Scattershots – 26dec22 (update 29dec22)

George Rebane

Christmas 2022.  Jo Ann and I were again blessed to be in the bosom of our family on Christmas eve and Christmas day.  The whole affair took place at daughter Teine and Dave’s house (head of our Southern Tribe) in Alta Sierra.  Teine organized and put on dinner on the eve, Christmas brunch, and big Christmas dinner.  In attendance were also granddaughter Fiona (with child) with hubby Shawn and their daughter Maybelle, grandson Sean and wife Bella (with child) who arrived late on Christmas eve, driving in one day from snowbound Denver where they live (as part of our Eastern Tribe) along with granddaughter Claire, hubby, and four more great-grandchildren.  Throw into that mix two male dogs and a Maine Coon cat, and you get a rough idea of all the goings on in the house and yard.  Our Northern Tribe, headed by daughter Sini and hubby Roland, was snowbound in their Seattle area home along with their timely assembled kids Elizabeth, Lucas, and Catherine with hubby.  Needless to say, a lot of inter-tribal texting and sending of pics went on the whole time.

‘Into each life some …’  The regular reader will have noticed a drop-off in the frequency of RR posts.  As reported before, Jo Ann and I came down with Covid during Thanksgiving week.  And that malady has lingered with us, mostly me, over the last month.  I had some health issues (inevitable in your 80s) start earlier in the year which Covid compounded.  So anyway, we’re getting tested for this and that, and dragging a mite in the process.  Hope to be back online sooner than later.

[28dec22 update]  Our beloved Union is in the hands of junior varsity journalistic philistines.  Their new managing editor Elias Funez showed his hand in today’s edition by writing a very long, self-adulatory op-ed (here) that leaves no doubt the man either failed Introduction to Composition 1A, or never even gave it a try.

Given my extensive history covering wildfires over my now 17 years of newspaper reporting, It didn’t take me long for me to connect the dots between my penchant for producing breaking news coverage, live video, and print photography.

And I was finding out that not just her, but many many others as well. My live feeds had now have become a resource where folks were exchanging information in real time, and with many other members of the community.

There’s much more to lament about this man’s talents in running a newspaper.  I also recommend RR readers take a look at the newspaper’s completely revised website (here).  This monstrosity is basically broken – e.g. it will not accept former account holders, and does not even feature the paper’s Opinion (op-ed) section.  It appears to now start focusing on syndicated writers with a distinct leftward lean.  More about this later.

[29dec22 update]  ‘ICE Admits It Has ‘No Records’ For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants Released With Electronic Monitors’  The evidence of government incompetence and criminal fraud pours in daily.  The Biden administration has assured their various departments and agencies fomenting and promoting the illegal alien invasion that they will not be touched by the formerly ‘long arm of the law’.  Future favors accrue to the bureaucrats enabling the now bulging pipeline of future Democrat voters. (more here)

Comments

[Thomas O'Toole]

Too bad you and Joanne did not stop by for a dash of Christmas cheer. According to our mutual friend, currently in DC, you are a fan of good bourbon, which we have. You were/are more than welcomed.
Hope you are feeling better and get back on to the writer’s track “sooner than later” You and your responders are very much appreciated.
To the Rebane tribes, here’s to the very best that 2023 has to offer. Cheers!
Tom n’ Jude

[Gregory]

George, good to hear you had a very Merry Christmas and are hanging in there for a Happy New Year.

Good luck in breaking through to the other side of CoV-2. Had I not gotten the disease before the vaxx became available to mere proles, I'd have been stuck (eagerly) circa Feb 21. Beating it without any of the current therapies was not particularly fun, either.

[Randy]

Blessings for this Holiday Season and get well fast! We need you Dr. Rebane in 2023 to counter the utter nuttiness of Paul Emery and cohorts!

[Bill Tozer]

Hang in there, Good Doc. While the cats away, the mice shall play. Out of respect for you, sir, I am practicing a wee bit of restraint and behaving (generally) in your absence. Eight years old? That’s when pretty young checkers push your shopping cart out to the car for you. :). Well, it used to be that way…..

Hope to see you back on line sooner as well.

[Bill Tozer]

Into each live some rain must fall

https://youtu.be/ayGkA-vxrMc

[Barry Pruett]

The Union has not been the requisite quality for sometime. Our community needs a quality source for real news, journalism, and deeper knowledge.

[Paul Emery]

I agree Barry. The problem is that Newspapers are not a good business anymore and most small town newspapers are either closed or have been gutted. Sad situation. Thats a big topic and needs to be discussed.

[scenes]

re: The Union

"Like I said, I don’t take praise lightly."

Good Lord.

As far as the www.theunion.com itself, I just assume that any newspaper webpage is shite. Absurdly overcomplex abominations, not only ugly from a graphics arts sense but hooked to about a jillion other internet things.

It's always interesting to look at a newspaper from 100+ years ago and see the solid mass of text, and scads of local news, that used to be the rule.

Given the ever-tighter ad revenue (I'm assuming), I wonder what it would take to put together a volunteer newspaper, kind of a wikinews. It looks like 1/2 of the 'stories' are local people doing op-eds for free in any case. Maybe there's 'open source' crosswords, comics, and advice columns out there.

[scenes]

re: More The Union

ooh, here's one to look at. I think I'm getting this right...

One of the few values of local newspapers is obituaries.

They appear to have disconnected the new ones from the old batch. The new ones are basically throwing the problem over the transom to legacy.com, old ones are buried and look to require a search by name.

Nice.

[The Estonian Fox]

PE @ 8:12PM-
Have to edit Mr. Emery's comment- he forgot to add - "Trump is an idiot."

Now it reads as we have come to expect.

[Truth Detective]

The Union was purchased by Gold Hill California Media. They also own the Marysville Press Democrat and Auburn Journal, I believe. The executives are linked to a web of corporate entities in the US and Canada.
They all use the same strip mall PO box in Illinois and are connected to Horizon Publications a subsidiary of Hollinger Inc.
The SEC found the Hollinger execs siphoned off $400 Million in the early 2000s. Their leaders Conrad Black and David Radler and were convicted of fraud in 2007.
They appear to strip newspapers to the bare minimum providing canned news.
https://chicagoreader.com/blogs/david-radlers-daughter/

[Paul Emery]

Estonian Fox

Thanks for alerting us that "Trump in an idiot". I just assume everybody agrees with that statement so there would be no need to include it but your alertness in including it is greatly appreciated by RR Readers. Good job!

[Barry Pruett]

I agree, Paul. Local print media (including online) is shallow. I mean, if the editor is unable to use proper grammar and punctuation, one can only assume that the content will not be rich. That said, I enjoyed my time with Claudio from KVMR and Tom from KNCO. Professionals and fair. Exactly what one expects from journalists. The Union is nothing more than the county’s mouthpiece.

[Bill]

re: 29dec22 update] ‘ICE Admits It Has ‘No Records’ For Hundreds Of Thousands Of Illegal Immigrants Released With Electronic Monitors’

‘Biden’s Sanctuary Country: Fewer than 30K Illegal Aliens Deported from American Communities in 2022’

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/01/02/bidens-sanctuary-country-fewer-30k-illegal-aliens-deported-american-communities-2022/