MCT: Friday, July 3, 2020

• Summery Weather
• Local Control
• Rebuilt Lighthouse
• Budget Challenges
• Ocean Blue
• Canceled Events
• Iverson Landing
• Local Food
• Lumber Chute
• Streetscape Update
• Jury Trial
• FB Vote
• PA Chute
• Ed Notes
• Hauling Ties
• Well Paid
• Yesterday's Catch
• Defund Pentagon
• Armed Lawyers
• Fun Falls
• Obama Legacy
• Rollerville
• Study Flawed
• Baker Chute
• Red Lives
• Hay Ranch
• Racist System
• Wooden Tub
• Wobblies Excluded
• Personal Liberties
• Great Disaster
• Projecting
• Two Streets
• Radioactive Release
• Walmart Drive-In
• Black Plague
• Charles Portis
• Breakfast Friends

ROUTINE SUMMER TYPE WEATHER across NW California with near seasonal temperatures and dry weather persisting for the next seven days. Coastal areas will see marine influence with night and morning low clouds and patchy fog...but clearing by the afternoon. (NWS)

FROM SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: I have requested a special board meeting as soon as possible to progress on health order enforcement. The governor is now “dimming” sectors and shutting down sectors. Governor Newsom ordered 19 counties to close bars and indoor dining for the next 3 weeks. The business community needs to be aware we are not far from the state taking over control. In Sonoma, there are large scale outbreaks in skilled nursing facilities. In Lake, cases have doubled in short time. Either we act now or we jeopardize health, the economy and local control.

POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE, REBUILT 1909

Ed note: The Point Arena Lighthouse was rebuilt to this configuration after it collapsed in the 1906 Earthquake.

CITY BUDGET UPDATE (Part 2 of the weekly Miller Report)

from Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller:

The City Council approved the $24.1 million Fiscal Year 2020-21 Budget. If you watched the meeting you will know that this is considered a 'work-in-progress' or 'place holder' and not a final product.

In normal times, City staff spends much of March and April developing and revising the next year’s budget. The budget and the document that memorializes it, serves as the plan for implementing the services, goals and City Council objectives. It outlines the revenues and expenditures necessary to deliver services to the community.

This year, we spent March and April responding to COVID, which included implementing $1.4 million in immediate budget reductions. In May, we started to develop the FY 2020-21 Budget. Many of the financial trends, indicators and models we normally use to develop the budget simply were not available or not relevant to our COVID-19 circumstances.

This year, we realized that we must be flexible, nimble and adjust as we go. Also on Monday, Governor Newsom approved the State of California’s $202.1 billion spending plan. The State Budget closed its projected $54 billion shortfall by relying on the potential of federal assistance, deferrals and a significant use of budget reserves.

If California does not receive at least $14 billion in additional federal assistance by September 1, 2020, a series of additional cuts, deferrals and use of reserves are triggered. Most of those cuts impact education and state employee pension and compensation.

Governor Newsom along with other state governments are seeking $1 trillion in federal coronavirus aid for state and local governments. This is the state government’s approach to adjusting as it goes.

One good piece of news for cities in the state’s budget is a set aside of $500 million for cities that did not receive a direct allocation from the federal CARES Act. Of the $500 million, $275 million will be allocated to cities with a population less than 300,000 and no city will receive less than $50,000.

Based on estimates, we anticipate that Fort Bragg will receive approximately $90k. This allocation, along with any additional federal assistance, will help fill the estimated $350k deficit in the budget adopted last night and reduce the possibility of using additional reserves.

This illustrates the primary challenge in developing this year’s budget – the unknown.

I didn’t include that $90k allocation or the possibility of additional federal funding in the City’s proposed budget. I couldn’t count on the $90k until the state adopted its budget, and the federal assistance is still an uncertainty.

As I have mentioned a number of times, almost half of the City’s General Fund revenue comes from Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) and sales tax. Relying on historical collections wasn’t an option as nothing in our recent history is like the pandemic and economic shutdown from the Shelter-in-Place (SIP) Orders. Making it harder to estimate impacts, the City allowed hotels and lodges in Fort Bragg to delay paying their February, March, April and May TOT until July 1, 2020, as a small gesture to help them weather the impact of the SIP Orders. Again the unknown.

The state provided a reprieve for reporting and remitting sales tax until July 15, 2020. So we face the same challenges in predicting sales tax this year and next.

We are currently in a recession and the next fiscal year’s revenues will be impacted by how long it lasts and how deep it goes.

There are a number of models discussed by economists. There is the optimistic V, a quick deep drop followed quickly by a strong recovery. The swoosh, like the Nike logo, where recovery is gradual. The W, which accounts for a second wave and predicts a double drop and recovery. The U, with a prolonged bottom and the L with no recovery. I am hoping for the V, worried about a W but tend to believe it will be the Nike swoosh. What I do know is that we need to be flexible.

SUMMER WILL LOOK A LOT DIFFERENT this year on the North Coast. In response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many events locally and around the world continue to be canceled or postponed. While some restrictions have been relaxed statewide, Mendocino County remains under a shelter in place Health Order. Below is a list of prominent annual Coastal 2020 Summer Events and attractions in our area that have been confirmed canceled in an effort to fight the continued spread of the coronavirus.

● World’s Largest Annual Salmon BBQ, Noyo Harbor

● Mendocino’s Annual 4th of July Parade

● Fort Bragg’s 2020 Firework Display, Noyo Beach

● Point Arena’s Annual 4th of July Parade

● Point Arena’s 2020 Firework Display at the Harbor

Organizers look forward to resuming healthy gatherings up and down the North Coast when it is safe to do so.

(Fort Bragg City Presser)

IVERSON LANDING CHUTE, POINT ARENA

LOCAL FOOD NEWS

AV Market is still open daily from 10-6, and can make special product orders and orders by phone: (707) 895-3019

Boont Berry is open for take out food from their deli, curbside delivery and regular shopping. They can also do special orders, and there has been a pop-up "Love Table" there in recent weeks offering free homemade bread and other items. (707) 895-3576

Lemons Market is still open daily for groceries, meat, fish and deli.

Yorkville Market still open for take-out and groceries. (707) 894-9456

FARM STANDS & PRODUCTS:

4 Bar K Ranch still taking orders for local beef (see information below).

Boonville Barn Collective still selling olive oil, chile powders and salts.

Bramble Family Farms still selling olive oil (see information below).

Natural Products of Boonville still has mushrooms and more each week, plus veggie starts. For a sneak peek at forthcoming market items, follow this link: https://youtu.be/QeY-DEo0wMs or (707) 684-0182 or keepertrout@gmail.com / geoffrey@naturalproductsofboonville.com 

Petit Teton remains open, selling a wide selection of produce, meat, eggs, plant starts, and canned food. Can prepare a grocery bag in advance. (707) 684-4146 or farmer@petitteton.com.

Yorkville Olive Ranch still selling olive oil (see information below). 

* * *

Boonville Barn Collective will be selling fresh picked strawberries at the Boonville Farmers Market on Friday! The strawberries are Renegade certified and are not sprayed with any harmful pesticides or chemicals. Flats are $35 and 1/2 flats are $20. Email krissy@boonvillebarn.com to reserve a flat for market pick up or just stop by the market!

* * *

Hay For Sale

The Boonville Airport has hay bales for sale for $7.10/bale. Please email wildeacre@gmail.com if you’re interested for your livestock.

* * *

Yorkville Olive Ranch

The Yorkville Olive Ranch has three possible choices for olive oil:

 We have the 2018 Extra Virgin Olive Oil available in 375ml or 750ml bottles at $ 20 and $ 35.

The 2019 Meyer Lemon infused Tuscan Olive Oil in 375 ml bottles only at $ 22.

By the end of the weekend I will have put the labels on the 2019 Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and it will be available at $ 20 for the 375 ml bottle and $ 35 for the 750 ml bottles. The 2019 EVOO is bright and fresh and quite robust.

Call or e-mail to place an order. The oil can be picked up from my front porch or if I need to go into Boonville, we may be able to arrange for me to drop it off.

The telephone number is (707) 894-0530 or e-mail at rhysolive@yahoo.com.

Cash or checks will work.

* * *

Bramble Family Farms

Bramble Family Farms has 2019 Certified Extra Virgin Olive Oil for sale. This year we received a Silver Medal at the California State Fair. It comes in 375 ML bottles and is $23.00 per bottle. We deliver in the Anderson Valley and on the Mendocino coast. Our maximum mailing charge of $10.00 per order. Olive Oil can be ordered on our website: http://www.bramblefamilyfarms.net or through our Facebook page @bramblefamilyfarms.

* * *

Velma's Farmstand at Filigreen Farm

The farm stand will be open Friday 1pm-5pm and Saturday 8:30am-1pm. We will be offering an array of vegetables and fruit including tomatoes, blueberries, lettuce, new potatoes, herbs, carrots, beets, celery, snap peas, summer squash, cucumbers, broccoli and more. There will be fresh flower bouquets and olive oil for sale as well. All products are certified biodynamic and grown by Filigreen Farm. 

Please email Annie at farmstand@filigreenfarm.com with any questions or more information. We can accept cash/card/check. Please respect social distance rules (maximum 3 people in the stand) and wear a mask at all times. 

* * *

GRASS FED BEEF

4 Bar K Ranch in Boonville, CA is selling our premium grass-fed beef for spring of 2021. This is local grass-fed beef, raised in rural Anderson Valley, in Mendocino County, with no shots or hormones, just excellent, lean, grass finished beef. We raise our beef free-range, organically, in a humane, safe, and stress free way. This ensures your beef is the best quality and safest meat, that is raised and sold in the right way. We sell live beef by the 1/4 then ship it to the butcher who then slaughters, ages, cuts, wraps, and freezes it before we deliver your 1/4 to you. Bones and offal are included at no cost. 

Please contact me and I will send our information flyer in an email. It should answer most of your questions, but feel free to call me anytime if you're interested. 

If interested please contact Dave Kooyers at dkooyers@gmail.com (707) 895-2325.

ROLLERVILLE, GARCIA RIVER

UKIAH STREETSCAPE Construction Update - July 4th - July 10th 

The construction crew has mostly completed sewer line replacements between Perkins and Smith Streets this week and is beginning the replacement of the water lines in the same area. 

Work will continue in this general area for roughly six more weeks; then, the crews will shift to the south end of the project between Mill and Church. 

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 and Henry Streets.

What are the construction days/hours? 

Next week’s construction days/hours are scheduled for Tuesday-Friday, 6 a.m.- 6 p.m. Reminder --there will be no construction work between Friday, July 3rd and 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. 

Standley and Smith Streets will be reopened starting on Friday, July 3rd. 

Perkins will be open Friday, June 3rd-Tuesday, July 7th, and then temporarily closed Wednesday-Friday (7/8-7/10).

Church Street will reopen on Wednesday, July 8th. 

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

Big Parking News!

We’ve just added 165 new 5-hour spaces in the downtown! These spaces are ideal for employees of the downtown…no more shuffling every 90 minutes, and the prime spaces are saved for our customers!

These were formerly two-hour spaces that were underutilized. The new spaces are primarily on the west side of State Street, with the exception of additional spaces on East Standley Street. New signs have been installed at all locations:

Pine Street, Oak Street, West Henry, West Smith, West and East Standley, West Church, West Stephensen, West Clay, Seminary Ave (median), School Street (south end)

That's all for now, folks. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or concerns. Otherwise, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend. Stay safe!

Shannon Riley, Deputy City Manager

City of Ukiah

300 Seminary Avenue

Ukiah, California 95482

w: (707) 467-5793

BYE, BYE BABY!

First Local Jury Trial Since The Beginning Of March.

UKIAH, Thurs., July 2. – 

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury deliberated for only two hours before returning guilty verdicts across the board against the trial defendant.

Raymond Jones

Defendant Raymond Devon Jones, age 45, of Ukiah was convicted by jury verdicts of:

assault with a baseball bat, a felony; 

battery with serious bodily injury (strangulation causing unconsciousness), a felony; 

attempting to dissuade a victim by means of force or violence from cooperating with law enforcement and the prosecution, a felony;

inflicting corporal injury on an intimate partner, a felony; 

vandalism of a police vehicle ($4,000), a felony; and 

possession of methamphetamine, a misdemeanor.

After the jury was thanked and excused, a future court trial was calendared for July 20th for the prosecution to present its evidence on the veracity of sentencing enhancements also charged against the defendant by the District Attorney. 

The DA has alleged that the defendant was convicted of a prior Strike offense and "nickel" prior (robbery in the second degree) in the San Joaquin County Superior Court in May 1994. The DA also has alleged that the defendant was convicted of another prior Strike offense and "nickel" prior (burglary in the first degree) in the San Joaquin County Superior Court in January 1996. 

The prosecutors who presented the People's evidence to the jury were Asst. DA Dale P. Trigg and Deputy DA Kassandra M. Long.

The law enforcement agencies that investigated and gathered the evidence underlying today's multiple convictions were the Ukiah Police Department and the DA's own investigators.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder presided over this week's "first out of the chute" jury trial, a trial that lasted four days. He will also preside over the upcoming court trial regarding the prior convictions and, ultimately, Judge Faulder will preside over the inevitable sentencing hearing.

District Attorney Eyster expressed his appreciation of the community members who dutifully responded to their jury summons and served this week as jurors. "Without active participation of eligible adults in the local jury process, important cases -- like this week's domestic violence prosecution -- cannot be fairly adjudicated and resolved," commented DA David Eyster.

NO NAME CHANGE

Editor: 

I have lived in Fort Bragg most of my 65 years. My family is from here (on my mother’s side).

I went to school in Mendocino, because we lived in Caspar. Our residence was less than one mile from FBUSD.

I was a police officer for close to 12 years, in Fort Bragg, I was also a fireman for 17 years, making rank of lieutenant.

During the devastation of the arson fires in Fort Bragg, I was the investigator in charge, working with ATF. Later I drove a truck for Baxman Gravel (a Fort Bragg company) for 16 years.

I do not believe anything is gained by wiping out history and that includes bad history.

If you choose to allow a vote for a name change, I would like to remind you that voters inside the city limits are not the only ones affected by this decision. The USPS and the California DMV show many more voters have a Fort Bragg address, and should be heard and have a vote. I live two and one-half miles out Simpson Lane, Fort Bragg, and spend money every day inside the city limits, and I’m not the only one.

If citizens with Fort Bragg addresses must live with a name change, then the City of Fort Bragg must reimburse each and every one of us for all legal documents, including DMV, bank, medical, etc.

I also think many business owners that live outside the city limits would like a vote.

Les Pierce

Fort Bragg

BAKER CHUTE, POINT ARENA

ED NOTES

ROTE, CASUAL, CONTRADICTORY CRUELTY from Judge Cindee Mayfield of the Mendocino County Superior Court. Take a close read of Mayfield's logic here as she doomed Mark Sprinkle to more years in state prison than lots of murderers do, nevermind he's done 24 years of a sentence that should have ended at 16 years: "....whether other states sentence persons convicted of child sexual abuse less harshly than California — is not dispositive (sic) of the issues presented in the petition (habeas corpus). Even if the California Legislature has selected a penalty that is the most severe in the nation of an offense, this would not necessarily establish that the punishment is unconstitutionally cruel or unusual…"

I DOUBT that Mayfield has even read the Sprinkle case particulars. She's not stupid, which makes her casual dooming of Sprinkle even more egregious, because anybody, even a former lawyer for L-P, aware of the facts would see how disproportionate Sprinkle's sentence is.

ONE MORE TIME: Three girls, all known to Sprinkle, from the Ukiah trailer park where Sprinkle lived, flagged him down for a ride. One of the girls was the daughter of Sprinkle's former girlfriend whose marriage proposal Sprinkle had rejected. This girl, who could pass for a 30-year-old pole dancer, testified that she and the two girls with her, on her cue, voluntarily took their clothes off in Sprinkle's car. What ensued was about 90 seconds of sexual touching. No force, no rape, nothing than a couple of breast chucks and non-penetrating vaginal pats. This is what was testified to in court by the alleged victims, not my interpretation of what happened. 

SPRINKLE had been to prison before for an accumulation of petty crimes including setting a dumpster on fire. He flipped off cops and behaved immaturely. The local legal established wanted him gone. But the guy had always worked as a truck driver and, apart from his late-night escapades, led a stable life. 

I THOUGHT it was obvious from the outset that Sprinkle's ex-love interest, set him up. In fact it was a telephone recording between the girlfriend and Sprinkle that the police used to arrest him, a recording (I've heard it), which is open to interpretation. 

SPRINKLE rejected an offer of five years. He would have been out in three with good behavior which, not so incidentally, and another fact ignored by Mayfield, Sprinkle has established over the 24 years he's spent in the state system, most recently at Chino where docile inmates are warehoused in gyms at huge cost to taxpayers.

JUDGE MAYFIELD CONCLUDES in the high-minded prose behind which legal criminals hide their crimes, "…Petitioner Mark Sprinkle is denied on the ground that serving 24 years of a 16 years to life sentence is not disproportionate to Petitioner's conduct and does not violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as cruel and unusual punishment…" 

NOT DISPROPORTIONATE? Well, this is a judge who thought L-P's clearcuts were proportionate as L-P clearcut Mendocino County out of its timber employment base.

CONFIRMED U.S. coronavirus cases, as of Wednesday, hit 50,000 in one day for the first time, and are expected to climb daily with a big upwards leap over the July 4th weekend, as Americans, unmasked and un-distanced, gather in drunken flesh-packs to celebrate the independence few of them have or are ever likely to have. The previous daily high came on June 26, when 45,255 cases were reported. At least five states—Arizona, California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas—reported record-high totals of new cases Wednesday.

HERE IN MENDO, there are fresh covid cases but, because we're a small population of people and naturally socially distanced, and have been very good about masking up, we haven't experienced anything like a sudden increase. We also get comic riffs (unintended) from our $300,000 San Diego-based health officer, as in "People in bars are less inhibited after 8pm," hence the doctor's prescription that bars close at 8pm. 

8PM? How about the shots and beer people, who are pretty much blotto after twenty minutes?

AND THE DOC'S latest health edict warns, "This order takes effect at noon Friday." Talk about yer empty threats…

THOSE DARN KIDS, what'll they think of next? Since everything is for sale on the internet, it's no surprise that fireworks are, too, and are showing up everywhere young people congregate, as we shall see from tonight through the weekend as fairly heavy illuminated explosives are fired vertically, as tradition dictates, but even more thrillingly, increasing technicolor fusillades are being horizontally discharged through city and suburban streets.

CREEPING DECREPITUDE has certain advantages, like reading books you enjoyed at twenty again when you're eighty, enjoying them as if they're brand new. The disadvantages, to name one of at least fifty, include pulling up behind a line of parked cars and sitting there in what you thought was the right turn lane until a kind young Ukiah woman tapped on your window, "Sir, excuse me, but these cars are parked. You have to go around them."

IVERSON LANDING, POINT ARENA

RANDOM BASE SALARIES (2019):

Governor of California: $131k per year.

CEO of Mendocino County: $215k per year

Mendocino Director of Health and Human Services: $191k per year.

Ukiah City Manager: $226k per year.

Sonoma County Chief Administrative Officer $235k per year.

Willits City Manager: $89k per year

Fort Bragg City Manager: $125k per year

Dr. Anthony Fauci: $335k per year

Mendocino County Sheriff: $166k per year

Mendocino County District Attorney: $166k per year

---

Average income of Mendocino County (tax paying) resident: $23,712 a year. 

Median income of Mendocino County household is $43,290 a year.

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 2, 2020

IVY BODWIN, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

ALAN CAMPBELL SR., Ukiah. Transient registration, failure to register.

RYEN DELGADO, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

TRAVIS HUMPHREY, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ANDREW MAYNARD, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ELDON MILLER, Willits. DUI, domestic battery.

PABLO MORA, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

DENA MORRIS. Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

TERRY OMLER, Ukiah. Elder abuse with great bodily injury of person over 70 years of age.

LUIS PINEDA, Fort Bragg. Under influence, ammo possession by prohibited person, probation revocation.

MIGUEL PINEDA, Ukiah. DUI.

RANDI RHODES, Potter Valley. Pot cultivation over six plants, pot for sale, paraphernalia, controlled substance for sale, child endangerment, conspiracy.

MATTHEW RUSSELL, Fort Bragg. Stalking & threatening bodily injury, vandalism.

MONIQUE VALADOR, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

ELIZABETH VANCE, Fort Bragg. DUI, resisting.

CHRISTOPHER WALRAVEN, Gualala. Domestic abuse.

THE DEFENSE BUDGET

by Ellen Taylor

The 2021 Defense Budget is making its way through Congress: the full Senate has just had its first hearing. The annual drama of this event has always been of particular interest to residents of the north Pacific Coast, as the US Navy’s nursery lies only twelve miles off our coast. This is where many of the weapons purchased by Congress take their first baby steps of testing and training before deployment. As a requirement for approval of the Navy’s Environmental Impact Statement regarding these exercises, the Navy must consult us every few years. This opportunity to confront Navy personnel has provided an opportunity to become acquainted with the environmental effects of these weapons, and, just as importantly, the menace their ever-increasing lethality constitutes for life on earth. 

I watched some of the Armed Services Committee hearings on the budget. Generals and other military representatives were visibly pleased with their new product. As Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observed, “The character of war is changing frequency”. 

The messy, scrappy, unsatisfying, asymmetrical wars in the devastated Middle East have lost the interest of our warriors, as two worthier adversaries, China and Russia, have been conjured up, and now grip their attention. Although our budget comprises over 40% of the world’s military spending, and China and Russia spend respectively one-sixth and one-tenth of ours, the Pentagon refers to them generously as “near-peers”.

China and Russia are not eager for these roles. We have had to torment them, like reluctant bulls in a bullfight. We sail our warships within twelve miles of their shores, conducting vast military exercises in the South China Sea, the Black Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Japan Sea. 

Thousands of US troops marched across Europe this spring to perform military exercises along Russia’s borders. Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyers, with aerial escort, performed maneuvers this May, close to the Russian coast in the Barents Sea, to enforce “freedom of navigation”. 

We slander these two nations in our media, and impose sanctions, challenging them to respond. Trump’s assertion that “we live in a hostile world of evolving threats” neglects to mention that we ourselves provoke those threats. 

But the National Defense Strategy demands “full-spectrum dominance”. This requires absolute control, e.g. military superiority on land, at sea, in the air and in outer space. Therefore, in anticipation of a “high-end” war with these “near-peers”, an exciting upgrade of our arsenals will be required.

In preparation for seizing this dominance, in spite of entreaties from the UN, allies, and Russia and China themselves, we have withdrawn from multiple treaties: the Iran Nuclear Deal (2018), the UN Human Rights Council (2018) the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF 2019), and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (2020). 

We will break the Open Skies Treaty in six months and are planning to allow the START treaty to expire in 2021.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 has been broken, in spirit at least, by the creation of the Space Force. VP Pence refused to say whether or not we will deploy in space, which would be an explicit violation.

According to the President, “if you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time...it is not enough to have American presence in space, we must have dominance in space, …the ultimate high ground.”

Treaties stand in the way of freedom of action. 

We are bent on an ambitious and aggressive upgrade of existing weapons systems, and will purchase tantalizing new technology: hypersonic weapons capable of speeds of 15,000 mph, awe-inspiring artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and platforms, 5G, nuclear upgrades including “low yield” nuclear weapons, dramatic advances in cyberspace, and microelectronics which operate more swiftly by many orders of magnitude. For outer space, we have developed, in President Trump’s words at the unveiling of the Space Flag ceremony, “some of the most incredible weapons anyone has ever seen”. 

Defense Secretary Mike Esper is especially enthusiastic about unmanned surface and subsurface vessels, some mounted with guns, some with cross-domain capacity for air, land, sea and undersea activities. Exercises employing unmanned killer robot surface combatants, swarms of which the Navy is eager to deploy, will likely take place off our coasts.

Both the House and the Senate Armed Services Committees were largely passive, even obsequious, during the hearings. There was small if any mention of the climate catastrophe ravaging the planet, and to which the US military contributes more greenhouse gas than all but 35 other entire nations. I heard no mention of the nation’s other desperate needs, or cuts required to fund the Pentagon requests: the Pentagon representatives declined to discuss policy, as it is the prerogative of the Defense Secretary. 

The principal objection made by Adam Smith, Chair of the House Committee, regarding the budget, was that Pres. Trump was taking $7.2 billion out of it to build his wall. However, consensus was cheerfully reached, and congratulations were exchanged between the parties on their comfortable bipartisanship.

The 2020 military budget passed with only four senators and forty-eight representatives voting against. It would not even take the AUMF, which allows the executive complete freedom to launch an attack without Congressional approval, away from our unpredictable President.

Come Ye Masters of War.

The manner in which we treat other nations contains many of the same elements as the racism and violence which the demonstrations on our streets are denouncing. The US military has its knee on the throat of the world. We must vanquish this shape-shifting, Orwellian spectre with which our overlords ensnare us, with their lies of “they hate our freedoms”. Defund the Pentagon!

It would save millions of lives. 

MR. & MRS. KAREN

Before they were photographed brandishing guns during a Black Lives Matter protest, Mark and Patricia McCloskey had made a name for themselves in their St. Louis neighborhood, suing and writing angry letters to community groups, and even accusing a neighborhood association of trespassing for taking a picture of their house.

The McCloskeys, a pair of lawyers, won internet fame this week after they were filmed pointing guns at racial justice protesters outside their mansion in a gated community. The McCloskeys said the protesters were trespassing on their private street, and that they feared for their lives. But the couple has, for decades, been wrapped up in conflict in the area, sometimes in cases that foreshadowed their now-infamous confrontation with Black Lives Matter activists. Footage of the McCloskeys went viral on Sunday after activists walked on their St. Louis street en route to a protest outside the mayor’s home nearby. Standing outside their palatial home, the couple—Mark wearing a pink polo and carrying a rifle and Patricia with her finger on the trigger of a pistol—looked like a portrait of weaponized white wealth. 

(Daily Beast)

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Nobody got snagged in any undertow they did not want to get caught in.

Consider:

Annie Edson Taylor an American schoolteacher on her 63rd birthday, October 24, 1901, became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. 

After she got out of the barrel she was terrified and said:

‘Nobody should ever do this again.’

The parade of fools never stopped. Including an experienced Kayaker who though he could kayak over Niagara Falls. His body was never found and the kayak took two days to wash up on shore.

Then there was the guy who went over in a high tech orange barrel and was going to repeat the stunt in the Houston Astrodome by dropping from the roof of the dome into a pool of water. Once was not good enough. He died trying.

So, Who knew civil disorder and civilizational decline could be so much fun?

I have other ideas of what fun is and being a rebel without a cause is not one of them.

I'M SICK AND TIRED of reading posts from people, including the democratic party members praising Obama as a good president. Here are some pertinent facts about the Obama presidency - Obama was a War Criminal (sorry if that hurts your feelings):

• Made banks bigger

• Made Bush tax cuts PERMANENT

• Took the U.S from two wars to 7

• Opened Arctic drilling twice (for Shell Oil)

• Allowed fracking to explode

• Allowed cops to crush Occupy Wall St

• Had extrajudicial kill list

• Drone program (90% innocent people killed; women, children, elderly)

• Ran-out of bombs in Syria

• Turned his BACK on WI Teacher's Unions (Scott Walker assault)

— Ed Oberweiser, Fort Bragg

ROLLERVILLE, NEAR POINT ARENA

STUDY FLAWED

To the Editor:

We have had a chance to review the Feasibility Study for this project, and find the conclusions used to be frighteningly misguided. George Santayana must have had the NOI Parties in this project in mind when he made the famous quote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The first step in the process of the future of this process should be to consider why it was ever built in the first place. After the completion of the Van Arsdale Dam, it became readily apparent that a 700 acre foot impoundment might not be able to provide constant flows during summer months, when downstream users of the water appropriated from the Eel River expect 60,000 acre feet every year. Scott Dam was built to impound the water to ensure adequate flows could be sustained to meet the needs of downstream users during high demand times in the summer, especially during drought years. This will be even more important as our weather patterns become more unpredictable because of climate change. Granted, Lake Mendocino stores water for this purpose, but those of us who have been here long enough to remember the drought of 1976-1978 can tell you very little water was left in Lake Pillsbury or Lake Mendocino during that time. Miles of lake bottom was exposed, and it is impossible to believe adequate water would have been available to users below Lake Mendocino without Lake Pillsbury.

The feasibility study refers to the removal of Scott Dam as a foregone conclusion. The reason being salmon and steelhead are not able to access the spawning grounds above the dam. This area is a small percentage of the overall spawning habitat of the Eel River watershed, and the presence of non-native predators, such as pikeminnow, makes us skeptical of the effectiveness of the results. Depriving downstream fish of crucial waterflows in the summer does not appear to be a wise tradeoff. A fish ladder around Scott Dam makes much more sense. This would also be much more expensive, but how important is the future of this salmon run?

The only wildlife addressed in this study have been salmon. No mention has been made of the dramatic increase in Tule Elk on the north shore of the lake, no consideration given to raptors such as bald eagles or osprey, or to the other species dependent on this body of water. Such a lacking wildlife evaluation could only be done by special interests motivated by profits. Removing the dam will cost less than the required maintenance going forward. It should also be noted that Lake Mendocino has no fish ladder, and two of the members of the NOI Parties (Mendocino and Sonoma Counties) control this. Perhaps they should restore spawning habitat in their own Counties before destroying assets in Lake County.

Like most reservoirs, the public gets enjoyment from them through camping, swimming, fishing, boating, etc. Lake Pillsbury is the largest tourist attraction in the Mendocino National Forest. Thousands of people use this lake every year and we would like to encourage the continuation of this use. There are also small businesses near the lake dependent on these tourists for survival. The Lake County Chamber of Commerce has always promoted outdoor recreation and finds it galling that the NOI Parties are dismissing our concerns and are planning on destroying one of our lakes based on their dubious biological claims.

Lake County has suffered the effects of wildland fire repeatedly in the last 5 years. Lake Pillsbury is a crucial source of water for fire suppression and removing this source of water will undoubtedly increase the severity of wildland fires in the future. This will increase sedimentation in the Eel River from top to bottom since the headwaters of the Eel River is above the lake. Not to mention the loss of timberland and the wildlife dependent on that. Page 15 of the report does say “Analyze mitigation for lost water sources for fire fighting”. It is impossible to “mitigate” the complete loss of water for fire-fighting. Ask a fireman how he intends to “mitigate” a fire after his firetruck runs out of water!

Page 17, SE-1 socio-economic effects of dam removal. Among these is the changes to property values around Lake Pillsbury. They will be devastated. Local property values will plummet and drag down Lake County’s tax base with them. Many of these homesites will be abandoned and Lake County will undoubtedly bear the cost of this very expensive maintenance. We have no faith that these residents will be treated fairly by the NOI Parties, especially when Lake County was denied a chance to join the group in June of 2019. The Round Valley Indian Tribes, whose land comes nowhere near water from Lake Pillsbury, was accepted into the group in August of 2019.

It should be noted that of the 4 Counties involved in this (Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma, and Humboldt) Lake County is the only County that does not take water from the Eel River. There are no legal water diversions from the Eel River for agriculture in Lake County, but 60,000 acre feet or more (that’s 20 BILLION gallons) diverted for agriculture or residential use downstream every year from the other Counties. We appreciate salmon and steelhead as much as everyone else and will do anything (short of sacrificing our lake) to help them.

To get back to the first paragraph, it is impossible for us to believe that the Potter Valley Project can be feasible without the 80,000 acre feet of water stored behind Scott Dam. Not just our opinion, it was proven in the early 1900’s. If the entire Potter Valley Project is to be de commissioned, so be it. Let the fish have their water back and downstream agricultural users can rely on whatever groundwater they can find. But we will NOT agree to let our lake be destroyed and drained by outside special interests and will pursue every legal means necessary to stop it. We encourage the FERC to require any entity acquiring the Potter Valley Project to construct a fish passage around Scott Dam as a requirement to their licensing.

Thank you for your time.

Bobby Dutcher, Government Affairs Committee Chair 

Lake County Chamber of Commerce 

BAKER CHUTE, POINT ARENA

DAVID HELLER WRITES: 

At the end of June of 1861, Lt. Edward Dillon left his position as Post Commander at Ft. Bragg to join his home state in the War of the Rebellion and Lt. Orlando Moore, also of the 6th United States Infantry took over. In his letter to Ass’t Adjutant General R.G.Drum of June 25th, Lt. Moore wrote: “I have the honor from patriotic motives to apply for a change of the name of this post”. As a historical note, a previous post commander, Lt. William Carlin fought against Bragg, and Lt. Dillon fought (briefly) under Bragg’s command in the War of the Rebellion.

Since the names of Native American slaughterers still dot maps of the landscape in Northern California counties without similar protests, perhaps a step towards “Red Lives Matter” would be to let them name the town, they were there first after all.

MAYA MOORE FOR THE WIN

by Dave Zirin

After 22 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, Jonathan Irons is at long last a free man. Irons, who is only 40 years old, had been sentenced to 50 years for a burglary and assault he was said to have committed at 16. Despite a lack of evidence linking him to the crime, an all-white St. Louis jury convicted the then-16-year-old as an adult.

What makes this a sports story, as we have covered extensively in The Nation, is that WNBA All-Star, MVP, and champion Maya Moore—one of the greatest to ever pick up a basketball—gave up two years of the prime of her career to fight for Irons’s freedom. Their connection came through Moore’s family. Her great-uncle, who had been doing prison ministry for close to 30 years, became a mentor to the young Mr. Irons about 18 years ago, when Moore was just 13 years old. As a first-year student and star hoopster at the University of Connecticut, she met Irons and a bond was forged. Moore, tenacious as hell on the court, committed to seeing Jonathan breathe freely no matter the cost.

Her Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said in a statement,

“Maya Moore got to celebrate another championship yesterday and none of us who have been blessed to have Maya in our lives are surprised. I cannot imagine, however, what this one must feel like. I was overwhelmed seeing Maya watch Jonathan Irons walk out of the Jefferson City Correctional Center a free man.… I also can’t help but feel a great deal of anger. Maya Moore should never have had to leave her profession to engage in the fight against the two-tiered criminal justice system that over polices, wrongfully convicts, and over sentences black and brown communities. The criminal justice system in America is so far from fair and equal and it angers me that Maya has had to sacrifice so much to overcome this racially disparate system.”

Reeve is, of course, correct. As joyous as this news is, this is an example of the system failing, or perhaps the system working in the racist manner in which it was designed. How many Jonathan Irons are there in our nation’s prisons who don’t have a superstar-athlete-guardian-angel to secure their freedom? Consider all Maya Moore had to do—sacrifice money, fame, and the prime of her career—to see justice in just this one case. It is actually a humbling example of all the work that needs to be done.

I have interviewed Maya Moore about the case over the years. What has been striking in our conversations is her sense of faith and determination that justice would prevail. And this is not a “one off” for Moore. Her conviction is rooted not only in her relationship with Irons but also in a broader belief that the criminal justice system has racism baked into it and needs to be challenged at every conceivable level. “I think being in the African American community, I have a built-in connection to issues facing black Americans,” she said to me in 2018.

“But it’s also being in the sports world today and being connected to people that are taking an interest in the issues that face minorities and people of color. It was also seeing the documentary 13th. That was a really powerful piece that just woke me up in a greater way. Some of the things I knew, some of the things I wasn’t aware of politically: the flow from slavery to today and just how [oppressive] laws continue to morph and how much further we still have to go.”

One thing is also certain: We in the sports media need to raise Maya Moore’s name up far higher than it has been lifted until now. She is one of the rare few willing to put it all on the line and sacrifice for the greater good. That we don’t extol Maya Moore in the way we do Colin Kaepernick speaks to the ways in which Black women are marginalized. That must happen no longer. There is no precedent for Maya Moore. She sacrificed. She fought. And alongside the efforts of Jonathan Irons himself, she won. Maya Moore is a legend, but not one on a pedestal. She is a legend we can emulate by joining the fight against racism and the edge of racism’s knife: our system of criminal injustice.

BYE-BYE

To the editor:

My my! I understand that the wobblies have taken down our statue of Christopher Columbus from Knob Hill in San Francisco. I'm not sure. I don't remember "Chris" as being touted as a slave trader. I think he was noted somewhere in history as doing something else. Not sure?

Also reported, George Washington, father of our country, was torn down in Washington DC. Apparently George Washington was or is not the father for all. I.e. wobblies excluded. Just a few real Americans!

For those of you who are at unrest/unhappy with things today, pack up your stuff and relocate to those countries your grandparents originated from. I'm sure you can find a few wobblies of your ilk in your newfound utopia.

Leave my/our great/imperfect United States alone with all its imperfections and faults. I/we can live with them! As is! You don't have to. Godspeed!

In closing, don't expect any more aid, you have lied, cheated and milked from our imperfect system enough. Enough is enough!

There are a very few of us who may miss you. Perhaps it could be misunderstood as a warning shot? But then I doubt it!

God bless America, The Donald, Jerry Philbrick.

Had it up to here! White lives matter too! 

One old true mad American

Boonville

YET IT HIT THEM ALL THE SAME. Handed the written confirmation [of Lee’s surrender] by Graves, the members of the [Confederate] cabinet passed it from one to another, each scrutinizing the paper, exchanging doleful looks and a few stunned comments. Then they all fell silent, a quiet that the navy secretary thought “more eloquent of great disaster than words could have been.” Mallory, borrowing Thomas Jefferson’s famed exclamation in 1820 when he learned of the Missouri Compromise over the extension of slavery, declared that Lee’s surrender “fell on the ears of all like a fire bell in the night.” 

— William C. Davis, An Honorable Defeat

MARCO CHECKS IN (Coast Listserve)

Judy Mayhan news (and) Something about DRUGS.

 Sue Zipp wrote:

"I'm actually in Mendo now to help take care of our dearest Judy Mayhan. She fell and broke her hip, and is home from the hospital needing 24/7 care. She's getting SO much better, challenging herself to walk, exercise, eat well and surround herself with healing people. I can see visible progress daily! Her eyes sparkle and she's determined to fully regain her mobility and good health." 

Marco McClean:

I don't have an email address for Judy Mayhan. If you want to communicate with Sue on this, her email address is suezipp@mcn.org 

IN OTHER NEWS: 

Subject: Re: DRUGS 

Gerry York wrote, for some mysterious reason: 

Are you going to report that Novartis (a pharma company), after paying a 687 million dollar fine, declared a new commitment to ethics? 

gyork, 2 july 2020 

p.s. Is this an example of projecting? 

---

Marco here. I don't know anything about Novartis and its ethical commitment, Gerry, but if you do, and if it's important to you to get the word out, the deadline is always 6 or 7pm Friday for having your written work read aloud later that night on MOTA: Good Night Radio on KNYO. 

Projecting is when you accuse others in your life of being what you don't see that you are, and of doing something that you don't realize you're doing. Everyone does it to some degree. No-one is always at his best. We can take offense at people who show us behavior we so much can't stand in ourselves that we block our participation in it from our own memory and attention. It's called projection because it's exactly as though we're movie-projecting our own hate or hurt or confusion or motives on people around us and reacting to what we see as though it's originating outside of us. It might really be, but in this case we put it there. I've used the term for this: Punching yourself in the nose. 

Here's an example in the real world: someone who posts to a newsgroup or listserv several times a day to bitch about others for posting several times a day and so pissing him off. Or someone who reflexively hates people who disagree with him on any point and feels attacked because he is always in attack mode himself, ready to strike to, as he sees it, defend himself. Or, in a way, someone who calls people liars when he's the one lying. In general it's when a person reacts to believing some one has belligerent and hostile motives by being even more erratically belligerent and hostile to nearly everyone, amplifying his own problems and alienation and distress of unpleasant feelings. (Punching yourself in the nose, see above.) He may learn, disengage, decompress, develop healthy or at least engrossing interests, unfold into a happier person, but sometimes, because of mental deterioration from age or trauma or even just a coincidental series of bad breaks) it can build up to a psychic break and a newsworthy tragic crime. We've all seen it; the news is full of these events. It's not an exact science, and thank Jeebus for that; if it were, it would be even easier for truly malicious people to manipulate us than it already is. 

So, yeah, sure, I suppose projection could apply to a pharmaceutical company, but that's a stretch for me. If you can tell how, and if you have the time to, please do. 

WHAT HAPPENED IN RUSSIA?

High levels of radioactivity detected in Europe

Beyond Nuclear June 30, 2020

Sensors in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Finland have been detecting unusually high levels of cesium-134, cesium-137, ruthenium-103, cobalt-60 and iodine-131 coming from Western Russia. But the cause of these radioactive releases remains a mystery. Or possibly a secret. Russia says its Kola and Leningrad reactors, close to where sensors say the radiation is coming from, are fine. Russian NGOs have their doubts. Another possibility is a problem with the Buresvestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, which experienced an accident in 2019, including an explosion that killed three personnel and caused a spike in radiation in the region. 

Update: youtu.be/Y17-s0xAoB0

WALMART DRIVE-IN

Walmart plans to turn 160 store parking lots into drive-in movie theaters, the company announced Wednesday.

kcra.com/article/walmart-to-turn-parking-lots-into-drive-in-movie-theaters/33081966

AMERICA EXPLODES, TAKE 2

by Adam Shatz

And then there’s the pandemic itself. George Floyd’s murder came just as the US death toll exceeded a hundred thousand. An alarming number of those who have died have been people of color, especially black people, many of whom suffer from pre-existing health conditions and don’t have access to adequate healthcare. Covid-19 has made clear how little black lives matter in the US, even as it has underscored the country’s dependence on black and brown “essential” workers, who provide care, deliver packages and prepare food – all lines of work that have exposed them to the virus. The growing awareness that Covid-19 is a “black plague,” as the Princeton academic Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has called it, has inspired a call to action among civil rights activists. 

But many whites, especially in red states, have responded with demands to end the shutdown. Trump cheered on the armed and unmasked white protesters in Michigan who seized the state capitol and advocated “liberation” from the shelter-in-place order issued to limit the spread of the virus. When Georgia (whose governor, Brian Kemp, a right-wing Republican, won the election from the Democrat Stacey Abrams through brazen voter suppression) reopened, the New York Times ran a front-page photograph of a black woman in a white mask, serving coffee to a white man without a mask at a lunch counter, a reminder that Jim Crow hasn’t so much died as been reconfigured. The message of such scenes was that whites had no reason to concern themselves with a “black plague,” except to make sure the help was taking precautions.

The method of Floyd’s killing is no less significant. It almost doesn’t matter whether Chauvin intended to kill him; he didn’t care whether he lived or died. Trump did not kill Floyd, but he has fanned the politics of white supremacy and sanctioned the humiliation of black Americans. It is this assault, on Floyd’s dignity as well as his person, that has provoked the most serious challenge yet to Trump’s presidency.

Trump ran in part on his opposition to costly overseas engagements, but he’s no pacifist and has always looked at domestic politics as a theater of combat. Opponents are to be bullied, and if they can’t be bullied, crushed. Nothing has infuriated him as much as challenges from people of color: it was, after all, Obama’s mockery of him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2011 that made him decide to run for office. Some on the left drew a strange consolation from Trump’s hostility to foreign wars, as if it meant he could be a tactical ally against American imperialism. They failed to see that he wanted to wage war at home: his furious inauguration speech with its talk of “American carnage” was a declaration of war on urban racial liberalism, especially as represented by New York, the city that had rejected him.

Trump’s outlook was formed during the bitter racial conflicts of New York City in the Koch and Giuliani years, when blue-collar whites – joined by many “liberal” members of the white middle class – embraced “tough” policing measures such as stop and frisk, which were aimed almost entirely at black and Latino men. One of those men, a Haitian immigrant called Abner Louima, who in 1997 was sodomized with a stick in a Brooklyn police station, claimed that one of his torturers had said: “It’s Giuliani time.” Although Louima later retracted this, “Giuliani time” is what Trump wants to institute on a national scale with his calls for state governors and law enforcement officers to “dominate” the protests and his denunciation of domestic “terrorists.” (Trump has promised to classify “antifa,” the network of antifascist groups, as a terrorist organization, though US law grants him no such power.) He has styled himself as a war commander, talking tough to Democratic governors and mayors, deploying the National Guard, surrounding the Lincoln Memorial with soldiers and promising to use the military’s “unlimited power” against American citizens if state governors fail to do the job. The protesters in Lafayette Park, outside the White House, were dispersed with tear gas and rubber bullets so that Trump could strut across to St John’s Church, flanked by an entirely white group of officials, and pose for a photograph holding a Bible.

Once again, Trump has shown a flair for evoking some of the most hideous periods in American history. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he wrote in one tweet, a phrase coined in 1967 by the Miami police chief Walter Headley, who also said: “We don’t mind being accused of police brutality.” Trump claimed not to know the source of the quote, but his advisers did. And no one with even a rudimentary knowledge of American history could have failed to spot the implication of his threat to set “vicious dogs” on the protesters outside the White House. 

Slave owners used Cuban bloodhounds to hunt down escaped slaves; Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor, the commissioner of public safety in Birmingham, Alabama, attacked civil rights protesters with snarling dogs. Trump also said that in his effort to restore “law and order,” he would protect not only property but “your Second Amendment rights” – a message to reassure his white supporters that they need not hesitate to use armed “self-defense,” a practice legalized in recent years by “stand your ground” laws (walking or driving in some white neighborhoods has become an increasingly dangerous activity for black people). He has stoked divisions and released his followers from any inhibitions. “Maga [Make America Great Again] loves the black people,” Trump says, and the “the” tells you everything you need to know about his “love.”

DONNA TARTT ON TRUE GRIT BY CHARLES PORTIS:

As for the novels, they’ve gotten me through times of bleakness and uncertainty from fifth grade to now, and are a never-ending source of amazement, gratitude and joy. All writers who attempt to convey their magic eventually knock into the problem: How to describe the indescribable? Probably the best description I can give of “True Grit” is that I’ve never given it to any reader — male or female, of any age or sensibility — who didn’t enjoy it. 

As for the others, which I love just as much, they are if anything weirder and funnier, filled with some of the best and most particular American vernacular ever written, and even amid the scrape of Covid-driven anxiety they’ve convulsed me with laughter and given me some of the few moments of escape that I’ve found.

The caption on the picture above in yesterday's NY Times Book Review:

Good thing those guys are identified, since readers might have puzzled over who was who. Odd, too, that the online version of Tartt's essay is dated June 9, though it appeared in yesterday's Book Review. Why sit on it for more than two weeks?

At least the Times spared us the usual pointless pedantry of including their middle names or initials. Portis did have a middle name, though Wayne's name was a Hollywood creation, since his real name, Marion Michael Morrison, was unacceptable for an actor who made westerns.

Tartt is right about Portis's wonderful novel, which provided Wayne with his best part and an Academy Award.

A New Yorker critic after his death in February:

The closest he gets to self-portraiture comes in his short memoir “Combinations of Jacksons,” the essay published in The Atlantic. Toward the essay’s close, the author spots an “apparition” of his future self in the form of a geezer idling his station wagon alongside Portis at a traffic light in Little Rock. He wore “the gloat of a miser,” Portis writes. “Stiff gray hairs straggled out of the little relief hole at the back of his cap… While not an ornament of our race, neither was he, I thought, the most depraved member of the gang.”

…“I could see myself all too clearly in that old butterscotch Pontiac, roaring flat out across the Mexican desert and laying down a streamer of smoke like a crop duster, with a goatherd to note my passing and (I flatter myself) to watch me until I was utterly gone, over a distant hill, and only then would he turn again with his stick to the straying flock. So be it.”

— Rob Anderson, District5Diary