Mendocino County Today: Sunday, June 12, 2020

Chance Showers | Lost Cats | William Lemos | Pet Lotus | AV Today | Shingle Mill | Urchin Fest | Author Event | Woodpeckers | Ed Notes | Navarro Engine | Growth v Conservation | Groovy Mendocino | County Notes | Picnickers | Bridge Fines | Pancake Breakfast | Coal Dagger | Gulch Maidens | Good Questions | Yesterday's Catch | Ukraine | Misfits | U.S. Hypocrisy | Cultural Derangement | He Lost | Howlin' Wolf | Naked Empire | If Then | Marco Radio | Don't Go | Saudi Subservience

BOONVILLE FORECAST: A slight chance of rain before 11am, then a chance of showers between 11am and 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70. Light northwest wind increasing to 8 to 13 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: Rain will continue through the morning, with the strongest rainfall likely in central Humboldt County. Showers will taper off by late afternoon, with unseasonably cool highs for the interior in the 70s. Cool weather will persist Monday and then slowly warm through midweek.

(National Weather Service)

BOLO: TWO LOST CATS

I lost my two cats somewhere between Albion and Cloverdale. Please keep a lookout for them. (They were riding in the back of my truck with a camper shell and managed to push open a sliding window and jump out.) They are chipped. Billy (white) and Lester (grey.) Please message or call 415 806 0325 if you see them. Lost between 9am and 10:30am on June 10.

WILLIAM LEMOS

William Edward Lemos (Bill), born in 1949 to Jack and Toni Lemos, he was a fourth generation member of Lemos family. Bill passed away peacefully at home on June 2, 2022. 

Bill was a wonderful son, brother, uncle, husband, father, grandfather and teacher. He was proud of his children, Justine and AJ, and delighted in his grandchild, Ravel. Bill’s courage, intelligence, creativity, presence, humor, and wonderful storytelling, he made all our lives more interesting, more magical, more meaningful. Bill cared deeply about his family, students and community and gave himself fully to the organizations he was involved with throughout his life including Mendocino School District, Stewards, Headlands Consortium, Movement to purchase Big River, Mendocino Abalone Watch, California Reef Check and more local non-profit, environmental and educational organizations. 

Bill received his Bachelors in English and a Standard Life Teaching Credential from Chico State University, his California Community College Instructor Credential, Masters of Arts in Psychology and PhD in Philosophy. 

Bill and Marilyn (Potts) were married in 1971 and moved back to Mendocino in 1972. Bill taught English at Mendocino High School from 1973-2008. Bill’s work at the high school included Wild Classrooms, preparing and leading many students into the wilderness for 7-14 day excursions. In 1999 Bill and Robert Jamgochian wrote a grant from the State of California to start the advanced placement and eco-literacy course, School of Natural Resource, (SONAR) at Mendocino High School.

In 2009 Bill was elected to The California Outdoor Hall of Fame as the “greatest outdoor educator.” In 2002, he was a founding member of the Mendocino Land Trust’s Big River committee, which sought to provide stewardship for Big River, one of California's longest undeveloped river estuaries, and ultimately Mendocino Headlands State Park Big River Unit was established. Circa 2009, Natural Resource Defense Council contracted with Bill to help create a unified community proposal for marine conservation areas in Northern California by serving on the North Coast Regional Stakeholder’s group for the Marine Life Protection Act. In the past year Bill worked with Mendocino Trail Stewards with a vision to pass legislation to make Jackson Demonstration State Forest a reserve, with a mandate for non-motorized recreation, habitat restoration, and ecological regeneration.

An avid outdoorsman and capable craftsman, Bill was a true renaissance person; a commercial and sport fisher, carpenter, plumber, electrician, author, poet, musician. Bill was in awe of his good fortune and magical life. Those who knew Bill were enriched by his friendship, easy smile, gentle ways and kindness. 

Bill was preceded in death by his parents Toni and Jack Lemos and sister Carole and brother-in-law Russ McDonell. Bill is survived by his wife of 50 years Marilyn, daughter Justine (Grady Gauthier) and grandchild Ravel Gauthier, son AJ (Megan McDuffee) and sisters Bonnie Erickson (Wayne), Jill Lemos, Jone Lemos, June Lemos and Jain Lemos (Sandy Miller), and many cousins, nieces and nephews and dear friends. 

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department.

A memorial will be held on Sunday, August 14, 2022 at 2pm at: Mendocino Volunteer Fire Station, 44700 Little Lake Rd, Mendocino, CA 95460.

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Lotus is a shy pup who—lucky for her—found a foster home with guardians who are helping her gain confidence. Lotus is making progress and starting to come out of her shell. We were told she is very sweet, loves her two canine foster siblings and is respectful of the cat. Ideally, Lotus needs an adopter who has some experience with shy dogs. A mellow home with patient guardians who have time to work with her will be important. Beautiful Lotus is 6 months old and 30 pounds. 

If you can’t adopt, think about fostering. Our website has information about our FOSTER PROGRAM. And don’t forget our on-going SPRING DOG AND CAT ADOPTION EVENTS at the Ukiah and Ft. Bragg Shelters. While you’re on our website, check out all of our guests, services, programs, events, and updates. 

Visit us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/

For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453. 

AV TODAY

Free Entry to Hendy Woods State Park for local residents
Sun 06 / 12 / 2022 at 7:00 AM
Where: Hendy Woods State Park

AV Grange Pancake and Egg Breakfast
Sun 06 / 12 / 2022 at 8:30 AM
Where: Anderson Valley Grange, 9800 CA-128, Philo

Anderson Valley Village Volunteer Training
Sun 06 / 12 / 2022 at 2:30 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center, 14470 Highway 128, Boonville

AV Village Monthly Gathering: Community Social
Sun 06 / 12 / 2022 at 4:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center, 14470 Highway 128, Boonville

Event List: https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/index_list

MENDOCINO URCHIN FEST

Coming June 17 thru 19, 2022 — "If you can't beat um, eat um."

Help turn back the invading hoards of Purple Urchins. Who knew? They are as good to eat as their popular and larger cousins, Red and Green Urchins.

Spend the weekend on the coast and learn how to collect, clean, and eat the spiny invaders.

The website has a full list of the 3-days of events and information.

HEREEEESSSSSSS, MALCOLM: I will be part of an authors event in person at Gallery Bookshop on Thursday, June 23rd at 6 p.m. Of course, I will be promoting my new book, Mendocino History Exposed. Come to get your copy and hear some of the back story of the "tire baby," the outlaw shooting horse, and the two gun toting desperadoes depicted on the cover of Mendocino History Exposed.

ED NOTES

EDUCATORS SUPPORT GLENTZER

Editor:

I urge everyone to follow the lead of hundreds of educators in our county and vote for Nicole Glentzer for Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools. 

These are the people on the ground working in the school communities in Mendocino County. They understand the local issues and know what is at stake.

They are choosing to vote for a new county superintendent of schools.

Nicole Glentzer has been endorsed by: The Mendocino County Office of Education teachers and support staff union; the Ukiah teachers union; every single classified (support staff) union in the County; four district superintendents, and over 100 other individuals who have retired from or are currently working in our schools.

It doesn’t matter what politicians in Sacramento think if you are not listening to and being responsive to the needs of the people and communities you are supposed to serve at home.

Vote for Nicole Glentzer on June 7.

Paul Tichinin

Mendocino County Superintendent of School (1994-2014)

Fort Bragg

ED NOTE: This letter is as empty and as fact free as the writer's head, not a name except his and the candidate's who has also run an issue-free campaign based on secret slander, much of it circulated by Tichinin. The vote is in, the race is close, but throughout, Glentzer and Tichinin, and these vague so-called union groups, who refuse to identify themselves or respond to media questions, have not produced a single reason for replacing Hutchins as Superintendent of Schools. 

WHEN EMMETT TILL was murdered in Mississippi in 1955, his mother insisted that her son's casket remain open during his service, so people could see what tortures the 14-year-old boy had been subjected to. It's not an exaggeration to say that Till's murder inspired the Civil Rights Movement. In the struggle to ban military assault rifles, it might be politically effective for the parents of murdered children to also insist upon open caskets so people can see what these weapons do.

THIS from Dr. Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician who treated the victims at the emergency room of Uvalde’s hospital, testifying before Congress on what he saw: “Two children, whose bodies had been so pulverized by the bullets fired at them, over and over again, decapitated, whose flesh had been so ripped apart, that the only clue to their identities was their blood-spattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them, clinging for life and finding none.”

ACCORDING to the stats I've seen, inflation is now costing the average family $460 a month, which seems low to me given the escalating cost of fuel.

DEPARTMENT OF UNINTENDED HILARITY, the recent issue of Good Dirt, the newsletter of the Anderson Valley Land trust, inscribed, right at the top by Dario Sattui: “Foremost in my mind is preserving the bucolic, unspoiled beauty of the area.”

I WONDER if this is the same Dario Sattui who famously shocked the entire Anderson Valley and thousands of 128 travelers by denuding an entire Boonville hill of its grasses and oaks to plant grapes on it?

I ALSO got a grim chuckle out of this passage from Good Dirt: “…While the human faces have changed over the years, a constant has been the Navarro River, with its various tributaries winding from their headwaters near the ridges to the magnificent Pacific Ocean at its mouth. While facing many challenges, the Navarro remains a stronghold for coho salmon and steelhead.” 

NOT. Fish are few, the Navarro a summertime poisonous algae stew from industrial vineyard chemical runoff whose still, polluted waters are hazardous to any creature, especially dogs, who enter it. With all due respect to my friends and neighbors in the AV Land Trust, you might consider getting yourselves a mass reality check. (Group rates probably available.) Wine grape production, I guess, is agriculture, but it has destroyed the ecological and human balance of the Anderson Valley, supplanting the real agriculture we had here with an absentee class of land owners whose frivolous product rests entirely on the desperation of Mexican peasants.

FRIDAY night's Warrior's game has exhausted sports superlatives. Stephan Curry is a marvel in human form, the best basketball player any of us has seen. Steph singlehandedly knocked off the Celtics last night, and the series is even with us at home again for two of the three remaining games. I had to laugh when even Draymond Green’s mom, Mary Babers, wondered out loud where her son was.

“Please ppl stop asking me what’s wrong with Dray… I DONT KNOW!” Babers tweeted late Friday night. “Maybe this is a CLONE! Lmbo WHERE IS THE Draymond that helped get us here!! Hmmmm I have never seen this either!”

DRAYMOND'S been wayyyyy off, but he never stays off for long. Some people speculated that the Boston crowd, a mob of foul-mouthed drunks, had gotten to him. Doubt it. The guy gets group-insulted wherever he goes, and he's taken so much abuse over the years he's inured to it, one would think. Prediction: Draymond will come roaring back Monday night. 

BIDEN, or whoever writes his scripts for him, said Exxon made “more money than God last year” as he attacked oil companies for not paying taxes and not “drilling.” Biden continued to blame “Putin's price hike” on 41-year high inflation. America's premier victim of elder abuse also blamed price gouging and Putin's “tax on gas and food” for the spike and insisted it was still his administration's top priority to tackle inflation. Like the Biden admin is powerless to not only roll back fuel prices but slap windfall profit taxes on the oil companies. A story the other day said Biden was worried about being remembered in the same failed context as Jimmy Carter. He'll be lucky to be rated that high.

CONTRADICTIONS

Editor:

Due to our ongoing water shortage, Sonoma County citizens are constantly being asked to conserve water. With water conservation being a major issue, why do I see new multistory apartment complexes being built all over the county that will certainly increase water usage? Why are new building permits being approved that will increase demand for water?

What are city council members and county supervisors smoking who approved these permits? Is their only concern to generate more tax revenue and line their pockets? Isn’t traffic congestion bad enough already? It’s hypocrisy at its finest being flaunted right in our noses.

Each month when my water bill comes, I think about these new apartment buildings and visualize the greedy folks who approved them laughing smugly at the rest of us. When does all the new construction stop?

Rick White

Santa Rosa

COUNTY NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

EXCLUDING WILDLIFE EXCLUSION

During last Tuesday’s budget discussion, former North County federal trapper Chris ‘Dead Dog’ Brennan suggested a way for the county to save up to $100k:

“Last year you got rid of wildlife services. Now you're looking at your non-lethal wildlife exclusion program. No one will tell me how much is budgeted for that. I have been told that it's $70,000-$100,000. During the last year all the nonlethal work has been done for free! So why does the County want to spend $70,000-$100,000 when you have the California Fish and Wildlife Department and their biologists and their website called Living with Wildlife doing it for free? And Wildlife Services still does free nonlethal assistance to anyone who wants it. I have gone private since I retired from the government and I have done at least 100 technical assistants since I retired in October. In fact when I was a trapper I did a lot of that and I even won an award for it. I'm the only one who got the award and I do it for free. I also trap, but anyone who calls I will give them all the help I can to solve their problem non-lethally. … This program has not started yet. You have other programs begging for money. I'd rather see the money go to something useful rather than for something that can be dealt with by the two government agencies and me doing it for free.”

Interim CEO Darcie Antle said she thought Animal Care was doing something. County Counsel Christian Curtis said he didn't know much beyond the fact that an RFP was put out. Supervisor Haschak said he was “still working on it.” 

“It will be a lot cheaper than the wildlife services,” claimed Haschak, adding, “We do have an RFP for exclusionary work.” Haschak mentioned “a lending library for non-lethal scare tactics.” And maybe some grants and maybe some stipends for educational purposes for “helping people implement these programs.” “It's a pretty robust program,” Haschak insisted, all indications to the contrary notwithstanding, “and it will come to the board in August.”

Supervisor Williams got in one of his patented non-sequiturs: “I don't feel it's the job of county government to plug holes in somebody's house any more than it is to do their laundry. We have so many public safety concerns and taking care of our employees. I hope we don't spend $100,000 for plugging holes. But I appreciate the supervisor's work on the proposal.”

Nobody had any idea how much is actually budgeted for the non-lethal services. Despite Supervisor Williams “concerns,” he didn’t ask for any budget info later or request that the anything be re-allocated. 

* * *

According to the county's website, which summarizes their prospective contracts, they put out an RFP for “wildlife exclusionary services” on November 15, 2021 with a bid due date of February 1, 2022. According to the RFP status information they received no bids. Under “intent to award” it says: “No.” Under “pending” it says: “No.” 

So they put out an RFP but nobody bid the job and they’ve given up. 

That's probably because the contract was valued at a piddling $26,000 at $500 per week for the “services” described as:

“County will pay contractor for wildlife exclusionary services at $25 an hour for up to 20 hours a week with a maximum of $500 per week.”

For that money the County expected the prospective contractor to “analyze possible access and egress points and devise methods to minimize and prevent future physical intrusions onto or into the customer property while protecting animals from harm.” And, “Construct and install exclusion devices used to prevent reentry into customer property.” And educate the customer on nuisance animals and explain ways to detour them. The contractor also must keep accurate records of the calls for service received and services provided and submit detailed reports for the number of calls for service performed on a monthly and yearly basis. They must also “conduct public presentations via social media networks.”

No wonder they didn't get any bids.

And that's where it stands to this day. Maybe the RFP itself was a scare tactic to exclude bidders from bidding.

PS. After much ballyhoo from the local exclusion services advocates who promised great benefits from terminating the deadly Wildlife Services contract last year, we have not heard a word from them about the continued absence of the exclusion services. Giddy wildlife exclusion advocate Jon Spitz of Laytonville told KZYX last year after the Supervisors canceled the federal contract that “John Haschak is working very hard to establish wildlife exclusion services in Mendocino County.”

Too bad Dead Dog didn’t leave his number with the Supervisors.

* * *

HERE’S THE LANGUAGE Supervisor Mulheren proposes for what to do with water sales tax revenues: 

“Method for the Distribution of Water Resiliency Funds $2,800,000

“A Water Technical Advisory Group (WTAG) shall be formed for the oversight of funds budgeted by the Board of Supervisors for water resiliency projects including planning and the development of a capital improvement projects and a plan of proposed expenditures, strategically looking 5-10 years out at a time. This work plan should include projects from every area of the County on an annual basis. The WTAG shall be comprised of eight representatives, one from each of the four incorporated cities, one from the County of Mendocino, and two representatives from community services districts with latent water powers inland and on the coast, and one tribal member. Each of the organizations represented shall select its representative, and the representatives shall serve at the will and pleasure of the organization(s) they represent. Specific to the selection of representatives from the community services districts with latent water powers, representatives shall be nominated and selected by a majority vote process to serve a four-year term. Prior to the annual release of funds for water resiliency projects, WTAG approved expenditures shall be submitted for review and approval by the County of Mendocino Board of Supervisors annually at a public meeting.”

To summarize then, an Advisory Group (ala Measure B?) for “resiliency projects.” 

But no actual projects.

Remember, last year when the Board was reacting to the severe drought, they put out a call for such projects which they said were out there just waiting to be submitted for state drought relief funding. Exactly zero projects were submitted, even after the “Drought Task Force” met time and again to encourage submittals. The only projects mentioned were the ones local cities already had underway. No ideas were mentioned, not even the Cheap Water Mafia’s pet subject: raising Coyote Dam. We especially like Supervisor Mulheren’s suggestion that they “look 5-10 years out at a time.” (How many times? we wonder.)

If you liked Measure B, you’ll love Measure M (for Mulheren).

At least Measure B had a sunset clause.

Supervisor Mulheren continues:

“Accountability Resolution — While the revenue received by the County from Measure __ Sales Tax is unrestricted general fund revenue, by this resolution, the County commits to using these revenues for fire protection and water resiliency projects. The Measure __Sales Tax revenue would be distributed 60% for Fire Protection and 40% for Water Resiliency Projects.”

Not to be too repetitive but, readers will recall that the Pot Tax Advisory Measure AJ (2016) said “the majority” of the Pot Tax revenues would go to mental health, roads, emergency services and enforcement. Supervisor Mulheren’s proposed language with such specific percentages for each category would be more credible if she had made even the slightest attempt to follow the similar language in Measure AJ.

At least with emergency services, there are specific and justifiable uses for the additional revenue. But if Supervisor Mulheren and her colleagues proceed with the inclusion of a Measure B style “Advisory Group” approach to water projects, along with a “trust us” approach to spending, the tax will probably fail. If that happens, Supervisor Ted Williams will then blame the voters when the water problems get even worse than they now are.

PS. Just for fun, let’s revisit former Supervisor John Pinches’ water proposals which have never been considered by Official Mendocino County.

“Scout Lake (East of Willits) can be raised which would provide water in dry years by gravity flow to Redwood Valley and North Ukiah Valley. This is a cheap and quick project as the water line can be laid along PG&E’s natural gas pipeline right-of-way.

“Sherwood Valley is a high and wet valley where a couple of wells can be drilled and water can be piped to Fort Bragg via the county road, mostly gravity flow. Above ground, very cheap, and quick. A downhill pipe is cost-effective compared to hauling water from Ukiah uphill in diesel trucks.

“These projects can be done in less than a year with financing from state water funds out of the $7 billion bond which was approved by the voters in 2014. Very little of that money has been applied for. (Mendocino County has never applied for any project money.) All Mendocino County has done is hold senseless meetings, hire a consulting firm for $330,000 to say, ‘We are in a drought’.”

* * *

FROM MONICA HUETTL’S SUMMARY of the June 8 Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council meeting (via MendoFever):

“Sheriff Kendall reported that two new-hire deputies have graduated from the Police Academy in Windsor. One more new deputy is coming, who has been mentored by Lt. Jason Caudillo. The Sheriff’s office is not able to patrol Redwood Valley as much as they would like because of the volume of drug problems and behavioral health issues around the Motel 6 area, and Brush Street in Ukiah. Lt. Caudillo reported that new apartments in Ukiah specifically intended to provide housing to people with addiction and behavioral health issues are generating a lot of calls to the Sheriff. The homeless camp on Brush Street is generating a high volume of calls. Social workers from four or five agencies regularly visit the camp in an attempt to enroll people in social services, but they don’t have much luck getting people signed up, resulting in more calls to law enforcement. Lt. Caudillo is working with Second District Supervisor Mo Mulheren to clean up this area. He contacted the California Conservation Corps and was quoted $208,000 in fees to clean up the camp because it includes hazardous waste, needles, and human waste.”

* * *

During last Tuesday’s end of fiscal year budget discussion, Supervisor Dan Gjerde again recommended that, given the County’s apparent tight budget, the Board should reduce the amount of the Transient Occupancy Tax “match” (subsidy) they unquestioningly hand over to “Visit Mendocino” for marketing the tourism industry every year and only give them the 50% match for the amount the unincorporated areas remit, a reduction of about $200k from almost the $600k the marketers now get. Gjerde pointed out that even with that reduction, Visit Mendocino would still be increasing the amount they spend on Chronicle ads, facebook postings, and free dinners for tony restaurant reviewers, just not as much of an increase.

Supervisor Williams wouldn’t hear of it, insisting without any evidence at all that any reduction in the County “match” would result in a reduction of the County’s bed tax and sales tax revenues and might be a job killer for the tourism industry on the Coast.

Gjerde reminded Williams that “there’s very little documentation” of a correlation between marketing and bed tax revenues. 

Supervisor Haschak agreed, saying, “There’s no evidence that the ads produce increased Transient Occupancy Taxes.” 

Instead, Haschak wanted to spend the $200k on non-existent “enhanced code enforcement.”

Obviously, Williams doesn’t want to get any complaints from his tourism industry constituents, and Haschak wants to appease his North County constituents by pretending that the County is doing something about illegal marijuana grows which are already down due to the pot market collapse. 

Therefore, Williams said, “it doesn’t sit well” with him to spend an estimated $750k for “enhanced pot garden code enforcement, much less give them $200k of the marketing money. In fact, Williams is tired of the entire pot discussion, having proposed (perhaps sarcastically; we don’t know) several times that the County should get out of the pot permit business altogether and just issue a permit to everyone who applies and let the state sort it out.

Williams then asked Sheriff Matt Kendall about those illegal grows.

Kendall replied that the number of grows are indeed down, but the size of the remaining grows has increased in a feeble attempt to stay profitable in the black market. This would theoretically make “enforcement” an easier task.

Supervisor Maureen Mulheren thought it might be a good idea to try to figure out if marketing made any difference to the tourism remissions, but for the time being she didn’t want to cut it. “Gas prices are rising,” she said, hence, in her mind at least, the County “needs more marketing.” “I don’t know where we are headed in future,” said Mulheren, finally making a statement everyone can agree on. “The cannabis industry is in transition. There’s lots of soil in our garden shops, so there’s less gardens.”

What? The “garden shops” are supporting illegal activity? My heavens! Where’s code enforcement?

Supervisor Glenn McGourty, an auto-vote for anything to do with wine or tourism, was of course against any marketing budget reduction.

And that did it. “The majority has spoken,” declared Williams triumphantly. 

But as a sop to the “minority” they agreed to think about asking somebody — perhaps McGourty’s wine buddies at UC Davis — to study the correlation between marketing and bed tax revenues. 

They’ve done this before, but the people who do this kind of thing are part of the marketing establishment and they always brag about how many social media page views they log and how many ads they’ve placed and so forth since there’s obviously no way prove a direct connection. 

But a glance at the sales and bed tax receipts shows that they go up and down with the local economy, no matter what the industry’s marketing budget is. 

There’s no point giving any more money to the code enforcement warriors either though. As Interim CEO Darcie Antle noted, “We may not be able to recruit anybody for our existing openings anyway.”

A good use for the $200k would be as a stop gap for the County’s underfunded unincorporated area ambulance services. But instead of considering that, the Board wants to take years working on some kind of vague, ill-defined “Joint Powers Authority” for emergency services which might — maybe/maybe not, nobody knows — produce an uptick in billings. 

The JPA idea is just another way, as Supervisor Williams bluntly stated, to tell the ambulance people, “You’re on your own,” suggesting that the tiny underfunded services districts in the County somehow try to figure out a way to propose their own mini-parcel tax add-ons — something that is not only bureaucratically impractical and costly, but unlikely to produce any near term help, if that.

Need we say again that the original intent of the “Bed Tax” was to help fund things like ambulances which respond in large part to tourists and their vehicle accidents and medical distress calls?

Whether it’s Williams and his grand “majority” or Haschak and Gjerde’s “minority,” this Board prefers to give that extra $200k to their politically expedient friends and constituents, rather than allocate it for the public good. 

ATTENTION DEADBEATS

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — The San Francisco Bay Area’s toll bridge authority is about to crack-down on drivers with unpaid bridge toll fines by telling hundreds of thousands of motorists: It’s time to pay up. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Bay Area Toll Authority voted Wednesday to approve a crackdown that will be enforced through the DMV. Drivers with unpaid bridge toll tickets will be unable to renew their annual DMV vehicle registration until they pony up for outstanding tickets. Motorists crossing the Bay Area’s seven toll bridges have racked up $50 million in unpaid tickets since January of 2021, according to the MTC. Many of these unpaid tickets have been slapped with late payment penalties, making paying them off even more painful. 

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Federal board rejects company’s bid to control Northern California rail line for coal-export scheme

by Andrew Graham

A federal board that regulates the nation’s rail rights of way has rejected a mysterious Wyoming company’s bid to seize control of a defunct Northern California rail line to ship coal for export out of Humboldt Bay.

In a decision published Friday afternoon, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board stated it would not consider the North Coast Railroad Company’s petition for control of 176 miles of abandoned rail line north of Willits because the firm had missed an earlier filing deadline in the case.

The decision was a victory for supporters of the Great Redwood Trail, a state-backed initiative to incorporate the abandoned line into a 320-mile recreational trail that could one day stretch from Eureka to San Pablo Bay in Marin County.

If the decision holds — and it was not immediately clear what path, aside from a challenge in federal court, existed for an appeal — then the blown deadline marked the end of a long-shot coal shipping proposal that nevertheless sparked alarm and vociferous political opposition across the region.

“This drives a dagger through the heart of the coal train,” Rep. Jared Huffman said in a brief interview Friday. The company would face a stiff battle if it challenges the ruling in court, Huffman, D-San Rafael, said.

“They made no serious attempt to explain why they blew the deadline, which they’ve known about for months,” he said. “If they want to light a bunch of coal money on fire chasing an appeal, then I hope they do it.”

 In its federal filing, the North Coast Railroad Co. indicated it had $15.7 million in the bank to clear an initial test of financial feasibility. That June 1 document, however, came a day late.

The company cited “unforeseen vacation travel delays” and asked the board to accept the late filing. But proponents of the Great Redwood Trail immediately called on the board to reject the proposal, and the board appears to have listened.

The rejection of North Coast Railroad Co.’s petition came the same day that Sen. Alex Padilla, Huffman and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, sent the transportation board a letter accusing the company of falsifying a financial document in its June 1 filing.

 The bank statement submitted by the company, the lawmakers said in their letter, was “at best misleading and at worst fraudulent.”

Representatives of the North Coast Railroad Co. did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Alicia Hamann, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Eel River, said attorneys for the conservation group were looking into the North Coast Railroad Co.’s options for appealing the decision. But she said allegations of fraud in the financial filings, the missed deadline and widespread local resistance to the coal shipping proposal amounted to higher obstacles.

“Really, my quick take is, thank goodness. The coal train attorneys were on vacation just at the right time,” Hamann said.

While the board rejected the rail company’s bid, it is allowing a separate petition from Mendocino Railway, operator of the tourist excursion Skunk Train, to advance. Mendocino Railway seeks to restore 13 miles of railroad line north of Willits to ship gravel, according to Robert Pinoli, the company’s president.

Mendocino Railway’s bid is not connected to the Wyoming company’s proposal, and Pinoli has expressed opposition to any coal shipping scheme.

Pinoli has said Mendocino Railway’s proposal for a limited freight railroading operation can coexist with the Great Redwood Trail. But trail proponents, led by state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, oppose the company’s bid. Restoring a section of the rail line will considerably increase the cost of building the recreation trail, McGuire said.

In a new letter filed this week, McGuire, the Senate majority leader, argued the company lacked the necessary resources to restore the line and did not have a history of freight shipping.

The board, however, found that Mendocino Railway had met an initial requirement of financial wherewithal and is allowing its bid to proceed.

“There are still a couple more hurdles for the Great Redwood Trail, or at least the entirety of the trail,” Huffman said. However, he anticipated the board would now proceed to “bank” the uncontested stretches of defunct railroad north of Willits, a legal mechanism by which the federal right of way is preserved and trail construction can proceed.

In the meantime, Huffman called for scrutiny of the North Coast Railroad Co.’s financial filings.

In its June 1 filing, North Coast Railroad Co. had indicated it had about $15.7 million in the bank in order to prove it had sufficient finances to advance its bid for a takeover of abandoned rail lines through Mendocino, Trinity and Humboldt counties.

The statement indicates the account’s average balance was about $1,000 — and at one point dipped as low as $69.96 — in the weeks leading up to the filing.

The last visible bank balance on the statement is $2,025.96, on April 21, leaving nine days in which the account could have received a transfer amounting to the cash balance claimed in its filing.

Federal credit union Self Help insures up to $250,000 for the type of money market account North Coast Railroad Co. is using, according to a website for the bank. A bank spokesperson did not respond to a voicemail and email seeking comment Friday.

“With a little bit of digging it should become clear that they were playing a shell game with money,” Huffman said. “It’s just one more aspect of this really dubious, shifty proposal.”

Neither North Coast Railroad Co.’s Chicago-based attorney Robert Wimbish nor Justin Wight, a consultant publicly associated with the company, responded to Press Democrat requests for comment Friday.

In their joint letter, the California lawmakers said questions about the bank statement served as one more indication of an “egregious lack of transparency” from a company that alleges it can upend existing plans to decommission the abandoned line and take on a massive rail reconstruction project, estimated at $2.3 billion.

“This entity has not yet disclosed its identity or its source of financing,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is our understanding that this applicant has no ties to the North Coast of California nor experience with freight rail services but is seeking to haul coal across the functionally abandoned rail line for shipment abroad.”

North Coast Railroad Co. was registered with the Wyoming Secretary of State in August of last year. The state is known for loose business registration laws that allow limited liability companies to form with little to no transparency about who is behind them.

The company’s filings to date have not shed any more light on its backers or its plans, were it to gain control of the line. But early filings with the federal board and onetime connections to a Utah government agency and the coal-rich Crow Tribe in Eastern Montana indicated the company hopes to ship coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming for export out of Humboldt Bay.

Little is known about who is behind the coal-shipping proposal besides Wight, a consultant who pushed it with local officials in the Eureka area.

The bank transactions further tie the company to Wight. A number of the transactions indicate transfers and deposits from two other LLCs, one called Twin Hawkes Development and another called TerraNova Strategies. Wight is listed as a senior partner for TerraNova Strategies on his LinkedIn page, while the website ZoomInfo links him to TwinHawkes.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

GOOD QUESTIONS

Good afternoon postmodern America,

Have finished the trash & recycling (voluntary) chore at Building Bridges homeless shelter in Ukiah, California.  The cold shower rinse plus a Yerba Mate revivified and rehydrated nicely.  Am headed out to Super Taco for a shrimp super burrito next.  Hey, I gotta eat!

I am available for anything worldwide in terms of spiritually focused direct action.  I do not need to live in Mendocino County indefinitely.  What for??  I do not need to live in the State of California either.  What for??  But we are here.  What for??  😁

Craig Louis Stehr

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 11, 2022

SEAN DIXON, Lucerne/Ukiah. Leaded cane or similar.

JAMES GODDARD, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance, under influence, corporal injury on child.

BREANN JONES, Lakeport/Ukiah. DUI.

MATHEW VICCHIONE SR., Fort Bragg. Trespassing.

UKRAINE, SATURDAY 11 JUNE

Intense fighting continues in the key eastern city of Severodonetsk, according to Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country's forces are "holding on" to frontline cities in Donbas.

The city of Mariupol is at risk of a cholera outbreak while Kherson faces a shortage of medicine, according to a new UK intelligence report. Drinking water, internet connection and phone services remain inconsistent in Russian-occupied territories, the report said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin compared himself to Peter the Great, likening the 17th-century monarch's conquest of Sweden to his own invasion of Ukraine. Putin argued that Peter the Great was not conquering, but rather fighting over territory that rightfully belonged to Russia. 

The British government has condemned the death sentences of three men — two Britons and a Moroccan — by a pro-Russian court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.

(CNN)

WASHINGTON’S FAILED PUSH FOR ANTI-RUSSIAN GLOBAL CONSENSUS

African countries especially fail to see any advantage for themselves in supporting the West’s policy. Although Washington insists that repelling Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is essential to preserve the “rules based, liberal international order,” governments and populations in Africa see matters differently. To them, the war looks more like a mundane power struggle between Russia and a Western client state. As one African scholar put it: “many in Africa and the rest of the Global South do not regard—and never have regarded—the liberal international order as particularly liberal or international. Nor do they consider it to be particularly orderly, considering how much their countries were turned into spheres of influence and arenas for geostrategic competition.” 

…The Biden administration clearly overestimated the extent of international outrage at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Given the track record of multiple Western military actions against sovereign countries, including Serbia, Iraq, and Libya, it is hardly surprising that other governments might view the West’s stance regarding Moscow’s behavior as the epitome of self-serving hypocrisy. U.S. leaders also overestimated the extent of U.S. leverage to compel nations not in Washington’s geopolitical orbit to participate in a punitive policy toward Russia. It should be a sobering experience, but the administration and the members of the U.S. foreign policy blob that populates it show no signs of learning anything worthwhile. Instead, U.S. arrogance and the inflated sense of Washington’s power continues undiminished.…

theamericanconservative.com/articles/washingtons-failed-push-for-anti-russian-global-consensus/

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY: China’s “cultural revolution” lasted about 10 years…and then the madness finally passed and China spent decades recovering from that foolishness. America is essentially going through the same thing. It kicked off in 2016 with Trump Derangement Syndrome and we are now 6+ years into the madness. It’s going to take until 2024, at a minimum, for it to completely pass, but I am beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel, I think. What transpires this November will be very clarifying.

REMEMBERING THE BLUES LEGEND HOWLIN' WOLF (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976)

Mark Hoffman: “Wolf’s music was always very impressive. I mean, it was so far out. The sound of his voice was far out. The tone of his guitar was far out. The depth of his passion was far out. His rhythms were beyond primitive. Some of his rhythms I still haven’t figured out yet! “Wolf was the consummate bluesman. Anybody who was in the blues loved the Wolf because he personified the genre. And of course, there’s nothing bad you can say about him in terms of representing the genre. This is what a bluesman does: He supersedes whatever society tells him isn’t what’s happening, and through strength of will, projection of personality, he makes something happen. Wolf was that way; he had a powerful drive. Sometimes it was malevolent. A lot of his communication was just looking at you.… He was the kind of guy who would scare the shit out of you! He was the Howlin’ Wolf, and the Wolf ain’t no socialite. Yeah, he was an extraordinary character: extraordinarily talented, but a scary guy, too.… He was a consummate, perfect musician. He had it in his blood.”

THE US EMPIRE ACTS LIKE A TEXTBOOK MANIPULATIVE SOCIOPATH

by Caitlin Johnstone

One of the great sources of distress in people's lives is that we don't get to be the narrator of other people's stories about us. That we don't get to control what other people are thinking and saying about how we are, what we do, and the kind of person we are.

We've all been there in some way at some point.

"If he really knew me he'd like me."

"If they'd understood what I meant by that joke they wouldn't have gotten offended."

"If she could see my heart and my intentions she'd understand why I did what I did."

"No no, that's not what happened; they're getting it all wrong and it's making me look like the bad guy."

It's pretty normal to feel misunderstood or mischaracterized by the people in our lives from time to time. But there are some people who take that experience to very unhealthy extremes and respond to it in very unhealthy ways.

People with an underdeveloped sense of empathy, like those with narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders, don't experience other human beings the way normal people do. To whatever extent they lack empathy for others, they see them not as sovereign people but as tools to be used to get whatever it is they want, whether that's power, wealth, sex, respect, etc.

This view of others tends to cause people who lack empathy to become manipulative, because their interest in others is not in connecting with them and helping them but in using and exploiting them. However perceptive and clever they are will determine how skillful they can be in manipulating people toward that end.

For such individuals, the inability to narrate other people's stories for them is experienced not as a sometimes painful but necessary reality but as an intolerable obstacle which must be overcome. Finding ways to manipulate the thoughts people think in their minds about the manipulator, about themselves, and about others takes on a central role in their lives.

This is one of the ways you can spot a manipulator who lacks empathy in your life: they spend an inordinate amount of energy trying to influence your opinion of them, your opinion of others, and/or your opinion of yourself. I'm this way and I do such and such. She's such a bitch, she's always blah blah blah. You're defective in this-and-that ways. You need me for such-and-such reasons. You wronged me in such-and-such ways.

A virulent manipulator's entire social existence revolves around influencing the narratives people have about what's going on in their circle in a way that benefits the manipulator. Influencing the thoughts they think to themselves, and influencing the stories they're telling each other.

A narrative is a story. Often when people hear the word "story" they think of a whole cloth work of fiction, something made up for the amusement of others. But the overwhelming majority of the stories we experience are about our own lives and the lives of others, both in our own heads and in our conversations with people.

"Joe went to the store" is a narrative, whether Joe did in fact go to the store or not. "Joe is a jerk" is a narrative, whether the arguments for Joe being a jerk contain factual claims or not. It's a description of an occurrence or situation, whether accurate, inaccurate, or a mixture of both.

This ambiguous relationship between narrative and truth is where the manipulator lives. They spend their days weaving tall spires of language, framing reality in a way which benefits them using truth, half-truth, and falsehood as necessary. Filling people's minds with a version of the world which consistently paints them in a sympathetic light and their targets in an unsympathetic light.

Because their lives revolve around manipulation, anything which poses an obstacle to their ability to manipulate is seen as a threat. Getting caught doing something gross which would make people less likely to believe the things they say in the future. Someone noticing that they are being manipulated and refusing to believe anything the manipulator says. Or, worst of all, everyone they know starting to talk to each other about what a dishonest and untrustworthy manipulator they are.

For the manipulator, being fully seen by everyone is one of the most frightening existential threats imaginable. You'll often see them projecting this fear onto others, threatening to expose the secrets of people they don't like, because for them that's one of the most terrifying threats that can be made.

The US-centralized empire is a giant macrocosm of this entire dynamic. It pours vast amounts of energy into narrative control in the form of propaganda, censorship, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, and the war on journalism. It weaves nonstop narratives about how great it is and how horrible its enemies are. And it fears being seen more than anything in the world.

The vast globe-spanning power structure that is loosely centralized around the United States is a powerful military force and a powerful economic force, but its most potent weapon by far is its ability to control the narrative about what's happening in the world. The use of oligarchic media, Silicon Valley and Hollywood to manipulate public thought and thereby control the way people think, act and vote at mass scale all around the world is unlike anything ever seen in any empire in history.

Propaganda only works if you don't know it's happening. Censorship only works if it doesn't draw attention to the information being censored. The US empire's nonstop campaign to control the world's dominant narratives only works if it isn't in the spotlight of public scrutiny. This is why those who draw attention to these things are smeared, demonized, censored, marginalized, imprisoned and worse by the managers of empire.

Manipulators hate to be seen, but if you ever find yourself in a relationship with one, your ability to escape depends upon your seeing them. This extreme clash of interests often brings up white hot rage in the manipulator which can be frightening and dangerous.

And I think humanity is entering that stage of the relationship with the US empire. A manipulator who's just beginning to be seen by a few more pairs of eyes than it would like, causing flickerings of panic to begin to surface. Because once those eyes see what's hidden underneath the veil of narrative manipulation, they don't often look away. If anything, they tend to point and draw more attention to it.

It's a scary time to be alive. But it's also fascinating. Unlike anything that has ever happened on this planet before.

I look forward to finding out if we escape.

(caitlinjohnstone.com)

ONE FOR OLD PURDUE

Here's the recording of last night's (2022-06-10) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA): https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0492

Thanks to Hank Sims for all kinds of tech help over the years, as well as for his fine news site: https://LostCoastOutpost.com

And thanks go to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, which provided well over an hour of the above 8-hour show's most locally relevant material, as usual, without asking for anything in return. Just $25 a year for full access to all articles and features. While you're feeling generous, go to KNYO.org, click on the big red heart and give what you can. And email me your writing and I'll read it on the very next Memo of the Air.

Also, it's getting time to be all anticipatory about attending the /massive/ KNYO Fourth of July outdoor musical party at Caspar Community Center, just like last year, but even more great bands! Fun for the whole family, dance on the grass, be a person again for a change. Write it on the wall so you don't forget. Print the poster and leave it on the dashboard. Set an alarm in your phone. http://knyo.org/images/knyo-event.jpg

Besides All That, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together. Such as:

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun that turns the Earth inside out is a /good/ guy with a gun that turns the Earth inside-out."

https://thenib.com/turning-inwards/

Prison planet.

https://boingboing.net/2022/06/08/keeping-schools-safe-from-guns-with-a-few-modifications.html

Time once again for the entire O.C. and Stiggs issue of National Lampoon, minus the ads for rolling papers and stereo speakers. I sought it and found it again because I read an article about how George Lucas couldn’t get permission to build Skywalker Ranch movie studios, so he applied to put up lots of affordable housing to attract poors, and the riches all said, “Oh. In that case, we'll have the studios, please, carry on,” and it reminded me of /Penis House/, a similar situation, in this fascinating story of /The Utterly Monstrous, Mind-Roasting Summer of O. C. and Stiggs/, free to all:

https://pdf4pro.com/cdn/utterly-monstrous-mind-roasting-summer-of-o-c-and-stiggs-3579a3.pdf

The lap of luxury. From the days when you’d eat a whole giant drippy hamburger while you drove. Mmmm. Just like sitting in a big hand. Salesmen had a rubber tube-thing that they could piss in and it would come out on the road underneath, sucked out by Bernoulli's principle, like an airplane toilet. You never had to get out unless you were getting a cramp or something. When you stopped for gas, they’d pour the gas in for you, and clean the windows all around, inside and out, and check the oil and water, and practically /salute/. And there was real lead in the gas then. It put hair on your chest, next to the hamburger juice.

https://www.vintag.es/2022/06/1970s-velour.html

And one for old Purdue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz1xUbJprCw

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

JOE BIDEN'S SUBMISSIVE — AND HIGHLY REVEALING — EMBRACE OF SAUDI DESPOTS 

Biden's immediate abandonment of his 2020 vow to turn the Saudis into "pariahs," and his increasing support for the regime, shows the core deceit of U.S. propaganda.

by Glenn Greenwald

In 2018, President Trump issued a statement reaffirming the U.S.'s long-standing relationship with the Saudi royal family on the ground that this partnership serves America's “national interests.” Trump specifically cited the fact that “Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing nation in the world” and has purchased hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons from U.S. arms manufacturers. Trump's statement was issued in the wake of widespread demands in Washington that Trump reduce or even sever ties with the Saudi regime due to the likely role played by its Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 

What made these Trump-era demands somewhat odd was that the Khashoggi murder was not exactly the first time the Saudi regime violated human rights and committed atrocities of virtually every type. For decades, the arbitrary imprisonment and murder of Saudi dissidents, journalists, and activists have been commonplace, to say nothing of the U.S./UK-supported devastation of Yemen which began during the Obama years. All of that took place as American presidents in the post-World War II order made the deep and close partnership between Washington and the tyrants of Riyadh a staple of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Yet, as was typical for the Trump years, political and media commentators treated Trump's decision to maintain relations with the Saudis as if it were some unprecedented aberration of evil which he alone pioneered — some radical departure of long-standing, bipartisan American values — rather than what it was: namely, the continuation of standard bipartisan U.S. policy for decades. In an indignant editorial following Trump's statement, The New York Times exclaimed that Trump was making the world "more [dangerous] by emboldening despots in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere,” specifically blaming “Mr. Trump’s view that all relationships are transactional, and that moral or human rights considerations must be sacrificed to a primitive understanding of American national interests.” …

greenwald.substack.com/p/joe-bidens-submissive-and-highly