MCT: Tuesday, January 28, 2020

• Showery
• Drought Concern
• Rich Ferguson
• Variety Show
• Missing Norbert
• Pet Lars
• Postal Rates
• Graveyard Cat
• County Notes
• Daffodils
• Cannabis Forums
• Blinky Thing
• Winter Abundance
• Pure Nepotism
• Yesterday's Catch
• Youth Movement
• KC Southern
• Cancer Talk
• Laytonville 1940
• Material Issues
• Canary Trap
• Dance Card
• Corona Virus
• Ad Joy
• Comments
• Absolute BS
• Grant Program
• Found Object

SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE across Northwest California through this afternoon. Light rain will continue to be possible Wednesday and Thursday over mainly Del Norte County, followed by warmer and drier conditions developing Friday and Saturday over the entire region. Rain is forecast to return late this weekend as a cold front moves across the area. (NWS)

GOT RAIN?

by Marshall Newman

As I write this on January 27, 2020, the rainfall total for Boonville stands at 13.39 inches. At nearly halfway through the rainy season in Northern California, such a total for Boonville is concern-making at least and downright scary at worst. Anderson Valley will be looking at drought conditions by mid-summer unless a LOT of rain arrives soon.

Unearthing baseline data to substantiate the possibility of a coming drought proved difficult. Monthly records – especially from the last 20 years – are not readily available. Nevertheless, there is enough data to give weight to drought concerns.

Average annual rainfall totals for Boonville from various sources range from 40.60 inches to 32.21 inches, with the latter coming from the most recent compilation. Longtime Anderson Valley residents remember rainfall from the 1960s through the 1990s was typically 40 inches a year and often higher. The one element of consistency in Boonville rainfall data is the percentage of total annual rainfall received by the end of January: approximately 60 percent.

Based on that percentage and the current rainfall total, projected total rainfall for 2019-2020 will be around 22.3 inches. Such a projection is in line with the worst drought years of the 2010s (with annual totals in the 20 to 30-inch range in Boonville) but better than 1976-1977, when only 15.17 inches of rain – according to slightly incomplete (summer rainfall numbers are missing) records - fell in Boonville.

So what happened? The number of storms seen thus far this rainy season has been typical, though perhaps slightly fewer than normal. However, most of the storm fronts have been weak and fast moving, and as a result haven’t produced much rain. With the exception of five periods totalling perhaps 10 days, Navarro River flow has been much lower than the 69-year daily median. Yes, some of the water went to replenish underground aquifers, but not enough to seriously impact river flow.

There are other signs that a drought may be imminent on the North Coast. Despite cold winter weather prior, some fruit trees began budding the week of January 13, a full week earlier than typical. That same week, songbirds were active in the early morning in San Francisco – again, unusually early. The fall Coho salmon run in western Marin County is the smallest in 12 years.

Is there a chance big storms are coming and rainfall in Anderson Valley will return to near normal before this rainy season ends? Sure - stranger things have happened. But every week that goes by without at least two good storms pummeling the region reduces that chance. With the passing of each such week, a drought becomes more likely.

For most coastal municipalities, a year of limited rain isn’t a problem; they have ample reservoir storage to see them through a year or even two of seriously sub-par rainfall. For rural locales like Anderson Valley, where most homes, farms and businesses have individual water systems, it is a problem; their water storage capacity typically isn’t adequate to get through late summer/early autumn months if springs and wells aren’t producing much. The recent uncertainty regarding sufficient annual rainfall is another reason Boonville residents might find a community-wide drinking water system an idea whose time has come.

“Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” is a quote from the 19th century that still rings true. Agriculture and individual homeowners in Anderson Valley have limited options if a drought comes. For the former, make sure reservoirs are full by spring and ration usage. For the latter, have a water level sensor in your wells, have plenty of water storage, install low-flow showerheads and toilets, and eliminate unnecessary water use – like big gardens.

Crossing fingers and praying for rain also are options. They certainly won’t hurt.

RICH FERGUSON, a Boonville resident, died unexpectedly at home in the early morning hours of Saturday, January 18, 2020—just two weeks shy of his 81st birthday.

He was a regular tennis player at the high school courts; an avid gardener and home winemaker; and a professional policy advocate for renewable energy, environmental protection and conservation. He could be seen twice a day, regular as clockwork, walking his dog Deri throughout Boonville.

A celebration of his life is being planned and will be held in Boonville in the spring.

VARIETY SHOW 2020. It's 2020 and time to get your vision for an act into focus for the stage. YES, the 29th annual AV solar grange variety show is prepared to accept your act. This year the show is Friday, March 6th and Saturday, March 7th. But now is the time to call Cap Rainbow at 895-3807 or since he's having trouble with his phone if you can't get through call Kate at 357-7682. You don't have to be from the valley to participate— come over the hill, in from the fog, away from the brightlighters and experience the best audience anywhere; you will be welcomed. Especially seeking animal acts, magic, demonstrations of skill, or erudition. We bill it as four minutes in front of 400 people. Operators are waiting at the phone(s), or leave a message and hopefully the phones will be working. Keep trying. Don’t wait. Call Cap Rainbow at 895-3807 or Kate at 357-7682.

FIVE MONTHS AFTER GOING MISSING, family of elderly Crescent City man continues seeking answers

Norbert Anthony Dantzman, the 89-year-old Crescent City man who disappeared from a Wisconsin motel nearly 5 months ago, continues to be missing. His granddaughter Kasey Downey wants desperately for her grandfather’s story to continue being told. Norbert’s family is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone that provides information that leads to his recovery.

coldcasemendocino.wordpress.com/2020/01/27/5-months-after-going-missing-family-of-elderly-crescent-city-man-continues-to-seek-answers/

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Hi! My name is Lars. I have been described as a fun, goofy, energetic boy. I went to a training class with a volunteer and she said I was a really good boy in class. I learned sit, down, up, off, and look at me! I am tired of my kennel and would really like a home of my own. My ideal home would be one that can provide plenty of exercise and plenty of balls to play with. Oh, And I have a really cute tail. Come down and meet me and find out what a sweet boy I am. I am a 2 year old, neutered male, mixed breed dog and weigh in at 75 pounds. Check out my very own webpage: mendoanimalshelter.com/dogblog/lars

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah, and adoption hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Visit our website for information about our canine and feline guests and all of our services, programs and events: mendoanimalshelter.com For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

AVA POSTAL RATES are up again for 2020, especially for our out of county and out of state subscribers. Many out-of-the-area subscribers have shifted to on-line where the goods are cheaper and faster, but it now costs us about 80 cents to mail a paper out of state on top of the 40 cents per copy printing cost, a little less out of county. We have not raised our rates on our loyal subscribers, but it now costs us about 20 cents more per paper per week in direct out of pocket print/mail costs over the $50 sub rate (which goes back to the mid-90s) — or $1.20 cost for a $1 price. And that doesn’t include our other costs: contributors, office, rice and chopsticks for us, taxes, etc. By comparison the weekly New Yorker is now up to $3 a week and they have lots of ads, which we don’t, not deigning to descend to that area of the begging bowl. On a three-glub scale, we're at two-and-a-half from glub, glub, glub.

COUNTY NOTES (reposts, collected, from last week)

by Mark Scaramella

DARREN BREWSTER, former commander of the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force, was introduced by Sheriff Matt Kendall Tuesday morning as Mendocino County’s new Undersheriff. Kendall said that he’s gone without an undersheriff since his appointment and “it was like a two week long root canal.” Apparently, the new Undersheriff will assume responsibility for the Sheriff’s Office budget, among other duties.

JAMES WILBANKS is quitting as the County’s retirement system administrator to go back to Oklahoma City for an “offer too good for him to turn down.” Apparently he is willing to stay on as a consultant during recruitment and after — at a nice rate, of course.

MENDO’S $2 MILLION JUVENILE HALL came up as expected on Tuesday. CEO Angelo told that Board that she had no plans to close the expensive and underutilized 32-bed facility, but promised the Board that she and Probation Honcho Izen Locatelli have been working on ways to find “additional funding streams” and “repurposing” some of the Hall to cover some of the activity at the Hall. Nevermind that Angelo’s had two years to work on this with very little to show for it — nor that she would never even have known about the problem in the first place until Lake County pulled their delinquents saying it was too expensive to send them to Mendo for “services.” Angelo tried to spread the blame for the long-ignored problem by noting that Juvenile Halls around the state are underutilized and overbudget. Angelo promised that she’d have a report for the Board maybe in March after their ideas are “fully vetted” and the funding streams are better defined. For his part Locatelli noted that his wards tend to be “youth” with either mental health, drugs or gang problems. When asked why the daily census went up and down between 8 and 15, Locatelli said that the numbers are small, so “one gang fight can bring in four kids in one day.”

CEO ANGELO ALSO told the Board that Behavioral Health Board chair and Measure B Committee stalwart Jan McGourty is “retiring.” (She was unpaid in both positions.) The assumption is that Behavioral Health Board Vice Chair Meeka Ferretta will be next to hold both positions after formal approval of the Board. Ms. Ferretta appears to come from a pot advocacy background, saying in her on-line profile: “I am passionate about three things: Mental Health, Cannabis Regulation, and Policies that promote the community wellbeing. I am grateful to Casey O’Neill [Mendo’s lead pot advocate] for teaching me how to advocate, interview and to be brave enough to speak out.”

MEASURE B NOTES

As expected, nothing substantive came out of last Wednesday’s Measure B Oversight Committee meeting. (Some things never change.) The committee leadership talked about the additional cost of equipping the new Sheriff’s training facility in Redwood Valley, but didn’t decide anything. They talked about their own sub-committees. They talked about their budget. They talked about talking about the Kemper Report. They talked about their own meeting schedule. They talked and talked and then they went home, kinda like the impeachment hearings.

One interesting point was clarified regarding the bum’s rush (after years of delay) being focused on a pending Crisis Residential Treatment facility on the Orchard Avenue parcel next door to the existing Redwood Community Services operation in Ukiah. In answer to a question from former Sheriff Tom Allman, Mental Health Director Jenine Miller replied that whatever additional funds will be required over the $500k state grant that is tied to that parcel will have to come from the Measure B Committee and the Supervisors. In other words, by accepting this comparatively small state grant, the state is forcing Mendo and Measure B to spend whatever that facility ends up costing (nobody knows how big or how much) — and before any other facilities are even considered — without all the plans and studies and budgets and processes the Committee seems so proud of and which they’ve been endlessly discussing. Why all these discussions and delays if the state is going to force Mendo’s hand and take a big chunk out of the money before they even start talking the cost of the Psychiatric Health Facility and its staffing — the main point of Measure B in the first place?

A note about the lack of seriousness on the part of some members of the Measure B Committee.

At last Wednesday’s Committee meeting, Committee member Ross Liberty (appointed by former Supervisor Dan Hamburg who has now moved to Oregon) commented on the pending legal analysis of the possibility of spending Measure B money to remodel some of the Adventist Health facilities, saying that he thought former County Counsel Kit Elliott had already opined on the subject, i.e., that the Committee should exercise due diligence) that such spending was legal but maybe not a great idea. Liberty then added, “That’s my recollection, albeit not always great recollection.”

The subject of the County Counsel’s pending legal analysis was on the Committee’s agenda days in advance and there are minutes kept of the meetings. Yet Liberty apparently can’t be bothered to look up his own committee’s minutes to make whatever point he was trying to make, preferring instead to muddy the water with a “not always great recollection.”

One more note to Measure B Committee members: We are not impressed by their habit of tossing out terms like “modalities” and “covenant restrictions” and “cross-functional teams” — (I'm not making this up!) — as if they’re experts in mental health blah-blah.

We would be impressed if the Committee dealt with some of the important subjects that they have previously supported and discussed but continue to ignore such as Ukiah Police Chief Justin Wyatt's proposed Crisis Van and the nearly non-functional Mobile Outreach Program which could help mental patients in the here and now. But such practical matters continue to be ignored, in favor of irrelevant discussions like how much the kitchen at the training facility will cost. (Since the County’s police departments are the County’s de facto mental health program how about tuning in their suggestions?)

TO GET the Measure B Committee off the dime, former Sheriff Allman, who got the Measure passed in the first place, should appear at the next meeting, lock the door behind him and, unholstering his taser, announce, "No one leaves until this sucker is done. Anyone who uses a word like "modality" or phrases like “cross functional teams” or "covenant restriction" gets zapped. Yes, even you girls!"

TERRY D’SELKIE POSTED on the Fifth District Supervisor Facebook page:

So, this thing happened and I filed a complaint with Mendocino County enforcement. A law was broken by Mendocino Redwood Company, many, many times. I can see one of these stands and it is ugly and sad. I have heard nothing from enforcement about what they plan to do. They called me one time and wanted to come out and see what I can see from my deck, when I look across the river at MRC land. They never came. They never called back. What is happening with the enforcement of the law, Ted Williams? If I break the law, I get a ticket or I am arrested. What happens when MRC breaks the law? NOTHING! They get to be involved in an Ad hoc meeting to see how they can get around breaking the law. They are not held accountable. Democracy is broken when the voices of the people are drowned out by the corporations breaking the laws. Pitiful! I expect better and so do my neighbors! PS. If any of my facebook friends can see any of these dead standing trees from their land, PLEASE I implore you to file a complaint with county enforcement. This is not going away, according to MRC for at least 20 more years! Devastating our forests!”

TED WILLIAMS REPLIED (to the question about what is being done): “To be blunt, not much.”

MRC’S HACK & SQUIRT, The Video

IN A RELATED ITEM, buried deep in a recent summary of the “debate” between Fourth District Supervisor candidates Dan Gjerde and Lindy Peters by Fort Bragg Advocate editor Chris Calder we found this:

“Gjerde said county counsel has told supervisors the county is unlikely to prevail in court. ‘We have not been given the go-ahead with legal advice that the county would win that lawsuit,’ he said. ‘ If you lose the case, if the government loses the case, it would have to pay the legal bills of the people sued. That could easily be a million dollars that’s as much as we spend in any one year on extra paving of roads.’

“Peters said he would push to enforce the measure anyway. ‘If we lose the court case, we lose the court case,’ he said. ‘This is a democracy,’ he said. ‘Basically, you folks out in Mendocino County came up with this initiative. You supported this and put it on the ballot So, I don’t think it’s a sign, whether I’m for something or not. You folks voted for something, and you’re expecting your elected officials to follow through’.”

THERE IS NOTHING on the record indicating that County Counsel Christian Curtis has “told supervisors the county is unlikely to prevail in court.” In fact, Curtis wrote a convincing formal opinion that MRC’s “we’re exempt” argument is wrong in several respects. If Gjerde wants to ignore Measure V and the voters who approved it, he should just say so like McCowen, not cite non-existent opinions from County Counsel or pretend that pursuing the case would take a million dollars from the road fund.

LET’S REVIEW the recent history of County officials who have resigned or been fired after having one or another responsibility for the Cannabis Program: Chuck Morse resigned when told he’d be responsible for cannabis, Diane Curry (resigned over a clash with CEO Angelo), Joe Moreo (resigned after a week over a dispute over who’d be in charge of cannabis), Kelly Overton (resigned without notice or explanation), Sean Connell (resigned without notice or explanation), and now Ms. Dukett, with zero cannabis program experience (she had been the museum “program administrator” in the newly formed Cultural Services Agency) and apparent sister of Deputy CEO Sarah Dukett is handed the job. The salary for the job was listed in 2018 as up to about $80k a year, but Mr. Overton somehow managed to earn a $100k/year salary for his four months (plus generous severance) — all with another 50% more in perks and bennies.

CAN YOU SMELL THE DAFFODILS yet?

Everything is waking up and turning green here in Mendocino County. Spring is just around the corner! Perfect spring shot from the talented Myles DeBoer.

CANNABIS ALLIANCE & MEMBERS SPONSOR CANNABIS-FOCUSED BOS CANDIDATE FORUMS

Events Are Planned For Districts 1, 2 And 4

Ukiah, CA - Monday January 27, 2020 — Mendocino Cannabis Alliance is proud to present a series of cannabis focused forums to ask important questions to the candidates running for the Board of Supervisors in Mendocino County districts 1, 2 and 4 this year. These public conversations are FREE, open to the public, and designed to amplify the voice of the cannabis community in Mendocino.

District 4

Sponsored by Dragonfly Wellness Center, Wednesday February 19 6-7pm

Redwood Coast Senior Center, 490 N Harold St, Fort Bragg, CA 95437

Candidates Participating: Lindy Peters, Dan Gjerde

District 2

Sponsored by Harvest Logic, Friday Feb 21st 6-7:30pm

Alex Rorabaugh Recreation Center, Conference Room H11, 1640 S State St, Ukiah

Candidates Participating: Maureen Mulheren, Joel Soinila, Mari Rodin

District 1

Sponsored by One Feather Ranch, Thursday Feb 27th 6-7:30pm

Redwood Valley Grange, 8650 East Rd, Redwood Valley

Candidates Participating: John Sakowicz, Jon Kennedy, James Green, Glenn McGourty

If you would like more information on this topic, please email Courtney Bailey at info@mendocannabis.com

(The Mendocino Cannabis Alliance serves and promotes Mendocino County’s world-renowned cannabis cultivators and businesses through sustainable economic development, education and public policy initiatives.)

HERBS & WINTER ABUNDANCE

At the 37th annual Winter Abundance Gathering at the Boonville Fairgrounds on Saturday, February 8th, the Mendocino County Herb Guild will feature herbalists Donna d’Terra and Lisa Montez who will be answering questions and offering free herb seed at their display table in the Arts and Crafts Building. Lisa is a plant lover who works at a local garden center and Donna is a well-recognized herb grower and herbal educator. With community support the Herb Guild has accomplished much in its three-year history, including the production of Mendocino Vitality Tonic, a vinegar/honey/herb tonic using locally sourced ingredients. It is sold throughout the County at natural foods stores. The last two summers, the Guild has donated locally made herbal medicines to firefighters and fire victims in our greater bioregion. Last November the Guild held its second annual Harvest Dinner at the Grange in Willits, featuring local chefs, local food, local herbalists, and a speaker; it was a fundraiser towards the acquisition of an Herb Bus that will someday travel around the County doing education and outreach.

The mission of the Guild is: "Full circle herbalism that benefits the community through regenerative cultivation and wildcrafting, conscious education, and development of accessible apothecaries and clinics, so that healing plant medicine can be available to all who need it.”

At Winter Abundance, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be free presentations on grafting and vine propagation, seed saving, and utilizing greenhouses. A seed, scion, and plant exchange is happening as well as a series of hands-on fruit tree grafting clinics at no cost. Low cost rootstock sales and a farmers’ market will be open. The AV Girl Scouts will provide hot and cold beverages, snacks, and a tamale lunch for sale. For the schedule and much more information please go to www.avfoodshed.com. The event is sponsored by Mendocino Permaculture, Anderson Valley Adult School, and Anderson Valley Foodshed.

(Barbara Goodell)

PURE NEPOTISM

To the Editor:

The newly appointed Cannabis Program Manager Megan Dukett will be another disaster for Mendocino County’s struggling cannabis industry. Another disaster in a long line of disasters.

As has been pointed out by the Anderson Valley Advertiser (the "AVA"), Megan Dukett has zero cannabis experience. None.

Megan Dukett couldn’t identify a cannabis leaf from a dandelion leaf.

She couldn’t tell the difference between a bong and a bed post.

Adding insult to injury, her appointment is pure nepotism. Megan Dukatt is the sister of County Deputy CEO Sarah Dukatt.

Quoting the AVA: “Let’s review the recent history of County officials who have resigned or been fired after having one or another responsibility for the Cannabis Program. Chuck Morse resigned when told he’d be responsible for cannabis, Diane Curry (resigned over a clash with CEO Angelo), Joe Moreo (resigned after a week over a dispute over who’d be in charge of cannabis), Kelly Overton (resigned without notice or explanation), Sean Connell (resigned without notice or explanation), and now Ms. Dukett, with zero cannabis program experience (she had been the museum 'program administrator' in the newly formed Cultural Services Agency) and apparent sister of Deputy CEO Sarah Dukett is handed the job."

The AVA continues: "The salary for the job was listed in 2018 as up to about $80k a year, but Mr. Overton somehow managed to earn a $100k/year salary for his four months (plus generous severance) — all with another 50% more in perks and bennies.”

I'll add the following.

Clearly, Ms. Dukett was conscripted for the job by County CEO “Boss” Angelo. I'll explain.

Having another flunky in the County's top cannabis job plays right into the hands of Flow Kana and their agenda to make sharecropper farmers in a tenant farming system out of our County’s formerly independent cannabis farmers.

And guess what?

Once sharecroppers, they'll be forced to grow GMO cannabis. The GMO cannabis seed will come from Flow Kana’s $175 million investor, Jason Adler, who also has investments in a couple of GMO cannabis companies, Trait Biosciences and Pebble Labs.

Flow Kana’s end game?

Flow Kana wants to be dominant. Flow Kana wants to be more than dominant. Flow Kana wants to be the “Monsanto of Cannabis”.

And what does all this got to do with Angelo?

Angelo probably wants to work for Flow Kana. Or whatever company buys Flow Kana. Big Tobacco. Big Pharma. Maybe Constellation Brands.

Angelo is lining up her next job after she retires from the County, which I believe will happen sometime before the next Mendocino County Board of Supervisors is swore in, in January, 2021.

God help us!

John Sakowicz, Candidate, 1st District Supervisor

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 27, 2020

KATLYNN ANDERSON, Redwood Valley. Under influence.

JAMES BELDEN III, Ukiah. Controlled substance for sale, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

JAYNA BOSWELL, Three Rivers/Willits. Controlled substance while armed with loaded firearm, paraphernalia, loaded firearm in public place, obliterating coloration or markings applicable to imitation firearm.

DAVID BYER, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

AUBREY HOFFMAN, Ukiah. Suspended license (for DUI), probation revocation.

CLAUDIA KAPPEL-MUELLER, Albion. Damaging power lines.

ANDREW MAYNARD, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MICHAEL MURPHY, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

ALEXIS NAVARRETE, Ukiah. Attempted murder, harboring wanted felon, driver/owner permit another person to bring or carry firearm in vehicle, manufacture/import etc. short-barreled rife, assault weapon, conspiracy.

BRUCE RICHARDSON JR., Laytonville. Switchblade, ammo possession by prohibited person, protective order violation.

HEATHER ROGERS, Willits. Controlled substance for sale, probation revocation.

DOUGLAS WHIPPLE III, Redwood Valley. Under influence, no license, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

MARCELINO ZURITA-PAZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SET TO MAKE HISTORY WITH BERNIE SANDERS -- AND NEW HAMPSHIRE’S YOUTH MOVEMENT IS SHOWING HOW

by Norman Solomon

The youth movement is on the ground in New Hampshire showing the nation how it's done.

Fifty-two years after young people changed history with the New Hampshire primary election, a new generation is ready to do it again—this time by mobilizing behind Bernie Sanders.

During early 1968, thousands of young people volunteered in New Hampshire to help the insurgent presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy—who went on to stun the party establishment by winning 42 percent of the state’s primary vote against President Lyndon Johnson’s 49 percent. Three weeks later, Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election.

What propelled McCarthy and his young supporters into the snows of New Hampshire was their opposition to the war in Vietnam. Five decades later, in effect, what’s propelling Bernie Sanders and his young supporters is the grim reality of class war in America.

The New Hampshire Youth Movement—which its leadership calls “the largest youth power organization in the state”—endorsed Sanders last week. NHYM could provide the margin of victory in New Hampshire’s Feb. 11 primary.

The strategy has been methodical. “People involved with NHYM have been canvassing nonstop,” the state director of the organization’s field program, Dylan Carney, told me. “We’ve gathered over 9,500 pledge-to-vote cards from people aged 18 to 25 and will be working to get them voting for Bernie Sanders on Feb. 11th.”

I asked Carney for his assessment of why polling nationwide shows young people prefer Sanders over every other Democratic contender by a lopsided margin.

“Sanders is a movement candidate—who will be accountable to our generation,” Carney replied. “He has proven that he is aligned with the version of the world that we want to create. And since before our generation was born, he was fighting the injustices that we are fighting today.”

New Hampshire Youth Movement is a natural ally of the Bernie 2020 campaign, as the organization’s website makes clear:

“Scientists tell us that we have less than 10 years left to prevent irreversible damage from the climate crisis. Our ability to act on the climate crisis depends on who we elect to be our president. We need a president that is committed to passing a just and robust Green New Deal.”

“Everyone deserves access to quality healthcare regardless of their ability to pay. People across this country are drowning in medical debt just to receive the services they need to stay alive while pharmaceutical and insurance executives accrue unimaginable wealth. To address the healthcare crisis, we must elect a candidate who will fight for a Medicare for All system that includes everyone and eliminates private insurance companies.”

“Students and alumni are drowning in debt while private loan providers are making obscene amounts of money. Providing free college for all will be a massive investment in our work force and our economy. We can build a system that eliminates tuition and fees at all public colleges and all existing student debt if we turn out to vote for a candidate who will fight with us.”

After living in New Hampshire for all of his 23 years, Dylan Carney is keenly aware that the state’s margin of victory often hinges on a small number of votes. When he says that “we have the reach to turn out 10,000 young voters for Bernie Sanders,” he quickly adds that Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump in New Hampshire by only a few thousand votes in 2016 while the incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte was unseated by just 1,017 votes.

Young voters have the potential to make Bernie Sanders the winner of the New Hampshire primary—and young voters across the country have the potential to make him president of the United States.

(Norman Solomon is co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" and "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State." He is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.)

KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN #1

TALK ON LIVING WITH CANCER IN MANCHESTER

Manchester Community Center/Garcia Guild

43970 Crispin Road, Manchester (Just East of Highway 1 about a half-mile north of the post office and S&B Market)

Tuesday, February 11 at 5 pm

Guest Speakers Series Presents: “Ron & Ted: The transformation of fear to courage — Thinking Outside the Box”

Ron DeVera, locally known as “Ron the Barber,” diagnosed with pancreatic cancer more than 10 years ago.

Ted Gawronski, fairly new to the Coast, diagnosed with metastasized prostate cancer (lymph system) more than 15 years ago.

(Ron & Ted are not healthcare professionals and offer only their personal responses to a cancer diagnosis.)

EMPIRE MODERN CAMP, Redwood Highway/US 101, Laytonville, 1940s.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The candidates that speak up on material issues affecting the vast multitude of the bottom 90% will win the election. If, in their time in office, that winning candidate delivers on those material issues, they will win re-election. If the political class advocates for the unworkable status quo and keeps fighting the tranny wars, it creates a political opening of the type that Trump spotted. That’s all he did. So did Bernie. If the ruling elite and its enabling clerisy keep talking Russian collusion-meddling and this abuse of office nonsense, the odds of insurrection go up, armed or otherwise. And that little get-together by armed thousands in Virginia should have been instructive. You can say it was about guns like you can say the on-going kerfuffles in Hong Kong are about democracy. I would say that both are about something other than guns or democracy.

CANARY TRAP

by James Kunstler

What is the canary’s purpose in life? Why, to sing, of course — at least from the human’s point-of-view. What is the canary trap? Why, to catch humans who are singing like canaries.

The latest occult dish served up by Democratic Party spirit cookers in the impeachment ritual is the release of “bombshell” news leaked to The New York Times late Sunday from a new book by Mr. Trump’s erstwhile National Security Advisor, John Bolton, purporting verbal evidence of a quid pro quo in the Ukraine aid-for-investigations allegation. Better hold the premature ejaculations on that one.

The canary trap is a venerable ploy of intelligence tradecraft for flushing out info-leakers. You send slightly different versions of an info package to suspected leakers in a leaky agency, and when the info materializes somewhere like The New York Times, you can tell exactly which canary crooned the melody. In this case, the agency was the White House National Security Council, the notorious nest of intriguers lately the haunt of impeachment stars Col. Alexander Vindman and alleged “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella (on loan from the CIA, and now back there). Another bird in that nest is Alexander Vindman’s twin brother Col. Eugene (Yevgeny) Vindman, a military lawyer posted as chief ethics counsel for the NSC, of all things.

The info-package in this case was the manuscript of John Bolton’s book, The Room Where It Happened, relating his brief and tumultuous misadventures in Trumpland, slated for release March 17. Someone in the White House chain of command ordered a security review of the manuscript by the NSC — a curious detail. Why there, of all places, given the recent exploits of Ciaramella, Vindman & Vindman, Sean Misko, Abigail Grace, current or former NSC employees now in the service of Adam Schiff’s House Intel Committee, which kicked off the latest mega-distraction from the nation’s business? It was, apparently, Eugene Vindman’s job to vet the Bolton book. Any conflict there? (Considering his twin brother was one of the “whistleblower’s” chief confederates.) Why not give the manuscript to the Attorney General’s counsel, or some other referee to determine what in the book might qualify as privileged communication between a president and a top national security advisor?

Well, before you go tripping off on a tear about the suspect loyalties of William Barr, consider that the chief byproduct of the entire three-year RussiaGate flimflam and all its subsequent offshoots by the Lawfare Resistance has been to completely undermine Americans’ faith in federal institutions, including the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA. Perhaps what we’re seeing is the convergence of two perfect setups.

Surely Adam Schiff thinks that testimony from John Bolton was his ace-in-the-hole to corroborate the House’s impeachment case. Maybe his staff (of former NSC moles) had a hand in orchestrating the leaks from the NSC to The New York Times at exactly the right moment — hours before Mr. Trump’s lawyers would begin to argue the main body of his defense in the Senate, to produce an orgasmic gotcha. But what if Mr. Trump’s lawyers and confidants were ahead of the scheme and knew exactly when and how Mr. Schiff would call the play?

It’s actually inconceivable that Mr. Trump’s team did not know this play was coming. Do you suppose they didn’t know that Mr. Bolton had written a book on contract for Simon & Schuster, and much more? After all, a president has access to information that even a sedulous bottom-feeder like Mr. Schiff just doesn’t command. Maybe the canary trap is only the prelude to a booby trap — and remember, boobies are much larger birds than canaries. Maybe, despite prior protestations about not calling witnesses, the Bolton ploy will actually be an excuse for Mr. Trump’s defense team to run the switcheroo play and accede to the calling of witnesses.

Perhaps they are not afraid of what Mr. Bolton might have to say in the ‘splainin’ seat. Perhaps what he has to say turns out to be, at least, the proverbial nothingburger with mayo and onion, or, at worst, a perfidious prevarication motivated by ill-will against the employer who sacked him ignominiously. Perhaps Mr. Trump’s lawyers are longing for the chance to haul in some witnesses of their own, for instance the “whistleblower.” It is also inconceivable that the actual progenitor of this mighty hot mess would not be called to account in the very forum that his ploy was aimed to convoke.

And from the unmasked “whistleblower,” the spectacle would proceed straightaway to Adam Schiff himself in the witness chair. That will be an elongated moment of personal self-disfigurement not seen in American history since William Jennings Bryan was left blubbering in the courtroom at Dayton, Tennessee, 1925, after he spearheaded the malicious prosecution of John Scopes for teaching evolution in a high school biology class… or the moment of national wonder and nausea in June 1954 when Army Chief Counsel Joseph Welch rose from his chair and asked witch-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”

In a deeply imperfect world, California’s 28th congressional district has produced a true marvel: the perfect scoundrel. Adam Schiff has been hurling false accusations and retailing mendacious narratives for three years. He deserves the most public disgrace that can possibly be arranged, on nationwide television, with all his many media enablers at CNN and MSNBC having to call the play-by-play. Then the nation needs to expel him from the House of Representatives. And then, maybe, the USA can get on with other business.

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

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

This is a very serious (Corona) virus that is only just now getting the attention that it should. It is asymptomatic, meaning you can get it from someone who doesn’t have symptoms. It can have a one to 14 day incubation period. It may very well be airborne transferred, in addition to person to person direct contact. It appears to have started December 31.

The good news? It mainly affects people over 50 years old, who have immune problems, although there is evidence that is changing. Paper masks on the face don’t work very well. A N95 respirator will work. Isolation is the best preventative.

Many of the agencies we have are not telling the complete story on this virus. They don’t want to panic the general public. The virus may already be mutating; getting easier to get and affecting more people. The Spanish Flu over one hundred years ago did that. It killed 25% of the world’s population. Nobody to this day knows how it spread so fast, but when it mutated, many more people were killed than the first stage.

We will have a better idea of how bad this virus really is after two or three weeks, when, if we are lucky, the number of infected people will peak. Go to town if it doesn’t peak by then and stock up. Be prepared to stay at home for an extended period of time. Isolation is your friend.

I’ll leave the other comments about how or who started it to my fellow tin foil hat commenters and conspiratory theorists (my tin foil hat is sitting on the table while I get my family ready for the shit storm that may be coming).

As someone who was professionally trained in this exact kind of situation I can only stress to you that the potential for this to get out of hand is very real. Keep up on the news releases.

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] The Dems are like a piker putting their last chips on one final spin of the wheel. But there is a logic to it:

Do our backers (donors, media/entertainment/academic elite, etc) want Trump to not have a second term?

Do our backers (donors, media/entertainment/academic elite, etc) really want Trump to not have a second term?

If yes, then any lie, misrepresentation, manipulation, or subterfuge will be accepted and repeated ad nauseam to make this happen.

Also, the Dems screeching for new witnesses is simply a convenient bridge to a second impeachment once this one predictably fails, especially if they don’t get all their witnesses – “See, there’s even more (imagined) crimes when need to press that the Republican held Senate denied.”

They’ll do a second impeachment in any event; they won’t be able to help themselves – “See, Trump is so bad that he’s the only president in history that’s ever been (falsely) impeached twice!”

Thrice would be overkill, but back to the gambling analogy, I’d put even money on twice.

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[2] In an overcrowded environment, disease comes out of nowhere. This Corona virus has attacked a populace that is carrying on business as usual. Personal space is non-existent. Imagine trying to control an airborne vector in NYC subway. A source of concern regarding viruses, they are finding old viruses from thousands of years ago in the thawing tundra in Canada and Alaska. That makes them new viruses. Did this corona virus come from Siberia? What is out there waiting?

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[3] Tough to beat Bogart as Phillip Marlowe in “The Big Sleep.” Dick Powell was a good Marlowe in “Murder, My Sweet.” Robert Mitchum and Robert Montgomery were pretty good also.

Those earlier private eyes from the 40s and 50s had “it” in spades. Hard boiled and usually a move ahead. Tough nuts to crack, better bring a black jack.

Mitchum in “Farewell, My Lovely”:

“I was having lunch in a Chinese restaurant when a dark shadow fell across my chop suey.”

“I sparred with the night clerk for a couple of minutes, but it was like trying to open a sardine can after you broke off the metal lip. There was something about Abraham Lincoln’s picture that loosened him up.”

“This car sticks out like spats at an Iowa picnic.”

“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.”

“I like smooth shiny girls, hardboiled and loaded with sin.”

Priceless. Reminds me of Melanie Griffith’s line in “Working Girl”: “I have a head for business and a bod for sin.”

“The wet air was as cold as the ashes of love.”

“The coffee shop smell was strong enough to build a garage on.”

Thanks to Raymond Chandler.

REMINDER 2020 Field-of-Interest Grant Program Guidelines and Application Now Available - Deadline: January 31, 2020 by 5:00 pm

We are excited to see all of the applications for our Field-of-Interest Grant Program rolling in. If you are planning to apply for our Field-of-Interest Grant Program, the deadline is fast approaching.

All applications and supporting materials must be submitted by 5:00 PM this Friday, January 31st. We encourage you to submit as soon as possible to avoid any last-minute technical issues. If you have any questions concerning your application, please contact our program office: Allison Findley; Program Officer (707) 468-9882 ext. 103 allison@communityfound.org Amy Lutz; Program Associate (707) 468-9882 ext. 104 amy@communityfound.org

Our staff and committees are looking forward to reading your grant proposals. As a reminder, non-profit organizations from throughout Mendocino County are invited to submit proposals online by January 31, 2020 by 5:00 p.m.

Guidelines and a link to the online application are available at www.communityfound.org.

Questions about eligibility, guidelines or the application may be directed to Allison Findley, Program Officer, at (707) 468-9882 x103.

Our staff and committees are looking forward to reading your grant proposals.

If you have any trouble at all please feel free to contact the program office between 9am and 5pm this week with the above contact information.

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(707) 468-9882

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