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COASTAL CLOUDS will persist through much of the week. Across the interior, thunderstorm and shower activity will decrease today. Otherwise, temperatures along the coast will remain slightly below normal, while across the interior, much warmer weather is expected during mid to late week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Well the sun finally broke thru yesterday. Clear skies & 52F this Tuesday morning on the coast. The fog remains just offshore so it may come & go thru the day, we'll see. Our forecast is for mostly clear with warming temps later in the week.
ANDERSON VALLEY UNIFIED NEWS
New Website And Septic Ceremony
Dear Anderson Valley Community,
We hope that you are doing well! For those families with students in summer school, please send them everyday! We have staff ready and willing to assist them with their learning and count on regular attendance in order to make this program as successful as possible!
The link below is to our new website: www.avpanthers.org
Please note at the top left-hand corner is a translate/select language button. Select any of the languages and it will automatically translate any non-pdf content. We are still working out some kinks, but we hope you find this a practical tool for your family.
Please note there is an on-line absence reporting feature at the top. If you can take a moment to report the absence online, that will save us both a phone call!
We are commencing the septic construction at the elementary school next week. Join us for a groundbreaking ceremony on the playground THIS Friday at 9:00 a.m. if you have time. The high school remodel plans are working through plan review right now with state architect, and we hope to be out to bid in late Fall with construction slated to begin June 2024 for the library wing and science classrooms.
Hope you are enjoying your summer!
Take care,
Louise Simson, Superintendent, Anderson Valley Unified School District
KY PARRISH, LOCAL RODEO STAR
Ky Parrish, has earned a position on the California State National High School Rodeo (CHSRA) team and will be traveling with fellow teammates to Gillette, Wyoming July 16-22, to compete at the 75th Annual National High School Finals Rodeo in the Bull Riding competition.
Ky is the son of Ryan and Deanna Parrish of Ukiah, grandson of Craig and Marti Titus of Boonville. He is a 2023 graduate of Ukiah High School. Ky has been part of District 2 High School Rodeo for the last three years which consists of Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, Sonoma and Napa Counties. In his three years of CHSRA he has competed at state finals in Bishop, California. This year, Ky finished Second in the state for Bull Riding. He has received a scholarship for the rodeo team at Murray State College in Oklahoma.
Ky is looking for sponsors to cover the expenses of competing at the NHSRA, where he will be representing the state of California. At this event, he will be competing with contestants from 44 states, Canada, Australia, Mexico and New Zealand. Contestants must finish in the top 20 to advance to the Saturday evening finals, which will be televised nationally as part of the Cinch High School Rodeo Tour on RFD-TV. Live broadcasts of each NHSFR performance will air online at www.thecowboychannel.com. Interested sponsors can call 707-391-5436.
HEY BOONVILLIANS! I’m wondering if anyone has an old potting table, metal bakers rack or something similar they want to get rid of or sell! I want to create a cute little farm stand up Peachland Rd. to sell our farm fresh eggs, veggies, starts, bread and herbal remedies! I’m also open to clear corrugated plastic or extra wood, etc. Thanks y’all! Here’s an example:
— Brittany Michelle Wilfong
THE MENDOCINO SHERIFF'S OFFICE held a ceremony for two new employees on Monday June 26, 2023. Corrections Deputy Megan Potter and Community Services Officer Jace Kroh were introduced during the ceremony held Monday morning. Deputy Potter was sworn as a Corrections Deputy and will immediately begin her training in the Mendocino County Jail in Ukiah. Community Services Officer Kroh will begin his training in the Field Services Division to assist patrol deputies with multiple aspects of their daily duties. Welcome and congratulations to Deputy Potter and Community Services Officer Kroh!
If you or anyone you know is interested in working for the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, please visit www.mendocinosheriff.org and select "Careers" on the top right banner.
COMPTCHE UPHOLSTERY SCHEDULING WORK
Comptche Upholstery is back in business! After taking a year and a half to rebuild after the fire Martin Miller is back at work in his Cleone shop. To make an appointment: Call his new phone number 707-971-6221 or Email Martin at Comptcheuph@gmail.com
NEW IN THE KELLEY HOUSE Store! Watercolor Water Towers By Suzi Long - Own a Suzi Long original watercolor, and a piece of Mendocino history!
These 5″ x 8″ water colors depicting iconic local water towers are signed and framed. Suzi is generously donating all proceeds to the Kelley House Museum. $100.
About Suzi - A native Californian from Santa Cruz, Suzi has slowly moved up the coast since 1965. After 9 years in Hawaii where she founded her mural company WhimsyWalls, she finally settled in the Wind and Weather Water Tower in 2006, opened her own gallery there, and began teaching watercolor travel sketching to visitors. Suzi has taught local groups and in Baja, Carmel, Sea Ranch, Idaho, and other locations.
https://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org/.../watercolor-water.../
ED NOTES
I’VE NEVER BEEN ABLE to read detective fiction. Even the good stuff by Hammett, Chandler, Ellroy etc. It doesn’t hold my interest. The biographies of the aforementioned are more interesting than their art, it seems to me. I have the usual complaints about tough guy fiction — the characters are one-dimensional, women are cartoon figures, and it’s hard to stay interested in either stick figures or plots whose resolution one is uninterested in. Besides which the so-called tough guys presented are so crudely drawn that it’s obvious the writers don’t know the difference between tough and vicious. But the other day I received an anonymous gift of a book called The Steam Pig by James McClure, a South African writer. I made the schedule-destroying mistake of reading the first page and didn’t look up for the next six hours. It’s much better than a mere detective story in that it also provides a hundred little glimpses of the reality of South Africa circa 1960, the kind of detail through which one finally gets the full picture of what the apartheid society really meant in human terms.
Over the years, I’ve relied on J.M. Coetzee, Doris Lessing and an essay writer named R.W. Johnson for my information on South Africa, but this mystery writer, McClure, manages to convey more about the country in this unlikely genre than all of them put together. Many thanks to the Ukiah person, whoever you are, for alerting me to this wonderful writer.
From the archives: The Boonville Hotel Roars Into 1998 — It’s more open than its ever been…
The Boonville Hotel, Anderson Valley’s oldest public structure, has seen many changes in its nearly 150 years. Until the automobile chugged in around 1915, a traveller pausing at the Boonville Hotel could stable his horse out back, get a drink, a meal, a haircut and a shave, and fall asleep upstairs, all for about a buck fifty. Among the luminaries calling the Hotel home over the years, count Frank James, famous outlaw and brother of the infamous Jesse. Frank rode on out to Anderson Valley after a failed bank robbery in Minnesota where old neighbors from Missouri, most of them on the losing side, had settled after the Civil War. Fast forwarding to the mid-twentieth century, the Boonville Hotel was beginning to slip from its foundations into a state of slow motion collapse. A few retired folks lived full-time upstairs and the bar downstairs still drew the more committed night lifers who’d hoist a few among the antiques, human and decorative, before weaving across the street for a few more at the Boonville Lodge.
In the early 70s, a new wave of settlers having washed into The Valley, the Hotel’s economic potential was reassessed by counterculture entrepreneurs. Before long, pizzas were being served up out back and neo-Bruegalian festivities described by the newcomers as “boogies” broke out in the staid, nearly ghostly premises.
There followed the Vernon and Charlene Rollins interlude of 1983-86 that saw the Hotel hollowed out into an upscale and decidedly urban restaurant with stunning English gardens out back created by Stephanie and Chris Tebbutts. This package drew diners from around the world, many of them flying into Boonville to sample what all agreed was world class food. But the Rollins had dug themselves into a financial hole from which they could only emerge by fleeing, leaving the Hotel abandoned and forlorn investors on the phone to their lawyers. The Hotel again fell silent.
In 1988 the Schmitts arrived from successful restauranting not far south in Napa County and, ten years later, the upstairs rooms beautifully refurbished with great food served up downstairs, John Schmitt continues to work to make the Hotel “a place everyone in The Valley will use.” The ebullient Schmitt says he wants “to get people up the steps and through the door.” All doors, he makes clear.
Beginning this Friday, the Hotel’s back door will be as busy, if not busier, than its front entrance. Libby and Jose Favela, renowned for their wonderful Mexican food across the street at Tacquiera zon Taco, have joined the Schmitts at The Hotel where Libby will serve lunches people can enjoy at the bar, in the revived patio on the Hotel’s north side and out back where a takeout window will open off the kitchen. “Same low prices, same great food,” Schmitt promises.
When his presence isn’t required in Libby’s kitchen, Jose Favela will be at work in the revived gardens, once so well-known in their Tebbutts’ period they attracted thousands of visitors to Boonville all by themselves. Again, as Schmitt emphasizes, “We want people to use this place. We want people in the gardens, we want people in here for Libby’s lunches, we want people in here at night for dinner and to enjoy the bar, we want people to stay here, and we want people to know that there’s all this and a beauty parlor, too.
Beauty parlor? Yes, out in the soon-to-be bustling Hotel backyard, there already exists the Hair Salon staffed by Cheryl and Dan Kissler who now live in Anderson Valley. The Kisslers enjoyed a strong Valley following at their beauty parlor in Ukiah, now transferred over the hill to the Boonville Hotel.
Also back with the Hotel is the popular and versatile Jeanne Eliades who will function as concierge, back up chef and all-purpose factotum.
As of this Friday, lunches, dinners, the bar, ten beautiful rooms, a beauty salon, and, when the sun shines, patios and gardens.
Until Valentine’s Day, the Hotel will remain on a weekend schedule. But as of February 14th, from 11am on into the night the Boonville Hotel will offer it all and then some.
* * *
EVERY FEW YEARS I suggest consolidating the county's small schools for the purpose of fielding one competitive, 11-man football team, and this year I'm asking Boonville football coach, John Toohey, what he thinks of the idea. Anderson Valley; Point Arena; Mendocino; Laytonville, and Covelo, combined, could play up a league. Head coaches would rotate. Players would get together for group practices a couple of days a week to master a simple playbook. The rest of the week they could work out on their own. As it is, each of the small schools has maybe five athletes really into the game. Together, they'd have one formidable team.
ALL those glum faces around Elk must be at the departure of long-time resident Mike Koepf for permanent residence in Wyoming. “I don't know what we'll do without the colonel,” said one tearful resident of the seaside hamlet, a reference to Koepf's nickname around town, “Colonel Von Umlaut,” bestowed upon him one afternoon when the volatile kraut exploded over an argument about the umlaut. “I'm a German, you little faggot! If I say the Koepf surname gets an umlaut, the Koepf surname gets an umlaut!” The umlaut dispute is believed to be the only such dispute in Mendocino County history. The Colonel, a standout comic figure in the vividly comic peoplescape of the Mendocino Coast will, perhaps, be remembered fondly by his handlers at the FBI office in San Francisco for whom he faithfully snitched during the Redwood Summer period of the early 1990s.
PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC Co. workers on Sunday were continuing to investigate what caused a massive weekend power failure that knocked out service to nearly 7,000 customers in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties.
SATURDAY'S OUTAGE: Power went out to 6,925 customers at 10:23 a.m. Saturday morning, however it was fully restored about 90 minutes later — shortly before noon, according to the utility’s website.
As of Sunday, crews had yet to determine the cause of the outage, said JD Guidi, a PG&E spokesperson.
Customers clustered in two separate areas were affected.
A majority of the impacted customers — about two-thirds or 4,700 — were located in Mendocino County, Guidi added.
The first area was mostly situated along Highway 128 in Mendocino County. The southernmost area of the failure was near the intersection of Highway 128 and Mountain House Road, just northwest of Cloverdale.
— Press Democrat
AVA CATS, Free to a good home or even a mediocre one.
(You catch.)
SLUGS
[1] Rebecca Aum: Went out to weed wack, plugged in my rechargeable battery but it wouldn't go in all the way. So I tried to force it in, but no. Took the battery off, looked at the connection and there was a small banana slug squished on/in the connections. Got the slug out with a knife (sorry slug), plugged it back in but only sputtering. Cleaned most of remainder of slug/slime off with q-tips and tp and then it worked. Isn't life interesting? Is there an easy way to clean off slug slime?
[2] Jenny Harrison: Gross! One of my sprinkler heads was not sending out much water, and when I went to check, I found a fat banana slug had been forced by the water through the sprinkler head and partially out into the air. It was not pretty, either. Enjoy your dinners, lol.
FORT BRAGG BASEBALL, PRE-WWII
MOCKEL FIRED?
To the Editor:
Shoved down our throats by the Democrat Party's Northcoast Political Machine, Trevor "Bullethead" Mockel was always unelectable.
In unanimously and prematurely endorsing him, political insiders and local power elites rode roughshod over anything even vaguely resembling a grassroots or populist choice.
Democracy isn't supposed to work that way.
Guess what? Today (Monday), Trevor's powerful political friends couldn't keep him from losing his do-nothing government job. He was let go.
Without a job, and still living at home, poor Trevor needs to get himself elected...now more than ever!
Vote for change in 2024.
Trevor Mockel ain't it. He's more of the same dysfunctional county government. More of the same toxic work environment. More of the same insider politics. More of the same cronyism.
And while you're at it, vote out anyone who endorsed him.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, June 26, 2023
JOSEPH BUCKINGHAM, Ukiah. Vandalism.
LISA GUNN, Laytonville. DUI.
JAKE LEWISKOOY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-under influence.
MIRANDA MULLINS, Willits. Disobeying court order, failure to appear, probation revocation.
FRANK ONETO JR., Dos Rios. Battery, paraphernalia, intimate touching of another against their will, parole violation.
RANDY SAINE, Willits. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.
REALIAA SPECIALE, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.
JOHN REDDING:
Sweden, a beacon of hope, is adopting a new energy policy that calls for more nuclear power. According to Sweden's finance minister, wind and solar are too "unstable."
After the accident at Three Mile Island, Sweden by way of a national referendum voted to phase out all of its nuclear plants and never build new ones. As happens over and over again in history, this was an overreaction triggered by a small group of fear-mongers, in this case by self-appointed environmentalists. It happened again decades later when fear mongering about catastrophic climate change convinced voters to adopt a goal of 100% renewables. This too has been dropped.
This is an example of what I discussed yesterday, the Doom Loop. Over reaction, change everything without thinking it through, and bad outcomes. At which point an organization, or a nation, can overreact again or acknowledge what went wrong.
Sweden may escape the Doom Loop. Will we?
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
The last Ukrainian flags in this town came down about three weeks ago … replaced by Pride flags. Those Pride Flags will be up at least until September when Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off. Then it will be Mexican & Puerto Rican flags hanging off front doors.
A few weeks ago President Biden came to the University of Hartford for a “Gun Control Summit.” It was a major event with all the national gun control mavens in attendance, including our two US Senators. UofH is just a few miles from Hartford’s North End neighborhood, a notorious ghetto. Apparently the esteemed residents of the NE didn’t get the message because since the Summit there have been about five people shot in Hartford. I say “Apparently” because there have also been a few fatal stabbings and somebody run down with a car, so maybe the message is getting out, which is if you’re determined to murder your neighbor make sure the weapon you use is not a firearm.
MY UNCLE says the architects got rid of the front porches because they didn't look well. But my uncle says that was merely rationalizing it; the real reason, hidden underneath, might be they didn't want people sitting like that, doing nothing, rocking, talking; that was the wrong kind of social life. People talked too much. And they had time to think. So they ran off with the porches. And the gardens, too. Not many gardens any more to sit around in. And look at the furniture. No rocking chairs any more. They're too comfortable. Get people up and running around.
— Ray Bradbury
TRUMP’S RECENT COMMENTS about taking Venezuela’s oil are another good illustration of the real reason major factions of the imperial blob dislike Trump. It’s not because he’s “anti-war” or “fighting the Deep State” (he isn’t) — it’s because he’s a sloppy empire manager who makes the machine look as ugly as it is and can’t be trusted to keep the quiet parts quiet.
— Caitlin Johnstone
SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, The New Yorker set off a literary firestorm when it published Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery.” Readers flooded the magazine with angry letters, calling the story “outrageous,” “gruesome” and “utterly pointless,” writes Ruth Franklin, a biographer of Jackson. After the outrage subsided, the story became a classroom favorite, inspiring generations of horror writers and filmmakers. Stephen King, who discovered it in high school, recalled: “My first reaction: Shock. My second reaction: How did she do that?” (nytimes.com)
newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery
THE SURGING ARROGANCE OF CORPORATISM
by Ralph Nader
Most heads of giant corporations are drunk with their own power. These corporate CEOs push the envelope in ways that harm defenseless people. They believe they can get away with anything, and they do, with few exceptions. The few corporate crime prosecutions keep declining from Obama to Trump to Biden, due to a settlement-obsessed Department of Justice staffed by lawyers readying to join the lucrative major corporate crime defense firms.
Corporate law firms, which deserve far more scrutiny by the media, have over the decades built a wall of immunity and impunity around these giant firms and their self-enriching CEOs. These CEOs now make an average of $14,000 an hour, while employing workers who are lucky to make $20 an hour. Greedy CEOs have surpassed the lords of medieval feudalism in the disparity they impose on workers.
Corporate law firms find Congressional lawmakers receptive to their campaign contributions and services in drafting legislative loopholes. These law firms place business executives and their own law partners in high executive branch positions (See, Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice by David Enrich, 2022).
Corporate law firms specialize in creating an edifice of secretive, anonymous corporate registries that attract a majority of big U.S. corporations to charter in Delaware. Companies register hundreds of shell companies (LLCs) for evasive purposes. Delaware law firms write the corporate law of Delaware for the rubber stamp state legislature. Ironically, these corporate capitalists disempower their own shareholders. Wall Street firms, credit card companies and tax escapees love Delaware. (See, What’s the Matter with Delaware?: How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal – and How It Costs Us All by Hal Weitzman, 2022).
New outrages that swell the corporate crime wave are disclosed daily. Most exposés go nowhere, due to a lazy Congress (about ready again to take off most of the summer until after Labor Day) and to patsy regulators and meager, inadequate enforcement budgets funded by the corporate Congress.
One regular, no longer so patsy, is the tiny Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with an annual budget of $430 million. FTC Chair Lina Khan has just sued giant Amazon (annual sales of $524.89 billion) in the words of New York Times reporter, David McCabe “for illegally inducing consumers to sign up for its Prime services and then hindering them from canceling the subscription…”
The FTC charged that “Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent’ ‘… duped millions of consumers … [and with] manipulative, coercive or deceptive’ design tactics on its website.” Amazon’s lawyers, of course, deny everything.
On other matters, corporate lawyers are going berserk flexing their obstructive muscles. They sued the state of California for passing a law mildly protecting children from social media-produced harm. Susan Linn in her new book, “Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children” documents the abuses perpetrated by high predators.
Not to be outdone by their peers, corporate lawyers for the drug industry just filed a frivolous lawsuit against the U.S. Government that was finally authorized by Congress to allow ripped-off Medicare officials to negotiate drug prices with the overcharging Big Pharma. (The VA and the Pentagon already have the power to negotiate with the drug companies.) Presumably, having U.S. taxpayers continue to pay by far the highest drug prices in the world through Medicare—charged by subsidy-coddled U.S. drug companies—suits the “pay or die” Big Pharma CEOs.
Moreover, U.S. drug companies are happy to offshore to China the production of antibiotics. Our country produces virtually no antibiotics – a national security peril I wrote about to President Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, that received no response to date. (See: Letter to President Joe Biden – June 2, 2023).
ProPublica has exposed the giant Cigna health insurance company for rejecting millions of patients’ claims through its hired doctors who instantly deny coverage “on medical grounds” without opening the patient file.” This report, based on corporate documents and interviews with former Cigna physicians, has not led to any prosecutions either by state or federal officials. This is an egregious example of CEOs pushing the envelope and getting away with it.
A New York Times investigation by Sarah Kliff et al. revealed that a wealthy nonprofit hospital network – Allina Health – in the Midwest has been denying regular health care for patients who have unpaid medical bills. They have cut off patients, “including children and those with chronic illnesses like diabetics and depression.” Canadians, with their universal Medicare system, are stunned when they learn that many hospitals in the U.S. aggressively sue indebted patients, garnish their wages and seize their tax refunds. This is worse than debtors’ prisons where those incarcerated might receive health care.
Anyone who thinks corporate crimes are committed by just a few bad apples in the barrel can read my book Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to Win (2011). Getting Steamed is an enraging compilation of documented corporate crime and criminogenic behavior – resulting in the loss of life, injuries and money from consumers and workers. One of the best public corporate crime databases is Violation Tracker, a project of Good Jobs First. Violation Tracker has over half a million entries that include civil and criminal actions against corporate wrongdoing. In addition, visit the Corporate Crime Reporter website to see highlights of crime in the suites each week.
Earlier this month, the Justice Department, which after decades of declining to have a comprehensive public corporate crime database, finally launched a modest database.
Why don’t the American people rise up and tell their legislators and law enforcers that they will no longer accept the terrible corporate harm inflicted on them daily? This harm includes dangerous products (Opioids), detrimental services (medical negligence leading to 5000 deaths per week, according to a John Hopkins School of Medicine peer-reviewed report), toxic pollution, workplace casualties, endless cheating of consumers ($350 billion in health industry billing fraud a year) and other intolerable abuses. (See Malcolm Sparrow’s website).
Most corporate crooks are above the law. They think that collectively “We the People” are a nation of sheep – unable and unwilling to take their demands, often supported by large majorities, to Congress and get some strong law and order legislation enacted. Polls show huge majorities (left/right) want jail time and restitution from wealthy corporate outlaws.
Public Citizen, which lobbies against corporate crime, wants to hear from you. PC’s president Robert Weissman, together with former PC president Joan Claybrook, have a new book coming out next month. It’s called “The Corporate Sabotage of America’s Future: And What We Can Do About It.” Read it and generate a rumble all the way to your congressional senators and representatives who are about to head home as Congress goes into recess for most of the summer.
Citizens mobilized against corporate abuses in the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies. It can happen again now when the corporate overlords in the context of demonstrated crises – climate, pandemics and powerful unregulated technologies – are acting far worse than they have in recent times.
The awakened power of dedicated, informed people cannot be overcome.
COUP COO
by James Kunstler
“At exactly the point of the AFU’s weakest moment and near-collapse on the battlefield he chose to strike Russia in the back as if obviously driven by a hidden hand.”— Simplicius on Substack
You’d think that the hapless DC neocons, Antony Blinken and his boss, Victoria Nuland, plus the gang at Spook Central, would have learned a lesson about the diminishing returns of color revolutions: namely, that these bold pranks blow back… and not in a good way.
The New York Times informs us that US Intel was well aware weeks beforehand of the developing coup attempt by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his personal army, the Wagner Group. Congressional leaders were briefed a day prior to its roll-out. Well, golly, can you suppose for a New York minute that Russia’s intel agency didn’t know all about it, too?
A vast array of explanations for this bizarre wartime vaudeville can be found in every corner of the Internet. I’ll go with this one: Prigozhin came to bethink himself a Napoleonic figure. Just as Bonaparte wowed revolution-weary France with his military exploits against her enemies, and seized leadership of the nation, Prigozhin’s mercenary army carried the brunt of the action in Ukraine this year, culminating in the heroic victory at Bakhmut. Priggy regarded the Russian Ministry of Defense as oafish, and by extension, his long-time friend and mentor, Vlad Putin, indecisive about it. The moment was ripe to seize power! As a recent US president might have said: he misoverestimated.
It looks like the neocons, the CIA, and Britain’s MI6 did, too, if they helped nudge the event to fruition with assurances and cash — say, some of that $6.2 billion the Pentagon happened to find recently via an “accounting error.” What better time to destabilize Russia than during Ukraine’s vaunted spring offensive (which, let’s face it, was not going too well)? In fact, Ukraine’s whole NATO-assisted project from the get-go looked like a bust. The Bakhmut “meat-grinder” was just the latest fiasco. But then, the irascible, disgruntled, and grandiose field marshal Priggy seemed like the perfect instrument to jazz things up for the demoralized West.
Pretty darn quick, on the road from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, Priggy learned the hard way that he had no support in the government, the military, or among the Russian public. The coup fizzled before sundown the very day it started. Some say, any way you cut it, the result is Vlad Putin left looking weak and vulnerable. I don’t think so. His speech to the Russian people that day appeared, if anything, resolute. And the way he seemed to spit out the words “a stab in the back,” you couldn’t think he was play-acting. By evening, with the whole psychodrama concluded, the people of St. Petersburg crowded the quay along the Neva River and busted into patriotic song.
Let’s address one nagging question: why did Mr. Putin allow the Wagner Group private army to play the leading role countering the Ukraine offensive? Answer: because he was saving and building-up the regular Russian army to strength in the further event that NATO might finally jump into Ukraine with all its multi-national feet when all else fails.
We’re left, of course, with the manifold mysteries of the coup’s hasty resolution. Mr. Prigozhin, we’re told, will be turned over to the custody of the Belarus president Lukashenko, to… to be done what with? To be put on the shelf like a bowling trophy? I’m sure…. If they can even find the bugger now. (I’d look in Africa, where sundry Wagner units have been operating — Priggy must have had a plane standing by in Rostov.) In any case, we know the rest: Wagner troops who did not participate in the coup get folded into the regular army, and said regular army takes over duty along the front in Ukraine. Mr. Putin, despite all these insults, will continue to seek a diplomatic end to all this nonsense, and he might get it sooner rather than later. Germany and France, among Euro others, must be sick of these shenanigans.
Can Ukraine even carry on much longer? President Zelensky, the comedian, seems to have gone mad-dog now. He just cancelled next year’s election, which makes him… what? Dictator? So much for America’s democracy export program. He’s also issued warnings to the effect that Russia is about to blow up the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest. Such an act would supposedly trigger direct intervention by NATO, according to the policy promoted by war-hawk US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal. The nuclear plant is under Russian control. Mr. Zelensky says they have set mines in it. The scenario is pretty absurd. Nobody believes it. Of course, Mr. Zelensky might use some of his NATO missiles to zap it, but Russia has video surveillance and recording equipment at every angle around the joint and the world will know five seconds after how it was blown up.
From his latest photographs, it looks like Mr. Zelensky is in the terminal throes of a cocaine rapture, and his actions are consistent with that state of mind. He must know that he’s not long for this world. And our country, the USA, must know that this Ukraine gambit is another lost cause on our long march of military misadventures. And if the government of our country doesn’t know, the people surely do. Have you noticed, the yellow-and-blue flags are not flying anymore? Even the most hardcore anti-Trump Democrats seem to understand what pounding sand down a rat-hole means when it comes to the many billions of dollars squandered on this stupid project while our cities rot and a whole lot more goes south in our own ailing homeland.
Not to mention the parlous position of the American president himself, the spectral “Joe Biden,” skulking in his demon-haunted White House as evidence of his treasonous turpitudes mounts and mounts. Which leaves us to wonder whether our Intel Community may have stirred up the Russia coup as just another distraction from its own Biden-linked crimes against this nation.
(kunstler.com)
GROWING, RIPENING, AGING, DYING — the passing of time is predestined, inevitable.
“There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning — devotion to individuals, to groups or to causes, social, political, intellectual or creative work… In old age we should wish still to have passions strong enough to prevent us turning in on ourselves. One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, compassion.”
— Simone de Beauvoir in “The Coming of Age”
UKRAINE, MONDAY, 26 JUNE
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday night that "the armed rebellion would have been suppressed anyway," referring to the insurrection launched by the Wagner Group over the weekend.
Putin said Wagner fighters could sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense or other Russian law enforcement, return to their families or move to Belarus.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin broke his silence earlier Monday in an audio message — his first since allegedly agreeing to leave Russia for Belarus in a deal to end the insurrection. Belarusian officials said they cannot confirm if Prigozhin arrived in the country.
Prigozhin said he called off the march on Moscow because he wanted to avoid Russian bloodshed and claimed it was a demonstration of protest rather than an attempt to overturn power. He remains under investigation after the revolt, a source at Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said.
Marco Rubio has some updates re whistleblowers:
https://www.newsweek.com/marco-rubio-ufo-uap-top-us-officials-investigation-1809201
The initial whistleblower David Grusch has survived the harsh scrutiny of long standing debunkers.
The impact of other high level persons coming out and confirming the ET presence to members of key committees is going to be interesting. The phrase “ontological shock” is making the rounds now.
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4067865-congress-doubles-down-on-explosive-claims-of-illegal-ufo-retrieval-programs/
The author of this piece was recently traveling with Barack Obama in Europe. Obama is likely playing a role: he is producing a documentary for Netflix on the Betty and Barney Hill story.
the Comptche Upholstery in located in Cleone ?
Comptche Upholstery started in Comptche many, many moons ago, and then moved to Fort Bragg-Cleone. Martin Miller does excellent work.
No different than Mendocino Farms located everywhere except Mendocino.
https://www.mendocinofarms.com/locations/
Who gives a sh*t what Sakowicz thinks or recommends. His candidate – Carrie Shattuck – is the MAGA queen of this county. She heads up the ‘Mendo Patriots’ Trump-lover group. 1st District BOS Candidate Shattuck led the anti vax protests at the Ukiah Co op and Ukiah Schools, and at (County Public Health Director) Dr. Coren’s private residence.
Has she held a job in the past 10 years? I couldn’t find any evidence.
Has she had restraining orders filed against her? Yup!
Ms.Shattuck doesn’t understand how to ‘play well with others’ and her confrontational style would be a disasterous addition to the County Board of Supervisors. I heard even her own GOP party won’t endorse her.
The County needs a good shakeup.
GROUPTHINK EXISTS!
Marmon
I agree with Marmon. We need diversity
RE: CARRIE SHATTUCK’S BUDGET EXPERIENCE
I believe Carrie Oakley Shattuck once said she ran a Trucking business. She is related to Brian Oakley who owns West Coast Enterprises in Redwood Valley. I suspect that’s the Trucking Company she was talking about.
Marmon
Hi Marmon, I was the Business Manager for his previous company, Ukiah Timber Products and also owned my own company, Border to Border.
I can’t remember ever agreeing with Sako, but there’s a first time for everything. He’s spot on with his evisceration of Mockel and those who prematurely endorsed him, especially the five bozos whose asses occupy the chairs behind the bulletproof(?) glass of the lavishly remodeled Supervisor’s chamber. I do believe I was the first to point out the cliche-ridden and weasel word content that was Mockel’s candidate statement, at least in the AVA.
Unfortunately, for Sako, he picked the wrong candidate to endorse. Which actually is a blessing in disguise for the rest of us who are aware of Sako’s rather dubious past. When the Lake County resident jumped on her bandwagon, well, let’s just say that the fork was stuck in her. Thank you Suzy for bringing Carrie Shattuck’s history to our attention. It’s now clear why the Lake County resident and ardent Pro-Trumper was so eager to support her. Did I mention that he’s a resident of Lake County?
I’ve never met Adam Gaska, but it’s clear that he is the only viable candidate for McGourty’s seat that will move the County forward. He’s a lifelong resident of Mendo, a successful businessman, served on various governing boards and takes the time to approach each issue with well-researched and thoughtful opinions. Hopefully the rest of the district will agree and vote for him.
Lake County has a diverse Board and they actually have healthy debate. I was born and raised in Mendocino County and lived and worked there most of my adult life. What’s happened to that county with all the lib labs at the helm is disgraceful. All common sense has gone away,
GROUPTHINK EXISTS!
Marmon
If nothing changes, then nothing changes.
Marmon
You can’t change the people around you but you can change the people around you.
If you do nothing, for sure, nothing changes.” Ah yes, my dear, a student of the obvious.”
W.C. Fields
Be well,
Laz
I knew Adam Gaska reasonably well in high school, where unlike the vast majority of us (myself included), he was not an abrasive moron. Even then he had a quiet dignity about him and was able to think before speaking, something few of us ever learned. It’s clear from his current writings that he’s only grown more intelligent and thoughtful, and Mendo would be lucky to have him as a leader.
Thanks Chris. It’s been awhile since Senorita Crane’s class and our shenigans. Hope things are well with you. If you are ever in Mendoland, hit me up. 707-272-5477
I think Carrie Olkley went to Ukiah High too.
Marmon
For the record, I haven’t formally endorsed any candidate for Mendocino County 1st District Supervisor. With the exception of Trevor Mockel, I’ve spoken with each of the other three candidates, and I like each of them.
I like them for entirely different reasons.
Adam Gaska is a young father and a hard-working farmer. He not unacquainted with the local cannabis industry.
Carrie Shattuck is in-your-face and confrontational. She’s a distant relative of Johnny Pinches, I think.
Madeline Cline is young and smart. Worked as a lobbyist in Sacramento, I think. Carrie Brown supports her.
For the record, I would support any candidate who would “reinvent” the way the County does business, starting with immediately firing and replacing the current County CEO and County Counsel, thereby breaking any link with the recent past under Carmel Angelo.
The next BOS should also immediately demand monthly financial reports from the Treasurer-Tax Collector-Auditor, and if she can’t produce them, then the next BOS should formally censure her and support a recall to remove her.
The next BOS should also demand that the Treasurer-Tax Collector-Auditor be current on collecting taxes.
The next BOS should create an office for economic development. The County needs to be less reliant on tourism, particularly if the threat of recession is real.
The next BOS should reorganize the Cannabis Program and put it under the Agriculture Department, where it has always belonged.
The next BOS should cut their salaries, however symbolic that gesture may be, and give raises to SEIU workers, however symbolic those raises may be.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
RE: MORE OF THE SAME
The mendo dems have a real problem with their endorsement, Gaska vs Mockel. Shattuck is an outsider, that’s exactly what the first district needs. It probably doesn’t matter which democrat candidate eventually wins, the County will follow their path to completely destroy what our county once was.
Marmon
I’m not a Democrat.
Then you’re done
Marmon
The first is almost evenly split between Dems, independents, and Republicans. I think being moderate, informed and ready to work is the place to be.
So far you want to collect more taxes. Moneys flowing in just manage it correctly.
I could care less which democrat candidate Sako thinks would be a good choice. He is a liberal. What Mendo needs is, is some one that really understands conservation.
con·ser·va·tion
noun
1.
prevention of wasteful use of a resource.
Marmon
Thanks for that Stephen.
I will be at the Black Bart Day parade in Redwood Valley this Saturday. I am around and available if you ever want to meet, chat. I am going to start making a regular appearance at Blacklock Coffee for people to drop by, say hi and express themselves.
I second Suzy’s comment. Who Fing cares what John Sacoshitz thinks about anything political. He’s our local George Santos. So many documented lies and deceit with zero apologies or admittance of wrong doing or lie telling. How did that double workers comp claim while “working” at Orr hot springs work out for you John? Still living off those slip n fall accidents?
The problem with John Sac, and George Santos for that matter, is that they think people don’t know about their lies. So they continue on in unabated bliss because they love the lime light.
Certainly do NOT need another Supervisor who “plays well” with the idiots of do nothing and get paid well for it Supervisors we already have.
Check yourself Suzy the sheep. A “confrontational style” is exactly what is needed to correct the course we are currently on, both locally and nationally.
Can you really say things are getting better? Baaahhh…
Hi Suzy ____?,
I was part of the Mendocino Patriots (Patriot: lover of ones country). The Co-op was about masking. No one has a right to force you to wear a medical device (which masks are) and refuse service on a medical basis, this did not violate any laws. I actually left from the Co-op that day and went to a meeting I had scheduled with Sheriff Kendall to inquire if he was a constitutional Sheriff, which he is, and inquire about other concerns since we were in unprecedented times.
I did not go to Corens house. We were in the middle of a public health “emergency” and Public Health was closed. How do you protest Public Health if no one is there? Therefore concerned citizens went to his house, where he was working from. I left the Mendocino Patriots due to some members wanting to “push the envelope” further, that I did not agree with.
I did go to a Ukiah Unified School Board meeting and speak out against them pushing the experimental Vax on children. I am pro-choice, Freedom to choose for one’s self and their children with informed consent (which this was not). I spoke for many parents who feared retaliation and backlash if they voiced their concerns. I believe government has no right to interfere in our health choices. They “govern” us but that has transitioned over the years into control and coercion which I am strongly against.
During those unprecedented times I also became an Ambassador for Children’s Health Defense (the organization founded by Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr) to support children and parents for medical choice, freedom and informed consent.
I was arrested in August 2019 for domestic violence (which was dropped to misdemeanor battery) and had a restraining order (singular) against me for the incident, with my husband of 27 years, who had severe addiction issues and took his life, by suicide, in November 2019.
I was a caregiver for my elderly parents, with Dementia and Alzheimers, for over 9 years, as well as being self employed. I worked for the last 3 of those years (2019-2022) through IHHS. Both of them have since passed in the last 2 years.
I love my Country and County and have many concerns about the directions they are going. I have been speaking out about the lack of transperancy, waste of taxpayer money and big government and many more, which only seem to be getting worse and dividing the People further. I am a Constitutionalist and will stand up and defend my rights and those of the People. We are all People of this Country/County and should not be divided by party. We all need to work together for the greater good.
This Supervisor seat is a non-partisan position. I actually align more with the libraterians but unfortunately since our government runs on a two party system, I am registered as a Republican. I do not wish and have not asked to be endorsed by my local GOP.
Hopefully this addresses all of your concerns and please feel free to call me anytime if you have any more.
People Not Party,
Sincerely,
Carrie Shattuck
Candidate for 1st District Supervisor
707-489-5178
Votecarrie2024@gmail.com
Votecarrie2024.com
I am a member of the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, one of 6,765 as of 12/31/22. I was not present when you and your gang of thugs, aka “Mendocino Patriots”, invaded the Co-op, but friends who were told me of the disruption to the business and intimidation of the customers, including many elderly and small children. All in the name of “protesting masking”. As a private business, the Co-op has a right to establish its business standards and refuse service to anyone violating those standards. The only right to protest you have is not to shop there.
A mask is not a medical device except in a medical setting. The courts in many countries decided this, not the CDC, Dr. Coren, or any of the world’s health organizations. “Non-hospital general use face mask: Product for the protection of the respiratory tract that covers the mouth, nose and chin provided with a head harness that can surround the head or be attached to the ears. They are not considered a medical device.”
Did you protest at any of the hospitals in Mendocino County? Masks were required at all of them. In fact, even with a mask all non-medical personnel (except employees) were prohibited from entering. No you didn’t, because if you had you most assuredly would have been arrested. Instead, you and your cohorts chose what is likely the most welcoming and giving back to the community business in Ukiah and possibly Mendocino County. You chose the Co-op because you assumed, correctly as it turned out, that the Ukiah cops would take their time responding.
You don’t have to be a member to shop at the Co-op. I choose to be one as a way to support a business whose values and practices I admire and which contributes much to the community. I suspect that not one member and most of the non-members who shop there, many of whom live in District 1, will cast a vote for you. So you’re likely already 7,500 votes behind. Despite what our esteemed Editor professes, you will not be able to undo your past and reinvent yourself.
RE: UKRAINE
-Zelensky has banned opposition political parties
-He arrested political opponents
-He banned all unfriendly media
-He shut down Orthodox churches
-And now there will be no Presidential election next year
-At what point we call him what he is?
A DICTATOR
Marmon
Re Banana Slugs: I’ve successfully cleaned corrosion off battery terminals with a paste of baking soda diluted with a bit of warm water and then scrubbing with a toothbrush. It neutralizes the battery acid. Not sure it will work on the slime. You might try a mixture of Dawn (or comparable) dishwashing liquid and water in a spray bottle and saturate the slime. Dawn is a superior grease cutter. Be sure to thoroughly dry the battery and receptacle before using, preferably blowing out the moisture with canned air or an air compressor if you have one.
Vinegar destroys the mucous membrane exuded by slugs and snails (and causes a stink imaginable as the stench of hellfire and brimstone) — might help break down the tissue and make it more easily removable.
Salt is the best, where have you all been?
Marmon
ED NOTES
” … The Steam Pig by James McClure, a South African writer. I made the schedule-destroying mistake of reading the first page and didn’t look up for the next six hours.”
Can’t resist a blurb like this–ordered it just now. Thanks, Bruce.
Bruce,
I highly recommend the mysteries of the great Swiss writer, Friedrich Dürrenmatt.
The Execution of Justice
The Pledge
The Judge and His Hangman
The Quarry
The latter two feature Inspector Barlach as the central character. You can get them through the Library’s Link Plus system. I read them in the original German and then in English. The translation is very good, something not always the case. You won’t be disappointed.
For summertime recreational reading pleasure may I suggest the Gordianus the Finder novels by Steven Saylor. Not only are they enjoyable reads, but you may learn a thing or two about ancient history as well.
Re – Detective Fiction
The best crime novel I’ve read in ages is Snow by John Banville. (Not Snow by Orhan Pamuk) Banville’s Snow is set in the midst of a mammoth snowstorm in rural Ireland. It’s filled with well-drawn and, except for the corpse, lively characters.
RE: PG&Evil
Why? Why does this company still exist and continue to strip us of our lives and incomes?
Why is power transmission all of a sudden so expensive?
Why did they CUT incentives for roof top solar on our homes in a time of cheaper renewable energy?
Why are we paying for their mistakes? Why are we paying for their lobbyists to screw us? Why are we paying for their advertising to convince us they are really doing good?
Why is PG&E so evil?
“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
Want to see how evil they really are? Watch Erin Brokovich
Wonderful quote by Simone de Beauvoir. I had a great-uncle who lived to be 100. He was always involved in all kinds of issues, his typewriter kept busy (typos notwithstanding) writing letters of protest here and there. He had piles of papers everywhere related to different issues. He complained about being disorganized but he found items and sent them to me that were very valuable to me. He wrote (typed) long letters to me and mentored me in exploring our family history, some of which occurred in California in the mid 1800’s. His grandmother and grandfather (my great-great grandparents) were married in San Francisco in 1867.
I was lucky enough to find the marriage announcement in an encyclopedic collection of San Francisco newspaper articles and announcements (collected in volumes) in an off-limits area at the DAR headquarters in Washington DC. My uncle was flabbergasted as he had been looking unsuccessfully for evidence of their marriage for many years (thanks to the 1906 earthquake records are extremely scarce). Now we have the internet, which helps, but this was just dumb luck and the willingness on my part to defy the DAR by perusing an “off-limit” area. The guard at he door was watching me on his screen the whole time, unbeknownst to me, and decided I didn’t look like a criminal I guess. Quite a caper!
Warm spiritual greetings,
Am sitting in front of computer #5 at the Ukiah Public Library at 1:14PM Pacific Time in sunny Ukiah, California. Not identified with the body nor the mind, Immortal Self I am! I am doing nothing of any importance in Mendocino County, and am therefore available for frontline radical environmental direct action. Fuck capitalism, its insane industrialized war machine, and the humanity who are its slaves; worms in excretia only.
Craig Louis Stehr
1045 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
Telephone Messages: (707) 234-3270
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
June 27th @ 1:14PM Pacific Time
No swearing, Craig.Last warning.
The root of all Political Evil is Money.
So if we really live in a democracy why have we allowed lobby groups, special interests groups, and giant corporations to bribe our public officials and call it legal “free speech”? I mean, I know the old saying is, “Money talks, B.S. walks”, but why is a group of people bribing politicians into making laws against the well being of the general public allowed to even have the right of “free speech”? They are not an individual living breathing human. They are a form of property, that requires a group of people to form. Oh, is that what they mean when politicians say “We are spreading American democracy around the world”?
So the real question of my generation, and maybe some of the left leaning and libertarian oriented baby boomers before me, is… “How do we put an end to this corruption?”
How do we get the very politicians getting paid lots of money to make these laws, to turn off the money tap to themselves? How do we get politicians that want to be public servants instead of corporate slaves? How do we remove the corporate money carrot from the public service arena? Most Politicians are trapped in their ivory towers, far away from the problems they are creating. But the sign of any great Civilization collapsing, is that the rich build bigger walls to protect themselves, in vain.
If states have public referendums, as California has the proposition by petitions system, we do have a chance to remove the $100 bill cotton balls from the politicians ears, and maybe a Real Democracy does stand a chance of coming to life in the USA. Go America! What are you going to do about it this 4th of July?
Exactly!! How indeed?! (didn’t watch the video but, !)
I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I’m no party preference.
Amen to that! 2 thumbs up!!! You rock Adam. I love watching your gardens grow!
Hey thanks. Food and farming are my hobbies.
I like policy, politics not so much. I see ideologies as just strategies. When you invest in one to the exclusion of others, it’s self limiting. When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Poorch Speech.
2 party system or 1 Corporate lobby State?
Here is an interesting solution to the lobby hobby bribery:
How is Nuclear, stable or sustainable? Here, I add the missing words in parenthesis to the following statement to make it show how absolutely absurd the argument for nuke is.
“According to Sweden’s finance minister, wind and solar are too “unstable.” After the accident at Three Mile Island (an accident proving how unstable Nuclear power is), Sweden by way of a national referendum voted to phase out all of its nuclear plants and never build new ones.”
If there is a Hell (and who among us can say there isn’t?) I hope everyone responsible for cutting down the 1300 year old Mark Twain Giant Sequoia is burning in it.
According to Wikipedia the Mark Twain Giant Sequoia was felled in 1891, so it might be about time to give those responsible a turn.
I have fond memories of viewing a slice of it at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.