that they can begin planning their own departures.The Supreme Court’s ruling that presidential conduct can’t be prosecuted even after a president leaves office covers such a broad swath, that their decision that a “president is immune from being held liable for ‘official acts'” pretty much frees Trump from many of his actions, anyway. DOJ regulations require that Smith make a final report on his investigation, allowing him to lay out the case against Trump on charges related to his role in the J6 Capitol attack and the mishandling of classified documents. It’s a race against time to see if he can complete that report to be made public before Biden’s term ends, but his intention is to leave no “significant part of his work for others to complete.” Is that Bill Barr hiding in the wings? Both House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Representative Barry Loudermilk have requested that Smith’s office preserve all records in the Trump probes, signaling that a congressional inquiry is in the making, prompting Elon Musk to laud the move on X, posting, “Jack Smith’s abuse of the justice system cannot go unpunished.”
Late Show host, Stephen Colbert charged that Trump, since his election, has “already managed to be way worse” than he expected, by bringing up the Matt Gaetz nomination. “During the campaign, I thought if Trump won, he would do the worst things I could imagine. Turns out, I don’t have much of an imagination,” he said. Colbert then directed his anger to Attorney General Merrick Garland for failing to prosecute Trump earlier, saying, “Are you sorry you didn’t speed up those Trump trials, you schmuck?” Can’t say he wasn’t warned!
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Dale Matlock, a Santa Cruz County resident since 1968, is the former owner of The Print Gallery, a screenprinting establishment. He is an adherent of The George Vermosky school of journalism, and a follower of too many news shows, newspapers, and political publications, and a some-time resident of Moloka’i, Hawaii, U.S.A., serving on the Board of Directors of Kepuhi Beach Resort. Email: cornerspot14@yahoo.com. |
EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. View classic inner-view ideas and thoughts with Subconscious Comics a few flips down.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s “Deep Cover” down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog.
Take a Break
“Try to pause each day and take a walk to view nature.”
~Lailah Gifty Akita
“Almost everything will work if you unplug it for a few minutes…including you.”
~Anne Lamott
“Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from cares which will not withdraw from us.”
~Maya Angelou
“Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have.”
~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
“Sometimes you need to give yourself a break when you’ve had a lot of life change.”
~Barbara Freethy
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One of my favorite movies of all time, here’s a deep dive on the Miracle Max scene. |
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