Greensite… on the fallacy of Design Guidelines… Steinbruner… Supervisor raise… big piles of dirt… Hayes… A Look Around the Monterey Bay… Patton… Worst War Ever… Matlock… …turning point…5 – 4 = 43…brain play… Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover … Webmistress serves you… AI robocall scammers… Quotes on… “Burning Man”
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IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN… and yeah, that could apply to so many things: school starting again, summer being over, Burning Man… Personally, I’m referring to the latter. I haven’t been to Burning Man proper since 2010. Brian and I did go to the non-Burning Man Burning Man during the pandemic (2021). That was a fantastic experience – it was so much more like how it was in the old days, before it got so huge, complicated, expensive, commercialized, and commodified. You could buy a ticket at the gate, and vehicle passes didn’t exist.
Now that all makes it sound like I’m complaining, and it makes it that much more surprising that I’m going this year! Not only that, I’ll be working on a Pyro project, so I get early entry. That’s nothing compared to Brian, who will be on the Pyro crew for the Man. As in, he’s one of the people setting up all the fireworks that set off the Man on Burn night. Watch some videos on YouTube, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. To say that we are all excited is an understatement!
I may schedule the column ahead of time, and I may post from the Playa. We leave on the 25th of August.
Meanwhile, enjoy this week’s contributions!
~Webmistress
THE BACKROOMS. In theatres, PrimeTV. Movie. (6.8 IMDb) 
The Backrooms, like Slenderman and Creepy Pasta, grew out of the internet, a new kind of horror born from the post-Covid emptying of once-populated spaces. The Backrooms are both a genre and a reaction to liminal spaces: those empty places between places. Abandoned terminals, shopping malls, office buildings. They can be fascinating, but also deeply unnerving.
The Backrooms movie takes that unease and turns it up to 12, suggesting these are places misremembering themselves: genuinely endless hallways, random fragments of stairs, windows where windows shouldn’t be. Even people become fragmented, misremembered.
For anyone who’s ever found themselves unnerved not by boogeymen, but by places that just aren’t right, this hits a very particular nerve. Well worth a watch
~Sarge
THE ODYSSEY. In Theaters. Movie. (8.5 IMDb) 
The “Helen is DEI casting!” and “Achilles is trans!” outrage tells me you looked up The Odyssey just long enough to be angry, without actually reading it or seeing the film. I’ve read it multiple times, from adolescence through university. It’s a legend Homer recorded centuries after the supposed events, preserved through oral tradition, and all the variations that adds to the story. Helen’s skin color has no significance to the story, and Achilles is already dead when The Odyssey begins. Elliot Page doesn’t play Achilles at all, but Sinon, the young man sent to war in another’s place.
Nolan’s Odyssey is a solid, faithful-ish telling, briskly told in about three hours (I know, that sounds like an oxymoron but it’s true). It adds some believable depth to Odysseus, gives Penelope less screen time than she deserves, and as a mythology geek I could nitpick the lack of spear fighting or the anachronistic Corinthian helmets instead of the Achaeans’ boar’s tusk helmets. But that’s fanboy trivia. At its heart, it’s a powerful story about responsibility and loss. Well worth a watch. Twice, if you can.
~Sarge
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. PrimeTV. Movie. (6.8 IMDb) 
Masters of the Universe (2026) was a genuine surprise. Rather than forcing the franchise into a dark, gritty reboot, it embraces the colorful, larger-than-life spirit of the original. It balances action, fantasy, and humor without winking at the audience, making the whole adventure feel sincere, fun, and delightfully goofy.
This isn’t trying to be the next great fantasy epic—it’s trying to be a Masters of the Universe movie, and it succeeds. Ignore the toxic nostalgia crowd complaining about the diverse casting of characters like Man-At-Arms, Triclops, and Ram Man, and you’ll find a tonally accurate adaptation that answers plenty of questions longtime fans have had for years (particularly namings). Stick around for the mid- and post-credit scenes. Well worth the watch.
~Sarge
QUICK LOOK AT NETFLIX. Netflix. Series, Movie.
Here’s some stuff that’s not necessarily current, but currently on Netflix:
Veronica Mars think Buffy, but with no vampires, and lots of class conflicts, roofies … and the result … and murder in a small California coastal town. Young Kristen Bell (The Good Place) lives with her disgraced cop/now PI father, and is determined to solve the murder of her best friend, and the case that tanked her father’s career. A fun watch.
The Dead Don’t Die think Night of the Living Dead directed by Wes Anderson. Only in this case, it’s Jim Jarmusch. Zombies in a small town, with Bill Murray and Adam Driver starring. Tilda Swinton is a samurai. Much more like his 80’s films.
Mindhunter was pretty amazing, on and off; the casting for Big Ed Kemper was spot on. Period piece that follows the building of the FBI’s “profiling” division, focused on this new thing: serial killers.
The Enola Holmes movies: Sherlock (Henry Cavill)’s little sister, Enola (Alone backwards), breaks free of an attempt to ship her off to a deportment school, and takes up the family business on her own. There follow adventures, romance (on her terms), and occasional visits by her anarchist mother, Helena Bonham Carter. The first is a lot of fun, growing less (for me) as the sequels went on.
Marty: Life is Short, let’s hope it’s not for him! I love Martin Short, so this was a gem. An autobiographical history, chock full of familiar clips, as well as previously unseen personal movies, and of course a tremendous group of cameos.
~Sarge
SUPERGIRL. In theatres. Movie. (6.1 IMDb)
Supergirl is 67 years old.
In that time, she’s been through a LOT of attempts to give her her OWN story instead of just being Jr. Girl Superman. She suffers here from 1) the Manosphere complaining that she’s not cute or “feminine” enough, and 2) people stuck on an older version of her, like comparing Super Friends Aquaman to Jason Momoa.
Loosely based on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King, and honestly drawing from True Grit too, Supergirl stars Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) as Kara Zor El, who leaves Earth to escape the shadow of her cousin, Superman, and the expectations piled on her while still dealing with PTSD from the destruction of Krypton. She ends up caught in a child’s vendetta and a race against time to get medical help for Krypto (played by Krypto, from Superman).
The pacing isn’t the sharpest, but the soundtrack is a banger, the effects are great, and Jason Momoa as Lobo is a role he was born to play. Despite haters and Rotten Tomatoes, well worth a watch.
~Sarge
GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER. Netflix. Series. (6.8 IMDb)
Think Nancy Drew meets True Detective. Five years after the apparent murder of a popular high school student, aspiring journalist Pip Fitz-Amobi decides the case doesn’t add up. What begins as a school project quickly turns into a deeper investigation, uncovering secrets, lies, and long-buried resentments in a town convinced the mystery was solved years ago.
The show’s biggest strength is Pip herself (Emma Myers – Jenna Ortega’s bouncy rainbow werewolf roommate on “Wednesday”): smart, determined, and believable as an amateur sleuth. While it never gets as dark as True Detective, it avoids feeling like a watered-down teen mystery, delivering genuine suspense, credible twists, and enough suspects to keep you guessing. Based on the novel by Holly Jackson, it’s a fast, engaging binge that captures the appeal of a classic detective story while giving it a modern true-crime sensibility.
~Sarge
GOOD OMENS 3. PrimeTV. Movie. (8 IMDb)
In 1990, fantasy legend Terry Pratchett and young comic fantasy mavin Neil Gaiman collaborated on a novel built around the question, “What if the Antichrist got switched at birth?” and Good Omens was born.
In 2024, the third season of Amazon’s adaptation of the late Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens was put on hold after multiple allegations of sexual assault against Gaiman surfaced in the news.
The Amazon version of Good Omens thrived on the brilliant chemistry between David Tennant and Michael Sheen as Crowley, a demon, and Aziraphale, an angel, who have spent millennia on Earth in what increasingly resembles a Cold War marriage. Faced with the impending Apocalypse, both come to the conclusion that maybe it might be altogether better … NOT doing that.
Featuring a host of charming side stories that all somehow linked together, plus a simmering relationship between the two leads, the first season felt like a delightful Douglas Adams pastiche. Since season one adapted the novel itself, the second season came as a complete surprise. Crafted entirely by Gaiman, it leaned harder into the Crowley/Aziraphale relationship, along with a gloriously naked and amnesiac Jon Hamm as the angel Gabriel. A great deal happens, and it all ends on a heartbreaking cliffhanger.
Then came season 3 … NOT!
As allegations against Gaiman mounted, stretching from the mid-80s into relatively recent years, comics, films, and television projects tied to him began getting canceled or shelved, including Good Omens 3. Fortunately, Gaiman stepped away from the production, allowing fans to get a third season … sort of. Cut down to a single feature-length finale, it still manages to wrap up a surprising number of story threads, and may even produce a few sniffles.
Gaiman’s problematic history aside, worth a watch.
~Sarge
PANTHEON. Netflix. Series. (8.5 IMDb)
What if the threat isn’t AI? What if it’s UI: uploaded intelligence. Human brains destructively scanned, living only in the cloud. “Pantheon” explores this idea as exquisite, real science fiction. Not cheesy animated sci-fi melodrama, but a genuine exploration of love, grief, immortality, endless simulations, conspiracies, global politics, and so much more.
The animation is restrained, there to serve the story rather than distract from it. The characters are rich, not cardboard cutouts, whether good or bad. No supervillains. No Mary Sues.
It’s a dense story, so if science fiction concepts tend to lose you, this may not be for you. But if they don’t, this absolutely deserves a watch.
~Sarge
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Sarge, aka Jeffery Sargent, cut his teeth on the Golden Age of Hollywoood on TV and with regular trips to the Sash Mill. Film classes then, at Cabrillo with Morton Marcus, broadened his scope – he found he preferred Keaton over Chaplin, and Akira Kurosawa was his Yoda. Sarge spent 15 years working in Special Effects, on everything from Starship Troopers to Battlestar Galactica. He is a staunch geek who has a weak spot for Cozy Mysteries and loathes “Reality” shows. While he doesn’t care for the unrelenting banal horror of “True Crime”, he licks his lips over a twist like the end of Chinatown. Email Sarge at JeffLSargent@gmail.com |
August 10, 2026
The buildings above are the latest large-scale mixed-use housing projects built in the heart of the city of Santa Cruz. You can’t miss them. They are the tip of the iceberg. Check out “significant projects” on the Planning Department website to see six pages of more to come. Technically they aren’t “high rise” but relatively speaking and compared to what local businesses were bulldozed to make way for them, they are massive.
Under the “more to come” category, the latest is a 281-apartment project at Soquel and Seabright. It is another project from developer Workbench. To make way for it, they will bulldoze Ace Hardware, the Bagelry, Real Thai Kitchen and other small businesses at that site. Since the Ace Hardware at Front and Laurel will soon be bulldozed to make way for a massive eight-story project on that site, you’re going to have to drive further to get that plumbing part. Yes, there will be commercial on the ground floor but probably not at the size or rent to attract an Ace Hardware. I still miss University Copy on Front St. Not just the business but the human connection with the business owner as well as other long-time small businesses that have been shoved aside. New businesses move in, but they come and go rather quickly.
The social impacts within the new large-scale housing projects do not concern the supporters of these projects (YIMBY et al) nor the city planners, but they should. The project described above at Seabright and Soquel will have 281 apartments, meaning a likely resident population of around 400. Compare this number with the population of the 19 condos at the three-story Walnut Commons on Walnut and Center. You don’t need a psychology degree to predict there might be more social problems in a building with 281 units of housing compared to one with 19 units. The only time I heard this concern addressed was from a newly appointed Planning Commissioner at a recent hearing regarding the very large Coral Street project. Her questions and comments were a breath of fresh air in this dank atmosphere of state and city-fueled build, build, build.
Some city council members are responding to the growing voices in the community protesting this overbuilding. The council is focused on the design of the projects. Yes, they are ugly, but the primary community concerns are the size of the projects, the lack of parking, and the impact on existing neighborhoods. Those not so impacted can debate design but for the neighbors who will have six or seven story buildings at their property line, taking away privacy, sunlight and parking, these are the more pressing concerns.
The July 23rd meeting of the Planning Commission was the first public airing of some design guideline options for new projects. The public was invited to give input and suggestions. I attended the meeting. We were told this was not the place to discuss what incentives the city might offer a developer who chose to adopt a set of new designs, a voluntary choice, but the major incentive was that the developer could avoid any public hearings. That fact was buried under planning jargon of ministerial hearings only, which was never explained. Also buried was the fact that reducing the size of a project was “not economically viable.” Not a lot left. A few commissioners understood that. Whether the public is fooled remains to be seen.
Planning staff will take newly proposed design guidelines to city council by December, after a public survey and another round with a group of Design Professionals and a second Planning Commission meeting. I doubt Planning staff will level with the public that they will lose the democratic right to public hearings if any small design guidelines are adopted. We will see if city council understands that trade-off and its significance. Not a good time to be a bystander.
| 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. |
Although County Supervisors are asking us to approve a new 1/2 cent sales tax this November to fund cash-starved services, they now want to make it easier to give themselves a hefty raise.
The optics are not good.
During the August 11 meeting, Item #12, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will consider rescinding County Code 2.02.060 to eliminate linking salaries of Supervisors to be a fixed 62% of salaries of Superior Court Judges. [August 11 Meeting]
This Board action comes about because the California Judicial Council did not approve any salary increases for Superior Court judges this year, and the Supervisors want a raise.
If approved, Supervisors will once again vote on approving their own salary increases, as was the practice prior to action in 2021 by then-Supervisor Greg Caput.
Do you think it is right for Supervisors to ask us all to tighten our belts but not do so themselves?
Please contact your Supervisor right away with your thoughts: 831-454-2200. E-mail is Supervisor’s < FirstName.LastName@santacruzcountyca.gov >, although looking at their website it seems only two of the five follow that convention…
- Manu Koenig (District 1) first.district@santacruzcountyca.gov
- Kimberly De Serpa (District 2) Second.District@santacruzcountyca.gov
- Justin Cummings (District 3) justin.cummings@santacruzcountyca.gov
- Felipe Hernandez (District 4) felipe.hernandez@santacruzcountyca.gov
- Monica Martinez (District 5) Fifth.District@santacruzcountyca.gov
- All Board Members (email all five members of the Board of Supervisors at once) BoardOfSupervisors@santacruzcountyca.gov
If the Board does take action to proceed with this County Code change, it will need to come back for a second reading, so it is not too late for you to take action now.
PROMISES, PROMISES…
When the Aptos Village Project was pushed to the public by then-Supervisor Ellen Pirie, and also Supervisor Zach Friend, the Project had a Condition of Permit Approval that there would be a park as a mitigation for bulldozing the world-famous Post Office Bike Jumps.
Those promises fell to the wayside as the Aptos Village Project received many concession from the County, and changes in design that reduced landscaped spacing between buildings.
What happened to the park that we were promised?
Behind closed doors, County Parks Director Jeff Gaffney rejected the offer of the land from Swenson Builders, without any public meeting or discussion with the people.
Consequently, the land was handed over to the Aptos Village Subdivision Homeowners Association to handle.
Take a look at what the “park” promised looks like now:
Local bike jump volunteers are anxious and willing to build and maintain this land as a pump track for youth to have again. Current Supervisor Kim DeSerpa refuses to get involved and help negotiate anything to further the development of this park.
Write Supervisor DeSerpa and ask that she step in and help make the promised park happen.
Kimberly DeSerpa <kimberly.deserpa@santacruzcountyca.gov> 831-454-2200. When I last asked her to help, she said a pump track would only benefit little boys. Hmmm…..
MOVING MOUNTAINS OF DIRT FROM THE CREEKSIDE
About two years ago, then-CEO Zeke Fraser of the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds allowed Granite Construction to dump an enormous amount of dirt being excavated from the Highway One area of the Capitola Avenue overcrossing. The dirt, with questionable contaminant levels, spilled into the creek adjacent to the parking lot area where it was being dumped and compacted.
Somehow, CEO Fraser wasn’t paying attention, but then again, the trucks all came at night.
It developed into a legal issue when the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board stepped in, since the creek feeds into College Lake. The Lake is now part of a water reclamation project by Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency for agricultural irrigation and injection into the groundwater.
Mr. Fraser soon resigned and the area has been not only covered with thick plastic but also a continued item on the Fair Board’s Closed Session Agenda.
Last month, the new Farigrounds CEO, Dori Rose Inda, let the Fairgrounds Board know that there would be work commencing on the soils area soon, and to expect five weeks of ongoing work. She did not disclose exactly what all that work would entail.
Last week, I stopped in to see what was happening. Wow.
Mountains of dirt!
Large excavators removing the soils that Granite had dumped next to the creek.
So, what is going to happen with all that soil…is it clean or not?
Stay tuned.
THE BATS MUST GO
The livestock barns at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds have been a source of angst ever since then-CEO Dave Kegebein allowed all permanent pens connecting the upright posts to be removed so that he could use the space to park his personal farm equipment. The Fairgrounds Board never discussed the changes to the barns publicly, but Dave’s cadre of volunteers removed it all and put up metal straps to help return seismic stability to the barns.
Then, the State found out. The barns were not allowed to be used at all one year, causing the Fairgrounds to rent large tents for the goats and sheep exhibitions. The State then allowed the barns to used for another two years with clear safety modifications, but no more.
The Fairgrounds Board voted to demolish the barns, and in July, awarded a contract for demolition.
However, last month, CEO Dori Rose Inda told the Board that it became known that bat colonies live in the barns and demolition cannot take place until California Fish & Wildlife okays “re-roosting” the bats. Apparently, that agreement has been approved, and, according to the information at the Fairgrounds Building & Grounds Committee last Friday, demolition and re-roosting will happen this week.
How does one “re-roost” a number of bat colonies?????
Ask CEO Dori Rose Inda: (831) 724-5671
Aaand…..stay tuned.
INTERVIEW WITH ORIN MARTIN THIS FRIDAY
This Friday at 2pm Pacific Time on “Community Matters” on KSCO Radio, I will be interviewing Mr. Orin Martin, long-time Manager of the Alan Chadwick Gardens at UCSC.
Is it difficult to grow your own food in Santa Cruz County? Are the apple orchards in Pajaro Valley destined to become something else?
Please listen in on your radio AM 1080 or livestream www.ksco.com/
If you miss the interview, the recording will be posted here.
WHAT ARE THE SCIENTISTS LEARNING AFTER MOSS LANDING’S VISTRA BATTERY FIRE?
Tune in this Friday on KSCO Radio at 6pm Pacific Time to learn what the scientists who presented last Friday at the Battery Fire Science Symposium.
Please listen in on your radio AM 1080 or livestream from ksco.com.
If you miss the interview, the recording will be posted here: Bratton on KSCO – ZBSRadio.com
WHAT DOES PG&E HAVE IN STORE FOR AREA UPGRADES?
Interview on KSCO with Michael Medeiros, Project Director
There were additional questions sent by listeners after the program. Ms. Stephanie Magallon, Communications Manager for PG&E kindly provided answers below.
Pay attention to the significant changes planned for the 115Kv transmission lines between Santa Cruz County and Santa Clara County.
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- Information about the PG&E team that monitors EMF readings at existing and upgraded substations and transmission lines.
- The California Public Utilities Commission and the California Department of Health Services have not concluded that exposure to magnetic fields from utility electric facilities poses health risks. However, in light of ongoing public concern, the Commission’s EMF policy, originally established in 1993 via Decision 93-11-013 and later reaffirmed in Decision 06-01-042, directs utilities to implement “low cost, no cost” EMF reduction measures where appropriate.
PG&E EMF coordinators and our Applied Technology Services (ATS) team will survey the magnetic fields on any property near PG&E’s electrical facilities upon request. Although EMF readings were not taken at all substations being upgraded, EMF measurements have been taken at some substations. Consistent with the CPUC’s EMF Policy, EMF mitigation is included in the design process for all transmission and substation major upgrades.
For more information, please visit pge.com/emf.
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- Information about the future project he mentioned to upgrade the transmission lines and poles between the Green Valley Substation and Morgan Hill.
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We currently have a big transmission project in the work plan for next year that will benefit Santa Cruz County.
The project will upgrade the 15-mile transmission line between our Green Valley and Morgan Hill substations.
- We will be replacing the existing line with higher capacity conductors that can carry roughly twice as much electricity.
- We’ll also replace about 120 structures with new steel poles. Which will improve reliability and strengthen the systems’ resiliency during severe weather and high-fire risk conditions.
I’ve attached a map that shows the route of the transmission lines that will be upgrades.
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- Is PG&E planning to underground any transmission lines in Santa Cruz County?
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The focus of PG&E’s wildfire safety undergrounding program is on primary distribution powerlines. We target overhead primary distribution lines because they have had a higher risk for ignitions in the past. This approach helps us prioritize our investments to achieve the greatest wildfire risk reduction benefits for all of our customers and hometowns.
In Santa Cruz County, we have placed approximately nine miles of distribution powerlines underground between 2021 and 2025 as part of our efforts to rebuild after the CZU Lightning Complex fire. We plan to complete an additional one mile of this work in 2026.
Looking ahead, we are preparing to file a 10-year Electrical Undergrounding Plan (EUP) with California regulators later this year. The EUP will outline thousands of additional miles of undergrounding across our service area between 2028-2037, including additional undergrounding
Santa Cruz County. We will provide updates about specific community plans as they become available.
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- Is PG&E going to use insulated wire in any of the infrastructure upgrades?
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Between 2018 and 2025, we completed approximately 40 miles of overhead system hardening (which consists of insulating wires) in Santa Cruz County. This includes installing strengthened poles and covered powerlines to reduce wildfire risk. Of that total, about 19 miles were completed as part of the rebuild efforts following the CZU Lightning Complex fire.
We determine where to complete overhead system upgrades using our wildfire risk model, which evaluates factors including the type and condition of equipment, environmental terrain, and surrounding fuel conditions. Based on those results, we determine the most effective mitigation for each location, which may include undergrounding or completing overhead system upgrades. This helps ensure that we are reducing as much risk as efficiently as possible.
The Green Valley project area is not located within a designated high fire-threat area.
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- Second District County Supervisor Kimberly DeSerpa has publicly stated that she is advised there is a great existing and future demand for electricity in the Westside Santa Cruz area. Is this true? If so, is PG&E planning to upgrade the existing substations and infrastructure serving that area? (Houts, Crusher, Point Moretti, Big Basin or Burns Substations)
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We continuously evaluate our electric system and plan upgrades based on demonstrated customer need, projected growth, and formal requests for new or expanded electric service. At this time, we do not have sufficient known applications, pending loads, or forecasted demand within our most recent planning cycle to justify capacity upgrades at Point Moretti, Big Basin, or Burns substations.
Infrastructure investments of this scale are supported by data, planning studies, and documented customer needs, and are subject to regulatory review. This process helps ensure we make prudent investments, maintain reliability, and protect customers from paying for infrastructure before it is needed.
Regarding Houts and Crusher, those are transmission customer substations and are different from the distribution substations that serve homes and businesses.
Best,
Stephanie
Stephanie Magallon | Communications Representative
Pacific Gas and Electric Company | 831.207.1493 | stephanie.magallon@pge.com
MAKE ONE CALL. WRITE ONE LETTER. JUST SAY NO TO ANOTHER SALES TAX HIKE.
DO ONE THING THIS WEEK AND MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.
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 |
Cast your mind’s eye around the Monterey Bay reflecting on how we are doing conserving nature: what do you see? I don’t see ecological conservation as a mainstream value and I don’t see much going on to address pressing conservation problems. Instead, I see a population increasingly disinterested in wildlife and nature, ignoring their need for clean water and clean air. I see people driving to and from work thick in traffic, tourists flocking to beaches on weekends, and neglected open space lands where wildlife is disappearing.
Gauging Progress
If ecological conservation was well supported around the Monterey Bay, what would that look like? As all politics is local, the first thing you’d expect would be regular reports by local government on their progress with conservation: but, there are none. The public cannot know how well their local elected officials are doing at nature conservation with the many planning laws that have been hard-fought to protect places and species.
What we can find out are through news reports about certain species and habitats. The Monterey Bay’s iconic whale, the humpback, has been declining for years. Our local coho salmon are on the precipice of extinction and not trending better. Old growth redwood forests are on the decline due to wildfire. Most remaining old growth prairies are also diminishing due to poor management. The region’s endangered maritime chaparral continues to disappear to vineyards, fire clearance, and invasive species. We are about to experience another catastrophic blow to native oak forests as yet another invasive species, the shothole borer, is on the trajectory for mass devastation. Easements set aside for the protection of the Santa Cruz long toed salamander have been developed, not protected, and are no longer monitored. The endangered marbled murrelet is still disappearing from the Central Coast. The endangered Santa Cruz tarplant is slowly disappearing. Endangered insects such as the Ohlone tiger beetle and Zayante band-winged grasshopper are each season inching closer to extinction. In the past 30 years, badgers and burrowing owls have largely disappeared from the Monterey Bay. Wetlands and riparian areas are getting less, not more, protection even though they are critically endangered: both local and federal governments have given up on protecting them. The water quality entering our rivers, streams, estuaries, and ocean is not improving…on the contrary, it is commonly quite nasty, far below regulatory standards.
Who Cares?
Perusing the websites of environmental advocacy groups reveals an almost universal surrender to the losses outlined above. There are a lot of organizations seemingly focused on nature conservation, such as Save our Shores, Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks, Sierra Club; Surfrider Foundation; Coastal Watershed Council; California Native Plant Society; and Monterey Waterkeeper. It is common for these groups to sponsor litter clean up days, an unfortunately important activity which basically mitigates the greed of local businesses which crave more natural areas visitation to boost their incomes. If these groups were truly proud of our beaches, parks, and forests, then our politicians would advocate for their stewardship, which is beyond litter pickup. But, litter pickup feels good and gives these organizations some credibility. Another common activity of these groups are field trips or other educationally-oriented events. Again, who can argue about those activities, but how effective has public education been in conserving nature around the Monterey Bay? Is there a way to gauge it…because I’m not seeing it (see above).
Instead
Isn’t it sad that the Monterey Bay area is so incredibly rich with Life and Nature and yet most people don’t care enough to do anything about it? Instead, they are just living their lives, trying to get by, and taking whatever opportunities they can to visit parks and beaches to extract an experience without giving anything back.
For instance, examine any of the elected officials Monterey Bay residents have voted into office. Not a one of them has a record of protecting endangered species or rare habitats. Not one of them has suggested any solutions to over visitation of our local parks or for the lack of stewardship staff and budget for those same parks.
Instead, the brew pubs are busy. Expensive restaurants are packed on weekends. Cell phone scrolling is ubiquitous. Beach parties are well attended. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk or Monterey’s Old Fisherman’s Wharf swarms with people. Rescue personnel haul tourists out of automobile wrecks or winch them from being trapped on pocket beaches. At a local natural area, a child is crying to get back to their cozy playroom. A worker stuck in traffic tunes into public radio to hear ‘slightly left’ leaning news featuring a mildly entertaining piece covering negative stuff they can’t do anything about.
This is what the decline of humanity looks like. This is how Nature begins to bat last. What we do to Nature will come to haunt our species. I am just sad, very sad, to see what prior generations fought to conserve slowly lost through thoughtless, thankless generations manipulated into slumber by business and bankers…and their allies, the absent press.
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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 |
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
The guy pictured above, Robert Hubbell (an attorney, by the way), does a pretty good job, I think, of “decoding” what is actually going on in our national politics. For anyone reading this blog posting, but who is not already a subscriber to Hubbell’s “Today’s Edition,” let me suggest, right here, that you subscribe yourself. Hubbell would appreciate your paid subscription, of course, but there is a “free” version.
On August 9th, Hubbell’s newsletter had this title: “Trump’s new Iran war strategy: Pretend that it never happened.” My immediate thought was this: wouldn’t that be nice!
In fact, Hubbell immediately outlined what has, in fact, happened because of our current president’s unilateral decision to launch a war against Iran – a “war” that has not been declared by our elected representatives in Congress, which is how our nation is supposed to “go to war,” when the nation decides that it should.
The Constitution, as all should know, requires a debate in Congress, and then a decision by Congress, whenever our nation chooses to go to war. When and if the nation does decide to go to war, our elected president is then the “Commander in Chief.” However, it’s Congress, not the “Commander in Chief,” which is required to make the decision to go to war. As is obvious, Mr. “I, alone, can fix it,” never got the message. Similarly, he also acts like he hasn’t understood that “Executive Orders” do not create new laws, but are intended to provide direction to Executive Branch employees as to how to implement the laws enacted by Congress.
Well, enough talk about “American Government 101.” Almost everyone reading this probably already knows how our government is supposed to work. It’s just too bad that our current president either knows and doesn’t care or doen’t know at all. I think it’s the former, but I am, truly, not sure about that!
Here are a few of Hubbell’s observations about our current (undeclared) war against Iran:
Over the weekend, there was a major shift in Iran’s negotiating position for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had previously issued a set of preconditions for a nuclear deal; over the weekend, Iran attached those preconditions to reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The demands were issued by the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and likely reflect the ascendance of a more reactionary faction within Iran as unconfirmed rumors of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s impending death circulate. See Iran Wire, Exclusive: Iranian Leaders are Concerned About Mojtaba Khamenei’s Worsening Health. The demands include:
Payment of billions of dollars in reparations to Iran for damage caused by the US air war against Iran.
The release of all Iranian assets frozen by the US and its allies.
The cessation of insulting or threatening language from the US government toward Iran.
The cessation of the US naval blockade of Iran.
The withdrawal of US troops from the region.
The cessation of US military operations directed against Iran’s allies in the region….As [a] WSJ news analysis … notes, “For weeks, President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war should Tehran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal, U.S. officials said.”
But that scaled-back objective became more difficult when Iran insisted Saturday on its highest price yet for permitting the free flow of traffic in the waterway, seeking billions of dollars in U.S. payments, the removal of American troops from the region and an end of the U.S. naval blockade, among other things.
Per the WSJ, the new criterion for victory is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, regardless of Iran’s control over the strait. To state the obvious, reopening the strait under Iran’s control is a materially worse scenario than existed before the war…. Trump wants to find a pretext to walk away and pretend that the war never happened.
If we actually start following what is happening, we will understand what our undeclared war has accomplished:
- we have spent billions of dollars, going further into debt, along with causing the deaths of thousands of people, many hundreds of them, at least, being Americans;
- used up scarce military supplies, making the United States more vulnerable elsewhere in the world; and
- made everything worse, and that we have particularly given Iran a control lever over energy supplies, worldwide. No elimination of any possible nuclear threat from Iran has or will occur, and nuclear proliferation has actually increased, given our current president’s commitment to provide nuclear bomb-making materials to Saudi Arabia.
I am, hereby, nominating the Iran War (a war never actually approved by the procedures spelled out in the Constitution) as: “The Worst War, Ever!”
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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 |
Cliff Schecter and Dan Perry in their post on Blue Amp Media, state that most historical turning points are obvious — Pearl Harbor, 9-11, JFK’s assassination — with most realizing that such events will shape all history that follows, only to be revealed with the passing of time. The two pick December 12, 2000 as different, divergent, yet a consequential day that had “greater long-term significance on the health, wealth, and welfare” of the nation within what they term a “biased and corrupt decision” of the US Supreme Court. “In a partisan 5-4 decision that will live in infamy — decided in Bush v. Gore to ignore the traditional role of states in administering their elections (as laid out in the Constitution) and shut down vote counting in Florida with an unnecessary, arbitrary deadline, and ‘selected’ George W. Bush as the 43rd President of the United States,” they wrote.
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, George W. Bush’s brother, had promised beforehand that the state would be delivered to the GOP candidate. Four of the five right-wing Court members who ruled in favor of Bush had been appointed to their stations by none other than President George H.W. Bush, prefacing the “trajectory of American foreign policy, constitutional law, political institutions, and even the Political culture from which later presidents emerged, in ways both profound and incredibly harmful to the American republic.” Schecter and Perry argue that this might be regarded as “the beginning of the division, decadence, and decay of American democracy” as witnessed over the past quarter century — the long decline of the US as a superpower which once had a leadership position around the world.
Events in the intervening years can only suggest that this defining moment was far from an otherwise ordinary decision, with the strongest argument being the invasion of Iraq. A President Gore may have been unable to ward off the 9-11 attacks, but the Blue Amp essay determines that a policy wonk like Al Gore would not have been “clearing brush on a Texas ranch discussing ending stem-cell research,” as his national security team was creating briefings entitled ‘Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US.’ Greater attention would have been paid to such findings, but in the aftermath of attacks, Gore would assuredly have gone into Afghanistan in pursuit of al-Qaeda, and bin Laden.
Many of Bush’s advisers were chomping at the bit to remove Saddam Hussein before 9-11, and the fake intel on weapons of mass destruction only roared to the fore after the attacks on New York and Washington, DC. The push to go into Iraq proved to be based on lies, resulting in expenditure of trillions of dollars, the loss of countless lives, and the shattering of America’s credibility. As we are all aware, presidents and their administrations tell lies in varying degrees from time to time, with countless pretexts. Lyndon Johnson and Richard ‘I am not a crook’ Nixon are probably standouts for most of us, their having presided over a most calamitous time in our history.
After the 9-11 attack, with nearly 3,000 people killed in the fallen towers, the Pentagon, and a downed airliner in Pennsylvania, the shocked nation unified in its grief. But then fear raised its ugly head, and the unqualified George W. found himself presiding over an anxiety-ridden country that was quickly becoming divided and suspicious. The administration saw that those fears could become politically advantageous, and so began a reorganization that plagues us still. The Department of Homeland Security came into being, with domestic surveillance expanding and security strengthening, resulting in today’s fear of our own government.
A recent viewing of the Molly Ivins‘ documentary, ‘Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She?, and revisiting her 1992 book of essays, likewise entitled, brought forth many chuckles, and a new ‘appreciation‘ for her insightful explorations of the Reagan administration. Her outspokenness led her to begin one article with, “I know some of you humorless old lefties think we shouldn’t gloat publicly over Reagan’s difficulties. Listen, my momma may have raised a mean child, but she raised no hypocrites. I love this. I can’t wait to read the newspapers every morning. I’m entitled to this satisfaction. It has not been easy to be anti-Reagan in Texas for the last six years. Damn, right, I’m gloating.
“One interesting aspect of the big mess is the political sociology of lying. The Republic has sunk to such a state that our public servants not only lie but brag about it and even seem to consider it their chief function. Damage control, deniability, spin, turn. Watching the spin doctors at work is fascinating. The step is to blame the media for everything. If the ‘delicate negotiations’ go awry, it is the press’s fault.” Molly recounts the administration’s attempt to end the terrible war between Iraq and Iran by sending arms to bring peace. “Ah,” the president said with great lucidity, “It’s true we shipped weapons to Iran, but they were defensive weapons.” She concludes, “If the man had a brain he’d play with it.” Contemporaneous observation, as well?
She continues with, “The charm of Ronald Reagan is not just that he kept telling us screwy things; it was that he believed them all. No wonder we trusted him — he never lied to us. His stubbornness, even his defiance, in the face of facts was nothing short of splendid. It made no difference how often you told him something he didn’t want to believe. This is the man who proved that ignorance is no handicap to the presidency. Some days having Reagan for president was like finding Fidel Castro in the refrigerator; like the time he appointed thirteen people to a commission on AIDS — including a sex therapist who thought you could get AIDS from toilet seats; some fruitloop who claimed gays were engaging in ‘blood terrorism’ by donating infected blood; and a longtime friend who ran a controversial ‘AIDS testing clinic’ out of her van. No one on the Commission was a medical specialist with any experience in treating AIDS.”
Ivins explains that Reagan was a candidate for the Moral Majority and the Religious Right, but “unfortunately, his administration was so riddled with corruption that as late as 1985, 563 federal officials were indicted with 470 being convicted — a tenfold increase over the high-water mark of Watergate.” Molly couldn’t let it pass about Nancy Reagan’s gazing in attention at her husband’s speeches, “as if she were witnessing one of the wonders of the world, no matter how many times she had to sit through that drivel.” Ivins claims that Nancy “sought to shed her reputation as a vain, vapid clotheshorse by valiantly combatting the drug epidemic with the most ringingly inane and inappropriate slogan in the history of folly: ‘Just Say No.’ All who have been saved from drugs by Nancy Reagan, please raise your hands. Thank you.”
Esquire contributor, pundit, and author Charles Pierce writes, “I saw Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill,” in his critique of recent presidents. “In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and say, ‘And we shall overcome.’ I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver a eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh’s madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.
“And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.
“The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it seems almost a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.
“Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don’t have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too.
“Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn’t he a funny man? Isn’t what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now.”
The turning point of Bush v. Gore and its horrific and illegal outgrowths — torture and its justifications of cruelty and vindictiveness, preventative war, rendition and gulags, erosion of due process with deportations, the placement of unqualified cronies in key government positions — can be viewed as seeds of today’s fully grown lawlessness under Trump’s War Department, ICE, and the Justice Department, and the further corruption of the Supreme Court. Alongside these factors, Schecter and Perry place global warming as an issue that a President Gore would have recognized as a central priority, remaining within the Kyoto Protocol, and pushing the country into the new century with a different posture for this long-term challenge.
The worst predictions about climate change are becoming more evident in today’s world, with rising seas encroaching upon coastal cities, rising temperatures melting glaciers and jeopardizing lakes and rivers that sustain life, displacement of people in regions that are becoming too hot for human habitation from the resultant drought and famine, as ecosystems collapse. Geopolitical conflicts will intensify in the competition for food and water, leaving these survivors to deal with the mess left by the December 12, 2000 court decision, with Trump and his criminal enterprise continuing to stuff their pockets. How long will the world, Charles Pierce included, be content to watch the assembled morons cheer on this story?
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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. |
Thomas traveled to Arizona this week, and he’ll be back with a new place name next week!
Thomas Leavitt is the husbandy thing to our illustrious webmistress. A resident of Santa Cruz (now part time) since 1993, his interests include history, technology, and community organizing. He started the world’s first self-service web hosting company, WebCom, located at 903 Pacific in May of 1994. He’s been part of too many community organizations to mention, and ran for City Council in the early aughts.
Email Thomas at ThomLeavitt@gmail.com
“Burning Man”
“You don’t conquer Burning Man; you only conquer yourself.”
“The doing part is the gateway to the feeling part.”
“I don’t go to Burning Man expecting to have fun.”
“Burning Man is just recreational moving.”
“Instagram didn’t prepare me for this.”
~Unknown
“Which idiot put the GOP convention the same time as ‘Burning Man’ in Nevada? Is there time to change this?”
~Grover Norquist
“Burning Man is a crowning achievement of freedom in festival culture.”
~Alex Grey
“I made a conscious decision to take my life and career in a different direction. I started working on a play, and also, by attending Burning Man for several years, I was incredibly stimulated by the art there. I increasingly wanted to be a part of it, and focused on what I wanted to say as an artist.”
~Scott Cohen
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Kitboga is one of the better known scam baiters/busters on YouTube. I’ve shown videos of his to you before. Here’s his take on the latest, namely AI bot scam robocalls. Oy ve! |
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(Gunilla Leavitt)
