MCT: Friday, May 10, 2019

• Oxy Robbers
• Alonso Investigation
• County Matters
• Outsourced
• FB Police Reports
• Touring LakeCo
• Ukiah Seniors
• Big Band
• Yesterday's Catch
• GOP Joe
• Congressional Climate
• Worried Plutocrats
• Suggested Wine
• Ukiah Symphony
• Objection
• Crybaby Foul
• Not-So-Simple Returns
• Effective Taxation
• Dudewear
• Shady Rumors
• Shamanic Names
• Minister Art
• PBJs
• BS Train
• Lookalikes
• May Mixer
• Krugman Wrong
• Holy Dunk
• Road Work
• Redwood Chorus
• BOS Agenda

DESPERADO DEAL DRAMA

by Bruce McEwen

Monday morning, after three days of negotiations (and it is with studied reluctance that I’ve not said “intense negotiations”) the District Attorney has crafted a deal with the three Bay Area desperadoes who robbed a Willits pharmacy for a cache of Oxycodone (synthetic heroin) and several vials of pure, operating room-grade morphine, and then led local police on a high-speed chase southbound down Highway 101 last winter, when Dejoa Rayshan LaRue, Jakell Malik Watts and Eural Strickland were finally taken into custody on February 16th. (See below DA Press Release for further details of their crime and arrest.)

Strickland and Watts have been ready to go on this deal from the “get-go,” but Mr. LaRue has a couple of prison-priors, a strike-prior, and he’s looking at a parole violation on top of his other legal troubles.

Strickland and Watts were offered five years each, a strike on the books, 15 percent credit for time served. They appeared eager to take it. District Attorney David Eyster however wouldn’t let Watts and Strickland bite unless Mr. LaRue took the harder knocks of 12 years and eight months. We can imagine the dynamics of what’s called honor among thieves taking shape in this case. For it stands to reason that the much more experienced LaRue had, by means of his charisma, recruited the more prosaic criminals, Watts and Strickland, to assist him in this caper; and so the DA — in his infinite wisdom — had put the two younger fellows in a position of confronting and pressuring the oldster (LaRue) into going along with the program.

Pure speculation, yes; but, still, there were some good theatrics in the courtroom.

On Monday, LaRue’s lawyer called in sick. Since LaRue’s lawyer was the Assistant Public Defender, who happens to be best friends with the Public Defender, Public Defender Jeffery Aaron very graciously offered to take on LaRue’s case.

Also on Monday the Assistant District Attorney called in sick, and his best friend, the DA David Eyster descended to fill the breech. Time, however, would be needed to familiarize themselves with the case. So it was set to come back the next day, on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Watts’s lawyer, Doug Rhoades of the Alternate Public Defender’s Office, and Strickland’s lawyer, Macci Baldock, the Third Tier Conflict Appointee, counseled their clients to hold fast, everything would work out – or so one would imagine from the reassuring smiles and brief consultations they bestowed on their young clients.

On Tuesday another scene erupted. Judge Keith Faulder had at last called the case, after a confused morning of trying to assemble all the lawyers, and during the disposal of an unusually busy calendar, so as not to allow the reader to suppose the courthouse is staffed by slackers who hide and neglect their duties. At last they were all together and the plea forms, the Tahl Waivers (for a jury trial), were all filled out and DA Eyster was checking them through. Everyone was doing fine with a keen anticipation in the air — until LaRue asked for another day to think it over.

Eyster shot to his feet, snatched up the plea forms, rattled them menacingly at the three men in the dock, and said, “That’s it! The offer’s off the table. Judge, I just got an email this morning from Mr. Trigg, the attorney handling this case and it is unequivocal.” Eyster then gathered up his files and headed for the door.

Mr. Aaron bustled over to his client, LaRue, and began a (dare I say intense?) discussion. Discussion involves two people, though, and this was more like a lecture, what my Uncle Dutch used to preface with, “We should-a just knocked you in the head and give the milk to the pigs…”

All LaRue did was nod his head occasionally and make small signs of, if not consent, at least that he was paying attention.

Judge Faulder called Eyster back, pleadingly, almost. With a show of what I can almost describe as a man with better things to do elsewhere, but determined to be polite to a judge in any case, Eyster paused at the door, where he at last, after more pleading from the judge, withdrew his relinquished a promise to come back the next day.

On Wednesday morning there were more delays; nothing to do with Watts and Strickland (they both still seemed ready to go); all to do with LaRue. This battle of wills between the DA and Mr. LaRue went on until other pressing matters were called, and everyone was ordered back at two o’clock — everyone. However, Judge Faulder said he was only “teasing” in ordering the DA back. Eyster replied that “teasing didn’t look good on the record.”

Faulder gulped down a pained blush and swore (beneath his breath) he'd never do it again.

So nobody was shocked when Eyster came nonchalantly in at a quarter past two, while everyone else had come early and waited… patiently (?). From then on the agreed-on sentences went as planned.

Strickland and Watts both pled to PC 211/212.5 (Second-degree robbery through force or fear), took their five years each, and their strike, all with a good grace; and when it came to LaRue it seemed the fight had gone out of him: He knew the deal offered was the best he could hope for, and he bravely bit the bullet for 12 years and eight months.

Also, he’s facing a violation of his parole.

Watts and Strickland will go to probation for pre-sentencing evaluations and recommendations, and considering how young they are, their lack of any criminal fame and glory, they could even get off.

Judgment and Sentencing is set for June 6th at 9:00 a.m.

---

PHARMACY DRUG THIEVES FOREGO TRIAL; CONVICTED OF ROBBERY

UKIAH – Less than a week before a jury trial was to begin, three out-of-county men threw in the towel Wednesday and admitted criminal responsibility for a February robbery of a pharmacy in Willits.

The oldest of the three, defendant Dejoa Rayshawn LaRue, age 23, of Oakland and Sacramento, on Wednesday withdrew his not guilty plea and, instead entered guilty pleas to felonious robbery in the second degree and felony transportation of oxycodone and morphine for purposes of sale. LaRue also admitted that he has previously been convicted in 2014 of a residential robbery in Sacramento, a ‘strike’ conviction for sentencing purposes.

LaRue's accomplices, co-defendants Jakell Malik Watts, age 21, of Carmichael, and Eural Strickland IV, age 19, of Sacramento, each entered a guilty plea to the same felonious robbery in the second degree.

As a result, LaRue will received a state prison sentence of 152 months (12 and a half years) when he and the others return to court for sentencing on June 6 in Mendocino County Superior Court. LaRue will have to serve 85 percent of his prison term under state sentencing guidelines.

Co-defendants Watts and Strickland each entered what is known as an "open" guilty plea. An open plea means the judge, after considering the sentencing arguments of the attorneys, will decide all aspects of each co-defendant's final sentence. If granted supervised probation, each co-defendant can be ordered to serve up to one year in the county jail. If probation is denied, each of the co-defendants in this case can be legally sentenced to up to 60 months in state prison.

The case unfolded on Feb. 16 when Willits police officers were called to the Rite-Aid store on South Main Street after the three suspects came into the business wearing bandanas over their faces, jumped over the pharmacy counter and demanded narcotics from employees. The suspects then fled in a vehicle southbound on Highway 101.

After the get-away car was spotted near Reeves Canyon north of Ukiah, a Willits officer and a deputy from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office attempted to stop the vehicle on Highway 101 near West Road in Redwood Valley. The driver responded by accelerating away at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. As the chase moved through the Ukiah Valley, the get-away car eventually crashed on Burke Hill. The suspects then fled the vehicle and attempted to escape into the countryside. After a brief foot chase by sheriff’s deputies, all three men were captured.

Law enforcement investigators determined that the robbers had stolen several thousand narcotic prescription pills with an estimated street value of nearly $50,000. It was also determined that the get-away car was a stolen vehicle out of the Sacramento area.

The prosecutor who crafted Wednesday’s plea agreements was Assistant District Attorney Dale P. Trigg. He will argue for state prison terms on June 6.

The investigating law enforcement agencies were the Willits Police Department, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the California Highway Patrol, and the District Attorney's own Bureau of Investigations.

Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder will preside over the June 6 sentencing of each defendant.

INVESTIGATORS from the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office are asking the public for assistance in an ongoing investigation involving Daniel Alonso.

DA investigators have interviewed several witnesses and victims from separate cases and have reason to believe there may be more victims. If you have any information on suspicious conduct with Daniel Alonso, please contact DA Investigator Scott Mayberry at (707) 961-2652 or DA Investigator Bryan Arrington at (707) 463-5414.

(District Attorney Press Release)

VISIBLY TREMBLING, COUNTY AUDITOR Lloyd Weer somewhat nervously but usefully explained on Tuesday that the suspiciously low sales tax revenues of about $4 million which he labeled as “Actual thru 3/31/2019” in his May 7 third quarter budget report are actually “two months in arrears,” and therefore Weer’s end of year sales tax revenue projection of at least $6.4 million is reasonable. (Mr. Weer has been reporting more current sales tax revenue data to the Measure B Committee in prior months, not pointing out that his numbers are at least two months old, but whatever…) Weer also said that because of the two-month delay in sales tax receipts he won’t know the final sales tax revenue number until September of 2019. But we’re happy to accept his rosy projection and hope the money comes in — in spite of what many see as a drop in overall economic activity in Mendocino County in recent months.

WEER ALSO noted that property tax revenues which were reported as about $21 million “actual thru 3/31/2019,” do not include the second (April) tax bill receipts, but only the 55% or so allocation from the November bills. Therefore, Weer still hopes that property tax revenues will be near the nearly $37 million projection. (Never mind that in April the April distribution to the AV Community Services District was right on schedule and brought the amount up to a little over the projected amount — but that might be related to the Teeter Plan payment process for local districts.)

THAT SAID, the County’s budget picture remains precarious and muddled as CEO Carmel Angelo noted several times on Tuesday that “we just don’t have the money” to cover all the departmental overruns and new projects that were reviewed in budget chart after budget chart. (Sheriff’s overtime, keeping the juvenile hall open, upgrading the county’s computer(s), roof repairs, etc. etc.)

THE BOARD made some preliminary partial allocations to — not to say threw some imaginary money at — this year’s demands on the County’s General Fund. Some of this year’s overruns are expected to be covered by last year’s surplus of several million dollars. And the County’s vacancy rate continues to save money — albeit at with some undefined reduction in service. Supervisor John McCowen declared that whatever the actual numbers are he was still confident that County would end the year with some residual surplus, however small. But since nobody knows how it’s all going to work out, the “budget” process still has more to do with guesswork and shortfalls, than with an orderly allocation of available funds.

UNDERSHERIFF Matt Kendall told the Board at Tuesday’s budget presentation that he needs one or two (new/unbudgeted) staffers just to respond to a flood of new public records act requests under SB 1421, the new law that requires (some) personal records for law enforcement to be made public. Kendall said each record must be individually reviewed to see what needs to be redacted under the law. But we have since heard that the flood of requests is by a statewide news coalition (“The California Reporting Project”) including the LA Times, Sacramento Bee, ACLU, UC Berkeley, Public Radio outfits, and others who have apparently sent out blanket requests to every police organization in the state. This approach seems unreasonable. Targeted requests for specific cases, or specific departments, fine. Ask away. But burdening already overburdened admin staffs in local sheriff’s offices for broadscale personnel data for no other reason that there’s a new law, including retroactive/prior records? Overkill. The Sheriff should at least send a bill to news agencies that make such broadscale requests.

sacbee.com/news/local/article228105524.html

kcbx.org/post/even-new-disclosure-law-fight-continues-unseal-california-s-secret-police-files

(Mark Scaramella)

RAPES IN FORT BRAGG

On May 2, 2019, the Fort Bragg Police Department received a third party report from a County Social Services Worker of a potential adult female sexual assault victim. The victim had reported to the Social Services Worker that she had been sexually assaulted by an ex-boyfriend approximately four weeks prior somewhere on So. Whipple St.

This investigation is ongoing; however further updates are unlikely in order to preserve the confidentiality of the victim. The Police Department has not identified any threats to the public related to this matter.

Questions regarding this press release may be directed to Sergeant O’Neal at (707) 961-2800 ext. 120 or by e-mail at toneal@fortbragg.com.

---

On May 3, 2019, at approximately 6:30 p.m., Officers of the Fort Bragg Police Department were dispatched to Mendocino Coast District Hospital Emergency Room for the report of an adult female patient reporting that she was sexually assaulted the previous evening in the Noyo Beach area. During the initial interview, Officers learned that the victim was on Noyo Beach on the evening of May 2, 2019 at approximately 9:00 p.m., with an adult male and adult female known to the victim. At some point during the evening, the victim reported she was sexually assaulted by the male individual.

This investigation is ongoing; however further updates are unlikely in order to preserve the confidentiality of the victim. The Fort Bragg Police Department has identified no threat to the public at this time.

Anyone who may have been in the area during the identified time frame is encouraged to contact Sergeant O’Neal at (707) 961-2800 ext. 120 or by e-mail at toneal@fortbragg.com. Anonymous tips may be left at the Crime Tip Hotline at (707) 961-3049.

(Fort Bragg Police Department)

---

RESTAURANT BURGLARY

On May 4, 2019, 4:22am Officers of the Fort Bragg Police Department were dispatched to La Playa Mexican Restaurant at 750 S. Main Street for the report of a burglary at the location. During the course of the investigation, Officers determined that an unknown suspect(s) forced entry into the business and stole several items, including a checkbook belonging to the restaurant.

The Fort Bragg Police Department is requesting that the public be aware that stolen checks from the business are outstanding. Questions regarding this press release or information related to the case may be forwarded to Officer Awad at (707) 961-2800 ext. 180 or e-mailed to cawad@fortbragg.com. Anonymous tips may be left on the Crime Tip Hotline at (707) 961-3049.

---

DOUBLE ROLLOVER

On May 4, 2019, Officers of the Fort Bragg Police Department were dispatched to a vehicle rollover collision on the Patton-Carlson Property located next to Mendocino College at 1250 Del Mar Drive. When Officers arrived on scene, they contacted Joshua Outten, 26, of Fort Bragg, and Colin Stillwell. Stillwell was a passenger in the vehicle and he was ejected during the rollover and received minor injuries. Officers also determined a canine was in the vehicle at the time of the collision and was ejected as well. The canine had no apparent injuries. Outten was exiting the vehicle when Officers arrived on scene and he was transported to Mendocino Coast District Hospital via ambulance. The vehicle involved in the collision was registered to Outten.

During the investigation, Officers determined that Outten was driving his Toyota Tundra at a high-rate of speed when he lost control of the vehicle causing it to rollover at least two times. Outten was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the collision and a preliminary alcohol screening taken at the hospital revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.361%. Outten was initially arrested at the hospital, but he was not immediately medically cleared for incarceration in County Jail due to his extreme level of intoxication.

The Fort Bragg Police Department would like to remind the public that the headlands at 1250 Del Mar Drive are not open to the public for vehicle use without the explicit permission of the owners. Large areas of this field have been destroyed by malicious vehicle use and violators may be arrested for 602(n) PC (Misdemeanor).

Questions regarding this press release or information related to the case may be forwarded to Officer Awad at (707) 961-2800 ext. 120 or e-mailed to toneal@fortbragg.com.

(Fort Bragg Police Department)

FRANK HARTZELL REPORTS

My latest trip for the federalies explored Kelseyville, Upper Lake and Middletown. Got too tired and had to skip going to Calistoga… One of my favorite old traditions in wine country was the roses or carnations or other flowers at the end of rows of wine grapes, not as common as it used to be. Dead fish on every shore of Clear Lake, so Brutus gave an extra good shake. The horrible fire scars of three years ago have lost little of their prominence.

SUPPORT, NOT HANDOUTS

To the Editor:

In the recent article by Carolyn Ponts Steckter, “Senior Center Hopes for More Support,” City of Ukiah Mayor Maureen Mulheren was quoted as stating, “The city is asked for money for a lot of organizations. We are aware that the Senior Center needs help. We can’t just write a check to everybody…..” On Febr. 22, 2019, when a group of Senior Center board members and I met with Mayor Mulheren and City Manager Sage Sangiacomo, it was with the hope that the City might be interested in forming a collaboration to help support activities and programs for local seniors through the Ukiah Senior Center. After all, most municipalities do something to provide a community center that offers a multitude of programs, activities and events to help enrich the lives of local seniors. The cities of Windsor, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa fully own, operate and staff their own senior centers in those communities. The cities of Lakeport and Cloverdale provide the land and/or buildings for their Senior Centers through a $1 per year lease agreement. In Sebastopol, the City provides $30,000 per year in operational funding for its senior center in addition to $20,000 budgeted by the City of Sebastopol for building maintenance and repairs of the senior center’s facilities. For many years, the City of Willits supported its senior center with operational funding of $15,000 annually.

Municipalities such as those referenced above clearly see the need and value in supporting their local senior centers and the thousands of seniors that they serve. In contrast, the City of Ukiah operates no community center for its seniors nor does it offer any programs, activities or events that are targeted to meet the needs of Ukiah’s senior population, which is significant and growing each year. Currently, around 25 percent of Ukiah’s residents are age 55 or older. Ukiah residents who are age 50 or older, the seniors-in-waiting, account for over 31 percent of the City’s population. Many of these seniors live on limited income in their retirement years and rely on the Ukiah Senior Center to provide low-cost or no-cost programs and activities for meaningful social involvement to enhance their lives.

The Ukiah Senior Center did not approach the City of Ukiah seeking a handout, but a collaborative partnership, so that working together the City and the Center could provide a sustainable community facility and programs to meet the needs of our seniors for years to come. This is especially important given the fact that the City of Ukiah does not operate its own community center for its seniors as do the cities of Windsor, Healdsburg or Santa Rosa. Neither does the City of Ukiah provide any land or buildings for the operation of the local senior center as does Lakeport or Cloverdale, or funding support such as that provided by the City of Sebastopol.

Significantly, the City of Ukiah’s Community Services Budget funds over $4.5 million in support of activities such as the Alec Rorabaugh Recreation Center for local youth ($78,701 annually), Adult Basketball and Softball activities ($140,967 combined), Youth Basketball and Softball ($88,515 combined), summer youth Day Camp ($125,688) and various classes and clinics ($102,000), but nothing budgeted to support specific programs or activities for local seniors.

Although the City of Ukiah’s Community Services budget funds a vast array of facilities, programs and activities for families and children, there are no programs and activities directed at meeting the recreational and social needs of Ukiah’s seniors. In fact, the City’s Recreation Division budget mentions “expanded senior activities” as the last item on its list of “Long Term” priorities (pushed out six years down the road), with the notable comment, “Department has very few offerings for Senior Citizens.”

Since the City of Ukiah has no community center for seniors and offers no social programs or activities targeted to meet the needs of Ukiah’s seniors or disabled adults, the Ukiah Senior Center’s Board of Directors believed the City should have an interest in helping to provide a small amount of operational support to the Ukiah Senior Center and its Bartlett Hall senior community facility. The funding that was requested, $75,000, represents less than 2 percent of the City’s $4.5 million Community Services budget. Unfortunately, the City of Ukiah was unsupportive of offering any operational funding to the Ukiah Senior Center as proposed during this meeting.

Getting back to the Mayor’s comments, after acknowledging that the Senior Center “needs help,” the Mayor’s proposed solution was to work on “more engagement” with its seniors and to “facilitate some events and classes aimed at the senior community.” It is difficult to fathom how so many surrounding municipalities that are smaller than Ukiah provide so much more effort than our City does to support its senior community. The Mayor’s suggestion that simply adding a few “events or classes aimed at the senior community” will constitute meaningful support for the well being of local seniors misses the point. The Ukiah Senior Center already provides a multitude of classes, activities and events for our local seniors at a very low cost or no cost at all because our retired seniors cannot pay the $30 to $80 cost charged for classes offered by the City. The City of Ukiah has no community center for its seniors where they can gather, enjoy meals, or engage in activities and social events, but yet the City seems unwilling to support the operation of the Ukiah Senior Center like the collaboration it shares with the Alec Rorabaugh Recreation Center for local youth.

It seemed reasonable and mutually beneficial for the City of Ukiah and the Ukiah Senior Center to join forces and collaborate in the operation of the Bartlett Hall community center and its vast array of programs and activities for local seniors. Strong community support is critical for the Ukiah Senior Center to meet the challenges ahead.

As a “Baby Boomer” myself whose family has lived in Ukiah since 1955, I believe that all residents of this good city want to see the Ukiah Senior Center continue serving the needs of our local seniors. For this reason, I hope that fellow Ukiahans will join our efforts to urge the City of Ukiah to do more in helping the Ukiah Senior Center meet the needs of our ever-growing community of seniors. With support and assistance from our community, the Ukiah Senior Center will be able to continue offering the multitude of excellent programs, services and activities that enhance the lives of all Ukiah seniors and disabled adults.

With deepest gratitude for the support of our community,

Diana Clarke, Executive Director Ukiah Senior Center

BIG BAND FOR ADULT ED

Swingin' Boonville Big Band @Lauren’s

The Swingin’ Boonville Big Band will perform at Lauren’s Cafe in Boonville on Saturday June 1st from 9-11PM. Tickets are $15. This performance is a benefit for the Adult Education Department of the Anderson Valley Unified School District. Lauren’s beer and wine bar open late, last dinner order 8PM, band starts promptly at 9.

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 9, 2019

CHRISTOPHER ABSHIRE, Redwood Valley. Domestic abuse, controlled substance, probation revocation.

KARL GAGE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

RIGOBERTO LANDA, Ukiah. Conspiracy.

ANTONIO LOPEZ, Hopland. Probation revocation.

AARON MCIVOR, Willits. Assault, battery, false imprisonment, probation revocation.

DAVID MESA, Trabula Canyon/Ukiah. Pot cultivation-processing, pot possession for sale, pot sales, suspended license (for DUI).

MICHAEL OLSON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

WILLIAM POWELL II, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

AMANDA PURCELL, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

COLIN ROBERTS, Sunland-Tujunga/Ukiah. Concentrated pot, no license, probation revocation.

RYAN ROSENFIELD, Little River. DUI.

WILLIE SAMUELS JR., Oakland. Probation revocation.

KATHERINA SPEER, Ukiah. Conspiracy.

ANN TAYLOR, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DYLAN WASHBURN, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

JOE BIDEN LIKES REPUBLICANS SO MUCH BECAUSE HE’S SO MUCH LIKE THEM

by Norman Solomon

Recent criticism of Joe Biden for praising Dick Cheney as “a decent man” and Mike Pence as “a decent guy” merely scratches the surface of what’s wrong with the current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. His compulsion to vouch for the decency of Republican leaders -- while calling Donald Trump an “aberration” -- is consistent with Biden’s political record. It sheds light on why he’s probably the worst Democrat running for president.

After several decades of cutting corporate-friendly deals with GOP legislators -- often betraying the interests of core Democratic constituencies in the process -- Biden has a big psychological and political stake in denying that the entire GOP agenda is repugnant.

At the outset of his Senate career, Biden lost no time appealing to racism and running interference for huge corporate interests. He went on to play a historic role in helping to move the Supreme Court rightward and serving such predatory businesses as credit card companies, big banks and hedge funds.

Biden’s role as vice president included a near-miss at cutting a deal with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill to slash Medicare and Social Security. While his record on labor and trade has been mediocre, Biden has enjoyed tight mutual alliances with moneyed elites.

The nickname that corporate media have bestowed on him, “Lunch Bucket Joe,” is wide of the mark. A bull’s-eye is “Wall Street Joe.”

With avuncular style, Biden has reflexively used pleasant rhetoric to grease the shaft given to millions of vulnerable people, suffering the consequences of his conciliatory approach to right-wing forces. Campaigning in Iowa a few days ago, Biden declared that “the other side is not my enemy, it’s my opposition.” But his notable kinship with Republican politicians has made him more of an enabler than an opponent. Results have often been disastrous.

“In more than four decades of public service, Biden has enthusiastically championed policies favored by financial elites, forging alliances with Wall Street and the political right to notch legislative victories that ran counter to the populist ideas that now animate his party,” HuffPost senior reporter Zach Carter recounts. Biden often teamed up with Senate Republicans to pass bills at the top of corporate wish lists and to block measures for economic fairness.

In the mid-1970s, during his first Senate term, Biden repeatedly clashed with Sen. Edward Kennedy, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, who wanted to rein in runaway corporate power. “Biden became an advocate for corporate interests that had previously been associated with the Republican Party,” Carter reports. As he gained seniority, Biden kept lining up with GOP senators against antitrust legislation and for bills to give corporations more leverage over consumers and workers. “By 1978, Americans for Democratic Action, the preeminent liberal watchdog group of the time, gave Biden a score of just 50, lower than its ratings for some Republicans.”

Opposing measures for racial equity and economic justice, Biden’s operational bonds with GOP leaders continued. Carter reports that “on domestic policy -- from school integration to tax policy -- he was functionally allied with the Reagan administration. He voted for a landmark Reagan tax bill that slashed the top income tax rate from 70 percent to 50 percent and exempted many wealthy families from the estate tax on unearned inheritances, a measure that cost the federal government an estimated $83 billion in annual revenue. He then called for a spending freeze on Social Security in order to reduce the deficits that tax law helped to create.”

Biden came through for corporate power again in November 1993 when he joined with 26 other Democrats and 34 Republicans to win Senate passage of NAFTA, the trade agreement strongly opposed by labor unions and environmental groups. In mid-1996, when Congress approved President Clinton’s “welfare reform” bill, Biden helped to vote the draconian measure into law. It predictably had devastating effects on women and children.

Throughout the 1990s -- from tax-rate changes that enriched the already-rich to deregulating banks with repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act to loosening government curbs on credit default swaps -- Biden stood with the Senate’s Republicans and the most corporate-aligned Democrats. Carter sums up: “Biden was a steadfast supporter of an economic agenda that caused economic inequality to skyrocket during the Clinton years. . . . Biden voted for all of it.”

Biden led the successful push to pass the milestone 1994 crime bill, engaging in racist tropes on the Senate floor along the way. By then, he had become a powerful lawmaker on criminal-justice issues.

In 1991, midway through his eight years as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden ran the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas that excluded witnesses who were prepared to corroborate Anita Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment. “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,” feminist author Rebecca Traister writes.

Early in the new century, Biden wielded another weighty gavel, with momentous results, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 2002, congressional Democrats were closely divided on whether to greenlight the invasion of Iraq, while Republicans overwhelmingly backed President George W. Bush’s mendacious case for invading. Biden didn’t only vote for the Iraq invasion on the Senate floor in October 2002. Months earlier, he methodically excluded dissenting voices about the looming invasion at key hearings of the Foreign Relations Committee.

While his impact on foreign policy grew larger, Biden’s avid service to financial giants never flagged. One of his top priorities was a crusade for legislation to undermine bankruptcy protections. Biden was a mover and shaker behind the landmark 2005 bankruptcy bill. Before President Bush signed it into law, Biden was one of just 14 out of 45 Democratic senators to vote for the legislation.

The bankruptcy law was a monumental victory for credit-card firms -- and a huge blow to consumers, including students saddled with debt. As happened so often during Biden’s 36 years in the Senate, he eagerly aligned himself with Republicans and a minority of Democrats to get the job done.

Now, running for president, Biden has no use for candor about his actual record. Instead, he keeps pretending that he has always been a champion of people he actually used his power to grievously harm.

In ideology and record on corporate power, the farthest from Biden among his competitors is Bernie Sanders. No wonder Biden has gone out of his way to distance himself from Sanders while voicing high regard for the wealthy. (I was a Sanders delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention and continue to actively support him.)

Biden’s ongoing zeal to defend and accommodate Republicans in Congress is undiminished, as though they should not be held accountable for President Trump even while they aid and abet him. Days ago on the campaign trail -- while referring to Trump -- Biden asserted: “This is not the Republican Party.” And he spoke warmly of “my Republican friends in the House and Senate.”

All in all, it’s preposterous yet fitting for Joe Biden to claim that Republicans like Dick Cheney and Mike Pence are “decent.” He’s not only defending them. He’s also defending himself.

(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.")

AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE HUFF?

Editor:

Scientists have given us 12 years to halt climate change before the average temperature of the planet is raised 1.5 degrees Celsius and a threshold is crossed making it very difficult, if not impossible, to go back. The natural response to this is the Green New Deal, primarily halting fossil-fuel production as quickly as possible and moving to renewable energy.

Our current Congress keeps voting for more oil drilling, including HR 1616 (please look it up at Congress.gov). The House voted for drilling in more than 20 central and eastern European countries. I call this the What the Heck Act. Actually, I use a different word.

Did your representative vote for this act? Why does our government seem uninterested in preventing climate disaster? It could be all that fossil fuel money. Just sayin’ …

Jason Kishineff

Democratic congressional candidate, 5th District

American Canyon

PITCHFORK TIME!

Perhaps parts of the American "one percent" are finally ready to admit that socioeconomic inequality has reached unprecedented levels and that the current status quo is unsustainable, because just like South African billionaire Johann Rupert, the prospect of the poor masses rebelling is keeping them "awake at night". They are now saying that capitalism "needs work" and are proposing various "fixes" - mainly "trickle-down philanthropy". Some have gone as far as suggesting that social provision should be enhanced and that the wealthy should be taxed more.

aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/percent-worried-190505112051522.html

PERFECT PITCH, AND A FOND FAREWELL

Ukiah Symphony features violinist Roy Malan and Russian Romantics

Last concert with retiring Music Director Les Pfutzenreuter

by Roberta Werdinger

On Saturday, May 18 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 19 at 2 p.m., the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra presents "Roy Malan in Concert!" at the Mendocino College Center Theatre. This will be the final concert of the Symphony's 2018-19 season and the last under the direction of conductor Les Pfutzenreuter before his retirement. The program consists of the "Slavonic March" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) and his Symphony no. 5 in E Minor, and features Malan as solo violinist playing Alexander Glazunov's Violin Concerto in A Minor.

The material is fitting, both in content and form, to this occasion. Joe Nemeth, composer and acting chair of the Ukiah Symphony Association, notes that Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony has long been on Pfutzenreuter's "bucket list." "It's a big concert, with a big orchestra, playing big, lush, Romantic works," Nemeth notes. Romanticism (with a capital "R") is a highly influential cultural movement that emphasizes the importance of the individual and the primacy of feelings as a basis for artistic creation. Reacting to the Industrial Revolution, Romantics turned against over-regulation in the human world and toward dialogue with the elements of nature. The Russian version of this has included an abundance of heightened feeling that causes some European critics to shy away from their style.

Not so the violinist Roy Malan--indeed, he has been described as "the last of the Romantics whose sound alone identifies him." With a distinguished career that includes forty years as concertmaster of the San Francisco Ballet, founding the Telluride Chamber Music Festival and later helping to create the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, in addition to extensive international touring and recording, Malan's enthusiasm for playing and performing music is undiminished.

Born in South Africa, Malan was already clamoring for music lessons at the age of three. His mother, herself an accomplished violinist, told her young child to wait until he was five. Meanwhile, she played a recording of Bach's E Major Violin Concerto on a turntable which sped up the recording slightly. When the young Malan asked why the concerto was being played in F, his mother relented and started him on lessons. It was discovered that the child had perfect pitch.

When he was a teenager, Malan and his family relocated to London where he studied with Yehudi Menuhin at the Royal Academy of Music. From there he went on to New York City to study at Juilliard with Ivan Galamian, a legendary and influential violin teacher. Afterward, he studied in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute, then under the direction of Russian-born violinist and composer Efrem Zimbalist. Malan became a protégée of Zimbalist, following him out west when Zimbalist retired, and writing his authorized biography. (Zimbalist's son, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and granddaughter, Stephanie Zimbalist, both became well-known actors. Malan has remained close to the family; Stephanie Zimbalist often attends his concerts.)

Like his mentor, Malan still gets up every morning and practices the violin, before heading off to teach music at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Zimbalist himself practiced the violin every day of his life, up until his death at age 95. When asked why he bothered when he was nearing the end of an accomplished career, Zimbalist replied, "I have done this all my life; why stop now?" Malan echoes this by saying, "If I didn't play the violin, I don't know what I'd do. There is much devotion and discipline involved."

Even while he understands and employs the principle of hard work, Malan knows that good playing involves much more. He laments how these days, preoccupation with technical perfection is eclipsing other values. "The main thing missing with young performers these days is soul," he says. In spite of all his technical prowess and outward achievements, Malan declares that "the most wonderful thing for a concert artist is for an audience member to come up to them with tears in their eyes," expressing how the music has moved them.

A fitting finale

In October of 1941, not long into the devastating but ultimately successful (for Russian sovereignty) Siege of Leningrad, the Leningrad Radio Orchestra began playing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, broadcasting the performance to their allies in London. Bombs from Nazi Germany began falling during the second movement, but the orchestra stayed seated and playing through the final note.

The dramatic and defiant finale of this majestic symphony, kettledrums a-rolling, will mark the last notes the Ukiah Symphony plays with conductor Les Pfutzenreuter presiding. He is retiring after 29 years as musical director and guiding spirit, passing the baton to incoming music director Phillip S. Lenberg.

Malan has played with Pfutzenreuter several times, both with the Ukiah Symphony and at other venues, and praises him highly. "So many conductors talk too much," Malan explains. "Les is one of the rare exceptions. He doesn't have to talk; he can do everything with his hands," gesturing to the orchestra members as to how the music is to be played and understood. The result is that rare person who conducts in the true sense: highlighting and developing nuances of our precious collective musical heritage, along with drawing out the skills and personalities of the musicians who labor to bring it alive. "Les is just a natural, let's put it that way," Malan concludes.

"Roy Malan in Concert!" takes place Saturday, May 18 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 19 at 2 p.m. at the Mendocino College Center Theatre. The Theatre is wheelchair accessible. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for seniors age 65 and up, and free for ASB card holders and everyone under 18. Tickets are available at the Mendocino Book Company at 102 S. School St. in Ukiah or online at www.ukiahsymphony.org. For further information please call the Ukiah Symphony hotline at 707 510-1793.

Sponsors for the concert are Dr. Margaret Arner & Dr. Larry Falk; Dr. Andrew Corbett, DDS MS Inc.; and Conrad & Joan Cox.

THE CRYBABY PROBLEM

Michael Powell, New York Times: “Note to the league commissioner, Adam Silver: Playoff basketball is one of the great treats in sports, all sweaty intensity and artistry, and it is scarred, game after game, by the incessant whining of players and coaches at referees. Basta, please.”

Rob Anderson notes: It's what I call the prima donna problem. Maybe the NBA should create a special crybaby foul: whine about referee calls more than a fixed number of times in a game and it counts the same as a personal and team foul.

(District5Diary)

NOT-SO-SIMPLE IS BACK!

We took a year off to reflect on the last eight years and have made some significant changes for 2019.

We are excited to partner with Groundswell Community and Retreat Center to produce a smaller gathering the weekend of July 26-28th, 2019 on their beautiful land just south of Boonville. This year’s event will be limited to fewer participants, so purchasing tickets before the event will be necessary.

Save the Date and stay posted for updates regarding ticket sales and site details. http://notsosimple.info/

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

What is this Fox obsession with accusing the liberal left of wanting to “give all good things to all the people…” ?

The reality is, at least in Bernie Sanders’ case, that it’s a desire to restore a level of FAIRNESS to the economic system, to put more in the hands of the 90% by way of a liveable wage and to fund the essential needs of health and education taxing EFFECTIVELY the wealthy, the super-wealthy and the obscenely wealthy.

If a decent rate of tax starts at $250,000 of income, I doubt there are many here who would personally find themselves paying more.

These two things – a living wage and healthcare for ALL – would go a very long way to alleviating the pain, angst & despair that is universally recognized here.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

I’m just going to throw this in here, cuz i’ve had it for awhile and want to share it

This is from March 26. Forwarding as received

Important Information For Our Health

The Japanese government decided to dispose of all microwave ovens in the country before the end of this year. All citizens and organizations that do not fulfill the requirement are threatened with prison sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years, depending on the severity of the crime. 

The reason for the ban on microwaves in the Land of the Rising Sun was researched by scientists from the University of Hiroshima, who found out that radioactive waves caused more harm to the health of citizens over the 20 years of use of the microwave oven than the nuclear bombing of American aircraft in September 1945. 

According to the findings of experts, food, heated in a microwave oven, has unfavourable vibrations, in disharmony with the universal rhythms. 
All the largest manufacturers of microwave ovens in Japan have already closed factory workshops where products were manufactured. In 2021, the termination of the production of microwave ovens will be announced in South Korea, China plans to abandon this type of technology in 2023 
[19:14, 26.3.2019] Khan Khanbala Dts: A conference on cancer prevention was held at the Kashira Cancer Center. Here are some recommendations made at the end of it:

Say no!”:

1. Refined oil
2. Milk of animal origin (not homemade)
3. Food cubes (seasoning “Broth”
4. Soda (32 pieces of sugar per liter!)
5. Sugar refined sugar
6. Microwave
7. Too tight underwear (bra!)
8. No alcohol
9. Thawed food
10. Do not drink water from the refrigerator in plastic bottles.
11. Contraceptive pills (women change hormonal system and provoke cancer)
12. Deodorants. Especially used after shaving are dangerous.
13. Sugar in any form (cancer cells mainly feed on sugar).
14. Cancer patients, excluding sugar from their diet, see that the disease is gone and can live for a long time: sugar = mortal enemy.
15. A glass of beer is processed in the body for 5 hours, at which time organs and systems operate at idle speed.

Say yes!”:

1. Vegetables
2. Honey in moderation instead of sugar
3. Vegetable proteins (beans instead of meat)
4. Two glasses of water on an empty stomach before brushing your teeth – room temperature water has the same temperature as our body upon waking.
5. Warm food (not hot)
6. No. 1 anti-cancer juice: aloe vera + ginger + parsley + celery + promalin (middle of pineapple), mix and drink on an empty stomach.
7. Anticancer juice No. 2: soursop / guanabana (seedless) + promalin (middle of pineapple)
8. Eat raw or boiled carrots or squeeze juice every day.

On a note:

The Association of American Doctors found answers to the cause of cancer:

1. Do not drink tea from plastic cups (cups).
2. Do not eat anything hot from a paper or plastic bag (for example, fried potatoes).
3. Do not microwave food in plastic dishes.

We remind:

When plastic is exposed to heat, chemical compounds are released that can cause 52 types of cancer.

This message is better than 100 unnecessary SMS …

Avoid drinking Coca-Cola on pineapple or after eating pineapple as dessert.

Do not mix pineapple juice with coca.

This mixture is deadly! People die from this, and they mistakenly believe that they were poisoned …. They were victims of their ignorance of this fatal cocktail!

Answer calls by holding the phone to your left ear

Do not drink medicines with cold water.

Do not eat heavy food after 17.00

Drink more water in the morning, less in the evening

Do not take a horizontal position immediately after a meal and use of drugs

When the battery of your phone is almost dead, do not pick up the phone, as this radiation is 1000 times stronger than with a charged battery.

MARCO ON MYSTICISM

RE: Book Signing Friday at The Gathering Place with Local Author Sondra Sula

Charlie Engel wrote: Following is a true, mystical description of events… My Medicine Drum is a masterpiece. It was painted by a friend with an incomprehensible background in Shamanism… Manoharan first painted the crow with its beak open but without anything in it. I asked him why. He told me that it wasn't yet time to add the berry. A crow, with a berry in its beak, flew in front of my car a few weeks later. I immediately called Manoharan on my cell phone and told him what I had seen. He said it was time to paint the berry… I noticed two crows flying in erratic circles around a red tailed hawk… I was filled with excitement when I entered the house. I told Manoharan what had happened… He informed me, with a twinkle in his eye, that he is known as "Two Crows Dancing".

---

Marco McClean: Charlie, many years ago I was working in the shop at my day job when my eyes were drawn to a nearly horizontal shaft of light above. The lowering sun squirted a golden beam from a knothole high on the wall above the drill press, through dusty sparkly air, and in brilliant Spielbergian soft focus lit up the raised metal letters on an ancient vacuum cleaner stuffed up in the rafters. /3-Way Rug Nozzle/, it said. That's how I got /my/ shamanical name.

One day, when you're ready, I'll tell you the story of my stripper name, my mafia goombah name, my honking bluesmaster name, my racehorse name, my Guys and Dolls name, my flawed-superhero and supervillain names, my chef name, Catholic patron-saint-of name, stickball-shark nickname, horse whisperer name, and more. Though really I and the universe have been telling you all along but the ears of your Oversoul are plugged with a mushroom shrub of hair that you can't see even in a mirror because those places are on the sides and the stems of the mushrooms are way down in there. When you can trap a fly in your ear with a yogurt spoon and appreciate its tiny voice: "Help meeeeeeeee!", or catch the moon moth on your tongue without smearing its delicate wing fluff (or retching or sneezing) and taste the popcorn taste of its balletic adorable little feet, you'll know, and suddenly there I'll be in the Walmart pyjamas and Shoe-Goo-patched tennis shoes of my people, to sell you a vacuum cleaner by spilling schmutz and demonstrating just how powerful this particular model is, and how well they used to make things in the old days, that a microwave oven you bought in Xmas of 2017 is already collapsing of rust inside while a cannister vacuum cleaner made during the early prop-driven airliner era is still sucking as hard as so-called public radio, where with a vacuum cleaner that's a good thing.

Also be careful about trying to cut the old-man hair in your ears with pointy scissors. Never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear. (My black-and-white-teevee-Western Indian name used to be Runs With Scissors until I found out that Cynthia Frank, of Cypress House, QED Press, Mendo Women's Choir, etc., had already taken it. She isn't gonna live forever, though, nobody and nothing does, and I call dibs on that jersey.)

---

IN OTHER SPIRITUAL NEWS: Should the Avengers impeach Thanos?

Endgame: Should the Avengers Impeach Thanos?

Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

SECOND SATURDAY ART OPENING at the Prentice Gallery, 45050 Main Street, Mendocino, CA. Saturday, May 11th, 5-7pm Featuring Photographer Don McCullough. Many of you may remember Don from his time here as the Minister at the Presbyterian Church. Don's work is also featured on this years Mendocino Film Festival Catalog. Prentice Gallery & the Mendocino Film Festival will be selling raffle tickets for a chance to win one of Don McCullough's framed B&W photographs titled "Mouth of Big River" to raise funds for the festival. Please stop by this Second Saturday and say hello to Don McCullough and see his beautiful work as well. For more information contact the Prentice Gallery 707-937-5205

THE BULLET TRAIN FIASCO

by Susan Shelley

In 1962, the Mona Lisa was assessed at an insurance value of $100 million. That would be about $837 million today, and not even close to the most expensive painting in the world. The priciest creation ever made with paint is not in the Louvre Museum but in a government office in California, where the latest artist’s illustration of the bullet train has cost taxpayers about $5 billion, and counting.

“Let’s be real,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in February, announcing something that sounded at first as if he was cutting the losses and ending the project. It wasn’t that at all.

You could say it was surreal, but even Salvador Dali couldn’t have dreamed up the latest report from the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

“Delivering High-Speed Rail to Californians” is the title, and that’s artful, too. It’s in the present tense, to make it appear that it’s happening. If you could connect this report to a polygraph machine, the needle would fly off the dial in the middle of the first sentence. “The California High-Speed Rail Authority is responsible …” ( buzz!) “for planning, designing, building and operating the first high-speed rail in the nation. California high-speed rail will connect the mega-regions of the state …” ( Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!) The new plan calls for the bullet train to speed between Merced and Bakersfield.

What’s the rush?

The segment of the bullet train that’s currently under construction runs 119 miles through the Central Valley. The latest estimate of the cost to complete it is $12.4 billion, more than double what it was originally supposed to cost, and even at that price it’s not expected to start operating until 2028.

That will be the 20th anniversary of the year California voters were told they were approving $9.95 billion of bonds for a high-speed train connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles. It was going to take eight years and cost $33 billion. It could not require a tax increase to build or a public subsidy to operate.

The federal government kicked in a few billion dollars for the project on the same understanding.

Now, much of that funding is at risk. The updated 171-mile route is projected to cost $20.4 billion, but nobody ever agreed to pay that kind of money for a train between Merced and Bakersfield.

Every business plan released by the high-speed rail authority has included an analysis of ridership and revenue projections, essential to demonstrating that the bullet train could operate successfully without a public subsidy.

Using sophisticated statistical methods developed by high-priced consultants, the rail authority once estimated ridership at 90 million passengers per year. When the laughter died down, the estimate was adjusted to 25 million.

No amount of numerology could conjure a ridership estimate like that for the route between Merced and Bakersfield, already connected by a highway for a drive that takes less than three hours and by a train that will take you from one place to the other for roughly the price of two movie tickets and a small bucket of popcorn.

Not only does the rail authority lack the money to finish the project, it may lose the money it thinks it already has.

The Legislature has yet to appropriate $4.2 billion of the $9.95 billion Proposition 1A bond funds approved by voters. The report notes that the rail authority must prepare funding plans that “demonstrate that the requirements of Proposition 1A have been met.” That will be creative. Maybe it can use a green screen effect to put the Golden Gate Bridge in Merced and the Hollywood sign in Bakersfield.

The federal funds are at risk, too. “It is possible that the Authority will lose access to those funds, which would result in total available funding being reduced by $929 million,” the report says. “If that occurs, the Authority would work with the California Department of Finance and the Administration on alternatives.”

That sounds a lot like a tax increase, but Proposition 1A prohibited a tax increase to build the train.

The construction of the bullet train in the Central Valley is currently financed by 25% of the money that flows into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund in Sacramento. If you’re wondering where that money is coming from, weigh your wallet after you pay for gasoline, electricity and anything that’s moved around the state by truck.

The cap-and-trade program imposes extra costs on industries that produce greenhouse gases, like utilities and refineries. The revenue is derived from a state auction of emissions permits. “The program experienced a period of volatility during 2016 and 2017 that resulted in lower than expected receipts for the project,” the rail authority’s report complains, noting that the potential for future volatility could create “cash flow challenges.”

The cap-and-trade program was set to expire in 2020 but was renewed by the Legislature in July 2017 for another 10 years. “There are currently no funds committed or appropriated for the project after 2030,” the report frets.

Well, they did say the train would be operating self-sufficiently by 2028.

Maybe they should call in the art experts from Sotheby’s or Christie’s. On page 138 of the report there’s a landscape painting titled, “California High Speed Rail Stations are Planned for Net Zero Energy Consumption.” If they can find the right buyer, it might bring billions at auction.

(Susan Shelley is a columnist for the Southern California News Group.)

LOOKALIKES: South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Boston Celtics Coach Brad Stephens.

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/brad-stevens-big-fan-pete-buttigieg-his-2020-presidential-hopeful-lookalike

(Fred Gardner)

THE GRACE HUDSON MUSEUM hosts the Greater Ukiah Chamber of Commerce May Mixer, to be held Thursday, May 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Wild Gardens. The event is free and all are welcome. Westwide Renaissance Market will provide savory bites and Costco will provide sweet bites; Tamar Distillers will sample world-class spirits; the Chamber will provide wine; and the Clay Hawkins trio will offer up soulful, slide guitar-based music. There will also be a raffle courtesy of the Museum's gift shop.

The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main Street in Ukiah. For more information please call 467-2836.

KRUGMAN V. SANDERS: MEDICARE FOR ALL?

by Dean Baker

Last week Krugman devoted a column to dismissing the Democrats septuagenarians (Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders) as not being prepared to deal with the presidency in today’s political environment. Part of his indictment of Sanders was an unwillingness to compromise, most notably on health care reform.

As Krugman put it:

“For Sanders, then, it seems to be single-payer or bust. And what that would mean, with very high likelihood, is … bust.”

To back up this position, Krugman notes Sanders’ unwillingness to support a bill that would improve the Affordable Care Act.

Actually, it is wrong to claim that Sanders has seen single-payer as an all or nothing proposition. He voted for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, when his vote was essential for the bill’s passage.

Sanders was also a supporter of Bill Clinton’s health care reform bill that never even made it to the floor in Congress. He has often told a story of apologizing to Clinton for his conduct on the bill.

According to Sanders, Clinton said, “what do you mean Bernie, you were with me all the way.”

To which Sanders replied, “That’s exactly it. I should have been burning you in effigy on the steps of the capital.” [These are my memory, not necessarily verbatim.]

Sanders’ point was that he should have insisted on a more drastic reform, which would have made Clinton’s plans seem moderate in comparison. In this context, it is entirely reasonable for Sanders to push for a more extensive reform, like universal Medicare, even if he is prepared to sign on to a more moderate package involving reforms to the ACA if the time comes for that.

Given Sanders history on health care, it is wrong to say that he has adopted an all or nothing approach. He has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to compromise to extend and improve coverage.

Krugman also questioned whether Sanders could work across party lines. He has made common cause with Republicans on occasion in the past, with important results. A noteworthy example was in 2010, when he became the lead Senate proponent of a proposal originally advanced by Ron Paul in the House, to audit the Fed. The result of this effort was an amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial reform act which required the Fed to disclose the beneficiaries and the terms of the more than $10 trillion in emergency loans it made during the financial crisis. The amendment was approved by the Senate on a vote of 96-0.

(Dean Baker is the senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. This article first appeared on Dean Baker’s blog cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/krugman-on-sanders-on-medicare-for-all)

CALTRANS ROAD INFO, Mendocino County

Route 1 (9.7/19.6) - PG&E has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for tree work from Iverson Road to Stonebord Road will occur Monday, May 13 through Thursday, May 16. One-way traffic control will be in effect between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays.

Route 1 (20.8) – Emergency work at Brush Creek will begin Friday, May 3. One-way traffic control will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays.

Route 1 (14.9/15) – AT&T has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for utility work from Iverson Avenue to Port Road in Point Arena Monday, May 13 through Wednesday, May 15. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays.

Route 1 (38/38.5) – Slide removal south of Navarro River Road will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.

Route 1 (75) – Emergency work at Blue Slide Gulch will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.

Route 20 (16.5) – Emergency work two miles west of Three Chop Road will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.

Route 20 (35.3/35.5) – Emergency work from Hollands Lane to Walker Road will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 15-minute delays.

Route 20 (37.9) – Guardrail work from Cold Creek Bridge to Potter Road will occur Wednesday, May 15 through Friday, May 17. One-way traffic control will be in effect 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays.

Route 101 (35/39) – Emergency work from Reeves Canyon Road to Ridgewood Ranch Road will continue. Lane closures will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.

Route 101 (91.5/99) – PG&E has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for tree work north of the 1 junction will occur on Wednesday, May 15. One-way traffic control will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays.

Route 101 (93) – NRC/Beacom Construction has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for cleanup work at the Jitney Gulch Bridge Monday, May 13 through Tuesday, May 14. One-way traffic control will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays.

Route 101 (95.8/96.5) – Emergency work near the Dora Creek Bridge will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.

Route 162 (8.2) – Shoulder work west of South Fork Eel River Bridge will continue from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Motorists should anticipate minor traffic slowdowns.

Route 175 (8.5/9) – Emergency work near the southern 29 junction will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.

Route 271 (17.9) – Bridge work at McCoy Creek Bridge will continue. A full bridge closure is in effect. Motorists should plan an alternate route.

---

Anderson Valley

Route 128 (0/11.7) – Emergency work from Route 1 to Flynn Creek Road will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays. LC#C128VA

Route 128 (20.1) – AT&T has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for utility work at Philo-Greenwood Road will occur Thursday, May 16 through Friday, May 17. One-way traffic control will be in effect. Motorists should anticipate 5-minute delays. LC#T128BA

Route 253 (0/2.45) – Emergency work from Boonville to Singley Cattlepass will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays. LC#C253KA

THE REDWOOD COMMUNITY CHORUS warmly invites you to its Spring Concert.

Friday evening, May 10, 7:00 pm – and

Saturday afternoon, May 11, 2:00 pm

Mendocino Presbyterian Church, Main St., Mendocino

Admission is free; donations to help cover costs are appreciated.

The 40-member local chorus will sing a variety of songs, including Mozart's 'Te Deum' and Haydn's 'Gloria.' The program will feature a special composition, 'All of Us,' written to commemorate the death of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student brutally murdered in a hate crime in Wyoming in 1998. Jenni Windsor, Chorus Director, says, “I chose the Matthew Shepard piece because it lifts us up, musically and inspirationally. In one section twelve separate voices harmonize (rare in music) in celebration of its important message…for us to allow our hearts to lead us out of what we might fear and judge in others, and into a more beautiful appreciation of our different but common humanity." The program will also include two love songs, Mozart’s Te Deum laudamus, and the musical adaptation of that beloved classic children's book, "Goodnight Moon." Please call 964-1722 or 937-4084 for further information. We hope to see you there!

THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING AGENDA for the May 14, 2019, meeting is now available on the County website: mendocino.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx