Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022

Warm Weekend | 53 New Cases | Diana Barrett | Think Rain | Floral Bouquets | Thirsty Grapes | Missing Man | Haschak Report | Desecration | Two-Basin Details | Sleep On | School News | Big Cat | Dunkle Book | Gaye Advice | Trash Pile | County Audits | Murray Advice | Pomo THP | Freedom Rider | Tubman 20 | Yesterday's Catch | Apartheid Regime | West Bank | Pharma Greed | Capital v Labor | Peace Wish | Trucker Example | CNN Coverage | Womanized | N95s | Golden Rules | DH | Planets | Obama's Game | Waterclosetgate | Quentin Bound | Nob Hill | Dem Convention | Grayview | Darwinism | David Tamborini | Marco Radio | Schooner | Party Zero | Starlink Fireworks

WARM AND DRY weather will continue this weekend, though weaker winds will allow for slight cooling and some coastal stratus. Cooler weather and light rain is expected Monday and Tuesday followed by more warm, dry weather. (NWS)

53 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

DIANA BARRETT

Former Davis resident Diana Barrett passed away at her residence in Fort Bragg on January 18, 2022 at the age of 63. Diana is predeceased by her husband, Fred H. Millford her mother Joann Barrett, and father Howard Walters.

Diana Barrett was born on July 21, 1958 in Sacramento and lived in Davis for most of her life. She spent time with her aunt and uncle in Santa Barbara as a teenager and cherished her childhood summers at the Harrand Camp of the Theatre Arts at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Diana is lovingly remembered by family and friends, her son Justin, cousins Bruce, Keith, Ross, and Mark. Diana enjoyed road trips, reading, walks, Earth Day, spirituality of many kinds, and ran a successful Hip Camp business in Mendocino where she was known as an awesome host. Diana was known for her caring and kind ways…a beautiful soul, often helping those less fortunate. 

A celebration of life for Diana is being held in Fort Bragg on Saturday, February 19^th; further details available from Naomi Campbell, 707-813-4130. 

MENDO'S DROUGHT TASK FORCE PROPOSES NEW DROUGHT POLICY: ’THINK RAIN’

by Mark Scaramella

That’s how Thursday afternoon’s Mendocino County Drought Task Force meeting ended. ’Think rain’ pretty nicely captures the level of (in)activity of Mendo’s Drought Task Force made up of the dynamic duo, Supervisors John Haschak and Glenn McGourty.

On the (teensy) plus side, the “task force’ has succeeded in getting some of the state’s “urban multi-benefit drought relief” grant money.

On the (much larger) minus side, they haven’t got a clue what to do with it besides maybe having some Ukiah water shipped to Fort Bragg again this year and some groundwater monitoring, maybe.

A caller asked if there were any water storage projects under consideration for the Mendocino Coast.

McGourty replied, “None that I know of.”

Another caller asked why so much water was being released from Lake Mendocino.

McGourty instantly replied that it was to maintain minimum flows for the fish, but failing to inform the caller what those minimum flows are, when they apply, or how much the current releases are — as if the fish are the only consideration and his grape growing friends aren’t pumping it into their grape ponds.

According to the latest State Water Board ruling in 2016 for the Russian River (Decision 1610, “Temporary Urgency Change Petition”) the minimum flow for fish in the Russian River during critical dry years during September to March is 25 cfs (cubic feet per second). Yet the upper Russian River flows have been running well over 100 cfs for the last few weeks.

As usual, grape grower McGourty reveals his inherent conflict of interest on the subject of Russian River water by pretending that he and his grape grower pals have nothing to do with cheap water flowing out of Lake Mendocino and all those vineyards — including McGourty’s — planted alongside the river channel.

Supervisor Haschak said that because of complaints about water hauling for illegal cannabis grows last summer, the County is planning to impose new restrictions on water haulers this year which would require them to have a business license, conduct a hydrological study for whatever wells they draw from, keep tracking logs, restrict late night hauling, plus some yet to be defined enforcement mechanism, and an escalating fine structure for violations. “We are not trying to restrict legitimate water hauling,” claimed Haschak, adding that he’d heard stories of 80 year old women running out of water because of illegal pot grows hauling water and wells then going dry.

Despite the steep drop off in illegal cannabis grows and the wholesale abandonment of grows and equipment and hoop houses, particularly in his Third district, Haschak said he planned to present his belated suggestions to the Board of Supervisors next month.

John Smith, Fort Bragg’s water guy, said the town’s main water source, the Noyo River, is already down 30% from last year’s low flow at this time. “We’re going to have major problems unless it rains every day for the rest of the winter,” Smith said.

A woman from the Redwood Valley water district said they are retaining their drought restrictions with no agriculture water allowed at all and only 55 gallons per day per person for residences.

Willits reportedly has found arsenic in two of their three main wells and is trying to figure out a way to remove it.

Nobody mentioned water storage or possible storage projects despite all the big talk last summer.

As if to drive home the point that this “task force” has absolutely no sense of urgency or understanding of how bad this summer’s drought is shaping up to be, after summing up the meeting with his simpleton's “Think rain” mantra, Haschak proceeded to schedule the next “task force” meeting for two months off on April 14.

HEAD DOWN TO AV MARKET in Boonville to get your Valentine Flowers! Lots of beautiful flowers designed by the Floriculture class! 

WATER & GRAPES

Editor: 

Unfortunately, it looks like we might have another dry winter. Because we were asked to cut 20%, over the past two years I’ve spent around $20,000 ripping out my lawn, relandscaping, buying water-efficient appliances and fixtures and installing a rooftop water collection system. My wife and I take fewer showers and watch our toilet habits. We’re up to 30% savings.

Over the years I have read in the Press Democrat about the problems ranchers are having growing feed and about homeowners’ wells going dry. But not a single time are vintners mentioned as having any water issues.

I sent an email to each county supervisor asking how wineries are saving, not managing, but saving water. I had to send it four times to each before I got a single reply. It was basically a news release mentioning how they were “ensuring holistic water usage” by the wineries. Whatever that means.

Well, I’m going to be a lot less judicious in my water usage habits until I hear vintners are doing their part. I’m tired of jumping through hoops and spending money to ensure wineries make their bottom line.

Greg Grubin

Santa Rosa

MISSING ELDER AND HIS TINY DOG MAY BE IN HUMBOLDT OR MENDOCINO

A 70-year-old Corning man with dementia onset and medical issues may be in the Shelter Cove or Covelo areas, say his family and friends. ” We’ve looked everywhere here and he liked to go over there,” said his friend Kathy Sutter who has known him for 53 years.

According to his daughter, Brandi Cooper, Elder Huey Kinney, known as Huey, is a diabetic left his home in Corning on February 2 without his medication. “We just got a Silver Alert up,” she told us but she reported him missing on February 3. “He had no medication with him.” And she worried this could be fatal.

Cooper said that she and her dad who recently had surgery lived in the area here for years. “He grew up in Humboldt,” she told us.

According to Cooper, on February 2, Kinney drove to a local mini mart where he was a regular. He visited with a clerk he was friendly with and purchased cigarettes as well as coffee. He told the woman that he was going to go for a drive.

Kinney is driving his white 2019 Chevy Equinox with license plate 8SOR776 and is with his gold colored chihuahua, Molly.

According to his friend, Kathy Sutter, Kinney is 5’5″ and 140 pounds with blue eyes and grey hair that he is starting to lose.

If anyone sees him or the vehicle, please contact the Corning Police Department at (530) 824-7000 or Brandie Cooper at (707) 798-7126.

(kymkemp.com)

THE HASCHAK REPORT: Hoping for rain.

This beautiful winter weather has been wonderful except for the fact that we need lots more rain. What started as record rainfalls and snow in the Sierras is now below normal. However, we still have a few months of rainy season left and we are hoping for rain. The drought task force that I am on has continued working to prepare for next summer. The water agency study is ongoing and should be done in June with the goal being to provide greater capacity for our smaller water agencies, grant writing help, inter-ties between water agencies, and increased knowledge about our aquifers. 

It is widely known that cannabis prices have dropped which has an impact on our local economy. While the County can’t do anything about the economic downturn, it does have responsibility in making the process fair, efficient, open and transparent to those attempting to get their County permit and State annual license. I have been working to ensure that the processes are efficient, communication is open and respectful, and guidelines and standards are clearly expressed. We also need to ensure that an appeal process is in place so that farmers who have been denied for reasons they feel are incorrect have the chance to be heard. The legalization of cannabis has been a torturous experience for many but the commitment of the County has to be ensuring that small, legal growers in Mendocino County have a straightforward process to licensure. 

With ongoing drought conditions, increased aridity in our region, and unpermitted cannabis grows in the hills, there have been many complaints about water extraction in valley floors and the selling of that water to water haulers who then haul the water in an unending stream of water trucks up to the dry hills. People whose wells go dry because a new business opens up on the next parcel selling water that is hauled off often call me in the summer and fall. Supervisor McGourty and I have been working on this issue with many different people including ranchers, farmers, law enforcement, environmental health, concerned citizens, water haulers, and legal counsel to figure out how to best address the issue. We will be recommending that water extraction for commercial purposes requires a business license and a water hydrology study to ensure that the extraction is not harming neighbors, that water trucks be prohibited from 11:00 pm till 5:00 am, and that water businesses and haulers keep a log of the quantity of water being sold and delivered, the destination, etc. Code enforcement, law enforcement, and environmental health are all on board with this proposal. The BOS will hear this on March 15 with the goal of protecting the valuable resource of water in our communities, regulating the water truck traffic, and providing for safer roads.

On a happier note, Edie Ceccarelli celebrated her 114th birthday. Edie was born and raised in Willits and has lived here longer than anyone else. She was honored by many from the community in a drive by party. Being the oldest native Californian, the 3rd oldest person in the country, and moving into the top ten in the world is quite an accomplishment. Her amazing spirit has been a blessing to the community. May we all live lives with the gusto that she has been living these last 114 years. 

You can always contact me at haschakj@mendocinocounty.org or 707-972-4214.

TWO-BASIN DETAILS

Editor: 

A recent Press Democrat article made clear what’s at stake in the future of the Potter Valley Project but left out some important points. Your readers may not realize the Two-Basin Solution Partnership completed studies funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that show it’s technically feasible to remove both dams while maintaining water diversions into the Russian River.

The article also neglected to include the perspective of the region’s first inhabitants. The Round Valley Indian tribes are fighting to assure the Eel River fishery, on which the tribes have relied to sustain their people and way of life since time immemorial, is protected and restored. Restoring the Eel River to health would be one way to right long-standing historical wrongs against local tribes.

The fates of the Eel River’s salmon and steelhead fisheries and Russian River water users’ access to water diversions rest in the hands of PG&E. The utility should act with all due haste to set a course for a sustainable water future for our region. Neither the fish nor the people who depend on this water can afford to wait years, or even decades, to resolve these issues.

Darren Mierau

North Coast director, California Trout

AV UNIFIED WEEKLY UPDATE

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

This beautiful weather makes us think of Spring and all of the events to come. It has been great to see all of the student activities at the high school related to Valentine’s Day. Students are selling flowers, baskets, and basket raffles and are enjoying the camaraderie of making a special event happen together.

I had the pleasure last night of attending the ELAC meeting at the elementary school. It was wonderful to see parents and their students creating a craft together, while enjoying fellowship and brainstorming and sharing information about our English Language Learner supports and programs. I appreciate Deleh Mayne making that happen.

Congratulations to our athletes and coaches for an outstanding basketball season that is still in progress for some players! The heart and effort they put into the sport, even when faced with disappointing Covid closures, was inspiring. We have some amazing athletes in the school system, and it was a pleasure to watch them perform. I appreciate the dedication of the coaches as well.

Today, I was at the County Elections Office and filed our resolution for a $13 million general obligation bond for the June 7 ballot. More information about this Bond will be coming from the citizens community committee, but if I can provide factual information, or a tour of our facility needs, I would be happy to do so.

Plans are moving forward for summer school. Dates will be announced shortly. Our intention is to provide a program similar to last year that was a hybrid mix of academics, sports, and activities to provide an academic and recreational opportunity for our students.

You may be hearing in the media about the lessening of restrictions in various states. We follow the orders of the Mendocino County Public Health officer. I will keep you updated as any modifications are made to the orders. I also want to reiterate that if there is a loosening of restrictions, we honor and support those families and staff that may choose to continue to mask for their own comfort and safety. As I said, no changes are in place at this time, and I will keep you apprised with updates.

I would like to thank our staff for their hard work and dedication. I see things every day that show that Anderson Valley is truly a unique place. Things like teachers making a home visit to check on a student, faculty and staff staying long after hours to supervise, and daily check-ins with parents or students that have exceptional needs. I also thank the many parents that have reached out to me directly to express their appreciation, concerns, and suggestions. I value those conversations, and I am always available to talk or meet. My cell number is 707–684–1017.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl!

Take care,

Louise Simson, Superintendent

AV Unified School District

MOUNTAIN LION KEEPS VISITING - 93-YEAR-OLD RESIDENT WANTS TO ALERT NEIGHBORS

by Justine Frederiksen

Redwood Valley resident Sarah Harris recently lost all her chickens to a mountain lion who keeps visiting her yard, and said this week she wants to warn her neighbors about the large predator still in the area.

“I’m scared to go out on my front porch after dark,” said Harris, who turned 93 last month and still drives into town most days to get her mail. “But I can’t run as fast as I used to. And I don’t think I can wrassle a big cat!”

Harris said she used to have dogs in her yard to help keep predators away, but lately there has been no one outside but the 15 hens she bought as day-old chicks.

“And they were just starting to get ready to lay eggs when the lion started coming into the yard,” she said, explaining that the cat easily cleared her six-foot fence to begin picking off the hens one-by-one. “It would jump the fence, take a chicken and leave. Then come back the next day, until they were all gone.”

She said each time she tried to move the hens to safer spots, but the lion always got to them, breaking through chicken wire and into sheds.

“I did everything I could do, but it’s hungry,” she said of the lion, which she thinks is the same adult she saw in her yard last year with a cub.

Harris said the last chicken was taken about two weeks ago Wednesday, but the cat keeps returning to her yard — including Tuesday night around 8 p.m. — which she guesses is because of the mice living in her sheds, and the gophers living in the ground.

“(The cat) keeps coming in and eating whatever it can find,” she said, adding that she is afraid to go outside after dark on the property she has lived on for 50 years, and wants her neighbors to know about the large predator so they can keep their animals, and themselves, in at night.

Harris did not want to divulge her address or the street she lives on to prevent people coming to take pictures of the cat, describing where she lives as “the area between Highway 20 and School Way” in Redwood Valley.

Harris said she has already warned the neighbors she has encountered, including one neighbor who told her that they saw the lion in their yard, and “just sat and watched it. I said, ‘You must be from the city!’”

Harris said she lives on a fixed income and doesn’t have the money to buy expensive new pens, “or the energy” to research what other options are available to protect her chickens, though she does hope to get more chicks next year.

She said she went to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office for help and was referred to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, but was told mountain lions were protected and the individual visiting her home would not be relocated.

When asked about Harris’ account, Tom Batter, a wildlife biologist with the Mendocino County division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said his agency had “not been made aware of the particular incident described,” but confirmed that the species is protected.

“Mountain lions are currently under review for listing as a protected species in Southern California, and during the review process are treated as listed statewide,” Batter explained in an email. “As such, harassment including hazing or lethal removal is unlawful. CDFW does not relocate mountain lions; there is no scientific support for such measures to be humane, tenable, or a long-term solution to human-lion encounters.”

Instead, Batter said his agency “recommends a number of preventative measures to reduce human-wildlife conflict issues (which typically arise) when we, intentionally or inadvertently, attract wildlife to our properties. CDFW recommends keeping pets on a leash when outdoors (or) in a secured, fully enclosed structure (and) securely housing livestock or poultry, such as chickens, in fully enclosed structures, especially when mountain lions and other predators are most active (at night, dawn, and dusk).”

Batter added that more suggestions “for reducing the attractiveness of homes and neighborhoods, as well as preventative applications for a number of wildlife species can be found on the CDFW website.

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

WHILE PERHAPS BEST KNOWN as the wife of famed author Jack London, Charmian Kittredge London was a central figure in California cultural history and the epitome of a modern woman. 

She also shared a close friendship with Grace Carpenter Hudson, who Jack visited and where Jack was once photographed in his underwear.

Learn about her life and literary achievements in this virtual program featuring Iris Jamahl Dunkle, author of the 2020 biography, "Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer." Here's the link for joining: https://zoom.us/j/98435870004

The Museum Gift Shop currently has a limited number of copies of the book, signed by the author. Get yours before the program!

GAYE’S ADVICE

Editor,

I read with great interest Mike Geniella’s piece on Gaye LeBaron, which to my ears and eyes read more like an obituary for someone who had passed rather than a news story or a feature about someone still alive. I have known Gaye for about 30 years. I have read many of her columns, appeared on panels with her and once declared her “the conscience of Sonoma County.” She heard me utter those words, raised her eyebrows and made no verbal comment. I think that Gaye herself would be the first person or one of the first persons to recognize and describe her limits and limitations. Her overall impulse was to be inclusive; she was a first-rate observer and had a phenomenal memory that went back decades. Still, she was much better at writing about some people rather than others. Sometimes, Gaye had a long reach. At other times, she wasn’t able to extend herself as far as some of her younger PD readers wanted. Mike says he’s “in awe of her contributions.” Others still to come will have to be a bit less in awe, read her work and evaluate it with more of a sense of balance. Will it last? I’m not sure. The world of her childhood, girlhood and young womanhood doesn’t exist anymore. It’s too soon for me to say whether anyone will want to read or reread her columns about the old days in Redcrest, Weott and Santa Rosa when the upper crust flocked to the Topaz Room. I’m glad she helped Mike along when he was a tyro. In his last sentence he writes that Gaye was a “friend to our communities in Mendocino, Humboldt and Lake.” I wonder why he didn’t include Sonoma, where she has lived and worked most of her life. What I learned most from Gayle is that you aim to let the facts speak for themselves and don’t embellish and exaggerate. When you embellish and exaggerate, she told me your readers don’t really trust you. I’m still trying to live by her advice. 

Jonah Raskin

San Francisco

SUPERVISOR MULHEREN (Friday morning)

I’ve been trying to tackle this trash pile for about a week and I’m barely making a dent in it. 

Chief Noble Wadelich from UPD has offered to assist and is going to meet me tomorrow on Brush Street at the City County line near Daniel Steel with his dump trailer. If you have a pick up and/or could possibly assist loading it that would be amazing. If you are interested in supporting by helping pay for the transfer station fees I would appreciate that as well. Inbox me and we will talk! 

DISAPPEARING AUDITS

George Dorner: No wonder there has been so much opposition to my suggestion for an audit of county finances. Insider Ms. Cubbison has already tried much the same and been rejected. If the Board of Stupes can ignore an audit by a professional, they can sure blow off a mere citizen like me. However, their quashing of an internal audit only highlights the necessity for an external audit.

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Norm Thurston: The County has annual financial audits performed by an independent auditor. Those audit reports can be found here: mendocinocounty.org/government/auditor-controller/financial-reports

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Mark Scaramella: Thanks, Mr. Thurston. I just went to that webpage and the last “independent auditor’s report” is for 2017, after that it says to go to the “Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports” which are not “independent,” but authored by retired Mendo auditor Mr. Weer. Have they just quit the outside audits? Besides, the “independent” audit is just a review of the County’s financial “statements,” not the correctness of the expenditures themselves. I’m not necessarily complaining, but an accountant who is paid by the outfit being audited reviewing a financial statement from his customer is not an “audit” in the critical sense of the word, and for the last few years they haven’t even done that. Am I missing something?

DISGRACED UKIAH POLICE SERGEANT KEVIN MURRAY Cited In Lake County For Taking Woman’s Wallet While On Bail—Allegedly Stole $16, Earrings, And A 9mm Bullet

kymkemp.com/2022/02/11/disgraced-ukiah-police-sergeant-kevin-murray-cited-in-lake-county-for-taking-womans-wallet-while-on-bail-allegedly-stole-16-earrings-and-a-9mm-bullet/

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JAMES MARMON: Re: Disgraced Ukiah Police Sergeant Kevin Murray Cited In Lake County For Taking Woman’s Wallet While On Bail

Trent James just did a video on this story today, giving Murray some sound advice. It looks like Trent is coming home next week, at least for at least a few days anyway. Stay safe Trent, and don’t forget to file your Certificate of Candidacy for Mendocino County Sheriff.

POLLY GIRVIN:

The Cal Fire Forest Manager just took a walk through the woods with the lumber mill owner that wants to cut a Timber Harvest Plan involving road building through an ancestral Pomo village site that the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians opposes.

Friday morning Cal Fire had to tear down a banner at the entrance to the forest walk that called for returning land back to the Pomo.

The timber cutting folks were met by local environmental activists some of whom went on the walk to ask questions.

La lucha sigue!

WHY IS THIS WHITE MAN RELEVANT to Black history? 

He was one of the Freedom Riders. In 1960, he was on a bus full of Freedom Riders who arrived in Montgomery Alabama where an angry white mob was waiting for them. He volunteered to get off the bus first and take the brunt of the mob's violence, which left him beaten and bloody. His name was James Zwerg.

PUT TUBMAN ON THE $20

Dear Editor,

I shared with you some of the latest magnets, stickers and buttons with messages about issues of the day that are both educational and historical. For example: since women were routinely using coat hangers to end their pregnancies before Roe v Wade -- a slashed coat hanger was a top message from pro-choice women to government. The modern day ironic message is something like, 'If you want to cut off my reproductive choice, can I cut off yours?' This is all the more relevant in light of the fact that it was evangelical men, not women, who kicked off and led the 'pro-life' anti-abortion campaign we're cursed with today, men who want women to keep having babies, without regard to the woman's point of view. 

Maybe I omitted the radical feminist pun—“Patriarchy is for dicks.” It goes right to the point. So does “Show me your papers.” It cuts to the homeland security issue from an indigenous first nation point of view.

The Harriet Tubman button is current as well as historical since her picture is slated to be on the back of the $20 bill, now that the discussion of where it should go has ended, as I understand it. She is known to have worked for the Union and was never violent in asserting her right to civil disobedience to lead enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad. She is now considered the close equivalent of the former US president on the $20 bill, a co-equal.

And when they almost caught her, she became doubly equal by stepping over the line into Canada holding her own loaded gun against her shoulder in case it was needed in self defense, since a gun was trained on her as she leaped from one country to the other. 

She was a hard woman to argue with; even when a hard object hit her in the head when she was young, she used that to her advantage through intent and purposefulness.

Personally, I'm in favor of going a step further with Jackson ceding his $20 spot to Harriet Tubman. She's earned the honor as co-equal.

Pebbles Trippet

Elk

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 11, 2022

JACK ALVAREZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

JASON BIENVENU, Covelo. Pot possession for sale, controlled substance for sale, disobeying court order.

CHRISTINE COOK, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JENNIFER HEVEY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MATTHEW HILL, Ukiah. Felon-addict with firearm, probation revocation.

TARA HILL, Ukiah. Burglary, probation revocation.

SYLVIA HOAGLEN, Covelo. Stolen vehicle, prior felony, offenses while on bail, failure to appear.

RENEE MARTINEZ, Willits. Paraphernalia, failure to appear.

ROBERT MCCANN, Willits. Felon with stun gun, paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

STEVEN RICH SR., Ukiah. Parole violation.

ANDREW RIFFLE, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, petty theft with priors, burglary tools, vehicle tampering.

RODGER SELLARS, Ukiah. DUI.

MICHAEL BENYAIR, Israel’s former Attorney General: “It is with great sadness that I must also conclude that my country has sunk to such political and moral depths that it is now an apartheid regime. It is time for the international community to recognise this reality as well.”

PRESCRIPTION DRUG COST WORRIES TOO

by Senator Bernie Sanders

Mr. President: Let’s be clear. There is significant discontent in our country today. The American people are worried about COVID, but they’re worried about much more.

They’re worried about inflation – the price of food and gas and other products.

They’re worried about climate change and the kind of planet they’ll be leaving their kids and future generations.

They’re worried about a middle class whose real inflation accounted for wages have not risen in almost 50 years and the reality that half of our workforce lives paycheck to paycheck.

They’re worried about the massive level of income and wealth inequality that we are experiencing in which, during this pandemic alone, the billionaire class saw an increase in their wealth by some $2 trillion while thousands of workers died doing their jobs.

They’re worried that their kids are not getting quality childcare or a decent education or that they’re unable to pay the outrageous levels of student debt that they acquired because they chose to go to college.

And, Mr. President, maybe above all else, the American people are outraged that in the midst of all of the crises that we face their elected officials are not responding.

In my view, now is the time to tell the American people that Congress understands their pain and that we are prepared to fight for working people against the greed of the powerful special interests who wield so much power over the economic and political life of the nation.

And today, Senator Klobuchar and I are going to focus on one of the many issues that must be addressed by Congress.

Mr. President: For decades, decades, members of both political parties have come to the floor of the Senate and the House, bemoaning the high cost of prescription drugs in this country and promising the American people that they would lower those outrageous prices. They have given speech after speech and spent millions on 30 second campaign ads telling their constituents all that they were going to do to take on the pharmaceutical industry.

And for decades they have failed to deliver.

They have failed to deliver under Democratic leadership and they have failed to deliver under Republican leadership.

They have failed to deliver because of the greed of the pharmaceutical industry – which today may well be the most powerful corporate interest in America and is certainly the dominant political force here in Washington, DC.

My fellow Americans: Do you want to know why you’re paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, sometimes 10 times more for the same exact drug that is sold in Canada and other countries?

Do you want to know why 1 out of 4 Americans are unable to afford the prescription drugs their doctors prescribe?

Do you want to know why thousands of Americans die every year because they can’t afford their medicine?

Do you know why millions of diabetic Americans actually ration their insulin?

I will tell you why. During the past 20 years, the pharmaceutical industry has spent over $4.5 billion on lobbying and hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions.

These are campaign contributions which go to Republicans. These are campaign contributions that go to Democrats. And I’m talking about hundreds of members of the House and Senate.

Further, the pharmaceutical industry has, over the years, mounted an unprecedented lobbying effort in Washington and in states all over this country.

I want you to hear this. Last year alone, the pharmaceutical industry hired more than 1,700 well-paid lobbyists to Capitol Hill to protect their interests — including the former congressional leaders of both major political parties. Got that? That’s over 3 pharmaceutical industry lobbyists for every Member of Congress.

And what is the result of all that lobbying and all those campaign contributions? The answer is clear. The pharmaceutical industry in America, uniquely in the entire world, is able to raise prices to any level that they want any time that they want.

Tomorrow, if you walk into your pharmacy the price of the medicine you take could be much higher than it was yesterday. And the reason? Nothing more complicated than the drug companies simply wanting to make more money.

And boy is that working. Eight of the largest drug companies in the United States made nearly $50 billion in profits in 2020, while the CEOs in those pharmaceutical giants took home over $350 million in total compensation.

Let me repeat that. The 8 largest drug companies in the U.S. made nearly $50 billion in profits while paying their CEOs over $350 million in compensation in 2020.

Let’s be very clear. The overriding motivation of the pharmaceutical industry is greed.

Their overriding goal is to make as much money as they can by squeezing as much as they possibly can out of the sick, out of the elderly and out of the desperate.

Let me give you just a few examples of the greed within the pharmaceutical industry.

Just a few years ago, the former CEO of Gilead became a billionaire by charging a thousand dollars for the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi. As is often the case, the drug was developed by taxpayer dollars at the VA. The drug costs just $1 to manufacture and can be purchased in India for all of $4.

In 2016, the chairman of Mylan, received a $164 million compensation package after his company jacked-up the price of an EpiPen by 550 percent over a nine-year period.

Mr. President: All over this country, the American people are asking a simple question:

How many people need to die, how many people need to get unnecessarily sicker before Congress is prepared to take on the greed of the prescription drug industry?

Enough is enough. A life-saving prescription drug does not mean anything if you cannot afford to buy that drug.

We cannot allow the pharmaceutical industry to charge the American people, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

That is why I have introduced legislation today with Senator Klobuchar that would cut the price of prescription drugs under Medicare in half.

And it would do that by making sure that Medicare pays the same low prices for prescription drugs as the VA does.

Mr. President: Why is it that the VA pays so much less for prescription drugs than Medicare? The answer is simple.

While the VA has been able to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry for the past 30 years, Congress banned Medicare by law from doing anything to lower prescription drug prices.

And the result is that, according to the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, Medicare pays twice as much for the same exact prescription drugs as the VA.

Let me repeat that. Medicare, which is banned by law from negotiating with the pharmaceutical industry, pays twice as much for the same exact prescription drugs as the VA, which has been negotiating for lower prices for the past 30 years.

That is totally absurd.

If the VA can negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies to substantially reduce the price of prescription drugs, you know what? We can require Medicare to receive the same exact prices that the VA pays for prescription drugs. And when we do that, we could save Medicare some $900 billion over the next decade.

And, Mr. President, the VA is not the only agency that negotiates for lower drug prices. This is something that every other major country on the planet does.

Mr. President: As you may know, on two occasions, I have taken Americans over the border to Canada to purchase prescription drugs. In one case, it was the breast cancer drug tamoxifen. In the other case, it was the insulin needed by diabetics.

In both cases, they were able to purchase these desperately needed prescription drugs for one-tenth of the price that they were paying in the United States. I will never forget the tears that were shed when these people, fighting life threatening illnesses were able to buy their medicine for a tiny fraction of the price that they were paying in the U.S.

There is no rational reason, other than greed, for the pharmaceutical industry to charge the American people $98.70 for a standard unit of insulin that can be purchased in the United Kingdom for just $7.52.

There is no rational reason, other than greed, for the pharmaceutical industry to charge the American people $242 for the asthma inhaler – Flovent Diskus – that can be purchased for just $27 in Canada.

There is no rational reason, other than greed, for the pharmaceutical industry to charge the American people $686 for 2 EpiPens that can be purchased in Australia for just $169.

And let’s be clear. These are the same medications, manufactured by the same companies, in the same factories – that are all available in Canada, in Europe, in Australia and in Japan for a fraction of the price.

For far too long, it has not been Congress that has been regulating the pharmaceutical industry. It has been the pharmaceutical industry that has been regulating Congress.

Well, those days will be coming to an end if Members of Congress finally have the courage to stand up to the power of the pharmaceutical industry.

And that is exactly what the American people want us to do.

According to an October 2021 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 83% of the American people want Medicare to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry to lower the price of prescription drugs.

According to a July 2021 poll by Gallup, 81% of the American people believe that Medicare should be empowered to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices and 77% of the American people believe that the federal government should limit price hikes on all prescription drugs.

Mr. President. The time for talk is over. The time to act is now. It’s time for the Senate to have a debate and a vote to bring down the outrageous price of prescription drugs.

So, Mr. President, as if in Legislative Session, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined today by the Majority Leader, following consultation with the Republican Leader, the Senate proceed to the consideration of S.3615, which was introduced earlier today, that there be 2 hours for debate equally divided, that upon the use or yielding back of time, the bill be read a third time, and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, without intervening action or debate.

PEACE BREEZE, PLEASE

AVA,

Dark War Clouds infect the airwaves. We pray for divine intervention and think a general strike by the troops and populous would indeed be a godsend. Let us urge with all vigor for the breeze of peace to blow the horror of war away. We want all involved to seek a way out without slaughtering each other.

Alan ‘Captain Fathom’ Graham

Albion 

THE UPRISING of Canadian truckers inspires a general resistance to being pushed around by over-reaching elected officials and their bureaucratic subalterns, and the truckers’ example is being followed all over Western Civ. Wait until the American truckers get in the act, representing a vast class of citizens who have taken a beating for more than two years and, increasingly, have nothing left to lose. 

— James Kunstler

THE WHOLE GENERATION IS WOMANIZED. The masculine tone is passing out of the world; it’s a feminist, nervous, hysterical, chattering, canting age, in an age of hollow phrases and false delicacy and exaggerated solicitudes and coddled sensibilities which, if we don’t soon look out, will usher in the reign of mediocrity.

— Henry James

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m just back from Walgreen’s. My town just dropped mask mandates for public spaces yesterday. Coincidentally Walgreen’s is giving out Biden N95 masks starting today. A day late and a dollar short. They have thousands. Nobody wants them. The girl tells me to take as many as I want. She is repackaging them in bags of three masks each and is already sick of it. Before the Covid I used N95’s for tasks that required a good mask. Uncomfortable as hell. They were more than a buck apiece at the H Depot. So I grabbed about 25 and she told me to take more. These are going to all end up in the landfill. Billions of dollars wasted. Thanks Joe! Where’s my Crack Pipe is what I want to know.

MANY YEARS AGO I was driving home from work in Berkeley and was stopped with a line of vehicles at a signal light. My door window was rolled down. Suddenly a guy in the passenger seat of a pickup stopped in the lane beside me yelled: “Oakland A’s, huh?” He was doubtless referring to the bumper sticker on my little Toyota pickup.

I nodded and signaled a thumbs-up. Immediately he yelled in a booming baritone: “NATIONAL LEAGUE!” That was all.

I thought: "OK. What about it?" Then it dawned on me that he was a baseball purist and was cryptically referring to the one element of the game that distinguished the National from the American league: the designated hitter (DH). He was doubtless lording it over me that the extra strategies required when a pitcher must bat made the NL the superior league.

I recalled that incident this morning when news that Major League Baseball will be ending a tradition that goes back more than a hundred years came up on my screen: the introduction of the designated hitter into the National League, beginning this season.

The arguments for and against the move have been swift in coming, but the deed is done. 

Is that guy from the signal incident, and countless others who share his belief, choking on his breakfast today?

If I could return to that moment I know now what I should yell back: “NO! BASEBALL!”

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2022/2/10/22927647/mlb-news-designated-hitters-comes-to-national-league

---

WRECKING THE GAME, OPINIONS ON THE DH IN THE NATIONAL LEAGUE

With Thursday’s declaration from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred that the universal adoption of the designated hitter is essentially agreed upon between the owners and players for 2022 and beyond, we asked what some of our staff had to say on the subject of potentially eliminating the distinction between the major leagues.

Susan Slusser: After a lifetime first as an American League fan and then a baseball writer with decades of experience covering AL teams (first in Texas, then Oakland), I’m all in favor of the universal DH.

Were there more than one Shohei Ohtani, we’d all agree there is no need for a DH. But even the Madison Bumgarners and Zack Greinkes are few and far between. Much as we all enjoy a pitcher homering - hi Logan Webb! - it happens just too infrequently. Hits of any kind are too rare. When the best you’re usually going to get is a decent sacrifice bunt, it’s just not that entertaining, and far too many pitchers aren’t even great at that.

Sure, there’s different strategy involved when it comes to DH-less baseball. Oooo, double switches! Jiggering lineups to account for later pinch-hitting spots! But you know what you can do even with a DH? Pinch hit. Tailor lineups for the opposing starters and change it up as the game moves along, without an automatic spot that everyone already understands is where a pinch hitter will appear. There are some subtle strategies going on to get platoon advantages sometimes withoutand beyond the DH, and teams that aggressively sub players out also will lose the DH now and then, and that is fun strategy. Play for a win late in a tie game and lose your DH, risking a reliever getting his first-ever big-league at-bat in extra innings? That’s a gutsy call.

Here’s the best part: Starting pitchers get to pitch as long as they’re effective, instead of coming out because their spot comes up mid-game. When exactly do you take that guy out who’s dealing when there isn’t an automatic spot? Managers and pitching coaches need to know their staffs even better, communication with pitchers and catchers must be even better. Some pitchers who are dealing will get the opportunity to take care of business longer - great for starters, even better for overworked bullpens.

From team executives’ standpoint, there’s another reason to keep pitchers from hitting: Injuries. Reliable starters are extremely valuable; why take a chance your ace squares to bunt and takes a fastball off a finger? Pitching is injury-inducing enough without adding hitting or running the bases to the mix.

In our era of specialization, many pitchers don’t hit much as amateurs, and many do not hit in the minors. In the offseason - and between starts - pitchers spend ever more time pouring through data, working on mechanics, using personally specific workout routines. Hitting is not on their radar.

So give me Shohei Ohtani, sure, but I’ll happily live without seeing other pitchers at the plate. NL fans, you might not ever admit it, but you’ll still find plenty of strategy. You’re not going to miss watching Alex Wood or Anthony DeSclafani hitting. I promise.

Ann Killion: The arguments in favor of the universal DH seem to focus on one thing: a disgust with watching starting pitchers flail at pitches. That seems like a microscopic view of a change that is about to make a monumental, and in my mind, boring adjustment to the game. The National League’s lack of a DH has defined the two leagues, has been a fun source of arguments and - most importantly has led to a much more interesting and strategic game in the NL. In today’s era of starters lasting six innings, max, we see the starting pitcher hit twice? Is that really worth making the two leagues cookie cutters? Not in my opinion.

I propose a DH as long as a starting pitcher is in the game. Once the starter is out, so is the DH. Relief pitchers almost never bat. That compromise would create those DH jobs, eliminate the woeful “opener,” preserve late-inning strategy- and it would keep curmudgeons like me appeased.

Matt Kawahara: There’s a whimsical element to the pitcher at-bat. You probably don’t expect much … but what if? Madison Bumgarner’s starts in San Francisco were the more intriguing for his potential at the plate. Bartolo Colon going yard for the first time at age 42 is an all-time highlight. After 12 starts last season, Jacob deGrom had more RBIs as a hitter than earned runs allowed as a pitcher. That’s fun stuff, enhanced by its relative rarity.

The universal DH would excise a piece of baseball’s DNA. But it also makes too much sense. In 2021, MLB pitchers hit .108, the lowest such mark since at least 1900 (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season that featured a universal DH). They struck out 44.8% of the time. Eight of the 10 worst-hitting seasons for pitchers since 1900 have come in the last decade.

The NL vs. AL distinction is unusual. Neither the NFL nor NBA have their conferences play by different rules. AL teams have annual anxiety over their pitchers suddenly having to hit and run the bases in interleague play. In the minors, even pitching prospects of NL teams don’t hit until the higher levels - meaning they could go years without an at-bat. At the MLB level, a universal DH would allow NL teams to use the spot as many AL teams do, to spell regulars. The strict DH isn’t so common - just five players last season logged more than 100 games at DH - but adding it in the NL could create more opportunities for hitters in their careers.

Some will miss watching pitchers wield a bat. But if the universal DH rule mirrors the AL rule, it wouldn’t be out of the question. The Angels at times last season did not use a DH when Shohei Ohtani pitched so that Ohtani, their two-way star, could hit for himself.

Bruce Jenkins: So the players want the universal DH because it jacks up the salaries. Owners and executives live in fear of pitchers getting hurt by, you know, playing baseball. Cranky fans and media can’t stand the sight of a weak-hitting pitcher. For these pitiful reasons we give up the traditional game? There isn’t an argument in the world that stands up to bat and glove - the game’s essential tools when played correctly. If you toss either one of them aside, the game's integrity - not to mention its strategic appeal - takes a massive hit. The National League kept us sane over the past half-century, and I’m not sure how long this new arrangement will be celebrated. Each year will bring fresh doses of regret.

Christina Kahrl: ‘Regret’ is a word used for when you see your best starting pitcher injured attempting something at which he’s not even remotely a professional athlete-level talent, just to indulge someone else’s anachronistic whim. Most people who grow up to be MLB pitchers specialize early on. Their doing so has translated into an already sport-changing dynamic: Pitchers control what happens at the plate more than ever before, notching historic strikeout rates.

Want that to change? Then you’re not asking for the status quo. The solution to baseball’s pitcher domination in the game is simple: Make the DH universal, and skip those 5000 at-bats or so that baseball forces on us every year from pitchers, while they strike out almost half the time. Baseball can spare us that tedious spectacle out of some devotion to pantomime in-game strategy, and instead give us more on-field action - with professional hitters hitting, and professional pitchers pitching.

(SF Chronicle)

OBAMA’S GAME 

by Alexander Cockburn (April 2006)

I was harsh about Senator Barack Obama of Illinois a couple of weeks ago, and the very next morning his press aide, Tommy Vietor, was on the phone howling about inaccuracies. It was an illuminating conversation, indicative of the sort of instinctive reflexes at work in the office of a man already breathlessly touted as a possible vice presidential candidate in 2008 and maybe a presidential candidate somewhere down the road from there. 

Obama’s man took grave exception to my use of the word “distanced” to describe what his boss had done when Illinois’ senior US senator, Dick Durbin, got into trouble for likening conditions at Guantanamo to those in a Nazi or Stalin-era camp. This was one of Durbin’s finer moments, as he read an FBI man’s eyewitness describing how he had entered interview rooms “to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more.” 

“If I read this to you,” Durbin told his fellow senators, “and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners. It is not too late. I hope we will learn from history. I hope we will change course.” 

So Durbin paid the penalty of having to eat crow on the Senate floor. His fellow senator, Obama, did not support him in any way. Obama said, “We have a tendency to demonize and jump on and make mockery of each other across the aisle and that is particularly pronounced when we make mistakes. Each and every one of us is going to make a mistake once in a while… and what we hope is that our track record of service, the scope of how we've operated and interacted with people, will override whatever particular mistake we make.” 

That’s three uses of the word “mistake.” This isn’t distancing? 

Nor did Obama’s man like my description of Obama’s cheerleading for the nuke Iran crowd. Obama recently declared that when it comes to the US posture on Iran, all options, including military ones, should be on the table. Now, if Obama had any sort of guts in such matters he would have said that if Iraq is to teach America’s leaders any lesson, it is that reckless recourse to the military “option” carries a dreadful long-term price tag. 

He did nothing of the sort, which is not surprising to anyone who read his speech to the Council of Foreign Relations last November. Remember the context. Rep. Jack Murtha had just given a savage jolt to the White House. This be-medalled former chairman of the House Armed Services committee had publicly delivered the actual opinion of the generals: “I believe we need to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis… The United States will immediately redeploy — immediately redeploy. All of Iraq must know that Iraq is free, free from a United States occupation. And I believe this will send a signal to the Sunnis to join the political process.” 

And who knows, if Murtha’s counsel had been followed, maybe it would have saved Iraq from the horrors now unraveling. But Democrats fled Murtha, few with more transparent calculation than Obama who voyaged to the Council on Foreign Relations on November 22, there to ladle out to the assembled elites such balderdash as “The President could take the politics out of Iraq once and for all if he would simply go on television and say to the American people ‘Yes, we made mistakes…’,” or “We need to focus our attention on how to reduce the US military footprint in Iraq. Notice that I say ‘reduce,’ and not ‘fully withdraw’…,” or “2006 should be the year that … the various Iraqi factions must arrive at a fair political accommodation to defeat the insurgency; and … the Administration must make available to Congress critical information on reality-based benchmarks that will help us succeed in Iraq.” 

Obama is one of those politicians whom journalists like to decorate with words as “adroit” or “politically adept” because you can actually see him trimming to the wind, the way you see a conjurer of moderate skill shove the rabbit back up his sleeve. Above all he is concerned with the task of reassuring the masters of the Democratic Party, and beyond that, the politico-corporate establishment, that he is safe. Whatever bomb might have been in his head has long since been dis-armed. He’s never going to blow up in the face of anyone of consequence. 

There are plenty of black people like that in the Congress now. After a decade or so of careful corporate funding, as the Black Congressional Caucus is sinking under the weight of Democratic Leadership Council clones like Artur Davis of Alabama, Albert Wynn of Maryland, Sanford Bishop and David Scott of Georgia, William Jefferson of Louisiana, Gregory Meeks of New York, all assiduously selling for a mess of pottage the interests of the voters who sent them to Washington. Obama has done exactly the same thing. 

He lobbed up the first signal flare during the run-up to his 2004 senate race, when his name began to feature on Democratic Leadership Council literature as one of the hundred Democratic leaders to watch. That indispensable publication The Black Commentator raised a stink about this. “It would be a shame,” wrote the Commentator’s Bruce Dixon, “if he is in the process of becoming ‘ideologically freed’ from the opinions of the African American and other Democrats whose votes he needs to win.” 

Obama wriggled for a while, sending out clouds of mush speak such as “I believe that politics in any democracy is a game of addition, not subtraction,” but the Commentator held his feet to the fire. They posed Obama three “bright-line” questions: 

1. Do you favor the withdrawal of the United States from NAFTA? Will you in the Senate introduce or sponsor legislation toward that end? 

2. Do you favor the adoption of a single payer system of universal health care to extend the availability of quality health care to all persons in this country? Will you in the Senate introduce or sponsor legislation toward that end?

3. Would you have voted against the October 10 congressional resolution allowing the president to use unilateral force against Iraq? 

This was in 2003, when Obama clearly felt he could not afford to endanger left support by answering anything other than Yes on the questions and so he duly told The Black Commentator that he would stop hanging his hat in the halls of the DLC and would tell them to remove his name from their 100-To-Watch list. Hence his press man, Vietor’s, sensitivity to my allusion in that last to Obama’s “mentor” being Senator Joe Lieberman. As a freshman senator, Vietor insisted, Obama had been assigned Lieberman as “mentor.” Read the Hartford Courant and you’ll find Lieberman boasting that Obama picked him. 

Either way, it’s obvious that Obama could have brokered a different mentor if he’d so desired it, same way he could have declined to go and tout for Lieberman at that Democratic Party dinner in Connecticut at the end of March. But he clearly didn’t, because he wanted to send out a reassuring signal, same way as his Political Action Committee, the Hope Fund, is raising money for 14 of his senatorial colleagues — ten of whom are DLC in orientation, which is half of the DLC presence in the Senate. 

There has been a more substantive signal, keenly savored by the corporate world, where Obama voted for “tort reform,” thus making it far harder for people to get redress or compensation. Actually the Yes vote in the Senate was filibuster-proof, as Obama could have voted either way without it making any difference. He just wanted the top people to know just how safe he was. 

A woman from Illinois wrote to me after my last column on Obama, agreeing with my reproofs, and saying: 

“Here's an example of how the position and adulation from those in Washington have gone to his head. I'm involved with the Springfield (IL) Urban League. We began asking almost immediately after the election if he could be the keynote speaker at our annual fundraising dinner — which was held last fall! His staff delayed positive responses (even as we continued to call and inquire) until it was too late to get on the schedule of any nationally recognized ‘celebrity.’ (Thankfully, the attendance was excellent and the fundraiser our best ever — despite the brush off we received from Obama.) Let me reiterate: Barack Obama blew off speaking before an audience of 500 primarily African-American voters in Illinois — the state he purports to represent. He's spoken here lots of times prior to his election to the Senate, and even since. But he blew us off for nothing more than continued visits to states that did not elect him to stump for sometimes-questionable democrats — like the Lieberman situation.” 

Some hopeful progressives still say, “Obama has to bob and weave, while positioning himself at the high table as the people’s champion.” But in his advance to the high table he is divesting himself of all legitimate claims to be any sort of popular champion, as opposed to another safe black, like Condoleezza Rice (whom Obama voted to confirm). The Empire relishes such servants. 

And so Obama, the constitutional law professor, voted to close off any filibuster of Alito and fled Senator Russell Feingold’s motion to censure the President [Bush Jr.], declaring: “my and Senator Feingold's view is not unanimous. Some constitutional scholars and lower court opinions support the president's argument that he has inherent authority to go outside the bounds of the law in monitoring the activities of suspected terrorists. The question is whether the president understood the law and knowingly flaunted it.” 

That’s not the question at all. The vitality of the Constitution does not rest on whether Bush understands it, any more that the integrity of the Criminal Code depends on whether the President has ever read a line of any statute. We can safely assume that he doesn’t and he hasn’t. 

And so also did Obama, the constitutional law professor, vote Yea on March 2 to final passage of the U.S.A. PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, unlike ten of his Democratic colleagues. 

Vietor, Obama’s man, laughed derisively at my complaint at the end of my last column how most of her Democratic colleagues had fled Cynthia McKinney. “She apologized,” Vietor cried, as though that settled the matter. In fact the betrayal of McKinney, particularly by her black colleagues, was an appalling and important political moment rewarding the racism showered on McKinney and the ongoing implosion of the Congressional Black Caucus. Obama, of course, distanced himself from her too. 

HE TALKED FIRST

AVA,

Been a while, almost nine years down and I’m finally on my way to San Quentin! I guess that’ s where everyone wants to end up either to parole from or die, right? It all depends on what you have to lose.

Someone just sent me a copy of the letter that Chris Skaggs wrote to you. He sure has a way with words. But all the stories and long winded excuses will never change the fact that he got arrested the next morning and told on me — period. They had no clue who the shooter was until he told them. I got busted two and a half days later and he had already told them everything. I made some mistakes also, but I was trying desperately to do damage control after his 76 page in detail statement.

That will never change, He told on me first. Ha, ha, ha, laughing like the joker because that face to face he dreams about is going to become a reality!

Take care, “brother.”

Walter ‘Kris’ Miller

Salinas Valley State Prison

Soledad

YOU TOO CAN....

Be a participant at the California Democratic Convention.

Join the Fun, 16 delegates from Mendocino are attending this virtual California Democratic Convention. Join us to see who will be endorsed by the Democratic Party in the June Primary!

While Californians prepare for one of the most consequential midterm elections of our lifetime, CADEM's convention is tailored towards providing attendees with the tools necessary to holding the house, expanding strong majorities in the State Legislature and keeping statewide Democratic leadership in place.

This year, as we meet in a virtual space and as part of the Statewide Convention, all attendees who register for the convention will also have the opportunity to participate in the Training Extravaganza on Saturday, February 26 . From discussions about Grassroots Donor Education to Social Media for County and Regional Leadership to Intro to Organizing, participants will hear from experts on how CADEM will work together to save and protect our democracy in 2022 and beyond.

Once you have registered for the 2022 March Convention, you will have access to the following trainings on Saturday, February 26: Register as an observer at https://cadem.org

— Val Muchowski

TRUMP SPREADS…

Dear Editor,

More than two years back the world first learned there was a terrible new virus spreading misery and death. Its name, Covid-19. Our president tried banning flights from parts of the world having the largest number of cases. Using his “bully pulpit,” he used social media giants like Twitter and Facebook to spread continuous false messages of hope: “This will be gone soon. It’s the China flu.” On a more successful note, he authorized billions to be spent on developing and producing new vaccines.

This part of his campaign worked. Unbelievably, incredible vaccines came out which really work to prevent Covid-19’s respiratory disease. And yet, simultaneously, since spreading political hatred and misinformation paid better than telling the truth, a large part of the world’s population became anti-vacciners.

The power of these believers is evident today in the truckers’ strikes crippling trade with our closest ally Canada. They have the right to protest but shouldn’t have the right to spread the virus. It is their lack of responsibility that has helped to kill over 900,000 of their fellow Americans. In the process they have crushed thousands of doctors and nurses who have left their profession. Covid has brought us face to face with Darwinism: survival of the fittest.

Frank Baumgardner

Santa Rosa

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 6 or 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 chunks of useful information to swallow whole like a rice ball until showtime, or any time, such as:

The Tango: Vaccine. Randy Rainbow.

https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-tango-vaccine.html

James Maxwell's giant fairy tale paintings that, you'll recall, were all over the walls of David Herstle Jones' Sea Gull bar.

http://www.artistjamesmaxwell.com/seagull.html

And: If the moon fell to Earth...

https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2022/02/what-if-moon-fell-to-earth.html

— Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

ONE CANNOT EASILY SPEAK of today’s Republican Party as if it were a genuine political party participating in a functioning democracy. More apt is the description of the organization as “a radical insurgency— ideologically extreme, scornful of facts and compromise, and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” This characterization by political analysts Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise is from a decade ago, pre-Donald Trump. By now it’s far out of date. In the acronym “GOP,” what remains is O.

— Noam Chomsky 

SOLAR STORM KNOCKS 40 SPACEX SATELLITES OUT OF THE SKY, After the Company Ignored Scientists' Warnings

The doomed spacecraft were part of a payload of 49 Starlink satellites SpaceX launched into orbit on Feb. 3, intended to join the 1,925 other Starlinks—which aim to improve and provide global access to broadband service—already circling the planet in orbits that range from 540 km (335 mi) to 1,300 km (800 mi). As is common practice for SpaceX, all Starlinks are originally placed in a brief parking orbit just 209 km (130 mi) up so that they can be run through a systems check-out from the ground to make sure they are functioning properly. Any duds among them are simply left in that low orbit, where atmospheric drag quickly pulls them back out of the sky on an incinerating reentry.

news.yahoo.com/solar-storm-knocks-40-spacex-173705826.html