Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022

High Pressure | Henry Gundling | Coast Collision | Mushroom Music | Voter Registration | Fall Party | Flu Shots | Pot Money | Mathes Memorial | Murder Suspect | Lighthouse Rebuild | Ed Notes | Bragg Dusk | MAC Events | PA Pier | Hobo Trail | 1983 Storm | Art Walk | Flooding | Pot Lawsuit | Surge | Harvest Tidrick | Aftermath | Transportation Survey | Yesterday's Catch | Nuclear Embrace | Anchor Inn | Medical Debt | Kali Chant | Esther Story | Orwell Goat | Food Fetish | Reasonable Likeness | Commonwealth | Hurricane Relief | Halper Dismissed | Gags Bags | Assange v Bolton | Favorite Chair | Ukraine | Sufi Dervish | Armageddon Clock | Bong Request

WARM AND DRY weather will continue through at least Monday as a strong ridge of high pressure builds along the West Coast. Low clouds and periods of fog will remain persistent closer to the coast. Next week a cooling trend is expected and there is the potential for frost in the valleys. (NWS)

HENRY ‘HANK’ GUNDLING

Henry Ernest Gundling was born on December 10, 1931 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He grew up in a family of German immigrants, including a grandfather who had run a German-language newspaper until WWI. Tragedy struck early in Henry's life as his mother Katherine died when he was nine years old. In addition to his father, others in his life, including his grandmother and his beloved Uncle Otto and cousin Arlene, stepped in to provide love and support.

In his early teens, Henry was sent to St. John's Military Academy in Wisconsin. There he met other young men who were to become lifelong friends, and would later vividly describe the winter cold and marching in the snow. At the age of 16, Henry attended the Interlaken Music Camp in Michigan, a training venue for young musicians from throughout the United States where he played the cello. There he met a young woman in the cello section named Marie who introduced him to her identical twin sister Dorothy, a violinist. Henry and Dorothy were drawn to each other immediately, and even though Dorothy lived far away in Sacramento, California, they continued to stay in contact. Henry decided to move west to attend Stanford University after finishing high school at St. John's. He and Dorothy were married on June 14, 1953, just after their graduation.

Henry had been in the ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) while at Stanford, and he then served as an intelligence officer and wilderness survival trainer in the U.S. Air Force. After leaving the Air Force, Henry attended Stanford Business School for a time, but his savings quickly evaporated with the expenses of a growing family, and so he decided to leave school and go to work as an investment advisor.

For the next several decades, from the late 1950s through the 1990s, Henry and Dorothy lived in Napa and raised their children in local schools. Henry and Dorothy had three children: Ernest, Henry Jr., and Katherine. Henry contributed to the community in various ways, including a term as Napa County Grand Jury foreman. Dorothy was concertmaster of the Napa Symphony and a local music teacher who founded several of Napa County's major music programs. Both she and Henry played regularly in the Napa Symphony and later the Mendocino Music Festival.

After retiring from PaineWebber, the investment business, Henry accepted the role of president of the Napa County Land Trust, which has been successful in preserving many family properties in the Napa area as open space free from development. Henry was also appointed to serve on the Mendocino County Board of Forestry. In 1997, Henry and a very mixed group of concerned citizens – a sawmill owner, a university extension educator, foresters, forest restorationists, radical environmentalists, and others – met in his ranch living room to form the Redwood Forest Foundation. The organization's goal was to buy cut-over forestlands and restore them through sustainable forestry practices, ensuring healthy wildlife habitat while providing benefits to rural economies. Through Henry's business acumen and skill at bringing together people from different backgrounds, he helped gather expertise and financing for the foundation to purchase and manage more than 50,000 acres of Mendocino County forest.

Henry and Dorothy looked forward to an enjoyable retired life in the Anderson Valley and in Napa, but tragedy struck again with Dorothy's untimely death in 1998. Henry later had the good fortune to meet Heidi Knott, an environmental filmmaker who was traveling in California to interview environmental activists. Henry sold the family home in Napa and moved full-time to Philo in Mendocino County, where he and Heidi were married and made a home for themselves at the ranch, continuing their conservation activities together.

Henry was particularly beloved by his family and friends for his generosity and sense of humor. There was rarely a dull moment when Henry was in his prime. Henry shared his tremendous love for the outdoors with everyone he met. Even after he became incapacitated toward the end of his life and lost his ability to travel and fish, Henry continued to be genial, appreciative, and welcoming to guests. He often said, “I've had a great life.” 

He is survived by his three children, their spouses Karen, Mary, and Bob, and his wife, Heidi, along with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Those who wish to make a donation in his name are encouraged to donate to the Redwood Forest Foundation (rffi.org) or to Sustainable Harvest International (sustainableharvest.org), a non-profit on whose board Henry's daughter Katherine serves.

BAD COLLISION ON HIGHWAY 1 NEAR GUALALA

LARRY SPRING MUSEUM 

This First Friday join us in Spring Commons for and sound and visual experience - Mushroom Music with Nanotopia. Gates open at 6. Grab a tempeh burger by Sydney Lift off at 6:30

Enter through the gates beside 225 E Redwood Ave. Donations are welcome!

https://bit.ly/3SAcc9M

AV VILLAGE MONTHLY GATHERING: FALL PARTY

Sunday, October 9th, 4 to 5:30 PM
Anderson Valley Senior Center, outside, unless it’s too hot or cold, raining, etc. Refreshments served. Door Prize – the lucky winner will get baked goods from the infamous local baker, Elizabeth Wyant – come on down!

Join us for our Fall Party and fall prevention awareness talk with Philip and Evette. They are teaching the Matter of Balance class and will give a short presentation about home safety and checklists, fear of falling etc. Here is to not falling into Fall! 

And we will start our “let’s get to know each other” idea – where we will have members take turns briefly introducing their passions, skills, hobbies, etc. One member will share at each event – please let us know if you are interested in sharing.   

Please Note: Our gatherings are open to everyone, but COVID Vaccinations are now REQUIRED - please bring your vaccination card (one time) as proof. Masks are required inside - thank you in advance for your understanding. 

Please RSVP with the coordinator – thank you!

Anica Williams
Cell: 707-684-9829
Email: andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

LOCAL ATTORNEY ACCUSES COUNTY COUNSEL OF LEGAL MALPRACTICE

by Mark Scaramella

Agenda Item 4f on Tuesday’s Supervisors agenda: “Discussion and Possible Action Including Direction to Staff to Limit Cannabis Equity Program(s) to Legitimate Governmental Purposes, Including Environmental Remediation, Encouragement of Regulatory Compliance, Mitigation of Negative Impacts of Existing Industry and Void Any Program Elements Found to be Impermissible Under Federal Law. (Sponsor: Supervisor Williams) … Recommended Action/Motion: Direct staff to limit Cannabis Equity Program(s) to legitimate governmental purposes, including environmental remediation, encouragement of regulatory compliance, mitigation of negative impacts of existing industry and void any program elements found to be impermissible under Federal Law.”

Translation: Seeing that the County’s finances might be precarious, Supervisor Williams and County Counsel Curtis want to keep all the state’s equity grant money for themselves on bogus grounds that marijuana is still illegal under federal law and handing it out to pot growers in accordance with state law might be illegal. 

This is the same Supervisor Williams who agreed with Supervisor Gjerde that business as usual (no new money for fire protection) is compliant with the Pot Tax Advisory measure’s call for “increased fire protection,” and who agreed with the Board’s Grand Jury response that business as usual constitutes “indirect” spending on substance abuse services as called for in Measure B when no Measure B money has been spent on substance abuse services. Williams also insists that although the latest Measure P “essential services” sales tax measure will go into the County’s General Fund where he and his colleagues can do what they want with it, the public is supposed to believe that it will go to fire services according to a complex allocation formula.

In other words, Supervisor Williams is very clever at weasel wording if he thinks it’ll help the County’s bottom line.

A parade of at least a dozen righteously aggrieved cannabis permit applicants came to the podium on Tuesday to complain that the agenda item would shift the “equity grant” money to the county itself, not to the people that the equity grant program was intended to help: pot growers who could demonstrate that they had been harmed by the “war on drugs.” Some of them even wept as they spoke about the dire economic conditions they now find themselves in, having spent tens of thousands of dollars for permit requirements, and consultants and lawyers and property-improvements — only to watch the entire pot economy collapse while the pot bureaucracy expands.

Supervisor John Haschak: “County Counsel, do you believe that any of the equity grants that we have already given out are breaking federal law?”

County Counsel Christian Curtis: “I don't have enough knowledge on the specifics of the grants that did go out. I think there's a decent possibility.”

Haschak: “So for the last two years we have been working on this program and we are two years into it and all of a sudden we get this agenda item that says, Hey, you guys might be breaking federal law and so get your orange jumpsuits ready? Do you mean that we might find out that we might be going to jail with Nicole Elliott and the whole DCC [Nicole Elliott is California’s Director of the Department of Cannabis Control] and every other jurisdiction in this state that has equity grants? Is that where we are going on this? I just don't see it. It's just beyond me.”

Long-time Local Cannabis Attorney Hannah Nelson was even more blunt: “If the feds want to be involved in this they will step in. This is an issue without a problem! Okay? It's been decided by the courts, by the annual budget. This item is so far beyond the scope and in my opinion — and I respect County Counsel Curtis — but this is legal malpractice to not have raised this issue if it was a concern, when your [Curtis’s] office has reviewed every single equity grant contract. In fact, a lot of the bottlenecks and a lot of the delays are because everything was being reviewed by your office and new issues kept coming up all of a sudden. I'm sorry I'm raising my voice. I'm very upset. I may actually file legal action about this.”

In the end, all four of Supervisor Haschak's church-mice colleagues — including especially Supervisor Williams who brought the silly item forward, trembling in their nice comfortable chairs — voted to have County Counsel Curtis pay an expensive outside private attorney to give the board advice about the federal legality of the cannabis equity grants and whether or not they amount to some kind of conspiracy to violate federal law, even though for two years grants have been in the pipeline or handed out to pot growers in accordance with state law as Ms. Nelson and Supervisor Haschak noted. Mr. Curtis, the most highly paid public attorney in Mendocino County after being given a giant raise last year in a process he himself approved which blatantly violated the Brown Act, and who has been deeply involved in all of this cannabis legalization crap for years, told the Board that he just didn’t have the necessary expertise to advise the Board of the federal law question.

Meanwhile, the equity grants will continue being processed. However, whether Mr. Curtis will approve them, or drag his feet, or sit on them, or nitpick them, while a legal opinion is sought and/or provided, some day, was not discussed. 

PS. Nobody thought to ask the State Attorney General or the Legislature’s Legislative Counsel Office, both of which presumably vetted the state's equity grant program in the first place, for a legal opinion – at no cost to the County.

SHERIFF: UKIAH MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING FRIEND AFTER BODY FOUND IN SHALLOW GRAVE

by Kathleen Coates

A 19-year-old Ukiah man has been arrested on suspicion of killing a friend after investigators found the victim’s body in a shallow grave, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said the remains of Aaron Joseph Vossler, 18, of Laytonville, were found at the Potter Valley home of a relative of Christopher Franklin Hill.

Hill has been arrested on suspicion of killing Vossler, officials said. He has been booked into the Mendocino County Jail.

Investigators learned that Vossler and Hill left Laytonville in Hill’s black Toyota Prius on Sept. 26 and were supposed to travel to Ukiah. However, when Vossler did not return from the trip someone called the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and reported him missing.

The reporting person was concerned because Vossler’s friends said he never made it to the Ukiah address and he had not posted on social media, which was unusual for him, officials said.

According to a news release issued Tuesday, as deputies looked for Vossler they heard rumors that his disappearance might have been the result of foul play. They also were told that Hill might know where Vossler was as they had left Laytonville together.

Investigators interviewed Hill at his relative’s home in Potter Valley. After taking a look at Hill’s car they determined that “a possible violent crime” had occurred “in and about” the car. They then obtained a warrant to search Hill’s relative’s property.

It was during that search, officials said, that Vossler’s body was discovered.

Investigators suspect the killing took place in the 43800 block of North Highway 101 in Laytonville, officials said.

A possible motive for the killing has not been released.

Crime scene specialists from the California Department of Justice assisted the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force and investigators from the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office in processing the crime scene, which included exhuming Vossler’s remains.

The investigation is ongoing, and the sheriff’s Investigative Unit asks that anyone with information call the Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 707-234-2100 or the WeTip anonymous crime reporting hotline at 1-800-782-7643.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

* * *

THE BOOKING PHOTO OF CHRISTOPHER HILL, the 19 year old Potter Valley kid accused of murdering 18 year old Aaron Vossler of Laytonville sometime late last month has been posted. 

According to the posting, Hill is a white male, 19 (born on February 8, 2003), has an alias of “Lux,” is 5-9 and weighs 120 pounds. His bail is listed at $1 million. There is no mention of parole or probation which probably means he has no prior criminal record. 

ED NOTES

WHERE'S McCOWEN? The garrulous former supervisor, and descendent of Mendocino County's pioneer Indian killers, a remark he once threatened to sue me for making if I repeated it, has gone silent. Nothing on his facebook page, no response to repeat e-mail demands — “Where you at, McCowen?” 

THE GUY'S a bachelor who lives alone in Ukiah where he spends a lot of time cleaning up homeless camps. The bush dwellers all know him and, to put it mildly, don't like him. Time for someone to do a welfare check. BTW. It still rankles us that McCowen was not only not honored with the usual Whereas Proclamation lauding his years as a public servant because he'd fallen out with CEO Mommy Dearest, she and his liver-ish supervisorial colleagues accused McCowen of stealing County property! Which wasn't true, but it'll be a cold day in a homeless camp before he gets an apology.

THE DESCENDANTS of the old Mendo Indian killer, Serranus Hastings, are suing the state and the University of California for removing Hastings' name from the law school, unperturbed that another Hastings descendent, sitting as one of the law school's trustees, was among the trustees voting to remove great grandpap.

IF YOU came in late, Hastings was California's first state supreme court chief justice. He left a hundred thou in gold pieces to the university to establish the law school at the dawn of the 20th century. The greedhead Hastingses bringing the suit want their money back, pre-rated of course to a couple of billion or so in today's inflated currency.

THERE'S NO INDICATION that the Hastings descendents have read the irrefutably true history of their murderous patriarch. From his perch as chief justice, Hastings easily persuaded the savage state legislature of 1850 to fund a year-long, state-sponsored campaign to kill all the Indians in the entire Eel River basin.

IT'S LESS KNOWN that Hastings wanted the Indians gone because it was Eden Valley Indians who were cheated out of payment for hauling Hastings' belongings from the Mendocino Coast to his new home in Eden Valley (between Laytonville and Covelo). In retaliation, the cheated Indians killed Hastings' prize brood stallion, and the rest is history. The lawsuit by Hastings' opportunistic descendents is like Hitler's descendents suing modern Germany for defamation. (Kind of. Maybe. Does it work as a parallel?)

FOR YEARS on top of years I've been eating at a wonderful little place in Fairfax called the Barefoot Cafe, but it wasn't until I read Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw that it occurred to me how narrow my dining experiences, la di da, have been. I eat mostly at home because my wife is an excellent cook and eating out is expensive for us. So it isn't as if restaurants are an integral part of what we do as a family, because what we do as a family is Friday and Saturday night in-house family dinners, partly motivated but unstated, as fond memory anchors for the little ones.

BOURDAIN describes meals I've never heard of, let alone experienced, at places like the famous French Laundry, meals whose ingredients are also unknown to me. Reading Bourdain, it has gradually dawned on me that the unpretentious little Fairfax restaurant, the Barefoot Cafe, also offers specials beyond my peasant culinary expeditions, that at least one of the Cafe's cooks is a fully credentialed chef whose specials I've waived on by for the familiar fish and chips or BLTs, that the guy slaving away grilling cheeseburgers is like having an NFL quarterback playing for a semi-pro weekend team out of Stockton.

Next time, I'm having one of his specials so the unsung hero of the Barefoot kitchen can get proper recognition from this repentant diner.

KH WRITES: "I’m frequently surprised by the topics that bring the most [on-line] comments. Today it is the topic of Ukraine, a country 6400 miles away from Mendocino County.

I feel able to offer little insight on Ukraine. My opinions about it are meaningless. It’s concerning, don’t get me wrong. Surely it will affect our world in large and small ways, but there is nothing I can do to change the outcome from here.

I have to focus on issues closer to home. Has anyone been arrested for stealing from the Botanical Garden? And what are people’s thoughts about the Patterson matter?"

ED NOTE: We all pay taxes that our government too often puts to evil purpose. We're responsible for what that government does at home and abroad, imo. Putin vs. Ukraine threatens life on earth, pardon the grandiosity. Lots of lib-left people are being misled about Ukraine by Russkie disinfo. No one has yet been arrested for stealing stuff from the Botanical Gardens, and my thoughts on the Patterson matter consist of one thought — it's unfair to the people working in government to bombard them with tons of Gotcha demands for docs. I hope an intelligent young guy like Patterson will see the error of his ways. The only mismanaged governments in this county are (1) Ukiah and (2) county government under a bumbling board of supervisors and the former CEO. The new CEO may be an improvement over the old CEO. It's too early to tell.

SECOND SATURDAY GALLERY RECEPTION & ARTIST TALK October 8, 5pm-7pm — Free Admission 

Earth, Fire And Ash Exhibition

More information: https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/exhibitions/earth-fire-ash

Join us for the exhibition opening “Earth, Fire and Ash,” a celebration of woodfired ceramics, continuing through December 30. It will be a night with local Woodfire Artists sharing their stories about how they got into woodfired ceramics and what it means to them. There will also be time for a formal Q & A after the stories and to talk to the artists about their work.

Also on exhibit is the Mendocino Open Paint Out Featured Artists Exhibit, continuing through October 30, 2022, with plein air paintings by Maeve Croghan, Ryan Jensen and Carolyn Lord.

More information: https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/exhibitions/mopo-featured-artists-exhibit-2022

Open daily, 11am-4pm

Mendocino Art Center, 45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street, Mendocino, 707.937.5818, https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org

GREAT REDWOOD HOBO TRAIL SMOKE & MIRRORS

State Senator Mike McGuire and our congressional representatives scared us half to death that a coal company from Wyoming was going to rain toxic ruin on where we live. Our representatives waged a courageous fight, but the alleged coal train representatives didn’t show up for that fight, while the only visible coal train advocate was apparently busy selling bumper stickers. …

mendofever.com/2022/10/04/every-battle-is-won-or-lost-before-it-is-fought-the-smoke-and-mirrors-of-the-great-redwood-trail-letter-to-the-editor/

FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK - OCTOBER

Art Walk: Ukiah is a very walkable town. Join artists and their hosts for an evening of art, music and refreshments as you stroll from one venue to the next; each showcasing local art and artistry. Held in Historic Downtown Ukiah on the first Friday of each month, the First Friday Art Walk is the perfect way to relax your body, mind and soul. This enjoyable evening begins at 5:00 p.m. and promises to delight your senses; all while enjoying the company of others. For more information contact (707) 391-3664

Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, 431 S Main Street, Ukiah

Spend part of your Ukiah First Friday Art Walk at the Grace Hudson Museum. Meet Pomo artist Kathleen Smith as we open a pop-up exhibition of her artwork. The Pomo Weavers Society will also be hand. Plus, you can try your hand at making dolls from tule, a reed that grows in our Wild Gardens.

Mama’s Medicinals, 328 M State Street, Ukiah

Mama’s Medicinals is pleased to welcome Wildbird to the October First Friday Art Walk. Wildbird will be bringing a watercolor collection comprised of portraits of artists who inspire with their dedication to authenticity. Experience their presence through Wildbird's vibrant, whimsical, flamboyant style.Wildbird's acrylic series began with 'The Original Dream' - presented as a completed image in a dream from God. Esoteric suggestions arise when observing these vivid translations from Spirit. Myriad perceptions contain a "jolt of alignment" to support elemental focus and momentum needed to fulfill sacred intentions.

Medium Art Gallery, 522 E Perkins Street, Ukiah

The Deep Valley Arts Collective invites you to an upcoming community art exhibition: *Memento Mori* at MEDIUM Art Gallery in Ukiah. You are invited to attend the juried group exhibition “Memento Mori,” which in Latin means to “remember that you must die.” We seek to explore the inevitability of death and its impact on all of us. During the pandemic, we’ve had to let go of old ways of thinking and being in the world and adopt new ways of living. Death, in all its forms, can provide an opportunity to adapt, appreciate, honor and value the lives we are currently living. Remembering that we all will die one day allows us to be present in the world and more present in our lives. Death reminds us that each moment of life is sacred. The exhibition will be on display during the months of October and November. The opening reception will be held during the First Friday Art Walk. You are invited to come to Medium and help to build our community altar. Bring something or create something to add to the altar in remembrance of those who have passed away, but are not forgotten. You will also be able to learn how to make paper flowers that you can add to the community altar or your own. Supplies provided.

 The Lot, corner of Main Street and Standley

The Lot offers a variety of crafters and artists for your perusal. In October they will be joined by local artists Amanda Shaw, Tim Poma, Hofmonsters, Wolf, Megan, Custom light switches by Melissa, a DJ and much more. Don’t forget to stop by this new spot.

Mendo Merch, 301 N Main Street

New shop in town, Mendo Merch on the corner of Smith and N Main Street is joining the First Friday Art Walks. Offering a fresh experience in Ukiah with local brands Four in Box and Popo Chantelle. Original paintings on repurposed frames, windows, doors and mirrors. The art is here, your walls are wanting it. Refreshments, entertainment, music and merch will be provided. We are excited to welcome you to our new shop.

Corner Gallery, 201 S State Street

“Single Handed Double Fisted” exhibit of Polly Palecek's oil and acrylic paintings. Polly brings a new sensibility with her views of our everyday life. Join us Friday October 7th from 5 pm - 8 pm meet the artist and enjoy music by Elizabeth MacDougall Corner Gallery Also welcomes a new young artist, Norea Israel who will exhibit her drawings and other works during the month of October and November.

Art Center Ukiah, 201 S State Street

Immigration: “Neither from here of nor from there”

Art by local artists reflection their journey or history of migration. Paintings, sculpture, photographs, fabric art. Opening reception Friday October 7. Exhibits through October 29

For more information contact (707) 391-3664

IS MENDO NEXT? THEY SHOULD BE!

The Institute for Justice (IJ) in partnership with abated local landowners filed a class-action lawsuit against Humboldt County. The nationally acclaimed, non profit, human rights law firm filed the suit on behalf of all 1219 Humboldt County cannabis abatement recipients, which they claim have been the victim of “The County’s code enforcement policy [that] is designed to squeeze every dollar it can from legalized marijuana, often at the expense of innocent people.”…

kymkemp.com/2022/10/05/humboldt-county-cannabis-abatement-program-unconstitutional-says-the-institute-for-justice-which-today-filed-a-federal-class-action-lawsuit/

THE ANDERSON VALLEY WINEGROWERS ASSOCIATION (AVWA) will host their first ever Harvest Weekend on October 21-23, with events across the Valley. On Friday night, October 21, they’ll kick off the weekend with a Boucherie Pig Roast Dinner at the Boonville Fairgrounds with food prepared by well-known chef Scott Baird, wine tasting, and music performed by the hot North Bay gypsy jazz band, DGIIN. 

The AVWA also wanted to celebrate local Valley history by adding a strong Boontling theme into the mix. In fact, they’re calling the whole weekend a Harvest Tidrick Celebration. The Friday night Fairgrounds event will include a Boontling learning game for fun and prizes and a silent auction that will benefit the Anderson Valley Historical Society/Little Red Schoolhouse Museum. 

A limited number of tickets will be available at the door, both for the entire event, including food and wine, and for the post-dinner party only (7:30 – 9:00 pm), for those who just want to enjoy the music and dancing in the beautiful Fairgrounds Redwood Grove. 

M-BLOB WANTS TO KNOW

MCOG Invites Residents of Covelo, Laytonville, Brooktrails, Potter Valley and Hopland to Take a Brief Survey about Transportation Needs & Possible Services

The Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) is in the midst of a study of transportation needs and solutions for the communities of Covelo, Laytonville, Brooktrails, Potter Valley and Hopland – five inland rural communities with no public transit services. They are inviting residents of these communities to provide input via a 5-minute E-Survey on their project website at bit.ly/MCOGMobility.

According to MCOG staff, “The survey is a second round of public input, following a series of community workshops conducted in August. It will allow us to quantify the needs we heard about and test some of the innovative ideas for transportation solutions that are beginning to emerge.” Anyone who completes the survey will have the chance to be entered in a drawing for one of five $100 gift cards.

The survey will be open from October 10 through November 13. The public engagement website is bit.ly/MCOGMobility 

For further information, contact project manager Loretta Ellard at lellard@dbcteam.net or 707-234-3434.

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 5, 2022

SONO CARRIGG, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

DANICA COLEMAN, Fort Bragg. DUI, battery on peace officer, resisting, no license.

CHRISTOPHER HILL, Potter Valley. Murder, use of firearm in commission of a felony.

JENNA WILSON, Grand theft, petty theft. 

ARE NUKES GROWING ON AMERICA?

Editor: 

None of our energy options are without risk, and when compared per unit of delivered electricity, nuclear energy is among the safest. Furthermore, because of the pace and scale of climate change, all our energy options are needed. Eliminating any will seriously delay our progress.

Entrenched beliefs have already jeopardized our future. Climatologists predict that we will surpass the hoped-for 1.5 degrees Celsius limit of global warming within the next five years and have locked in about a foot of sea level rise by 2050. These observations, together with the rising impact of wildfires, heat domes and floods around the world, should cause all of us to reexamine our positions about energy options for fighting climate change.

Fortunately, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature recently did just that and approved an extension of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s operating license. Many other Americans have been reexamining their positions. A Gallup Poll in May revealed that 51% are now in favor of nuclear energy, a rise of 7% since its lowest point in 2016. A poll in San Luis Obispo County, where Diablo Canyon is located, revealed 74% in favor.

Ron Gester 

Boonville

RESEARCHERS FIND MEDICAL DEBT WORSENS HEALTH VULNERABILITY

On Thursday, October 5, at 9 AM, Pacific Time, our guest at "Heroes and Patriots" is Steffie Woolhandler, MD. 

We'll talk about medical debt. 

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association chronicles the prevalence and risk factors that contribute to medical debt in the United States. The authors, who surveyed a representative population between 2017 and 2019, found medical debt among 18 percent of householders; a higher risk of acquiring medical debt fell to those without insurance as well as those with high deductible private insurance or Medicare Advantage. The survey also found that ––causing more food insecurity, inability to pay for housing and utilities, and eviction or foreclosure. 

Steffie Woolhandler and her husband and collaborator, David Himmelstein, MD, are professors in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College. 

Himmelstein and Woolhandler comment on Health Justice Monitor: “A raft of previous studies have established that each year millions of Americans suffer catastrophic financial harm from medical debt, and it’s no surprise that people needing hospitalization, the uninsured, and those with disabilities are at highest risk.” But two findings from the study stand out, the authors say. First, “individuals with Medicare Advantage coverage are, like the uninsured, at high risk of running up medical debts.” Second, “incurring medical debts causes housing and food insecurity––key social determinants of health.” 

Himmelstein and Woolhandler argue that the “health care system itself is a big contributor to housing problems and food insecurity. As we note in this article, ‘Unaffordable medical bills… contribute to a downward spiral of ill-health and financial precarity.’” 

KMUD 

Our show airs live, on the first and fifth Thursdays of every month, at 9 am, Pacific Time. 

KMUD simulcasts its programming on two full power FM stations: KMUE 88.1 in Eureka and KLAI 90.3 in Laytonville. It also maintains a translator at 99.5 FM in Shelter Cove, California. 

We also stream live from the web at https://kmud.org

Speak with our guest live and on-the-air at: KMUD Studio (707) 923-3911. Please call in and meet Dr. Woolhandler. 

We post our shows to our own website and Youtube channels. Shows may be excerpted to other media outlets. 

Wherever you live, KMUD is your community radio station. We are a true community of compassionate, informed, progressive people. Please join us by becoming a member or underwriter. 

John Sakowicz, cohost and coproducer

WHAT A BABE!

Emergency Spiritual Message to All

Am chanting Om Aim Hrim Klim Chamundaye Viche while gazing on this amazing painting of the goddess mother Kali: 

This is the way to destroy the demonic and return this world to righteousness. And it is happening right here on a public computer at 6:00PM PDT at the Mendocino County Public Library in Ukiah.

Craig Louis Stehr, craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

ESTHER SILVERSTEIN BLANC — MY STORY (via Fred Gardner)

(Her story, as recounted in the spring of 1991, ran in the Anderson Valley Advertiser in six installments.)

Part 1: Growing Up

My father was a tailor --a beautiful, beautiful tailor. And my mother was a finisher. They came to America early on, I guess about nineteen hundred and one. They lived in Philadelphia, and papa worked and mama worked and grandma lived with them --my mother's mother. Then they moved to Pittsburgh, because papa thought there might be better opportunities. But Pittsburgh proved to be a terrible disappointment because the air was so bad. Papa said his lungs were going to give out. By that time he had become a citizen, so he decided he would go and see what the west was like. So he came as far as Denver, where everybody went if they were consumptive. And he said if he stayed there, everybody would die of tuberculosis.

He heard from somebody about the homesteaders out in Wyoming, in Goshen County. So he came to the nearest town, which was Mitchell, and set up a tailor's shop, and became established. And then he sent for Grandma --and by that time there were two kids-- and he homesteaded, 11 miles away from Mitchell. So Grandma and mama and the kids ran the homestead. It wasn't a paying proposition, but they had 160 acres. And he worked in town and had a horse and buggy and came out Saturday night. He would bring supplies for the week. 

Everything he did he had built. First, he had no building talents; and second, he wanted them to be of good quality. Some local man who knew all about sod houses built a magnificent sod house for us. It was the nicest sod house you could imagine. It was spacious, it had very thick walls, it was built inside of a hill, it had a very good chimney, and a porch. That's where I was born, in 1913, in the sod house. I had an older sister who was also born in the sod house, but she died of influenza in the 1918 epidemic. We had a very very nice garden. There wasn't very much of our land that was arable. Part of it was badlands, I guess about 40 acres. They were called badlands, but not in the ordinary sense of badlands. They were like small, concrete hillocks made of granite, with very little space between them. I've never seen a geological formation like that, and I'm no geologist, so I can't make any comparison. But they were fun to run around in.

This had been Sioux country --the Oglala Sioux lived there. And buffalo country. And there were still lots and lots of buffalo chips. When I was a child we used to gather them up and we burnt them in the kitchen stove. We had a very nice kitchen stove and a nice parlor stove --one of the ones that sort of bulged out. The sod house was warm in the winter and cool in the summer --it was a great house.

Then later on, when Papa was making money in town, he built a frame house next to it. So we had a very large frame house with two bedrooms. We also had a very nice barn and a wonderful windmill. And we raised cattle --that's all we did. Our cash crop consisted entirely of cream. We had a De Lavalle cream separator. Part of my job was to put all the cups back numerically --if they weren't in the right order it wouldn't spin.

When I was a very small child Papa decided that we would leave the farm and move to Geary, which was the county seat, and he would set up a tailor shop there --which he did. And we lived in Geary until 1919 when the influenza epidemic killed my grandmother and my sister Molly, and Mama said she didn't want to stay there another minute. So we moved back to the homestead. And when I was old enough to go to school, I went to the nearest country school.

I could tell you lots of stories about my papa. One of the funniest was about the boy next door whose name was Cliff Wood. Cliff and his family ran the Mitchell Cafe. Everyday papa would go and have coffee there, and sometimes breakfast, because he was an early riser. So one day I went with papa to have coffee and pancakes at the Mitchell Cafe. And Cliff said to papa, "Simon, I've been watching you for years and you stand by your dining room window every morning and you put on that shawl and those things you wrap around your hands and you pray. What do you pray for?" And papa said, "Well, I pray for it should be a nice day, and people should do good by each other and that everybody in the world should have enough to eat." And Cliff said to him, "Don't you ever pray that you should have enough to eat." Papa looked at him and said, "Oh Cliff, don't be a child. If everybody in the world has enough to eat, I surely wouldn't go hungry."

That was my papa all over.

The Mexicans would come into town on Saturday, particularly the elderly men, and they'd have no place to go during the winter. So papa had four or five chairs and a table and then he had the big stove that heated the shop, and on top he had a big percolator with coffee. And then he would go to the bakery and buy cinammon rolls. Our baker was understanding and he would keep yesterday's cinammon rolls to sell to papa for half price. So then papa would trudge back with all of this stuff and make the coffee and everything, and pretty soon these old Mexcian men would drift in and they would have coffee and cinammon rolls and it was very very sociable. Mama said to papa one day, "Everytime I come in here there are all these little old Mexican men, it surely isn't good for business." Papa laughed and said, "Is there another tailor in town? Besides," he said, "I do good work and they know it." He would make a suit for somebody they'd be married in it, they would use it for special occasions, and when they died they'd be buried in it. 

That's how it was.

There was a young Mexican man who was interested in becoming a tailor. Papa took him on and taught him. He became a super-duper tailor --and papa was learning Spanish! One day I came in and there was papa carrying on an amiable conversation in Spanish with these five little old guys. Well, the young man, whose name was Jose, was ever so nice and he learned to be the best tailor in the world. When Jose got married papa made him a splendid new suit and gave him something really nice for the house. Jose looked on him as a second father. It worked out swell all around. Looking back on my life, I must confess I consider my father one of the most important influences. We used to go for long walks in the country on Sunday mornings. We went by the river. We lived only a mile or so from the north Platte. We used to watch the beavers, the muskrats...

The interesting thing about our youth in Wyoming, is that we were all Jews. It was a Jewish colony. And some of the people were helped by the Baron de Hirsch, who was a philanthropist and started colonies in South Dakota and outside of Cheyenne. I heard about the South Dakota one from a book someone had written.

We had the first seder at our house. The Jews came from all over the valley and stayed the whole eight days of Pasach. They slept on the floor in the living room, on quilts. We would get matzos and all that stuff from Denver on the train. We had Pasach dishes. They were all schlepped up from the basement --service for 12 and all the pots and pans. Some of them mama had brought from Europe. The menus were always the same. She made gefilte fish. She'd be supplied with carp by someone from the valley. She would take this fish and gut it and cut out all the meat. Then she would cut up pieces of pike and would grind it and put in matzoh meal and beaten eggs and grated onions. Then she would stuff it all back into the carp and sew the carp up and cook it in chicken broth in an enormous pan with carrots and celery leaves and parsley and salt and pepper. Then she would serve it in slices and serve it with her own horse radish, which we grew in the garden and grated along with beets, and then she'd put in vinegar and a little salt. Then she made a chicken soup with two big chickens in an enormous pot. Then she would roast a couple of great big chickens. Then she would serve tsimis made of carrots. And there was always potato kugel and matzoh kugel. And for desert we'd have compote from all the dried fruits and raisins cooked with lemon, and then she'd make a special sponge cake. Mama didn't have a recipe that didn't begin with: "take 12 eggs and a pound of butter..." Papa made wine in the basement --there was plenty of it and it was strong.

We moved back to Mitchell in 1922 and Papa set up a shop. By that time I was in 4th grade --they had skipped a grade for me in the country school. The country school is as I described in the how-I-learned-to-read story, Mendele's Method. Since then I have taught other people to read --it's a method that works. I also wrote a story about the librarian in our town, Anna B.S. Lord. Everybody should have their own librarian. I had mine.

We lived in Mitchell, for the most part, but for a while we lived in Cheyenne, because my sister wanted to have a better high school education than Mitchell offered. Mitchell offered an almost classical high school education. They had almost no business courses at all. Latin and mathematics and English and history and physics and chemistry and biology. But they did not offer typing or business methods at that time. So we stayed in Cheyenne until both the older girls had gotten their education and then my older sister married and both my older sisters moved to California and we moved back to Mitchell. By that time Mitchell had business courses, but they also had an excellent science program. 

One of the people who did awfully well was Dr. Watson. He graduated from the University of Kentucky and came out and settled in Mitchell. He was very poor. He had one suit and papa cleaned it for him and brought it back to his hotel room so he could get dressed. It was falling apart. Finally one day after cleaning it, papa said I'll make you a couple of suits and you can pay me when you get the money. He was a marvelous physician. I used to work in his establishment on Saturdays my junior and senior year; he and his nurse taught me a lot of stuff. By that time he had a suite of offices with nine rooms. We did tonsilectomies, we did surgery there. He used to go out on calls with Margaret and I'd take care of the shop. He delievered babies all over town. Some people paid him, some people didn't pay him, but what the hell, it was okay with him...

He did all his own x-rays. He dealt with traumas. People fell off tractors and got kicked in the head by horses. And the Mexicans would come in town on Saturday night and stab each other. They used to work in the sugar beet fields; and in winter there were houses for them by the sugar beet factory. Sometimes on Saturdays all the other kids were going to parties and picnics and I was in the office passing the sutures. It was fun, and it was very educational. Both Margaret and the Doc were generous teachers... One of the local girls went away and cbecame a nurse at our nearby hospital; and when she graduated she went to work for Doc Watson and was still working for him when he died. I thought she had the best job in the world. They were really a great team. 

I decided I wanted to be a nurse very early on. I'd had a ruptured appendix, I was in the hospital in Cheyenne and I had the most excellent super-duper nurses and I loved them to pieces. Then I decided that I would like to go to medical school. Papa said okay. Times were quite good, and he began a savings account for me. But then the bank folded up in 1930 and took all of my first-year science money with it.

Well, okay. I was the valedictorian, so I did get a scholarship. But it was a scholarsahip to a teacher's college, and I did not want to be a teacher. I wanted to be a nurse or a doctor. So my sister said 'Why didn't I come out to California and take nursing here?' She found out what she thought were the best schools at that time: Mt. Zion had a school and Children's Hospital had a school and UC had a school. I was accepted at UC and came out here. I was 18 years old.

At that time the University of California had a three-year nursing school. (I think a couple of years later they began the five year program.) In 1934 I graduated and passed the state boards and became a registered nurse and went to work at the old UC Hospital. For a while I did staff duty and then I did private duty. The staff duty was totally exploitative. I remember I had a very bad sore throat and was coming down with an awful cold, and I called in and said I was sick and they said I had to come to work anyway. So I came to work and I came on the floor and there wasn't a nurse in sight. I went through the unit checking up on the patients, and one of them was on the floor. She had fallen out of bed and there wasn't anybody in the place at all. So I pressed the general alarm and got everybody up there and we got her back into bed. There was something horrible about that. She was a young woman who had done a self-abortion and she had a general septicemia and bacteremia, and she died. In any event, I couldn't talk and I had a fever, so I finally got other people there and got the ward under control and went down to the nursing office and said, "I have to go home." And the supervisor said, "If you do that, you're out of a job." I said 'Fine." So I went home and I was sick for two weeks, and then I went on duty at the registry and worked.

I was very good at neurological nursing, so I had enough work to survive. It was very bad times. I worked with post-operative brain tumor cases. At that time they had three neurosurgeons on the ward: Howard Naffzinger, O.W. Jones, and Howard Fleming. They were terrific; and I took care of their patients after surgery. They'd call me if I was on call, and that gave me enough work to survive.

I shared an apartment on 2nd Ave. with one of the dieticians --a woman who'd been my teacher in dietetics and then became a friend. It was great. I worked when I could. I read. I walked through the park and to the museum almost every day, as had been my custom when I was a student. And I learned a lot about old things. I went to every concert I could go to if I wasn't on call or on duty. I heard Marian Anderson at the Opera House. I had lots of friends --students and others.

In 1936 I applied to the United States Public Health Service for a post, passed their exam and late in 1936 I went to work at the Marine Hospital in San Francisco. 

MAYBE THIS WHOLE BURGER THING is part of a larger shift — where all the everyday foods of everyday Americans are being slowly, one after the other, co-opted, upgraded, reinvented, and finally marked up.

Look around.

In the hottest restaurants of New York, San Francisco and Chicago, it's the rich who are lining up to the eagerly pay top dollar for the hooves, snouts, shanks and tripe the poor used to have to eat.

You have to go to Mario Batali and slap down $20 to find an order of chitterling these days. You can look far and wide in Harlem without finding pigs feet. But Daniel Boulud has them on the menu.

Regular pizza may be on the endangered list, "artisanal" pizza having already ghettoized the utility slice. Even the cupcake has become a boutique item — and the humble sausage is now the hottest single food item in New York City. Just about anywhere these days — and be prepared to be sneered at by some locavore or beer-nerd all too happy to tell you about some hoppy, malty, microbrewed concoction, redolent of strawberries and patchouli oil that they are making in a cellar nearby. Unless of course you opt for post-ironic retro in which case that "silo" of PBR will come with a cover charge and an asphyxiating miasma of hipness. 

David Chang sells "cereal milk" in 16 ounce bottles for five bucks. And infusion as I understand it of the metabolized essence of cereal, the extracted flavors of Captain Crunch with Crunchberries perhaps, the sweet, vaguely pinkish milk left in the bottom of the bowl after you have drunkenly spooned and chawed your way through the solids. Maybe this is the high water mark of the phenomenon. And then again, maybe not.

When and if the bad guys win, will we — after terrifying consumers about our food supply, fetishizing expensive ingredients, exploiting the hopes, aspirations and insecurities of the middle class — have simply made it more expensive to eat the same old crap? More to the point, have I?

Am I helping, once again, to kill the things I love?

— Anthony Bourdain, "Medium raw"

WHAT I MEAN BY SOCIALISM is a condition of society in which there should be neither rich nor poor, neither master nor master's man, neither idle nor overworked — in which all men would be living in equality of condition — with the full consciousness that harm to one would mean harm to all - the realisation at last of the meaning of the word commonwealth.

— William Morris, iconic painter and designer, pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement, Marxist, and author of works including utopian fiction (News from Nowhere).

MEET THE CENSORED: KATIE HALPER

The "Useful Idiots" co-host is dismissed from The Hill, which is a little too frank about the reason

by Matt Taibbi

The longtime co-host of Useful Idiots, Katie Halper, made headlines last week, and not for any reasons she would have asked for. Katie was fired from a part-time hosting arrangement at The Hill’s Rising, whose editor told her an editorial critical of Israeli policies in Palestine was “not in our sweet spot of coverage.”

Rising grew a significant audience as an independent media vehicle between 2019 and 2021, when it was hosted by the left-right team of Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti. It has since undergone changes, piloted for a time by Intercept reporter Ryan Grim and Emily Jashinsky of The Federalist, and ultimately moving to a new incarnation featuring Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave. Part of the hosting job involves monologues called “radars.” Katie, who had a fill-in arrangement at the outlet for years, was let go over just such a radar.

The controversy began when Michigan Democrat Rashida Tliab spoke at an online seminar on September 20th and said, “It has become clear that you cannot claim to hold progressive values, yet back Israel’s apartheid government.” Tliab gave her talk in the wake of the shooting of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed in the West Bank City of Jenin in May. Abu Akleh’s family met with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in July, and asked the International Criminal Court to open a case two weeks ago, simultaneous to Tlaib’s seminar.

Tliab’s comments inspired an immediate reaction from the Anti-Defamation League, which deemed them anti-Semitic. CEO Jonathan Greenblatt ripped Tliab for ostensibly telling “American Jews they must pass an anti-Zionist litmus test to participate in progressive spaces.” The ADL reaction got wide play on stations like CNN.

Katie’s “Radar” argues Tliab’s comments laid bare what has long been a source of tension among self-described progressives, who often tiptoe around the subject of occupied Palestine. As you’ll see above, she approached her subject with great care, leaning on statements from groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Agree with her or not, her editorial certainly wasn’t fake news, or flippant, or gratuitous. It’s what the media business normally wants: a decisive, well-argued opinion. 

However, the Hillthought otherwise, and what makes the situation unusual is a media company saying the proverbial quiet part out loud. When editors refused to run the “Radar,” Katie asked flat-out if the problem was the subject of Israel. Though there was some hemming and hawing (at one point she was told the problem was that the show’s focus was on domestic and not foreign policy, despite running content about Brazilian elections, Italy’s new prime minister, and multiple Ukraine pieces that week), eventually they just told her that was, in fact, the case. The next day, she was let go via a curt email ending, “We wish you all the best.”

Gary Weitman, the chief communications officer for Nexstar Media Group, which owns the Hill, declined to respond to queries from Grim, for a story inThe Intercept. My own queries have so far not elicited a response. 

Israel’s Palestine policies, which Human Rights Watch and others have long described as apartheid, obviously arouse very strong feelings. Still, a lot of media figures avoid the topic, as it can be a career-defining or at minimum a career-complicating decision to go there. The fact that Palestinian journalists and Palestinian news sites are often canaries in the content moderation coal mine, deleted or suppressed in creative ways by platforms like Facebook and Google, has added another layer of trepidation for editorialists. 

Episodes like this don’t help:

Matt Taibbi: What happened?

Katie Halper: I’ve been appearing [on Rising] for three years as a weekly guest. There are some weeks I took off when things were in disarray, but then the new iteration of the show came, and they asked me if I wanted to appear. So I started doing a weekly segment once again with them.

When you’re a host, you do these things called “Radars,” which are monologues. I came up with three ideas of radars I wanted to do. One was on Ukraine, one was on immigration, and one was on Israel. It’s funny, because had I done the other ones first, I’d still be working at the Hill. At least, until I did the Israel one.

Anyway, I did my Israel radar. I put a lot of work into it because I thought it was really important. You have to be thorough, because you get attacked, and there are so many watchdog groups that are dedicated to debunking anything or trying to debunk anything critical of Israel. So, I really wanted to make sure I dotted all of my Is and crossed my Ts. I also wanted to make sure it was good because it was my first radar. I put a lot of work into it, made sure that everything was linkable and also that I was quoting sources like the UN, the International Criminal Court, Israeli law, former Israeli prime ministers, and then Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela [who said, “Our freedom is incomplete without the Palestinians”].

I recorded it, and then as I was leaving, they had this thing where they had a pickup that they wanted to record, in which they had Robbie [Soave] repeat the Jonathan Greenblatt criticism that was in the video. Also they had him give a longer quote from Greenblatt, I think calling Amnesty International anti-Semitic.

I thought, “Okay, that’s weird but that’s fine, they can end it how they want.” I did a bunch of segments that day, because the radar is just one part of the show. As I was leaving, that’s when I got a phone call from a producer. The producers were supportive and they wanted to do the right thing, but they were saying that they weren’t going to run it.

Then for the next three days, we went back and forth trying to figure out some kind of compromise. For instance, maybe having an opposing view. I had been told that they have a new policy where op-eds on Israel were a no-no, both written op-eds, which The Hill does as newspaper, and also these video op-eds. 

Matt: Just to back up, you tried to accommodate them?

Katie: I was not being inflexible. I really wanted to make it work. I like doing the show there. I like working in a professional environment, I like getting the makeup done [laughs], all that stuff. But to be totally sincere, my real concern was making sure that this story was out there, not just the Rashida Tlaib part, but in general.

Matt: And they told you no?

Katie: Right. I got a call telling me they weren’t going to run it, and that was it. There was nothing like, “We enjoy working with you, but…” Nothing like that. It was just: we’re not going to run it. Nothing about making it work in any way.

I asked the producers, “Can I do it for my segment? “ In other words, could I do it for my regular segment, which I record every Thursday and is released over the weekend? I figured I could still talk about the story. The producers said, “Check your email.” I checked my email and saw: we won’t need you to come in tomorrow, we won’t be needing you to do your Radar tomorrow. Please send all unpaid invoices. Best of luck.

Matt: There have been some crazy suggestions you did this intentionally, knowing you’d be fired. Do you want to address those?

Katie: Yes. That’s silly. I had been critical of Israel many times before. I thought the usual suspects would complain, or email, but I never thought I’d be fired over it.

Matt: Obviously people get fired all the time in media, and sometimes it’s because the bosses don’t like your opinions on this or that subject. However, it’s unusual, isn’t it, to have someone just tell you openly you’ve been let go over a certain subject?

Katie: Right. I mean, they liked me. My video segments did really well. They also were happy enough with my work that we had actually shot a pilot for a show idea that I had, that Briahna Joy Gray and I brought to them, which was like a leftist version of The View. We shot a whole pilot and people can see one segment of it but it was just me, Briahna Joy Gray, Rania Khalek, and Abby Martin and that did good numbers. So this was sudden. 

Matt: We should just get this out of the way. Did you think you might have had a little bit of extra leeway with this issue?

Katie: Oh, yes. I also was surprised because, even though Jews have been canceled over this issue — for instance Norman Finklestein, who is not only Jewish but the son of concentration camp survivors, his academic career was ruined. Jews have a little bit more cover but not that much more. Then, of course, I get to live with the label of self-loathing Jew, as opposed to anti-Semite.

Matt: Isn’t this part of what makes this subject difficult? You don’t want to play into real stereotypes about Jewish control of media.

Katie: Yes. Not to do the, “As a Jew…” thing, but, as a Jew, it does really anger me, because I get so frustrated. It’s very hard to talk about this without playing into tropes. 

Israel is still the third rail. There have been major shifts when it comes to public opinion, but that hasn’t been reflected in US policy. It is reflected in some members of Congress. You have the squad and you have [Minnesota Democrat] Betty McCollum, who has been really vocal on this issue.

Matt: Bernie Sanders. 

Katie: Yes, Bernie — when it comes to the Senate, far and away, the most critical. He gets a lot of flak for that, but, again, I think that if he weren’t Jewish, it would be worse.

I think that the really important thing is that the AIPAC* position doesn’t represent all Jews. There are Jews who are very critical of what Israel does, but are still very committed to the state of Israel. There are Jews who are anti-Zionist, and want a one-state solution. There are Jews who want a two-state solution. I’ve been getting a lot of support from people who are Jewish. A lot of people have said, “I have fought with friends and family over this.” 

Matt: How would you advise that people understand this episode with Rising?

Katie: First I want to emphasize that I’m very lucky in several ways and that many people have had it so much worse than me. Obviously, if you’re a Palestinian reporter in Israel in those territories, it’s so much worse. Just look at what happened to Abu Akleh. So I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. I’ll just say anti-Semitism is a real problem, but I think that when people constantly call things anti-Semitic, or constantly conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, they’re trivializing real anti-Semitism. That’s what I hope people see.

Matt: Thanks, Katie. Sorry to hear about this.

Katie: Okay. Thanks, Matt. 

*American Israel Public Affairs Committee

WATCH STELLA ASSANGE SLAP THE MUSTACHE OFF JOHN BOLTON’S WAR CRIMINAL FACE

Stella Assange just delivered a beatdown on one of her husband’s persecutors that was so scorched-earth demolishing I feel like I need a cigarette after watching it.

In an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange explained the threat her husband’s persecution poses to press freedoms around the world and the profound suffering his imprisonment has inflicted upon him. As some kind of bizarre counter-balance to the family of a persecuted journalist pleading for basic human rights, Morgan invited on John Bolton, the man who was the National Security Advisor to President Trump when Assange was imprisoned under a US arrest warrant. Which if you think about i is kind of like having a sex trafficking victim on your show and then bringing in Ghislaine Maxwell for a balanced perspective.

After Morgan introduced the segment and Assange laid out some facts of her husband’s plight, Bolton was given the floor to explain why persecuting a journalist for telling the truth is actually good and right. He went over the usual smearmeister talking points that Assange is not a journalist and endangered people around the world with his publications exposing US war crimes, adding that the possible 175-year sentence Assange stands to face if convicted under Espionage Act was inadequate, and that he hoped Assange “gets at least 176 years in jail for what he did.”

Stella responded by calling Bolton a war criminal, right to his bloodthirsty face.

“Well of course Ambassador Bolton is kind of the ideological nemesis of Julian,” Assange coolly replied. “He has during his time for the Bush administration, and later the Trump administration, sought to undermine the international legal system, ensure that the US is not under the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction. And if it was Mr Bolton might in fact be prosecuted under the ICC: he was one of the chief cheerleaders of the Iraq War, which Julian then exposed through these leaks. So he has a conflict of interest here.”

“Well that’s ridiculous!” Bolton said with a nervous laugh at the accusation. “I have an opinion, so does Assange’s wife; I guess we both get to speak them. You know I think that what she fears is being brought to the United States and having Assange put under trial. If he’s innocent, if she can at least show reasonable doubt that he’s not guilty, he’ll go free. What’s she worried about?”

Morgan interjected that the concern is likely the chance of a fair trial, to which Bolton responded with a demand that Stella herself say that she didn’t believe her husband could receive a fair trial in the United States.

“Let her say that Julian Assange could not get a fair trial in America; let her say it,” Bolton replied.

“Well he cannot get a fair trial in America, because he is being prosecuted under the Espionage Act and he cannot bring a public interest defense,” Assange replied. “He cannot say ‘I published this information because it was in the public interest,’ precisely because it is under the Espionage Act. And it is the first time that a publisher has ever been prosecuted under this act, something that constitutional lawyers in the United States have been warning could happen for the past 50 years. And The New York Times and The Washington Post say this prosecution strikes at the heart of the First Amendment.”

Bolton replied, on no apparent basis, that The New York Times and The Washington Post were wrong and that their position on the Assange case is “dangerous”, and babbled some nonsense about Assange being a “hacker who breaks and enters into secure information.”

“Not even the US alleges that,” Assange replied, entirely correctly.

Ahh man, that’s the stuff. It’s so annoying to see this actual war criminal invited on mainstream news networks time and time again to drum up support for increased military aggression in every conflict the US empire is involved in from day to day, without ever being challenged or called out for what he is. For someone to say on mainstream television that he’s a war criminal who just doesn’t want people holding him accountable or shining a light on his crimes is a rare treat for anyone who’s been watching this monster operate all these years.

This is the man who just 24 hours prior to this writing put out an article titled “Putin Must Go: Now Is The Time For Regime Change In Russia,” just the latest in this psychopath’s relentless campaign to start World War III at every possible opportunity. It’s just so freakish and bizarre that there are people whose actual job is to continually work toward creating as much death and destruction in the world as they can, and that they are elevated to the forefront of public attention by the most prominent platforms in the world.

This happens as Assange supporters prepare to demonstrate for his freedom on October 8th. In the UK a massive human chain to surround Parliament is scheduled for 1PM London time in a show of solidarity with the world’s most important journalist, and from 12PM to 3PM DC time there will be a demonstration at the US Department of Justice…

caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/10/06/watch-stella-assange-slap-the-mustache-off-john-boltons-war-criminal-face/

UKRAINE, WEDNESDAY, 5TH OCTOBER

Russia’s Retreat: After significant military gains in eastern cities like Lyman, Ukraine is pushing farther into Russian-held territory in the south, expanding its campaign in yet another direction as Moscow struggles to mount a response and hold the line.

Annexation Push: After Moscow’s proxies conducted a series of sham referendums in the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk, President Vladimir V. Putin declared the four territories to be part of Russia. Western leaders, including President Biden in the United States, denounced the annexation as illegal.

Putin’s Nuclear Threats: For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, top Russian leaders are making explicit nuclear threats and officials in Washington are gaming out scenarios should Mr. Putin decide to use a tactical nuclear weapon.

Fleeing the Draft: Tens of thousands of men have left Russia to avoid being drafted to fight in Ukraine. Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet territory long seen in Russia as a source of cheap labor and backward ways, has provided a welcoming haven.

While the Pentagon and spy agencies have shared sensitive battlefield intelligence with the Ukrainians, helping them zero in on Russian command posts, supply lines and other key targets, the Ukrainians have not always told American officials what they plan to do.

The United States has pressed Ukraine to share more about its war plans, with mixed success. Earlier in the war, U.S. officials acknowledged that they often knew more about Russian war plans — thanks to their intense collection efforts — than they did about Kyiv’s intentions.

Cooperation has since increased. During the summer, Ukraine shared its plans for its September military counteroffensive with the United States and Britain.

(NYT)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Listening to all the PTB on both sides regarding Ukraine. Both sides are talking tactical nukes. Just one damn minute. There is no such thing as tactical nukes, once the red line is crossed, no one will be able to stop the escalation to full strategic exchange. These damned idiots and their “Russia cannot or NATO cannot get away with this or that” are bringing on Armageddon. Forget the land based, the subs have enough power to take out the human races multiple times. The ignoramuses in DC are scaring the hell out of me today. What exactly does NATO think Putin is going to do if he is thwarted or Russia is attacked, including the annexed areas. The Armageddon clock is ticking quickly right now.