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SLIGHTLY BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES are forecast through the weekend. Gusty north and northwest winds are forecast for portions of the area today through Thursday before more typical breezes for late May return this weekend. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Wednesday morning I have 51F with some overcast skies, not sure if higher clouds or fog? The wind forecast changes daily so I will go with some breezes today & into the weekend. Cooling temps into Saturday then warming on Sunday. It looks like fog returns next week.
LARRY BENSKY, THE SIGNATURE VOICE OF KPFA NEWS RADIO, DEAD AT 87
Berkeley-based activist journalist moderated live radio during some of the nation’s most turbulent times
by Lisa M. Krieger
Larry Bensky, who brought an activist’s level of devotion and a historian’s attention to detail to the work of radio journalism, died May 19 in Berkeley. He was 87.
The signature voice of the progressive station KPFA, Bensky was most famous for his live broadcasts of the Iran-Contra hearings of the late 1980s, which won him the prestigious George Polk Award.
But he also covered the confirmation hearings of four U.S. Supreme Court justices, the 9/11 Commission hearings and innumerable demonstrations and protests, earning the reverence of the San Francisco Bay Area’s large leftist community. From a San Francisco phone booth, he broadcast a live narrative of the historic “White Night” riots, sparked by the lenient sentencing of Dan White for the assassinations of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Bensky was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn on May 1, 1937. He was inspired to become a journalist and an activist as a youth while reading news of the extermination of European Jews in the six or seven newspapers that his father brought home every evening, he said in a 2007 interview that aired on KPFA. He graduated with departmental honors from Yale University, where he was managing editor of the Yale Daily News.
“When I realized I had the skills to be a writer, I wanted it to be for good, and I thought that bringing people information would stir things up,” he said during the on-air interview, called Larry Bensky Retrospective. “If you don’t do it, it’s certainly not going to change.”
His career in print journalism started at the Minneapolis-based Star-Tribune. Then he worked as an editor at Random House, offering writer Cormac McCarthy his first book contract, before moving to France in 1964 to become Paris editor of The Paris Review.
A lifelong pacifist, in 1968 he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.
He returned to New York to join The New York Times Sunday Book Review, but left in disgust after they killed several major pieces, including a review of Bertrand Russell’s book War Crimes in Vietnam and a major magazine article about the antiwar movement. “They said I didn’t have sufficient criticism,” he griped in a 2007 interview.
He arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the social upheaval of 1968 to join the staff of Ramparts magazine, the most militant and freewheeling publication on American newsstands of its era.
Then he found his calling in radio. He joined the staff of the legendary underground San Francisco rock station KSAN, the soundtrack of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury scene, covering the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. On Thanksgiving Day, he motored out to the island by boat, dodging the U.S. Coast Guard to deliver a frozen turkey and other supplies. It was a story that was sent around the world.
His longtime home was Pacifica Foundation’s flagship Berkeley station KPFA, a pioneer of the countercultural airwaves, winning five Gold Reel awards from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. For years he hosted Sunday Salon, a public affairs show with an undisguisedly political mission. He also co-anchored, with Amy Goodman, the daily Pacifica Network news show, “Democracy Now!,” as well as other interview programs.
He found himself at the center of the news in the late 1990s during an ugly power struggle over who controls what goes on the airwaves. During a fight between KPFA and the Pacifica Foundation, which owns the station, he was dismissed from his programming position. Reinstated after much listener and staff protest, he was later fired again for his critical outspokeness. Instead of walking away, he helped build a national campaign that ultimately forced out network leadership.
In a graceful final act, he returned to KPFA on Sunday mornings to host a classical piano show.
Bensky continued to write throughout his career, contributing to the The Nation magazine, The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review and The East Bay Express.
In addition to his work as a journalist, Bensky taught classes in journalism and broadcasting at Stanford University, CSU East Bay, Berkeley City College and UC Berkeley’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
A longtime Berkeley resident, he could be glimpsed pedaling his bicycle around town. He stayed engaged in musical trends, sending friends YouTube videos that ranged from Paul Simon to Kacey Musgraves. And he returned to a lifetime avocation, French language and literature, producing and hosting the website “Radio Proust.”
After news of his death, colleagues and listeners hailed Bensky for his unflappable on-air intellectual commentaries.
“A force of nature and a true giant,” said David Gans, host and producer of the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour.
Radio programmer and host Bonnie Simmons described him as “prickly as a cactus. But he was the most extraordinary news and commentary person I’ve ever heard,” she said. “I never saw anyone who was able to, on his feet, moderate news during life events with such a breadth of history. He could instantly bring up facts and weave them in so you understood what you were observing.”
From Bensky, “I learned the magic of live radio, the power of synchronizing the attention of a large audience on a single event,” wrote KPFA “UpFront” program host Brian Edwards-Tiekert, in a Facebook tribute.
“He always wanted KPFA to be better and bigger,” he said. “And because of him, we are.”
(San Jose Mercury News)
IRAN-CONTRA (FOR LARRY BENSKY)
by Fred Gardner
Well-bred in the Capitol,
Her mother worked for a very big man
Stylish and beautiful
Like Goldwyn had the whole thing planned
We'll do a B movie called "Victory"
Or "History" I don't recall
I didn't even plan to go
Until I caught Fawn Hall
.
He'll be a fundamentalist pug at Annapolis
Welterweight class
Get him a daddy rabbit and get promoted
Perhaps a little bit too fast
Despite missing records Secord connections
soon have him holding forth
The Marine Corps man in the White House
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North
.
Take a letter, Miss Hall, Better stay late tonight
"Dear Ayatollah, do ya need any help in your fight?"
Oh it might seem wrong to some, but oooh it feels so right
Honey, so let's do it more, let's do it for Old Glory
.
Jet-setting off to Jerusalem
He pursues the meshuganah plan
With Bibles autographed "Ronald Reagan"
To deal around old Tehran
Then he'll take the rap back in Babylon
Mini-cameras close on the myths
in the troubled eyes of America's Hero
as he takes the Fifths
.
And she's dating the playboy son of the Contra
leader Arturo Cruz
Then she calls it off on Thanksgiving
Did someone insist that she choose?
"Security reasons," she tells Arturito,
Safe sex means no sex at all
And out for a drink with a preppy in pink
goes beautiful Fawn Hall
.
Take a letter Miss Hall, better stay late again tonight
Lay a little WordStar down against Managua's might
Oh it might seem far out to some, but oooh it feels far right
Honey, so let's do it more, let's do it for Old Glory
.
Now ambitious officers from all the services check out the scene
They see factions of capital, Kissinger messengers
Behind every Bush, in every Wing
It comes right down to 12 Angry Persons
Who cannot let the Gipper fall
And who but the beautiful Rita Hayworth
could ever play Fawn Hall?
.
Take a letter Miss Hall better come back tonight
Help me shred Contra-dictions in a world that's all Red & White
Where everybody gets 15 minutes in the light
Honey let's do it more let's do it for Old Glory
(PS. Larry did more than "join the staff" of Ramparts in 68. He became managing editor and kept the ship afloat.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ELEMENTARY STAFF
It was a great evening and wonderful to see the students and families discovering the joy and achievement in all the great learning. Well done!
Louise Simson
Superintendent
Anderson Valley Unified School District
FORT BRAGG COMPOST GIVEAWAY
The City of Fort Bragg will be hosting a compost giveaway event sponsored by Cold Creek Compost, Friday, May 24 from 2:00-7:00 PM & Saturday, May 25 from 10:00AM-2:00PM or until compost is gone. The event will take place on the East side of the CV Starr Center, 300 S. Lincoln Street, Fort Bragg, CA 95437.
COUNTY NOTES: DELAY, CONFUSION, AVOIDANCE & DISTRACTION
by Mark Scaramella
If you want to understand the turmoil in the County’s Public Health and Behavioral Health departments, you won’t get far listening to comments at Supervisors meetings.
On the one hand you have the line employees Union president demanding an investigation into a culture of fear, retaliation and intimidation in Public Health involving whoever may have pressured some employees to sign a hurry-up letter in support of the appointment of Dr. Jenine Miller as Health Director two weeks ago which would have made official an arrangement that has been informally in place since late last year.
On the other hand a number of current public health staffers, most of them saying they worked in finance and administration, came to the podium on Tuesday in support of the consolidation of the two departments headed by Dr. Miller. One of them, a youngish woman who spoke so quickly that it was hard to understand what she was saying as she nervously sped through a letter she had written, said that somebody had been “falsely accused” of something and perhaps been a victim of “gender discrimination.” She demanded to know which supervisor “leaked” the letter in support of Dr. Miller signed by over 40 of Dr. Miller’s staffers to “Julie Beardsley and the AVA,” concluding, “Who do we turn to when our leaders are constantly attacked?”
At the Board meeting on May 7 the Board voted to postpone a decision formalizing the Behavioral Health/Public Health consolidation until a presentation with more information and analysis of the consolidation was provided. No such presentation was provided on Tuesday and none of the supervisors responded to the somewhat heated comments about Dr. Miller’s appointment.
At the end of the discussion, Supervisor Gjerde proposed that the question of consolidation and the appointment of Dr. Miller be put over to the next Board meeting agenda for June 4 for “reconsideration.” That was approved 5-0.
MEANWHILE, the long-delayed Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF-‘Puff’) is moving along well below the radar without getting the attention such a substantial project deserves. There must be some pressure to get the Measure B-funded Psychiatric Health Facility — an overlarge 16-bed facility currently estimated to cost over $20 million — built in a hurry (by Mendo standards anyway) because Item 3p on Tuesday’s consent calendar was approved without discussion: “Approval of Finding that the New Measure B Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF) Project is Categorically Exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act Pursuant to Section 15302 of the CEQA Guidelines…”
Section 15302 of the CEQA environmental review guidelines involves “Replacement and Reconstruction” of an existing structure. Since the “existing structure” (an old nursing home with a collapsed roof) was demolished last year, this could be legitimate. But the proposed new usage — a 16-bed secure mental health facility — is significantly different.
As the attached Planning memo says, “The project will be a one-story 12,884 square foot facility that will provide 24-hour inpatient care for individuals needing intensive therapeutic psychiatric services.” They are not replacing a nursing home with a nursing home; they are replacing a nursing home with a PHF which seems significant enough to require consideration of at least some of the environmental review criteria such as traffic/parking and security. But since they don’t want to do that, the implication is that the project is already starting to run further behind schedule and, by further implication, over its already extremely high estimated cost.
Item 3p further calls for “Approval of Plans and Specifications for the PHF Project and Direct the Chief Executive Officer or Designee to Advertise for Bids and Authorize Opening of Bids on or After June 27, 2024.”
Nobody asked about this major project or its schedule which is probably exactly what the staff wanted since they buried the “approval of the plans and specifications” deep in an innocuous item on the consent calendar.
The last time the PHF schedule was discussed back in January of 2022 the schedule was given in months, not in calendar dates. But according to that schedule, bidding and construction of the new facility was estimated to take around 30 months, or two and a half years. Which would translate to a projected completion date of late 2026. Whether this timing would allow the County to qualify for the $9-million-plus grant they previously expected to get is unclear, but end-of-2026 would probably be beyond the qualification date. If the County doesn’t get that $9 million-plus grant, the likelihood of repayment of the Measure B fund loan to the Jail Expansion overrun will be very low. PS. The current plans for the PHF include 28 parking slots for staff (plus about ten more for the public and miscellaneous others). Assuming that some staffing will be 24/7 positions, that indicates that there will probably be over 40 paid staff. Where they will get that many professional staffers, much less the money to pay them has never come up.
All these moving pieces and a major commitment of approving plans and specs for a long-delayed multi-million dollar project finally going out for bid should be worthy of at least a project status update. But no, nothing but a consent calendar item about waiving the environmental review.
As the County approaches an unprecedented general fund budget deficit and potentially significant staff cuts to deal with next month when the Board is supposed to approve the 2024-2025 fiscal year budget, there was again nothing on Tuesday’s agenda about the budget’s still large level of red ink. (By comparison, most local school and special districts have already prepared their budgets for their board approvals. The County is at least two months behind, waiting until the last minute to even propose a budget for board and public discussion when there will be little opportunity for discussion of alternatives or public input.
In other County budget/attorney news, the Board approved a comparatively generous 4% salary increase for all of the County’s lawyers effective in July, raising the cost of the County attorneys from about $2.74 million per year to an estimated $2.85 million per year. (Line workers got a minimal 1% raise.) And, in closed session, the Board was expected to consider the appointment a new County Counsel. No names or salaries were mentioned.
ON THE STREET AT AGE 74
Emergency Housing Situation
Please be advised that the supervisor at Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center just handed me a letter which reads:
"Hello Craig Stehr, Your extension request has been denied. You have utilized your full 6 months time allowed at B2. Your check out date is June 12th 2024. After 2 weeks you be eligible for One Night Only beds."
I have advised the supervisor that under no circumstances will I just walk out of the front gate with my belongings, and that this organization may call the police and have me taken into custody for my protection. He said that one of the reasons that my request was denied was because I did not agree to move into a room 20 blocks south of here some months ago. At 74, and being a high risk heart patient, it would have been worse than irresponsible for me to have moved into that unit. Otherwise, I was shown only one other apartment in the past two years, which was rented to somebody else.
I have an emergency survival problem as a consequence of the policies of the group which administrates the shelter where I presently am. Please do what you can to assist me in getting a place to go to for my survival as soon as possible. Thank You.
Craig Louis Stehr
1045 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
Telephone Messages: (707) 234-3270
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
TOP SHAPE RUNNER/SUPERVISOR ELECT BERNIE NORVELL: Lost two seconds per mile on my pace but still showed the Run Runners flatlanders what we are made of. First in my age group and second overall out of 148. Lost to an 18-year-old by 22 seconds.
ED NOTES
I USED TO BUY goldfish at Walmart, but the purchase was always such a hassle for the clerk stuck with trying to net them as they fled around the tank I quit WalMar fish just as I belatedly learned that Jennifer at Farm Supply also sold fish, tougher fish. The WalMart fish didn't outlast Boonville winters in their otherwise trauma-free horse trough while Jennifer's grew to small-trout size. One day, I stopped in at WalMart for goldfish where a clerk said she couldn't sell gold fish on Thursdays. “Fish trauma,” she explained. Fish trauma? How can you tell? “I dunno,” she replied, “but someone told us the fish need a day off from people dipping into their tanks every five minutes and scaring them.” I've wondered ever since if she was putting me on.
BOOK CHAT. A reader writes: “I didn’t like Orwell's Down and Out in London and Paris. I consider it a fraud. He spends his last money on some milk. A fly drowns in it. He throws the milk away. How fastidious! If he was REALLY hungry, he’d fish the damn fly out and drink the milk; I would. I have. One has as much respectability and fastidiousness as one can afford.”
RECOMMENDED READING always must include the highly entertaining “Kitchen Confidential” by the late Anthony Bourdain. If you’re like me, wholly ignorant of the world of high-end eating, you’ll learn a lot and laugh a lot reading this very funny account of what goes on in the kitchens of fancy-schmancy restaurants.
ALSO RECOMMENDED, especially for teachers struggling for the frazzled attentions of high school and college students, “The Greatest Story Never Told, A People’s History of the American Empire, 1945-1999” by Michael K. Smith. I zipped through its lively 431 big-print pages over the weekend. Arrayed in historically-accurate, Dos Passos-like vignettes, Smith covers the key events and personalities of the post-War period in a way that reads like a very good novel. Example: “1961: Washington. An Interesting, unhealthy Idea. A century after the Civil War, the abolition movement stirs anew. The Brown decision, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the sit-in movement fuel hope throughout the South. A new generation of college students discovers Gandhi and Thoreau, setting its sights on the abolition of Jim Crow. James Farmer, national director of the Congress on Racial Equality, pays a visit to his dying father in Freedman’s Hospital, telling him that there is going to be a ‘Freedom Ride,’ that blacks and whites are going to leave Washington D.C. on Greyhound and Trailways, deliberately violating the segregated seating rules on the buses and the segregated use of restrooms at stops throughout the Deep South. In the final stage of terminal cancer, his father tells him the plan is interesting and he hopes his son survives it.”
I SEEM TO RECOMMEND Marshall Frady’s truly excellent mini-bio of Martin Luther King, Jr. published by Penguin about every six months; I like it that much. MLK achieved iconic status as soon as he was safely gone, but most people, especially people who have arrived since, have no idea what an interesting man he was, and certainly don’t know that King represented the strongest American voice for democratic socialism since the great Gene Debs. Martin Luther King put a lot more fear into the ruling class than the tough guys with the guns and the leather jackets ever did. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to plow through the real long (and real good) two-volume bio of King called America in the King Years by Taylor Branch, Frady’s little Penguin is the bio you want.
SO THE KANSAS CITY CHIEF'S kicker, a conservative Catholic, gives a speech to a Catholic women's college wherein he recommends that the ladies embrace traditional roles as mothers and homemakers. And the Woke battalions rush in guns blazing, demanding that Harrison Butker not only be fired by KC but kicked out of the NFL! Which is what actually happened to Colin Kaepernick for taking a knee for Black Lives Matter, but Kaepernick's collusive blackballing by the Maga owners of the NFL didn't rouse nearly as much animus from the pure of heart as Butker's retro recommendations to young women. Why Butker thinks he's in a position to pass out advice on any subject other than football is a mystery almost as big as why the women's college invited him as, of all things, a commencement speaker. (And Shakespeare thought his times were “out of joint…”
CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, May 21, 2024
JESUS BERMUDEZ, Fort Bragg. Use of minor for obscene matter-not commerce, possession of photo with intent, sending-possessing obscene matter with prior, controlled substance, paraphernalia, disobeying court order.
GERARDO GARCIA-CORREA, St.Helena/Ukiah. DUI.
SACRAMENTO HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Vandalism.
EARL KNIGHT, Ukiah. Metal knuckles.
STEPHANIE LYLE, Ukiah. Shoplifting.
ALVINO MIRANDA, Fort Bragg. False report of emergency.
ROBERT MOYER, Willits. DUI, Domestic abuse, probation revocation.
FRANK ONETO, Dos Rios. Under influence, parole violation, resisting.
GARRETT REHA, Ukiah. Leaving scene of accident with property damage, concealed dirk-dagger.
CHRISTOPHER SKAGGS, Lakeport/Ukiah. Parole violation.
LINDSEY TAYLOR, Redwood Valley. False personation of another, failure to appear.
HEATHER ZEISSLER, Durham/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance, paraphernalia, suspended license, failure to appear.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
These two photos, which I took in Albany near Berkeley, just about sum up where we are now as a nation.
But it makes me wonder if the gun guy has ever read a book. And if he had, would he still display this on his truck? I grew up with guns and still have an over and under Savage Shotgun/22rifle. I also have a 38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, mostly because that is what all the guys in movies carried.
I doubt that this "America gun guy" even owns a gun. All hat and no cattle as we used to say.
IMPOSSIBLE!
Through the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the comprehensive, multipoint plan, known as the 10-Point Plan to Beautify Bakersfield, outlines actionable steps the state is taking to work with local partners to increase litter collection in key areas, clear roadway encampments, update aging equipment, and keep the overall roadway system clean.
THE SURPRISING REASON STARVING PELICANS ARE FILLING A BAY AREA RESCUE FACILITY
by Tara Duggan
The aviary at International Bird Rescue in Fairfield is stuffed with brown pelicans. The gangly brown birds are spending their time preening, splashing in the pool and most of all, gulping down buckets of desperately needed fish.
The Bay Area rescue center and its Southern California counterpart together have treated 300 birds since April 20, all suffering from malnutrition and many with additional related injuries. Hundreds more have shown up dead on state beaches. It’s not for lack of sardines and anchovies, wildlife officials say. Rather, the theory is that a late spring storm made water visibility, and therefore fishing, extremely difficult for the birds.
“We know from previous experiences that pelicans take extra risks when they’re hungry,” said Rebecca Duerr, director of research and veterinary science at International Bird Rescue, the only facility set up to treat pelicans from Carmel to Mendocino County.
Many birds lost half their weight in that period, which is a lot on a 5-pound bird, and about 40% are showing up with injuries, likely from approaching fishing boats and getting tangled in equipment.
“They come in skinny,” Duerr said, after treating a pelican with a snapped mandible, or jawbone, at the organization’s facility in Los Angeles. “They need more food than usual because they’re replacing all that body mass they lost. They have the metabolism of a baby.”
A brown pelican made the news when it landed in left field at Oracle Park during a Giants game earlier this month. The pelican went viral after its surprise appearance was credited with helping the Giants win, but bird experts noted that it was unusual behavior, said Russ Curtis, communications manager at International Bird Rescue.
Brown pelicans were declared an endangered species in the 1970s and delisted from that status in 2009 but remain a protected species in California.
As of Friday, 466 ailing brown pelicans had been brought in to care facilities, and about 400 were either brought in dead or died shortly after arriving in facilities; some had to be euthanized, said Tim Daly, public information officer for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Daly said that a dozen birds have been brought in for testing by the department, and none showed signs of illness, only malnourishment, and in one case, traumatic injuries as well.
“They are so hungry that when they see fish brought up onto docks or piers, they’ll actually dive to get these fish,” he said. “These birds are getting tangled up in fishing lines and suffering pretty deep cuts.”
In the spring of 2022, a similar starvation event happened, when almost 800 pelicans were admitted into wildlife facilities and close to 400 were returned to the wild, according to the department.
Wildlife experts ask that people don’t approach the pelicans or try to remove fish hooks, which could make injuries worse. Instead, call a local wildlife rehabilitation facility.
The number of birds being brought in has slowed down, but the birds could need care for several more weeks, according to Duerr.
Each bird eats 5 pounds of fish per day, which along with medicine and other costs, add up to $2,000 per day to care for the pelicans, said Curtis. (He noted that donations can be made to International Bird Rescue.)
“We’re just hemorrhaging money for fish,” said Curtis.
ELEANOR COONEY: My latest piece for Mother Jones magazine. Originally titled “Indecent Rubber Articles,” and part of my essay collection ‘No Country For Old Women,’ it'll tell you more about the puritanical 19th century muttonchopped crusader for “decency” whose insidious influence reverberates down to this day:
motherjones.com/politics/2024/05/anthony-comstock-dildos-rubber-articles
MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Time's up for Sean 'Diddy' Combs - and he knows it. As must his longtime friends, associates, colleagues, employees, politicos and an entire celebrity industrial complex that propped up this monster for decades - Jennifer Lopez included. If there's any justice, Diddy won't be the only one held to account. Former NYPD investigator Derrick Parker, who worked a 1999 shooting involving Combs and J.Lo, has compared him to the Jeffrey Epstein of hip-hop. 'He escaped a lot because of who he was,' Parker said. 'Now a lot of stuff is just coming back to him.'
BEER NEVER BROKE MY HEART
I’ve had a largemouth bass bust my line
A couple beautiful girls tell me goodbye
Trucks break down, dogs run off
Politicians lie, been fired by the boss
It takes one hand to count the things I can count on
No, there ain’t much, man, that ain’t never let me down
Long neck ice cold beer never broke my heart
Like diamond rings and football teams have torn this boy apart
Like a neon dream, it just dawned on me that bars and this guitar
And long neck ice cold beer never broke my heart
She was a Carolina blue jean baby
Fire in her eyes that drove me crazy
It was red taillights when she left town
If I didn’t know then, I sure know now
It takes one hand to count the things I can count on
But I got one hand that’s gripping down on a cold one
‘Cause long neck ice cold beer never broke my heart
Like diamond rings and football teams have torn this boy apart
Like a neon dream, it just dawned on me that bars and this guitar
And long neck ice cold beer never broke my heart, no
It never broke my heart
— Jonathan Singleton, Randy Montana, Luke Combs
IT’S HARD TO GET EXCITED about Julian Assange winning the right to a limited appeal against extradition to the United States. They’re still keeping him locked up and silenced. He’s already been in Belmarsh for five years now while the empire bats him around like a cat toying with a mouse, and five years would have been an obscenely long sentence for the crime of good journalism anyway. They’re just squeezing him and squeezing him and squeezing him in every way they can for as long as possible, all without having to secure an actual conviction.
— Caitlin Johnstone
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2
And I recall in early March 2020, Fauci stated publicly, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”
I had been reading about the Wuhan virus and stocking up on supplies for two months by that time, so I already wasn’t expecting much truth.
What made it completely clear to me though was when the CDC put out its list of things to do to stay safe. Not one of them was traditional centuries (or at least decades)-old common sense human knowledge on general health. No mention of Vitamins C and D3, sunlight, fresh air, exercise, healthy diet, or socialization. Only masks, stay away from other people, stay inside, take your shots (when they became available), order in your meals, and stay home if you have a cold (the only reasonable one in the list).
JEFF BLANKFORT: 76.6% of the organized Jewish community, polled by the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent, support the US sanctioning the ICC for daring to consider an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, almost exactly the same percentage that have supported Israel's war on Gaza from the beginning.
PRESIDENT TRUMP ON COVID CURES:
The full quote. “Frankly it’s just that he’s an idiot and talks about injecting disinfectant or zapping the body with UV that folks were using to point out his utter lack of knowledge on the topic.
“A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Dr. Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?”
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful.”
THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT was established in 2002 as the permanent court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s most heinous atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. The U.N. General Assembly endorsed the ICC, but the court is independent, hence the entirely warranted indictment of two Israelis and three members of Hamas.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL on the ICC warrants:
REUTERS:
Fact Check: ICC has requested, not issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders
EUROPEAN LEADERS DIVIDED on ICC arrest warrant bid for Netanyahu. (Politico-Europe)
https://cssh.northeastern.edu/european-leaders-divided-on-icc-arrest-warrant-bid-for-netanyahu
What the ICC arrest warrants mean for Israel and Hamas (BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4490z75v3o
…”Mr. Khan, a British King’s Counsel, makes his interpretation crystal clear. Israel, he says, has chosen criminal means to achieve its war aims in Gaza — ‘namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury’ to civilians.”
Germany calls ICC arrest warrant request for Israeli Premier Netanyahu “serious”
Allegations of International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor “must be substantiated,” says German government spokesperson.
INTEGRATED VISION
by Tom Stevenson
The military protection of Saudi Arabia has been the centrepiece of US power in the world’s major hydrocarbon-producing region for decades. For most of that time the US has also committed itself to the protection and support of Israel. American strategic planners have usually managed this balancing act without trouble, but on occasion it has posed problems.
In June 1948, the US ambassador to the kingdom, James Rives Childs, warned that support for Israel might provoke ‘vigorous counteraction’ from Saudi Arabia, including threats to the Aramco concession, then owned by American oil companies. During the Six Day War in 1967, King Faisal deployed Saudi troops in Jordan. In 1973, the Yom Kippur War precipitated the Opec oil embargo.
Israel’s current attack on Gaza has not prompted a return to the mood of 1973. The Houthis in Yemen have targeted US ships in the Red Sea, but neither Saudi Arabia nor any other major regional state has altered its policy towards the US because of the part the US has played in helping Israel kill of tens of thousands of Palestinians.
On the contrary, Saudi Arabia continues to seek a more formal affirmation of American protection. In 2019, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman was perturbed by what he saw as the muted US response to major drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais. During the 2020 US election campaign, Joe Biden made more than MBS had expected of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.
Biden no longer voices many criticisms of MBS. The demands of global competition with China have convinced US leaders they need to reinforce their position in the Persian Gulf. Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to Riyadh in December 2022 was a warning. The deal that Saudi Arabia made with Iran in March 2023 to re-establish diplomatic relations, brokered by China, was probably the decisive turning point. It wasn’t, as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had claimed, an ‘end to US hegemony in the region’. But it was embarrassing to American pride.
The Saudi strategy has been to use the threat of China to provoke the US into reaffirming its commitment to the Saudi monarchy, and it has worked. In April 2023, the commander of CENTCOM, General Michael Kurilla, admitted the US was ‘worried that we have to integrate the region before China can penetrate the region’. In September 2023, MBS gave a public interview in which he stressed that the US ‘alliance’ with Saudi Arabia strengthened the US globally. A more formal agreement, he said, would ‘save effort from the Saudi side of not switching to other places’.
For the US, the prospect of a formal pact presented an image-management problem. If it was to be a treaty, how to ensure it passed Congress, and how to prevent it looking like a climb-down from past rhetoric about ‘bone saw’ MBS?
The answer from the National Security Council was that a military pact with Saudi Arabia could be packaged into a ‘deal’ under which Saudi Arabia would make its de facto normalisation of relations with Israel official. Rather than a climb-down it was, according to the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, ‘an integrated vision’ for the Middle East. After 7 October, a requirement that Israel make some concessions to the Palestinians was bolted on. The result was a proposed ‘mega deal’ consisting of a reformulated US-Saudi alliance, some face-saving in the form of Saudi-Israel diplomatic normalisation, and scraps for the Palestinians.
Sullivan has insisted that the US-Saudi deal is inextricable from Saudi Arabia normalising diplomatic ties with Israel, even as Gaza is flattened. But why tie independent strategic goals together in this way? The hope is to produce echoes of the US-brokered normalisation of relations between Egypt and Israel in the 1970s: Camp David 2.0. But Saudi Arabia has never been a threat to Israel in the way that Egypt with an independent foreign policy was, and in any case Saudi leaders long ago made peace with Israel in practice.
The emphasis on the mega deal is more reminiscent of Trump and the Abraham Accords. In September 2023, Stephanie Hallett, then interim chargé d’affaires at the US embassy in Jerusalem (she’s now deputy chief of mission), described Saudi Arabia as the ‘pre-eminent target of the expansion of the Abraham Accords’.
The Saudi foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan, has been briefing for weeks that Riyadh and Washington are ‘very close’ to an agreement. But there is no sign that Israel’s government will agree to anything meaningful for the Palestinians, let alone a Palestinian state.
In 1980, in a memorandum to President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski described the Middle East as the missing piece in the ‘great architectural task’ undertaken by the US after the Second World War. Europe had Nato; military commitments in the Far East were clear; but the Middle East had no real ‘framework for regional security’. One of Brzezinksi’s suggestions was a ‘permanent US naval presence’. That now exists, in Bahrain. American officials have also played a quotidian role in managing political affairs in the Middle East. US forces shoot down Iranian missiles, whether fired from Iran or by the Houthis. But US diplomats also organise secret (and widely known about) back channel talks in Oman, usually through Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani. American envoys have also been trying to gin up local allies for a scheme to deploy a multinational force in Gaza.
The three most senior US foreign policy and national security figures – Sullivan, the CIA director, Bill Burns, and secretary of state, Anthony Blinken – are all working on this project in one form or another. On 28 April, Blinken visited Riyadh as part of the effort to move the normalisation talks forward. Little resulted. On 18 May, Sullivan travelled to Dhaharan to meet MBS. The Saudi government said they had worked on a ‘semi-final draft’ of the pact. The following day Sullivan flew to Israel to brief Benjamin Netanyahu.
Aside from diplomatic difficulties, there is the risk of catastrophic success. In 1980 Brzezinksi warned that a US-orchestrated alliance in the Middle East would have to avoid ‘excessive formality’. The Saudi monarchy was co-opted by American power several generations ago. Grand designs to commit the fact to writing were always liable to open the Saudi government up to internal threats. Perhaps the improbability of the scheme will save the parties from themselves.
(London Review of Books)
The County administrative photo collage brings back some interesting AVA covered memories. Surprisingly, i can identify all but one of the photos. Funny thing is that through long time of newspaper journalism, it feels I have had all of these folks in my living room over the years, but I am never inviting Kendall Smith back
,
chuck dunbar
Here’s a bit of humor, amid the horrors of the times, to begin the day: The old among us will remember from our youth that even back in the 50’s, dreams of flying cars existed. Against stubborn reality, the dreamers persist to this day. The following letter comments on a recent New Yorker article regarding current attempts to perfect flying cars:
“WHEN CARS FLY”“As a longtime observer of the proponents of so-called flying cars, I read Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s piece with some amusement (“Flight of Fancy,” April 22nd & 29th). Flying cars have faced five technological hurdles since the earliest days of the concept: they cannot be effectively controlled by anyone but a skilled pilot; they are too noisy (heard any silent helicopters lately?); they can’t carry enough fuel for any but the briefest journeys; they require too much energy use per passenger, per mile; and they don’t offer a reasonable level of safety for pilots, passengers, or those on the ground. These were the same five hurdles faced by the inventor Paul Moller, who has made protracted efforts to devise a Skycar since the mid-twentieth century; since then, only one impediment has to an extent been overcome. Autopilot, or at least highly assisted flight control that enables non-skilled pilots to fly, is no longer a fantasy. Otherwise, very little has changed since the first Skycar of the nineteen-sixties, and, short of earthshaking breakthroughs in physics, at least two of the original hurdles are likely insurmountable.
Flying cars are a topic best discussed by starting with their obstacles and impossibilities, not with whatever tech bro has the best virtual-reality presentation and a barely working prototype. The field, such as it is, remains approximately where it was the last time I had a firsthand view of it, in the nineties, with Moller’s Skycar attached to an immense crane, from which he would fly it in circles on a cable.”
James Gifford
Aurora, Colo.
A powerful remembrance today of journalist-broadcaster Larry Bensky. He cared and he pushed and he got the job done for all his long, admirable life. I’m reminded of the current war protests on many campuses and elsewhere. I had thought we’d all become so comfortable and ensconced in our many pleasures that no one, especially young folks, cared enough to put themselves out there. Agree or not with their cause and methods, there they are, on the lines pleading-insisting-demanding that we care for the welfare of others. Good to see that in 2024 America.
Channeling Louis Bedrock with a Memo to Craig Stehr: Ye reap what ye sow. Maybe you can mitigate your sorrows with a $20 “nosh” and $12 beer from the Co-op and Brewery respectively.
What’s the big deal of my enjoying a beer and a nosh a few times over the past two years? It is normal and sane.
Craig Louis Stehr
c/o Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center
1045 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
Telephone messages: (707) 234-3270
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
SEND MONEY HERE: Paypal.me/craiglouisstehr
Absolutely nothing, as long as it’s money you earned. Which I doubt you ever have,
“Beggars can’t be choosers is a proverb that expresses the sentiment that one should be grateful for aid, no matter how it is given. One in need of help can not dictate the conditions of the help that is given and should not complain about the type or quality of help that is offered. It is often expressed as an admonishment to be grateful for that which is freely given. The expression beggars can’t be choosers was first recorded in John Heywood’s A dialogue containing the number in effect of all the proverbs in the English tongue, published in 1562: “Beggers should be no choosers, but yet they will: Who can bring a begger from choice to beg still?” The proverb was most probably well known before its publication.”
taken from Grammarist.com
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
I don’t think anybody is really the boss of what horse parts other people can look at. Every dollar in Craig Stehr’s life feeds the local economy. If it comes from donations, those are freely given. If it comes from federal Social Security, that’s what the system was set up for: old people to live inside, warm and fed, without fear of being turned out. As long as the poobahs are already criminally mixing up the Social Security fund with the rest of it anymore, I’d much rather federal money go to people like Craig than to the filthy rich mass murdering profiteers who manipulate us into trillion-dollar war after trillion-dollar war so we need their gigantic 40-billion-dollar instantly obsolete bathtub toys and mountains of rocket bombs and fighter jets and remote-control terror drones to rain fire and destruction from the sky down on women and children 10,000 miles away, and so on, not to mention our arsenal of nuclear weapons sufficient to wreck the biosphere of the planet ten times over, that takes constant upkeep and testing and replenishment so they’ll crater cities as designed when an eventual monster presses the button, and not just fizzle, embarrassed. Craig is barely a molecule of H20 in a drop in the lake compared to all that. If he turned down unacceptable shelter in an unacceptable location, show him something better. He’s 75 years old, bad heart, bad teeth, but he still has his wits, a sense of humor, and value. He’s not a drug addict or a wino or a shouting street-corner nuisance. His daily reports on the seamy underbelly of town are useful and entertaining. Give him a column in the UDJ. And why not set him up in a part-time job with the city, that comes with a little apartment? A word from the city manager would do it.
It wasn’t an unacceptable location for me (two doors up from the Canadian). I’m 73, had a heart attack a month shy of my 71st birthday, and live in that hood with three stents in my heart.
Otherwise, I am supportive of Craig being allowed a shelter bed and a rental voucher for something else closer to his preferred location.
I like this hood. Prefer it, in fact.
Happy Wednesday… 🌷💕
BOS… PHF… Measure B…
I have stated before the PHF is a band aid which is true, the only thing it will achieve is lightening the load on the ER, but not by much. 2026 is a long way off to allow the suffering of families and their loved ones with Mental Illness to continue to struggle. People in Mental Illness Crisis sometimes are in the ER 3 or 4 days before a bed is found elsewhere in another county at a PHF. That is unacceptable but there are not enough psych beds statewide. The PHF is brief and it is what occurs within the system before and after a psychiatric crisis is where change can occur and it is necessary. Until the system stops feeding off false ideas we will never solve the issues with addiction, mental illness and homelessness.
How many service committees do we have working on this? …
All that money for a PHF and nothing gets accomplished.
It is very disturbing and we should focus on providing appropriate and meaningful service to families.
That is the infrastructure necessary to support a PHF.
Families!!!
mm 💕
The PHF is not a stand alone solution. It will be a part of the care system. for example, we had a woman sleeping on the streets for months. cold wet rainy nights refusing any services including the EWS. What we found out is she is bipolar schizophrenic not taking her meds. no drugs no alcohol. She walked away from permanent housing in Santa Rosa and for some reason ended up here. After months of CRU time establishing a relationship with her, trust was finally gained. We did get her into EWS a few nights but not being on her meds her decision making was erratic at best. Collaborating with RCS we were finally able to get her conserved. I believe one night in the ER and then off to an out of county PHF where her meds were stabilized. Without the PHF it is my opinion she would not being doing well and not back into permanent housing, which is her current position. Instead she would still be on the street suffering. The hurdle in the entire process was the high threshold to conserve someone. The PHF is just one piece of the puzzle.
Bernie,
Exactly…. but people think it is and that it will provide what is necessary it does not.. It is important to understand it takes a lot of interaction and support and time. Glad to hear you were able to help the woman get conserved and treated but when the year is up she still may not be well or able to function independently, family involvement if available is a priority!
mm 💕
Mr. Norvell is going to be given a rude awakening if he tries to meddle with District 2’s homeless situation. Ukiah will never agree to fixing their problem, because they don’t see it as a problem that needs fixing.
MAGA Marmon
They said the same thing here In 2016 when we were a mess. I agree the 2nd is a bigger mess to clean up and a taller hurdle but we shall see.
Revisit the tiny home project previously planned in Ukiah and otherwise get people conserved and stabilized in treatment facilities. The latter may require different sorts of plans and contracts focusing on creating needed facilities for the longer term residence-based treatment.
The PHF unit to be built at Whitmore Lane? Do you mean the $2 Million dollar now vacant parcel where the county stupidly bought a dilapidated rotting building without having a pre-purchase inspection by the Mendocino County building official and his inspectors, where the condition of the building was so bad, that it could not be repaired, or re-used and had to be demolished? A classic example of why the county has a multi-million dollar deficit.
“Why Butker thinks he’s in a position to pass out advice on any subject other than football is a mystery almost as big as why the women’s college invited him as, of all things, a commencement speaker.”
Laura Ingraham to Butker? “Shut up and kick?”
Amen!
Over the years I have received a lot of advice from some folks who have watched a few episodes of “COPS”.
I am constantly amazed at the solutions the untrained can come up with. While many are well meaning folks, nicking someone’s gun hand isn’t a true solution. Although it did seem to work well for Roy Rogers.
These folks have been largely uninformed and often I ponder the outcome if a new television series titled “PILOTS” was brought to prime time. I wonder how many people would be offering advice to airlines pilots on how to “stick the landing”
Don’t get me wrong I have been a student of YouTube university from time to time. Mostly due to a lack of understanding regarding how to replace a stater in a motorcycle. That being said when it comes to defusing the atomic bomb although my viewing experience urges me to not cut the red wire……I can promise you I will stand back and refrain from offering advice to the EOD team on the operation.
I like Mike Kendall’s response.
People will not hesitate to tell you you prefer apples after you have clearly stated you prefer grapes.
Apologies, Matt. I’ve been calling everyone Mike, lately.
No worries I got your meaning
Maybe there is a lawyer that can take Stehr’s case up and explore civil action.
Maybe also a referral to the state Attorney General for possible criminal charges? (Sending a 74 man with heart disease to live outside might constitute a violation of various criminal statutes?)
I’m aware of shortcomings in the local voucher program, due to stories shared with me. Lack of available rentals is one factor.
Sorry, he was offered a perfectly acceptable rental unit that you virtually pleaded with him to take. But it fell on deaf ears. Why? Although bus service was readily available, it was “too far” from the brewery, Co-op, library, and all the other imaginary charms of action-packed downtown Ukiah.
Civil suit? Criminal charges? Stick to flying saucers.
I’m passing the flying saucer baton on to those like Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds (and others active on this front like Barack Obama, etc) who recently stated plans to reintroduce their UAP Disclosure Act which referenced recovered non human tech and bodies 22 times in relation to now known hosts to related special access programs.
My briefing contribution, though, has started making the rounds:
https://www.et-cultures.com/post/a-briefing-glimpses-of-uap-related-non-human-intelligences-and-their-activities
Craig could explore civil action re elderly/disabled persons being denied a shelter bed, imo. His rejection of a unit in my hood is a mistake that now exists in the past.
Forgot to report that Lue Elizondo ‘s book “Imminent” has finally cleared a nine-month long DOSPR Pentagon review and will be released August 20th. David Grusch’s op-ed is still undergoing DOSPR review.
Meanwhile, a fresh quote:
MarikvR
@MvonRen
·
6h
UAP Disclosure Act co-sponsor (with Senate Majority Leader Schumer) Rounds:
“We’re not going to let up on our interest in [UAP].”
The person posting this on x is a former State Dept official who traveled with Obama on a recent European visit.
Yeah? So what? Where’s the report on the trade talks between ET and the guvamint???
Whatever BS the guvamint is peddling regarding ET is likely pure lies, as always. This time their propaganda is an attempt to distract our attention from US arming and support of claim-jumping Zionist savages in Palestine. Schumer should retire. He’s totally useless.
In the 1980s, various individuals were fed false scarey notions from in particular an AFOSI officer based at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. (Rick Doty.). There were also others feeding disinformation to ufologists. Disinfo included the idea of a covert agreement between the Greys and the Ike Administration to get technology from the Greys in exchange for not interfering with their abduction activity (in a wide scale genetics project). The disinformation activity was exposed by ufologist Bill Moore in 1989. Moore personally described that to me just prior to going public.
Looking at close encounter reports, there seem to be signs of some sort of covert involvement by people in special access programs with the Greys. As David Grusch testified to last summer in a Congressional hearing, he heard from some whistleblowers (from SAPs) that some sort of covert contact has been established. What is actually the case is an open question.
The executive branch leaders of our govt so far are suppressing and/or ignoring this…..as evidenced by former AATIP director Sean Kirkpatrick’s public propaganda tour, directly guided by Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough. Meanwhile, a few dozen whistleblowers have revealed SAP activity to the staff and members of the Senate Select Cmt on Intelligence, and the DOD and IC Inspector Generals.
More BS. Why would ET wanna visit this gutted planet? Where’s that effen trade talk report, you phony?
Here is my email to Ukiah Council Member Susan Sher…
Warmest spiritual greetings, Thank you for taking the time to respond in regard to my emergency housing situation. For the record, I asked that I be removed from consideration at The Canadian 20 blocks or so south of Talmage Road on S. State Street, because as a 74 year old high risk heart patient, it would have been dangerous for me to have moved in there, so far away from regular transportation and medical services. The housing navigator, Alexis Lyon, apologized for showing it to me, saying that it was a mistake to have done so. Regardless, even during my so-called interview yesterday with the Building Bridges supervisor, he surmised that one of the reasons that my request for an extension (so that I could make the last two dental appointments) was denied, was because I did not take the place, thus setting me up to advance to a better place later. Please note that this is beyond stupid, and Redwood Community Services/Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center ought to be told that!
I have today advised everyone that my goal at this point is to make the last two dental appointments, and then LEAVE Mendocino County. I have advised the new housing navigator Jennifer McQuaid of this today. I have also made it clear that the county government could grant me an exception extension at Building Bridges until July 21st, in order to make the last two dental appointments, and then I would happily leave Mendocino County. Otherwise, I have advised all that I will not walk out of the gate with my belongings and a letter to law enforcement to deter my arrest due to necessary “camping”. I have emailed both Sheriff Matt Kendall and the Ukiah Police Department inviting them to take me into custody for my protection. And frankly, it would be fine with me to be interviewed by the FBI at Building Bridges. Let’s talk about the constant narcotics and extreme alcoholism that I have witnessed for the past two years, permitted under the crazy policy of a “low barrier environment”. As someone who was part of Catholic Worker for 23 years (Plowshares locally is part of that network), serving the “poorest of the poor”, I have a very different understanding of what helping means.
Thank you very much for anything that you might do to assist me in being stabilized indoors, making the last two dental appointments, and leaving Mendocino County.
Sincerely,
Craig Louis Stehr
May 22nd, 2024 Anno Domini
Research communities for where housing vouchers and rental inventory are more readily available. (Vacaville might be good.). Also, look at where tiny home construction is happening (check out San Jose for that?).
Also, bring your case to Mo on Facebook.
Good idea, I will make sure it happens. Right now.
With all due respect to all of the valuable info here regarding Mental Health, Public Health, and the plight of Craig Stehr:
The idea of “conserving” someone sounds comforting on the surface but can be a violation of individual rights. A “5150”, which qualifies a person for treatment at a PHF is likewise a possible violation, as the person committing the person on a 5150 evaluation is depending on info from outsiders who may or may not (a) understand the entire situation or (b) be lying in order to take advantage of the situation. I know this sound improbable, but it happens. For example, a conservator can report their charge on a 5150, and, once that person is semi-incarcerated in a lockdown facility, it may be hard for loved ones to extricate them. I don’t know any conservators in this area, so I am not commenting on their reliability, but it has been known to happen elsewhere. There is also the scary possibility that the conservator could be mentally ill him or herself and have a need to extract pain and suffering on others by falsely claiming the need for a 5150. Also, conservators need oversight, and I think that is one thing everyone can agree on, that oversight in this county is a very big problem, one probably shared by many communities around the country.
As for Craig Stehr, asking a 74 year old to make money to buy his $20 nosh is unrealistic. It is also comical that a $20 expenditure would raise eyebrows while our county pays over $1,000,000 per bed at the new yet-to-be-built PHF (not counting the services required, which will be ruinous and ongoing). $1,000,000 would buy a lot of noshes. So would the hundreds of thousand dollar salaries these public employees make in “serving” the mentally ill.
Our Republican presidential candidate would like to eliminate Social security and Medicaid. He will also, if elected, lower interest rates back to their abnormal norm, and therefore cause rampant inflation. His record of eliminating regulation will also lead to corporations taking advantage and raising prices without restraint. Chances are many of the older population (or even younger) will then find themselves in a situation similar to Craig Stehr’s. So before you judge, try to imagine what that might be like because it may be coming. I hate to think that and I hope it will be avoided, but it is a realistic worry that cannot be refuted. Very sad where our country is going, but it could be avoided if people would just use their heads and hearts before voting.
Hi Sarah, that can happen and does abusing others through the power to conserve. However it is no easy feat to get a person conserved let alone held on a 5150 in our area even when they meet the criteria.
Unfortunately nothing works cohesively in these matters.
mm 💕
So your saying to vote Biden and everything will keep improving like it has been during his term? Got it.
I’m not asking a 74 year old man to make money. I’m pointing out that he’s in his current predicament because he’s NEVER made money by working. And he rejected a rental apartment because it didn’t suit his lifestyle. I have compassion for people who find themselves in dire circumstances through no fault of their own, but not for those who choose bum as a career path.
I don’t like Trump, but as to your assertion that his policies will cause rampant inflation, have you purchased any groceries lately? Or anything else, for that matter?
Your assertion that I never earned money is ridiculous. There was plenty of paid employment since college graduation in 1971. That is why I am receiving social security. WAKE UP!!!
It’s called greed-flation. Private businesses and corporations are price gauging and blaming it on inflation, while their profits are soaring to record heights.
Isn’t that the same crap Biden is peddling?
MAGA Marmon
That sh-t has been happening since kaputalism was invented. The best way of controlling it is to tax the wealthy, at a 90 percent rate for ALL their income in excess of $200,000 per year. Add to that by taxing them on their wealth, annually, in addition to the income tax. We’ve been picking up the tab for those wealthy scum (including brainless trumples) for too damned long. Finally, never trust a MAGAt! They are even worse than the wealthy.
Taxing the rich is another thing Trump can be counted on not to do, lol. That is IF he ever gets to be president again, which I pray he will not. But I think taxing the rich is a good idea, especially those making huge amounts and with less regulation there will be more of those and more poor people, too.
Well, inflation usually does not stand still, meaning once it gets started it keeps going up, and Biden inherited rampant inflation from Trump., due to the low interest rates during Trump’s term. Janet Yellen raising the interest rates has dampened the enthusiasm for buying up real estate, which, as I recall, was the reason for the last economic disaster in 2008. People investing in real estate (many “flipping” houses) to the point that loans by banks were getting to be way too risky but nobody knew because the bad loans were mixed into those deplorable derivatives. Suddenly, it was no longer advantageous to own a home that you paid $400,00 for and was now (in 2008) worth $200,000. So people just walked away, leaving banks holding the bag.
A similar situation was brewing pre-Biden. There may be pain for those unable to buy a home, due to higher interest rates, but it has calmed down the booming real estate sector.
As to Craig Stehr, “not making any money” is not necessarily a crime, and I assume you mean by that that even if he had a job he did not make enough to buy himself security from Social Security. Many people are in that situation. It’s not against the law and it’s not criminal. “Bum” is a pretty harsh speed-dial judgment call.
Sent the “Everything I don’t like is Antisemitic” to a liberal jewish friend in the Bay Area.
He’s kind of an NPR type but rabidly anti-Trump to give you an idea where he stands.
He was nonplussed.
Makes me think Blankfort is correct that a majority are closet Israel supporters.
I was stunned, never would have took him for that.