female harrier and other birds (she's on the bottom)

 

Criticize the government on the internet, go to jail.

Bob D. sent this truly frightening story over, The Department of Homeland Security is demanding that Google turn over information about random critics.  A random critic, someone like for instance me,  gets caught in the crosshairs. 

This is very similar to what is happening to Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong right now, something that happens in fascist dictatorships. He criticized the government and got twenty years in the slam, a death sentence.

And there is no judicial review.

The US government has found a frighteningly efficient way to keep tabs on citizens who criticize the government: just demand their personal data from Google.

According to recent reporting from the Washington Post, a 67-year-old retiree sent a polite email to an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security urging mercy for an asylum seeker facing deportation to Afghanistan. The man, identified only as Jon, had read about the Afghani native’s case, and his fear that he would be persecuted should he ever return to his home country.

“Don’t play Russian roulette with [this man’s] life,” Jon told lead DHS prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, in the email. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”

Five hours later, per WaPo, Jon received a response — not from Dernbach or the DHS, but from Google.

“Google has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account,” it read. The email advised Jon that the “legal process” was an administrative subpoena, issued by DHS. Soon, government agents would arrive at his home.

The subpoena wasn’t approved by any judge, and it didn’t require probable cause. Google gave Jon just seven days to challenge it in federal court — not nearly enough time for someone without a crack team of lawyers on retainer. Even more maddeningly, neither Google nor DHS had sent him a copy of the subpoena itself, leaving Jon and his attorney in the dark.

“How do you challenge a subpoena you don’t have a copy of?” an attorney Jon consulted, Judi Bernstein-Baker, told WaPo.

As DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the newspaper in a statement, the law grants the department “broad administrative subpoena authority,” meaning legal demands from DHS officials don’t need to pass independent review.

Truly frightening times we live in. This is just how it started before. 

The Distance

Not forgotten...

We have lost two wonderful guitarists recently, a man who may have no peer as a jazz finger stylist, Ralph Towner, and the guitar player from one of my favorite nineties bands, Cake, Greg Brown. Both were amazing players and will be certainly missed.

Nascent Meatballs

I decided to try something different and decided to make spaghetti and meatballs the other day, from scratch. I don't remember making meatballs before, I may have. I used this recipe from Natasha with a few adjustments.

Leslie had bought some really good grass fed ground beef at Sprouts for a great price. 85/15%. I went to Major Market and bought two mild Italian sausage. I didn't have white bread so I cut the crusts off sourdough and mashed that in my water.

I got a big mixing bowl and added my egg and cheese and mixed it all by hand. Diverting just a tad from the recipe I added dried basil, oregano and fennel seed. We don't do raw or cooked onion so I substituted a lot of onion powder. Added two 28 oz. cans of Cento organic crushed tomatoes.

I scooped the meatballs with the ice cream scooper and then gave them an additional hand roll.  Got about twenty or so.

It was here that things went slightly adrift.

I fried them in a bit of avocado oil but some lost their shape.

Might be lousy technique on my part, used tongs and a flat spatula, I am told chopsticks are the key.

I took the seared and browned meatballs out and put them on a platter.

Then I went about making my sauce, frying garlic after releasing my browned bits with a little marsala flambe.

I brought the sauce up to a quick boil and then left them in a slow simmer, after adding a bay leaf and seasoning with salt, pepper, red cracked pepper and a few other spices for taste.

I reintroduced the meatballs to the sauce and hoped for a beautiful marriage!

I also added a secret ingredient I have seen in some recipes, parmesan rind, which I removed at the very end with the bayleaf.

Added fresh basil at the finish and a lot of freshly grated parmesan.

We used bucatini, a favorite, not being able to locate the square spaghetti we recently bought at whole foods. 

Oh, well.

I'm biased but I thought that the dish tasted wonderful.

I can now go to my grave knowing that I am capable of making a good meatball.

I asked a few friends for comments on why my meatballs may have not held their shape?

Jim thought they might have been too dry, said to use ground pork instead of sausage.

Wagman thought I should add cold water, like he does.

I think one egg was not enough of a binder and my rather diminutive egg was small for all that meat but who knows?

Will try again. 

My wife wants me to add mushrooms next time.

Leslie had a nice rose pinot noir that we paired with the dish.

Awful good.

Monday the ninth

I received a letter from a dear friend overseas the other day, slightly edited here for your perusal:

Hey, how closely are you following the current China situation? If you come across good sources of timely info please share with me. 

I'm also somewhat surprised you haven't written anything (I've seen) about the fact that the three super powers all having leaders choosing now to push themselves into "Emperor/King/Tzar for Life".

I wrote him back a brief message:

Not doing a lot of politics right now but I'm staying aware.

He: 

Cool, thanks for the update. I noticed that there hasn't been ONE single word about China on CNN's website...fucking amazing! Made me wonder if anybody back there had even been aware of what's uP?

Me: Everyone is fatigued

He:

Great excuse! But it just shocks me that it's not TOP of the news anywhere in US! Just to check, I just went through Fox News website - same story! I know you are one of the best read individuals I know in America, so figured I'd check in. If Washington DC suddenly and quietly was ringed with opposition troops, 2 top generals 'disappeared', Supreme Court stood up to Trump and all opposition figures spoke out against him it would be the top story...meanwhile the only story on Fox is about the threat of China's infrastructure projects and CNN doesn't even cover it! The coming days will be 'interesting', to say the least!

*

Hmmm. Great excuse? Let me just respond as best as I can. Politics is completely tribal today. It doesn't seem to matter what the policies are, just what team the other guys play for. I tend to hate the policies of Donald Trump. From coal emissions to black lung, his administration has neutered the CDC, FDA, CFPB, EPA and a hundred other governmental agencies that were designed to protect the American public.

The sight of ICE separating five year olds from their parents and transporting them to measles ridden gulag holding tanks, thousand of miles away, completely nauseates me. He is traumatizing helpless children in a way that will never be completely healed.

They do not have it coming.

We have a broken immigration system and have not had the political balls to make meaningful changes for over thirty years. But to arrest people on the final leg of citizenship and deport them for traffic tickets or maybe because they are dark skinned Somalians seems quite un-american to me. We are breaking our word and not playing it straight.

We have alienated our allies and made friends with every dictator and autocrat in the world, fanning the flames for non nativist anger and hatred. Our tariffs have upset long term trading partners and wreaked havoc on our farmers, who are now being subsidized once again by the American taxpayer.

Having said that, I made a conscious decision in November of 2024. I would lie back, for my own mental health. I would not respond to every excess of the current regime and prefer to watch them self immolate over the long term, which I believe is slowly happening.

Just wait and see how fast his cohorts jump off the Trump ship!

Instead of being a shrieking Cassandra, I would act as a bridge to my friends on the other side, of which I have many and try to meet them where they are and listen to their genuine concerns. While they are different than mine, their man was duly elected and that is how we do things in America.

If that means foregoing all the low hanging fruit of recounting all the tragic machinations of Trump, Inc., so be it. We will talk about birds, food and music and whatever mundane thing is on my mind or you can go somewhere else.

But I can not personally operate in a space of being constantly triggered, it is bad for my health, both physical and mental. I have to take a pass.

Not like I have much faith left in our country anyway. You elected him, have at it. But you better find somebody to pick that lettuce awful quick or you may not be able to afford a salad anytime soon.

Celebrate Chuck Negron

I was saddened to hear that Chuck Negron, the lead vocalist for Three Dog Night, had passed.  I saw them at least twice, maybe three times. Once with Steppenwolf I believe, maybe the Allman Brothers, Nitty Gritty and the Chambers Brothers. Way too long ago.

One of the absolute best cover bands to ever hit the stage but their personal story was even more remarkable. One leaves to become editor of Field and Stream Magazine and another, Chuck, becomes a stoned cold junkie and loses it all.

I heard a remarkable interview once between him and Howard Stern. Chuck, then in recovery after a long servitude to smack, recounted his bottom.

He was panhandling for change, basically in the gutter when he looked at the tall skyscraper behind him and realized that he had once owned the whole entire building. And now he was penniless.

Now that is a crash.

But he picked himself up. Good for him. Stuck around for the third act. A handsome man with one of the best voices in music.   

From the New Yorker

 

Good interview with Jorma Kaukonen

If you liked the music of the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna you might enjoy watching this recent interview with guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. I know that I did. Long but informative. There is another written interview here. 

Leslie and I were lucky enough to see the Airplane play with Grace Slick at Papa John Creech's funeral and will treasure the memory forever. Sat at the bar with Jim Marshall. People forget what kind of an impact they made on the nation and the world in the psychedelic era, both with Signe and Grace.

I loved the music of the Airplane, my older sister Liz was a big fan and I remember waiting outside the Fillmore East for her after one of their shows. She was heavily dosed and laughing at invisible nothings in our apartment's kitchen when she got home.

Way back in Texas I remember our evil stepfather repeatedly smashing her white rabbit 45's and tearing down her yab yum poster. This was maybe 67.

Anyway I love Jorma's fingerstyle work, especially Quah, but have to admit that I am ambivalent about Hot Tuna. I saw them many times but their music could be quite monotonous and often put me to sleep. Any music that requires large amounts of unnatural stimulant to enjoy might not pass the acid test?

I once fell asleep at a Tuna concert and woke up an hour later and could have sworn they were playing the same song.

Anyway, the point I was going to make is that as mixed as I feel about listening to Hot Tuna live, I freaking loved my cousin Jorma's electric playing with the Airplane. I think it was revolutionary and he doesn't give himself enough credit for it. It was jangly and bit very hard sonically and defined the Jefferson Airplane sound.

I love his electric work at least as well as his acoustic work, which is also masterful.

Good News!

When you have had bouts of cancer for a long period of time, in my case 41 years, you sort of keep your head on a swivel. You are always looking over your shoulder. Because you never really know when your number is going to get called.

Suddenly you slide down a black and white chute in which you have to relinquish total control of your life and surrender to whatever. That is why I look forward to my semi yearly check ups with dread, always thinking the worst is about to happen.

Thankfully it appears I have dodged the latest bullet. I just looked at my cyto-pathology report and there are no reports of high grade urothelial carcinoma present. Yippee!

I have not talked to my doctor but I am sure she will agree that we made the right decision delaying the chemo for a month or two. It will certainly make my life and job a lot easier.

Thanks for all the support and good vibes.

John Lennon and his epiphone

Battle Is Over But The War Goes On

Paradise waits...

About a month ago I went to my cancer urologist for a long overdue check-up. Somehow I spaced on 2025. Unfortunately she found a new mass in my bladder, not sure if it is a big deal or not. So just to reiterate, for those of you scoring at home, I first got kidney, ureter and bladder cancer in 1985, lost a bunch of my left kidney and had about ten separate surgeries for literally hundreds of bladder tumors.

Wanting to find a more systemic approach to curing my cancer problem I switched doctors and started seeing Dr. Joe Schmidt at UCSD, our local teaching hospital. I became part of the first BCG research study.

Fast forward to 2009, the cancer returned to my kidney and I had the rest of it removed by my original doctor, now deceased, John Greisman. He accidentally cut an abdominal nerve , which gives me my present asymmetric Quasimodo like shape, my guts having fallen out on my left side. It's a good look.

Seven years ago, in 2019 my cancer returned. All the experts, including the man at Scripps Encinitas, Juma and USC Keck, said that I would have to have my entire bladder and prostate removed and would be peeing out my belly button the rest of my life on account of a new neo-bladder fashioned out of my large intestine.

I said no fucking way.

Juma actually told me that I was toast, he misread some liver masses, basically told me to call my friends and loves up and say goodbye.

Instead, I found an expert in Hillcrest, Carol Salem, and pleaded with her to get me back on BCG. She listened and I have bought myself seven years of pissing the old fashioned way with her help. 

God bless her.

I have had stage four tumors in the bladder wall several times in the interim but she has taken really good care of me and here I still am. We switched from BCG to a newer chemotherapeutic agent and have actually had better and less painful results.

For some reason the cumulative effects of the BCG knocked me on my ass and I am also very prone to urinary infections post infusion.

Last night we drove to Coronado to stay with Chip and Cecilia because I had an early 5:30 call at the hospital in Hillcrest. Had a last supper at a Thai place in Imperial Beach. Got up at 4:30 a.m. and made ready for my day, got there on time.

My doctor showed up around seven and I told her that I was pretty stressed out because I am usually worthless for three days after the procedure and in a lot of pain but I had to pack for the next round of shows which are coming up quick.

She made a management decision and the right call to hold off on the chemo for now. I will try to reschedule for early March before Texas.

Great nurses today, nice woman anesthesiologist. I asked her to be put under to the dulcet strains of the Grateful Dead's Help on the way and was whisked into LaLa land on a nice familiar ship.

I was discharged a few hours later. Haven't checked the biopsy results yet, might wait for her to tell me. Ignorance and bliss, you know? Leslie and I went to Jasmine at opening for some fresh dim sum, hot off the presses.

I actually feel really good, better than usual. Napped all day will try to get a couple things done tomorrow if I am not too miserable. I wonder how I will feel when the drugs all wear off?

Show must go on!

Bad guy

What a great idea

The Trump administration is suspending environmental review for new nuclear facilities. So what happens when you stick them on top of let's say, an active earthquake fault or a river that supplies potable water, is that just, my bad?

Remember this?

Or this?

Or even this?

Think we ever learn?

Chernobyl

Stefanie Hempel & The Silver Spoons

My fave fab harmony.

Shorebirds

 

Papa John Creach