Mendocino County Today: Sunday 3/31/24

Sunny | Horses | Harvey Baumoel | Easter Decor | David Nelson | Referees Needed | Ed Notes | Philo Sign | Moat Creek | Poison Palace | Peachland Cow | AV Events | Alleyway Art | Bess/Rosie | Peter's Past | Pet Reese | Simson Bridge | Mental Illness | SNWMF Lineup | Ceasefire Proclamation | Yesterday's Catch | Egg Industry | Feeding Pom | Arne Walked | Marco Radio | Fancher Monument | Heretic Crusher | Drug Price | Wild Ride | Interracial Cash | Braddock Comeback | Chaplin/Dempsey | SB43 Confusion | Norma Jean | Con Man | Rose Head

GUSTY northerly and northeasterly winds are forecast today through Monday. Dry weather with above normal temperatures are expected Monday and Tuesday. A cold airmass will bring below normal temperatures late next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 42F under mostly clear skies this Easter morning on the coast. Lovely weather is forecast thru Wednesday then a chance of showers on Thursday.

HARVEY BAUMOEL

As a former co-worker stated, “Harvey was an advocate for the most marginalized members of our community and he caused good trouble when he stood up for them.”

Harvey Baumoel, beloved husband of Theresa Staber and devoted father of Bryan Staber-Baumoel (deceased); dear brother of Helene Goodman (San Diego) and Debra Baumoel (St. Louis) passed away peacefully on March 14th . Throughout the 27 years he had lived with reoccurring Cancer he was steadfast in his courage, research and spiritual strength which inspired many Cancer survivors in small groups that he helped facilitate over the years through the Cancer Resource Center in Ukiah.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio Harvey attended Ohio State University and then joined Vista as a conscientious objector gathering letters from area Rabbis. He worked both at Rikers Island Prison, New York and at a half-way house in Boston. He then moved to Berkeley where he continued working at a half-way house for several years before relocating to Lyons Valley outside Ukiah with a small Bay Area group in 1978.

His political involvement started at Ohio State where he was in a spiritually minded activist group protesting the Vietnam war and continued throughout his years in Mendocino County where he was active with local Democrats. He met his wife Theresa while they were both campaigning in 1980. After getting married many times on the stage in “Fiddler on the Roof” he asked her to marry him. They married in 1987 and adopted their son Bryan in 1989.

Harvey was foremost passionate about helping people discover their own inner strengths and abilities by working through their emotional issues. He was a strong group facilitator, counselor and advocate for his clients at Mental Health. In later years he joined his wife in becoming a Spiritual Mind Practitioner through the Center for Spiritual Living where he served as an active Board Member. He taught classes and presided at CSL in Ukiah and Fort Bragg. He was a lifelong seeker of Spiritual Truths and incorporated these truths throughout his life in the way he lived.

Harvey had been in a men’s group for the majority of his time in Mendocino County. He valued the support and camaraderie that groups provided. He facilitated “Men Against Violence” groups for Public Health and facilitated groups for “Emotions Anonymous” in person and on zoom where he was the sponsor for people all over the world during Covid. 

For people who knew Harvey, he is remembered for his warm greetings with a hug and smile and most probably some humorous comment. He loved to sing (doo wop) acapella with friends, play drums and harmonicas, act in local plays, father his son, dance with his wife, and tend his garden. He would often get a request to play the “William Tell Overture” on his harmonica or be the disc jockey at a party. He acted in many plays; noteworthy were his roles in “The Foreigner”, “Brighton Beach Memoirs”, “The Wizard of Oz” and as Motel the Tailor in “Fiddler on the Roof”.

The date for the Memorial Service will be announced later. Donations to honor Harvey can be made to the Cancer Resource Center, Caring Kitchen or Hospice in Ukiah.

NEW STORE IN FORT BRAGG (photos by Falcon)

STANDING ROOM ONLY CROWD CELEBRATES THE LIFE OF JUDGE DAVE NELSON

by Mike Geniella

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge David Nelson, a man of legal excellence, integrity, and commitment to family, friends, and community, was humble and rarely spoke of his numerous achievements. He let his actions, not words, define him, a trait that earned him respect and admiration.

Nelson, originally from the Midwest, made a significant decision five decades ago to adopt rural Mendocino County as his home. This choice, a testament to his deep-rooted connection to the community, was honored on Saturday at a celebration of his life in the auditorium of SPACE, a renowned local performing arts center in Ukiah. 

A standing-room-only crowd listened as a series of speakers told how Nelson eschewed the recognition and the money that his degrees from Stanford University and Yale Law School certainly would have come had he practiced law in an urban environment. Instead, Nelson came to Ukiah as part of a wave of newcomers in the 1970s, hung out his shingle, and settled into a five-decade-long life filled with family, friends, local politics, and community.

Judge Nelson was known for his quiet, profound care and compassion in the courtroom and his personal life. Jurors were often moved by his serene demeanor and carefully chosen words that eloquently presented his client's cases. Nelson's compassion as a sentencing judge occasionally shone through, even for those found guilty of a crime and facing prison time.

Fellow Judge Ann Moorman said about Nelson, “I’ve never had another colleague like Dave, and his combination of commitment to justice, understanding of the law, and instinct for the human condition. I probably never will.”

J. Holden curated an album of photographs that traced Nelson's life, beginning with his formative years in Rochester, Minn. Here, he first demonstrated his academic prowess and athletic talent, earning the prestigious Eagle Scout badge and serving as the student body president of his high school. Nelson's exceptional achievements as a presidential scholar led him to the White House, where he had the honor of shaking hands with then-President Lyndon Johnson.

Nelson’s athletic prowess earned him a full scholarship to Stanford, where he played football under famed Coach Bill Walsh. It was his years playing local baseball and basketball with teams in the Ukiah Valley, however, that Nelson talked about most.

Nelson enjoyed having a cold beer after games with his teammates and on Friday afternoons with his pals in the local legal community.

Nelson was a quiet man and a good listener. He was fun, liked a good time, and enjoyed lively conversations. Nelson also was a bit of a prankster.

“He was known to put salt in the sugar bowl on April Fool’s Day,” recalled daughter Julie Nelson Newberry. 

Nelson’s daughter, Jessica Nelson, spoke of her father’s quiet encouragement to “let us figure things out as we grew.”

Jessica Nelson recalled how she was accepted at Stanford, her father’s alma mater, and how initially she was eager to follow in his footsteps. 

Within a few days, however, she realized Stanford was the wrong choice for her. She wanted to attend a small university in Minnesota. 

“It was far away and certainly not close to home as we had envisioned when I was accepted at Stanford,” said Jessica Nelson. “But my dad ‘let me go,’ and now I must do the same for him,” she said. 

David Riemenschneider, Nelson’s former law partner who served with him on the bench, recalled how they met at Stanford and became friends. “We talked about becoming law partners for a long time and finally did in 1984. I achieved instant status within the legal community because of Dave’s standing.”

“He was my law partner and my friend,” said Riemenschneider.

Attorney Tim Morrison was a close Nelson friend whose practices shared the same historic building on School Street across from the Mendocino County Courthouse. Morrison chose to talk Saturday about a special bond they shared as friends and baseball aficionados and how because they both owned properties in rural areas, they developed a years-long effort to photograph the first wildflowers on their lands. 

“Then we exchanged photos every year,” said Morrison. “The wallpaper on my cell phone is one of them from Dave.”

Morrison and fellow attorney and longtime friend Mary Ann Villwock saw Nelson in the final hours of his life. “He was cogent and at peace, surrounded by Judy – his wife of 38 years - and his daughters, the people he loved most,” Morrison said. 

Nelson was prepared for the end of his life, aware that a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease almost certainly would lead to a potentially long and debilitating decline.

Still, he accepted his fate gracefully, according to Miranda MacPherson, a meditation teacher who worked with Nelson in his final years.

Nelson’s core Midwestern values steadied him as he explored spiritual avenues to sustain him in his final years. 

“Dave was not religious, but he found deep spirituality. He lived a life of grace,” said MacPherson.

The Nelson family has established a Dave Nelson Fund to benefit health, substance abuse, and treatment with the Community Foundation of Mendocino County.

JOHN TOOHEY:

Junior High Soccer Needs Refs

The Anderson Valley Junior High Soccer team needs officials for our home games. The officials that usually support our games do not have anyone available.

If anybody has knowledge of the game and can help, please contact me here or at my school email jtoohey@avpanthers.org. I will attach a schedule below. 

Thanks everyone.

ED NOTES

LIKE EVERYONE ELSE who understood that Louise Simson, our remarkable school chief, accomplished literal miracles here in Boonville, she specifically established a serious classroom atmosphere for our young people in addition to upgrading the schools' ancient bones by aggressively getting the money for long postponed infrastructure improvements. A whirlwind of focused energy, Superintendent Simson saw what needed to be done and did it. In the blob-like malaise of public ed, a statewide sinkhole of torpid time servers and incompetents, she was the proverbial breath of fresh air come to life.

I CAN'T BLAME HER for moving on, and undoubtedly up, because she did what was needed to be done in the Boonville schools and, I would guess, began looking around for a more challenging situation to apply her considerable talents to.

GIVEN the massive failures of larger school districts one would think the more conscientious school boards would have recruiters knocking at Ms. Simson's door, but so many public edu-establishments seem content with failure. Right here in Mendo I can name three school districts that would immediately benefit from a repeat dose of Simson.

I HOPE the Boonville schools don't revert to their pre-Simson sloth and lack of standards. She showed the way, supported a slug of energetic, committed staffers like John Toohey and Beth Swehla, cracked down on the contemporary evils of student drug use and cell phones, and generally instilled a new sense of pride in the local educational mission. I wish she was staying.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL, Cymbre Thomas, is another administrative loss for our schools. I understand her commute from Ukiah to Boonville must be onerous, but why a talented school administrator like her would want to take a job with the ultimate edu-blob, the Mendocino County Office of Education, is beyond me and Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

THE LATTER, when he was governor, took a look at the enormous public expense of county offices of coffee cups and motel in-services, and declared, “Vot is dis monkey business? Eliminate dem.” The edu-blob rose up, of course, and brandishing their devotion to “the kids,” beat back The Terminator.

HISTORICALLY, county offices of ed were central hiring sites from which teachers were dispatched by horseback to California's far flung one-room school houses. But the offices hung on as combined hiring halls and credential checks. As late as the early 1970s, MCOE consisted of Superintendent Lou Delsol and three or four secretaries who did the necessary work while Lou chatted with, in one instance, the likes of me, who'd wandered in off the street out of curiosity. During our ensuing coupla hours of desultory conversation, Lou's phone never rang, none of the secretaries popped in to say, “Don't forget your three o'clock, Mr. D.”

THESE DAYS what do we have out at MCOE's Talmage headquarters? Coupla hundred low energy worker bees not doing a single thing that couldn't be done cheaper and more efficiently by the individual school districts of Mendocino County.

MOAT CREEK PARK

The Mendocino Land Trust is stepping up to maintain a public access trail and beach that are favorites among those who love to surf and explore the Northern California coast. The Moat Creek Management Agency has successfully cared for the trail and beach for decades. MLT agreed to take over the trail maintenance and management of Moat Creek with support from the SCC. 

In taking on this task, MLT has agreed to coordinate trail maintenance by monitoring the property monthly and weed-eating vegetation as needed, as well as trash cleanup and fencing and tread repair. The work will be funded by the California State Coastal Conservancy, which owns the property.

The Moat Creek site consists of about 3 acres of coastal property located 2.5 miles south of Point Arena in Mendocino County. Its trail offers the Point Arena community and visitors access to the popular surfing beach as well as a wheelchair-accessible, single-unit restroom. A gravel parking lot provides off-street parking and access to a scenic half-mile loop trail along the coastal bluff between Moat and Ross Creeks.

NO MORE DELAYS

Editor,

After reading Mike Geniella's recent articles about the Palace Hotel, where he seems to be attempting to create bureaucratic stumbling blocks in the way of anyone finally being able to do something productive with that property, which, after so many decades of advancing ruin FINALLY seemed to have some possibility of being transformed from the toxic black mold eyesore that it has been for so many years, into something that might serve human utility. How frustrating, after, at long last, the city had given its hapless new owner 30 days to either stabilize the structure (impossible) or apply for a demolition permit, to now have these creative new hurdles to any progress there. It made me want to smack myself in the forehead!

Thank god for the excellent reportage of Karen Rifkin in last Sunday's Daily Journal; complete with pictures of the spray-painted lines on the sidewalk where ground penetrating radar indicates buried fuel tanks and an old advertising picture of the first floor service station that once occupied the Palace's ground floor along school Street, it makes Geneilla's claim that there is no evidence of buried fuel tanks ring hollow; remember, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

It turns out that research that has been done so far indicates that there are several long-forgotten buried fuel tanks, including one ginormous concrete tank that is within the building’s footprint. Apparently and amazingly, some or all of them still have old fuel or oil in them that has miraculously not yet leaked out into the aquifer. Obviously, the highest priority should be given to accessing and draining these toxic liquids from those antique tanks, which are probably right on the verge of rupture.

No doubt this could be done without demolishing the building if money were no object, but that’s not the case. None of the arguments put forth by those infamous couple of knee-jerk preservationists who have given their unconditional devotion to the mythical rehabilitation of this long-lost ruin address the plain economics of their dreamed-of rehab; an interesting related fact is the bid that was given for seismic retrofit of the building in 1980, when the building was in the infinitely more salvageable condition. $8.5 million! That would probably translate to 25 million in today’s dollars. Is there really a serious entrepreneur who can imagine any use of the property that could pay the note on such an investment?! I don’t think so, least of all the strident preservationists (I count 2 or 3) who certainly aren’t going to have anything to do with borrowing the enormous sums of money that would be needed to fulfill their fever dream.

In my opinion it is a matter of criminal negligence for the city to entertain any further delays in the demolition and cleanup of the Poison Palace. If the inevitable had been done decades ago we might have a much nicer downtown today, but better late than never!

For this and other blogposts, see https://inarationalworld2.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-palace-hotels-problems.html

John Arteaga

Ukiah

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE List of Events

A WALK THROUGH DOWNTOWN FORT BRAGG IS LIKE WALKING THROUGH AN ART GALLERY

A collaboration between the artists, local businesses nonprofits and the city, since 2018, the Alleyway Art Project has enabled the production of a bevy of massive masterpieces on the overlooked back streets of Fort Bragg.

by Karen Misuraca

While Mendocino County’s coastal towns and villages have long been havens for artist’s galleries and studios, the historic old lumbering city of Fort Bragg has hit the streets. The few bright murals that showed up on neglected corners several years ago have been followed up by the installation of more than two dozen building-sized, eye-catching paintings depicting sea life, local history and local flora and fauna.

A collaboration between the artists, local businesses nonprofits and the city, since 2018, the Alleyway Art Project has enabled the production of a bevy of massive masterpieces on the overlooked back streets of Fort Bragg. After moving to the area several years ago, the founder and director of the project, Lia Morsell, said she enjoys the creative scene of the thriving, art-oriented community.

“I loved the original street art works and imagined that adding more of them would be a real showcase of local talent and a reason for people to spend afternoons of artful discovery around town,” she said. “Our ‘Downtown Mural Walking Tour’ map enables visitors set out on foot to locate the wall paintings throughout our new cityscape.”

To get involved in the program, artists will send Morsell links to their portfolios and examples of their work. Next, businesses and property owners will reach out to Morsell and share what artistic style they’d like to see on their property.

“I try to match them up, and the process is pretty organic,” she said. “The city approves every design and they are pretty open minded. They have co-sponsored many of the murals and have waived design review fees and expedited approvals since the beginning — they’ve been great, which is a big part of why the project has been so successful.”

Ode to the bee population

On the wall of the Mayan Fusion restaurant, on Main Street in Fort Bragg, the “Queen Bee” mural by Marta Alonso Canillar was installed in 2021. Unique for its 24-foot-tall, three-part vertical format, the honey-hued painting pays homage to the town’s designation as the first “Bee City,” in California, while also bringing attention to the declining population of bees resulting from harmful pesticides and environmental impacts.

Born in Spain, Canillar brings an exuberant, expressionist style to her creations, as seen in her second mural, “Mendocino: Land of Extravagant Visions,” a brightly-colored panorama running 32 feet along a building bordering the Skunk Train railroad tracks.

“(There’s) much to discover on my painting here, from banana slugs to mountain lions, a farm, a blue whale, redwood trees, paper boats on the way to the sea, a shipwreck and my precious bicycle that I brought with me years ago from Spain,” said the Willits resident.

She said creating this second mural, was intimidating and exciting at the same time."

Several of her vibrant works are regularly displayed at Brickhouse Coffee in Willits. A new arrival on the cafe’s wall is her painting titled, “High Vibrations,” which incorporates a monumental bee, dripping honey and blooming flowers.

Canillar speaks highly of the artistic scene in Mendocino County.

“The county has a huge community of accomplished artists, with lots of places to show art and great access to art education,” she said. “Everyone in the community and Alleyway Art Project has been incredibly supportive and great to work with, and although I am none the richer or more famous for it, I make art because it gives meaning to my existence."

Beauty of the coast, forests captured

On another mural close by, multiple scenes are depicted through a Fresnel lens including the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse. Artist Ryan Grossman enables the viewer of his 8-foot-by-12-foot mural “Be A Light,” to observe the Mendocino seaside headlands through the lens. Painted on the side of the Coast Hardware Store, the painting also depicts the silhouette of an attorney.

“A light in the world, he (the attorney) spent his career working to protect consumers and prevent companies from exploiting their workers,” he said of the man in the artwork.

The painting took shape in spring 2021 and was finished that September. Grossman said Alleyway Art Project organization wanted to collaborate with the lighthouse. The art project team needed an artist and Grossman signed on.

“I created a small painted mock-up and the building owners loved the idea, and we designed it to be movable for building maintenance, if necessary,” he said. “Another challenge was the shape of the frame that I custom made, inspired by the framing of the Fresnel lens on the lighthouse itself. I used oxidized copper paint to mimic age and weather. Then, the siding on the building had to be replaced, so I moved the mural from Redwood Street to the wall facing Highway 1. Ultimately, it will be back on the original Redwood Street side.”

A second mural, created by Grossman for the organization was “Sunlit Redwood Forest,” in 2022, which he created the concept and design. The mural took three months to complete and takes up the two stories and two sides of the Forrester Building on Redwood and McPherson streets. One of the sponsors of this mural was the Redwood Forest Foundation, who’s mission is to establish and maintain forestlands in the redwood region and is reflected in the design.

“I tried to depict the trees with sunlight streaming through the branches, while capturing the feeling of lushness and abundance,” he said. “I see beauty and hopefulness in the regrowth of the redwoods, and it was great to learn about mixed-age forests and RFFI’s (Redwood Forest Foundation) work on behalf of our local forests.”

More street art to see

Also on Redwood Avenue in Fort Bragg, on the back side of Little Cup Ceramics where locals take classes in ceramics and letterpress printing, Sally Rodriguez designed “Redwood Frolic,” a cubistic triptych that perfectly reflects the wild creativity at the studio. The frames are mounted on one of the oldest buildings in town and Rodriguez laid out a jumbled, primary-colored mashup of logging history, friends, angels, the coastline, boats in the harbor and more sights of the surrounding neighborhood.

Behind Napa Auto Parts, frolicking in a kelp-strewn sea are Nicola Beatts’ “Harbor Seals.” This is just one of several marine mammal public works of art from the artist.

“Gray whale Island” depicts a big gray whale floating with redwood forest on its back. The artwork was painted on the side of a shipping container in the alley behind Roundman’s Smokehouse.

Beatts’ inspiration for this particular mural was the offshore sightings of California Gray Whales during winter who migrate south to Baja to birth their babies. In February and March the whales head back north with their newborn calves.

“As a kid in Scotland, you see whales off the coast, so it was pretty neat to come to the other side of the planet and see the same thing,” she noted on the Fort Bragg Galley Way Art website, which also shows the process of the mural being painted. “I liked the idea of portraying the biological interconnectedness of these two adjacent but very different ecosystems, the oceans and the redwoods.”

Her marine creatures are also featured on the interior walls of the Noyo Center for Marine Sciences on Main Street.

More than 70 feet long on the outer wall of Tall Guy Brewery is another of her murals, this one a vivid illustration of leafy hops, butterflies and rust-colored brewery tanks.

Continuing the coastal focus of many of the murals, behind the Noyo Center on a dark background emblazoned with brilliantly-colored sea life, “Protean Forms” by Derek DiOrio brings to life a gigantic tidepool.

The most recent installation, looming above the Purity Market parking lot is “The Raven” by Ferric Decay. The painting of the head of a black raven was inspired by the dramatic birds often seen swooping through local redwood forests.

Later this year, Layne Roytman will construct a massive mosaic made of hundreds of hand-sculpted ceramic pieces representing a redwood forest habitat for flora and fauna, forest creatures, blooming trilliums, ferns and colorful mushrooms. The piece will eventually be on the side of the Flobeds Talalay Latex Mattresses building on Redwood Avenue.

More Mural pics: https://fortbraggalleywayart.org

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

EMMY GOOD: Rosie Radiator was a good friend who gave me her collection of red sequined tap shoes and props some years back. I shared them with a friend in the dance department at the Universty of California, Santa Barbara. It was such fun dancing down the Main Street of Willits for the 4th of July parade. Bess/Rosie will be dancing in my heart and memories.

IN ELK SINCE 1971

Editor,

A couple of things: Rosie Radiator (Bess Bair) came to the Caspar Inn several times to perform with her troupe; I believe that is how she first gained knowledge of the AVA; she was a relentless publicist. I think that is why she bought and gave you a book of my poetry, she was quite a fan. At one time I dearly loved that woman and imagined a life with her.

In terms of being a "back to the lander", I moved a mile east of Mendocino from SF in 1969 to a home purchased the year before but disliked being in the “burbs” and bought an undeveloped parcel on the Greenwood Road in Elk. I started building a self-designed house, digging trenches, pouring concrete, driving nails, plumbing, electrical etc. (with a building permit to get electricity to the site) in 1971. I got divorced, more or less finished the house, planted 15 or 20 fruit trees, a large vegetable garden (semi-commercial, flock of chickens, pigs (see poem ‘Pork Chop’), goats, geese, etc. Grew pot. Cut a few trees, milled lumber, worked restoring houses, developing real estate. Odd jobs at Esalen, doorman for local bands and clubs, bought the Caspar Inn and remodeled it, then operated it until retirement.

I still live in the same house I built in 1971 although they have changed the name of the road twice and my street address once. Call me what you will, I lived here and cut my own firewood until Caspar Inn and old age claimed my hips and back.

Hope you recover soon and well. Sorry the newsprint is going; I dislike reading on the computer, but the AVA is a necessity.

Peter Lit

Elk

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Reese is what dog-lovers refer to as velcro—a dog who loves to always be by your side. We think Reese would be a great emotional support animal! Reese also loves the couch and seems to be potty-trained. Reese can take a little bit of time to warm up with other dogs, so he will need to meet any potential doggy friends or housemates before going home. We think Reese is a Cattle Dog mix. He’s a year old and 60 very handsome pounds.

To see all of our canine and feline guests, and for information about our services, programs, and events, visit: mendoanimalshelter.com

Join us every first Saturday of the month for our MEET THE DOGS Adoption Event at the shelter. We're on Facebook at: facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/

For information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

WHILE SPEAKING TO A YOUNG MEXICAN WOMAN I happen to know casually in a local store a few days ago, she suddenly asked me if I thought the container ship crashing into the Francis Scott Key bridge outside Baltimore was intentional or known in advance and, if predictable, therefore the authorities must have allowed it to happen. I said it looked like a terrible but simple accident, why? She replied, “What about seem-sone?” Seem-sone? I asked. I don’t understand seem-sone. She fiddled with her cellphone and showed me some pictures of Homer and Bart Simson and so forth. Hmmm… Stumped, I asked her what the Simsons could possibly have to do with the Baltimore bridge? She replied that she saw on twitter or tiktok or something that the Simsons had predicted the collision and it could have been prevented. I told her that I wouldn’t base any opinions about the real world on the Simsons. She shrugged and seemed to accept my answer and went on about her business in the store. 

Later I looked it up.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/did-the-simpsons-predict-baltimore-bridge-collapse-conspiracy-theory-debunked-101711623323391.html

Sure enough, it turns out that “Many conspiracy theories surrounding The Simpsons and the Baltimore Bridge collapse have emerged on social media.” And they have to do with AI. Oh great. Now we have to debunk preposterous on-line theories from AI cartoons on top of the other preposterous human theories on the internet?

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/simpsons-predicted-baltimore-bridge-collapse/

The above links (and many others) seem to take the Seem-sone theory seriously enough to require debunking: “In the wake of this catastrophic incident, several conspiracy theories linking The Simpsons to the Baltimore bridge collapse are making rounds on social media. However, such claims are false…”

(Mark Scaramella)

ERADICATION & CULTIVATION

by Mazie Malone

The title probably caught your eye thinking this would be a great story about Cannabis!! Haha. This is actually a perspective on the eradication of outdated ideas about mental illness, addiction & homelessness and the effort we must put forth to cultivate change. There is no doubt everyone would like to see people off the street, no one wants to be witness to dirty street people urinating in the bushes and sleeping on our sidewalks. I have always had compassion for people who are homeless and suffering but I had no knowledge of Mental Illness, zip, nada, nothing, prior to my son becoming ill. In my view much like the perspective of so many of us was that these people were addicted, and it was their own dam fault. No knowledge on my part just blame and disdain, it's true, that's your own lot in life due to your poor choices, I believed that, however, Mental Illness is not a choice, it is a no-fault brain illness just like Parkinsons, Alzheimer's, Autism and a myriad of other neurological brain illness's! Addiction is the secondary component and a Mental Illness in its own right, so it is imperative they are treated simultaneously. I admit prior to my indoctrination of our inadequate approach to these matters seeing a street person being erratic and yelling crazy things scared me and I stayed as far away as I could, understandably so. After all I have encountered the only fear, I have is from the inept system we must rely on to ask for help. I still keep a safe distance, but I am not afraid I am curious and in awe of the phenomenon of it all. Receiving an unsolicited crash course in psychosis changes a person, maybe that's a good thing I am not sure yet. 

Any goal to accomplish something grand you need a mind-set, the right mind-set, but minds can be difficult to change, they stay stuck in what they perceive safe. Which is typically doing what you have always done in the same way, those nice comfortable routine conditions that we impose upon others and adhere to. That is fine for say something like washing the dishes or making your bed and going to work every day. Our conditioned responses that we repeatedly unwittingly pass along hold no value other than that being what we are accustomed too, our comfort zone and it is so easy! These no-brainer statements cause harm and interfere with our ability to act in any meaningful way. 

So many families in Mendocino County are afflicted by Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia and addiction. I speak with many individuals and families that have no idea where to turn and are deathly afraid of calling law enforcement. It should not be that way, there should be no fear in calling upon Law Enforcement whose core value is to "Serve and Protect" all the residents of our community, even those who are viewed unworthy degenerate addicts. One little action of intervention could completely change a person's downward spiral of mania and psychosis. One simple change in thought and perception, could literally make the difference of so many people suffering the realities of these issues.

If we could think and act instead of reiterating stupid phrases that do not help any of us that would be incredibly beneficial. Here are a few of the most infuriating ones we are subject to. 

1. HIPAA- 

2. They are an adult

3. We cannot confirm nor deny

4. We are not Mental Health Workers

5. We cannot come to your aid unless a crime is being committed

6. Call the police

7. Call the Crisis Line

8. There is no money

9. Sounds like they are on meth

The list can go on, but you get the drift, and I am so truly sorry if you have experienced such blatant disregard in the midst of a Crisis when you needed help the most. 

Excuses carried forth for so long now that it has become the system. False ideals and beliefs to deflect action and responsibility. How will we move away from these staunchly held convictions that we keep re-iterating as if they are true? How? Well, how about we start with not saying them!

SIERRA NEVADA MUSIC FESTIVAL LINEUP, 2024

APRIL 9TH BOS CEASEFIRE PROCLAMATION AND MARCH 31ST CAR CARAVAN

Hi Folks

Exciting news! County residents will have a chance to voice their opposition to the continuing genocide happening to the Palestinians. Looks like the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors (BOS)will have Ceasefire Proclamation on its agenda for its April 9th meeting.

We all know that there needs to be an immediate permanent ceasefire, a release of all hostages, and the unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid. The momentum is growing and the pressure working. Many more local governments, Countries, Unions and influential organizations and people are calling for a Permanent Ceasefire. As a result, just last week the US did not block the UN Security Council 4tht try to pass a ceasefire demand. We need to keep up the pressure.

So get ready to do everything you can to get this Proclamation passed!

Stay tuned at the beginning of next week - you get a copy of the Proclamation and the Petition that all can sign- even if you have signed one for the cities of Ft Bragg, Willits or Ukiah's efforts. Plus you'll receive the time and place of the meeting, how you can submit comments and help in other ways

I will be in New Zealand from April 1through April 13. Gratefully others in our now County-wide Ceasefire Now!group will get the information out to you.

Spread the word! Get others on board to help. It will take the Community. If you want to receive emails regarding our Ceasefire efforts send an email to cesca@mcn.org

Also this Sunday there is a Car Caravan - "Hands Off Rafah!" Decorate your car with Palestinian flags signs etc and Join us! Meet at CVS parking lot 1:30

We also continue to have our Fort Bragg Friday noon to one Rally at Town Hall and the Sunday 3-4 Ukiah Rally in front of the Court House

We can do this!

Anna Marie Stenberg

Fort Bragg

CATCH OF THE DAY, Saturday, March 30, 2024

JOHNY DELGADO, Ukiah. Protective order violation.

ELIAS EWING, Willits. Domestic abuse, controlled substance.

JOSIE LATHROP, Ukiah. Vandalism, resisting.

RITA LAVENDUSKEY, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

RONNIE MAIN, Laytonville. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, paraphernalia.

LUIS NIEVES JR., Cloverdale/Ukiah. DUI.

ALBERT ONEIL, Fort Bragg. Battery with serious injury, taking vehicle without owner’s consent, disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance, paraphernalia, failure to appear.

SAMUEL SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-under influence. (Frequent flyer.)

AUTUMN UNGERER, Laytonville. DUI.

ROSE VASSAR, Willits. Burglary.

GET THE FLOCKS OUTTAHERE

Editor: 

It’s Women’s History Month, an international celebration that has its origins here in Sonoma County. We have long honored the contributions of women and fought for equality for all. Given this, it’s disconcerting to see the continued glorification of this county’s factory egg industry.

Today’s egg industry is built on the exploitation of the female reproductive system. Hens in factory farms have been genetically manipulated to lay about 20 times more eggs than they would naturally to maximize profit. This causes painful health complications.

When hens no longer lay enough eggs to be considered valuable, around 1½ years old, the flock is “depopulated,” usually by gassing or having their necks broken by hand. This is standard practice, even on free range or organic farms.

There are about a dozen factory egg farms in Sonoma County. This year, we will have a chance to vote to phase them out. I urge readers to extend their fight for equality to include nonhuman animals and vote yes.

Sarah Van Mantgem

Windsor

MITCH CLOGG

Pom

Pom preceded me here in Room 115, he in bed A, nearest the hall door, I in bed C, nearest the window, we two separated by two entirely permeable cloth curtains. 

I see Pom only when I go in an out of the room, that is, infrequently, and I give only the lightest attention to my sideways view: Asia, inert, maybe moribund.

Every day, I hear staff in exhaustive cajolery. "C'mon, c'mon, Mr. Pom; open your mouth." At regular intervals, his daughter is here. She has a sweet, birdsong voice: "Dad, just take a little bite." Etc. She might spend two hours at this, cheering every ironic bite he takes (looks to me what Pom desires most is to rest in peace). It is to her that I sometimes hear Pom, ever so softly, in high, rusty voice, speak. I can't make it out.

So, now, two staff ladies are on him. 

"I can't get him to open his mouth."

"Mr. Pom! Open your mouth!"

"Mr. Pom! Just a bite." Etc.

For the tiniest of instants, I am Pom; then, to the privacy curtain as to a tin-can telephone, "Does he have scrambled eggs?" (like me).

"Yes." 

"Try giving him a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Sceambled eggs alone are pretty bland."

Did he hear the near soundless tear of the salt and pepper packet? Did he hear me?

Then the staff ladies cheer. I: "Did you try it?"

Then, merrily: "Yes!"

ARNE PJEDSTED SALOMONSEN

1970-71. After a ten months overland journey to India and Sri Lanka. Walking the roads from Punjab to Rishikesh and onward down south. Under the huge banyan and Neem trees, which in those days stood giantly along the roads giving shelters to the wayfarers and life to birds and monkeys, I walked. Every hundred meters were white painted stones revealing the small distance covered. A taller stone also painted white showed the kilometer sign and occasionally miles and kilometres were written on the same stone. 

Day went by sleeping in new places every night. While the signpost changed into new scripts and languages. Hitting the outskirt of Manmad the road moved on, new days and nights and new villages.

Reaching Ellora I slept for more than a week in one of the small caves above the waterfall. Food was spares as I had decided only to eat raw food. But the walking somehow became lighter and lighter. The etheric substance just above the soil had a wonderful power making you believe you could fly, so after reaching Kanyakumari it was an easy task making it to the further most rock in the Indian Ocean for my night sleep.

Visa was many months over done and at Ramaswaram I was refused to leave India with a passport like that. I had to return to Madurai for a contract with the police. The Officer turned out to be a most understanding man. He told me to go and meditate in the wonderful temple and return after a couple of hours, then all would be ready and done and I could leave for Sri Lanka. 

The roads did me good, my legs and bare feet grew stronger but my weight became less and less - good for flying but my body had grown thin when I reached Denmark again.

MEMO OF THE AIR: A cowboy in Babylon.

Here's the recording of last night's (Friday 2024-03-29) 8-hour Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and KNYO.org (and, for the first hour, also 89.3fm KAKX Mendocino): https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0586

Coming shows can feature your story or dream or poem or kvetch or whatever. Just email it to me. Or include it in a reply to this post. Or send me a link to your writing project and I'll take it from there and read it on the air.

Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not-necessarily-radio-useful but worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:

Graf Zeppelin world tour. (40 min.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8xsqebGokQ

Graf Zeppelin March, played enthusiastically whenever the majestic ship flew back to home base at Friedrichshafen, as a beacon as well as a welcome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgLmAvtCLvo

Aoife O’Donovan – All My Friends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=912U0_sU0_U

Jacob Collier - Little Blue, recorded live in a big empty acoustical church. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQvzX0Z3HE4

How we get eight million new crayons every day. Everything from Cerulean Fungus to Fire Engine Red to Tiger Plum Frappe. Color recognition, like ice, is civilization. Unless you’re color blind, in which case God compensated you with other powers and abilities, such as extra-quick side-to-side eye movements, useful in video gaming, proofreading, kung fu, retail loss prevention, and plenty more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5MwlpayiS4

Murmuration, nature's lovely teevee static. https://laughingsquid.com/winter-starling-murmuration-yorkshire-wetlands/

Speaking of which, watch this static and move your eyes around smoothly as if following clumps of birds. You'll find you can decide where the birds go, and drive them around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8JZCqaJ068

And the cruel unfairness of shutting a pet in and leaving it behind. Maybe it’s different if there are several cats shut in together to have a society while you’re gone. But keeping a cat that can go in and out at will is no good because pet cats kill five billion wild birds just in the U.S. every year. They’ve just discovered that having a pet cat when you’re a child triples the chance of your developing schizophrenia. And haven’t we all had the experience of neighbors who left their dog tied up alone in the yard all day while they were away at work, where the creature was miserable and it barked nonstop like a fricking metronome the whole time. On the other hand, pets are so cute, and they have instincts to protect you from a mambo snake, or a burglar can trip over them in the dark and hit his head, and walking them around the neighborhood so they can crap and piss on everybody else’s plants promotes personal heart health. https://laughingsquid.com/cat-reacts-after-human-leaves-apartment/

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

ON THE ROAD TO YOSEMITE IS CALIFORNIA'S TALLEST AND MOST UNEXPECTED TOMBSTONE

by Katie Dowd

If you’re driving to Yosemite via Highway 140, you can’t miss it. Not long after leaving Merced, surrounded by orchards and vast, empty fields, an enormous white obelisk rises out of the landscape. In a second, you’ve zipped past it, inevitably leaving you craning your head to try to catch another glimpse at the oddity in the middle of nowhere.

The George Hicks Fancher monument is the tallest tombstone in California — making its presence in the teensy town of Tuttle, population about 100, all the stranger.

Fancher was born in New York in 1828 and, like many young men, left the East Coast when news broke of gold in California. He arrived in 1850, tried his hand at mining and then decided farming would be more lucrative. He planted wheat in Merced County and helped found the Merced Security Savings Bank, becoming the richest man in the county along the way. When Fancher died in March 1900, his estate was believed to be worth $1 million — $37 million today when adjusted for inflation.

Fancher was a lifelong bachelor, but he was survived by a gaggle of siblings, nieces and nephews. The millionaire’s will was handwritten on note paper from Lick House hotel in San Francisco and included what would become a litigiously vague demand: “I set apart from my estate for my funeral expenses and proper interment of my remains and a suitable monument to my memory, $25,000.” (That’s $923,000, adjusted for inflation, if you’re wondering what Fancher thought he deserved.)

What “a suitable monument” entailed was the subject of intense debate in the Fancher family. Some thought a free public library for Merced residents would be a lovely tribute, while others insisted Fancher envisioned a towering tombstone. In February 1903, the Stockton Evening Mail reported the executors of Fancher’s will were giving $20,000 to Merced County for a memorial library. The city gratefully accepted.

This was unacceptable to Fancher’s brother, Jonathan Fancher Jr., who filed a lawsuit to stop the construction of the library. Even locals couldn’t figure out why Fancher Jr. was so opposed to it. The Stockton Evening Mail speculated he might be “constitutionally soured on the city of Merced.”

“There are some people who seem to think it more honorable to the dead to pile over them costly and useless masses of marble or granite than to spend equal amounts of money in erecting to their memories buildings that will contribute to the pleasure or profit of the public,” the paper opined.

In 1905, a Merced County judge ruled in favor of the library plan. The judge wrote in his ruling that “monument” and “building” were practically synonymous, and “this, as a plan to commemorate the deceased, seems to the Court perfectly reasonable and proper.”

Not satisfied, Fancher Jr. filed an appeal, which went all the way to the California Supreme Court. In 1910, 10 years after George Hicks Fancher’s body was put into the ground, the court ruled that a library and a monument weren’t equivalent. The only proper use of the $25,000 was his brother’s plan. Or, as the Stockton Evening Mail once put it, “The manifest lesson of this case is that rich men in making wills should be a little more careful to define just what they want.”

The money was spent on a 68-foot-tall monolith, still the tallest ever built in California. “The shaft will be … massive and commanding,” the Oakland Tribune wrote in 1910. It would be an “indestructible monument to the memory of the deceased.” Underneath, Fancher’s body was reburied with tree branches and wheat, tokens of his rise of wealth and prominence.

Indeed, for well over a century, it has endured. Millions of people each year pass the towering structure going to and from Yosemite National Park, and nearby train tracks ensure a steady stream of unknowing mourners for the once-lofty Merced man. His descendants even visit sometimes. “I drive by once in a while and wave,” Fancher’s great-great-nephew Steven Fancher told the Modesto Bee.

In recent years, it turned into something of an “eyesore,” the Bee reported. “Knee-high weeds fenced in the 68-foot-high structure,” the paper wrote in 2010. “Part of its pale gray facade had turned a dark gray color because some sort of lichen or fungus tarnished the stone.” Trash drifting from the roadway littered the area. 

On a recent visit, though, things around the Fancher monument seemed to have improved. The area around it was tilled free of weeds, and the white tower gleamed in the early spring sunshine. Below ground, as the Tribune put it so evocatively in 1910, Fancher rests — and waits.

“When the trumpet of the archangel, at the end of the world, according to the Biblical idea, summons the dead to come to judgement,” the paper wrote, “the remains and soul of George Hicks Fancher will have to struggle through one thousand tons of granite monument to respond to the call.”

(SF Chronicle)

PRICE OF OZEMPIC PER MONTH:

USA: Nearly $1,000

Canada: $155

Germany: $59

Cost to Manufacture Ozempic: $5

(Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I feel like I am on an island and the tide is rising. I can see it inching ever higher. I know it won’t stop.

I feel a sense of fear of the impending at the same time there is a bit of the thrill of being on a wild ride. There is a feeling of freedom and gratefulness to be alive at a time like no other. How do you feel?

TRUTH IS A STRANGER to the fiction Dept. A photo that set in motion a lot of problems for the couple. Johnny Cash was married to an African American woman in the 1950s. 

They would say she was Italian ( which in itself could mean she has African blood, but suspected it was more than just that ) but the Klan down south gave them the side eye protesting him and his shows.

"That was a perilous time to be an interracial couple, so give props to them both." 

Turns out the ”man in black“ was a true rebel and lived life on his terms, with respect! She ended up bowing out of the marriage ( after ten years and children, Roseanne Cash being one ), as the stress of it got to be too much for her. Even now in the movies, they don’t portray her as she was…

DEPRESSION ERA CHAMP

By the early 1930’s Braddock was a has-been. He had been a promising light-heavyweight contender in the 1920’s, but lost his only title shot, a decision to Tommy Loughran, in 1929. This precipitated a skid in which Braddock lost five times in six fights, but he had earned a fair share of purses and had invested for his future. 

Like many of his countrymen, Braddock’s nest egg was wiped out by the Wall Street Crash of 1929. He continued to box, but a series of hand injuries hampered his effectiveness in the ring. 

“He couldn’t beat anybody,” said Jeremy Schapp, author of the book on Braddock titled Cinderella Man: James J.Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History).

He was reduced to fighting for peanuts in backwater venues, and by the time Braddock hung up his gloves and retired from the sport in despair he had won just four of his last eleven fights.

He managed to get longshoremen’s papers and went to work on the Jersey docks, but even there jobs were scarce. More often than not, he would arise early and trudge to the docks, only to return empty handed. With a wife and three children to feed, he increasingly despaired for his family. 

Late in 1933 he put his pride aside and applied for a place on the county welfare rolls. At one point he and his wife, Mae, even had to farm their children out to their grandparents because he could no longer care for them. 

During this dark period at least two remarkable things occurred. One was that time away from the ring gave his hands a chance to heal. The other was that his stint on the docks transformed Braddock from a 175 pounder into a much stronger, well muscled heavyweight. 

Braddock had given no thought to a comeback, and hadn’t been near a gym in months, when his loyal friend and ever scuffling manager, Joe Gould, crossed the Hudson bearing news of an offer to fight again. Primo Carnera was scheduled to defend his title against Max Baer at the Madison Square Garden Bowl in Queens two nights later, and an up-and-coming heavyweight named Corn Griffin, whom the boxing powers hoped to groom for the big time, was slated to perform of the undercard, but his scheduled foe had fallen out.

Garden matchmaker Jimmy Johnston needed an Opponent - with a capital “O” - for Griffin, and Braddock could earn $250 for serving as canon fodder. Because he needed the money - Gould had wangled a $100 advance, which he split with Braddock, out of Johnston - he agreed. 

On June 14, 1934, Braddock knocked out Griffin in three rounds. 

Three fights and 364 days later James J. Braddock was the heavyweight champion of the world - “At a time when the heavyweight champion was, inarguably, the biggest man in sports,” noted Schapp. 

Schapp reckons that Braddock’s “Cinderella” (It was Damon Runyon who bestowed the moniker on Braddock) tale lapsed into obscurity for at least two reasons: The first was that Braddock’s immediate heir was Joe Louis, whose own legend grew to such proportions that it quickly obscured that of his predecessor. And the other is that Braddock’s accomplishments took place in the bleakest period of 20th-century America: Once it was over, Americans wanted to put the Great Depression, and everything connected with it, behind them. 

“But to me the ‘20’s and 30’s were a fascinating era for boxing,” said Schapp. “Far more interesting than the ‘40’s or ‘50’s or ‘60’s. The NFL was still in its infancy; the NBA didn’t exist. Baseball and horse racing were the only other games in town. Boxing champions were celebrities, and the heavyweight champion was the biggest celebrity of all.”

— George Kimball with Jeremy Schapp

CALIFORNIA’S NEW LAW TO FORCE PEOPLE INTO DRUG TREATMENT HAS A FATAL FLAW

by Maria C. Raven

As an emergency physician in San Francisco, I’m currently seeing more patients with mental health and substance use crises than ever before in my two-decade career. Our emergency department and others like it across the region are overwhelmed.

Last year, the governor signed SB43, which promised to help. It took existing conservatorship rules for those with extreme mental health conditions and applied them to those with substance use disorders alone. Advocates for this bill said it would save the lives of those with severe addiction issues, especially those living on the streets, by forcing them into care. The legislation envisioned such individuals being detained on involuntary holds in emergency departments like mine until they can eventually be transferred to a longer-term treatment facility and conserved — after which treatment for substance use can be mandated.

The law has been in effect since Jan. 1. But it won’t work if it relies on emergency departments.

Before SB43’s enactment, patients considered a danger to themselves or others, or “gravely disabled” — meaning they could not feed, clothe or shelter themselves — were brought to emergency departments and placed on 72-hour involuntary psychiatric holds that prevented them from leaving. If their condition persisted, they could be held longer, brought before a judge and eventually conserved.

SB43 expanded the definition of “gravely disabled” to include individuals with severe substance use disorders alone — if they are refusing necessary medical treatment. Nearly every shift, I already see the patients SB43 aims to help. They are brought in for acting erratically, unsafely or violently. Behaviors can include running through traffic, repeated overdoses reversed by Narcan or brandishing weapons in public. I have learned that psychosis due to methamphetamine is no longer something I can differentiate from serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Sometimes, they occur in tandem. 

After SB43 took effect, the city provided guidance that said patients targeted by the new law could be held involuntarily in emergency departments. While this may be true while patients are acutely intoxicated, once they are sober, I can’t continue this hold in perpetuity.

Despite what SB43 legislates, substance use disorders in the absence of underlying mental illness can’t be grounds for holding patients or treating them involuntarily. Substances wear off. And when they do, most patients don’t demonstrate the type of cognitive damage that would require me to continue an involuntary hold — even if they are refusing medical treatment that I might consider necessary.

As long as emergency departments have been in existence, they have treated people with severe alcohol use disorder, a condition eligible for conservatorship for those “gravely disabled” by it long before SB43. While we at times need to admit these patients to a hospital for withdrawal symptoms that we cannot get under control in our emergency department, if they stabilize, they must be discharged — unless we find evidence of cognitive impairment. We try to refer these patients to treatment, and sometimes it succeeds. We are also beginning to offer new treatments such as naltrexone, which reduces cravings and hopefully will help some folks cut down or quit altogether. But only if someone wants it. 

Witnessing the challenges faced by our patients with alcohol use disorder can make us feel a bit helpless. But we cannot do more than the law allows. 

That’s now true of drug users as well.

If conservatorship were a quick and efficient process with abundant treatment facilities ready for those in need, perhaps this wouldn’t be an issue. But that’s not the case.

Implementing conservatorship is challenging and time-consuming. Emergency departments like mine are already filled with countless patients on involuntary psychiatric holds due to serious mental illness. A shortage of available inpatient beds in locked psychiatric facilities means these patients — disproportionately poor, often homeless and on Medi-Cal — must typically wait days for a bed to open elsewhere. When a patient does require conservatorship for a serious mental illness, they must often wait weeks or longer.

Patients often live in hospital rooms and hallways while they wait.

This situation is already untenable. Emergency departments are loud, brightly lit and often add to the stress or confusion of our patients with behavioral health diagnoses. This in turn can lead to violence. Recent surveys have found that 66% of emergency physicians had been physically assaulted while at work, and even higher rates of violence have been experienced by emergency nurses.

Many patients with severe substance use disorder don’t want to stay for treatment if physical signs of withdrawal kick in. And I’m not allowed to treat withdrawal without consent.

SB43 doesn’t allow for mandated substance use treatment or other forms of forced medical care until after a patient is conserved. According to current law, forcing medical care upon a patient who is refusing it is considered battery. 

Some psychiatric medications can be given to patients without their authorization if a judge issues what is called a Riese order. But any forced medical treatment beyond that requires a legal authorization called an Affidavit A, which can only be obtained once someone is conserved. That can take weeks, months or even years.

Many patients with severe substance use disorders also have serious medical problems. I have seen devastating wound and skin infections stemming from substance use and other conditions such as poorly controlled HIV or untreated cancer. 

But if a patient doesn’t want to be treated and has the capacity to decide against it — which most do — the law requires I let them go. 

SB43 is already creating confusion. It empowers law enforcement officers and others to bring more patients to our already crowded department on involuntary psychiatric holds for severe substance use alone, thinking we will provide a path to conservatorship. However, that path breaks down if a patient has decision-making capacity once no longer intoxicated.

Without an ability to enforce an involuntary hold once someone is sober, and without an ability to mandate treatment if a person is not conserved, the law’s purpose is questionable. 

The patients whom SB43 aims to help need two main things: more low-barrier access to substance use treatment and permanent supportive housing. Emergency departments are a crucial part of our nation’s medical, mental health and substance use safety net. They are not prisons.

(Maria C. Raven is a professor of clinical emergency medicine at UCSF. She is a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project and the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.)

DONALD TRUMP, BLASPHEMOUS BIBLE THUMPER

by Maureen Dowd

On this holy weekend, one man is taking the Resurrection personally.

Donald Trump is presenting himself as the Man on the Cross, tortured for our sins. “I consider it a great badge of courage,” he tells crowds. “I am being indicted for you.” Instead of Christ-like redemption, he promises Lucifer-like retribution if resurrected.

In January, he put up a video on Truth Social about how he is a messenger from God, “a shepherd to mankind.”

Trump is, as the nuns who taught me used to say, “a bold, brazen piece.” He is a miserable human who cheated on his wives, cheats at golf, cheats at politics, incites violence, targets judges and their families and looked on, pleased, as thugs threatened to hang his actually pious vice president.

Yet, more and more, Trump is wallowing in his Messiah complex.

Two-Corinthians Trump wouldn’t know the difference between Old and New Testaments. So he may not realize that, rather than a sacrificial lamb, he is the Golden Calf, the false god worshiped by Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments.

Just as the Israelites melted their ornaments and jewelry to make the calf, Trump is trading tacky products for gilt to pay gazillions in obligations. After his $399 golden “Never Surrender High-Top Sneaker,” Trump is selling a $99 “Victory” cologne for “movers, shakers and history makers” with “a crisp opening of citrus blends into a cedar heart, underpinned by a rich base of leather and amber, crafting a commanding presence.” A gold bust of Trump tops the bottle. (“Victory” perfume for women comes in a Miss Universe-shape bottle.)

Weaponizing his martyrdom, Trump is selling $59.99 “God Bless the USA” Bibles adorned with a flag and the chorus of Lee Greenwood’s song handwritten by the singer, plus the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance.

“Happy Holy Week!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible.”

David Axelrod says that, even as a secular Jew, he’s offended: “This is a guy who has violated 11 of the Ten Commandments.”

Trump posted a promotional video claiming “Christians are under siege” and vowing to “protect content that is pro-God.” He held up the Bible — recalling the appalling moment in 2020 when Ivanka handed him a Bible from her designer bag and he clutched it in front of St. John’s Church, opposite the White House, moments after the police tear-gassed protesters and journalists in adjacent Lafayette Square at a demonstration about George Floyd’s murder.

“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many,” Trump barked. “It’s my favorite book.” Maybe the Bible has replaced that Hitler book Trump’s ex-wife said he kept by his bed. But it’s all a scam. Running for president is about enriching himself, just as when he peddled NFTs, steaks, ties, suits, bath towels, vodka, water, office chairs, Trump University and mug-shot mugs. He even sold pieces of the suit he was wearing when he took the mug shot.

“I want to have a lot of people have it,” Trump said of his Bible. “You have to have it for your heart, for your soul.”

Just what the world needs: a soul cleanse with a grifter Bible, where the profits could well be going to pay legal costs in trials about breaking commandments — bearing false witness to try to steal democracy, coveting a porn star, then paying the star hush money to keep quiet about the sex.

What could be more Elmer Gantry than that? As Sinclair Lewis wrote about his corrupt, power-hungry, narcissistic, womanizing preacher, “He had, in fact, got everything from the church and Sunday school, except, perhaps, any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.”

Religious snake-oil salesmen have a storied history in American literature and films, from Flannery O’Connor’s “Wise Blood” to Peter Bogdanovich’s beloved movie “Paper Moon,” about a conniving Bible salesman and his small helper. But it’s shocking when the charlatan might be in the Oval.

In her 2016 book, “The Confidence Game,” Maria Konnikova explained that we’re easy prey for faux Nigerian princes because of all the chaos in our world. “The whirlwind advance of technology heralds a new golden age of the grift,” she wrote. “Cons thrive in times of transition and fast change.”

If there is one thing Trump knows how to do, it’s exploit chaos he creates.

There has to be a yearning in the populace that the con man can channel; and, at a time when religion and patriotism are waning, people are searching for more. Unfortunately, these days that search often takes the form of conspiracy theories.

As Donie O’Sullivan reported for CNN, no sooner had the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore than a bunch of crazy conspiracy tales blossomed about terrorism, D.E.I., Obama, Israel and Ukraine.

Declining faith in religion and rising faith in conspiracies create fertile ground for a faker like Trump. If the profane pol is re-elected, we’ll all reap the whirlwind.

(NYTimes)