MCT: Sunday, July 7, 2019

• Cooler Temps
• Ridgecrest Quakes
• Pets
• Salmon BBQ
• Cow Catchers
• Fifi
• Parade Mood
• Official Shortage
• MCDH Testimonial
• Loan Toast
• Asphalt Fires
• Widespread Outages
• 1940 Jalopy
• Ed Notes
• Laytonville Charging
• Raptor Chat
• Yesterday's Catch
• Dumbest Age
• Nationalist Weekend
• Dem Cowards
• Empire Toys
• People's Park
• Urbanization
• Maids Bedroom
• Late County
• 1914 Ad
• Summer Reading
• Foreigners
• Tree Me
• Fake Pols

TEMPERATURES WILL TAKE A STEP BACK TODAY across inland northwest California, with somewhat cooler than average conditions through mid week. Additionally, Tuesday and Wednesday are looking mostly cloudy, as a warm front potentially clips the northwest corner of our area with some light rain. (National Weather Service)

THE QUAKE'S AFTERMATH: Ridgecrest, which sits about 10 miles from the epicenters of both tremors, is just beginning to survey the extent of the damage from the quakes that cracked buildings, ignited fires and left thousands without power. Mayor Peggy Breeden said that 'bad people' have been adding to the difficult situation by stealing from businesses where merchandise was rattled off the shelves and scattered all over the floor. The first earthquake measuring at magnitude 6.4 shook the city on Thursday morning. It was determined to be a foreshock to an even larger 7.1 temblor that came 32 hours later on Friday night, becoming the largest earthquake to hit the region in over 20 years. During a press conference Saturday morning, Kern County Fire Chief David Witt said there are no known fatalities from the earthquake but admitted that little is known about the destruction at this point. The USGS says large quakes are likely in the coming weeks.

UKIAH SHELTER PETS OF THE WEEK

Meet Pork Chop--a one year old tortie who is dainty, gentle, and sweet. She loves getting attention and would make a wonderful addition to any family. Pork Chop is spayed, micro-chipped, up to date on vaccines, and felv/Fiv negative, and can go home with you today!

OH LILY! You are the doggie version of a classic American icon--the family dog! You are so adorable, sweet and soulful. We took Lily out for her photo shoot and off leash romp-o-rama; she was easy to gear up and walk. We think Lily may have Beagle or some Hound in her background, and maybe Lab??? We would love to see her DNA test results! What we do know is Lily likes to get butt scratches (see photo!), and has the softest and most gentle mouth. Lily is cute as a button--though a very big button!! This girl will feel much more chipper after shedding some pounds. She does love her treats! Lily is an 8 year old, spayed female who weighs 80 pounds.

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah; adoption hours are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and Wednesday from 10 am to 6:30 pm. To see photos and bios of the shelter's adoptable animals, and the shelter's programs, services and events, please visit us online at http://www.mendoanimalshelter.com For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

SATURDAY’S SALMON BARBECUE was a tribute to decades of salmon restoration efforts.

The first salmon barbecue was held in 1971. The initial concept of holding a barbecue was to raise money for the purpose of propagating young salmon to address declining salmon populations. The idea of using a barbecue to raise money during the height of the tourist season seemed to be a realistic one. With this in mind, the seed which would spawn the Salmon Restoration Association and the annual World’s Largest Salmon BBQ was planted.

Initially, the association attempted to raise small Coho salmon “fry” in local ponds for release, with the hope that the salmon would return three years later to spawn in local streams.

These efforts were largely unsuccessful due to lethal summer water temperatures and low dissolved oxygen levels.

In 1979, there was a major switch by California Fish and Game in emphasis away from Coho salmon towards Chinook salmon. In 1984, a hatchery was constructed on Hollow Tree Creek, a stream located in northeastern Mendocino County with drainage into the Eel River.

Chinook and Coho salmon reared from the eggs of local fish were released in local streams. Unfortunately, in 1992, California Fish and Game discovered Bacterial Kidney Disease (BKD) and the entire stock was destroyed.

Around that time, BKD had been associated with disease outbreaks in Coho salmon stocks in many of California’s hatcheries.

New strategy

Given predation, disease and hatchery problems, the program was never able to produce the desired result of increasing the native Coho run, despite the best efforts of everyone involved.

It was time for a new approach that state biologists had long advocated, for a watershed restoration strategy to address degraded river systems.

This strategy focused on removing barriers to migration, preventing sediment from reaching streams, and creating suitable habitat for all life stages of salmon.

In 2009, the Salmon Restoration Association began partnering with local nonprofits and schools and providing funding for watershed restoration projects and natural resource educational programs.

Project types range from dam removal to habitat improvement, primarily in the Noyo and Big River watersheds. From 2009 to 2018, the association has provided $265,150 towards these efforts.

Hints at success are rare but exist. In 2015, returning adult Coho returns totaled 5,112 in the Noyo River, exceeding its population target of 4,000 fish.

It remains to be seen if this trend continues. Please visit casalmon.org/salmon-snapshots/about/noyo-river-1 and click on the heading “population graphs” for more information.

Throughout the last 48 years of the World’s Largest Salmon BBQ’s existence, none of these efforts would have been possible without the foresight, determination and generosity of local fishermen, citizens, volunteers (140), civic clubs and businesses (32).

(Michael Miller, Director, Salmon Restoration Association; salmonrestoration.com)

COW CATCHERS

Editor,

The continuing incidents between SMART trains and pedestrians speak of a need to look for solutions beyond individual crossing issues. Trains moving through human corridors will always be prone to incidents involving inattentive or suicidal individuals.

One potential solution involves the rail vehicle itself, specifically a “cow catcher” as was employed on most early engines. Essentially a scoop-and-toss construct, anything in front of the rail vehicle would be deflected to the side. While this would not prevent injury to the pedestrian (or bike), it may prevent fatalities from blunt force impacts.

Additionally, it is a potential solution that isn’t crossing specific. Such a device could be fabricated to fit into the existing railcar coupling on the front, allowing easy removal when re-configuring the rail vehicles.

Brian Corzilius

Willits

I MISSED THURSDAY’S MENDOCINO FUN & quirky Fourth of July parade. I’ve been a regular attendee. I didn’t have the right spirit to watch the spasms of joy over the USA’s birthday, because the USA is in fast, dizzying decline.

I thought of lots of things during the day, chopping and raking the overgrown parts of my yard, hearing the softened crowd-sounds from down the hill. I thought how nearly every human thing I looked at was made in China. I knew that not one single parade-watcher with a little American flag in his or her mitt held an object made in America. We might as well outsource the Fourth to China.

Ross Perot, Texas billionaire, ran for president in 1992. He said, about NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that if it was enacted (it was), you’d hear, as he put it, “a giant sucking sound” as American jobs, no longer protected by domestic trade policy, would be replaced in foreign countries, especially Mexico at that time, where the payroll is infinitely smaller, where workers expect a fraction as much as Americans. We were still, in 1992, the world’s best paid workers.

Perot was stone-cold right. American capitalists pushed the new deal (precursor to the WTO, the World Trade Organization, which is the borderless club of the world’s rich people), it took effect, and a giant sucking sound removed the jobs of the men and women who stamped “Made in USA” on the sturdy, practical, everyday things we all need and use. Now our clothes come from Bangladesh and Honduras, our cars from everywhere but Detroit and Flint, our hardware (and practically everything, actually) and anything I can think of from China.

We still dominate, for the moment, the fields of weapons, aircraft and entertainment. I handle and admire the little kitchen implements I still have from long ago. They seem to still have that sort-of World War Two smell on them.

I thought about a million things like this—age lengthens your viewpoint—as I loaded the green bin. (Oh: plastic! I neglected to add plastic. We make loads of no-tech plastic stuff. The plant pots I have in stacks are made in L.A., largely by undocumented workers from Mexico, I bet.)

Our wages decline. We pass a few minimum-wage laws, insulting in their skimpiness. This is American Glory, Trump-Era style. Not just Trump’s fault. Saint Obama, that slim & dapper one, “saved us” from the full-on meltdown and the Third-World status we were roaring toward when W went home to Texas. BO saved us by printing a trillion dollars in funny money and keeping on the smiley crooks that took us to the shivery brink of ruin in pursuit of more personal wealth for themselves and their stockholders.

It has taken five hundred years for us Europeans to plunder and pauper the New World. The end is in sight. I couldn’t find the appetite for celebrating.

(Mitch Clogg)

LOCAL FOOTBALL OFFICIAL SHORTAGE

Lack of officials means football games could be lost

50-50 chance at least one game is canceled during ‘19 season because there aren’t enough zebras left

record-bee.com/2019/07/05/lack-of-officials-means-football-games-could-be-lost/

A COAST LIFELINE

Editor:

My wife recently had full hip replacement surgery at MCDH. Major surgery is always stressful for both patients and family members. We live in Gualala, and I worked in health care for ten years managing primary care before I retired. I’m very familiar with standards of care, accreditation, and protocols in hospitals and clinics.

What my wife and I experienced was remarkable. Everything from the surgery to recovery and afterward went perfectly. The level of care provided by MCDH nursing staff and medical assistants was highly professional and very caring. At every shift change, and throughout the day and night, information was passed along and vitals were checked and rechecked. Everyone was truly on their game. They follow up at every turn, and they work closely together as a team and as a family.

MCDH may not be as new and pretty as some of the hospitals in Sonoma County, but when it comes to critical care, the nursing staff and MCDH may have them beat. I hope their management and the Fort Bragg and Mendocino communities appreciate them as much as we do. They are an important and critical part of our “life-line” here on the coast, and we are very grateful to them for everything they do — and they do it so very well.

George and Vicky Provencher

Gualala

ASPHALT PLANT = FIRE HAZARD

To the Editor:

In the wake of all the recent wildfires, it is important to sound the alarm that our own Board Supervisors are re-visiting a previously failed, ill-conceived plan to build a 150,000-ton asphalt industrial complex at the Harris Quarry location, which is perched on the Ridgewood grade - between Willits and Ukiah. There is a school, a church and a 200 plus senior citizen development immediately adjacent (on one side) and a proposed senior-assisted living complex (on the other side). As is the case in so much of Mendocino County, the surrounding area, in all directions, (and for miles), are grasslands and heavily forested territory where the ‘four winds blow‘- strong, unpredictable winds.

Not surprisingly, asphalt plants generate and utilize heat, build pressure and produce volatile, flammable chemicals — all with the propensity to leak, ignite — yes, and explode their contents in fiery, dangerous, combustible havoc. A recipe for ember and wind driven catastrophe.

Incredibly, 50 or more heavily loaded trucks per hour would be allowed to carry this combustible, volatile product in all directions; through a confusing, dangerous, accident-prone Highway 101 intersection. Wildfires caused by vehicle crashes and even engine burnouts have happened as recently as last summer. To make matters worse, planned night-time firing operations multiply these dangers. This conjures up images of unsuspecting folks living alone or families awakened in the middle of the night by sirens of fire engines — that may, or may not arrive in time. Mendocino nightmares!

California is no stranger to wildfire. Hotter seasons, drier fuel, happening more often - and with greater intensity. The now infamous ‘Camp Fire’ consumed 153 thousand acres, destroyed eighteen thousand buildings and killed eighty-five people with two still missing. The worst fire in Ca.’s history so far. Could placing this ‘powder keg‘ plant in such an inappropriate location invite disaster?

Why would the Supervisors vote to put this unholy mix in the middle of this environment? Why would they “fast track” a vote which, in effect, bypasses the important oversight of the Planning Commission and indeed circumvent the citizens’ right to full public comment? Why would they collude with County Counsel to lobby for recusal of the lone Supervisor leaning toward disapproval? Why would they stubbornly insist on another plant when the current source keeps up with demand by operating only two days a week? The Environmental impact report states in fine print that only four new jobs would be created and further confesses. “If the plant was not built, there would be no adverse impact on asphalt availability,” and no particular negative impact on the County’s financial status. Are they planning on exporting to other counties who want to stay clean while we breathe the toxins? We don’t know. It just doesn’t make any sense.

One irate citizen told this writer its as simple as ABC: Arrogance, Bias and Collusion. It may be even simpler than that: A major dose of DUMB.

Our Board of Supervisors’ pledged mission is to protect the citizenry in matters of “Public safety, health, environment and social needs.” Instead, could they be the foxes that are guarding the chicken house? Are we looking forward to higher insurance rates and reduced property values?

California’s largest Utility, PG&E, is reeling from class-action litigation seeking compensatory damages of over $30 Billion, principally for their alleged negligence and lack of preventive foresight in the devastating California wildfires during the 2017 and 2018 fire seasons. Fires that killed scores of Californians and destroyed thousands of structures. One fire was reportedly caused by sparks from a downed power line in powerful winds. The type of winds we are all familiar with.

This is a cautionary tale. The County Counsel Mission Statement, in part, underscores “protecting the County from risk and loss.” Using the PG&E experience as a warning, perhaps the Board, along with County Counsel, should note PG&E’s catastrophic losses — and consider the possible legal and financial consequences of negligently: Playing with fire.

Jack Magne

Willits

POWER SHUT OFFS COULD AFFECT NON-RISK AREAS

by Daniel Mintz

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is advising all Humboldt County residents to be prepared for Public Safety Power Shut Offs – even those living in areas that aren’t prone to fire risks.

The company has expanded its preemptive power shut off program to include both distribution lines – those that deliver power to neighborhoods and subdivisions – and transmission lines.

That opens the possibility of preemptive shut-offs affecting areas that aren’t deemed as fire safety risks.

“The Humboldt Coast, we all know, doesn’t experience the multiple conditions that would precipitate a Public Safety Power Shut Off,” said PG& E representative Alison Talbott at the July 2 Board of Supervisors meeting. “However, the transmission lines that serve our community do run through high fire threat areas and could be impacted by a Public Safety Power Shut Off, which would then leave our community out of power – potentially for multiple days.”

Information on the shut off program can be accessed at the company’s website and Talbott announced that a community meeting on it will held in Fortuna at the River Lodge Conference Center on July 15 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The shut offs will happen if a variety of weather conditions coalesce in elevated and extreme fire threat areas. A map of the areas shows most of Humboldt County as an area of elevated threat, except for coastal communities like Arcata, McKinleyville and Trinidad.

But because the program now includes transmission lines, there’s a chance a line running through an elevated threat area to the east of the coast could be shut off. That could affect non-risk areas in the vicinity.

Deanna Contreras, the regional media relations staffer for PG&E, said it’s “less likely” that a community like Arcata could be affected but “given the rapidly changing environmental conditions in our state, it depends on the extreme weather and we could possibly need to shut down a transmission line that feeds one of those non-fire threat areas.”

Several transmission lines run through Arcata that also feed the other coastal communities and “just because they’re not high fire threat areas doesn’t mean they’re not powered by a line that runs through a high fire threat area,” said Contreras.

She added, “It’s less likely but we don’t want to say it’s never going to happen – we want everyone to be prepared.”

The shut off program is part of an overall response to the wildfires – including power infrastructure-related fires -- that ravaged areas of the state in 2017 and 2018. The year’s first round of preemptive shut-offs was done last month, when parts of Napa, Yolo, Solano and other counties were affected.

The company recommends that power customers with online accounts make sure their contact information is up to date so shut-off alerts can be received. Customers can sign up for the alerts by calling 866-743-6589 or logging onto pge.com/wildfirealerts.

At the direction of the California Public Utilities Commission, the company’s efforts to reduce fire risks also include infrastructure upgrades and repairs, inspections, enhanced tree trimming and fuels reduction, and installation of monitoring cameras.

“This is the new normal,” Contreras said. “The devastating wildfires have made it clear that more must be done, with greater urgency, to adapt to and address the threat of wildfires in extreme weather.”

---

MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: Ms. Talbot told Justine Frederiksen of the Ukiah Daily Journal a couple of weeks ago: “Forty-eight hours is a reasonable number [to be prepared for], but there is nothing wrong with being prepared for five days. Go ahead and be mad at PG&E, but use this as an opportunity to prepare yourself; because an emergency can happen at any time that isn’t fire-related.”

Retired firefighter and current PG&E spokesman David Hodgkiss said that PG&E has installed 330 of these rods, and also plans to install 600 high-definition cameras, which he described as “the fire lookout for the 21st Century.” There are 40 of those installed, some nearby in southern Humboldt County, northern Sonoma County and one on Mount Konocti in Lake County. “There are currently none in Mendocino County,” Hodgkiss said, adding that Laughlin Peak would be a good location to install one. He described much of Mendocino County as being Tier 2, with the only Tier 1 areas being north Covelo where “there is plenty of forest fuels, but there’s not a lot of infrastructure,” so few power lines.

“If they’re going to take one of the transmission lines down, that could affect the entire grid,” Hodgkiss continued, explaining that while utilities like Ukiah’s Electric Utility is its own “Distribution Center,” it still depends on the transmission lines that come into the county “through Hopland, Redwood Valley and up from Sonoma County. Ukiah is kind of an island within Tier 2 territory, so if the power feed goes down to that area, it will affect Ukiah.”

ED NOTES

RECOMMENDED READING: Anyone who reads newspapers knows that Jerry Lee Lewis is something of a madman. Which is all I knew about him until I read "Hellfire" by Nick Tosches, a fascinating, poetically-written informal biography of Lewis, a man so far out of control that his survival into old age is simply miraculous. Married seven times, including to his 13-year-old first cousin who, when she was questioned about her age, explained, "Down here [outback Louisiana] we can get married when we're ten if we want to," Lewis spent years on a diet of pharmaceutical speed and whisky. But all that time, which included a bizarre, drunken attempt to murder Elvis, who Lewis saw as his undeserving rival for king of rock and roll, and much truly awful behavior, the reader can't help but laugh and admire his survival:

"Back home, Eddie Kilroy arranged for Jerry Lee to make his debut on 'The Grand Ole Opry.' ‘They didn't wanna let him on,’ Eddie said. ‘I had to promise them he wouldn't cuss, that he wouldn't show up drunk, that he'd do only country songs. So he shows up that night, goes onstage, and completely fucks with their heads. There was Ernest Tubbs, Hank Snow, Roy Acuff, lookin' around the curtains at this wildness out there.

"Jerry Lee did not say a word as he sat down at the piano that night of January 20. He went right into 'Another Place, Another Time,' the song that that had brought him back five years before. Then, with barely a pause, he began pounding out a manic version of 'What'd I Say.' For almost a half hour, he alternated country songs with rock 'n roll, refusing to stop for the scheduled commercial breaks. He called out Del Wood, the woman who befriended him on his 1954 journey to Nashville, and they sat at the piano together, pounding out her old hit, 'Down Yonder.' By then the crowd was in the palm of his hand, wild, as no other Opry crowd had been since Hank Williams's debut in 1949. He tore into Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode,' then 'Great Balls of Fire,' then 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On.'…

"The crowd roared and stomped and whistled, and when they did this, Jerry Lee began to sing Merle Haggard's 'Workin' Man Blues,' and when the crowd recommenced roaring and stomping and whistling, he stopped singing that song in mid-line, and he went into 'Rock Around the Clock,' then back into 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On.' He stood and howled 'Chantilly Lace,' playing the piano with the heel of his boot, and then he waited for the crowd to cease their noise of frenzy, and he beheld them.

"'Let me tell ya somethin' about Jerry Lee Lewis, ladies and gentlemen,' he said. ‘I am a rock n' rollin', country and Western, rhythm 'n blues singin' mothafucker.'

"Disregarding the distraught gestures of the Opry management at stage left, he descended upon the piano and began to sing 'Good Golly, Miss Molly.' Then, abruptly, he fell still, closed his eyes, and performed the most perfectly sad rendition of Hank Williams's 'I'm So Lonely I Could Cry' that anyone had ever heard; and he left the stage and flew home to Memphis."

---

ALSO RECOMMENDED is William Manchester's "A World Lit by Fire, The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance." The clearest account of the "Dark Ages" I've read, the others being so academically scholarly as to be unreadable. The Roman Empire had brought a measure of order and civilization to the wild tribes to the east, but when they did a slow fade resembling the one we have going in America, the barbarians were soon at the gate, the diff between US and them being our barbarians are home grown. Anyway, and also like US, as the dark as the Dark Ages were, they produced some great art and architecture.

CHARGING STATION COMES TO LITTLE LAYTONVILLE

Fun fact: Ten electric vehicles can charge at once in the town of Laytonville, population a little over 1200.

kymkemp.com/2019/07/06/charging-station-comes-to-little-laytonville/

WILD ABOUT EAGLES!

On Saturday, July 27th join the Fort Bragg Library staff for Wild About Eagles!

We will explore local birds of prey such as osprey, hawks and eagles. Come learn all about these incredible winged beauties at the Fort Bragg Library!

Eagle Story Time featuring stories about birds @ 10:30 am

Eagle Kids Craft @ 11:00am -12:00pm

Raptor Talk for Adults and Teens @ 2:00-3:00 pm. Learn about raptors, hawks and eagles with guest speaker, Adam Hutchins of Mendocino Coast Audubon Society.

For more information, please contact the Fort Bragg Library, by phone at 707-964-2020 or via email at hessd@mendocinocounty.org.

CATCH OF THE DAY, JULY 6, 2019

SHANNON ARNOLD, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

CHRISTOPHER BAUGHMAN, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JAKE CASEY, Mendocino. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

JOHN DELUCA, Ukiah. Parole violation.

DEVANTA DERBIGNY, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.

MARTIN ESTRADA-PEREZ, Boonville. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

THOMAS GALINDO, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance. (Frequent flyer.)

CLINT GUNTER, Ukiah. Suspended license (for DUI).

CLARENCE HALL, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. “Proceedings.”

CHARLES HENSLEY, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MORNINGSTAR HOAGLIN, Probation revocation.

DEVAUN JOHNSON, Calpella. Contempt of court.

MICHAEL LOCKETT, Ukiah. Controlled substance possession, sale; paraphernalia, probation revocation.

SERGIO MENDEZ-ZURITA, Santa Rosa/Hopland. Burglary, assault weapon, sawed off shotgun, large capacity magazine, no license, unsatisfactory ID, conspiracy.

TYLER MOLINA, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

WILLIAM RETZLOFF, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

BOBBY ROSTON, Ukiah. Parole violation.

ANGEL SANTANA, Covelo. Domestic battery.

PATRICIA STONE, Philo. Domestic battery.

FRANK HARTZELL: We live in the dumbest age in human history, caused not by politics but by people increasingly disconnected from food, reality, community and family. We give up newspapers that took a century or more. We scoff at libraries and pick the preselected Google Search, which has less than 1 percent of what is in a library. Good Taxi jobs that were protected by societies before there were even horses and buggies are thrown away in an instant for the "convenience" of apps. Amazon destroys the structure of retail trade to make it purely feudal with no rights for the seller and nobody notices or cares. Every bit of progress is now owned by the feudal 1 percent class. Every invention is owned by corporate powers. And nobody talks about it. Why?

MY WEEKEND WITH THE NATIONALISTS

theoutline.com/post/4907/my-weekend-with-white-nationalists-convention-identity-evropa

'GREATEST THREAT TO MANKIND Is Democratic Party's Cowardice,' Says Ocasio-Cortez's Spokesman

Grim argued in the Post that the old-guard Democrats — led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — were buffaloed long ago by The Gipper: by Ronald Reagan’s presidential landslide in 1980 and 1984 reelection. They suffered a “traumatic political coming-of-age” in Reagan’s rise and have never been the same, he argued. Because of that experience, their consistent fallback position is: “Now is not the time; push too fast or too far, and there’ll be a backlash,” according to Grim. The old-era Democrats are still now “unable to embrace the new political environment in which the progressive agenda is genuinely popular,” he noted. “For people under a certain age, this slinking in the corner is deeply strange behavior.”

huffpost.com/entry/ocasio-cortez-corbin-trent-democratic-cowardice_n_5d1fea88e4b0f3125683f9cc

THE BATTLE FOR PEOPLE’S PARK, Berkeley 1969: when Vietnam came home

theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/06/the-battle-for-peoples-park-berkeley-1969-review-vietnam

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

My parents were early suburbanites but my grandparents lived in a small town in NW Pennsylvania. My memories of that town are wonderful but I watched it deteriorate over the years. It was a tool and die center for the auto industry but now its main employer is Walmart.

The country is changing politically because of the demise of small town America. Small towns were created to support the agricultural population, then developed local manufacturing as the industrial revolution took root. Transportation was small and slow as was communication. However, it was very HUMAN. People’s development and maturation was more complete as it was a requirement to survive in the people on people environment.

As the mega cities developed, a different sort of people developed. People became dependent on systems instead of each other. People became more isolated as their personal space shrunk in the urban environment. As their dependence increased, so did their reliance on the government. Think about it, an urban dweller looks to what for sustenance. Big boxes and the JIT inventory control that goes with them. Opportunity for work shrinks and folks look to government for taking care of them. The Liberal appeal is huge to dependent folks.

The demise of agriculture is a huge undercurrent to the urbanization problem. As technology destroyed the human side of growing food, the need for the small town declined. People moved to the cities to get work and manufacturing followed. Globalization is sucking the cities dry currently, creating more surplus people. Then the idiot immigration laws are creating even more surplus population in the cities.

The pathway to obsolescence of the human being as a necessary part of the economy continues today and is accelerating. The cities are repositories for the surplus population as their labor no longer matters. The problem is obvious, capital is labor. As labor declines, real capital declines and the capital base of the world is turning into a global Fantasyland. Playing games, gambling, either in Las Vegas or the Stock Market are taking over phony capital building.

The ultimate collapse will come when the real aspects of Fantasyland become obvious enough that the folks lose faith. When that happens, the Residue of small town America with its agricultural base, will be in good shape for a short period of time. Better buy a gun, the heavy footprints from the cities are coming. All those surplus people are not going to go into the night willingly.

Continued movement to the cities is going to make the end just more painful. I hope this ultimate solution happens after I am gone. It’s not going to be pretty.

MAID’S BEDROOM from England in the 1840's

LAKE COUNTY: BEHIND THE CURVE

Dear Readers,

On July 4, 2019, the Anderson Valley Advertiser published a press release from Congressman Jared Huffman, announcing the formation of an “ad hoc” committee to form a “new regional entity that will improve fishery, ensure dependable water supply for Eel and Russian Rivers.”

http://pottervalleyproject.org/

Four “qualified” entities (Sonoma Water Agency, Cal Trout, Mendocino Inland Water & Power Commission, and Humboldt County) planned to file a Notice of Intent on July 1, to create a new licensing proposal meeting the "co-equal goals of securing water supply reliability and comprehensive fishery restoration in both the Eel and Russian Rivers are the driving force behind this unique regional collaboration.” Lake County’s Board of Supervisors, at the very last minute, agreed to "think about" helping the Eel River watershed property owners upstream of the Scott dam, after District 3 Supervisor Eddie Crandell brought the matter to their attention on June 25, 2019.

http://lakecounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=330

Agenda Item 6.2

Supervisor Crandell provided a brief review of recent history, back to April 6, 2017, "when PG&E filed a pre-application document with the intent to file a new license application that was due by April 14, 2020. On January 25 [2019] they withdrew their Notice of Intent.”

The President of the “Lake Pillsbury Alliance” Frank Lynch, and the President of the Mendocino Inland Water & Power Commission Janet Pauli, and others made impassioned pleas for the County of Lake to “be at the table” to participate in the long-term decision-making process.

(Long-time Lake Pillsbury residents and business owners brought with them over 900 signatures to a local petition, an offer of $10,000, and a well-organized group of “4 home owners associations” willing to establish a self-funded “benefit zone of assessment” for participating in the Huffman-proposed feasibility study.)

The Lake County Board of Supervisors responded, finally, by agreeing to issue a “Minute Order” showing “support” for “moving forward” to “find funding for” future “participation.”

(The Lake County Record-Bee followed up with an encouraging article, “Lake Pillsbury gains support,” on June 29.)

As usual, the County of Lake is more than a decade behind the curve, since PG&E began its intended divestiture planning for the FERC licensed power plant back in 2005. The [Eel-Russian River Commission] "EERC’s single area of focus is the Potter Valley Project (PVP), since it was formed in the 1970s during the first FERC relicensing process to facilitate communication among the four counties involved in this “long-term relationship" (as reported by Kelley Lincoln on April 2, 2019, in the Redheaded Blackbelt:

Opportunities for Decommissioning The Potter Valley Project Revealed at Eel Russian River Commission

While the Lake County Board of Supervisors sweetly agreed that Supervisor Crandell could form his own “ad hoc committee” for the purpose of gathering information, any entity seeking to represent the interests of the county on Huffman’s “Planning Agreement” workgroup would require approval of the Board of Supervisors, and District 5 Supervisor Brown suggested that a local “water agency” (“up there”) would be appropros for that purpose, leaving out entirely the responsibilities and authorities of the Lake County Watershed Protection District, whose boundaries include the entire county territory.

The Lake County Watershed Protection District has, so far, done virtually nothing to protect the Upper Eel River watershed, one of three major watersheds contributing downstream supplies to six surrounding counties. Proponents of Lake Pillsbury preservation have a long row to hoe, with the indifference of County management to overcome and no focus of the District beyond meeting state compliance requirements for abating Clear Lake’s water quality impairments and developing increased Clear Lake water supplies for expansion of development in the Upper Cache Creek basin.

KPFZ’s upcoming public information programs on Sunday, July 7 (the “Long-Term Recovery” hour and “What’s Next?” — disaster response, relief, recovery, and mitigation news) on Sunday, July 7 will feature the President of the newly formed Lake Pillsbury Alliance, Frank Lynch, and District 3 Supervisor Eddie Crandell (2 p.m. to 4 p.m.) Out of county listeners tune in via live “streaming” at www.kpfz.org.

Betsy Cawn

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 2019 SUMMER READING

by Ralph Nader

1. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff (PublicAffairs, 2019): You’re already experiencing the early stages of Big Corporations becoming Big Brother while Big Government becomes the Big Pussycat. Unfortunately, indentured Members of Congress drink the milk of campaign contributions and dream of industry job offers. This constructive book is chilling and will curb your digital enthusiasm.
2. Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Katherine Eban (Ecco, 2019): This book exposes the price gouging U.S. Drug Companies that are outsourcing production of medicines (and their active ingredients) to China and India with disastrous results. We are at the mercy of these largely uninspected, often contaminated, foreign labs and are not given labeling information regarding the country of origin of vital medicines. Did you know that the U.S. no longer produces antibiotics? Once you read Eban’s work, you won’t look at prescription medications the same way.
3. Strength Through Peace: How Demilitarization Led to Peace and Happiness in Costa Rica, and What the Rest of the World can Learn From a Tiny, Tropical Nation by Judith Lipton and David Barash (Oxford University Press, 2018): Lipton and Barash expertly tell the story of how Costa Rica outperforms the U.S. in meeting basic human needs. The book humbles our native ethnocentricity and our culturally accepted, elementary school-taught myth that the U.S. has little to learn from other countries.
4. Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age by Ellen Brown (Democracy Collaborative, 2019): Brown offers an in-depth exploration of the problems with big banks and the “shadow banking” industry. The book explains how reckless bankers affect your livelihood, waste your tax dollars, and unduly influence an increasingly corporate-owned government. Nestle with this book until you see the wonderful future that could be ours, by recovering control of OUR OWN MONEY.
5. The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption by Dahr Jamail (The New Press, 2019): The intrepid Jamail went to the shaken places where global warming is fracturing our planet in very plain sight. His book serves as a tour of climate disasters for the climate disruption deniers who ignore what is clearly happening before their very eyes.
6. Ethics, Politics, and Whistleblowing in Engineering by Nicholas Sakellariou and Rania Milleron (CRC Press, 2018): It is not only Boeing engineers whose better judgments about aircraft safety were overridden by profit-obsessed management (Axe the Boeing 737 Max!). Engineers in many industries provide expert judgments on the health, safety, and durability of products and processes. These experts are routinely ignored by avaricious corporate bosses looking to maximize profits at the public’s expense. A recent high profile example of this was the disastrous Boeing 737 Max crashes, which might have been prevented if Boeing management had heeded the advice of their more conscientious engineers. At last, there is a book with case studies, professional vision, and a cast of heroes for engineering students, practicing engineers, and all the rest of us that will raise our expectations for the engineering profession (Proud to say that Rania is my niece).
7. Conflicts of Interest In Science: How Corporate-Funded Academic Research Can Threaten Public Health by Sheldon Krimsky (Skyhorse Publishing, 2019): In this collection of articles, Krimsky delves into the devolution of scientific research from the integrity of academic science to the secret, profit-driven domination of corporate science. This book brings together many examples of the impact of corporate funded research on health and safety. Taxpayer dollars and public trust are at risk in the current scientific climate. Krimsky compellingly advocates for full disclosure and the need to shield university scientists from the pressure or temptation to sell out consumers, workers, and the environment.
8. Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, Too by George Lakey (Melville House Books, 2016): Given the upcoming presidential primaries and elections, this book is a contemporary necessity. Lakey illustrates how Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland have used social democratic policies to make their citizens the world’s healthiest and happiest people. Relatively, the Nordic countries are a model for good governance, equitable prosperity, and responsible environmental leadership. This is the “most fun economics book” you’ve never read. Voters and candidates alike should read it before the November 2020 election.
9. Whistleblower at the CIA: An Insider’s Account of the Politics of Intelligence by Melvin A. Goodman (City Lights Books, 2017): As a career CIA intelligence analyst and truth-teller Goodman shows how the secretive CIA has been anything but “intelligent.” The modern CIA blunders through the world with major, inaccurate forecasts, violent covert action, general lawlessness, and cover-ups that ignore President Harry Truman’s original intention for the organization. This book explains why CIA actions have contributed to our country’s disastrous foreign policy. A personal, readable, and authentically patriotic story.
10. Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham (Simon and Schuster, 2019): Adam Higginbotham’s recent book prompted one reviewer to say that the author “gives us a glimpse of Armageddon.” The atomic power meltdown in Ukraine 33 years ago has produced a large uninhabitable region and driven deadly radiation effects, short and long term, into humans, their genes, and the flora and fauna. Together with the widely viewed HBO series on Chernobyl, this book explains why people should reject any notion that nuclear energy is a solution to global warming. Far, far better is to invest in energy conservation, solar energy, and wind energy – energy options that are cheaper, quicker, safer, and more community based. The catastrophic consequences and security threats posed by using nuclear power (the purpose of which is to boil water) are unacceptable. Remember —nuclear disasters can happen anywhere.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!)

All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,

Without any companion it stood there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,

And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself

— Walt Whitman

JOHN SAKOWICZ WRITES: One question keeps me up at night: Who has had more plastic surgery, Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi? Also the over the top cosmetic density — "chiclets teeth" — is disturbing.

Vanity cometh before the fall.