MCT: Thursday, April 25, 2019

• MCDH Meeting
• Lizzby's Bar
• Rock Attack
• Wood Session
• Quiz Night
• Jim Dunbar
• Ambulance Membership
• Tommyguns
• Bell Arrows
• Full Moon
• Vet Visit
• Plains Indian
• Costly Duplication
• Hyde Street
• Homeless Compassion
• Jailer Appreciation
• Yesterday's Catch
• ScandalCare
• Phony Joe
• Comfortably Numb
• Frivolous Politics
• Bigger Feminist
• May Day
• 2020 Focus
• Dem Gift
• Lizzy Loophole
• Doomer Comments
• Troubadour
• Redemption Unlabeled
• Gardens Jobs
• Permit Increases
• Help Manuel

MCDH BOARD MEETING tonight at 6pm

A Request for Proposal was submitted by Interim CEO, Wayne Allen, on April 11 to five health care organizations, including Adventist Health.  They have 5 weeks to respond.  This marks the beginning of a new direction the hospital is pursuing in order to survive.  Now, more than ever before, it is imperative for the community to attend and participate in the process.

The registration lobby is being used for Board meetings accommodate the overflow attendance when the meetings were conducted in the Redwoods Room. There is now plenty of room for everyone.

Margaret Paul

Advocate for MCDH's Survival

NEW BAR IN BOONVILLE!

Thursday, April 25 at 5 p.m., Lizzby's is opening their bar in the old Saloon/Lodge location. The bar will be open Thursday through Sunday, from 5 PM until midnight. I will be behind the bar this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Pool, jukebox, shuffleboard, and big screen TV for sports. We currently offer a wide selection of beers by the bottle and local wines by the glass. Don't worry... draft beer and cocktails are in our plans for the future! 21 and over ONLY. See you soon!

(Dan Richert)

UKIAH 'ROCK ATTACK' ENDS WITH TRANSIENT ARREST

The Ukiah Police Department issued the following press release Tuesday.

On the morning of Sunday, April 21st officers were dispatched to the area of South Main St. and East Gobbi St. for a report of a white Mercedes vehicle that attempted to run over a red-haired, white male. The caller reported the vehicle had left the scene.

While Officers were responding to the scene, UPD dispatch received numerous calls reporting a red-haired, white male had assaulted a female with a large rock at the corner of South State St. and Gobbi Street. Upon arrival at South State Street & Gobbi, officers contacted a male, who matched the description, and several citizens near the northeast corner of Chase Bank, located at 700 South State Street.

The male was identified as David Leon Maupin, age 41, a transient of Ukiah. Maupin was detained without incident while the investigation was conducted.

The subsequent investigation revealed the following:

An unknown driver of a White Mercedes SUV attempted to strike Maupin with the vehicle for unknown reasons and then fled the area.

A female victim (18-years-old of Ukiah) was located just west of Chase Bank and she was found to have sustained a significant injury to the backside of her head. She received medical attention from EMS and was released from the scene.

She had been crossing State St., was talking on her cellphone and was uninvolved in the prior incident with the vehicle. Maupin came up from behind her and struck her on the back of the head with a nearly 15-pound brick, for an unknown reason.

The female victim was not an acquaintance of Maupin and the attack appeared to have been unprovoked.

While the female victim was lying on the ground, Maupin retrieved another large rock and stood over the victim.

An elderly male (64-years-old of Ukiah) and his companion were crossing Gobbi St. when he saw the attack on the female victim. This male intervened, in an attempt to prevent further injury to the female victim, by yelling at Maupin.

Maupin struck the male victim at least once with a large volcanic rock, knocking the male victim to the ground. The male victim sustained injuries which included a fractured rib and a portion of his ear being torn off.

The male victim received medical attention from EMS and was released at the scene.

Numerous concerned citizens remained at the scene and provided critical information for the investigation. Many of these concerned citizens also rendered first aid for the victims, prior to arrival of Police and EMS.

Following the investigation, Maupin was placed under arrest for two counts of Assault with a Deadly Weapon and one count of Mayhem. Maupin was found to be on probation for a prior offense of Battery.

Maupin was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked on the aforementioned violations.

The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the initial report of a vehicle attempting to run into Maupin is still on-going. Anyone with information regarding that incident is urged to contact UPD. UPD would like to remind residents to be vigilant in being aware of their surroundings and reporting any suspicious behavior or persons. Further, UPD would like to thank the concerned citizens who came to the assistance of victims and officers.

MET WITH ASSEMBLYMEMBER WOOD, requested support for small cannabis farmers. (Ted Williams)

QUIZ TONIGHT (THURSDAY) — No doubt your brains are being slowly sauteed in this current ‘heatwave.' That is not good, but don't panic, there is a solution. The answer, you will be pleased to hear, is near at hand. At Lauren's Restaurant in Boonville in fact, where tonight, April 25, at 7pm your brain matter will be massaged into action by a series of interesting questions in the form of The General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz. Hope to see you there; you know it makes sense. Cheers, Steve Sparks/Quiz Master

JIM DUNBAR, a pioneer in San Francisco's newstalk radio who survived an on-air shooting attack, has died at 89.

His daughter, Brooke Dunbar, said that Dunbar, a resident of Sonoma County, died Monday at his home.

Dunbar spent 37 years at KGO-AM, where he had a morning newstalk show. He was credited with helping the station go from last to first place in the Bay Area ratings for a quarter-century. Dunbar retired in 2000.

He was so well-known that a man claiming to be the Zodiac killer once called his show more than 50 times in two hours.

Dunbar also survived a 1973 shooting. A gunman fired at him but the studio's bulletproof glass saved Dunbar, who stayed on the air to describe the attack. Another KGO employee was killed before the gunman shot himself.

THE AV AMBULANCE MEMBERSHIP coverage year begins July 1st. You pay with a credit card using the paypal guest checkout after filling out an application on the website. Or wait for your paper version in your local mailbox.

www.andersonvalleyfire.org

LAPD DETECTIVES posing with their weapons, 1927

FACES IN THE FIRE, VOICES IN THE STREAM

Keden

One who walks with us, beyond our sight and for whom the bell tolls.

The bell shape of people's feelings

A bell appeared

whose tones became arrows

the heart is searching

the bell arrows brought it home.

---

When you live out on the edge, you're life goes in cycles and at this particular moment, it's time to look for subscribers for what I do, patrons, if you will. It's time now to move into reality. I would like to bring internet services into my cabin and, with the help of my web designer, expand my web footprint. Across the board.

https://www.billbradd.com/cogindex.html

FULL MOON over fog-draped sea, last Thursday, driving home from a good evening of poetry at Point Arena.

VETS IN THE VALLEY in June.

Dr. Burns from Mendocino Animal Hospital will be at the Anderson Valley Feed Store seeing patients on Thursday, June 20th. She's there between 2:00 and 4:00 pm. People can always check our Facebook page in the events section for more information - it's always posted when we're going to be there.

Thanks so much,

Michelle Fetzer

Mendocino Animal Hospital

THE GOLDEN GOOSE EGG

by Mark Scaramella

(Selected statements from Tuesday’s Fee Schedule Hearing at the Board of Supervisors)

Casey O'Neill, local farmer, policy chair of the Mendocino Cannabis Alliance:

“I would like to do a little compare and contrast. I farm vegetables. We sell at farmers markets. I pay a $35 to tell the Department of Ag what type of vegetables I grow and what volume. I register my scale at a dramatically lower scale price than if it was a cannabis scale. My vegetable scale cost me $15; my cannabis scale costs me $115 to register. This compare and contrast can be applied across the board. At times it becomes a bit frustrating. The reality is that cannabis is still being treated as something other than agriculture. That's why the fees are so high. That's why the permit processing is so expensive. There is an element of this happening at the state level, but at this point all of the things that are required to be done at the state level, we are requiring them to be done here locally and creating a duplicative process. The flip side of it is the CEQA question. I recognize that that is a big issue and whether or not the county's program will suffice for CEQA which saves cultivators significantly from having to do individual site-specific CEQAs. But why is it that for cannabis we are considering the minutia of the entire property? Why not just the cannabis? The reality is we are choosing to take this marginalized populace and put them under a hyper-microscope with the permitting program which is creating excessive cost overruns and long delays and the inability for county staff to be able to process all the paperwork because there's too many elements to it. I would love to say I have a magic bullet solution there. I don't. But it cost me approximately $60 to be a vegetable farmer and it cost me maybe $10,000 to be at cannabis farmer. I'm like $50,000 deep into permitting over the last couple of years already including building permits, the various state water boards, all the different things. The county does not deserve a lot of that frustration. A lot of it is at the state. I am voicing some frustration that — I apologize if I come across like I'm angry at you all because I'm not. But the reality is it's pretty broken.”

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“A Day In The Life Of A Cannabis Inspector”

by Sean Connell, Mendocino County Cannabis Program Manager.

“We understand that people feel this is a fairly simple process. I intend to show you the subtle complexities of this process. We estimate approximately 10 hours of work for a cannabis inspection because of the relative newness of our staff — the cannabis unit has experienced the loss of a staff member approximately every 6-8 months since its inception. Research leading into a cannabis inspection takes two hours to refresh the submission of the operations plan, examining their operations and cultivation plan to find out how, where, what type, if pesticides are used, the buildings that are used, the soil compounds, the garden layout, the locations. From there they will do a review of the site plan and balance that against our GIS which is our county parcel viewer and then ultimately end up with a reference on Google Earth so that they can find their route to the location. Many of these locations are off the main roads. It's important to remember that our county staff is traveling to all aspects of this county. Mendocino County is known for its road conditions and these sites are often in elevation off these main roads. It requires extensive knowledge of the landmarks to make sure they are on the right path. These are fairly new inspectors in this county. So their relationship to the rural aspects of this county does not exist. They are forced to do that through research and development. The primary role of our inspectors is to check compliance with canopy size for the location in order to determine the cannabis canopy size. It depends on the garden layout. We get asked questions like is this in a smart pot or is this in a raised bed? Or are they in individual planter boxes? Are they in rows? Are they terraced? Are they terraced with hoop houses on them? Are the hoop houses packed with plants? Are there walkways? I think you can see my point that these are not standard inspections that we are going out to do. When I was a building inspector that was vastly different. As a building inspector there were over 50 years of California regulations at a minimum to address how things should be done on the job site. Most people at this point in time are used to that standard. In cannabis we have two years of standards that we are trying to establish. And as we are trying to establish those minimums these ordinances have changed to create this industry. We average about four hours for that inspection which seems like a lot. As I accompany these inspectors I can assure you that we are on site for about four hours. There's a two-hour distance to drive and a roughly two hours return time. Then there are follow-up explanations as we continue to work with the applicants to make sure that we receive all of the proper documentation. It is an ongoing effort. Our ability to process these applications becomes much slower as we and the cultivators wait for the state to process portions of the application. So our work continues. The inspectors are constantly checking the program email, reaching out for the required documents to lighten their workload. Our inspectors have also assisted in the administrative portion of this program, actions like uploading documents, making phone calls, checking emails, checking documents for uploading to “Track It” [the County’s new task tracking software system] and individually filing those papers into the corresponding hard file. All those actions are done by the inspector. The initial thought was that the cost of the permits in this program would cover the cost of inspectors. It has become clear that that has not happened. We are here today to request that you approve these fee increases as we have requested them so that we can continue to do the work to increase the efficiency within this program and issue the permits in order to not be subsidized by this county any further.”

---

Supervisor Ted Williams:

“I did some research on this by going to a bar," Williams joked, "I talked to cultivators who for the most part told me that the program is ridiculous. It doesn't pencil out. The size that they are able to grow with all these fees and regulations — they just can't do it. They are staying in the black market. The program is chasing cultivation to the bottom whatever the bottom may be. While I 100% support cost recovery I don't think we should be subsidizing this program. I believe we need to look at ways to cut the amount of work we put into it. Imagine if we were to go out to the grape growers with a tape measure and measure the size of what they are growing and see whether they are within the permit and what to tax. It would be the same problem. We are doing far too much work. I don't want to bypass the Cultivation Ad Hoc Committee to bring ideas forward, but I would like an update from the Ad Hoc on what efforts are being made to reduce the amount of effort as it relates to the proposed fee schedule?”

---

Supervisor Carre Brown (responding to Williams):

“In traditional agriculture I think there was an explanation of building codes and how many years of progress — it's the same with traditional agriculture. You are going to plant your vines certain distances or near irrigation and based on whether you are doing hand picking or automation picking, that's the same for almost any of the types of agriculture that you deal with, but it's done and has been done certain ways for a very very long time. There's a reason for it. So I think with this new industry, and I hear what you're saying about the black market, it's a whole new world in what we are doing and when you stop to think about it agriculture itself struggles and these individuals that are farmers as well are finding out what it's like to be in the legal world and to be able to produce I will say crops, to be in traditional agriculture, this is what it is. It really is. Market is what creates the prices, prices and what individuals earn are what they have to pay the fees to support their families and I will say that because of the glut on the market that was also the dairy buyout where we had to sell two thirds of our herd of 340 head in order just to pay our operating loan for the year. So talking to me about agriculture, I've been there, done that, and I do understand. But there's no way we could sell on the black market because if we did government would put us out of business with fines, etc. I just wanted to add that on.”

---

Supervisor John McCowen:

“Looking at the cultivation ordinance with a view to the impact on the fee schedule is no more in our purview than looking at it by the cannabis Economic Development Ad Hoc. The fee schedule is related but it was created independently from the ordinance provisions. Unless you want to start knocking out a lot of the requirements in the ordinance which I believe would instantly put us at variance with state law. So the things that we ask be inspected pretty much mirror what state law calls for. So my answer would be: No, we have not been looking at the implications of the ordinance to the fee schedule.”

Williams: “I think we need to look at the amount of work that goes into every aspect of this program because even if we can justify the amount of work based on state regulation and we can come up with a fee schedule we are keeping people in the black market because they simply cannot afford to participate.”

---

There’s a lot to comment on here. But let’s just focus on the single biggest thing they danced around: the County is unnecessarily duplicating state inspections, resulting time consuming processing, high fees and long delays, causing large numbers of potential applicants to stay in the black market and not contribute fees or taxes, costing the County way too much money, and effectively killing the cannabis goose that has so far laid only goose eggs.

And yet, amazingly, not one of these well paid officials seems able to simply ask staff: Why are we duplicating state processes? Why not just do a simple zoning check, and then a check off of the applicable state documents being completed, and get out of the way and issue the permit?

Apparently, this simple yet significant step is beyond Mendo’s capacity to even conceive of.

A CALL FOR COMPASSION Toward Strangers In Distress

An interview with Mary Buckley, interim Executive Director of Plowshares (by Sarah Reith, KZYX).

kzyx.org/post/call-compassion-toward-strangers-distress#stream/0

UNDERSHERIFF MATT KENDALL, looking a lot like he'll be running for Sheriff, addressed the Supervisors on Tuesday:

"About 30 days ago I received an email from a woman to thank us for our good, hard work. Her son had been clean and sober for several years. He relapsed and wound up in county jail. The young man had swallowed some drugs in no small amount. He was beginning to have a medical issue. Our staff, including Captain Pearce, our jail commander, were making their rounds that morning when they noticed that this young man was appearing not to be in super good health. After a quick interview with him they got him to the hospital. They do this kind of business on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. But this woman contacted us to let us know that she was appreciative of the hard work our people do. She was glad she did not have to attend a funeral for her son. This is the type of work these guys do on a constant basis with good professional attitudes, and good public service in mind. We realize that the people in our jail — we've got some good people who made some poor choices. I think everyone of us knows a neighbor or friend or coworker who wound up in jail. These folks are taking responsibility and leading the charge making sure that we are taking good care of our people in Mendocino County.”

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 24, 2019

KATHERINE BOYCE, Ukiah. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

DARRELL CARADINE, Ukiah. Stolen vehicle, paraphernalia, obtaining another’s ID without permission, probation revocation.

NICKOLAS DUNSING, Fort Bragg. Attempted petty theft, probation revocation.

SAMANTHA HARNISCH, Piercy. Domestic abuse, child endangerment.

TAMMY HENDERSON, Boonville. Probation revocation.

ARTHUR HOBBS IV, Boonville. Under influence, paraphernalia, no license, probation revocation.

AARON KOSKI, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent Flyer)

ETHAN LOTT, Potter Valley. DUI, controlled substance, no license.

JOE BIDEN: PUFFERY VS. REALITY

by Norman Solomon

Let’s be blunt: As a supposed friend of American workers, Joe Biden is a phony. And now that he’s running for president, Biden’s huge task is to hide his phoniness.

From the outset, with dim prospects from small donors, the Biden campaign is depending on big checks from the rich and corporate elites who greatly appreciate his services rendered. “He must rely heavily, at least at first, upon an old-fashioned network of money bundlers -- political insiders, former ambassadors and business executives,” the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Biden has a media image that exudes down-to-earth caring and advocacy for regular folks. But his actual record is a very different story.

During the 1970s, in his first Senate term, Biden spouted white backlash rhetoric, used tropes pandering to racism and teamed up with arch segregationists against measures like busing for school integration. He went on to be a fount of racially charged appeals and “predators on our streets” oratory on the Senate floor as he led the successful effort to pass the now-notorious 1994 crime bill.

A gavel in Biden’s hand repeatedly proved to be dangerous. In 1991, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, Biden prevented key witnesses from testifying to corroborate Anita Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. In 2002, as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden was the Senate’s most crucial supporter of the Iraq invasion.

Meanwhile, for well over four decades -- while corporate media preened his image as “Lunch Bucket Joe” fighting for the middle class -- Biden continued his assist for strengthening oligarchy as a powerful champion of legalizing corporate plunder on a mind-boggling scale.

Now, Joe Biden has arrived as a presidential candidate to rescue the Democratic Party from Bernie Sanders.

Urgency is in the media air. Last week, the New York Times told readers that “Stop Sanders” Democrats were “agonizing over his momentum.” The story was front-page news. At the Washington Post, a two-sentence headline appeared just above a nice photo of Biden: “Far-Left Policies Will Drive a 2020 Defeat, Centrist Democrats Fear. So They’re Floating Alternatives.”

Biden is the most reliable alternative for corporate America. He has what Sanders completely lacks -- vast experience as an elected official serving the interests of credit-card companies, big banks, insurance firms and other parts of the financial services industry. His alignment with corporate interests has been comprehensive. It was a fulcrum of his entire political career when, in 1993, Sen. Biden voted yes while most Democrats in Congress voted against NAFTA.

In recent months, from his pro-corporate vantage point, Biden has been taking potshots at the progressive populism of Bernie Sanders. At a gathering in Alabama last fall, Biden said: “Guys, the wealthy are as patriotic as the poor. I know Bernie doesn’t like me saying that, but they are.” Later, Biden elaborated on the theme when he told an audience at the Brookings Institution, “I don’t think five hundred billionaires are the reason we’re in trouble. The folks at the top aren’t bad guys.”

Overall, in sharp contrast to the longstanding and continuing negative coverage of Sanders, mainstream media treatment of Biden often borders on reverential. The affection from so many high-profile political journalists toward Biden emerged yet again a few weeks ago during the uproar about his persistent pattern of intrusively touching women and girls. During one cable news show after another, reporters and pundits were at pains to emphasize his essential decency and fine qualities.

But lately, some independent-minded journalists have been exhuming what “Lunch Bucket Joe” is eager to keep buried. For instance:

** Libby Watson, Splinter News: “Joe Biden is telling striking workers he’s their friend while taking money from, and therefore being beholden to, the class of people oppressing them. According to Axios, Biden’s first fundraiser will be with David Cohen, the executive vice president of and principal lobbyist for Comcast. Comcast is one of America’s most hated companies, and for good reason. It represents everything that sucks for the modern consumer-citizen, for whom things like internet or TV access are extremely basic necessities, but who are usually given the option of purchasing it from just one or two companies.” What’s more, Comcast supports such policies as “ending net neutrality and repealing broadband privacy protections. . . . And Joe Biden is going to kick off his presidential campaign by begging for their money.”

** Ryan Cooper, The Week: “As a loyal toady of the large corporations (especially finance, insurance, and credit cards) that put their headquarters in Delaware because its suborned government allows them to evade regulations in other states, Biden voted for repeated rounds of deregulation in multiple areas and helped roll back anti-trust policy -- often siding with Republicans in the process. He was a key architect of the infamous 2005 bankruptcy reform bill which made means tests much more strict and near-impossible to discharge student loans in bankruptcy.”

** Paul Waldman, The American Prospect: “Joe Biden, we are told over and over, is the one who can speak to the disaffected white men angry at the loss of their primacy. He's the one who doesn’t like abortion, but is willing to let the ladies have them. He’s the one who tells white people to be nice to immigrants, even as he mirrors their xenophobia (‘You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent,’ he said in 2006). He’s the one who validates their racism and sexism while gently trying to assure them that they're still welcome in the Democratic Party. . . . It’s not yet clear what policy agenda Biden will propose, though it’s likely to be pretty standard Democratic fare that rejects some of the more ambitious goals other candidates have embraced. But Biden represents something more fundamental: a link to the politics and political style of the past.”

** Rebecca Traister, The Cut: “Much of what Democrats blame Republicans for was enabled, quite literally, by Biden: Justices whose confirmation to the Supreme Court he rubber-stamped worked to disembowel affirmative action, collective bargaining rights, reproductive rights, voting rights. . . . In his years in power, Biden and his party (elected thanks to a nonwhite base enfranchised in the 1960s) built the carceral state that disproportionately imprisons and disenfranchises people of color, as part of what Michelle Alexander has described as the New Jim Crow. With his failure to treat seriously claims of sexual harassment made against powerful men on their way to accruing more power (claims rooted in prohibitions that emerged from the feminist and civil-rights movements of the 1970s), Biden created a precedent that surely made it easier for accused harassers, including Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, to nonetheless ascend. Economic chasms and racial wealth gaps have yawned open, in part thanks to Joe Biden’s defenses of credit card companies, his support of that odious welfare-reform bill, his eagerness to support the repeal of Glass-Steagall.”

One of Biden’s illuminating actions came last year in Michigan when he gave a speech -- for a fee of $200,000 including “travel allowance” -- that praised the local Republican congressman, Fred Upton, just three weeks before the mid-term election. From the podium, the former vice president lauded Upton as “one of the finest guys I’ve ever worked with.” For good measure, Biden refused to endorse Upton’s Democratic opponent, who went on to lose by less than 5 percent.

Biden likes to present himself as a protector of the elderly. Campaigning for Sen. Bill Nelson in Florida last autumn, Biden denounced Republicans for aiming to “cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.” Yet five months earlier, speaking to the Brookings Institution on May 8, Biden spoke favorably of means testing that would go a long way toward damaging political support for Social Security and Medicare and smoothing the way for such cuts.

Indications of being a “moderate” and a “centrist” play well with the Washington press corps and corporate media, but amount to a surefire way to undermine enthusiasm and voter turnout from the base of the Democratic Party. The consequences have been catastrophic, and the danger of the party’s deference to corporate power looms ahead. Much touted by the same kind of insular punditry that insisted Hillary Clinton was an ideal candidate to defeat Donald Trump, the ostensible “electability” of Joe Biden has been refuted by careful analysis of data.

As a former Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention and a current coordinator of the relaunched independent Bernie Delegates Network for 2019, I remain convinced that the media meme about choosing between strong progressive commitments and capacity to defeat Trump is a false choice. On the contrary, Biden exemplifies a disastrous approach of jettisoning progressive principles and failing to provide a progressive populist alternative to right-wing populism. That’s the history of 2016. It should not be repeated.

(Norman Solomon is cofounder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 Democratic National Convention and is currently a coordinator of the relaunched independent Bernie Delegates Network. Solomon is the author of a dozen books including "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.")

“I’M NOT LOOKING to set the world on fire, but I need something to challenge me. It feels like I’m reaching a critical juncture and I need to make some sort of decision. Up until now I’ve just been floating along. I’ve been at the same job for a long time. I do the same things day in and day out: smoking, drinking, things like that. It’s just so easy to be a consumer. It’s so easy to reach for pleasure and avoid pain, so that you never have to face the future or think about getting old. I don’t have anything elaborate in mind. Maybe just get out more, or move to a new place. Maybe have my son live with me for awhile. I just want to prove that I can set a course and do the things I say I’m going to do. Or if I can’t, I at least want to be honest with myself. So I can stop beating myself up about it.”

(Sydney, Australia)

GET REAL, CONGRESS

Editor,

In 18 months, Americans will decide if they want to get rid of Donald Trump. Yet many Democrats in Congress are absorbed by the notion of impeachment and/or finding him guilty of no-nos. Given the snail’s pace of the system, it’s unlikely that anything will happen before the election. Thus, those congressmen are wasting their time. More important, they are wasting the resources of the American people. Even if the Democratic Congress voted to impeach, the Republican Senate wouldn’t convict. Waste of time.

We have tough problems that need solutions — infrastructure, immigration, climate, terrorism, health care, education, gun control, North Korea, Iran, Russia, trade, election interference and racism, all of which are far more important than who sits in the White House.

Members of Congress make a nice salary ($174,000). They enjoy free health care, generous pensions and expense accounts. Spending time grandstanding with anti-Trump lawsuits, subpoenas, committee meetings and uncountable hours mouthing off to TV cheats the American taxpayer. Instead of focusing on their anti-Trump obsession, they should be working on legislation that solves real problems and let the American people decide if Trump should be tossed.

Michael Burwen

Petaluma

NEO-MAY DAY

May Day in Fort Bragg

March and Rally with us on May 1, 2019.

1 pm: march, 1:30: speakers, music, refreshments. Celebrating Workers Day and Welcoming Spring!

Let's gather in solidarity for the rights of workers, women, LGBT, and immigrants, a liveable wage, and against racism and the unfair treatment of immigrants. Signs will be available, but please bring your own special signs. Share chants, songs and words! Refreshment provided. Also, if you wish, bring food or drink to share.

The Fort Bragg Freedom Singers, led by Irene Malone, will be performing.

Sponsored by Occupy Mendocino

mendocino.craigslist.org/eve/d/caspar-may-day-in-fort-bragg/6872925257.html

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TWENTY-TWO MONTHS

by Marilyn Davin

Twenty-two months is enough time to conceive and deliver two babies back to back; earn an AA degree from your local community college; serve one term in the U.S. House of Representatives; serve three “average” deployments in the endless war in the Middle East that we started; (almost) see a rare blue moon; learn the basics of a foreign language; or, as we Democrats did, spend 22 precious and irretrievable backward-looking months attacking President Donald Trump when we could have been hard at work creating a vision for the future that Americans will actually vote for in the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

Fellow Democrats, the party’s over and no matter how good it feels to wallow in the sins of our president, it’s time to refocus. The rumblings to resist this change have already begun: Well, Mueller’s report didn’t REALLY exonerate him, did it? What about all the other crooked, possibly illegal stuff Trump did in areas outside of Russia? What about, what about, what about?

It doesn’t matter. Attacking Trump is not a political strategy. Hanging on to this fanatical communications thread and further proclaiming the president’s alleged misdeeds and character shortcomings only strengthen Trump’s base when proved to be legally toothless: ‘More witch hunts’, his supporters, feeling vindicated, will say, shaking their heads at the idiocy and shortsightedness of our Democratic leadership. Fact: A sitting president will not be arrested, indicted, face a jury of his or her peers, or answer to any other legal reckoning while in office. Even if Trump could somehow be removed from office, which he can’t be, all we would get in the end for our trouble is Mike Pence, in some ways worse than Trump himself. Nationwide abortion ban, anyone, with determinate prison sentences? You might not catch Pence in the back of the bus with his pants down in the company of a porn star, but his ideological discipline instead of Trump’s chaos would put a devastating damper on civil liberties – emphasis on “civil.” Pence answers to only one authority, and it’s nobody who walks the earth.

All important issues matter, whether it’s climate change, immigration, or any of a dozen other issues. But the most basic one, and unsurprisingly also the thorniest one, is income inequality. A strong middle class with livable wages and benefits like health insurance and pensions can weather things like reasonable medical insurance copays and reasonable public college tuition. But neither party wants to touch income inequality because so many in power tenaciously cling to their skyrocketing stock portfolios, boosted in part by their exorbitant federal medical benefits (no ACA takers here), six-figure pensions, and other perks – all supported, of course, by a regulatory system that provides ample legal opportunities to hide profits and allows even further tax reductions for the rich, despite the fact that Americans already pay among the lowest income taxes in the western world.

It’s hard to switch gears. Buggy makers had to find other jobs, ditto for the folks who made panty hose, manual typewriters, and Madras shirts. The entire “Impeach Trump, We Hate Him” apparatus has to come down immediately, talking head by talking head, op-ed by op-ed, politician by politician.

We, as Democrats, have to drive this change. If not us, who else is around to do it? This doesn’t have to be a sad thing, even if our favorite anti-Trump pundits have to step off their soap boxes and find something else to do (sorry, Tom Steyer, I’m sure you can find another cause to bankroll). With the right perspective, this could be our defining moment. There will always be naysayers; we just have to move their noise to the background. I still hear about the ultimate futility of political change, that times are different now, that the middle class (what’s left of it) is lucky to have what it has given global competition, that it’s not the 1950s anymore, yada yada.

I don’t accept this. We don’t have 22 months anymore but we have 19 months to start down the road to a more egalitarian future and thoughtfully select a presidential candidate both electable (a topic for a different sort of column) and able to wisely assume the mantle of our country’s standard-bearer into that future. The yogis believe that looking to the past is like looking down the barrel of a gun. We should listen to them. The clock is ticking.

CHOMSKY: By Focusing on Russia, Democrats Handed Trump a “Huge Gift” & Possibly the 2020 Election

democracynow.org/2019/4/18/chomsky_by_focusing_on_russia_democrats

DOOMER COMMENTS ONE, TWO, THREE, AND FOUR

[1] About the schemes being used to keep this system propped up. I would argue that those behind these schemes are the true dark deep state. Forget Mueller and all this political theater on public display. It’s all just stage magic to help conceal the non-public, real true dark deep state of keeping the money and power flowing the way they want it to flow. And you can be certain the direction of that flow is not downstream. Concerning Trump, last I recall he essentially has given the pentagon an open checkbook. Goldman Sachs runs the treasury, yet again. Billionaires have comprised much of his cabinet. What more do people need to see? Impeachment wont do a thing. The system is entrenched and the “useless eaters” readily accept their place. Which goes bavk to my original statement that this system will not change from within.

[2] The one percenters already live in fortified and walled compounds. They also have armies of private security. They don’t worry about anything now and they won’t be worried then. A Black Swan for them however would be a foreign power that would offer to rescue the masses from the one percenter tyranny by blowing the one percenters away into oblivion. They probably have a contingency plan for this too.

[3] Yes, absolutely true. Of course, by then the One Percenters will retreat into fortified compounds blissfully unconcerned with the lingering, unpleasant deaths the “useless eaters” will be dying because by then they will own everything thanks to the schemes to keep the system propped up that are underway right now. But we’ve got to impeach Trumpadumpa, then everything will be just peachy-keen, right? Right??!!

[4] Everything in this country will be sacrificed to Wall Street and the MIC before the ship goes down. As long as there’s any oil, energy, propaganda media, and any ability to deliver any wealth whatsoever to the upper tiers of this system, the game will continue until it is broken by an unstoppable, unforeseen cause. They will take any wealth possible from the hinterlands and deliver it by horseback if needed to keep the gluttonous MIC and financial sector going. All the while the peons will get red, white and blue smoke blown up their backsides about the patriotism of the whole charade. All the while, they will keep us fighting over the scraps with left/right, capitalism/socialism, black/white, men/women, etc… bullshit debates while the corpse is picked clean. Then, they’ll incite the heavy violence so that we all fight each other over shit that doesn’t matter while the wealthy who have fleeced us watch the show. Wash, rinse, repeat.

REDEMPTION IS UNLABELED

Dear Editor,

In your April 17th issue on page 3 there was full page Christian screed that was not shown to be advertisement. I did not know that the AVA is a religious periodical. I take issue with you on three counts: First, that Jesus is not even the real name of that man.

Second, that it is disputed by modern historians as to whether that man even lived at all.

Thirdly the belief that any human being can die and come back to life is nothing but a shared delusion. There were about 500 of his friends and followers at his death and not one of them was a witness to his coming out of that cave.

Further, the resurrection is a borrowed concept, since there were a number of religions around before Christianity that had as a article of faith the concept of resurrection The word Lord was used by the Canaanites to refer to Ba'al; used by the Buddhists to refer to Buddha; used by the Jains to refer to Mahavira; and by the Aztecs to refer to their deities.'

Also, the screed ends with "Redemption is Beautiful." This assumes that there is a being from whom redemption is offered. That would be a god, and since all of the gods believed in prior to Yahweh we now see as myths, it is totally reasonable to see the Currently believed in god as just that, a myth.

I have subscribed to your paper for over 20 years and, as an atheist, was sorely troubled to see that on page 3. Was it an omission to not label it an advertisement or is it now the editorial policy of your paper to proselytize for a particular religion?

Lee Simon In Virginia, the cradle of religious freedom

BOTANICAL GARDENS IS HIRING — TWO POSITIONS!

Another wonderful person to join our staff (PT/seasonal) at Rhody's Cafe. We are also looking for a part time Cleaning Specialist (PT). Come be part of a fun team working in beautiful surroundings. Application and full job descriptions available at

https://www.gardenbythesea.org/about/employment/

T0 apply, please review the full job descriptions, complete an application, and apply in person at 18220 N Hwy 1

LOSING HEART

Dear Supervisors Williams and Haschak,

Thank you for having the courage and independence to vote against the cannabis fee increases yesterday. The county's small family farmers stand with you.

Soon, Flow Kana, which partners with the small farmers and is totally vested in their success, will be all that stands in the way of really big commercial cannabis operations from dominating Mendocino County's heirloom cannabis industry.

Please take note. I am aware of agents and other third-parties, acting on behalf of Acreage Holdings (stock symbol, ACRGF), Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR), and most importantly, Canopy Grow Corporation (CGC), are here -- most recently, they are here in Northern California. And they already have established business interests in Southern California, and in many states where cannabis is de-criminalized. These companies have billion-dollar capitalizations. They are the 800-pound gorilla.

Please see my letter below.

Yours very truly,

John Sakowicz

---

April 24

To the Editor:

Kudos to Supervisors Haschak and Williams for voting against county cannabis fee increases at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting on April 23. As the Anderson Valley Advertiser succinctly stated in their blog, "Mendocino County Today" (April 24): "Of course, their [Williams and Haschak] sensible arguments against the increase failed to sway the other three Angelo-dependent Supes."

Indeed, County CEO Carmel Angelo calls the shots.

In raising permit fees -- an average of 150 per cent increases across the board -- the BOS erects yet another barrier to the small cannabis farmer who wants to be legal and fully compliant.

Why raise the fees?

To support yet another county bureaucracy running a deficit. Yup. Ten (10) new county employees in the county's cannabis permit office running a deficit of $2.5 million. And all they seem to do is either deny permit applications or issue only temporary permits.

The deficit is really troubling, because Angelo had hoped that cannabis would be a bonanza in new taxes.

But with the new fee schedule and impossible regulations, our small family farmers growing heirloom cannabis will be pushed out of the market. Only big commercial growers, like those in Southern California, will be remain.

A little background.

Mendocino County's cannabis permitting and licensing office was formed after a couple of years of contentious public hearings to implement the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA), which was approved by the State Legislature and signed into law by the Governor in 2015 (see Assembly Bills 243 and 266, and Senate Bill 643) and create a licensing and regulatory framework for medical cannabis. With the passage of Proposition 64, Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) in November 2016, the county's cannabis permitting and licensing Office has also taken on the task of developing local regulations to implement AUMA. The State’s Emergency Regulations, SB 94, have allowed the cannabis permitting and licensing office to regulate both medical and recreational commercial cannabis businesses under the Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA).

But things are different here in Mendoland. We have our own way of doing business. Instead of regulating the cannabis supply chain of cultivation, manufacture, distribution, and retail -- as the law intended -- we've seen Mendocino County lose its leadership position in cannabis going back 40 or 50 years to California's other counties and to other states. We've seen constant turnover in the leadership of Mendocino County's cannabis office. We've seen staff numbers and payroll in this office increase to double digits. As mentioned, we've seen deficits. We've seen county staff who have no agriculture background -- they are zoning, and building and planning policy wonks -- dictate regulations and best management practices to real farmers, most with many years of experience. Even intergenerational experience. And worst of all, we've seen those very same small family farmers frustrated and driven to near-bankruptcy.

They are losing heart.

These permit increases may be the last straw.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

#HELPMETOO

Dear people,

You all would have to admit that if you look at parole deeply, its response to black men is not hesitant at all. Look at Ukiah. At first there were only a few. But the situation and location of the crime plus where that person’s family is should make out where that person should be.

Take me. I'm from Santa Cruz. Unfortunately the police and parole response was in Ukiah even though my family is in Richmond and other parts of the East Bay.

I am not the only black man forced to be homeless. My family doesn't have money like that. I have discovered that they don't care about me and tend to respond with, "We have no funds.”

So I sincerely have to look at these complications and ask if you are willing to help me parole. It can not be done all by yourself and right now I'm all alone.

In these dark times I'm asking for donations and I intend not hesitate to get on my feet and be a different person than I was before.

You can put money on my books at the jail and it would be much appreciated. God bless!

helpmetoo.

Manuel Lamar

Ukiah