Mendocino County Today: Monday, April 4, 2022

Cold Front | Greenwood Mill | Ukraine | Mendo Proclamation | Pancake Breakfast | Ad Hocing | Weed Patch | McFadden's Rant | Tulips | Other People's Money | Capitalist Jackals | Ed Notes | Police Reports | Archie Cameron | Grid Fail | 58 Bonneville | Poetry Celebration | Yesterday's Catch | PPP Fraud | Norway/USA | Pandemic/Taxes | Devil Skates | Newsom Contradiction | Mr. Moneybags | Dog, Gone | Bighorn Survivor | Big Reform | Pharaonic | Mortality | Richard Howard | Law Family | Piketty Interview

A COLD FRONT will bring a chance of rain today. Rain will wind down this evening, followed by some clearing and possible frost for interior valleys Tuesday morning. A warming and drying trend is expected Wednesday and Thursday, before another front brings substantial cooling and windy conditions this weekend. (NWS)

UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT Volodymyr Zelensky appeared virtually at Sunday night's the Grammys to plead with Americans to help him end Russia’s invasion of his country. In a poetic address to the crowd, Zelensky said: ‘Fill the silence with your music. Fill it today. To tell our story. Tell the truth about this war on your social networks, on TV. Support us in any way you can. Any – but not silence. And then peace will come. To all our cities the war is destroying.’ Earlier in his speech, Zelensky referenced the 153 children killed, and 400 others injured, during the Russian conflict. He also told of people grateful to be waking up in bomb shelters, because it meant they’d survived another night’s bombardment. Zelensky spoke hours after Russia was accused of war crimes in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Irpin. At least 410 civilians were killed there, some with hands tied behind their backs. Ex-heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitchsco has accused Vladimir Putin of ‘genocide’ after mass graves were found on the outskirts of Kyiv. 

THE UKRAINE REPORT: April 3, 2022

Ukraine’s prosecutor-general says 410 civilian bodies have been recovered in the areas Russia withdrew from in the wider Kyiv region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of carrying out a genocide in his country.

Ukraine says it has regained control of “the whole Kyiv region” after Russian forces retreated from key towns near the Ukrainian capital.

Zelenskyy says retreating Russian troops are leaving behind land mines, creating a “catastrophic” situation. — Al Jazeera

AV GRANGE SECOND SUNDAY PANCAKE BREAKFAST

Here we go. It’s becoming an institution again. This Sunday April 10, 8:30-11:00am.

We got it going on. It’s Home, Home on the Grange. Masks are welcome and there is room to social distance, we serve you, so there aren’t too many fingers in the syrup.

But it’s feeling more and more homey. We got secret recipe pancakes (gluten free on request), maple syrup, fruit toppings, special custom bacon, fresh eggs, juice and coffee or tea. You can bring your own utensils or use our disposables.

Nice to see families with kids coming. And the live music, Leslie, Michael and Franny play a perfect blend of down-home but worldly tunes that make the toes tap and helps the digestion too. Plus it won’t break the bank. Where else can you get a full breakfast for $10 or less? And don’t forget the company, come hang out safely with your friends and neighbors. With the opening of spring flowers we are starting to open up too! 

See you there. (Captain Rainbow)

GEORGE DORNER COMMENTED: Isn’t the use of ad hoc committees an end run around the requirements of the Brown Act?

Mark Scaramella replies: There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with ad hoc committees which can be useful in doing research and preparing white papers and recommendations on specific assignments. But in Mendo they’ve become a way to sidestep and dither on important issues. The Supervisors themselves don’t seem capable of focusing and preparing organized presentations or proposals. 

Last year, for example, Supervisors Williams and Mulheren assigned themselves to an ad hoc committee to develop improved ways to report on mental health and substance abuse services. But that too has disappeared, despite Williams saying at the time that our suggestion of simply reporting how many release plans were written and how many didn’t relapse would be a good indicator. (Ms. Schraeder’s “data dashboards” are meaningless, out-of-context numbers which don’t provide any basis for evaluation and don’t track trends. The Kemper Report format was much better and could still be useful.) 

At a minimum ad hoc committees should have specific instructions, have hard deadlines, and be required to report monthly on their meetings and status, including when they met, what they did, who attended and when they’ll be finished. But Mendo can’t even manage ordinary monthly department budget and status reports, so ad hoc overuse and abuse will probably continue.

PS. They also don’t follow their own “Rules of Procedure”:

“Rule 31. Ad Hoc Committees

Ad hoc committees may be formed by Chair directive or Board action and shall include prescribed duties and membership of the committee. Status reports from ad hoc committees shall be made to the Board at each regular meeting [our emphasis]. Ad hoc committees are encouraged to conclude their business at the end of each calendar year but may be extended at the recommendation of the committee and approval of the Board. The Chief Executive Officer/Clerk of the Board will maintain a current index of ad hoc committees and their purpose.

GONE FROM THE GOLDEN HILLS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY

GRAPE GROWER PIPE DREAMS

To the Editor:

The Eel River’s embattled salmon and steelhead may have no better enemy than Guinness McFadden. In his recent letter to the Editor, the Potter Valley wine grape grower kicks up a fuss about Representative Jared Huffman’s efforts to help reach a proactive solution to the issues raised by the pending expiration, this April 14, of PG&E’s license to operate the Potter Valley Project. But McFadden’s unfiltered fury at the prospect of Eel River dam removal only shows how bankrupt Potter Valley’s arguments are.

McFadden denounces what he calls Huffman’s “woke environmental radical” agenda in noting that impacts on Eel River salmon and steelhead will restrict Project operations while PG&E is decommissioning the dams.

But it’s not radicals, but the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that says coverage for “take” of listed Eel River salmon and steelhead expires with PG&E’s license. And it’s NMFS that has put PG&E and federal dam regulators on notice that “the Project is causing take of ESA-listed salmonids.” And it is NMFS that has outlined the Interim Protective Measures that will, in fact, restrict Project operations.

McFadden sputters that Huffman “falsely claims hundreds of miles of a mythical Holy Grail of pristine spawning grounds upstream of Lake Pillsbury when in fact there are fewer than 50 miles.” But again, it’s McFadden who’s refusing to follow the facts.

NMFS researchers just assessed the salmon and steelhead habitat blocked by Scott dam for the past century. Their paper shows dam removal will be like adding another of the Eel’s most productive tributaries, with between 105 and 290 miles of steelhead habitat. The upper basin has cold water habitat lacking downriver, essential for juvenile steelhead growth and for protection from voracious pikeminnow introduced by the Project. The scientists found “enabling access to the blocked Upper Mainstem subbasin could likely support populations of winter-run steelhead trout, summer-run steelhead trout, and fall-run Chinook salmon, even during warm months and during exceptionally warm and dry years like 2015.”

Of course, McFadden’s not dumb. He knows all this stuff. But he has many acres of vineyards to water and his own hydroelectric plant to run. McFadden’s real problem is that he wants to keep getting plenty of Eel River water at far below its true cost. But Potter Valley’s demand that someone else pay hundreds of millions of dollars upfront and tens of millions of dollars a year just to keep the obsolete, fish-killing Eel River dams in place was always a pipe dream.

Scott Greacen, Conservation Director, Friends of the Eel River

Humboldt County

WHO SIGNED WHAT, WHEN AND WHY?

by Malcolm Macdonald

Amy McColley resigned her position as chair of the Mendocino Coast Health Care District (MCHCD) Board of Directors near the end of a meeting held on March 31st. McColley cited her full time job in the healthcare field, the lack of support staff the district board suffers from, the number of hours required to prepare agendas, answer phone calls during her work hours, and other duties the chair performs as reasons she felt prevented her from continuing. Vice Chair Norman deVall chaired the last minutes of the board meeting after the resignation announcement. 

During closing board comments, McColley and MCHCD Board Treasurer John Redding engaged in a heated back and forth discussion. Redding asserted that during McColley's four months as chair the board lacked leadership. He was also angered because he felt McColley linked his name with the disappearance of zoom recordings on February 8th and withheld what he believes is exculpatory evidence. He stated that he has “engaged a prominent San Francisco law firm” on his behalf. He termed McColley's actions a form of retribution. 

He added that he feels the board majority (implying McColley, deVall, and Board Secretary Sara Spring) were “sweeping issues under the rug.” In this regard he referred to two payments made by McColley to attorney Jacob Patterson during February (one for more than $15,000) in what Redding called “defiance of the board's will.”

He added, “If we don't account for them [the aforementioned payments to Patterson], in my mind this board's betrayed the public trust.” 

Are you waiting for the twist, the inevitable turn of the screw in the soap opera that MCHCD Board meetings and behind the scenes actions have become? Hold onto your hats, it will come. 

Redding had another card up his sleeve. “If there's anybody on the Grand Jury listening tonight, please investigate us, please.”

He went on to call on McColley and Spring to resign from the MCHCD Board because of their use of Jacob Patterson after his contract as legal counsel was voted down at an August 26, 2021 board meeting then allegedly a majority of the board reaffirmed that decision at a February 24th closed session.

In his comments Redding seemed to link past chair Jessica Grinberg with Jacob Patterson on February 9th, the day after the presumed zoom disappearance. Redding stated that Grinberg and Patterson witnessed a forensic investigation into the disappearance by an Adventist Health IT employee. Redding asserted that the IT employee found multiple IP addresses on the suspect zoom system, but none of them were Redding's. He went on to say that Grinberg had apprised McColley of this three weeks ago. Redding accused McColley of refusing to release “exculpatory evidence” that would exonerate him of wrongdoing in the zoom disappearance case.

One could see Grinberg involved in this on February 9th in some sort of investigatory capacity, but why was Patterson needed? In a phone discussion with yours truly the day after the March 31st meeting, McColley stated she had contacted zoom personnel who demonstrated to her that the district's version of zoom did not support record keeping of identifiable IP addresses, thus she could not draw any definitive conclusion as to who might have caused the disappearance of the zoom recordings on February 8th. McColley also asserted she had not seen a written report about the supposed IT investigation on February 9th. She claimed that Grinberg took it upon herself, without board direction, to contact the Adventist Health IT employee to conduct a “forensic audit.” McColley added that her method of handling the February 8^th zoom disappearance involved contacting the County District Attorney's office to pursue the matter.

Called on by deVall, Grinberg stated, “I have a great deal of information. I expect to be deposed.” 

She did not make clear if that was by the DA's office, the Grand Jury, or some other entity. Grinberg noted that she is challenging the line items in Jacob Patterson's invoice for February 2022, in which Grinberg is cited in billings for February 8 (“Call from A. McColley and J. Grinberg re apparent deletion of meeting videos” - Quote from Patterson February 2022 invoice to MCHCD) and February 9 (“Call from J. Grinberg re follow-up about apparent deletion of meeting video and investigation of underlying facts” - again from Patterson’s February invoice), According to Patterson's invoice, the calls were one hour, six minutes and two hours, six minutes in duration, respectively. 

McColley is noted in forty-seven separate billings of Patterson's February invoice. Grinberg is listed in six, in half sharing notice with McColley. All of Grinberg's notations in Patterson's February invoice revolve around zoom videos or the investigation into zoom recording disappearances.

Grinberg went on to say, “Knowing that I will be deposed in this situation, I feel that it is not appropriate for me to comment. I do have personal knowledge that is in contrast to comments that have been made by the chair, well, now the former chair [meaning McColley].”

All of that doesn't count as a twist in the story, though it possessed winding road aspects, and a final comment from a member of the public who addressed “several board members” to the effect that when you find yourself in a hole, maybe it's time to put down the shovel. 

The day following the board meeting, the AVA acquired a document that appears to depict Board Treasurer John Redding approving, on his own, a 2022 payment of $16,473 to the legal firm of Best Best & Krieger (BB&K). This is the same John Redding who declared at the March 31st meeting that McColley's payment of slightly more than $15,000 to Patterson was “In defiance of the board's will.”

In part Redding was referring to the apparent defiance of the August 26, 2021 vote to deny Patterson a contract as legal counsel to the district. In addition, during January of 2021 and again in January 2022 the MCHCD Board passed resolutions that disbursement of the district's funds greater than $10,000 require the signatures of two board officers (the chair, the vice chair and/or the board treasurer). Otherwise such payments would require authorization by a vote of the full board at a public meeting. 

It appears Redding violated that Resolution himself with the single signature for the $16,473 payment to BB&K in February 2022. This leads us to a subject that I brought up at the end-of-March meeting during an agenda item titled “Treasurer's Report.” The corresponding Tab for this report contained a document called “Mendocino Coast Health Care District General Ledger.” Within that ledger was another disbursement of district funds to BB&K in February in an amount greater than $17,900. The district's bookkeeping service depicts it as paid, yet there has been no mention of this greater than $10,000 payment at any board meeting this year. It is unlikely this disbursement of taxpayer funds had the required dual signatures of multiple officers (which would have been two of three out of Redding, McColley, and deVall). 

The MCHCD General Ledger also depicts a mid-October disbursement of $23,500 to FTI Consulting for “CARES Audit prep.” There does not appear to be a corresponding action by the board of directors on or about that time approving this expenditure nor is there clear evidence of two officers of the board (at that time Chair Grinberg, Vice Chair McColley, Treasurer Redding) signing an authorization for the payment.

Those may look serious, and they are, but let's find the big potatoes in the bin. Between August 10, 2021 through March 4, 2022, MCHCD expenditures greater than $1,000,000 appear to have been made without full board authority a dozen times. It is unclear at this time whether any of those possessed the dual signatures of board officers required under their own resolutions. These expenditures ranged from one of more than $8.5 million, two of more than $5 million, two of more than $3 million, four of more than $2 million, and three expenditures of more than a million dollars each. Eight of these district expenditures occurred when Grinberg, McColley, and Redding were the board officers designated for the dual signature approvals. Four of the expenditures took place while McColley was board chair, deVall was vice chair and Redding was board treasurer.

How should these actions, or in-actions, be viewed? A March 30th email from MCHCD's bookkeeping service to then Chair McColley provides some major clues. The bookkeeper states, “I suggest that you seek the second approval on the prior bills for your documentation purposes... There are also recurring loan payments that prior to us [the bookkeeping service was first engaged by MCHCD in July 2021] also did not receive dual approval.

“Please also consider how are the transfers to AH [Adventist Health] being approved as they well exceed hundred[s] of thousands of dollars and at times millions, and they are 'transferring out' [of] MCDH bank accounts. During our call with Moss Adams [public accounting firm] it was stated that John [presumably Redding] approved them, but based on this, this is also noncompliant. Please explore your internal controls for all facets of approval and possibly draw up a flow chart of process and approval level.”

An out of the area, long-time observer and participant in these types of disbursements had an opinion on the matter after inspecting the MCHCD General Ledger. That person's assessment boiled down to, “Negligence,” then they threw in, “and lawyers would probably add the word 'Gross' [in front of negligence].” 

Want another kicker? Of course, you do. In a prior article, a source assured me and by extension you, the readers, that if Jacob Patterson's January 2022 invoice was discovered, said invoice would not contain mention of the names of MCHCD Board members John Redding, Jessica Grinberg, or Norman deVall. Well, in the semi-immortal words of Meat Loaf, “Two out of three ain't bad.”

That January Patterson invoice finally made its way into the hands of the AVA. The invoice mentions then Chair McColley in thirty billings. It mentions board secretary Spring seven times. It also notes board member Grinberg in two phone calls with Patterson. One of only six minutes on January 28th and a forty-two minute three person call between Grinberg, Patterson, and McColley on January 31^st commencing around 9 a.m. and apparently initiated by Grinberg. Since she has promised to challenge at least some of Patterson's February line items, the question here may be how many of these January billings Grinberg will challenge. 

Like a thriller that has seemingly ended but hasn't, the camera is still rolling. At one point in the March 31st discussion of the MCHCD General Ledger, McColley tried to make a point about the need for double signatures for all the disbursements over $10,000. 

Redding thought he was counterpunching in this statement. “When you started transferring money without my consent to Jacob Patterson..., I thought, well, I guess that policy doesn't really need to be enforced.”

If Redding was referring to his authorizing the $16,473 to BB&K, the ledger depicts that disbursement of funds going out from the district on the same day as two separate payments to Jacob Patterson, including the $15,101 McColley authorized. The ledger actually lists the BB&K $16,473 disbursement first. In addition, a $17,991 payment to BB&K is depicted on the ledger as going out about three weeks earlier than that. Both McColley and deVall deny signing off on either BB&K payment.

A January 28, 2022 email from an employee in the financial sector of Adventist Health to John Redding states, “Attached is the bank deposit listing from December 8, 2021 to January 27, 2022 that need[s] to be transferred to Adventist Health by 1/31/2022. Please approve for submission.”

Redding responded, “Yes, I approve the transfer.” Thus acting unilaterally on a potentially significant amount of money. He did cc the email to board chair McColley, but there is no record that Redding, as treasurer, reported this transaction to the full board or public in any February meetings. On January 31^st, the MCHCD General Ledger depicts a district expenditure of $5,420,514.

In an October 2021 finance report authored by Redding, he cites a district payment of approximately $135,000 going into the IGT (Intergovernmental Transfer) program. In his report Redding stated he estimated that the money invested in IGT would come back to the district “10 x what is put in.” That would have represented a $1,350,000 payment to MCHCD.

In a January report Redding changed his prognostication to around $500,000. At the end of March, in Redding's words, the actual payment back from IGT was $308,000. This is your MCHCD Treasurer.

Back to his original October report, which was part of the agenda and the report may have been approved by the board (there were only three members present that evening), however, the report indicates that Redding had already sent the $135,000 to IGT. There is nothing in the record that indicates Redding received board approval to do so beforehand.

Furthermore, the email from the bookkeeping service alluded to earlier states that disbursements have been going out with only a single signature since last summer. As one of her last acts as chair, McColley sent an email to the bookkeeping service to only disburse more than $10,000 at a time with double signatures, meaning two from either chair, vice chair, or treasurer, in keeping with the board resolutions for disbursements beyond that dollar amount. Part of the bookkeeper's response stated, “I suggest that you seek the second approval on the prior bills for your documentation process.”

These communications essentially confirm that under two board chairs and for at least nine months the MCHCD Board was not adhering to their own resolutions regarding authorizations of payments of greater than $10,000. The communications from the bookkeeping service indicate that this had been going on even farther back into the past. 

While the payments in millions to AH appear appropriate, the process established by the MCHCD Board itself has not been followed. The overriding point being, that like so many other things with this board, none of these payments were being disclosed to the public, from the tens of thousands to different attorneys or legal firms as well as consultants to the millions of dollars in disbursements to Adventist Health. It also points out the MCHCD Board cannot even do what they are supposed to do correctly; something as simple as payments or bills they were aware of in advance were not processed in the proper manner, with the appropriate oversight. 

A BLIND VETERAN of the Great War at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 13 November 1921. The sign that says “The residues of the great war, to their unknown comrade soiled by the capitalist jackals.”

ED NOTES

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives is a true crime doc on Netflix that tells the story of a trendo-groove-o veg-o restaurant in Manhattan whose successful proprietor, Sarma Melngailis, manages to somehow delude herself that she, her dog and her hustler boyfriend/husband will live forever if she simply does whatever he tells her to do. Primarily, he tells her to send him money. She isn't stupid, exactly, but both of them wind up in prison for fraud as she diverts nearly two million dollars from her thriving gastro-emporium to lover boy, a fat guy who tells her after they're married that he really isn't obese; he's wearing a “meat suit.” Love has never been blinder as the restaurant staff is stiffed for unpaid wages none of them can afford to lose. It's an odd but riveting saga, and highly recommended by your infallible Boonville film critic.

A CALLER ASKED, in passing, why an outback weekly like the ava devotes so much space to Ukraine. Because, I 'splained, it moots everything else if it spreads and Vlad goes to his nukes, which could wipe us all out in a final episode of man-made global warming. Being quite a ways past my pull date, I'm not worried about myself, but I am worried about my and everyone else's children and grandchildren who, even if this nuclear threat passes are still destined to grow up in a world of accumulating catastrophes.

HAVEN'T SEEN THE RESULTS posted yet, but Saturday's Fish Rock bike race — 

Fish Rock:

A road bike race for people who aren't afraid of a little hardcore gravel — drew what appeared to be several hundred very tough competitors.

"The ride was named after the fabled Fish Rock Road. We do a big-ass road ride to get to the base of it, and then we go over it. There are no bail-outs. But we support your journey. Then we celebrate at the finish. (The Boonville Brewery)

There's only one route for Fish Rock. It's 72.4 miles and 9,670 feet of elevation gain. The record is somewhere just under four hours. The course features 4 official aid stations.

We begin in Boonville and head west over the very long, beautiful, low-traffic Mountain View Road. After reaching the Pacific Ocean for a brief period we turn inland to make our return and tackle the one that inspired it all: Fish Rock. Quickly turning to gravel and pitching upward, you'll find yourself in a place unlike any other. For the next 25 miles, you'll have yourself, your legs and your heartbeat to keep you company."

STEVE, WE HARDLY KNEW YE. Actually, I did and do know STEVE McLAUGHLIN, the redoubtable publisher of the Independent Coast Observer, Steve's weekly newspaper based in Gualala. A mere sprout at age 73, Steve writes this week that he's “considering a path to the future,” and that he hopes to “ultimately find a successor.” Which seems to suggest that the cagey publisher is hoping to sell the paper and live out his golden years free from turbulent readers of his publication.

THE RUB, STEVE, is that paper-papers are about to become history, as you must know, and the only people who read paper-papers are people who grew up with them, people like us, me especially because the paper-paper was the entire daily media in my formative years. In them days (sic, patronizing regular guy usage deployed here ironically), people read newspapers and they read books. Those people are mostly now confined to the eternal library in the sky. The young 'uns are all electronic, and then there's television (where a large majority of Americans get all their info about the world), and movies, and music, and radio, and podcasts — we're daily bombarded with distractions, among which paper-papers are no longer one. Put a fork in us, Steve-o, we're done!

THE ONLY SOLID VALUE a Mendocino County newspaper-paper has is its legal adjudication to publish legal notifications. Which can be quite lucrative and which, in my case, I've had to go to court to preserve when vengeful local authorities tried to avoid placing them with me. Steve says private advertising of all types is the “oxygen of journalism.” More like chloroform or, as Orwell put it, “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.” I'm with George. Catering to the most… Well, Rotary does some good things, I suppose but if you're publishing a newspaper aimed at not offending the Rotary or Chamber of Commerce (or the Mendo supervisors and their CEO office) mentality, you're publishing a snoozer. If Steve manages to find a buyer, good for him. Pretty much a Prufrockian, ol' Steve, but not a bad guy all things considered.

DRUGS KILLED HER AT AGE 22 (UPDATE)

On Tuesday, March 29, 2022, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Coroner's Division completed its investigation into the January 11, 2022 death of Alyssa Sawdey, 22, of Ukiah.

The investigation determined Sawdey's cause of death as being “Acute Methamphetamine Toxicity” with no other significant contributory factors.

Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Detectives have also been actively investigating this case since 01-11-2022 and interviewed multiple people who had information related to Sawdey's activities prior to her death.

Based on those interviews, scene investigations and the finalized autopsy report, Sawdey's death has been classified as being an accidental death.

The Sheriff's Office would like to extend our condolences to Alyssa Sawdey's family and thank the community for their assistance during this investigation.

Original Press Release:

On 01-11-2022 at 10:06 AM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center received a call regarding a suspicious situation near the intersection of Parducci Road and Christy Lane in Ukiah.

A passing motorist reported seeing an unresponsive person laying near the roadway which prompted the call to the dispatch center.

Sheriff's Deputies responded to the area and located a deceased female adult who was subsequently identified as being Alyssa Mae Sawdey, a 22 year-old female from Ukiah.

Sheriff's Detectives were summoned to the scene and began an investigation into the circumstances of Sawdey's death.

On January 12, 2022 a forensic autopsy was conducted on Sawdey's body and official results of that autopsy are pending BA/Toxicology analysis which are expected to take several weeks before the results are returned to the Sheriff's Office.

At this time Sawdey's death is considered suspicious in nature and the investigation into her death is ongoing at this time.

There is no further information available for public release, at this time due, to the ongoing investigation.

Anyone who has information that could assist Sheriff's Detectives are urged to contacted the Sheriff's Office Tip-Line by calling 707-234-2100 or the WeTip anonymous crime reporting hotline at 800-782-7463.

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HUNGRY BURGLAR

On Tuesday, March 29, 2022 at about 4:36 PM Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a report of an unwanted subject who had entered a residence in the 24000 block of North Highway 101 in Willits.

Deputies responded to the residence and contacted a 45-year old adult female who reported she had returned home and observed a male subject who she did not know walking away from her residence. When she went inside her residence she noticed food items had been disturbed and eaten.

The adult female provided Deputies with a description of the male subject and a short time later Deputies contacted a subject, matching that description, walking northbound on North Highway 101 about a mile north of the adult female's residence.

The subject was identified as Ryan Okerstrom, 43, of Willits, and he was subsequently identified as the subject leaving the adult female's residence.

Okerstrom was arrested for burglary without incident. He was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

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KIMBERLY’S GOT A GUN & DOPE

On Friday, April 1,-2022 at 9:37 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies attempted to contact Kimberly House, 49, of Willits, at a residence in the 6000 block of Hearst Road in Willits.

House had a felony warrant for her arrest for the possession of a controlled substance for sale.

Deputies contacted House and placed her under arrest pursuant to the arrest warrant. House was found to be in possession of methamphetamine and heroin at the time of her arrest.

A search of the residence was conducted and more methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl was located. Deputies further located three digital scales and packaging material along with a firearm.

Additional charges of possession for sale of controlled substances and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm were added.

House was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

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WILLITS FUN COUPLE

On Friday, April 1, 2022 at 4:27 PM Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies went to a residence in the 29000 block of North Highway 101 (Willits) attempting to contact Jerald Diggs, 52, of Willits.

Diggs had a felony warrant for his arrest and as Deputies arrived, they observed Diggs leaving the location in a vehicle.

Deputies were able to catch up to the vehicle on Reynolds Highway and conducted a traffic stop. Deputies subsequently arrested Diggs pursuant to the felony warrant.

A search of the vehicle was conducted. Inside the vehicle, Deputies located four packages of suspected methamphetamine, and over two pounds of bud marijuana.

Deputies further located open alcoholic beverages, a used glass pipe used to smoke controlled substances, along with three cellular phones, a stun gun and indicia in the name of Randi Spencer,35, of Willits, in the vehicle. Deputies discovered evidence showing Diggs had been trading marijuana for methamphetamine.

Diggs was additionally charged with the possession and transportation of a controlled and transportation for sale of marijuana.

Diggs was booked into the Mendocino County Jail to be held in lieu of $35,000 bail.

Later that day at 7:53 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies went to Digg's residence after obtaining a search warrant.

Deputies contacted Spencer at the location and she was found to be in possession of methamphetamine and a used glass pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine on her person.

Inside the residence, Deputies located more methamphetamine, a digital scale, packaging material, and a large amount of marijuana in various processed forms.

Spencer was arrested for possession for sale of a controlled substance, Conspiracy and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Spencer was booked into the Mendocino County Jail to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

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FOG BELT CHOMO

On Tuesday, March 22, 2022 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was made aware of an allegation of continuous sexual abuse of a child who was reported to be (9) nine years-old.

Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Detectives were assigned to investigate the allegation in coordination with Mendocino County Child Protective Services social workers.

On Wednesday, March 23, 2022, following a day long investigation, probable cause was established which identified Antonio Borrero-Ginel, 35, of Fort Bragg, as the person responsible for the alleged abuse. Borrero-Ginel was believed to have continuous access to the child who was known to him.

Later that day at about 5:00 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies and Sheriff's Detectives responded to the 31000 block of Highway 20 in Fort Bragg and contacted Borrero-Ginel.

At about 7:00 PM, Borrero-Ginel was placed under arrest after continuing investigations and was transported to the Mendocino County Jail.

Borrero-Ginel was initially arrested for Continuous sexual abuse of child under 14 years-old and following additional investigation a different charge of Sexual intercourse with child under 10 years-old and Oral copulation of a child under 10 years-old were discovered and those charges were submitted to the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office for review of potential charging.

Borrero-Ginel was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $1,000,000 bail.

Anyone with information related to Antonio Borrero-Ginel or this investigation is asked to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at 707-463-4086 or the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-line at 707-234-2100.

PG&E'S LINE CLEARING, an on-line comment: "I have been hearing that wholesale clearing like PG&E is doing is not even good fire management policy. Trees cleared make way for brush and understory vegetation that is more flammable and grows faster, creating a ongoing maintenance situation and a MORE flammable area if not maintained. Tree thinning is a more balanced approach. What’s more, triple insulating the power lines is far more cost effective and works better in many cases.

PG&E has been completely caught with their pants down by the effects of Global Warming and is now playing catch-up but they seem to be almost clueless about conditions in the field. They are throwing out-of-state contractors at jobs where the actual management is done remotely, just an incredible disconnect and clusterf*ck.

I have lived off-grid for 30 years and paid my dues running a light or two for much of that time. I have a modern system now that runs EVERYTHING without a generator most of the time, reliable as hell.

It looks like PG&E will be passing on the heavy costs they are incurring and mismanagement will be a contributor to those costs. The grid will only become LESS reliable in the next few years, with more extreme weather and fire danger and energy demands.

If you can, go solar, baby! Modern batteries and components have revolutionized solar energy in the last few years even as the grid has degraded. When my neighbor was complaining bitterly last summer, “The power’s been out for DAYS!”, I responded “Really?”. I truly didn’t know.

And PG&E? They need to be totally revamped, de-privatized and imprisoned;) just kidding on the last one. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place right now, people screaming at them from every which way, when they shut the grid down, when they DON’T shut the grid down… and then there’s their ham-handed attempts to catch up! Poor PG&E! What a mess they got themselves into!"

MENDOCINO SPRING POETRY CELEBRATION 2022

Vivaldi Spring allegro, Canadian Brass

47th Anniversary - 17th consecutive Revival

Mendocino Spring Poetry Celebration 2022

Let's return physiquely to the Hill House in Mendocino when we all can participate comfortably in full fellowship. Meanwhile, the spirit continues on the waves of radio.

The Mendocino Spring Poetry Celebration invites your action in April for poetry submissions beginning in May, toward the poetry rally beginning June 5.

Send your poems, recorded by smartphone, one or more in a clip of up to four minutes, for performance on KZYX, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, starting June 5.

Dan Roberts, in his Sunday afternoon broadcasts of RhythmRunningRiver, will match your poems with the beat of world music, until everyone has been heard at least once in successive broadcasts. Last year's Celebration delivered the voices of 63 poets.

So, write during April, send a recording in May for broadcast in June. The submission window will be open from the 1st to the 20th of May.

April is National Poetry Month. Pursue your Muse! For more information, hear RhythmRunningRiver at kzyx.org this Sunday at 3 pm, or email me, gblack@mcn.org.

For tech advice, http://www.outfarpress.com/poetry. Get a friend to help.

It's as easy as sending a photo by email, really! Get a friend to help.

- Gordon Black

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 3, 2022

MATIAS CASTREJON, Newark/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JASPER CLARK, Ukiah. DUI, suspended license for DUI, resisting, probation revocation.

DONNELL HALE, Ukiah. DUI.

ROBERT HIRSCHFELD, Willits. DUI with priors.

KIMBERLY HOUSE, Willits. Transportation/drugs-controlled substance for sale, ex-felon with firearm.

WYATT HURT, Covelo. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun with great bodily injury, burglary of inhabited building.

RITA LAVENDUSKEY, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. 

BRIAN MOODY, Redwood Valley. Domestic battery, disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

RICKEY PHILLIPS III, Willits. No license, parole violation.

TY SIMPSON, Potter Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

DESIREE ST.PIERRE, Willits. DUI.

ALEXANDER TUCKER, Willits. Domestic battery, disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

LUIS ZAMORA, Ukiah. Speed contest. 

NBC NEWS SPECIAL REPORT: “Biggest fraud in a generation”: The looting of the Covid relief plan known as the Paycheck Protection Program.

The official in charge of Covid relief tells NBC News' Lester Holt that programs like PPP were structured in ways that were “an invitation” to fraudsters. They bought Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Bentleys. And Teslas, of course. Lots of Teslas…

nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/biggest-fraud-generation-looting-covid-relief-program-known-ppp-n1279664

PANDEMIC’S UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES?

by Jim Shields

75 percent U.S. Counties Report More Deaths Than Births in 2021.

Here’s an interesting factoid from new Census Bureau data. The pandemic was a significant factor in the dramatic slowing of U.S. population growth last year.

Nearly 75 percent of U.S. counties reported more deaths than births in 2021, fueling the smallest population increase in a century. Low fertility rates and a continuing demographic shift toward an older population also contributed to the trend. Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor and demographer at the University of New Hampshire, called the fact that almost 2,300 counties had more deaths than births “unheard of in American history.”

Also a study this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reports that faced with fear, frustration and suffering, some people used alcohol to cope. The study found that alcohol-related deaths surged almost 26 percent in 2020, the largest yearly increase in decades. More than 99,000 people died that year of alcohol-related causes. Researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism had already been seeing steady 3 percent annual increases in alcohol-related fatalities but said they were surprised by the size of the 2020 increase.

This week a Monmouth University Poll finds that 77 percent of Americans endorse the C.D.C. relaxing its face mask and social distancing recommendations in areas with low Covid rates. Just 34 percent of the public supports instituting or reinstituting face mask and social distancing guidelines in their state at the current time, which is down significantly from 52 percent in January. At the same time, support for requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to work in an office or around people has held steady — 44 percent now and 43 percent in January. A majority of Democrats continue to back vaccine (69 percent) and mask (60 percent) mandates, while at the same time saying they support the C.D.C. relaxing its Covid guidance (67 percent).

Of interest also is that half of the American public would prefer to see the government continue to adjust Covid guidelines and mandates in response to different variants as they arise. Another 14 percent want to settle on a consistent set of protocols from this point forward and 34 percent want to do away with all Covid regulations and mandates. Most Democrats want to maintain flexibility (82 percent) while most Republicans want to do away with all Covid regulations (67 percent).

Overall, 73 percent of Americans agree with the sentiment that “it’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives” — which is similar to 70 percent who felt this way in January. Within this group who want to move on, identical numbers actually prefer adjusting Covid guidelines in response to new variants (42 percent) as say they want no regulations at all (42 percent). Another 14 percent of those who say it is time to get on with life want to choose a consistent set of guidelines.

Elon, Jeff and Taxes

Interesting but not surprising news on the concentration of wealth in the hands of just a few folks who control the Global Market. The report came out this week from a group calling itself the Patriotic Millionaires. I often print their letters-to-the-editor, because they’re — pun intended — a wealth of information on the One-Percenters.

The Patriotic Millionaires describe themselves as “traitors to their class … who are united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America.”

They say their goal is “to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting public policies based on the ‘first principles’ of equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system.”

Lofty goals, and I’m assuming from the commentary they’ve sent my way, they’re probably legit and well intentioned. Although I have to say, they can be somewhat self-righteous and overly preachy at times.

Anyway, here’s something they sent me this week on two of the better known characters who inhabit that brave new and very exclusive world of Globalism:

Just look at the two richest men in the world. In 2018, Elon Musk paid nothing in federal income taxes. While he is set to make the largest individual tax payment in US history — $11 billion — for the 2021 fiscal year, this is just 9% of the $121 billion that he added to his fortune last year, lower than what any ordinary worker pays on their first $10,000 of taxable income. His company is no better. Despite raking in a record $5.5 billion, Tesla will pay nothing in corporate taxes for the 2021 fiscal year, just like they did in 2020 and 2019.

Similarly, Jeff Bezos paid nothing in federal income taxes for two years out of the last fifteen, and when he did pay between 2014 and 2018, his effective tax rate was around 1%. As for his company, over the past four years Amazon has paid an average 5% effective tax rate on billions of dollars in profits, all while being one of the top employers of food stamp and Medicaid recipients.

We should not allow billionaires like Bezos and Musk and their supersized corporations to be “takers,” and we should not allow the lawmakers that work on their behalf to undermine our country’s ability to support itself. We cannot allow them to suck the lifeblood out of our collective social infrastructure — our roads, bridges, schools, courts, police forces, and more — and then give nothing back.

Our nation is at a crossroads. Are we going to go the direction of the rich getting richer and everyone else falling further and further behind? Or are we going to take the other path: the path of having the most fortunate members of our society pay a little bit of their vast fortunes so that our grandchildren can grow up in the same nation of opportunity that we grew up in?

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org.)

THE NEWSOM CONTRADICTION

Editor,

Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered California cities and other local water agencies to reduce water usage and tighten conservation rules. It’s too bad the governor doesn’t take the same position on new housing construction.

Instead of forcing the communities from Healdsburg north to build more housing, Newsom should allow a moratorium on new housing in our area. Unlike the communities south from Windsor to Marin County, the north county does not get water from Lake Sonoma. Lake Mendocino is empty, and we do not get water from the Sierra snowpack. We simply do not have the water to allow new hookups to our water system. If new housing is to be built, build it where water is available.

Temple O. Smith

Cloverdale

PROPAGANDA PAMPHLET from the Korean War trying to convince American soldiers to defect, early 1950s

DOG, GONE

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Twelve years ago we were heading north on 101 with our new doggie and Trophy said, Let’s stop a minute at the Hopland Superette. She went inside, dog and I stayed in the parking lot. 

The little pup, a scant eight weeks old and a member of a new pack less than 30 minutes, sat staring up at me from the pavement, feet together, shoulders back, a serious look. It was a pose she was to strike many, many times through the next dozen years, and we came to call it “Reporting for Duty.” It was her default position, and suggested an outlook she was to retain all her life. 

We called her “puppy” those first few days because we hadn’t yet named her Katrina, and after we named her Katrina we still called her Puppy. So did everyone else in Ukiah. 

Puppy spent her days and years reporting for duty, insisting on doing only what we wanted her to do. If we hadn’t seen one another for a minute or a week she would approach, sit with those familiar squared shoulders, front paws 1.5 inches apart, solemn, staring up, like a little soldier in a fuzzy beige uniform. 

How can I help? she seemed to ask. Is there anything I can do to make things better? 

Puppy wanted us to love her and not be upset with her. She never needed a leash or a reprimand. She never chased a cat, barked at a squirrel or ignored a kid who wanted to pet her pointy little head. 

Puppy had ethical standards, but thought nothing of zipping into Kitti Houston’s house, jogging to the kitchen and snacking on the cat’s dinner. Wrong? Says who? Explain how depriving a cat of a meal while simultaneously savoring its tuna-flavored kibble violates any rule under the sun. 

And the word “trespass” never occurred to her when barreling through an open garage door hunting down Ken Edmonds. A quick scan, then out a side door to the back yard in case a BBQ was in progress, tail wagging all the way. Never once did she feel a pang of guilt or think she’d breached etiquette. 

Uncle Bacon, aka Dave Riemenschneider, was fair game anytime Puppy was within six blocks of his kitchen. 

She was welcome all around town. She could have been hired part-time by Ann at the bookstore or Jill at Triple S, and was voted smartest and best-looking member on the Raccoon Lodge bench seven years in a row. It was impossible to walk her home without pausing at The Barkery to woof Hello to Cindy and gobble dollars worth of chewies from a low shelf. 

She loved her early morning walks at Todd Grove Park: long stretches of shameless begging, handfuls of biscuits, jerky, abandoned pizza crusts and the occasional baked pumpkin treat. Her accomplices, Boo and Haley (and Millie ‘til we lost her) worked a nifty triple tag-team tango, accosting donors repeatedly until pockets were emptied or patience exhausted. And, finally, a bit of walking. 

Yes, life was good. Until it wasn’t. 

By the end she was two dogs in one. Her spirit never wavered and her cheerful face remained. But back legs that had once lent her speed, agility and nimble strength now betrayed her and dangled like dry twigs strung from worn out hip bones. Useless as support, she was unable to walk, unable to stand. She was ebbing weekly, at times daily. Yet her wagging tail never quit. 

Visits to the park were her last measure of joy in the world. Dog biscuits from her best boyfriend (she started going steady with Ken last May) and soft ministrations from the saintly Arlynn Johnson brought Puppy comfort to the end. 

She showed it every morning with slow, happy wags, sometimes laying on her side on park grass, sometimes rolling about like a baby in a crib. 

It’s a lousy business, this killing your dog. It makes you an accomplice to murder: Pick an execution time and date, then mark a wall with vertical strokes as the days dwindle down. It will probably rain. 

Dr. Ed Haynes and Todd Netherton, to whom we’ve assigned the gloomy task, come to our home and make quiet arrangements in another room. Trophy and I kneel alongside our faithful old dog, murmur sad blessings and stroke her soft ears. 

The needle goes in and Puppy closes her eyes, gives a sigh, and with a quiet thump wags her tail one last time. 

(Tom Hine authors this column and assumes our young dog is now rolling on wet grass in Canine Heaven, dreaming of mornings at the park, hoping Trophy will emerge from the shadows so Puppy can inquire one last time, paws together and shoulders squared, if there’s anything she can do to make things better.)

CHIEF SHOT-IN-THE-EYE, 1899. “Shot-in-the-Eye” was an Oglala Sioux who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn (“Custer’s Last Stand”) in 1876, where he was wounded and lost his left eye. What he was called prior to this battle is unknown.

GOING FOR BIG WATCH ON BIG BUDGETS

by Ralph Nader

What if $10 billion were raised over ten years for civic action to transform Congress and make it do what it should be doing for the people (See: Think Big to Overcome Losing Big to Corporatism 1/7/22)? 

In a more recent column, Facilitating Civic and Political Energies for the Common Good 2/2/22, I started a series of columns to outline how $1 billion per year could be spent lobbying Congress for a people’s agenda.

First $100 million per year would be used to get through Congress long-overdue legislation such as full Medicare for All, with emphasis on prevention of ailments and price gouging, a living wage, reducing corporate abuses, etc. The second $100 million would be devoted to creating facilities to make it easy for people to band together in their various roles (e.g., workers, consumers, patients, savers) so they could counter corporate bosses who band together their investors and many lobbying trade groups.

The third article dealt with the $100 million per year to make Congress change the disgracefully unfair, wasteful, and inefficient tax laws (See: Going for Tax Reform Big Time 3/11/2022).

Now I propose the fourth $100 million per year to be used to gain control of the enormous, amorphous federal budget. Shining sunlight on congressional budget shenanigans is the first step in making it reflect public priorities and needs instead of corporate greed.

Start with the first “twistification” (Jefferson’s word) of Article I, Section7, Clause 1, of the Constitution, which states, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; …” Congress has rendered this a formality.

The reality is that budgets originate from the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), after it receives the budgets prepared by federal departments and agencies.

Until the 1920s Congress directly received these various budgets, and the congressional committees used to go through a double check – a sequence of first authorizing expenditures, then appropriating the monies. For the most part, unlike earlier decades, the authorization process that started this double check is usually skipped. Today appropriations hearings are little more than perfunctory – with few exceptions.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees would go through the respective budgets line by line. No more. Now the White House sends Congress a multi-thousand-page annual budget, corrupted by corporate lobbyists. Then the House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, after great delays and backroom deals, signal their agreements and ram the budget through the legislative process. During the delays, Democrats and Republicans pass continuing resolutions (CRs) to fund the government.

It has gotten so bad that since 1997, the Pentagon asks for a ton of money under the name of an “Overseas Contingency Operations Transfer Fund” – essentially a slush fund for wars in general. Year after year, starting at the time of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions (2001-2003), requests for $50 billion or more at a time would just go to Congress, unexamined, and be whooped through, producing a blank check for the Defense Department.

President Obama launched a war against Libya taking unappropriated money from these dark pots of Pentagon cash. President Trump defiantly also spent money illegally on the Wall and for other purposes.

At every juncture, one powerful group knows what’s going on. Commercial corporate lawyers and other influence peddlers operate inside the budget process and push for their demands of special budget favors and secretly insert loophole legislative language. The people back home are often clueless about this subterfuge and become cynical because they feel powerless about what is being done with their money.

More and more of these huge expenditures are not being paid for by tax revenues. They are being added to burgeoning deficits on our children and grandchildren. This form of “child abuse” lets billionaires pay only an average of 8 percent in federal taxes and giant profitable companies pay less or no federal income taxes at all. That is one reason the super-rich liked Trump.

With a $5.3 trillion federal budget, it is important to separate the so-called “discretionary” operating budget – to run the government – from the “non-discretionary” social insurance budget, for programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

It is the operating budgets which are sloshing around billions of dollars without public review, without strict standards and proper oversight by Congress – except for the oft-ignored reports of the congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO). Increasingly, the public budget is under the allocative powers of federal bureaucrats who are besieged by corporate lobbyists.

In 1990 Congress made an attempt to require annual auditable budgets from each government department. Only the biggest operating budget by far – that of the Pentagon – has violated this requirement every year, despite promises by U.S. Secretaries of Defense to comply. It has not sent an auditable budget because no one knows where all the DOD money goes. Budget watchdogs, however, do know that much of the DOD budget is spread all over the world with warehouses of uninventoried supplies, cargo planes of $100 bills to grease or bribe influentials, and to pay for staggering overcharges by the insatiable military munitions manufacturers and other contractors.

In the midst of all these Niagaras of budgeted money, there are very few citizen groups investigating, monitoring and pressing Congress to represent the public interest. The closest are the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which is mostly an excellent think tank critically analyzing budget allocations for domestic social service programs and the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a nonprofit organization that investigates and exposes government waste.

One Hundred Million dollars a year could unleash legions of lawyers, accountants and other knowledgeable people, who worked inside government, to challenge the status quo and the excesses of the executive branch agencies. The low-hanging fruit is truly everywhere and available for plucking. The structural budget process failures would require broad overhaul legislation to wake up Congress and hold its members electorally accountable.

People back home aren’t receiving the outrageous facts. Remember how shaken the Pentagon was when it was caught paying $435 for a simple claw hammer that its corporate vendor brazenly described as a “uni-directional impact generator.” Public outrage fueled by exposes reaching the citizenry could be organized to turn around members of Congress.

Unfortunately, spurts of indignation can only be converted into a grassroots movement by (polls show) left/right alliances of Americans joining together against combinations of unfettered waste, greed and power, which suck away huge revenues that could be used to rebuild America. With organizers in each of the 435 Congressional Districts assembling small (say 500 people in each District) who are informed and determined real change will come about.

From all angles, the obscured federal budget is broken, pillaged and suffused with grotesque, often criminal payments. Taking on such indefensible violations of the public trust by skilled civic action would fill the near vacuum existing today. There is not one fulltime individual citizen pressing for an auditable Pentagon budget, as required by law. Against such widespread inaction, there is nowhere to go but up!

DYLAN ON DEATH

Interviewer: “I Contain Multitudes” has a powerful line: “I sleep with life and death in the same bed.” I suppose we all feel that way when we hit a certain age. Do you think about mortality often?

Bob Dylan: I think about the death of the human race. The long strange trip of the naked ape. Not to be light on it, but everybody’s life is so transient. Every human being, no matter how strong or mighty, is frail when it comes to death. I think about it in general terms, not in a personal way.

REMEMBERING RICHARD HOWARD 

by John Sakowicz

In 1990, I was the executive director of AIDS Project Worcester. Many of our clients were part of the early clinical drug trials at UMass Medical Center. Azidothymidine (AZT), Didanosine (ddI), and Zalcitabine (ddC). These were the first three drugs approved by the FDA for AIDS, and the drugs were toxic and not entirely effective. My clients -- mostly gay men, many my friends -- were dying.

Not knowing what to do with my loss and grief, I started writing again. Each lamentation became a poem.

I sent Richard Howard some of my poems.

Richard read my work and wrote back, "Emotion is no substitute for art. Do better."

He was right, of course. And I did better. I won a PEN for that work. Richard attended my awards ceremony. 

* * *

Richard Howard died on Thursday, March 31, in Manhattan. He was 92. 

In the late 1970s, Richard was a popular professor at Hopkins. I remember Cynthia Macdonald, the poet-in-residence at Hopkins at that time, describing Richard as a "mandarin among poets". It was an apt description, but only up to a point. Sure, Richard was stylized, mannered. A towering figure in literary circles, he was erudite, pedantic. He was a traditionalist and a purist. But Richard could also be avant-garde, wildly inventive, and original.

And he could be downright daring (more about that later).

When the day was done, what Richard was, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and translator who always insisted on the best work from his students.

Richard was also an openly gay man. He taught me a lot being gay, too. For Richard, being gay wasn't just a set of biological needs and anatomical parts. It was a set of sensitivities and sensibilities.

I'll repeat that because it needs repeating: Being LGBTQ+ is a set of sensitivities and sensibilities.

Like the radical feminist Andrea Dworkin, I think Richard believed all intercourse, either heterosexual or homosexual, was pretty much the same. All intercourse was intrusive. It was a violation. 

Once, I remember Richard telling me he thought all intercourse was just "eight inches of friction" and that anatomy was just "cuts of meat".

Francis Bacon, the Irish-born British figurative painter known for his raw, unsettling imagery, would have agreed. I think Richard and Francis Bacon knew one another.

I also remember Richard telling me that on higher and lower levels -- all levels, in fact...the transcendent, the desultory, the vulgar, even the grotesque -- the laws of art were always in operation. There was no such thing as chance. It was all design. It was all order. There was no such thing as ugly. It was all beautiful. To a greater or lesser extent, all art was transgressive. 

The nature of art was Richard's lifelong preoccupation. 

* * *

About the daring part of Richard Howard, he encouraged me in producing documentary interviews on Manhattan's underground sex scene. I did it on public access television. It was amateur videography, at best, but Richard encouraged me and helped me.

In 1971, Sterling Manhattan Cable and Teleprompter Cable TV would provide free studio space for anyone on a first-come, first-served basis. Two channels — known as C and D — were set aside for local politics, community board meetings, and cultural showcases.

It was a first in the United States, and I went for it.

With my GAF ST 111 E 8mm Super8 Video camera, and a tape recorder, I went out to discover what Richard called the "strident erotic life". I started in the gay bars of Greenwich Village.

In the Meatpacking District, I did interviews in hardcore clubs, like the Anvil, the Ramrod, and the Mine Shaft (think leather, jockstraps, glory holes, and golden-shower tubs).

I did interviews in bathhouses, like St. Mark's Baths, where I improbably met W.H. Auden, and in the ridiculously Roman-themed Continental Baths, where I less improbably met Bette Midler and Barry Manilow.

I did a few interviews in the cruise clubs, like The Saint and Studio 54. Both were disco clubs that admitted gays and straights. And I even did interviews in one of Manhattan's group sex clubs for straights, Plato's Retreat.

My interviews on public access TV were supplemented by the fact that people like me could also buy weekly time slots ($50 an hour) on public TV. The idea was that talented producers or performers would subsidize their own efforts, rise to the surface, and go on to produce original programs for the content-starved stations.

I showed Richard Howard these interviews and he loved them. He loved these voices. And he helped me bring out their authenticity. He helped me edit. He later curated the interviews.

As a poet, Richard experimented with dramatic monologues. I like to think that my work as a videographer fit right into Richard's own work. Published in 1970, Richard won the Pulitzer for "Untitled Subjected Subjects", a series of 15 dramatic monologues spoken by Victorians and Edwardians, both eminent and obscure.

With his 10th book of poetry, Like Most Revelations (1994), Richard was again possessed by voices. It was Edith Wharton and Walt Whitman, but he also offered elegies for friends who died from AIDS.

" 'AIDS is everywhere in this book, as it is everywhere in the communities -- artistic and intellectual, urban, gay—to which this book most commonly refers and addresses itself,' remarked Linda Gregerson in Poetry. Gregerson summed up the volume as 'limber, literate, jubilantly crafted, wry, and, above all, densely peopled.' "

Back in the 1970s, Richard brought all these gifts and more to my little project on public access TV. He brought his "virtuosity, knowledge deep and strange, plenary vocabulary, courage, kindness, sympathy, a demand for steady and prodigious output, and a spirit that played flamboyantly," as was noted in his obituary in The New York Times when speaking about the opus of Richard's work. 

Who was I in the 1970s?

I was nobody. Just an undergraduate at Hopkins. Yet, Richard Howard noticed me and picked me out for his help. 

What would I tell Richard now?

I would say thank you. Thank you for "releasing" me. You gave me permission to be my authentic self. You helped me find my voice both as a poet and producer.

What would I say now?

I would say thank you. Thank you, Richard, for being unsparing. You were appropriately critical of my work. You often pointed out I was "besotted by the thing itself". In other words, I was often intellectually or morally blinded by my subject. And you were right.

I wouldn't disagree about being besotted. Not then. And not now, Richard.

I remain much besotted by you, Richard Howard. I am awed not just by your talent...talent, which is glittering and massive, like a major constellation in the literary night skies. I am also awed by you, the man. Your generosity. Your kindness. Your goodness.

 (Richard Howard would probably hate me for saying all that.)

John Sakowicz, BA, 1977, MA, 1979, Johns Hopkins University. Hewon an award from PEN, the international writers’ organization, for his work writing about the AIDS epidemic and New York’s underground sex scene. His leadership in fighting the AIDS epidemic was recognized by official citations from the Massachusetts legislature. Sakowicz currently hosts "Heroes and Patriots" on KMUD. 

THOMAS PIKETTY THINKS AMERICA IS PRIMED FOR WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION

by David Marchese

In 2013, the French economist Thomas Piketty, in his best seller “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” a book eagerly received in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, put forth the notion that returns on capital historically outstrip economic growth (his famous r>g formula). The upshot? The rich get richer, while the rest of us stay stuck in the mud. Now, nearly a decade later, Piketty is set to publish “A Brief History of Equality,” in which he argues that we’re on a trajectory of greater, not less, equality and lays out his prescriptions for remedying our current corrosive wealth disparities. (In short: Tax the rich.) If the line from one book to the other looks slightly askew given the state of the world, then, Piketty suggests, you’re looking from the wrong vantage point. “I am relatively optimistic,” says Piketty, who is 50, “about the fact that there is a long-run movement toward more equality, which goes beyond the little details of what happens within a specific decade.”

In the time since “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” was published, there has been a huge proliferation in the number of American billionaires. Something like 130 new ones were added between 2020 and 2021 alone. That happened in the context of growing public discussion — and anger — about economic inequality. So what the hell happened? What enabled the ultrawealthy to flourish in the face of such widespread antipathy? Let me put this very clearly: I understand that each year and each decade is tremendously important, but it’s also important not to forget about the general evolution. We have become much more equal societies in terms of political equality, economic equality, social equality, as compared with 100 years ago, 200 years ago. This movement, which began with the French and U.S. revolutions, I think it is going to continue. 

Of course there are structural factors that make it difficult: the system of political finance, the structure of media finance, the basic democratic institutions are less democratic than they should be. This makes things complicated. But it’s always been complicated. The Supreme Court for decades made it impossible to create a progressive income tax. They were fine with the racial segregation, but having a progressive income tax was unconstitutional. In the end, it took 20 years to change the Constitution, but 

OK, so you’re saying that the long-term trend is toward more equality. But in 1990 there were 66 U.S. billionaires. Now there are more than 700. Over the last 40 years or so, chief-executive pay is up more than 900 percent, even accounting for inflation. The average worker’s pay over the same period is up only 12 percent. You believe we should be thinking of those facts as road bumps on the path to greater economic equality? If you take the big picture, yes. But the other lesson from the big picture, from history, is that it takes major political mobilization to keep moving in the direction of equality. In the United States today, the democratic institutions, the rules of the game, are set up in a manner that, indeed, the rich are entrenched. But if you look at opinion polls about a billionaire tax in the U.S. — among Democratic and also Republican voters — you have So is the political system able to respond to this, or is it rigged? The lesson from history is that when the political system is rigged, at some point you have a reaction, you have a mobilization.

What did you think of the billionaire tax that It would have been better before his election. If you had told the American public before the elections that he wanted a wealth tax — which again is something that is very high in opinion polls — this would have been much easier. This could have forced the Democratic Congress to take a stand. It’s more complicated now. But if it works, it’s better than nothing.

I understand what you’re saying about the popularity of a proposed billionaire tax, but do you believe America is at a place where a phrase like “wealth redistribution,” which is what you’re talking about, is broadly politically plausible? When you say Americans don’t like redistribution, some certainly don’t like it, but in the 20th century, high, progressive taxation of income and inherited wealth was to a large extent invented in the United States. That’s why it always makes me skeptical when people say, Americans don’t like this, don’t like that. Look at history! There’s no deterministic reason why a given country should be this or that. Sometimes, in my country and in the U.S. also, people tell you, “Look, we are not Swedes.” This is used as an argument to say that there is a culture of equality in Sweden, which we would never have.

But Swedes themselves weren’t always “Swedes.” Exactly. Sweden until 1910, 1920 was one of the most unequal countries in the world, with a special sophistication in the way inequality was organized. You could have between one and 100 votes, Even corporations had the right to vote in municipal elections in Sweden until 1910. Sweden was like this but then moved to something else.

This is only a half-joking question: Let’s say in the United States the billionaires get sick of being the bad guys and don’t want to be taxed the way Biden is proposing, so they move to Ireland or some other tax haven. Then what happens? But that’s the point: These people don’t live in an autarchy. They rely on the rest of the world, which means that we have to impose rules on the conditions in which they can enjoy these assets — which were produced by the collective. All wealth is collective by nature in the sense that it relies on the work of hundreds, thousands, millions of engineers, technicians, the accumulation of knowledge. Then, private property is a social construction that we invent in order to organize economic and social relations. It’s a very useful social invention as long as you keep under control how much you can accumulate, how much power you can concentrate, etc. But none of these assets are their assets. They are a product of a collective process. No one invented anything by himself or herself.

That kind of ontological argument might be a hard sell for some Americans. For some, but this has nothing to do with the American spirit, American values. It has something to do with a small subset of people who are just pushing their interests. If you ask the American public about who is working hard, is it the normal people or the elite? Whose effort created everything? You will be surprised by the answer.

My sense is that in the very recent past a lot of the growth in wealth has resulted from entrepreneurship rather than the accumulation of inherited wealth. That’s in conjunction with skyrocketing rates of return for the wealthy. Do those factors have any implications for how we understand the accumulation of capital generally or specifically? If you go back to the beginning of the 20th century, late 19th century, you also had lots of new innovation and new wealth. We invented the automobile, electricity, trans-Atlantic radio. People in every time period tend to say today is different, this is big innovation, new wealth, but in a changing economy where we make technological discoveries, you always have this process. But the thing is, if it’s not regulated, if we don’t design institutions in order to spread the wealth — on the contrary, we have an institutional setup where you accumulate wealth by using public infrastructure, public education, the health system, and then once you have accumulated the wealth, you push a button and you transfer it somewhere else. Remember the ProPublica study before the summer of 2021 where they looked at billionaires in the U.S.? as compared with their wealth. If you pay no tax, it’s easier to accumulate more wealth, and that’s what continues.

An economic argument in favor of billionaires is that their doing well is a sign that our system of capitalism is working and that it means growth for everyone. But growth has been slowing down at the exact same time that billionaires have been rolling in it. Has that given definitive lie to the idea that the success of the 0.1 percent is good for the rest of us, too? It’s proof as far as proof can get in the social and political sciences. The evidence that we have is that if you take the United States, the growth rate of national income per capita has been divided by two following the Reagan decade. It’s been a little more than 1 to 1.2 percent per year — the national income per capita real growth rate between 1990 and 2020. It used to be more than 2, 2.5 percent between 1950 and 1980. The tax performance in the Reagan decade was supposed to boost growth: Maybe you would have more inequality, but the size of the pie is going to grow so much faster than before that the average wages and income of average Americans will grow like you’ve never seen. This is not what we’ve seen. 

The big lesson from this is that the period of maximum prosperity of the U.S. economy in the middle of the century was a period where and this was not a problem because income gaps of 1 to 100 or 1 to 200 are not necessary for growth. The other big conclusion is that what really matters for economic prosperity is education and The key reason the U.S. economy was so productive historically in the middle of the 20th century was because of a huge educational advance over Europe. In the 1950s, you have 90 percent of the young generation going to high school in the U.S. At the same time, it’s 20 to 30 percent in Germany, France, Britain, Japan. The story that Reagan tried to tell the country in the ’80s, which is basically forget about equality, the key to prosperity is to let the top become richer and richer — it doesn’t work. 

Have you seen any structural or ideological changes that you think make our moment different from historically comparable ones? Well, the dominant ideology has been moving toward the view that we’ve gone too far in terms of market liberalization, in terms of globalization without regulation and the superrich getting richer. The problem is that we’re still stuck with institutions that were set up in the ’80s and ’90s in terms of limited tax progressivity, without so that you can track who owns what where — which is a big problem when you want to impose sanctions on oligarchs. 

In the United States, this institutional setup has been reinforced because of Trump’s big tax cut on corporations. There are many dramas we associated with Trump, but part of the drama is that he has been able to tell the middle class and lower middle class, “Look, we are going to continue with tax dumping, but I’m going to protect you in another way by protecting you against Chinese and Mexicans, the Muslims.” He was able to be elected on an ideology where you don’t redistribute between the rich and the poor but rather you protect Americans, especially white male Americans, against anybody who looks foreign. The risk is that neoliberalism is replaced by this form of neo-nationalism in order to avoid redistribution. Sometimes people like Trump can be successful with this strategy because it’s a much clearer message than saying, “Let’s look at the history of progressive taxation.”

You mentioned oligarchs. In America, we don’t like to think that we have them — that’s for a country like Russia. Instead we like to think we have entrepreneurs who achieved through merit. But the similarities are obvious: They’re all taking advantage of the free global movement of capital and have a disproportionate amount of political influence. Do you see America as being as securely in the grip of the oligarchic class as other countries we think of as being less democratic? The U.S. oligarchs have less control of the political system than the Putin clique in Russia, that’s for sure. In terms of what fraction of wealth accumulation is due to individual effort, individual merit, as opposed to a legal and institutional system that is working for them more than for the rest of the country, it’s difficult to say. Many Russian oligarchs bought the right assets at the right time, resold it. This is business life. 

To me, maybe the best comparison between the U.S. is not so much with Russia today but with Europe and the Belle Époque before 1914: a system which is nominally democratic but where the concentration of wealth is so high and lacking proper rules about political finance, political influence, that the democratic system is not enabled to have a common-sense reaction to this excessive level of inequality that, in the long run, is not good for U.S. prosperity. Particularly because when other countries get more educated than the U.S., then its economic leadership will be gone forever. U.S. economic leadership came from mass education, not from a small elite of billionaires. They have never been the source of U.S. prosperity, and they will never be.

You know, I do find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that after 40 years of worsening inequality, you — the inequality guy, Mr. r>g — are publishing a book saying we’re on the right track historically. It’s sort of cold comfort to know we’re more equal today than we were 100 or 200 years ago. Really give me a reason to feel as optimistic as you do. “Give me a reason to be optimistic?” By looking at my historical evidence, by thinking about the big picture, I have become more optimistic. I was a bit puzzled that many people looking at “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” came away with a pessimistic conclusion. I’m trying to show that the key in history is not the big catastrophes but the positive political construction of an alternative, and this process started with the French Revolution, the U.S. revolution. This process toward more equality is more deeply rooted in our modern ethos and modern political cultures than most people believe. I remember in 2014 having a public discussion with Elizabeth Warren in Boston. I was talking about a progressive wealth tax with a rate of 5 percent per year or 10 percent per year on billionaires. She looked at me like, Wow, that’s too much. Joe Biden today, a centrist Democrat — who voted for — is coming in with a wealth tax. Things can change pretty fast.

(nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview.html)