MCT: Saturday, April 25, 2020

• Weak Fronts
• 11 Now
• TrumpCare
• Revised SIP
• Empty Park
• Richard Herr
• Sergeant Kendl
• Conspiracy Theory
• Rough Lie
• BOS Comments
• Channeling Donnie
• Shared Austerity
• B Heist
• Noyo Harbor
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Tough Choices
• Fort Alexander
• Pipe Dreams
• Puddle Rushmore
• Tired Lecture
• Planning Agenda
• Chess Move
• Interstate System
• Daisies
• Coast Corn
• Coming Attractions
• Nature's Deal
• Normal Dangerous
• Cleaning Products
• McSheep
• Permanently Broken
• Warming Fire
• Biden/Summers
• Disinfectant Drip
• Virtual Singalong
• Olmos Interview
• Found Object

WHILE A FEW WEAK FRONTS will clip northwest California over the next several days, any spotty light showers will be restricted to Del Norte and northern Humboldt Counties. Coastal areas will continue to see areas of clouds and fog through the weekend, with seasonably cool onshore flow. Some high clouds will overspread the interior today, but otherwise expect mostly sunny and warm conditions to persist into next week. (NWS)

UPDATE REGARDING COVID-19 CASES IN ROUND VALLEY

Post Date: 04/24/2020 7:05 PM

Today, April 24, 2020, three additional Round Valley residents tested positive for COVID-19 making six new cases in the last 24 hours. The testing was performed at Round Valley Indian Health Center and the health care workers used proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Following protocol the Round Valley Indian Health Center reported the three new positive cases to Mendocino County Public Health. Public Health has initiated a contact tracing investigation and is working with Round Valley Indian Health Center on additional testing of individuals potentially exposed to the individuals that have tested positive. The individuals are in stable condition, in isolation at home with active public health monitoring and did not require hospitalization. Asymptomatic close contacts of the cases are in quarantine. 

This is a rapidly changing situation and Public Health will be releasing COVID-19 case numbers and information daily Monday – Friday on the Mendocino County Website and on Social Media. 

If you are a resident of Round Valley and have concerns about exposure or have COVID-19 symptoms such as cough, fever or flu-like symptoms please contact the Round Valley Indian Health Center Triage Nurse at (707) 983-6181 ext. 142. Please call the clinic prior to arriving. 

The Mendocino County Health Officer, Round Valley Indian Health Center and Round Valley Indian Tribal Council urge residents to follow the Health Officer’s Shelter-In-Place Order and stay home unless essential travel is required for groceries, medicine or other necessary items. 

Every person has a role to play to lessen the spread of this virus and to help prevent exposure to others. You can protect yourself and your family by following these simple measures: 

• Washing hands with soap and water.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces daily. If surfaces are dirty, clean them using detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection.
• Avoiding touching eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue or your inner elbow.
• Avoiding close contact with people who are sick.
• Do not go to work if you become sick with respiratory symptoms like fever and cough.
• Wear facial coverings when you leave your home. 
• Following guidance from public health officials.

The three new cases today brings the total number of positive cases in Mendocino County to eleven. Of the eleven cases, four have recovered, none have required hospitalization and there have been no deaths. 

For more on COVID-19: www.mendocinocounty.org

Call Center: (707) 234-6052 or email callcenter@mendocinocounty.org

The call center is open Monday – Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

MENDOCINO COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER ISSUES FACIAL COVERING ORDER AND REVISED SHELTER-IN-PLACE ORDER DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Post Date: 04/24/2020 8:37 AM

County Health Officer Dr. Doohan issued a fourth revised Shelter-In-Pace (SIP) order that goes into effect today, April 24th at 12:00 p.m. and will be in place until May 10, 2020. The major changes to the Order include a lessening of some restrictions: 

Outdoor Recreation may now be initiated from within a 20 mile drive of one’s residence taking into account the new provisions in the Facial Covering Order

Live-streaming of events allows for singing and similar activities provided that venues take protective measures to mitigate COVID-19 transmission

The order is enforceable by imprisonment and/or fine thus we urge all residents to closely read the orders and follow them. The Order is available for review on the County website.

On April 3, 2020, Dr. Doohan released guidance on wearing facial coverings in public. Today, Dr. Doohan converted the guidance to a Facial Covering Order requiring everyone (except for children under 2 and those for whom it is not advised for health-related reasons) wear facial coverings when in public as an additional measure to stop the spread COVID-19 in Mendocino County. The Facial Covering Order will go into effect May 1, 2020 at 12:00pm, to allow time for the general public and employers to procure appropriate facial coverings and comply with the order. Facial coverings are recommended but optional for Children ages 2-12.

“Facial Covering Orders are being widely adopted across California to help protect against asymptomatic spread of COVID-19. Wearing facial coverings in public combined with social distancing practices and sheltering in place are powerful weapons against Covid-19 and are helping prepare our community for limited reopening of activities in May,” Stated County Public Health Officer Dr. Doohan.

The Order states people must wear a facial covering before they enter:

• An indoor facility (except their home)
• Any enclosed space
• An outdoor space where they cannot keep a distance of six feet away from others at all times

When engaging in recreational activities in public, it is recommended that everyone bring a facial covering with them in a safe and accessible location and wear that where it is difficult to comply with social distancing requirements. However, the Order clarifies that for some public recreational activities which cause people to more forcefully expel airborne particles, the six feet social distance requirement may not be enough and may call for additional measures.

This Order applies to employers who continue to operate, under the April 24, 2020 Shelter-In-Place Order. Employers who require their employees to leave their residence to work or provide a service must make sure that their employees comply with this Order while on duty by either:

• Supplying employees with facial coverings, or 
• Making sure that employees have access to facial coverings, or 
• That their employees are using their own facial coverings.

Facial coverings are not required for those who work within a small stable group of the same individuals provided that they meet certain criteria, including that they (1) do not interact with the public, (2) do not perform the handling, preparing or packaging of food, (3) work in a location that is closed to the public, among additional criteria identified in the order.

The Order allows business owners and operators (to the extent not otherwise prohibited) to refuse admission or service to any customer or visitor who refuses to wear a facial covering.

As noted in the original April 3^rd guidance, facial coverings means any fabric or cloth that covers the mouth and nose. The facial covering can be made using common everyday household items, can be sewn by hand, or factory-made; no one needs to purchase a mask in order to comply with this Order. The Health Officer continues to discourage the public from purchasing medical grade surgical or N95 masks, which should be reserved for healthcare workers. Facial coverings should be frequently washed, sanitized, or changed, and everyone should wash their hands as soon as possible after touching their facial coverings.

Facial coverings should not be placed on children under the age of 2 or on anyone who has trouble breathing or is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.Facial coverings are recommended (but not required) for children ages 2-12 if possible and under the supervision of their parents or caregivers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers these guidelines for face coverings:

• Fits snugly but comfortably against the side of the face
• Is secured with ties or ear loops
• Includes multiple layers of fabric
• Allows for breathing without restriction
• Is able to be laundered and machine dried without damage or change to shape

More information on facial covering guideline is available from the CDC or on the County’s Facial Covering FAQ webpage. Violations of this Order are considered a threat to our county’s health, and adherence is enforceable by law. The Health Officer will continue to evaluate this rapidly evolving situation, and may modify this Order if needed.

For more on COVID-19: www.mendocinocounty.org

Call Center: (707) 234-6052 or email callcenter@mendocinocounty.org

The call center is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

RICHARD HERR

Dear friends of Gene,

Gene Herr called last evening to tell me that her husband, Richard, had passed the night before. He had tested positive for Covid 19 nine days earlier but never had a fever or a cough. It came on suddenly in full force. Fortunately their daughter, Serena, was able to be in full P.P.E. attire and held his hand through the night. Gene was able to Skype and talk to him, and their son, John, called and brought some cheer to Richard who attempted to talk. The doctor called Richard’s death Covid Pneumonia. 

Richard and Gene came here after many years in the foreign service in places like Saigon, New Delhi, Bangkok and El Salvador. 

They moved to their property next to mine and lived in a tiny trailer for a few years while they contemplated the dream house that they eventually built. We fell in love with Richard’s viola when he played gypsy music for our barn parties. But his love for music didn’t stop there, even before their house was built Richard had established himself at KZYX with his weekly program, “Chamber Music Show Case, Classical Music on a Smaller Scale.”

I talked to Serena and she will be sending me an obituary to post in the AV Advertiser. 

If anyone wishes to write to Gene, her address is:

The Redwoods, Apt. 5205

Mill Valley, Ca. 94941

(via Janet Lombard, Boonville)

SERGEANT KENDL TO RETIRE

Fort Bragg Police Department is honored to announce the retirement of Sergeant Andrew Kendl and his Police Dog Maverick, effective April 22, 2020. 

Sgt. Kendl served honorably with the Fort Bragg Police Department for 15 years. Before joining the fort Bragg Police he worked as a Deputy for the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, several years with Richmond Police Department and was a Naval Military Police Officer for six years. Sgt. Kendl spent 36 years overall, serving several communities as a law enforcement officer. 

Sgt. Kendl was an active Police Officer as well as a Field Training Officer (FTO), firearms instructor, defensive tactics instructor, and a K-9 handler-Supervisor. Sgt. Kendl was highly trained as a gang officer and responsible for several gang suppression events. Sgt. Kendl became an expert investigator in gang investigations. He was called upon to testify as an expert witness in several high profile gang cases throughout Mendocino County. 

Sgt. Kendl was very active with the community’s youth, coaching wrestling, baseball, Future Farmers of America and 4-H, as well as the PAL program. 

The Fort Bragg Police Department would like to thank Sgt. Kendl for all of the commitment, hard work and dedication he has given to the Department and community for the last fifteen years. We wish him well in his future endeavors. 

FORMER SHERIFF TOM ALLMAN WRITES:

“As we acclimate to our current situation, and hopefully we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I feel it necessary to voice my concern about the dozens (maybe hundreds) of conspiracy theories which are bouncing all around social media. So called experts are pretending to know “the truth” about our World-Wide crisis. The conspiracy theorists are convinced that this crisis is part of the American governments method of controlling all of us.

I was a government employee for 39+ years. I know how local and state government operate as well as anyone else. I have seen thousands of incidents that have caused us all to shake our head, yet I truly believe that government does not possess the ability to implement a conspiracy against the citizens. The truth will always come out. I will say that 95+% of all government employees believe in the public’s right to the know the truth. There are no big secrets in government, mainly because your neighbor and my neighbor work for the government. These are good, hard-working people, who want the best for their community. They would never stand for lies/cover-ups/conspiracies.

Are there inept people who work for the government? Of course there are, but they are hopefully weeded out of circulation as their careers continue. The talking heads we all see on social media, who are telling us that this crisis is part of a large scale conspiracy, are creating havoc and that may be part of their plan. I’m convinced government would not be able to conduct a conspiracy to move lunch from 12 to 1 pm. There are too many good, honest people who would never allow a conspiracy to occur.

If you believe any of these crazy conspiracies, you may as well believe that this very Facebook post is part of the cover-up too. It would make sense to tell you that you should pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, but the simple truth is that the vast majority of government employees would never take part in a conspiracy to fool the citizenry. Remember, when someone says “It’s us against them,” please ask that person to define “them.” Using poor grammar, “Us” is “Them” and “Them” is “Us.”

Please don’t think that I believe every government official who tells us what to do. I’m smart enough to listen, research and make my own conclusion. This is not an anti-Democrat or anti-Republican post, this is a common sense post. You are smart enough to think for yourself, please do so. But please don’t tell me that more people die each day from car crashes. We are approaching the tragic 50,000 death toll in the last 90 days and car crashes are not contagious. This virus is very contagious.

Thanks for allowing me to impart my thoughts regarding this. Stay healthy, stay safe and stay home. I hate wearing a mask, and I would love to sit down with my friends and have a nice cold one, but for now, I’m following the basic rules.”

---

Facebook commenter Harold Sipila commented: “Have you ever thought about running for office?”

Allman replied: “It would never work.”

QUESTION FOR GOLFERS: What’s the rule for this?

COMMENTS SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS for next Tuesday, Board meeting:

LIBERATE SOME OF THE COAST

Hello all. 

I do believe it is wise to crack open the door with thoughtful and enforceable solutions. To start:

Local (walking, biking, 15 mile drive) access to headlands, beach, ocean.

Local access for fishing and surfing for mental health and well being, food! 

Minimum 20 feet physical distancing. (even further if ya like) 

Last week I proposed a REMOTE SIP program to Ted regarding short term rentals at Airbnb, VRBO and other private properties

Owner is responsible for the SIP compliance of all guests.. 

Do not travel if you have ANY SYMPTOMS -

Minimum stays of 14 days for SIP requirements. Reduced rates.

Must have own mask and gloves.

No grocery shopping, all basic items should be brought with you.

No entrance into local shops. Curbside pick-ups and delivery only

No shopping at grocery stores

When in public must where face coverings

Extra charge for cleaning so we give high pay for hazardous work and provide protective gear. Must carry ID and address of Lodging. 

It's questionable if owners would be willing to take that risk, but It's a suggestion. May we find good common sense solutions. Thank you for your sincere efforts! Onward to a new day!

Sherry Glaser, Albion

---

LIBERATE RECYCLING

To the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors.

During the shelter in place, MendoRecycle is requesting to expand our existing limited collections. Currently, we are open 1 day per week in Ukiah only for residents. Because we are the hazardous waste disposal for the entire county, we request that we be allowed to expand our collections to Willits and Fort Bragg, This will enable those in Northern and Coastal Mendocino County to safely dispose of their hazardous waste. Fort Bragg especially is a high waste volume collection. We understand that it is not advisable to encourage residents to leave their homes, however we can not continue to require residents outside of Ukiah to continue to hold onto their waste, nor do I feel they will. I fear that hazardous waste will inevitably end up in the landfill for lack of anywhere else to take it.

At our Ukiah facility, we have implemented a collection protocol that allows for technicians to stay more than 6 feet from residents, along with sanitation of the waste disposal area between drop offs. Residents remain in their vehicles until they reach the drop off area 1 vehicle at a time, and only exit their vehicle to drop the waste on a designated table, so no physical contact occurs between residents either.

Beyond residents, we have allowed for businesses to dispose of waste by way of appointments, and only if they are unable to hold on to the waste through the shelter in place. We make every effort to minimize the additional traffic at this time. Businesses like residents must remain in their vehicles until they reach the drop off point, where we have a disposal area set up to accommodate the larger volume. In order to receive payments from business waste, we are allowing for all businesses to pay by invoice. We are currently observing the distancing protocol and sanitation procedures during residential and business collections.

We further would like to request the same consideration for tire collections. We have an anticipated tire collection in Willits for May and I have to schedule trailers to be delivered, which is done a minimum of a month prior. Tire collections require no physical contact between the technicians and residents. The residents drive up one at a time and drop up to 9 tires on the ground near the trailer, where our technicians can then retrieve and load them onto the trailer.

Our Tire Amnesty Collections are scheduled as follows:

May 2020 – Willits

June 2020 – Caspar

September 2020 Gualala, Willits and Ukiah

October 2020 Hopland

We would like to add 1 more at the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, as we cancelled April.

We are happy to incorporate any additional measures necessary to allow for needed residential collections outside of Ukiah, and we thank you for your consideration. 

Respectfully, 

Jennifer Lombari 

General Manager, Mendo Recycle

3200 Taylor Drive, Ukiah, CA 95482

Cell (707) 972-0737, Main Office (707) 468-9710

jlombari@mendorecycle.org 

---

LIBERATE RESTAURANTS

To the Board of Supervisors,

I recognize we are all in a very difficult situation, we don’t want tourists coming to visit, but we need there money. If we don’t have there money we can’t survive. We also need to keep ourselves and families safe. So what do we do? One of the things that made me close the restaurant (Trillium Cafe in Mendocino) several days early was the older local people still coming in for lunch everyday, while tourists from the city were sitting next to them also enjoying lunch. I couldn’t live with myself any longer letting this continue to happen, so I closed March 15. Then of course we were all closed anyway. But this time has given me ways to change my business to make it work better for both locals and visitors. I hope these ideas can blossom into other ideas for local businesses.

With the new guidelines for restaurants decreasing capacity by half, is going to be very hard for me to make a living. So during this time, I realized it would be best if I added more outside dining tables for seating during our busy time this summer and fall, so I have ordered 5 more outdoor tables. I also have come up with several Take Away menu ideas. But I think it is important to be able to separate the locals from the visitors. So I propose we figure out a plan to make designated days or times when locals can take advantage of restaurants and shopping without the threat of visitors being in there spaces. This for me was going to be offer locals days where the inside of the restaurant was designated only for them, and visitors can sit in my garden area. If this will be permitted, without being discriminatory. This could also work for the beaches. Certain beaches or parts of beaches could be by permit only. Locals obtain the permits for the car, and have to have local Identification to show they are allowed there. Same with grocery shopping, and retail stores. Say some shops open earlier than 10 on certain days to allow shoppers to come without tourists.

Of course Masks will still be mandatory until this virus goes away, but only inside areas. No in outside areas with lots of space. 

The other thing I am finding very hard to maintain is children and friendships. I think we parents need to find a small circle of our friends and stick to that circle during this time. SO our children can continue to have friends, and playdates, and enjoy life. This SIP has been very hard for kids, lots of watching TV, and walks, and hikes, but they need friends. In this last week I have decided we have all been staying home for almost 6 weeks now, with very limited visits to grocery stores and out in any public place, and we are all healthy and unlikely to have been exposed to the Virus, so I have allowed outside hikes with friends and outside playdates. 

These are just ways I think could work to reopen the local economy. I hope it helps!

Thanks so much,

Sandra McElroy 

Trillium Cafe & Inn 

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LIBERATE BASEBALL

Dear Board of Supervisors,

I am contacting you on behalf of Fort Bragg Little League, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) dedicated to provide baseball to youth on Mendocino coast in the Fort Bragg and Mendocino School districts. We have over 200 children enrolled in our league this year, and before the Covid shutdown, we had already forms teams, ordered uniforms, prepared fields, and started practices. 

Since the BOS announced that mitigation plans would need to put in place for businesses and organizations to resume operations once the SIP order is lifted, we are seeking guidance on what this plan should include. We realize that schools and summer camps for children are being prioritized based on the community benefit they provide. Due to the delay in our regular season that usually ends at about the same time as the Fort Bragg School year, we are looking at a summer season that would start when SIP is lifted and likely go through June or July. 

As a sport baseball does not include as much physical contact as other team sports like football and basketball. It is also only played outside. We feel we could implement additional social distancing and hygiene protocols to mitigate community spread of Covid as best as possible. We would like guidance on what BOS and County Health Director are looking for from summer programs in terms of mitigation plans and specific criteria that must be met. Any assistance you can provide us would be greatly appreciated so we can start formulating our plan and getting it approved for when SIP is lifted. 

Best Regards, 

Grady Gauthier

Fort Bragg Little League President fbllpres@gmail.com 

---

DON’T LIBERATE ANYTHING

Hello - 

This has been incredibly stressful on all of us. My business is suffering and I have ongoing expenses. Like many I suppose, I am eager to get back to life as "normal." 

However, I think this County is doing so well because of the SiP order. If you look at the 1918 flu, cities that released SiP order early suffered greatly. I feel that if we release SiP prematurely, all this effort of the past month will have been for naught. 

I urge you to keep stringent guidelines in place until we are sure the path is clear. Once we are there, I also encourage a stepped approach: the continued use of masks, separation within restaurants, minimal gatherings, etc. 

Thanks for all your hard work. 

Scott Roat (Coast Realtor)

TRUMP VIA SARAH COOPER

How to medical pic.twitter.com/0EDqJcy38p

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) April 24, 2020

AUSTERITY BEGINS AT HOME

Dear Board of Supervisors,

As best I can determine from on-line sources, the CEO and the five Supervisors cost the taxpayers around $1 million per year in pay and benefits. CEO Angelo herself costs over $300k and each of the five Supervisors cost about $150k.

Since by the Board’s own projections next year’s will be an “austerity” budget, the Board should show leadership for when the inevitable cuts must be made by immediately reducing their own and the CEO’s pay and benefits to pre-2008 levels. 

By my calculation that would mean something on the order of a one-third reduction which would not only set an example to the County’s employees, but the suffering public as well. 

Just think what the County could do with over $300k in new revenue that is no longer justifiable in the present virus crisis.

This should be followed by similar reductions in other top official salaries since the funding and taxes which supported these generous outlays is not going to continue and it will not continue in other neighboring counties either — the basis for the generous raises in the first place will thus disappear.

Thank you for your consideration of this proposal to demonstrate that the County’s top officials are willing to share the economic hardship of the rest of the County.

Mark Scaramella

Boonville

NO MEASURE B FUNDS SHIFT

Dear All,

This 1 Million Dollar transfer of Measure B monies to the Community Fund cannot stand.

Check with County Counsel first, but I think it may very well be illegal.

If legal, it is certainly unethical.

If this move is the best the Measure B Committee can come up with, then the Measure B Committee should be immediately dissolved and another reconstituted with laser focus on implementing the initial goals and objectives of Measure B. Period.

Mendocino County already channels almost 20 million dollars a year to a private contractor to provide Mental Health Services for the County. For this funding, the contractor provides little to no metrics or other data to account for their success rates on the County's behalf. This lack of transparency and accountability has to stop, and stop now.

Funneling another One Million Dollars via a back door to an organization which already does not account for its expenditures on our behalf -- almost 20 Million Dollars worth -- is beyond folly: It is madness. And a dereliction of duty.

Misfeasance, if not malfeasance, on the Measure B Committee's part.

The Board of Supervisors need not be complicit in this highly inappropriate action by the Measure B Committee.

I believe its high time you pulled in the reins and exert your oversight authority.

You need to vote this monstrosity down, charge the Measure B Committee to return to and laser focus on its roots; they are not an adjunct funding source for any other County contracts. Otherwise, shut them down and rebuild a Phoenix out of their ashes who are up to doing their job.

I apologize for what might be received as a sharpness in my tone, but this move is really way too much. For so very many reasons.

Kindest Regards,

Stay Well,

Lee Edmundson, Mendocino

ED NOTES

SOME COASTIES are asking, Where are the bees? I was wondering, too. Late frosts killed the blossoms on my fruit trees, and from my not-too-close observations I hadn't seen any bees prior. But just today bees were busy among the early-blooming flower bushes, and there were lots of them. The late Patrick Kalfsbeek said the Anderson Valley was perfect for his bee hives, which he hauled over from his farm on I-5 and distributed at locations from Boonville to Navarro, where they thrived.

PETER GLUSKER, MD. Only learned of his death last week, and was deeply saddened by it. Both he and Dr. Graham, via Coast Hospital, were very kind to my late sister, who suffered from a barely contained epilepsy that landed her at Coast many times. And Fort Bragg's EMTs, the hospital staff, all of them combined delivered a level of care that Bill Gates couldn't buy. Doctor Glusker, 83 when he died, lived a long and, presumably, happy life. He was always jolly in my experience of him and, it's got to be said, for a long period he was just about the only responsible member of the hospital's board of directors. As a purely community hospital, Coast was a jewel, especially by the cash and carry medical standards prevalent today, which amount to Pay or Die. (Somewhere, way back, someone had told me that Glusker's mother had served as a secretary to Trotsky during Trotsky's exile in Mexico. When I asked the doctor if that was true he just laughed and never did answer.)

I CONTRASTED THE CARE afforded my sister at Coast Hospital with the mercenary un-care she got at the Adventist complex in Ukiah. One especially grueling episode began when I found her writhing from serial seizures requiring hospitalization. The Boonville emergency crew hauls patients to Ukiah because it's closer to Boonville, and that's where my sister was taken. And un-taken almost immediately when I got a call to come and get her. "She's stabilized." She wasn't. When I got to Ukiah she was already strapped in a wheelchair at the door to the emergency room. I drove her straight from there to Fort Bragg where it took Glusker a month to get her up and more or less functioning again. I know the Adventists had given her the bounce because her MediCal didn't cover the true services her illness required, which is what you get in a privatized medical system, cum monopoly, like we have going in Mendocino, that and its highly annoying "Christian" overlay. 

MUST add here that Anderson Valley's doctor, Mark Apfel, was and is, of equivalent Glusker-Graham commitment. He came out to our place several times late at night to help with my sister, and I know he's made many mercy all-hours visits in the Anderson Valley in his many years at our clinic.

DON'T mean to embarrass a modest person named Sharon Shapiro who has quietly not collected rents on the store spaces at Boonville's Boxcar complex. It's downright faith-restoring how many people are stepping up to get US through what is shaping up as an unending affliction, medical and economic.

HAD TO LAUGH when I read that "elderly people with the virus may seem tired and confused but don't have a fever or cough." Hey, that's me, not that I have the virus, not that I'd know anyway without the testing we don't have. 

THE PEOPLE who aren't stepping up to see US through include the major credit card companies who are busily lowering the limits on our cards. (Run 'em, America! Max those babies out and do it fast and as far over your limit as you can go before they yank them. Get everything you'll need before there's no credit available, and not much to buy with it even if you have it.) 

GAP'S in trouble. Stores closing all over the place. The GAP family, Fisher by name, also owns large swathes of Mendocino and Humboldt counties called The Mendocino Redwood Company.

GOOGLE JIM KAVANAGH for a neat and irrefutable summary of all the reasons not to support Biden and the Democrats. Commit to memory as all your lib-lab friends go purple in the face. Sample: "Really, register this: The principal immediate goal of the Democratic Party in this primary (and when I say 'Democratic Party' I always include 'its allied media'), in the midst of a pandemic, was to kill single-payer healthcare, the most basically humanistic and politically advantageous social policy—indeed, as the present pandemic makes clear, the most obvious social necessity—one can imagine. The Party strangled it, and smothered any other such initiative, by coalescing around Joe Biden, who has vowed to veto Medicare-for-All even if it passes congress, has long sought to cut Social Security, and promises his billionaire donors that, if he’s elected, 'nothing will fundamentally change.' No Republicans necessary."

JOE OR NO?, by Jim Kavanagh: counterpunch.org/2020/04/24/joe-or-no/

THE USUAL UNRELIABLE SOURCES say Trump looks forward to battling the media every day. His rambling, two-hour pressers would tell a rational man that he's losing, and is probably even losing the more reality-based among his maga supporters. But there he is, and here we are like the passengers on a highjacked plane with a lunatic in the pilot's chair.

TODAY'S provocations were so extreme they call into question, again, Trump's sanity, but then dumb guys say all kinds of crazy stuff. As do smart guys, the diff being that smart guys are savvy enough to keep it in-house.

LAST COUPLE OF DAYS, Trump has outdone himself in lunatic statements. And you know in your bones there's not going to be an intervention, and he's not leaving office in November. The SS America is headed straight for the rocks, full steam ahead.

TODAY'S was a whopper, even by Trump standards when he said, essentially, that maybe a few shots of Lysol would knock the virus out. (Fabreze is a better bet. It would kill the corona and make you smell better, too.) But to be fair to the orange wacko, he later said he was only kidding, doing a credulity check for the media: "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen."

TRUMP'S shot at the Post Office: "For some reason they are very cozy with some of these companies. They don't raise the price of a package. If they raised the price of a package, like they should, four or five times, that's what it should be. Or let Amazon build their own post office, which would be an impossible thing to do. If they raised the price of a package by approximately four times, it would be a whole new ball game. But they don't want to raise it because they don't want to insult Amazon and they don't want to insult other companies. They are handing out packages for Amazon and other internet companies, and every time they bring a package, they lose money on it. The Post Office should raise the price of a package by approximately four times." 

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 24, 2020

SERGIO GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting, probation revocation.

JODI HODGES, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

JUSTIN OVERHOLT, Ukiah. Criminal threats.

AUSTIN RONCO, Ukiah. Domestic abuse. 

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1

In other words, the global financial system was rotten to the core in a massive bubble and the virus pierced it. Now all we have to do is to try to 1. blow another, bigger bubble or 2. take our medicine and learn to live with a deep, prolonged debt default depression. No good choices now. Oh, maybe, just drink some chlorox and breath deeply.

NO CONTACT HIGH

Nothing can be normal now of course. This year's 4-20 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was no exception. Hippie Hill was fenced in, surrounded by security forces who would have felt right at home in any other authoritarian regime exploiting the global pandemic for more power and profit. 

As choppers hovered menacingly over the area, perhaps piloted by Agent Orange addled Nam vets, all that was missing was napalm silently descending on strung out freaks mistaken for latter day hippies when they were only deviant undercover creeps. 

No matter that ganja was legal across the Cali landscape. Even keeping 60 feet apart earned you no pardon. 

Meanwhile, not that far away in the Panhandle, adjacent to the Department of Motor Vehicles, dozens of denizens in tents tried to imagine a better life as they sprawled on cold hard concrete sidewalks, and carbon monoxide was the only thing smoking. 

One cold water hose snaked thru the chain link fence from the deserted DMV parking lot. Not present: food sources, showers, masks and anyone who cared. As for virus test kits, they were, like for too many of us, just a pipe dream. 

At the state capital the Governor's mansion was under siege by flag waving red staters rallying to reopen everything that could further spread the virus and keep 45 in the Oval Office. Like their brethren in Michigan and Texas they screamed for their right to brandish weapons of mass destruction to conspire to carry more mass murder. Why wait for C-19 to slowly torture people to death. Let's just get it over with! 

And open up the massage parlors, pawn shops, no tell motels, all nite gin joints and all day anti abortion clinics-and we mean now! 

Don't forget we've got you in our sights and that's all that matters. Elections, that's so nowhere, totally obsolete. Open fire! 

(BlackRainPress)

"THERE ARE PEOPLE in high rise blocks with three kids — I can’t complain,” the comedian said. “This is why millionaires in their mansions with their gym and going for a swim can’t lecture people. People are sick of being lectured, multi-millionaires telling them to clean out their coffee jar and put it in the right bin — they know those celebs are taking private jets to their private islands. They are sick of it."

— Ricky Gervais

OF COURSE WE HAVE PLANNING. WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT?

Dear Interested Parties,

The Staff Report(s) and Agenda for the May 7, 2020, Planning Commission meeting is now available on the department website at:

mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/meeting-agendas/planning-commission

Please contact staff with any questions.

James F. Feenan

Main Line: (707) 234-6650

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

When the complexity is unravelled, think of the land that can be reclaimed from abandoned interstate highways, the 50,000 mile concrete ribbon running coast to coast, border to border. I knew an old guy who worked on building those roads back in the day; he explained to me how it was done. Apparently just the concrete runs 11″ deep, then there’s rebar, crushed stone, sand etc. What can be done with all that concrete? I wouldn’t be surprised if traces of those interstates are still around 2000 years from now, like the Appian Way outside of Rome.

GROWING CORN ON THE COAST

From: "Meadow Farm CLT" <info@meadowfarm.org>

 Farmer Jesse has been super successful with Johnny’s organic bi-color

Super Sweet. It is started in May from seed in the ground. The garden is 1.5 miles inland in a protected meadow area...somewhat low and warm. We are still eating corn from our last years harvest. Yum! This corn is recommended to be the only corn grown in the same area. He fertilizes them with high nitrog

 Good luck,

 Sojo

Sojourna Lee, Secretary

Meadow Farm Community Land Trust

MeadowFarm.org

---

On Apr 24, 2020, at 7:37 AM, Sakina Bush <sakina@mcn.org> wrote:

Wanda of Fiddlers Green sold Silver Queen and Early Glo. Any early corn would probably work.(about 100 days or less) John Richardson at Noyo Hill Farm grew Dorini and it did well for him on the bluff above Noyo Harbor. Julie Costillo from Rainbow Farm at Redwood Elementary has grown Sugar Dots. I have also grown it and it does well here. It is a hybrid and I have not always been able to find the seed. I learned from Julie that starting corn in large cells and then transplanting them works very well. They like warm soil, so starting indoors now and transplanting out later when the soil is warmer is a good idea. 

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #3

At some point, likely sooner rather than later, people will come to realize that their governments cannot fix this or even ease the suffering. We haven’t seen ugly but its coming to a street near you. Some have stored up food but that will run out or be confiscated from you. It may become a dangerous situation when that cut on your leg or arm goes to infection and your CVS can’t help you because your doctor has to approve. I suggest you arrange for an updated Tetanus vaccination as soon as possible. You can’t afford the ER bill for 7 stitches which you will get a bill for 23,000 dollars. Some probably think their social security is safe. Look for reductions if not more severe means testing. Oh, and that pension you have enjoyed from the federal government will be cut back. You were not promised reductions in benefits. You came to expect the annual COLA kick. Student loan debt will be forgiven. Might as well be since no one can ever pay it back. What are they going to do, put you in jail? No, they are letting convicted criminals out of jail. The list goes on and on of things that are likely to occur which will continue the ripping apart of life as we once knew it. Just hope your toilet doesn’t back up. Plumber’s bill might exceed that of your friendly ER.

GAV’S DOIN’ IT RIGHT

Editor,

Most of us certainly relate to the more than 26 million people who are now unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, we’ve lost more than 40,000 lives, which has necessitated the shelter-in-place orders of governors across the nation, including Gavin Newsom.

Watching states like South Carolina and Georgia, whose governors have sided with protesters who want the stay-at-home orders lifted, fills me with dread. It is a potentially deadly position these two governors have taken when there are new raging hot spots in cities including Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Fortunately, so far, our governor seems to be taking a more cautious approach. UC San Francisco is conducting communitywide testing in Bolinas now and soon in the Mission district in San Francisco. These studies can begin to show us where we really are in the spread of the pandemic.

It is almost like a game of Russian roulette for these Southern states to be returning to a so-called “normal” economic state by reopening businesses.

Frank Baumgardner

Santa Rosa

JUST IN CASE

https://local.theonion.com/man-just-buying-one-of-every-cleaning-product-in-case-t-1842493766

TURNING & CHURNING

by James Kunstler

It’s one thing to get sandbagged by a public health crisis – a plague being about the worst kind – and quite another for an advanced, complex economy to fall away under your feet like a freight elevator that snapped its cables. The two are now linked in the public imagination, which naturally churns out narratives to serve the collective human craving for pattern recognition.

“The news” is the net sum of all that, mixed with a lot of cognitive “noise.” Even highly intelligent people have a hard time sorting it out. The Internet is full of stories, often contradictory, charged with anger, horror, indignation, and agendas, mostly unhelpful and some quite dangerous – like the cry that China must pay for this! Uh, like how? Send them an invoice: Please remit $11.7 trillion to the address above…? Release the US Airborne over Beijing as if it were Belgium, 1944…? Drop the big one…? (They have big ones, too.)

Grievances and recriminations sprout like the skunk cabbages of April: China did it to us so they could rule the world…. The Democrats are lovin’ it cuz it’ll finally get rid of the wicked Trump…. Bill Gates is lovin’ it because the vaccine he’s working on will make him rich…! Doctors Fauci and Birx are tools of Big Pharma…! The New World Order (aka The Globalists) are using it to take away our freedom and turn us into the foot-servants of George Soros…!

Probably the biggest argument is over the seriousness of the disease itself. The statistical through-put of the moment appears to underwhelm the models the USA and Europe constructed at the onset of the plague. At least, that is, far fewer people have died, and of those, mostly the very old and those burdened with chronic illnesses – but also quite a few doctors and nurses in the prime of life. The statistical model is queered by many other uncertainties: is this really the peak? Does the plague come raging back if people go back to circulating freely? Can you catch it again? Will it return in waves next fall and spring? We have those models and pockets full of suppositions, theories, terrors.

Here’s what I think about the disease just now (subject to further evidence): it’s not just another flu. It operates differently, it’s more lethal, it affects many organs and can damage them permanently, and it spreads rapidly. That seems to have been the consensus of public health officials the world round who promoted the lockdown policy – and it’s hard to believe that they all got snookered into that. I have no idea (or opinion) whether Covid-19 was engineered, either as a bio-weapon or a good-faith science project gone awry… or whether some hapless gourmet got it at the Wild Animal Cafe.

The plague didn’t cause the economic crash. But the lockdown response certainly accelerated, amplified, and ramified it. The crash happened because we built up a hyper-complex, over-scaled, just-in-time economic system with all its ecological redundancy edited out for the sake of efficiency, making it hyper-fragile. The system’s basic power module (fossil fuel) was failing on a cost-basis and we tried to compensate for that with debt. The debt got out of hand in both sheer quantity and from the dishonest games that bankers and politicians were playing with it. All of this happened for the reason that most things happen in history: it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The old system is permanently broken now. We’re having a hard time recognizing that, plague or no plague. Many activities have flunked the scale challenge and will not come back to running the way they used to, generally anything organized at the giant scale: global supply chains, global corporations that depend on them, fracking for shale oil, big institutions like colleges and even public school systems, commercial aviation and tourism, the auto industry, show business (including the Disney empire and things like it), suburbia as a general proposition, skyscrapers and megastructures, shopping malls, pension funds, insurance companies, mega-banks, and, of course, medical conglomerates. We’re deceived by Amazon.com, which appears to be successful at the moment because it is filling a vacuum that Amazon will also eventually fall into. Amazon’s business model is a joke. The model is: every item purchased makes a separate journey by truck to the customer. That’s a “sell” signal to me.

The lockdown is making people crazy. It’s one thing to be stuck in the house with spouses and relatives you can barely stand under normal circumstances. But to see all your financial support systems melt down at the same time, along with the implications for your hopes-and-dreams, is a pretty big shock. Naturally so many want to bust out of the waking nightmare and get going, to return to action, to at least see whether what they were doing before all this happened might restart.

I dunno about that. They might flock back to restaurants to spend some of that fresh-minted $1200, and then what? Where will the next $1200 come from? Modern Monetary Theory? A new Guaranteed Basic Income? From what? From taxes paid by which businesses generating what profits from people too broke to buy goods and services? I don’t think so. Times have changed and we’re going to have to get some new good ideas that fit the new times. But, the craziness out there is very likely to start expressing itself differently as we discover the urge to action does not produce the desired result of returning-to-normal. Instead, it produces more disorder in the foundering system, and then the question is: how much disorder do we have to slog through to get to those new ideas suited to the new times?

I’ve got one of my own. The mule business! Seriously.

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

HOPE AND CHANGE, coming right up:

Back to Normal — Biden has appointed Larry Summers as economic adviser to his campaign. The man who oversaw global disaster capitalism in the 90s. The man who promoted and oversaw Wall Street deregulation. The man who slammed M4A & the GND. “Make no mistake. The Democratic Party HATES progressives, even more than they hate Trump. Few people are more responsible for the financial deregulation that led to great recession — millions of families losing their homes, their livelihoods, and their way of life, than Larry Summers."

— Carol Mattessich

TONY BENNETT WANTS YOU TO SING 'I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO' ON SATURDAY

kqed.org/arts/13879106/tony-bennett-to-lead-virtual-san-francisco-sing-along-this-saturday

THE BOONVILLE CONNECTION:

Edward James Olmos on Hollywood’s View of Latino Actors

Whether in his new movie “Windows on the World” or his work with children, the actor aims to give voice to the marginalized, something he thinks the film world should consider.

By Carlos Aguilar

In the new drama “Windows on the World,” Edward James Olmos plays an undocumented busboy working at the restaurant that was destroyed on 9/11. The moving immigration story, which debuted for free this week on the Latino-focused streaming site Vix, is just the latest turn in a storied career that includes an Oscar nomination for Olmos’s work in “Stand and Deliver” (1988), making him one of the few American-born Latino actors ever to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Outspoken on the issue of representation in Hollywood, Olmos believes the industry doesn’t understand the distinct worldviews of Latinos born and raised in the United States vs. those from Latin America. Quarantining alone in Los Angeles, Olmos has been binge-watching, reading screenplays and promoting the virtual version of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. In two recent conversations, he spoke about Hollywood’s treatment of Latino actors, telling the stories of undocumented immigrants and why his most fulfilling enterprise at the moment involves teaching. Here are edited excerpts from our discussions.

In the history of the Academy Awards, only a handful of U.S.-born Latino actors have been nominated or have won. However, Latin American performers have been recognized more frequently. Why do you believe that’s been the case?

For American-born Latinos it’s been an opportunity thing. They don’t put us in the stories. They don’t use us to play those roles. I thought Jennifer Lopez should’ve been nominated for [the 1997 biopic] “Selena.” It’s one of her most stellar pieces of work. There haven’t been many opportunities for us to really garner that kind of accolade. I was very fortunate. I didn’t think I’d get nominated for “Stand and Deliver,” but I did. I understand today more than ever, 32 years later, what the power of that piece of work was. It’s one of the most seen films ever in the United States because of the usage in schools throughout America for the last 30 years.

Do you feel like the industry understands the difference between American-born Latinos and people from Latin America?

Not at all — they should know, because a lot of them are culturally from another place, too. They know damn well that if they’re Italians and they were born here, they’re different than the Italians born in Italy. And if they’re Jews living here, they’re different than the Jews living in Israel. If you’re born here, you’re a completely unique individual. You’ll speak with the rhythms of the dialect of your family, wherever they’re from, but it’s different. Your thought process is different.

Of all the labels used to refer to people in our community, which one do you identify yourself with?

I’m Latino 100 percent. I’m Chicano 100 percent. I’m not afraid of those words. A lot of my friends who are Latinos — Cubans, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans — they don’t want the word Latino used to refer to them. They just want to be actors. We want to be known as American actors. That’d be the correct way, but it isn’t. And I knew it would never be in my lifetime. I knew that we had to first be known as American Latinos, and carry that very strongly and proudly, for us to then be able to not have to use it anymore.

In “Selena,” where you played her father, Abraham Quintanilla, you deliver a poignant speech about this bicultural condition that really connects with many Mexican-Americans and Latinos. Growing up, did you feel like you existed in between two cultures?

That was one the greatest scenes I’ve ever gotten to do. People really appreciate it because it’s a very strong truth. I’ll never forget when I started to use the word Chicano, my father got angry. He’s from Mexico and he came here in 1945 legally and he married my mother, who was a Chicana. I was the first one of his family born in the United States of America. We weren’t Mexican to the Mexicans. We were Americans. We were from here, and yet when we would come back across the border, the guards would say, “You guys are Mexicans.”

Why did your father get upset with you for calling yourself a Chicano?

The word is interesting because it’s a term that for him was not conducive to understanding what we were. For him we were Mexican-American. We weren’t Chicano. “What the hell does that mean?” he’d said. “You are not a Chicano, you are Mexican-American.” I said, “Well, when we go to Mexico they don’t like us. When we come back they don’t want us. Neither one of them want us. So we are not Mexican-American, we are Chicano.” That was about 1964 or 1965 when we started to use it. Chicanismo hit hard. I love being Chicano. It’s a very empowering word.

In “Windows on the World,” directed by your son Michael D. Olmos, you play an undocumented father who survived 9/11 but gets caught up in the immigration system.

It’s a story that has never been told. It gives a voice to people who died that day and whom nobody really took into consideration. It hasn’t been told because nobody has cared enough about the undocumented workers who were working up in the Twin Towers. The movie allowed us to take a look at what a family would do to survive, and how love makes them withstand incredible turmoil. One of the co-writers, Robert Anderson, read an article that didn’t mention anything about anybody who worked at the Windows on the World restaurant. Curiosity took hold of him and he thought, “Wait a minute, Latinos were probably in that restaurant.” Then the investigation started. To this day, the names of the undocumented people who died on 9/11 don’t appear on the scrolls commemorating the deceased.

One way that you and your team at the Latino Film Institute are changing the narrative around Latinos in entertainment is the Youth Cinema Project, giving children from marginalized communities access to the industry in an educational setting.

It makes a difference when you provide this opportunity to young minds of color, not only Latinos. This is how we’re really going to be able to expand change. During this quarantine, I’ve been working a lot with the Youth Cinema Project. Because of the situation, our students weren’t able to finish their projects, so we get the scripts they wrote and have great young Latino actors from multiple television shows do a live read of them online [available on YouTube]. Our young writers, who are between the ages of 8 and 12, get to introduce the actors and then their stories come to life.

(The New York Times)

FOUND OBJECT