Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023

Wet Wind | Pudding Beach | Storm Reminders | Rain Outlook | AV Groups | Navarro Beach | Chamber Music | Flood Crossing | Spending Limits | Juice Bar | SNWMF 2023 | Scurrilous Accusations | Humboldt Highway | Totten Popped | Oschin Trust | Atmospheric Rivers | Jesus Centerfold | Cleek Nest | Facecut Portrait | Succession II | Fletcher Inn | Juried Exhibit | Yesterday's Catch | Minus Missiles | Ferndale Snow | Giusti Stabbed | Journalist Keyboard | Marco Radio | Harness Racing | Corporate Journalism | Oh Brotherhood | Eve Banned | CA Legislature | McEwan's Ale | Stove Asthma | Ticket Prices | Counterrevolution | Menadue | Propaganda | Can't Explain | Nominate Me | Knight Challenge | Ukraine | Ripples

RAINY AND WINDY CONDITIONS will continue today across the entire region while heavy mountain snow falls in northern Trinity County. A brief break is likely Sunday afternoon followed by a return to the stormy conditions on Monday. (NWS)

ANOTHER ONE ON THE WAY

Additional significant winter weather events are projected to impact Mendocino County over the weekend and into next week. Significant additional rainfall is forecast across the County along with moderate to high winds. Recent rainfall events have left the soil very saturated, making it more likely that trees will fall. Residents should be prepared for potential power outages, avoid nonessential travel, and are urged to take necessary precautions immediately. It is highly advisable to have a supply of food, water, medications, fuel for generators, and other essential items on hand.

Please exercise caution when traveling around the County as hazardous weather conditions are likely to result in downed trees and powerlines, localized flooding, roadway impediments, and possible debris flows. There is a potential for multiple road closures throughout the County. The Russian River at Hopland and the Navarro River at Navarro are likely to surpass the flood stage if current weather forecasting holds. If you must travel, please be aware of the current road conditions, respect all road closures, do not attempt to drive through flooded areas, assume all downed power lines are still energized, and be aware that first responders and work crews will be active throughout the weekend.

Reminder, be aware and move over for road crews, PG&E and first responders.

For additional preparedness information, residents can visit www.mendoready.org and follow the County of Mendocino Facebook page for situational updates.

AV VILLAGE MONTHLY GATHERING: MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN OUR COMMUNITY

Sunday, January 8th, 3 to 4:30 PM

Anderson Valley Senior Center, Refreshments served, Door Prize awarded to the lucky winner!

Come and get acquainted with several of the wonderful nonprofits in our Valley, some you may know and some you may not. Each organization will give a brief overview of what they do and how you can pitch in, if you feel so inclined. The following organizations will be participating: Anderson Valley Adult School, AV Foodbank, AV Grange, AV Historical Museum, AV Lions Club, AV Parks and Recreation, AV Senior Center, AV Unity Club and Hendy Woods Community.

There are a lot of nonprofits in the Valley and we hope to host another one of these with a whole new group later in the year, stay tuned. Help make this community building attempt a success!

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

Please RSVP with the coordinator – thank you!

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

SANTA ROSA SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS

Sunday, January 8, 3:00 Pm - Mendocino Presbyterian Church

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´, Bloch, CPE Bach, and others. Ms. Reynolds is the principal flutist with Symphony of the Redwoods and Santa Rosa Symphony.

Tickets may be purchased in advance at Out of This World in Mendocino, Harvest Market in Fort Bragg or online at Brown Paper Tickets.  Tickets may also be purchased At-the-Door.

NOTE:  This concert was rescheduled from November 20.  Tickets purchased for the November concert may be used at this concert.

more info: symphonyoftheredwoods.org

DORA BRILEY COMMENTS on the Board’s proposal to raise the consent calendar threshold to an unbelievable $750,000: “Used to be anything over $50,000 had to go to the BOS. Now $750,000? Wow, huge jump there! So what can departments write now? Use to be $25,000 and under. And the CEO can approve up to what now? Use to be $25,001 to $50,000. Have those limits changed? I’m guessing so, but to what?”

JUICE BAR IN LITTLE RIVER!

I just wanted to send out an email and let everyone know that Juice Me now has a juice bar and Little River at Dennen mo’s Victorian farmhouse that is open to the public from 8 AM to 2 PM daily! Come by for fresh pressed organic green juice, root juice, turmeric juice, and ginger shots! We are temporarily not in stores, but will be back in stores in a couple of weeks as we wait for a new permit for our new Fort Bragg facility. We hope to see you at the juice bar. We are so serving vegan and vegetarian breakfast and lunch items. Email me with any questions. 

Thanks for your support over the years!

Daphne Mejia <daphnemejia@gmail.com>

LOOK WHO'S COMING BACK…

SCURRILOUS ACCUSATIONS

Editor:

A few people, mostly not residents of Point Arena, have been tirelessly attacking Point Arena entrepreneur and new city council member Jeff Hansen.

These attacks have continued for the past couple of years in spite of Mr. Hansen's efforts to improve the state of commercial and residential properties in Point Arena. The rebuilding of the old motel in the south of town into the Wildflower Boutique Motel, and creation of the Izakaya Gama restaurant next door speak to the care and pride he puts into his creations.

For years, many commercial buildings on Main Street have been for sale with no takers. When Jeff and his wife Laura came to town from Salt Lake City, they saw an opportunity to invest and live their dreams. It is no surprise that some locals took offense, but most have come to appreciate his efforts.

One must note that in a similar way, these hateful lies have spawned unhinged actions similar to the ex-President's participation in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. In this case, untrue and exaggerated charges against Mr. Hansen have apparently encouraged an anonymous sick person to post leaflets around town calling Mr. Hansen a "violent white supremacist slumlord" and calling for his removal from the city council.

Similarly, the owners of the Gama restaurant, next to the Wildflower on property owned by Mr. Hansen, had been attacked in the flyers, charging that the restaurant is "owned and operated by white supremacist supporters and violent cultural appropriators." This being said of hard-working community champions who for years ran the Harbor House restaurant in Elk, lived and studied Japanese culinary skills in Japan, and now grace one of the finest restaurants on our coast.

The coward, or cowards, who created these lies took no credit in the flyers, but that is the fingerprint of such people. We members of our extended community, must stand up as such ugly affronts to our humanity.

Richie Wasserman

Point Arena

MONEY LAUNDERING, UKIAH STYLE

Ukiah Police have been experiencing an alarming rise in burglaries of coin operated laundry facilities in recent months, which Officers and UPD Detectives have been investigating.

On 01/04/2023, at approximately 10:37 AM, UPD Officers were dispatched to a burglary investigation involving a forced entry into a coin operated laundry machine at an apartment complex. On arrival Officers found that a suspect had entered the community laundry room of the complex, pried open the machine and stolen quarters. The damage to the machine was estimated to be in excess of $400.

Officers obtained video surveillance footage from the complex that depicted a male suspect committing the theft. The Officers investigating this event were made aware that MCSO Deputies were presently investigating a very similar burglary of another apartment complex laundry facility located nearby on Brush St. Officers responded to that location and viewed surveillance footage that depicted the same male suspect breaking into a laundry machine. In speaking with MCSO Deputies, a UPD Detective learned that the same suspect was earlier captured on video surveillance attempting to burglarize a Redwood Valley business.

While viewing these surveillance videos, UPD Detectives recognized the suspect as Nathan Totten, 40, of Ukiah, a person of interest in another case. Detectives had obtained the license plate and description of Totten’s vehicle and entered it into UPD’s Flock vehicle license plate reader system.

Later that day, at approximately 3:48 PM, UPD received a Flock notification advising the suspect vehicle was being driven in the 900 block of S. State St. UPD Officers and Detectives responded and searched the area for the vehicle. A UPD Detective located the vehicle parked outside a laundromat in the 100 block of E. Gobbi St. and observed Totten outside the vehicle. Totten was taken into custody without incident.

At the time of his arrest, Totten was found to be in possession of evidence related to the case and distinctive items of clothing he was seen wearing in the surveillance footage. Totten was on Parole out of Shasta County and was charged with 3056 PC (Violation of Parole), 459 PC (Burglary), and 594(b)(1) PC (Vandalism exceeding $400). Totten was transported to the MCSO jail where he is currently being held.

REN OSCHIN. DEB SILVA WRITES:

AVA,

You've run a piece about Ren Oschin a couple of times. I gather that someone wants to know what happened to her stuff and who they could contact to find out.

Ren's true name was Rene Oschin and she has a few things recorded at the Mendo County Recorder's Office. An affidavit of death was filed 8-16-22, I assume so that her assets could be liquidated. She owned property, and that property was sold. She had a trust. I would suggest that if someone wants to contact whoever was the executor they go to the recorder's office and look at the documents there are on file. There's the name of the trustee on the sale of the property. 

Here's what the recorder's office has-

WHAT KIND OF ELLIPTIC DRAMA FRAUD…

Editor,

If you sincerely believe in me I will forgive all your sins and grant you eternal life in the very lap of God. Plus my buddy Allah will add 97 virgins to frolic with in paradise and I'll throw in endless cases of top shelf cognac.

However, Lao Tzu (with a Z, as in Zorro) will never forgive you for burying his wisdom in a tiny paid advertisement on the back page and absolutely blowing it away with a full-color, two-page centerfold extolling the various salvations and redemptions of Christianity, as well as offering birthday salutations to baby Jesus, lest we forget Christmas is a holy day celebrating his birth in a humble manger with lambs baaIning as opposed to a consumer orgy with Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays and a further 10% tithe/tax on Christian church Sundays. God was impelled to send his immaculately conceived son out into the world so he could relate to his creation better. Not just walk among us, but suffer like us; authoritarian fathers seemed to enjoy seeing their precious sons pissing down their naked legs while being nailed to a cross. It may be that Jesus was sent forth to preach because when God spoke in his own voice — listen to the Voice from the Whirlwind in the Book of Job or Moses packing the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments — nobody seemed to hear or see him, perhaps figuring they had scored some exceptional hallucinogen, like last week's super marijuana string, God Speaks, which tested at 47% THC with terpenes out the ass.

What kind of editor are you to subvert a paid advertisement citing the central work of Taoism by inserting a two-page centerfold of your own beliefs in full color? Because I am always willing to award the benefit of doubt, I thought maybe you had succumbed to the recent influx of dark Christian money and sold out to the highest bidder, but since neither page of the centerfold has even the slightest hint that they are advertisements, a reader has to assume they are editorial content, an assumption bolstered by the fact that the only indication of the source — on both pages — Anderson Valley Advertiser, Boonville, CA 95415 along with the page numbers and date, December 21 — which happens to be the winter solstice, truly a thumb to the bum of all practicing pagans, as well as Lao Tzu Taoists, since Taoism, before it was corrupted into a religion, drew its principles from the natural world (a.k.a. "physical reality"), the animating source for most pagan coteries as well. Wow. Fanning the flames of discontent indeed.

I'm fairly certain the editor wasn't responsible for writing the text. Both pages contain what is called an "elliptical plause" ("and you… will be very, very glad" and, after three other instances, "and… that's a fact, friend") a tawdry punctuation device that writers beyond the fourth grade are loathe to employ for the false drama created. Actually, if I had to place a modest bet, I'd wager the second page, which wishes Jesus a happy birthday, was written by third-graders. And if I read correctly, Bruce Anderson just won the PEN Lifetime Achievement Award which isn't given to kids or illiterates, whatever their vested interests.

I don't object to any faith tradition pimping for itself in the solstice centerfold. May salvation spare all us hunting humans. But I'd sure like to know if some entity, even a shell company of some hedge fund, paid to have it inserted as an advertisement or celebration or a call to worship. As I recall, this issue has arisen before in a boxed claim among legal notices that "hydrogen peroxide kills the covid virus." In rhetoric, this is what is called an "undocumented assertion," and some reader wrote a few months ago wondering what the hell was going on with such a claim, and who was making it. The editor explained that it was an ad from a friend, and while it should have been noted that it was an ad, probably no harm done, since AVA readers were generally intelligent and wouldn't start drinking hydrogen peroxide any more then preaching Jesus Saves would prompt them to convert to Christianity. So maybe this is an experiment to prove his point. Or perhaps the PEN Lifetime Achievement award led to a revelation that God loved him and he felt beholden to spread His Word.

In this social media world of fake news, half-truths, lies, and other attempts to manipulate opinion for whatever nefarious or glorious ends, all I'm asking is a clear delineation between what are editorial positions and what are advertisements. It should be simple: if somebody pays you to print something, label it an advertisement. If you print it without payment, it is editorial content. The excerpt from the Tao The Ching on the back page is clearly marked as an advertisement even if the intent isn't clear. The source is cited down do the translation. The full-color Christian centerfold has none of that. We assume the editor has decided the USA is a Christian nation and no explanation should be needed, given the divine imprimatur, and that surely it will rain peace on our cottages by cleansing our sin-larded hearts. Lord knows it isn't easy being a gatekeeper for the fortress of truth, but lately it seems the gatekeeper has gone swimming in the moat, floating merrily on his back, beyond earthly concerns.

Truly yours,

Chegal Saldt

Arcata

PS. This is late because the AVA is so damn late getting delivered here. A friend says his issue is always at least five days late from the issue date and he lives in Garberville. I picked up the 12/21 issue two days after xmas when it arrived at an Arcata market. See what you can achieve with USPS which is slowly becoming PG&E.

CLEEK’S DANGEROUS STOCKPILE

In the late evening of January 3rd, 2023, Willits PD (WPD) Officers, with the assistance of Deputies of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) served outstanding felony arrest warrants on Derek Cleek (44, Willits), and Denesa Cleek (50, Willits) at a residence in Brooktrails. Derek was also known to law enforcement to be on out-of-county felony probation with terms to include a search/seizure clause. 

During the service of the arrest warrant, Denesa obstructed/delayed Officers entry into the residence by locking the deadbolt and fleeing out of sight into a room in the residence. After numerous attempts to contact, Derek Cleek answered the front door and allowed the Officers entry. 

Denesa Cleek and Garrick Hornlein (44, Willits) were both found in one of the rooms. Hornlein is on Post Release Community Supervision (PRCS) out of Solano County and had an outstanding felony warrant for his arrest out of the same county. Hornlein’s status on PRCS also allows for search/seizure of his person/property. 

Derek’s room was identified by indicia and Officers/Deputies observed him leaving the room. Inside Derek’s room officers found a .44 Magnum Lever Action Rifle, and glass bottle Molotov Cocktails in plain view. The Molotov Cocktails were assembled and ready for use, containing a liquid with rags (“wicks”) for use. Observed nearby were bottles of paint thinner and rubbing alcohol. WPD and MCSO secured the residence. 

Derek Cleek, Denesa Cleek, and Garrick Hornlein were transported to the county jail while a search warrant was authored for the residence. 

WPD Officers subsequently served the search warrant, approved by a judge. In Derek’s room, Officers located the following: 

• Marlin Model 1894 .44 Magnum rifle (not loaded) 
• Three loaded hypodermic needles 
• Two mortar/missile-style fireworks 
• Two bottle rocket fireworks 
• 696 rounds of pistol ammunition of various calibers 
• Several magazines for rifles and pistols, both loaded and unloaded
• Three ready-to-use Molotov Cocktails 
• Paint thinner and rubbing alcohol containers next to the Molotov Cocktails 

The Molotov Cocktails were found to be filled with the rubbing alcohol, or a combination of the rubbing alcohol and paint thinner.

The loaded hypodermic needles were later tested and found to contain methamphetamine. 

Garrick was booked into the county jail for his outstanding felony warrant. Denesa was booked for her outstanding felony warrant and violation of Resist/Obstruct/Delay an Officer. 

Derek Cleek was booked into the county jail for: 

• Violation of Probation (Felony) 
• Possession of a Controlled Substance (Methamphetamine)
• Possession of Drug Paraphernalia 
• Possession of Destructive Device 
• Possession of Destructive Device Materials 
• Possession of Unsafe/Dangerous Fireworks 
• Felon in Possession of Firearm 
• Felon in Possession of Ammunition 
• Possession of Sawed-off Shotgun 

WPD would like to thank the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in this investigation.

(Willits Police Presser)

THE SUCCESSION (Part 2)

by A.C.

There’s a world in every intersection if you pay attention, whether on Highway 128 or Flatbush Avenue, though the leading paper here takes the opposite approach of Boonville’s beloved weekly. “Peace to the palaces, war on the villages” should be the motto of the Times. The message that no one can make it in New York without a million dollars and an Ivy League education is repeated ad nauseam in its pages. 

The truth is, this is still a city of immigrants living four to a room like the labored recreations in the Tenement Museum. When the scythe of repression swings, everyone ducks. The city is full of holes, and everyone climbs into the one they’ve claimed, the same way they step out sleepily at noon twice a week to move their cars to the other side of the street. “I get all the news I need from the weather report,” as the song goes. But alternate side parking updates and subway delays are the real talk of the town. 

A new arrival in New York marvels at the anachronistic businesses that have managed to stay alive or even thrive despite the high rent. Ben Katchor’s comics capture the delightful madness best, yet non-imaginary examples can be found on every block—stores selling every imaginable thing under the sun. “You want birthday candles, or you want Chanukah candles?” asked the disgusted clerk at the 24-hour Yemeni pharmacy before leading me to a Chanukah section I’d never seen in the many years I’d been shopping there. 

Conversely, some stores sell only one thing. “White shoelaces? No. This is a shoelace store. Go to a white shoelace store if you want white.”

An old arrival is the butt of the joke, as they become improbable themselves. “How can this dusty odd weirdo still exist amidst all this luxury?” But it’s like that anywhere you live. You can take it personally or you can laugh—or a bit of both. My rule of thumb is based on the rate the rent goes up. If life gets .875 percent more dear every year, we have to get nine percent better at dealing with it, or laughing at it. We have to get nine percent healthier, nine percent richer, and nine percent less attached to our old worries and complaints in order to make room for the new bill. Otherwise we take on water and sink. We have to always be getting better because life will often, if not always, be getting worse. That’s the way it works. 

Every afternoon, New York is a dance of people carrying home lamps, books, and even couches, trying to maneuver around one another on the narrow sidewalks and stoops. Early the next morning the same folks can be seen carrying out something of equal size to deposit on the curb for the next person to find. With everything you take, something has to go, because there’s simply no room for more. 

Recently my girlfriend was flustered after searching online for wooden flutes. I’m not the Luddite I once was, but technology is a tool, and you have to have the right tool for the job. The internet is useful for what it’s useful for, which is mostly getting wrong information and watching porn. To buy a flute, it’s best to go to a music store, and I knew just the one. Another rule of thumb: solving a problem usually leads to exercise and keeping another piece of the old world you love alive. 

Discussing tools makes me think of the increasingly fevered rants serialized in the Advance Power ads. Could someone please interview them to get their full story? I’m dying of curiosity. 

Quick public service announcement: heat your coffee an extra thirty seconds in the microwave before drinking. Your life will improve overnight. Even unappetizing lukewarm coffee from the co-op is delicious if steeped to a searing lava-like heat. 

And one movie recommendation. The phrase “hip-hop musical” may sound like a warning label, but “In the Heights” is phenomenal. I was deeply skeptical, but this is a fantastic, heartwarming piece of work.

Anyway, I did quick calculations for my route to the music shop. Headed for the Village? Perfect. I can stop by Kalyustan’s for some graham flour on the way. Then the Burkinabi thrift store to scour the LPs. The Azerbaijani bakery for almond cookies. The Bengali stationery for post-its. And the remnants of Book Row to peruse the dollar racks—a name that’s stuck even if, like at the dollar store, most purchases cost three bucks or more. 

Outside Alabaster Books I ran into a musician we’ll call Rimbaud. He was dumbfounded when I told him I was headed to the Music Inn. “But that can’t still be there. I came to the Music Inn for strings when I first arrived in town in 1967. There were steep steps leading down to a muggy basement where an old bearded man sat surrounded by gongs and panpipes. Musicians from all over the world would stop in and pay respects as if he were a maharaji on a mountaintop. I wonder what on Earth happened to him.” 

“Still there,” I said. “Same thing. Same scene. Same guy. Beard. Monologue. Even the prices haven’t changed.” 

A jam session was in progress on the street level when I arrived. Downstairs the Beard was sitting alone. “Do you have a room filled with old wooden flutes?” I asked. “I have two small nieces who need a gift.” Soon flutes of every conceivable shape and material were flying through the air. He dug through drawers, cabinets, and cupboards all crammed to the brim, finally handing me a pair that would play in harmony. “Sixteen bucks,” he said. “Skip the tax.” 

Every city has its seasons and holidays, its harvest festivals and local traditions for marking time. New York has “Thank you very mulch,” a Sanitation Department truck which grinds up discarded Christmas trees, leaving Central and Prospect Park smelling wonderful for a week. There’s the ball drop in Times Square, which no one I know has ever seen, and the Poetry Project New Year’s Day marathon at St. Marks Church, which is a wonderfully excruciating way to start the year.

But this time my girlfriend and I decided to head upstate for a fire and a seven-mile walk in the woods. She fed the fire with scraps of paper she’d written, reading each one aloud. There were three rounds: Things to Leave Behind, Intentions, and Things to Honor. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if AVA readers sent in lists based on those prompts rather than their roundup of favorite books?” If you feel so inclined, please do. 

If the mighty editor gives me another shot at this, I promise to weave in much more Anderson Valley news. He’ll have to hook me up to the feed for that—and put me on the firing line. To be clear, I’m not anxious for a regime change. I hope the paper and its editors have a very, very long run, and I’m going to relish it every week. 

INSPIRARE: A MEMBERS' JURIED EXHIBIT January 6-February 5, 2023 — Thursdays-Mondays, 11am-4pm

We celebrate the creativity of our member artists with our annual all-media members' showing. The jurying process of the dozens of artists who enter their artwork has led to an exceptionally creative, high quality gallery showing with a wide spectrum of new artwork, including paintings, ceramics, sculpture, textiles, photography and more. This year's artwork was juried by international award-winning artist and Mendocino Coast resident Robert Rhoades.

More information: https://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/exhibitions/inspirare-members-juried-exhibit

JOIN US FOR SECOND SATURDAY GALLERY RECEPTION January 14, 5pm-7pm — Free

Meet the exhibiting artists, enjoy snacks and wine, and view the new exhibit and the award winning artwork!

Mendocino Art Center, 45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street, Mendocino

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, January 6, 2023

JESUS BERMUDEZ, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

WES FELIZ, Redwood Valley. DUI with priors.

AMBER FRENCH, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

DARIN HAMMOND, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ROBERT IMEL, Caldwell, Idaho/Ukiah. Possession of obscene material of minor in sexual act.

JOSIE LATHROP, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JOSEPH LYNCH, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

SERGIO MILAN, Ukiah. DUI.

JACK POLLOCK, Ukiah. Controlled substance.

ANTONIO REYES-RAMOS, Ukiah. Under influence, child endangerment.

DAMIAN ROSALES-REYES, Cloverdale/Ukiah. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

RONNIE SALAMONE, Willits. Battery, trespassing.

RON SEVY, Mendocino. Domestic battery, failure to appear.

WEATHER PERSPECTIVES

Editor,

We’ve been without electricity in Mendocino County for more than 24 hours now. We have no heat either, so we’re huddling indoors with layers of clothes, scarves and knit hats. Our only communication is cellphone service with low bars. Cooking and food prep has become challenging. We are lucky to have a couple of Goal Zero batteries to recharge cellphones and keep our fridge running, and I will check on an 89-year-old neighbor today.

Robin Applegarth

Gualala

ED NOTE: Now imagine missiles raining down on your head and you have an idea of what the Ukranians are suffering in a much colder climate.

AS THE CROW GOES

Editor,

Not as the crow flies, as the crow lies…

It would be a bit comical if it wasn't also a little terrorizing, but I'm getting the sense it is a waste of time writing to rectify the lies Alan Crow keeps spreading about me in the AVA. It just makes me wonder two things: Has crime and his punishment finally driven Mr. Crow insane? Or is Mr. Crow working with some others to try to get me killed?

A few weeks ago I was stabbed on a prison yard. I did not know the assailant. Then I remembered Mr. Crow threatening me once in the County jail. He said he could get somebody to kill me in the joint. Then it happened, kind of quirky. This is from a guy I only really know from Mendocino County Jail and for over 20 years he professed to be my good friend. I have never done any harm to Alan Crow. I don't really have any knowledge of him out on the streets and have never met any of his family. Why he obsesses on me, kind of defies reason.

Also I've never in any way ever harmed Keith Faulder or David Eyster. I've been very critical of all three of these dudes in a few AVA letters, but they have constantly filed false felony charges against me. Recently with villainlous lawyer (basically appointed by this team of Faulder and Eyster) succeeded in getting me an 18 year to life prison sentence. I will win this case on appeal, but it's taking a long time in jail and I'm back in solitary confinement after the stabbing.

So the only people I can guess that want me dead are Faulder, Eyster and Alan Crow. Since they are practically playing out this whole scene in front of both me and Bruce Anderson, could they at least send a letter letting all the AVA readers know why they want me dead? Of course, you boys don't have to sign your letter, mail it under "anonymous" or name withheld.

If you all think you are brave enough to hire prison "hit men," at least let us know why.

Sincerely,

David Detective Youngcault Giusti

Vacaville

PS. If you want proof that Allan Crow is lying about my case, try getting the truth from the Ukiah police. The alleged victim, and I repeat a notorious woman-beater named William Barry, was never in a prone position at my homeless camp as Mr. Crow claims. Crow also claims I hit this guy 40 times with an axe handle. How could he know? He wasn't there. He was in Lake County Jail on March 17, 2020, the night of my arrest. Also check police evidence. There was no axe handle found in my possession or anywhere on or near the bogus crime scene.

Crow also claimed Mr. Barry was nearly dead and that doctors miraculously brought him back to life again. Not the truth. Again, read the Ukiah police crime report. The Ukiah police state that when they first saw Barry after I had walked passed him that Barry stated, "Leave me alone, I will get Giusti on my own. I'll get revenge on Giusti." It really doesn't sound nearly dead as Mr. Crow claims. Later that night Barry requested to leave the hospital. There was no life-saving emergency surgery performed on him. Also check with Ukiah police and you will discover he is 57 years old. Where Mr. Crow comes up with these lies that Barry is 79 and lying half dead somewhere in the Bay Area is really a mystery. All I can surmise out of all this is that the prison officials have put Alan Crow where he belongs. Crow is currently housed at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville. That is the prison sanctuary for the certified criminally insane!

Hopefully a miracle from God will change Mr. Crow's lifestyle.

David Detective Youngcault Giusti

Vacaville

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio show live all night Friday night, on KNYO.org!

…And then by Saturday night the recording will be up at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

Deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) live MOTA show is about 7pm. If that's too hard, send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the show next week. There's always a next week.

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and there and everywhere else via KNYO.org. Also the schedule is at KNYO.org for KNYO's many other even more terrific shows.

Now the bad news: KNYO's tower, a 70-foot tree with the antenna at the top, blew down in the recent storm. It fell right over; luckily it didn't fall on the transmitter trailer. It will be hard to fix this properly, but Bob Young and crew have got the antenna back up in the air, just not any 70 feet up in the air, more like fifteen feet, and the signal will not go anywhere near as far or as well.

Management is leaning toward moving the transmitter down into town, like most small-town low-power FM stations do it. That will need FCC permission, which will take time.

KNYO runs on about $12,000 a year. The expense of getting things where they belong and back up to full low-power will add thousands to that this year. If you've been on the fence about helping real local radio with some money, now might be when to get off the fence and send the actual money. There's a donation heart at KNYO. Poke it and see what happens inside you, like when you go to the dog pound just to look, not expecting to commit, but of course you fall in love and come home with a puppy, and your life is so much better because you did a good thing. Unlike the other radio stations around here, every penny you give to KNYO goes to the station's plant and operation and necessary fees. None of it goes to owners and/or managers.

Furthermore, any day or night you can go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear my last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put the recording of tonight's show there. And besides all that, there you'll find a pleasantly cloying soup of educational material to slurp up until showtime, or any time, such as:

Blackbird in Mi'kmaq. (via Everlasating Blort)

https://www.openculture.com/2021/04/the-beatles-blackbird-sung-in-the-indigenous-mikmaq-language.html

This is how Sarah Vaughan sounded when she had a cold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJXLqAutql4

And Sisyphean automata.

https://theawesomer.com/wooden-sisyphus-automata/693151/

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

IT IS REALLY NOT HYPERBOLE to say that if you really want to rise to the top of the heap of corporate journalism, lying on behalf of power centers is a requirement. Conversely, if you're unwilling to lie for those power centers, then success in corporate journalism is all but impossible. It's a requirement for the job. It's really astonishing because it's literally true, the journalists who lie most frequently, casually, and aggressively on behalf of government and economic power centers, are the ones who shoot at the top of the corporate journalism ladder. 

— Glenn Greenwald

AFTER 'WEST SIDE STORY' was deluged with Academy Awards as the best movie of 1961, Murray Schumach reported in the New York Times that "there seemed to be general agreement that one reason" it won "was that its choreography, music, and direction were devoted to the serious theme of the brotherhood of man." A few weeks ago in a talk with a Hollywood director, when I expressed surprise at the historical novel he had undertaken to film, he explained that the "idea" of the book appealed to him because it was really about "the brotherhood of man." I averted my eyes in embarrassment and hoped that my face wasn't breaking into a crooked grin. It's a great conversation closer -- the "brotherhood of man." Some suggested new "serious" themes for big movies: The Sisterhood of Women, "No Man Is An Island," the inevitability of death, the continuity of man and nature, "God is all."

Sometimes when I read film critics I think I can do without brothers.

— Pauline Kael, ‘I Lost It At the Movies,’ 1962

JEFF ST. CLAIR: I got dinged last week by Facebook for posting (three years ago!) a link to a famous photo of the writer Eve Babitz playing chess against Marcel Duchamp. Eve is nude, but the photo doesn’t show nipples, pubic hairs or orifices. The notice claimed it violated FB’s “community standards.” NeoNazis and anti-trans trolls OK, though. 

THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE IS BACK: FIVE KEY QUESTIONS

by Alexei Koseff & Sameea Kamal

A soaring homeless population. A bitter battle with the oil industry over gasoline prices. A spending plan for a state with the world’s fourth-largest economy as threats of a recession hover.

There’s a lot for the California Legislature to deal with this year — and it made little headway Wednesday, its first day back at the Capitol since swearing-in a new class of members last month. The brief floor sessions in the state Senate and Assembly focused more on the dearly departed than the challenges ahead.

The slow start to the legislative session is nothing new, but it does leave plenty of time for reflection. Here are some key questions for the year to come:

By the afternoon, Senate and Assembly staff reported that just two new measures had been introduced in each house. (More than 140 were already submitted last month.) With a bill introduction deadline of Feb. 17, committee hearings and votes for most proposals are still months away.

So until then, floor sessions are mostly an opportunity for lawmakers to check in — and receive their per diem, the supplemental $214 paid daily to legislators for housing and living expenses, as long as they don’t leave Sacramento more than three days at a time.

The first floor sessions on Wednesday, for example, lasted about a half hour each in the Senate and Assembly, largely taken up by speeches memorializing friends and family who had died. Assemblymember Greg Wallis, a Bermuda Dunes Republican who won his seat by 85 votes, made his inaugural appearance on the floor; his race had not yet been called in time for the ceremonial swearing-in on Dec. 5.

In an interview, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said housing issues would remain a central focus for the Legislature this session, including accountability for the billions of the dollars that California has spent on homelessness and development programs in recent years.

“Housing is the 10,000-pound gorilla that won’t go away,” the Lakewood Democrat said.

Rendon said he would also like to build on the momentum of a sweeping package of legislation passed last year to address climate change by tackling how transportation, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California, contributes to the problem.

“Climate change is something we’ve been a leader on as a state,” he said. “We have to make sure we don’t fall behind again.”

Looming over the Legislature’s plans this year is the possibility of an economic downturn. Its fiscal and policy advisory office estimates a $24 billion budget deficit, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is set to unveil his preliminary spending plan next week, has also been urging caution for months.

Legislative leaders are projecting optimism about California’s ability to weather any revenue shortfalls, pointing to the tens of billions of dollars that now sit in state reserves. Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat who leads the Senate budget committee, said that while it may not be the time to create any more new programs, California’s finances are sound.

“With the type of surplus we had last year,” nearly $50 billion that was mostly directed to one-time expenditures over the next several years, Skinner said, “we have the space right now to make some adjustments to those if necessary.”

But if the economic picture grows gloomier in the months ahead, lawmakers may be forced to downsize their boldest policy ideas.

Sen. Susan Eggman, a Stockton Democrat, said this session was the right time to step back and examine whether new programs that the state has launched in recent years are working as intended.

“This session should be about a lot of oversight,” she said. “We still have ambitious packages, but we’re all very conscious of the price tags.”

While Newsom continues to go after the oil industry — his office published a press release last week highlighting “Big Oil’s top lies” — there have been no significant developments on his “price gouging penalty” proposal since it was formally introduced a month ago.

The details of the penalty that Newsom wants to impose on oil companies for excessive profits, not to mention the special session in which the measure is being considered, remain elusive. But Rendon said the Legislature still plans to take up the issue, even as gas prices fall, likely earlier in the year when there is more time to focus on it.

“Regardless of what happens with gas prices, it’s a good opportunity to ask the questions that we’ve been wanting to ask for a while of oil companies,” he said. “Their profits are staggering.”

Having the most diverse Legislature in history doesn’t mean much without that representation translating into policy.

Some new lawmakers are already making attempts to do that. 

Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a doctor and Democrat from Bakersfield, has introduced a bill that she says represents the concerns of her district: a task force to address fentanyl addiction in the Central Valley. That involves ensuring access to healthcare, addiction and rehabilitation services — and getting fentanyl off the streets, she said. 

“I think the biggest reality that we see up in here in Sacramento is a failure of the Legislature to actively control our drug problem, our drug crisis,” she said. “In California, I don’t think very many people understand how bad the problem is, with exposure to things like fentanyl on the streets.”

Assemblymember Corey Jackson, the first openly gay Black legislator, said his top priorities include addressing mental health and continuing to learn lessons from the pandemic, such as the importance of childcare. The Democrat from the Riverside area introduced a bill to create an Affordable California Commission, tasked with tackling the state’s high cost of living. 

“I come from a working class community. The 60th Assembly District are people who are just trying to survive every day,” he said. “And I wanted to send the message: ‘It is not okay just to survive. You deserve to thrive.’” 

Jackson also plans to tackle what he expects will be a rise in racism and xenophobia ahead of the 2024 election. 

“I intend to take an active role in rooting out racism, even in the very structures and even in the chambers of the state legislature itself,” he said. “Stay tuned, because there’s going to be a whole legislative package on anti-racism and systemic racism.”

Like Jackson, new state Sen. Caroline Menjivar also plans to address mental health. She has introduced a bill to prioritize more full-time counselors to Cal State campuses who can help the diverse student populations. 

Public transportation and infrastructure are other key areas for her. She notes that in her San Fernando area district, it floods frequently — and typically in the areas where people of color live. 

“A lot of what I speak to comes from lived experiences,” Menjivar said. “You know, when we talk about the lack of affordable housing, it’s my mom who has been on a waiting list for over five years, right. So these are issues that are personal to me.”

While the November elections are largely a wrap, one seat remains contested: Democratic Sen. Melissa Hurtado’s Central Valley seat in District 16.

It was a close vote — the second closest legislative contest (based on percentages) in California history, said Alex Vassar, communications manager for the California State Library. 

Hurtado, the incumbent, was sworn into office on Dec. 10 after eking out a 20-vote victory. Republican David Shepard formally requested a recount on Dec. 13. 

That involves recounting ballots from Fresno, Kern, Kings and Tulare counties. Initial results from Fresno, Kern and Tulare counties showed Hurtado holding on to her seat: Shepard gained just two votes in Fresno County, two in Kings and three in Tulare.

After Shepard’s campaign requested a recount in about 20% of Kern County, Hurtado has now asked for a recount of some remaining portions. While a recount can be requested for just part of a county, a second recount can’t be requested for the same portions. 

If Shepard were to pull off a win, though, it wouldn’t change anything Hurtado has done since being sworn in, Vassar said.

“She is a fully active seated member. All of her votes are being cast as a member,” he said. “Just like if someone were to resign — everything they’ve done still stands.” 

(CalMatters.org)

ONE IN EIGHT CASES OF ASTHMA IN US KIDS CAUSED BY GAS STOVE POLLUTION

Emission of toxic chemicals and carcinogens from gas stoves creating indoor pollution worse than car traffic

About one in eight cases of asthma in children in the US is due to the pollution given off by cooking on gas stoves, new research has found, amid moves by Joe Biden’s administration to consider the regulation, or even banning, of gas cookers sales to Americans.

Around a third of US households have gas stoves in their kitchens, with the gas industry long touting the method as the cleanest and most efficient way to cook food.

However, research has repeatedly found the emission of toxic chemicals and carcinogens from gas stoves, even when they are turned off, is creating a miasma of indoor pollution that can be several times worse than the pollution experienced outdoors from car traffic and heavy industry.

A new study has now sketched out the risk being posed to children exposed to pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide that spew from the stoves, finding that 12.7% of all current cases of childhood asthma in the US are due to the use of gas stoves.

Researchers said that this means that with around 5 million children in the US experiencing asthma, around 650,000 people aged under 18 could be suffering asthma attacks and having to use inhalers because of the presence of gas stoves in their homes.…

theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/06/us-kids-asthma-gas-stove-pollution

IT IS NOT QUITE CLEAR under my lens yet. I would understand it better -- strangely enough -- if I could give it a name. If anti-Semitism is the Bolshevism of fools, as Bebel said, this could be the socialism of the rich. Create an all-powerful state (but don't touch the stock exchange!). Let it get fat on the sweat of the workers, urged on by hunger and truncheons, then cream the profit off into your own corporations. Everybody is equal -- at the bottom. To cover this crime, distract the populace with Roman shows and triumphs, constant infusions of jingoism, racism, rhetoric and lies, unity of all classes and creeds against the enemy without and the enemy within. An asylum with the most spectacular madmen in control of the drugged and cowed mass of inmates for the final benefit of the shareholders who live outside the walls. What a vision of purgatory! This may be what we must prevent getting ahead of us over the rest of the century. We on the left have spent too much time, are doing so now, fighting the enemies of the past. The Tsar has gone, never to return. His replacement will be republicans of humble origin. Well, I can already see them. Kornilov and Kerensky for a start.

Counterrevolution counts on succeeding just because the Revolution has not yet succeeded. Its appeal is that it will be everything the Revolution will not be. Its propagandists have a relatively easy task. Tell us what you hate and we will show it to you, in the plans the reds. Tell us what you hate and we will promise to kill it or cure it. Workers who won't work? Soldiers who won't fight? Jews? -- all the Reds are Jews! Non-Russians, Kalmuks, Tatas, Asiatics? — look at Lenin's eyes! Relics of Tsarism? We will sweep away all restrictions on free enterprise, property development, extension of modern technology to the land! Enrichissez-vous encore, bis!

— Lenin, as channeled by Alan Brien

YOU'LL NEVER GET CHANGE as long as propagandists are able to convince a critical mass of people not to push for change. You'll never stop depraved agendas as long as propagandists can manipulate a critical mass of people into consenting to those agendas. Propaganda is enemy #1.

Every other solution people talk about is secondary to the problem of the empire being able to psychologically manipulate a critical majority of people. Voting strategies, organizing, activism, protests, none of these things will get off the ground as long as public perception is controlled.

The good news is that public trust in the mass media is at an all-time low while our ability to share unauthorized ideas and information with each other is at an all-time high. The bad news is it still hasn't been enough, and online censorship is increasingly suppressing dissent.

So we need to get moving. What we need to do is work to exacerbate public distrust in imperial media and help people to see they're being continually deceived about their nation, their government and their world by the powerful. Propaganda only works if people trust the source.

This is the front line of the revolution. Everything else comes second, because until you deal with the fact that our enemy has the most powerful narrative control machine in the history of civilization, none of your other revolutionary ideals will ever be able to manifest. The imperial spin machine should therefore be our primary target. Attack the empire's news media and its manipulators in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, expose their lies, and weaken public trust in those institutions so that people can no longer be manipulated by them.

Every positive change in human behavior — whether individual or collective — is always preceded by an expansion of consciousness. All we need to do is expand public consciousness of what's really happening. The more people wake up, the more people will be available to help us.

— Caitlin Johnstone

BIDEN TO DEMOCRATS: NOMINATE ME, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

By Norman Solomon

With 2023 underway, Democrats in office are still dodging the key fact that most of their party’s voters don’t want President Biden to run for re-election. Among prominent Democratic politicians, deference is routine while genuine enthusiasm is sparse. Many of the endorsements sound rote. Late last month, retiring senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont came up with this gem: “I want him to do whatever he wants. If he does, I’ll support him.”

Joe Biden keeps saying he intends to be the Democratic nominee in 2024. Whether he will be is an open question — and progressives should strive to answer it with a firm No. The next presidential election will be exceedingly grim if all the Democratic Party can offer as an alternative to the neofascist Republican Party is an incumbent who has so often served corporate power and consistently serves the military-industrial complex.

The Biden administration has taken some significant antitrust steps to limit rampant monopolization. But overall realities are continuing to widen vast economic inequalities that are grist for the spinning mill of pseudo-populist GOP demagogues. Meanwhile, President Biden rarely conveys a sense of urgency or fervent discontent with present-day social conditions. Instead, he routinely comes off as “status-quo Joe.”

For the future well-being of so many millions of people, and for the electoral prospects of the Democratic Party in 2024, representing the status quo invites cascading disasters. A few months ago, Bernie Sanders summed up this way: “The most important economic and political issues facing this country are the extraordinary levels of income and wealth inequality, the rapidly growing concentration of ownership, the long-term decline of the American middle class and the evolution of this country into oligarchy.”

Interviewed days ago, Sanders said: “It pains me very, very much that we’re seeing more and more working-class people voting Republican. Politically, that is a disaster, and Democrats have to recognize that serious problem and address it.”

But President Biden doesn’t seem to recognize the serious problem, and he fails to address it.

During the last two years, domestic policy possibilities have been curbed by Biden’s frequent and notable refusals to use the power of the presidency for progress. He did not issue many of the potential executive orders that could have moved the country forward despite Senate logjams. At the same time, “bully pulpit” advocacy for workers’ rights, voter rights, economic justice, climate action and much more has been muted or nonexistent.

Biden seems unable or unwilling to articulate a social-justice approach to such issues. As for the continuing upward spike in Pentagon largesse while giving human needs short shrift, Biden was full of praise for the record-breaking, beyond-bloated $858 billion military spending bill that he signed in late December.

While corporate media’s reporters and pundits are much more inclined to critique his age than his policies, what makes Biden most problematic for so many voters is his antiquated political approach. Running for a second term would inevitably cast Biden as a defender of current conditions — in an era when personifying current conditions is a heavy albatross that weighs against electoral success.

A Hart Research poll of registered voters in November found that only 21 percent said the country was “headed in the right direction” while 72 percent said it was “off on the wrong track.” As the preeminent symbol of the way things are, Biden is all set to be a vulnerable standard-bearer in a country where nearly three-quarters of the electorate say they don’t like the nation’s current path.

But for now anyway, no progressive Democrat in Congress is willing to get into major trouble with the Biden White House by saying he shouldn’t run, let alone by indicating a willingness to challenge him in the early 2024 primaries. Meanwhile, one recent poll after another showed that nearly 60 percent of Democrats don’t want Biden to run again. A New York Times poll last summer found that a stunning 94 percent of Democrats under 30 years old would prefer a different nominee.

Although leaning favorably toward Biden overall, mass-media coverage has occasionally supplied the kind of candor that Democratic officeholders have refused to provide on the record. “The party’s relief over holding the Senate and minimizing House losses in the midterms has gradually given way to collective angst about what it means if Biden runs again,” NBC News reported days before Christmas.

Conformist support from elected Democrats for another Biden campaign reflects a shortage of authentic representation on Capitol Hill. The gap is gaping, for instance, between leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the constituency — the progressive base — they claim to represent. In late November, CPC chair Pramila Jayapal highlighted the gap when she went out of her way to proclaim that “I believe he should run for another term and finish this agenda we laid out.”

Is such leadership representing progressives to the establishment or the other way around?

(Norman Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, where he coordinates ExposeFacts. Solomon is a co-founder of RootsAction.org.)

MCEWEN CHALLENGE #2: Name the Knight

UKRAINE, FRIDAY, 6TH JANUARY

The Kremlin on Thursday announced a 36-hour cease-fire in Ukraine to mark the Eastern Orthodox Christmas, which would be the broadest truce by far since Russia invaded in February. But Ukraine’s leaders dismissed the idea as cynical posturing by a ruthless and untrustworthy enemy.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered the cease-fire, from noon Friday until midnight Saturday, the Kremlin and the Defense Ministry said in separate statements. “Given that a large number of citizens practicing Orthodoxy resides in the areas of hostilities, we call on the Ukrainian side to announce a cease-fire and give them an opportunity to attend services on Christmas Eve and the day of Christ’s birth,” the Kremlin said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine responded with derision in his nightly video message, though he did not explicitly rule out the idea. After switching from speaking Ukrainian to Russian to address the Russian people directly, he spoke of those who “sent all of your people to be slaughtered” and “do not strive for peace.”

“Now they want to use Christmas as a cover” to pause Ukrainian advances “and bring equipment, ammunition and mobilized troops closer to our positions,” he said. “Everyone in the world knows how the Kremlin uses lulls in the war to continue the war with new force,” he added.