MCT: Saturday, June 8, 2019

• Heat Wave
• Opioid Deaths
• Raptors 3-1
• Reinstate Howe
• PA Correction
• Lakota
• Housing Element
• Bath Riots
• Gordon Hettrick
• Power Dependent
• Vegas Junket
• Not Guilty
• Ed Notes
• Body Found
• Mill Discussion
• Fellow Stranger
• Commodore Perdock
• Groj Sale
• Tree Grant
• Yesterday's Catch
• Sober Future
• Dissing Soviets
• War Change
• Ensign Ferlinghetti
• Jewish Sanders
• Comments
• 1955 Suspects
• Confederate Prez
• Guards Honored
• Intervention
• Teetotal Prayer
• Suffering
• Kazimierz Sakowicz
• Ideation Opening
• Half Poor
• Reincarnation
• Wake Up
• Oligarch 5

HEAT WAVE ON THE WAY. A summer warming trend begins Saturday with temps approaching 90 inland, followed by inland temps around 100 on Sunday and Monday, then a drop back to near normal summer 90s in mid-week. Nights will cool into the low 60s. Coastal highs, however, will probably not exceed 70.

MENDOCINO COUNTY, OVERWHELMED BY FENTANYL OVERDOSE DEATHS, PUTS ANTIDOTE IN DEPUTIES’ HANDS

Death by opioid overdose is the biggest threat to county residents that law enforcement officers have to contend with, Capt. Gregory Van Patten said.

pressdemocrat.com/news/9643218-181/mendocino-county-overwhelmed-by-fentanyl

THE TORONTO RAPTORS, lead by the deadpan dead-eye Kawhi Leonard with a solid performance from their serious and dominant backup center Serge Ibaka — it seems like Toronto has plenty of quality players like Pascal Siakham, Mark Gasol, etc. any one of whom can step up on any given night — took a commanding three to one lead in Friday night’s fourth game of the NBA Championship series.

The Durantless Warriors got good games from several players too — Thompson and Looney were back and effective, but all-star Steph Curry had an off night — but their defense was inconsistent and they now face the daunting task of winning three straight from the well-balanced and under-rated Raptors, two of which will be in Toronto. Whichever way it goes, the Warriors have played highly watchable basketball getting to the finals five times and winning three NBA championships and nobody has anything to complain about.

REINSTATE BARBARA HOWE

In general, no news is good news when it comes to public health, like the water from our taps that we don’t really think about much unless it tastes funny or stops running. As with a big ship or any other large system, there has been enough momentum built up that we have not yet felt the reverberations of the firing of the Mendocino County Public Health Director, Barbara Howe, two weeks ago, nor the subsequent resignation of the County Health Office, Dr. Gary Pace, in solidarity with her.

There was no reason given for her termination, and no replacement director waiting in the wings to replace Barbara after this hasty and arbitrary decision was made. In fact, there is no one there at all. Other staff, who themselves are already taxed from their own burgeoning workload in a perpetually understaffed department, are expected to “fill in.” This decapitation is only the latest morale hit to staff who have not had a competent public health leader for over a decade before Barbara. And the manner in which she was terminated, giving her fifteen minutes to gather her belongings, was designed to stifle disagreement and suppress diversity of opinion among the ranks.

Would a potential measles outbreak in Mendocino County reveal just how important an experienced public health director is in a crisis? And what if we had a fire this season? What about the multiple existing crises, like extremely high rates of drug overdose, suicide, and child abuse that she has been tackling since she first came to Mendocino 18 months ago? She has eliminated redundant services and improved the department’s capacity to meet the medical needs of citizens in a shelter during a fire; she has pre-deployed air scrubbers to inland schools to protect the health of kids with asthma; and she has made sure that at-risk folks experiencing homelessness got the hepatitis A vaccine. She and Dr. Pace have worked with the Sheriff to bring medical treatment for substance use to county inmates while in the jail, thereby reducing recidivism for drug crimes. Her other achievements include pursuing national public health accreditation, bringing modern epidemiologic surveillance programs here so that Public Health staff can monitor local emergency room data in real time, and committing Public Health financial resources to the county’s Community Health Improvement Plan (www.healthymendocino.org).

All this in 18 short months.

Her staff, as well as community partners, like me, are outraged and alarmed about her termination. As a pediatric nurse practitioner, I have been able to rely on Barbara and her staff to support new parents who needed a little guidance in caring for their newborns. Thankfully, we never hear about these families because, after all, no news is good news.

Please join me in petitioning for Barbara Howe’s reinstatement as Public Health Director in Mendocino County. I invite you to register your disapproval to the Board of Supervisors by emailing all 5 of them with this address: bos@mendocinocounty.org or calling 707-463-4221.

Thank you for your attention and advocacy.

Medie Jesena Parrott, Pediatric nurse practitioner

Ukiah

CORRECTION: Last week we reported:

"THE POINT ARENA City Council has approved conversion of the derelict Sea Shell Inn as a cannabis products manufacturing and distribution center. All this maneuvering around pot legalization, or quasi-legalization, reminds me of the build-up to Tulip Mania — huge investment, big crash."

Turns out, the ICO report of the City Council meeting on which this item was based was incorrect. The ICO printed a short correction this week saying, "The cannabis processing and distribution facility described in last week's issue will be in a former gas station at the corner of Main and Mill Street in Point Arena, not at the adjacent former motel."

According to a coast resident familiar with the proposal, it's nothing more than a small dispensary moving into the old gas station office with minimal if any "cannabis processing and distribution" capacities.

The owners of the Sea Shell Inn also own the adjacent old and closed gas station property which is probably how the confusion was created. We understand that the out of state couple who bought the Sea Shell Inn a few years ago is still trying to get through the maze of permits, both County and Coastal Commission, required to remodel the old Motel into rentable condition. (They deserve credit for even trying.) So far, they have reportedly finally solved the septic system problem but there are still several other hurdles to jump over.

A READER WRITES: “The Planning Dept. is asking the Board of Supervisors to hire a consultant and begin a new Housing Element for the General Plan. I have heard that the County wants to eliminate the Inclusionary Housing Element this time around. It will be a while before there is any public input to the Housing Element, but it would be good to stay aware of this subject as it unfolds. The consulting planning firm who will do the work is called Place Works and is located in Berkeley."

ms notes: According to next week’s Supes agenda, Mendo plans to spend $85,000 on this project via placeworks. But at these rates it wouldn’t take them long to run up an even bigger bill.

PS. We didn’t see any money in the 2019-2020 budget for the housing ordinance update either. And history shows that the housing ordinance has never done anything but collect dust. The Supes won’t consider any kind of rent control for trailer parks, haven’t squeaked about trying to find locations for new trailer parks as former Supervisor Pinches proposed, and all they’ve done housingwise so far is prepare some pre-approved Class K specs (which are still under review in the County Counsel’s office) and which may or may not actually be used by a Mendo home builder. As far as we know, Coast contractor Ishvi Aum was the first to propose that these pre-approved specs be developed about three years ago. We’ll withhold judgment on what Mendo is offering until Mr. Aum chimes in after they’re finally released.

ON JANUARY 28, 1917, 17-year old house cleaner Carmelita Torres led what will become known as the “Bath Riots” at the Juarez/El Paso border, refusing the gasoline and chemical “bath” imposed on Mexican workers crossing the border into the U.S. Torres and 30 other women resisted and several hundred people quickly joined in the demonstration. Troops eventually quelled the riot and Torres was arrested. The practice continued for decades. [Photo: Mexican laborers being fumigated with the pesticide DDT in Hidalgo, Texas, in 1956.]

From National Public Radio: “The maid, Carmelita Torres, crossed every day from Juarez to El Paso to clean American homes. .. Before being allowed to cross, Mexicans had to bathe, strip nude for an inspection, undergo the lice treatment, and have their clothes treated in a steam dryer. When Torres and the others resisted the humiliating procedure, onlookers began protesting, sparking what became known as the Bath Riots. The Mexican housekeepers who revolted had good cause to be upset. Inside a brick disinfectant building under the bridge, health personnel had been secretly photographing women in the nude and posting the snapshots in a local cantina. A year earlier, a group of prisoners in the El Paso jail died in a fire while being deloused with gasoline.”

npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5176177

MARGARET ELLIS COMMENTED RECENTLY on a 2010 item by Linda Williams of the Willits News (which the AVA had reposted) which said: “"March 2007: George Cameron Hettrick, 57, of Philo. Human remains was found in a ranch in Philo in January 2008 and his remains were identified in February 2008. Hettrick, suffering from dementia, wandered away from his care home at the Holmes Ranch, Philo. He died from a combination of exposure and AIDS."

MS. ELLIS’S COMMENT: “Gordon dissappeared from my cousins house not a care home . he did not die from exposer or hiv. He was murdered. He died from high volasity blunt force trauma to his head. I am his sister and the person who caused this for financil gain is walking free. Read the cornets report and the police reports and interviews including the search reports His name was Gordon cameron Hettrick not george. Thank you.”

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HERE’S A COLLECTION of our reports and items on the subject from back when it happened:

Feb 21, 2007: Missing Person On Holmes Ranch

by David Severn

Anderson Valley Fire personnel were called out Sunday morning for an "interagency assist" in the search for an “adult at risk male” that had gone missing from the Kramer Lane area of Holmes Ranch. Gordon Hettrick, 57, was last seen at around 4pm Saturday near the home he and his partner were caretaking while the new owners were in transition. As of this writing, Tuesday morning, Gordon is still missing.

Gordon has multiple health problems for which he is on life-sustaining medications. He is also deaf. He has been known to take frequent walks but never for more than about an hour in duration. Because of his weakened condition it is believed that he would not attempt any rigorous off-road or off-trail excursions and his disappearance is a puzzle to those who know and care for him. When last seen Gordon was wearing either a green or blue plaid shirt, Levi 501 jeans and tan suede shoes with black soles. Grasping at straws, it was suggested that because his vehicle was down and not driveable Gordon might have tried to hitch a ride to Lemons’ Market to pick up a Lotto ticket, but that was dismissed as being highly unlikely.

Sunday, about a dozen Anderson Valley Fire volunteers were joined by local residents Judy Bashore, Susan Spencer, Shiela Colombana, Martha Hyde and J.R. Collins in a search that combed the rugged and brushy surrounding area with no results. Monday, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department brought in a search crew that included several dogs as well as CDF Copter 101. By mid-afternoon the entire search area from ridgetop to Highway 128 had been “exhausted” and the search was called off. Anyone with any information is urged to call the Mendocino County Sheriff’s office at 463-4111.

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May 23, 2007: THANKS FROM HETTRICK FAMILY

To the Editor

On March 10, 2007, Gordon Hettrick went missing from a residence in the Kramer Lane area of Holmes Ranch near Philo. He was caretaking the residence temporarily for the new owners prior to their making a permanent move. All indications are that he went for a late afternoon hike and failed to return. Unfortunately, Gordon has not been found as of this date (mid-May) in spite of the efforts of so many local organizations and residents in the area.

The families of Gordon would like to thank the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Unit under the direction of Deputy Tim Marsh who coordinated the search volunteers, dog teams and other equipment available to the Department. Deputy Marsh was professional, cooperative and advised us daily on what had transpired and what was planned each day. We also thank CalFire (CDF) for use of their Copter and the crews from Parlin Fork Conservation Camp and the Anderson Valley Fire Department for their assistance.

And, to the many friends of Gordon who haven’t given up the search and who have spent many hours on their computers looking for any leads and for printing and handing out brochures wherever deemed helpful, we extend our heartfelt thanks.

Tisha McLaren and Family

Gary Pierce and Family

Santa Rosa

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Jan 30, 2008: Gordon Hettrick Has Probably Been Found

by Bruce Anderson

Gordon Hettrick was 57 when he was last seen on the Upper Holmes Ranch late in the afternoon of March 10th, 2007, a Saturday. Ten months later it is likely that the remains of the missing man have been found.

In an area off Little Mill Creek, on the east side of the Holmes Ranch subdivision, an area thoroughly combed by several teams of searchers in the weeks following Hettrick’s disappearance last March, a human skull, some bones and bits of clothing were discovered early Friday afternoon by the owner of the property, Tish McLeran.

Mrs. McLeran said Monday her husband was with her when they found the remains. Mrs. McLeran also said that Hettrick was her cousin, adding, “I’m waiting for the findings of the police before I say anything else because it would be wrong to speculate right now.”

Her home, Mrs. McLeran emphatically stated, is not a care home as some neighbors seemed to think based on what neighbors say is a high volume of traffic on the road in and out of the property, and because some of the occupants of the house “seemed so unwell,” as one neighbor put it.

“My friends and family live with me here and they’re free to come and go,” Mrs. McLeran explained.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department said they are almost certain the missing man has been found.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Captain Kevin Broin said Monday the remains would be sent to a forensics expert in Chico. Broin said he could not comment on reports that the skull had a hole in it resembling an entry gun shot. Neither Broin nor Mrs. McLaren commented on rumors that a psychic had pointed the way to the missing man.

Little Mill Creek flows between the Holmes Ranch and the subdivision northeast of it known locally as Nash Mill. The Gruber family sold the hillside property to Pete Bates. Bates built what neighbors describe as a “beautiful, single-level, spacious house” on the property which he subsequently sold to Mrs. McCleran and where her family and friends now live. A summer cabin built some forty years ago by the Gruber family before the Holmes Ranch was sub-divided sits at the foot of the McLeran property; Hettrick was found not far from the cabin.

The original search party the afternoon of Hettrick’s failure to return to the McLeran property after he’d left to go for a walk, as one account has it, but another says Hettrick “left for a few months,” included many immediate neighbors of the McLeran property. Boonville school superintendent JR Collins; Judy Bashore; Sheila Colombana, Martha Hyde, among others, spent the rest of the late afternoon daylight that first day hiking up and down the steep hills of the neighborhood in a vain initial attempt to find the man.

The next day, and the days following, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department brought in search and rescue dog teams to look for Hettrick. A CDF helicopter spent much of two days in a “low and slow” aerial scan of the entire Holmes Ranch. A large contingent of young men from the state prison camp at Parlin Forks systematically walked the entire Mill Creek drainage without finding any sign of the missing man.

Dave Severn said Monday that he “personally had looked all over that cabin area. If he was found there, well, I just can’t believe he was anywhere near there because we would have found him that first week.”

Hettrick was known to be HIV-positive and in poor health. His friends and relatives residing with him in the McLeran home initially feared that if he’d wandered off the road he might not have had the strength to make his way back, especially after nightfall.

There was also the vague recollection that Hettrick may have tried to walk to Lemons Market in Philo “to buy a lottery ticket.” The odds of him, at 5’11 and 115 ailing pounds reaching Lemons on foot from the top of the Holmes Ranch would be nearly as long as him hitting the lottery jackpot. But it was also said by persons close to Hettrick that “he was deceptively strong.” They said he walked every day in all kinds of weather.

Hettrick’s car was not in an operating condition when he disappeared. It was speculated that he could have gotten a ride off the ranch but no one has come forward to say they gave him one.

It is again being rumored that Hettrick not only left his home that day in March of 2007, he left the Holmes Ranch, left the Anderson Valley, but eventually made his way back to die after the search for him had ceased.

In July of 2007 junk mail addressed to Gordon Hettrick was found on the floor of the Philo Post Office.

Someone had opened the missing man’s mailbox.

A few days later Hettrick’s junk mail was again found in the lobby of the post office.

Someone had Hettrick’s mailbox key, and that someone was visiting the Philo Post Office to get his mail.

Had the missing man returned to pick up his mail? Not likely unless the absent Hettrick was seriously messing with the community’s collective mind, not to mention the emotions of his friends and relatives.

The Sheriff’s Department set up a surveillance camera at the post office, which is open to boxholders round the clock, hoping they would catch whomever it was getting into Hettrick’s mail.

The box was never again disturbed.

Skeptics inside the Sheriff’s Department think Hettrick, or a person close to Hettrick, was picking up his mail.

These same skeptics say that all they know for sure is that a skull and “a pile of bones” was found on the Holmes Ranch. “Yeah, it’s probably him, but I don’t think he’s been there all this time. Maybe, but I think we would have found him back in March. We had a small army through there. No way we wouldn’t have found him then.”

UH OH

Editor:

It is terrible that cellphone coverage was lost during the Camp fire. It’s also dangerous that a widespread power outage may occur for an indefinite period of time due to precautionary deactivation of The Geysers transmission lines due to fire conditions. The loss of cellphone coverage due to a lack of backup power for 100,000 or more people for an extended period represents the possibility of a major (man-made) disaster.

Todd Reed

Rohnert Park

HASCHAK’S FREEBIE

He Makes 85 Grand A Year, More Than Twice What The Average Employed Mendo Person Makes, So Why Can't He Pay His Own Way? (And why does anyone need to go anyway. Prior junkets like this have produced nada, not even a report back.)

Item 4b on next Tuesday's consent calendar: “Approval of Out of State Travel for Supervisor Haschak to Attend National Association of Counties’ (NACo) 84th Annual Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada; and Authorization of Expenditure of Airfare and Lodging Expenses in the Approximate Amount of $2,000.”

FERRELL: NOT GUILTY

UKIAH, Thurs., June 6. -- A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations Thursday to find the trial defendant not guilty.

Daniel Troy Ferrell, age 27, of Cloverdale had been charged with unlawfully driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of marijuana, a misdemeanor.

The District Attorney had charged this as a second DUI offense as Mr. Ferrell has previously suffered a "wet reckless" conviction in Tehama County in 2011.

The prosecutor who presented the People's evidence during the trial was Deputy District Attorney Melissa Weems. The investigating law enforcement agencies were the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Justice Toxicology Laboratory in Sacramento.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Cindee Mayfield presided over the four-day trial.

ED NOTES

BEST SPORTS BET of the year is by a Boonville guy who put a hundred bucks on the Raptors before the NBA season began. Odds on the Raptors to win the championship were 44-1. Lucky bet? Nope, the guy follows hoops very, very carefully.

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SURPRISE. Biden, a Catholic, said earlier in the week he was opposed to abortion. When half the country, the liberal half, jumped up and down and screamed at him, Biden said, "I'm for abortion."

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SEEKING CLARIFICATION: Northcoast Opportunities, the grab bag, grant-funded agency, has a No Caps policy. No, not a no hat rule, a don't write to us in capital letters advisory. It's akin to yelling, you see. (I don't, but then I think twinkling is pretty silly, too.)

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MORE GOOD NEWS

A study published in Nature from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) reveals that there is more plastic pollution deep in the Monterey Bay than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The plastic pollution takes the form of microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic (less than 5 millimeters across), that are common in the Monterey Bay at all depths of the body of water, from the surface to the seafloor, according to MBARI.

But at depths between approximately 650 and 2,000 feet, there is a density of microplastics that's equal to or higher than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive concentration of garbage on the Pacific Ocean's surface between California and Hawaii. Whereas the giant floating garbage patch has as high as 12 parts of microplastics per cubic meter of water, according to previous research, the density of microplastics deep in the Monterey Bay has up to 16 parts of microplastics per cubic meter of water.

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ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO, the feds announced a prison crackdown on the Aryan Brotherhood, a series of prosecutions chronicled in an excellent piece in The New Yorker. The feds this week announced another crackdown. Stories about the inflated danger presented by the gang cite the Southern Poverty Law Center, which calls the AB the nation’s oldest and largest white supremacist prison gang.

"The legal advocacy group also says the syndicate, formed in 1964 at San Quentin State Prison, is the deadliest prison gang in the nation and has nearly 20,000 members, inside prison and on the outside." That's a typical para from the scare stories inspired by the SPLC.

THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER doesn't kill people but it's a far more effective scam than anything a few incarcerated white boys might cook up, raising literal millions by inflating the dangers of racism and anti-Semitism. Not to say there aren't bad people out there, and not to say these bad people often hold false race notions, but Mr. Pollyanna (right here, sir, madam) says race relations in this country have never been better, and anti-Semitism is virtually non-existent, largely because most bad people are too stupid to master the required crank lit.

GUALALA MYSTERY

The body of a man was found Wednesday night on a rock in the middle of the Gualala River along remote Stewarts Point Skaggs Springs Road, raising questions about how he got there.

CHP officials said they’re investigating whether the man possibly died in a car wreck that happened in that location on May 27. The wreck was thought to have only involved one person, Samuel Coria, the driver of a 1988 Toyota truck that tumbled down an embankment and into the river.

Coria, 48, of Gualala, told investigators at the time that he didn’t have a passenger in his truck, but officers are now trying to determine if the man found dead Wednesday had been in his truck at the time of the crash. Coria suffered major injuries in the crash, but somehow got out of the crushed cab and made his way up to the roadway, where he walked about one mile before finding someone to help him.

He was released from Stanford Medical Center on Thursday, CHP Officer David deRutte said.

“Whether it’s connected to the previous crash, we still don’t know,” deRutte said. “We just won’t confirm anything until we hear from the coroner.”

About 8 p.m. Wednesday, a man called the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office to report the body, directing responders to an area just east of the intersection with Annapolis Road. Deputies found the body but couldn’t retrieve it during the night due to the steep ravine leading to the water and its location in the middle of the river, sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said. A deputy remained at the site overnight and the body was recovered Thursday.

The body appeared to have been there for several days, deRutte said.

After Coria’s crash, officers and firefighters searched the area but found no signs of a passenger. No vehicle was found Wednesday night, and there were no signs of a second crash, deRutte said.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL will discuss Regarding Mill Site Reuse Plan Local Coastal Program (LCP) Amendment on June 15, 2019

https://cityfortbragg.legistar.com/View.ashx

WOMEN HOLD UP HALF THE SKY~

“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world...there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do.

…I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true. I'm here. And I'm just as strange as you.”

— Frida Kahlo

A READER WRITES: Former Lake County Undersheriff Russell Perdock, never charged in the slaughter of sailboat occupants his speedboat overran in 2008 was appointed to fill a vacated City of Clearlake council seat yesterday.

https://www.boatus.com/seaworthy/interview-with-bismark-dinius.asp

Perdock served as city councilman for three of a four-year term, quitting to make himself eligible for the then open position of Police Chief, which went to an outsider from the City of Vallejo. The City is being asked to make a “minor” zoning change to allow a shoreline marijuana dispensary operation, which would make delivery of product available to boaters for waterborn transport — a zoning change advocated for by new Lake County Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, on behalf of one of his campaign donors. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is the only law enforcement agency on Clear Lake, which failed to properly document the inebriated condition of the lethal speedboat operator — creating an internationally watched breach in fundamental navigation law, and cementing Lake County’s reputation as a lawless backwater run by incompetent and/or corrupt Good Old Boys.

HAZARDOUS TREE REMOVAL PROGRAM

The County of Mendocino has secured grant funding to support removal of dead or dying hazardous trees on private property within the 2017 Redwood Complex Fire footprint. The County has partnered with the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District (MCRCD) along with the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, who will be administering the program on behalf of the County. As part of the program, the MCRCD will be conducting public outreach and seeking eligible participants.

To be eligible for the program, participants must meet the following requirements:

• Properties must be located within the Redwood Complex Fire Footprint
• Participants must own the property on which trees are proposed for removal
• Participants must either a) contribute a cost share of $200 per tree, with a maximum contribution of $600 total, or b) agree to dispose of felled trees
• Trees eligible for removal must meet all of the following requirements, to be verified by a Registered Professional Forester:
• Be assessed as dead or dying
• Be at least 10 inches in diameter and 20 feet tall
• Be located within 300 feet of a residence or proposed building pad
• Structurally threaten the residence or building pad

Interested participants are to contact Imil Ferrara, MCRCD Project Coordinator, at firesafe@pacific.net to receive the application by mail or email.

This project is funded by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as part of the California Climate Change Investment Program. “This program will be a big assistance to property owners in the fire affected area in aiding of removing dead or dying trees as a result of the 2017 fire with a minimal contribution. I am very proud of staff’s hard work and efforts spent in securing the grant,” stated Nash Gonzalez, Recovery Director.

For more information, please contact the Mendocino County Executive Office at (707) 463 4441 or ceo@mendocinocounty.org.

CATCH OF THE DAY, JUNE 7, 2019

MARK BECK, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Suspended license (for DUI).

JOHNATHAN FRENCH, Laytonville. Failure to appear.

HAKOB KHOJOYAN, Tujunga/Ukiah. DUI.

AMBER KING, Fort Bragg. Vandalism, probation revocation.

NATHEN MARTIN, Willits. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

AARON MASSEY, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, vandalism, protective order violation, contempt of court.

IVORY PINOLA, Mendocino. Felon-addict with firearm, suspended license (for DUI).

SHIRLEY SENG, Omaha, Arkansas//Ukiah. Domestic battery.

CALVIN TAYLOR II, Ukiah. Under influence, vandalism.

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ANDREA WILLIAMS, Covelo. Failure to appear.

GOING WHERE, EXACTLY?

by James Kunstler

In response to what has become a nation of shameless racketeering, vivid wealth disparity, and shocking destitution on display in city streets, the party of the common man seeks remedies in the redistribution of capital. Seems more than fair to many. It’s not for nothing that they style it “social justice,” the cutting edge of an economic system called socialism — with overtones, of course, of settling racial and gender scores for good measure.

Socialism might seem to be the answer to all this unfairness and indignity. And naturally it focuses on the two activities that have turned into the worst rackets in America: higher education and health care, a.k.a. “Eds and Meds.” Both are now cruel bloated parodies of what they used to be, turning their customers into debt serfs and bankrupts, apart from their dismal failures of basic mission: to prepare developing minds for reality and to “first do no harm.”

The proposed remedy is for the national government to take responsibility for running them and to make their services free to all. That would do nothing, of course, to reform the patent idiocies of the gender studies departments; or rescue the sorry victims of obesity and diabetes from their toxic consumption of whoppers, pizza, and slurpees. Those dynamics operate on feedback wheels of futility for which there is no happy ending outside of drastic changes in thought and behavior.

The Left now promises redemption from these great quandaries with the tag-team of Robin Hood and Santa Claus ushering in a new golden era of free stuff. It’s understandable perhaps, considering how desperate so many citizens of this land are, and how desperation feeds rescue fantasies. And the Left may even get a chance to try this wizardry after the next election. But it’s really not where history is taking us. America is not going to go socialist, it’s going medieval. Why is that?

To put it simply, the money is not there. But the “money” is only an abstract representation of material wealth of one kind or another — energy, goods, resources, and delivery systems — and all that is becoming more of a fugitive presence in reality-based civilization. We don’t have the mojo anymore to nationalize and centralize these sprawling activities. It must be obvious that government is not only fatally beyond bankruptcy, but that it has also reached the stage of diminishing returns from over-investment in complexity that translates into generalized incompetency. It’s hardly just Mr. Trump alone that is responsible for the chaotic paralysis all around us.

Societies are self-organizing, emergent phenomena. They respond to the circumstances that reality presents, and they take us in unexpected directions. The general expectation in the USA since the Second World War has been for ever-increasing material comfort provided by an inexhaustible techno-industrial cornucopia, kind of a cosmic goodie machine. Well, we’d better adjust our thinking to the fact that the horn-of-plenty is shockingly out of goodies, and that no amount of financial hocus-pocus is going to refill it. Valiant attempts to redistribute the already-existing wealth are liable to prove disappointing, especially when the paper and digital representations of that wealth in “money” turn out to be figments — promises to pay that will never be kept because they can’t be kept.

So, instead of fantasizing about free PhD programs for everybody, and free insulin for the multitudes, consider instead the vista of a reduced population working in the fields and pastures to bring enough food out of the long-abused land to live through the next winter. Consider a world in which, if we are lucky, the electricity runs for a few hours a day, but possibly not at all. Imagine a world in which men and women actually function in different divisions of labor and different social spaces because they must, to keep the human project going. Imagine a world in which the ideas in your head about that world actually have to comport with the way that the world really works — and the severe penalty for failing to recognize that. That’s the more likely world we’re heading into. It won’t put an end to dreams of utopias and cosmic rewards, but it will be a sobering moment in history.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

DURING D-DAY COMMEMORATIONS Never Forget What the Soviets Gave

Some context is important here in relation to the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. In Normandy, the UK and US forces faced 11 divisions of the Nazi army combined. The Soviet Union faced 228 Divisions of the Nazi army. Yet the country which both suffered the most fighting the fascists and contributed the most to defeating them were snubbed yesterday. Representatives from 16 nations were invited to be officially represented but no one from Russia. That is quite simply unforgivable and wholly disrespectful. The absence of a representative from Russia tarnished the whole event. No country suffered more or gave more than the Soviet Union to beat the fascists. The fact they were not invited to be represented in Portsmouth yesterday is a damned disgrace and the UK Government collectively should hang their heads in shame.

sputniknews.com/columnists/201906061075691259-d-day-commemorations/

ERNIE PYLE: “It may be that the war has changed me, along with the rest. It is hard for anyone to analyze himself. I know that I find more and more that I wish to be alone, and yet contradictorily I believe I have a new patience with humanity that I’ve never had before. When you’ve lived with the unnatural mass cruelty that mankind is capable of inflicting upon itself, you find yourself dispossessed of the faculty for blaming one poor man for the triviality of his faults. I don’t see how any survivor of war can ever be cruel to anything, ever again.” (Here is Your War)

AT NORMANDY on June 6, 1944, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's mission was helping to safeguard the D-Day invasion fleet. No enemy submarines were detected, but he readied guns on his subchaser, the SC-1308, to provide anti-aircraft fire, should any German planes become visible. Clouds kept all aircraft from sight. But the mist rose high enough that, using binoculars, Ferlinghetti could watch Allied troops hit the beach.

Later, after seeing with his own eyes the aftermath of the bombing of Nagasaki, Lawrence became a lifelong pacifist.

BERNIE SANDERS links Hitler’s murder of his family to his fight against occupation of Palestinians

We’ve closely followed the statements of Democratic presidential hopefuls to the American Jewish Committee. Almost every candidate so far has been careful to skirt the Israel question, hinting at some mild criticism of Israel but not actually voicing it. Joe Biden went after the Palestinians. Kamala Harris embraced Israel. No one has mentioned the occupation or Palestinian human rights with any specificity.

Till now, that is. Bernie Sanders weighed in yesterday with a forceful message that connects the murder of his own family by the Nazis to his fight against the crushing, humiliating military occupation by Israel of Palestine. …

mondoweiss.net/2019/06/sanders-occupation-palestinians/

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE DAY

[1] Rainbow Ridge [Humboldt County] is getting logged, Monument and Bear River Ridge are going to have giant windmills placed on them. Giant fish farm on the Samoa Peninsula, possible offshore windfarm going in off the coast. Most of our water from the Eel is already diverted to the Russian River and to SoCal. None of any of these resources being mined from our area benefit us at all. Our entire county has less people living in it than Santa Rosa and provides enough resources for a giant part of the state. It sucks being the resource gold mine for an entire state yet receiving no benefit from being the producer of all these resources.

---

[2] “Most of our water from the Eel is already diverted to the Russian River and to SoCal.”

That’s not even remotely close to the truth.

Average flow of the Eel river is 6.9 million acre feet. Average diversion of the Potter Valley Project is 159,000 acre feet. That works out to a whopping 2.3% of total flow. And none of it goes to SoCal.

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR DIDN'T END. AND TRUMP IS A CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT

His supporters hark back to an 1860s fantasy of white male dominance. But the Confederacy won’t win in the long run

by Rebecca Solnit

theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/04/the-american-civil-war-didnt-end-and-trump-is-a-confederate-president

THE COAST GUARD HONORED the sacrifice of four crewmembers lost at sea in 1997 off the coast of Cape Mendocino, with a memorial service at Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay, Friday.

Twenty two years ago on June 8, 1997, four Coast Guard helicopter crewmembers were lost in an effort to rescue mariners in distress approximately 60 miles west of Cape Mendocino.

Crewing the Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay MH-65 Dolphin helicopter (CG-6549) were: Lt. Jeffrey F. Crane, 35, of Marshfield, Massachussetts (CG Aviator #3188); Lt. j.g. Charles W. Thigpen IV, 26, of Riverside, California (CG Aviator #3310); Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard L. Hughes, 33, of Black Canyon, Arizona; Petty Officer 3rd Class James G. Caines, 26, of Hinesville, Georgia (CG Rescue Swimmer #425).

The Canadian sailing vessel, Ezara-2, contacted the Coast Guard reporting they had five people aboard and their vessel had become disabled in 25-foot seas and 45-knot winds.

Two Coast Guard Air Station Humboldt Bay MH-65 Dolphin helicopters, a Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento HC-130 Hercules aircraft and the Coast Guard Cutter Edisto responded to the call.

The helicopters provided the Ezara-2 with radios and a sea anchor, which stabilized the sailing vessel. Some of the Ezara-2’s crewmembers were injured and the boat was damaged due to heavy seas, forcing the Ezara-2 crew to abandon ship into a life raft.

The CG-6549 crew began an instrument-guided approach to the last known position of the life raft when the HC-130 lost sight and communications with the helicopter in the darkness and heavy winds.

The Edisto arrived on scene through heavy seas and recovered all of the Ezara-2’s survivors from the life raft and began searching for CG-6549.

Aircraft crews from Coast Guard Air Stations North Bend and Astoria, Navy P-3 patrol planes and Air Force HC-130 rescue airplanes joined in the search. On the water, Coast Guard Cutters Sapelo, Buttonwood, Steadfast and Boutwell aided in the search.

Scattered debris from the helicopter was located in the area and the main fuselage was recovered on the ocean floor over a month later. The crew of the 6549 was lost at sea.

“The crew of Coast Guard 6549 made the ultimate sacrifice in an attempt to save the lives of those in peril on the sea,” said Cmdr. Brendan Hilleary, the Sector Humboldt Bay response chief. “Let us always remember these men that their sacrifice may stand as an inspiration to all of us who continue to stand the watch.”

IT'S UP TO THE BIG GUY

Warmest spiritual greetings, At this time I am living at a friend's place in northern California. With basically nothing critical that I have to do, I've been spending all of my time practicing mindfulness, and when the natural boredom of the situation becomes overwhelming, I go out to a local establishment and drink beer, usually to excess, with a resultant miserable hangover. And then I pray for everyone, and for this conflicted world. My only goal is to be one with God. And at the proper time, ascend upwards to heaven. Meanwhile, I send out networking messages to find anything worthwhile to do on earth, which receive no substantial responses. Of course I could show up with enough money to fully support myself, and go wherever I like…which I have been doing the past five years. It's been good, particularly in being able to be on the frontlines of peace & justice in Washington, D.C. I have a few thousand dollars left in my checking account, the health is good, and I am still positive enough to be sending out email messages like this one. I ask you to understand that something needs to change. I have no more ideas about what to do, other than to continue praying, and not indulging any further in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. There being no other alternative, I am placing the entire matter in the hands of God.

PS. Man Centers Mind in Heart Chakra…Experiences Spiritual Unity…A Sober Friday Night… I am sending this out because I wish to inform everybody that the past two hours were spent on a porch in Redwood Valley, California managing the mind with understanding and love. The usual barrage of disturbing thoughts were witnessed, particularly the ones about social alienation in postmodernism, the dangerous political global situation, the impossibility to realize a spiritual community for myself and moreso housing in Washington, D.C. so I could continue with peace & justice activism, the ecological problems worldwide, and the general psychological anxiety and discomfort which is common nowadays. Sitting quietly on the porch sipping a cup of Tulsi tea, watching the thoughts and gently bringing the mind to its center in the heart chakra; two hours of doing this, while affirming that drinking alcoholic beverages is not the solution, has resulted in a deeper sense of spiritual unity. Ultimately, the goal is permanent unity with the Holy Spirit, and the body-mind complex is the instrument for a higher will. Of course I would love to be in Washington, D.C. with a supportive group permanently, and be a presence at the United Nations also, but it has not happened and I've no further idea what to do about this. 23 years volunteering with Catholic Worker did not result in a permanent situation for me in America. Maybe Jesus Christ can explain. In any case, tonight is being spent on a porch in Redwood Valley, California gently bringing the mind to the heart chakra. My offer is always good to participate in peace & justice activities, but please, please, don't expect me to live in shelters, tents, and squats. This body-mind complex is 69 and Jesus Christ doesn't want me to live on the edge anymore. Besides, it just drives me to drink, and I quit yesterday.

Craig Louis Stehr

June 7, 2019

Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

LETTER TO RICHARD SILVERSTAIN, BLOGGER AT TIKUN ODAM

Dear Mr. Richard Silverstein,

Almost every time I take on the issue of Israel's crimes against humanity and its wars of aggression, I hear the same predictable bullshit.

Zionists, the Jewish Defense League, the Shas party, Habayit Hayehudi, United Torah Judaism, and even AIPAC, are quick to call me a "self-hating Jew" and other insults.

What I keep to myself is I'm hardly Jewish. I'm a secular Jew, at most. My mother is an Italian immigrant from Italy. I was raised by my mother's mother -- a Catholic grandmother. And I studied some Buddhism.

What I also keep to myself is that I am a descendent of Kazimierz Sakowicz. Same family -- and it's a small family. We were decimated during The Holocaust.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz_Sakowicz

Every day of my life I remind myself that I am, in part, built from the same DNA as Kazimierz Sakowicz. I remind myself I am a warrior in the fight to report truth to power. I take on lots of fights. Many fights, big and small. I fight bullies wherever I see them.

Perhaps I take on too many fights. I have a reputation for being belligerent -- perhaps too belligerent.

I've been told I pick too many fights with too many people over issues that don't matter. I've been told I'm a real asshole.

But I can't help myself.

The monster who would be quick and brutal in eliminating us -- any one of us; Jew, Palestinian, West Bank Arab, Gaza Arab -- always starts out as a small weakling. If not stopped, the bully grows up to be a monster.

And so, I remind myself that the monster's voice is only an echo away.

Hitler tells us so himself.

"Our strength is our quickness and our brutality…. I have given the order—and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism—that the aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines, but in the enemies’ physical elimination. Thus, for the time being only in the east, I put ready my Death’s Head units (Totenkopfverbande), with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race or language" -- Adolf Hitler, Obersalzberg Speech, given on 22 August 1939, a week before the invasion

Again, thank you for your important work at Tikun Odam, Richard. I look forward to having you on the show again.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

OPENING NIGHT OF IDEATION, Aaron Loeb's comic thriller directed by Bob Cohen.

The evening includes a Mediterranean spread by chef Summer Makovkin, delicious desserts by Julia Carson, free-flowing Roederer bubbly, and a meet-and-greet with the director, cast, crew, and designers. It's truly one of the best events in town!

Find out more about this award-winning play here: mendocinotheatre.org/ideation-by-aaron-loeb/

HALF OF AMERICANS ARE EFFECTIVELY POOR NOW. WHAT THE…?

America’s Collapsing Because it’s the World’s First Poor Rich Country

There are days I feel like I read dystopian statistics for a living. And then there are days when the dystopian statistics take even my jaded breath away. Here’s one: 43% of American households can’t afford a budget that includes housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation, and a cellphone. Translation: nearly half of Americans can’t afford the basics of life anymore.

eand.co/half-of-americans-are-effectively-poor-now-what-the-c944c518db6a

NORTH AMERICAN, EUROPEAN PUBLIC: FINALLY WAKE UP, DAMN IT!

Year after year, month after month, I see two sides of the world; two extremes which are getting more and more disconnected

by Andre Vltchek

http://www.unz.com/avltchek/north-american-european-public-finally-wake-up-damn-it/

KNOW YOUR OLIGARCHS (#5)