MCT: Sunday, August 30, 2020

• Smoky Warm
• 689 Cases
• Hamburger Sunday
• School Street
• Fires Merging
• Ukiah West
• B Bank
• 1912 Stage
• Ballgame Over
• Grange Again
• Hofman v Hoffman
• Sawmill Rumor
• Ukiah Milling
• Court Date
• Brooktrails 1960
• Sign Proliferation
• Montgomery Ward
• Bullet Exchange
• Roller Furniture
• Deficient Plan
• Gualala Moon
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Heavy Phrasing
• Philbrick Contest
• Capitalism Amok
• Alliteration
• Failed State
• Eversole's Ukiah
• Good Thoughts
• Scare Word
• Capillary Attack
• People's Convention
• Found Object

VERY WARM, DRY AND SMOKY conditions will continue across much of interior northwest California through the upcoming week, though northerly winds will help bring clearer skies to most of Humboldt and Del Norte counties through Monday. Coastal clouds and fog will persist south of Cape Mendocino, while sunshine will prevail to the north of the cape through Tuesday. (NWS)

16 MORE COVID CASES in Mendocino County Saturday.

HAMBURGER SUNDAY at the Yorkville Market

On Sunday, August 30 the Yorkville Market will be making hamburgers, veggie burgers and portobello burgers with all the fixin's to order! Call in (707 894-9456) or come down and pick up the best burgers in town. You can eat outside on the patio or take them with you. Orders are on a first come first serve basis and there are a limited number. Don't forget to pick up a scoop of Cowlick's ice cream or a cold drink to accompany your burger on this hot weekend!

UKIAH SCHOOL STREET

AUGUST COMPLEX FIRE UPDATE

WILLOWS, Calif – Aug. 29, 2020 – The August Complex was initially 37 different fires on the Mendocino National Forest that started on August 17, 2020. Many have been contained or have merged to form larger fires. Currently, the complex is 215,588 acres and 18 percent contained. Planned suppression actions are detailed below. Actual acreage is subject to change as fire activity progresses throughout the day.

The Hull, Doe and Glade fires are still expected to join together in the coming days. The eastern and southern perimeter of the Doe fire (168,360 acres; 52 percent containment) are contained and remain in patrol status. On the Glade fire (20,633 acres; 0 percent contained), there is still activity in all directions, particularly on the northern perimeter. Crews are working to build containment line to the east and are conducting tactical burnout operations on the western perimeter as the fire approaches the M2 road. The Hull fire (9,303 acres; 5 percent contained) is expected to be improved on the southern end by the afternoon. As the fire advances towards structures, firefighters will provide structure protection within the Lee Logan Camp. The Tatham fire (10,679 acres; 9 percent contained) has increased in intensity and joined the Doe fire near the Keating Camp. Crews are working to contain the north end of the fire along the M2 road but are scouting alternate containment lines closer to the active fire perimeter. The Hopkins fire in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness has spread onto the ST where suppression actions are being conducted.

Weather conditions are expected to remain hot and dry, with triple digit heat predicted at lower elevations. The fire will continue to burn actively as the weather becomes warmer and dryer over the weekend. The anticipated uptick in fire activity will increase smoke production. This will result in poor air quality and make it difficult to fly aircraft supporting firefighters in suppression efforts. 

Mendocino National Forest officials updated area closure for the August Complex on Friday, Aug. 21, 2020. The Forest Order 08-20-10 and map are posted on the forest website: https://tinyurl.com/y4ln8ysr. 

A virtual community meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. pacific time on the Mendocino National Forest Facebook page, located at: www.facebook.com/MendocinoNF.

The most up to date information on the August Complex can be found on InciWeb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6983/.

US Forest Service Presser

UKIAH, VIEW WEST FROM COURTHOUSE

B IS FOR BANK

by Mark Scaramella

When we left off about Measure B — The Mendocino County “Mental Heath Treatment Act” — we were complaining about former Sheriff Tom Allman’s request to buy a gun safe for the Behavioral Health Regional Training Center using Measure B money.

No sooner had we posted that on our website than Mr. Allman replied: “The gun locker at the training center was put on the agenda at my request. It is simply a very secure locker where attendees (Peace Officers) at a training class can secure their weapons. Because we will be using real-life scenarios during the training, the gun lockers will prevent an attendee from bringing live ammunition into the classroom where we will be using simulated weapons. This is for safety and reduction in liability.”

We certainly agree that using real weapons and ammo during simulations would be unsafe. And we guess we agree that something or somebody has to “prevent an attendee from bringing live ammunition into the classroom.”

But that wasn’t our point. We objected to using Measure B funds to pay for the gun safe, not the necessity for it. If the cops need a gun safe, then they should pay for it, not Measure B. One cop we spoke to recently even argued that the gun safe was required by Measure B! I explained that I had read the full text of Measure B several times and there’s nothing in there about a gun safe.

Of course, the basic gun safe argument is that Measure B calls for the development of a “Regional Behavioral Health Training Facility” for “behavioral health professionals, public safety and other first responders,” and, so the argument goes, a gun safe is part of the mental health arsenal, so to speak. 

But that interpretation has to be read in the context of Measure B’s title: “Mental Health Treatment Act,” and there’s just no way that a law enforcement requirement like a gun safe should be paid out of Mental Health Treatment Act funds.

Which brings us to “B Is For Bank.”

We now have the Board of Supervisors spending $5 million for a Crisis Residential Treatment facility that could and should have been provided sooner and much cheaper by remodeling an existing house in Ukiah for less than $1 million. (Kinda like they’re doing with the Training Center, come to think of it.)

But no, Measure B has accumulated millions of dollars in sales tax revenues over the last nearly-three years and everybody involved with Measure B has been infected with a modern, legalized version of Willie Sutton’s, “I rob banks because that’s where the money is.” 

Whether it’s spending $5 million for a $1 million house or more than $8,000 for a gun safe, the mentality is the same: Let’s go to Measure B — that’s where the money is.

Back in April of 2019 CEO Angelo, referring to Measure B, declared, “This is a major project. Think of all the people that come in and all the people you have involved in something like a $50,000 kitchen. We are talking some $30 some million dollars; we are talking three services, one building, two buildings, three buildings — who knows? Under normal circumstances I think we should hire three or four people, whether they are contractors or consultants or county staff or whatever. But we are not doing that, we are doing as low-budget as we can. We want to use as much of this money for services and that's the right thing to do.”

Now that all those millions in Measure B money is accumulating, the CEO has reverted to “normal circumstances.” A few months after Angelo's “right thing to do” assertion, the County did exactly the opposite taking Angelo’s $50,000-kitchen approach, hiring a project manager with admin staff, an expensive consulting architectural firm, a construction manager, etc. and more to come, to build a gold-plated Crisis Residential Treatment Center right next door to Camille Schraeder’s existing offices.

Why, what a coincidence.

Instead of using “as much of this money for services,” they’re using as much of this money as they can for things other than services: overpriced facilities and gun safes, for example.

At last Wednesday’s Measure B meeting, the vote for the gun safe was predictable and anti-climactic. Former Sheriff Allman, reverting to cop mode, tried his best to cut off the Committee’s usual rambling discussion, insisting that the gun safe was absolutely necessary and calling for a vote right away. 

The gun safe was quickly approved 7-2, with Mental Health Director Jenine Miller saying she wanted more info before she could vote for it and Committee Chair Donna Moschetti saying, correctly, but in her casual “just my opinion” way, that each organization wanting something in the facility should pay for it themselves, not Measure B. But by then, the seven others had already voted for it and her point was moot.

In other “because that’s where the money is” Measure B news, the Supervisors are being asked to spend $1.4 million Measure B dollars for Item 5j on next week’s Board agenda “to provide community education; Awareness, And Support Services to a contracted agency.” Which is a lotta blah-blah for the dough, but clarity being rare in Mendocino County, especially when tax money is up for grabs, the $1.4 will be carefully squandered, er, spent.

A couple months ago CEO Angelo got the Measure B committee to approve giving $1 million to the Community Foundation to hand out to local non-profits for comparably vague mental health services, but the Foundation wisely declined. So now that proposal has morphed into handing $1.4 million more dollars directly to Camille Schraeder (aka “a contracted agency”) for more unaccountable and ill-defined “services,” which is what the original $1 million was thinly disguised for in the first place. Now the CEO isn’t even bothering with the Foundation scam.

On the positive side, there are a couple of lesser but supportable proposals for Measure B dollars which also appear on the Supervisors Agenda for Tuesday:

Item 5f: “$1.3 million … to Purchase and Renovate or Build Permanent Supportive Housing for Individuals on the Coast that are Homeless, Chronically Homeless, or at Risk of Chronic Homelessness Who have a Mental Health Condition” — which is more more realistic since it’s not being handed over to the Sacramento architect (yet) with all the other bells and whistles they’re building for the Schraeders.

And Item 5j: “Discussion And Possible Action Including Approval Of $340,000 Per Year Over A Four Year Period Of Measure B Service Funds To Fund Three Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist Positions For A Pilot Mobile Crisis Program.”

There’s nothing in the documentation so far explaining how they came up with the $340k number nor why they’re only paying for three mental health rehabilitation specialist positions.

According to an agenda attachment: “Mobile Crisis Team – This recommendation proposes a pilot program that would shift from a Mobile Outreach and Prevention Services to a Mobile Crisis Team that would provide three Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialists to respond and ride along with the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. Data is available that shows these teams can be very effective and supportive for the individual involved in a mental health crisis. The collaboration recommends that Measure B allocate Three Hundred Forty Thousand Dollars ($340,000) per year for 4 years to fund three Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist for the Mobile Crisis Team program. We also recommend that outcome statics [sic, statistics] are tracked and reported, so that information can be provided on the success of this program.”

We had been led to believe that this program, currently being developed by Sheriff Matt Kendall, not the Mental Health department, would also pay for the applicable portion of law enforcement that the rehab specialist would “ride along” with. This crisis team idea is an important service that will not only help everyone involved from clients, to cops, to mental health services workers, to the public at large, but will also reduce hazardous cop-crazy person interactions. But, as with everything else related to Measusre B it is off to a bumpy start.

Neither former Sheriff Allman nor current Sheriff Kendall seem to have realized that they need to get their hands on that Measure B money for the “crisis team” pretty soon (like Allman did with the gun safe). Otherwise, it’ll all get gobbled up by the Schraders and the consultants and the architects and all the rest of CEO Angelo’s $50,000-kitchen approach and accompanying “normal circumstances” costs.

MILLER’S STAGE, 1912

I HAVE ALWAYS FELT that my job was to be crazier than what I see. That's what differentiates me from other comics. That is, that I am crazier than what I see… Ballgame over. I can't do it anymore.

— Lewis Black

FORT BRAGG GRANGE IS THE FORT BRAGG GRANGE AGAIN

California State Grange / Mendocino County Court Judgment

Brothers and Sisters,

I am pleased to report that the Mendocino County Superior Court has granted summary judgment to the Grange on all claims in the lawsuit to recover control of Fort Bragg Grange No. 672’s property from a local Guild group that wrongfully has held it since 2017.

This ruling represents the complete vindication of the Order and the unequivocal application of its rules to Subordinate Granges and the property they hold.

The order is available here: 2020 Fort Bragg Grange MSJ Decision <https://sable.madmimi.com/c/8978…>

In particular, the summary judgment order rewards the perseverance of Fort Bragg Grange’s members, who rejected the efforts of the Guild’s leaders to appropriate its property, including when those Guild-affiliated individuals broke into the Fort Bragg Grange Hall with crowbars to change the locks and take the building away from the membership.

Despite this, Fort Bragg Grange’s members kept their faith in the Grange and continued the good work that Fort Bragg Grange has done for decades, all while meeting in members’ living rooms and local restaurants while they were wrongfully locked out of their Hall.

Please join me in congratulating Fort Bragg Grange and its members in this wonderful result!

Just like the California Court of Appeal’s decision in the cases against the California Guild and Robert McFarland (available here -- National Grange Appeals Court Decision <https://sable.madmimi.com/c/8978…>), the Mendocino County court has unequivocally held that Grange rules have meaning and are binding under California law.

I hope that everybody reading this who is involved with a local Guild group that controls Subordinate Grange property reads the attached orders in full and carefully considers what they mean.

These orders make clear that it is long past time that we put the court battles behind us. The California State Grange has filed a number of lawsuits against other local Guild groups that, just like in the Fort Bragg Grange case, hold Subordinate Grange property following the revocation of the Subordinate Grange’s Charter.

As the ruling in the Fort Bragg Grange case shows, the courts will enforce the rules of the Order and require that the property be returned to the California State Grange.

But rather than litigating every single case to final judgment (with the attendant hard feelings and potential personal liability of the individuals that diverted Grange property), I would much rather see these disputes resolved in a fraternal manner.

There is a process under the Digest for any Subordinate Grange that has had its Charter revoked to apply to have it restored so that it can return to good standing in the Order. That option remains open whether a lawsuit has been filed or not.

Alternatively, a number of local groups already have returned the Subordinate Grange property they held to the California State Grange and the lawsuits against them have been dismissed.

The California State Grange is going to attempt to reorganize those Subordinate Granges as it is required to do under the Digest. Please contact me or CSG Secretary Lillian Booth if you would like to discuss either option.

The email for the CA State Grange is lbooth@castategrange.org . 

Please email them if you care.

HOFMAN V HOFFMAN

• 

• 

IT WAS RUMORED late last night that a meeting was held in Fort Bragg yesterday attended by owners of various sawmill companies in Mendocino County, and that those present were C. J. Wood, the president of the Caspar Lumber Company; Ralph M. Rounds, president of Rockport Lumber Company; Otis Johnson, president of Union Lumber Company; E. O. Holter, vice-president of Union Lumber Co., and Fred Perkins, president of the Philo Lumber Co., and also if other meetings are necessary, the other mill owners in Mendocino County will be invited.

Fort Bragg Advocate, September 1, 1943

UKIAH MILLING, SO. STATE STREET

A NAVARRO RESIDENT WRITES:

Historical election results today in the deep end drama zone. Rancho Navarro residents voted to veto the association rules. What happens next? No one knows for sure, but the carpet baggers showed up in force mos def. Legal concerns continue, though, as the one man who sold himself as the grand arbiter of all association woes is now suing the board president for defamation of character. Court date is set for Sept 17 in Fort Bragg. Good luck Mr. Morita. We all hope you represent yourself with your dingle ball headpiece on. 

—Kirk Vodopals

BROOKTRAILS, 1960

TOO MANY SIGNS

Editor:

I cannot understand the sudden proliferation of signs going up along Highway 1. Specifically I am talking about the entrance area across from Gualala Point Park, heading north.

Of course, signs clutter all of our Highway 1 and the entrance to Gualala as well. A few weeks ago a very large, blue sign pointing out that the driver is entering the Gualala River watershed appeared. Now more signs in that same area advise travelers of road work ahead and another that bikes share the road.

The one sign advising us of road work ahead is helpful (and temporary), but the others are not and simply obfuscate our lovely scenic views. They are a waste of money, unhelpful, and ugly.

One sign that might be helpful, the one that warned of deer crossings, came down in last year’s winter storms — never to be replaced by Caltrans!

Of course now it would do no good as when traveling on the road no one can possibly process all these advisories, thereby defeating any purpose they may have had in the first place.

Nancy Spille

Gualala

MONTGOMERY WARD, SCHOOL STREET, UKIAH, 1936

CLOSE YOUR DOORS & GATES

At approximately 5:00 Saturday morning in Mendocino County, a Redwood Valley man sleeping in his trailer was awoken by two intruders claiming to be law enforcement. Out of concern for his safety, the man brandished a firearm, the intruders fled firing their weapons at the trailer five times before disappearing into the darkness.

Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office’s Public Information Officer Captain Greg Van Patten said the incident occurred within the 9000 Block of Laughlin Way in Redwood Valley. He described the area as having multiple marijuana grows and suspected the attempted robbery was related to cultivation. The trailer was located on marijuana grow, Captain Van Patten said, and the man fell asleep with the door ajar and a screen door closed for circulation throughout the night.

Captain Van Patten said the victim woke up to two individuals bursting through the screen door claiming to be law enforcement saying he needed to evacuate because of a fire. At this point, Captain Van Patten said the occupant of the trailer brandished a firearm and the intruders fled the trailer.

Captain Van Patten said multiple handgun casings were found at the scene and there appeared to be at least one bullet hole in the trailer itself resulting from the firefight. After the exchange of bullets, Captain Van Patten said the trailer occupant reported the intruders fled “into the darkness”.

At this point in the investigation, Captain Van Patten said it is unclear how the intruders accessed the property but surmised they entered the property on foot and fled to a vehicle parked nearby.

Captain Van Patten asks that if any members of the Mendocino County public have any information about this occurrence to please contact Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office dispatch at (707)463-4086.

ROLLER FURNITURE, UKIAH

FROM SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: 

We recently requested support from the state to align local restrictions with actual data.

Today, we received a color coding scheme which continues to force businesses which are not the cause of local spread to stay closed or reduced.

With all due respect, this plan is deficient.

Don't waste your time writing to the BOS. We don't have authority to remove state restrictions or the liability inherent in violation.

Governor Newsom: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/

Senator McGuire: https://sd02.senate.ca.gov/contact

Assemblymember Wood: https://a02.asmdc.org

GUALALA HOLY NIGHTS

ED NOTES

THE PREMATURE DEATH from cancer of an actor named Chadwick Boseman, only 43, was all over the news today and, as one more indication that the culture has passed me by, I'd never heard of him. 

I HAD HEARD of nitrous oxide — I knew an adventurous dentist back in the happy haze day who occasionally had "nitrous parties" — but it was recent news to me that young people snort it out of those little canisters used in whipped cream dispensers. A facebook photo showed a Covelo neighborhood clean-up crew posed with a whole pile of the one-inch metal things. Years ago, presiding loosely over a collection of juvenile delinquents, I was awakened one night by a jostling line of them at the gasoline tank of my car. It took me a while to grasp that they were sniffing the fumes from the tank, and trying to dip pieces of cloth in it to ensure the destruction of even more brain cells. 

ANN COULTER is ubiquitous on Fox News, where ignorance and viciousness know no bounds. She delivers her fascist opinions through a perpetual grin on her horsey face like she's the most amusing thing ever. Yesterday, giddy with excitement at the rightwing's new hero, that teen pudge of a Kenosha shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse, Coulter tweeted, "I want him as my president." Which Twitter deleted. Which, to my mind, is a lot worse, a lot more ominous than anything a natural nazi like Coulter might say.

NOT to be too boring on the subject, but why do we get signers grimacing and doing yoga contortions next to public officials on television when we have closed captioning designed especially for the hearing impaired? Remove the signers and see if anybody but them complains.

THE MASS HOUSE ARREST we suffer, or enjoy, these days is an opportunity for us book readers to get to the long stuff, and here's a couple of recommends for fellow captives: "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence" by Harlow Giles Unger. Without Paine's brilliant agitation there might not have been an American Revolution. George Washington himself said Paine's Rights of Man pamphlet was crucial to the rebellion. An admirable fellow in every way, Paine's Common Sense was a little too sensible for the times, and probably still is among the more primitive sectors of the God-fearing, but the old boy never gave an inch although it nearly cost him his life when the Jacobins simultaneously celebrated him and darn near killed him when Robispierre decided that Paine was a monarchist spy.

SIMILAR to Paine in steadfastness, George Orwell is still controversial on the left. Why? The arguments are interestingly compiled, along with new biographical information, new to me anyway, in "Orwell: A Man of Our Time" by Richard Bradford. My late friend Alexander Cockburn would jump my bones whenever an Orwell quote appeared in the ava, and if I really wanted to get Cockburn fired up, I'd cite ‘Homage To Catalonia’ as the only honest book I'd read on the Spanish Civil War. Always a generous soul, and never a man to hold a grudge, he'd concede that Orwell's literary essays were indisputably great but if he'd lived, Orwell would have wound up a Tory. This book is a good summary of the arguments, plus interesting contemporary parallels with ‘1984,’ ‘Animal Farm’ and his essays, along with biographical sketches Orwell fans will find interesting. 

I'VE JUST FINISHED, "Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945" by Max Hastings and highly recommend it as the most interesting history of the period I've read. Replete with anecdotes from the people suffering the war's multiplicity of effects, Hastings' history is that rare history you can't put down.

HASTINGS' "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975" I've recommended before as the best account of that horrendous interlude you'll read.

CATCH OF THE DAY, August 29, 2020

DANIEL AVILA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MICHAEL BASKYS, Willits. DUI.

DREW ERSLAND, Ukiah. County parole violation.

JOSEPH FITZGERALD, Clearlake/Redwood Valley. Narcotic-controlled substance for sale.

EUGENE HARRIS, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

DENISE HLUCHY, Laytonville. DUI-alcohol&drugs, no license.

DANIEL HOLMES JR., Ukiah. Domestic battery, controlled substance, unlawful possession/use of tear gas as weapon, probation revocation.

GERALD JACKSON, Healdsburg/Ukiah. DUI.

NOLAN LAWSON JR., Ukiah. Controlled substance, false ID, disobeying court order.

JOSEPH PARRISH, Windsor/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

JASON RICHISON, Ukiah. Fugitive from justice, controlled substance, failure to register as sex offender with prior, paraphernalia.

ALLISON STROUT, Clearlake/Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

JAMES TAULBEE, Odessa, Texas/Mendocino. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SALVADOR VARGAS-OCHOA, Madera/Ukiah. DUI, suspended license.

KENNETH WHIPPLE, Covelo. DUI-alcohol&drugs, assault weapon, felon-addict with firearm, under influence with firearm, silencer, ammo possession by prohibited person, concealed weapon in vehicle with prior.

IT’S HARD TO PARODY JERRY

AVA Gang,

As a 20+ year subscriber to the AVA I feel I have every right to tell you how to better publish your paper. Therefore, I hereby announce the first annual "write a letter to the editor like Jerry Philbrick from Comptche (Boonville? Murder Mountain?) Contest!" Grand Pri will be a late 1980s Earth First limited-edition Subaru station wagon with extras including AM/FM stereo, air conditioning, a copy of Mao's Little Red Book in the glove compartment and a pipe bomb under the driver's seat. Mike Sweeney will award the grand prize in downtown Oakland. I will start the contest off with my best Philbrick letter:

Editor,

I was walking down the sidewalk the other day thinking about how many pussies Donald Trump has grabbed and if he finally had sex with his daughter when a gosh darn Democrat came walking my way. I knew he was a Democrat because he had a hypodermic needle sticking out of his eye. I reached for my Trump-lovin’ gun (firearm, not penis) but I tripped on a crack on the sidewalk because the Democrats who run California now have turned it into the devil's headquarters on earth and can't even fix the damn sidewalks. The Democrat stood over me, winked and said, "Quiet, I'm with the deep state. I’m Q. I'm undercover." Well, hell yeah! Undercover science-hatin’ Republican right here in Boonville! I guess it's safe to take the ultraviolet light out of my ass now! Then I woke up.

I'm so angry at those entire damn Democrats. Ruination of my Q Deep State dream! Don't stinky Democrats know Joe Biden don't care about the working man like Donald Trump does? Trump can pretend to drive a Mack truck and he can pretend to shovel coal, after all. All cities should be made Republican-controlled overnight! Do it by force if need be! Shoot people who who don't think like I do! Kill people who don't think like I do! I'm glad Trump is building a wall at the border to stop the flow of drugs because I did all the cocaine already. That's why I'm so angry! No more cocaine! Obey the laws or be arrested or be shot or conversely obey the laws and be arrested or shot! Either way!

Oh how I hate Nancy Pelosi! When I googled her name plus the word "nude" nothing comes up. Now Malania Trump has the word "nude," that's a red-hot democracy drifting towards heavenly fascism!

Is there a chance I'll ever have a conversion experience like of those of say John Wesley at Aldersgate? Maybe some kind of blinding light will signal to me that I just might be wrong about Donald Trump? Never!

God bless Donald Trump, Jerry Philbrick, Comptche or Boonville? Or Murder Mountain?

So what do you say? Are you down for a Jerry Philbrick contest?

A note to Jerry: Yeah, bro, I know Joe Biden sucks. All those credit card company banks aren't in Delaware just because — you know. But Donald Trump sucks in way too many ways to bother to mention. And those are my realistic choices, Jerry: Trump or Biden. Wish you were f-ing angry with that. Good thing your old Jerry, ’cause the younger of us are doomed. Might as well enjoy the ride.

Ralph Coon

Los Angeles

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Until my freshman year of college I never knew there was such a thing as alliteration. Then poetry professor, Dr George pointed out the following:

The Lady Of The Lake. XXXI. A various scene the clansmen made: Some sat, some stood, some slowly strayed; But most, with mantles folded round, Were couched to rest upon the ground, Scarce to be known by curious eye From the deep heather where they lie, So well was matched the tartan screen With heath-bell dark and brackens green; Unless where, here and there, a blade Or lances point a glimmer made, Like glow-worm twinkling through the shade. But when, advancing through the gloom, They saw the Chieftains eagle plume, Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide. Shook the steep mountains steady side. Thrice it arose, and lake and fell Three times returned the martial yell; It died upon Bochastles plain, And Silence claimed her evening reign.

TODAY, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets. The three richest Americans have more money than the poorest 160 million of their countrymen. Fully a fifth of American households have zero or negative net worth, a figure that rises to 37 percent for black families. The median wealth of black households is a tenth that of whites. The vast majority of Americans — white, black, and brown — are two paychecks removed from bankruptcy. Though living in a nation that celebrates itself as the wealthiest in history, most Americans live on a high wire, with no safety net to brace a fall.

With the COVID crisis, 40 million Americans lost their jobs, and 3.3 million businesses shut down, including 41 percent of all black-owned enterprises. Black Americans, who significantly outnumber whites in federal prisons despite being but 13 percent of the population, are suffering shockingly high rates of morbidity and mortality, dying at nearly three times the rate of white Americans. The cardinal rule of American social policy — don’t let any ethnic group get below the blacks, or allow anyone to suffer more indignities — rang true even in a pandemic, as if the virus was taking its cues from American history.

COVID-19 didn’t lay America low; it simply revealed what had long been forsaken. As the crisis unfolded, with another American dying every minute of every day, a country that once turned out fighter planes by the hour could not manage to produce the paper masks or cotton swabs essential for tracking the disease. The nation that defeated smallpox and polio, and led the world for generations in medical innovation and discovery, was reduced to a laughing stock as a buffoon of a president advocated the use of household disinfectants as a treatment for a disease that intellectually he could not begin to understand.

As a number of countries moved expeditiously to contain the virus, the United States stumbled along in denial, as if willfully blind. With less than four percent of the global population, the U.S. soon accounted for more than a fifth of COVID deaths. The percentage of American victims of the disease who died was six times the global average. Achieving the world’s highest rate of morbidity and mortality provoked not shame, but only further lies, scapegoating, and boasts of miracle cures as dubious as the claims of a carnival barker, a grifter on the make. 

— Wade Davis

EVERSOLE’S, UKIAH

THINK GOOD THOUGHTS

To the Editor:

Peace and Love was the slogan of my teenage youth.

The late 1960’s was a very troubled time in the United States. I was a teenager and the Hippie movement was born. Mendocino County became an important part of that movement. In addition the Viet Nam War was happening, a misadventure of foolish national leadership. Young people were being drafted and ground up in the war machine, and we were rebelling at the injustice of old men, some women, and a codre of industrialists who had either forgotten or were simply ignoring the horrors of war just a few decades after World War Two!

The musical Hair was shaking up Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater, and soon moved to Broadway. It’s songs – “Aquarius,” “I Got Life” and “Good Morning Starshine” – came to defining the spirit of the movement along with P. F. Sloan’s song “Eve of Destruction”.

Harvard University professor, Richard Alpert, took LSD went to India and became Ram Dass. He wrote the iconic book, Be Here Now and remained an important spiritual guide up through his death last year in 2019. S.F. rock group It’s A Beautiful Day produced two albums that also helped define the times. Their song “The Dolphins” is the one I always think of. “This old world’s just got to change. It just can’t stay the way it’s been.” One of the groups’ vocalists and guitar players, Hal Wagenet, lives right here in Willits.

The 60’s was a time when many people recognized that the U.S. (and much of the world as a result) was going in the wrong direction, one that would likely lead to greater suffering and destruction. Bad leadership, kind of like now. There were survival systems revived during that time. In San Francisco there were “communes”, each one devoted to a different aspect of need. I remember going once a week to the bulk food commune to pick up grains and other dry- goods. There was also the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic on Haight St, open to all who couldn’t afford to go to a regular doctor for good medical help. Finding ways to support each other at low financial cost became important.

It was around this time that Mendocino and Humboldt Counties were becoming the destinations for people who wanted to get out of urban areas and experiment with ways to rethink their lives. Mostly baby-boomer dropouts, often not welcome by the “old-timers” in these rural counties, these seekers and rebels tried different ways to live.

The Whole Earth Catalogue became the shopping guide for this generation. Buckminster Fuller’s research and designs for dome construction became an area of interest since these affordable structures were stable and could be more energy efficient. Organically grown food became a staple. Drugs – some perceived as beneficial, others very destructive – became part of the culture for many.

As it happened, many local businessmen made a lot of money subdividing their logged-over land and fallow ranches, selling them off to urban refugees. Every town in our area is surrounded by these subdivisions. The “underground economy” of marijuana became one of our area’s largest sources of revenue despite the fact that it was illegal. That’s something we’re still trying to come to terms with.

Today the deadly Corona-19 virus is changing the world. Our nation has become Number One in virus transmission and deaths because of lack of federal leadership. Additionally, our economy is collapsing – again. Just 13 years ago in 2007 we suffered a major financial and social melt-down because of federal “deregulation” of financial markets and institutions. Millions of people lost their homes and savings then, and it’s happening again.

A couple of years ago substantial tax cuts were implemented perpetually for the super-wealthy, but the rest of us received only short-term benefits that will soon come to an end. Now, the President is floating the idea of “Payroll Tax Cuts.” Payroll Taxes primarily fund Social Security and Medicare. In addition they help fund Unemployment Insurance. When Payroll Taxes are cut, the very social safety net that most Americans depend on is in jeopardy. If you’re super-wealthy you’ll be fine. It’s everyone else that will feel the hurt.

As I go on my morning walk with a mask hanging around my neck, my morning meditation is still “Peace and Love.” Fortunately, things can and often do improve. If that is your goal, do as Esther Hicks recommended and “Reach for the thought that feels better.” It’s a comforting thing you can learn to do.

Bill Barksdale

Willits

THE DEMOCRATS are not matching Trump’s own or his Party’s propaganda. In 2004, author, and former prominent Republican political analyst Kevin Phillips, argued that the Democrats go for the capillaries while the GOP goes for the jugular. By not going full force against dictator Trump, the Democrats are not overwhelmingly countering the most criminally, unconstitutionally culpable, vulnerable, and dislikable president in US history. With just over two months until the November 3rd election, a strong, independent, civic drive to oppose and vote out Trump/Pence is required. Standing on the sidelines hoping that the Democrats will retire the failed gambling czar didn’t work in 2016 and it won’t work in 2020 either. 

— Ralph Nader

commondreams.org/views/2020/08/29/democrats-must-demolish-trumps-delusional-law-breaking-dystopia

THE PEOPLE'S CONVENTION IS HERE! 

Today at 4 pm ET / 1 pm PT, thousands of people from all walks of life will gather to discuss the state of the nation and forming a major new party in America! 

Due to overwhelming demand, The People's Convention will be a half-day event: 4 - 9:30 pm ET. Read our press release below for much more on the program and new speakers, including Gov. Jesse Ventura.

At the conclusion of the convention, we will hold a historic vote: “Do we commit to forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence in 2021?”

Download the People's Party App for free from our Convention website and get ready to cast your vote. Watch the Convention on our YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and on The Jimmy Dore Show channel. Míralo en español aquí.

For every Black and Brown life taken by systemic racism, for every loved one who died because they couldn't afford treatment, for every child who has to ration food, for every young person who couldn't afford college, for every family whose home was set ablaze by a burning planet, today is about YOU. Today working people take the driver's seat in this country. Today we say we are renegotiating this social contract and we are not taking no for an answer. Today one world ends and another begins.

See you at the Convention!

Nick Brana
National Coordinator
Movement for a People's Party

FOUND OBJECT