Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024

Showers Diminish | Rainbow | Landline Petition | Gaska Endorsement | Ocean Wave | Common Sense | Commercial Space | Local Notary | Lambing Season | Lemos Bench | Edie 116 | Peer Committee | Ukiah Construction | MCBG News | Kelli Returns | Bob Concert | Ed Notes | Hotel Covelo | Ted Theory | One Way | VSIP | Yesterday's Catch | Special People | Swifties Meet | Marco Radio | Still Life | The Economy | Worst Fear | Presidential Debates | Beyond Beautiful | Trump Shortcomings | Had Enough | War Delirium | Neoliberalism Con | Cat Picture | Imperial Outposts | Superhuman Task | Black Activist | MLK 1967

SHOWER ACTIVITY will diminish this morning before the next storm impacts Mendocino, Lake and Trinity Counties with potentially strong gusty winds, moderate to heavy rain and snow on Sunday. Wet and unsettled weather will continue into Monday, and then ease up by Tuesday.

FLOOD WATCH remains in effect from Sunday morning through Sunday evening.

WIND ADVISORY remains in effect from 2 am to 1 pm Sunday.

(National Weather Service)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A partly cloudy 43F on the coast this Saturday morning. Morning showers left .15" of rainfall. Maybe a shower today then another strong system for Sunday is looking very windy & moderately wet. Off & on rain next week.

PETITION TO SAVE MENDO’S LANDLINES

change.org/p/save-landline-service-in-california/psf/promote_or_share

Holly Tannen <htannen@mcn.org>

FARM BUREAU ENDORSES ADAM GASKA

Adam Gaska:

“Busy, busy the last few days. I am proud to announce that I have been endorsed by Mendocino County Farm Bureau! I have been a member for many years and represent MCFB on the Ukiah Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Agriculture has deep roots in our community and I am glad to be a part of a group that promotes and advocates for farmers. 

There will be more added in the near future.”

https://adamgaska.weebly.com/endorsements.html

(ED NOTE: In a somewhat schizophrenic mood, the Mendocino County Farm Bureau has endorsed both Adam Gaska and Madeline Cline. There may be a split in the membership. We don’t know. No explanation has been forthcoming.)

YOU CAN SEE the reflections of the rainbow in/on the water (Falcon)

A READER WRITES: “The Board of Supervisors is jumping from one error to another, from one very bad decision to another. Is common sense and a solid factual base with alternatives and consequences so out of date?”

ANNE FASHAUER: I have an opening in my building (Live Oak Building, Boonville) — 456 SF commercial space, currently a tasting room, available for rent 3/1/24. Rent includes that space, patio in front, a store room) and access to shared bathrooms and common areas. I'm asking $1,800/month, plus security deposit. Rental application and credit check required. Contact me at 707-512-0705. 

ANDREA GARCIA: Hello Valley friends. For those of you who know, I was a local notary, however, at the time my commission expired I was preparing for law school exams. On the bright side, I recently took the notary course, and now awaiting my results and new commission packet. My notary services will be back and available soon.

NAVARRO VINEYARDS: Lambing season 2024 @navarrovineyards. We’re over halfway already! We bred our big ewes to border Cheviot Rams and the lambs are awfully cute and robust this season.

THE LEMOS MEMORIAL BENCH

Editor,

A memorial bench has been installed in dedication to William Lemos in Mendocino Headlands State Park Big River Unit, also known as Big River Haul Road. The Mendocino Trail Stewards inspired this project. The bench was built from salvaged old-growth redwood donated by Bill Brazill.

The bench was constructed by Greg Smith, a craftsman and instructor at Krenov School. Braggadoon designed the plaque, and the Lemos Family and The Mendocino Trail Stewards funded the project. 

Thank you to Mendocino Headlands State Parks for making this happen. 

In 2002, Bill Lemos was a founding member of the Mendocino Land Trust’s Big River committee, which sought to provide stewardship for Big River, one of California’s longest undeveloped river estuaries. Ultimately, Mendocino Headlands State Park Big River Unit was established, stretching for eight miles (13 km) along both banks of Big River. 

Bill Lemos was born and raised in Mendocino. Big River estuary, beach, and woods were his childhood backyard. 

Marilyn, Justine and AJ Lemos

Mendocino

EDIE CECCARELLI OF WILLITS, oldest person in United States, to celebrate 116th birthday with drive-by parade

The parade honoring Edie Ceccarelli takes place on Feb. 4.

Mendocino County native Edie Ceccarelli, the oldest person in the United States, is turning 116 years old in February, and the public is invited to her birthday party.

Ceccarelli, who also holds the distinction as the oldest confirmed Californian in recorded history and the second oldest person on Earth, marks another trip around the sun on Feb. 5. On Feb. 4, her family is throwing a drive-by birthday parade past her home in Willits from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

The parade has become a tradition in the city of about 5,000.

For the last several years, locals in decorated cars have driven the route that passes Holy Spirit Residential Care Home, 414 Grove Street, to wave and wish Ceccarelli a happy birthday.

Ceccarelli was born Edith Recagno in Willits in 1908.

As previously reported in The Press Democrat, her father, Agostino, was an Italian immigrant who worked in lumber, sold groceries from a horse-drawn buggy and helped build portions of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad.

After graduating from Willits Union High School in 1927, she married Elmer “Brick” Keenan in 1933. The couple moved to Santa Rosa, where he worked as a typesetter for The Press Democrat.

The Keenans adopted a daughter, Laureen, who would grow up to marry and have three children. Laureen and her kids all carried a genetic disorder; Edie would outlive them all.

When Brick Keenan retired in 1971, he and Edie returned to Willits. Brick Keenan died in 1984. Edie later married Charles Ceccarelli. They lived happily for just a few years before Charles died in 1990.

These days, Ceccarelli’s memory and awareness have largely slipped away, though family members say she enjoys her meals and being nicely dressed and groomed, according to a 2023 story in The Press Democrat.

Parade participants are encouraged to decorate their cars with signs, balloons, flags and streamers.

To join the parade, take Highway 101 North to exit 568. Turn left onto CA-20 West. Turn right at Baechtel Road, right at E Hill Road and right at Haehl Creek Drive. From there, go straight at the first stop sign at Haehl Creek Drive and Grove Street, then turn left at the second stop sign, continue on Grove Street and look for Edie on the right hand side.

UKIAH CONSTRUCTION UPDATES FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 5:

Not much change in this report—obviously, the weather has not been particularly conducive to construction!

On the south side (Mill to Cherry), crews are nearly done with the work between Gobbi and Cherry, and will be working to restore lanes of traffic where possible. Then, work in this section will pause until weather improves for paving. Joint trench work will continue between Mill and Gobbi, which will run along the west side of the street and contain underground electric communication lines.

On the north side (Norton to Henry), crews continue concrete work, weather permitting, and the electrical contractor is working to install the new streetlights. In most parts of this section, on-street parking has been restored. The on-street parking is not very intuitive, because the orange delineators (cone-thingies) must remain in place to keep vehicles traveling in a single lane. However, it IS okay, unless there are barricades in place that state otherwise, to park inside (to the right of) those delineators.

IN BLOOM AT MENDOCINO COAST BOTANICAL GARDENS

Read on for updates and info on upcoming events, bloom reports, gardening tips, educational opportunities, and more…

https://mailchi.mp/gardenbythesea.org/bloomblast-639628

THEY BOUNCED ME ALL THE WAY TO UKIAH

Re: Mendocino Sheriff - Police Brutality and Constitutional Violations

Good afternoon,

My name is Kelli Johnson, and I am the woman whose story you covered in September following my presentation at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting. I will be traveling to Ukiah for the board meeting on Tuesday (2/6) to discuss my experience again, including additional facts I did not have time to cover in my 3 minute presentation in September. 

For example, I did not have time to discuss how the officers refused to buckle my seat belt and were recklessly hugging the curves at high speed so that I would fly from one side of the bucket seat to the other (I could not brace myself as my hands were cuffed behind my back). I begged for them to buckle me in, but the officers steadfastly refused even though I told them it is the law. Since my presentation, I have heard several accounts of Mendocino sheriff department officers refusing to buckle the seat belts of their detainees and causing them to fly from one side of the car to the other as they speed around the curves on the highway during the long drive (for me it was 3 hours) to the jail.

I am disgusted by Sheriff Kendall’s flippant response to the public’s support of me speaking out against the blatant constitutional violations I suffered at the hands of the sheriff’s deputy officers. His officers tortured me like a war criminal for being a loud woman. The officers didn’t like what I had to say so they thought they’d teach me a lesson by putting me through the most traumatic experience of my life. They did not know that I am a lawyer who is deeply familiar with my First Amendment rights.

The Mendocino County Sheriff has become accustomed to violating the rights of their citizenry at their leisure without any accountability. I will hold them accountable both in the public’s eye and in the courtroom. They violated the first amendment, fourth amendment, eighth amendment (cruel and unusual punishment), and I have winning claims for false imprisonment (arrested and jailed me for 24 hours with no probable cause of a crime), reckless endangerment (refusal to buckle my seat belt), assault and battery (violent assault left me severely bruised all over my body), to name a few. The DA has not proceeded with any charges and almost certainly won’t as they have no evidence I committed a crime (exercising my right to free speech is not a crime)

I appreciate the work you do shedding light on issues of great importance in the community. I would love to provide you the details about my experience if you would like to hear more about what happened. I plan to release all footage related to my unlawful arrest once I have subpoenaed the videos from the sheriff’s office to the public so that they can see for themselves the horrific abuse I faced. Please let me know if you would like to set up a time to discuss. Thank you for your time.

Kelli Johnson

Sacramento

ED NOTES

THE FOUNDER and ex-sales boss of the “orgasmic meditation cult” OneTaste, formerly of Philo, appeared in federal court this week. One Taste's principal officers, Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, are charged with forcing women into sex acts and keeping them in “residential warehouses,” aka their lush premises formerly known as Shenoa Retreat at the west end of Rays Road, Philo. Their San Francisco based company was raking in $12 million a year from their “sexual dysfunction treatments” for women, which included being genitally massaged by a man with a latex glove. (This job was never advertised in Anderson Valley's newspaper.) But the FBI began investigating after ex-customers came forward saying they were left in debt after paying for expensive classes, and former employees said they were ordered to have sex with potential investors.

STEVE GARVEY, 75, has launched a bid for the California Senate seat formerly held by the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. The former LA Dodgers and Padres baseball player is campaigning as a “conservative moderate” who hopes to bring “moral integrity” back to Congress. Three of his seven children by different women, say those are qualities their father does not possess, as demonstrated by abandonment and/or years of abdicating his parental duties. Garvey's love children, Slade Mendehall and Ashleigh Young, wrote: “In our childhoods, multiple efforts were made through attorneys to arrange a meeting or even a phone call with Mr. Garvey, but he declined every opportunity.” Garvey's love life inspired a bumper sticker that read '”Steve Garvey is not my Padre.”

RECOMMENDED READING: ‘The Human Stain’ by Philip Roth, the third in a series of novels that began with ‘American Pastoral,’ moved into ‘I Married A Communist’ and on into ‘The Human Stain,’ all of them memorable novels. Read as a trilogy, or read as a sort of left-lib rendering of the harried white man’s America that John Updike presented in his masterful Rabbit series, you’ve got the true 20th century history of our country in these six books by two great writers. Supplement these six with ‘Moby Dick,’ Dos Passos’ ‘USA Trilogy’ and Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man,’ and maybe a little Jefferson or Paine, and you’ve pretty much got the whole American show under one roof. Those of you seeking more specificity, I’ll mention the stuff I happen to be reading: Murray Kempton’s ‘Part of Our Time,’ freshly re-released as part of that cheesy, wildly overpriced, Modern Library series. Early Kempton is a lot better than later Kempton, I’d say. He was better young than he was old when he became sorta tedious in a Henry Jamesian, Anglified, stuffy sense. I’ve also benefited recently from former state historian Kevin Starr’s ‘Endangered Dreams, the Great Depression in California.’ (Starr, incidentally, grew up in Ukiah at the old Albertinum, now Trinity School for disturbed youngsters. Up through the 1950s the West Ukiah facility was an orphanage run by an order of nuns.) I can also recommend in good faith a novel by Fielding Dawson published by Times Change Press of Sebastopol called ‘No Man’s Land.’ It comes with an afterword by Hettie Jones, whom some of you may recognize as the wife of Amiri Baraka, and a pretty good writer in her own right. Dawson has taught in prisons for many years, and has converted that experience into art in the form of a fine little novel. Times Change Press used to produce, and maybe still does, inexpensive books and pamphlets on a range of subjects — essays by Emma Goldman, for instance, and a fascinating book, complete with illustrations, called ‘The Early Homosexual Rights Movement (1864-1935)’ to name two that represented a learning experience for me. All more or less sentient beings are encouraged to get Time Change’s list, assured you won’t pay more than ten bucks each for some hard-to-find reading. Located in an area where the rhetoric of consciousness is seldom reflected in its intellectual exports, Times Change, I think, can still be found at (707) 824-9456 or www.timeschangepress.com

HERE’S THE CHRON’S checklist for fun things to do in Santa Rosa: Look at the old train station and the nearby shops; the Snoopy Gallery; the Sonoma County Museum; and the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens. Thumbsuckers will plunge both hands up to the wrist in delight at the Snoopy Gallery, but if you’re more or less an adult-type person on the lam from Frisco’s fertile fleshpots, cartoons depicting little kids and animals talking like neurotic adults don’t constitute an irresistible draw. The Burbank Gardens are plunked down in the middle of what was once a coherent little town but is now an hideous, unplanned, neo-urban mix of ugly buildings in a context of treeless pavement. The old eugenicist lived there all right, and it’s where he conjured his nasty and scientifically unfounded opinions on race all right, and it’s where he came up with the Santa Rosa Plum all right, but the property has been scaled back to the point that most of the neighbors’ gardens are bigger and better and far more peaceful. Moreover, the public gardens of Frisco, bums and exhibitionists included, are far superior. The Sonoma County Museum is well worth the visit, though. For a small museum it’s quite good, and its collection of paintings of the area is especially wonderful. But these scant offerings — none in walking distance of the other for your average ice cream cone slurping turista — are no reason to make this hideous provincial place a three-day destination, given that you can swerve in off the freeway any time to take in the museum, Santa Rosa’s only real attraction.

THESE REMARKS by Don Weisenfluh of Petaluma in a recent letter to the Press Democrat nicely sum up the nut of the water crisis: “Fact: Without water, development stops. Nature imposed this absolute limit, not the Petaluma City Council. Sonoma and Marin reached their limit years ago. There is no water to spare. Our water comes from the depleted Russian and Eel rivers. The federal government’s millions cannot save them from overuse and gravel mining. Yet our supervisors refuse to listen. Despite conservation efforts, Sonoma is hemorrhaging this finite resource on imprudent development. The premise, that as long as there is some water in the rivers it’s up for grabs, is proof of their total disregard for the community. This is a regional and possibly a state issue…”

FROM the Monday, September 4th, 1950 edition of Ukiah’s Redwood Journal Press-Dispatch: 

“Hendy Woods in Anderson Valley may be added to the system of state parks. Hendy Woods, the finest stand of redwood timber in the county, and one of the most beautiful in the Redwood Empire, will be included in the program of the state parks commission if plans being made by that commission carry through. Parks Commissioner Charles Kasch asked the board of supervisors Friday to pass a resolution requesting the park commission, as soon as reasonably possible, to have an appraisal made of both groves in the Hendy Woods.... How Hendy Woods escaped the axe and saw through the years since Anderson Valley was first settled is a mystery. It was named for Joshua Hendy of the Hendy Iron Works, many years ago. The family owned the Woods at one time far back in the history of the county. Hendy Woods doubtlessly has gone through the hands of many companies. At present it belongs to the Masonite Corporation and was at one time owned by the Southern Pacific Company.”

EXAMINING TED'S HEAD

Chris Skyhawk:

Does anyone at the AVA have a theory on why Ted Williams is running for Assembly? I am drafting a LTE that I may submit to you; I went to the forum last night here in Fort Bragg and I was stunned how awful he looks; like a potato that got left in water too long; further he is totally outclassed by his opponents; he was woefully unprepared; I left just scratching my head; I almost; ALMOST felt compassion for him, but he burned that bridge with me personally and with me collectively since I’ve seen how he treats the County.

* * *

Mark Scaramella: 

Williams’ ego lead him to file early, not realizing that better connected Dems in other areas of the District would run. Dumb. But now he’s stuck knowing he has about as much chance to win as Nikey Haley. So his head’s not in either job. He looked bad in the zoom interviews that Sara Reith and Matt LaFever did recently too. It looked as if he had to go through the motions knowing his chances were small, but the entire exercise seemed beneath him and bothersome. He clearly doesn’t like being supervisor much these days as the energy he showed early in his tenure has not produced much. That may have been a factor in his deciding to run for Assembly. He’s even stopped trying to propose things like he used to. (Readers may recall that time more than a year ago when Glenn McGourty casually said that if Williams wasn’t putting things on the agenda the meetings would be very short?) Most of what Williams proposed earlier has gone nowhere because even the occasional good idea gets absorbed by the pillow that County admin has become.)

* * *

Skyhawk: Ahh thank you; I would have to agree, he was able to easily glam and gaslight Mendolib; I believe he thought that would just carry over to the next theater; I still have contacts in SEIU where he is universally reviled; and he’s so out of touch that he doesn’t even realize that and his Personality Disorder does not even allow him to care.

MEMO OF THE WEEK

To All County Employees:

Please review this all-county employee message regarding the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP)

This notice is to make you aware of the upcoming Board of Supervisor’s review and consideration for approval of the County’s Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP). The VSIP is designed to provide eligible employees with an opportunity for voluntary separation by offering incentives. This initiative aims to streamline our organizational structure, optimize resource allocation, and ensure efficiency while respecting our valued employees’ choices. The VSIP plan and guidelines will be published in the Board of Supervisors’ February 6 meeting agenda. [Ed note: see below]

About the VSIP:

• Department Heads have the option to designate classifications and the quantity within the department and program, if any, to be included in the VSIP. [Ed note: See below]

• The Board of Supervisors must approve a list of classifications designated for the VSIP.

• Incumbents in designated classifications in the department/program can offer to voluntarily separate employment for a cash incentive if they’re eligible.

• Employees must meet eligibility requirements as provided in the VSIP and the employee with most seniority in the classification is awarded the incentive if more than one employee is eligible.

• Any employee who receives an incentive cannot be re-employed with the County in any capacity for a period of 2 years.

• The position that is vacated must remain vacant for a period of 2 years.

• VSIP is not a layoff.

• VSIP is not available to any employee who wants to otherwise resign/retire that is not in an approved designated classification for VSIP for a particular department and program.

* * *

Attachment to Consent Calendar Item 3e:

VOLUNTARY SEPARATION INCENTIVE PROGRAM 

(April 7, 2024 – June 22, 2024) 

 (Edited for length…)

Purpose 

The County of Mendocino is facing significant budget shortfalls. The purpose of the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) is to allow and encourage departments to plan how best to align the workforce with leaner organizations, while simultaneously minimizing the broad negative impact of involuntary staff reductions. The VSIP presents an opportunity for departments to offer lump-sum, post-separation payments to selected positions as an incentive for employees to voluntarily separate employment from the County. 

When authorized by the Board of Supervisors, a department may offer the VSIP incentives to employees in approved positions who volunteer to separate by resignation or retirement. Eligible employees who voluntarily leave county employment afford departments the opportunity to minimize or avoid involuntary separations. By providing a separation incentive, departments may be better poised to strategically plan their future resources, realize financial savings, and avoid involuntary staff reductions. …

Department heads may also identify a program, the classifications, and the total number of positions within those programs eligible for the VSIP. Employees must occupy a classification within the program identified by their department head in order to be eligible for the VSIP. …

Department Heads will be responsible for analyzing all necessary budgetary/service delivery implications of vacancies created by an employee voluntarily participating in the VSIP, and will identify the strategy, plan, and timing designed to adjust the size of the organization in a manner that reduces costs, avoids layoffs, and meets departmental budgetary and fiscal objectives. …

The Board of Supervisors shall adopt a list of eligible classifications (“Designation List”) and the maximum number of VSIP incentives per classification to be offered within each department, budget unit or program. 

The CEO may approve additions to the Designation List, with updated lists to be ratified by the Board. …

Subject to approval by the Board of Supervisors, VSIP incentives will only be offered to eligible employees who submit their VSIP Resignation and Release Agreement between on or after March 24, 2024, and on or before April 3, 2024. The effective date of resignation must be on or after April 7, 2024, and up to and including June 22, 2024. 

Incentive Payment Provisions:

An eligible employee participating in the VSIP shall receive a cash payment paid post separation from employment from the County and subject to all state and federal tax withholding. The separation pay will be in exchange for signing the VSIP Resignation and Release Agreement. 

Employees with 10 years or more of current service to the County of Mendocino at the date of resignation will receive an incentive payment of $15,000 and $1,000 for each full year of current service beyond 10 years up to an additional incentive of $10,000, for a maximum incentive of $25,000. 

Employees with fewer than 10 years of current service to the County of Mendocino at the date of resignation will receive an incentive payment of $10,000 and $1,000 for each full year of current service beyond 5 years up to an additional incentive of $4,000, for a maximum incentive of $14,000. 

* * *

Mark Scaramella Notes: So far only four currently filled positions have been authorized for this “please leave before you’re laid off” incentive program: one manager in Facilities, an analyist and technician in Information Technology, and an account specialist in Child Support Services (aka the Deadbeat Dad office). 

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, February 2, 2024

JEFFREY ALLEN-VERMILLION, Ukiah. Elder abuse resulting in great bodily harm or death.

JASMINE BAILEY, Ukiah. Petty theft with priors.

DOMINIC FABER, Ukiah. Parole violation.

JORDAN GUTHART, McKinleyville/Ukiah. Burglary, grand theft, controlled substance, felon-addict with firearm, evasion, failure to appear.

JIM HARPER, Beravar, North Carolina/Ukiah. Three or more acts of substantial sexual conduct with child under 14 not less than three months, lewd/lacivious upon a child under 14, witness intimidation.

JOSE HUERTA, Willows/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JAYSON JOHNSON, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, addict driving a vehicle, under influence.

DANIEL KOWALSKY, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MICHAEL MARTIN, Redwood Valley. Parole violation.

ABBY SARGENT, Redwood Valley. DUI.

JIMMY RAY SAUSEDO, Covelo. DUI.

BAILING OUT THE WRONG PEOPLE

Editor,

I can't forget the Silicon Valley Bank bailout. It really showed how special people get special treatment from well-connected, well-placed goons. The Federal Reserve decided to raise interest rates in order to lower inflation which was running around 9% which is unacceptable. Then the Fed decided to lower liquidity by raising interest rates. This also lowers the value of risky and worthless assets which is the type of investment Silicon Valley Bank was invested in causing the overleveraged bank to go belly up and become insolvent. 

All banks have Federal Deposit Insurance which covers depositors up to $250,000 per account. The dark side of this situation is when the thugs and the Federal Reserve decide to break the rules and go way beyond the $250,000 limit of protection. This makes all their special people whole. Most of these accounts were in the $10-$25 million range. 

So your tax money is going to support well-heeled speculators. The whole purpose of fighting inflation is to lower or destroy excess dollars which adds value to remaining dollars. The Silicon Valley Bank collapse was a perfect opportunity to destroy lots of excess dollars. But it was the wrong people. People who vote a certain way. People who have relationships with the governors of the financial system. 

Why have "rules" like the $250,000 limit if you are not going to obey your own rules? Oh yes, for the little people.

Tom Madden

Comptche

MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio show all night Friday night!

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 6:30 or 7pm. If you can't make that, that's okay, send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first hour of the show is simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.

You can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. 

By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. Also there you'll find plenty of other things to read and enjoy and learn about until showtime, or any time, such as:

“At the end of the day, this is a male fantasy about escaping the humiliation of rejections.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thpEyEwi80

A thousand years, the Middle Ages, in fifteen minutes. https://laughingsquid.com/middle-ages-timeline/

And part of a story about a found box of broken dreams. https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2024/01/box-of-broken-dreams-repost-from-2009.html

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, www.MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

THE ECONOMY, two on-line comments: 

[1] All the happy talk about the economy is simply election year bullshit by the Regime and their propaganda lackeys in the MSM. I spend $200 a week just trying to keep reasonably healthful foods in my refrigerator – and I’m just a single man with no family to feed. Christ, who the fuck would possibly believe that the economy has “improved” under Joe Biden?

[2] I currently work in the land planning and development field. Let me tell you, the economy is not good. I’m barely scraping along. Small, local home building companies have folded and laid off thousands. Even the big home builders are admitting that they need to lower their home prices or they are going to go out of business. The problem is they can’t.

What’s happening now is the “investor cash” is drying up and the true home buyers we need to be buying homes can’t afford it. We are in big trouble.

I only respond to what I see and observe and what I am seeing and observing is not a good economy.

SIX KEY CITIES CAN HOST 2024 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

by Ralph Nader

In 2004 author George Farah exposed the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) as a creation in 1987 of the Republican and Democratic Parties to take control away from the “uppity” League of Women Voters (LWV). The League had been the sponsor of presidential debates every four years.

Farah’s book was titled No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates. Unless voters organize their own debates (about which more later), there may be no presidential debates this year. There won’t be 50 to 100 million viewers watching the debates, as there were in prior presidential election contests.

This year of no debate started last April when the Republican National Committee (RNC) unanimously voted to leave the CPD. Under pressure from Donald J. Trump, who thinks all debates involving him are stacked against him, the RNC explained that they are quitting by alleging that the CPD is biased.

Sure, the CPD is very biased against Third Party candidates, which it has managed to exclude since 1988, despite national polls that show voters want more voices and choices on the debate stage. For example, in 2000, over 60% in a Fox Poll wanted Pat Buchanan and me in the Debates.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the RNC, declared on the day of withdrawal that the RNC is “…going to find newer, better debate platforms to ensure that future nominees are not forced to go through the biased CPD in order to make their case to the American people.” Because Trump doesn’t want debates, she has done nothing since April.

Across the aisle, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) endorsed Joe Biden last April and, according to the Washington Post, “has no plans to sponsor primary debates.” Presently, there are only two competing Democratic candidates Marianne Williamson, a well-known self-help author/lecturer, and Dean Phillips, a three-term Democratic Congressman from Minnesota. The DNC wants no debates with these two challengers during the primary season and neither does President Joe Biden.

“It’s just against democratic principle. Those of us who are running should be heard, …it’s what the people deserve,” Ms. Williamson told the Washington Post.

So, what are the voters to do? The answer is clear. There are major cities in the half-dozen swing states that will probably decide the 2024 November election. Just about every organized group in these cities – Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Phoenix and Las Vegas – would want a Presidential debate in their city. This is true for both red and blue states.

Bringing a presidential debate to one’s city brings national media coverage, with reporters, visitors and an outpouring of spending. There would be excited support from chambers of commerce, unions, citizen groups, schools, religious associations, good government organizations like the Urban Leagues, service clubs, City Hall and yes, the League of Women Voters.

Invitations sent to the nominees after their conventions would be very difficult to reject. It would be an insult to the people’s pride in each state.

Unlike the one-shoe-fits-all model of the CPD, this proposal would provide a greater variety of debate formats and reflect national issues by the moderators but also regional issues which were never discussed when the RNC and DNC were in charge. Different ideas on how to involve the public would be put into practice as well.

The proverbial named “empty seat” for no-show candidates would be visible to millions of TV viewers if an invited candidate declined to participate. All that is needed to make these debates happen is for the Mayor and City Council in each city to establish a representative host Committee to organize the details of when, where and how these debates are to be planned.

I’m sending this very realizable proposal to the mayors of the aforementioned cities and suggest that local radio and TV talk shows and newspapers interview local officials and the candidates about this idea. Readers of this column can choose to weigh in with their special enthusiasms.

It is about time that presidential candidates be confronted with some grassroots initiatives instead of having their two or three debate locations and topics chosen by the major political party operatives in Washington, DC.

The 2024 presidential election is not generating excitement. There are reports of more voters staying home than usual. The RNC and DNC, with their stubborn no debates policy, are assuring a lower turnout.

Presidential debates with huge watching and listening audiences boost voter turnout, affording many voters their only observation of the candidates interacting with one another in a non-scripted manner.

Go for it, Mayors and city councils! Crank up the engines for these local initiatives. The debate discussions and local engagement have beneficial ripple effects for our democracy.

They keep saying that beautiful is something a girl needs to be. But honestly? Forget that. Don’t be beautiful. Be angry, be intelligent, be witty, be klutzy, be interesting, be funny, be adventurous, be crazy, be talented - there are an eternity of other things to be other than beautiful. And what is beautiful anyway but a set of letters strung together to make a word? Be your own definition of amazing, always. That is so much more important than anything beautiful, ever. 

– Nikita Gill

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Last night a friend of my wife dropped by. Both women loathe Trump and think he’s guilty as hell on the sex scandal, even after pointing out all the facts. My wife owned up and said she still couldn’t stand him. (I will have to hold my nose to vote for him as well.) But the other gal went crazy talking about how she was raped twice in the 80s, etc. I think older women were sold a bill of goods back in the day that didn’t pan out the way they expected and see Trump as the poster child of all that’s wrong with their lives now. I predict he will lose on account of this. His loathsome persona is not helping his case. Even now he projects everything as being about him, instead of doing what is necessary for the country and getting elected. I guess it doesn’t matter at this point as every single person running seems hell bent on starting WW3. Future historians, assuming there will be any, will just shake their heads in disbelief.

WAR DELIRIUM

by James Kunstler

“This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.” — Jeffrey (“the Dude”) Lebowski

Pity the poor president. “Joe Biden” must decide now whether to go to war with Iran or Texas. Which will it be? Or might it be both? That Governor Abbott turns out to be the Putin of the purple sage! How does he dare interfere with the orderly flow of new voters — fine people! — across that filthy little river of his? Does he not understand that we need at least a couple million more live bodies allocated around the swing states to ensure a free and fair election?

What does Hunter (“the smartest person I know”) make of Dad’s quandary, I wonder. With enough eau-de-coca on-board, Hunter must think in Biblical terms… great flowing Jacobean passages of elevated language: in my father’s house are many mansions: Verily, verily, I say unto you, somewhere there is a room I left that little baggie in… but where…? The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Dad.

Well, forget Hunter. Everybody else has, thank goodness, at least for now. Let’s face it: having a rage-filled addict in the family is tiresome. Anyway, Merrick Garland has got him covered with “an on-going investigation.” (Questions? Sorry, can’t answer any.)

“Joe Biden,” in his on-going delirium-of-age wanders from room to room in the empty mansion that is his mind. How did I get in this room? he wonders. And how do I get out of it? Can somebody please point the way? Alas, his position is the loneliest in the world. There is no one to point the way out. There is only this ceaseless wandering from room to room in this vast emptiness. Where is the room with Texas in it? The room where Iran sleeps? The room where Ukraine lies a’gasp with a sucking chest wound? Watch out, he’ll start shouting soon. Calling Dr. Jill: Code Blue…!

The world may be a disaster these days, but the White House is a bigger disaster. Can you name the White House chief of staff? Betcha can’t. Know why? He never, ever comes out and speaks to that mob in the press room. He might have to answer some difficult questions, such as: if the president’s brain is switched off more than half the time, who decides what to do with that ‘nuclear football’ they carry around with him. Is it… you? By the way, the chief of staff’s name is Jeff Zients. Ever heard him? Of course not. He has a page on “X”. The most recent thing he posted was July, 25, 2023. Good thing not much has happened since then.

The question then: should “Joe Biden” just go ahead and nuke Texas? “JB” is thinking: What good is the place with that Putin wannabe running it? Buncha cattle and those ridiculous hats! The official head-gear of white supremacy! Probably millions of them down there, clutching their beloved guns! I’ve got news for you. Wanna play hardball? We’ve got F-16s. Try shooting one of those Vipers down with your 30-ought-6 when it’s coming in low over Plano on after-burners at eleven hundred miles an hour, bristling with Sidewinder missiles. Anyway, for a nice strip steak, go to Kansas City. Fuggedabowt Texas. Kaboom! Not a joke!

As for Iran… another $6-billion could keep them quiet for a while. Turns out that mullahs really like money. Do you know how many virgins you can buy for $6-billion here on Planet Earth? Why blow yourself up for them? Especially since you don’t know for a hundred percent sure that there is a place called heaven, or that it’s mainly a seraglio? By the way, why does our country (that’d be the USA) have all these little military outposts scattered around the desert wastelands of Jordan, Syria, and other lands of the Middle East? Did the one called Tower Two that got blown up a few days ago have a target painted on it? Might as well have. You think the “other side” doesn’t have satellite imagery of the terrain? Kind of looks like we’re asking for trouble. And, also by the way, how come two of the three US soldiers killed there were girls? Is that how we do war these days? With a girlie army? Who actually thinks that’s going to work?

Apparently, “Joe Biden.” Be advised: there is chatter coming out of this mysterious White House about bringing back the military draft. Remember what that is, Boomers? Remember Country Joe and the Fish singing: “Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box.” That was back in the Vietnam days. Fifty-thousand-plus KIA. Only now we’ll be drafting girls (and probably some boys who want to be girls). I guess we’ll figure out now how gung-ho Gen Z really is.

You didn’t ask, but things are not going so well in our remote-control war in Ukraine against Russia (Putinland). Our Zelensky team (we own it) got completely rope-a-doped, punched itself out, its knees are buckling. Victoria Nuland, the renowned State Department girlie war-hawk, says she’s confident that Congress will pass the new $61 billion aid package for the Z-team, according to Radio Free Europe, the blob’s official propaganda outlet. The blob wants you to think that Putin wants to turn all of Europe into Putinland. I’m sure. Tori Nuland probably thinks we can save Ukraine with the fabulous girlie army and some snazzy new drones from McDonnell Douglas. Hey, it’s war, war, war. Bomb them all — Iran, Russia, Texas — and let God sort them out.

Speaking of blob propaganda outlets, here’s a doozy from blob tentacle The New York Times this Friday morning to boost your morale. Blob suck-up, Stephen Colbert, the late-night TV genius-level jester last seen dancing in a chorus line costumed as Covid-19 vaccination syringes, informs us that “Joe Biden” is catnip to the ladies because his aviator Ray-bans remind them of Robert Stack in The High and the Mighty. Silly me, I thought they loved the president for his mind. You know, “Joe Biden” is running for re-election. No, really. Not a joke.

AS A RULING IDEOLOGY, neoliberalism was a brilliant success. Starting in the 1970s, its Keynesian mainstream critics were pushed out of academia, state institutions and financial organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, and shut out of the media. Wolin, once a regular contributor to publications such as The New York Review of Books, found that because of his animus towards neoliberalism, he had difficulty publishing. Intellectual poseurs such as Milton Friedman were given prominent platforms and lavish corporate funding. They disseminated the official mantra of fringe, discredited economic theories popularized by Friedrich Hayek and the third-rate writer, Ayn Rand. Once we knelt before the dictates of the marketplace and lifted government regulations, slashed taxes for the rich, permitted the flow of money across borders, destroyed unions and signed trade deals that sent jobs to sweatshops in Mexico and China, the world would be a happier, freer and wealthier place. It was a con. But it worked.

— Chris Hedges

WHY IS THE US EVEN IN JORDAN AND SYRIA?

by Tom Stevenson

Since October 7 there have been near daily attacks on US forces in Syria and Iraq. Most have been quite minor, even symbolic. But on January 28, three American soldiers were killed in a drone strike on Tower 22, a US base in Jordan, next to the Syrian border.

The US has garrisons and small outposts dotted around Syria and Iraq. Some are there, officially at least, to guard against the remnants of the Islamic State. Others are training and support bases for local “partner forces” that serve as de facto US proxies. They both strike at, and are frequent targets of, local militia backed by Iran that want to force the US military out of both countries.

The drone that carried out the attack on Tower 22 recently, which was almost certainly made in Iran, trailed an American drone along a pre-determined flight path back to the base, confusing the air defense systems into thinking it belonged to the US. One of the ways air defense systems avoid shooting down their own planes and drones is by refraining from attacking aircraft travelling on approved routes.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella term for several groups backed by Iran, including Kataʾib Hizbullah, claimed responsibility for the attack. On January 24, US air strikes in al-Qaʾim and Jurf al-Sakhar in Iraq had killed a handful of militiamen belonging to Kataʾib Hizbullah. The US will almost certainly respond to the January 28 attack with more air strikes of its own.

The Jordanian government initially denied that the attack had been on its soil, probably in an attempt to avoid diplomatic awkwardness with either Iraq or Iran. Tower 22 is a support base for a US garrison across the Syrian border at al-Tanf. The smaller facility on the Jordanian side is a good place to park helicopters and even has an AstroTurf football pitch. But al-Tanf is the center of a 35 mile-radius semicircle of influence carved out of eastern Syria by US forces after Islamic State was driven from the area. It is also a base of operations for an American proxy force usually referred to as Jaish Maghawir al-Thawra (the Revolutionary Commando Army). Syrian proxies live and train alongside US soldiers (at the moment, troops from the 10th Mountain Division).

Washington gave up on overthrowing Syria’s Bashar al-Assad almost a decade ago in Obama time, but set up bases in Syria for fighting Islamic State. After Islamic State was defeated, US forces stayed on. As well as at al-Tanf, there are several hundred US troops in the predominantly Kurdish controlled north-east, where the Syrian Democratic Forces still hold 10,000 Islamic State adherents in detention camps.

Like other US garrisons, the Tanf base is nominally there to ward off a return of Islamic State. But it is also located along the main Baghdad to Damascus highway. Iraqi militias supported by Iran control parts of that highway further east. General Joseph Votel, the then head of US Central Command, said in 2018 that the US position at al-Tanf had “an indirect effect on some malign activities that Iran and their various proxies and surrogates would like to pursue down here.”

But that’s not all that al-Tanf is for. Israeli planes often fly over it as a waypoint when conducting air strikes in Syria, to help them avoid Syrian air defenses. In 2019, when Donald Trump wanted to withdraw American forces from Syria, Benjamin Netanyahu requested that the US retain its presence at al-Tanf.

In 2021, when Joe Biden ordered a review of America’s Syria policy, the decision was taken to maintain al-Tanf and the other outposts. 

Rural fort soldiering is a classic imperial mode, so it isn’t unusual that the US does it in the Middle East, except that so many of the outposts in Syria and Iraq have become liabilities and/or targets.

At the moment their main purpose seems to be to soak up attacks motivated by anger with US support for Israel, and the US presence in general. Attacks on American forces in Syria and Iraq are often described as evidence of Iranian master puppetry, but this ignores that Iraq and Syria have their own political dynamics. Iran is certainly pleased by these attacks but it’s unlikely to be directing them all.

America’s desert outposts in the Levant look like anachronisms with no clear purpose, and they are clearly attractive targets. So why haven’t they been shut down? Perhaps because occasionally getting shot at is judged to be a price worth paying to show that American power stretches even into the middle of the Syrian desert.

It’s standard practice either to treat American imperial architecture as somehow natural, and so in need of no coherent justification, or else to ignore its existence. That gets harder when American troops are being killed. But in the Middle East as a whole the rate of attrition of US soldiers has been very low. Perhaps facilitating Israel and frustrating Iran is thought to be worth a few lives in Washington DC.

(London Review of Books)

The task is endless, it's true. But we are here to pursue It. I do not have enough faith in reason to subscribe to a belief in progress or to any philosophy of history. I do believe at least that man's awareness of his destiny has never ceased to advance. We have not overcome our condition, and yet we know it better. We know that we live in contradiction, but we also know that we must refuse this contradiction and do what is needed to reduce it. Our task as men is to find the few principles that will calm the infinite anguish of free souls. We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again. In a world so obviously unjust, give happiness a meaning once more to peoples poisoned by the misery of the century. Naturally, It is a superhuman task. But superhuman is the term for tasks men take a long time to accomplish, that's all. 

— Albert Camus

IT’S NOT SPECULATION to say today’s liberals would despise Martin Luther King Jr, it’s a presently observable reality — just look how they shit on Cornel West. The millisecond a black activist leader becomes politically inconvenient, they’re shrieking for his head like hyenas.

— Caitlin Johnstone