MCT: Friday, September 6, 2019

• Prayer Question
• Bostrom 1930s
• Cat Story
• Noyo Harbor
• Caltrans Replies
• Dog Days
• BOS Agenda
• Ed Notes
• Hero Appreciation
• Gualala Enhancements
• Fog Bank
• Open Studios
• Moneypenny
• B Diddle
• Slacky Ladies
• Jones Out
• Manhattan
• Steinmetz Responds
• Yesterday's Catch
• Anemic Democrats
• Climate Strike
• Coast Cleanup
• Climate Action
• Save Forests
• Twitter Jokes
• Forest Management
• Mexican MAGA
• Weird Death
• Gull
• Hidin' Biden
• Joe No
• Found Object

BOONVILLE FAIR SUNDAY COMMUNITY CHURCH SERVICE

Sep 15, 2019, 8:30am. Apple Hall Auditorium at the Fairgrounds.

Pastor Dave Kooyers from the Valley Bible Fellowship presents: “What is Prayer and What’s It For?”

Free admission, everyone welcome. Worship then enjoy the County Fair for the rest of the day. More info: Dave Kooyers, 895-2325 or the fair office: 895-3011 or the fairgrounds website: www.mendocountyfair.com.

Also: Sheep Dog Trials at 10am, Rodeo Finals at 2pm both at the Rodeo/Grandstand area.

1930s CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Editor,

There is no reason that the queen can’t bestow knighthood on gringos on this side of the Atlantic if she feels like it. Hardened Lib-labs like Sister "I do not suffer fools gladly" Yasmin would assume that people like Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky would be the first to be knighted. Wrong. The first gringo to be knighted was at Rush Limbaugh. Apparently The Donald and The Boris and put their orders in.

If you have been reading the New Yorker you would have learned that this cultural anthropology business is mostly BS. The only reason that there was any interest in cultural anthropology was the picture of bare-breasted girls on the cover of Margaret Mead’s book.

The Epstein affair would have been gone in a couple of days but for older men and sex with underage girls. The media knows what gets gringos all excited. The next big thing will be when the women who have had intimate relations with Donald Trump start comparing notes. A closely held secret will be broken open and I think that Flynn Washburne will have something to say about that.

I get my cultural anthropology from Oscar Lewis’s books. (“Five Families,” “Children of Sanchez” and others). And "Now Let Us Praise Famous Men," by James Agee.

Actually each person has his own cultural identity. Start keeping track around age two send the results to "Kulture Haves" in Zurich, Switzerland for the rest of your life.

Example: In my case I was born during the Coolidge administration and I can only remember a few incidents during the Hoover administration. Being introduced to a man who had seen Abraham Lincoln (in Springfield), seeing a picture in the paper of the ladder leaning against a house second story window (the Lindbergh kidnapping), riding in the rumble seat of a Whippet roadster. Visiting a building built like a gymnasium with a vaulted balcony, all around you could look down and watch ’33 Chevys being assembled. 

All boys during the 30s liked cars and could name them; also baseball. Most boys could give you the starting lineup of at least two major league teams. If there was no radio at home, boys would hang around the barbershop, which usually had a radio tuned to the games, which came not from the ballpark but from the radio station who received the play-by-play by telegraph and reenacted them. When someone hit a home run they would say "a case of Wheaties" — the ballplayer was able to hit a home run because he ate Wheaties for breakfast.

I can remember plenty. During the new deal a California lady said Mr. Roosevelt was doing the best he could do help us. Response: "That son of a bitch in the White House?” (Ukiah small businessman). Rexford Guy Tugwell, Harold Ickes and Henry Wallace. A man knocking on the back door taking off his cap and asking "Ma’am, would you have some work? I would do anything for a bite to eat." All schoolchildren knew that FDR's birthday was January 30 because they were asked to bring a dime to school for the polio drive. They knew that the president had polio and was unable to stand. A dime would buy a little food. I can remember being sent to the grocery store with a galvanized gallon can to buy kerosene for 15¢. All grocery stores sold kerosene. 

As a child I heard a lot about socialism. Family and relatives were all strong supporters of Norman Thomas, the Socialist candidate for president several times. A promising graduate of Princeton and Union Theological Seminary, the large and wealthy Presbyterian Church figured they had a right to grab him. Thomas didn't think much could be accomplished through the churches. He chose to do social work among immigrant communities. He married a girl named Violet who was doing volunteer social work in Hell's kitchen. He found out later that Violet was a member of a very wealthy family. Norman Thomas didn't have to worry about money the rest of his life, which he spent calling attention to social, economic and political injustice. It has been said that everything Norman Thomas advocated was eventually accomplished; he was just 50 years ahead of his time. 

The only book I had was "A Child's Garden of Verses" which I read over and over until I had those poems memorized. I was taken to see a Hooverville in 1934. Most towns had a hobo jungle usually along the railroad tracks at the edge of town. That was the beginning of the co-op movement in the country. 

During the mid-30s the whole country was fascinated by heavyweight boxing. On the night of a Joe Louis fight, no meetings were scheduled, no cars on the street, everyone glued to the radio listening to the fight. After the fight the water pressure dropped to zero when everybody flushed toilets at the same time. 

I can remember the election of 1936 clearly. Political campaign buttons were ubiquitous. All children had them and wore them to school. The girls liked Alf Landon's best because it had a picture of a sunflower while Roosevelt had a black and white headshot of FDR. 

We were allowed to walk across the Bay Bridge on opening day. I walked across then down to the Oakland wharf and took the ferry back to Frisco. The Chronicle put out a special edition that must have weighed 5 pounds. 

I can remember staying up until 2 AM on September 1, 1939, listening to the radio as Hitler was invading Poland just 80 years ago. Two years later an algebra class was canceled and the radio was brought in to the school room and we listened to FDR’s “Day that will live in infamy” speech. 

That brings an end to Phase 1 of my cultural anthropological file. Phase 2 will recount much trouble with the Selective Service and the FBI, not to mention becoming hobo which exists to this day.

Ralph Bostrom

Willits

PS. Writing skills, check one: () poor, () quite poor, (x)piss poor. 

PPS. Watch for "a trip to the Met with a stop at Ebbets Field."

PPPS. We missed you at the Democratic picnic.

A CAT STORY

by Eugene Walter

After I moved to Corso Vittorio, Miss Calico adopted me. I didn't adopt her. She lived in the block, this tabby calico cat. This shoemaker had taken her in when she was pregnant because she didn't have any place in the street to have kittens. He used this tiny alley not far from where I lived. He gave her a box where she would take these kittens out to sit in the sun. One day a truck which under law was not supposed to go in that alley came sailing through and killed all four kittens. Smashed them flat. And she went around crying all over the neighborhood. So I got her into the courtyard of the palace where I lived and fed her and gave her a wooden box in one corner of the courtyard where she could stay at night. Once a day I would feed her and she more or less realized that the palazzo where I lived was her domain.

She eventually found her way up five flights of steps where I lived on the top floor. That was before there was an elevator. Then later the countess put in an elevator. The elevator had only been in 24 hours when Miss Calico started using it to get to my floor. And she would never get in the elevator with anybody going to any other floor. Nobody knows how she knew to get in with somebody going to the fifth floor. It was a source of wonderment for all concerned. This ditzy countess who owned the building would always say, "I do not understand how Miss Calico chooses the person who goes to you." Nobody could figure it out. Well, she knew where the cooking was going on, bless her heart.

She came to me to eat and have kittens. She would tell me when she was going to have kittens and I had this screen I had set up in the corner of the landing with two boxes behind it, one for her to have them in and one for the kittens, I would lay out a smorgasbord arrangement and Oh, she had beautiful kittens.

But she was a strange and biggity street cat. She would never come in my apartment. Wouldn't come it. She found her way over the roof of the palace to my terrace. At night in the winter when the doors were closed and my cats weren't on the terrace she would march up and down my terrace. Go back over the roof and she went through some other house. Down the stairs to the courtyard.

She was something. I loved her.

One day there was this guy out walking his dog. He had taken off the leash and the muzzle. The muzzle was hanging on the dog's collar and he was swinging the leash. In Rome there is a law that if you take a dog out of your house or if you have a dog at all when it is the street it has to have a muzzle and a leash. Cannot go free. That's because of the prevalence of rabies in Italy.

Calico had begun at that time to sit in this vast “portone,” the huge carriage door in the Roman palaces. It's in several sections and opens. There is always a little door for people. But usually in the daytime for cross-draft they open the huge portone. She would sit there watching traffic and saying, "Actually, I'm the Countess. There's another pretender living on the fourth floor, but I am the real countess."

Anyway, this dog attacked her. Lunged for her. Calico was a very quick street cat and she rose like an angel of song and bit the man's chin and fled. Of course realizing that he had caused a fuss the man quickly got the dog leashed and all that. They left in a hurry. But his wife apparently convinced him the cat might have rabies. So he hired these two thugs to go and catch Miss Calico. They were apparently skulking about the neighborhood because later someone told me they had seen these two guys at the corner and then at the other corner. They finally followed her into the courtyard and caught her and took her off in a pillowcase they were carrying and took her off to the pound. At the pound they always kept them for 10 days in quaratine to see if they had rabies and then sold them to laboratories and all kinds of things — fur factories and everything.

She didn't show up for dinner one night. She was regular. She came right up to my door. Either caught a ride or walked those flights. And she wasn't there for breakfast the next day and I was really beginning to worry. So at noon I went to this nice lady who had the Puerto Rico Coffee Company across the street which is a bonbon shop that sold fresh ground blends and all kinds of candies and chocolate some of which she made. Someone who knows everybody's business. So I went over to the shop and told her that Miss Calico was missing and asked if he had seen her. She said, "Miss Calico is missing?" She was a great cat lover, this lady. "Oh," she said, "we'll find out. She has to be somewhere in the neighborhood because she never leaves this block." She closed the shop and sent the three girls who were in the shop out to canvass neighborhoods door by door. And they reported, Yes, they had talked to a street sweeper and the street sweeper told me the whole story. But nobody knew where she’d gone.

The bonbon lady got on the phone and called Anna Magnani who was at the other corner in another Roman palace with her 23 cats. Just like my grandmother: 23 cats. Anna Magnani was a great Italian actress who was in several of the great Italian films that came out of Italy just after the war. She made “The Rose Tattoo” in Hollywood. She was a big international star and was a friend of Fellini. So I met her when she visited on the set of “8-1/2.” She had a three-story apartment. Her son who had infantile paralysis was about 19 then, in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. He had a flat of his own with this lady who looked after him. He had cats. Then she was the floor below and had more cats. There was a top floor where there were servants and so more cats.

The bonbon lady called Anna Magnani and said, "Not that pretty tabby, red and white cat at number 18?" The lady said, Yes. "She belongs to a nice American writer who lives there." "Oh," said Magnani. "Well." So Anna Magnani called the Mayor of Rome. She said, "You know, Excellent Sir, this is Anna Magnani and I need a favor." Of course he fell on the floor and swooned. She said, "There is this timid little house cat, belongs to a nice American writer here in number 18 Corso Vittorio and somebody has stolen it and we think — we fear — that she might end up at the pound. And we've got to find that cat." And he said, "Oh yes, we will put in plainclothes man on it."

He found Miss Calico in this particular pound. They had taken her and got a few Lira for it. The plainclothesman told the mayor and the mayor called Anna Magnani and Anna Magnani called the bonbon lady who sent one of her girls over to my apartment. I dropped everything. I jumped in a taxi and rushed to this place. I just stormed in. The doorman was saying, "You can't go in. You have to get a pass from the director. He's over that way." But I had to find Calico.

I couldn't find her. There were hundreds of dogs barking; three tiers of cages. All of the dogs were barking. The cats were all silent. A rather gray atmosphere. Finally I passed back again and heard Calico’s unmistakable voice. A raucous voice. From the bottom level. She was on the ground. Her cage was full of water because they flooded the cages to wash them. She was sitting in the corner half leaning on the wall.

I didn't recognize her at all. The red had faded. She was a calico but she was tabby, white and red. And the red had faded. The shock of being snatched and stuffed into a pillowcase and hauled off and put in a cage and then the water — the sheer shock. She was also in the beginning of a pregnancy.

I had rehearsed. I told them how she’s this kitten that we found and how we raised her. So of course I went into the director’s office and burst into tears. He was saying, "Oh my." I had to fill out the forms with name, parents names, grandparents names, date of birth, birthplace, education, occupation. I couldn't remember any of it. He said, "There will be a fine but you can come at the end of 10 days and get her."

I went every day and took food and milk and talked to her. I organized more grand people to call in on her. A princess, another actor, a doctor, the Countess, an opera singer. We had all the grand looking people we could get.

About the seventh day the director called and said, “I suppose you all can take this cat." He said, "there are so many people who seem interested in her." And he said, "We really can't have all this traffic coming in and out of the pound." I noticed the last two days they kept her dry. I learned later that her the Countess had complained to the director.

Anna Magnani never knew that the young man she had met on the set of 8-1/2 belonged to the American writer who at the same time as she every night threw food scraps to the cats in the Piazza Argentina. I was three different people in her life.

(Ed note: The following "Valley People" item is reposted for purposes of CalTrans Reply)

WHAT THE HECK IS CALTRANS doing on the west side of Highway 128 opposite Lindsay Clow's place? Destroying a goodly swathe of Clow pasture, and that's for a visible fact not only to passersby who marvel at the destruction but to Lindsay Clow.

IT'S COMPLICATED, but years ago Big Orange bought the property from Lindsay's dad, the late Jim Clow. Caltrans said it needed that land to add another link in the couple of miles of expressway punched through from Boonville almost to the Clow place in the 1960s. But CalTrans halted construction of the expressway short of the Clow property but kept title to the parcel. Jim and Bernice Clow tried to buy the parcel back but CalTrans wouldn't return the property to them, the rightful owners.

JIM AND BERNICE CLOW, Lindsay's parents, however galling it assuredly was to them, subsequently arranged a life lease with CalTrans for what had been their property directly across 128 from their home. "As soon as mom died," Lindsay recalls, "they essentially said the deal has ended, and now they're taking all the toxic dirt they can't use for landfills and putting it down across the road from me." And, Lindsay fumes, they're doing a sloppy job of it. "Where all those trucks are coming in and out, bicyclists can’t ride on the oncoming traffic side of the road all the way to Morgan's [Morgan Baynham] because of all the rocks in the road."

WHICH is the least of the damage done to the Clow family’s rightful property. Lindsay points out that while the Clows still own the far half of the now moonscaped parcel, CalTrans has destroyed perfectly good pasture that comprises the front half of the property. "And it will all drain into the creek eventually," Lindsay laments, "because it was a good pasture they've put all that trash dirt on, and it all drains towards the creek."

LINDSAY concludes with a joke. "You know what it takes to be a Caltrans engineer? You have to flunk at least two IQ tests." But he says, not laughing, "this is typical of CalTrans; they're too uninvolved in our community to give a rat's ass what they do to us here They get a free pass. A private contractor couldn't get away with it."

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CALTRANS REPLIES:

From our Right of Way office:

This was a piece of property acquired by the State in 1966. Mr. Clow, was provided a life lease to graze the property. The owners passed away and the adjoining parcel from which the parcel was acquired was sold in 2017 which terminated the life lease. In the spring of 2019 while reviewing excess land parcels, it was determined that the parcel could be disposed of and the Round Robin process was initiated where the parcel is reviewed by various departments to determine if there is value in retaining the parcel. Maintenance expressed interest in keeping the parcel so that it can be used for material disposal/storage and the area was incorporated into the operating right of way. The area in red is the location being discussed.

From our Maintenance office:

Material from an emergency slide repair project on SR 253 is being moved there. Before winter rains begin the area will be 'buttoned up' to ensure material does not enter the waterways in accordance with our permit with the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

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Let me know if there is anything else I can help clear up.

Thank you,

Phil Frisbie, Jr.

Chief of Public Information and Legislative Affairs

Caltrans District 1

707-445-6444

THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS MEETING AGENDA for the September 10, 2019, meeting is now available on the County website: mendocino.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx

Please contact Clerk of the Board at (707) 463-4441 if you have any questions regarding this message.

Thank you.

Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and Executive Office

ED NOTES

Wednesday's sunset spectacularly managed to outdo Wednesday's sunrise. It was the thunderhead clouds that put the spec in the tacular.

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THE WINDOWLESS FORTRESS on Low Gap Road called Ukiah High School launched into lockdown for half an hour on Wednesday afternoon because of a vague student comment involving a weapon. School architecture itself was weaponized by Ukiah in the 1960s as a comparison between any new school anywhere compared to schools prior to World War Two clearly demonstrates. The educational mission back in the day assumed that learning was enhanced if it occurred in aesthetically pleasing circumstances, hence the little red school houses and high schools of yesteryear with their arched entries and carefully wrought windows, the better to light the learning theoretically occurring inside the room. Hard to believe now, but it used to matter to Americans what their public buildings looked like. They were then erected as points of community pride. The County Courthouse in Ukiah of 1880 was an architectural delight; the County Courthouse of 2019 hides the delight round back where, if you look carefully, you can still see some evidence of residual community pride. And, the topper? Ukiah City government appropriated for itself the town's sole remaining public structures that can be said to embody grace and beauty, and it was once a school house. It's depressing to know that people born after, say, 1970, have grown up in civic surroundings of unrelieved ugliness, and these desensitized millions are "educated" in concrete and sheetrock assemblages like Ukiah High School designed by people who implicitly hated and feared young people. I guess the good news is that Ukiah still hasn't installed metal detectors in the halls of learning, settling for years now merely for an armed policeman.

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VIRTUE SIGNALING has long been a Frisco export, a regular San Francisco bi-product right up there with Rice-A-Roni, It's-Its, and Tony Bennett riding cable cars halfway to the stars. But the San Francisco Board of Supervisors managed to achieve a new low in pure posturing righteousness when it passed a resolution Tuesday declaring that the National Rifle Association is a domestic terrorist organization. Please. The NRA is for sure a gang of yobbo paranoids, but the violence that is the American birthright and characteristic now of the average American's daily experience, especially if you factor in the prevailing social vibe, can hardly be blamed on a gun club. But the resolution is typical of both contemporary San Francisco politics and the in lieu of politics that we get from both political parties. The SF Supervisors can pass pointless resolutions but outside the splendors of their chambers the city's streets are a mass of seething despair, and all they can do about that is shovel upwards of $350 million a year to their soul mates and fellow highly paid Democrats who run the city's "helping" agencies. But the NRA is the prob, right?

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OCCASIONALLY, an elected rep does something in the public interest. Less occasionally, a Northcoast rep does something in the public interest. Assemblyman Jim Wood, a dentist out of Healdsburg prior to being tapped for public office by Big Lib, those mysterious entitities that select our officeholders for us, has introduced AB 290, legislation aimed at preventing dialysis companies from tightening their monopolistic hold on dialysis patients.

YOU MAY HAVE SEEN the toxically manipulative television ads funded by the dialysis companies showing a pathetic old guy in a wheelchair saying he's going to die if 290 passes. The truth is, as recognized by Wood's legislation, the two largest dialysis corporations controlling most clinics have been funneling money to a few patients to help them fund their life-saving care, not to save the lives of these people but to…. Take it away, Woody:

“WHEN unscrupulous dialysis companies, through a third party, steer patients away from Medicare or Medi-Cal by indirectly paying a patient’s premiums, for the company’s own financial benefit, these companies are price gouging and it’s a scam,” said Wood. “It doesn’t improve care for patients and increases the cost of health care premiums for everyone.”

"THIS SCAM reveals itself when companies that provide dialysis treatment, like DaVita and Fresenius, donate $265 million, as they did in 2016, to the nonprofit American Kidney Fund (AKF). In turn, AKF, which gets approximately 80 percent of its funding from these two companies, steers kidney dialysis patients into private health insurance by paying for the patients’ monthly premiums. For every $1 these dialysis businesses donate to AKF, which in turn pays for a patient’s health care premium, the dialysis companies reap a 350-percent return through increased reimbursement rates. This practice has been a key factor in the $4 billion profits these dialysis companies experienced in 2017."

THE ADS FEATURING dialysis-dependent persons should be banned and their authors and sponsors shot, but failing justice all voters can do is support Woods' AB 290.

SUPERVISOR TED WILLIAMS REPORTS:

CalTrans and Mendocino Council of Governments hosted a working group to resolve conflicting ideas about details of the Gualala Downtown Enhancements. The plan calls for bicycle lanes, left turn lanes, sidewalks and drainage. These enhancements will improve the walkability for locals and visitors. One cost is a loss of on-street parking in a town already short on parking. I'm hopeful a creative compromise will be reached. The project has a deadline of February (at which time MCOG will likely move on to other projects).

MENDO. LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!

OPEN STUDIOS 2019 will be Sat & Sun, Sept 7-8, 11am-5pm. If The Shoe Fits in Fort Bragg will host a show of artwork by Open Studio participants for the month of September (with a 1st friday opening party Sept 6th) and distribute information and direct people to individual studios. Each location will also have maps of the tour. The following artists will be involved -

• Eleanor Harvey (pastels) 24729 Sashandre Ln Fort Bragg
• Claire Fortier (painting, drawing) 23536 Greentree Dr Fort Bragg
• John (watercolor) and Judy Hewitt (fiber arts) 32520 Lassen Dr Fort Bragg
• Sabine Brunner, Littlecup Ceramics and Letterpress (ceramics, drawing) and Jeanine Schinto (textile art) 223 East Redwood, Fort Bragg
• Jacquelyn (oil pastel, upcycled clothing) and Christopher Cisper (ceramics) 250 N Harrison Fort Bragg
• Kathy Carl (printmaking, painting, figure drawing) 817 Perkins Way, Fort Bragg
• Cheryl Rydmark (jewelry) and Larry Thomas (painting, printmaking, figure drawing ) 237 Morrow St, Fort Bragg
• Ginger Conrad (stained glass, fused glass, mosaics) 21585 John Hyman Rd, Fort Bragg
• Mishelle Tourtillott (oil and watercolor) and Nancy Collins (watercolor), 31851 W Hwy 20, Fort Bragg
• Sandy Oppenheimer (collage), John Fisher (sculpture), Margi Gomez (ceramics), 19600 Benson Ln Fort Bragg
• Joanna Wiggington (art quilts, cards, books) 41725 Rd 409, Caspar

IN CAHOOTS WITH MENDO

by Mark Scaramella

Mendo’s slow-moving Measure B Oversight Committee continued it’s slow pace last Wednesday, August 28, in spite of the Grand Jury’s attempt to get them off their collective asses.

In June, the Grand Jury urged the Measure B committee and the County to “act with a sense of urgency” adding, that they were “concerned about the length of time it has taken the Committee to make just three recommendations.” (And those recommndations were no brainers — an expanded outreach program, a bargain basement training center and a project manager.) The Grand Jury apparently does not realize that Mendo’s lethargic bureaucracy is allergic to acting with anything remotely like a sense of urgency.

The Supervisors, showing a similar aversion to urgency, told the Oversight Committee in their response to the Grand Jury that they should put more emphasis on upstream services to reduce the need for facilities. But some members of the Measure B Committee seem vaguely to think they’ve already done that to the extent that their charter permits adding that the Supes should re-read the original text of Measure B (implying that facilities are the Committee’s main focus and they don’t really want to mess with the services side of the discussion).

Although the County’s outreach services (aka the County’s MOPS) program has been funded for a couple of extra outreach vehicles with two staffers each via Measure B funds, they’ve had trouble staffing up because a key MOPS technician recently retired and, as Sheriff Allman explained, “Finding good people is tough. They have to pass a drug test and be responsible. It’s hard; very difficult.”

Hopefully, the bar is a little higher than just that. But either way, the statement doesn’t say much about Mendo’s available workforce.

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California’s Mental Health Services Act (Prop 63) was passed in 2004 and the next year Mendo started getting an extra $1 million for “new” mental health services that the Act (Prop 63) required and would fund via it’s novel “tax the rich” formula. One of the “services” that the usual collection of Mendo mental health ditherers and blatherers considered at the time in 2005 was a crisis van — a no-brainer of an idea which we have been pushing since the 1990s when Mendo’s mental health apparatus, with the assistance of a few Ukiah cops, managed to kill a patient of theirs named Marvin Noble for simply not taking his meds.

The crisis van idea was briefly proposed in 2005 and the Mental Health department duly put it out to bid, but nobody bid. End of subject. It was unceremoneously dropped and hasn’t been mentioned by Mendo Officialdom since, even though we bring it up almost annually and it’s obviously a good idea.

Such a good idea, in fact, that Ukiah Police Chief Justin Wyatt appeared before the Committee on the 28th to describe a similar Eugene, Oregon program called “CAHOOTS” — Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets, a highly successful program that they started more than 30 years ago but, as you might expect, is only now coming to the attention of Mendocino County.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article “The program in Eugene is unique because Cahoots is wired into the 911 system and responds to most calls without police. The name Cahoots was intended to be a humorous nod to the fact that they are working closely with police. Cahoots now has 39 employees and costs the city around $800,000 a year plus its vehicles, a fraction of the police department’s $58 million annual budget.”

Chief Wyatt said the Eugene program works well and should be considered by Mendo and the Oversight Committee. Of course there was a long conversation about it and how California’s new stricter “use of force” rules for cops would make the crisis van even more valuable, especially in cases where someone is suicidal but not otherwise violent or with a weapon. Wyatt said the CAHOOTS crisis van allows mental health staffers to “meet people where they are.”

Redwood Quality Management Director Dan Anderson said he was familiar with the concept and that his company gets “occasional requests to be mobile. We struggle to do that. But it’s haphazard; not coordinated with dispatch or law enforcement. We don’t know when; there’s no plan. It’s inconsistent and stressful. There are no clear directions. It’s off kilter.” In other words, a standard Mendo approach.

Anderson added that the idea would be “important to pursue. We would love to partner and be more mobile. It’s a good program. CAHOOTS is a place to begin. We should invite somebody down from Eugene. It would also allow patients to de-tox.”

The County’s Mental Health Director, Dr. Jenine Miller, agreed, saying she worked on a similar program in San Francisco before working for Mendo and it worked well. (So why didn’t she bring it up long ago? Don’t ask.) Miller also thought that the crisis van staff should have the ability to administer meds in the field. However, Miller muddied the water by suggesting they look at “the full spectrum of [crisis van] models.” (This alone means that any real consideration of the idea will be delayed by who knows how many more years.)

Measure B Committee Chair Dr. Ace Barash said he expected that the subject would be on their agenda next month when they would conduct a “robust discussion” of it. (Translation: We will talk about it for a while but never do a single thing. If they were serious, they’d have tasked somebody to do a presentation on the viability of a pilot program next month. But that’s obviously too much to ask.)

The Committee talked about how great it would be to have a psych tech program at Mendocino College to help fill the mental health services positions that are coming up but are hard to fill by outside hires.

They also talked about grants for a while. Upshot: There are mental health grants out there and it would be nice if Mendo got one or two.

They wasted about 15 minutes talking about ways to make themselves more audible. CEO Carmel Angelo even mentioned the option of hiring a sign language interpreter. Fort Bragg resident John Fremont had a simple idea when he asked them to “please speak up” but they apparently didn’t hear him.

Meanwhile, the County has a request for proposals out for an architect to evaluate the two candidate facility sites which might be awarded in the fall. Given the snail’s pace so far, that effort alone will take years before they even get to considering an architect’s opinion of Old Howard Hospital in Willits or the Orchard Avenue lot in Ukiah.

CEO Angelo said she’s still trying to hire a Measure B project manager in the wake of their first two offers having been rejected by the top two candidates. Interviews with a new set of applicants are underway. We assume they’ll at least be able to pass a drug test and be responsible.

(1942) GIRLS SHOW UP TO SCHOOL in slacks at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn to protest the suspension of a girl the previous day for wearing slacks.

JUST IN FROM FORT BRAGG

by Rex Gressett

The City Council and the Fort Bragg City Manager are not talking. The “why” is not for the peasants to know but the political landscape of the city has been shattered in a good way.

An official explanation would be more than we deserve.

Marie Jones, the swaggering dominatrix of city political spin and former city manager Linda Ruffing’s stoutest soldier, has left the building. Gone. Fired? Terminated? Or just cashing in? Nobody knows — but she ain't coming back.

Go on your wondering way, the suits know what they are doing, they have their reasons. You certainly don’t get to know what they are.

Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller has made it clear that the people of the city, for whom she putatively works, who pay the bills and suffer the consequences of local governance, don’t rate a reasonable explanation to one of the most stunning developments in recent local political memory. Tabatha Miller will not even answer emails from the AVA. Total communications blackout. It's not only City Hall — the City Council is not talking either.

It's only a revolution folks. Nothing to see here. What we can look forward to with confidence is the mandatory thank you Marie Jones celebration, I am quite sure with “Plaque Master” Will Lee at the helm, she rates a massive plaque.

Beyond that, you know exactly what they are going to say. The greatest development director since they zoned the garden of Eden. The driving force behind The Coastal Trail, that very nice trail that crawls around the great empty space filled with broken concrete and rubble, that used to be the Georgia-Pacific mill.

Our nice trail only took the better part of two decades?

They won't mention the clogged stinking toxic creeks that the innocents want to daylight. The relentlessly nice George Reinhardt has tagged along behind the Marie Jones-machine for decades. He says he admires her. When his daylighting idea got rolling, Marie Jones conducted on-site tours of the area for a couple of days and then announced that daylighting the creeks was possible and that it would take about 14 years. A very precise estimate from the occult world of super-planners that you, gentle reader, are not EVER going to remotely comprehend.

You can count on Councilman Lindy Peters to be passionate in his appreciation. Bet on it they are going to lay it on thick. They are going to have to.

For one thing, they are going to have to cement the pretense that there are no actual reasons for the sudden termination. It's just a happy little incident beneath the need-to-know for the city.

And for another, they're going to have to try and put a bandaid on the massive embarrassment that keeping a blundering incompetent in office for 20 years might present if there was an open discussion. That’s what they don’t want.

Running down the sins of the Development Director is tempting but daunting.

Her ineffectuality was so consistent she made it look like procedure — her blundering was so extensive that out of context it can hardly be credited.

She conducted major negotiations on crucial issues about the mill site without informing the council or anybody else. Lied as long as she could and stonewalled when she got caught.

More broadly, she ran up the flagpole an unending series of proposals for the mill site, one after the other for decades. They came and went in geologic time spans.

In the latest episode, she grandly presented a plan for the development of the mill site that left 30% of the site open space and put 70% of it into high-density housing and a crazy parade of industrial applications.

When she took the new program to the Coastal Commission (all by herself), the Commission ungently flipped her numbers like a pancake and demanded 70% percent be left open space and 30% could be developed.

Marie slid that little modification past the City Council without directly mentioning it and nobody ever asked her a question. That left 70% of the mill site a field of broken rubble owned by GP and no expectation that GP could either sell it or would have any reason to clean it up.

No discussion of that little issue was ever raised at the City Council, the Planning Commission or any place else by our uniquely forthcoming and candid Development Director.

The Coastal Trail will be her legacy. Naturally, it took 14 years. That was difficult to finesse since the Coastal Conservancy was always dying to give us the money.

What the hell, everything took 14 years or would take 14 years. It was a kind of mantra.

City Manager Tabatha Miller won’t answer queries from the AVA, but people have been sending me her emails and apparently, she is open to public participation in the process of navigating the future of the always dead, now officially dead, Development Department.

In the dynamics of local governance, there is a time for anger and a time for conciliation. You need both.

People don’t like being mad. I understand.

But in the wake of the long-overdue departure of the person most (directly) responsible for our little city's lack of economic progress for TWO DECADES, I really think that at this juncture just a little anger would actually be useful.

FLOW KANA 'SPLAINS

Answers to Community Questions

Dear Flow Kana family, farmers and friends,

I write to you in an effort to share some thoughts about recent discussions in the community, with the ultimate goal of bringing facts, and transparency, to the conversation. As I have shared in the past, I feel fortunate every day to work in this industry and with the farmers of this beautiful region of Northern California. We are faced with a monumental task after legalization, and we will succeed and show who we are through our actions, not just our words. I wish I could say that these sensational allegations will cease, especially because I know they are affecting each and every one of you. However, with growth and success, comes questions and criticism. Fear of the unknown is part of the human condition, and cannabis in particular will continue to have many unknowns for the foreseeable future. The best way that I can personally address speculation, is to be transparent and truthful, and because of that I am sharing my thoughts with you.

In the long run, Flow Kana will be trusted, respected and, ultimately, defined by our actions, not by our words or the words of others. Transparency is a key factor in trust. We had already planned to launch a new online FAQ next week, and not just have it be internal to our team and farmers, but to be available for everyone in the community to see. I’ve moved this up and would like to share it with you today. You’ll find some of the questions and answers below, and the full FAQ can be found here. I sincerely hope that these questions and answers help shed light on the truth, and help dispel the ‘unknown’.

That said, I’d like to answer and clarify some comments at this time:

1) There is no relationship between Marlboro/Altria and Flow Kana. Michael Steinmetz (CEO and Founder) controls the majority of the Flow Kana board and therefore all decisions.

Inaccurate claims of the existence of a relationship have come from multiple degrees of separation between common investors:

Gotham Green invested in Flow Kana in May 2018 (Press Release July 2018). Gotham Green holds a minority position with a single vote on Flow Kana’s board, held by Michael Henderson Cohen.

Jason Adler, a partner of Gotham Green, was an early board member in Cronos.

Cronos later sold to received investment money from Altria in March 2019. This investment in no way impacts or involves Flow Kana.

There is no relationship between Flow Kana and Cronos/Marlboro/Altria, and absolutely zero investment / ownership / control / or influence between the companies.

I can say unequivocally, and without a shadow of a doubt that I have never met, nor had a conversation with anyone from Altria, period. Same goes with Pebble Labs, another company upon which Jason Adler is on the board, with whom Flow Kana has absolutely zero affiliation- this is the first time I have ever heard about this company.

Neither of these companies have ever set foot at the Flow Cannabis Institute (FCI), nor have they been in any conversations with any leadership team members at Flow Kana. Just like you have no control over who your uncle, or your cousin dates and/or marries and by default brings into your extended network, I cannot control the other investments or deals that our investors make in ventures separate from our own. All claims of a relationship between Flow Kana and Altria are completely false.

I, Michael Steinmetz, hold the majority of the votes at the board level (more than 51%), and therefore have full control of every decision. Since the beginning of Flow Kana, I have made every effort to listen to not only the employees of Flow Kana, but also to the farmers, and leaders in our community; every decision I maket does not correlate with control. Board control ultimately decides the fate of the company and I have taken every measure to ensure that I maintain the controlling majority.

In this phase of the industry, of global hyper-growth, we all require the help of many partners and strategic alliances. I can't stress enough how lucky we are to have investment that illustrates a commitment to support decentralized agriculture and the independent, small farming community through infrastructure and continued marketplace development.

I spend a lot of time with each and every one of our investors. Not only meeting and getting to know them and vetting their references, but also asking to sit down with their families (significant others and kids). While some people take investors and investments rather lightly, I take an extraordinary amount of time and care doing my thorough diligence to ensure it’s the right partner for the journey. I can assure you, I have done that here, and have also included several of our farmers in this diligence process. I am comfortable saying most of our investors have either spoken to farmers we work with on the phone, or gone personally to tour their farms. For Gotham specifically, I can confidently share that they were put through an exhaustive vetting process by me, and they spent time with several of our founding farms, including Waterdog Herb, Huckleberry Farms, Elysian Fields and HappyDay Farms. Though, it would be impossible for all of our farmers to meet every investor, we go out of our way to include them in the process as we know it's important for all of us to be aligned. I am proud to say that all of our investors are values-aligned and committed to our vision, and are with us for the long term.

2) Accusations of local government corruption within Mendocino County

At Flow Kana, everything we do is in service of strengthening and expanding the ecosystem for independent legacy cannabis farms. We have no business model without independent farms.

Due to our scale, we work with many counties and local government officials across the state which gives us the perspective to say without any doubt that we are lucky to have the dedicated local government we have in Mendocino. Flow Kana doesn’t get any special perks. Our permits receive just as much scrutiny, cost just as much, and take just as long as everyone else’s in Mendocino. We participate in an open and transparent public process with the county, and our goals are to expand opportunities for independent farmers.

3) Questions regarding corruption in Venezuela and my background

I was surprised that my country of birth is being correlated with my values as a person; xenophobia is such a sad side of human nature. It is true that Venezuela has become a corrupt and truly horrible place to call home. This is not because the place or its people are bad, it is in fact victim to the worst and most corrupt government of our world today. Ever since Hugo Chavez got into power in ‘98, Venezuela and its people have suffered a rapid decline and painful instability. The country is subject to a fascist, dictatorial regime, that is dressed as socialism, and is at the brink of bankruptcy - it is why I left.

But somehow the beautiful country where I was born manages to survive these atrocities, which speaks to their resilience. There are over 25 million people in Venezuela, and these are people that have the same hopes and dreams that every person has, to live peacefully, to prosper, to raise their families. I love Venezuela's beauty, its people, its rich culture, and I miss what it used to be so much.

Mendocino reminds me very much of the Venezuela of my childhood -- not just its beauty, but its family-focused values and sense of community. It’s probably why I was drawn to, and chose Redwood Valley to set my roots and build my life.

I’ve experienced the struggles of my countrymates first hand -- I’ve been in marches, fighting against the coy threw tear gas canisters and killed indiscriminately. I’ve been injured, and fortunately not severely hurt. I was blessed I was able to get out, many of my friends don’t have that option. A corrupt government does not define its individual citizens, and I would love the opportunity to have the power of influence to one day be able to affect the change that Venezuela desperately deserves. I am proud to call myself Venezuelan and hope to one day help to build a better future for my country.

4) Questions about my experience prior to cannabis

I graduated from Carnegie Mellon, and was fortunate to be able to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at Merryl Lynch, for a year. Following that, I built (and subsequently sold) a food distribution company in Venezuela. I was incredibly proud of that company, but sadly the government's greed, and success in destroying the private sector, made it impossible to continue. It’s been alleged that I was involved in a cryptocurrency project, and I have no idea what this refers to. I have nothing against cryptocurrency, in fact I do believe it could be a disruptive technology for humanity, but it is not something I have ever been involved with nor pursued.

In closing, I hope this email helps clarify some of the unsubstantiated online conversations you may have seen, or been approached about. You are welcome to reference this and I hope that it eases questions asked in ‘fear of the unknown’.

I continue to be as committed as ever with my wife and my new baby girl (born here in Mendocino), to be of service to this community, to add value to this county, and to work as hard as I possibly can to support small farmers, who are real stewards of the land and whose lives inspire us daily at Flow Kana. An example of this has been our continued dedication to diversified agriculture through a program that has been so dear to us since Flow Kana’s inception. Our CSA program with MendoLake Food Hub has now made us the largest purchaser of locally-grown produce in Mendocino. We are also the second largest employer in the county. We are also the number 1 flower brand of the entire state. These are incredible responsibilities that I do not take lightly.

I believe the most precious thing that we can offer this planet and mankind besides our love, is our work. Our labor is an offering of our energy, our time, our imagination, our mind, our greatest self, and ultimately our ability to take action. It's through our labor (love in action) that we share our greatest self and our gifts to one another. And it is only through our actions, and not our words, that I will continue to share with this community, what Flow Kana is all about.

Thank you for caring enough to question and seeking the truth.

Here in the service of my community,

Mikey

Best,

Michael Steinmetz

Founder & Chief Servant Officer (CSO)

Flow Kana, Inc.

michael@flowkana.com

CATCH OF THE DAY, SEPTEMBER 05, 2019

LUIS CEJA, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

MARCO DAVILA, Point Arena. Probation revocation.

ADAM FULLER, Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent.

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

JACOB HEATH, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-intoxicated with alcohol, paraphernalia, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ANTHONY LOPES SR., Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

CHADWYK MENSHEW, Lucerne/Ukiah. DUI.

ADAM PEARSON, Ukiah. Vandalism, battery of emergency personnel, parole violation.

AMBER RICETTI, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

WHY 'PRIMARY' SHOULD BE A VERB FOR PROGRESSIVES

by Norman Solomon

Progressive activists often see a frustrating pattern. Many Democrats in office are good at liberal platitudes but don’t really fight for what we need. Even when constituents organize to lobby or protest, they have little leverage compared to big campaign donors, party leaders and corporate media spin. Activist efforts routinely fall short because -- while propelled by facts and passion -- they lack power.

Right now, in dozens of Democratic congressional districts, the most effective way for progressives to “lobby” their inadequate representatives would be to “primary” them. Activists may flatter themselves into believing that they have the most influence by seeking warm personal relationships with a Democratic lawmaker. But a credible primary campaign is likely to change an elected official’s behavior far more quickly and extensively.

In short, all too often, progressive activists are routinely just too frigging nice -- without galvanizing major grassroots power.

With rare exceptions, it doesn’t do much good to concentrate on appealing to the hearts of people who run a heartless system. It may be tempting to tout some sort of politics of love as the antidote to the horrors of the status quo. But, as Martin Luther King Jr. wrote shortly before he was murdered, “love without power is sentimental and anemic.” Beyond speaking truth to power, it’s crucial to take power away from those abusing or squandering it.

In the long run, constituents’ deference to officeholders is a barrier to effectiveness -- much to the satisfaction of people who reap massive profits from the status quo of corporate power, rampant social injustice, systemic racism, vast economic inequities, environmental destruction and the war machinery.

If activists in New York’s 14th Congressional District had been content to rely on lobbying instead of primarying, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would still be tending bar -- and power broker Joe Crowley would still be serving his corporate clients as a Democratic leader in Congress.

The Bad Blues report issued in early summer (written by Jeff Cohen, Pia Gallegos, Sam McCann and myself for RootsAction.org) zeroed in on 15 House Democrats who deserve to be primaried in 2020. The report acknowledges that it is “by no means exhaustive -- only illustrative,” adding: “There may well be a Democratic member of Congress near you not included here who serves corporate interests more than majority interests, or has simply grown tired or complacent in the never-ending struggles for social, racial and economic justice as well as environmental sanity and peace.”

A few words of caution: Running a primary campaign should be well-planned, far in advance. It should not be an impulse item. And it’s best to field only one progressive challenger; otherwise, the chances of ousting or jolting the incumbent are apt to be greatly diminished.

“It isn’t easy to defeat a Democratic incumbent in a primary,” the Bad Blues report noted. “Typically, the worse the Congress member, the more (corporate) funding they get. While most insurgent primary campaigns will not win, they’re often very worthwhile -- helping progressive constituencies to get better organized and to win elections later. And a grassroots primary campaign can put a scare into the Democratic incumbent to pay more attention to voters and less to big donors.”

An example of a promising campaign to defeat a powerful corporate Democrat is emerging in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, where six-term incumbent Kurt Schrader is facing a challenge in a slightly blue district that includes much of the Willamette Valley and the coast. The challenger is the mayor of the 20,000-population city of Milwaukee, Mark Gamba, who told us that Schrader “likes to pretend that he’s reaching across the aisle to get things done, but it almost always goes back to the corporations that back him financially.”

Schrader -- a longtime member of the Blue Dog Coalition -- gets a lot of money from corporate interests, including from the Koch Industries PAC. Last year, only one House Democrat was ranked higher on “key issues” by the anti-union, anti-environment U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Gamba intends to make climate a central issue of the campaign to unseat Schrader -- who, he says, “has been notably absent on any substantive climate policy.” (Only four House Democrats have a lower lifetime environmental score than Schrader.)

Gamba also supports Medicare for All, while he says his opponent “is quietly but actively opposing Medicare for All or any law that actually cuts into the profits of the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.” A coalition of groups -- including National Nurses United, Health Care for All Oregon-Action and Democratic Socialists of America -- has scheduled a rally in front of Schrader’s Oregon City office on September 6. The organizers say: “We should convince him how affordable and equitable Medicare for All will be.”

In the few months since Gamba announced his primary challenge to Schrader, voices of opposition to the incumbent have become more significant. “I have called out Congressman Kurt Schrader for his continuing record of voting against the needs of workers,” the retiring Oregon AFL-CIO president, Tom Chamberlain, recently wrote. “On July 15, 2019, Schrader once again showed his corporate colors and voted against raising the federal minimum wage. I am always hopeful that a strong pro-worker candidate will emerge from Oregon’s 5th Congressional District so we can show Schrader the door to retirement.”

Among the top targets of the pathbreaking group Justice Democrats is corporate-tied Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar -- a Democrat in name only. No Democrat voted more frequently with Trump in 2017-18, and none had a higher ranking in 2018 from the Chamber of Commerce. One of the rare Democrats backed by the Koch Industries PAC, Cuellar is loved by the NRA and disliked by pro-choice groupsand environmentalists. Although representing a predominantly Latino district with many immigrants and children of immigrants, he won praise from Fox News for his “hardline talk” on deporting immigrant youths.

The good news is that Justice Democrats -- which was instrumental in Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning 2018 victory -- is backing a primary challenge to Cuellar in the person of Jessica Cisneros, a young human rights lawyer with a history of defending immigrants. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, she was born and raised in Laredo, the main population center in the strongly Democratic South Texas district. If Cisneros defeats the well-funded Cuellar in the primary, “the Squad” of House progressives would gain an exciting new member.

Insurgent progressives need a lot more allies elected to Congress as well as colleagues who feel rising heat from the left in their districts. That will require social movements strong enough to sway mainstream entrenched Democrats -- with the capacity to “primary” them when necessary.

(Norman Solomon is cofounder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. He was a Bernie Sanders delegate from California to the 2016 Democratic National Convention and is currently a coordinator of the relaunched independent Bernie Delegates Network. Solomon is the author of a dozen books including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.)

GUALALA!

World Climate Strike Day

Friday, September 20, 2019, 12 to 4:30pm

Hear from the people and organizations taking care of our coast and its lands, birds, whales, redwoods and more. This march, rally and forum in Gualala aims to educate the public about the severity of climate disruption and to promote dialogue about what we can do for our region.

Schedule of Events

March………………………………12 to 12:30 pm

Tables………………………………12:00 to 2:00 pm

Forums ……………………………..2:00 to 4:30 pm

This is a free event, snacks will be provided.

Forum Participants:

• Richard Charter, The Ocean Foundation
• Ted Williams, Mendocino County Super 5th Dist
• Rietta Hohman, Greater Farallones Assoc.
• Scott Mercer, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study
• Jeanne Jackson, Friends of the Gualala River
• Dean Fernandez, Oz Farm
• Joel Chaban, Redwood Coast Land Conservancy
• Kathleen Chasey, Gualala River Park Campaign

Groups with tables:

• The Ocean Foundation, Richard Charter
• Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study
• Friends of Gualala River
• Zero Waste Mendocino
• Surfrider Foundation
• Sierra Club
• Oz Farm
• ACORN Partners in Education
• Friends of Point Arena-Stornetta Lands
• Redwood Coast Medical Services
• Gualala River Park Campaign
• Redwood Coast Land Conservancy
• Anchor Bay Amateur Radio Club
• B Corporations and Conscious Capitalism
• Keepers of The Coast
• Energy Table
• Climate Science Education Table

INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE DAY--SEPTEMBER 20

Northcoasters! September 20 is being hailed as a Day for International Climate Action around the world. This September 20, millions of people on our planet will walk out of their workplaces, homes, and schools to join young climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. For some this will be an all-day strike, but for many an hour of action, a one-hour strike, or an organized community event will be the form of action. On the Northcoast there will be simultaneous Walk Out and Stand Up for Climate Action! events in Mendocino on Main Street across from Out of This World, and in Fort Bragg in front of Town Hall from 1:00 to 2:00pm! Mobilize Mendo and allies join the citizens of the world to demand action on climate. We know students in Mendocino and Fort Bragg High Schools will be planning events. Let’s all join together! Please join us to Walk Out and Stand Up for Climate Action on Friday, Sept 20. Email mendohuddle@gmail.com to help build support.

GOING, GOING…

Editor,

We should all be concerned with the spectacle of the burning Amazon forest. All life on this planet is dependent on the forest’s ability to store carbon, process carbon dioxide and produce oxygen — providing a web of life for all living things.

The state of forests worldwide should be of concern. The U.S. is suffering from a long-term loss of 75% of its original forest volume. California’s private lands have suffered a similar loss in forest inventories. In Sonoma and Mendocino counties, forest inventories of merchantable trees are approximately 15% of their original volume. California’s forestry policy (forest practice rules) are allowing this depleted state to be maintained.

There is no better processor of carbon dioxide than a mature redwood tree. Not only are forests an integral part of the carbon chain, they provide habitat for terrestrial species, including fish, and 95% of the state’s water supply originates in forests. Wood product with carbon stored in structures is important. However, stored wood product doesn’t process carbon dioxide.

We could have robust mature forests that are both productive and fire resilient (bigger trees are fire resilient) if the public paid attention and supported improved forest management.

Alan Levine, Coast Action Group

Point Arena

WHY FORESTS MATTER: BOOTS ON THE GROUND

Board member Richard Gienger (https://www.whyforestsmatter.org/our-board) brings decades of forest experience and legislative knowledge to our group. Since 2018 he has closely followed the development and evolution of former Governor Brown's Tree Mortality Task Force (https://us12.mailchimp.com/mctx/click?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffmtf.fire.ca.gov%2Fworking-groups%2Ftree-mortality%2F&xid=3a25147abc&uid=50466805&pool=&subject=) which became expanded and renamed as the Forest Management Task Force (FMTF) as a result of the massive catastrophic fires in 2017 and 2018. Starting with January proclamations, new Governor Newsom emphasized and further empowered this Task Force, especially the CalFire role in planning and carrying out actions to reduce risk to human communities as well as reducing fire hazard and increasing the health and resiliency of forestlands.

These are two distinct components of needed forest management: one being actions necessary to protect human communities such as requiring fire resistant buildings, safe and adequate emergency ingress and exit routes, effective & well-maintained fuel breaks, and commonsense zoning. The other is providing standards and incentives for truly healthy and resilient managed forestlands unencumbered by extensive human habitation. The healthy and resilient forest model described in the April 2018 “I (https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3798) mproving California’s Forest and Watershed Management (https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3798) “ by the Legislative Analyst Office shows a preponderance of larger older trees — which are missing from most of California’s forests today.

This has been caused by a number of factors, one being the ad valorem tax on standing timber between 1946 and 1976, which had to be paid yearly until 70% was cut — another being the subsequent “overstory removal/monetization” phase -- to the current 6”-16” diameter merchantable tree removal. There are basically no standards nor incentives to comply with the 1973 Forest Practice Act intent for high quality forests and high quality timber products.

While CalFire is acknowledged as a world class emergency and fire-fighting organization, the proportion of personnel and resources devoted to attaining sustainable and high quality forests is very small compared to the “fire-emergency side”. While speeding up the “Pace and Scale” of thinning and prescribed fire are desired, Governor Newsom recently announced the hiring of more than 400 persons to engage in these tasks — these are short-term measures that do not provide necessary long-term maintenance and standards/incentives for healthy, resilience, and productive forests for future generations.

Let’s not confuse the needs for protection of human communities at risk of wildfire, and the long-term quality stewardship of the commercial and extensive non-industrial forestlands. In our opinion, it is possible to protect human lives, their property and our resources for the long-term at the same time. Why Forests Matter is working toward these goals every day, with healthy high-quality, carbon-sequestering, and fire-resistant forests of older and larger trees sustained for future generations.

We will continue to press for the establishment of these standards and incentives through our attendance at committee meetings and on-going dialogues with Senator McGuire (https://sd02.senate.ca.gov/) and Assemblyman Wood (https://a02.asmdc.org/) along with emphasize that essential actions be taken to the Forest Management Task Force, the associated Committees, and Regional Working Groups.

For more information on this topic check out: California Forest Management Task Force (https://fmtf.fire.ca.gov/), California Senate Natural Resources and Water (https://sntr.senate.ca.gov/) and the Assembly Natural Resources Committees (https://antr.assembly.ca.gov/) to get information on ways to effectively support standards and incentives to ensure our forests are restored to a standard consistent with the Forest Practice Act.

JUST IN FROM PINOLE

Temples of Divinity

Sitting quietly at the Pinole, California Public Library, concentrated on the heart chakra in which are installed the divine couple, Lord Sri Krishna and his eternal consort Srimati Radharani, the mind repeating silently the mahamantram: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. This body is a temple of divinity! The mystical murtis of Krishna and Radha are installed in the heart chamber in the middle of the physical chest, and the focused mind continuously chants the mahamantram there. The body is pleasantly scented with holy tulsi oil. This is what moves about in postmodern America, conscious of all of the worries about global climate destabilization, the specter of nuclear war, the risk of showing up in Washington, D.C. without significant money as the weather begins to turn cold and rainy, fear of protracted homelessness and a weird death. I am a living temple of divinity, not an animal body and a worrying human mind with some vague concept of a soul. Reality is that we are all the Immortal Self, the Atman, Brahman the Absolute. This is what the criminal politicians and materialists do not want you to know. It is very important to realize this, because it is the crux of all other social problems. Scriptures from various traditions define that life on the earth plane is often about engaging in spiritual warfare against the demonic, and the only goal is their destruction. The requirement for succeeding in a spiritual war against the demonic, is to know what one essentially is, and beyond that to be in solidarity with others who know what they are. No victory is possible otherwise. I am prepared to leave California and return to Washington, D.C. for the 16th time. I will require housing beyond seven days, which one of the antinuclear peace vigilers in front of the White House has graciously offered to me. I now have food stamps from California's Humboldt county, which I may use outside of the area. Also, my Hawaii bank checking account has a thousand dollars in it, so therefore I am able to get to Washington, D.C. I need to get cooperation from others on the east coast in order for me to effectively be there long term. Yes or no, are you serious about taking down the insane governmental spectacle or not? Are you serious about opposing the postmodernistic mistake of mechanized life in America, which has created a society of freaked out survivalists? Yes or no? At this time, I am welcome to be a house guest of Robert Eggplant, who is publisher of Absolutely Zippo, and chronicler of the San Francisco bay area hardcore music scene and punk rock lifestyle. The announcement line for shows is (510) BAD-SMUT. I thank him for being in solidarity with me, uniquely different as we are. I mean, do I really need to send out any further messages to get cooperation to be in Washington, D.C., and also hopefully active at the United Nations compound in New York City, and beyond even that…to wherever we will go and whatever we will do in service to the Divine Absolute? I await responses from those who are serious. We are either unified, or we are nothing politically at all. ~Peaceout and Hare Krishna~

Craig Louis Stehr

Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

JOE BIDEN'S RECORD — not his gaffes — is dooming his campaign

thehill.com/opinion/campaign/459915-joe-bidens-record-not-his-gaffes-is-dooming-his-campaign

MICHAEL MOORE SAYS:

Wednesday night on CNN at their Climate Change Town Hall, a student asked Joe Biden, who had months ago pledged to take NO fossil fuel money, why he was having an NYC fundraiser tonight hosted by Andrew Goldman, the founder of the natural gas co Western LNG. Biden denied Goldman had anything to do with fossil fuels and tried to change the subject. Anderson Cooper wouldn’t let him. Cooper told Biden exactly who Goldman was. Biden pretended to be surprised. Cooper then asked him if he was still going to attend the fundraiser. Biden said if it’s true, then he’d have to reconsider. Cooper said it was true and now CNN is reporting that Biden is indeed attending the fundraiser tonight. Wow. This is so stunning — and I’m sure depressing for the good people who like Biden.

Listen— We can NOT go through this again, my friends. As with Hillary taking GoldmanSachs $$ and then trying to pretend nothing happened, we can NOT risk this again. Our base will stay home once more if Biden is the candidate and it’s politics as usual. If they see he’s in cahoots w/ Fossil Fuel, that he has lied, they will not say, “So what — Trump’s a bigger liar!” They will just give up. Trust me on this. We need a completely honest and authentic candidate, the Anti-Trump, a street fighter, someone who when they say they’ll take NO fossil fuel $$, they not only keep their promise, they will go after tooth-and-nail and put somebody like Andrew Goldman out of business. They don’t attend a fundraiser of his fat cats!

Joe — you’re driving there right now! For God’s sake, turn your limousine around immediately and apologize to the American people.

You think u can beat Trump. So what! Hillary beat him! Didn’t matter! We need a candidate who will CRUSH him because that candidate has INSPIRED a tsunami of voters with her or his INTEGRITY and his/her progressive vision of what the 21st century should be. That, Joe, isn’t you.

Finally, last night you said that we are only 15% of the climate change problem — “85% of it is the rest of the world’s (fault).” Are you serious? Wall Street, Corporate America, the poor everywhere who make our goods for us, our exploitation of the entire planet — please, Joe, stop.

FOUND OBJECT