- Thank You, Ms. Cubbison
- Replacement Time
- Anosognosia
- China Takes Taiwan. Here Is How.
- MAGAs Love Dumb
- Unlicensed Driver
- Driving Habits Stuck
THANK YOU, MS. CUBBISON
To the Editor:
Let’s all applaud the courage of Ms. Cubbison to stand up for the public against a corrupt District Attorney, David Eyster.
We are paying Mr. Eyster $217,380/year plus benefits. In return, he just charged us $3,600 to pay for a staff banquet in violation of County policy. How many other banquets did he use our money to pay for? Taxpayers demand that the General Fund be personally reimbursed by Eyster for all the banquets he took our money to pay for.
His failed attempt to silence an innocent whistle blower may ultimately cost the County in the range of 2 million dollars!
From corruption, we move to incompetence. We are paying County Counsel $200,000/year plus benefits. If the general public were asked, “Do you think it’s OK to fire an elected official without Due Process?” the vast majority would say “probably not, it doesn’t seem right.” Probably all Legal Aides would say “no.” Unfortunately for us, our incompetent County Counsel said no problem.
The lack of judgment by the previous Board of Supervisors (BOS) to believe this nonsense is shocking and is what will cost us maybe $2,000,000! Finally, we have allegations of perjury on the witness stand by the CEO and others.
To date, there have been no consequences for anyone. (It’s not our money, it’s the taxpayers.) If this BOS does not stand up to prosecute perjury, fire incompetence and refund the General Fund, the only ones left to face consequences will be the supervisors who created this financial disaster.
Stay tuned to how the BOS assigns consequences.
Dennis Slota
Ukiah
REPLACEMENT TIME
Editor:
With the upcoming election in 2026, it is certainly time for the 5th District to consider just how voters should replace Ted Williams, and just who his replacement will be. The truth is his eight years have been marked by abject failure in our County. When he and I were both running for the seat in 2018, when my stroke took me out of the running before our November run off, Ted was selling himself, as the young, can-do outsider who was going to get our County working again. By any metric he has failed his constituents.
Perhaps the clearest example is the recent dismissal, by Judge Ann Moorman, of the farcical case against Chamise Cubbison, County auditor and tax collector. The case was a clearly vindictive prosecution by DA David Eyster. But the way Williams and our BOS threw Chamise under the bus is truly shameful. On just the DA’s say so, they removed an elected official from her office. (Shades of Elon Musk?) Thus throwing the county’s financial affairs into chaos, and exposing the County to a potentially expensive wrongful termination lawsuit. To anyone who is paying attention those offices should never have been combined. But Ted ignored that advice too and forced Chamise into an impossible position. I still maintain contacts in the SEIU, since they endorsed me in 2018, and morale of county employees is at an historic low.
On other fronts, can anyone identify even one move that has been made to establish affordable housing for working people, or even one initiative for decent wages? Admittedly I may have missed some, but it seems pretty quiet out there. We remain a wine and tourist dependent Economy. Who can raise a family on those wages?
Again, I’m not aware of a single effort by Williams in this area. in fact when we are both running in 2018, the County stood to benefit from the legalization of marijuana. We were loaded with legacy growers, who had generations of farming knowledge and were looking forward to no longer having to hide. They were looking forward to full economic participation in County affairs. I remember at a candidate cannabis forum Ted said he would get the County permitting application down to 1 page and a $25 fee. This was a chance for some real living wage jobs. It was an exciting time! I still maintain some of my contacts in that community, and not a single one feels like Ted did anything for them. In fact most of them have quit trying, have moved on, or even sold their land.
In considering his replacement I would recommend someone who is not interested in career moves outside our County. It should be someone who is interested in maintaining their roots in our community. I know some Coatlib Dems have been whispering in Ted’s ear about Sacramento. Maybe even the governorship, Even I found that hard to believe until his ill-fated Assembly run. Clearly he sees his current position as a rung on his career ladder.
An opposing candidate must have laser sharp focus to keep the campaign on County affairs. When John Redding ran against Ted in 2022, he ran as a Republican. With the fear of Trump at such a peak fervor, Ted easily kept the focus on national issues that a BOS would never have been involved with. John was unable to keep the focus on relevant county issues.
So Ted’s opponent needs to stay on point, and expose his actual record. and you will also face this bizarre scenario: Williams recruits minions. He finds anti-social losers who have some kind of weird hero worship of him. These losers have some veneer of credibility. But they are truly sucking up to their “hero.” I saw it when Ted and I were aligned with our roles in the Albion Little River Fire District, and when we each ran in 2018, and when John Redding challenged him in 2022. The man (Ted) is amoral and so creepy at his core. It’s quite pathetic and surreal. But he deploys these minions to write LTE’s and comment in online discussion groups that are created and (ahem) ”moderated” by his allies. But I’m warning you this IS a thing you will face. But again I believe if you maintain laser sharp focus on the man’s many failings, he can be defeated. So for the good of your District and the County, please get busy.
It will be difficult. He is surrounded by a remarkable cadre of enablers and apologists who fall for his charm, But I believe it can, and must, be done, for the health of our community,
Thank you,
Chris Skyhawk
Fort Bragg
ANOSOGNOSIA
Hiya Editor,
There is an actual medical condition called “Anosognosia.” That is the reason “the crazies are unaware they are crazy.” It means one has no insight into their illness. They do not know they are sick and because of that they are incapable of making a decision on treatment for said illness. Unfortunately, it is estimated that 50% of people with a serious mental illness experience Anosognosia. Again, if we are statistically speaking, then we have approximately 150 people in our county who are unaware they are ill and need treatment for their condition.
Also, most people do not realize whether drugs, mental illness, or in combination. Just looking at states of psychosis the longer we leave people in that state without providing intervention and treatment the brain damage increases. That’s right, the longer we allow someone to remain in psychosis it causes more damage to the brain, we are making things worse on so many levels.
As far as Mr. Bassler goes, I have no doubts about Jim writing letters requesting intervention for his son Aaron. It is a frightening situation to watch someone you love unravel into psychosis, no matter the cause. I made requests and demands multiple times and was ignored. Families’ cries for help are not addressed. We are often viewed as the problem and a nuisance that needs to be stifled. However, we are actually the solution!
Assisted outpatient treatment, also known as Laura‘s Law, possibly could have helped Aaron very early on. But the criteria is so strict it’s unlikely he would be admitted to the program. And if he were, he would have to commute daily, which probably would not have been sustainable.
Speaking of which it’s been a long time since I’ve seen any stats regarding assisted outpatient treatment. Aaron needed a more radical long-term intervention that should have been provided and was not. All these years later if all that was happening right now we would still be in the same boat. No one would intervene on Mr. Bassler‘s behalf and that in itself is crazy. That is the system feeding off itself not knowing it’s crazy and pretending everything is fine!
Mazie Malone
Ukiah
CHINA TAKES TAIWAN. HERE IS HOW.
Editor,
China doesn't want a smoking ruin. No Gaza. China wants a Taiwan nice and orderly and prosperous and useful. The current big military exercises around the island are designed to keep us preparing for a war with ships and planes fighting battles like it was 1945 and not realizing the actual situation.
Here is how I think they will do it. And I think they will do it pretty soon. (Disclaimer: I'm just a guy, not a spy. I've been a China-watcher since spending years working in China long ago and having appreciation for their astounding transformation. These are the smartest and most organized and most focused people on earth. They are the new empire rising.)
China is building massive landing ships. They aren't for soldiers, they are for technicians who have been in training for years. Taiwan is an open country. Its infrastructure is known. Some of the Chinese residents of Taiwan want reunification with the new prosperous and powerful China. They may be helpful. For some time China has been training tens of thousands of men and women for a takeover of all the power points on the island. They learn the streets, the buildings, the offices, the doors, the connections which they will follow to complete their particular assignment.
At 10 PM all the electricity on the island is turned off by an electromagnetic wave. The invasion is carried out swiftly and silently. All communication is jammed by the ships and planes circulating around the island. Their true purpose all along. Each tech has specific instructions to go to a place already mapped and described to do the one and only task they have been trained to do. No one is armed. Some go to media studios, some to the water system, some to the power grid, some to military bases… Every control point has been carefully thought out to be taken quickly without opposition.
At 7AM the power is restored, the TV is playing China's national anthem, "The East Is Red" and a smiling Xi Jinping is welcoming back the compatriots of Taiwan Province.
Not a shot has been fired. We can do nothing about it. It is over. China has demonstrated that the American Empire is old and dumb and living in the past. Asia is theirs.
When it happens remember: You first read about it in the Anderson Valley Advertiser.
Michael Nolan
Comptche
MAGAS LOVE DUMB
Editor:
According to the National Literacy Institute, 21% of adults in the U.S. were illiterate in 2024. Fifty-four percent of adults have literacy below sixth grade level (20% are below fifth grade). These low levels of literacy cost the U.S. up to $2.2 trillion per year.
This is exactly what Donald Trump and his billionaire supporters want. The last thing he wants is a literate and educated public that is able to evaluate his actions and his many lies. That is why he wants to cut down and finally eliminate the Department of Education. He is a traitor to democracy. This is shown clearly by his acting against the Constitution of the United States.
Ed Oberweiser
Fort Bragg
UNLICENSED DRIVER
To the Editor:
Having Donald Trump as president is like being a passenger trapped in a car driven by a reckless teenager who has no business driving.
He doesn’t know the rules of the road, either doesn’t understand or refuses to follow signs or traffic signals, won’t take advice from others and has a dangerous problem with road rage. But he is absolutely convinced that he is the greatest driver in the world.
Stephen A. Silver
San Francisco
DRIVING HABITS STUCK
Editor,
Regarding “Rush hour is over in the Bay Area. Welcome to the era of permanent traffic” (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, March 31):
The story mentions a future where “everyone has self-driving cars and traffic becomes significantly more efficient.”
This is poor logic. If everyone has a self-driving car, there is no reduction of vehicles on the road. If self-driving cars are community resources, they must drive to and from their pickup points, increasing the number of cars on the road.
Community-owned self-driving cars allow us to pack parking lots more tightly, but the only way to reduce traffic is to put several people in each car. We should be doing that right now.
In some far distant future, when all the cars are self-driving and can talk to each other, some tricky merges could become more efficient, but traffic will remain a hideous snarl until we make significant lifestyle changes.
Cynthia Cudaback
Oakland
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