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A VERY WEAK FRONT will bring light rain and drizzle to the North Coast region late tonight. This will be followed by a few dry and windy afternoons along the the entire coast. Little to no rain is forecast for the foreseeable future. (NWS)
DISSENT, PROTEST, AND PUNITIVE MEASURES CONCERNING COVID-19 PROTOCOLS WITHIN THE WALLS OF THE MENDOCINO COUNTY JAIL
by Matt LeFever
Inmates within the Mendocino County jail took a stand this week against COVID-19 quarantine protocols they deemed unnecessary. This resulted in an entire module testing positive for the virus and in various privileges being revoked. We spoke with two inmates within the jail about the protest and with Sheriff Matt Kendall about the inmates’ grievances, their dissent, and the implementation of COVID-19 protocols within a correctional facility. . . .
UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK
Roo is a bouncy bundle of energy. This dapper dog enjoys going out for walks and chasing tennis balls. We’re recommending older children in his new home because of his energy and exuberant personality. Roo is very playful with other dogs once he feels comfortable with them. Roo is 1 year old and a very svelte 48 pounds.
For more about Roo, visit mendoanimalshelter.com
While you’re there, check out all of our canine and feline guests, and our services, programs, events, and updates. Visit us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/ For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453.
MENDO’S FIRST POT CROP REPORT!
by Mark Scaramella
A short, mostly graphic presentation attached to next Tuesday’s Conventional 2020 Crop Report presentation to the Board of Supervisors says that Mendo generated about $131 million worth of wholesale marijuana for calendar year 2020.
The report, based on the Department of Food and Agriculture’s CalCannabis licensing information, also says that Mendo growers hold 1310 licenses (“provisional and approved” — the majority provisional) for 11.2 million square feet of cannabis (just over 250 acres). (By comparison Mendo has about 16,500 acres of [legal] grapes.) The report adds that there are about 290 “cultivation licensed acres.” Most of the reported acreage is “small mixed light,” followed by nursery acreage and small outdoor acreage. Amazingly, this relatively small number of legal cannabis acres produced over $131 million in “combined production value.” By far, the largest production value is in “Flower (Outdoor/Mixed Light)” at almost $106 million.
The only downside to the precedent setting report is that it’s now so dated as to be nearly meaningless. The bottom has fallen out of the pot market.
In 2020 over 111,000 pounds of legal outdoor mixed light Mendo mellow was going for an average of $950 a pound. Indoor flower was selling for around $1500 a pound. Etc. It’s common knowledge that those prices, on hindsight, were the tail end of Mendo’s formerly high-value pot history. 2021 saw significantly lower quantities and prices per pound. Although there was still a lot of production in 2021, much of that year’s crop has not been trimmed or sold. Nobody has quantified that year’s legal off-market.
2022 is shaping up as even worse. Anecdotal reports have entire greenhouses full of mature marijuana plants being abandoned in large quantities (growers don’t want to pay to have it trimmed without a confirmed customer and price), and what little can be sold is going for no more than $400 — if a grower can find a customer. (Rumor has it that since Oklahoma legalized “medical” pot in 2018 that state has been growing industrial outdoor cannabis in bulk and taking much of Mendo’s east coast black market away.)
By a strange quirk of timing, Mendo’s highly anticipated first official pot report looks like it has nowhere to go but down.
Combined with the not quite as bad decline in the grape market, the overall decline of Mendo’s primary ag revenue will not only hurt the growers, but Mendo’s coffers via lower economic stimulus, taxes and property values which will all take a significant hit.
As we asked last month after the release of the conventional 2020 crop report, does Official Mendo care? As the cannabis market falls, Mendo’s pot bureaucracy has expanded with a large infusion of state “equity” money. But so far, not a peep about the implications of these dismal ag numbers from Mendo’s well paid Supervisors.
ANOTHER CARD FROM E-BAY (via Marshall Newman)
This one modern with an unusual perspective.
49ERS V. RAMS: HISTORIC RIVALS IN NFC CHAMPIONSHIP SHOWDOWN
by Lindy Peters
Folks up this way are getting geeked for the big NFC Championship showdown with the 49ers staring down the rival LA Rams for the third time this season. Despite all efforts to thwart Niner fans from pouring in to the LA haze and outnumbering the home team crowd in a sea of red, I’m afraid that ship has already sailed. Expect to see plenty of the 49er faithful in attendance. And they’ll be as loud as a gold panner when he catches some slick City varmint jumping his claim.
Fun facts: The Rams won the first meeting ever back in 1950 35-14. Hmmm. What does that add up to?
The 49ers have only played the Rams once in the NFL play-offs and that was in 1990 when legendary Joe Montana led the 49ers to a 30-3 thrashing on their way to their fourth Super Bowl trophy. Rams quarterback Jim Everett played so poorly that a young upstart reporter named Jim Rome kept calling him Chrissy (in reference to woman tennis star Chrissy Evert) and QB Jim finally had enough and went after reporter Jim. And thus one career ended (Evert didn’t do much after that) and another began as Jim Rome rode that big-lip insolence to fame and fortune and is still around today, though I never cared for his loudmouth boorish antics.
Longest winning streak: 17. Say what?!?
Yep, from 1990 to 1998 the 49ers simply dominated the Rams. I think this is when some of the Faithful began calling them the “Lambs.”
75-67-3. That is the 49ers all-time record against the Rams, who early-on had dominated SF in their 72 year rivalry.
And that is how their last meeting went in the thrilling win-or-go-home final game of the regular season for the upstart 49ers. The Rams led early but Jimmy G and the Mighty D came roaring back to tie it up in the last second of regulation play and go on to win in overtime. And may I say that was actually boring compared to what has transpired thus far in their first two play-off victories over Dallas and Green Bay. It won’t come easy this Sunday but I think the 49ers are about to prove you can still find gold in California. Only this time it will be in LA.
(Courtesy, Mendocino News Plus which “welcomes longtime local sports enthusiast Lindy Peters. In return for no pay or benefits Lindy has graciously agreed to help fill the void in sports coverage, both local and beyond.”)
CHALLENGE OF ‘THUNDER THE WONDER DOG’ ANIMAL ABUSE CASE STUCK DOWN BY APPELLATE COURT
by Matt LaFever
Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster’s attempt to challenge the controversial ruling of Judge Clayton Brennan in the well-known Thunder the Wonder Dog trial has been struck down at the Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District in San Francisco.
The case of Thunder the Wonder dog gained national attention in December 2019 when the German Shepard was found near death in the woods near Caspar. Investigators determined the owner Katie Rhiannon Smith had neglected, botched the execution of the dog at gunpoint, and eventually abandoned Thunder in the woods of coastal Mendocino County.
Many were inflamed when Smith would go on to plea no contest to felony animal cruelty during the October 2020 hearing which resulted in a sentence of unsupervised probation for a term of 36 months, no jail time, the requirement to attend counseling, which prohibited her from possessing animals during that probation period, and required her to serve 500 hours of community service.
District Attorney Eyster was incensed at this outcome, saying in a press release, “It is tough to find justice for victims and the community when there are two defense attorneys in the courtroom – one sitting at counsel table and one wearing a black robe.”
This resulted in a legally unique circumstance in which District Attorney Eyster barred Judge Brennan from hearing any pending criminal case or future cases in which a defendant is charged with animal cruelty or the use of firearms.
As per a press release issued last night, District Attorney Eyster’s attempts to challenge the Judge Brennan’s ruling, which he called “the legal equivalent of an appellate Hail Mary,” were struck down by an appeals court in San Francisco.
The press release attributes the court’s denial to their “very conservative attitude toward lower court decisions that presumes the result in the lower court is correct.”
The press release characterized “two bright lights” of news have emerged regarding the case, one of which is another Mendocino County judge in Ukiah ordered Smith to pay $4,000 in restitution for her involvement in the case, a stipulation not required by Judge Brennan.
The second “bright light,” as described by the press release, is Judge Brennan is still barred from ruling on any cases that touch on issues related to animal abuse and gun use.
* * *
UKIAH, Friday, Jan. 28. -- WONDER DOG APPEAL OF JUDICIAL BAD JUDGMENT DENIED; PROTECTIVE SAFEGUARDS WON'T CHANGE.
In an unpublished opinion issued Friday, January 28th, the Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District in San Francisco denied the People’s appeal challenging the judicial bad judgment of Mendocino County’s coastal judge, Clayton Brennan.
For those interested in reading the actual opinion, it can be accessed at https://www.mendocinocounty.org/.../distric.../news-releases
The People’s appeal of the judgment entered by Judge Brennan in the Thunder the Wonder Dog case (aka People v. Katie Rhiannon Smith) was previously acknowledged by the DA to be the legal equivalent of an appellate Hail Mary.
This characterization is because the appellate courts have a very conservative attitude toward lower court decisions that presumes the result in the lower court is correct, requiring a party seeking relief from a lower court result to attempt to overcome this oftentimes insurmountable presumption.
As noted by the California Supreme Court in Denham v. Superior Court (1970) 2 Cal.3d 557: “[I]t is settled that: ‘A judgment or order of the lower court is presumed correct. All intendments and presumptions are indulged to support it on matters as to which the record is silent, and error must be affirmatively shown. This is not only a general principle of appellate practice but an ingredient of the constitutional doctrine of reversible error.’”
Despite the unsuccessful appellate outcome, there remains several bright lights to be considered as this sad story winds down to its legal end.
To mention just two, the first bright light, as reported back in November of last year, is that Judge Brennan’s refusal to order defendant Smith to pay restitution was remedied (while the appeal was pending) by a different judge in Ukiah when Smith was ordered to pay over $4,000 in Thunder restitution.
The second bright light, as reported in January of last year, is that DA Eyster put in place office policies and judicial safeguards that prevent Judge Brennan from hearing any future animal abuse case. These safeguards also prevent him from hearing any case involving the use of a firearm.
When asked for comment on today’s decision, the DA said, “While my attorneys and I respect the decision of the Court of Appeal, that decision will not affect the safeguards that I put in place last year. Those safeguards will remain in place as a long as I have any say in the matter.”
The DA concluded by saying, “The true silver lining is that Thunder physically and mentally recovered ... thanks to the efforts of a lot of caring people, that he remains in a good home, that efforts to demonize him in an attempt to justify his abuse have been shown to be untrue, and that he’s helped remind all of us that we need to stay vigilant and report those who we see abusing animals.”
(DA Presser)
* * *
GENIELLA AT LARGE
(Rough notes and causal thoughts)
by Mike Geniella
So, DA Dave once again has flipped his ‘bright lights’ on a high-profile animal abuse case on the Mendocino Coast.
Even though DA Dave acknowledged late Friday that he lost his bid in a state Court of Appeal to overturn a judge’s sentencing in the case, he is brashly claiming victory in his ‘Hail Mary’ legal challenge. DA Dave had hoped to embarrass Superior Court Judge Clayton Brennan further publicly, even though the associated costs of the DA’s appeal outweighed the chances.
No doubt DA Dave is righteous in his beliefs about the 2019 case of ‘Thunder the Wonder Dog.’ He has pursued it with as much vigor as any criminal prosecution.
DA Dave is cruising toward a fourth term in office unopposed (the filing deadline is early March), which will make him only one of two DAs in county history to have served as long. Eyster sees this as widespread public endorsement of his prosecution policies, and management of the county’s top law enforcement office. Indeed, the DA’s office is one of the few stable operations in a county facing administrative turmoil, and sharp divisions in leadership.
Yet it is no surprise to long-time observers that DA Dave sometimes gets in the way of his own self. The dog case is an example.
DA Dave believed Judge Brennan mishandled the sentencing and was too lenient on the defendant, who had pled no contest to shooting the dog and leaving it to die in the woods. Thunder survived and returned to health under new care. The defendant in 2020 entered her plea felony animal cruelty. She was sentenced to unsupervised probation for 36 months, court imposed counseling, and a ban on owning animals during her probation. She also was required to serve 500 hours of community service.
Animal lovers on the coast and across the nation were outraged with the outcome of the widely publicized case. DA Dave knows how to seize on public sentiment about animal abuse and turn it into political force. He publicly launched a follow up attack on Brennan.
The truth, however, is DA Dave’s fight with Brennan is not about Thunder.
It is really about Brennan’s audacious challenge a decade ago of the DA Dave’s ‘marijuana restitution’ program. The judge then dared to publicly challenge DA Dave by suggesting the program was tantamount to extorting defendants unless they agreed to pay hefty fines for illegally cultivating marijuana in exchange for lesser criminal charges. DA Dave’s program was unique in the state. It cleared up a court backlog of marijuana cases, and eventually raised $7.5 million for county coffers before voter legalization of marijuana made the program moot.
DA Dave was livid after Brennan’s denunciation from the bench of his pot plea deal program. He then forced the Superior Court to keep Brennan in exile on the coast court by refusing to let him try cases at the courthouse in Ukiah. Other judges reluctantly went along with Brennan’s exile to avoid a public bloodletting.
It is important to remember that DA Dave, even if unopposed in his bid to be re-elected, needs checks and balances. In an era when the news media has collapsed, and there are no longer ‘court reporters’ roaming the halls of the courthouse and monitoring the legal process, DA Dave has free rein.
As it is DA Dave has taken to writing his own press releases and massaging his message in his own style.
Case in point is the official press release on dismissal of DA Dave’s lega challenge by the Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District in San Francisco.
DA Dave claims victory, and he has the audacity to pretend he was interviewed in a press release he wrote himself.
“When asked for comment on today’s decision,” he writes, ‘‘While my attorneys and I respect the decision of the Court of Appeal, that decision will not affect the safeguards that I put in place last year. Those safeguards will remain in place as a long as I have any say in the matter.’”
Perhaps the bright lights need to be kept on DA Dave as he struts unopposed into a fourth term.
ED NOTE: Eyster subsequently busted Ms. Smith for violating the terms of her sentence by keeping chickens (!) Our information has it that Ms. Smith was not the guilty party in the shooting of the dog, that she was covering for her ex-con boyfriend of whom she lived in fear and who would go back to prison if he'd done it. People who know her say she is an animal person who would never mistreat a pet. Judge Brennan was familiar with Ms. Smith's domestic situation and did the humane thing.
COULD CALIFORNIA ACTUALLY PASS SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE?
Imagine living in a society where a medical diagnosis does not trigger crippling fears of the cost of treatment and prescription drugs, where switching jobs or being laid off didn’t include considerations around health insurance coverage, where trips to the emergency room don’t generate thousands of dollars in bills, and where the out-of-pocket cost of seeing a doctor is zero.
If two-thirds of California’s state legislators choose to cast votes in favor of Assembly Bill 1400, they could soon make such a society a reality for the residents of the nation’s most populous state.
The bill, introduced by State Assemblyman Ash Kalra in early January and sponsored by the California Nurses Association, would establish a publicly funded system in California guaranteeing free-of-charge health care to all residents, including immigrants. The system, dubbed CalCare, would cover medical, dental, and vision care, as well as mental health care. There would be no monthly premiums, co-pays or deductibles. Health care providers would simply bill the state government rather than insurance companies or patients. . . .
laprogressive.com/pass-single-payer-health-care/
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Search and Rescue (SAR) - https://www.mendocinosar.org/
Auxiliary Communication Services (ACS) - https://tinyurl.com/478kjfxd
FREE FOOD PHILO (formerly known as Love to Table) is distributing meals in town to those who could use some extra love in the form of food. We cook nourishing meals using produce from our farm and others, and would love to offer you a warm lunch on Monday Jan 31. If you could use a home cooked meal, or have a friend in mind who would, please message, call or text Arline Bloom (415) 308-3575, who will head up distribution in town.
~ This week’s menu ~
- Marinated baked chicken
- Golden Rice Pilaf
- Salad with Roasted Beets and Feta Cheese
- Carrot Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
Thank you for letting us be of service.
For more information on Free Food Philo / Love to Table, check out: https://unconditionalfreedom.org/love-to-table/ or go to our facebook page.
Special thank you to Sonoma County Meat Co., New Agrarian Collective, Big Mesa Farm, Sierra Nevada Cheese Company and Central Milling for their generous donations of ingredients for this meal
LINDA BAILEY WRITES:
RETRACTION. Contrary to previous comment I made days ago, I strongly support the proposed permanent sales tax for the county library system.
An institution with warts is far superior to no institution at all. The sales tax is absolutely essential to the survival of the libraries; the dedicated property tax alone is woefully inadequate.
The loss of the County Library would be a grievous loss for all residents. Please join me in supporting the proposal. Keep our libraries open.
ON THIS DAY IN MENDOCINO HISTORY…
January 15, 1839 - John A. Barry was born in Norkoping, Sweden. We don’t know anything about his early life, but John and his brother Richard immigrated to the United States around 1859, first settling in Odell, Illinois where they worked on a farm.
By 1869, John had made his way to Mendocino, where he worked as a cook for the Mendocino Lumber Company, first at the Point and later at the Mill. On February 8, 1870, John married Amelia Laurell, who was also from Sweden. John and Amelia had five children between 1870 and 1882: Ernest Richard, Chester Lewis, Sophia, Eva Amelia, and Alice Mabel.
During the 1870s, John opened a barbershop on Main Street which he operated for many years. In November 1883, the Beacon reported that John was very ill, and “grave fears are entertained that he may not recover.” John’s barbershop was closed for months, but in March of 1884, John hired a young barber from San Francisco to reopen his shop.
John died on August 21, 1884 in Mendocino at the age of 45. “He was a good citizen, honest, quiet, and industrious. He was a faithful member of the Odd Fellows, and of the United Workmen, and during his sickness he was cared for and aid will be rendered to his family by these Orders.”
The Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW) was the first of the "fraternal benefit societies,” organizations that offered sickness, accident, death, and burial insurance to their members. In October 1884, Amelia received a benefit check for $2,000 (about $55,000 in 2022) from the AOUW.
(Kelley House Museum)
CATCH OF THE DAY, January 29, 2022
JASON FRYMAN, Willits. Felon-addict with firearm, loaded handgun-not registered owner, ammo possession by prohibited person.
CASSAUNDRA HEFTE, Willits. Domestic battery, child endangerment.
RONALD HOEL JR., Redwood Valley. Parole violation.
ADAM LAFLIN, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
SHALOM LEWIS, Fort Bragg. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.
JEREMY SHULTZ, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, false ID.
DEEPLY UNFAIR
Editor:
America has a “deep state.” That a small minority exerts excessive control over our economy is not ideology; it’s a fact. After World War II, for 40 years, the benefits of America’s increased productivity was shared by all. Greed became normalized. Corporate and individual wealth targeted government successfully, ending, for the bottom 90%, our economy’s sharing of its productivity.
Since 1980, improvement in incomes and government assistance for the bottom 90% almost stopped. Hatred of government took root. Taxes on corporations and the wealthy supporting our government were cut in half.
The benefits of U.S. productivity trickled up. The rich got much richer.
In 2020, the CEOs of the biggest U.S. companies received 351 times as much as their average employees — a ninefold increase since 1970. The combined wealth of a few now exceeds half our population’s. America has achieved the greatest income inequality of any developed nation, as class mobility, the “American dream,” has fallen behind most.
Capitalism provides for freedom in a democracy for all, except the poor. Distribution of wealth has become problematic. Inequality, when unfair, destabilizes a society. Aristotle said that 2,500 years ago. Freedom and democracy can be improved, by taxing the rich. Government can “make America great again.” Build Back Better will help.
Robert D. McFarland
Petaluma
CLEARLAKE SUNSET
THE PRESSURE CAMPAIGN ON SPOTIFY to Remove Joe Rogan Reveals the Religion of Liberals: Censorship
by Glenn Greenwald
American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals,” I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party).
For years, their preferred censorship tactic was to expand and distort the concept of "hate speech” to mean "views that make us uncomfortable,” and then demand that such “hateful” views be prohibited on that basis. For that reason, it is now common to hear Democrats assert, falsely, that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech does not protect “hate speech." Their political culture has long inculcated them to believe that they can comfortably silence whatever views they arbitrarily place into this category without being guilty of censorship.
Constitutional illiteracy to the side, the “hate speech” framework for justifying censorship is now insufficient because liberals are eager to silence a much broader range of voices than those they can credibly accuse of being hateful. That is why the newest, and now most popular, censorship framework is to claim that their targets are guilty of spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation.” These terms, by design, have no clear or concise meaning. Like the term “terrorism,” it is their elasticity that makes them so useful. . . .
greenwald.substack.com/p/the-pressure-campaign-on-spotify
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
I would say I’ve been a conservative leftist most of my life. But for most of that time ‘leftist’ meant opposing corporate oppression of working people (and opposing governments when they backed that oppression). The ‘conservative’ bit signified holding on to things that worked and were demonstrably good.
Like most of the old left (and I was centre-left anyway) I don’t identify with the new woke left.
As for corruption, it’s pretty much everywhere, and people who stand up against it are called names.
WRITERS CONFERENCE SUMMER PRESENTERS AND NOYO REVIEW EVENT.
Sunday, Jan 30th, at 4 pm, MCWC will celebrate the latest issue of Noyo Review on Zoom.
A number of contributors will be reading from their pieces. If you can attend, register for the Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqdumtpzMvGNU5pfy614xIMrMqi9MeixpD
TOM VAQUERO
An old-timer asks - Have I told this story before?
My wife is a direct descendent of the individual I’m talking about. Through the research we and her mom have done, we've been privy to the some of the most amazing stories about one of the wildest characters the Great State of California has ever produced.
What on earth could you be talking about, you ask?
I’m talking about Tom Vaquero, the greatest cowboy to have ever lived in California, a master of rope tricks and rodeos, a living legend in his own times, forgotten in ours. In case you didn't know, vaquero means "cowboy" in Spanish.
One of the most popular of these stories, one passed around every campfire in the Goldrush hills of California in the 1840 & 50s, was the one about when he was riding horseback on the outskirts of the town of Olema, CA, and came upon a grizzly bear.
He thought the bear would make a nice rug, and he liked having fun with his lariat, so he decided to rope it. He got out his 50 foot leather "riata" and did just that. To his dismay, the riata by which he'd lassoed the bears neck accidentally got caught on his saddle-horn, with a half-hitch. The bear reared up on its haunches and started reeling in both cowboy and horse with his own rope, like a trout on a short line, paw by paw, arm by arm, the angry bear bringing in its prey to growling teeth and claws.
Once the bear had dragged Tom to within a few feet, with the help of his barking dogs, he was able to whip out a knife at the last second, slash the riata and set himself and his horse free to escape. The bear got to keep the riata.
There were no YouTubers back then, but somehow this simple story resounded by word of mouth and became “viral” in the Goldrush days of California.
There’s a place on Tomales Bay named after Tom Vaquero called “Tom’s Point”. There are many more stories about Tom Wood (Vaquero) to follow.
(David Gurney)
CALIFORNIA CITY [FORT BRAGG] TO RETAIN CONFEDERATE GENERAL’S NAME after year of debate
For more than a year, officials in a northern California coastal town have been debating whether they should rename. This week, the commission examining the issue said that, for now, the Fort Bragg name is here to stay. But the effort highlights the challenges that come as cities, schools and parks across the US reconsider controversial placenames with racist histories....
FOR ME THE REALLY SATISFYING THINGS I do are offered me, free, for nothing. Ever go out in the fall and do a little hunting? See the frost on the grass and the leaves turning? Spend a day in the hills alone, or with good companions? Watch a sunset and a moonrise? Notice a bird in the wind? A stream in the woods, a storm at sea, cross the country by train, and catch a glimpse of something beautiful in the desert, or the farmlands? Free to everybody.
— Gary Cooper
DEMOCRATS DECRIED DARK MONEY. THEN THEY WON WITH IT IN 2020.
A New York Times analysis reveals how the left outdid the right at raising and spending millions from undisclosed donors to defeat Donald Trump and win power in Washington.
nytimes.com/2022/01/29/us/politics/democrats-dark-money-donors.html
A READER WRITES: Delusions: “While a student in the USA, I had military force planning classes, taught by a VERY sharp USAF Colonel (who also worked for the Northrop YF-23 program). His classes were a masterpiece each time. One day, we did something funny. We made a graph with, on one hand, the average cost of each new US fighter aircraft and, on the other, the money allocated for their acquisition. Then we projected both curves and the result was quite hilarious, but also unforgettable: we saw that there would come a time when the entire US military budget would be just enough to produce only ONE, but very super dooper bestest of the bestest in the history of the galaxy fighter! One!
Sadly, I do not remember what date we came up with, but I would argue that the F-35 is the real-world illustration of what our (tongue in cheek) graphic showed.
Official version: the F-35 is the most amazing military aircraft ever designed.
True version: the F-35 is the most overpriced piece of semi-airborne shit in world history. Corruption plays THE key role here."
— The Saker
IMMIGRANT SWEDISH FAMILY, ELLIS ISLAND, 1904
INVESTIGATIVE NEMESIS OF CORPORATE CRIMINALS — TURNING 100
by Ralph Nader
“Hi Mort,” began my calls to Morton Mintz who would invariably answer his phone promptly at the Washington Post. “I’ve got a story,” to which Mintz would respond warily: “Tell me about it.” And so it went for nearly twenty years with me and lots of other citizen advocates, whistleblowers, and congressional committee staff. More than any other reporter, Mintz broke open the walls surrounding the media’s non-coverage of serious consumer, environmental, and worker harms and rights.
The big advertisers and corporate lawyers, such as Lloyd Cutler, kept complaining to the Post publisher, Kay Graham, about his exposés and relentless stories that nourished congressional investigations, lawsuits, and prosecutions.
Mintz was not deterred, even from championing the Post’s union troubles with management. In 1978 the Post assigned him to cover the Supreme Court making him an ‘official source journalist’ which he intensely disliked. After two years he went back to reporting, but by then Reagan was President, the Democrats’ hold on Congress was weaker, and Washington was closing down on the citizenry in favor of the corporate supremacists.
Soon after Mintz joined the Post in 1962, from his job at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, he broke the story about Thalidomide – a drug used as a sedative and to treat morning sickness that was given to pregnant mothers causing thousands of children, mostly in Europe, to be born without arms or legs or sometimes no limbs at all. Fortunately, an alert scientist Frances Oldham Kelsey at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spared America by refusing to approve Thalidomide. Mintz also wrote numerous stories about inadequate FDA tests for the birth control pill. His various probes into the drug industry led to his first book published in 1965, The Therapeutic Nightmare.
I met Mintz during the GM-detective scandal in 1965. GM’s detectives were hired to “get dirt” on this young lawyer challenging the auto industry’s unsafe motor vehicles that put style and horsepower over saving lives with long-known safety devices. Together with Jim Ridgeway, then at the New Republic, Mintz broke the story of a GM gumshoe following me into a Senate office building. The private detective mistook Bryce Nelson, a Washington Post reporter, for me. The following excerpt from the An Unreasonable Man documentary captures this bit of history:
Bryce Nelson: I was walking to the old Senate office building, underground corridors that they used and one of the capitol policemen said to me, “You’d better get out of here; there are a couple of detectives following you.” And I said, “What you do mean?” “There are two guys following you.” He said, “Didn’t you write a book on auto safety?” I said, “No.”
Morton Mintz: It was February of ’66, a Saturday afternoon, when Ralph Nader told me he’d been followed the previous day. Well, you can’t write a story saying somebody says he’s being followed when there’s absolutely no evidence of it.
Bryce Nelson: I felt that I better tell somebody in case I wound up face down in the Potomac or Anacostia Rivers. I mean, something strange was going on, so I told my editor, the national editor of the Washington Post, Larry Stern.
Morton Mintz: And then Larry Stern, my boss, told me that another post reporter who has white skin and black hair had told him something very similar.
Bryce Nelson: Because we were so tall, thin, dark… dark hair.
Morton Mintz: I was, you know, astonished to have this confirmation.
A special attribute of Mintz is that he stayed with the story; he wasn’t interested in a major one-time feature. That steadfastness helped consumer advocates and congressional staffers, such as Michael Pertschuk, immensely in their step-by-step drive to regulate corporate outlaws.
What made him stay on the story was not just his professionalism and his regard for the readers, but his passion for justice for the underdogs. He epitomized the aphorism “information is the currency of democracy.”
Mintz’s corporate critics were many. They knew of his commitment and told his editors that his emotions made him biased. Whether exposing the tobacco companies, the asbestos industry, or the medical device and pharmaceutical business, the corporatists tried to trip him up. He was just too factual, too full of evidence, and too aware of not going beyond the boundary of accuracy to fall prey to the corporate drive to silence or discredit him.
No matter how tense or explosive the subject, Morton had the softest tone of voice. He had a logical, linear, disarming way of interrogating industry people and others who did not believe in the public’s need to know.
If he had a complaint, it was that he couldn’t get enough space in the paper for his fact-packed reporting. To augment his reporting, he joined with lawyer Jerry S. Cohen in writing America, Inc. and Power, Inc., to overwhelmingly and devastatingly detail the abusive power of big business over America.
He was keen on mentoring younger reporters about journalistic standards and independence. No one felt the brunt of commercial advertisers more than this inexhaustible reporter of what was going on in the dark recesses of corporate systems. In 1985, he wrote the deadly story of the criminal Robbins corporation in his book titled, At Any Cost: Corporate Greed, Women, and the Dalkon Shield.
The Post publishers and editors liked the journalistic prizes that Morton Mintz received, but they did not give him the cachet accorded to flashier journalists on the staff. Sometimes, the editors were downright irritated at how his exposés upset the business side of this large corporation registered on the New York Stock Exchange.
At a social gathering at Kay Graham’s home, to which I was invited, she amiably asked “How’s your Morton Mintz?” As if anyone could induce him to ever write a story that didn’t hold up, or that didn’t merit the high standards of newsworthiness the reading public deserved.
About the time he was leaving the Post in 1988, Mintz wanted to write a book about AARP and its entanglements with the health insurance and other industries. Touted as an organization of elderly consumers, AARP was also a seller of services. It contracted out its huge membership for “Medigap” coverage and auto insurance to giants such as United Health Insurance and auto insurers, from which it took a large share for its budget. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find a publisher. It is noteworthy that many years later no one picked up where he left off to write such a book.
In a 1996 Washington Monthly article, Mintz, who was troubled by reporters namby-pamby questions to political candidates, prepared a list of 27 serious questions whose answers would have probed the candidates’ positions or lack thereof on such topics as corporate influence, campaign contributions, and ethics, labor, military spending, and consumer policies. Needless to say, his ditto-headed colleagues largely ignored this veteran reporter’s attempt to give them more professional significance and make news.
Full of quiet energy (except on the tennis court) Mintz even managed to co-author books with his daughter, Margaret Quotations from President Ron, 1987, and with his beloved late wife, Anita President Ron’s Appointment Book, 1988.
I had lunch with Morton when he turned 95. I recall his utter astonishment at being informed that most email-driven Washington Post reporters do not return telephone calls to learn about scoops, leads, reactions, or corrections the way he used to.
Happy 100th birthday (January 26th), Morton. May your example reach the next generation and may they be energized by your impeccable career as a reporter.
IT MIGHT BE TIME TO RETIRE 'JEOPARDY'
by Tom Nichols
Think pieces about Jeopardy have to begin with a cute opener that echoes the way the revered game show phrases its clues. Here’s mine.
Answer: It’s a cranky rant about television and popular culture.
Question: What the hell is Tom going on about now?
It is also a requirement for former top players—I was in the 1994 Tournament of Champions and the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions, and was once listed in the Jeopardy Hall of Fame—to affirm that we love the show. Some of us have loved it since childhood. On sick days from school, my mother would come home from her lunch hour and play along with me back when Art Fleming was the daytime host. Consider this my assurance that the show has had a place in my heart for over a half century.
But Jeopardy has lost the spirit that made it an American institution. I am not the first to notice that the show, like other formerly amateur pursuits in America, has become professionalized and mostly closed to the casual player. It is no longer a show that celebrates the smarts of the average citizen; it is now a showcase for people who prep and practice, who enter the studio determined not to shine for a day or even a week but to beat the game itself.
This, combined with the abolition back in 2003 of the long-standing rule that you must retire after five wins, has created long streaks where a few players over time crush the daylights out of the sacrificial lambs who have no real chance of beating the reigning champ without either a dash of luck or an unforced error.
Before I explain why I think this is bad, let me tell you how the game works, so that you can get a better idea of why these long streaks are possible and why they violate the spirit of the game, and then I’ll suggest why the audience shouldn’t necessarily be cheering them on.
First, get it out of your head that Jeopardy players are freaky geniuses, or that the big winners are somehow more brilliant than the losers. (There is, apparently, a pandemic-related problem with contestant quality control lately, but I’ll come back to that.)
In my experience, both as a player and a viewer, most contestants are excellent. That’s because the show uses a combination of a very tough written test to measure your smarts and an in-person simulation to make sure that you’re not, in game-show parlance, a “Bambi” who will stare like a deer in the road once the studio lights go on. Yes, there are some prodigies; I personally was a fan of Matt Amodio, whose breadth of knowledge was amazing.
Mostly, however, Jeopardy players have one unique ability in common: We have brains like lint rollers. We hear a factoid, and for some reason we remember it.
Here’s an example from one of my games. The clue was from the category “Anthropology” and it was something about the Leakey family discovering “this human ancestor whose name means ‘handy man’.” I don’t really know anything about anthropology, but I know I learned in a sixth-grade social-studies class the little factoid that “handy man” is Homo habilis. You probably did too. The difference between me and you is that I remembered it and I was able to recall it faster in a TV studio than you can.
And while good Jeopardy players don’t have to be brilliant, they do have to get the hang of parsing the game’s weird riddles. The writers lard up the clues with irrelevant facts, but usually the answer is staring you in the face. I still chuckle when the game throws out something like “Large pyramidal objects in this modern Egyptian capital city were meant as burial chambers for emperors of the many dynasties that included rulers such as Neferneferuaten.”
The difference between decent Jeopardy players and everyone else is that the players know, after straining out all that extraneous information, that all they’re really being asked is: “What’s the capital of Egypt? Duh.”
This leads to an even more important point. If knowledge isn’t the edge, what makes the difference? The thing that makes champions so hard to beat is not brainpower; it’s the buzzer.
Mastering that little clicker is everything.You can’t see it at home, but the board has lights that go on just off-screen that let you know when the host is done speaking. (This is why you never hear anyone ring in over the host: You can’t.)
When the light goes on, your buzzer goes hot, and each player tries to buzz in a millisecond before the other guys. Buzzing in early will lock you out for a split second; two of you buzzing in at the same time locks out both of you. Usually, all three of you know the answer, and it’s just a matter of getting there first. (“Triple stumpers,” where all three players stand there dumbfounded until the timer beeps, are pretty rare.)
Why does this matter? Because the more times you use the buzzer, the better you get at it. It really is a learned reflex. It takes a little getting used to, and then you develop a rhythm. And as my friend Jonathan Last pointed out to me recently, veteran players who master this ability have a greater chance of finding the Daily Doubles (where contestants can make big wagers beyond the value of the clue) because they can control the board for longer stretches. The Daily Double used to be a shot at changing the game’s momentum, sometimes with a dramatic bet. (I won some and lost some.) Now it's mostly a way for the returning champs to invest in padding out a lead.
Another factor here is that the more times you win, the more comfortable you are in the studio. To play the game well, you have to get over the shock of realizing: Holy cats, I’m in the Jeopardy studio and that really is Alex freakin’ Trebek standing right there addressing me by name and wishing me luck.
Believe me, getting past that distraction is worth a lot of money.
Watch the veterans play after they’ve won a few games. They have cracked the code, which, as paradoxical as it seems, includes completely ignoring the host. The losers—again, you can watch this happen—are very focused on looking at the host, but the winners are looking at the board. They’re reading ahead, forming an answer, and waiting for the light to go on. In my best moments on the show, it was me and the board, that little light, the buzzer, and nothing else.
If you’ve done all this even two or three times, new players are at an instant disadvantage. No one wants to play against a returning champ. The day I played—I did five straight games in one day—there was wonderful camaraderie among us all in that sequestered contestant room, but there was just a little hesitance to sit with me at lunch after I’d turfed a bunch of other players. During the intro to one of the games, Alex said he’d overheard one of the other players saying “Someone’s gotta get this guy”—hey, thanks, Alex!—but that’s kind of normal, since I’d won a few already.
Now imagine going up against someone who’s won a half-dozen games. Or a dozen. Or 15 or 20.
It’s inherently unfair. What makes it worse is that players like James Holzhauer basically turned the game into a full-time job before they even got there. As I said at the time, it was about as interesting as going to the Sportsbook room at Caesars Palace and watching guys handicap the ponies or figuring out the spread in a college-basketball game.
Don’t get me wrong—Holzhauer’s damn smart. But when he finally lost, it was to someone who had literally written a graduate thesis about Jeopardy. That’s a bit more commitment than you’ll find in the average player. The charm of the game, the thing that made it beloved to so many people, was that you weren’t watching a brute-force match between a Vegas odds guy and a Jeopardy scholar; you were watching a New York City cop and a librarian from Tucson, Arizona, and a homemaker from Dubuque, Iowa, battling it out with little more than a high-school education and some quick recall.
Worse yet, this has actually improved ratings, which says something bad about us, the viewers. Americans no longer care about the triumph of the everyman or everywoman. They want to see someone bust the board. They want a Trivial Pursuit version of Conan the Barbarian who will crush their enemies, see them driven before them, and hear the lamentations of their women. They want winners.
To their credit, most of the long-streak players seem like lovely people. (Okay, Holzhauer was kind of smirky, and let’s not talk about Arthur Chu, but most of them.) That’s not the point. Jeopardy was originally a kind of celebration of the smarts of the average American, not a colosseum where the crowds could cheer the slaughter of new players who had no real shot against champs who had mastered the game mechanics through sheer repetition.
So maybe it’s time to retire the game—especially as they’re having trouble finding hosts who aren’t annoying. (Chu recently wrote about how the hosts, and not the contestants, have become the focus of the show, and he’s right.) At the least, the show needs a post-Trebek retooling. Bring back the five-game rule. And tighten up on contestant selection. Apparently, the pandemic eliminated some of the in-person screening, and it shows. I’ve seen a few games recently in which some of the contestants simply had no chance even on a more level playing field. I want everyone on Jeopardy to have a good run, not just wave to Mom and Dad and then get creamed.
Jeopardy used to be a spirited, and limited, competition among ordinary Americans. Now we watch because we want to see James or Matt or Amy squash a passel of newbies every week, hapless victims for whom victory is mathematically out of reach within 20 minutes. This doesn’t reflect well on our culture. Bring in more people and make it about watching your friends and neighbors again.
GANGWAY! HOT SOUP!
”They were careless people, Tom and Daisy. They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
Here's the recording of last night's (2022-01-28) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA): https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0473
Thanks heaps to Hank Sims for all kinds of tech help over the years, as well as for his fine news site: https://LostCoastOutpost.com
And thanks to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, which provided almost an hour of the above eight-hour show's most locally relevant material, as usual, without asking for anything in return. (Though I do pay $25 annually for full access to all articles and features, and you should too if you can. As well as shower some largesse once in awhile upon KNYO. Why not go to KNYO.org, click on the big red heart and exercise your largesse muscles right now?)
Email me your work on any subject and I'll read it on the radio this coming Friday night on the very next MOTA show.
BESIDES ALL THAT…
at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together. Such as:
Polar bears appreciate this abandoned weather station. (via NagOnTheLake)
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2022/01/dmitry-kokh-polar-bears/
About the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai blast.
https://www.neatorama.com/2022/01/25/Whats-Happened-Since-the-Hunga-Tonga-Eruption/
The Elizabethan stripper pole bar (or sailing vessel below deck) (or Viking meeting hall) inside a violin.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2022/01/architecture-in-music.html
And Lady Gaga as mushrooms. (via Everlasting Blort)
https://twitter.com/bernoid/status/1485351658724933634
— Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
Too bad, Glenn Greenwald. If the boycott of Spotify results in misinformation disappearing from that outlet, it will have served its purpose. Spotify will decide, of course, but money can be an excellent motivator.
And who decides what “misinformation” is?
I do.
Bruce you can’t handle the truth – The dam of lies is breaking now. See the protests all over the world and the medical evidence that the vaccines not only are ineffective they are damaging to peoples health and this is not rare. The revolution will not be televised. Countries like the UK are dropping mandates wholesale. The data is there if people care to do the research themselves, the MSM is not going to do it for you. The FDA, CDC NIH the WHO and most of the politicians are bought off by Big Pharma. Even the military as the Secretary of Defense has thousands of shares of big pharma stocks. They lied about early treatments being available and are successfully being used in many countries around the world. This so they could get their EUA authorization so they could implement their dangerous gene therapy with no liability and informed consent be dammed . But keep censoring the data big Pharma enjoys your support.
Oh yeah. Massive conspiracy in a world of lies, so many of which are contained in “Joe’s” post it would take me the rest of the day to unravel all of them. Thing is, there’s not a single piece of objective, confirmed evidence of a covid. conspiracy.
So a Senate hearing by medical experts is censored, truly disgusting Bruce. You will be on the wrong side of history when the dust settles on all of this.
Lies are not a conspiracy, and neither is incompetence.
Gosh, Joe – whose lack of a last name tells us all we need to know about his credibility – you have moved a long way from the original subject. Bottom line: covid and antivax misinformation have resulted in many more deaths and much more long-term impact on the world population than the current covid vaccines.
You do, and it’s your paper.
Gee, if only that simple logic applied to the interpretation of ,”MY Country,” that was rammed down my throat in elementary and high schools (twice by idiot sports coaches in US History and “Civics”)…and was an utter lie! I had already learned it was a lie by my senior year.
What “misinformation” is Rogan spreading? That the vaccines don’t prevent transmission? That the vaccinated can still get very ill? That being relatively healthy physically and mentally is a better predictor of your reaction to covid than your vaccination status? That the vaccines are less likely to give you myocarditis than the virus? Is this misinformation?
Or do you associate Rogan with the folks who say that the vaccines were designed to kill us all and solidify your blood and track your every move? I don’t associate Rogan with that hyperbole. Remember, Trump wants credit for the success of the vaccines, but he also needs to rally the ding dongs who fail to see these contradictions.
I am being forced to go listen to this guy, because if that is what he actually said, he is mostly right. The vaccines don’t prevent transmission, the vaccinated can still be infected and sometimes get pretty ill.
Of course that does not mean getting vaccinated is a bad idea, and I suspect Rogan is fully vaccinated.
They are all fully vaccinated, including Trump. No matter. The followers will keep mouthing the mantra.
If you don’t like the message attack the messenger.
Saul Alinsky
RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)
“RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
That describes the Trump strategy perfectly.
Also Joe’s chosen technique, which he uses to obscure a lack to facts.
Talk about misinformation. Nobody, Neil Young included, is censoring Spotify. Neil Young pulled his music catalog from Spotify because he didn’t want it associated with, what he believes, is misleading information about Covid propagated by Joe Rogan, who podcasts on Spotify. Young has the right to choose where his music is available – and it is available on a variety of other platforms. He informed Spotify of his intentions and gave them the option to choose. When Spotify did not remove Rogan’s podcast, Young dropped Spotify. That’s business, not censorship.
He doesn’t’ even own his music, Warner brothers owns it.
True. NY can put his music any place he wants. The fact he doesn’t like someone else on Spotify, is his business as well. But he should remember he does not own Spotify, he just gave, whatever his name is, a bunch of publicity, and likely increased Spotify’s ratings.
The fulcrum of my solitary enterprise is located at the intersection of censorship and business. As we learned in our early days, the worlds of marketing and propaganda are only a step away from brainwashing and tyranny. It is up to the “consumers” of linguistic and artistic works to choose what they invest their faith in.
The never-ending tug of war for control of who says what, where and when (most agreeably embodied by Parliament and its jurassic parliamentary procedures*) is encouraged in this publication’s empowering of the very comments that attempt to disparage others’ opinions, which is as futile as attempting to censor dissent in order to be unimpeded in endorsing one’s own prejudices.
[*With appreciation for the actual enterprise called “Jurassic Parliament,” provided by a “licensed parliamentarian,” Anne Macfarlane.]
The extraordinary range of freedom that AVA readers have — to the degree that inanity is allowed as a substitute for cogent and relevant content — indulges the besmirchers in order to elicit clarity in the midst of linguistic mud-slinging, such as Mr. Rosenthal offers today.
Readers experiencing intellectual cognitive dissonance may benefit from reading “Everything’s an Argument”: https://www.macmillanhighered.com/BrainHoney/Resource/6698/SitebuilderUploads/everythingsanargument7e/instructorresources/full_IM_EAA7e.pdf
Since Linda Bailey’s “retraction” was reprinted in today’s MCT, I will repeat the comment I made yesterday.
It appears Ms. Bailey may have had her arm twisted (or worse), hence her sudden retraction and reversal.
Keep in mind that I am 100% pro-library, but equally anti any new tax proposal, especially since previously approved taxes have been used for other than their stated intent.
RE: Eyster subsequently busted Ms. Smith for violating the terms of her sentence by keeping chickens.(!)
Our information has it that Ms. Smith was not the guilty party in the shooting of the dog, that she was covering for her ex-con boyfriend of whom she lived in fear and who would go back to prison if he’d done it.
People who know her say she is an animal person who would never mistreat a pet.
->. Keep in mind that the injured animal in the Smith case was a German Shepard, a breed used for K-9 canine law enforcement duty, afforded certain protective rights for police work, known to be insulated against injury by assailant, if necessary with officer involved firearms.
DA Dave Eyster may have psychologically transferred or attributed the domestic dog status, with that of K-9, because of affinity with law enforcement protective intervention.
Similarly in another incident, DA Dave may have been distracted with the hyperbole over methamphetamine (now plagued with fentanyl).
Eyster ruled in a Coroner’s Inquest determination, that the Mendocino Jail strait jacketed death of Steve Neuroth, was in effect suicide by drug overdose, and not necessarily malfeasance and or deliberate acts of aggression, on part of officers and improperly qualified health personnel.
The wrongful death civil lawsuit settlement five years later was $5 million, after the in custody video surveillance footage of the sequences leading to being deceased, was blocked from public release by authorities for 4 years, and then issued in a confusing format in response to court order.
The apparent coverup and delays allowed David Eyster and Sheriff Tom Allman to escape voter accountability, until after both had been re-elected to new 4 year terms in office.
Putting in place certain terms of Measure B with the Redwood Valley training center, could be construed as actually satisfying part of the judicial settlement decree in the Neuroth death resolution, although Sheriff Allman subsequently on patrol duty in Shelter Cove, campaigned it as love for his own troubled biological brother.
There wasn’t any cover-up. Neuroth got himself so extremely loaded on methamphetamine he became psychotic . In the prolonged struggle to get him into compliance at the jail his heart burst from the combination of the drug and the effort of resisting jail efforts to subdue him. If I, or you, drug or drink myself insensible what happens to me is my fault. The jailers didn’t kill Neuroth, he killed himself. I’ve seen that film. The only fault I found with the jailers was they weren’t strong enough to restrain the guy faster and more efficiently.
An antidote could have been administered before escalation. Jail and it’s health contractor violated state law by not having properly licensed staff on hand. The jail nursing staff joked during intake outside in receiving area, that Neuroth could have been left to wander in Willits traffic to die.
RE: LATEST TRENT JAMES VIDEO.
Quick update and message for Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall
Marmon
They should have never taken his dog from him. A man will go to war over his dog.
Marmon
I’ve noticed Mr. James has slowed. I have also noticed interest is waining a bit, if you go by the numbers.
Laz
I’m sorry he’s disappointed you Laz, but he is just one small piece of things to come.
Marmon
My arm was not twisted, nor any thing else. No one communIcated with me in any way about my prior comments. I simply woke up in the morning feeling saner and realized I was in danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water because I was beating a dead horse.
Let’s remember that the county library system was on the verge of collapse prior to the passage of the current sales tax. Closures and reduced hours were coming. Any additions to the collections came solely from the coffers of Friends of the Library and gifts. The revenue from the sales tax has funded new branches, revitalized book collections, and supported programs for children and teens, to name but a few of the benefits. The libraries are open and thriving.
Perhaps, with new county administration, some things I don’t like (warts) may be changed. It is, after all, perfectly legal for the county general fund to be used for the library, whether through providing dollars or services.
If you are indeed 100% pro-library, bear in mind the alternative to no sales tax revenue, and join me in supporting this proposal. Sign the petition to put it on the ballot and vote for it.
I am with you, Ms. Bailey.
I’m not. At least until there’s a thorough forensic audit (as The Major recommends) as to the usage of all monies collected from previous voter approved tax measures. As the saying goes, follow the money.
I didn’t exactly recommended a “forensic audit,” I tried to point out that there are audits and there are audits. I wouldn’t recommend a forensic audit of the library funding unless there was evidence of borderline criminal misallocation. And there is not. Charging the library for more than their possible share of facility overhead costs or other administrative maneuvers is not borderline criminal. You can vote against the library tax because you don’t trust the County’s administrative apparatus, but don’t vote against it for lack of an audit that not only will never happen, but isn’t justified in this case. But I do agree that the advocates should at least try to specify what the money will go toward and how they’ll see that it does.
Sorry if I misinterpreted, but I meant a forensic audit of all previous voter approved tax measures, not just Measure A. Indeed I don’t trust County Admin, nor has the BOS proved to effectively manage it. So as much as I support libraries, I can’t afford ever-increasing withdrawals from my limited income via increased or new taxes when I don’t trust that the money will be spent as intended.
Let’s also not forget that prior to her sudden change of mind, Ms. Bailey was questioning (actually ranting about) library policies, in particular the providing of “entertainment”.
As I said, any comments prior to my whole-hearted endorsement of the proposed sales tax major are absolutely minuscule compared to the over-arching question–public libraries or no public libraries.
I hardly think that failing to pass the proposed tax will eliminate library services.
Carnegie gave us our libraries; Bezos gave us our kindles, rendering the gift of the former benefactor irrelevant, and turning them into refuges for the homeless. Bezos also destroyed the yard-sale and charity shop businesses that were helping to recirculate some of the consumer goods, thereby putting corporate capitalism in jeopardy, and now all those perfectly useable consumer goods must go into the land fills and the sargasso sea of plastic in the mid-Pacific… and think, just think of the mind-staggering billions that have been accumulated now that the economy is back on track — thanks to that sainted fellow Bezos!
In real estate news, when we sell our condos, we must first re-carpet, on the cheap, replace all the appliances, again, as thriftily as ever we can, and so on and so forth, in order to get a better sale price. But no matter, the discerning buyer always replaces all these brand-new high-ticket consumer goods, which then, sure, goes into the deep blue sea, too! Alas, miracles never cease, and the world goes on, contradicting all the doomsday prophets, as well as making a mockery of your vaunted reason, ta da!
Yes, I’m blaming Bezos, when it’s actually Covid-19 who’s to blame, isn’t it… help me out here Joe Rogan, or whoever the heck you are –!
If you’re going to complain about public money being wasted on entertainment, you should start with Public Ed. Much worse than libraries.
If that’s directed at me, I wasn’t the one who complained. But, of course, Ms. Bailey wanted a do-over and retracted that too.
Sure, he’s talking to you; my unfortunate digression notwithstanding is, with apology to both parties, hereby retracted from an otherwise direct communication between you and Major Mark.
INVESTIGATIVE NEMESIS OF CORPORATE CRIMINALS — TURNING 100
What a fine tribute by Ralph Nader to investigative reporter Morton Mintz, enemy of American corruption in all its many forms. I’m chagrined to say I’ve not know of his work until today.
I think Mr. Geniella’s piece about Eyster’s fight against Judge Brennan comes at a very interesting time being that it is mentioned in the the current RICO lawsuit against the County in which Eyster is named one of the co-conspirators. In the lawsuit it is alleged that Brennan called Eyster’s “buy a misdemeanor” program a form of “extrortion”. This is the only time the legality of Eyster’s program has ever been challenged in any Court that I am aware of. Whether the program was legal or not has never been fully judicated. The County has a steep hill to climb.
More will be revealed.
Marmon