MCT: Saturday, February 22, 2020

• Dominant Ridge
• Smoky Sattui
• Turkey Jam
• Dry Feb
• Bald Eagle
• Peters Endorsement
• Annotated B
• Sere Hill
• Item 6e
• Sheriff Introduction
• HumCoronavirus
• Yesterday's Catch
• Impeachment Postmortem
• Social Security
• BSA BS
• Funeral Alternative
• DNC Desertion
• Dear God
• Falun Gong
• Enslaved Mind
• Golden Gate
• Grange Breakfast
• Mind Control
• Russians Again
• Valiant Women
• McGourty Endorsement
• Found Object

DRY WEATHER will continue today and most of tonight as high pressure slowly weakens. The tail end of a cold front will bring light rain to primarily Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties on Sunday. Dry weather with no rain is expected next week as a dominant ridge springs back. (NWS)

A BOONVILLE READER ASKS,

The new winery off Deer Meadow burned multiple piles of brush yesterday (Thursday) each of which was the size of a small house. They fouled the air in the entire valley. Can you get information out of CalFire or the CSD as to whether this is legal and, if so, how is it legal? My burn permit limits the size of my pile. Larger burns are supposed to have a smoke mitigation plan.

Jim Barstow

Philo

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ms replies: We have forwarded your question to AV Fire Chief Andres Avila. This kind of irresponsible behavior by vineyards is common, unfortunately, in the aftermath of their landscraping vineyard prep for, as Mr. Barstow notes, “a new winery” (probably meaning vineyard). In the past the answer usually comes back as “legal, as long as…” something or other… permit… burn day… But without any consequences, sanctions or fines. Sometimes, somebody in authority goes so far as to say it’s a bad idea. But it continues. Years ago there was a vineyard prep burn by vineyard outlaw William Hill who cleared and burned hundreds of apple trees to make room for a vineyard. That burn was so bad that you literally could not see the Valley coming over the hill from 253 due to all the smoke. Nothing happened after that, of course. We’ll see what the Chief says.

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Anderson Valley Fire Chief Andres Avila: “These piles are larger than AV Fire Department is allowed to issue under our current burn permit program. I was told that this burn was a legal burn operation that was authorized by Mendocino County Air Quality Management District (MCAQMD). MCAQMD has very specific requirements that are followed prior to issuing a large burn permit (wind direction, inversion layers, drying period for fuels, etc.). I can't comment on the smoke from Thursday because I was in Yorkville and did not see it. Controlled burning will undoubtedly create some smoke, but MCAQMD's regulations are intended to prevent any unhealthy imposition from smoke generated while burning. Fire agencies are also involved for the obvious reasons of controlling any unintended fire escapes into the wildland, adjacent structures or neighboring properties. Both agencies have regulations to regulate improper burning as it relates to their jurisdiction. If there are questions related to local air quality, residents should contact MCAMD. If the burn is a fire hazard or is out of control, they should contact their local fire department.”

KATY TAHJA: "Saw an actual traffic jam in Comptche, both lanes stopped, because first you had the wild turkey scouts, then most of the flock, then the stragglers, all crossing the road as patient motorists waited for the flock to pass by. I must admit I looked at one of the young hens and wondered how long you'd have to crock-pot it to make it tender…"

DRY FEBRUARY sends California back to drought: “This hasn't happened in 150 years.”

February is typically one of the wettest months in California, but the state is parched, and there’s no moisture in the forecasts

theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/21/california-drought-february-rain-snow-pack-sierra

KATHY WYLIE: A Bald Eagle on the Navarro. (I’ve spotted a pair there several times lately, but didn’t see the other one this time)

LINDY PETERS FOR SUPERVISOR

by Rex Gressett

Holy cow. What's happening? In the race for Fourth District Supervisor, things are not working the way they are supposed to. The first shocker was that anybody ran at all.

Incumbent Dan Gjerde has cruised through two election cycles unopposed, airily attributing the absence of opposition to his own superb performance. When the Mendocino Grand Jury targeted Dan Gjerde directly earlier this year for zero town halls, minimal contact with his constituency and abject subservience to County CEO Carmel Angelo, Gjerde did not flinch, react, or stoop to a comment. But from what I hear on the street, the county and the district took note.

Then perennial City Councilman Lindy Peters, an 18-year veteran of the Fort Bragg City Council threw his hat into the ring.

Lindy Peters told me early in the election that when he decided to run, he had a pleasant conversation with Supervisor Gjerde in which they mutually agreed not to say anything critical about each other - huh? I would call that conversation unethical, unpatriotic and un-american. Why was Peters running if he did not have anything to say about his opposition? Peters must have been counting on the voters commonsense and Gjerde’s almost total ineptitude, arrogance and disdain for his constituency to make its own case.

The Fourth district's traditional sole political event sponsored by the League of Women voters brought Dan Gjerde to Fort Bragg’s Town Hall for the first time in living memory. It was not actually a debate, the candidates did not address each other, the public filled out “question cards” and there was no followup. Since it was a softball world through the course of the evening, both candidates prevaricated wildly — and that was supposed to be it for the election. Non-debates are the league's specialty.

But as the weeks of preordained passivity rolled by and Peters pounded the streets, he must have realized that “Silent Dan” had a broad base of support — at least in Fort Bragg, God knows not for doing anything in particular.

Gjerde makes a few easily debunkable claims of personal responsibility for the improvement of post-recession county finances and claims that paving the roads (which they would certainly do anyway) was his idea, but in the sleepy knee-jerk liberalism of our bright blue district, ideological purity is more important than any particular policy and Gjerde’s schoolboy obsequiousness to the CEO just underlines his loyalty to the cause. For the “north of Pine Street” crowd that’s all they want.

Presumably, Peters was seeing the writing on the wall. Then Fort Bragg’s most revered local heroes — former Police Chief Scott Mayberry and John Naulty, our newly appointed interim Police Chief, endorsed Lindy Peters. That might make a difference.

Hope reared its head.

Too late in the game, Peters got around to the idea that you had to do something to be something to the voters. Eighteen years on the systemically dysfunctional Fort Bragg city council might not have made that clear. It turns out real politics is a steep learning curve.

It was that endorsement smashing into the bone-deep intransigence of the dead-to-logic Gjerde loyalists that moved Peters to an unprecedented act of desperation — another debate. OMG.

The pot regulation debacle that has played itself out over the last two years at the Board of Supervisors is perhaps the most egregious demonstration of misgovernment, overregulation, bureaucratic incompetence and squandered opportunity in the annals of human history.

It is a running joke in the county, a clear and present danger to the prosperity of the Emerald Triangle and “Hey (thinketh Lindy Peters) a real opportunity for blasting Gjerde where it could hurt him most.” That chance came when the Cannabis Alliance decided to put on a second Fourth District supervisorial debate at the Fort Bragg Senior Center Wednesday night on the pot regulation cataclysm.

I don’t know what you could say about the debate. Peters did not know his facts, had no new ideas, and sort of mouthed the general public dismay about crazy compulsive consultant-driven overregulation in generic terms. Dan Gjerde sat back on his haunches and batted back criticism with his trademark snarky arrogance and gave the public another dose of his adolescent hubris (he must be in his 30s, jeesh) and his contempt for the intelligence of the electorate.

It went on like that for most of the debate. Then Gjerde slipped. Badly. And Lindy Peters — who has me under a permanent journalistic interdict (no questions, no answers, no interviews, no emails) won my vote. You can see the incident on Mendocino TV (and in the video posted below this article).

At about 45:38 into the interview, Dan Gjerde came out of leftfield and attacked Ted Williams.

What? Why? Huh?

Ted Williams, the Fifth District Supervisor, is in his first term. He has been a force of nature. I asked him recently for a list of his proposals and initiatives and got a 15-page response (right away). Pot overregulation, zero-based budgeting, county employment streamlining… It goes on and on.

Williams has proposed more innovations, shown greater intelligence, more concern, worked harder, done more and achieved more on the board than any other supervisor in recent history.

He is single-handedly moving the behemoth of bureaucratic ineptitude and incompetence at our county government in the direction not just of good government — but of superb government. Williams would cut a wide swath at any level of government. He is better, smarter, tougher and incomparably more informed than any state Senator or Rep we have. Did I mention smarter? Silent Dan hates it.

Ted Williams is what Dan Gjerde claims to be, can never be and never will be. Gjerde is Carmel Angelo’s little pet, devoid of policy and congenitally incapable of ethical discernment or any form of principle.

Naturally, Gjerde keeps that on the down-low, but in the inconsequential Wednesday night debate on pot, he let the cat out of the bag.

He wants to "coach" Williams, help the newbies along with his superior insight and experience. use his superior patented Gjerde acumen to straighten them out and turn them (I guess) into Angelo clones like himself. Peters felt it in his gut. He knows things are wrong at the Board, He doesn't know what to do exactly. He doesn't know squat about pot regulation, his "experience" on the City Council won't help him. But he did the right thing at the debate.

When Gjerde went into bitter recrimination mode and showed his petty arrogance to the world, Peters jumped in with a strong (implicit but unmistakable) endorsement of Ted Williams’s proactive intelligent competence.

Gjerde just scoffed and Lindy Peters — who I swore in print and in public I would never, ever support for anything — won my vote.

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Mendocino County District 4 Board Of Supervisors Candidate Forum [complete video]: mendocinotv.com/2020/02/19/mendocino-county-district-4-board-of-supervisors-candidate-forum/

ANNOTATED AGENDA ITEMS from the Measure B Oversight Committee for their Wednesday, February 26 meeting

by Whoever Dreamed This Up & Mark Scaramella

Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Update on Measure B Project Manager and Potential Need for Additional Measure B Project Staff Support

(More staff for the non-existent Project Manager won’t help anything.)

Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Scheduling Details of Meetings on the Coast and Willits for the 2020 Calendar

(A waste of time to make people think they’re listening to Coast or Willits concerns.)

Discussion and Update Regarding Approval of Request from Mental Health Treatment Act Citizen’s Advisory Committee for Board of Supervisors to Direct County Counsel to Conduct Legal Evaluation, Research Analysis and Assessment of Adventist Health Partnership Legality; Including Restriction, Necessary Control, Implications, and Compliance Regarding the Possible Use of Public Tax Dollars to Fund Operations of a Private Entity

(This should have been months ago, but in typical Measure B fashion, it’s taking forever with no end in sight.)

Update Regarding December 10, 2019, Board of Supervisors Meeting Regarding Direction to Perform an Operational Feasibility Study of Proposed Measure B Funded Facilities

(We can save them a bunch of time on this one: No report/no update — Consultant Nacht & Lewis will deliver a partial half-assed study someday, not soon.)

Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Update on Status of the Architect

(The “status” is: Expensive and featherbedding.)

Update regarding California Health Facilities Finance Authority (CHFFA) Grant for Crisis Residential Treatment Facility

(This is the item Supervisor Ted Williams now regrets having voted for since it’s forcing the County’s hand for services they don’t know if they can deliver or afford.)

Discussion and Possible Action From the Regional Behavioral Health Training Facility Ad Hoc Committee Regarding Update of Outline Plan Describing Relevant Details of Allocated Funds to Finalize Improvements to the Regional Behavioral Health Training Center Before Expenditure

(Huh?)

Discussion and Possible Action of Potential Additional Creation of Regional Behavioral Health Training Facility Ad Hoc Committee Group; Provide Direction for this Ad Hoc Committee to Formulate A Regional and/or County Enhanced Training Program and Training Schedule for the Regional Behavioral Health Training Facility; And the Addition of this Ad Hoc Group to existing Regional Behavioral Health Training Facility Ad Hoc Committee

(Right: an ad hoc for an advisory/oversight committee to explore a training facillity they already bought in Redwood Valley.)

Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Report from the Kemper Report Ad Hoc Committee

(Since Jan McGourty “retired” from the Measure B Committee, there’s nobody interested in this one anymore. They’ve never really liked Kemper’s $60k “needs assessment” which they have strained to ignore ever since they got it. Mr. Kemper has since declared that he wants nothing more to do with Mendocino County.)

Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Requesting the Behavioral Health Advisory Board Provide Recommendations on Prevention and Early Intervention Service Gaps and Possible Programs that Could be Funded Through Measure B.

(“Possible Action Regarding Requesting … Possible Programs that could be…”? The Measure B Committee at its best!)

KATHY WYLIE WRITES:

I have just sent this letter (below) to all five county supervisors. Supervisor Williams’s action item 6e requests that data be disseminated concerning mental health services the county expects to receive under their contract with RQMC.

If you are in agreement it would be helpful for you also to send an email to: bos@mendocinocounty.org

Use my message below if you want, or create your own.

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Members of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors,

I write in support of Supervisor Williams' recommended action item 6e, which directs Mendocino County Director of Health and Human Services to request aggregate patient outcome data from Redwood Quality Management Company and subcontractors and disseminate with trends analysis, pursuant to the scope of work under the County’s various contracts with RQMC.

It is an important step towards measurable performance, a prudent business practice, and an essential first step in strategic planning for these services and expectations under the current contracts.

Just as with any successful service-business model, once the county has patient outcome data, both the county and the agency can establish performance goals and stretch goals for the agency's management and line staff. After performance goals are established, they can then be tied to a strategic plan and budgeting priorities.

Absent this information, how would the county know if they are getting the services they expect and pay for?

I urge you each to support Supervisor Williams' recommended action.

Thank you,

Kathy Wylie

Resident and Taxpayer, Mendocino County 5th District

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ms notes: Ms. Wylie asks: “How would the county know if they are getting the services they expect and pay for?”

This assumes anyone knows what they “expect” — which they don’t. And we have seen no evidence that Official Mendo has any interest in whether anyone is getting any services in any of the Health & Human Services Agency activities. The prevailing Mendo mindset is: Here’s a bunch of money. Please do something with it. Let us know when it’s gone and we’ll send you some more. PS. Use as much for admin and supervisors as you see fit. This is the first time anyone has even asked. And if history is any guide, the “answers” will be cliches, buzzwords, goals, and similar non-specific non-answers, along with praise for the “services” they don’t know anything about. PPS. Performance goals are so far beyond Mendo’s capacity that we are tempted to say that the highly optimistic Ms. Wylie is wasting her breath. But we won’t because performance goals would be very nice to have. However, “stretching” them truly is pure fantasy.

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For reference, Item 6e:

Discussion and Possible Action Including Possible Direction to Director of Health and Human Services to Request Aggregate Patient Outcome Data from Redwood Quality Management Company (RQMC) and Subcontractors, Pursuant to the Scope of Work under the County’s Various Contracts with RQMC, and Disseminate with Related Trends Analysis (Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)

Recommended Action: Direct Mendocino County Director of Health and Human Services to request aggregate patient outcome data from Redwood Quality Management Company and subcontractors, pursuant to the scope of work under the County's various contracts with RQMC, and disseminate with trends analysis.

HEREEEEEEEESSSSS, MATT!

Sheriff Kendall to meet with Point Arena City Council

drive.google.com/file/d/1u7zrKH0peHK6j0nUVLkO2k6CdDJK4J1j/view

ONE CASE OF COVID-19 (PREVIOUSLY KNOWN AS NOVEL CORONAVIRUS) IN HUMBOLDT COUNTY

The Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services Public Health Branch has received confirmation from the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of one case of COVID-19 in a Humboldt County resident. A close contact who has symptoms is being tested as well.

This marks the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in Humboldt County. Presently, the ill individuals are doing well and self-isolating at home, while being monitored for symptoms by the Public Health Communicable Disease Surveillance and Control Unit.

Close contacts of these individuals will also be quarantined at home and monitored for symptoms by Public Health staff. With the amount of foreign travel by county residents, including travel to China, it is not surprising that a case has emerged locally. Additional cases may occur either in returning travelers or their close contacts.

“It’s important to remember that the risk to the general public remains low at this time,” said Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Teresa Frankovich.

“Despite the fact that Humboldt County now has a confirmed case of COVID-19, there is no evidence to suggest that novel coronavirus is circulating in the community at large.”

Frankovich added that transmission in the U.S. to date has been among close contacts and not among the general public.

Public Health suggests the following precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and all infectious diseases, including common illnesses like colds and flu:

• Stay home when you are sick

• If you have a fever, stay home or go home if you are already at work or school, and stay home for at least 24 hours after you no longer have a fever (without the use of fever-reducing medicine).

• Wash your hands frequently and particularly before eating or drinking.

• Promote good hand hygiene in your home by educating household members and making sure soap, hand sanitizers, and tissues are available.

• Avoid touching your face, particularly your eyes, nose and mouth.

• Encourage proper cough etiquette. Cough or sneeze into a tissue, sleeve or arm. Do not use your hands.

• Perform routine surface cleaning, particularly for items which are frequently touched such as doorknobs, handles, remotes, keyboards and other commonly shared surfaces.

The county’s Communicable Disease Surveillance and Control Unit will continue to provide updated information about COVID-19 to health care providers, hospitals and schools, as well as the general public.

For updated information about COVID-19, please continue to check the https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/.

If you are ill and in need of medical care and have been in China within the previous two weeks or have been in contact with an individual who has COVID-19, please contact your health care provider or emergency department before presenting for care. Arrangements will be made to have you evaluated in the safest manner possible for health care staff and other patients.

(Humco Department of Health and Human Services presser)

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 21, 2020

ROBERT BERG, Ukiah. Grand theft, burglary, obtaining or using personal ID without authorization, acquiring access cared without consent with intent to sell, probation revocation.

NICHOLAS GODWIN, Fort Bragg. Reckless driving.

JEREMIAH HEILIG, Willits. Trespassing, probation revocation.

THOMAS HIDALGO, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, vandalism, petty theft with priors, trespassing. (Not “doa”)

TERRY JOHNSTON, Willits. DUI, misdemeanor hit&run.

AMANDA OLSON, Angwin/Fort Bragg. DUI.

SAMUEL SIERRA, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

IMPEACHMENT: THE POSTMORTEM

by Marshall Newman

On February 5th, 2020, the bid to Impeach and remove from office President Donald Trump came to an end, when the United States Senate voted 52-48 against removing the President from office. The vote was largely along party lines, with only Republican Senator Mitt Romney joining Senate Democrats and Independents (both of them) to remove the President.

Both the Impeachment bid and the result went as expected. The evidence of Presidential wrong-doing and Democrat’s majority in the House of Representative assured the President would be impeached, while the Republican’s near lock-step support of the President and the party’s majority in the Senate assured he would not be removed.

Despite the Executive Branch refusing to turn over any material or allow any testimony from staffers regarding the allegations of wrong-doing against the President, the hearings in the House of Representative – the equivalent of a grand jury in a criminal matter – showed the allegations to be true: the President CLEARLY threatened to withhold – in fact, actually withheld, briefly – aid to the Ukraine to pressure it to investigate possible corruption by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter stemming from the latter’s appointed to the board of Burisma, a private Ukrainian natural gas company. Testimony provided by U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sonderland, Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, Acting Ambassador to the Ukraine Bill Taylor and others, plus statements by White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and President Trump himself, resulted in a powerful case for impeachment and removal.

Interestingly, during both the Impeachment Hearings in the House of Representatives and the Impeachment Trial in the Senate, Republican members of Congress never seriously disputed the charges or the evidence. Instead, they defended the President by saying the charges did not rise to the level of an Impeachable offense.

REALLY?!

The Constitution of the United States (Article II, Section 4) states, “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

President Trump’s threat to withhold aid to the Ukraine unless it launched an investigation into the Bidens constitutes attempted bribery. That he – through his Executive Branch staff - DID withhold aid to the Ukraine briefly removes the adjective: he committed bribery. The use of bribery against a political rival is precisely why the Founding Fathers made it an Impeachable offense. President Trump was Impeached by the House of Representative and he should have been removed by the Senate.

The reason he was not removed rested on how the Democrats in the House of Representative and the Republicans in the Senate viewed the situation. The Democrats in the House saw it as a Constitutional issue; by his actions, President Trump committed bribery and violated the Constitution and for this he deserved to be Impeached and removed. The Republicans in the Senate saw it as a political issue; he may have done everything of which he was accused, but he is their guy and they would not Impeach or remove him, no matter what. Because Republican Senators – with the exception of Senator Mitt Romney – put their loyalty to a Republican President above their loyalty to the Constitution (which, by the way, violates their Oath of Office), Donald Trump remains President.

Retribution by President Trump against those who dared tell truth to power was swift. Gordon Sonderland was fired. Colonel Alexander Vindman was reassigned and escorted from his White House office (“perp walk,” anyone?). Bill Taylor was asked to leave his post by the State Department. All within weeks of the House Impeachment hearings. Such is the fate of honorable people in the Trump Administration who contradict the President.

Though not really germane to the Impeachment hearings, Republicans in Congress claimed it would be disruptive to Impeachment and remove the President so close to the 2020 Presidential Election, and said voters should decide whether the President warranted removal at the ballot box. Of course they voted against Impeachment and removal, but they will get their wish.

There is clear evidence President Trump has cheated (by welcoming Russian social media meddling to sway the 2016 election, by attempting to bribe the Ukraine into investigating the Bidens, etc.) and lied (so often, the number of lies must be in the hundreds) both during the 2016 election and during his Presidency. So here is my question to Republicans in Congress (though the number who read this paper may be small) and to all who support President Trump: if you do not find cheating and lying by your significant other acceptable (almost no one does), and if you do not find cheating and lying by your children acceptable (almost no one does), why do you find cheating and lying by your President acceptable?

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I was a Boy Scout myself, well, 40 years ago now. My Scoutmaster was ousted for being, er, inappropriate with a few boys. Times were different then so it didn’t make any news, not even locally. Since there wasn’t any allegation of full fledged molestation, or actual sex, the parents didn’t press legal charges. But the BSA did kick him out and banned him for ten years. Of course he should’ve been banned for life.

When I got a bit older I pretty much figured out that my Scoutmaster had his designs on me too. I believe that the reason he never did anything to me was that he was afraid of my Dad. And my Dad did not like him from the get go, and he knew it. He suspected that there was something off about him. That is the key: A Dad who is wise, on the ball, and willing to protect his kids. Sadly too many kids don’t have that protection.

My experience overall was that some of my Scouting involvement was fun and provided me with some good memories. But in the long run it wasn’t really very helpful or morally uplifting, and some of the lowest life characters I ever knew as a teen were fellow Scouts. Including the adult leaders. The BSA overall is full of shit/hypocrisy and filled with despicable people. I hope it doesn’t recover from this bankruptcy.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

The big-wigs in the DNC watched the debate Wednesday night too and know the chances of them losing in November are very high indeed. So someone other than themselves must be blamed and who better than Russian “trolls” and racists, women hatin’ toxic men, knuckle-draggin’ religious fanatics, and deplorables who don’t realize Michael Bloomberg is smarter than they are? I’m not sure where I read this, but here’s the gist of the quote — people who read the NYT (and take it seriously) believe they’re the only ones fit to run the country. There you have it. They will never, ever face the fact that the Democrats deserted the working class — and that includes white collar workers — and left the door wide open for Trump to walk in.

After watching the debate I’ve come to the conclusion the DNC is trying to kill Bernie and Joe (or at least hoping they’ll collapse on stage) as there’s yet another debate on the 25th.

FALUN GONG, A READER WRITES:

Epoch Times, Punished by Facebook, Gets a New Megaphone on YouTube

This is super random but I noticed you mentioned that Chinese dance group Shen Yun in one of your comments. I had just been in LA and had again been scratching my head at one of their billboards wondering how they STILL could be on tour. Then I read this NY Times article (catching up on my reading) that was mostly about the Epoch Times, which I had noticed in Facebook a few times as it was such a fishy name. Well, turns out both Epoch and Shen Yun are arms of the Falun Gong sect! And as Falun Gong is persecuted by the Chinese government, they like Trump because he hassles the Chinese government! Now even Facebook has 86ed Epoch Times. But thanks to this article, at least the mystery of how Shen Yun can afford billboards and to perform year after year is solved.

nytimes.com/2020/02/05/technology/epoch-times-youtube.html

“The business of grabbing and money-making, through a violent extractive economy that the 1% have built, is burdening the earth and humanity with unbearable and non-sustainable costs, and has brought us to the brink of extinction. We do not have to escape from the earth; we have to escape from the illusions that enslave our minds and make extinction look inevitable.”

― Vandana Shiva

FLAPJACKS AT WHITESBORO!

Whitesboro Grange Pancake Breakfast This Sunday

Pancakes just taste better at the Grange, so won't you join the us at this Sunday, February 23 at the Whitesboro Grange for our traditional ALL YOU CAN EAT Pancake and Egg Breakfast this from 8AM to 11:30AM?

Nothing beats a hearty breakfast of orange juice, pancakes, ham, eggs YOUR way, and coffee, tea, hot cocoa or milk. PLUS where else can you get such a great meal for only $8 for adults, $4 for children 6-12, and FREE for children under 6?

Grange proceeds are used to support local families in need as well as other community service organizations such as the Albion-Little River Volunteer Fire Department, Project Sanctuary, Redwood Coast Senior Center, 4-H, Hospitality House, Veterans, and food banks.

Whitesboro Grange is located approximately 1-1/2 miles east on Navarro Ridge Road in Albion. Turn at the Whitesboro Grange sign.

Wendy Meyer

KEEP THROWING SPAGHETTI AT THAT WALL

by James Kunstler

We’re reminded this morning by The New York Times, America’s official psychotic fantasy generator, that the Russians are coming (again!) as an ad hoc arm of the committee to re-elect Mr. Trump. You have to ask yourself: Does Mr. Trump actually need their help? His opponents have been self-meddling so diligently that their party now looks like a Frankenstein creature assembled from the spare parts of Herbert Marcuse, Tupac Shakur, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and Jame Gumb. Imagine that monster running a government.

If Vlad Putin happened to express an aversion to the idea at an international cocktail party, can you really blame him? Plenty of Americans surely feel the same way. Anyway, the Times’ story never gets around to saying much about the alleged new Russian campaign besides this:

“They have made more creative use of Facebook and other social media. Rather than impersonating Americans as they did in 2016, Russian operatives are working to get Americans to repeat disinformation, the officials said. That strategy gets around social media companies’ rules that prohibit ‘inauthentic speech.’”

Wow, that’s pretty scary! Except when you consider that Americans have done a crackerjack job of mind-fucking themselves with disinformation the past several years, coincidentally via this very The New York Times, a figment machine so demented that it has come to resemble the proverbial crazy aunt locked in the attic. The true wonder is the Times’ poverty of imagination, reviving a tattered cockamamie story that bombed abjectly the first time around. I suppose, in a culture addicted to stupid sequels, they expect Robert Mueller will be called back on-duty to sort this one out like he did so nicely before.

Actually, you could make a credible argument that the vaunted US “Intel Community” is a bigger threat to American life than anything the Russians might do on Facebook. Hence, the good news that Mr. Trump has just appointed Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, to the pivotal job as Director of National Intelligence, a position created in 2004 to supposedly coordinate the farflung activities of seventeen armies of spooks and snoops, lately notorious for feeding disinformation to The New York Times and its “Resistance” media allies. Note: right off the bat, The Washington Post characterized Mr. Grenell as a “partisan propagandist,” seeking to disable him from the get-go. One could reasonably assume that the officers of the seventeen intel agencies will do everything possible to work around Mr. Grenell, but he does have the power to ask questions, and to ask additionally the reason why he isn’t getting straight answers, and then to do something about it. Of course, that’s exactly what the Resistance is afraid of.

It was Mr. Grenell’s predecessor, Joseph Maguire, who fecklessly allowed the “whistleblower,” and that phantom’s enabler, ICIG Michael Atkinson, to play the nation on UkraineGate, a hideously embarrassing episode of engineered political subterfuge that instigated the grave process of impeachment, so that the whole world could see exactly how dishonest we are amongst ourselves — more proof that we don’t need Russia’s help sowing disorder and ignominy in our own country. Mr. Grenell might commence by asking some questions about that caper. There’s so much to dig into at the CIA, FBI, and the NSC after three years of deceitful shenanigans that he’ll need a Bucyrus RH400 hydraulic excavator to get the job done.

The Attorney General sure can use some help. No doubt you saw the circus around the Roger Stone case develop into another Lawfare operation to oust Mr. Barr when a thousand-odd former federal attorneys — including some who signed off falsely on FISA warrants — mobbed up a petition for his resignation. I suspect it only pissed him off and made him more determined to bring cases against some of them. Stone, of course, is a political clown with a weak sense of boundaries who made some legally foolish moves, considering the parlous times. But you can still argue he was treated rather unfairly, since his jury forewoman outed herself as a Resistance activist as soon as the trial concluded and no one, including Judge Amy Berman Jackson, has addressed how that happened.

The General Flynn matter is something else, and goes far deeper into the seditious misuse of US intelligence. Flynn has become the American Dreyfus, an honorable army officer dragged through the muck unjustly by the Intel Community working “six ways from Sunday,” in the immortal words of Senator Chuck Schumer, to prevent its dirty laundry from being aired. His ordeal has gone on for three years and is coming close to climax. The legal devices used to screw General Flynn are known to the public now, including the initial deceitful interrogation by FBI agents Strzok and Pientka, the withholding of exculpatory evidence by his prosecutors (and plenty of other misconduct), and the unethical behavior of his former lawyers from the Swamp firm of Covington and Burling. He’s going to eventually get off this ignoble rap sooner or later, one way or another. Silencing him was probably the key objective in the long train of seditions that I sum up as CoupGate.

It would be best if the federal court itself could clean up the Flynn mess by Judge Emmet Sullivan declaring it a malicious prosecution and throwing out the case, because that would begin to repair the institutional damage. But Mr. Trump might have to pardon him in the end. If he does, I hope he goes on national television and provides a detailed explanation of the aforesaid DOJ misconduct for the public, and I hope he does it from the teleprompter so it will come off clearly and coherently.

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

GLENN!

To the Editor:

Glenn McGourty has shown leadership during his term as a Trustee for the Ukiah Unified School District (UUSD) from 2009-2013. His term started with a serious budget deficit during the great recession. By the end of his term, there were adequate reserves and the Board was able to give teachers a significant raise. When he served a term as UUSD President, they hired our present superintendent Debra Kubin who has proven to be an excellent hire. During his term, sound financial decisions were made to maintain a healthy district. Under his leadership, the meetings were conducted civilly and efficiently with occasional smiles and humor. Glenn makes a good point, "I don't sit on boards, I am active on boards!" Join me and many educators in supporting Glenn McGourty for 1st District Supervisor.

Tyler Nelson

Hopland

FOUND OBJECT