Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023

Clearing | Goose | Boylan Undeserving | Spaghetti Dinner | Water Rates | Senior Night | AVUSD News | Heart Health | MCHCD Requests | Inspirational Chief | Ed Notes | Tree House | JDSF Applications | Celebrating Women | Help Pebbles | Elijah Frost | Dandelions | Recovery Centers | Wine Walk | Necessary DUI | Yesterday's Catch | Fish Gone | Bird Breath | Unchecked Bureaucracy | Dying Ideal | Trust Petitions | Puritan Valentines | Corporate Power | Social Security | One Recipient | Hecklers Lose | Mixed Up | BarkHaus | Pelosi Reactions | Spay/Neuter | Intelligently Stupid | Housing Issues | German Balloon | Marco Radio | Vintage Valentines | Superfan | Top Heavy | Foundered | Spruce | Ukraine | Bowing | WWIII | Bolivian | Devastation | Today | Stained Glass

LIGHT SHOWERS will exit the area by late this morning. Gusty north winds will continue through the day. Offshore flow will allow for clear, calm, and generally warm weather Sunday. Much colder weather is on tap next week with possible low elevation snow. (NWS)

BOYLAN? NO. UNDESERVING

Dear Committee,

As a longtime Northern California journalist and a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists, I was dismayed to read of the pending Madison award to attorney Paul Nicholas Boylan.

While Mr. Boylan is applauded in some quarters for his work on access to public records, his role in a local controversy involving the nationwide sex cult One Taste, and its leadership's involvement with a so-called 'prison monastery' project which was implemented on a trial basis at the Mendocino County Jail in my mind compromises his widely touted standing. Sheriff Matt Kendall wisely severed ties with the prison monastery program after the link was publicly revealed by local public radio news reporters.  

In turn, Mr. Boylan, representing the local prison project coordinator, trashed the news reporters and demanded a correction and/or retraction. His letter was widely circulated by his clients.

In part, Mr. Boylan's letter reads: "Never in all my years of working with reporters have I ever encountered a more heinous example of bad, irresponsible, sensationalist, tabloid misuse of journalistic power and privilege."

Later it was learned Mr. Boylan was engaged in questionable litigation to prevent Netflix from releasing its own documentary on One Taste and related activities.

I worked for 28 years with The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, a New York Times-owned regional newspaper. I am professionally and personally appalled that Mr. Boylan is being honored with one of the most prestigious awards in journalism.

How can the Society of Professional Journalists turn a blind eye to Mr. Boylan’s hired gun approach, smearing the reputation of hard-working reporters, and taking extraordinary steps to block the release of a documentary? 

Mike Geniella, mgeniella@gmail.com

BOONVILLE WATER & WASTEWATER RATE STRUCTURES CONSIDERED

(From the Minutes of the AV Community Services District Special Board meeting on January 25, 2023)

Presentation of Rate Construction Methodology Recommended by Consultant (Brelje & Race). Provide Direction to Consultant Regarding Allocation of Cost (Operations, Maintenance and Replacement) When Establishing Monthly Base Rate and Water Usage Charge. General Discussion of Impact on Rates Associated with Various Levels of Non-Participation by Residentially Developed Properties. A presentation of possible rate structures for the Drinking Water project was given by Jack Locey, Engineer from Brelje and Race. The purpose of the Board’s initial discussion about rate structure was to give direction to Jack so that he could develop a range of possible rates to include in our public outreach letter to the parcel owners in the Drinking Water boundary. 

After reviewing the information the Board’s straw vote was to structure the rates, which include base rate and water usage fees, in such a way that a percentage collected would cover ongoing administration expenses (both fixed and variable) with another percentage going toward short and long-term asset replacement funding. While an actual rate structure was not chosen at this time, the Board directed Jack to return with specifics once we get our surveys returned so that we can consider actual numbers. 

A letter and survey was approved to be sent out to the [Boonville] parcel owners by RCAC (Rural Communities Assistance Corporation), the agency hired by the State to assist us with public outreach. RCAC is tasked with following up and contacting parcel owners to get 100% of the surveys returned.

A panel meeting is being scheduled the first week of March at the Fairgrounds in the evening so that parcel owners in the boundary can get information and ask questions. The possible participants are State Dept of Financing, RCAC, SAFER, AVCSD, AV Fire Chief, Brelje and Race, District 3 Waterboard, and County Planning and Health Agencies. The date will depend on the availability of panel members and is still to be decided, but hopefully will be either March 7 or 9^th at 7 pm at the Fairgrounds Dining Room. 

SENIOR NIGHT, Thursday night (Renee Lee, Director, AV Senior Center)

AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

I hope you are doing well.

We have a Public Health Department update regarding when to keep your students at home. Please do not send your students to school when they exhibit the following:

• 100.4 Fever or greater

• Persistent coughing (not related to asthma or known allergies)

• Pus on the face or generalized rash

• Vomiting

• Have tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 5 days

We have an absenteeism problem in this valley and it is hurting our budget to spend on kids. Every day a kid is absent it costs $72 a day. If a student misses five days a month that is a loss in income of $360 for programs for kids. Do we want kids to stay home if they are sick? Heck, yes! Do we want them to stay home because they want to sleep in or avoid work? No. Help us, help your kid by getting them to school. School is a precursor to a job. If a kid can’t get to school, they won’t be successful at work. 

Take our parent/guardian survey:

It takes a minute to load and there is a Spanish option:

Parents/guardians:

Anderson Valley Elementary: https://wested.ugam-apps.com/wed/ts/v0ul

Anderson Valley Junior-Senior High: https://wested.ugam-apps.com/wed/ts/i5fw

We have a big WASC visit coming up at the high school. Some great stuff on the Highlights page. Take a look: WASC Hub. Thank you to the Junior/Senior High team for this great collaboration under the direction of Julie Honegger. Join us for the visit if you can!

The elementary site has done an outstanding job on their ELA adoption. Benchmark was approved by the board on Tuesday night. The High School is finishing a math and science adoption. Samples will be available at the honor roll, ELAC, and College and Career Fair Dinners.

Important dates:

Junior/Senior High School Honor roll Monday at 5:00 High School Gym

District ELAC Dinner Thursday 2/16 at 5:30 at High School Cafeteria

District College and Career Fair Grades 4th-12th at High School February 28 at 5:00 at High School

We have a huge state visit next Friday to press our case for facility funding. Thank you to all of the folks that put on that political heat. Let’s see where we go.

We are pressing our complaint with CIF regarding gate fees. We are a small district, but we could have a big impact with this policy request. Sometimes fighting a lion is worth it because it is the right thing to do for all kids.

It was so great to see so many of our elementary and secondary families celebrating basketball in the gym. With no gate fees, that is a great family night out. Support our teams and have some fun!

On a very happy note, shout out to Beth Swehla:

Congratulations to Ms. Swehla!

She has been awarded the North Coast Region Golden Owl Award! This award is given to agricultural educators who devote countless hours, and often their own resources, to positively impact the lives of their students. Ms. Swehla was anonymously nominated for this award. She will go on to represent our school and region at the state level in March!

Have a great weekend!

NOTE TO MENDO COAST HEALTH DISTRICT BOARD, from a participant:

Please tell me how to access recordings of your meetings and can you make better audio during zoom. Way too much noise from paper shuffling etc. To say nothing on the conduct of first parts of meetings and hugely wasted time bickering. And when will you all begin keeping scheduled times in the district office so the public can interact and contribute beyond the meetings? I recall you all stating during candidates forum that you expected to be putting in approximately 20 hours a week doing district biz. Thanks. 

Skip Taube

Fort Bragg

MIKE GENIELLA: Chief Cervenka is a welcome addition to Mendocino County law enforcement leadership circles. Congrats!

* * *

Chief Cervenka Receives Award 

Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka was presented with the Hank Koehn Memorial Award for Most Inspirational Student at a recent conference held by the Law Enforcement Command College Program. The Chief is very deserving of this high honor, given through the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). 

The Law Enforcement Command College is a 14-month program designed to prepare law enforcement leaders of today for the challenges of the future. The program focuses on development of strategic foresight, strategies to identify emerging issues, proactive responses, trend analysis, methods and benefits of stakeholder engagement, procedural justice and the impact of social systems on a global society. 

We know the Fort Bragg community is as proud as we are of our Police Chief. Please join us in congratulating Chief Cervenka for receiving this award. 

(Fort Bragg Presser)

ED NOTES

RECOMMENDED VIEWING, especially if you have children going off to their first year of college after 18 years of safe, comfortable, rigorously supervised parental indulgence, “Stolen Youth, Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence,” this doc should be of special interest to you. 

SARAH LAWRENCE has its detractors, described by a disillusioned parent this way: “If you are a liberal, communist, socialist, atheist, queer, or anarchist, you'll find a group of likeminded people here. Sarah Lawrence is a liberal haven, but there are a fair number of conservatives. The population tends to come from SLC's reputation as a hippie-arts school, as well as its proximity to New York City." 

WHICH SEEMS UNFAIR given that the same could be said of any liberal arts school; besides which, college, the theory goes, is a time to be young and free and exposed to all kinds of screwballs, not including the faculties. I'm sure Oral Roberts University has its share of pervs and predators among its young MAGAS.

AT A SCHOOL charging $61,000 a year where your 19-year-old heirs and heiresses live on campus, mom and pop could ordinarily assume at least minimal supervision from the school authorities, that a 50-year-old man just out of prison, who moved into campus coed housing with his student-daughter, would promptly get thrown out. Nope, this character, wowing the kids with bullshit about his fantasy life with national big shots, proceeds to make cult-zombies and prostitutes out of several of the kids, although two of their alert roommates had immediately and accurately assessed “Larry” as a predatory creep. It's a shocking but fascinating saga in three episodes on Hulu.

THE GOOD COACHING test is simple: Are teams better at the end of the season than they were at the outset? By that standard, Boonville High School is blessed. Coach Toohey's inexperienced football team was a lot better than when they began their season. Luis Espinoza's varsity basketball team was a lot better by the end of their schedule, as proven Friday night when they gave league-leading Mendocino all the visiting Cardinals could handle in the Boonville gym. Our girl's team, fast and scrappy as they are, was out-matched in their final game by yet another edition of Mendocino's Amazonian ladies going back to the early 1970s when the size of Mendocino High School's lady athletes was the talk of the league. Fifty years later, same-same. They grow 'em big out there in the fog belt.

TONS OF CASUAL SLURS drift down out of cyber-space round the clock. I was intrigued by this one: "City of Fort Bragg dumps raw sewage into Pudding Creek every year. The fine is cheaper than upgrading the system to handle the volume. Don’t eat bottom fish caught near the mouth of Pudding Creek. I’ve never seen so many worms in a fish."

CHECKING with Fort Bragg's mayor Bernie Norvell, the mayor promptly asked Fort Bragg's Director of Public Works, John Smith, to respond to the anon fisherman's unfounded canard: “We’ve not had a spill at Pudding Creek since we had the cease-and-desist order back in, I think, 2007. This is when we moved the sewer force main onto the Pudding Creek bridge. The line used to run under the creek. The line on the bridge has secondary containment to prevent spills. We would have had spills before we moved the line to the bridge.”

MY BODY, MY TEMPLE DEPARTMENT: Red Sox outfielder (and pinch hitter) Bernie Carbo on his game prep for the 1975 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, in which he hit two pinch hit home runs, including a grand slam: “I probably smoked two joints, drank about three or four beers, got to the ballpark, took some speed, took a pain pill, drank a cup of coffee, chewed some tobacco, had a cigarette, and got up to the plate and hit.”

DUST CONTROL & FIRE PROTECTION AT JDSF

(State Water Resources Control Board)

Notice of Water Right Applications A032122 and A033066

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has filed two applications to appropriate water by permit with the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board), Division of Water Rights. The project associated with the applications is in Mendocino County and would divert water from the Noyo River, Big River, Caspar Creek, and Hare Creek stream systems.

Summary of Water Right Application A032122

Date of Filing: The application was filed with the State Water Board on June 13, 2013.

Source of Water: The sources of water are North Fork Caspar Creek and South Fork Caspar Creek, which are tributary to Caspar Creek thence the Pacific Ocean.

Amount: The maximum amount of water requested for diversion is 1.987 acre-feet per year to be diverted at a maximum rate of 5,480 gallons per day.

Season of Diversion: The season for diversion of water is from April 1 to November 15 of each year.

Points of Diversion: Water will be diverted from two points:

The first point is located at North 2,262,380 feet and East 6,070,955 feet by California Coordinate System, Zone 2, North American Datum 1983, within the Northeast quarter of the Southeast quarter of Section 3, Township 17 North, Range 17 West, Mount Diablo Base and Meridian.

The second point is located at North 2,254,882 feet and East 6,065,848 feet by California Coordinate System, Zone 2, North American Datum 1983, within the Northeast quarter of the Northeast quarter of Section 16, Township 17 North, Range 17 West, Mount Diablo Base and Meridian.

Purpose of Use: *The purpose of use for water is dust control and fire protection. *

Place of Use: The place of use for water is 48,652 acres within the Jackson State Demonstration Forest shown on map dated October 14, 2019 on file with the State Water Board.

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/applications/notices/

If you have any questions regarding the applications, please contact Mark Matranga at mark.matranga@waterboards.ca.gov.

PEBBLES NEEDS HELP

As of today, Pebbles is safe but in a temporary living situation & has a loving local community rallying around her. Her home is uninhabitable. Her health has deteriorated. One emergency after another has drained her savings. As a radical spirit, as independent as they come, residing off-grid for decades, she is now in need of assistance. (Dobie Dolphin)

gofundme.com/f/new-campaign-for-your-old-friend-pebbles-trippet

MALCOLM MACDONALD: 

One of my favorite succinct newspaper stories concerned a native of Little Lake in Mendocino County. This brief notice ran in the mid-1870s within the Marysville Daily Appeal: "Elijah Frost has suspended the business of horse stealing in Shasta county, and retired to San Quentin for four years."

The fate of Elijah Frost after he ended his respite at San Quentin is at the core of Chapter Eight, "The Bridge," in my book Mendocino History Exposed.

Not too far south from that bridge, in the heart of Willits (182 S. Main St.), you can purchase Mendocino History Exposed at the Book Juggler. Give them a call at 707-459-4075 to make sure Mendocino History Exposed hasn't sold out again.

FEMA TO HOST DISASTER RECOVERY CENTERS In Point Arena And Willits For Residents Impacted By 2022-2023 Winter Storms Disaster

Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC) and Mobile Registration Intake Centers (MRIC) are opening in Mendocino County on February 11^th, 2023. Residents who were affected by severe storms and flooding can register, update their FEMA applications, and learn about state and community programs and other available assistance at the centers.

The Centers in Mendocino County are located at:

Point Arena City Hall 451 School Street Point Arena, CA 95468 Hours of Operation: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily	MRIC site on 2/11/2023 and 2/12/2023. Transition to full DRC from 2/13/2o23 to 2/17/2023 Revert to MRIC Site from 2/18/2023 to 2/24/2023
Willits Branch Library, Rear Parking Lot 390 East Commercial Street Willits, CA 95490Hours of Operation: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily	MRIC Site ONLY 2/11/2023 to 2/17/2023This site will close on 2/18/2023 and a full DRC is to be opened at the Willits Community Center from 2/18/2023 to 2/24/2023. Please see box below for additional details.
Willits Community Center 111 East Commercial Street Willits, CA 95490 Hours of Operation: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily	Full DRC from 2/18/2023 to 2/24/2023.This site will NOT be open from 2/11/2023 to 2/17/2023, please visit the Willits Branch Library Parking lot for assistance at the MRIC Site during that time period.

Specialists at the recovery center can clarify information you received from FEMA or other agencies; they can explain the rental assistance available to homeowners and renters; and they can fax your requested documents to a FEMA processing center and scan or copy new information or documents needed for case files.

Residents who had uninsured or underinsured damage and losses resulting from the severe storms and flooding are encouraged to apply to FEMA, although you do not need to visit a Disaster Recovery Center to apply.

Here are other ways to apply:

Go to DisasterAssistance.gov, use the FEMA mobile app or call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362. If you use video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA the number for that service. Helpline operators are available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Press 2 for Spanish. Press 3 for an interpreter who speaks your language.

For an accessible video on how to apply, go to youtube.com/watch?v=WZGpWI2RCNw.

*Please note the different services available at DRC and MRIC Sites: 

Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC): DRCs offer in-person support to individuals and small business owners. Recovery specialists from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and the State are available to assist survivors. DRCs can:

Provide assistance with filling out applications.

Update the status of a survivor’s application.

Provide referral services to voluntary organizations who offer a variety of services to survivors.

Provide access to the U.S. Small Business Administration for loan help and customer service.

Mobile Registration Intake Center (MRIC):The sole function of MRICs is to register survivors. MRICs move around regularly and may be in an area for a short period of time to reach survivors who need registration help only. 

Staffed by FEMA personnel to assist with registration and answer questions about disaster assistance programs.

SBA will not be present at an MRIC.

Survivors are encouraged to file insurance claims for damage to their homes, personal property, businesses, and vehicles before they apply for FEMA assistance. 

In addition to visiting an MRIC, the easiest way to apply is online at DisasterAssistance.gov. Survivors may also call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362 (TTY 800-462-7585) from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. PT, seven days a week. Multi-lingual operators are available. If they use a relay service, such as a videophone, InnoCaption or CapTel, give FEMA the number for that service. Specialists at the intake center can also provide referrals to community, state and federal agencies. No appointment is needed to visit any center.

(County Presser)

UKIAH GOES INTERNATIONAL (From The Daily Mail)

A California man won his DUI case after he justified that drunk driving was necessary to 'escape two angry women' after his wife caught him cheating on her. 

Thomas Patrick Houston, 60, of Ukiah, found his case in the Mendocino County Superior Court on February 3 after he was charged with two DUI misdemeanors in August 2022. 

His lawyer, Albert J Kubanis, argued Thomas drove at a 0.11 BAC out of 'necessity' because he was 'being attacked by two angry women, one of whom was his wife,' court documents revealed. 

Houston's wife Lara, 61, had found him in bed with another woman, their neighbor, Ann Landauer, and a dispute started. Thomas and his wife were 'temporarily living apart due to martial difficulties,' the court documents, viewed by DailyMail.com, said. 

Landauer had been housing her llamas on the couple's land, called the McNab Ranch, when she contacted Lara to inform her 'she would like to visit to check on her llamas,' which Lara set up through her husband. 

Upon Ann's arrival at the ranch, she suggested she go pick up alcohol for the two of them and the pair hopped in her truck to Hopland to buy some. After returning to the ranch, they became intoxicated and then engaged in sexual activity. 

The home is equipped with surveillance footage available on Lara's phone. The first time she checked it, she discovered her estranged husband and neighbor drinking. But after checking it a second time, she noticed the house was quiet. 

Lara then drove to the residence and found the pair 'engaged in sexual activity' in the guest bedroom. 

Court documents reveal that Ann was 'completely nude,' while Thomas was found wearing a 't-shirt and boxer shorts' with his 'head between Ann's legs.' Upon noticing Lara in the room, they 'jumped out of bed.' 

Lara flew into a rage and began 'pummeling Tommy with her hands.' Ann approached the other woman while Thomas ran out of the room toward his truck. 

Both women eventually became enraged at Thomas and raced outside, where Ann began to throw gravel at him and his truck. 

Kubanis argued that Thomas was 'forced to leave his residence under duress, causing him to drive while intoxicated.'

He then drove 200 yards away before pulling over and quickly falling asleep. Hours later, he would be arrested by the Sheriff's Office and California Highway Patrol for appearing 'intoxicated' at 2.10am. 

Thomas pleaded not guilty in September and was acquitted in a four-day jury trial.

DailyMail.com contacted the Houstons for comment, but they deferred to their lawyer Albert J Kubanis. DailyMail.com has attempted to reach him for comment. 

The Mendocino County District Attorney's Office revealed on their Facebook that he won the use through the 'act of necessity,' which is justified under the law. 

In order to prevail under the act of necessity, one must prove: 

'1. He acted in an emergency to prevent significant bodily harm or evil to himself or someone else. 

'2. He had no adequate legal alternative.

'3. The defendant’s driving under the influence and/or with a blood alcohol of .11/.11 did not create a greater danger than the one avoided. 

'4. When the defendant acted, he actually believed that the act of driving under the influence and/or with a blood alcohol of .11/.11 was necessary to prevent the threatened harm or evil. 

'5. A reasonable person would also have believed that driving under the influence and/or with a blood alcohol of .11/.11 was necessary under the circumstances.

'6. The defendant did not substantially contribute to the emergency.' the DA's Office said. 

(dailymail.co.uk)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, February 10, 2023

ARIANA ARNOLD, Hopland. Domestic battery, false imprisonment.

MYQ ATTANASIO, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

YECSON DELAHERRAN-RIVERA, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

DAVID DORMAN, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

EDWARD ESQUIVEL JR., Willits. Mandatory supervision violation.

CHRISTOPHER FLORES, Laytonville. Domestic battery, battery with serious injury.

ARMANDO HERNANDEZ-CAMARGO, Covelo. Felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, controlled substance for sale, failure to appear.

TERRY HOUSER, Eureka. Unspecified felony-s/a not eligible.

LUCAS JONES, Willits. DUI.

BRADLEY MCCARTNEY, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

SRYAN OKERSTROM, Willits. Failure to appear.

WILLIAM POWELL, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, failure to appear, probation revocation.

FRANK SAMBAD, Windsor/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance, paraphernalia. 

HEATHER SCHMIDT, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

BRANDON SMITH, Ukiah. Domestic battery, controlled substance.

WHERE HAVE THE FISH GONE? (an on-line comment): The connection between the community and the fish has indeed been lost. I was taught about the fish by dozens of expert fly fisherman who cared deeply and constantly tried to get the DFW of California to be more proactive. To no avail! Now the fish are gone. The sole hatchery is at half capacity. The rearing ponds on the eel and its tributaries are gone. The pot growers suck its low summer flows dry and phosphates and poisons contaminate the meager flows. The DFW does nothing about the massive squawfish invasion that has assisted in decimating the runs.And the county board of supervisors has closed virtually every public fishing access to the rivers at the request of a few property owners as a solution to transient camps and garbage dumping, rather than preserving our legacy as they should. The fishermen have moved or travel elsewhere, to states that care and preserve public access. They have fish because they care. There are too few of us left in Humboldt and especially California that care. It’s a woke life now. I prefer to call it the asleep movement. People looking without seeing, listening without hearing. Caring without doing.

SARAH KENNEDY OWEN: 

The state wants to cut the food assistance program (which was expanded during Covid) regardless of the greatly inflated prices people are now facing both in buying groceries and paying for housing and energy to heat their homes and fill their tanks. This is untenable, as I am sure “they” (those responsible for these decisions) know well. However, the state is also in the process of spending over 4 billion dollars to build (statewide) new courthouses and jails (and jail additions such as the one here in Mendocino County). Yet Governor Newsom claims California is facing a budget shortfall this year. The new jails statewide were part of a plan to relieve pressure on state prisons, by shifting the burden of incarceration onto counties, as well as to force counties to implement better mental health, rehab, etc to keep folks out of jail in the first place. However, the counties invariably chose the new jails (and courthouses) over more complicated plans to implement recovery for so-called “criminals”. Another part of the state’s plan was for counties to revise laws so that minor crimes do not require incarceration. This idea also fell, replaced by the apparently irresistible draw of new jails. The counties failed, in other words, in all but the idea of mass incarceration. Apparently our state officials are willing to overlook this failure and allow California to build new jails exclusively. This indirectly sacrifices the well-being of law-abiding citizens who are under pressure to pay over-inflated expenses and now will not be able to afford food. It does this by overlooking basic survival needs of the main population and allowing exorbitant projects (new jails and courthouses) that only benefit the law enforcement and legal professions. They are also enabling county officials to not do their jobs efficiently and in a capable manner. All this to make way for the lazy attitude of our counties to self-benefit with fancy new courthouses and big jails to keep our troubled populace out of sight behind locked doors. This is bureaucracy at its unchecked worst.

THE REAL HORROR, to me, lies in the fact that there is absolutely no vehicle in American journalism for the kind of “sensitive” and “intellectual” and essentially moral/merciless reporting that we all understand is necessary – not only for the survival of good journalism in this country, but for the dying idea that you can walk up to a newsstand and find something that will tell you what is really happening.

— Hunter S. Thompson

TRUST PETITIONS, THE LOW HANGING GOLDEN FRUIT OF CIVIL LITIGATION Or, How The Legal System In California Encourages The Abuse Of Unsuspecting Seniors Caring For Their Sun-Setting Elder Parents.

Normally I don’t like to talk about or critique things that I am personally involved in as I don’t like to come across as a whiner. Those who agree or disagree with what I write should be able to see that I normally focus on bigger issues that have an effect on the entire community. It’s the same in this writing. I just happen to be closely involved because the legal atrocities are happening to my wife. And as her husband I am being sucked down the same sewage drain by association.

We are now two years in on a legal fight that appears to be only serving the attorneys, professional witnesses and whomever has the biggest financial backer in a stacked deck. Truth is irrelevant. Compassion is irrelevant. Service to others is irrelevant. It boils down to the Petitioners being able to fund the most notable professional to say the most damning things about the defendant, regardless of truth. Unlike a standard Unlimited Civil Suit, when a Trust Petition is filed the defendant does not have the same rights as a defendant in a Civil Suit. These lack of rights include:

• No Affirmative Defense. Nothing objectionable can be said about those filing the petition with regards to any wrongdoing they may have done. The entire case is a spotlight on the defendant. The Petitioners statements are automatically afforded more credence and the defendant is presumed guilty unless the Judge says otherwise.

• There is no availability or option of a jury in a Trust Petition. This means that the guilty defendant, until proven innocent, is entirely up to a judge that has total control in a situation where the defendant cannot bring the misdoings of the Petitioners into the proceedings.

• The language of the Trust(s) or wills is irrelevant in the proceeding. So what a Trustee thinks they may be doing correctly by following the language of a Trust can be used against them because the only language that matters is the language of the California Probate Code. This doesn’t matter if the Defendant(Trustee) believes they are doing right or not. As an example, if a Trust and Will both state that a Trustee has the discretion to make financial decisions regarding the assets of the Trust, that language is irrelevant in a Trust Petition Proceeding and if the Trustee actually does that they can be severely penalized both financially and publicly by being classified as a less than suitable caregiver for their parent(s).

All that matters is money and the extraction of that money from the Estate in the form of legal fees, and Professional witness fees whose highly paid opinions are valued by Petitioners attorney(s) and the court system.

Due Process Ala Catch 22.

There are a lot of aspects about my wife's case that make my blood boil, but the most egregious oversight or steamrolling if you prefer, is that she is being held accountable for not dispersing funds in an original Trust from 2003 that was replaced by a second restated trust in 2014 that had different specifics and beneficiaries. After being given the second restated Trust in in 2018 by the Petitioners in this action, the court decided that portions of both trusts were legitimate and the defendant should have known to sort it out even though she didn’t have a copy of the original trust and the restated Trust created in 2014 was withheld from her until 2018 when she became Trustee.. And, the language of the restated 2014 Trust stated clearly that the 2003 Trust was null and void.

I know it all sounds convoluted and it is. To hold a person accountable for something they did not or could not know and then to be tried on alleged deficiencies concurrent to the court weighing the validity of either or both Trust instruments seems to be a violation of due process. And it is.

This is as far as I am going to take this particular article. There is much more to follow in the near future. As I said, I have been hesitant to talk about things that I am personally involved in on a public forum but if this is happening to us, it’s happening to many, many more seniors and younger people who have been entrusted with the care of their parents in their sunset years. And who have or are thinking they are doing right by following the language of a living Trust.

The system can not only bite you, it can gut you with a serrated sword and you have no defense. But, the attorneys have billable hours so it’s OK. The Professional witnesses can charge as much if not more than the attorneys and be more credible than a defendants, or those that support the defendant as percipient witnesses, even though the paid Pro’s weren’t a party to any part of what the accused is going through..

This is a bigger issue than just about my wife and I. Let's discuss it.

Whatever your political persuasion, I’d like to hear your thoughts. We are all in this together. The system is broken.

Bruce Broderick 

Fort Bragg

A T.R. FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Dear Editor, 

I greatly appreciate reading your regular columnist, Jim Shields. He brings valuable information and insites to local issues while also linking them to the bigger picture.

I found Shield’s latest column especially enlightening when he quoted Republican ex-President Teddy Roosevelt saying, “The great corporations… are creatures of the State, and the State ... is duty bound to control them whenever need of such control is shown.”

T.R followed those words with action; he broke up the giant oil and railroad monopolies, and became a very popular president for doing so.

Similar action is needed today, since a few giant corporations have monopolistic control over energy, drug, meat, media and other industries. This allows them to set high prices and earn huge profits at the expense of us consumers.

This has created an ever-growing wealth gap between the rich and the rest of us, resulting in inflation-adjusted workers’ wages stagnating during the last forty years while corporate owners have increasingly obscene incomes and wealth.

In the century since T.R.’s trust-busting, we’ve lost “control” of corporations because they have poured vast sums into buying media, many politicians and court judges who protect Big Business from the controls that average citizens need.

The Republican Party is the mouthpiece for giant corporations while Biden and the progressive Democrats are working to reduce corporate power and advance ordinary citizens’ interests. During the 2018 elections, around 185 Democratic candidates like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agreed not to take corporate PAC money, while only two Republicans took that pledge. Which party’s side are you on?

Tom Wodetzki

Albion

BART PAID $350,000 FOR A 2-YEAR HOMELESS PROGRAM. IT SERVED ONE PERSON.

Three years since BART and the Salvation Army rolled out a $350,000 program to tackle surging homelessness on trains, the results are in: One person received services during the life of the contract, according to a recent report from BART's inspector general. (SF Chronicle)

IT’S PRETTY HARD to get outplayed by a stumbling old man, lost on the teleprompter who can’t hear exactly what you’re heckling at him, but the House Republicans managed to pull it off at the State of the Union… 

— Jeffrey St. Clair

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, DEMOCRATS ARE RADICALS

by Paul Krugman

Political speeches, very much including State of the Union addresses, rarely make much difference. They can, however, be useful guides to the political landscape.

President Biden was evidently feeling feisty on Tuesday. In particular, he kept baiting Republicans with the suggestion that a number of them are threatening Medicare and Social Security — which they are.

Delivering the Republican response, Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that the United States is divided between two parties, one of which is mainly focused on bread-and-butter issues that matter to regular people, while the other is obsessed with waging culture war. This is also true. But she got her parties mixed up — Republicans, not Democrats, are the culture warriors who’ve lost touch with ordinary Americans’ concerns.

First, about Medicare and Social Security. When Biden said that “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” he was greeted with shouts of “Liar!” But last year Senator Rick Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, released a “plan to rescue America” that explicitly included as one of its reforms “All federal legislation sunsets in five years.”

Yes, a program that sunsets can be renewed. But what Biden said was true — and how sure are you that the modern G.O.P. would, in fact, vote to maintain Social Security and Medicare as they currently exist?

There’s also the matter of arithmetic. Republicans have pledged to eliminate the budget deficit within 10 years, and unless we raise taxes — which they vehemently oppose — that’s essentially impossible without drastic cuts in Medicare and Social Security.

And let’s not forget that these are programs for seniors — programs that are central to Americans’ long-term financial planning, the bedrock on which most people’s hopes for a decent, dignified retirement rest. Putting them on the chopping block every five years, even potentially, would create immense anxiety.

Hence the hysterical G.O.P. response to Biden’s claims. But those claims were entirely true.

But let’s talk about the Sanders response to Biden, which was even more revealing.

Sanders’s speech was a diatribe against wokeness. This is standard G.O.P. fare these days and exactly what you’d expect in, say, an address at the Conservative Political Action Conference. But this wasn’t a CPAC speech; it was meant to address the nation as a whole and rebut the president of the United States.

So as Greg Sargent of The Washington Post points out, it was remarkable that Sanders spoke largely in right-wing insider jargon. She boasted of eliminating C.R.T. in her state, without even explaining the abbreviation; how many Americans know that it stands for “critical race theory,” let alone why that’s supposed to be such a bad thing?

For that matter, focus groups suggest that most people don’t know what “wokeness” means, or why they should fear it.

But wait, it gets worse. Sanders seemed to say (although her syntax was a bit garbled) that woke policy was responsible for “high gas prices” and “empty grocery shelves.”

So first of all, how does that work? How did critical race theory cause a global spike in crude oil prices, which raised prices at the pump all around the world? How did it snarl supply chains and cause a worldwide shortage of shipping containers?

Second, a politician who was actually in touch with real people’s concerns would know that the examples she used to illustrate Biden’s policy failures are well past their sell-by date. Gas prices did indeed surge for a while, hitting around $5 a gallon last summer. But they’ve fallen drastically since then.

Currently, my preferred indicator of fuel affordability — the price of a gallon of gas as a percentage of the average worker’s weekly earnings — is roughly the same as the average for 2018-2019. I don’t remember Republicans howling about gas prices at the time.

And the complaint about empty shelves is even more out of date. Supply chains were very messed up a year ago, but the pressure has greatly eased since then, and while there are always a few scarce items — avian flu helped cause an egg shortage, although prices are probably heading down — complaints about empty shelves are very stale at this point.

Put it this way: Sanders’s version of the problems facing ordinary Americans seems to be based, not on any direct sense of people’s lives, but on Fox News reporting that hypes bad things under Biden and never mentions when things get better again.

Just to be clear, there are culture warriors on the left, and some of them can be annoying even to social liberals. But few have significant power, and they certainly don’t rule the Democratic Party, which isn’t locked into a closed mental universe, impervious to inconvenient facts, whose denizens communicate in buzzwords nobody else recognizes.

Republicans, however, do live in such a universe — and what Sarah Huckabee Sanders showed us was that they can’t step outside that universe even when they should have strong political incentives to sound like normal people and pretend to care about regular Americans’ concerns.

THE ATTACK ON PAUL PELOSI BROUGHT OUT THE NUTS

by Sophia Bollag

The attack on Paul Pelosi prompted a flood of vitriolic emails to San Francisco officials, many from people influenced by conspiracy theories who accused the district attorney of lying and corruption, records obtained by The Chronicle show. 

In response to a California Public Records Act request, the District Attorney’s Office released more than 150 pages of emails about the attack, most from people commenting on the office’s handling of the case. The emails, some laden with racial slurs and expletives, help illustrate the extent to which misinformation that circulated online and was shared by prominent people including former President Donald Trump and Twitter CEO Elon Musk shaped the story of the attack. 

The accused assailant, David DePape, was himself publishing erratic and unfounded claims online before he was arrested, including about election fraud, vaccines and the war in Ukraine. After officials announced that DePape broke into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fractured the skull of her 82-year-old husband with a hammer, far-right sites began spreading inaccurate theories about the incident.

Several emails complimented District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ handling of the case, but most were critical. Many accused her of lying or covering up the circumstances surrounding the attack, often citing unsupported conspiracy theories that DePape knew Paul Pelosi. Many contained links to far-right websites that promoted inaccurate information about the assault. 

Some expressed glee over the violence.

“I personally would like to give him a medal,” one emailer wrote about DePape. “That disgusting Nancy is finally getting the karma that should’ve come her way years ago.”

Others were measured, and simply asked the department to release more information.

“As a citizen of California, I see no reason why the 911 call and officer body cam can’t be released,” one wrote. “Put any doubt to rest, let the people of California and the Nation see the truth.”

Officials' initial decision not to release video footage of the attack appears to have fueled much of the skepticism and misinformation. Many of the emails alleged the withheld footage must contain evidence of misconduct.

“The cover up and corruption surrounding the incident involving Paul Pelosi is a disgrace,” one wrote. “Why is evidence being kept secret?”

Though officials initially declined to release the footage, a judge ordered that the body camera video from responding officers, as well as 911 call audio and other footage, be released after media outlets including The Chronicle sued, arguing that the footage should be public. It was released to media outlets Jan. 27. 

It’s not surprising that officials’ initial resistance to releasing the footage was seen as evidence of a cover-up, said Jason Blazakis, a professor who studies extremism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

“People who tend to imbibe in conspiracy theories want to find answers to questions they have that fit their worldview,” he said. “That absence of information fits this narrative that there was a secret conspiracy.”

The release of the footage last month, however, sparked a new round of unfounded speculation from some right-wing media figures, underscoring the extent to which misinformation around the case has been almost impossible to quash.

“You would think that transparency or providing additional information would slow down or stop conspiracy theories, but we know from experience that it doesn't,” said Kim Nalder, a professor of political science at Sacramento State. “That’s why it’s so difficult for institutions: Even when they are as transparent as possible, these things take off anyway.

Blazakis pointed to conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson’s claim that Pelosi identified DePape by his first name and called him his friend. In fact, in the audio of the 911 call released later, Pelosi says he does not know the intruder. In the background of the call, DePape can be heard saying that his name is David and that he is a friend, which Pelosi tells the dispatcher is not true. 

The promotion of false information by people like Carlson with a platform on a major network like Fox News has allowed unfounded theories to go mainstream, Blazakis said. 

“It really shouldn't be surprising to us that we have such a wide belief in conspiracy theories,” Blazakis said.

Polling by NPR/Ipsos found some disinformation has spread beyond just far-right groups like the Proud Boys or Qanon. The poll, conducted in 2020, concluded that roughly 17% of Americans believe the Qanon conspiracy that “a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media.”

While many people who emailed the D.A.’s office signed their names to their messages, others sought to conceal their identity. Some expressed doubt about the official details of the case, pointing to perceived inconsistencies and changes to the Police Department’s story, including initial confusion over who opened the door to the Pelosi home when police arrived.

Some conservative blogs seized on Police Chief Bill Scott’s comment in the immediate aftermath of the attack that someone had opened the door as evidence that there was a third person in the home. 

“The dishonesty of your office is staggering. It's amazing how the police have changed their story-telling on the Pelosi matter,” one wrote. “It's obvious that they, and you, are corrupt as Hell.”

The police footage of the incident confirms what the police and other officials have since clarified: that Pelosi was the one who opened the door, and that there was not a third person involved. 

Others echoed DePape’s own claims about why he targeted Nancy Pelosi.

“You need to immediately arrest Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi,” one wrote. “It's their own fault if Paul was actually attacked due to their illegal, immoral, and evil behavior.” 

Some people emailed many times. One man sent 13 vitriolic emails to the office in the days following the attack, some of which were heavily redacted by the District Attorney’s Office and allege that DePape was a prostitute Paul Pelosi had hired. He called Jenkins, who is Black, “colored,” and threatened her office: “when armed and dangerous homeowners come together, you basterds are in harms way.”

Randy Quezada, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, declined to comment on the DePape case.

“Prosecutors in this office are used to hearing from members of the public on all sorts of cases and do not let that interfere with their work to try cases fairly,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “They follow the law, the facts and the evidence and are not swayed or discouraged by misinformation.”

Some of the emails questioned whether the DA’s handling of the case indicated special treatment of Pelosi.

One woman accused the DA’s office of using a double standard for not charging Pelosi with “any of the crimes he committed during his drunken car crash” and argued that if he had been in jail, he would not have been beaten. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office was not involved in handling Paul Pelosi’s DUI case.

The Napa County District Attorney’s Office did prosecute Pelosi after his Porsche collided with a Jeep in Napa in May 2022. He served two days in jail and faces three years of probation after pleading guilty to driving under the influence. He was sentenced in August. 

One long screed filled with racial slurs seemed to accuse Apple of bribing DePape to attack Pelosi, and also claimed the company was behind an exhaustive list of high-profile news events, from Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith at the Oscars to the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

One emailer claimed the attack was orchestrated by the CIA. Another questioned whether Nancy Pelosi staged the attack to get back at her husband for his DUI.

Several emailers blamed Republican members of Congress and other conservative voices like Carlson for inciting the violence against Pelosi. But more argued that Democrats had “staged” the attack.

The Police Department released some similar emails. 

One person claimed DePape’s social media was updated to make him seem conservative after the incident by “your corrupt buddies in the FBI.” 

“You truly are psychotic,” he wrote. “You’re just humiliating yourselves.”

Other emails were more cordial. 

“Can you please tell me who opened the front door for police, after they knocked on the front door of the Pelosi residence in the early morning of 10/28/22?” The email noted Scott’s comment during a news conference that the front door was opened by “someone inside.” 

“Any information to tidy up this missing piece of the event will be greatly appreciated,” the emailer wrote.

(SF Chronicle)

THE MEANING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES (Stacey, <roguewarde@gmail.com>)

Here is fine interview with Robin D.G. Kelley and the “general assault on knowledge” (a humongous crisis, in my opinion) in the U.S. There’s a word used to describe those who, like DeSantis, use their intelligence stupidly. I believe it’s “intelligently stupid.”

newyorker.com/culture/q-and-a/the-meaning-of-african-american-studies

HOMELESSNESS, an on-line comment: More pie in the sky, money will fix it unreality. It’s true that there is not enough affordable housing. Especially for people who earn nothing. And it’s also true that it is cheaper to house people in an apartment than a hospital. What is not true is that all that needs to be done is provide an apartment. The government would be required to provide an apartment with plumbing that works after a mentally and/or drug addict tries to flush a shirt, has non stinking heating after a person pees into a heating vent, a kitchen that is replaced after the resident burned it down, security for other residents when one starts attacking others because they looked at him the wrong way, etc etc etc. Then hires a lawyer for a class action suit because their residences are not maintained properly. They will sue if they don’t. Get rid of the troublemakers and the troublemakers will sue if they do. Then the good doctor complains about people who are likely to be these people’s neighbors protesting about housing there. Hello! While it makes fodder for the media, the reality is that free roaming mentally ill drug addicts make piss poor dangerous neighbors. The bottom line is that protecting the freedom of people whose lives revolve around drugs and insanity is a whole lot harder than giving them a decent place to live.

MEMO OF THE AIR: Live from Franklin St. all night Friday night! A pre-Valentine's Week love glove for your ears.

Deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is about 5:30pm. Or send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week. There's always another week and there's no pressure.

I'm back in the 325 N. Franklin studio (next to the Tip Top bar) tonight for the Sportsball Encephalopathy/Valentine's Week show after being remote for ten weeks. To call and read your work in your own voice, the number is 707-962-3022. If you want to come in and do it in person, that's okay, just be advised that I'm not putting on a mask until you show up, and you have to wear one the whole time, and then I have to keep mine on for a few hours after you leave. See? If it has to be in person, okay. But I'd prefer that you call instead. I'm just letting you know my preferences. First preference: email your story. Second place: call and read your story over the phone and maybe chat for a few minutes. Third place: Come in and contaminate my life with your germs. Either way, if you can't control yourself from swearing, wait till after 10pm.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg as well as anywhere else via KNYO.org. Also the schedule is there for KNYO's many other even more terrific shows.

Cat-Women of the Moon. The full film. (63 min.)

https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2023/02/cat-women-of-moon.html

Ininite Lego domino ring of love.

https://boingboing.net/2023/02/08/jk-brickworks-makes-an-infinite-lego-domino-ring.html

And light-painted stop-o-mation.

https://www.neatorama.com/2023/02/08/Dreaming-A-Light-Painting-Video/

PS. Last time I looked, we're up to $3,500 in small donations (goal is $5000) toward getting the KNYO's antenna back up to full height and replacing some crucial equipment. I know times are tough, but if you have a little money left over in your life, go to KNYO.org, click on the big red heart and help out. At KNYO no managers or other parasites are taking even a penny of your money for themselves. It all goes to keep the machinery of radio dry and connected and radiating and legal.

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

WW1 ERA VALENTINES FOUND HIDDEN IN STORAGE AT THE SANTA ROSA LIBRARY

by Meg McConahey

They sat in a box in a closet at the Santa Rosa library for possibly a half century — the cherished keepsakes of a girl named Edna who clearly had a lot of admirers.

Inside the box were more than 100 valentines, most addressed to Edna in the careful penmanship of 100 years ago. They came from friends and family and perhaps a few beaus.

Identifiable only by first names, their connections to Edna are lost to time. The collection of classic old-fashioned valentines with Cupids, puppies, kittens and cherubic children remained hidden in storage at the Central Library for decades, until they were unearthed about six years ago by then-branch manager Kate Keaton. She sent them to the History and Genealogy Library across the alley, where manager Katherine Rinehart, charmed by the cards, accepted them and displayed them a few times.

After Rinehart retired in 2020, the staff decided there was no good place for the collection in a library mainly devoted to research materials. They called Rinehart and asked if she would like to have the cards.

Rinehart isn’t a collector of valentines. But few things excite her more than a historical research project. She said yes and toted the archive of antique valentines home to Petaluma.

“They’re so adorable,” she said. “I had already started collecting postcards and other sorts of ephemera, so I thought they’re sort of in line with that. I didn’t know what I was going to do with them, but they’re so sweet.”

One shows a chubby tot standing on a pillow and rolling a pie crust, with a hopeful puppy beneath the table. “My valentine is my sweet flower. I need, I need her every hour,” it reads. There are demure girls in old-fashioned dresses with besotted looks on their faces and a smiling puppy with a heart collar saying “I’m panting to be your valentine.”

Rinehart has discovered many of them may be valuable. Similar ones have sold online for $75 or more. But, for her, the value of the valentines is what they tell us about the past, about the evolution of the valentine as a token of affection and about the artists and companies who created such beautiful cards.

On an early February day, on the cusp of Valentine’s Day, she neatly arrayed the collection on her dining room table. Each card is a small work of lithographic art. Some fold out with accordions of tissue paper or three-dimensional scenes. Others are jointed and can be made to move.

How did they get there?

Rinehart has only recently begun piecing together any information she can find about the cards.

They belonged to Edna Frances Hartmann-Hanna who, during the 1960s, led the North Bay Cooperative, a network of library systems headquartered in what is now the History and Genealogy Library.

Edna had the job from the mid 1960s to about 1973. But how her box of childhood valentines wound up stored in the main branch of the Sonoma County Library for 50 years remains a mystery.

She was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1907. Through genealogical research, Rinehart learned Edna’s father, president of a printing company, died when she was only 2 years old. She grew up in a household of independent women that included her mother, grandmother and two aunts. That may explain the valentine that shows a pigtailed suffragist on a soapbox declaring, “No votes, no hearts.”

Many of the cards reflect the times in which Edna lived. One elaborate folding card features two cut-out children with candlestick telephones. There are several World War I cards: A wounded doughboy bears a heart with the pledge, “I’d fight to win you for my valentine,” and a large card showing a battleship and a nurse and sailor on shore hugging says, “Let me protect you from attack.”

Some are handmade: “I pin my love to you” says a little clothespin doll.

An old label tucked in with the valentines — “World War I valentines from the collection of Edna Frances Hanna” — suggests the cards were displayed at one time. But Rinehart doesn’t know if Hartmann-Hanna donated them to the library or mistakenly left them there.

Audrey Herman, who worked for the library when Hartmann-Hanna worked across the way in the North Bay Cooperative building, said in an email, “I’m afraid I do not know anything about her, except that she was a good friend of Miss Murphy, the assistant library director.

“Unfortunately, there is no one I know still alive who would have been well-acquainted with her,” Herman said.

Old-fashioned artistry

Hanna died in Greenbrae in 1988 with no heirs. Her only child died a few years before she moved to Sonoma County from Illinois, where she worked for the state library.

Rinehart is the perfect steward for the valentines. Author of “Petaluma: A History in Architecture,” she is a consulting historian who specializes in archival organization and documenting the history of old homes.

She is intrigued not just by who owned the valentines but by “the artistry” that went into them. These were not the small flat cards passed out to classmates by generations of schoolchildren. That style that wouldn’t appear until the 1930s and 1940s.

The earliest surviving romantic valentine was written by Charles, Duke of Orleans while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415. He wrote his missive to his wife Bonne, using the word valentine as a term of endearment. She died before she received the words of love from her husband. That valentine is housed in the British Library.

The gifting of commercially made valentines first appeared in the late 18th century, said Nancy Rosin, one of the leading experts on valentines. She has been collecting since 1970, amassing with her late husband, Henry, some 12,300 pieces that have been donated to The Huntington Library in San Marino, where some are now on display for Valentine’s Day. It is considered the best private collection of its kind in the world, containing not just cards but other keepsakes of love, like a scrimshaw corset stay and Welsh love spoons.

Rinehart still has many questions about the valentines that wound up in her lap. For instance, why do so many feature little Dutch children with their white caps and wooden shoes?

Rosin, who lives in New Jersey and heads the National Valentine Collectors Association, said many were made by Frances Brundage, an American illustrator who designed many cards featuring Dutch children for Raphael Tuck & Sons and the Samuel Gabriel Co., both leading makers of lavish commercial valentines.

Rosin bought her first antique valentine in an antique store in White Plains, New York, in 1970. She noticed it because it featured a reproduction of a painting, “The Sailor’s Farewell,” that she recognized. That launched her lifetime pursuit. That card was made by Italian engraver Francesco Bartolozzi and depicted a man and a woman with a ship in the background, bidding farewell with a Cupid above them shooting his arrow.

Rosin aimed to build a collection that documented the history of valentine tokens, including a precursor to modern valentines, those made by nuns in the mid-16th century at convents in French- and German-speaking areas of Europe.

With knives designed for sharpening quills, the nuns created devotional images of spiritual love and sold them for charity. The religious hearts of saints later evolved into secular hearts of romantic love.

Rosin considers it a mission to spread the love of valentines to a world that could use some.

“I had a very happy marriage. I was married almost 50 years to a wonderful man with whom I had wonderful children and now wonderful grandchildren. I was blessed with a good life, so collecting love just came naturally. I was inspired by it,” Rosin said. “I don’t think you collect this (valentines) unless you’re relatively happy anyway. And I’ve made friends all over the world with people sharing my passion.”

Hartmann-Hanna also loved her collection, although most of hers came directly to her from people she knew. Rinehart said she wants to research more thoroughly the precious collection she has inherited, and share it with others in a future exhibit at the Petaluma Historical Library and Museum.

There is something deeply touching and human about the act of giving valentines, said Rosin, who is 81.

People were so determined to maintain the tradition they made valentines out of chips of wallpaper during the Civil War, when there was a paper shortage. Some love tokens contain locks of hair.

 “To me they’re very endearing,” Rosin said of valentines. “It’s the most intimate connection between two people. Whether handmade or machine-made, a valentine is a connection of love. It has the fingerprints of the lovers who held it, touched it and created it.”

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

PERCENTAGE OF WEALTH owned by the top 1 percent…

Russia: 48%
Mexico: 47%
Turkey: 37%
Estonia: 33%
Hungary: 33%
US: 32%
Switzerland: 31%
Poland: 30%
Germany: 29%
Latvia: 29%
Ukraine: 28%
Sweden: 28%
France: 27%
Austria: 27%
Canada: 26%
Portugal: 26%
Greece: 24%
Spain: 24%
Romania: 24%
Lithuania: 24%
Norway: 23%
Ireland: 23%
Italy: 22%
Denmark: 22%
United Kingdom: 21%
Finland: 19%
Netherlands: 19%
Belgium: 18%

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The failure of the fourth estate in addition to Congress becoming a career instead of temporary service, the feminization of American politics and destruction of the nuclear family have foundered our once great Country. All in favor of perversion, decadence, greed, jealousy, depression and sloth.

UKRAINE, FRIDAY, 10TH FEBRUARY

Russia has amassed 2,000 tanks for its new offensive to take the eastern region of Donbas, a Ukrainian intelligence officer has warned.

It comes as Vladimir Putin unleashed a new wave of missile strikes on critical infrastructure in Ukraine on Friday, causing explosions in Kyiv and Kharviv, as well as several cities across the country.

At least 17 missiles hit Zaporizhzhia in an hour in the heaviest attack on the southeastern city since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, local officials said.

Power supplies were disrupted by overnight drone and missile strikes on power stations and transmission facilities in eastern, southern and western Ukraine.

“The air alert will be long,” said Maksym Marchenko, regional governor of the southern region of Odesa. “Please do not ignore the air alert sirens, and go to the shelters.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who this week pleaded with European Union leaders for more weapons, including fighter jets, said: “This is terror that can and must be stopped.”

A STAR IS BORN

by James Kunstler

If you think the reasons behind the First World War were incomprehensible, imagine what historians of the future — pan-frying peccary loins over their camp fires — will think about World War Three. Some people started something in Ukraine… and then the USA blew up the main energy supply line of its NATO ally, Germany… say, what…?!?

Weird, a little bit. A sane person in a sane world would call sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines an act-of-war against a friendly nation, since the result was to virtually destroy the basis of Germany’s industry, not to mention the domestic comfort of German citizens. Now, thanks to 85-year-old Seymour Hersh, the independent investigator who uncovered the My Lai Massacre in 1969 and reported on the depraved antics of American jailers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004, we have a pretty good idea how the Nord Stream caper went down.

For a year before the op, “Joe Biden” and Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland — architect of the 2014 Maidan Coup in Ukraine, which kicked-off the present fiasco there — blabbed about “ending” the Nord Streams. Curiously, the Germans said nothing. Meanwhile, the US made a deal to beef up military bases in Norway, an original NATO signatory (1949), for staging the Nord Stream sabotage op. Of course, Norway, being Western Europe’s sole remaining oil-and-gas exporter, had an interest in eliminating its competition.

In June of 2022, under cover of an annual NATO naval exercise in the Baltic Sea, US Navy divers attached mines to the Nord Stream pipelines. The mines had triggers that could be activated remotely at any chosen time, and that moment came on September 26… kaboom! Ms. Nuland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken gloated publicly. Naturally, the US blamed Russia. America’s news media — catamite of the Intel Community — amplified the charge, despite the absurdity of Russia blowing up its most lucrative source of export revenue. The New York Times has so far made no mention of Mr. Hersh’s recent update of the Nord Stream sabotage.

Germany, too, has hardly made a peep, nor did the rest of Western Europe, which now faces a future that looks, energy-wise, like a fairly swift return to the Fourteenth Century. Maybe they’re all jaded with modern life, all that tiresome bathing and malingering in the brightly-lit cafes. Under the sagacious guidance of the WEF they were all going “green,” anyway — but was that green like the heart-shaped leaves of the linden tree or green like the moldy veins in Roquefort cheese? I guess they’ll find out.

Luckily, America had the Chinese balloon to distract them, and then “Joe B’s” State-of-the-Union extravaganza where the nation learned that we are living in the most extraordinary economic boom since the days of Babe Ruth and Charlie Chaplin. The perpetually-vacationing Leader of the Free World has apparently made America great again, despite the dastardly plots and ongoing insurrections of his far-right, white supremacist adversaries. Did the annual SOTU smell a little bit like a reelection pitch, though? I hope so.

Speaking of insurrection, the House commenced hearings this past week, debuting with the Oversight Committee’s witness panel of Twitter execs who carried out a years-long censorship campaign against the First Amendment in cahoots with the FBI, CIA, DOD, DOJ, DOS, DHS…. Well, you get the picture: a more arrogant crew of dedicated fascists would be hard to find in any other corner of the world today, except perhaps Canada, than the likes of Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth, Anika Collier Navaroli, and James Baker, former chief counsel of the FBI. They “moderated” speech on the chat app for the good of the American people, you understand, lest the public succumb to “misinformation” — otherwise known as reality.

One reality being that the sedulously-repressed news of Hunter Biden’s crime-stuffed laptop represented interference in the 2020 election. James Baker told the committee he “could not recall” whether, at the time (October 2020), he spoke to anyone back in his old haunts at the FBI about the matter — though there is no question that, as chief counsel, he knew the agency had possession of the laptop since 2019, and what was in it. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) warned the four former Twitter employees that “this is the investigation part, later comes the arrest part.” Let’s hope so on that one, too.

Meanwhile, the House Special Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government held a lively colloquy with four “experts” including former FBI agents Nicole Parker and Thomas Baker, GWU Law Professor Jonathan Turley, and one Elliot Williams, former DOJ Assistant AG and currently shill for DC Lawfare tank the Raben Group. The theme, generally, was the change-in-mission in the FBI-DOJ nexus from law enforcement to harassment of US citizens who oppose Democratic Party policy.

Most instructive in Thursday’s session, though, was the political debut of Democratic Rep. Daniel Sachs Goldman (real name), newly elected member for New York’s Tenth District (which encompasses Wall Street). Among other distinctions, Mr. Goldman is an heir to the Levi-Strauss blue jeans fortune, and was lead counsel during the 2019 impeachment hearings against Donald Trump in the House Intelligence Committee. This vicious prick, an apt replacement for the inveterate liar and seditionist, Rep. Adam Schiff (CA), put on a florid demonstration of hectoring witnesses, cutting them off, and re-directing the committee’s attention at every opportunity to the so-called “insurrection” at the Capitol of 1/6/21.

Mr. Goldman is a man to watch, especially as the House actually does give its complete attention later this year to the 1/6/21 matter and the true facts behind the FBI’s engineering of the event, including the nefarious actions of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Capitol Police. When it comes, I can’t wait to watch Mr. Goldman unwind like one of those cheap counterfeit Rolex watches that peddlers hawk on Wall Street’s sidewalk.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

A PEOPLE, who, secure in their own homes, permit their rulers to carry devastation and death into the homes of another people, assuredly deserve little respect no matter how loudly they may boast of their liberty-loving spirit. 

— Irish revolutionary James Connolly

PLEASE BE ADVISED that there will be no apocalypse. The very idea of a Gotterdammerung assumes meaning and progress. You cannot fall off a mountain unless you are climbing. No one here is slouching toward Bethlehem to be born. We shall not meet next year in Jerusalem. For years, I thought I was watching the city go from bad to worse, a kind of terrible backsliding from its imagined destiny as an America with different food. I was blind to what was slapping me in the face: the future. A place where conversation is a gun and reality is a drug and time is immediate and tomorrow, well, tomorrow is today because there is no destination beyond this very second.

— Charles Bowden, ‘Murder City’