MCT: Saturday, July 4, 2020

• Summertime
• Fuego Fuente
• MCHC Troubles
• Kelp Bay
• Mitigating Owls
• Mosswood Market
• Fir Cones
• Kit Pair
• Testers Overwhelmed
• Day's Resort
• Perv Pleads
• Dick's Closed
• BOS Meetings
• Pioneer Inn
• Ed Notes
• PV Bridge
• AV Village
• Humboldt Anarchists
• N Number
• Yesterday's Catch
• Missing Evidence
• Uncontrollable Events
• Shelton's Fountain
• December 14th
• Sally Hemmings
• Spottswood Home
• Profit Sacrifice
• Duncan Springs
• Trump Reflection
• Two Presidents
• Marco Radio
• Greenwood Mill
• History Lesson
• Plague 1665
• Step Aside
• Found Object

NEAR SEASONAL TEMPERATURES and dry weather will persist for the next seven days. Coastal areas will see a continued marine influence with nighttime and morning low clouds and patchy fog and clearing skies by each afternoon. (NWS)

JUST IN: FIRE AT ARTIST LARRY FUENTE HOUSE NEAR COMPTCHE

Wildland Response For Structure Fire Off Comptche-Ukiah Road

The scanner said (6:12 pm) the Mendocino Fire Department & CalFire ground, air (copter & air tankers) & inmate assets were dispatched to 42701 Comptche-Ukiah Road for the initial report of a "van fire" next to a structure.

The first unit on the scene said this was a "fully involved" metal building 100' by 30' and "there is one burn patient, a veterinarian, we'll need an ambulance." There was no extension into the wildland - yet - but the building will need a lot of water to be cooled down.

An air ambulance was a "priority request " from Mendocino Fire - the patient was 30% burned. They want the air ambulance to go to the "Star" Landing Zone.

At 6:33 pm, except for one engine, all CalFire resources were canceled - also the helicopter. No - at 6:2 pm, they said they would "have the copter bucket up."

The CalFire spotter plane said the fire hasn't vented through the roof yet - but when it does, there is a potential for spot fires.

Fort Bragg is sending an engine to the fire, Albion Fire is sending a water tender #8191.

Air ambulance REACH 18 is being dispatched - it should be on the scene @ 6:55 pm.

Nick Wilson posted to the MCNlistserv: "The large structure fire is burning at Larry Fuente's warehouse/studio/residence on Comptche Ukiah Rd. 

There is a large turnout of firefighting resources from CalFire, Mendocino and Albion Little River Fire departments. CalFire sent their Huey helicopter that is now flying over the area. An ambulance is on the way for a burn victim. I can smell the fire from my place two miles SE of the fire."

The CalFire air assets have left the scene, but at 7:54 pm Elk & Comptche Fire were asked to send water tenders to the fire scene.

(via MSP)

HOSPITALITY CENTER PERMIT VIOLATIONS

by Malcolm Macdonald

Covid-19 is scary, but have you ever dealt with Lynelle Johnson, Carole White, and Hospitality Center?

That was the opening line of an April 25^th piece in the AVA. As Bob Dylan sang, “things have changed.” Readers may look up the lyric that precedes that and determine if it applies to the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center (MCHC).

First among recent changes is the leave of absence for “personal health reasons” taken by MCHC Board President Lynelle Johnson. This leaves MCHC Board Vice President Carole White in charge. Let's refresh our memory about Carole White and her willingness to work with others.

The coast hospital district's planning committee, which Ms. White is one member of, had an agenda item on its late December, 2019, agenda about the possibility of the hospital participating in some fashion in the future operation of a winter shelter for the homeless. The issue could involve changes to MCHC's role in the winter shelter. But rather than recuse herself from the matter, Ms. White plowed verbally ahead, sharing her opinions on the matter. 

Supervisor Ted Williams and Fort Bragg City Council member Bernie Norvell participated in the discussion. Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller sat in the audience, but offered at least one comment when asked.

Keep in mind this planning session was intended to merely consider the possibility of the hospital, or hospital district, taking on some partial role in the winter homeless shelter in the future. Nevertheless, Carole White felt so threatened by the potential concept that before most people had returned home, after the Planning Committee adjourned, she was raging, according to a reliable source. Reportedly, White told staff at Hospitality Center not to speak to Supervisor Williams, Councilman Norvell, nor City Manager Tabatha Miller under any circumstance.

Readers may want to also keep in mind that this Ms. White is now the leader of an organization that is contractually obligated to the city of Fort Bragg for the existence of its center of operations at 101 North Franklin Street. One of the contractual obligations MCHC has with the city is to provide a “pedestrian-oriented use as part of the mixed use development” at 101 N. Franklin.

That pedestrian-oriented use relates back to a 2015 zoning determination at the time MCHC first moved into the former Old Coast Hotel site on Franklin St. That zoning determination in part stated, “A small cafe is proposed for the southeast portion of the building… The proposed cafe is consistent with… the requirement that a permitted pedestrian-oriented use be located on the ground floor of mixed use buildings within the CBD [Central Business District].”

In 2016, a building permit provided this requirement: “Within twelve months of final inspection of the building permit, the proposed pedestrian-oriented use (cafe) shall be in operation satisfying the mixed-use requirements of the Central Business District.”

In 2019, the City received a code enforcement complaint about 101 N. Franklin Street. One might guess that it related to the cafe not being fully operational. The City sent MCHC a letter re-stating the requirement for a pedestrian-oriented use (the cafe). 

MCHC sent a a response letter essentially saying they were trying to comply. The City extended the deadline, but requested monthly updates beginning on December 21, 2019. The City of Fort Bragg received a phone update on December 21, 2019 and an email update on January 9, 2020, but no further updates.

There were two or three First Friday cafe events of about two hours duration each this past winter. One that I attended appeared to be heavily populated by MCHC Board members, family and close friends rather than the general public. 

In the meantime, financial reports at MCHC Board meetings detailed the financial losses associated with merely attempting to operate the cafe and the culinary classes associated with it.

During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the MCHC cafe has ceased operating. Late in June, rumors circulated that MCHC had lost the funding to continue with a re-opened cafe as well as pay the instructor of the culinary classes. 

On June 30^th, I bumped into Jerry Thomas, MCHC Board Treasurer, on the streets of Mendocino. He said he was unaware of any lost grants or lost funding. I had sent an email to Carole White some hours earlier asking about the rumors regarding a loss of funding. Lo and behold, right in front of the same building where I bumped into Mr. Thomas, there was Carole White. 

With our masks fully engaged, I inquired if she had received the email. She nodded. I further asked if she had any response. Her reply was to the effect that she was looking into it. 

Later, I asked the MCHC executive director if funding for the cafe and culinary classes had fallen by the wayside. The executive director evaded a bit, but eventually responded that the instructor of the culinary classes and chief organizer of the cafe was now participating in a volunteer role, not as a paid employee. 

It doesn't take Woodward or Bernstein to figure out that this meant the funding had fallen through. I pressed the MCHC executive director further and she insisted she would be finding funding for the cafe in the future.

Returning to housing of the homeless, MCHC did help facilitate keeping the winter weather shelter open through April, though the funding came from elsewhere and local faith based organizations provided the actual quarters. The April 25^th AVA article details the real life problems that occurred during the extended winter shelter when MCHC Board leaders Johnson and White countermanded the instructions of the executive director and their own organization's protocols about housing of the homeless in Fort Bragg motels. 

By the end of June, MCHC, in a report from the executive director to city officials, had completed transition plans for the folks remaining at Motel 6 throughout May and June. According to the report, eighteen left by car, nine were moving on to MCHC's Hospitality House on McPherson Street, three were going into transitional housing, nine more qualified for permanent supportive housing.

That left a half dozen or more potentially homeless individuals. The report also stated, “We will transport those folks so they won't be leaving on foot.” However, a reliable source spoke with one of those individuals on July 3rd on the streets of Fort Bragg. The homeless man stated that MCHC told him to get out of the motel (on July 1^st). He cleaned his room and left with no assistance provided.

As for the cafe, MCHC needs to provide evidence that it is capable of re-opening a sustainable pedestrian-oriented business at 101 N. Franklin St. Otherwise, the City of Fort Bragg has every reason to revoke the permit and call out MCHC as having failed to uphold their end of the original bargain in obtaining the Old Coast Hotel site.

KELP IN MENDOCINO BAY

CORRECTION: THE OWL THEY WILL SHOOT

An incorrect article was published in MCT on June 27 about the Fish and Wildlife Service and Green Diamond Lumber Company’s timber practices. The incorrect article has been replaced with the correct article and can be read at: https://www.theava.com/archives/129197#16

Green Diamond is shooting barred owls as a “mitigation” for cutting down high conservation value forest. In fact they are just conducting old-style clear-cutting of huge swaths of forest. 

MOSSWOOD MARKET will be closed on Saturday and Sunday, July 4th and July 5th, in observance of Independence Day. We will reopen on Monday, July 6th. Stay safe and have a great weekend.

BETH SWEHLA of the AVHS Ag program: "‘Tis the season for Douglas Fir trees to drop their cones. If you have a fir tree, a container, and some time, would you pick up for cones for the AVHS Ag Dept? We are looking for cones in good shape and not crushed. 

I picked up this 3/4 bucket of cones in about 15 minutes. There will be more in a few days. The Ag Dept uses them for winter holiday designs. We store them in clean empty feed sacks. We can also handle trash bags. PM me if you are able to collect cones for us. Thanks!"

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: 

[1] Speaking in the abstract, not about any specific case, Dr. Doohan asked state staff for clarification on death count. If someone from Mendocino County dies in another county, where does the death get registered, Mendocino or the other county? State staff “thinks” it would be Mendocino. We are still researching. I anticipate deaths from patients transferred out of Mendocino County will be assigned to our count.

---

[2] Oops, we have overwhelmed COVID testing by testing the low risk asymptomatic…

(From Quest labs)

July 2020

Dear Valued Customer (including Mendocino County):

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Quest is now able to perform 110,000 tests per day. However, as a result of the nationwide resurgence in COVID-19 infections over the past several weeks, we’ve experienced an increase in molecular testing demand that has surpassed our ability to respond with our usual expediency. This strain on testing capacity is being felt by labs across the country as they, like us, work to keep up with the enormous and rising testing demand.

As a valued customer, and peer in the industry, we ask for your support in working together to prioritize your patients with the greatest need for testing over the coming weeks. This includes Priority 1 patients (hospitalized patients, symptomatic healthcare workers, and presurgical patients in acute settings) and Priority 2 patients (symptomatic patients: in long-term care and skilled nursing facilities, over age 65 years, or with underlying conditions; and first responders). For Priority 3 testing, please prioritize applicable symptomatic patients. While this will reduce the number of tests you are sending to us, it will ensure that together, we are focused on the most critical patients.

Quest near-term actions include:

Continuing to target turnaround times for Priority 1 patients at 1 day;

Maintaining service levels with current, core customers to the best of our ability; and

Taking several steps to increase capacity, including placing additional testing technology platforms in our network of laboratories.

We remain committed to working expeditiously to increase our testing capacity and provide results rapidly. However, as we anticipate demand for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) testing to continue to rise, TAT for patients may exceed these current levels over the coming weeks.

For additional information on COVID-19 testing, please visit QuestDiagnostics.com/COVID-19/HCP, contact your Quest Diagnostics representative, or call 1.866.MYQUEST (1.866.697.8378).

Sincerely,

Your Quest Diagnostics Team

JOHN DAY’S HUNTING/FISHING RESORT, POTTER VALLEY

PERV PLEADS

Ukiah - With his jury trial scheduled to begin next week, defendant David Lloyd Osbourn, age 54, of Ukiah, on Thursday decided to enter guilty pleas. 

Just before 5 p.m. Thursday Osbourn waived his right to a trial and entered a no contest plea to the crime of unlawful possession of child pornography, a felony. 

A no contest plea to any felony is the same as a guilty plea for all purposes. 

The defendant's matter was referred to the Adult Probation for a background investigation and sentencing recommendation.

The defendant was also referred to a local psychologist who has been ordered to evaluate the defendant and provide the court with a written report on (1) the circumstances of the offense, and (2) the defendant’s history. 

The primary emphasis of the evaluation is to answer the questions of whether the defendant's felonious conduct is likely to recur, and whether the defendant poses a danger to children.

The prosecutor who will continue to handle this matter through sentencing is Assistant DA Dale P. Trigg.

The law enforcement agencies that gathered the evidence supporting today's conviction were the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Task Force and the Ukiah Police Department.

Defendant Osbourn was ordered to return to court at 9 a.m. July 21, for sentencing. Any community member interested in this defendant or the outcome of his case is welcome to attend that court hearing.

(District Attorney Presser)

DICK’S PLACE CLOSED INDEFINITELY

Hey everyone....

Yet another post to clog your feed.....

With the new tighter rules coming our way Eula and I have decided to close the bar indefinitely. The new guidelines are understandable but the reality is that they run counter to what bars and restaurants are all about. 

Dick's Place is in the human interaction business and that, unfortunately, is 180⁰ out from what health officials are asking us to do. This is not said with anger or stubbornness, it's just the reality of where we all find ourselves. 

Apologies for the ever changing back and forth but I'm sure you all get it....

When we can get back to normal we'll be happy to pour you a cold one. 

Dick’s Place, Mendocino CA 95460

SUPERVISORS SHOULD SHOW UP

Editor: 

It’s entirely understandable that manicurists and fitness trainers welcomed the reinstated ability to make a living. I wish them health and prosperity. But I also wish I could attend a local government meeting in person, so that my fellow citizens and I could participate meaningfully in our democracy again.

Issues facing the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors include a budget, a courtroom and a civilian review board. Only those of us with perfect internet and telephone service, as well as the personal communications equipment to use them, are able to participate in the public process.

This indicates an alarming set of cultural priorities. If we are willing to accept the risk of going to a gym, getting our nails done and shopping to our hearts’ content, we need to strategize a way to participate as thinking, voting-age adults in our democracy and then accept the remaining risks of doing so.

Democracy has never been perfect. It has never been completely risk free. But we cannot allow health and safety to become paternalistic euphemisms for denying us the fundamental right of participating in the decisions that affect all of us.

Democracy by Zoom isn’t democracy.

Sarah Reith, Ukiah

PIONEER INN, POTTER VALLEY

ED NOTES

MENDOCINO COUNTY’S PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER Dr. Noemi Doohan has confirmed that a local resident has passed away out-of-county after contracting COVID-19 from the outbreak associated with an Assembly of God church in Mendocino County. It should be noted officials are awaiting further information to decide if the individual’s death should be attributed to COVID-19.

kymkemp.com/2020/07/03/mendocino-countys-first-potential-covid-19-death-being-investigated-by-public-health/

NORTHBOUND TRAFFIC through Boonville on Friday afternoon seemed at pre-covid volume, and the speed fairly screamed for the CHP. Noted a lot of chatter on the Coast's cyber-forums that claimed a lot of visitors are not masking up. One guy said as he jogged the Haul Road he passed many people without masks. Speaking from my own limited experience on that trail, I seldom have passed more than a couple of walkers, maybe a bike rider, and, compulsive that I am, I make it a point to walk from Rossi's to MacKerricher. Anyhow, walking or running on the very rim of the Pacific wouldn't seem to be a high risk enterprise unmasked. But I'm continually surprised by my Anderson Valley neighbors. I see people pull up at Anderson Valley Market or the Redwood Drive-in, and I say to myself, "No way that guy is going to mask up." But he does. 

GOVERNOR NEWSOM has ordered 19 counties to shut down their vineyards and wineries due to the rise in the number of cases of COVID-19, but his own Napa Valley remains open. The governor issued an executive order on Wednesday requiring establishments cease indoor operations. These include restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums, cardrooms, and bars. The order is a three-day decree that allows these businesses time to move their operations outdoors, where there is believed to be less risk of spreading the virus. The 19 counties that were named in the executive order are located mostly in Southern and Central California. But Napa County, which is home to California's world-famous wine country, has so far reported just 343 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and Napa County was exempted from the governor's order. Newsom, a multimillionaire, is one of the wealthiest governors in America. His wealth is derived from holdings in the hospitality industry, including wineries, vineyards, bars, restaurants, cafes, and hotels in the San Francisco Bay Area, . Newsom and his wife reported more than $1.2 million in income during his final year as the state’s lieutenant governor, the majority of it from outside business interests.

WHO IS CHAUVIN, wonders a reader: "A little off topic: has anybody else noticed that we know absolutely nothing about officer Derek Chauvin? Nothing about his life, nothing about his politics, nothing about his relationships. Nothing about his history. No interviews with his family, no interviews with his ex-wife, no interviews with his teachers, no interviews with his friends. Not one investigation by our so-called news media about how he had at least a dozen prior complaints against his behavior as a police officer. It’s the case of the dog didn’t bark. And this dog is definitely not barking. Because if he was a Trump supporter or a conservative, the whole entire world would know it by now, because the news media would be shouting it from the rooftops."

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE NEWS

Anderson Valley Village. We are a locally inspired and managed non-profit organization. Our mission is to help older adults remain active, connected, and independent in the place they call home while enhancing the quality of life in our community. See what's new in the valley. 

We currently have 58 members and 58 trained volunteers ready to lend a hand as Pandemic safety concerns allow! 

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July Zoom Gathering with Ted Williams: Sunday July 12th 4 to 5 PM Topic details and Zoom link will be emailed to our mailing list next week... And please RSVP with the coordinator so we can get an idea of attendance, thank you. Participants will be muted but can submit questions through the chat feature or ahead of time by email. 

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AV Village Book conversation:

 Wednesday August 12th @ 1:00 pm Note: date and time may change depending participant availability. Our next Book Conversation will cover the Book ‘Elderhood - Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life’ by Louise Aronson. If you are interested please contact Lauren for more details laurenk@pacific.net

Anyone interested in a Tea Time or Happy Hour Village and beyond Zoom Chat? As the shelter in place continues for some of us and the Covid numbers creep up in our area it seems that it is more important than ever for our mental health to stay connected! This gathering could be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly -- let me know if you are interested in this and preferred days and times. The Village has a Zoom account that can be used, so there is no need for anyone to get a subscription and tech support is available.

— Anica Williams, andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

HUMBOLDT ANARCHISTS

In the context of increasing militarized violence, misinformation, and authoritarianism, we feel now is the right time to make ourselves clear to our community: Humboldt Mutual Aid is an anarchist organization. We are anti-capitalist. We are anti-racist. We are (gasp!) anti-fascist.

kymkemp.com/2020/07/03/anarchist-group-introduces-themselves-to-humboldt-in-letter-to-the-editor/

ASK MR. WIZARD

Helio copters

To identify ANY aircraft you need its "N" number - it has to be displayed on the aircraft - it will give you the type of aircraft and who it's registered to at this FAA site. The copter flying over Mendocino today was identified here: registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N745MB

PS. As a general rule of thumb, private copters can't fly below 500-feet & planes 1,000-feet - but, of course, there are many (and numerous) exceptions to that general rule.

Paul McCarthy

mendocinosportsplus@gmail.com

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 3, 2020

JEREMIAH BENNETT, Hendersonville, Tennessee/Ukiah. Paraphernalia, sumggling controlled substance or liquor into jail, mandatory supervision sentencing, probation revocation.

SEAN FLINTON, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

JOSHUA ROSE, Redwood Valley. DUI-alcohol&drugs, suspended license, concealed firearm in vehicle with prior, under influence in possession of weapon, protective order violation, evasion, failure to appear. 

VINCENT YOUNG, Philo. Probation revocation.

LOST & FOUND

To the Editor,

I read the June 17 Anderson Valley Advertiser. My heart went out to the prisoners at San Quentin. I remember being in the same section in 1992, a 4 foot wide cell by 9 feet. Yikes. Back in 1992 people could still smoke. I remember being trapped on the fourth tier breathing everyone's smoke. 28 years later, no television, no radio, two to a cell. 

I'm in a mental facility called EOP, enhanced outpatient program.

The AVA is my eyes and ears on the world. I have eight years to go on my sentence. They have a television but I can barely see it from my cell, essentially 1 inch tall by 1.5 inches wide and it’s turned up full blast. You can't see it at all about half the time when because people get tired of yelling to each other or the chaotic screaming of the select few who are truly nuts. Even then you are barely able to make out what is being said as I peek out a half-inch diameter hole in the door. Then they're yelling to have the TV turned off. 

I won a new trial in 1992. The department of corrections just got duped. There was a new rule, AB 1987 and SB 651 section 483 in 2017 where attempts have to be made to keep records for all prisoners sentences. In 1993 I wrote to attorneys asking if it applied to Columbus Day, October 1990. I received no answers of course. So I assumed it wasn't an issue. So I forgot about it. 

The district attorney claimed I had no alibi. By the time I got to the bank it was closed. I knew something was wrong. The next year Columbus Day was on a different day. Anyway, 2018 rolls around and Columbus Day fell on October 8 again. So I wrote to attorneys who don't bother to write back. I threatened to murder them and they cowardly sniveled to the prison administration. 

Then I went to the prison counselor and put on the hat of the liar judges, liar attorneys, liar prosecutors and I joined the club. I lied to the counselor about why in 1993 they wanted to counselor mail? Did they want no attorney mail? So the counselor downloaded a 1993 letter about an attorney being censured. 

I was accused by the claimed victim of being a cop. I am not. I was associated with one in reality. So I was accused based on simple paranoid fear that I would cause the arrest of a dope fiend. That and an exculpatory photo would all subsequently come up missing. It was all described in the letter of 1993. I got a collection of investigative reports and none of it made a bit of sense. 

Then in 1995 the Department of Corrections downloaded that letter. In 2020 using their new electronic file system the investigative reports stated started making sense.

In 1998 at a sanity trial a district attorney made up a story that I had no right to an attorney client privilege, defrauding the court. The letter in question was then made available by the Department of Corrections or a prosecutor. I had nothing to do with calling myself 1368 mentally incompetent and therefore I am eligible to be re-sentenced. But the suspicious letter to the court came up missing from evidence. But it had been made available. So they searched the district attorney's files and found 18 defense attorney envelopes that once had letters, all freshly torn off.

It wasn't the smoking gun. There were no letters. 

Here we are now in 2020 and the Department of Corrections has downloaded the letters that were in the district attorney's files. Having no way to look forward to being innocent in prison, all the pieces now fall into place. I filed a suit in 1992 without evidence. It was dismissed without prejudice to refile my $30 million in stolen attorney mail that I had no evidence for. I was able to re-file if my conviction was overturned. Now I have evidence. I'm now trying to write a writ. It calls for dismissal of the case based upon the law. 

My eyes traveled to the last letter to the editor that week about Mendocino County's wildlife services deal.

Creeps killing wildlife. I don't know what I'm missing on television. I hear of riots but in my opinion the world needs me out. I’d love to make a few traps for the US Department of Agriculture's wildlife agents to wander into. 26,441 native wild animals chewing off their limbs to escape the snares and left to die horrifying deaths. I love animals. I would give an eye tooth see how many they really kill. Maybe I truly belong in prison. I wouldn't be burning buildings. Hawks and owls and dogs and family pets being killed? That's sad. Remember to sign their petition please. And send them to me and I will send them on with my own nasty letter.

Jeff Harnden, 

H-31120 / DI-129

CSP Los Angeles

PO Box 4450

Lancaster, CA 93539

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Precedent exists big time, it took fifty years for the anti-smoking laws to be passed to protect the public from obstinate smokers. Plug in non-mask wearers for smokers. No, it is not anyone’s right to avoid wearing a mask when you are endangering the people around when one talks, sings, coughs or sneezes.

Another potential problem brewing. The fact that lifting the restrictions and the consequent massing of people on beaches, bars, restaurants, protests and yes, political rallies has caused a substantial increase in infections may make small businesses finally fold up, and companies make lay-off decisions more permanent. I do not believe our illustrious Deep State, Trump included, have a clue what to do next. Printing money will not fix this. Even the CDC is stating the scourge may be uncontrollable. The government is powerless, it may become every man or woman for themselves to protect themselves. 

SHELTONS, POTTER VALLEY

CNBC FOUNDER CLAIMS TRUMP HAS A SPECIFIC PLAN IN HAND TO STAY IN OFFICE NO MATTER WHAT THE VOTERS DECIDE

by Tom Boggioni

Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the founder of CNBC walked viewers through a scenario where Donald Trump would attempt to remain president even if he is rejected by the voters in November.

Speaking with hosts, Tom Rogers along with co-author former Senator Tim Wirth (D-CO) explained the central point of their piece in Newsweek that proposes: “How Trump Could Lose the Election – and Still Remain President.”

According to Rogers, who began by saying his scenario was “not farfetched,” he believes Trump has no chance of winning the election and will do anything to remain in office.

“This is how it happens, Biden wins,” he began. “I don’t just mean the popular vote, he wins the key swing states, he wins the electoral college. President Trump says there’s been Chinese interference in the election. He’s been talking about Biden’s soft on China — China wanted Biden to win so he says a national emergency; the Chinese have intervened in the election.”

“Why do I think that’s real?” he continued. “Just ten days ago he tweeted, he actually tweeted, ‘rigged 2020 election, millions of mail-in ballots will be printed by foreign countries, it will be the scandal of our times.’ So he’s laying the groundwork for this. So he does an investigation and [Attorney General Bill] Barr backs this up with all kinds of legal opinions about emergency powers that the president has.”

“Then what happens is it’s all geared towards December 14th. Why December 14th? Well, that’s the deadline when the electors of the states have to be chosen,” he elaborated. “Why is that key? Because that’s what the Supreme Court used in Bush v. Gore to cut off the Florida counting. They keep this national emergency investigation going through December 14th. Biden, of course, challenges this in the courts and says, ‘hey, we won these states, I want the electors that favored me named. The Supreme Court doesn’t throw the election to the Republicans as it did in 2000, instead it says, ‘look, there’s a deadline here.’ If they can’t be certified in these states because of this investigation going on, there’s a constitutional process for this.”

“What’s the constitutional process? It goes to the House of Representatives,” Roger continued. “Everybody says, ‘that’s good. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats control the House. No. when a presidential election is thrown into the House of Representatives under the Constitution, it’s state-by-state vote. Each state gets one vote based on the number of Republicans and Democrats in that delegation. Today Republicans control the House on that kind of vote; it’s 26-23 with one delegation, Pennsylvania, split. Even if Pennsylvania was to elect a Democratic delegation, come this new election because it’s the new Congress that votes here, it would be 26 to 24 Republicans and Trump retains the presidency.”

He then concluded, “It is not so farfetched — he [Trump] is planning to do this.”

WHO KNOWS ABOUT SALLY HEMMINGS? 

She was Thomas Jefferson's slave. 

Called his "mistress," but how can you be a mistress when you were a slave, a child, and could not consent? Had absolutely no choice?

She bore him 6, perhaps as many as 8 children. He kept her locked in a basement room. 

The room was recently unearthed, and DNA evidence has proven the lineage of Sally's children. 

She was between 12 and 14 years old when he started raping her, and Jefferson was in his forties. He freed the children that he had with her, but not Sally. Her daughter had to free her mother after Jefferson passed away. 

This is not taught in schools. This side of history. We are supposed to consider the founding fathers as great men, fighting for justice and freedom, guided by God... when they are evil men. Selfish men who did nothing, save that it was for their own aggrandisement, personal benefit, and financial gain.

I would also like to add that Sally was Jefferson's dead wife's half sister. Sally's mother was raped by her owner, who was Martha (wife of Thomas) Jefferson's father.

These people left a legacy. 

A legacy of entitlement under the most criminal of circumstances, and White Supremacist beliefs which pervade U.S. Society and Culture, to this very day.

(Progressives for the People)

SPOTTSWOOD HOME, POTTER VALLEY

ARIZONA HOSPITALS OVERFLOW AND WITNESS THE CRAVEN COLLAPSE OF MEDICAL ETHICS.

The Elderly Pay the price for the systematic destruction of the people’s Public Health System

Arizona is now rationing health care, using “Crisis Standards of Care” to decide who lives and who dies. https://www.newsweek.com/arizona-activates-emergency-plan-ration-dwindling-health-care-resources-1514653

US politicians have for decades privatized medical care while they defunded, cut and starved the Public Health System, the major institution for protecting the people’s health from infectious disease and capable of containing and eradicating the COVID-19 pandemic. When the world was notified about the pandemic, the US government refused to prepare a national strategy. This homicidal policy of refusal to massively increase production of test kits, PPE (personal protective equipment), ventilators and hospital beds has already resulted in over 112, 000 deaths as we head towards a quarter of a million dead by summer’s end.

When the economy crashed, what did the politicians do? Did they demand that the Federal Government manufacture 100 million COVID-19 test kits? Did they spend a trillion dollars on PPE and ventilators? Did they spend a trillion dollars to hire 250,000 people to test and track COVID-19? NO –instead they poured $9 TRILLION into Wall Street, buying up the debts of the largest corporations, and hedge funds while they left 50 million workers who lost their jobs without any relief from their debts. https://wallstreetonparade.com/2020/03/the-fed-has-pumped-9-trillion-into-wall-street-over-the-past-six-months-but-mnuchin-says-this-isnt-like-the-financial-crisis/

The murderous failure to plan and prepare for this crisis created predictable massive shortages for hospitals. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is calling for “A Framework for Rationing Ventilator and Critical Care Beds During the COVID-19 Pandemic”. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763953 JAMA is accommodating itself to this brutal betrayal of the people’s health. They are NOT calling for demonstrations in front of the White House and Congress. They are NOT funding TV or newspaper ads demanding resources, they are NOT calling for marches, demonstrations and strikes. No, they are advocating a policy to ration and deny care that will fall most heavily on those over 60 years of age. The JAMA article of March 27, 2020 recommends who should be DENIED care:

1) Those least likely to survive treatment. Statistics show that death rate increases over the age of 60. (the elderly, with higher risk for minorities)

2) Those with other medical conditions. More common over age 60. (the elderly, with higher risk for minorities)

3) Those who are working and “intrinsically more worthy” will be given priority and those who are retired will be denied. (The elderly)

4) Those who are younger will be given priority and the elderly will be denied.

Arizona is now putting this plan into effect with its “Crisis Standards of Care” rationing plan.

In the opinion of the racist mass murderer Adolf Hitler, the elderly and disabled were considered less worthy “useless eaters” with no right to live.

This profit driven economic system is killing our parents and grandparents. Who next will be sacrificed to support the profits of the top 1%?

When do we reject, rebel and revolt against this brutal competitive profit driven system of the 1% and build an economy based on the needs and cooperation of the 99%?

The time is now. 

Dr. Nayvin Gordon

Oakland

PS. Dr. Gordon writes on politics and healthand can be reached at gordonnayvin@yahoo.com

DUNCAN SPRINGS RESORT, HOPLAND

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THANKS TO THE PRESIDENT (Philadelphia Inquirer Op-Ed)

Since his election, Donald Trump has been a mirror, held up to us Americans and propelling us to ask: How did we get here?

digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/PhiladelphiaInquirer/shared/ShowArticle.aspx

A READER WRITES: 

Barack Obama: What He Achieved in the White House

The below-linked Time Magazine article is counter to the writer who trashed Obama. He certainly cherry picked a small slice of Obama's entire tenure. In fact, except for the first few months as President, Obama seemed to disappear from overt public view, unlike Trump who greedily and with obsession hogs all the attention from morning till night. Obama took on" the job"….Trump took on the celebrity role as a reality TV star as he slouches around meditating on himself from morning till night with a Big Mac in hand. 

Obama certainly was not perfect…. but my sense is that he will be remembered as one of the most effective presidents of all time in his accomplishments ….not because he was our first president of color…. but because he was incredibly smart and created and developed a first class team to accomplish an agenda based on an educated view and value of the world, the environment and the people in it….but he was continually undersold and undermined because there was such a reaction to his Blackness by the Repugs….who managed to silence him and malign him from morning till night. And then…. there was Obama Care, Obama’s cross….where he was vilified and maligned from then until now….from which he never recovered. OMG, how horrible and disgusting it is to think every American should be able to have affordable health insurance. What kind of idiocy is that? They beat that horse to death.

To have come through that breathtaking economic fiasco created by the runaway greed of Wall Street in 2008, tucked away behind a wall of secrecy….and turn things around over his 8 year tenure is really quite remarkable. The fact that Trump claims the great economy (is it really?) as his handiwork is a ridiculous joke….he inherited it….along with a runaway stock market that continues to be insane and resists coming back to earth no matter what. Even a Pandemic and economic armageddon will not stop the insanity of the rising market….hey the Fed just bought 400 million of corporate bonds…..YeAH….let’s prop up the Haves. That’s what we need now while the lowest earners/ 40 million people have lost their jobs. Berkshire Hathaway is really in need….poor guys.

In any case, I find it interesting that someone decided to write to your paper and trash Obama now in the face of Trump having undone almost all Obama accomplished (especially environmental protections) through his complete reliance on executive order to govern and who has turned the US into the laughing stock of the world? Poking holes into the last Presidential reign….that’s really what matters today? But then, Obama is Black….and endemic racism is anathema to a long needed assisted suicide.

Trump rules in such a way that we might as well not have a House of Representatives or any other branch of government that he can sue….. or which he has managed to manipulate to his ends…i.e. a corrupt crony like William Barr and the entire Justice Department. Now that seems like a much more interesting conversation than looking back at what Obama didn’t do. Of course, Obama DIDN’T do some things…. So what? Trump did his dead level best to made sure that Obama would be trashed in history forever….as he lead the main charge toward Obama’s disenfranchisement and illegitimacy? You do know he wasn’t born in this country, don’t you? 

But the real issue to me is this…. when you stop and think about it, it’s quite astonishing to see how reckless and perhaps feckless the foundation of our so called democracy is …..to have one president move the country in one direction (which to a thinking person just might mean some gains in our survival on the planet and who just might advance a more sane approach to the environment, the economy and at least some attempt to consider ALL the people in one of the most basic needs of every human being….affordable healthcare)…. just to allow and support a new president to dismantle all that unfolded before as fast and furious as possible and then stoops to the lowest level of corruption without consequence….lets’ see…now how does that work?? one step forward, one century backward? How can this country ever maintain any progress or development as a nation if it is completely acceptable to change its position on just about everything every 4 years? Perhaps it's better than the alternative? Um….really? It’s not looking that way now….is it? 

Maybe we have to become two nations. The divide looms larger and larger and seems to be non-negotiable. Never the twain shall meet. Persona non grata. Don’t Mess with Texas. The values issue is so deep and seemingly unable to be mitigated….maybe we need two democracies, two presidents….two nations. Really? Maybe there is nowhere else to go.

time.com/4616866/barack-obama-administration-look-back-history-achievements/

MEMO OF THE AIR: GOOD NIGHT RADIO ALL NIGHT

And some good and bad news, bad first.

Deadline to email your writing for Friday night's MOTA show is around 7pm. If seven comes and goes and you're not done, send it whenever it's ready and I'll read it on next week's show.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg, and 105.1fm KMEC-LP Ukiah*. Also there and anywhere else via http://knyo.org and click on Listen. And any time of any day or night you can go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's show and shows before that. By Saturday night the recording of tonight's MOTA will also be there, in the latest post, right on top.

*Some distressing news: I just got from the on-hand engineer that Mendocino Environment Center's internet service has been interrupted with no firm reconnect date. As that's how my show and many others get to KMEC live, tonight's MOTA show will be heard on the air not in Ukiah but only in Fort Bragg.

And some perfectly thrilling news: I've been in contact with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, whose new project is a series of 25-minute edutaining radio shows titled *Tales From The Resistance*, and starting next week I'll be airing one every week, as well as other material from the magical Mime Troupe. Mimes on the radio! That's what I'm *talking* about.

Furthermore, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com there is a veritable *IKEA floor plan* of delights to wander around in utterly lost while you wait for tonight, such as:

Finger ninjas, part 4. Collect the whole set. (via NagOnTheLake) https://boingboing.net/2020/07/02/mr-manos-is-the-finger-ninja.html

In a nutshell: Why are you alive? https://theawesomer.com/why-are-you-alive/571090/

And if I had unlimited money for an impressive house full of big blank walls and at least one military-bright, high-rez video projector, there would be something like this on a continuous loop, for art, with the music off, of course, or better music, like Yes or AWB or Brian Eno or that lovely Irish Emu woman singing in an ocean of reverb. It would be to your left on your way to the (normal-size) bathroom, not even in a prominent place, that's how rich I would be. It's an hour of fascinating sharp busy video of our sun, the heating system, where each day takes only one second. (But first of course I'd pay the MEC's internet bill. If you're solvent enough to do that, please do; you'll be a real hero.) https://petapixel.com/2020/06/30/this-10-year-timelapse-of-the-sun-was-made-from-425-million-images/

— Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

ELK-GREENWOOD MILL

HISTORY LESSON

by James Kunstler

Now I am going to tell you why BLM is a hustle, and how it came to this. Here is an opening to that honest conversation about race everyone’s been pretending to ask for. That’s been a hustle too, so far, because when anybody actually ventures to launch it, the cries of “racist” shut it down.

The BLM hustle has turned into a violent insurrection supported by a body of bad ideas geared to driving the nation insane. The action on-the-ground is like the Jacobin phase of the French Revolution seasoned with the violent derangement of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. As biologist Bret Weinstein said in his podcast last week with linguistics prof John McWhorter: “If you attempt a Maoist takeover of the US, you’ll get a civil war.”

What we’re seeing in the looting and burning, the “canceling” of careers and lives, the toppling of statues and the attempt to rewrite history, the pathetic obeisance of political leaders to raging mobs, and the lives lost in senseless acts of violence is the unfinished business of the civil rights movement. That business was the full participation of Black citizens in American life. The main grievance now is that Black Americans are still denied full participation due to “systemic racism.” That’s a dodge. What actually happened is that Black America opted out and lost itself in a quandary of its own making with the assistance of their white dis-enablers, the well-intentioned “progressives.”

Let me take you back to the mid-20th century. America had just fought and won a war against manifest evil. The nation styled itself as Leader of the Free World. That role could not be squared with the rules of Jim Crow apartheid, so something had to change. The civil rights campaign to undo racial segregation under law naturally began in the courts in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954). So-called public accommodations — hotels, theaters, restaurants, buses, bathrooms, water fountains, etc. — remained segregated. By the early 1960s, the clamor to end all that took to the streets under the emerging moral leadership of Martin Luther King and his credo of non-violent civil disobedience.

Many acts of non-violent street protest were met by police using fire-hoses, vicious dogs, and batons to terrorize the marchers. This only shamed and horrified the rest of the nation watching on TV and actually quickened the formation of a political consensus to end American apartheid. That culminated in the passage of three major federal laws: the Public Accommodations Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

Meanwhile, something else was going on among Black Americans: not everybody believed in Dr. King’s non-violence, and not everybody was so sure about full participation in American life. Altogether, Black America remained ambivalent and anxious about all that. That full participation implied a challenge to compete on common ground. What if it didn’t work out? An alternate view emerged, personified first by Malcolm X, who called MLK an “Uncle Tom,” and then by the younger generation, Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers and others retailing various brands of Black Power, Black Nationalism, and Black Separatism. It amounted, for some, in declining that invitation to participate fully in American life. “No thanks. We’ll go our own way.” That sentiment has prevailed ever since.

So, the outcome to all that federal legislation of the 1960s turned out not to be the clear-cut victory (like World War Two) that liberals and progressives so breathlessly expected. The civil rights acts had some startling adverse consequences, too. They swept away much of the parallel service and professional economy that Blacks had constructed to get around all the old exclusions of everyday life. With that went a lot of the Black middle-class, the business owners especially. In its place, the liberal-and-progressive government provided “public assistance” — a self-reinforcing poverty generator that got ever worse, especially in big cities where de-industrialization started destroying the working-class job base beginning in the 1970s. The catch was that Black America did not ask for or demand an end to those poverty-generating “welfare” programs. Rather, they objected loudly to changing them. It was, of course and unfortunately, a form of addiction.

How did white liberals and progressives react to all that? Increasingly with shame, disappointment, consternation, and amazement that the civil rights campaign had worked out so imperfectly. Despite all their idealism, American life had not become a nirvana of equality, fraternity, and amity. In the most troubled places, the urban ghettos, the statistical markers of out-of-wedlock births, crime, drug use, failure in school were getting demonstrably worse year by year. It was embarrassing, confusing, galling to the sociology professors, the congressional staffers, the school boards, the media pundits, the arts community, the literati, the clergy… really everybody who had hoped to right all the wrongs of history in their lifetime.

The solution was multiculturalism and diversity. These credos declared that a society didn’t require a common culture, a consensus about behaviors, manners, and values. Multiculturalism and diversity (M & D) provided a rich repertory of rationales for moral grandstanding, not to mention countless well-paid jobs administering institutional policy, without requiring anything of anyone. But, contrary to good intentions once again, that didn’t work. It only increased friction between groups of people and induced more failure.

For example, the language problem. Black children in the centers of poverty were not learning how to speak English coherently. Their poor language skills were arguably a greater impediment to success in school, and in adult life later on, than the color of their skin. Yet the dogmas of M & D militated against fixing that. And, of course, it is still a deep taboo to broach the subject. Really, America, if you want to begin somewhere, require the teaching of language skills in the schools. If you continue to deny it, you are condemning people to failure.

Eventually, M & D evolved into the identity politics that turned the universities into lunatic asylums and finally infected the already badly fragmenting culture at large. The figments and phantoms that preoccupy “woke” revolutionaries are a product of that still-vibrant shame, disappointment, and hysteria that progressive America feels about the outcome of the long civil rights campaign. That is what all those Ivy League Maoists are acting out in the streets now, abetted by their elders in the Democratic Party establishment, the city halls, and the state houses.

The economic collapse underway is intensifying these quandaries, paradoxes, and predicaments because from now on life is going to get much more difficult for everybody in the USA. It will require everybody to get more serious about what actions they can take, what behaviors they can follow, in order to remain civilized. Do we really want it to become a fight over the table-scraps of history, or can we clear the phantoms out of our heads and play it straight for a change?

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

TRUMP & PENCE: STEP ASIDE FOR PROFESSIONALS

by Ralph Nader

Major changes in society can be accomplished by a fast-emerging, broad-based civic jolt so obvious and persuasive that it overwhelms the entrenched powers. The most urgent job is for people to organize to get Trump and Pence to step aside from their bungling, making-matters-worse mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic. The White House should let a professional pandemic control specialist with public health experience and an appreciation of science replace the current and ongoing Trump horror show.

Many Republican operatives watching the daily Trump virus spectacle are terrified by how the President fabricates, fantasizes, confuses, and endangers the country. As Trump lowers his and their poll numbers, Republicans would welcome such a replacement.

“We the People,” are seeing the failing Donald Trump over-riding his own scientists and paralyzing any federal leadership and coordination of state efforts, as he measures all moves by his delusional ego. The citizenry must quickly mount irresistible pressure for Trump and Pence to step aside. Let Trump focus on the November election, which is all he cares about anyway, apart from watching Fox News for hours each day, lying to the public and endlessly tweeting slanders and insults.

Trump is so cruel and out of touch that he is letting his henchman cut nursing home safety regulations, end health and safety protections for workers, consumers, and communities, and pursue the end of Obamacare by stripping 23 million Americans of their health insurance. Doing this in the middle of a worsening killer pandemic is sheer madness. We have a president at the helm of a careening ship of state acting worse than Captain Queeg.

Would any community tolerate, in Maureen Dowd’s words, such “chaos, cruelty, deception and incompetence,” in their local public safety officials?

To be sure, there have been thousands of articles, columns, editorials, and TV/radio reports of the grotesque delays, perverse actions, quackery, and faking over the grim realities by Trump and Pence. All this takes place against the backdrop of his blundering son-in-law who is overseeing and furthering corrupt corporate bailouts. But, inexplicably, reporters and columnists avoid the conclusions that should stem from their own convictions and writings. One exception is the Washington Post editorial in May 2020, calling for Trump and Pence to step aside and let people who know what they’re doing take the reins.

The country simply cannot wait until Inauguration Day, January 21, 2021. Every day the Trump virus spreads further, while its presidential enabler is making sure sick Americans are left unprotected, and workers are left unemployed. More and more innocents are paying the ultimate price for this public health and economic disaster.

The failed gambling czar, selected to be our fake president by the unelected Electoral College, crazily gives himself a “ten” rating, admits no mistakes, and refuses to learn from other nation’s comparative successes against the virus.

Putting health professionals in charge of the “war” against the Covid-19 pandemic has worked in Taiwan, New Zealand, Thailand, Uruguay, and Canada’s British Columbia and other countries with sane leadership. These countries are showing far, far superior life-saving results and fewer economic convulsions.

Mr. Trump, if you’re not going to resign for America’s sake, at the least, step aside for your own political campaign’s sake. A coordinated civic jolt and a laser-beam demand from the people can make you and the alarmed GOP realize you are not capable of doing the job that needs to be done. Of course, if Congress wasn’t a rubber stamp, our first branch of government could stop this lethal incompetence by mandating professional pandemic management.

For those doubters of this happening, remember the ringing statement by the demanding abolitionist Frederick Douglass – “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”. Trump is a paper mache figure who hides behind bluffs and snarls. A civic jolt can displace him much like the statutes of slavers.

Start your “step aside” demand by calling the White House opinion phone number 202-456-1111. Urge your friends to do the same. There is no time to delay.

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

FOUND OBJECT