MCT: Tuesday, June 11, 2019

• Hot Again
• Warriors 2-3
• Summer Outages
• AV Graduates
• Thousand Measles
• Homeless Camp
• Howe Missives
• Busy Signal
• Gordon Hettrick
• Market Music
• Lookalikes
• Saffron Art
• Stumbling Up
• Swing Concert
• Foggy Night
• Book Talk
• Yesterday's Catch
• American Century
• Litterbugging
• Attendance Figures
• Cleo de Merode
• Renteria Recognized
• CVRA Coming
• Well Infromed
• Apology Tour
• Janis
• Stehrlidarity
• Big Oil
• Christoff Show
• Shopping Patriot
• Binary Days
• Forest Protectors
• Fire Him
• Domestic Tranquility
• Comments
• Space Venn
• Voter Registration
• Blanket Censorship
• Cycling Danger
• Smoker
• Willfully Obstructive
• 10 Megabytes
• Two Blasts
• Oligarch 8

MENDO SIZZLES. Temps rose to better than a hundred degrees many places in the county Monday, with the village of Mendocino reporting the mercury in the high 90s. Tuesday will be similarly record-busting for this early in June. A cooling trend begins Wednesday as fog reasserts itself along the coast.

THE NEVER-SAY-DIE WARRIORS BARELY SQUEAKED OUT A ONE-POINT NAIL-BITER WIN over the Toronto Raptors in Toronto Monday night after losing Kevin Durant to what looked like an Achilles tear and stalwart center Kevon Looney who filled in although injured himself. Some Raptors fans cheered when Durant was re-injured, although the Raptor players tried to quell that vicious display (per Monte Pool). It’s now back to Oakland/Oracle for another do-or-die game, and the final Warrior game in that arena.

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CHEAPEST non-reserved seat at the Oakland Coliseum for the Warriors vs. the Raptors goes for $72,000! I remember paying a coupla bucks to see the Warriors when they first came to San Francisco with Wilt Chamberlain. They played downtown at the Civic Auditorium, since re-named for rock and roll titan, Bill Graham. The where tickets were still affordable up through the 1970s, but then the onslaught of the Golden Horde and prices soared, and the games became a Vegas-like spectacle of high decibel “music,” hoochie koochie dancers, half-time juggling acts, television time-outs, and too many fans who don’t know a basketball from a pineapple. (Excuse me, sir, but are you elderly, a nostalgic old coot? Well, yes, in some matters, I mos def am.)

PG&E WARNING. The Ukiah area may be without power up to 20 times this summer, with the power out 24-72 hours at a time. This is because of the utility's decision to cut power if conditions look bad for potential wildfires. There is supposed to be a 24 hour notice on NIXLE, so people can get gas, water, food, money and anything else that requires electricity. Better yet, keep your supplies replenished, your gas tank at least half full, and purchase all those things you keep putting off like wind-up/battery operated flashlights, radios and phone chargers, plus some cooking gear that doesn't require electricity. Ukiah provides its own electricity, but could be affected if the whole region/grid is shut down. There is a cooling station planned at Ukiah High School (big) and another at the hospital (small) so go to the high school if you are roasting.

SAME applies to the Anderson Valley where we were globally warmed to a toasty but bearable 97 degrees on Sunday. When the nearby hounds howled at about 2pm — the neighborhood dogs go off in a pack at the first sound of a siren — we feared a Valley fire, not the traffic accident it turned out to be on 128 on the far, far side of Navarro.

THE NUMBER of Anderson Valley’s high school graduates this year is 43, a fairly large class by local standards. Scholarships and special recognitions were awarded Tuesday evening, with the full graduation ceremony occurring on Thursday, 7pm.

WAY TO GO, anti-vaxxers: On Monday, the CDC reported that the total number of measles cases for the year has risen to 1,022 and has stretched into Idaho and Virginia, bringing the number of states infected up to 28.

WE WONDERED when the burgeoning Airport Blvd campers would get the heave-ho, but the ever-larger linear arrangement of the destitute seemed orderly, and even convenient for the forces of law and order. The fewer people to ferret out of bushes the length of the Ukiah valley, the simpler the task if most of them are arrayed in a quarter mile maybe two miles from the Ukiah Police Department. Now that they're rousted, they'll be squatting by the Russian River and along its feeder streams. We were hoping the City of Ukiah and the numerous helping professionals and non-profits — far more numerous than the population they claim to be helping — might consider leaving the homeless in place on Airport Blvd. Haul in a few Porta-Potties and a portable shower and Mendocino County has itself a low overhead homeless program.

WE SEEM to be in a race between re-establishing a national hospital system for the permanently dysfunctional, or a version of Soylent Green, where the rich live behind fortified walls while everyone else scrambles to survive outside. The hard truth is that there are several million people out there who require permanent care, a grim fact you can verify for yourself by strolling Airport Blvd. How to pay for permanent hospitalization? A fair system of taxation. The option is more of the same, squared, over the next ten years, which is assuming that the drastic weather changes make the homeless and the helpless even more of a low priority.

A READER WRITES: "I can't believe you're defending Barbara Howe. Didn't you see the e-mails she sent her boss?" Yes, I did see them, but what none of us have seen is what provoked them. We haven't heard from Ms. Howe yet. We don't know why she was fired, but it seems she was offed before she fired off the unwise messages to Chandler-Moss, whose Princess and the Pea reaction doesn't say much for her mental equilibrium either. But if I suddenly lost a comfortable income and was marched out of my place of work like a criminal… Well, Ms. Howe's response to her dismissal looks pretty mild from here.

A LARGER QUESTION is the prevalent work site fear suffered by at-will County employees, the people at the top of the County bureaucracies who can be dismissed without cause or reason, a management style Stalin deployed to great effect only with a murder chaser. Fear permeates the land of the free and the home of the precarious as never before.

THE AVA'S PHONES are out. Callers have gotten a busy signal all day Monday, and will continue to get a busy signal until next Monday or so, which is what the human-type being told me when I got in touch with her after being on hold for 26 minutes. I'd called for a "technician" on one of those big number cell phones my family makes me carry "in case of an emergency." A big advantage of rural life used to be if you had some kind of difficulty with your phone you went to see John Hulbert, the phone man. If your power conked out you went to see Freddy Medinas, the PG&E guy. Trouble of a legal type you could always find Deputy Squires, a man with a natural genius for handling all manner of local beefs without dragging them over the hill to Ukiah. These three essential persons were our neighbors and our friends. Today, despite the deluge of propaganda about how technology has made everything better, the essential services are more remote, more precarious than ever. And, of course, the Anderson Valley isn't much different than living in, say, Marinwood.

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PREFERENTIAL REPAIR

Editor,

As you are a senior, therefore, according to ATT protocols, you have preferred order status in the event of any telephone outage.

Emergency services must be able to reach your/our category of customer, i.e., old or infirm, otherwise it can be SUED for negligence. Hence the pecking order. This needs to be conveyed (by computer or phone message) so that the protocol gets generated in their work orders.

Best wishes,

Bill Ray

Willits

MARGARET ELLIS COMMENTED recently on this 2010 item: "March 2007: George Cameron Hettrick, 57, of Philo. Human remains found on 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 disappeared from my cousin’s house not a care home. He did not die from exposure or HIV. He was murdered. He died from high velocity blunt force trauma to his head. I am his sister and the person who caused this for financial gain is walking free. Read the Coroner’s report and the police reports and interviews, including the search reports. His name was Gordon Cameron Hettrick not George. Thank you.”

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 his remains were found off Little Mill Creek, between the Holmes Ranch and Nash Mill. A human skull, some bones and bits of clothing were discovered early Friday afternoon by the owner of the property, Tish McLeran and her husband. Mrs. McLeran said at the time 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.” Mrs. McLeran emphatically stated her home is not a care home as some neighbors speculated. The Sheriff’s Department, at the time, attributed Hettrick’s death to natural causes via exposure.

CALLING ALL MUSICIANS! The Boonville Farmers' Market is looking for folks who are interested in playing at the market. This is a great community event which happens each Friday from 4-7pm at Disco Ranch. Please contact Lama if you're interested at 489-5034.

LOOKALIKES

TODAY! Artist Reception Wednesday 6/12/19, 4 to 6. Come see a new side to our friend Saffron Blue Fraser as she displays in her very first show, the art she has been creating. Showing with Saffron are some of the last works of Malcolm West, curated by Margaret Pickens. Malcolm's art supplies were passed on to Saffron when he died and now a few years later the world has new works of art.

DON'T MISS THIS ONE!

Boonville Big Band in Inglenook 6/15

Do not miss out on the best show ever this Saturday, June 15, 2019! Bob Ayres' Boonville Big Band will be performing LIVE its popular big band era music for a swing dance and concert at the Fort Bragg - Inglenook Community Center located at 26500 N. HWY 1, 6-miles north of Fort Bragg near Inglenook. Doors open at 5:00 PM for Happy Hour. A Southwestern Dinner will be served at 6:00 PM. Music and dancing will start at 7:00 PM. Doors close around 9:30 PM. Buy tickets at Nello's Market on the corner of Elm and Main Streets in Fort Bragg, online with Brown paper Tickets, or at the door the day of the event. Tickets cost $20.00, but if you have to come late, tickets will go on sale at the door at 8:00 PM for $10.00. Also, at 8:00 PM small containers for take-out food will be available for a $5.00 donation. Tickets for the Southwestern Dinner at $15.00 and for mixed drinks, wine, beer, soda, and bottled water, at various prices, will also be sold at the door the day of the event. So, please come help blow the roof off the FBICC with Bob Ayres' 22-piece orchestra, the famous Boonville Big Band, this Saturday for a swing dance and concert, some great food, and lots of fun. All proceeds will go towards building a new roof for the Fort Bragg-Inglenook Community Center. If you are so inclined, wear your best poodle skirts, zoot suits, and dancing shoes, or whatever else you might call "big band attire". You will fit right in with the revolving disco ball and bubble machine.

NIGHT LIGHT OF THE NORTH COAST: Night Lights in the Fog

by David Wilson

In which an expedition to photograph beneath the night skies encounters lemons in the form of a thick pea soup fog, so we make lemonade. We had hoped for a starry night and the Milky Way, but the lemonade turned out better than expected.

The mists thickened and thinned with the varying wind but never gave us a glimpse of the sky. It condensed on the trees and dripped from the leaves like rain from not far away; it dampened the stars from our sight and gave us a wet and grey night.

In the online photo circles one will bump into other photographers through the images they share, follow each other’s work, and sometimes meet up to shoot together or collaborate. Mary Burns and I ran into each other through our images on Instagram and have followed each other’s work for a year or so. She does a lot of work with people, and I do a lot of work with night, so naturally our collaboration would involve photographing people at night beneath a starry night sky.

Mary introduced me to her friend and fellow local photographer Gabriel Smith and her brother Liam before we caravanned to our destination.

We arrived to find a world socked in with a coastal fog dense enough to do proud the moors in The Hound of the Baskervilles. The mists thickened and thinned with the varying wind but never gave us a glimpse of the sky. It condensed on the trees and dripped from the leaves like rain from not far away; it dampened the stars from our sight and gave us a wet and grey night.

Thwarted in photographing scenic landscapes, we tripped down the mindscapes of our imagination. We had lights, sparklers, people, fog and cameras. The sparklers cast dramatic glows in the fog and swirling smoke, and our lights threw stark shadows and brilliant shafts piercing through the mists and over the ground.

We played, bouncing light and ideas off of each other. Gabriel and I alternated turns modeling and photographing, while Liam held a light on us from behind. Mary photographed and kept the sparklers going for us. It felt strange being on other side of the camera. Striking a pose and holding the flaming sparkler aloft before me, I felt like the wizard Gandalf challenging the great Balrog of Morgoth.

We didn’t find our landscape and Milky Way, but if we had we wouldn’t have had this frenzy of collaborative creativity. Landscape photography is no less creative, but it is an entirely different process in which one finds a composition and allows the light to come to the camera. When we made these images we took active parts in creating the scene itself with our various lighting choices, models, and poses.

We might have stayed longer, but when we figured the fog had soaked ourselves and our cameras sufficiently we called it a night. If you’d like to see the photography of Mary Burns and Gabriel Smith, you can visit them on Instagram at http://instagram.com/mary.burns.photography/ for Mary, and for Gabriel at https://www.instagram.com/gabrielsmithphotography/.

To read previous entries of “Night Light of the North Coast,” click on my name above the article. To keep abreast of my most current photography or peer into its past, visit and contact me at my website mindscapefx.com or follow me on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx .

JONAH RASKIN in conversation with Liz Thach at the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. Doors Open 6:30, conversation at 7pm. Subject: Raskin’s new novel “Dark Day, Dark Night,” exploring dark corners of California’s wine and weed country. More info: https://museumsc.org.

CATCH OF THE DAY, JUNE 10, 2019

HELAYNE ADKISSON, Willits. Failure to appear.

NANCY CALDERON, Napa/Ukiah. Domestic battery.

RODNEY HUBBARD, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

BRITTANY KOZIOL, Laytonville. DUI.

PAUL PINO JR. Ukiah. Parole violation.

KENNETH WOLFE, Fort Bragg. DUI with priors, suspended/revoked license.

SOMETIMES THINGS TURN

by James Kunstler

A February night in 1924, in a Manhattan concert hall owned by the Aeolian piano company… the wailing, warped, and flatted clarinet glissando that opens George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue announced the 20th century’s self-recognition that something new was up in the world, and especially in the USA. The composer tried to represent the stupendous energy of the maturing industrial culture in a symphonic cacophony with a core of the deepest tenderness — capturing all the wonder and grace of the moment. For America, everything was on the move. Love and power were in the air.

The idea that this was the American century stuck. The 1920s were a kind of hormonal rush of wonders and amazements. Radio, movies, airplanes, giant industries, electric power in farm houses, the dizzying rush of progress that welled up into a dangerous wave that broke over the world in economic depression, and then war in 1939 — by which time George Gershwin was gone at 38.

America performed splendidly in World War Two, rescuing Europe and Asia from manifest evil. The nation found itself the fully mature leader of the free world, with daunting responsibilities in the Atomic Age, filled with confidence, but tinged with an understandable paranoia in the nervous peace of the 1950s. This was the time of my childhood, along with my fellow travelers, the Baby Boomers. What a time to come into this world!

For a while, the USA luxuriated in power and stability. I sang the Davy Crockett theme song from the Disney TV show, and wore a coonskin hat, and lived in a home where dad left for work in a business suit, and all was well in the world. To me and my childhood friends, the mindboggling horrors of the recent war were reduced to comic books and plastic soldiers in the sandbox. Everything else in America seemed to work as advertised. We built a lot of stuff and saw the USA in our Chevrolet. President Ike bossed around Britain’s PM Anthony Eden. The Yankees bossed around the major leagues. Hardly anyone knew what the Federal Reserve did, or even what it was. Elvis was in the Army, babysitting the defeated Germans. Then somebody splattered John F. Kennedy’s brains all over Dealey Plaza in Dallas, and everything changed again.

That event was not the beginning of the Deep State, but it was the recognition of a more deeply sinister thing than the public had previously imagined — if they thought about it at all. The Vietnam War coincided exactly with the Baby Boomers’ adolescent rebellion and was widely viewed as an exercise in Deep State wickedness. It was violently opposed, and it only ended when our vaunted military lost control of the entire field of operations and got ignominiously shoved out. Meanwhile a rush of events confounded and aggravated the country: the civil rights commotion, more assassinations of major political leaders, Watergate, Feminism, and then the slow, demoralizing dismantling of the very industry that made the 20th century America’s moment in history.

The memory of all that lingers on, while dreams die hard, the clichés go. The institutional damage along the way has been epic. The outstanding moral lesson of World War Two was that there are some things worth believing in and even fighting for. The scene today is a debris field of broken ideals and lost trust in any organized endeavor that advertises itself as having national purpose. The Baby Boomers in their own twilight’s last gleaming seem to be equally composed of the most hardened cynics and the most credulous fantasists. In any case, we are doing a controlled demolition on what used to be pretty rigorous American values while leaving the planet a ruin.

That was not exactly the plan, but as the sad song goes: sometimes things turn instead of turn out. The century we are now in may turn out to be somebody else’s, or perhaps nobody’s — and by that I don’t necessarily mean the end of the world, just the end of a certain chapter in human history. In a mere hundred years we’ve journeyed from George Gershwin’s tender nocturne at the center of his Rhapsody to the clanking, thrash-metal morbidity of Megadeath and beyond. You cannot possibly miss the point. But even that is passing into history. The question begging this haunted country now is: what do we become? And can we find any grace in it?

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

YO, SLOBS! Hey there locals anywhere on the Northcoast, if you happen to head down to the river, please help pick up the trash others have left behind. If you are ever hanging out at the river and see others, please encourage everyone to clean up after themselves and pack out what they bring down. I’m not sure if it’s ignorance, indifference or outright intentional assault but it is unfortunate how much waste is left behind for nature to choke on.

NUMBERS

Editor

I was talking to my mother on the phone tonight. She is trying a different church in her area after recently leaving a church she attended for ten years. Today she attended this new church for the second time, and I asked her how many people are in the congregation, to which she responded "Oh, I don't know." I gently asked her again and she said "How am I supposed to know?"

A few Sundays ago she and I were talking on the phone about her favorite sports team, the Oakland A's, and I asked her what she thought the attendance would be the following day (Memorial Day) at the A's game at the Coliseum, to which she said "Oh, I have no idea." Actually, she should have an idea what the attendance would be because she's been following the A's since about 2000 and should have been able to take an educated guess.

My mother is 82, and she has absolutely no signs of dementia or Alzheimer's, she's sharp. Today when she wouldn't give me a number for the number of people in her congregation I told her that she was kind of coming across as "dumb", to which she took offense.

Then after the phone call I speculated that perhaps for a woman of my mother's culture (Italian American) and era (born in the 1930's) and social class (she was raised working class), to appear adept with numbers might appear unseemly. Like numbers are a "man's thing" and if she appears too smart with numbers she never would have found a husband.

For me, a male of WASP culture (my father's side is German and Anglo) and having done a few years at four year universities, if I were asked how many people were in the congregation at my church and I responded by saying "Oh, I don't know", I assume most people would assume I was a bit of an imbecile.

In any case, I believe I will stop asking my mother seemingly innocuous questions involving numbers so as to both avoid being frustrated and risking offending her.

Keith Bramstedt

San Anselmo

CLEO DE MERODE (27 September 1875 - 17 October 1966) was a French dancer of the Belle Époque. She became renowned for her glamour even more than for her dancing skills, and her image began appearing on such things as postcards and playing cards. Her fame was such that Alexandre Falguière sculpted The Dancer in her image, which today can be seen in the Musée d'Orsay. In 1895, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did her portrait, as would Charles Puyo, Alfredo Muller, and Giovanni Boldini…photo by Felix Nadar.

MENDOCINO COAST CLINICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NAMED RURAL HEALTH ROCKSTAR

Fort Bragg, CA — In recognition of her years of exemplary work, leadership and caring for our community, Mendocino Coast Clinics (MCC) Executive Director Lucresha Renteria will be honored as a 2019 Rural Health Rock Star by the Family Medicine Education for Mendocino County at their annual fundraiser on June 15. Having started as an MCC interpreter in 1992 before the organization became an independent non-profit health center in 1994, Renteria’s responsibilities grew as the clinic grew. She became the director of administrative services in 2004 and executive director on January 1, 2016. Renteria has long been a community advocate for bilingual/bi-cultural services, as well as for the community’s children and families. In 2004, she was appointed to the First 5 Mendocino Commission, where she served as chairperson for six years. In 2007, she was presented with the Making a Difference for Women award from the local chapter of the Soroptimist International Club. Renteria was a member of the inaugural class of Clinic Leadership Institute — Emerging Leaders, graduating from the program in 2009. Renteria currently serves as the chair for the Community Health Resource Network, as well as the 2019 chairperson for the Special Populations and Rural Committee of the California Primary Care Association. She is also a board member for the Mendocino Coast Children’s Fund and the Health and Human Services Advisory Committee. “I am honored to have been chosen as FMEMC’s advocate/leader rock star this year. We live in a wonderful rural community and it is up to all of us to take care of one another,” Renteria said. FMEMC presents five awards each year to standout individuals in the following categories: advocate/leader, physician, midlevel provider, allied health provider, and complementary medicine provider. The FMEMC fundraiser where the awardees will be announced, “Music is Medicine,” includes a farm-to-table dinner catered by Black Dog Farm and a lively concert under the musical direction of well-known local musician Alex DeGrassi. It will be held at Mendocino College’s Center Theatre in partnership with Fowler Subaru on June 15. Tickets are available online at musicismedicine.brownpapertickets.com. FMEMC is a community-based, non-profit organization that serves as an independent advisory board to the family medicine residency program starting at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley this fall. FMEMC also improves local health care through its support of the street medicine program and local nursing. For more information about FMEMC, visit www.fmemc.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fmemc. To learn more about Rural Health Rocks, visit www.ruralhealthrocks.com. MCC is a local, non-profit, federally qualified health center offering medical, dental and behavioral health care to people in the coastal communities of Mendocino County.

FORT BRAGG & CA VOTING RIGHTS ACT: "The Angel of Freedom”

by Rex Gressett

Look out your window Fort Bragg. Take a deep, satisfied breath. We all have our individual problems but at least we can say that where we live is a place of peace and a place of sanity.

We largely have control over our local institutions. Almost everyone is friendly with the police. Our local government works directly for us, and, generally speaking, they remember it.

Occasionally they need a reminder.

These things are not an accident and they are not guaranteed. It has come to pass that we have to ask ourselves if they really matter. There is a foundation of rock under our community that is not visible to the eye but is very real. More real, in fact, than the things you can touch.

What is justice? You can't handle it, you can't put it in a box, but when it's present, or when it is absent, you totally know it.

I submit to you the old fashioned idea that the sense of peace that we have so abundantly in Fort Bragg is as sweet as it is - at least in part - because we are a vigorously self-governing people.

The peace and the confidence that runs through our lives has its root in pride and ownership and, strange to say, in vigorous local politics.

In our rough and tumble elections, even more than in the routine of open transparent government, the community charts its own course.

We can respond to a crisis, we act on our collective behalf. We choose our leaders from the best men and women among us.

When we need fighters, we elect them. When we disagree, we fight it out. It is governance by civil combat. When a majority gets pissed we can drop our own ax.

It’s a different thing when the decisions come down from above. When they come from the state of California, or from the Feds, or from the distant authority of bureaucrats. When authority is remote and faceless you take what you get. If they tell us fairytales and lead us into the ditch, or even if they govern wisely when they tell us, we don’t decide.

Once upon a time, we were better off than we are now.

When the mill was running - in an excess of patented American get-it-done - Fort Bragg had a brass band. We had a hospital that was as good as any hospital anywhere. The Mill gave anyone with determination a way to earn a real house in a lovely community by sheer grit.

It was a miracle in history.

We had an ocean full of fish and a fleet of small privately owned boats owned by a broad base of local families. The river was full of herring and the ocean full of salmon. Fort Bragg was an island more certainly protected by our twisting roads and our great forests than a real island.

In our isolation, we received the benediction of family. We know what we have lost. But we have kept some things too.

In the last election, Fort Bragg had a 70% turnout. It was a straight-up declaration of ownership.

There it is, hanging over the backyard gardens and the funky alleys, hovering around the post office and Bainbridge park, it’s the goddamn angel of freedom.

Maybe Liberty is not something most people regularly notice in their daily life.

I am sure we all think about it sometimes. I am pretty sure you would notice if it was gone. Maybe it’s a stretch to imagine the hard hand of police state supervision sweeping aside what is left of your fights.

But it's not just conjecture. In the history of people on the planet, a free community of self-governing citizens is a rare thing.

There is nothing quite like unqualified ownership. When you can kick anybody off your land, it's easy to be welcoming. When you can fire a bad judge, when you can dump a corrupt city manager, when injustice has a remedy, freedom is something more than an abstraction.

The City Council may lie, but at least they know that they have to lie and fear being caught at it.

Damn right, it's something we feel.

It’s the vibe of freedom. Just as fair and impartial local cops and local elections are the substance of freedom. You can't fake it.

And that’s what they want to take away from us.

It won't all go at once, but when you take away the foundation the structure will eventually fall.

The CVRA, the California Voting Rights Act, is coming to Fort Bragg. The City Council and the insiders at city hall all know it. The CVRA ends citywide 'open' elections. It divides the city into 5 districts. The councilperson you will vote for will not be the best candidate in the city, it will be the best person in your immediate neighborhood.

Any city sued under the CVRA must go to districting.

More than 100 cities in California have already been forced to adopt this sweeping new law. Lawyers have made millions. Any lawyer can sue us.

Across the state, cities have gone to court in outrage. Some spent millions to fight it. Councilman Lindy Peters says he is hopeful that it might not happen. And it might not. I guess he thinks that we can avoid it if lawyers stop loving money.

Districting will not end the City Council as an institution, but as a practical matter, the City Council will be reduced to a symbol.

It will not end elections, but instead of the vitality of a contentious ideological debate, you will vote for the most undetested neighbor out of a shrinking pool of reluctant volunteers.

It will make local elections a neighborhood popularity contest in which the guy with the best lawn stands a shot at the City Council.

They are counting on you not to notice - to accept the CVRA and the new order as not altogether objectionable. The symbols of democracy will remain. The city council will continue to meet. The elections will still happen.

But the Angel of Freedom is proud and stern. He can't be cheated. Power that seeks power has remembered Fort Bragg.

We are not an island after all.

JOE BIDEN OWES AMERICA AN APOLOGY TOUR

by Norman Solomon

Dear Mr. Biden:

News outlets are reporting that you’re determined to prevent your campaign from turning into an “apology tour” this summer. But your only other option is a campaign of denial — sinking deeper into a quagmire of unsustainable pretense.

After your flip-flop late last week that finally renounced your 40 years of support for the Hyde Amendment’s discriminatory limits on reproductive rights for low-income women, the New York Times reported that your campaign’s “larger concern” has been “the implications of Mr. Biden spending too much time reversing or expressing remorse for his past policy stances.”

Those implications are easy to understand. Your “past policy stances” have done so much harm — to so many people for so long — that if you start “expressing remorse,” there might be no end in sight.

“Before entering the race,” the Times reported, “Mr. Biden and his inner circle resolved that while he would have to take steps to assuage liberal reservations about his record, he could not afford to make the first few months of the campaign an extended apology tour.”

But an extended apology tour would be entirely appropriate. Pretending that you don’t have much to apologize for is not viable.

That’s because the Democratic Party of your political glory days is gone. At the grassroots, millions of attentive voters — the ones most likely to volunteer, to repeatedly donate money (albeit not in the large bundles you’re relying on), and to vote in all kinds of weather — are more informed and better networked than during the last decades of the 20th century.

The days are past when vast numbers of Democrats won’t notice that you’re uttering platitudes about the middle class and being touted as “Lunch Bucket Joe” after serving the interests of corporate giants as Wall Street Joe. And a whole lot of people will really care as they learn about your political backstory of not-so-subtle appeals to racism on such matters as busing for school desegregation and the draconian 1994 crime bill that fueled mass incarceration.

In the current campaign, your above-the-fray strategy probably won’t work. As the Iowa Poll released over the weekend reflects, support for you has started to recede: “About six weeks after he announced he would run, Biden’s support has fallen by a third,” The Hill reports. “Biden’s declining support came even before this week’s controversy over his flip-flop on the Hyde Amendment.”

While I’m an active Bernie Sanders supporter, I have to say that I don’t believe any of your Democratic opponents have nearly as much to apologize for as you do.

The more you deny the need to apologize, the more your denials seem off-kilter. Even while you were executing that Hyde flip-flop with a speech in Atlanta days ago, the Times pointed out “Mr. Biden took pains to state explicitly that he was not repudiating his previous stance on abortion funding and would make ‘no apologies’ for it.”

For decades, you helped block federal funding for low-income women to have access to abortions. Then you affirmed the same position on Wednesday last week, only to do a 180 the next day after putting your finger to the political wind — and you make “no apologies”?

What might an apology tour look like? Here are five recommendations for acknowledging key realities and expressing remorse:

** Teaming up with segregationist senators to oppose busing for school desegregation: “I’m sorry I joined forces with bigots.”

** Treatment of Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas hearings: “I deeply regret that I ended up showing more concern for the sensibilities of Republican colleagues than respecting Ms. Hill’s rights.”

** Leading role — while pandering to racism on the Senate floor — in passage of the 1994 crime bill: “I was wrong, and I wince while watching video of my Senate floor speech.”

** Career-long services to corporate elites with avid mutual support that continued during the launch of this campaign: “I apologize for catering to credit card companies and other huge corporations.”

** Powerfully supporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq: “I hate to think of how many people have suffered and died because of the Iraq war that I helped bring about as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”

For such aspects of your political record, apologies are long overdue. They won’t bring back the dead, undo suffering, retroactively nourish those who’ve gone hungry or repay the debts that millions of Americans continue to face. But unless you clear the air hovering over your campaign, its messages will be enveloped in an unforgettable stench of evasion.

READY TO RUMBLE

I Am Seeking Spiritually Conscious Others for Solidarity to Perform More Frontline Actions

Hi, I want to be given solidarity in the New York City-Washington, D.C. region so that I may permanently return there to be active in frontline peace & justice and radical environment direct actions. I am ready to leave California, and return to the east coast for the 16th time. Please contact me immediately.

Craig Louis Stehr

Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

CALIFORNIA’S BIGGEST SECRET? How Big Oil Dominates Public Discourse to Manipulate and Deceive

by Daniel Bacher

counterpunch.org/2019/06/07/californias-biggest-secret-how-big-oil-dominates-public-discourse-to-manipulate-and-deceive/

RUSS CHRISTOFF Featured Artist for July

Edgewater Gallery, 356 N. Main Street, Fort Bragg

Friday, July 5, from 5 - 8 pm

Russ will give a brief presentation about himself and his art at 6 pm. Light refreshments served. Admission is free.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I think that we’ve gone overboard in terms of going from hating on gays or trans to promoting this as a lifestyle “choice” that’s positive. I’m all for allowing people to be who they are. I don’t want to see discrimination against gays but it’s also not something I want to see promoted.

As for trans people, I suspect most if not all are mentally ill. Sadly, they find that “changing” their sex doesn’t result in increased happiness and many kill themselves. That it’s now being promoted as normal, desirable or cool is a big problem to me. I think we should have compassion for those that believe they were born the wrong sex but it’s not something to promote.

My home state is a bastion of knee-jerk liberalism with people falling over themselves to promote trans identities. Teachers are being punished for not using the “correct” pronouns to children in elementary school who have decided they are a different sex or neither sex or who knows what. These are little kids. This is insane. Saying so here leads to condemnation.

So glad I was a kid back when it was not considered a big deal for a girl to collect baseball cards, play sports, play with model trains and also play with dolls and have a pink bedroom with frilly curtains. I imagine a kid like that now would be counseled to become non-binary or some such thing instead of just being allowed to be a normal girl who liked to play sports.

PRESS RELEASE BY THE LOST COAST LEAGUE:

Several Mattole elders in their mid to late 70s will stop fallers from going through Monument Gate Monday morning at 5am, facing arrest if need be, to protect Rainbow Ridge’s original forest land.

Given the increasingly tense situation following HRC’s commencement of North Fork Mattole logging, the Lost Coast League feels this summary an important part of community understanding for why we willing to commit civil disobedience to defend the forest.

On Wednesday, June 5, 2019 the Lost Coast League (LCL) was informed that Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) had felled trees in Unit 4 of THP 1-14-034HUM – an old, never-before logged forest stand on Rainbow Ridge. This forest and its surroundings in the Mattole constitute the last, most ecologically significant, intact forest in the north Mattole headwaters, as originally cited by Mattole Restoration Council’s 1986 map (MRC, Distribution of Old Growth Coniferous Forests in the Mattole Watershed, 1986).

Since 1986 Mattole residents have campaigned to preserve this heritage landscape from industrial logging by Pacific Lumber (MAXXAM Corporation) and now HRC. That’s 33 years of effort employing lawsuits (some won, some lost), and non-violent civil disobedience. HRC has achieved Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) certification for sustainability. Most recently, LCL filed a formal complaint to FSC, based on the improper classification of High Conservation Value Forests (an FSC rule), the excessive use of herbicides, and inadequate consultation with LCL and its partners, including MRC. In that complaint, the auditors determined:

“To resolve this [HCVF] issue, we conclude that HRC/MRC needs to update its prior HCVF assessment of the Mattole, utilizing appropriate and precautionary methods such as LiDAR analyses and ground reconnaissance, and to share the results of the updated HCVF assessment with the complainants. A Corrective Action Request is being raised to this effect.”

In subsequent communication with the auditors, Lead Investigator Dr. R. Hrubes wrote LCL in an email March 9, 2019:

“In developing the (HCVF) assessment, the forest owner or manager consults with qualified specialists, independent experts, and local community members who may have knowledge of areas that meet the definition of HCVs.

And FSC Indicator 9.2.a requires that:

The forest owner of manager holds consultations with stakeholders and experts to confirm that proposed HCVF locations and their attributes have been accurately identified, and that appropriate options for the maintenance of their HCV attributes have been adopted”

And

“With respect to forest management in the Mattole, our site visit on September 11th revealed an instance that leads us to conclude that the companies are not utilizing every reasonably available opportunity to reduce herbicide use.”

Hrubes’ SCS Report, January 13, 2019, mandated:

Corrective Action Request:

The FME [HRC] must undertake an updated assessment for the presence of high conservation values (per the FSC definition) on its lands within the Mattole watershed. The results of the updated HCV assessment must be shared with the Lost Coast League, et al, complainants.

In response to LCL’s question whether HRC could log the stands in question, Hrubes responded in the above cited email, March 9, 2019:

“Principle 9 of the FSC Standard requires that “decisions regarding high conservation value forests shall always be considered in the context of a precautionary approach.” Consistent with taking a precautionary approach, it is expected that a forest owner or manager not undertake any site disturbing activities in an area prior to completing a HCV assessment of the area and establishing appropriate management prescriptions for maintaining or enhancing any identified high conservation”

HRC has not consulted further with LCL in regard to its herbicide plan or designation criteria for high conservation forests. LCL has received no communication from HRC despite repeated attempts to engage with HRC to cooperate and complete these two endeavors, and urging HRC to share LIDAR data, complete a Biomass profile of Rainbow Ridge with targeted ground-truthing– a scientifically credible practice to assess ecological old growth conditions. HRC has not shared its assessment with LCL and we, therefore, have not had an opportunity to evaluate their conclusions. It is within this context that the Lost Coast League cries “Foul” when HRC began logging in Unit 4.

To summarize:

LCL filed a complaint with FSC/SCS July 2018 and two issues in the complaint were deemed valid January 13, 2019.

The remedy for retaining FSC certification required HRC to develop a plan and evaluate their Mattole lands for HCVF and to update their plan to phase out herbicide use.

In a subsequent email SCS pointed to FSC principles which require HRC to consult with LCL and others to designate HCVF lands and not take any site disturbing activities during that process.

LCL offered to analyze LIDAR data in cooperation with HRC, but received no response.

Five months later HRC had still failed to consult or share their submissions on HCVF and herbicide plan.

June 5, 2019, HRC began site disturbing activities (falling old trees and building roads) on disputed lands.

LCL is committed to preserving the forest and the public against HRC’s breach of faith pending fulfillment of HRC’s duties to FSC to maintain their sustainability certification.

NATIONAL POLITICS: A SIMPLE EXPLANATION & SOME MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS

by Marshall Newman

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election has been released and Robert Mueller himself has spoken regarding his findings. The ensuing reactions from various politicians and pundits bring to mind a line from the Simon & Garfunkel song “The Boxer,” “A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.”

Points of view notwithstanding, I think many of the reactions stem from a contextual problem. Most are attempting to review and evaluate the findings contained in Mueller’s report against the background of the United States Constitution and 200-plus years of United States democratic principles. Not an easy thing to do.

So how does one get a clear view of the situation without becoming a constitutional lawyer/U.S. history expert? By putting the whole situation into a context people understand: business.

Let’s say you have a business and that business hires a division manager. The guy is affable, popular in the community and heads a local civic group. He even hires some people from the civic group to work for him in his new position.

Then your business’s human resource department receives some unsettling information on the new hire, specifically that he received and coordinated “behind the scenes” help from your biggest competitor to get the job, and that he sought confidential information on the other job candidate with the intent to trash her reputation. Human resources launches an investigation.

On completion of the investigation, human resources determined that the new hire did receive “behind the scenes” help from your biggest competitor – through dispatches – under the names of sham individuals and organizations rather than its own - to company decision-makers that championed him and disparaged the other job candidate to land the job, but did not solicit it. It also determined that he definitely sought confidential information on the other job candidate. While he did not receive that confidential information, the investigation found your biggest competitor stole that information and distributed it – again, under the names of sham individuals and organizations rather than its own - widely.

Human resources also determined that the manager made several attempts to thwart its investigation. He fired the chief investigator and ordered one of his staff (who refused the order) to fire the chief investigator’s replacement. He provided evasive answers to the investigation’s questions regarding help he may have received from the company’s chief rival. He allowed – with his full knowledge and permission – members of his staff to issue misleading statements regarding aspects of the investigation.

So, what does your business do about this manager? The things he has done to get and keep his job are contrary to your business’s best interests, founding principles and ethical standards. The only loyalty he has demonstrated is to himself. He has shown no understanding of or remorse for the actions he has taken.

The answer to the question is clear. You fire him. The things he did – or allowed others to do with his tacit approval – to get the job were unethical and the things he did to keep the job were detrimental to the business as a whole. Irrespective of whether crimes were committed, he must go.

In the context of the United States, the situation is only slightly less clear cut. We the people, through our representatives in Congress, can fire (i.e. impeach) the President, but his Republican associates, unwilling or unable to put country above party, are unlikely to support such a move. However, the President has a four-year employment contract that expires in less than two years. The American electorate can and - based on the information contained in Robert Mueller’s report - should fire him then.

---

A few miscellaneous observations.

Most of these observations fall into the “obvious” category, but I will make them anyway.

The complete Mueller Report – with all the redacted elements included – will be released eventually. Whether the complete report will be materially important remains to be seen. The determinations regarding Russian interference in the U.S. election and Trump Administration obstruction will not change, though there may be significant new information provided as the criminal investigations that caused the redactions are concluded.

Impeachment of a President is difficult to achieve under any circumstances. When the President’s party has a majority in either the House of Representative or the Senate, it is nearly impossible to achieve. It also is time-consuming. While continued investigation into the President’s actions is warranted, Democrats considering impeachment should be pragmatic regarding how best to remove this President: by impeachment or by election defeat. They also may want to focus on the reason they were elected; to do the nation’s business, be it lawmaking, representing the people or helping constituents. Republicans may want to do the same.

Republicans in the U.S. Congress will have big problems going forward. Thus far they have – almost to a person - supported the President unconditionally. For some, this support reflects their constituency back home. For others, this support reflects their fear of the President. The President’s often detrimental – to the American public – actions on trade, tariffs, affordable healthcare, the environment, the census and other issues will bring Republicans to a crossroads in the run-up to the 2020 elections. For a significant number of Republicans in Congress, the choices will be either to side with their constituents and incur the wrath of the President, or to side with the President and incur the wrath of the voters. Should be fascinating to see how Republicans in Congress deal with this dilemma, especially Republicans facing strong opponents in the upcoming election.

Most of those now working in this President’s Administration will never hold another job. Though a few have behaved ethically by refusing to carry out Presidential demands that would have resulted in charges of obstruction, their loyalty to him has made them damaged goods. Maybe Fox News will hire a few as anchors or consultants. Expect most to write “tell all” books to support themselves when the Trump Administration ends.

NO MORE OF THESE TRAITORS. We demand "domestic tranquility."

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] The Queen should not have been shown walking within the penumbra of the American goliath. Not just in terms of the optics but also from a national security concern. What if Trump had tripped and fallen on her?! Heck she shouldn’t be shown walking at all! She should be conveyed from one location to the next via mysterious and royal means. One moment she’s in the garden; the next moment she’s seated at the grand dining table. Poof!

[2] I've vegetable gardened intensively for the last 40 years. From my experience, there is no way most Americans (90%?) would adapt to this kind of life. Working in the dirt in the hot sun, nope, not going to happen. A good chunk of them couldn’t physically do it, especially the sick and the elderly. It takes physical energy and skill to grow food for yourself. Have you seen your average citizen lately? Do you think someone who has been on the couch watching freak shows on TV for years would be ready to get out the shovel and start turning the ground over, just like that? No.

YAZ STILL NON-PERSONED

Voter Registration At Pay N' Take This Saturday!

Dear KZYX/Z:

Since you still have my phone number blocked (9 months now), I am unable to call The Discussion tonight and share some important things with our Communities.

I am hoping that someone will please read these announcements tonight on The Discussion, and that we can soon discuss the unbanishment of my voice and my phone number from Our Radio Station. Also, I am unable to PLEDGE, as you have ALL your phone numbers blocked on my phone.

Thank you for announcing these events on THE DISCUSSION tonight, June 10. I hope you will, please.

Dj Sister Yasmin

884-4703

---

For The Discussion:

Voter Registration At The Pay N' Take, Gualala Community Center, This Saturday, June 15, From 8:30am - 12noon:

You may register to vote if you are a U.S. Citizen, a California Resident, and will turn 18 years old by the California Presidential Primary Election which will be on March 3, 2020. You may also pre-register if you are at least 16 years old; your registration will become active once you become 18.

Please bring your California Driver License, or your California ID card, and your Social Security number. Voter Registration forms are in English and in Spanish.

Voting Rights Are Civil Rights! Please Exercise Your Precious Right To Vote!

Information: 707-884-4703; Vote411.org;

www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov

1-800-345-VOTE

http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/img/sos-signature.jpg1zB

2.) Arena Boosters Club 3rd Annual Independence Day Celebration & Picnic At Bower Park, Gualala Ridge - Right After The Parade! Music, Raffle, Kids Activities, Delicious Bbq, Food, Drinks, Desserts, And Much More. Music Starts At 12 Noon. Family Fun! Bring Your Dancin' Shoes!

YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK PURGES ARE MORE EXTENSIVE THAN YOU THINK

Legitimate journalists are again being caught in the wash of internet cleanups

by Matt Taibbi

“…What happened to shorrock highlights another problem: the biggest deniers of “well-documented violent events” are often not small-time conspiracy theorists, but governments, especially our own. Moreover, some of the worst spreaders of conspiratorial news are not Twitter geeks, but America’s biggest media organizations. ”

rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/youtube-facebook-purges-journalists-845790/

THE RESULTS OF A "POOL NOODLE" EXPERIMENT

Michelle Robertson recently conducted a revealing experiment:

“I rode around San Francisco with a pool noodle attached to my bike. Here's what went down. "F--- you, b----," a man shouts at me from the rolled-down window of his silver sedan. We're at the intersection of Fifth and Mission. I'm stopped at the light in the right lane, astride my bicycle, and the angry silver sedan man is right behind me. He wants to turn right on red.

“Under most circumstances, an obviously hurried driver such as this one would simply weave around a cyclist, scooching within inches of the bicycle to shave a few seconds off his drive time. But angry sedan man can't get around me — at least not without some problem solving. This is because I have a bright yellow pool noodle, approximately 63 inches in length, tied to the back of my bicycle. It juts about three feet into the right lane — denoting the minimum safe passing distance for cars and bicycles, per California law. (I rode around San Francisco with a pool noodle attached to my bike. Here's what went down.)”

Her first finding during the experiment---surely not news to her---an ugly reaction by a guy in a car. But she also noticed that drivers aren't the only ones who indulge in bad behavior on city streets (See the Chronicle story about "really, really bad behavior" by everyone.)

Robertson admits that she's been lucky so far:

“Though I've never been in a severe bicycle collision in San Francisco, I experience a breath-catching close call at least twice a week. Much of the time that I'm riding around the city's streets, I'm frightened for my safety, pissed off at a car that's tailing me, or eye-rolling at a cyclist who cut me off. City cycling is a terrifying endeavor, but I've decided the benefits outweigh the risks: Cycling is free, environmentally-friendly, speedy and good for my health. The dangers, though, are immense…”

Cycling can be good for your health—until it isn't and you have the inevitable accident, either with a motor vehicle, or, more commonly, a "solo fall" that doesn't involve another vehicle but which can be just as bad (The UC study, "cyclist only" accidents, and infrastructure).

One also wonders how healthy it is to inhale the carbon monoxide and diesel fumes when riding a bike in the city.

Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius had a similar experience while riding a bike in the city, but, unlike Robertson, he apparently drew the right conclusion from his experience:

“…I rode a bike, right in downtown San Francisco roughly three times a week for the last three years. But, I have to admit, about two months ago I quit. There were just too many close calls. Sooner or later I was going DOWN.”

She should heed cyclist and author Robert Hurst:

“Is cycling dangerous? Yes. Yes, it is. Deadly, no, but definitely dangerous. This is actually a controversial thing to say. There are those who bristle at any suggestion that cycling is dangerous, because they fear it will scare non-cyclists away from ever ditching their cars and trying a more healthy form of transport. This is a good point, but it doesn’t change the fact that cycling is dangerous. This is not some urban legend that needs to be debunked. It is reality, and we need to embrace it (page 69).”

Hurst works as a bike messenger, so he has to "embrace it," but why should Robertson, who just rides her bike to work?

Those "close calls" she mentions are reality sending her a message: don't do it!

(Rob Anderson, District 5 Diary, San Francisco)

ROBERT MUELLER'S FORENSIC TECHNIQUES and the Trump campaign’s chaotic practices don't suit each other. It's tempting to speculate what might have been produced if this kind of scrutiny had been applied to the Hillary Clinton campaign instead. In many ways, things would have looked a lot worse. Clinton's default mode of behavior was legalistic and secretive; she liked to conduct her business on a "need to know" basis. If Clinton had something to hide, she would have buried it deep, meaning that if you ever did find it, there would be ample evidence of foresight. Trump chose to hide his secrets in plain view. But what saves Trump from the charge of conspiracy is what damns him on the charge of obstruction. Mueller’s report comes in two parts and so does its headline conclusion. It finds for Trump on the question of whether or not there was coordination with the Russians, but on the question of obstruction it refuses to reach such a judgment. "The evidence we obtained about the president's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." How could it exonerate him when there is so much evidence of Trump sticking his finger in? But you need a plan to conspire. You don't need a plan to obstruct: you just need to be willfully obstructive. Children can be willful, even if they are incapable of organizing a criminal conspiracy. That's what Trump was, in spades.

— David Runciman, “How to get screwed,” London Review of Books

TWO BLASTS FROM THE COINCIDENT PAST

Otherwise unoccupied, I phoned a friend dating from my DJ days. Pretty much right after our greeting, he told me that he had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, a very rare disease in males of all races. Overnight, another e-mail was in my inbox informing me that my second wife had just died after the medical pros had their way with her. She had exploratory surgery on a tumor. Biopsy declared the thing to be cancerous.

Treatment by surgery, I think. Or maybe the radiation came first. Or maybe it was the option of doing nothing immediately. We were married at Wild River. Added hugely to the house. Had a beautiful deck built. Truly, we were in paradise. Events certainly have a way in which, when all is said and done, things turn out rather, ahem, differently than we had planned for.

Our marriage was like this: moments of ecstasy punctuated by a variety of inputs: sometimes it was the incredulity and goofy illogic of the variously ignorant "New Age" label. It is hard to keep a straight face when you seriously need to laugh. Any way some great goods and a few shimmering moments. But mostly, here's to bitterness and the usual absence of any thing like love. Here's to the memories. Boston's up, eh?

(Bruce Brady)

KNOW YOUR OLIGARCHS (#8)