- Noor!
- MRC’s Big Plan
- The Debt Ceiling Crisis
- Dear Scully
- America’s Violent History
- Pebs
- They Freed Their Slaves!
- California Budget & Prison Closures
- Grocery Outlet Update
- Check That Receipt
- Law Enforcement & The Homeless
- High School Graduations, Then & Now
- Orwell's (Alleged) Pacifism
NOOR!
To Noor and Co,
You are truly a skatepark high spot with your hard work and devotion to this worthy endeavor! I was so happy for all the people in Anderson Valley. They have no idea how positive this is for everyone, especially the skateboard kids and their families!
Noor, you have many fans quietly backing you, including Kenny Read (Olympic skateboard coach for Thailand), Tony Manfry and a bunch of skaters cheering you on! I might make some t-shirts that say: “Honorificabilitudinitatibus of Noor”!
Best to you, Noor!
Do some good.
Oaky Joe Munson
Monte Rio
PS. If any low income kids need help scoring a decent skateboard, call my son Milo at 707-887-1448!
PPS. I will ask Mina Stess to try to find some time to come up to Boonville when she is stateside!
MRC’S BIG PLAN
Editor:
Mendocino Redwood Company has submitted Timber Harvest Plans for nearly 3,000 acres along the Garcia River and Schooner Gulch. The plans detail a variable retention logging job detailed in THP 1-23-00036- MEN.
The following is contained in MRC’s plan:
“Large trees (>16” DBH) will be retained at approximately 10 square feet per acre, averaged across the stand.”
There are 43,560 Square feet in an acre. There are details and details, but here is the core.
Heavy logging on already harvested areas in the recent past needs explanation. In this case, MRC also owns the Oakland As. On the 28rd of April national news (NBC, USA, etc.,) erupted with a plan to move the As to Las Vegas. The mayor of Oakland is on video calling the move completely unexpected, done in the middle of negotiations, and a betrayal of agreements: The huge shopping center and housing complex in Oakland, of which a new stadium was a small part, will not happen.
Instead, a new $1.5 billion stadium, only, is to be built in the desert outside Las Vegas. The Mercury News calculates that John Fisher, owner of the A’s and MRC is worth more than $2.billion..
The heavy cut here will help get him more.
Hugh Brady
Point Arena
THE DEBT CEILING CRISIS
Editor,
The current debt ceiling crisis says much about the Republican Party and its leadership, none of it complimentary. It is a crisis of their own making. The Republicans demand deep budget cuts in return for their support to raise the debt ceiling. Budget matters typically are discussed separately, during Congress’ annual budget negotiations. Indeed, that is how it was handled during the Republican Trump Administration, when the debt ceiling was raised three times with nary a whisper from Republicans regarding budget deficits.
One thing I know for certain. If the United States defaults on its debt, the first month in which the 69.1 million people receiving Social Security, the 9 million people receiving Veterans benefits and the 2.1 million U.S. government employees do not receive checks will be the month the Republican Party becomes a pariah among voters in all three groups. The Republican Party created this situation and – unless it comes to its senses - it deserves to own every bit of its consequences.
Marshall Newman
San Francisco
DEAR SCULLY
Dear Mr. Scully,
Stop The Presses!!!
Please allow me to butt in, thanks. I am afraid that you are burdened with some misconceptions. First, be aware that you do not “publish” anything. The “publisher” (see page 3) publishes “contributions” (see dictionary), a word implying that your work is unsolicited, and further that there is no “consideration” (see dictionary) absent a written agreement to that end.
Please believe me when I say that I share your pain, without having claimed a share of your particular petulance. You say you have been sending stuff to the AVA for six years! Six whole years, amazing fortitude! I have been sending them stuff for 33 years, so imagine my suffering. Articles ignored or, if printed, turned into hash by drunken paste-up crews for a cheap laugh. Letter after letter, brilliant though they obviously are, callously shitcanned. A blizzard of little fillers, all more fascinating and informative than the junk that gets in, ignored and tossed out. I’m sure you understand by now. You are not alone!
But, Mr. Scully, do I stamp my little feet in frustration? Do I lash out demanding attention and payment? No, I do not embrace pointless theatrics.
I sharpen my pencil and vow, Once more, dear friends, unto the breach! It’s a constant struggle that requires devotion and fortitude without expecting recognition of any sort at all!
Why, even now, Sir, I ponder the fate of this letter! Will it be Worthy? Will it make it under deadline? Or more likely, will it be dead on arrival? I think of all the errors in usage and style that cripple me. How can I presume to attain the satisfaction of publication, relaxing in the glow of having obtained use of the subscribers and readers eyeballs for a brief and glorious moment? No, even with this, I shall probably fail, but I will sit down and write again!
So, best of luck to you! Of course I have to wonder if your letter is merely a silly joke, made of the sort of overbaked larded on sarcasm that is my only specialty. Maybe it’s all a setup for such as I to step in it big time. Maybe the AVA prefers to chop you up at leisure with their own weapons. But keep on writing!
Note: a bottle of expensive brandy might help.
Yours,
Jay Williamson
Santa Rosa
AMERICA’S VIOLENT HISTORY
Letter to the Editor
Why are there so many shooting deaths in the U.S.?, AVA readers may wonder.
One possible cause is the fact that the U.S. has been one of the most violent countries in the world since WWII.
The U.S. sent troops into 12 countries — Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Panama, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Bolivia and Haiti.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) intervened in numerous countries causing regime change and dictatorships.
“It was a time in the 70s when the worst imaginable horrors were going on in Latin America — Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala, El Salvador — they were military dictatorships with death squads, all with the backing of the CIA and the U.S. government,” said former CIA agent Philip Agee in an interview.
The CIA formed terrorist Contras in Nicaragua. They sold crack cocaine in Los Angeles, according to Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” series in the San Jose Mercury News.
Violence is the method to deal with adverse situations in too many U.S. movies.
In 2017, about 393.3 million guns were privately owned in the U.S. with a population less than 326.5 million, many obtained without background checks.
A recipe for multiple mass killings?
Ed Oberweiser
Fort Bragg
PEBS
Editor,
I like getting updates on Pebbles Trippet status. When I was president of the our local community group, Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, she would come to our public meetings with a small entourage to update everyone of the latest marijuana news. It was always informative and she was pleasant to be around. I know she was probably high, but then part of our audience was as well. I did send some money to her GoFundMe account, so I hope she is doing okay.
Jim Rhoads
San Francisco
ED NOTE: Assuming the stoners who are looking after the old girl haven't rolled her up and smoked her, last we heard she had sold her coast property and was living near Laytonville and was doing ok.
THEY FREED THEIR SLAVES!
Editor,
Some alleged journalists seem to know the true exact history of the life of American General Braxton Bragg. Okay then, can you tell us his exact date of birth and place of birth and place of burial? Also a summary of his career at West Point and his long service to the United States in Texas? I doubt if even Lt. Gibson who named Fort Bragg could even recite all that. Sometimes I wonder if Bragg just arrived in a UFO, kicked around West Point and Texas, then after the Civil War got back in the UFO and disappeared.
Of course as stated before I did meet one day a passel of General Bragg's great grandkids in Fort Bragg. They looked like nice college kids -- no southern drawl. But could they too have been visiting extra terrestrials? They did kinda show up out of the blue and then vanished! I should have quizzed them more about it. But in those days I was in my early 20s. I was too busy either hustling drinks, women, or a basketball and poker game. We even had our own sauna bath house up on Cedar Creek just east of the old Clyde Gibney's Eastside Market.
I also challenge the slanderous journalist always writing "doodoo" about Bragg to let all us AVA readers know where this fairy tale plantation was that uncle Braxton was supposed to have practiced brutal slavemastery? At least five US towns named for him?
As far as other "Confederate hierarchy" goes, do any readers know the true stories of Robert E. Lee and the Confederate states of America President Jefferson Davis and how they freed slaves?
To begin with neither one actually own slaves! General Lee on leave from his tenure as a West Point professor returned home at his father's death to find he had been left the "guardian" of ex-number of Negro people. He promptly found jobs and "apartments" for all and signed their freedom papers!
As for President Davis, he did own a farm in Mississippi when he wasn't busy in Washington DC as a US Senator and later secretary of defense. (He was called secretary of war in the president's cabinet back then.) But there's no record of his ever owning slaves. His wife did inherit slaves during their marriage but Jefferson promptly ordered her to free them stating, "Slavery is too much trouble."
As for my great granddad James Hudson, he was half Crow, half Scottish born in Jefferson City, Virginia. He was a homeboy of Bob Lee and President Tom Jefferson's great kids who joined the Confederate states of America Navy and possibly even met General Bragg during the Civil War. My granddaddy never owned slaves and around 1865 he "discovered" Reno, Nevada. That's why he named the main drag of that city Virginia Avenue. (More on that in my next story.)
Maybe there's something alien in the Bragg name. That false accuser (akin to District Attorney Eyster) Alvin Bragg even looks a bit like an alien.
As for President Trump's indictment: I have to ask what crime? I've noticed in my life that rich people don't get rich and stay rich by giving money away. But alleged multimillionaire Trump gave this Stormy sleazebag $125,000! If he did give it to her she sure didn't keep the "deal"! But Stormy and now Alvin Faulderbottom Bragg are going to make millions on notoriety!
If President Trump is elected again he has the constitutional power to pardon himself! And he will win. Make no mistake about it. So Alvin Bragg will then have wasted millions of tax dollars on a noncriminal Fantasy Island of a case.
Why aren't New Yorkers up in arms about paying through the teeth just to prove President Trump is an honest patriotic American? He kept us out of war (Putin and "Mr. North Korea" are scared shiftless of Donald.) President Trump also got us several more allies controlling the Straits of Gibraltar. That means we now control the passageway in and out of the Mediterranean Sea! Also I wouldn't have my TV now if Trump hadn't sent all of us homeless people stimulus money! He also lived up to his campaign promise to build us a "Great Wall" to separate us from the illegal Mexicans. But what was the "Grey Ghost" Biden promising? He promised to abolish the death penalty. That hasn't happened so that makes your goofy Democrat president not only a real donkey but so far a documented liar! Do we really need liars and false accusers in government office? Duh.
Kudos to Bruce Anderson for publishing my last "Braxton report."
Sincerely,
Detective David Youngcault Crow Secret Agent Exodus 2016 thou shalt not bear all witness against thy neighbor Giusti
California Mens Colony East, San Luis Obispo
PS. Written partially in memory of Jerry "The Boss" Philbrick. It has been acknowledged that Donald Trump, like me, has a great dislike of bullies. Praise the lord!
PPS. Also I was born on Laurel Street across from the old Mendoza Market in old Fort Bragg. Mr. Mendoza was a very nice man, my first babysitter, who might have been an extraterrestrial also because one day he just disappeared! At one time he owned that whole block and I still wonder who haunts the "Mendoza House" on Franklin Street? Anyway, hopefully Fort Bragg puts the township name to a vote and the title "Mendoza Beach" will be on the ballot. I already stated Noyo Village is already "theoretically" on the map and can't be used. Truthfully however, like the tiny country of Monaco, I would really love to see Mendoland secede from the Union and become its own sovereign country. I believe if one reads the original ancient California law there is a precedent for the "California territory" to be divided five ways along the 14th longitude parallel etc. Texas has the same provision. Both these great states along with Montana (a Canadian provision) have a similar design politically as the "Republic of Quebec. My other granddad, "Growler" Saunders and Pamela Anderson and both were born in Quebec City.
CALIFORNIA BUDGET & PRISON CLOSURES
Dear Editor:
Gov. Gavin Newsom's overall Department of Corrections budget grows even though he is closing ten prisons.
Newsom's state budget is topping $297 billion for 2023-24, and that includes ($14.5 billion for the prison system.
The state had closed down the prison there in Tracy in 2021 and has ordered the closures of several others including Chuckawalla State Prison in Riverside County, the Correctional Center in Lassen County.
The governor is also thinking about some partial closings at Folsom's Women Facility, Pelican Bay, California Men's Colony, California Rehabilitation Center, California Institution for Men, and California Correctional Institution in Kern County.
It has been reported that the closing of these five institutions will save the California taxpayers $1.5 billion dollars a year. Notwithstanding, the closing of these prisons and the deflating of the prison populations — which is to fall to 87,295 by 2025 — will not affect the amount the prison system receives for their part of the budget.
In other words the prison population is falling but the Department of Corrections is still going to get their cut of $14.5 billion for doing nothing?
This should give you the voting public an idea of just how bad the Department of Corrections is getting over on you. In fact, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), the union of these correctional cops, refuses to give in on this issue. They are of the opinion they are entitled to this money.
The prisons that are closed should be torn down. I am sure many of us incarcerated laborers would be more than willing to work for our “slave wages” to help with this project. Otherwise another Republican Governor will come along someday and will reopen them. It’s just the way it works.
We are in a state with 34 prisons. It makes no sense; crime is not a business. Keeping people locked in cages for the rest of their lives is nothing more than cruel and unusual punishment. We as a people should put a stop to it. If we don’t, no one will.
Sincerely,
Charles V. Statler
Soledad
GROCERY OUTLET UPDATE
Editor,
The Fort Bragg City Council will be holding a special one-item meeting on Monday June 5th to address the proposed Grocery Outlet. Be advised that this special meeting will start at 5 pm at Town Hall in Fort Bragg. The Planning Commission is recommending to the Council that the proposed Grocery Outlet Environmental Impact Report be certified after a lengthy hearing on the matter May 10th.
Mayor Norvell will be recusing himself due to a conflict of interest for owning property nearby the proposed site, which is at the old Mendo. Co. Social Services building on South Franklin Street. Therefore only 4 sitting Council members will be voting on whether it moves forward or not.
A 2-2 tie on the EIR certification would effectively be a “no” vote.
Please attend in person or via zoom if you want your voice heard on this important matter.
Councilman Lindy Peters
Fort Bragg
CHECK THAT RECEIPT
Editor:
Whenever I’m asked at the cash register if I want my receipt I always respond, “Have I told you my cantaloupe story?” It goes like this. A few years ago, on a busy shopping day, I bought a cantaloupe at Safeway. When I got home, I looked at the receipt and I had been charged $25 instead of $2.50. I took the cantaloupe and receipt back to the store and not only did they refund my money they gave me the cantaloupe for free. Moral of the story: Always look at your receipt before throwing it away.
Mike Haran
Santa Rosa
LAW ENFORCEMENT & THE HOMELESS
Editor,
We at the Sheriff’s Office continue to face many issues dealing directly with homelessness and several drug related issues. Although homelessness is not a crime, the spoils of homelessness continue to plague our communities and our nation. The problem continues to manifest itself with trespassing, trash, intoxicated subjects, arsons, and other issues including violence and property crimes.
This is extremely concerning as we move into summer as we have seen several arsons which have been set by homeless individuals.
Homelessness and addiction in Mendocino County are mirroring the drug and mental health crisis across the state of California and the United States.
There is a difference for rural communities. The issue is always the fact we have fewer services to meet the needs as well as a large land area to cover.
Legislations enacted beginning with AB 109 in 2011, followed by Prop 47 in 2014, Prop 57 and Prop 64 passed in 2016 have decriminalized many crimes including narcotics and thefts to the point they are only remedied by citation. Many other factors include the zero-bail reform which occurred during the pandemic and early releases from state prisons. These haven’t helped much either.
The idea behind decriminalization of drugs and many other crimes looked good on paper, however they required an extremely robust social services network in order to meet the needs of what was to come. I believe we are currently witnessing what occurs when no framework is put in place to bridge the gap which law enforcement and the courts had previously used as a pathway to treatment and services. For many of us in public safety it appears our state government is attempting to build the aircraft midflight.
I am constantly asked what the homeless issue stems from. There are voices on all sides of the issue, including housing, lack of opportunity, and the economy. I can only speak to my experiences and what I have seen from a public safety perspective.
In my opinion, addictions are driving the largest portion of the problems we are seeing today. Drug usage continues to be an issue that is currently growing not receding.
The one common denominator we see in all homeless encampments is the presence of hypodermic syringes and methamphetamine smoking pipes. The question is and will remain is this the cause or a symptom.
I have heard many people arguing mental health issues are the driving force, however after working with people in the encampments, many of whom I have known for a long time and some of which I have known since my youth, I have watched a slow decline in these folks physically and mentally as drug usage became more and more mainstream.
This is the chicken or the egg question. Is a person experiencing mental health issues due to drug usage or is this person using drugs to self-medicate due to their mental health issues?
Either way I think we can all agree applying drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl to any situation is never good. Basically, we need to stop arguing and all agree drug usage has to stop.
First responders across the nation including law enforcement, fire, and EMS are all carrying NARCAN and that is slowing the number of overdose deaths. Even with this tool, the number of deaths continues to climb while we attempt to combat the issue with the narcotic-reversing drug. I shudder to think what things would look like without NARCAN.
During 2022 in Mendocino County, we had 69 accidental deaths reported through the Coroner’s Office. These deaths include, however are not limited to, persons who perished in fires, vehicle accidents, falls, drownings, and drug overdoses. Of the 69 accidental deaths reported in 2022, 48 of those deaths were overdoses. That is almost 70% of all accidental deaths in our county last year. Clearly, we have a problem.
Finding a solution to the problem is no easy task however we are working towards finding these solutions. No one wants to see these problems continue or grow. I will be working with county partners looking at building a response team much like the team we use for mental health dual response. My thought process is much the same as it is for mental health issues. People in crisis often don’t seek help and therefore help must be brought to them.
As we begin to build this program, I am hopeful we will see new partnerships form and services rendered to help bridge the gap we are currently experiencing. This will require community support as well as participation from the affected communities including those in need of services.
As always thank you for continually supporting our people here at the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Matt Kendall
Ukiah
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATIONS, THEN & NOW
Editor,
My grandson graduates from a San Francisco high school May 27. Kids today are made the same way we were. The world they enter today seems quite different than the one I entered in 1960 was. Then none of my teachers were Black or Hispanic. No one was interested in global climate. What the average global temperature was didn’t seem to matter. We were kids learning about our sexuality; just trying to see where we might fit in the great big, seemingly impersonal world. Trying to keep our noses clean.
One way or another we would be forced to deal with national and regional socio-economic and political issues that hadn’t been perceived by many before; like civil rights, the status of women, international wars like Vietnam. What lies ahead for my grandson and his generation? Can they somehow solve some of the messes unfortunately we aren't solving? Do some of them already hate us because we didn’t end global warming or the danger of nuclear annihilation? Can they help force positive changes in our gun-crazy America? Or reduce homelessness in Northern California?
Frank H. Baumgardner, III
Santa Rosa
ORWELL'S (ALLEGED) PACIFISM
Editor:
Press Democrat Columnist Bret Stephens quotes George Orwell’s views on pacifism out of historical context,
Until 1939, as a committed pacifist, Orwell opposed the war against fascism. He considered it an extension of capitalist imperialism: “The mildest democracy, so called, is liable to turn into fascism when the pinch comes.” This could describe America today. In 1937 Orwell joined the most radical pacifist of left-wing groups in England, the Independent Labor Party. But after 1939, with the Hitler-Stalin pact, he considered pacifism had become objectively pro-fascist for the rest of the war.
Stephens leaves out a central qualifying sentence in the 1942 passage he quotes from Orwell: “Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one.” Orwell’s pacifism is still relevant for those who seek alternatives to war on ethical grounds. But the so-called American conservatives Stephens is concerned about either support the U.S. proxy war against Russia or reject it as fiscally irresponsible.
After the war, Orwell wrote that fascism had lost all concrete meaning, becoming a verbal means of vilifying one’s enemies. This is also true of American political discourse today.
Jack Wikse
Santa Rosa
ED NOTE: Orwell was never a pacifist, nor was the ILP a pacifist political party. Orwell fought for the Spanish Republic and would have fought in WWII if he hadn't been disabled by a bullet to the lung during his combat in Spain. He denounced pacifism in WW Two as objectively helpful to facism.
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