Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024

Gusty | Little Lake | Mechanic Solution | Bluff Hike | Ed Notes | Presbyterian Church | Deplorable Supes | Livestock Capturing | Butterfly Release | Crab Feed | Pet Tips | Springs Token | Cell Donors | Skull House | Lumber Rafts | Tango Concert | Restricted Area | Candidate Forums | Yesterday's Catch | Modern Society | Caucus History | Meet Again | Big Job | SF Tower | Packers Looming | Mendo Purdy | Park Meaning | Cultural Shift | State Budget | Weasel Pronouns | Five Omnicides | Jersey Shore | Fundamentalism Curse | Heavens | Perfect | Democracy

AS A HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE builds into the region, gusty winds will build through the day. Rain will return Friday as a series of upper shortwaves impact the PNW. Rainfall rates will be more modest, extended over a 72-hour period. Precipitation should wrap up by early next week, with minor impacts possible with saturated soils from recent storms. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Thursday morning I have a cloudy 48F. Rain returns tomorrow morning then a lot more to follow thru Wednesday. I assume we will get a break from the rain soon but I just don't know when.

AV FIRE CHIEF Andres Avila comes up with creative solution to vehicle mechanic insurance problem:

"Since we flew [advertised] the AV Fire Department mechanic position in October, we received several applications. Local contractors have been challenged by liability insurance coverage for fire apparatus resulting in them not being eligible. Others were not qualified or did not understand the part-time position. On the other hand, we did get a qualified applicant from Boonville who is also an AV Fire Department volunteer. I will be asking the CSD Board to approve accepting Eddie [Pardini] as our replacement mechanic. He will become a Community Services District employee to avoid insurance issues. The overhead impacts plus employee wages were analyzed and resulted in an estimated incumbered cost equivalent to the existing [contractor] mechanic."

ED NOTES

ONE OF THE MANY tedious and underappreciated (sob) tasks that your martyred AVA staff performs every week is our Postal Service permit paperwork that must be submitted to the local post office where our weekly mailing costs are calculated, submitted and checked. 

The seven-page IRS-style form is required for our second-class permit on which we calculate the cost of mailing hundreds of AVAs outta Boonville. The form must also be accompanied by a weekly check for several hundred dollars. 

The mailing must be broken down into in-county and out-of-county numbers by zone and zipcode along with their weights, plus an accounting of our scant advertising and an enumeration of bags and bundles and trays minus a couple of small discounts we're entitled to. 

For decades The Major, a math whiz, has carefully filled out the forms every week and submitted them to Postmastress Collette, who checks the math, and enters the data into the Postal Service system. If this exacting person finds no errors in The Major's scrupulous accounting, she issues a receipt. If she finds errors, it’s do-over time. It's all one more tiny example of how much time and effort is spent in the country on accounting, making sure dying businesses like ours don't get away with so much as a dime. Meanwhile, as we know, and apologies for veering off into tiresome rant mode and a statement of the obvious, billions are ripped off by the pirates of American capitalism without so much as a glance from our jive government (cf 2008).

A few months ago the Post Office informed us that starting in late January, the forms must be filled out on-line using a fancy new Postal Service “gateway” system called “Postal Wizard.” We have been anxious ever since. 

After several incoming phone messages in the last few weeks from English language newbies at Bay Area Postal Distribution Central reps offering us assistance, The Major, having finally deduced that a postal rep in San Jose, fluent in English, named “Cherie,” said she was available for guidance on setting up the new on-line system.

San Jose Cherie, 'mon Cherie we thought of her, sent us an email with a collection of annotated screenshots describing the jargon-riddled steps involved in entering the required Boonville mailing info. 

The Major soon hit a snag that required additional assistance from his “Cherie.” But she was perpetually “out of the office.” When she was finally in the office she emailed a suggestion that The Major call an 800 number and speak to the Postal Wizard “help desk.”

The Major picks up the story:

“I called the 1-800 number and a sultry woman’s voice recording asked me to verify that I was over 18. As the seductive voice crooned on I realized that the voice didn’t sound much like a postal rep. Either I had the wrong number or the USPS’s ‘help desk’ had been farmed out to an adults-only low-bidder in a misguided effort to bring in new postal customers. 

“Having decided that I was much too old for telephonic eroticism, I looked up some acronyms that the Post Office Cherie had mentioned in her original email, discovering that the correct help desk number was a 1-877 number, not a 1-800 number. 

“I called the correct number, and after several voice mail wrong turns ended up speaking to a real person named ’Robert’ who was indeed helpful. 

“After updating some registration info according to Robert’s instructions, I now hope to be able to successfully negotiate the Postal Wizard process.” 

---

The Day They Burned The Apple Trees 

by Bruce Anderson

“Why it's positively Vesuvian out there!” exclaimed a nicely dressed forty-ish woman waiting at the counter of Café Glad in Boonville for the decaf latte she'd just ordered. “Where on earth is all this smoke coming from?”

“The wineries are burning apple trees,” another customer volunteered.

“Why would a winery burn apple trees?” Ms. Vesuvian asked.

“To clear old orchards for grapevines,” explained the customer, a Boonville man who stood looking out Glad’s big windows at the thickening gray pall descending on 9 a.m. Anderson Valley, ashes speckling the vehicles parked outside.

“Oh my,” Ms. Vesuvian, exclaimed. “I hope it’s a burn day.”

“I hope it’s not the end of the world,” the Boonville man said.

By 10am Octopus (Tarwater) Hill was not visible from Highway 128. Peachland Road had disappeared. Highway 128 looked like the down ramp to Hades.

“What the hell's going on?” a caller demanded of the local newspaper.

Another sputtered, “It's got to be those winery bastards, right?”

Sort of, as blame began to be portioned out by mid-afternoon and continued to be portioned out a week later.

There was so much smoke from that dark non-sanctioned Ash Wednesday in May of 2000, and it was so dense, that from about ten until noon, Anderson Valley did seem end-of-the-world-ish or “Vesuvian,” an unharmonic convergence of decafs, uncontrolled controlled burns, old apples for new grapes, smoke, fire, and fear.

The AVA’s Major Scaramella happened to be returning from a Willits print run that morning. He remembers that as he was coming down from the ridgeline into the Valley he couldn’t see anything but smoke blanketing the entire Valley. “I was reminded of the times I used to drive over the Grapevine down into the Los Angeles basin on bad smog days in the 60s,” said Scaramella. 

There were three burn sites responsible for the great smoke out. One was a controlled burn up on Signal Ridge that veered out of control and had to be tamed by the California Department of Forestry. The Signal Ridge fire, however, was the smallest contributor to Big Smoke Day. George Bergner at the Philo end of Anderson Valley Way, had ignited 35 large piles of wet apple trees, all of them freshly bulldozed into gnarled heaps and replete, it was said, with plastic irrigation pipe. Nearer to Boonville, at the old Schoenahl Ranch, Norman Kobler, the 33-year-old vineyard manager for Welch Vineyards based in Potter Valley, had ignited some 30 more piles of apple trees, which he'd massed for immolation last September.

The old apple trees didn’t want to go. If they could talk they'd say that they'd produced a versatile and valuable food for more than a hundred years, that there are truly old apple orchards all over Mendocino County planted by the first settlers still working their magic, that it is a sin to heedlessly pile us up and burn us as if we'd been of no use. The trees went down hard, burning long and slow, emitting hours of final, smoky sighs. 

Kobler, the son of legendary Philo winemakers Hans and Theresia Kobler, works for Welch Vineyards but was burning the apple trees for the parcel's new owners, Cakebread Winery of the Napa Valley. Kobler's apple trees were drier than Bergner's trees because Kobler’s trees had been down for seven months, but between the two burns, only a mile from one another, so much smoke arose that much of Anderson Valley became a don't go outside zone for four hours.

Norman Kobler became a walking act of contrition in the next few days. He started saying sorry as soon as he started talking about Wednesday’s smoke.

“I apologize to everyone,” the young Valley native said Friday. “I did not mean for it to happen. I live here in The Valley too, and I'm not a guy who enjoys making trouble.”

He is sorry, too. Sorry but confused. Kobler had his paperwork in perfect order. He had his burn permits and he had a burn day, but he could be burned himself for a thousand dollars in fines. In theory. Rules for wineries are waived.

So what happened? A big accident happened. Unpredicted, unforeseeable weather happened. Bureaucratic inattention happened. 65 piles of burning apple trees and an unprecedented smoke therefrom happened, and Anderson Valley wanted to know who was responsible.

“When I started the fires that morning,” Kobler began, “everything looked fine. The smoke went up to the ridgetops and headed toward the Coast like it is supposed to do, so I continued to burn. But when I had all my piles lit the wind switched, and that's where the whole problem started.”

Kobler said he'd burned two piles of trees the previous day without any of the smoke lingering anywhere near The Valley floor. And up until about 9am on Apple Ash Wednesday, the smoke from his and Bergner's fires went up and outtahere, wafting away on the Pacific-bound breezes blowing west high above Anderson Valley’s unsullied air.

“But suddenly,” Kobler says, remorse audible in his voice, “the winds changed, and the smoke blew back down into The Valley.”

But it was a burn day, and Norman Kobler had his permits. Ditto for George Bergner a mile down the road. Until the winds changed and the apple smoke returned as if for a final pass through The Valley where they'd thrived for half a century, it was a perfectly clear day, not a cloud in the sky, not so much as a hint of an hazardous element in our ocean-scrubbed air.

And then a choking sky collapsed on The Valley's unprepared head.

Irate motorists swerved in off 128 to berate Greg Ludwig at his new nursery at the old Tin Man apple stand, assuming that he was doing the burning across the road. Someone called from the Elementary School to inform the hapless Kobler, “Thanks to you the kids have to stay in for recess.” More than one worried Boonville senior got in his car and headed for Ukiah where air quality is often, well, think LA Basin and repeat after me, “From out of the frying pan, into the fire.” Even the local bliss ninnies were upset. “Why me?” blurted a male-type purple person to no one in particular at Boont Berry Farm, as if The Big Smoke had been aimed specifically at him.

The only comment even approaching approval for The Big Smoke came from an old timer who growled, “This is an agricultural area, for cryin' out loud. What do people expect?”

Not to be asphyxiated by the wine industry when they step out of doors would seem to be a modest enough expectation and may, perhaps, even represent a rare local consensus.

Phil Tow was the personable boss at Air Quality Management District, Ukiah, and a former teacher at the Anderson Valley Elementary School. The elasticity of Tow's personable-ness got a vigorous stretching last Wednesday.

“I'm holding my head very low today,” Tow said. “Let me put it this way, complaints about the smoke in Boonville on Wednesday were voluminous and completely justified.”

Tow, forthrightly claiming his share of the responsibility for the fiasco, recalls The Big Smoke as he experienced it.

“By the time we got the fifth complaint, Diana Barker, one of my investigators, was heading out the door for Boonville. By the time we got the sixth complaint, I said to myself, ‘I've got to see this for myself,’ and we both were out the door and headed for Boonville.”

Arriving in Anderson Valley at the junction of the Ukiah Road and Highway 128 about 11 a.m., Tow and Ms. Barker promptly determined that visibility on the Valley floor was an alarming “just over a mile.” And they got here late. If they'd arrived at 10 when the smoke seemed to have achieved peak density, visibility would have been about a half-mile between Boonville and Philo.

Mr. Tow wasn't about to quibble. Mile or half-mile, the smoke was bad.

“What we had,” Tow said with a refreshingly unbureaucratic candor, “was a total failure of the whole program top to bottom, and since I'm in charge of air quality for Mendocino County the failure is mine and I accept responsibility for it. But,” Tow added, “we have initiated an enforcement action against two people over there who did the burning.”

The two people are the repentant Norman Kobler and, so far as anyone is aware, an unrepentant George Bergner.

“You might have a permit,” explains Tow, “and you might have a burn day, but you still can't smoke out your neighbor. We depend on the good judgment of the people doing the burning. The ultimate responsibility lies with the people holding the matches.”

Tow conceded that his 7-person office had not noted that two large burns were planned for the same day. He also conceded that the boys holding the matches last Wednesday could not have anticipated the unexpected temperature inversions that prevented the smoke from blowing away to the west, as everyone had anticipated, which was why last Wednesday was a Burn Day in the first place.

“We didn't co-ordinate the burn with them,” Tow admits. “We should have had a person over there to monitor things.”

The “things” an on-site Air Quality professional might have insisted upon was increased applications of the diesel fuel ag burn piles are doused with to get them to burn fast, and maybe even the deployment of a tractor to drive over the smoldering piles to break them down into faster burning chunks.

But Tow said he views enforcement more as “an education process” than “simply taking money out of someone's pocket.” He said Air Quality “has already issued violation notices” that “will be followed by letters to Bergner and Kobler explaining exactly which rules they violated. “But,” Tow emphasized, “a monetary penalty will definitely be assessed.”

By 2 p.m. The Big Smoke was over.

Kobler, apologetic as he is for his role in The Big Smoke, is nevertheless perplexed.

“I've been cited by Air Quality for creating a public nuisance, but I'm not a weatherman. They said I should have known there was an inversion layer and that the smoke was coming back into The Valley. I try to obey all the rules, but everything went wrong that day. It was terrible. I thought I'd done everything right. I had my perimeters disked, I had water ready. Colin Wilson (Boonville's fire chief) came over in the morning about 8 and said it looked fine to him. But then the winds shifted and….” 

BETSY CAWN:

About the Veterans Service Office, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors (including Mau Mau Mulherin, Bow-Tie (Gluten-Free) Williams, Narcoleptic Dan Gjerde, Half-baked Haschak, and Goody-Goody-Gumdrops McGourdy) this is one of the ugliest decisions you all have made, and that’s on top of the insidious malfeasance of former CAO Angelo, the bombastic spewing of the egregious Eyster, and the blithering stooges in charge of your Mental Health services and Measure B oversight committee. I’m tempted to unleash an old salt’s gutter-sniping projectile vomiting invective vocabulary, but I won’t. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. (Come to think of it, have any of you ever served your country in the U.S. Military? I’m guessing you’re all kissing cousins of President Bone Spurs and Badass Baby Bush.) Talk about of “basket of deplorables” — at least Hillary was good enough to come up with that jargon to add to our Post/Pre Trump Stress Syndrome PTSD lexicon.).

ELK, CA FINALLY: 

This Request for Proposal (RFP) announces the intent of the County of Mendocino to seek Vendors to provide Livestock Capturing Services. The purpose of the RFP is to contract with vendor(s) that can provide Livestock Capturing Services.

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/Home/Components/RFP/RFP/2264/

ED NOTE: For reals?

HUNDREDS OF ENDANGERED BUTTERFLIES SLATED TO BE RELEASED ALONG MENDOCINO COAST

The release marks a victory for conservationists.

by Ariana Bindman

Hundreds of rare, blazing orange butterflies are slated to be released in Northern California over the next two years, marking a victory for conservationists working tirelessly to restore them across the region.

In 2023, the Mendocino Land Trust received a $1.5 million grant to restore critical habitat for the Behren's silverspot butterfly, an endangered butterfly endemic to California's lush Mendocino coastline. So far, it's only been discovered along the coast from Salt Point Park in Sonoma County to the Mendocino Headlands, Anna Bride, the land trust's stewardship project manager, told SFGATE, and it faces a slew of existential threats ranging from coastal development to climate change.

Nectar plants and native grasses used to flourish in the region, Bride said, but now, habitat degradation and commercial developments are pushing the rare butterfly to extinction. As grazing farmland grew, monocrops like European beach grass and rattlesnake grass proliferated, decimating the notoriously picky butterfly's main food source, the early blue violet.

"It's this tiny little flower and it's the only leaf that this caterpillar eats," Bride said.

The new grant funding will go toward planting at least 30,000 of these bright purple flowers and restoring the butterfly population over the next four years, she explained. Last year, 180 specimens were unleashed into the wild. Project partners aim to release up to 600 of them by 2026, Christine Damiani, a Marine Land Trust project partner and entomologist at Eureka's Sequoia Park Zoo, told SFGATE.

Bride kept project locations vague, explaining that poachers may try to kill these rare insects for profit. In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service famously uncovered a massive butterfly poaching operation throughout Death Valley and multiple national parks and wildlife refuges, according to the National Park Service website. Three men were prosecuted for illegally capturing thousands of rare butterflies, 14 species of which were endangered.

Now, members of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Sonoma-Mendocino Coast District of California State Parks and the Sequoia Park Zoo are involved at every stage of the Behren's silverspot life cycle thanks to the recent funding.

For the past three years, Damiani has been carefully raising the caterpillars in a lab, which increases their chances of survival. "In the wild, caterpillars face high mortality risk from predation, disease, trampling, pesticides, and extreme environmental events," she told SFGATE.

Each August, she begins the process by capturing Behren's silverspot butterflies in Mendocino and taking them to the zoo, where they undergo a monthslong metamorphosis. After collecting their eggs, she puts them in a refrigeration unit over the winter, where they enter a dormant state known as diapause.

Once they awaken from their slumber, they're transferred back to the lab and fed a gourmet diet of early blue violet leaves — thousands of which are grown and harvested at the zoo each week, she said. Then when summer rolls around, the pupae are brought back to the Mendocino coast and delicately placed in mesh enclosures, where they finally become butterflies and get released into the wild.

According to Damiani's Facebook page, there are 1,412 caterpillars in captivity, meaning her team is poised for a busy spring season this year, though not all of those caterpillars will survive.

Damiani said that there have been only 92 Behren's silverspot sightings over the course of 15 years, but Bride and her team are hopeful they'll discover more when they start surveying the coast this summer. For now, she's optimistic that the new grant funding will bolster conservation efforts and save them from extinction.

"I think it'll make quite a big difference on the impact that we're able to make," she wrote.

(sfgate.com)

ASK THE VET: What Veterinary Professionals Wish You Knew

(Coast Humane Society)

Your local small town vet is different from a walk-in emergency clinic. 

Much like our own family doctors, general practice veterinarians have full schedules of appointments and procedures all day and need to prioritize existing patients, often making it difficult to accommodate last-minute emergencies. They may not even be equipped to handle certain serious emergencies or ailments due to limited equipment, staffing, etc. These reasons are why 24-hour emergency clinics and referral centers exist. Unfortunately, emergency veterinary services are often harder to access in rural areas such as the Mendocino coast. It is therefore wise to establish regular preventative care with your local vet before you have the need for emergency services, and to have a plan in place for possible travel outside of the area if the need arises. 

Basic preventative care is important and often cheaper in the long run.

Many pet owners try to save money by forgoing wellness exams, spay/neuter surgery, vaccines, flea/tick/heartworm prevention, etc. However, neglecting to do the basics increases the chances of expensive and life-threatening medical emergencies later on.

Animals show pain differently than humans.

While they certainly feel pain and discomfort in the same ways we do, it isn’t always obvious to owners when their pets are suffering. Behavioral changes such as reclusiveness, panting, shaking, aggression, excessive licking or scratching, limping, and changes in litter box/potty habits, activity level, or appetite can all be signs of pain in pets. Sometimes they show no obvious signs at all, which is one of many reasons to keep up with annual veterinary exams. 

Obesity in pets is a huge problem.

Chubby animals may be cute, but being overweight can have serious health consequences. As with people, obesity predisposes pets to arthritis and other orthopedic issues, diabetes, and heart disease. As a general rule, do not free-feed your pets and avoid feeding table scraps and treats. Your veterinarian can give you specific dietary recommendations and determine if any underlying health issues are contributing to your pet’s body condition. 

Proper dental care can greatly improve your pet’s health and quality of life.

Dental disease is incredibly common but often ignored in pets. In addition to pain, bad teeth can lead to kidney, liver, and heart problems. Regular tooth brushing at home can help prevent and slow the progression of dental disease, but periodic veterinary evaluation and cleanings are often still necessary.

Many behavioral issues are preventable and manageable. 

Early socialization (exposure to various people, places, animals), positive reinforcement training, exercise and frequent mental stimulation are all essential in preventing issues such as anxiety and aggression in companion animals. This is not only crucial to pets’ physical and mental wellbeing, but makes veterinary visits much easier on pets as well as vet staff. Socialization, training, and enrichment should ideally start in puppy/kittenhood but should continue throughout their lives.

Veterinary workers aren’t in it for the money.

I’ve never met a veterinarian, technician, assistant, or veterinary receptionist who didn’t enter this emotionally-charged, often stressful profession due to their profound love for animals. Many veterinarians are drowning in student debt (often exceeding $200,000), and earning potential is significantly less than human doctors. Veterinary professionals deal with high rates of stress and compassion fatigue, frequent verbal abuse from clients, and often unsustainable workloads, causing burnout and other mental health issues. 

Overhead costs are expensive, and vets are not psychics.

While a thorough history from the owner and a physical exam provide a lot of information, vets often need to perform diagnostic testing (such as bloodwork, radiographs, etc) to get a better idea of what’s going on with your sick pet. Vets are not recommending tests and treatments to scam their clients, but rather, to help pets! That said, veterinary clinics are businesses, and prices are based on the cost of providing quality care and keeping the business running. Unlike many human hospitals, veterinary clinics don’t receive subsidies to cover the cost of care they provide. 

(‘Ask the Vet’ is a monthly column written by local veterinarians including Colin Chaves of Covington Creek Veterinary, Karen Novak of Mendocino Village Veterinary, Clare Bartholomew of Mendocino Coast Humane Society and Kendall Willson of Mendocino Equine and Livestock.)

POINT ARENA HOT SPRINGS

Marshall Newman: “These were advertising tokens.”

BE THE MATCH

Editor: 

I am a fit 77-year-old retired teacher and grandmother of five young kids. I was diagnosed with leukemia in May 2022. I was about to head out on a 100-mile walk across Scotland, but my doctor didn’t like the way I looked, and we soon discovered that I had leukemia. It is now 15 months since my stem cell transplant at UC San Francisco. My donor is a young German woman who I hope to meet one day. She wrote me, “I’d do it again, people need to help each other.”

Please go to the Be the Match website and sign up for a simple test kit. It’s a cheek swab you mail in; then you’re entered in the registry. If a match is found, you may choose to be the donor, but registering does not commit you to being a donor. People between 18 and 40 may sign up. You may ask to be removed from the registry at any time. At 61, you are automatically removed.

We are all connected. Here’s a simple act of generosity that contributes to good in our world. I thank you. I’m sure all recipients thank you.

Jane Corey

Elk

EAST ROAD - HBO HOUSE FOR SALE IN REDWOOD VALLEY - ‘SHARP OBJECTS’ SCENES FILMED AT LOCATION

by Justine Frederiksen

The sprawling Redwood Valley estate formerly known as Skull Mountain Ranch, which starred as the home of a sinister character in the HBO series “Sharp Objects,” will soon be on the market again, DeCaro Auctions International reported.

After scenes for the television show were filmed at the estate in 2017, Greg Alpert, the location manager for “Sharp Objects,” said the home was chosen for both its grandeur and remoteness. 

“(The director) said he wanted a house that looked like if you screamed, no one would hear you,” Alpert said, explaining that when he sent out e-mails to film offices across the country asking if anyone knew of a “big Victorian in the middle of nowhere,” someone from the Mendocino 

County Film Commission responded. 

Though the photo he received depicted a large Victorian he could “barely see at the end of a long driveway behind a gate,” Alpert said he was intrigued enough to see it for himself. And when he started up that driveway off East Road in Redwood Valley he thought, “Oh, my God, this is it. This is literally a Victorian in the middle of nowhere.” 

The color of the house needed to be changed, however, so the man who painted it twice since it was built in 1995 was coaxed out of retirement to put a “less cheerful” color on the previously yellow home. At the time, Tim Buckner, a longtime caretaker of the property — which in the past he said was called Skull Mountain Ranch because of all the coyote skulls found there — said he would always prefer the original color, but that Alpert and his crew were very respectful of the property and its new owners, who had bought the ranch in 2016. 

“The new owners love the color, and we’ve been checking in with them on everything we do,” said Alpert, adding that a local contractor was also hired to put in a new brick patio, and Mendocino Metals put in columns for a new entrance gate that was used for some pivotal scenes in the show. 

“We also hired two snake wranglers because of all of the rattlers and gophers here,” he said, explaining that one of the snake handlers was even given a costume to fit in with the action being filmed. “That way he could do his job and we didn’t have to worry if he accidentally got in the background of a scene.” 

Also during the 10 days of filming at the ranch, Alpert said that two local residents so impressed the director that he invited the handsome young men — a German shepherd named Chucky and Chapo, a mix of German shepherd and red-nosed pitbull — down to Los Angeles to do more scenes. 

“They are the most well-behaved dogs — they will do whatever Lorenzo tells them to do,” said Alpert, referring to owner Lorenzo Ayala, who managed the ranch with Buckner at the time, as both men stayed on as caretakers when the property was sold in 2016. 

“They are living the dream,” Ayala said of the dogs, attributing their good behavior less to any of his training tricks and more to the fact that they love hopping onto his truck every day to come to work with him. 

“They just have a way of standing on that truck,” said Alpert, explaining that the director wanted Ayala’s dogs to be those owned by the local sheriff in “Sharp Objects.” 

Now called The East Ranch, the property is scheduled “for Absolute Auction on Feb. 3, 2024,” according to a press release by DeCaro Auctions International, which also describes the property as an “exceptional Queen Anne Victorian-style property (with a) 7,500-square-foot primary residence featuring Douglas Fir floors,” five bedrooms, four bathrooms (and) “breathtaking panoramic views (as well as) an inviting library detailed with custom woodwork and an expansive etched glass skylight.” 

Private previews of the property began last week. Visit DeCaroAuctions.com for full property information.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

CHUCK ROSS: Used to see lumber rafts southbound all the time. Some times the tugboat was "hull-down" below the horizon but the lumber stacked upon the raft looked massive. We estimated that the horizon was just under 17 miles away and the line from offshore Point Cabrillo to offshore Point Arena was about five miles inside that.

YO TANGO MENDO!

Experience the captivating beauty of tango music like never before with Kacey Link, pianist and scholar who brings her extensive knowledge and passion to her every performance. With a program featuring classic and contemporary tango pieces, Link's virtuosic playing will take you on a journey to the heart of Buenos Aires, the birthplace of the tango. Her unique perspective and authentic interpretation of the music will leave you feeling inspired and moved.

Sunday January 21st, 3 PM at Preston Hall, Mendocino. Tickets online at symphonyoftheredwoods.org, in person at Out of this World in Mendocino, and Harvest Market in Fort Bragg.

Tea, coffee and cookies available when the doors open at 2:30 PM and at intermission.

More information at symphonyoftheredwoods.org

COAST CANDIDATE FORUMS

The League of Women Voters of Mendocino County is pleased to present two candidate forums for races appearing on the March 5 ballot. Both forums will be held at Town Hall in Fort Bragg, from 6-8pm.

Thursday, February 1: Candidates for CA Assembly District 2 will present their views and answer questions from the audience.

Friday, February 2: Candidates for Board of Supervisors, District 4 will present their views and answer questions from the audience.

Both events will follow the standard League format. Candidates will give opening statements, written questions will be taken from the audience and closing statements will be given by each candidate. Each forum will be moderated by a League member.

For more information, call 707-937-4952, or visit the League website at https://my.lwv.org/california/mendocino-county.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, January 17, 2024

CHRISTOPHER CARTER, Covelo. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, vandalism, failure to appear.

ANTONIO CRUZ, Pocatello, Idaho/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, no license.

ANDREW KASPERKIEWICZ, Ukiah. DUI, disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, under influence.

CHESHIRE MAIAVA, Fort Bragg. Burglary, burglary tools, controlled substance, probation revocation.

MANUEL RODRIGUEZ, Covelo. Drug possession at jail-fire camp with prior, parole violation, offenses while on bail, failure to appear.

VINCENT YOUNG, Philo. Probation revocation.

SOCORRO ZAPIEN-GARCIA, Ukiah. Domestic battery, vandalism, controlled substance, false ID.

JEFF GOLL:

Cornel West is an interesting guy to listen to, I've been a fan since he gained wider exposure, but the Entertainment Division of the Military Industrial Complex is a tough nut to crack. There are no outstanding candidates running for President, and the better than Biden & Trump ones can't get sufficient traction. HL Mencken said it years ago, and the American voter has now voted for actual buffoons in the last two elections. The statist Mobius strip is twisting around but not breaking. People will never be awoken into conscious voting while "the structure" churns out the spectacle.

Bruce, your encounter with the bookstore person was amusing as read in your Ed Notes, but of course you've experienced the rise of passive-aggression and in need of Father figures in contemporary California culture. It's not your fault, that person is another victim of Modern Society (quote in "A Clockwork Orange").

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

If, at the end of the world, that song, “We’ll Meet Again”, started playing out of the blue, for everyone, I don’t think anyone would question it…

TAKING ON A BIG JOB

Seeking Others to Destroy the Demonic and Return this World to Righteousness

Woke up this cloudy Ukiah morning, not identified with the body and not identified with the mind. Immortal Self I am! The current round of medical testing and prescriptions are now in the past; the anti-influenza pills worked. Only a dental appointment needs to be set up in Windsor, to see about getting a stainless steel crown, with the insurance paying for it. Ate a sumptuous Italian sandwich and enjoyed a cup o’ joe at the co-op’s cafe. Pushed on to the library, currently sitting in front of computer #1. Here. Now. Eternal Witness. That’s all there is, folks. ~Peaceout~

Craig Louis Stehr

SHOULD 49ERS FANS WORRY ABOUT THE PACKERS?

by Scott Ostler

Yes.

All right, you San Francisco 49ers fans, you’ve had a week off to chill ’n’ bask, and check room rates in Las Vegas.

Now it’s time to get back to work, supporting your team by doing what you do best: worrying.

With Saturday’s game against the cheesy Green Bay Packers looming, we’ll help you shake off the rust with this starter list of stuff to worry about.

Motivation: For the first time in years, the 49ers are facing a Green Bay team that has a quarterback you don’t hate.

It’s so much easier to root against a team with a villain quarterback. Jordan Love? You can’t hate him. He’s a California kid (Bakersfield). His name is in San Francisco’s unofficial motto: the cool, gray city of love. He even got busted for pot in college (charges dropped). He’s practically one of us, and a good guy, and so talented!

Aaron Rodgers sometimes distanced himself from his Cal roots, and he was so cocky and sneery that you knew the 49ers would be fired up to bring him down. And in later years, we’ve learned what a creepy nutball Rodgers really is. You suspected that the 49ers’ players didn’t like Rodgers, either, because they got so jacked up to play him, memorably shutting him down cold in a couple of epic 49ers wins.

Like Brock Purdy, Love seems to have zero ability to choke under pressure. One stat: In his past eight games, Love has 21 passing touchdowns and one interception.

Love is like Purdy, only twice as big. Pass the Advil.

The weather: Rain is likely. Try not to let your brain call up the image of Purdy against the Browns on a rainy day in Cleveland, Week 6, when the ball slipped out of Purdy’s hand in mid-pass and squirted high into the air, Purdy gazing up at it like it was a UFO.

You don’t want rain. The 49ers are a team built on precision, especially on offense, and a sloppy field will work against that precision. You want nice dry turf into which Christian McCaffrey’s cleats can bite like a dog greeting a bone.

Also, weepy weather will drive many Levi’s Stadium fans indoors, especially fans in those prime seats behind the Packers’ bench, where loud derision is an important component of home-field advantage. Those rich folks will be tempted by the warmth and dryness of their VIP tequila bunkers.

History, schmistory: The 49ers have owned the Packers in recent years when it counted, but this Green Bay team seems to have no respect for recent history or tradition. On Sunday, the Packers acted like they knew nothing about the greatness of the Cowboys. Dallas had not trailed by more than eight points at home all season, but there they were Sunday, trailing 27-0!

Trent Williams’ Ankle: It doesn’t seem right that a man so huge and powerful is supported by a janky ankle. It’s like building the Transamerica Pyramid on a waterbed. There is no 49ers player the Packers fear more. The big tackle seems healthy and ready to rip, but you never want to leave Williams off your worry list.

Aaron Jones: Good grief, this back is quicker than instant coffee. He rushed for 118 yards (and three touchdowns) against the Cowboys, and it was a below-average game for him. His past four games, Jones has averaged 119 yards rushing. By comparison, McCaffrey — the league’s rushing leader — averaged 91.2 yards. We’re not saying Jones is a better runner than McCaffrey, but he does appear to be difficult to tackle. The 49ers had the third-stingiest rushing defense in the league, but Jones has rendered that stat irrelevant.

Kicking: You want to trust Jake Moody, right? Bounced back from the early miss that cost the 49ers a game in Cleveland and has had a solid season. Still, you will not forgive general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan if something happens.

Mitigating factor: The Packers’ kicker, Anders Carlson, is also a rookie and has missed six PAT kicks (including the playoffs). Six!

Dee-fense: The Packers scored touchdowns on six of their first seven possessions Sunday. Is that even possible?

Steve Wilks: If the 49ers do hold the Packers’ offense in check, Sideline Steve can pack his bags for a promotion; his 49ers days will be numbered. But you won’t have to worry about that late Saturday night.

(SF Chronicle)

BROCK PURDY AFTER A VISIT TO MENDOCINO COUNTY

STRAIGHT WHITE LADY FROM NORTH BERKELEY LOOKS AT PEOPLE’S PARK, WITH LOVE

by Kristin Baldwin

They say that if you remember 1967 you weren’t there.

Trust me, I was there. I met my husband Tom there, had six kids with him — five of them adopted including three post-polio kids, two of whom came out of the Vietnam War. Thirteen years of me studying Indian music and dance with Balasaraswati, and an MA in South Asian Studies from Cal, before he left me behind. But before he did, we started a music venue called 1750 Arch Street and produced concerts and made records with some of the best Bay Area musicians, and we marched against the war and gave money to anti-war causes, which earned us the honor of being put on President Nixon’s enemies list. I half-toned the list, and used it as my personal stationery, on which I wrote my application to Boalt Law School, which I graduated from 12 years later with a JD degree to join my BA in Anthropology from Michigan, and my MA in Indian Studies and MPH in Maternal Child Health from Berkeley.

The years at Cal were memorable for, among other things, fire-bombings, bomb scares, helicopters circling overhead, and tear gas on the way to class. Ah! There is nothing like the smell of tear gas in the morning. We went from driving a drive-away car to San Francisco, wearing flowers in our hair, to planting flowers in People’s Park, and the Park became a symbol of peace and flowers and no war and music, free food, and kindness.

I took the kids down on many an afternoon to listen to Tom Fogarty of Credence, and Country Joe, and guys with no shirts beating on Conga drums, and people dancing. Free. Everything free. When my oldest son, Paul, was only three Tom and I took him to the park where he used his little shovel to plant our living Christmas tree, which was hardly taller than he was. When I last checked on our tree, just before COVID, it was easily forty feet tall.

Bad stuff happened, too. In one of the demonstrations, a friend who was an Indian drummer had his arm broken by a police baton. Another friend, who suffered from schizophrenia ended up living in the park sometimes. After Cody’s closed it was no longer a place I went at night.

But here is something. Once I was on Telegraph Avenue and I blacked out, in the road just up from the Med. I had done it once before, while driving on the freeway. This time an ambulance came, along with a big fire-engine, while I was lying in the street. I do not remember much about how I got to the hospital, but the doctors there said I needed less stress (they had heard about the seven kids I now had), and in a more medical diagnosis I was diagnosed with a cardiac condition that caused my blood pressure to plummet, which they have since fixed with pills.

But while I was lying in the street, I remember one thing. A street-woman came and sat with me and put my head in her lap as she sat on the curb. The ambulance people questioned her, and she said, “I hope she is okay. She is not from the street. Here is her purse. I kept it for her so it would be safe.” I remember feeling very happy there on the pavement. And very safe.

I had an office in the old Daily Cal building where from my window I could see folks who were apparently homeless sometimes. One young man went through the garbage can every noontime looking for food. Next day I bought two sandwiches instead of one and went down and offered the second one to him. He bolted. I had apparently scared him with this gesture. After that I put the second sandwich in its little bag, into the garbage can for him to find, which worked well — and he was almost always there to grab it.

Now that I work on the border I know Shura Wallin, who is one of our heroes on the border. I have gone out into the desert with her many times, looking for folks who need help — food or water or medical care. Shura is the woman, who when she lived in Berkeley, started the program that provides free meals in People’s Park. So, there is that.

Down on the border, where Shura and I work, some genius decided that a good way to keep migrants out of the US would be to stack up railroad cars along the border, and for a while there was a horrible eye-sore that blocked migration of not only people, but of wild animals. The court’s stopped it, and a lot of money got spent in taking the railcars back out again. A documentary called “American Scar” talks about the hidden impact of those unfortunate walls.

And now we have the same thing in Berkeley. And to make sure that no one can sneak in and actually spend time in People’s Park, they have added razor wire to you can’t surreptitiously jump into the park from the roof of a nearby building.

I have only one thing to say.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Couple things here:

1) This park has been here for more than fifty years now. 2) It is symbolic of many things to many people (opposition to the terrible Vietnam war, kindness to people who need help, art, music, green space, happiness) 3) The fact that there is crime, or danger of crime, is the responsibility of those who prevent crime. It is not the responsibility of the park for existing. 4) Shame on the university, who truly should definitely provide housing for its students, for making their tuitions (so many now of high paying overseas students) a priority over the city that generously houses them. 5) Since Cal students are generally low income, and because they make up a large percentage of the Berkeley population, Berkeley (where home values are high) looks on paper like a very poor city. This, I’ve been told, enables Berkeley developers to get federal housing loans available to poor cities, to build and build and build, as long as a few spaces are guaranteed to be rented to low income persons. This is a gift to developers, but less of a solution for the unhoused, who continue to pitch their tents beside the parking meters of Berkeley. 6) What to do? I would suggest that CAL build its dorm somewhere else (the racetrack comes to mind). I would also suggest that UC contribute more funds to Berkeley to help with the increased costs that its presence engenders. And thirdly, I would suggest that UC open its doors even more widely to the city to share arts and education programs broadly. The ghettoization of part of the city for students serves no-one.

As for the little grassy plot that has recently been massacred by bulldozers, and surrounded by men with guns, I would suggest a complete re-evaluation of what this park means to the people of Berkeley, and frankly to the world.

The meaning of People’s Park is not what is assigned, by this or that committee or commission or legal document. People’s Park is bigger than that, and better than that. If UC wants to do something there, they can create rational and friendly security, they can provide social service advice and transport for people who need a place to sleep. They can keep the tradition of food and music and sitting in the sunshine in the grass. They can teach classes outdoors in the park, in the tradition of Rabindranath Tagore and his peace school in Shantiniketan in India. They can let people come for Tai Chi and yoga and chess.

What happened to creativity and what happened to empathy and kindness? People’s Park stands for Berkeley, and for the history of Berkeley that sprouted during the summer of love.

You weren’t there? Look it up!

And put some goddamned flowers in your hair!

(Berkeley Daily Planet)

DISAGREEMENT OVER SIZE OF STATE’S BUDGET DEFICIT

by Dan Walters

There’s an old adage that one must first acknowledge a problem exists before it can be addressed. It bears repeating because of a huge disagreement over the size of California’s state budget deficit.

In December, the Legislature’s independent budget analyst said the state faces a $68 billion deficit, mostly due to revenue shortfalls in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 budgets, and projections into 2024-25. 

On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced a 2024-25 budget that assumes a $37.9 billion deficit, while chiding news media for repeating analyst Gabe Petek’s projection, saying they are undermining confidence in the state’s economic resilience. 

Were Petek’s figure valid, the state would have to make huge adjustments in spending and perhaps entertain tax increases to balance the budget. 

Newsom’s much lower number, however, allows him to cover it with an array of budgetary gimmicks often used in the past, such as borrowing money from special funds, tapping reserves and delaying some budgeted expenditures. 

For example, state employee paychecks, which would ordinarily be counted on June 30, 2025, the last day of the 2024-25 fiscal year, would be deferred by one day to July 1, 2025, thus “saving” $3.2 billion. 

Newsom claims that his $291.5 billion budget is “balanced,” but as the payroll gimmick illustrates, it’s billions of dollars short of being truly balanced, even if one accepts his lowball deficit figure. 

About half of the $30 billion difference between the two deficit numbers is, Newsom said, in their projections of future revenues, with the remainder mostly in spending estimates on state programs. 

“We’re just a little bit less pessimistic,” Newsom told reporters as he introduced the budget. 

So who’s right and who’s wrong? 

Estimating income and outgo as many as 18 months into the future is not an exact science, and California has a sorry history of making huge errors in its budgets, largely because the state has a very lopsided dependence on taxing the state’s wealthiest residents. Their incomes, especially earnings on investments, tend to make wide swings from year to year. It’s called “volatility” and Newsom cites it as the chief factor in forecasting revenues. 

“This small share of Californians earns a significant proportion of their income from stock-based compensation and capital gains, making their income — and the tax revenue it generates — significantly more volatile and subject to swings in the financial markets as opposed to changes in the overall economy,” the budget declares. 

The latest cash report from the state controller’s office is a case in point. 

The 2023-24 budget adopted last June acknowledged a deficit due to revenue declines but still assumed that the state would take in $123.3 billion in taxes during the first six months of the fiscal year ending on Dec. 31. The controller, however, reported that tax receipts were just $93.5 billion during the period, a 24 percent shortfall. 

Neither deficit estimate is absolutely correct because it can’t be. But in the past, the legislative analyst’s numbers have proven to be closer to the mark than those from governors, who have a vested interest in minimizing the adjustments needed to bring income and outgo into balance, and therefore the political angst that reduced spending entails. 

Newsom and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature are closely allied with groups that support spending on social welfare, education and health care, which makes deep reductions that a major deficit would require much more difficult. 

Therefore, the Legislature is much more likely to adopt Newsom’s relatively low deficit figure in fashioning a final budget over the next six months than what its own budget analyst projects. 

(Dan Walters has been a journalist for more than 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. CalMatters.org)

FIVE OMNICIDES FACING OUR UNPREPARED WORLD

by Ralph Nader

The countries that straddle our tormented world are woefully unprepared to counter and prevent five Omnicides already underway or looming menacingly on the horizon. This is increasingly true with the yearly passage of neglected opportunities. The gap between our mounting knowledge and its application to these global threats is widening.

1. The Climate Crisis, better called Climate Violence, producing record storms, wildfires, droughts, sea-level rises, floods and unprecedented heat waves, is omnicidal. The year 2023 was the hottest in recorded history. Millions of lives are already being lost, with even more people suffering from climate-related illnesses and injuries. In addition, property destruction is rampant. The consequential effects of natural disasters are mounting in terms of damaged agriculture, soil erosion, habitat destruction (leading to species extinction) and the regional spread of insect-borne diseases such as Malaria.

Promised investments for mitigation and prevention made at the international “climate change” conventions have not been fulfilled. Renewable solar energy is growing, to be sure. However, the pace of proven responses required by the accelerating global warming is at abysmally low levels.

2. Viral and bacterial pandemics are looming larger by the decade. Faster transport carriers of infections often zoonotically transmitted, poor collaborations such as between China and the U.S., and increasing human-driven mutations from e.g., reckless over-use of antibiotics are exacerbating these problems. The proliferation of laboratories with inadequate safeguards for their “gain of function” and viruses and bacteria breaching containment all are raising alarming scenarios by scientists from many disciplines.

The Covid-19 pandemic has taken approximately 15 million lives between 2020 to 2021, according to the World Health Organization. Specialists are saying it is not a question of “if,” but a question of “when” future pandemics will occur.

3. The omnicidal perils of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are not being confronted with the requisite international arms control treaties. Indeed, the existing treaties between the U.S. and Russia are being rescinded or suspended and the remaining ones are in danger of not being renewed and updated. The use of these weapons and their delivery capabilities is becoming decentralized, with fast-innovating drones and smart bombs.

Our Congress has no countervailing forces in motion, no serious hearings, no champions confronting the necessities of applying knowledge to action and compelling an empire-building White House to work to mobilize allies and non-allies alike around the world to negotiate peace treaties which are in everyone’s perceived self-interest. (Remember the treaties between the former Soviet Union and the U.S.)

4. “Artificial Intelligence” or “A.I.” is viewed by leading scientists and technologists as the ultimate tool capable of advancing an out-of-control doomsday future. Machines replicating themselves and turning on their creators is no longer science fiction. A coherent warning came from computer expert Bill Joy in his seminal article published by Wired Magazine on April 1, 2000, titled “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” He included in his triad of plausible horrors, A.I., Biotechnology and Nanotechnology and how they are interwoven with one another.

Without any regulation to speak of, these technologies are being driven by commercial/corporate short-term profit priorities, with heavy government subsidies and contracts. The citizenry’s input is not part of the equation.

In 2014, heavyweights in science and technology, led by Stephen Hawking, released a letter to the world warning of robots that could take control of their operations and replicate their algorithms resulting in direct control of human beings, autonomous weapons and other seizures of decisions from the human species. It was a one or two-day story in the mass media followed by a global shrug and back to business as usual. Congress and the Parliaments are unprepared and have done little to develop the enforceable legislation necessary to thwart this relentless self-inflicted momentum to omnicide.

5. Then comes the foundational omnicide stemming from a wave of elected dictators enabled by an excluded, deteriorating civil society. Political and corporate power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. In most countries, the political economy has converged into an ever-maturing Corporate State which President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned about in a 1938 message to Congress:

“The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.”

Kleptocratic regimes come in various styles, depending on the nation’s stage of development, and operate by stealing from the future to enrich and entrench themselves in the present. Both in so-called developed and developing countries, they are displacing any semblance of modestly functioning democracies able, with the primacy of civil values and the rule of law, to foresee and forestall these approaching omnicides.

Where is the hope? Where it always has been, in societies with deliberative democratic practices and traditions of civic engagement that lean toward governments of, by and for the people. Just one percent of the people resolving to commit and connect can start reversing these ominous drifts toward the cliffs.

As Thomas Jefferson said, “I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education…”

FUNDIES

by John Arteaga

Fundamentalism, of all stripes, is the curse of human civilization. Whether it is the extremist Catholic dogma of Opus Dei, the fire and brimstone and the numerous thriving 'prosperity gospel' Protestant preachers who enrich themselves on the gullibility of their followers’ avarice, selling the suckers on the profoundly un-Christlike notion that personal wealth is a sign of virtue and an indicator of the deity's favor. 

Whether it is Islamic fundamentalism such as Wahhabism, promoted worldwide by the fantastically wealthy House of Saud, after it was basically given the enormous oil-rich nation of Saudi Arabia in exchange for playing ball with the Western oil companies and which basically invented this unusually repressive, violently sexist, murderously homophobic Islamic offshoot as a way to distract its populace from the fact that they were all being fleeced outrageously of their abundant natural wealth for a few crumbs. 

Judaism too has its share of loony fundamentalists, rivaling the Islamic extremists in their treatment of women as chattel. Whether it is the starvation brought about by Stalin's ruthless communist fundamentalism or the many millions around the world killed in service of capitalist extremism practiced by the anti-communist hysterics who have led the nation down a road to military/industrial hell. Eventually it ends up with incalculable levels of death and destruction, most often visited upon the common people on both sides that have no real dog in this fight.

Another heartless type of fundamentalist belief which has, in recent history, come to have an inordinate power over the lives of all Americans is so called 'Strict Constructionism'. I first remember hearing about this concept in regard to the late Antonin Scalia, who’s uber-judgemental Catholic/corporate ‘morality’ I remember despising with a passion during his all too many years on the Supreme Court, but who now seems like an intellectual elder statesman compared to the corporate lackeys and billionaire errand boys and girls who have succeeded him under Trump's misrule. 

Trump stole one appointment from President Obama (with the damnable Mitch McConnell's connivance) and lucked into two others. All 3 profess this anti-thought ‘belief’. Apparently ‘strict constructionism’ means that unless one can cite chapter and verse in the founding fathers constitution, a reference to anything coming before the court (no matter if the whole field of interest even existed back then), that golly jee, we just can’t even think about it! Basically it’s a pseudo-intellectual excuse to discard the whole notion of considering the actual facts of a case and default to one’s most primitive prejudices without really examining them. 

The problem with politics today, certainly in the United States but apparently in a number of other countries around the world, is that it is being taken over by the most retrograde forces of fundamentalism. The Republican Party has long been aware of the fact that they represent a distinct minority of public opinion; who but the very richest fraction of a percent of the populace wants to vote for ever lower taxes for those who hold such a large share of the country’s wealth, as well as slashing to the bone any and all services that the society might provide for its vast majority!?

Republicans have been playing a long game ever since the country pulled itself out of the depths of the Great Depression by raising taxes on the very rich. They realized that the only way that they can win is to find ways to cut back the obvious majority through gerrymandering, voter suppression, intimidation, ID laws and other skullduggery. The excellent Greg Palast has built a career as a reporter on revealing the myriad ways that people of color, the poor, students and other likely Democratic voters have been unfairly taken off of the voter rolls, often in numbers that far exceed the margin of victory that Republicans are then able to get in races there.

The problem is now that so many people have imbibed the right-wing Cool-aid (it’s hard not to when there are so many propaganda ‘think tanks’, endowed chairs, wholly owned radio and tv networks, not to mention major newspapers) promulgating the beliefs of the far right, that a frighteningly large minority buys the canard that government can’t do anything worthwhile, so they are willing to vote against their own interests!

In the US, as well as Israel, Turkey, Hungary and a number of other countries, so many people are discouraged from voting because of the feeling that their vote won’t matter. As fewer and fewer people vote, especially in the primary campaigns which decide who we will get to choose between in the general election, the highly motivated right wing religious extremists, who have an uncommon gullibility for criminal conmen like Victor Orban, Bibi Netanyahu or Donald Trump; all idiot savants in knowing exactly what lies to tell a given audience, never mind that today’s lies contradict those of the day before. And their followers get to choose who the rest of us can vote for!

Look what this tragic dynamic has done for Israel; Netanyahu, touting himself as the one person who can keep Israelis safe, instead empowered the most apartheid prone religious extremists to ever greater oppression of the Palestinians under their control, stealing their homes and lands, destroying their businesses and vehicles, while at the same time empowering Hamas as a way to divide the power of the Palestinian Authority. It couldn’t go on, and October 7th or something like it was inevitable. In one of JFK’s best speeches about Vietnam, “when you make peaceful change impossible, you make violent change inevitable”.

The ongoing massacre of the 2.2 million Palestinians now trying to survive in Gaza is hard to get out of one’s mind, especially as a US taxpayer who is forced to fund this genocide. The idea that Israel is going to hunt down and kill every last member of Hamas is delusional; every bombed apartment building creates scores of survivors who will be eager new recruits! There is no solution without justice for the Palestinians!

Blog post; https://inarationalworld2.blogspot.com/2024/01/fundamentalism-amok.html

PERFECT SYMPHONY SUNG PERFECTLY

by Andrea Bocelli & Ed Sheeran

I found a love for me

Oh darling, just dive right in and follow my lead

Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet

Oh, I never knew you were the someone waiting for me

'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love

Not knowing what it was, I will not give you up this time

But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own

And in your eyes, you're holding mine

Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms

Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song

When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath

But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight