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Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017

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UKIAH MURDER CASE SPLITS MENDOCINO TOWN

A grand jury’s murder indictment against Dr. Peter Keegan, nearly seven years after Susan Keegan died, has the town buzzing.

pressdemocrat.com/news/7312186-181/in-ukiah-murder-is-the

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THE GOOD NEWS: Tracy Anderson, Anderson Valley born and bred, has been appointed as principal at our elementary school. Tracy’s mom, the late Terry Anderson, was crucial to the founding of the Anderson Valley Health Center. Dad Jim still lives in Philo. Tracy graduated from Anderson Valley High School, worked her way up through the ranks at Safeway, went to college to get her credentials, and here she is, always a hardworker, always a striver who has learned first hand from the world of work. We think Tracy is an excellent choice to instill the basics in the little ones.

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REX GRESSETT IN COURT IN UKIAH OVER 'SAN JUAN' SINKING. FISH & WILDLIFE SAYS HE 'LITTERED' WHEN BOAT SUNK.

MSP headed inland to see what happened in Courtroom "A" in Mendocino County Superior Court Monday when Rex Gressett appeared to answer a charge of "littering" when a log sunk his 86' boat, the "SAN JUAN," last February. Rather than help raise the boat, officials prefer to charge him with misdemeanor "littering" for the act of God. Gressett asked for, and received, a change of venue from the Ten Mile Court where he felt he couldn't receive a fair trial. We expect some courtroom drama — the case was to be heard during the "eclipse"!

The San Juan (pre-'Littering')

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

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HEADLINE of the Week from the ICO (Gualala): “Moon’s shadow to cross America,”  and darned if it didn’t do just that.

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A LOCAL SENDS ALONG: ECLIPSE DATA

We changed our data collection frequency for our weather station this morning so it recorded every minute (instead of every 5 minutes) from 9:00 a.m. to noon. While not as exciting as totality would have been, it was still a fun experience. We did notice that the bigger birds (turkey vultures, hawks, jays) went quiet and stopped flying from 10:00 until 10:30. The hummingbirds were unfazed by it all, but they are often out at the feeders on the patio after dark. And here is a photo of a reflection as the sun shone through the grapevines on our south-facing pergola and into the floor of the house. Hope you had a good chance to view the eclipse!

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KNOTS of Boonvillians stood gazing skyward as the moon briefly semi-eclipsed the sun Monday morning. So far, no reports of solar blindness.

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HARVEY READING OBSERVES: “Was that what just happened? I noticed that it kept getting darker and darker, and now it’s getting lighter and lighter. Overall, I’m glad I got to see a total eclipse of the sun, with only a little smoke and a few clouds to interfere with the experience, and especially glad because I got to do it at home. If I had lived a few miles away, I’d have died never having seen one. Now, I’ll die having experienced one, for whatever difference that makes… Let’s see, Halley’s Comet in ’85, total solar eclipse in 2017; what’s left? Nuclear war?”

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JUST IN from the Buckhorn. “We are hosting Boonfire at the Buckhorn on Friday the 25th, with all drinks at Happy Hour prices.”

I’VE ENJOYED TWO FINE MEALS at the revamped ’Horn, and I wholeheartedly recommend you visit if you haven’t already. The excellent local band, Boonfire, is all the pretext you need to hie yourself forth. The Condon family, not so incidentally, the new owners of the Buckhorn, is the very definition of graciousness, and their staff is welcoming and attentive.

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THE PENNANTS heralding the annual County Fair have been strung across downtown Boonville, the pink ladies have been up for two weeks, there’s a nip in the early morning air, footballs and futballs are flying, the grapes and the Gravs are in, and all’s right with our little part of the world. If only we could somehow sever it from the rest….

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THE RENTAL SQUEEZE is everywhere. Chatting with a young mom the other day she said she has been forced over the hill to look in Ukiah: “Even there there’s nothing,” she said. Her job certainly doesn’t pay enough to live on, and she and her husband with their combined incomes barely get by. One upshot is that “entry-level” work is on offer in several places in the Anderson Valley, but the young people who would ordinarily take it have been priced outtahere.

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NICE DESCRIPTION of the season from Petit Teton Farm:

“It's already deer hunting season - again.  Summer's checking out soon; the county fair is gearing up; the chickens head to bed right after dinner instead of keeping us up late; our week off is coming soon; fires are burning all around us, mainly north and not in the valley although the air is yellow; the buckeyes are dropping leaves; the poison oak is turning red; birds are pecking holes in all the apples and pears; our packrat is pulling all the ripe hazelnuts off the trees by the garage... Whoa, wait a minute..."our packrat"??  Well sort of.  He took up residence in the top corner of the garage because we stupidly left a small opening.  We first noticed his presence when he ran down and up the wisteria next to the hot tub we were occupying.  Then we'd see him in the heat of the day at the roof line lounging with his tail hanging and butt exposed (from whence we determined he was a "he") because his "home" right under a corrugated metal roof is a bit hot midday, so we'd tease him until he awoke and turned around to peer down at us.  Oh, so cute he is.  He's called a dusky footed pack rat but his paws are pink like his nose. Can't have him living with us though, so we bought a small have-a-heart trap and caught him with a bit of peanut butter then let him go at the edge of the fence line a quarter mile away.  A couple of days later we're cleaning up his nest from which we extracted more hazelnuts, still whole and probably intended for his winter stash, than we had collected for ourselves from the trees, and much shredded plastic, gnawed wood, wisteria flowers and leaves.  We were about to close the hole in the roof we had so carelessly left open when we looked up and I'll be damned, there he was peering down at us from the gutter with a bit of a smile on his cute puss.  Now what?!  We've left the roof open, set the trap again and are hoping he's not as smart as we're guessing he is!  We'll keep you posted.”

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REBECCA JOHNSON WRITES:

“Save the date Sept 10, art lovers, studio visitors. I am having an open studio, September 10, featuring 7 barns, my new work in which I create bas-relief constructions integrating salvaged barn siding from local structures, set against simple and quiet pastoral scenes. “As a review put it, “Through her evocative work, Johnson breathes new life into these once-integral parts of the human landscape. Every piece of barn siding carries its own history — in the patterns of the weathered wood, remnants of long-worn paint, and nicks and scars that make up their individual topography. Johnson gives these fragments of the past a new home, pausing time temporarily, and placing them in a Zen-minimalist vision of the rolling hills found just outside her studio door — sky, land, horizon, and barn.” Hope to see you, Ms. J signs off. She’ll see me, a long-time admirer of her work, which I think always manages to evoke the color and “feel” of Mendocino County.

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LITTLE DOG SAYS, “Yes, I spend a lot of time staring at the ground. It's called gopher hunting. The gopher I'm hunting has popped up in my face a couple of times. I stared at him, he stared at me. We have a relationship, and I just can't bring myself to kill him. Call me a wuss, whatever. I call it respect for my fellow creatures.”

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RECOMMENDED READING: “THE PARKER SISTERS”

In 1851, Elizabeth Parker, a free black child in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a free state bordering slave state Maryland, was kidnapped from the white farm family she was merely semi-enslaved by, and bundled off to a Baltimore slave pen. Two weeks later, her teenage sister, Rachel, was abducted from another Chester County farm and eventually wound up in New Orleans, which she said she preferred to the farm drudgery of her free life in Pennsylvania. Emboldened by Fugitive Slave Act, white slave hunters would raid into Chester County where they were often resisted and even fought by Quaker farmers, the Parker sisters were among their victims but eventually made their way back to Chester County. The Parker Sisters is one more interesting account of our consistently savage history, antebellum America in this one.

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VEGETABLE GARDENING WORKSHOP

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Class runs from 10:00am to 3:30pm (lecture 10:00am-1:00pm; hands-on 1:30pm-3:30pm)

Instructor - Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens' Lead Gardener, Jaime Jensen

The end of summer is all about knowing the right time to start your fall and winter vegetable garden. In this workshop we will discuss timing and fall vegetables. This is also the time to start thinking and prepping for next spring, so we will also cover the topic of saving seeds and fall soil building techniques.  Class size is limited. Cost is $35 (includes Gardens admission for the day). Payment is due upon sign-up. Please note, all workshop fees are non-refundable unless the workshop has been canceled or rescheduled by the Gardens. Please reserve space for one or all of the classes by phoning 707-964-4352 ext. 16 or stop by The Garden Store at MCBG.

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WHO’S THE WORST?

Editor,

One of the main problems in our country today is our past presidents. Counting backwards, starting with George Bush I: Four years. Then eight years of Clinton. Bad, bad. Then we had eight years of Geo. W. Bush, not much better. Then we had eight years of Obama. And that was the final clink in the wall. He was the worst president, by far, even worse than Jimmy Carter! These people, these liberal activist stupid bastards have had 28 years! To get their stuff together! And we haven’t had a president that can fix things except Geo Bush. The last good president we had was President Reagan. So they’ve had 28 years to get their ammunition together and they’re all over our guy right now, Donald Trump, who’s trying to straighten things out, and he will, eventually, he will overcome this crap. So let’s keep our fingers crossed that we won’t have a nuclear war because I think he’ll keep us out of that. But the rotten, filthy liberal Democrat bastards will give him trouble all the way. Oh, and there is one person in this country that is worse than Obama and that is the asshole who’s running California: Governor Jerry Brown. And I don’t mean maybe. God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

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CATCH OF THE DAY, August 21, 2017

Alvarez, Cervantes, Clark

KELISHA ALVAREZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ERICA CERVANTES, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

KENNETH CLARK, Redwood Valley, Pot cultivation.

Defrates, Garcia, Gibney

JENNIFER DEFRATES, Redwood Valley. Saps or similar weapons, paraphernalia, suspended license.

CESAR GARCIA, Manteca/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SAMUEL GIBNEY, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

Gilster, Gonzalez, Hawk, Jones

ERIC GILSTER, Monument, Colorado/Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, pot sales.

JESUS GONZALEZ, Ukiah. DUI, hit&run with property damage, no license.

JASON HAWK, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

JEDIDIAH JONES, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, vandalism, probation revocation.

Lyons, Oliver, Rodgers

JEFFERY LYONS, Fort Bragg. Felon/addict with firearm.

LUIS OLIVER, Covelo. County parole violation.

JESSE RODGERS, Ukiah. Parole violation.

Romero, Valdespino-Cruz, Webb

JOEL ROMERO, Talmage. DUI.

JUAN VALDESPINO-CRUZ, Elk. DUI.

JOSHUA WEBB, Laytonville. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Transcendent? Life-Changing? Really? I witnessed the 1991 eclipse in totality, and while it was very cool indeed, it certainly wasn't life-changing. I wouldn't even say it makes it into the top 20 things of seen in this life. Frankly, I am shocked at the hoards of people traveling to witness this event. I think for most it is just an excuse to have a big party.

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DIMINISHING RETURNS

by James Kunstler

These two words are the hinge that is swinging American life — and the advanced techno-industrial world, for that matter — toward darkness. They represent an infection in the critical operations of daily life, like a metabolic disease, driving us into disorder and failure. And they are so omnipresent that we’ve failed to even notice the growing failure all around us.

Mostly, these diminishing returns are the results of our over-investments in making complex systems more complex, for instance the replacement of the 37-page Glass-Steagall Act that regulated American banking, with the 848 page Dodd-Frank Act, which was only an outline for over 22,000 pages of subsequent regulatory content — all of it cooked up by banking lobbyists, and none of which replaced the single most important rule in Glass-Steagall, which required the separation of commercial banking from trafficking in securities. Dodd-Frank was a colossal act of misdirection of the public’s attention, an impenetrable smokescreen of legal blather in the service of racketeering.

For Wall Street, Dodd-Frank aggravated the conditions that allow stock indexes to only move in one direction, up, for nine years. During the same period, the American economy of real people and real stuff only went steadily down, including the number of people out of the work force, the incomes of those who still had jobs, the number of people with full-time jobs, the number of people who were able to buy food without government help, or pay for a place to live, or send a kid to college.

When that morbid tension finally snaps, as it must, it won’t only be the Hedge Funders of the Hamptons who get hurt. It will be the entire global financial system, especially currencies (dollars, Euros, Yen, Pounds, Renminbi) that undergo a swift and dire re-pricing, and all the other things of this world priced in them. And when that happens, the world will awake to a new reality of steeply reduced possibilities for supporting 7-plus billion people.

The same over-investments in complexity have produced the racketeering colossus of so-called health care (formerly “medicine”), in case you’re wondering why the waiting room of your doctor’s office now looks exactly like the motor vehicle bureau. Meanwhile, it’s safe to say that the citizens of this land have never been so uniformly unhealthy, even as they’re being swindled and blackmailed by their “providers.” The eventual result will be a chaotic process of simplification, as giant hospital corporations, insurance companies, and overgrown doctors’ practices collapse, and the braver practitioners coalesce into something resembling Third World clinics.

We’re still struggling to even apprehend the damage being done to people by cell phones — and I’m not even referring to whatever microwaves actually do to brain cells. Many find it amusing to see whole streets and campus byways filled with young people staring into their phones. Whatever they’re gaining in endorphin hits from “being connected” is undermined by the immense losses they’re suffering in real social skills and the sinister effects of behavioral conditioning by the programmers of web-based social networks. These failures are being expressed in new social phenomena like flash mobs and the manipulation of college students into Maoist thought police — and these are only the most visible manifestations. A more insidious outcome will be a whole generation’s failure to develop a sense of personal agency in a long emergency of civilization that will require exactly that aptitude for survival.

Among the more popular and idiotic strains of diminishing returns is the crusade to replace gasoline-powered cars with electric-powered vehicles. And for what? To promote the illusion that we can continue to be car-dependent and live in suburbia. Neither of those wishful notions is supported by reality. Both of them will soon yield to the fundamental crisis of capital scarcity. In the meantime, hardly anyone is interested in the one thing that would produce a better outcome for Americans: a return to walkable communities scaled to economic reality.

The convulsions over President Trump’s vivid clowning are just a symptom of the concealed rot eating away at the foundations of American life. What they demonstrate most of all is the failure of this society’s sensory organs — the news media — to ascertain what is actually happening to us. And the recognition of that failure accounts for the current state of the media’s disrepute, even if its critics are doing a poor job of articulating it.

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

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BG (Begonia?), Fort Bragg (Photo by Susie de Castro)

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GIMMEE AN L, GIMMEE LITHIUM!

A Reader writes: Let's dig in that & see what happens! Yeah - fresh out of lithium here.

news.stanford.edu/2017/08/16/supervolcanoes-key-americas-electric-future/

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DO PROTESTS WORK?

by Nathan Heller

That winter of 2003—you remember it, and so do I—the world assembled, arms linked, to protest the prospect of war in Iraq. What times those were, and how the passions swelled. The fervor of the public reached a peak on February 15th, when millions of people in more than sixty countries claimed the streets, voicing their opposition. “listen to us,” a sign in London read. In New York, demonstrators stormed the avenues with a huge inflatable globe. Young and old turned out, and citizens and foreigners. A few weeks later, the United States was at war.

Whatever. Less than a decade later, in New York, Occupy Wall Street arose to attack the misdeeds of the finance industry, the stranglehold of corporate power, and the predations of inequality. For two months, in the autumn of 2011, demonstrators camped, collaborated, and convened in Zuccotti Park, in lower Manhattan. By the time they were evicted, Occupy had spread to more than nine hundred cities worldwide. No U.S. policies had changed.

Soon enough, it was 2014. A movement known as Black Lives Matter marshalled demonstrations in Missouri and across the nation, using not just signs but hashtags to help spread the word. The highest-profile B.L.M. protests received front-page coverage in every major paper in the country. Demonstrators protested, by name, the killings of more than forty unarmed black people by law-enforcement officers. A majority of these officers were not indicted, however; of those that were, three were found guilty. To date, only one of the convicted has received a prison sentence.

Oh, but do you recall that Saturday this past January? Throughout the nation and in nearly 700 cities all across the world, millions of people assembled for the Women’s March, chanting both for female empowerment and against the just inaugurated President. The hats were great. The signs were better. The boulevards in cities including New York, Washington, London—even L.A., where humans rarely walk—were riverine with marchers. It was said to be the largest single-day demonstration in the history of the United States. Then Monday came, and the new Administration went about its work as planned.

For centuries, on the right and the left alike, it has been an article of faith that, in moments of sharp civic discontent, you and I and everyone we know can take to the streets, demanding change. The First Amendment enshrines such efforts, protecting “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” From the Stamp Act boycotts of the 1760s to the 1913 suffrage parade and the March on Washington, in 1963, protesters have pushed proudly through our history. Along the way, they have given us great—well, playable—songs. (Tom Lehrer: “The reason most folk songs are so atrocious is that they were written by the People.”) Abroad, activism drove the Arab Spring and labor movements in Macau, while outrages shared across continents triggered such events as the feminism-and-rationalism-flaunting event known as Boobquake. So strident was Boobquake that it elicited a counter-campaign, called Brainquake. All this expressiveness, we think, is good.

Still, what has protest done for us lately? Smartphones and social media are supposed to have made organizing easier, and activists today speak more about numbers and reach than about lasting results. Is protest a productive use of our political attention? Or is it just a bit of social theater we perform to make ourselves feel virtuous, useful, and in the right?

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IF WE LOOK AT THE PROTESTS TODAY as an exercise in public awareness, they appear to have had mixed success at best. Their messages are mangled by an unsympathetic media smitten by images of property destruction — assuming that the media even acknowledges a form of contention that has become increasingly repetitive and boring.

— Srnicek and Williams, "Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (Verso)

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WINNEMEM WINTU, FISHING GROUPS SUE TO BLOCK ECOSYSTEM-KILLING DELTA TUNNELS

by Dan Bacher

On August 17, a California Indian Tribe, two fishing groups, and two environmental organizations joined a growing number of organizations, cities and counties suing the Jerry Brown and Donald Trump administrations to block the construction of the Delta Tunnels.

The Winnemem Wintu Tribe, North Coast Rivers Alliance (NCRA), Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR), Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) and the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association filed suit against the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) in Sacramento Superior Court to overturn DWR’s approval of the Twin Tunnels, also know as the California WaterFix Project, on July 21, 2017

”The Winnemem Wintu Tribe has lived on the banks of the McCloud River for thousands of years and our culture is centered on protection and careful, sustainable use of its salmon,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe near Mt. Shasta. “Our salmon were stolen from us when Shasta Dam was built in 1944. “

”Since that dark time, we have worked tirelessly to restore this vital salmon run through construction of a fishway around Shasta Dam connecting the Sacramento River to its upper tributaries including the McCloud River.  The Twin Tunnels and its companion proposal to raise Shasta Dam by 18 feet would push the remaining salmon runs toward extinction and inundate our ancestral and sacred homeland along the McCloud River,” Chief Sisk stated.

The Trump and Brown administrations and project proponents claim the tunnels would fulfill the “coequal goals” of water supply reliability and ecosystem restoration, but opponents point out that project would create no new water while hastening the extinction of winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish species

The project would also imperil the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers that have played a central role in the culture, religion and livelihood of the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes for thousands of years.

The tunnels would divert 9,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Sacramento River near Clarksburg and transport it 35 miles via two tunnels 40-feet in diameter for export to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness interests and Southern California. The project would divert approximately 6.5 million acre-feet of water per year, a quantity sufficient to flood the entire state of Rhode Island under nearly 7 feet of water, according to the lawsuit.

The groups pointed out that this “staggering” quantity of water – equal to most of the Sacramento River’s flow during the summer and fall – would “exacerbate the Delta’s severe ecological decline,” pushing several imperiled species of salmon and steelhead closer to extinction.

Stephan Volker, attorney  for the Tribe and organizations, filed the suit.  The suit alleges that DWR’s approval of the California WaterFix Project and certification of its Environmental Impact Report violates the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009, and the Public Trust Doctrine.

“The Public Trust Doctrine protects the Delta’s imperiled fish and wildlife from avoidable harm whenever it is feasible to do so,” according to the lawsuit. “Contrary to this mandate, the Project proposes unsustainable increases in Delta exports that will needlessly harm public trust resources, and its FEIR dismisses from consideration feasible alternatives and mitigation measures that would protect and restore the Delta’s ecological functions. Because the Project sacrifices rather than saves the Delta’s fish and wildlife, it violates the Public Trust Doctrine.”

Representatives of the fishing and environmental groups explained their reasons for filing the lawsuit.

“The Twin Tunnels is a hugely expensive boondoggle that could pound the final nail in the coffin of Northern California’s salmon and steelhead fishery,” stated Noah Oppenheim, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA). “There is still time to protect these declining stocks from extinction, but taking more water from their habitat will make matters far worse.”

Larry Collins, President of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association, stated, “Our organization of small, family-owned fishing boats has been engaged in the sustainable harvest of salmon and other commercial fisheries for over 100 years.  By diverting most of the Sacramento River’s flow away from the Delta and San Francisco Bay, the Twin Tunnels would deliver a mortal blow to our industry and way of life.”

Frank Egger, President of the North Coast Rivers Alliance, stated that “the imperiled salmon and steelhead of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers are one of Northern California’s most precious natural resources.  They must not be squandered so that Southern California can avoid taking the water conservation measures that many of us adopted decades ago.”

Chief Sisk summed up the folly of Brown’s “legacy project,” the Delta Tunnels, at her speech at the “March for Science” on Earth Day 2017 before a crowd of 15,000 people at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

“The California Water Fix is the biggest water problem, the most devastating project, that Californians have ever faced,” said Chief Sisk. “Just ask the people in the farmworker communities of Seville and Alpaugh, where they can’t drink clean water from the tap.”

“The twin tunnels won’t fix this problem. All this project does is channel Delta water to water brokers at prices the people in the towns can’t afford,” she stated.

To read the full story, go to: www.sandersinstitute.com/...

The lawsuit filed by Volkers joins an avalanche of lawsuits against the Delta Tunnels. Sacramento, San Joaquin and Butte Counties have already filed lawsuits against the California WaterFix — and more lawsuits are expected to join these on Monday, August 21.

On June 29, fishing and environmental groups filed two lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's biological opinions permitting the construction of the controversial Delta Tunnels.

Four groups — the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Defenders of Wildlife, and the Bay Institute — charged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service for violating the Endangered Species (ESA), a landmark federal law that projects endangered salmon, steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and other fish species. The lawsuits said the biological opinions are “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion."

On June 26, the Trump administration released a no-jeopardy finding in their biological opinions regarding the construction of the Delta Tunnels, claiming that the California WaterFix "will not jeopardize threatened or endangered species or adversely modify their critical habitat." The biological opinions are available here: www.fws.gov/...

Over the past few weeks, the Brown administration has incurred the wrath of environmental justice advocates, conservationists and increasing numbers of Californians by ramrodding Big Oil’s environmentally unjust cap-and-trade bill, AB 398, through the legislature; approving the reopening of the dangerous SoCalGas natural gas storage facility at Porter Ranch; green lighting the flawed EIS/EIR documents permitting the construction of the California WaterFix; and issuing a “take” permit to kill endangered salmon and Delta smelt in the Delta Tunnels.

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(Click to enlarge)

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MCKENNA FAITH TO PERFORM LIVE AT THE 7TH ANNUAL PINTS IN THE PLAZA

The Ukiah Main Street Program’s annual brew festival, Pints in the Plaza, is being held on Saturday, September 2nd from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Alex R. Thomas Plaza in Historic Downtown Ukiah. Come and join us for food from Pilon Kitchen, Slam Dunk Pizza, Rod’s Dogs and Smokehouse Jerky. Lawn games and Live music from McKenna Faith

McKenna Faith is a country music singer/songwriter and recording artist originally from Northern California. She has toured the nation with country’s biggest names, was the number-one selling independent Female Country Artists on iTunes, and her debut single to country radio Somethin’ Somethin’ cracked the Top 100 on the country charts.

Faith’s sound has matured with her age, and her latest and most personal studio release Heartstealer reflects that.  She’s headlined sold-out shows at fairs, casinos, and nightclubs across the country in addition to festival circuits where she’s been seen on both the Next from Nashville and Main Stage alongside Nashville’s best. www.mckenna-faith.com

Pacific Outfitters PacOut Green Team “the 60 minute” clean up will be there with information on their clean ups. Stop in and see which local

$20.00 Brew tasting tickets for “Pints in the Plaza” are available at Mendocino Bounty and Dig Music. Tickets may also be purchase at the ticket booth on the day of the event. For more information call (707) 462-6789.

 

34 Comments

  1. Craig Stehr August 22, 2017

    Went to see “Whose Streets?”, about the implosion of Ferguson, MO. This has all of the important docu-features: intense street conflict scenes, lots of interviews with the locals, and the obligatory footage from City Hall. It backs up my view that the idea of America as a coherent society is utterly ridiculous. I’m siding with Black Lives Matter!

    • LouisBedrock August 22, 2017

      I could not agree more strongly.

      • LouisBedrock August 22, 2017

        I am occasionally annoyed by the tactics of Black Lives Matter–and their arrogance–they feel their issue is so important that they have the right to intrude in other forums, conferences, or demonstrations that are dealing with other very important matters.

        In the end, however, it’s a question of “Which side are you on?”

        I’m not in favor of the cops being allowed to murder anyone they want. There must be consequences for killing people who pose no threat to police or the public. A cop’s badge should not grant him–or her, impunity from criminal acts.

  2. LouisBedrock August 22, 2017

    If you’d like to get a glimpse of what the South was like in the 60s–and is still like today in many places, take a glimpse at
    the Official Trailer for I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO.

    The images are reminiscent of Kristallnacht.

    There are civilized people in the South. However, there are still many unreconstructed racist savages–one of whom posts comments here regularly.

    I can’t provide the link without posting a video–which is prohibited and–should be prohibited. Can be viewed on YouTube.

    • BB Grace August 22, 2017

      Remember This House is an unfinished manuscript by James Baldwin, a memoir of his personal recollections of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.[1][2]

      Following Baldwin’s death, publishing company McGraw-Hill sued his estate to recover the $200,000 advance they had paid him for the book, although the lawsuit was dropped by 1990.[1] The manuscript forms the basis for Raoul Peck’s 2016 documentary film I Am Not Your Negro.[3]

      Propaganda film Mr. Bedrock (and why you love it).

      I get the idea that the Clintons made Raoul Peck an offer he couldn’t refuse, something like, “Surely you’ve heard of James Baldwin, Mr. Peck?” and Peck says, “Oh yes; Of course, I’ve studied him because he was able to emancipate himself as I’d like to emancipate myself.” So he’s told, “Well, you can step into the magic shoes of Baldwin and emancipate yourself by making a documentary; I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO”. And Peck, who had incriminated the Clintons business in Haiti with a film in 2013, “Fatal Assistance”, and knowing Baldwin didn’t finish “Remember This House”, asks, “If I do this film you’ll leave me alone?”, thinking of the trail of murders associated with the Clintons. He’s told, “That’s right Mr. Peck.” So Peck makes the film, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO and the WHITE neolibs LOVE it. Go figure. It’s exactly how they recall Hollywood version of the South on TV. So how did Blacks take Peck’s film (not that Mr. Bedrock cares)

      https://theundefeated.com/features/raoul-peck-james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro/

      Raoul Peck made a very important film you should see “Fatal Assistance” https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/06/ber5-m06.html

      the trailer FATAL ASSISTANCE
      //www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7riX0AjZwY

      • Harvey Reading August 22, 2017

        Kids like you say the darndest things, missy.

  3. LouisBedrock August 22, 2017

    “The Enlightenment is a philosophical movement of the 18th century that fundamentally changed the way people thought and acted from then on. Traditional values were questioned. After Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Locke wrote their works, Europeans started to make their daily decisions based on science and reason, instead of tradition, religion, and superstition. Empirical methods began to be used in science. Knowledge was no longer worshiped but systematically questioned in order to correct mistakes. Europeans decided to “use their heads” in what they were doing. This made it possible for the sciences to flourish. …

    About one third of the U.S. public is made of Evangelical Christians. That group has hijacked the Republican Party and is selling its religious ideas as Republican Ideas. The Evangelical Christians have a conception of the World that is as old as the Bible. And in the 21st Century, they are forcing the rest of America to become as ignorant as themselves. Philosophically, they want us to undo all the gains of the Enlightenment and live like the people of the 16th Century. …

    That is a kind of treason. It is not treason motivated by malice, but by pure ignorance.

    It is hard to believe that such a large percentage of U.S. population may be called “ignorant”. Everywhere else in the World ignorant people know that they are ignorant and would like to get better educated. Ours would never accept that they are ignorant, and consequently, don’t want to change.

    The main culprit for this condition is the poor public education in the U.S.”

    https://xezar.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/the-undoing-of-the-enlightenment/

    • Bill Pilgrim August 22, 2017

      “Wot prawce selvytion nah?” (G.B. Shaw)

    • George Hollister August 22, 2017

      Oh yea, and don’t forget the Environmentalists.

      • LouisBedrock August 22, 2017

        “Skeptical Science is based on the notion that science by its very nature is skeptical. So what is skepticism? Skepticism is not doubt! Skepticism is the open-minded consideration of something based on the evidence. A skeptic doesn’t have a preference for what the truth is, a preferred answer. They want to discover what the truth is based on the balance of all evidence. You look at all the facts before coming to a conclusion. In the case of climate science, our understanding of climate  comes from considering the full body of evidence and being ‘skeptical’ for well over a century.

        In contrast, climate denialism is closed minded. It thinks it knows the truth and wants to interpret the evidence to suit that. It has a preferred answer and wants to look at everything in that light. So it looks at small pieces of the puzzle while neglecting the full picture. Climate ‘skeptics’ vigorously attack any evidence for man-made global warming yet uncritically embrace any argument, op-ed, blog or study that supposedly refutes global warming. If you began with a position of climate ‘skepticism’ then cherry pick the data that supports your view while fighting tooth and nail against any evidence that contradicts that position, that’s not genuine scientific skepticism.

        If 99 pieces of evidence support an idea and 1 doesn’t, a skeptic says ‘that idea is probably true’. A denier says ‘Ahah, that idea is false’.

        Skepticism is a process, denial is a position.”

        https://skepticalscience.com/Welcome-to-Skeptical-Science.html

        • LouisBedrock August 22, 2017

          And by the way, Hollister, you’re a tedious douchebag.

          • Harvey Reading August 22, 2017

            Amen.

          • George Hollister August 22, 2017

            LOL The fundamental premise of Environmentalism is “living in harmony with nature”, or “living in balance with nature”. Those are concepts not found in my biology book. Neither is the concept of the “balance of nature”. The latest fundamental in Environmentalism is “living sustainably”. That concept is not found in my biology book, either. Has there ever been a society that lived “sustainably”? No, so the concept exists in our imagination, and it’s existence is a matter of faith. Ah yes, faith. And if we attach group ritual to the faith, it is religion.

            I heard a biology professor observe one time, that all living organisms are either growing or dying. Growing is something that can not go on forever, and the same that can be said for dying. This principal of growing or dying also applies to all societies, cultures, industries, and governments. Nothing “sustainable” about that.

            And there is Darwin. Oh yea, the man we all love to hate. He observed that what is persistent is change, and the adaption to change. So what does that tell us about “harmony” ,”balance”, and “sustainability”? It tells us they do not exist, at least not as Environmental faith would like them to be. And it tells us that the only thing that is sustainable is adaption to change.

            So what gets Environmentalists so worked up about “human caused climate change”? Is it because it is major wrecking ball to the fundamental principal of “sustainability”? If humans were not responsible, then nothing could be done to change the reality that the Earth is changing, and will continue to change? I am only guessing here, because I have not drunk the Kool Aid. I have attended quite a few gatherings where it was a popular drink, though.

            • Harvey Reading August 23, 2017

              Oh, George, what you have written is nothing more than further evidence that kids, male or female, still say the darndest things.

        • BB Grace August 22, 2017

          I’m a climate change denier Mr. Bedrock. I don’t think I know the whole truth, rather I’ve heard and read contradicting reports from credentialed scientists claiming their research is being censored. This concerns me because to me the only truth science tells is the research behind it, and when scientific voices are eliminated for political reasons, which it is, truth is eliminated.

          Pope Francis is 1000% down with Climate Change, couldn’t find a bigger supporter other than Al Gore, and we all see how serious Gore takes it with his jet setting, SUVs and mansions. I find most Christians are down with Climate Change.

          MSM as usual likes to showcase some people and censor others. Here in Mendocino County a native Rosalind Peterson, worked for the Department of AG for decades monitoring wells, and she came up away with climate concerns based on the even distribution of minerals, like arsenic, rising evenly in all wells. Peterson suggested maybe Geoengineering was responsible and she made a great case before she was censored.

          There are researchers who claim there are astronomical events happening that are affecting not just the Earth, but other planets are reacting, heating up. Why are other planets heating up?

          And then there’s those like me who see Climate Change as a means to unite the world under a global currency (prison planet/let the hunger games begin!), trading carbon credits, and blaming people. Notice they don’t blame military, bombs, rockets seems to escape merit on the Climate Change index. Mexico does most US trucking, so are we cheating? YES! If Climate Changers included WMD as a climate changer I’d be more likely to buy the Climate Change (UN Agenda) deal because it gives me hope wars would be too expensive. But I don’t see Climate Change ending wars, I see it ending the American lifestyle, which I enjoy. So I’m opposed, though I comply with the laws that are very expensive and not repairing Climate damage.

          Finally, I find Climate Change is more a religion with apocalypse and the beliers are the worst kind of evangelists.

          • LouisBedrock August 22, 2017

            “And then there’s those like me who see Climate Change as a means to unite the world under a global currency (prison planet/let the hunger games begin!), trading carbon credits, and blaming people. Notice they don’t blame military, bombs, rockets seems to escape merit on the Climate Change index. Mexico does most US trucking, so are we cheating? YES! If Climate Changers included WMD as a climate changer I’d be more likely to buy the Climate Change (UN Agenda) deal because it gives me hope wars would be too expensive. But I don’t see Climate Change ending wars, I see it ending the American lifestyle, which I enjoy. So I’m opposed, though I comply with the laws that are very expensive and not repairing Climate damage.”

            Yes, I see that now that you have so lucidly explained it.

            You are absolutely right.

            • sohumlily August 22, 2017

              HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  4. Jim Updegraff August 22, 2017

    Returning to the AVA fray after being away for a few days.
    Mr. Philbrick lives in a dream world if he thinks El Trumpo the village idiot, Putin’s stooge, will achieve any of his phony goals. He is a disaster waiting for train wreck.

  5. Harvey Reading August 22, 2017

    Re: A LOCAL SENDS ALONG: ECLIPSE DATA

    My Lab retired to his “thunder shelter” under the computer desk during totality, while most of us monkeys were outside watching and jabbering.

    Re: NICE DESCRIPTION of the season from Petit Teton Farm:

    A snap trap might work…

    Re: WHO’S THE WORST?

    Male kids say the darndest things, too, mister…and, for good measure, goddam that Donald Trump.

  6. Randy Burke August 22, 2017

    And the train has already left the station.

    • Harvey Reading August 22, 2017

      “Well I’ll bet there’s rich folks eatin’ in some
      –fancy dining car
      Probably drinkin’ coffee and smokin’ big cigars”

      –Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues

  7. John Fremont August 22, 2017

    Jerry Philbrick must love war because his favorite presidents are the ones who dealt in death. What wars did Carter or Obama start?

    • sohumlily August 22, 2017

      WRT Obomber

      Libya? Syria? Yemen? Somalia? (somebody help me out here…)Ukraine? Pakistan? And didn’t he ‘pull out of Iraq’ only to redeploy?

      Too much NPR?

      • Bruce McEwen August 22, 2017

        Libya? Syria? Somalia? Ukraine? (Somebody help me out here)

        You, love, could care less about any of it; the point being (which you make clear, in your vain materialism, your spiritual sense of humor, is, honestly, it’s a way of focusing the microscope, to adjust it away from your own community, and the people that your are beholden to, and concentrate on entities wayyy back in places like Washington, DC, where it don’t really have any affect on what’s going down, locally.

        This is the cowardice inherent in this whole thread, then, isn’t it?

        • sohumlily August 23, 2017

          You, brother, don’t have a clue about my ‘community’, or *anything* at all about my own self. But have another drink, brother, and scribble on.

          • LouisBedrock August 23, 2017

            McEwen is back in the comment section.
            Lucky us.

            McEwen doesn’t write: he sneers from his lofty branch high above the fray of which he is too refined to be a part. He knows he is better than us.

            He is an aspiring young writer of 65 who has yet to finish his first novel—which he probably won’t finish because, as he claims, Isabelle Allende has somehow plagiarized his plot and characters for her most recent novel; and because, “What worries me most is that Anderson would take it and make one of his books out of it—I can’t tell you how appalled I was with the last one, which was 30% my own work.”

            Welcome back, Ace Court Reporter.
            Love ya, pal.

            —The Godless Jew

  8. Jeff Costello August 22, 2017

    BB vs. Philbrick – who loves Trump more?

    • BB Grace August 22, 2017

      Quality vs quantity; Mr. Costello.

      Mr. Philbrick gives credit to Reagan and “W”. I would include them with the Clintons, Obama and Bush Sr., and Mr. Philbrick most likely voted for the Republicans presidents, I didn’t.

      I don’t expect Trump to be perfect. No human is. The fact Trump isn’t a life long establishment politician is refreshing to me, and the fact he beat the GOP in their own debates, I have conspiracy ideas about that, but still, it was great to see an outsider beat them. I’m glad he pulled the USA out of the TTP. I’m glad he’s investing in our Vets. I like his supreme court picks and I like many of the changes his administration is making with exceptions to Sessions and more drug wars, but I like the illegal immigration crack down and hope more Americans get jobs and homes rather than addictions and government programs. McMaster going back into Afghanistan is disappointing. Still, I’m far more disappointed with McCain, Paul Ryan, McConnell, and the neocons who are Never Trumpers, I find them far more dangerous than the Democrats as a whole, not to discount their power in the deep state and MSM with it’s false flags and striving to destroy the office of the president in the name of Trump (more conspiracy, but then conspiracy is my kind of entertainment while others listen to NPR and Cable TV, or TYT and Jimmy Dore).

      There are Bernie supporters still duking it out in the Democratic party as there are Ron Paul rEVOLUtionaries in the GOP slugging it out with Neocons.

      IOWs, the establishment is being challenged in the Democratic Party by Bernie supporters who get my support and GOP by the rEVOLution that took Trump because there was no way we would vote for HRC or Johnson, or Stein, and we didn’t expect Trump to win, so that’s a serendipity, because there’s no attachment. I never thought I would ever vote for someone who actually won, and why I have conspiracies. When Trump said he intends to be a president for all Americans, I figured I was going to have some disappointments, but I’m so happy HRC is not president, I’m OK and not freaking out when Trump goes more Neo than I like.

      All that said, I enjoy reading Mr. Philbrick’s letters better than Mr. Updegraff’s.

      • BB Grace August 22, 2017

        ps: I completely agree with Philbrick on Jerry Brown.

  9. BB Grace August 22, 2017

    There is a God! I was thinking, “I wish I had a video of the Black people I knew and met in Louisiana that owned plantations and stock and lived in the free Black communities I mentioned about the South”, Well, I found a video, an interview,96-year-old Granddaughter of Plantation Owner Oral History

    h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CvTkNCfLyE

    • Bruce McEwen August 22, 2017

      Yes, and at least one godless Jew reads every word you write — Bless ye, gul.

  10. Bruce McEwen August 22, 2017

    They brought him from Da Nang, accused of stabbing a St. Msaj. (sorta like a mountain gorilla) to from Viet Nam, to the JAG (Judge Advocate General) at a lovely spot on the Perfume River, where it empted into the South China Sea, and I was sent to pick him up and take him to his court martial… on the way I asked him, “Why, Mon, didn’t you just frag the lifer? — why not?

    Because of course a Sgt. Maj is about the size of a Mountain Gorilla, and we were both young boys.

    “I didn’t stab that lifer — mon, you gotta believe me!”

    I do believe you, only n eejit woudld have done what you’re accused of! but I’m a peon, just like you, Paul, and you know as well as I do what “they” (the officers on the court martial board) — what they’re going to do, don’t ya?”

    Nobody could believe Paul killed a Sgt. Maj. w/ a knife. THE officers just shook their heads and decided, no, any USMC Sgt. Maj. would turn that little L/Cpl upside-down and shove that knife (supposing there was one) well… where the sun dont shine…

    • Bruce McEwen August 22, 2017

      I picked Paul up later that night, this time, just as he was being released from the brig. But this time I wasn’t in a jeep from the motor pool — no-no; this time it was a skoshi cab, a 35-cent civilian taxi, and I took Paul to every whorehouse bar in Koza City.

      Many years later my brother at arms, Dick Herkert, did a similar favor for the fellow, one of the Iranian hostages — when the Delta Force skidded to a halt in the (the desert crash we’ve come to blame so much on Geo. Sr. CIA Director at the time) and when the hostages were released and their families were waiting for them in Paris, there was one man, with no family, a black man — whom the Iranians had offered “freedom,” if he would denounce his fellow captives.

      I forget the man’s immortal words, but I do know that Dicky H. went down to the airport and met the guy, after 444 days, and took him to the Crazy Horse Saloon (The most expensive whorehouse in the civilized world) and paid all expenses, out of his own pocket.

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