MCT: Tuesday, June 2, 2020

• Inland Warming
• Rain Totals
• Our Streets
• Holy Donald
• Nash Fire
• AV Testing
• Seeking Rental
• Sunset
• Mentally Distress
• Early AV
• FBPD Statement
• Lake Mendocino
• False Positive
• LAFCO Sleeper
• Ed Notes
• Montgomery Woods
• Supreme Narcissist
• Philo Haywagon
• Realizations
• Wrong Side
• Capitalism Failed
• Lost Coast
• Pop Says
• Three Words
• Wake-up Moment
• Christo
• Comments
• Yorkville PO
• Schools Desperate
• Sewer Cleaning
• America's Priorities
• Dear John
• Found Object

INTERIOR TEMPERATURES will remain above normal through most of the week. Wednesday will most likely be the hottest day. Northerly breezes each day will keep coastal areas in the lower to mid 60s. Significant cooling and rain showers are expected for the weekend. (NWS)

MONTHLY PRECIPITATION for the 2019-2020 rain season (thus far):

Month | Yorkville | Boonville
May 2020 - 2.36" - 1.85"
Apr 2020 - 1.60" - 1.05"
Mar 2020 - 1.84" - 1.80"
Feb 2020 - 0.04" - 0.04"
Jan 2020 - 4.76" - 3.97"
Dec 2019 - 12.96" - 7.28"
Nov 2019 - 3.12" - 2.19"
Oct 2019 - 0.04" - 0.07"

YTD Totals (Oct 1 - May 31): Yorkville 26.72"; Boonville 18.25"

GEORGE FLOYD KILLING: WIDESPREAD CURFEWS FAIL TO STOP FRESH WAVE OF PROTESTS ACROSS US

Cities witnessed another night of protests despite widespread curfews as sporadic unrest continued across the US one week after George Floyd’s death, which autopsies on Monday ruled was a homicide.

From New York to Washington DC and from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, many communities enacted curfews on Monday, in some cases giving residents just hours’ or minutes’ notice.

In Philadelphia, where the mayor announced a 6pm curfew with about half an hour’s warning, emergency alerts went off in unison on demonstrators’ phones – but they remained undeterred, chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets.”

The mood intensified as the night wore on and curfews came into effect, with police using forceful tactics to clear the streets. In Washington DC, military helicopters and pepper spray were used to disperse the crowds, while in Oakland police launched a barrage of teargas at a crowd of about 500 to 600 protesters, who quickly scattered.

The US has been rocked by days of civil unrest as protests sweep from coast to coast. Speaking from the Rose Garden on Monday evening, Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military against demonstrators. And in a startling scene, police used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds of protesters near the White House while Trump spoke, even though the curfew had not yet taken effect.

“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said during a brief address.

Throughout the nation, cities deployed squadrons of police officers in riot gear and activated national guard teams in response to the demonstrations.

In Washington, protests continued despite a 7pm curfew. An active-duty military police battalion began deploying to the city, according to reports, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it was also assisting with the response, raising concerns about an escalation by law enforcement following a weekend of tumultuous protests that ended with fires near the White House on Sunday night.

In nearby Baltimore, thousands marched through the city, where five years ago the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody sparked days of similarly turbulent demonstrations. Maine, one of the whitest states in the US, also saw large demonstrations.

Scenes in Oakland, California, were peaceful earlier in the evening, when students, teachers, parents and other locals gathered at a high school before marching through the city. The Oakland police chief said 15,000 people attended the protest.

The sun shone and the bells of Oakland’s First Presbyterian Church rang out as thousands of Oakland residents – led by student organizers – marched from Oakland Tech High School to city hall. 

“This time feels like it’s going to be a little different,” said Christopher Foster, pastor of The Rock church in nearby Pittsburg. Foster said he felt hopeful that protests were occurring all around the country, and were not just focused in one city, as with Ferguson. He also spoke hopefully of a time when people will “eliminate segregation inside their hearts”. 

Earlier in the day, Trump told governors they need to “dominate” the activists protesting Floyd’s killing. The president repeatedly told governors that they needed to get tougher against the demonstrators, sparking alarm among those on the call.

Law enforcement officers across the country have responded to demonstrators by deploying teargas and flash-bang grenades and beating back crowds with batons and rubber bullets. In Louisville, the chief of police has reportedly been fired after officers shot and killed David McAtee, the owner of a local barbecue restaurant, early Monday morning. Officers fired into a crowd of protesters while their body cameras were turned off.

The mobilization of protesters across the country began one week ago, after video footage circulated of Floyd dying under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Two autopsies released on Monday – one from the local medical examiner’s office and one from doctors working with Floyd’s family – agreed that Floyd was killed as a result of being restrained.

The report from the Minneapolis medical examiner classified the death as a “homicide”. Meanwhile the autopsy conducted privately for Floyd’s family by Allecia Wilson of the University of Michigan and Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, found that Floyd had no underlying health problems that contributed to his death and that he died not only because an officer had lodged a knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, but also because other officers at the scene held him down.

(The Guardian)

TRUMP declared himself the “law and order president” Monday night as law enforcement fired rubber bullets, tear gas and officers on horseback cleared out protesters so Trump could walk to an historic church across from the White House for a photo-op. “I am your president of law and order,” Trump declared in the Rose Garden as the split screen on televisions across the nation showed peaceful protesters being fired upon and cleared out 30 minutes before Washington D.C.'s curfew went into effect. "The biggest victims of the rioting are peace loving citizens in our poorest communities, and as your president, I will fight to keep you safe. I will fight to protect you. I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters," Trump said.

THE FIRST FIRE of the season broke out Monday afternoon about 3 roughly five miles up Nash Mill Road. CDF called out aerial support units — spotter plane, two tankers and a helicopter with bucket. An inmate ground crew was also summoned to supplement the fast response of the Anderson Valley Fire Department. The blaze of unknown origin began near a dwelling described as a yurt which was burned down. AV Fire Chief Andres Avila estimated that 7-10 acres would be burned before containment. The fire was out by 5pm, with an inmate crew mopping up.

NASH MILL RESIDENT KATHY BAILEY described what she saw: "And we’re off. Units on way to grass fire off Nash Mill Rd near corner of Clow Ridge. This is where there was a 3 ac timber clearance exemption. They burned most of April. All things considered this is not likely to be a planned burn. On the upside I was alerted to this by our neighborhood fire safe council phone tree. If your neighborhood doesn’t have one yet, do it now!"

"Rumor suggests structure lost was yurt."

BOONVILLE VIRUS TESTING. The Anderson Valley Clinic did another round of surveillance testing for COVID19 on Tuesday, 5-7pm. “We are trying to prioritize front line work but anyone interested in testing can send an email to Luiza at lsavin@avhc.org. Location of testing to be determined.”

ON THE SUBJECT of testing, Dave Evans, the ebullient proprietor of the Navarro Store, is justly proud that all four of his staffers, including him, have tested negative. “We went to the drive-through process at the AV Health Center and got the good news right back.” And this from a guy whose thriving little store has seen more than 21,000 customers since January, and right on through the Great Shut Down.

83-YEAR-OLD woman, retired journalist, English educated, neither smoker nor drinker and no pets, seeks close-to-town rental anywhere in Mendocino County. (Her criminally cruel mortgage holders refuse to refi her West SoCo property.) If you have something, please call Johanna at 707 847-3190.

COAST SUNSET

SACTO WOMAN FLIPS OUT AT GLASS BEACH

On June 1, 2020, at approximately 16:57 p.m., Officers were dispatched to the area of the Glass Beach at the request of California State Park Rangers needing assistance with a 29 year old female from Sacramento disrobing, throwing rocks and sand at passersby. 

Upon arrival, Officers contacted the female seated in the tide pool area. State Park Rangers determined there had been two victims of assault and the female was exhibiting signs of mental distress. Officers and Rangers persuaded the female to leave the water’s edge to the beach area. While escorting the female to the beach, she forcefully pushed a bystander toward a large tide pool and attempted to flee. Officers apprehended the female and she was detained in handcuffs. The female continually tried to drag Officers with her into the ocean and the tide pools. Officers utilized a WRAP restraint system and carried the female to a nearby Fort Bragg Police Department patrol vehicle. The female was transported via patrol vehicle to the Mendocino Coast District Hospital for evaluation. Mental Health was also contacted and alerted of the incident. No injuries were incurred during this incident. For further information regarding this incident, please contact California State Parks. 

EARLY ANDERSON VALLEY

A MESSAGE FROM FORT BRAGG POLICE CHIEF JOHN NAULTY

Dear City of Fort Bragg, 

June 1, 2020

City of Fort Bragg Current Status of FBPD 

As the Chief of Fort Bragg Police Department, I believe it is my duty to speak about the recent events that have unfolded in the country the last few days. 

First, on behalf of the Fort Bragg Police Department, we send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of George Floyd. The actions taken by those individuals who violated the moral and ethical codes does not reflect what our department stands for. We took an oath to Protect and Serve the people of Fort Bragg and will continue to do so with the utmost respect for every person we encounter. This Department takes pride of our community and our staff will not break this community trust. 

Second, the Fort Bragg Police Department stands alongside those who choose to exercise their right of freedom of speech peacefully. We ask that all participants respect local businesses and be mindful that businesses within our community are still finically struggling to maintain their livelihood due to Shelter in Place (SIP) restrictions. 

We hear the hurt of the American people. As a department, we will continually strive to educate ourselves, hold ourselves accountable for our actions, and ensure the safety of the community. 

Thank you, 

John Naulty Chief of Police 

Fort Bragg

LAKE MENDOCINO

MENDOCINO COUNTY HEALTH OFFICER UPDATE REGARDING FALSE POSITIVES AND NEW CASES

Post Date: 06/01/2020 7:47 PM

On May 28, 2020, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) notified Mendocino County Public Health of a positive COVID-19 case in the North Coast region. This individual was asymptomatic and tested positive using an Abbott ID Now machine at a healthcare facility outside of the County. In the same week a second asymptomatic individual in the Ukiah Valley region with a known COVID-19 exposure was tested with a different Abbott machine in a hospital with a positive result. Abbott machines should not be use for screening asymptomatic individuals for COVID-19. Following the two positives on two different Abbott machines, the North Coast individual was re-tested at Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) and the Ukiah Valley individual was re-tested at a local hospital. Both hospitals used a different testing system to authenticate the Abbott results and both tests came back negative. Mendocino County consulted with CDPH regarding the false positives from the Abbott machines. Based on FDA information CDPH recommends the Abbott machines only be used for individuals who are showing symptoms and are suspected of having COVID-19. 

Following the guidance from CDPH and in collaboration with Adventist Health and Mendocino Coast District Hospital, the Abbott machine results for these two asymptomatic individuals are being deemed false positives, therefore both cases are being removed from Mendocino County’s case count. The Ukiah Valley individual is in quarantine for fourteen-days due to their known exposure to a COVID-19 case per the Health Officer’s blanket quarantine order. Quarantine is not required for the North Coast individual who had no known contact to a COVID-19 case. 

“We are very appreciative of the work of Dr. Doohan and Mendocino County Public Health in helping us sort all of this out,” said Dr. William Miller, Chief of Staff at MCDH. “We know this is a time of great anxiety for many people. It is helpful to know what the true status of COVID is in our communities. We must remember that all tests must be interpreted in the greater context of prevalence and accurate interpretation is critical. This will be tremendously important as we take steps to thoughtfully roll back some of the shelter-in-place requirements that have allowed us to stay ahead of this pandemic here in California,” he adds. 

While we have removed the two false positives from the Mendocino County COVID-19 Statistics, Mendocino County was notified of two additional cases today. With these changes the current case count remains at 30 cases (17 recovered, 1 hospitalized, and 12 home isolation). 

The two new cases were individuals tested through Optum Serv and sent to a Quest commercial lab for processing. These two people were contacted by the Optum Serv/Quest and advised to isolate at home and that Public Health would contact them soon. The lab failed to notify Public Health of these new cases, resulting in a delay in case contact tracing. Upon notification of the situation, Public Health immediately reached out to the reporting parties, the lab and Optum Serv, to address the matter. The responses were quick from reporting parties and contact tracing is in process on the two new cases. Bekkie Emery, Department Operations Center (DOC) Manager reported, “Optum Serv has been very responsive and is working with the Mendocino County Public Health team to resolve the situation as well as identify where the reporting breakdown occurred to prevent future occurrences.” 

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.

---

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS:

Covid Testing Glitch

Transparency isn't always pretty. An apparent positive from last week didn't trigger laboratory notification to our public health. I received a call around 2pm today. Public health is following up and will report out as soon as details are available. The notification model will be improved. As best I can tell, the failure was not with county resources, but rather the interaction between the private lab and us. I'm not happy about this glitch, but we'll tune and hopefully it won't happen again. Patient did receive timely notification. Contact tracing will begin. No further details at this time. We haven't ascertained whether this is a one-off failure or representational of other positives stuck in the reporting pipeline. The call might have come to me because I'm liberal about giving out my cell number, which you all deserve. 937 3500. Texts are best, because I'm in nonstop calls. Hang on to it. If you have urgent news, contact at any hour. 

MSP’S ‘THOU SHALT NOT SLEEP AT ZOOM MEETING’ DEPARTMENT

A screengrab from the Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission meeting Monday morning — and we can sympathize, it was boring.

(MendocinoSportsPlus)

ED NOTES

TELEVISION COVERAGE of the insurrection has been terrible — repetitious film footage, inane commentary from the big white teeth and expensive haircuts. The talking heads can't seem to talk unless someone writes the words for them. CNN was especially bad.

FUNNIEST COMMENT I heard over the weekend: "I bet Canada feels like they live in the apartment above a Meth Lab right about now."

FROM A SUBSCRIBER: "I can't get my brain around what's happened to this country I've known and loved. The rural America especially, but you've seen what's happened to rural America. Don't laugh, but I call much of it the poverty of affluence, a kind of poverty wherein values and spirit go into the tank, a kind of poverty that makes real poverty seem like a preferable and desireable human condition. Peace to the cottages. Couldn't agree more." 

OF THE MANY SAD VISUALS over the past few days, the one of the San Jose woman in the white SUV, clearly panicked at suddenly finding herself in the middle of a swarm of demonstrators, tries to do a u-turn as the crowd scatters. She brushes someone without injuring him, and is pursued by the police, arrested and charged with attempted vehicular manslaughter. Her mugshot appears a few hours later, and we see an older Hispanic woman still in tears, and still disoriented by what has happened to her. 

GIVEN THE CHAOS unleashed by the murder of George Floyd, gun play has so far been minor, but enough to take several lives, including that of the federal security officer in the watch shack in front of the Oakland Federal Building. David Patrick Underwood, 53, and another federal contract guy still not identified, were shot in a drive-by on Saturday night as the serious mass mayhem broke out a few blocks away. "Federal Security Officer" makes their work as night watchmen sound much grander than it was, and makes shooting them absolutely senseless. The feds immediately declared the shooting "an act of domestic terrorism" although the motive, if there was one, is unknown.

VAN JONES of CNN, who was too left for the Obama Administration, said Friday morning that "all white people of having a 'virus' in their brain known as racism no matter how well-intentioned they may be." Fleshing out that untrue statement with, "'It's not the racist white person who is in the Ku Klux Klan that we have to worry about. It's the white liberal Hillary Clinton supporter walking her dog in Central Park who would tell you right now, you know, people like that – 'Oh, I don't see race, race is no big deal to me, I see us all as the same, I give to charities." Jones was referring to Cooper, a white woman dubbed 'Central Park Karen', after she made a false call to New York City police, claiming that an African American, who asked her to leash her dog while he was bird watching, threatened her life.

AS A MILLIONAIRE TV commentator, Jones is undoubtedly surrounded by treacherous libs of the type who would feed their mothers to pit bulls to get their phony selves on national television, and granted us pale faces won't be confused with John Brown, but anyone with eyes to see can see the millions of genuine, loyal cross-race relationships out there that emphatically weren't out there in 1960. We've made a world of headway since. Of course as our great shopping spree has come to a screeching halt, and everything comes tumbling down, all manner of tensions are unleashed. 

MONTGOMERY WOODS

NAIVELY, I always thought that even Donald Trump would stop short of actually inciting violence. I mean, he’s the president of the United States. Imagine being the president: waking up in the White House, going to work in the Oval Office, being surrounded by all those portraits, all that history, all that grandeur. This, Mr. President, is where Lincoln wrote his second inaugural address. This, sir, is where Franklin Roosevelt wrote the declaration of war on Japan. And on and on.

It would humble a normal person. Impose a certain dignity on you. But to Trump, none of it means anything. It’s not about him, so it’s useless to him. History means nothing to him, and the future means even less. Presidents—all presidents, even ones I didn’t like—think about the office, the future implications of their actions, the future of our institutions. 

Not Trump. He sits in the White House, which belongs to the people of the United States, and tweets out poison with no thought about any of this. I remember during the Lewinsky scandal, conservatives used to scream about how Bill Clinton sullied “our house.” Are you kidding me? Using the White House as a love nest is almost cute compared to how Trump soils the place on an hourly basis. 

— Michael Tomasky

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

A black man murdered by police after a black man bird watching was threatened with police after a black man jogging was shot down by wannabe police. During a plandemic in a voting year on a planet that is literally dying, where a rocket was shot into space with the explicit goal of escaping.

To Mars.

Young people broke, out of work, in heaps of debt, looking for a tribe.

They’re anti whatever this is. They believe it is fascist. So they’re anti fascist. At least it lets them do hateful violent acts without being considered a bad person, an oppressor. 

Floyd Ferdinand serves a purpose. A spark to set a corrupt and runaway plutocracy afire in a place where the disenfranchised are no longer determined by color alone. Where people realize that the only people who have a voice are the wealthy and powerful that control the 2 gangs sharing power. 

A place where the only barrier to the elite is a thin blue line drawn from the same working class schlubs… most of whom are waking up to this sad fact. 

What are they protecting?

A place not worth caring about.

LIONEL SHRIVER:

In a polarized and broadly illiterate digital universe, full of predators gorging on animosity who are determined to read whatever they wish to, words cease to function. All nuance out the window, the language no longer serves to communicate, and what we writers do for a living is worse than pointless.

---

Even if a book is incoherent, tedious, meandering and insensible it will matter less than the identity of the writer. If an agent submits a manuscript written by a gay transgender Caribbean who dropped out of school at seven and powers around town on a mobility scooter, it will be published.

---

Cataclysm is always good for the arts. The possibility of catastrophe is stimulating to the imagination, though I worry this is potentially catastrophic on a scale that’s bigger than anything I could make up – and I don’t mean the disease itself, but everything that follows economically. It’s the same for all of us, though. We feel like we’re in a disaster movie, only we’re on the wrong side of the screen and there’ll be no happy endings for our favourite characters.

THAT CHANGE YOU REQUESTED…?

by James Kunstler

All the previous incidents of white cops killing blacks were just too ambiguous to seal the deal. Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (a murky business); Tamir Rice in Cleveland (waving the BB gun that looked like a .45 automatic); Trayvon Martin (his killer George Zimmerman was not a cop and was not “white”); Eric Garner, Staten Island (black policewoman sergeant on the scene didn’t stop it); Philandro Castile, Minneapolis, (the cop was Hispanic and the vic had a gun). Even the recent February killing of jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, had some sketchy elements (did Arbery try to seize the shotgun?) — YouTube has scrubbed the video (?) — and then it took months for the two white suspects (not cops) to be arrested.

The George Floyd killing had none of those weaknesses. Plus, the video presented a pretty much universal image of oppression: a man with his knee on another man’s neck. Didn’t that say it all? You didn’t need a Bob Dylan song to explain it. The Minneapolis police dithered for four days before charging policeman Derek Chauvin with Murder 3 (unpremeditated, but with reckless disregard for human life). The three other cops on the scene who stupidly stood by doing nothing have yet to be charged. Cut it, print it, and cue the mobs.

The nation was already reeling from the weird twelve-week Covid-19 lockdown of everyday life and the economic havoc it brought to careers, businesses, and incomes. In Minnesota, the stay-at-home order was just lifted on May 17, but bars and restaurants were still closed until June. Memorial Day, May 25, was one of the first really balmy days of mid-spring, 78 degrees. People were out-and-about, perhaps even feeling frisky after weeks of dreary seclusion. So, once the video of George Floyd’s death got out, the script was set: take it to the streets!

Few Americans were unsympathetic to the protest marches that followed. Remorse, censure, and tears flowed from every official portal, from the mouth and eyes of every political figure in the land. The tableau of Officer Chauvin’s knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck was readymade for statuary. Indeed, there are probably dozens of statues extant in the world of just such a scene expressing one people’s oppression over another. And yet the public sentiments early-on after the George Floyd killing had a stale, ceremonial flavor: The people demand change! End systemic racism! No justice, no peace! How many times have we seen this movie?

What is changing — and suddenly — is that now it’s not just black people who struggle to thrive in the USA, but everybody else of any ethnic group who is not a hedge fund veep, an employee of BlackRock Financial, or a K-Street lobbyist — and even those privileged characters may find themselves in reduced circumstances before long. The prospects of young adults look grimmest of all. They face an economy so disordered that hardly anyone can find something to do that pays enough to support the basics of life, on top of being swindled by the false promises of higher education and the money-lending racket that animates it.

So, it’s not surprising that, when night falls, the demons come out. Things get smashed up and burned down. And all that after being cooped up for weeks on end in the name of an illness that mostly kills people in nursing homes. Ugly as the ANTIFA movement is, it’s exactly what you get when young people realize their future has been stolen from them. Or, more literally, when they are idle and broke and see fabulous wealth all around them in the banks’ glass skyscrapers, and the car showrooms, and the pageants of celebrity fame and fortune on the boob tube. They are extras in a new movie called The Fourth Turning Meets the Long Emergency but they may not know it.

Hungry for change? You won’t have to wait long. This society may be unrecognizable in a few months. For one thing, there’s a good chance that the current violence in the streets won’t blow over as it has before. There hasn’t been such sudden, massive unemployment before, not even in the Great Depression — and we’re not even the same country that went through that rough episode. Just about every arrangement in contemporary life is on-the-rocks one way or another. Big business, small business, show business… it’s all cratering. The great big secret behind all that is not that capitalism failed; it’s that the capital in capitalism isn’t really there anymore, at least not in the amounts that mere appearances like stock valuations suggest. We squandered it, and now our institutions are straining mightily to pretend that “printing” money is the same as capital. (It’s just more debt.) Note, the stock markets are up this morning at the open! Go figure….

Change? We’re getting it good and hard, and not at a rate we were prepared for. It’s hugely disorienting. It produces friction, heat, and light, which easily becomes violence. There’s, for sure, plenty we can do to make new arrangements for American life without becoming communists or Nazis, but a lot of activities have to fail before we see how that could work. The overburden of obsolete complexity is crushing us, like Derek Chauvin’s knee on George Floyd’s neck. They were both, in their way, common men, caught in the maelstrom of metaphor. That proverbial long, hot summer we’ve heard about for so long…? It’s here.

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

LOST COAST TRAIL

GREGG POPOVICH: ‘THE SYSTEM HAS TO CHANGE’

by Dave Zirin

People from across the sports world have spoken out, raised money, and taken part in demonstrations following the police murder of George Floyd. The one voice that we haven’t heard yet has been perhaps President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critic in the wide world of sports, as well as someone who has never shied away from speaking about institutionalized racism or police brutality, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.

Late last night my phone rang and it was Coach Pop. He was ready to say something:

“The thing that strikes me is that we all see this police violence and racism and we’ve seen it all before but nothing changes. That’s why these protests have been so explosive. But without leadership and an understanding of what the problem is, there will never be change. And white Americans have avoided reckoning with this problem forever because it’s been our privilege to be able to avoid it. That also has to change.”

The question of leadership clearly is weighing heavily on Popovich’s mind. At this critical moment, he is feeling despair over what he sees as a leadership void at the White House.

“It’s unbelievable. If Trump had a brain, even if it was 99% cynical, he would come out and say something to unify people. But he doesn’t care about bringing people together. Even now. That’s how deranged he is. It’s all about him. It’s all about what benefits him personally. It’s never about the greater good. And that’s all he’s ever been.”

Popovich then took a moment to imagine a different kind of leadership.

“It’s so clear what needs to be done. We need a president to come out and say simply that ‘Black Lives Matter.’ Just say those three words. But he won’t and he can’t. He can’t because it’s more important to him to mollify the small group of followers who validate his insanity. But it’s more than just Trump. The system has to change. I’ll do whatever I can do to help because that’s what leaders do. But he can’t do anything to put us on a positive path because he’s not a leader.

It’s like what Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz used to say when they had the courage to say it: he’s unfit. But they have chosen instead to be invisible and obsequious in the face of this carnage. In end what we have is a fool in place of a President, while the person who really runs the country, Senator Mitch McConnell, destroys the United States for generations to come. McConnell has destroyed and degraded our judicial system. He has tried to destroy heath care. He’s destroyed the environment. He’s the master and Trump’s the stooge and what’s funny is that Trump doesn’t even know it. Trump’s always wanted to be part of the in-group, but McConnell is an in-group of one and Trump plays the fool.”

Pop then makes clear his opinion that we have a uniquely malignant presence in the White House:

“He’s not just divisive. He’s a destroyer. To be in his presence makes you die. He will eat you alive for his own purposes. I’m appalled that we have a leader who can’t say ‘Black Lives Matter.’ That’s why he hides in the White House basement. He is a coward. He creates a situation and runs away like a grade schooler. Actually, I think it’s best to ignore him. There is nothing he can do to make this better because of who he is: a deranged idiot.”

I asked Coach Pop about the protests, about the raw anger that’s been produced by police violence, disease, and mass unemployment. He said:

“They are very necessary but they need to be organized better. It’s frustrating. When Dr. King did a protest you knew when to show, when to come back the next day. But if you’re just organizing protests and everyone is coming and going in every direction, it doesn’t work that way. If it was non-violent, they knew to be non-violent, but this is muddled. More leadership would be very welcome so these incredible mass demonstrations can’t be used by people for other means. We can limit the bad, but only if things are organized better.”

I wanted to ask how they could “limit the bad” if the police were instigating violence, as reported, in so many locales. But before I could, Pop sighed deeply and said,

“Again, we need change. The system has to change. I’m willing to do my part. That’s all I got. Bye, Dave.”

PIERS MORGAN: "Nothing quite prepared me for the undiluted horror of seeing George Floyd being slowly murdered by a white policeman on the streets of Minneapolis. This, like the other incidents, was captured by several cell phone cameras. And what I saw made me feel physically sick to the very pit of my stomach. It's just not good enough for white people like me to watch George Floyd die, shake our heads and say how awful it is, rant about the looters, then turn away and get on with our comparatively privileged lives. This is a wake-up moment for all of us. Yet the one person who could most powerfully effect change is doing the complete opposite. President Trump had one job to do after this terrible killing - and that was to heal the raging wounds of fellow Americans. And… (He didn't do it.)"

CONSTRUCTION ARTIST CHRISTO, DEAD AT 85

sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Christo-artist-known-for-massive-fleeting-15306868.php

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] 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 is in serious mental decline. There will not be any way 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.

[2] While I find the murder, and that’s what it was, of George Floyd to be reprehensible, and sure hope to see the police officers involved charged with the crime, I find the knee-jerk response of outrage in the black community to be puzzling. Why do they only get upset if a cop or non-black person kills a black person but they don’t seem too bothered by the zillions of blacks killed daily at the hands of other blacks? Nearly all blacks murdered are killed by fellow blacks, not whites, Asians, cops etc. So why only the outrage for what are essentially outlier killings? And why does the NYT and its ilk not point this out? And why the tacit approval of the violent protests as you note? For that matter, why don’t liberal or MSM refrain from using the “Karen meme” to denote white women? Why is this ok? Would it be ok to use “Latoya” or “LaWanda” or “Latisha” etc as shorthand for black women acting a certain way? I think not. Why is it only ok if it’s applied to white women? And why do liberal publications not see the damage that will occur by their fanning of the flames?

[3] “Why do they only get upset if a cop or non-black person kills a black person but they don’t seem too bothered by the zillions of blacks killed daily at the hands of other blacks? Nearly all blacks murdered are killed by fellow blacks, not whites, Asians, cops etc. So why only the outrage for what are essentially outlier killings?” I would suggest that people take someone being killed by a police officer rather differently than they do a killing by another citizen, whatever that citizen’s race. With great power comes great responsibility, as they say, and police are entrusted with the power to take life *as part of their job*. The issue is that many, many people perceive the police to be misusing that power, and that the misuse is targeted by race. That’s why comparing it against ‘black-on-black crime’ feels like a false dichotomy.

[4] As a baby boomer, I can’t remember a worse time; a comic-tragic wheels-coming-off-the-economy farce unfolding more and more each day. Any faith/ trust I had in institutions, religion, government has been wiped out in the last few years, everything seems like a power abusing scam…In the coming elections, (if there is an election) I am at a loss on who to vote for — an orange faced, divisive, self-centered, lying oompa loompa, or a lying, plagiarizing, grifter who has no legitimacy as a candidate. Do I “waste” my vote on a third party candidate that seems decent, or pick the lesser of two evils? (at this point I can’t discern which one it is) But in consolation, at least now we have a Space Force to save the day 

[5] I have a new theory to explain the curious behavior of officer Derek Chauvin. But before I get to it I have an observation to ask about. In all the video of the event I have viewed, George Floyd is either standing up, or face down on the ground; where is the video of him being taken down to the ground, because I have not seen it? Does it exist? Was it cut from the original video in order to give the appearance he did not resist arrest?

Did he resist arrest? Or did he collapse/fall to the ground?

Anyway my theory on Chauvin’s behavior is, he got caught up in a grudge match of sorts with the “civilians” witnessing the arrest, and the more they asked Chauvin to ease up on Floyd, the more Chauvin resisted doing so; to the extent that Floyd became a type of prop of sorts in a grudge match between two groups of people, the arresting officers VS the witnessing civilians.

The more the civilians ask/told Chauvin to get off him, the more entrenched Chauvin became in his “you don’t tell me how to do my fucking job, I’ll show you…!”

Chauvin got so caught up in this grudge match that he killed a man without really intending to?

His intent was to demonstrate his power and authority, not to Floyd, but to the black people watching the arrest, as a warning to them: “see, look what our blue gang can do. We run these streets and don’t you fucking forget it… (cough, niggers)”

Unfortunately, in the process, he forgot that the man he pinned to the ground with a knee on his neck, who was formerly gasping for air and crying out for his mama, had gone strangely silent and limp.

So, according to my theory, if this arrest had taken place away from witnesses, George Floyd might be alive today? Because the death of George Floyd may have had nothing to do with George Floyd, and EVERYTHING to do with “sending messages” to the people witnessing it?

Finally, regarding the charge of attempting to use a counterfeit $20 bill?

Well, unless it was really obvious, it’s not really a crime to be in possession of a counterfeit $20 bill. I don’t study every federal reserve note I get, and even if I did, I’m not sure I could tell the difference visually, since they make changes all the time?

Especially with the $100 dollar bills. I would probably be tipped off more by feel than by sight?

Regardless, I get all my currency from some other person/machine; just like everyone else; so the fact George Floyd may have been in possession of a fake $20 bill is no PROOF he was engaged in criminal activity; but that he may have been punked by the person who passed it to him?

Either he produced it, or he was PAID with it by someone else?

I tend towards the latter; if it’s true at all that he tried to pass a fake $20?

I will end with this question: If you found yourself alone, in an elevator with officer Derek Chauvin, and you could only ask him one question; what one question would you ask him?

Ed note: Answers included, "Got any naked pictures of your [beauty queen] wife?" to "How do you pronounce your name?"

[6] If there was ever a time for Garrison Keillor to come out of his #MeToo cancelled purgatory and speak to the rioters of Minneapolis it is now! A story of a warm rhubarb pie cooling on a windowsill would be just the thing to speak to black America and get them deeply introspectively looking at each other and saying “This isn’t right, I’m not mad at this AutoZone” whilst dropping the bricks.

CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS DESPERATE FOR GUIDANCE, MONEY AS THEY PLAN FOR FALL REOPENING

calmatters.org/education/2020/06/california-schools-fall-reopening-plan-k-12/

ATTN MENDO VILLAGE

MCCSD - Sewer Main Cleaning Notice

Dear Community Members,

Mendocino City Community Services District is starting our annual sewer main cleaning. Each year we clean approximately 1/5 of the entire system and some problematic areas that require an annual cleaning. During the next three weeks, we will be around town with service crews, a jetter trailer, and open man holes. 

This year our cleaning will focus on Main Street and sections of Kasten St., Albion St., Lansing St., Howard St., School St., Ukiah St., Evergreen St., Pine St., Clark St., Crestwood Dr., and Kelly St. 

This letter is meant just to notify you. We request you be aware of our crews, use caution when driving and walking around town, and be courteous if you find a traffic lane temporarily blocked. We will do our best to avoid disruption in your daily activities. Thank you for your cooperation and patience in keeping our staff and neighbors safe while we maintain the community sewers. 

Respectfully,

Ryan Rhoades

Superintendent, MCCSD

Mendocino City Community Services District

mccsd@mcn.org

IF YOU HAD ANY DOUBT about America's priorities, here's how the people
killing us are equipped vs the people keeping us alive.

• 

• 

DEAR JOHN

KZYX BEGGING FOR MONEY AGAIN, AND FOR WHAT?

To John Azzaro, who wrote to me this week to tell me to take him off my email list, which he's not and has never been on:

Okay, John, I see what's happening. I've been emailing the program director (pd@kzyx.org), the general manager (gm@kzyx.org), and the board of directors of KZYX (bod@kzyx.org), a single email to all three addresses, once a week, sometimes twice to correct a mistake, for years, since almost as far back as when KMFB was bought up and destroyed and I applied to move my long-running, time proven, excellent show to KZYX in February of 2012 and have been waiting ever since for a substantial response. I applied again a few times, and nothing. I applied to manage the station at one point, and was not even considered. Lately I've been sending to KZYX notices of my weekly show (on air since 1997 all night every Friday night, almost 15 years on KMFB, now on KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KMEC-LP Ukiah) as samples, so yez can see what you're missing. Apparently you are getting email sent to the board of directors of KZYX because you are on the board of directors of KZYX. That explains it.

In that case, it's weird you didn't know: your corporation's budget is insanely bloated, mostly with paying nearly $300,000 a year to a handful of people in management and tech support while somehow not paying the local airpeople anything at all for showing up and doing all their shows all year long, all put together. You're paying just the general manager at KZYX $60,000 a year. A similar amount entirely supports a real community radio station like KNYO for six years, including rent on the downtown storefront performance space in the community it serves, where in normal times people can often just walk in off the street and up to a microphone --it happens on my show at all hours of the night-- and there are community events right in the radio station --bands, live radio drama, etc. In normal times, that is, whatever that means anymore.

Just in terms of money: the six-figure Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant MCPB (Mendocino County Public Broadcasting) corp. gets could easily support KZYX by itself without the need for several pledge drives every year. Most of your broadcasting clock that isn't devoted to automation playing recorded crap from a thousand miles away is given to a pack of genially-stoned-sounding slackers who I.D. the station at the top of the hour and chuckle or drone through a slight reshuffle of their record collection-- that part's nearly free to you, as are all the NPR shows, thanks to the CPB grant.*

Even so, airpeople show up, they do the radio work that brings in the money the people in the office use to pay themselves with, and airpeople deserve to be paid. As long as you're paying management, you should pay the airpeople who do a two or three hour show per week a stipend of, say, $1,000 a year each. That's less than minimum wage and leaves out paying for prep work. It would be as simple as a phone call and a few emails back and forth with your bookkeeper, who would distribute a one-page tax form to fill out, like the way it's done at plenty of other nonprofit organizations, theater companies, for example, who have no trouble paying workers for their work. Sixty deejays at $1,000 a year each would be $60,000. How is it that you consider one manager to be worth that much money, and all the real workers put together to be worth nothing at all? John, how can you not see what's wrong with that? The first job of the manager of any business, for-profit or nonprofit, is to pay the workers before he pays himself. And the manager of KZYX has a program director to direct the programs (such as they need to be directed), an operations manager to manage the operations, a business underwriting coordinator to coordinate the business underwriting, a bookkeeper to keep the books (see above) and if anything complicated breaks, a real radio engineer is a phone call away. What's left for the manager to do besides scribble up a glowing financial report for the board once or twice a year and attend the occasional broadcasting conference once or twice a year to hobnob with similar managers of similar radio fiefdoms?

KZYX' high-power license for 92.7Mhz is a free government grant of control of a natural resource. And you've been using it for more than thirty years mainly as a bullhorn to beg for money to pay a tiny group of people in the office. And the sort of people in the office who you hire keep people who will lick your hand licking your hand and keep dedicated radio people like me and shows like mine out, and have done since the beginning. That's my personal concern in this.

$600,000 a year to MCPB corp., much of it tax-derived, far outweighs what the public gets from you in return. For that much money --approaching $20,000,000 (!) now, in 2020-corrected dollars, KZYX should be the Cadillac of community radio stations, a shining gold-plated beacon of wonder and delight, and not a mediocre, run-of-the-mill NPR outlet.

It costs MCPB corp. less than a dollar an hour for electricity to keep all KZYX&Z's transmitters and electronics and computers and lights in all your studios on and pumping at the same time, whether someone's at the microphone or not, whether airpeople put in some effort to prepare a real show or not. That amounts to less than $10,000 a year. And all the music fees and streaming fees and tower fees and repairs and rent and every other expense of KZYX should bring the crux of your biscuit to $80,000 a year, $100,000 tops. Everything after that, that isn't paid to the real workers, which it mostly isn't, is vanishing to no effect either because of incompetence or crooks, or both, and likely also up someone's nose.

KZYX under MCPB corp. has never been open to freedom and creativity and change. Three minutes of some chemtrails or antivax-conspiracy lunatic calling in once a week for comic relief, or three minutes allotted time for someone to bravely but shakily speak a discouraging word to a cold boardroom once a year does not satisfy the requirement for power to engage with the public who are the real owners of the frequencies you squat on. Learn something, at last, and do something right for a change, John. And if you personally don't want critical communication from the public about the so-called public radio station you have so much control over, that's on you. I guess I'll continue to write the occasional email to the board, despite continuing to be ignored except to be told, as you've just told me, that the board doesn't want to hear what the board doesn't want to hear.

— Marco McClean

(Further, I later had to write again to the the board of directors:)

To board of directors of KZYX:

John Azzaro just sent the following reply to me, meaning he immediately got what I sent only to the KZYX board of directors at the board of directors' email address, bod@kzyx.org

John wrote, and I quote: "I am not on the KZYX BOD, or connected to the station in any way, nor are station sent e-mails directed to me from anyone but you. Again I respectfully request you remove my name from your list(s)."

Now, I just triple-checked: bod@kzyx.org is the only place I'm sending this (except maybe later to the AVA) and John Azzaro is listed as a boardmember and committee member of KZYX on these pages of KZYX.org: https://www.kzyx.org/board-meetings "Current Board Members: ...John Azzaro)"

and https://www.kzyx.org/mcpb-board-committees "Personnel Committee: ...John Azzaro)"

If those pages are in error and John is not a boardmember, then maybe you should remove him from being listed in your system to have email addressed to the board, like this one, for example, passed along automatically to him, whether it goes for everyone or just applies to what I write to you.

In short, I'm sending email to bod@kzyx.org, and he's getting it, marked as from me, and he's claiming neither to be on the board nor to have anything at all to do with the station! It's possible that someone with the keys to your system and web page, or who is also on the board's email forwarding list, is playing a prank. It's not my doing. Look into it, because he'll probably get this too, and whatever else I send to you.

I'm complying fully with John's repeated requests not to email him. To my knowledge, and given his denial of any connection to KZYX, I never have. (Except for replying once to his email to me, of course, to tell him so.)

— Marco McClean

---

DEL POTTER adds:

Since KZYX is in fact a community radio station, with public and community funding, perhaps some representative of the station mentioned below, particularly Mr. Azzaro or a member of KZYX's Board of Directors, could direct a response to Mr. McClean on this community forum so the community can fully understand the reasoning behind station's management's position on the airing of Mr. McClean's radio show, the lack of response to his requests for clarification and what appears to be the purposeful obfuscation that he has received. Mr. McClean raises a number of financial issues as well that would be helpful for station management to address here in this public forum. Many of us are KZYX supporters and would like to understand the lack of transparency on these issues. I'm sure this would go a long way to dispelling any notions of autocratic governance
associated with KZYX.

FOUND OBJECT