Letters (September 30, 2020)

• Joe Hart, A Tribute
• Extended Clean-Up
• Divisive?
• If You Think…
• Make A Date With Democracy
• Catch 22
• Billy Was Robbed!
• Ginsburg Ignored Levticus?
• Corporations Never Die
• The Ism Challenge

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

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

DIVISIVE?

Editor: 

The design of the Thin Blue Line Flag is very simple. The iconography of the Thin Blue Line flag is obvious. The Thin Blue Line is a Dividing Line. The Men in Blue represent the line between "Us" and "Them"The Men in Blue protect "Us" from "Them." Who are these two groups? "Us" and "Them"

There are only three colors on the Thin Blue Line Flag: Black, White and Blue. The colors on the Thin Blue Line Flag which are not Blue are Black and White. Therefore, according to the Thin Blue Line Flag, the groups being separated by the men in Blue are obviously racial: Black and White.

The Thin Blue Line Flag is a flag of division, not unity. Because the Thin Blue Line flag is based on the Stars and Stripes, the Thin Blue Line Flag is nationalistic. It references nationalistic signals. The Thin Blue Line Flag incites fear. The Thin Blue Line Flag is not a productive social icon.

Stewart Dickson

Fort Bragg

ED NOTE: I’d say this is reading a little too much into what is, for most people, merely a gesture of support for police departments, many of which are being falsely and unfairly maligned. For people with a political ax to grind and grind and grind, they can find malevolent symbolism virtually everywhere.

IF YOU THINK…

Editor,

Pro-life president? Trump is "pro-life" right? Wrong. He used to be "pro-choice" but flip-flopped to gain votes in the last election. So he's "pro-life" now, right? Wrong again. Trump has caused more abortions than anyone in the western hemisphere. So how could that be true? Because one of the first things Trump did after taking office was to reinstate the "global gag rule." This ban withholds funding for any international women's health clinics if they provide abortions and withholds funding for all services, not just abortions. This funding deficit affects entire rural villages where families without their contraception are forced into unintended and unwanted pregnancies resulting in increased need for abortions with no clinics to perform them. Since the Reagan era every Republican administration has instated this rule and every Democratic administration has removed it, causing the number of worldwide abortions to increase during Republican administrations and decrease under Democratic administrations. So if you hate women and helping families but think we need more abortions, then Trump is your guy.

Don Phillips

Manchester

MAKE A DATE WITH DEMOCRACY

Editor,

How will you vote? I don’t mean who will you vote for, or which measures will you support. I mean how will you decide on your votes, complete the ballot, and get it safely to the elections department to be counted? You have a lot of options this year, both as to how you go about voting and when you do each step, so it’s important to have a plan.

First, are you registered? Check your info at https://registertovote.ca.gov/. Do it now!

Next, check out what’s on your ballot. Get the facts from LWV by entering your address at this nonpartisan website: votersedge.org.

Plan a time to complete your sample ballot. Talk the issues over with your friends/family but remember your ballot is your own and is completely private. Join LWV for a discussion of ballot measure Pros/Cons. See info at: https://my.lwv.org/california/mendocino-county

If you’re going to a polling place, bring your completed sample ballot with you. Decide what time of day works best for you, and allow enough time in case of a wait. Bring your face covering.

If you decide to return your ballot by mail, fill it out and take it to the Post Office as soon as possible after it arrives. No stamp required.

You can also return your completed ballot at one of the secure drop boxes available throughout Mendocino County and at each polling location. These locations will be included with your sample ballot.

Celebrate your participation in America’s democracy!

Dorine Real, Board of Directors, 

League of Women Voters of Mendocino County

CATCH 22

To the Editor:

Well Folks, here we are at the proverbial “Catch 22.” At last count, 15 businesses in Mendocino have closed due to Covid and there are another 10 on the brink of collapse. Yet the County bureaucracy has not proactively responded to the pandemic emergency and the economic ramifications that this has on our special little historic village. I was in San Francisco the other day and virtually every restaurant has been given permission to open curb side dining with structural infrastructure with a simple online application. All I want it is a tent canopy to cover 7 tables in the garden and 5 tables in my driveway for the winter. Please have the political will to streamline this bureaucratic process to allow for the Director of Planning the authority to issue emergency temporary Covid permits. Afterall, the California Alcohol Beverage Control did it with a simple online application so i can still be a classic Irish Pub in Mendocino with one click of my mouse. I have 20 employees and a 25 year old successful tax paying business at risk.

Tony Graham

Mendocino

BILLY WAS ROBBED!

Editor,

Billy the Kid Martin takes Fort Bragg by storm!

Some Fort Bragg old-timers might remember years ago when the CVS Pharmacy and Redwood Liquors area was where the old Fort Bragg Loggers baseball stadiums stood. Many a heated spring training game was posted there by the Loggers versus all comers including teams from the Pacific Coast league: San Francisco Seals and Oakland Oaks. The seals had the DiMaggio brothers, Lefty Gomez, Frank Crosetti, Ernie Lombardi. I guess Sicilians ate good if they could make the Seals. Dominic DiMaggio was in Australia during World War II with my dad, Master Sergeant Giusti and General MacArthur, even opened a big restaurant on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. The Loggers countered with coach Bob Pop Marshall, former Detroit Tiger Charles Balassi, the Pavioni brothers, and uncle John ‘Brick’ Cernac. Brick said the Loggers even traveled to Nevada, Utah and the Rockies playing minor league teams mostly in the Pioneer league where Balassi stayed and caught for the Pocatello Yankees.

Fort Bragg's own Derek Hawk once led the Pioneer league in strikeouts, pitching for the Billings Mustangs. When I'm in Billings I do a little groundskeeping for the manager and get free admission, beer, food, once even they put me up in a motel across the street. I met up with Derek once and he sprang for about a case of beer. He was supposed to pitch the next year for Nashville but I lost track of him.

Crow nomads like us get geography blackouts. I came to once and was hitchhiking in Pasadena waiting for the little old lady to pick me up. Mioght have got there from Mohave Desert. My hobo brain kinda checked out that time!

Back to Logger ball. The poor old Oakland Oaks didn't have much except Brooks Holder in Casey Stengal as manager. One spring probably in 1947 Casey brought a young Roman kid to town named Billy Martin. If you cruise the CVS parking lot in Fort Bragg you’ll notice a telephone pole on the south end. That's where this Billy Ball story begins. 

When the Logger field was built the outfield fence was constructed around that same old pole making it sit against the home run wall. The umpires always had to state these ground rules: if a batted ball hit off that telephone pole and continued over the fence it was a homer. If the ball hit the pole above the fence and came back on the field it was a ground rule double, and the batter was awarded second base where he must stop. If it hit the pole below the top of the fence it was every runner for themselves. So you didn't want a blind umpire! Those who remember Billy Martin probably as the skinny umpire-baiting Yankee manager that George Steinbrenner hired and fired five times (sounds like Jerry Philbrick!) probably don't remember much about Billy the Kid's playing days. He was no slouch. He was a golden glove second baseman and could actually play every position, like me. He played in five straight Yankee World Series championship games. He is one of only eight on that Yankee roster from 1949-1953. The others included Allie Reynolds who had the most World Series appearances ever by a Native American Crow, Ed Lopat who later managed the A's when they were in Kansas City, Vick Raschi, Siciliano, Phil Rizutto and third-base coach Frank Crosetti (both Romans), manager Casey Stengal (author of Stengelese) who was mentor to Billy and Yogi Berra, two mixed breed dagoes, rounded out that fabulous team. Probably they ate a lot of pizza and played bocce ball in the clubhouse!

It should be noted that Casey as a player and while at bat doffed hat as a bird flew out! He also pulled a quasi-hat trick! In 1945 he managed the last place Boston Braves. In 1946 he was a land baron in Hollywood and managed Oakland from 1947-1948 where he pulled Billy off the mean streets of Oakland and then in 1949 lead the Yankees to victory over the Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider led Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series.

Billy probably wouldn't admit this but Casey left him in Oakland at the beginning of the 1949 season until Billy pinched his pennies and made a long call to New York to cry and beg Casey to bring him to the big show. They were both etched in stone in Yankee folklore ever after! Casey went on to win 10 American League pennants and pilot the Yankees to seven World Series rings. Billy was on eight Yankee pennant winners, three more later as manager, and received six world championship rings as a player. Not bad for a "loser" from Oakland with a perennial chip on his shoulder. Billy missed part of two seasons in Korea as an Army reservist. I guess he'd fight anybody. He returned in 1953 in time to win the World Series MVP against those same Dodgers.

Here's a Billy mismatch from the spring of 1952. Billy had taken rookie Mickey Mantle under his wing (and beer can) in 1951. Billy’s mother was single and allegedly Oakland's hottest woman. I guess Billy bragged about mama so much that womanizer Mantle wanted to meet her. So they arranged to meet in Oakland when Billy went on extended leave from Korea to make part of the 1952 season. That was the one year Casey and Giants manager Leo Durochur arranged to switch spring training sites. The Giants were to train at Yankee camp in Florida while the Yankees went to Arizona which was called the cactus league, and Florida was the grapefruit league. So Billy and Mantle got to “painting the town” of Oakland then hopped a train to Florida. When they got there they couldn't find Casey nor any of the Yankees. Then it dawned on them that they were supposed to go to Arizona that spring instead! So Billy continued on with the Yankees and partied with his roommate of 54-55, Yogi Berra, who was American League MVP both those years. Then in Mantle’s 1956 MVP year Billy Martin was his roommate.

Along came 1957 in the boys with Hank Bauer, Yogi's World War II companion at the Battle of the Bulge, and Whitey Ford were at the Copacabana nightclub in downtown New York. A barroom brawl erupted and Billy landed in jail. It made all the papers — blah blah blah. So a few days later the Yankee owners delivered the ax. Billy had been traded. Tearfully Billy asked why. The owner replied, "You are a bad influence on every roommate you've ever had." "What?!" Billy exploded. "My roommate said just won the league MVP three consecutive years and I had to hypnotize him to do it!" Billy didn't put on a uniform again for nearly 20 years when Steinbrenner named him manager in August of 1975.

Back in 1947 Billy played what was later dubbed "Billy Ball" — a lot of bunts, stolen bases, hit-and-run, good defense, hit to the opposite field, all the little things that win a lot of ballgames. 

Billy didn't hit many homers, maybe about 50 in his 14 year career, so he must have cherished the big dingers he did get. That 1947 game really strolled to bat when home plate was probably right behind Lucy's laundry against the Fort Bragg Loggers. He connected a long, high drive to deep left center like a torpedo shot to the top of the old telephone pole! A little to his right and it would have knocked the light out. The ball bounced back onto the field as Billy started his homerun trot. The umpire, probably famous Fort Bragg coach Andy Anderson said, "Hold your horses kid, that's a ground rule double. Stop at second base." Billy came unglued. He wanted to fight Andy, the Loggers, and, as the fans booed, I guess he gave the high middle middle finger to half of Fort Bragg!

There's no room to throw this in the story but that area around that telephone pole has pulled at least three spokies on me in the past while shopping at CVS. Let's just call it the Curse of Billy Martin. I can't remember how many years Billy managed the Yankees but he led them to victory in the 1977 World Series against his old patsies, this time in LA, the Dodgers. My pal and former teammate from Fort Bragg high school T. Huber once went to see the Oakland A's play while Billy was managing the A’s. Huber said he met Billy in a bar after the game and Billy bought him a drink. Billy said, "Where are you all from?" Huber told him Fort Bragg. Billy reportedly exploded again yelling and telling Humber that Fort Bragg had cheated him out of a home run 40 years ago!

A few said endings: Allie Reynolds had to retire when his kneecap broke in a Yankee bus accident. Phil Rizzuto was fired by the same owner who traded Billy but did hire Phil as an announcer. He became famous for his home run report: "Holy Cow!" Frank Crosetti's house fell down in a San Francisco earthquake. Mantle died when his new liver rejected alcohol quicker than his original. And what really grieved me was Billy the Kid was killed in a car wreck. Yogi Berra made it to old age after a Hall of Fame career and inventing all those Yogi-isms and had quasi-great career as Yankee manager and New York Met chief taking both teams to the World Series. Yogi passed on at his New Jersey mansion at age 98. Uncle Brick Cernac, Fort Bragg Logger and Army team legend outlived them all except maybe Whitey Ford. Another grief to me was Brick died at a fairly healthy 101. According to J. Wayne, T. Huber went on to buy my orchard.And me, well on the day dodger legend Duke Snider died I got a new dog. So of course I named that ornery critter the Duke of Fort Bragg.

Love to all my North Greenwood people and Detective Youngcault Crow Roman empire!

PS. Like I stated in previous letters one my daughter is a registered psychologist. Here's a little psychology since it's in my jeans especially for some of these Ukiahans who seem to need what most of us can’t provide from a book by Marlyn Mantle.

Mickey had her promise not to spill the beans on what went wrong on his way to the majors. Evidently his dad who played in the minors and named Mickey ater the Detroit Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane was a quasi womanizer too being married a few times. Mantle had an older half-sister who would bring her girlfriend around and after playing pin the tail on the donkey they would commence playing five fingers on the little Mickey! That produced the greatest switchhitting centerfielder of all time. 

Funny how this author’s Alzheimer’s has in baseball history block! After half growing up a strong Giants fan at Candlestick Park I have a biased hypothetical fantasy. Hank Aaron played 24 years and hit 750 home runs. Willie Mays played 21 years, 660 dingers. Babe Ruth 714, Mantle 536. I forget how many steroid champ Barry Bonds hit. I want to prove under reconstructed hypothetical situations who was actually the greatest home run slammer of all time: Mays or Aaron? If Mays had played in 24 seasons (he missed two seasons in his prime due to service with Billy Martin in Korea) and had played in a hitter friendly ballparks like Aaron: Milwaukee and bandbox Atlanta where Mays once hit four homers in a game and the Atlanta Braves “launching pad” instead had played all his home games in deep dimension Polo grounds and windblown Candlestick he wouldn't have had to put up with pitcher friendly triples alley Polo grounds and windblown Candlestick type fields. Under different conditions we have two project Mays hitting around 900 home runs and if Babe Ruth hadn’t spent his last five years primarily pitching (playing usually only once every four or five days) he would been predicted with around 850. Of course if the Babe had curbed the booze, the hotdogs, the hookers and the suspensions (one for one third of the season) he'd be right there with Mays. But Mays also shook hands with a quasi-famous journalist:. 

Yours truly. Sayonara,

David Giusti

Mendocino County Jail, Ukiah

GINSBURG IGNORED LEVTICUS?

Letter to the Editor,

Justice Ginsburg, RIP.

Let it be known by all that the following is a treatise of question with no intent of bias and/or racism.

I tell you I do not know the true answers and with no intent of steering one's thoughts one way or the other.

Friends, boonters and wobblies, it is a fact that the passing of Justice Ginsburg is/was a sad, sad day for all. She was one of the first as a lady judge and has made several landmark decisions that will stand forever and beyond. Hear, hear!

Prior to her seating as Supreme Court Justice she served in a high court posision for several years and was well thought of by all who served with her including the president of the United States, Slick Willie.

During her graduations within the justice system she performed the marriage service for two male homoerotics with the use of our Holy Bible, the missal of our Lord eternal.

Well now! Let's look into just how or why this questionable activity is found acceptable. Starting out, let's look up: using the King James version of the Holy Bible, the third book of Moses, Leviticus, stanza 20, block 10, line 13: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.”

It is known that Justice Ginsberg was of Jewish descent -- no problem with that. Not knowing of which religious persuasion she associated herself with, i.e. Judaism or Catholicism, she in any event used a Holy Bible, perhaps a King James version, for swearing in and/or accepting an oath or promise for responsibility she was to preside over. So after digesting all of the above question rears its ugly head: how can a justice in clear conscience use the Christian Bible, the King James version, in a marriage consummation of two gay guys in holy matrimony and beyond --!

This action in itself could be considered a co-conspiracy and aiding and abetting an abomination!

It you choose to disregard God and/or the holy Bible as nonessential or nonbinding why put your hand on the Holy Bible and swear to uphold its sanctification?

She, the justice, knows or should know that the Bible clearly states our Lord eternal demands, "Man shall not lay with men." They be obliged to constrain by physical, legal, or moral force.

Perhaps the two gay guys would then go through life just holding hands.

I told Gran that the clinic called this morning; they wanted Gran to come back over to the clinic. They forgot a urine and stool sample last visit. Gran said, My my! I'll give them an old pair of undershorts. She ain't going! You know how he don't like them fooling around down there!

Love you Gran.

God bless America, the Donald, Jerry Philbrick

Getting older and angrier.

Boonville

CORPORATIONS NEVER DIE

Editor: 

Long ago in 1978, Proposition 13 saved us from massive property tax increases, allowing us to stay in our homes until we pass away. Property taxes eventually get readjusted up to market rates because people die and their property changes hands. Works great except … corporations live forever. They never die, and thus their property valuations never get increased to market rates. Proposition 15 fixes that flaw in Proposition 13. With Proposition 15, large commercial businesses will pay market property taxes.

Kee Nethery

Sebastopol

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, Mass.