Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 6/26/24

Behold! The mighty Navarro flowing free to the sea. Mother Nature at her best (Kirk Vodopals)

AN UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE and associated surface front will produce widespread marine stratus and relatively cooler temperatures through Thursday. Warming trend returns for this weekend into next week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A foggy 53F on the coast this Wednesday morning. If & when will we see the sun is the typical question. Any guesses? Some moderate wind tomorrow & Friday should give us clearer skies. It's too early to start looking for the fireworks sky cover forecast.

LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

FIRE WEATHER loomed over in the area Tuesday afternoon with some locals getting an eerie, heavy, clammy, all-too-still nervous feeling that dry lightning was on the western horizon. Some Bay Area weather people later confirmed that there was some chance of dry lightning and thunderstorms in the overnight forecast. Local firefighters were on their toes.

A READER WRITES: Big cheers for Heidi Bauer, senior staff at North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the DTSC's Diane Barclay, the agency's Northern California division chief, for questioning the Guidiville “Give us $6 million in public money” to tear down the town's most historic building under the guise of contamination. And hiss on those, including non-native deal promoters and Ukiah city officials who acted as if the ploy was doing business as usual.

COUNTY NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting was even more dull and empty than average. The Board rubberstamped the usual executive salary increases without discussion (based on comparisons with overpaid neighboring counties, of course, not on performance or merit).

County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder Katrina Bartolomie told the Supervisors that her department was “working feverishly” to get as many parcels as possible assessed and on the tax rolls by June 30 so they can be handed over to Acting Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector Sara Pierce. Unfortunately again this month, the “discovery” process has disappointed, not producing anywhere near the hoped for new taxable property numbers, adding about a dozen minor buildings, mostly outbuildings plus one small house to the rolls at a total additional assessed value of about $290k, which translates to a whopping $870 a year in additional annual property tax to the County. (The “discovery” process itself costs a lot more than $870.)

Ms. Pierce told the Board that the County has lost about $22 million in tax defaulted properties that have gone uncollected for years and thus written off because of the delays in collecting overdue taxes. Only about $1.7 million in taxes, penalties and interest can be recouped through potential tax lien auction sales. Apparently, some of those tax delinquents have been showing up at the Tax Collector’s office recently to make payment arrangements now that they’ve actually received long-overdue delinquency notices. Unfortunately, there’s nobody left in the Tax Collector’s office who’s ever handled a tax lien sale so there’s a learning curve before that process can even begin. “We are looking for guidance,” said Ms. Pierce, “so we still have work to do before an actual auction.”

SUMMER RECONSTRUCTION AT AV UNIFIED

Here are some of the most recent construction photos.

Also, two new vans were purchased with after school high school money. Vans have become the new variety of transportation as bus drivers have become scarce!

(Superintendent Louise Simson)

CHRIS PHILBRICK: Watched the Board of Supervisors meeting this morning. Very entertaining. Supervisor McGourTy said, with a straight face, that he frequently works 80 hours per WEEK. That’s 11 1/2 hours a day for 7 days. We definitely need to give him a raise!

JON KENNEDY: The hell he does.

FORT BRAGG'S FIGHT FOR KELP: Can La Niña and Aquaculture Save the Coast?

by Sarah Reith

La Nina is coming, right on the heels of a powerful El Nino. Locally, coastal residents are already seeing high winds and upwelling in the ocean. That could be good news for the kelp, which has been battered in recent years by a set of conditions likely set in motion by warming seas.…

mendofever.com/2024/06/26/fort-braggs-fight-for-kelp-can-la-nina-and-aquaculture-save-the-coast

FORT BRAGG FOOD BANK

Do you ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes during a food pop-up? From unloading fresh produce by the pallet, to making sure bags are ready to grab and go, assembly line style, to braving the hot June days to distribute food to hundreds of households, Teamwork makes the dream work!

Huge thanks to our team of incredible volunteers and staff who worked our Willits pop-up last Thursday. We'll do it all over again July 18th, 10am-11:30am, at 1250 Blosser Ln in Willits!

ED NOTES

COMRADE ROSENTHAL QUOTING Gentleman George of Comptche: “There are some themes of pieces in this paper, and in other papers that make me skip or scroll past.”

Rosenthal: “Some themes, George? For many months now I would say most – at least 80% – of the content of the AVA is stuff I can’t scroll past fast enough, either by its header, byline, or first sentence. I used to devote an unconscionable amount of time to the AVA, almost to the level of worship. But, as Bob Dylan wrote, things have changed.”

WHICH IS WHY GOD gave us the scroll bar comrade R, and twenty percent is ten percent more than I get from most media. But seriously folks, there are givens in this thankless business that we're stuck with, pseudonyms for one. I'd ban them altogether but our comment line would be a lot thinner, and I've always understood that here in the Liliput of Mendocino County some opinions, and even inconvenient but known facts can invite unpleasant, even violent consequences, hence the necessity of pseudonyms, and because anon communications are often valuable in increasing the knowledge of this odd place in an apocalyptic time, I live with pseudonyms.

THINGS HAVE DEFINITELY CHANGED. National politics have heated up considerably, meaning that on a diverse site like the mighty ava's in a terminally divided country, there appears lots of opinion many readers of the partisan type would rather not read, opinions that outrage them in fact, which a guy like me finds deeply gratifying, truth to tell.

I LOATHE lockstep opinion and find much of what's out there, from the NYT through CounterPunch, predictable and boring as hell. The only other Northcoast website that rivals the ava in all-round readability is the Redheaded Blackbelt.

SO WE STUMBLE ON as we have for forty years, losing exactly zero sleep over what this or that person or entity objects to.

WE DO THE BEST we can, the old editor said with a martyred sigh, wheezing through the hole in his throat, his liver-spotted hands trembling when he considers his mortal odds, but the ava, the ancient mariners of Mendo media, continue to roll the ava rock up the hill every morning and, unlike many sites, we not only survive, and behind a paywall yet. Why? Because the ava is the only place locals can read the unvarnished truth, truth I tell you! about the place they live.

A READER makes the basic distinction: I don’t know why this controversy keeps appearing: people like Richard Cardiff confusing the meaning of Republic with Democracy. It shows up in letters to the East Bay Times now and then and I always send a letter of clarification which they have always printed. It just annoys me so! Here’s a brief example of what I have written:

The 2024 Conference will be held from August 1-3, 2024 in the town of Mendocino, California.

THE MENDOCINO VOICE has new owners. Bay City News was run by an icon of journalism, Ray Fogel who started it in 1979. Thankfully another fine journalist, Kat Rowlands picked it up a few years back and also started Localnewsmatters.org, which has longer stuff. I'm hoping to contribute stuff interesting to the entire Bay Area and also contribute to the ongoing Mendocino Voice, which will be updated more often now. These folks above are now the owners-operators entirely. They have the team that includes some great long time journalists on it and it will be fun to see where it goes. I have had nearly every newspaper I ever worked for bought out and not by somebody who can offer much more, always much less!

KATE MAXWELL (MendoVoice):

We've been a little quiet recently, but it's for a good reason — we've got some big changes happening here at The Voice that I'm excited to share. This month, The Mendocino Voice will begin a partnership with the non-profit Bay City News Foundation, and as part of this new chapter, I've chosen to move on from my role as publisher. Thanks to this partnership,our local journalists can continue the essential community reporting we've provided since 2016, with additional support and expanded capacity from BCN, so that The Voice can continue to grow and serve Mendocino residents for years to come.

When we launched The Voice in 2016, we had little clue what it would take to make a local news organization successful. It has been all thanks to the ongoing support of you, our readers, that we’ve built a sustainable business, hired staff and grown into the award-winning community-centered news outlet that we are today. In a decade when so many news outlets have cut jobs or closed their doors, particularly in rural areas, our experiment in launching a local news organization not only took off, but grew and evolved significantly.

When we started, there weren't any online local news outlets like ours in the county, and not many around the country, but it was clear Mendocino residents deserved useful news about important community issues. It certainly hasn't been easy — from covering historic wildfires like the Redwood Fire and Mendocino Complex to reporting on storms and floods without power, tracking elections, hosting candidate forums, covering local government and ever-evolving cannabis regulations, advocating against public records fees, sharing the news about everything from community events, drought and fisheries, from protests to the Covid-19 pandemic to police corruption and court cases — it's been an amazing journey.

Thanks to your support, we've published nearly 5,000 articles, reached millions of readers, created living wage jobs for experienced local reporters, held government officials accountable, received national funding and awards, and shared important Mendocino stories with readers around the state and country. Most importantly, we've been able to provide the diverse communities in Mendocino with news that's been useful to you, our friends and neighbors.

I'm excited for this new era of The Mendocino Voice, in partnership with the Bay City News Foundation, which will provide our local reporters with crucial operational support towards continuing and expanding the community-centered, accurate, and original local reporting on essential issues we've always provided into the future.

In the last eight years, I've worn many different hats — reporter, photographer, editor, salesperson, farmers market tabler, grant writer, and much more — but I'm most proud of the reporting we've been able to bring to our community, and so appreciative of your trust in making that happen.

From readers who have let us know what issues they think are important and sent us tips to investigate, to the many hundreds of members who have contributed to support our work, to business partners and funders like Community Foundation of Mendocino and Report For America, your support has literally kept us alive over these last eight years. I am so grateful to have been able to serve as your editor and local news publisher here in Mendocino County, and to work with such dedicated local journalists and community leaders — it has been an honor — and I hope you continue to support local journalism here and across the country into the future.

Best,

Kate Maxwell

The Mendocino Voice

More in the story here….But not all obviously

https://mendovoice.com/2024/06/new-chapter

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, June 25

KENNETH BERRY, San Francisco/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

FILBERTO CABRERA-MENDOZA, Delano/Ukiah. DUI, no license.

SHANKARA CASEY, Redwood Valley. Controlled substance, probation violation.

JOSHUA COMPTON, Nice/Ukiah. DUI, no license, parole violation.

KENNETH HANOVER JR., Covelo. Failure to appear.

BRYAN LOCKWOOD, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Parole violation.

EVAN MURDEN, Willits. Controlled substance, concealed dirk-dagger.

CHERRI ROBERTS, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

PATRICK SCHUETZ, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, county parole violation.

ROBERT VALADEZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery, domestic violence court order violation, county parole violation.

ROYAL WAKE-UP

Warmest spiritual greetings,

Awoke in the air conditioned Royal Motel room at 4 a.m. and observed "the hour of Brahman" with yoghurt flavored with maple syrup, a banana, and a salted nut roll. Gazing at the OM meditation shawl, draped over the large TV screen (which has not yet been turned on), not identifying with the physical body nor the mental factory. That which is prior to consciousness is our individual and collective identity now and forever. That is the secret of all mystical traditions. Now you know the mystery.

Craig Louis Stehr

MATEHUALA PUTAS

Editor,

The strangest thing, juxtaposition of reality, I have ever experienced was when I was sitting in the lobby of the Motel Las Palmas in Matehuala five years ago checking out the net, and just for the heck of it I put in the search box “matehuala prostitutes,” and googled to see what level of depravity had arrived to this Altiplano cowtown.

The page came up and there on the list of sexual come-ons and offerings was a link to a story I had written six years earlier! What?! Wow, the internet is on to me? How did this happen? (I was in the same motel where the author Paul Theroux stayed a couple times during his recent trip through Mexico, while researching and writing his excellent book On The Plain of Snakes.)

In December, 2012 I had been traveling through Mexico to Matehuala for Humberto’s big 70th birthday party with my harvest girl Allie, and one night we wandered into a “ladies bar” next to our hotel in Culiacan, Sinaloa. We sat down for less than a minute and eyed some of the aging hookers, or were they just regular women? I wasn't sure but the bar felt so dirty and toxic we quickly left. At the hotel office I asked the receptionist if those were prostitutes next door and he said no. The story describing the visit to the ladies bar, subsequently posted on my website, was apparently linked to the Matehuala prostitutes page because no one else in the known universe had ever posted a story in English, or maybe even Spanish, which mentioned both Matehuala and prostitutes.

But what are the odds that I would actually even see that page six years later? Whether I was looking for a prostitute or just idly surfing the net I was guilty, and the internet knew it!

Paul Modic

Redway

JEFFREY BAYARD MCMEANS:

You should have been there. Now I mean to take you to it, the sunny day when I look out the window in my houseboat in Sausalito that Sunday. I grab a cup of coffee and some toast but also bring a jacket and walk with purpose down the dock and jump in my car, get on Highway 101 south, drive up up up the Waldo Grade, zoom through the tunnel and explode into brilliance as the Golden Gate Bridge lays out before me. Once over it, I turn off on the 19th Avenue exit and then left on Fulton and make it down to Haight Street.

About 6 people are in the back office of the Psychedelic Shop as we are putting together a Free Concert that morning in the Panharndle of Golden Gate Park. It takes around 15 minutes to go over the details and then Jay Thelin, who runs the shop, asks if anyone has a car. I put up my hand and he tells me to go down to the Travelodge at Fisherman’s Wharf and pick up Jimi Hendrix and bring him to the gig site. That was the first time I knew that Jimi was on for today. Minutes later, driving over, I am real excited as it was just last Sunday that I stood in the left wing of the stage, not 10 feet from Jimi, when he blew our minds and lit our fire with his set at the Monterey Pop Festival. Now pulling into the parking lot at the hotel, I go to his door and knock. He opens the door and is standing there, all alone. No groupies or hangers-on yet in his life. Jimi grabs his guitar and we jump in my beat-up ’59 Studebaker ragtop and head over to the park. Along the way, he compliments me on my Russian fur hat. I had picked up an old fur in a thrift store and made it into this hat and I took it off and tried to give it to him. He said no, that it wouldn’t fit over his hair. We pulled up and stopped on Fell Street in the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park and Jimi got out and walked over to the stage, a 2 and a half ton truck we had rented for the gig. I rolled a joint and took a few, quick puffs and jumped out and said to myself that since I had brought him to this gig that I was going to get as close as I could. I am sure glad Jimi didn’t want my fur hat as I look so good with it on, holding on to the microphone cord smiling and enjoying head-on this thrilling moment. I had no idea nor would I have cared that famed SF photographer Jim Marshall took a photo of this. We lived in the moment back then and after Jimi’s set, which of course, was fantastic, I went on with my life and never looked back. I eventually went to Woodstock and then drove a Hog Farm hippie bus all over America for a few years, jumped across the Atlantic on a 100 dollar flight to Europe and bummed around there for awhile, got hired on to a British hippie bus in June of ’72, taking people from Amsterdam, Holland to Kabul, Afghanistan (for 75 dollars full fare) and lived there for a spell (World’s best hashish) before going down to Goa, India and living in an 11 room house and a family to cook for (25 dollars a month) us as we lounged around the shores of The Arabian Sea and then I drove a VW van up to Kathmandu, Nepal and walked (they called it trekking) in the foothills of the Himalayas and really enjoyed my life. Eventually, in 1976, I came home to the USA, very appreciative to be an American and settled in the Bay Area. A lot of it was lived in Marin County, places like Bolinas and Lagunitas with outlaws of one sort or another.

Then one day 25 years after Jimi’s Free Concert, I found myself over at my friend Wrinkle’s house. He wasn’t there but his 18 year old son Austin was and since he played drums in a garage band, I told him the story of seeing Jimi and taking him to this gig long ago. It was the first time in my life I had ever told anyone about this experience although later, Austin told me he was bit skeptical of it actually happening. Anyway, the next day, Jameson Grant, Austin’s friend, hears the part about Jimi and this Davy Crockett coonskin hat, and tells Austin that he has a picture of Jimi and someone with a Davy Crockett hat on his head taken in San Francisco. They go over to his house and in a storage box pulls out this picture that he had cut out of a Guitar Magazine when he was 16 years old living near Omaha, Nebraska. Austin looks at it and exclaims

“Dude; that‘s Jeff, my dad’s friend”.

This was sometime in the early 90’s that I first laid eyes on this picture and since then, I have found it in Rolling Stone and many magazines and in books, too. I have always appreciated the part that Jameson and Austin played in bringing it to my attention and look back fondly on this day shared with The Jimi Hendrix Experience, early in The Summer of Love, 1967.

WORKING COACHELLA

Photographs of the farmworker community of the Coachella Valley by David Bacon -

Coachella Library, 1500 Sixth St., Coachella, CA

Opening Saturday, May 18, 10AM

INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BACON AT THE WORKING COACHELLA EXHIBITION IN RIVERSIDE

Click here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2yAtHDPc5Q

David Bacon's Working Coachella - Labor Heritage Power Hour with Chris Garlock

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/labor-heritage/david-bacons-working-coachella-FGTeo-nqcuX

GAVIN NEWSOM IS MOVING HIS FAMILY BACK TO WEALTHY BAY AREA COUNTY

by Alec Regimbal

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, will enroll their children back in schools in Marin County now that they’re planning to split their time between Sacramento and the Bay Area.

“To ensure continuity in their children’s education, the family will split their time between Sacramento and Marin heading into the coming academic year,” spokesperson Izzy Gardon told SFGATE in an email.

Newsom and Siebel Newsom both grew up in Marin County — one of the Bay Area’s wealthiest regions — and raised their four children there before they moved to Sacramento after Newsom won the governorship in 2018. Newsom’s current and last term as governor ends in January 2027.

Gardon said the couple plans to keep their Sacramento residence and will stay overnight there regularly. When they’re in Marin County, Gardon said, they will stay with family.

What schools the children will attend is unclear. Gardon said the office doesn’t comment on private matters, but he did note that at least one will be attending high school. Newsom is an alumnus of Redwood High School, a public school in Larkspur, while Siebel Newsom graduated from the Branson School, a prestigious private school in nearby Ross.

Gardon said Newsom will be the third governor to commute while in office. He said former Gov. Jerry Brown commuted from Oakland for part of his term, while former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger often traveled back and forth between Sacramento and Los Angeles.

Newsom was the subject of some criticism in 2020 when he revealed that his kids were set to resume in-person learning at private school while many public schools across the state remained closed due to the pandemic.

(SFgate)

Gavin Newsom Is Mentally Checking Himself Out Of California And Into The White House

Judging from his State of the State speech and his impending relocation away from Sacramento to Marin County, California Gov. Newsom is ready to move on

by Emily Hoeven

Gov. Gavin Newsom has a few years left as California’s chief executive, but judging from his State of the State speech on Tuesday, he’s already mentally checked himself into the White House.

“We are presented with a choice between a society that embraces our values and a world darkened by division and discrimination,” Newsom proclaimed early on in his address — which he opened by harking back to California Gov. Culbert Olson, who led the state during the first years of World War II and issued stark warnings about the dangers of fascism.

“Once again, our state and this Legislature are called upon to show America that an agenda of freedom over fear is not only achievable, it’s inevitable,” Newsom said.

What do these flowery, dramatic statements do for the more than 6 in 10 Californians who, in a Public Policy Institute of California survey released this month, said the state is heading in the wrong direction?

Not much — because the prerecorded speech, which aired across the governor’s social media channels Tuesday morning, isn’t really intended for them.

Rather, it’s intended for a national audience — particularly “the California haters,” “Republicans” and “lawmakers in red states,” whom Newsom accused of wanting “to tear us down because they know our success is a spotlight on their own failures.”

Clearly, there are grave national issues to be addressed. But Newsom runs the risk of focusing on those problems at the expense of California’s own.

In so doing, the governor is displaying his biggest political flaw: hubris. Californians didn’t elect Newsom to solve the country’s problems. They elected him to solve California’s problems.

And, judging by Newsom’s lackluster approval rating — just 47% of likely voters approved of his job performance in this month’s Public Policy Institute of California survey, down from 57% in March 2023 — he’s leaving a lot to be desired.

“When we’ve heard more about the state of the state of Louisiana in recent weeks than we have California, it just becomes a bit obvious that you’re running for president instead of governing,” Rob Stutzman, a veteran Republican political consultant who worked in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration, told me — referring to Newsom’s X feed, which is dominated by posts lambasting policies in red states.

Indeed, it appears increasingly clear that Newsom is moving on — literally — from his job in Sacramento.

The governor’s office confirmed this week that Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom are moving their family back to Marin County — the wealthy Bay Area area where the governor and his wife grew up — to enroll their four kids in school there. The move, a spokesperson said, will “ensure continuity in their children’s education.”

The Newsoms will still be keeping their home in the Sacramento suburbs. But it’s difficult to imagine that the move doesn’t represent a shift in focus — that Newsom, who often refers to himself as “the future ex-governor of California,” is increasingly thinking about what comes after the state Capitol.

The timing of his speech was also questionable.

The governor originally planned to deliver the State of the State in March. But his office decided at the last minute to postpone it due to uncertainty surrounding the outcome of Proposition 1, his signature measure to overhaul California’s behavioral health system and issue $6.4 billion in bonds for treatment facilities and supportive housing. Although Newsom put significant political muscle behind the initiative, the vote was so close that it took weeks to ascertain that it had passed.

Newsom could presumably have rescheduled the speech not long after Prop 1’s approval became clear. Instead, he chose to wait until the week that President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are set to have their first debate — essentially priming the country for a showdown between Democratic-led and Republican-led states. Newsom is expected to attend Thursday’s debate in Atlanta and serve as a surrogate for the Biden campaign.

Newsom’s office said that releasing pre-recorded virtual remarks allowed the governor to speak “directly to the people of California … on their preferred platform and a time of their choosing.” The office also partly attributed the timing to scheduling challenges with the Legislature.

But the idea that scheduling conflicts would hold back a man as determined as Newsom is laughable.

After all, Newsom and his team managed to coordinate the complex logistics of his Fox News debate last November with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. They also managed to reschedule the timing of Newsom’s May budget proposal so that the governor could travel to the Vatican for a climate summit, meet with Pope Francis and spend a few days vacationing in Italy. And Newsom managed to wrangle lawmakers together for a private reception Monday evening.

It’s not a huge deal that Newsom chose to deliver the State of the State in an unconventional format. As Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer of Orinda told me, “The message should match the moment. The setting is ancillary.”

Newsom’s message may meet the national moment, but it falls far short of meeting California’s. Residents here want a governor who shows up for them, not for DeSantis. They want a governor who addresses their everyday concerns about homelessness and the cost of living, not just disturbing policies in red states. And they undoubtedly would have appreciated less commentary on the homicide rates in Memphis and Jacksonville and more on the crime debate in Sacramento over whether and how to reform Prop 47.

These aren’t “California haters.” These are just Californians who want their governor to focus on them for a change.

THIS IS BONNIE PARKER of Bonnie and Clyde fame, working as a waitress at Marco’s Cafe in Dallas, Texas - circa 1929. She would be about 18 years old in this photo; dead at 23.

BOWMAN WAS DEFEATED by a Toxic Blend of Zionism and Militarism

By Norman Solomon

New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman lost a primary election Tuesday because of unprecedented spending against him by powerful forces that insist Israel does no wrong. By last week, AIPAC had already devoted more than $14 million to defeating Bowman, in retaliation for his outspoken support of human rights for all -- including Palestinian -- people.

Since last fall, most Democratic voters -- especially young people -- have recoiled at the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. But despite the magnitude of the horrors inflicted on civilians, the vast bulk of the U.S. media and political establishment has remained on automatic pro-Israel pilot, while often tarring strong opponents of the mass murder as antisemitic.

Although usually eager to defend Democratic incumbents facing strong primary challenges, this time the party’s leadership offered winks and nods to Bowman’s AIPAC-funded opponent, George Latimer. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went through only perfunctory motions of supporting Bowman. Another fellow Democrat, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, was in the groove when she declared on Sunday: “I am not weighing in on primaries intentionally. But what I'm very focused on is number one, I stand strongly with Israel.”

The meaning of such declarations is rote complicity with nonstop U.S. military aid to Israel as it maintains a siege of Gaza that has already lasted more than 260 days. During that time, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights said last week, “more than 120,000 people in Gaza, overwhelmingly women and children, have been killed or injured” -- “as a result of the intensive Israeli offensives.”

When this week began, Save the Children reported that “up to 21,000 children are estimated to be missing in the chaos of the war in Gaza, many trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families.” While voters were casting ballots on Tuesday, the Washington Post summarized a new assessment from experts reporting to the United Nations: “The threat of famine in the Gaza Strip has been revived after Israel’s military operation in the southern city of Rafah disrupted aid deliveries, leaving more than 500,000 Palestinians on the brink of starvation.”

Israel’s warfare -- fully enabled by the U.S. government -- is continuing to cause those systematic atrocities.

“All available evidence indicates that U.S. officials hold Israel to a lower standard than just about any other country,” Responsible Statecraft reporter Connor Echols pointed out last month. The evidence is ample.

The rock-bottom standards applied to the Israeli government are in sync with what the U.S. media and political establishment routinely apply to the United States government. The same basic mass-messaging patterns that confer absolution on whatever the U.S. military does (as described in my book War Made Invisible) are operative in making excuses for what the Israeli military does.

The militaries of the two nations are enmeshed. Not only does the U.S. send huge amounts of weapons and ammunition to Israel. The countries are also constantly exchanging intelligence as well as data on evaluating the efficacy of weaponry and warfare tactics. They share, and create, the same enemies in the Middle East. And the two nations execute highly deceptive maneuvers from the same propaganda playbooks.

In short, while their command structures are separate and they can sometimes be at odds over tactics and proprieties, the Israeli military largely operates as an extension of the U.S. armed forces.

Meanwhile, in the United States, dominant mentalities -- constantly reinforced by mass media and mainstream politics -- run along parallel ruts of Zionism and militarism that are mutually reinforcing and increasingly intersecting. Along the way, toxins draw strength from the poisons that Martin Luther King Jr. denounced as “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”

All the denials notwithstanding, a bedrock of unwavering support for Israel as it continues the mass killing of Palestinian civilians is the base assumption -- conscious or not -- that Palestinian lives are far less valuable than Jewish Israeli lives. Or American lives.

The merger of American and Israeli militarism is now more comprehensive than ever. Both are driven by extreme nationalism, war profiteering, and ethnocentric bigotry. Nonviolent unyielding resistance is not futile. It is essential.

(Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of many books including "War Made Easy." His latest book, "War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine," was published in 2023 by The New Press.)

15 Comments

Casey Hartlip June 26, 2024

When Jamaal Bowman pulled the fire alarm to delay a vote in the legislature and then lied about it, he pulled the plug on his career. Dropping F-bombs at a campaign rally last weekend was just about as stupid.

- MAGA Marmon June 26, 2024
  
  Even AOC and Bernie couldn’t save him.
  
  MAGA Marmon
  
Chuck Dunbar June 26, 2024

Our editor writes, bluntly: “SO WE STUMBLE ON as we have for forty years, losing exactly zero sleep over what this or that person or entity objects to.”

Dare I suggest—but only in jest and while indulging in a bit of plagiarism— a more mellifluous line:

”And so we beat on, boats against the current, as our dear readers rave on…”

Shari Schapmire June 26, 2024

Ms. Pierce told the Board that the County has lost about $22 million in tax defaulted properties that have gone uncollected for years and thus written off because of the delays in collecting overdue taxes. Only about $1.7 million in taxes, penalties and interest can be recouped through potential tax lien auction sales.

As the Retired Treasurer-Tax Collector, the above statement by the Acting ACTTC does not pass the smell test! Other than the Harwood property, low-value Brooktrails parcels, and various few other parcels, the public auctions were up to date until 2020 when auctions were paused due to COVID. Secured property taxes are almost never written off and can be collected for up to 30 years.

Shari Schapmire

- Stephen Rosenthal June 26, 2024
  
  Louise Simpson gets things done, Mendo County Supes/Administrators sigh, throw up their arms and say “we’re working on it.” Incompetency at the highest level. Too bad Simpson didn’t challenge Bowtie when he ran for re-election, but that ship has sailed, as will she to her next job somewhere far away from Mendo I’d guess.
  
- Call It As I See It June 26, 2024
  
  You mean Ms. Pierce doesn’t know secured taxes can be collected up to 30 years? Shocking, according to Bowtie Ted she is a financial genius.
  Also she admits that no one knows how to do a tax sale. This is what you get when you combine an office that was running smoothly and efficiently. We now have someone in charge who has no idea what she is doing! This falls right on the shoulders of the BOS.
  
  - Jimmy June 28, 2024
    
    According to the State of California, who governs secured tax sales, the collection method for secured taxes relies on the ability to sell the real property through a tax auction if the taxes are unpaid for a period of FIVE years.
    
    I don’t know all the ins and outs of tax sales, but 30 years seems quite off the mark. (See page 6 of the State of California County Sales Tax Procedure, chapter 7)
    
    http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD-Tax-Info/Tax-Collector-Ref-Man/ctspm_v1_2016.pdf
    
Chuck Dunbar June 26, 2024

Yes, she’s a great example of competency, getting the job done. It’s a rare things these days, so it’s great to be reminded of what it looks like. Bernie Norvell is another example, as is Matt Kendall, I think.

Eric Sunswheat June 26, 2024

RE: https://theava.com/archives/246932. Off The Record. 6/24/2024

—> On Wednesday June 26, 2024, 9am KZYX radio show, Karen Ottoboni while in discussion with guest Supervisor Ted Williams, confirmed that she had done the research, that the South Ukiah big box area sales tax revenue, now goes to the City of Ukiah, not the County of Mendocino.

Stephen Rosenthal June 26, 2024

Re Ed Notes:

Comrade Rosenthal here. Just to be clear, I’m no longer interested in national politics, haven’t been for many years. Utter waste of my time. Nothing I can do to influence it. I’m seeing more and more articles about it in the AVA. Scroll.

Incessant Israel bashing, Biden bashing (I don’t like Biden either, but it’s blatant ageism), etc. Scroll.

I’m not opposed to views that don’t jive with mine (Kunstler, Taibbi, Piers Morgan, Nader, Solomon, et al), but I don’t feel I need to spend time reading them. Scroll.

Maureen Dowd I’ll always read. Same for Scott Ostler, Ann Killion, John Shea, and the monthly Petit Teton Farm report. I’ll occasionally read Dave Zirin, although I feel there’s usually a racial bias to his writing that I find troubling and unnecessary.

What the AVA always has and still does better than any other media outlet is Mendo-centric coverage. It is the reason I still subscribe. But I’m noticing a lot of redundancy/repetition in reporting local news/issues, rewriting the same article with a slight altering of the wording – Palace Hotel, mental health, Judy Bari. Scroll.

Yes, thank Yahweh for the scroll bar. But as the late, great John Hartford sang, “I’m still here.”

Over and out.

Mazie Malone June 26, 2024

Happy Hump Day,

Thank you for the unvarnished truth a necessity in a corrupt society.

Speaking of corruption, I am trying to find out about getting my sons felony expunged. This will be interesting cause apparently Legal Services of Northern California no longer is doing the program in Mendo. Hopefully their funds in Lake County will allow Mendo people to utilize the program otherwise local lawyer is 1800 dollars. Unfortunately, I am not to schooled on the justice system, but I am extremely aware that it is absolutely unethical to advise a person in a state of mental deterioration of how they should plea when they cannot comprehend what it all means and anything that occurred. I literally thought that after the probation term was up it would be removed from the record automatically. And you bet your ass I have reached out to Izaak Schwaiger who was the attorney for Mr. Magdaleno. Wish me luck.

mm 💕

- Mazie Malone June 26, 2024
  
  Good news, the expungement program still exists. ………………..mm 💕
  
Harvey Reading June 26, 2024

Rockefeller “Generosity” Photo

84 is pretty old for a kid!

O sole mio June 26, 2024

I reco’nize my man at the Good Bank.

“You lookin’ fine. Raise those arms in victory, for you need to be recognized.

Betsy Cawn June 26, 2024

Recent comments about the comments on daily editions — allowed by the esteemed publisher regardless of relevance or import (a lot of them disparaging of one author by another) prompt me to add:

There is no other publication that attempts to describe the facts about local government in Mendocino County as they are so meticulously reported by Mr. Scaramella.

Stories from the hinterlands — from Kim Kemp and Jim Shields, from savvy residents in the tiny towns where peripatetic hedonists drop their spare change, and from long-toothed historians of civic scandals tying us to the Emerald City — remind us of the world we set out to create, now utterly betrayed by irresponsible politicians.

California doesn’t work anymore. Save the kelp while you can.

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