- Naval Response
- Hendy Day
- County Salaries
- Pot Simplified
- AV Reunion
- New Economy
- Mendo Realities
- Bookkeeper Wanted
- Village Party
- No Second
- Poachers Poached
- Wildflower Show
- Disposable Culture
- Tech Support
- Ed & Me
- Homeless Camp
- Previous Catches
- Public Banking
- Chewie
- Dem Demise
- Corporate Joe
- Biden's Court
- Beachers
- General Lee
- Ruining Journalism
- Poetry Workshop
- Trumpy Economy
- Seaweed Harvesters
- Taxes
- War Masters
- Helms Fleet
- Empty Bowls
- Planning Agenda
- FBI Carlin
- Cover
- Pop Assange
- Trashy
- Oil Control
- Dissolution
- Impeachable Donny
- Marco Radio
- Family
- Climate Talks
- Flea Market
- Mother's Day
Just in from MSP...
FIRST REPORT ON COAST SOCIAL MEDIA ON NAVY MEETING IN FORT BRAGG
MSP noted this post Friday night (thank you Davina):
“Went to the Navy presentation tonight and got to have some indepth discussion with Navy spokespeople who were pretty much just there to put on a smiling face. Aside from making them intensely uncomfortable with my questions (which, by the way, they could not answer), what I took away from the evening was,
- They are going to do offshore testing whether we like it or not, and
- Their script needs adjusting. ?
Seriously, though; they admit that they will be dumping 20,000 tons of pollutants, and will be using sonar and other weapons tests that will affect marine life, that they have a 500,000 marine mammal impact limit, etc, etc, yet follow it up with, ‘We will do our best to keep impact to a minimal amount.’
It seems like their job was to gently admit the harm they will do and try to package it up to sound pretty.
Navy to the group: ‘Most of the testing will be offshore in Washington and Puget Sound and even Oregon; here it will be minimal, so you're not affected as badly.’
Me above the fray: ‘WE CARE ABOUT THOSE AREAS TOO!’
I kinda felt bad for them; they are just spokespeople and our community tore them apart. ? But I was also very proud of our community for taking a stand. ?
If you have a meeting coming up near you, I encourage you to attend!”
HENDY WOODS GALA & FOREST FESTIVAL. Sunday! May 5th. Noon-3pm. Hendy Woods State Park, Philo.
A Community Celebration of Hendy Woods State Park
FREE Day Use Entry for Mendocino County Residents - know your zip code
Games for All Ages, May Pole, Guided Hikes
Wear Your Forest-themed Costume: Creatures, Plants, Bugs, Slugs, Lichen
Snacks Provided, BBQs available
WHO MADE WHAT IN COUNTY OF MENDOCINO
You bet MSP wanted to take a look at who made what for the County of Mendocino. As with the other salaries listed, the latest year for information was 2017:
https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2017/mendocino-county/
(Via MendocinoSportsPlus)
NO DUPLICATION
Greetings.
Mr. Scaramella's report/article on the recent Board of Supervisors' meeting in the 1 May Anderson Valley Advertiser seemed excellent. It was, I believe, fair to both sides of the marijuana permitting problem that has arisen in Mendocino Country.
I agree with Mr. Williams's belief that the program should (at a minimum) cover the county's costs and, that the problem is, we are doing too much.
I also agree with Mr Scaramella's conclusion which I interpreted to mean that the county should not be doing the state's job.
Perhaps what happened is that with the advent of legalization and specific state policy, the county bureaucracy did what bureaucracies do. With some exceptions, it is not local, county, government’s job to enforce federal and state regulations and laws.
We do not set up road blocks at the county line to insure that no unpermitted produce has been imported from out of state or that no raw butter from France or unprocessed sausage from the Ukraine is entering the county.
We do not check citizenship status when an application for a library card or a building permit or a business license is made.
Nor do we seek to verify the accuracy of previously filed tax returns, state or federal, when there is an interaction with the county.
It seems to me the pot permitting process should be simple. Someone applies for a permit which includes the responsible human, not corporate, party's name, plus the location and size of the intended garden.
The permit fees could be based on the size of the garden, the volume, by weight, of the product or any similar metric to distinguish between a personal grow (ex-sheriff Tony Craver's 100 sq.ft comes to mind) and the various sized larger, possibly commercial, grows.
The metric should relate to area, not plant number(s) since some growers brag of 5-10 pound plants. (Even with a 6 plant "line," 60 pounds is beyond personal use).
Some inspections might need to occur to insure honesty in permit applications, but leave state requirements to the state. Violations could be misdemeanors, resulting in confiscation of the entire crop plus fines.
Monthly lists of permits issued might be sent to CalFire and Water Quality and Fish and Game, but, should NOT be within the purview of the county inspections.
Peter Lit
Elk
AV HIGH ALL-CLASSES REUNION PLANNED FOR 2020
Greetings all… another all-classes reunion for graduates of Anderson Valley High is underway for 2020. Sheri Mathias Hansen has posted the following on Facebook to encourage responses from us. No date has been set, but the site will be on the grounds of the Little Red School House museum on highway 128, across from the Anderson Valley Elementary School. For those not on Facebook, or if you did not see Sheri's initial post, here it is…
To all AV Grads, I think 2020 is a great year to have another All Year reunion. As we did for the last reunion, I'd like to form a committee with folks interested in making it happen. You don't have to be here…we can meet on the phone etc…just need ideas and suggestions and a plan. Those of us who are local can then implement the plan. I would like to use the local museum as the site. We have a new meeting room with a mini kitchen and I think it would be a nice venue. Looking forward to your responses. I am on messenger - sheri hansen or you can text 707-272-7248 or you can email sherihansen1@aol.com Again - this is an ALL YEAR reunion!
Thanks, Sheri
I encourage any of you with reunion suggestions to reach out to Sheri. And so hoping those of you from our class of 1974 will make plans to attend… after the initial committee meeting, I'm sure a date will be set for next year. 2020 will mark 46 YEARS since we all graduated together! Our reunion in 2015 was such a great success - I hope we can repeat that and more!
THE NEW ECONOMY
tattoo places
pay day loan
bail bonds
Collection Agency
Credit Repair
Debt Consolidation
Immigration offices
fast food joints,
liquor stores,
Bars
pawn shops,
we buy gold
used car lots
prisons,
dollar stores,
gov’t offices,
storage units
title loans
Bail Bonds
Casinos and Gambling
empty stores
Boarded up abandoned
Cigars, Pipes, Tobaccos
Electronic Cigarettes
Nail salons
Dollar stores and Walmart
Diet Programs
planned parenthood
Bad Chinese restaurants
Marijuana stores
Massage parlors
Methadone clinics
Military Recruiting Centers
reverse mortgage authorized providers
sex doll rental places
women shelters
islamic cultural centres
sinkholes
Apple stores
authorized marijuana resellers
late term abortions clinics
discount sperm banks
same sex marriage haberdashers & oufitters
detox centres
homeless camps in public parks
crumbling bridges
S&M sex toys/shops
empty pedestals of statutes of Historical Supporters of White Supremacy
overweight female fire chiefs
face threading parlors
african bees
credit consolidation experts
pet grooming salons
pet cemeteries
pet bordellos (coming soon)
MR. WENDEL COMMENTS:
re: A PLAN FOR MEASURE B-PART 2
Why does a county with a population of fewer than 90,000 need 3 different Crisis Residential Treatment Centers instead of a single center? This is a rural area and in order to survive we have to be willing to travel a bit throughout the county for our needs. The tax revenue won’t support 3 facilities and then there will be clambering to obtain more funds from residents to rescue us from yet another bad decision. How can Health and Human Services staff and maintain 3 facilities when they can’t get proper care to those who need it to avoid a crisis situation? We are spending millions of dollars per year on a small number of people, yet mental health services are ineffectual and nonexistent. If the decision was put up to the voters, I’d vote for a PHF, CRTC and an Addiction Recovery Center all on the same, clearly divided, property.
This “spending because it’s there” reminds me of the Hospitality Center in Fort Bragg buying the huge, old hotel with grant money for homeless services but unable to afford proper maintenance of the building while providing substandard services. Or the City of Fort Bragg creating the trail along the bluffs without maintenance costs determined; they are now using part of the TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) increase to pay for maintenance after they realized that there was not enough staff or money to maintain the completed trail. Taxpayers to the rescue, yet again.
AV BREWING NEEDS A BOOKKEEPER
HOUSE PARTY MAY 12TH
Please see attached for the details on the party to celebrate all AV Village affiliates: Members, Volunteers, Service Providers, supporters, and the success of the Village in general. It is on Sunday, May 12, (our usual monthly meeting time) from 4:00 to 6:00 pm at 13325 Estate Drive in Boonville (the LaPaille/Thomas house).
Refreshments provided!
Gwyn Leeman-Smith gwynleeman@gmail.com
COMMITTEE IMPLODES, TAKES DOWN NEWBIE
by Rex Gressett
It crept out of the shadows like a slime thing and presented itself at the Fort Bragg city council meeting wrapped in ambiguity.
It was a little plot, a one-man power grab. It was ugly but a little silly, certainly not a threat, and no problem for the City Council. They disposed of it with the contempt it deserved. But for newbie Councilperson Tess Albin-Smith it was a massive embarrassment. For Scott Menzies, it was the end of a sweet little dream.
In the years since Menzies lost the 2014 Council election, he has been absent from the political dialogue. But privately he had been doing some deep thinking. Obviously fair elections were standing in the way of his ambitions
Easy fix: change the election system.
The CVRA (California Voting Rights Act) and the Fort Bragg response to it, the ESRC (Election System Review Committee) were heaven-sent for Menzies.
Menzies jumped on it with both boots and Tess Albin-Smith jumped with him.
In case you came in late, general elections in Fort Bragg are effectively over. We are just waiting for the ax to fall.
The California Voting Rights Act divides the city into districts and changes general elections into tiny neighborhood contests. Instead of the rigorous selection of the very best candidates, voters get to choose from any one of their immediate neighbors.
Districts in Fort Bragg will be limited to about 500 voters. You can pick from any one of them, foolish or ambitious enough to run. In an act of monumental cowardness and contempt for democracy, the California legislature rigged the system so that any attorney could force districting on any elected body.
The legislature paved the path to fake democracy with gold. Attorneys routinely take home million-dollar, sometimes multi-million-dollar, settlements suing cities under the new law. Of course, cities fight to keep general elections, but so far, every one of them has lost the fight; only tiny Fort Bragg has managed a brief reprieve.
In Fort Bragg, we are simply waiting for the end.
The City Council doesn't know what to do about the California Voting Rights Act, but they are very sure voters won't like it, and they are devoutly hoping they won't be blamed. Not that it will affect them.
Mayor Will Lee told me Wednesday he thinks he can be elected as a neighborhood representative even if we do lose our most basic electoral rights to a general election.
The Council doesn't talk about it of course, instead, under the duress of legal pressure, they appointed a committee to do nothing officially. The Election System Review Committee was tasked with the thankless and hopeless task of working out a solution to a problem that has no solution.
Every cloud has a silver lining for somebody. In this assault on democratic freedom, Scott Menzies discerned opportunity. His vision was “Ranked-Choice Voting.” Ranked choice voting is an innovative system where every voter votes for EVERY candidate.
Huh?
Technically, it is voting — but practically it flies in the face of every value we hold dear in our politically engaged little community. In ranked-choice voting, you don’t vote against anyone (God forbid); instead, you “rank” the candidates; first choice, second choice, third choice, and so on.
Scott Menzies is on record saying that back in 2014 he MUST have been everybody's SECOND choice. All the Will Lee voters and all the Bernie Norvell voters surely liked the immensely charming Mr. Menzies at least a little. How could they not?
Ranked-choice voting will not protect the city from districting. The city can change the voting system or sue the state or line up and scream, but it cannot stop California Voting Rights Act districting.
At least none of the hundreds of California cities and school boards have stopped it.
The Election System Review Committee was never intended to actually DO anything. It couldn’t do anything and it didn’t do anything. But neither would they cave in to Scott Menzies cherished plan for ranked choice voting.
When the committee balked at Menzies’ rapid advocacy for his own special project, Tess Albin-Smith broke the seven-person committee into subcommittees of TWO. She and Scott went off to talk about ranked-choice voting between the two of them.
When the city council convened, they were a little surprised to find that Tess Albin-Smith and her fellow subcommittee person, Mr. Menzies had bypassed the committee and were asking for a letter of support from the City Council supporting Menzies ranked-choice voting system.
Councilman Lindy Peters shot it down like a pro. Councilperson Tess Albin-Smith, devoid of parliamentary savvy, put it up for a motion anyway. Perhaps for the first time ever — a Councilperson presented a motion to the Council that failed for lack of a second. Has that ever happened in the long historical record?
The Election System Review Committee was scheduled to meet this week. Mayor Lee and Tess Albin Smith stopped that. The committee has formally imploded. Our new Mayor tells me the Council needs to “rethink the whole business."
DA CRACKS DOWN ON POACHERS
On April 25, 2019, two defendants, Thephangon ("Tim") Nonnarath, age 50, of Oakley, and Nopphavanh ("Aaron") Nonnarath, age 41, also of Oakley, each entered no contest pleas to being part of a felony conspiracy to unlawfully take abalone for commercial purposes.
For all purposes, including the imposition of criminal sanctions, a no contest plea to a felony is identical in all aspects to a guilty plea.
These were the last two of five defendants to fall on a felony conviction for conspiratorial crimes occurring during the 2016 and 2017 abalone seasons.
These defendants were part of a larger conspiracy to unlawfully take abalone on the North Coast, transport their take south, and unlawfully sell same for profit in the Bay Area.
These defendants will be sentenced on July 9th at 1:30 o'clock in the afternoon in Department G of the Ukiah courthouse.
The attorney who has been directing the prosecution of these defendants is Deputy District Attorney Tim Stoen. The case was was exhaustively investigated by wardens of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman will be the sentencing judge on July 9th.
THEY HAVE KEPT the neon sign from 1949 working, and the Fresno business is still open… In old conservative America, people believed in keeping stuff and fixing it. Now the washer motor goes into the trash and auto products like alternators are shipped 7000 miles to be fixed. NEVER IN AMERICA right? That important value has been lost. The shoe repairman, TV repairman and even the printer repairman are gone, at a time when people supposedly are worried about environmental degradation. Everything is disposable plastic trash, purchased equally by "conservatives" and by the people who complain about Global warming but universally buy disposable imported trash that could never be fixed, and don't see a problem. Most would die before paying a dollar more for something made or fixed locally, despite the gigantic postive impact NOT throwing things away or the negative of buying imports would have.
(Frank Hartzell)
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
May 7 & May 9, 2019. Bring your Smart Phones and iPad or Tablet and your questions.
Please RSVP at the Senior Center 707-895-3609 (open Tuesday and Thursday 10 to 4).
http://avseniorcenter.blogspot.com
ED & ME
by Paul Modic
Why does Ed Denson get to eat hamburgers, french fries, and a milk shake and I don't? Why does Ed get to live for now, eat anything he wants, and I have to worry about the future? Unlike the rest of us nobodies Ed is a Somebody. When people were posting birthday greetings on his page recently I wanted to say, “Happy birthday Ed! Most likely local to get a New York Times obituary!” Ed probably would have chuckled but as he had a pretty bad cold at the time I restrained myself. (Last local to get a New York Times obit was Ed's neighbor Frank Cieciorka, the artist famous for his rebel fist. What is it about Alderpoint?)
Ed, pushing eighty, seems to be a junk food junkie as well as appreciator of all things culinary, from highbrow to low. Why do we like to put negative food value items, and downright unhealthy things, into our mouths, chew them up, and swallow? Let us examine the humble muffin: I eat the muffin and there is pleasure in that act. All the verboten ingredients like sugar, salt, fat, and even the maligned wheat coalesce in the mouth, the brain says hooray, and whoopie that was good! However ten minutes later can you even remember the experience, the taste, and the delightful swallowing?
No, it's gone. So if you can't live for the delectable treats the earth, and bakery, provides then where can you find your gustatory pleasure? I find it in my quarterly blood tests, the competitive quest to lower my fat and sugar numbers. That's where I get my fun now. For the last six months I've been on a diet of almost exclusively healthy foods including copious amounts of vegetables. Eating my medicinal salads, sauteed veggies, green drinks with beans and acceptable meats like chicken and turkey is very boring and I feel like a horse munching through those huge platters of vegetables. I was rewarded with my latest test results and often gaze at them proudly. (I have to say, or she will be pissed, that I couldn't have done it without my chef, who comes in once a week to cook mountains of horse food as a work/trade for rent.)
I'm scared. I just want to grow old with the least amounts of ailments as possible, and see how long I can go without taking drugs.
Like most of us I admire and respect Ed Denson. Ed became a lawyer at fucking sixty after many other colorful careers including manager of Country Joe and the Fish. He has been and is a tireless advocate for all of us out here in the outlaw regions. He lives life to the fullest and many depend on him as he tools thousands of miles to courthouses in his old Volvos over mountains and vales. He's always there for us with a phone call or a moment on the street.
A few years ago I stopped him on the sidewalk outside the credit union with a question. “Ed, if I'm over the limit and I hear the cops coming should I stay or should I go?”
“Well, you should get under the limit,” he said.
“No Ed, that's not going to happen,” I said.
“Then skedaddle,” he said. Sage advice. Skedaddle! I handed him twenty bucks. Another time I called him from the border after I thought Customs had found my cash stash and confiscated it. He gave me some long-distance advice and a few months later when I saw his Volvo out front of his law office I popped in and handed him a fifty. “Thanks Ed.”
Today I sign up for Medicare. (Yup, “the kid” is old.) Tomorrow Ed may finally be cut off from BLTs, Mexican Cokes, hamburgers, french fries, milk shakes, and double chocolate cake.
We will survive, until we don't.
ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS - Encampment sparks complaints - UPD says group is not violating any laws
by Justine Frederiksen
A growing homeless encampment at the corner of South State Street and Observatory Avenue is creating frustration and concern among residents who have called the Ukiah Police Department repeatedly over the past several weeks to complain about it.
“It started out as a four-by-six tarp, and now it looks like a mini-apartment,” said a Ukiah resident who did not want her name used. She said she drives by the encampment frequently on her way to appointments and called the UPD April 26 after seeing it had grown significantly in size. “It’s about 20-feet long now, and there are at least six people there, plus dogs. And where are they all pooping? There is no basic hygiene services there.
“Money has poured into this community to deal with the problem (of homelessness), but the fact is, it’s still on the sidewalks. It pisses me off that this is still allowed,” she said, describing it as a health risk to have people urinating and defecating on and near sidewalks, parking lots, businesses and in other public areas such as parks and sports fields.
“My attitude is, if every single person called the cops on the (crap) that is happening with the transients, the cops would do something about it,” she said. “This isn’t healthy, this is filth. (Residents who pay taxes) pay and pay and pay — why should we be subjected to this on our sidewalks? It pisses me off. I’m tired of the police department just ‘counseling’ them.”
When asked about the encampment at South State Street and Observatory Avenue, the UPD said officers have responded to it, but did not find criminal violations to address.
“It is on private property and the owners of the property are allowing them to stay there,” said UPD Capt. Sean Kaeser, adding that the encampment was not technically blocking the public right-of-way. When asked whether officers could arrest those campers or others for defecating in public, Kaeser said that an officer has to witness the act in order to cite someone for it.
“And I don’t think that’s what the community wants us to be doing, spending all our time arresting people for pooping,” said UPD Chief Justin Wyatt, adding that while he is “happy to arrest people for criminal violations,” including defecating in public, he said that no amount of arresting, fining and jailing people is going to solve the larger issue that the community is having with those who are living on the street.
“We cannot arrest ourselves out of this problem,” Wyatt said, pointing to Dr. Robert Marbut’s list of recommendations that were presented to Mendocino County officials last year as proven ways to reduce the number of people living on the street. He said that his department is addressing the aspects of the Marbut report that it can, such as encampments, which Marbut described as a public health to risk to both the people living there and the surrounding community, and shopping carts, which Marbut described as mobile encampments.
The shopping cart issue was relatively simple for the UPD to address once the city passed an ordinance making it an illegal possession of private property to use a cart for anything other than shopping. “And that helped,” said Kaeser. “You don’t see many people using shopping carts anymore, but now they use other things, like baby strollers.”
As far as encampments, Wyatt said his officers are focusing on keeping people “out of the waterways” like creeks and the river, but their ability to cite people in other areas is limited because of the recent Martin v. Boise decision of the Ninth District Court of Appeals that declared “as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.”
“And whether we have a shelter open or not does not immediately address that, because there can be many reasons why someone cannot stay at a shelter,” said Kaeser, explaining that many people have substance abuse or mental health problems that preclude them from staying in the shelter.
“There is also one woman I know who stays in her car because she doesn’t feel safe in the shelter.”
Wyatt said his officers were reluctant to force people to leave areas where they feel safe for fear of causing them further harm, and that while “many people want us to harass them, we are not going to do that.”
‘A county-wide strategy on service delivery’
Mike Whetzel, who owns a business at the Ukiah Municipal Airport and serves as chairman of the Ukiah Planning Commission, has also expressed frustration recently with the city’s response to the transient and homeless population, which he said is adversely affecting business owners.
“We’ve had a couple of applicants that have actually had to change their plans to accommodate the transients, and I find it very disheartening that the city of Ukiah can’t do anything about this — and I know they can,” said Whetzel during a February meeting of the Planning Commission in which he voted against a permit for a new business on Talmage Road, which he said has a large and problematic population of transients and homeless. “Because (city officials) have recommendations from several entities that tell them what to do to handle these transients, and it seems like they refuse to do it. I’m concerned about how we are enabling people to do things when we should be deterring them.”
Whetzel said that after he made those comments, city officials asked to sit down with him. Whetzel said they explained that in many respects the city’s “hands were tied” when it came to enforcing much of the recommendations, and asked him what he thought should be done differently. In response, Whetzel pointed to the Marbut report, which he had brought with him, and which the Ukiah City Council adopted “in theory” last year.
When asked this week what his suggestions were, Whetzel said “the city first needs to differentiate between who really needs the help, and who is just living off the system. Also, they need to combine all these five or so different agencies that are serving the homeless so people can’t just shop around from one to the other,” which is another practice that Marbut said serves to enable people to remain on the street, rather than engaging them in services that will actually help them improve their situation. Plus, giving out services with little or no restrictions tends to attract more and more people seeking those services.
Wyatt agreed that following Marbut’s recommendations were key to reducing the amount of people living on Ukiah’s streets, and that rather than questioning “what is law enforcement doing about the homeless?” the question the community really should be asking is, ‘What is the county-wide strategy for service delivery and for addressing street-level homelessness?’ And we as a community should really understand the difference between enablement versus engagement.
“Because this is a community problem, not just a law enforcement or UPD problem,” he continued, adding that he knows “people are coming to Ukiah specifically for the services we provide,” and until there is a change in how and where charitable and supportive services are delivered, nothing else will change.
As just one example, Wyatt said the UPD tried in years past to tell the public that “Handouts Aren’t Helping,” but the campaign did little to stop people from handing out food, money and supplies to others on the street in what they believe is a caring act. However, Marbut described such charity as ultimately doing little more than helping the person receiving the handout remain in a miserable situation longer.
What needs to happen instead, Marbut explained, is that people in need are engaged by service providers who offer assistance within a strategized system designed to help them change their lives for the better. “And we all have a role in that,” said Wyatt, describing it as unrealistic and inappropriate to expect the UPD to solve street-level homelessness.
‘Homelessness definitions’
Heather Blough, co-chair of the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care board, said Thursday that a county-wide strategy of service delivery is still being formulated, with the first and most important step being the adoption of official definitions for different groups of homeless people.
According to the minutes from previous board meetings, the Homelessness Definitions are “to be used for a guideline to direct services to the most hometown people as possible in a large, diverse county. This will be a consistent understanding and application of resources.”
This is crucial, Marbut said, because Mendocino County has a limited amount of time, money and other resources to devote to those needing help acquiring shelter, food and other basic necessities, and he strongly recommended that all communities focus their resources on what he called “homegrown” homeless.
The most important reason for this, he said, is that people who have ties to a community have a support system of friends and family that will make it far more likely they will eventually improve their situation long-term when given services.
By contrast, providing the same amount of services to everyone, no-questions-asked, not only dilutes and depletes your services and makes them less effective for all, that practice also tends to attract more people to the area, increasing the impacts of the homeless and transient population on the rest of the community, rather than reducing them.
Blough said the definitions are still being revised, and may be voted on at the board’s next meeting May 20, which will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m in the Big Sur Conference Room at 747 S. State St. It is a public meeting that community members can attend.
When asked for the latest version of the definitions, Blough said they were still being drafted. The definitions presented at the March 18 meeting are printed below:
Homegrown: Adult individuals and families experiencing homelessness and (a) had a permanent job in Mendocino County before they became homeless, (b) have family in Mendocino County (either living or dead) or (c) attended high school in Mendocino County.
Local: Adults or families with children experiencing homelessness and who did not (a) have a permanent job in Mendocino County before becoming homeless, (b) do not have family in Mendocino County, and (c) did not attend high school in Mendocino County, but (d) they are confident Mendocino County is where they are most likely to transition into sustainable permanent housing and (e) they are willing to engage in services or (f) need assistance while arrangements are made to connect them with people in the community most likely to support their recovery from homelessness and transition into sustainable permanent housing.
Travelers: Adult individuals and families with children experiencing homelessness who do not fit under the definitions of either homegrown or local and are (a) unwilling to engage in services, (b) unwilling to engage positively with outreach teams or other service providers, (c) requiring involvement of law enforcement through criminal behaviors, and (d) traveling through or do not reside in Mendocino County year-round.
CATCH OF THE DAY, May 2-3, 2019
BILLY JOE ANDERSON, Willits. Controlled substance, burglary tools, saps/similar, paraphernalia, suspended license (for DUI), felon with firearm, resisting, failure to appear.
NICHOLAS BRIDLER, Ukiah. DUI, no license.
KRISTALEE ERIKSEN, Redwood Valley. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance transportation, paraphernalia.
AMBROSE FALLIS, Covelo. Willfully harming a canine unit with serious injury, paraphernalia, resisting.
CASEY FALLIS, Covelo. Harboring a wanted felon, disobeying court order, failure to appear.
MIGUEL GUEVARA, Ukiah. Controlled substance, under influence, switchblade.
DARIN HAMMOND, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.
CRYSTAL HOAGLIN-PIKE, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.
DAVID JOAQUIN SR., Covelo. Community Supervision violation.
GINA KETCHUM, Rohnert Park/Ukiah. Disobeying court order.
CARMEN KING, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.
SARAH MARTINEZ, Eureka/Ukiah. Under influence.
TYLAR MOREHEAD, Fort Bragg. Grand theft, controlled substance, probation revocation.
ALBERTO MORFIN, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.
BRYAN NEWBERRY, Willits. Probation revocation.
AARON RATHBLOTT, Sausalito/Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, competency status, probation revocation.
ANGELA SCARBERRY, Willits. Probation revocation.
DONALD SHARP, Fort Bragg. Probation violation.
PUBLIC BANKS NOW
Editor,
Dan Walters’ got one thing right about AB 857, legislation enabling a public banking alternative, by acknowledging that big banks “certainly have not been paragons of ethical operations.” That understatement is exactly why people throughout California are calling for public banking.
Unfortunately, his column is rife with false information.
He states that public banks would undermine local banks. Nothing could be further from the truth. Public banks seek to move municipal funds (taxes, fees and fines we pay) from massive megabanks into local community banks and credit unions. North Dakota, which has had a public bank for 100 years, has the most banks per capita of any state; California is at the bottom, No. 49.
Furthermore, claiming that a mosquito abatement district could form a public bank is just silly. Under AB 857, a public bank would have to follow the same strict requirements that all banks are subject to. Hardly the stuff for mosquitos.
Richard Girling
San Francisco
DEEPER INTO THE DARK
by James Kunstler
“Impeachment is too good for him,” Nancy Pelosi declared of the president on Thursday after “his lapdog” — as she styled Attorney General William Barr — refused to be whipped by grandstanding Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. What did Madam Speaker have in mind then? Dragging Mr. Trump behind a Chevy Tahoe over four miles of broken light bulbs? Staking him onto a nest of fire ants? How about a beheading at the capable hands of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)?
Mr. Barr’s stolid demeanor during the Wednesday session was a refreshing reminder of what it means to be not insane in the long-running lunatic degeneration of national politics. Of course, the reason for the continued hysteria among Democrats is that the two-year solemn inquiry by the august former FBI Director, Mr. Mueller, is being revealed daily as a mendacious fraud with criminal overtones running clear through Democratic ranks beyond even the wicked Hillary Clinton to the sainted former president Obama, who may have supervised his party’s collusion with foreign officials to interfere in the 2016 election.
Mr. Barr’s hints that he intends to tip this dumpster of political subterfuge, to find out what was at the bottom of it, is being taken as a death threat to the Democratic Party, as well it should be. A lot of familiar names and faces will be rolling out of that dumpster into the grand juries and federal courtrooms just as the big pack of White House aspirants jets around the primary states as though 2020 might be anything like a normal election.
In short and in effect, the Democratic Party itself is headed to trial on a vector that takes it straight into November next year. How do you imagine it will look to voters when Mr. Obama’s CIA chief, John Brennan, his NSA Director James Clapper, a baker’s dozen of former Obama top FBI and DOJ officials, including former AG Loretta Lynch, and sundry additional players in the great game of RussiaGate Gotcha end up ‘splainin’ their guts out to a whole different cast of federal prosecutors? It’s hardly out of the question that Barack Obama himself and Mrs. Clinton may face charges in all this mischief and depravity.
It’s surely true that the public is sick of the RussiaGate spectacle. (I know readers of my blog complain about it.) But it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the worst and most tangled scandal that the US government has ever seen, and that failing to resolve it successfully really is an existential threat to the project of being a republic. I was a young newspaper reporter during Watergate and that was like a game of animal lotto compared to this garbage barge of malfeasance.
It’s a further irony of the moment that the suddenly leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is neck-deep in that spilled garbage, the story unspooling even as I write that then-Veep Uncle Joe strong-armed the Ukraine government to fire its equivalent of Attorney General to quash an investigation of his son, Hunter, who received large sums of money from the Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, which had mystifyingly appointed the young American to its board of directors after the US-sponsored overthrow of Viktor Yanukovych.
That nasty bit of business comes immediately on top of information that the Hillary campaign was using its connections in Ukraine — from her years at the State Department — to traffic in political dirt on Mr. Trump, plus an additional intrigue that included payments to the Clinton Foundation of $25 million by Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. That was on top of contributions of $150 million that the Clinton Foundation had received earlier from Russian oligarchs around 2012.
Did they suppose that no one would ever notice? Or is it just a symptom of the desperation that has gripped the Democratic Party since the stunning election loss of 2016 made it impossible to suppress this titanic, bubbling vessel of fermented misdeeds?
It seems more than merely possible that the entire Mueller Investigation was a ruse from the start to conceal all this nefarious activity. It is even more astounding to see exactly what a lame document the Mueller Report turned out to be. It was such a dud that even the Democratic senators and congresspersons who are complaining the loudest have not bothered to visit the special parlor set up at the Department of Justice for their convenience to read a much more lightly redacted edition of the report.
The mills of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. The wheels are in motion now and it’s unlikely they will be stopped by mere tantrums. But the next move by the desperate Resistance may be to create so much political disorder in the system that they manage to delegitimize the 2020 election before it is even held, and plunge the nation deeper into unnecessary crisis just to try and save their asses.
(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)
THERE WILL BE ONE SALUTARY EFFECT of Biden becoming the Democrats’ nominee. It should obliterate the old sawhorse that no matter how odious the candidate we must hold our noses and vote for him because the future of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance. Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Alito have their seats largely thanks to Biden, who was one of the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
— Jeffrey St. Clair
TRUMP'S HONORABLE GENERAL
How Robert E. Lee treated human beings he viewed as his property, as described in 1866 by one of his former slaves, Wesley Morris …
My name is Wesley Norris; I was born a slave on the plantation of George Parke Custis; after the death of Mr. Custis, Gen. Lee, who had been made executor of the estate, assumed control of the slaves, in number about seventy; it was the general impression among the slaves of Mr. Custis that on his death they should be forever free; in fact this statement had been made to them by Mr. C. years before; at his death we were informed by Gen. Lee that by the conditions of the will we must remain slaves for five years; I remained with Gen. Lee for about seventeen months, when my sister Mary, a cousin of ours, and I determined to run away, which we did in the year 1859; we had already reached Westminster, in Maryland, on our way to the North, when we were apprehended and thrown into prison, and Gen. Lee notified of our arrest; we remained in prison fifteen days, when we were sent back to Arlington; we were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason why we ran away; we frankly told him that we considered ourselves free; he then told us he would teach us a lesson we never would forget; he then ordered us to the barn, where, in his presence, we were tied firmly to posts by a Mr. Gwin, our overseer, who was ordered by Gen. Lee to strip us to the waist and give us fifty lashes each, excepting my sister, who received but twenty; we were accordingly stripped to the skin by the overseer, who, however, had sufficient humanity to decline whipping us; accordingly Dick Williams, a county constable, was called in, who gave us the number of lashes ordered; Gen. Lee, in the meantime, stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to lay it on well,an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with brine, which was done. After this my cousin and myself were sent to Hanover Court-House jail, my sister being sent to Richmond to an agent to be hired; we remained in jail about a week, when we were sent to Nelson county, where we were hired out by Gen. Lee’s agent to work on the Orange and Alexander railroad; we remained thus employed for about seven months, and were then sent to Alabama, and put to work on what is known as the Northeastern railroad; in January, 1863, we were sent to Richmond, from which place I finally made my escape through the rebel lines to freedom; I have nothing further to say; what I have stated is true in every particular, and I can at any time bring at least a dozen witnesses, both white and black, to substantiate my statements: I am at present employed by the Government; and am at work in the National Cemetery on Arlington Heights, where I can be found by those who desire further particulars; my sister referred to is at present employed by the French Minister at Washington, and will confirm my statement.
HELP STOP BEACON/ADVOCATE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL, WILLITS NEWS OWNER FROM RUINING JOURNALISM
Access to accurate, reliable local news is a pillar of our democracy. On World Press Freedom Day, join the campaign to #SaveLocalNews at www.savelocalnews.net.
“Local newspapers are basically little machines that spit out healthier democracies,” says Nieman Journalism Lab. Save local news from hedge funds like Alden Global Capital that create news deserts. Oppose its bid to take over Gannett.
The photo below of The Denver Post newsroom staff dramatically demonstrates the consequences of Alden’s ownership.
The Guild’s #AldenExposed campaign to hold Alden Global Capital accountable for gutting Digital First Media newspapers has won widespread attention, prompting recent criticism of the company from Senator Chuck Schumer, as well as calls for the protection of newspapers by other legislators.
Alden now has raised the stakes by attempting a hostile takeover of Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain and owner of the second largest chain in the United Kingdom. About Alden, Senator Sherrod Brown US Senate said, “Your newspaper-killing business model is bad for newspaper workers and retirees, bad for the public, and bad for democracy.”
Congresswoman Diana DeGette recently said, “For the sake of our democracy, we need our local newspapers, we need our local reporters, we need our watch dogs doing what they do best.”
If you agree, don’t wait – take a moment right now to take action at www.SaveLocalNews.net, and spread the word.
MAY 18--POETRY WORKSHOP ON COPING WITH HARD TIMES
On Saturday, May 18, from 1 to 3:30 p.m., Ukiah Poet Laureate Roberta Werdinger presents a workshop titled "Words for These Times" at the public room at the Grace Hudson Museum, 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. The workshop will feature poetry that responds to war, terror, climate change, and other crises. Participants will read and discuss poems old and new on the subject, engage in creative exercises, and write their own poetry or other creative responses.
The workshop is free, with donations accepted to offset supplies. Please bring a notebook, pen or pencil, and drawing material if you like to draw.
For more information or to register email RWerdinger@pacific.net.
THE UNTOLD STORY OF TRUMP’S ‘BOOMING’ ECONOMY
Workers are bearing on their backs tax breaks that benefited only the rich and corporations. They’re bearing overtime pay rules and minimum wage rates that haven’t been updated in more than a decade. They’re weighted down by U.S. Supreme Court decisions that hobbled unionization efforts and kneecapped workers’ rights to file class-action lawsuits. They’re struggling under U.S. Department of Labor rules defining them as independent contractors instead of staff members. They live in fear as corporations threaten to offshore their jobs—with the assistance of federal tax breaks.
…The White House Council of Economic Advisers predicted the corporate tax cut would put an extra $4,000 in every worker’s pocket. They swore that corporations would use some of their tax cut money to hand out raises and bonuses to workers. That never happened. Workers got a measly 6 percent of corporations’ tax savings. In the first quarter after the tax cut took effect, workers on average received a big fat extra $6.21 in their paychecks, for an annual total of a whopping $233. Corporations spent their tax breaks on stock buybacks, a record $1 trillion worth, raising stock prices, which put more money in the pockets of rich CEOs and shareholders.
truthdig.com/articles/the-untold-story-of-trumps-booming-economy/
SEA WEED HARVESTERS WANTED
Seasonal Seaweed workers needed
It’s Seaweed Harvest Time again and we’re looking for A Few Good Workers with flexible schedules who would enjoy wholesome outdoor work. Rising Tide Sea Vegetables Harvesting & Drying Synopsis: This year Rising Tide’s Harvest Season will start May 5th and ends around August 4th. That is about 3 months. The rough schedule is 5 to 6 days harvesting starting on the New and Full moon low tide cycles. That translates to about 11 days a month. We supply Calendars to employees for easy reference. We harvest at many locations from Elk to Cleone. Drying work and Take In/Prep is done at our Drying facility on Simpson Lane south of Fort Bragg.
Harvesting: each day 2 to 3 people go out approximately 5 to 6 hours from early morning (5:30am or so depending various factors). The pay for harvesting is $20 an hour. There is also a Harvester Loyalty Bonus given at the end of the season for Primary Harvesters who work consistently to the end of the Season. Harvesting is a total body workout. A harvester must be in good physical shape with good stamina and be able to lift 50lbs easily.
Drying: We dry our seaweed the same day it is harvested. This takes anywhere from 3 to 5 hours depending on the species usually starting mid morning. Drying work is generally done by a crew of 2 to 5 people. A couple of folks doing Drying work may have harvested that morning as well. Some folks like to dry seaweed after a morning of harvesting others not.
The pay is $15 an hour for the basic drying position. Drying is pleasant outdoor work that is moderately physically demanding. Dryers must be able to lift 40lbs easily.
Take In and Prep: Take In usually starts at 5:30 pm and ends 7:30 to 8:30. 1or 2 people consolidate the seaweed that has been spread to dry that day and move it to the drying room, then they help with Harvest Prep for the next day’s harvest by helping get gear and supplies in the truck ready to go. Must be able to lift 40lbs. The pay for the basic Take In/Prep is $15 an hour.
Email or call Larry Knowles, owner Rising Tide Sea Vegetables, lknowles@mcn.org 707-964-5507
TO: THE MASTERS OF WAR WHO HATE PEACE
Those of you who were popping corks well before the dust had even settled
Have hardened your hearts against peace, justice and brotherhood I hope each bubble in your glass turns to an angel of doom who’ll
Rob you of your Judas wealth, health, and sanity in the comfort of your living room
To you who drain Americas blood to hate and kill and destroy
May your evil deeds land your soul in the hells on earth you’ve made
War profiteers have no loyalty to country, treaty or law
US Imperialism ruins America while making much of the world unfit for living
The Pentagon is a dark satanic mill that grinds life into a toxic dust
This hideous monster has taken on a life of its own, now it’s Armageddon or bust
US militarism is a run-away freight train leaving wasteland in its wake
The giant engines fueled by superstition, ignorance, bigotry, fear, and hate
Woe unto you masters of war who have usurped the land of the living
With your culture of death, I hope you die in your sleep gasping on the vomit of your spoils
You evil barbarians drunk on human sacrifice civilization passed you by in your blood lust cult
Dark age misanthropes out of step with time laser guided slaughter life hating crimes,
Hideous modern weapons in the hands of lizard brained fools
De-evolutionary madmen warped by hubris and lies, blank stare dead hearts worshipping his tools
To you who fashioned Bin Laden in the foundries of Cold War hysteria now profit obscenely
From your terrorist enrollment “wars,” cloning thousands of jihadists who’ll secure your industries
In the name of “national security” you’ve turned America into an under-achieving laughing stock of the
World rendered illiterate, inane, vulgar, and highly insecure, most of the drugs you cold warriors
Dealt to fund your destruction of revolutionary governments the world over ended up on
The streets of America creating ever more profits from your drug war incarceration complex.
Bob Dylan; Masters Of War
“…and I hope that you die and that your death will come soon, I’ll follow
your casket on that pale afternoon and I’ll watch while your lowered down into your death bed, and I’ll stand over your grave until I’m sure that you’re dead”
Defund the Pentagon! US military out of North, Central, and South America!
Dismantle the CIA- capitalist, imperialist, aggressors!
Remove the Yankee imperialist from every corner of the globe!
Ross Dendy
Elk
NEW FLEET of Helms Bakeries delivery vehicles, 1931. Photos Dick Whittington.
PLOWSHARES EMPTY BOWLS EVENT IS JUNE 1
Plowshares 13th annual Empty Bowls Event is Saturday, June 1 Picture long tables full of beautiful locally handcrafted ceramic bowls – including one special bowl for you to select and take home with you. Listen to live music by the Fair Winds band as you peruse irresistible live and silent auction items and sample a variety of appetizers; then fill your chosen bowl with all-you-can-eat sumptuous gourmet soups, accompanied by fresh bread, a choice of exquisite desserts, and wine and beer that are included in the ticket price. There’s even a drawing for a 13’ Catalina Capri sailboat that can be taken home by the lucky winner that very night! (Tickets are $25 or 5 for $100; a max of 200 will be sold to increase chances of winning. They are on sale now at the Plowshares office, and the winner doesn’t need to be present for the drawing.) All of this will happen on Saturday, June 1 at 5:30 pm at Plowshares’ 13th annual Empty Bowls fundraising event. Empty Bowls is an international movement of hunger-awareness events that began in Michigan in 1990, with the simple but powerful concept of raising both awareness of hunger and funds for programs addressing local hunger needs. The bowls at Plowshares’ event, created and donated by local artists including Jan Hoyman Studio and the Mendocino College Ceramics Club led by Doug Browe, are taken home as a reminder of hunger persisting in our own area. All funds raised at the event will support Plowshares’ meals for the hungry and other services for the homeless and those most in need. The core mission of Plowshares is “that no one in our community go hungry.” Its Community Dining Room has served free hot meals since 1983, open to all with no questions asked. Last month Plowshares served a total of over 6,000 meals. The Dining Room recently began serving meals regularly on Saturdays, with assistance from Adventist Community Ministry volunteers, for the first time in Plowshares’ history. The Meals-on-Wheels program for disabled, homebound seniors has also expanded to include an additional delivery route, plus frozen meals delivered for both Saturday and Sundays. It is a time of transition as well as expansion for Plowshares, which is currently seeking a new executive director. “It’s a challenging but also very rewarding job,” says Interim Director Mary Buckley. “We are looking for the right person who has good skills and a good heart, and wants to address local needs in a direct and meaningful way.” This year’s Empty Bowls event is sponsored by: (gold level) Adventist Health Ukiah Valley, Friedman’s Home Improvement, and Flow Kana; (silver level) Beckstoffer Vineyards, Community First Credit Union, Frey Vineyards, Rick and Colleen Henderson, McCarty’s Auto Body, Mendocino Redwood Companies, and Redwood Credit Union; and (bronze level) C & C Construction, One Feather Ranch, and Savings Bank of Mendocino County. Many volunteers and donors are contributing to what promises to be an extraordinary event. Auction items include an overnight plus two massages at Orr Hot Springs; a night at the Mendocino Hotel packaged with a Skunk Train ride and a visit to the Mendocino Botanical Gardens; tickets plus a bottle of wine for every Summer Concert at Nelson Family Vineyards; an art quilt by Laura Fogg; handcrafted wooden toys by Gary Peters; a loaf of bread a week for a year from Schat’s Bakery; Sonoma hot-air ballooning and zip-lining; wine, gift baskets, and much more. The soups will include Mendocino Animal Hospital’s first-place prize-winning chili recipe from Granite Construction’s Chili Cook-off last year; vegan Southwest corn chowder from Adventist Health; Julio Pardini’s famous minestrone, and a gazpacho from Plowshares’ own kitchen. Appetizers will be supplied by Stan’s Café, Mendo Chef, and others, and desserts by Dutch Girl Desserts, Char Jacobs, and others. Empty Bowls event tickets are $75; this year the price includes beer and wine rather than having to buy drinks separately. Tables of 8 are also available for $600. Tickets may be purchased at Mendocino Book Company (102 S. School St), at the Plowshares office (1346 S. State St) or online at http://www.PlowsharesFeeds.org www.PlowsharesFeeds.org. More information is available online or by calling 707-462-8582. Plowshares thanks the many generous individuals, businesses and other organizations who make it possible to provide life-saving services to the homeless, hungry, disabled seniors and other most vulnerable members of our community – and looks forward to an extraordinary and uplifting evening on June 1!
O BOY O BOYO DO WE HAVE PLANS FOR YOU!
The May 16, 2019 Planning Commission agenda has been posted to the department website at the below link:
mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/meeting-agendas/planning-commission
MARK ROTHKO, COVER, 1960
JULIAN ASSANGE’S FATHER lays into Hillary Clinton and Co for smearing his son as a ‘Russian asset.’
“Oh for god’s sake. Russian asset? I mean… spare me… just ridiculous. It just fits their need, you know: ‘well, we lost the election because of the Russians; not because we’re klutzes; not because we called half the population of the United States ‘deplorable’; not because I was the worst candidate in 40 years to stand for election; not because I destroyed Libya and giggled like a madwoman seeing a bayonet stuffed up Gaddafi’s arsehole.’ I mean, really?!?”
‘IT IS A CLICHÉ that the United States and Britain are obsessed with Middle East oil, but the reason for the obsession is often misdiagnosed. Anglo-American interest in the enormous hydrocarbon reserves of the Persian Gulf does not derive from a need to fuel Western consumption. Britain used to import considerable quantities of Saudi oil, but currently gets most of what it needs from the North Sea and hasn’t imported much from the Gulf since the 1980s; Saudi oil currently represents around 3 per cent of UK imports. The US has never imported more than a token amount from the Gulf and for much of the postwar period has been a net oil exporter. Anglo-American involvement in the Middle East has always been principally about the strategic advantage gained from controlling Persian Gulf hydrocarbons, not Western oil needs.’
—Tom Stevenson on the Gulf bargain, from the new issue of the London Review of Books.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Patriotism? I’m not sure anyone even knows what the word means anymore, it’s been so thoroughly equated with blind loyalty to whatever blatantly illegal policy/act/storyline that’s being imposed. Freedom’s another quite slippery term. Freedom to do what? Support a manifestly unjust, corrupt, and illegal by any fair definition of word, globalist (I’ll forego the Z word today, since I beat that drum pretty soundly the other day) empire?
What’s next is obvious and we’re seeing it unfold as we speak: collapse and eventual dissolution – the ultimate “market state,” where everyone’s free to shop for whatever government they like – or can afford. After that, who knows? “That’s when the fun begins,” as the marketing phrase goes.
TRUMP VS. CONGRESS & OUR CONSTITUTION
by Ralph Nader
Donald Trump is the most impeachable president in American history. Many Democrats, however, are running away from the word “impeachment” for tactical political reasons. Some Democrats say they have a sworn duty under the Constitution to present articles of impeachment for a vote in the House of Representatives, regardless of the refusal by the Republican controlled Senate to hold a trial.
Interestingly, when Republicans in the House impeached President Bill Clinton in 1998, he was more popular in polls than Donald Trump is now. The Republican controlled Senate, however, failed to get the two-thirds vote needed to remove President Clinton from office. Clinton’s offenses – lying under oath and obstruction of justice pale in comparison to the many mega offenses of Trump.
The six major House Committees are investigating issues ranging from his tax returns and business dealings to the documented serial obstructions of justice documented in the Mueller Report. As these investigations move well beyond what is already on the public record and more Americans learn their contents, there will be more than enough to substantiate numerous articles of impeachment. Plus a new one of Trump’s own creation— the wholesale, broadside obstruction of all these Congressional investigations, defying subpoenas for sworn testimony and documents, amounting to a gigantic contempt of Congress – itself an impeachable offense.
Trump is trying to bar key witnesses from testifying. He is suing his own accounting firm and Deutsche Bank to shield his sordid business relationships and potential tax violations.
I’ll bet he’s never even read our Constitution – he says out loud that whatever Congress does on impeachment, the Supreme Court will rescue him. Donald, when it comes to Congressional impeachment and conviction, the decision by Congress is final.
The House Democrats can strengthen their case with the American people by connecting impeachable offenses with actions that endanger the lives, health, and economic well-being of adults and children.
For starters, Trump and his henchmen have brazenly, openly, and defiantly refused to faithfully execute the laws of the land as required in Article 2, section 3 of the Constitution. By not enforcing the law, he has opened the floodgates for deadly emissions from various industries that are getting into the lungs of millions of Americans. By allowing more pollution into water, air, food, and workplaces of the American people by immobilizing, if not firing the federal cops on the corporate crime beat, pulling back on existing enforcement, eliminating critical safeguards on the books, and cutting enforcement budgets, he has jeopardized the health of millions of Americans. This is a gift to the lethal coal industry, the reckless drug industry, the chemical pesticide companies, the oil, gas and nuclear industries and all those extractive companies licking their chops to plunder more of our beautiful public lands such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and our national forests.
Physicians have pleaded with the Trumpsters to protect the vulnerable infants and children from toxics and micro-particulates in the air and water. “Hell no,” cry his craven gangsters who were chosen to run our health and safety agencies preciselybecause they want to run them into the ground.
For the first time ever, life expectancy in the United States is declining. This lawlessness is way beyond what should be excused by “prosecutorial discretion.” Trump’s defiant wholesale repeal of the rule of law begs for impeachment.
Trump’s impeachable brew is deep, hot, and deadly. He violates the constitution, federal statutes, and international treaties with his war crimes anywhere he wants to conduct them around the world. John Bolton, the unconfirmed national security advisor and Mike Pompeo, his secretary of state, are looking for new wars – whether in Iran or Venezuela. Bolton and Pompeo are prime examples of unindicted war criminals.
These men violently threaten regimes, except those run by Trump’s favorite dictators (he says he’s “fallen in love” with North Korea’s Kim), as if there are no laws whatsoever to restrain their dangerous missions. The fact that previous Presidents like Clinton, the two Bushes, and Obama committed war crimes does not exonerate Trump. Congress is also culpable. It has to stop the lawless foreign/military policies of Empire that eventually will boomerang and undermine our nation’s national security. It has already produced devastating costs in casualties and dollars.
Impeachable offenses include violating Article I, section 8 by conducting wars of choice without a Congressional declaration and other provision of the Constitution (Article 1 section 9 clause 7) and statutes banning spending tax monies without Congressional appropriation. Consider the support of the war on Yemen and bombing of Syria with immense civilian destruction as illustrations.
This is the road to tyranny and the de facto overthrow of our “constitutional order.”
Then there are Trump’s campaign finance violations, his tax frauds, and his threats to use blanket pardons of Trump associates who are now convicted criminals. Not to mention Trump’s “indifference to wrongdoing,” in the words of Charles Black, the late, eminent constitutional scholar. Such “indifference” Black declared “may be in effect equivalent to ratification of wrongdoing.”
Another standard for impeachment is the widely quoted criterion by Alexander Hamilton – behavior that constitutes “abuse or violation of some public trust.” How about Trump’s over ten thousand recorded lies or misleading fabrications? How about his bigotry, misogyny and lying about his sexual misconducts and payoffs? How about Trump allowing the enrichment of his businesses (which he refused to sell or put into a blind trust) by foreign governments spending lavishly at his hotels and other properties, in violation of our Constitution’s emoluments clause?
Our Founders condemned behavior, shorn of minimal honor and integrity that brings the Office of the Presidency into disrepute and undercuts the legitimacy of the U.S. government or the ability of the government to function.
Recall the five week shutdown of the U.S. government by our pouting juvenile president over not getting his porous border wall funded. Trump’s actions shut down critical, life-saving governmental services. That tantrum alone should be an impeachable offense.
The Congress was handed a mass of evidence by the Mueller Report and Congressional hearings are likely to find this evidence will provide a solid basis for impeachment. Bear in mind, Mueller decided he couldn’t recommend any criminal enforcement due to his hands being tied by a Justice Department “opinion,” not a law, that sitting Presidents could not be criminally indicted. Instead he punted his damning report to Congress with such statements as “Our investigation found multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian-interference and obstruction investigations.” Over a dozen listed acts, to be specific.
As the laws start catching up with Trump, he will resort to raucous mass rallies where he will warn of violence in the streets, as he did during his campaign in 2016 when discussing his potential loss. He will start military actions, which explains why he had to pressure former generals, Mattis and Kelly, to resign from the Department of Defense and White House. Trump doesn’t like generals who advocate restraint.
Trump himself has said that he will be secure so long as the police and military are with him. Get ready for a fast-approaching major constitutional crisis with Congress and adherents of the rule of law.
Our lying, lawless President is about to face the laws of the land, backed by our Constitution. It is time for Republicans to start looking at themselves in the mirror of history. And it is time for all Americans to challenge their elected officials to stand tall and uphold the rule of law.
Safeguarding our democracy requires nothing less. For more information on impeachment, listen to my interview with scholar Alan Hirsch, author of Impeaching the President: Past Present and Future: https://ralphnaderradiohour.com/impeaching-the-president/
(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!)
MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio all night long!
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio, 9pm to 5am, Friday, May 3) on KNYO Fort Bragg (and KMEC Ukiah, and via KNYO.org), live from 325 N. Franklin, next door to the famous Tip Top bar.
Deadline to email your writing to be read on the air tonight is 6pm or so. If you're not done by then, send it whenever it's ready and I'll read it next week. Or call and read it on the air yourself: 962-3022. Or visit if you're in town. Waltz in like you own the place and head for the warmly-lit room at the back. Bring your chutzpah, hubris and daring denial of human inconsequence in the face of the vastness of the Out There, or whatever else ya got.
/I/ bring plenty of choice bits of whatever I've been reading all week ready to relay, on literally thousands of subjects, so if you're shy, that's okay, I'll be fine just knowing you're out there breathing and knitting. I expect Doctor Phil Zwerling of stage and screen to show up; among other things lately he's written a book about the C.I.A. and that's probably what he'll be talking about. The Central Intelligence Agency, not the Culinary Institute of America, though I wouldn't be surprised if they're in cahoots; you never know, that's what Watergate and the 60s and stuff have taught us. Twenty years ago the office phone number of KMFB was very close to the number of the Culinary I.A., and we used to get lots of calls for them. It got to be so whenever someone called for the C.I.A. I'd chat with them about food prep and course registration and maybe the Kennedy assassination for awhile and that was generally enough for them. It takes so little to brighten a life. Be flexible. Make the effort.
A few educational amusements for while you wait for tonight:
Drone owner in the right place at the right time to dog a little twister to earth.
The fanged deer. (Say FANG-gud.)
https://www.neatorama.com/2019/04/27/The-Deer-That-Has-Fangs-Instead-of-Antlers/
And I think that might be Perl to the right of the truck. Perl Horber.
http://www.amyoops.com/2019/04/never-forget.html
Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
FAMILY
Old Thunder Thighs and I hit a pretty high note when we taught our three kids to be independent thinkers and to always try to be on their best. So the upshot is that my kids are beginning to leave the impression that most of the talk about my conditions take place out of my hearing.
This is not to be anything less than thankful for the attention and intelligence of my kids. It is just to asssert that the patient is that old geezer over there. That one? The one who gave your musical taste. You taste for good books. Your tendecies, along with your siblings, toward being buff. Put your hands behind you. Just got practice, eh? Now, get into the car.
NO, WILLY! NOoooooo…
One of the order and unexpectedly fraught conjoined exercises was held in the throbbing family practice center, where the patient -- me, met the medical establishment and all its tastefully decorated waiting folks and overnight fluorescent lights and doctors whose bills have return addresses across the country. One longs for one at the bottom, obviously colorized and showing the new grainery out by the tracks. A siding, that's it. That's what they call it, but it ain't beside nothin', as far as I can tell.
I don't me anything critical here. My kids the doctor, everyone associated with helping this old geezer get through the stuff he now needs help with. We probably spent around three hours each. Not counting to doctors, that's around, sat, ten hours. As of tonight nothing whatever has changed except the container I keep all my pills in.
And my anger at being consistently complaining about not being heard, which I use partly to power a positive attitude. Constantly. Teachers must lose this so the next generation can at least turn your way when they need a model for how to deal with all this stuff.
I am calling for help, but I guess that you don't see it back there behind what I mean to be relentless optimism. But I am quickly seeing that almost no one really listens unless your way of doing it is on their list. That you're suffering in one of the approved ways. But if you're over there with your head in some book, we.
(Bruce Brady)
UPCOMING CLIMATE TALKS WESTPORT AND BEYOND!
Dear Mendonesians,
I have continued to do Climate Reality talks, most recently to the Ukiah City Council on April 17 and a Green New Deal Town Hall in Windsor on April 25. This coming Tuesday I will be presenting to a community group in Westport on Tuesday, May 7 at 7pm. Here’s the present upcoming schedule.
- Tuesday, May 7 Westport Community Center, (60 minutes) 7pm
- Tuesday, May 21 Contra Costa Democrats, Ygnacio Valley Library, Walnut Creek, CA 7pm (60 minutes)
- Wednesday, May 22, Willits City Council, Willits City Hall(30 minutes) 6:30pm
- Thursday, May 30, Mendocino HS SONAR class, Green New Deal & Drawdown, Mendocino High School (60+ minute school presentation & discussion
- Saturday, June 15, Point Reyes Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes, CA 7pm (60 minute+ presentation)
Hope to see some of you.
All the best,
Doug Nunn
MOTHER'S DAY IS MAY 12
The Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County offers a simple way to honor your mother or another special person in your life: we will send her the card of your choice acknowledging your donation to the Cancer Resource Centers. Each card is $20 and we will mail it out for you, timed for a Mother's Day arrival.
Card selections are below. Each is available with the greeting shown below, or as a blank note card in which to write your personal message. "Loving Kindness" a photo by Azul Gonzalez student photographer, Ukiah High School.
"Earth's Bounty" from a collage by Mendocino County artist Lynne Whiting Robertson and Karen Loyster
To order, simply phone the Cancer Resource Centers' Coast office at 707-937-3833 during business hours and speak to Lori, OR, -
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?CancerResourceCenter/d938543cd3/c8bebd9577/0fac9c6ba4
click this link to order on our website. Cards are also available for purchase in our Coast and Inland offices.
Coast office: 510 Cypress St., Fort Bragg
Inland office: 590 S. Dora St., Ukiah (467-3828)
In order to assure Mother's Day delivery, we will accept orders through May 8 only. Thank you for supporting the vision that no one in Mendocino County will face cancer alone.
Happy Mother's Day!
Your Friends at the
Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County
“THE MASTERS OF WAR WHO HATE PEACE”
How about the masters of war who profit from the rest of us who hate peace? That relationship has existed from the beginning.
THEY HAVE KEPT …
People love to live in and idolize a past that never existed.
Nostalgia is a big business; producing entertainment that promises future nostalgia is a dream factory, for sure.