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A WEAK COLD FRONT may generate light drizzle along the coast this afternoon but otherwise calm conditions will persist in the interior. A stronger cold front Wednesday will bring increased cloud cover and coastal drizzle with cool and gusty conditions to end the week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Tuesday morning I have 49F with clear skies. Our rain chances are now down to drizzle as the system is forecast to head more towards the Sierra. After the system passes we are forecast for mostly clear skies into the weekend.
RANDAL SCOTT FRASER
6-19-1968 - 10-12-2024
Burial Tuesday 10-15-2024 1 PM
Evergreen Cemetery, Boonville
Memorial Sunday noon, 10-20-2024
Redwood Grove, Fairgrounds, Boonville
Keemwun keemle
IT COULD HAPPEN HERE
Covelo Juvenile Making School Threats Arrested
On Saturday, October 12, 2024 at approximately 3:52 P.M., the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was contacted by the Round Valley Tribal Police Department. Sheriff’s Deputies were advised of possible threats made toward the Round Valley High School and Elementary School. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office takes threats of this nature very seriously and several Deputies assigned to the Round Valley area responded immediately and began an investigation into the threats.
Deputies conducted a thorough investigation with the assistance of school officials and the Round Valley Tribal Police Department. Deputies learned the threats included plans of violence at the schools, which were to occur during the week of October 13, 2024.
The subject who made the threats toward the schools was identified as a 17-year-old juvenile from Covelo. The subject was located and placed under arrest for making criminal threats. The subject was subsequently transported and booked into the Mendocino County Juvenile Hall for the above listed charge. Based on the investigation, it was determined the juvenile was acting alone while planning these threats and there were no other outstanding subjects involved in the incident.
As of the publication of this press release, the juvenile subject remains in custody and there is no current threat to the Round Valley High School, Elementary School, students, or faculty. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office would like to thank the Round Valley Tribal Police Department and Round Valley School officials who assisted with this investigation.
Anyone with information pertaining to this investigation is requested to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Communications Center at 707-463-4086. Information can also be provided anonymously by calling the non-emergency tip line at 707-234-2100.
SAVE THE REDWOODS LEAGUE ACQUIRES 750 ACRES of Redwood Forest in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties for Future Parks Expansions
Lands to be added to Armstrong Redwoods and Montgomery Woods state natural reserves for long-term stewardship
Save the Redwoods League today announced that it has purchased three coast redwood properties totaling 750 acres in Sonoma and Mendocino counties that will one day be added to Armstrong Redwoods and Montgomery Woods state natural reserves (SNR). The League acquired the properties from private landowners, the Ayers and Robinson families and the Mendocino Redwood Company for nearly $3.5 million. The acquisitions are the first steps toward long-term protection for these coast redwood properties.
Save the Redwoods League now has protected more than 84 square miles (53,850 acres) in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. These lands are protected for the benefit of everyone in some of the region’s most-loved parks, including Austin Creek State Recreation Area, Fort Ross State Historic Park, Montgomery Woods SNR, Mendocino Headlands, Sinkyone Wilderness, Navarro River Redwoods and Hendy Woods state parks.
“I’m proud of our land protection team that successfully negotiated these three acquisitions and grateful to the former landowners for agreeing to help ensure that more redwood forest can grow and thrive long into the future,” said Jeff Stump, director of land protection for Save the Redwoods League. “Together with California State Parks and local partners, we can work toward our shared vision of expanding the neighboring parks that are enjoyed by more than a million people each year.”
“Armstrong Redwoods and Montgomery Woods state reserves are unparalleled treasures in our district, safeguarding some of the world’s tallest trees — coast redwoods that have stood for over 1,000 years,” said Bill Maslach, Sonoma-Mendocino Coast district superintendent for California State Parks. “Collaborating with Save the Redwoods League to preserve the last remaining stands of big trees and expand these parks is not just conservation; it’s preserving living history. Now, we must focus on the surrounding forests to ensure they are resilient to fire, securing their legacy for future generations.”
Future Expansion of Armstrong Redwoods SNR in Sonoma County
Save the Redwoods League purchased two properties totaling 360 acres for $1,981,000 to create the new Armstrong Ridge addition. The former landowners agreed to sell to the League to fulfill shared goals of one day seeing these lands protected forever as part of Armstrong Redwoods SNR. Both properties are in excellent condition with mature second-growth coast redwood forest and a small area (approx. 23 acres) of old-growth that survived past commercial logging.
The League will lease both properties to California State Parks until they can be officially acquired by the park system and added to Armstrong Redwoods SNR for ongoing protection and stewardship. Sonoma County Ag + Open Space, in partnership with State Parks, launched the effort to protect these properties with initial project design and planning, and engaged Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods as a key partner in the process. Ag + Open Space then transferred the project to Save the Redwoods League and supported their work to ensure the long-term conservation of this land and its vital natural resources.
The sites are within the traditional lands of the Southern Pomo people. Regional biodiversity includes mountain lions, black-tailed deer and northern spotted owls. The Ayers property contains the headwaters of the east fork of Fife Creek, the stream that flows through Armstrong Redwoods SNR, as well as the headwaters and portions of Hulburt Creek.
Future Expansion of Montgomery Woods SNR in Mendocino County
The League purchased the 390-acre Dark Gulch property from Mendocino Redwood Company for $1.5 million. Dark Gulch will be transferred to California State Parks to ensure lasting protection and future public access as part of Montgomery Woods SNR.
Dark Gulch is within the traditional lands of the Northern Pomo people. It is on the western side of Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve and is mostly forested, with a mix of young coast redwoods, Douglas-fir and tanoak, with manzanita, huckleberry and California hazelnut growing in the shade provided by the larger trees. White-flowered rein-orchids, a special status species that smells like honey, also line the forest floor. Approximately a quarter of a mile of the South Fork Big River flows adjacent to the property, which is part of a priority salmon recovery area for coho and Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. Dark Gulch provides habitat for the endangered northern spotted owl and foothill yellow-legged frog.
The acquisition of Dark Gulch is part of the League’s Montgomery Woods Initiative, which aims to expand the park boundary, secure lasting protections for the vast forest that surrounds the park. Plans also include the redesign of trails and new interpretive exhibits improving the visitor experience. The Initiative began with the purchase of the 453-acre Atkins Place property in September 2022 as a future addition to the park. In August 2023, the League secured a conservation easement on the 3,862-acre Weger Ranch that protects the ranch’s coast redwood and Douglas-fir forest from subdivision, development and excessive logging in perpetuity. The League also recently expanded Montgomery Woods SNR by facilitating the transfer of the 80-acre Rocky Ridge property in March 2024―the first land acquisition by California State Parks in the Sonoma-Mendocino District since 2008.
Save the Redwoods League raised $3.5 million to purchase the three properties, including generous support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for the properties adjacent to Armstrong Redwoods and contributions to the League’s Redwood Land Fund, which enables the League to move quickly and make critical land acquisitions when opportunities become available.
TWO MENDOCINO COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION TRUSTEES STEP DOWN AFTER YEARS OF SERVICE
This year, the Mendocino County Board of Education bids farewell to two dedicated trustees who have made lasting contributions to the county’s educational community. Charline Ford and Drew Duncan have both chosen not to seek re-election, closing out their tenures with the board.
Charline Ford: A Lifelong Educator and Advocate for Students
Ford has served as the trustee for Area Three: Covelo, Laytonville, and Willits. She began her career in education in the 1960s. With teaching degrees from Cottey College in Missouri, Humboldt State University, and a master’s from the University of Oklahoma, Ford's passion for teaching spanned multiple roles. In Arcata, she taught high school English and started classes for expectant young mothers. In Willits, she spent 21 years teaching English and leadership classes while also advising extracurricular activities such as track and the school’s first student-led Christian Club.
Her journey to the Mendocino County Board of Education started at the suggestion of a friend.
"I didn’t even know where the office was or that I had to run a campaign, but I decided to go for it," she recalled. During the 17 years she served, she relished visiting schools, connecting with students and staff, and learning about the educational environments across the county.
"It’s the people that make it worthwhile and fun," Ford reflected.
As she “graduates” into retirement, as she put it, Ford looks forward to spending time with family and friends, staying active in her church, and continuing her involvement in education in new ways. She’s also been encouraged by her granddaughter to write her memoirs, a project she’s titled, My Life So Far.
Ford’s advice to new board members? Get ready for a great adventure! You’re always learning, exploring new places, and staying connected to what’s happening in education.
Drew Duncan: Bridging Education and Local Politics
Duncan has served as the trustee for Area Four: Caspar, Cleone, Fort Bragg, Leggett, Piercy, and Westport, holding the title of board president for the past year.
Duncan is stepping down to focus on his new full-time teaching career. Raised in Mendocino County, Duncan attended local schools and earned his degree in political science before returning to coastal Mendocino County during the pandemic. He was elected to the MCOE Board in 2020, a time when meetings were virtual.
"I miss those pajama pants during meetings," he joked.
Duncan’s journey to a career in education stems from his struggles as a student. Inspired by his family—his grandmother, mother, and brother, all educators—he developed a deep respect for the profession.
"There are so many reasons people struggle in education, and it’s not because they aren’t receiving time, support, or resources,” he said.
After working as a paraeducator supporting teachers in the classroom, he wanted to give back to his coastal community.
“So much is happening because of the dedication of the people on the frontlines of education and behind the scenes—from policies and budgets to schools and programs—that make it all possible," he said.
Duncan obtained his teaching credential and is now pursuing his master’s in education at UC Davis. In his social science classroom, he enjoys bringing local politics to life for eighth graders.
"Making local politics interesting, even for tuned-in adults, is challenging, but making it relevant for my students is especially rewarding," he said.
His advice to new board members and educators? It’s easy to feel a step removed from education if you only read the board documents. Visit all the sites, graduations, and events. You’ll feel more connected if you get out to see things first-hand. It’s really rewarding and helps you understand the complexities of the county. It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I’m sad to leave it.
A Legacy of Service
Serving as a trustee on the Mendocino County Board of Education offers a unique opportunity to shape educational policies, advocate for students, and make a lasting impact on schools across the county. Ford and Duncan leave a legacy of service. The Mendocino County Office of Education and the education community are grateful for their leadership and commitment to Mendocino County schools and students, according to Nicole Glentzer, Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools.
The Mendocino County Board of Education comprises five trustees based on supervisorial districts, each elected to four-year terms. This fall, two seats are up for election. In Trustee Area Three, Michelle Hutchins and David R. Strock are running for the open seat. In Trustee Area Four, Nancy J. Bennett will assume the position after filing uncontested. New trustees will be sworn in on December 16, 2024.
Learn more about the statutory functions of county boards of education here. https://www.mcoe.us/governance/files/documents/Statutory-Functions-2023-draft-3.0-final.pdf
ED NOTES
TOM WODETZKI WRITES: “Because I'm a long-time local progressive who studies the issues, lots of folks ask me for voting advice. I also ask dozens of politically aware, community oriented locals for their election advice. Here below are my resulting ballot recommendations. I hope it’s helpful to you, and if it is that you pass it on to others who might appreciate it.”
I WOULDN'T DARE, TOM, because in my immediate circle Democrats are viewed accurately as the softer side of the Orange Menace.
I'VE KNOWN ‘WODO,’ as Wodetzki is known around the ava, for many years. I like and admire the guy for his many good works, among them his annual volunteer assault on star thistle and, more grandly, his consistency over the long years for being on the correct side of local political struggles. And I am in total agreement with him on the propositions.
WE PART COMPANY on the candidates. I don't think Wodo has thought hard enough about what professional Democrats now represent and, to a lesser extent, what generations of their professional officeholders have done to the Northcoast, from their soft support for the rapacious corporate timber cash-in of our forests to their quiet transfer of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad to themselves for a party jobs program that destroyed the line, and then appropriating its right of way for an entirely bogus, never-to-happen, Great Redwood Trail, not to mention the numbers of incompetents the Democrats have supported for local office.
MANY OF US had hoped that light rail would eventually reach beyond Willits, perhaps as far north as Dos Rios, which was entirely feasible. Nope. We may not even see rail service to Cloverdale, whose optimistic city council built a nifty little station years ago in anticipation of a train that never arrived. (The local Democrats intend to plunk down an eyesore new County Courthouse on Ukiah's former rail yard with, of course, the full support of the Democrat Board of Supervisors, the Democrat Ukiah City Council and the Democrat Superior Court of Mendocino County.
THE LAUGHABLY INCOMPETENT Mendo Board of Supervisors is another example of gross dysfunction installed by the local lockstep branch of the Democrats. (The joke's on us, and it’s expensive.)
ON THE NATIONAL LEVEL, the grim fact that a garbled fascist like Trump can be seriously considered as president (twice!) is the greatest crime yet by the Democrats because they haven't been Democrats since McGovern in '72. A huge number of working people have been lost to the MAGA fantasy who used to be Democrats because Democrats used to represent ordinary people. No more. They're funded by the same grasping class of the super rich as the Republicans.
“OUR” DEMOCRACY? That's a hot one coming from the party that sues to keep third party candidates off the ballot. “Our” democracy ends at the county line because we have no say in candidate selection and zero influence with the party, and how can any more or less human being enthusiastically be for a Democrat who supports more of the same in Gaza, the greatest ongoing crime of our time?
ADAM SCHIFF? This character pedaled the huge lie that Trump was Putin's creation for the entire duration of fake president Joe Biden's four years of his handlers pretending he was the boss. But when it was revealed that Russia Gate was in fact untrue and a creation of Democrats, oh well, and Schiff sails on into a Senate seat. Trump is bad enough by himself without going to all the trouble of making him appear more villainous than he is.
AND HOW DANGEROUS is Orange Man? He's not even in it with the great fascists of yesteryear who had much more popular support, were much smarter, attracted smart people as henchmen. Trump is a third rate fascist who inspires so much opposition from inside and from out that the only real damage he did his first term was appoint fascists to the Supreme Court.
President & VP: Kamala Harris & Tim Walz (Democrats). NO!
US Senator: Adam Schiff (Dem) NO!
US Representative: Jared Huffman (Dem) NO!
State Assembly: Chris Rogers (Dem) NO! (He isn't vapid enough anyway)
Mendocino School District: Jim Gagnon.
Mendocino Coast Health Care District: Michael Blaisdell & Paul Katzeff. YES on Katzeff, NO on Name Change Blaisdell.
Fort Bragg City Council: Lindy Peters and Bethany Brewer YES!
Fort Bragg School District: Sage Statham.
TWO COMETS WILL BE VISIBLE IN THE NIGHT SKIES THIS MONTH
Halloween visitors from the distant Oort Cloud.
by James Wray
The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize: a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the Sun and eight planets as it extends trillions of miles into deep space.
The spherical shell known as the Oort Cloud is, for all practical purposes, invisible. Its constituent particles are spread so thinly, and so far from the light of any star, including the Sun, that astronomers simply cannot see the cloud, even though it envelops us like a blanket.
It is also theoretical. Astronomers infer the Oort Cloud is there because it’s the only logical explanation for the arrival of a certain class of comets that sporadically visit our solar system. The cloud, it turns out, is basically a gigantic reservoir that may hold billions of icy celestial bodies.
Two of those bodies will pass by Earth in the days leading up to Halloween. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, also known as Comet C/2023 A3, will be at its brightest, and likely visible to the naked eye, for a week or two after October 12, the day it’s closest to Earth—just look to the western sky shortly after sunset. As the days pass, the comet will get fainter and move to a higher part of the sky.
The second comet, C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), just discovered on September 27, should be visible around the end of October. The comet will pass closest to Earth on October 24—look low in the eastern sky just before sunrise. Then, after swinging around the Sun, the comet may reappear in the western night sky right around Halloween. It’s possible, however, that it could disintegrate, in part or in whole, as sometimes happens when comets pass by the Sun—and this one will come within 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) of our star.
As a planetary astronomer, I’m particularly curious about the Oort Cloud and the icy bodies inhabiting it. The Cloud’s residents may be a reason why life ignited on Earth; crashing on our planet eons ago, these ice bodies may have supplied at least some of the water that all life requires. At the same time, these same objects pose an ever-present threat to Earth’s continuation—and our survival.…
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/10/two-comets-will-be-visible-in-the-night-skies-this-month
SHERIFF MATT KENDALL: NO CONSPIRACY HERE.
Mr. Sakowicz, your mention “Notably absent were Sheriff Matt Kendal,” from Jason Cox’s funeral. As always a backhanded effort at some type of conspiracy theory which most of us realize is just you in true your style. Many folks may not realize you’re a person who offers opinion as fact and in a vacuum of information you will simply make something up. So let me take a moment to set things straight.
I worked with Jason for several years and I always liked him. Jason was a tenacious investigator with a great sense of humor and strong work ethic. Jason was also a good father and husband. I always considered Jason to be a friend. I hadn’t had much contact with Jason following his retirement as often happens when someone retires and their fellow officers are still working. That doesn’t mean we don’t care or think about each other. It’s simply a time management thing when many folks don’t have a lot of time in the schedule.
I left the house early and was on my way to Round Valley the morning Jason passed away. I was entering Covelo when I received the call regarding his passing. I made sure his body was escorted to the funeral home by our patrol cars and personnel. I also called my wife and advised her of Jason’s passing. My wife worked with Jason’s widow for several years.
This past weekend I had several engagements. My wife and I had planned on attending Jason’s services. However our son had come home for the weekend with our daughter in law and our first grandson. They live out of the area and we don’t get to see them as often as we would like with some very busy schedules. I cut several engagements short and had to skip others in order to do what I believe is right for my family.
Jason’s passing at such an early age was a shock to all of us. I am praying for Jason’s family and I let his widow know they are all in our prayers. Jason’s passing also caused me to re-evaluate my priorities and to work harder at spending time with my family when I have the chance. Perhaps grandchildren are what the Allmighty sends us to help us stay centered on the family.
Your distortion of my relationship with Jason is misleading to all who read it. Your insinuation there was any bad blood between Jason and I is a far-fetched tale to say the least. I would actually take it a step further and call it a blatant lie. I don’t know what drives you to do these things nor do I want to spend any time pondering that question as it would simply be wasted time . But you are you, so I think most folks simply expect falsehoods and half cooked conspiracies on a fairly frequent basis. In true me fashion, if you’re going to take a poke at me in the paper you should expect one back.
SAKO REPLIES:
Sheriff Kendall:
Name one active-duty senior member of the MCSO who was present at Jason’s memorial service. No sheriff. No undersheriff. No commanders. No honor guard.
In fact, name anyone from the MCSO’s active-duty rooster who attended.
Their absence was disgraceful.
Nothing was more important than honoring a member of your own department who tried to restore the public trust with a whistleblower complaint that took real courage to bring, was shocking in its content, was substantiated, settled and sealed, and was either directly or indirectly was a contributing cause to White’s and Gore’s deaths and Cox’s own PTSD, stressed immune system and ultimate demise.
There are no distortions, no lies, no misrepresentations in my tribute to Jason Cox….just “inconvenient truths”.
Netflix could make a documentary based on what was in Jason Cox’s complaint. “Murder Mountain” in Humboldt County had nothing on the pure evil that existed in Mendocino County before the collapse of cannabis prices. And you know it. You just can’t publicly admit it.
But someday, I hope the truth is told. The public has a right to know. And if the Department of Justice can still bring cases that survive the statute of limitations, then those cases should be brought.
Jason Cox signed an NDA back in 2006, but it’s rumored he videotaped an interview from that time …a videotape he called his “insurance policy” should anything ever had happened to him. I hope that videotape now finds its way into the right hands. I know a few independent producers and directors who have worked with Netflix. And I know a few people on NPR’s national news desk. Those would be good places to start.
Finally, I hope your prayers for Jason Cox are enough. But that’s between you and God.
John Sakowicz
Ukiah
Sheriff Kendall:
Do you know what other events were occurring in the same date? Who was having a wedding, who was out of town? Obviously not, you didn’t know why I wasn’t there. So if you want to run those things down and report out that would be prudent. If not it’s just a little more BS from a wind bag hoping to look like someone in the know.
Anon:
I attended Jason’s service with my children, and the obvious lack of law enforcement (retired or active) there to pay respects to Shannon and the kids was pretty telling. I’m not pointing the finger at Sheriff Kendall or any one person specifically, but the absence definitely did not go unnoticed.
Although I’d much rather be surrounded by the ones who did show up in force – local coaches, teachers, and the kids’ teammates and friends – it did make me sad for Jason and Shannon that law enforcement was nowhere to be found.
Sheriff Kendall:
He was a good ball player also! Loved basketball. I was terrible at it, preferred baseball. On night shift while doing a school checks in Laytonville, Jason saw a basketball left out in the playground I watched as he sunk some 3 pointers. I tried to dunk on the 8’ rim with no glory.
Jason told me years ago he had tried out for professional football when he was in his late teens however that didn’t pan out for him. I don’t remember which team he went for a walk on.
MENDOCINO COUNTY FIRE SAFE COUNCIL TO BE FEATURED AT UKIAH’S PUMPKINFEST
by Sarah Reith
The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council is joining the fun at Pumpkinfest, Ukiah’s pre-Halloween autumn street fair on October 19. In addition to a giant pumpkin weigh-off, rides and various antics involving costumes and pets, the event is an educational opportunity for civic organizations. This year, a significant chunk of the festival real estate will be occupied by the Fire and Safety Expo.
Peter Armstrong has been coordinating the Expo with the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority for six years. The event started in the Pear Tree shopping center over 25 years ago, and battled with children’s soccer for attention on a Saturday afternoon. He estimates that ever since the Expo joined forces with the city’s Pumpkinfest in 2001, four or five thousand people come through and pick up some of the safety tips. It’s also one of the most-anticipated publicity events for departments looking to swell the ranks of their volunteers.
“It takes all year to put it together,” he said, citing the mountain of correspondence and logistics that’s required to make it all run smoothly. Two weeks before the event, he knew for sure that, in addition to the Fire Safe Council, United Disaster Relief of Northern California, Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol, and various fire departments from the Ukiah Valley were going to be waving down festival goers in an effort to educate and recruit them. “And there may be others that just haven’t gotten back to me,” he said with a laugh.
He describes the Expo as “a coordinated event of emergency responders, and additional vendors who are involved in helping people before and after a disaster, which could be as small as a single home burning or multiple homes, like we had seven years ago.” There will be no shortage of handouts and displays, and the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority will go all out with interactive opportunities for young visitors. A fire prevention trailer will feature a mock-up of a kitchen with a stove and advice for how to navigate the hazards of a small, hot enclosed space. After a brief video and training, the kids get to practice. “They actually smoke up the trailer and then the kids have to go out the back window, staying low,” Armstrong described. A firefighter in full turnouts, including a breathing apparatus, will help them from the outside, so they have a chance to grow accustomed to the unfamiliar sight. “Because a firefighter with a mask on, especially at night, could be a little scary,” Armstrong allowed. “It kind of sounds like Darth Vader.” He reported that children will also have an opportunity to climb around in an ambulance, so “If they end up having a bad day, it's kind of prepared them a little bit for what they're going to see and who they're going to be dealing with.”
When it comes to preventive tips, Armstrong says festival goers can learn everything there is to know about the importance of making sure their addresses are visible to firefighters looking for their homes. They can obtain those signs, too. Fire Safe Council members will be making customized reflective signs onsite, for a donation of $20. The signs should be mounted at each driveway entrance and visible from both directions of travel along the road, at a height where headlights from a fire engine will illuminate them, between two to five feet high.
Kids will have a chance to gaze at the world from a firefighter’s seat in a fire engine, and to practice putting out fake flames enveloping a make-believe castle. While they are making friends with rescue personnel, adults will have an opportunity to learn about and offer input on the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. That’s a document that lays out the community’s priorities for fire resilience and recovery, which could improve chances of securing federal funding for the most important projects.
10:00 on Saturday morning, all the fire trucks and emergency vehicles, plus all the soccer teams in town and a number of other organizations will proceed from the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds to the site of the festival downtown. “That parade will probably be half an hour long,” Armstrong predicted. “Then come over to the fire Expo and see us, because we're right at the very end of the parade.”
But the possibility of an actual emergency could significantly reduce the number of personnel who are there to talk about how to stay safe from fire. “If there is a good size fire near us,” Armstrong warned, “We might not be able to have as much in it… Just three weeks ago, we sent one of our chiefs and an engine in a strike team all the way to Southern California. It's still fire season. And anything can happen.”
Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s mission is to help communities survive and thrive in a wildfire-prone environment. Visit our website, firesafemendocino.org, to find out how we can help you improve fire resiliency in your neighborhood.
OCTOBER IS A GREAT MONTH TO SHARE IDEAS ABOUT WILDFIRE RESILIENCE
by Sarah Reith
As another fire season stretches into what used to be fall, Mendocino County residents have a chance to lay out their priorities for protecting their communities from wildfire.
The county is updating its Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which is a chance to bring in federal money to pay for fire resilience and recovery projects. The plan was last updated in 2015, well before ‘defensible space’ and ‘fuel reduction’ had become bywords in the age of weeks-long blazes.
And that has real ramifications, according to Emily Tecchio, the county coordinator for the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council. “Our last CWPP is from 2015, which is before we had our major fires,” she noted. “It’s also before a lot of the science started getting solidified around home hardening, especially that Zone Zero first five feet around your home, so none of that is in there.” Also absent is any mention of the harmful effects of air pollution due to massive wildfires. In August, the US Environmental Protection Agency reported “elevated concentrations of fine particle air pollution” in New England, due to smoke from fires in Canada.
But now, there is a new recognition of the importance of fire resilience. That recognition includes money from the climate change programs contained in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Specifically, a five-year community wildfire defense grant is tied to projects listed in the CWPP. And Tecchio thinks finding out what your neighbors’ safety priorities are can be a great way to build community, too. “The CWPP is really a vehicle for nonprofits and agencies to apply for funding for phe projects that are listed in there,” she reflected. “It’s also an opportunity to bring awareness about the different projects and what your neighbors want. Maybe you guys have the same goals, and you can partner. The document is about trying to secure funding, but funding for what the community wants.”
The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council is encouraging local people to articulate their needs as clearly as possible, to improve their chances of getting funded for the projects that are most likely to protect them from wildfire. This month, there are two opportunities to learn about the plan in person. People can also share written input through the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council website, at firesafemendocino.org/mccwpp/. There, visitors can peruse the current plan and find a link to a survey, where they can describe a project proposal to any degree of specificity or generality, from type of project and location to methodology and maintenance requirements.
On October 21, there will be a community meeting with county officials and representatives from SWCA, the contractor preparing the new plan. That’s a Monday night, from 6-8pm, at the Regional Behavioral Health Training Center at 8207 East Road in Redwood Valley.
That calls for a special celebration, namely, a parade. Starting at On a more festive note, community members can also offer input on the plan at this year’s Pumpkinfest in Ukiah. The Ukiah Valley Fire Authority is hosting a Fire and Safety Expo on Saturday, October 19. As kids pretend to be rescued from a staged burning, parents can learn more about how to contribute to the upcoming Community Wildfire Protection Plan. “The purpose of a CWPP is to collect input from the community,” Tecchio urged. “Everybody is in danger of burning, whether they realize it or not.”
Mendocino County Fire Safe Council’s mission is to help communities survive and thrive in a wildfire-prone environment. Visit our website, firesafemendocino.org, to find out how we can help you improve fire resiliency in your neighborhood.
FALL SEMINAR ON PUTTING YOUR AFFAIRS ON ORDER
Maggie Watson will be leading another seminar of Putting Your Affairs in Order. If you could tell your loved ones that your legal documents were up to date, the people involved (trustee or executor) know what they need to know and are empowered, and that you have noted where you wanted the "stuff" (ex.: Mom's special ring, a favorite army knife of dad's or a favorite painting) to go, would that make your day?
Topics such as these and many more will be discussed at the upcoming seminar taking place at Mendocino Legal Ad hoc, 45160 Main Street, Mendocino. The space is handicapped accessible and on the ground floor.
Here is YOUR chance to gatherer the necessary information, record it and move the process along so that you can experience peace of mind, clarity and most importantly, a feeling of accomplishment and completion.
This seminar will be held on the following Tuesday's: October 29th, November 5th, 12th, and 19th from 3-5pm. Attorney, Margaret Mary (Maggie) O'Rourke will explain the various options of estate planning and answer your questions. Filling in the book, A Graceful Farewell: Putting Your Affairs in Order will be encouraged. We will also complete an Advanced Healthcare Directive. Retired nurse, Sojourna Lee will lead the completion of this document with Maggie Watson. Giving clear instructions prior to the time of need decreases the chance of you getting care you do not want and empowers your health care agent to make better decisions. Families have reported that a completed AHCD makes a huge difference emotionally also.
Maggie is now a CA licensed professional fiduciary and acts as power of attorney for finance and healthcare, executor, and trustee. She brings a wealth of experience that she will share in this class.
If you want to participate in this seminar, please send a check to Mendocino Fiduciary, PO Box 440, Mendocino, CA 95460. Make the check out to Maggie Watson. The fee for the 4-part seminar is $125 per person. A partner or friend can participate together for $195. Prior registration is required to hold your space.
Please bring the book to each class. The book can be purchased at all Gallery Books in Mendocino, The Bookstore and Vinyl Cafe, Windsong and Racines in Fort Bragg. If you have questions about the class, please contact Maggie Watson at 397-1655 or e-mail maggie@mendocinofiduciary.com.
Here's to giving a gift that will be remembered with love and appreciation!
CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, October 14, 2024
GERALD FULLER, 32, Ukiah. Probation revocation.
TYLER KELLER, 33, Ukiah. County parole violation.
SHYANN MACLEAN, 22, Kelseyville/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
BRIAN WILLIAMS, 53, Ukiah. Controlled substance, parole violation.
COLUMBUS DAY, THE LOCAL ANGLE
Joe Cervetto, a San Francisco businessman who spent many happy hours at his Boonville place on Redwood Ridge, was best known for his enthusiastic portrayals of Christopher Columbus in the city’s annual Columbus Day celebration.
Cervetto developed an early interest in his fellow Genoese, Christopher Columbus, becoming an authority on the life and times of “The Greatest Navigator” and, in 1958, assumed the role of portraying his idol in San Francisco's Columbus Day Parade — a role he played with gusto for the next 30 years, wading ashore at Aquatic Park in annual re-enactments of the big event.
DELANG TELLS IT!
Voting for the “lesser” Evil serves to support, promote, and most importantly, strengthen the powerful influence Evil already enjoys. I’ve come to believe that it’s my obligation as a citizen of the U.S. to become informed as well as I can be about the policy platforms of each political party and then select and vote for the candidates representing the party whose platform most closely reflects my own ideas about how our society should be organized. When I first became eligible to vote, I cast my ballot for George McGovern, as I was then young, impressionable, politically naive, and frankly, still developing what my own ideas would become about the best ways of organizing our society. That was the last time I found myself voting for either a Democrat or a Republican for the office of President. I’ve always been able to discover a platform adhering more closely to my core values than those offered by these two parties. I do this without consulting the NYT table of which pollsters have called which winners in which states as much as six months prior to the first ballots being cast, let alone counted. If my calculus for determining how I cast my vote cannot be reasonably considered a valid and acceptable one within the context of the system as it exists, then we really don’t have much of a democracy worth protecting from the abuses of a candidate like Trump anyhow, do we? I can’t predict which ticket will prevail in the upcoming election, or possibly despite the election, but I can confidently express the opinion that whoever is addressed as POTUS beginning in January 2025, the only real winner will be the oligarchy, especially that parasitic subset known as defense contractors, and the loser, once again, will be the American people. MAGA has an assured victory; either a very large one if their party is elected, or a more moderate one, if not, as the center is pushed a couple of notches further to the right. Whatever the result, we will have the government we deserve, not because the people will have spoken, but rather because they’ll have demonstrated once again that they are content with not having any real voice regarding who they are expected to choose between. I believe Mr. Solomon will and should vote in whichever way seems right to him, but he should stow the “Safe State” BS and acknowledge that the prime drivers behind his decision may be fear and obedience rather than reason.
Michael DeLang, Golden, Colorado
AMY GOODMAN’S PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
Esteemed Editor,
The gleeful posts from the IDF soldiers in the transcript reminded me of the ever so much of those soldiers in the US Cavalry exterminating Native Americans in Custer’s day, and his quotes of the settlers who were unanimous in their delight at the atrocities committed to insure their safety and complacency… Not that modern Americans would do anyone any harm or demean their humanity in order to take their country and call it their own. Ah, but we know from several readership polls that most of us have read Evan S. Connell’s ‘Sun of the Morning Star’ and May wash our own Lilly white hands of any such genocidal merriment!
Your trusty well-wisher,
Bruce The McEwen
Walnut Creek
THE MYTH OF VOTER FRAUD: GERRYMANDERING, LIES & HARDBALL POLITICS
by Paul Modic
If you ask random people if there’s a lot of voter fraud affecting elections many may say, incorrectly, that yes there is. They might say that because of the right-wing Republicans’ (RWR) strategy, in the name of the oxymoron “election integrity,” to pass laws making it harder to vote because of the imaginary wide-spread voter fraud. The RWR file multiple lawsuits decrying rampant voter fraud, and generally attract so much media attention to their false claims that it leads segments of the population, who aren’t paying much attention, to think “where there’s smoke there must be fire.”
But it’s just a scam the RWR is attempting, often successfully, to confuse the voters into thinking that “both sides do it,” when it’s a cynical and strictly RWR project to discourage people from bothering to vote in such a “corrupt system,” just lies similar to most of a Trump speech. (The ones who get confused and duped are the low-info voters who don’t have the time or inclination to study or investigate the cascading charges by the RWR.)
It’s a smart and legal strategy to create confusion, suppress the vote, and get their foot in the courthouse door to possibly try to steal the election if or when it comes down to the predicted close one, by focusing ballot challenges on districts, counties, and other slivers of the demographic in swing states where the electoral college is in play. (When the nation was being created and debated, while the constitution was being written, the electoral college was created as part of a grand compromise to keep the slave states in the new nation, instead of dividing the country in two. So once again the effects of slavery, our original sin, makes an appearance 250 years later.)
Why do they do this? Why do RWR lawyers and political operatives now have ninety-four lawsuits filed pre-election in battleground states? They do it because they are outnumbered by the liberal popular vote numbers as old conservative Fox “News” viewers die off, and young people who like diversity and support human and abortion rights, are emerging as a potentially powerful voting block. (Yes, it’s hard to get them out to vote as they are often deeply disillusioned by housing costs, lack of action on climate change, economic inequality, and the bombing of Gaza, among other issues.)
With these tactics the RWR tries to stay competitive nationally in the face of the challenging demographics, even though they probably all know they’re lying, while trying to sell the country a load of bullshit. (The MAGA crowd in their Fox or Newsmax bubble might not realize it’s a scam.)
One disheartening example of this brand of politics is what the RWR legislature did in Tennessee. The state is deep red with a couple pockets of Democratic blue in Nashville and Memphis and the Republicans have almost all the congressional seats. Nashville until recently was a reliably liberal voting block with a lot of creative artists and a Democratic congressman. With redistricting, the RWR chopped the city up into three pieces, connected each of those splintered gerrymandered chunks to more rural Republican districts surrounding the town, and eliminated the blue district. (I feel for you Nashville, does this seem fair? Not to me, but the RWR aren’t satisfied with an already overwhelming majority in the state, they want it all, even if they have to destroy a small city’s logical and historical political district.)
Hollowing out a liberal city’s political center in a red state also happened in Austin, Texas, diluting Democratic power. The attorney general in Texas recently raided the houses and offices of activists working in organizations to register and get out the vote among Hispanics, including the home of a Latina Democratic congressional candidate. Texas has also joined the majority of the fifty states which have enacted voter-restriction laws since the 2020 election, often just applying to Democratic strongholds, like the multicultural city of Houston, aiming to discourage, suppress, and make it harder to cast a vote, and usually affecting minority neighborhoods and districts the most. (They say it’s not racist, and Trump’s corrupt and politicized Supreme Court majority usually agree.)
The Reps play hardball politics while the Dems try to get their majority to the polls. Yes, Dems gerrymander also, but not to the extent of the RWR, like in states like North Carolina and Wisconsin where the congressional and state districts are so thoroughly gerrymandered that even though there’s a Democratic majority in ballots cast, the statehouses are controlled by veto-proof majorities of Republicans. (When there’s a Democratic governor, the Republican legislature sometimes strips them of some of their powers.)
When the Trump campaign filed sixty-four lawsuits contesting the 2020 election results, and falsely called it stolen, the big lie traveled far and wide, bringing the protestors of January 6th shouting “stop the steal,” with the then-president exhorting the crowd to march on the capitol and fight, which they violently did. (To this day he denies that he lost the election, any top Republican elected official or RWR pundit disagrees with him at their political peril, and 70% of Republicans polled say it was stolen.)
When Vance refused to answer the question in the debate about whether Trump won or lost, he echoed RWR who like to bring up Hilary blaming her 2016 loss on the half a million dollars Russia put into Facebook ads against her. “See, both sides deny elections,” the RWR say, but that’s a laugh: Clinton blew off some steam for a minute but didn’t file sixty-four lawsuits, continually spread the lie that she had won, or get on the phone to swing state officials asking them to “find 11,000 votes,” as Trump did in a call to the secretary of state in Georgia.
Lying politicians and candidates are an American tradition going all the way back to the beginning of the Republic (One of the latest lies was heard at the vice presidential debate, when Vance blamed Harris for undocumented migrants bringing fentanyl up from Mexico, when over 80% of the dangerous drug which comes north through the Tijuana-San Diego corridor, is smuggled by American citizens in their cars, often poor desperate high school kids recruited by cartel intermediaries.)
With the election just a few weeks away, one thing is sure: No matter who wins, about half the population is going to be severely disappointed.
THERE’S A SOLUTION TO UNSHELTERED HOMELESSNESS IN CALIFORNIA. IT’S CALLED INTERIM HOUSING.
by Elizabeth Funk
California doesn’t have a homelessness crisis; it has a homelessness policy crisis.
Unsheltered homelessness is the most visible, the most inhumane and, frankly, the most solvable part of our homelessness issue. And it is a uniquely California problem. Half of the nation’s unsheltered population resides in our state. Ending the fiscally devastating and morally reprehensible catastrophe of people sleeping on California’s sidewalks is well within our capabilities — and doing so would cost our society half as much as we spend pushing the problem around.…
sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/interim-housing-unsheltered-homelessness-19827544.php
SO LONG as they continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.
— George Orwell
AS ISRAEL’S ASSAULT ON PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS GOES INTO WARP-SPEED, JCRC/BANJO Members and The JCRC Itself Come Into Tighter Focus; Yoav Schlesinger Preview
As I write this, Israel has now bombed civilian tents outside the already-beleaguered Al-Aqsa Hospital, which resulted in harrowing images of immobilized patients tethered to IV drips being burned alive by the US-made munitions. On Saturday came news that dozens suffocated in unknown gases from Israeli bombs that targeted the Gaza neighborhoods of Tuffah, Zaytoun and Shja’iyya…
https://marincountyconfidential.substack.com/p/as-israels-assault-on-palestinian
CALIFORNIA'S LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE WAS SCARY. AND IT’S NOT EVEN THE BIG ONE
by Kevin Fagan
When the rumbling started, I was standing with our city editor, John Raess, in the middle of the old Oakland Tribune tower newsroom chatting about a Sunday story I was editing. For about three seconds we were in that what-the-heck-is-this phase that always happens with earthquakes.
Then came the screaming and the crashing and the scrambling.
Everyone around us dived under desks while the floor undulated, filing cabinets toppled and tabletops heaved papers and glass onto the floor like some invisible child flinging toys. John and I were too far away in the middle of the room to grab a desk, so we rode the thing out like surfers, arms windmilling to keep on our feet. After 15 very long seconds, the convulsions stopped. We looked at each other and simultaneously said, “What a great story!”
It was 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, and the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake had just struck — Northern California’s worst quake since in 1906. Sixty-three people died, 3,011 were injured, and more than a thousand homes were destroyed. And there’s one more sobering fact: the 1906 quake was 10 times bigger and 30 times stronger. But that comparison meant nothing at the moment. This quake was bad enough.
Once we’d all hustled down four flights of battered stairs, now freshly gouged with huge cracks in the walls, to the sidewalk, we found that what we’d just gone through was nothing compared with the horror, death and tragedy in the rest of the Bay Area. Yeah, we felt that rush of the journalist’s instinct to jump on a great story. But — as it always does in big disasters — that soon gave way to hard sorrow, a sense of public duty and a grim resolve to tell the story as best we could. It was a heartbreaking story.
The air in downtown Oakland was filled with what looked like chalk, which turned out to be concrete dust from crumbled buildings. Somewhere far off, sirens started keening. We figured the ancient tower wasn’t safe to go back into right away, so John gathered us all across the street, took a look around, and started issuing orders. “You go that way, you head there, you check on City Hall,” and so forth, he said, calm as a judge.
I jumped into my car and headed toward West Oakland, where we figured the older buildings in that poor end of town would be hard hit. Everywhere, people wandered around looking dazed. Collapsed chimneys jutted up raggedly; chunks of buildings lay in the streets. It was eerily quiet.
The sight of smoke near the bay made me turn left, and that’s when I came upon what used to be the Cypress Structure, that ugly double-decker hulk that connected downtown Oakland to the Bay Bridge and Emeryville. The supporting columns had splayed like cheap tin, flopping the top deck onto the bottom one and leaving the top sheet of freeway twisted like a flat snake. In between the layers were strings of cars, some crushed flat, others with people screaming in them or crawling out and tumbling down the debris. The foreign press called it “the sandwich of death.” And it was, for what turned out to be 42 victims. There would have been more if the World Series between the A’s and Giants hadn’t compelled hordes to leave work early to watch the game.
I scribbled notes, spotted other Tribune journalists on the scene, and dashed back to the office. I was a hybrid editor and reporter then, and reckoned we had to start moving stories fast. Back then, there was no internet. Just landline telephones, and televisions that focused tightly on the worst scenes, making it look as if the entire Bay Area were in ruins. It wasn’t. But plenty was.
Candlestick Park got its pounding live on TV, terrifying millions across the country. The fill-based ground of the Marina neighborhood liquefied, snapping gas lines that lit shattered buildings on fire. Nearly 100 miles south, parts of the quaint downtowns of Watsonville and Santa Cruz disappeared into rubble. A chunk of the Bay Bridge clanked like a trap door onto the lower deck, closing the span.
First we focused on what had just happened, the rescues and the sweep of destruction. Then came profiles of the dead and survivors. By the third day, the narrative pivoted to who’d screwed up in designing the collapsed freeway and bridge sections and what was next in rebuilding.
Food, water, power — everything was a messy emergency for those initial three days for thousands in wreckage and shelters. It was the first vivid display for most of us of why it’s essential to keep 72 hours’ worth of emergency supplies around. By the fourth day, governmental relief operations hit their stride — but until then, in the worst-hit places, it was tough.
None of us in the news trade complained. Some people had damage at home, but they cleaned up and got back to work. Nothing was remotely as bad as what you were writing about, and if you were shaken up, you kept it to yourself — you “compartmentalized,” as Raess puts it. You cried later.
We’re going to need a lot more of that compartmentalization when the Big One really does hit — aand I mean the one that’s been predicted to hit us for decades, with more spread and more power than Loma Prieta. Seismologists warn that it’s coming, and I believe them. Get ready.
(SF Chronicle)
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
Blame it all on my roots
I showed up in boots
And ruined your black-tie affair
The last one to know
The last one to show
I was the last one you thought you'd see there
And I saw the surprise
And the fear in his eyes
When I took his glass of champagne
And I toasted you
Said "honey, we may be through"
But you'll never hear me complain
'Cause I've got friends in low places
Where the whiskey drowns
And the beer chases my blues away
And I'll be okay
I'm not big on social graces
Think I'll slip on down to the oasis
Oh, I've got friends in low places
Well, I guess I was wrong
I just don't belong
But then, I've been there before
Everything's all right
I'll just say goodnight
And I'll show myself to the door
Hey, I didn't mean
To cause a big scene
Just give me an hour and then
Well, I'll be as high as that ivory tower
That you're livin' in
'Cause I've got friends in low places
Where the whiskey drowns
And the beer chases my blues away
And I'll be okay
I'm not big on social graces
Think I'll slip on down to the oasis
Oh, I've got friends in low places
— Earl Bud Lee & Dewayne Blackwell
THE MOST SELF-SABOTAGING POLITICAL AD EVER?
Jimmy Kimmel writer and Substacker Jacob Reed may have just elected Donald Trump by clowning men in the new Mount Everest of unintentional comedy
by Matt Taibbi
There are so many fakes and parodies on the Internet that I had to approach “Man Enough,” an ad ostensibly targeting male voters for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign, on mental tiptoe. I heard the premise before watching and was certain it had to be a meta prank of the Andy Kaufman school. Nobody could be that stupid.
It’s no prank. Written and directed by Jimmy Kimmel writer and Jacob All Trades Substack contributor Jacob Reed, “Man Enough” is a sincere attempt to win votes for Kamala Harris. It was made for Creatives for Harris and reposted by Vote Save America. Unless Reed’s entire career is performance art, which I can’t rule out, it’s both the most self-sabotaging political messaging campaign ever and a devastating satire of the progressive Un-Man archetype that could have been titled, “Sorry I Have One.” It will win the election for Donald Trump if enough men (or women for that matter) see it.…
https://www.racket.news/p/the-most-self-sabotaging-political
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Trump will never, ever be allowed back into the White House no matter what. Have you seen that Kamala TV ad with all the apoplectic generals and national security officials declaring that Trump is the biggest threat to America in history? That message is not meant to persuade but to inform.
TUESDAY'S LEAD STORIES, NYT
Can the Stock Market Keep Going Up? Market Watchers Think So
Kamala Harris Sets an Interview With a Not-So-Friendly Outlet: Fox News
Canada Expels Indian Diplomats, Accusing Them of Criminal Campaign
Survivors of Gaza Hospital Blaze Say They Are Living a ‘Recurring Nightmare’
Lebanon’s Hospitals Buckle Amid Israel’s Offensive Against Hezbollah
LAWFARE IS JIHAD AGAINST OUR COUNTRY
by James Kunstler
You think the bankers are up to no good? No band of scoundrels has brought more chaos and grief to the life of this republic than the claque that gathers darkly under the banner of “Lawfare.” Its public face is Lawfaremedia.org, run by Benjamin Wittes a Brookings senior fellow, but that gang functions only to lend a false-front of decorum to the operations of its Democratic Party activist lawyer-army led by Field Marshal Marc Elias, architect of the ballot fraud that has caused Americans to lose faith in their elections.
Marc Elias was the original expeditor of the RussiaGate hoax in 2016 from his perch at Perkins Coie, then Hillary Clinton’s campaign law firm, which laundered payments to Christopher Steele, front-man for Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS political PR shop, which concocted the fraudulent “dossier,” and set in motion a train of DC intel blob legal shenanigans aimed at defenestrating Donald Trump from the White House — the Mueller Investigation, impeachment, etc.
While all that was going on through the Trump term, and with the Covid-19 Op providing cover, Mr. Elias engineered the 2020 changes in many states’ election laws and bylaws to permit large-scale mail-in voting, organized ballot-harvesting activities, and the use of drop-boxes for receiving bundled votes. He and his George Soros-financed staff lawyers sued states that attempted to require voter-identification, and provided legal protection for Mark Zuckerberg’s $419-million-dollar assault on election precinct staffing in swing states. When the 2020 election concluded suspiciously, Mr. Elias and his gang joined lawsuits in every case where the balloting was contested and got more than sixty of them dismissed on the basis of “standing,” without the merits of the cases being heard. This is Lawfare. Clusterfuck Nation is a reader-supported publication. Subscribe to this blog on Patreon or right here on Substack This blog is sponsored this week by Vaulted, an online mobile web app for investing in allocated and deliverable physical gold. To learn more visit: Vaulted.com.
This time around, 2024, Mr. Elias has done everything possible to ensure that millions of illegal aliens stuffed into swing states will have their putative identities attached to harvested mail-in ballots from addresses such as Walmart parking lots and storage units, and has filed lawsuits wherever a state threatens to require proof of citizenship for voting. He has also filed sixty peremptory lawsuits to obstruct attempts to audit any election count after November 5 — as if it is an affront to democracy to even ask questions about official misconduct.
A parallel Lawfare scam underway is the Democratic Party-sponsored 65 Project that seeks to disbar Trump-adjacent lawyers who attempt to challenge any voting irregularities in this year’s election. It’s mission statement reads: The 65 Project is a bipartisan effort to protect democracy from these once-and-future abuses by holding accountable Big Lie Lawyers who bring fraudulent and malicious lawsuits to overturn legitimate election results, and by working with bar associations to deter future abuses by establishing clear standards for conduct that punish lies about the conduct or results of elections.
Notice the term “Big Lie” to foreclose any inquiry at all into election fraud. That half the people in this country accept such an Orwellian con tells you the vital role played by the perversion of language in the Democratic Party’s war against the citizens of this land. Exactly who is to say, in advance of the event, that any objection to a vote count is fraudulent and malicious? Answer: the people who have maliciously committed fraud. The Democrats have been grooming the public for years with that phrase, the Big Lie, in exactly the same way that pedos groom innocent pubescents who accept the authority of any grown-up, no matter what debauchery they are subjected to.
It’s a tragic turn of fate for our country that the law, and language with it, have been turned into weapons for national suicide. The net result is a nation that can’t think straight anymore and cannot construct any coherent set of rules to live by. So we find ourselves in a society where stealing is no longer a crime, where border-jumping has been downgraded to a clerical error (“undocumented”), where little children are allowed to decide whether they are male or female, where speech that disagrees with the authorities agenda is “misinformation” subject to censorship and prosecution, where candidates for the highest office get selected “democratically” without any votes cast, and where you can be run-over and ruined financially in court by the bottomless legal resources of the Deep State for just speaking your mind.
Now I will tell you something that deeply troubles me and might trouble you. Forgive me if I throw the Overton Window wide open here. Readers may know that I am an American Jew. We have entered a new era of antisemitism. Many might say it is due to the conduct of Israel warring against its enemies. I would say it is as much due to the adoption of Jihad politics by the Marxist-Woke campaign as an instrument to promote political and social chaos in America. Lawfare is essentially jihad waged via the courts against our own disintegrating common culture and national interests.
The lineup of the leading Lawfare attorneys are Jews: Marc Elias, Norm Eisen, Benjamin Wittes, Andrew Weissmann, Michael Bromwich, Michael Sussmann, Lawrence Tribe, Daniel Goldman, Paul Rosenzweig, the exceptionally profligate serial liar Rep. Adam Schiff, and many others. I can’t say I understand exactly what motivates them to engage these antics. (Possibly to defend their Deep State clients against many previous crimes committed since 2016, especially within the FBI and DOJ.) But it’s a really bad look on top of being a nefarious agenda. They are disgracing the rest of us American Jews and putting us in danger. Shame on them. They must be defeated, and their defeat must come within the arena of the very law they work so hard to pervert.
THE NEW YORK TIMES FINALLY ADMITS GAZA IS AN OUTDOOR PRISON
by Melvin Goodman
Gaza’s Are Trapped in a Prison That Was Decades in the Making
– Mark Landler, New York Times, October 8, 2024
Gaza is a “big outdoor prison.”
– British Prime Minister David Cameron, July 28, 2010
Fourteen years after British Prime Minister David Cameron charged the Israels with creating a “big outdoor prison” in Gaza, the New York Times finally acknowledged that the Palestinians in Gaza have been “effectively imprisoned…in a 141-square-mile strip of land between Egypt and Israel that has become a killing zone.” On the same day, the Washington Post finally acknowledged that it would take “80 years to rebuild all of Gaza’s destroyed homes” if the pace of construction “mirrors previous conflicts.” Israel has bombed Gaza on several previous occasions, but the past year has seen “an unprecedented scale of destruction,” according to the United Nations”
A U.N. satellite assessment recorded that Israeli shelling and airstrikes have “damaged more than 65 percent of structures in Gaza, including 230,000 homes. The World Health Organization estimates there are at least 10,000 bodies buried beneath these buildings. Clearing the rubble and getting to these bodies will be particularly difficult because approximately 70 percent of Gaza’s road network has been damaged. The toxic dust and debris from Israeli bombings over the years has caused long-term health problems, according to Natasha Hall, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Toxic byproducts from the current war are likely to pollute Gaza’s already limited water supply, according to the Washington Post, and will undoubtedly cause many more serious health issues.
The mainstream media has been very slow to acknowledge the Israeli-Egyptian collaboration that has imprisoned Gaza since Hamas’ election victory in 2005, which endorsed Hamas for its opposition to Israel and for providing welfare, schools and nurseries to the impoverished residents of the territory. Hamas won 75 out of 118 seats, leaving Fatah with 39.
More than two million Palestinians have been in this lockdown for the past 17 years. Since 2007, Israel has banned Palestinians from leaving through Erez, the passenger crossing from Gaza into Israel; it is through Erez that they can reach the West Bank and travel abroad via Jordan. Palestinians are not permitted to operate an airport or seaport in Gaza, and Israeli authorities sharply restrict the entry and exit of goods. As a result, the rebuilding of Gaza will take decades if it is even possible to create a postwar Gaza.
Israel also has made it impossible for Palestinians from Gaza to relocate to the West Bank. Because of Israeli restrictions, thousands of Gaza residents who arrived on temporary permits and now live in the West Bank are unable to gain legal residency. Although Israel claims that these restrictions are related to maintaining security, there is ample evidence that the main motivation is to limit Palestinian demography across the West Bank, whose land Israel seeks to retain, in contrast to the Gaza Strip.
Egypt is no better than Israel when it come to the humiliation of Palestinians trying to leave Gaza for legitimate medical reasons. The parents of a 7-year-old boy with autism and a rare brain disease said they sought to travel for medical treatment for him in August 2021; Egyptian authorities only allowed the boy and his mother to enter. The mother said their journey back to Gaza took four days, mostly as a result of Rafah being closed. During this time, she said, they spent hours waiting at checkpoints, in extreme heat, with her son crying nonstop. She said she felt “humiliated” and treated like “an animal,” observing that she “would rather die than travel again through Rafah.”
The laws of occupation permit occupying powers to impose security restrictions on civilians, but they also require them to restore public life for the occupied population, which Israel has never done and which the international community has ignored. A prolonged occupation, such as Gaza, demands that the occupier must develop narrowly tailored responses to security threats; these must minimize restrictions on rights. Israel has never done so, and the mainstream media has never paid any attention to the debilitating effect of Israeli unwillingness to respect the human rights of Palestinians.
For years, Human Rights Watch has documented the cases of Palestinians in Gaza who were denied permission to reach the West Bank or East Jerusalem for professional and educational opportunities. In 2019, a Gaza soccer team had a match scheduled on the West Bank with a rival in a match that would determine the Palestinian representative in the Asian Cup. The Gaza team applied for permits for the entire 22-person team and 13-person staff, but Israel granted permits to only four people, only one of whom was a player.
For the past 17 years, Israel has limited Gaza’s use of electricity, forces sewage to be dumped in the sea, makes sure that water remains undrinkable, and endures fuel shortages that cause sanitation plans to be shut down. Netanyahu’s actions ensures the perpetuation of desperation among those forced to live in these conditions. Such desperation would lead any human being to believe that violent resistance is the only recourse. Is there a comparison here with the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943?
No one can ever justify the brutality of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th, but the brutal conditions that Israel and Egypt have imposed on the citizens of Gaza help to explain the motivations for that invasion. There are two compelling factors that stand out in any examination of the crisis in Gaza: the persistent intransigence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israeli unwillingness to pursue a diplomatic and political solution to the Palestinian tragedy. Like a long line of Israeli politicians, Netanyahu favors total humiliation of the Palestinian people. The Hamas invasion of October 7th was inevitable.
(Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing, 2019) and “Containing the National Security State” (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.)
RE ED NOTES:
I am not sure about Bruce’s voting recommendations. First, he recommends not voting for Kamala Harris, which seems out of touch with local voters to some extent. He didn’t recommend voting for Trump either, he was silent on that, but this still makes me question the rest of his recommendations.
About the Fort Bragg City Council race his recommendations are troubling. First, he recommends Bethany Brewer. Bethany seems like a well-intentioned candidate but I found it disqualifying when she answered most of the questions at the League of Women Voters Candidates’ Forum by talking about programs and services in which the City of Fort Bragg isn’t involved (e.g., social service programs). If a candidate doesn’t exhibit even a basic understanding of the scope of the City’s programs and services, I don’t think they are the best candidate for the job. She spoke about areas that the County not the City addresses (rather purportedly tries to address). He also recommends Lindy Peters, which isn’t surprising since he has been a long-time booster for Lindy through his editorial comments in the AVA. I won’t repeat why I think Lindy is a poor choice since anyone can already read my reasoning elsewhere in the AVA, but many of us, myself included, think his time has come and gone. There is no reason why we should be stuck with outdated ideas and approaches that haven’t worked so far and are not likely to work in the future. We need fresh perspectives and younger energy on the city council to deal with the many challenges facing our community. The other three candidates provide the best choices so people should pick two among Ryan Bushnell, Scott Hockett, and Mel Salazar.
So you don’t lose any sleep over it, Jacob, I’m voting for Jill Stein. I haven’t voted for a Democrat since McGovern in ’72, and I’ve never voted for a Republican for president.
Sorry Bruce, but every vote for Jill Stein makes the possibility of Donald Trump winning this election more likely.
The Bush Gang was twice as bad as whatever Trump might try, and their evil was, of course, another bi-partisan job as is, and will be, whoever’s president when the Israeli’s finish off the Palestinians. No surprise that the Cheney family has merrily gone over to the Democrats. Why not? The two parties, in broad outline, are the same. Dr. Stein represents my principles — please excuse the lofty ref to principles, but in my case they haven’t changed over the years. At this point, a vote for Democrats is very much like what a vote for Shicklegruber was in 1936.
Well hell Bruce, Where does that put you when Newsom runs? Be careful what you vote for. I think we are seeing what happens when we chose a party over a person so Kudos to you for saying it.
Mendocino Coast Health Care District: I worked with Lynn Finley at Mendocino Coast Hospital where Lynn served for time as a Clinical Data Analyst RN, and later as Chief Nursing Officer, until the Adventist’s took over the place. Previous to that she held several other positions in Nursing Administration in Sonoma County and in Colorado. She has a lot of experience in the business and is competent and personable. She will have my vote along with my vote for Paul Katzeff.
Dear Editor,
Maybe you can sit with Jill Stein at her next dinner with Putin?
‘Foxy’ by Wilcher gets Nobel best in category.