MCT: Wednesday, September 23, 2020

• Rain North
• Fire Weather
• 886 Cases
• Wearing Masks
• Revised SIP
• Closed Areas
• Season Passing
• Best Western
• Hogtied Suspect
• Regarding Joe
• Stagecoaching
• Ed Notes
• Union Lumber
• Old Library
• Big Redwood
• Museum Gala
• Wendling Mill
• Covid Cooking
• Yesterday's Catch
• Vote Late
• Anarchy Avoided
• Chomsky Warning
• Carmelo Soria
• Trump's Stylist
• People Power
• Forced Hysterectomies
• Coastal Cleanup
• Found Object

RAIN WILL SPREAD over Del Norte and northern Humboldt this evening through Thursday morning, while other areas will mostly remain dry. Hot and dry weather will develop across the region this weekend into early next week. (NWS)

SATELLITE VIEW this morning:

HEAT AND HIGH WINDS prompt fire weather warning this weekend in North Bay hills. National Weather Service issued a Fire Weather Watch on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020 for the upcoming weekend in the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills and interior valleys. Wind shift also means a return of hazy conditions.

pressdemocrat.com/article/news/heat-high-winds-prompt-fire-weather-warning-this-weekend-in-north-bay-hill/

12 MORE COVID CASES in Mendocino County Tuesday, total up to 886. Twelve more in isolation, plus one more in hospital. 

THE SCIENCE BEHIND WEARING MASKS

Miller Report for the Week of September 22, 2020

By William Miller, MD – Chief of Staff at Adventist Health – Mendocino Coast Hospital

Masks are the most effective strategy we have for controlling the overall spread of COVID through our communities, perhaps even more important than handwashing and social distancing. We are beyond the point where surveillance testing and contact tracing would be useful and we haven’t been able to keep up with the resources needed to do either. Also, it remains unclear whether any vaccine will be all that effective or that the immunity such a vaccine grants will be sustained. That is not to say that these other measures are not important, just that masks are perhaps the single most important element in our strategy. So, let’s take a closer look at masks.

There is tremendous scientific support for wearing masks to prevent transmission of all sorts of respiratory infections, not just COVID. There are two studies in particular that are very convincing on how effective they can be. In July, the CDC reported on two hairstylists in Missouri who were infected with SARS-2, the virus that causes COVID (MMWR / July 17, 2020 / 69(28);930-932). These two had been tested because they both had respiratory symptoms consistent with COVID and remember that people are most contagious when symptomatic. It took 8 days for the test results to come back and during those 8 days the two continued to work, seeing 139 clients. Both hairstylists and all clients wore masks during their visits with about half wearing cloth masks and half wearing medical grade masks. By nature of the visits, these all involved close personal contact (within 6 feet) for between 15 and 45 minutes (with an average of about 19 minutes). When the two hairstylist’s results came back positive, public health officials traced all 139 clients and tested 109 of them. All 109 tested negative. All 139 were followed regardless of testing and none developed symptoms. Meanwhile, several family members of the hairstylists did come down with COVID supporting that the two were infectious.

Another study involved a married couple who flew from Wuhan, China, to Toronto, Canada, on January 22^nd, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ / April 14, 2020 / 192(15);E410). The husband was symptomatic during the 15-hour flight with a cough and the wife became symptomatic the day after landing. Both tested positive for SARS-2. Both wore masks during the entire flight, as did all other passengers and crew. Health officials tested and monitored the 25 passengers who sat nearest the couple and the flight crew. All of these close contacts repeatedly tested negative and none developed symptoms.

The reason that masks work so effectively is that the virus is not appreciably spread as individual particles, but instead in the form of respiratory droplets made of saliva, mucus or other respiratory secretions. These droplets, while mostly invisible to the eye are none-the-less large enough to be trapped in the fabric of a mask. They are released into the air by talking, laughing and singing, but especially large amounts of droplets are created when we cough or sneeze. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in May used high spread photography to demonstrate that simply speaking a single phrase generates hundreds of respiratory droplets (NEJM / May 21, 2020 / 382;2061-2063).

The highest viral load is around the time when symptoms first develop including just before, hence the reason we get the symptoms. When we combine high viral load with symptoms such as coughing, then it is easy to see why people are most contagious at that time. However, even people who never develop symptoms can spread the virus since viral loads are potentially high enough to be contagious without symptoms. Thus, it is important that steps be taken by all people regardless of symptoms.

Of all people who get infected by SARS-2, about 80% will have no symptoms or minimal symptoms. Only about 20% get really sick and of those, only about a third require hospitalization. When we look at the cases, it appears that at least half of all people with COVID got it from someone who never developed symptoms. These points underscore the importance of all persons wearing masks, even if they don’t think that they are infected.

The strategy for asking everyone to wear masks is to prevent infected people from spreading it to others. This strategy is important because we are trying to minimize the risk of spreading the disease and with time, the disease will fade away. There is also strong evidence that if between 85-100% of all people wore masks consistently, we could probably do away with restricting businesses and closing down our economy. If you think about it, mask wearing as a strategy is far less costly than people losing jobs and businesses going under. 

I do think that most people are now wearing masks when they are out and about in town and pretty much no one is going into stores unmasked. However, now we need to look more closely at social gatherings and that includes large family gatherings. Once again, if everyone wears a mask then essentially no one will get this disease.

For next week’s Miller Report, I will go into detail on the research comparing the different types of masks such as medical grade versus cloth and what types of cloth are more effective than others.

If you would like to read more on the subject of masks as an important strategy for prevention, I recommend these two on-line review articles which might be helpful as they are filled with many useful links. They are: 

theconversation.com/can-people-spread-the-coronavirus-if-they-dont-have-symptoms-5-questions-answered-about-asymptomatic-covid-19-140531

and

ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent.

HEALTH OFFICER ISSUES REVISED SHELTER-IN PLACE ORDER

Post Date: 09/22/2020 6:01 PM

Today, September 22, 2020, Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren issued a revised Shelter-In-Place (SIP) Order effective immediately. The most recent Health Officer SIP, continues the requirements for the new State tiered system, including the Widespread risk category (purple) Tier for Mendocino County, is significantly streamlined to avoid duplication with State orders, and modifies some local restrictions specific to transient lodging, campgrounds, service of alcohol at restaurants and tasting rooms, and “Stable Groups” (formerly “Stable Bubbles”). 

Major changes in the SIP Order included: 

Removal of nearly all local restrictions specific to the local tourism industry, except for the requirement that all operators of transient lodging and campgrounds in Mendocino County have an individual caretaker/manager available on-call 24 hours per day (and be onsite within one hour) to monitor and adhere to COVID-19 Industry Guidances and for COVID-19 related issues.

The Stable Groups (formerly Stable Bubbles) has been modified to increase the Household Support Group from 6 to 12 individuals.

The restriction requiring restaurants, wineries, and tasting rooms to discontinue serving alcohol at 8:00 p.m. has been removed.

The Order allows all businesses that have been permitted to open according to Mendocino County’s assigned Tier may be open as long as they follow the applicable state guidance. For example on September 22, 2020, the State opened up nail services to operate indoors for Tier 1 (purple) counties. This order allows those businesses to begin operations immediately as long as they follow state guidance and complete the business reopening self-certification process at at www.mendocinocountybusiness.org. 

Mendocino County’s revised SIP goes in effect Tuesday, September 22, 2020 upon issuance and will be effective until rescinded. 

The new Health Order and summary of changes are posted online at https://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus/health-order. 

On August 28, 2020, the California Department of Public Health, issued a new Statewide Public Health Officer Order, which became effective on Monday, August 31, 2020, (https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH Document Library/COVID-19/8-28-20_Order-Plan-Reducing-COVID19-Adjusting-Permitted-Sectors-Signed.pdf), creating a new framework for reopening, known as California’s Plan for Reducing COVID-19 and Adjusting Permitted Sector Activities to Keep Californians Health and Safe, (aka Blueprint for a Safer Economy), which relies on a set of risk-based Tiers associated with case rates per capita per day and a percent of positive COVID-19 tests. Pursuant to this framework, all Counties may reopen specified sectors according to their county’s Tier. Mendocino County has completed three weeks in the Widespread risk (purple) Tier, and continues this week in that category.

For more information on California’s blueprint for reducing COVID-19 in the state with revised criteria for loosening and tightening restrictions on activities, please visit www.covid19.ca.gov.

For more on COVID-19:

www.mendocinocounty.org/COVID19

Call Center: (707) 472-2759 or email callcenter@mendocinocounty.org

The call center is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

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KATHY WYLIE WRITES:

SIP revision

It was announced this morning at the Board of Supervisors' meeting by Public health officer Dr. Coren that he would be Releasing later today a new health order revision for the Shelter in place. He stated that overall, the county population is understanding the requirements and practicing significantly more masking and social distancing; a lot more is now known than when the original order was written.

Dr. Coren noted that Since the mid-summer, the number of daily cases is decreasing (except a recent Fowler Auto infection of over 20 employees - a setback which may add up to significant infection numbers and take away the red-tiered status).

The new SIP revision is a Reduced document size and will be simplified and with much more direction to the state order that is now in place.

Activities are open based on County’s tier level - which is identified on the State guidelines. As long as businesses comply with state business orders, and they self-certify with the local Health Dept. they may operate without further county-based restrictions.

The new order Releases Lodging/Camping to book at 100% now (instead of the 25% vacancy and 24 hour-hold on new lodging); they have asked that campgrounds have a sign-in sheet/roster to facilitate case investigation and tracing If necessary.

Stable household groups - increased number from 6 to 12; household support unit needs someone responsible to keep a list for contact tracing.

GOING HOME? ID REQUIRED

Mendocino National Forest officials issued a new area closure for the August Complex effective Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020 through Monday, Nov. 30, 2020. This temporary area closure is necessary to protect the firefighters assigned to the August Complex and protect the public from potential injury caused by hazards created by the fires in the August Complex. 

Since evacuation orders have been lifted in Glenn, Tehama and portions of Mendocino counties, residents and property owners may return to their properties within the August Complex fire area. If residents and property owners access their property via county roads, they need to show proof of ownership at the entrance points to the Forest. Proof of ownership may include a title, tax assessment or deed to name a few. These property owners do not need a permit from the US Forest Service. Having a map with the location of your property identified on it might be helpful at the checkpoint. 

Forest Order No. 08-20-13 authorizes persons with a Forest Service contract or permit from the Forest Service to enter the closed area. This includes summer home cabin owners, communication site workers and other special uses. These persons need only to show a copy of their permit to the guards at the checkpoints to enter the closed fire area.

Private properties accessed via a Forest System road may require a permit from the US Forest Service. Please contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316 for more information.

Evacuation orders and advisories remain in effect in north Lake and Mendocino counties. In Mendocino County, evacuation areas are designated by zones. It is helpful for residents to know where their property is located within these zones. Please see each of the respective county sheriff’s office or emergency management websites for specific evacuation information. Evacuation information can be found at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/article/6983/55716/.

Forest Order 08-20-13 and associated exhibits, including the map, are posted on the forest website: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd807574.pdf. 

Hunting and recreation within the closure area is prohibited. 

AFTER HEARING COMPLAINTS from several neighbors of the Best Western Motel in Ukiah, the Board announced out of closed session Tuesday that they approved spending just over $10.6 million of state “homekey” money for the Best Western Motel a couple of doors down from the Schraeder’s offices on Dora [Orchard] Street. The neighbors had complained that the project would attract undesirables to the neighborhood, that it didn’t get enough public review, that there was no plan to operate, maintain and oversee the project, that a neighboring County-managed facility mental health (Willow Terrace) was already creating a vagrancy problem, that it was “an overpriced solution,” that there are a number of neighboring operations including a daycare center, a pre-school, businesses, government offices nearby that would be negatively affected, etc. 

REPORTEDLY there are 56 300 square-foot (e.g., 10 x 30) “units” in the Best Western plus one “apartment,” presumably for the manager(s). So $10.6 million divided by 57 translates to about $180-$190k per room, much more than, say, a trailer park with 57 trailers — an approach nobody ever talks about. The County expects to house about 70 people there when the remodeling (e.g., mini-kitchens) and arrangements are complete by the first quarter of 2021. 

AFTER THE BOARD’S UNANIMOUS APPROVAL, Supervisor McCowen replied that the project did need to be thought through to mitigate potential conflicts — in the future. McCowen added that the state had imposed a short deadline on the funds and that they had an independent appraisal of the property supporting the exorbitant purchase price and that no general fund money will be spent on it. “This will be housing for homeless people already receiving services to help them get stabilized and their lives back on track,” said McCowen. “It isn’t going to change who’s here, but will provide housing for people already receiving services.” Health and Human Services staffer Megan van Sant said that the project “is not a homeless shelter. Not a Willow Terrace. It is not free housing. Residents are expected to pay 30% of their income for rent. It will not solve the homeless problem,” adding that she expects veterans, familes with children, seniors, mentally ill, people fleeing domestic violence, people with difficult medical issues, and people under the care of adult protective services to be the primary residents. “These are people who have case managers and services,” insisted Van Sant, adding, “it is in line with the Marbut report and county’s homeless strategic plan. I understand the neighbor concerns. But there was not enough time for public involvement. These are vulnerable people who need it.”

BOARD CHAIR HASCHAK concluded that State Senator Mike McGuire plans to hold virtual town hall meeting on the project — after the fact — at an unspecified future date. “I hope to get more info out about that,” Haschak said.

(Mark Scaramella)

CONTROVERSY OVER CITIZENS HOGTYING BLACK SUSPECT IN LAYTONVILLE ARMED ROBBERY CASE

Some northern Mendocino County community members are celebrating after the last suspect in Saturday’s cannabis robbery near Laytonville, David Lee Edmonds, was apprehended by citizens yesterday afternoon and then taken into custody by Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies.

Others are left uncomfortable with the image of the man hogtied in the dirt that appeared on social media. In the context of the current awareness of racial inequity, the image stirs a level of discomfort within several community members.

mendofever.com/2020/09/21/controversy-over-citizens-hogtying-black-suspect-in-laytonville-armed-robbery-case/

JOE HART, A TRIBUTE

Editor,

Regarding that article by Joseph Hart about his “self-defense” defense—

Lies from a Grifter, ConMan, violent Sociopath who thinks he is a GOD. Joe has left a wake of destruction across four states with multiple arrests and Restraining Orders. His business partners and investors were duped, stolen from and ended up cash poor for believing his lies and BS. He has threatened violence Including death and endangered livelihoods and property of the long line of women he has conned. He has committed violent acts before including felony assault and robbery with a deadly weapon. He is a Deadbeat Dad, a deadbeat entrepreneur and a deadbeat citizen! Joe has been a sycophant for decades, albeit able to charm for the short to medium length con but his narcissistic sociopathy of always being both the victim and the hero causes people to wake up and say NO… that is when he really starts to threaten violence and destruction. So his victim was in the crosshairs of a longtime M.O. As far as epilepsy… BS. Joe has boasted for decades, NO WESTERN MEDICINE or doctors(unless for a cannabis recommendation back in the day). He has always stated that he is a “perfect male specimen”. He has never had health insurance or enough money or desire to invest in paying for a neurologist, one of the most expensive specialists, or any physician in CASH not even including the costs of CatScans and/or MRIs. No acquaintances, exes or ex-business partners have ever heard him mention this epilepsy diagnosis or witness him having a seizure in any state CA, TX, IL or HI. His “essay of self defense” is just another Con of “poor me I’m a victim” which he has expertly acted out with oscar worthy crocodile-tears HUNDREDS of times before in the last 25+ years. Lies. You, Joe, did the violent crime and got caught again, thank goodness your victim lived, time to do the long prison time, karma has caught up to your life of violent threats, abusive behavior, lying, cheating, stealing and being the true definition of Sociopath. The citizens of the State of CA and this constitutional United States is finally safer with Joseph Hart imprisoned instead of roaming free victimizing dozens more possibly allowing to him to move beyond attempted murder to actual murder.

Name Withheld

Laytonville

STAGECOACHING

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ED NOTES

MISSING COCKBURN. A CounterPunch interview with convicted killer and rapist Kevin Cooper wouldn't have made the CP cut if Cockburn was still here. Neither would Dennis Bernstein of KPFA. On any subject. The evidence against Cooper is overwhelming, as even a cursory investigation of his history would have revealed to Bernstein and his "Flashpoints Radio Team." Bernstein also claims he "did some of the key research that helped to rescue Cooper in 2004 when he was exactly three hours forty-seven minutes from a California state-sponsored murder." Newsom has ordered DNA testing which, I predict, will solidify the case against Cooper, but Bernstein and his other wilfully ignorant defenders will claim is simply more evidence the cops framed him. Read up on the Cooper matter your own self… Which isn't to say that Cooper or any other lowlife killer should get the midnight needle. Lock 'em all away and keep them locked away.

HAVEN'T paid any attention to the Giants this so-called season, and the NBA's playground style of play bores me. But I can't resist tuning in the Niners, and wonder why the NFL can't admit a minority of socially-distanced fans to these vast stadiums. After the disastrous win over the Jets last Sunday, disastrous because key guys were seriously injured and are out for the season, coach Shanahan said that the artificial turf was a major topic on the sideline. “Guys talked about it the entire game,” Shanahan said. “That was as many knee injuries, ankles and stuff, guys getting caught on the turf, as I’ve ever seen.” 

THE NFL OWNERS — every one of them a Trumper, of course — are beyond rich and could vote back real turf. They could also pay for expanded rosters. And their own stadiums. But the lives and limbs of the boys who make them wealthy beyond Croesus are replaceable, and artificial turf is cheap to maintain, and suckers everywhere tax themselves to build them stadiums.

WHEN JUSTICE Scalia died in 2016, Obama nominated a judge named Merrick Garland, by all professional assessments a good choice to replace the rightwing frother, Scalia. But the Republican-majority Senate refused to hold a hearing or vote on the nomination, insisting that whoever won the election should get to choose the nominee. That election was still eight months away. The Garland refusal inspired the Democrats to correctly argue, in vain, that it was the constitutional duty of any President to nominate a Supreme Court Justice regardless of when a vacancy occurred. The Republicans refused to yield and, after 293 days, Garland’s nomination expired on January 3, 2017, and Trump installed Neil Gorsuch. Now, the situation is reversed. Republicans are demanding the right to nominate Ginsburg's replacement before the election, demanding the very right they refused Democrats in 2016. The hypocrisy on both sides is breathtaking.

AMONG their many deficiencies as Mendocino County's supervisors, defects obvious to the handful of us who tune in to their stumbling deliberations, count an utter lack of basic, mannerly consideration offered the occasional citizen who takes the time to address them. Case in point: at today's zoom-in, Barbara Schora of Brooktrails appeared to complain that a neighboring property owner was allowing his tenants to operate an illegal atv park with all the dust and noise and erosion that come with the enterprise.

PRIOR to the plague, Ms. Schora would have devoted half a day, at least, driving to and from the Supervisor's chambers to appear in person with her complaint that the county's authorities were allowing a major nuisance in an area it's not zoned for. Ms. Schora delivered her case, board chair Foont, er, Haschak, said, “Thank you,” and that was it. None of the five, including her alleged rep, Haschak, offered to look into her complaint with the relevant agencies, or in any way indicated the slightest interest in her matter — or even bother to do the polite thing and feign interest in her matter.

IT WON'T be any consolation to Ms. Schora that she's not the first constituent to suffer rude dispatch by these people; we're well into the second generation of bores occupying these lush, undemanding sinecures. On the other hand, if she's like me, maybe she's accustomed to boorish behavior. I was actually startled the other day when a teenager addressed me as “Mr. Anderson.” Usually from all ages it's, “Hey, Bruce.” Not that I go all to pieces at the prevalent absence of basic manners because their absence is simply more evidence of The Great Slide, but prior to the feral-ization of the population, the basic niceties were instilled in the young out of a social consensus that basic manners eased social intercourse, made the old day-to-day go a little better.

NOT SURPRISED that Supervisor Gjerde didn't say anything. He seems to have gone mute, and his seat might as well be occupied by one of those ballpark cutouts for all his participation. Gjerde benefits from distance. Because he represents the Coast, mostly Fort Bragg, his constituents, like the rest of the county's constituents actually, have no idea what he's doing in Ukiah, which turns out to be nothing, not that anybody's the wiser.

WHAT A CREW! With their terrible tempered CEO, the six of them rake in a million bucks a year in salary and lush perks. And what does Mendo get? But they're no less capable than elected reps at all levels of government, as the Evening News reminds us on a daily basis. The diff between our Supervisors and, say, Congress, is that Congress is a little more glib, a tad more presentable in their faked sincerity. T.S.? Is T.S. in the house? Yes, there he is, the very picture of 19th century propriety. Mr. Eliot would you mind putting into poetic form what I'm getting at here? “Certainly, Mr. Anderson. I offer my prescient poem, The Wasteland.” Thank you, Mr. Eliot but it's a little long for us. You know, short attention spans and all. Thank you, though.

UNION LUMBER

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SEEKING PHOTOS OF THE OLD FORT BRAGG LIBRARY

Peggy McGee wrote: I received an email from a Mendo resident who grew up using the old Fort Bragg Library (and Bookmobile). Her family moved away in 1980 and when she returned in 1988 her beloved library was gone, a victim of arsonists. She has fond memories of her time at the library and was wondering if anyone has pictures, inside or out or both, of the old library prior to its demise? If you know of anyone, could you please put them in touch with me? 

Peggy McGee, Senior Library Technician

fortbraggbranchlibrary@gmail.com

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Marco McClean here. The old Fort Bragg library. They lent out cassette tapes of classic radio shows and also readings of odd plays. I serialized Eugene Ionesco's Rhinoceros ferrying kids to and from the Albion Whale School in the middle 1980s, where I remember Nile Sprague, particularly, hopping up and down in the back seat, happily yelling, "He's turning into a rhinoceros! He's turning into a rhinoceros!" whenever a character turned into a rhinoceros, which eventually all the characters do, so it happened a lot.

Jacques Helfer used to hang out in there and right-wing-pontificate, until Sylvia finally had enough and matter-of-factly told him this is a library, Jack.

From the very early 1980s there was a tiny, older woman with just the sweetest voice at the desk, and another woman who helped Sylvia, who ran a literacy program that I think was funded by the county. This one must've been in her middle-late 20s; she had a burn scar on her cheek, going down across the side of her neck, and she was not really tall, but elegant and, I thought, beautiful, and she dressed in nice, tailored-seeming but probably cleverly homemade 1950s-style clothes, pretty dresses that came down to just below the knee, and ankle-socks. I felt extra shy around her.

I spent a lot of time in that library. I'd go there whenever I was in town to wash clothes, or for any other reason, as well as the various bookstores: Fiddler's Green, The Bookstore.

One time I got a ticket for driving with a light out, fixed the light, and saw a policeman there. I asked him to come out and sign off on my repair, and just when he did, the new light already stopped working. I told him I just put a new bulb in, and I'd go back to the store and get another one, and could he just sign the ticket now anyway and be done with it? He said, "Okay. But I don't want you making a fool out of me." This was all back when you didn't have to pay anything for a fix-it ticket, the mill was running full blast all the time and the air all over town stank of diesel smoke and of smoke from the mill's incinerator/generator, and the trains were coupling and decoupling all the time, just up the street, sounding like people firing shotguns, blocking traffic on the highway for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, all the time, remember that? Traffic is stopped anyway; pull over and go in the library for awhile.

Another thing that burned down in that library was a big plywood pteradactyl skeleton hanging on wire from the high ceiling, that I made with an electric jigsaw and a file that I bought from Doug's Hardware on Franklin. The plank floor in Doug's Hardware was uneven, smoothly worn down by thousands of feet over dozens of years, and the aisles were narrow, the shelves packed tightly and spilling over with items. Other things I bought there: an alarm clock, a pair of vicegrips, a heavy extension cord… I don't remember what year Doug's Hardware closed, but it was great store. I want to say I got my chainsaw there, but that might have been from Coast Hardware. I loaned the chainsaw out and somebody stole it from the guy I loaned it to, who apologized for leaving it overnight in plain sight in the carport but never got around to getting me another one.

And I don't remember exactly what year the movie theater split up into a bunch of little theaters, but I was here early enough to go a few times when it was all one big giant hall, and they'd show two movies, one after the other, where you'd pay to see both and make an evening of it. Well into the 00s, in the smaller theaters they broke it into, they were playing advertising/filler for Fort Bragg businesses before a movie and/or in intermission that was a musical slideshow of pictures of people in all those places who might have been long-dead or moved away even by then, and I half-remember a picture of the inside of the old library being in that slideshow. That part might be my imagination. But there were several pictures of the bowling alley: first the outside of the building, then people bowling, then the hamburger grill. The hamburgers in the bowling alley were cheap and great. They toasted the thick-diagonal-cut sourdough bread on the grill with the burger… The grocery store is closed; it's too late to go now, but I'll go tomorrow and get some hamburger and sourdough and see if I can recreate that. Juanita has some real tomatoes here from the store where she works.

IN OTHER NEWS: My dream from Monday, 2020-09-21:

In the back-story of the dream I used to go this way when I was a little boy, down through steep dream-only hills to the empty flat place before the ocean just north of Jughandle creek. And then as a young grownup I led children down that way to look at things and find things and talk about things, like going out in the woods from the Whale School, but now I'm at my real-life age (about to be 62), going to the same place, and there are houses spread out here, with people who've lived in them for many years, and I'm suddenly inside one middle-aged couple's detached garage, among their garaged belongings, finding old things of mine here, that I left the previous time, or times, including a big pad of art paper with notes to me in curly, flowery, girl-handwriting. I should get my things out of here. I don't care about the pad, but look, a box of microphone parts…

The woman who lives here, a mean version of Andy Griffith's Aunt Bea, bursts in through the side door. I hold up the pad. She knows that's not hers and that I'm not here to steal from her. She's still indignant and territorial. I promise to never come back, and I leave, but forget to take anything. Not going back in now. Never mind.

I'm there again, this time with Juanita and my mother, and even more of my things are here. We have to get out of here. But they're looking around like it's a thrift store, taking their time. I finally manage to shoo them out and shut off the light, but the overhead-light switch turns some lighted things off that must have been on when we came in --a plastic night-light/lamp/sculpture-thing, for one-- so hurry around and flip other switches. Nothing brings it back to the untouched, uninvaded state. A man comes in through the side door, startling him and me both. I show him the paper pad and some of my things, explain that I don't understand why I keep coming back here, maybe I'm not well, I say, and I take the pad this time but forget everything else. Outside the door I tell him that I'll never come back, he'll never see me again, but I wonder about that. The man looks like a white-skinned East Indian MSNBC-sort-of political pundit, but with damaged eyes where the black parts of the eyes are spread out in amorphous splotches like Rorschach's mask.) He seems okay with my explanation. He's like, These things happen, whatever, just try to not come back, and if it doesn't work, we'll try again. I have a sense of the world adapting to me as well as the other way around.

It's years later still. I'm old, weak and creaky. I'm outside the garage but inside a dense, high, driftwood fence by the road, with an old man who's like Donna's father in Doctor Who and his friend who's a cross between John Paul the accordion player, Bob Thomas the Grateful Dead artist, and an old stereotypical weed pirate. They're sharing cryptic stories of a friend of theirs who just died. I've been caught appearing in the garage again. This is totally normal now; nobody's even surprised. I try to answer a couple of Bob Thomas' riddles but they're too hard and they keep changing in the middle. And… somehow we're in the garage again. I start to leave, realize I've got Wilford's (Donna's father's) fancy silver-outlined but normal-size wooden soprano recorder. I turn around, wave it to show I'm putting it down, and go out.

Out through the gate. Walk south toward Caspar. Under my left arm is a bundle of long sticks, to use for firewood, mixed in with at least two slightly water-rotten but still possibly valuable bamboo flutes, and in my right hand I find a kind of alto or tenor recorder that's folded to be half as long but still sound the same, that has brass end-caps and brass keys and levers and tie-bands. I unconsciously walked away with all these things. I turn around and go back, to put them back; as I walk, the sticks escape from under my arm one by one, and the bamboo flutes are more and more rotten, so I drop them too, and by the time I get back to the driftwood fence all I have is the recorder, and there's no gate anymore. I find a place in the fence where there's a small broken-out rectangle down near the ground, in the dirt. As I'm crawling in through that, Wilford is standing over me right there to catch me coming back again even after I've again ritually promised never to. I hand him up the fancy recorder and shinny backward out through the hole.

(I woke up with a Bollywood version of Billy Joel, Don't Ask Me Why playing in my head. With doumbeks and shaky chains and Indian women yodeling, but Billy Joel singing normally, in the middle of all of it.)

Marco McClean

REDWOOD, BIG RIVER

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VIRTUAL VISIONARIES: Online Gala For Grace Hudson Museum Celebrates Six Strong Women

On Saturday, September 26, from 6 to 7 p.m., the Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House Guild present its first online fundraising event and gala. This year's theme, From the Strength of Women, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which secured the right to vote for most women in the United States. This event also serves as the major fundraising event of the year for this keystone Ukiah Valley--and greater Mendocino County--institution. Donations will enable the Museum to present more virtual (and even in-person, socially distanced walks in the Wild Gardens) events this fall, and to prepare for the time when its doors can reopen.

This 2020 gala celebrates six stellar women who made possible the idea, creation, and growth of the Grace Hudson Museum: Grace Carpenter Hudson herself; Clarina Nichols, Grace's paternal grandmother; Helen McCowen Carpenter, Grace's mother; Barbara Eversole, who led fundraising efforts to build the Museum and shape its long-term vision; Sherrie Smith-Ferri, the Museum's influential director for over 20 years; and Karen Holmes, who has served superlatively for 20 years as a curator, registrar, and designer. The program will also feature a poem written and read for the occasion by Theresa Whitehill, a former Ukiah poet laureate; a short video about the making of the Museum's recent exhibit, "The World of Frida," followed by a chat with Karen Holmes, who designed it for the space; the talented Joni McLeod, performing three songs portraying the strength of women; and a conversation with Pomo basketweaver Corine Pearce about her art and the value of the Museum's Wild Gardens.

Throughout the event, there will be an appeal for donations. Museum Director David Burton comments, "Early in this year's Gala planning, we made a conscious decision to forego live and silent auctions. Because of the devastating effect the pandemic has had on our regional business community, asking anyone to donate products or experiences just didn't feel right… Please know that your generosity is vital to us as we plan and create virtual programming for the short term, and exhibitions and in-person programs beyond that."

The public will be able to make donations by phone or online during the livestream. They can also go online to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org and click the yellow button on the top right. The livestreaming event is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2W3mtVQN7s&feature=youtu.be

WENDLING MILL, 1926

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COOKING TO COMBAT COVID CLASS STARTS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 4-6 PM

Our next class series is called Cooking to Combat COVID and will be held Tuesdays from 4-6 pm, starting September 22nd. We have both in person and online options. Please read the attached flyer for more information. I’ve also attached an application form. If you’d like to participate, fill out the application and email it back to me. You can also drop it off at the front desk of the hospital or put it in the mail to the address below my signature, along with the class deposit.

I also wanted to share another opportunity for the women out there who may want to participate in a research study. It is a study investigating if a plant-based diet can reduce hot flashes. There will be classes and resources provided for the 12 week study to help keep you on track with a plant-based diet. To learn more, visit PCRM.org/HotFlashes.

Hope you’re all staying healthy and let me know if you have any questions!

Anna Herby, RD, CDE

Registered Dietitian | Certified Diabetes Educator

Adventist Health Howard Memorial

One Marcella Drive | Willits, CA 95490

P 707-456-3132 | F 707-456-3032

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 22, 2020

TYLLER BAGLIERE, San Jose/Laytonville. Robbery in concert, assault with deadly weapon not a gun, child endangerment, criminal threats, personal use of firearm.

DAVID EDMONDS, Oakland//Laytonville. Robbery in concert, assault with firearm, child endangerment, armed with firearm in commission of felony.

JENNIFER GARCIA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

JENNIFER HEVEY, Ukiah. DUI, no license, suspended license (for DUI)

RAMON MACIEL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

ANTONIO MUNOZ, Redwood Valley. Paraphernalia, disobeying court order, dist. photo without consent, probation revocation.

RICARDO PADILLA-TORRES, Fresno/Ukiah. Possession of money for use, conspiracy.

JACOB PARMELY, Ukiah. Controlled substance, parole violation.

KEVIN STARNES, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

STEVEN TEMPLE, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, failure to appear, probation revocation.

AUBREY THOMAS, Failure to appear, probation revocation.

JAVIER TORRES-SALVAREZ, Fresno/Ukiah. Possession of money for use, conspiracy.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

One of the best reasons, imho, to vote in person is that you can be flexible and respond to the latest news up til the minute you submit your ballot on election day. I suspect part of the reason the Dems are so keen on getting people to vote by mail far in advance of election day is that once they submit their ballot, that’s that! So even if Biden decides not to debate or he can’t put together a coherent sentence in said debate, or criminal charges are brewing against him or he is replaced on the ballot, all of those voters are now locked in voting for the Dems as opposed to Trump.

NOAM CHOMSKY: THE WORLD IS AT THE MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY

by George Eaton, The New Statesman

The US Professor Warns That The Climate Crisis, The Threat Of Nuclear War And Rising Authoritarianism Mean The Risk Of Human Extinction Has Never Been Greater.

Noam Chomsky has warned that the world is at the most dangerous moment in human history owing to the climate crisis, the threat of nuclear war and rising authoritarianism. In an exclusive interview with the _New Statesman_, the 91-year-old US linguist and activist said that the current perils exceed those of the 1930s.

"There's been nothing like it in human history," Chomsky said. "I'm old enough to remember, very vividly, the threat that Nazism could take over much of Eurasia, that was not an idle concern. US military planners did anticipate that the war would end with a US-dominated region and a German-dominated region… But even that, horrible enough, was not like the end of organised human life on Earth, which is what we're facing."

Chomsky was interviewed in advance of the first summit [1] of the Progressive International [2] (18-20 September), a new organisation founded by Bernie Sanders, the former US presidential candidate, and Yanis Varoufakis [3], the former Greek finance minister, to counter right-wing authoritarianism. In an echo of the movement's slogan "internationalism or extinction", Chomsky warned: "We're at an astonishing confluence of very severe crises. The extent of them was illustrated by the last setting of the famous Doomsday Clock. It's been set every year since the atom bombing, the minute hand has moved forward and back. But last January, they abandoned minutes and moved to seconds to midnight, which means termination. And that was before the scale of the pandemic."

This shift, Chomsky said, reflected "the growing threat of nuclear war, which is probably more severe than it was during the Cold War. The growing threat of environmental catastrophe, and the third thing that they've been picking up for the last few years is the sharp deterioration of democracy, which sounds at first as if it doesn't belong but it actually does, because the only hope for dealing with the two existential crises, which do threaten extinction, is to deal with them through a vibrant democracy with engaged, informed citizens who are participating in developing programmes to deal with these crises."

Chomsky added that "[Donald] Trump has accomplished something quite impressive: he's succeeded in increasing the threat of each of the three dangers. On nuclear weapons, he's moved to continue, and essentially bring to an end, the dismantling of the arms control regime, which has offered some protection against terminal disaster. He's greatly increased the development of new, dangerous, more threatening weapons, which means others do so too, which is increasing the threat to all of us.

"On environmental catastrophe, he's escalated his effort to maximise the use of fossil fuels and to terminate the regulations that somewhat mitigate the effect of the coming disaster if we proceed on our present course."

"On the deterioration of democracy, it's become a joke. The executive branch of [the US] government has been completely purged of any dissident voice. Now it's left with a group of sycophants."

Chomsky described Trump as the figurehead of a new "reactionary international" consisting of Brazil, India, the UK, Egypt, Israel and Hungary. "In the western hemisphere the leading candidate is [Jair] Bolsonaro's Brazil, kind of a small-time clone of President Trump. In the Middle East it will be based on the family dictatorships, the most reactionary states in the world. [Abdel al-]Sisi's Egypt is the worst dictatorship that Egypt has ever had. Israel has moved so far to the right that you need a telescope to see it, it's about the only country in the world where young people are even more reactionary than adults."

He added: "[Narendra] Modi is destroying Indian secular democracy, severely repressing the Muslim population, he's just vastly extended the terrible Indian occupation of Kashmir. In Europe, the leading candidate is [Viktor] Orbán in Hungary, who is creating a proto-fascist state. There are other figures, like [Matteo] Salvini in Italy, who gets his kicks out of watching refugees drown in the Mediterranean."

Of the UK, he said: "[Nigel] Farage will come along and be a proper candidate if Boris Johnson doesn't serve the purpose, which he may." He added that the UK government's threat to "violate international law and make a total break with the European Union" would "turn a fading Britain into even more of a vassal of the United States then it's already become".

Chomsky described the Progressive International, whose council also includes former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, novelist Arundhati Roy and former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, as "a loose coalition of people committed to a world of justice, peace, democratic participation, of changing social and economic institutions, so that they are not geared for private profit for the few but for the needs and concerns of the general population."

Having lived through 22 US presidential elections, Chomsky warned that Trump's threat to refuse to leave office if defeated by Democratic candidate Joe Biden was unprecedented.

"He's already announced repeatedly that if he doesn't like the outcome of the election he won't leave [4]. And this is taken very seriously by two high-level military officers, ex-military leaders, who've just sent a letter to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, reviewing for him his constitutional duties if the president refuses to leave office and gathers around him the paramilitary forces that he's been using to terrorise people in Portland.

"The military has a duty in that case, the 82nd Airborne Division, to remove him by force. There's a transition integrity project, high-level people from the Republicans and the Democrats; they've been running war games asking what would happen if Trump refuses to leave office - every one of them leads to civil war, every scenario that they can think of except a Trump victory leads to civil war. This is not a joke - nothing like this has happened in the history of parliamentary democracy.

"It was bad enough when your guy, Boris Johnson, prorogued parliament, which led to a furore. The Supreme Court intervened but it was too late. The [US] Supreme Court isn't going to intervene here, not after the right-wing appointments that Trump has managed, so we're at a moment that has never happened."

Chomsky urged US leftists to vote for Biden in this November's presidential election and to press him to pursue a progressive agenda.

 "What the left should do is what it always should do: it should recognise that real politics is constant activism, in one form or another. Every couple of years something comes along called an election, you should take off a few minutes to decide if it's worth voting against somebody, rarely for somebody. In the course of, say, Corbyn in England, I would have voted for him but most of the time the question is 'who do you vote against?'

"This time the answer to that question is just overwhelmingly obvious: the Trump Republicans are just so utterly outrageous, way off the spectrum, that there's simply no question about voting against them. So you take off a few minutes, go to the voting booth, push a lever, vote against Trump, which in a two-party system means you have to push the vote for the other candidate. But then the next thing you do is to challenge them, keep the pressure on to move them towards progressive programmes."

Asked whether he still identified as an anarchist, Chomsky replied: "We have to ask what we mean by 'anarchist'. In my view everybody, if they stop to think about it, is an anarchist, except the people who are pathological. The core principle of anarchism, from its origins, has been that authority and domination and hegemony have a burden of proof to bear, they have to prove that they're legitimate. Sometimes they are, sometimes you can give an argument. If you can't, they should be dismantled.

"How should they be dismantled? Well, you have to work on that, you can't do it by snapping your fingers. Organisations are developing elements of the future society within the present one. But I think that ideal is virtually universal within our moral system, except for really pathological elements."

ON JULY 14, 1976, Carmelo Soria, a Spanish-Chilean UN diplomat, was driving home in Santiago de Chile but never arrived. Like several thousand Chileans during Pinochet's bloody reign of terror, he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by agents of the CIA-backed Chilean secret police, DINA.

Carmelo was born on November 5, 1921 in Madrid, Spain. He was a member of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and fought against General Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). After Franco seized power in 1939, Carmelo left Spain for Chile, where he obtained double citizenship. He became a UN civil servant in the 1960s. Between 1971 and 1973, Carmelo temporarily abandoned his functions to become an advisor to Salvador Allende's Unidad Popular government. In September 1973, after Pinochet's coup d'état, he re-joined the UN. He then used his diplomatic immunity status to protect opponents of Pinochet by granting them political asylum in various embassies, thus making him a target for the DINA.

On July 14, 1976, Carmelo was pulled over by four policemen for an alleged traffic offence. He was first held in the Vía Naranja house, shared by Michael Townley, a violent operative for both the CIA and the Chilean secret police, DINA. After hours of torture, Carmelo was subjected to sarin gas, that Townley and Eugenio Berríos first manufactured in that house, located in the Lo Curro neighborhood of Santiago, before moving production to the Colonia Dignidad. Carmelo was then transferred to the Villa Grimaldi. Evidence indicates that he died as a result of the torture he endured in Townley's house. His corpse was found two days later in a car sunk in the Canal del Carmen in the Pirámide sector of Santiago.

On August 4, 1976, another member of Soria's family, Dr. Carlos Godoy Lagarrigue, the son of the ex-rector of the Universidad de Chile and former Minister of Education Pedro Godoy, also "disappeared."

WHY DO AMERICANS GIVE AWAY SO MUCH TO CORPORATIONS?

by Ralph Nader

The American people own most of the wealth – private and public – and most of the information in the country. The top one percent do not.

The American people have most of the power in the country. The top one percent do not.

These assertions may surprise you, because the top one percent and the giant corporations work overtime to control what you own. This means they do not have to seize what you own so long as their control provides them with both riches and power over you.

Let’s spell this out with specifics. Our Constitution starts with the words, “We the People…”; it doesn’t start with ‘we the corporations’ or ‘we the Congress’ or ‘we the super-rich.’ The sovereign authority under the Constitution is us; we the people are the bosses. But we give our power away to the Big Boys who run the big companies that control most of our elected politicians. The politicians in turn proceed to corrupt our elections with campaign money, gerrymandering, deceitful ads, voter obstructions, and a totally dominant two-party duopoly. This corporate state destroys competitive democracy which would give our votes meaning, choices, and effectiveness.

Shouldn’t we be discussing why, when we own the vast federal public land, one-third of America – and the vast public airwaves, do we give control of these resources to corporations every day of the year to profit from at our expense? We give the television and radio stations, that block our voices, free control and use of the airwaves, 24/7. We receive very little in royalties from the energy, mining, timber, and grazing companies extracting huge wealth from our federal lands.

We send our tax dollars to Washington, D.C., and the federal government gives trillions of these dollars to companies in the form of subsidies and bailouts.

Trillions of dollars are devoted to government research and development (R&D), which has built or expanded private companies. These include such industries as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, military weapons, computers, internet, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and containerization.

Our taxpayer-funded R&D is essentially given away free to these for-profit businesses. We the People receive no royalties nor profit-sharing returns on these public investments. Worse, we pay gouging prices for drugs and other products developed with our tax dollars.

We have trillions of dollars in savings and retirement money placed in giant mutual and pension funds. The managers of these institutions make big profits by investing your money in the stock and bond markets. If you controlled these trillions of dollars in stocks and bonds that you own, that is if there was real shareholder and bondholder power, you would control the ownership of all the big companies and turn the tables on the Big Bosses. Polls show a big majority of people think Big Business has too much power and control over us. Nonetheless, we regularly give these plutocrats control over what we own.

We own our personal information. Yet, we give it totally free to the likes of Facebook, Google, Instagram, and YouTube, etc. so they can make trillions of dollars selling data on what we buy, what we like, what we think, and what we’re addicted to in the marketplace. The advertisers then pester us 24/7 and even betray our trust. Imagine Alexa eavesdropping in our homes and businesses. High-tech companies should not be privy to our personal information.

Unfortunately, giving companies our personal information, from which they profit immensely and gouge and penalize us profusely, started long ago. The moment we took out credit cards, for example, we began to lose control of our money and our privacy. With the internet, companies are generating new payment-system controls, with their dictatorial fine-print agreements and never-ending additional surcharges, driven by their greedy overreaches.

People spend lots of time just trying to get through to these companies for refunds, adjustments, corrections, and simple answers to their questions.

Why have we handed over the enormous assets we own to this expanding corporate state? Why have we surrendered to statism or corporate socialism? The corporate “Borg” is sucking the ready availability of the good life, decent, secure livelihoods assured by our collective self-reliance, and the freedom to shape our future out of our political economy.

Why are we allowing the United States – this rich land of ours – to have so many impoverished, powerless people, dominated by the few? With ever greater concentration or powers under corrupt Trumpism and its corporate supremacists, control of our lives is getting worse.

It starts with us being indoctrinated into being powerless (civic skills and practice are not taught in schools). This leads to the people not taking control of Congress (only 535 of them). We are allowing elections and debates to ignore raising these basic democratic issues of who owns what and who should control our commonwealth.

David Bollier and his colleagues are working to have adults and students learn about the commons – owned by all of us – and the few examples of people sharing in our commonwealth. Through the Alaska Permanent Fund, every Alaskan gets about $2000 a year from the royalties’ oil companies pay for taking the people’s oil from that state.

If you’re interested in reading further about the “commons” we own but do not control go to bollier.org and breakingthroughpower.org. It’s in our hands!

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

WHAT WE KNOW About the Allegations of Forced Hysterectomies at an ICE Facility

Whistleblower allegations of forced hysterectomies leave troubling questions and reveal a system ripe for abuse

rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/hysterectomies-ice-allegations-whistleblower-georgia-1062429/

EXTENDED CLEAN-UP

To the Editor:

I’m pleased to see that Coastal Cleanup Day has expanded to a month of Saturdays in September, and that we are encouraged to pick up trash in our neighborhoods. I propose residents take five minutes each week, all year round to walk our property that abuts roads and dispose of the accumulated trash. That way it doesn’t build up and get so gross!

I regularly ride my bike around the valley and am amazed, appalled and disheartened by the amount of debris scattered on the sides of our community roads. Most prominent in the litter are (recyclable) 16oz. plastic water bottles. I pick up about 4 each week. Other common litter items are beer, soda and “energy drink” cans and bottles, fast food cups, utensils and wrappings, plastic and cardboard case containers, cardboard boxes, items of clothing (from underwear to sweatshirts), plastic packing material, lighters, candy wrappers, cigarette packs and empty plastic ice bags. I’ve also found three dead animals (2 dogs and a cat) wrapped in plastic bags. And there’s currently a hot water heater littering Eastside Road if anyone cares to pick it up.

Since Covid, there are now masks and latex gloves, more plastic bags and take-out containers, and hard alcohol bottles tossed on the side of the road.

Why do we do this to our community? Out of sight out of mind? Some of this garbage winds up in the creeks, rivers and ocean where it kills birds, fish and sea mammals. It accumulates in the “Great Pacific garbage patch,” roughly 600,000 square miles of non-biodegradable micro plastics that enter our bloodstream when we eat seafood.

I’d like to thank all the considerate drivers who share the road so generously with bicyclists. Now, can we just stop littering?

Robin Goldner

Willits

FOUND OBJECT