Mendocino County Today: Friday, April 7, 2023

Showers Clearing | Seafood Market | Cloudscape | Spaghetti Bob | Egg Hunt | Mobile CRV | Seed Potatoes | Beach Grotto | Slow Approval | Candidate Shattuck | Ukiah Markets | Prohousing Communities | Caltrans Bad | Supe Deceptions | Flirting | Rough Town | Mustard Field | Bragg History | Hush Money | SCP Lodge | Yesterday's Catch | Wine Hits | Facebook Power | Goat Meat | Butkis | Alphabet People | Moveable Feast | MSNBC Sucks | Needles | Payment Delay | Hardwood Houdini | Ukraine | Pioneering Videographer | Mushy Straw | Andy & Jared | 1955

SHOWERS WILL QUICKLY TAPER OFF today with gradually warming and drying weather into Easter weekend. By Sunday, many interior valleys can look forward to high temperatures around 70. The next round of light rain will arrive next Monday, mostly for Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. (NWS)

YESTERDAY'S RAINFALL (past 24 hours): Laytonville 1.07" - Leggett 1.04" - Mendocino 0.93" - Yorkville 0.80" - Willits 0.70" - Covelo 0.69" - Hopland 0.39" - Ukiah 0.34"

POINT ARENA! THIS SATURDAY

Little Dory Seafood Co. will be doing a cooked crab & filet sablefish fundraiser/meet and greet. We are a new seafood processing company working towards building a weekly seafood market stand beginning this summer. Come see Emilie and Elissa in downtown Point Arena for fresh seafood and to join our mailing list. We will be there from 11am-4pm Saturday, April 8.

We are now taking preorders to our email: Littledoryseafoodco@gmail.com

Whole cooked crab: $12/lb

Cook & Cleaned crab: $16/lb

Fresh Sablefish portions: $16/lb

Sablefish: Emilie & Elissa F/V Princess

Crab: Peter & Jay F/V Moli

Follow us on Instagram @littledoryseafoodco

BOB'S SPAGHETTI SAUCE

Whitesboro Grange Spaghetti Night - This Saturday

Bob's spaghetti sauce is amazing. That's a fact - everyone in the community knows it. That's why you should come to the Whitesboro Grange spaghetti night this Saturday, April 8 between 4PM and 7PM and find out for yourself. We're warning you though - get ready for a culinary taste experience to beat all!

Whitesboro Grange is located at 32510 Navarro Ridge Rd., Albion. Our every other month Spaghetti Dinner includes meat or veggie sauce, garlic bread, salad, beverage and dessert for only $10 for adults, $5 for kids 6-12 and absolutely FREE for children under 6. What a bargain!

Don't miss it, along with your opportunity to help your community - Grange proceeds are used to support local families in need as well as other community service organizations such as the Albion-Little River Volunteer Fire Department, Project Sanctuary, Redwood Coast Senior Center, 4-H, Hospitality House, Veterans, and food banks.

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: County of Mendocino & City of Fort Bragg have been awarded one of the ten available Beverage Container Recycling Pilot Projects by Cal EPA/CalRecycle as authorized by Section 14571.9 of the Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (Act). Mobile CRV soon!

LOCAL SEED POTATOES from Natural Products of Boonville

As time goes by there will be fewer seed potatoes available from me… only the ones that I can store until June/July to be planted for a fall-maturing crop. The short-dormancy delicious varieties are getting planted as time and weather permit. I forgot to mention I also have 1 to 3 pounds of 'Red Eye Russet’ seed potatoes. It’s a new, yet-to-be-released-commercially smooth-skinned oval potato with red spots here and there. Dense, with high solids, so good for french fries, baking, salads, etc.. It stores well - unlike most of the delicious diploid types I grow; which can be difficult to locate for planting due to their short dormancy periods.

Geoffrey Pomeroy, geoffrey@naturalproductsofboonville.com

MENDO TAKES 18 YEARS TO APPROVE UKIAH HOUSING PROJECT

by Mark Scaramella

Agenda Item 4a on next Tuesday’s Supervisors agenda is for a “Noticed Public Hearing - Discussion and Possible Action to Modify the Previously-Approved Garden's Gate Subdivision Vesting Tentative Map and Development Agreement (Now Known as the "Bella Vista Subdivision Project”)… at 3000 South State Street Near Ukiah.”

According to an accompanying presentation the project timeline goes back to 2009.

“Background: October 2009–Board of Supervisors certified Final EIR for Garden’s Gate Subdivision Project and approved Vesting Tentative Subdivision Map for 197-lot residential subdivision 

November 2009 and April 2010 – Board of Supervisors approved and then amended Development Agreement that fully vests project approvals for 15 years (i.e., through August 27, 2025) 

2020 New property owner (Rancho Yokayo L.P.) and applicant (Guillon, Inc.) filed applications to modify project approvals to change the layout of the lots, streets and parks; reduce project density and number of lots, modify Inclusionary Housing Agreement, and extend term of Development Agreement. 

March 9, 2023–Planning Commission conducted public hearingand adopted resolution recommending that Board of Supervisors approve entitlements for the Bella Vista Subdivision.” 

But this anodyne and misleading summary ignores the real history of this project which began in 2005. Four years later in 2009 by the time the County finally got around to approving the project’s permit paperwork (offering the lamest of excuses for the years of delay), the bottom had fallen out of the housing market and then-developer Chris Stone threw up his hands, gave up and moved to Brazil. 

Desert’s Gate Welcomes You To Ukiah

Although there were obvious water and sewer problems with the development at the time (which the County now claims have been solved), the 2005-2009 delays were primarily about traffic and traffic studies — the County didn’t like the study Stone did at great expense (although Stone said it was more than compliant) and the County was taking forever to find a consultant to do their own. 

Now here we are 18 years later a new owner/developer has picked up the pieces and nobody has any more traffic study objections to the now somewhat modified project.

But there are still 17 separate Exhibits attached to Tuesday’s Garden’s Gate (aka “Bella Vista”) agenda item. One of them is a ten page exhibit with 54 “Conditions of Approval.” Conditions 35 and 36, for example, require a roundabout, an apparent attempt to mitigate traffic concerns, but they also require “a northbound left-turn lane on State Street at the site entry.” Condition 15 says, “…a Riparian Enhancement Area shall be established on Lots 121, 122, 123 and 124…”

The many conditions are the usual costly add-ons to make even the simplest application seem complicated and more palatable, although they’ve probably raised the cost of the project substantially. But remember that nobody checks on any “conditions” which are not part of the first inspection sign off to see if they are complied with later (unless an affected neighbor files a complaint, which also seldom happens but are usually also ignored). 

The project plans include 39 senior citizen units, 10% of “affordable” units and “phased development of Inclusionary Housing Units,” inclusions which presumably have silenced any remaining critics of the project. We have not heard any grumbling about it in public. But there’s a chance somebody will object to something on Tuesday — albeit way too late to be of any value.

In theory, the project’s couple hundred new market rate housing units (with or without the special set-aside units) will add to the Ukiah Valley’s housing stock, although at the higher-end of the market-rate housing. Realtors say that adding premium housing will cause some lower-end housing to become available as people move up and in. But it would be naive to think that this project will make a noticeable dent in the County’s overall housing shortage.

If Mendo had processed Stone’s original application in anything like a timely manner back in 2006-2007 it probably would have been in place 15 years ago. 

CARRIE'S IN! 1st District Supervisor Campaign Announcement

Hi, I'm Carrie Shattuck. Recently I announced my intention to run for 1st District Supervisor. I am a lifelong resident of Mendocino County. I am a mother, volunteer, and business advocate. I have been the owner of a trucking company, school business manager and caregiver. I have attended each of the Board of Supervisor meetings for over a year and believe our county needs strong business leadership and direction, which I am capable, eager, and willing to give.

There needs to be a standard of accountability and follow through on many current issues. My priority would be to scrutinize each line of the county budget to eliminate wasteful spending. Those dollars could be refocused into our neglected roads placing focus on maintenance of our thoroughfares.

Another area of focus would be directing attention to business development in Mendocino County. We need to look to making our area attractive to potential business by advocating for the development of pro-business county regulations.

Water is a serious issue for our county, especially for Potter Valley, with the uncertainty of Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury. I recently spoke with Mr. Downing from the Russian River Forum, that is now forming to spearhead this effort of local jurisdiction, and received an update of it's status. I will be at the next Inland Water and Power Commission meeting (IWPC), in Ukiah on April 13th.

Our Cannabis Program is a mess. It needs some real direction and not just throwing money at it. Years have been wasted and stakeholders are still waiting for permits and direction. This reflects poorly on the county and the stakeholders. Our county businesses depend on these revenues as well as the County's budget since the Board of Supervisors put these anticipated revenues into the budget. But due to lack of efficiency this program is actually costing the County money at this point.

I will be a Supervisor who attends local functions and listens to concerns that affect each of you. As well as mingling at the Board meetings and not just being “off limits” behind the pony wall throughout the day. I appreciate Supervisor Haschak that he engages with the public at every meeting. I feel our leaders have lost that personal connection with their voters over the years and that needs to change.

I want to speak on behalf of everyone. I will be a public servant for the people!

Dedicated~Driven~Determined

votecarrie2024@gmail.com or call me (707)489-5178 Campaign Headquarters: 367 N. State St., Suite 105, Ukiah, CA 95482

Happy Spring!

Carrie Shattuck

UKIAH DESIGNATED A ‘PROHOUSING’ COMMUNITY TO MEET ‘CRITICAL HOUSING NEEDS’

Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that 11 more communities have earned the distinction of being named Prohousing for their commitment to build more housing, faster. This designation will help unlock additional funds allowing communities to scale up their efforts to meet critical housing needs.

What Governor Newsom said: “Remarkably, in just a few weeks since our last announcement, the number of Prohousing Designations has doubled, a testament to the growing number of communities taking responsibility and committing to building their fair share of housing. Instead of making excuses, these jurisdictions are rising to the challenge, making difficult choices and ensuring that Californians have access to needed housing.”

Why It’s Important: It is vital for local governments to build their fair share of housing and implement policies that increase production to help meet our collective goal of 2.5 million new homes over the next eight years, with at least one million serving the needs of lower-income Californians. Under the Newsom Administration, accountability measures and incentives like the Prohousing Designation are a critical part of a multipronged approach to address the state’s housing crisis.

Cities and counties that earn the Prohousing Designation receive incentives such as additional points or other preferences in the scoring of competitive funding programs administered by California’s Housing and Community Development Agency (HCD), giving them an advantage over other jurisdictions. They are also eligible for the Prohousing Incentive Pilot (PIP) Program that rewards Prohousing communities at the forefront in addressing California’s housing crisis with additional funding to accelerate affordable housing production.

“These 11 jurisdictions join 11 others in committing to create the right mix of housing near jobs, transit, health care, and key amenities to build strong, thriving communities,” said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. “We are proud to work with these jurisdictions to create a healthy housing market that offers stability and opportunity to help teachers, mechanics, home health aides and many others find a place to live within a reasonable distance from their jobs and improve their quality of life.”

To earn the Prohousing Designation, cities and counties must demonstrate they are promoting climate-smart housing development by enacting Prohousing policies, including but not limited to streamlining multifamily housing developments, up-zoning in places near jobs and transit to reduce emissions, and creating more affordable homes in places that historically or currently exclude households of color and those earning lower incomes.

“It is very encouraging that so many jurisdictions are demonstrating their firm commitment to addressing housing availability and affordability in California,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. “By taking advantage of the tools, technical assistance, funding opportunities, and incentives available to them through HCD, Prohousing communities can scale up their efforts to make a real difference in the work to address a housing crisis many decades in the making.”

Governor Newsom’s 2019-2020 budget established the Prohousing Designation Program as part of a spectrum of support, incentives, and accountability measures to help meet California’s housing goals.

The 11 communities announced today join the cities of Los Angeles, El Cerrito, Citrus Heights, Fontana, Oakland, Roseville, San Diego, West Sacramento, and Sacramento, and the counties of Sacramento and Placer in earning a Prohousing Designation.

(Newsom Office Press Release)

CALTRANS’ BAD PLANS FOR HIGHWAY 1 and the 78-year-old Albion River Bridge, the last remaining timber trestle highway bridge on the California coast, and possibly in the United States.

Caltrans has plans for Highway 1 on the Mendocino Coast — bad plans. To learn about them, the Albion Bridge Stewards invite the community to an exhibit at the Albion Post Office. See Caltrans' five planned projects for the Navarro Ridge and Albion area, and learn the facts about the historic Albion River Bridge. A designated state and federal historic landmark, the 78-year-old Albion River Bridge is the last remaining timber trestle highway bridge on the California coast, and possibly in the United States. Also learn about the so-called Navarro Ridge Safety Project, which threatens to deform the gateway to the Mendocino Coast—the area adjacent to the Navarro Point Preserve. The exhibit is on display until April 30; the post office is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 12 noon and from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm. The Albion Bridge Stewards are working to protect our coast, from its bridges to its ridges. To learn more, visit www.savehighway1.org

Annemarie Weibel

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS' MANY DECEPTIONS

Editor- 

I wish to expand on a couple of recent points brought to AVA readers by Fort Bragg mayor Bernie Norvell; As regular readers know I hold Ted Williams in complete contempt. But Norvell’s recent letters allow us to examine the record of this Supervisor in two areas, Roads and Housing; Connecting the dots on the craven and deceitful performance of this Supervisor is no easy task as his web of deceit is intricate. But I’ll give it a shot

Norvell sniffs out that Ted, in telling his constituents to get involved in the budget process, might be testing the waters for a new road tax. While I can’t comment on that aspect, it does appear clear that Ted is up to his usual tactics of blame shifting. I am also sourcing part of my critique based on a letter Ted wrote to Albion constituents on roads that was widely circulated on a local email list. In that email Williams also calls for public involvement in the budget process, basically acting like a stern parent. To paraphrase: If you don’t participate in the budget process, don’t come whining to me later: Basically shifting the job that his constituents elected HIM to do onto them. 

Worse yet, Ted’s penchant for pitting different constituents off against each other also reveals itself in that letter. 

Example: 

Williams: “At the last BOS meeting, on a 4-1 vote with Williams dissenting, we gave away 50% of the cannabis business tax for the next two years. I agree that funding the core government on drug taxes is a bad plan.”

That tax was returned as an incentive to the very, very, few legal growers that have attempted to persist in the legalization process, a process that most have just abandoned due to the state and local roadblocks that have been put in front of them; a process that in his 2018 campaign for the job Williams vowed to fix by making a one-page application with a $25 fee. Now with the dream of Mendocino County small farmers contributing to a vibrant local economy dying, rather than take any responsibility for his massive indifference Ted would rather tell his constituents “I can’t fix your roads because my fellow Supes would rather fund drug growers.”

Let’s return to Norvell and his appeal to county leaders to deal with chronic mentally ill homeless, pointing out that Fort Bragg implemented major pieces go the Marbut Report to produce better outcomes for Fort Bragg, pointing out that by all metrics the City has been successful in reducing many chronic problems.

I’m sorry to dwell on certain things, but the Marbut report came out around 2018 when Ted and I were both vying for the Fifth District seat. Williams proposed using 3-D printers to create places for the unhoused. Nearly five years into his term, Ted has not moved forward on this issue. And if he’s done anything about chronic workforce housing shortage, I’m unaware of it.

I have no further political aspirations for myself. When I entered the race in 2018 I was hoping to fulfill a personal vision that our County would be a good place for children and families, that our local government would be a responsive, co-creative partner with its citizens; and although my aspirations ended in a certain calamity, I still hold out hope for this vision. 

And Williams, who gaslights his own constituency, dividing them up ideologically for his own selfish purposes, is an obstacle to that vision.

While I don’t expect my efforts to make much difference, I have had a front row seat to this man’s career; first as allies on the Albion Little/River Fire Protection District, where upon Ted’s Request I served on the Board of Directors. Ted was Fire Chief. We got a lot done together, and then we were opponents for the 5th District Seat. I got to see how he treated a “friend” once he wanted something. This man is a complete political chameleon, showing certain faces to certain people at certain times. If his constituents don't start looking at the whole package of who/what he is, we will continue to limp toward failure. I don’t know if my efforts will have any impact. But silence is not an option that my conscience can bear.

Thank you,

Chris Skyhawk

Fort Bragg

WHEN BOONVILLE WAS A FIGHTIN’, DYIN’ KINDA TOWN

 by Bruce Anderson

I was on my way to the Lodge one Saturday morning to pick up a six-pack for later that night when the bar’s door suddenly banged open and a small, wiry young man came flying out, running for his life down the middle of Highway 128, hellbent south for Cloverdale, or whatever sanctuary came first. Right behind him came a very large, muscular, shirtless man with a broken off pool cue stuck so deeply into his back it vibrated without coming loose, as a thin stream of deep red blood ran down into the big man’s Levis. No way the bull could catch his matador, and back into the Lodge the wounded beast went, the pool cue still quivering in his back like a picador’s lance. The Boonville Lodge might have been the most eventful bar in the United States in a town Slim Pickens said was the “roughest place I ever called a rodeo in.”

In the summer of 1984, there occurred a pivotal Lodge event with both real and symbolic implications for the greater community. It was a soft summer Saturday morning, but from inside the Boonville Lodge came raucous laughter as several would be Mexican patrons were being recreationally heaved through the Lodge door out into the street. The door would bang open and here came an airborne Mexican. The tough guys were Mexican-tossing. When a Mexican entered the bar, a few seconds later he came flying back out. Three or four Mexicans kept walking back in. These same determined individuals had already been heaved through the door several times. It was hard to tell if they enjoyed being Mexican-tossed or were simply determined to get their first beer of the day. 

The Mexicans were supposed to drink down the street at a place called Mary Jane’s or The Mexican Bar. That was the informal understanding at the time. Mary Jane was a formidable Spanish-speaking woman sympathetic to the area’s first immigrant laborers who suffered from extra-low wages, marginal housing, insults, and random humiliations including the Mex-Toss as it was being played out this day. 

Mary Jane had opened her business because she knew Mexicans weren’t safe at The Lodge. And she was married to a Mexican. Her roots went deep in the Anderson Valley, maybe as deep as the Feliz land grant ranchero at Hopland because Mary Jane was part Indian and her family went way back. She knew what it was like to be on persecution’s receiving end.

She was a tough one, too. One night at her Boonville home a few steps from her bar, Mary Jane shot her estranged husband to death, hitting him with one perfect round right between the eyes after he’d snuck into Mary Jane’s bedroom and she’d awakened, she said, to find him arrayed in the rafters above her bed, about to drop on her as she slept. Mary Jane told Deputy Squires that she’d “heard something moving around above her,” grabbed her bedside pistol and plugged her ex, making him a double ex with an exclamation point right there in the middle of his forehead. Down he’d come in a dead heap.

The Lodge could be unsafe for Mexicans, but Mary Jane’s “Mexican Bar” wasn’t always safe for Anglos either.

Arturo Flores might be Boonville’s least known serial killer. In 1987, Flores would tell his friends that “all anglos should be exterminated.” Then he exterminated one. Maybe he’d exterminated others, too, but we knew from the cold, dead fact of Gregory Evans, a 27-year-old softball player from Rohnert Park, that Flores had exterminated Evans because two men saw Flores do it. 

You'd see Flores around Boonville at all hours of the day and night. Couldn’t miss him. He was tall for a Mexican, lean, knotty lean, hard lean, and he stared a big-eyed stare right at you, unblinking, not hostile exactly but homicidally indifferent, a vacant-eyed psycho-stare, a pitiless panopticon. Vehicles, people, dogs, insects disappeared into those eyes. You got the feeling that Flores wanted to kill everything he saw.

Some people thought Flores was crazy. Others were merely unnerved by him. “That Mexican creeps me out big time,” someone would say. “Does he sleep standing up? He’s always here,” another person would say. There he was, a constant staring public presence, a brooding human surveillance camera, leaned up against the wall of the Lodge or Tom Cronquist’s cyclone fence or the Anderson Valley Market, never saying a word to any anglo body, not much to his countrymen, always staring that blank stare that somehow seemed to go blanker at the gringo visuals.

Of course it is more than likely that señor Flores had had unhappy encounters with gringos, some of whom, as described, amused themselves by heaving Mexicans out the door of the Boonville Lodge like so many bags of pinto beans. Mexican-tossing had finally ended one memorable afternoon when the Mexicans counter-attacked, beating down the locked door of the Lodge with half a telephone pole as the Mexican tossers barricaded themselves inside the bar when fed up Mexicans suddenly appeared outside the bar in seriously angry numbers.

When a contingent of riot-geared deputies arrived from Ukiah, the Mexican assault force was inside the bar where a rural replay of the Alamo was underway. A small group of Mexican-tossers was backed up in a corner where they were beating back their attackers with pool cues and bar stools. Another gringo — a fat, strong one — was on all-fours on the floor with a determined Mexican riding his bucking back, sawing away at the big man’s enlarded throat with a knife not quite sharp enough to penetrate the suet. “His fat and his arm strength saved him,” a deputy commented later.

Boonville was a hard place for Mexicans in the late 1970s. Arturo Flores, he with the murderous stare, didn’t bother making distinctions between gringos. He hated them all.

The night Flores launched his local gringo eradication program, assuming he hadn’t already notched one or two before he touched down in the “bucolic Anderson Valley,” as it’s inevitably described in the wine and food pages of contemporary newspapers and magazines, Anastacio Yanez and Luis Orozco had met Greg Evans in the Boonville Mexican bar. Yanez and Orozco had watched Evans drive in the winning run in a Boonville slo-pitch softball tournament across the street at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds. It was the first tournament of the year, and the weather was in and out; it rained a little, the sun came out, it rained a little more, the sun came out. That night it rained steady and hard.

Yanez and Orozco said Evans was drinking a lot of beer before he left Mary Jane’s Cantina. They said they next saw him outside the bar trying to flag down cars for a ride somewhere. When Evans saw Yanez and Orozco walk out of the Cantina he asked them for a ride to Ukiah. Evans said he’d pay them for the ride. Yanez said he was going to Ukiah anyway so Evans didn’t have to pay him.

Yanez said later that “Evans was a very good person.”

Yanez invited Orozco and, fatally, Flores to drive with him to Ukiah in his Ford Pinto. Yanez said he was headed to Ukiah for a dance. Flores and Orozco climbed in the back. Yanez got behind the wheel, Greg Evans rode in the front passenger seat, which Flores may have seen as an undeserved concession to the gringo or, worse perhaps to Flores, gringo-hood’s assumed front seat privilege.

Yanez said Evans was “friendly” during the trip over the hill. He said that he and Evans hit it off so well that Evans offered to introduce Yanez to some bimbitos in Ukiah. (Bimbito, n. 1. Spanish for bimbo. 2. Loose woman short in stature. 3. Bi-lingual welcome wagon specializing in intimate trans-national relations.)

Yanez said that Evans gave him a card with Evans’ name and address and telephone number on it. Evans and Yanez chatted as best they could in mutually unintelligible languages all the way up and over the Ukiah hill until the carload of merrymakers was about five miles from Highway 101 and Ukiah’s sedate night life.

Gregory Evans suddenly threw up his hands and exclaimed, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Whatever Evans thought he’d done to be sorry about, it was neither audible nor visible to either Yanez or Orozco. Flores, seated directly behind Evans had suddenly reached over the seat and driven a knife blade deep into Evans’ heart. Evans said he was sorry and then he was gone.

Orozco asked Flores why he’d done it. “This is nothing,” Flores said. “These guys we have to exterminate.”

Yanez and Orozco couldn’t have been too upset about the murder of the Rohnert Park softball player because the three amigos dumped Evans’ body about a foot off the pavement of Stipp Lane just south of the Ukiah city limits. Then they drove the short distance to a Mexican bar on North State Street to re-commence their Saturday night festivities. 

In the men’s room of the bar on North State, Yanez said he saw Flores wash the blood off the folding knife he’d murdered Evans with.

Evans’ body was discovered by a passing motorist at about 11 p.m., maybe two hours after his final apology. Evans hadn’t even been dragged into the bushes, merely dumped on the side of the road.

Flores, Yanez and Orozco saw the cluster of police and police vehicles as they drove back to Boonville.

Yanez and Orozco said their fear of Flores prevented them from voluntarily turning themselves into police. They didn’t say that Flores had threatened them — he didn’t have to. After all, Yanez and Orozco were fresh off a first-hand demonstration of Señor Flores’ apparent lack of impulse control.

There being few secrets in the Anderson Valley, and the few secrets that aren’t in general circulation being fully known by Deputy Squires, the three Mexicans were arrested three days after Gregory Evans had said his last sorry. Orozco and Yanez quickly agreed to tell all in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Their stories matched, and Yanez and Orozco were released from custody. Flores was arrested and more or less confined to the County Jail to await trial.

The Mendocino County Jail was rather loosely administered in the middle 1980s. An inmate was caught boffing a female jailer in a broom closet, and tennis balls stuffed with marijuana frequently sailed into the prisoner’s outdoor commons by dope missionaries passing by on Low Gap Road. The day before he was scheduled to be arraigned for exterminating Gregory Evans, perhaps while inmates scrambled for a pot ball, Flores vaulted the jail fence out onto Low Gap and hasn’t been seen since.

NAME CHANGERS: AT LEAST GET YOUR INFO RIGHT

Editor,

I’ve only known Fort Bragg since 1972. But I’ve studied its interesting history and how it came to have such a name. I can understand writing the paper and saying you don’t like the name’s connotations, but the writers should at least do some research so they understand what they are writing about. 

Chas Fleischman states that “the fort was utilized only as a way to subdue and punish native Pomo people.” 

Some research would show the post was originally established with the intent to keep settlers from slaughtering Native Americans. Many Forts established at that time in California actually had their soldiers fighting the vigilantes doing the killing. 

Much was done well, but some were not. The name Fort Bragg was chosen by Lt. Horatio Gates Gibson because Capt. Braxton Bragg was his Commanding Officer during the Mexican War. He had great admiration for Bragg’s skill in artillery, and they became close friends. Capt. Bragg, later a General, was given awards for his gallantry at the battle of Buena Vista. He was a U.S. war hero at the time the Fort was named in his honor by Lt. Gibson. It was only later, when the Civil War broke out, that he crossed the line and became a Confederate General. 

Horatio Gibson did, however, talk Washington into naming the new base in North Carolina Fort Bragg as well, knowing, of course, Bragg’s part in the war. So when Richard Karch, in his letter, says the town was “misnamed,” that statement is not entirely true. 

Some real history about the Fort here and others in Northern California, along with the interaction of those commanding them, can be found in the truly incredible book ‘Regulars in the Redwoods’ by William F. Strobridge. 

In today’s world, I can understand wanting to correct some of America’s truly poor cultural history. As we look at a possible name change, each person will have their own reasoning and feelings. However, as we discuss the pros and cons of doing so, let’s be sure we have the right information to work with.

John Skinner

Fort Bragg

ALBION RIVER INN SOLD TO SOUL COMMUNITY PLANET 

Twenty-Two Room Oceanfront Inn to be Renamed SCP Mendocino Coast Lodge

Soul Community Planet (SCP) has announced the acquisition of the Albion River Inn, a luxury boutique hotel located in Mendocino County on the Northern California coast. The property, to be renamed the SCP Mendocino Coast Lodge, marks the brand’s fourth coastal California property. The SCP Mendocino Coast Lodge will be operated in conjunction with the nearby SCP Mendocino Inn & Farm, which SCP acquired in June 2022.

SCP Mendocino Coast Lodge will be reimagined as a chic, upscale coastal lodge. It also will feature a farm-to-table restaurant catering to the growing share of travelers who wish to maintain healthy, responsible, regenerative lifestyles while experiencing spectacular natural destinations on California’s Northern Coast.

“We’ve been inspired by the spectacular beauty and touched by the kind and welcoming culture of Mendocino. We are honored to welcome the Albion River Inn to our growing family of destination lodges, inns and hotels. The inn, with its world-class ocean-front restaurant, manicured gardens, and charming cottages, has been a beloved Northern California coast destination for more than forty years thanks to the care and dedication of the Healy and Wells founding families and the talents of the outstanding hospitality team. We will look to preserve the inn’s romantic warmth and character while introducing unique adventures and experiences catering to modern conscious travelers,” said Soul Community Planet Founder & CEO Ken Cruse.

Anchored by its commanding oceanfront, blufftop location, the 22-room lodge will undergo a comprehensive renovation and refresh. This will include upgrading the guest cottages and adding SCP’s trademark food and beverage offerings, including Terra Kitchen - a restaurant featuring a delicious, locally-sourced, seasonal, plant-forward menu - and Provisions Market, which offers coffee, smoothies, drinks and picnic items, along with local crafts and sundries. Other planned upgrades support SCP’s commitment to sustainability and conservation, including the addition of EV charging stations, water-conserving fixtures and solar.

The property is steeped in local history that began when the original owners Flurry Healy and Peter Wells met in a local Mendocino bar called the “Sea Gull.” Wells had a lease on a property in Albion and was looking for a partner. Healy was looking for a new adventure and happened to have the right business connections to get a loan. Together they purchased the property in 1981 and the Albion River Inn was open for business in 1982.

Flurry Healy said, “We are pleased for Soul Community Planet to lead the Albion River Inn into its next chapter. Through this acquisition, the vision Peter and I had in 1982 to create a spectacular hospitality experience for our guests will continue into the future.”

As with every SCP Hotel, the SCP Mendocino Coast Lodge will be an active participant in SCP’s Every Stay Does Good (ESDG) program. ESDG underscores SCP’s core values while making positive connections between SCP’s guests and the places they visit. ESDG works through hand-selected partnerships with world class organizations who advance the values of healthy, kind and green.

Today’s announcement marks the continuation of Soul Community Planet’s proactive growth strategy, which most recently included the December 2022 acquisition of the SCP Corcovado Wilderness Lodge in Costa Rica and the June 2022 acquisition of the SCP Mendocino Inn & Farm.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, April 6, 2023

ERIC GALLOWAY, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, more than an ounce of pot, belt-buckle-knife.

HUMBERTO GONZALES-MORENO, Ukiah. Assault with firearm, negligent discharge of firearm, large capacity magazine.

GUADALUPE GUTIERREZ, Ukiah. Resisting.

JESSICA LOMBARDI, Rohnert Park/Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, bringing controlled substance into jail.

GERALD SIMSPON, Willits. County parole violation. (Frequent Flyer)

JASON WALSH, Cotati/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-intoxicated with drugs & alcohol, parole violation.

CHRISTOPHER WEST, Killeen, Texas/Ukiah. Domestic battery.

ESTHER MOBLEY:

Mark Anderson, who was convicted in the famous 2005 arson of a wine warehouse in Vallejo, died recently after an early release from prison. In a story for The Chronicle, Berkeley author Frances Dinkelspiel, who wrote a book about Anderson and the arson, considers the legacy of the crime.

In the New York Times, Tejal Rao writes about two new lesbian bars in Los Angeles — one serving natural wine in a strip mall, the other hosting late-night dance parties.

There’s so much nonalcoholic wine out there right now, and not all of it is good. A group of writers at Punch did a tasting of booze-free wines and made some recommendations.

(SF Chronicle)

BILL KIMBERLIN: This is Hank Williams' baby blue 1952 Cadillac. Hank died in this car while going to a show in which he was the headliner. I posted this photo on my "American Nitro" Facebook site and it garnered 490,000 hits. 

People diss Facebook, and I do too, but there is an awesome amount of power there if you learn how to use it.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Goat meat is kind of an acquired taste and needs some skilled preparation to make it palatable to Westerners, as it tends to taste “goaty.” 

People who raise dairy goats tend to end up with a lot of goat meat in the freezer, because you have to cull most of the bucks–and every time Mama kids, there’s a 50-50 chance you’ll get a buck who, when he’s up to a decent weight, has to go to freezer camp. 

The main reason you get rid of the bucks is because the grown ones are destructive and unmanageable. They are constantly escaping, even with good fencing, and they like to walk on your neighbors’ cars–or impregnate your neighbors’ does. (Your neighbor normally has a controlled breeding program in mind.)

But the meat can be good when it comes out of the smoker, or with the right seasonings, and probably also with barbeque sauce.

I prefer lamb, myself–though some people think that it tastes “goaty.”

A READER WRITES:

The Democratic Party has abandoned garden-variety Sexual Outlaws like gays and lesbians. It only wants Transexuals and Story-hour public library drag queens that it can weaponize as freaky/frightening people who inflame the more bigoted Conservatives and force them to show their hands. It also turns the “alphabet people” against each other.

Who was it that said “...bent guys like to dress up as men: STRAIGHT guys like to dress up as women”? Witness Milton Berle, Led Zeppelin, Barry Bonds as Paula Abdul.

BTW Barry as Paula makes up for a lot of Barry as BARRY.

Patrick Swayze donned drag in “To Wang Foo With Love, Julie Newmar” and it KILLED Him.

I trust Americans read stories to their own kids, in their OWN homes, before they take them elsewhere to be read to by OTHERS.

David in The City 

PS. Rest In Power. Heklina!

MSNBC SUCKS

by Matt Taibbi

I’m going to be interviewed on MSNBC today by Mehdi Hasan, the author of a book called Win Every Argument. I’m looking forward to it as one would a root canal or rectal.

I accepted the invitation because it would have been wrong to refuse, on the off chance he was planning a good-faith discussion. If you’re reading this, things have gone another way.

I last appeared on MSNBC six years ago, on January 13, 2017, to talk with Chris Hayes and of all people Malcolm Nance, about the then-burgeoning Trump-Russia scandal.

The Trump-Russia story was white-hot and still in its infancy. That same day, news leaked from Israel that Americans warned the Mossad not to share information with the incoming administration, because Russia had “leverages of pressure” on Trump. Asked by Chris about the scandal generally, I made what I thought was a boring-but-true observation, that we in the media didn’t “have any hard evidence” of a conspiracy, just not a lot to go on.

This was the TV equivalent of a shrug.

Nance jumped on this in a way I remember feeling was unexpected and oddly personal. “Matt’s a journalist. I’m an intelligence officer,” he snapped. “There is no such thing as coincidence in my world.” Chris jumped in to note reporters have different standards, and I agreed, saying, “We haven’t seen anything that allows us to say unequivocally that x and y happened last year.”

“Unequivocally” seemed to trigger Nance. With regard to the DNC hack, he said, “That evidence is unequivocal. It’s on the Internet.” As for “these links possibly with the Trump team,” he proclaimed, “You’re probably never going to see the CIA’s report.” Nance went on to answer “no” to a question from Chris about whether leaks “were coming from the intelligence community,” Chris wrapped up with a sensible suggestion that we all not rely on a parade of “leaks and counter-leaks,” and the segment was done.

To this day I get hit probably a hundred times a day with the question, “What happened to you, man?” What happened? That segment happened, but to MSNBC, not me.

That exchange between Nance and me was symbolic of a choice the network faced. They could either keep doing what reporters had done since the beginning of time, confining themselves to saying things they could prove. Or, they could adopt a new approach, in which you can say anything is true or confirmed, so long as a politician or intelligence official told you it was.

We know how that worked out. I was never invited back, nor for a long time was any other traditionally skeptical reporter, while Nance — one of the most careless spewers of provable errors ever to appear on a major American news network — became one of the Peacock’s most familiar faces.

I don’t know Malcolm and don’t mean to get nasty about this, but: even before that January 2017 broadcast, he had an extraordinary record, one that should have scared away any retraction-averse producer. On August 20th, he went on with Joy Reid and said the Green Party’s Jill Stein “has a show on Russia Today.” This wasn’t true, as Stein quickly pointed out, but MSNBC refused to acknowledge the error. Media watchdog FAIR repeatedly asked for a correction, as did friend Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept, but they refused to budge.

This may not seem a big deal, but at the time it was still weird and something of a pioneering move for a major news organization to just refuse to fix a clear error.

Nance went on to make a lot more, some I would classify as important. A tweet of his in late 2016 was a major source for the pre-election misconception that the Wikileaks-leaked emails of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta were “riddled with forgeries” and “#blackpropaganda.”

He would regularly make all sorts of claims without evidence, like that the K.G.B. had “been surveilling Donald Trump since 1977,” and that “little” comes from Trump’s mouth that isn’t “carefully planned to benefit the Russian Republic,” and all sorts of other nonsense.

I was quiet until he said Glenn “shows his true colors as an agent of Trump and Moscow,” “reports in to his masters in Russia,” and is “deep in the Kremlin pocket.” This was outrageous. I was shocked MSNBC didn’t fire him on the spot. Still, I voiced objections in a measured way I hoped might get through, either to Nance or to someone at the network. “I’ve been on the air with Malcolm Nance and he seemed like a nice guy,” I tweeted, “but this awful practice of calling people traitors and foreign agents based on no evidence has really gotten out of hand.”

Nance’s response was “Ok, you’ve convinced me. You need to be blocked. #Bye.” He remained a regular guest on the network, which didn’t cool on booking him until the Russia story fell apart with the release of the Mueller report the next year.

The Nance situation was symbolic of what happened at the network from the beginning of Trump’s term, really beginning in early 2017. It went from being a place where you had to be at least in the ballpark of demonstrably true to being a place where the factual standard was, “Whatever dogshit drops out of the mouth of any hack or spook.”

Moreover the network didn’t just re-report this stuff, it became the favored launching pad for all the most blatant blue-Anon disinformation, like California congressman Adam Schiff saying he had “more than circumstantial “ evidence of collusion, or former Obama defense official Evelyn Farkas suggesting the Trump administration would try to destroy evidence if they “found out how we knew what we knew about the Trump staff’s dealing with Russians .” Farkas later testified under oath that she “didn’t know anything” about collusion.

You’ll read about this (and see it, in an extraordinary video mashup our own Matt Orfalea prepared for a larger story series coming out in the next weeks), but we found MSNBC mentioned Hamilton 68, the infamous “dashboard” of accounts supposedly linked to “Russian influence activities” outed as a fraud in the Twitter Files, over 100 times in a period between the summer of 2017 and November of 2019.

One of those instances came in a typical MSNBC broadcast from that time, on January 19, 2018. It featured a quartet of security-state goblins — former Bush official Nicolle Wallace, Langley-sniffing Ken Dilanian, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, and ex-CIA official Evan McMullin — gang-botching a story about the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag:

Note how many things they get wrong in this segment. Vance says there’s nothing to accusations of FISA abuse later proven by Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz (“A lot of hullabaloo about nothing at the end of the day”). The CIA’s McMullin touts the Steele Dossier (“Much of it has been validated”). Dilanian rushes at the end to squeeze in the Hamilton hoax (“This release…is the top hashtag among Russian bots and trolls, according to Hamilton 68”).

It’s extremely rare that a journalist who’s actually trying to avoid mistakes makes even one factual mistake as big as falling for the Hamilton hoax or the Steele Dossier, or dismissing the Nunes memo. These people managed all three at once. If I’d made even one error of that magnitude early in my career, I wouldn’t have had a career. This kind of thing was basically constant for years, when MSNBC was the staging ground for many lunatic conspiracy theories involving Trump, Russia, and their delicacy item, the Dossier.

As I was leaving the set of my last appearance on All In six years ago, Rachel was getting ready to go on and re-frame how the network did news. My shrugging take was that if journalists didn’t have confirmation, they couldn’t report. Rachel argued the opposite, that official silence meant you could assume things:

I mean, had the FBI looked into what was in that dossier and found that it was all patently false, they could tell us that now, right? I mean, the dossier has now been publicly released. If the FBI looked into it and they found it was all trash, there’s no reason they can’t tell us that now. They’re not telling us that now. They’re not saying that. They’re not saying anything.

As we later found out, among other things via Jeff Gerth’s gigantic piece in the Columbia Journalism Review, the FBI said nothing about many stories it knew to be wrong, including the influential New York Times exposé, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence.” The possibility that officials can lie to us in this way — leaking, asking that attribution be limited to uncheckable “sources familiar with the matter,” then saying nothing as stories start taking water — is exactly why we don’t stick our necks out for such people.

From that period in early 2017 through the crushing release of the Mueller report — forcing Rachel to cut a trout-fishing vacation in Tennessee short to stammer out, eyes welling with emotion, “This is the start of something, not the end of something” — I do not believe even one person expressing skepticism of the Trump-Russia story came on the channel. That streak ended with poor Chris’s post-Mueller bummer-cast with Michael Isikoff and David Corn, on March 25, 2019...

SO HE WAS GONNA DEFRAUD STORMY TOO

“The Defendant directed Lawyer A to delay making a payment to Woman 2 as long as possible. He instructed Lawyer A that if they could delay the payment until after the election, they could avoid paying altogether, because at that point it would not matter if the story became public.”

(People v. Trump, Statement of Facts filed April 4, 2023, emphasis added)

What a guy.

James Luther

Mendocino

BOB COUSY’S FLASHY PASS

Bob Cousy, the retired American professional basketball player, had really transformed the game with his scintillating style of play. He was the first showman in 1950’s and ‘60s NBA era.

He made a name for himself with some unconventional, unique ball handling and passing skills that gave him the nickname “The Houdini Of The Hardwood”. Mr Basketball’s assist streak was so unmatched either in a number of crowns or consecutive years; he won six championships in seven years.

UKRAINE, THURSDAY, 6TH APRIL

French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday he "can count on" Chinese leader Xi Jinping "to reason with Russia and bring everyone back to negotiating table."

A Russian official sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes triggered a walkout at the UN Security Council. Russia assumed presidency of the body this month. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Poland to sign bilateral agreements and meet with his Polish counterpart. Meanwhile, the leader of Belarus, Russia's closest ally, is in Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

The eastern city of Bakhmut remains the scene of some of the war's fiercest fighting. Ukraine says it repelled about 20 Russian attacks over the past day.

CRUCIAL APOLITICAL INFO

Warmest spiritual greetings, Please accept this email forward, which was sent to me from Earth First!er and pioneering videographer Andy Caffrey of Garberville, California. I am sharing this because it is chock full of crucial information in regard to global climate destabilization, from an impeccable independent radical environmental source who is devoid of any political affiliation. Please get this out far and wide! Thank you very much, Craig Louis Stehr, April 6th, 2023 A.D. 

Part 1: https://youtu.be/pga-GylMbbQ

Part 2: https://youtu.be/9a9HQgI9L78

NRC call: https://soundcloud.com/andy-caffrey/s-call-to-nuclear-regulatory-comm-how-fast-can-nukes-be-cleared-from-rapid-sea-rise

CAFFREY VS. THE HUFF

Huffman's whiny response to Re: My Antarctica video for your staff to watch (and hopefully you and Jared will then watch it too)

Dear Bruce and Lauren,

Surprise, surprise! Jared deigned to respond to my letter and videos (which he didn’t watch but calls weird, anyway). Because Jared has exposed that he thinks climate science about polar ice sheet collapse is weird, I find his letter and my response to be newsworthy, and possibly of interest to you. He’s also calling for me to run against him again, which is weird. I see that as his confession that he is no longer up for the job of tackling the climate crisis and defending the nation as he swore to do in his oath when he took office.

The idea for my new monicker for Huffman was inspired by something Bruce wrote in his endorsement of my 2018 campaign.

Thanks for reading this,

Andy

* * *

From Jared, 9:09 AM, 4/6/2023:

Andy,

It was good to see you yesterday in Redway. I’m going to be candid. You know I’ve always liked you personally and admired your usually good-natured, well-intended passion on climate. Yesterday you crossed the line with some personal insults that I do not appreciate. You seem to be unaware of virtually everything I am doing on climate issues, yet because I don’t want to drop everything and watch the weird videos you’ve created on YouTube, you accuse me of being anti-science and unserious about climate.

You might want to do some reflection about that, if you’re capable of breaking out of the delusion that you are at the center of the climate universe. I’m going to keep doing everything I can, as urgently and effectively as I can, to confront the climate crisis. If you think I’ve got it all wrong and you can do it better, I invite you to present your case to the voters in ‘24 and give it another try. Either way, I wish you well and hope you can refrain from mean-spirited insults. You’re better than that.

JH

* * *

From me back to him:

Jared,

You gave me your personal email some years go. As you know, I have not used it even once until now out of respect for your time. I’m not going to spam or troll you now. I won’t be running against you because I don’t have over a million dollars to do so. I hope you at least read my last letter all of the way through, even if you didn’t watch the videos. It laid out the essential basic facts that you should master.

But why you would call the videos weird, I presume without watching them, is very weird and disturbing. You sound like a C or D student in high school who doesn’t want to do his science homework, so he attacks the teacher for wanting him to do it. I simply want you to master the science you must master to save the country and the planet. Why is that too much to ask?

Your statement here—that my Congressman doesn’t want to do that—is very upsetting. That you are more concerned that I was disrespectful of you than that our polar ice sheets are collapsing on your watch and no one in Congress or the White House is talking about it is… gangsterlike.

National Geographic doesn’t make weird videos. James Hansen doesn’t do weird interviews. NASA puts out videos of weird stuff it finds in outer space, but doesn’t make weird videos either. I don’t make weird videos either. I make documentaries.

I used to follow your podcasts. How are things going with you and Mark Sanford? You seem unable to recognize enemies of our state and have spent your career normalizing most of them. But history shows us that bipartisanism is Democratspeak for co-conspiracy.

The main difference between you and me is that I read and master science and you interview scientists. At this point in the climate crisis, mastering climate science is a requirement of those of you who swear an oath and take it upon yourselves to defend our nation. You don’t know much about climate scientists—who got it right and who got it wrong over the last 40 years, it matters!—because you probably only talk to the “underestimators.” That’s a term I’ve coined in response to, and for, people like Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, and Michael E. Mann who recently decided to launch another greenscare against me and a handful of others, with whom I have no relationship or shared point of view. But I got it right, and the underestimators missed it. So they are now attacking the messengers who have been getting it right.

I first experienced this kind of orchestrated hate movement from the Republicans as an Earth First!er in the 1980s and 1990s, which led to my group being car-bombed and my two partners almost being killed. This movement was called The Wise Use Movement, started by Ronald Reagan and James Watt out of militia groups. Traitors in the Republican party have watered and fueled this movement ever since until it exploded on January 6 (I am very sorry you and your family had to go through that—I hope none of you got PTSD from it).

Now these published “climate experts," in response only to my pointing to the NASA info. and Rignot et al. saying that the WAIS collapse is “unstoppable” (not my word, his!) have created a new hate movement against climate activists who call for us to do more than they do and classed me with a group of people they call “the doomers.” But they are the ones who got it wrong, who never wrote anything (and still don’t write anything) about the threat to civilization from polar ice sheet collapse. They are the ones who presumed it would take 3,000 years for WAIS to melt. Michael Mann’s failure is especially egregious as his specialty is climate modeling and he got it all wrong. But you seem to think that if someone got it wrong in the past they must be getting it right now if they still have a teaching position at a university.

They, and you, and Biden, are still selling an unscientific rosy future scenario, that if we let the frackers continue, drill for more oil in our wild places, but subsidize electric vehicles, our future can be better than anything we’ve experienced so far! What BULLSHIT!

Klein’s con is that the doomers will kill the movement because everyone will get too depressed to do anything anymore. But as you know, my campaign has always been the strongest call to action—demanding that we do more than anyone else is calling for us to do—and to do a whole lot more than the underestimators advocate. Way before Bernie, I’ve been calling for an electoral revolution to disempower the fossil-fueled politicians. The opposite of let’s give up because it’s too late.

Tragically, it’s simply an historical fact that I was the only person who correctly predicted the threat from WAIS collapse before NASA announced it was too late to save. None of the science I presented since 1998 has been refuted by any newer science published in the peer-reviewed journals. I happen to be a genius, so it shouldn’t sound so strange. (I’ll pause here, for you to laugh at that) This failure on the part of the global climate science community is going to wipe out the coastal civilization of 154 nations.

The fact that you don’t even want to know this is, well, criminal negligence IMHO. You should be calling-out Biden when he says that his ev subsidies bill will reduce our emissions, what did he say, 30% by 2030. You should check out Nature magazine's evaluation of his phony math. It’s more like 7%, at best. But you are too cowardly to call out the people who could give you promotions within the party. So you’ve sold out. Why shouldn’t I show disrespect for that? Why are you in Congress if my quips are so upsetting to you? You’ve now insulted me, one of your constituents, by accusing me of making weird science videos. I expect an apology.

You’ve joined a political cult of fossil-fueled Democrats who are culpable for co-colapborating for decades until it was too late, with fossil-fueled Republicans in causing the collapse of our ice sheets. That’s an historical fact too, Jared. Yet you claimed yesterday that the climate issue is your top priority. I think you actually believe that. So why aren’t you on my side, if that is so? I get pissed off at you because every year you don’t do your job in this regard I have to do your climate work for you for no pay! You’d be pissed off too. I was mild and respectful yesterday, yet you are whining about me and not the ice sheet destroyers?

So my video presents the science, which you apparently don’t want to master yourself. Out of watching it I hoped you would do one thing: have a hearing that brings these scientists together: James Hansen, Eric Rignot, Peter Ward, and Ted Scambos. Is that too much to ask of a Congressman?

In my first campaign video of 2012, the first thing I said was, “The Republicans are destroying our democracy. They are literally dismantling it.”

I sure got that right. But you in your Mark Sanford podcast sold us a bill of goods that you could get the essential things done with Republicans (e.g. I guess you believe they aren’t conspiring to destroy our democracy) that must get done immediately. But on your watch on May 12, 2014, NASA announced that WAIS collapse, and so 20 feet of sea level rise, is unstoppable. (You ignored it) The same re Greenland in 2020. (You ignored it.) Now the Thwaites Doomsday Glacier is collapsing. And you still don’t want to know about it? You sound like a Republican climate denialist, or Joe Manchin.

Also in 2012 I warned of the epidemic of psychopathy in the Republican party. (I sure as hell got that right!) You said you could work with these people, and on your watch, because you didn’t see this and fight them, we got Donald Trump, and no impeachments for his first three years because you joined the Pelosi cult and still side with the frackers.

I bet you still can’t answer the question I asked all of you in the debates back in 2012. How much CO2 is too much and what do we have to get it down to to save the planet? The answer is, “below 280 ppm.” In 12 years you haven’t done anything that has reduced atmospheric CO2. It was at 393 ppm when you took office. Today it is at 421 ppm.

Even the covid shutdown didn’t make a dent (see Keeling Curve below). That should tell you that ev subsidies aren’t going to either. A third of a trillion dollars isn’t going to do it, even if it is the most ever spent on climate action (there was nothing spent before Obama so that is saying NOTHING!)

 And now history will record you as the Green New Deal destroyer. Holy shit, Jared, just a resolution? When I wrote it in 1991, it was in response to reports cited by David Suzuki from IPCC, EPA, and the Woods Hole Research Center indicating that the U.S. had to reduce fossil-fuel emissions 50-80% below 1990 levels by 2000-2005. I asked myself, how the hell do we do something so massive, and in time? I looked to history for answers and realized we needed something like the New Deal. The New Deal was not a resolution, Jared! It was the re-organizing principle for the nation!

But then I learned that it was really the WWII war effort that re-organized America so profoundly, so I shifted to a call for the president to declare a National Climate Emergency and re-organize society. But you can’t even do that!

Well, we didn’t do it, so we are losing our polar ice sheets and coastal civilization. And you still can’t comprehend that?!! WTF? But you can whine about my science videos that you didn’t watch being weird?

Over my life there are two avenues of activism that changed my perspective in a way that you should heed: saving forest stands from imminent logging, and saving the lives of homeless people when the temperature drops below freezing. In Earth First! we learned that, for instance, if we don’t stop the operation before Thursday, the trees are gone on Friday. Manning extreme weather homeless shelters I learned that if we don’t do it, people die. In other words, it can become too late. The first time I did that, for six weeks, we saved the lives of three people, after we lost three people during the couple of months prior when we had no shelter.

It became too late to save our polar ice sheets on your watch, Jared. If your conscience was functioning properly, you would be making sure it doesn’t become too late for the residents of coastal civilization or our coastal nuclear power plants instead of whining about videos being weird, that aren’t weird at all.

 So, if I came across as testy with you its because I don’t like consuming my life with unpaid work that my Congressman, who I thought was a decent guy, is shirking.

You’ve joined the dark side, Jared. The collapse of Thwaites will be on you. You will have said nothing.

So I’ve given you a new monicker: Jared “Hopekiller" Huffman

Why you think this is about me is childish, Jared. If this was about me I would have been flooding your inbox with emails.

Do you fucking job or get the fuck out and endorse and fundraise for me! The planet depends on you!

Andy

* * *

From: Andrew Caffrey <andycaffrey@icloud.com> My Antarctica video for your staff to watch (and hopefully you and Jared will then watch it too)

Part 1: https://youtu.be/pga-GylMbbQ <https://youtu.be/pga-GylMbbQ>

Part 2: https://youtu.be/9a9HQgI9L78 <https://youtu.be/9a9HQgI9L78>

NRC call:

Hi John,

You may recall I was talking about this in the 2012 race, as well as in 2014 and 2018. I gave a talk in Monterey during the 2018 campaign. In the new video which I prepared last summer for COP 27, that I would like your science person (and you and Jared, if he’s willing) to watch, I have used excerpts from my talk and combined it with videos made by the scientists whose research I’ve cited all along. So you can hear most of this from them, not my talk.

Tragically, you probably won’t find anyone else who has put these different scientific reports together. Jared seems to think that because he hasn’t heard this from any of the credentialed scientists he’s talked with that this must just be Andy’s thing. But as I’ve said in all of my talks on this topic, I don’t want anyone to believe this because I’m saying it. I’m showing you the science (by establishment scientists all) that disturbed me because if anyone looks at that science, they will see what I’ve seen.

Also tragically, apparently no one else is talking about this like I am because scientists don’t talk about things outside of their discipline. But having been trained at UCSD and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography by Roger Revelle (the man who first started talking about the “greenhouse effect" back in 1957, the man who trained Al Gore, the man who started the Mauna Loa lab that began measuring atmospheric CO2 back in 1958) I can read and grapple with peer-reviewed journals, and in many disciplines.

There are only two disciplines one needs to bring together to see what I’ve seen: ocean paleontology and polar glaciology. Here is a very brief outline of the issue that should be simple enough for Jared to present. None of this science is refuted. It’s just that no one else seems to have put this together.

I’m adding some links here that you don’t need to read. You only need to watch my 2-part video, and hopefully, listen to my call to the NRC. But I want you to see how establishment my sources are, so those additional links are included here if you want to check them out.

1) In 1995, reported in Scientific American, Conrad Neumann’s team was studying prehistoric coral at the Bahamas. They discovered that 120,000 years ago something caused sea-level to go up 20-feet and then plunge at least 50-feet all in one hundred years (net change of 8-inches per year for 100 years). They called it "The Madhouse Century.” (Sea-level went down after rising 20 feet because the last ice age started)

2) So I asked the question, which apparently no one else asked: Where could enough water to raise sea-levels 20-feet very quickly come from?

I spent months in the Berkeley public library reading every article on Antarctica published during the previous ten years in Science, Nature, and New Scientist (all peer-reviewed journals), as well as the IPCC reports. I learned from them that even though they all expected it to take something like 3,000 years for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to melt (apparently it never occurred to them that it could collapse), that it had enough ice that when melted would raise sea levels 20 feet. Also, that WAIS has about 10% of the world’s ice. A ha! That means that 120,000 years ago something had to cause 10% of the world’s ice to melt very quickly!

3) If you look at the cryosphere, you find that there are three main chunks of massive ice on the Earth: the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (~10% of the world’s ice), the Greenland ice sheet (~10%) and the East Antarctic ice sheet (~80%).

East Antarctica’s ice is mostly above sea level on the continent enclosed in a bowl of mountains, but WAIS is sitting on the bottom of the ocean. It’s so heavy that it pushed the crust down a few thousand feet to create its own underwater bowl, which it sits in. Greenland has a lot of coastal mountains too.

4) So I concluded that it was most likely that something caused the WAIS to collapse 120,000 years ago. I just couldn’t see how the other two ice sheets could provide so much water over a 20-year time span. I wrote the Earth Island Journal article and waited to be disproved by credentialed scientists…

But nothing was disproved. In fact, to my horror, the opposite happened.

5) In 2010, I read a book by Univ. of Washington paleontologist and sea-level expert Peter Ward called The Flooded Earth: Our Future In a World Without Ice Caps. In that book, Ward cites a report published in Nature which stated that one million years ago, mostly from WAIS collapse sea-level rapidly rose over 20 feet, just like it would 120,000 years ago. So here my hypothesis that the Madhouse Century sea-level increase came from WAIS was pretty much confirmed.

On Peter Ward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ward_(paleontologist)

6) As you can see in part one of my video, on May 12, 2014, NASA JPL & UC scientists, led by Eric Rignot of UC Irvine, announced that the total collapse of WAIS is now “unstoppable.”

I concluded that since the geological structure of the area under and around WAIS is no different now from what it was 120,000 and one-million years ago, that this means we are again going to see WAIS rapidly collapse over a 20-year period that has not yet begun. However, NASA didn’t say anything about how fast WAIS has collapsed in the past, and I don’t hear much talk about that even now. Which is why Jared hasn’t heard this from his scientists.

7) But a year later, the great James Hansen did say this. In my video, I include Hansen’s CNN interview about his new report from an even larger group of scientists, including Rignot, that we are going to see ten feet of sea-level rise by 2065, and then it is going to accelerate. In other words, that we are now locked in to ten-feet of sea-level rise in 50 years or less (now in 2023, that is 42 years from now). Because Jared has ignored this, we have lost eight years of action to prepare for that. Hansen says in the interview that that increase is based on what WAIS did in the past. (Again, to my horror, I was right in 1998)

8) In the 2016 presidential race I heard Jill Stein say that we are going to see nine feet of sea-level rise by 2050. I looked into that. That figure comes from NOAA. I don’t know of any report from NOAA about this, but that NOAA officials cited this figure in a meeting that year to thousands of insurance company risk analysts.

9) Then, a year later, in 2017, a report commissioned by the state of California concluded that we will see ten feet of sea level rise over 70 years, by 2087.

https://calmatters.org/projects/engulfing-crisis-california-sea-level-rise/#cc-surge-map

10) Those are all pretty close together, yet IPCC, which has a political censorship gauntlet for its executive summary, isn’t stating any of this and most “climate scientists," especially those who are not expert in polar ice glaciology, are still talking about 3-5 feet of sea-level increase by 2200, if we don’t act. And that’s why Jared isn’t hearing this, apparently, from the climate scientists he’s talking to.

All of this, as well as excerpts from a National Geographic program hosted by Peter Ward, Earth Under Water, is presented in part one of my video.

11) Now let’s look at the newer science about the Thwaites “Doomsday” glacier. While WAIS is the size of Mexico, and East Antarctica is the size of China, just this one glacier into the heart of WAIS is the size of Florida or Great Britain. Its collapse will raise sea level a couple of feet. Part two of my video is a shortened, though comprehensive, edit of a press conference held just over a year ago, in Dec. 2021 by Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, and his team of scientists who are working on Thwaites Glacier. They are the American team working there. Their conclusion in this press conference is that the ice shelf (floating ice) that holds back the Thwaites Glacier, will completely shatter like a car windshield in an accident, within five years (by Dec. 2026).

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/14/world/antarctic-thwaites-glacier-climate-warming/index.html

So the question is, once that ice shelf is gone, how fast will the Thwaites glacier (on underwater land) collapse? I don’t have an answer for you. Neither do they. Could that be when the 20-feet of rapid collapse of WAIS begins? Maybe. Or maybe ten years later. But put all of this together and, I think, any prudent politician with a conscience would start to prepare the nation for the nine-to-ten-plus feet of sea level rise coming between now and 2050-2087.

* * *

The last time I saw Jared in Garberville, I informed him that the SAFSTOR procedure for decommissioning nuclear power plants takes over 60 years. I argued that this meant that we have to start decommissioning all of the world’s coastal nuclear power plants now so that they aren’t destroyed by the coming ten feet of sea-level rise over the next 60 years. He lied to me and said that we could get them shut down in time. So I called the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ask them about it. I recorded that call. They have no plans or procedures to speed-up the decommissioning procedures for coastal plants, and were very interested in what I had presented to them.

I do suggest you also listen to that call: https://soundcloud.com/andy-caffrey/s-call-to-nuclear-regulatory-comm-how-fast-can-nukes-be-cleared-from-rapid-sea-rise

Then, of course, since the nuclear waste of our nuclear power plants are stored on site, we have to decide soon where to relocate it, either permanently or temporarily to get it away from the rising seas. Jared should be starting hearings on that too.

If Jared had hearings that put all of this together, he could shut down all of the denialists in Congress. We’d never have another Republican president again. He could have been doing this ever since NASA’s 2014 announcement, but since he didn’t, we’ve lost nine years of preparation.

And then, of course, there is the sticky issue that Jared would have to call out the Democratic fossil-fuel tools too, something he is definitely not up for (Do you see now why I felt I had to run for Congress? I would have no problem at all calling them to task.)

* * *

Part two of my video is the Scambos et al. press conference followed by my conclusions about political solutions. If Jared has a moral core, and can do basic math, then he would have to conclude, as I do, that this collapse is happening now, in this century, because the climate denialists (of both parties) in Congress and the White House, betrayed their oath of office to defend the nation by facilitating the profits of the fossil-fuel industry over defending the nation from climate and ice sheet destabilization.

The latest news from Thwaites, just a few weeks ago in mid-February, is that the glacier itself will collapse like crushed ice, and once it lifts off of the land, years before it melts, it will raise sea-levels just like the level of a drink jumps up when you add an ice cube to it, because of displacement. An ice cube in your drink doesn’t raise the level of the drink as the ice melts. It jumps up immediately when you drop it into your drink. So now scientists are predicting that the Thwaites Glacier itself (not just its restraining ice shelf) will collapse in five to ten years:

"Researchers at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting predicted the Thwaites glacier would probably collapse in five to 10 years.”

I saw this coming and have been warning every member of Congress about it since 1998 when my Earth Island Journal article was published.

So I think all of them not taking this science and having their own hearings with these same scientists makes them all traitors. It’s their obligation (and Jared’s) to do what it takes to find out what is needed to maintain our national security. That’s why I think it is so important to initiate Climate Nuremberg trials (even though a ton of Democrats would have to be put on trial too!). Certainly the devastation of the coastal property of the 154 nations that have ocean coastlines now doomed to twenty feet of sea-level rise from WAIS is a vastly greater crime than anything Putin could do in Ukraine. That’s just moral logic, which Jared seems to have a problem with.

These Congressional and White House criminals will likely be dead when the massive foot-per-year sea-level jumps begin (unless it begins when the Thwaites ice shelf disintegrates in 4 years). Yet they most certainly caused it, and we have proof of what they caused. They should pay the price while they are still alive, not just be condemned by history after they are dead. Most certainly when the Thwaites ice shelf collapses we will have much more proof.

* * *

Besides WAIS collapse, in 2020, NASA and other scientists announced that the total collapse of the Greenland ice sheet has “passed the point of no return.” That’s another twenty feet of sea-level rise that was caused by the fossil fuel industry and its political co-conspirators.

So 40 feet of sea level rise over the next century or slightly more is now GUARANTEED! Again, that should be enough to punish the politicians and industrialists whose conspiracy to generate fossil-fueled profits brought it to this point, even before the coming sea-rise damage begins relocating coastal civilization.

I’m flummoxed why Jared is going along with Biden saying that if we act on climate, we can have a better society than ever before. Just by giving Americans ev tax credits. Oh boy!

Thank you for your consideration of this ominous matter. I would appreciate hearing back from your office after someone has checked this out.

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