Mendocino County Today: Sunday, June 6, 2021

Cooling Trend | Mendo Surge | Cape Mendocino | Knee Surgery | Known Soldier | Supes Notes | Pregnancy Q&A | Takings Seminars | Melbourne Snow | Fiddlehead Therapy | Spring Poetry | Frozen Friends | Ed Notes | Pine Mountain | Willits Bust | Yesterday's Catch | Horrible Date | Muckross Abbey | Distraction Game | Worried Waiter | Nauseating Jerks | Offsides | Policy Continuity | Last Unicorns | Crisis Care | Franklin Street | Big River | Three Jugs

LOW CLOUDS around Humboldt Bay and the Eel River Valley this morning will give way to sunshine, with northerly and onshore winds picking up again this afternoon. Inland high temperatures will steadily cool through the middle of the upcoming week, with a chance for some showers around the Trinity Alps Wednesday afternoon. A more widespread chance for rain will follow by Friday into next weekend. (NWS)

MENDOCINO COUNTY EXPERIENCING SURGE in COVID-19 Cases, Multiple COVID-19 Positive Cases Identified at Local Bars, and Additional COVID-19 Death

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise in Mendocino County. Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren stated: “We are in a surge in Mendocino County. We have seen daily average case rates over 8 per day per 100,000 residents, and we see a concentration of positive cases in Ukiah, Redwood Valley, and Willits.”

The Office Bar & Bistro (131 E. Mill St) and The Pub (585 N. State St) have been confirmed to have three COVID-19 positive cases among customers who visited these establishments on May 22-23, 2021. Therefore, for anyone who has visited these businesses on these dates, it is recommended you get tested and closely monitor for signs and symptoms of COVID-19.

Mendocino County Health Officer Dr. Coren urges people to get tested if they show even mild symptoms, including allergy symptoms, to help us control the spread of COVID-19. In addition, he encourages frequent testing for those who are NOT vaccinated. Testing allows us to protect our loved ones and better understand how the virus is circulating in our communities.

What can Mendocino County residents and workers do to support our communities at this time? Dr. Coren continues to emphasize that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to protect ourselves against the virus and help our county stop the spread of the virus.

Along with the increase in cases came the very unfortunate news of an additional death from COVID-19 in Mendocino County on June 4, 2021 (not related to the bar cases). It is a sobering reminder that families and communities across the county need our support to stop COVID-19 and to begin to heal from the pandemic.

We ask that the community stay vigilant and follow the guidance outlined by the California Department of Public Health and Mendocino County Public Health. For more information about COVID-19 vaccines, testing, masking, and gatherings, contact the Mendocino

County Public Health COVID-19 Call Center at (707) 472-2759 or visit our website at: mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus.

(Mendocino County Health & Human Services Agency presser)

HEALING THE NEEDY KNEE

by Marilyn Davin

My parents had many droll and irreverent friends, among them their orthopedist, who declared (most likely after a few belts at one of their circa 1950s cocktail parties) that the human knee was God’s little joke on humankind. Unfettered by PC standards far in the future and unafraid of offending someone within earshot who might today feel that the comment trivialized or even mocked the lofty concerns of the Deity, the doc’s comment moved swiftly into the annals of family lore. 

Who hasn’t had a knee problem? Consider the lowly knee, limited in its range of motion and uniquely exposed to all manner of jarrings, accidents, and even to the inevitable ravages of age itself as decades of faithful use pound its cushioning pads thin, ultimately surrendering its suffering host to the orthopedic surgeon’s scalpel.

Americans today have options to head off the limiting effects of their bad knees. Unlike the cane-leaning, Ace-bandage-wrapped oldsters in our moldering photograph albums, these days we’re signing up for knee replacements in record numbers. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons total knee replacements are expected to grow to 3.5 million per year over the next decade, a 673% increase over current rates.

America’s medical culture today is a weird hybrid culture of ever-evolving jaw-dropping technical advancements and, paradoxically, greater individual patient responsibility for both pre- and after-care details: for example, scheduling and getting x-rays, EKGs, and other tests on the front end and scheduling regular appointments in the torture chamber (otherwise known as physical therapy) on the back end. What follows is a brief overview of my own recent knee replacement (my second) for the benefit of hobbling readers who may be flirting with the idea of undergoing total knee replacements themselves.

My own surgery took place at my local East Bay hospital, and some procedures doubtless differ from hospital to hospital and surgeon to surgeon. But yet…as God’s little joke on humankind, a knee is still a knee is a knee…So here’s the story. 

Unless you’ve suffered a traumatic accident requiring immediate knee surgery, your road to the OR is typically a long and twisting affair marked by common signposts and wishful thinking before final surrender to replacing the knee itself. Along this road you’ll hear all about exercises that (might!) delay the inevitable, illustrated in colorful detail in brochures stacked in racks in your orthopedic surgeon’s office. Ah, why didn’t I think of that, you chastise yourself, maybe if I just plant my feet differently when I climb stairs, replace knee-unfriendly high-impact activities with low-impact ones (sleeping and reading in your favorite chair don’t count), lose weight, wear Earth shoes, take this supplement instead of that one, you get the idea.

When none of these helpful hints work, the next step is the needle, delivery system for steroids or different forms of lubricant injected directly into your aching joint. Having opted for several of these myself over the years, my advice is to fully embrace the thrill — while it lasts. This pain-free interlude is oh-so-intoxicating and promising until it gradually drains away, in some cases leaving you worse off than before since you probably further damaged your knee by romping around on it when it didn’t hurt so much. 

Then there are the naturalists. I can already hear the howls of protest from marketers and users of the virtual cornucopia of “natural” salves, wraps, shoe inserts, supplements, and the like, Cannabis formulations have now entered this already-crowded market in a big way, adding an additional layer of non-invasive “miracles” to wash that knee pain right outa your hair — without surgery. Some do help and I’ve tried dozens of them. Beware the cost, especially for cannabis-infused creams, salves, and pain sticks that can set you back fifty bucks or more a pop. This is America, marketing capital of the world, where hundreds of messianic sellers stand poised to deliver their miracle products to a susceptible aging population with aching knees. (No Shipping or Handling Cost! Next Day Delivery!). And so on. When you’ve tried as many as you can afford and they’ve circled the drain after your shower enough times, you’re still left with the structural problem of that pesky knee.

Once you decide to replace your knee surgically you enter a countdown of sorts that’s kinda like what happens when you file for divorce. The clock starts ticking. If you tell yourself from the outset that the insurance industry runs everything and just make peace with it you will be less pissed off as you move through the process. 

It took three months to get on my surgeon’s surgery schedule. During that time I received reams of paper about equipment to buy so it’s ready to go when you stagger home from the hospital, usually after just one night. My clinic used to lend out walkers, toilet lifts, wheelchairs, canes, angled Styrofoam pillows for leg elevation, circulating ice wrap (one thing insurance did cover) and the like – but no more. You’re on your own, now, Baby, and there’s a new sheriff in town.

The surgery prep room is truly a trip. You are on a bed surrounded by machines: IVs, anesthesia preps for your upcoming spinal, antibiotics and gods knows what all, all preparing your unsuspecting body for the major assault soon to come. One final stop before the OR was to an empty, other-worldly room full of what looked like draped furniture á la Miss Havisham for the spinal, where a nurse held me securely in a bent-over cannonball position while the anesthesiologist applied what felt like tiny needles up and down my spine, kind of like a weird fairy dust. I was already out of it by OR time so didn’t get a look at the room, though for an earlier procedure I was rolled by a wall of saws, hammers, and other carpentry equipment that reminded me of the shop room in my junior high school. For in its essence, doesn’t orthopedic surgery have much in common with a building project out in the garage? We may think of ourselves as unique combos of knowledge and experience, but it’s all supported by a physical framework, just made out of bones instead of two-by-fours. I couldn’t resist asking the physician’s assistant for my first knee replacement what it was like during the operation. He pretty much confined his description to lots of flying bone fragments. I forgot to ask him how noisy it must be as the old knee is blown and chipped away to make way for its shiny new bionic replacement.

Finally, in a time warp unlike any other, you wake up in the recovery room like nothing ever happened. No pain. Enjoy this initial bliss but don’t make the mistake of trying to hold onto it because it’s neither real relief nor euphoria; it’s just that your knee was packed with steroids and pain meds that haven’t worn off yet. Ah, sneaky interlude, it will end soon enough. 

Then it’s home, where for the next month you will spend every minute of every day cursing your decision to have the surgery as you helplessly try to beat back the pain that even your prescribed narcotics can’t touch.

No knee replacement experience is complete without the final act: physical therapy, aka the torture chamber. In my case this took place in a cavernous room reminiscent of a high school gym, ringed by mobile computer stations operated by a platoon of twenty-something physical therapists tricked out in no-nonsense t-shirts and expensive-looking high-end athletic shoes. Various sporting events hang, muted, from TV screens throughout the space. (Work hard enough here and this could be you!). Then, of course, there are the sufferers, almost all old enough to be the grandparents of the perky young PTs serving them, all straining against broad rubber bands, stretching out inflexible, post-surgery knees and hips, all trying to eke out a little more time before inevitable decrepitude finally makes it all impossible. Ah, modern medicine has delivered this ability to bargain with the unstoppable clock. For just a little more time, a little more time to hike familiar paths or walk the putting greens or go back to your folk dancing class or do whatever it is that makes you feel like part of the living instead of firmly on the inevitable downhill slide. 

Early on in the pandemic I chatted with a guy in front of me who was, like I was, waiting in a long line to get into the grocery store. He spoke of how grateful he was to be a baby boomer, to have come of age in a time of great opportunity and secure employment in a field of his choosing. For at least the thousandth time, I wondered what I might have ended up doing if I were eighteen and starting out today. Reflecting on the armies of mostly young professionals who ran the hospital apparatus throughout my knee replacement experience, I understand the medical profession’s appeal. According to salary.com, physical therapists in California earn an average annual wage of $101,905. Physician’s assistants earn even more at $122,591. Registered nurses earn an average of $71,500. Contrast these earnings with those of the state’s lowly journalists, who earn an average of $46,634. Given the state of our profession today I’m not even sure if that salary even comes with job benefits or even any meaningful opportunities to write anything. I doubt that many high school counselors today are encouraging their students, as mine did, to follow their passions and the work will come. 

Everybody has to eat.

SUPES AGENDA NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

KITCHEN TABLE REORGANIZATION

Item 5b) on next Wednesday’s Supervisors Agenda has been drifting around the County’s Low Gap Bunker for several years:

“Discussion and Possible Action Including Recommendation from the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) Advisory Board to Move From the Current HHSA Structure to a Two Department Model of Social Services and Health Services. (Sponsor: Health and Human Services Agency).” But the actual two-department proposal is not really from the HHSA Super-department — which currently is overseen by an unnecessary administrative layer called HHSA — or the Advisory Board. Instead the proposal is from an odd Ukiah outfit calling itself “Kitchen Table Consulting.”

According to their website, Kitchen Table Consulting “donates 10% of all proceeds to a few worthy non-profits, including, but not limited to: Hearthstone Village, Sierra Club, The ACLU, The Southern Poverty Law Center, Planned Parenthood and our semi-public radio station, KZYX.

Owner Jen Dalton: “Jen is dynamic and well-networked with expertise in developing strategic intentions and advocacy efforts for organizations of all sizes, from grassroots to global. She is a highly trained group convener, facilitator and co-active coach and has designed and facilitated numerous multi-stakeholder collaborative impact efforts. Her passions lie in community food and community health with a foundation in heart and nature-based emergent strategies.

“Kitchen Table Consulting (KTC), began in 2008 after Slow Food Nation in San Francisco (for which Jen was the Program Director) and was named for San Francisco’s Kitchen Table Talks, of which Jen was a co-founder and co-organizer along with her fellow Slow Food Nation colleagues.”

Which obviously qualifies Ms. Dalton to decide how HHSA should be organized. What kind of meanie face would dare question this person?

Ms. Dalton then proceeded to diagram the agency with these first three “recommendations”:

Then she offered four more “recommendations”:

”Kitchen Table Consulting Recommendations #4 - 7 

#4. Streamline the Human Resources hiring process to increase equity and efficiencies in hiring. 

The Executive Office is hiring an Equity Office to focus on diversity and equity across the County departments; this includes addressing the issue of equity in the hiring process. The hiring process has continued to be streamlined to increase efficiencies in hiring employee [sic]. 

#5. Streamline and re-evaluate contracts approval process for increased efficiency and equity. 

The departments have started the contract evaluation process, which has included Granicus trainings, to increase efficiencies and equity within the contract approval process. The next step is to get Cobblestone training and to identify key staffs as leads. 

#6. Streamline the Travel Request Process 

As travel has halted due to the COVID -19 Pandemic, this recommendation was not addressed as one of the priority recommendations but will be reviewed and evaluated within the next year. 

#7. Streamline the Disaster Response and Recovery process to increase the effectiveness and reduce the impacts on daily operations of branches and staff. 

We continue to recruit and train staff members for the Care and Shelter Team, we increased the number of staff trained to provide pandemic response, and have worked to rotate staff responding to the pandemic to reduce the impact on daily operations. We will continue to evaluate this process.”

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What any of this gibberish has to do with converting the top-heavy HHSA from four adminstrative offices to two is hard to discern. But it’s what you’d expect from KZYX fans.

Back in 2010 when HHSA was created, combining Social Services, Mental Health and Public Health, the theory was to save time and admin by combining the three overlapping offices into one, which was supposed to save on administrators, analysts, managers, etc. 

Instead, under the accumulating leadership of then HHSA Director Carmel Angelo, the three offices were enlarged and a fourth redundant office was added to the existing three, thus creating four overlapping and redundant offices where three had been, and more higher paid management was larded on and success was declared. 

Nobody bothered to ask if any savings or efficiencies had been achieved.

Under this latest two-department proposal, again nobody has asked why this is an improvement, how the existing bloated managerial arrangement will be rearranged, or if any money or time will be saved. In fact, nobody really cares since the entire apparatus is built into the grant-driven funding rate structure and the more management you can stuff into the equation the higher your reimburseable overhead and the more you can glom from state and federal grants. If anyone is helped by the “services” being provided is a secondary consideration if public welfare is considered at all..

So good job Ms. Dalton, you have muddied the water so much that nobody will dare ask a serious question for fear of producing another boatload of the “diversity and equity across the County departments” gobbledeegook variety Ms. Dalton might reply with.

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MENDO TO SPEND $75K-PLUS TRAVEL FOR A “STRATEGIC PLAN”

(The (bulls)hits just keeps on coming…)

Responding to a Grand Jury finding in August of 2019 that the Supervisors had “no published long term county-wide strategic plan, e.g., fire response, homelessness, cannabis, housing and economic development, the Supervisors said they agreed and "the Board looks forward to implementing previous Board direction to initiate a strategic planning process…” They cited a lengthy collection of documents which they implied together formed the equivalent of a strategic plan: The General Plan, the County Budget, various joint powers agency documents, their “Emergency Ooperations Plan,” a number of health and human services plans, and their on-going, if failed, attempts to get their arms around cannabis legalization.

Nothing happened, of course. Nothing was “initiated.”

In March of 2020 the Board voted unanimously to “direct staff to establish a strategic planning process this fiscal year to begin January, 2021.”

“Staff” of course did nothing, probably citing the universal excuse for inaction, the onset of covid for their (the CEO’s) failure to act.

On Wednesday’s Agenda is Item 6a) “Discussion and Possible Action Including Approval of a Submitted Proposal to Facilitate the Strategic Planning Process for Mendocino County; and Conduction [sic] of an Interview with Applicant Bischoff Performance Improvement Consulting and The HR Matrix, LLC; and Direction to Staff to Negotiate the Contract Scope of Work for Approval at the Next Available Board of Supervisors Meeting. (Sponsor: Strategic Plan Ad Hoc Consisting of Supervisors Haschak and McGourty)” 

And if you think that sounds like a wonderful way to waste a lot of time and money on something that nobody wants or needs, you must work for Dr. Bischoff.

A large collection of generic material is attached to the item, including “Data Collection and Consulting Methodology — Bischoff Consulting will serve as the contracting entity for this consulting project. Meetings and consultations will be conducted via Zoom to the extent possible. Online surveys will be developed using the user-friendly Survey Monkey platform. We will create a dedicated DropBox folder to share documents with the Project Manager and Strategic Plan Task Force.”

Oh-oh, now it’s morphing into a “task force.”

Dr. Bischoff, a Sonoma County consultant who is regionally famous for bigger money wasting exercises in the much larger county to our south, then adds: “Project Cost Estimate: This planning engagement [sic] is expected to cost $75,000 plus actual costs associated with travel (mileage, lodging, and meals) between Sonoma and Mendocino County and within Mendocino County. This cost estimate is based on a level of effort of 300 hours at a rate of $250 per hour.”

Supervisors McGourty and Haschak are taking the credit for the resulting $75k-plus “engagement” and whatever pile of ignorable paper and on-line “strategic plan” materials this booshwah artist will generate.

Meanwhile, the drought deepens, the fire season unfolds, Dr. Doohan continues with her $100k-a-year plus mystery activity to the end of December or longer, and HHSA will bumble along under as many strategically overpaid managers as Mendo’s newly “credentialed” executives can hire.

MISSOURI-BASED TAKINGS LAWYERS PREPARE FOR CLAIMS BY RAIL-TRAIL NEIGHBORS

Attorneys Lindsay S. Brinton and Meghan S. Largent from law firm Lewis Rice will host educational meetings in Eureka, Bayside, Fortuna and Willits June 28 and 29 to discuss the potential compensation claims of landowners who own property adjacent to the railroad line in Willits, Samoa, Korbel and Korblex that is expected to be converted to a hiking trail under the rails-to-trails program. Landowners may be eligible for compensation from the federal government for the taking of their land.

At the informational meetings, the attorneys, who have helped other landowners across the country obtain compensation for similar takings of property, will explain why and how a claim can be made against the federal government, timing, how landowners will be represented in pursuing their takings claims, and how compensation will be determined, as well as answer questions. Each meeting below is free and open to the public.

Wednesday, June 29 at 5:30 p.m. Willits Center for the Arts, 71 E. Commercial St., Willits, CA 95490

About Lewis Rice: Throughout the Firm’s history, Lewis Rice attorneys have made excellence the foundation of their practice. Founded in 1909, more than a century of service gives the Firm the experience, resources and tools to serve their clients’ dynamic needs. A diverse team of more than 160 attorneys provides counsel and solutions for the challenges facing local, regional and national businesses, as well as individuals and families. Lewis Rice maintains offices in downtown St. Louis, suburban Town & Country, Washington and Jefferson City, Missouri and Edwardsville, Illinois. The Firm also has offices in downtown Kansas City, Missouri and suburban Overland Park, Kansas.

(Lewis-Rice Presser)

MY VISIT TO FIDDLEHEADS

I stopped by at Fiddleheads earlier Friday morning. I asked to speak to the owner. Chris introduced himself with a smile and attitude that I enjoy interacting with. Two customers were sitting at one of the tables. I told Chris that I wanted to compliment him on his courage. His smile increased as I continued. I acknowledgted that he was also very stupid. The smile decreased in size. I pointed out that stupid people can cause a lot of damage. The customers were paying apt attention. I asked him if he was new to town. Chris informed me that he had recently moved to the Mendocino Coast. He asked me if being a short time resident diminished him in any way. I acknowledged that I have stupid friends that have lived here for decades. I didn't acknowledge my own stupidity because he didn't ask. I said something about him being a Trump supporter. He said; "Why do you assume I am a Trumpster?” I said; “It is possible that you are independently stupid.” I thanked him for the conversation as I was leaving. It was therapeutic for me to stop by and acknowledge that he had possibly attained a new plateau for stupidity. I regret not telling the customers that they were eating at an establishment where the owner believes it is a violation of their Constitutional rights when one is forced to obey public health guidelines. I recommend that neighbors and visitors stop by and let Chris know what you think of his antics. 

— Charlie Engle

MENDOCINO SPRING POETRY CELEBRATION 2021

Let's hear it! today at 3:00 pm Pacific, at kzyx.org

There's Dan Roberts, looking like a saint in a cathedral niche, running the open reading for Mendocino Spring Poetry 2009.

For this year's 2021 Celebration, Dan has completed some 40 hours in processing more than 120 poems from 60 poets who socially distanced by emailing smartphone recordings. We'll begin to hear them today, on kzyx.org at 3:00 pm PCT, on Dan's continuing Sunday broadcasts of RhythmRunningRiver.

Dan's touch for mixing poetry with indigenous rhythms of world music has been in refinement for over 30 years. His segues are exquisite; music sets up the spoken words with oracular effect.

Here is the program for the opening broadcast of the Mendocino Spring Poetry Celebration 2021, presenting 17 of 60 poets who'll all be heard in coming weeks: http://www.outfarpress.com/rrr.html

Thanks to all 60 poets who did the perspiration to share the inspiration! Richard Alcott, William Allen, Jamie Armstrong, Devreaux Baker, Dan Barth, Clare Bercot, Gordon Black, Michelle Blackwell, Donald Brees, Armand Brint, William Bruneau, Melissa Eleftherion Carr, Sean Casey, Zia Catalini, Mick Chalfin, Jabez Churchill, Priscilla Comen, Janet Debar, Steve Derwinski, Bobb Dobb, Sharon Doubiago, Kate Dougherty, Mike Edwards, Frieda Feen, Larry Felson, Dan Hess, Martin Hickel, Charles Hodges, Lynn Kiesewetter, Mary Rose Kaczorowski, Mary Norbert Korte, Karen Lewis, Marilyn Lewis-Hampton, Peter Lit, Kirk Lumpkin, Blake More, Janice Marcell, Gretchen Meyer-Hoffman, Catey Naal, Chris Olander, Steve Paul, John Perrill, Ted Peterson, Jeanine Pfeiffer, Riantee Rand, WJ Ray, Michael Riedell, Dan Roberts, Marylyn Motherbear Scott, Lauren Sinnot, Joe Smith, Janferie Stone, Liz Stover, Tara Sufiana, Karin Uphoff, Nikki Velch, Elizabeth Vrenios, Penny Walker, Roberta Werdinger, Theresa Whitehill.

Info: Gordon Black, (707) 937-4107, gblack@mcn.org

ED NOTES

IN THE COUNTY (and the country) where history starts all over again every day, it is sad to see an institution like Boonville's Lauren's Restaurant end its days in its present location on Saturday, but reassuring that Lauren's will live on just down the street as Lauren's at the Buckhorn, a deserving tribute to the modest woman who made her restaurant into the vital community center it has been for a quarter century.

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ROEDERER ARRIVES: "May 30, 1991 — Roederer Estate, the French champagne maker, has opened a tasting room at its magnificent winery on Highway 128 in Anderson Valley." (Fort Bragg Advocate)

AS IS OFTEN POINTED OUT, a mere five websites now control what the cyber-dependent know about the world. And they are banning people wholesale from their platforms, including Big Orange. I don't think anybody should be banned, that people should be trusted to sort out truth from untruth on their own. You say that's a bad idea in a country where 70 million presumably literate high school graduates believe their tanning booth oracle when he says the election was stolen? And what about the even more evil characters out there promulgating race hatred and demonstrably untrue notions like Holocaust Denial? Let 'er rip, I say, and hope reason and verifiable fact prevail.

THE BODIES of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife have been moved. Forrest is notorious for the massacre of 300 black Union soldiers after they surrendered at Fort Pillow, and is one of the founders of the Klan. The bodies are being moved to a museum 200 miles away from where Forrest's statue stood over his grave in Memphis. The statue was removed a few years ago by The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a small group of historically ignorant nostalgics who consider treason and slavery as the South's finest hour. Forrest and his wife, Mary Ann Montgomery, will now rest, with his statue, in the National Confederate Museum at Elm Springs in Columbia, Tennessee.

WHERE, I HOPE, it is at least noted that as a matter of historical fact, Forrest, on his deathbed, said he repudiated the racism and the consequent evil he did his entire adult life. 

WHICH IS ANOTHER reason that today’s cancel culture, or whatever the neo-Stalinists of history re-write call themselves — BIPOC in Fort Bragg, or Black Indigenous People of Color — is repudiated by most citizens who pay any attention to them, and the reason for that mass repudiation is their totalitarianism, their ‘We're the righteous and the good and you people are racist dog pigs.’ Put another way, the cancel culture lacks the humanity they claim to represent. General Forrest ought to be celebrated as a man who came to see the light, not eternally and solely as the villain of Fort Pillow. Perspective, nuance, context, you fascists!

NOBEL LAUREATE, and a former resident of Navarro, and the inventor of the PCR test he channeled while driving on reliably inspirational Highway 128, the late Kary Mullis, shortly before he died suddenly, unleashed on Dr. Fauci, calling him a fraud and charlatan pursuing an “agenda.” Mullis said that before covid and would undoubtedly be apoplectic at Fauci today as the good doctor is vilified and misrepresented by the Orange Legions. As a long-time ava subscriber, I would have thought Mullis's otherwise genius thought processes would have been tempered by the pure reason found in our pages, but alas.

THE CHINESE not only hold a big share of America's ever-accumulating debt, they seem poised for a monumental green breakthrough. (Better start teaching the grandkids some basic Mandarin.) They've developed a fusion reactor called the “Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak” that will provide “limitless clean power.” Fusion is considered the Holy Grail of energy and is what powers our sun. Our geniuses are also working on it, but the Chinese seem to be out in front of getting it done.

DR ARUNA KHILANANI, who is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, delivered the talk virtually to Yale University medical students and faculty back in April. She was invited by Yale School of Medicine's Child Study Center. Audio of the 50-minute talk was published on journalist Bari Weiss' Substack blog on Friday. She made a series of stunning comments during her talk that was largely based on the psychology behind “whiteness.” Khilanani said she had fantasized about “unloading a revolver into the head of any white person” who got in her way. She went on to say that white people feel they are being bullied when people of color bring up race. At various other points, she described white people as being “out of their minds” and said that they make her “blood boil.” Khilanani also said speaking to white people about race was “useless” because she says they are not at the same level of conversation. “Addressing racism assumes that white people can see and process what we are talking about. They can't. That's why they sound demented. They don't even know they have a mask on. White people think it's their actual face. We need to get to know the mask,” she said.

PHYSICIAN HEAL THYSELF. The conservative media makes it seem that lunatic statements like Khilanani's are prevalent in the groves of academe. Doubt it, but it's a very big irony that this nut and too many others like her, attempt to whip up mob fever in a time when race relations, at the everyday human level, have never been better, which is quite remarkable given that in 1950 there were emphatically not the millions of loyal, affectionate cross-race relationships there are today. Yeah, there remains systemic racism at the macro-level, but at the micro-level, people get along better than ever, and that trend is upward, even among millions of Republicans. At the macro-level systemic racism is a consequence of capitalism, not the innate evil of white people pedaled by the race demagogues, a few of whom we have here in Mendocino County where they are widely regarded as the frauds they are.

FISH AND WILDLIFE'S WILLITS RAID

On May 11, 2021, wildlife officers with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) served a search warrant on the 1400 block of Buckhorn Road in Willits. Support was provided by a CDFW Environmental Scientist, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and Mendocino County Code Enforcement. Prior to serving the search warrant, a thorough records check was conducted on the property to determine what steps may have been taken to secure a state license. In this case, no state license to cultivate commercial cannabis had been issued. An application to cultivate cannabis at the property had been previously denied by the County of Mendocino. Environmental violations and impacts observed at the property included:

– A manmade dam that was impounding the natural stream flow

– An illegal water diversion that was used to irrigate cannabis plants

– Sediment placed where it can pass into waters of the state

– Unpermitted stream crossings

– Cultivation areas with deleterious materials located near waters of the state

Over 4,100 illegal cannabis plants were eradicated and over 75 pounds of processed cannabis was destroyed. A formal complaint will be filed with the Mendocino County District Attorney’s office. No other information is available at this time.

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ON LINE COMMENTS

1. So when I was a kid and placed rocks into a stream to cross so my feet didn’t get wet, I was supposed to get a permit?

2. Did that rock involve all this: A manmade dam that was impounding the natural stream flow. An illegal water diversion that was used to irrigate cannabis plants. Sediment placed where it can pass into waters of the state. Unpermitted stream crossings. Cultivation areas with deleterious materials located near waters of the state?

3. Shit, weed growers deserve it. But if ya do this shit for grapes, lettuce, tomatoes, avacados or not to get your feet wet, no permit required. Dam that shit up, use pesticides and strew your trash all along the river/creek beds everywhere throughout California.

4. Someone send them a dictionary. Impound a stream’s flow? Deleterious materials? And yes, these days you would need a permit, inspection and full CEQA study to move the rocks in what used to be your stream, and now belongs to the state. But it’s okay if your herd of cattle mangle the stream banks and use the waterway for their toilet.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, June 5, 2021

SANORA ANGULO-GUZMAN, Willits. Battery on peace officer.

THOMAS CHRISTIE JR., Fieldbrook/Ukiah. Concealed stolen weapon, concealed firearm in vehicle, violation of TRO by purchasing or receiving a firearm.

JUSTIN CROSBY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-intoxication by drugs & alcohol.

MATTHEW HILL, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, reckless evasion.

RACHEL HUNT, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

QUINTEN KELLER, Samta Rosa/Ukiah. DUI.

TYRELL NIXON, Vacaville/Piercy. County parole violation.

JOSEPH NOISAT, Potter Valley. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, domestic battery.

ARTEMO ORTEGA-REYES, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, drug paraphernalia, probation revocation.

ELIZABETH RAY, Ukiah. DUI.

AMBER RICETTI, Ukiah. Stolen vehicle, probation revocation.

JOMAR SANTIAGO, Albany, New York/Ukiah. DUI.

ANTHONY SILVERS, Petaluma/Ukiah. DUI, child endangerment.

ILK ALL OVER

40 years ago, I went out with a stockbroker

He picked me up in a car I didn’t recognize

He said it was a Mazerati.

When we went to dinner in North Beach

He pulled right in front of the restaurant

In the handicap space, and pulled out a placard

I thought of my mother limping along with a cane

And asked him why he had one

He bragged his sister “the doc”

Got it for him because parking was so hard in SF.

At dinner he told me about a funny date he had recently,

Where he was going to a Hawaiian themed wedding

And his date, who he didn’t know that well’

Answered the door in a hula skirt, topless.

Instead, of advising the young woman to put on a top.

He decided to go ahead and take her as dressed.

His buddies thoroughly enjoyed the “ riff.”

I doubt that the bride did.

The girl was obviously not well and had him stop for

Tampax and inserted the tampax in the car.

He could not stop laughing.

I got up from dinner and thanked him.

Then I walked home.

Now I see his ilk all over

Proud boys, senators

And I mourn for the world.

Because, he was sicker than the poor woman.

— Emjay Wilson, June, 2021

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

So how do you distract the public? They’ve tried different ploys over the past few decades most of which fit under the caption “culture wars”. 

In my books the Democrat faction of the governing elite has been the most inspired and creative as they deploy one sexual derangement and behavioral lunacy after another, depicting each as the latest in “progress” in enlightened thinking. And just when I think they can’t get any crazier, they get crazier. 

But the Democrats have got more than one playbook and for this I give them credit. They’ve far outdone their Republican rivals with the ability to dazzle and energetically at that, with the “race” thing going full tilt, and they’ve been nothing but amazing with AGW, strenuous and impassioned with both issues with their exaggerated posturing and thundering denunciations.

The Republicans ought to have been able to easily out-flank and out-run and out-maneuver all this phony baloney, and for a while Trump, for all his other deficiencies, did exactly that by addressing material issues directly affecting livelihoods of the vast American middle. And much to the consternation of anybody who’s anybody, managed to win in 2016. 

But Trump, while pointing the way to electoral victory, had to overcome the active hindrance not only of Democrats but of his own party of traditional Republicans, plus the non-stop opposition of the Deep State. It was quite a feat and for that he deserves a tip of the hat. Because when Trump talked about real issues, all the razzle-dazzle distractions weren’t much good.

So, what’s next? How about a fun war? That usually works. There’s problems galore that need attention but all those are major boring. Nobody who’s anybody can be bothered. 

If Wall Street goes tits up nobody in the real America of dollar stores and payday offices much gives a shit. I mean, what has Wall Street done besides “asset stripping” flyover America as our esteemed host puts it? But what about when the local mill shuts down? Oh, sorry, that’s already happened, that was part of the asset stripping, which is why we saw the improbable rise of The Donald. 

So back to the question, what’s next? Black lives don’t matter, never have, because if they did matter to the legions of race hustlers and legislators and bureaucrats and academicians and theoreticians and the panoply of ‘ologists of the past hundred years, Black people wouldn’t be in the disastrous state they’re in. 

Hispanics don’t matter either, their situation may be a bit better than Blacks but not by much. Gays and trannies don’t matter because for all the sound and fury, they’re a small proportion of the population. 

Is AGW the crisis all the leading lights say it is? I doubt they even believe it. Koonin doesn’t. A lot of other guys of the scientific variety don’t think so either. They just can’t say it out loud. In any case you will see noise on this and nothing much else. 

So who or what really matters? I mean really?

No matter, a distraction is needed, one to divert the mob’s attention. People get desensitized to all the nuts ‘n’ sluts stuff. 

I think it will be war, maybe of the civil variety. I doubt the Chinese will want to fight. I mean, why interfere while Americans are busy ruining themselves? Neither will the Russians want to fight. Same reason. Plus it’s bad for business. Canada is ripe for the plucking but that’s a war that won’t last more than a couple hours. 

But I think a civil war fits the bill. If you can’t find someone to fight outside the country, find someone inside.

NOT A GAME

Editor: 

It’s too much. More and more states are putting together games to get folks vaccinated. The COVID-19 outbreak is not a game. Some folks apparently can’t do something for someone else unless they get a reward for it. Society has come to the point where it’s all about one’s self, and everyone else is on their own.

Imagine the good that money could do for all the people, not just the greedy, selfish, hurray for me and to heck with you bunch. Of course, the politicians go along with it. They have become puppets to the minority, no matter what the subject. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The U.S. is better off when politicians have grit, ethics and morals, and make their judgments based on what is good for everyone.

You only have to look at the news to see a constant parade of nauseating jerks. Let’s use the money for everyone, and let the greedy suffer the consequences.

John Skinner

Fort Bragg

IT’S SURELY NOT TOO EARLY to admit that Biden’s governing policies are Trumpism with a human(oid) face. Just as Trump’s governing policies where Obamaism in the face of a white avenger. The fundamentals didn’t change and won’t change. The ever-exanding military budget will remain sacrosanct, corporate behavior will be deregulated, fossil fuels will power the economy until they’re depleted, health care will remain a for-profit industry, the poor will be mercilessly policed, immigrants will be exploited for cheap labor and detained and deported when they become inconvenient, the nuclear arsenal will be continually and provocatively upgraded, working-class people will be kept buried in debt, wages will be kept as low as possible, the public commons will be turned over to extractive industries at subsidized rates, Israel will be kept stocked with weapons and get out of jail cards and Cuba will be slowly strangled with sanctions until it renounces its revolution and pays reparations for kicking the CIA’s ass at the Bay of Pigs. 

— Jeff St. Clair

NO STIGMA ATTACHED

To the Editor:

By urging my public officials to prioritize suicide prevention, mental health, and crisis care, I am hoping to influence collective change to support #MentalHealth4All.

Right now, individuals in crisis are able to call 1-800-273-8255 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress and those that care for them. Soon, it will be much easier to remember how to reach the Lifeline as the number will be changing to “988” nationwide by July 2022.

Knowing this, it is critically important that states pass legislation NOW to reliably fund 988 and their state’s crisis response system, just as we fund 911 and emergency services – through small fees on our phone bills. Reliable funding will help to ensure all 988 callers can reach a counselor in their own state who is familiar with and can connect them with local resources. Culturally competent support and local connections can better help all callers through their crisis and in their recovery.

Throughout my own life I’ve lost family and friends from suicide. The stigma to reach out for help remains challenging. Please research the potentials of 988. Each and every one of us live with traumas and fears, challenges and turmoils. This is Life. Be part of the team that helps with the light of hope through the darkness in these tunnels.

Join me in urging your public officials to fund 988. We all play a role in changing the culture around mental health. Together, we can ensure #MentalHealth4All.

Elisabeth Vance

Ukiah

BIG RIVER

Now I taught the weeping willow how to cry
And I showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky
And the tears that I cried for that woman are gonna flood you, Big River
And I'm gonna sit right here until I die

I met her accidentally in St. Paul, Minnesota
And it tore me up every time I heard her drawl, Southern drawl
Then I heard my dream went back downstream, cavorting in Davenport
And I followed you, Big River, when you called

Then you took me to St. Louis later on down the river
A freighter said she's been here, but she's gone, boy, she's gone
I found her trail in Memphis, but she just walked up the bluff
She raised a few eyebrows and then she went on down alone

Now, won't you batter down by Baton Rouge, River Queen, roll it on
Take that woman on down to New Orleans, New Orleans
Go on, I've had enough, dump my blues down in the gulf
She loves you, Big River, more than me

— Johnny Cash

THREE JUGS: You are given an 8-gallon jug filled with water, and also two empty jugs: one that holds 5 gallons and another that holds 3 gallons. Using these three jugs, how can you measure exactly 4 gallons of water?

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YESTERDAY'S PUZZLE: four correct answers were submitted for "Matchstick Math": 0+4=4, 8-4=4, 5+4=9, and 6-4≠4. (The final trick, using does-not-equal, yields another solution: 5+4≠4.)