Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Frosty Mornings | Ukiah Sky | Thaddeus Bradley | Garage Sale | AVUSD News | Eel River | Boonquiz | Fire Retardant | Empathy | Plant Sale | Fifth Beatle | Mendo Disparities | Missing Flyers | Boontling Classic | Dog Jury | Ed Notes | Audio Blues | Lit Stories | Yesterday's Catch | Forceful Expectorations | Campaign Donation | Draymond Suspended | Barns | Making Do | Glass Couple | Classroom Cruelty | Shooting Days | Fitzgerald Muse | Immoral Core | Weapons Ban | Ukraine | Coyote Benefits | Government Secrecy | Capital Installation

SHOWERY CONDITIONS continues across the northern portion of the region through this afternoon, with snow levels around 2500 feet MSL. Lingering cold air will promote frost and freezing temperatures tonight. Dry and warming trend expected heading into Saturday as high pressure builds in. A weak upper trough will approaches the region Sunday into early next week bringing mostly light rain to areas north of Cape Mendocino. (NWS)

THADDEUS KEEGAN BRADLEY

On September 20, 2021 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was notified of the presence of human remains underneath Underpass Road at the intersection of North Highway 101 in Willits.

A motorist who was traveling through Mendocino County had stopped at the location and located the human remains while walking their dog.

Sheriff's Detectives were summoned to the scene and a corner's investigation was initiated to determine the identity of the human remains and the cause/manner of death.

Sheriff's Detectives collected a DNA sample from the human remains and submitted the sample to the California Department of Justice Jan Bashinski Laboratory in Richmond.

On April 11, 2023, the Sheriff’s Office was notified by the California Department of Justice that a DNA match had been made on the human remains submission.

The DNA analysis identified the human remains as being that of Thaddeus Keegan Bradley, 27, of San Antonio, Texas, who had been living a transient lifestyle prior to death. His mother reported Bradley missing to the Arcata Police Department in July of 2022.

Familial DNA samples were obtained during that time and entered into the National Combined Missing and Unidentified System (NAMUS) by the Arcata Police Department.

On April 11, 2023, after official identification of Bradley's remains, the coroner's investigation was concluded with his death being classified as an accidental death due to acute methamphetamine toxicity.

AVUSD QUICK UPDATES

AV Unified Students of the Month

Super proud of our students of the month for April nominated by their teachers for many, wonderful things and kindnesses!

They received a $6 Mosswood card and a positive letter!

Panther Squad - first training opportunity is TOMORROW AT THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, Wednesday April 19 @ 5:30pm in the AVES cafeteria. (THIS TRAINING MEETS THE REQUIREMENTS FOR JUNIOR/SENIOR HIGH).

Any parent who would like to join the Panther Squad to come increase engagement on campus during recess times - now is the time to sign up!

All volunteers must complete the Panther Squad requirements:

1. Up to date TB test
   
2. Fingerprinting (the district will pay you back for the cost)
   
3. Sign a confidentiality agreement
   
4. Attend a Panther Squad training session at either AVES or AVHS
   

Panther Squad Training dates at AVES: April 19 @ 5:30pm or April 26 @ 4pm (before Elementary Open House).

Summer School:

Registration is open for all students for Summer School! CALL THE HIGH SCHOOL OFFICE OR EMAIL MISS EWING AT SEWING@AVPANTHERS.ORG TO REGISTER.  WE ARE CREATING BUS ROUTES NOW, SO WE NEED TO KNOW IF YOUR STUDENT IS ATTENDING.    The “deadline” to sign up for Summer School is April 28. We will accept students after 4/28 but we need to know as soon as possible.

DUAL ENROLLMENT EXPLAINED FOR FAMILIES/STUDENTS: JOIN US IN THE LIBRARY ON TUESDAY, APRIL 25 AT 5:00 TO LEARN ABOUT HOW THIS AMAZING OPPORTUNITY CAN OPEN HUGE DOORS FOR YOUR KIDS AT NO CHARGE.

ELEMENTARY NEWS:  Kindergarten & TK registration is open! Ask the elementary office for a registration packet. Preschool registration is May 31st.

Take care,

Louise Simson, Superintendent

BOONVILLE QUIZ TIME: THURSDAY NIGHT

Yes, it’s the third Thursday of the month so that means The General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz will be taking place at Lauren’s at The Buckhorn beginning at 7pm… Hope you can make it for all the fun, banter, and prizes!

You know it makes sense. Cheers, Steve Sparks, The Quizmaster

IT WORKS

Editor: 

I am a retired forest firefighter. I have seen firsthand and up close how aerial fire retardant can stop the spread of a forest fire, particularly one that is just getting started. The group that calls itself Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics — which is not a U.S. Forest Service employee organization but a collection of concerned citizens — claims that there is “no scientific evidence that retardant changes wildfire outcomes.” (“Battling fires from sky takes toll on aquatic life,” Sunday's Press Democrat). These people have obviously not been on a real fire or taken any classes about this extraordinarily valuable firefighting method. Of all the damaging lawsuits people feel the need to file, this has got to be one of the worst.

B.B. Kamoroff

Laytonville

PLANT SALE AT EARTH DAY FESTIVAL 4/22

On Saturday from 12-4, at the Earth Day Festival, Noyo Food Forest will sell plants that we've grown at the Learning Garden. Most plants will be priced at $3 or $5.

Plant Sale List

Come support Noyo Food Festival and celebrate EARTH DAY in community.

Earth Day Festival 2023, Saturday, April 22 - 12-4pm

Noyo Food Forest (300 Dana Street, Fort Bragg High School campus)

All events are FREE and open to the public.

More information at https://noyofoodforest.org/earth-day/

MENDO DISPARITIES

Editor

I would like to address the issue of disparity in Mendocino County’s response to families experiencing a serious mental illness crisis. First by stating that when an individual is experiencing such an episode, it is not an individual experience, first and foremost it is a family one! Secondly a community crisis that requiress appropriate & quick action! Thirdly education and response should be cohesive and compassionate.

I have had the unfortunate experience of having to ask for help and intervention on many occasions through RCS crisis line & UPD, at that time there was not a working understanding of who was responsible for field crisis calls. RCS refused, UPD claimed they are not mental health workers and we did not have a mobile crisis unit.

You soon learn that nobody wants to take on the responsibility of mitigating a mental illness crisis. That does not fly with SMI! Serious Mental Illness is a very cruel disease that is downplayed & seen as an individuals responsibility. Every day families are discriminated against as they try to navigate the system and get help as their loved one deteriorates into their illness! It is simply unacceptable.

As I witness the response by MCSO & Search and rescue to locate and aid Riley Hsieh as he had walked away from home while having a Serious Mental Illness Crisis, I am terribly sad and disturbed. So sad for Riley and his family because I understand this on a deep personal level, it is painful and scary. I pray he is found safe and given the appropriate care and help.

That is where disparity comes in, unfair treatment in a time of a Serious Illness Crisis. The response and aid to Mr. Hsieh is not the norm in a Mental Illness Crisis in Mendocino County. The answer I received to aid my son during many crisis was none, until he committed a crime.

If I were standing on the corner having a heart attack people would rush to my aid ASAP and call 911 a medical intervention no questions asked! If it is a person experiencing severe psychosis and paranoia which is a medical crisis we ignore it as if it is not our problem. The call for aid does not come if you are the mother, discrimination? The very ill street people we allow to remain sick without intervention and treatment is a disgusting lack of care for our community as a whole. Laws aside intervention is necessary Change is inevitable and unification of protocol is what we must strive for!

It’s really shameful to see how quickly help arrives no questions asked if you have some sort of clout. But for families like mine we mostly get discarded like trash, like were the problem, being poor is the problem, we somehow don’t deserve equitable response.

Let’s delve into compassionate unified educated response. Our community would thrive in so many meaningful ways if we cared enough to appropriately address the needs of those battling Serious Mental Illness.

Sincerely,

Mazie Malone

Ukiah

THE BOONTLING CLASSIC IS BACK! North Coast Striders is pleased to announce that the 38th Annual Boontling Classic 5K footrace will be held on Sunday, May 7th, 2023 at 10:00 am at the Anderson Valley Elementary school in Boonville, California. Runners and walkers of all ages are welcome.

Ribbons will be given to the top three placers in each of the ten age divisions, as well as plaques for first man/woman/non-binary. A post-race drawing will be held with prizes generously donated by local Anderson Valley businesses. All proceeds will go to the Anderson Valley Food Bank in Boonville, CA.

Fee: $15.00 Adults (18+); $5.00 Youth (6-17); $30.00 Family; Kids under 6 years of age can race for free.

Locally printed t-shirts are an additional $10.00/person and are in limited supply

Online registration will be open until the race starts. In person registration will be available on the day of the race only, starting at 8:30 am. 

For more information, contact race directors Zane Colfax or Angie Setzer at zane.colfax@gmail.com or via phone or text at 334-233-9607.

Race Contact Info: If you have any questions about this race, please contact the race director at zane.colfax@gmail.com

ED NOTES

TUESDAY MORNING'S CHRONICLE ran a series of stories along the familiar lines of Anderson Valley being the “unspoiled Napa Valley,” in which our very own Val Hanelt, alone among the usual local wine and tour promoters, appeared thusly:

“Change is hard to come by without local government. Boonville is one of the last unincorporated towns in California. There’s no mayor; no city council; no police department. 

It’s difficult for locals to lobby for improvements, and the job typically falls on passionate retirees, like Valerie Hanelt, a director of the Anderson Valley Community Services District. 

Hanelt has spent the past eight years leading an effort to get Boonville clean drinking water and a new sewer system funded by the California government. The initial well tests “came back pretty grim” with “significant contamination issues,” she said. “There were very few parcels that had wells not affected by E. coli and nitrates.”

Boonville’s socioeconomic status falls well below the California average; according to U.S. Census data, Boonville’s household income is $45,000 compared to $85,000 across the state. Less than 30% of the population holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. Due to this low socioeconomic status, the government has agreed to fund 100% of the infrastructure — committing $36 million — although completion of the project is still two to three years out. 

Even then, Hanelt said there won’t be much room for Boonville to boom. The systems will mostly be maxed out with the existing properties; this means growth is limited to filling in the empty storefronts and building accessory dwelling units (ADUs) for much-needed housing. Most of the town’s undeveloped land is zoned for agriculture, she said, not commercial development.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/anderson-valley-tourism-17786073.php

THE COUNTY OF MENDOCINO has suddenly imposed impossible financial conditions on the Anderson Valley Senior Center, which just scrapes by as it is in providing its crucial services to Anderson Valley's senior citizens. The Senior Center would henceforth be required to pay a rent of $250 a month, which it does not have and, even more onerously, the county would require the SC to pay the county's maintenance staff at a rate the county does not pay them. Taken together, these requirements would put the Senior Center out of business, and put five people out of work.

ONE WAY to perhaps get permanently around the county, would be for our CSD to take over the premises and continue the SC as is, un-roiled by county edicts. Our CSD already has responsibility for the Little Red School House Museum property.

I have attached a copy of the existing MOU from 2015 and the new proposed lease. 

FROM FRIENDS OF THE EEL: “We are thrilled to share that the Eel River has been selected by American Rivers as one of America's Most Endangered Rivers®! The list features ten rivers at a crossroads with upcoming opportunities to address serious threats.”

“THRILLED”? The battered Eel is about finished as a fishery and serves mostly as a water diversion for the most undeserving people possible — a handful of Potter Valley “ranchers” and, even more undeserving, Mendocino and Sonoma County grape growers.

AUDIO BLUES

Dear Editor,

While I don’t disagree with your evaluation of Scott Simon’s pretenses, I wonder if you’ve listened to Ayesha Rascoe on Sunday’s Weekend Edition. I don’t find her pretentious and she seems a capable reporter, but I think her abrasive voice, wild tonal shifts, and mispronunciations (e.g., Goggle is not “Goo-Goo”) do not meet the high standards of a national network. She’s not the only one: yesterday I heard another well-educated newscaster refer to Putin as “Pu’in”). There are plenty of other southern-born people whom I hear on the air who could better represent NPR or any other network.

Name Withheld

Boonville

ED REPLY: When I first heard Ayesha Rascoe on her first Sunday as an NPR host, I rejoiced, and am still rejoicing. A real person on NPR? A real person who talks like a real person, doesn't fake emotions? I'm amazed that NPR would take the risk of its listener's wrath, the same listeners contented with the massive audio fraud of Scott Simon all these years. Truth to tell, I don't listen to NPR but for an hour in the morning while I exercise my bone bag. On Simon Saturdays, when he goes too far in the emotional fraud he specializes in, well, it has the one benefit of forcing me to work him out of my system by doing more push-ups, more curls, more minutes in the Chinese Thinker, longer walks. Every Saturday, it takes me an average of thirty more minutes to make sure I've exorcised him, and Ayesha Rascoe, bless her all her days, coming on the very next day after the toxic dose of Simon? She is enormously helpful in my weekly recovery process.

ENJOY Peter Lit's wild stories and history lessons about running the Caspar Inn in the 1960's and forward on the #MendocinoCoast https://bit.ly/400LPN2 

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, April 16, 2023

MARCO ALARCON, Willits. Narcotics for transportation and sale.

SCOTT BRUSHA, Selma/Ukiah. Vandalism, conspiracy.

SEAN DEWIL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-intoxication by drugs & alcohol.

JAKE LEWIS-KODY, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

MICHAEL MCGEE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

PAUL MOORE-NORTHRUP IV, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

DAVID NARRO, Eureka/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-under influence.

CRAIG NOWLIN, Ukiah. Petty theft with priors, conspiracy, unspecified offense. 

VICTOR SANCHEZ-GOMEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ANNIE STANDARD, Fort Bragg. Robbery, false imprisonment, taking vehicle without owner’s consent, evasion.

THOMAS THORSON, Nice/Ukiah. County parole violation.

BRENT WARREN, Willits. DUI, suspended license.

KEVIN WORLEY, Ukiah. Conspiracy. 

YA NEED MORE OXYGEN TO CLEAR YER SINUSES

Watching the Body-Mind Complex Continuously

Warmest spiritual greetings, The previous evening was spent going outside of the Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center in Ukiah, California, and forcefully expectorating as much mucus as possible, while feeling faint and generally sick. All of the inhaler-cough syrup-lozenges did not ameliorate the situation much, but a cup of hot tulsi tea from India calmed the system down enough to eventually be able to return to the bed in the dorm area and sleep sketchily. Awoke at 9:30am, and following morning ablutions, walked to Plowshares Peace and Justice Center for a free sumptuous meal. Then, boarded an MTA bus and am now at the Ukiah Public Library on computer #5 tap, tap tapping away. Tomorrow, I have two afternoon appointments at Adventist Health, first to meet the personal physician that the system is assigning to me, and second to have something called ECHO done at the cardiovascular department. There is a dire need to identify what precisely is the malady (other than the usual diagnosis from the American Medical Association that I am basically fine, and the problem is breathing air pollution). The immediate need is to receive effective medical services, which identify precisely what the malady is, and then to treat it effectively. The United Health Care-Medicare Advantage membership covers a lot, insofar as payment is concerned. Meanwhile, I sit here listening to: Improve Your Cycle of Breathing

Does anybody know any place, any practitioner, anything at all which would be effective in healing this medical malaise, which has been ongoing for over five years? Although it is true that I am the witness of the mind, nevertheless, the body-mind complex is necessary for taking action on the planet earth, and needs to be healthy! Otherwise, am sitting here silently chanting OM at the Ukiah Public Library; having said the Catholic prayers last night and the Buddhist mindful practice was done in the bed earlier. I remain committed to destroying the demonic and it would be a good idea to return this world to righteousness. But don't take my word for it. Ask Christ, Buddha and Krishna. And The Goddess has a few words to add also. Peaceout.

Craig Louis Stehr

WARRIORS’ DRAYMOND GREEN SUSPENDED FOR GAME 3 AFTER GAME 2 ALTERCATION

by C.J. Holmes

Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has been suspended by the NBA for Thursday’s Game 3 of the first-round playoff series against the Sacramento Kings.

In an in-the-paint tussle, Green stepped on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis midway through the fourth quarter of Game 2 on Monday.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, the NBA said the suspension “was based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts.”

With 7:03 left in regulation, the Warriors were transitioning up the court on offense. Sabonis wound up on the ground and grabbed at Green’s leg. In retaliation, Green stepped on Sabonis’ chest and was ejected from the game, while Sabonis was assessed a Flagrant 1 foul. 

The referee's explanation for the ejection was that Green had stepped on Sabonis too hard. As Sabonis fell to the ground before the incident, he could be seen on video grabbing Klay Thompson’s jersey. 

Sabonis was taken for X-rays of his sternum, which came back negative, according to ESPN. About an hour after news of Green's suspension, the Kings announced that Sabonis is questionable for Game 3 because of a sternum contusion.

The defending NBA champion Warriors trail Sacramento 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.

In comments to the media after the Warriors' 114-106 loss, Green said: “My leg got grabbed. Second time in two nights. Referees just watch it. I’ve got to land my foot somewhere. And I’m not the most flexible person, so it’s not stretching that far.”

Green had eight points, four rebounds and five assists in just over 31 minutes before his ejection.

Green also served a league-mandated one-game suspension last month, sitting out the Warriors' March 17 game in Atlanta (which they lost) after picking up his 16th technical foul of the season two days earlier when he threw the ball at the head of the Clippers' Russell Westbrook.

The postseason suspension will bring to mind for some of Green being forced to sit out Game 5 of the 2016 Finals after taking a swipe at the groin of then-Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James in Game 4. 

The Warriors, who were defending champions that season as well, blew a 3-1 series lead as Cleveland won three straight and the franchise's first NBA title.

(sfchronicle.com)

MAKING DO

by Laurie Moore

“Rudy, I went to a realtor today.”

Probably in their marriage she had been too dreamy and inconsistent. For love to last, you had to have illusions or have no illusions at all. But you had to stick to one or the other. It was the switching back and forth that endangered things.

“Again?” Rudy sighed, ironic but hurt. Once love had seemed like magic, Now it seemed like tricks. You had to learn the sleight-of-hand, the snarling dog, the Hail Marys and hoops of it! Through all the muck of themselves, the times they had unobligated each other, the anger, the permitted absences, the loneliness grown dangerous, she had always returned to him. He’d had faith in that—abracadabra! But eventually the deadliness set in again. Could you live in the dead excellence of a thing—the stupid mortar of a body, the stubborn husk love had crawled from? Yes, he thought.

The television flashed on automatically, one of the government ads: pretty couples testifying to their undying devotion, undying bodies. “We are the Undying,” they said, and they cuddled their children, who had freckles that bled together on the cheeks, and toys with glassy button eyes. Undying, the commercials said. Be undying. “I can’t bear it,: Mamie said. “I can’t bear the brother and sister of us. I can’t bear the mother and son of us. I can’t bear the Undying commercials. I can’t bear washing my hair in dishwashing liquid, or doing the dishes in cheap shampoo, because we’re too broke or disorganized or depressed to have both at the same time.” 

Always, they’d made do. For toilet paper they used holiday-imprinted napkins—cocktail napkins with poinsettias on them. A big box of them, with a tray, had been sent to Rudy by mistake. For towels they used bath mats. For bath mats more poinsettia napkins. They bought discount soaps with sayings on the label like Be gentle and You need not be strong. “We’re camping out here, Rudy. This is camping!” She tried to appeal to something he would understand. “My work. It’s affecting my work. Look at this!” and she went over to a small drawing table and held up her half- finished sketch of Squanto planting corn. She’d been attempting a nuclear metaphor: white man learning to plant things in the ground, which would later burst forth; how the white man had gotten carried away with planting. “He looks like a toad.”

“He looks like a catcher for the Boston Red Sox.” Rudy smiled, Would she smile? He grew mock-serious: “The faculties of discernment and generosity are always at war. You must decide whether you will be muse or artist. A woman cannot be both.”

“I can’t believe you,” she said, staring accusingly around their apartment.” This is not life. This is something else,” and the whole ill-lit place stared back at her, hurt, a ditzy old beauty parlor flunking someone else’s math.

“Forget this Squanto thing,” he said, looking compassionate. “I’ve got an idea for you. I’ve thought about it all day: a children’s book called Too Many Lesbians? He began motioning with his arms. “Lesbians in bushes, lesbians in trees… Find the lesbians…”

“I’m going out for some air,’ she said, and she grabbed her coat and flew out the door. It was evening already, zinc gray and chill, the puddles freezing on the walks in a thin glaze. She hurried past the shivering Rosies at the corner, hurried six blocks in a zigzag to look at the bird feeder again. Visit a place at night, she knew, and it was yours.

When she reached it, the house was dark, holding its breath, soundless so as not to be discovered. She pressed her face against the gate, the hard cilia of its ironwork, and sighed, longing for another existence, one that belonged to a woman who lived in a house like this, the lovely brow of its mansard roof, thoughtful with rooms. She felt a distrust of her own life, like those aerospace engineers reluctant to fly in planes of their own design, fearing death by their own claptrappery.

The bird feeder stood tall as a constable. There were no birds.

CLASSROOM CRUELTY

by Eric S. McMahon

Statistics assault us constantly, and are absorbed, even ones that, on their face, seem far-fetched. Two-thirds of high-school students can’t identify the United States, handed an unlabeled map, or name combatants in the Civil War. Most dangerous profession, riskier than mining or riveting high steel: cab driver.

“Wild,” one marvels, reading such reports. The latter spurred contemplation of thankless, under-remunerated careers endured by teachers. Son of a dedicated, veteran educator, I nonetheless proved a troublesome, lazy, obnoxious pupil.

No secret ever made that I viewed chalk-wielders as irritating, insufferable chumps (except certain younger females objectified in adolescent fantasies). School bored me witless, and I grew infuriated, resentful because it was compulsory. The rap on me, invariably, was: “doesn’t live up to potential,” along with “Unsatisfactory” ratings for comportment.

Three decades older, fuller-focused vision, myself through their eyes: a callow, sullen smartass, guaranteed bright spot in an already delightful day. There were conferences, visits to the offices of guidance counselors and principals, but I displayed more stubbornness than self-importance (which took work).

By the time my junior year arrived, my act had been repeatedly rehearsed, thoroughly refined.

American History topped the menu for 11th-graders, a subject actually of interest to me (meaning, of course, I already knew all about it). Leslie Pritikin was a foppish, effete, bowtie-wearing blowhard, small and shiny. His canned babyfood lectures were unendurable. Exposed to full-term mind-numbing blather, my ears would surely begin bleeding.

Stewart, sprawled across the desk next to mine, was obviously equally enervated. The merciful three-o’clock bell freed us, and we commiserated at a pizzeria one afternoon.

“I’ll never make it. Call the Laughing Academy first.”

“Gets worse than that. Modern version of the ancient dripping water torture you hear about.”

“Soon as he opens his mouth, I start twitching.”

“No one should have to be punished like this.”

We hatched a plan. Pritikin possessed an arsenal of verbal tics, but chief among them were the ritualistic punctuational use of “you see,” and “I-mean-you-know.”

Stewart would henceforth be responsible for tallying the first, day-by-day, while I kept count of the second.

We were amply occupied, intrigued both by volume and variation. Sometimes, Stewart logged more than 20. I’d have notched a sorry six. Those totals could abruptly be reversed.

At the outset, crude chicken-scratchings — jailhouse calendars — were entered in our notebooks. After a month, I decided an ongoing graph or chart would be preferable. Meticulously, we plotted data — “you see” in red, “I-mean-you-know” in blue, connected dots, plotting a Dow Jones-style trend line.

Patterns emerged: “you see” liberally dispensed early each week; “I-mean-you-know” peaking later. By the close of that school year, we’d had to tape several sheets of graph paper together. On the final day, Pritikin asked us to linger for a moment after class, his demeanor earnest, discomfited.

“I just wanted to say, you see, I felt you two were, I-mean-you-know, disinterested earlier in the semester. But as time went on, you see, I believe we achieved a breakthrough. That was, I-mean- you-know, very satisfying to me.”

Without hesitation, I brought out the chart, unfolding it on his desk, multi-colored and fancily footnoted.

“This is what we were doing. Peaks and valleys don’t need explanation. One performance back here in April amazed us. You scored personal bests in both categories — same day!”

Pritikin paled, face contorted. Even his bowtie seemed to sag. He didn’t speak as Stewart and I departed, our project covering the desktop. We may even have high-fived in the hallway.

Years later, I reconsidered callous classroom cruelty. Since we perceived ourselves as prisoners, production of the document was not inherently insensitive, I reasoned. Displaying it in front of the poor bastard pushed us past the line.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY in a letter to Arthur Mizener (Fitzgerald’s biographer) dated April 5, 1950, Hemingway wrote:

“I believe that basically you write for two people; yourself to try to make it absolutely perfect; or if not that then wonderful; Then you write for who you love whether she can read or write or not and whether she is alive or dead. I think Scott in his strange mixed-up Irish catholic monogamy wrote for Zelda and when he lost all hope in her and she destroyed his confidence in himself he was through."

In these words it is felt that even after Fitzgerald's death, Ernest thought of Scott and his talent and lost opportunities. 

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Kid: ‘Daddy? Why are there rich people?’

Dad: ‘What do you mean by rich? You mean like in spirit?’

Kid: ‘No-o-o-o-o… Like they have lots of big houses and cars and money!’

Dad: ‘Ohhh, you mean those kinds. Well, you see, sweetie, our society allows some people to make more money than other people, working no harder than anyone else. Society then allows those with more money to acquire more land than others. Over time, this creates the dynamic for most, if not all, problems we have in society today, from landlessness, homelessness and poverty, to social unrest, war and civilizational collapse.’

Kid: ‘Why does society allow that?!’

Dad: ‘Corruption. [embedded/systemic] Society uses force to uphold rules they call laws that say that one person with more money can have more land than another with less money.’

Kid: ‘Why can’t we stop that!?’

Dad: ‘Corruption again: This setup is upheld by people with guns and weapons, or access to them, like police, security guards and military people – people who often don’t understand this basic and very simple immoral core of our society.’

Kid: [Smiley Face]

Dad: ‘ Ya [Smiley Face]

UKRAINE, TUESDAY, 18 APRIL

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will remain in a Russian jail after a Moscow court decided to uphold the terms of his detention.

Four civilians were killed and nearly 30 injured in the latest Russian attacks around the front lines, according to Ukrainian officials.

The head of the Wagner mercenary group threatened retribution against former fighters who claimed they were ordered to commit atrocities against civilians, including children, in Ukraine.

The US has sensitive nuclear technology at a nuclear power plant inside Ukraine, and is warning Russia not to touch it, according to a letter the US sent last month.

FREE THOSE WHO EXPOSE GOVERNMENT MISDEEDS, Jail Those Who Try To Conceal Them

by Caitlin Johnstone

The consistently insightful Branko Marcetic has a new article out with Jacobin titled “After the Ukraine Documents Leak, Mainstream Media Is Missing the Story” about the way imperial narrative managers have been manipulating the discourse about the information released in the Pentagon leaks by Jack Teixeira.

Marcetic criticizes the way mass media outlets like The Washington Post and The New York Times (who actually hunted down and outed Teixeira before the FBI even brought him in) have been dragging the conversation kicking and screaming away from the contents of the leaks into discussions about how bad leaks are and what a bad, bad man Teixeira is.

“What’s more corrosive to US democracy?” asks Marcetic. “That the president secretly put US boots on the ground in an incredibly dangerous, constantly escalating war zone, explicitly breaking a promise in the process and acting against the wishes of the majority of the voting public? Or that the public was finally told about it? If we truly believe that ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’ then it makes little sense to vehemently oppose turning on a light.”

“It also means less time and energy spent on thinking about the years-long, bipartisan war on leaks that this young airman is the latest to be ensnared in,” Marcetic adds. “It means no one discusses the government’s now-routine practice of ruining people’s lives over even admittedly inconsequential leaks, and how the point of it is to intimidate future leakers and ensure the political and economic elite can continue to operate in secrecy.”

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about the possibility that Teixeira is an unwitting patsy and that these leaks were planted by the US intelligence cartel to help facilitate various foreign policy agendas and/or manufacture consent for the odious RESTRICT Act, and that’s possible — by far the most prolific leaker of documents from the US government is the US government itself. But whether that’s what happened or not, it seems a safe bet that this young man is going to be spending many years behind bars in one of the most draconian prison systems on this planet.

Teixeira’s life is being ruined, perhaps permanently, under the justification that he revealed true things about his government. That is the one and only crime he stands accused of.

And I don’t think people pay enough attention to how insane and outrageous it is that this happens. It’s one of those things that gets more infuriating the more deeply you contemplate it. The government has no business keeping secrets from the public about important matters that are relevant to their interests, much less about matters relating to their government’s own lies and misdeeds, and it has still less business punishing people for trying to bring that information under public scrutiny where it belongs.

When government misdeeds are exposed, the only people who should ever be punished are those who perpetrated them, and those who tried to cover them up. Teixeira, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Daniel Hale, David McBride — they should all be living free and without fear of persecution. And those who persecuted them should be imprisoned.

It’s just so crazy how it’s taken as a given that governments keep these secrets for good and noble reasons which must be protected with as much force as necessary, when we know for a fact that this is false and have known it for generations. As Julian Assange once said, “The overwhelming majority of information is classified to protect political security, not national security.”

People shouldn’t be punished for revealing the secrets of the government, governments should be punished for keeping secrets from the people.

It shouldn’t be illegal to expose the abuses and deceptions of your government, it should be illegal for your government to abuse and deceive.

The government says it needs secrecy in order to win wars and protect freedom. History says the government needs secrecy in order to start wars and restrict freedom.

The amount of power you have should be inversely proportional to the amount of secrecy you’re allowed. Those with the most power should be a completely open book who aren’t permitted to hide anything from anyone, while those with the least power should have complete unimpeded privacy. Instead it’s the exact opposite: ordinary powerless people are getting more and more surveilled, while governments get more and more secretive and unaccountable.

Slashing government secrecy would solve so many problems — partly because malfeasance functions best in the dark, and partly because it would give democracy a fighting chance by letting the electorate make informed decisions about what’s going on in their world. You can’t claim to have democracy when you’re using government secrecy, censorship, propaganda, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, and the war on journalism to control what people see. People can’t use their votes to advance positive change if they can’t see what’s happening.

That’s the thing about The Washington Post’s slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness”: it’s completely true. It just happens that The Washington Post actively works to help keep things in the dark.

If I ever stumble across a magic genie’s lamp there’s a limit to the things I’d be willing to change about the world because I wouldn’t want to intervene on human sovereignty, but eliminating the ability of the powerful to obfuscate and distort the truth is something I’d happily commit to. End government secrecy, end censorship, end propaganda, end Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, and end the war on journalism, so that people are free to see what’s really going on in their world and help steer things in a positive direction.

(caitlinjohnstone.com)