Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Seasonable Temps | 9 New Cases | Big Wine | Alder Glen Springs | Bike Tour | Sheriff Byrnes | Cloverdaleans | Mallo Pass | Boonville Road | Cannabis Equity | Mounted Riders | Planning Report | Corporate Taxes | Media Relations | Facts Schmacks | Ed Notes | Yesterday's Catch | Top Shelfer | Cancelling London | 1920 Swimsuits | Water Use | Wavy Steel | No Solidarity | Social Distance | Peak Woke | Watsonville 1879 | Weekly Comments

Dry weather and seasonable temperatures are expected through at least Friday due to an upper level ridge persisting over NW California. (NWS)

9 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon (spanning the past three days).

JEFF BURROUGHS:

This photo shows one of the last places in Anderson Valley that hasn't been “vineyardized”. At one time the entire valley was as beautiful as this.

The big money, out of town owners vineyards “footprint” has been deeply set and irreversibly imprinted on the natural landscape of the land surrounding us. The scale is immense and the repercussions for this unregulated, ill mannered acts of selfish greed are, in my opinion, borderline criminal.

Native American's ancestral historic sites have been rubbed out.

Acre upon acre of naturally balanced grasslands and hundreds of ancient Live Oaks and Valley Oaks that used to grace our valley floor and dynamic foothills are gone,.. unceremoniously bulldozed out of existence. The earth poisoned down to a depth of 6 feet to sterilize the soil so they can pump in fertigious amounts of nitrogen based fertilizers. Those poisons seep into the ground and find their way into the water table which supplies our homes and schools.

Money shows up, buys land at ridiculously high prices driving up the price per acre keeping the dream of property ownership out of the hands of average citizens.

The high deer fences that the vineyards errect have disrupted traditional trails used by black tail deer denying them water and access to nutrient grasslands.

Reservoirs, that number in the hundreds, capture millions of gallons of winter rainwater that normally recharges the water table.

Salmon and steelhead runs, rubbed out, their spawning grounds poisoned and their rearing creeks deprived of life-giving water. Billions of dollars in wine sales are generated but all those tax dollars bypass the county when the owners do not live here. The school, the town and the community at large have not benefited in a ratio equal to the amount of money created with the use of our valley's land and its people. These morally delinquent out of town land owners offer little to the community other than low wage, back breaking, jobs which appeal to poor migrant workers who send money back to Mexico to feed their families. Desperate immigrants who quickly grab up any and all available rentals creating a housing shortage. 

Anderson Valley has been so grossly violated, its people misused, the land destroyed and the community fractured.

It is amazing how much people will put up with so they can feed their families. 

So the next time you consider buying a bottle of wine remember everything that has been done to this valley by the big name wineries in making that wine possible. Buy the wine from our small family owned vineyards like Wiley, Charles Family and others.

TAKE YOUR BIKE TO WORK DAY?

by Anne Fashauer

The professional and the personal met for me this past Saturday when my clients told me they wanted to look at a property on mountain bikes. We were looking at 400 acres way out beyond Willits. The roads were not passable by car due the amount of trees that fell during the snowstorm earlier this year. We also had limited time, so hiking would not have allowed us to see as much as we could with bikes.

We started with the house, of course, which they had seen one other time; this made for a quick walk-through to refresh their memories. We then got the bikes ready and headed out - first toward the back of the property but with Rocktree Creek running behind the home and the banks quite high, we then turned and headed in the other direction. The property beyond Rocktree Creek is steep and heavily timbered and we weren’t able to readily see any roads to check out either.

We rode down the road a little ways and found a road headed north; this road was on the eastern boundary of the property and sat a little ways above Tomki Creek. We road out this for about a third of the length of the property. We had several trees we had to navigate over or around - I have a scratch to prove that. We also came to a ravine that was too wide to take the bikes across but not so deep that we couldn’t ferry them by hand - one person in the ravine and one on each side of the bank. We rode as far as we could until we ran out of road, then found a way down to the creek itself and a road that meandered alongside it. This we took out to the end of the property.

We decided to stay on this lower road on the way back, which worked quite well for about half the distance. Then the creek did what creeks do, meandering over what had been a road, forcing us to cross the water at least three times. The first two weren’t bad - I was able to get enough of a head start so that I could coast across and keep my feet dry. The last was the full width of the river, at least 40 feet wide; this required pedaling all along and getting my feet, socks and shoes soaked. Fortunately, it wasn’t cold. After that we found the road again and pedaled back to the house and our cars. 

Overall, it wasn’t a long or hard ride - only about 3 miles. But it was an efficient and fun way to see the property. I can only hope that more of my clients want to do this - at least on some of the gentler pieces - not sure I would want to spend an hour or two climbing in hot weather. But it did make for a memorable showing and a fun afternoon.

BILL BRAZILL OF MENDOCINO sends along this political election card for his great uncle Sheriff R.R. Byrnes who was running for re-election in 1930.

On the reverse side of the card was a comparison chart entitled:

Comparison of Population and Expenses in Sheriff’s Office

1929-1930 in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties

Population of Humco: 43,189; Mendo: 23,457

Expenses: Humco: $84,597; Mendo: $23,653

Fines: Humco: $10,062; Mendo: $14,448

Net Cost: Humco: $74,535; Mendo: $9,205

Cost per Person: Humco: $1.77; Mendo: 39¢

So the population of Mendocino County was almost 24,000 in 1930. Also, we see that not only was Sheriff Byrnes’s Office a bargain (assuming, of course, comparable levels of service), but that he funded more than half of his department out of fines, which could be an incentive to impose fines, but maybe not. Also, Sheriff Byrnes seems to be saying he should be elected because he’s cheaper, or frugal, not necessarily a claim that would play well nowadays. According to an on-line inflation calculator a $1 in 1930 is worth almost $27 today. So 1930’s almost $24k is about $650k today. Mendo’s population has increased to around 90,000, a factor of about 3.5 so at adjusted per person costs, the Sheriff would cost about $2.3 million or about $25 per Mendolander. The Sheriff’s actual patrol budget is about $14 million (excluding the jail) which translates to $155 per Mendolander. 

WHERE'S THE BORDER? I share this on-line opinion: “I mostly agree with the Navarro River as the soft boundary between the north and south coasts of Mendocino County. However, I think Elk is socially and economically part of the north coast because folks there tend to drive to Mendocino and Fort Bragg for services and supplies rather than heading south. So maybe either Greenwood Creek or Elk Creek is the de facto boundary.”

BUT GARY LEVENSON-PALMER makes a strong case for putting it a little further south:

“I think the cutoff point is Mallo Pass just north of Irish Beach/Manchester and South of Elk. Here's why: 

Everything South of Mallo Pass is in the Santa Rosa College District vs the Mendocino County College District to the north Everything South of Mallo Pass is the Redwood Coast Medical Services District vs the Mendocino Coast Health District Everything South of Mallo Pass gets its ambulance from Coast Life Support District vs everything north from Adventist/Ft Bragg.

Everything South of Mallo Pass is in the Redwood Coast Fire Department, north is Elk Fire. Even the phone prefix and exchange is different - 877 north of Mallo pass and 882 south. To call from Manchester to Elk is a toll call. People in Elk subscribe to the Mendocino Beacon and even have a weekly column. People from Manchester subscribe to the ICO out of Gualala. 

Generally — people from Elk drive north for stores, medical services, etc. People from Manchester drive south for the same. Mallo Pass comes from MalPaso or Bad Pass. it has historically been a major dividing point for many things."

BUT RICHARD HARRIS points out,

“Technically, on the county website the ‘south coast’ is Mendocino south to Gualala and Caspar north to the county line is ‘north coast.’ Anyway, that is how the county sees it. It's an arbitrary thing.” 

CANNABIS EQUITY GRANT Program – Video Conference Workshop on Applying for Eligibility

Over the last two years, Mendocino County was awarded $2.7 million from the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions to allocate directly to qualified equity applicants. The state Cannabis Equity Grants Program is being administered by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). The Mendocino County Cannabis Equity Grant Program has been supported by the Board of Supervisors who have committed $105,000, in matching grant funds. The program has been designed to provide funding and services for those hardest hit by the War on Drugs by lowering barriers to cannabis permitting and licensing. 

To qualify for Cannabis Equity Grant funding, interested applicants must demonstrate eligibility by completing an Equity Eligibility Application which has been open since February 5, 2021, and can be found HERE. Those who apply and can demonstrate they meet the requirements of the program will receive the Mendocino County Local Equity Entrepreneur Program (LEEP) designation and Equity Applicant identification number which will enable them to apply for grant funding and services beginning in late April. 

Kristin Nevedal, the Manager of the Mendocino County Cannabis Program, and the LEEP program administrator, Elevate Impact Mendocino, will co-host two video conferences to provide an overview of the LEEP application process and to answer any questions about the program. Participants are encouraged to register early by emailing their name and any questions to: CannabisEquity@mendocinocounty.org Please be sure to add the word REGISTER to the email subject line, and note which workshop you’d like to attend, April 14, or April 28.

The details for the workshop are as follows: 

When: April 14, 2021 & April 28, 2021, 02:30 – 4:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Topic: LEEP Application Workshop and Question & Answer Session

Upon registering at CannabisEquity@mendocinocounty.org you will receive an email with workshop login information. The workshops will cover steps to become an Equity Eligible Applicant and Eligibility Requirements in greater detail. Below is a summary of the workshop agendas:

Steps to become an Equity Eligible Applicant:

Check to see if you meet the eligibility criteria by visiting our website (www.elevateimpactmendo.com) and reviewing the application requirements. (The criteria is also listed below)

Get designated as an Equity Applicant by submitting an Equity Eligibility Application now. Visit our website for more details on how to apply online.

Equity Eligibility Applicants will be notified if they meet the criteria and receive an Equity Applicant identification number. Equity verified applicants will be able to apply for grant funding beginning in late April in three categories: County Fee Waivers, Direct Technical Assistance in Business Development or Cannabis Cooperative Education, and Direct Grants. 

For more information please see our website: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/cannabis-cultivation/cannabis-equity-grant

Mendocino County Cannabis Equity Applicant Eligibility Requirements:

You must be eligible for a cannabis related application, permit and/or license to operate a cannabis business in the unincorporated areas of Mendocino County whose activities are specific to cultivation, nurseries, processing, manufacturing, laboratory analysis, distribution or retail of cannabis.

Have a household income as defined as “very low income” or “extremely low income” for Mendocino County in the 2020 State Income Limits produced by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

And you must meet one of the following equity conditions:

Have lived within a 5-mile radius of the location of raids conducted by the Campaign against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) program.

Have a parent, sibling or child who was arrested for or convicted of the sale, possession, use, manufacture or cultivation of cannabis (including as a juvenile).

Any individual who has obtained or applied for a cannabis permit in Mendocino County, or who has worked in or currently works in the cannabis industry, and was arrested and/or convicted of a non-violent cannabis-related offense, or was subject to asset forfeiture arising from a cannabis-related event.

Is a person who experienced sexual assault, exploitation, domestic violence, and/or human trafficking while participating in the cannabis industry.

Have become homeless or suffered a loss of housing as a result of cannabis enforcement. 

To apply for the LEEP program immediately, go to https://elevateimpactmendo.com/apply-now/

For eligibility related questions please email CannabisEquity@mendocinocounty.org

Mendocino County Cannabis Program 

Planning and Building Services 

860 N. Bush St. 

Ukiah, CA 95482 

Phone: (707) 234-6680 

Email: CannabisProgram@mendocinocounty.org 

Website: www.mendocinocounty.org/cannabisprogram

(County Presser)

PLANNING STAFF ISSUES A REPORT!

Dear Interested Parties,

The Staff Report(s) and Agenda for April 15, 2021, is posted on the department website at:

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/meeting-agendas/planning-commission

Please contact staff with any questions.

James F.Feenan

Commission Services Supervisor

Mendocino County Planning & Building Services

860 North Bush Street, Ukiah CA 95482

My Direct Line: (707) 234-6664

Main Line: (707) 234-6650

(tel:7072346650)

feenanj@mendocinocounty.org

WELCOME ABOARD, TREV

Hello Media Partners of Mendocino County,

I want to introduce myself; my name is Trevor Mockel, I am the new Media Relations staff person for the Mendocino County Department Operations Center (DOC) for the COVID-19 Response. I look forward to working with all of you to facilitate clear and mutually beneficial lines of communication with you and the leadership of the DOC. The best way to contact me for urgent responses is by text at (707) 367-6221. My full contact information is below, additionally, I will be facilitating our ongoing media updates on Fridays keeping to our standing schedule of the first and third Friday afternoon of each month. I look forward to working with you to ensure timely information is shared with our community. 

Best,

Trevor Mockel

Cell phone 707-367-6221

Email mockelt@mendocinocounty.org

ED NOTES

DOES THE COUNTY even respond to snitch complaints these days? I remember when the County's building and health departments evicted a dozen residents of Albion from the three Albion acres owned by the poet and publisher, the late Leonard Cirino, an only-in-Mendo character if there ever was one. That was in the late 1990s, the tail end of the hippie-bashing era when the County was running out of hippies to bash, and Cirino, while not anybody's idea of a hippie, was what you might describe as infinitely tolerant of aberrant behavior. He died a few years ago at his mother's home in Oregon.

THE TARGETING OF LEONARD'S place seemed arbitrary, especially in an outlaw county like this one where whole neighborhoods of people, far from the pavement, dwell in conditions unapproved by building and planning departments. Much of the vineyard labor in the Anderson Valley live in conditions much like those they fled in Mexico, although a portion of the wine industry has, over the years, housed their core workers in modern trailers. But right here in Boonville, on Anderson Valley Way, not quite two miles from ava headquarters, an ancient motel, unimproved since the early 1960s when it still accommodated travelers, sits a-mouldering. It's called, informally of course, “Tijuanita.” Its septic system failed years ago. The two dozen or so men housed there double and triple up in its grim rooms, each paying a minimum of a couple of hundred dollars a month rent. Tijuanita is owned by the Wasson family and “managed” by Jan Wasson-Smith of Boonville. I've heard it defended as, “Well, bad as it is, without it these guys would be sleeping outside, like a lot of people do during harvest season in Sonoma and Napa.” 

ON THE SUBJECT of vineyard labor, much of it now comes from outtahere. If you're up early you see the fleets of white vans driving anonymous men out to Anderson Valley's fields.

ONCE IN A RARE WHILE art occurs in the famous artist’s colony of Mendocino Village, art being defined here as either synonymous with controversy and challenge, the kind of art that rousts the complacent out of their preconceived notions of what art is, the kind of art that ignited the old Stalinist, Kruschev, who demanded of a Russian artist, “What is this, dog shit?” 

MY SIMPLEMINDED definition of art is any art that leaves you dumbstruck at the artist's genius — Van Gogh's Starry Night, for example. That's the high end, but even at the annual Boonville Fair, heavy on chipmunk and cat paintings, there's always a couple of finely rendered landscapes by local artists that are really, really good.

I'D BETTER CONFESS that it would have been ok with me if Mapplethorpe's “Piss Christ” [Piss Christ was created by Andres Serrano, not Robert Mapplethorpe] had been suppressed, but even that stunt, offensive as it was, has got to be defended because it kicked off a useful discussion about what is art.

IT WOULD have been interesting if Piss Christ had been sprung on Mendocino without the artist's fame preceding it, just as it would be great fun if a Lenny Bruce album suddenly blasted out at today's KZYX demographic. There would be rioting. 

YOU KNOW when art has struck because it’s quickly removed from wherever it has raised its threatening head. The last time I remember anything resembling an art controversy broke out in the county was the late Lisa Lebow’s exhibit at the old Mendocino Cafe where staff and patrons alike demanded that it be taken down. The Cafe owners said both they and diners found Lisa’s work offensive. The most grievously offended was a waitperson who said she found Lisa’s work ”sexually explicit,” replete with repro organs. From what I remember of Lisa’s art you'd have to be suspiciously hyper-sexually alert to find these particular body parts engaged in any one painting, certainly not enough of them to divert attention from your tofu burger. 

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 5, 2021

HOMERO ALVARADO-VALENCIA, Fort Bragg. DUI.

CLEMENTE ARTEAGA-GARCIA, Sacramento/Ukiah. DUI, no license.

RUSSELL HARMON, Willits. Failure to appear.

MALINDA HARRELL, Ukiah. Vandalism, paraphernalia.

RUDY NAKOOKA, Clearlake/Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, controlled substance, more than an ounce of pot.

DEVIN NIELSON, Willits. Metal knuckles, controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

CHERRI ROBERTS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, contempt of court, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

“I’ve been getting things off the top shelf my whole life!”

CANCEL CULTURE IN OAKLAND AND BEYOND

Draymond Green Square?

by Jonah Raskin 

I must admit it. I didn’t get the concept of “cancel culture” when I first heard it, though after a while I did get it and realized that in some shape or form it’s been around for centuries. After every modern revolution, revolutionaries have changed the calendar and the names of cities. Now cancel culture aims to be the revolution itself, or something that passes for it. In 1924, shortly after V. I. Lenin’s death, the Bolsheviks canceled St. Petersburg and replaced it with Leningrad. Now it’s St. Petersburg again. The changes might make one’s head swim. 

In the mid-1960s I was an advocate for “cancel” culture, though I didn’t use the phrase. When I was teaching writing and literature at an all-Black college in the South I complained publicly about the statues to confederate generals like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Southerners replied that we northerners had statues to our generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. 

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, demands to remove the statues of Confederate generals have escalated. That’s understandable. After all, those generals waged war to defend and protect the institution of slavery. 

Now, closer to home, irate citizens have demanded the removal of the name “Jack London” from the Square in Oakland. This is not the first time that the call to cancel his name has been heard. Everytime that it has echoed in the Bay Area and across the nation, some of the London faithful have circled their wagons and insisted that their literary hero was the best of fellows and certainly not a racist, as some critics have claimed. 

The problem is that for about twenty years, London made comments that seem to be racist. In 1899, for example, he wrote about “the niggers of Africa,” and insisted that “socialism is devised for the happiness of certain kindred races.” He added that while the white race would improve, “the lesser breeds cannot endure.” In other letters from the same year London wrote that “The negro races, the mongel races, the slavish races, the unprogressive races, are of bad blood—that is, of blood which is not qualified to permit them to successfully survive the selection by which the fittest survive.” He added, “the black has stopped, just as the monkey has stopped. Never will even the highest anthropoid apes evolve into man; likewise the negro [sic] into a type of man higher than any existing.”

London also wrote novels and stories in which he appears to lash out at people of color, and, on at least some level, he seems to want them to vanish from the face of the earth and by any means necessary. 

In the short story, “The Unparalleled Invasion,” (1910) London describes the use of biological warfare against China that leads to the extermination of almost all of the Chinese. The few survivors are killed in hand to hand combat, then China is colonized by the Western powers and an era of unparalleled artistic expression follows. Sounds to me like wish fulfillment.

“The Unparalleled Invasion” was published in a volume titled “The Strength of the Strong” that also contains the story, “The Dream of Debs.” The narrator, a wealthy San Franciscan, has supported Eugene Victor Debs’ idea of the general strike. Then there’s a real general strike and his servants leave him. The narrator insists, “The tyranny of organized labor is getting beyond endurance. Something must be done.” Jack London had servants and insisted he needed them, couldn’t do without them.

Was London a supporter of the general strike? Perhaps. He belonged to the Socialist Party for about twenty years and he admired Debs, who ran for president five times between 1900 and 1920, when he was in prison serving a ten-year sentence for violation of the Sedition Act. By 1920 London was dead and buried. He resigned from the Socialist Party in 1916 in part because American Socialists were opposed to the entry of the U.S. in World War I and London wanted to come to the aid of the Brits.

In the current debate about the naming, and the proposed renaming of Jack London Square, one London biographer suggested that the name of the Square be changed to one of the stars of the Golden State Warriors, either Draymond Green or Steph Curry. Others have tossed into the ring the names of Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

Some of London’s defenders argue that while he may have made some inappropriate comments about race in his early days, he mended his ways. 

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case. In a magazine story from May 1914 titled “Mexico’s Army and Ours,” London wrote it was the “duty” of the U.S. to interfere in nations with “millions of mismanaged and ill-treated subjects.” He added that the U.S. was an “enlightened nation” and should “police, organize, and manage Mexico.” In June 1914 he wrote that Mexico was a nation of “half-breeds” and that Mexicans, “like the Eurasians, possess all the vices of their various commingled bloods and none of their virtues.”

Some of London’s racist comments were made in private correspondence with friends. His views about Mexico, Mexicans and the duty of the U.S. to police and manage Mexico were made in articles published in Collier’s. London made his anti-Mexican comments when the U.S. went to war against Mexico, and invaded, occupied and administered the port at Veracruz. The American flag was raised over the city. In that conflict, London took sides. He advocated war and military conquest. He sided with white people and the white race and against those he called “half-breeds.” 

He was proud of the fact that he identified with whites. London supporters point out that he was raised by Virginia Prentiss, an African-American woman who was once a slave. They say that proves he wasn’t a racist. It proves no such thing. Before the Civil War, white slave owners in the American South had sex with Black slaves. White children were nursed and raised by Black women. Jack London was nursed and raised by Virginia Prentiss, whom he referred to as “mammy.” He called himself her “white pickaninny.” If that isn’t racist, I don’t know what is.

THE STATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD (State Water Board) Division of Water Rights (Division) recognizes the importance of planning for drought or dry conditions given California’s variable climate and the recent 2012-2016 drought. Division staff are evaluating approaches that will help to better evaluate water supply and demand, and are developing tools and methodologies to help the Division and the regulated community make informed decisions regarding water diversion and use. 

On the morning of April 16, 2021, staff will demonstrate an online tool intended to help the public visualize and analyze water supply and demand in select Bay-Delta tributary watersheds. In the afternoon, staff will discuss standardized measures that can be used to flag and help clean up potential errors with water use data provided by water right holders, which is used to estimate water demand. 

Refer to the attached public notice for more information on this workshop and our drought-related efforts. 

Date: April 16, 2021 

Time: 

Morning Session 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. 

Water Supply Demand Visualization Tool 

Afternoon Session 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. 

Water Demand Data Assessment 

Zoom Link: 

https://waterboards.zoom.us/j/94640548166?pwd=VDdzZWVhUWZrTzZjRGdmbjBNOEcrZz09

Meeting ID: 946 4054 8166 | Passcode: 248201 | 1-669-900-9128 US (San Jose) 

(Presser from the State Water Resources Control Board)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

As more and more dissimilar peoples move to the territory of the USA, my sense of belonging has receded. I used to see the Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Jews as my fellow Americans and their “otherness” as a secondary consideration. Much in the same way as I had trouble understanding the former animosity between the various Christian sects. It was a secondary attribute, like class. I see now that I was wrong. Very wrong. Those other peoples don’t see me as a fellow citizen, but an oppressor. My ancestors (both real and ideal, like the “founding fathers”) are not theirs. My values are not their values. My hopes for the future are not their hopes.

Even as I look around at my fellow “Whites”, I see large amounts of lunatic, bourgeoisie, marxists and people with broken families and drug addictions. And so racial solidarity escapes me as well. My people, my tribe, is my family and close friends. They number a couple dozen, and the rest of humanity are strangers to me. I no longer give to charity, I won’t stop to help someone on the side of the road, and I no longer feel guilt about not having served in America’s Imperial wars. I no longer consider myself an American citizen, but a subject of the American Empire. From here on out, it is me and mine. Perhaps it was always so.

PEAK WOKE

by James Kunstler

What were the execs of these mighty companies thinking — these knights of the boardroom, these capitalist geniuses, these moral nonpareils — when they cancelled Atlanta’s turn to host the midsummer All-star Game to “protest” Georgia’s passage of a law that requires voter ID? Surely that they were striking a righteous blow against systemic racism. And then, the rest of the world realized — almost immediately — that Major League Baseball requires online ticket buyers to show ID when they pick up their tickets at any stadium… and that Delta Airlines requires passengers to show ID (duh) before being allowed to fly in one of their airplanes… and that various other corporations snookered into this latest hustle such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and Calvin Klein support forced labor in the Asian nations that manufacture their products.

They’re Woke, you see. The tentacles of Wokery have reached into every last compartment of American life now, more effectively even than the Covid-19 corona virus. Wokeness emerged on the scene in 2014 when the feckless teenager Michael Brown was shot to death by police officer Darren Wilson upon arrest in Ferguson, Missouri, an event that kicked off the Black Lives Matter movement. The moral panic BLM ignited proved to be a spectacularly effective device for repelling the truth of the situation, and many more like it, which was that Michael Brown resisted arrest, fought with, and menaced officer Wilson before getting shot.

The Woke moral panic that proceeded from this effectively suppressed two truths about police relations with Black America: 1) that Blacks committed crimes against life and property at a disproportionately high rate to their percentage in the US population, and 2) that the number of unarmed black people killed by police was statistically minuscule, and in most cases involved people resisting arrest or fighting with police. As the 2016 election approached, the Democratic Party realized it was in its interest to cultivate the Woke moral panic so as to marshal the Black voting bloc so crucial to victory at the polls.

With the help of their allies in the news media and the coddled faculty ideologues on campus, the Democrats fed this moral panic until it grew into an historic mass hysteria every bit as insane as the witchcraft hysterias of the Middle Ages in Europe. Then Mr. Trump came along, inflicting a savage trauma on the Left, and after his election, the news media and the campus crusaders were joined by very potently placed officers in the federal bureaucracy — especially the Intel Community, with its weapons for disordering public opinion, and the Department of Justice, with its ability to ruin lives and reputations — to crush Mr. Trump and everyone who opposed the Left’s will-to-power.

They kept it up for four years, using every device in the bureaucracy to drive Mr. Trump from office while deliberately gaslighting, hoaxing, misdirecting, and bamboozling the public. In the process, the Democratic Party became hostage to the worst elements among its supporters and foot-soldiers: the race hustlers, the gender-deranged, the criminal sociopaths, the limousine Marxists, the Wall Street swindlers, the Silicon Valley megalomaniacs, and even America’s foreign adversaries — as evidenced by the Biden Family’s lucrative dealings with the party that runs China.

In 2020, China gave the Democrats their greatest gift, Covid-19, a means to wreck the US economy and an excuse to pare away Americans’ constitutional rights to various freedoms of speech, published expression, movement, association, self-defense, and economic liberty. Finally, in managing to elect the inert and incompetent Joe Biden via ballot fraud the party went a scam too far.

All social hysterias run their courses. They run out of new gags, and out of new recruits. Their tropes grow tiresome, even comical, such as the Woke mainstays of “racism,” “misogyny,” and “white supremacy.” Their promptings reveal themselves as obviously dishonest. The punishments they seek seem increasingly warped and sadistic. The behavior they induce begins to look patently insane. That’s where America stands now.

To keep the flywheel of hysteria spinning during the Covid year of 2020, the Dems turned the death of George Floyd into a new-and-improved second coming of Michael Brown in order to juice BLM for the fall election. This time there were video cameras galore on the scene to capture what turned out to be an ambiguously deceptive storyline. Half the world flipped out at the sight of Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck at that Minneapolis intersection. It sure didn’t look good. Now that former officer Chauvin is on trial for Murder 2 and 3 plus manslaughter, the prosecution spent a week demonstrating indeed how bad that looked, with one witness after another who described how bad it made them feel to watch George Floyd die. Of course, watching anything die can be horrifying. It was, in essence, a wholly sentimental case for the prosecution.

The defense is ready to present facts that tell a different story: of a multiple violent felon and drug abuser hopped up on dangerous levels of narcotics and stimulants, with an impressively dire array of medical problems including Covid-19, who refused to follow police instructions, and in a manner that appeared deranged, leading to his being subdued by an approved police procedure to prevent harm to himself and others. The Minneapolis city council already queered the trial before it started by granting a $27-million settlement to the Floyd family, officially imputing guilt on Mr. Chauvin’s side. BLM has made it clear that they will not accept an acquittal.

Even a conviction is liable to inspire riots as the victory dance revs into the warm spring nighttime. Judging by last year’s BLM uprisings in city after city, the precedent has been established that mob violence is justified and holds no consequences. Something tells me that this particular error in political thinking will not be indulged this time around. The Woke hysteria and the hustles that grow out of it have shot their wad. Something else has awakened in this land: a recognition that we are in serious trouble, that our adversaries are having their way with us as we act stupidly, that we have become our own worst enemies, that being insane is not a virtue.

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ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] Yep, there’s the problem with depleting oil, and also its inconvenient placement in some dusty locales run by some bearded and robed fellas with some truly retrograde ideas. But we have other problems, mainly those of our own making, for example, a multi-decade head-long charge away from reason and common sense. And not only that but a whole-hearted embrace of the most howling fool-assery, some truly preposterous notions dressed up with jargon and abstruse terminology to sound like wisdom. Apparently the smartest among us forgot that if something sounds like gobbledygook, then that’s what it really is. Every day you can see folly coming from the bastions of what we laughingly refer to as “higher education”, which by any realistic assessment don’t produce anything resembling “education” never mind “higher”. One outcome was this stretch of sheer lunacy where the “elite” consensus – with academic backing – was that financial markets needed de-regulation. So, Horn-dog Bill saw to it, that is, when he could find the time, when he could get away from indulging a sharp and refined (sarcasm) taste for sin, listening to a small coterie representing views of monied interests. Well, Wall Street had its way, Wall Street has been having it way for a long time now, having bought and paid for those same bastions previously referred to and also both factions of the ruling Party. And, lest Republicans think that we don’t know, it was largely their thinking, if you can call it that, that underpinned much of this foolhardiness. So far be it from Dubya to get in the way. And so Wall Street insisted on playing Russian Roulette. Despite warnings that those pistols had real ammo, Wall Street kept at it. Inevitably, Wall Street blew its brains out. Remember? And then Barry and his administration, also in tight with Wall Streeters, came running, putting Wall Street into intensive care, finding no lack of time nor money. Nor lack of justifications either for turning a blind-eye to the most egregious criminality no matter the abundance of evidence. “Too big to jail” they said. Me, in my touching innocence, thought “too big to NOT jail”. Then Barry O hired Mary Jo. Truly remarkable, this astounding silliness, a real side-splitter, hiring former counsel for Wall Street financial firms as regulator of those same firms. You could be forgiven for thinking, what’s next, mob lawyers as police commissioners? You don’t have to look too hard. The ruinous results are right under your nose, and if you can’t see it, then you’re willfully blind, or maybe in the pay of those same monied interests. I think it’s trite but true, that old saying, people won’t see things if their paycheck depends on their not seeing them.

[2] J’Biden released his $2.2 Trillion infrastructure plan today in which he shows he still believes in magic. We’ll see if he announces infrastructure week every two weeks like the previous prez did. J’Biden wants to subsidize big oil and big gas industries with gimmicky subsidies for carbon capture that put money (cash not tax offsets) directly into oil and gas industry pockets. Not different from the previous prez. It has been more than 40 years since the first Earth Day and the free market has failed to solve the environmental crisis. J’Biden fantastically thinks (wishes) that the free market will save us, and fails to take crucial and ambitious steps toward phasing out fossil fuels. Same as the previous prez. J’Biden says he is going to run in 2024 (as does the previous prez), maybe on this infrastructure spending plan. But $2.2 Trillion is not enough, even if we tax the rich to pay for it. J’Biden’s conservative infrastructure plan is setting the stage and making it easy for a future presidential run by AOC.

[3] It does seem to be magic with money, dollar prestidigitation worthy of a David Copperfield. Maybe it’s voodoo economics , a term George H.W. Bush used referring to Reagan. Maybe he was right about Ronald, what with zombie thrifts and all, and the huge savings and loan scandal of the eighties. Although economists say you can’t continue to just print up money, we keep on defiantly doing that magic trick with unknown consequences. A number of money mavens think that it’s not the actual level of debt or the deficit, but how that level is trending in relation to GDP that’s important. It seems to be a simple formula that makes sense, that if economic output minus borrowing costs is greater than taxes minus spending, debt as a % of GDP should decline. Thus sustainability. These mavens also say that if there is no real growth, deficits have to be reduced or inflation has to be created by the Fed. What, it was half the price yesterday! Anyway, at times it all seems so dreary, and I like to think that I’m riding on a magic carpet of greenbacks that can turn into gold when I navigate correctly towards the sun. Well maybe I am, but without the gold. Here we are in unchartered financial territory, already being held aloft by the ceaseless conjuring up of cash. It’s a magical mystery tour de force.Is that a thread unraveling in the carpet? How do I get off this thing? I’m gonna have to do a D.B. Cooper. But wait, I don’t have any kind of parachute, let alone a golden one. Geez, that’s a long way down, isn’t it…..

[4] Let’s see. How much additional grid capability is needed for two EVs in every driveway. The current household usage in the USA is 13,000 KW per year. An EV driven at 50% of its range uses say an average of 25 KW so two EV in every driveway would add about 50 KW per day per household. So let’s say each EV is used 5 days a week so that would be 52 weeks times 5 or 250 time 50 KW per year .That comes out to an additional 12,000 KW per year. So that means that the electric grid needs to roughly double in the next 10 years. That’s not only the grid but the power generation needs using green energy while replacing 80% of our current usage with green energy. And that means that we need to increase green energy production from current levels of around 20% a full order of magnitude or 10 fold.Is it doable? – perhaps but it is a long shot. Is it affordable? I doubt it.

[5] Let’s see. How much additional grid capability is needed for two EVs in every driveway. The current household usage in the USA is 13,000 KW per year. An EV driven at 50% of its range uses say an average of 25 KW so two EV in every driveway would add about 50 KW per day per household. So let’s say each EV is used 5 days a week so that would be 52 weeks times 5 or 250 time 50 KW per year .That comes out to an additional 12,000 KW per year.

So that means that the electric grid needs to roughly double in the next 10 years. That’s not only the grid but the power generation needs using green energy while replacing 80% of our current usage with green energy.

And that means that we need to increase green energy production from current levels of around 20% a full order of magnitude or 10 fold.

Is it doable? – perhaps but it is a long shot. Is it affordable? I doubt it.

[6] It's not a lack of water, it's overpopulation that causes our problems. ABAG whistles and local carpetbagging (definition “an outsider, especially a politician who presumptuously seeks a position or success in a new area.”) our politicians quake in their boots and continue to try to build an affordable house for everyone who chooses to come here. It's our duty we're told. Ignore our antiquated roads, our limited water supply, our inability to actually teach our children (for now, indoctrinate them) our overcrowded beaches, our loss of freedoms? Vague memories of scenic views that used to soothe our souls.....? before the ridges sprouted hotel size homes.. Our obviously failing electric grid. Now because of the sins of the “planning” crowd we will be harried, shamed, lectured and made miserable this summer. Couldn't one of our 5000 county employees see the obvious result of unchecked development? Probably they did, but hoped they'd be on the retirement gravy train before the obvious chickens had come home to roost.

 [7] “It’s Easter and there is no God.” ‘I know this for a fact because … and I know for a fact that the multitudes whom God has revealed Himself are all delusional or bat-shit crazy … because … if there Really were a God, he would’ve revealed Himself to me by now!’”Ehhh … what a maroon!” – Bugs BunnyYou can’t know that God doesn’t exist. You can think it. Suspect it. Argue so. You can even have Faith that He does not exist. You don’t know. Science discovers that God is within you and without you. Science discovers God from the cosmos to the atom. And you go, “See!” while The Truth zips Right over your head like a hawk. Jesus did rise from the dead. Jesus left this world as a slaughtered lamb. Two more days (2,000 years) and He’s coming back to judge the living and the dead. He’s coming back to mete out Truth & Justice as a lion. Judgement Day. Then, on the 7th day, the souls in the Book of Life rest [Jesus’ 1,000 year reign!]Of course, we’ve got 7 years of Trials & Tribulations first. Buckle up, Christians, martyrdom ain’t pretty. Happy Easter! He is risen!