Blog Archives

January 15 – 21, 2025

Highlights this week:

Greensite… on Downtown Plan Extension DEIR… Steinbruner… off this week … Hayes… Cattle Grazing on Public Lands … Patton… Artificial Sweetener … Matlock… calling a bluff…51 and counting…neither more nor less… Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover… Webmistress serves you… A glacier guide’s story Quotes on… “Inauguration”

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FISHING ON THE SAN LORENZO. December 8, 1940. This was on the opening of Steelhead Season (remember steelhead?). It’s at Murray Street on East Cliff Drive

photo credit: Covello & Covello Historical photo collection.

Additional information always welcome: email photo@brattononline.com

Dateline: January 15, 2025

STILL BURNING. The unimaginable reality of 25 people killed, 82,000 still evacuated, 90,000 under threat of evacuation, and 45 acres burned is hard to wrap your head around. In the Palisades and Eaton fires alone, some 12,000 structures have been destroyed, and containment is at 22% and 55% respectively. Firefighters and first responders are working tirelessly, as are volunteers, community members, and total strangers. It will be a long time before there is such a thing as “life as usual” in Los Angeles. I was thinking just the other day about what the long-term and wide-spread effects of all this are going to be. It’s not just the people that owned and lived in those houses and ran those businesses, it’s the entire human ecology around them that is disrupted. Imagine being a real estate agent in LA now… or a landscaper, or a handyman, or a sanitation worker. I saw an article stating that close to 30,000 students were affected by these fires. It’s just incomprehensible.

HELPING LA. While they are in need of donations of all sorts (people have lost ev-e-ry-thing after all), following the impulse to load up the car and drive down there is not that great of an idea. In fact, when there are disasters, well meaning “civilians” are often a hindrance as opposed to the help they want to be. If you feel moved to give to SoCal (and you should, if you can), please coordinate with some form of already ongoing relief effort. Here’s an article on KQED on How to Help People Affected by the LA Fires, containing links and useful information. Here’s something I learned that I did not know – if you have a GoFundMe that specifies that the money will be used for relief (like house repairs, funeral expenses, etc) from a natural disaster, then you can not receive funds from FEMA for that same disaster. That’s a good thing to know! Also, be leery of fundraising scammers. Sadly, these “digital looters” pop up around natural disasters.

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STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW. Disney+ series (7.2 IMDb) *** It’s refreshing when a big franchise realizes they’ve created a universe big enough to tell other stories (look at Star Trek Lower Decks – a successful animated comedy entrenched deeply in the Star Trek Universe), and that’s what Skeleton Crew does for Star Wars. A quartet of children, chafing at the bureaucratic cloister of their homeworld, stumble on a crashed spaceship and find themselves launched into the rough and tumble Star Wars Universe. Using a rough “Treasure Island” plotline, there’s space piracy aplenty: Jude Law’s character is referred to as Cap’n Silvo (nod to Long John Silver from Treasure Island) and the ship’s yarr-voiced droid is SM-33 (Smee was Captain Hook’s first mate in Peter Pan). Good for adults and children (though not TOO young – plenty of life-taking and intense scenes). ~Sarge

NIGHTBITCH. Hulu movie (5.6 IMDb) *** This film is ideal for husbands and fathers, capturing the mix of profound and bullshit (and profound again) moments in a woman’s journey from being a successful artist to new motherhood. What begins as a seemingly supernatural plot evolves into a raw, magical realist exploration of the chaos and sacrifice of motherhood and identity. It’s a subjective, visceral experience, navigating the emotional and (literal) physical mess of this transformative stage. ~Sarge

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE. PrimeTV. (6.9 IMDb) *** A quietly ponderous Christmas tale set in a small town in Ireland in 1985 (swear to god it feels more like the 1940s…). Cillian Murphy plays a loving father and quietly likable coal delivery man, who comes into conflict with the steely “kind” Mother Superior (Emily Watson) of the local school and “Magdelene Laundry” for fallen girls. A bit of a slow walk, and as heartening as it could be, given the Laundries wouldn’t be eliminated till the mid 1990s. Excellent performances all around, particularlly given how little dialogue there was. ~Sarge

EMILIA PÉREZ. Netflix. (6.8 IMDb) ***- A musical for those who don’t like musicals. Emilia Pérez is a spectacular film with a compelling story. A ruthless drug cartel leader, Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (played by Karla Sofía Gascón), seeks the help of attorney Rita Mora Castro (played by Zoe Saldaña, who just won a golden globe) to undergo gender affirmation surgery and begin a new life as Emilia Pérez. However, things go awry when she invites her unsuspecting former wife Jessi (played by Selena Gomez) and her children to live with her. The musical numbers are strong and short. ~Jennifer

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. In theaters. (7.8 IMDb) ****I don’t know what I can say about this movie that you haven’t heard from your friends or read about in social media or reviews. It’s one of best movies I’ve seen in a long, long time – and I’m not a fan of biopics, especially musical biopics, but this one is so well done! Although the director, James Mangold, did ‘Walk the Line’, the Johnny Cash movie with Joaquin Phoenix, and that was great too. Timothée Chalamet captures our vision of a young Dylan to a T. He’s an incredibly soulful actor, and Ed Norton as Pete Seeger is uncanny. They edited the songs down from their original versions, but they did in such a way that they never feel like they’re being yanked out from under you; it just makes you want to go and listen to the originals. My 25 year old son loved it too. Run, don’t walk, and believe all the hype because it’s true. ~Hillary

BABYGIRL. In theaters. (6.6 IMDb) ** “Babygirl” aka “Nicole’s mid-to-late life crisis” feels false in so many ways, including, if not especially, the sound of her orgasms. A lot of reviews have focused on the exchange of power, particularly female empowerment because the traditional male-female age gap is turned on its head. I found the deeper message to be that no matter how successful a woman becomes, what she truly craves is to be objectified and bossed around by a man. Have 50 years of feminism and a powerful #metoo movement taken us nowhere? Kink part aside, her young buck gets abusive in other ways and she’s just there ready to forgive and forget and go another round. In real life she would have ended up alone with nothing in a studio apartment going to Sex Addicts Anonymous meetings. Besides being distracted by facial tweaks and procedures, I couldn’t help wondering what compelled Nicole to do this movie in the first place other than to show off her toned 57 year-old body while she can. Which begs the old adage, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. ~Hillary

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.

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.

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January 13, 2025

Downtown Plan Extension Draft (and bogus) Environmental Impact Report

The long-awaited draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed Downtown Plan Extension has been released. The deadline for you to submit comments is February 21.

This proposed extension of the downtown area is the most massive development ever in the city of Santa Cruz. It swallows up an existing small neighborhood, displacing its residents. It encompasses Front Street where the current Warriors Arena is located, Center and Cedar Sts. and extends to the first roundabout for a total of twenty-nine acres. The Plan includes the addition of 1,600 to 1,800 new housing units and 60,000 square feet of new commercial space. A new arena for the Santa Cruz Warriors is a key feature.

When this plan was first publicly floated by the city Planning Department it had new building heights as high as twenty stories. For comparison, the above photo of the new building currently under construction on Front St. is seven stories. While city council attempted to cap building heights in this Downtown Plan Extension at twelve stories, we now know that there can be no height limit imposed on new construction that takes advantage of the State Density Bonus. And what savvy investor in the lucrative Santa Cruz real-estate market wouldn’t take advantage of this state-imposed power grab of local control?

The Plan area sits smack dab in the middle of tourist traffic heading to and from the Boardwalk, Wharf, and beach area and the lower westside neighborhood traffic heading to and from downtown and the Eastside. Given that knowledge, a valid DEIR would carefully study the congestion impact on current traffic from the expected additional traffic of renters in the new 1,600 housing units, plus their guests plus their deliveries, plus the traffic to and from the 60,000 square feet of new commercial, plus the traffic to and from the new Warriors Arena/Entertainment Center. Such a study would predictably have concluded significant impacts and mitigations could have been proposed. I can think of a few.

However, there is no such study in this DEIR under Transportation Section 14. The DEIR concludes there is no significant impact from traffic and therefore no Mitigation Measures required.

How do the consultants manage to arrive at this absurd conclusion? Partly by deciding to study only VMT or Vehicle Miles Traveled and omit Congestion from the study. This limited focus is allowed under CEQA however additional study of congestion is allowed if a particular project warrants it. If ever there was a project that cried out for a study of congestion rather than VMT, this is it. The city should have required such a study. Input into the Scoping meeting for the project from members of the public specifically asked that such a study be done. Ignored. So, the fact that the three miles between Laurel St. and your home on the lower westside, or to the Wharf or to the beach which now takes fifteen minutes will take up to an hour or longer once this project is built is a non-issue for the city and its CEQA consultants.  Before the project and after the project are the same three miles, including for ambulances and other emergency vehicles. No significant issue found.

The other avenue the consultants use to arrive at a no significant issue conclusion is via misleading information. Under Analytical Method 14.4.2, page 14-7 they describe the “Construction of a new arena with a slightly higher capacity than currently exists” to assess its impacts. The existing arena is 35,000 square feet with a seating capacity of 2,500. The new arena is proposed to be 180,000 square feet with a seating capacity up to 4,000 with anticipated year-round events. That difference is not a “slightly higher capacity.” Describing it as such signals that this is a DEIR designed to achieve the result the city wants, not designed to objectively study the environmental impacts of this mammoth transformative project.

I have read only the Transportation section. Further reading may reveal other sections similarly manipulated. Our city government has a history of producing environmental documents that violate the law (Wharf Master Plan) or not preparing environmental documents when they are required (Save Our Big Trees.)

If this EIR process follows that pattern, if public comments are further invalidated and if not corrected by a city council vote, the only recourse the public has is to file a lawsuit. Then the city will blame you for holding up the Warriors games and delaying the provision of more housing.

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.

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Becky’s taking this week off, but she’ll be back!

WRITE ONE LETTER.  MAKE ONE CALL.  ATTEND A PUBLIC MEETING AND ASK QUESTIONS, HOLDING OFFICIALS ACCOUNTABLE.
MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK BY DOING JUST ONE THING.

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

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Cattle Grazing on Public Lands

Last week’s negotiated settlement at Point Reyes National Seashore is the latest example of how controversy over cattle grazing on public land gets resolved. The polarity is typical. On one ‘side’ are ranchers, their families and workers, and the broad community that supports family farms, local agriculture, and organic or nowadays regenerative agriculture. On the other ‘side’ are environmentalists, pro-species, pro-clean water, pro-wildlife, and anti-livestock where there’s profit on public lands. The battle at Point Reyes is just one in this war across the U.S. West, and it has been going on for decades. At least at Point Reyes, the two sides don’t neatly align in the expected ways between the two mainstream political parties. Why did it get so bad at Point Reyes that legal action and tens of millions of dollars were needed to settle the issues? Could this kind of thing occur on public lands closer to the Monterey Bay? Let’s look closer to see.

The Vast Gulf

Conflicts with recreation, water quality concerns, and impacts on native plant and wildlife species are the issues most commonly raised when there are concerns about cattle grazing on public land. And, there is good science to support the value of carefully planned cattle grazing to reduce wildfire impacts while promoting native plant and wildlife conservation. In addition to these types of issues, there are pro- and anti- cattle advocates out there, on one hand in support of agriculture or cute critters for children to adore; and, on the other hand, wanting only native animals on the land or against meat eating, methane producing, and otherwise cruel corporate cattle corporations.

Radical Center

There are many of us who are experiencing the beauty of collaboration between livestock managers and conservationists: we are achieving more emergent success than anyone thought possible 30 years ago. Chief among these collaborative networks’ concerns has been development and sprawl…greed that replaces private ranches with housing tracks and shopping malls. In California, we also have shared concerns about the vitality of ranching economics, water provision, wildlife conservation, and catastrophic wildfire. Each of these issues has seen progress because a respectful, trusting network keeps showing up and working together. It takes everyone who has an interest in land management to create innovative solutions: ranchers, conservationists, researchers, land managers, regulatory agencies, community members, resource advisors and consultants, and planners. But, each of these groups has unique interests, different languages, different cultures. We get past these differences by gathering together and learning from one another in well planned, moderated dialogues. The Quivira Coalition is the first group I know to start these discussions, and many followed. The Central Coast Rangeland Coalition (CCRC) is working on this stuff locally, and is celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2025. I copy here the pledge from the Quivira Coalitions website (link above), a pledge that mirrors the work of other groups like the CCRC:

“We pledge our efforts to form the ‘Radical Center’ where:

  • The ranching community accepts and aspires to a progressively higher standard of environmental performance;
  • The environmental community resolves to work constructively with the people who occupy and use the lands it would protect;
  • The personnel of federal and state land management agencies focus not on the defense of procedure but on the production of tangible results;
  • The research community strives to make their work more relevant to broader constituencies;
  • The land grant colleges return to their original charters, conducting and disseminating information in ways that benefit local landscapes and the communities that depend on them;
  • The consumer buys food that strengthens the bond between their own health and the health of the land;
  • The public recognizes and rewards those who maintain and improve the health of all land; and
  • All participants learn better how to share both authority and responsibility.”

Who is Showing Up, Who is Not

Where do you see cows on public land; how is it working; how do you know? There are cattle grazing on Midpeninsula Open Space, Santa Clara Open Space, State Parks (Pacheco State Park), BLM (Ft. Ord, Cotoni Coast Dairies), POST, and on City of Santa Cruz (Moore Creek, Arana Gulch). Of these, MidPen, POST, and Santa Clara regularly show up to work with the CCRC. I believe that these are the organizations that are most apt to succeed and least likely to end up in the terrible situations that Point Reyes has been experiencing. Why do some show up and not others? I suggest that the third bullet is as important as the next-to-last. It takes the oversight agency’s interest in results as well as the public’s engagement to nudge public land managers to the table.

My Experience at Point Reyes

I am an unabashed native plant conservationist, have researched and visited coastal prairie habitat at Point Reyes for many years, and I have NOT been impressed. Two of the science papers that got me started on my doctoral research were from Point Reyes. One told the story of a rare wildflower that was protected to death when cattle grazing was removed from its wetland habitat. The other illustrated how another rare wildflower thrived because of an appropriate cattle grazing regime. I consequently surveyed across fencelines at Point Reyes and found native annual wildflowers to be more diverse and abundant on the cattle grazed side of the fence, as opposed to the side where grazing had been excluded. In fact, I found the very rare San Francisco Owl’s clover in abundance in the areas with, and not so much without, cattle grazing. I have subsequently made many returns to Point Reyes to learn about what is going on. During one field trip, I found out that the cattle ranchers and park managers had only the most rudimentary ability to discuss a topic that had long been a priority, common interest: the encroachment of brush onto coastal prairies. During another excursion to explore the health of the very endangered Point Reyes Horkelia, park employees indicated that not only did they not have any data to share about the health of this species, but also that I was not permitted to monitor the species without extensive paperwork, even in areas open and easily accessible to the public (see bullet point above, re: defense of procedure vs. production of results). Nevertheless, I found that the cattle grazing regime had hammered nearly to obliteration this rare species whereas adjoining cattle excluded areas still had a few individuals which were on the verge of being obliterated by weeds, especially iceplant, a species that is relatively easy to eradicate in such instances where it is a local threat to an endangered species. I’m sure that the cattle rancher had no idea about rare species and I’m sure that the Park employees had never considered talking to the rancher about its conservation. In my experience, such communication is essential to improved success.

Where From Here?

Reflecting on my experience at Point Reyes, I am unsurprised about the recent outcome, but I am undeterred to keep helping the Central Coast Rangeland Coalition avoid such unproductive mayhem wherever possible. I challenge the Bureau of Land Management, State Parks, the City of Santa Cruz, and all other land stewardship entities to take the above pledge, joining constructive dialogues that demonstrate success at taking care of our lands. And, I challenge everyone else who is reading this to take the portion of the pledge that applies to you. I especially challenge the “Conservation Architects” (you know who you are)…including those who think highly of the concept of a “Great Park” designed to encompass most of the Santa Cruz Mountains…to now doubly consider what kind of baby-sitting federal agencies need to achieve conservation success. Together, we can make a difference. But, we need the principles of Radical Center-based collaboration (as articulated above) to take root in all places before we will see the harvests we so desperately need.

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

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Monday, January 13, 2025

On November 9, 2024, The New York Times published a “Letter To The Editor” from Julia Lee. You can read her letter, below. Lee was reacting to an article that documented how one teenager’s involvement with an “artificial” companion took him to suicide.

“Artificial” relationships are, by definition, not “real.” Online “sweeties” are fake!

Can we find a way to renew our commitment to the “real world”?

We need to do that!

I keep putting it this way, “Find Some Friends“!

Real ones, that is. Artificial sweeteners are bad for our health!

oooOOOooo

To the Editor:

Kevin Roose highlights the danger of A.I. companions worsening isolation by replacing human relationships with artificial ones. I agree that while these apps may offer entertainment and support, they also risk deepening loneliness by diminishing one’s ability to engage in real social interactions.

As a high school student, I have friends who rely on Character.AI to help them cope with loneliness. The tragic case of Sewell Setzer III shows how these platforms can draw teens away from real-life connections and proper mental health resources.

To better understand the risks, I visited the website Sewell had been associated with, only to find that on the topic of mental health, I saw no warnings or links to professional assistance.

Alarmingly, the A.I. is presented as an expert and even claims to be human, deceiving users with humanlike traits such as sarcasm and humor. We need stricter safety measures to prevent harm, especially to younger users.

Julia Lee
Fairfax, Va.

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

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PANA-MAGA CANAL, HOUSE OF DELUSIONS, FUNNY/NOT FUNNY THREE RINGER

Nations ’round the globe are perking up their collective ears with Trump’s spouting off about his territorial expansion wishes, prompting Seth Meyers on his The Late Night show to throw in a few comments regarding Greenland, which Trump has been eyeing since his first term. Meyers goaded Trump with, “I’d like to say something to Donald Trump about his threat to take Greenland by military force that might take some of our viewers by surprise — DO IT!” Continuing his encouragement to Trump, he said, “Go get Greenland, you coward…don’t show me your face ever again…I’m calling your bluff. Stop making these crazy promises. Do it. I want it. Go get it.” In a taunting tone, Meyers added, “Why won’t you get it? You afraid of Denmark, bro? You starting to remember they got those big-ass dogs,” as he showed a picture of a tough-looking Great Dane. Meyers joked that Trump will “keep downgrading” his threats to “smaller and smaller countries,” predicting that “Russia’s going to do whatever it wants while he threatens Peru with, ‘We’re coming. We’re going to get Macchu Picchu back where it belongs.'” To Trump’s suggestion that NHL legend Wayne Gretzky should be Canada’s new Prime Minister, Meyers argued, “I think Trump picked Gretzky because that’s the only Canadian he knows,” suggesting that Trump probably wants the Prime Minister to Ireland be the Lucky Charms mascot. Many readers were delighted when The New York Post ran a front page cartoon of Trump using a pointer on a world map with a renamed Greenland as ‘Our Land,’ Canada as ’51st State,’ the Gulf of Mexico as ‘Gulf of America,’ and the Panama Canal as ‘Pana-MAGA Canal.’

What started as the MAGA-in-Chief’s calamitously ignorant, and incredibly exorbitant 25% tariff threats to our allies has degraded into his hazardous expansionist dreams. Canada was quick to defy his bullying over a new tax policy proposal. Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau immediately became a target for Trump who called him “Governor Trudeau” with a suggestion that Canada become the US’s 51st state. Trudeau had been under tremendous pressure to resign, and after deputy prime minister Freeland resigned under protest, and with concerns over Trump’s tariff increases threat, the calls for him to step down became too overwhelming for him to ignore, so he made his announcement to resign. Immediately, Trump launched into posts on Truth Social, proclaiming what a great nation could result from a US/Canada merger, with no tariffs, reduced taxes, and security from Russian and Chinese threats. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proclaimed Donald Trump as ‘Canada’s liberator,’ accusing Trudeau of “tyrannical COVID abuse, destroying free speech, and being Zelenskyii’s biggest cheerleader. Trudeau RESIGNS!”

Elizabeth May, a Green Party member of Canada’s Parliament, recently held a news conference where she voiced a hard “NO…thanks, but no thanks,” to Trump’s proposal for Canadian statehood, citing his “monumental ignorance” of Canadian politics and the five different parties in their “sovereign nation,” which, by the way, has no need for “braggarts, bullies, or dictators.” “No one runs for Prime Minister in Canada!” she emphasized, referring to Trump’s Wayne Gretzky plug, and suggesting he borrow one of his grandchildren’s school books to brush up on his history. She proposed that perhaps CaliforniaOregon and Washington might care to join their provinces where they have universal health care, safe streets, gun laws, and where women have health rights which are going by the wayside in the US…and that perhaps a Province of Vermont could be included? Also, no ‘Go Fund Me’ posts needed to rescue patients denied medical care by greedy insurance companies! May emphasized that the two countries, who have been good friends and allies, should continue to be trading partners, not combatants, since Canadian goods are a bargain for the US, based on the current exchange rates of their respective dollars, and that perhaps Trump might even prefer they join the EU! May goes on to say that if The Don’s 51st state proposal was a joke, it failed miserably, and that Trump is not acting as a president-elect should conduct himself with his disrespectful comments, and that she, for one, will not throw Mexico under his bus!

Trump has also used his threat to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico unless that country stops migrants and drugs from crossing into the US, suggesting that they are not currently cooperating to do so…a total lie particularly aimed at US voters. Mexico’s President Sheinbaum responded sharply with her claim that American gun trafficking to her country is fueling crime and violence among gangs who smuggle drugs into US markets. She noted, “Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demands in yours.” Sheinbaum suggests that the two nations’ interrelated national challenges underscore the need for cross-border cooperation rather than Trump’s insults and confrontational attitude. She uses US statistics to make her point that border crossings are down, since Mexico is acting to prevent travel across their own southern border, thwarting migrants who want to head to the US…hardly an “invasion” as Trump is claiming. As reported in both The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, the Mexican government security operations shuttle migrants back to the south and away from our border in what they call ‘El Carrousel.’ Experts see President Biden’s efforts at cracking down on illegal crossings as succeeding greater than any past efforts, all without tariffs.

However, Trump and his MAGA gang are ignoring the success, pretending nothing is being accomplished, while scamming behind the smokescreen of denial, a swindle that is focused on tariffs. Arianna Huffington wrote back in 2000 in her book ‘How to Overthrow the Government,’ “Our political landscape is so littered with duplicity and deceit, we’ve actually come to expect our leaders to lie. What once would have shocked us now barely registers. We’ve become inured to wrongdoing. So politicians mangle the truth — call it ‘spin’ — and the public lets it slide, too numb to care…it’s because, even though we don’t like it, we don’t consider it really damaging. Spinning sounds cute, almost constructive…something that should engender indulgent smiles rather than outrage.” Huffington said it should be termed ‘propaganda’ where the propagandist succeeds by claiming to be nothing more than the humble mouthpiece of ‘the people.’ The more the public is duped, the more its deceivers can claim to express the public’s will which only brings forth an orgy of euphemisms. “Humpty Dumpty would have been right a home,” Huffington declares, “when he told Alice, ‘When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

Greg Sargent writes in The New Republic“All this paves the way for larger deceptions later. Bank on it: The moment Trump takes office, the lower apprehension numbers will magically become real metrics. Fox News will start trumpeting them and he’ll start claiming the border has achieved pacification due to his strength. Indeed, Trump very well may credit his current threat of tariffs with ‘forcing’ Mexico to make the lower numbers of border crossings a reality.” During a recent conversation between Trump and Sheinbaum, she explained to him Mexico’s strategy to address the migration phenomenon, observing human rights, while not closing the border but instead building bridges between government and people. But we find Trump crowing that she agreed to close the border, taking credit for something in which he hasn’t even been a participant. No need to let a troublesome thing like ‘reality’ get in the way of building a house of delusions, eh?

Brad Reed writes in Raw Story that some MAGAs are eager to start launching military operations inside Mexico to take out drug cartel leaders, though experts believe it would do little to stop the supply of drugs coming into the US. Mexico has found this approach to be a failure, which only started an explosion of violence within the cartel, so killing off capos within the gangs is not new, only a failed strategy. One military veteran declared the strategy as being, “Iraq all over again. We’re not fighting an army. We’re fighting poverty. Let’s fight desperation. Let’s fight hopelessness. That sounds a whole lot like what we did in Afghanistan for 20 years unsuccessfully.”

During his 1976 campaign for US Senator from CaliforniaSamuel Hayakawa said of the proposed transfer of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama“We should keep the Panama Canal. After all, we stole it fair and square.” It should be noted that a few years later, Senator Hayakawa helped win approval for the transfer; but now we find that president-elect Trump is railing for a reversal of the ownership. Trump feels the Canal authority is charging “exorbitant prices and rates of passage” on US naval and merchant ships, demanding that fees either be lowered, or give it back to this country. The US is the canal’s biggest customer and Trump’s fear is that the passage is in danger of falling under China’s control as the second-biggest customer. Failing to get much attention is the outstanding tax evasion case against Trump, Trump Panama Hotel Management LLC, and Trump International Hotels who are accused of not paying the required 12.5% tax rate to the Panamanian government. The lawsuit alleges the companies kept the money, “intentionally evading taxes” and leaving the new owner liable for millions. According to Malcolm Ferguson in The New Republic, a tax audit of the hotels submitted as evidence found massive inconsistencies in the case still pending in New York District Court. In 2018, Panamanian officials stepped in, stripping the Trump name from the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower.

Co-president-elect Musk, donning his own global expansionist/interference cloak, is asking whether the US should “liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government” as he launched into a series of X posts to call for the release of a jailed right-wing activist, and the imprisonment of a junior minister of the Labour government. The Tesla head-honcho is calling for the jailing of Jess Phillips, a member of Prime Minister Starmer’s cabinet, calling her a “rape genocide apologist” over her handling of investigations into organized gangs accused of systematic rape of young women. The Labour government says it is focused on enacting recommendations of a 2022 study, which were not implemented by the previous Conservative government, as Starmer rebukes Musk for grandstanding, taking advantage of an “utterly sickening issue” for his own advantage: “Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.” A propagandist — neither more nor less?

Musk has spoken out for Islamophobic fascist activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by his pseudonym, Tommy Robinson. Robinson, a member of the fascist British National Party was convicted of mortgage fraud and assault for stalking a female journalist at her residence, and is now serving 18 months in prison for repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee. Musk disagrees with his incarceration, but MAGA-lover Nigel Farage of Britain’s right-wing Reform Party can’t abide Robinson. Farage’s outspokenness spurred Musk to call for his ouster as Reform Party leader. A few weeks ago, Musk meddled in German politics, endorsing the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, to which Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in an interview said he finds it “worrying that a man with enormous access to social media and large financial resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries.” So, it’s destined to be a complete Barnum & Bailey three-ringer — who’s next?

Dr. Jo posts on Quora that despite Trump’s appointment of a lot of real clowns to his cabinet, creating the most dangerous circus in the history of the world, it’s not a circus…not even close. To wit: appearance and apparent clumsiness hide the fact that real circus clowns are capable and competent; circus acts are carefully scripted; circuses have rules and mechanisms for safety. Trump has initiated a reality show, with supporters who have yet to cope with his narcissism, as he sees the whole of reality as reality TV, himself being the hero, consequently, many of his selections are sycophantic Fox News presenters. But, however self-indulgent, it’s not totally a reality show which can be arbitrary and bizarre, with many people behind the scenes to capture and edit any bad things before damage control is needed. In Trump 2.0, we find that the safety nets are absent, wild animals are free to roam, emergency exits are blocked, fire hazards are acute…equipment wasn’t checked because nobody cares, appointees/performers are hardly competent…existing just for show — the competent ones have left or are about to leave, or will be fired by Musk, and no script…which is done daily upon the whims of Trump.

Dr. Jo concludes, however, that the reality show is funny…or will be funny when the “legion of spiteful, vindictive” Trumpers in the crowd realize what is really happening. Sooner, rather than later, almost everyone who voted for Trumpy McTrumpface will be quite surprised. They are currently sharing in the reality-impaired delusion…until they get a drubbing. Repeatedly, the US will be managed into the ground, just like Twitter X, until there is nothing left of value, except that anything of value will be in the pockets of Trump and his gang. Time to grab your peanuts, popcorn and cotton candy and watch from afar, preferably from a parallel universe, because it ain’t gonna be pretty.

TV host Stephen Colbert on The Late Show last week, reported that President Biden was in California“doing what presidents should do: pledging federal disaster support to a stricken state.” At a press conference, Biden also announced that he was officially the first sitting president to become a great-grandfather, as is eldest granddaughter gave birth to a baby boy. “And with under two weeks left, there’s still time for Joe to set more old-man presidential records,” Colbert suggested, such as “most Malt-o-Meals consumed at 4 a.m., most rubber bands collected in an old cigar box, first president ever to fall asleep at a picnic and be carried away by ants.” As Nietzsche asked, “Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?”

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
 

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Inauguration

“Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it.”
~Abraham Lincoln

“Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither.”
~Theodore Roosevelt

“Old truths have been relearned; untruths have been unlearned. We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.”
~Franklin Delano Roosevelt

“Only by helping the least fortunate of its members to help themselves can the human family achieve the decent, satisfying life that is the right of all people.”
~Harry S. Truman

“Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”
John F. Kennedy

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Deep Cover

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