Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022

Cool | Bay Quake | Dry Forecast | Finn Mural | No Hazmobile | School Assembly | Chimney Sweep | Used Stove | Studios Tour | Zeni Chestnuts | County Notes | Bragg Aerial | Microbusiness Grant | Native Gardens | Short-Term Rentals | Elk Hunt | Measure P | Soft Tacos | Woman Endorsed | More Money | Momentous Day | Movie Sub | Yesterday's Catch | Keep Chugging | Optimist | No Meaning | Veg Hunt | Pacific Flyway | Sewer Smells | Clean Water Act | Baseball Exhibition | Different Times | Scab Not | Dem Better | Election Day | Ukraine | Jack-o'-Patriot | Infrastructure Wars | All Bark | Progressive Cowards | 3 Faces

DRY WEATHER with slightly below normal temperatures are forecast today through tonight. Frost and freezing temperatures are expected again for the interior valleys late tonight. Also, gusty north and northeast winds are expected for the exposed terrain today and tonight. Cloud cover will increase on Friday as a front approaches from the NW. This front will most likely stall offshore, however a few light showers will be possible over the weekend, especially for Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties. A stronger front from the NW will emerge early next week. (NWS)

A RUMBLING, 5.1 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE rattled a large swath of the Bay Area [yesterday], with residents reporting feeling the temblor from San Jose to the East Bay.

The quake struck nearly nine miles east of Seven Trees, a San Jose neighborhood, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Seismologists recorded a 2.9 magnitude aftershock roughly five minutes after the initial quake in the Calaveras fault zone, according to USGS data. Shortly after 3 p.m., a quake initially measured as a magnitude-3.6 hit in the same area. Athough many people in the area described an intense swaying that lasted around 30 seconds, the quake evidently did not leave a trail of devastation. As of 12:30 p.m. San Jose police said they had not responded to any calls reporting injuries or structural damage. Residents and workers also reported feeling the ground rock miles north in San Francisco, but nobody had suffered any damage, according to a tweet from the San Francisco Fire Department.

WINTER OUTLOOK SPELLS TROUBLE

by Hayley Smith

A warm, dry winter is in store for much of California as La Niña conditions are slated to persist through at least January, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The agency’s U.S. Winter Outlook, released last week, spells trouble for the drought-dried state as it enters what is typically its wettest season, when rainfall and Sierra snowpack help replenish water supplies that carry it through the rest of the year.

“We’re going on our third year of this extreme drought for much of the Western U.S., with the extreme drought currently focused over much of California, the Great Basin and extending northward into parts of Oregon,” Brad Pugh, operational drought lead with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said in a media briefing. “In terms of impacts, it’s adversely affecting agriculture, also increasing the wildfire danger and even has impacts on tourism.”

The country’s greatest chances for drier than-average conditions are forecast across Southern California and the Southwest, as well as the southern Rockies, southern Plains, Gulf Coast and much of the Southeast. About 59 percent.

(LA Times)

LAUREN SINNOTT: 

So much has been completed in my mural about the Fort Bragg Finns! My posts have fallen behind. I promise to present all the elements with the stories behind them soon. But right now, I'm almost done painting and I want everyone in the area who would like to see the process to visit. I have met a lot of people from the Finnish families, but please, those who haven't seen the mural yet, come by! Here's a taste of what it's like on site, in this delightful downtown.

HAZMOBILE A NO SHOW

Where's Haz?

A reader writes:

After taking the time to collect and box our materials for disposal, Saturday morning we drove half an hour to Boonville to meet the hazmobile, as listed on their schedule. Other folks had arrived, as well. No hazmobile was there, and they never showed up. This morning I called the Mendo Recycles hotline to ask why they cancelled and heard a muffled, barely audible message stating “Due to a staffing shortage no one is in the office to take your call…” Three quarters of the way through the message the voice tells us that “due to a staffing shortage” the hazmobile program is suspended. I haven’t seen or heard any announcements informing county residents of this. One would think they’d have the kindness and courtesy to save us the hassle by issuing a county-wide notice via all media that the program is not operating, rather than just a phone message.

Must be “due to a staffing shortage…”

BASKETBALL AND HONOR ROLL: The house was packed with parents and guardians for the meeting and many families came to celebrate the 113 kids that made the brown and gold honor roll. (Louise Simson)

A READER WRITES: It’s the time of year when chimney cleaning comes to mind. For years there were a couple of chimney cleaners businesses on the Coast. Now there appears to be ONLY ONE guy who has locked in business from Sea Ranch to Westport; the coast is his because he has no competitors. He can also charge a lot for one chimney to be cleaned. Anyone out there interested in a new business? The equipment is not that expensive and yeah, you gotta love climbing high, but if you charged less than this loan competitor, you’d have tons of customers. 

USED STOVE

The AV Grange has a new stove and is looking to re-home theirs.  Used but works, great for a hunting cabin or a canning kitchen, or ????.  It is currently in the Grange and available for pickup at building between Boonville & Philo on Hwy 128.  We can help load it, a trailer would be best.  Private message for more information or inquiry.

ARTISTS OF ANDERSON VALLEY show their fall colors. Veterans Day Weekend Studios Open to the public. Follow the signs along HWY 128. I am one of many. My studio is open November 12, 13, Saturday and Sunday, 10am. - 5pm. Inspiration inside and out. Take a break drive along our valley, find the art you dream of, visit a place like no other. (Rebecca Johnson)

NINTH ANNUAL CHESTNUT GATHERING AT THE ZENI RANCH will be Saturday October 29th. 10 am to 4 pm.

No potluck this year but you can bring a lunch and enjoy one of the picnic areas.

Adult and kids costume contest.

Dogs on leashes ok, but you're responsible for your pet.

Chestnuts are $3.50 a pound if you pick and $4.50 a pound if already picked.

Call or text Jane Zeni 707-684-6892

Fresh raw chestnut honey, T-shirts and our popular nut sacks will be available, and other farm products.

COUNTY NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

Last Tuesday, the Supervisors briefly discussed two seemingly minor consent agenda items that should be captured for posterity because they are filled with potential problems and indications of managerial failure.

The first was the item to turn payroll over to the Executive Office and hire a $100k consultant to “assist” with it.

In August the Supes decided to transfer Mendo’s Payroll processing from the Auditor’s office to the CEO’s office on grounds that the Auditor was understaffed and Supervisor Ted Williams was worried about it without providing any specifics. 

Consent Item 3j: “Approval of Agreement with ClientFirst Consulting Group DBA ClientFirst Technology Consulting in the Amount of $100,000, to Assist with Payroll Processing Project Management, Provide Project Oversight for Recurring Munis Improvements, and Initiate and Plan for Munis Improvements in 2022 through 2023, Effective Upon Full Execution through June 30, 2023.”

Supervisor John Haschak: This is taking the payroll out of the Auditor Controller Tax Collector's purview and putting it into the Executive office. Is that $100,000 being transferred also? Where is that $100,000 coming from to pay for this?

CEO Darcie Antle: Yes, that is $100,000 being transferred to the Executive office. Part of this is an ongoing process improvement that we have been working on that needed to be stepped up earlier in September, earlier than we originally planned. Mr. Dunnicliff is in the room and I believe we have these funds in the ITMP [?] that we are using to increase this contract.

Supervisor Ted Williams: Although the Executive office may be assisting with payroll, I believe ultimately the accuracy of every check is the legal responsibility of the Auditor Controller. County Counsel, do you agree?

County Counsel Christian Curtis: Yes, that is correct.

Williams: Including item 3j?

Curtis: Yes.

In this payroll item we detected another hint of “Get Cubbison” from Supervisor Williams in case the payroll transfer gets screwed up by people other than Auditor-Controller Cubbison who will get “assistance” from people she has no control over. Why did Williams even ask that question? Why did he say that the Executive Office would now be “assisting” Ms. Cubbison with payroll, not handling payroll as was originally claimed? Why are they paying $100k for “assistance” from a consultant about something that has not been previously discussed as a problem other than understaffing worries in the Auditor’s office? Why do they need “assistance” when the original idea was to transfer the payroll function to the Executive Office because the Auditor was understaffed and the Executive Office could (presumably) handle it? This one deserves close monitoring by the County Employees since it appears the Board is expecting problems to arise.

* * *

Farming out the Ag Commissioner, an update.

Consent Item 3m: “Approval of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sonoma County for Licensed Agricultural Commissioner/Sealer of Weights & Measures Services, Beginning Upon Execution Through April 18, 2023, in an Amount Not to Exceed $50,000.” 

Supervisor Glenn McGourty: This is one that Steve Dunnicliff and CEO Darcie Antle worked on very hard to find a solution by working with the Sonoma County Ag commissioner on a part-time basis to help direct our staff here. We are required to have an Ag Commissioner for certain functions and we are fulfilling that while we figure out what the next steps are going to be. Hopefully hiring a new Ag Commissioner. We are trying to stabilize a very important department that a lot of people depend on. So we are making steps in the right direction.

Williams: It appears that the state has set requirements for that particular position, the Ag Commissioner, that maybe there are 57 people who qualify in a state with 58 counties.

They already have an Assistant Ag Commissioner who presumably met his own set of licensing requirements. If there are so few Ag Commissioners in California, and the department is “very important,” why didn’t the County arrange for Assistant Commissioner Aaron Hult to finish his licensing? And if the job can be handled by a $50k part-timer out of Sonoma County, why wasn’t that done long ago? Need we recap the high turnover rate in the Ag Commissioner’s office again? Why isn’t someone trying to figure out the reason no one lasts very long in that particular job? What will happen if the SoCo Ag Commissioner wants something done that the Supes either disagree with or won’t pay for? Or refuses to do something staff wants or needs done? Never mind, the Supes have assured us that it’ll all be fine when (if?) they hire a new Ag Commissioner.

Obviously, we’d like to hope that these things will both work out to be just hunky-dory. But Mendo history shows that such hopes are unjustified.

CALIFORNIA MICROBUSINESS COVID-19 RELIEF GRANT PROGRAM STILL AVAILABLE

Eligible microbusiness owners still have the opportunity to apply online for a $2,500 grant from the California Microbusiness COVID-19 Relief Grant Program. Grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis until all funds have been granted. This grant is administered in partnership with Economic Development and Financing Corporation (EDFC) and funded by the California Office of the Small Business Advocate.

Eligibility Criteria

Verified as locally-owned and operated (physically located in Mendocino County).

The microbusiness is currently active and operating, or has a clear plan to reopen when the state permits the reopening of the business. 

Open and operating prior to COVID-19 (prior to December 31, 2019).

Currently have <5 full-time equivalent employees and had <5 full-time equivalent employees in 2019 and 2020.

Generated <$50,000 in business revenue in 2019.

The applicant is the majority owner and manager of the microbusiness.

This business was the applicant’s primary means of income in the 2019 taxable year.

Significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as evidenced by at least a 10% reduction in revenue from the 2019 to 2020 taxable years.

Did not receive a grant from the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program.

Not a business excluded from participation in the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program, as specified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (f) of Section 12100.82. 

Please visit https://www.edfc.org/microbusiness-relief-grant-program/ for more information. 

Please contact EDFC at robert@edfc.org or by phone at (707) 234-5705 with any questions and support with the application process. Assistance is available in Spanish upon request.

(Mendocino County Presser)

PLANNING COMMISSION TO TAKE A CRACK AT SHORT TERM RENTALS

Discussion And Possible Action By Planning Commission Regarding Short Term Rentals Including Possible Adoption Of A Resolution Providing Clarification And Interpretation Of County Code 

The Planning and Building Services Director has previously interpreted Mendocino County Code section 20.164.015(L) Room and Board to apply to the occupancy of a single-family residence as transient habitation, finding that such use is an accessory use that is necessarily and customarily associated with and is appropriate, incidental and subordinate to the principally permitted residential use of the property. Chair Pernell of the Planning Commission created an ad hoc commission on December 2, 2021, to review the interpretation of the Planning and Building Services Director regarding Section 20.164.015(L) and Vacation Rentals.

The Mendocino County Planning Commission intends to discuss the recommendations of the Planning Commission Ad Hoc at their regular meeting on November 3, 2022 at 9:00 am. This may include possible adoption of a resolution providing clarification regarding interpretation of the applicability of Mendocino County Code section 20.164.015(L) and 20.024.135 as they relate to occupancy of a single-family residence as transient habitation. 

For more information about this meeting, please contact the Planning Division at 707-234-6650. The public zoom information is contained below and this notice has been posted on the Department's website at: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/public-notices

Planning Commission November 3, 2022 – 9:00 AM ZOOM Information

Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://mendocinocounty.zoom.us/j/86547840562

Or Telephone:

Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

US: +1 669 444 9171 or +1 669 900 9128 or +1 719 359 4580 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 646 558 8656 or +1 646 931 3860 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 309 205 3325 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 360 209 5623 or +1 386 347 5053 or +1 564 217 2000

Webinar ID: 865 4784 0562

MEASURE P: READ MORE CAREFULLY

To the editor: 

The writer of the long letter passionately urging a Yes vote on Measure P, to provide much needed funds for our county’s volunteer fire departments, apparently did not read the proposition. Because that is not what the measure actually says.

Measure P is a .25% sales tax that, to quote the exact legal wording of the measure, “will be placed in the general fund to support general County services and functions, including but not limited to fire protection services.” 

PERIOD. 

No further details, no promises or estimates of how much, if any, of the money will go to our volunteer fire departments.

For the ten years this tax will be collected, the supervisors can spend the money however they want, as long as some of the money — a million dollars? a thousand dollars? ten dollars? — goes to “fire protection services,” a term that, like everything else in the measure, is not specified.

We voters, and sadly our great fire departments, are all being misled.

L.C. Lewis

Willits

* * *

A REPLY TO L.C. LEWIS’ LETTER concerning Measure P in the October 25, 2022 online version of the AVA.

L.C. Lewis is either unaware of or has opted to deliberately ignore how and why Measure P was developed. Measure P is a general fund tax because a general fund tax can pass with a 50% plus one vote. It is timed to take advantage of a rare moment when another tax is sunsetting so that it can be implemented without raising current tax levels. As such it is a good (and the only) plan for getting our fire services the support they need when they need it, which is now (e.g., fire calls alone have gone up every year for the past five years, cumulatively by 52%).

Given the public's concerns about how promises made about prior general tax measures have been honored (or not) the Board of Supervisors and our county fire chiefs’ implemented a very deliberate plan to create clarity and accountability for Measure P funds. Before it was put on the ballot, the Board of Supervisors unanimously enacted Resolution 22-159, which details how the money will be used, with 90% of the funds going to our local fire departments and 10% to fire-prevention work, using a specific preset percentage for each department that has been agreed upon by our County Fire Chiefs Association.

(See https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62e98ec6aa8745355a38c00b/t/62f2ff0109ae867245607be3/1660238300611/ProposedSalesTaxAllocations.pdf).

Resolution 22-159 also requires annual reporting on how the money is actually allocated. The County cannot spend the funds otherwise without violating this Resolution and breaking its commitment to the fire chiefs, who will be watching closely. As such L.C. Lewis’ claim that “No further details, no promises or estimates of how much, if any, of the money will go to our volunteer fire departments” is simply incorrect. As an added safety measure there is also a ten-year sunset in case the funds are not consistently allocated as promised.

So, for some people, your vote may come down to whether or not your distrust of your local government is so strong that, despite a specific promise we can all monitor, you would spite your local fire services rather than trust your local elected officials.

Apparently, L.C. Lewis distrusts his local government sufficiently to believe that all 20 of our county fire chiefs are gullible enough to be misled about a tax measure they helped bring into existence.

Scott Cratty, Executive Director, Mendocino County Fire Safe Council Ukiah

ENDORSED BY THE MWPC!

Greetings Fort Bragg Voters! 

I am honored to be endorsed by the Mendocino Women’s Political Coalition!

Experience matters and my participation in local issues as an active citizen and NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) representative is extensive. I am the only candidate other than incumbent City Council members who are running that have participated or attended local and regional governmental hearings, meetings etc. for over 20 years. I have left the area several times to pursue advanced academic degrees. I bring all my experience and skills acquired locally and internationally back home here to the Mendocino coast and our City of Fort Bragg.

Some quick snapshots of my experience and views (for more details of my platform go to Votersedge.org or email me at mrkaczorowski@gmail.com) FYI:

The skills I bring to this council position is A SOLID understanding and the ability to navigate the basic and laws regulations governing housing, land use and development such as The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) The California Coastal Act, Local Agency Compliance with Housing Element Law etc.

I was a labor union steward for CUE Local 3 when I worked at U.C. Berkeley Survey Research Center and I was instrumental in negotiating positive changes between management and employees in the workplace. I have worked as the executive assistant to the Fort Bragg Main Street Program Executive Director ( we helped start First Friday with the Chamber of Commerce in Ft. Bragg!) and on their Facade Grant program. I worked closely with Mendocino County Board of Supervisor Chair Charles Peterson and others on our Executive Board Team to help county residents prepare for input into the County General Plan per update as required by the State of California. Together with the Air Quality Management District, Farm Bureau, Environmental groups and other community groups to develop, design, and then implement a collaborative three-year series of Mendocino County Living Community Conferences. I worked as Operations Manager and with Joe Webb (Interim General Manager) in administration, community communications and operations during the transition the from Visit Mendocino County, Inc. to the Mendocino County Tourism Commission.

At the national level, I spent time in Washington D.C. area and worked with Alliance for Appalachia where we met with U.S. Congressional members of the 112th Congress and/or senior staff to present information and data on health, economic, poverty rates, environmental issues-- related to large-scale mountaintop removal impacts on water quality in five Appalachian states.

During my MBA studies at Mills College, I worked in a position assisting the executive director in administration, communications, planning and development of programs and public/private partnerships/linkages at the Center for Socially Responsible Business (CSRB)

While in graduate school, I worked for CARD-Collaborating Agencies Responding to Disasters in Oakland CA where I researched and conducted policy analysis on ICS (Incident Command Systems) policies and procedures (nationwide). I also represented CARD at the Chevron regional stakeholder bi-monthly planning meetings (at Chevron Headquarters in Richmond CA) for emergency preparedness after the Chevron fire (culminated in the 2012 Richmond Preparedness Expo in partnership with Chevron, 2-1-1 Contra Costa County). I also facilitated collaborative partnership and community training with Northern California Islamic Council (80 organizations), and ICNA Relief USA - Disaster Response Services

Our City has a great deal to be proud of!

Together we have the opportunity to:

• expand and support our sustainable fishing economies

• introduce, design & establish ocean water infrastructure for aquariums, research, aquaculture, & to manage climate change resilience

• further support our downtown arts & business community

• to expand on preparations for climate change impact

and address housing issues!

I will work with the council & the public to build on these efforts!

My Best Regards,

Mary Rose Kaczorowski

THAT WAS COOL; From joy to pain and back again: 

How October 26 ended three lives and began another

by Justine Frederiksen

Life and death on Oct. 26: How one day turned great joy into great pain, then great pain into great joy.

Carolyn

In 1965, 20-year-old Carolyn was traveling with friends in Germany when she met a man in a bar. He helps her request a song from the band, and later in her journal she describes him as a “very quiet, nice person” whom she hopes to see again in Greece.

In Athens he waits a week, visiting the same spot every day at noon until she arrives. Then Carolyn decides to leave her friends and travel through Turkey with this “beautiful person who enjoys meeting and talking to people, and looks for the good things that happen.”

By the time they reach Syria she describes herself as “in love” with the 27-year-old Dane who speaks English with a Scottish accent and hitchhikes in a kilt

“I enjoy being with him so much. We don’t have to talk to each other, we can sit in silence for a long time, each having their own thoughts.” Her journal entries end soon after, but not their romance.

On Oct. 26, 1965, the pair married in Scotland, and Carolyn finally returns to Los Angeles in early 1966 with a husband.

Justine

Nine months after her wedding, Carolyn had a baby girl whose lungs could not keep her alive. But her third girl had lungs that worked too well, because Justine screamed all day, only sleeping when too exhausted to wail.

One morning when she was 15, Justine felt like screaming all day again. Already angry that her mother was gone birding, she got even angrier when Carolyn didn’t return in time for their day trip.

“But you’re not here, are you,” she tells her mother’s note promising to be home by 10. Soon after Justine starts to get ready anyway, there is a knock on the bathroom door. Thinking it is her mother, she begins stoking her anger again until it is drowned by the fear in her father’s voice.

“I need you to come out here, please. There are men here. There’s been an accident. Your mother’s not coming home.” 

The day before, exactly 20 years after her wedding, on Oct. 26, 1985, Carolyn was killed in a car crash.

As soon as the deputies left her house, Justine sneaked into her parents’ bedroom to pull out her mother’s pajamas and pillowcase, secreting them away to smell whenever she wanted.

The next day she went with her grandmother to see the body, but her father stayed home. “I want to remember her as she was,” he said of the adventurous American who had been his best friend for two decades.

After Justine carried her mother home in a box, the family scattered her ashes on Carolyn’s favorite beach, where she had gone every weekend at dawn to help save a small population of endangered shorebirds.

Decades later when Justine last saw her father, he said his wife had been hovering at his bedside, trying to tell him something.

“I should have gone to see her after. You were right to go.”

“No, dad, you were right,” she said, wishing she still saw freckles instead of black bruises on her mother’s cheeks.

When her father died, Justine brought his ashes to the same beach to finally reunite him with his wife on what would have been their 49th wedding anniversary: Oct. 26, 2014.

Sarah and Harvey

Also on Oct. 26, 2014, Sarah was recovering from what felt like a car crash: The birth of her first son.

“All those women who told me how beautiful childbirth is, I thought they were full of shit!” she remembers thinking as she lay in the hospital after 26 hours of labor, unable to feel her legs or hear her baby crying.

“Babies are supposed to cry, why isn’t he crying?” she wonders as the ever-growing number of staff in the room struggled to get her boy to breathe. Finally she heard him cry, and waited anxiously for them to give him back to her, looking forward to finally holding and trying to feed him.

But they said he needed to go to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and “only let me hold him for a second or two.”

After a week in the NICU, her baby finally came home, but his breathing problems continued. Sarah said it took two years for her to emerge from the tunnel of trauma, finally pulled through by the need to keep up with a now thriving and determined young boy.

“He stubbornly keeps trying to get what he wants,” said Sarah, both awed and frustrated by her son’s drive and focus. “He is smart in ways I have never been, and I love that so much. I am very lucky that I get to be with Harvey.”

NOYO HARBOR, FORT BRAGG, CA – OCTOBER 1965

A submarine was launched in Noyo Bay on Friday. The 140-foot vessel went down the boat ramp with the assistance of a forklift truck, and on airplane-type tires. Also assisting was a large wrecker with a cable stretched across the bay.

The submarine, shipped to Fort Bragg to be used in the filming of The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, required eight trucks and semi-trailers to bring in the ten sections.

Some two weeks and 2,000 man hours were required to get it assembled and ready for the water.

The boat, built of plywood, had 4½ tons of steel on the bottom, is filled with 17 tons of styrofoam, and has outside measurements of 140 feet in length, is 20 feet wide and 22 feet high.

Yet to be installed is a 3½ ton, 3-inch practical gun, which it was felt was too heavy for the launching. Four motors will be used for power. All are McCulloch with 100-horsepower thrust. Two are forward and two aft, in specially built wells.

The craft, originally built by 20th Century for the Marlon Brando film Morituri, was German in design. Robert Boyle, art director for the Mirisch company, redesigned the exterior to make it appear Russian for this picture.

It is hoped that the seas will remain calm enough that the craft can be floated to Los Angeles, between two barges when its use is completed in this area.

(Mendocino Coast Beacon, October 22, 1965, p. 9, col. 5.)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, October 25, 2022

CARLOS CESPEDES, Garberville/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JUSTIN CROSBY, Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, registration alteration, smuggling controlled substance in jail.

JORGE FARIAS-ARAUS, San Francisco/Ukiah. DUI.

PAUL HEIMILLER, Redwood Valley. Sexual act with child of 14-15 years and perpetrator at least ten years older.

KELLY HENDRIKS, Point Arena. Failure to appear.

JARRETT NELSON, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ARTEMIO ORTEGA-REYES, Ukiah. Ammo possession by prohibited person, probation revocation.

MARCELLO TORRES, Antioch/Ukiah. Robbery, short-barreled rifle, conspiracy. 

MAURICIO TORRES, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. Robbery, conspiracy.

WILLIAM WALLS, Ukiah. Robbery, willful cruelty to child.

ROBERT WILKINS, Covelo. Protective order violation.

EDGAR VAZQUEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

LUIS VILLALOBOS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

MARIE TOBIAS: I went to see a counselor after my Husband's passing. He died in my arms, we were together 37 years... In quick succession, I lost the love of my life, had my income reduced by 75%, lost the room we'd been renting from friends (they decided to sell their home), had my car break down with insufficient finances to maintain it, so I ended up driving his car. Ended up homeless for most of 2 months, living in that car, Within a year I was in a terrible car accident, totalling that car, and shattering the right side of my body, lost all my possessions of a lifetime when I couldn't pay the storage bill, and had to deal with intermittent hunger (more than a couple times went nearly a week without food... it's not as bad as it sounds, you kind of stop being hungry after about day 3.) And I guess, developed a pretty nasty case of depression. A friend got me to see his counselor for nearly a dozen sessions, I'm the kind of person who through adversity drops my head and just plows through as best as I can until I get to the other side... but this was a serious slog. I needed the extra support. I hear the same news, and see the same signs, and sometimes find myself more than a little terrified at where all this is going and what a single person in this blizzard of a shit storm can do to make a difference. The answer is I have no idea... The people who pull the bacon out of the fire almost to a person never know they were the one, until someone figures it all out, years after they left this mortal coil. So cope the best you can. Get the support you need. Surround yourself with as many loved ones as is humanly possible (and if you must, you make new loved ones.) And you drop your head and keep chugging, With any luck, you'll get to the other side, and be part of the community that made a difference. And that my friend is the best life anyone living in this age can hope to have.

THINK OF LIFE AS IT REALLY IS, think of the details of life; and then think that there is no meaning in it, no purpose, no goal except the grave. Surely only fools or self-deceivers, or those whose lives are exceptionally fortunate, can face that thought without flinching. 

— George Orwell

CALIFORNIA'S DROUGHT IS UPENDING MIGRATION For Millions Of Birds Along The Pacific Flyway

by Kurtis Alexander

Millions of migratory birds fly south each year to winter in California, or continue beyond.

The white-faced ibis is one of the first. The large wading bird with its distinctive curved bill, like its avian counterparts that fill the sky in late summer and fall, relies on the state’s wetlands to rest and recharge.

But this year, the ibis that arrived at the California-Oregon border from points north didn’t find the marshes and ponds they’re accustomed to, just a lot of dust and dried-up mud. So, the birds touched down only briefly and kept flying — some all the way to Mexico, says John Vradenburg, supervisory biologist for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

As California’s fall migration revs up, many birds will have to abandon familiar stops and make adjustments, often big ones, if they haven’t already, to adapt to a landscape stricken by drought. For some, the changes may be asking too much, and the coming months will be difficult.

“A lot of the birds are just bypassing the mid-continent and going straight to the Central Valley, but there’s not a lot of habitat to support them there either,” Vradenburg said. “Wetland availability is just really low (everywhere) right now. … This landscape (level) drying is a phenomenon we haven’t really seen probably since the 1930s, the Dust Bowl.”

The fear is that migratory birds, from ibis and egrets to ducks and geese to hawks and eagles, won’t find the water and moist feeding grounds they need, even by flying the long distances they’re built for. Or, they’ll fly so far that they may tire, increasing risk of starvation, susceptibility to disease, vulnerability to predators and chance of reproductive failure — risks that grow as the stress continues over multiple years.

Already, last year’s counts of traveling birds at popular stopovers and wintering areas in California were down. With the drought in its third year, marking the state’s driest three-year period on record and following a severe five-year drought last decade, scientists, environmental groups and hunting organizations say the slide could worsen.

“In a lot of ways, the (birds) are built to handle drought,” said Jeff McCreary, western director of operations for the conservation and hunting advocacy group Ducks Unlimited, which recently launched aerial surveys to figure out where waterfowl are going when there’s no water at their usual roosts. “If the drought continues years on end, though, it will start to outpace the ability of the birds to respond.”

California is a key link in the 4,000-mile Pacific Flyway, one of the primary migratory routes used by birds to move north and south across the continent.The fall flights, which sometimes originate as far north as eastern Russia and span as far south as Patagonia, demand spots across the nearly 800-mile-long state for birds to stop and refuel, with water, plants, insects and fish.

With 90% of California’s historic wetlands no longer around, the options for stopovers are limited, with several of the go-to points being refuges created by the state and federal government with support from environmental and hunting groups. Many are now perilously low on food and water.

“Every year that we have drought, the problems in the flyway get magnified,” said John Carlson, president of the California Waterfowl Association. “The birds are resilient and they can move to where there’s water, but this is going to be a tough year.”

Some state and federal wildlife refuges have taken the unprecedented step of shutting down hunts for waterfowl in fall and winter, or delaying the season, because of the dry conditions and challenges for birds. Human predators would only add stress.

The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex is one that’s taken precautions, postponing its opener and reducing hunting quotas in many areas. The collection of five refuges in the Sacramento Valley has recently seen an influx of birds that are usually farther north this time of year, an advance that refuge managers chalk up to the feverish search for water.

The white-bodied, loud-honking snow geese have recently been reported in unusually high numbers, coming from Russia’s Wrangle Island and the western Arctic. So have greater white-fronted geese and northern pintails from Alaska. Most are holing up on the wetter east side of the Sacramento Valley.

The problem, refuge managers say, is that the parched landscape won’t sustain big numbers.

“These birds would typically be up in the Klamath Basin,” said Michael Derrico, supervisory biologist for Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex. “There’s more pressure now on the food resources in the Central Valley.”

It’s the same story farther south in the Kern National Wildlife Refuge Complex, known for the sandhill cranes that come from Homer, Alaska, to winter in the San Joaquin Valley. Already, thousands of the once nearly extinct birds have arrived.

“We have more birds showing up and earlier, but we’re only able to provide so much,” said Miguel Jimenez, manager of the complex. “There’s just not enough habitat for us to support all the birds.”

Complicating matters, refuges face the same problems that many cities and farms confront during dry times: not having priority claims on water.

The Kern Refuge Complex, which relies on water releases from the federally operated Central Valley Project, received less than half of its full water allocation this year while the Sacramento Refuge Complex, also reliant on the federal project, received only slightly more. The Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex farther north is not allocated any water from the federal Klamath Project, and depends on excess in the system and from local farmers, of which there’s been little this year.

Beyond the refuges, many migratory birds seek out rice paddies, which serve as a surrogate for lost wetlands.

About 200 species of birds find shelter in the flooded fields and find food in what’s left of the harvest as well as in the insect- and crustacean-rich irrigation water. Some stay for days, like the recently arrived long-billed dowitcher. Others stay all winter long, like the incoming American wigeons and green-winged teals.

This year, however, less than half of the usual 520,000 acres of rice was planted in the Sacramento Valley because of water shortages, according to the California Rice Commission. This means less than half as much accommodation for birds.

“You take rice out of the equation, the Pacific Flyway will look a lot different and not in a good way,” said Luke Matthews, wildlife programs manager for the commission. “The lack of food and the lack of habitat is going to leave birds with worse body condition. They’re not going to be as healthy.”

In an effort to preserve these watery areas for birds, the state and federal governments are paying millions of dollars to rice farmers to continue flooding their fields. Tens of thousands of additional acres are coming online, which Matthews called a “Band-Aid” for the migration, but one that’s essential for the moment.

An added concern with sparse water in the fields and wetlands is avian botulism. The bacterial disease can paralyze waterfowl and is common when bird concentrations are high and water levels are low.

“Once the birds get here in full force and they’re forced to stack together in the limited habitat, you have the potential for an outbreak that could be pretty devastating,” Matthews said. “It might even be better to have no water than a little water.”

An outbreak of botulism two years ago in the Klamath Basin, as the area began to dry up, killed more than 60,000 birds.

Avian flu is also a threat. This year’s strain of the virus, which has already been detected in waterfowl in California, is being compared to one in 2015, which killed millions of domestic birds in the United States. Many chickens and turkeys were purposely put down to prevent spread of the disease, which moves readily between birds, including wild and domestic populations.

Nowhere is there more concern about birds than along the California-Oregon border.

The two most important refuges at the vast Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex — Tule Lake and Lower Klamath — have run completely dry, turning the areas into little more than mud flats. Only the Lower Klamath refuge has seen this happen before, but not since the 1940s.

Historically, this network of marshes and lakes, sometimes dubbed the “Everglades of the West,” has been visited by as many as 80% of the birds in the Pacific Flyway, leading refuge managers to call its decline this year the “collapse of the most important staging area” on the route.

Already, migratory waterfowl numbers at Tule Lake and Lower Klamath refuges fell 61% last year, compared with the prior year, according to refuge surveys. The estimated 42,716 birds that visited the refuges at peak migration last fall was the lowest count ever — and just 3% of what the peak was four years earlier.

“We’re seeing birds (this fall) but we’re not seeing them in any significant number,” said Vradenburg, the supervisory biologist at the complex.

When the ibis weren’t showing up in their usual droves, Vradenburg knew this year was going to be bad. Huge flocks of the birds from the Pacific Northwest and sometimes southern Canada have historically marked the beginning of the migration season.

“Most mornings in the summer (in the past), I would see two or three thousand birds fly over my house,” he said. “This year, I’d see maybe 10 or 15.”

While it’s too early to know how many migratory birds will end up visiting the Klamath Basin this fall, or any of the main spots in California, a recent state survey of breeding waterfowl shows that this segment of the population is slipping, meaning broader declines are almost inevitable.

In the state’s April survey, ducks, which made up the majority of birds in the count, experienced a 19% decrease since 2019, the last year that the census was done because of the pandemic. The number of American coots, the next most common bird, was down 30%.

“Birds have been through this before,” said Melanie Weaver, a senior environmental scientist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and a waterfowl expert who co-authored the April bird survey. “Drought is wired into waterfowl. They’re not going to fall out of the sky.

“That said,” she added, “we don’t want to see (dry conditions) every year, because it will cause a population decline.”

(SF Chronicle)

THIS ENVIRONMENTAL LAW Made Half of America’s Fresh Waters Swimmable and Fishable

by Robert B. Semple Jr.

In the early 1830s, the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, on his way to the Great Lakes, is said to have described the waters around Cleveland as among the clearest he had ever seen. Less than four decades later, in 1868, a river he had greatly admired, the Cuyahoga, by then choked with industrial and municipal waste, burst into flames. It would do this periodically until 1969, when one last blaze persuaded the editors of Time magazine’s new “environment” section to publish pictures of the Cuyahoga on fire. “Some river!” Time exclaimed. “Chocolate brown, oily, bubbling with subsurface gases, it oozes rather than flows.”

The once-combustible Cuyahoga is now considered safe for fishing and other recreational uses. So, too, are the Delaware, the Potomac, Boston Harbor, large stretches of the Hudson and a multitude of once-filthy water bodies. They all owe their improved health mainly to the Clean Water Act of 1972, to this day one of the most creative and important statutes born of the great wave of environmental lawmaking that swept over Washington in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The act celebrated its 50th birthday this month, and its successes are worthy of toasts. But its work is not done. It established 1983 as the year when America’s fresh waters — its rivers, streams and lakes — would be fishable and swimmable. That proved wildly optimistic. A recent report from the advocacy group the Environmental Integrity Project shows that roughly half the nation’s rivers and streams, and a slightly larger percentage of its lakes, do not meet that standard.…

nytimes.com/2022/10/26z/opinion/environment/clean-water-act-sackett-epa.html

VIA MIKE GENIELLA: 

On this date 95 years ago in Yuba County history as reported in the Sacramento Union by sportswriter Bill Conlin, “On Oct. 25, 1927 Ruth's Busting Babes and Gehrig's Larruping Lous came to Marysville and they dismissed the schools that morning so we could all go to the ball park. Merchants closed their stores for three hours so that they, too, could see the game. As they did at all points on the transcontinental barnstorming tour, both Babe and Lou played first base, which brought Babe closer to the crowds and, besides, the Bambino liked to play first because there was more action. The rest of the two teams were made up of semi-pro Sacramento Valley Leaguers, who were as excited about playing with Ruth as the lads and lassies who were escaping a morning of school. The Busting Babes won that morning in Marysville, 9 to 7, before 3,000 fans...The Babe walked his first trip, flied to left, singled and then homered in both the seventh and eighth innings. Gehrig homered in the first inning, walked in the third, singled in the fifth, homered in the seventh and singled in the ninth.”

And here's where Ed Burt comes into the picture, as Conlin acknowledges, “No, this is not all from memory. The official scorer that game was Eddie Burt, the retired golf writer who then was sports editor of the Marysville Appeal-Democrat. He kept that scorebook. You see Babe Ruth autographed it.”

Presented here is that very scorebook signed as well by Gehrig—whom Conlin evidently gave short shrift in the column. Both pencil signatures rate about “9” in strength. In addition to the fully scored 10/25 barnstorming game in Marysville, there are also fully scored games from between June 5, 1927 and July 15, 1928. Condition-wise, the book features front and back interior binding reinforcements.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

When I was 16 it never occurred to me to own a car. Very few kids that age had them. I had enough friends so that when we wanted to go out, one of the kids’ parents (including mine) would get the family car for the night. Mornings, I walked to school – a little over a mile away. I also worked weekends at a car wash as a car wiper and vacuumer (at $1.05/hr) to earn a few bucks, but I never thought about saving up the money to buy a car. Boy, are times different.

LEFTISTS, DON'T GASLIGHT YOURSELVES: It's time to unite against the fascist Republicans

Think the Democrats are disappointing? You're right. But that's no excuse for allowing actual fascists to win

by Norman Solomon

Six months ago, people on the left in France faced a crucial choice. None of their candidates had gotten enough votes to make it into the presidential runoff election. On the upcoming ballot were the neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron and the neofascist challenger Marine Le Pen, who had trailed the incumbent in the first round by less than five percentage points. What to do?

Rather than sit out the decisive election and enable the far-right candidate to take power, millions of leftist voters held their nose and voted for Macron.

Now, progressives in the United States face similar choices. In key House districts and states with pivotal Senate races — including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — leftist voters could tip the balance of congressional power. At this point, in the balloting that ends on Nov. 8, the choice is binary: neoliberalism or neofascism.

While the GOP is in a strong position to win a majority in the House of Representatives, the latest polling indicates that control of the Senate is on a knife's edge. No doubt Sen. Mitch McConnell is hoping that enough progressives won't vote for Democrats so he can run the place starting in January.

You don't have to tell me how awful, and how corrupted by corporate money, the Democratic Party leadership is. On foreign policy, other than on such matters as climate and the Iran nuclear deal, the two major parties have similar approaches, including widely destructive militarism. But on domestic matters — while the Democrats' tepid reformism falls far short of addressing the crises we face — their policies are vastly better than the increasingly racist Republican Party as it offers extreme versions of free-market economics and Christian fundamentalism. Claiming that there are no significant differences between the two parties is a form of super-ideological gaslighting on automatic pilot.

Abortion rights, judicial appointments, climate, environmental protection, taxation, racial justice, voting rights, labor rights, LGBTQ rights, misogyny and so many other basic matters are on the line. Yes, the Democrats are often anemic on such issues. At the same time, the Republicans are much worse. And their agenda now includes nothing less than destroying electoral democracy.

Republicans in office and even more extremist candidates seeking to join them are blending in with political scenery they've created to normalize gliding farther and farther rightward. They're the electoral shock troops of a party now fully engaged in what scholar Jason Stanley, in his book “How Fascism Works,” calls “fascist politics.” What seemed dangerously outrageous not long ago can soon come to seem normal — becoming even more dangerous.

In Stanley's words, “Normalization of fascist ideology, by definition, would make charges of 'fascism' seem like an overreaction, even in societies whose norms are transforming along these worrisome lines.... The charge of fascism will always seem extreme; normalization means that the goalposts for the legitimate use of 'extreme' terminology continually move.”

Progressives have overarching responsibilities to oppose the corporate power that ushers in oligarchy and also to oppose the far-right forces that lead to tyranny. Focusing on just one of those responsibilities while dodging the other just won't do.

It's accurate to say that the neoliberalism of the Democratic Party has been creating and exacerbating conditions that fuel right-wing engines. But at certain times — which definitely include the next two weeks, through Election Day on Nov. 8 — electoral battles come to a decisive fork in the road. We will be living with the consequences of this crossroads for the rest of our lives.

UKRAINE, TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER

The Ukrainian military claims Russian forces are preparing for a “potential retreat” near a key river in Kherson as Moscow-installed leaders in the southern region step up their evacuation efforts in response to Kyiv’s advancing counteroffensive. 

US and Western officials have dismissed Moscow’s claim that Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb as a Russian false-flag operation. The UN Security Council will have closed-door discussions Tuesday on Russia’s allegation, sources say.

International inspectors will visit two nuclear sites in Ukraine at Kyiv’s request, the UN nuclear watchdogsaid. Ukraine’s foreign minister said Kyiv has “nothing to hide.”

A Russian court upheld US basketball star Brittney Griner’sdrug smuggling conviction Tuesday. Griner’s sentence of nine years in prison will be slightly decreased, as the judge ruled to count the time spent in custody since Feb. 17.

(NYT)

INFRASTRUCTURE WARS

by Patrick Cockburn

In 1944, a V-2 rocket blew up my parents’ house in St John’s Wood in London, reducing it to a heap of ruins. Fortunately for my mother and father – and for me – they were both out at the time. I still have the telegram which my mother, Patricia Cockburn, who was safely in Cumbria, sent to her mother. It begins: “I hope you are alright. My house destroyed…”

As a child, I learned that the V-2 explosion had vaporised much of the furniture in the St John’s Wood house, but a small round marble table had survived which I could see in the front room. It was not unscathed and had a great scar across its surface where the blast had ripped out the yellow, red and green stone inlay. I used to run my fingers down the crack and gained a healthy respect for the destructive power of ground-to-ground rockets.

The damaged table and the story of the V-2 strike also left me with a strong fellow feeling for people bit by rocket fire, most recently in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odessa and other Ukrainian cities. A difference from my parents’ experience is, of course, that many of those whose houses have been hit were at home at the time.

A lot has stayed the same in missile warfare since the Germans were firing V-1s and V-2s at London 80 years ago, but much has changed radically without the rest of the world paying attention. And it is the results of these changes which we are now beginning to see play out in Ukraine today.

Iranian-made drones

The White House is accusing Iran of supplying drones and missiles to Russia and on Thursday said that the Iranians had sent advisers to Crimea to instruct Russian military personnel on how best to use Iranian-made drones and missiles. The National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, said that Iranian troops are “directly engaged on the ground” in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s power stations and other key infrastructure.

This may well be true, but misses the point that we are looking at a new type of warfare that has taken decades to develop and has already changed the strategic balance in the Middle East. Put briefly, the US and its allies have lost their monopoly of precision guided missiles which they previously enjoyed.

I was in Baghdad in 1991 when US missiles and smart bombs systematically destroyed the Iraqi power stations, electric transmission cables, oil refineries and oil storage facilities. It did not take the US air force long to do this to 70 per cent of Iraqi generating capacity – much of it damaged beyond repair. Baghdad soon smelled of rotten meat thrown out by people when their fridges and deep freezes lost their power supply. Blackouts became the norm at night and life in Iraq largely returned to the pre-electric age – aside from limited power from little petrol-powered generators whose put-put sound was inescapable in the capital.

Great accuracy

In that period, it was only the Americans who had the capacity to quickly cripple a country’s infrastructure beginning with its electric power system. Even in a major oil producer like Iraq, petrol and diesel became scarce with boys selling bottles of them, often diluted with water, beside the road.

For many years, it was only the US that possessed large numbers of precision guided weapons capable of hitting any target precisely at long distance. But others have since made successful efforts to catch, notably Turkey and Iran, which have both turned themselves into what some military specialists call “drone superpowers”. Iran, in particular, has had a strong incentive to develop a weapon to counter the air superiority of the US and its allies in the Gulf.

A telling example of the vulnerability of infrastructure and economic assets to drone strikes came in September 2019 when on a single night drones and cruise missiles – almost certainly launched by the Iranians though they deny it – hit Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais with great accuracy. Saudi oil output was cut by 50 per cent and world oil prices surged. Not only was the damage great and vastly expensive to repair, but much of it had been caused by drones costing as little as $15,000 each.

Easy to damage

The same strategy is now becoming visible in the war in Ukraine, with Russia targeting the Ukrainian electricity system, knocking out 30 per cent of its generating capacity in a few days. Blackouts are becoming familiar in Ukrainian cities and lack of power also affects water and sewerage systems. Much can be repaired and Ukraine is looking for more and better anti-aircraft equipment, but swarms of drones and less frequent cruise missiles will overwhelm almost any defence, however sophisticated it may be. Infrastructural targets like power stations, oil refineries and water utilities are by their nature large, impossible to move, difficult to hide and easy to damage.

The worst has not happened yet. Russian military strategy has so far proved shambolic since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Reports that the Russians have started systematically degrading Ukrainian infrastructure using cheap drones and missiles may turn out to be premature. Presumably, Putin is aware that Ukraine would probably hit back at Russian infrastructure using similar methods, and this might give him pause.

There is a western fixation on Russia’s potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, which is understandable. But there are other non-nuclear and very destructive things that Russia and Ukraine could do to each other in the present war – and this new type of drone warfare is one of the them.

Patrick Cockburn is the author of War in the Age of Trump (Verso).

HOUSE PROGRESSIVES RETRACT LETTER To Biden Calling For Talks With Russia

Rep. Jayapal blamed the release of the letter on her staff

by Dave DeCamp

Progressive Democrats in the House have retracted a letter to President Biden calling for talks with Russia after facing backlash for suggesting the idea of pursuing diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine.

The letter was signed by 30 lawmakers and was led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. In a statement, Jayapal said the letter was drafted several months ago and blamed its release on her staff.

“The Congressional Progressive Caucus hereby withdraws its recent letter to the White House regarding Ukraine,” Jayapal said. “The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As Chair of the Caucus, I accept responsibility for this.”

A source familiar with the matter contradicted the statement in comments to Politico, saying the letter’s release was personally signed off by Jayapal. The letter was initially drafted in June, and some signatories publicly said they wouldn’t have endorsed it today.

“I signed this letter on June 30, but a lot has changed since then. I wouldn’t sign it today,” Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “We have to continue supporting Ukraine economically and militarily to give them the leverage they need to end this war.”

In the letter, the lawmakers made clear that they support the Biden administration’s policy of shipping tens of billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine but said diplomacy should be pursued due to the risk of nuclear war and “catastrophic escalation.”

Jayapal said it was retracted because it was being conflated with comments made by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who said a Republican-controlled House wouldn’t be willing to write a “blank check” for Ukraine.

“Because of the timing, our message is being conflated by some as being equivalent to the recent statement by Republican Leader McCarthy threatening an end to aid to Ukraine if Republicans take over,” Jayapal said.

Jayapal pointed out that there has been no opposition to the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy from Democrats in Congress. She said Democrats “have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people.”

Jayapal said that the war in Ukraine will only end with diplomacy after “a Ukrainian victory.” According to the Ukrainian government, victory means driving Russia out of the territories it has captured since February 24, all of the Donbas and Crimea.

The Biden administration has shown no sign of seeking diplomacy with Russia to end the conflict despite the president’s recent warning that the world is facing the highest risk of nuclear “armageddon” than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that US officials have ruled out pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table even though they don’t think Kyiv can win the war “outright.” In an earlier statement, Jayapal said the Congressional Progressive Caucus supports the administration’s policy of not negotiating with Russia “about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

(news.antiwar.com)