MCT: Tuesday, September 29, 2020

• Fire Weather
• Glass Fire
• August Complex
• Hummer Rescue
• Hot Afternoon
• Hard Times
• 939 Cases
• Suspect Updates
• Black Market
• Recent Fires
• Pike Fetched
• Ignoring Marbut
• Sentinel Bridge
• Equal Justice
• Old Ukiah
• Ed Notes
• Ism Challenge
• Yesterday's Catch
• Debate Denigration
• Corner Changes
• Trump's Taxes
• Succession Fear
• Old Gits
• Democratic Party
• Nader's Advice
• Disaster Movies
• Sludge Match
• Take 146
• Comments
• Teaching Internship
• Body Heat

DRY AND UNSEASONABLY WARM CONDITIONS are expected to continue this week. Most areas will continue to see smoke impacts. Coastal marine clouds and fog is gradually moving north along the Mendocino Coast and will continue to move north over the next 24 hours. (NWS)

GLASS FIRE, September 29, 2020

CAL FIRE INCIDENT UPDATE (Tuesday morning): twitter.com/CAL_FIRE/status/1310969397347938304/

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GLASS FIRE NOW 42,560 ACRES; Initial Count Says 28 Sonoma County Homes Destroyed

Nearly 1,500 firefighters are now battling flames on the Glass fire straddling Napa and Sonoma counties in substantially calmer conditions than those that drove the blaze across the Mayacamas Mountains on Sunday night. Whether aircraft will join the effort remained in question early Tuesday, given a marine layer that came in overnight and was holding dense smoke against the earth’s surface.

pressdemocrat.com/article/news/cautious-optimism-for-the-glass-fire-on-tuesday/

AUGUST COMPLEX, STATUS UPDATE (Tuesday morning)

(Redding, CA) – Wind gusts continue to push the fire west, prompting evacuation orders to the Trinity County line and evacuation warnings in Humboldt County. High winds are forecast throughout the day today, with gusts exceeding 30 miles per hour and potentially accelerating down the west slope of South Fork Mountain, threatening communities to the west and north. The Ruth Valley and Mad River Valley are aligned to funnel the forecast winds and encourage fire spread in these areas. Residents are urged to comply with evacuation orders and to stay out of the area. Many roads are impassable due to fire and fallen trees. The fire remains extremely active; winds are carrying embers well beyond containment lines, and there is high potential for the fire to develop an active plume. 

As fire activity increases with the winds and the heat of the day, large smoke columns are expected to form. Like thunderheads, columns build and then collapse. Collapsing columns are extremely dangerous, violently forcing winds outward, carrying fire and live embers far and wide. Extreme conditions are forecast into the evening; the Red Flag Warning is expected to end by 9pm. 

Live embers were documented landing 8 miles ahead of the active fire front on Sunday. Spot fires ignited beyond control lines east of Forest Glen, north of State Route 36, and west of South Fork Mountain. The fires advanced to Ruth Lake and to the west side of the lake by afternoon. Crews are responding to the spot fires as conditions permit, working through the night. Firefighters continue to focus on firefighter and public safety, as well as point protection for structures. 

New closures include all roads in Van Duzen, Mad River, Ruth, and Hettenshaw areas. Ruth Zenia Road is closed east of the US Forest Service Zenia Guard Station. The closure for State Route 36 now extends from the Humboldt County line on the west to the junction with Bowman Road on the east. New evacuation orders include Mad River, Lower Mad River Road, Zenia, and Kettenpom. 

Smoke will likely move back into the region in the next day or two, calming fire behavior. Hot, dry weather will persist with prime conditions for continued fire growth. The winds are presently aiding containment work on the east flank. Crews continue to hold and improve the fireline, preparing for the return of seasonal winds from the southwest.

(Cal Fire)

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AUGUST COMPLEX - WEST ZONE EVACUATION ORDER For Lower Indian Dick Road And Bauer Subdivision In Mendocino County

Mendocino County - Evacuation Order for Zone E.1

Effective Immediately

Evacuation Order Area of Mendocino County:

Zone E.1: North of Mendocino Pass Road (FH7), east of the Middle Fork of the Eel River, south of Bar Creek, west of Nebo Rock (to include Bauer Subdivision).

Road Closures:

FH7 (Mendocino Pass Road) and M1 (Indian Dick Road) at Eel River

Notes:

The public is reminded to stay vigilant on current fire conditions. Please continue to adhere to road closures and any Evacuation Warnings and Evacuation Orders. Please remember to drive slowly and yield to emergency personnel in the area. There may still be smoke in the respective areas as firefighters continue their suppression operations. 

The Mendocino National Forest will remain closed, for updated forest closures, visit: http://www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino

View the most current evacuation map at: https://tinyurl.com/mendoevac

For more information about wildfire preparedness visit: www.readyforwildfire.org

JUST IN from Katy Tahja: Animal rescue of the tiniest sort in Comptche — very small Anna’s hummingbird banging itself around the interior of the Comptche post office… won’t fly out the open door. Very tall local guy Brian Davis enters, and stretching, captures a cobwebby dusty exhausted little bird and places it on the top of the newspaper machine on the porch and photographs the tiny thing which is not moving, and shares the photo. Hummingbird lover Ruby Maddock sees the photo, grabs some simple syrup she uses in her hummingbird feeder and a flower blossom and headed to the PO. She drips syrup on the blossom and rubs the edge on the hummingbird’s beak. Guess what? It drank, and started fluttering as Ruby gently removed cobwebs from it. Since this was creating a minor sensation among folks waiting their turn to talk to Judi Macdonald, our postmistress, Ruby decided to take the bird home (less than a mile away). A bystander went in and checked the recycle trash can and found a small cardboard box. Into it went a few leaves, a trembling but now alert hummer, and off they went. We had nothing but best hopes for the tiny critter.

SUNDAY AT NASH MILL

MARCO ON THE ROAD

On 9/27/2020 9:08 PM, Lenny wrote (Coast Listserve): “That has been named the Zogg Fire. It started today, 9/27, and has already burned 7,000 acres.” https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/9/27/zogg-fire/

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Marco here. There's an old Gary Larson cartoon about a caveman with a cigaret lighter at a cave party, and another caveman says, "Look what Zog do."

I'm in Albion now for a few days. I left Cotati and had no trouble breathing; the sun going down was pretty again, all brown-red-Caltrans-orange. But Juanita just texted me, just now, and for a wonder I got it; the cell service is really erratic up Albion Ridge Road. She said a little earlier she could see hills on fire from where she works in Santa Rosa. I'm on dialup in Albion, so I don't know the name of what fire she's talking about there. Wait, hold on, she just sent: "SoCo sheriff says there are multiple fast moving fires on Los Alamos road and St. Helena Road." That's the last thing I hope I get from her; she should already be asleep; she has to get up at 4:30am.

When I left, her apartment was still over 90 degrees inside, so I opened a window a little for the pet bird and, also for the bird, because of the brown air, I turned the motor on the air filter all the way up, produced it's favorite treat, a hard noodle to hold in one foot and shred while happily dancing around on the other foot, making appreciative gargling noises.

In Cloverdale a girl had a big SUV full of all her things, and her pay card wouldn't work, and her motor wouldn't start again. A tiny but immensely strong Mexican man and I pushed her truck into a parking space (I was straining as hard as I could and he ran up and practically pushed it out from under me). After all the stuff I had to pay off this week I had five dollars left till Thursday after getting gas, so I gave that to her and told her good luck. I think she saw the duct tape holding my headlight together; she wanted to give me some weed. No, thank you, that's very generous but I don't smoke. I wish I had told her to ask other people for gas and for help getting started and whatever in all the lights and people there, and sleep there if she has to but don't hitchhike, but I only thought of that once I was already going again.

What a mess. How hard things are for people.

I'm almost at the end of the Roger Zelazny /Amber/ books again, /again/. I like them enough to just read them in a circle. Roger Zelazny is like my noodle. And Paul McHugh has written another book; I think this is his fourth or fifth book. He's gonna send me a copy either in the mail or on the web, whichever suits him, and maybe in a couple weeks he'll call me on the radio and talk about it. Right out of the box, when he was in school, he had a rich, deep, avuncular voice. You might have heard him and not even known. In the 1970s there was a pet food company market-testing dry dog food with enough cheese in it to make it taste like cheese but not quite enough to give dogs diarrhea -- there's a sweet spot right in the middle, there -- and the announcer starts the teevee commercial: "Dogs... love... cheese." That's Paul McHugh. And he's a pretty good writer, too. He was /the/ outdoor adventure reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle for like twenty years. He kayaked up the West Coast to Alaska and back. He wrestled a bear in a bar.

— Marco McClean

FIVE NEW COVID CASES in Mendocino County on Monday. Total now 939. 108 active with 7 in hospital/ICU.

NINJA STYLE ARMED ROBBERY & MURDER SUSPECTS NABBED

Original Press Release

On Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020 at approximately 10:02 AM, a CALFIRE law enforcement prevention officer contacted an adult male on Highway 162 approximately .5 miles from the intersection of Highway 101.

Upon contact the adult male reported being the victim of an armed robbery which had occurred approximately 20 minutes prior to the contact.

The adult male advised there had been 3-4 suspects armed with assault weapon style rifles and being dressed in body armor. The suspects had potentially fled southbound of Highway 101 in a black Chevrolet Tahoe and gray Toyota Tacoma.

This information was broadcast by radio to on-duty personnel with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, California Highway Patrol and Ukiah Police Department.

A Sheriff's Office Sergeant was on routine patrol on Highway 20 east of Potter Valley when he saw two vehicles matching the suspect vehicle descriptions.

He attempted a traffic stop on the black Chevrolet Tahoe, which failed to stop and instead accelerated to speeds over 100 MPH. A vehicle pursuit was initiated with the assistance of the California Highway Patrol (CHP).

The Chevrolet Tahoe continued several miles eastbound on Highway 20 before making a U-turn and headed westbound on Highway 20 for a short time before turning onto a rural parcel of property near Mile Post Marker 41, which was on the east side of the highway.

The Chevrolet Tahoe continued along a poor conditioned dirt road which led up into the wooded hillside. Fearing an ambush, the patrol Sergeant discontinued the pursuit and began to establish a search perimeter.

During the Chevrolet Tahoe pursuit, a Deputy responding to assist the Sergeant was able to conduct a traffic stop on the Toyota Tacoma.

The Deputy identified the driver as being Jesus Estevan Vargas Jr. and a subsequent investigation resulted in his arrest in connection with the reported armed robbery.

During the establishment of the search perimeter the Sergeant learned of a possible exit point to the east along Highway 101. The Sergeant took position at this eastern location to intercept the Chevrolet Tahoe.

A short time later a few gunshots were heard and then a person was heard screaming. Sometime thereafter, law enforcement personnel on the search perimeter were contacted by two adult males. Deputies learned the adult males had been kidnapped during the armed robbery and had been bound by zip-ties and their heads covered by some type material.

They reported the Chevrolet Tahoe had become disabled on the dirt road and one of the adult male victims was shot in the back while trying to escape. The adult victims reported the two suspects fled on foot, were armed with assault style rifles and clothed in body armor.

The adult male victim with the gunshot wound to the back of his shoulder was transported by air ambulance to an out of county hospital for medical treatment.

Based upon the circumstances of the situation a request was made for the Mendocino County Multi-Agency SWAT team who later arrived on scene.

The SWAT team utilized the armored Citizen Rescue Vehicle (CRV) and drove to the area of the disabled Chevrolet Tahoe. At the same time, H-14 (CHP Helicopter) began providing aerial assistance to the SWAT team.

As H-14 conducted overflight operations they were able to locate one of the suspects in the wooden terrain uphill from the disabled Chevrolet Tahoe. This suspect disarmed himself and surrendered to the SWAT team by walking downhill to their position.

H-14 continued overflight operations and located the second suspect nearby to where the first suspect was first observed. H-14 was able to identify the second suspect as being armed with a handgun and rifle.

Sometime thereafter, several gunshots were heard which were attributed to the second suspect and H-14 continued to observe his location.

During this time H-14 radioed to the SWAT team that the suspect had possibly suffered a self inflicted gunshot wound but was still making body movements which showed he was alive and still a potential danger as he was still armed.

As H-14 began to exhaust their fuel, a mutual aid request was sent to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office for their helicopter Henry-1, which subsequently arrived on scene. When H-14 left for refueling, Henry-1 assumed overflight operations and assisted SWAT team members in safely approaching the second suspect.

At this time, H-14 was able to return to the scene to provide further assistance as Henry-1 was exhausting their fuel.

The SWAT team was able to take the second suspect into custody and noticed he needed immediate medical treatment due to a self inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

A SWAT team medic began life saving treatment and the second suspect was immediately transported by Sheriff's Office vehicle to the staging area near Highway 101 where an ambulance and H-14 was waiting. The second suspect was prepped for flight and H-14 transported him to an out of county hospital for medical treatment.

Sheriff's Detectives are conducting ongoing investigations at this time into the reported robbery and kidnapping.

At this time it appears the robbery and kidnapping was connected to a marijuana sale/purchase transaction between the involved individuals.

One law enforcement member experienced a heat related emergency at the conclusion of the several hour event and had to be transported to Adventist Health- Ukiah Valley by ambulance where he was treated/released.

There were no other law enforcement injuries and no shots were fired by law enforcement personnel during the incident/operation.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office would like to thank the following agencies for their assistance during this incident/operation:

CALFIRE (Prevention Officer) California Highway Patrol (Officers and H-14) Sonoma County Sheriff's Office (Deputies and Henry-1) Ukiah Police Department MedStar Ambulance Potter Valley Fire Department

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THE FOLLOWING ARE UPDATES on the status of the listed suspects in this investigation/case:

Suspect Jesus Estevan Vargas Jr., 41, of Moreno Valley [near Riverside] (Driving Toyota Tacoma) was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of robbery kidnapping and criminal conspiracy. He is currently being held at the Mendocino County Jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail.

Suspect Roy Ha, 27, of Las Vegas (Surrendered after Chevrolet Tahoe pursuit) was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of attempted murder, robbery, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy. He is currently being held at the Mendocino County Jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail.

Suspect Adult male (Suffered self inflicted gunshot wound after Chevrolet Tahoe pursuit) received emergency life saving surgery at an out of county hospital and is alive at this time. He has yet to be booked into the Mendocino County Jail and he is under guard watch at the hospital pending any future release.

SHERIFF KENDALL:

September has been an extremely hard month for Mendocino County.

If the wildfires in our County being the worst in recorded history wasn’t distressing enough, crimes like the one that occurred yesterday, September 27, 2020, also reflect some of the worst criminal activity our County has seen.

These issues are causing me to reach out to the people of Mendocino County.

As we move forward towards the future I believe it is time we
reexamine where Mendocino County is going with several of these
issues. Recently we learned of an incident where fire personnel have been threatened, intimidated and ordered by illegal marijuana growers to water their marijuana crops with water tenders, which have been dedicated to the fire suppression efforts. There has also been theft of water supply systems that have been put in place to draw water for fire suppression efforts in the field, thus cutting response times to get more water to the fire lines.

Even more concerning to me, as we further investigate the kidnapping and robbery case which began on the Covelo Road, we learned these men were planning on murdering deputies if they were discovered and detained. These subjects were not residents of Mendocino County, coming from the state of Nevada and Riverside County California. However, they were drawn here by the lure of easy money. Monies that are funding the problems we are experiencing now. We see this time and time again. People from outside of Mendocino County and well outside of the law are continually drawn here like a moth to a flame.

The suspects, in this case, were equipped with military-grade weapons, and body armor. They had planned to open fire on deputies with these weapons. Our brave men and women who serve Mendocino County aren’t paid to be murdered. I will not stand by and allow this to happen.

I fear robberies, murder and constant threat to human life will become the new normal for Mendocino County if we don’t try to address the problem now. I have grown weary of hearing marijuana is a victimless crime. If this were true, we would not be dealing with murders and robberies clearly tied to marijuana. We can clearly see criminals lured by greed, and greed, in turn, leads to a marked increase in violence.

Anything causing this much violence must be stopped.

I have grown weary of hearing the marijuana trade is providing an economic base for our county. I don’t believe this. This falsehood is reflective in our County's general fund budget. The multibillion-dollar industry has provided us no financial benefit in taxes however has continued the social degradation combined with damage to the environment. The violence has become too much for our county to carry. Now is the time to stop pretending the illegal marijuana trade is a good thing.

I can’t count the number of calls we receive from residents in our rural areas who are tired of being intimidated and are tired of sheltering in their homes while armed subjects roam vast areas of the county protecting their crops. Gunfire is heard all night in the rural areas within our county. It is being used as a constant warning to anyone who would venture out of their homes in the evening and night.

The Round Valley area is approximately 19 square miles. Our best estimation is there are over one million marijuana plants cultivated in Round Valley every year. Round Valley is approximately 0.5% of the total landmass of Mendocino County. This is completely out of hand.

The market has been so saturated we can’t possibly expect the legal market could support this much marijuana. My estimation is less than 1 percent of the marijuana produced in Mendocino County is for the legal market.

I continue to support legal marijuana cultivation in Mendocino County as the laws are clear in California. I applaud those who strive to build this emerging market. We owe it to the folks working in this emergent industry to protect them as well.

The people involved in the illegal market must be dealt with in order to provide safety for our county. This industry has run wild with little to no enforcement against those who will continue to murder, rob and intimidate. We must take a hard look at the systems in place, we must look with honestly and recognize these systems aren’t working.

Recent changes in legislation, with little to no planning to deal with the consequences, are placing all rural counties at risk. While the state fails to address the illegal marijuana problem, we are tasked with unfunded mandates, which take away from the work we should be doing.

Simply changing the law does not stop people from being victimized. We are in a strange time where we have forgotten about the rights of our victims, and the good people in our communities. It is clear everyone knows their rights, however, many have forgotten their responsibilities.

I will be taking a much harder line on those who choose to work in the black market. The future of our county is dependent on the decisions we make today. 

Staffing and personnel have always been an issue for Mendocino County. While other departments have grown at a staggering pace, the Sheriff’s Office has the same number of patrol personnel that we had when I was born, 51 years ago. This has to be dealt with. The safety of our citizens demands it.

I am asking all residents of Mendocino County to stand with me and with our Board of Supervisors to give this problem top priority. Our Board of Supervisors has shown time and time again they support public safety.

We all need to stand together to secure the personnel needed to truly combat this problem. We simply need the support of our communities to say enough is enough.

I will be moving more personnel into the Detectives Bureau as well as the Marijuana Enforcement Unit, however, these personnel will leave a void in the patrol force if we don’t begin some growth in our numbers.

Mendocino County has always been resilient and strong, our pioneering spirit is unmatched. We can deal with this problem if we have the support of our communities.

I know our Board of Supervisors agrees with me that all Mendocino County residents deserve a better quality of life. I’m asking each of you to contact your Supervisor by reaching out to them on social media or just tag them in a comment below. Let them know you stand with us in wanting all of us to live in a safer community.

RECENT FIRES, North Bay Region (courtesy SF Chron)

OFFICER DOG SNAGS PIKE

On Saturday, September 26, 2020 at about 4:19 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the 26000 block of Sherwood Road (Willits) in an attempt to locate and arrest Kevin Gary Pike, 37, of Willits for a felony no cite warrant. 

The warrant was issued by California State Parole on August 20, 2020 for Violation of Parole. Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived in the area and located Pike at the rear of his residence. Pike started to flee down the hillside, but was quickly stopped and apprehended with the assistance of K9 Ruddick. Pike surrendered without incident. Pike was transported to the Mendocino County Jail and booked for violation of parole were he was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail. 

HOW TO IGNORE MARBUT’S CORE RECOMMENDATION…

From Sunday's UDJ article by Justine Fredericksen about the Ukiah City Council meeting on the County’s homelessness plan: 

“…For example, [Deputy Ukiah City Manager Shannon] Riley pointed out that ‘some of Marbut’s recommendations centered around the prioritization of services to Mendocino County residents, and ultimately, since that report was released in 2017, it’s been determined that that is potentially illegal and would set the service providers up for lawsuits on grounds of discrimination’.”

Something tells us that a non-resident transient is not likely to bring a lawsuit, never mind that the city wouldn’t be liable for it if they did and nobody at the County level expressed any such concern in over three years, even if some crazy lawyer thought there might be money in it…

SENTINEL BRIDGE

LOPSIDED SCALES OF JUSTICE

by Marilyn Davin

I didn’t hear a peep of protest out of anyone from either party when our cynical politician-in-chief announced, before her body was even cold, that he would nominate a woman to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. I doubt that the shameless sexism of his announcement even registered with the country’s stable of “progressive” liberals who are supposed to be alert to this sort of thing since not a one among them publicly raised his or her voice. It would have been political suicide. Imagine, if you will, that Trump had declared instead that he would choose a seasoned man for the job. Women would have gone batshit and filled the streets with injured protest. The time has come, brothers and sisters, to right this entrenched wrong that has been vested upon men, to not only recognize but deeply believe that social equity is like the proverbial balloon that pooches out in unanticipated places when you squeeze it. Artificially (read politically) favoring one disadvantaged group over another should never be the antidote to historic injustice – equality for all should always be the goal. It’s time to bring blindfolded Lady Justice into the twenty-first century. 

As hard and pitiless as today’s America is on all but the corporately enriched, men have been disproportionate casualties. It’s been a process, beginning with the offshore outsourcing of manufacturing jobs held mostly by men. When presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that, in the interests of climate change, all coal mining should be relegated to the slag heap sooner rather than later, I reflected on my first reporter’s job in Charleston, West Virginia, much of it spent in the coal fields in the southern half of the state. Unless you had the uncommon good luck to snag a government job, the only other decent-paying jobs were in the coal mines: it was that or minimum wage at Walmart. Years later I worked at an electric utility in western Pennsylvania, where thousands of men had lost good-paying jobs in the steel mills that had all moved to cheap-labor countries, enriching their corporate shareholders and shifting their concerns away from their country and its countrymen to their corporations, entities that recognize no sovereign boundary. In both of these cases (and in many other industries), a different sort of country would have considered the enormous social consequences of these decisions─one narrowly environmental, the other a naked by-product of corporate greed─and created meaningful employment alternatives for their displaced skilled trades people, virtually all of whom were men. None of that happened. 

The off shoring of well-paid manufacturing jobs is but one aspect of the nation’s employment realities, which are today especially hard on young people seeking entry into a diminishing pool of decent-paying jobs. The Pew Research Center, citing Census Bureau data, recently reported that in July, 52% of young adults lived with one or both parents, up from 47% just since February. The analysis tallied those percentages and concluded that the number living with parents grew to 26.6 million, an increase of 2.6 million for the same time period. This is a mind-blowing generational shift for Baby Boomers like me who moved out of the house at 17 and came home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Given this prolonged reality of parental dependence and the dearth of decent jobs, women are doing better than men on several fronts. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, women now hold more jobs than men; in fact, there are now 109,000 more women working than men. In a recent Forbes magazine story on the labor report, Ariane Hegewish, program director of Employment and Earnings at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, described job-growth declines in predominantly male industries and increases in predominantly female jobs like education and healthcare. The labor stats reveal more of the same for education, where women now earn more degrees than men. For the graduating class of 2016-2017, women earned 57.3% of bachelor’s degrees, 59.4% of master’s degrees and 53.3% of doctorate degrees, all three associated with higher lifetime earnings. 

These stats do not mean that women or men should be paid differently or that the Father Knows Best social model should be dragged out of mothballs and dusted off to turn back the clock. What it does demand is a clear-eyed focus on gender equality in all situations for both men and women, and on a government that’s unafraid to buck prevailing in-vogue political biases in the interests of providing equity and dignity for everyone.

What does it mean to be a man, anyway? Young men are bombarded with violent films featuring handsome macho-men pursuing and defending pin-up gorgeous women (who, increasingly, are toting their own assault rifles). Yet on college campuses and in the workplace young men are expected to act as if gender differences don’t exist, a dicey expectation given the double whammy of the driving male biological imperative and current semi-nude young female fashion trends. Young men have told me that they feel uncomfortable about even telling a woman she looks nice for fear of a career-ending charge of sexism. 

In this environment some young men choose to opt out of the whole find-a-mate dating thing altogether. This is reflected in the astounding growth of internet porn. A recent article on menshealth.com ranked free porn sites and concluded that Pornhub is “basically the Library of Congress of Porn,” racking up 25.4 million unique (or distinct) monthly visitors. Remember back in the 80s when social pundits predicted that readily available porn would turn men into sex maniacs? The opposite has proved to be true. Writing in New York Magazine, Naomi Wolf wrote that, “The onslaught of porn is responsible for deadening male libido in relation to real women, and leading men to see fewer and fewer women as “porn-worthy.” Wolf went on to observe that pornography “lowers the value of real, willing but imperfect sexual partners in favor of an endless stream of ever-more-transgressive images of cybersex slaves.”

Why trouble to venture out in the cold, cruel world to find a non-cyber, flesh-and-blood partner when you can find exactly what you desire to scratch that itch with a mouse click in the privacy of your bedroom? 

All of these societal tensions together have played out politically in both positive and negative ways. On the positive side, there are much greater opportunities for women. On the negative side think Trump’s “angry white male” base, disenfranchised and pissed off at being left behind in today’s ruthlessly capitalistic economy – and blaming women and minorities for their troubles. This is especially ironic since, aside from handing out red MAGA hats, Trump has done absolutely nothing to address their grievances.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. In intervening years others have been brought into the shelter of this umbrella. It’s something to always keep in mind as politics drive favoritism of one group over another and both parties choose political expediency of the moment over justice for everyone. Because the truth is that in the long run everyone benefits from the true equality Lady Justice represents for all of us, equal justice that would never accept either a gender litmus test (Trump on the Supreme Court seat) or a racial test (Biden on his pledge to choose a woman of color as his running mate). 

OLD UKIAH

ED NOTES

TRUMP only paid $750 in federal income tax, and nothing at all most years? Are you telling me the tax system favors the rich, that a lot of them pay no taxes? Shocking, absolutely shocking.

PROPS? President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, was called a “white colonizer” for adopting two black children from Haiti and using them as “props” while “cutting the biological parents out of the picture of humanity.” The charge was leveled by Ibram X. Kendi, a history professor and founder and director of Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research. “Some White colonizers adopted Black children to civilize these savage children in the superior ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity.” Wonder how many black children the professor has adopted, there being thousands of eligible black children in this country without permanent homes? I'd agree with the professor if he'd asked why Judge Barrett didn't adopt American, but the two children she did adopt are very fortunate.

THUMBING through the current issue of Time's “100 Most Influential People” I couldn't find a single one I could say has influenced me, except, perhaps, Dr. Fauci, my go-to guy on plague. Most of these influencers are new people representative of the Woke generation.The ones I do recognize, especially the literary ones, don't offer much in the way of art, but as Gore Vidal famously remarked, “Lack of talent is no longer enough.”

SPEAKING of literary, this pivotal moment in American history doesn't have anyone left capable of chronicling it as the departed giants of yesterday might have. This bizarre president presiding over serial catastrophes, social and natural, but where are the writers to put it all in perspective, where's Norman Mailer, Phillip Roth, James Baldwin, Joan Dideon, and even farther back Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton? 

THE ABOVE PHOTO remembers the Manson Family's stay in the Anderson Valley, specifically in a rental on Gschwend Road, Navarro. It's not known if Big Chuck was present with his harem, or only visited occasionally seeing he was on the road a lot on recruiting trips. Some of the Navarro girls were later implicated in the family's murders, but during their Anderson Valley sojourn they contented themselves with introducing dope into the community (not a hard sell) and titillating passing locals as they walked around nude in their front yard. The murders they were suspected of committing by Sheriff Bartolomie was, it turns out, the work of a Ukiah-based CHP officer, an account of which can be found in the ava's vast archive at: https://www.theava.com/archives/250

SMOKE from the fires raging to the south of us have again thickened Mendo’s air to an ash-laden and eye-watering fog, turning the setting sun tangerine orange, again. The ABC Evening News gave us clips of local vineyard owners V. Sattui and Steve Ledson describing the terrible property losses they've suffered in the Napa Valley. 

BEST COP open field tackle of the week: That take down of the berserk former Trump official in front of his house, played and re-played on the Evening News.

THE ISM CHALLENGE

Dear Editor,

A few issues ago, readers were offered a challenge to come up with reasonable ideas about socialism, anarchism, communism, and the like. In acceptance of the challenge, I would offer the following:

Few contemporaries seem able to distinguish between socialism and social democracy, probably because definitions shift over time, and ideas that appear similar can sometimes get mixed up. But, 150 years ago, during Marx's heyday, socialism signified socializing ownership of the means of production, also known as abolishing private property, as well as nationalization. This was regarded as possible if broad support elevated a workers' party into political power. But, outside of a minority of militants, workers hardly were attracted to socialism due to their more immediate interests in universal suffrage, union rights, the eight-hour work day, abolishing child labor, etc. Even the socialism of early Marx seemed a bit tenuous when he wrote that “the abolition of private property is inconceivable, except as the abolition of labor.” Marx knew that human labor creates private property, so how can private property be abolished while in the process of being created? For as long as human labor is required to overcome scarcity, humans cannot efficiently labor without a division of labor, and a division of labor needs to be mediated by the state, which situations cannot be overcome until human labor is rather completely replaced with machine labor, all of the necessities of life become free, and there's no property to squabble over anymore.

The abolition of human labor is a concept that Marx occasionally teased, hinting that such a world would be different indeed. People would no longer be divided between workers and owners. This classless and stateless society approximates Marx's higher phase of communist society, famously characterized by “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” Given the double exponential acceleration of productivity, the abolition of human labor is not all that far away, if we can avoid making the planet uninhabitable in the meantime. Eco-disaster vs. liberation is a tight race, with or without a madman in the White House.

Secondly, social democracy was a major political goal for much of the western world, and was very much supported by Marx. In essence, it meant universal suffrage, a tool that was unavailable under the monarchies dominating much of Europe. Few democracies existed in 1800, some sources counting only the USA, but getting up to 10 by 1900, and around 100 today. World political history in the 1800s was largely that of replacing absolute monarchies with democratic republics, either bourgeois republics or universal republics. A bourgeois republic was democratic, but only for property owners. American male wage earners generally did not vote until 1856. A lack of suffrage might have been tolerable while tilling the soil was nearly inescapable as a life's labor, but the accelerating growth of cities, railroads and industries pressured expansion of the voter base.

Thirdly, the schism between anarchism and socialism proves unbridgeable and divisive, and lies at the root of much of the sectarianism that plagues the left right up to today, often rendering cooperation impossible or iffy. Many an anarchist would swear on a stack of Communist Manifestos that they want to abolish private property as fervently as any socialist, but abolishing the state and replacing it with a classless and stateless administration of things is incompatible with replacing a monarchy or a bourgeois republic with a socialist workers' state. The differences in the agendas were palpable enough in the past to have led to bloodshed. To pose any kind of threat to capitalism, the ideological left would have to unite behind a common agenda, but their deep differences often prevent that.

Finally, the differences between communism and socialism are not very great. Communism is sometimes used to describe the forceful expropriation of private property without compensation, as when Lenin decreed after the Bolshevik Revolution that: "All private ownership of land is abolished immediately without compensation." On the other hand, the term socialism has been used to describe the more civil nationalization of private property WITH compensation. Before Lenin, Marx used the term communism to distinguish his bolder views from the fuzzier brands of socialism in his day.

In conclusion, it should hopefully be clearer by now why pursuing a left agenda that includes diminishing or denigrating the institutions of private property and capitalism was obsolete on the day it was thought up. No radical ism can apply during the era of human labor. If socialism would remain a goal for some, then it should be recalled what Engels wrote to a friend: “We are evolutionists.” Evolution may seem tedious today, but the double exponential acceleration of tech progress will soon take care of that.

Ken Ellis 

New Bedford, MA

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 28, 2020

TRINITY AMADOR, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

RICARDO GARCIA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-under influence, paraphernalia, parole violation.

ROY HA, Las Vegas/Ukiah. Attempted murder, kidapping for robbery and/or rape, robbery in concert of inhabited dwelling, conspiracy.

NICHOLAS JIMENEZ, DUI, misdemeanor hit&run. 

JOSHUA MORALES, Ukiah. Domestic battery, false imprisonment.

RICHARD OLSTAD, Fort Bragg. Community supervision violation.

KEVIN PIKE, Willits. Parole violation.

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

KATALIN TOROK, Sacramento/Ukiah. DUI.

JESUS VARGAS JR., Moreno Valley/Ukiah. Kidapping for robbery and/or rape, robbery in concert of inhabited dwelling, conspiracy.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Biden will show up for the debate and probably perform better than expected, but remember that expectations are already low. However he performs, he will be declared the winner. Trump needs to make his case without seeming to intimidate the old man. Isn’t it sad that our political system has degenerated to this point; that an electoral cycle depends on theatre?

STATE & STANDLEY, 1870s-Today

DOWN YOU GO, FATSO! THE PERILS OF TRUMPTY DUMPTY

He uses his 39% support to make big noise, taking up far more noise-space than it would if not for a compliant media--a conundrum in American journalism forever: Very rich people own the news media, and very average people (except for Rachel et al) staff them. If the rich owners insist on catering only to their class, they won't sell much ad space--broadcast, online or print--and they'll be limited to glossy platforms that smell of expensive perfume. So they try to steer their news teams away from the REALLY UGLY disclosures that cover them and their friends with poo, disclosures like the NY Times ones that busted out today about The Donald's missing taxes.

Enter MAGA. These are pissed-off people who hate sneering liberals and slick coasties and put on their maga hats and their motorcycle colors, grab a big flag and saddle up for the next maskless event to cheer their flagging lord and piss off the despicable know-it-all--Objective One.

Of course they admire his taxlessness, and it's all a hoax anyway. ("Truth" is for suckers and losers, anyhow.)

But the Times investigation is in a hard-ass jurisdiction that is outside the presidential pardon-machine. They plan to LOCK HIM UP!

— Mitch Clogg

HOW WILL JOE BIDEN FARE in the nationally televised debate against Donald Trump, this coming Tuesday night? 

The New York Time’s ever clueless Nicholas Kristof, prattling on from within his bubble of Liberal Class insularity and attendant magical thinking, advised Biden to use humour and wit to deflate Trump’s bloated narcissism. 

Did I miss something i.e., Joe Biden being known for his wit? 

What Biden is known for, is being a virtuoso of the self-undermining gaffe. He is also known as a marathon stumble-mouth who punctuates the off-putting proclivity by careening into non sequitur prattle. 

If the Democrats truly desired to end the toxic reign of Trump, then they would not have rigged their primary and nomination process for the cringe-inducing likes of Joe Biden — a cusp-of-senility tool whose collapsing neural net is an analogue of collapsing neoliberalism and the blood-drenched folly of War Party liberals. 

Both Trump and Biden are the embodiments of US decay and decline. The debate will resemble a testy squabble over which obnoxious, sharp-elbowed old git is first in line to be served on pudding night at The End of Empire Rest Home. 

— Phil Rockstroh

DEM VOTERS: UP YOUR DEMANDS; TRUMP VOTERS: SEE HOW HE DIDN’T DELIVER FOR YOU

by Ralph Nader

Here is some practical advice for casting informed votes to improve the livelihoods of all Americans where they live, work, and raise their children and also to lessen their anxiety, dread, and fear.

Democratic voters should demand that the Democratic Party candidates pledge to vote to (1) raise the long frozen, federal minimum wage of $7.25 to a living wage; (2) support more efficient full Medicare for All (with free choice of doctors and hospitals and no cruel, irritating networks); (3) repeal Trump’s two trillion dollar tax cut, with additional loopholes for the rich, and huge corporate subsidies and giveaways; and to use the money to upgrade and rebuild the job-rich public works sector as well as the infrastructure in every community in the country – both in the red and blue states; (4) crack down, with law and order, on the corporate crimewave that bleeds consumers out of trillions of dollars a year; (5) repeal anti-labor laws to facilitate empowering tens of millions of workers who want to join unions to defend their economic and safety interests; and (6) accelerate the transition to a solar-based economy with better air, water, greater neighborhood self-reliance, and to reduce the devastating climate disruption from the burning of fossil fuels.

Democratic candidates will benefit by embracing such a covenant. Moreover, candidates who repeat the planks of this covenant incessantly and authentically in political communications and grassroots mobilizations will be seen as caring for the people in their daily lives and struggles in all the states of our union.

This covenant can be contrasted with the offerings of the Republican Party, which failed to adopt a new platform for 2020. Instead, the Republican National Committee (RNC) said, “The RNC enthusiastically supports President Trump and continues to reject the policy positions of the Obama-Biden Administration, as well as those espoused by the Democratic National Committee today…” The RNC largely supports turning the government over to Big Business and further entrenching Wall Street rule over Main Street.

The contrast also illustrates the Republican Party’s callous indifference to the immediate desperate needs of millions of Americans. Senate tyrant Mitch McConnell is blocking the House-passed six-month renewal of the much needed $600 a week Covid-19-driven assistance for families nationwide. This and other crucial aid to states and localities is necessary to make schools safer and to provide protective equipment and other assistance to patients in hospitals and clinics, and to nursing home residents.

Monopolist Mitch is shafting his own state of Kentucky while hypocritically seeking the people’s votes for his re-election to extend his long and evil tenure in the Senate, and his more recent total toadying for Trump.

Trump and his “gangster regime” (conservative columnist George Will’s words) have failed to deliver on Trump’s phony 2016 campaign promises on health care, clean air and water, and creating millions of good-paying jobs. And, with Mitch McConnell’s help, Trump has jeopardized public health, soiled the environment, and abandoned workers to global corporations.

Now a few words for voters inclined to support dictator Donald Trump. You surely admit Trump did not deliver for you. How long can you wait? Now, Trump is gathering large crowds of supporters who, shoulder-to-shoulder and mostly without masks, listen to him scoff at the Covid-19 pandemic as he and they flaunt mask requirements in violation of state and local laws. When asked about the safety of these events, Trump ignores public safety and says that he is on the stage and safely far away from the crowd. At least dangerous Donald is not passing out little cups of bleach.

Donald Trump is the hyper-super spreader of the deadly Covid-19 virus and he is endangering the tens of thousands of people attending his rallies. Ask your physician about this ‘clear and present danger’ to public health and life.

Now, about the reasons you voted for devious Donald in 2016 other than the “anybody but Hillary” rationale. Many Trump voters want anti-choice judges. (You may not recall, for years, Trump was pro-choice.) But the hundreds of federal judges nominated by Trump are also clenched-teeth corporatists, who rule for corporations when the conflicts involve the lives of workers, consumers, and the environment. They are dyed-in-the-wool boosters of expanding big business power and control over you. These extremist judges also support big foreign and domestic corporations getting lavish tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies.

Some people like Trump’s talk about “de-regulation,” getting big government off your back. In reality, Trump is taking the federal cops off the backs of corporate crooks and de-funding the corporate crime police. This year Trump brazenly said he is stopping or limiting enforcement of the laws designed to protect consumers from companies that sell you and your children hazardous products, pollute your air and water, defraud you in the marketplace, and fail to recall your defective cars/trucks.

Trump even announced in March that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would suspend or postpone inspection of imports from abroad, including the bulk of the medicines that Trump still allows to be imported from China. One would think some serious hoodwinking or just plain lying is going on here.

Well, you might say – at least Trump cut taxes. Come-on, the vast benefits of his tax cuts went to the rich and big corporations. All those bonanzas could have been used to fix your roads, bridges, mass transits, schools, clinics, and drinking water systems. Egomaniac Trump doesn’t care about you; for him, it’s about using the government to enrich himself and his family members and to bail out his failing hotels and golf courses.

Maybe you still like Trump because he says he is against immigrants “invading” our country. Trump, however, had no problem illegally hiring undocumented workers for his golf course and his residences (and earlier for his construction projects in New York), until he was exposed. Trump has no concern for the exploited foreign workers in the meatpacking, poultry processing, and agribusiness companies owned by his campaign-contributing buddies.

Before you cast your ballot, let’s toast your informed self-respect as clear-minded voters who can see an immoral, law-breaking, greedy Trump regime full of plutocrats who couldn’t care less about America and the people they’ve exploited.

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

SEEING THROUGH PEA SOUP

by James Kunstler

Just as Regan, the possessed tweenager in the horror movie classic, The Exorcist, vomited streams of green sludge at Father Merrin in the final hours of her extremis, so, in the final weeks of election 2020, the possessed US news media will be boofing “bombshells” against its loathed and detested adversary, the president who attempted to exorcize the demons of the Deep State out of the federal government.

Thus, Democratic Party legal imp, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr., or someone on his staff, leaked (illegally) years of Mr. Trump’s tax information to The New York Times as a counterweight to last week’s Senate report on the international grifting exploits of Joe Biden & Family. The difference is that Mr. Trump’s doings represent compliance with the US tax codes while the Biden activities represent payoffs from shady figures in foreign lands for services rendered. The Times and its DNC patrons are calculating that the public will not understand the difference.

It’s whispered that The Times was hoping to unload the tax story much later in the campaign but needed desperately to provide some ammunition for Mr. Biden’s turn in the debating ring with the president on Tuesday night, when both these matters are sure to come up for review. That is, if Mr. Biden dares to show up. Those of you with a taste for history may recall the final hours of another Democratic eminence of yore, William Jennings Bryan, when he was vivisected on the witness stand by Clarence Darrow at the Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, 1925. Five days later, Bryan dropped dead, and his reputation as a humiliated old fool is much better remembered than his moment of glory in 1893 as a 36-year-old nominee for president (youngest ever).

If Joe Biden does show up at Tuesday’s debate, it will be under at least one severe disadvantage: the contest happens at night. Through the preceding weeks, Mr. Biden’s handlers have “put a lid” on his campaign activities at ten o’clock in the morning more days than not, and sometimes at eight-thirty a.m., before the press pool has even digested its oat-milk honey lattes. “A lid” means the candidate makes no appearances nor is available to the media that day. You have to wonder whether Ol’ White Joe can even function after sundown. Senile dementia typically presents more vividly in the evening. The Biden team may seek to counter that with doses of Adderall, an amphetamine. The side-effects are interesting: “mental / mood changes (such as agitation, aggression, mood swings, abnormal thoughts) uncontrolled movements, continuous chewing / teeth grinding, outbursts of words / sounds, prolonged erections (in males).” Watch for these.

Also watch to see whether Mr. Biden steps onstage wearing his trademark black mask. (Mr. Trump, of course, will not mask himself.) The optic will be two-fold: 1) Mr. Biden has something to hide, and 2) Mr. Biden is a weakling for playing up Covid hysteria. Then wait to see if he pulls the mask down under his chin as though he was acting the role of Abe Lincoln in a middle school history pageant. That will be a visual-to-remember! Also, wait for Mr. Biden to deliver a self-knockout punch to himself when he attacks the President’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, for being a Catholic.

There was an uproar of consternation across the red regions of the land on Sunday when Maria Bartiromo announced that US Attorney John Durham is unlikely to report any actions (i.e., indictments) before election day. There is a very good analysis at the news site RedState.com. It boils down to this: Mr. Durham and his fellow US Attorney on the case, Jeff Jensen, received testimony only ten days ago from an FBI agent named William Barnett which alleges in detail how DOJ rogue attorney Andrew Weissmann ran Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation as a “checking function” on the President. (Mr. Weissmann states this explicitly in his forthcoming book.) There is no constitutional basis for this so-called checking function. Rather, it suggests gross illegality. Days after William Barr was sworn in as Attorney General, the Mueller office was shut down. Mr. Barr, apparently, became aware of his old colleague, Robert Mueller’s, pronounced cognitive decline, and was indignant over the hijacking of his Special Counsel mission by Democratic Party activists on-staff. Now, with Mr. Barnett’s testimony, additional witnesses must be interviewed before any cases can be made. So, these matters will have to wait until after the election.

As a tactical election consideration, it is probably for the best, at this point, that there is no appearance of using the Durham investigation as a campaign weapon. It’s unfortunate that it took Mr. Durham so long to unravel the seditious intrigues of RussiaGate, but that only suggests how complex and far-ranging the scheme was, overlapping several agencies, the two houses of congress, and a host of sketchy characters outside of government. Mr. Trump will have to make his case for reelection by other means. Mr. Biden, or rather, his handlers and stand-ins, will make his case by any means.

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

ON-LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK:

[1] 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.

[2] Regarding the efficacy of face masks – for what it's worth (probably not much): I have read so much conflicting info about face masks that it has left me very much a skeptic about their efficacy. We keep several face masks hanging from key hooks near the front door. When I'm going out I usually grab one of these masks since I know it will be required wherever I'm headed, such as Stop and Shop or the Drug Store. Any mask I grab has been used over and over and I have even detected residual 'mask breath.' Yuck! I put it on at my destination but I often cheat by not covering my nostrils because, frankly, when I wear the thing properly I feel like I'm gonna suffercate. In the midst of my mask dilemma the pro football season got started and I've watched several games. I wondered what precautions they would take. Some games have no fans in the seats while others have greatly reduced fan seating (15 – 20K) socially distanced. I forgot to look and see if these fans were wearing masks but I presume, yes. The interesting part was the protocols along the sidelines among players and coaching staff. I would call the adherence to proper mask wearing at best perfunctory. Key amongst these 'for show only' wearers was Pete Carroll, the Seattle Seahocks head coach. It was on and off at least a hundred times during the game. If Carroll was heatedly yelling at an official he would rip the mask from his face so as not to impede his volume. This was exactly when the mask was most needed to thwart outbound water droplets. If a youtube of this game exists, take a gander. Seattle played the NE Patriots. Google it.

[3] Seattle apparently is going ahead with its “Defund the Police” program, at least partially. What to replace it with? Well, the City has hired a Street Czar, a former pimp, who was convicted of luring white suburban teenage girls into Seattle, impregnating them, then forcing the girls into the work. The new “Street Czar” says that was all part of a past life, no longer relevant. The job pays $150k per year, with full benefits.

[4] They should see if Son of Sam is available. He might be able to advise women on personal safety in urban environments. Although New York State has a Son of Sam law that makes that illegal. Anyway, this is all remarkably stupid and insane. I have a theory that a lot of these people on the Left, the politicians and theorists, have antisocial personality disorders such as narcissism and sociopathy while the idiots in the streets have some kind of ODD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and this case is just an expression of their hatred for and resentment of the normal people who feed and care for them and keep the air-con running. In other words, this is the infantile Left hacking up a huge golly and spitting it straight into the faces of the people who hold civilization together.

[5] Why are we even having this conversation? It is surreal that we are even seriously discussing whether or not the sitting president will leave office if he loses the election. Of course he will have to leave office, like every loser who came before him. The very fact this topic is now even up for discussion shows how far this Republic has sadly fallen. An international poll out today shows that virtually every country around the world — including the U.K., Japan, Australia, and Germany — has the lowest opinion of the United States they’d ever had since the surveys began. They “feel sorry for us” as our republic slowly crumbles before their — and our — eyes. I want my country back. This November may be our last chance.

[6] ON-LINE COMMENT ABOUT THE CENSUS: I have never experienced such a mismanaged government procedure, filled with many duplications of effort, misinformation, and a woeful lack of information they should have known. I filled out the report online when it was first issued. Since that time, no fewer than five (5) different people have come to my house, not knowing that I had already successfully completed the census online and asking the same questions that I had answered to the census takers preceding them. At least one of them referred to a living space that was on the property of a neighbor across the road. How much did the county have a part in this?? Whoever was/is in charge of planning this operation with its lack of competently reported, retained, and/or shared information is responsible for wasting a great deal of the taxpayers money through poor communication and tracking within the system.

[7] ANOTHER ON-LINE COMMENT ABOUT THE CENSUS: Almost exactly my experience, except with “only four “visits” afterward. After filing on line on March 22, I was visited “only” four times, once when I was not at home. At the first “visit”, when I was out, the clown contract worker left a packet tied to my front screen door, then trespassed into my back yard AND left another packet on the railing of the causeway connecting house and two-story garage, where it lay waiting for the Wyoming wind to blow it away. I tossed both, as instructed in the confirmation page (as I had tossed the mail-in form that arrived after I filed on line). The next visit was from an old woman, who insisted on repeating her questions (the same ones I had answered on line) and was not at all interested in seeing my printed copy of the on line confirmation page. I answered none of her questions, and finally she left. Next visit was from a retired game warden. I had seen him parked in front of the house of my neighbor to the north and heard him holler to the neighbor across the street that he was next on his list. Since my neighbor to the north lives at 211, and the neighbor across the street lives at 208, I breathed a (short-lived) sigh of relief. The contract worker drove away after speaking with the neighbor across the street. After lunch, he returned to “visit” me. At least he looked at the confirmation form and looked puzzled. I told him I had assumed I was not on his list since he had left earlier. His response was to tell me that then his radio telephone-computer-camera- flashlight had informed him of my on line filing, but that, after lunch, it did not show the confirmation (apparently the whole mess was contracted out). He was puzzled and left. The last “visit” was from another old retired guy. He explained that the problem was that they needed to know who lived on the second story of my garage (an unfinished storage area that has electrical wiring as its only improvement and serves me just fine as a storage area for items I rarely use). I, as calmly as I could, explained that to him and he left. This last contact was on August 24, but I am still keeping my crossed with regard to another “visit”, probably from Fatherland Security. In short, I am convinced that this census is not valid and I am fed up with government contracting for work that could be done at less cost by government employees. Screw the Professional Managerial Class (PMC)! — (Harvey Reading)

MCOE INVITES WOULD-BE TEACHERS TO EXPLORE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

The Mendocino County Office of Education (MCOE) and Lake County Office of Education (LCOE) invite those interested in exploring a teaching career to attend one of the upcoming information sessions via Zoom: October 5, 6, 12, 14 or 19 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. MCOE and LCOE have collaborated to bring the "Be A Teacher" Intern Program to Lake and Mendocino Counties, allowing teacher-interns to work full-time while pursuing their teaching credential. Register online at TLCInfo2020.eventbrite.com.

In this two-year state-accredited intern program, interns are employed as teachers during the day and attend credential classes approximately two days a week in the evening while receiving ongoing coaching from an on-site mentor, course instructors, and practicum supervisors.

The program has been developed in partnership with the North Coast School of Education (NCSOE) whose mission is to develop a workforce of teachers and school leaders who engage in research-based practices, understand the importance of preparing students for college and career readiness and have 21st-century skills to develop and implement innovative methods and ideas in the classroom and school. NCSOE exemplifies the notion that learning is creative, rigorous, relevant, relationship-driven, and incorporates inquiry and reflection in ongoing professional growth.

For additional information, contact Deni Dillsaver via email at: ddillsaver@lakecoe.org.