Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Sunny/Breezy | Westport Fog | Hog Fire | Boont Berry | Bomb Threat | Dos Rios | Bright Spots | Rosie Cleanup | Skyhawk Radio | Redding Alternate | BB Kevin | Medicinal Herbs | Junk Hauler | Sundstrom Selected | Ed Notes | Forest Club | Ornbaun Valley | Yesterday's Catch | Resting Comfortably | Old Age | Natural Cycle | Reality Numbers | Trans Pageant | Prehistoric Googling | Flag Burning | Try Again | Blob Quiver | Turn Prep | Ukraine | Analog World | Disband NATO | EV Food

SEASONABLE WEATHER conditions will trend toward very hot and dry this weekend across interior valleys, with afternoon temperatures ranging from 100 to 110 across much of Trinity, Lake, and interior Mendocino County. Elsewhere, periods of stratus will continue to impact the coast, though afternoon clearing will be possible on a daily basis. Otherwise, no rain is forecast to occur during the next seven days. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): And just like that a return to a foggy 52F on the coast this Humpday morning. The satellite shows us with clear skies so the fog must be either very thin or patchy. I am going with morning fog then clearing into the weekend.

HOG FIRE BURNS 4 ACRES OFF HIGHWAY 128 NEAR CLOVERDALE

The fire, reported just after 4 p.m.Tuesday, was burning near Highway 128. It was contained at about 4 acres.

by Colin Atagi

Crews have stopped the forward progress of a fire that burned just over 4 acres Tuesday afternoon northwest of Cloverdale, Cal Fire reported.

The wildfire, named the Hog Fire for a nearby street, had burned 4.2 acres near the 33000 block of Highway 128 at 6:30 p.m., CalFire spokesperson Jason Clay said.

It was reported just after 4 p.m., burning uphill in windy conditions. Initial estimates of the acreage were revised downward, said Clay, after more accurate readings by aircraft.

“Now, firefighters are strengthening containment lines around the fire, there are handlines and dozer lines,” he said.

Three airtankers and three helicopters are being used in the attack, according to Cal Fire.

Clay said firefighters would be on the scene into the night and would continue to monitor the area for the next few days.

(pressdemocrat.com)

NO EXPLOSIVES FOUND AFTER BOMB THREAT EVACUATES FORT BRAGG CITY HALL

by Matt LaFever

A bomb threat received by telephone this morning prompted the evacuation of Fort Bragg's City Hall and the immediate area. After a thorough search, authorities did not locate any explosive devices and are conducting an ongoing investigation. 

Fort Bragg Police Chief Neil Cervenka told us that the dispatch center got a call around 10:40 a.m. today that there were explosive devices in the area of Fort Bragg's City Hall. 

The phone call prompted an immediate evacuation of that area.

Chief Cervenka said law enforcement set quickly to conduct a thorough search of the grounds that did not turn up any explosives.

Now that the immediate concerns have been addressed, Chief Cervenka said investigators are looking into the caller who relayed the bomb threat. He declined to provide any specifics beyond that to protect the integrity of the investigation

Chief Cervenka expressed appreciation to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, Fort Bragg Fire Department, and Adventist Health's ambulance for responding to the scene.

(mendofever.com)

BRIGHT SPOTS

by Mark Scaramella

It might come as a surprise to some readers of this space that there were a couple of genuine, if minor, bright spots in Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor meeting.

First, with the appraiser staff now up to six appraisers, progress has been made in correcting and updating property assessments. County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor Katrina Bartolomie told the Board that assessments had gone up by just over 4%. However, apparently, much of that increase was due to corrections of “errors” or mistakes, not actual reassessments. Ms. Bartolomie and CEO Antle were quick to add that even with this positive uptick in assessed values, it will take a significant amount of time before those increased assessments translate to actual tax collection and increased revenue.

Not much, granted, but it’s welcome news.

Ms. Bartolomie also told the Board that the County’s new property tax software system, a multimillion dollar upgrade project purchased years ago and still not working well called “Aumentum,” “cannot generate a report that makes any sense”. … Getting useful reports out of Aumentum is still “a long way down the road,” said Bartolomie, adding for emphasis that she is still waiting for reports which are “still lacking.” “Statistical reporting leaves a lot to be desired,” continued Bartolomie. “We need a print out. There’s no way to find an error until we calculate the assessment on our own, manually.”

She said her office had sent out letters to unassessed owners asking them for property info and they use aerial photos. “It’s not the right way to do it,” she said, “but sometimes it’s all we can do,” adding that supplemental assessment notices asking about possible new or additional structures can be disputed by the property owner and thus will be some time off before the County realizes any revenue from them, if ever. “We have a lot of catch up to do,” concluded Bartolomie.

Possibly offsetting the upturn from corrected assessments, however, Supervisor Ted Williams presented some graphs he had prepared showing basically that while County revenues may be up a few percentage points, costs are increasing more than revenues — at least based on the limited data available.

The other (minor) bright spot coming out of Tuesday’s meeting is that Mendo is now, only ten years after the fact, doing a better job of tracking mental health service effectiveness. 

For the first time since 2013 when the County rashly privatized mental health services, they have made an attempt to report on actual outcomes, not just numbers of clients served, awkward and selective as it may be. 

This initial stab at reporting shows that for the more than $22 million Mendo hands over to Camille Schraeder’s Redwood Quality Management Monopoly (or whatever name it goes by these days), 347 people received “services” and 147 of them were “transitioned” to a lower service level while 155 “remained out of services” which presumably means they haven’t needed more services since being “treated” and released. Presumably they were released because of some improvement in their condition, not because they were no longer covered by some form of insurance.

The $22 million doesn’t include some 40 or so additional county employees in the Behavioral Health Department under Director Dr. Jenine Miller.

Only a crass skeptic would do some basic math and calculate that for an average of at least $6400 per “patient” per year at least some of the people “treated” by Redwood Quality Management got better. But then again, for that much money you’d hope that they should show at least some improvement. 

But when we look further at the chart we see that 431 people utilized “crisis services” so far this year while only 93 needed such service last year. 

Nobody asked about this glaring disparity. It could be that Mendo’s three long-overdue crisis vans coming into full operation this year have produced a better record of crises which had not been responded to in the past.

And lastly we see that 694 people (including children and adults) who were getting mental health services did not go into crisis. So that’s 694 local “severe” mental cases who did not flip out this year — whether that’s due to the $6400 spent on them or not is unclear. 

The muddy part of this picture is the basic crisis question. Not all crises stem from a mental health problem. When we last reviewed the Crisis Van reports we saw that most of the calls were for more or less sane people who found themselves in a temporary difficult situation: a boyfriend who overdosed, a tragic accident, abrupt job loss, a bad encounter with a friend, family member or co-worker, etc. 

In those cases, if they received services — and a number of them refused services — one would expect that once they were helped over the crisis they would “remain out of service” because they only needed help during the crisis, not because they got effective treatment. 

Nevertheless, it appears that Ms. Schraeder’s services are doing some good, albeit for a lot of money.

PS. One must deduct from the value of the services the substantial managerial staff and overhead and profit that Redwood Quality Management (or Anchor Health as they are now called) makes for providing the services. According to salary.com, the average RQMC employee makes about $100k per year base salary, plus a more than competitive benefits package. They also seem to be well staffed in management and directors. 

For example, on Tuesday alone a small parade of very well dressed RQMC and its subsidiary management personnel stepped to the podium during public expression to glowingly praise their services and say how important they are. 

We had Redwood Community Services CEO Victoria Kelly; Tapestry CEO Natalie Shepherd; Dan Anderson, Chief Operating Officer for Anchor Health; Camille Schraeder, Chief Program Officer for Anchor Health — who referred to the people and subsidiaries and subcontractors under her “Administrative Service Organization” umbrella as “my providers”; Carol Livingston, Program Director for Crisis at Redwood Community Services. Jolene Treadaway, newly appointed clinical director of Redwood Community Services, and Paul Davis, Executive Director of the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center in Fort Bragg.

These people alone who somehow were able to take half a day of their precious time out of their busy schedules to tell the Supes how great a job they’re doing represented over $1 million of the $22 million per year RQMS gets from Mendocino County every year.

FROM FROG WOMAN ROCK down to the beach in Geyserville Highway 128 bridge, Rosie helps collect 780 pounds of trash and three tires from the Russian River.

THE HAWK SOARS!

Fireworks Bans and County Staffing Crisis

Please join host Chris Skyhawk for Universal Perspectives on Thursday, July 13 at 7 pm; on KZYX.

His first guest will be Matt Rossell of the Animal Defense League; Matt will discuss the growing movement for cities to ban 4th of July Fireworks, due to their harmful impact upon wildlife. 

His second guest will be Julie Beardsley; President of Mendocino County Service Employees International Union 1021; Julie will discuss the crisis in staffing County positions; and the Union’s attempts to get the Board Of Supervisors to address the crisis; KZYX can be heard in Mendocino County at 90.7/91.5 FM and online at www.kzyx.org.

JOHN REDDING: I am as angry as I have ever been. Scratch that. I am as disappointed as I have ever been.

I applied to be on the Grand Jury, and over the course of time I was asked several times if I still wanted to go through with it. My affirmative answer was greeted with enthusiasm. I was invited to the swearing in ceremony this Friday. 

But…

Judge Nadel, a seemingly nice woman, just called me to say, quoting, “after reviewing all the interviews and transcripts I have decided to name you as an alternate.” Meaning, I don't want you anymore. Who got to the good judge? Former Grand Jury Foreperson Kathy Wylie or Supervisor Ted Williams with whom I have tangled?

There is a virtual sign on every government door in Mendocino that says: “Conservatives need not apply.” Just like it was before for Irish, Blacks and Jews. With this mindset, if there is corruption or just plain failure at Mendocino County, it will never be discovered and identified. 

Shame, shame, shame on the Superior Court of Mendocino County.

AV VILLAGE MONTHLY GATHERING: Common Medicinal Herbs

Sunday, July 16th, 4 to 5:30 PM

Anderson Valley Senior Center

Refreshments served

Come enjoy a brief introduction to our friends the healing herbs with Mary Pat Palmer, of the Philo School of Herbal Energetics. Some of the most important herbs are in your kitchen spice rack. Others are right outside and we call them weeds. Others are familiar to you who delight in wild flora.

Please RSVP with the coordinator — thank you!

Anica Williams
Anderson Valley Village Coordinator
Cell: 707-684-9829
Email: andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

VICTOR APARICIO: Hauling away junk cars, let me know what you need taken away, at this time I can only take cars that have wheels, I don’t buy cars, just trying to help clean communities. No paperwork no problem. If you need trailers, RV’S, boats, ect, just let me know I know a guy who charges to get rid of them. 707 489 4482

POINT ARENA, SRJC GRAD JARED SUNDSTROM Selected By Seattle Mariners In MLB Draft

by Gus Morris

Jared Sundstrom, a Point Arena High School and Santa Rosa Junior College alum was selected in the 10th round of the 2023 MLB Draft on Monday by the Seattle Mariners.

“It was crazy,” Sundstrom told the Press Democrat on Monday night. “For a while, I was texting with my advisor, and we weren’t really hearing anything and then suddenly it was like, boom, it just happened.”

Sundstrom said his advisor told him Seattle was between him and another player for the 307th pick in the draft and landed on Sundstrom shortly before making the selection. His draft slot value is worth $165,500 and Sundstrom said he plans on signing with the club. He’ll head off to Seattle’s spring training facility in Peoria, Arizona on Friday.

“This has always been a dream to play professional baseball but it got a lot more real in the last year,” he said. “Coming out of Point Arena, like, Santa Rosa was big compared to there. I had to go to the JC and just kind of brick-by-brick build my way.”

Sundstrom, who was born in Santa Rosa and grew up in Gualala, is coming off a First-Team All-Conference redshirt junior season at UC Santa Barbara. The center fielder led the Big West in home runs (15) and slugging percentage (.672) and led the Gauchos in batting (.322), RBIs (43), doubles (15) and total bases (119).

Before transferring to UCSB, he was a standout in 48 games at SRJC. He led the team in batting (.386) and stolen bases (7) in their COVID-shortened season in 2021 and then batted .400 with six home runs, 26 RBIs, 34 runs and 16 stolen bases in 30 games in 2022.

Sundstrom also played for the Healdsburg Prune Packers this summer.

“Big appreciation to Damon at the JC and (Prune Packers head coach) Joey Gomes,” Sundstrom said. “Those are two insanely big mentors in my life that have really changed my baseball career and I can’t thank them enough for how much they’ve supported me and helped me through this journey.”

ED NOTES

The perils of leaving Boonville, especially for Las Vegas. A few years ago we flew there on United out of San Francisco International. I’d never been to Vegas, but a good friend’s wedding gave me and the missus the pretext, because it wouldn’t have occurred to either of us to go there unprompted.

The flights to and from were uneventful, though each time I go somewhere out of SFO there seems to be new wrinkles in dehumanization.

Boarding the shuttle bus from the long-term parking lot for the main terminal, a disembodied voice said, “Welcome to San Francisco International Airport. We are approaching section 3.” When we got to section 2 the message repeated itself. Ditto for our arrival at section 1. The possibility of a human exchange with the driver was greatly reduced, but this driver went way out of her way to give careful instructions to a guy who has to climb through a hole in the fence to get to the other side of the vast lot so he can apply for a job. A sign in the passenger area urged travellers to report drivers who somehow offended them. Snitch instructions are all over the place these days. One more insult to working people.

Every fifteen minutes or so, adding to the atmosphere of mild panic characteristic of the place, a school marmish voice warned, “This is a security advisory. All vehicles parked at departures will be towed immediately.” As if a car bomb was about to go off. No vehicles are towed, of course. No vehicles can be towed because the traffic is jammed tight, but the announcement seemed to get people dashing in and out of the terminal with that stampeded look in their widened eyes.

Seated in the boarding area scanning my fellow departees for danger signs, an old guy tottered up to me and said, pointing at his shoes, “Rockports.”

“New Balance,” I reply, pointing at mine. “My doctor told me to wear ‘em,” my new friend said. “My wife bought mine,” I inform him. Rockport returned to his seat where he sits smiling at me. I smiled back. Comrades in footwear.

Rockport was with an older woman, presumably his wife, and a younger woman who seemed to be his daughter. The daughter was reading a biography of Mallarme.

“Ah,” I said to myself, “an intellectual,” and waited for something crazy or incompetent to happen.

Sure enough, Ms. Mallarme somehow managed to jam her travel bag into the box-like open base of a pointless sign that said something like, “Passengers Only.” 

Rockport and I tugged at it until it was free, and just as a passing stewardess, noting both the absurdity and the absurd trio attempting to remedy it, offered to “call a maintenance person.”

Mr. Rockport said to me, “Thank you, Mr. Beard.”

As we boarded the plane, Mr. and Mrs. Rockport and Mallarme remained seated. They were eating box lunches. They didn’t get on the plane. I guess they just liked to talk shoes, read Mallarme and eat lunch at SFO.

I know this is going to sound unkind, but an enormously obese couple were wheel-chaired onto the plane and on into first class by straining, petite Filipino women, but upon landing in Vegas, both of the allegedly immobilized fatsos fairly lept from their wheelchairs to waddle briskly to the terminal’s Burger King. I made a note to complain to the FAA that perfectly healthy fat people are scamming their way into first class.

In the air, a stewardess asked, “Eagle Nuts?”

No, I’m Bruce. She handed me a tiny package with maybe six cashews in it.

There’s a lot more Las Vegas than I’d expected. I anticipated an expanded Reno. I know Vegas is sucking the Colorado dry to spread out for miles like a desert replay of LA, which also is built on a bed of cactuses, now that I remember my geography. Bear with me. I seldom leave Boonville for any place other than San Fran.

A cranker cabbie whisked us to our Motel 6 from McCarran. “Whereyafromhowyadoinghowlongyasatyin…”

There was a regular shrine to McCarran in the airport. McCarran! One of the all-time McCarthyite swine of the 1950s. Howard Hughes, another world class dingbat, also got a big play in the airport’s history display cases.

The door to our Motel 6 room had apparently been kicked in by a previous tenant and clumsily refitted. The wind whistles eerily through the cracks. There was anti-art on the walls, the bedspread concealed suspiciously rumpled sheets. It’s more of a sensory deprivation tank of a space than it is shelter. 

The main drag of the desert playground was only a couple of blocks away. I headed off to see what I could see in the two days I’d be there. Vegas seemed endlessly large and endlessly anarchic. But very interesting. 

I footed it all the way down the strip to what they call “Old Town,” but I didn’t see anything old besides old winos and old dopers. I was panhandled on an average of once per block. It cost me almost $25 to walk from that huge, black, pseudo-Egyptian sarcophagus-like casino to “Old Town” on the other side of the Stratosphere, a thousand and something-foot tower from which you can see the end of the world as it spreads over miles and miles of sand where nobody should live.

I passed through shoals of chattering young people with voracious, distracted eyes and cellphones and wondered if I was that vapid at twenty.

Inside a casino restaurant mechanical apes jumped up and down in the foyer. I dropped ten bucks in two hours playing the nickel slots, marvelling at the math genius who programmed the machines to keep you playing, allowing you to hit six or seven buck “jackpots” as you approach your last two or three dollars.

The purpose of the visit was a wedding, which took place in a seedy chapel in the parking lot of an even seedier three-story motel, which looked like a monkey island for dopers, who hung out the windows hooting and bellowing at passersby, especially women. I longed for the days when insult, or even mere impertinence, could be rewarded with gunfire.

The wedding was conducted by a versatile Mexican who, a sign said, would perform Elvis weddings, intergalactic weddings, Camelot weddings, and Beach Party weddings. Fortunately, my friends settled for a wedding-wedding.

The Mexican launched into a “We-ness, You-ness, Us-ness, Thus-ness” blessing during which he paused to light a three-pronged candelabra, fumbling with his matchbook and throwing off the rhythms of his riveting ceremonial. He finally got all three candles going.

“This one is you,” he said to the bride, “and this one is for you,” he said to the groom, “and now,” he said with a flourish as he pointed at the flaming middle candle, “you both are one.”

His assistant was a snarling woman with green hair who snapped several pictures of the matrimonial tableau. “I heard you!” she barked at the padre when he positioned her behind the candelabra. “Ya don’t got any rice ya plan to throw afterwards, do ya?” she challenged us. “We don’t allow it here.”

The new couple paid twelve bucks each for ten photos. The charming photographer wouldn’t turn over the negatives unless we gave her thirty more dollars.

On the way to a relative’s home for a modest reception, the groom asked me if I wanted to see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new house. “Maybe next time,” I weaseled. 

At the reception someone said he wished he had tickets for a forthcoming Yanni show. Yanni, for those of you remote from lowbrow culture, is an updated version of Liberace, the diff being that Liberace was classically trained and could actually play the piano. Yanni’s ferret face is a hundred feet high all over town. 

I mentioned that I would like to see the boxing at one of the casinos. The wedding party gave me, “this is one weird beatnik” look.

I would have liked to spend a few more days in Vegas, but I think I got the drift of the place, and it was always good to get back to Boonville.

ORNBAUN VALLEY

by Kenneth Ornbaun

It was Christmas day of the year 1856. John Shipley Ornbaun sat a fine horse and looked down on the little valley that was to become his home for the rest of his life. In the bend of a small stream he saw a large Indian Settlement with smoke pouring from a “sweat house.” Some distance away and nestled against the side of the hills that surrounded the valley he saw a crude log but that was to become his temporary quarters until he could fell trees and hand-hew enough lumber to erect a permanent home.

John had come to California in 1854. He found life in the gold mining country most lucrative and in two years had accumulated a considerable amount of livestock — cattle, horses and mules — but the low Sacramento river climate had affected his health and he had been advised to seek a mountain climate.

That fall he had ridden North to Oat Valley, now Cloverdale. Here he had found a small group of early settlers. These people told him of a trail, recently used by a few families, which led up over a mountain and into a long and fertile valley — Anderson Valley. At what is now the Anchor Bay road with a marker “Ornbaun Springs, 3 miles” he had come upon a well-worn Indian trail leading up a steep mountainside and through groves of great redwoods. Perhaps it was curiosity or perhaps fate decreed it, but John took this trail that brought him to the crest of the hill and the site of his future life-long home.

Anxious for good grazing for his livestock, mountain climate to regain his health and native abundance to sustain him, John had carefully inspected his discovery. He found a group of communal living Indians — neither friendly nor hostile — some 700 we are told. The “sweat house” dug deep and tightly covered with only a small opening to release the smoke was beside a natural cold water pool. About it were grouped the tepees — crude poles tied at the top with native reeds and wrapped around with crudely tanned and smelly hides. John noted that these were the skins from many types of wild animal — deer, bear, elk and panther as well as many small pelts such as wild cat, coyote, fox, rabbit and raccoons. Under smoldering fire he saw curing for the winter to come, seaweed and abalone and venison. He saw baskets of freshly gathered acorns and “buck eye balls” — Aescules Califorica — waiting to be patiently ground into meal. And he knew that here a man should never be hungry.

At the cabin, John had found a lonely white man named Pound. Evidently Mr. Pound had become disillusioned with his attempt to establish a land claim amongst only Indians and was willing to give a quit claim deed for a very small pittance.

Now on this Christmas day, John led his livestock, driven by two recruits, up the trail and over the hill into his valley — “Ornbaun Valley.” The cabin in which John spent that first cold winter was indeed not much better than the crude hide-covered tepee of the Indian — a fireplace made of twigs bound together with clay occupied one end — dirt floor — log walls with the largest cracks filled with dried mud and grass.

John, anxious for companionship, soon found that a ten mile ride northwest into Anderson Valley brought him to the home of the early settlers who welcomed him. In 1857, John Cox McGimsey and his wife, Charity, settled in Anderson Valley. With them was their daughter Lucy Ann.

By the fall of 1860, John had succeeded in felling trees and splitting and hewing lumber for a house, which he built on a small plateau overlooking his valley to the west. On December 15, 1860, John and Lucy Ann were married. This marriage lasted until his death 61 years later.

John, of Penn Dutch stock, was an unusual man amongst his sturdy, hard working neighbors. Educated in Eastern schools, an erudite man, never backing down from a challenge, he disdained hard labor and soon found other ways of supporting his fast growing family. He kept a correspondence with Eastern contacts and in 1858 was made government Indian Agent, whose job it was to “civilize” the native — not an easy task. The “maidens” used to the free and easy life, wore body coverings only to protect them from the winter cold. They would obediently don the cumbersome but modest dress of the white ladies but discard it as soon as the agent's back was turned. 

Since the life of the Indian was strictly communal — share and share alike — they had no knowledge of the word “steal.” If the people of the village were hungry and there were cattle about they simply killed and shared and you were welcome to partake also if you chose. Could this be wrong? To convince these people that the ways of the white man were better was indeed not easy for a young man just barely in his twenties, yet John held this position for some fifteen years — until the Indians were no longer encamped in Ornbaun Valley. The Government had provided “reservations” for their care and protection.

And John was a gregarious man. Soon after his arrival there began a constant flow of persons of all types into Mendocino County. Families looking for homesites — some establishing government claims to which they would bring their wives, and single men escaping from military service or the law. No questions were asked of these persons, all were fed and many stayed on to labor under John's direction. A sawmill was established, and a shaft dug for a copper mine. Roads were surveyed and built, mostly following old Indian trails, and John became interested in County politics. He became deputy Sheriff in the sixties, under Lew Warden, and helped to locate the county seat at Ukiah. He served as one of the first members of the County Grand Jury.

And in the little valley surrounded by fertile grazing land his livestock flourished. His interest had soon centered on the breeding of fine horses and he regularly drove a pair of matched stallions pulling a shining surrey into the (by this time) town of Cloverdale.

Marriage to Lucy Ann, “Aunt Ann,” had been a wise one. Trained to the hard work and severe existence of the pioneer women — strict in her convictions — Irish by descent — she took over the management of her new home. Bringing seeds and starts from her parents' gardens she created a “front yard” that was the envy of her neighbors — paths lined with sweet smelling violets, jonquils, Fleur de Lis Iris. She planted roses by splitting the cuttings and inserting a grain of rice. She exchanged seeds and plants and grew a fine vegetable garden. John had been wise in his selection of a home site and had placed his house well below a healthy natural spring. He put boards together to form a V-shaped conduit to carry the water in a constant flow to fill a hand-hewn trough from which the water dipped to irrigate her efforts.

Then the babies came. A boy. A girl. Fifteen of them. Ten boys and five girls. The last child born in 1887. Fourteen grew to maturity and all were living until the year 1936.

Ann was noted for her cooking. Feeding her large family as well as hired hands seemed never to tax her abundant energy. At times and as necessary her original home was added to until it became a house of many rooms. A pleasant cottage was built in 1899 some few feet from the original structure. Here she boarded the teachers and welcomed all that came to call. This is now the location of the Mailliard home.

In 1905 John's health began to fail. Doctors were summoned from the fast growing Sonoma County town of Santa Rosa and his life was despaired of.

As he lay in bed he thought of a spring — mud hole bubbling with cool water that left a heavy residue of iron colored sediment. Water that the Indians refused to drink. He summoned his seventh son and asked him to dig a hole in this much and fetch a bucket of this water when it had settled sufficiently. From that time on John never failed to have fresh spring water at all times and he gave unstinted credit to its consumption for his regained health.

It was his faith in the health giving properties of this water, that prompted him to construct an imposing summer hotel which was opened in 1910. This resort became known as Ornbaun Springs.

During this time John had added to the original claim purchased from Mr. Pound until his properties consisted of some 4000 acres. A house had been built “in the orchard” at the foot of the plateau for a married son, and a small store added. Mail was delivered from Yorkville and “Ornbaun” Post Office established. “Ornbaun” schoolhouse was constructed. Newt Ornbaun, the second son, had built a large imposing home atop a hill on his ranch adjoining the J.S. Ornbaun property. A little further down the Anchor Bay road that led to the coast, B.R. “Bide” Ogle and built a home for a growing family. A community had developed with Saturday night square dances — hayrides — Sunday picnics. A telephone line out of Cloverdale was strung from tree to tree and reached far back into the hills to connect the ranch houses of the Cudge Elkens, the Leland Hotels. And the automobile had arrived. The seventh son, Arnie undertook to manage the resort and he bought a seven passenger Pop Hardford to meet the train in Cloverdale and drive guests back to “The Springs.”

Then, in the early twenties, the day of the old concept of summer resort when families came year after year to spend their entire summer vacation was no more. On Thanksgiving Day, November 21, 1921, John Shipley Ornbaun died. Lucy Ann McGimsey Ornbaun purchased a home in Cloverdale where she died September 26, 1929. In 1932 Ornbaun Valley was sold to the J.W. Mailliards of San Francisco.

The Spring House is open to all who wish to come and drink and there is no Ornbaun worthy of being a descendant of John Shipley who fails to stop and relish as they drive to the top of the knoll where John and Ann are buried. 

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, July 11, 2023

TROY CHAMBERS, Ukiah. Under influence, controlled substance, paraphernalia, resisting.

ANDRES FUENTES-LUCERO, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

REX HASTINGS, Fort Bragg. Leaded cane or similar, contempt of court.

VINCENT HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Parole violation.

CATHRINE HINTERMANN, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JAKE LEWISKOOY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-drugs&alcohol, failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

OSCAR MARTINEZ, Covelo. Probation revocation.

RHONDA MOTTS, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

MICHAEL PARKER, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JAMES SANDERSON, Mendocino. Unauthorized entry of dwelling without owner’s consent.

DIEGO TAYLOR, Petaluma/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

KEVIN WORLEY, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

THE FUTURE IS OURS

Resting Comfortably in My Own Svarupa

Resting comfortably in the svarupa (heart chakra)! Was discharged today from Adventist Health-St. Helena. Received an upgrade yesterday morning from a Medtronic Pacemaker to an ICD. No words can adequately describe this surgery, except to say that everything is immeasurably better now, and it will take two weeks for the wires to cohere to the heart tissue. And the insurance paid for it. Henceforth, I will be devoted to spiritual matters. Spent the past two days silently chanting Hare Krishna, OMing, scattered in a few Catholic prayers, and meticulously cast out all of the superfluous thoughts. Nice and bright, clean, and joyful now. The future is ours. Contact me anytime.

Craig Louis Stehr

Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

“WHY do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day? I may not be as strong as I think, but I know many tricks and I have resolution. No one should be alone in their old age, he thought.” 

― Ernest Hemingway, ‘The Old Man and the Sea’

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

There are many Americans who know what is going on and despise all of it but they, like me, don’t know what to do about it.

Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry in America today so yes, I’d say most Americans love their porn.

Alcoholism is rampant, alcohol sales are a multi-billion dollar industry in America so yes, I’d say most Americans love their booze.

Unrecognizable tattoos are on most young people I see now, especially WOMEN. So yes, I’d say most Americans love their tats.

I’ve literally sat and watched Americans come in and out of Walmart and counted the obese people against the thinner people. 80% of those counted were obese. So, yes, I’d say most Americans love their fast foods and are lazy.

Private debt in America is $17 – 36 trillion dollars. So, yes, I’d say most Americans live well beyond their means acting like they own the cars they drive and the fancy homes they live in but they are so far in debt their children will never be able to pay it off. They own nothing.

This isn’t hyperbole, this is reality. Just look at the numbers.

MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Add beauty pageants to the list of women's spaces that are no longer, well, women's spaces. The new Miss Netherlands, crowned on Saturday, is a transgender model named Rikkie Valerie Kollé. Kollé's next stop: the Miss Universe pageant, now owned by transgender Thai business mogul Anne Jakrajutatip. And we biological women are expected to cheer, to be exhilarated by this latest theft. From the faces of the runners-up, more than a few look as if they're in shock. Rightly so.

A HISTORY OF FLAG-BURNING

News2Share follows flag-burning demonstrations through the years

by Matt Taibbi

Ford Fischer’s News2Sharecrew has put together a neat time-travel compilation, showing flag-burning demonstrations through the years, held by the Revolutionary Communist Party, or “RevComs.” As captured here, these events sometimes inspired outraged reactions by conservative counter-protesters, including Proud Boys. 

There’s a historical through-line to these demonstrations. In 1984, at the Republican Convention in Dallas, it was a Revolutionary Communist leader named Gregory Lee Johnson whose decision to burn a flag led to his being a defendant in the landmark Supreme Court Case, Texas v. Johnson. With William Brennan writing the majority opinion, this case affirmed, by a slim 5-4 vote, that the act of burning the flag was “sufficiently imbued” with expressive speech to “implicate the First Amendment.”

Ford does his usual great job of simply filming the events and capturing what the RevComs believe to be the point they’re making in these demonstrations. I’m not going to lie, however: this video is frustrating for me to watch, since it captures how far almost everyone on the political spectrum has drifted from the embrace of the free speech idea since that 1989 Supreme Court ruling. 

Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton expressed support for criminal penalties for flag-burning (although no action has been taken), and even the RevComs don’t seem to understand that Texas v. Johnson was just one of a series of rulings that explicitly rolled back attempts to outlaw not just flag-burning, but revolutionary ideologies in general. The ruling in the Johnson case was only possible because of the 1969 case Brandenburg v. Ohio, which essentially struck down prior rulings banning the advocacy of the “necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing” the U.S. government. After Brandenburg, the new standard became incitement to “imminent” lawless action. 

In a dissent to Texas v. Johnson, Justice John Paul Stevens — normally a speech advocate — wrote that the flag held unique value as a symbol of unity and the national idea, and though “the creation of a federal right to post bulletin boards and graffiti on the Washington Monument might enlarge the market for free expression,” that was “a cost I would not pay.” Brennan’s contra perspective, that allowing flag burning represented the essence of the American idea, was at the time a dominant belief among liberals. Brennan wrote that to uphold a ruling outlawing flag-burning would “eviscerate our holding in Brandenburg,” and the majority wasn’t willing to go there. 

Brandenburg was a ruling upholding speech rights of a Klan member that ironically had the effect of ending decades of attempts to outlaw communist speech. Today, through cases like the J6 “seditious conspiracy” prosecutions (including of Proud Boys), the federal government is attempting to re-expand the definition of incitement in a way that almost certainly will end up having ramifications for leftist revolutionaries like the RevComs. Judges are again trying to wind the clock back to the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties, when being a revolutionary at all was dangerous, let alone a flag-burning one. 

Either way, it’s interesting to see how peoples’ reactions have changed over the years, and for this, we should be glad Ford and his crew were there to capture these demonstrations. What’s your take on flag-burning?

THE BLOB BEGINS TO QUIVER

by James Kunstler

“…the Permanent State lacks the courage to take hard decisions – to say to Moscow, ‘Let us put this unfortunate episode (Ukraine) behind us. Dig out those draft treaties you wrote in December 2021, and let’s see how we can work together, to restore some functionality again to Europe’.” — Alastair Crooke

When you deny what is self-evident, you are at war with reality, and that never ends well. This is the ultimate disposition of our country’s years-long misadventure in maximum dishonesty. The American administrative Blob has not just lied about everything it does, but used the government machinery at hand to destroy everything it touches in a terminal-hysterical effort to cover up its misdeeds — including especially its crimes against its own people.

Get this: there is no way that Ukraine can avoid defeat in its US-provoked struggle with Russia. Russia has every advantage. It is next door to Ukraine. It has robust arms production capacity. The terrain of the war is its own historic “borderland,” which it has controlled since the 18th century, except for the past thirty years when Ukraine functioned as Grift Central for US military contractors and their political enablers. Despite massive arms assistance from the US and grudging contributions from the NATO contingent in Europe, there is almost nothing left of the Ukrainian military in troops, equipment, and munitions. Ukraine will return eventually to demilitarized “borderland” status.

What are NATO’s alternatives now? It can try to return to negotiation. Russia has no reason to trust that process, given how the Minsk 1 and 2 accords worked out (NATO and the US willfully and dishonestly voided them). The US and NATO could send their own troops into Ukraine, but that would be suicide, considering the alliance’s arms and munitions drawdown and America’s feminized army. The US could go a little further and provoke a nuclear exchange (suicide by other means) — and given the level of terminal-hysterical insanity in the US Blob, that’s not out of the question.

One likely, reality-based alternative is to stand by and let Russia complete its Special Military Operation to pacify and neutralize Ukraine. The prevailing theory is that this would be the end of America’s world dominance militarily, and effectively the end of NATO, but also the end financially for the US, as the non-West abandons the dollar. In that scenario, the BRICs dump their trillions in US bond holdings, sending all that putative “money” back to America, stoking a king-hell inflation, effectively bankrupting us. It would be the final fruit of the disastrous “Joe Biden” regime imposed on us via election fraud by the Blob: the US reduced in a few short years to a broke, socially disordered, marginalized power susceptible to its own political breakup — not a tantalizing outcome, but perhaps better than turning the planet Earth into a smoldering ashtray.

That outcome would force our country to turn inward and face its own stupendous failures of honor, decency, and integrity. It would be the end of the Blob’s hegemony inside the USA. The question is whether the Blob sets America’s house on fire in the attempt to save itself and escape a legal accounting for its crimes. One kindling stack already burning is the pile-up of jive prosecutions aimed at Mr. Trump. You know that the attempt to kick him off the game-board using Special Counsel Jack Smith may easily lead to severe civil disorder, and possibly a counter-coup, a US first!

The current Mar-a-Lago “Doc Box” case is as much a complete fabrication as were RussiaGate and Impeachment Number One — Mr. Trump’s telephone inquiry to Ukraine about the Biden family grifting operations there, now firmly documented to be true. An upright judge would summarily dismiss the Mar-a-Lago case and slam sanctions on the US attorneys involved, including disbarment and criminal investigation for mounting a maliciously fraudulent prosecution. AG Merrick Garland and his deputy, Lisa Monaco, obviously would have some ‘splainin’ to do, possibly before juries.

A long list of public figures populating the Blob await a reckoning: Hillary and Bill Clinton and their retainers, Barack Obama and retinue, John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Christopher Wray (plus Rosenstein, Strzok, McCabe, Carlin, Ohr, Mueller, Weissmann, Horowitz, Atkinson, Ciaramella, Vindman), Rep. Adam Schiff, Senator Mark Warner, William Barr, Avril Haines, Marie Yovanovitch, William Burns, James Boasberg, Marc Elias, Michael Bromwich, David Laufman, Alejandro Mayorkas, Xavier Baccerra, Anthony Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, Francis Collins, Lloyd Austin. Mark Milley, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Ron Klain, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney… the list goes way on, but there’s a start.

The weeks of summer 2023 are the fulcrum for a great public attitude adjustment. The Blob’s psy-ops are finally failing among just enough of the formerly mind-fucked to tip the national consensus against the gang behind all this treasonous political depravity. Even the so-called mainstream media is running scared. If they happened to turn in a desperate act of self-preservation, it will be all over for the Blob.

(kunstler.com)

UKRAINE, TUESDAY, 11TH JULY

As NATO leaders gather in Lithuania for a meeting that is being dominated by the Ukraine war, and Kyiv’s desire to join the military alliance, Russia has issued a series of threats.

Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of the Russian foreign ministry, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday: “We had an objective to weaken NATO because the United States, Britain and the entire NATO had an objective to weaken Russia. Just look at their statements for years, they wanted to weaken our country.”

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, warned that Moscow would take “appropriate steps” in the event of “possible NATO enlargement”, adding that his country would protect its “legitimate security interests”.

Addressing reporters in the Russian capital on Tuesday, he said, in comments carried by the Tass news agency, that the Kremlin was struck by the speed at which Finland and Sweden abandoned their long-held principle of neutrality in order to join NATO.

Before invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia repeatedly warned the Western military alliance against making Ukraine a member, saying it did not want NATO on its doorstep.

While there is broad consensus among NATO members to support Ukraine’s future membership, some states such as the US and Germany stress that Kyiv’s application can only be seriously considered after Russia’s war ends.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing: “Russia is perceived by them (NATO leaders) as an enemy, as an adversary. It is in this vein that the discussions (in Vilnius) will be conducted.

“We are monitoring this very carefully, because much of what has been said will be subject to in-depth analysis in order to take measures to ensure our own security.”

At the heart of NATO’s two-day summit is the issue of Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine – and how to counter it.

Hours before it began, Russia attacked Kyiv with Iranian-made Shahed drones and air raid sirens rang out in the capital; Ukraine said it shot all of them down.

THE DISSOLUTION OF NATO May Be the Only Way to Prevent WWIII

10 reasons why NATO ought to be disbanded

by Dennis Kucinich

The proxy war of the US vs. Russia in Ukraine could easily develop into World War III. The litany of dangerous weaponry presaging a direct, full-scale war between the U.S. and Russia is instructive:  The most advanced tanks, F-16s, depleted uranium munitions, cluster bombs, and even discussion of "tactical" nuclear weapons are thrown into an already toxic admixture, always open to further miscalculation.  

This is not to absolve Russia of the invasion.  One cannot ignore the dialectic of conflict, which left unchecked, will lead to a greater disaster than has already befallen the people of Ukraine.

Key to this miasma is NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose principal European members are committed to a total war with Russia, but on the U.S.' tab.  

NATO military strategies  have lacked cohesion and coherence and have led to stasis on the battlefield.  Victory over Russia has occurred in the western media, but not on the battlefield.  There will be no ceasefire because trickery is no longer an option.  

NATO officials will look to escalate the war.  The U.S. knows it cannot.  Clearly Europe needs a new security architecture which includes Russia with security guarantees for all member states.  How can this be achieved with NATO resistance to an end to the war?

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) gathers to deliberate in Vilnius, Lithuania, one item that should be on the agenda is the sunsetting of the treaty which established NATO.  

The dissolution of NATO itself may be the only way to prevent wider war and to stop the United States and the world from being plunged into the abyss of a wider, cataclysmic war.

Here are (at least) 10 reasons why NATO ought to be disbanded:

1. NATO, formally known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, (headquartered in Brussels, Belgium) was formed April 4, 1949, to protect Europe against the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union ended on December 25, 1991.  NATO fulfilled its founding purpose thirty-two years ago.

2. NATO, has far exceeded the geographical boundaries of the North Atlantic.  It has expanded its membership to include nations in the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. 

3. As an expansionist military organization, NATO has extended its military activities far beyond the North Atlantic to Afghanistan, the Gulf of Aden, Iraq, Libya, Darfur, Sudan, and off the Horn of Africa.  It has even flown airborne early warning and control systems (AWACS) over United States air space.

4. The founding purpose of NATO was as a defensive alliance.  Article One from the North Atlantic Treaty, which established NATO, reads as follows:  “The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”

5. NATO is an instrument of war, contravening the founding purpose of the 193-member United Nations, formed in 1948 “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” 

6. NATO operates under the color of international authority, while threatening to bring “the scourge of war” to the world.  It has aggressively asserted itself, in reliance on the assets of the United States of America, without which it would be a nullity.   NATO’s rejection of diplomacy, its unbridled commitment to regime change, its support for ongoing escalation, is a threat to the peace of the region.

7. NATO’S global pretensions are on full display.  On July 10, 2023, it presumed to deliver a warning to China.NATO’s Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg, said “The Chinese government’s increasingly coercive behavior abroad and repressive policies at home challenge NATO’s security, values and interests.”

8. NATO is not an independent body.  More than 50% of NATO’s budget is paid for by the U.S., yet NATO’s Brussels leadership presumes to implicate the U.S. in wider war, a matter of Constitutional concern to the U.S. Congress.

9. NATO members are required to pay 2% of their GNP for NATO membership.   This has turned NATO into an arms bazaar, at the expense of the social and economic needs of the people of its member states, leading to the militarization of Europe.

10. NATO is helpless to protest policies which are antithetical to European social and economic concerns.  The destruction of the Nordstream Pipeline, has enabled US interests to price-gouge Europeans for energy.  US sanctions policies have cut off European access to markets, further crippling economic growth.

(denniskucinich.substack.com)