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MCT: Sunday, September 29, 2019

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MUCH COOLER CONDITIONS will continue today as a cold upper-level storm system drops south across the western United States. This will bring rain and high elevation snow showers again today, mainly in afternoon and in the north. Freezing overnight temperatures will be possible across wind sheltered valleys Monday and Tuesday mornings. (National Weather Service)

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DARRYL SKRABAK (March 18, 1941 - September 2, 2019)

Anti-war pioneer and pro-bicycle pioneer Darryl Skrabak has died after a courageous battle with prostate cancer in San Francisco. He is survived by family, his community of friends and colleagues who miss him dearly.

Born in Long Beach, and raised in San Francisco, Skrabak studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and arranged music to play on his huge, custom-made Italian accordion. This talent made him a bit more popular than the average gangly nerd, and even helped him win a high school election.

Skrabak later studied Journalism at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. While there he was editor of the university newspaper.

His anti-war stance and refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam war landed him in Lompoc federal penitentiary for 18 months. His legal education grew out of this period, and he soon learned that he was the first West Coast conscientious objector who actually did time in prison.

After prison, he wound up traveling up and down California providing resisters with all the information he wished he had known. With his blue guitar, Skrabak opened for Joan Baez at Reed College playing his song, ‘Glad Bluebird of Happiness’ (see her sing it on Youtube) which she later recorded on an album.

A stint as a motorcycle mechanic did not last long, but his love of motorcycle riding lasted until the bicycle snagged his affections. To Skrabak, bicycles were not about speed and sport; to him the act of bicycle riding was in itself an act of resistance to the petrochemical hegemonic “ownership” of the byways of our country. He wrote for Bicycling Magazine, preparing a column called Bicycles and the Law from 1975-1977. He then wrote for City Sports where his seminal piece on the Annual Thanksgiving Appetite Seminar alerted the world to a new thing called “klunking”—riding fat tire bikes in the dirt regardless of the weather. True to his principles, he rode the 25 miles to Fairfax, rather than use a car to get there.

He spent 23 years in the instrument shop at the California Academy of Sciences, building and maintaining the exhibits. He was a machinist, a carpenter, a painter and a trouble shooter. One of his more satisfying experiences was the fabrication of parts to make the Planetarium operational when replacement parts were unavailable.

As a mechanically inclined trained musician who like to tinker, he gravitated to the many types of creative expression of craft. He loved handmade bicycles, wooden boats, custom musical instruments. Darryl was a regular with the Tuesday night boat group at the Dolphin Club meticulously restoring the collection of historic wooden Whitehall rowboats. His specialty was fine metalwork.

Perhaps not surprisingly, his idea of a good time was riding in the endurance cycling event called Paris Brest Paris. He qualified and rode in that event for the first time in 1987 and lived to tell the tale. He repeated that accomplishment three more times. He also created the San Francisco Randonneurs, a body of people devoted to long distance recreational yet timed cycling. Once miniscule, it now boasts over 400 members.

Skrabak’s biggest impact has been as a co-founding member along with Jack Murphy of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition at a time when the bicycle boom was putting millions of bikes on the road, with no articulated rights to the road. While writing his magazine column on the legal aspects of bicycling, Skrabak spent decades advocating and otherwise urging CALTRANS and the Golden Gate Bridge District as to why bicycles should be allowed to cross bridges and ride on 280 Freeway shoulders when no other alternative routes existed. He also reminded SF Department of Public Works and MUNI personnel of the need to better accommodate people with bicycles.

Thanks to Skrabak’s lifetime of work, riders are permitted to occupy a lane of city traffic, buses are outfitted with bike racks, the Golden Gate Bridge has not banned bicycles, bikes may be taken on BART, and generations of children will have their parents hauling them to school on their cargo bikes.

A Celebration of Life Memorial for Darryl Skrabak will be held on Saturday, October 12, 2019, 6 p.m. at the Dolphin Club, 502 Jefferson Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 (near Aquatic Park).

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PET OF THE WEEK

Ukiah Shelter Pet of the Week

Diamond is in a long term foster home and up for adoption. She is a staff and volunteer favorite because of her sweet nature and wonderful, delightful personality. We’ve got lots of information about Diamond from her foster family and from volunteers who accompanied her on several Fido Field Trips. Diamond is a gem! Check out her webpage: mendoanimalshelter.com/dogblog/diamond

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah. Our dog and cat kennel hours have changed. Please visit our website for the new hours, plus information about our guests, services, programs and events: mendoanimalshelter.com

For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

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WHY HOMELESSNESS NEVER GOES DOWN, even a little — a short course with Payment Terms.

From next Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors consent calendar.

Consent Calendar Item 4l) — Approval of Agreement with Redwood Community Services, Inc., in the Amount of $384,613 on Behalf of the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care to Provide Rental Assistance, Housing Relocation and Stabilization Services, and Operating Support for Emergency Housing Interventions in Ukiah, Funded Through the California Emergency Solutions and Housing Program Grant, Effective October 1, 2019 Through September 30, 2021


Consent Calendar Item 4u) — Approval of Retroactive Agreement with Redwood Community Services, Inc. in the Amount of $152,000 to Provide an Inland Shelter and Day Center to Qualified Individuals in Mendocino County, Effective July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020.


Consent Calendar Item 4r) — Approval of Agreement with Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center in the Amount of $148,285 on Behalf of the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care to Pilot the Critical Time Intervention Program, Funded Through the California Emergency Solutions and Housing Program Grant, Effective October 1, 2019 through September 30, 2021


Consent Calendar Item 4t) — Approval of Retroactive Agreement with Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center in the Amount of $95,039 to Provide Emergency Shelter and Resource Services in Fort Bragg and to the Coastal Region, Effective July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020

(Ed note: We have no idea what “capacity building” means.)


SUPERVISOR TED WILLIAMS has placed two more items on next Tuesday’s Board agenda. (In his nine months as Supervisor, Williams has placed more items on the Board’s agenda than all the other Supervisors combined for the last four years.)

Agenda Item 6c) — Discussion and Possible Action Including Affirmation of the County’s Duty to Implement and Defend Laws Created Through Initiative

(Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)

Recommended Action: Affirm County's duty to implement and defend laws created through initiative.

(Ed note: For those who came in late, Item 6c is presumably aimed at trying to getting the County/the other four Supervisors to address question of whether Measure V, the voter-approved measure to declare Mendo’s thousands of acres of standing dead tanoaks which were killed via the herbicide Imazapyr a public nuisance, should be enforced. The last time it came up Supervisor Willliams volunteered to try to work with Mendocino Redwood Company on some kind of compromise after Supervisor John McCowen argued that the trees were not that much of a hazard and defended MRC’s position that they are immune from nuisance declarations under California’s “Right To Farm” statutes, and that maybe MRC could be persuaded to voluntarily deal with the “nuisance” by removing the dead trees around the edges. We gather from this item that Williams has not made much headway in his negotiations with MRC.


Agenda Item 6d) — Discussion and Possible Action Including Directing County Counsel and Planning and Building Services Director to Determine Feasibility of Using Satellite Imagery to Demilitarize Cannabis Code Enforcement and Collect Fees and/or Taxes from Non-Permitted Cultivation

(Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)

Recommended Action: Direct County Counsel and Planning and Building Services Director to determine the feasibility of using satellite imagery to demilitarize cannabis code enforcement and collect fees and/or taxes from non-permitted cultivation.

(Mark Scaramella)

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I CAN’T RECALL all the great musicians I caught here but Miles when the Friday Night/Saturday Night albums were recorded certainly stands out. Also Stan Getz with Scott LaFaro on bass, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie with James Moody and others. I did spend more time at the Jazz Workshop in North Beach than here. 1961-64. A magical formative time in my life never to be forgotten.

(Mike Beegle)

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FLOW KANA, an online comment:

Flow Kana is the enemy. Make no mistake about that. It is our first test in the new corporate world we welcomed when we fell for the fake “legalization”. Will we strongly oppose and drive out the corporate take-over that they are? Or will we foolishly embrace them as we fall for their little public relations stunts like some river clean-up and a free food truck? Remember - every single dollar that you think they are donating here is actually coming out of here - out of the pockets of your neighbors. They are the present face of corporate take-over and are backed by Altria ie. Philip Morris. They have hired some locals to put a “local” appearance on the corporation but…those people working for them are confused or are sell-outs and are not to be believed…or trusted.

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270 EMERALD TRIANGLE CULTIVATORS RECEIVED LETTERS THAT THEIR WATER RIGHTS ARE NOT IN COMPLIANCE

On Friday the 20th, the State Water Resources Control Board’s Twitter account, @CaWaterBoards, announced the Division of Water Rights Cannabis Enforcement Section had “mailed 270 certified letters to residents in Trinity, Humboldt and Mendocino Counties today notifying them they lack the appropriate permits for commercial cannabis cultivation.”

kymkemp.com/2019/09/26/270-emerald-triangle-cultivators-received-letters-that-their-water-rights-are-not-in-compliance/

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THINK AGAIN

by Rex Gressett

Six corporations own 90% of all the media in the United States — magazines and TV channels, radio stations, most newspapers and, of course, the big boys back in New York own the Fort Bragg Advocate-News. Alden Global Capital, one of the largest hedge funds in America, owns the Advocate. Our local paper of record doesn’t “do” controversy. It’s a corporate principle. They do soft, they do sweet, they polish the apple and go along with our respected leaders. (Thank you for your hard work oh great ones.)

But controversy, investigation of the things that make a newspaper worth the newsprint? Not so much.

But there is a newspaper in Fort Bragg. It just isn't FROM Fort Bragg. On their masthead, the Anderson Valley Advertiser calls itself “America’s Last Newspaper.” Every reader gets the joke. It might be the last, but it’s damn sure one of the best. There are so many talented writers that every edition is an engrossing entertainment. No exaggeration. The living, thinking, humorous, tragic story of mankind and the county political narrative (in flaming detail) covered in the AVA weekly is off the chart. There is so much razor's edge reporting on the minutia and the backstory and the dodges and hustles of Mendocino County officials that it is well known that the paper is mandatory reading for every county elected official.

Lately, very lately, there is even a stack of them at Fort Bragg City Hall. Hidden, it’s true, around the corner by the message board where everyone on the payroll can find them — but the public is not likely to see.

Like they were a little guilty little secret. But they are there, by God. It was inevitable. It took quite a while.

It is my hypothesis that the very existence of the AVA as an unfettered forum where bullshit dies of ridicule and the keenest and most poignant observation floats weekly to the surface has been begotten more than anything by a talent for a kind of wicked stirring of the pot.

The AVA has pissed people off, made them laugh, cry and rage with such consistently annoying insight delivered with a damnable intelligence and devastating wit that in sheer self-defense, it drew out of that fortunate community a whole battalion of rather brilliant, in some cases brilliantly brilliant writers. I don't know, they got them somehow. They sort of come and go in a multi-person tag team of startlingly vivid writers, poets geniuses and hell-for-leather activists.

But from Fort Bragg, Anderson Valley is a world away.

The editors of the AVA have had a distant professional interest in our city politics for a while since it is politics which is mother’s milk and since you can smell the subterfuge a half a county away, but they don’t need us.

And instead of the gaggle of engaged, indignant, amused, outraged and a generally penetrating community of writers that covers that blessed valley, Fort Bragg has me. If you live in Fort Bragg, too bad for you. I know that I have not lived up to the standards of the AVA. Hell, if I had they would have to given me a Pulitzer and I have yet to receive the notification.

What impact I have had has not really been in the policy of the city. Lindy Peters had to kill the Mayor's Monday morning meeting when I outed him for a behind-the-back of the city deal with GP. I had a voice in Mayor Turner’s recall that failed by a magically small number of voters after some bizarrely considerable interval after the votes were cast. As if they were sitting in some backroom somewhere with a pile of ballots scratching their heads and hoping for a miracle. It proves that with patience you can do anything because eventually, they got one.

The startlingly fired ex-City Manager Linda Ruffing claims I was responsible for getting her canned. But that’s bunk. The whole city hated her. I can't say that I forced their hand in any particular way. But I blew the whistle and it had to have been a pain in their ass.

When the new election cycle got going and former Mayor Lindy Peters decided to commit treason against his own in-group and tossed his hat in the ring against current Fourth District Supervisor Dan Gjerde, he must have felt that he had to do something.

The Board of Supervisors pays more money annually than Lindy has made in a decade. Case closed. He had no problem getting his little buddy, the current mayor, to tag along since that is what Will does.

Actually, that’s all he does. I don’t know what happened with Gjerde. I had just steamed out a couple of articles on “Silent Dan,” pointing out that the recent Grand Jury indictment might have applied to all the Board of Supervisors, but it had a real awkward applicability to Gjerde. It was almost like he inspired the Grand Jury.

So there are three Fort Bragg politicos who won’t talk with me. I don’t know what they said to each other. I don’t know if they said anything.

Maybe it was just election time serendipity, but all of them stopped talking to me officially and formally and apparently permanently the same day.

“I refuse to be bullied by you into doing an interview,“ said Mayor Will Lee to the most reasonable of requests (I truly thought). Super councilman Lindy Peters was both terser and obviously more gratified:. “bye-bye” was his email.

Supervisor Dan Gjerde, wise and astute politician that he is, (although living on his own planet of course) was more careful and less quotable. Dan just screwed on his bicycle helmet, pointed his little nose at the clouds and rode away with a smirk of disdain.

Ok. It had been brewing. I had been experiencing a kind of unusual transparency even for Fort Bragg for a couple of weeks.

As I became increasingly frustrated and gradually enraged. I yelled a little at them and I ain't sorry. But as you know (or should), private emails are not private. Duh. So what? I got pissed. I still am.

But now I am locked out of the councils and the policy of the three most powerful individuals in my personal political universe. The readers of the AVA and MendocinoSportsPlus will have to rely on the other powerful tools that we have in democratic America to bust the in-transparency gridlock. We have plenty. The American press has been busting shady politicians since the Fred Flintstone days. These are not the first three yahoos who thought they could muzzle a newspaper.

True, it’s a lot easier when you only have to shut up one flawed and often frustrated reporter. That must have been their calculation.

Think again.

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FROM WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

"Inside Of Us All" - Featuring David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and Charlie Musselwhite. From the Windows on the World official film soundtrack out now on Ropeadope.

Music by: Robert Mailer Anderson / Jay Walsh (ASCAP)

Lyrics by: Robert Mailer Anderson (ASCAP)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2019

Alba, Ammerman, Briseno-Contreras

RICHARD ALBA, Riverside/Ukiah. Unspecified offense.

MORGAN AMMERMAN, Ukiah. Battery, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

MIGUEL BRISENO-CONTRERAS, Live Oak/Covelo. Pot possession for sale, concealed weapon in vehicle with prior conviction.

Cavino, Clearwater, Fabela

DUSTIN CAVINO, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SAMAYA CLEARWATER, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

MICHELLE FABELA, Lakeport/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

Giusti, Govea-Lopez, Lamoureux, Pinola

DAVID GIUSTI, Concealed dirk-dagger, petty theft with priors, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

RAFAEL GOVEA-LOPEZ, Covelo. Under influence with weapon, controlled substance, loaded firearm in public, probation revocation.

SHADRACH LAMOUREUX, Laytonville. DUI causing bodily injury.

BRANDON PINOLA, Ukiah. Unspecified misdemeanor.

Reynolds, Salvetti, Sanchez, Smith

COLTER REYNOLDS, Covelo. Under influence, resisting.

STEPHEN SALVETTI, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Habitual traffic offender, driving on suspended/revoked license.

JEREMIAH SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DEREK SMITH, Lakeport/Hopland. DUI, suspended license (for DUI), probation revocation.

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Whether you consider yourself a liberal or a conservative, what you think will happen, or wish to happen will not. Trump will never be impeached. The swamp will never be drained.

These emotional episodes are charades, operettas, whose sole purpose is to keep our attention on the actors. Their plots pendulate from one side of the political spectrum to the other in a coordinated dance to keep us fighting amongst ourselves.

We are captives to the narrative of our choice, but also very real captives. Every thing we do of any real importance is monitored. No leader can ever rise from among us who will not be killed. Our freedom and prosperity is all a lie.

Although we may derive some pleasure from commenting on sites like this, it will amount to exactly nothing. There is nothing to be done. There is no longer anything that can be done.

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AT THE ZOO

by William J. Hughes

Oakland — "Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo." — Simon and Garfunkel.

It is today, at least at the Oakland zoo, because our free weekly newspaper told me so.

Sacramento where I live has plans and dreams of a brand-new zoo with more room to move for all the animals now somewhat locked up at Sacramento's able but outdated zoo. The Oakland zoo is held up as a leading edge ark, for viewing and for saving what's left of our erstwhile life.

I'm no great fan of the viewing zoo but that ark part gets my attention all the time. Time's up for so many species that at the zoo may eventually be all that's left of a lot of them.

Time was our parents took us to the old Bronx Zoo in New York. Wild Kingdom to a kid — elephants and tigers and seals. But even then, a whole lot like a prison. I was a park ranger in Yellowstone and the Everglades, bison and elk on my doorstep, alligators under my airboat. So seeing our fauna in captivity can’t be anywhere quite the same.

Mountain lions running wild in California. My friend works for the California Mountain Lion Foundation keeping the faith with the noble cougars. The Oakland zoo has a few. My friend will set up near them to inform and encourage. Also why I am going.

"And the animals will love it if you do" — Simon and again.

Well worn, first impression at the palms and eucalyptus entrance to the zoo, the road is well-used, well-worn, everything flora/grasses summer dry — adds to the well-worn impression. The parking lot too, and a few views through the green trees at some well-traveled-like Carnival rides.

The zebra striped open-air shuttle bus up to the California Trail where the mountain lions live, survive, in the Oakland hills, views across the sparkling bay.

First view, grizzly bears, two major leaguers — but only AA, looking a bit tired and a whole lot enclosed and again with my former Yellowstone ranger background, grizz in the wilds of, tracks in the snow of — melancholy grizz of the Oakland zoo. Of course it's important to have them, more than enough elbow room for them, the true king of the beasts.

Beauty beasts, two mountain lions, spread out the tree hammocks. A sad spectacular, rescued from the roadkill of their parents. The Mountain Lion Foundation assures you will find them in what's left of California's wild. Makes me always wonder what was before us.

Here's a Central American jaguar, proud and Aztec, up in a tree like his reality, beautiful but reduced to a large backyard, a rain forest lawn.

I'm on the California Trail. Well done, easy boardwalk. Two Wolves. Wolves reintroduced into Yellowstone was one of the greatest accomplishment while I’ve lived. Here is a wolf in people's enclosure. For Saturday afternoon it will do.

We've done well with the California Condor. Here are two, Inca and the Andes, not exactly soaring, more like Inca statuary.

Negative on the coyotes. Just like coyotes, the tricksters. I've seen them feeding on dead fauna. Do what you like here tricksters, appear or not.

Beautiful views from up in the hills. Bald eagle who could use a beauty makeover, a little dusty but still one bad ass dude, so much more so than all the artificial images combined.

The gondola — not an image, a real gondola to ride down to the African-centric part of the zoo.

Whee! Really. What a view! Not the gondola Alps, but the San Francisco Bay view. Wowee!

Lions and tigers and giraffes oh boy — oh hoy. If only Africa hadn't been crucified. "Giraffes are insincere — and the elephants are kindly but they’re dumb." — Simon and again. Slow and humbled elephants, no running, no charging, no stampeding allowed. Wildlife channels with those massive tuskers reduce these here to an emergency ward, lack of awe, but don't ask the parents with their children held aloft.

Three male lions, heads like heads of state, stately captivity. Tigers with sagging bellys, baboons keeping their distance, hyenas who could give a shrug less, a napping wild boar with Bali-Hi tusks, detusked in other ways.

Families, families, politics detusked. Languages, languages, nationalities, beautiful us.

Tropical birds like Matisse in the trees, some egg shaped complaining and other trees.

Kids complaining in their strollers, stroller gridlock.

Gondola me up to the coolish cafe with a patio view across the Bay and the city and the hills all the way to Japan. Five dollars for a Coke? No thanks.

Back to the mountain lions. Better yet, cougars, individuals.

All in all, the zoo an animal reintroduction. We're on the eve of destruction if we don't get our act (literally our "act") our axes, our shovels and our bulldozers together and advise them to enlighten up.

Postscript: or better yet, you can't write the script. Back to the mountain lions, it's feeding time — a specific feeding time.

The zoo crew can call all three mountain lions by name. One of the crew gets one of them to come to the screen fence and lay down right within arm’s length of onlookers. You can almost feel his breath on you.

The crew member is feeding this lion of the mountains chunks of meat and mice while another of the crew pokes the cougar/puma with a blunt stick in the back leg to get it used to a future needle jab for health inspections.

That done, all three beauties are encouraged back into a sealed enclosure. Then two crew members enter the open enclosure to lay out three hunks of bone meat — while you're thinking about other zoo enclosure attacks — make sure you lock the gate behind you.

By name the mountain lions are called out and they so gracefully rush to the bones as they would rush in real-life. A whole lot of awe to close.

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ON LINE COMMENT: It is good to see Democrats, who turned against Snowden, Manning, and Assange, now embrace a whistle blower.

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FOR LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE CENTRISTS, inured to taking turns in power for decades, Trump’s rise in the Republican party and his success in beating Hillary Clinton within the appalling rules of the American game was the real affront. Blindsided by their ejection by an incoherent nonentity and sexual predator, this coalition of long-governing elites, from liberal technocrats to “never-Trump” conservatives, has declared war on the president, embracing any bad pretext or good reason to call for his early ouster.

Samuel Moyn

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/26/impeachment-america-political-crisis-donald-trump-centrists

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MODERN NEWS GUIDELINES

Editor,

Worst murder of the day.

Worst traffic accident of the day, preferably with car chase.

Celebrity malfeasance, preferably with murder and perversion.

Pervert of the Week.

Health advice that has no affect on the general population.

Self-help, feel-good, advice that also has no lasting effect on human misery.

Political experts whose qualification or expertise is to shout over the commentary of their opponents.

International news is the Bad Man of the Day on a world scale. Commentary is by unemployed generals and out of work ambassadors.

Economic news is always bad for everyone except the rich. Business scandals usually, and declining economics for most of us.

The Washington report is the parade of politicians lying, posturing, preening and offering more "bread and circus." Simple solutions and buzzwords for complex problems. They are all too busy campaigning for national office to actually be expected to legislate and govern.

The news isn't new. It's the same old horrific human lunacy that happens to new people every day. The news never changes, only the victims of the news.

Dave McCain

Richmond

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THE FACE OF JUSTICE, 2019

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THE MEDIA BLACKOUT on the Imprisonment of Julian Assange

The United Nations has consistently condemned the actions of the U.S., U.K. and Swedish governments, and called for Assange’s immediate release. Their special rapporteur on torture and ill-treatment visited him in May, declaring: [Assange has been] deliberately exposed, for a period of several years, to progressively [more] severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the cumulative effects of which can only be described as psychological torture. The collective persecution of Julian Assange must end here and now!… On May 23, Assange was charged under the U.S. Espionage Act for the possession and dissemination of classified information given to him by Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, marking the first time the Espionage Act has been used against a journalist for publishing classified information. He now faces a sentence of 175 years in jail if found guilty. But you may not have known any of this because it seems clear the very media that spent years dragging Assange’s name through the mud are deliberately engaging in a media blackout on his treatment. So if you were waiting for the corporate media or their lapdog pundits to defend freedom of the press and freedom of speech, you’d be disappointed.

mintpressnews.com/media-blackout-imprisonment-espionage-act-julian-assange/261510/

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FOUND OBJECT

12 Comments

  1. Lazarus September 29, 2019

    FOUND OBJECT

    Just another weekend in Hong Kong…

    As always,
    Laz

  2. James Marmon September 29, 2019

    WHY HOMELESSNESS NEVER GOES DOWN

    It is because the Schraeders are into empire building, If homelessness or mental health crisis’ decline they won’t be able to keep growing. The Schraeders have their fingers in everything Mendocino, Homelessness, Mental Health, Foster Care, Adoptions, and more. The Schraeders do not plan to ever downsize their
    operations because that would be self defeating. The Board of Supervisors are afraid of Camille and will never hold her accountable or make her participate in the competitive process. Monopoly anyone?.

    Empire Building

    “the practice of obtaining more power, responsibility, or staff within an organization for the purposes of self-aggrandizement.”

    Self-aggrandizement

    “the action or process of promoting oneself as being powerful or important.”

    Where’s the money Camille?

    James Marmon MSW

  3. Judy September 29, 2019

    THINK AGAIN…REX GRESSETT

    #1. Mayor Turner’s recall was NEVER voted on…it was dropped.
    #2. City Manager Linda Ruffing was not fired, she resigned.
    #3. “The whole city hated her”…NOT so…I like Linda very much as a person. Didn’t agree with some or her decisions but she is actually a very kind and nice person.
    #4. Lindy Peters has worked since he was very young (you can find his work record on the District 4 Facebook page and in the AVA).
    #5. I don’t believe Mayor Will Lee tags along with anyone. I believe he is his own person and is here to serve his community. Even Rex.
    #6. Dan Gjerde actually lives on the same planet as the rest of us.

  4. Harvey Reading September 29, 2019

    FLOW KANA, an online comment

    Whine away. Dope users will continuing buying their dope from whomever offers the best deal in terms of quality and price, be it from north or south of the border, or from the Central Valley or Midwest. The Clearcut Triangle growers better get with the program…or they will disappear, without a tear shed by consumers of the “product”.

  5. Harvey Reading September 29, 2019

    FROM WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

    Is a DVD of the movie out yet? Haven’t seen anything so far.

  6. Harvey Reading September 29, 2019

    ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

    Exactly correct, but commenting at least allows us to blow off steam. And it’s harmless, especially compared to picking up an assault “rifle” and shooting strangers for no good reason.

  7. Harvey Reading September 29, 2019

    ON LINE COMMENT: “It is good to see Democrats, who turned against Snowden, Manning, and Assange, now embrace a whistle blower.”

    What do you expect from a party that still hasn’t fired the Nanny Goat or Schemer? One that selected Obama and Madame Clinton?

  8. John Sakowicz September 29, 2019

    FROM THE ANDERSON VALLEY ADVERTISER’S BLOG, “MENDOCINO COUNTY TODAY”, SEPTEMBER, 29, 2019…Flow Kana, an online comment:

    “Flow Kana is the enemy. Make no mistake about that. It is our first test in the new corporate world we welcomed when we fell for the fake ‘legalization’. Will we strongly oppose and drive out the corporate take-over that they are? Or will we foolishly embrace them as we fall for their little public relations stunts like some river clean-up and a free food truck? Remember: Every single dollar that you think they are donating here is actually coming out of here — out of the pockets of your neighbors. They are the present face of corporate take-over and are backed by Altria ie. Philip Morris. They have hired some locals to put a ‘local’ appearance on the corporation but…those people working for them are confused or are sell-outs and are not to be believed…or trusted.”

    BRAVO. MY HAT IS OFF to whomever made the above online comment.

    I am making Flow Kana (FK) a central issue in my campaign for 1st District Supervisor.

    My article “FK’s Deal with the Devil”, which has been posted to my Facebook page, has been shared 285 times, and has been further shared many times again by each of those Facebook friends. The article has received over 400 comments on my page alone.

    Read those comments. People are afraid. And they should be afraid. FK is backed by $175 million by Wall Street quant and hedge fund manager, Jason Adler.

    JASON ADLER IS EXACTLY THE TYPE OF GUY who triggered the global economic collapse in 2007-2008. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Saiers Capital, which he co-founded as Alphabet Management, in 2007. The name of the firm was changed to Saiers Capital, in January 2013.

    Saiers was one of Wall Street’s casinos. And they rolled the dice a lot in high-stakes crap shoots.

    In 2007, something known as a “quant quake” preceded the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in the weeks before both firms collapsed. At first it was largely contained within the computer-powered quant industry, but it was soon overshadowed by the global financial crisis. It killed a generation of “financial engineers” on Wall Street. They’re the guys who develop swaps and derivatives — the things quants trade.

    At first, the quant quake nearly obliterated Goldman’s QIS and Renaissance Technologies, the legendary hedge fund co-founded by cold war codebreaker James Simons. Then, the quant quake triggered the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, which wiped out trillions of U.S. dollars in consumer wealth, and which, in turn, triggered a downturn in economic activity leading to the Great Recession of 2008–2012 and contributing to the European sovereign-debt crisis.

    Jason Adler made money every step of the way.

    How did guys like Adler do it?

    They took advantage of widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the tide of “toxic” swaps and derivatives.

    Guys like Adler saw opportunity in dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance, including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on insane levels of risk.

    Guys like Adler took advantage of key policy makers who lacked any understanding of the financial system they oversaw.

    Guys like Adler made bank on systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.

    And now, Adler resurfaces in Mendocino County.

    ADLER ALSO OWNS INTERESTS in Pebble Labs and Trait Biosciences, both of which make no secret that they’re in the business of developing and patenting GMO cannabis — much like Monsanto did with GMO corn and other crops.

    Monsanto is the world’s largest manufacturer of genetically engineered seed. It owns over 90% of all genetically engineered seeds.

    Monsanto uses technology to modify crops, which in turn, allows Monsanto to patent them. By having patented seeds and crops, Monsanto essentially lawfully owns and controls majority of the food supply. Farmers who use their seeds are required to sign contracts that they will not save or reuse the seeds. Otherwise, they can and will be sued.

    Monsanto is the business model for Pebble Labs and Trait Biosciences. And Jason Adler is their link to FK.

    Creepy.

    VULTURE CAPITALISTS LIKE JASON ADLER only make money at the expense of others. They see the world as a “zero sum game”, which means that one person wins only if another person loses.

    FK and Jason Adler will inject wealth in the Mendocino County economy only in the short-term and only in the form of flashy publicity stunts, and feel-good hippie talk, and buying off local spokespeople. But, in the end, FK and Jason Adler will extract wealth from the Mendocino economy.

    Plenty of wealth.

    Everything our cannabis farmers own.

    In the end, our farmers will be under contract with FK — much like the tenant/sharecropping system in the South during the post-Civil War era. It will be slavery by another name.

    FK and Jason Adler will build capacity, regardless of cost, then they will cash out..

    FK and Jason Adler already have their exit strategy already in place. They will cash out in an IPO. Or they will sell out in an M&A deal.

    Keep in mind, Adler sits on the board at the Cronos Group with Altria, formerly known as the Phillip Morris Companies. Altria is Big Tobacco.

    BUT THERE IS ANOTHER WAY. Mendocino County’s cannabis farmers can organize to cooperatively own and operate their own supply-chain. As a business model, we can use the Mondragon Corporation.

    The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragon in 1956 by graduates of a local technical college. It is now the tenth-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country.

    The Mendocino Mondragon Corporation could own and operate its own grading, processing, and warehousing facilities, backed up by an e-trading platform, which, in turn, would be supported by e-payments and e-tracking systems.

    A $10 million industrial revenue bond, or other bond financing by IBank.

    IBank is the State of California’s only general purpose financing authority. The Legislature created IBank in 1994 to promote a healthy job climate by financing infrastructure.

    The Mendocino Mondragon Corporate would be an ideal fit with IBank.

    All will need is the political will.

    The political will to show FK and Jason Adler the door. The political will to control our own destiny. The political will to preserve our beautiful way of life as cannabis farmers, small farmers, family farmers, independent farmers.

    Will we do it?

    John Sakowicz, Candidate 1st District Supervisor

  9. chuck dunbar September 29, 2019

    Hey Bruce: Reporting back, as I think you asked, on the recent short story by Thomas McGuane in the New Yorker. I had skipped over it, as I do most of the time, as I also find most of the short fiction in this journal as boring, over-done and over-long, uninteresting. But this little 3 page story is a sly, good one, with that fine twist at the end. Thanks for the heads-up.

  10. Harvey Reading September 30, 2019

    Perhaps by dimwit conservatives, but they are not usually polite.

  11. Will Lee September 30, 2019

    Think Again Rex~
    Linda Ruffing served the City of Fort Bragg well for many years and you certainly had nothing to do with her decision to retire.
    I know you consider yourself a journalist, but your writings are always full of inaccuracies and misinformation. Sells papers though.
    I will say this again, I will not do an interview with you because of your baseless attacks and vitriol but I would be happy to conduct an interview with Bruce, Malcolm, the radio, The Advocate or any legitimate journalist.
    And you are right, if we live in Fort Bragg , too bad for us. We have you.

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