Off the Record 7/15/2024

THE LAUGHABLE MEDIA response to Biden's end of last week's “debate” is even sadder than Biden's collapse, laughable because the sudden media admission that Biden is past it is an admission that America's corporate media are a lot more decrepit than Biden. The media are lying that they didn't know Biden is out of it. They were called off the story by their editors, all of whom are deep in the pocket of the Democratic Party.

THE OVERALL situation is way past irony, but lots of people are saying they'll vote for Biden even if he's embalmed by election day, such is the fear of the orange monster.

IF TRUMP is re-elected he'll meet a wall of resistance. All this scared talk that he'll assume dictatorial power like some latter-day Mussolini is gross hysteria. The anticipatory jubilation of our Fox-driven fascisti that the last 50 years of lib-lab-ism will somehow be undone by a Trump administration overlooks the obvious fact that most of the national government apparatus hates Trump, and will undo him and whatever idiocy he tries to impose, and like the great Biden “liberals,” Trump will sign off on the wholesale murders of the trapped Gazans. To my aged mind, in fundamental respects, one party's as destructive as the other. Jill Stein of the Greens or Cornel West, recently of the Greens but now running solo, or even Kennedy are respectable alternatives to whoever the Democrats put up.

THE PERSISTENT DELUSION that the Northcoast is a bastion of progressive politics is belied in the person of our Congressman, the blandly murderous Jared Huffman, on board for his political party's genocidal assault on the Palestinians. It will always rankle me that the Democrats sabbed the challenge to Huffman by Norman Solomon when they put up a gaggle of potheads in the primary who drew off just enough votes to deny the genuinely progressive Solomon a runoff election with the retro Huffman. I haven't heard or read so much as a peep of resistance to Huffman.

BUMPERSTICKER spotted on a little red car parked at the Philo Post Office: “I brake for turtles, frogs, and big leaves.”

A TRULY TERRIFYING headline from the NY Post:

‘President’ Kamala Harris is ‘the future of the Democratic Party,’ White House says. … “One of the reasons why he picked the vice president, President [sic] Kamala Harris, is because she is indeed the future of the party,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

SHERIFF IDENTIFIES WILLITS MURDER VICTIM

As a part of this continuing investigation, the decedent / victim from this case was positively identified as Roberta Ann McNeil-Wood, a 77-year-old female from Willits. The decedent's legal next-of-kin was contacted and notified of McNeil-Wood's death. The official cause and manner of death is pending receipt of the final autopsy report and toxicology report.

Further information related to this investigation will be released as it becomes available. Anybody with information related to this investigation is encouraged to call the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Communications Center at 707-463-4086. Information can also be provided anonymously by utilizing the

WENDY MEYER:

Thanks Mendocino BOS for this new yellow stripe, i.e. lipstick on the pig, that is Navarro Ridge Road.

Now can we get some real improvements?

LEW CHICHESTER (Covelo)

Lindy Peters and I must be about the same age, discovering baseball and the San Francisco Giants as eight or nine year old boys. My family had just moved to the Bay Area in 1960 from our previous home in provincial, segregated, Deep South middle Georgia. There were no major league ball clubs down South back then, just the AAA Atlanta Crackers (I think that’s what they were called in those days). It almost seems like magic that I was was transported to a neighborhood with Catholics across the street, a Russian family on the corner, a Spanish speaking flamenco dancer in the apartment upstairs, kids in class who had lived in Europe, a school teacher from England who had been around the world. And the Giants, who were almost the United Nations of baseball. They were from everywhere baseball was played. The starting lineup I can still recall. Along with Kennedy getting elected president and Willie Mays in center field the world was going to be all right.

AN EXPLANATORY GRAPHIC would be useful as accompaniment to the prose picture we've often attempted to paint as an explanation of Mendo's inland water realities. Although Anderson Valley is not directly affected by the Eel River Diversion at Potter Valley, Lake Mendocino's storage capacity, Russian River flow, inland aquifers up and down the 101 corridor, Lake Sonoma and Sonoma County's preservation of Lake Sonoma's huge storage of water for jet-skiers while Ukiah runs dry, many of us will be indirectly affected more and more as more and more public time is devoted to figuring out rational inland water policy. I'm continually surprised at how little people know about where inland water comes from, how it's delivered, who owns it, and how much (or little) there is of it, even when it rains a lot. Nobody has explained it in a way we can all understand. Which is where media are supposed to come in but so far haven't. Every time we try to explain, Jim Armstrong of Potter Valley laughs at us as uninformed.

“YOU'D BE SURPRISED how many gun owners there are in Marin County, said Baradat, who has the only shooting range in the famously liberal county." That signs-of-the-times line from a Chron story on Bay Area gun owners, especially those who fear the ever greater chaos outside their suburban gates who think an in-home arsenal will protect them against it, but it wouldn't surprise me if liberal (liberal in the registered Democrat sense) Marin County had howitzers in its hills and ground-to-air missiles in its pool houses.

DENNIS HUEY, Mendocino County's then-auditor-controller, was quite clear when I asked him years ago about the viability of the county's employee pension fund. “We're about $70 million short of where we should be. If there was a run on the bank and we had to pay out retirement dollars, and everybody lived out their lives according to the actuarial expectation, we're $72 million short; that's the county's unfunded liability here. Which has grown from $47 million from six years ago. The county is trying to refinance the $72 mil by taking advantage of existing low interest rates.”

THAT the county's investment of its employees' retirement money will do better assumes the economy as a whole will soon do better, a shaky assumption, I'd say. County employees maintain their own retirement board, but it's the usual fox-friendly county henhouse. If my retirement money was being guarded by the present board of supervisors, I'd be calling the Poor House to reserve a room with a view of North State Street.

MAJOR SCARAMELLA, USAF RET., COMMENTS:

Supervisor Gjerde says the fund is in good shape, he's supposed to be the Board's expert on the pension fund. The decades old "Pension Obligation Bond" that they borrowed in the 90s is supposed to be paid off in a couple of years which is supposed to free up about $6 million a year that they were paying on it. In the past Gjerde has proposed that the Pension fund invest in higher rate securities, but last month he backed off after an explanation from Acting Auditor Sara Pierce who said they were already doing that within the “conservative” nature of the law. Williams has complained, meekly, that the pension payments are part of the “structural deficit” and as the County cuts staff, some of them will be drawing more pension money. It's all pretty theoretical and not very interesting to me. But there's no question that the Carmel Angelos of the pension world are still drawing pensions way out of proportion to their “service.” At the other end, the pensions for the lower paid staffers are relatively modest and shouldn't be cut. I'd bet that the old 80-20 rule applies, or something like it: 80% of the payouts go to 20% of the recipients and 20% of the payouts go to 80% of the recipients.”

AS WE KNOW, or should know, distant corporations killed logging and communists are even more extinct than hippies, but cows and horses seem to be thriving and there's plenty of room for whole herds of the methane-spewing beasts in spacious Mendoland.

A GRADING ORDINANCE is a good idea because as is the industrial wine industry totally reconfigures the land to illegally divert winter rains into summer holding ponds, and the way the wine Industry clearcuts entire hillsides is an ongoing crime against nature that a grading ordinance might at least occasionally impede.

THE FARM BUREAU would be wise not to draw too much attention to the composition of the Boonville Fair Board, whose elections are always secret and an inside process all the way, because the hippies might start running people for seats and the next thing you know cows might be wine bottles.

MARK SCARAMELLA ADDS: I will never forget the news back in the early 2000s when the late-great Roanne Withers and a few of her friends sued the County for not complying with the County’s first (and reluctantly generated) General Plan in the late 1970s which required the enactment of a comprehensive grading ordinance by 1984. After several court hearings and subpoenas and such, Withers et al discovered that the text of the General Plan had been surreptitiously changed to “erase” the words “by 1984” as part of a much larger collection of “clean ups” and updates to the General Plan which were proposed on the Supervisors’ consent calendar. (At the time of the “update,” the 1984 date had passed. So instead of changing the date, Planning Director Ray Hall and County Counsel Peter Klein simply decided on their own to delete the offending deadline entirely. No need to consult the Supes besides burying it on the consent calendard.) The requirement for a grading ordinance was still there but the deadline had been discreetly removed. So Withers & Co. lost their otherwise bulletproof lawsuit which would have compelled the County to comply with their own General Plan (which used the word “shall.”) . A few years later the Supervisors reluctantly formed a “Grading Ordinance Committee” but they inserted a poison pill into the formation language saying that whatever they came up with had to have unanimous approval. As expected, the wine mob (aka the “ag community”) appointees steadfastly refused to allow any ordinance drafts to mention ag, so over time the increasingly frustrated enviros on the committee resigned one by one leaving what was left of the “committee” to recommend that the building code grading requirements (which only apply to commercial and residential structure projects) were all the County needed as a grading ordinance. As Withers commented, “Tragically, as a direct result, our rivers are now overcome with sediment and depleted of water, our salmon are now on the verge of extinction, and our fishing industry jobs are almost gone.”

DON LIPMANSON (formerly of Navarro)

A few additional factoids about David Colfax:

Statute of limitations having long expired, I can recount that David and I purloined a couple railroad spikes and ties during a Port Chicago blockade to stop military shipping weapons to Nicaraguan Contras.

As 5th district supervisor, David was a powerful force in protecting Mendocino County’s environment from sprawling development in remote areas. He brought his sociological and statistical talents to our 1984 pamphlet, “Down the Federal Drain,” showing how much more $ Mendo taxpayers sent the IRS than the country received back from all federal programs, harming local libraries, affordable housing projects and public schools.

David was a huge fan of Bruce Anderson’s bum’s rush and takedown of County Schools Superintendent Jim Spence at a meeting in Pt. Arena some 40 years ago.

Lastly, David and Micki were true Pinot connoisseurs as well as wine snobs throughout the years he graciously shared them with me.

JOE BIDEN devoted his debate time about the Middle East to highlight his unconditional support of Israel, laying all of the blame on the continued butchering of the Palestinian people and the destruction of Gaza on Hamas. This makes us a partner to genocide. Biden has turned out to be a war president, and the Democratic party is now the party of war. And they scare me.

— Moshe Adler

MR. SHAWN COLEMAN is a brother of Michael Coleman accused of the murder last week of 77-year-old Roberta Woods of Willits. He posted this statement on Kym Kemp’s website a few days ago, after the murder. His brother Chris Coleman was the (then juvenile 15-year old) killer of Joan LeFeat in cold blood in her small Brooktrails general store back in 2001.

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I am Shawn Coleman.

Michael and Christopher are my younger brothers.

I don’t have Facebook so please consider this my statement.

I have never committed a violent crime in my life. My last ticket was before my 1st child was born, over 15 years ago so please, for the sake of myself and my children, drop this “bad blood” nonsense. My older sister is also a veteran, and has never had any kind of blemish on her record. She is actually a Hospice Nurse who loves her job and cares deeply for the people she tends to.

We unilaterally condemn the actions of both of our brothers and we seek to impose swift and righteous justice for this heinous crime. Please understand this. We stand with you all.

I know firsthand the violent events a tragedy like this can incite against the family of the criminal. I’m so concerned I now have children in this community who may face unjust repercussions for something they didn’t do by someone they literally have zero connection to, other than blood. I fear I will need to yet again face the stares and whispers when walking through Safeway or the shoulder bumps as I try to shoot pool at John’s.

I have worked hard to contribute to our community through various charitable efforts over the last 30 years to try to at least give something back to a community that looked unfavorably upon me because of my last name. I have also tried hard for years to distance myself from both of my brothers.

My family and I have known Roberta and her late husband for over 30 years and when this tragic news broke earlier, I have been in a constant state of heartbreak, anger, frustration, deja vu, and the utmost sadness.

I cannot overstate how much I grieve for her. How heavy my heart truly is for her family and the entire community. She made such an impact at Brookside school that I know word of her passing is sure to spread long into the future and the manner in which she passed will haunt those lives she touched for much longer.

I have had my life threatened by Mike too many times to count and as his brother, my efforts to get him help were thwarted by mental health “activists” posing as “advocates” within the West Coast Regional Center, specifically his advocate, “Jan” who misconstrued our pleas for help as “attacking the mentally ill” and getting him off with a slap on the wrist and a new prescription he’d stop taking after his monitoring was stopped. It was a vicious and disheartening cycle.

Most Spring Creek residents [outside Willits] know of the email thread that was created to document and track Michael’s activities. But when I attempted to delegate these neighbors with the unfair (to them) task of always recording their interactions with him, I was written off as they felt it was incumbent upon us, his family, to document and prosecute his illegal activities. I have the receipts. That’s not to place blame on anyone, let that be clear. They tried too, but we were all hamstrung. Being told that California is a dual-consent state, and his mental deficiencies, recorded death threats were never admissible.

We have pleaded with the court after the many 5150s, the thefts, video-recorded death threats, personal property damages; all rejected by the Mendocino County Judicial system on some bs technicality. We, as a family, tried. The Sheriff’s department tried after he attacked a deputy 20 years ago and got off. You get what you vote for. 

How many of you voted in favor of a mental health facility on the old Howard Hospital grounds? Or in Ukiah? Sure, we want them to get help but not if it’s, “in our backyard.”

That comment also is not to place blame. But come on, every time we get an issue on the ballot, it’s shot down. These mentally ill people act with impunity.

This is a tragedy. This is going to affect us all in so many ways and though I can’t speak for his actions, understand I will always support the community in seeking justice, and as hard as it is to publicly say this; the community and the World at large will be a better place when my brother is denied the opportunity to be free.

I have lost so many precious hours of my life worrying I would be the one in his sights when he lost it. I knew it was going to be me and if I didn’t move to an undisclosed location; I know I would have. I have performed under a stage name under the fear that he would try to kill me onstage. Now instead of worrying, I wish I was because Roberta was a sweet woman and I would have at least stood a slight chance. She didn’t deserve this. You all don’t deserve this. No one does and I wish the right people would have put inclusivity and feelings aside, and put safety and logic first. I’m so sorry another one of my family members did this…. again.

That’s all I care to say at this moment.

We tried so many times to get Mike and the community help, but the system not only failed us, it blamed us for not doing enough while throwing him pills and barely monitoring him until he finally snapped and a sweet defenseless woman lost her life.

NORM THURSTON:

As an auditor in the Auditor-Controllers Office, I performed the annual audit of the retirement system (MCERA) for 1 or 2 years. Later, I served on the Retirement Board for 6 years, and was Chairman for a time. Accounting can be difficult for many, actuarial science even more so, and finance can be just about anything someone wants to sell. Retirement funds are similar to Social Security in that, when employee numbers are growing, wages are rising, and investments are doing well, there are virtually no worries about liquidity.

Actuaries compare their best estimate of the present value of all future pension payment due, compare that to the current value of pension assets, and the shortfall is known as the unfunded pension liability. During good times, the unfunded liability can become larger without threatening the liquidity of the plan. But transitioning into leaner times with a relatively large unfunded liability is challenging.

Pension obligation bonds were promoted by comparing the stated interest rates on the bonds with the actuarially determined long-term interest rate used to make actuarial estimates, and sometimes to determine the interest rate that would be allocated annually to active employee retirement accounts. The inaccurate assumption that any bond rate which was less than the actuarial rate would produce a savings for the County. The actual substance of pension obligation bonds was that it was a speculative investment that depended on earnings from the bond proceeds to exceed the interest paid on the debt. It would be like you or me borrowing money long-term to invest in stocks and bonds. But prior to the bonds, all of the County’s pension contributions were going to MCERA. Following the sale of bonds, large amounts were going to outside to bond holders to pay principal and interest. Had the County just increased its contributions to MCERA, they would have probably been better off.

The County would do well to take the $6 million they will no longer be paying on the bonds, and contribute that directly to MCERA. That would constitute a good-faith effort to fulfill their legal and fiduciary duty to the thousands of retirees and employees. Any plan that substitutes some kind of grand bargain to take away legally and contractually earned benefits will not survive the legal challenges that would result.

I understand citizens’ concerns about the cost of retirement benefits. All I can say is to get involved with County government, closely evaluate and monitor any proposed changes to the retirement system, and demand that the BOS appoint knowledgable representatives to the MCERA Board of Directors.

LINDA BAILEY (Ukiah attorney and former Mendocino County Water Agency Manager):

How did Sonoma County Water Agency gain control of Coyote Dam and the lion’s share of the water supply? Short answer: Geography and politics. Longer, still simplified, answer (which does not deal with Potter Valley Irrigation District nor PG&E) follows.

State law established the Sonoma County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and Mendocino County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (both morphed into County Water Agencies) to provide the local funding and management of the water supply pool of the Project. The state assigned to each all its rights in the first stage of Coyote Dam Project.

This was fine with Sonoma County as most of the county is in the Russian River watershed. But it became clear that the residents of Mendocino County who were not in the Russian River watershed had no interest in paying for a water project that would not benefit them. This necessitated an amendment to the Mendocino County District that enabled the establishment of an improvement district governed by its own Board of Directors–the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District–which would pay for and manage Mendocino’s share of the water. Redwood Valley residents, happy with dry farming, petitioned the Board of Supervisors to be excluded from the Improvement District. Their wish was granted.

But this took time. So, Sonoma County voters approved a bond that covered all the required local participation monies. The proceeds of the Improvement District’s bond were used to reimburse Sonoma County for the district’s share. Clearly, there were interim negotiations that determined what that share would be as it was enshrined in State Water Board’s decision.

Sonoma County chose to sell its water. The Russian River Improvement District (aka Russian River Flood Control) for many years chose not to, reasoning that property owners were paying for the water through bond assessments. It had a small property tax base that it used to fund its accounting responsibilities.

Because Sonoma paid the entire local share upfront, the Army Corps of Engineers pays all Operation and Maintenance costs and regards Sonoma Water Agency as the local participant.

A side note re: Warm Springs Dam.

Readers may have noticed in a recent AVA issue reference to the testimony of Mendocino County Supervisors in DC supporting the construction of Warm Springs Dam. Why were they there? At that time the no-growth/slow growth Sonoma County Supervisors would not support the dam. So, I’ve heard, Mendocino County was approached with the deal that, if it would lobby for the dam, once Sonoma had that additional water supply it would let Mendocino have more of Coyote water. A gentleman’s agreement; nothing put to paper. Years later, another Sonoma BOS decided it would keep all it was entitled to.

But the deal with the Army Corps of Engineers is that the water supply pool of Warm Springs Dam would be divided into thirds. Sonoma would have to pay Operation and Management costs according to how many thirds they were using. It is in Sonoma’s economic interest to keep Lake Sonoma as full as possible. Hence, the happy water skiers.

SHERIFF KENDALL:

My sources disagree with the governors statement “there wasn’t enough time.”

Whispers around the State Capitol are telling a different story.

The progressives were upset a law which would increase penalties was being pushed forward. The moderates we upset a competing initiative was being brought forward in hopes of defeating the DA’s bill. Many of the state’s residents had already signed off on when they had to collect signatures to get it on the ballot.

A straw headcount was quietly conducted and it came up short for the votes to move it forward. I was also told the legislation was thrown together in a mad dash which made it shoddy and lacking in several areas.

Thats what I’m hearing and it may not be the gospel however it makes sense.

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From the governor side, there are NGOs and a full-blown industry of supportive services that are being funded because of the closures of several state prison. Personally I think that’s great if they are working. If they aren’t working , not so great.

NGOs often don’t accomplish what they set out to do or they would be done and have to pack up the car and head home, or have to keep moving the goal post further ahead. If they don’t everyone stops getting a paycheck.

A recent report in CalMatters detailed the fact our state had “lost track” of over a billion dollars in funding which was handed out to programs working on homelessness and drug addiction. There isn’t much over site or transparency when money goes to things which are popular.

The other side if the coin is we have to find a balancing point of funding public safety and supportive services., we can’t get out of this without both. I think we will get there and I’m hopeful we will get our arms around the fentanyl crisis. We had another suspected overdose yesterday in Ukiah.

CONFIRMING suspicions he's out of it, President Biden failed Friday night to stem growing pessimism about his political future in a rambling 22-minute interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos — during which many of the same issues that self-sabbed his debate performance last week resurfaced. Biden, 81, gave multiple excuses for his shocking performance at the first presidential showdown against Trump, saying that he was “exhausted” and “sick” with a “bad cold” before saying that he let Trump’s remarks “distract me.” He said he couldn't remember if he'd watched the footage of his debate meltdown. “Look," the obviously impaired Biden told Stephanopoulos, "I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do. You know, not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world. And that’s not — it sounds like hyperbole, but we are the central nation of the world.” Always difficult to understand — thank goodness for subtitles — and slurring his words as always, Biden was marginally more coherent but clearly not reality based, dismissing unanimous opinion from big shot donors and Democrats that he'll lose to Trump as unfounded. 

ON THE ROAD WRITES:

I just spent a week driving cross-county, and enjoyed beer with the locals in taverns in Wyoming, Nebraska and Illinois. Generally speaking “middle America” has some very valid gripes about the pace at which the Democrats are pushing change on our society. Sadly, however, they have bought into Der Trumpster’s lies that he is going to “fix” this, when in reality all he is going to do is pleasure himself.

I’m reminded of a lyric from an old Charlie Daniels song:

CHARLOTTE ANNE SMITH

Our Supervisors' blew it when they consolidated auditor-controller, and treasurer-tax collector together. The county was not getting reports in a timely manner- did they really think this consolidation would help? Everything should be caught up before cut backs were made. What were they thinking? And now they're playing the blame game on the employees that were short staffed and years behind. The lawsuits will end up costing the county (us taxpayers) much more than the pay that is most likely legitimate to the payroll manager. The taxpayers' better not be responsible for our Supervisors' bad decisions. There is no common senses in the decisions they're making. Time for a big change.

FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS FROM BRUCE MCEWEN:

Thanks for the slow-pitch softball interview, Skipper; the way the in-house interviewer lobbed ‘em o’er the plate so you could bunt a few foulball grounders over to the fans on the sidelines, dotty old Reactionaries like Hollister, and MAGA Mormon will cherish those souvenirs but surely you must recall all the jeers and sneers you yourself have over the years heaped on such blatantly sycophantic performances—eh?

I would ask these questions:

1. Out of three possible biographers— Michael Koepf, Steve Sparks and Mark Scaramella — who would you “authorize” to write your story?

Sparks.

2. How do you account for the reactionary nostalgia for the racist, bigoted days of our youth you’ve grown to share with such contemptible characters as Marmon, Koepf, Hollister —not to mention the anonymous pack of misogynistic jerks who have commandeered the comment page?

I can't. One more of life's mysteries, I guess.

Those were both fast pitches right over the plate— even a blind umpire would call a strike, so I expect you to knock ‘em o’er the fence!

3. Do you ever wake in the night and wonder if you are not essentially like RBG, and Joe Biden, and Nancy Pelosi —and any number of other old cadavers who were determined to drag the office they had into the grave w/ ‘em rather than loosen their grip on power? Has it ever occurred to you? Go ahead slugger— knock it outta the park.

No, and adios pelota!

JULIE BEARDSLEY:

It would have also been appropriate for the BOS to do a study on whether it was a good idea to put the Public Health Department under Behavioral Health. (Which is the reality of the situation, regardless of how they want to spin it). Now almost all experienced PH staff have left and you have people who I’m sure are well-intended, but who lack any Public Health training or experience. Learning on the job while getting paid as subject experts.

‘FORRESTERJ’ WRITES:

Mike Geinella @ A milestone reached…

Thank you for sharing your Betty Ford story, I was touched and a little misty eyed hearing your story and gratitude.

I attended the family program at “The Betty” in 1993 to “help” my family member. Quickly family members learn the addict can only help themselves. We can’t force them to sobriety or fix things so life will just get right for them to make the change. Rather we learn our role in the family that continues the cycle without even realizing it. Family members serve as a “cog in the wheel” which helps keep it rolling. You have to jam a stick in the cog to stop it from rolling, take the air out of the tires so to speak. We know cars can keep running even with a flat tire, not well, but they can keep moving! This is why as many family members that can learn to change their role /heal their pain/ set true boundaries for themselves that they are no longer enabling or codependency and are free. The “vehicle” breaks down and is no longer there for the addict.

None of this blames the family but rather to gain an understanding of how it functions, where to heal members of the family, and know how to move forward in a different way.

Happy 17th Birthday Mike to you and family!

A FORMER COUNTY EMPLOYEE WRITES:

The State Auditor reported: “The County does not have an official policy and procedure manual; existing written procedures have not been formalized through standardization. Furthermore, these procedures do not fully or accurately reflect the county’s current operational processes. Policy updates have been sporadic and haphazard, leading to confusion among staff who found these changes unclear, contradictory, and poorly communicated.”

As soon as Angelo got in the CEO position, policies went out the window. And, the CEO Office never put things in writing that any department could stand on because every day is a new day, you never know what mood the CEO will be in and if something is in writing then the narrative can’t be manipulated to fit the mood of the day. End of story. That is what employees lived with and apparently still do. Before the top office, Angelo did the same to HHSA. No rules equals chaos and chaos equals an opportunity to be the savior. Until everyone realizes that the empress never had any clothes. Too bad most didn’t realize til after she was outta here. And sadly some still don’t.

I'LL BET our superintendent of county schools wouldn't take a free trip to Israel like John Carroll superintendent of the Marin County schools did. Why wouldn't our superintendent take a major freebie? Because here in Mendocino County only the most ethically scrupulous of our citizens ever get elected to public office, that's why.

SUPERINTENDENT CARROLL'S “Study Tour of Israel” from June 28, 2023 to July 9, 2023 (12 days) was paid for by the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council, to the tune of $8,000. A bunch of Bay Area elected people have enjoyed similar jaunts, the purpose being to occlude the Israelis’ criminal assaults on the trapped Palestinians of Gaza. (Thanks to Eve Crysanthe's reporting Marin has become aware of its officials succumbing to propaganda vacations.)

IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, I pity you but assume we share at least a few opinions, maybe even opinions about book stores. New books book stores are of little interest to me other than as places to buy a book I can't really afford but can't wait to be remaindered when I can buy it from Hamilton for $5.95. I want to read it now. And the new book store sells now. (Kids aren't the only segment of the society prone to the pull of instant gratification. Book fogies are right up there with children and junkies in unreasoning compulsion.)

NEW BOOK STORES irritate the hell out of me, frankly, because they're a living reminder how far the culture has slipped. Of course to stay in business a new bookstore has got to sell what people pay to read, hence the shelves stuffed with Dr. Laura, Dr. Phil, Tom Clancy, Michael Jackson bios, Trump tell-alls, and all the rest of the downward cultural indicators in print form. The cover art, if that's what it's called on new books, is as awful as the stuff on the page. Fifty years ago even bad books came in interesting wrappers designed and illustrated by real artists. No more. If the product wasn't in book form you could be browsing a candy warehouse for all you can tell from the packaging.

THE INTERNET and unreasonably high rents are chipping away at used book stores; why pay to rent a store when you can sell books for free in cyberspace? But there are some wonderful used book stores here in Mendocino County, two very good used book stores in Fort Bragg alone — The Book Store on Laurel and Windsong Books on Main Street. Down the road, Moore's Books in Mendocino is quite good for used books, as is the amazing Book Juggler in Willits. Ukiah, the wonderful used book store on North State was outta business the last time I tried to visit,

THERE ARE OF COURSE several easy over “spiritual” book stores in a county where low energy, no demand “spirituality” is fairly prevalent; wherever there are large numbers of fuzzy warms in proximity to redwoods and the sea, they tend to group-up and go woo-woo wow-wow. In other words, Michael Toms and Starhawk would go broke in Cleveland. Where were we? O yes. Used book stores. Catfish Books in Lakeport is a good little used book store — the only one I know of in the great wasteland between Mendocino County and Time-Tested Books in Sacramento, travelling west to east. And it's been many years since I stopped in. North to south? Hmmm. Coupla good used book stores in Ashland, another couple in Eugene, a bunch in Portland, which is as far north as I've been. In Frisco, my favorite used book store is Chelsea Books on Irving, and, natch Green Apple.

LEFTYS, the few who still get their information via print, the amazing Bolerium Books on Mission near 16th in San Francisco are a book person's promised land. Bolerium is strictly left stuff — a kind of book museum of lost causes — whereas Time-Tested has an eclectically seductive collection of used books on many subjects because proprietors Scott Soriano and Peter Keats know their books. They even read books, which puts them apart these days from lots of folks in the book biz. Bolerium is kinda high-priced because, I think, much of their business is with libraries and academics, for whom price tends to be no object, but Bolerium has everything you ever heard of and then some.

THE MAGAZINE RACKS are even more offensive than new book stores. They are little seas of brightly colored covers committed to nothing at all of the latest in mindless consumption. Hidden away in the serious part of the mag rack back there might be three never-to-be-sold copies of New Left Review and maybe two copies of MR, there's The Nation wondering on its cover if Joe Biden will move the Democratic Party in a more “progressive” direction and, on the same cover, another inane ditherer is worried that RFK Jr. might be to the advantage of the Orange Monster. The Nation, In These Times,The Progressive, Mother Jones, and Jacobin are all pretty much the same, doomed print publications for people who drive correct vehicles with lots of bumper stickers on them. (Jacobin is offensively slick and its articles are junior faculty all the way.) But with podcasts and cell phones, print is pretty much finito.

PEOPLE ASK SO OFTEN I feel that I've got to update my answer, “How often do you get threatened? Not often. And now that I'm old and ailing, never. I miss it. I used to get a lot of threats, but my detractors always seemed to lack stamina. A few woofs and gone. The telephoned threats I used to record and hand over to deputy Squires. Ditto for the written ones, but nobody who calls up to threaten is likely to follow through. I've got maybe 30 demand letters from lawyers saying that if I don't take it back they're going to sue me, but I don't recall ever having felt that I had to take it back. Been sued for libel a couple of times, won both on appeal. Hand-to-hand combat is definitely a thing of the past, but I found myself in quite a few scuffles with unhappy readers over the years. But the reality is in our seething country all media take incoming all the time. The diff with us media small fry is that we're a lot more gettable than David Muir or even the blandly inoffensive Press Democrat whose premises are high security, complete with a babe in a bulletproof bubble on the paper's ground floor. To even get upstairs where the guild mice are tapping out their safe paragraphs in their little cubicles, the babe in the bullet proof bubble has got to buzz you into the elevator. I miss my enemies!

ADAM GASKA:

Re: Who Benefits? Water from the PVP has benefitted Lake Mendocino, helping guarantee that it fills but the biggest beneficiaries have been those with appropriative rights to pump water from the Russian River in summer which includes Healdsburg and Cloverdale. The state has granted water rights based on the Eel supplying the Russian with water in the summer. Without the PVP, there will be curtailments of appropriative rights more often. Those without access to stored water via a contract through Flood Control or Sonoma Water will be left high and dry. Those with contracts will pay more to cover the cost of new infrastructure.

Sonoma Water is limited how much water they run down Dry Creek as it over scours the river. So it’s not a limit of storage capacity but of delivery capacity. in regards to Lake Sonoma.

Everyone is going to be paying and those details will be worked out. Paying for infrastructure, operations/maintenance to pump water in the winter, increase storage capacity, to hold that water, etc. Potter Valley especially is very vulnerable as it has very little in the way of delivery infrastructure and zero storage capacity. They are looking at needing hundreds of millions in infrastructure improvements just to secure basic human health and safety needs.

FROM MONDAY’S PD STORY about the enviromental pollution at the grossly overlarge “Vintage Wine Estates” in Hopland.

“When Vintage Wine Estates bought the property about four miles east of Highway 101, then-president Pat Roney said he planned to crush 400,000 cases of wine at the facility in the coming year. Roney also told The Press Democrat that having a bulk processing facility in Mendocino County was advantageous because “there are no use permits required, so we can continue expanding to unlimited production up there.”

Mark Scaramella notes: Besides the odd phrasing about crushing 400,000 cases of wine, imagine what Pat Roney might have said if he was a pot grower.

SUPERVISOR MAUREEN MULHEREN (facebook): I have several Board and Commision seats open including the Measure B Oversight Board and the Civil Service Commission. Please let me know if you are interested and I’ll send more info. I also post the LAFCo opening last night.

IT WAS DOWNRIGHT HILARIOUS, the way Supervisors Williams and Haschak squirmed in their responses to KZYX’s Sara Reith’s questions Tuesday morning about the recent state Controller’s report critical of the Board’s and the CEO’s leading role in screwing up the County’s finances. Instead of accepting any responsibility at all, they both blamed it on other stuff — poor staffing, the unworkable computer system, previous boards, uncooperative staff or “elected officials.” It would be so simple to for them admit the obvious, that looking back they screwed up by consolidating the financial offices prematurely without even a plan, or firing their Auditor, or giving their CEO another raise in the face of the Controller’s report. But no, they just can’t accept responsibility. They continue to pretend they’re just well-meaning bystanders, soberly deliberating arcane policy theories, hapless victims of things outside their control, earnestly hoping for things to get better despite their obvious failure to act on their desires — and giving us a preview of what their response to the State Controller might look like — if there ever is a response. Even if there is a response (which we doubt), it will not appear for at least six months, after two of them are gone and their replacements will be able to claim anew that the problems were before their time. (Mark Scaramella)

PROJECT 2025, the fascist wish list promulgated by the Heritage Foundation, is scaring heck outta the libs. Trump has disavowed it, although it probably resonates with him. But from what I can gather Project 2025 has been rescued from obscurity and assigned to Trump by Marc Elias, the same Democrat dirty trickster who circulated the phony Steele Dossier falsely tagging Trump with Russia collusion.

THE MINA FIRE has been contained at 50 acres, partially extinguished by a team from the Anderson Valley Fire Department. Mention of Mina, north and a little east of Covelo reminds me of the late Vivian Weatherhead of Airport Estates, Boonville. Vivian grew up in Mina in the 1920s when enough people lived in the area to warrant a post office. The last time I drove the Mina Road from Covelo to Alderpoint, a ramble recommended for its pure, lonely beauty and because the curious traveler can pause where Mendo, Humboldt and Trinity counties meet and look west to see the Pacific, Mina consisted of a battered wood sign declaring it once existed. Mrs. Weatherhead went on from this remotest of remote hamlets to UC Berkeley and became a high school math teacher.

THE MINA FIRE was corralled by an All-Mendo fire-fighting team, and one HumCo outfit that also included: Redwood Coast Fire Department, Brooktrails Township Fire Department, Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department, Laytonville Volunteer Fire Department, Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, Little Lake-Willits Fire Department, Hopland Volunteer Fire Department, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Mendocino National Forest, California National Guard (CNG), California Conservation Corps (CCC) and Briceland Volunteer Fire Department.

CALFIRE, 7/9/24 7:21 p.m. — According to Cal Fire, the Mina Fire is 53 acres in size and is 35 percent contained. Expected full containment is unknown at this time as crews from throughout Mendocino County continue to work the fire. Evacuation warnings remain in place.

BACK when words had meaning nobody wrote “far left.” There were several varieties of communists (at war with each other), socialists (hostile to capitalism but aimed at taming it), liberals (reconciled to capitalism but wanting to soften it), conservatives (greedy, hidebound but more or less committed to democratic principles), and fascists (cruel, mean bastards desiring to kill everyone unlike themselves.)

SO WHEN I READ that France’s left-wing coalition had vowed to bring in a 90 percent tax rate on the rich following their surprise election victory on Sunday, I rejoiced and recalled that America was as prosperous for most of its citizens as it will ever be in 1955 when our rich were taxed at 90 percent.

LIBERALS, including the savvy ones who read the AVA every morning, are still describing January 6th as an “insurrection.” Jan 6 was a riot, the diff being that an insurrection is a planned, armed assault with a specific intent to hold the objective. Jan 6 was a bunch of white camo buddies, whipped into a frenzy by the Orange Monster, breaking into Congress with no plan other than milling around and breaking stuff. In retaliation, the Democrats, who of course hauled ass that day rather than stay and fight, have since meted out disproportionately harsh federal prison sentences to those camo buds they've been able to identify.

WOULD the camo buddies have lynched Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi if they'd caught them? Doubt they'd have had the stones to take it that far, but the event certainly torqued the political tensions upward and, as things fall all the way apart in November, Jan 6 will be viewed as the day the irreconcilable differences between the Magas and US became obvious.

TROLL BRANDON CHECKS IN:

Hope you’re all doing well.

Can you believe I found this in my barn when I was straightening up.

Remember Tthe Realist and Paul Krasner? It looks like not much changes 50 years in the same old news.

We’re doing good. The blackberries are getting ripe, the first apples are falling off the trees and all is good. In our reality.

How are you?

Best wishes from Troll and Joelle

Lake County

“WE'RE TOLD that the threat of Trump is so great and the stakes are so high that even bringing up these absolutely legitimate concerns about the president's ability to do the most vigorous job in the world for the next four years is enabling fascism.”

— Jon Stewart

ON-LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] I know some of you are worried about trouble at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, and perhaps a replay of 1968. Well, calm your fears. Apparently, any demonstrations, political gatherings or meet ups anywhere near the convention center will require a city issued permit … and the city isnt issuing any permits! Crisis averted! One wonders why Mayor Daley didnt think of this strategy back in ’68.

[2] I was just down in Granby on Rte 10. There was a very small road project going on. On site there was a large sign , This Project Being Funded by the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act”. Who needs to know that.? The sign alone probably added 5 G’s to the price of the project. Some sort of backhanded “Joe Biden” endorsement I imagine.Should have read ” Potatohead comes through for you!”

[3] The gaslighting hasn’t been shut down, the pretend shock that Biden acted senile is still gaslighting. During Biden’s first year as president he came to the city where I lived and people who saw him at an event described him as totally gone. Everyone around him must have known.

In July 1942, the People's Drug store lunch counter on G Street N.W. in Washington, D.C., was a hub of midday activity. As the clock struck noon, the counter filled with a diverse mix of patrons, from office workers to locals seeking a quick and affordable meal. The lunch counter, with its swivel stools and formica countertops, was a quintessential American scene of the era. Men in suits and ties, women in dresses, and servicemen in uniform sat side by side, engaging in conversations or quietly reading newspapers. This was during World War II, and the atmosphere was marked by a mix of urgency and camaraderie. The menu likely featured classic American fare such as sandwiches, soups, and sodas. Despite the wartime backdrop, the People's Drug store lunch counter provided a slice of normalcy and comfort to its patrons, serving as a microcosm of American society during a pivotal moment in history.

[4] When Led Zeppelin proposed an album – remember those? – that didn’t have the name of the band on the cover, the record company went nuts. Peter Grant, the band’s manager told the execs to relax and that he could sell Led Zeppelin albums in a brown paper bag. A few years later, a Led Zeppelin album came out in a brown paper bag – and it sold.

The people running “Joe Biden” know he’s a demented buffoon and are exhibiting the same sort of hubris. They laugh every time this old man publicly poops his pants and it’s just not funny. They are laughing at the fact that he’s still considered a viable candidate by millions of people.

I really think the only reason he’s still considered a viable candidate is that he’s running against one of the most despised people anyone can name – Donald Trump. The handlers are laughing at the challenge of getting a senile, incontinent, incoherent geriatric elected. They feel like it would be a close race between a rutabaga and Donald Trump and they’re right. Such is the hatred for Trump.

If Biden had to debate RFK Jr he would lose the election 500 electoral votes to 38.

[5] We need to be careful about treating this most recent Biden gaslighting as some sort of unique event or a “new thing.” It is not.

The loyal Democrat press did much the same for Franklin Roosevelt. By the time FDR ran for his fourth term, he was a dying man who literally could not stand on his own. The press, most of whom adored him, did much to hide this from the public. The president died less than three months into his final term.

Even farther back, the press failed in its obligations after Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke in October 1919. For the final 17 months of his second term, Wilson was essentially brain-damaged and bed-ridden; all contact was funneled through his doctor and his wife. (Sound familiar?) Wilson never fully recovered and died less than three years after exiting the White House.

[6] I thought 10 years was the time limit on any one person’s presidency. Ol’ Joe would have to at least live another two years into his term. I suppose that could be arranged.

Parkinsonism comes in many forms, but the sort associated with dementia, the most common being Parkinson’s with Lewy body, is probably the most unpleasant, and is accompanied by terrible hallucinations. My neighbor once called the cops and asked them to remove the naked head and torso of a woman dancing on his table. They had to call his daughter out of state to come and get him. They had to turn my cousin’s nightgowns inside out because she couldn’t tolerate the sensation of the seams against her skin, and it took her a God-awful length of time to die.

[7] When will the BOS agendize funding and implementing the action plan laid out by the state? Almost every single bullet point requires the County to provide dollars to accomplish and most importantly maintain the new procedures and hiring/retention recommendations. How will this mesh with the new Tax Sharing Agreement everyone agrees will cost the County $3+mil per year, or the decades old practice of prioritizing public safety functions over just about everything else in the budget? Is this just another study that exposes facts that the BOS will ignore? Will they even respond to or acknowledge the report in a meaningful way? How will they centralize the new Tax Sharing Agreement requirements into Munis to comply with the recommendations, so that Ted can save face so they don’t add a FOURTH “off the books” excel spreadsheet to implement it? Ted? Hello Ted?

[8] How bad can things be? It was announced yesterday that the head basketball coach at our State University signed a 5 year, $50 million contract. And a town just south of here, population about 25,000, listed salaries of their employees; 155 of them are paid over $100,000 per year. So make sure you get that quarterly income tax payment in, and your property taxes are up to date suckers, local and state government have a payroll to make. Don’t like it? Move? If you want to make bank, get a government job.Of course you have to know somebody to get one.