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DRY WEATHER WITH WARMER DAYTIME TEMPERATURES for the interior is expected today. Cooler temperature and onshore breezes are expected for coastal areas. A trough will bring a chance of rain mainly for Del Norte and northern Humboldt Counties Monday afternoon through Monday night. An isolated thunderstorm will also be possible for the Trinity Alps Monday afternoon. Otherwise, dry weather with near normal temperatures are expected to prevail for much of the upcoming work week. (NWS)
FIREFIGHTERS ON SATURDAY MORNING had reached 50% containment on a 20-acre vegetation fire east of Willits in Mendocino County, a Cal Fire official said.
The Tomki fire started at 10 a.m. Friday in a remote area of steep terrain in the block of 16500 Tomki Road near Appaloosa Road. A Cal Fire helicopter crew had spotted the blaze and the agency was joined with firefighters from Little Lake, Brooktrails and Redwood Valley fire departments assisting.
“At this point, the forward spread has been stopped,” said Cal Fire Capt. Leah Simmons-Davis. “There’s timber and brush and there are scattered houses… but it’s far out there.”
Cal Fire personnel will remain on the blaze throughout the day, Simmons-Davis said. “Everything is looking good. There’s heavy fuel so they are just working on putting it out,” she said.
(Bill Swindell, Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK
Arrow was adopted last December but had to be brought back to the shelter due to livestock issues. His new home will need to be livestock-free. Arrow is a very friendly, affectionate guy with people and other dogs. Arrow originally came to the shelter as a stray and had an old front leg injury. This does not keep him down at all! Arrow loves to be outside, go for walks and adventures, and chase tennis balls. Arrow is a mixed breed, neutered male, 2 years old and 68 pounds, and ready to hop in your car ASAP!
Visit us at mendoanimalshelter.com to see all of our canine and feline guests, our services, programs, events, and updates regarding covid-19, as it impacts Mendocino County Animal Shelters in Ukiah and Ft. Bragg. For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453.
A SMALL FAMILY FARM OUTSIDE BOONVILLE
Petit Teton Monthly Farm Report - April 2021
Dear friends,
The computer ate my homework. I was about to attach the long essay I wrote to go with the attached photos, but something went so wrong that even my computer engineer son couldn’t figure it out. I haven’t the heart to struggle to reproduce what I wrote originally, thus what follows is a short version so the pictures make sense.
Several years ago I planted a cactus garden in our entryway. The original cuttings came from the Yountville Veteran’s Home gardens but have been added to over the years with native plants and some fruiting varieties. I was motivated by the idea that California will slowly become desert over the next number of years and by our need for variety in our canned cactus products, but mainly because I love cactus. My visit to Pasadena’s Huntington Museum and Gardens on my first trip to CA inspired my passion. I’m an artist and the colors, textures, linear quality and patterning in the heat and glaring desert light capture my imagination. But when they finally bloomed I was bowled over by how brilliant and profuse the blossoms were, and how fake, almost plastic, they looked which made the plants seem surreal. We’ve always made prickly pear drink mixers and jelly, but now from the Trichocereus cactus fruit we’ve created a jelly called Golden Torch that is nearly black. Since cactus never has much flavor on its own, we add flavoring, but cacti health benefits are excellent and black jelly is certainly exotic.
The second set of not very good photos are of a duck house that Steve built. They had been sleeping in the pig trailer which was needed to take the pigs to market. The previous owners of the property left an old handmade flat-bed trailer with two large truck wheels and the new coop is designed to rest on top of it. The tires were flat and the rims so rusted that it was a job to remove the bolts to take the tires off. Once done Steve was told that the rims had to be sanded and powder coated to be able to put on new tires. (I’m responsible for the poppy orange color for the powder coat.) The house can be lifted off the trailer so it will be useful elsewhere. We plan to move the ducks to various planting areas for them to clean them up. Of course, sturdy fencing will be required since it is our understanding that all critters prefer duck to chicken when out foraging.
The above is all to avoid the painful discussion about the non-renewal of our fire insurance which will end in July because of the high fire danger. We are not alone in this and will write about it in depth once we’ve finished our research.
Take care, be safe, be wary, be happy.
Nikki Auschnitt & Steve Krieg
Yorkville
MENDOCINO SPRING POETRY CELEBRATION deadline is SUNDAY MAY 23
46th Anniversary * 16th consecutive Revival
As with last year, the event will be held in the air and on the air at KZYX&Z, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting. Dan Roberts will begin presenting the 2021 open reading submissions on June 6, but act now to get your work in by this Sunday, May 23.
Pick up a smartphone, record up to four minutes of poetry and email it to outfarpress@saber.net . It’s easy as emailing photos! For encouragement in detail, see outfarpress.com/poetry. Do it now! Send your recording to Dan Roberts at outfarpress@saber.net
Info: Gordon Black, (707) 937 4107, gblack@mcn.org
Let’s hear it from you!
COVID-19 VACCINE EVENTS Have Been Scheduled for Next Week
There are multiple opportunities to get your 1st or 2nd dose of Pfizer around Mendocino County!
COVID-19 vaccine 1st and 2nd dose events have been scheduled for next week. For additional location information and to register, visit the link below.
mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccinations/vaccination-clinics
Vaccines are safe, effective, and free. Parents must print and sign online consent form for minors, but are not required to be present at the vaccination appointment. The form can be found here: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/
RED BEARD IN PHILO, February 2021
ON LINE COMMENTS RE MENDO'S POT STRATEGIES:
(1) Well, let’s embarrass the pot farmers until they pay up!
Mendocino has some interesting approaches to “compliance”, but the best way to improve the situation would probably be to directly fine property owners and then follow up with impounding real property.
Mendocino County has few teeth, but in actual fact, it is the county that embarrases itself, over and over…
It would take the National Guard, or Black Ops, to restore sense and order in Mendo, and the likelihood of engaging the real offenders is minimal…
Good luck, Mendo! Great copy and content, poor quality government overall…
(2) Newsom is the Cat’s Paw of the wealthy. The recall effort should be very entertaining, and could possibly result in another Swartzenegger-type Gov-Fest…
Mendocino, on the other hand, is it’s own apparent experiment in incompetent government by the crooked, corrupt, and the folks who hire their friends, neighbors and family members…
Mendo public employees are poorly paid, marginally qualified, and they frequently come up with silly programs like attempting to embarrass the pot farmers…
Pot farmers are primarily concerned with accelerated growing methods, polluting the heck out of the environment, and liquidating their products before the Sheriff and CDFW show up… Pot farmers waste water, steal everything not welded to the wall, spread poisons and divert every tributary and stream, they cut down any tree which will get them “more light” and build shacks to live in, dig holes to throw garbage in, they spill gas and diesel liberally all over the place, and generally act like pirates, whenever they are not speeding and careening all over the roads in their jacked-up pickups!
Anyone who has ever gone to Mendocino County knows to avoid the place in Summer! Ukiah is a mess, Willits is uninhabitable, and Fort Bragg should always be avoided at any cost!
Mendocino County has been known to hire clericals to run Health Services! This guy who is the current “Code Enforcement Officer” should be damn careful where he is recognized, and exactly where he goes and lives… In my opinion, his life is in grave danger, but, he is bravely attempting to embarrass the growers into “compliance”, whatever that is…
Good luck, Trent! Be well…
(3) I wonder if they will head out to Covelo to hand out abatements? 810 plants is the biggest grow they abated? Weak sauce. Quit being wimps, picking on the elderly and backyard growers, they are not the problem. Grow a sack and go serve an abatement on a 20,000 plant 20 greenhouse cartel grow in Covelo, that’s where the problems are, go solve them. The abatement program in Mendocino is destined to be less successful than the Humboldt Abatement program. Wasn’t a 29 greenhouse 8000 plant grow busted yesterday? Didn’t the county say they got rid of those? Yeah the abatement program is dead, not a single one sent out in almost 13 months. They got their ass sued and not only have to pay back Measure S money, but unlawful abatement money as well. How are they going to pay back those illegal growers? With your tax dollars. Oh yeah, not as much money for enforcement this year either, they gotta pay back all those growers somehow. Good thing there is a gag order on the lawsuit otherwise the word would really be out. What a waste of everyone’s time. If the government stayed out of it, the $300 pounds would’ve put more people out of business than any enforcement or abatements ever could’ve.
IN THE SPIRIT OF CAPTURING MOMENTS WORTH REMEMBERING, MendoFever.com will now feature MendoMoments, a column dedicated to showcasing the land, animals, and people that make up Mendocino County.
All Mendocino County residents and visitors are invited to participate. Send photographs to matthewplafever@gmail.com including a description of what your photograph depicts, where it was taken, and any other important details.
AUDIT THE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT?
by Mark Scaramella
On the Superivsors’ Tuesday, May 25 agenda Supervisor Ted Williams has proposed Item 6d:
“Discussion and Possible Action Including Acceptance of Presentation by South Coast Organizing for Radical Equity Encouraging Independent Performance and Fiscal Audit of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Including Jail (Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)”
On their facebook page the “SCORE” people — anonymous, of course — mention “a few” of the reasons they think the Sheriff’s office needs to be audited:
The 2014 Neuroth Case when jail staff tried to subdue a tweeked-to-the-max Neuroth — which resulted in a San Francisco awarding the dead man's family a $5 million settlement; and a 2017 case which they say cost a $180k settlement when an inmate died in jail after being tased (we can not find any such case).
They also claim that because lots of people in jail are not convicted, that lots of people are arrested for “low level, non-violent offenses,” and that lots of money is being spent on jail expansion, that somehow that means the Sheriff is fiscally irresponsible and “doesn’t provide enough info to the Board or the public to justify his requests for additional funds.”
Nowhere on their facebook page do they identify who they are or what their backgrounds are.
The reasons they cite as justification for the audit are simplistic and specious, although their list of items to be audited is impressively detailed, including plenty of interesting but irrelevant questions about jail statistics, probably because the national wokesters provided it to them, assuming they're a plural.
You can read the entire presentation on the Supervisors on-line Agenda at:
They vaguely claim that there’s a “Perception of low or no accountability regarding transparency around MCSO funding and management of those funds, leading to fraught community relations. [Examples of “fraught communication relations” beyond themselves would be helpful.]
The also say that “the Sheriff’s $4M budget request to address inland illegal cannabis issues in 2020 did not include substantive data on need.”
They say, “There seems to have been gaps and inconsistent tracking around use of financial resources, likely pre-dating Sheriff Kendall.” (This is true of all County departments and is unrelated to the Sheriff.)
They conclude by suggesting that the Board “Convene an Ad-Hoc Committee of the Board of Supervisors prior to adopting the FY21-22 budget to review/discuss audit scope recommendations.”
Letters of Support for the audit attached to the agenda suggest that the Sheriff’s budget be reduced in favor of nicer things like education, mental health, better forest management, affordable housing, addiction treatment, etc.
The Coast Democratic Club thinks the audit is desireable because “Such an audit should provide valuable data for decisions on budgeting and allocations of resources. Future decisions on policies regarding law enforcement in the county would then be supported by measurable means.”
The Coast Dems also refer to support from a companion anonymous group called “SURJ,” Showing Up For Racial Justice. Mendo Black Lives Matter agrees with the audit also, with their slogan: “No more budget increases for MCSO.”
* * *
A few reasons not to conduct an audit:
Sheriff’s audits have been conducted before and they don’t produce anything useful or that the Sheriff does not already know.
The Efficiency Audit That Wasn’t
A Brief History of the Sheriff’s Budget
Although compiling some local law enforcement statistics could be useful and interesting, public safety funding and staffing cannot be directly tied to “hard data.” That would be like tying firefighting staffing to the number of fires. Public safety funding is primarily a coverage issue — both geographically and round-the-clock seven days a week. The number of arrests and the number of people in jail do not correlate to coverage staffing.
Although they seem to prefer funding for non-law enforcement helping agency services, the audit advocates show no interest in auditing the School budget, the Mental Health budget, the Behavioral Health Budget, or the Social Services budget, on the apparent assumption that those funds are being efficiently used. But obviously they are not. They also ignore law enforcement’s default response role stemming from the failure of all those millions wasted on unaccountable mental health administration, consultants, and private contractors. Why not audit the Redwood Quality Management Company’s mental health services contract and the County’s top-heavy mental health department administration? How about some statistics about what they do (or more accurately don’t do)?
The increases that the Sheriff wants are mostly related to crime in Covelo where coverage is historically difficult. Does anyone argue that Covelo does NOT need more law enforcement coverage? That statistics would make any difference to that need?
Most of the Sheriff’s budget is salaries, vehicles, pensions and overtime. How do the audit advocates think that should be reduced?
This whole audit idea is fueled by and piggy-backed on media-fueled wokester-related unfortunate events outside of Mendocino County with a simplistic assumption that comparable problems exist in Mendo. Citing a few random incidents and statistics does not mean Mendo is comparable to Minneapolis or Chicago.
Taking money out of the Sheriff’s budget for an unnecessary audit will do nothing to improve the Sheriff’s department.
WHAT DOES the money machine eat? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty, and, above all, it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits quantity.
— William S. Burroughs
COMMENTS RE: ORICK RESCUE OF LOST COUPLE COMMENTS:
[1] ollllllol. Darwin Awards all around. Hippies on a Bluff! ” Honey bear, let’s go hiking – and get lost on some rocks when it gets cold and dark!” “Sounds good, my little CBD muffin.” Millions of taxpayer dollars wasted every year on local yokels, college buffoons and fat tourists who do not know how to walk in the wild or even tell time. “The sky is getting dimmer, I wonder what that means?”
[2] I suppose it could be considered a useful training mission for the Coast Guard. But “stranded” by itself seems rather a poor excuse if they weren’t in danger of anything but being inconvenienced by having to wait for daylight or the tide to go out.
[3] Men and women of our fantastic Coast Guard again put at risk for a rescue of two hikers that could have returned when they realized it was starting to get dark. They could have waited until morning, and the tide was out to continue. I hope they don’t try that trail again!
[4] I hope these youngsters appreciate the help and demonstrate their appreciation by making a hefty donation to one of our local VOLUNTEER search & rescue organizations.
[5] I see a lot of opinions here but not much in the way of facts. 30 year-olds generally are not considered “youngsters.” Hippies? I see nothing to suggest that and this might be one of those you-had-to-be-there situations. And besides, there ain’t no Starbucks out there for morning coffee. Thank you to the Coast Guard.
[6] Until around 36 hours ago, I would have seen a report like this and thought, “Those fools, they shouldn’t have gotten stuck out there!” And then… It’s a nice day, makes you feel ambitious. You have a hike in mind that you tried once before with relatively high success. It looks like the tide will be low enough for long enough that you can make it from one trail that hits the beach to the other. You tell your hiking partner about this hike. They are skeptical of the elevation gain and distance, but you encourage them, telling them you think they can handle it. And then… You get on trail, but go much, much slower than you thought you would. Like multiple hours behind where you want to be. You get to the beach. All is good, at first. Then you come to a point where there is a 25 foot high rock in front of you that is getting hit directly by waves, and behind it is a steep hillside of scrub brush that, while thick, looks passable. Going back the way you came would be another 5 miles. Plus no guarantee that the tide hasn’t come in far enough now that you’re trapped in both directions. You planned for a dayhike and have an extra layer, but not more than that. No shelter or fire. So perhaps best to scramble behind the rock. You get to the top of the first rock. There are more that are still higher in front of you. You try again, and again. Now you think you might just be able to walk uphill until you get to the road and get out that way. Meanwhile, the vegetation is worse than anything you’ve ever walked in. Scrub and thorns assault your entire body. The further up you get the more spruce there is, the bigger and woodier some of the stems get. You reach a small plateau, perhaps 100sq ft. Your partner says that they have cell signal, should we call someone. You are still trying to think your way out of this now very difficult situation. You agree to a call, fully expecting that you will speak with some emergency personnel who will tell you to wait until morning, or go back the way you came. They remind you that descents are more precarious than ascents, tell you not to move and that they will come for you, that very night.
[7] The people of the US Coast Guard and local search and rescue are truly heroes. I believe that there are parts of our government, especially our military, that are way overfunded, but the Coast Guard is an absolute exception to that. And it is a crime that our local SAR groups are volunteer. When you go to thank the rescue swimmer for putting himself at risk and hoisting you, he says, “no, thank you guys. I am getting transferred in a few months and I was worried I wouldn’t get to do anything else that was fun before I left!” It can be really easy to make assumptions about how people end up in situations like this. Until you find yourself in one. I’m glad I went for this hike. I didn’t know I would learn quite this much, but I’m glad I went.
CATCH OF THE DAY, May 22, 2021
JADE ANDERSEN, Sacramento/Ukiah. Parole violation.
MYQ ATTANASIO, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear, probation revocation.
LINCOLN CHALMERS, Ukiah. DUI, child endangerment, misdemeanor hit&run.
ROBERT FILER, Sacramento/Ukiah. Paraphernalia.
CHRISTOPHER GUERRERO, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.
NAOMI PONCIA-HUTTEN, Petaluma/Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, battery on peace officer, resisting.
STACY WILSON, Fort Bragg. Petty theft/embezzlement, failure to appear.
ERIC WRIGHT, Ukiah. Vandalism.
THE WORLD’S DEMOGRAPHICS ARE CHANGING, pushing toward more deaths than births. Though some countries’ populations continue to grow, fertility rates are falling nearly everywhere else as women have gained more access to education and contraception. Demographers now predict that toward the middle of this century, the global population will enter a sustained decline for the first time. (New York Times)
MORE SUPER TANKERS
Editor:
The Boeing 747 supertanker has proven its value to be a permanent part of the state’s firefighting efforts and should be continued. One 747 can carry more fire retardant than six regular firefighting planes. Pay the owners of the current 747 what they need to remain flying as needed.
I think there should be a fleet of several of these firefighting behemoths stationed throughout the state. Or we could share the expense and benefits with Oregon and Washington.
Boeing announced that it will cease producing 747s in 2022, and numerous airlines have retired or parked their fleets. The surplus price of these still-serviceable planes is nothing compared to the on-going human and property losses we’ve been experiencing. But, please, don’t make this a government-run operation. Find a private contractor to maintain and fly these assets.
Don’t create another SMART train debacle where inexperienced management has burned through over half a billion dollars of our money.
Steve Edwards
Santa Rosa
KNOCKING ON FREEMAN'S DOOR
Salaries of reporters, editors and photographers who once held our local governments accountable, chronicled the highs and lows of our student athletes and undertook civic campaigns to better our communities are now literally paying instead for some of the most incredibly questionable investments in the history of Wall Street.
evan-brandt.blogspot.com/2018/05/pondering-future-of-our-local-newspaper.html
REMEMBER ALL THAT SPIRITED MALARKEY about rejoining the community of nations and taking a multi-lateral approach to foreign policy? Biden has intervened on Israel’s behalf to block four UN ceasefire resolutions, allowing the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) to target media facilities, refugee camps, apartment buildings, water supplies, hospitals and COVID testing and vaccination facilities. At this point, Biden is as culpable as Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli political and military leadership for the war crimes that have transpired over the last week…
— Jeffrey St. Clair
THE ATTORNEY for alleged insurrectionist and the QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley, says that his client and other accused Capitol rioters were uniquely vulnerable to being misled by former President Trump’s lies.
“A lot of these defendants — and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they’re all fucking short-bus people,” [Albert] Watkins told TPM [Talking Points Memo]. “These are people with brain damage, they’re fucking retarded, they’re on the goddamn spectrum.”
“But they’re our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our coworkers — they’re part of our country. These aren’t bad people, they don’t have prior criminal history. Fuck, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since fucking Hitler.”
DEEP SOUTH: THE ARKANSAS LITERARY FESTIVAL
by Paul Theroux
During the stormy days while I drove through the rain around Central Arkansas, I happened upon a literary festival in Little Rock, four days of talks and book-related events. Many authors were featured, most of them are Arkansans. The Arkansas novelist Charles Portis lived in Little Rock and I hoped -- because I was one of his readers -- he might be speaking. But Portis's name was not on the list of 80 authors who would be appearing at the festival.
Most literary festivals, featuring self-promoting authors with tangled beards and strange hats, eager publicists, and the hoopla of signings and free T-shirts, amount to little more than a frenzied harlequinade. But the mission of this festival was, so its advertising stated, "to encourage the development of a more literate populace." In a state in which some rural counties had a 25% adult literacy rate, where statewide more than 14% could not read or write, and almost 40% of Arkansans do not have a high school diploma, a more literate populace was a worthy aim. Whenever such dire statistics were trotted out, the response was usually, "but in Mississippi its worse," which was the melancholy truth. Yet the intellectual sterility in Arkansas was palpable and made more obvious by the strenuous attempts to deny it.
The Arkansas writer Ellen Gilchrist was advertised as a featured speaker at the literary festival. I had read several of her collections of stories and hoped to hear her. Her short stories, many of them sequential, with a recurring cast of characters, concerned that the tribulations of educated, middle-class, white Southern women. The stories were not to my taste, but that wasn't important: the drawling, sprawling prose of Gilchrist was revealing, such chattiness often more revelatory and helpful to an outsider like me than a virtuoso display of literary technique. Gilchrist never failed to describe women's clothes, every color and style, the shoes too -- the shoes especially -- and the women's makeup and coiffeurs. These were descriptive details to which the male writer was usually blind or oblivious. From the literary point of view her fiction had no weight -- at least for me. But the stories I'd read clearly reflected the love, work, mating habits, and marriages of Southern women which she portrayed with conviction.
The issue of race was seldom raised in Gilchrist’s fiction although one set of connected stories was narrated by Traceleen, a black housemaid working in the home of one of Gilchrist’s characters from other stories, a dizzy, much married drunken southern belle named Crystal Manning Mallison Weiss. Traceleen is sober, reliable and hard working and in one episode trying to be helpful she takes over the driving of an expensive Mercedes and unavoidably crashes it, causing its male owner to remark, “Holy Christ, Crystal. You let the nigger maid drive my car?”
I longed for the privilege to ask Ellen Gilchrist about this story, included in her prize-winning collection “Victory over Japan.” Why the sustained and unruffled tone of the black narrator? Whence the farcical situation that develops from the crash? And why does Traceleen seem to accept the word of abuse or at least why does she evinced no reaction at all to this language in what seemed to me a charged situation? And did Gilchrist receive any flack or umbrage for using the word?
But the storm had kept Ellen Gilchrist in Fayetteville and her talk was canceled as I discovered when I visited the Main Library on Second Street not far from the odd, intrusive library and museum in the form of a cantilevered upswung big rig trailer, the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center on the south bank of the muddy Arkansas River.
The woman in the more conventional Little Rock Main Library, sitting at a wide desk at the top of an elegant staircase at the entrance, sat like a captain on the bridge of a ship fielding questions, directing people to books and rooms and festival activities.
"Very impressive," I said, paging through the program she had handed me and remarking on the many events and numerous writers participating in the festival. "I'd love to meet the organizer."
"That would be Brad. But he's pretty busy with the writers."
"Perhaps I might leave him a note?"
I wrote my name and contact number on a torn off square from a pad of Little Rock library stationery.
"And what would this be in reference to, column, Mr. Thorax?"
"About writing in Arkansas," I said and when she snatched at her blonde hair and kept her blue eyes on me hoping for more detail I added, "I'm a writer myself."
"Do you write under your own name?"
"Generally."
"What sort of things do you write, Mr. Thorax?"
Although I made a tactful attempt, I felt it was like describing the color green to a blind person.
"You're going to love the festival," she said, and that was when, hearing that I was looking forward to hearing Ellen Gilchrist, she told me her talk had been canceled owing to the bad weather.
MOON OVER TOWN STREET by Kobayashi Kiyochika
COMPENDIUM
"Great holy armies shall be gathered and trained to fight all who embrace evil. In the name of the Gods ships shall be built to carry our warriors out amongst the stars, and we will spread Origin to all the unbelievers. The power of the Ori will be felt far and wide, and the wicked shall be vanquished. Hallowed are the Ori."
The recording of Friday night's (2021-05-21) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg is right here: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0437
Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com there's a fresh batch of not-necessarily-radio-useful but worthwhile items that I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:
Two worlds. https://boingboing.net/2021/05/19/lucky-ducky-gets-even-lazier-and-greedier.html
Rabbit's Blood. (5 min.) https://boingboing.net/2021/05/21/rabbits-blood-is-a-wonderfully-grim-animated-short-set-in-the-distant-future.html
Frozen to death and then microwave-reanimated 1950s hamsters. https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2021/05/reanimating-frozen-hamsters-with.html
And Stuck, a happy prank. I think they must be French sisters. https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/05/20/stuck-the-prank/
Bonus track: Angry French office woman. If you understand her, can you give me a basic idea of what she's so pissed off about? I'm especially interested in what she might be saying just before she grabs the other woman's throat. https://tinyurl.com/AngryFrenchOfficeWoman
That's it for now, except: Email me your written work and I'll read it Friday night on the radio on the very next MOTA, when I'll be back on Franklin Street for the show, and I think Max Forsetter (Max the Piano Player) will be there too, to take full advantage of KNYO's genuine freshly tuned Jack Leung piano.
(Also the Super Blood Moon total eclipse begins 4:11am (PDT) and ends 4:25am early this coming Wednesday, with a couple of hours of variable shading before and after. This is a huge deal for biodynamic astrological winery management. Time to bury a fresh wad of cursed cash with a brown chicken egg at the northwest corner of the vineyard for maximum fecundity in the New Age new year.)
Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
YES, AND IT WAS THE MOST USEFUL CLASS I TOOK
MANY AMERICAN LIBERALS have convinced themselves that the latest attacks on Gaza prove the need for a “two-state” solution. However, a two-state solution depends on both states being able to elect the government that they want, secure their citizens, protect their property, homes, businesses and lives. Israel will never tolerate such conditions in a Palestinian state, even in the mangled condition it has currently been reduced to. Co-existence when one country (the one with nukes) gets to the set the political terms for the other is impossible – these neo-colonial dictates will always be resisted and should be. Thus the only real solution is one state, composed of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, where all of the citizens are entitled to the same basic rights under law, administered by a democratically-elected government, where every citizen over the age of 18 is allowed to vote, regardless of age, religion, or ethnic identity. The only real solution to an apartheid state is the demolition of the framework of apartheid.
— Jeffrey St. Clair
ETHNIC CLEANSING
To the Editor:
Let's be clear: Israeli Zionism has been ETHNICALLY CLEANSING Arabs since before 1945.
The clandestine movement known as Aliyah Bet was organized to bring Jews to Palestine during WWII. Later, Aliyah Bet became known as the Jewish guerrilla campaign over Jewish immigration limits.
Aliyah Bet joined other Jewish militia -- Haganah, Irgun and Lehi -- in an armed struggle against British rule and the indigenous Arab community.
The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, the 1947–1949 Palestine war, and the Israeli Declaration of Independence all set the stage for the next 70 years. It set the stage for THE NEW HOLOCAUST. It set the stage for Jews exterminating Palestinians to make room for more Jews.
Netanyahu's Israel continues this campaign with escalated ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, a current Jerusalem flashpoint.
ISRAEL: LAWLESS, RACIST, SUPREMACIST. A disgrace to humankind. A deep stain on the global conscience.
John Sakowicz, Ukiah
CONFESSIONS OF A CAREER GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRAT
Providing a good life for my family came at the cost of dedicating my career to mostly meaningless work.
by Ed O’Neal
At the beginning of my 32-year career as a government employee, I saw myself as an engineer first. I believed engineering, and by extension my role as a federal and county-level employee, was about listening, studying and solving problems. For years, I held on to that belief.
The most meaningful and productive time in my career came in the 1980s, when I was a mechanical and marine engineer at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in Southern California. It was an unorthodox workplace filled with rough characters—some ex-convicts, some combat veterans, some both. If a guy there didn’t like you, he’d tell you, often in colorful language. Sometimes fights would break out on the job, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already seen growing up in San Bernardino, Calif.
During my five years at the shipyard, I thrived under the guidance and teaching of experienced engineers. Seeing my ship-design work fabricated onto naval vessels by skilled tradesmen, then tested at sea, gave me a sense of responsibility and pride. We worked as a team, and I never felt more fulfilled.
In 1989, as my wife and I had our first child, I took a better-paying job closer to home. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, or AQMD, couldn’t have been more different from the shipyard. Rather than working on battleships with hardened men devoted to the defeat of the Soviet Union, I spent my days in a cubicle, fighting air pollution with soft but cunning bureaucrats.
I’m a free-market moderate, skeptical of big government in general and the administrative state in particular. Like most Americans, I am not a pure libertarian; I think government has some role to play.
Having grown up during the smog-choked 1970s—when the Southern California skies often looked like Beijing’s today—I believe some level of air-quality regulation is necessary.
The AQMD was created in 1977 by merging four agencies with a mandate to regulate stationary sources of air pollution—i.e., not cars—in the South Coast Air Basin, including Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. More than 17 million people live in the air basin. By the late ‘80s, the agency had become a global leader in cleaning up industrial air pollutants. Its executives also had a reputation for respecting engineers.
When I started, my supervisor appreciated my willingness to go in the field and interact with regulated companies. If a dispute over noncompliance arose, I knew he would have my back. Early on I helped implement rules that required firms to retrofit large boilers with new burners, which theoretically would reduce emissions. This seemed like a good idea, but I recall that early tests found a major problem: Toxic formaldehyde emissions increased dramatically after the new burners were installed. This was an inconvenient fact.
Around that time, a major agency reorganization occurred at the AQMD. My new supervisor immediately ordered me to ignore increases in formaldehyde emissions. He also instructed me to stay in the office and approve operating permits regardless of regulatory compliance. It seemed the appearance of progress on paper was more important than the reality of what Californians were breathing.
In hindsight, I think we engineers had been so busy with the minutiae of technical work that we hadn’t noticed bigger changes in the bureaucracy. Despite the district’s early successes, in 1994 the new regime implemented the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market program, known by the acronym Reclaim. Rather than comply with existing regulations requiring emission reductions for specific types of equipment, companies were given flexibility in how to reduce overall emissions. Again, this sounded good. Yet a colleague told me that “flexibility” really meant emission reductions only on paper.
Calculating emissions is already complex, but the results of Reclaim are clear enough. In 2000, when the program should have begun reducing smog, the air basin exceeded healthy smog standards for 145 days. The air in the basin wasn’t ruled healthy to breathe for almost five months of the year. In 2017, the air basin again exceeded healthy smog standards for 145 days and the agency voted to end Reclaim. The AQMD had spent more than $2.5 billion over 17 years trying to clean the air through rules and regulations and effectively achieved nothing.
The failure is even greater when considering that cleaner cars and trucks have helped improve air quality in Southern California at the same time that Reclaim hurt the region. I foolishly believed this kind of madness was temporary, but sanity never returned. Reclaim is only one example of many at an agency filled with dejected engineers.
I retired as a lowly Air Quality Engineer II in 2017, but I don’t have a vendetta against the district. I grew up poor and came to the agency to provide stability for my family. It gave me a paycheck and good health insurance for decades. But providing a good life for my children came at the cost of dedicating most of my engineering career to meaningless work. The AQMD takes care of its own but not the public it’s meant to serve.
I never had the bureaucratic knife-fighting skills to rise through the ranks and reform the agency. Maybe someone who does is sitting in a AQMD cubicle right now, quietly harboring revolutionary thoughts. But I wouldn’t count on it.
(Mr. O’Neal was an engineer at the South Coast Air Quality Management District (1989-2017). Wall Street Journal.)
ISRAELI CRIMES INTENSIFY
by Jagjit Singh
The festering Israeli Palestinian conflict is rooted in British colonial crimes. Following the Second World War, Lord Balfour, a fierce Zionist, gifted the land inhabited by predominantly Palestinians to the Jews with massive military and economic aid from the US.
Edward Said, the brilliant Palestinian academic, described the dispossession of Palestinian land:
[The Balfour] Declaration was made (a) by a European power, (b) about a non-European territory, (c) in a flat disregard of both the presence and the wishes of the native majority resident in that territory, and (d) it took the form of a promise about this same territory to another foreign group so that this foreign group might quite literally make this territory a national home for the Jewish people....Balfour’s statements in the declaration take for granted the higher right of a colonial power to dispose of a territory as it saw fit.
How quickly we have forgotten the shameful chapter in our own history when early US settlers committed genocide against the Native Americans.
The American media reporting on the deteriorating situation in Israel has been profoundly disappointing. A common narrative, “barrage of rockets streamed out of Gaza while Israeli jets pounded the territory."
Correction: The rockets were fired in response to unspeakable atrocities being committed by far-right Israeli police attacking Palestinian worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and ethnically cleansing Palestiniansfrom their homes (designated by the UN as a possible war crime).
What is sorely missing from the American media reporting is the simple question “Do the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves from an apartheid government (designated as such by Human Rights Watch) bent on committing genocide? Why must Palestinians suffer the indignities of such a brutal occupation? Did we not repel our former colonial overlords, the Brits, because of seething anger and resentment over colonial rule? Why should we deny the Palestinians the same rights and aspirations?"
President Biden has shown a complete lack of leadership parroting the same tired defense of Israeli aggression “Israel has the right to defend itself”. But he has not uttered one word of criticism excoriating Israel’s right-wing settler terrorists and Israeli police attacking Palestinian worshippers.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been wounded with reports showing police fired rubber-coated bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinian worshipers. This follows weeks of protests to block Israel from evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrahneighborhood of Jerusalem to give their homes to illegal settlers.
The Israeli government is using brute force to terrorize Palestinians while Israeli settlers walk freely in Palestinian neighborhoods driving them out of their homes with guns drawn.
Videos posted online shows explosives, possibly stun grenades, being fired inside the mosque, which is the third-holiest site in Islam. Medical personnel were initially barred from reaching the injured Palestinians (a serious war crime). Eyewitnesses described a scene of terror when Israeli forces began opening fire while people prayed.
Predictably, the situation escalated rapidly with Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killing scores of Palestinians, including many children. The tension in Jerusalem has been mounting for weeks as Palestinians have been desperately attempting block Israel from forcibly evicting them from their homes.
This is excessively cruel and a complete violation of international law. The European Union and the UK severely condemned the planned evictions. Meanwhile, the timid Biden administration and Republicans remain silent, uncomfortable about offending the powerful pro-Israel lobby who routinely insist on unconditional support.
Successive US administrations have created this incendiary situation by their long role as a dishonest broker, rewarding Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies with $billions in US military and economic aid, making us complicit in Israel’s war crimes. It is time US taxpayers raise our collective voices to halt this grave injustice and allow Palestinians to charter their own destiny free from Israeli oppression.
(Courtesy, the Daily Planet)
Hats off to Mark Scaramella this morning for exposing the “radical equity” south coast mob’s miserable insinuations against the Mendocino County’s Sheriff Department. If anything needs an “audit” it’s this country’s continuing drift into radicalism, the fruits of which were more than evident on the mob-ruled, chaotic streets of America last year. How did my supervisor, Ted Williams, get suckered into introducing this proposal (item 6) by an anonymous clique of loony lefties into the BOS agenda? Equity is an odd word with two distinct definitions. On one had it stands for capital investment, on the other it means freedom from bias or favoritism. “Radical” equity? That could mean monopoly, or it could mean we will dictate, that is, tell you what is fair.
Thanks for the great picture of Spike McNabb! Last time I saw him he was tending bar at the Milano and was sharing his famous pickled herring. That was back in the early 70’s.
NAOMI PONCIA-HUTTEN, Petaluma/Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, battery on peace officer, resisting.
What was her bail set at, $3,000,000?
I didn’t realize that May 23 was Bash Israel Day.
Everyday is bash Israel day in the Anderson Valley Advertiser.
I almost replied, Argue the issues, but this issue is much to difficult for the sage of Greenwood Road, hence the insults he doles out every day or tries to. Let’s hear your solution for the issue, Von Umlaut?
Everyday is Bash Israel Day here on the AVA.
Marmon
Also not true. Way to go, Jimbo. You’re two for two.
I didn’t either, but argue the issues, Steve.
I will not argue the issues here. That’s a black hole I’m not willing to enter. I’ll just point out that there are four anti-Israel points-of-view in MCT and nothing offering any sort of counterpoint.
Every other paper in the country is carrying the counterpoint perspective. Why don’t you criticize their lack of balance and detachment? Entering the “black hole” on that one, I guess…?
Just because I’m weary of this entire discussion, may I posit?
Original United Nations resolution allowed creation of both a Jewish state and an Arab state , partitioning Palestine. 1947 as I recall.
Harry Truman and the British supported the former but not the latter. From thenceforth, the Israeli/Palestinian “problem” has unfolded. And will continue to do so.
A simple look at the maps of the area over time is instructive. This website published last week maps of the region from 1947, 1967, 1973 and the present. Notice the trend?
Plain fact is that a great number — the overwhelming number — of Zionist Jews believe Israel includes all of the West Bank and Gaza. They believe the Arabs are consigned to western Lebanon and Syria. It is their Holy Biblical orthodoxy. Foreordained by Holy prophecy. In America, a great number of Christian fundamentalists believe the same doctrine to be true.
The opportunity to create a two state solution was missed in 1947/48. Gone. Forever. Every attempt to enact it since then has utterly failed. And will continue to fail. The Jewish people do not consider native Arabs their equal. Plain and simple.
Herein lies the rub: Christian fundamentalists, and some Jewish originalists, believe their Messiah will not be made manifest — return to earth — unless a war of Armageddon is fought in the middle east. In Israel. These believers’ hidden agenda is the undertow of American/Israeli/ Palestinian relations in the region. Forever.
The demographic and political “problem” becomes unsolvable when one player in a conflict hides their true goals, intentions. For Israel, it is a Biblical Israel. See the map of this.
Basta.
“…A nest of ugly monsters, great and small,
And their Dam with them, ugliest of them all.
With long black teeth bristled her frightful jaws,
Her hands and feet with long and crooked claws,
A long and hairy tail behind she bore;
Such a grim wretch I never saw before!
Her swart, gaunt children had the strangest shapes,
And looked for all the world like goblin apes.
She gazed upon me with an evil eye;
‘Would I were safe out of this house!’ thought I.
This horrible and hideous brood I found
Bedded on rotten hay on the dank ground,
With filth all slobbered o’er, there oozed a smell
On every side of them, as of pitch from Hell.
The honest truth to speak, for I shall not lie,
I felt small pleasure in their company;
They were so many and alone was I.
Within mine bosom then I counsel sought,
How from this cursed place I might get out.
I greeted them with many a friendly word,
Although such a deceit my soul abhorred;
But thought it just as prudent to be civil;
E’en as I would be to the very Devil.
I called to old one ‘Aunt;’ the young ones ‘cousin,’
And gave them tender epithets by the dozen.
‘May gracious Heaven grant you lengthened days!’
Thus I began, ‘and prosper all your ways!
Are these your children? But I need not ask;
Their likeness it were difficult to mask.
I vow my very soul with joy it cheers,
To see them look so well, the little dears!
So fresh and nice do you contrive to make ’em,
Strangers for royal children may take ’em.
And grateful am I, as I ought to be,
That you should thus augment our family,
And graft such worthy scions on our tree.
Who has such kinfolk is most blest indeed;
For they may aid him in the hour of need.’
And thus lip-honor forth to her I dealt,
Far different in truth from what I felt,
She, on her side, of me made much ado;
Was very civil and called me ‘Nephew,’ too;
Although the old fool knew as well as I
She bore no kinship to my family…”
That’s how Reynard the Fox behaved when faced with superior force; Let’s skip ahead to see how the Isingrim the Wolf managed the same encounter:
‘What sort of folk are they down there?’ he said;
‘And was your entertainment good or bad?’
I told him just the pure and naked truth;
The nest was vile, the inmates uncouth;
In manners wild, uncourteous and rough;
To make amend though there was food enough:
And if he wished himself to have a share,
He ought not but to enter boldly there;
Only he must be mindful of truth to spare.
Though falsehood is almost the worst of crimes,
The truth is not spoken at all times.
This I repeated to him o’er and o’er,
An added several sage instructions more:
‘He who unwisely swaggers about truth,
Has it forever wobbling in his mouth,
Is sure to meet with with endless grief and woe,
And persecution wheresoe’er he go;
Others caressed and prosperous shall he find;
While he in every place will lag behind.’
I fully warned him what he might expect,
If these warnings madly he should neglect:
He who but speaks what others like to hear
I sure to be respected far and near.’
These are the very words that then I spake,
For both his guidance, and my conscience’ sake:
But if he chose to act quite contrary
And suffer for it, who to blame but he?
His lock with age are grizzled but tis plain
One seeks for judgment under them in vain.
Such stupid brutes on bluntness lay a stress,
And disregard all prudence and finesse;
And groping underground with mole-like eyes,
Affect the light of wisdom to despise.
The sole advice I pressed on him, forsooth,
Was not to be a spendthrift with the truth:
He rudely answered, ‘I should think I know
How to behave, at least as well as you.’
Into the cave then did he boldly trot;
And you [can guess] what welcome there he go…”
— Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
OK. Sorry, but I must chime in on this phony baloney call for an audit of the Sheriff’s department.
Accounting for spending is represented in departmental budgets. I take away the sense that the commenters in support of this proposed audit haven’t reviewed the budget.
Cost overruns are a result of doing business. Think the Sheriff’s department was pulling overtime during the fires? You betcha. Tons. And for very good reasons. ‘Nuf said.
Currently, we, the public, can ascertain the status of all our fellow citizens incarcerated in the county jail. If there’s an over crowding, I’ve not heard of it. And if there is, the responsibility may lay with the glacial speed our county courts process cases, not with the sheriff or his department.
If this county needs audit any department, it is Mental Health and its hydra-headed network. At one time, there were calls from the Supervisors for this department to provide information representing outcomes and results of mental health processes. What happened to this request? Just asking.
Might want to look into the operations of the CEO’s department. What is the back story for these real estate deals? And about the Sacramento architects bills? Huh?
Another look might shed light on the absolute implosion of the Measure B committee. Yes?
The south coast group of Democrats lobbying for this audit, I truly believe, are well intentioned albeit misguided. The least of this county’s problems lie within the sheriff’s department Believe me — and many, many others who follow such matters — they lie elsewhere. Take a cursory look and see. CEO, Mental Health, Measure B, weed grow permit processing. Please.
And I agree with Mark and with Michael. If you’re gonna bring up something regarding public policy, put your name on it. But, please, take a deeper dive on the real problems confronting this county, and pick one other than the sheriff’s department. Proposing auditing the sheriff becomes a really unnecessary distraction from more pressing matters.
Lee Edmundson
Former two term President of the Mendocino Coast Democratic Club
The whole world needed to share in responsibility for the holocaust.
But that was 80 years ago and cannot justify new outrages.
Israel’s ongoing offenses against the Palestinians are outrages and worse and must stop.