Mendocino County Today: Monday, March 14, 2022

Rain Tonight | Flag Ceremony | Kozak Kin | Pomo Rally | Peace Negotiations | Picnickers | Moving Ferns | Time Confusion | Stagecoach Stunt | Schools News | Bear Cam | Wave | Driving Around | Berserk Blanton | Phone Runaround | Drug Problem | Beauty Cat | Housing Ideas | Reenactors | Magdaleno Settlement | Police Reports | Yesterday's Catch | Ukraine Complexities | Old Italy | Dostoevsky Drama | Barr Book | Doublethunk | Alma's Wheels | Pig Pen | Transportation | NCRA Eulogy | Coming Never | Let's Talk | Fund Me | Past Predictions | Sharing | Flow Adler | Atomic Dummies | Russian Koch | Solidarity | Coast Dems | Behatted | Lay Down | Willow

CLOUDS WILL INCREASE TODAY ahead of an approaching storm system. Steady rain will overspread northwest California this evening, with a good soaking for most spots. Showers will taper off on Tuesday, with mostly dry weather returning through the end of the work week. Widespread rain and mountain snow is expected again by the weekend. (NWS)

IN SPARSELY ATTENDED CEREMONIES at the Anderson Valley Advertiser Sunday morning, staff gathered at the paper's compound to erect a Ukrainian national flag in solidarity with that embattled country.

UKRAINE NATIONAL ANTHEM

The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished

Luck will still smile on us brother-Ukrainians.

Our enemies will die, as the dew does in the sunshine,

and we, too, brothers, we'll live happily in our land.

We’ll not spare either our souls or bodies to get freedom

and we’ll prove that we brothers are of Kozak kin.

RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS gave their most upbeat assessments yet on Sunday of progress in their talks on the war in Ukraine, suggesting there could be positive results within days. Separately, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Russia was showing signs of willingness to engage in substantive negotiations about ending a conflict in which thousands have died. More than 2.5 million people have fled. Ukraine has said it is willing to negotiate, but not to surrender or accept any ultimatums. “We will not concede in principle on any positions. Russia now understands this. Russia is already beginning to talk constructively,” Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video posted online. “I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days,” he said. (Daily Mail)

HELP MOVING FERNS

The Bee City gardening crew has continued throughout COVID a monthly work session on the third Tuesday at the Bee City Garden at Guest House Park in downtown Fort Bragg. We meet there this Tuesday at 2pm.

We have a bigger project than usual as we hope to transplant two of the ferns that are in the Bee Garden, which is not a good place for them to thrive, nor are they a resource for bees, to the "Fernery" on the south side of the park. We could use some extra help to dig these plants out and move them. We will replace then with a native ceanothus.

The Bee City Garden is behind the Guest House, that is, on the west side. We'd love to see you there at 2pm.

Fort Bragg Bee City USA Committee

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I never adjust my clocks. Half the year I show up an hour ahead, half the year I show up an hour late. It averages out so I’m always on time…and never on time

Mendocino County

AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

Upcoming Dates: LCAP Community Input Meeting WEDNESDAY at 3:30 at the Library; Wellness Committee, TUESDAY, March 21 3:30 High School Career Center; MEASURE M Bond committee Meeting TUESDAY, March 22 4:30 at the Library

I hope you are adjusting well to Daylight Savings Time! Just a few items:

Masking Indoors

The mask policy is revised tomorrow. The new CDPH guidance is that masks are highly recommended but are not required. We will ensure that students and staff that choose to wear masks are supported and comfortable. Masks are available free upon request. We will continue with the pooled testing on Wednesdays as well.

LCAP Community Meeting

Join us on Wednesday at the high school library at 3:30 to learn about the LCAP and express your thoughts and ideas about our district’s priorities for the future. We hope you will attend and share your thoughts.

Measure M On June Ballot

Support for the District’s School Bond MEASURE M is growing. Here are some of the signatures that have been received on the cards and petitions. If you would like to add your name to the list, petitions are at businesses throughout town as well as signature cards at the school offices. The committee is seeking volunteers and the next meeting is Tuesday, March 22 at 4:30 at the library.

• Donna Pierson Pugh, Retired School Principal
• Richard “Dick” Browning, Retired School Administrator and Board Member
• Philip Thomas, Retired Teacher and Senior Center Treasurer
• Michael “Flick” MacDonald, Retired Teacher and Coach
• Jim Boudoures, Philo Saw Works
• Pilar Echeverria, Business Owner
• Robert Pinoli, AVHS Retired Teacher/Athletic Director
• Current Commissioner Coastal Mountain Conference
• Melinda Ellis, Business Owner
• Ric Bonner, Anderson Valley Health Center Board President
• JR Collins, Retired Superintendent
• Dr. Leah Collins, Anderson Valley Health Center
• Star White, Parent
• Kathy Cox, Retired Teacher
• Deb and Ted Cahn Bennett, Navarro Vineyards/Pennyroyal Farms
• Sarah Bennett, Navarro Vineyards/Pennyroyal Farms
• Aaron Bennett, Parent Co-Owner Navarro Vineyards/Pennyroyal Farms
• Kathleen Bennett, Human Resources Navarro Vineyards/Pennyroyal Farms
• Aaron Wellington, Parent
• Erika Damian, Parent
• Veronica Barragan, Public Employee
• Linnea Totten, Retired Teacher
• Robert Day Retired Contractor
• Emilia Theobald, Teacher
• Doug Leach
• Mario Espinoza
• Gabriela Henderson
• Chrissy deVall
• Deanna Branesky
• Michael Mannix
• Rob Risucci
• Mark Reffle
• Teresa Markofer
• Ana Ramirez
• Maria Ramierez
• Joshua Treespirit
• May Ann Grzenda
• Jill Derwinski
• Bruce & Ling Anderson

CSF: Congratulations to our outstanding CSF students at the High School. We are proud of you and your achievement!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (707) 684-1017.

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson, Superintendent, AVHS Class of 1988

DEBRA KEIPP: 

I got a game cam from Costco, and it works great! It takes video, too, and about 5 different ways to take pics at different interval speeds. They are just single shots 2-3 seconds apart. I was impressed with the color daytime shots, too. Didn't know it would do color. 

Isn't it cool the way the bear tried to do my dirty dishes in the sink!! (Just joking! I clean up well after each use, as not to draw racoon, bear, etc., and there were no dishes in sink, but looks like it's washing dishes, egh? That's why I think it might be a female. A male would never even try to wash the dishes!!! LOL!)

He made hay that one night he emptied out the fridge before I put the childproof locks on the doors. Now he can't get in, but one night did try to get behind the fridge and give it the old heave ho to tip it over. One of the little adjustable legs got caught under the wood platform I have it sitting on, and that stopped it from toppling over. I'm sure this is not the first refrigerator encounter for this bear! It knew just what to do. Notice the "scar" mid-torso on the left side. That's how I i.d. this particular bear. 

There is another teenager that comes around, but when I tried to scare that one away, it just kinda gave me the finger and took off. So teenagerish. This one, though, will go hide behind something hoping I can't see it, then returns frequently. Persistent.

I'm breaking out my electric horse fence to put around my perimeter. Buffy Paula says that'll do the trick. The red-head at the Boonville market said that's what her dad uses, too. 

I don't go outside much anymore after dark, and whistle and sing alot in the daytime, just in case. Surprised to see it here in the daylight. I know they're not entirely nocturnal, but scavengers are bold.

Spring has sprung! 

LOOKING WEST OFF THE HAUL ROAD, Fort Bragg

DRIVING AROUND ANDERSON VALLEY

by Anne Fashauer

I spent a lot of time in my car this past week. Some weeks are like that - I have many appointments and they take me all over the place; other weeks I spend more time in my office. It’s not unusual to put 100 miles on my car in a day if I’m traveling from one end of the Valley to the other (which is getting rather expensive right now). Before Covid, I often had others in my car with me, if I was showing them properties for sale. Since Covid, I am mostly alone, which suits me fine - I can put my book on and listen as I drive from place to place.

My week started on Sunday this time - I met with clients starting at Mountain House Road and ending in Boonville. It was a beautiful day and most of it was spent outside, hiking around various properties, which is something I enjoy. It was a long day, with my getting home not too far from darkness falling, but at least I was able to see when I fed my horses.

Monday was an office day, which is how I like to start the regular week. It allows me time to answer calls and emails that came in over the weekend that I haven’t already responded to and gets me set for the week to come. 

Tuesday was a little crazy - I started at the clinic for my annual check up (all is good), then a quick drive outside of Philo to look at a property for a potential listing, then over the hill to Ukiah to see my chiropractor and do some grocery shopping.

Wednesday I made up for working on Sunday and took my bike to Lake Mendocino with two friends and took a gorgeous ride partway ‘round the lake. It was sunny, just nicely warm and the trail was dry but not dusty. The only downside was the poison oak that is already almost too much to safely ride through.

Thursday I spent a good portion of the day way out on Clow Ridge looking at a property with the wonderful owners. We drove and hiked around the property, looking at views and home sites, old cabins and old livestock pens. They offered me a wonderful lunch - homemade soup, homemade bread and homemade sausages, followed by a Danish Kringle. All that I missed was a nap after.

Friday I spent in Yorkville again, this time on a property that is in escrow. I met my client there and we spent the day with various inspectors getting the scoop on various aspects of the property. It was a second visit for my client and it confirmed for her the beauty of the property. It was another long day but a good one.

Saturday I met with new clients for a new listing and then drove to see yet another potential listing. It wasn’t a long day nor did I have to drive far, but it was another day where I spent a bit of time in the car. The book I am currently listening to, The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, I started on the 7th of this month; it’s just under 11 hours long - and as of right now I have just under two hours left. Most of that listening time was in my car, so that gives you some idea of the time spent there this past week.

Getting to listen to great books is one of the pluses of being in my car so much. The downside is not having as much time in my office to manage the other aspects of my work - there’s a lot of paperwork that goes along with the real estate business. I found myself sitting at my laptop early in the morning or in the evening when I would normally be attending to other things at home (even if that other thing is sometimes the New York Times crossword). Overall, though, I enjoy it - seeing this beautiful Valley from end to end, watching as the trees leaf out and flowers start to bloom. It’s not a bad way to spend a day.

WHAT SOUNDED LIKE a routine call to Anderson Valley's emergency services Saturday night about 10:30, turned out to be a wild encounter with a berserk Fort Bragg man who, before he was finally subdued by a CHP officer and two AV first responders, damaged a first responder's private vehicle and broke out the driver's side window of a Philo-based fire truck driven by Don Gowan. Jesse Blanton of Fort Bragg had been seen lying on the highway and stopping traffic on Highway 128 near Handley Cellars before a CHP unit out of Ukiah arrived to restrain him. 

Blanton fought the officer who tazed Blanton several times and, with the help of Gowan and another AV volunteer, finally wrestled Blanton into custody. Blanton, as they say, “is known to law enforcement.” In 2014 he was sentenced to state prison for an assault.

REBECCA SPANICH: Shout out to Adventist Hospital in Fort Bragg!! Called today to ask about covid protocols because my husband needed to be taken to emergency. I explained situation and asked what protocol was in regards to me accompanying my husband into the E.R. She proceeded to ask me what reason would there be for me to go into the E.R. with my husband? He is not a child. I stated I wanted to go in because he was my husband and I did not want him to be alone in the E.R. sick. I then stated I couldn’t believe she asked me that question. She replied “Well, I did.” Again I said, What are the protocols? She stated no one allowed unless vaccinated or a state issued negative Covid test in last 72 hours. Which is fine, that’s all I wanted to know. But wow, customer service…

HEROIN HISTORY

Editor,

A few years ago, when I was in China reading the only Chinese newspaper written in English I was drawn to an article entitled “Black American and Chinese girlfriend shot by police.” Reading the article further -- turns out they were in possession of heroin and shot on sight by police. Killed. Might make one wonder why we as in USA have a heroin, drug problem labeled as “homeless” in cities like LA, SF, etc. The Chinese are well aware of their past, their history and what the English did to them. You might also want to start thinking about fentanyl and where it comes from.

Peter Gregson

Ukiah

CHRIS SKYHAWK: 

On my way home from town Saturday I cruised some side streets that I had never been on before when I met this cat, one of the most beautiful cats I’ve ever seen!

At first it just ran off. But using my gentle voice I got him/her to come close and pose for this beautiful shot. I told him/her it might be the most beautiful cat I've ever seen, it seemed to enjoy my analysis as it rolled affectionately on the pavement in front of me. I had to share this.

ON LINE COMMENT RE LOCAL HOUSING SHORTAGE

The city of Ukiah and the county of Mendocino have missed so many opportunities to build more housing. The Talmage hospital facility could have been retrofitted into a new development. The former Trinity School, which takes up blocks in a prime area in the city of Ukiah, sat vacant and for sale for years. Redwood Valley Elementary School – vacant for years. Poorly attended churches sit on large parcels that go up for sale where 10 houses could be built around a community center. The Palace Hotel has been empty for 40 years. It could have been torn down years ago and provided housing for hundreds of people within walking distance to restaurants, schools and large commercial businesses like the hospital.

Cities and counties have the financing infrastructure to buy up land and develop it themselves, instead of waiting for a private developer to come along and figure out how to make it profitable. Building homes seems to be a moneymaker for thousands of corporations and private contractors. It is certainly profitable for bankers and realtors, and ultimately homeowners watching as their properties appreciate.

One of the biggest issues is that building is a boom/bust trade. When the bust comes, it decimates the industry and contractors go broke and it takes years to recover the momentum. Counties and cities taking charge of building their own housing would change that dynamic.

Our choices are wide and varied and some are more cost efficient and effective than others: Try to speed up private development plans already pending; authorize the government to issue bonds and create an organization to build housing on behalf of the community without waiting for private developers; incentivize individuals to take on the cost to build houses one at a time; de-incentivize short term rentals through taxes and fees; reduce the bureaucratic baggage and cost associated with construction; increase density and multi use developments like Windsor did in their downtown area; allow more mobile home parks; encourage a tiny home settlement area; build co-housing; convert empty commercial buildings to housing.

We dither and debate for decades and the problem only grows, and the more housing insecurity threatens everyone. It’s not just lack of vision and the entrenchment of old rules confounding our leaders – It’s a wholesale misunderstanding by the public as well of the cascading impact that the housing crisis is creating. Instead of building lasting shelter for people, billions of public dollars are re-directed to crisis care and medical care for the needy, the homeless, the mentally ill. Even a functioning person will eventually fall into despair if they lose their housing and jobs.

We are paying for the crisis in housing already – we are just not directing the money where it needs to go: into actual homes to shelter people.

UKIAH SETTLES WITH MAGDALENO FOR $212K, $92.5K OF WHICH GOES TO ATTORNEY

The city of Ukiah has agreed to pay $212,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that Ukiah Police officers used excessive force and violated their department’s policies during an “unlawful and discriminatory” arrest of Gerardo Magdaleno in Ukiah last year.

The suit was filed Dec. 1 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Gerardo Magdaleno, “by and through his Guardian Ad Litem, Pedro Francisco Magdaleno.” The defendants in the suit were the city of Ukiah, Justin Wyatt, who was the Ukiah Police Chief at the time of the April 1, 2021, arrest of Magdaleno, as well as four officers described as directly involved in the incident: UPD Lt. Andrew Phillips, Officer Saul Perez, Officer Jordan Miller and Officer Alex Cowan.

According to court documents recently filed and posted on the website MendoFever.com, the defendants made a settlement offer in January that was rejected. However, on Feb. 8, Magdaleno’s “life circumstances had deteriorated to such a point that (his brother and guardian) felt it was necessary to attempt to settle the lawsuit and use those funds for his immediate benefit.”

The court documents then explain that the parties “conferred on several occasions and reached a resolution of the matter: $211,000 plus reasonable attorney fees and costs for a release of all claims. The parties agreed that those fees and costs would total $92,511.78. With the attorney receiving 40-percent, the total award to plaintiff is $126,000, and the attorney notes that two checks were received from the defendants on March 7.

On Thursday, the city of Ukiah announced that a firm it hired to perform an “independent investigation” of the arrest had found “no sustained finding that Ukiah PD actions violated the department’s use of force policy.”

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

2AM IN UKIAH

On Friday, March 11, 2022 at approximately 7:40 AM, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to investigate a domestic violence incident.

Deputies contacted a 28-year old adult female in the 1200 block of Eunice Court in Ukiah.

During the contact, Deputies learned the adult female had reportedly been physically assaulted by her child's father, Benjamin Blomgren, 37, of Ukiah, at about 2:00 AM earlier in the day.

During the incident, Blomgren pushed the adult female and attempted to take her cell phone multiple times. During the struggle the adult female sustained visible injuries to her right wrist and her left forearm.

During the investigation, Deputies located Blomgren in the 700 block of Talmage Road in Ukiah, and placed him under arrest for Felony Domestic Violence Battery.

Blomgren was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

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1300 NO. STATE

On Thursday, March 10, 2022 at approximately 7:56 P.M., Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a domestic violence incident that was taking place in front of a business in the 1300 block of North State Street in Ukiah.

The involved adult male was described as wearing no shirt and the involved 31-year old adult female was described as wearing a black jacket. The two subjects were walking northbound away from the front of the business.

Upon arrival, the Deputies located both subjects as they were arguing loudly and both appeared to be intoxicated.

The adult male was identified as David Brown, 25, of Ukiah and it was determined the couple was engaged in a romantic dating relationship.

Through their investigation, Deputies learned Brown had pushed the adult female to the ground which caused her to suffer injuries to her left hand and right elbow. Deputies observed the visible injuries on the adult female's left hand and right elbow.

Deputies subsequently placed Brown under arrest for domestic violence battery and he was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

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ALSO AT 1300 N. STATE 

(Are there any unarmed felons in this county?)

On Friday, March 11, 2022 at 12:09 A.M., Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were leaving the scene of an unrelated investigation when they noticed a vehicle parked in a parking stall of a motel in the 1300 block of North State Street in Ukiah.

An adult male, identified as Curtis Bettega, 38, of Covelo, had been contacted driving the vehicle by Deputies a couple of weeks prior. Bettega was now currently wanted on five felony arrest warrants and two misdemeanor arrest warrants issued in Mendocino County.

The Deputies saw an adult female watching them from a nearby upstairs motel room. Being as the vehicle was parked right under this room, they went up and spoke with the adult female about the whereabouts of Bettega.

It was eventually learned that Bettega was in the bathroom of the motel room. Bettega exited the bathroom at the verbal request of the Deputies and was placed under arrest for his warrants.

While walking to the patrol vehicle, the Deputies confirmed the vehicle they had seen parked below the motel room was Bettega's vehicle. Deputies learned Bettega had been driving the vehicle and the vehicle's keys were in his backpack in the motel room's bathroom.

A visual search of the vehicle's passenger area was conducted from outside the vehicle and a pump action shotgun was seen in the back seat. The keys to the vehicle were retrieved and the unloaded shotgun was removed from the vehicle. Bettega is prohibited by law from possessing a firearm.

Bettega was also placed under arrest for unlawful possession of the firearm and for committing a crime while out on bail. This was in addition to his five felony arrest warrants and two misdemeanor arrest warrants.

Bettega was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $338,000 bail.

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GRAND SLAM FOR 1300 N. STATE — 3 WOMAN BEATERS AND AN ARMED FELON

On Wednesday, March 9, 2022 at approximately 3:06 PM, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to possible domestic violence incident in the 200 block of Hospital Drive in Ukiah.

While Deputies were responding they were informed the suspect, who was identified as Justin Michels, 31, of Ukiah, was standing outside of the building at this specific location.

Once on scene, Deputies learned the 38-year old adult female was currently pregnant with Michels' child. Deputies also learned the domestic violence incident had originally occurred earlier in the day in the 1300 block of North State in Ukiah.

Earlier in the morning around 7:00 AM, the adult female and Michels became engaged in an argument and he physically assaulted her by pushing her, put his hands around her throat and began choking her. Michels continued his assault by slapping her multiple times, headbutted her and threatened her life.

Shortly after the assault, the adult female was able to escape from the situation by leaving the immediate area.

Deputies observed visible injuries on the adult female consistent with the reported incident.

Deputies arrested Michels for Felony Domestic Violence Battery.

A search incident to arrest revealed suspected methamphetamine in Michels wallet. A charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance was added to Michels' arrest charges.

Michels was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on the listed charges and was to be held in lieu of $35,000 bail.

CATCH OF THE DAY, March 13, 2022

JAMES ANDEREGG, Ukiah. Robbery, paraphernalia. (Frequent flyer.)

TABOR BAILEY, Fort Bragg. More than 2.5 oz of tear gas, paraphernalia.

JESSE BLANTON, Philo/Fort Bragg. Under influence, resisting, threatening, damaging someone else’s property.

GRANT BURNHAM, Ukiah. Protective order violation, probation revocation.

JESSE DUGGER, Ukiah. Domestic battery, protective order violation, probation revocation.

COURTNEY FETT, Ukiah. Camping in Ukiah.

JUAN LOZANO, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

BRANDI MARTIN, Kelseyville/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MICHAEL MERTLE, Ukiah. Controlled substance, saps or similar weapons.

NICHOLAS WHIPPLE, Covelo. Unspecified offense.

SIERRA WILSON, Fort Bragg. Parole violation. 

JONATHAN WOLFE, Redwood Valley. County parole violation.

UKRAINE COMPLEXITIES

by Marilyn Davin 

The urgency of the situation in Ukraine begs for a broader discussion not in evidence among chattering semi-literate news readers obsessed with the personal: the man caught on tape at the moment he was shot down in the street, the ever-more-crowded underground subway stations packed with frightened civilians (“What’s it like living down here?”), women clutching babies as they stumble along paths amid smoking, bombed-out buildings, the up-close-and-personal horror of it all, direct to your TV and smartphone, 24/7.

In this chaotic emotional stew it’s hard to take time to reflect on the gestalt of it all, yet national and international policies should demand it. World leaders are struggling to come up with their own answers to basic critical questions like: What should we do? What’s in our own best interests? What’s our responsibility to one another as members of a world community? What’s called the “optics” have also become key factors in our interconnected digital world as leaders assess the strengths and weaknesses of their own friends and foes in a fruitless effort to predict what the future may hold for them in different future scenarios─in other words, what will my image be on the world stage if I support x instead of y?

It’s easy to get bogged down with the emotional baggage of our own beliefs and views of historic precedent. In our own country these prompt sticky questions like: Is Ukraine’s situation similar or different from what happened in Korea? Vietnam? Iraq or Afghanistan? How should perpetrators, if judged to be so, pay for their crimes? Too little and they may feel chastened or even emboldened instead of punished; too harshly and we may face an unintended future backlash like the fallout from the draconian Versailles Treaty, which was debated for nearly a year by the Allies in 1919 but still set the stage for World War Two a mere 20 years later (ah, but didn’t it feel great to press our collective feet down upon the Nazi neck?). Ghosts of wars past haunt the present.

Though politicians may quibble over Biden’s voting record in the U.S. Senate over the course of his many decades in Congress (and there is much to quibble about), so far as I write this he has remained steadfast in (sort of) keeping the U.S. out of this game militarily. In this new world view, arming others to fight for you doesn’t count as actually fighting anyone. 

So aside from killing everybody involved, what’s left? Sanctions, of course, which in the past have had mixed results. Jimmy Carter’s grain and technology embargo following Russia’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan didn’t accomplish much, though it did hurt American grain farmers. But it wasn’t painful enough. The world today is so much more interconnected than it was back then that maybe sanctions this time around against Russian oil and gas (Russia’s most profitable business) among other sanctions will be crippling enough to halt Putin in Ukraine. But I doubt it; this feels way too personal for him to throw in the towel. A more likely eventual outcome could be eating a gun inside one of his palaces. Sanctions also have ripple effects. Tough sanctions hurt civilians far outside the kill zone, in this case including Europeans who depend on gas and oil from Russia to heat their homes, drive their cars, and cook their food. Vodka lovers will have to suck it up and drink a different brand. 

Every crime has a context, which has become a hard sell in today’s polarized, black-and-white, in-your-face world. To say that there are reasons that Putin did what he did is to be called a Putin apologist (and a commie, to boot). Mainstream media don’t do context, though you don’t have to do much digging to find context here. Historians are combing through documents from the Boris Yeltsin presidency of the 1990s to determine what if anything the Bill Clinton administration actually promised Putin in the glide-path to the breakup of the Soviet Union. Even though not codified into law, it does appear that there was a pledge to Yeltsin that the U.S. would not support expansion of NATO eastward beyond a reunified Germany. Though NATO is technically a consortium of independent countries there’s little doubt that the U.S. is its titular head; reporters now routinely state “the U.S. and NATO,” as totally separate entities. If you look at a map today Ukraine is surrounded on two sides by NATO members, and western military facilities have been erected in Poland close to its border with Ukraine. 

So there is a context, which slightly raises Putin to the status of cruel guy with a long-standing beef from that of a guy who’s just a garden-variety sadist with a lot of power. It was Abraham Lincoln who famously said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” He might have added that backing the powerful into a corner has had unpredictable consequences throughout the sorry history of humanity on our shared planet. 

Those of us who have raised teenagers have a deeply personal appreciation for the limits of punishment. It can be effective short term but is never sustainable. If Putin has any capacity for reflection he can’t fail to recognize that essential truth in the bloody history of his own country. And of ours. 

UKRAINE AS DOSTOEVSKY NOVEL

by Ellen Taylor

Hatred for Russia is surging. A University in Italy even cancelled a course on Dostoevsky, one of Russia’s famous writers of the nineteenth century. Looked at differently however, Ukraine is actually turning into a Dostoevsky novel. Here the characters are nations, so they are already larger than life. And they are as passionate, as uncontrollable and as doomed as the people of the Brothers Karamazov.

We have Zelensky, personifying the Ukraine who is undone by desire. He whines to be something he is not: European. Wanting to be European, that is, worldly and sophisticated, is a supposed Russian character trait which European nations and Russian novelists have mocked for centuries. Peter the Great made all his boyars cut off their beards to appear more civilized. An old expression “Scratch a Russian, you’ll find a Tatar” exposes the racism behind it.

Zelensky wants to be European, a member of NATO, so badly, he’s willing to sacrifice his country. And he has.

Then we have the European nations, a coterie of NATO members who fear, admire and follow the United States. They are sycophants. They lack moral conviction. Because they fear their leader and also, like jackals following a lion, they will get something out of it, they will commit deeds they know to be wrong.

There is the United States, powerful and calculating, with its strategy for world domination formulated in the 90s, the malevolent and infamous PNAC, the Plan for a New American Century. In Ukraine, as in Afghanistan in 1978, with the Mujahedeen, the plan is to arm others to instigate or intensify conflict, and lure and provoke Russia into invasion and ruin. In Ukraine, as it had in Afghanistan, it encouraged violence, flooded in arms, built bases and conducted exercises, to compel a fear-driven invasion from Russia.

Back at home, the monster war budget gets a growth spurt, hatred is fueled, and propaganda, with great skill, tricks the people into believing the Orwellian creed of War is Peace.

The US’s and NATO’s sin, in the religious eye of Dostoevsky the most dreadful, is the failure to love or to have understanding and compassion. These values are encompassed in what the Bible calls the greatest virtue of all: charity.

Russia is personified by Putin, a character created by the harsh and chaotic conditions of the Russian history of his life. He is tormented, provoked and threatened, and finally and dramatically loses control and commits the fatal sin, the terrible act of murder, murder of those he loves.

And he commits, in the context of international law, the mother of all war crimes, which only the US and NATO are allowed to commit: launching an aggressive war.

In Dostoevsky novels there are frequently peasants, or serfs, in the background. That’s us, and the rest of the people in the world. We get squeezed for more taxes, or sanctioned or bombed. We are ignorant and have no control over events. We serfs dimly recognize that we are doomed, and we weep.

Dostoevsky novels are usually tragedies, and this one will not end well either. The wounds are too deep and the sins are too mortal. To end it, we can not simply promise to keep NATO out of Ukraine, and recommit to the armaments treaties we broke, as we could have, two weeks ago. before the invasion. This war will burn up megatons of fossil fuel, warm and pollute the planet, ruin yet another part of earth's surface, turn millions more into impoverished and rootless wanderers, and create even more more chaos. People say Putin has gone mad, but NATO and the US went insane long ago.

(Ellen Taylor can be reached at ellenetaylor@yahoo.com)

ORWELL WAS RIGHT 

From free speech to "spheres of influence" to our passion for endless war, we've become the doublethinkers 1984 predicted

by Matt Taibbi

This weekend I re-read 1984, a book I tend to reach for when I get Defcon-1 depressed about the state of the world. Deep in the novel, Winston ponders the intricacies of doublethink:

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them. To forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again — that was the ultimate subtlety.

In the last weeks, Russia took an already exacting speech environment to new extremes. A law was passed that would impose 15-year prison sentences for anyone spreading “fake news” about the Ukraine invasion; access was cut to Facebook and Twitter; stations like Moskvi and Rain as well as BBC Russia, Radio Liberty, the Times, Welle, Latvia-based Meduza were effectively shut down; Wikipedia was threatened with a block over its invasion page; and national authorities have appeared to step in to prevent coverage of soldiers killed in the war, requiring local outlets to use terms like “special operation” instead. The latter development is connected to the state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, issuing a remarkably desperate dictum requiring news outlets to “use information and data received by them only from official Russian sources.”

Russia also appears in the middle of a general crackdown on local media, not so much because those outlets are dissenting, but because they’re more likely to provide indirect evidence of war failures or the effect of sanctions. The desperation to control news has grown to the point where Russian diplomats in foreign countries are pressuring state outlets in countries like Iran to stop using the term “war” to describe what’s going on in Ukraine.

On the flip side, a slew of actions have been taken to crack down on “fake news” and “misinformation” in the West. The big one was the European Union banning RT and Sputnik:

Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately. It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.

— Google Europe (@googleeurope) March 1, 2022

Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube also cut access to all Russian state media, because the EU sanctions also required that internet platforms delist any RT or Sputnik content, even from individuals. The statute reads, “As regards the posts made by individuals that reproduce the content of RT and Sputnik, those posts shall not be published, and if published, shall be deleted.”

Other governments across the West, from Australia to Canada, have taken similar actions. In the U.S., Google and YouTube disallowed Russian state media ads (following a request by Senator Mark Warner) and demonetized “a number of Russian channels,” including RT but also many non-Russian individuals, before proceeding to demonetize all individual Russian content creators, even the individuals opposing the invasion. Even DuckDuckGo, the speechier, more pro-privacy alternative to Google, announced it was de-ranking “sites associated with Russian disinformation.” A growing list of Westerners have seen accounts frozen for supposed parroting of Russian talking points or “abusive” commentary.

YouTube banned Oliver Stone’s documentary Ukraine on Fire, while Netflix is going so far as to shelve a production of Anna Karenina. In what might have been the craziest move of all, Meta reportedly followed up a decision to un-ban the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion with a mind-blowing decision to alter its hate speech policies to “allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion,” according to internal emails.

One would hope there would be at least a few Americans left who’d hear about Russia barring the BBC and Voice of America and at least recognize the sameness of the issue involved with banning RT and Sputnik. Or, seeing how pathetic and manipulative it is for Russians to prevent reporting on war casualties, we’d recall the folly of the ban we had for nearly twenty years on photographs of military coffins, or the continuing pressure on embeds to avoid publishing images of American deaths from our own war zones. We should be able to read that Twitter and Facebook are cracking down on the “fake accounts” spreading “misinformation” that “Ukraine isn’t doing well” and notice that Russia’s measures against “fake news” and “disinformation” about its own military failures — though far more draconian and carrying much more severe penalties — are rooted in the same concept.

We don’t, however, because we long ago reached the doublethink phase predicted by Orwell, where most of the population is conscious of double standards but ignores them effortlessly. A healthy person should be able to be horrified by what’s happening in Russia and also see a warning about the degradation that ensues from using “pre-emptive” force, or from trying to control discontent by erasing expressions of it. But years of relentless propaganda have trained Americans to doublethink their way out of such insights. Cornel West just laid all of this out in an interview with the New Yorker…

taibbi.substack.com/p/orwell-was-right

FAIR PLAY FOR PIGS

Editor: 

I never thought I could affiliate or side with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but the photo in the March 4 business section of the Press Democrat showing large pigs in Iowa literally stuffed inside pens with no room to turn around, much less move sideways, was sad and shocking. When one sees that photo, the storyline and content become miniscule. I thought the size of pens had been changed for all animals, not just chickens.

Audrey J. Chapman

Sonoma

RIP NCRA

On Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. the North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) held its final meeting.

While we have seen nearly 30 years of NCRA controversy and the agency has been on the brink of bankruptcy for years, we regret that the possibility of having train service on the North Coast is at an end.

With a law passed by local state Sen. Mike McGuire, the Great Redwood Trail Agency will officially take over the rail corridor at 11: 30 a.m. Monday. This new agency, created by SB 69, will take over the rail corridor and is charged with advancing the Master Plan later this fall and building the Great Redwood Trail on top of the current rail bed. When fully built, the Great Redwood Trail will run from the San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay, becoming the longest rail trail in America.

According to McGuire, “The Great Redwood Trail will be a game changer for the North Coast. Over 25,000 miles of former freight rail line have been transitioned to trails over the past 30 years throughout America and we couldn’t be more excited to move the Great Redwood Trail forward here in Northern California.”

The idea behind the Great Redwood Trail is creating a tourist destination for hikers, cyclists and nature lovers everywhere. Stretching from San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay, the Trail will encompass 300 miles of the some spectacular landscapes. McGuire believes the trail when complete will add significantly to the $93 billion California tourist industry.

We don’t doubt that the trail will be popular and may indeed become a economic plus for the North Coast. However, we also think the state over the past decades could have done more to make the NCRA a success. The state was always loathe provide the critical funding to restore the rail lines and the expectations of the railroad’s ability to immediately produce the revenue needed were unrealistic. Add to that years of operations that failed repeatedly and decisions that only led the railroad down the wrong path and this is the result: the loss of any chance of moving freight or passengers on the only rail lines left in this area.

We don’t blame McGuire for his efforts to make something of the debacle that was NCRA, and we applaud the enthusiam with which he brought the trail to reality.

We’re just sad that all the enthusiam for getting rail traffic up and running went nowhere.

(Ukiah Daily Journal Editorial; Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal.)

COMING NEVER

TIME FOR FORT BRAGG TO BOARD THE TRAIN

Editor,

In recent weeks, there have been dueling columns in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News between some members of the Fort Bragg City Council and Mendocino Railway, which operates the iconic Skunk Train. The primary reason is city leaders will not meet with us to discuss the future of the former George Pacific mill site.

It’s time for city leaders to abandon an unwarranted lawsuit and replace the saber-rattling with productive dialogue. The current political discourse could discourage private investment, leading the land to remain fallow, as it has for decades.

With the closing of the mill in 2002, there came the opportunity to repurpose the land. For nearly 20 years nothing was done with this premium property until Mendocino Railway purchased the northern portion of the waterfront property. Recognizing the potential of the land and value to the community, Mendocino Railway wasted no time to release a conceptual land use plan, even before acquiring the balance of the property to the south. The project will conform to environmental laws and local building standards, and environmental remediation will continue to remove toxins from the former mill site.

Like any large land-use project, it requires significant private investment and considerable public input, and our company is uniquely positioned to provide both. The conceptual plan will evolve as the project attracts interest from potential development partners and from those who live and work in Fort Bragg. The public is invited to join our collaborative process, not by riding the caboose, but by helping us drive the train.

There is also a real opportunity to transition the community from one that was once dependent on one major employer for jobs and tax revenue to another that is economically diverse and sustainable. While portions of the property will build upon the area’s strong and vibrant hospitality and tourism industry, it has even greater potential to attract high-paying jobs in the areas of technology, green energy, and medical/healthcare.

There are also public benefits to consider, many of which will appeal to residents and visitors alike, including new housing and public access to the beaches, parks, and trails, all the while ensuring that portions of the land is protected as open space for wildlife. Some have proposed a golf course or outdoor amphitheater. While the possibilities are endless, connectivity is important for this waterfront property. Additional train stations and rails could connect visitors and residents from Main Street to work and home, hotels and restaurants, and all the public amenities the property has to offer.

Unfortunately, while the court considers the city’s lawsuit, Fort Bragg City Council members are lobbying federal authorities to deny the railway a loan that is intended to improve and enhance existing railroad infrastructure along the 40-mile Redwood Route™ including refurbishments to Tunnel #1, which would restore the severed connection between the communities of Willits and Fort Bragg. Should the $21.5 million loan be granted, millions of dollars in labor and material will be invested in the region. Ironically, the loan has no connection to the mill site project. However, it is critically important for sustaining the railway’s operations and its ability to attract visitor dollars to both communities. We sincerely hope the city and those they encouraged to do the same withdraw their objections before it is too late.

Working together with the Fort Bragg community we can grow the local economy by increasing visitor spending for existing and future businesses, create quality jobs and expand waterfront access and outdoor activities that appeal to residents and visitors alike. Despite the past interaction we sincerely desire a better relationship with the Fort Bragg City Council. It is time for Mendocino Railway and the city’s leaders to get on the same track, moving towards a more promising future together. We are prepared to meet.

Robert Jason Pinoli, Mendocino Railway

Fort Bragg

ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - TRUST OUR EXPERTS, GIVE THEM MONEY

by Tommy Wayne Kramer 

A recent column examined some of the ways we get ourselves worked up over imaginary threats to society, like the impact video games have on the fragile emotional states of our children, how GMOs destroy DNA, and the science behind avoiding microwave ovens.

This week let’s go at it from the opposite end. Let’s look at botched predictions of a grand future once we allowed experts to show us the way. A wonderful new dawn would bring endless bounty when society adopted hot new trends with fancy names, extravagant promises, and topnotch public relations campaigns.

ENERGY: Wind machines and solar power would soon generate limitless, free energy and eliminate the need for fossil fuels, (remember End of Oil predictions?) after a few technological kinks were worked out. So far wind machines have done nothing but kill a lot of birds. Electric cars are for rich people who enjoy spending hours in Ukiah charging their batteries then limping up to Garberville to do it again.

Folks, it’s been 50 years. Some gains have been made in powering homes, but cars and airplanes will run on sun juice about the same time flying carpets and women riding broomsticks are using commuter lanes.

(NOTE: The same people who advocated all the alternative power schemes also predicted we’d soon be living in Yurts and Geodesic domes, growing our own food and that The Simple Living Workshop would be a national holiday.)

HOMELESSNESS was considered a minor, easily vanquished social ill that professionals and nonprofit agencies would solve with proven strategies and services. Handing out money to panhandlers only made matters worse, they said, because giving a bum a buck meant he’d go waste it on cheap vodka.

Instead it was proposed that we give 50 billion bucks to the professionals so they could build empires on the backs of the homeless. Today you can drive down Ukiah’s State Street and, block after block, marvel at their vision, honesty and problem solving skills. All those earnest, gaudy promises backfired horribly, unless building an empire with government money was the goal all along.

EDUCATION by the 1970s was a dreary business. Sharp thinkers told us forcing students to remember dates, learn to read by repetition, or acquire math skills by rote memorization only provided students empty, meaningless skills. This outdated, non-thinking approach to learning was short-sighted and misguided.

A new wave of educators armed with PhD’s promised innovative strategies and a bright new scholastic future via Classes Without Walls, Learning Without Borders, and students grading themselves. Today we have Harvard math professors advising students that 1 + 1 no longer equals 2, which suggests we’ve come a long way, baby, but the direction we’ve traveled ought to be scrutinized.

While on the path to an improved educational system, college campus indoctrination and censorship became common, American history was no longer taught, campus rape hoaxes were frequent, and no academic pursuit was valued more highly than Diversity (of everything but opinion.) Leftwing theories only, thank you.

Today universities are suppressing free speech, harassing conservatives whether professors or visiting speakers, tearing down statues, desecrating monuments, renaming buildings, adding safe spaces and inventing micro-aggressions.

Now let’s meet the new head Chaplain at Harvard University: an atheist. This is the reality of Higher Learning in the 21st century, but the question remains: Higher than what?

PUBLIC ART: Another sickness has crept up on an unwitting society by unseen forces working to make art ugly and repulsive. Often they use children to shield whatever motivates them to ruin civic spaces, museums and galleries. Look at Ukiah and the monstrous displays all around town of so-called art.

What was once supposedly avante garde is now a nonstop assembly line of art-flavored junk that a sane society would send straight to a landfill. In Ukiah it hangs on buildings and walls and insults us daily with visual assaults via awkward displays of muddy colored jumbles of subject matter both idiotic and childish.

Today’s performance art practitioners and stagers of poetry readings are further evidence that grant money ruins artistic integrity every time, with the public paying the price, twice.

CYBER-TOPIA: We all recall rosy predictions of the magic a good hard dose of the internet would bring: Unfettered access to all the information in the world resulting in a million voices ringing out, a million voices heard.

Total knowledge! Complete empowerment! Diverse opinions! Free cookies!

We’ve travelled just a few short miles on the Information Superhighway, but we’re already lost, confused, and more than a little suspicious of the silent bargain we’ve struck with this unleashed internet monster. Can the cyber beast be tamed?

Its power seems that of the gods, but more mighty and wrathful than Thor, Poseidon and Zeus combined.

(Strolling up East Perkins Tom Hine noticed a cluster of empty businesses: Curry’s Furniture, the old Lido / Sunset Grille / Perkins Street Bar, and the BBQ joint across the street. TWK wonders what assistance the city plans to provide struggling businesses around town, given there’s many millions of bucks to buy motels for homeless folks arriving from Tacoma and Pensacola, plus benefits and programs to keep more impoverished bodies rolling in from all across the country.)

FLOW KANA CASH

To the Editor: 

Past Boards of Supervisors here in Mendocino County were giddy with delight when Flow Kana started spreading their cash around in 2016-2020.

I saw Supervisors (also candidates) at Flow Kana events standing around the food wagons and face painting booths, and they were practically peeing on themselves with excitement.

Carmel Angelo led the parade of Flow Kana cheerleaders. 

What wasn't there to cheer about? After all, Flow Kana had tens of millions in shareholder equity -- most of it venture capital -- and they had Jason Adler's $145 million in debt. 

Then Flow Kana "leaked" internal documents projecting $2 billion in revenue by 2022. 

But it was all a lie.

Jason Adler's strategy of "loan to own" kicked in once Flow Kana missed an installment payment on its debt. 

Like iAnthus, Jason Adler now owns Flow Kana...all its properties, all its brands, all its relationships, and all its distribution. And Flow Kana is not honoring some of their contracts with farmers, leaving them destitute in a wholesale business where the margins are already razor thin.

Cushioning Jason Adler loss on his debt was all the shareholder equity. Shareholders got nothing in the hostile takeover.

Jason Adler is brilliant!

Bottom line?

Please support farmer owned supply chains. Please support cooperatively owned supply chains.

And remember, 90% of the value of cannabis is created in the supply chain. Farmers get 10%. Just like with any other crop, small independent farmers can't survive on 10% and get pushed out by big money and agribusiness.

Whether you are buying organic veggies, fruits, and flowers, or buying cannabis, support Farmers Markets! 

Thank you.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

KOCH INDUSTRIES CONTINUES DOING BUSINESS IN RUSSIA

Koch Industries, the conglomerate run by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch, has numerous ongoing business operations in Russia. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Koch Industries has given no indications that those business operations have been suspended. On the contrary, the limited public comments made by Koch subsidiaries operating in Russia indicate that their business activities have continued.…

popular.info/p/a0e675e6-7947-4f34-820b-1dc9a1498636

HOUSEWIVES FOR UKRAINE

REMINDER FROM THE COAST DEMOCRATIC CLUB:

We will be voting on local election endorsements for the Club at our April 6th meeting at 6 PM at Jughandle Meeting Room. You can join or renew your club membership at www.coastdemocraticclub.org 

You must be a member of the club to be eligible to vote at this meeting BY APRIL 15.

TRUMP CALLS ON SUPPORTERS TO 'LAY DOWN THEIR VERY LIVES' TO DEFEND US AGAINST CRITICAL RACE THEORY

Former President Donald Trump called on his supporters to "lay down their very lives" to fight against Critical Race Theory at a rally in Florence, South Carolina, on Saturday night.

During a speech that lasted a little under an hour, Trump told a crowd that eliminating Critical Race Theory from schools is a "matter of national survival."

Critical Race Theory is an academic practice that explores how America's history of racism and discrimination continues to impact the country today. 

"The fate of any nation ultimately depends upon the willingness of its citizens to lay down, and they must do this, lay down their very lives to defend their country," Trump said on Saturday night, appearing to suggest that Americans should die for the cause.

"If we allow the Marxists, and communists, and socialists to hate America, there will be no one left to defend our flag or to protect our great country or its freedom," he continued.…

businessinsider.com/video-trump-tells-supporters-lay-down-lives-battle-against-crt-2022-3