- Health Care Is Expensive, And Fixes Aren’t Simple
- Checks The Boxes
- S.O.S. - Networking For Mendocino Coast Companion Animals
- Trump Is No Truman
- Dems Have Lost Their Way
- Delusional Orange Man
- Supes Should Listen To Their Constituents
- The Solar Solution
- We Already Know…
- The Greatest Heist Ever
HEALTH CARE IS EXPENSIVE, AND FIXES AREN’T SIMPLE
Editor:
Hyperbole and misinformation from both political parties about expiring Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits is creating mass confusion. First of all, only about 5%-7% of Americans received enhanced premium tax credits. If you’re on Medicare, employer health plans or didn’t qualify, this does not affect you. Even though all the screaming makes it seem otherwise.
The “Medicare for All” crowd isn’t going to be pleased either. If one thinks “Medicare for All” means free, it does not. When I signed up for Medicare, they clearly advised to budget $8,000 a year for costs beyond what Medicare pays.
The problem is that health care is very expensive. Premiums are rising because of that, and the “affordable” in the Affordable Care Act isn’t really true. Can we fix this? Probably. But the rising cost of health care is real and has to be paid for somehow. It will never happen until Congress actually tries to work together to fix a very big problem. Both sides seem more interested in political points than addressing a difficult and complicated issue.
Now we need folks in Washington to address it like adults instead of acting like children.
Richard Harder
Santa Rosa
CHECKS THE BOXES
Editor,
Realistically, the U.S. invasion of Venezuela and seizure of President Nicholas Maduro and his wife achieved several short-term objectives for President Donald Trump:
It made his plummeting popularity appear irrelevant to his ability to tyrannize with impunity.
It pumped up the widely deflated morale of Trump’s right-wing base.
It potentially gives the U.S. control of the world’s largest oil reserves (though that calculation reminds us how this plan failed in Iraq and stirred up civil war).
And most importantly to Trump, his “victory” distracts from public anxiety over his connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
We face social chaos, empire collapse and widening wars aided by an obedient U.S. military and Supreme Court.
Can the human spirit rise in collective resistance to the Trump dictatorship’s extinction threat?
Marc Sapir
Berkeley
S.O.S. - NETWORKING FOR MENDOCINO COAST COMPANION ANIMALS
Dear Friends,
For those who do not know us, S.O.S. is a 501(c)3 dedicated to helping animals on the Coast.
The past several years have presented a host of challenges for us, from Covid, to closure of our County Animal Care Services on the Coast. Good news is that we have met those challenges head on.
Challenging times demand creative thinking and problem solving and I’m pleased to share that S.O.S. has been up to the challenge. With only two local veterinary practices and the Mendocino Coast Humane Society (MCHS), all doing their best to serve animals in need, not all animals can be served in a timely manner.
In addition to these challenges, the Coast rarely sees an important asset to our community, Care-a-Van, our county’s low coast spay/neuter and vaccine clinic. And here is where S.O.S. steps in. With help from Harvey Chess, author of “Functional and Funded,” we founded the Mendocino Coast Alliance for Animals (MCAfA), comprised of 4 organizations that give their all to help animals in our community.
Alliance members include Coast Cat Project (CCP), Eileen Hawthorne Fund (EHF), Mendocino Coast Humane Society (MCHS) and S.O.S.-Networking for Mendocino Coast Companion Animals (S.O.S.). You’ll hear more about MCAfA and all that we plan to accomplish, in the new year.
During these years of Covid we’ve managed to help so many animals in need, as well as their guardians, and when we save the life of an animal whose owner can’t afford to do so, you are the hero because we couldn’t do it without you. S.O.S.:
- Assists low-income folks, whose pets have been impounded by the county and redemption fees are beyond their ability to pay.
- Assists low income pet guardians with lifesaving vet care. Without our help many would lose their beloved pets.
- Helps seniors get their pets to the vet.
- Assists the Cancer Resource Center in finding foster homes, vet care and new homes for pets of cancer patients, when needed.
- Manages the “Ask the Vet” column which we created in 2017. This column is published in four newspapers through- out the county.
- Provides toys, treats, pet food, bedding and medication for our local animal shelter.
- Creates and posts flyers and uses social media to help lost animals find their way home.
- Posts notices of abandoned and orphaned animals helping to find them forever, loving homes.
- Helps find foster and permanent homes for animals in desperate situations.
- Created an alliance to improve the lives of animals on the Mendocino Coast.
Our vision for the new year is exciting and thanks to your encouragement and financial support we’ve set our goals high. We hope you will consider a year end donation to help us accomplish all we’ve set out to do in the year ahead.
Please know that we are eternally grateful for the lives you save, the bones you mend and the spirits you restore.
We hope you will consider sending a year-end gift to help us continue this very important work. Please give what you can, and remember, no donation is too small.
Donations:
S.O.S.
P.O. Box 401
Albion, CA 95410
With heartfelt gratitude,
Carol Lillis, for S.O.S. and the animals we serve.
TRUMP IS NO TRUMAN
Editor:
My political awareness began with the Truman administration. I remember the Joseph McCarthy and Douglas MacArthur challenges to the Constitution. Thank God I have never experienced another president like Donald Trump. No chief executive has been as self-centered, cruel, vindictive, crude (OK, maybe LBJ was) and partisan as Trump. He decrees a problem to be a national security threat and seizes extraordinary powers. He has been allowed to concentrate power due to the acquiescence of the Supreme Court and the Republican Congress.
Trump is the only president I can recall who puts his name on government-issued checks. He names government facilities for himself. Normally naming is voted on by a separate body to honor someone deceased. Finally, Trump has the thinnest skin of any president during my lifetime. Harry Truman famously said to get out of the kitchen (politics) if you can’t stand the heat (scrutiny, criticism). Trump’s angry response is to tear down the metaphorical kitchen. He fires, or has fired, persons who dare to criticize him. Clearly, Truman was a lot tougher political figure than Trump.
Phil Weil
Santa Rosa
DEMS HAVE LOST THEIR WAY
To the Editor,
I was dismayed to read about the Democratic National Committee deciding not to release its report on 2024, the latest in a string of decisions that demonstrate how it has lost its connection to actual voters, common sense and upholding the democratic norms it claimed were important when criticizing the MAGA movement for destroying them.
The party no longer champions a clear brand “for” anything — having spent the last nine years being “against” President Trump — and it employs the same dirty tactics that it vilifies the Republicans for, such as redistricting.
How does the Democratic Party plan to gain back voter confidence if it is not willing to publicly assess its mistakes, admit where it went wrong and develop a plan to adapt as it moves forward? Isn’t this what we teach our children?
Shoving the report in a drawer and hoping that President Trump has finally screwed up so badly that people will come back to the party is not a strategy to move the party or the country forward. I’m not naïve enough to believe the report was unbiased and exhaustive, but it was at least a step toward reckoning.
Let’s be brave and honest, and come together to be a party for the people and the next phase of America.
Becky Daniel
Raleigh, North Carolina
DELUSIONAL ORANGE MAN
Editor:
In his address to the nation, Donald Trump was, if nothing else, consistent with who he has always been: a man with little regard for honesty. His speech was so riddled with falsehoods that it bordered on an insult to the collective intelligence of the American people. He claimed, for example, that “drug prices will come down by 600%” — a mathematical impossibility. He asserted that while egg prices are up, everything else is “falling rapidly,” despite Consumer Price Index data showing that far more grocery items have increased than declined. He also asserted that gasoline now costs under $2.50 a gallon nationwide, when AAA data puts the national average closer to $2.90.
These are not minor exaggerations; they are demonstrably false claims delivered from the occupant of the highest office in the country. They come from a president who also empowers officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose actions might constitute a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
When truth is treated as optional, accountability disappears. A democracy cannot function, much less survive, on falsehoods repeated often enough to sound convincing.
Richard Cardiff
Sebastopol
SUPES SHOULD LISTEN TO THEIR CONSTITUENTS
To the Editor:
This letter is another viewpoint in response to Mark Scaramella’s article “Is Supervisor Mulheren too thin-skinned?” published recently. Facebook comments by Supervisor Mulheren highlighted by Mr. Scaramella gave us pause, because they appear to contradict her recent and past actions and public statements.
In a video post on October 29th, Ms. Mulheren is quoted as saying, “I have just learned a lot about many topics over the last 10 years. I think that when elected officials get locked into a point and say something like, I will never vote for XYZ, you are doing a disservice to the community.” We wholeheartedly agree.
Yet on Sept 23, 2025, Ms. Mulheren voted against a second application from Willits citizens to establish a Cannabis Prohibition (CP) zone; they were seeking to opt out of cannabis cultivation in their neighborhood. Prior to her vote she stated: “I am going to be consistent with what I’ve said before on these prohibition zones. The use of combining districts for prohibition is not a policy that I support. These types of ordinances become a popularity contest…….”
The “popularity contest” comment gives the impression she does not consider each application on its merits, but instead judges them through the lens of political popularity, or perhaps her own personal biases. Her voting record hints that she will never vote for a Cannabis Prohibition zone, regardless of the majority of property owners in a particular area requesting it.
It is written into the county ordinance that if a cannabis grow creates nuisances, citizens have the right to request a cannabis free zone, whether there are active grows or not. In this case there were not, so no business would be affected. The citizens were attempting to protect their environment and community from future grows being allowed in. This second Willits application ultimately passed 3-2 with Supervisors Mulheren and Williams dissenting.
We do commend Ms. Mulheren, however, for taking the time to tour our beloved Redwood Valley at our invite this past year. We also wish to publicly thank Supervisors Cline, Haschak and Norvell for taking the tour and listening to our concerns about the future of our neighborhoods. During the tour with Ms. Mulheren we asked her why she appears so pro-cannabis as evidenced by her voting record consistently being in the industry’s favor. Her reply (paraphrasing), “I will always be pro-business”.
The problem with this is she appears to be locked into favoring business interests — including commercial cannabis — over the valid concerns of residents who wish to protect their neighborhoods from businesses which negatively impact them. Elected officials who consistently favor one segment of society (industries) over another (residential communities), especially when residents seek to protect and preserve their quality of life by using the tools provided in the county ordinance, are doing a disservice to the taxpayers.
In fairness, one Supervisor declined our invitation to view Redwood Valley — not once, but twice. Mr. Williams, we believe you did our community a disservice by not finding the time to take our tour and listen to us this past year. Your position wields you the power to impact the lives of the public in districts other than your own. We are sure you expect your colleagues on the Board to carefully weigh any issues which may affect your district. It would appear, too, that you have historically voted in lock step with Supervisor Mulheren, certainly as pertains to cannabis issues. Please correct us if we are mistaken.
We urge all our elected officials: if you are voting on issues from another district, give serious, unbiased consideration to the expressed wishes of that district’s residents. Evaluate the preponderance of evidence presented before casting your vote. And when citizens extend a genuine invitation to listen — as we did — make a stronger effort to accept. You should listen to all Mendocino County citizens.
To fail to do so, in our view, is a grave dereliction of your sworn duty. As Ms. Mulheren herself aptly stated, it is “ a disservice to the community.”
Frances Owen, Patricia Ris-Yarbrough, Chris Boyd
Concerned Redwood Valley Citizens
THE SOLAR SOLUTION
Editor:
The only way to break PG&E’s monopoly status is to give every user equal opportunity to generate and use their own energy source. That’s called residential solar, and community solar power. Pass legislation that requires any commercial energy company to buy back power from residential solar at the same rate they charge same users. PG&E currently pays only $0.057 per kw for residential solar, and says that’s the same cost of their generation of solar power cost per kw. But why are they able to bill us for same energy at $0.32 per kw. Then they add numerous items like distribution, infrastructure, fine recovery, nuclear retirement and 12% ROI to investors.
Just think if 50% of San Francisco residents had their own solar power and batteries, the 130,000 residents would have not been in the dark for three days earlier this month.
Residential Solar costs PG&E nothing; the only thing it does is break PG&E’s monopoly.
Solar is safer, clean energy and protects the environment.
James Sandler
Pleasanton
WE ALREADY KNOW…
Editor,
A recent Chronical editorial on mental health, though well intentioned, offered little beyond what we have known for decades. Awareness without solutions risks becoming complacency.
We already know the legal system is ill-equipped to handle mental illness. Specialized courts have been tried and abandoned. Programs to ensure medication adherence routinely fail due to fragmented care, unstable housing, and lack of follow-up. Meanwhile, millions of mentally ill individuals cycle through jails, shelters, sidewalks, and emergency rooms without meaningful treatment.
The familiar bureaucratic claim that evidence-based practices are “too expensive” is profoundly shortsighted. The real costs — lost productivity, lifelong disability, overwhelmed public systems, and human suffering — are far greater. Governments clearly find money when priorities align.
Perhaps the real issue is that no one wants to confront root causes. Initiatives like Proposition 1 risk becoming temporary Band-Aids once political attention fades.
After more than 30 years in mental health, I believe incremental fixes will not suffice. We must think differently. One step would be to heavily fund an independent, AI-driven effort to identify the genetic and biological roots of mental illness. Another is an AI platform aggregating millions of global case histories to identify what treatments actually work in the real world.
Until we find definitive biological tests or cures, data-driven innovation may be our best hope.
Kohli Singh
San Jose
THE GREATEST HEIST EVER
Editor,
The RAND Corporation reports that the top 1% wealthy have robbed the bottom 90% of working people of $79 trillion over a half-century from 1975 to 2023.
Economist Joseph Stiglitz reveals the “Golden Age” of Capitalism, post-WWII until 1975, was a period of the largest economic growth and middle class expansion. Since 1975, expanding wealth inequality has reduced economic productivity and prosperity. Had earnings remained equitable at pre-1975 levels, the average worker in the bottom 90th percentile reportedly would have earned $32,000 more annually as of 2023.
Ronald Reagan’s neoliberal policies crushed unions, flattened wages, gutted anti-trust law, deregulated industry and legalized stock buybacks, supercharging wealth transfer upward. Neoliberalism promotes financialization — the privatization for profit of many economic sectors, including healthcare, boosting continual wealth transfer upward.
Kleptocrats’ President Donald Trump, accelerates deconstruction of Democracy and wealth transfer upward. The Congressional Budget Office reports that Trump’s reconciliation bill is “the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history.”
Washington must halt privatization of Medicare, instead improving and expanding Medicare for All. An economy and health care for the people would halt the billionaire kleptocrats’ heist of people’s wealth and health.
Michele Swenson
Denver
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