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MCT: Saturday, June 27, 2020

By AVA News Service on June 27, 2020

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A COOLING TREND will kick off today and continue on Sunday across the interior. Marine stratus will tend to push a bit farther inland this weekend, with more cloudy mornings and some partly sunny afternoons near the coast. (NWS)

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CURRENT COVID-19 STATISTICS for Mendocino County as of 6/26/2020 at 11am:

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SHERIFF KENDALL ON CITIZENS OVERSIGHT

Letter to the Public:

I’ve received several calls and emails regarding the item which was brought forward by the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors (BOS) regarding the forming of a citizen’s advisory committee for the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. I’ve been asked if I am for or against this along with several topics which are being discussed in the national dialogue.

Anyone who saw the Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting of June 24, 2020, can see the answer on this is a little complicated. I agree that more transparency between government agencies and the public is a positive move, and law enforcement is no exception. Since the passing of Senate Bill 1421 (SB-1421) and Assembly Bill 748 (AB-748) at the beginning of 2019, law enforcement has been able to provide records to the public relating to officer use-of-force incidents, sexual assault and acts of dishonesty, without the need to go through a drawn-out and often expensive legal process. Without this transparency, it’s easy to understand why the public would often draw their own conclusions about disciplinary actions taken (or lack thereof) by a department against an officer in a specific situation. Without the reports and evidence to review, it’s human nature to fill in the unknowns. SB-1421 and AB-748 have opened up the doors for us to show the public we’re already very good at correcting problems and making changes within our ranks. These two bills opened up the opportunity to build even more trust with the people we protect and serve. 

In Tuesday’s BOS meeting, the model the BOS brought forward was basically a copy and paste of the ordinance which Sonoma County enacted in 2016. Due to the recent legislation, it has become antiquated and is currently costing an enormous amount of money for duplicate work. (I am very conservative with my coins and yours.) 

One week of thinking and a copy of another county’s ordinance doesn't seem like something that will fix hundreds of years of problems. I truly believe we can do better. 

While I’m not opposed to any type of citizen advisory board that considers differing points of view to help shape a new system, I would like to see it come together in a fashion that works for everyone, the public and law enforcement. If we don’t consider all affected, ultimately, good deputies will begin to weigh their own liberty and safety and that of their families, and question having a career which includes so much risk and so little respect. We have many good men and women who are serving our citizens during these times who feel hated, betrayed, and are looking for new jobs. 

While we look to create a more equitable system, we should also look at all departments within the County, not simply the Sheriff's Office. I believe within our government, everyone who serves our public should be held to the same standards and we all need to remain aware of how we are treating the public. If we have a systemic problem in the United States then it isn't simply in law enforcement. The national dialogue is representative of failures in all parts of government and all departments to be involved in changing this.

Any time changes need to be made in the Sheriff’s Office which can affect our people with morale, training, goals or general direction, it has to come from the Sheriff. When something comes forward that can change their lives, I, as the Sheriff, have a duty to speak with them before they hear about it from another source. I also have to work with the local Police Chiefs and our District Attorney. We have a shared goal of public safety and must support each other in this endeavor. I had been working with Police Chiefs and our DA to identify problems and build tangible goals on this topic well prior to this item coming forward from our County Supervisors. 

I’d also like to talk to you about the “De-Fund the Police” movement gaining momentum in our nation and how this effects all of us. My perspective on this may surprise many of you.

This movement seems to be designed to remove law enforcement from dealing with individuals experiencing mental illness, homelessness and drug addiction challenges. This is something that law enforcement has been requesting for years. Law enforcement has always struggled to acquire adequate funding to hire, train, and equip personnel, so while I don’t see defunding law enforcement as an appropriate solution, I totally support additional funding for mental health services, drug and alcohol challenges and for those individuals experiencing homelessness.

People who are affected by mental health challenges, or are dual diagnosis patients, or face drug and alcohol challenges, truly deserve more than they are getting when we arrive as law enforcement officers. They deserve treatment, not incarceration. When they’re released without their core issues resolved, we put them back into a situation where they then often begin to escalate to things like burglaries, assaults, robberies or worse. For years law enforcement has been used as a quick and temporary solution, and every year I am mandated to provide more training towards these issues. This is because the legislature wants the police to continue dealing with these problems, instead of placing the problems where they belong. This needs to change and stop this revolving door. We need to look for solutions to the core problems other than incarcerations. We have received no funding to take on these extraordinary challenges however we are dedicated to working on the problems together. 

Asking an officer to be a doctor, nurse, or therapist is much like hiring a plumber to come wire a house for electricity. It usually doesn’t work out very well and when it fails, do we blame the plumber because he was tasked with a job he wasn’t trained to do? 

If a person overdoses on drugs and dies on a park bench, it’s a terrible event. If that person takes the same amount of drugs and dies in custody, the police are blamed. This cycle has to end. 

I have concerns created by the current national dialogue. It has become reminiscent of something I remember from my youth. I was a child when the Vietnam War was ending and our servicemen were returning home. My father was a fire captain, and over the years, he had several firemen who had been drafted or enlisted, and many of them remember horrific treatment they received when returning to the United States. They had put their lives at risk to defend our liberties and way of life and were blamed for the policies put in place by the government leaders who sent them. They, and sometimes their families, were threatened, assaulted and ostracized, treated without compassion and blamed for a war they didn’t start. This caused a great deal of distrust and division throughout our country.

In a similar fashion, today’s law enforcement officers are being asked to risk their lives to maintain the safety and quality of life by following the rules created by legislators. Many times legislators don’t understand the real-life impact of their decisions. The hostility of the public is often misdirected at officers (and their families) who have nothing to do with the creation of the laws that meet with the public’s dissatisfaction.

We watch the news on television and see the unrest across the country and it’s easy to think that it’s all far away from our own homes and lives. But I see it as an opportunity to learn how to make Mendocino County an even better place to live and avoid the issues of more turbulent areas. 

In closing, I support positive changes, however we have to build a model for Mendocino County that will be durable and work for Mendocino County. I’d like to thank everyone who reached out to me regarding these issues. I truly appreciate all of the directions these issues are viewed from. And I would also remind everyone that I’m always open to hear your suggestions on how we can make our communities better together.

Thank you.

Sheriff Matt Kendall 

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EAST PERKINS, UKIAH, 1956

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TWK UPROAR

To Our Readers

Last week a mass email effort was launched to get me to discontinue Assignment: Ukiah, the weekly column by Tom Hine under the name of Tommy Wayne Kramer.

Unfortunately the people behind that effort were not honest when they told others that I was ‘considering’ removing the column and basically just needed a nudge from them. That was untrue. I know that TWK is often controversial and critical of some of this community’s favored cultural and political norms. I was not considering eliminating the column.

I am happy to have the feedback of dozens of TWK opponents. I was also happy to have an almost equal number of TWK supporters write to me.

Most of the emails I got, however, were ‘not for publication.’

Published here today are a sampling of emails I got that were either specifically for publication or which seemed to me to be written as a letter to the editor, not just a note to me personally.

I am also including a response from Mr. Hine to give him an opportunity to address the crowd.

— KC Meadows, Editor

On TWK

To the Editor:

I’ve read Tom Hine’s columns in the UDJ off-and-on for the past four years, less and less as time goes on and offense mounts. I respond to them from three perspectives, shared below for your consideration.

As a novice journalist in high school and college, I learned the importance of the attention-grabbing “lead,” the independent point of view. From that perspective, I respect Hine’s ability to capture my attention right off the bat. He writes clearly and sometimes cleverly.

As a relatively new resident of Ukiah, I find many of his columns full of disrespect and discourtesy to fellow community members. I have no problem with well-reasoned civic disagreement, but Hine strikes out with a mean spirit and no apparent effort to acknowledge even the intentions of those whose endeavors he disparages. I work part time as a Home Hospital teacher for UUSD alongside worthy middle and high school teachers. I was appalled at references to teachers in his recent column (“Message to the Class of 2020”). I would have published only his last five paragraphs. Instead, Hine presents yet another jaundiced viewpoint, demeaning educators and engendering distrust of Ukiah institutions. Tongue in cheek? Way too biting.

Finally, as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (retired), I often respond to Hine’s columns with an odd mixture of personal pain and professional compassion. He seems deeply unhappy and bitter. My professional instinct is to recommend therapy, perhaps with a trial of antidepressants to help him; such a path would seem healthier than continuing to spew his unhappiness publicly. I met him on a walk in the neighborhood one day. He said, “I hope you enjoy the column.” I just smiled. “Enjoy” would not be the word I would choose.

It would seem that his retirement would be a relief for many people, including me. I’m not privy to the reasons why you continue to publish Tom Hine’s work; perhaps because it generates reaction?

I wish you luck as you consider your readers’ requests to fire the man,

— Michele Halligan, Ukiah

To the Editor:

I have been solicited to join a petition for the Ukiah Daily Journal to refuse further publication of Tom Hine’s writings.

I have known Tom Hine for over 40 years, including when we both wrote for the “Mendocino Grapevine” and more recently for the “Bullhorn” newspapers: both of them avowedly liberal journals. I once requested the Grapevine owners to allow me to engage in a “Kramer vs Kramer” counterpoint to Tommy Wayne Kramer’s outlandish opinions, in which I would pose as Jamie Sane Kramer.

Those of you who are familiar with me know that my politics are somewhere out in the Pacific, to the far left of the International Date Line. My liberalism (a badge I wear with honor) includes being firmly in agreement with the quote often misattributed to Patrick Henry: “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” My liberalism also includes being staunchly in agreement with the First Amendment to our Constitution which guarantees in the same breath the right to peaceably assemble and the right to free speech. I am not here to defend or support Tom Hine. I write this to defend and support those principles.

Some of those who know me are also familiar with my published review of Tom Hine’s first book, including descriptions such as: “proof positive that he is insane,” “exposition of every belief I don’t believe in,” “something to delight or enrage folks of any political persuasion,” “acerbic,” “caustic,” “biting,” and “savage.” My review asks “How is is that his dear wife, after reading his hit piece on National Women’s History Month, did not choke him to death in his sleep or feed him rat poison for dessert?”

But as opposed to the content of much of his writings as I am, I’m not about to jump on a bandwagon to run Tom Hine out of town on a rail for citing inconvenient facts or expressing his unpopular opinions.

Will I petition our only local newspaper to ban his writings? No. I am not among those (many of them friends) who would abridge Tom Hine’s right to free speech by virtue of their disagreement with his facts or opinions. And I’m not among those who would label Tom Hine a “racist” for pointing out the sad statistic of black-on-black homicides while he simultaneously praises peaceful protests against “the grotesqueries visited upon the late George Floyd, victim of brutal and borderline insane police.”

Not one of us is required to read or agree with Tom Hine’s diatribes, and not one of us is prevented from publishing contrary and equally vitriolic opinions, such as regularly seen in “John’s Corner” (written by another 40+ year friend of mine). It’s one thing to disagree with Tom Hine. It’s quite another to silence him. I believe the name for that is censorship, and I will not petition for it.

— J. Holden, Mendocino

To the Editor:

I am writing to you to express my concern for the continued support of Mr. Hine’s chronic verbal abuse via his column; Assignment: Ukiah.

Mr. Hine’s attacks are nothing new. However, during these extremely fragile times, his words are magnified to an even higher degree of negativity.

When our planet needs more kindness and healing, Mr. Hine continues to be given space in the Ukiah Daily Journal to attack our communities and beyond.

I’m aware that his platform has been a heated issue for many years and I say; Enough is enough —— the time is now to move forward and terminate his column for the health and safety of all.

— Meredyth Reinhard, Redwood Valley

To the Editor:

I normally avoid reading Tom Hine’s TWK column because it is so seldom anything but dyspeptic, at best, and disturbingly offensive, at worst. But his June 7 column plunged to a new low. I read it only after hearing about it from several local citizens whose opinions I value. These leaders are urging the UDJ editor and publisher to discontinue the TWK column, and I join them in insisting that the UDJ stop subjecting its remaining readers to Hine’s uninformed verbal violence.

Hine’s alter ego, TWK, seems to think that white cops killing black men is not much of a problem. This is a cynical and baffling framing of the issue of police violence against black men. Hine is more concerned about what he cynically calls “rioting” by “the left.” In fact, while the looting and destruction of local businesses were hurtful and regrettable, they were in no way representative of the inspiring, largely peaceful protests that have taken place across the country. Some editors would be fired for printing an opinion piece that so distorted the underlying facts.

Our community is part of a nation that is belatedly facing up to the consequences of hundreds of years of injustice and oppression. This moment holds not only anger and pain but also the opportunity for positive systemic change. I deeply hope that the editor and publisher will rid the Ukiah Daily Journal of a destructive voice and place our local paper clearly on the side of justice and reconciliation.

— Susan Baird Kanaan, Ukiah

To the Editor:

Tommy Wayne Kramer has been on a roll. Lately, he’s made Writing for the Journal Great Again and he’s proven that he can keep up with the chief purveyor of fake news and lies. No one can match Tommy when it comes to insulting and degrading those he doesn’t like. In spite of an obvious pathetic past he recently managed to serve as a role model for how best to drop out of high school or college and end up a sour and bitter old man, capable only of creating meaningless drivel. We can all help Tommy improve his column by using it to line our bird cages. Tommy, you’d better watch out; KC might read your column some day and take the obvious next step.

— Mike Pallesen, Ukiah

To the Editor:

I support the elimination of hate talk across the world, direct or indirect, towards people of color, other nationalities or religions. Please “can” this Tommy Wayne Kramer’s column. One less open racist “good old boy” would help to fuel less hate in this country and world. And we as a world and community will still have so much work towards equality and peace. We can choose better stones tossed to ripple out into the collective unconscious.

— Amanda Tuttle, McNab Ranch Creek Watershed Ukiah

To the Editor:

I agree whole-heartedly with Susan Sher’s suggestion that the UDJ pull Kramer’s column. I stopped reading it because it’s so unbelievably immature, misinformed, and racist that, honestly, I was more intrigued by your willingness to run such a column than Mr. Kramer’s wounded teenage rhetoric.

What value does it serve the UDJ and our community to allow such venom to be communicated? Is this really “free speech?”

“Fair and balanced” journalism does not mean we allow any and all points of view to be communicated.

Please pull this column. It’s toxic.

— Dan Antonioli, Laytonville

To the Editor:

I understand that you are considering discontinuing Assignment Ukiah. I hope you don’t. While many here in town don’t agree with his perspective, there are many who share his views as well as get a good chuckle with his tongue in cheek style. I often find Mr. K, Arteaga’s, Hollinshead’s, and sometimes It’s All Good to be offensive and ill informed, but I would never advocate for them to be scrubbed either. It really is important to see and understand that there are other perspectives in our community. Neither Assignment Ukiah nor any of the other columns has incited any violence. If individuals don’t like a certain column, no one is forcing them to read it.

Thanks for considering my opinion.

— D E Johnson, Ukiah

To the Editor:

Dear Susan Sher,

I find it inexpressibly sad that you have had to resort to emailing everyone you know to write a letter to the Daily Journal to support your outrage at my husband, Tom Hine, aka Tommy Wayne Kramer. I find it even sadder that you had to enclose a script they could use just in case they didn’t know why they were supposed to be outraged.

Fake news! Muzzle the press! The free press is the enemy of the people! Who says that? Why, our dear leader. So grab you MAGA gear and axe, and keep on hacking away at the First Amendment. And no, Tom did not ask me to write this, and has never asked me to respond to anything anyone says about him.

— Teresa Ann Capriolo (AKA Trophy)

To the Editor:

I received an email from someone apparently upset by a recent column by Tommy Wayne Kramer asking that we support discontinuing his columns. While I don’t generally like his columns, I do believe in free speech. If he said something upsetting, he deserves to get a lot of letters of disapproval. Censorship, in my opinion, is not the answer.

— Virginia Macintosh, Ukiah

To the Editor:

Susan Sher is one more illiberal local liberal calling for Tommy Wayne's head. She cites the narcoleptic opinions of Crispy Hollinshead as more acceptably correct, although to this reader Hollinshead is more like the prose equivalent of Advil PM — one sentence and it's nighty-night. Received opinion is boring opinion and, with the Mendo exception of the brilliant Mr. K, liberal opinion, as expressed in this county via, for handy instance, KZYX, is tiresome unto torture. The neo-insistence on uniform views is taking the whole Americano show in a dangerous direction, and the libs are as guilty of lock-step righteousness as the maga hats, but while claiming the high ground.

Used to be that liberals were dependable voices against censorship. No more, and I speak as a forty-year target of lib ire as the publisher of Boonville's beloved weekly.

Before I head back over the hill, Sher's citation of black-on-black murder is not, as she claims, "a racist trope" unless, of course, she cites it only because the paleface Tommy Wayne has cited it. In fact, every black mayor in the country has lamented black-on-black mayhem, whose end is unlikely until there's economic justice, which we haven't seen an attempt at since Franklin Roosevelt and, later, the much maligned LBJ.

PS. I would enjoy debating the TWK issue with you Ms. Sher, in a public forum any place in Ukiah you might arrange or agree to. What do you say?

— Bruce Anderson, Boonville

To the Editor:

Please keep running TWK’s columns. We need to read a diversity of ideas and opinions. People who don’t like him don’t have to read him.

— Susan Knopf, Ukiah

To the Editor:

Thank you to TWK for saying George Floyd’s murder was grotesque, brutal and borderline insane. Thank you for supporting our right and urge to protest in Ukiah. But I would argue that your subsequent emphasis on rioters and black-on-black crime, minimizing even the fact of police violence, was simplistic and insulting. Were you implying that blacks are more violent because-whats?— they’re black? Residential segregation, concentrated poverty, little punishment for crime against blacks, poor education, broken families, mass incarceration, easy availability of drugs and alcohol— all these contribute to violent crime victimizing people within poor communities, including African-American communities. Black people do not have greater immorality or less tolerance of criminality, and want adequate, effective police protection of their neighborhoods. It’s not true that they don’t organize and protest against the gang-bangers and pushers in their communities, but they have an uphill battle in the face of systemic, structural racists policies. And the danger is not negligible of police terrorizing black communities instead of assisting them in managing the violence.

IN Minneapolis, force is used against African-Americans 7 times more often than against whites. In the U.S. blacks are three times more likely to be killed by police than whites are. Twenty-four percent of all police killings last year were of African-Americans, though they make up only 13 percent of the population. Nintey-nine percent of officers involved in all police killings have had no criminal charges pressed.

As for the rioting, you had to connect it with demonstrating, even while acknowledging that it didn’t happen here. It didn’t’ happen in most other demonstrations, either. But with the increasing division between the haves and have-nots in this country, property rights will become even more abstract to people who have nothing and whose very lives are not even defensible. It’s therefore to all our benefit to reform policing, refund minority communities, and work to decrease the wealth disparities in our country to give the impoverished and disenfranchised an investment in the society which we really do all share.

Ukiah made me proud in its response to the murder of George Floyd, from the organizers and participants in the demonstration, the response of passers-by and the police, and all who have paid attention and thought hard about issues which do not affect them on a daily basis. I am not so cynical as TWK that I think people will be untouched in the long run. I think more people now do understand, thanks to the painful events of the last three weeks, that indeed, Black Lives Matter.

— Cottie Morrison, Ukiah

Tom Hine responds

To the Editor:

I’ve been asked to respond to critics demanding the TWK column be eliminated from the Daily Journal’s editorial pages. This sentiment, while focused on a recent column, has deep roots tangled up in ongoing rage at my political outlook.

The people involved want to remain anonymous, sending emails to the paper requesting their names not appear. No surprise. A mob is a mob, cowards are cowards. My name is on 52 columns a year, 15 years, with photo.

On June 7, 2020, perhaps a third of an 800-word column (“Perplexing pandemic policies”) was devoted to local and nationwide reaction to a black man who died at the hands, or more accurately knees, of Minneapolis police.

In it I praised Ukiah demonstrators for their restraint in reaction to “ …the grotesqueries visited upon the late George Floyd, victim of brutal and borderline insane police misconduct.”

I also wrote “ … a white cop killing black men is rare” and that the odds are far greater a young black man will be killed by another young black man than a police officer. I pointed out that in 2015 a measly three cities in America combined to add more than 1,100 murders of young blacks to nationwide totals. The political left’s disinterest was noted.

That ain’t racism. That’s facts, and facts are stubborn things. Barack Obama once said “You’re entitled to you own opinion but not your own facts.”

Check for yourself. Review DOJ and FBI crime stats. Who’s killing whom?

To those howling and demanding me silenced for alleged racism, just who, exactly, are you? Are you able to see into my heart? And are you blemish-free? Are you without stain, with no hint of racism, no character flaws? Raise your hand; let me bask in your saintliness. You may now resume casting stones.

As hinted earlier, the June 7 column isn’t what propels those trying to censor my column. I understand what I write does not always fit comfortably with the thoughts, opinions and attitudes of some local readers. It’s no accident. I like making you squirm. But if there is room for “Diversity,” the long-stated goal of all progressives, there is room for my opinion.

Each week the Daily Journal runs a number of columnists on its editorial pages. If we tote up those leaning to the left, we find John Arteaga, Jeff Konicek, EJ Dionne, Gene Lyons, Crispin Hollinshead, Ruben Navarette, Jonathan Middlebrook, David Schribman, Cokie Roberts, Thomas Elias and more.

Columnists who have a different point of view: Me.

Quick calculation: 10 or so liberal contributors, and one from the right. It’s obvious 10 lefties against a single conservative opponent is not a fair fight, so I suggest the Journal add Mari Rodin, Susan Sher and Joe Louis Hoffman to its roster.

I’m confident 13 to 1 would even things up. More fair. More equal. More progressive.

Bring it on.

— Tom Hine (aka Tommy Wayne Kramer)

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DRYING PRUNES, STIPP RANCH, UKIAH

STIPP RANCH HOME

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IZZY WRITES:

Attempts to tweak the [pot cultivation ordinance] system from within have been going on for decades at all levels of government, with the most notable result being reams of new convoluted regulations and supporting bureaucracy. But events are not holding still, and structural pressures in many areas are at the breaking point. Supervisor Brown’s remark encapsulates the larger situation – “I’m totally conflicted on where we need to go, but we need to do something.”

Mark Scaramella replies: Supervisor Brown’s response is noteworthy mostly for its sheer ignorance. Here’s a person who as a Supervisor has been involved with and supportive of the well documented failure of the pot cultivation ordinance for years, an “ag” person who reacts peevishly when pot growers have asked simply to be treated like other ag (i.e., grape) growers, a person who benefits from the relative lack of rules and enforcement for grapes compared to the ridiculous rule and enforcement overkill for pot growers, a person who is paid handsomely to attend to these kinds of controversial matters yet has no opinion about what the problem is, a person who conspicuously appeared in court with the wine mob to defend the wine mob’s god-given right to make as much noise as they want to make to save a small percentage of their grapes… And where does she end up? ‘I ain’t got a clue, but I’ll support whatever anybody else wants to do sight unseen (unless, of course, it infringes in any way on grape growing).’ The wine mob has nothing to fear from her likely replacement, Glenn McGourty, either, who, like Brown will make sure that the County remains subservient to grape growers in every way imaginable and who hasn’t taken a public position on the pot cultivation ordinance, as obviously broken as it is. At least Supervisor McCowen has somehow come to realize the error of his ways — albeit too late for himself or Supervisor Brown to have anything to do with fixing it. By the time they’re gone next year, the “new” board will probably have to start from scratch without even the benefit of McCowen’s experience with how wrong he’s been.

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UKIAH OPERA HOUSE

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NUMBERS? YOU WANT NUMBERS?

by Mark Scaramella

Last month, Measure B project manager Alyson Bailey told the Measure B committee that she would have “numbers” for a Pyschiatric Health Facility, Crisis Residential Treatment Center and Crisis Stabilization Unit “maybe in two weeks if all goes well, but surely less than a month.” 

The promised numbers did not appear at last Wednesday’s Measure B Oversight Committee meeting.

Ms. Bailey did produce some numbers. She told the Committee that she needed $435 to trim some weeds at the Orchard Avenue site next door to Camille Schraeder’s mental health services offices where a Crisis Residential Treatment center is planned.

This modest request for $435 produced 15 minutes of irrelevant discussion, the highlight of which was Fifth District Committee Rep Ross Liberty’s question.

Calling the Crisis Residential Treatment building a “crisis continuum facility,” Liberty said they should not spend the $435 now because “if we can’t operate it, we should not design and build. Why are we spending $3.6 million on a building in case this works? It doesn’t seem right. I’ve been challenging that the whole time. We don’t know if we’ll have a facility there. What am I missing?”

The point, Ross? 

The $3.3 (not $3.6) million the Board authorized for design and consulting services is not entirely for the Crisis Residential Treatment Center. If the Committee is going to have to approve every little expenditure like this, and deal with incoherent questions like Mr. Liberty’s, well… this sucker's unlikely to ever get built.

Ms. Bailey did say that the County’s Sacramento consultant is diligently consulting away on “programming, site investigation, communuty outreach, CEQA…” and is “still working on design and construction” for the Orchard Avenue site, despite Liberty’s (incorrect) point about whether there will be a facility there.

Actually, the County has already committed to the state’s Mental Health Financing agency to build something at the Orchard site.

As for numbers, the long-forgotten Mr. Kemper, nicely compensated for his ignored professional advice, told the Committee and the Board about the operations costs two years ago, not that anybody seemed to be paying attention.

Committee member Jed Diamond was way ahead of Liberty, asking when construction will begin.

Ms. Bailey replied with a typical non-answer that at the moment “five management firms have applied,” and they could start “managing” the construction “as early as August.” According to the terms of the state’s $500k (partial) grant the building is supposed to be up and running by November of 2021 — assuming of course, that all the “programming, site investigation, community outreach, CEQA…” etc. is done. 

Since nobody involved with Measure B cares about dates, or deadlines, or even numbers, even that date is doubtful.

Mental Health Department Director Dr. Jenine Miller said that a Request For Proposals for the CRT operations will be released soon. “So then we’ll know who’s operating that facility,” added Ms. Bailey — as if there’s any question about whether the Schraeder machine that’s already there next door will get the contract.

What about the “numbers” that Ms. Bailey was unable to produce?

Dr. Miller said she is preparing a “Request for information/qualifications” for operating a Psychiatric Health Facility, emphasizing that whoever it is has to have their own substantial financing capacity because mental health services have to be paid for out of pocket then reimbursed months if not years later by the state or feds, if the billing is correct, and even then only if the “client” is severely mentally ill. Services for all the other 5150s will have to be financed by who-knows-who — or simply denied as they are now.

The trouble with this discussion is that Mr. Kemper already did the cost estimates for all this and nobody has disputed his “numbers” except to say that a couple of years have passed since he prepared them, erroneously assuming that he was dealing with competent people.

Back in 2018 Mr. Kemper said that the cost of operating a 16-bed Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF) would be about $3.4 million per year. Much of which would be covered by existing funding streams, such as the up to $1000 per day cost of sending existing 5150s out of county, and other Medi-Cal and MediCare reimbursement sources, besides Measure B.

Mr. Kemper also noted that Mendo isn’t doing anything to reduce the high number of 5150s, which would be much more cost effective than just building new PHFs and CRTs.

But what on earth could Mendo do to reduce 5150s, which would also reduce the strain on the Sheriff’s department, and local police departments and their budgets?

For starters, Mendo might look at Butte County (Chico area) where a Mobile Crisis Response unit has been operating quite cost effectively for a couple of years now and claims — with detailed reporting and data — to have reduced 5150s by a third.

Mendo might also look at Oakland’s nascent mobile crisis response program which is modeled on the Eugene, Oregon program that the Measure B committee was all for last year when Ukiah Police Chief Justin Wyatt suggested it.

Unfortunately, nobody has done a thing to follow up on any of this since then, much less ask about the fully-funded but dormant Mobile Outreach Program which could easily be reconfigured into a fully funded Crisis Response program like Butte County or Oakland.

In other time wasting items, Measure B Committee Chair Donna Moschetti told her colleagues that the County’s Behavioral Health Advisory Board had created an ad hoc to go over mental health service gaps “and give our recommendations to this committee as we were charged to do.”

That of course will never happen. It’s not even necessary because, again, Mr. Kemper already did it in that same 2018 report entitled “Mendocino County Behaviorial Health System Program Gap Analysis & Recommendations for Allocation of Measure B Revenues.”

Mr. Kemper did a much better job than Ms. Moschetti’s ad hoc could ever do, so why are they wasting more time on it?

Ms. Moschetti said that on July 22 the ad hoc would have “a comprehensive report and strategic plan” which would address “what we need and what we can afford, etc.”

That’s exactly what the highly praised Mr. Kemper has already done and which the Supervisors have been asking for — apparently unaware that they already paid handsomely for the information they re-seek two years ago.

But that would require somebody do something besides incur more delays. So Mr. Kemper’s fine report has to be formally tossed into the memory hole.

There was a long discussion of the $120 per hour the County and Measure B has been paying for nebulous “construction contracting consulting services” from a woman named “Sally” who has run up tens of thousand dollars in consulting bills without a single piece of paper being submitted besides her one-line bill. When one of the committee members suggested maybe she should provide some reports or at least an itemized bill, the rest of the committee disagreed, saying that perhaps impertinent requests like this one should be left to Ms. Bailey.

In the end the committee decided to recommend to the Supervisors that another $20k be spent on whatever Sally is doing. (Here you go, Sal. Here's another twenty grand for whatever it is you're doing.)

Last month we described the Measure B committee’s progress as “pathetic.” But it’s at least double pathetic. Nearly three years in since Measure B passed, and the whole show is marching steadily backward.

* * *

HANDLEY'S RESORT

* * *

FAIRGROUNDS ARE FACILITIES THAT SERVE: CALLING OUR COMMUNITIES

(from Jim Brown, County Fair Manager, Boonville)

Fairgrounds are often the heartbeats of our communities, acting as a gathering place in good times and in times of crisis. Open to all members of our community.

Fairgrounds are at risk of closing and not being available to our communities.

Where would we be if our Fairgrounds closed?

We need to take action now! We need Emergency Funding in the new package of Federal economic relief. Without support, many Fairs will close and the communities they serve will suffer.

We Need Your Help To Protect Our California Fairs!

Share the Video & Spread the Message

Tag Your Elected Officials & Share the Video

Click Thru to Our Website www.callingallcomunities.org to learn more about how to send a letter to Congress and reach out to our elected officials

Reach out to your local Fairgrounds to find out how you can help. 

MS NOTES: The County approved a permit for the Fair Parade for this year a few weeks ago. But we have not seen anything about the Fair itself other than Dr. Doohan’s recent prediction that she doubted it would be approved this year on grounds of problems with inviting out-of-county visitors and large gatherings.

* * *

MESSAGE FROM THE AV MUSEUM

Greetings from your friends at the Anderson Valley Historical Society. 

At our most recent AVHS Board meeting, we discussed the possibility of opening the museum to visitors and talked about the ways that might work. Unfortunately, we could not come up with a safe way to work an opening. For one thing, most of our volunteer docents are seniors and as such are in a preeminent high-risk group. Also, a significant percentage of our visitors are passing through from out of town, creating an additional level of uncertainty. Finally, due to the spread-out nature of our facilities, with displays in three separate buildings, keeping counters and doors and display cases sprayed and disinfected after each group would prove an impossible task. So, sad to say, we felt we had no choice but to keep the museum closed for the time being. Our next Board meeting is scheduled for August, and we will reevaluate things then. But we did want to let the community know about our deliberations, and about the specifics behind our decision to stay closed for now. In the meantime, maintenance, insurance and other expenses roll on. If you’d like to make a donation, checks can be made out to AV Historical Society and mailed to PO Box 676, Boonville, CA, 95415. Best wishes to all. We hope to be seeing you soon.

Jerry Karp

Boonville

* * *

FAWN CAFETERIA, GREYHOUND DEPOT, UKIAH

* * *

UKIAH STREETSCAPE UPDATE

(ms notes: We doubt that Ukiah’s Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley was trying to be funny with her intro to this week’s update.)

In case you haven't noticed, there are major infrastructure projects happening all over town. Yes, this causes some disruptions to traffic and can be temporarily inconvenient. We sincerely appreciate your patience. The trade-offs are more reliable utilities, safer streets, and a more resilient community. Please drive (and walk!) safely around construction areas, and note that a flashing red traffic signal should be treated like a stop sign.

Construction Update for June 27th - July 3rd 

Next week, the construction crews are expected to complete sewer line replacements between Perkins and Smith Streets and begin the replacement of the water lines in the same area. Pedestrian access to businesses will be maintained at all times. Please note that, while we make our best effort to forecast construction impacts, this is inherently messy work that is subject to change based on conditions in “the field.”

Where will the work occur? 

Pipe “bursting” and other related construction activities will occur on State Street between Church Street and Henry Street and the intersections of State and Church Streets, State and Perkins Streets, State and Standley Streets, and State and Smith Streets.

What are the construction days/hours? 

There will be work on Saturday, June 27th. Next week’s construction days/hours are scheduled for Monday-Thursday, 6 a.m. - 6 p.m. There will be no construction work on Friday, July 3rd through Monday, July 6th to honor the 4th of July holiday. 

Will there be night work? 

No. There is no night work scheduled — this week.

Will there be dust and noise? 

Yes. There will be ongoing dust and noise due to pipe “bursting”, increased truck activity (hauling in the fill for the large “bursting” holes in State Street), and the ongoing noise from bypass generators. 

Will there be any disruptions to parking access or streets?

Yes. Through traffic will be maintained on State Street, but will be reduced to two lanes with limitations to parking on South State Street between Church Street and Henry Streets. Closures to through-traffic on Henry, Standley, Perkins Street, and Church Street remain this week, but intermittent re-opening of Perkins and Standley is expected soon. 

More information can be found online on the City’s website at ukiahstreetscape.com, or follow our Facebook page for updates and project photos at www.facebook.com/UkiahStreetscape/. 

Thanks,

Shannon Riley

Deputy City Manager, City of Ukiah

300 Seminary Avenue

Ukiah, California 95482

(707) 467-5793

PS. Gobbi Street’s westbound lane will be closed at the railroad tracks Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. starting Wednesday, July 1 and ending Thursday July 23. Leslie Street and Main Street, as well as local area businesses, will remain open. This work is part of the Gobbi Street utility project to underground the electric, phone and cable utilities. Please consider using an alternate route.

This work is considered essential for electric and communication service. Crews are following safe work guidelines to ensure the safety of the public and themselves.

We would like to thank the area residents and business owners for their cooperation and support of this improvement project. Further questions regarding this project should be directed to Scott Bozzoli, project manager, at 707-467-5775. Thank you.

* * *

* * *

THE RAGE OF THE BARRED OWL

When Moon unmasks your naked face
And gilds your gun with diamonds green
I mark your progress from afar.
You stumble toward my roosting place,
Studying your tiny screen,
Tracking an artificial star.

You killed my wife some dawns ago,
Fooled by your telescopic sight:
She was a Northern Spotted Owl!
You threw her feathers in the snow
No measurements of weight or height:
Bars or spots, murder most foul!

Management stalks through the trees
Plying the Endangered Species Act
And shifting its dynamic core.
We will be gone when, by degrees
The soil will sicken, parched and cracked:
Then fire, desert, nothing more.

I, Owl, now curse your species’ birth:
No Permit comes from Mother Earth.

THE OWL THEY WILL SHOOT

The United States Fish & Wildlife Service faced a difficult problem. The Northern Spotted Owl was vanishing from the forest, in spite of being listed as threatened, in 1990, under the Endangered Species Act, assigned critical habitat on public lands, and special protections related to the activities of local timber companies. Its numbers had continued to drop at a rate of 4% a year. Now suspicion was turning to the Barred Owl, whose assertive appearance in the Pacific Northwest could be causing the decline. So eight years ago the United States Fish & Wildlife Service convened a study group, to discuss the moral and practical dimensions raised by this imminent peril. 

Heretofore the Northern Spotted Owl’s dwindling numbers had been thought to relate to the destruction of the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest, which was the owl’s habitat. The United States, the world leader in commercial logging, had produced and consumed more wood than any other country. Now less than 15% of forests remained which were more than 100 years old.

However, another possible agent  might be the increased presence of Barred Owls, a larger and less specialized species, which had gradually moved in from the east. This species was soon stigmatized as invasive, and its possible role in the disappearance of the Spotted Owl began to be studied. 

Verification of such a role was determined to be impossible without the drastic experiment of killing Barred Owls in specified areas, and observing the  effect. This occasioned some moral uncertainty: the dark side of science.

As the late Lowell Diller, biologist for Green Diamond Timber Company, described shooting an owl: “When I went out to do it the first time, I was shaking. I had to steady myself. I wasn’t sure I could actually do it.  It was so wrong to be shooting a beautiful raptor like this. It continues to be awkward to this day.”

An avalanche of computer model studies followed. Barred Owl killing caused immediate repopulation of habitat by Spotted Owls. Effects were frequently temporary, however. Many studies contradicted each other.  

The USFWS-convened study group, or Barred Owl Stakeholders Group, was composed of government officials, timber industry representatives, environmental NGOs, indigenous tribes, and wildlife rehabilitators. They were provided with reading lists, including works by Aldo Leopold and Plato.They were trained in collective decision-making by Group Dynamic specialists.  An Animal Ethicist attended their field trips and retreats. This was designed to be a Mount Sinai moment. 

After lengthy deliberation, the Group concluded  that Barred Owls were the driving force behind “poor population performance” of Northern Spotted Owls. Even the fact that the two species interbred was condemned as “genetic swamping.” 

The USFWS decreed that Barred Owls should be destroyed.

Now, eight years later, thousands of Barred Owls have been shot, and the practice is expanding.  Locally, Green Diamond’s new Habitat Conservation Plan has opened up its entire holdings to their extermination. In Washington and Oregon, and on public lands, Barred Owls are lured to a nearby branch and shot point blank. 

Friends of Animals, a 63-year-old international nonprofit, had sued USFWS in 2014 over killing Barred Owls, in violation of the Migratory Species Act. They lost.

Now they are suing the feds for abuse of the ESA itself.

When Barred Owls are killed on private land, Northern Spotted Owls replace them. The USFWS decreed that, in exchange for shooting  Barred Owls, termed “mitigation”, on their timberlands, the companies would be  allowed to “take” the habitat of the returning Spotted Owls. Since such individual Spotted Owls are “floaters,” and therefore not shielded by regulations, they do not have the status that protects the forest they are reinhabiting. 

According to USFWS, “the take of Spotted Owls on the temporarily reoccupied sites is more than offset by the value of the information gained from this experiment and its potential contribution to a long-term Barred Owl management strategy.”

This obsessively overzealous, deranged  enforcement policy mirrors the nihilism of the current Administration, in its swift shredding of the Endangered Species Act.  The very purpose of the ESA is to protect wildlife, in all its dynamic complexity.  Science is being corrupted to the point of legalistic reductionism, and flies in the face of the rights of Mother Earth.

— Ellen Taylor

* * *

ORR HOT SPRINGS

* * *

ED NOTES

MENDOLIB IN ACTION. Many of the letters sent to Ukiah Daily Journal editor KC Meadows demanding she fire her star columnist, Tommy Wayne Kramer were, Meadows tells us, sent to her with the plea that their names be withheld. The letters to kill Kramer that were signed were stupid in the extreme, and even the messages of support were pompously critical of the columnist. The campaign against Kramer was kicked off by Susan Sher, trained as a lawyer and, presumably, aware of the gist of the 1st Amendment even if she can't quite decode it. Ms. Sher circulated a request to her friends (The NPR Assault Force) to join her surreptitious crusade to censor Kramer, characterizing her campaign as, of all things, a campaign against racism, of which there is little to none in Mendocino County but is indeed, as the BLM movement points out, "systemic," meaning discriminatory in the very real economic sense and the insidiously prevalent inequality of opportunity. I'm sure BLM is hugely reassured that the Westside of Ukiah has their back until, like, uh, sorry, gotta go. Time for my decaf latte.

Hastings

AS THE FORCES of righteousness work at re-naming Fort Bragg, they seem unaware of Judge Hastings, a county pioneer and prime mover of the genocidal assault on Mendocino County's native peoples. As one of the state's first supreme court justices, Hastings had already appropriated Eden Valley (southwest of Covelo) for himself, hiring pioneer thugs to clear the valley of its native inhabitants. When Hastings died at the dawn of the twentieth century, he left a million dollars to the University of California, whose trustees named the famous law school after him. One would think that the Hastings School of Law would be a top state candidate for a name change. Junipero Serra wasn't even in it with Hastings. The Jesuits at least recognized native peoples as human beings whose souls need saving, but Hastings simply arranged for state-paid killers to have them murdered. (I'm sure some of our Mendo legal eagles are Hastings grads, and bet you they are unaware of their patriarch's history.)

PLAGUE UPDATE: Texas and Florida are re-closing their bars and Arizona is asking residents to stay home as COVID-19 cases surge and hospitalizations increase. Only two months ago these states reopened, loudly proclaiming the worst had passed. In Texas, Trumper-Gov. Greg Abbott has shut down bars again and scaled back restaurant dining to 50 percent capacity. Meanwhile, Florida officials also announced on Friday that bars across the state would close as its daily infections soared to nearly 9,000. The United States, already the hardest-hit country in the world with close to 125,000 covid deaths, never fully emerged from its first COVID-19 wave. Following a weeks-long plateau, new cases are once again back to where they were in April. The number of infections across the US rose by nearly 40,000 on Thursday in the largest single-day increase since the pandemic started.

WISHFUL THINKING from the WSJ "…Now, under these strange coronavirus conditions, we’re watching a different sort of insurgency challenge or change liberalism that never came naturally to Bernie Sanders. Rather than 'Medicare for All' and taxing plutocrats, the rallying cry is racial justice and defunding the police. Instead of finding its nemeses in corporate suites, the intersectional revolution finds them on antique pedestals and atop the cultural establishment…"

FOR NOW. But the under-current is drifting toward sweeping economic changes as the thinking sectors of the current demonstration steer the movement towards much more than name changes and race-shaming. But maybe not, who knows? It's a fluid situation, and the mainstream media seldom let's us hear from left intellectuals, but it's a dim BLM soldier indeed who doesn't understand power relationships in this country.

WITH TRUMP agitating for a civil war, which would depend on thousands of black and brown troops to fight on his side, and good luck, Orange Man, with that assumption, but for now it looks more and more like months of mere chaos out of which will come history's traditional movement-killers, the Democrats, and then we'll see how much momentum remains for real change.

EXCITING HEADLINE over the ICO's lead story this week: "GMAC seeks Gualala entity to install subsidized EV charging station." 

* * *

THE HASTINGS SCHOOL OF LAW, ORIGINS OF…

THE FOLLOWING are extracts from ‘Killing for Land in Early California by Frank H. Baumgardner.’ In them we find Serranus Hastings, the man who began the state-funded extermination of inland Mendocino County's native peoples. Hastings' Eden Valley (near Covelo) ranch manager is also found here. He, a 6'7" psychopath called Texan Boy Hall, cleared Eden Valley of its native people for Hastings and recreationally murdered Indians throughout interior Mendocino County. Also included is Walter Jarboe, Ukiah's first lawman; prior to his job in Ukiah, Jarboe was hired by the State of California via Hastings to murder all the Indians he and his killers could find in the Eel River valleys. The Hastings School of Law is named after Hastings:

Another settler whose deposition provides insight into the beginnings of the Mendocino Indian War and the actions of the Eel River Rangers is William T. Scott. His testimony began:

“I am 28 years of age, and a farmer and stock raiser. I reside in Scotts Valley, Mendocino County and within five miles of South Eel River and Robinson's ranch; having resided there one year. Those Indians in the surrounding areas lived there and trade backwards and forwards across the Eel River with other Indians. They are like the Yukas an appearance. I have seen them on the north side of the Eel River. I have had some 700 head of stock in my charge since the first of June last, and of this number I have never lost any to the Indians. These Indians have been in the constant habit of crossing the Eel River and hunting in the surrounding country until Captain Jarboe's company was started, when they were afraid to go there. I heard Captain Jarboe tell these Indians that if he ever caught them along the river he would kill them.”

Mr. Scott continued with an interesting hypothesis about the beginnings of the conflict:

“I know Mr. Hall of Eden Valley that sometime in May last I had a conversation with him touching on the Indian difficulties in that section of the country. Mr. Hall attributed the origin of the difficulty with the Indians to the following cause. That a little more than a year ago he employed 13 Indians in place of pack mules to go on back loads from Ukiah City to Eden Valley and promised to give each one a shirt and payment. The distance, I think, is about 40 miles. Mr. Hall said he did not get the shirts at the time to pay them. The Indians commenced complaining at not receiving the shirts. And he, Mr. Hall, whipped two of them to keep them quiet. He said he never gave them after he whipped them as they left them and never did not come back for them. Mr. Hall said previous to this time the Indians had never killed any of their stock. But soon after they killed some of their stock. Then Hall associated hunters with him and commenced killing all the Indians they could find in the mountains. When Hall met Indians he would kill them. Mr. Hall said the Indians had killed two fine stallions, one of which cost $600 and the other $1,000. Said he believed the Indians who had done the packing for him had killed the stallions because no other Indians would have known enough to have selected the most valuable stock.”

As we have seen, it was the killing of Judge Hastings’ horses and especially of the prize stallion that angered and drove the judge to petition Governor Weller to commission a militia company. So it may be that this one particular depredation was in retaliation for the behavior of one overseer. This was the cruelty of H. L. Hall, once described by an admiring reporter as the "Texan boy," and his contempt for the Yuki and other local tribes is clear in a number of the 1860 legislative committee depositions. Sadly, ranch manager Hall’s abuse of the two Indians may have triggered this bloody phase of the Mendocino Indian War.

Continuing with Mr. Scott's reviewing a position:

“At another time I heard Mr. Hall say that he did not want any man to go with him to hunt Indians who would not kill all he could find because ‘a nit would make a louse.’ Mr. Hall said he had run Indians out of their rancherias and put strychnine in their baskets of soup that they had to eat.”

All of these events transpired before Captain Jarboe's company was organized. Scott's testimony then went on to confirm the course of events that led up to the commissioning of the Eel River Rangers, making especially clear the motivations of Judge Hastings.

“A few days after Judge Hastings drove a large band of cattle sometime in April last. He said he wanted the range for stock, that he could have the Indians removed and have them replaced by a volunteer company if the citizens would petition the governor and that the citizens of Round Valley ought to do that. Said the soldiers were good for nothing in the mountains against the Indians. That the Indians would have to be removed by a volunteer company. Judge Hastings solicited me to or three times to sign a petition for a volunteer company. I told him it was nothing to do with me and that I did not think the Indians would be so bad if the whites would leave them alone. Before Captain Jarboe's company came there, Mr. Robinson, who had charge of Hastings’ stock, appealed to me and said if he could get five or six men to go with him that there was about 3 miles down the river a rancheria. That they could kill off the old Indians and get the young ones and make something of it. That he was afraid these Indians would kill his stock if they had not already. Mr. Robinson afterward told me that he had been to the Rancheria above referred to and killed some of the Indians and took one Indian girl. That he would have killed them all if it had not been for a man named Howard who went with him who claimed some of the Indians and prevented them from killing them. Robinson said Howard was as bad as the Indians and that he meant to kill all the Indians on their side of the river they could find. This was prior to the formation of Captain Jarboe's company. I resided at Scotts Valley with my uncle. We had a large amount of stock. Never lost any and never felt any danger. I frequently hunted, slept out alone by a large fire and picketed outside a horse and was never disturbed by Indians. Camped within a half-mile of Indians. I've lost about 50 head of stock from natural causes but not from Indians. I believe some have died from getting into gulches, want of good food, some from disease. I know Indians eat the carcasses of animals found dead. I saw three head of Hastings cattle dead from poverty or starvation on his ranch in August last.”

This testimony stands in telling contrast to that of settlers who claimed that the settlers’ stock losses were due solely or at least mostly to Indian depredations. 

Scott continues:

“I was solicited by Captain Jarboe to come meet with him or join his company with two others residing with me. He, Captain Jarboe, said we could all three join and stay part of the time at home and part of the time with his company. And our pay would go on all the same. One man told him he thought that would be swindling the state. Captain Jarboe said the amount would be so small that it would never be missed. I told Jarboe that I did not like, from report, the manner he was conducting the war. He requested me to go out on patrol a few days with them and see for myself. I went with them, remained for five days. Captain Jarboe's orders to his men were to kill all the bucks they could find, and take the women and children as prisoners. And if they got sight of an Indian never to lose sight of him as long as they could follow the trail. The first we met while I was with Captain Jarboe were two Indians about half mile distant. They appeared to be gathering acorns unarmed. Captain Jarboe sent his men to surround them and be sure to get close enough to make good shots and kill them. One was killed and the other escaped. This was on the ranch claimed by Judge Hastings five miles from Eden Valley.”

From ‘Killing for Land in Early California: Indian Blood at Round Valley, 1856-1863” 

* * *

THE SHERIFF DEPARTMENT'S SUMMER OFFENSIVE

On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, assisted by the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force, Mendocino County Probation, the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the California National Guard Counter-Drug Task Force Unit/High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) members, and the Round Valley Indian Tribal Police Department served two search warrants in the 77200 Block of Crawford Road in Covelo on adjoining properties. The warrants were issued for the properties based upon probable cause showing the illegal cultivation of commercial marijuana. At the location 8 persons were detained on site with one having fled the scene. An observation helicopter spotted the fleeing person who entered a white SUV, a short distance away, and a high risk car stopped was initiated, and three more persons were detained.

The investigation found a total of 14,383 growing marijuana plants, ranging in height from 1 foot to 6 feet, being grown in an open field and in 32 "hoop" style green houses. An estimated 1754 pounds of drying marijuana bud and two firearms were also discovered, a shotgun and an AR15 style assault weapon. During the investigation officers were contacted by Douglas Lincoln, 63 years of age from Covelo, who claimed responsibility for 1 portion of this growing operation. Also detained were suspects; Jorge Sanchez-Zamora, 19 years of age, from Michoacan Mexico, Jose Humberto Barragan-Leon, 36, from Modesto CA, Sergio Faria-Silva, 34, from Michoacan Mexico, Anthony David Soto-Farias, 18, from Vancouver WA, Dagoberto Rumbo-Coria, 58, from Michoacan, Mexico, Alfonso Castaneda, 21, from Galt, and Victor Alfonso Garcia-Lopez, 31 years of age, from Galt.

Three persons were determined to not be involved in the criminal activity and one 17 year old Hispanic female was found to have been transported to the location the day prior and dropped off to "help trim marijuana". This person was taken into protective custody as she knew no one on the property and had no relatives nearby who could assure her safety. She was transferred to the custody of the Mendocino County Child Protective Services Department until she could be reunited with her family. An investigation was initiated into the possibility of any sex or labor trafficking of this minor.

Located on the second, adjacent, property were two "hoop" style greenhouses containing 765 growing marijuana plants. This marijuana was also eradicated and no suspects were located at this location.

This incident is under investigation and a complaint will be filed with the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office for a review of the charges of Conspiracy, Possession of Assault Weapon, Hire/employ minor to prepare marijuana for sale, Cultivation of Marijuana, Possession of Marijuana for Sale and Protective Custody of a Minor against the suspects. Anyone with additional information about these marijuana growing operations is encouraged to contact the MCSO Tip line at 707-234-2100.

COVELO RAID NUMBER TWO

On June 24, 2020 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, assisted by the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force, Mendocino County Probation, Lake County Sheriff's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the California National Guard Counter-Drug Task Force Unit/High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) members, and the Round Valley Indian Tribal Police Department served a search warrant in the 23700 Block of Biggar Lane in Covelo, related to the illegal cultivation of marijuana.

The warrant was issued for the property based upon probable cause showing the illegal cultivation of commercial marijuana. At the location four males fled into the brush and one adult female was detained. In a search of the wooded area two adult males were detained and two could not be located. Two minor children were also located who were visiting a relative. These two minor children were later turned over to the custody of the Round Valley Indian Tribal Indian Child Welfare (ICWA) representative to be driven to their legal guardian's home. Detained at this location were; Angel Esquivel, 56, out of Covelo, Herberto Valencia-Guzman, 32, from Eureka, CA, and Juan Godine-Martinez, 38, from Guatemala.

The investigation found a total of 9346 growing marijuana plants, ranging in height from 1 foot to 6 feet, being grown in several open field locations and and in 35 "hoop" style green houses.

A Round Valley Indian Tribes, cultural monitor, was requested to respond as there was clear indication of Tribal Archaeology site disturbances found. A complete report documenting the extent of any damage to the sites was requested. Also discovered were two areas of de-forestation of the local oak trees in what appeared to be an attempt to open the tree canopy for to allow more sunlight on some of the open field grows. These areas were withing the riparian zone of Mill creek, a steel-head and salmon spawning tributary of the Eel River.

This incident is under investigation and a complaint will be filed with the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office for a review of the charges of Conspiracy, Cultivation of marijuana and Possession marijuana for sale against the suspects. Anyone with additional information about these marijuana growing operations is encouraged to contact the MCSO Tip line at 707-234-2100.

AND A THIRD!

On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 around 2:00 PM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, assisted by the Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force, Mendocino County Probation, Lake County Sheriff's Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, the California National Guard Counter-Drug Task Force Unit/High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) members, and the Round Valley Indian Tribal Police Department served a search warrant in the 77800 Block of Highway 162 in Covelo, related to the illegal cultivation of marijuana.

The warrant was issued for the property based upon probable cause showing the illegal cultivation of commercial marijuana. As officers entered the property suspect Johnny Azbill, 39, from Covelo fled on foot into a brushy creek bed. 

Azbill

In doing so a loaded 9MM handgun fell from his waist band. Azbill is a person who is prohibited, due to past convictions, of possessing any types of firearms or ammunition. A search was conducted by he could not be located. A search of a nearby vehicle, believed to have been used by Azbill, showed a second loaded .380 caliber handgun.

An adult female and adult male were also detained but found to have no responsibility for the growing operation and were later released.

The investigation found a total of 8353 growing marijuana plants, ranging in height from 1 foot to 6 feet, being grown in several open field locations and and in 21 "hoop" style green houses.

This incident is under investigation and a complaint will be filed with the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office for a review of the charges of Felon possessing firearms, Cultivation of marijuana and Possession of marijuana for sale against the suspect. Anyone with additional information about this marijuana growing operations is encouraged to contact the MCSO Tip line at 707-234-2100.

LAYTONVILLE LOVE STORY

On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at about 1:54 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to a reported domestic violence incident in the 5000 block of Laytonville Dos Rios Road in Laytonville.

On Tuesday, June 23, 2020 there was a separate domestic violence incident reported at the same address, but Ethan Becker, 35, of Laytonville, fled the scene while the 44 year old adult female remained at the residence.

Becker

During this incident the adult female had an argument with Becker and it escalated into a physical altercation. During the altercation the adult female sustained minor abrasions and she was held against her will in a bedroom. A report was taken and a BOLO was issued for Becker’s arrest if located for charges of domestic violence battery and false imprisonment.

On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 Deputies contacted the adult female in regards to this subsequent domestic violence incident.

Deputies observed dried blood on her nose, around her left eye, and left cheek. On the bridge of her nose she had a small laceration, approximately ¼ inch in length. The laceration had a small amount of blood and swelling/bruising was noticed around her left eye.

Deputies learned Becker and the adult female had been in a romantic dating relationship for the past 10 years.

 On Wednesday, June 24, 2020 Becker arrived back at the residence causing the adult female to secure herself in a bedroom. Becker attempted to break down the door and finally gained entry into the room.

Becker grabbed the adult female by the hair and forced her head to the floor where she was placed into a choke hold. This made the adult female fear for her safety and Becker started punching her in the head and face.

The adult female was able to to free herself and ran outside while yelling for help.

Becker grabbed the adult female by the hair and dragged her back towards the house, when two bystanders on the property came to her aid causing Becker to disappear.

As Deputies were leaving the property, they learned Becker was back inside of the house.

Deputies entered into the residence where they observed Becker standing in the kitchen area holding a large knife and trying to cut his wrist.

Becker was extremely upset and was yelling at the Deputies. While doing so, he kept pushing the knife up against his neck and then back to his wrist.

After approximately 25 minutes of verbally negotiating with Becker the Deputies were able to get him to put the knife down and he was taken into custody without further incident.

Becker was medically cleared for minor wounds to his wrist and was thereafter booked into the Mendocino County Jail on two counts of domestic violence battery, two counts of false imprisonment, and criminal threats

Becker was to be held at the Mendocino County in lieu of $50,000 bail.

CATCH & RELEASE

On Thursday, June 25, 2020 at approximately 8:43 a.m., Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a reported burglary at the State of the Ark Thrift Store in Fort Bragg.

After arriving, Deputies initiated an investigation wherein they learned approximately $3,500 worth of store merchandise was stolen.

After review of store surveillance footage, Deputies were able to identify Shawn Spiller, 31, of Fort Bragg, as having committed the burglary.

Spiller

While checking the area for Spiller, Deputies located some or all of the stolen property concealed in the brush in the immediate area.

At approximately 12:15 a.m., Deputies responded to Hare Creek Beach in Fort Bragg after receiving information Spiller was in that area. Deputies located and contacted Spiller and arrested him without incident for burglary.

Spiller was ultimately transported and booked into the Mendocino County Jail. Spiller was also confirmed to have two active summary probation cases and he was additionally booked on two misdemeanor counts of violation of probation.

In accordance with the COVID-19 emergency order issued by the State of California Judicial Council, bail was set at zero dollars and Spiller was released after the jail booking process.

Please visit the following link to hear Sheriff Matthew C. Kendall provide a Public Safety Message on the current COVID-19 emergency order related to zero bail: facebook.com/MendocinoSheriff/videos/2568683186688486/

* * *

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 26, 2020

Bacchi, Becker, Dereskericius

MICHAEL BACCHI, Covelo. Failure to appear.

ETHAN BECKER, Laytonville. Domestic abuse, false imprisonment. 

DONNA DERESKERICIUS, Mendocino. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

Fox, Frey, Galindo, Huang

DANIEL FOX, Ukiah. Suspended license (for DUI), probation revocation.

THOMAS FREY, Redwood Valley/Fort Bragg. “Battery by gassing of PO/detention/invest/prosecution emp,” assault on peace officer, battery on peace officer, resisting, vandalism, criminal threats, probation revocation.

THOMAS GALINDO JR., Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ROBERT HUANG, Ukiah. Vandalism, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

James, Lawson, McCoy

MICHAEL JAMES, Willits. Fighting in public, resisting.

NOLAN LAWSON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JODY MCCOY, Covelo. Sale/transport of organic drug, probation revocation.

Placencia, Question, Sarabana

MIGUEL PLASCENCIA-BARAJAS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MARCIE QUESTONI, Petaluma/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, disobeying court order, probation revocation.

RAMY SARABANA, Castro Valley/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

Spiller, Tapia, Wilson

SHAWN SPILLER, Fort Bragg. Burglary, probation revocation.

YESSICA TAPIA-INIQUEZ, Gualala. Domestic abuse, resisting.

MCKENZIE WILSON, Redwood Valley. DUI, suspended license (for DUI).

* * *

NOTHING NEW

Editor: 

Police reform isn’t a new thing. In California, law enforcement has stringent guidelines under the Peace Officer Standards of Training. Practices and procedures are constantly being updated. Tactics used in the past are reviewed, updated or discarded altogether. California is the standard for all states to emulate.

Hiring entails extensive background investigations, physical and psychological exams, polygraphs and oral interviews. Is it possible that a few bad apples will be missed and be hired? Yes, it happens, just as in all fields of employment. Most of the time the rotten apples are discovered and removed, but some get through.

I look at the people pressing to look into reform. Most are politicians, activists and cop haters and have no experience in law enforcement. They haven’t a clue what a cop experiences during a shift and occasional high-stress moments. And they want to write reform.

I know a good number of men and women in law enforcement and am thankful they are the good apples who don’t tolerate the bad ones. They’re dedicated to the citizenry, to their department and to their peers. I suggest the reformers go on a number of patrols with these folks and see what the world is really like.

Milt Spinnaker

Rohnert Park

* * *

THREE WEEKS AGO I found this house online. 

I said “this is my house”. I called the seller and was told it was a cash only offer and that “I’m sure that takes you off the table”. Don’t you ever underestimate a hard working black man. I saw the house last week and when I walked in I knew I was home. The house was built in 1820 for the Russell family who owned the cotton mill in town. Slavery was still legal. When the agent asked me why I wanted such a large house I said it was “a generational move”. I know this house is bigger than me. I wish I could’ve told my ancestors when they were breaking their back in 1820 to build this house that 200 years later a free gay black man was going to own it and fill it with love and find a way to say their name even when 200 years later they still thought I would be “off the table”. We are building our own tables. I’ve never been prouder to be a black man. Come to my White House any time. I can’t wait to have you! Glory to God in the highest. I’m a homeowner.

— Robert Hartwell

* * *

TODAY’S HAIKU

Don’t kill arrested people?

Need a law to tell us that?

God, we’re fucked for sure.

—Jim Luther

* * *

* * *

NO BIZ LIKE SHOW BIZ

by Denis Rouse

“Hey Weinstein”, says Zuckerman, his wannabe director Monte Nido neighbor one sparkling summer Sunday, “I’ve got a commercial to shoot out in the desert. It’s for a Mexican brandy client, La Rosa Fina. I need you and your motorcycle. The script is simple. Guy on an off road bike rides aggressively through rugged terrain, pauses to pick a rose, then presents it to a beautiful girl at the end of the spot. Nice symbolism, no? I’ve budgeted four hundred dollars for the stunt rider. I know you can do it”.

“Zuckerman, I can ride but I’m not going to do any Evel Knievel shit, right?”

“No, no, nothing like that. A few easy jumps, a little air, some dust; hell if I didn’t have to direct I could do it. It’ll be like a ride in the park, and you get a free lunch and four hundred bucks. Whaddya say?”

Weinstein affirms and shows up at the location in Saugus on his enduro machine one very early morning the following week in accordance with Zuckerman’s instructions. The site is crawling with people; executives from the brandy company, the ad agency, script girls, cameramen, lighting and set guys, and of course Zuckerman in some kind of ridiculous safari outfit that pegs him as the director. Typical Hollywood economics; crowds of go’fers and assorted lackies, and truck loads of equipment for thirty seconds of film.

Scene One. A cameraman is stationed at the fork of a trail. Weinstein is to accelerate to the camera, brake abruptly a foot from the lens, then quickly glance left and right as if in anxious pursuit of something, and then pop the clutch, spin the rear wheel and leave a rooster tail of dust to accent the urgency. Several takes later, repetition that seems redundant as hell to Weinstein, the shot is deemed handled, in the can as they say.

Scenes Two through Six. Much the same kind of thing. Many many takes, hours of takes, and it’s a very hot day; Weinstein’s head is cooking inside his helmet. Ride here, ride there, ride down the hill, ride up the hill. Then, somewhat to Weinstein’s consternation, a ramp is set up for a jump across a narrow ditch, POV from the bottom of the ditch. It’s a short flight but Weinstein realizes if he screws it up the cameraman could die. Zuckerman shrugs it off. “We’ve got insurance Weinstein, we’re covered, don’t sweat it”. Twelve takes later, all is well, no one dies.

Final scene of the day. Zuckerman approaches Weinstein for the umpteenth time in his John-Huston-in-Mexico costume with his fucking clipboard. Actually his hero is Sam Peckinpah. Weinstein hasn’t the heart to tell him that Sam would shove the clipboard up his ass. “Weinstein”, he says, “see that grassy hill?” Weinstein sees it. It’s a high broad angular expanse of chest high rye grass. “Here’s the deal, Weinstein. The cameraman is going to sit in front of you on the gas tank as you ride through the grass, POV hauling ass through the grass, the stalks dramatically bouncing off the lens. It’s going to be a dynamic sequence”.

“What about the rose, Zuckerman? When do I present the rose to the chick?”

“Forget that part, Weinstein, we’re gonna do it in a studio next week. With models. I don’t need you for that scene. The grass shot. Get on it. Then it’s a wrap and you can go home”.

Trouble and pain have been waiting in the wings all day long. The cameraman mounts the tank of Weinstein’s bike with his 16mm Beaulieu in his lap. “Ok, I’m ready”, he says. Weinstein takes off through the grass craning his neck for visibility over the shoulders of the cameraman. The dynamic sequence is underway. “Faster”, the cameraman says, “faster, much faster, I need more speed!” Weinstein complies and abruptly the motorcycle dives into a run off ditch hidden in the tall grass ejecting Weinstein and cameraman in different directions. The cameraman manages to fall flat on his back with his expensive camera still cradled in his gut but blurts “I can’t see! I can’t see!”, he hopefully only temporarily blinded by the occipital blow his helmetless head has taken. Weinstein has endured a nasty uppercut from the handlebars. He can see but what he sees are stars and the distinct possibility of a huge lawsuit filed by a blinded cinematographer.

Thank God, however, the horror passes. The cameraman’s vision normalizes. Weinstein’s headache will subside in a few days. The motorcycle is undamaged. And ultimately the commercial is in the can, although Weinstein is never shown the rushes.

“Zuckerman”, says Weinstein later, “Do me a favor, forget I exist from now on, will you please?”

* * *

* * *

WHO WOULD I BE when the revolution finally came? A soldier for peace, or a man who might appear in "The True Import of Present Dialogue: Black vs. Negro," a poem by the activist and writer Nikki Giovanni?

Nigger

Can you kill

Can you kill

Can a nigger kill

Can a nigger kill a honkie

Can a nigger kill the Man

Can you kill nigger

Huh? Nigger can you

kill

Do you know how to draw blood

Can you poison

Can you stab a Jew

Can you kill? nigger

Can you kill

Can you run a Protestant down with your 68 El Dorado

(that's all they're good for anyway)

Can you kill

A nigger can die

We ain't got to prove we can die

We got to prove we can kill

But my brother and I weren’t niggers. And if called upon we wouldn't have been able to protect our mother and our sisters. Whom could we rely on to protect them, let alone us? Would the young black men with bats and other weapons who were flitting down our street — they seemed to leap as they walked — come for us? Would they save us? Or destroy us do? No door locks could keep them out.

Mom had her girls first. I wonder what it was like for her to try to understand boys — to rear boys who were not a threat to women, who would grow up to support women's dreams and protect them. In our world, men came and went and were something else. My brother and I were different, and, although we were our mothers familiars, I wonder if she eyed our difference unbelievingly at times, even as she nurtured it.

— Hilton Als

* * *

* * *

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I am a white Anglo-Saxon male with an actual last name of White and I have never had any work at all aside from a six month stint in E.B. Eddy Forest Products Ltd. back in the 80s right after graduating a two year diploma program in Mechanical Engineering / Tool & Die Making. Post 80s I went to university and attained an Honours degree in Experimental Psychology. Since graduation and attainment of that degree I have never worked full time or even part time at only odd contracting jobs for a few days here & there supplied subsistence level living at bare minimum as my chances of attaining employment dwindled in complete abject poverty living in my parents’ basement until the age of 48 when they took dirt naps in unison as my fraternal twin sister from Hell pilfered family coffers via POA & POAFC.

After literally starting work at the age of 15 and now arriving at the age of 60 I, for one, can honestly state that ‘white privilege’ did not help myself one iota when it came to gainful employment via education.

Society broke the social contract with myself, and others, long ago I would say. In 40 years of searching for work of either blue collar variety or white collar variety I have had exactly zero success to date.

Last night I saw an old fortune cookie in the top drawer of the kitchen drawers and I decided to scarf it down. Inside the cookie contained six double digit numbers with the fortune written as follows,

‘A financial investment will yield returns beyond your hopes.’ and the number is typed below.

Tertiary education offers the same fortune as the stale fortune cookie that I found in my upper cutlery drawer last night with no exception or difference whatsoever as I see it after forty years of looking to survive & prosper.

Not even Albert Einstein would counsel one to continue down that dead ended course of thinking & inaction.

White privilege is real enough as I can see instances of it daily, but as for being one that has experienced white privilege myself I would not agree with that at all.

I am as white male as they get and I have never accumulated any assets worth mention. No work translates into victim blaming for people such as myself. For forty years I have been the poor sot attempting to get work via education, but after attaining education in all the right areas there was only part time minimum wage service sector work with no hours and only precarious employment at best.

* * *

BAIT & SWITCH

by James Kunstler

Anybody else notice Joe Biden styling himself as Abe Lincoln this week? 

Uh, bad career move, pal. Someone ought to notify the Democratic Party leader that a) Mr. Lincoln was a Republican, and b) he was a racist through and through (BLM certified). The presidential frontrunner is unlikely to win more “woke” hearts-and-minds with this latest stunt. Maybe if they put him in a wheelchair the voters might think he was the second coming of Franklin Roosevelt (though he actually looks more like post-stroke Woodrow Wilson, a racist to the bone, they say).

Notice, too, that Uncle Joe appeared in Honest Abe drag to announce that US coronavirus deaths had reached “a hundred and twenty million.” Say, what? That would be roughly one-third of the US population! Excuse me for wondering if the candidate is being a little less than perfectly frank with us. And the costume didn’t really put that gag over, either. Anyway, the Democratic Party must be lovin’ it, despite the crocodile tears about the virus shed by The New York Times, because a new wave means that even more American businesses will be destroyed, more jobs lost, more careers extinguished, the battered economy will get brutally smacked down again, and it will all make President Trump look even more unelectable.

Suspicious minds may be prompted to wonder whether years of fake news from Wokesterdom’s media allies have finally produced the ultimate hoax: a completely fake candidate for president. Mr. Biden has gone-to-ground for three months since sweeping the Super Tuesday primaries by some strange coup of polling station magic. No campaign glad-handing, baby-kissing, and maiden-sniffing among those virus-saturated crowds for Uncle Joe this time around! And Gawd forbid any press conferences or spontaneous remarks — poor Mr. Biden tends to flub even his scripted statements. It’s a bit hard to imagine how his acceptance speech will go… and… Lordy… the debates! In the immortal words of rap impresario Jay-Z, “Nigga, Please!” (available on Amazon Music, by the way — thank you, Jeff Bezos, humanitarian).

This Joe Biden thang is being set up as some kind of bait-and-switch, but the scheme is a little too obvious, dontcha think? Mr. Biden has obliged himself to choose a “woman-of-color” as his running mate, of course, and so it is assumed that about twenty minutes after the swearing-in on January 20, 2021, Stacey Abrams (or Val Demings, or Kamala Harris, or Tawana Brawley) will become de facto president, and we’ll be off to the races, so to speak. It’s a cute gambit, but I don’t see it playing out. You may be unaware of this but the Democratic Party is actually owned, lock-stock-and-barrel, by the Clinton Foundation. It has something else in mind. Due to the unfortunate last minute discovery of Joe Biden’s incapacity to serve, She Whose Turn Was Thwarted in 2016 will perforce be the party’s nominee for an epic rematch with the Golden Golem of Greatness. Let’s face it: everybody wants to see that contest. And an election with mail-in ballots will cinch her victory.

In the meantime, she remains concealed deep in her Chappaqua, New York, Fortress of Solitude, mirthfully free of having to offer her views on the current goings-on across America. Speaking of which, you’d think that her place-holder, Mr. Biden, would grudge up a comment or two about all the mayhem loosed upon the land these recent fevered weeks, a few soothing words requesting that the Resistance youth corps of America desist from looting, arson, and pulling down statues of every dead white person ever mistakenly placed on a pedestal to beam waves of racist hatred at the oppressed multitudes. But he remains enigmatically silent about it. Perhaps no one has informed him of all the action in the streets since the tragic killing of George Floyd.

What’s quite a bit stranger, though, is the silence of Joe Biden’s mentor and spirit-guide, former president Barack Obama. Surely Mr. Obama has witnessed the mayhem from Seattle’s Capitol Hill to Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, from Midtown Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to Lafayette Square just across the way from the place he called home for eight years. Surely he would be The One to call for an end to the violent destruction. Has something got him distracted? What could it be…?

* * *

A SHARED FRONTIER

If humanity continues down our current path, we will not survive. There are too many of us consuming too much, our technology is too powerful, and we are all hooked together in one global system. Our fates are now linked and we will thrive or perish together. 

We got into this predicament through an evolutionary process--All of the problems that we face are actually symptoms of a process that has no name. 

There is a way out. We can have a world that is sustainable and anti-fragile, fair and free, and safe enough to empower us to take big risks. 

This is not a utopian vision any more than a hummingbird is a mythical creature. This is an achievable goal if we can accept a few things: 

  • Given similar circumstances, people are basically alike 
  • An excellent world is possible, but perfection is not an option 
  • The future can not be designed, it will have to be discovered

This is not magical thinking. This is the logical conclusion of inquiry. It is, in a very real sense, the final frontier for humanity. There is no guarantee we will succeed, but we must do everything in our power, because failure will surely lead to extinction. 

The enemy that has no name is not a nation, an organization or a religion. It is not a corporation or an industry. It is not an economic system or an ideology. It is a way of living on the earth that evolved, and if we are to change it, we must take evolution from autopilot and into our own hands. We must come together to create the future we wish to inhabit. 

—Bret Weinstein

35 Comments

  1. Susie de Castro June 27, 2020

    UNITED States of America

    Reply
    • Joe June 27, 2020

      I second the motion. The controllers who are currently robbing us blind by printing trillions and handing it out to their casino buddies are the ones we should be rioting against . They are the modern slave owners.

      Reply
  2. George Hollister June 27, 2020

    Donald Trump is Jake LaMotta, The Raging Bull. Maybe it takes a raging bull to change Washington, and change it he has. Like LaMotta, Trump has an impressive record. He is destined to become a folklore figure, whether he wins reelection or not. But if he loses, he might be back. In ancient times the raging bull would have become the subject of myth.

    Reply
    • Harvey Reading June 27, 2020

      LOL. Enjoy your daydreams. Trump has changed nothing. The most he has done is to expose the true face of conservatism and the Republican Party.

      Reply
      • Joe June 27, 2020

        Republicans? You mean the party that fought to free the slaves? No wonder the Democrats are in a panic to destroy all the confederate statues.

        Reply
  3. James Marmon June 27, 2020

    RE: CURRENT COVID-19 STATISTICS

    Unless the death-rates are increasing, I see no reason to panic because more testing is finding more Coronavirus cases.

    James Marmon

    Reply
  4. Eric Sunswheat June 27, 2020

    STEVEN NEUROTH R.I.P.

    I can’t say that I propelled my estranged friend Steven Neuroth to question authority and to provoke an incident with law enforcement leading to his death, within 10 days of him living 3 days at a slumber party with me.

    I knew after the fact, that Steve left his sweat pants and shoes on my car passenger seat floorboard, the last day I dropped him off in Ukiah.

    Steve was generous to a fault, running an informal no cost food pantry exchange out of his single occupancy mental health complex apartment adjacent to the Ukiah Food Bank, accepting and giving out surplus foods that his friends brought to him.

    He was on written warning with the mental health housing complex manager for months upon months, under threat of being evicted, because he was not allowed to have a friend or his lover, stay overnight for more than a week out of the year, requiring advanced notification to housing staff.

    As a prolific painter of art canvass, Steve kept highly flammable oil paints in open containers on the high shelf in his closet, for which he was written up for fumes.

    Neuroth was subject to multiple write ups by management, to remove hazardous toxics from his dwelling, not suggesting to safely store so art painting could continue, but Steven did not comply for months upon months, until his Volvo car stopped running, at which point he then stored the paint in the trunk of his car, with paint brushes uncovered in solvent glass jars.

    Housing staff never declared an immediate health hazard to seal or remove aromatic chemicals immediately in his mental health independent living single apartment housing complex.

    Then, because his car was not running much, Steve was requested to remove the car from the parking lot. At some point the car starter was fixed, but eventually the car went back to his brother.

    Brother Jim was a mechanic and was being paid $100 a month automatically by County Mental Health from Steve’s disability check to maintain the vehicle.

    Jim had his own collection of Volvos, thus Steve had one, not a more practical Honda car for a low income person to maintain with inexpensive replacement or junk yard parts.

    Steve didn’t realize or remember that the payments were being made, since his brother was not maintaining his old Volvo, until after he was evicted and wondered why he didn’t have more money for deposit, to get into HUD housing apartment so he could live with his girlfriend.

    Steven lost his mental HUD housing because of a complaint by an extremely obese young mental health client (probably now deceased) who had a dizzy regime of daily pharmaceutical drugs and lived in the same complex.

    She, 20 years younger, had engaged in an ongoing relationship with him, and had mental health staff file a restraining order against him, but would come over to visit him chronically. She could visit him but he could not visit her, was his gripe, as she admitted no wrong doing to housing staff or witness.

    In an argument finally to keep her from his space, Steve jokingly threatened harm against her mother who lived in distant Point Arena, a statement of which he admitted to staff, saying it was words and not intent, and he thus was finally evicted for not complying with a series of warnings from housing management.

    His brother James Neuroth the mechanic, Steve claimed, siphoned off $100/ month from Steve’s County Health dept. payee for seemingly non existent vehicle maintenance.

    Steve could have been still paying back for bringing a different more age appropriate sporadically constant girlfriend, who Steve generously showered with gifts.

    This second sometimes concurrent girlfriend, stole at Steve’s family wedding with his sister’s purse robbed, said to have ruined the wedding and Steve was estranged from his biological family, but that was some time before payments for non existent car repair were stopped.

    Steve’s brother in Laytonville and sister in Nevada City, were the only immediate next of kin surviving family members, and shared in the multi-million dollar legal settlement against Mendocino law enforcement agencies.

    This was the untimely choking face down straight jacketed death of Steven Neuroth, covered up with the thin blue line code of silence, in a lie, that he had committed suicide by methamphetamine toxicity.

    The County fought release of the death video and the truth for 4 years, thereby easing the uncontested race for Sheriff and District Attorney, with both incumbents re-elected in a landslide.

    Litigation attorneys were fed at the trough, with ultimate cost to the taxpayer, duped into support of Measure B, the dysfunctional mental health guidance sales tax, said to have been supported by the Sheriff’s concern with his own brother’s mental health.

    Law enforcement mental health training facility was in fact, part and parcel of the settlement terms of the Neuroth lawsuit, and the only concrete result so far, with costs continuing to spiral at the Redwood Valley training site.

    The rest of Measure B funds are being flummoxed or siphoned off, due to lack of clarity and bureaucracy implosion, with the past Sheriff pipe dream of renovating old Howard Hospital in Willits, and earlier campaign whimsical thoughts of creating a county jail farm, ground into dust.
    ES

    Reply
    • Bruce Anderson June 27, 2020

      I’ve waited for years for you to say something interesting, Eric, and by golly you’ve finally done it.

      Reply
  5. Louis Bedrock June 27, 2020

    I don’t think anyone should be censored at the AVA.

    Not my enemy Hollister.
    Nor my friends James Marmon and Pat Kittle.

    Certainly not Kramer or Kunstler.

    Stehr, maybe, but only because he solicits money.
    Perhaps he should be obliged to pay for advertisements as other businesses do.
    His opinions and nauseating sermons should not be censored.

    Reply
    • James Marmon June 27, 2020

      Free speech is going to be the deciding factor in the upcoming presidential election. The silent majority is watching. Trump knows what he’s doing by putting the issue front and forward. Remember he ran against “political correctness” for a reason, knowing that the media was in charge of that department. When something like the term “all lives matter” is considered racist you know that there’s a problem, how many people knew that a month ago? They’re rewriting Webster’s Dictionary along with history and should stop and think for a minute or two.

      James Marmon MSW
      Former LPS Conservatorship Case Manager
      Lake County Mental Health

      P.S. “White lives matter too”

      Reply
      • Harvey Reading June 27, 2020

        Amazing that a defender of HUAC/McCarthy fascism and one who fears what he calls “communism” can make such a statement.

        Reply
    • James Marmon June 27, 2020

      From Book-Burning To Statue-Toppling: History Shows Free Speech Is The Loser In Mob Rule

      Alarmingly, this destruction of public art coincides with a crackdown on academics and writers who criticize any aspects of the protests today. We are experiencing one of the greatest threats to free speech in our history and it is coming, not from the government, but from the public.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/political/book-burning-statue-toppling-history-shows-free-s

      Reply
      • Harvey Reading June 27, 2020

        That “public art” is nothing more than iconic reinforcement of the brainwashing and conditioning applied to us from cradle to grave. Get rid of ALL the icons and hagiographies that glorify fascism and slavery. And get rid of the despicable anthem, the pledge of allegiance, and all other meaningless oaths of allegiance, too..

        Reply
        • Joe June 28, 2020

          …. and get rid of American history and the police. Hmmm sounds like the exact tactics Hitler and the Bolsheviks used in their “revolutions” .

          Reply
  6. James Marmon June 27, 2020

    Lake County Supervisors Fight for Lake Pillsbury in FERC Feasibility Study Response

    “The Feasibility Study blatantly ignored potentially catastrophic effects this would have on the thousands of people meaningfully connected to Lake Pillsbury, and the economic and environmental resiliency of all of Lake County,” notes District 3 Supervisor, Eddie Crandell. “Remember, Lake Pillsbury was an important water source in fighting the Mendocino Complex wildfires. What devastation might have occurred, had Scott Dam been decommissioned prior to 2018?”

    “If this project moves forward as proposed, who will suffer the most?” asks Crandell. “Lake County will endure the destruction of Scott Dam. Lake County will lose Lake Pillsbury, and see the rich ecosystem that surrounds it torn apart. Will the NOI parties suffer? No! There are many other ways to ensure fish passage, and provide environmental benefits to communities along the Russian and Eel Rivers and those that live near Lake Pillsbury, most at a fraction of the cost. Were those seriously considered? No!”

    “With all we’ve endured since 2015, and now COVID-19 threatening the financial stability of every level of government, it is unreasonable, on its face, to put forward a tremendously expensive project that would unsettle the wildfire resiliency and further threaten the economy of one of the poorest Counties in the United States,” emphasizes Crandell. “The NOI Parties have to slow down, listen to the people whose lives and livelihoods they are proposing to upset, and take a more considered approach. Lake County will not stand by and allow our residents to suffer. We will fight for a just outcome.”

    Complete response on link below

    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=210554545673980&story_fbid=3299300833465987

    Reply
    • James Marmon June 27, 2020

      Looks like maybe it’s time for a three-basin solution, Senator McGuire and Congressmen Woods.

      James Marmon
      Clearlake (Lake County)
      Congressman Mike Thompson’s District.

      Mike Thompson represents California’s 5th Congressional District. The district includes all of Napa and parts of Contra Costa, Lake, Solano and Sonoma Counties. He was first elected in 1998. Prior to serving in Congress, Rep. Thompson represented California’s 2nd District in the California State Senate where he chaired the powerful Budget Committee.

      He is a member of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means.

      Reply
  7. Gary Smith June 27, 2020

    “They had put their lives at risk to defend our liberties and way of life…”
    Sheriff Kendall on Vietnam. Nobody believed that then and no one believes it now. You want respect, don’t spout bullshit.

    Reply
    • Lazarus June 27, 2020

      The real tragedy of “Coming Home” from Vietnam was the treatment given by the government to the Vets.

      PTSD was considered “Shell Shock” back then. A Vet who was “Shell Shocked” was considered by many, including the VA people, a sign of weakness.

      Everything about that war was fucked…

      Be Swell,
      Laz

      Reply
  8. Lazarus June 27, 2020

    RE: Measure B

    “She told the Committee that she needed $435 to trim some weeds at the Orchard Avenue site next door to Camille Schraeder’s mental health services offices where a Crisis Residential Treatment center is planned.”

    I guess I’m just cheap. Seems to me the County, Sheriff or somebody from the County could get some of those Community Service or incarcerated people we see cleaning up 101, working with Cal Fire, etc., to cut the weeds down.

    If this committee is willing to spend over 400 bucks on a 150 dollar job at the most, just think how they’re overpaying on the big stuff…such a deal.
    Dismiss the committee, thank them for their service and move on.

    Be Swell,
    Laz

    Reply
  9. Harvey Reading June 27, 2020

    “I have concerns created by the current national dialogue. It has become reminiscent of something I remember from my youth. I was a child when the Vietnam War was ending and our servicemen were returning home. My father was a fire captain, and over the years, he had several firemen who had been drafted or enlisted, and many of them remember horrific treatment they received when returning to the United States. They had put their lives at risk to defend our liberties and way of life and were blamed for the policies put in place by the government leaders who sent them. They, and sometimes their families, were threatened, assaulted and ostracized, treated without compassion and blamed for a war they didn’t start. This caused a great deal of distrust and division throughout our country.”

    Some documentation please. By the way our “way of life” and “liberties” were never, ever threatened by the Vietnamese. I was alive then, too, as a teenager and young adult, and never saw, nor heard, of any of the things described. Sounds you like Mendo folks, REALLY need some oversight over your sheriff.

    Jerry Lembcke thorougly covered these matters years ago in his book, The Spitting Image.

    Reply
  10. Louis Bedrock June 27, 2020

    Great cartoon by Astersko.
    This how how all religions are spread.
    As I’ve mentioned before, The Book of Joshua offers a good blueprint:

    “When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. …

    24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house.”

    —Joshua 6

    The Spanish Christians in America were just following the formula of the Hebrews in Canaan.

    The Muslims would later use the same formula.

    Religion and patriotism are just excuses to commit atrocities—to murder and to plunder.

    Reply
  11. George Hollister June 27, 2020

    “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” George Orwell – 1984

    Reply
    • Harvey Reading June 27, 2020

      LOL. Grasping at straws huh, George? Hagiographies and icons, including statues and memorials, especially those that celebrate wars and that glorify lies should be destroyed. Town names that glorify racists should be changed. All they do is reinforce lies fed to us by our rulers, from birth to death. And cops should be brought under control. Is Orwell the best you can dredge up? How long did it take you to find the right quote to suit your needs, even if you took it completely out of context?

      Reply
      • George Hollister June 27, 2020

        All of these people, with their strengths and weaknesses were/are part of this great country. You don’t have to revere any of them, but they were a part. America led the world in ending slavery, and in the fight against racial discrimination. We still are the leaders. We fought a Civil War. Nobody else did that. We so easily forget this. To tear down the monuments is to tear down an important part of our history that represent an evolution. Let’s also remember that prejudice is in all of us. Even you Harv.

        Reply
        • Harvey Reading June 27, 2020

          Give me a break, you pompous, conservative ass. Save your sermon for Sunday school. You conservatives will say anything to justify your racism, even to the extent of projecting it onto others. That is truly sick.

          Reply
          • George Hollister June 27, 2020

            I am merely here to present truth where it is missing.

            Reply
          • Harvey Reading June 28, 2020

            Then do your “job”, George rather than peddling conservative lies. You wouldn’t know the truth if it walked up and introduced itself, you old right-wing propagandist.

            Reply
  12. michael turner June 27, 2020

    It’s not “art” it’s hagiographic kitsch celebrating a hateful, treasonous time. Nobody cares about these dwindling Confederate monuments except racists. The modern kind, who are offended by the term and feign that it’s all just a free speech issue.

    Reply
  13. chuck dunbar June 27, 2020

    Just got back from a quick trip to Fort Bragg, still named thusly. It’s a warm, sunny day here and lots of folks on Main Street, a good number not wearing masks and not properly social distancing. Walked past the popular ice cream store, where there was a line outside of maybe 30 folks, mainly younger folks from teens on into their 20’s or so. Hardly any with masks and most 1′ to 2′ apart, as if no risk is involved. I wanted to take off my mask, hold it up in the air, and ask them all,”Where are your masks, why are you not wearing masks?” Passed on that idea as no doubt useless and walked on, wondering what has become of citizenship and caring about the welfare and good of all of us. I know we all want things to be “normal and fine” again, but if we don’t pay attention to what keeps all of us reasonably safe, reopening will fail, and our friends and neighbors will get sick, and some will die. It was disheartening to see.

    Reply
    • Stephen Rosenthal June 27, 2020

      Couldn’t agree more, Chuck. 18-40 year olds, likely with no political allegiances, account for the majority of cases in the recent surge, not right wing zealots beholden to Trump.

      Reply
  15. George Hollister June 27, 2020

    Just look at the statistics above. The health director refers to people who don’t wear masks as being against science. How about people who don’t wear masks are young people who think they are immortal.

    Reply

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