Mendocino County Today: Friday, Dec. 1, 2023

Sun/Rain | Manchester Sky | Jericho Wall | Tree Lighting | Budget Free | Fern | Humco Comparison | Toy Drive | Drumming Workshop | Gutierrez Fundraiser | Shyster DA | Holiday Bazaar | Records Requests | Word Mouth | Redwood Classic | Williams Jewelers | Ambulance Crew | Pot Reform | Potluck Dinner | Ed Notes | Beach Stones | Colfax Finest | Blowhole | Little Airport | Bever House | Yesterday's Catch | Rate Hike | Swift Kick | Commenting Policy | Wine News | Police Here | Purdy Force | Cotton Pickers | Trump Not | Royal Nonsense | Liquid Measure | Gaza | Ukraine | Temp Stairs | Kissing Henry | Crime Team | Y2Cuckoo | Get Her

MORE SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL is expected in several waves today through the weekend as an AR begins to impact the PNW, with Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties likely to see the most accumulations. Higher amounts of precip are possible mid-week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): let's start with our rainfall amounts for the season : 2023 Oct. 1.82” Nov. 3.24" YTD 5.06”

I have .12" to start the December count with 45F under cloudy skies on the coast this Friday morning. Mostly cloudy today with a chance of a shower later this afternoon. A chance of rain nearly everyday thru the end of next week. Monday might be the driest day, we'll see.

FROM THE NYT THURSDAY NIGHT: 

Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.

The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.

The translated document, which was reviewed by The New York Times, did not set a date for the attack, but described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters.

Hamas followed the blueprint with shocking precision. The document called for a barrage of rockets at the outset of the attack, drones to knock out the security cameras and automated machine guns along the border, and gunmen to pour into Israel en masse in paragliders, on motorcycles and on foot — all of which happened on Oct. 7.

The plan also included details about the location and size of Israeli military forces, communication hubs and other sensitive information, raising questions about how Hamas gathered its intelligence and whether there were leaks inside the Israeli security establishment.

The document circulated widely among Israeli military and intelligence leaders, but experts determined that an attack of that scale and ambition was beyond Hamas’s capabilities, according to documents and officials. It is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other top political leaders saw the document, as well.

ANOTHER BUDGET FREE SUPERVISORS MEETING

by Mark Scaramella

It continues to amaze us that the Supervisors complain at almost every meeting about the “structural deficit” and the need to cut costs (but never about collecting taxes due). But they have yet to even discuss a single significant cost-savings proposal or cut.

Next Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting continues the pattern with no significant agenda items about the budget or the finances. 

The closest they get to the subject is to make it worse by spending more consultant money on it:

Consent Agenda Item 3k): “Approval of Agreement (Second Amendment to Agreement No. PA-23-39) with Regional Government Services Authority, in the Amount of $120,000, for a New Total of $158,000, for Fiscal Systems Review and Related Consulting and Advising Services, Effective October 7, 2022, through a New End Date of June 30, 2024 (Previous End Date: December 31, 2023).”

* * *

They’re also handing out another 100k to the DA on the consent calendar for another District Attorney investigator:

Consent Agenda Item 3s) “Adoption of Resolution to Amend the Position Allocation Table as Follows: Budget Unit 2070, Add 1.0 FTE, District Attorney Investigator, $81,390.40 - $98,904.00/Annually.”

* * *

Consent Agenda Item 3v is a “non-controversial” rubber-stamping item to contract out some juvenile delinquent management for half a mil to Madera County. But there’s no corresponding elimination of or reduction in the existing, expensive juvenile hall (over $2 mil at last check) which should be one of the first things on the budget balancing list:

“3v) Approval of Agreement with County of Madera Probation Department in the Amount of $500,000 with a Maximum of $250,000 per Year, to Provide Detention Services for Mendocino County Youth Placed in the Facility for the 2-Year Period Commencing Upon Full Execution of this Agreement.” 

* * *

As usual, there’s a retroactive no-bid $150k hand-out to Camille Schraeder’s Redwood Community Services.

Consent Agenda Item 3ac) “Approval of Retroactive Agreement with Redwood Community Services, Inc. in the Amount of $152,000, to Provide an Inland Shelter to Individuals in Mendocino County, Effective July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024.”

* * *

WE WERE SURPRISED TO SEE that Mendocino County has a special “Operational Processes (Special Ops) Team.” 

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/human-resources/leadership-initiative/leadership-initiative-project-teams/special-ops

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1

It was interesting to watch the Humboldt County Board meeting from Tuesday where they considered putting the question of consolidating the Treasurer and Auditor offices to the voters. In short, the Humboldt Board seems way more dignified and thoughtful and it all paints the Mendocino Board as the exact opposite. All the Humboldt Supervisors had good points, articulated why they were voting the way they did, were respectful of each others comments and overall seemed concerned about what the public wanted and what was the most democratic option for the good of the people. It’s clear their Human Resources department is filling vacancies and that everyone wants the Auditor and Treasurer offices to succeed. In comparing Humboldt to Mendocino it also clarified in my mind exactly why these two offices need to remain separate and elected. It’s because those two offices also deal not just with the Board, but also with other elected county department heads, like the District Attorney. In order to maintain the integrity of their function, they have to be at the same level as someone like DA Dave who intimidates, threatens and is willing to do unethical things to get his way. Does anyone think Sara Pierce will be some sort of independent watchdog? Would she cave to an aggressive request from someone like DA Dave to pay out dinner expenses that are clearly in violation of policy? I have no doubt she would and maybe it’s already happening. And yes, DA Dave is absolutely unethical. He should have recused himself and turned over his investigation to the State Attorney General for a charging decision.

JAPANESE TAIKO DRUMMING WORKSHOP: THIS SUNDAY!

Masumi (from Sonoma County Taiko), will be teaching Japanese Taiko Drumming on 12/3/23 Sunday. We still have some slots for the afternoon session, and I hope you can join us. Below is the link to sign up. If you have anyone who might be interested, please spread a word.

https://form.jotform.com/232478746650970

VERO BARRAGAN: Many of know the Gutierrez family. Mr. Gutierrez is dealing with medical complications and could really use the support of his, our, community. Please join Anastacio and his family on December 9 at the Philo grange. There will be food and drinks for sale as well as live music in the evening. 

The family thanks you

Happy Holidays! 

(If you’d like to offer the family a cash donation please private message (on facebook) for details.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

The DA’s dinners at the Broiler cost about $35 each ($1,470 divided by 42 diners). That means the remaining amount Eyster thought was owed him was 25 (number of “public” at dinner) x $35 = $875. The travel expenses were all under $1,000 and most were under $500. So the grand total of these “contested” expenses is in the ballpark of $875 + $1,500 = approximately $2,375. Eyster’s salary is most likely in the $200,000 range, or more. So he was willing to create a stink over this piddling amount, which he could probably have written off on his taxes as “losses.” Then he went further to create a major kerfuffle over this personal affront he felt Cubbison was guilty of. My question is how dare he use our tax money to settle his petty infighting? I think when the dust settles our county is entitled to reimbursement by withholding from his salary!

THEY CALL THIS TRANSPARENCY?

Dear Editor,

I recently did a Public Records Request for several items I am scrutinizing in last year's budget, to see where OUR tax money is being spent.

I requested: Please provide the number of employees and a breakdown of salaries by position for budget year 2022-23 for Fund 1100 861011, Executive Office and Clerk of the Board.

Attached are the fifteen pages I received in response. (The AVA Editor can use as few as you wish). 

No number of employees, no totals or breakdown of salaries by position. If you add up all of CEO Antle's pay, it totals only $92,846.12 for the year, which is not accurate, she makes far more than that. (If it’s for the first quarter of the fiscal year, that works out to $371,384.48 for the fiscal year, just for the CEO.)

I also asked: Please provide a detailed breakdown for Information Services Fund 1100 862189 Prof/Spec Services for budget year 2022-23. This fund was budgeted at $448,267 for 2022-23. The following is what I received. 

Really tells you what you want to know, huh? No vendor names, no descriptions of services, just check numbers and amounts.

Also requested: Please provide a detailed list of expenditures for budget year 2022-23 for Fleet Management Fund 1100 862239. This fund was budgeted at $422,189. for the year.

I received 108 pages of detailed expenditures. (The above is page 7 showing a few of the Enterprise Rental Invoices.) Upon review though, among other things, it appears the County rents a lot of cars from Enterprise. $65,816.92 worth of cars in 2022-23; 221 invoices and some car rental invoices are for a month, one totaling $1,069.81. Don't we have an entire fleet of County vehicles? I've heard numerous Board discussions about downsizing the fleet, yet we're renting vehicles as well? As I write this, Supervisor Haschak and I had a conversation about Enterprise. The County is trying to save money by leasing cars from Enterprise but at the same time we still have a shop and employees. I related that we're not saving money if we're doing both (obviously we never fully implemented the plan). 

Also requested: Please provide a list of all Cannabis Revenues for budget year 2022-23 as well as as up to date revenue totals for Fund 1100 825490, 1100 826205, 1100 826390, 1100 827802 and any other revenues not listed for this department. I received only last year’s revenue and no year-to-date. 

I called and again and requested a list for the CEO Office/Clerk of the Board salaries and positions, A detailed breakdown for Information Services, as check numbers did me no good. These are forthcoming, I was told. Also, I re-requested the year to date for the Cannabis Revenues that was overlooked. This was sent within a day. 

This is the continued frustration I have with the County and their lack of transparency. Even when you request it and spell out exactly what you are looking for, you do not get it. It takes days and sometimes weeks, along with follow-up phone calls, to get the information. The public should not have to do Public Record Requests for this information. The 2022-23 Budget has not been finalized, still, and they're not sure when it will. Yet the closing of the last fiscal year was being blamed on the (suspended) Auditor/Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector, Ms. Cubbison. She has been removed from her office for 42 days now and the CEO's Office still doesn't have a date for the 2022-23 Budget being finalized. 

We are being deprived of our elected Auditor who independently oversees the distribution and tracking of our County's money, revenue and expense, and there's a lot of it, $356,395,945.00 for 2022-23 and $416,641,244.00 for 2023-24. 

I was happy to hear, at Ms. Cubbison's arraignment hearing on Wednesday, that her Attorney, Mr. Andrian, has requested the State Attorney General's Office get involved with her case. She still has not been arraigned/entered a plea. Charges have been filed against the District Attorney. The next court hearing, including the Attorney General, is scheduled for December 19th at 9am.

I have serious concerns about our budget and the County's future. I will continue to be the watchdog (a person or organization that makes sure that companies, governments, etc., are not doing anything illegal or wrong) for our County.

THE WINTER ISSUE of Word of Mouth Magazine hits the stands tomorrow, December 1, sharing stories about MacCallum House in Mendocino, Bee the Change Microfarm outside of Willits, Moon Honey Tea in Boonville, and The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders in Japan—just to name a few. 

Get it at the Ukiah Natural Foods Co-op, The Mendocino Book Company, and many other locations throughout Mendocino County!

NIGHT 2: REDWOOD CLASSIC

Today's games were pools 3 and 4 playing round robins in their own pool.
Once again, I'm providing the scores per quarter, top scorers, and final scores.

Game 7: Pinewood v. California School for the Deaf
Final Score: 64-21
Pinewood: 14 28 19 3
CSD: 2 8 8 3
Pinewood: #5 J. Tiah 22 points
CSD: #10 D. Thornton 8 points; #22 K. Rosby 8 points

Game 8: Averroes v. Lower Lake
Final Score: 62-40
Averroes: 20 17 16 19
LL: 10 11 8 13
Averroes: #2 Omar Kahn 16 points
LL: #15 Steven 16 points

Game 9: Stuart Hall v. California School for the Deaf
Final Score: 56-18
SH: 20 10 14 12
CSD: 0 4 7 7
SH: #1 T. Rayford 15 points
CSD: #10 D. Thornton 6 points; #22 K. Rosby 6 points

Game 10: Woodside Priory v. Averroes
Final Score: 67-52
Priory: 13 6 28 20
Averroes: 14 18 13 7
Priory: #12 Jai G. 32 points
Averroes: #11 M. Smeilem 20 points

Game 11: Stuart Hall v. Pinewood
Final Score: 67-52
Stuart Hall: 18 16 26 8
Pinewood: 16 14 9 7
Stuart Hall: #3 W. Malko 17 points
Pinewood: #3 Thomas Meeleib 20 points

Game 12: Priory v. Lower Lake
Final Score: 77-37
Priory: 13 19 25 18
LL: 16 7 5 9
Priory: #21 Micheal H. 16 points
LL: #1 Buddy F. 16 points

Pictures are coming soon!
Thank you!

Lucy Espinoza
Student Tournament Director

D. WILLIAMS JEWELERS TO CLOSE

What started as a job for his uncle as a teenager became a lifelong career for David Williams Bookout. “I started working for my uncle at 15, so I grew up in the jewelry business. I have seen all aspects of the jewelry business, from custom fabrication, repairs, special orders, sales and all other duties that come with owning a small business,” said Bookout.

But after four decades in a career that he loves, he decided the time was right to retire and close the store that bears his first initial and middle name, D. Williams Jewelers.

He and his wife Martha have owned the store since 2001. Previously, he owned Mueller’s Victorian Jewelers store, which he managed with a business partner beginning in 1982. Bookout and his wife Martha have owned the current store since 2001. That’s made him part of the business community in Ukiah for 41 years.

Bookout describes the jewelry business as sentimental and emotional, especially when customers trust you with their heirloom pieces and buy jewelry for major life events. It’s something he and his staff would never take for granted. Bookout is grateful for the loyal support he’s received from customers, some of whom include their children and grandchildren.

“It is a bittersweet moment after helping third generations of customers. There used to be four jewelry stores when I came to town, but now we’re one of the last ones,” he said.

David and Martha Bookout also supported the community over the years through charitable giving. One of the favorite causes is the yearly The Distinguished Gentleman Ride. The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride unites classic and vintage-styled motorcycle riders worldwide to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men’s mental health. Bookout leads the local Ukiah team, something he plans to continue doing with his Harley Davidson motorcycle.

“We’ve had a wonderful career – no complaints, but 41 years is a good time to retire.” The couple plans to stay in the area and do something they never could as small business owners– travel and go on vacation.

D. Williams Jewelers closing sale will run until all inventory is sold at 508 E. Perkins Street in the Pear Tree Center. Hours are M-F 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. For more information, visit https://www.dwilliamjewelers.com/

MCGUIRE’S POT LICENSING REFORM SIGNED

Across California, small-family licensed cannabis farmers are struggling to make ends meet amidst historic market instability. Many can’t even afford to put plants in the ground, only to harvest a product that won’t make a profit.

Yet, growers are required to pay full freight for their state cultivation license—up to tens of thousands of dollars annually—even if they don’t plant that year. This harsh economic reality, paying for a license they may not even use, doesn’t make any sense and it’s helping drive instability into the market.

That’s why Senate President Designee Mike McGuire advanced SB 833, the Cannabis Licensing Reform Act, this year.

The process for an inactive or downgraded cultivation license already exists at local levels but currently there is no statewide equivalent that allows cannabis farmers to pause or reduce their crop size without paying the full annual fees. The state cultivation license for a 10,000 square feet to one acre farm is $40,000 to $50,000 annually.

McGuire’s legislation will allow cannabis farmers to either pause their license fee, but maintain an inactive license, or reduce their license size based on crop size, saving the farmer money.

Under current state regulations, cannabis farmers have to pay full freight even if they don’t grow for the year or reduce their crop size. This new law will now provide family cannabis farmers flexibility and the ability to pay less when they grow less.

“SB 833 is all about common sense. Just like with other agricultural crops, cannabis farmers shouldn’t go under from one bad season, whether it’s from a tough market, drought, or even a wildfire. Right now, cannabis farmers must pay their state license fees regardless—or forfeit them all together. This is nuts and that’s why we advanced this legislation. Farmers need flexibility in this erratic market and if they grow less, they should pay less. It’s that simple,” Senator McGuire said.

SB 833 was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom and will go into effect January 1, 2024.

(State Senator McGuire presser)

ED NOTES

A LOOK BACK.....

”To the People of Fort Bragg”

(Fort Bragg Advocate-News, December 16, 1999)

”For many years now I have been a businessman on the Mendocino Coast. I have had both successes and failures. Throughout this time I have had some very simple objectives in mind. I have set out to support my family and enhance my community.

Late last year, in a moment of anger and frustration, my actions at Fort Bragg City Hall made me realize that my objectives had been obscured. I don’t know what came over me, but I do know that it was terrible. No matter what rebukes I have had to endure from a few people in positions of power in City Government, anger or hostility is never right. Regardless of what injustice I perceived was being done to me, I should never have allowed it to become so personal.

But my love for this community has always been intensely personal. Seeing the splendor of this region and knowing the difficulties of our economy, I thought I could be a positive force. I’ve invested heavily in my community and worked very hard to satisfy the objectives that inspired me. I know that, at least on that afternoon at City Hall, I failed to remember those objectives. And I certainly embarrassed and hurt the community I wanted to help. The revenue and tax dollars that I’ve generated and the jobs that I’ve created are not adequate rationale to excuse my outburst. Indeed, nothing would excuse that. My only purpose here is to say to all the people of this community that means so much to me, whether they be my adversary or my advocate, I’m sorry, 

Dominic Affinito

Fort Bragg."

AFFINITO should have done some jail time for his assault on then councilman, Dan Gjerde, but given the class givens of Mendocino County — nobody with money ever goes to jail — the guy got community service, which he did not serve at the Fort Bragg Food Bank, and he had to write a public letter of apology for attacking Gjerde, which this letter is not. (At the Food Bank, Affinito would check in and check out a few minutes later.)

THE REST OF THE STORY: Fort Bragg and the County of Mendocino don't owe this cry baby a dime. He owes us. Not only did Fort Bragg go into hock to allow Affinito to profit mightily from the Glass Beach development, the County handed him a 30-year contract at inflated rates for his tin building housing the Coast offices of the Social Services Department.

NOBODY in a position of authority ever rebuked this character. What's he talking about? Former City Manager Gary ‘Middle Man’ Milliman first handed Affinito the keys to Fort Bragg then handed him the keys to the city treasury. Affinito assaulted Gjerde about 1pm in Fort Bragg City Hall in front of a dozen witnesses, all of whom testified unanimously as to what they saw. Affinito was not arrested at the time. He was cited at his own convenience and eventually convicted of simple battery, placed on probation and ordered to perform community service and publish an apology to Gjerde in the local paper. He did not abide by either condition of probation.

RECOMMENDED READING: I recently discovered an old copy of a book I never knew existed — John Brown by W.E.B. Du Bois. It's a truly great biography about a truly great man typically represented in the official bios I've tried to read as a fanatic and all-round nut case. The copy I have was published by International, the defunct press of the Communist Party USA. I'm not sure the book otherwise exists. 

LIKE MOST lib labs, the only Du Bois I'd read was The Souls of Black Folk, which seemed to me so abstract as to defy this particular racist dog pig's understanding. Some enterprising someone ought to re-issue Du Bois's John Brown if for no other reason than it seems to be the only sympathetic picture of this important American we're likely to get. I'm told Du Bois also wrote a book on Reconstruction, another period of American history one has a very difficult time getting an accurate picture of. 

I ALSO RECOMMEND J.M. Coetzee's novel called Disgrace. I don't know about you, but I rely almost entirely on good fiction to find out about places poorly covered by American media or not covered at all in a way that one can get some idea of the realities of the place. Coetzee, I've found, is a reliable guide to South Africa. I also recommend the journalism of a South African named R.W. Johnson, but I've never seen his work anywhere but the London Review of Books. And I highly recommend Roger Kahn's A Flame of Pure Fire, Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s. It's more a sort of anecdotal social history of the times with the remarkable Dempsey as its central figure than it is a biography, but it's a fascinating look not only at a very unusual man, but at a period of American history that isn't often vividly conveyed in prose.

A READER asks for audio tape recommendations. I certainly recommend the unabridged Lolita perfectly rendered by Jeremy Irons. It's not only one of the funniest novels ever written, it recreates the American 1950s in all their stifling nuttiness, as does the audio version of Phillip Roth's I Married A Communist. I've also enjoyed the audio presentations of Nelson Mandela's autobiography read by the actor Danny Glover. The late, omni-gifted Mandela was also a very good writer who managed to make even the complicated politics of his complicated country very clear. I liked Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, a witty account of his trek on the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. I've listened to Russian short stories, a collection of short stories by Cheever, Updike and Carver. But for audio tapes, I'm too often dependent on my associate Major Scaramella's, uh, shall we say, overly catholic literary impulses, which include a few too many crackpot tomes by implausible espionage agents about their secret missions behind Muslim lines. The Major picks up his books and tapes from the back pages of the Hamilton remainder catalogs. 

ONE MIGHT PROFITABLY invest $20 in Moby Dick or The Brothers Karamazov if one is driving from here to New York, the best deal for books on tape — your local public library.

ABOUT TIME. Hed from the Daily Mail: How the college degree lost its value: Nearly half of US companies plan to ax Bachelor's degree requirements - after Walmart, Accenture and IBM led the charge. Nearly half of US companies intend to eliminate bachelor degree requirements for some job positions next year, a new survey has revealed.

COLFAX’S FINEST HOUR

by Jim Shields

If you haven’t had the opportunity be sure and read Mike Geniella’s excellent piece on David Colfax, former long-time Mendocino County Supervisor, who passed away recently.

The old saying about someone who does not suffer fools gladly, was coined for Colfax.

He was definitely the bête-noir of bureaucrats accustomed to billowing smoke in their dealings with elected officials.

Colfax and I were friendly and worked together on a number of issues and problems over the years.

I liked him, his barbed sense of humor, and his willingness to join with me in tackling some tough problems.

Here’s something I wrote years back. I think it will give you an idea of who he was, at least as far as my working relationship with him.

* * *

Colfax: “Let’s knock off the crap!” (June 23, 1999)

For years it seems I’ve written about the shadow government which as time goes by is exercising more and more power in our governing process. I’m speaking, of course, of government by consultancy.

The consultant sector is one of the fastest growing industries in America. While consultants have been around forever, their influence on the governing process, especially at the local government level, has increased significantly in the past decade. Here in Mendocino County that growth trend has climbed ever upward even though the ranks of upper-level bureaucracy keep getting expanded. Recent Grand Jury reports and independent management audits of departmental operations all attest to that fact. So why is local government so dependent an reliant on consultants.? With all the high-priced bureaucrats, departmental heads and assistant directors in harness, one would think these folks must know what they’re doing. Evidently not. Every time you turn around you’re liable to bump into a consultant who’s been brought on board to perform some essential task, conduct a study, create a plan, facilitate a meeting, give advice on mission statements, and a thousand other things.

In my judgment, as a conservative estimate 80 percent of all consultant agreements executed by county officials are a complete waste of taxpayer money. And money is the name of the consultant’s game. The consultancy sector is one of the arrival destinations once government officials exit through the revolving door. Consultants remember that Supervisor Joe Smith, or Department Head Sally Jones hired their services to facilitate team-building in the Auditor’s Department. Once Joe and Sally leave government service they’ve got a soft nest to fall into.

At last Tuesday’s Supes’ meeting (June 15), Dr. David Colfax donned his professorial robes and delivered a real-time lecture on how the governing process is skewed by consultants who are aided and abetted by public servants. 

The occasion of Prof. Colfax’s discourse on the consultancy menace was a typical 35-minute presentation by Public Health staffers attempting to give a progress report on a five-year “Population Health Initiative,” funded by grants from the California Wellness Foundation. The Foundation ponied up $20 million for, among other things, to do a study in nine counties, including Mendocino, to, as DPH Director Carol Mordhorst explained, “educate state legislators” on various health matters vital to California citizens. To that end, nationally-known pollster Louis Harris was retained to survey county residents. 

Once DMH staffers completed their computer-generated slide show, which was accompanied by non-stop, jargon-larded dialogue (“collaboration”, “cooperation”, “consensus-building”, “mentoring”, etc.), Colfax brought the self-congratulatory “presentation” to an abrupt, unexpected end.

Colfax, a former university professor with a doctorate in statistics, told the DPH crowd, “For 40 years I’ve been involved in data collection and evaluation. I’m a member of the American Institute of Public Opinion Research. I’ve written a manual on research methodology. I’ve looked at the methodology (in the DPH report). If that were a doctoral dissertation as methodology, I’d send it back with a note: ‘Write, re-write, and re-write again.’”

Colfax then asked the bureaucrats, “Has Louis Harris given you what you paid for?” 

Dr. Colfax received nothing more than apprehensive looks from the “presenters” of the Harris study.

Pushing on, Colfax said, “Are you misrepresenting, inadvertently perhaps, because you have a particular agenda? Or, are you misrepresenting what Louis Harris gave you?”

At that point, DPH staff began to collectively shuffle their feet and gaze down at their shoes.

“It’s not a methodology,” Colfax informed them about their survey which randomly contacted by phone 500 county residents, and queried them with a hundred or so questions. 

“It’s a cover,” is how the 5th District Supe characterized the ersatz survey. “You don’t have the response rates. You don’t tell us how the sampling trend was established, and so forth.”

Colfax then got to the nitty-gritty.

“I’m not going to sit here and bore everyone silly, but when I see data collected as part of, and again, I know this is embarrassing and awkward — I don’t like doing this — but when a study such as this is made part of a centerpiece where you’re talking about what’s been accomplished, I wonder, in fact, if we are not doing ourselves more damage than good, assuming we share the same general objectives.”

He then patiently explained to the slack-jawed “helpers” from DPH that the poll they commissioned was done by a company in the business of churning out surveys which make the firm money. To say Colfax questioned the reliability of the data is an understatement.

Looking directly at the now very unhappy DPHers at the podium, Colfax said, “The people who presented this apparently are not the kind of people who can present this kind of data. Don’t presume that professional polling agencies do this out of the goodness of their hearts. I want to make it clear to you, that I will not support policies based on what I regard as half-baked, profit-driven surveys.”

Dr. Dave next pointed out flaws, errors and questionable data in the Harris survey.

On a question dealing with the level of medical care received by the 500 respondents, Colfax stated, “Eighty-four percent of the people in this population — God knows what this population is because Lou Harris and Associates don’t specify and the methodology doesn’t give it — have total health care. Do you believe that 84 percent of this county’s citizens have total health care. I don’t.”

A query regarding the income status of Mendolanders, Colfax commented, “Do you believe that 52 percent of the people interviewed have incomes of over $25,000 a year? There’s all kinds of questions you can ask about this response in a county where the average income is somewhere around $21,000. I don’t know if you’re talking about household income or what. I simply don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Colfax tackled the actual pool of respondents or the “sampling” used in the survey.

“Of the people who were interviewed, 58 percent of the people had some college or more. I have to say, well, sure. Then I see that a telephone survey has been used. Are you aware that we have towns here in northern California where only 25 percent of the people have their telephone numbers listed? I think for the most part they’re people who happen to be at home, who are retired, who are over-educated, and didn’t have much else to do but to talk on the phone because they don’t have much of a life, and they were very agreeable (with the pollsters).”

Addressing another technical aspect of polling, Colfax said, “I need to know what the completion rate is. It’s not found anywhere. My point is, without hectoring or haranguing, but quite frankly I’d love to sit down with Lou Harris (who Colfax knows) for an hour and say, ‘Let’s knock off the crap!’ Because it’s happened over and over and over again in Mendocino County with non-profits and governmental agencies. Somehow or another we get hooked into consultants who know that some of our people don’t know as much as they do, so they hoodwink them. I’m almost afraid to ask how much this study cost. In fact, I don’t even want to hear how much it cost because you’ll just tell me it’s not local tax dollars but state or some other money. The concern I have here is that we’ve got to do better in collecting data.”

At one juncture DPH Director Carol Mordhorst attempted to head Colfax off at the pass by inviting him to “assist us” in straightening out the confusing data. She told Colfax the Lou Harris had provided them with “three large, loose-leaf notebooks, full of data.” 

Colfax easily parried the attempt to co-opt him by telling Mordhorst, “No, I won’t do that. That’s not my job. It’s not my job to educate staff or to clean up their mess — that’s the job of staff. My job is to stop it (the mess) right here.”

Mordhorst exclaimed she was “shocked” to hear all the less than nice things said about Lou Harris and Associates. “Most communities would be happy with this data,” Mordhorst claimed.

“We’ve been delivered a junk car and are paying for a Lexus,” Colfax responded.

Hitting the bull’s eye, Colfax zeroed in on policy-making.

“We’ve got to bring the same critical standards to bear when we collect data and make policy decisions. We’re supposed to be making policy decisions based on some of the data collected here.

“But the trouble is, we only increase the cynical notion that ‘you can do anything you want with statistics;’ therefore, statistics aren’t worth a damn.’ And, in this case, I’m saying the statistics aren’t worth a damn.

“But there are statistics that could be collected, and, I bet, for the amount of money we spent, a good study could have been done by an honest polling agency who are not out to make big bucks by getting the opportunity to do a survey across-the-board.”

Colfax then drew a line in the sand: “As long as we use bad data to make policy, we’re going to be making bad policy. I think it’s time to simply say, stop.”

Harry Truman said, “The buck stops here.” Colfax’s updated version as we head for the 21st Century carries the same message of integrity: “The crap stops here.” 

Colfax’s comments, in their entirety, should be sent to every elected official in the country. He’s right on the money.

(Jim Shields is the Mendocino County Observer’s editor and publisher, observer@pacific.net, the long-time district manager of the Laytonville County Water District, and is also chairman of the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council. Listen to his radio program “This and That” every Saturday at 12 noon on KPFN 105.1 FM, also streamed live: http://www.kpfn.org)

LATE APRIL 1944 at the still incomplete Little River Airport when it had its first unexpected "guest" landing. The bomber was a nearly new Grumman TBM 'Avenger' which cost nearly $50,000 apiece in 1944 dollars. Within a few weeks the U. S. Navy leased the airport "for the duration" of WW-II as an emergency air strip and helped fund its completion on a more rushed basis.

Fort Bragg Advocate & News April 26, 1944, pages 1; 8:

Big Plane Stops At Little River—Had To Refuel Before Continuing Journey — 

A big torpedo bomber emerged from an ocean fogbank off our south coast late Tuesday afternoon. The plane was from an Oregon base and the pilot and his two companions [sic] were not familiar with our coastline. They had only gasoline enough for a few minutes of flying and they well knew that unless they got a break somewhere pretty quick they would have to take their chances of dropping down on the waters of the Pacific Ocean, in which event their big plane would be a dead loss and would be lucky if they managed to extricate themselves from it and remain afloat until picked up.

With these thoughts going through their minds they drove north. They glimpsed our new coast airport east of Little River but it appeared in an unfinished state so they kept on north to Fort Bragg hoping that they might find a suitable field there. Not seeing one that would give them sufficient landing room, they turned back. The pilot concluded to take a last chance on the unfinished airport. He felt that it might prove fatal and he told his companions that they could bale out. Both, however, elected to stay with him and attempt to save the ship.

The airport [construction] crew were a very surprised bunch when they saw the big ship coming in. They are still busy putting in a drainage system and they knew that no plane had been given authority to make a landing with the field in its present condition. They scattered in all directions as the big plane started down into the field. To the surprise of everybody the ship made an almost perfect landing, the runway though entirely unsurfaced, bearing it up perfectly.

As the ship came to a stop and the crew walked out, one of the Cat repairmen, who is something of a wag, walked over and asked the pilot if he wanted a grease job done for the plane.

The flyers were taken to the Little River Inn where they spent the night. No aviation gasoline was available on this coast, so supply was brought in from Santa Rosa that night. With this transferred to the plane the next day, the pilot and crew got in, the big motor was started and with the brakes locked, gunned to high speed, and then the brakes released and the plane went off the ground at a few hundred feet, and the airmen were on their way to their Oregon base.

We are justified in saying that this coast airport, although only partly built, has commenced to pay dividends already. The cost of this airship would probably run from fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars, and it would have been a total loss had it gone into the ocean. The three men saved are the principal items.

We all remember the fatal crash of the big bomber on the Cliff Ridge ranch last summer, when the big plane and all its crew and passengers were destroyed. Had the field been in existence then and its location well known, a safe landing may have been made by that ship.

The fact that there are many inland airports does not take care of the situation either from the standpoint of an emergency field or as a wartime measure. It may be only twenty minutes run for a fast plane from here to Hamilton Field but if the gas tank is about empty then there must be a place within range of that limited supply.

The fact that the coast from San Francisco to Eureka lacked an airport made it imperative that something be done and we can thank Congressman Clarence Lea that this field was established.

BEVER HOUSE: THEN AND NOW

by Carol Dominy

These two images, taken about 90 years apart, show the Bever House on Little Lake Street across from the Art Center in Mendocino.

This home was built in the 1880s for brothers Benjamin and Samuel Bever. They were born in Bates County, Missouri, in the 1840s. Their father, a farmer and Methodist Episcopal minister, first moved the family to Kansas but chose to take them west following his wife’s death. In the fall of 1860, Samuel and Benjamin traveled across the plains to California with their father, brothers, and sister, arriving in Mendocino in 1861.

Benjamin worked in lumber mills along the coast, while younger brother Samuel, who was a teenager when he arrived in Mendocino, first worked for W. H. Kent on his farm in Little River. Later, Charles Pullen hired him to work in the woods, and eventually he accepted a position in the Mendocino mill. In 1878, the brothers opened the Central House (today’s Mendocino Hotel) on Main Street. Their brother, Robert, oversaw the hotel’s livery stable, while Benjamin’s wife, Mary, was the hotel’s hostess. 

Two years after opening their hotel, the brothers purchased an empty lot on Little Lake Street from Manuel Zeferino Silveria, and they constructed a small cottage there. The house was leased out as a rental property while the Bever brothers lived in their hotel on Main Street. Over the years, the home was rented by many families, including long-time Mendocino Postmaster William Mullen and Professor R. Y. Glidden, the first principal of Mendocino High School.

After more than 25 years in the hotel business, the brothers announced their retirement in 1904 and sold the Central House, taking up residence in their cottage on Little Lake Street. At this time, the dwelling was renovated and enlarged, enclosing an L-shaped porch on the front of the house and adding another porch in the rear. The water tower seen in the first photo was added in July, 1904.

Mary and Benjamin celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a gathering of close friends at their home in January 1916. Following the deaths of Mary in 1917, Samuel in 1919, and Benjamin in 1921, the remaining Bever siblings offered the house for sale in 1923: “Lot with 120 feet frontage contains fine garden, windmill and tank tower; house well built and furnished and contains steel range, hot water boiler, bath and numerous other conveniences.” Oliver and Selma Olson of Albion purchased the home later that year. The Olsons must not have liked the included furnishings, though, as they immediately offered to sell “a quantity of good furniture, including beds, dressers, etc.; also a fine steel range.”

Oliver passed away in 1956. Selma continued to live in the house until 1976, when she moved to her daughter’s home in Fort Bragg, and the Bever House was sold. In 1977, David Onstad remodeled the home and added a concrete foundation. The foundation of the water tower was also rebuilt that year.

By 1989, the 85-year-old water tower was deteriorating, and new owners Don and Wendy Roberts demolished the original structure, replacing it with a three-story enclosed water tower on the same site. Bill and Jenny Zacha praised the Roberts for creating a plan that was "aesthetically and architecturally correct.” The new building serves as a guest house and vacation rental. In 2019, the property changed hands again; Adron Harris and Diane Snell now own the historic Bever House.

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, November 29, 2023

LEONARD CAMPBELL JR., Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CHARLES CARTER, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

SHAWN FENTON, Ukiah. Battery, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

SAVIOR LYKES, Fort Bragg. Contributing to delinquency of minor, criminal street gang member with loaded firearm, loaded handgun-not registered owner, firearm without a serial number, controlled substance, resisting.

RICHARD LYNCH, Mendocino. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOHN MARKS JR., Ukiah. Vandalism, paraphernalia.

JOSE NAVARRO-BARBA, Willits. Domestic abuse.

BRENDA POINDEXTER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TREVOR RAYMOND, Willits. Probation violation.

JONATHON ROSATI, Laytonville. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear.

PG&E GETS SNEAK RATE RAISE

Regarding “Why your utility bills could be about to skyrocket in California” and “PG&E bills to soar nearly $400 a year in 2024 for millions of California households” Alexis Wodtke accurately predicted that the California Public Utilities Commission would set exceptionally high PG&E electricity rates under AB205.

Wodtke, a retired regulatory attorney, also critiqued the dubious way the law was enacted in 2022.

AB205’s “fixed charge” was introduced and passed without public hearings or debate by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom within a scant 96 hours, according to Wodtke. The bill’s changes to the CPUC’s power to set residential customer electricity rates appear on page 47 of the PDF version of the 48-page bill, which pinballed through the Legislature as a “budget trailer bill.”

What Newsom and the Legislature did wasn’t a model of transparency. Instead, state lawmakers should now find ways — through the regular legislative process — to significantly reduce a nearly $400-a-year average utility rate hike for residential customers in 2024. 

Accountability matters.

Bob Ryan

San Francisco

FROM THE PRESS DEMOCRAT:

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ESTHER MOBLEY: What I'm Reading

Here’s what’s come across my desk recently: 

All signs so far have pointed to a great wine grape harvest. Record rain helped vines bounce back, especially for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, according to the North Bay Business Journal, bringing the estimated tonnage tally in the North Bay region to something similar to 2019, a pre-drought vintage.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting look at how Valle de Guadalupe, a wine region in Mexico, might be becoming a victim of its own success. The boom in tourism has led to massive development — and potentially water issues.

Wine Spectator’s annual Top 100 Wines list is out, and California Wine Country is well represented, including Napa Valley, the Sonoma Coast, Alexander Valley and Paso Robles. The highest ranking domestic wine landed in the No. 2 slot: a Pinot Noir from Steve Kistler’s Occidental Wines.

(SF Chronicle)

49ERS’ BROCK PURDY IS PUTTING ON A SHOW NOT SEEN SINCE FERNANDOMANIA

by Scott Ostler

Brock Purdy is the NFL’s UFO: Unidentified Flinger of Objects.

Scientists debate who Purdy is, where he came from, how he’s doing what he’s doing, and whether he will stick around or disappear into the cosmos.

The football world is obsessed with dissecting and pondering this exotic creature.

All except for the San Francisco 49ers and their fans. They’re in on the secret, that Purdy is just a really good quarterback who got overlooked.

The 49ers’ players surely sit around and laugh at all the noise from the dissectors and debaters and doubters. The players have seen enough. They don’t care about the noise. They know what they know.

But the season and Purdy’s career are still young, and for 49ers fans, it helps to have a reminder of how fortunate they are. They got one such reminder Sunday.

The 49ers had Sunday off, so any 49ers fans checking out the action around the league might have seen the Patriots lose to the Giants, in a woeful and boring game. At halftime, New England head coach Bill Belichick benched his quarterback, Mac Jones, and brought in backup Bailey Zappe. It was the second time this season Jones has been benched for poor play.

Mac Jones? You remember, he’s the QB Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch traded up to draft two years ago, before they fell in love with Trey Lance.

The winds of fate eventually blew Purdy into the 49ers’ huddle, creating the weirdest quarterback situation in football, and the most entertaining.

Steve Young summed it up best.

Purdy has “the Force,” Young told the Chronicle’s Eric Branch before the season. 

Young knows. He once had the Force, and as with Purdy, that Force had to be discovered. Young was irrelevant before irrelevant was cool. When the 49ers acquired him in 1987, for a second- and a fourth-round pick, he was coming off two seasons in Tampa Bay in which he went 3-16 as a starter, throwing 11 touchdown passes and 21 interceptions. He was a lefty Mac Jones.

The Force sometimes takes a while to emerge.

Other than Young, it’s hard to find a comp for Purdy and the Purdymania phenomenon, but I might have a legit comp for you: Fernandomania.

In 1979, the Dodgers signed Fernando Valenzuela out of the Mexican League. In 1981, as a 20-year-old starter, he won the Cy Young and was voted NL Rookie of the Year. He had the Force.

The Force, as I see it, has four elements:

• The person must come from nowhere. Purdy was Mr. Irrelevant, which is perfect. When Valenzuela signed, there was nobody more irrelevant to MLB than a short, skinny (yes), teenaged curveballer from the Mexican League. Back then, nobody walked out of the Mexican League into the big leagues.

• The person must make an immediate and shocking impact. Purdy, well, you’re still watching that unfold. When he walked into the 49ers’ huddle, they became a different and better team. Valenzuela — oh, my. He won his first eight starts, including seven complete games and five shutouts.

• The person must perform way above his/her physical skill level and pay grade. Valenzuela was 5-foot-11; his fastball topped at about 93 mph. His rookie salary was $130,000. Purdy is 6-1, not fast, and many consider his arm weak. He is making about $870,000 this season. As a rookie, Valenzuela lived with a Dodgers scout. Purdy currently lives with a roommate, just like many youngsters starting a career.

• The person must have mystical smarts. I covered Valenzuela during his run in Los Angeles, and the only logical explanation I ever heard for him dominating hitters was that he simply outsmarted them. He figured out what the hitter was expecting and he threw something else. Here’s Young on Purdy: “The best quarterbacks, whether it’s in their physiology, spirituality, their genetics in some ways, it allows for what naturally happens to not happen. Suddenly, the crazier it gets, the more peaceful you are.”

And here’s Aaron Rodgers (on “the Pat McAfee Show”), defending Purdy against those who say he’s mainly the beneficiary of a smart coach and good teammates: “At the end of the day, one guy is pulling the trigger, and he’s been making a lot of really good decisions.”

There is one more element to the Force: fun.

Baseball was a whole different experience when Fernando was pitching. The fans were on fire, even on the road; the other Dodgers were excited; the world was watching in amazement and curiosity. It was a party.

When Purdy breaks the huddle, the world is anticipating either another minor miracle play, or the play that finally begins the process of this UFO crashing back to cold reality. Fans know they’re watching something special, and crazy.

The Force’s shelf life is unknown, so enjoy it one game at a time.

(SF Chronicle)

PROHIBITING TRUMP

Dear Editor,

There are three reasons former president Trump must not be on the ballot in any state devoted to rule of law.

First, no person found liable for large-scale business fraud should be trusted in public office, where the societal stakes are even higher than in private business, and the consequences of misbehavior are even more dire.

Second, no person convicted of felony crime should be allowed to vote, let alone run for office, otherwise the sacred civil rights of all upstanding Americans will be diminished and stained. America must prepare for Trump’s pre-election conviction of crime by enacting explicit laws to bar felons from holding positions of public trust until well after they have served their time.

Third, no person who engages in, or gives aid and comfort to an insurrection or rebellion should be allowed to take the reins of any government institution. The only exception must be a case where his or her party writes a new constitutional law that the people of the land overwhelmingly agree to support, as was the case with our founding fathers and mothers.

Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross, Utah

MEGAN CALLAHAN: Harry and Meghan are playing their most dangerous game yet. These two cowards, who set off this slow-release stink bomb of racist accusations two-and-a-half-years ago - yet still have no problem hypocritically trading on their titles, that most tenuous association with a royal house they have trashed as bigoted - must now say something. It is Day Three since the odious Omid Scobie's 'Endgame' hit shelves, revealing, in the Dutch version, the so-called royal 'racists'. Since then we've seen a smug, unbothered Scobie insist that he never wrote those names in any draft, that their inclusion must have been the fault of translators. Here's the thing: You can't mistranslate something that was never there. How hubristic of Scobie, in a British morning show appearance on Thursday , to yet again insist that his manuscript never contained the names...

GAZA

A weeklong cease-fire in the Gaza Strip collapsed on Friday morning, with both Israel and Hamas blaming the other for the breakdown of the fragile truce that had allowed for the exchange of scores of hostages and prisoners, and had briefly raised hopes for a more lasting halt to the fighting.

Hostilities resumed almost immediately: Shortly before the truce expired at 7 a.m. local time (midnight Eastern), Israel said it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza. Moments after the deadline passed, Israel announced that it was restarting military operations, and Israeli airstrikes soon thundered again across the battered coastal strip.

International mediators said talks were continuing in the hopes of quickly reviving the truce, although Israeli officials expressed determination to carry on with their campaign to eradicate Hamas, the armed group that controls most of Gaza.

“With the return to fighting, we emphasize: The government of Israel is committed to achieving the war aims — freeing our hostages, eliminating Hamas and ensuring that Gaza will never again pose a threat to the residents of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a statement released by his office.

Hamas said in a statement that it had offered to release more hostages, including older people, but that Israel had made “a prior decision to resume the criminal aggression.” Israel, for its part, said that Hamas had failed to release as many hostages from Gaza as it had promised. Hamas released eight hostages on Thursday, two fewer than expected. A total of 105 hostages were freed during the weeklong cease-fire, including two dozen foreign nationals.

Two Israeli officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the talks broke down because the two sides had reached an impasse over the next possible round of hostage and prisoner swaps, with Hamas demanding that Israel release more prisoners in exchange for the remaining hostages, who include Israeli soldiers.

The foreign ministry of Qatar, which has led the cease-fire talks, said in a statement that negotiations were continuing even amid the fighting. The resumption of airstrikes “complicates mediation efforts and exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe in the strip,” the ministry said.

Under the truce that went into effect last Friday, more than 100 Israeli and dual-national hostages — mostly Israelis abducted in the Hamas-led attacks — were freed from Gaza in exchange for Israel’s release of 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. On both sides, the trade focused on women and children. Officials from both Israel and Hamas said the armed group had few hostages remaining in those categories.

Early Friday, shortly before the truce was set to end, Israel’s military said on the social media site X that it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza. Automated rocket alert systems reported that air-raid sirens had sounded in several areas of southern Israel, indicating rockets or shells had been fired from the territory.

Then, just after the 7 a.m. deadline passed, both the Israeli military and Gaza’s Interior Ministry reported that Israel was carrying out strikes across Gaza. Air-raid sirens sounded in several parts of southern Israel, indicating that Hamas or allied armed groups in Gaza had fired toward Israel.

Gaza health officials swiftly began reporting casualties. By midmorning, at least 32 people had been killed in Gaza since the resumption of fighting, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Gazan health ministry.

The halt in fighting since last Friday had given Gaza’s 2.2 million people a brief reprieve from withering Israeli strikes. Since Oct. 7, when Hamas led terrorist attacks on Israel that the Israeli government says killed about 1,200 people and resulted in about 240 hostages being taken, Israel has waged a devastating military campaign that Gazan health authorities say has killed more than 13,000 people.

Most of Gaza’s people have been displaced and are experiencing acute shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel amid widespread destruction. The weeklong pause allowed more aid to reach the battered enclave than the trickle that had made it in before the truce. Nonetheless, the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs office said that the aid was still “completely inadequate.”

“I deeply regret that military operations have started again in Gaza,” the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, said in a statement on Friday. “The return to hostilities only shows how important it is to have a true humanitarian cease-fire,” he added.

(nytimes.com)

UKRAINE, THURSDAY, 30TH NOVEMBER

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov faced Western critics while attending international security talks Thursday in Northern Macedonia, where he blamed “NATO’s reckless expansion to the East” for war returning to Europe.

Lavrov arrived in Skopje to attend meetings hosted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The diplomats of several OSCE member nations, including Ukraine, boycotted the event due to Lavrov’s planned attendance amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Russian foreign minister spoke for 15 minutes before walking out of the meetings. He blamed what he described as Western tolerance of the “ruling neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv” for the war that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

FOR MEDIA ELITES, WAR CRIMINAL HENRY KISSINGER WAS A GREAT MAN

by Norman Solomon

For U.S. mass media, Henry Kissinger’s quip that “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac” rang true. Influential reporters and pundits often expressed their love for him. The media establishment kept swooning over one of the worst war criminals in modern history.

After news of his death broke on Wednesday night, prominent coverage echoed the kind that had followed him ever since his years with President Richard Nixon, while they teamed up to oversee vast carnage in Southeast Asia.

The headline over a Washington Post news bulletin summed up: “Henry Kissinger Dies at 100. The Noted Statesman and Scholar Had Unparalleled Power Over Foreign Policy.”

But can a war criminal really be a “noted statesman”?

The New York Times top story began by describing Kissinger as a “scholar-turned-diplomat who engineered the United States’ opening to China, negotiated its exit from Vietnam, and used cunning, ambition and intellect to remake American power relationships with the Soviet Union at the time of the Cold War, sometimes trampling on democratic values to do so.”

And so, the Times spotlighted Kissinger’s role in the U.S. “exit from Vietnam” in 1973 — but not his role during the previous four years, overseeing merciless slaughter in a war that took several million lives.

“Leaving aside those who perished from disease, hunger, or lack of medical care, at least 3.8 million Vietnamese died violent war deaths according to researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington,” historian and journalist Nick Turse has noted. He added: “The best estimate we have is that 2 million of them were civilians. Using a very conservative extrapolation, this suggests that 5.3 million civilians were wounded during the war, for a total of 7.3 million Vietnamese civilian casualties overall. To such figures might be added an estimated 11.7 million Vietnamese forced from their homes and turned into refugees, up to 4.8 million sprayed with toxic herbicides like Agent Orange, an estimated 800,000 to 1.3 million war orphans, and 1 million war widows.”

All told, during his stint in government, Kissinger supervised policies that took the lives of at least 3 million people.

Henry Kissinger was the crucial U.S. official who supported the September 11, 1973 coup that brought down the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile — initiating 17 years of dictatorship, with systematic murder and torture (“trampling on democratic values” in Times-speak).

Kissinger remained as secretary of state during the presidency of Gerald Ford. Lethal machinations continued in many places, including East Timor in the Indonesian archipelago. “Under Kissinger’s direction, the U.S. gave a green light to the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor (now Timor-Leste), which ushered in a 24-year brutal occupation by the Suharto dictatorship,” the human rights organization ETAN reported. “The Indonesian occupation of East Timor and West Papua was enabled by U.S. weapons and training. This illegal flow of weapons contravened congressional intent, yet Kissinger bragged about his ability to continue arms shipments to Suharto.

“These weapons were essential to the Indonesian dictator’s consolidation of military control in both East Timor and West Papua, and these occupations cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Timorese and Papuan civilians. Kissinger’s policy toward West Papua allowed for the U.S.-based multinational corporation Freeport McMoRan to pursue its mining interests in the region, which has resulted in terrible human rights and environmental abuses; Kissinger was rewarded with a seat on the Board of Directors from 1995-2001.”

Now that’s the work of a noted statesman.

The professional love affairs between Kissinger and many American journalists endured from the time that he got a grip on the steering wheel of U.S. foreign policy when Nixon became president in early 1969. In Southeast Asia, the agenda went far beyond Vietnam.

Nixon and Kissinger routinely massacred civilians in Laos, as Fred Branfman documented in the 1972 book “Voices From the Plain of Jars.” He told me decades later: “I was shocked to the core of my being as I found myself interviewing Laotian peasants, among the most decent, human and kind people on Earth, who described living underground for years on end, while they saw countless fellow villagers and family members burned alive by napalm, suffocated by 500-pound bombs, and shredded by antipersonnel bombs dropped by my country, the United States.”

Branfman’s discoveries caused him to scrutinize U.S. policy: “I soon learned that a tiny handful of American leaders, a U.S. executive branch led by Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissinger, had taken it upon themselves — without even informing let alone consulting the U.S. Congress or public — to massively bomb Laos and murder tens of thousands of subsistence-level, innocent Laotian civilians who did not even know where America was, let alone commit an offense against it. The targets of U.S. bombing were almost entirely civilian villages inhabited by peasants, mainly old people and children who could not survive in the forest. The other side’s soldiers moved through the heavily forested regions in Laos and were mostly untouched by the bombing.”

The U.S. warfare in Southeast Asia was also devastating to Cambodia. Consider some words from the late Anthony Bourdain, who illuminated much about the world’s foods and cultures. As this century got underway, Bourdain wrote: “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia — the fruits of his genius for statesmanship — and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to [Slobodan] Milošević.”

Bourdain added that while Kissinger continued to hobnob at A-list parties, “Cambodia, the neutral nation he secretly and illegally bombed, invaded, undermined, and then threw to the dogs, is still trying to raise itself up on its one remaining leg.”

But back in the corridors of U.S. media power, Henry Kissinger never lost the sheen of brilliance.

Among the swooning journalists was ABC’s Ted Koppel, who informed viewers of the Nightline program in 1992: “If you want a clear foreign-policy vision, someone who will take you beyond the conventional wisdom of the moment, it’s hard to do any better than Henry Kissinger.” As one of the most influential broadcast journalists of the era, Koppel was not content to only declare himself “proud to be a friend of Henry Kissinger.” The renowned newsman lauded his pal as “certainly one of the two or three great secretaries of state of our century.”

(Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, is published by The New Press.)

GOODBYE TO ALL THAT

by Alexander Cockburn (December 1999)

Somewhere around mid-November the Y2K whimpering died down out of sheer exhaustion. Humboldt County [where Cockburn lived at the time of this writing] is calm. A couple of weeks ago I asked the amiable Jim, proprietor of Western Chainsaw in Eureka, how many generators he’d sold recently and he said two. Then he added that at a sales rep meeting in Fresno near the start of December a fellow from the San Joaquin Valley reported he’d unloaded as many as 50 generators on folks fearful of impending apocalypse.

Driving by Costco I saw a couple staggering towards their truck with a pallet load of toilet paper. Few things agitate the American soul more sharply than the possibility of a shortage in this vital commodity. It’s up there with oil and electrical generating capacity. At least one of my neighbors has been investing heavily in gold stocks under the supposition that a) the Arabs won’t have fixed their computers, and so b) there’ll be an oil shortage, with c) a rapid decline in living standards, morals, the rule of law, and thus d) the collapse of capitalism, requiring e) gold as the only fungible medium of exchange.

The year waned with the usual uptick in deaths. Folks on the lip of eternity seem more inclined to let go in those weeks before the dead end of the year. 

My father died on December 15, the old motor running out of gas about five minutes after he’d dictated a fluent 750-word column to me, printed in the Irish Times three days later. Here in Humboldt County I’ve attended two memorials for prominent citizens in the past month.

Nothing delights any European more than these memorials where emotional recollections from relatives and friends of the deceased, each following pell-mell upon the other, are truly American, perhaps even western, in their directness and informality. In Fortuna, at the memorial for Billie McWhorter, a Humboldt matriarch and for many years the guiding hand at Sequoia Gas, one of her sons, Sterling, recovered sufficiently from grief fierce enough to require the comforting arm of his wife Cindy to launch into a fierce denunciation of the inheritance tax, or “death tax.” I can’t imagine this kind of robust eloquence at any equivalent Irish or English function, where mannerly dolor pickles all emotion in the brackish vinegar of Anglican good taste.

People wearied of millennial summings-up even earlier than they got bored with Y2K. Jeffrey St. Clair and I did put together our CounterPunch list of what we reckoned to be the best, or most influential non-fiction books of the twentieth century first published in English. Adamics Dynamite, Architectural Standards, A Potter’s Manual, Gertrude Jekyll on gardening, Learning from Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Desert Solitaire, I Claud. All in all, about 120 books, at least half of which are out of print. Probably the ones on our list I look at most frequently are the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Oxford English Dictionary. Those who imagine the OED to be a nineteenth century publication should know that by 1900 only the volumes covering A, B, C, D, E, F and H had been published. As a reader has already pointed out to us, the thirteenth edition of the Britannica is even better than the Eleventh, containing all the material in the earlier one, plus useful stuff on the first world war. I’d like to say that a century producing the Eleventh Edition and the OED can’t be all bad, but then again in both cases the animating force behind these vast projects was nineteenth century energy and intellectual style.

People deploring the twentieth century usually imagine themselves in some more leisured epoch, maybe chatting with Dr. Johnson in a Fleet Street tavern or attending one of Sophocles plays in classical Athens. But on the law of averages one would more likely have been a half starved peasant, then and now.

I thank my own stars I was presented to the world in the twentieth century, in 1941, by a Scottish doctor in a kilt angered at having his Sunday fishing interrupted by my mother’s labor. This was near Inverness and my father was in London, pondering how to get us out of that era’s version of Y2K, which was Hitler’s impending invasion. But Hitler never did make it, even though one of his rockets did for our house. The century has been good to me, and when you think about the horrors we might have endured in other aeons or in other lands I suspect it’s been good to most AVA readers too. So let’s wave out the millennium gracefully, with a hearty adieu. Onward!