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Letters 6/25/24

By AVA News Service on June 25, 2024

CATCHY TITLE; BAD POLICY

Editor,

It is becoming obvious we are all simply spectators in the social experiment which is playing out in California. Over the past several years residents of our state have continued to suffer from the effects of Proposition 47, which was sold as the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.” This legislation was clearly set in place to reduce the population of prisons across the state by placing state prison inmates into county jails and rewriting laws making many criminals ineligible to receive meaningful consequences for many crimes. This legislation was sold to the voters through a catchy title which simply wasn’t true. Law enforcement clearly warned our legislators this would negatively affect public safety, but our words fell on deaf ears.

This legislation redefined burglaries and removed penalties for aggregate offenses which basically means a person can enter a business 20 times in a day, commit 20 thefts under $950 in a day and receive 20 citations. However, at no point would it become a felony and at no point can we arrest for these crimes; they simply get citations. This has been a terrible problem for retailers and in our area many of these retailers are family businesses.

Narcotics overdoses are killing many every year in our state and in Mendocino County. I think we can all see this legislation was lacking. Many of our retailers have moved to placing items behind security barriers and chaining up retail merchandise. We are also seeing severely addicted persons in homeless situations across the state. Unintended consequences are glaringly apparent.

After several attempts by legislators to clean up this problem were shot down in Sacramento, a new solution in the form of a ballot initiative was brought forward by Californians for Safer Communities, a bipartisan group made up of law enforcement, elected officials and businesses. Over 900,000 signatures in support of the measure have been collected hoping to roll back parts of Proposition 47.

This initiative is an opportunity for all of us in California to fix the laws and to get back to a balanced place where we have accountability and meaningful consequences which include treatment. This would also provide our judges with options for those who simply refuse take any responsibility for their actions. This ballot initiative is currently gaining momentum. Until now I believed Californians would be able to vote on this issue.

On June 10th Governor Newsom was quoted as saying “We don’t need to have this on the ballot.” Now we are seeing what many lawmakers are calling “political gamesmanship at its worst.” Many legislators don’t want this issue to be brought to the ballot. These folks have ignored the facts and now want to ignore the public. Taking this decision out of the hands of our voters is wrong. Have our legislators spoken with the victims of crime? These folks obviously haven’t and they are currently placing criminals above victims once again.

If legislators truly wanted to fix these issues, why did they kill bills which were taking steps to do so prior to the ballot initiative gaining the signatures needed to put it on the ballot? This is obviously a refusal to walk back bad legislation and allow the people who are affected by this to be heard.

If these issues are to be truly fixed, we have to get to the root of the problem. This will only be possible with education, opportunity, and accountability, in equal parts. Sadly these appear to be the three things California constantly struggles with.

In rural communities opportunities are often lacking, we constantly see jobs being legislated out of existence and California’s regulations killing businesses at an incredible pace. Is anyone looking at this?

Has Sacramento forgotten that stealing is wrong? Have they not heard fentanyl is killing people every day? As we continue to push forward with legislation which claims that suspects are victims and forgets victims exist, I am fearful problems will continue to grow.

I would invite everyone to pay attention to this legislative session, and to ask yourself if you agree with the direction we are heading in Sacramento. Without the voices of our voters, we are simply watching a well-orchestrated play which depicts a land headed to hell in a hand basket. Sadly we in Mendocino County are riding in the basket with the rest of the state.

Here is a link to an interesting article from the San Francisco Chronicle which talks about some of these issues.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/emilyhoeven/article/prop-47-ballot-california-19507776.php

Sheriff Matt Kendall

Ukiah

STAFF SHORTAGES COMPOUNDED BY INEFFICIENCY

Editor,

On May 14, my Adventist primary care provider ordered some blood work and put in a referral for an outside specialist, noting referrals were running about two weeks behind. 

At the hospital, tents were being set up for another job fair. I waited in line at the reception desk, gave my ID and insurance proofs, and then waited before entering a private room, where I gave the same cards to another person. I completed the form and went on to the lab, where I waited to be checked in. Then I waited for the phlebotomist. Total: about an hour. 

After two weeks, Adventist said with just one person managing the referrals, they were now taking three weeks. The specialist’s office said January was the first opening. 

Referral transmission is moving out a week for every week of waiting. Tomorrow it will be four weeks. February will probably be my specialist’s first opening. 

Patients move to the back of the line due to Adventist’s profoundly inefficient system. 

The job fair, the cumbersome lab check-in, and the referral wait are all connected. Of course they need more people; they aren’t utilizing the ones they have. The current employees, forced to work so inefficiently, must be frustrated. That affects retention. 

The lab check-in process needs to be streamlined. One or two people from that process should be retrained to work referrals. 

This is a rare case where commissioning a management consultant might be fruitful. 

Jean Arnold

Mendocino

US WAR MACHINE ROLLS ON

Editor,

The US war machine rolls on, financed by US taxpayer funds in violation of US laws. The genocide of the Gazan Palestinians continues, greased by denials of genocide from the Biden Administration. The IDF and settlers continue their small scale murder of Palestinians in the West Bank To the east, Genocide Joe has arranged a 10-year slaughter of Ukrainians and Russians by stealing the investment income of Russia's frozen funds - a violation of international law. President Biden, apparently satisfied with the ammo sparing state of the Gazan starvation, is now turning his attention to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Expect him to exacerbate conditions there. Of course, Iran will be an issue. And Taiwan is heating up, as are North Korea and Yemen. Stoltenberg of NATO is talking about using nucs.

The US made the Israeli/Palestine horror by kicking the can down the road for 80 years in its unwavering support of Israeli occupiers. The Ukraine upheaval only took 10 years of US CIA, State Department, and Pentagon interference. These wars are caused by our warmongers. They are unnecessary. It does not benefit America or make America safe. It provides profits for defense contractors and plutocrats, fuels inflation, and deprives Americans of the services that they pay for. We and the world can see our leaders' lies, empire building, and outright theft.

Why do we allow ourselves to be limited to a choice of President to an ancient hawk or an old grifter? Why do we accept this slog to WWIII?

Protest! Write and call your representatives. Take to the streets. Join organizations that oppose the bloody world domination intended by our rulers. (John Sakowitz listed some good ones in his recent AVA letter.) Make peace through cooperation, not annihilation.

Joan Vivaldo

Novato

MENDO BOUND

Editor,

Hope to start a 3 day visit to Mendocino in a couple of minutes! A friend is driving and covering core costs until our cash infusion later this month! It’s been years since I’ve soaked in a hot spring! Oy! -

Namaste from The City,

David Svehla

San Francisco

THE IRISH WAY

Editor:

Forever campaigning.

I happened to be in Ireland before their recent general elections. As we traveled around the country, everything seemed as usual. Suddenly, on May 8, we saw lots of posters of a uniform size hung on places such as light posts. Somehow, the Republic of Ireland is able to perform democratically while allowing campaigning for only 30 days prior to an election. That includes posters, TV ads, and door-to-door campaigning. Is that not amazing?

I contend that the main reason we have such a dysfunctional democracy is that we never get a break from campaigning in some form, with its character attacks and loss of productivity by our elected representatives. When the main strategy of one party is to prevent the other from passing any legislation that would be good for the country or confirming essential appointments, then the work of governing is not getting done.

I place a good portion of the blame for this on our news media. Give it a rest. We need a news moratorium on political rhetoric as well as laws limiting the time overt campaigning is allowed. Let respectful speech and listening prevail, talking about something other than politics.

Pamela Tennant

Sebastopol

KEEP CATS INSIDE

Editor,

To suggest that the 60 million to 100 million free-ranging, unowned cats in the U.S. are a beneficial part of a balanced and healthy ecosystem is difficult to accept and wrong.

Cat owners and feral cat defenders need to contribute to viable solutions to the problem that feral and roaming cats present to our native wildlife populations, especially in the face of mounting pressures brought on by climate change. 

Cat owners need to keep their animals indoors. Studies show that catch, neuter and release programs do not work.

John Wadsworth

Concord

AI DUMBS US DOWN

Editor,

The advent of the iPhone and social media have already contributed to adults and children losing in-person social contacts. Social media has enabled suicidal thoughts and bullying. 

Now Apple wants to relieve people of their ability to think by providing automatic emails, doing homework and just asking the phone to do everything for them. 

A century from now, we will see people with tiny little heads. Humans will completely lose the ability to develop their brains.

Carole Glosenger

San Francisco

FACING OUT

Dearest AVA,

Would you, please do a story on the newest trend which is to park one's vehicle facing out (instead of driving into space).

Warmest regards,

Bird/Falcon

ED REPLY: OK. Some people are parking facing out instead of facing in.

HILLARY GOT AWAY WITH WORSE

Editor: 

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign was fined $8,000 for violating federal finance campaign laws. Her team falsely reported the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense and service and legal compliance consulting. Actually, this opposition research was an attempt to smear her opponent with false and salacious allegations. Obviously, this was intended to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Moreover Clinton's campaign was headquartered in New York state (in Brooklyn), which would make it fall under the jurisdiction of New York penal law Section 175.10 – the state law that makes it a felony to falsify business records with the intent to conceal the commission of a crime. What is the connection between Clinton's campaign violation and more recent news? For her violation, there wasn't a Manhattan prosecutor politically motivated to bring an unprecedented case to trial.

Clinton’s violation was far worse. It led to four separate Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants and the Mueller probe of President Donald Trump, and cost $36 million. At the end of the probe, Mueller concluded there was no Russia collusion involving Trump or anybody in his campaign.

See how this works?

Stephan Marquez

Santa Rosa

THANKS, MIKE

Editor:

I want to thank state Sen. Mike McGuire for working to move the Great Redwood Trail from a dream toward reality.

The bicycle and pedestrian trail parallel to SMART’s rail line provides safe alternative transportation for Sonoma and Marin county commuters to prevent climate change by reducing vehicle miles traveled.

The draft master plan for the Great Redwood Trail prioritizes construction through the Ukiah Valley, while recognizing difficult terrain south of Hopland will delay a connection to Sonoma County.

Efforts to eliminate the rail line north of Cloverdale may leave Mendocino County’s population centers without the economic and environmental benefits of rail transportation as transition from fossil-fueled to electric vehicles reduces gas tax revenues required to maintain Highway 101 through the geologically unstable Russian River canyon.

Let's hope recognition of the long-term benefits of preserving Mendocino County’s connection to the national rail network discourages the short-term expedient of placing the Ukiah Valley trail segment directly over the existing rails where terrain is suitable for a parallel trail such as we enjoy in Sonoma County.

Mendocino County deserves the same planning for future transportation needs.

Albert Wellman

Santa Rosa

GOING DEEP IN 2002

Editor,

You call the left a non-existent entity. This may throw much of your readership into a crisis of self-identity. Perhaps I can be of some assistance with the following quiz:

If you think the United States was more responsible for the cold-war than the Soviet Union then you may be a leftie.

If you think that:

  • South Korea invaded North Korea,
  • Mumia is innocent along with Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, and Pretty Boy Floyd,
  • Professor Angela Davis was innocent and now is a notable scholar,
  • Christian fundamentalism is more of a threat to freedom than Islamic fundamentalism,
  • It was OK for the International Women’s Conference to be held in a country that systematically murders infant females,
  • The US has been harder on the environment than any nation that ever had the word Socialist in its name,
  • Israel attacked the Arabs in 1967 (not to mention 1948, 1956 and 1973),
  • In the Soviet Union mistakes were made,

…then you may be a leftie.

If you scored more than 50% on this quiz you’re not just a leftie, but a hopeless idiot as well.

Bob Trupin

Comptche

Ed reply: Here goes, Bob, and thanks for your concern:

  1. Yes, the US and the rest of the capitalist world kicked off the Cold War, not that the Bolsheviks would have become any more like democratic socialists if international capitalism hadn't tried to smother their revolution in its cradle.
  2. I don't “believe” South Korea invaded North Korea. Never have; never thought it was a question of religion, either.
  3. Mumia, Hiss, the Rosenbergs are and were guilty. Hiss and the Rosenbergs, I confess, had me on the fence for years, and I think Mumia ought to get a new trial, although he and the screwball cult Mumia belonged to at the time he shot and killed the cop made a farce out of his first trial. There was no excuse for the execution of the Rosenbergs, however, since they hadn't told the Russians anything the Russians didn't already know. Pretty Boy Floyd did the best he could for his friends and family during the Great Depression. Never has been anything wrong with freelance re-distribution of the wealth, especially when it's concentrated in the wrong hands, as it was then and is now.
  4. Professor Davis was guilty as hell but is now, my friend, a living tribute to the inspirational magnanimity of our fine, fat country! Where else can one pick up the gun and win a second home in the glorious hills of Anderson Valley, a Mercedes SUV and a cush job at Santa Cruz wowing hippie kids? I'm not competent to judge the professor's scholarship, but I've heard she's a truly excellent teacher.
  5. The two fundamentalisms are spiritually identical, the diff being that our fundies are much less energetic than theirs. But all fundamentalisms are murderously the same, including the one that drives you, Bob, and General Sharon.
  6. I wasn't consulted. I'd have insisted on the Boonville Fairgrounds if site selection had been my responsibility.
  7. Hmmm. That's a tough one. Industrial civ, regardless of who's operating it, is rough on the environment. I'd say that America, being a lot richer, is better at preservation and protection than many countries because the desperation quotient isn't as great here. We can afford environmentalism, they can't.
  8. Yes, Israel cleared the Arabs out in '48 on the lunatic grounds that the Old Testament told them Palestine belonged to them! Israel also started the '67 war on, I'd say, the reasonable assumption that the Arabs were about to attack them. Ditto for subsequent offensives since '67. I think it's clear that Israel is imperiling itself and, perhaps, much of the world, via General Sharon's theocratically-backed, ongoing campaign against Palestinians, a large majority of whom are only nominal Moslems. I don't see any difference between Sharon and al Qaeda.

By the way, Israel also attacked the US in 1967, as some of us are aware, when they deliberately attacked our spy ship, The Liberty, in international waters, strafing and killing American sailors even after they'd abandoned ship and were in their life rafts! LBJ should have strafed the Knesset for that one, but…

  1. Soviet mistakes? The whole works was a “mistake,” as most people on the left would now agree. In any case, you're talking to a Menshevik here, dude, considered in the context of the Russian revolution. The dictatorship of the proletariat or anybody else's dictatorship never made any sense to me. I'm partial to anarcho-syndicalist theories myself, but I'd settle for Scandinavian-style socialism here at home, and so would most Americans if they got to vote on what should be the guaranteed basics of life for everyone everywhere — food, shelter, education, health care, meaningful work, and Giants tickets.

How'd I do, doctor?

TIME WASTING

Editor-

I’m probably wasting my time writing to the AVA, but preaching to the choir is an even more dismal task.

The term cold war is usually associated with post-World War II relations between the US and the USSR. Whatever went down in 1917 Russia we should save for another day.

The Vanona Documents and the Soviet archives as well as Sudoplatov’s Special Tasks and the research done by Ronald Rodash and Sol Stern, should convince anyone with an open mind of the damage wrought by the Rosenbergs. Of course giving the atom bomb to one of the worst psychopaths in history is nothing more than a minor embarrassment to the left, if that. As the likelihood of a nuclear attack on the US grows, the subject should become ever more embarrassing, but the left is incapable of being embarrassed.

Equating Christian fundamentalists with Moslem fundamentalists would have made sense in 16th century Spain, but today the killers are almost exclusively the sons of Mohammed. The Koran is the basis for a social and legal system, Sharia, which is far more cruel and vindictive than anything that can be found in Judaism or Christianity. The information is readily available and overwhelming to anyone who cares to look. Unfortunately asking lefties to look at anything that contradicts their moronic outlook is like asking pigs to fly.

The World Health Organization estimates that 130 million women (approximately 20% of all Muslim females) have suffered female genital mutilation (FGM), and a minimum of two-million children undergo this barbarism each year.

Your crude and mocking suggestion that I organize a Comptche Against Clitorectomy chapter, as well as your comparing mutilation with pornography and Connie Chung (???), only indicates indifference to this barbarism.

Another state-sponsored horror which you deny is the murder of female infants in China. Millions of these children have been abandoned as a direct result of government policy, and murdered by neglect in the dying rooms of government orphanages.

It is not a cause for celebration, as you so brilliantly pointed out. But your denial of governmental responsibility is consistent with your tendency to white-wash any atrocity, whenever the comrades of yester-year (waving Mao’s little red book) are involved.

Much of our wealth has indeed come from our fortunate geography. (We might take note that a Russia covering one-sixth the planet’s land mass has nothing to show for it but perpetual poverty). And as we rub ashes into our hair and wrap ourselves in a cloak of shame for having been born lucky, we might remember that much of our wealth was created by a work-ethic and by inventive genius, not to mention the excellence of our social system; that the Indians were killed by men long dead; that more Americans shed their blood to free the slaves than ever owned slaves. And while we pat ourselves on the back (naturally through our cloak of shame) we might also remember that we saved the world from Hitler, from Stalin, and are probably the only force that can save it from Islam with its goal of world-conquest.

As to the USS Liberty: Several boards of enquiry exonerated Israel of having launched a deliberate attack. The Liberty was mistaken for an Egyptian war-ship flying US colors. The US naval command had ordered all US ships out of the area, but failed to transmit the order to the Liberty. Israel had no reason to deliberately attack her only friend in the world.

The 1967 war, as all the wars Israel fought, was a struggle to survive. Israeli aggression exists only in the minds of people too indifferent, too biased, or too lazy to seek the truth. (Yes Bruce, there is such a thing as the truth). Why would a nation of 5 million commit aggression against an Arabia of tens of millions, against an Islam of 1.3 billion? Jews are reputedly evil, not stupid, stupid!

And why, pray tell, was no Palestinian state created before the 1967 War, when the whole of the west bank was in Arab hands? Are Jews such good nation-makers that the responsibility for creating a Palestinian state fell to them? Could the vast expanse of Arab lands and the wealth of Arab oil not have facilitated a happier solution to the Palestinian problem than this endless war? Must the Arab cause put Israel and the whole world in perpetual jeopardy?

Do you really believe that hatred for Jews plays no part in the conflict?

Do you really think that the Israelis want this war of attrition to continue forever; that they would not do anything short of national suicide to end it? Do you really believe that your obsessive hatred of Israel has no consequence? That it might not make its own small contribution to a blood-bath on the horizon?

Meanwhile you pretend to preach peace.

Spare me your hypocrisy!

Bob Trupin

Comptche

ED REPLY: Not to be too provincial about all this Big Think stuff, and unhappy to be placed by you in the position of defending the defunct Evil Empire that I never defended while it was up and running, I remind you, comrade, that my focus is Boonville, not global affairs. I try to keep up with events in the outside world but my beat extends mostly from Neil Diamond's new house on 128 southeast of Yorkville, west to Point Arena, east to Covelo, north to Orick. Beyond? All I know is what I read. Anyway…

The Cold War kicked off in 1917 under the auspices of the White armies funded by the capitalist countries. The USSR was besieged from the outset, although it's now clear that the Bolsheviks' dictatorship didn't need external enemies to justify internal repression.

I'll need a second opinion on how effective the Rosenbergs were as spies; Stalin was an equal opportunity killer.

We agree on Pretty Boy Floyd. Woody Guthrie, however, was a fellow traveler which, to your way of thinking, makes him a left idiot.

Fundamentalists, of whatever religion, including Judaism, don't co-exist, or co-exist only grudgingly. They're all a menace, some more than others at this particular time.

What “we” did right to accumulate more than our share of the global bounty is to arrive on a vast, resource rich, undeveloped continent, slaughter the people who lived here, import slaves to do much of the work of capital development up and down the east coast, produce a handful of geniuses whose brilliance enabled us to eventually replace the Brits as the world's primary imperialists and, regional disturbances like the Civil War aside, generally luck out. Until now as, a glance out one's window confirms, capitalism is killing US.

The murder of females in China is not state policy. Lots of people have written lots about it, and what's the point? I doubt if you'll find many Americans who think female infanticide is cause for celebration. But now that you mention female mutilation, how about pornography? Brittany? Connie Chung?

Millions of girls are not being mutilated in the Islamic countries, or at least not in most Islamic countries. Odd preoccupation of yours here, Bob. Have you considered forming a Comptche Against Clitorectomies chapter?

If Israel was established as a secular state, why not Nevada, as Fred Gardner has suggested, complete with an NBA franchise called The Runnin' Rebs?

I can't say my piece at any “liberal” venue on the Northcoast, so why would I want to try my luck in Iran? (

The affair of the USS Liberty was thoroughly investigated and found to be a case of straight up murder of a virtually unarmed, non-combatant American naval vessel in international waters. And Israel's refusal to honor the '67 peace agreement has got us where we are, on the brink of war with Iraq, an unhappy country with a very bad man running it but no threat whatsoever to US. This looming catastrophe is co-sponsored by US and Israel and is likely to intensify global terrorism even if Bush and Mad Dog Sharon bring it off with relatively light loss of life.

You used the word “mistake,” I didn't. The Soviet regimes, murderous as the first two were, did not kill “tens of millions.” I think the generally accepted figure is ten million, and most of them were Stalin's work.

PS. Israel didn't want US to know they'd launched the '67 war on a pre-emptive basis after promising US not to do it, hence the deliberate attack on the clearly marked Liberty as confirmed at the time by Israeli radio traffic intercepts. The truth of the event was also conceded by the Israeli government in private apologies to LBJ and, as I recall, damage awards to survivors, widows and orphans. Sharon's unchecked and ongoing rampages against the Palestinians have fueled great hatred for the US in the Moslem countries because we're viewed as what we are — Sharon's enabler and thus a sponsor of state terror. Because Bush, and Clinton before him, won't restrain Sharon and the minority of Israeli fanatics who comprise the bulk of his political base, Islamic maniacs, in turn, can be counted on to step up their murders of innocent people all over the world.

One Comment

  1. Lou June 25, 2024

    What a stupid debate! Ed. you shoud’ve let the weirdo’s comments die of lack of response. By engaging with them you are only showing that even the truth doesn’t work with rabid righties. Just pray Trump doesn’t steal the election this time!

    Reply

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