MCT: Wednesday, May 27, 2020

• High Pressure
• Jackson Search
• Covelo Madness
• Permitted Growers
• Oakland Issues
• Rock Rose
• Risky Behavior
• Lockdown Stress
• Ukiah Valley
• Beauty Returns
• Sonoma PHF
• Mask Resistance
• Comptche Updates
• Ukiah Courthouse
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Masks Help
• River Mouth
• Death Count
• Ukiah Corner
• Billionaire Cowboys
• School Street
• Watching Rollers
• Brothel Island
• Contradictions
• Free Delivery
• Biden Disaster
• Logging Trestle
• Love Me
• Mendo Garden
• Resign Now
• Ukiah Gateway
• Is Why
• Dalton Intro
• Mile Race
• Virus Talk
• Found Object

DRY WEATHER AND WARM INTERIOR TEMPERATURES will persist through Friday as high pressure continues to build over Northwest California. Onshore breezes will keep coastal areas seasonable cool, along with overnight and morning marine stratus. There is a chance for isolated to scattered thunderstorms Friday followed by abundant shower activity on Saturday. (NWS)

MENDOCINO COUNTY TEAMS SEARCH FOREST FOR MISSING FORT BRAGG MAN

The disappearance of a 77-year-old Mendocino County man has authorities increasingly worried about his safety. Luther Jackson has been missing from his home north of Fort Bragg for more than a week with no solid clues as to his whereabouts.

pressdemocrat.com/news/10989076-181/mendocino-county-teams-search-forest

OUT OF CONTROL IN COVELO

My ride on the Covid Coaster started on March 25, the day I got back to Covelo after three days down in the Bay. I thought it would take a week to work through it. 

It took five weeks. 

Even after five weeks I could only do actual work barely for two or three or maybe four hours every other day versus working 10 or 12 hour every day all week long. My lungs hurt, the area where my heart resides often felt as if a very hot rock had been placed there. For three of those five weeks the Covid Coaster was at its worst: every time I passed out in a nap from what I came to call narcoleptic freefall (covid 19 was NOT, for this camper, anything like the common flu) or went to sleep at night, there was no guarantee I would wake up. But every morning I did wake up was a brand new miracle. 

All this set the stage for a total enthrallment with the transformations of Spring. With two sweaters and a coat on under two or three blankets I watched the world become green through my windows. The little purple shooting star flowers came in, then the daffodils, then the iris. I stumbled around my three acres watching the leaves unwind on the oaks, watched the creek rise and fall as the rains came and went. It was the first time in years and years and years I had sat and watched the world go around from my cabin with that kind of freedom and it was delicious, a freakily surreal counterpoint to what was going on in the world, and what was going on in my body. 

At the end of those five weeks, as I reentered the world, I became aware of increased traffic on the road by my cabin and the roads throughout Covelo as I visited friends. It was the start of pot growing season I realized. 

Water trucks carrying 2,000 gallons of water piped into their tank from the Fire Department dragged gray clouds of diesel exhaust into the trees; hopped up pickups with six or eight foot high shrink-wrapped pallets of fertilizer ratchet-strapped onto the bed wobbled over dirt roads; and various other vehicles of all shapes and sizes — notably a lot of lifted trucks with Cummins engines — blazed around corners, up grades, over bridges with the self entitled driving style of gangsters. 

After the five weeks of virus-caused near-death-experience enhanced watching of nature, it was jarring. In the extreme. Because I couldn’t visit friends and because I was going stir crazy. I went for drives with my dog, still a puppy, who was going double stir crazy. I began to notice greenhouses everywhere, most of them large enough to doubt their legality, some huge enough, janky enough they could never be legal. The more I drove around the more greenhouse plantations I discovered, the more vehicles of all shapes and sizes I found in my rearview mirror, riding my tail as if they had fires to put out, babies to deliver. 

For weeks I’d been in bed before dark every night. But one night I drove home after dark and noticed the hillside above my place lit up with greenhouse lights. Lights in the greenhouses across the creek from me were turned on and for the first time ever, the amazing, fantastically brilliant and complex, awe inducing night sky over Covelo was screwed up like the skies over Oakland, Chicago, LA, St. Louis or New York. 

On a Sunday afternoon, at the end of my five weeks on the Covid Coaster, I was getting ready to get back to work and the world, while getting into the design nitty gritty of a building project with clients. Just then we heard, as we were talking — again — the winding up of an vehicle engine at the far, north end of Road 337L. The whole road is about three quarters of a mile long. We heard the car hit 50 maybe 60 mph, heard it getting closer, then heard the terrible, high and shrill yipping of a dog hit by that car which never stopped, or even slowed down at all, not even a little bit. 

I dropped my clipboard and started running and very soon I was holding my dog in my arms as she cried and cried and cried, leg snapped in two, dangling in a very wrong and nasty kind of way. 

She is not a road colored dog. She is mostly white, very visible against blacktop. Whoever hit her wanted to hit her, perhaps tried to hit her. The self entitled driving style of gangsters. That person was driving some kind of dropped down, air manifold upsized type of Honda etc. (I know the sound.) It was coming from, I have no doubt, one of the large, and obviously very unregulated grows at the end of the street. 

That incident brought into vivid focus what had been lurking, gathering in my peripheral vision: that the growing scene in Covelo had gone into some kind of unchecked, bat shit crazy phase. No more hippies with their patches tucked away in the manzanita bushes lest they be seen by a CAMP helicopter, no more 25 plants zip-tied in your backyard.

No. Everything was out in the open, in your face, fuck-you style. 

I started driving down smaller and smaller, more remote roads, seeing larger and larger greenhouse situations, some possibly legal, most obviously not. I started asking friends for their stories, for what they were seeing. 

When a friend of mine left his amazing/beautiful house in the hills for a week I went up there for a sauna and a change of place. D’s house had always been a favorite for its amazing wind-lashed remoteness at the top of an almost vertical ravine/mountainside. 

When I got there I discovered that on the other side of his house — from the almost vertical ravine/mountainside across the one lane dirt road that led to his place — a greenhouse plantation had been set up with a generator, not the quiet kind, going 24/7. 

Later I asked D about that grow. He told me that further down the road there were a bunch of other grows, all large, all illegal, all run by people who, shall we say, were not the best of neighbors. The year before, at one of the grows, someone had been shot and the grow had been busted and pulled down but this year the same people were back and twice as strong. 

The stories that started coming back from friends were all of a piece. Out of control. … Scary. That the growing scene had gone on zombie steroids within the recent year or so. And: that the hardest, most zombie/aggressive vibes were coming from the huge, definitely illegal grows that were everywhere. 

At one grow, black tarps and metal roofing walls right up to the road, there had been at least FIVE fires started there over the last two years. At another, I heard, a guy had been threatened by people with AKs defending a grow on his property. 

People began to tell me stories of beuracratic/enforcement nightmares: the greenhouses are under Building and Planning’s purview but the light pollution itself was under Fish and Game. BUT, one person told me, when you called Fish and Game to report light pollution they asked you for the plot/AP number of the parcel in question, wanted you — in this person’s words — “to do their job for them.” I heard that the state of things was a function of the Board of Supes who had pulled Sherriff Allman off the enforcement job when legalization happened and had done no enforcement since then. I heard a lot of things, saw fingers pointed in a number of directions, but one thing all the people I talked to agreed on was that things had gotten insane. 

On my way back from the vet in Lake County with my dog in the back seat, $4,000 worth of stainless steel holding her back right leg together, as I drove on Highway 162 into The Round Valley, I passed a bunch of Enforcement type of vehicles: pickups and jeeps with light bars on top and one seriously oversized rig painted the color of sand that looked like it was owned by the National Guard or the Marines. 

Turns out that convoy included folks from the DEA, the FBI, the San Jose Police, Mendocino County Sherriff, Fish and Game and the Tribal Police. (I hope I got everyone there.) They had just busted a very, very large and very, very obviously illegal grow directly and in full view across the road from the Covelo dump. There had been a murder and a disappearance connected to that grow which had brought the attention of the FBI, the San Jose Police, etc., and something had been done. But as I talked to more and more friends about the recent goings on it came out that that very large and illegal grow had been complained about by many people for quite some time. 

Is the current state of affairs a function of beauracratic confusion and oversight? Do the powers that be have no money to enforce the laws? Do the powers that be have no will to enforce the laws? Do the powers that be have no clear mandate because of confusing, poorly written laws? Do the powers that be not give a rat’s ass about Covelo because it’s too far away, because all the people there are crazy, because because…? 

I offer a very genuine and very grateful THANK YOU for taking action, mustering the DEA, the FBI, the sheriff, Fish and Game etc. etc. etc. and doing something at that one grow, but if something will be done ONLY WHEN SOMEONE GETS MURDERED then — WTF? 

Powers that be: please advise. 

(Fed Up In Covelo)

LEGALIZED MARIJUANA, an on-line comment

Most of the “large, irresponsible grows” here in Humboldt have permits or are in the permit process. In one neighborhood in Honeydew, the square footage of permitted greenhouses is at least 10 times the square footage of pre-legalization mom & pop greenhouses and outdoor grows. Pre-legalization, one could hear the birds and the river in that neighborhood – now, the only audible sounds are generators and massive industrial fans. Pre-legalization, the road saw maybe half a dozen personal vehicles on it per day – now, there are dozens of cars, trucks, tractors, side-by-sides and commercial vehicles every hour. There is no way that anyone will ever convince me that permitted growers are better or more responsible than the mom & pops who built this County and are now being destroyed.

COVID-19 LOCKDOWN SPELLS SHUTDOWN FOR POPULAR OAKLAND SHOP ISSUES

(Another Friend of the AVA is gone)

Owners say they can’t reopen print media specialty store, prolonged closure too harmful

by Chris Treadway

OAKLAND — A pair of entrepreneurs who defied the odds by opening a shop dedicated to the ever-shrinking world of print periodicals is reluctantly closing their doors after 13 years, having suffered collateral damage of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Oakland shop, called Issues, carried hundreds of popular and obscure publications from around the world, developing and maintaining a devoted following through two relocations, a recession and the publishing world’s woes. The shop couldn’t withstand the extended shelter-in-place order, though, that has kept its Piedmont Avenue storefront locked since mid-March and stopped vital cash flow.

It’s the end of an unlikely dream for Issues co-founders Noella Teele and Joe Colley, who started the store almost on a whim in 2007 and have nurtured it ever since as the kind of community gathering place where social distancing was never a concern as people browsed the stock that included records, T-shirts and buttons.

“In an age of social distancing, it didn’t seem possible to continue,” Teele said. “We have a low profit margin, but we always had a large volume of customers. On an average Saturday you could see 10 people looking around in different parts of the store. That’s the kind of level of community engagement you need to be sustainable.”

Teele and Colley announced their heart-wrenching decision to close on May 5, after an extension of the shelter-in-place order through the end of May. They had already applied for grants and government business assistance with no success. Customers had come through by buying gift certificates that allowed employees to be paid for a time. But with income gone, expenses continuing and the possibility of curbside pickup in the interim ruled out by Alameda County, the partners felt they had no options. They returned the publications they could and sold the remainder online. The public response to the announcement has demonstrated the devoted following and community feel that the shop generated.

“I am heartbroken to know that Issues will be no more,” one customer commented to the closure announcement on social media. “I will continue to hold on to the hope that Issues may be reborn. Your shop is my all-time favorite shop in Oakland. It’s my one Happy Place when work and life get a bit crazy.”

Another wrote, “We are so sad for you and sad for this town and for our neighborhood to not have you here anymore. You did so much to make it a special place.”

Other fans commented that they would support a GoFundMe effort to revive the shop.

“Just hearing the support from everybody after our announcement has softened the blow a bit and given us some comfort,” Teele said. “It’s nice to see the outpouring.”

The response to the shop’s closure parallels the response it has had since its opening in 2007. The unlikely idea of opening a place specializing in print came at a time when similar endeavors were closing with the world of print publications in the midst of a long decline.

“This was at a time when everyone was saying that ‘print is dead’ and that the written word would soon only be available electronically,” Issues wrote last week in its announcement to customers. “We believed otherwise and created a space where print was not only accessible but thrived.”

Teele, then 29, had managed a record store at Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, and Colley had previously managed a Tower Magazines location. They used that experience to open their own original storefront at Piedmont and Glen avenues.

“We put the word out, and the response was overwhelming,” Teele said. “Even during the recession in 2008, we were able to get through that time and continue.”

As recently as 2010 the shop carried as many as 3,000 different titles, along with books, records and T-shirts, among other items. As titles folded and distributors went under that came down to 1,000 titles. After 11 years at that location the shop relocated to 40th Street near MacArthur BART in July 2018. The loyal customer base followed, “but we continually heard from people that they missed having us in their own neighborhood,” Teele said. “They wanted us to be more accessible.”

The shop, with support from funds through an IndieGoGo campaign, returned to a new spot at 4198 Piedmont Ave. last July, about two blocks away from their original Glen Avuene location, with an opening party, one of numerous events the shop has hosted over the years, including readings, performances and even a chili cook-off. Entering the new year, the shop did well in January, but sales tailed off toward the end of February as COVID-19 fears began to take hold. Then came the shelter order.

“We looked at the future and even if we got enough funding to restock the store, it’s always been based on browsing and discovery,” Teele said. “We never discouraged browsing. Quite the contrary. People would look around and find things they never knew existed.”

That experience would not be possible with the distancing edict.

“It’s hard and daunting to think about what to do next when this is everything we’ve done for over a decade. It’s heartbreaking and devastating,” Teele said. “It was really a fun time to be there just to support the community. I think we had a really good run, and I’m so sorry it’s all over.”

(Courtesy, East Bay Times)

ROCK ROSE

MENDOCINO COAST COVID-19 UPDATE FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 25, 2020. 

by William Miller, MD, Mendocino Coast District Hospital Chief of Staff 

Need for More COVID Testing on the Coast Called For 

A small outbreak of COVID-19 has occurred in Redwood Valley which is located in Mendocino County north of Ukiah along Highway 101. Nine new cases have now been traced to an event at a local church that involved singing on Mother’s Day. Three of those are hospitalized currently at Adventist Health – Ukiah Valley Medical Center. Over 300 other people have tested negative as part of the contact tracing effort according to the Mendocino County Health Department’s contact tracing and testing continues. 

This outbreak underscores the importance of several factors that increase the likelihood for spread of COVID-19: close proximity for a prolonged period (in other words, more than just passing by someone in a hallway), crowded indoor conditions and forced respiratory exhalation, such as coughing, sneezing and singing, which generates a lot of virus particles and carries very high risk. We have seen many church-related outbreaks around the US associated with singing. 

Several scientific articles have come out which reinforce the above mentioned factors as being of high risk. It is also clear that it is very difficult to catch this through exposure in the out-of- doors. Also, transmission through contact with contaminated surfaces, such as door knobs, while still a concern accounts for a low number of cases. Since this is not a bloodborne pathogen, transmission from mosquitoes does not occur. So, social distancing (avoiding indoor crowds), face masks and handwashing remain your best protection. 

From a population perspective, the key to controlling this epidemic is widespread testing and good contact tracing leading to quarantine of people infected. Unfortunately, such testing remains limited in many rural areas including here on the Northern California Coast. A testing center has opened in Ukiah, the OptumServe testing site is open to the public Tuesday – Saturday from 12:30 pm – 7:00 pm at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds, 1055 N. State St., Ukiah CA 95482 in Carl Purdy Hall. 

Appointments can be made by calling 888-634-1123 or by visiting https://lhi.care/covidtesting. 

Local leaders, including Mayor Will Lee, City Manager Tabatha Miller, Mendocino Coast Clinics (MCC) CEO Lucresha Renteria and myself are working to find a way to get such testing done here. MCC, in collaboration with the City of Fort Bragg, has done about 323 tests. MCDH has local surveillance testing. This will help guide decisions on when to start rolling back on shelter- in-place and how to best do so. The Miller Report will strive to keep you informed on such important progress. 

SHELTER-IN-PLACE STRESS 

by Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller

I don’t believe anyone would be surprised to know that there has been an increase in police calls associated with mental health since the Shelter-in-Place orders went into effect. Verbal and even physical disputes between spouses, roommates, and neighbors are on the rise. Likewise, individuals struggling with more significant mental health issues are more prevalent. This includes two individuals who jumped from the Noyo Bridge. Three men were stabbed in the Noyo Harbor and other violent crimes have happened elsewhere in the County. 

These examples are the outliers or the extreme specimen of not dealing well with stress. Arguably some of these crimes or incidents would have occurred during normal times. However, most of us see an increasing tension in our communities and across the nation. There is no shortage of things for us to stress about - health, safety, money, job, loved ones, family, kids, state of the nation, the sick, the poor, our neighbors, the economy, the national debt, etc. 

As City Manager, the stress and tension I find the hardest to manage are the confrontations happening on whether local and state governments should enforce the shelter in place orders, educate violators or take action against the orders. Not surprisingly, people feel strongly about each of these approaches and everywhere I looked over the weekend I saw conflict over this issue. I realize that by writing about it here and especially if this gets posted on Facebook, I will stir up emotions. This is a hot button. 

For the record, the City will continue to abide by the Public Health Officer’s Orders. My oath as a public employee requires that I respect, follow and encourage others to follow the law. When necessary, and where education has failed, the City and the Police Department will enforce the Orders. 

Once a week, the City Managers meet by telephone with the County CEO, Carmel Angelo and the Public Health Officer, Dr. Doohan. These calls are short but helpful to understand some of the reasons why the Health Officer made certain decisions. In discussing the move to stage 2.5 of reopening, the conversation centered on trust and responsibility. Neither the County nor the cities can police the details of all the businesses or customers in their jurisdiction. In Fort Bragg, our Police Officers can hardly keep up with regular crime, emergencies and calls for help without trying to determine if someone’s business is following all the protocols set forth at mendocinocountybusiness.org. This site provides businesses with the guidance to reopen and the means to self-certify that their business is complying. The site also lists every business that has successfully completed the self-certification process. 

The process is about trust and it is about each of us taking responsibility for our own health and the health of others. Each of us gets to evaluate the risk of our behaviors and decide if going out to eat is worth it or not. If I enter a business that isn’t following the social distancing protocols or practicing good hygiene, I can make a decision to stay or go. 

The mask or face covering – I will be the first to admit I don’t like wearing it. I don’t wear it at home or in the car by myself. I do not wear it when I run or exercise, because I can’t breathe. But I stay far away from others and have it with me, if needed. I wear it into stores, I wear it walking around town and when I cannot social distance. I don’t wear it to protect myself but to protect those I might come in contact with. I don’t have any reason to believe I am COVID-19 positive but I would hate to find out I was and had infected someone else. 

UKIAH VALLEY

FROM SUPERVISOR TED:

COVID-19 reopening, Hair Salons and Barbershops 

COVID-19 INDUSTRY GUIDANCE: Hair Salons and Barbershops

Mendocino County is working on an update to realign with the state. My best guess is Thursday.

Those new rules include: 

• Requiring the use of face coverings for staff and customers 

• Removing high-touch amenities like magazines, coffee makers from lobbies 

• Frequent disinfecting of booths, stations and tools 

• Contacting customers before appointments to ensure they aren't exhibiting symptoms 

• Staggering appointments to reduce crowding

SONOMA COUNTY GETS 16-BED 'PUFF' UNIT RUNNING FOR LESS THAN $5 MILLION

"The county will pay for all necessary design, entitlement, rehabilitation, construction and improvement costs, which are currently estimated at $4.3 million. County project management costs are expected to be another $495,600."

For more than a decade, Sonoma County health officials have been trying to figure out a way to open locally a small psychiatric facility to treat people who often sit for days in a regular hospital.

pressdemocrat.com/news/10978049-181/sonoma-county-approves-contract-for

SAM GITCHEL OF THE ROCK STOP: 

Good Morning, I am Sam Gitchel and we own the Rock Stop on Hwy 128 and have been in business for 18 years. We scrambled on Saturday and Sunday to meet all of the requirements for opening, including two bold signs at the entrance stating: 'FACIAL COVERING REQUIRED TO ENTER THE BUILDING.'

On Monday morning we had our first day of business. There were 5 cars stopping to shop between 10-12 in the morning and all were from out of the area. Of those only one couple had masks. One guy says ‘I'm from Texas, don't need one.’ One couple was understanding and said they would come back sometime. The others just didn't care about masks.

So out of five cars, I only was able to allow one couple in to shop. I feel I am alienating customers just by requiring them to follow our health officer's orders. Not a good thing to do as we are totally a word of mouth business.

If visitors do not wear facial coverings they breathe, cough or sneeze onto, not only the merchandise, but possibly other shoppers or shopkeepers. I explained that we are wearing masks to protect them and they need to wear masks to protect us.

It was super frustrating and possibly a danger to even be open, so we closed at noon. 

My solution was to order masks to give away to customers. After the masks arrive I will try to re-open, see what happens and post again.

I have been SIP since mid-March without even a trip to a market. I refuse to be exposed to and to have other visitors to my store exposed to this virus by people who do not want to protect my health and the health of all of us in the county.

So no facial covering = no entrance into the building.

I'm certain that I will still lose a few customers who will refuse to wear the masks, but I can not think of another solution at the moment."

SONYA NESCH, Comptche updates:

Culvert's are being replaced on Flynn Creek Road Monday through Thursday from 6 am to 4:30 pm. Right now they are doing section from Comptche Store to Fire Department. June 1st, they start work on section after the Fire Department. Wait time for me today was 10 minutes. 

Our easy to break into Comptche P.O. Boxes that were supposed to be replaced April 29th were not replaced. Now the Post Master says she doesn't know when they will be replaced as the P.O. is understaffed. So, those of us with the large boxes have to be handed our mail between 10 am and 2 pm Monday through Friday indefinitely. 

Sonya Nesch

Comptche

UKIAH COURTHOUSE, 1907

ED NOTES

JOAN BURROUGHS writes: "The photo of the kid jumping off the Greenwood Bridge gave me a start. I remember one very sad casualty from a jump off that same bridge, it was remodeled some time ago, but is located in exactly the same spot as the original. Harvey Whiting, when just a young guy, jumped off the Greenwood bridge. He landed hard and received a brain injury as a result. He and his sister Grace lived on Lambert Lane where she took care of him until he died. When they needed groceries or had some errands to run they loaded themselves on top of an old tractor in the yard that backfired on occasion; they hauled outta there about once a week to take care of business. Grace and Harvey were related to the Gossman family in Philo through their mother's ancestry. Those kids do not have any idea of what can happen from just one jump. Harvey's youth was taken away and any hope of ever leading a normal life was gone."

I'M SURPRISED there's enough water to jump into. About a thirty-foot drop? And a couple of those kids were doing fancy back flips and other acrobatics. The things we do as keen teens! I remember Deputy Squires being called out one night to that bridge where he found a bunch of kids from the California School for the Deaf hurling themselves over the side in the dark. Had a helluva time convincing them their derring do was dangerous. I've also heard of kids jumping from the bridge over the Navarro on Highway One at Navarro-by-the-Sea. Haven't heard of kids doing for-the-hell-of-it dives off the Noyo bridge. It's probably a mistake to even mention it because, sure enough, some young glory hound will do it.

LOVE IS BLIND the eternal "they" claim, and another old saw says Cupid's arrows seldom strike a smart woman with a stupid man, but they regularly find smart men with stupid women, especially young, stupid women. So what's the deal with Melania? Seems pretty smart from here, from what we know of her, not that we know much. 

She looked angry at yesterday's Memorial Day ceremony stranded there beside the great white whale. She strikes me as a person under marital arrest. I remember a story that said she burst into tears the night it became clear that the stable genius had won the election. She knew, I bet, that he was totally unfit and her long nightmare had begun.

MUY MACHO TALK like this probably reflects the "thinking" of millions. The question may become, Are there enough of them, and are they organized well enough to keep Trumpism alive?: "Ex-marine Mr. Smith said in the Facebook live video posted Friday: 'Are we willing to kill people? Are we willing to lay our lives down? We have to say yes.' He added: 'If you bring force, we're gonna bring force. If you bring guns, we're gonna bring guns. If you're armed with this, we're gonna be armed with this.' On the group's Facebook page they claim: ‘This grassroots movement has grown to 68,000 North Carolina Patriots’."

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 26, 2020

NATHAN DENINGTON-SMITH, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

LISA HODGES, Ukiah. Community Supervision violation.

GEREMY STEVER, Fort Bragg. Elder abuse resulting in great bodily harm or death.

MASKS HELP

Editor,

I’m disturbed by those who have decided that wearing masks somehow impinges on their rights. This virus isn’t personal. A global pandemic is a virus that goes after anyone in any country, regardless of their political positions and cultural beliefs.

When people decide they don’t want to wear a mask, it becomes very personal. You are now deciding it’s OK to spread your potentially viral germs to my family. Which of my children will your actions take from me? Will you be putting my grandson in the hospital because of your actions? Will I have to be put on a ventilator because you didn’t want to wear a mask when you went to the store? How many of my friends will your actions kill?

Please understand this virus can be carried by you without your knowledge. You could be carrying it right now. Without wearing your mask and staying at a proper distance, how many in our community will have to suffer?

Please understand that this virus isn’t personal, and don’t make it that way by your lack of concern for the rest of us.

Kathy Phipps

Santa Rosa

DEATH MATH

Greater death toll than the combined count from every war that the U.S. has fought in the past 60 years

Nationwide death patterns tend to be remarkably stable. On a typical summer day in recent years, about 7,500 Americans have died. On a typical winter day, slightly more than 8,000 have. About two months ago, though, the numbers began to change drastically. Beginning in mid-March, deaths surged across much of the country, peaking above 10,000 per day. This increase — from the coronavirus, of course — had little precedent, outside of wars and the flu pandemic of 1918-19. Sometime in the next few days, the official coronavirus death count will likely exceed 100,000. The true count is even higher — probably closer to 130,000. This larger number includes people who had the virus but weren't diagnosed, as well as those who died for indirect reasons, such as delaying medical treatment for other illnesses. Either way, the toll is greater than the combined death count from every war that the U.S. has fought in the past 60 years: Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq again, Afghanistan and elsewhere. 

— David Leonhardt, New York Times Daily Briefing, May 26th

STATE & STANDLEY, UKIAH

THE ULTRARICH USE NATURE to solve dilemmas they face. The first dilemma is economic. So you made all this money: How much should you share it, how should you enjoy it, and how should you protect and multiply it? Conservation has all sorts of benefits economically. People say that they move to Teton County for the beautiful ecosystem, the wildlife and all that, but the other major reason, the primary reason really, is it’s a tax haven. I try to show that not all tax havens are off in these faraway islands, some of them are right here in the pristine mountains of the American West: Wyoming does not have corporate tax or income tax and often sits atop Bloomberg’s wealth-friendly states rankings. So you see dollars flooding in, which impacts the fabric of the community itself. In Teton County in 1980, only 30 percent of income came from financial investments, but by 2015, $8 out of every $10 in this community was made from financial investments.

I’M A BIG PROPONENT OF CONSERVATION, but I don’t think we look enough at who benefits from conservation, not only in terms of tax breaks but in terms of how it affects property values and low-income people who can no longer live anywhere near where they work. Some people have to drive over an 8,000-foot mountain pass every day to get to work in the dead of a Wyoming winter. So the area is transformed into an ultra-exclusive enclave, where you need the money to buy entry. It’s basically become a gated community to the extreme. 

— Justin Farrell

thedailybeast.com/billionaires-cowboy-up-and-turn-wyoming-into-a-gated-community

UKIAH, SCHOOL STREET, 1920s

IN NINE YEARS MARRIED we had only one vacation, to Oregon where my brother lived. We went out on a rocky point and watched the rollers come in. It was foggy and cold, there wasn't anybody there but us watching the rollers. It was dusk and the watery curls held light as though it was inside them. Up the lonely coast a stuttering blink warned ships away. I said to Riley that was what we needed in Wyoming — lighthouses. He said no, what we needed was a wall around the state and turrets with machine guns in them. 

— Annie Proulx, Close Range

ISLAND OF JOY BROTHEL, Fort Bragg

CONTRADICTIONS

Editor,

I read the Frequently Asked Questions in this is what I learned:

I can go to a cannabis dispensary and buy recreational weed (essential to health). But I can't get an eye exam, teeth cleaning or elective surgery.

I can go to an AA or NA meeting (essential to health). But I can't go to a gym or fitness center.

I can swim in the pool for lifeguard training (essential for public safety). But I can't swim laps in a pool. I can only swim in a lake or river.

I can take a public transit to get to the cannabis dispensary (essential to health). But I can't take public transit one block to go to a park for recreation. But I can drive my car 50 miles for fun.

I can practice yoga alone or with a group, but only outdoors. And not in a gym or fitness center.

I can take public transit to Wal-Mart (essential). But I can't take public transit to a bookstore.

I can’t picnic with family or friends. It's a gathering and gatherings are not allowed by the state. But the health officer invented “social bubble” which is different from gatherings. I think.

I can't go to a bar. Unless it serves dinner. It’s time to add dinner to the bar menu.

I can't go to the liquor store. Unless it sells food. Name one that doesn't?

I can travel to Mendocino County to open a new cannabis dispensary (essential). But not a bookstore.

Plowshares (essential) has been open for sitdown dinners for two months. Restaurants have been close to dining until just now. Does that make any sense?

If I'm diabetic I can get a pedicure. But only from a podiatrist.

I can travel up to 50 miles to a second home in Mendocino County to do repairs. But not for recreation. But I can drive 50 miles in the county for recreation. But not to my second home.

And everybody knows you can't travel to a home in another county. Unless you are the health officer!

Name Withheld

Ukiah

GERHARTS, UKIAH

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

November could go either way. It’s going to be chaotic, though. Seriously, Biden is more than “gaffe prone” as the NYT and others describe him. He has in serious mental decline. There will not be anyway to hide this by October or November. He will be a disaster in the debates and all Trump will have to do is smirk and point his hand at Biden and look at the audience and say “Well, there you go, folks”. It will be pathetic and cruel, but that’s all Trump will have to do.

LOVE ME, I’M A LIBERAL

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers

Tears ran down my spine

I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy

As though I'd lost a father of mine

But Malcolm X got what was coming

He got what he asked for this time

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

. . .

I go to civil rights rallies

And I put down the old D.A.R.

I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy

I hope every colored boy becomes a star

But don't talk about revolution

That's going a little bit too far

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

. . .

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen

My faith in the system restored

I'm glad the commies were thrown out

of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board

I love Puerto Ricans and Negros

as long as they don't move next door

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

. . .

The people of old Mississippi

Should all hang their heads in shame

I can't understand how their minds work

What's the matter, don't they watch Les Crain?

But if you ask me to bus my children

I hope the cops take down your name

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

. . .

I read New Republic and Nation

I've learned to take every view

You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden

I feel like I'm almost a Jew

But when it comes to times like Korea

There's no one more red, white and blue

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

. . .

I vote for the Democtratic party

They want the U.N. to be strong

I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts

He sure gets me singing those songs

I'll send all the money you ask for

But don't ask me to come on along

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

. . .

Once I was young and impulsive

I wore every conceivable pin

Even went to the socialist meetings

Learned all the old union hymns

But I've grown older and wiser

And that's why I'm turning you in

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

— Phil Ochs

DONALD TRUMP, RESIGN NOW

For America’s sake. This is no time for a dangerous, law-breaking, bungling, ignorant ship captain

by Ralph Nader

Where are the calls for Trump’s resignation? Since his first months in the White House, Trump has been the most impeachable, most lawless, most self-enriching, most bungling President in U.S. history. He relies entirely on lying and scapegoating to avoid taking responsibility for his failures. Trump didn’t even win the popular vote – the Electoral College selected him. President Trump has fomented chaos and corruption in his administration without encountering insistent demands for his resignation.

The supine Republican Senate shields Trump from any political accountability. Dominated by the evil “Moscow Mitch” McConnell, the Senate prevented Trump from being convicted under the impeachment clause of the Constitution. But Trump makes the case against himself – “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Trump makes good on that statement every day, making decisions with reckless abandon and doubling down, falsely accusing people of crimes, turning our government over to big businesses, and firing inspectors general investigating crime and corruption in Trump’s regime of corporatism, favoritism, and nepotism.

Trump exercises his pouting, unstable ego as the determinant of misgoverning on a deadly scale, as with his delaying, downplaying, over-riding science and providing lethal advice regarding the Covid-19 pandemic. For which he boastfully gives himself a perfect ten.

Trump keeps flailing, failing, and using foul-mouthed rhetoric because about 43 percent of voters stick with him, no matter what.

Well – the parents of many Trump supporters did not stay with Richard Nixon in 1974. Public demands for “Tricky Dick” to leave office ultimately included much of his “base” including scores of Republicans in Congress, led by Mr. Conservative Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). Why? Nixon had defied a Congressional subpoena and committed an obstruction of justice. Trump, on the other hand, has defied many Congressional subpoenas and engaged in over a dozen obstructions of justice, many of which are ongoing.

Why no demands for resignation? Have too many Americans lost their proper sense of honest public service and accountability? From 1974 to now, the American Bar Association (ABA) – supposedly a first responder against the destruction of rule of law and constitutional observance – has done nothing to challenge above-the-law presidential abuses. (In 2005-2006 the ABA displayed some courage and charged the Bush/Cheney administration with three sets of unconstitutional behavior. See: https://nader.org/2013/04/19/aba-white-papers/).

Many Trump voters seem to expect more of virtually every public figure who isn’t Trump! Ask Trump voters if they would support their local fire chief if he or she lied daily about the fire department’s readiness to fight fires? Would they support a fire chief who appoints firefighters with no experience? Would they support a police chief who accepts no responsibility for a street crime wave while disabling the force?

Would they support a CEO of a major hospital who promotes, against the advice of his/her medical scientists, chemicals and drugs that can take the lives of patients? Would they support a super predator bank CEO who gives sweet-heart deals to the rich at the direct expense of customers of modest means? Would they support a CEO of a big construction company, spouting anti-immigrant hate, while hiring hundreds of poorly paid undocumented foreign laborers taking jobs away from American workers? The answer is pretty clear.

These people in positions of power would have lost their jobs if they engaged in such reckless and unjust behavior. Corrupt Donald, on the other hand, has done all of these continually and remains an escapee from justice. In addition to these previously acknowledged failings, Trump has wrecked the federal health, safety, and economic protections including many life-saving controls on deadly pollution, dangerous business practices and business theft of your earnings as consumers, workers, and savers.

In addition, here is a top betrayal: Trump promised his voters a big infrastructure repair and upgrade program in all communities – with good paying jobs. He betrayed them, giving instead about 2 trillion dollars in tax cuts to the rich and big corporations, like the drug and banking industries and even his own family!

Trump voters need to ask themselves – what else does Trump have to do to our livelihood, health, safety, and dignity before you say – “no more!” If you want more details about Mr. Trump’s lying betrayals, read Fake President by Mark Green and me and judge Trump by his own contemptuous words and misdeeds.

Most puzzling are the many columnists – both Democratic and Republican – who week after week show how disastrously unworthy and unfit Trump is, yet never conclude with a demand for his resignation or further impeachment. Many in the opinion class may believe it would never happen. My response is that judging the odds is not the primary responsibility of a columnist. Making the demand is telling readers that your critique is serious enough to warrant a necessary remedy.

Devastating critics like Dana Milbank, Republican Michael Gerson, Eugene Robinson, Margaret Sullivan, and conservative Max Boot of the Washington Post, or Charles Blow, Paul Krugman, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd and Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times have cogently taken Trump apart on very serious matters since 2017, yet they leave their readers without the obvious conclusion -Trump has to go. A clear daily peril to innocent Americans “I’m in total control”, why not try bleach, etc. The country cannot wait until January 2021 – assuming dictatorial Donald and his determined GOP don’t criminally suppress enough votes to postpone Trump’s departure until January 2025.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! www.nader.org.)

UKIAH, 1933

CHEMTRAILS

“Betty” Writes: “Geoengineering is why our sky is hazy & not bright blue…”

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Thank you so much, Betty. I was wondering where the chemtrails went. But how about:

Slam poetry is why our tap water tastes like sand and not lemonade. Lemonade is better; we all prefer lemonade, and yet, poetry from kids with nose and eyebrow rings and dreadlocks and Doc Martins! WTF?

Low-flow shower heads are why modern ghosts sound like violins and door hinges and not trumpets and snare drums, the way they did a hundred years ago. Regular nozzles in the bathroom, no squeaky ghosts in the garage or anywhere else, QED.

LED bulbs are why our mandatory confinement anklets and bark-control collars are causing a rash. Edison bulbs didn't used to do that, nor did they give you the fantods. Who had the fantods /or/ the heebie-jeebies before LED bulbs? Nobody, that's who.

Find out more about these and a hundred other things the lizard alien Illuminati-infiltrated government doesn't want you to know. And learn this one weird trick to fight back:

Dunkin' bagel, smash in the coffee. (Dig the face expression on the drummer. Use a mirror and try to make that face, yourself.) (That's part of the technique.) 

— Marco McClean

FROM DALTON TRUMBO's INTRODUCTION to Johnny Got His Gun

Addendum: 1970

Eleven years later. Numbers have dehumanized us. Over breakfast coffee we read of 40,000 Americans dead in Vietnam. Instead of vomiting, we reach for the toast. Our morning rush through crowded streets is not to cry murder but to hit that trough before somebody else gobbles our share.

An equation: 40,000 dead young men = 3,000 tons of bone and flesh, 124,000 pounds of brain matter, 50,000 gallons of blood, 1,840,000 years of life that will never be lived, 100,000 children who will never be born. (The last we can afford: there are too many starving children in the world already.)

Do we scream in the night when it touches our dreams? No. We don't dream about it because we don't think about it; we don't think about it because we don't care about it. We are much more interested in law and order, so that American streets may be made safe while we transform those of Vietnam into flowing sewers of blood which we replenish each year by forcing our sons to choose between a prison cell here or a coffin there. "Every time I look at the flag, my eyes fill with tears." Mine too.

If the dead mean nothing to us (except on Memorial Day weekend when the national freeway is clotted with surfers, swimmers, skiers, picnickers, campers. hunters, fishers, footballers, beer-busters), what of our 300,000 wounded? Does anyone know where they are? How they feel? How many arms, legs, ears, noses, mouths, faces, penises they've lost? How many are deaf or dumb or blind or all three? How many are single or double or triple or quadruple amputees? How many will remain immobile for the rest of their days? How many hang on as decerebrated vegetables quietly breathing their lives away in small, dark, secret rooms?

Write the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Army and Navy Hospitals, the Director of Medical Sciences at the National Library of Medicine, the Veterans Administration, the Office of the Surgeon General - and be surprised by what you don't learn. One agency reports 726 admissions "for amputation services" since January, 1965. Another reports 3,011 amputees since the beginning of the fiscal year 1968. The rest is silence.

The Annual Report of the Surgeon General: Medical Statistics of the United States Army ceased publication in 1954. The Library of Congress reports that the Army Office of the Surgeon General for Medical Statistics "does not have figures on single or multiple amputees." Either the government doesn't think them important or, in the words of a researcher for one of the national television networks, "the military itself, while sure of how many tons of bombs it has dropped, is unsure of how many legs and arms its men have lost."

If there are no concrete figures, at least we are beginning to get comparative ones. Proportionately, Vietnam has given us eight times as many paralytics as World War II, three times as many totally disabled, 35% more amputees. Senator Cranston of California concludes that out of every hundred army veterans receiving compensation for wounds received in action in Vietnam, 12.4% are totally disabled. Totally.

But exactly how many hundreds or thousands of the dead-while-living does that give us? We don't know. We don't ask. We turn away from them; we avert the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, face. "Why should I look, it wasn't my fault, was it?" It was, of course, but no matter. Time presses. Death waits even for us. We have a dream to pursue, the whitest white hope of them all, and we must follow and find it before the light fails.

So long, losers. God bless. Take care. We'll be seeing you.

Dalton Trumbo
Los Angeles
January 3, 1970

UKIAH MILE RACE 1909

VIRUS TALK (Coast Listserve)

[1] Reinfection of the same individual is generally not how these things work, especially within relatively narrow windows in time. (ALL immunity wanes over time). However, should it happen, it would be astronomically unlikely that having had had prior infection and survived that those people would die of the disease in the second round. Predicting who will succumb to the virus is impossible on an individual bases. However, the statistics on dying seem to be headed towards 1/5 over 80 die, whilst otherwise it is far closer to 1/400,000 So you're a lot more likely to die of coronavirus than you are to win the lottery, but the vast majority of people will be OK, (Not that it will be a fun experience, but most survive) It's looking like Vitamin D helps, I am unwilling to actually take a position on hydroxychloroquine but possibly if taken in conjunction with Zinc it may be helpful, but I just don't think the proper study has been done. Likewise for azithromycin. I wanted to see them study invermectin, but the side effects of the drug are basically the symptoms of the disease, so . ..

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[2] On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 01:07:52 PM PDT, J Holden <jholden@pacific.net> wrote:

Interesting perspective. Does this assume that non-elderly/non-compromised people are not dying from the virus and that reinfection in the same person is not possible?

Were you not paying attention to the multiple times the CDC etc. have been wrong on this virus? A very large proportion of the deaths in NY are due to mismanagement/doing EXACTLY the wrong thing when there actually was at least some data available about who the vulnerable populations are.

If you're speaking to someone face to face and they cough on you sure, a mask helps. Seeing the general paranoia about this virus, "social distancing" / avoiding direct interpersonal contact seems to be "the new norm". As with ALL communicable illnesses, the loading dose of virus,( amount you inhale), has an influence on whether or not you become symptomatic. Health care workers who have been exposed to staggeringly large loading doses of virus are at enormous risk and PPE is enormously important in that situation. Given that baseline, where most people are staying at home, washing your hands/disinfecting your hands if you venture out in public is actually going to be the most effective thing you can do to prevent contracting the disease yourself.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/how-covid-spreads.html

- Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.

However, given the small mortality rate in otherwise healthy people, the best way for "society" to get through this is for everyone not in the high risk categories to resume normal activities. I expected Sweden to have an enormous death toll from their minimal shutdown. It has not occurred. They were right, I was wrong, we should adopt what they did. Protect the vulnerable, allow everyone else to conduct themselves as they see fit. Given the latency period and the time it was shown to survive on surfaces by the cruise ship data eventual spread of the virus to basically ever susceptible person is likely. Therefore, the very best way to protect the vulnerable is to basically have a big wave of the virus run through the people who are least likely to have problems from the virus, and when that is done, further spread will be far less likely and that will have protected the vulnerable.

Human nature is such that protracted efforts in social distancing will break down, Hand washing currently is virtually nil, that will not get better unless better facilities for it are provided, Better hand washing facilities will help, not just this virus, but any that come at us in the future.

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[3] On Tuesday, May 26, 2020, 11:31:26 AM PDT, Nicholas Wilson < nwilson@mcn.org> wrote:

You seem to be behind on the latest news. Getting the virus from surfaces that you touch is a less likely than previously thought. It's mainly passed by infected respiratory droplets directly from person to person. We all expel droplets by simply breathing, even more when talking, and even more when talking loudly, sneezing or coughing.

 Masks or even a cloth face covering over the nose and mouth stop most ofthe droplets and spray coming out of the mask wearer, and greatly reduceinhalation of infectious particles by the mask wearer. It's the size of the droplets that matters, not the size of the individual viruses, so masks don't need to be able to filter out particles at the nanometer size of the virus.

 Social distancing and mask wearing are probably more effective measures than hand washing, but all three should be practiced for stopping the spread of COVID.

 COVID is far from over with, and very probably the worst is yet to come, especially for our area once tourism is permitted. Tourism is still prohibited by state health order.

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[4] With "respect" to all "involved" You are starting to remind me of Lord of the Flies just before they killed Simon.

Please calm down, mind your own business, and remember that HAND WASHING, not masks, and not "social distancing" is the most important aspect of preventing disease transmission.

And if you really feel the need to protest about possibly beingunnecessarily exposed to a possibly lethal virus; You should be SCREAMING about how the flow of people into BIG BOX retailers has been INCREASED by GOVERNMENT mandates whilst smaller stores, which would almost certainly have LESS risk of contamination, were shut down.

"The way out of the oppressive structure of history is the maximal adoption of individual responsibility" 

I would like to modify the instructions to people who wish to change the world but have yet to clean their room/organize their own life. Wash your hands and when you feel the need to worry publicly about the spread of the virus, Make sure you mention the general lack of hand washing infrastructure at these places of business. Either hand people an antiseptic wipe when they come in the establishment, or provide an easily accessed, easy to use hand washing station. That is what it takes to convince me you are seriously trying to have the virus NOT spread within your establishment. 

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[5] With respect to all involved, when people are in survival mode, we are “minding our own business.” All this talk about motels renting to visitors is ridiculous..my cousin is remodeling her home here. she lives 8 hours away.. she rents a truck to bring up her things to put in storage until the home is finished..she called motel 6 and told them her situation and said she was bringing a uhaul up.. Because her drivers license is the city she currently lives in, motel 6 would not rent to her..after she drove 8 hours to get here with a confirmation..fortunately super 8 rented her a room with all kinds of stipulations.. she recently rented a room at the beachcomber..she had to provide all kinds of paperwork to rent a room..guess what? When you rent a vehicle, it might not have California plates..calm down and mind your own business.

Sweden's experiment didn't go well: sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/article/Sweden-herd-immunity-experiment-backfires-covid-15289437.php

 "I”d say it hasn”t worked out so well," said Dr. George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. "I think the mortality in Norway is something like ten-fold lower."

FOUND OBJECT