Cool Low | Shield's Cemetery | Serescape | Mo Headlining | BoonHop Stage | Noyo Bookshop | Fireworks Illegal | Oak Parade | Hospital 50 | A&W | Mendo Blacksmith | Clear Cape | EIR Death | Pointallist Garden | Schraeder Support | Wireless Birds | Supes Briefs | Real Jesus | CA Rainmaker | Mabel Taylor | Groundwater Listening | LSD 1965 | Ed Notes | Yesterday's Catch | Stick Nest | Bad Thinking | Camo Ship | Brain Police | Allah Is | Unmasked Softballers | Sun Brite | American Revolutions
AN UPPER LEVEL LOW drifting around offshore will keep temperatures slightly below late June averages across the interior through midweek. This low will also bring a slight chance of thunderstorms each afternoon in the interior through Thursday. Coastal areas will remain cool with areas of marine layer clouds. Another heat wave is in store for the interior this weekend, possibly persisting through the early portion of next week. (NWS)
SHIELDS CEMETERY NEEDS MAINTENANCE
Editor,
I tried, with no success, inquiring about the poor condition of Shield's Cemetery by going online and calling the number I found there for the Anderson Valley Cemetery District. I had gone to Shield’s Cemetery earlier today to visit my daughter’s grave, and it appeared there had been no upkeep to the grounds in some time. It is the worst I have seen it in 27 years. The grass is tall and dangerously dry. There are two deer skeletons in the lower area. A couple redwood trees in the lower bottom are dead or dying. Poison oak is spreading all around, including on the grave.
I don’t expect much, but the weeds and poison oak have always been kept under control. Another ongoing problem is the gate you must drive through to get up there is getting harder to open and close.
I assume there is some minimum standard for how the grounds should be kept. Curiously, there used to be a metal sign wired to the fence going in that had the names and a contact number of the Cemetery District. It wasn’t there today. I hope that doesn’t mean the cemetery has been abandoned by the district.
Sincerely,
Brian K. Wood
Boonville
SUMMER IN THE ANDERSON VALLEY
MOM ALERTS US THAT.....
Comedian, Mo Mandel, born and bred in Boonville, will be celebrating his 10 year anniversary of being a headliner at the esteemed SF Punch Line in downtown San Francisco. From July 21 through July 24th he will be headlining 6 shows.
The Punchline has re-opened with Covid guidelines. To be sure to get a seat to enjoy one or more of these hilarious shows reserve your tickets way ahead of time.
The SF Punch Line is located at 444 Battery Street, SF, CA 94111. Call the SF Punch Line 415-397-7573 to reserve your ticket(s).
This will be a great event and an enjoyable way to bring laughter into the troubling times that we are starting to emerge from. The goal is to sell out all the shows so spread the word to all your friends and family members and have them spread the word.
HOPLAND TO BOONVILLE, A LONG TIME AGO
HOW TO FIND NOYO BOOKSHOP
Hi all,
Sorry for all the confusion.
The Friends' Noyo Bookstore doesn't have an actual address. I tried to include the image (both inserted and attached, in separate emails) showing how to get there but MCN won't let me due to size restrictions, hence the link to the website. The best I can do is tell you its @Sportsman's Dock, West end of North Harbor Drive in a small container building next to Django's.
Sorry I can't be more specific.
Thanks for your patience.
Peggy McGee,
Senior Library Technician
SISTER YAZ SAYS…
Fire Danger
Please remind everyone you know that FIREWORKS AND FIRE CRACKERS start Wild Fires, and are ILLEGAL in California and in our County! Thanks for helping to spread the word. Many visitors will soon be here for the 4th of July Holiday.
MENDOCINO COAST HOSPITAL CELEBRATES ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY.
by William Miller, MD; Chief of Staff at Adventist Health – Mendocino Coast Hospital.
Our hospital opened its doors on June 26, 1971, following the formation of the local hospital district in January 1967. There will be a celebration open to the public this Sunday, June 27th, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. We will have food, live music, giveaway prizes and displays that depict the journey our hospital has taken over the past 50 years. This will be an open-air event outside on the hospital grounds and will follow all CDC and State Health Department guidelines for making it a safe gathering. Please, join us and bring your friends.
There are many local doctors, nurses and support staff who have been here for much of our history. Dr. Jason Kirkman arrived shortly after the new hospital opened and worked as an assistant in the laboratory. I interviewed him to get his perspective on the history of our beloved hospital.
William: How did you come to be here in the summer of 1971?
Jason: I was in college at the time and that summer my mother moved here from Southern California and I helped her move. I was considering going to medical school and so I got a job working in the lab as a glassware washer to see if healthcare was a good fit for me. I found that I liked it and soon I was shadowing some of the local doctors.
W: What was it like back then?
J: It was a bit of the wild west compared to today. Medicine was totally different then, especially rural medicine. If you knew how to do something, then you did it. There wasn’t much specialization. For example, all doctors on staff were obligated to do a stint in the emergency room. There weren’t dedicated ER docs like today. Also, there wasn’t the specialty of hospitalists. So, you worked seeing patients in clinic and rounded on your own patients in the hospital.
W: Did the physicians that you shadowed have an influence on you becoming a doctor?
J: Yes. We had some really well-trained physicians. The two giants walking the halls at the time were Dr. Don Thomas, who was an excellent general surgeon who also had trained in thoracic surgery. Dr. Don Hahn was the other one. He was an internal medicine doc who had an incredible wealth of knowledge. In fact, he helped bring a number of us young internists to the community, folks like Buzz Graham, Jeff Berenson, Jim Swallow and me.
W: What was the hospital like when it first opened?
J: Well, there were a lot more beds, even a four-bed ward.
W: I think there were 48 beds and two four-bed wards.
J: The emergency room was also only four beds. The new ER wasn’t built then, instead that was the doctor’s parking lot. As a doctor, you would come into the hospital through that entrance.
W: And the med-surg units, what were they like?
J: Pretty much as they are today. Station 2 looks exactly the same as it did in 1971 except for the new flooring.
W: What can you tell me about the nurses who worked here when it first opened?
J: They were really good, just like our nurses are now. I always had a lot of respect for the nursing staff. Even then, just like today, they were very interested in the quality of patient care. I remember two in particular, Doris Shannon and Nancy Tulley. They have both passed away since then. Nancy always wore her white nursing uniform with the white cap. They were both really great.
W: So, you were here as a college student in 1971 and then you came back after residency. Tell me a bit more about yourself in those early years of your career.
J: Well, I was originally interested in pediatric cardiology. And that is mostly about congenital abnormalities. 2-D ECHO was just coming out and so I got interested in echocardiography in my third year of medical school.
W: And what year was that?
J: I graduated from UC San Diego School of Medicine in 1979.
W: So, when did you return to Ft. Bragg as a physician?
J: That was in July 1983.
W: Looking back over the last 50 years, what final thoughts would you like to share?
J: I have always believed in this place. I have seen it go through thick and thin, but I believe we have always provided good care to our patients. It has come very near to closing several times. This is now certainly a new day with the affiliation (with Adventist Health). That has been such a good thing.
All previous Miller Reports are available on the website www.WMillerMD.com.
(The views shared in this weekly column are those of the author, Dr. William Miller, and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher or of Adventist Health.)
ON THIS DAY IN MENDOCINO HISTORY…
May 28, 1926 - Well-known blacksmith Emil Seman died. Born in Germany in 1856, he apprenticed as a blacksmith before coming to America in 1879. He began his long career in Mendocino with Jacob Stauer in the early 1880s before taking a position as blacksmith with the Mendocino Lumber Company. Four years later, he purchased half of Stauer’s business and their partnership continued until Stauer’s death in 1893. Seman then assumed full ownership of the business.
Walking Tours of Historic Mendocino: Join our expert docents for a stroll and lively commentary. You’ll pass by early pioneer homes, historic meeting places and buildings that make up the National Historic District.
(Kelley House)
CLEAR TO THE CAPE UNDER THE CLOUDS
AN EIR ON POT EXPANSION?
Marilyn Magoffin:
If you would like to let the Board of Supervisors know that you do not want them to pass the proposed expansion of cannabis cultivation, which even at 1-2 acres, represents a 400-800% increase from the current quarter acre, please send them an email tonight. Do you think an Environmental Impact Report analyzing the cumulative effects of cannabis cultivation is a good idea? Then please say so since their vote, if done by tomorrow, allows our County to skip the State recommended EIR for this type of project. Anything done after July 1 will require an EIR. They are meeting tomorrow at 9am. Small growers, trying to be legal and responsible, are currently being overshadowed by the large illegal grows that are currently proliferating and using up our water. Allowing even larger legal grows puts our precious water even more at risk. We depend on our wells to be there. Send to: Board of Supervisors, re: Item 5g. email : bos@mendocinocounty.org (Write a letter and send as an attachment ) Many thanks for going on the record!
* * *
John McCowen:
Requiring an EIR at this point, as the above post advocates, will stop Chapter 22.18, the proposed land use based permit system, in it's tracks just as surely as the referendum that seeks to repeal it. In either case we will be left with the unworkable ordinance we have now that does not align with the State. Stopping Chapter 22.18 means their will be no notice to neighbors of new applications, no referral to about two dozen State and local agencies (including fire agencies, water districts and CDFW) for review and comment, no Public Hearing where everyone may be heard, no right of appeal for anyone not satisfied with the decision and no right to challenge the outcome in point.
In place of an open public process with a clear approval or denial process, including the ability to add conditions to further protect the environment and the neighbors, we will be left with the current process that has none of the protections of Chapter 22.18.
Instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water and being stuck with the current unworkable ordinance, it makes more sense to advocate for additional amendments to Chapter 22.18. That is the purpose of Tuesday's regular calendar agenda item.
Again, if the Board were to require an EIR prior to adoption, it would stop Chapter 22.18 dead in its tracks. It will have the same affect as overturning it by referendum. Which means we will be stuck with the current ordinance for at least a year and half if not several years or more. The only people who will benefit from defeating Chapter 22.18 are the growers who can't or won't get legal and who hope to keep growing and selling in the illegal market.
SUPPORTS THE SCHRAEDER OP
To: Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
Re: Item 5e, Speciality Mental Health Services Contract
Some of us worked very hard to persuade RQMC and RCS to take on adult mental health services so we would not have to endure another private, for-profit corporation skimming too much money off the top. Mendocino County is fortunate they agreed to provide adult services. They do a much better job than anyone else has done.
They and their subcontractors work harder than anyone has before to provide compassionate and supportive services within the resources they receive. If they had more resources, I believe they would use them wisely to provide more of the needed adult services.
Yes, more people need help.
Yes, there are gaps.
Yes, mistakes can happen; but with RQMC, solutions and change follow.
Daily, there are many RQMC and RCS success stories that we don’t hear about. It is important to acknowledge these silent success stories as people receive the support they need to climb rung after rung toward health and better lives.
RQMC and RCS deserve our support. And they deserve even more money so they can maintain and expand support services that are desperately needed by many people.
Sonya Nesch
Comptche
Author, Advocating for Someone with a Mental Illness
NAMI Support Group Facilitator, Family-to-Family Teacher
SUPES BRIEFS:
MOST of the dubious consent calendar items we complained about yesterday were approved by the Supes 5-0 without comment on Tuesday. Supervisor Haschack pulled his anti-hobby-horse, the “expanded” pot permit program item, Item 4ax, for a separate vote, which he duly voted against.
SUPERVISOR HASCHAK also thought it would be good to have a committee of the public to deal with the ten-year redistricting, but County Counsel said there wasn’t enough time for that given that the census data is already late, so the staff will do it with the usual public meetings and public input. (They might want to consider the two solid options presented by the Redistricting Committee ten years ago, which still clearly deserve reconsideration, but there’s no evidence that this current crop of staffers and supervisors have any idea there even was a redistricting committee in 2010, although the committee conscientiously took months to develop two viable alternative districting proposals. But that committee’s months-long effort — meetings, charts, training, maps, precinct counts, formal proposals and rationales, etc., was quickly tossed aside by then-Supervisor Kendall Smith, who said no changes should be made, and her colleagues quickly agreed.)
SUPERVISOR HASCHAK asked County Counsel what might happen if the two pending pot permit referendums both passed which would prevail? After a lot of hemming and hawing, County Counsel Christian Curtis, a master of circumlocution, said he thought the one with the most votes would prevail. But Curtis also thought that a referendum like the “Small Is Beautiful” proposal in circulation, which would only delete a footnote from the current ordinance might not meet legal muster because it’s too narrow in scope.
IN HIS report, Supervisor McGourty admitted that even though this year's drought is really, really bad — they even passed a drought emergency ordinance later in the day — his “Drought Task Force” has no idea what to do about it, beyond the obvious cutbacks on what water remains. McGourty thought the whole Board should try to deal with the problem instead of just the “task force.” McGourty also thought it would be nice if the Supes got out and about the County to see what the water situation is. (A good place to begin is with Jim Shields of Laytonville's water system. His water district is much like other small water districts in the unincorporated areas of the county.)
HERE’S A RADICAL IDEA: Since the Supervisors sit as the County Water Agency Board, they could ask each city and water district to submit drought emergency assessments and management plans which the County Agency — the Supervisors — would have to approve or require rework and additional restrictions. Of course, this approach would involve the Supervisors possibly demanding more of the cities and districts than they’re currently doing — a step the Supes are reluctant to take on anything, even an historic drought — but worth a try.
WHEN THE POT PERMIT subject re-appeared later in the day for discussion of some kind of phased in expansion, Supervisor Ted Williams asked what the water usage is “per serving” of “various crops” including pot and grapes. McGourty predictably ignored the grape question and changed the subject to the EIR requirements. Later Williams again asked staff for some kind of comparison of crops and water usage. McGourty wanted the expansion to be called “cannabis re-set” not “cannabis expansion,” adding that nobody knows how much pot is being grown because so much is illegal. McGourty described the existing pot permit program as “an abysmal failure,” saying they have to “get a handle on it.” Good luck, Supervisor.
ON THE AFTERNOON AGENDA were the Schraeder’s $17.4 million Mental Health Services contract, a first stab at monthly budget reporting, and the possible phased approach to pot permit expansion. We’ll get to those later — if nobody else does.
(Mark Scaramella)
CALIFORNIA'S - AND THE NATION'S - MOST FAMOUS RAINMAKER was Charles Hatfield, who arrived in southern California with his parents during the real estate boom of the 1880s and within a decade had launched a career that would reach well into the 20th century. His fame eventually brought him contracts from as far away as Guatemala and the Yukon, but most of his activities centered in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas.
"Hatfield attributed his success to a mixture of nearly two dozen secret chemicals that he "aged" for several days and then poured into trays and placed atop towers where they would evaporate and, so he claimed, bring rain. The odor produced by the chemicals, according to one spectator, resembled "a limburger cheese factory...broken loose," while another witness drolly speculated that the stink was the secret of Hatfield's success: "These gasses smell so bad that it rains in self-defense."
"Hatfield's successes and failures remained local news until 1905 when he burst on the national scene following an exhibition at Los Angeles. He had earlier got the city's attention by producing (or so many believed) a third of an inch of rain at nearby Altadena with his "chemical affinity highball."
When the local weather forecaster derided his claims, he told Los Angeles officials he would provide the city with 18 inches of rain during the current season for a thousand dollars. Since that amount of precipitation had only fallen seven times in the preceding 27 years and not at all in the last 12, his offer attracted newspaper headlines and then greater publicity when the weather forecaster denounced him as a charlatan and imposter. The rains came as Hatfield promised…
"Hatfield's success won him a spot on the lead float in Pasadena's Rose Parade and spread his fame across the nation and even to London where he was billed as the "World's Greatest Rain-Maker." Requests for his services as speaker and bringer of precipitation poured in as the now self-proclaimed "Professor" Charles Hatfield talked about "watering the Sahara," dissipating London's fogs and "drenching Kansas".
— ‘The Great Thirst - Californians and Water: A History,’ Norris Hundley, Jr., 2001
LISTENING SESSIONS: Drought Proclamation to Develop Drinking Water Well Principles and Strategies
As part of the April 21, 2021 Executive Drought Proclamation, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), in coordination with the State Water Resources Control Board, is advancing the development of principles and strategies related to groundwater management and drinking water well impacts. The State is hosting Listening Sessions to gather your input for this effort. All perspectives are welcome and interested parties are encouraged to attend.
The Executive Proclamation identifies Item #11:
“To ensure the potential impacts of drought on communities are anticipated and proactively addressed, the Department of Water Resources, in coordination with the Water Board, shall develop groundwater management principles and strategies to monitor, analyze, and minimize impacts to drinking water wells.”
Three identical Listening Sessions will be hosted on:
June 29 Listening Session – Noon to 1:30pm
June 29 Listening Session – 5:00pm to 6:15pm
June 30 Listening Session – Noon to 1:30pm
If you are not able to attend a Listening Session and would like to provide input, please email us your comments. For more information on this effort, or to provide comments, please contact: sgmps@water.ca.gov. Additional public input opportunities will occur once draft principles and strategies are available for public review.
(Water Resources Department Presser)
ED NOTES
CONSERVATIVE DEMOCRATS of the Pelosi-Schumer type locked down the Northcoast for the foreseeable future with the election of Jared Huffman to Congress in 2013, the irony ever since being that Northcoast Democrats are predominantly soft left Bernie types, or to the left of Huffman certainly. A Bernie progressive, Norman Solomon, ran against Huffman in the primary but lost, perhaps to some slick maneuvering by the secret society-like Democratic insiders who choose our candidates for us these days. The insiders, I suspect, encouraged a gang of fagged out, unserious old hippies to also register for that Demo primary who took enough votes away from Solomon to give us Huffman forever, or the dissolution of the United States, whichever comes first.
SOME OF US will remember the heady year, 1990, when there was still somewhat of a coherent left on the Northcoast, because ’90 was the year the last gasp Peace and Freedom Party ran Darlene Commingore against the conservative, sorta kinda liberal, Doug Bosco, taking enough votes from Bosco to knock him out of Congress, but electing the last Republican likely to be elected to national office from the 2nd District, Frank Riggs, a comb-across ex-cop from Sonoma County. Riggs did one good thing in office — he voted against the Gulf War Resolution. Most Congressional libs, natch, including our current president, voted for it, thus destabilizing the entire world to this day.
RIGGS LASTED two terms until he was unseated by Dan Hamburg, Ukiah’s eternal Hamlet, then Riggs roared back to unseat Hamburg for a third term. Then Thompson beat Riggs, and the Republicans then disappeared from the Northcoast, although a jolly fellow named Stan Anderson of Fort Bragg always appears at the Boonville Fair, most recently with a cardboard cutout of Trump. He’s the only visible Republican in Mendocino County. These days, the Republicans don’t even bother to run candidates in the heavily lib-gerrymandered 2nd Congressional District, although a token Garberville guy, a market clerk apparently innocent of class consciousness, appears every two years on the ballot as a Republican.
IN ’97, Riggs made the national news when protests in his seldom visited Eureka office saw several women lock themselves to a log in his office, where they stayed until the Eureka cops, one of them carefully rolling back the ladies’ eyelids and wielding cue tips dipped in liquid pepper-spray, applied the substance directly on their eyeballs. Riggs of course had described the locked-down women as “terrorists.” Consensus national opinion was that roll-on pepper spray to the eyeballs was excessive, that there had to have been a less violent means to extract the ladies from the congressman’s office.
SALLY ‘COMPOST’ was one of the young women who had her eyes swabbed with the pepper concoction in Riggs’ office. “It was very painful for about an hour,” she said, “and still painful for another few hours; my eyes still hurt the next day when I woke up. They hurt for a couple of days.” When the four demonstrators were hauled off to jail, where they languished for several days, kindly matrons offered to spray water in their faces and offered them a cleansing saline solution. Sally describes the offered assistance as “debatably helpful.” Sally chuckled when she said she had no idea where the Eureka PD had come up with the idea to swab pepper compound directly onto the eyeballs of demonstrators. She said she was pretty sure that Pacific Lumber had dropped all charges against demonstrators in an earlier demo where the direct application of pepper had first debuted. Sally insisted that Riggs’ ski mask allegation, as in ski-masked intruders bursting through his office door, was “a complete fabrication.” She said one kid had the hood of his sweat shirt pulled up, but that no one had worn ski masks before, during or after the occupation of Riggs’ office.
VIDEOS taken by Riggs staffers, one of whom, turning on the show biz tears two weeks after the event when she suddenly became traumatized by the sit down occupation of the Congressman’s office, show a female staffer calmly locking the office door from the inside and laughing to the locked-down demonstrators that the pictures she was taking of them were for “Riggs’ scrapbook.”
AS IT HAPPENED, Ms. Compost was resting her badly abused peepers over in Covelo when I talked to her, lo these many years ago. She’d learned that Riggs himself had promised Covelo school authorities to appear to tout some scheme he claimed to have for rewarding schools that cut down on their dropout rates. Sally hoped to take advantage of Riggs’ Covelo appearance to talk to him about her experience in his office. Riggs sent an aide by the name of Berkowtiz who fielded complaints from Ms. Compost about the Congressman’s bonehead lies about the pepper spray incident. The bland flak catcher for Riggs took it all in, not that any correction of the record is likely.
WE’RE a one-party state these days in the vast 2nd Congressional District, but if the Republicans ever manage to corral all the closet Trumpers in the area, they might again manage to contest an election.
NOTE FROM A READER: “When are you going to lobby for new trees in front of the Fairgrounds?” Right now. Fairgrounds, plant some trees where once those marvelous old cedars stood. I’m for elms myself but I’ll settle for almost any long, green growth in that spot.
PICKED UP an ancient Good Housekeeping-type mag the other day in the dentist’s waiting room out of desperation for something to read and came across a piece by, of all people, the novelist Jay McInerney (Big City, Bright Lights), called “What Goes with Turkey?” Mac says, “Good companions for turkey include burgundy, champagne, zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, and rose champagne,” which seems a roundabout way of saying any liquid with alcohol in it.
CATCH OF THE DAY, June 22, 2021
KENNETH DEWITT JR., Oroville/Ukiah. Parole violation.
TATIANA FRANCO-CORTEZ, Garberville/Ukiah. Concealed dirk-dagger, resisting, probation revocation.
AUTUSTINE FREASE, Ukiah. County parole violation.
SERGIO GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
THOMAS HANOVER, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)
BROOKE JUAREZ, Keizer, Oregon/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
HECTOR SANTIAGO, Covelo, Domestic battery.
SUSAN SHIPMAN, Covelo. Failure to appear.
ERIC WRIGHT, Ukiah. False report of planting of bomb, vandalism, battery on emergency personnel, failure to appear.
ANTI-VAXXER JUDITH VIDAVER AND MARCO McCLEAN
Judy Vidaver wrote (Coast Listserve): “It would be better to present peer-reviewed science that supports the contending opinion. Then someone might take your opinions seriously.”
Marco McClean:
Judy, that's been done so many times, and continues to be done on all of your pet subjects, and bad thinkers continue to cherrypick data, and interpretations of data, they agree with, and they say, "See? How can you deny this?" It becomes as frustrating for the good thinkers as for the bad thinkers. And good thinkers are only slightly better thinkers than bad thinkers. The certainty that you have that you are right and that your favorite isolated but loud sources of information are the real stuff is a measure of how wrong you're likely to turn out to be.
There was a cartoon last month where a man, sitting at his computer, shouts excitedly over his shoulder to the door of the room, “Honey! Here is a doctor's website with health information that all the other doctors and colleges in the world have missed!”
Stating over and over that, say, the inventor of the windshield wiper, who should know about rain and weather, says that thunder is caused by angry gods fighting on top of a mountain, is bad thinking. It doesn't mean you're necessarily stupid; it's a simple character flaw that a person can address and correct, like learning to be polite, or quitting smoking, or not vaccinating your pets (or you), or learning to control yourself and not post mean shit every time you see something that pushes your buttons, like a dog barking at every sound or bug. And if you're kidding and saying a goofy thing just to show how goofy it is, I don't think that's a flaw at all; it's just funny. Though science has shown that as many as one in three people are immune to irony and can only take things literally -- the British term is thick -- and they will always misunderstand that and be further insulted and enraged.
Here, this article might help explain, and answer your question: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/bad-thinkers
Oh -- I see that TechU has already said essentially the same thing, but more specifically to your vaccine-related interest. Good.
WHO ARE THE BRAIN POLICE?
Aahh-ah-ahahahaaa, aahh-ah-ahahahaaa
What will you do if we let you go home
And the plastic's all melted
And so is the chrome?
Who are the brain police?
Aahh-ah-ahahahaaa, aahh-ah-ahahahaaa
What will you do when the label comes off
And the plastic's all melted
And the chrome is too soft?
Aaahhh!
Think I'm very tired and I'm going to die
I think I'm going to die, I think I'm going to die
I think I'm going to die, I think I'm going to die
I think I'm going to die, I think I'm going to die
I think I'm going to die, I think I'm going to die
I think I'm going to die, I think I'm going to die
I think I'm going to die, I think I'm going to die
I think I'm going to die, I think I'm going to die
Who are the brain police?
Aahh-ah-ahahahaaa, aahh-ah-ahahahaaa
What will you do if the people you knew
Were the plastic that melted
And the chromium too?
Who are the brain police?
— Frank Zappa
SOFTBALLERS GET KARENED
Editor,
My men’s softball team was interrogated on during our June 14 game by a masked Santa Rosa city official who wanted to know why each of us was not wearing a mask. Outdoors. During a ballgame. That we were playing in. In a 70% vaccinated county. Literally five hours before all mask mandates were dropped statewide.
I’m all for civil servants doing what they are told to do, but with the state of the roads I drive on every day, I’d question our city’s priorities when we waste valuable man-hours enforcing a mask standard that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention repealed over a month ago.
I’d be happy to take a drive down Mulberry Drive, Calistoga Road or Sunridge Drive with Mayor Chris Rogers or any of our City Council members if they’d like to experience what really matters to their constituents.
Gary Lentz
Santa Rosa
MARGARET & DAVID TALBOT: THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Revolutions are traditionally marked by the year they began ― 1776, 1789, 1917, 1949 ― which elides the truth that it takes decades, sometimes centuries, for a radical break from the past to complete its tumultuous slow-fast processing through the sociopolitical fabric, with each challenge to the previous status quo just as likely to be rebuked as celebrated, undermined as enacted, co-opted as integrated. In this light, it may be more accurate to describe periodic progressive outbursts since the 1960s, from the Nuclear Freeze movement to Occupy to Black Lives Matter, as well as the reactionary responses to each, as major aftershocks of that (in)famous decade’s explosive Big One.
scheerpost.com/2021/06/18/margaret-david-talbot-the-second-american-revolution/
Impressive notation of the District 2 political history, thou fearless AVA editor. Allow me to add this: While being supportive of Garberville Earth First!er and Democratic far-to-the-left-pro-cannabis-candidate Andy Caffrey, and sleeping on his living room couch in order to be there helping his candidacy, which urged Jared Huffman to be much much much more radical in terms of global climate destabilization, I did attend the vanity campaign Republican fundraiser at the Grange building for Dale, the Ray’s Supermarket cashier. Assembled were all of Ray’s relatives, whooping it up and having a grand old time. Meanwhile, the Caffrey campaign fundraised enough money to rent the downstairs space (formerly the location of Paul Encimer & Kathy Epling’s Waking Dog Collective bookstore and Green Fuse editorial office). We held a continuous eco-anarchist meeting there, open to the public; in other words, a “pot luck”. Moved off of Andy’s couch and set myself up downstairs, creating a temporary bhakti yoga and general Vedic temple environment, the nag champa incense scent being palpable all the way to Chatauqua Natural Foods a half block away. History records that due to Dale’s being the only Republican candidate, he got all of the alt.right votes in District 2, edging out candidate Caffrey in the general election who got only the hardcore pot smoking votes, while losing to the Marin county resident now representing California’s district two, in Washington, D.C. Nota Bene: The gerrymandering absurdity allowed The Huff to get 65% of the vote, because nobody in Marin county ever heard of the other candidates, who did not significantly campaign in places like Bolinas, and thus The Huff won in a landslide. For a more complete historical analysis, call Andy Caffrey at 213-842-3082, email him at andycaffrey@icloud.com, or just drop by with a case of cold Boont Amber at 816 Locust Street #C, Garberville, CA 95542.
Wrong thinking defined. Delusion is a function of invested false information. When Galileo proved earth was not the center of the universe he was forced to recant and kept under house arrest for the remainder of his life. The Church had too much invested in false science. Michael Servitus theorized the circulation of blood 150 years before microscope proved it. He was burned at the stake by Calvin, and all his books destroyed.
Science has become the new religion yet 90% of modern science is profit driven. Investment in a predetermined goal, not pure inquisitive experiment. 9 out of 10 doctors prefer Camels? DDT is harmless? How about asbestos and arsenic? The Greeks knew arsenic was poison 2000 years ago but the industrial boom put in in so many household products until 1920. Agent Orange? That has killed more than Zyklon B and is still destroying children in Vietnam.
When a question is met with ridicule then delusion is the driving factor. Delusion is simply uncorrectable beliefs. A scam! You invest in the Brooklyn Bridge and are not aware you bought from someone who did not own it. This is the foundation of every scam, they sell something they do not own.
Any idea that produces fear or anger is a clear symptom of delusional thinking. Truth is never challenged by lies and does not require my efforts to defend. Lies on the other hand require constant reinforcement. Say it loud! Say it often! It becomes dogma.
Dogma is delusion in a tuxedo.
“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” Paul Simon
The garden story warns, “the day you eat this fruit you will die!”
The serpent argues, “you will not die you will be like god KNOWING”
The older I get the less I know. Question everything.
Nothing in the universe is free!
Cross Another Hill
Douglas Wayne Coulter 1977
The times are changing faster now than Dylan prophesied
And the olive branch is broken by the blast
The dove of sixty eight has fallen wounded by the pride
Of the eagles we’d imprisoned in our past
Yet the battle flags that waved before seem somehow to have changed
The hero’s who we worshiped then are gone
There’s a conflict of conviction as our thoughts are rearranged
By the hearty cry of “which side are you on?”
With our future far behind us let the past become our guide
We’ll march into that field and not return
When I told you I was human it was obvious I lied
And a home in Akeldama’s justly earned
Is it sin to ask to see you one more time before I die?
Won’t you hold me like an orphan to your breast?
I’ve earned at least some pity wipe the laughter from your eyes
For the evil I’ve committed was the best
Now the midday sun’s returned to scorch the plans of foolish men
As onward to oblivion we march
It’s a waste of conversation to say what might have been
When our conscience seems like desert sand so parched
Cast me from your doorway! Am I fit to lace your boots?
Like a worm before Leviathan I fall
Shall I whither from the earth like a tree cut at the roots
One cross among ten thousand white and small
For me
One among ten thousand white and small
(Written in medical rehab, USMC boot camp after failing to change the world as a hippy)
RE: SUPPORTS THE SCHRAEDER OP
“…so we would not have to endure another private, for-profit corporation skimming too much money off the top.”
About the time Ortner got tired of all the crap being thrown at them and quit they were in the process of leasing the “ole howard”, and had just been awarded the 500.000 dollars to buy land for a CRT. Unfortunately Sonya Nesch and the AVA couldn’t wait for things to materialize and Otner needed to go. Here we are, 6 years later and what have we go so far. The Schraeders took where Ortner’s left off and have done nothing to improve adult services.
Marmon
RE: THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Movement for Willits mental health facility begins
PUBLISHED: October 25, 2014
Negotiations have begun to bring a new mental health facility to Willits, which would be located in the current location of the Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital.
The type of facility is still up in the air, Chief Executive Officer of The Ortner Management Group Tom Ortner said. The choice is between a mental health rehabilitation center, which would offer long-term mental health care, and a crisis residential facility, which would offer more short-term forms of treatment. Ortner said they were leaning toward the crisis residential facility, but “We’re still determining what would be best for the county.”
https://www.advocate-news.com/2014/10/25/movement-for-willits-mental-health-facility-begins/
Marmon
Sad to hear about conditions at the Shields-Studebaker Cemetery. Clyde Doggett used to handle maintenance for the Cemetery District and did so with care, but he passed a few years back.
Though a little tricky to find, I encourage locals to visit the Shields-Studebaker Cemetery. It is a lovely, peaceful spot with fine views towards Hendy Woods.
Budget, Budget, Budget… no talk of inflation.
Having a county job in Mendo is one of those pats on the head your aunt would give you when you behaved after eating a lollypop. The low pay for all departments except Planning and Building, seems to come from the inability for local government unable to keep up with inflation and increases to costs of living. Now enter, zoom-town Ukiah, and Hyper inflation… Weeeee!!! Now a county job doesn’t look so great. How can we take our local economy back? Maybe Ross Liberty and Savings Bank of Mendocino shouldn’t have ran all the attack ads against the Charter Bank of Mendocino proposition. Cannabis farmers could have finally had a bank to put their money into! But alas, our local Libertarian troubadours didn’t want any competition for their high interest private loans. Isn’t “Competition drives innovation” the libertarian tag line? #libtards
Here’s something I found on the interwebs today when searching for “local monetary systems”:
The Wörgl Experiment
One Schilling note with demurrage stamps from Wörgl
Wörgl was the site of the “Miracle of Wörgl” during the Great Depression. It was started on July 31, 1932, with the issuing of “Certified Compensation Bills”, a form of local currency commonly known as Stamp Scrip, or Freigeld. This was an application of the monetary theories of the economist Silvio Gesell by the town’s then-mayor, Michael Unterguggenberger [de].
The experiment resulted in a growth in employment and meant that local government projects such as new houses, a reservoir, a ski jump and a bridge could all be completed, seeming to defy the depression in the rest of the country. Inflation and deflation are also reputed to have been non-existent for the duration of the experiment.[citation needed]
Despite attracting great interest at the time, including from French Premier Edouard Daladier and the economist Irving Fisher,[3] the “experiment” was terminated by Austria’s central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank on September 1, 1933.[4][5]
In 2006 milestones were placed, beginning from the railroad station through the downtown, to show this history.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%B6rgl#The_W%C3%B6rgl_Experiment
Local government run bank: what could go wrong?
For an elected government official, you sure don’t have much faith in government competency…
Interesting fact:
“There are currently 14 charter counties in California, including Butte, El Dorado, Placer, San Diego and Tehama. Existing county charters legalize issues like: Instant Runoff Voting, Public oversight for investment of public funds, the Precautionary Principle, and using pesticide alternatives. The Charter gives the County more “Home Rule” authority where the millions of urban voters will not make the choices for this rural County. “
Charter counties, on the other hand, have a limited degree of “home rule” authority that may provide for the election, compensation, terms, removal, and salary of the governing board; for the election or appointment (except the sheriff, district attorney, and assessor who must be elected), compensation, terms, and removal of all county officers; for the powers and duties of all officers; and for consolidation and segregation of county offices. A charter does not give county officials extra authority over local regulations, revenue-raising abilities, budgetary decisions, or intergovernmental relations.
It’s much worse than I had ever imagined.
“SACRAMENTO COUNTY CHARTER Charter Rev. 06-30-98 -5-FOREWORD We, the People of the County of Sacramento, State of California, for the purpose of framing a fundamental law for its own government under the Constitution and laws of this State do ordain and establish this Charter for Sacramento County. “
Picture this: financials are released only twice a year, nobody agrees on numbers, director of banking resigns annually. Still want the county to run a bank?
I can see that transparency about the current county “financials” is dysfunctional, so under the current “leadership”, no, it doesn’t look like a good idea. But… I will say this to defend Government run institutions over private corporations. At least we the citizens have SOME say in a democracy. What say do I have in a private company? What can I do about their private profit driven pollution without an Environmental Health department?
Furthermore I would argue that one of the main reasons for corruption in Government, is the private revolving door of lobby group money that is nothing more than legal bribery, to sway the opinions of politicians in the favor of big business instead of the improving the local standard of living.
Charter County Initiative
https://www.mendocinocountycharter.org/charter-county-initiative
Shall a Charter Commission be Elected to Propose a Mendocino County Charter ? It is being proposed that an initiative be placed on the ballot that will ask the voters if they want to elect fifteen (15) people to form a charter commission to draft a charter for the County. This is a three – step process.
Charter Project of Mendocino County – Home | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/MendocinoCountyCharter.org/
Charter Project of Mendocino County, Ukiah, California. 198 likes · 14 talking about this. The Mendocino County Charter: To Protect Our County, Our Families, and Our Future.
Charter Project of Mendocino County – Home | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Charter-Project-of-Mendocino-County-658154517654885/
Charter Project of Mendocino County, Ukiah, California. 198 likes. The Mendocino County Charter: To Protect Our County, Our Families, and Our Future.
RE: bad thinkers continue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
RE: Lithium V.S. The Wild buckwheat
Where’s Elon “Super Environmentalist” Musk on this news?
https://www.wired.com/story/lithium-mine-for-batteries-versus-the-wildflower/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
Bad news again, and we thought we were so environmentally aware with the purchase of our new Chevy, Bolt, cordless drills and other gizmos. Fooled again ! Now the remaining pristine places of the once Wild West are to be turned topsy turkey in this new greenrush, indigenous sacred sites be damned under the juggernaut of capitalist conquest. And can you guess who the major players are? That’s right multinationals, some from Canada, some from Australia. What a World!
RE: HOPLAND TO BOONVILLE, A LONG TIME AGO
Is that one of those old self driving cars?
“a jolly fellow named Stan Anderson of Fort Bragg always appears at the Boonville Fair, most recently with a cardboard cutout of Trump. He’s the only visible Republican in Mendocino County.”
Aren’t you forgetting Al Kubanis? His law office and front window, adorned with a plethora of Republican and Trump paraphernalia, above the Ukiah Brewery, is the most visible exhibit of a Republican I’ve seen in Mendo.
I forgot Uncle Al in the center of Ukiah. You’re right; Al’s number one in Trumpian visibility. In Mendo, though, I can’t recall even seeing a Trump bumpersticker around here, although Orange Man pulled 31% of the Mendo vote. Biden was 56.5%, Greens 2%, Gloria LaRiva, a partisan of North Korea, pulled 176 Mendo votes and 5 in the Anderson Valley, me not among them. Also in AV, Biden racked up 676 votes from deluded libs, while at the even crazier end of the spectrum, Trump got 189 votes in AV, the Greens 14 votes, Libertarians 12.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/06/23/losing-democracy/
…what little we ever had, anyway.
R. Crumb on Acid
I heard another local rumor that Robert Crumb stayed at Mimi Doohan’s Father’s “Farm”, that she now owns. Supposedly, R. Crumb’s “Pig guy” character is based off of infamous Neighbor, and illegal speedbump wizard, Lee Howard. P.S.- I talked with the actual Farmer that still lives there, and the sale is OFF. So there’s that.
How did R. Crumb end up at the “Roundmountain community” farm, in Ukiah? Follow the LSD trails… to Walt, as I knew him. One Waldron Voorhees.
“In a piece for SFWeekly, Boulware (1996) wrote: “It’s no surprise Vorhees was targeted [by the DEA] again. He can’t help talking about the old days. Clearlight is his Achilles’ heel. Hubris has made him a natural magnet for narcs. Old acid acquaintances avoid him like the plague, one saying simply, “He’s too hot.” His name is as familiar as a box of doughnuts to the local DEA office, and is increasingly popular in the federal penal system.” Thus, Vorhees proved to be an incredibly ineffective informant. The government kept a close eye on him in later years, but as he got older and eventually suffered from prostate cancer and other health issues, the DEA realized that he was not a threat to anyone. He would live out the rest of his life on his farm in Ukiah.”
https://matthewhalley.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/a-ride-on-the-bus-with-captain-clearlight-self-proclaimed-king-of-lsd/
Marcie, making iced tea in the kitchen, is getting increasingly nervous at the tape rolling during Waldron’s familiar rap. Vorhees has left the room. It’s now Captain Clearlight conducting the interview.
“I’d like all the people who took acid to massively write in: ‘This is what acid did for me.’ And if you had bad experiences, I’d like to hear about those, too. I’d like to build up this giant Internet explosion — of what acid really is. Why it is that they’re after the acid people. Why in particular are they after me, when I have not been in the acid business for 20 years? Why is it that the government is allowed to mess with people, hire criminals to make other people look like criminals, so they can put them in jail for doing nothing?”
“You still don’t understand, do you?” says Marcie.
Outside the window of Marcie’s home on Mount Tamalpais, the air is completely still.
“I think he’s going to get in trouble if he keeps talking,” she says.
“I am in trouble,” answers Vorhees. “How can I get in any more trouble?”
“You can find out! When you do braggadocio — and you may be telling the truth, but you’re still bragging — the energies today have to make a crime out of it. And there are people out there who are still making a lot of money on acid, and they don’t want that kind of attention.”
Vorhees chuckles. “I think they want more attention, so they can sell more acid, personally.”
“I don’t think they need any help,” says Marcie. “Acid sells itself.
https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/the-electric-clearlight-acid-mess/Content?oid=2133344&storyPage=4
I received an email reply about Shield’s Cemetery this morning from the AV Cemetery Board Chair:
“I have forwarded your message to our cemetery manager. We are working on getting the maintenance updated. It has been hard during the COVID to get work done. The new signs were out to get updated and shop went out of business and took our signs with it. We are doing our best under the circumstances. Christine Cark, AV Cemetery Board Chairman”
“…science has shown that as many as one in three people are immune to irony” — I would have guessed the immunity was much higher, almost the whole herd, it sometimes seems to me. Messrs. Reading and Marmon seem especially tone-deaf in this regard; whereas many others, especially newspaper copywriters always use “ironic” as a clever synonym for “coincidence” as in a sentence like this one (which appeared in Newsweek Magazine a few years back): “Ironically, Mr. Anderson has the same name as his newspaper, The Anderson Valley Advertiser.”
How ironic is that?
Irony is eaten away by rust on the coast.
Bureaucracy is alive and well.
A new comedy show, I love Bureaucracy airs soon, Ricky enters the room, “Kafka I’m home!”
Alanis Morissette would love it, Douglas!
All this downer-talk reflecting accurate perceptions of crap-conditions we have made for ourselves may be missing out on the fact that we are reaching our Childhood’s End. A time where the 7000 year-long Way Of Crap-Living crashes and we fashion new ways.
We are now entering with baby steps a milieu that most of us never really imagined would be a part of our reality, except perhaps in imaginal realms of our mind while reading sci-fi.
I wondered when you’d pop up as soon as I read McEwen’s tripe. Enjoy your fantasies.
After June 25 or 28 my popping up will entail linking y’all to my classes because you all will want to know who is in those craft. My classes heavily cover cases of close encounters of the 3rd and 4 the kind, which is where we get our fragmentary glimpses of these beings. Quite a few number of people have already gone to class directly from links posted at the AVA.
The UAPTF report will be out in a couple of days. The NY Times recently have a preview of that. The tech is NOT ours and no one at this point thinks they’re chinese or russian. Senior Intel officials told the NYT that the source being an extraterrestrial one cannot be ruled out. When Senators were briefed recently, they were shown film of what was described as off-planet vehicles. I have been in particular poring over 150 cases published by Dr Ardy Clarke (from her taped interviews of a few thousand people spanning nearly 40 years). In doing that I am systemizing craft description, entity description, and activity descriptions. This type of Intel is likely richer than anything the govt has!
I don’t believe a thing the military or the politicians say, even if they put it in writing. All the uproar of the “report”, and the report itself are nothing but diversions and misleading bullshit. The military is not even very adept at turning blips into saucers. All guys and gals like you are doing is assisting the warmongers in their diversions, while they get ready to slaughter millions. You oughta be ashamed of yourself.
Nice try at the ad hominem tactic.
Which is hilarious given I publicly assess (widely) that these beings are not a threat.
It is true, as Obama noted, that some will call for higher defense spending while others form new religions. But, to say I should be ashamed, is in itself a reaction that will be studied related to psychological and sociological impacts.
You should be ashamed. Psychologists can take a hike, along with their Skinner boxes. I have about as much faith in those charlatans as I do in the BS you peddle.
Hate to state the obvious, but your saying I should be ashamed is not only childish but a sign of confusion. I study ce3 and 4 cases and have had 2 sightings of craft that most certainly weren’t products of human manufacturing. For this, and attempting to educate the public with the history and cases, I should be ashamed?!? That’s a crazy and an abusive thing to say.
LOL. “Educate”? Now you’re back to playing shrink. Guess you spent too much time around the nut house imagining that you were one. Maybe you should change your name to Dr. Cosmos.
“A realist is somebody who can’t tell the diff’ ‘tween reality and the real.”
–Roland Barthes
RE: ALAN “THE KID” FLORA UPDATE
Clearlake City Council approves $57 million budget, largest in city’s history
“It is the largest budget in the city’s history, primarily due to a lot of investment in capital projects,” said City Manager Alan Flora during an hour and a half long budget workshop that took place before the regular Thursday evening meeting, during which the council and staff looked over the final budget numbers.
One of the key areas of focus for spending in the coming fiscal year will be infrastructure — including 15 miles of road work
Most of the city wasn’t developed properly in the beginning. “We’re trying to create a real city after the fact,” with amenities people expect, Flora said.
https://www.lakeconews.com/news/69466-clearlake-city-council-approves-57-million-budget-largest-in-city-s-history?fbclid=IwAR0peV5eKvJ6zrVI2QC6C5yzVml0zlilmf41PnwyNpBO9O6-wgCCI95TRSQ
I just hope he’s going to purchase some stop signs for the Ave’s since he turned them into racetracks this month. I ride a motorcycle and it’s dangerous out here in the Ave’s.
Marmon
RE: On Wörgl, hold the cheese.
Wörgl was the site of the “Miracle of Wörgl” during the Great Depression. It was started on July 31, 1932, with the issuing of “Certified Compensation Bills”, a form of local currency commonly known as Stamp Scrip, or Freigeld. This was an application of the monetary theories of the economist Silvio Gesell by the town’s then-mayor, Michael Unterguggenberger [de].
The experiment resulted in a growth in employment and meant that local government projects such as new houses, a reservoir, a ski jump and a bridge could all be completed, seeming to defy the depression in the rest of the country. Inflation and deflation are also reputed to have been non-existent for the duration of the experiment.[citation needed]
Despite attracting great interest at the time, including from French Premier Edouard Daladier and the economist Irving Fisher,[3] the “experiment” was terminated by Austria’s central bank Oesterreichische Nationalbank on September 1, 1933.[4][5]
In 2006 milestones were placed, beginning from the railroad station through the downtown, to show this history.[6]
I did not vote for Ted Williams, but the more I hear from him, the more I like him.
Why? because he sold he sold out the legacy cannabis growers for grape growers?
Marmon
Sold out?
RE: THE MEASURE B MEETING TAKING PLACE TODAY
Donna Moschetti is claiming that the Measure B Committee has been successful, guess why?
RCS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
DONNA MOSCHETTI
CHAIRPERSON
https://redwoodcommunityservices.org/leadership
I think there has been a conflict of interest, she is funneling Measure B money to the Schraeders with the help from County Staff and has done so since the beginning.
Marmon
NAMI stalwarts Nesch and Moschetti should be jailed for the damage they caused to the mentally ill of Mendocino County. Had they not been in love with Camille so much, needed services would have reached the clients years ago. Nobody was good enough but the Schraeders in their minds. In my book they caused a lot of harm. Their main objective was to get rid of any competition for RCS/RQMC.
Marmon
The AVA bought into their narrative hook, line, and sinker. I hope some day they will come to their senses and acknowledge they were used, and apologize.
Marmon
Bullshit. Evidence?
Is everything a business opportunity?
Ted Williams, 5th District Supervisor now trolling the AVA comments…
Figures, he certainly does nothing much as a County Supervisor!
LOL! Didn’t you see the IT guy’s comments? Don’t feed the trolls!