Mendocino County Today: Monday, Dec. 11, 2023

Clearing Skies | Around Gualala | Candy Dealer | Sandbar Watch | Dem's Choice | Dog Dumping | Rossi Window | Ed Notes | Holcomb 90 | Rock Wall | King Bolete | Eighties Weed | Mansion House | Yesterday's Catch | Amateur Outreach | Niners Win | Joey Bye-Bye | American Blood | 1955 TV | Saudi Opposition | Reagan Tour | Fox Rot | Renewable Grump | Cease Fire | Belly Buttons | Palestinian Rights | Happiness Defined | Varient Spread | Crime Stories | Since 1623

A MUCH WARMER START this Monday morning on the coast with 47F under partly cloudy skies. Dry skies are forecast all week then once again we have predictions of a very wet cycle for next week. Again being the key word as several previous "wet cycle" forecasts fell far short. We'll see. (Stephen Dunlap, Fort Bragg)

A FEW SHOWERS or sprinkles continue this morning in Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Drier weather and clearing skies are expected this afternoon through Wednesday morning. Increasing clouds and few light rain showers are possible Wednesday night or Thursday, otherwise dry weather is expected to continue into early Saturday. Late Saturday and into early next week there is a chance for rain. (NWS)

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S NOTHING TO DO IN GUALALA! (Jane Head via Randy Burke)

DRIVING AROUND SANTA ROSA on Friday with everyone’s See’s Candy order was makin’ me feel like a crack dealer. 

— Renee Lee, AV Senior Center manager

NAVARRO SANDBAR WATCH (Sun, December 10, 2023 11:39 am)

The sandbar is still in the process of breaching, but the rate of progress has slowed. The gully formed by water flowing through the sand has made it almost to the high point of the bar, moving from the seaward side toward the estuary. There is a pretty strong flow exiting the sandbar into the gully about 6 ft.  below the surface. Caltans worker is keeping watch near me, and said he has been there since early morning and will be replaced by another guy at noon. Hwy 128 is still closed. I still expect the sandbar to breach today, which will quickly end the flood and let Caltrans reopen the road.

— Nick Wilson

DEMO'S CHOOSE MO MOCKEL

Subject: Endorsements

At the November 14, 2023 meeting of the Democratic Central Committee, the Committee endorsed Trevor Mockel for District 1 Supervisor and Maureen ‘Mo’ Mulheren for District 2 Supervisor. They have not made an endorsement in Supervisor District 4.

Val Muchowski

DCC District 5 Rep.

DON’T DUMP THAT DOG

To the Editor:

I am writing this to bring an awareness to the scores of pets being dumped in our county (as well as across the state and country). We in rescue understand that times are tough right now, and having a pet can get expensive, however, people need to be responsible for their pets! Animal Care Services has been full for months, and has posted when they feel a need to euthanize a dog or dogs for space. Rescues are also full. There should not be so many dogs in need of homes or getting dumped.

With Christmas coming, people are also getting rid of their older dogs in order to get a puppy. This is not what having a pet is about. It should be about having a family member who loves you and you love them, and you care for each other, and are loyal to each other. If people cannot make this commitment, then in my opinion, they should not get a pet.

Also, part of being a responsible pet owner is to get your pet spayed/neutered. Litters of puppies are getting dumped as well, and sadly, momma dogs are getting dumped without their puppies. No pet should be getting dumped — this is such a heartless thing to do. Dogs have feelings, and become sad, lonely and depressed.

The following is a recent Facebook posting from another county:

Things to remember when planning a dump off of your unwanted dogs:

1. They ARE waiting for you to come back for them!

2. Most of the time it takes days to get in contact with the county for search/trap/pick-up. And that’s if they have space and time for them.

3. They ARE waiting for you to come back for them.

4. The neighbors in the area CANNOT rescue your unwanted pet; there are just too many for us to handle.

5. They ARE waiting for you to come back for them, if they survive coyote attacks.

6. It’s freezing!

7. No one feeds them!

8. They ARE waiting for you to come back for them.

9. They miss you!

10. They consider you family!

Please be responsible, loving pet owners. If you need help to keep your pet, reach out to either Animal Care Services, or any of the local rescues. There are always people on Facebook willing to help out in any way they can in order to help you be responsible for your pet.

Laura Mares, Dog Coordinator, Animal Rescue of Anderson Valley

BE SURE to check out the display window at Rossi Hardware, always a delight and especially beguiling at Christmas. 

Display windows being pretty much a lost art, especially in rural small towns, we can thank Vanessa Rossi, Chris Rossi's daughter, for brightening holiday Boonville's downtown. Our photo never does these wonderful displays justice, but they are always interesting, often brilliant.

ED NOTES

CRAIG IS BACK!

Was discharged today Sunday December 10th from Redwood Cove skilled nursing center, prior to which I was in both Adventist Health Ukiah Valley and St. Helena hospitals for a serious viral bacterial blood infection. Craig Louis Stehr (craiglouisstehr@gmail.com)

ED NOTE: But where are you living?

FIRED? WHY?

Editor,

I too was not happy with M. Elizabeth Magill’s and the other university presidents’ responses at the congressional hearing about antisemitism on campus, but I do not support resignation or firing. Everyone in a difficult job has made mistakes and has learned from those mistakes. Should any of us be fired or forced to resign for every mistake we make?

All of these accomplished women were grilled at the hearing trying to balance their duties to protect the safety of their students and their right to free speech. Even the Supreme Court struggles with the same issue.

Yes, their answers at the time were inadequate, but they have subsequently explained their thinking and plans to move forward. They deserved an opportunity to get it right. We would expect the same for ourselves.

Kenneth Olshansky
San Rafael

A READER WRITES: Dear Mr. Wizard, How can it be that major university presidents cannot rationally explain student body outrage regarding the humanitarian disaster ongoing in Palestine without falling into the demagoguery of antisemitism, without any attempt whatsoever to discuss the failed statecraft and continuous wars that have plagued the region since day one in 1948? Who's in charge here?

ED REPLY: The Wizard thinks the three administrators should have ridden out the should-have-been-anticipated demagoguery of professional demagogues and not resigned. But I'd think academics would be able to slam dunk questions as to what is and what isn't anti-Semitism. When you have 19-year-old blank slates shouting Hamas slogans like “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” the response should have been something like, “These children of privilege couldn't find Gaza on a two-state map, and don't know which river to what sea. They aren't anti-Semitic, they're just young and dumb; but, like those of us who are old and dumb, they're shocked by the Israeli slaughter of 1.8 million trapped people, and shocked that their own government has blocked a ceasefire. It's a comprehensively dismaying series of events.”

NORTHCOAST high school football produced two state champion teams, Ferndale and St. Vincents of Petaluma, three state champs if you count Marin Catholic. Some enterprising kid reporter might be able to eke out a living writing about high school football from Marin north, coverage that seems to have died when Herb Dower retired from the Press Democrat.

IN AN EARLIER POST, I'd suggested that our Cemetery District adopt the abandoned Ruddock Cemetery in Philo and the Ornbaun Cemetery of Yorkville. 

VAL HANELT promptly replied: “For the record: The Ornbaun cemetery is private and is run by a Cemetery Board who meet regularly. The large extended Ornbaun family have a clean-up day with a picnic every year. It is not open to the public.”

MAYBE the Ruddocks, a pioneer Valley family, should consider adopting the Ornbaun approach. There are Ruddocks and Ruddock descendants still around. 

RE-BUILD THE WALL!

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

If Ukiah has a jewel to be proud of, my vote would go to Todd Grove Park, the snug, lush oasis at the top of Walnut, Grove and Maple Streets.

Our main park is a prize in a town with few others. Remember: Some of our finest architectural examples, including two-and three-story Victorian homes have been bulldozed or purposely set afire over the years to make way for newer, cheaper substitutes.

Todd Grove Park, nearing 100 years old, has a playground, picnic areas with barbecue pits, grassy areas for dogs or Sunday concert attendees. Its rocket ship, despite being “improved” by making it safer and uglier, remains iconic.

The rock wall is a marvel unto itself. I’m ashamed I don’t know its history or the name(s) of its builders, but am forever impressed with its craftsmanship and sturdy endurance. We should protect and appreciate it. I can think of no other public edifice that ranks alongside, or even near, the Park and its wall.

The Palace Hotel story will not end well, and nothing is being done to salvage the old Post Office or the soon-to-be-abandoned Courthouse.

Allowing Todd Grove Park to suffer any sorts of indignity or disrespect ought to be a misdemeanor. Anyone speaking ill of the park should be banned from entering it for a period not less than 10 years.

Vandalism? Off With Their Hands!

Have I made myself clear?

You then fully understand my dismay at discovering Todd Grove Park has been the systematic target of vandals in recent weeks. Specifically, the marvelous rock wall that encircles the park has been attacked repeatedly by diseased cretins wielding hammers, pickaxes, crow bars and maybe small amounts of dynamite.

Go look. On the western stretch of the wall nearest the golf course the pier block rock pedestals are being destroyed. There is no other plausible explanation.

I’ve walked Todd Grove Park seven mornings a week and can sometimes see the damage done since the day before: More pedestal corners pried loose; chunks and bits and mortar scattered about.

We need cops. We need surveillance cameras. We need vigilantes. When we catch the vandals we’ll force ‘em to eat all the rocks and cement they’ve loosened, followed by their hammers and chisels for dessert

Good Decision

Learning council member Josefina Duenas was being considered as the city’s new Mayor, I assumed she would not only be rewarded with the job, but also have a statue erected in her honor.

My erroneous assumption was based on misgivings that some council members would allow their PC yearnings to override common sense. I was wrong. I am cheered and relieved. Congratulations to both.

Susan Sher and Mari Rodin set aside leftist inclinations (slogans, virtue signaling) to insist on, at a minimum, competence from the would-be mayor.

Sher’s assessment of her colleague’s abilities were guarded and/or diplomatic; read between the lines:

“We all have the responsibility to be prepared for meetings and to be very familiar with the issues, and to return communications and inquiries from fellow council members, staff and constituents.” She wondered “whether whomever is mayor is ready to take on those duties and has the time and energy and interest in doing it with as conscientious an attitude as possible.”

Translation: Our mayor needs to be able to do the job.

Duenas responded by saying she is “very clear” on the job requirements, and added that she was elected to represent “The Latino immigrants, the deaf, the handicapped and the poor.”

That comment would ordinarily be enough to win the appointment, statue included. But Mari Rodin had her own thoughts, and said “I will not vote for Duenas to be Mayor simply to add Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” to the council.

I’m quietly gratified that some council members, albeit the members I might least expect to take the lead in putting the best interests of the city and her citizens ahead of fuzzy, touchy, meaningless gestures.

Next: Broken Windows, Plywood

Around town the down-the-drain spiral continues. Shops keep closing.

Eden, the funky shop of great charm and a friendly Potter Valley owner is closed at least for the time being which has a way of turning into forever. Rumors drift around that Karen will exit her Mendocino Bounty shop after the holidays.

Rod’s Shoes, where generations of kids, and parents, have found footgear for coming up on 40 years, will close in January. It’s a loss, but no pair deserves a lonnngg break more than Arlynn and Rod Johnson.

Go in and buy some shoes; tell ‘em Tommy sent you and you’ll get a free pair of reversible shoelaces!!

Add the closure of Village Books downtown, the forever empty North State Cafe, the Chinese restaurant(s) on the extreme end of downtown North State, the BBQ Rib joint on West Perkins plus the dead and gone Lido/Sunset Grille across the street means a lot of empty shops.

Wonder how many businesses will go under before the city starts laying off employees in order that top administrators needn’t suffer pay cuts.

(TWK gets the glory for supposedly authoring these columns, but poor old Tom Hine does the hard work, then takes the blame!)

* * *

TODD GROVE PARK STONE WALL

Todd Grove Park is a 16-acre park located on Ukiah’s west side, adjacent to the Ukiah Valley Golf Course. Amenities include groves of mature trees, lawns, walking paths, children’s playground, picnic areas, and a bandstand.

In 1940, Works Projects Administration (WPA) relief crews built a low, native stone wall around the park’s perimeter. The wall is 2’ high and 15” thick, made of rough stone bonded with thick cement mortar. At approximately 25’ to 28’ intervals, the wall is interrupted by 33”-high, 17”x17”-wide stone posts. Concrete stamps denoting “WPA 1940” are placed at intervals on each wall.

A stone gate at the end of Grove Street marks the entry to the park. It consists of a bi-leaf wrought-iron vehicular entry, flanked by single-leaf wrought-iron pedestrian entrances. A decorative wrought-iron arch spans the center opening and globe-like wrought-iron fixtures crown each of the outer posts. While the decorative wrought-iron seems atypical of WPA work, the masonry matches the adjacent walls.

 (livingnewdeal.org)

GROWING WEED IN BOONVILLE AROUND 1982

by Bruno Ruhland

Frank grew up in Chicago and came from a (surprisingly common) wacky family full of big success and big hypocrisy and personal failure. His grandfather was a Chicago tycoon who made vast amounts of money from tar for roofs and asphalt, greased by standard Chicago corruption. He ended up as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago and then devoted his life to charity as a hell of a good Catholic. In fact he gave his entire fortune of $41 million (a vast amount at that time) to the Catholic church except for $10,000 to each of his kids. Frank’s parents were a mess, but Frank did go to college and became a dope smoking but staunch Marxist who got arrested and had his leg broken in the 1968 Chicago Democratic convention police riots.

Frank came to the Bay Area sometime in the late 60s. He worked his way up through the American flag merchant marine, went to officer school in Vallejo and became a first mate on US cargo ships. It was a really good paying gig because the US merchant marine — what was left of it — was super protected and subsidized. But he did the standard dumb sailor thing of boozing and carousing away all his money when he was not at sea. He joined AA and decided to buy some houses with his money so as not to squander it all and by 1980 had about five houses in San Francisco and Oakland. It was the kind of thing you could do with minimal smarts in the sixties and seventies before capitalism had become the cruel predatory travesty that we endure today. 

He also stumbled on the glory of Boonville. He was looking for a place about a hundred miles from SF and Boonville fit that. He bought 40 acres about a mile north of town, sloping down from a ridge with some woods at the lower end. His monthly payment was $81. He filled a U-Haul truck with lumber from a navy building that got torn down on Treasure Island, drove it up to Boonville and figured out how big a cabin he could build with that much wood and then proceeded to build it, largely with a chainsaw since there was no electricity. He did a pretty good job!

Louie was the son of Frank’s brother and at about seventeen he had acquired some fairly advanced juvenile delinquent/outlaw tendencies and had to escape life in Troy, Ohio and came to stay with his uncle Frank in the late 70s. He was a strapping fellow whose most noteworthy trait was that he was fantastically handy at all things mechanical or construction related — and actually really eager to be helpful. 

He got a job as a mechanic at a Honda dealership in Berkeley, but he also became Frank’s all-round handyman and property manager. Frank was often working on ships, and it left a lot of stuff for Louie, still basically a kid, to deal with. Louie didn’t even get cheap rent out of it, and he had a full-time job, but he did indeed learn a lot about construction and playing landlord for his uncle who would call him from a sweaty phone booth in Algiers or someplace and yell at him about making payments on some second mortgage or something. 

The idea for growing dope on Frank’s land actually came from a Swedish guy named Bear (the American version of his name Bjorn) when he was hanging out with Louie at the Starry Plough, an Irish Republican lefty bar in Berkeley. Bear was a mellow guy (he smoked lots of dope) who drove an old beater Chevy Malibu and had an equally mellow dog named Rainy Day. Previously he had been involved in growing dope in Humboldt County under awful sounding conditions living under plastic sheets basically, so Boonville was a step up.

I was only peripherally involved that first year, coming up from the Bay Area from time to time to help out, but it was pretty damn fun. It was a modest effort, only 60 or 70 plants and mostly just in little clearings among the trees because of the fear of CAMP helicopters. There was a little tree house watch tower and Bear created listening devices from tearing apart old cassette recorders and car batteries. One time we went into Ukiah to get some camouflage nets and stuff at an army surplus store. The guy behind the counter got out his Colt 45 and chambered a bullet and set it down next to the cash register. Old school anti-hippie thing it seemed, but this was the early 80s and we were more in the punk rock mode and found it fairly amusing, though Bear, it’s true, was really mostly an old school hippie (but more rigorous euro version).

Keeping the plants safe from deer and wild pigs and potential poachers and the forces of law and order produced a mostly pleasing mixture of anxiety and excitement. There were regular guests from the Bay Area. There was no electricity, but we cooked up activities like a late night wild pig hunt with flashlights and special slugs bought for the one gun: a twelve gauge shotgun. Fortunately no pigs were roused, but in retrospect how idiotically dangerous that was!

If we had to worry about payments for the land or getting enough out of the harvest to live on for a year it would of course all have been different, but we were Bay Area kids having a rustic adventure and it was mostly heck of fun. The next year was when it got, uhhh… “interesting.”

There was a smallish fire in one of Frank’s properties in Oakland and Louie was tasked with rebuilding the place. Frank was at sea, so Louie spent a bunch of his own money on building materials, not to mention his labor. The Louie/Frank thing was getting murky. Louie felt like he was piling up doing stuff for Frank and not getting much back for it. Frank’s motto was “pleasure before business” according to Louie, which wasn’t so bad, but he was feeling used by his uncle the “café debater Marxist” who was also a real pioneer of the “angry white guy” mode.

So that second year he told Frank that Frank needed to pay Louie back the $30,000 that Louie felt owed or he would take Frank’s share of the profits from the harvest. Relations were friendly but that bit hovered over things.

That second year was a more modest growing effort, mostly just Louie with my assistance and a couple of patches more brazenly in the open and closer to the cabin. We became good friends with our only nearby neighbors and fellow weed growers Francisco and Amina. Francisco was a Spaniard gone full in on the hippie thing, rebelling against his bourgeois upbringing. His father was a famous physicist and going to live in Mexico. There he met Amina, escaping her middle-class family from Trinidad. They bought a van, painted La Tortuga on it and sold jewelry. They met someone from Boonville in Mexico who said come on up, it’s great. They rented a cabin and some land just above Frank’s place at the top of ridge. 

As harvest time got near we would take turns hanging out with them where they had a great view of the road. It was easy to see whoever was coming for a mile or so before they reached us. Francisco would have his mini-14 carbine which he said had such high velocity the bullets would go through the engine block of a car. Hmm. I don’t think he ever used it. The only time we used our shotgun was to shoot a shockingly large rattlesnake right near our cabin. Killing such an impressive creature seemed fucked up.

Harvest time approached, doubly tense because of fretting about how this Frank-sharing-the-harvest thing would work out. He came up a couple of weeks before to discuss. It did not go well. It devolved into an hours-long argument between Frank and Louie. I had never seen anyone as thoroughly enraged as Frank. Maybe it was the way the light was hitting his spittle — weirdly that is what I remember most — geysers of Frank’s spittle. And it went on and on. Frank was a reformed alkie but he did drink endless 12 packs of diet Pepsi and smoke plenty of cannabis. Maybe it was the diet Pepsi. So nothing was decided though there was a date that the weed would be ready to transport. 

We needed a plan. We figured Frank would come early, as soon as we cut down the plants, so we decided to cut them down and leave a day before that. So we did. And as Francisco reported, Frank did indeed show up the next day. 

But we had a tarp-covered pickup filled with marijuana that needed to be dried. My parents happened to have a big unused room over their garage in Orinda. They were very law-abiding but this was a big old emergency, so I basically told them it had to be done. They were horrified and my father was a world class worrier. But they let us. 

Orinda was a super white bread Republican East Bay suburb and the laws against marijuana were for real then. But my parents were indeed good liberals, the kind who had met campaigning for Adlai Stevenson in the 50s and taken us to anti-Vietnam war demonstrations when we were young. They were indeed scared and pissed off though.

Frank and Louie did not talk for years but they kind of sort of reconciled eventually. A few years later Frank, in his 70s, had horrible chest pains and went to the hospital where they put stents in his clogged blood vessels. He got out of the hospital with a prescription for some stuff that his doctor told him he absolutely had to take “or else.” He never filled the prescription and “or else” happened: he dropped dead. In his will he gave his properties to the stepdaughter of one of his ex-wives who he wasn’t even particularly close to. Apparently she lost most of them because she never paid any property taxes. Louie manages construction jobs in the Bay Area. He did some work for rich people and because he is so competent and trustworthy they all just pass him on to other rich people. It’s a living.

ON THIS DAY IN MENDOCINO HISTORY…

December 9, 1882 - The formal opening of the Mansion House was celebrated with a Grand Ball. This large hotel was located on the southwest corner of Little Lake and Lansing streets and was constructed by Willits architect and builder O. B. Ackerman for proprietor A. T. Rodgers.

The Beacon described the hotel as “three stories in height and well built. On the first floor at the right of the entrance is the general sitting room, on the left the ladies parlor, further on is the dining-room, kitchen, bath-room, with hot and cold water, and other offices of the house. On the second floor are some ten bedrooms well furnished, the two front rooms being large, with bay windows and fireplace. On the upper floor are some twelve rooms, all of good size and with large windows admitting plenty of light and air.” The dormer windows in the upper story offered a fine view of the ocean.

By 1899, the hotel was owned by John Miller, who had acquired the property through foreclosure on a mortgage. In the early morning hours of July 4th, 1899, a fire began inside the Mansion House, and quickly spread to the rest of the town, resulting in the community’s second-largest fire. Burning embers blew as far south as Little River, and the volunteer fire department had its hands full as buildings to the south, east, and west of the hotel caught fire. In the end, only the hotel and its stable, along with two nearby residences, were lost. The Beacon noted that all of these buildings were insured.

In 1983, Don Burleson wrote in his Mendocino Memories column, “Jim O'Donnell, then a small boy living across Lansing Street, remembers the occasion. Arson was suspected and Jim says he and his mother saw, in the morning darkness, a man running from the building before the alarm was sounded.”

The insurance company for the Mansion House claimed that the fire was caused by arson and refused to pay. Miller sued, and in 1906, seven years after the fire, the court ruled that the insurance company had been unable to prove arson and awarded Miller the insurance amount plus interest, totaling $7,000.

(www.kelleyhousemuseum.org)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, December 10, 2023

NEIL BRITTON JR., Covelo. Contempt of court.

ALEJANDRO DELAGUILA-CHAVEZ, Willits. Suspended license for refusing drunk driving chem test.

ERIC GARCIA, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, probation violation.

EZEQUIEL HERNANDEZ-QUIROZ, Willits. DUI, child endangerment.

ERIN JENNISON, Willits. Provation revocation, resisting.

JAKE LEWIS-KOOY, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MONICA LOPEZ, Ukiah. DUI, battery on peace officer.

JUSTICE MENEAR, Ukiah. Burglary, grand theft, vandalism.

ALEANDER MORRELL, Santa Monica/Ukiah. Domestic battery, robbery, false imprisonment.

ANGEL PATINO, Ukiah. County parole violation.

BRENDA POINDEXTER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs. (Frequent flyer.)

GABRIEL SANDOVAL-BAUTISTA, Covelo. DUI, no license, unspecified offense.

CARLOS SILVA-PENA, Ukiah. DUI, operating vehicle with intent to evade peace officer-bicycle.

CHRISTINA TORRES, Hopland. Probation revocation.

LEONEL VALENZUELA II, Ukiah. Parole violation.

CODY WILLIAMS, Ukiah. Saps or similar weapons.

PAY JACKIE DANIELS!

by Paul Modic

Like an intrusive Jehovah’s witness or a cheap hooker I probe for those in need who qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) but are not yet on it. Many don’t know about their right to this retirement income, though it’s nothing to kick back on, it’s for basic human needs, about a $1000 a month to barely live on.

Up at the Sylvandale nursery yesterday, when buying a flat of kale starts, I saw a grizzled old vet, of life at least, and said, “So you’re doing all right?” 

That was my “come-on line” to see if he’s another of those clueless bastards who don’t know about this benefit available for seniors over sixty-five, for those who don’t qualify for the real Social Security (SSA). He had just put a sign up on the bulletin board announcing that his cat was lost, about which he was heartbroken. (It had just run away when he was in the process of unloading it at the nearby vet.)

He has been a fisherman for forty years and I told him about my one exciting ocean experience, rowing a dingy from the shore at Shelter Cove into the Pacific to pick up some teenagers off a dory. I’d taken them on a fishing field trip with Andre Rode 50 years ago. “Fifty years!” he said. 

We introduced each other and I found out he was Don Sack, the “oppressed fisherman” who used to tell his woeful tale of the declining fishery regularly on KMUD’s “All Sides Now” editorial feature, until they shut him down. (They probably didn’t like it that he ended his spiel with “and God bless Donald Trump.”)

We traded our “banned by KMUD stories” and I said, “I’m a big liberal but everyone should be allowed to have their say, express their opinion.” (I also told him about the “All Sides Now” bit I had called in and recorded, an imagined play-by-play, Don Sack Vs. Jake Pickering, a righty/lefty smackdown, which the weenies at the radio station didn’t air, of course.)

“Who’s Jake Pickering?” he asked.

My outreach hobby is haphazard and unorganized, like later that day when I was paying for my “pure gas” at Renner and Jackie Daniels came into the office.

“So you made 65?” I casually said.

“I’m 68!” he said.

“And are you on SSI?” I asked.

“I’m trying,” he said, “but… let’s talk outside.”

I paid my bill for the special gas (the one without additives which isn’t supposed to gunk up the backup generator used about once a year when the power goes out), met Jackie out on the patio, and he told me what he’s been going through trying to get his SSI. They want him to provide two years of bank statements and all his bank gave him was two months from over the last two years. He was discouraged and looked haggard.

“They’re suspicious, they must think I’ve got a hoard of money hidden,” he said, “but I’ve only got $600 left in the bank from an inheritance.” 

He had lost his home recently, a small cabin in the woods, and found a cheap temporary place in town for a couple months with a very benevolent landlord. But then the landlord broke up with his girlfriend, sent her north from Mexico to run his chaotic rental scene, where the tenants rarely paid their rent, and Jackie had to leave. Now he’s crashing in a friend’s shed somewhere out in the hills.

“Maybe call SSI back and tell them you didn’t get all the bank statements, or contact the bank again and make sure they know what you want,” I said. “They could email it to you to speed things up.”

“I don’t have an email,” he said, “just a flip phone.”

I thought about it for a few seconds and said, “Well I have a lot of email addresses, you could use one of those. They could email it to me and I would print it out for you.”

“But then how would I get it?” he said.

“We’d figure that out,” I replied. God, this guy...

“They want me to show them all my receipts, what I spent the money on. I just spent it, spent it on things like twenty dollar books. I don’t have any receipts, who keeps that stuff? Do you work for them?”

“No, I’m an amateur outreach worker, a volunteer.”

Just then a local restaurant owner heard us talking and asked a question about Medicare. I directed her to my insurance agent across from the post office. “She’ll get you on track,” I said. She left with a smile and I thought, damn, there is a need for more outreach and info around here in the SoHum hills.

“I’ve only slept a few hours the last couple weeks,” Jackie continued. “It’s stressing me out worrying!” 

“Yeah, I’ve been struggling with insomnia also,” I said. “I have to do all these different things now.”

“Like what?” he said.

“Have a set bedtime, no eating or drinking three hours before sleep, no electronics in the bedroom, no screen time an hour before bed, and especially no alcohol,” I said.

He looked at me oddly. “Well I don’t drink,” he said.

“Good, that was the hardest change,” I said.

After talking to Jackie for twenty minutes I was worn out, frustrated, tired of his story, and thought maybe I should drop this obsessive “social worker” gig? Later I thought, something’s not right here: he’s down to his last $600, over 65, and they’re making it hard for him to get paid because they’re obsessed with fraud. They’re not seeing the true picture of the human being in need. 

I can see how he’s living, if he had a lot of hidden money he’d probably have a stable place. People with million dollar houses, and no income, are eligible for SSI and here’s this guy with nothing but a car and a couple guitars, and they’re making him jump through all the hoops.

They should just stamp him “approved” and turn on the gravy train. He probably doesn’t have good phone skills, he seems scattered and is maybe an ADHD case, if that really exists. They need to be convinced that he’s entitled to the $1000 a month, which he obviously is, in my opinion.

Maybe there’s a way to legally and officially advocate for him, vouch on a pile of food stamps that he is poor, old, and qualifies for SSI. He sounds erratic because of his anxiety and probably provoked suspicion in the case workers at Social Security.

Jackie could get on the waiting list for the local low-income senior housing but he needs an income. With the $1000 from SSI he could maybe rent some sub-standard space and survive with his food stamps. (He is probably not a rare case, if someone were really focused they might be able to find two seniors a week around here who qualify for SSI, a hundred in a year would add up to a $100,000 monthly infusion into the local economy, along with helping each desperate person.) 

Jackie has contributed to the community for years with his music, playing in local bands and jam sessions. He’s well-liked and no one has ever said anything bad about him, just look at those kind blue eyes. 

None of that should matter! Now he’s 68, struggling, and deserves to get paid! It’s time to give him his retirement check!

For years he used to be the guy who set up a table in front of Folk Art and the Mateel Art Co-op on Fridays out on Redwood Drive, selling books, videos and CDs. He would drive down to the Bay Area, buy used stuff, and make a few bucks selling them, until he was asked to move along by the new owner of the building. Does that sound like a rich scammer? He never really grew any weed and has no house or land, just an old Honda, and seems in danger of “falling through the cracks” into homelessness.

Why do I care? He’s not even my friend, but it just doesn’t seem right. I’ve already gotten my friends and family to sign up for SSI and food stamps, but it was easier for them as they already had stable places to live, albeit rustic cabins in the woods. (With one friend it took one twenty minute phone call and he got on, though he was a calm speaker and good communicator.) Do you qualify if you don’t have a stable address? It seems like Jackie is between places at the moment.

So what if he got a nice inheritance ten years ago? He lived on it and now it’s gone. It would have been fraud if he’d tried to get SSI while he had that money but he didn’t, which is evidence of No Fraud, in my book.

Do I need to do research and figure out how to make them realize he should get his SSI? Take photos of where he is crashing, videos of him in his band, start a petition, protest outside the Social Security office in Eureka with a sign saying “Pay Jackie Daniels!” 

What would the petition say? “I pledge that Jackie is poor and is living in someone’s shed behind their house. He’s a good guy who has brought music and positive vibes to the area for a couple decades, and now needs help. Please give him a ride on the government gravy train for the rest of his life: Pay Jackie Daniels!”

A lot of people around here would sign that.

SHANAHAN UNLEASHES 49ERS OFFENSIVE JUGGERNAUT

by Michael Lerseth

The San Francisco 49ers built on their romp against the Eagles by beating the Seattle Seahawks 28-16, putting what had been initially seen as the potentially toughest stretch of their season behind them with three straight wins to extend their win streak to five games.

Offense: A

A roaring start — a 72-yard run by Christian McCaffrey on the 49ers’ first snap — set the stage for a season-high 527-yard outing. McCaffrey finished with 145 yards (his fifth 100-yard game of the year), Brock Purdy put together his eighth game of the season with a 110+ rating (with 19-of-27 passing for a career-high 368 yards and two TDs), Deebo Samuel had seven catches for 149 yards and a TD (and scored one rushing), and Brandon Aiyuk’s 126 receiving yards pushed him over 1,000 for the second straight season.

Defense: B

The Seahawks exposed a potential weakness on the 49ers: their depth. Each of Seattle’s TDs came after a 49ers starter went to the sideline: DK Metcalf’s 31-yard TD came over Ambry Thomas when cornerback Charvarius Ward was forced out of the game, and Colby Parkinson’s 31-yard catch-and-run over the middle was one play after linebacker Dre Greenlaw went to the sideline. But perhaps that’s picky. The 49ers had four sacks (1.5 by Nick Bosa) and held the Seahawks to 70 rushing yards, the fifth straight game (and 10th this season) allowing less than 90.

Special Teams: B

Oh, the story Mitch Wishnowsky could have told his grandkids. The 49ers’ punter called his own number in the third quarter and busted loose on a 30-yard run, only to have it nullified by an unnecessary roughness penalty on Ronnie Bell. That letdown aside, Wishnowsky averaged 49.2 yards on his five punts. Jake Moody made all four extra points and wasn’t asked to try a field goal.

Coaching: A

It’s one thing to know you have a quiver full of arrows. It’s another to use them effectively, but play-caller Shanahan did so in orchestrating a dominating offensive effort. The 49ers averaged nearly a first down per play: 9.9 yards a snap. One curious thing that could have caused ripples in a closer game: Shanahan opting to not use any of his timeouts and possibly get the ball back at the end of the first half.

Overall: A

Go figure. The team that lost three in a row to the likes of the Browns, Vikings and Bengals could wake up Monday morning as the top seed in the NFC. The Seahawks were hampered by Drew Lock having to start in place of the injured Geno Smith, but it’s difficult to think that Smith — who did play in the 31-13 Thanksgiving night loss to the 49ers — would have made a big enough difference. The only trouble spot in the regular season’s final four games appears to be the Christmas night showdown with the Ravens — perhaps a preview of a Super Bowl XLVII rematch?

AMERICAN BLOOD

Matt Taibbi: Every time I see Biden on television sort of freelancing about stuff at a podium and looking left and right. You can see the thoughts going through his head like, “Is my fly open? Should we launch?” It’s like a big bowl of Cheerios in there and there’s just thoughts moving around. Normally, that would be... I mean, I remember that being a little scary at the end of the Reagan years, especially since Reagan was kind of a more belligerent personality when it came to foreign policy. He was probably more genial in his personal life, I would think. But it freaks me out personally every time I watch him, so I try not to. But I guess the rest of the world has to watch, so what do they think?

Walter Kirn: I don’t know, but I think it’s important for everyone who sees this kind of speech to remember that every Biden appearance is the end of a long process. It’s a process which includes, because he doesn’t do it much, a lot of preparation, a lot of stage setting, a lot of coaching, a lot of scripting. And then, after the-

Matt Taibbi: I’m just imaging the lug wrenches, they’re getting parts of his face in place and stuff. Sorry, go ahead.

Walter Kirn: Yeah. And so, after that long process comes this, it’s like a pea coming out of a cannon that drops to the floor. But concentrating on the material significance of what he’s saying, he’s somehow preparing the American people or at least warning them of some direct fight between the world’s two greatest nuclear superpowers. And he’s just doing it rather casually. And I think that he’s forgetting that this scenario in which troops just fight sort of G.I. Joe style might be interrupted by nuclear explosions. Will it get to that that quickly? How long do we contemplate just fighting them on the ground before it goes nuclear? I’ve never been clear on that.

Matt Taibbi: Yeah, I don’t know, but we have to at least consider that possibility because there was also a statement by one of the sentient members of the executive branch, John Kirby, should we... Let’s play that one if we can.

Walter Kirn: Yeah.

John Kirby: ... so we can’t support Ukraine. Their chief advisor yesterday said they’re likely to lose this war if they lose US support. If Putin gets all of Ukraine, then what? Then where does he go? Because right then, he’s up against the eastern flank of NATO. And if you think the cost of supporting Ukraine is high now, just imagine how much higher it’s going to be, not just in national treasure, but in American blood if he starts going after one of our NATO allies. Because as the president also said, we take our Article 5 commitments very seriously.

Matt Taibbi: So, that was blood, right, that he just said?

Walter Kirn: American blood, it sounds like a movie title. I’m surprised it hasn’t been used. Well, the important word again is if. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, and if Russia goes up against the eastern flank of NATO, American troops will spill blood. It was weird because it was almost a kind of escalation from the Biden thing. I sort of thought Kirby was coming out in order to maybe save or clarify what had been an intemperate or unexpected remark from Biden, but…

SAUDI ARABIA, the world’s leading exporter of oil, has become the biggest obstacle to an agreement at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, where countries are debating whether to call for a phaseout of fossil fuels in order to fight global warming, negotiators and other officials said.

The Saudi delegation has flatly opposed any language in a deal that would even mention fossil fuels — the oil, gas and coal that, when burned, create emissions that are dangerously heating the planet. Saudi negotiators have also objected to a provision, endorsed by at least 118 countries, aimed at tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Saudi diplomats have been particularly skillful at blocking discussions and slowing the talks, according to interviews with a dozen people who have been inside closed-door negotiations. Tactics include inserting words into draft agreements that are considered poison pills by other countries; slow-walking a provision meant to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change; staging a walkout in a side meeting; and refusing to sit down with negotiators pressing for a phaseout of fossil fuels.

The Saudi opposition is significant because U.N. rules require that any agreement forged at the climate summit be unanimously endorsed. Any one of the 198 participating nations can thwart a deal.

Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country raising concerns about more ambitious global efforts to fight climate change. The United States has sought to inject caveats into the fossil fuel phaseout language. India and China have opposed language that would single out coal, the most polluting of fossil fuels. Iran and Russia have pushed for provisions to protect natural gas. And many nations, such as Iraq, have raised concerns that ending oil and gas could devastate countries that depend on fossil fuels for income and have asked for more financial support from wealthier countries.

But Saudi Arabia has stood out as the most implacable opponent of any agreement on fossil fuels.

“Most countries vary on the degree or speed of how fast you get out of fossil fuels,” said Linda Kalcher, a former climate adviser to the United Nations who has been in negotiating rooms this week. Saudi Arabia, she said, “doesn’t even want to have the conversation.”…

nytimes.com/2023/12/10/climate/saudi-arabia-cop28-fossil-fuels.html

WELL, I learned a lot. You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries.

— Ronald Reagan, returning home from a five-day trip to Latin America, 1982

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

How would the ‘Transition to Renewables’ work on a day like today in Ct?

Air is damp, heavy & still, sky looks like it has been dredged up from the bottom of the NAtlantic; the phrase Darkness at Noon applies here. And tonight 5″ of rain and 70 mph winds are predicted. Our Governor states our nuclear power plant & natgas fired power plants will be closed by 2035, at which time we will be at ‘Net 0’. Our a$$kissing & worthless local media never presses him on how this is possible. Where would electricity come from today, for example; no sun, no wind, nothing? Just to replace the nuclear plant in Waterford will take hundreds, maybe thousands, of wind turbines. So far we have three, one that doesn’t work. The other two, not far from me, will be shut down tonite when the high winds hit. Except under ideal conditions those monstrous things are unproductive. Once 2035 rolls around, and the ‘Transition to Renewables’ is complete, we will be f#kked.

CEASE FIRE!

Editor: 

History did not begin Oct. 7 when Israel began its airstrikes on Gaza. This land, under siege for 16 years, and also the West Bank (where settlers have killed hundreds of Palestinians), is occupied by Israel. The word seldom seen in mainstream media is occupation. Israel controls Gaza’s borders and shipments of food and medical supplies, can turn off electricity that runs water pumps, sewage plants, bakeries, life support systems. Without regard for where hostages might be, Israel has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians, half of them children.

Do Palestinians have an air force, American-made munitions, tanks, bulldozers? Has any Israeli high-rise been reduced to rubble? Even calling this a “war” isn’t quite accurate because in a war one side can negotiate terms for surrender.

Cease fire. Make a hostage deal. And hope the U.S. will stop enabling war crimes, or it (we) too will be complicit and guilty.

Jennie Orvino

Santa Rosa

THE ISRAEL HAMAS WAR that started on October 7 comes after 30 years of a peace process that not only failed to implement the two-state solution, but transformed the partition paradigm on which it was premised into an apartheid system of ethnic separation and domination. The Palestinians were fragmented, occupying different geographical and legal spaces under varying degrees of Israeli control; the illegal settler population tripled to a total of 730,000 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; and 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza were trapped for 16 years in what many have called the world's largest open-air prison. Hamas's surprise attack, like the Yom Kippur War, clearly aimed to disturb this status quo. 

According to Mohammed Deif, the military commander of Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, the attack was launched in retaliation against the “daily violations in the West Bank,” the assaults on “worshippers and the desecrated Al-Aqsa” mosque, and Israel's refusal to negotiate with Hamas on “a humanitarian exchange” of prisoners. Hamas's goals, Deif suggested, were to “end the crimes of Israel's occupation” and its belief that it can “act without accountability.” The attack was a demonstration that Israel's policy of fragmenting the Palestinians, dividing them politically and containing Hamas in Gaza is not only unsustainable, but very costly in terms of Israeli lives and of Israel's capacity to protect them. 

Just as significant, it sought to restore to the Gaza Strip its political essence as an integral part of the Palestinian political struggle for liberation against a settler state that has used the Oslo peace process to dissolve, rather than resolve, the Palestinian cause. The fact that Hamas chose the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war for its attack — and carried it out just as Saudi Arabia and Israel were about to sign a normalization agreement, with US support — suggests that it was intended to remind Arab states of the impossibility, and the price, of ignoring Palestinian rights. 

— Leila Farsakh, London Review of Books

HAPPINESS lies in conquering one’s enemies, in driving them in front of oneself, in taking their property, in savoring their despair, in outraging their wives and daughters.

— Genghis Khan, quoted by Jeremiah Creedon, “The Biology of Joy”

TRUE CRIME STORIES

Two Kentucky men tried to pull the front off a cash machine by running a chain from the machine to the bumper of their pickup truck. Instead of pulling the front panel off the machine, though, they pulled the bumper off the truck. They panicked and fled, leaving the chain still attached to the machine, their bumper still attached to the chain, and their license plate still attached to the bumper.

* * *

A “tourist,” supposedly on a golf holiday, stood in line at the customs counter. While making idle chatter, the customs official thought it odd that the golfer didn't know what a handicap was. The officer then asked the tourist to demonstrate his swing. He did — backwards. A substantial amount of narcotics was found in the golf bag.

* * *

 “Guns For Hire,” an Arizona company specializing in staged gunfights for Western movies, got a call from a 47-year-old woman who wanted to have her husband shot. She was sentenced to four years in jail.

* * *

A Texan convicted of robbery worked out a deal to pay $9,600 in damages rather than serve a two-year prison sentence. For payment, he provided the court a forged check. He got his prison term back, plus eight more years.

* * *

A pair of Michigan robbers entered a record shop nervously waving revolvers. The first one shouted, “Nobody move!” When his partner moved, the startled first bandit shot him.

* * *

A man in Orange County Municipal Court had been ticketed for driving alone in the carpool lane. He claimed that the four frozen cadavers in the mortuary van he was driving should be counted. The judged ruled that passengers must be alive to qualify.

* * *

The judge called the case of People vs. Steven Lewon Crook. The bailiff opened the door to the holding cell and called, “Crook, come forward.” Five of the prisoners entered the courtroom.

* * *

When asked for her occupation, a woman charged with a traffic violation said she was a schoolteacher. The judge rose from the bench. “Madam, I have waited years for a schoolteacher to appear before this court.” He smiled with delight. “Now sit down at that table and write ‘I will not pass through a red light’ five hundred times.”

* * *

A judge in Louisville decided a jury went “a little bit too far” in recommending a sentence of 5,005 years for a man who was convicted of five robberies and a kidnapping. The judge reduced the sentence to 1,001 years.

* * *

A lawyer defending a man accused of burglary tried this creative defense: “My client merely inserted his arm into the window and removed a few trifling articles. His arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can punish the whole individual for an offense committed by his limb.” “Well put,” the judge replied. “Using your logic, I sentence the defendant's arm to one year's imprisonment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses.” The defendant smiled. With his lawyer's assistance he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench, and walked out.