MCT: Friday, September 18, 2020

• Rain North
• 822 Cases
• Modest Arky
• Talmage Sluggers
• Farmers' Market
• Fair Fundraiser
• Homeless Housing
• Mister Pet
• Herd Immunity
• Sample Ballots
• Vaccine Delivery
• Cannabis Surge
• $33 Million
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Alienated Voter
• Election Problem
• Stimulus Tour
• Old Willits
• Democracy Whimper
• Ukiah Playland
• Stalking Tommy
• Ukiah Stables
• Cop Attack
• Horse Team
• Landlord Pres
• Bark Camp
• American Demise
• Rodeo Parade
• Cuties
• Old Ukiah
• McGourty Endorsements
• Found Object

LIGHT RAIN is likely today north of Cape Mendocino. Dry weather and seasonably warm temperatures will return this weekend and last through much of next week before the next chance of rain towards the end of the week. (NWS)

FIVE MORE COVID CASES in Mendo on Thursday. Total now at 822 but the number in isolation has dropped from 66 to 49 in one day. 

MENDOCINO COUNTY’S ARKY VAUGHAN, THE MOST MODEST OF ALL STARS

by Tom Hine

Arky Vaughan might be the most famous Potter Valley resident ever, and he’s not famous at all. Ask the next hundred people you meet about Arky Vaughan and you’ll get a whole lot of blank stares in response.

And that’s just how Arky would’ve liked it. He was a quiet man who took pains not to bring attention to himself, never sought the limelight and remained modest and private his entire life.

And you say “A modest Potter Valley rancher who declined the spotlight? What about it? Aren’t all Potter Valley ranchers quiet and modest? Anybody ever heard of one who demanded attention, or hoped to star in a Hollywood movie about himself?

Probably not. Then again, if ever there was a rancher who had a right to brag it was Arky Vaughan, though he would have cut his tongue out first.

Arky Vaughan lived in Potter Valley and was one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived. (Through the past 120 years there have been an awful lot of baseball players.) Arky’s in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame and is among a handful of the best shortstops ever, up there with Honus Wagner, Derek Jeter, Cal Ripken Jr. and Ozzie Smith.

Arky was the best shortstop of the 1930s and may have been the best ballplayer. He was among the brightest stars on All Star teams of that decade, utterly feared as a hitter. His defensive skills took longer to appreciate, but today’s advanced metrics suggest he was well above average playing the toughest position on the diamond.

How do I know all this? I just finished “ARKY: The Baseball Life of Joseph Floyd ‘Arky’ Vaughan” by Frank Garland, a meticulously researched biography of one of Mendocino County’s forgotten heroes.

The book, as promised by the title, dives deep into Vaughan’s athletic skills, which were mighty. There seems little point in my spitting up a blur of statistics, but please allow a few: 

Career .318 batting average, a season in which he hit .385, still the highest for a shortstop in National League history, an All Star his first nine seasons. For more stats and details read the book or go to google.

Bottom Line: He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1985, and The Ukiah Daily Journal’s own All Star sports editor, Glenn Erickson, wrote up a big story in the next day’s paper. I’d like to read it again.

So Arky Vaughan is now in Cooperstown but every offseason he was here, and some of his grandkids still are. Old-time locals recalled him as a hardworking cowboy who loved his horses and his cattle and the semi-solitary outdoor life of hunting and fishing.

Playing most of his career in Pittsburgh with the Pirates he never sought out reporters and in fact all but shunned them. He was never considered quotable and didn’t have a ready supply of quips or colorful stories to contribute to his celebrity image. He was sufficiently modest that when the ballgame was over he had his brother stand outside Forbes Field to sign autographs for adoring fans. Few people knew of the impersonation and there is no surviving information on what Robert Vaughan experienced in his role producing counterfeit signatures.

Later the Vaughan family, including wife Margaret, three daughters and a son, moved to Ukiah and lived on School Street. He liked playing card games, and when he visited a downtown cigar store (the long-gone Hub on West Standley Street?) he stood quietly to the side until asked to take a chair and join the game.

Everyone knew he was famous but Arky.

By then he played for Brooklyn, and to show how proud he was of his association with the team, he carefully removed all the telltale “Dodgers” insignia from the new blue jacket so as not to draw attention to himself. Modest indeed.

(NOTE: While with the Dodgers, Vaughan had a teammate named Dolph Camilli who played first base, which meant half the Brooklyn infield was made up of players from two of the smallest towns in remote Mendocino County.)

He loved to hunt and fish so perhaps there is irony mingled with the tragedy of him drowning in 1952 at Lost Lake near Eaglesville, CA., while fishing with a buddy. Arky Vaughan was 40 years old.

His oldest daughter, Patricia, who lived in Ukiah, represented the family at ceremonies for his induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

“He never sought fame or glory. He played baseball…the way he lived, with all his heart and soul and to the best of his ability. And in his induction into the Hall of Fame today the fame and glory he never sought are his forever.” 

Frank Garland’s “ARKY: The baseball life of Joseph Floyd ‘Arky’ Vaughan” is published by McFarland & Co., Jefferson, NC. Get a copy at the Mendocino Book Company or online.

TALMAGE SLUGGERS HOSPITAL TEAM, 1947

ONLY TWO MARKETS LEFT in the season! Join us Friday from 4-6 at Disco Ranch for the Boonville Farmers' Market. Stock up on local organic olive oil, and meat and enjoy the flavors of summer produce. We're a small group but have a lot to offer! mushrooms, eggs, greens, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, cukes and more!

See you there!

EBT and credit cards accepted.

Interested in managing the market next year? Let's talk!

Lama aforestperson@gmail.com

MENDOCINO COUNTY AWARDED $9.6 MILLION FOR HOMELESS HOUSING

Post Date: 09/17/2020 12:46 PM

Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday announced Mendocino County received $9,669,500 in the first round of awards for Homekey, California’s innovative $600 million program to purchase and rehabilitate housing, including hotels, motels, vacant apartment buildings and other properties, and convert them into permanent, long-term housing for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.

The County is in negotiations to purchase a motel on Orchard Ave. in Ukiah, California. Following purchase, the County intends to utilize the motel to provide transitional housing for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. All rooms will remain in their initial configuration as studio-style units. While the initial purpose of the facility will be transitional housing, the County plans to upgrade at least 50% of the facility into permanent housing within ten years of acquisition. Overall, the County aspires to offer rooms for a variety of populations at risk of or experiencing homelessness such as persons experiencing severe mental illness, veterans, seniors, CalWorks eligible families, families involved in Child Welfare Services, people with complex medical conditions, and people with permanent supportive housing vouchers. Approximately eight rooms will be set aside as “flex” rooms, able to serve the target populations listed above, or others in need such as victims of domestic violence, Adult Protective Services clients, and others.

This grant award would not be possible without the support, expertise and collaboration of the City of Ukiah, Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care, Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation (RCHDC) and LACO Associates. 

Commenting on the award, Board of Supervisors Chair John Haschack stated, “I am very excited that Mendocino County has received the Homekey award of $9.6 million. This will allow us to purchase needed housing facilities for our vulnerable residents that are homeless, veterans, CalWorks recipients, seniors and people suffering from mental illness. Our people as well as our communities will benefit from this project.”

“Senator McGuire and Assemblyman Wood continue to be Mendocino County’s biggest champions. $9.6M in Project Homekey funding is a tremendous victory for our rural community. This investment in Mendocino County will positively impact hundreds of lives and we look forward to working with our local and state partners to mitigate this housing crisis in our community,” stated Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer Carmel Angelo.

Governor Newsom announced Homekey in June, and in July made $600 million in funding available. Of that, $550 million will provided to cities and counties by California’s direct allocation of the federal Coronavirus Aid Relief Funds, with an additional $50 million provided by the state to supplement the acquisition and provide initial operating funds. Awards will be announced on a weekly basis through October 2020. To learn more about the Homekey funded projects, please visit bcsh.ca.gov/homekey.

---

ms notes: This is one of three sites/motels discussed in closed session back in mid-August. It’s the Best Western Orchard Inn motel two doors down from the Schraeders current facility on Orchard Avenue. The current owner is listed as Naresh Patel / Nam Hospitality LLC. They apparently own several Ukiah area motels. But the available records are sparse. It’s not clear if the $9.6 million is the price to be paid for the unit or if it’s the grant amount and some of the money could be for other units, such as the other two motels discussed last month in closed session. Whichever Ukiah realtor is involved stands to make a nice nickel off the sale. 

ART PHOTOGRAPHY by Mark Scaramella

• 

• 

2020 PUBLIC HEALTH?

The mentality
Some call herd immunity
Lets its weakest die.

— Jim Luther

SAMPLE BALLOTS go out on September 24th. If you do not get a sample ballot by early next week, call the Elections Office (234-6819) to verify that you are registered and that they have your correct address. If you want to track your ballot, you can register at the following site: wheresmyballot.sos.ca.gov

Kathleen McKenna, Boonville precint volunteer

HERE’S THE LONG ANTICIPATED AGENDA ITEM Supervisor Williams mentioned Thursday that would be on the Board’s agenda for next Tuesday regarding what to do with the County’s failed pot permit program:

Item 6b: Discussion and Possible Action Including Direction to Staff on Cannabis Cultivation Permitting Priorities Including, but Not Limited to: County Counsel Analysis of State CEQA request, Digital Portal, Cost Recovery for Work Outside of Application Scope, Interagency Biologist Agreement, Publication of Cannabis Cultivation Guide, Plan for Staffing Increase or Consultant RFP Request for Proposal (RFP), Equity Grant Program Update, Notices to Correct Applications, Request Provisional License Extension from California Department of Food and Agriculture, and Schedule Special Board of Supervisors Meeting for Cannabis Cultivation Phase 3 Zoning Table and Permitting Model
(Sponsor: Cannabis Ad Hoc Committee (Supervisors Haschak and Williams)) 

Recommended Action:
Direct County Counsel to opine on whether County has already met the requirements of CEQA in regards to Cannabis Cultivation permitting And whether State's demand for “Appendix G” is a legally supported county obligation and report back within 30 days; 2) Direct the Executive Office and Planning and Building Services to engage with Information Technology consultant to develop a fully digital submission portal capable of instantaneously generating accurate status reports for staff, applicants and the public; 3) Direct Planning and Building Services to implement cost recovery for staff time allocated to cannabis cultivation development discussions beyond existing application scope; 4) Direct Planning and Building Services to engage in an interagency agreement with California Department of Fish and Wildlife for a biologist to assist with Sensitive Species and Habitat Review; 5) Direct Planning and Building to publish and maintain a Cannabis Cultivation Guide, including flow chart, on website; 6) Direct Planning and Building Services to develop a staffing plan to complete processing of Cannabis Cultivation applications within six months or an RFP for outside contractor if county lacks feasibility to perform; 7) Direct Cannabis Program Manager to prepare Equity Grant Program plan presentation; 8) Direct Planning and Building to generate Notices of Correction and establish processing priorities; 9) Direct Executive Office to add Provisional License extension to legislative platform and Direct ad-hoc to engage with RCRC, Assemblymember Wood and Senator McGuire for support; and 10) Direct staff to schedule Special Board of Supervisors Meeting for Cannabis Cultivation Phase 3 Zoning Table and Permitting Model. 

---

TRANSLATION (courtesy Mark Scaramella): Never happen. Nothing can be done. The program is unrepairable and doomed. (Note that the item does NOT request an estimated cost of the many proposals mentioned or who would pay for it/them.)

PS. Maybe Supervisors Williams and Haschak don’t remember that the County already has a last flowchart that was published back in 2017. 

PPS. In case readers forgot what prompted this agenda item: https://www.theava.com/archives/134664

INTERESTING BUDGET CHARTS from deep down in the County’s fancy Budget Portal. As usual, these budget items are not broken down and there’s no way to determine how they’re arrived at, even though they are obviously a total from a large number of components because the numbers are specific down to the exact dollar amount.

The Mental Health budget is now more than a whopping $33 million. 

$19 million of that goes to Camille Schraeder’s Redwood Quality Management Company for mental health “services.” (Nobody ever even asks what happens to the other $14 million.)

The intent of this contractual requirement from page 18 of RQMC’s contract has never been met, although they provide meaningless reports to the BHAB now and then which are in no way responsive to the requirement.

By comparison the Sheriff’s non-jail budget is:

(Mark Scaramella)

ED NOTES

SOME PEOPLE. This guy, this argumentative, overweeningly, imperviously smug oblivious guy who once told me with a straight face that he was “highly evolved” and “really, really spiritual” then stormed out of the office when I laughed, stops in for more the other day, starting right in, “I want to talk to you about white racism,” he says. Oh gawd. Please. “I'm more pink and gray than white…” I say, “and besides....” But there's no stopping the righteous, the seeker. “I'm serious, Bruce. This isn't funny. I want to know how you're dealing with your racism.” As if I have the slightest desire to go deep with some wacky hippie walk-in, a judgemental wacky hippie walk-in at that. “Do you think you're a racist?” he demands. Goddam. Go away. But I get sucked in. “Well,” I begin, “on a scale of ten with the Klan being at ten and the highly evolved like you being a one, I'd say, I'm maybe, I dunno, who's to judge? You? Bob Bushansky? LeBron?” The sarcasm of course sails right by him, and he says, “You're influential because you have a newspaper. It matters what you think.” I let that illusion lie. “Tell you what, my friend, you place me on the handy scale I've just given you and we'll take it from there.” “Sorry,” he says, “I gotta go. We'll talk about it some other time. Got a lot on my plate today.”

FOR A GUY us libs assume is stupid and maybe even crazy, Trump just might have a specifically grand fascist scheme in mind. On a daily basis, he's pre-emptively undermining confidence in the election with the apparent aim of staying in office regardless of the vote. He tweeted Thursday morning, “Because of the new and unprecedented massive amount of unsolicited ballots which will be sent to ‘voters,’ or wherever, this year, the Nov 3rd Election result may NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED, which is what some want.” Trump's been saying stuff like this for months despite there being zero evidence, beyond isolated cases in the ones and twos, of mail-in voter fraud.

BIG SAVE for local guy Taylor Balson the other morning. The young Boonville man spotted a toddler, still in pajamas, toddling as fast as it could toward town, and toddling dangerously close to the pavement of 128. Scooping the runaway up, Taylor knocked on doors until he knocked on the correct one where a relieved mom re-asserted her authority of her little runaway.

A READER WRITES:

Why is the Editor surprised to read that it takes 31 agencies of oh-so earnest self-alleged helping professionals to assemble their homeless plan which doesn’t help anybody but the helpers? Maybe the Editor forgot to read Mark Scaramella’s more blunt description of that scam of a “plan” last month, way before Ms. Frederiksen made her somewhat restricted attempt to described it, in his article “Mendo’s New Homeless Plan.” 

Scaramella pointed out: “Early in the introduction, however, the ‘Plan’ bluntly spells out its true purpose: ‘This Plan also fulfills Federal and State requirements that local jurisdictions receiving funding from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have a community plan for addressing homelessness’.”

Scaramella concluded, “In other words, the Plan is nothing but required eyewash so that the ‘31 public agencies and private non-profit organizations’ will continue to receive funding, not to actually help any homeless people.”

You are right, however, Mr. Editor, that Ms. Frederiksen, good reporter that she is, could never say that outright in the Ukiah paper, although it’s very likely that she knew it.

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 17, 2020

IGNACIO AYALA, Talmage. DUI.

PARIS BEACHAM-VANDERPOOL, Ukiah. Paraphernalia.

JOHN BOLTON IV, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

SONO CARRIGG, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

ZACHARY COLLINS, Willits. Suspended license (for DUI), probation revocation.

TIMOTHY GREGORY, Willits. Domestic battery.

JOSE GUILLEN-ZUNIGA, Philo. Domestic battery.

SCOTT HARRIGAN, Eureka/Leggett. DUI, unlawful display of registration.

JESUS MACIAS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

JASON MILLS, Fort Bragg. Public nuisance.

DAVID MONTHEI JR., Willits. Parole violation.

SHANE SAWDON, Willits. Failure to register as sex offender.

WHEN VOTING BECOMES A CHORE

Editor:

I will be receiving my vote by mail ballot for the November 3 election in one month. (I’m writing this on September 11.) For the last several years I've been voting by mail and I find myself filling out and mailing in my ballot at least three weeks before election day, essentially to “get it over with.” I know that for me this is a behavior I have when I am doing something I consider to be a tedious chore.

I used to look forward to the process of reading the election literature from the state and county to help decide who and what to vote for, but now it seems mostly a waste of time. I don't feel there is any tangible reward for voting anymore which is probably indicative of my overall feeling of alienation from the American population.

As an American man on a societal level I am expected to be an economic producer -- i.e., be employed -- a consumer and a citizen. Because I've been on disability and have hardly worked most of my adult life I am not a producer, therefore I have less ability to be a consumer other than for staple products like groceries, drugstore items, gasoline, etc.

By far the least prestigious of the three above roles for an American man on a collective level in this country is that of citizen. A typical American attitude toward me would be, “You vote regularly? So what? You don't work and you drive a Ford focus.”

I believe responsible voting is an activity for grown-ups. Those people more concerned with their economic status and prestige of the consumer goods they buy are probably at more of an adolescent or half adult mentality than I am, thus my feeling of alienation from the American population.

A good book that elaborates at this on this theme is Robert Bly's “Sibling Society” from 1996. I don't want to attempt to summarize his viewpoint about American society (which resonates with me) because it's rather esoteric. But anyone interested can look up this book online.

Keith Bramstedt

San Anselmo

STIMULATION

by William J. Hughes

My $1200 stimulus check was burning a hole in my bank account. It was initially meant for a flight from Sacramento to Atlanta to lay eyes on the Mount Rushmore of the Confederacy at Stone Mountain, Georgia. I can't say exactly why -- the Reb World's longest ball of twine? But I was also there for the Union Army of the Tennessee under the command of one William T. Sherman and their victory in capturing Atlanta after the usual long, bloody civil war campaign, their victory assuring Lincoln's reelection in 1864 during a time when the North felt it had shed enough blood -- time to compromise with the South. But the fall of Atlanta sealed Lincoln’s deal. I was going to be there on the exact dates as the Union army -- and for Atlanta's Cyclorama of the battle for Atlanta – 360 degrees around — the world's largest painting?

From there drive on to DC stopping in the Berkeley of North Carolina, Asheville, DC meant for my US stars and stripes, the flag given to me on my recent return to my US Marine Corps pre ’Nam base Las Pulgas in Southern California -- the flag that flew over the base the day I returned in tribute to the warrior Marine. The flag was to be presented in DC at the Tomb of the Unknown, the Korean War Memorial (vets who get little respect) and my Vietnam wall. But the Covid-19 came between.

So what to do? What to do? So, in-house, in state, regardless of Covid. It's only 19 so how could it possibly hurt me?

SoCal surf will heal me. And the trees of Sequoia will wrap their limbs around me.

Prologue: mask on, mask off, mask on, mask off.

Early early morning to beat any traffic out of Sacramento to Silicon San Jose then on to 101 toward Los Angeles getting off at Monterey for good old US-1, stopping by chance in Pacific Grove for a cup of coffee -- oh my goodness, Laguna Beach North with lousy gray weather, compact and quaint, seascapes, overpriced I guess but cool. Sweaters required and nearly a village. Played 18 at Pebble Beach once upon a dream come true -- so there.

On US-1 now, slow the hell down, on the edge of the continent, rocks and washing seafoam, those cypress trees crew cut by the forever winds, Big Sur, Big Sir, just that, its own empire within the Kingdom of California, nothing but surf and forested hills as far as the spyglass can spy. Vista turnouts galore.

Some traffic but not much, that over canyon bridge that’s in every movie ever, houses of the truly super-rich, some signs of hippie-ish shelters here and there and then San Simeon and Hearst and his castle -- no thank you, his was very early fake news -- I remember, Remember the Maine.

Cambria, where you’d turn inland to Paso Robles and Jimmy, the now James Dean Memorial Intersection where his life was cut so short. I'll pay my respects on the way back home.

The Earth starts to flatten out beneath the rolling hills and the vines and vegetables start to take over, hot and dry Lompoc, Santa Barbara on the rise, next several exits but its Carpenteria this time down, knowing there is a nicer Motel 6 which feels a good fit.

Carpenteria, a much less Santa Barbara, thus much more, small town on the coast of SoCal California almost Main Street USA on the coast of California!

Check in, some of the usual suspects at the 6, but all in all clean and well kept in a small town on the California coast.

The beach. No masks, some social distancing, oil rigs in the distance, beautiful and tan-buffed bluffs, not much surf to speak of, kelpy, beautiful cold, absolutely rejuvenating, bathing beauties ranging from early teens to college to Carpenteria’s suntanned well-heeled moms with their darling children, asking a blonde lifeguard up in her Covid coop for the time, her whole being put to song by Brian Wilson and his Beach Boys. A day in the California sun. “Wouldn't it be nice…?”

Could be dinner time. I've completely lost track of any time but for the lapping of the short waves and all the happy voices.

Santa Barbara is already too big, cruising the swanky waterfront, crowds, some Covid covered, a lot not. Just cruising, looking, parking, safely I think.

There is a promenade filled to Covid outdoor capacity, masked and unmasked, crowded, a pizza place. Outside at a shaded table but hell, there is a pitbull under the next table with four pit bull guys drinking beer. Here I am and glad of it because the Italian sausage roll appetizer was one of the finest Italianos I ever had and I'm from New York.

New indifference to Santa Barbara now that there's Carpenteria, nearly full moon “over the lonely sea / the lonely sea / it never stops / for you or me…” Of course it's he, Brian Wilson.

No gunshots or police cars at the 6, so success.

The morning is SF Bay like. I'd like a cup and a bagel. A Main Street bistro obliges, relaxing in this relaxed down, sharing a talk with a local vegetable grower on his way to his plot, looking just roughed up and veggie enough to not only look but be the part.

Beach, sun coming through, parking right at the sand’s page. Early day almost empty, serious senior citizens and family kids as the residents start to appear on a relaxed weekday. “If everybody had an ocean…”

Swim, swim, swim. Adios Carpenteria. We are two days in and far from done. North to Pismo Beach. Must swim in the ocean in the almost California cliche. Coney Island it is, funky, kind of almost dirty, in a well used way, a carnival compared to the backyard barbecue of Carpenteria.

The wide, wide surf and a long, long pier, the wide surf cold and rough, all those cliffs the backdrop for this beach of the working stiffs.

Working my way north on secret, secluded, seductive 101 to Paso Robles. No surfing, just James Dean up Route 46 a’ways. His last day. His last twilight. I've been and been and been some more but since he's on the way, over to 99 and over to Sequoia National Park.

Not a Motel 6 for the evening. An old-fashioned cottage collection in town well within the dwindling stimuli cash. Crash.

Shouldn't say crash but it did happen and he did become legend. He was going to anyway but…

Wine, endless wine, the familiar Jack Ranch Cafe, all alone “roadhouse” just up from where James -- Pay my respects and off into the endless vegetables, over I-5 and onto 138 leading into Sequoia National Park.

The tourist in me wanting the big trees immediately but winding, winding, winding up through the rocks and boulders and trees, higher and higher, not a ranger in sight, rock formations and hazy vistas, then a sense of them coming on, then they start to take command, impossible plants, sprouting all the way to the stars, groves and individuals, Irish setter red/bronze, hunks of them, individual US generals of them, $3 for a short Pepsi at a semi-open lodge, everything oversized, including the drive-you-out-of-your-mind road construction, narrow one lane, slow, hot, let me out of here — after I drop off my short story of a Buffalo soldier and John Muir meeting in Sequoia with a gate ranger. Done.

99 North has nothing to recommend it except where it ends in Sacramento.

OLD WILLITS

COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?

Editor: 

When I emigrated from Germany to the United States in the late 1960s, I was often asked, “How did you let this happen, and how was it possible in the land of Beethoven, Schiller and Goethe?” I wasn’t born when evil came into power but always felt a sense of collective guilt.

We have serious problems to deal with in this country, but I believe with good leadership they can be solved, and changes to form a more just society are possible. But what do we do if we lose our democracy and our Constitution is no longer adhered to? What do you tell grandchildren when they ask, “How did you let this happen?”

What happened in Germany, could it happen here? I’m not so certain anymore. Are our institutions stronger than they were in Germany in the early ’30s? Democracies don’t die with a bang; they go out in a whimper.

Once delusional, lawless authoritarian leaders get established, abolish or weaken institutions and surround themselves with loyalists, they are difficult to restrain. My collective guilt is now being replaced by fear of what might happen here in November.

Vera Steinfels

Petaluma

PLAYLAND UKIAH FLYER

THE GUY

by Paul Modic

I have this Saturday ritual where I go to Redway, buy the New York Times, and then drive down to lower Redway to read some of it in the woods by the water plant. Recently I've shifted it to parking in the Ray's parking lot to watch the people go by, lets call it my half hour a week of social life.

So there I am when “the guy” comes by pushing his orange cart which he parks in front of the store. (Remember? That guy who lived in the rain up above Dazey's hardware in G arberville for a few years?) Twenty minutes later he places a bag of groceries on it and shuffles off through the parking lot where he hesitates at the sidewalk, goes left, then decides right is the way to go. I follow behind, stopping to park a couple times, and stalk him down to Dazey's hardware. He parks the cart and goes in. A clerk comes out and I ask him what's the story with “the guy.” 

“I never really got Tommy's story,” he said. “He's a vet.”

“Yeah well I was promised a quinoa cake if I interview him,” I said. 

“Well, he's in there now. You could talk to him.”

“Nah, I haven't even had my breakfast yet. Where did he end up?”

“Someone gave him a backyard to camp out in near the substation. He's got a tent and a little camp stove,” the friendly clerk said.

Tommy came out and put a carton of bottled water next to his bag of groceries on the cart with a big grimace like he had a sore back or something. I took off and investigated the ramshackle houses up by the substation. I came back down and found him pushing his cart up the hill by DeMulling Park. I did a u-ey, stopped to watch him from a distance, followed him up the hill, then pulled up past the substation as he went between the buildings behind it. I doubled back after another u-ey in time to see him locking the mesh gate behind him. He eyed me for a second but I doubt if he realized that he was the subject of the Great Saturday Morning Stalking Project. 

Now I know where he lives in case I want to interview him and then try to collect that quinoa cake from the friend who put me up to it. We had often talked about him and were curious. Is he a guru? How can he live like that? Isn't it boring? Does he have a smart phone?

There are many suffering out there in the cold and rain, most are hidden away but he was out there on Main Street for all to see and someone finally gave a shit and gave him a place. (That guy should be interviewed also.)

UKIAH STABLES DOWNTOWN, 1900

THE TARGETED ATTACK on two LA cops last weekend is the inevitable result of the despicable lie Joe Biden and his party have been pushing all summer for political advantage — that police are “systemically” racist murderers of black people. That lie has driven violent anti-cop BLM-Antifa riots in Democratic cities from New York to Seattle. 

— Miranda Devine

UKIAH TO POTTER VALLEY

PART OF THE REASON we’re in the predicament we’re in is, the president’s a landlord. No one has less compassion for humans than a landlord. And we’re shocked he’s not engaged. Did you ever see that movie “The Last Emperor,” where like a 5-year-old is the emperor of China? There’s a kid and he’s the king. So I’m like, it’s all the Democrats’ fault. Because you knew that the emperor was 5 years old. And when the emperor’s 5 years old, they only lead in theory. There’s usually an adult who’s like, “OK, this is what we’re really going to do.” And it was totally up to Pelosi and the Democrats. Their thing was, “We’re going to get him impeached,” which was never going to happen. You let the pandemic come in. Yes, we can blame Trump, but he’s really the 5-year-old. Put it this way: Republicans tell outright lies. Democrats leave out key pieces of the truth that would lead to a more nuanced argument. In a sense, it’s all fake news. 

— Chris Rock

BARK CAMP, EARLY 1900s

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The D-Party took two major wrong turns… first, after November, 1963 and the direction they shifted into, and later, when they suffered the Arkansas Coup. They hated how R’s rode the law-and-order wave of 1968 into the Oval Office, how the R’s took personal possession of the American flag with the emergence of Right Wing Talk Radio, how the R’s put together a coherent message that began to resonate with Working Class Americans while the D’s couldn’t come up with one, and while the D’s were selling out millions of American workers and allowing factory towns to be gutted financially and leveled physically while kissing up to Wall Street Bankers.

“The US economy began a slow and insidious collapse because its petroleum energy base became unaffordable…”

The US economy began a slow and insidious collapse when businesses and corporations sold out American cities and towns and the American people beginning in the 1960s which cut the heart and soul out of the American industrial and production base. The USA didn’t make real things any more, so it began to sell moving digits around on computer screens and pretending that this kind of amusement was somehow real productive work. The USA had the greatest industrial engine and was the envy of the World. Now, the USA sells Narratives and Conflicts and Confusion and Fantasy-As-Reality. We used to go to old Carnivals to see strange sights and hear loud carnival barkers and see clowns and bizarre things going on. Now all we have to do is turn on cable TV at any hour of the day.

RODEO PARADE, UKIAH, 1928

I WATCHED ‘CUTIES’ SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO (BUT YOU SHOULD)

by Thomas Knapp

A brigade of pearl-clutching, virtue-signaling, cancel-culture keyboard warriors wants you to know that Cuties (Mignonnes — it’s actually a French film) is a bad, bad movie that no one should watch and that Netflix should immediately remove from its lineup.

According to US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) Cuties may be, and according to US Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) it actually is, child porn. It sexualizes young girls and, per Gabbard, will “whet the appetite of pedophiles & help fuel the child sex trafficking trade.”

In reality, Cuties is the moving story of an 11-year-old girl attempting to grow up too fast, at the most intractably confusing age, and across the lines dividing two conflicting cultures. There’s nothing remotely pornographic about it, and the “sexualization” part of the story line isn’t even close to approvingly wrought.

Amy (played by Fathia Youssouf), her mother, and her brother are Senegalese immigrants to France.

Culture Number One: As a young Muslim girl, she’s already being groomed by the family matriarch (a great-aunt) for the day when she’ll find herself swaddled head to toe in white and presented to a man as his property. Her father, not physically present in the film, is expected to arrive shortly from Senegal, bringing with him a second bride (to Amy’s, and her mother’s, distress).

Culture Number Two: As a young student in the secular French school system, Amy perceives the currency of “maturity” with her peers as encompassing how little clothing and how much makeup one can wear, and especially how suggestively one can pose. She discovers, finds herself intrigued by, and through sheer force of will makes herself part of, a dance troupe of other 11-year-olds who call themselves (surprise) “The Cuties.”

Naturally, family and cultural conflict ensue, as does adolescent acting out of various kinds.

Fortunately there’s a happy ending, which I’ll refrain from spoiling with detail but give you this simple gloss on: Amy ultimately decides it’s better to just roll with being eleven years old, both sets of cultural expectations be damned.

Cuties isn’t a comfortable movie. It’s not supposed to be a comfortable movie. Nor is it supposed to be titillating or obscene, and it isn’t those things either.

Is it a great film? That’s for you to decide, and I hope you’ll do so yourself after watching it instead of letting Ted Cruz or Tulsi Gabbard decide for you sight unseen.

In fact, I’m grateful to Cruz, Gabbard, and their “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil!” hangers-on for inspiring ME to watch it. If there’s any redeeming aspect to cancel culture (of either political wing), it’s that convenient and self-serving public outrage serves as a reasonably reliable predictor of what might be worthwhile.

(Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida. (Courtesy, CounterPunch.org.)

FLOWER POT NURSERY, UKIAH, 1960s

HOMETOWN FESTIVAL, 1980s

SAVINGS BANK & LAW OFFICE NEAR CHURCH

MENDOCINO COUNTY FARM BUREAU, UKIAH VICE MAYOR JUAN OROZCO, AND DR. ANDY COREN ENDORSE OUR CAMPAIGN!

I'm incredibly proud that recently Mendocino County Farm Bureau, Ukiah Vice Mayor, and Public Health Officer Andy Coren have all put their support behind our campaign for the 1st District Supervisor. I've said it since the entering the race last year - but this campaign is about a bringing people together, commitment to our community, and common-sense solutions to making the 1st District an even better place to live, work, and learn.

Join me for lunch on Friday, September 17 at 12:00, join me for the fourth in a series of brown bag lunches and live Zoom Q&As. Last week we had great questions and a lively and broad-ranging conversation. Bring a sandwich and your thoughts about the future of Mendocino County and the 1st District.

No registration needed.

Zoom - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83769281412

Glenn McGourty for Supervisor

7200 Old River Rd. Ukiah, CA 95482

(707) 468-8632

www.McGourtyFor1st.com

FOUND OBJECT