Breezy | Daffodils | Farm Gig | Bridge Hanging | Caspar Inn | Skyhawk Radio | Highway Fatalities | Nor'Easter | Firewood Permits | Willits Sky | Plant Sale | Another Bragg | Help Joe | Housing Costs | Russian Gulch | Guitars/Mariachis | Boonquiz | Variety Show | Salute | Drug War | Bud Light | Gomes Judgement | Wash Hands | Ed Notes | Crumb Cover | Chambers Erupt | Yesterday's Catch | Critical Hari | Trump Fatigue | Tat Game | Arguing | Hollow Earth | Mental Crises | Money Needed | Killing Zapata | Capitalism Gangster | Big Prizefight | Honoring Ellsberg | Pinky Power | Senior Impressions | Cat Luck | Ukraine | Ominous Opponent
A PASSING WEAK FRONT is bringing isolated light showers for Humboldt and Del Norte counties today. Gusty northerly winds will develop behind the front today and through Thursday. Mainly dry weather and slow warming will occur Thursday through Saturday. Rain chances will then increase late in the weekend. (NWS)
PHILO APPLE FARM is currently hiring for our Farm Stand/Garden position. We are looking for long term part to full time help (this varies with the season) and can provide accommodations in a fully set up cabin for the right person. This position involves staffing our Farm stand, assisting with the annual garden, supporting our overnight guests, helping with special events, working the apple harvest, and potential involvement with our livestock.
If you or someone you know is interested please have them email karen@philoapplefarm.com to set up an interview. (www.philoapplefarm.com)
64-YEAR-OLD WOMAN HANGS HERSELF OFF A WILLITS BRIDGE
A press release from the California Highway Patrol Garberville office indicated officers were called to Willits’s North Main Street at the Upp Creek Bridge where officers located a 64-year-old Willits woman who had taken her life at the bridge…
EXAMINING THE ROLE OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES (aka CPS) Universal Perspectives with Chris Skyhawk on KZYX on April 13 at 7 pm.
TWO IDENTIFIED, THIRD STILL UNKNOWN
Two of three people killed when the vehicle they were traveling in crashed into a tree April 4 near Ukiah were identified Tuesday.
Gavin Backues, 30, of Eureka, and Caroline Salcido, 22, of Eureka, were killed in the single-vehicle crash along Highway 101, just south of Pomo Lane, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Gregory Van Patten said.
The identifications were made based on surgical history and a known tattoo. The third occupant’s identity will be determined pending DNA analysis.
The 2001 Toyota Echo containing all three individuals was headed north on the highway about 6:10 a.m. when, for undetermined reasons, the driver drifted off the edge of the road and crashed into a tree.
The sedan sustained major front-end damage and caught fire, eventually becoming fully engulfed.
The driver and the two passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. They were taken from the site to Eversole Mortuary in Ukiah.
PERSONAL-USE FIREWOOD PERMITS ON SALE
Personal-use firewood permits are now on sale for wood collection from the Mendocino National Forest. The permit and tags cost $2.00 per cord with a minimum purchase required of $20 for 10 cords. The maximum number of cords that can be purchased is 12 cords per household. Permits are valid through December 31, 2023. Visitors can purchase a permit in person at the Supervisor's Office in Willows or from the Upper Lake District Office. It is suggested to bring a completed permit request form to ease the purchase. Supervisor’s Office 825 N. Humboldt Ave Willows, CA 95988 (530) 934-3316 Mon — Fri 8:30am-12pm/1-4pm Upper Lake District Office 10025 Elk Mountain Rd Upper Lake, CA 95485 (707) 275-2361 Call for days & hours Permits may also be obtained via mail by downloading a firewood permit request form at fs.usda.gov/goto/mendocino/firewood and following the mail-in instructions. Please allow three weeks to receive the permit, tags and the map of cutting areas on the forest. A third-party authorization form to allow another person to cut wood for the permit-holder is also available upon request. It is illegal to remove firewood from the forest without a valid permit. Any wood removed from the forest must be dead and on the ground. The maximum length for a piece of wood to be removed is 6 feet. A cord of wood is a well-stacked pile measuring 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet. A chart with truck bed sizes and approximate cord capacity is available online at https://bit.ly/3kxoocW.
Firewood collected within Lake and Mendocino counties is subject to state and federal quarantines to limit the spread of the Sudden Oak Death (SOD) pathogen. Firewood taken from these counties can only be transported into other SOD quarantined counties, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Marin, Monterrey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma and Trinity counties. After several rounds of winter storms, access into the forest on both county roads and forest roads has been significantly impacted. Visitors should call or check for latest conditions and closure alerts at https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/mendocino/alerts-notices.
The Mendocino National Forest consists of 913,306 acres along northern California’s coastal range. The forest includes the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, four designated wilderness areas, two designated wild and scenic rivers, Red Bluff Recreation Area, and the Chico Seed Orchard. Headquartered in Willows, the forest maintains district offices in the communities of Covelo and Upper Lake.
FORT BRAGG GARDEN CLUB PLANT SALE, SAT. APRIL 15
The Fort Bragg Garden Club's Annual Spring Plant Sale is this Saturday April 15, 10am-2pm. It happens in the Americas parking lot at 300 S. Main Street in Fort Bragg. Plants will include landscape plants, native plants, and edibles. Proceeds support Scholarships for local students pursuing environmental studies.
THE OTHER BRAGG
Editor:
I vote to change Fort Bragg in Northern California to Fort Bragg. Let’s honor Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, not Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. And save a bazillion in new stationery.
Suzi Long
Fort Bragg
ON DECEMBER 26, THERE WAS A CAR ACCIDENT IN POTTER VALLEY that resulted in serious injuries for a young man named Joseph (Joe) Stanley. Joe is currently being treated at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, where he has undergone surgery for a lacerated liver and had his spleen removed. He also has broken femurs and ankles, and his diaphragm is damaged. The doctors are hopeful that he will be able to transfer out of the ICU by the end of the weekend, but it is unclear how long his hospital stay and rehabilitation will be. Joe's family is setting up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of his recovery and the expenses related to his parents missing work to be with him. The family of Joe are asking for financial contributions or words of encouragement to help him and his family through this difficult time.
Link to Joes GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/1229f810
HOW MENDO SLOTH RAISES LOCAL HOUSING COSTS
by Mark Scaramella
In October of 2019 Ukiah’s uber-realtor Richard Selzer wrote:
“The [housing permit] process is painfully slow, and the slow nature of the process is an expense in itself. … On the $2 million invested where Bella Vista [formerly Garden’s Gate] will eventually be built (hopefully), the developer incurs conservatively $10,000 every month in opportunity cost. Although subdivisions [like Garden’s Gate] require some state-level approvals, local elected officials can help pave the way. Let’s demand that they do so.”
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board unanimously approved the extremely over-papered Garden’s Gate permit application. During the discussion leading up to the final vote, Supervisor Ted Williams said that he was unhappy with the state over-regulation of housing projects. Which is a statement of the obvious, of course. But Williams neglected to mention his own Planning Department’s years long obstructionism on the project, a project that has cost the permit applicant, Chico-based developer Doug Guillon of Guillon Inc. well over the $2 million cited by Selzer more than three years ago, It’s safe to assume that Mr. Guillon will factor these millions in permit and planning costs into his housing costs when the buildings eventually go on the market, which obviously undermines the “affordability” claims. At last check, the market rate for this nearly 200 units will be around $400k each. Which means that a family would need an annual income of around $2,000 a month or a 30-year mortgage. At the standard 30% of family income for housing, that translates to a family gross income of a minimum of about $85k per year. This ridiculous processing time occurred under the authority of this board, too. One could blame prior boards for the delays going back to 2005 when the project was first proposed. But these last four years of costly delay are the responsibility of this board. After the vote Supervisor John Haschak thanked Guillon for “sticking with this project.” But nobody asked what could be done to improve these painfully long permit processing times. Nobody has ever even requested the Planning Department to provide a list of pending permit applications with processing schedules and timeframes.
Note: The median family/household income in Mendocino County is around $60k. This means statistically that less than 10% of the families in the Ukiah area can afford these market rate units.
* * *
TUESDAY’S SEMI-FORMAL BUDGET UPDATE devolved into another testy Get Cubbison exercise. It got so bad that Supervisor Ted Williams tossed out a motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the Auditor-Controller-Tax Collector. Williams nearly yelled: “I’ve had enough!” Fortunately, Williams’ colleagues were cooler on the subject with Chair McGourty suggesting that “a more reasoned case” was necessary. Ms. Cubbison tried to explain the various problems she’s dealing with — software shortcomings, short staffing, demands from other departments, new tasks, etc. — and the conflicting priorities she’s juggling. She also noted that the CEO’s office has plenty of analysts and access to all the budget data and reporting in the County’s financial system. But Williams refused to accept it, frequently interrupting, over-talking and angrily denouncing Cubbison for failing to submit a formal budget for her own department or delivering a carry-over report. In the end the Board “directed” that various financial documents be provided to them in the next few weeks. After doubt was expressed about the size of last fiscal year’s available carryover fund, Ms. Cubbison agreed to provide a document showing what the carryover is and how it was calculated.
MOST OF THE PROBLEM is the legacy of former CEO Carmel Angelo who steadfastly refused to provide useful budget reports to the Board despite many requests and promises. Now that the budget has become tighter, with inflation, and revenue shortfalls and new requirements, this long neglected subject leaves people like already short-tempered Williams feeling under-informed. “It’s an issue of competence,” insisted Williams. “I’m wondering how much longer this board will tolerate it.”
OBVIOUSLY, it’s going to take a while to fix this, if ever, especially given the general lack of clarity and ignorance on many of those involved. And Williams’s over-the-top petulance and shoot-from-the-hip accusatory approach will not help.
CAL POLY HUMBOLDT GUITAR AND MARIACHI ENSEMBLES TO GIVE FREE PERFORMANCE
Monday, April 17 at Mendocino College Little Theater
Ukiah CA, April 11, 2023 – Friends of Mendocino College Music, the recently formed affiliate of the Mendocino College Foundation, will present a free concert featuring both guitar and mariachi ensembles from Cal Poly Humboldt at 7pm on Monday, April 17 at the Mendocino College Little Theater. The concert is open to everyone, and seating is first come, first serve and no reservations are required.
Under the direction of Cal Poly Humboldt professor Jennifer Trowbridge, the guitar ensemble will perform a diverse program of music including String Quartet No. 3 by Phillip Glass, Mbira, an African inspired piece by Los Angeles Guitar Quartet member William Kanengiser, traditional Sevillanas arranged by Spanish flamenco guitarist Juan Serrano, as well as music by legendary folk musician Doc Watson and grunge rock bassist Les Claypool.
Ms. Trowbridge will also be directing the newly formed Mariachi de Humboldt with a variety of songs associated with Pedro Infante and Vicente Fernandez including Cuccurucucu Paloma, Volver, Volver, and El Rey. The program concludes with eight Ballet Folklorico dancers joining Mariachi de Humboldt performing Las Alazanas, Son de la Negra, and Jarabe Tapatio.
Both ensembles will also be making presentations at Ukiah High School, S.P.A.C.E., the Instilling Goodness Elementary and Developing Virtue Secondary Schools, as well as the Dharma Realm
Buddhist University while in the area. It’s worth noting the Ukiah High School music instructor Audrey McCombs has also started a mariachi class this year in addition to teaching guitar and band classes.
The Friends of Mendocino College Music is the newest of the 11 affiliates of the Mendocino College Foundation formed with the goal of creating greater opportunities for student performances, extra-curricular educational events, and the exchange of musical experience within and beyond Mendocino and Lake counties. Initiated by Mendocino College guitar instructor Alex de Grassi, Music and Recording Arts professor Rodney Grisanti, and Music professor and Ukiah Symphony director Phillip Lenberg in cooperation with College Foundation director Julie McGovern, the affiliate looks forward to sponsoring more events in the years to come.
THE BOONVILLE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE AND TRIVIA QUIZ returns at 7pm on 20th April, the 3rd Thursday of the month. Hope to see everyone there! Cheers, Steve Sparks, The Quizmaster.
The AV GRANGE VARIETY SHOW is gathering momentum. The show as usual is expected to be a tour duh force showcasing Anderson Valley and way beyond. Of course all this hype is meaningless unless you come through as you always have in the past....magnificently. But we may be a bit out of practice it being almost 3 years since we've been able to get together. Spots are filling on the roster though and excitement is building. Now's the time to get inspired, get up, get out, get together and come up with your very own turn onstage.
Showtime is Friday May 12th and Saturday May 13th We await your call, Abeja 707/621-3822 or Cap Rainbow 707/472-9189
BETSY CAWN WRITES:
Regarding MARIN COUNTY AND THE NEW NEW (THIS TIME IT’S DIFFERENT!) WAR ON DRUGS: Part 1: DEA Special Agent Wade Shannon’s ‘Clear And Present Danger’ by Eva Chrysanthe —
Our counties are participants in the Northern California “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas law enforcement consortium comprised of Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey Counties.
At no time have I been made aware of any such involvement by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office or its marijuana eradication SWAT team, the narcotics task force, or special local task forces formed to address massively injurious distribution of hazardous substances, although from time to time the city of Lakeport’s Police Chief posts reminders on their Facebook page about the dangers of coming into contact with miniscule amounts of Fentanyl.
* * *
Lake County Sheriff’s Office [Facebook page, March 22, 2023]
Over the last several months, Lake County Sheriff’s Office detectives, assigned to the Narcotics Unit, and deputies, assigned to the Roadmap Task Force, have investigated a large illegal marijuana production operation that originated within Clearlake Oaks.
Over twenty locations were investigated after search warrants were authored by detectives and signed by Lake County Superior Court Judges. The search warrants were served at locations in Clearlake Oaks, Clearlake, Lower Lake, Kelseyville, Middletown, Sacramento, and West Sacramento.
During the investigation, a large, sophisticated chemical manufacturing laboratory was located in the Middletown area. The laboratory was using very volatile, combustible, and highly flammable chemicals for manufacturing concentrated marijuana, commonly referred to as hash oil. There were over 780 gallons of the chemicals at the scene, which were not being properly and safely stored, which posed a severe hazard and safety concern to the community. The chemicals on scene were later safely removed by a hazardous materials team. The laboratory was producing over 200 pounds of hash oil each day it was active, which was determined by ledgers and products found on scene. Over 200 pounds of hash oil, 7,000 pounds of processed marijuana, over 600 marijuana plants, and an assault rifle were located at the scene. Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detectives and Lake County Victim’s Advocates found and identified three victims of forced labor human trafficking at the scene. The victims were provided with resources and services to assist them with their pathway to recovery from the traumatic conditions they were forced to be involved in.
During the investigation, another location, associated with the suspects of the laboratory, was discovered in the city of Clearlake. At this scene, over 11,000 marijuana plants were located. Additionally, Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detectives and Lake County Victim’s Advocates found and identified another victim of forced labor human trafficking at the scene. The victim was also provided with resources and services to assist them with their pathway to recovery from the traumatic conditions they were forced to be involved in.
Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detectives later served search warrants at properties associated with the suspects involved in the investigation in Sacramento and West Sacramento. During the service of the search warrants, over 50,000 cartridges of ammunition were located and seized. Over 20 firearms were seized, including several assault rifles. Over 100 pounds of hash oil product from the laboratory was located, as well as large amounts of packaged processed marijuana bud. Additionally, Lake County Sheriff’s Office Detectives discovered illegal proceeds earned through the unlawful sale of controlled substances. The assets included United States currency in excess of $300,000.00. The investigation is ongoing.
A special thanks to the supporting and assisting agencies in the investigation, who aided in maintaining the safety of the victims, the community, and the environment. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank Lake County Victim/Witness advocates, CALFIRE, Lake County Fire Protection District, Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Justice, Sacramento Police Department, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, Lake County Code Enforcement, Clearlake Code Enforcement, and Lake County Environmental Health.
For more information and resources about human trafficking, visit humantraffickinghotline.org/en.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office remains dedicated to ensuring Lake County stays safe. To report any suspicious activity or possible human trafficking, call central dispatch (707)263-2690 #lakecountyca
* * *
Some of our neighborhoods are plagued by vandalism, theft, threats of violence and actual acts of violence, illicit drug manufacturing and distribution, illegal occupation of “vacant” or abandoned homes, fires set by illegal occupants, sewage and water system contamination and other violations, vehicle thefts, catalytic converter thefts, destruction of public property, and neighborhood degradation well known to all of our law enforcement and fire protection agencies. The long slow (agonizingly slow) legal property abatement process has managed to “red-tag” one property in Clearlake Oaks several times; Code Enforcement has hauled away trailer loads of trash and dumped vehicles and human detritus, over and over again, without being able to prevent re-occupation. Elderly and disabled residents in these neighborhoods are afraid to complain (and those who do get short shrift from some of the law enforcement agencies) or are intimidated by the intruders. Banks who suddenly own homes due to foreclosure are walking away from the properties and declaring the loss on their taxes. We are in many ways defenseless, while these billions of dollars are spent on the fat and happy bureaucrats who benefit from the US DEA program.
Looking forward to Part II, Ms. Crysanthe. Thanks always to the AVA.
MENDOCINO CITY COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT PREVAILS IN SECOND GOMES LITIGATION
In a judgement entered on March 24, 2023, the Mendocino County Superior Court found in favor of the Mendocino City Community Services District (MCCSD) in the most recent case filed by Steven Gomes (Gomes II). Mr. Gomes had once again challenged MCCSD’s legal authority to manage groundwater within the District. The court ruled in favor of the District on all of Gomes’ claims except one, and determined that MCCSD was the prevailing party for the purposes of this litigation.
This was the second time Mr. Gomes has attempted to challenge the District’s authority to manage groundwater at a significant cost to District ratepayers. In the first case the District was successful on every claim, but the Court of Appeals reversed on the narrow ground that the District should have held two public hearings (the District held only one)before adopting a 2007 version of the groundwater management program.
Following the Court of Appeals decision in the Fall of 2019, the District re-adopted the groundwater management program using the two hearing process in Spring of 2020, with two improvements. One improvement allows for additional groundwater extraction in January-March of rain-years with 120% of normal rainfall from October-December. The second improvement was intended to protect public funds. The District inserted a “prevailing party” attorneys fee clause under which either party could be awarded attorneys fees if they prevailed in litigation. Mr. Gomes challenged the re-adoption of the groundwater management program on several grounds, including the revised attorneys fee clause. The trial court ruled in favor of the District on all counts, except for the revised attorney’s fee clause. It shall be removed from the Ordinance without affecting the remainder of the Ordinance.
MCCSD Superintendent Ryan Rhoades expressed optimism, and hopes that the District can direct its attention and resources back to the job of providing community services, rather than proving that we have the right to provide such services.
(Mendocino City Community Services District)
ED NOTES
THE WHOLE FOODS store on Trinity Place at 8th and Market in San Francisco has closed after a year in operation. A spokesperson said the store closed down last night due to “safety concerns” for its staff. “We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being. If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.” Translation: The free range junkies and psychos in the neighborhood shooting up dope in our bathrooms, stealing stuff and threatening our workers have made it impossible to do business at this location.
* * *
THE PURSE-SEINE
by Robinson Jeffers
Our sardine fishermen work at night in the dark of the moon; daylight or moonlight
They could not tell where to spread the net, unable to see the phosphorescence of the shoals of fish.
They work northward from Monterey, coasting Santa Cruz; off New Year’s Point or off Pigeon Point
The look-out man will see some lakes of milk-color light on the sea’s night-purple; he points, and the helmsman
Turns the dark prow, the motorboat circles the gleaming shoal and drifts out her seine-net.
They close the circle
And purse the bottom of the net, then with great labor haul it in.
.
I cannot tell you
How beautiful the scene is, and a little terrible, then, when the crowded fish
Know they are caught, and wildly beat from one wall to the other of their closing destiny the phosphorescent
Water to a pool of flame, each beautiful slender body sheeted with flame, like a live rocket
A comet’s tail wake of clear yellow flame; while outside the narrowing
Floats and cordage of the net great sea-lions come up to watch, sighing in the dark; the vast walls of night
Stand erect to the stars.
.
Lately I was looking from a night mountain-top
On a wide city, the colored splendor, galaxies of light: how could I help but recall the seine-net
Gathering the luminous fish? I cannot tell you how beautiful the city appeared, and a little terrible.
I thought, We have geared the machines and locked all together into inter-dependence; we have built the great cities; now
There is no escape. We have gathered vast populations incapable of free survival, insulated
From the strong earth, each person in himself helpless, on all dependent. The circle is closed, and the net
Is being hauled in. They hardly feel the cords drawing, yet they shine already. The inevitable mass-disasters
Will not come in our time nor in our children’s, but we and our children
Must watch the net draw narrower, government take all powers–or revolution, and the new government
Take more than all, add to kept bodies kept souls–or anarchy, the mass-disasters.
These things are Progress;
Do you marvel our verse is troubled or frowning, while it keeps its reason? Or it lets go, lets the mood flow
In the manner of the recent young men into mere hysteria, splintered gleams, crackled laughter. But they are quite wrong.
There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew that cultures decay, and life’s end is death.
CHAMBERS ERUPT
To the Editor:
This afternoon, I watched with sadness the eruption of anger and frustration directed at Auditor-Controller Chamise Cubbison by the Board of Supervisors during their budget hearings.
It was towards the end of the meeting at approximately 4:30pm.
Their feelings were understandable.
My question is this: Why doesn't each county department have something like an advanced version of a QuickBooks set-up?
Why?
My other question is: Why doesn't the county use ERP software?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is widely available. A lot of it is cloud computing.
Off the shelf ERP is available at SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Vena, DELMIAWorks, Tipalti, Phocas Software, Multiview, DataSnipper, Budgyt, Spreadsheet Server, and other vendors.
The Board of Supervisors needs to direct the county's IT department build out a "future-proof" platform that is a single data model with flexible deployments and streamlined integrations.
Shared data and cross-team workflows should make collaboration seamless. AI-powered automation should drive efficiency.
It's 2023, for God's sakes. This platform is possible.
The platform also needs to have the capacity for real-time insights built into it. The Board of Supervisors and the CEO both the information they need anytime, anywhere, on any device.
The platform will help improve day-to-day operations with 24/7 access to government business tools and functions.
Come on, guys! It's time for county accounting to come into the 21st century.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, April 11, 2023
CHRISTOPHER ASHURST, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
TIFFANY BAIRRINE-HART, Delray, Florida/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting, probation revocation.
CHAD HAKE, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, burglary tools.
SWAN JOHNSON, Ukiah. Evasion.
LAWRENCE KENNEDY, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.
OWEN KENNY IV, Willits. Kidnapping, false imprisonment, intimate touching against the will of the victim, resisting.
JACOB MENDOZA, Ukiah. Domestic battery, protective order violation.
SOPHIA PICENO, Ukiah. Trespassing, vandalism.
DAVID SHEARER, Ukiah. Protective order violation.
ANTHONY STOKES, Fairfield/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
CRAIG STEHR: This Is the One Instruction that Is Critical: youtube.com/watch?v=WI-Ab02uElc
ED NOTE: I'm feelin' it, Craig. Hari, hari, hari, Harry Krispy!
ALL DAY EVERY DAY
Editor:
I enjoy watching the news with my morning coffee and a quick catch up in the evening. Recently, however, every channel has been colonized by Donald Trump. I am admittedly partisan: to fact, science, dignity and respect for my nation’s institutions. I cannot think of a person who has done more to erode them all than this man who now apparently commands all airtime, to the exclusion of discussions we should be having if we hope to survive as a nation and species.
Storms, fires and floods are devastating communities everywhere, but I’ve yet to hear a single policy discussion or plan on TV to reduce atmospheric carbon. Even if we manage the goals of the Paris accords, climate distress will not change. Until we draw down carbon in the atmosphere, these traumatic events will continue. Next to this, Trump’s indictment is insignificant.
The search for profit has transformed information into sensational stories and he said/she said opinions. The networks’ search for cash and dominance mirror Trump’s concerns, and so he wins by feeding Trumpism to his base from every news venue. There’s news we may want, which we have much of, but there is too little of the news we need. Time to start reading again.
Peter Coyote
Sebastopol
ARGUING
by Paul Modic
Don’t get into an argument with me, that never works and you will never win. Why? Because my points will be based on facts: I’m honest and I don’t bullshit.
I’m not talking about an email, social media, or phone argument, we have to be face to face in the same space for me to school you. Why? Because I will have many questions to ask and will grill you until you give up and admit you were speaking from emotion or just expressing your opinions, which aren’t facts.
If you lie I’ll ask for proof, if you have no proof then it’s just your opinion. (For example when people were whining that Hillary had stolen the nomination from Bernie, saying, “I saw it on the internet,” is not proof. Unless you were in the room witnessing it being stolen it’s just a talking point.)
The reason I’ll never lose is because I’ll only get into an argument if I know I’m right, kind of like a successful lawyer will only ask a question to a witness in court if he knows what the answer will be.
If you leave the room angry or crying it means you lose. If you refuse to answer my questions it means you lose. If you keep interrupting me it means you lose. If you insult me you lose. Being emotional, annoyed, or angry doesn’t mean you win, quite the opposite.
If you get upset it doesn’t mean your convictions are stronger than mine, it just means you’re loud, self-righteous, and trying to use emotion to manipulate the situation, to get me to apologize for upsetting you, something which won’t happen.
I won’t argue with an expert, beyond expressing my opinion, but I might not take his advice, like in the recent case of the colonoscopy my doctor recommended. He may be correct and I have no rational argument, I just don’t want a mini video camera, with polyp-snippers attached, guided up my ass, well, for now anyway.
Last fall at the hospice benefit I ran into Kevin who played for the Briceland Buzzards back in the eighties. “I remember you,” I said. “You guys lost the big game when you dropped that fly ball thirty-nine years ago.”
“No, I didn’t,” he said.
“Yes you did, why would I make that up?” I said. It’s amazing how good my memory is after all the weed I’ve smoked, though that was a memorable tournament. “What, did it ruin your life to lose that game for your team?”
“Ask Owl,” he said, but I won’t bother, that guy is so full of shit.
It’s pretty easy to win arguments because people lie a lot, convincing them that they are lying means delving into another layer of their mental disorder. For example, the latest excuse this woman told me for staying in an unfulfilling relationship was the weather:
“We fight a lot during the summer, heat makes me drowsy and leads us to fight. I look forward to the rain,” she said. Really? You’re gonna give him into the rainy season to see if he changes into the person you want him to be?
The lying epidemic is so extensive that people assume that I lie also, and sometimes someone will say to me, “Well, when you said that, I assumed you really meant this.”
“No,” I reply. “You should know me by now. If I say that I mean that, not this. I say what I think the first time.”
It’s possible they’re not liars, just deeply disturbed. Maybe their choice is lie or go crazy?
One way to define this social intercourse is an expression I fancy I’ve coined to describe delusional people: “I see reality for what it is, you see reality for what you want it to be.”
When someone’s spewing obvious bullshit, like they’re not even trying to tell a believable lie, that is tiresome and disrespectful because the underlying assumption is I’m so stupid I’ll believe their bullshit. (The easiest argument to win is one about money because then the bullshit spews heavily.)
I don’t like to argue (unless it’s a lighthearted discussion), it’s enervating and doesn’t feel good, but if I’m attacked I tend to fight back ten times as hard.
It’s not worth arguing with most people, if they’re not being rational what’s the point?
RAPID RESPONSE MENTAL HEALTH UNIT
Editor,
What happened in the Old National Bank in Louisville on Monday (“Louisville shooter livestreamed attack”) might have been prevented, if Kentucky had a better supported mental health system. Even though the Louisville police acted with the fastest possible response (two officers confronted the shooter in less than three minutes after the 9-1-1 call), the AR-15 assault gun that was used could have been taken away from the shooter had such a red flag law been in place and if the police had known the shooter, Connor Sturgeon, was suicidal. Sturgeon “legally” bought the assault rifle on April 4 at a Louisville gun shop. The investigation is ongoing, yet Sturgeon was a bank employee. What was lacking before Monday was a psych response unit composed of professionally trained police officers, accompanied also with volunteer mental health counselors. Also, with some citizens ready to act on any leads or information from family or friends that someone is having a mental crisis.
Now five are no longer alive and officer Nicholas Wilt, 26, required brain surgery yesterday. He was on only his fourth shift and may die in the University of Louisville Hospital ICU. Pray for him.
Frank Baumgardner
Santa Rosa
HOW MUCH MONEY do Americans need to live comfortably? San Francisco demands after-tax salary of $84,000 - surging 13% on 2022 - while St. Louis is the most affordable at $57,000
San Francisco has the highest cost of living in the US while St Louis has the lowest, a study of America's 25 largest metro areas reveals
Residents need a post-tax salary of $84,026 to live comfortably in the San Francisco, Oakland, Berkley area, compared to $57,446 in St. Louis
The research used the 50/30/20 rule that allocated 50% of a salary to essential expenses, 30% to 'wants' and 20% for savings
ON THIS DAY, 10 April 1919, Emiliano Zapata, peasant leader during the Mexican revolution of Nahua Indigenous and Spanish descent, was assassinated in Chinameca, Ayala, by the "revolutionary" Carranza government.
Early in life, he began to advocate for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Morelos when he saw wealthy landowners continually stealing their land, with no response from the government. So he began taking part in armed land occupations.
With the outbreak of revolution in 1910, Zapata became the leader of the Liberation Army of the South. The force was a peasant militia fighting for "tierra y libertad" (land and freedom), a slogan they adopted from Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magón.
After Francisco Madero took power in 1911, Zapata denounced him for betraying the revolution, and drafted the Ayala Plan: a radical programme of land reform. Madero himself was then overthrown by counter-revolutionary Victoriano Huerta.
Zapata's southern army allied with the revolutionary armies in the north, led by Pancho Villa and Venustiano Carranza. They soon overthrew Huerta, and called a convention to form the new government, which Zapata declined to participate in as none of the organisers had been elected.
With Carranza in power, he only implemented moderate reforms, which fell well short of the Ayala plan, so the Zapatistas fought on.
Carranza put a bounty on Zapata's head, hoping that one of his own fighters would betray him, but none of them did. In the end he was lured to a meeting with one of Carranza's men who pretended to be interested in defecting.
When Zapata arrived for the meeting he was riddled with bullets, and his body photographed for propaganda purposes.
He remains to this day a national hero, and Indigenous rebels in Chiapas who rose up in 1994 and created an autonomous territory named themselves after him.
I SPENT 33 YEARS and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
— Smedley Butler, Marine Corps general
The first Jack Dempsey vs Gene Tunney bout was fought in front of 120,557 fans, back in 1926.
It was THE largest, LIVE, paid attendance EVER for a boxing match.
The final gate came close to 1.9 million dollars, nearly 100 years ago. That’s huge money for back then.
It’s also interesting to see boxing fans from corner to corner and not a single I-Phone in sight.
DANIEL ELLSBERG HAS FOILED THOSE WHO WANT HIM CONFINED TO THE PAST
by Norman Solomon
In just a few words — “those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future” — George Orwell summed up why narratives about history can be crucial. And so, ever since the final helicopter liftoff from the U.S. Embassy’s roof in Saigon on April 30, 1975, the retrospective meaning of the Vietnam War has been a matter of intense dispute.
The dominant spin has been dismal and bipartisan. “We went to Vietnam without any desire to capture territory or to impose American will on other people,” Jimmy Carter declared soon after entering the White House in early 1977. “We went there to defend the freedom of the South Vietnamese.” During the next decade, presidents ordered direct American military interventions on a much smaller scale, while the rationales were equally mendacious. Ronald Reagan ordered the 1983 invasion of Grenada, and George H.W. Bush ordered the 1989 invasion of Panama.
In early 1991, President Bush triumphantly proclaimed that reluctance to use U.S. military might after the Vietnam War had at last been vanquished. His exultation came after a five-week air war that enabled the Pentagon to kill upwards of 100,000 Iraqi civilians. “It’s a proud day for America,” Bush said. “And, by God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all.”
Two decades later — delivering what the White House titled “Remarks by the President at the Commemoration Ceremony of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War” — Barack Obama did not even hint that the U.S. war in Vietnam was based on deception. Speaking in May 2012, after he had more than tripled the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Obama said: “Let us resolve to never forget the costs of war, including the terrible loss of innocent civilians — not just in Vietnam, but in all wars.”
Moments later, Obama flatly claimed: “When we fight, we do so to protect ourselves because it’s necessary.”
Such lies are the opposite of what Daniel Ellsberg has been illuminating for more than five decades. He says about the Vietnam War: “It wasn’t that we were on the wrong side; we were the wrong side.”
Outlooks like that are rarely heard or read in U.S. mass media. And overall, news outlets have much preferred to make only sanitized references to Ellsberg as a historic figure. Much less acceptable is the Daniel Ellsberg who, since the end of the Vietnam War, was arrested nearly a hundred times for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience against nuclear weapons and other aspects of the warfare industry.
After working inside the U.S. war machinery, Ellsberg became its highest-ranking operative to opt out — bravely throwing sand in its gears by revealing the top-secret Pentagon Papers, at the risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. The 7,000-page study exposed lies about U.S. policies in Vietnam told by four successive presidents. During the 52 years since then, Ellsberg has continually provided key information and cogent analysis of pretexts for U.S. wars. And he has focused on what they’ve actually meant in human terms.
Ellsberg has explained, most comprehensively in his 2017 landmark book The Doomsday Machine, what is worst of all: The nation’s military-industrial-media establishment refuses to acknowledge, let alone mitigate, the insanity of the militarism that is logically headed toward nuclear war.
Helping to prevent nuclear war has been an overriding preoccupation of Ellsberg’s adult life. In The Doomsday Machine — subtitled “Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner” — he shares exceptional insights from working for the doomsday system as an insider and then working to defuse the doomsday system as an outsider.
An upsurge of media attention to Ellsberg resulted from the emergence of other heroic whistleblowers. In 2010, U.S. Army private Chelsea Manning was arrested for leaking a vast quantity of documents that exposed countless lies and war crimes. Three years later, a former employee of a National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, went public with proof of mass surveillance by a digital Big Brother with mind-boggling reach.
By then, Ellsberg’s stature as the Pentagon Papers whistleblower had risen to near-veneration among many liberals in media and others happy to consign the virtues of such whistleblowing to the Vietnam War era. But Ellsberg emphatically rejected the “Ellsberg good, Snowden bad” paradigm, which appealed to some eminent apologists for the status quo (such as Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote a specious New Yorker piece contrasting the two). Ellsberg has always vigorously supported Snowden, Manning and other “national security” whistleblowers at every turn.
Ellsberg disclosed in a public letter in early March that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, with a prognosis of three to six months to live. Now, in the closing time of his life, he continues to speak out with urgency, in particular about the need for genuine diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia, as well as the U.S. and China, to avert nuclear war.
Many recent interviews are posted on the Ellsberg website. Ellsberg remains busy talking with journalists as well as activist groups. Last Sunday, vibrant and eloquent as ever, he spoke on a livestream video sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America.
Grassroots activists are organizing for the national Daniel Ellsberg Week, April 24-30, “a week of education and action,” which the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy, based at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, is co-sponsoring with the RootsAction Education Fund (where I’m national director). A central theme is “to celebrate the life’s work of Daniel Ellsberg, to take action in support of whistleblowers and peacemakers, and to call on state and local governments around the country to honor the spirit of difficult truth-telling with a commemorative week.”
No matter how much the defenders of the militaristic status quo have tried to relegate Daniel Ellsberg to the past, he has insisted on being present — with a vast reservoir of knowledge, an awesome intellect, deep compassion and commitment to nonviolent resistance — challenging systems of mass murder that go by other names.
(Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His next book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, will be published in June 2023 by The New Press.)
JACK DEMPSEY:
Championship fighting: explosive punching and aggressive defense.
Rule 5. Your pinky is the key to your power.
“The power line runs from either shoulder straight down the length of the arm to the fist knuckle of the little finger, when the fist is doubled. Remember: The power line ends in the fist knuckle of the little finger on either hand," Dempsey writes. "Gaze upon your ‘pinky’ with new respect. You might call that pinky knuckle the exit of your power line - the muzzle of your cannon."
WHAT HAPPENED TO AMERICA
NYT asks a dozen elders…
Seniors play an outsize role in politics: On Jan. 20, 2025, Joe Biden will be 82 years old, and Donald Trump will be 78. More than half of current U.S. senators are 65 or older, and millions of seniors make their voices heard every election cycle. But despite these facts, we don’t hear enough directly from regular Americans 65 or older.
That’s why we invited 12 seniors, ages 71 to 88 and from several states, to tell us about what it’s like to be an older person in American society today. For an hour and a half, they discussed and argued about the promise of aging, the perils of ageism and their views on the direction of the country today (and whether it should be led by a man in his 80s or late 70s).
Though many of our participants pointed to their favorite decades in the past, there was also a general sense that the so-called golden years really are golden. “Freedom from worry, struggle — this is the best decade of my life,” said Eugene, 80, one of the participants. “People should look forward to the future,” said Francis, 83. “I’m just going to make memory after memory.”
The participants were split on how old is too old to run for and hold elected office. “I go for younger ones. Get those old ones out of there,” said Elizabeth, 82. “For me,” said Elaine, 83, “it depends on the person. It’s not the age. It’s where they come down on these issues.”
Asked whether politicians cared very much about the needs of Americans in their 70s and 80s, not a single participant thought politicians did. “They take one look at a senior and say, ‘He’s not producing a thing. He’s doing nothing good for the people.’ And it’s wrong. They just look at us like we’re numbers,” said Francis. “So they look at us as irrelevant, I guess is the word. That’s how I feel,” said Elaine. We hope this focus group — and your reading it — is a step toward combating that feeling of irrelevance.
— Patrick Healy, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Adrian J. Rivera (NY Times)
HEMINGWAY ON EASTER:
"If you are rested I would go,” I urged. “Get up and try to walk now.”
“Thank you,” he said and got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust.
“I was taking care of animals,” he said dully, but no longer to me. “I was only taking care of animals.”
There was nothing to do about him. It was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro. It was a gray overcast day with a low ceiling so their planes were not up. That and the fact that cats know how to look after themselves was all the good luck that old man would ever have.
— The Old Man at the Bridge, Ernest Hemingway
UKRAINE, TUESDAY, 11TH APRIL
As the fallout from the recent leak of classified US military documents continues, a US House Intelligence Committee member warns — if authentic — it could have deadly consequences for the Ukrainians in the war with Russia
Ukraine has already altered some military plans due to the leak, a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN, as the US assesses the event's impact. The Kremlin dismissed accusations of Moscow's involvement.
More than 11 million Ukrainian refugees — around 87% of them women and children — have fled to Poland since Russia invaded in February 2022, Poland’s EU representation tweeted on Tuesday.
The US State Department officially declared the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was "wrongfully detained." While Russia has maintained that Gershkovich violated Russian law, he has denied the accusations.
RE: The platform will help improve day-to-day operations with 24/7 access to government business tools and functions.
Come on, guys! It’s time for county accounting to come into the 21st century.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
—>. Until the County of Mendocino Board of Supervisors, is willing to admit that they were blind sided or swindled in approving financial and budget matters by former CEO Carmel Angelo, nothing may change until Angelo’s outgoing job performance County glowing proclamation is revisited and revoked in an agenda vote.
Sako may continue to be stymied and marginalized to simply convey a point, that the ‘Emperor wears no clothes’, in next voter’s election campaign flyer cartoon mailer, to compete with previously winning photo of ag advisor, now Supervisor, Glenn McGourty’s gaze across Lake Mendocino.
RE: TUCKER CARLSON INTERVIEW OF TRUMP LAST NIGHT
“Who’s the biggest problem? Is it China? Could it be Russia? Could it be North Korea? No. The biggest problem is from within. It’s these sick, radical people from within.”
-Trump
Marmon
Oh yeah. The enemy within. Where have we heard that before?
Oh yeah, the enemy within, that’s what we used to call mold hiding out in pot plants…
The 5th Column were those pesky regiments of spider mites, as I recall. I bought one of those Robert Jordon shirts (based on the character by Hemingway) from Smith & Hawkin (a tribute to the late Dave Smith) with the big breast pockets to carry all the various nippers, scissors, etc. when I worked the SoHum grows and tramped the paths from Briceland to Redway, from there to Garbleville, etc.
ladybugs, predator mites, lacewing larva, pyrethrum—none of it worked against the spider mites,
finally we got shop vacs with a long tube attachment and vacuumed the buds, those long colas,
out in the hot sun vacuuming up the mites every other day, branch by branch–that was the worst…
Sweet, dude. Brilliant in its simplicity and practicality. I have a rechargeable little hand vac and I can see the utility of it in retrospect. Do you put moth balls in the dirtbag? I have friends legally in the business still, jumped thru all the crazy county hoops, but they don’t talk about their business.
Remember the maxim on that black Mercedes Benz w/ a license plate frame that read “silence is golden, duct tape is silver”?
I bet they don’t, would be a depressing conversation no doubt, then again I just spotted a couple likely third world trimmigrants being met at the grocery store parking lot by a smiling young relic in his pickup truck, hmm, i guess someone’s still in the biz…
nah, it’s all over now baby blue…
Hey, remember “H” out by the junction? I have a story about visiting there you might like to read, should i just pop it here or do you have an email for it?
Pop it here by all means, but no, I wasn’t hip to the “H.” I might recall it when I see your story, though.
Dealing with J
I couldn’t sell my weed and I became that boring person who, whenever I saw someone I knew, didn’t even say hello first, just “Hey man, can you help me connect? You know anyone who wants any? Sour D, as much as you want.” Didn’t even say hello first! Obsessed. Who will buy my wonderful buds? It reminded me of when I used to stand in front of the Woodrose Cafe ten or fifteen years before with a bud in my front pocket looking for a connection..
I started driving around and desperately knocking on doors. I had met this friendly guy a few years earlier at the Woodrose who shared an interest in classic cars with my brother-in-law. He had told me his wife was recovering from heart surgery at their place in Redway though he probably did his growing up the Alderpoint road somewhere.
One day driving around I cold-knocked on his door in Redway. I didn’t have his number so I would have to annoy him in person with my quest: Help me sell this weed! He wasn’t home but I recognized his wife as a long-time Ettersburg resident and she recognized me too. “I don’t know if you or Sam are into moving stuff,” I said, “but I’m just trying anything, so I thought I’d ask.” She was nice, didn’t seem put out, and said she’d mention it.
“Okay, thanks. Tell Sam I said hi.” I gave her my number and never heard back from them. Soon after I got home there was a knock on my door. It was this guy who had legally changed his name to “Crooked Prairie.” He was a nice guy I’d seen around for years though pretty full of himself. He was a bit of a contradiction, always talking about this healthy living stuff while sporting a huge belly that was not a good sign for the future.
“Hey man, can you help me out?” he said. “I gotta move my shit and my last connection didn’t show up this year.”
“Man, I was just doing the same thing, knocking on doors! You’re my doppelganger,” I said. “Sorry, I can’t help you.”
“I got 98 pounds of OG,” he said.
“Well, I have no idea what to do with it. I can’t sell my pounds. You got some sample pounds out in the car? I guess I could take one just in case,” I said. “I’ve got seventeen OG myself so who knows?”
“I really gotta find someone to buy my weed,” he said. “I’m starting my garden for this year and I’ve still got all my stuff.”
“Yeah, right, I think it’s over. Well, it was a forty-year boom, longer than most.” I thought it over for a moment and then said, “Well if you’re really desperate I know this last resort shit show that you could try. He’s a total low-baller out in Briceland and he’s probably still moving tons of weed. Do you know Jerold Money? “
“Yeah I know who he is. I think I talked to him once or twice,” Crooked Prairie said. “Do you know where he lives.”
“Yeah, right there by the road.”
“Okay, just go out there, bring some elbow samples, and tell him I sent you. 98 pounds of OG. What do you want for that?”
“Twelve,” he said.
“Okay, then try to get eleven. Good luck. Tell me what happens.”
A couple days later I got a text: “All gone.”
I called him up. “Really? You got rid of it all? Amazing. And a good price?” He wouldn’t say but I figured eleven. “Shit, well, maybe I should try him too. Do you have his number?” He gave me the cell but it was almost impossible to get ahold of Jerold Money, or J as he is widely known, on the phone. The next day I threw ten pounds of Sour Diesel in my trunk and just drove out there. It was the usual chaotic J scene.
I was standing in the backyard with my big garbage bag of ten Sour D’s. Another farmer I knew was standing there with his big plastic bag of pounds. We exchanged glances as if to say, “Yup, it’s come to this, dealing with J as the last resort.”
Sitting around the picnic table was another middle-woman just hanging out. J’s teenage daughter was walking back and forth from the creek in her bikini. About thirty feet away was a brand new white truck, maybe a rental, with a couple people inside. Another guy was shuttling back and forth from the picnic table to the truck bringing samples to the guys from New Jersey. “We got a situation here,” J said. “He doesn’t want to come out of the truck—he had a bad experience or something last time. Lemme see what you have.” He looked over my pounds and sent one over with the runner. “What do you want?”
“I want a thousand,” I said. J looked doubtful if not incredulous. After some back and forth to the truck he said, “He’ll give you eight but I still need my fifty cents so I’ll try to get you eight if I can get my fifty.” (Translation: His fifty bucks cut per pound.)
“I don’t want eight,” I said. “I want nine.” Back and forth it went. Really? Settle for eight for Sour D in 2017? Had it really come to that? I said no thanks, packed up my shit and left.
Later I saw Crooked Prairie at a party and asked him how his deal had gone down. “I will never deal with J again!” he said. “First I hauled all 98 pounds to Briceland where he checked it out and then he told me to take it to Weott where he controls like a block of houses. Then this other guy comes over, checks it out, and wants to take it all down the street. I looked at J and said what the fuck, are you guaranteeing that? He shrugged and nodded. Sure enough the guy came back with all the money and I counted it and got out of there. It was the most stressful deal I’ve ever done.”
That’s a great story but, no, I don’t know those guys.
Harold?
okay, never mind,
just something i heard once
I washed dishes at the Woodrose and lived behind the Mateel in a tent a waitress from Shelter Cove gave me, back in ‘08; in ‘13, I worked for an “artist” who rented a “studio” on Miller Creek. The only weed I sold was an oz to a tourist from Oregon. You won’t believe it but he gave me $200 for a lid of Mendo Purple.
The enemies from within are those who engage in this pointless fight. What is there to fight about here, other than a very vocal personality? There is no specific, or central policy being debated. But fight we must.
I think he was talking about RINOs George.
Marmon
That’s hilarious!
But couldn’t a RINO cruelly gore a rogue elephant (read, Trump Republican) with that awful horn on their snouts, and “spill his guts?”*
Remember when Micky Spillane spilled his guts, came clean, coughed it up, got it off his chest (what a relief), and was a better man for it?
Good grief. Donald Trump can’t find his ass with two hands and a search party. That anyone should believe anything he says is both laughable and terribly sad.
That is what Trump is saying the enemy within is. I am saying the enemy within are the people engaged in the utterly meaningless Pro vs. Anti Trump debate.
GEORGE W. BUSH, WORLD-CLASS HUMANITARIAN
There are always surprises in this world, some of them large in scope. I believe, as do lots of others, that George W. Bush, was a poor president, with not much that redeems his record. Here, by a respected progressive journalist, Nicholas Kristof, are excerpts of another quite stunning—and surprising—view of one facet of his legacy:
“When George W. Bush Was a Hero”
Nicholas Kristof
“This is a tough column for a liberal to write. You may recall that I spent eight years hammering President George W. Bush for just about everything he did (and he deserved it!), yet one more thing must be said: Bush started the single best policy of any president in my lifetime.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Bush’s mammoth program to fight H.I.V. and AIDS. That turned the tide of the epidemic and has saved 25 million lives so far.
Think of that: 25 million lives. That’s like saving every Australian. That’s more than all the Jews killed in the Holocaust and all the people killed in the genocides of Armenians, Cambodians, Rwandans, Bosnians, Darfuris and Rohingya; all the confirmed deaths from Covid worldwide; all the deaths of American troops in all wars in the country’s history back to 1776; all the gun deaths in the United States in the last half-century; and all the auto deaths in the United States in the last half-century — combined.
Bush’s initiative was called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. It paid for antiretroviral medicines for people with AIDS and for efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, including to newborns through childbirth. I knew how transformative PEPFAR had been when I interviewed coffin makers in Malawi and Lesotho and they fretted about the collapse of their business model: Because of Bush, many fewer people were dying.
‘Genius plan; pretty crap acronym,’ Bono called it. He also described it as ‘the most eloquent expression of American values anyone can think of in recent times…’ ”
NEW YORK TIMES, April 8, 2023
Matt Ford, from Dem party PAC Stand for Better, just tweeted:
“We just confirmed
@SenGillibrand
will chair an open hearing on #UAPs / #UFOs on April 19th in the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee under the Senate Armed Services Committee.
This is what true leadership looks like.
This is about your national security.”
I am now an ensign in the Space Cadets preschool — a kind of ROTC for the new US Space Force, — so I cannot tell you this is a sham as it would be in breach of my S&C files security clearance; but on the other hand, how can I watch a friend walk into a post while his eyes are fixed on the stars?
Ensign, the National Defense Authorization Act enables you to brief the DOD UFO office director and Congress about this program you work for. Don’t be shy! You’re not restricted by your NDA nor all those Top Secret labeling restrictions.
Talk about walking into a post…Obama’s next documentary is about Betty and Barney Hill, “White Mountain”. Whoa. He’s certainly doing his part.
Tell that to Mr. Assange.
Or better, explain it to his persecutors.
Obama and Holder judged him a publisher and not to be prosecuted. The NDAA provisions for 2023 have no relevance to his situation, which changed when Pompeo and Barr saw him as a lawbreaker for helping Manning crack a password. The NDAA provisions specifically referenced lifting NDA and classification restrictions for participants in UFO related special access programs. Specifically mentioned are crash/retrieval/reverse engineering efforts. Assange btw makes fun of the UFO issue, trashing Hillary and Podesta for their UFO interests.
No wonder you have it in for him.
Now I begin to glimpse the scope and structure of the outrage leveled at him.
You don’t believe in our hacks;
We don’t believe in your quacks.
I think Julian should be free. I don’t care if he or anyone belittles the UFO subject or ridicules students of UFOs. People are going to have a hard time dealing with this.
Do you know the words to the new USSF *song? They liberated Semper from the Marine Corps and tacked on some airy nonsense about guard duty in the turrets of the most stupendous Castles in the Air anyone outside an asylum can imagine, and the insignias for this branch of the armed forces has been lifted right off of Capt. Kirk’s Star Trek uniform… are you keeping abreast of theses developments?
*They paid undisclosed millions to Carnage for the march so it better be stirring…
A Space Force General yesterday on UFOs:
https://twitter.com/AdamGoldsack/status/1647118843729281024?s=20
Don’t forget…this Wednesday 6:30 am Kirsten Gillibrand’s subcommittee has a classified closed hearing with Sean Kirkpatrick and 7:30 an open hearing.
The House is having a UFO hearing on June 13.
So called whistleblowers from special access programs have briefed members of key committees re “crash retrieval and contact”
Details related to April 19 hearing:
https://www.rdrnews.com/news/national/senate-holding-new-hearings-on-uaps-april-19/article_3cace3fe-d957-11ed-b1ec-935873a47452.html
Mike, you were there w/ Dan Hamburg when he met his guru — what was it you said about the charisma exuding form the both of these two characters and the exuberance of the crowd of hippies, the flower power vibes and lysergic energy swirling around like amoebae …something like that, wasn’t it? C’mon, man, you tell it better than me.. .you were there, an eyewitness to history, a primary source we call it at the shop, priceless to some of lesser moment to others but far more substantial than this red herring about visiting threats to national security from outer space, huh.
I don’t think Dan ever met or sat with Da….but, his wife did. Hamburg told me once that his wife did experience “shaktipat” from sitting with Da. That’s the alleged yogic transmission of energy…..feels like an electromagnetic current. I experienced that too. (In 1975 and 1986, multiple times.)
Bruce, I don’t feel there is a threat to natsec from any of these beings. BTW, Colm Kelleher, a previous director of that DOD UFO program, yesterday answered yes to the question of whether we have recovered any of their craft. That’s all he would say for now. Journalists have confirmed at least four people working in special access programs have briefed AARO and Congress (after provisions in the NDAA enabled people to bypass their nda and classification restrictions). The coverup is ending.
People curious about publically available data related to the variety of beings present here can find that presented here
https://www.et-cultures.com/blog Around 20 papers so far….
The threat isn’t coming from aliens in outer space. The threat is coming from Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin and Boeing et al, who have wanted to build this fabulous Star Wars web of nuclear-armed satellites since George Senior and Ronnie Ray-Gun’s day and since then they have bought and sold your courageous and unimpeachable heroes in Congress on both sides of the pickle barrel in question, which, if memory serves, was … well, you tell me. What are we really talking about here?
…oh, yes. An external threat to justify it. And you and your Area 57 lot have handed it to them in spades. The USSF brass are strutting around their new base in South Korea, thanking you chaps with stardust in your eyes and alpenglow on your faces for burnishing their stars to the luster of a quasar.
“Hear hear, let’s have a round of Jameson for all members of the officers club, to drink the health of their champion fan, our Mike Jameson, pity the puny irony of it all and bumpers all around
.
Yes, we are the biggest threat to ourselves. True.
BTW, homo sapiens may die out here, but the species won’t die out…..
64-YEAR-OLD WOMAN HANGS HERSELF OFF A WILLITS BRIDGE
Ouch! But probably a pretty quick way to go.
Eat steak, wear furs
Was that snapped in backward Wyoming? Recently?
RE: NPR. NPR indignantly left Twitter today after being labeled State Media, and my thoughts on that well if they aren’t fuckin state media with Scott Simon on the DC beat then State Media does not even exist in the western hemisphere.
RE: PRETTY COOL
King’s Keegan Murray will be the first top-5 pick to face Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs as a rookie. Big moment for the Sacramento Kings rookie from Iowa.
Marmon
Warriors in four.
To Seniors 65, and older
You have been given the gift of a lifetime, more precious than gold…the opportunity, the chance to be able to come together as the most powerful, and largest political power group to ever be assembled at one time, and reject the status quo.
Don’t blow it.
Too late. We already have.
How’z that?
As a lifelong dedicated civic activist and organizational management professional, I thought it would be a “no brainer” to mobilize and activate the very large number of “older adults” in Lake County, California. No such luck. As Mr. Anderson said, “Too late. We already have.”
The only really viable organization that existed when I came here in 2000 was the state and regional Gray Panthers, which folded years ago for lack of participation. At that time, there were only two Gray Panthers members in the region, over in Ft. Bragg, and they were not actively participating in state-convened meetings (no internet service to facilitate, of course). Eventually the national organization also folded up.
Currently, there are several state organizations making meaningless noise about the new “Master Plan on Aging,” produced by the state, trying to address the needs of disabled persons and older adults “served” by the state department and Area Agencies on Aging, but none those programs speak about the dearth of critical services needed by this population sector and its community-based service providers.
Losses of important medical and emergency management services is leaving many of us in the lurch, and depriving disabled persons of supportive assistance that is clearly called for in the Older Americans Act and the Older Californians Act.
Only the ability to “participate” in government meetings has done anything beneficial to “empower” disabled persons to try to influence lawmaking and enforcement, and the very limited changes to the Ralph M. Brown Act resulting from last year’s AB 2449 do not support the continuation of “remote access” after the cessation of the state’s declared pandemic health emergency. And even that is only available if the participant has the technology, internet service, and telephonic capacity to do that. Read ’em and weep.