Bratton… Calm and level heads… Greensite… on Civil Grand Jury Investigative Reports… Steinbruner… road safety in Aptos… Hayes… Gish Gallop… Patton… AOC: Veteran Political Operator… Matlock… RNC coronation…black and gray flights of fancy…a call for calm… Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover… Webmistress serves you… conversation pits and other 70s decor… Quotes on… “Debate”
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Dateline: July 17, 2024
URGING CALM AND LEVEL HEADS. I’ve known Becky O’Malley for decades. She’s the editor of the Berkeley Gazette. Here is a recent opening editorial of hers. Do take note.
Earth to Dems: Keep Calm and Carry On
Becky O’Malley
Monday July 01, 2024 – 02:56:00 PMOn my kitchen wall there’s a poster with a slogan from World War II Britain: “Keep Calm and Carry On.” In the wake of the recent presidential debate (also known as The Debacle), pundit wannabes could use a sign like that. They fell all over each other pronouncing President Biden down for the count.
The worst offender was the New York Times Editorial Board, which should be charged with journalistic malfeasance. Almost before the MSNBC talking heads had finished their OMGs over Biden’s poorish performance on Thursday night, the NYT Board was out of the gate on the Internet (“digital edition”) calling for his scalp, a cry they repeated in print in the Sunday Opinion section:
“As it stands, the president is engaged in a reckless gamble. There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency. “
And there were plenty more top-tier newsies and editorial writers who announced the same hasty conclusion.
Why?
Granted, the president was somewhat hoarse, and he obviously struggled not to revert to his childhood stutter. And yes, he seemed a bit fuzzy, with trouble choosing words and finishing sentences.
Why was he sounding like that? Watching at home I made an immediate diagnosis before he’d spoken the equivalent of three grafs: he had a cold, of course.
But colds don’t make you fuzzy, do they?
No, but as an experienced home medicator (daughter,spouse,parent, grandparent) I can tell you that a vast array of OTC (over the counter) cold remedies do. I’ve learned from personal experience not to take any of the stuff Big Pharma would like you to buy at CVS or Walgreens before doing anything moderately complicated, like driving … or participating in a debate.
I’m not a doctor, or at least just a J.D, not an M.D. That’s why I was gratified to learn that a trio of Yale professors, including two genuine M.Ds, agreed with my diagnosis. Their conclusion appeared on Saturday on the MedPage Today site::
“The most probable explanation for this transient period of cognitive impairment in an older person with a cold is a side effect of cold medications. If this is so, the handwringing should cease, and we should use the debate as a reminder of how common such reactions are rather than an indication that the president is chronically debilitated.”
Unfortunately, it seems that President Biden’s handlers, including his lovely wife perhaps, didn’t realize this. If the man had a bad cold, he should have been advised to announce that he’d lost his voice and offer to set another date.
Now, after the damage has occurred, here’s the advice of the Yale doctors:
“We need to know if President Biden took cold medications before the debate. His doctors should assess the role they may have played. How the American people assess the debate hinges on the answer. It would be tragic to magnify the meaning of an ill-timed adverse drug effect — and potentially have it change the course of history.”
But following such sober advice is no fun for the commentariat. Sunday’s NYT Opinion is loaded with what Jamelle Bouie, interviewed there, called “hyperventilating panic”. His own comments are the exception; he catalogs the “fatal downsides to Biden leaving the race” which seem to have escaped the notice of his NYTO colleagues.
The Board members in particular don’t seem to be aware of how hard it would be for Democrats to mount a real campaign for a new candidate at this stage. They claimed, remember, that
“There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency. “
Really? Who?
Liberals, traditionally Nervous Nellies always looking for alternatives, need to be constantly reminded that you can’t beat someone with no one, and the devil you know is usually the safer choice. An assortment of governors with little name recognition outside their own states would be risky even two years out, and we’re down to single digit numbers of months now. Senators are needed right where they are. Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom have negatives well known to Californians.
The Times Editorial Board, like similar boards of other well-funded prestige papers, is populated by and large by people who have no real-life political experience. They tend to overestimate the influence of “independent” or “undecided” voters. From an early job as a campaign manager I know that people who describe themselves thus actually seldom vote. “Infrequent” registered voters on the rolls have probably moved away. Of the probable voters, a very small percentage will be changing their minds because of this debate.
As NYT and its competitors become more and more digital, man-bites-dog excitement becomes more and more desired as clickbait. Follow-up to the debate conspicuously lacked factchecking of Trump’s 90 straight minutes of lies—where’s the news in that? He performed as expected.
As my daughter pointed out to me, it’s a lot easier to deliver a smooth presentation if you don’t worry about facts, which is why some viewers claimed Trump “won”. He radiated confidence, not letting truth cramp his style.
The best analysis I’ve seen of how this first debate will or won’t, should or shouldn’t, affect the November election came from MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, someone who had a real political job working in the Senate before he became an opinion journalist.
You can see it in the window on the right. His opening monologue is only about twenty minutes long and well worth the time.
Just as I’m ready to post this, the Supreme Court has given us all very good reasons to stop squabbling and get on with it. If we can’t bar the door in November, we’ll find out what real trouble looks like.
THE ASUNTA CASE. Netflix series. (6.9 IMDB) 
Another Spanish movie based on a true story about a local couple whose adopted Chinese daughter is found murdered. Even the police are suspected of the crime. Mistakes are made, the story stays tight, worth watching.
GANGS OF GALICIA. Netflix series (6.3 IMDB) A Spanish murder adventure about a woman whose father gets murdered, so she goes inside some drug cartels to find out and get revenge on whodunit!! Great seaside- water footage. With boats and police everywhere.
SUNNY. Apple series (7.3 IMDB) 
A Japanese comedy starring Rashida Jones who loses her husband and has a robot replace him. There’s way too much mugging, drinking, and undirected reactions to make this worth watching…avoid it
DESPERATE LIES. Netflix series. (7.0 IMDB) Juliana Paes takes the lead in this Brazilian re-take after re-take about childbirth. It appears that she got drunk, went to bed with two guys and got pregnant from both of them….and had twins! Complex, barely believable, only a bit humorous, but you will stay focused.
FANCY DANCE. Apple movie. (6.6 IMDB) Executive directed by Forrest Whitaker and starring Michael Rowe. It’s all about Native Americans and their family structure and personal issues. It’s both sensitive and amateurish and lacks a forceful direction.
YOUR HONOR. Netflix series (7.6 IMDB). Bryan Cranston along with Hope Davis and especially Rosie Perez lead this New Orleans saga. The son of a crime boss is killed and it’s the judge’s son who gets the blame. Well worth watching.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. HBO series. I re-watched much of this series prequel to Game of Thrones just to check on how relevant and applicable it may still be. It definitely has lost the magic and charm, probably due to our increasing and improving the world. Game of Thrones was back in 2011 and had an amazing 72 episodes. House of The Dragon begins 17 decades before Game Of Thrones.
A BODY THAT WORKS. Netflix series. (7.7 IMDB) It starts slow as we watch a scared and un-pregnant 37 year old woman decide to get a surrogate woman to carry her baby. There’s much realistic action and re-actions between the two “pregnant” couples.
NIGHTMARES AND DAY DREAMS. Netflix series.(6.6 IMDB) A collection of 7 episodes starting in Jakarta with a baby falling from a balcony, some concepts of torture, and then… switches to a bread factory !! All seven chapters are like that and they hang together neatly, but full of blood and guts.
ROCCO SCHIAVONE: ICE COLD MURDERS. Series. (7.8 IMDB) 
An absolutely engrossing, tightly knit movie about an Italian (Aosta is the city in Italy) detective whose wife is either murdered or maybe was suicidal. He’s quirky, smokes pot, and heads up a great cast in an excellent series. Go for it.
PRESUMED INNOCENT. Apple series. (7.5 IMDB). Jake Gyllenhaal does his usual excellent job this time as a Chicago attorney. It’s almost all courtroom scenes plus murder of a pregnant woman, and why was she killed? Legalese takes first place plus some very tense moments….go for it.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT. Prime movie. (7.0 IMDB) All about competition rowing at the college level. The University of Washington ended up sending their rowing team to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Hollywood star/ actor George Clooney directed this sentimental and touching near documentary…and it shows. Exciting, scenes from the existing class system and how these poor children pulled together.
INHERITANCE. Netflix movie. (5.1IMDB) This is a comedy and you need to remember that intention. A TV host dies and for some plot reason the family is invited to his mansion to experience the reading his will. He hosted a game show and they throw in some gay humor, some inside tv programing errors and it’s only worth 2 thumbs.
DEFENDING JACOB. Apple TV series. (7.8IMDB) Chris Jacobs loses the screen and our attention every time his co-star Michelle Dockery appears…she has inherited and mastered all screen stealing techniques. He’s a much liked and capable assistant District attorney. All of a sudden his son’s best student buddy is murdered and the son is faced with maybe being guilty. It’s a long take on family loyalty, and on what’s fair, the privileges the DA’s son enjoys…and the movie is excellent…don’t miss it.
HITLER AND THE NAZIS. NETFLIX SERIES (7.5 IMDB) We’ll never the total truth behind World War II but this documentary fills in many blank spots. 6 years of war, 60 million lives lost, Nuremberg trials, Hitler and his love for some of Wagner’s operas, Goering, anti-British, mentioning the Messiah…it’s all in this well done documentary. We should memorize the lessons we need to learn.
WONDER. Netflix movie. (7.9 IMDB) 
When you have Owen Wilson, Julia Roberts and Mandy Patinkin as leads in a sentimental movie about a 10 year old boy born with a disfigured face after 27 surgeries you have a terrible chance at making a watchable movie….and this isn’t watchable.
July 15, 2024
Santa Cruz County Civil Grand Jury
As my Tae Kwon Do teacher used to say: “Don’t start with dragon’s head and end with snake’s tail.” That old caution to avoid a weak ending applies to the lack of press coverage for most of the investigative reports from the 2023-24 Santa Cruz Civil Grand Jury. Grand Jury reports rely on press coverage to alert the community and so far, after the initial two reports, press coverage has been sparse. By the time you are reading this there may be more coverage, but so far, the lack of press interest in most of the reports listed above is of concern.*
I have just completed a year as a Civil Grand juror, one of nineteen selected to be part of a historical institution that oversees and investigates the workings of local government to ensure its efficiency and transparency: civil issues as distinct from criminal. The term is a year, and all applicants for this volunteer position are advised that the time commitment is considerable, an average of twenty hours a week. Beware of averages! From July until December the time commitment was fine. From January until June I largely disappeared from Bratton Online and other activities as the work increased and deadlines loomed. Overall, it was one of the most challenging, rewarding, intense years of my life.
By all accounts, Santa Cruz folks have more than a few gripes about their locally elected city and county representatives on a wide range of issues. One avenue for investigating such complaints is via the Civil Grand Jury, the form for which is on the Civil Grand Jury website. Some complaints don’t qualify as legitimate, such as parking tickets, neighborhood disputes or criminal issues. And not all issues investigated flow from submitted complaints. Some are suggested by jurors themselves. These are subject to a formal proposal and Grand Jury vote. All issues accepted are investigated over many months, subject to multiple-source factual evidence, exhaustive group editing and final acceptance from the Presiding Judge. Each of the reports from the above list above went through that process.
Despite a Grand Jury committee tasked with press releases to all media and follow-up, the lack of press coverage, the snake’s tail, after so much work, is very discouraging. The Civil Grand Jury can only recommend that local governments follow its recommendations. It cannot require that they do so. It relies on public pressure to hold the government accountable to the recommendations, and the public relies on the press to keep it informed about issues investigated. Without the latter, the former is unaware, and the hard investigative work of the Civil Grand Jury is for naught.
Had I not been involved in this effort I may have gone along with some in the community who think that Grand Jury reports are a joke. Without good press coverage and an involved public that may well be true. I now see the Civil Grand Jury as a unique democratic process to potentially hold government accountable. That is, if the issues are well-covered in the press, the public takes notice and follows through with political action.
I urge you to read the reports listed above and detailed here.
At least choose one that interests you. The government agencies have ninety days to respond to the report recommendations which puts most at mid-September. Whether they check “don’t agree” with no required explanation is largely dependent on whether they think the public is paying attention. Well, are you?
*Since submitting this piece for publication the Sentinel has covered the Grand Jury report on Preventing Rape and Domestic Violence (7/16/24). Hopefully more media outlets will follow their lead.
| 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. |
SIGN UP NOW FOR PANEL DISCUSSION ABOUT DENSE HOUSING MANDATES
If you have not yet done so, sign up now to attend this free panel discussion July 31 that will feature State Senator Scott Wiener, who has shoved through much of the legislation removing local discretion in land use projects and seeks to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements for developments.
This housing forum will discuss how communities in Downtown Santa Cruz, Live Oak/Soquel and throughout the county can maintain their identities amid state-driven development like the Food Bin and “Clock Tower” projects. We’ll explore the impacts of increasing housing on Santa Cruz’s character and consider the roles of state and local governments in housing policies.
This forum will feature California State Senator Scott Wiener, Santa Cruz County First District Supervisor Manu Koenig, Santa Cruz City Councilmember Sandy Brown, and Sibley Simon of Workbench. It will be moderated by Lookout’s Politics and Policy Correspondent, Christopher Neely.
get tickets here
While the County is planning alot of dense development in Supervisor Koenig’s Live Oak District, the largest and most significant development planned is in the Second District, with the 13-acre parcel at 2600 Mar Vista earmarked for nearly 300 new units, and about 40 units at the Seascape Golf Course parking lot. Where is Supervisor Zach Friend? Likely off to his next higher rung of the political ladder.
COUNTY’S EVENING PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS CLIMATE ACTION PLANS
On the very same evening as the event above, the County’s Commission on the Environment and the Office of Response, Recovery and Resilience (OR3) will hold a rare evening meeting for the public in the County Government Building at 701 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz, in the 5th Floor Board of Supervisor chambers. The meeting is scheduled for 5pm-7pm, which makes it possible to at least hear the first hour before hiking next door to the Hotel Paradox
Santa Cruz County to host climate action adaptation meetings [Santa Cruz Sentinel]
“According to a release from the county, discussion topics will include carbon-emission reduction strategies, natural resource protection efforts and climate change hazard mitigation.
“This is an opportunity for the community to learn more detail about the County’s updated Climate Action and Adaptation Plan and track the progress the County is making on reaching our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals,” said Kris Damhorst, chair of the County’s Commission on the Environment, which is hosting the meetings.”
PROTECTING THE LUNGS OF THE EARTH IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY
Why does the County only offer protection for large trees within the Coastal Zone?
Last week, the County Fish & Wildlife Advisory Commission discussed how best to get the attention of the County Board of Supervisors with a recommendation to expand the County’s Significant Tree Protection Ordinance to areas outside that area of the County’s unincorporated boundaries.
The last letter the Commission sent to the Board on July 11, 2019,asking for reasonable changes received no action.
Purportedly, Supervisor Bruce McPherson responded that the letter (two pages) was too long and the requested change would threaten logging operations.
Currently, there is no such protection for large trees in the unincorporated areas that fall outside of the Coastal Zone. Take a look at this map to see what that means: California Coastal Commission
Note that boundary, developed by the Coastal Protection Act in 1977, pretty much follows Highway One until the western boundary of the City of Santa Cruz, when the line swerves about a mile inland.
What is considered a “Significant Tree”?
“Significant tree,” for the purposes of this chapter, shall include any tree, sprout clump, or group of trees, as follows:
(A) Within the urban services line or rural services line, any tree which is equal to or greater than 20 inches d.b.h. (approximately five feet in circumference); any sprout clump of five or more stems each of which is greater than 12 inches d.b.h. (approximately three feet in circumference); or any group consisting of five or more trees on one parcel, each of which is greater than 12 inches d.b.h. (approximately three feet in circumference).
(B) Outside the urban services line or rural services line, where visible from a scenic road, any beach, or within a designated scenic resource area, any tree which is equal to or greater than 40 inches d.b.h. (approximately 10 feet in circumference); any sprout clump of five or more stems, each of which is greater than 20 inches d.b.h. (approximately five feet in circumference); or, any group consisting of 10 or more trees on one parcel, each greater than 20 inches d.b.h. (approximately five feet in circumference).
Santa Cruz County Code: SIGNIFICANT TREES PROTECTION
Why did the County only include protection for significant trees within the Coastal Zone? Likely it was due to the timber harvesting regulations in place and regulated by the California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection at the time. That thought was supported by recent testimony by CalFire Chief Rich Sampson to the Commission.
The Board of Supervisors has considered violations against PG&E for excessive large tree removal and the Califonria Coastal Commission Enforcement Officer, Mr. Patrick Veesart, sent notice to PG&E regarding this (Violation V-3-20-0089)on November 20, 2020. CALFIRE also sent notice of violation on November 18, 2020 regarding excessive removals within the CZU Fire burn areas and lack of maintained service roads.
Here is the template for your Supervisor’s e-mail contact: <FirstName.Lastname@santacruzcountyca.gov>
You can contact all Supervisors at Board of Supervisors: <boardofsupervisors@santacruzcountyca.gov>
or call 831-454-2200.
Please contact your County Supervisor and urge him to support the County’s Fish & Wildlife Commission proposal to change the Significant Tree Protection Ordinance to include all areas of the unincorporated lands.
You may be interested to learn that the State requires each county to have a Fish &Wildlife Advisory Commission. The Santa Cruz County group is very well-informed and sends thoughtful letters with recommendations to the Board of Supervisors.
It would be nice if the Supervisors were to pay attention.
Here is another excellent letter the County Fish & Wildlife Advisory Commission sent to the Board of Supervisors, this one about the damaging impacts of homeless encampments in riparian areas.
CAPITOLA BRANCH LIBRARY WILL SOON BE CLOSED ON SUNDAYS
August 4 will be the final Sunday that the Capitola Branch Library will be open during the afternoon. The only library in the County that will be open on Sunday afternoon will be the Downtown Branch. According to the librarian, “there just isn’t enough funding to pay staff to keep the (Capitola) branch open.”
What a sad state of affairs. This means patrons will have to travel to downtown Santa Cruz to do research and homework studies. Where did all the Measure S tax money go??
OUR TAX DOLLARS WILL HELP SWENSON
You and I will pay to help Swenson’s grand entry to the Aptos Village Project reduce traffic hazards, using precious little funding available for road maintenance and traffic engineering.
Public Works staff confirmed the County will pay to paint traffic separation on eastbound Soquel Drive in Aptos Village to reduce the existing left turn queue lane for Trout Gulch Road by about 50% in order to create a dedicated queue lane for Swenson’s Parade Street. The markings, shown below, will get official painting within the next couple of weeks. Once installed, a County Public Works Traffic Engineer will sit at the site to observe the effectiveness of the markings. (kerching, kerching…)
Based on that Engineer’s observations, the County may install plastic bollard post separators to make sure that motorists wanting to turn left onto Trout Gulch Road do not use the queue lane for Swenson’s Parade Street entrance.
I think a safer mitigation would be to make Parade Street one-way with exit-only. This would eliminate the problem of traffic backing up on Soquel Drive and could even allow for a Metro stop on Parade Street that would promote better transit use to and from the heart of the Village and events at Aptos Village Park nearby.
I also feel that the County should require Swenson to paint “NO LEFT TURN” on Parade Street exit at the Soquel Drive intersection. The small “Right Turn Only” sign currently on Parade Street is too far back from the actual intersection, and motorists approaching the busy intersection likely do not see it. Painting on the pavement would be more visible to motorists, and Swenson should be required to pay for the safety mitigation of their intersection.
Please ask Supervisor Zach Friend and County Public Works Director Matt Machado for a town hall meeting with Aptos constituents to discuss this matter, and protest that the County is using precious funding for road safety to paint the demarcation on Soquel Drive to accommodate Swenson’s Parade Street entrance to the Project and a Traffic Engineer to visit the site for observation of effectiveness. Matt Machado<matt.machado@
Here are the preliminary markings now in the left turn queue lane for Trout Gulch Road motorists. Traffic there is often congested during school commute times…reducing the length of the queue lane will make it worse.
IT WORKS!
If you visit Nisene Marks State Park, you know that there is limited cell phone service within that gigantic forest. However, at the Steel Bridge near the entry, there is a pay phone that is available and now back in service! In 2020, a runner had to knock on the door of a nearby resident at 6am to report the wildland fire nearby because the payphone did not work.
Be advised that all calls to 9-1-1 do not require coins being deposited.
MAKE ONE CALL. WRITE ONE LETTER. ATTEND A PUBLIC MEETING AND VOICE YOUR THOUGHTS.
DO ONE THING THIS WEEK AND MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.
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 |
Gish Gallop
Has it always been so common, or is it just more apparent because it has become so prevalent in mainstream politics? The Gish Gallop is a method of debate where one streams together so many unsubstantiated points that it becomes difficult to track, and rebut, them all. Perhaps the easy swipe of social media or the increased speed of emerging news have helped to wire us to be more receptive to the full-steam-ahead BS argument technique. Here, I try my hand at making a speech using the Gish Gallop technique with a collection of commonly held nature fallacies:
A Gish’ing Example
Nature is dangerous! For instance, all sorts of snakes and spiders are venomous, and people die from their bites all the time. You have to be especially careful of mountain lions, which are increasingly attacking people across California. If environmentalists have their way, there will also be wolves roaming everywhere across the Western USA- once established, they will become habituated to eating livestock and they’ll be coming after people, too. Just outside your door trying to get into your trash are very dangerous rabid opossums. You don’t even have to go outside for nature to get you. There are spiders hiding in your house, and an average of six a year drop into sleeping people’s mouths. I heard just the other day about another venomous snake crawling out of someone’s toilet. Some crazies want to blame so many things like this on global warming, which is just hype from crackpots trying to control our lives. They claim burning fossil fuels is going to kill us all, but that’s not true! Change happens, for God’s sake, there have always been natural disasters and there always will be, just get used to it, you snowflakes!
Does that kind of diatribe sound familiar? It should, and its not just coming from the political right – watch out for it coming from just about any political direction, in just about any social situation. You can tell a real Gish Gallop addict by picking out just one of their tidbits and trying to follow up with a more involved conversation. If they are a galloping gish o’phile, they’ll be unable to stick to that topic and will hit you with another round of Gish Gallop before you can yell ‘stop!’ I don’t know if its just my circles of company, but I venture to guess that 1 out of 10 of my conversations encounter something amounting to Gish Gallop.
Toilet Snakes
Let’s take a look at just one of the parts of the above parade d’ BS: toilet snakes. Mention the phrase ‘toilet snake’ during a party, and it may well take root in conversation with anecdotes just as lunatic, or even substantiating evidence of this profoundly unlikely scenario. Was it Voltaire that said absurdities beget atrocities? One step leads to the next. Who are we to deny the frequency of toilet snakes, anyway? I’m sure it has happened once or twice! It may even be getting more frequent with global warming, invasive species, collapsing and outdated infrastructure, and the loss of skilled labor attracted to public works jobs. See? How familiar is that? That’s how it goes…
Turning This Around: The Antidote
How good are you at stemming the tide of verbal diarrhea? How do we collectively alter this rotten social habit? It is time to infuse more meaningful dialogue into the world. I am particularly advocating for better dialogues about nature and hoping that we carry with us enough fascinating stories that we can knit deeper and deeper oral traditions into a regionally-oriented social fabric. As we do that, I encourage us to use science as our guide, so that we have a method of building out truth, of going deeper and deeper into nature, and to add those discoveries into our stories.
The Fate of Snakes
My essay ‘Snakes on the Monterey Bay’ is one of the most popular reads on my website. I suspect that there are widespread positive sentiments about native snake species. But there are also widespread popular beliefs, well supported in social circles, that snakes are all very dangerous. Snake phobia, even nature phobia, is far too common. I well recall a time when I was working with a farm labor crew to machete poison hemlock, an invasive species that had taken over much of Younger Lagoon Reserve that I was stewarding for the University. One of the crew spotted a garter snake: quickly three were chasing it and proudly hacked it to pieces in moments before I could stop them. They seemed astounded that I was angry at their actions. I’m sure that they still think that I was acting insanely to be defending SNAKES! Why? Many people believe snakes are dangerous, and this is one of the many subjects that we can work on to improve human-nature relations.
Might you find out a bit about one of our native snakes and start a conversation about it with your friends? Such conversations could change the world for the better.
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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 |
#195 / AOC: “Veteran Political Operator”
Just after I published my May 4, 2024, blog posting that reflected on the political accomplishments of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, popularly known as “AOC,” The New York Times ran an opinion piece by Gaby Del Valle, which addressed the same topic.
In the hardcopy version, Del Valle’s column was published under the following headline: “Meet Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Veteran Political Operator,” a title that I didn’t much like, to tell you the truth. Online, the column is more simply presented: “The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez You Don’t Know.” Del Valle’s thoughts on AOC appeared in the Sunday, May 5, 2024, edition of The Times.
My point, in my earlier blog posting, was that Ocasio-Cortez got elected in her Congressional District, and stirred such positive feelings across the country, because she did what all our elected officials are supposed to do. She “represented” the people who elected her, and that is, in fact, what our elected officials are supposed to do. They are supposed to be “representatives.”
What Del Valle celebrates in her article is, really, the same thing I was trying to highlight, though the headline that called Ocasio-Cortez a “Veteran Political Operator” could have been misleading, and that is why it struck me as “wrong,” somehow. AOC has been a breath of fresh air in our politics because she has made her focus not going along with “leadership,” or advancing a partisan agenda, the kind of activities associated with those “veteran political operators” we generally love to hate, but by actually trying to do what the people she represents want her to do. Del Valle is suggesting that Ocasio-Cortez is, actually, helping to change our national politics, since we have, in many ways, actually lost sight of how “representative” self-government is supposed to work.
I encourage those reading this blog posting to click this link, to see if The New York Times’ paywall will let you read the entirety of Del Valle’s column. If you’re blocked, though, here are the concluding paragraphs, which give you a pretty good idea of what Del Valle has to say:
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez [is] the Democratic Party’s most charismatic politician since Barack Obama and its most ardent populist since Bernie Sanders. Crucially, she can offer voters something more substantial than a hollow rebuke of Trumpism. Last month, when the journalist Mehdi Hasan asked her how she’d respond to “a young progressive or Arab American who says to you, ‘I just can’t vote for Biden again after what he’s enabled in Gaza,’” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said a vote for Mr. Biden didn’t necessarily mean an endorsement of all his policies. “Even in places of stark disagreement, I would rather be organizing under the conditions of Biden as an opponent on an issue than Trump,” she said. It was a shrewd political maneuver, designed to distance herself from Democrats who support Israel unconditionally, while meeting voters — some of whom have lost family members in Gaza — where they are. She was, in effect, acknowledging their pain and attempting to channel their righteous anger into a political movement.
There are, of course, limits to this strategy. Some on the left see Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement of Mr. Biden as a betrayal of progressive values, particularly in the wake of the climbing death toll in Gaza. The moderate Republicans who turned out for Mr. Biden in 2020 might shrink from a Democratic Party led by someone they consider an outspoken progressive. But for every moderate or leftist voter lost with a strategy like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s, the Democratic Party may be able to win someone new — from the pool of disillusioned Americans who feel shut out of the political process….
If she ever runs for higher office, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez might be able to galvanize voters of color who, despite leaning left, do not regularly show up at the polls. She could contrast her commitment to issues that matter to a large number of voters, like raising the minimum wage and protecting reproductive rights, with Republicans’ endless culture wars. And she could frame herself as one of the few Democrats who opposed unconditionally spending billions on an unpopular war while Americans struggled to afford groceries and gas.
She could take the message that catapulted her into Congress — as a tireless champion of the underclass — to the national level. In some ways, she already has. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez hit the picket line with striking United Auto Workers members in Missouri and requested a hearing on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, nearly a year before Mr. Biden visited the community. These are constituencies the Democratic Party has been losing, perhaps because they’ve written them off as Republican voters, if they bother to vote at all. But in the same way Ms. Ocasio-Cortez isn’t afraid to collaborate with conservatives when it helps her policy agenda, she has shown up for people whom other Democrats have abandoned — and voters may remember that when they cast a ballot in 2028 (emphasis added).
There are several ways for our politics to go bad, undermining genuine representative government. Here, perhaps, is a top three list – three ways that our representative government can end up failing us: (1) Elected representatives can start using their positions for personal advantage, meaning, almost certainly, that they will tailor their advocacy, and their votes, to what wealthy special interests want, instead of focusing on what the people who elected them want; (2) Elected representatives can also become mere cogs in a “partisan” machine, again insuring that monied interests count more for them than the people who elected them; (3) Finally, elected representatives can stop trying to “make a deal,” and to find workable compromises that a majority of elected representatives might be able to agree to, but seek to eliminate the opposition, as opposed to achieving their policy goals by finding policies and programs that can appeal across the multitude of differences within our society.
“Representing” the people who put you in office, and for whom you act, is how elected officials make our system of representative government work. When it’s not working, then claims by aspiring “dictators,” who claim that “I, alone, can fix it,” become more credible.
AOC is clearly one of those elected officials who is trying to make the system work the way it’s supposed to. The fact that I initially bridled at the headline calling her a “veteran political operator” is a testimony, as I think about it, that there aren’t nearly enough elected officials taking her approach. In fact, AOC is just the kind of “veteran political operator” we need in government!
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Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net
Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com |
A GATHERING OF FASCISTS, AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, BRINGING DOWN THE HORSE
It’s a mystery at this writing, how the RNC’s Milwaukee nominating convention is going, and most of all, how it ended up. So, how did the electrifying coronation go? And did the gathering of fascists (so named by Steve Schmidt) celebrate their new martyr with the veneration that a cult leader who disdains them…cares nothing for a single one of them…truly deserves? We have to remember Trump’s Las Vegas rally where people were falling like flies from the heat, when he said, “Because I don’t want everyone going on me, we need every voter. I don’t care about you, I just want your vote. I don’t care.” Straight from the MAGA Master’s mouth! Schmidt writes, “The Republican Party retains a name, but it has lost its identity because it has become unmoored from Americanism. It rejects the US Constitution, the peaceful transfer of power, election results, pluralism, women’s rights and separation of church and state. Trump is running on a platform of retribution and revenge with the claim that an American president is a Caesar.”
Would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, turned the presidential election sweepstakes on its head, by disrupting the Trump rally in Butler, PA with his AR-style semi-automatic rifle, clipping the former president’s ear, killing one attendee and wounding two others, before he was dispatched by a Secret Service sniper. A Bethel Park High School classmate disclosed that the shooter failed to make the junior varsity rifle team, and “was asked not to come back” because he was such a poor shot. Curiously, he was looked upon as a political conservative. However, this is a perfect opportunity for Trump to resurrect his fulmination, “They’re not after me. They’re after you. And I just happen to be standing in their way,” and we might expect to hear more of the same paranoid martyrdom from 2016, “I am your voice. Today, I add I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those of you who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” Trump promised to carry out his plans for attendance at the RNC convention, suggesting that he would edit his scheduled anti-Biden speech by calling for more unity in our nation’s politics. So, was it a complete change of heart, a conversion on the road to Damascus, and assigning Project 2025 to the scrap heap? Ha!
HBO’s Real Time host, Bill Maher posted, “I unequivocally denounce the shooting. Not funny. Not for me. I don’t want to say the election is over, but MAGA nation finally has its full martyr. They loved it when he went to jail…the mug shot…nailed it! And he reacted to the shooting like he rehearsed it…one take! It doesn’t matter who the Democrats put up now…so much damage to the Left now. I’ll be in Milwaukee tomorrow…to go to the strip clubs! But I’m glad Trump’s okay. I gotta say this: he’s he luckiest ______ that ever walked the face of the Earth. Always lucky, lucky, lucky!” The bartender at Mar-a-Lago looked up to see a distraught-looking Trump plop himself onto a barstool, ordering a Scotch. The bartender says, “Whoa, Mr. Trump…that’s not like you! What’s eating you?” He replies, “I thought I’d sneak out and take a short drive to get away from all the activity, and on the way home my car died. I had no idea what to do, so I raised the hood like everybody else does. A horse popped his head over the roadside fence and told me how to fix it! And here I am!” The bartender says, “Wow, was it a black horse?” Puzzled, Trump answers, “Well, yes it was…?” The bartender tells him, “You are a lucky man! There’s a gray horse in that field that doesn’t know crap about engines!”
In the aftermath of the shooting, both parties signaled they would back off from campaigning, a sort of grace period…but how long will/did that last? Tim Stanley of The Telegraph says descriptors of Trump will transcend from “admirable” to “awesome…like Moby Dick or the Terminator, a force of nature…who can doubt he will win?” Stanley says, “In the United States, every assassination attempt is a tragedy but every near-miss is a triumph – because Americans are schooled in what could’ve been…Lincoln, Kennedy, King. This time, the target got right back up. Trump punched the air, he yelled ‘Fight,’ and the crowd chanted ‘USA! USA!’ Remember: Rocky lost in the first movie, he didn’t win until the second. And in the fourth he single-handedly brought down the Soviet Union.” A post on X-FKT presents a dilemma: Should Americans be traumatized by the happenings at the Trump rally, or should Americans just pretend it was another elementary school shooting and get over it…asking for a nation tired of double standards!
USA Today’s columnist Rex Huppke posted on X-FKT (X-Formerly Known as Twitter – aren’t you tired of seeing this silly clarification in every news story mentioning X?) that after the news of the shooting broke, a chaotic churn of social media, the birthing of lies, conspiracies and speculation arose that has become our new normal. “The event was sickening, we didn’t need to wait on specific details to know that…a crackle of gunfire, seeing the presumptive GOP presidential nominee rushed offstage with blood on his face? It’s unthinkable. It’s not how America is supposed to work. Speculation blasted out on social media from random knuckleheads, pundits, lawmakers who decided in the moment they knew exactly what happened. Facts rendered meaningless. Opinions and hot takes elevated to levels that were once the sole realm of actual, reputable news. It was this person’s fault…it was that person’s fault…you’re to blame…they’re to blame. Trending topics took off with claims of everything from an assassination attempt to a staged event. Unfettered garbage. Cynical manipulations. Sick, twisted imaginings and attempts at humor…worthless chatter that once had no way to enter the mainstream were blasted out to a country where, quite literally, everybody has to have a damn opinion in order to grasp at some form of social status. What is wrong with us? How have we let the drip of conspiracy theories and lies that are part of any society become a fire hose? I look forward to every detail of this horrific shooting coming out so we can move forward together and do what Americans should be doing: Make things better.”
Ryan Grim of dropsitenews on Substack posts, “One quick thought on the political ramifications: My first instinct was that the assassination attempt would seal the election for Trump, particularly given the imagery it produced. But others have noted that it may also feed into the fear the public has that another Trump term means a return to nonstop political chaos. There’s no reason for us to guess, though, as we’ll have polling in a few days that answers the question.” Polls in ‘a few days’ may not be entirely accurate since presidential candidate’s usually get a boost immediately following a convention, so ‘calm down‘ may be the cautionary phrase needed here.
Steve Schmidt writes on The Warning: “Violence begets violence begets violence, and on and on it goes. Donald Trump is a man who has long courted, celebrated, incited and threatened violence. He has now become a victim of the malice and insanity that he has spread more singularly, directly and indiscriminately than any living American. Donald Trump has built his political career on grievance, imaginary persecutions and indomitable toughness in the face of his enemies. Much of MAGA is a community of the disaffected and aggrieved who have been conditioned to believe Trump is being attacked by a hideous elite who is similarly attacking them. Last night, Trump became mythological to those people. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump was every bit as much an attack on American democracy as was the disgrace of the January 6 insurrection. It deserves absolute condemnation and our utter contempt.” Schmidt sees no silver lining for our future, believing, “A period of chaos has begun in America, and unfortunately, it will get worse through the election and beyond. This is a moment during which Trump could choose to back down and refuse to pour gasoline on the fire. He will not make that choice. He will inflame the situation. ‘Fight, fight, fight!’ will become his anthem. The one thing that nobody gets to say about this situation is that they are surprised by it.”
We were greeted last Monday with news that Trump the Lucky had his classified documents case dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida…although not a surprising turn of events, it was still shocking to hear the announcement, nonetheless! Without a doubt, the decision will be appealed, and the case assigned to another judge, with no chance of it being heard in the courtroom before the presidential election. With a Trump election victory, this case, along with the other Federal charges will be scattered to the Four Winds, never to see the light of day! So, Mr. Lucky rode into the RNC convention on a black field horse, and exited atop a black, fire-breathing steed with hooves of steel. The only thing easier to buy than a gun in America is a US senator or judge…is it future president Cannon, or Supreme Court justice Cannon? Ms. Lucky has hit the jackpot!
And how did this element work itself out? Retired, former Fox News media mogul, 93-year-old Rupert Murdoch was actively seeking an active role in the selection of Trump’s running mate but was not looking forward to kissing the former president’s ass, reports Kipp Jones on Mediaite. Murdoch was said to be pressuring people within Trump’s inner circle, expressing his wish to see North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum in the VP slot, since he loathes JD Vance. So serious was Rupert, that he called Trump and his staff several times a day, sending surrogates to do his campaigning, or dispatching reporters from The New York Post to Mar-a-Lago to smear Vance. Even News Corp execs met with the former president to make the case for Burgum, though the original pitch was for ‘anyone but JD.’ Marco Rubio was acceptable originally but Murdoch’s focus narrowed. It is speculated that because Rupert had always viewed Trump as subservient to him, and since he doesn’t look forward to another four years of kissing up to him by having him on Fox News, a VP Burgum could be the face of the administration as they groom him for a presidential run. Thus ending Trumpism? Nah…not a chance! All the while, Trump had a great time with his reality show lead-up to the “You’re HIRED!” finale…sorry, Little Marco!
Ruth Ben-Ghiat posts on Lucid@Substack: “Afraid to talk about Trump right now? You can continue to talk about the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025, and the ghastly outcomes of a Republican return to the White House. The collective popular and media focus on Project 2025 has led many Americans to wake up to the dangers that will befall us if Trump is re-elected. Focus on policies, not personalities. That’s always a good rule.”
Regardless of all the recent chain of events, Steve Schmidt warns us that Trump is an American fascist, raising money from the assassination attempt, with his MAGA faithful competing in “an Olympics of demagoguery blaming President Biden for the crime.” The Biden campaign has paused “all outbound communications, working to pull down television ads as quickly as possible” in the wake of the attempt…probably for the best since they are ineffective, a waste of money, says Schmidt, and a pathetic decision a that. A former Republican who had senior roles in two presidential campaigns, serving in the White House before joining the Lincoln Project to help elect Biden, he says his life was never threatened until Trump came on the political scene. He’s had suspicious packages mailed to his home, was accused of pedophilia, the purpose of which was to trigger an unhinged person to confront him, all thanks to MAGA. Steve say, “Violence has always ridden in the shadows of our republic, accompanying our progress towards justice every step of the way. Trump has incited violence, he celebrated thuggery in the 2020 presidential debate, he has killed with words, following his January 6 speech. He has openly pondered the killing of his fellow Americans. The choice in the election is perfectly clear because what Trump stands for is perfectly clear. National suicide is on the ballot…talking about this isn’t just honest, but reality-based. History didn’t stop on Saturday night [in Butler, PA]. It kept moving forward.” And all we have to do for verification of this statement is review the speeches given at the RNC, from Tucker Carlson to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Trump must be defeated…we must become the lucky ones!
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Dale Matlock, a Santa Cruz County resident since 1968, is the former owner of The Print Gallery, a screenprinting establishment. He is an adherent of The George Vermosky school of journalism, and a follower of too many news shows, newspapers, and political publications, and a some-time resident of Moloka’i, Hawaii, U.S.A., serving on the Board of Directors of Kepuhi Beach Resort. Email: cornerspot14@yahoo.com. |
EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. View classic inner-view ideas and thoughts with Subconscious Comics a few flips down.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s “Deep Cover” down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog.
Debate
“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”
~Joseph Joubert
“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.”
~Margaret Heffernan
“A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.”
~Nelson Mandela
“Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.”
~Friedrich Nietzsche
“Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.”
~Hubert H. Humphrey
“What we have to do… is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.”
~Hillary Clinton
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Home decorating trends of the seventies… some of these make me shudder, but damn do I ever think we should bring conversation pits back!! Though it is rare that you see a livingroom large enough for one nowadays… Also, how were the seventies 50-ish years ago?! |
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