Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022

Cloudy | Toy Drive | Ed Notes | Baling Hay | CA Deficit | Medicare Decisions | Council Vacancy | Quercus Ranch | Climate Grant | Baseball Camp | Enter Artwork | Harvest Time | Chamber Music | Hoaglin Guilty | Hayfield | Good Standers | Dilan Threat | Ranch Crew | KZYX Win | Yesterday's Catch | Stuntman | Cobb Hobbies | FTX Collapse | Oh No | American History | Bananas | Swap-Out | Phrenology Busts | Cherokee Seat | Join IWW | Journalistic Malpractice | Bomb Shelter | Revolutionist | Book Dress | Imperialist War | Marine 1968 | Ukraine | Temple Heirinji

A CLOUDY DAY with cooler temperatures is expected. A brief clearing Friday morning will be short lived as cloudy skies return Saturday night. Precipitation may be possible early next week. (NWS)

ED NOTES

EXCITING WEEK so far for Renee Lee, the multi-tasking director of the Anderson Valley Senior Center who makes all her tasks look easy. First, the Senior Center bus is robbed of its catalytic converter — “It's covered by insurance but our insurance is $500 deductible. That’s 83 senior meals!,” Renee laments. Then, just this afternoon about 2, “I came home with my house completely full of smoke. I tried calling AVFD to see if I could get someone to just make sure I didn’t have an attic or chimney fire. I was hoping Fal [Allen] or Angela [Dewitt] could just make a quick stop. They said hang up and call 911. Sooo…five trucks and a bunch of firefighters from Cal-Fire and AVFD later, my quiet street is a huge spectacle. I feel like a total idiot even though they said I did the right thing. I told 911 that there weren't any flames but they all came anyway. They thoroughly inspected my chimney and attic to be sure. Opened flue and hot coals fanned by the air blowing down causing the wood stove to “burp” was probably the culprit. Ugh! Another argument to get rid of wood heat altogether!”

TWK has a column coming up on smoking, reminding me of the couple of years I smoked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sarawak, east of the sun on the island of Borneo. The Brits had just left so the smokes were their import, Rothman's and Three 5's as I recall. Smoking was convenient during jungle treks because the native people measured distance by the number of smoked cigarettes it took to get places. You'd encounter some guy deep in the jungle and ask him how far it was to his longhouse. “Ampat sa batang,” he'd reply, four cigarettes. So I'd light up, and darned if I hadn't arrived by the end of that fourth fag. I visited longhouses where 12-year-olds had never seen a white man and had to be convinced I wasn't a ghost, a malignant ghost at that. Typically, it took a full day before the little ones would come out of hiding. The adults assumed I was either a member of the British Royal Family or their direct emissary. Portraits of the Royals were common in longhouses where, typically, nobody had heard of America.

BUT THEY KNEW about the Japanese whose severed, shrunken heads still hung in bunches from the common area's rafters; beneath these bundled mementos of the war years burned tiny smoky fires that did the shrinking and the preserving. I saw one bunch where a skull still wore its glasses and rising sun fatigue cap. When the Japanese occupied the Borneo states they initially sent 40-80 man patrols up the major rivers where British and Australian commandos had organized the Dyaks against the invaders. Those patrols never got back downstream; they were no match for the Dyaks' jungle stealth and poison darts. After a few up river contingents had disappeared, the Japanese confined themselves to the towns where, incidentally, they brutalized the people who had initially welcomed them as liberators from British imperialism.

I DIDN'T last overly long as a cigarette smoker because I couldn't help but notice that smoking wrecked my basketball stamina as I attempted to wow the locals with my Americano court moves. (The Malays played soccer, the Chinese basketball, the two communities at odds in many ways that occasionally became murderous.) The local Chinese hoopsters were great China chauvinists who would claim that mainland China produced the best basketball teams in the world. “Gentlemen,” I'd say, “we have rural high school basketball teams that would run China right out of the gym.” Which, at the time, '64-65, was probably true because China had just taken up the game in a big way. 

NOTHING against young genius, but investing millions of real dollars in crypto currency via this kid seems to indicate that the birthrate for suckers is up from one a minute to multiples a minute.

JON STEWART with some truths: “Dave [Chappelle] said something in the SNL monologue that I thought was constructive, when he says, ‘It shouldn’t be this hard to talk about things. I’m called anti-Semitic because I’m against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. I’m called other things from other people based on other opinions that I have, but those shut down debate… Whether it be comedy or discussion or anything else, if we don’t have the wherewithal to meet each other with what’s reality then how do we move forward? If we all just shut it down, then we retreat to our little corners of misinformation and it metastasizes. The whole point of all this is to not let it metastasize and to get it out in the air and talk about it.”

STEWART also mentioned Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving, who is currently facing a team suspension after sharing a film featuring anti-Semitic content on his social media. “This is a grown ass man. The idea that you would say to him, ‘We’re going to put you in a timeout. You have to sit in the corner and stare at the wall until you no longer believe that the Jews control the international banking system’… We will never gain any kind of understanding with each other,” Stewart said. “Penalizing somebody for having a thought — I don’t think is the way to change their minds or gain understanding.”

DITTO for Kanye West: “Something Kanye said on his tour — he got interviewed by five different people because the media model is arson and conflict — he said, ‘Hurt people hurt people’,” Stewart said. “I’m afraid that the general tenor of conversation that this country has is ‘Cover it up, bury it, put it to the outskirts and don’t deal with it.’ Look at it from a Black perspective. It’s a culture that feels that its wealth has been extracted by different groups… That’s the feeling in that community and if you don’t understand where it’s coming from then you can’t deal with it.”

IDIOT VARIETIES of “woke” flourish in the more precious Mendo precincts, of course, but it doesn't seem pervasive to the point of oppressive. Not that we're likely to notice at the mighty ava, written off years ago by the, uh, righteous. Of course the degree of oppressiveness depends on who you choose to associate with, but it's sad to see liberal fascism get a foothold anywhere, least of all journalism. Whoever decided to get the Chron's writers to sign off with their gender identities… well, anybody who writes “he-him” after his name won't need to cut his nuts off to sing with the Vienna Boys Choir.

REPORT: CALIFORNIA LIKELY TO HAVE $25 BILLION BUDGET DEFICIT

by Adam Beam

It could force some painful spending decisions, including possibly delaying an ambitious program to clean up homeless encampments across the state.

California will likely have a $25 billion budget deficit next year, state officials announced Wednesday, ending a run of historic surpluses and acting as a warning to other states about a potential recession.

Democratic-controlled California taxes rich people more than other states, meaning most of its drop in revenue is because the uber-wealthy aren't making as much money as they used to. That's why California is often one of the first states to have budget problems when the economy starts to falter.

The S&P 500, a key indicator of the health of the stock market that drives the income of the superrich, has fallen more than 17% since its peak in January. State revenues are now $41 billion below expectations, according to an outlook published Wednesday by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. The estimated deficit is lower because some of those revenue losses were offset by lower spending in other parts of the budget.

The shortfall won't endanger some of California's major expansions of government services, including free kindergarten for 4-year-olds and free health care for low-income immigrants living in the country without legal permission.

But it will force some painful spending decisions, including possibly delaying an ambitious program to clean up homeless encampments across the state.

Despite the gloomy outlook, California is in a better position to weather an economic downturn than it has been in the past. The state has $37.2 billion stored in its various savings accounts. And it has plenty of cash available to meet its obligations this year.

“It’s not insignificant, but it’s also manageable,” Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek said of the deficit. “We don’t think of this as a budget crisis.”

California's revenues are famous for their volatility, peaking and plummeting quickly at the whims of the stock market. Just two years ago, state officials predicted a $54 billion deficit because of the pandemic — a shortfall that never happened because the economy remained strong.

But this latest deficit prediction is more likely to stick. Soaring inflation has made everything more expensive. The Federal Reserve has tried to rein in inflation by raising a key interest rate. A higher interest rate makes it more expensive to borrow money, which eventually causes people to spend less. Although that would control price increases, it also cuts demand for goods and services. That leads to layoffs, meaning people pay less in taxes.

“The chances that the Federal Reserve can tame inflation without inducing a recession are narrow,” the LAO said in its report.

Although employment in California remains strong — the 3.9% unemployment rate for September is tied for the lowest since 1976 — the high-wage tech industry has been roiled by a series of recent job cuts. Facebook parent Meta announced last week that it would layoff 11,000 people, or 13% of its workforce.

The report did not surprise Republicans, who said they have been warning against California's massive increase in public spending for years, with Republican Assembly member Vince Fong calling it “unsustainable.”

“Today’s report is another wake-up call to those warnings. We must refocus on fiscal responsibility,” said Fong, who is vice chair of the Assembly Budget Committee.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration wasn't surprised, either, calling the $25 billion deficit estimate “realistic and reasonable.”

“The good news is that as we prepare to close a budget shortfall, the state is in its best-ever position to manage a downturn, by having built strong reserves and focusing on one-time commitments,” Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said.

California lawmakers could conceivably cover all of the deficit with the money it has in its savings accounts, but the Legislative Analyst's Office warned them not to do that. Their outlook predicts deficits not just for this year, but the next three years — although the size of the deficit decreases each year.

Instead, the Legislative Analyst's Office says lawmakers should delay some of the $75 billion in one-time spending they approved over the past two years. As an example, they pointed to a $500 million program to clean up homeless encampments across the state.

“That's a very good example of the type of pause we had in mind,” Petek said.

Toni Atkins, the Democratic president pro tempore of the California Senate, said she is confident the state can pass a budget this year “without ongoing cuts to schools and other core programs or taxing middle class families.”

Democratic Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said lawmakers “can and will protect the progress of recent years' budgets.”

“In particular, the Assembly will protect California’s historic school funding gains, as districts must continue to invest in retaining and recruiting staff to help kids advance and recover from the pandemic,” Rendon said.

(AP)

MEDICARE ANNUAL CHOICES AND CHANGES WITH HICAP

AV Village Event this Friday, Nov 18th, 10-11am, Zoom

Advanced Registration required: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMld-mtrjooG9H2qbabAtLd0pqOY6JVL2wC 

POINT ARENA CITY COUNCIL VACANCY

The City of Point Arena will accept applications for appointment to the City Council to fill a vacancy created by a lack of candidates at the November 8, 2022 election. 

The term of the Council seat will be from the date of appointment until December 2026. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, reside within the city limits of Point Arena, and be registered to vote in the City of Point Arena at the time of application. 

To be considered for the position, interested parties need to fill out an application. Applications are due by 4pm on December 8, 2022. Applications received after 4pm will not be considered. The City Council may conduct interviews, and will make an appointment, at their Regular Meeting on December 13, 2022. 

Applications are available at Point Arena City Hall, 451 School Street, between the hours of 9am and 4pm Monday through Thursday. Point Arena City Hall is closed Fridays. City Hall will also be closed November 24 & 25. An application is also available at the City's website: pointarena.ca.gov.

For more information, contact City Hall at 882-2122 or by email at admin@pointarena.ca.gov 

STATE WASTES MILLIONS ON MENDO PLANNING

Grant Award Of $2,177,399 From The California Coastal Commission Round 8 Local Coastal Program Local Assistance Grant To Mendocino County 

Funding for the California Coastal Commission Local Coastal Program (LCP) Local Assistance Grant Program is provided by the Budget Act of 2021, which was an appropriation of $31 million to the Coastal Commission to support its LCP Local Assistance Grant Program for Climate Resiliency. The funding is to be awarded to local governments, as well as to support Coastal Commission staff administering the program and working with local governments on climate resiliency. The use of funds is for projects that are designed to assist local governments in assessing impacts and planning for coastal resiliency, including adapting to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise, and which contain an LCP planning component. 

Mendocino County Department of Planning and Building Services, with the assistance of the County Executive Office, applied for Round 8 of the LCP Local Assistance Grant funding in September 2022. The grant application sought an award of $2,177,399 to complete a comprehensive update of the County LCP, including associated technical studies and outreach. On November 16, 2022, the California Coastal Commission granted the County’s application in the full amount. 

The County’s LCP has not been comprehensively updated since it was certified by the California Coastal Commission in 1992. The update will include revisions to the Coastal Element of the General Plan (Land Use Plan, “LUP”) and Coastal Zoning Code (Implementation Program, “IP”). The overall goal of the project is to improve local coastal planning in Mendocino County to better address coastal resiliency and climate change adaptation by updating technical studies, descriptions, policies, maps, and the implementation plan for the LCP in order to adapt to the impacts of climate change, sea level rise, and associated coastal hazards while maintaining the overall quality of the coastal zone environment in the interest of all people. 

Some of key components to this update include: 

• Technical Studies – the County will complete technical studies necessary for updating LCP policies to address topics relating to water supply and sewage disposal availability, transportation resources and development issues, agricultural resources and development issues, coastal access and visitor serving facilities, rare plants and sensitive natural communities, and visual resources.

• Environmental Impact Report – In order to facilitate adoption of the Coastal Element and Coastal Zoning Code updates, the County will prepare an Environmental Impact Report to satisfy CEQA requirements and provide a framework and baseline level of analysis for CCC review.

• Public and Stakeholder Engagement – A variety of stakeholders will be engaged in the development of the updated LCP to ensure appropriate involvement and buy-in.

• Updated LUP and IP section – the County will submit a comprehensive LCP update

The County will initiate work on this update in 2023 after executing the grant agreement with the California Coastal Commission and will be submitting the Local Coastal Program Amendment application to the California Coastal Commission for certification in 2026.

For additional details on the grant application including draft schedule, the full application can be viewed here.

The current LCP is made up of multiple components. The current components may be viewed on the Planning & Building Services website at the following links:

1. Coastal Element of the General Plan
2. Gualala Town Plan
3. Mendocino Town Plan
4. Coastal Zoning Code – Division II of Title 20 of Mendocino County Code
5. Town of Mendocino Zoning Code – Division III of Title 20 of Mendocino County Code

CALL FOR ARTWORK ENTRIES

The Mendocino Art Center hosts “Inspirare: A Members’ Juried Exhibition,” January 6 to February 5, 2023, an in-person showing juried by award-winning international artist Robert Rhoades.

Enter Your Artwork

Consider what your artwork's deepest inspiration is, what breathes life into your art ... what, in your artwork, inspires others? The Latin word “inspirare,” is from the word spirare or spiritus (spirit), meaning “to breathe” or “breathe into.” What is the nature or spirit of your artwork? A question that can be infinitely evolving, or shrouded in mystery. Please join our artist community in sharing your work.

Awards: First Place: $100. Second Place: $75. Third Place: $50.

We will be accepting entries either online, through Slideroom, or in person.

Online submission deadline: December 12. You may also submit your artwork in person, January 3, 11am-3pm.

More Information: mendocinoartcenter.org/exhibitions/inspirare-members-juried-exhibit

Enter Your Artwork Online: mendocinoartcenter.slideroom.com/#/permalink/program/70276

Not A Current Member?

There is still time to become a member, enter your artwork in “Inspirare: A Members' Juried Exhibition,” and enjoy the benefits of membership.

Join Today! https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/join

KATHLEEN REYNOLDS’ brilliant flute performance with the Symphony of the Redwoods last weekend there is another chance. She will come back with two of her fellow musicians from Santa Rosa Symphony, to perform an Opus Chamber Music Program this Sunday at 3 PM, Preston Hall, Mendocino. Here is the announcement:

The instrumental combination of flute, viola, and piano creates a rich sonority that Santa Rosa Symphony Chamber Players, Kathleen Reynolds, Alex Volonts, and Kymry Esainko explore fully. Featured composers include Durufle´, CPE Bach, and others. Ms. Reynolds is the principal flutist with Symphony of the Redwoods and Santa Rosa Symphony. Ms Reynolds was the featured soloist with Symphony of the Redwoods in the orchestra's Opening concert last weekend!

Tickets at brownpapertickets.com, Out of this World in Mendocino and at Harvest Market in Fort Bragg. For more information please call the symphony office: 707-964-0898 or email symphony@mcn.org

ROBBER HOAGLIN FOUND GUILTY

A Mendocino County Superior Court jury returned from its deliberations Wednesday morning to submit its verdict finding the trial defendant guilty of robbery.

Defendant Georgie Eugene Britton Hoaglin, age 22, of Covelo, was found guilty of an August 2022 robbery in the second degree, a felony.

Two sentencing enhancements charged by the DA were also found true. The first special allegation found true by the jury was that the defendant was armed with a firearm during the commission of the robbery.

The second special allegation was that the defendant had previously suffered a prior Strike conviction, to wit, that he had sustained a felony conviction (“adjudication”) for assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury with a further finding that he personally inflicted great bodily injury on a victim in a prior 2017 prosecution.

The jury also returned a verdict of not guilty on a secondary charge of criminal threats.

After the jury was thanked for their service and excused, the defendant’s case was referred to the Mendocino County Adult Probation Department for a background study and sentencing recommendation.

The defendant will next be back in court on December 16, 2022 at 9 o’clock in the morning in Department A of the Ukiah Courthouse for consideration of Probation’s report and recommendation, and judgment and sentencing.

The law enforcement agencies that developed the evidence necessary to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and that provided trial support were the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the Round Valley Tribal Police, and the District Attorney’s own Bureau of Investigations.

The attorney who directed the People’s case against the defendant was Deputy District Attorney Jamie Pearl.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder presided over the 2 ½ day trial. Judge Faulder will continue as the sentencing judge in December.

(District Attorney’s Office)

POT APPLICANTS IN GOOD STANDING

The County of Mendocino Cannabis Department notified one hundred and twenty-three (123) applicants October 24 and October 25, 2022, that they were eligible for the In Good Standing portal. The In Good Standing portal opened at 9:00 a.m. on November 1, 2022 and will close at 11:59 p.m. on January 31, 2023. 

Please contact our office immediately if you are experiencing difficulties accessing the portal or have questions/concerns about the process. 

Keep in mind that due to the high volume of emails our office receives, it takes an estimated 3-7 days to respond to emails. Please do not wait to complete your corrections and ask your questions!

Best regards,

WE GROW OLD, THE VULTURES CIRCLE

On Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 7:52 P.M. Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were approached by a 59 year old adult male who asked to speak with them about a situation.

During the contact the Deputies learned Dilan Gregory, 31, of Ukiah, had threatened to physically harm the adult male. The Deputies initiated an investigation and attempted to locate Gregory.

The Deputies located Gregory later that night while conducting follow-up investigations into the reported threats.

During the investigation, the Deputies developed probable cause to believe Gregory was guilty of making Felony Criminal threats.

The Deputies arrested Gregory and he was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $20,000 bail.

KZYX IS LATEST 100+ WOMEN STRONG RECIPIENT

Another successful 100+ Women Strong for Inland Mendocino County event took place in October at Nelson Winery and Vineyards. KZYX Community Radio won the most votes cast by attendees, narrowly edging out Ukiah Vecinos en Acción (UVA) and Anderson Valley Village.

“I was very moved when Karen made the announcement, especially because the other two nonprofits were so impressive and worthy,” remarked Marty Durlin, General Manager of KZYX. “It still brings tears to my eyes to realize that we won. I know it was close.”

As Mendocino County’s longest broadcasting and most comprehensive community radio station, KZYX is on the air “every minute of every day.” Founded in 1989 “by a group of visionaries,” KZYX and Z is broadcast by three transmitters, covering nearly 4,000 square miles. What makes KZYX stand out among community radio stations around the country is the programming. Locals host most of the art, music, and opinion shows alongside NPR and other public radio broadcasts.

In addition, KZYX is the go-to place to receive timely, reliable emergency information about wildfires and other disasters. Their public service announcements and online event calendar are designed to help other nonprofits in the county. And, with the recent hire of Viktor Palomino as news director, more bilingual offerings are filling the air and reaching more of the county’s population.

KZYX, which also streams on the internet, is free to everyone and supported by more than 2,000 listeners who become members of the station. More than sixty local businesses are underwriters.

Durlin explained during the event that “after thirty-three years of community service, KZYX’s signal is threatened by tree growth between the station’s main studios in Philo and the transmitter on Cold Springs Mountain.” The radio station has purchased property at 390 West Clay Street in Ukiah, “putting the main operations in the county seat and installing a stronger connection for everyone.”

“The money from 100+ Women will go into the KZYX Building Fund,” says Durlin. “And move us forward one more step toward remodeling the building and setting the station up for the future.”

100+ Women Strong is an inclusive all-volunteer group. Anyone interested in volunteering to help or attend the gathering and hear from three nonprofits doing indispensable work in our community is welcome. It is also customary for many attendees at the 100+ Women Strong events to also make out checks to the two other nonprofits. 100+ Women of Inland Mendocino has distributed more than $130,000 since its founding in 2019.

Events for 2023 are currently being planned. 100+ Women Strong for Inland Mendocino County is taking nominations for nonprofits now. To register, each attendee pledges a hundred dollars on the 100+ Mendocino Women Grapevine website via https://100strongmendo.com. Click the “Become a Member” button.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, November 16, 2022

ANDREW ALLEN, Willits. Battery.

JESSE BLANTON, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

BRYCE CARLILE JR., Willits. Transport/give marijuana over 18.

GERALD FULLER, Ukiah. Petty theft.

DILAN GREGORY, Ukiah. Criminal threats.

ERIC HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. DUI.

CARLOS HERNANDEZ-ESTRADA, Covelo. DUI-alcohol&drugs, concentrated cannabis, paraphernalia.

VINSON HILL, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

STEVEN LAWSON, Ukiah. Controlled substance while armed with loaded firearm, felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person.

JESUS MONTES-DEOCA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

LILIANA NARANJO-ALCARAZ, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, no license.

RONNIE PASCHAL, Willits. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, stolen property, burglary, criminal threats.

YVETTE ROCKEY, Willits. Domestic battery, protective order violation.

COURTNY SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery. 

BECOMING A STUNTMAN — I rodeoed for a living. I don't know if you would call it a living, but I survived for a while riding bulls and roping a little bit. I married a girl whose uncle was a stunt man. There was an old saying about stuntmen that fit me pretty well: “Too lazy to work, too nervous to steal.” I was used to getting banged up and I met a lot of stunt men while I was rodeoing in Southern California. So I became a stuntman. I got into the cowboy clique and just started working that way.

— Mike Watson

WHY THE CRYPTO COLLAPSE MATTERS

by Erin Griffith

Buyer beware

How could a $32 billion company vaporize overnight? That’s what anyone watching the sudden collapse of FTX, a hot cryptocurrency start-up that plunged into bankruptcy last week, might be puzzling over.

It will take time — and multiple federal investigations — to fully understand what happened behind the scenes at FTX, a Bahamas-based crypto exchange. But the impact is already becoming clear. Lawmakers are calling for more oversight. Crypto die-hards are trying to distance themselves. Critics of this sector of finance are crowing. And for those of you who had, until now, managed to ignore the rise and rise and rise of crypto as a phenomenon? First of all, good for you. And second, you may want to watch this one play out. I’ll explain why shortly.

But first, here is the simplest explanation of what happened that I can manage: FTX let people and companies buy and sell digital currencies, holding billions of dollars’ worth of customer deposits. FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, also created an investment fund that trades cryptocurrencies called Alameda Research. The businesses were supposed to be separate, but this year, Alameda needed cash and apparently dipped into FTX’s customer deposits. Then, this month, FTX customers became worried about their deposits and rushed to withdraw them, setting off a bank run and pushing FTX into bankruptcy.

The apparent commingling of funds between Alameda and FTX is highly suspicious and could lead to criminal fraud charges and lawsuits. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department are investigating. I want to explain today why the disintegration of FTX matters — it’s more than simply one man’s financial catastrophe.

Three reasons

1. Crypto went mainstream in the pandemic. Regulation has yet to catch up.

Cryptocurrencies were part of overlapping investment manias — including meme stocks, trading cards, NFTs and sneakers — that got people chasing speculative investments over the past few years. But not everyone buying in understood the level of risk involved.

If a bank fails, the government might step in and bail it out. A hallmark of crypto is that it is largely unregulated — buyer beware. Hacks can’t be reversed, misplaced funds can’t be retrieved by calling customer service, and a failing crypto exchange is not likely to get a government bailout. Investors have few protections.

Risky bets at several crypto projects once deemed valuable have already led to “death spirals” this year, incinerating billions of dollars’ worth of investors’ money. But FTX and Bankman-Fried stand out. He appeared on magazine covers, schmoozed regulators, grew his profile in philanthropy and politics and even sponsored a sports arena in Miami. He made hundreds of investments in smaller crypto projects and aggressively bailed out failing ones.

Evangelists for cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology promote them as investment vehicles that eliminate the need for faith in people and institutions. But Bankman-Fried made a point of fostering trust: from investors, journalists, politicians and charities. Now he’s a pariah, and he brought all of the crypto industry under scrutiny.

2. FTX’s collapse is connected to the broader tech industry retreat.

Bankman-Fried is already drawing comparisons to Bernie Madoff. And just as Madoff’s Ponzi scheme fell apart during the 2008 financial crisis, FTX’s collapse arrives amid a broader pullback for the tech industry. Tech stocks have crashed. Venture capital funding is drying up. Nearly 800 tech companies have laid off more than 120,000 workers this year, with cuts hitting Meta, Amazon and Twitter.

The tough times in tech can be traced to interest rates for borrowing money. For more than a decade, rates were low, pushing investors to chase risk and pour money into high-growth tech companies. Now, rates are rising, just as the pandemic-fueled growth of the last two years fades. The rate increases have hurt tech company valuations and access to capital — including those focused on crypto.

3. There’s more to come.

FTX’s bankruptcy filings list more than one million creditors. In addition to people who used the platform to store their cryptocurrency investments and investors who backed the company directly, numerous funds and crypto start-ups had assets locked up there.

Investment managers that dabbled in crypto “should really be considering whether they should have relatively new, relatively unproven, relatively unregulated assets in their retirement plans,” said Marcia Wagner, founder of the Wagner Law Group, a firm focused on employee benefits. “There are certain types of assets that frankly don’t belong.”

(The New York Times)

MUSINGS ON ADAM HOCHSCHILD AT THE MECHANICS INSTITUTE

by Jonah Raskin

The historian Adam Hochschild — author of King Leopold’s Ghost, Bury the Chains, To End all Wars: a Story of Loyalty and Rebellion 1914-1918, Spain in Our Hearts and Rebel Cinderella — spoke recently before a packed house at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco. I was there and took notes, thinking I might want to interview Hoschschild. I still might do that. Meanwhile, I offer some musings on his talk and on American history, a field of study that has often been under attack and that has been assaulted recently by right wingers in the culture wars who would erase the past and replace it with their own version of never never land.

Hochschild ought to be forgiven for saying that his new book American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis 1917-1921, tells the story of a missing chapter in our history. Some of us haven’t missed or forgotten the crisis of 1917-1921, the political repression, censorship, and the deportation of radicals like Emma Goldman, plus the misdeeds of our racist President Woodrow Wilson, who, Hochschild said, oversaw the assault on civil liberties during World War I.

Some of us have read the history books, including texts like Eric Foner’s The Story of American Freedom, which exhumes the crisis of 1917-1921 and explores its many twists and turns and that journalist Nat Hentoff called “an indispensable book that should be read in every school in the land.” Foner’s text isn’t the first to tell it like it is. W. E. B. Du Bois, Charles and Mary Beard and Richard Hofstader to name just a few, aimed to raise awareness about some of the darkest days of our Republic.

Foner’s Story should be read, but isn’t, and so the period from 1917-1921, as well as other times of crisis, isn’t just forgotten. They were never learned in the first place. Unfortunately, in the U.S. today a small group of scholars, teachers and students, ordinary citizens and activists, know a great deal about American freedom and its absence, while large swaths of the population know very little about the past, which makes it difficult to initiate and maintain a dialogue.

Without widespread knowledge and an understanding of what happened in the American Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Era of Jim Crow, the New Deal and the Sixties, it’s not surprising that as a nation we have repeated the injustices of the past over and over again. As readers of Counterpunch already know, it’s not an accident that Americans don’t know their own past. Their minds have been deliberately colonized by politicians, lawmakers, presidents and so called pundits like Fox’s Tucker Carlson who have polluted the channels of communication.

Hopefully, Hochschild’s book will be widely read and citizens will learn about and be reminded of Eugene Victor Debs, The Masses, the book burners, lynchings, A. Mitchel Palmer, the early J. Edgar Hoover, the Industrial Workers of the World, demagogues and the assault on civil rights and on democracy itself.

During the question and answer period that followed his talk, Hochschild said that he was optimistic, that the best media today is better than the media of 1917-1921 and that his study of the period taught him how rapidly mass hysteria could be ignited and how fragile our social order. His argument might have been buttressed with explicit mention of imperialism and colonialism, misogyny and homophobia, subjects he’s informed about. “We don’t know what the crises will be in the future,” he said. “But we need to be on guard against them. Toxic stuff is deeply embedded. It will take many elections to change things.”

And not just elections, one might add. But also people in the streets and on picket lines and even on the barricades. We’ve been there before. We’ll be there again.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Everyone loves Ron DeSantis of Florida, but who will be the Ron DeSantis of ‘murica(!)?

After the big donors pass him around. After the big corporations write his platforms’s talking points? After the entrenched deep state intelligence and offense agencies pay him a visit? After the donors suggest one of their guys as an advisor or cabinet member?

The ship of DeSantis will be replaced plank by plank, of course he’ll still look the same and carry that same swagger, but the substance and the original timber will all be exchanged.

The election run-up is nothing but a swap-out.

No matter, you’ll all push your chips out front

Fooled again.

HOUSE PANEL WEIGHS WHETHER TO SEAT A CHEROKEE DELEGATE IN CONGRESS

Seating Kim Teehee as the delegate from Cherokee Nation would fulfill the promise made in a nearly 200-year-old treaty.

WASHINGTON — A House committee on Wednesday weighed a proposal to seat a delegate from the Cherokee Nation in Congress, holding a historic hearing that grappled with how to uphold a promise made in a nearly 200-year-old treaty that has yet to be fulfilled.

The hearing, held by the House Rules Committee, was part of a push to allow Kim Teehee, a veteran policy aide and a longtime Cherokee Nation official, to be seated in the coming months as a nonvoting delegate in the House, which would add the first delegate from a tribal nation ever to serve there.

The effort has prompted members of Congress to publicly confront some of the darkest moments in American history and the string of broken promises to Indigenous people across the nation.

If it granted the position to Ms. Teehee, 54, the House would fulfill a once-overlooked stipulation in the Treaty of New Echota, which forced the nation to relinquish its ancestral lands in the South. The treaty led the U.S. government to force 16,000 members of the Cherokee Nation on the Trail of Tears, a deadly trek to land in what is now Oklahoma. A quarter of those forced to leave — about 4,000 — died before they arrived, as a result of harsh conditions, starvation and disease.

But the treaty, ratified by just a single vote in the Senate and signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1836, also declared that the Cherokee Nation would be “entitled to a delegate in the House of Representatives of the United States whenever Congress shall make provision for the same.”

Congress has never done so.

Ms. Teehee, whose ancestors survived that treacherous march, was on hand in the committee room on Wednesday to listen to a series of questions about the complexity of establishing another delegate position.…

nytimes.com/2022/11/16/us/politics/house-delegate-cherokee-nation.html

aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/16/us-congress-considers-seating-native-american-tribal-delegate

cnn.com/2022/11/16/politics/cherokee-nation-delegate-house-committee-hearing-cec

JOURNALISTIC RESPONSIBILITY VANISHES When Reporting On US-Targeted Nations

Two false news reports have gone viral in recent hours due to sloppy sourcing and journalistic malpractice. As usual they both featured bogus claims about US-targeted nations, in this case Russia and Iran.

An article in Responsible Statecraft titled “How a lightly-sourced AP story almost set off World War III” details how the propaganda multiplier news agency published a one-source, one-sentence report claiming that Russia had launched a deadly missile strike at NATO member Poland, despite evidence having already come to light by that point that the missile had probably come from Ukraine. This set off calls for the implementation of a NATO Article 5 response, meaning hot warfare between NATO and Russia in retaliation for a Russian attack on one of the alliance members.

Mainstream news reports circulated the narrative that Poland had been struck by a “Russian-made” missile, which is at best a highly misleading framing of the fact that the inadvertent strike came from a Soviet-era surface-to-air missile system still used by Ukraine, a former Soviet state. Headlines from the largest and most influential US news outlets like The New York Times, CNN and NBC all repeated the misleading “Russian-made” framing, as did AP’s own correction to its false report that Poland was struck by Russia.…

caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/11/17/journalistic-responsibility-vanishes-when-reporting-on-us-targeted-nations/

THE REVOLUTIONIST

by Ernest Hemingway

At two o'clock in the morning two Hungarians got into a cigar store at Fifteenth Street and Grand Avenue. Drevitts and Boyle drove up from the Fifteenth Street police station in a Ford. The Hungarians were backing their wagon out of an alley. Boyle shot one off the seat of the wagon and one out of the wagonbox. Drevitts got frightened when he found they were both dead. “Hell, Jimmy,” he said, “you oughtn't to have done it. There's liable to be a hell of a lot of trouble.”

“They're crooks, ain't they?” said Boyle. “They're wops, ain't they? Who the hell is going to make any trouble?”

“That's all right maybe this time,” said Drevitts, “but how did you know they were wops when you bumped them off?”

“Wops,” said Boyle, “I can tell wops a mile off.”

* * *

In 1919 he was traveling on the railroads in Italy, carrying a square of oilcloth from the headquarters of the party written in indelible pencil and saying here was a comrade who had suffered very much under the Whites in Budapest and requesting comrades to aid him in any way. He used this instead of a ticket. He was very shy and quite young and the train men passed him on from one crew to another. He had no money, and they fed him behind the counter in railway eating houses.

He was delighted with Italy. It was a beautiful country, he said. The people were all kind. He had been in many towns, walked much, and seen many pictures. Giotto, Masaccio, and Piero della Francesca he bought reproductions of and carried them wrapped in a copy of Avanti. Mantegna he did not like.

He reported at Bologna, and I took him with me up into the Romagna where it was necessary I go to see a man. We had a good trip together. It was early September and the country was pleasant. He was a Magyar, a very nice boy and very shy. Horthy's men had done some bad things to him. He talked about it a little. In spite of Hungary, he believed altogether in the world revolution.

“But how is the movement going in Italy?” he asked.

“Very badly,” I said.

“But it will go better,” he said. “You have everything here. It is the one country that everyone is sure of. It will be the starting point of everything.”

I did not say anything.

At Bologna he said good-bye to us to go on the train to Milano and then to Aosta to walk over the pass into Switzerland. I spoke to him about the Mantegnas in Milano. “No,” he said, very shyly, he did not like Mantegna. I wrote out for him where to eat in Milano and the addresses of comrades. He thanked me very much, but his mind was already looking forward to walking over the pass. He was very eager to walk over the pass while the weather held good. He loved the mountains in the autumn. The last I heard of him the Swiss had him in jail near Sion.

(Chapter VIII of Hemingway's short story collection, In Our Time, published in 1925.)

TAKE THE QUESTION OF WAR. We are not against it simply because we want to stop soldiers killing or being killed. We are not pacifists. Nothing great has ever been achieved in history without force. Violence is the midwife of change. Every recruit understands it is the job of the soldier to kill or be killed. We do know that at our moment of truth we must all be willing to fight or die. This imperialist war lies at the heart of all today's conflicts and crises. The bourgeoisie must keep the war going in order to stop the advance of the Revolution. For the proletariat the best way to end the war is to keep the revolution going. It is as simple as that.

— Lenin, as channeled by Alan Brien

UKRAINE, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH

In light of a missile landing in Poland and killing two people Tuesday, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that it's “Time for Europe to ‘close the sky over (Ukraine).’ For your own safety too.''

French President Emmanuel Macron urged China to play a greater mediation role in efforts to end the war. He said he might meet in Beijing next year with President Xi Jinping.

The Czech Republic has agreed to train up to 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers on Czech territory. The Defense Ministry said the training will include five rotations with up to 800 soldiers each, starting in the next few weeks.

Sweden said it would provide Ukraine with military aid worth $290 million and a humanitarian aid package worth $70 million.

'Cautious' optimism grain deal with be renewed

The United Nations is “cautiously optimistic” the Ukraine-Russia grain agreement will be extended past its Saturday expiration date, allowing the continued shipping from Black Sea ports of agricultural products that are critical to preventing a global food crisis.

A U.N. official not authorized to speak publicly said Wednesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had a “very positive'' discussion about the topic at the G-20 summit with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The agreement, approved July 22 and brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed Ukraine to export more than 11 million metric tons of wheat and Russia to ship its grain and fertilizer to world markets. An extension would last for 120 days. 

— USA Today