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Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, July 18, 2017

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A TRUCK & TRAILER FIRE Sunday afternoon on the Willits Grade quickly became so large CalFire awarded it its own name. The “Grade Fire.” It burned in a northeasterly direction towards Redwood Valley and had grown to 900 acres by the time local media and CalFire had gone to bed Sunday night (9pm), and was still only 10% contained. By noon Monday, the fire, according to CalFire, was not fully contained but on the wane.

Another fire broke out Monday afternoon on Cow Mountain east of Ukiah. It had just kicked off when we went to press but was being fought by an array of entities, from borate bombers to inmate crews. The Grade Fire was beaten back from populated areas of Redwood Valley. Cow Mountain is not inhabited.

GRADE FIRE UPDATE: As of about 9pm Monday night the Grade fire was still listed at 900 acres and about 30% contained which means winds and heat conditions must have given fire crews a break in getting a handle on it. Evacuation orders have been lifted. More than 400 firefighters in 25 crews with 40 engines, a helicopter 16 dozers and 6 water tenders were deployed.

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AIR QUALITY ADVISORY For Mendocino County, Monday, July 17, 2017

The Grade Fire in Mendocino County is affecting the air quality in areas of Redwood Valley, Willits, Potter Valley, and Ukiah. Until the fire is contained, changes in wind direction and temperatures could increase the impact to surrounding inland areas of Mendocino County. Expect air quality in the smoke impacted areas to reach the “Unhealthy” range. Currently, smoke concentrations are averaging in the 'Good' to 'Moderate' AQI range for most of Mendocino County. The forecast suggests North Westerly winds for the next few days. The high-pressure system is weakening along with an easing of high temperatures. This trend will help to reduce the smoke impact to most of Mendocino County. However, areas east of the fire, like Potter Valley and portions of Lake County, will likely be impacted. Smoke in heavy concentrations can cause eye and throat irritation, coughing, and difficulty breathing. People who are at greatest risk of experiencing symptoms due to smoke include: those with respiratory disease (such as asthma), those with heart disease, young children, and older adults. These sensitive populations should stay indoors and avoid prolonged activity. All others should limit prolonged or heavy activity and time spent outdoors. Even healthy adults can be affected by smoke. Persons experiencing any of the following symptoms should contact a health care provider: Headache; Repeated Coughing; Chest Tightness or Pain; Difficulty Breathing; or Nausea. Information regarding the most current air quality readings and related information can be found on the District’s web site at www.mendoair.org

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CATS’N’KITTENS!

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COUNTY TO LOAN $50k to what the Grand Jury described last month as “financially irresponsible … habitually delinquent on … outstanding loans [which] … is currently in Chapter 9 bankruptcy.”

Agenda Item 4(b) on Supes July 18 agenda:

Resolution Of The Mendocino County Board Of Supervisors Approving Temporary Loan To Mendocino Coast Recreation And Park District From Available County Funds

Whereas, the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District (hereinafter called "district") Board of Directors did, by Resolution adopted June 21, 2017, request a temporary loan in the amount of $50,000 which is less than 11% of the projected property tax revenue from available funds of the County of Mendocino; and

Whereas, the district has requested by letter a temporary loan equivalent to $50,000, fifty thousand; and

Whereas, pursuant to section 23010 of the Government code, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors is authorized to lend any of its available funds to such district provided such loan does not exceed 85 percent of said district's anticipated tax revenues for the fiscal year for which such loan is made, and shall be repaid out of such tax revenues prior to the payment of any other obligation of the district; and,

Whereas, district's loan request of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) does not exceed 85 percent of district's anticipated tax revenues for fiscal year 2017-18; and

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved that the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors does hereby approve a temporary loan in the amount of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) subject to the repayment terms as specified by section 23010 of the Government Code. Such loan shall be carried at a cost of the same interest rate the County Treasury earns during the loan period, until loan is fully repaid.

WHAT?! The Mendocino County Grand Jury just wrote a report entitled:

Mendocino Coast Recreation And Parks District And Their Field Of Dreams Summary … The Mendocino County 2016-17 Grand Jury finds that the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Parks District (MCRPD) has been and continues to be financially irresponsible. MCRPD is currently and habitually delinquent on their capital lease and outstanding loans. MCRPD was over seven months late in completing the 2015-16 annual audit and is currently in Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=9389

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ALSO ON TUESDAY, July 18, the Board of Supervisors will consider reorganizing the pot permit process. This chart clarifies the process, doesn't it? Well, doesn't it?

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THE GOOD NEWS: Velma's Farmstand, Boonville, is back open for business, featuring among the opening bio-bites, fresh blueberries like you've never tasted blueberries.

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TWO WILLITS trailer parks have been bought up by an LA investment company. The Wagon Wheel and Valley Oaks mobile home parks are home to 65 or so people, many of them on fixed incomes. The LA vultures, hiding behind a holding company called BoaVida, have notified the 65 residents of the two parks that their rents will be raised by an average of 25% beginning in November, and those who don't keep their yards tidy could be fined or kicked out altogether if they don't comply.

NEEDLESS TO SAY, the populations of the two parks are worried. A series of community meetings have begun to discuss group resistance. The residents are not without certain state protections:

“A HOMEOWNER shall not be charged a fee for the enforcement of any of the rules and regulations of the park, except a reasonable fee may be charged by management for the maintenance, cleanup, as described in subdivision (b) of the land and premises upon which the mobile home is situated, in the event the homeowner fails to do so in according with the rules and regulations of the park after written notification to the homeowner and the failure of the homeowner to comply within 14 days. The written notice shall state the specific condition to be corrected and an estimation of the charges to be imposed by management or its agent.”

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LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Well, lookee here. My very own swimming pool! Of course they only got it for me to keep me out of their so-called 'cooling station,' but I'll take it.”

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DUMB ROBBERY GOES EVEN DUMBER

On July 16, 2017, at about 2:33 AM, a subject called 911 to report that numerous armed subjects had just come onto his remote, rural property in several vehicles claiming to be law enforcement officers. Based on their appearance and demeanor the subject recognized that they were not law enforcement officers but were actually there with the intent to steal his marijuana crop. The subject fled to call 911, after suspects fired, and he believed that another resident was hiding on the property. Mendocino County Deputy Sheriff's were nearby and contacted the subject on Hwy 162, where he described what happened and the vehicles involved. The Deputies drove to the property where they encountered a truck matching one described by the victim. Upon seeing the deputies, the vehicle attempted to flee, driving just out of sight and stopping. Deputies subsequently searched the vehicle, locating firearms and stolen property, but no suspects. The other resident was located, unharmed, and said that he had been contacted at the house by 5-8 men wearing ski masks, armed with firearms, claiming to be law enforcement officers. These subjects questioned the victim at gunpoint about the location of valuable items and people on the property and forced him into a truck, threatening to shoot him if he did not comply. The subject was robbed of his personal belongings and forced to assist the suspects as they stole marijuana plants. The subject was released when the suspects drove away. Deputies at the scene requested the assistance of the Mendocino County Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT) to assist in searching the wooded remote area for the armed suspects. At about 11:00 AM three suspects were located and arrested without incident.

Hernanez-Sanchez, Sturges, Nunez

All three suspects, Daniel Hernandez-Sanchez, 24, of Willits, Matthew Sturges, 31, of Willits, and Alejandro Nunez, 24, of Willits were lodged at the Mendocino County Jail for Armed Robbery, Kidnap for Ransom and Criminal Conspiracy with bail set at $150,000 each. The incident remains under investigation and anyone with information is requested to call (707) 234-2100 or e-mail to crimetip@mendocinosheriff

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GERITOL WIFE BEATER

On July 15, 2017, at approximately 11:30 AM, Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a residence in the 38000 block of Ocean Ridge Dr., Gualala, regarding a domestic disturbance. The deputies determined through their investigation that Robert Franklin, 66, of Gualala, had inflicted corporal injury to his spouse/cohabitant. Franklin was arrested without incident and lodged at the Mendocino County Jail with bail set at $25,000.

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SPEAKING OF THE SHERIFF, he’s got another hard sell at Tuesday’s Supe’s meeting. (Our deadline is Monday, 5pm, but we’ll have an account of how Allman’s $73k-plus pitch to buy specially designed “prisoner” tablets for County Jail inmates is received by our ordinarily profligate Supervisors. Will they go for

“Approval of Agreement with Legacy Inmate Communications in the Amount of $73,643.18 to Provide Infrastructure for Secure Internet Connection and Lease of Eighty (80) Edovo Tablets for Inmate Education at the Mendocino County Jail for the Term of June 1, 2017 through May 31, 2018”?

“Recommended Action: Approve Agreement with Legacy Inmate Communications in the amount of $73,643.18 to provide infrastructure for secure internet connection and lease of eighty (80) Edovo tablets for inmate education at the Mendocino County Jail for the term of June 1, 2017 through May 31, 2018; authorize the Sheriff or his designee to sign any amendments that do not increase the amount of the Agreement; and authorize Chair to sign same”

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THE FRONT PAGER on last week’s Willits Weekly by Mathew Caine snatched me up and carried me off down Memory Lane from the first paragraph:

“A new food paradigm has opened at 42 South Main Street (Willits). The small restaurant is called Caribbean Vybz and lives up to its name, with authentic tastes of the Virgin Islands, where the owner and her family are originally from…. “

Long ago, if you were young and subversive in the Bay Area, Connie’s Restaurant in San Francisco was the place. Connie was also a native of the Virgin Islands, and Connie was a communist. She was a wonderfully generous, sympathetic person who went out of her way to feed and even employ radicals as waiters and dishwashers, among them my cousin Jim who was soon packed off to federal prison for refusing to register for the draft. My youngest brother also did a stint at Lompoc for the same “crime.” I ate at Connie’s whenever I could, but mostly I stuck to a hole-in-the-wall place on Jackson in Chinatown where for 87¢ you could get a pork chop on a mound of rice, cabbage and gravy. Connie’s, as I remember her and her place was on Fillmore Street down around Post, but by ’67 she was established on Haight Street. Good luck to Vybz. I’d pay just to listen to those Caribbean accents, and I know the vibes will be, as they always were at Connie’s, and as the pioneer stoners put it, “a groove.”

Connie’s Restaurant in the Haight-Ashbury (1466 Haight St.), featuring West Indian/American cuisine (1967)

Caribbean Vybz: Lynn Richards, Shakeln Hill, Maxine Richards and Kiana Hill flash the VI Virgin Islands sign of welcome

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HURRY-UP SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS march on. There was one last Thursday, and another coming up this week, as lawyers battle it out over recent administrative dismissals. Elementary principal Katherine Reddick has been fired, as has high school principal Keri St. Jeor. St. Jeor and Mrs. St. Jeor have left the Valley. Ms. Reddick is in the process of leaving, but neither administrator is going quietly. Both, hired last year, are bringing what amount to unlawful termination suits against AV Unified. Ms. Reddick said Monday morning that she will exercise her right to an open hearing on her dismissal. That hearing is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, August 1st.

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RUMORS of a ghastly propane accident Thursday at Ray Pinoli's ranch in Philo turned out to be, well, overblown. The initial report had it that an explosion burned a woman's arm down to the bone, and that her injuries were so severe that an air ambulance had landed at Scharffenberger to carry her out of the county for treatment. And the vic wasn’t a woman. The rumor mill had this one wronger than wrong. AV Fire Chief, Andres Avila, sets the record straighter than straight: “I just got home from being out of town. Briefly talked to the troops about this. Not a woman but a man delivering propane from local delivery truck was attacked by some yellow jackets while making access to the rear of a building. Accidentally losing control of the dispenser, gas was released and flash ignited. The injured worker suffered burn injuries, mostly from burnt clothing. The patient was transported by air to a burn center for treatment. I am told that the rumors about the full thickness burns to the bone are not accurate. I hope this helps a bit. I wasn't there to get the details.”

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FOR TWENTY BUCKS, $25 at the door, you can drink all weekend this Saturday and Sunday at the “Fifth Annual Anderson Valley Barrel Tasting Weekend, July 22-23.” And a cheaper two-day drunk you won’t find anywhere in Wine Country.

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IF YOU WONDER why people fall in love with methamphetamine or find themselves addicted to oxycontin, an experienced drug acquaintance puts it this way: “I snorted my first line of crank when I was about twenty, and spent the next few hours reorganizing my house, right down to alphabetizing my cookbooks. My girlfriend walks in and says, ‘Where’d you get the meth?’ I was awake for three days. Oxycontin? My dentist prescribed three pills, telling me not to break them up to make them last longer. As soon as I got home I broke them up to make them last longer, and when I was down to that last pill I gazed at it like I was gazing at my mom on her death bed. I absolutely understand why people love this stuff.”

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JUST ASKING, but aren’t those non-muffling mufflers our young blades fit their vehicles with, like illegal? In downtown Boonville, at odd intervals, you get what the cops call “an exhibition of speed” along with combat-quality rapid fire explosions via the kid’s exhaust pipe. Can’t hear over it while it’s underway, and fortunately these expressions of contempt for your friends and neighbors are brief and only sporadic, But they’re an ongoing bummer.

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GROUNDSWELL, the unregistered gay event center six miles south of Boonville on the former Mathias Ranch (who’d have thunk it?), was making its usual weekend din Friday night, prompting a visit from Sheriff’s deputy Craig Walker. Distressed neighbors of Groundswell’s repeat quakes, Steve and Nikki Auschnitt of the Petit Teton Farm across the road, accompanied the deputy on another frustrated goodwill mission to try to get Groundswell to turn the music down. The woman in charge was “not exactly rude but close,” the visiting party said. Ms. Groundswell would not identify the person in charge of the debauch center. Nikki and Steve’s next stop is the county’s Planning and Building Department to see if Groundswell has a use permit as an event center, and if it doesn’t why doesn’t it? A use permit would require limitations on the hours of the amplified merriment. Some nights, the music, played full blast (of course), reverberates through the once tranquil hills until five or six in the morning.

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THE REAL SARAHS! Friday, July 21, at AV Solar Grange, Philo. Doors open at 7:30. Food, beer & wine available, $15 advance, $20 at the door.

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SOME QUESTIONS

Editor,

The New York Times really dislikes Donald J. Trump intensely. They have heard that no one expects America’s last newspaper to be written objectively; they would like to send two executives to Boonville to learn how to write subjectively. Can you have someone meet their corporate jet at the Sonoma County Airport?

Here’s a quick quiz for Contestant #0003, Mr. Mark Scaramella, the Answer Man!

(a) Who invented Afternoon-mare?

(b) Who invented the character Mr. Kurtz?

(c) What was the father’s occupation in “Look Homeward Angel?”

(d) In what novel do we encounter a ticket porter?

(e) Who was Charlotte’s friend?

(f) What word was Normal Mailer unable to spell correctly?

(g) Who wrote “Up In Michigan”?

R.Bostrom

Willits

THE MAJOR REPLIES: Ok, I’ll bite. a. Don’t know. b. Conrad. c. A professional drunk? d. Something by Dickens? e. A spider? f. Misspelled? g. Hemingway, probably.

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HUMBOLDT’S ECONOMIC POTENTIAL

by John Hardin

While pot industry shills like Hezekiah Allen warn of mass unemployment and economic hardship without continued taxpayer subsidized price supports for marijuana, we should realize by now that drug dealers will say anything to keep the cash rolling in. In truth, government price support programs for marijuana don’t support our local economy, here in Humboldt County, so much as they suppress it.

The War on Drugs created a windfall of profits for anyone who produces marijuana. This windfall buried our real economic potential, which we never really developed because pot paid so much better. We’ve become a marijuana monoculture dependent on corrupt politicians, violent cops and greedy drug dealers all working together to exploit and oppress the American people. That’s not an economy; that’s a crime. Besides, most of the so-called “jobs” in the marijuana industry aren’t even considered part of the economy.

Most people who make a living from marijuana don’t pay into Social Security and aren’t covered by Workman’s Comp, so they don’t count as being “employed.” Since they aren’t looking for work or collecting unemployment, they don’t count as “unemployed” either. Thanks to the War on Drugs, the marijuana industry has become a black hole that sucks people and money out of the economy and leaves a trail of poverty, addiction and death in its wake.

We don’t have prosperity here. We have organized crime. What’s the difference? In prosperity, people have jobs and homes and their kids get enough to eat and learn how to succeed in the world. In organized crime, people go missing and turn up dead, honest work is for suckers, and kids become addicted to drugs and commit suicide. The difference is pretty stark, really. The only way to avoid seeing the difference is to measure the cash flow exclusively. Even from that perspective, organized crime doesn’t really look like prosperity; organized crime just looks as attractive as prosperity to people who don’t care about anything but money.

Here, you could always make more money growing weed than you could make doing anything else, so growing marijuana became a “no brainer” for people around here. Consequently, we have a lot of “no brainer”-type people who feel entitled to middle-class incomes and lifestyles but have no education or skills outside of herb gardening. We’ve been overrun by dull, greedy people who believe that cannabis is the only thing of value. They don’t mind being one-trick-ponies, even if it is a kind of a dirty trick, but most of us have more potential than that.

It’s been about 10 years since Anna Hamilton first asked the question: “What’s After Pot?” The unanimous response from the community has been “More Pot!” Instead of beginning a movement to diversify our economy, people treated Anna’s wake-up call as the shot from a starting pistol that signaled the beginning of the greenrush. Everyone doubled down on dope, but now the pressure is on.

Small growers get squeezed, and everyone’s profit margins shrink, as big players with deep pockets gamble for control of the legal cannabis market. As more states legalize cannabis and bring industrial scale production online, the price of raw cannabis continues to drop. Downward pressure on the price of cannabis opens up more economic potential by multiplying the opportunities for value-added cannabis products. The new openness of the legal market means that there’s a whole world of cannabis lifestyle products and service tie-ins to explore. However, lower prices for raw cannabis means that Humboldt County’s marijuana windfall will evaporate.

There’s plenty of economic potential here in SoHum for anyone with the imagination, ingenuity and drive to realize it. Unfortunately, 40 years of cannabis windfall has pretty much bred the imagination, ingenuity and drive out of us. Instead of facing reality and working together as a community to diversify and humanize our economy, we’re all busy milking the War on Drugs right to the last drop. The question is: What is the last drop for you? Is it $800 a pound? $500? $300? How low can you go and still make money from weed in Humboldt County?

You can get more for your weed if you sell it retail and work it into our tourism appeal, but then you have to be prepared for a whole bunch of unruly young people coming here to get high. We have that now, and it’s the thing people complain most about. If we want this area to remain famous for herb and you still want to make a living from it, we’ll need to be more accommodating to pot smokers of all stripes, especially the young and unkempt.

To sell herb retail in a legal market, Humboldt County needs to be as accommodating to unkempt hippies as fast food retailers are to obese people, or bartenders are to alcoholics. It comes with the territory. If the idea of graciously serving hippies with dogs and backpacks and making them feel at home seems repugnant to you, maybe you weren’t cut out for the marijuana industry after all. Around here, we don’t recognize our economic potential. Instead, we call the cops on it, beat it senseless on the town square and convene town meetings on how to get rid of it.

If we suffer massive unemployment or economic hardship because of falling cannabis prices, it is only because the windfall from the War on Drugs blinded us to our true economic potential and robbed us of our moxie. If we succeed in this new legal environment, it will be because enough of us realized that we have other skills and talents that we never called on because we always had marijuana. We may find that those skills and talents lead us in new directions and towards more satisfying lives. In that respect, falling marijuana prices just might be the best thing that ever happened to us.

(Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com)

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NOT SO SIMPLE:

Check out our website (notsosimple.info) to see the schedule and What's Happening. We have quite a few new and inspiring workshops this year.

Dates: July 28-30, 2017

Gates Open: 3pm Friday; 9am Saturday and Sunday

Tickets:

Pre-sale tickets: Order online via the notsosimple.info website or Brown Paper Tickets until the day of the event to get pre-sale ticket discounts of $30/day, $40/weekend. The same deals are available at local ticket outlets: Boontberry Farm, JD Redhouse in Willits, Out of this World in Mendocino, or Harvest Market in Fort Bragg.

Cost At The Gate : $35/day, $50/weekend, cash or personal check only at the gate. Youth Under 16 Free

Friday Night Campfire Cabaret, to sign up to perform call Cap Rainbow 707-895-3807

Saturday Potluck Dinner featuring local, organic lamb and pork. Bring a dish. This year there will be a food prep station available.

Saturday Night Dance to: “DGIIN” $15/per person concert only; included in ticket for fair-goers.

Sunday Keynote Speaker: Brock Dolman of Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.

Camping: $10 per car per night for fair attendees.

Sorry No Dogs

For more information and to volunteer (and trade work hours for entry) go to notsosimple.info or call 707-901-7080. We are still looking for a few more volunteers.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, July 17, 2017

Brotherton, Carrillo-Palomar, Critchet

ROBERT BROTHERTON SR., Covelo. Community supervision violation, county parole violation, false ID, resisting.

JORGE CARRILLO-PALOMAR, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse, battery with serious injury.

JASSLYNN CRITCHETT, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

Hanover, Hernandez-Sanchez, Nunez

JOSHUA HANOVER, Ukiah. Second degree robbery, kidnapping for robbery or rape, getting credit with someone else’s ID, conspiracy.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ-SANCHEZ, Covelo. First degree robbery, kidnapping for ransom or extortion, conspiracy.

ALEJANDRO NUNEZ, Willits. First degree robbery, kidnapping pursuant to carjacking, conspiracy.

Sturges, Vassar, Wilson

MATTHEW STURGES, First degree robbery, kidnapping pursuant to carjacking, conspiracy.

RUSTI VASSAR, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JENNA WILSON, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

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BOOMERANGSKI

by James Kunstler

The strenuous effort of “Resistance” passengers in the Limousine-of-State to shove Donald Trump out of the driver’s seat continues into what would normally be the news-wasteland of midsummer. Last week it was the smoking popgun of Trump Junior’s meeting with a Russian lawyer purported (by British music promoter Rob Goldstein) to be associated with the “Russian Crown Prosecutor” (no such office in a country without a monarch).

The news caused the usual commotion among the very media mouthpieces who publish anti-Trump allegations as a staple for their “Resistance” readerships. By the way, this blog might be described as anti-Trump, too, in the sense that I did not vote for him and regularly inveigh against his antics as President — but neither is Clusterfuck Nation a friend of the Hillary-haunted Dem-Prog “Resistance,” in case there’s any confusion about where we stand. If anything, we oppose the entirety of the current political regime in our nation’s capital, the matrix of rackets that is driving the aforementioned Limousine-of-State off the cliff of economic collapse. Just sayin’.

“Resistance” law professors, such as Lawrence Tribe at Harvard, were quick to holler “treason” over Junior’s meet-up with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin. Well, first of all, and not to put too fine a point on it, don’t you have to be at war with another nation to regard any kind of consort as “treason”? Last time I checked, we were not at war with Russia — though it sure seems like persons and parties inside the Beltway would dearly like to make that happen. You can’t call it espionage either, of course, because that would purport the giving of secret information, not the receiving of political gossip.

Remember, the “Resistance” is not going for impeachment, but rather Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. That legal nicety makes for a very neat-and-clean surgical removal of a whack-job president, without all the cumbrous evidentiary baggage and pain-in-ass due process required by impeachment. All it requires is a consensus among a very small number of high officials, who then send a note to the leaders in both houses of congress stating that said whack-job president is a menace to the polity — and out he goes, snippety-snip like a colorectal polyp, into the hazardous waste bag of history. And you’re left with a nice clean asshole, namely Vice President Mike Pence.

Insofar as Pence appears to be a kind of booby-prize for the “Resistance,” that fateful reach for the 25th Amendment hasn’t happened quite yet. It is hoped, I’m sure, that the incessant piling on of new allegations about “collusion” with the Russians will get the 25thers over the finish line and into the longed-for end zone dance. More interestingly, though, the meme that has led people to believe that any contact between Russians and Americans is ipso facto nefarious vectors into the very beating heart of the “Resistance” itself: the Clintons.

How come the Clintons have not been asked to explain why — as reported on The Hill blog — Bill Clinton was paid half a million dollars to give speech in Russia (surely he offered them something of value in exchange, pending the sure thing Hillary inaugural), or what about the $2.35 million “contribution” that the Clinton Foundation received after Secretary of State Hillary allowed the Russians to buy a controlling stake in the Uranium One company, which owns 20 percent of US uranium supplies, with mines and refineries in Wyoming, Utah, and other states, as well as assets in Kazakhstan, the world’s largest uranium producer? Incidentally, the Clinton Foundation did not “shut down,” as erroneously reported early this year. It was only its Global Initiative program that got shuttered. The $2.35 million is probably still rattling around in the Clinton Foundation’s bank account. Don’t you kind of wonder what they did with it? I hope Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller wants to know.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/JamesHowardKunstler)

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TWO POUNDS OF BALONEY IN A ONE POUND BAG

by John Giarratana

So what is it with men’s suits these days? Lately every news sports weather announcer to game show host to late show jabberer is jammed into a ridiculously tight fitting suit. Is there a shortage of gray rayon out there of which the public is not yet aware? Is this why every other Wall Street broker-banker-tool-bag looks like a juiced-up weight lifter in spandex?

Yeah, yeah. I get it. It’s the style. And if all your friends jumped off a bridge would you do it too?

There were many things that made the greatest decade in American history. But one of the merely incidental, and yet in comparison with the cultural desert of today, monumental was the individuality in everyday dress. In the sixties — God bless them — no one gave a shit what you were wearing.

What mattered was if you had something real to say. Or feel. Or express.

But such individuality, nonconformity, freedom and spirit scared the fuck out of the System.

We must follow, follow, follow… consume-conform-consume-conform…. Buybuybuy.

And if the System says You must Obey and dress in a suit that makes you look like in the immortal words of Alice to Ralph Kramden “two pounds of bologna in a one pound bag,” then that is what you will do. And if next Monday the System says You Must Now Wear A Pinwheel Hat, I’m sure by Tuesday every late night to late late late night host to network anchor will be spinning the most stylish in town.

I don’t know why it bothers me but it does. Normally I don’t even notice how people dress. A product of the sixties myself, and as such not exactly a slave to fashion (or overall consumption for that matter) I simply always dressed for comfort. But this is just one of those blatant examples of following the leader. Or maybe it’s because it’s just so visible. Unlike the rarely shown terrible results of conformity.

Most of the many devastating effects of mass conformity and consumption have been so well hidden, they never really happened, did they? “You’re kidding, there was an oil spill in the Gulf? I don’t remember that.” Or. “What wars in the Middle East?”

(Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

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ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE DAY

(1) Willits is an important, and evolving population center on Highway 101. It has many things that no place in SoHum has, like culture, some class, and a terrific new hospital!

Just quit about the bypass! Let’s let bypasses be bypasses! Soon, Willits will be so totally awesome, you will wish you lived here!

(2) Funny how the conservatives blame the liberals, the liberals blame the Trumpsters, everybody blames the “intellectuals,” half the country blames the Russians, the men blame the feminists, the women blame the men, the blacks blame the whites, the whites blame the blacks–meanwhile the planet is burning. Have any of us looked in the mirror lately? The bad news is that we’re lost. The good news is that we’re making great time.

(3) Returning from guess where, gassed up in Quartzite and Gila Bend. Each time I was a slice thrown into the brick oven. Got out in time. Yeah man, it’s hot. Hottest June on record out here. If I had to hang from the strap, my neck just found a noose.

(4) There are a couple of HUGE bombers going back and forth. I mean huge, way bigger than the normal. When I lived on mid mountain in Potter Valley, some knucklehead was outside in the summer using a blow torch. Needless to say, he ended up torching the mountain. All the hippies ran up to the house and pretended to work a fire line. The bombers came and dropped a load or five. Man, that stuff burns. Scary stuff.

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EVACUATION

From The Comma Queen: The Famous Evacuation Scene From "The Wire" — season 5, episode 1:

"Ms. Gutierrez. Gutierrez! Get your ass over here."

"Yeah."

"You say that 120 people were evacuated."

"Yeah. They were."

"You can't evacuate people. I mean you can if you want. But that's not what you want to say here."

"A building could be evacuated. To evacuate a person is to give that person an enema. The details, Miss Gutierrez. At The Baltimore Sun, god still resides in the details."

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ERIC TRUMP PICKED A FIGHT WITH OLBERMANN ON TWITTER. Guess Who Won?

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Eric-Trump-s-response-to-scathing-Olbermann-11294322.php

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MIKEY LIKES IT. On the basis of absolutely zero accomplishment, and slathered in meaningless blather, the Healdsburg Cipher says, "Gimme another coupla years of free, two-hour lunches with the rest of the state's corporate bagmen."

Today, California State Senator Mike McGuire announced his intention to run for a second term representing Northern California’s Second Senate district. The district runs from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border, including all of Marin, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Trinity and Del Norte Counties and a majority of Sonoma County.

“Good jobs, strong public schools, affordable health care, better and safer roads, a pristine coast and a strong rainy day fund – that’s what I’m focused on,” said Senator McGuire.

“But make no mistake,” Senator McGuire continued. “I’ll never back down when it comes to stopping the President and Congress from undoing years of economic and environmental progress here in California.”

That’s why Senator McGuire is going to the mat to stop initiatives coming out of Washington, D.C. that would restart offshore oil drilling, sell off our national parks to the highest bidder and take away health care for 3.2 million Californians.

In his first term, working with the Governor, Senator McGuire secured $900 million that saved career training, job skills and Future Farmers of America programs in local middle schools and high schools across the state – so that kids who don’t go to college can still get family-sustaining jobs.

With his leadership, in partnership with the Governor, California has the strongest rainy day fund in history – funding $2 billion more than the amount mandated by voters.

He cut through red tape to make sure tens of thousands of Northern California’s neediest kids – and hundreds of thousands more across the state – have access to nutritious food at school. He’s leading the way in tackling the homeless crisis in many of our communities by bringing in millions in funding for permanent housing, mental health and addiction services.

Senator McGuire led the charge when disaster struck and thousands of our neighbors were left homeless by some of the worst wildfires in our state’s history. His tireless work continues with the building of dozens of new homes in Lake County along with investing in vital community improvement projects with over $100 million for recovery and rebuilding.

Senator McGuire worked with agency leaders to secure more than $250 million to fix crumbling roads, highways, bridges and public transit in our district. These projects are making our roads safer, smoother and less congested. More is on the way in the years to come.

And, working with hundreds of our neighbors throughout Northern California and Assemblymember Jim Wood, Senator McGuire passed the most comprehensive cannabis regulation legislation in the nation – two decades after Proposition 215 legalized medical marijuana.

Senator McGuire is a third-generation Northern Californian, whose family farmed prunes and grapes in the Alexander Valley for nearly a half century. He and his wife Erika, a local elementary school principal, live in Healdsburg.

Raised by his mom and grandma, Mike worked his way through high school and college – attending Santa Rosa Junior College and graduating from Sonoma State University. He enjoyed a career in the radio and television industries.

He started serving as a school board member when he was 19 because he insisted on rebuilding dilapidated schools in his hometown. He went on to serve as a council member and mayor of Healdsburg and a Sonoma County supervisor. Senator McGuire was elected to the State Senate in 2014.

The primary election is June 5, 2018. The general election is November 6, 2018.

For more information, visit www.SenatorMikeMcGuire.com.

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PLENTY OF FREE ENTERTAINMENT AT THE UKIAH FAIR

For families on a budget, the Redwood Empire Fair offers a full weekend of affordable fun. Kids under five receive free admission all weekend, and on opening day, August 3rd, kids and seniors are admitted free until 6:00 pm.

All entertainment at the Fair is free of charge, with music, activities and entertainment designed to be fun for the whole family.

This year, the Fair is hosting CircusMecca, one of the jewels of Mendocino County entertainment. The non-profit organization is well known for their teaching and their performances. Over 100 kids in the county take lessons from professional instructors. Fair attendees can expect to witness feats of strength, skill and agility, as CircusMecca tumblers, gymnasts and aerialists perform every evening at 6:30 and 8:30 pm.

By popular demand, Brad’s World of Reptiles will be returning to the Fair. The hands-on exhibit features a variety of animals which can include American Alligators, rattlesnakes, iguanas, tortoises, snapping turtles, macaws, African bullfrogs, King Snakes, tarantulas and giant cockroaches.

World-champion juggler Jeremiah Johnson of the Throw Zone will be “turning up the heat” with his heart-stopping fire juggling performances. Don’t miss his thrilling, comedic antics every evening at 7:00 pm.

Throughout the day, visitors will not see pigs fly, but they will see them race. Racing pigs and racing dogs will make their way around a course, promising a lot of laughs for the audience. Steve Rosen of Steve’s Fun Balloons makes balloon art and animals that will leave your heart “popping.” Jeremy the Juggler is one of only 20 jugglers worldwide who can juggle nine balls. He has performed at 31 county fairs, on television and throughout the world. Steve and Jeremy will be performing multiple times every day during the entire weekend.

There will be several contests during the fair. A Watermelon Eating Contest takes place on Thursday, a Pie-Eating contest on Friday, Corn-Dog Eating on Saturday and Hot-Dog Eating on Sunday. All contests take place at 5:00. The Diaper Dash takes place on Saturday at 2:30. Candy Land Cookie decorating will take place on Saturday from noon to 3:30, and Chutes and Ladders Cupcake making happens on Sunday from noon to 3:00.

The Fair opens at 3:00 on Thursday and Friday and at noon on Saturday and Sunday. For more information phone (707) 462-3884 or visit http://www.redwoodempirefair.com/august-fair/.

Brad’s World Reptiles are among the Free Acts at the Fair.

 

 

8 Comments

  1. james marmon July 18, 2017

    “……and out he goes, snippety-snip like a colorectal polyp, into the hazardous waste bag of history. And you’re left with a nice clean asshole, namely Vice President Mike Pence.”

    POTUS is smart to unfriend the “Never Trumpers” and stop wasting time on them. He put out the bait (healthcare repeal and replace) and now he knows exactly where he stands. He will evolve, they will not.

    POTUS has always identified as a Democrat, but they took a hard left turn on him. Many other democrats felt the same way and voted republican for the first time ever, including myself. My dad must be rolling in his grave “a working man would never vote republican” but I think he would have made the switch too if he was alive.

    If repeal obamacare fails we will see a greater emergence of the “Trump Party” waiting and willing to deal. The Trump Party will be made up of democrats, republicans, and independents. The lunatic fringe will just have to suffer. Make America Great Again

    James Marmon

    • james marmon July 18, 2017

      The silver lining

      New Senate repeal bill would make the House’s AHCA the default replacement if nothing else passes in two years

      “All of this should not be so complicated, and as frustrated as I get with some conservatives who insist on a perfect bill or nothing at all, the real problem here is the moderates – people like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Dean Heller, Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy and John McCain. They’re the ones who have bought into the liberal definition of success in health care – more people “covered” by government sponsored insurance – and are too distrustful of the free market to back a real, meaningful reform.”

      https://www.hermancain.com/new-senate-repeal-effort-would-make-the-houses

  2. Lazarus July 18, 2017

    “TWO WILLITS trailer parks have been bought up by an LA investment company.”

    The Wagon Wheel and Valley Oaks Parks are full of low income, fixed income, poor folks, some disabled and sick. I figure most of the threats by the owners
    are just that, but the old folks and others are scared they’re gonna get booted. In Willits there’s no place to move, we’re tapped out. Full disclosure, I have a relative there, fixed income and disabled, he’s worried.
    Your commentary is correct, it’s just another garden variety screw over by a new ownership. Getting on top of an investment is understandable, but the way they are going about it and they way they are treating the renters has earned them, in my opinion, a whole bunch of free advertising…I suspect there will be more to come.
    As always,
    Laz

  3. Harvey Reading July 18, 2017

    Re: MIKEY LIKES IT.

    Is the section of the article after the quotes from the boy wonder for real? Or is it just sarcasm? I’m kinda hoping it’s just a reprint from the other paper.

    • Bruce Anderson July 18, 2017

      It’s straight outta the senator’s press release. This guy, and a dentist also from Healdsburg “serving” as our assemblyman, put the empty in the phrase, ’empty suit.’ California is gerrymandered for Democrats. Here in the Emerald Triangle, the whole gang is pre-selected for us by Demo Central and presented for ratification as the alternative to Republicans. The Mendo Democrats control all the good paying jobs in the county’s public bureaucracies and non-profits. They also elect the judges. I don’t know of a single active Democrat in this county with a net worth under a mil. The political result? Trump.

  4. Marco McClean July 18, 2017

    Re: $73,643.18 to Provide Infrastructure for Secure Internet Connection and Lease of Eighty (80) Edovo Tablets for Inmate Education…

    Here’s how I’d do it: two redundant competing internet services plugged into a dedicated bridged router ($1500/yr). A range extender or two for every block of living units (say $500). 100 Kindle Fire tablets and 100 USB keyboards ($10,000). That’s only $12,000 a year even if you give away all the tablets and replace them with new ones every Christmas. Put an IT kid on retainer for another $8000 a year for three days of setup (plugging everything in and initializing the tablets) and the occasional remote or on-site troubleshoot. This totals only a little more than a fourth of the asked-for money. What am I missing?

  5. Craig Stehr July 18, 2017

    MediCal and (county paid for) Anthem Blue Cross CANCELLED due to “an increase in income”, resulting in two days of going to a half dozen agencies and offices in the east bay who gave me misinformation and disagreed among themselves as to my eligibility status, which motivated me to go to Chinatown, where I visited Legal Aid for the Elderly (2nd floor, Jackson & Kearney) which has a HICAP desk, who provided information on several health care plans, which was overwhelming, and initially refused to offer an opinion, saying that was improper, while I insisted on having a personal physician who meditates and does yoga and endorses wholistic health, as opposed to only drinking scotch to relax like everybody else, and following our discussion, the HICAP worker urged me to contact Kaiser Permanente, and ever onward I went, to a payphone at the Montgomery Street BART station, and after 45 minutes (which included a replacement of the original interviewer, who felt that “it wasn’t going very well”) I did get signed up with the senior plan for only $86 monthly; am now awaiting forms to arrive in the mail, in order to get the automatic payment set up with Mechanics Bank who just said that they are looking forward to helping, and that concludes the Craig Louis Stehr health care crisis! What am I missing?

  6. Zeke Krahlin July 18, 2017

    Velma’s Farmstand:

    Are your “bio-bites, fresh blueberries like you’ve never tasted blueberries” raised contiguously with alternating marijuana plants, by any chance? (Here’s hoping.)

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