Warm Dry | 19 New Cases | Football Noon | Gowan Octoberfest | Second Driest | Barn Sale | Yorkville BBQ | Luthier Dart | Desal Unit | Hendy Giant | Annexation Consequences | Petrov Zailenko | Windshield Bashing | Noyo Sunset | County Finance | Stretching | Weed Control | Goodbye Pecker | Unvax Fee | Ed Notes | Buffalo Boys | Code Enforcement | Yesterday's Catch | Stage Shot | MacBiden | Wine Life | McCloskey Birthday | ExxonMobil Denied | Neologisms | AV Village | Egrets | Two Bills | Feral Pigs | Marco Radio | Time Will Tell | Host Nations
DRY WEATHER with above average afternoon temperatures are expected across interior portions of northwest California through early next week. Temperatures will then trend cooler heading into the middle of next week. In addition, the chance for light rain will increase during mid to late next week. (NWS)
19 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.
FOOTBALL! Noon today. Anderson Valley vs. Tomales. Boonville Fairgrounds.
OKTOBERFEST FAMILY FUN THIS WEEKEND AT GOWAN’S CIDER ORCHARD
Saturday October 2, 10-6; Sunday October 3, 10-6
Oktoberfest in the orchard! Enjoy Gowan's applewine ciders in a traditional orchard setting, poured from our orchard taps! Pair with local handmade bratwurst, soft pretzels, and our house apple crisp made fresh from our organic Fall Pippin apples. Non alcoholic juice and slushies made fresh from Gowan’s own organic orchards.
Called Apfelwein, 'viez,' or 'most' — there's a proud tradition of enjoying cider outside in the orchard.
Get a glass from our new cider taphouse right in the orchard. Try the cider flight paired with traditional Oktoberfest picnic—savory fresh local handmade bratwurst, soft pretzels, and our delicious house apple crisp made fresh with our organic Fall Pippin apples.
All in Gowan’s historic apple orchards, established in 1876. Nestled at the heart of Anderson valley, with a backdrop of redwood forests and oak-studded hillsides, the Gowan family orchards.
What better place to drink cider in the fresh air under the very trees that grew the apples! Celebrate fall with a special Oktoberfest in the Orchard.
Questions? Call 707-205-1545 or visit gowansheirloomcider.com/copy-of-oktoberfest
UKIAH WATER YEAR ENDS WITH 13.54 INCHES, THE SECOND-DRIEST EVER
by Justine Frederiksen
Thursday marked the end of the “water year,” and the National Weather Service Eureka office reported that 2020-21 was the “second driest on record” for Ukiah.
According to the NWS, Ukiah received 13.54 inches of rain for the water year that began Oct. 1, 2020 and ended Sept. 30, 2021. The only water year with less rain recorded was nearly 100 years ago: 1923-24, with 13.09 inches.
The previous water year (2019-20) was also very dry, and is officially the third-driest year with only 14.75 inches recorded.
The fourth-driest year was 1976-77 with 16.12 inches, then 2013-14 had 18.66 inches; 1930-31 had 18.98 inches; 1919-20 had 19.48 inches; 1975-76 also had 19.48 inches; 1897-98 had 20.35 inches; 1938-39 had 22.81 inches; 2006-07 also had 22.81 inches; 1986-87 had 23.05 inches; 2008-09 had 23.13 inches; 2017-18 had 23.57 inches, and 1993-1994 had 23.69 inches.
NWS staff added that “six of the driest 14 years on record (for Ukiah) have occurred in the last 15 years,” explaining that such records for Ukiah go back to 1893.
As for when it might rain next in Ukiah, NWS staff said Thursday there is currently “a slight chance of showers” on Wednesday or Thursday of next week, but “everything is still very shaky at this point.”
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
BARN SALE SATURDAY, October 2, 10 am to 3 pm and Sunday, October 3, NOON to 3 pm. 12761 Anderson Valley Way in Boonville. HALLOWEEN COSTUMES! Linens, dishes, kitchen utensils, clothing, books, CDs, DVDs, furniture and more. Look for banners and signs on Hwy 128.
YORKVILLE MARKET WEEKEND SPECIALS
Chef B is grilling teriyaki chicken and portobellos (vegetarian) with a side slaw for our weekly meal. We will be serving from 12:30ish to 4:30ish or until sold out. Price per plate is $13.00 - you can eat on our lovely patio or take it to go.
Looking for a quick and easy weeknight meal? We have a wide range of Take and Bake options in the freezer right now, including: Mac and cheese (both veggie with broccoli and one with bacon and peas); Ratatouille with polenta; Ratatouille with sausage and polenta; Sausage with polenta; Beef chili.
I hope you are enjoying these amazing Autumn days as much as I am – we definitely live in a truly beautiful place.
Call (707) 894-9456 for more details.
See you soon,
Lisa Walsh, Yorkville Market
MASTER CRAFTSMAN DAVID DART, of Navarro, with his latest thing of beauty
FORT BRAGG WATER DESAL UPDATE
The City of Fort Bragg’s Desalination-Reverse Osmosis Treatment System ordered six months ago to provide drinking water during periods of salt water intrusion at its main Noyo River source is finally here. The skid mounted unit can produce 200 gallons a minute of desalinated water, or 288,000 gallons per day. Because the equipment can only run 12 hours a day, the daily capacity tops out at 144,000 gallons.
The $325,000 desalination unit was delivered last Saturday and start-up testing is already underway, with the operation expected to be running at or near capacity in the coming days. While the city relies on three surface water sources for its customers, the Noyo River is the largest, and the drought had reduced flows to such a degree that Fort Bragg's water system and its 2,920 customer connections would soon have to race to take innovative steps to overcome the realities brought on by the drought.
“Due to the dire water shortages facing our water customers, the city’s water system is using technology and innovation to help us through this drought,” said John Smith, Director of Public Works. “The support and technical guidance from the State Water Board has helped take this from idea to reality in a matter of months.”
With its commitment to help struggling public water systems meet the needs of its customers during and after the current drought, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) is funding 100% of Fort Bragg’s grant request of $691,796, including money for a shallow groundwater well treatment system that can produce 57,000 gallons a day. This system will be installed at an existing shallow groundwater well at Redwood Elementary School.
“A drastic drought like the one gripping California requires us to be as responsive as possible to meet the needs of water systems trying to do the right thing for their customers,” said Joe Karkoski, deputy director of the State Water Board’s Division of Financial Assistance. “Fort Bragg came to us with a creative solution and our team worked with them to address the challenges and make it happen as quickly as possible.”
While government action is often objected for its deliberate pace, the timeline for this project underscores the kind of efficiency and cooperation needed during a drought emergency, with the State Water Board’s Division of Financial Assistance accelerating approval of the funding through its Emergency Drinking Water Program.
416 N. Franklin Street Phone: 707-961-2823 Fort Bragg, CA 95437 Fax: 707-961-2802
The City would like to thank the State Water Resources Control Board for making this project possible by providing funding assistance and to our entire community for helping us weather this drought. Thank you so much for all you are doing. Please continue water conservation practices.
Questions and concerns regarding this and the Stage 4 Water Crisis information may be directed to waterconservation@fortbragg.com or by calling the Department of Public Works at (707) 961-2823 Ext. 131.
WHO’S ANNEXING WHO? AND WHO PAYS?
TO: Mendocino County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) 200 South School Street, Ukiah, California 95482
RE: Ukiah Valley Fire Protection District Annexation Proposal
LAFCo Commissioners:
I wanted to reach out regarding the Ukiah Valley Fire Protection District’s annexation proposal coming before your board, and to share my concerns regarding this proposal, which appears to be advancing with little public awareness and even less understanding on the implications to taxpayers should this proposal be adopted.
The primary concern is the annexation’s tax consequence for property owners in Ukiah. As you know, the annexation will subject all properties in the city to parcel taxes that were not approved by Ukiah voters. By current estimates, Ukiah property owners bear a new tax burden of $850,000 to $1 million each year. Yet, by the agencies’ own reporting, city residents will not enjoy any appreciable improvement in the service they receive. That consequence of annexation has not been publicized to Ukiah residents and property owners. To the contrary, we have heard that the city officials have actively worked to prevent public publication, analysis, and discussion of the annexation’s tax consequences. Indeed, describing the annexation as a “Zero Property Tax Sharing Agreement,” it appears public officials are attempting to hide the real tax consequences of the annexation.
Moreover, supporting documentation suggests that the annexation would allow the fire district to meet its revenue obligations to the City of Ukiah after years of falling short (with taxpayers presumably left filling the gap), rebuild reserve funds, and use remaining resources to hire personnel, or perhaps more specifically, EMT/paramedic personnel. Medstar is particularly concerned by this posturing amidst ongoing discussions of fire looking to take over ambulance services at some point in the future, and this proposal, if approved, could be an initial cash infusion to help move that broader effort forward at a later date.
This proposal, if approved, may be the first phase in a broader effort by the fire district to upend our business after more than 80 continuous years in operation (see enclosures with more information), including nearly a decade as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, a designation that was made possible through the assistance and advocacy of the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Mike Thompson.
Before this proposal is approved, we ask for honesty, transparency, clarity, specificity and certainty with a proposal of this magnitude and so many unanswered questions to both us as a business and the public as taxpaying citizens…Put simply, we believe it is ill-advised to push something of this scale through with so many unanswered questions and a community who has been largely left in the dark regarding these plans. If the newly expanded District uses its expansion and newfound funding—provided by the taxpayers of Ukiah—to deprive Medstar of its contractual and statutory rights to provide emergency ambulance services—Medstar will have no choice but to protect itself and the community it serves through judicial enforcement of its legal rights.
Medstar’s attorneys are in the process of submitting a public-record request to help shed light on the District’s plans and their impacts on the taxpayers, residents of Ukiah, and Medstar. In the meantime, Medstar implores the Commission to take a closer look at these concerns before taking final action on the proposed annexation.
We deserve and expect a more inclusive, open and transparent process.
Kind Regards,
Leonard Winter, President and Chief Executive Officer
Medstar Ambulance of Mendocino County, Inc. dba Ukiah Ambulance
Ukiah
FORT BRAGG WINDSHIELD BASHERS SOUGHT
On September 28, 2021, at approximately 5:50 p.m., Officers were dispatched “to the end of Pine Street” for the report of a windshield being vandalized by a baseball bat. The reporting party advised that the incident had occurred approximately twenty minutes earlier.
So far in the investigation, the Fort Bragg Police Department has determined the following:
Sometime between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., two witnesses inside of a residence observed several individuals known to them to be “gang members” arriving outside of their residence. The witnesses recognized the individuals to be gang members based on their interactions at school and in the community.
Prior to calling law enforcement, the two witnesses began filming the suspects through the window as at least one suspect used a baseball bat to destroy a separate victim’s windshield. Even after the suspects left the area, the witnesses did not call law enforcement but instead notified the victim and forwarded the video to the victim. Somewhere between 20 – 40 minutes later, the victim contacted law enforcement.
While interviewing the victim and his brother, Officers identified both parties as wearing clothing commonly associated with the Norteno criminal street gang. Additionally while speaking to the victim and his brother, two other documented Norteno criminal street gang members, also wearing clothing associated with the Norteno criminal street gang arrived on scene to support the victim.
Initial evidence identified at least one documented member of the Sureno criminal street gang as being involved in the vandalism of the windshield. No injuries occurred during this incident. The Fort Bragg Police Department is still actively investigating this matter and is preparing potential search warrants for residences, vehicles and cellphones, related to the above vandalism.
Any individual with information related to this incident may contact Officer Lopez at 707- 961-2800 ext 141 or at olopez@fortbragg.com. Anonymous tips may be left at 961-2800 ext. 135.
(Fort Bragg Police Presser)
SHERIFF’S BUDGET WORKSHOP
On Tuesday the Supervisors have scheduled a special “Workshop Presentation from the Sheriff's Office on the Annual Budget of the Sheriff-Coroner's Office.”
The workshop is described as: “A two-hour overview of the annual budget of the Sheriff-Coroner’s Office … with the goal of creating a better understanding for the Board of Supervisors. The presentation will include descriptions of major revenues and expenditures, how they are projected and reported, and what are the conditions in which overages may occur. Funding sources including the general fund and special grants will be identified.”
The timing of this presentation is interesting. Any day now Judge Ann Moorman is expected to issue her ruling on the Sheriff’s lawsuit against the County, much of which involves the Sheriff’s budget. Too bad this presentation didn’t occur sooner. Perhaps the entire silly dispute that provoked the Sheriff to sue the County over his “structurally underfunded” budget, threats to send him a personal bill for overruns, blaming his department for minor errors in the County motor pool, and attempts to take over his law enforcement computer system to favor one particular CEO staffer could have been avoided.
Unfortunately, the “presentation” is not part of the agenda package, so we’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see what the Sheriff will present. No decisions are expected to be made.
CANNABIS GRANT APPLICATION
The Board also plans to file a grant application to the state’s “Department of Cannabis Control” for over $18 million in “Local Jurisdiction Assistance Program Grant Funding,” and determine what the grant will request funding for locally. It will interesting to see if an infusion of over $18 million can do anything to salvage the County’s utter failure of a cannabis permit program. In all likelihood it will be a bloated attempt to recoup the many losses the program has incurred and perhaps increase enforcement staffing.
According to the state’s grant guidelines:
“The May Revision proposes a Local Jurisdiction Assistance Grant Program with one-time funding of $100 million General Fund. This program is intended to:
- Aid local governments in more swiftly processing substantial workloads, including that related to environmental review, associated with transitioning the legacy market to a regulated market.
- Support provisional licensees by allowing local governments to pass funding through to applicants for the purposes of assessing and mitigating environmental impacts.
- Apply significant resources toward areas rich in natural resources and that have a high number of small cultivators, as both often require a heightened level of capital to meet environmental compliance standards.
- Provide enhanced resources [aka more money] to eligible jurisdictions implementing equity programs.
- Encourage local governments to modify permitting methods to better align with the state’s efforts to create a streamlined and equitable pathway to licensure.”
MORE MILLIONS FOR MENDO from State Department of Water Resources. According to a Thursday presser from the State Water Board, Mendocino County will receive (up to) $2 million to pay for hauling water to Fort Bragg and the Coast “to provide immediate potable water supply to residents (in coastal communities such as the village of Mendocino) who have run out of water due to drought.” Presumably, the money will reimburse the County for the water hauling project now underway which is shipping between 40,000 and 45,000 gallons a day to Fort Bragg where two locals haulers pick it up and deliver it to their Coastal customers at their regular price per truckload. Details are still to be worked out but the State will probably cover the full cost of the residential deliveries and maybe some of the commercial deliveries. The DWR presser also reported that it expects to “launch the Urban and Multibenefit Drought Relief Grant Program this fall. The program will include an additional $200 million in grant funding for urban water suppliers and multi-benefit drought relief projects to address hardships caused by drought.”
(Mark Scaramella)
EMERALD TRIANGLE GETS $1.5M FROM STATE - SHERIFFS DESCRIBE LOSING THE BATTLE TO ORGANIZED CRIME
by Justine Frederiksen
The three North Coast counties that make up California’s Emerald Triangle will be receiving $1.5 million from the state to help stem the tide of large illegal marijuana grows that is drowning the region in violent crime while sucking its watersheds dry.
“These grows are wreaking havoc in our communities and giving a black eye to the permitted industry in America’s premier marijuana growing region,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) Wednesday, explaining that the new funding ($600,000 each to Humboldt and Mendocino counties, and $300,000 to Trinity County) will specifically target “the worst of the worst grows, not the small, legacy farmers,” even if they are still in the process of becoming fully legal.
Instead, McGuire said the money is intended to assist local law enforcement with eradicating large, unpermitted cannabis growing operations that are causing serious environmental degradation, such as illegal water diversions and threats to endangered wildlife, or involve organized crime.
“I believe we will be able to knock out several of the biggest, baddest and ugliest grow sites,” said Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall, explaining that the state plan will offer more than funding, since it will increase crucial collaboration between his office and state agencies like the Department of Fish and Wildlife “that prepare the environmental reports that help us put together the best possible case for prosecution. The increase in personnel is an extreme multiplier, but also the money is triple what we’re getting now.”
“Organized crime has moved in all over,” said Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, estimating that his county has about 10,000 illegal marijuana farms. “Previously it was trespass grows, but now they have bought private property all over. We were hoping that legalization (of marijuana) would push some of these people out, but it has not. We are seeing unprecedented homicides and gun violence throughout the county six times more than we had in 2019. It is pretty scary, and it is not going away.
“Organized crime is at the center of it,” Honsal continued, describing the operators of the illegal farms as “ruling by intimidation with guns. Shootings are happening all the time, but victims don’t want to report them to us out of fear. These people need to be dealt with, and this new state funding will allow us to bring in more resources and really go after the people who are damaging our environment, depleting our streams and engaging in human trafficking to solve the labor shortage.”
“They have simply out-manned us in their ability to produce, versus our ability to stop them,” added Kendall, describing seeing “unprecedented environmental damage” to the rivers and forests of Mendocino County, particularly in remote areas like Covelo. “We’ve got some folks who have showed up with a two-year plan to make as much money as they could, and that plan did not include looking out for the environment and sensitive species.”
And given the current extreme drought conditions gripping the state, Kendall said this degradation has grown to the point where “it is affecting everyone, not just the closest neighbor. People are fed up with the impact to these places we cherish, fed up with illegal water diversions from rivers and creeks, the hauling of water from the valleys to the hills, fed up with the pesticides and fertilizers being used in these grows getting into the soils and waters of our regions, fed up with the killing of wildlife and the clearcutting of trees.”
“We believe this campaign will help make this community safer, and help prop up the permitted community, which should be supported and thanked for stepping up,” McGuire said. “We know that it will take more than $1.5 million to solve the problems, but we look at this campaign as a critical first step.”
(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)
EXTINCT. So long, Woody.
GET VAXXED OR PAY
To the Editor:
We are currently in the middle of the worst Covid-19 surge in the last 18 months, and hospitals are approaching their bed and ICU capacity. The situation is so dire; a person with a life-threatening heart attack is in danger of not getting the care needed. The medical staff members are having to make the hard decision on who gets the care they desperately need.
If the hospital capacity gets much worse, one of the decision points may have to be whether or not the Covid-19 patient has been vaccinated, and not be based on first come, first served. It’s a very difficult call, but if the Covid-19 patient had elected to be vaccinated, the likelihood of them being in the hospital or in ICU would be remote.
On 9/12/21, I wrote the following to our Public Health organization: “I have supported Dr. Coren and his decision to be firm with the non-vaxxers by announcing the Covid-19 vaccination mandate. Now, I understand from the UDJ he has relaxed the mandate in favor of using personal choice about vaccinations.
I am disappointed because this is not the time to pander to a few hurt feelings. These folks are largely responsible for the increased cases and occupying the hospital beds. Also, the anti-vaxxers, which represent nearly 13 percent of our County population are putting the other 87 percent at risk from the threat of a new, more aggressive, variant.
Make the difficult decision an let’s wrap up this pandemic as quickly as possible. Follow through with the vaccine mandate you announced earlier, and we will be able to move on with our lives!”
And further, it has been reported that in a recent BOS meeting, our Fifth District Supervisor, Ted Williams, introduced the idea that unvaccinated employees should have to pay $200 a month to offset the cost of Covid-19 testing. I couldn’t agree more. Yes, it is their body, but if anyone refuses to get vaccinated, they should pay for the testing. It is my tax dollars that are paying for their reluctance, and I prefer they be used to support responsible causes needed by the 87 percent.
John Moon
Ukiah
ED NOTES
A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT about a mile up Peachland Road from Highway 128 filled the 9pm Thursday dark with sirens and, soon, medi-vac helicopters. Three persons, two in their 80s, and a much younger man, were traveling eastbound up Peachland in a vehicle first described as a red Subaru but turned out to be a blue pick-up when the driver, subsequently identified as 81-year-old, Alvin Carrell of Boonville, failed to negotiate a bend in the road about a mile up Peachland, his pick-up plunging some 80 feet down a steep hillside.
THE EXTRICATION of the injured persons, two of them badly injured, all of them conscious but pinned in the crushed pick-up, which had landed upside down, was a complicated process involving several emergency services units led by the Anderson Valley Fire Department.
THE THREE persons trapped in the wreckage had to be cut free. During the lengthy extraction, the wreckage had begun to slip farther down the hill, necessitating a hurry-up stabilization of the vehicle.
EMERGENCY services people were on-site until midnight. Two of the injured parties, were medi-vacced to Santa Rosa, the third injured person and driver, Mr. Carrell, was taken to Ukiah Adventist by ambulance and soon booked into the County Jail by the CHP for driving under the influence.
FORMER SHERIFF TOM ALLMAN called today to remind us that ten years ago on October 1st the sad saga of double murderer, Aaron Bassler, abruptly ended when Bassler was shot to death by law enforcement. It was also on this date ten years ago, perhaps driven by the Bassler Affair, that Allman began to agitate for an in-county psych unit and enhanced mental health services generally. Bassler, as most of us will recall, was mentally ill, his condition exacerbated by hard drug use.
ALLMAN said he was fully recovered from the heart attack he suffered recently and was back on patrol out of Shelter Cove with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department, “Doing what I love without all the headaches that came with the Sheriff's job.” Mendo's former top lawman said he was encouraged by the decision to bring stepped-up mental health services to Fort Bragg and Ukiah, and a training facility in Redwood Valley, modestly neglecting to mention that he singlehandedly made mental health a county priority with the Measure B funding he'd breathed into life.
MENDO'S HEALTH OFFICER, Dr. Coren, said Tuesday that eight of the persons who have died over the past two weeks had been residents of local nursing homes with “low staff vaccination rates,” specifically Sherwood Oaks in Fort Bragg and Redwood Cove in Ukiah.
UNFAIR TO CARMEL, a reader responds:
Let's face it. The auditor flap is being used by the AVA to continue the “let's get Carmel Angelo crusade.”
Ms. Angelo has announced her retirement for Fall, 2022. She is not going anywhere until then. So keep pissing in the wind if you choose. Or perhaps the AVA could help illuminate the difference between CAO, and the current CEO model of management and whether the county should return to the CAO model that it used for years. That, of course, requires strong leadership at the board level. Is that there? In the meantime, a close examination of the situation might lead to better candidates to replace Ms. Angelo, and a more informed board. Geez, what a public service instead of the constant, and chronic, rants.
Re the interim auditor. Her whining and shifting blame is legendary among county offices. Her ineptness on occasion is startling. Delaying reimbursements to county employees because she fails to understand contractual requirements. Repeated paper work glitches that she of course blames on others.
Why does she refuse to submit her professional resume for review? Why won't she allow her personnel file to be open for review. Why?
There are former employees have spoken up. Are you talking to them?
This is bigger and more important than the crusade to push Angelo out the door sooner than her announced departure.
ED REPLY
If we are on a crusade, it’s not to “get Carmel Angelo” or “push her out the door sooner than her announced departure.” The guilty always personalize arguments, that criticism must be inspired by personal malice because, usually, it's true. Nope, we simply don't think the County is being run very well and we try to explain why we think so. Argue the facts, not the personal. We think it's obvious that present management is not only creating unnecessary turmoil in County offices, the CEO's mismanagement is costing taxpayers too much money and probably incurring debt far into the future. We're hardly alone in thinking the county is badly managed.
Ms. Angelo deserves credit for stepping into the breach back in 2010 when somebody needed to deal with the budget crunch and take unpopular steps to reduce staff and spending in the context of a weak Board of Supervisors, two of whom, Kendall Smith and David Colfax, wouldn’t even take a voluntary pay cut like they ordered everyone else to do, and two of whom were certifiable. Someone had to take the wheel, and Ms. Angelo did. She also has responded reasonably well to several disasters that have hit the County in recent years.
It's not like she's a volunteer. Ms. A is well paid and this is all part of her job (Uh, speaking of credentials, Angelo is an RN, not an administrator.). CEO Angelo was certainly an improvement over her predecessor, Tom ‘I’ll get back to you on that’ Mitchell, a man so incompetent it was thrilling to watch him in un-action.
On the other hand, Ms. Angelo, an un-elected person, has consistently ignored her own Board, refusing to do basic budget reports, putting major promotions and raises of her top staffer-pals on the consent calendar, firing senior staffers who dare to disagree with her, starting gratuitous beefs with the Sheriff, promoting over-priced projects without offering alternatives, and other dubious actions which we see as our job to point out.
As to the specific points the reader makes:
“Delaying reimbursements to county employees”?
Those County employees happened to be lawyers in the DA’s office. Boo hoo. Can't chisel on your reimbursement chits, boys and girls? Tough it out. County taxpayers should be delighted that the vigilant Ms. Cubbison not only stands up to these cry babies, she demands that public money be spent to public benefit.
We don’t know why Ms. Cubbison won’t allow her personnel file to be “open for review.” Review by whom? She's clearly well-qualified if not by some bogus degree from a four-year diploma mill but by the mere fact of her three years of experience in the office doing the work, preceded by ten years of well-regarded green-eye-shade work for Howard Dashiell at the Transportation Department. We assume the Board has seen it, though. But as we said before, that personnel file question could be asked of the CEO’s finance team as well.
No, we have not spoken to any former employees of the Auditor’s office, but if they want to weigh in, they’re welcome to, including anonymously as this reader is doing.
We are neutral on the CEO/CAO question because the reader is right, the Board hasn’t shown any managerial competency either. So rather than debating that question, they should instead focus more on upgrading their management procedures and systems, not upgrading senior staffers pay and perks.
Except for the AVA and Jim Shields, the CEO and Supervisors enjoy an unquestioning media environment in Mendocino County which does minimal reporrting of the meetings and activities of the Board and staff and the meager “reporting” they do is… Well, there's a diff between reporting and public relations.
The CEO and Board put out their reams of material and seemingly endless meetings almost weekly and they should get used to the fact that much of it deserves continuing scrutiny and critical coverage, pissing in the wind as it may be.
CODE ENFORCEMENT NEWS
Calpella, Redwood Valley & Willits - Months of September and October 2021 - Multiple non-permitted commercial cannabis locations identified; plants abated after Code Enforcement engagement.
Post Date: 10/01/2021 4:00 PM
Action Dates: 09/14/21 - 10/1/21
In the month of September and the beginning of October 2021 the Mendocino County Code Enforcement Division conducted investigations regarding non-permitted commercial cannabis cultivation at the listed locations below in the Calpella, Redwood Valley and Willits areas. Any cannabis cultivation over the Medical or Adult Use exemption limit (as defined in Mendocino County Code Section 10A.17.030) is considered to be commercial cultivation. Please see the Mendocino County Code (MCC) Section 10A.17 for additional information.
Code Enforcement investigations confirmed that commercial cannabis cultivation was taking place at these locations without either a County Cultivation Permit or a State Cultivation License, and/or cultivation was taking place in violation of MCC Sec. 10A.17 requirements. It was determined that there were significant community quality of life concerns in these neighborhoods. The responsible parties abated the cannabis plants after Code Enforcement engagement.
9/14/21 - 1800 Block of Oak Grove Drive - 99 Cannabis plants abated
9/21/21 - 15000 Block of Ridgeview Rd - 26 Cannabis plants abated
9/22/21 - 7800 Block of Uva Drive - 31 Cannabis plants abated
9/23/21 - 6500 Block of South State St - 6 Cannabis plants abated
9/27/21 - 2300 Block of Rancheria Rd - 72 Cannabis plants abated
9/29/21 - 7400 Block of Sems Lane - 12 Cannabis plants abated
9/29/21 - 9800 Block of East Rd - 247 Cannabis plants abated
9/30/21 - 8500 Block of Pinecrest Rd - 241 Cannabis plants abated
10/1/21 - 6700 Block of Third Gate Rd - 25 Cannabis plants abated
Code Enforcement intends to take additional action as needed to achieve compliance with any non-permitted structures at these locations.
The Code Enforcement Division receives all Cannabis and General Code Violation complaints within the unincorporated areas of Mendocino County. Complaints can be made by visiting our website at https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/code-enforcement and filing an online complaint. You can also file a complaint by email at codeenforcement@mendocinocounty.org, or by phone to (707) 234 6669. Cannabis specific complaints can also be filed by calling the Cannabis Complaint Hotline at (844) 421-WEED(9333).
ED NOTE: Given the timing of these “engagements” with “responsible parties” who “abated” their plants, it’s probably more accurate to say, The pot growers harvested their crop when we reminded them they were illegal.
CATCH OF THE DAY, October 1, 2021
ALVIN CARRELL, Boonville. DUI causing bodily injury.
CHRISTOPHER GEURTS, Willits. Under influence, probation revocation.
DAVID JOHNSON, Covelo. Probation violation.
MATASHIA LILLY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
CHRISTOPHER MAKI, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.
HANNAH SCOTT, Lakeport/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
JACOB SELLMER, Ukiah. Resisting. (Frequent flyer.)
BRADLEY THOM, Willits. DUI, suspended license for DUI, probation revocation.
MORGAN WRIGHT, Ferndale/Ukiah. DUI with priors, controlled substance/narcotics for sale, addict driving a vehicle, suspended license, sale of organic drug.
BEHOLD THE PHOTO showing President “Joe Biden” getting his booster shot of the Covid-19 “vaccine,” with the news media clustered to the left of what is apparently a stage-set built in a larger chamber.
Do you possibly ask yourself: why bother to build a set for this event in or under the White House somewhere — including even fake daylit windows — when there are any number of actual rooms in the White House perfectly suited to holding this grand event in real daylight? What is going on here?
And, by the way, how do we know that “JB” is getting an actual mRNA booster? Or is it just 10 CCs of saline solution? Is not the syringe, after all, just another prop in the show? The video of this event was broadcast on cable TV channels and corporate media websites everywhere. None of them commented on the strange artificiality of the staging. And so, the mystery abides….
It only reinforces the creeping suspicion that absolutely everything about the “Joe Biden” regime is fake. And malevolently so. How else could it be that so many bad things are happening at the same time in this country if there was not some faction seeking to destroy it?
— James Kunstler
TOMORROW, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
(Joe Biden)
IN DEEPEST MENDOCINO, Rebuilding a Life in Wine
BOONVILLE, Calif. — This little town in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County seems isolated enough. It’s a 40-minute drive west of the nearest major highway, mostly on the winding, two-lane Route 128, and it’s barely on the grid. But Wells Guthrie was looking for something even more secluded.
nytimes.com/2021/09/30/dining/drinks/wells-guthrie-dupuis-wine-california.html
JEFF BLANKFORT: Yesterday was the 94th birthday of one of my heroes and of the fight for Palestine in this country, now retired attorney Pete McCloskey who while a member of Congress from the California peninsula south of San Francisco, had the guts to speak out against the Vietnam War and for the Palestinians at a time that was politically verboten. And he was a Republican with more principles than any Democrat of his generation.
Remaining a powerful voice for Palestine after Congress and a target of the Israel Lobby, he went on to take my case and that of my colleague at the Labor Com. on the Middle East Steve Zeltzer and fellow activist against So African apartheid, Anne Poirier, against the Anti Defamation League for having spied on us and having turned over the information to the governments of Israel and South Africa.
And he did it, pro bono, for the case which lasted from 1993, until 2002 when the ADL's knees buckled and it offered us a settlement without us having to sign the usual non disclosure agreements which we had refused to do under any circumstances.
The truth of the matter is that without Pete, we never would have had a case because no other lawyer was ready to risk his or her career by challenging an organization as politically powerful as the ADL.
Here is a younger Pete when he debated the rabid racist rabbi Meir Kahane in San Francisco in 1987:
SANTA BARBARA CO. PLANNING COMMISSION VOTES TO DENY EXXONMOBIL'S HAZARDOUS OIL TRUCKING PROPOSAL
by Dan Bacher
In a victory for community and conservation groups, the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission on September 29 voted to deny ExxonMobil’s proposal to transport oil by tanker trucks along a hazardous California highway so it can restart three drilling platforms off the Santa Barbara Coast that have been shut down since the Refugio Oil Spill of 2015.
“The 3-2 initial vote came unexpectedly Wednesday, during the first of two days of scheduled public hearings on the project, and is expected to be followed Nov. 3 with a formal vote and findings recommending the Board of Supervisors deny the project,” according to a press release from a coalition of groups.
“ExxonMobil’s plan calls for up to 24,800 oil-filled truck trips per year on coastal Highway 101 and hazardous Route 166, 24 hours a day, to refineries for up to seven years or whenever a new coastal oil pipeline is completed, whichever is shorter,” the groups stated.
ExxonMobil’s three offshore platforms near Santa Barbara were shut down in 2015 after the Plains All American Pipeline ruptured and spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil along the California coast, a story that I covered in depth at the time. Since then, I have covered the aftermath of the oil spill, including the clean up, the filling of charges against Plains All American, the trial, the judge’s decision and sentencing and most recently, the proposal by Exxon Mobil to restart its platforms and transport crude oil by tanker truck, as well as the deeper story of Big Oil regulatory capture in California that facilitated the spill.
The coalition opposing ExxonMobil’s trucking plan includes Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, 350 Santa Barbara, the Center for Biological Diversity, Climate First: Replacing Oil and Gas (CFROG), Environmental Defense Center, Food and Water Action, GOO!, SBCAN, Sierra Club’s Los Padres Chapter, UCSB Associated Students External Vice President for Statewide Affairs Esmeralda Quintero-Cubillan, UCSB Environmental Affairs Board (EAB), Surfrider Foundation Santa Barbara County Chapter, Los Padres ForestWatch, the Goleta Goodland Coalition, the Cuyama Valley Community Association and the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation.
“Our community spoke loud and clear against this project, and the commission did the right thing in recommending denial of ExxonMobil’s application to restart its offshore platforms and truck its oil along dangerous and scenic county highways,” said Linda Krop, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center, which represents Get Oil Out! and Santa Barbara County Action Network. “The risk to our climate, the Santa Barbara Channel, and the safety of our communities justifies denial. We look forward to working with the county as we transition to a clean energy future.”
The revised final supplemental environmental impact report considered by the commission concludes there would be “significant, unavoidable impacts from the project”, including significant impacts on wildlife and cultural resources in the event of an oil spill from a tanker truck, according to the groups. The document fails to analyze the numerous harmful impacts of bringing Exxon’s offshore platforms back online. The Planning Commission’s recommended denial of the project will go to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for a final county decision.
“The Environmental Affairs Board is thrilled the Planning Commission made the correct decision to recommend denial of Exxon’s trucking proposal,” said the Environmental Affairs Board at University of California at Santa Barbara. “Exxon’s proposal ignored the unavoidable risks of spills, crashes, fires, and the destruction of habitat. It would further delay our local transition to a clean, safe, and just future. Climate change is a looming crisis for our generation of students, and victories like this give us hope for the future.”
The coalition pointed out that California suffers hundreds of oil-truck incidents a year, and many result in oil spills. There were 258 trucking accidents along the route from 2015 to 2021, California Highway Patrol data show, resulting in 10 deaths and 110 injuries. A tanker truck crashed off Highway 166 in March 2020, spilling more than 4,500 gallons of oil into the Cuyama River above Twitchell Reservoir.
“To hear the commissioners prioritize public safety and environmental protection over ExxonMobil’s unnecessary and dangerous oil trucking proposal was heartening,” said Julie Teel Simmonds, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It really feels like Santa Barbara County is poised to be a national leader in the clean energy transition.”
A majority of Santa Barbara County voters have said they oppose proposals to restart ExxonMobil’s offshore drilling platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel, according to a November 2019 poll.
Nearly 3 out of 4 respondents said they were concerned “about the safety of our local highways if up to 70 oil tanker trucks are allowed on our roads each day.”
“Restarting these 40-year-old platforms, beyond their max 35-year life, with a history of corrosion and spills, puts our entire coastline at risk,” said Katie Davis, chair of the Sierra Club Los Padres Chapter, which also submitted a petition, signed by more than 2,000 people, opposing the project. “Offshore oil is so risky even Republican states like Florida have fought off offshore oil development. It’s why 7,500 businesses and 90 cities on the Pacific coast are on record <https://usa.oceana.org/pacific-drilling#toc-business-opposition>opposing offshore oil.”
ExxonMobil’s oil-trucking scheme is strongly opposed by a coalition of 35 community and conservation organizations, who recently sent the commission a letter urging it to reject the project. They cited the project’s threat of more offshore oil spills, fueling climate change, and endangering motorists and communities with dangerous oil tanker truck crashes.
*”Now is not the time to turn the clock back and return to our old ways of relying on fossil fuels to meet our energy needs,” the letter concludes. “The County of Santa Barbara is moving towards a clean energy future by adopting renewable energy targets and joining the Central Coast Community Energy program. Allowing ExxonMobil to resume oil production off our coast will lead to decades of fossil fuel production that we cannot afford.”*
“ExxonMobil’s plans to restart its offshore platforms and onshore processing facility will also generate enormous levels of greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to climate change, undermining state and national climate targets and goals set by the county’s Energy and Climate Action Plan adopted in May 2015,” according to the coalition.
*Big Oil lobbyist led task force to create â˜marine protected areas’ impacted by the spill. Missing from the news coverage of the oil spill, the trial and sentencing and now the proposal by the oil industry to restart three offshore platforms and transport the oil by tanker trucks is one of the biggest and most ironic stories regarding the Refugio Oil Spill.*
*In a classic example of the deep regulatory capture that pervades what passes for “marine protection” in California, the head of the oil industry trade association that lobbies for the Plains All American Pipeline corporation happens to be the very same “marine guardian” who chaired the panel that created the so-called “marine protected areas” that were fouled by the spill.*
“Plains All American, the owner of the pipeline, is a member of the Western States Petroleum Association,” proclaimed Catherine Reheis-Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), in her statement responding to the spill in May 2015.
In an apparent conflict of interest, Reheis-Boyd served as the chair of the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called marine “protected areas” (MPAs) in Southern California.
Four “marine protected areas” created under Reheis-Boyd â” the Goleta Slough, Campus Point, Naples and Kashtayit State Marine Conservation Areas â” were imperiled by the oil spill that started at Refugio State Beach.
She also served on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast, and North Coast from 2004 to 2012, as well as on a federal marine protected areas panel from 2003 to 2014. She served on these panels as the oil industry was fracking off the Southern California Coast.
Yet not one government official, NGO representative or reporter (except this one) mentioned that the head oil industry lobbyist promoting the expansion of offshore drilling and opposing legislation increasing protection of the California coast was the same state official who headed the panel to create questionable Southern California “marine protected areas” that don’t protect the ocean from fracking, offshore drilling, pollution, seismic testing and human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.
*Background: Big Oil exerts enormous influence over California regulators*
Big Oil is the biggest and most powerful corporate lobby in Sacramento â” and the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is the biggest and most powerful lobbying organization. Big Oil, along with corporate agribusiness, developers, big water agencies, timber companies, and other Big Money interests, has captured the regulatory apparatus in California.
Just four oil industry lobbyist employers alone â” the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), Chevron, Aera Energy and California Resources Corporation â” spent $10,192,047 lobbying the Governor’s Office, Legislature and regulatory agencies to advance Big Oil’s agenda in 2020, according to data posted on the California Secretary of State’s website by February 1, 2021.
The Western States Petroleum Association, the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying organization in California, spent a total of $4,267,181, less than half of the $8.8 million that it spent in 2019. 2020’s lobbying expenses included $1,084,702 in the fifth quarter, $1,220,986 in the sixth quarter, $1,116,397 in the seventh quarter and $845,096 in the eighth quarter.
The San Ramon-based Chevron, a beneficiary of many new fracking permits this year, spent $4,091,501 in California 2020, less than the $5.9 million it spent in 2019. Chevron spent $1,644,943 in the fifth quarter, $1,009, 322 in the sixth quarter, $752,437 in the seventh quarter and $684,799 in the eighth quarter.
Another big spender and beneficiary of large numbers of new fracking permits this year, Aera Energy, spent a total of $795,099 on lobbying California officials in 2020. Aera pumped $290,926 into lobbying California officials in the fifth quarter, $191,660 in the sixth quarter, $200,082 in the seventh quarter and $112,431 in the eighth quarter of the year.
Aera Energy has close ties with the Governor’s Office. In November, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on how Governor Gavin Newsom didn’t follow his own COVID pandemic guidelines when he attended a birthday party for Jason Kinney, a close friend and advisor, at the French Laundry Restaurant in Napa. Kinney is a lobbyist for Axiom Advisors, who lobbies for Aera Energy and other energy corporations.
Jointly owned by Shell and ExxonMobil, Aera produces nearly nearly a quarter of California’s oil and gas production. Aera paid Axiom Advisors $200,000 during 2019 and 2020 for lobbying on oil and gas permitting issues and other matters, according to Donny Shaw and Eric Seidman in Sludge: Newsom Delivers for Energy Clients of Lobbyist He Celebrated at French Laundry.
“As journalist Steve Horn reported for* Capital & Main *last June, Aera received the first new batch of fracking permits from the Newsom administration after a months-long moratorium. Newsom had placed a temporary ban on new fracking permits in California in November 2019 following a series of scandals at the state’s oil well regulatory agency, the state’s conservation agency’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, or DOGGR (now Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM),” Shaw and Seidman wrote.
Finally, the California Resources Corporation, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, spent $1,038,266 to influence state officials in 2020. The corporation spent $310,198 on lobbying in the fifth quarter, $344,960 in the sixth quarter, $146,543 in the seventh quarter and $236,565 in the eight quarter.
The oil companies were amply rewarded for the over $10 million that they spent on lobbying last year. In a year of record fires and an unprecedented pandemic, California oil regulators more than doubled the approval of permits in 2020 to drill new oil and gas production wells.
The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) of the Department of Conservation, the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency, approved more than 1,700 new oil and gas production well permits in 2020, Consumer Watchdog and FracTracker Alliance reported.
“Largely because of a moratorium on high pressure cyclic steamingâ”a dangerous technique burning carbon-emitting natural gas to make steam used to coax stubborn oil out of the ground-- permits for all types of drilling dropped 14%. Very few drilling permits were used to drill new wells -- only 60 new wells were drilled in 2020,” the groups noted.
Lobbying is just one of the seven methods that Big Oil uses in California to exercise inordinate influence over California regulators. WSPA and Big Oil wield their power in 7 major ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) serving on and putting shills on regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups; (5) working in collaboration with media; (6) creating alliances with labor unions; and (7) contributing to non profit organizations.
The inordinate influence by Big Oil on California politicians and regulators has resulted in widespread air, ground and water pollution with huge health impacts on mostly Black and Brown communities living near oil and gas wells.
Between 2008 and 2018 alone, oil and gas companies created a statewide total of over 1.3 trillion gallons of oil and gas wastewater in California, enough liquid to fill over 17.6 million household bathtubs, according to a report released by Earthworks, along with allies VISION California and Center for Biological Diversity.
The report reveals that California, often portrayed by the state’s politicians and national media as the nation’s “green” and “progressive” leader, is actually one of the worst states in the U.S. when it comes to regulating the oil and gas industry’s waste.
The regulatory failures range from allowing crops to be irrigated with potentially toxic and radioactive wastewater to storing waste in unlined pits or injecting it into protected groundwater aquifers, according to Earthworks.
ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE NEWS
Anderson Valley Village is a locally inspired and managed non-profit organization. Our mission is to help older adults remain active, connected, and independent in the place they call home while enhancing the quality of life in our community.
We currently have 60 members and 51 trained volunteers ready to lend a hand! Please reach out if you need a friendly volunteer to call you for a chat, shop for you, do outside chores or errands, tech support, etc.
Happy Birthday to our wonderful members and volunteers: Sandhya Abee, Elizabeth Dusenberry, Cherry Green, Hesham Hauter, Gwyn Leeman Smith, Tom McFadden, and Ann Wakeman. (don't see your name? send me your birthdate)
Upcoming AV Village Events Calendar: andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events
TWO BILLS
Dear Editor,
For most of us it’s a good idea to be cautious about spending our money. We like to be able to try something on or take a test-drive if we are spending much cash on a new anything, whether it be a new shirt or suit or new car, or, especially, bigger things-like a house or international trip.
The current struggle in Congress between moderate and progressive Democrats is like buying something big. The infrastructure bill ($1.5T) and the “Build Back Better” bill ($3.5T), on one level, seem like the difference between buying a Ford or buying a Ferrari. With any luck, the Ford will get you from point “A” to point “B;” while the Ferrari might win you the Gran Prix.
The first bill has been needed to repair roads, bridges, and rails for over 30 years. The other might make a big difference in the climate crisis as well as helping seniors and others lower their bills for medications.
The problem here is predicting the future. With the first bill we will not have more taxes; the second raises taxes.
Frank Baumgardner
Santa Rosa
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Re: Feral pigs. Back 35 years ago near Philo, feral pigs were a reoccurring problem on my family’s property, one which we addressed by shooting them at every opportunity. When the main portion of the property sold, the mindful “back to the land” new owners soon called my father to ask how we dealt with the problem. “We shoot them,” was my father’s reply. Aghast, the new owners said they could never do that. However, after additional damage to the landscape, they opted for an alternative: they hired a professional hunter to shoot them!
(Marshal Newman)
MEMO OF THE AIR: GOOD NIGHT RADIO ALL NIGHT TONIGHT!
Hi! Marco here. Deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is around 7pm. After that, send it whenever it's ready and I'll read it on the radio /next/ week.
Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg as well as anywhere else via http://airtime.knyo.org:8040/128 (That's the regular link to listen to KNYO in real time.)
Any day or night you can go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night the recording of tonight's show will also be there.
Also there you'll find a great-smelling fishnet Autumn stocking stuffed fat with educational delights to enjoy until showtime, or any time, such as:
Images of different forms of music notation. (via Clifford Pickover) https://twitter.com/NotationIsGreat
How we get balls, specifically basketballs. You'd think the process would be entirely automated by now, but there are still a lot of human hands involved. https://theawesomer.com/how-rubber-balls-are-made/545815/
Don't be skinny. Skinny girls don't have oomph. Oomph! https://www.vintag.es/2021/09/vintage-weight-gain-ads.html
And a cartoon presentation of the facts in the case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the sleazy fraud whose ongoing anti-vaccination bullshit continues to ruin people's lives and kill them. https://tallguywrites.livejournal.com/148012.html
— Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
TOP COVID HOST NATIONS & HUNTING GROUNDS
| country | cases | deaths |
| United States | 43,618,627 | 700,285 |
| Brazil | 21,445,651 | 597,255 |
| India | 33,791,061 | 448,573 |
$1.5 million to fight weed outlaws in the Emerald Triangle is laughable. Running a government helicopter must be about $2,000 per hour. That money would last about a week trying to bust a few gang bangers. And then, on the flip side, our brave State government is handing out loans and grants to the poor small farmers who just can’t seem to make their way smoothly into the legal market. What a stupid farce. Just permit as many mega grows on I5 and other flat land with lotsa water and watch the “problems” disappear.
It is interesting to watch how much much money we are willing to squander, yet we don’t have the money to further the licensing process for the Eel River diversion into the Russian River, and the maintenance of Scott Dam, and Lake Pillsbury. It makes no sense, no sense at all.
This willful lack of federal funding for the Potter Valley Project is coming during a one hundred year drought event, where we see water from Lake Pillsbury maintaining flows in the upper Russian, and the Middle Fork of the Eel. Currently we are also seeing Eel River water from the Potter Valley Project being shipped to the Mendocino Coast to provide emergency relief for people completely out of water. The policy to end the Potter Valley Project is coming from Jared Huffman’s office in order to return the Eel River environment to its once supposed perfect state.
If Trump was still President that dam would be saved. He understood that water storage is essential for many reasons.
Marmon
Those dams, like most, are the way of the past. They fill in and destroy salmon runs. Time for us westerners to be progressive about water. Rainwater storage, conservation, etc. .. we don’t need any more vineyards or big dumb dope farms sucking our rivers dry.
Time to start controlling human population numbers as well. I suggest we start by executing all the fascists, and do it every generation or two (as though we have that much time left), since it is impossible to control their numbers genetically through breeding programs (eugenics is a fallacy). That would get us down to about three times the carrying capacity for humans of the habitat enclosed within US boundaries. That might allow us to last a few months longer. Best thing that could happen for the planet is for us to go extinct, and soon.
In the end, where does self loathing end up taking you, Harv?
Self-loathing, as you pompously put it, and hating the human species as a whole are two quite different things, George. Save your pontifical manner for those who can appreciate it.
Thomas Sowell famously said, “We take something that works, and replace it something that sounds like a good idea.”
Famously? Among other true-believer fascists, perhaps.
His blathering is nothing more than conservative hogwash, an attempt at conditioning the masses to accept, and respect, the contemptible status-quo, where fascist conservatives call the shots, and to scare faltering conservatives into not defecting.
Besides, for the hokum to even have half a chance of making even a lick of sense, his bawling requires that a system that works is already in place. Fascist Kaputalism and its religion, conservatism, don’t meet that criterion.
The street and elsewhere say the smart growers are leaving in droves.
Real estate people claim property owners are looking for any way out. One parcel is listed with a ready-to-harvest crop.
As usual, the government is late to the party. But perhaps that was the plan all along.
Be well…
Laz
Or maybe the party has just begun.
“Or maybe the party has just begun.”
GH
If you believe that I know a land broker who can fix you up…
Laz
Kunstler: “How else could it be that so many bad things are happening at the same time in this country if there was not some faction seeking to destroy it?”
No one is seeking to destroy America, at least not those in power. But those in power are turning a blind eye to the negative unintended consequences of our corrupt socialist welfare state that is destroying our country. The other people’s money funding our socialist state will eventually run out, and at that time, hopefully, we will still have enough free people here to pick up the pieces. Otherwise we will look like some version of what we see in Afghanistan, or Haiti right now.
It’s the fascist rule by the robber barons you dearly love and sorely desire to imitate that is destroying the country. Calling the US socialist is a sign of severely impaired mental capabilities. You don’t still drive do you?
Socialism works where there is a direct connection between those who pay, and those who receive. That connection makes socialism accountable. In a central government setting, with 350 million people, and deficit spending, socialism is what we see. Dependent hogs getting fat while feeding at the trough, and actively keeping their government providers in office.
That is pure nonsense, of the highest fascist order. What we have is a fascist oligarchy, not socialism by any stretch of any but the most mentally impaired of imaginations. The funny thing is (or perhaps to be expected), you actually expect others to buy into your deranged proclamations, gleaned from lunatic-fringe “think tanks”, whose authors seem to suffer from oxygen deprivation.
Fascism is socialism.
You’ve completely lost it, George, or, more likely, never had “it” in the first place. Fascism is NOT socialism. That observation is almost as ridiculous as your assertions about everyone being racist, as though everyone else was simply a mirror image of you.
Fascism is a form of socialism, and by itself has nothing to do with social, class, or racial prejudices, and nothing to do with religion, either. Fascism, as its founder Benito Mussolini defined it, is absolute state control of business to achieve a government end. The seamless transition China has displayed, going from a Communist model to a Fascist model could only be done in a total socialist state. China still calls itself Communist, and likely will continue to do so. They are racist, but they were racist when they were Communists, too. They practice brutal persecution, but they did that as Communists as well. There is no difference, except China would likely say in private, of course, that the Fascist model works better. At this point it looks like it does. But freedom does not enter into the equation in the remotest way. Neither do robber Barrons.
Pure bullshit, George. The world exists, and then there are your maniacal yarns.
Totally wrong, George. Big biz did just fine under fascism, and post-war Europe. Conservatives and the bourgies generally are reliable fascists in the crunch. China is much more like a fascist state than it is a communist state, what with its many millionaires doing quite well in the police state they’ve got going. You might want to bone up on the isms the fun way via George Bernard Shaw’s famous guide book written for the ladies, the great jokester said. There’s also Edmund Wilson’s “To the Finland Station” and “The American Earthquake.”
Totally wrong, Bruce. I did not say big biz didn’t do just fine under fascism. In fact I suggested the opposite. Big Biz did just fine, as long as they toed the government line. If not, they lost everything. This is exactly what is happening in China now, and to some extent what is now happening here in America. Total government control can do that. That is why it is a mystery why the AVA is such an advocate for government control. Oh yea, a large central government socialist democracy. That exists only in fantasy land.
You need to do some boning up yourself.
And ironically, it’s the group that is actively seeking to destroy the basic precepts of democracy that are purporting to save it.
Precisely.
RE: the Buffalo Bill, Pawnee Bill, Buffalo Jones photograph. Buffalo Jones is an unsung hero; very possibly the person most instrumental in saving the American Bison.
And, one helluva job, too. Why, fer cryin’ out loud, bison are just everywhere these days!
Mr Dart’s musical instrument is a beautiful work of art.
Also, Kunstler seems like he is well on his way down the path to declaring the moon landing a hoax.
Mr. Dart’s mandolin can be seen on Youtube video featuring a fiddler named Heidi Clare == from Covelo == go to The Dry Branch Fire Brigade #3.
Thank you!
If you liked that, then tune in to the Hardly Stricktly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco — it’s streaming live w/ Bela Fleck and Emmy Lou Harris in today’s lineup! We were going to go to the city and hump a cooler to the park to the show, but it’s much nicer in the comfort of one’s own digs!
I saw Emmy in Ukiah, Carl Purdy Hall.
She played for about 30 minutes…
Laz
I’ve always thought of her and Linda Ronstadt as well, you know…
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, be like the new Greatful Dead: and pause a moment to contemplate, if not admire, the timing of having these guys (w/ the darling lassie on mandolin), these virtuosos, take the stage, apres 4:20… how hip is that?
I knew Bill Shakespeare. Joe Biden you’re no Bill Shakespeare.
In Justine Frederiksen’s account, 1930-31 had 18.98 inches. That was the year proceeding the year of the Comptche Fire, Sept. 22, 1931. It used to that be a rain year started on July 1, and ended on June 30. Now it is Oct. 1 to Sept 30. So the Comptche Fire happened after/during a very dry year, and before any significant rain had occurred. I did not know that. I have been told that the Fall and Winter of 1931, and 1932 were very cold, cold enough to freeze the water in the Albion River.
Kunstler writes:
“It only reinforces the creeping suspicion that absolutely everything about the “Joe Biden” regime is fake. And malevolently so. How else could it be that so many bad things are happening at the same time in this country if there was not some faction seeking to destroy it?”
Yep, it is called the Republican Party and, for some elusive reason, it is getting help from America’s Last Newspaper.
Perfectly noted in one sentence, Jim.
Wrong on three counts. The JB administration is incompetent, at least on its face. The Washington establishment is in charge, and destroying the country. The AVA criticizes them, but supports their power, and they are all Democrats. The Republican Party is powerless, and not going to destroy anything, except maybe itself.
This is all deliciously humorous, George. Besides you and a few others. AVA readers savor and relish the destruction of the Republican party. And if the JB admin is incompetent, how does that measure up to that erstwhile epitome of incompetence, the DT admin?
Destroying the country?
Ha!
Tearing out the old rot and rebuilding is more like it, eh? Too bad the architects aren’t oligarchs, seems to be your chief lament, here, George.
Powerless Republicans are a cause for alarm and despondency, George?
Where the Devil do you get these absurd notions. eh?
As for your Deep State bullpucky, check out a few episodes of “Yes, Minister” on Youtube, to get a grip on what’s been around for ages.
DT had an uncontrolled mouth that did him in, and that mouth will keep him out of office despite how screwed up the establishment makes things. But the one thing DT had was a stated mission. That is what made him effective. Much like Bernie Sanders. DT changed the way America does business, and BS would much like to do the same.
I’m relieved to hear it, George. My wife was terrified DT would return to office. As to a stated mission, that was as flimsy and flexible as the whims of the wind, willy-nilly, whatever way the wind blew; and, sure Bernie, too (that’s why I scraped the bumpersticker off), they’re all serving their masters, their mortgage brokers and investment bankers, much like the way you serve the interests of the Fishers, and other corporate timber interests, you loyal old dog, you, long may you live (longevity being the worst curse Gilliver found in his extensive Travels).
DT made significant changes in foreign policy that we will live with for a while. To a less extent, Obama talked the same line, but DT made it happen. Domestically, DT brought the working class into the Republican Party.
Those Working Class trump supporters were already rethuglicans, Hollister. The majority of the Working Class is NOT. Save your puitrid lies for the suckers.
The orange hog’s foreign policy was no more than a continuation of Obama and Bush policies. The policies were just about the same as the US has laid down since the end of the second war on the world: US domination, everywhere. The rest of the world is sick of us, and I am sick of your lies.