Ephemeral Creek | Rain Tapers | Outside Dick's | Problem Solving | Missing Bounds | Hansen Responds | Tomki Monks | Incoming Supe | Pet Gramps | Beacon Specials | Theatre Fundraiser | AV Closures | Evaluation Day | Ed Notes | CV Starr | Remembering Cockburn | El Rancho Navarro | Yesterday's Catch | Never Seen | Sasquatch Search | Helping Pros | Top Cat | Marco Radio | Londons Boxing | Drone Encounter | Hella Easy | Gray Expectations | Female Trouble | Eat Healthy | If Guns | Theft Penalties | Loneliness/Freedom | Ideas Problem | Lead Stories | Eating Leftovers | Girl & Cat
WIDESPREAD RAIN will come to an end around midday today with scattered showers lingering into the evening. Dry conditions will return for most of Monday and Tuesday as ridging builds over the west coast. Rain chances return Tuesday night into mid week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Sunday morning it is a windy & rainy 53F with 1.58" more rainfall. We have wind advisory until 8am & the rain should be moving on later. Dry skies Monday & Tuesday then light rain to start the new year.
DICK'S PLACE, Mendocino, California. December 2024. (photographer: Robert Dominy)
PROBLEM SOLVING 101
by Jim Shields
Last week I wrote about how our elected representatives and their staff down in the county seat far too often flummox themselves and disrupt the orderliness of the governing process by creating problems seemingly out of thin air.
It’s a fact that most people are happy if elected officials and their support staff of bureaucrats practice the physicians’ oath of “Do no harm.”
It’s impossible not to recognize the seemingly institutional dysfunction in the governing process of this county. Too many elected officials and “public servants” who are classified as department heads, middle management, and “staff,” go out of their way to create problems when their main goal and purpose is to provide basic services to the public and solve problems when they arise.
I also recommended that the Board of Supervisors take action on a short list of unsolved problems that need to be resolved ASAP.
I identified three of the most pressing issues that should be top priorities for the Supes to resolve. At the top of the list was: Settle the civil litigation over the illegal removal of elected Treasurer- Tax Collector/Auditor- Controller Chemise Cubbison.
What follows are excerpts from previous pieces I’ve written on the subject, explaining the legal and statutory reasons why the Cubbison case should be settled immediately.
Fixing Problems, Starting With The Cubbison Affair
At a BOS meeting on Oct. 17, 2023, the county’s ever-escalating fiscal dilemma was propelled even further into chaos when the Supes unanimously suspended, without pay or benefits, Chemise Cubbison, the elected Treasurer-Tax Collector/ Auditor-Controller. Both Cubbison, and Paula June Kennedy, the county’s former payroll manager, are facing charges they allegedly misappropriated $68,106 in public funds beginning in 2019. In fact, on the same day of the BOS meeting, Cubbison and Kennedy were in court awaiting their arraignment. However, the arraignment was postponed until Oct. 31 to provide Ms Kennedy the opportunity to arrange representation by the Public Defender’s Office.
What I have argued is the Board should have postponed taking any action against Cubbison pending the completion of the rescheduled arraignment hearing. That way they would have had the opportunity to review what kind of evidence the D.A. was relying on, and whether the judge found it sufficient to proceed to trial. Who knows? The judge may have found the D.A. had insufficient evidence to hold Cubbison over for trial.
Additionally, Ms Cubbison has both substantive and procedural rights that were denied her by the BOS. At minimum, she was entitled to the opportunity to appear before the Board and respond to the proposed action prior to the vote being consummated by the Supes. Cubbison was never put on proper notice that the Board was planning to take action by suspending her from office. In fact, that very action item was only placed on the agenda subsequent to the Board opening the meeting on the morning of the Oct. 17 meeting.
The Board had an affirmative obligation to notify Cubbison that her tenure in an elected position was in imminent peril.
The Supervisors took on the role of a constitutional wrecking crew in their rush to judgment on Cubbison.. Evidently, their pricey San Francisco-based law firm, pinch-hitting for the nine lawyers in the Mendocino County Counsel’s Office, re-advised the Supervisors that the very same advice that I offered them (at no charge, of course), was the required remedial action to clean up the constitutional walloping occurring at the Oct. 17 meeting.
So at the upcoming Board meeting this Tuesday, Oct. 31, the Supes will attempt to cure the ill-advised, illegal action taken at the earlier meeting. Here’s the proposed corrective action to be taken at the meeting: “4e) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Auditor-Controller Treasurer Tax Collector’s Suspension: Board of Supervisors will Provide Opportunity for Auditor-Controller Treasurer Tax Collector to Present Any Information in Response to Suspension Pursuant to Government Code Section 27120, and May Take Action in Response to Presentation.”
I shall now very briefly offer another piece of free legal advice to the Supervisors.
The legal advice offered by the Bay Area law firm is at best the most elastic of stretches. There is no relevant case law to support reliance on Government Code Section 27120 for the action taken in the Cubbison affair.
Section 27120 reads as follows:
“Whenever an action based upon official misconduct is commenced against the county treasurer, the board of supervisors may suspend him from office until the suit is determined. The board may appoint some person to fill the vacancy, who shall qualify and give such bond as the board determines.”
Dispensing with all of the deep weeds growing around the legislative history of Sec. 27120, it is an antiquated provision found in the 1879 California Constitution that appears to have been mistakenly carried forward when the State Legislature in 1943, acting upon a 1942 statewide initiative, “modernized” and updated the 1879 California Constitution. That provision reflected on a county government structure and organization that no longer existed in 1943. A new Government Code was created in 1943, and one of its provisions, Section 1770, addresses one aspect of the Cubbison affair:
“Division 4. Public Officers And Employees [1000 - 3599]; (Division 4 enacted by Stats. 1943, Ch. 134. )l Gov. Code Section 1770. An office becomes vacant on the happening of any of the following events before the expiration of the term:
(h) His or her conviction of a felony or of any offense involving a violation of his or her official duties. An officer shall be deemed to have been convicted under this subdivision when trial court judgment is entered. For purposes of this subdivision, ‘trial court judgment’ means a judgment by the trial court either sentencing the officer or otherwise upholding and implementing the plea, verdict, or finding.”
Another option for Mendocino County centers on the suspension from office issue. Currently, the County has no ordinance or resolution covering this type of authority.
Again without a deep dive into muddling waters over a county’s status as a general law or charter county, I believe Mendocino has the authority to establish a local provision addressing the suspension from office issue.
Here’s an example of such a provision established by Alameda County:
“Sec. 20.5:The Board of Supervisors shall have the authority to suspend an elected county officer who has been charged by information or indictment with a felony related to misconduct in office, pending the trial of such charges. Such authority to suspend shall be exercised by the adoption by resolution of the Board of Supervisors of a declaration of intention to suspend such official, which declaration shall set forth the grounds upon which such action is proposed to be taken and specify the time and place of the meeting at which the Board of Supervisors will meet to consider such action, which hearing shall be held not less than 5 days after the adoption of such resolution. The Clerk of the Board of Supervisors shall immediately furnish a copy of such resolution to such officer by delivering it to him personally, or by mailing a copy thereof by registered mail to his official business address and to his residence address. If the charges are sustained by not less than a majority of the members of the Board of Supervisors, such officer shall be suspended forthwith without compensation pending the trial of such charges, and the Board of Supervisors shall appoint a qualified person to discharge the duties of the office during the period of such suspension, and require the person so appointed to furnish an official bond in an amount to be fixed by the Board of Supervisors. (Amendment ratified June 7, 1966. In effect February 27, 1967.)”
Hopefully, county officials will accept this advice in the spirit it is given. That is, it’s time to stop causing problems and start solving them.
MARK SCARAMELLA REPLIES:
With all due respect to Laytonville Observer Editor Jim Shields’ sound legal advice, which I agree with, the likelihood of any legal advice being heeded at this point, however valid, is zero. The board that “suspended” Ms. Cubbison obviously was never going to let any pesky legal advice get in the way of their “Get Cubbison” agenda which culminated successfully in October of 2023. That was a patently political effort to blame Cubbison for the board’s own failure to properly administer the County budget and had nothing to do with legal issues. Besides, trying to put all the toothpaste that has come out of this particular tube now is clearly impossible. We do have two new Supervisors taking their seats next month. One of them, Ms. Cline, told KZYZ during her campaign that she would not have suspended Cubbison without pay if she had been Supervisor at the time. (The implication was that she agreed with the suspension, but not with pay.) The other new Supervisor, Mr. Norvell, has been mute on the subect. Supervisor John Haschak, who was the lone vote against suspending Cubbison and who was the lone vote against consolidating the Auditor’s office with the Treasurer’s, theoretically could harbor misgivings about Cubbison’s abrupt 2023 suspension. But nothing in Haschak’s performance as a Supervisor indicates that he would take the initiative to undo any of the prior board’s decisions. We doubt that Supervisors Mulheren or Williams have had any misgivings about Cubbison’s suspension. So it would take an odd coalition of Cline, Norvell and Haschak to initiate any kind of retrospective review of the Cubbison suspension. Given the momentum the case now has, along with the inexperience of the newcomers and the passiveness of Haschak, we doubt that any reconsideration will occur. But who knows? A Supervisor could start by proposing that newly appointed County Counsel Charlotte Scott offer her opinion on the subject. But the odds of that happening or that Ms. Scott would take a position against what her predecessors have done also seem remote.
CALIFORNIA BUSINESSMAN REVEALS WHY HE’S BUYING UP TINY COASTAL TOWN DESPITE LOCALS’ FURY
by James Cirrone
A businessman who enraged local residents by snapping up multiple properties in a small coastal town in northern California has hit back at claims he is just cashing in.
Jeff Hansen, 64, moved to Point Arena, a town of just 451 people, from Utah in 2014 after falling in love with the gorgeous scenery.
But over the years his property investments have led to fiery disputes with tenants, business partners and neighbors.
Yet, speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Hansen claimed “the place was circling the toilet” before he began purchasing properties
“I saw potential in the buildings and the old motels that I’m fixing up,” he continued.
“Half the town likes me. The other half hates my guts with a militant edge, you know? And they’re the noisy ones.’
Hansen further enraged some local residents with his appointment to the town’s council in December 2022, which gives him the power to vote on resolutions that could directly affect his real estate portfolio.
However, mayor Barbara Burkey assured residents two years ago he would recuse himself from any decisions over his properties, which he has pledged to do as well.
Meanwhile, city Manager Peggy Ducey said she is aware Hansen is a “controversial figure” but claimed the town cannot infringe on his rights to buy property.
In addition to running a motel, Hansen is also a landlord to several business and had managed a diner, owned by his son, for a few months.
However, Hansen was slammed by locals last week in a piece published by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The article claims he forced a business to shutter and featured accounts from a former business partner and a tenant who claims she was retaliated against.
Hansen told the DailyMail.com that through his LLCs — which are connected to close and distant relatives — he personally owns 12 addresses throughout the 1.4-square-mile town.
Six of those are residential properties, which comprise 11 units in total.
Two of his apartments are above the town’s defunct general store on Main Street and another three apartments are in a building on nearby Center Street.
The remaining four units are two duplexes on Mill Street.
“Five years ago, I bought two duplexes and a five-plex, anticipating the need for employee housing,” Hansen explained.
He said that since Point Arena is so small, it makes it a “difficult place to work and do business.”
Because of that, he said “it became evident” that he would have to buy rental housing for employees and future employees any time it came up for sale.
This strategy, he believes, will make his businesses viable.
He said that two of his employees live in his apartments he currently owns, while the rest of his tenants do not work for him.
His two employees pay rent, though they don’t have to live in his apartments as condition of their employment, he said.
His most prominent purchase was the old Seashell Inn on Main Street, which for years had been an eyesore that hosted rowdy parties late at night, according to local outlet the Ukiah Daily Journal.
In late 2014, Hansen bought the two lots on either side of Main Street where the two “derelict” hotel buildings were. As part of that $1 million purchase, he also bought a lot that contained an abandoned gas station next door.
In 2020, he reopened the building on the west side of the street and renamed it the Wildflower Boutique Motel, complete with new solar panels, custom furnishings and floral accents.
He is still in the middle of renovating the building on the east side and will have a total of 40 lodging rooms when that is complete.
“I just got a coastal development permit to do the parking lot across the street, which I waited two years for,” he said. “The building rules out here on the coast are very draconian.”
Next door to the Wildflower Motel, he owns a building that has an izakaya Japanese restaurant on the ground floor and a manager’s quarter’s on the second floor.
He also owns two former meeting halls for fraternal organizations.
Two doors down from the Wildflower Motel, he owns a building that used to be run by the Ancient Order of Druids in America, a religious nonprofit founded in 1912.
Hansen currently leases it out to a fish company who he said prepares fish in the building’s commercial kitchen.
On Mill Street, he owns a still boarded-up building that was previously in the hands of the Odd Fellows, another fraternal brotherhood that was founded in 1819.
On top of his portfolio, his two adult children own properties in Point Arena too.
Hansen’s daughter bought a former marijuana dispensary on Main Street after it had been on the market for a year.
His son also owns two buildings on Main Street. One of them has three commercial tenants, including an art studio, an apothecary and a second-hand store.
The other building his son owns is two doors up and was the site of Amber’s Diner, a restaurant that closed down last year following a dispute between Hansen and a business partner.
Hansen downplayed his family’s influence in Point Arena by saying their purchases have happened gradually over the last 10 years, while also claiming that not many people wanted the properties he bought.
A former tenant at one of his Mill Street units, whom The Chronicle only identified as Olivia, said Hansen cut down a plum tree in her rental home’s yard in 2020.
He denied this, saying the plum tree is still on that property to this day.
A recent article in a local paper called the Independent Coast Observer focused on The Chronicle’s reporting and actually included a picture of the plum tree.
Hansen explained that he never cut down the tree entirely. He said he trims the tree back from the building once a year to maintain his fire insurance.
“At the end of the day, it’s a building owner’s right to maintain his landscaping how he sees fit,” he said.
Olivia also claimed that Hansen retaliated against her for raising the objection about the plum tree by raising her rent twice, each time by 10 percent, the maximum yearly increase allowed by California.
Hansen provided lease documents to DailyMail.com that showed he did increase Olivia’s rent in 2019 by 10 percent to $1,045 per month. He increased it again by a little over 8 percent in 2020.
He said these rent hikes were introduced for all of his tenants and clarified that Olivia wasn’t singled out.
The documents also showed that Olivia was given a goodwill rent concession of $340 from September through December 2020, meaning she would have only been expected to pay the previous year’s rent of $1,045 a month.
Olivia did not sign the new lease and moved out by January 31, 2021, according to the documents.
In February 2024, Michael Schnekenburger slammed Hansen on Facebook for allegedly forcing Amber’s Diner to close down.
Hansen and Schnekenburger were business partners on the diner, but Hansen was the landlord as well. Hansen’s son is the owner of record on the building.
The diner opened in July 2023 and closed four months later.
We closed because of Jeff,” Schnekenburger wrote on Facebook. “Dictating hours, forcing certain conditions on us, bad decisions, and business practices. That was the entire reason.’
Hansen had a different version of events, claiming he shut down the restaurant because it was losing thousands of dollars per week.
He told DailyMail.com that he had “every right” to discontinue a business that wasn’t profitable.
Hansen also revealed that his son’s girlfriend was in the process of opening a new restaurant in the space where Amber’s used to be. She just got approved for a liquor license, he said.
When asked if he wants to own more real estate in Point Arena even though he’s a city councilmember with input over the community’s development, Hansen said “it’s not against the law for me to own property.”
He added that he has only bought one building, the OddFellows Hall, since he’s been on the city council.
When asked about buying more Point Arena property in the future, Hansen kept the door open, saying that if someone offered him a building that made sense, he would “consider it.”
(DailyMail.com)
THE MONKS OF MT. TABOR (Tomki Road, Redwood Valley)
INCOMING 4TH DISTRICT SUPERVISOR BERNIE NORVELL looks forward to working on countywide problems
by Sidney Fishman
Fort Bragg native Bernie Norvell has pledged to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution several times, but Jan. 7 will mark his first swearing-in as a member of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, representing the 4th District.
Born and raised in Fort Bragg, the former mayor and longtime politician spoke about the community in a tone that felt familiar and informal. Norvell will represent Fort Bragg and the towns of Caspar, Westport and Leggett. Although he served as Fort Bragg’s mayor for the past four years, his government career goes back much further. He was elected to the City Council in 2016, serving as vice mayor before becoming mayor in 2020.
“There are things going on in the county that need to be more efficient,” Norvell said during a phone interview. “I am not someone who sees a lot of problems, I try to see an opportunity for solution. I am excited to help make the county government a well-oiled machine.”…
UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK
Gramps is an older dog looking for a soft, quiet, warm home where he can spend his golden years getting all the love he deserves. Gramps takes a little time to get used to new people, but can be easily won over with some tasty treats! Gramps enjoys short walks and he’s mellow indoors. We think our little senior would prefer a home without young children. Gramps is a Terrier X, 10 years young and a hefty 13 pounds. He’s neutered and ready to walk out the shelter doors with you. There are many reasons to adopt an older dog, and lots of website info. Here’s just one:
https://animalfoundation.com/whats-going-on/blog/10-reasons-adopt-senior-pet
Please make sure your pets are safe and indoors this New Year’s Eve. If a pet goes missing, call Animal Control at 707-472-2685. To see all of our canine and feline guests, and the occasional goat, sheep, tortoise, and for information about our services, programs, and events, visit: mendoanimalshelter.com/
Join us every first Saturday of the month for our Meet The Dogs Adoption Event at the shelter. We're on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/
For information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453. Making a difference for homeless pets in Mendocino County, one day at a time!
R.D. BEACON: Beacon Light By The Sea will be open, December 31, offering some bar specials, any drink made with three olives, vodka, will be only $5.00, the three olives drinks of vodkas are flavored pricing is based on one ounce, we will also with midnight be serving free champagne, corporate disciplines, must be 21 years of age or older, and we are promised, by the weather bureau, good weather.
UKIAH PLAYERS THEATRE PRESENTS ‘BRING ON THE MEN!’ – A BOLD AND BAWDY FUNDRAISER
Ukiah Players Theatre is ringing in the new year with the highly anticipated Bring on the Men! fundraiser on December 31. This energetic, gender-bending musical revue is filled with longtime cast members and some new faces, with favorite songs from across the musical spectrum performed live with backup dancers.
This 21+ event starts with the show at 9 PM, followed by small bites and a dance party on the stage until midnight to usher in 2025, as well as a complementary glass of sparkling wine and drinks for purchase.
“This is more than just a show,” says stage manager Kayla Harrison, who is also a performer in the show’s ‘pants’ troupe of cross-dressing women. “It's a celebration of creativity and community, and it also happens to be hilarious and fun.”
This is the fifth year Bring on the Men! has been staged, The show was originally conceived by Jenny Peterman and Grey Wolfe-Smith, who has been the show’s host and one of the main performers in all five shows. In the aftermath of the shooting in Orlando in 2016, in which 49 people were murdered at a gay night club, Wolfe-Smith and Peterman wanted to create an inclusive show that could bring people together and highlight that there is more that connects us than divides us. “It’s wild that this show is still going strong, even after a pandemic pause,” says Wolfe-Smith. “It’s something people ask us to do every year, and the messages of love and unity are always relevant.”
Bring on the Men! continues with additional performances on January 3 and 4, 2025 at 7 pm. Mark your calendars and enjoy a raucous evening of live theater.
For tickets and more information, visit Ukiah Players Theatre.
ANDERSON VALLEY CLOSURES
The Anderson Valley Museum Closed Until February
Sun 12 / 29 / 2024 at 1:00 PM
Where: The Anderson Valley Museum , 12340 Highway 128, Boonville , CA 95415
More Information (https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/4294)
Anderson Valley Library Closed Until Jan. 4th
Tue 12 / 31 / 2024 at 11:30 AM
Where: Boonville Library
More Information (https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/4274)
Senior Center Lunch Closed Until Jan. 7th
Tue 12 / 31 / 2024 at 12:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center , 14470 Highway 128, Boonville, CA 95415
More Information (https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/4353)
EVALUATION DAY AT GRACE HUDSON: JAN. 10
On Friday, January 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Grace Hudson Museum will host an Evaluation Day. Modeled after the enormously popular Antiques Road Show featured on PBS, visitors can bring up to three items to be evaluated and appraised by professional appraisers from Witherell Auctions in Sacramento.
Anyone who's wondered about the history and value of a prized family possession has a chance to learn about that vase, painting, comic book, firearm, furniture, or what-all they have stowed away. Participants can bring up to three items, with assessments lasting about 3 minutes per item. A fee will be charged for each assessment: $5 per item for Museum members, and $8 for non-members. The Witherell team is donating their time, so all proceeds go to the Grace Hudson Museum.
To purchase advance tickets and guarantee your place, call the museum at (707) 467-2836. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday noon to 4:30 p.m. The Museum will be closed on Wed., January 1st.
The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. For more information please go to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org
ED NOTES
ONE AFTERNOON a Frisco lawyer was riding home from work in his limo when he saw two men eating grass in Golden Gate Park. Disturbed, the lawyer ordered his driver to stop. The lawyer asked the men, “Why are you eating grass?” “We don't have any money for food,” one replied. “We have to eat grass.” “You come with me to my house and I'll feed you,” the lawyer said. “But sir, I have a wife and two children with me. They're over there, under that tree.” “Bring them along,” the lawyer replied with a magnanimous wave. Turning to the second grass eating man the lawyer said, “You come with us too.” The second man, in a pitiful voice, said, “But sir, I also have a wife and six children with me!” “Bring them all, as well,” the lawyer answered. “No problem.” They all climbed into the limo, one on top of the other. As the limo headed out of the park, one of the poor fellows turned to the lawyer and said, “Sir, you are too kind. Thank you for taking all of us with you.” The lawyer replied, “Glad to do it. You'll really love my place. It's been a fine year. The grass is almost a foot high.”
WE USED TO CALL our answering machine, “the nut screener.” One of the most abusive but funniest messages? “Pick it up, you bastards. I know you're there doing something queer or un-American or both.”
AND THIS ONE: “You know why this country is broke? Because the government is bringing in Mexicans and buying them Escalades!”
ALWAYS CERTAIN to irritate is the grandiose claim by deluded liberals that they're “speaking truth to power.” This boast is as dumb as blaming Mexicans for everything gone wrong. Power knows the truth and could care less what you — especially you — say to it. Power only cares when you do something to it, like take power away from it which, given the givens of political opposition in this country, is unlikely to happen until ordinary Americans stop whining and placing blame everywhere but where it belongs.
DOES A WEEK go by that a large circulation paper doesn't feature a pufferoo on the Anderson Valley? We get big color photos of mesmerized yups holding glasses of wine up to the sun with the accompanying text reading something like, “Grab a quick taste of Anderson Valley,” as Anderson Valley is presented as a kind of gastro-endurance contest in a pretty setting.
AN ENTHUSIASTIC lady from the Redwood Credit Union called to say, “I want Boonville people to know that we have just opened a branch in Cloverdale and we also have branches in Ukiah and Point Arena.” I asked the credit union lady from Cloverdale, “Can you please open a Redwood branch in Boonville? We need basic banking services here.” With more instant boosterism than even George F. Babbitt himself might have mustered, I continued my pitch. “Heck, lady, there's probably more dough in Philo alone than there is in all of Cloverdale, and you can throw in Geyserville!” Sensing that she'd unknowingly dialed a lunatic, the poor thing was audibly anxious to bring our telephonic interface to a close. “It was nice talking with you Mr…” But I continued my sales pitch. “We used to have a bank here, the First National of Boonville. It always made money, but when WestAmerica bought it out the blow-dried boys said our little bank wasn't making enough money so they closed it down. We also used to have a pharmacy. It made money, too, and then it closed when the owner passed away and nobody picked up the pestle and that was the end of our pharmacy. And we had whole herds of sheep and acres of apples and everyone knew everyone else, and what's happening to us? But we need a credit union, Miss, which, as you know because you work for one, are a lot safer for people than banks because credit unions are owned by their depositors not the crooks we read about every day that the government prints money to bail out. “I really must get back to work, Mr. Anderson,” she said,” but I'll pass along your request.”
FRANTICALLY running up and down the television channels a few years ago during the “Great Recession” looking for the Niners game, I paused at CNN where Anderson Cooper was talking about the housing crisis. The securely housed Cooper devoted maybe five full minutes to the ever-larger crisis. Of course Cooper was very, very concerned. You could tell. He furrowed his brow at least twice. CNN had arrayed a dozen or so LA suburbanites on a bleacher-like apparatus behind their glib host, among them a real estate agent who said business was pretty good selling repos to first-time home buyers, a woman who said she'd just snagged a repo house valued at a half mil a year ago for $155,000 and a 55-year-old electrician who was barely hanging on to his house because he'd been injured on the job and his wife was dying of cancer. The electrician's house, just a short time ago, had been appraised at more than $600,000. It was now appraised at about $150,000. He'd worked all his life, as had his wife before she was struck down. Using a doomed man's despair as ruthlessly as any bailed out banker, CNN's message was the old free enterprise bullshit about one man's misfortune being another's opportunity. Sure, Mr. Electrician, you and your dying wife are about to become homeless, but now a young couple just starting life's journey can afford to buy your house! There was no mention that a recent bill to prevent 1.7 million mortgage foreclosures by permitting homeowners to refi their mortgages was defeated on a bipartisan vote in the senate 51 - 45. Democrat bigwig Dick Durbin summed up, “Frankly, bankers own the place.”
JACK SAUNDERS (Mendocino County History): In late 1910 the Union Theater in Fort Bragg moved from Main Street to a new location on Franklin Street. An enterprising young man, CV Starr, recognized an opportunity and arranged to open Starr's Ice Cream shop immediately next to it.
He ran this shop for a couple of years, then moved on to bigger and better things. The business, renamed The Sugar Plum, remained and changed hands at least several times over the years. My grandfather's sister Clara bought the business in June 1917, but due to ill health she sold it just six months later and spent some time in Arizona regaining her strength. Clara is the woman in white in one photo. I don't know who the other women are, but I imagine they were good friends and likely born about 1886 in Fort Bragg. The other photo is Starr in about 1911 taken from a biography produced by his foundation, the same organization that provided funds to build Fort Bragg's CV Starr Center many years later. Street numbers have changed slightly over time, and I believe the addresses of the shop and theater today would be 357 and 353 N. Franklin Street, respectively.
REMEMBERING COCKBURN
(by Connor Kilpatrick, Brooklyn, September 2013)
I’m honored to have been invited to speak here. But seeing as how everyone else is either a relative of Alexander’s or a personal friend, I’d like to talk about what his writing meant to someone who never met or corresponded with the man as well as someone who, as a dreaded Millennial, arrived on the socialist left during the Bush-Obama years thanks in large part to the brilliant polemics of Alexander Cockburn.
Everyone knows Alex’s great bit about his hate being pure. If you don’t know the story, it’s a tradition that Alex inherited from his editor Jim Goode who’d test Alexander’s morale and commitment to the good fight by asking him if his “hate” for the powerful was truly pure. Alex would then put the same question to his interns at the Nation. One such intern, a young Ed Miliband, soon to be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, replied with shock that he did not, in fact, hate anyone. As Alex put it: “It’s all you need to know.”
So yes, Alex’s hatred was most certainly pure. But somehow, for me, that doesn’t really get at what made his writing so wonderful. Because it was a joyful hate that Alex nurtured. An inspiring hate.
For all the talk of his sharp tongue and even sharper pen, we are, after all, talking about a man who once confessed to weeping on an airplane as he watched 1993’s Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, a film about two talking dogs and a sassy cat trying to make their way back home.
Once I came across a video of a mid-1980s C-SPAN appearance of Alex’s. The callers that day were hostile, accusing him of being a foreign communist of sorts. Alex kept up his spirit, smiling all the way through. One particularly angry man called in and shouted “don’t smile at me.” Alex replied that he could smile all he wanted to. And then he let him have it: a tight grin, those marvelous Cockburn-family cheekbones, aimed right at the camera.
As great as Alex’s prose is, the man could just as easily deliver a fiery sermon, truly a lost art on the Left. Not only the dozens of appearances over the years on C-SPAN shows but more obscure bits like a grainy video of Alex speaking at an anti-war rally in rainy Eureka just outside the Humboldt County Courthouse. In this one, Alex is standing next to an actual guillotine just to his right. He starts off with: “A few facts about the guillotine: it was invented by a liberal!”
He then goes on to deliver a passionate defense of both the French Revolution, popular sovereignty and the guillotine itself. “If every corporate chieftain in the United States, as he told his employees to break the law, as he asked his lawyers to get him off the hook, as he cheated people with his products, if he knew that there was one possibility that the blade would go up and the blade would come down, we’d have a better society.”
I remember one of my favorite Cockburn spiels was from Tao Ruspoli’s documentary Behind the Wheel. In the first clip, right at the peak of the Bush administration’s power, Alex says sure, everything’s gone to hell. And of course there’s no hope. But, Alex said: Bread and coffee. Bread and coffee today in the United States is infinitely better than what it was when he first came here. “The staples of life,” he says. He wasn’t joking around. He was serious. This was the kind of thing no one cares about. But he was right. There was change we could believe in. One third of “Peace, Land, Bread” and that’s nothing to scoff at.
And then he went on:
“You do what you can. You have to take the long view sometimes. Supposing we’re in the Roman empire in 300 AD … We’ve seen there’s a future for secular leftism in the Roman empire … Actually if you took the long view people would say ‘these people were completely insane in the third century.’ Cause there’s centuries of not exactly radical advance ahead of them. But were they wrong to say I think we can nationalize land, release all the slaves build a communal society in northern Tuscany?”
I always thought of this as the Cockburn version of Kafka’s famous dictum: “there is hope but not for us.” Which strikes me as wonderfully optimistic.
So Alex’s hate, ever pure, is just the twin of — and sorry to sound like a total hippy here — his love. His love of America’s lost interior. His love of freaks and weirdos, the dispossessed, the losers and the forgotten.
What’s remarkable about all of this is that Alexander stayed a radical for his entire life even as the last several decades were spent watching the liberal-left transform into something beyond tepidity. I don’t know how he did it. I certainly couldn’t have managed. I’d have been running for either an MBA program or an Oregon commune. As I was telling some friends of mine at Jacobin, I cannot imagine what it must feel like to come to the United States as a committed radical in the early 1970s, the son of Claud Cockburn, and have to watch the whole sorry affair of Carter, Clinton, and Obama play out for decades.
But thank God he was here. Because, in the words of Cormac McCarthy, he carried the fire. And when he passed it off, I honestly couldn’t care less if he’d taken a few detours from the correct and proper socialist path. Because that was half the joy of reading his work.
As a socialist of my generation, I’m sure you can guess where I differed with Alex. But the thing was: I stopped caring whenever I disagreed or thought he was cozying up to the wrong crowd. Or when I thought he was training his fire on the wrong segments of the Left. Not only because we needed to hear a lot of it, but because it was always tempered with that optimism, that joy of his.
I spent the first twenty-five years of my life feeling trapped in Texas. I was born to conservative parents and raised in petty-bourgeois sunbelt suburbs. I grew up around lots of fundamentalists, lots of Republicans, lots of football, lots of churches, plenty of guns, and of course lots of deer and dove hunting expeditions with my father’s drunken cajun buddies. At the age of 11, in a defiantly colorful Keith Haring printed shirt, I accepted a certificate from the Texas Big Game Awards for a 12-pt buck I’d shot.
I hated it all. Like most left-thinking kids growing up in such places, I got the hell out of there as fast as I could.
And the truth was that despite my supposed socialism, it made me a snob. Alex however, despite a healthy love for folks like Marx, Engels and even the dreaded Lenin, never became a snob. He never turned his nose up like I did at the Red States. Whenever I’d read him talking about his encounters bumping along the ex-Confederate hinterland, I’d find myself saying “goddamnit it, Alex. Don’t you get it? These people are racist, theocratic, quasi-fascist bastards. If you weren’t from Ireland, you’d totally get this.”
When liberals and lefties dismissed the Tea Party, calling it an inauthentic “astro-turf” operation, Alex was quick to call them on their smugness: ”You think the socialist left across America can boast of 647 groups, or of any single group consisting of more than a handful of people?”
Alex was right to relentlessly pound Clinton liberalism and to show no mercy to its defenders. He was right to rebuke them for embracing what he called “fake politics.” And he was right to call out the Left for having fled the battle altogether and surrendered so much energy, passion and enthusiasm to the right-wing.
And when a new radical Left finally did begin to slowly emerge, he was also on the mark. Particularly with Occupy Wall Street, which he approached with just the right balance of enthusiasm and criticism. While other lefties his age were sounding the trumpets for the return of a big bold movement of Reds, Alex was far more cautious.
“It must be the dratted Leninist in me, even after years of therapy. Surfeited with somewhat turgid paeans to the democratic gentility of the OWSers, I clamber up to the dusty top shelf, furtively haul down Vladimir Ilich’s ‘April Theses’ of 1917 and dip in: end the war, confiscate the big estates, immediately merge all the banks into one general national bank… The blood flows back into my cheeks, my eyes sparkle.”
Alex knew that a smart, organized and politically-minded Left doesn’t just spring out of decades of de-politicization. He knew that pats on the back wouldn’t do them any good. He decried the collapse of a Marxian left which, in his words, “used to provide a training ground for young people who could learn the rudiments of political economy and organizational discipline, find suitable mates and play their role in reproducing the left, red diaper upon red diaper, tomorrow’s radicals, nourished on the Marxist classics . . . An adolescent soul not inoculated by sectarian debate, not enriched by the and study groups of Capital, is open to any infection.”
And it’s in this sense that Alex played what I think was his most valuable role for the left, though as a staunch anti-militarist, he’d probably hate the metaphor: he was like our drill sergeant. He hurled abuse at us — but beautifully stated and almost always hilarious abuse — from every possible direction. “Oh, maybe if Hillary — SLAP!” “Oh, maybe if I buy organi — SLAP!” “Oh, if only the Democrats — SLAP!” ”The Kennedys were the last true — SLAP!” But why was he doing it? Because he was mean? No. Because he wanted us to survive. He wanted us to win.
And honestly, we needed it.
MARSHALL NEWMAN: From Ebay, an El Rancho Navarro matchbook, from the pre-summer camp days
CATCH OF THE DAY, Saturday, December 28, 2024
LINDA ALMOND, 66, Ukiah. Trespassing, paraphernalia, probation violation.
BENJAMIN BICKNELL, 35, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, domestic violence protective order violation, probation revocation.
RICHARD CAUCKWELL, 62, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, passing a check with intent to defraud, probation violation. (Frequent flyer.)
NICOLE HAWKINS, 39, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, failure to appear.
MATTHEW HILL, 42, Ukiah. Probation revocation, unspecified offense.
KENDALL JENSEN, 38, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
ESAU LLAMAS-CASTRO, 30, Lathrop/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, resisting.
BRITTANY KOHLMANN, 34, Ukiah. Disobeying court order.
MICHAEL MCBRIDE, 34, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
KYLE MCDANIEL, 34, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, failure to appear.
JOSHUA MEDIA, 26, Fort Bragg. Parole violation.
EDY PALAFOX-LOPEZ, 48, Ukiah. Controlled subtance, paraphernalia, contempt of court.
MICHAEL PARMELY, 39, Ukiah. Possession of obscene matter with minor, paraphernalia, parole violation.
EDGARD ROSAS, 21, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, bribing an executive officer.
ESPERANZA SANCHEZ, 24, Ukiah. Grand theft, false ID.
JERMIAH SUSAN, 38, Fort Bragg. Criminal threats.
DESTINY TURNEY, 34, San Francisco/Ukiah. Probation revocation.
BRUCE MCEWEN: Portland men search for Sasquatch, die in Washington forest…
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
That tax money spent to “help the homeless”? There was no plan to track or audit it so we won’t truly know. I think it mostly got squandered on committees and organizations getting funding to “solve” the problem. They never figured out that to get people off the streets and into houses you actually had to create housing. Talk about a farce! I imagine a bunch got scandalled away possibly by big-timers but more likely distributed and squandered by a multitude of agencies…many of whom believed they were “helping”. It’s easy to blow tons of money when there is no oversight. Kind of like all that covid relief money disappearing into criminals’ pockets- Poof! All gone!! And nobody knows where…
HAPPY CATURDAY! A velvet rebellion of paws and purrs, where cats reign supreme and humans bow to their chaotic charm. Whiskers twitch, claws flash—little emperors of the Internet and our hearts. Worship the madness, serve the fluff!
MEMO OF THE AIR: In Binturong it's all a question of declensions.
Here's the recording of last night's (Friday, 2024-12-27) 8-hour Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and KNYO.org (and, for the first three hours of the show, also 89.3fm KAKX Mendocino): https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0624
Juanita's downstairs neighbor has had some health problems, so the tiniest of noises at night are hard for her, and I don't want to cause a problem, so you'll notice my mumbly-whispery tone, with the mic close, so it sounds like my mouth is right up against your ear. Maybe I'll do it like this from now on. What do you think?
Coming shows can feature your story or dream or poem or essay or kvetch or announcement or whatever. Just email it to me. Or send me a link to your writing project and I'll take it from there and read it on the air.
I've been doing my show on various radio stations every Friday night since February of 1997, when I stopped publishing /Memo/ on real newsprint. This involves 20-plus hours a week of concentrated prep and then a couple of all-nighters, one to get ready and one to go. If you appreciate the show and want to help me out personally, I could certainly use it: https://paypal.me/MarcoMcClean
Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not-necessarily radio-useful but worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:
Sarah Potenza and Postmodern Jukebox – What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwqO6coI__Q
Matt Wilson Trio. Cool jazz Mister Grinch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzEgfEPCPeM
Whoa, Black Betty, bam-blam. https://theawesomer.com/black-betty-bass-beatbox/758776/
And, behold: The Led Zeppelins, The Black Sabbaths, and The Queens. https://theawesomer.com/led-zeppelin-ii-but-its-the-1950s/758786/
Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
THOMAS SMYTHE: Interesting story my sister found in WSJ…
New Jersey Drones and My Own Close Encounter
by Richard Muller
The recent drone sightings across the country have produced the silliest public hysteria of my lifetime. Our government says there’s nothing to fear, but it also hasn’t offered an explanation. These messages aren’t calming the panic.
In 1967 I was a graduate student working on a particle-physics experiment for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. My team worked near Cahto Peak, just west of Laytonville, Calif. Because of the NASA logo on our trucks, many local residents assumed that our research wasn’t academic. They were sure our study of cosmic-ray interactions was a cover story to hide our real mission: tracking down the flying saucers that Laytonville residents had been spotting. Working at an unidentifiedflying- object hotspot excited me. Maybe flying saucers were real and I would get to see one.
Late one night, I was working at our base up a dirt road on the mountainside. I stepped out of our trailer to get some air and saw something fantastic, one of the most thrilling sights of my life — a real flying saucer! It was hovering above a distant hillside, making a high-pitched warbling sound like I’d heard in the movie “ Forbidden Planet.” I watched its lighted windows move as the saucer wobbled and slowly rotated. I estimated that it was 1 or 2 miles away. Incredible!
I shouted to my team members in the trailer and ran for my camera. I took a photo, then walked toward the edge of the mountain to get a better look. Oddly, the position of the saucer changed as I moved sideways. Then I noticed that it seemed to get unexpectedly larger as I took a few steps forward. Maybe it wasn’t as far away as I initially thought. I pulled out a flashlight, and discovered that it was very close to me—and that it was a trash-can lid with a cord attached to its handle, hanging from a tree branch, wobbling in the light breeze. It had a string of tiny Christmas-tree lights around its rim that I had mistaken for distant windows. The warbling noise came from a small audio oscillator on the lid. I had been primed by locals’ stories of UFOs, and a jokester on our team set this all up as a fantastic prank on me.
I asked myself afterward why I had thought the saucer was a couple of miles away. At night, the pupils of your eyes open wide, and you lose much of your ability to estimate distance. That’s why it might look like the moon is setting into a nearby chimney, until you move your head back and forth. I had assumed the flying saucer was large and therefore deduced that it must be distant.
Let’s imagine that someone is flying a small, cheap drone about a few hundred feet away from you at night. The more panic-prone among us might assume that the object is as big as a Predator drone, which is an intimidating 55 or so feet across. In reality, the drone might only be about 2 feet in diameter. And because the panic-prone are basically estimating that the object is about 27 times as far away than it actually is, they will believe it is 27 times as high and moving 27 times as fast too, guessing that it’s moving 270 miles per hour instead of its actual 10 mph.
These small, cheap drones are everywhere now. Perhaps the public doesn’t realize how accessible they’ve become. Just as I was primed to believe a flying saucer is a few hundred feet across, many people may believe that drones must be large, expensive and operated by some spy agency or foreign military. But you can buy an excellent drone for under $50. Hundreds of thousands of these little drones must be floating out there, piloted by everyday people. I bought one for my 11-year-old grandson—I hope he isn’t reading this—for Christmas.
Once the first sightings were reported in New Jersey, the public became primed to look for and fear these drones, expecting them to be huge objects with nefarious goals. Perhaps some people, looking to get in on the fun, started sending into the night sky their own cheap drones, illuminated by powerful lights (also available online). Less understandable is why the government doesn’t seem able to explain what’s going on.
From my flying-saucer experience, I learned how easily I could be fooled and how easily we can fool ourselves. This proved to be a vital lesson as I began my scientific career. Thanks to what I’d learned, I was prepared to deduce big mistakes made in the fields of gravitational waves, dinosaur extinctions, cold fusion, climate change and Covid origins. I even caught myself fooling myself on occasion. I’ve come to believe that the “scientific method” exists to avoid fooling oneself. From this, I derived a principle: The difference between laymen and scientists is that laymen are easily fooled and frequently fool themselves. Scientists, in contrast, are easily fooled and frequently fool themselves— but they know it and take elaborate measures to catch such delusion. We need more of the latter.
The drone hysteria likely hasn’t peaked. I expect it to surge on Dec. 25, when thousands of kids, including my grandson, get drones from Santa.
(Mr. Muller is chief technology officer of Deep Fission Inc., a retired professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of “ Energy for Future Presidents” and “ The Instant Physicist.”)
GRAY EXPECTATIONS
Caring for my aging father taught me about the massive holes in America’s safety net for the elderly.
by Anita Jain
In the days since Donald Trump was reelected president, we’ve been subjected to news of the president-elect’s Cabinet choices, each one a harbinger of some disaster in the making: a defense secretary issuing orders to a military to attack private citizens; an attorney general weaponizing the state to go after political enemies based on grudges; a national intelligence director working in tandem with the world’s most ruthless despots.
These are just the routine nominations. President Trump is also planning to set up the new Department of Government Efficiency, to be led by his acolytes Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, with the explicit goal of slashing $2 trillion of federal spending. With close to 35 percent of the federal budget allocated to Medicare and Social Security, one would assume that these programs, which support the country’s elderly, would be on Musk and Ramaswamy’s chopping block. Yet Trump has deemed these programs untouchable, telling AARP earlier this fall, “As you know, I was there for four years and never even thought about doing it. I’m going to do nothing to Social Security.” He similarly vowed to protect Medicare, suggesting that increased economic growth under his leadership would be enough to sustain the program.
Trump’s disavowal that Social Security and Medicare would undergo cuts wasn’t enough to retain voters over 65, who favored him by seven points in 2016 and five points over the Democratic candidate in 2020 but were evenly split between him and Kamala Harris this year. This may be because seniors are far more attuned to the precarious future facing America’s rapidly aging population. Both Social Security and Medicare trust funds are heading toward exhaustion in a decade, and the long-term outlook for these programs is threatened by a precipitous decline in birth rates since contributions from workers fund the programs.
There’s also a looming cost-of-care crisis as the sizable Baby Boomer generation continues to hit old age. The number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s—just one type of dementia—is projected to double to 13.8 million by 2050, while associated costs are expected to grow to $1.5 trillion, twice the costs for individuals without dementia. Our current system of Medicare covers medications and surgeries for elders afflicted with conditions like cancer and heart disease but does not pay for help with everyday activities like eating and dressing, the type of caregiving those with dementia primarily need.
At the same time, most Americans lack enough savings to maintain their current level of living, dementia or not. This cloudy outlook for seniors is rarely mentioned by policymakers and the media. Released earlier this month, Golden Years, by the historian James Chappel, seeks to compensate for this lack of attention. Beginning with the invention of retirement in the early 20th century—before which Americans were expected to work until death—Chappel traces the history of how America’s seniors came to have a social safety net at all, before arriving at today’s uncertain future. Throughout the book, both a thorough history and a call to action, Chappel airs his frustration over the country’s failure to do more for our aging population.
Much like with universal health care, the United States is a laggard among industrialized nations when it comes to providing for its seniors. Yes, Social Security offers a basic monthly stipend, and Medicare does pay for costly acute medical care that might otherwise bankrupt a family on a fixed income, but most wealthy countries in Europe and Asia cover long-term care in the form of assisted living and nursing homes.
What does America have instead? Women. As Chappell rightly points out, it is middle-aged daughters, many of whom are already buried under their own child care responsibilities, who are called on to take over the onerous task of caring for an elderly parent. Chappel quotes a 67-year-old grandmother named Miriam Dypold, who takes care of her 90-year-old mother and describes feeling “more frazzled and tied down than she did during the years when she was raising five children.” Akin to reserve military personnel, once activated, these women are expected not to grumble but rather to view the job as one of duty and honor.
I should know—I’m one of them. When my now 86-year-old father was widowed eight years ago, I imagined a time would come when he would be unable to take care of himself; I just didn’t know when. He was able to live by himself for a few years until the pandemic took away the systems he relied on: his gym routine and the cook who came every day to prepare a home-cooked meal and tidy up.
The monotony and loneliness wrought by the pandemic sent him spiraling into a deep depression and placed my erstwhile mentally sharp father on the path of cognitive decline. (Seventy-five percent of those killed by the pandemic in the United States, or 860,000 people, were over 65, and those seniors who did manage to survive the COVID-19 virus often suffered similar fates to my father.) Irascible and beset with anxiety, he began bouncing between living with me and my family in Brooklyn and in a retirement home 7,000 miles away in New Delhi, India, the country of his birth.
My father also suffers from diabetes and a heart condition that has led to a couple of heart attacks in the last few years. As I’ve taken on his care, I’ve become intimately familiar with his pill regimen and fluctuating blood sugar and blood pressure levels. My blood pressure, likewise, has skyrocketed, and I’ve developed a frozen shoulder from the stress. As Dypold puts it, “This is just the way it is for women of my generation.”
I am ill-equipped to be taking care of my father, but paying for long-term care in the U.S. is prohibitively expensive. Unless he is prepared to hand over all of his hard-won life savings—painstakingly accrued over his 50 years as an immigrant in America—to the state and go on Medicaid, my dad is, as they say, shit out of luck.
Medicaid does pay for long-term care, but only after a person has exhausted his or her savings, with spouses also required to spend down to near-poverty levels. Even then, long-term care through Medicaid may not be attractive when only poor-quality nursing homes accept Medicaid patients. America’s failure to provide universal long-term care doesn’t just impact the elderly. Younger people with disabilities or life-threatening illnesses are also left in the lurch, not to mention female caregivers like me.
Chappel spotlights the failure of the U.S. government to provide long-term care for its aging population, instead placing an undue burden on their adult sons and daughters, many of whom are raising children of their own. Indeed, he notes, relieving aging parents’ dependence on their grown children was the very impetus behind Social Security when it was conceived and passed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his labor secretary, Frances Perkins, in the mid-1930s. According to a report commissioned by FDR to study the issue of social insurance for the aging, dependency was “enormously expensive not only in the cost of actual assistance” but also in the “loss of self-respect and the constant fear of insecurity.”
The passage of Social Security followed a ferment of early-20th-century social movements that lobbied the federal government to provide for aging Americans, the most popular of which was led by a physician from Southern California named Francis Townsend. Spurred by socialist ideals, Townsend envisioned a state-supported division of life into three parts. Americans would receive an education in their youth, after which they would begin working and enter what Townsend deemed the “productive years of life.” Finally, no longer able to work, they would arrive at old age, or the “age for leisure.” Under his scheme, every old person would receive a monthly payment of $200—the equivalent of $5,000 today—all of which he or she would be forced to spend every 30 days to fuel a prosperous economy.
The Townsend Plan, as it was known, gained steam precisely because its champion possessed a vision of old age distinct from the other phases of life at all. “Townsend wasn’t just promising miserly, means-tested pensions to keep older people out of poverty,” Chappel writes. “He was promising a new way of life for older people, and he was offering them a chance to participate in the salvation of the American economy.” Perhaps most importantly, Townsend was offering it to all old people, women, and former slaves among them, not just to the working white men who, until then, had long dominated the conversation on providing for retirement.
The program FDR and Perkins ultimately implemented was a far cry from the generous Townsend Plan, which ultimately foundered when Townsend was forced to admit before Congress that he had invented the revenues that would be generated to cover the scheme. FDR’s Social Security was not funded by government general revenue but by a new and separate payroll tax through which people would receive a retirement income in proportion to how much they paid in, translating into smaller payments to the less well-off. The program would be less about articulating a new phase of life for the country’s seniors and more about reducing their dependence on their children, who were still contributing to the economy.
Chappel laments how Social Security reinforced the existing hierarchies of the labor market, contrasting it with how the Townsend Plan would have “used old-age policy to attack and redress some of the most insidious injustices of American society.”
Despite this critique, Chappel is quick to acknowledge that Social Security and its handmaiden Medicare, passed three decades later and for much the same reason—”to save younger people from being on the hook for their parents’ expenses,” as he puts it—have done much to reduce poverty, particularly among older Black Americans and seniors with disabilities.
The wave of political energy that spawned these and other federal safety net programs from the 1930s to the ’60s crested in the 1970s and ’80s. Right-wing ideologues like the economist Milton Friedman, the chief architect of the era’s conservative retrenchment, began raising concerns that Social Security would soon run out of money. Other leading conservative figures, magazines, and think tanks jumped on the bandwagon, increasingly calling for market-based solutions and private investment. The drumbeat of negative attention culminated in a lengthy 1974 report in U.S. News & World Report entitled “Social Security: Promising Too Much to Too Many?”
The criticism was not entirely misplaced. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan struck a bipartisan compromise to address the program’s insolvency, ultimately raising taxes on younger Americans while cutting their future benefits.
Yet other efforts to improve the lives of the elderly ran aground. A congressman named Claude Pepper sponsored the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, which would have funded long-term care by eliminating the income cap on Medicare taxes. The act, which allowed individuals to pay premiums toward long-term care, was initially passed in 1988 but was repealed the next year.
The financial world stepped into the breach left by faltering legislative activity. Financiers looking to capture a potential windfall in retirement funds helped usher in the individual-funded 401ks and IRAs that are meant to compose the bulk of our retirement income today. Friedman’s fervent desire to do away with Social Security and Medicare is hardly a moot question and could still come to pass under President Trump despite his protestations. Indeed, the conservative Project 2025 blueprint calls for making Medicare Advantage, which are Medicare-approved plans offered by insurance companies, the “default enrollment option.” This is tantamount to the privatization of Medicare.
Describing how popular culture from the Reagan era reflected the notion that aging Americans were responsible for their own basic well-being, Chappel dedicates an entire rapturous chapter to the cult classic The Golden Girls. In an episode called “Rose Fights Back,” he writes the character played by Betty White is distraught when she realizes that she will no longer receive a small pension from her late husband’s bankrupt business. As a result, she pulls herself up and gets a job as a journalist’s assistant. “Just as the show propagated a widely shared ideal of health as personal responsibility, it did the same for finances,” the author writes, adding that Golden Girls rarely depicts an older person’s reliance on the government, “almost as though Social Security doesn’t exist.”
Almost a century after its creation, Social Security has proved remarkably resistant to the slings and arrows. As described earlier, however, its reckoning is fast approaching. Golden Years is a clarion call not just to reform the fragile system that supports old age in America but also to augment it to cover the long-term care the country, including my family, so desperately needs.
Yet nearly 300 pages later I was none the wiser on what solutions Chappel proposes to get there. His lens is a progressive one, so maybe an increase in taxes would play a role in funding an improved system, but he fails to mention the easiest fix of all—raising the cap on payroll taxes, currently set at $176,100. Does he support increasing the full retirement age for Social Security from the current 67? I can’t imagine he does, but I would have wanted him to compare and contrast the various proposals being considered. What kinds of taxes would be involved in funding long-term care? How would he propose dealing with a potential public outcry over increased taxes to support the elderly, upon whom a third of the federal budget, or $2 trillion, is already spent?
As much as I believe that fully funded long-term care for my father is the answer to our own family’s crisis, I do wonder how it would be paid for in hyper-individualistic America. In any event, my father cannot wait for that to happen and is returning to India, where, to my relief, he can afford to pay for a nursing home out of pocket.
Golden Years is unlikely to get a wide reception. Had Chappel ended his encomium to America’s seniors with a set of proposals for addressing the pending Social Security crisis and expanding the framework to include long-term care, this book might have become required reading for policymakers on both sides of the aisle. Nonetheless, it is a welcome primer on the history of American aging for anyone who has a parent or is planning to get old. And yes, that means you.
(Anita Jain is the editorial director at the Open Markets Institute. She is an editor, book author, and communications strategist with more than 20 years of experience spanning roles in the nonprofit world and in journalism.)
HOW TO EAT FOR A LONG AND HEALTHY LIFE
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but certain dietary patterns are more associated with longer lives than others.
by Alice Callahan
If hit podcasts, best-selling books and influencer culture are any indication, millions of people are obsessed with longevity.
But just as important as your life span is your health span, or the number of years you live in good health, said Susan B. Roberts, the senior associate dean for research at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
The length and quality of your life will be determined in part by your genetics, she said. But how you live your life is important, too, including how much you exercise and sleep, whether you drink excessively or smoke — and how you eat, Dr. Roberts said.
Eating for longevity isn’t an exact science, of course. It’s unrealistic, and possibly unethical, for researchers to ask people to faithfully follow various diets for decades and then see how their lives turn out, said Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
But researchers can look for associations between people’s dietary habits and their long-term health, he said.
Here are the best clues we have for how to eat for a long and healthy life.
Prioritize protein, especially from plants.
Research suggests that those who consume more protein tend to live longer and stay stronger and healthier later in life than those who consume less.
But where you get your protein matters. Plant-based sources like legumes, nuts and whole grains seem to be especially beneficial, whereas protein from red and processed meat has been linked with shorter lives, Dr. Lars Fadnes, a professor of global public health at the University of Bergen in Norway, wrote in an email.
Protein is key to maintaining strong muscles and bones, which can help older adults stay active and avoid falls and fractures, said Denise K. Houston, a professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Dr. Houston and other experts have recommended that those 65 and older consume at least 0.45 to 0.54 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. For a 150-pound adult, this translates to about 68 to 81 grams of protein. To help your body better absorb and use protein, try to distribute it across meals throughout the day, Dr. Houston said.
Incorporate Bone-Strengthening Nutrients.
In addition to protein, be sure to get enough calcium and vitamin D to support your bone health as you age, Dr. Roberts said.
Dairy milk, as well as fortified plant milks, orange juices and cereals, can be good sources of both nutrients. You can also find calcium in yogurt, cheese, tofu, beans and leafy green vegetables. Much of your vitamin D can come from exposure to sunlight, but foods like fish, mushrooms and eggs provide additional amounts.
It’s best to get calcium from foods if you can, Dr. Houston said. But if you’re falling short on either nutrient, talk with your doctor about whether supplements are right for you.
Pump Up The Polyphenols.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and other plant foods, like nuts and legumes, are rich in polyphenols — antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds that some research suggests can support healthy aging.
Coffee, for example, is a major source of polyphenols. Drinking as much as three to five cups per day has been linked with reduced risks for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, some cancers, Parkinson’s disease, cognitive decline and earlier death, Dr. Hu said. Green tea may have similar benefits, he added, though the research is less robust.
Researchers have also linked other polyphenol-rich foods like berries, dark leafy green vegetables, avocados and extra virgin olive oil to health benefits, including a longer life and improved brain health.
Focus On Healthy Fats.
Diets that are high in unsaturated fats, found in olive oil and most other plant oils, nuts, seeds, and avocados, have been linked with lower mortality, Dr. Hu and his colleagues have found. Alternatively, diets that are rich in saturated fats, which are found in red and processed meats, seem to have the opposite effect.
Fatty fish like salmon, tuna, anchovies and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are associated with better brain health and a longer life, Dr. Houston said.
Limit Ultraprocessed Foods.
Ultraprocessed foods — which include many packaged products like hot dogs, chicken nuggets, sodas and many baked goods — are increasingly linked with greater risks for health conditions like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, dementia and a shortened life span.
In one study published in 2023, researchers found that processed meats and sugar-sweetened beverages like soda were strongly associated with earlier death — so those categories are important to limit for improved life expectancy, Dr. Fadnes said.
Ultraprocessed foods are often high in “fast carbohydrates,” Dr. Hu said, which are quickly digested and can lead to blood sugar spikes. Over time, those spikes may increase the risk for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, he said. Many ultraprocessed foods are also often high in sodium, which can contribute to high blood pressure, Dr. Houston said.
Consider The Big Picture.
More than any one food, it’s your overall diet that matters, Dr. Hu said. He has studied several different eating patterns — including the Mediterranean diet, plant-based diets and diets based on federal guidelines for healthy eating — and has found that all of them are associated with reduced risks of earlier death.
These diets prioritize a variety of unprocessed or minimally processed foods, including plenty of vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, Dr. Hu said. Beyond that, he added, there’s a lot of flexibility in how to eat for healthy aging. “One size does not fit all,” he added.
Dr. Hu, for example, has long followed what he calls a traditional Asian diet, regularly consuming tofu, seaweed and green tea. But because he recognizes the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, he also uses extra virgin olive oil. And he enjoys his coffee, too.
(NY Times)
CALIFORNIA STIFFENS PENALTIES FOR THEFT — MORE CHANGES COMING
by Cayla Mihalovich
Californians accused of certain drug and retail theft crimes may already be facing stiffer penalties under an initiative voters passed this year, alongside related bills Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law.
Voters this November overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, which both modifies and adds key changes to California law.
That includes prosecutors being able to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatment-mandated felony, which would direct them to substance use disorder or mental health treatment in lieu of up to three years in jail or prison.
Under the new law, courts are also obligated to warn people convicted of selling or providing certain drugs, such as fentanyl, that they could face murder charges for later distributing illegal drugs that kill someone.
And heavier consequences may also extend to petty theft and shoplifting offenses, including the possibility of up to three years in jail or prison if a person has already been twice convicted for certain theft offenses.
Several district attorneys and police departments announced arrests this month that they planned to charge under the new law, including in San Francisco, Solano and Shasta counties.
The measure partially reversed a different initiative voters approved a decade ago, which reduced penalties for certain lower-level drug and petty theft offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. The initiative, Proposition 47, was intended to develop new public safety strategies and reduce incarceration after the state’s prison population exploded due to tough-on-crime policies dating back to the 1980s.
But prosecutors, law enforcement and large retailers who rallied in favor of Prop. 36 said those sentencing reforms went too far and created a revolving door for people to repeatedly commit crimes without being held accountable.
“It’s a clear mandate from the public that we need to take a new approach on public safety issues, specifically hard drugs, retail theft and fentanyl,” said Jeff Reisig, Yolo County District Attorney.
Those who opposed the measure warned that it will worsen homelessness, drug use and crime by cutting funding for treatment programs, and increasing court and prison costs in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Behavioral health experts across the state have voiced concern over the efficacy of a treatment-mandated felony, given that most California counties lack the resources needed to provide ‘mass treatment’ that has been promised by the measure’s proponents.
“I believe that (proponents) have also received a mandate to embrace problem solving and supportive services for people who are struggling,” said Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California, a nonprofit organization that opposed Prop. 36.
“I don’t believe the mandate was (to) put more people in prison. It was not what people believed they were voting for. I hope that people with the discretion to enforce this law will think very carefully about the communities they serve and what they were asking for in this moment,” she said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom tried to keep Prop. 36 off of the fall ballot and for a time considered putting a competing crime measure before voters. Instead, he signed a package of 10 bills in August that will make it easier to prosecute retail and vehicle theft. Those laws go into effect on Jan. 1.
Although Gov. Newsom didn’t put any money into fighting Prop. 36, he referred to the initiative as an “unfunded mandate” that will take California back to the War on Drugs. Indeed, the measure included no new funding streams. But supporters like Reisig voiced optimism that funding opportunities already exist in the law, pointing to a $6.4 billion from the mental health bond voters approved in March.
“I hope that lawmakers and the governor embrace the mandate and work collaboratively to make sure that we’re successful in delivering the promise of Prop. 36,” Reisig said.
(CalMatters)
THE PROBLEM is that the right doesn't need any ideas to govern, but the left can't govern without ideas.
— Jose Saramago
LEAD STORIES, SUNDAY'S NYT
179 Dead in Plane Crash in South Korea
Behind the Dismantling of Hezbollah: Decades of Israeli Intelligence
Trump Weighs In on Immigrant Visa Debate but Offers Little Clarity
WE'RE STILL eating the leftovers of World War II.
― Vandana Shiva
While the idea of a credit union is nice, the sad version of one we have here on the coast is not. Years ago when I first joined you could have a free checking account that even provided free checks. That credit union has been sold twice, each time the ‘owners’ of the credit union cashing out. Now you must pay through the nose for checks and they charge you to get a statement mailed to you each month.
They pay little to no interest on any funds you might deposit there. For example the highest they pay on a money market account is only 1.5%. That is less than inflation. A good money market fund, SPAXX for example is currently paying over 4% and you can write checks on the account and have an associated debit card, so all the money you pay your bills with can be earning interest.
Most banks and credit unions don’t want you to know this. Do your own due diligence before making any investment.
Try a different credit union. I belong to two which offer free checking, send printed statements and offer pretty good interest rates. All transactions can be handled online if necessary. If you use the Bill Pay service you don’t have to worry about how much checks cost.
Celebrating Bernie Norvell’s Leadership in Mendocino County.
As Mendocino County welcomes Bernie Norvell as the newly elected 4th District Supervisor, it is an opportune moment to reflect on his exemplary dedication and leadership qualities. Having had the honor of working alongside Bernie on the Fort Bragg City Council, first as Vice Mayor and then as Mayor, I can confidently attest to his unwavering commitment to our community.
Bernie’s intuitive leadership style has always been evident in the way he addresses the challenges facing our region, particularly the pressing issue of homelessness in Fort Bragg. His ability to engage stakeholders and foster collaboration has led to significant strides in not only managing but also reducing homelessness in our area. He approaches every challenge with a solution-oriented mindset, ensuring that every voice is heard and every concern is addressed.
Under his guidance, we have seen a renewed sense of hope and progress within our community. Bernie’s focus on building trust and fostering confidence among his constituents is paramount. His genuine concern for the well-being of the residents of Mendocino County will undoubtedly lead to a brighter future for all.
In this new role, I have no doubt that Bernie will continue to inspire and lead with integrity, ensuring that our community thrives. His hard work and vision will set a standard for effective governance, making him a true asset to Mendocino County. We are fortunate to have him at the helm, steering us towards a more prosperous and inclusive future.
I am really glad he will be on the BOS. I talked with him yesterday about my personal experiences dealing with the county both as a home owner & business owner. Hopefully he will bring about positive changes.
If only we could get Alice Callahan’s invaluable dietary advice into Gaza we might be able to help some of the older Gazans to a longer healthier life during the siege the courageous IDF are conducting with our collective consent and billions of tax dollars. But who wants to contemplate the misery of starving kids when there’s so much promise in store for us now we have a tremendously just and omnipotently competent President-elect, huh?
Let’s have more NYT navel gazing and hand wringing over our waistlines and fewer reminders of how we came to get so fat and smug…! And no more of that brutally cruel Caitlin Johnstone telling us we’re brainwashed bozos!
CALIFORNIA BUSINESSMAN REVEALS WHY HE’S BUYING UP TINY COASTAL TOWN DESPITE LOCALS’ FURY
Take a look at what happened to Sonoma in the 80s and 90s… During my last visit, in 1998, I almost puked, and I swore never to visit the place again. I trust what developers spout about as much as I trust the Pope…or used car dealers.
Do Not Go Gentle . . .
24/7
She can’t remember that she can’t walk, so she slides off the bed and immediately pitches head forward into the dresser, caroms off to the nightstand, twists into a heap on the floor, her head stuck between the nightstand and the bedframe.
She can’t remember that this has happened before, several times, only this time there is a massive bruise on her hip and her ribs scream in pain when she gasps for air.
You didn’t catch her quickly enough from the other side of the bed, jump out and leap around as the craaaaack of the bedframe fades under the scream pursing between her lips and the smell of hot urine wafts from the nightie bunched between her legs.
Wrestling aside the mess of spilled glassware, pill bottles, reading glasses, nail clippers, pencils and puzzle books to unbury her, you pull your rotor cuff out again, but your focus is so intense on unbending her weakened knees and flailed elbows you barely notice, until you try to use that arm to lift her out of the origami wedge as her scream turns to howl and you cannot raise your voice enough to penetrate the din. There, there.
Next the hobble to the water closet, settle on the shower bench to undress, bathe, and redress this crumpled form now with drool and blood glossing her chin (bit lip, no tongue control), pleading for time, to fetch a towel or warm up the water for a cursory sponge-off, accidental contact with bruise convulsing in her throat a gagging heaving chuffing gasping shriek in your ear (the one that still “works”), leading her hand to the laundry basket to stay upright, even for seconds.
Clean gown, more pleading for patience while you hunt for the phone not in your pocket, so help her to lie down on the floor panting to run back to the bedroom. 9-1-1 again.
Three days in the ICU, opiated out of agony and mind amiss, tests and probes and procedures to relieve the pierced lung, xrays, scans, and a new epidermal mass appearing overnight on her shin evincing new tormentous crying rage.
Two months later she comes home again with bowed back and uncertain gait, unable to overcome the obstinance of unwilling limbs and all all all ability to manage continence, staring blankly at the room instead of you, while you minister to linens and supporating wound care, thirst and hunger, unable to hold onto the ebb and wane of her cognition, answer the door apprehensively, eyes on her every second, it’s meals-on-wheels.
Every day for as long as she lives, after years of debilitating seizures, heart failure, bladder and lung infections, medication side effects rage, depression, nightmares, “combativeness,” fevers, and always the pain.
Finally crashing at dawn, sleep until noon, start all over, answer the door, meals-on-wheels or the EMTs, take your pick.
Thank you for speaking for those who those no longer able. I wasn’t sure anyone else knew some of the lower depths of human suffering. We certainly are not able to write about them when those times comes for us.
You are a Blessing for that person, I Hope you are as Blessed.
Just left Visionworks on G Street in Washington, D.C. having had an eye exam, and ordered a pair of Ray Bans. I’ll be able to see the total bullshit that postmodern America has become, even clearer now. Am still in a homeless shelter in the district, applying for subsidized housing in the chaos which defines social life in the United States. But then, I have realized my true nature, am enlightened, do not identify with the body nor the mind, and Jesus loves me. So I guess that everything will come ’round right. Good luck in Mendocino County.
Craig Louis Stehr
2210 Adams Place NE #1
Washington, D.C. 20018
Telephone: (202) 832-8317
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
Send money here: Paypal.me/craiglouisstehr
December 29, 2024 Anno Domini
Since you never replied about 14th and I, I checked it out myself. Most of the peep clubs are gone, but the whores are still around…So says Google.
Ask around,
Laz
No thanks. It’s not my cup of tea. ;-))
Mine either, anymore. But I was there in 1966 with two friends. We were lucky to survived…if you get my drift.
Be well,
Laz